THE HIS work, as many others, arose out of the growing importance of our Asiatic possessions, and the necessity of a better acquaintance with them to all who are interested in East Indian affairs. The present is the 3d vol. of this work, and is executed upon the same plan as our Annual Registers; the various articles are classed under the following heads-History of Hindustan Chronicle of Events in India-Promotions-Home Intelligence -State Papers-Proceedings in Parliament Proceedings at the India House Characters, including Biographical articles -- Miscellaneous Tracts-Poetry-Account of Books. As specimens of the manner in which the principal departments are executed, we give the following extracts: Under the article History we have but one chapter; (viz. the 3d), of which we shall give the contents and introduction. "Recapitulation of the Subjects of the First and Second Chapters-Qbservations on the Constitution of the Mogul Empire, and on the Political and Commercial State of India, at the Beginning of the Seventeenth Century-An Account of the early Intercourse between Great Britain and India-The Origin of the English East India Company-The First Charter granted to that Company by Queen Elizabeth-The Arguments against the India Trade, and the Establishment of an exclusive Company, with the Replies to these Arguments-The First trading Voyages to India by the Company's Ships-The Embassy of Sir Thomas Rowe to the Court of Jehanger, the Emperor of HindustanThe Establishment of English Factories in different Parts of India during the Reigns of that Prince, and of his Cotemporary, James the First of England. In the preceding chapters we brought down our history to the close of the sixteenth century. We introduced it by surveying the state of ancient Hindustan, with regard to religion, civil government, laws, manners, arms, commerce, arts, sciences, and literature; so that a just and distinct notion might at once be formed of these important particulars. This introduction we followed by a connected series of every well authenticated public event in the civil history of the empire, from the earliest ages to the death of Akbar; by a view of the commercial intercourse between India and Europe, previous to the discovery of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope; and by a concise account of the rise and progress of the Portuguese establishments, together with a developement of the causes of their declension. We now proceed to call the attention of our readers to still more interesting topics. "The political situation of Hindustan, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, has been noticed in our view of the reign of Akbar. But before we enter upon the principal subject of this chapter, it seems essential to make our readers fully acquainted with the condition, not only of the continent, but of the islands of India, both in respect to politics and commerce, at the commencement of the direct trade between these countries and England. "At the death of Akbar, in 1605, his dominions extended from the Tibet mountains on the north, to the provinces of Visiapur and Golconda on the south; and from the confines of Aracan, Meckly, Assam, and Bootan, on the east, to the river Attock and Cabulistan on the West. This vast territory comprehended the finest and richest countries in India. It consisted of one hundred and five provinces, and two thousand seven hundred and thirty-seven districts. With a view to the better government of his extensive empire, to meliorate the condition of his subjects, and thereby to advance the general prosperity, Akbar divided his dominions into fifteen subahs, over each of which he appointed a subahdar or viceroy. The names of these subalis were, Delhi, Agra, Allahabad, Oude, Agimer, Ahmedabad, Bahar, Bengal, Cabul, Lahore, Multan, Malwa, Berar, Kandeish, and Ahmednagur. The empire thus divided, was governed nearly on the same principles as the ancient Hindu states, though the emperor ruled with a much more absolute sway than the Hindu kings; for he had not, like them, an arbitrary system of religion, interwoven with the civil code, and a domineering hierarchy, who by that code was placed above the prince in the order of society, constantly operating as a check on his conscience, and thereby restraining him in the commission of tyrannical acts. Akbar inherited from his ancestors on the throne of Delhi, a power in every respect unlimited and uncontrolable; but it was his glory to exercise that power according to the immutable and established maxims of universal justice. Though he possessed in an eminent degree all the qualifications of a great warrior, his turn of mind inclined him to promote the peaceful arts, and to encourage industry amongst his subjects. In the dominions which he conquered, as well as in those which he held by inheritance, he restored the Hindus not only to the free exercise of their religion, but to many of their civil rights. In treating of the ancient Hindu governments, we have already shewn that the prince was the absolute and sole proprietor of the soil that the land throughout his dominions was apportioned in small allotments to the husbandman, by whom it was cultivated, which allotments they held by perpetual hereditary leases; that the gross produce of the soil constituted the revenues of the state, and that one sixth part only of that produce had from immemorial custom been de manded by the prince. Of this proportion of the gross produce part wis paid in kind, and part in money. The state of landed property in Hin dustan continued nearly the same for the first three centuries after the Mahommedan conquests. The Ghiznian princes were rude and ferocious fanatics, who overrun rather than subdued the western provinces, and whose short sighted avarice never looked beyond the immediate plunder of moveable property. Instead of taking possession of, they destroyed the sources by which alone they could have secured to themselves real wealth and permanent power. Whenever they wanted a supply of money, they plundered the manufacturers, merchants, and peasantry, and laid waste the districts contiguous to the royal residence. Under such circumstances, nothing but the extraordinary fertility of the country, and the indefatigable industry of its native inhabitants, could possibly have preserved it from total ruin. "After the establishment of the Afghan dynasty in Hindustan, the Hindus appear to have been somewhat less severely oppressed. The princes of that race, though not less cruel or avaricious, were infinitely more politic than their predecessors. They saw the absurdity of stripping their conquered subjects of the whole of their property, and in effect defeating their own object, by precluding them from having any property to pillage in future. These princes therefore exacted heavy tributes throughout the whole of the provinces they had subdued; without fixing, however, any mode or rate of payment, or establishing any sort of systematic arrangement. They made no appropriation of any part of the lands in their dominions, except the provinces of Delhi, and the Duab. in these the Hindu husbandmen were required to convert into money the greatest part of the gross produce of their farms, which money was collected by the choudries or collectors, and by them paid into the royal treasury. The first Mahommedan monarch who made any change in the political economy of Hindustan, was Ålla-uddeen, whose reign, institutions, and personal character, have been al ready noticed. After causing an ac- "The conquest of Timur, which took place above about ten years after the death of Firose-Shah, involved the whole country in anarchy. Whether the institutes of that celebrated prince were prepared for Hindustan or for Persia, is a question of little importance, as they never were adopt ed in any country; though Akbar indeed appears to have profited by them in forming his plan of government. From the invasion of Timur, until the reign of Akbar, the information which has been handed down by Ferishta, respecting the state of the landed property, is very imperfect. It would appear, however, that though the exactions which were made by the sovereign were immoderately high, and occasionally enforced with circumstances of the most atrocious cruelty, yet trade and agriculture were carried on by the industrious Hindus according to their ancient customs, in spite of the oppression under which VOL. I. they groaned. None of the Mussul- "On the accession of Akbar, a sys- (To be concluded in our next.} CLXVII. A SHORT HISTORY of the ancient Israelites; a Work of the ISHOP HORNE says, in one of his discourses, "This little book (meaning the Abbè Fleury's) contains a concise, pleasing, and just account of the manners, customs, laws, polity, and religion of the Israelites. It is an excellent introduction to the reading of the old Testament, and should be put into the hands of every young person. An elegant English version of it (he adds) by Mr. Farneworth was first printed in 1756." This version is the same for substance as is here reprinted, but corrected and enlarged (as the title expresses it) from Père Lamy, a man of great erudition, to whom we are indebted for the fourth part of the present volume. As a specimen of the work, we shall extract the second chapter of Part I. On the employments of the Israelites, particularly agriculture. 4 R "We do not find any distinct professions among the Israelites. From the eldest of the tribe of Judah to the youngest of that of Benjamin, they were all husbandmen and shepherds, driving their ploughs and watching their flocks themselves. The old man of Gibeah, that lodged the Levite, whose wife was abused, was coming back at night from his work, when he invited him to sojourn with him. Gideon himself was threshing his corn when the angel told him he should deliver his people. Ruth got into the good graces of Boaz by gleaning at his harvest. Saul, though a king, was driving oxen when he received the news of the danger Jabesh Gilead was in. Every body knows that David was keeping sheep, when Samuel sent to look for him to anoint him king; and he returned to his flock, after he had been called to play upon the harp before Saul. After he was king, his sons made a great feast at the shearing of their sheep. Elisha was called to be a prophet as he drove one of his father's twelve ploughs. The child that he brought to life again was with his father at the harvest when it fell sick. And Judith's husband, though very rich, got the illness of which he died on the like occasion. The Scripture abounds with such examples. we generally place those that work in the country in the last rank; and most people set a greater value upon fat idle citizens, that are weak, and lazy, and good for nothing, because, being richer, they live more luxuriously, and at their ease. "This, without doubt, is what most offends those who are not acquainted with antiquity, and have no opinion of any customs but their own. When one speaks of ploughmen and shepherds, they figure to themselves a parcel of clownish boors, that lead a slavish miserable life, in poverty and contempt, without courage, without sense or education. They don't consider, that what makes our country people commonly so wretched, is their being slaves to all the rest of mankind: since they work not only for their own maintenance, but to furnish necessaries for all those that live in a better manner. For it is the countryman that provides for the citizens, the officers of the courts of judicature and treasury, gentlemen, and ecclesiastics: and whatever ways we make use of to turn money into provisions, or provisions into money, all will end in the fruits of the earth, and those animals that are supported by them. Yet when we compare all these different conditions together, But if we imagine a country, where the difference of conditions is not so great, where to live genteelly is not to live without doing any thing at all, but carefully to preserve ones liberty, which consists in being subject to nothing but the laws and public authority; subsisting upon ones own stock, without depending upon any body, and being content with a little, rather than do a mean thing to grow rich; a country where idleness, effeminacy, and ignorance of what is necessary for the support of life, were discountenanced, and where pleasure was in less esteem than health and strength in such a country it would be more creditable to plow, or keep a flock, than to follow diversions, and idle away all ones time. Now there is no necessity of having any recourse to Plato's commonwealth to find men of this character, for so lived the greatest part of mankind for nearly four thousand years. "To begin with what we are best acquainted with. Of this sort were the maxims of the Greeks and Ro. mans. We see every where in Homer, kings and princes living upon the fruits of their lands and their flocks, and working with their own hands. Hesiod has written a poem on purpose to recommend husbandry, as the only credible means of subsisting and improving ones fortune; and finds fault with his brother, to whom he addresses it, for living at other people's expence, by pleading causes, and following affairs of that kind. He reckons this employment, which is the sole occupation of so many amongst us, no better than idleness. We see by Xenophon's Economics, that the Greeks had no way lessened their opinion of husbandry, when they were at the highest pitch of politeness. We must not therefore impute the fondness of the Romans for husbandry to stupidity and want of letters: it is rather a sign of their good sense. As all men are born with limbs and bodies fit for labour, they any of them. They left this occupation to the Romans whom they had subdued, and continued in their ancient ignorance, which time seemed to have made venerable; and en, tailed such an idea of nobility upon it, as we have still much ado to get the better of. thought every one ought to make use of them; and that they could not do it to better purpose than in making the earth afford them a certain maintenance and innocent plenty. It was not, however, covetousness that recommended it to them; since the same Romans despised gold, and the presents of strangers." But, in the same degree that they Nor was it want of courage and bra- lessened the esteem for agriculture, very; since at that very time they they brought hunting into credit, of subdued all Italy, and raised those which the ancients made but little powerful armies with which they af- account. They held it in the highest terwards conquered the whole world. repute, and advanced it to very great On the contrary, the painful and perfection, sparing neither pains nor frugal life they led in the country expence. This has been generally was the chief reason of their great the employment of the nobility. Yet, strength, making their bodies robust to consider things in a true light, the and inured to labour, and accustom- labour spent in tilling the ground, ing them to severe discipline. Who- and rearing tame creatures, answers ever is acquainted with the life of at least as well as that which only Cato the Censor, cannot suspect him aims at catching wild beasts, often of a low way of thinking, or of mean- at the expence of tillage. The mo ness of spirit: yet that great man, derate pains of one that has the care who had gone through all the offices of a great number of cattle and poulin the commonwealth when it flou try, is, surely, as eligible as the vio rished most, who had governed pro- lent and unequal exercise of a hun vinces and commanded armies; that ter; and oxen and sheep are at least great orator, lawyer, and politician, as useful for our support as dogs and did not think it beneath him to write horses. It may well therefore be asof the various ways of managing lands serted, that our customs, in this point, and vines, the method of building are not as agreeable to reason as stables for different sorts of beasts, those of the ancients. and a press for wine or oil; and all this in the most circumstantial manner; so that, we see, he understood it perfectly, and did not write out of ostentation or vain-glory, but for the benefit of mankind. "Let us then frankly own that our contempt of husbandry is not founded upon any solid reason; since this occupation is no way inconsistent with courage, or any other virtue that is necessary either in peace or war, or even with true politeness: Whence then does it proceed? I will endea vour to shew the real cause. It comes only from use, and the old customs of our own country. The Franks, and other people of Germany, lived in countries that were covered with forests: they had neither corn nor wine, nor any good fruits: so that they were obliged to live by hunting, as the savages still do in the cold countries of America. After they had crossed the Rhine, and settled on better lands, they were ready enough to take the advantages that result from agriculture, arts, and trade; but would not apply themselves to "Besides, the Greeks and Romans were not the only people that esteem. ed agriculture as the Hebrews did: the Carthaginians, who were originally Phoenicians, studied it much, as appears by the twenty-eight books which Mago wrote upon that subject. The Egyptians had such a reverence for it, as even to adore the creatures that were of use in it. The Persians, in the height of their power, had overseers in every province to look after the tillage of the ground. Cyrus the younger delighted in planting and cultivating a garden with his own hands. As to the Chaldeans, we cannot doubt of their being well skilled in husbandry, if we reflect upon the fruitfulness of the plains of Babylon, which produced two or three hundred grains for one. In a word, the history of China teaches us, that agriculture was also in high esteem among them in the most ancient and best times. Nothing but the tyranny of the northern nations has made it so generally disesteemed. "Let us then divest ourselves of the mean opinion we have conceived |