New-York tribune., 1895-10-13
TARTARS IN INDIA.
rANrp1.ANE AND HIS IMPERIAL SUCCESS
SORS

THE MoGrL EMPERoRs OF HINDT,SSnI,1AsMn.
Ajp IL ID lS Pr XVI. sss Charles scrihners Sons
Or Holden has gathered and placed In sh'al'
volume what would have to be widely soue"'
without his aid He has shown to the popuia'
mind that the strange episode Of Mogul impe''a
ism Is OF marked interest In the h,s'oi! u "
tions II has been said that the story OF e'"p".'
and kingdoms In Asia is story OF ia''i''
long as a given family has the strens'h an"
10 balance the forces over which IL NOUS '"".
Il may retain It's supremacy. But as SOU" DC "
weakens at any point. whether IN coh''o' VI ".,
tary force or in thS skill necessary TO piaoa'e '
religious animosties of the people l's Ia"
near Europe has nterfered once ana TOT MI VIZ"
this Asiatic alienation Of imperialism anu All
archy Almost the last example OF the oiu way
OF managing politics In the Orient was 'he Noe''
Empire The shadow Of this empire sun ies'.N
over India when the English power pesa" ~
spread The best means OF unders'ahuiie '
remote past IN Asia. OF comprehendi"e '"e
ure Of the political systems whlch SUI
each other for thousands of years peioie i' ~
ers, ,r,erfered IS the study of the great lndian
Empire which has been dead less '""' w"
,,,r,os Ru, oven here as Dr. Holden complains
there Is so much that is utterly foreign u
orn vavs Of thinking as to make 1t inposs'p''
a
-, ,o,o A cruelty that doomed the popuia-
-. =, o,,,es and provinces TO ptiless slaughter
T., o,,,, confessed bv a ruler whose moralily Is
,,,aood nv the maxims which he utters or Which
o,,ers attribute 10 HIN. Perhaps European
,,o u..s alive. say in the middle OF the nfteenth
oar,urv co,Id have understood the politics OF the
Great Mogul better than modern men OF the
West For the West has changed much since
the year 400. $50
Dr Holden makes special mention of the GATE
inst cited It was in that year that Chauoei
died and was buried in Westminster Aope'' eo
that all the humanizing influences Tor "hich Tue
great English poet stood were contemporary WV"
the ravages Of Tanerlane. the lame lihu'' pu'
the notions of Chaucers day were very uihele"'
from those Of the present day. His group % iN-9'
d-,eor,ng nierin1s on the way TO the tomb OF 81
1vbon,as Of Canterbury included some precious
rufians not all IN secular garb, and ABOVE all
,ba sbinman TO whom murder and piracy were
matters well within the bounds OF common nom
estv. The disregard of human life that was char-
acterstc Of the Italy Of that day Is renecteo IN
the tales OF Boccaccio; and as for the peopie Vi
Northern Europe. Gibbon puts them IN poih' Oh
civilization below the Greeks, VINO were Oh 'he
brink of destruction, and the Arabs whose cui'-
ure can still be measured. Europe was coh'ihu-
ally at war and could have piled up pyra'h'u'
OF human skulls just as Timur did' IL IL hau
fancied that method Of exhibiting the results oi
i,s battles. A man in the midst of such social
conditions might well have been fitted to STUDY
svmnafnetically the conquests and government
OF the Mongol in central western ana southern
Asia Nor was there lacking such a man al in
tervals to record his observations, whiie 'he'e
wera other Europeans in considerable numbers
CIV dom
DIR. Holden quotes part of report made by De
Ruhruouis q French monk, who was sent aS
ambassador by Saint Louis to the khan ol lar
tarv When De Rubruquis arrived at the lartr
cour, he found there not only Christian priests
y. tho HISTORIAN and JaCobite sects but Nus
SLAMS. Greeks Hungarars. knight Tempiar'
Erench goldsmith William Boucher, OF faris'
ord his wife a native of Metz and even
wandering Englshman. This was about the MD
die OF the thirteenth century. when the capi'a u
the Tartar empire was still a portaoie d'la'i
ready at any moment to he packed on wagons anu
. hauled away TO a new site. Yet Wherever '"i'
n camp Of houses made Of wickerwork was set up
there was comfort and even luxury
A short time before Timurs death there was
an exchange Of civilities between MN anu
Henry III OF CASTLE and one OF the eastman
envovs wrote an account of his mission. from
which
though the Asiatic world was unchanged. the
rulers OF the Orient had undergone most OF
revolutionary experiences within the space OF
cen,urv and a half Timur started with his i'm
perial headquarters in the saddle. like the great
Parthian kings before him. He ended as they
did. not at Ctesiphon Ecbatana, but with
capital Samarkand, equally substantial he
could afford the luxury Of well-but capital
CITY. for his empire extended from the Mediter-
ranean to the Ganges and from the Sea OF Azoi
TO the Persian Gulf and though his writs ala
not run with unbrOken efficiency throughout
this vast expanse, his taxgatherers made SHIFT
TO wiring a pretty sum by way OF tribute even
from the most remote quarters. The eastman
found that the Prince Of Trebizond on the BLACK
Sea acknowledged the overlordship OF Timur'
and from that point onward the fact tnat the
European diplomatists were In company with
one of Timur's own cOurtiers was compete
assurance of their safety. In comparison with
the manner OF travel for public officials IN
Eurone that decreed by Timur astonished the
visitors Sixty miles day was the least dis
tance TO which man could limit himself when
on public business and this was often doubled
by men who knew that their master valued
haste and promptness II was we'll understood
that Timur was better pleased with him who
travels a day and a night for fifty leagues and
kills two horses. than with him who does the
distance in three days" This is only one indi-
cation of the way in which a dread of Tim 3
personality had spread over his empire. An
other was the conduct Of the villagers along the
way But here reservation should be made
that TO Asiatic villagers all rulers are the same.
when we arrived at any city or village said
the Castilian. "the first thing was to ask for the
Chief Of the place; and they took the first man
they met in the street and with many blows
forced him TO show the house of the Chief
The traveller who has to do with the Shah's
officials may the same thing done at the
present day. and II the sprituasts could get
the spirit Of Sargon the First TO talk sense, 1t