The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-05 00:00:00

THE GREAT MOGUL.

(From Mevd'a Sepoy Revolt.)
It is little more than halt a century since Lord
Lake, whilst engaged in a campaign against the
Mahrattas, encamped near the city of Delhi, and
=akin his way into the palace, found there the re-
presentative of the royal house of Timor, in the
person of an aged man, poor, helpless, and blind,
the plaything of fortune, the prize, by turns, of
numerous adventurers. His ancestors had, by the
law of force, at one time acquired the dominion of
all India, and the rule which had raised them to
the pinnacle of greatne s had sunk him to the
lowest depths of abasement. He had lived to see
the dominions over which he had himself reigned
the prize of successive conquerors, his wealth scat-
tered, his wives dishonoured ; and had reached the
climax of human misery, when a brutal soldier
scooped his eyes out with a dagger, and left him
without the hope of better days. The English
general seated him again in the chair of royalty,
and in return for a parchment gift of the countries
which he had won, and intended to keep, by the
sword, allotted to him the first rank in the long
line of mockery kings that once reigned, but now
who merely live, in India. In public and private
the Padshah, as he is called, received the signs of
homage which were considered to belong to his
pre-eminent station. He has never' forgiven the
Noglisti since a governor-general insisted upon
having a chair in his presence ; and, until recently,
the agent of the latter, when vouchsafed the honour
of an audience, addressed him with folded hands,
in the attitude of supplication. He never received
letters, only petitions ; and conferred an exalted
favour on the Government of British India by
accepting a monthly present of 80,000 rupees.
Merely as a mark of excessive condescension, he
tacitly sanctioned all our acts, withdrew his royal
approbation from each and all of our native
enemies : and fired salutes upon every occasion of
a victory achieved by our troops. Hitherto it would
have been impossible to have found a royal ally more
courteously disposed • and we believe it never
entered the brain of the mos- suspicious diplomatist,
that the treaties between the Great Mogul and the
Hon. Company were in danger of being violated by
his Majesty. To sweep away the house of Tamerlane
would not have added one jot to our power. Out-
side the walls of his palace the King of Delhi, as he
was termed, had no more authority than the meanest
of those whom he had been taught to consider his
born vaisals ; but within that enclosure his will was
fate, and there were 12,000 persons who lived sub-
ject to it. The universal voice of society ascribed to
this population the habitual practice of crimes of
which the existence is unknown at home, except to
the few who form the core of the corrupt civilisation
of great cities. Its princes lived without dignity, and
its female aristocracy continued to exist without
honour. file physical type of manhood was debased,
whilst the intellectual qualifications of both sexes,
with one or two exceptions, did not reach even the
Mahommedan standard of merit, perhaps the lowest
in the scale of modern humanity. But a " Light
of the World" could not exist even in these days
without experiencing earthly troubles. His Ma-
jesty had no fear of Mahratta daggers, and his pen-
sion was paid far more punctually than were the
revenues of his ancestors. Domestic troubles were
more burdensome, perhaps, to his effulgent shoul-
ders than would be the cares of the universe, and
there were no less than 1,200 little lights which
radiated upon him from all parts of Hindostan, and
required a great deal of oil to keep them burning.
It was no uncommon thing for one of this celestial
race to be obliged to live on 50s. a month, but in
no case did he forget the dignity of his birth. A
Mussulman is obliged to settle a dowry upon his
wife, and a member of the Soolatun (plural of Sul-
tan) never endows her with less than 50,0001. Their
sole occupation was confined to playing on the In-
dian lute, and singing the king's verses. Too proud
to work with their hands, too ignorant to be useful
with their heads, they would have been content to
continue for generations to come in their lace
miserable condition—forlorn mortals, empty alike
in pocket and stomach, in heart and brain, and
Conscious only of the possession of unsatisfied
appetites.