'oncife HISTORY of the RISE and FALL of the MOGUL EMPIRE: With a MAP of the NORTHERN PART of HINDOOStan. O illuftrate the prefent feat of war in the East-Indies, we lately a Map of the fouthern part of looftan, including what is improy called the Peninfula, and the can. The annexed Map is of northern part of this vaft country, ch major Rennell terms Hinftan Proper; and of this we have ady given the extent and bounRies *. To give fome idea of the fucceffive olutions in the state of the empire Hindooftan, it is proper to obve, that from a pure Hindoo gornment, it at length became a Mamedan one; and continued to be under various dynafties of morchs, from Perfia, Afghanistan, and artary, until the beginning of the refent century. The firft irruption f the Mahomedans was that of Mahmood, emperor of Ghizni, in he year of the Chriftian era '1000. The hiftory of the country, from this eriod, to the memorable invafion by Timur, or Tamerlane, in 1398, is only the record of barbarous names, and places, and tranfactions. This inhuman monster, who had fufficient credit with a poet of our country †, to be introduced on the stage as a hero diftinguished by great and amiable qualities, was ftigmatized, in Hindooftan, by the title of The Deftoying Prince;' a title, of which he was truly worthy, from the numerous maffacres, perpetrated under his immediate direction. But the conqueft of Hindoostan was referved for Sultan Baber, one of his defcendants, who atchieved it about the year 1525. He was, in reality, the founder of the Mogul dynafty; and, from this event, has Hindooftan been called the Mogul empire. Humaioon, his fon, fucceeded him in the year 1530. Although a prince * See Page 201. Rowe. See the of confiderable abilities and eminent virtues, he was driven from his empire by an ufurper, and, during his exile, exhibited a striking picture of royal distress. He was reftored to the throne in 1554, but died, in confequence of an accident, the following year. Acbar, his fon, was the glory of the houfe of Timur. But he failed in his attack upon the Deccan; an attempt, in which many of his fucceffors were equally unfortunate, and which tended, in the fequel, to the decline and diffolution of the empire. He died in 1605. Jehanguire, his fon, reigned twenty-two years. In his reign, in the year 1615, fir Thomas Roe was fent as the first English ambaffador to the emperor of Hindooftan. The Portuguefe too, had, by this time, acquired confiderable fettlements in Bengal and Guzerat; and it is curious to obferve what Ferifhta, an Indian author, fays of them. Speaking of the fite of an ancient Hindoo temple, near Diu, he obferves, that it was fituated in the districts, that were fubject to the Idolators of Europe:' a ftriking leffon this to the bigots of Christendom, of whatever denomination! He was fucceeded by his fon Shah Jehan, whofe reign was embittered by civil wars with his fons, and be tween the fons themselves; which ended in the elevation of Aurungzebe, the youngeft, after he had depofed his father, and murdered or expelled his brothers. For the history of these wars (and, indeed, of all the fanguinary tranfactions of each reign, from the time of Sultan Baber to the death of the last unfortunate emperor Shah Aulum) we must refer thofe, to whom they may be interefting, to Mr. Dow's History of Hindooftan. Aurungzebe, who affumed the name Univ. Mag. for Oct. 1780, page 211. Z z of of Allumgire, was in peaceable poffeffion of the throne in 1660. Under his reign, the empire attained its full measure of extent. His authority reached from the tenth to the thirty fifth degree of latitude, and nearly as much in longitude; and his revenue exceeded thirty-two millions of pounds fterling, in a country where the products of the earth are about four times as cheap as in England. But fuch a weighty fceptre could be wielded only by the hand of an Aurungzebe, and, accordingly, we find, that in a courfe of fifty years after his death, a fucceffion of weak princes, and wicked minifters, reduced this aftonishing empire to nothing. Aurungzebe died in 1707, in the 90th year of his age, and left four fons: Mauzum, Azem, Kaum Bukth, and Acbar. The death of their father was the fignal of hoftility between the two eldeft, who difputed the poffeffion of the empire with armies of about 300,000 men each. Near Agra, it was decided by a battle, and the death of Azem; and Mauzum took the title of Bahader Shah. This emperor, who died in 1712, left likewife four fons to difpute the fucceffion; and fome bloody contefts ended, at laft, in the elevation of the eldeft, Jehaunder Shah. Such, however, was the weakness and meannefs of this prince, that at the expiration of nine months, he was dethroned by his nephew Ferckfere. In the reign of Ferokfere, the English East India Company obtained the famous Firman, or grant, by which their goods of export and import were exempted from duties and cuftoms; and this was regarded as the company's Commercial Charter in India, while they stood in need of protection from the princes of the country. In 1717, Ferokfere was depofed and blinded by the Seids, Houffein Ali Khan and Abdoolla Khan, two brothers and Omrahs of great power, to whom he had been indebted for his elevation. Two fons of Bahader Shah were then fucceffively raised to the throne, depofed, and put to death by the Seids, who had now the difpofal of the empire and all its concerns. Thus, in eleven years from the death of Aurungzebe, five princes of his line, who had mounted the throne, and fix others who had been competitors for it, had been difpofed of; and the degraded ftate of the royal authority, during this period, had introduced an incurable anarchy, and a difpofition in all the governors of provinces, to fhake off their dependency on the head of the empire. Mahomed Shah, grandson of Bahader Shah, was placed on the throne by the Seids in 1718. Dreading, however, the fate of his predeceffors, he acquired power fufficient to get rid of them; but not without a rebellion and a battle. Inftead of finding the emperors attempting now the conqueft of the Deccan, we perceive their empire expofed to the attacks of the powerful Nizam of that country, as well as to the inroads of the Mahrattas, who, at this period, were become very formidable. By the contrivance of the Nizam, Nadir Shah, the ufurper of the Perfian throne, invaded Hindooftan in 1738. The weak emperor threw himself on the clemency of the invader, who entered Delhi, and demanded thirty millions fterling by way of ransom. Tumults, maffacres, and famine, were the refult: 100,000 of the inhabitants were maffacred, and fixty-two millions of plunder faid to be collected. He evacuated Delhi, however, and left the Nizam in poffeffion of the whole remaining power of the empire, which he facrificed to his own views in the Deccan, where he established for himself an independent kingdom. Mahomed Shah died in 1747, having feen the Carnatic and Bengal become likewife independent, under their respective Nabobs; an independent flate too, formed by the Rohillas *, on the eaft of the Ganges, * A tribe from the mountains between India and Perfia. within 1 within eighty miles of Delhi; and the kingdom of Candahar, or Abdalli, erected by Abdallah, one of the furviving generals of Nadir Shah. Ahmed Shah, the fon of Mahomed, fucceeded his father. In his reign, which lafted fix years, the entire divifion of the empire took place; nothing remaining to the houfe of Tamerlane but a small territory round Delhi, together with the city itself, (now no longer a capital) exposed to repeated depredations, maffacres, and famines, by the contefts of invaders. The laft army that might be reckoned Imperial, was defeated by the Rohillas, in 1749. The Jats, a Hindoo tribe, founded a state in the province of Agra; Oude was feized by the grandfather of the prefent Nabob; Allahabad, by Mahomed Kooli. The Mahrattas, befide their ancient domains in the Deccan, obtained great part of Malwa, Guzerat, Berar, and Oriffa. They were alternately courted and employed by different parties, and were become the Swifs of India; with this deviation from the custom of the European Swifs, that they commonly paid themselves, instead of being paid by their employers. Perhaps, in the annals of the world, it has feldom happened, that the bonds of government were fo fuddenly diffolved, over a portion of country, containing at least fixty millions of inhabitants. The Mogul empire was now become merely nominal; and the emperors muft, in future, be regarded as of no political confequence, otherwife than as their names and perfons were made ufe of, by different parties, to promote their own views. That the name and perfon of the emperor were of use, as retaining a confiderable degree of veneration among the bulk of the people in Hindooftan, and the Deccan, is evident, from the appli cation made, at different times, for grants of territory, forcibly obtained by the grantee, but which required the fanction of the lord paramount, in order to reconcile the transaction to the popular opinion. Another remarkable initance of the effect of this opinion is, that the coin throughout the whole tract, known by the name of the Mogul empire, is to this day ftruck in the name of the nominal emperor. Ahmed was depofed by Gazi in 1753, who placed on the throne, the grandfon of Bahader Shah, Allumgire II, whom he depofed and murdered in 1760. He was fucceeded by his fon Shah Aulum, who was alternately dependent on the contending powers, and more particularly upon the English, who obtained from him a grant of the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Oriffa, together with the Northern Circars *. He continued long a kind of ftate prifoner; living on the produce of a trifling domain; allowed him partly out of veneration for his ancestors, and partly for the ufe of his name. The extremity of diftress to which he was reduced is pathetically related by Mr. Haftings, in a former volumet. The unfortunate prince, in the fequel, was dethroned and blinded by the Rohillas. These being defeated by Madajee Sindia, a Mahratta chief, his fon, Jewan Bucht, was permitted to fucceed him, and to live in the fame deplorable flate of degradation. It is highly improbable,' fays major Rennell, that the houfe of Timur will ever rife again, or be of any political confequence in the politics of Hindooftan. It was in 1525, that the dynaity of Great Moguls began; fo that, reckening to the prefent time, it has lafted 262 years: a long period for that country.' *For an account of the politics and military transactions of Hindoostan, during this period, fee our Memoirs of Lord Clive, in the Supplement to our 78th Vol. See our Magazine for January 1785. THE CONTEMPLATIVE PHILOSOPHER, IT NUM B. LXXVII. On the NATURE and PROPERTIES of WATER. Nymphs! your bright squadrons watch with chemic eyes T was the opinion of Thales, and other ancient philofophers, that Water was the original of all things. Hence Pindar, when he would illuftrate the fuperiority of the Olympick games over all others, fets out with obferving, that they hold the fame rank as Water does among the elements, and gold among the gifts of Fortune. Chief of Nature's works divine Gold like fire, whose flashing rays, Through the night's involving cloud, First in luftre and esteem, Decks the treasures of the proud; Pifa's honour'd games excel; WEST'S PINDAR. Nor was this opinion confined to remote antiquity. Van Helmont, and others among the moderns, have likewife maintained, that Water is the clemental matter, or flamen, of all BOTANIC GARDEN, Part I. things, and is alone fufficient for the production of all the visible creation, And fir Ifaac Newton thus expresses himself on this fubject: All birds, beafts, and fishes, infects, trees, and vegetables, with their feveral parts, do grow out of Water, and watery tinctures and falts; and, by putrefaction, they all return again to watery fubstances.' The fame great philofopher defines Water to be a fluid falt, volatile, and void of taste. But Boerhaave fets afide this definition; for Water,' he obferves, is a menftruum, or diffolvent of falts and faline bodies, which does not agree with the notion of its being a falt itself; for we do not know of any one falt that diffolves another.'-By fome late experiments of Lavoisier, Watt, Cavendish, Prieftley, and Kirwan, it appears, that Water confifts of dephlogisticated air, and inflammable air or phlogiston intimately united; or, as Mr. Watt conceives, of dephlogifticated air and phlogiston, deprived of part of their latent heat. This doctrine is alluded to in my motto In * Until very lately water was esteemed a fimple element, nor are all the most celebrated chemifts of Europe yet converts to the new opinion of its decomposition. Mr. Lavoifier and others of the French school have moft ingeniously endeavoured to fhew that water confifts of pure air, called by them oxygene, and of inflammable air, called hydrogene, |