of the times, and to the regard you owed to our interests, if, considering their dissensions as beneficial to Islam, you had secretly encouraged the musulmans in their proceedings, whilst, to all appearance, you were unconcerned spectators; instead of interponing with such an extraordinary recommendation as you did; and which was, indeed, altogether unworthy of your understandings. When the Nazarenes (the English) seized upon hundreds of musulman women, where was the zeal for the honour of Islamism, which you are now so desirous of manifesting there? For the future, it will be proper that you should never take any share in their domestic concerns, but attend exclusively to whatever may promote the success of our affairs. Let the fire of discord, therefore, be again kindled amongst them, to the end that they may, in this manner, waste their strength upon each other. '

This letter seems to demonstrate, that the Sultan's fanaticism was very much under the direction of his policy. A more skilful writer might have conveyed the same instructions, in the language of European diplomacy, in a more agreeable form.

I have his Majesty's commands to signify to your Excellency the concern which he has experienced at the measure you have recently adopted. In doing justice to the motives by which it was actuated, he conceives it incompatible with the dignity of his crown, to suffer it to pass without animadversion. If any one principle is more incontestably demonstrated than another, by the uniform tenor of his Majesty's government, it is his unalterable resolution never to interfere in the domestic concerns of neighbouring and friendly states. Your Excellency will appreciate the strictness with which his Majesty has determined to adhere to this principle, when you shall learn, that even to preserve the unsullied purity of the daughters of Islam, will not, in his eyes, justify a deviation from it. Your Excellency will therefore adopt every practicable measure to restore affairs to the precise posture in which they were at the time of your unfortunate interference. In carrying into execution a measure so indispensable for the glory of our Sovereign, you will inform the musulmans of the interest his Majesty takes in their concerns, and the shock his sensibility has experienced at the insults they have thus wantonly been exposed to. Your Excellency may also think it expedient to hint to them, that the station of the tenth military division is within fifteen days march of Puna.

We have already stated, that of the acts and expressions supposed to arise from the personal character of the Sultan, many, we think, may be traced to the peculiar circumstances in which he found himself placed. To a man whose caprice is a law to thousands, it is a very natural, if not a logical conclusion, that he is as much their superior in wisdom as in authority. Tipu, consequently, was skilled in all sciences. His knowledge of me dicine is proved by his condescending to prescribe for his offi

cers

cers when indisposed ;-and it would be a very pretty question to determine, whether it required most courage to swallow or to neglect the royal recipe. The following contains important instructions to physicians in a very alarming case.

It has been reported to us, that the Mutusuddy of the Jaish, Crishna Row has been bitten by a mad dog: We therefore write to desire that you will give the aforesaid Mutusuddy in particular charge to the physician Mohamed Beg, who must adminiser to him the proper medicines in such cases, and restore him to health. He must also be told not to let the discharge from the wound stop, but to keep it for six months. open

The following contains still more particular directions.

Your letter of the 14th Behari was received this day; and has informed us of Dowlet Khan's being ill of the stone in the bladder : We have, in consequence sent by the post an emetic to be taken the first day, together with other proper medicines for the seven subsequent days. These are all separately made up in cloth, and sealed.

The way of taking an emetic is this,' &c. The following morning a dose of the other medicine is to be taken in eight tolahs' of syrup of abshakh and radish leaves. This course is to be pursued for seven days, during which the patient need not abstain from acids, but must avoid eating black and red pepper, and other heating and flatulent things. The diet should be curry of radishes with boiled rice; and his drink an infusion of musk melon seeds, cucumber seeds, and dog-thorn, of each half a tolah weight. '

To enable our readers to appreciate more fully the justice of the Sultan's pretensions to universal science, we subjoin his observations on that most important instrument, the barometer.

The barometer which you sent us in charge of your Harcara, is in all respects very complete, excepting in the article of the quicksilver, which, owing to its oldness, does not move up and down. It is therefore returned to you; and you must send another good one in its stead, that has been made in the present year.'

To the effects of despotic authority on the mind, we are also inclined to attribute his extreme severity, on the slightest deviation from any of his regulations, however trivial, or however justifiable; and his aversion, on all occasions, to adopt the suggestions of others.

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'You suggest,' says Tipu to one of his commercial agents, who had at the same time disclosed the failure of a favourite plan of the Sultan, the establishment of banking-houses on the part of government, and the appointment of a banker with a salary to superintend them. You also propose, with our permission, to open warehouses for the sale of cloths at Bangalor, Ousestra, and other places. It is comprehended. There is no regulation issued by us, that does not cost us, in the framing of it, the deliberation of five hundred years. This being the case, do you perform exactly what we order; neither exceed ing our directions, nor suggesting any thing further from yourself.

The letter we have just cited illustrates a trait which undoubtedly is solely referable to personal character, the Sultan's avarice. He had already established a monopoly of wholesale commerce in the most important articles; and the plan, of which the failure had just been communicated, was no less than an attempt to introduce a similar monopoly in the retail trade, by the establishment of shops in various places, on his private account. Proofs of the most sordid parsimony, indeed, occur throughout his correspondence. We find his brother-in-law actually commanding an army on service, obliged to make a formal application to him for money to purchase clothes, and a very scanty sum reluctantly issued for that purpose. The Sultan appointed ambassadors, in 1785, to proceed to Constantinople, and eventually to prosecute their journey to Paris and London. On their arrival at the place of embarkation, they found the supplies of necessaries for the voyage altogether inadequate; and in Tipu's reply to their representation, they are informed that they must compel' some unhappy man on the spot to provide what is absolutely necessary;-but that, even though there should be some small deficiency, that should not be an excuse ⚫ for their delay in setting off."

The coolness and activity of his mind are strongly evinced by the following letter. 'He was,' says General Kirkpatrick, ‘at the date of it, not only deliberating on the measures to be pursued with respect to Shanur; in planning the future operations of the war in which he was engaged; and in providing for the safety of Burhaneddin's army; but he was, in fact, on the eve of a general engagement with the Mahrattas. Yet, all these • important and urgent considerations united, were not capable ⚫of diverting his attention from any of the minor objects of his interest. Thus, in the bustle of a camp, and in the face of an enemy, he could find leisure, and was sufficiently composed, to meditate on the rearing of silk worms!' The singularity of the circumstances induces us to insert the letter itself, as highly illustrative of the mind of the writer. It is addressed from his camp to the commandant of his capital.

turn.

Behaeddin and Casturi Ranga, who were sent some time since te Bengal for the purpose of procuring silk worms, are now on their reOn their arrival, you must ascertain from them the proper situation in which to keep the aforesaid worms, and provide according→ ly. You must, moreover, supply for their food leaves of the wild mulberry trees, which were formerly ordered to be planted for this purpose. The number of silk worms brought from Bengal must likewise be distinctly reported to us. We desire, also, to know, in what kind of place it is recommended to keep them, and what means are to be pursued for multiplying them.

There

'There is a vacant spot of ground behind the old palace, lately used as a storehouse, which was purchased some time ago with a view of building upon it. Prepare a place somewhere near that situation for the temporary reception of the worms.

Tipu Sultan was, undoubtedly, a prince of a vigorous understanding, unceasing activity, aud undaunted courage. Ambition was the leading passion of his mind, to which every thing else was subordinate. Fanaticism might possibly be another; yet we find it, on most occasions, subservient to his ambition. An enlightened policy would have dictated the encouragement of agriculture, and the enforcement of a strict system of equal laws, as the surest means of becoming a great and powerful sovereign; but the gigantic schemes which agitated his breast, could not wait for the slow returns derived from a course of gradual improvement. His peasantry were harassed with ever-changing modes of extortion, which his neglect of the works erected by former sovereigns to supply the means of artificial irrigation, rendered them annually less able to satisfy. The favourite measure of his reign, of which he never lost sight, was a general confederacy of the Mohamedan nations, to expel, extirpate, or convert the unbelievers. Fortunately for the world, none of them were in circumstances to cooperate efficaciously in his designs. The monarchs of Turkey, of Persia, of Cabul, and of Dehli, with difficulty supported their own tottering sway; whilst the Nizam, the Vizier, and the Nuab of the Carnatic were numbered amongst his opponents; and, in his estimation, little better than infidels. The talents, activity, and courage of Tipu, all sunk before the disciplined valour, and enlightened combination of an European army; yet it appears probable, that if the English had possessed no dominion in India, this restless and enterprizing prince might have founded an empire, vast as his ambition. Cruelty and avarice were the worst features of his mind.

Had the reign of this tyrant been of long duration, or had he established a dynasty, it must have added much to the labour of future geographers and chronologers. In his reign, the old Mohamedan era was set aside, and another substituted, which, although from its name it should date from the birth of the prophet, yet as, on that supposition, only thirteen years must have elapsed between the birth of Mohamed and his flight, appears rather to refer to his mission, or the period when he first announced himself as the messenger of God. A new calendar was introduced, and afterwards changed; and, in the course of his reign, the months twice received new Arabic names. The Indian appellations of most of the considerable places in his dominions were also set aside, and new ones substituted, chiefly derived from Moslem

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Moslem tradition. These acts may possibly have flowed from unmeaning caprice, or childish vanity; and to these they have usually been attributed. We confess, however. that they appear to us to have formed a part of his general plan for rekindling the latent flame of Moslem valour, and again leading forth the soldiers of Islam, fired with the same enthusiasm which carried the followers of the first Khalifs to conquest and victory. His dreams, his omens, and latterly his pretensions to inspiration, all seem to us to flow from the same source.

The turbulent spirit of the Sultan, and the mystery in which he enveloped his proceedings, by cutting off all communication with the territories subject to the East India Company, rendered him, during a long period, an object of constant solicitude to their governors. Although no way distrustful of the event, should war become necessary, they found themselves obliged, by his imposing attitude, to delay the execution of reforms, which required for their success a certainty of peace with all the considerable states. Hence every thing that had relation to him acquired an unusual inportance in the minds of our Indian statesmen. His present measures, and his future views, both wrapped in equal obscurity from the want of all authentic intelligence from Moisur, some times baffled, and always exercised their sagacity. On the other hand, the tremendous events which, during his reign, convulsed Europe, have probably prevented him from engaging that portion of attention in this country, which his character, designs and resources, really ought to have secured him.

ART. VI. The Isle of Palms, and other Poems. By John Wilson. 8vo. pp. 415. Edinburgh and London. 1812.

THIS HIS is a new recruit to the company of lake poets ;-and one who, from his present bearing, promises, we think, not only to do them good service, and to rise to high honours in the corps; but to raise its name, and advance its interests even among the tribes of the unbelievers. Though he wears openly the badge of their peculiarities, and professes the most humble devotion to their great captain, Mr Wordsworth, we think he' has kept clear of several of the faults that may be imputed to his preceptors; and assumed, upon the whole, a more attractive and conciliating air, than the leaders he has chosen to follow. He has the same predilection, indeed, for engrafting powerful emotions on ordinary occurrences; and the same tendency to push all VOL. XIX. NO. 38.

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