sive power of creation." Brahmans we imagine to have been men distinguished by their knowledge of Brahmi, who gradually became the most powerful section of the Hindoo people. Mrs. Speir. MODERN INDIA. If the original conquerors of India were men of courage and patriotism, their numbers were so small that they failed to impress these characteristics upon the nation with which they eventually became amalgamated; and if, under them, India was united in one government, it certainly soon became broken up into a number of separate kingdoms, the want of union among which, added to the absence of national sympathy, and the cowardly character of the natives, made an invasion a matter of but little difficulty. Accordingly, from the time of the first establishment of Mahommedanism in Arabia and Persia, we find one force after another sweeping down upon the fertile plains of India, devastating, pillaging, and laying waste and generally returning thereafter to the place whence they came. The first permanent establishment of the Mussulman supremacy was in the year 1206, under Kootub ood Deen. From this time forward various Mahommedan dynasties succeeded each other upon the throne of Delhi. The power of the emperors was more or less extended according to their energy, and much of their time was occupied in crushing the rebellions of their own subordinates in distant provinces. Few of them died quietly in their beds; and usurpation was their general title to the imperial power. The most remarkable Mahommedan invasion was that of Tamerlane, A.D. 1398. He was a Mogul Tartar chieftain, who subdued Persia, and finally extended his conquests to India. After stripping that country of all the treasures and jewels could find, massacring hundreds of thousands in cold blood, burning Delhi under circumstances of the greatest cruelty and treachery, and overthrowing the existing Mussulman dynasty, he suddenly returned to Persia. His return was marked by the taking of Meerut, on which occasion he put "every soul within it to the sword." His course homeward was distinguished by similar ravages; "he marked his way with fire and sword, leaving anarchy, famine, and pestilence behind him.” After Tamerlane's invasion, there was no fixed government until, in 1526, Baber, his descendant of the sixth generation, who was the Sultan of Cabool, again invaded India, and founded the dynasty which has been ever since on the throne. Under the Emperor Akbar, who ruled from 1556 to 1605, the Mussulman empire in India reached its greatest extent. Akbar's sway extended over all that we now call India, and during his reign even the most remote provinces were submissive to the central authority at Delhi. Under the grandson of Akbar, Shah Jehan, whose reign began in 1627, the empire attained its greatest glory; and it was by this monarch that many of the principal architectural works of India were erected. Still the reign of Shah Jehan was far from peaceful and undisturbed. The fabric of Mahommedan supremacy gave evident tokens of how slight a foundation it possessed. The usual precautions which the emperor had taken, on ascending the throne, by putting to death his brother and all the other members of the imperial family, except his own descendants, did not suffice to prevent attempts at usurpation. He passed several years in endeavouring to subdue conflicting rebellions organised by his sons, whom he had made viceroys. The third son, Aurungzebe, after a double treachery to his father and to one of his revolted brothers, whose rebellion he had sworn to support, at length obtained the throne in 1658, and confined his father in a prison, where he dragged out the last years of his life. Aurungzebe's reign lasted fifty years. Under him the empire, although outwardly as splendid as ever, became thoroughly pervaded by that incurable decay which, after his death, destroyed in a few years the vast and bloodcemented fabric of the Mogul power in India. Even during his lifetime disorganisation was prevented only by his constant vigilance, and the commanding power of his mastermind. After seizing the imperial power, Aurungzebe was for some time annoyed by his brothers, who continued to support by arms their pretensions to the throne. Finally, however, he overcame all opposition, and rid himself of his troublesome relatives by summary executions. Minturn. THE EARLY PROGRESS OF THE EAST INDIA Up to the time of Aurungzebe's death, our relations with India were very simple, and might be easily and rapidly described. The Mogul court was the one object which we had to observe, and in regard to which we had to act. To be on good terms with the Mogul emperors was to be prosperous and safe; to incur their displeasure was to be in danger and difficulty. The Company had troubles outside the pale of their Indian relations, opponents at home, foreign rivals on the seas, and interlopers on their own commercial grounds; but, as far as the powers of India were concerned, the Mogul sovereigns were supreme, and our affairs were simple accordingly. We had to maintain and improve our commercial privileges, to secure a permanent footing in the country; and, for the rest, to buy and sell to the best advantage. But a time of change must come, sooner or later; and the nature of the change which must ensue on the death of such a sovereign as Aurungzebe, after a reign of forty-nine years, might be foretold without any pretensions to second sight. When a ruler, wise, efficient, strong in will, and imposing in his success, dies after a long reign, leaving several sons, a weak government, civil strife, and foreign war as consequence, may be only too confidently anticipated. In the case of Aurungzebe and his sons, the chances of the future were even worse than usual. The last of the great Moguls commanded everything but affection. He irritated his dependents and subjects while compelling them to admire his abilities and wisdom. He alienated the Hindoos (the great mass of his subjects) by constant checks and discouragements, while protecting them from Mussulman persecution. He was regarded by the faithful as a greater monarch than even Akbar; yet they gave him no such effectual support as enabled him to accomplish his schemes. He conquered the Deccan; yet, in his old age, he had more and more to dread from the Mahrattas; and, as he himself disclosed, he was borne down by anxiety as to what he might have to endure in life, and dread of what he might have to encounter after death. It must have been plain to all eyes that bad times were coming; and the British would have foreseen, if their wisdom had corresponded to their needs, that complications and embarrassments must arise, largely affecting, if not entirely changing, their relations with the Mogul Empire. In one instance by accident, and in another by a movement of foolish ambition, the British were on bad terms with Aurungzebe, some years before his death. In 1698, a pilgrim ship on its way to Mecca was taken by pirates, who were, or were said to be, English. The emperor ordered the arrest of the merchants at our factories, and the seizure of Bombay; but his own agents were favorable to their British neighbours, and admitted their plea of innocence; and if anything was done, it was only in the way of inflicting a fine. We have now to refer to the other case. -that of the hostile movement in Bengal, in 1686, when the Company, strengthened by a few troops from home, hoped to obtain redress for losses and a terri torial footing by seizing and fortifying Chittagong. The scheme failed, through misadventure and mismanagement; and the incident was one which naturally deepened the emperor's distrust, and confirmed the jealous antipathy of the Nabob of Bengal to the English. The aged emperor's life was prolonged beyond the period of rivalship in England and strife in Parliament, which seemed likely to extinguish the Company's privileges altogether, and under which the trade of India was practically free from 1693 to 1698; and Aurungzebe was still living when the associations which had battled for the commerce of his empire at length joined their forces as "The United Company of Merchants of England, trading to the East Indies." While their old patron was failing in strength and spirits as he verged on his ninetieth year, the British merchants obtained the grant of Calcutta, as before mentioned, built Fort William, raised Bengal from its subjection to Bombay up to the rank of a presidency, and obtained from Parliament, in the form of an absolute prohibition of Indian manufactured goods for home consumption, a reversal of the free trade which had existed for several years, to the advantage of the public, and the discontent of the Company. Then, after five years more, spent in establishing factories wherever they could be imposed, and in finding that many of them were more expensive than they were worth, the catastrophe arrived. Aurungzebe died in 1707; and with him the empire of the Moguls may be said to have passed away. Crimes of violence and treachery had been frequent before; now they occurred at the court of Delhi and its dependencies in an unintermitting series, and external foes used their opportunities; so that when Aurungzebe had been dead thirty years, the empire was just in the state of helplessness and corruption which had tempted Timur and Baber to invade it. The same thing |