Page images
PDF
EPUB

But he had now to experience the conse- | himself in a position to reassume the diquences of the error he had committed; rection of the affairs of the Court of little space for the enjoyment of his new Delhi. He proposed to Shah Aulum to dignities was allowed to him, and in con- remove to Agra, where arrangements junction with his too powerful allies, Au- might be made for the reëstablishment of lum set out on an expedition against Za- the imperial dignity. Finally, wearied out bita Khan, son of his late vizir, Nujeeb-a- with court cabals, and with what was, in Dowlah, a Rohilla chief, whose great pos- fact, but royal servitude, Shah Aulum sessions rendered him a mark of attack, welcomed Scindia to Delhi with all both to the needy monarch, and to the possible marks of favor at the commencerapacious Mahrattas. The expedition was ment of 1784. The opening of Scindia's successful, but the Mahrattas refused to administration was distinguished by undivide the plunder; thus sowing fertile doubted wisdom and discretion, rebellious seeds of future discord. Future events vassals were quelled, arrears of tribute still tended towards the ruin of Shah Au- obtained, and, but for the mastery avarice lum; the Mahrattas entered into nego- acquired over his other qualities, the new tiations with Zabita Khan, favorable to vizir might have permanently benefited their own aggrandizement; and on the his master. He however incurred the emperor's refusing to fulfill their promise enmity of the Mogul nobles, by the conof pardon, and promotion to the Rohilla fiscation, to his own private use, of forchieftain, they marched against the city feited estates; was deserted by them at whither they had but a year previous con- the hour of battle, experienced conseducted him in triumph as their sovereign. quently defeat, and was compelled to fly Resistance was impossible, and Aulum from Delhi. The Emperor next fell into complied with the humiliating terms. At the power of Gholaum Caudir, son of his length, circumstances freed him for a time, old enemy, Zabita Khan. To this new from the tyrannical oppression of the Mah- revolution of affairs, the treachery of the ratta chiefs, and placed the command of king's most trusted servant, Nazir, was his affairs under the supervision of a wise chiefly instrumental. Aulum consented and faithful servant, Nujuff Khan. to receive the rebel, and the letters of Juwaun al Bukht, the hereditary prince, promising succor, arrived too late. Returned to Delhi, Juwaun took all possible measures for ameliorating the condition. of his father's affairs; but treachery was again at work, and Nazir succeeded in inspiring the Emperor with mistrust of a hitherto beloved son. The prince withdrew from Court to the protection of the English a second time; surviving however, but a short period On his demise, the heirdom of the throne devolved upon Akbar Mirza Shah, the Emperor's second

In 1776 Zabita Khan again took up arms against the Emperor, and although the disgrace of capture was spared the unhappy Aulum, yet he was compelled to remit the arrears of tribute by which he had hoped to replenish his exhausted exchequer. The death of his able captaingeneral in 1782, was another of those strokes of ill-fortune by which the fate of the fallen monarch was gradually driven downwards; the talents and fidelity of Nujuff Khan had imparted some solidity even to the tottering Mogul power; but on his demise the Emperor was once more the prey of whatever chieftain should succeed in obtaining temporary possession of his person

Scindia, one of the three Mahratta chiefs already mentioned, was perhaps the most conspicuous actor in the continuation of the Mogul tragedy. This prince, after his return from Hindostan in 1774, devoted his abilities to the improvement of his territories, subsequently uniting himself to the great Mahratta confederacy for the subversion of British rule. On its overthrow, he turned his arms against the province of Gohud. This fell into his possession in 1782, and he now considered

son.

It is now in 1788 that we approach the consumation of the King's final misery and ruin. Gholaum Caudir, aware of the unprotected state of Aulum and his capital, determined by one final blow to enrich himself, plunder the imperial palace, and dethrone the aged sovereign. In this too, the Nazir was the chief instrument of misfortune to his master. Gholaum and another rebel chief, accompanied by 2000 Rohillas, meeting with little or no resistance, presented themselves at the palace. In order to deceive Aulum to the last moment, the form of a treaty was drawn up, to which he appended his signature, at

the same time requesting of Gholaum that | tige of authority. A killedar was delehis disorderly Rohillas should be desired gated to reside in the fort, but more to act to withdraw from the building. The as guard to the sovereign, than for any other traitor feigned compliance, gave the signal purpose; and so abject was the poverty for the remainder of his troops to enter, to which the royal family were reduced, and, in a few moments, the palace and that they were often without the bare neighboring fort of Selim Ghur were in means of subsistence; indeed, at one time, the possession of the rebels. The follow- the sole support of the Emperor and his ing morning their leaders, with a sufficient thirty children was the sum of three hunband of soldiers entered the audience- dred rupees per mensem. His mockery chamber; the princes were desired to of a reign continued thus miserably until, withdraw, Beedar Shah, a son of the late in 1807, the British, his oldest and best Emperor was summoned, and Gholaum friends, became masters of Delhi. On Caudir approaching the throne, and tak- that occasion, he entered into secret neing up the emblems of royalty, delivered gotiation with the Governor-General, in them to an attendant; he then sternly which the latter, on Shah Aulum's excommanded Aulum II. to descend from pressing his desire to place himself under the throne. "Better-far better," cried British protection, promised that he should the unfortunate monarch, "will it be for be treated with every mark of respect, Gholaum Caudir to plunge his dagger and that ample provision should be made into my bosom than load me with such for himself and his household. indignity." He was, however, compelled In so little estimation was the dignity to retire to the harem; and Beedar, under of heir-apparent to the Mogul throne held, the title of Shah Jehan, was proclaimed that it is at this juncture that we first find Emperor. The next step of the rebels mention of Prince Akbar Shah in the was to deprive the females of the royal English chronicles of the period. On the family of their jewels and valuables-thus 10th of September, 1803, he was delegatreducing them to complete poverty. But ed by his father to visit the Commanderthe crowning act of cruelty had yet to be in-Chief at his Camp, and conduct him to performed. Gholaum, inflamed by the the palace at Delhi. The excitement that lust of wealth, intoxicated by the belief prevailed in the city on this occasion was of concealed treasures, summoned the de- immense, the people thronging to witness throned monarch and his sons to the pre- their monarch's deliverance from ignosence-chamber, threatening him with loss miny. And there in the home of his anof sight in case he refused to reveal where cestors, surrounded with the abject rethey were deposited. Regardless of the mains of his former grandeur, poor, blind, unhappy man's protests and appeals, old, and degraded, Shah Aulum II. reGholaum commanded him to be seized, ceived the new conqueror of his imperial and, with inconceivable ferocity, thrust city. In the following year arrangements his own poignard into the eyes of the were made for the support of the unfortuhelpless victim. Intelligence of these nate family. Aulum still continued titular events at Delhi reaching Scindia, he forth- sovereign of Delhi, drawing revenues with commanded his general, Ranah Khan, from the territory round it, under the supto descend upon that city. Gholaum, pervision, however, of the British; excluroused by the fear of retribution, fled sive of this, 90,000 rupees were allotted from the palace, and, taking refuge at to his use annually from the treasury of Meerut, finally endeavored with his fol- the British resident at Delhi; the Govlowers to force his way through the hos-ernment at the same time nullifying any tile army. He was, however, captured; exercise of the imperial prerogative. So and it may serve fitly to illustrate the far as regards the question of captivity, tiger-like ferocity of the Indian nature, if the King of Delhi, for so he must now be we advert to his punishment. He was sus-styled, was still in some sense a prisoner, pended in an iron cage in front of the camp, and his ears, nose, feet, and hands being cut off, there left to die.

Once more, then, Delhi was under the dominion of the Mahrattas, and once more Scindia reinstated Shah Aulum on his throne, but this time without the ves

but once more he was tree from the tyranny of his own vassals-once more free to enjoy the blessings of life-secure from danger and poverty. He had, however, already long since passed the term of human existence, and on the 18th of December, 1806, his unhappy and check

ered career of eighty-four years terminated. Endowed with a certain amount of enterprise, the extreme weakness and credulity of his nature rendered him the easy dupe of the designing by whom it was his misfortune to be always surrounded; his character in itself appears to have been fundamentally harmless, and the closing years of his life were devoted to the pursuit of literature. It is to him we owe the general application of the term "Nabob," since, previous to his accession, on the occasion of his visiting SujahadDowlah, he familiarly addressed him as "brother Nabob," the real meaning of the word being "Deputy." It was after that applied to Governors indiscriminately.

Aulum was succeeded in his fictitious dignities and titles by his eldest son Mirza Akbar, under the title of Shah Akbar the Second. In the little that is known of the early history of this prince, we find nothing that would have led us to anticipate the part which he has taken in the late outbreaks. But for the gleam of ferocity which has flashed from the dying embers, the course of his inert and uneventful life of nearly a century's duration exhibits no trace of character above a mind feeble to imbecility. A partiality for poetry, which has been attributed to him, is the sole indication of intellect. He was married in the year 1781 to a princess of the royal family. His weak powers were first employed after his accession, in endeavoring to discover how the treaty entered into by his father might be evaded, to find some way in which he might exceed the powers allotted, and increase the pension assigned to him by the British Government. These efforts were easily seen through, and effectually met without any exhibition of severity; but one point there was on which firmness was necessary. So long as the Mogul dynasty had endured, it had been usual to regard the eldest son as heir to the throne. This custom Shah Akbar endeavored to subvert, and to cause Mirza Jehangir, the son of his favorite wife, to be appointed his successor. To this end, he distinguished him by conferring on him the privileges assigned to the heir-apparent; the state cushion, the open state

palanquin, and the flat, circular parasol carried beside it by an attendant; these dignities were set aside by the British; one was abolished, the others permitted to all the princes alike; but it would have proved difficult to awaken the King to a proper sense of the necessity of the case had not the rashness of the prince precipitated matters. Emboldened by the command of a small body of armed retainers, he attacked the guards of the palace, was however easily subdued, and finally submitted himself to the British Resident. He was confined at Allahabad, where he remained till his death. The royal revenue was on this occasion increased by a grant of 7000 rupees, for the maintenance of the Prince at Allahabad.

In 1831, Akbar, (his request for an increase of pension having been again refused by the Governor-General,) dispatched an agent to England, the Brahmin Rammohun Roy, to petition George the Fourth to the same effect; the mission was only partially successful.

Some unmerited excuse has been made for him, respecting his share in the late Indian- transactions, in consideration of his advanced years, his age being now nearly ninety; but surely nothing can palliate his having authorized and sanctioned the fearful atrocities that have taken place during the mutineers' occupation of Delhi. And although we would not advocate any retaliation of the cruelties committed on our countrymen, and still less countenance the infliction of punishments such as that perpetrated on the detestable Gholaum Caudir, yet, right and necessity seem to demand that an example should have been made which should exercise a moral influence on the native population, and impress them with a due sense of the firmness and dignity of British rule. It is a grave question, whether the clemency which extends life to a man who has displayed such deep ingratitude towards his staunchest friends and protectors, and who has sinned so deeply against humanity, has not been dictated by a policy which will prove in the end, no less mischievous than mistaken.

From the North British Review.

MAGNIFICENT MINORIES OF CREATION; OR, THE ZOOLOGICAL RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST, ETC.*

man and beast; and has not hesitated to place the dumb and uncomplaining sufferer under the protection of law.

The tenants of the deep, secluded in their coral palaces and ocean caves, and withdrawn in a great degree from the observation, as well as from the companionship and hostility of man, have an inferior claim upon our protection and sympathy. Useless as our auxilaries in toil, and harmless as enemies, they are less connected with our social existence; and though gigantic in size, and beautiful in form, they contribute chiefly to our alimentary and domestic wants.

THERE is no subject of modern study | the objects of his special care. Society, more popular in its nature, or more likely even, has recognized this affinity between to be generally cultivated, than that branch of Zoology which treats of the lower forms of animal life. Though minute in size and simple in organization, the microscope invests them with an imposing magnitude; and the naturalist is fascinated with a display of forms, and the study of functions, which the vulgar eye can neither see nor appreciate. We can not, indeed, compare them with the noble denizens of the forest and the jungle, which have been so long and so closely associated with human interests, nor with the more tractable races, which man has subjugated for his use, and which he rears for his sustenance. These two divisions of animal life, the wild and the tame, have a separate and peculiar interest. In the investigation of their structure and functions, the zoologist and the physiologist have found a rich and ample field of discovery; and in the study of their manners, habits, and instincts, the naturalist, the philosopher, and even the poet, have received both instruction and amusement. The quadruped races,in powerful communities, still sway the scepter over vast regions of the earth; holding their courts in the recesses of the rock and the forest, and making successful in cursions into the civilization which surrounds them.

With the tenants of the air our relations are, perhaps, less personal and exciting. Our friends more than our enemies, they liberally share with us in the fruits of the earth, returning perhaps as much as they take, and contributing to the wellstored commissariat so bountifully provided for us. In the domestic prison to which we ungenerously consign them, they beguile by their song the cares and anxieties of home; and when they joyously poise themselves in their native element, or settle on their orchestra of leaves and flowers, they add their voice to the noble anthem which external nature is ever raising to its King.

But whatever be our estimate of the re

The animals which man has tamed or reduced to servitude, must in all their relative place of the different classes into lations possess a singular interest. In some cases his slaves or fellow-laborers, and in others the material of his food and his clothing, they belong to his domestic circle, engage his affections, and become

which the higher forms of animal life are divided, the details of their organization, their functions, their uses, their habits, and their instincts, must ever possess a high degree of interest, and entitle us to rank this branch of Zoology among the most important of the sciences.

* Souvenirs d'un Naturaliste, etc. The Rambles of a Naturalist on the Coasts of France, Spain, and However attractive be the study of the Sicily. By A. DE QUATREFAGES, Member of the higher forms of animal life, and however Institute, Professor of Ethnology at the Museum of deep the interest with which we study Natural History at the Jardin des Plantes, etc., etc. their habits in the Natural History of Translated, with the Author's sanction and coöperaBuffon, and their structure in the "Animal Kingdom" of Cuvier, there is in the Zoology of the lower animals a source of

tion, by E. C. OTTE, Honorary Member of the Lit erary and Philosophical Society of St. Andrew's. In 2 vols., pp. 752. London: 1857.

interest peculiar to itself. In the structure | none of the other sciences enable us to inof man and the mammiferous tribes, we vestigate. strive in vain to study, in the living state, the mechanism of their various organiza tions, and the play of the different functions on which life depends. Even the electric light can not penetrate the opaque casket which incloses the chemical and mechanical apparatus of life; and the physiologist is compelled to limit his researches to the anatomical structure of the lifeless organs which he explores. In the lower animals, on the contrary, the form and structure of the living organs, and the functions which they perform, are so clearly seen "as to invite science to raise the corner of the vail which conceals from us the mysteries of what we call life." When the animal, properly prepared, is placed under the microscope, the chemical and mechanical operations which it performs may be studied in every stage. We can follow the atom. of food into the alimentary canal, and trace its progress-noting its chemical changes, and observing the successive action of the animal organs and fluids, till its final exit into space.

With such means of research as are now afforded by the splendid microscopes of modern artists,* it is not a matter of surprise that even the pupils of Cuvier, the most eminent naturalists in Europe, are devoting themselves with ardor and success to the study of the animalcular world. In the work which we have placed at the head of this article, and of which we propose to give our readers a general account, M. Quatrefages, a pupil of Cuvier's, and a distinguished member of the Imperial Institute of France, has reprinted, with several modifications, a series of articles which he communicated to the Revue des Deux Mondes. His leading object was to make the natural sciences instructive and amusing to the intelligent readers of that journal, and, at the same time, to induce the educated classes to entertain more correct ideas of Zoology, by pointing out the great truths which it has established, the numerous and startling facts which it has revealed, the problems of general Physiology which it has solved, and the profound questions of Natural Philosophy which

[blocks in formation]

In the execution of this task, M. Quatrefages has produced a work equally amusing and instructive. He carries us along with him to the coasts of France, Spain, and Sicily-to localities highly interesting and often little known. We sympathize with him in his personal adventures; we admire with him the picturesque or the wild scenery through which he wanders; we accompany him to the craters of Stromboli, Vesuvius, and Etna; we visit with him ancient and ruined cities, explore osseous caverns, discuss geological problems, and collect algae and zoophytes with Mr. Milne Edwards, the companion of our author, in his submarine explorations. And in the midst of these various pursuits we are introduced to the wonders. of animalcular life-to the contemplation of those marvelous and exquisitely beautiful organisms which have their dwelling in "the mysterious world of ocean ;" and our attention is called to the "moral and religious ascendency which the study of living beings is calculated to exert over the human mind.” The two volumes which contain these instructive details are written with much perspicuity and elegance; and they have been so admirably translated by Miss Otté, the well-known translator of Humboldt's Cosmos, that we never doubt, in the perusal of the work. that it was originally written in our own tongue.*

*

Before setting out on his zoological rambles, M. Quatrefages introduces his readers to some of the singular animals which he had been previously studying, from the ponds or pools of Meudon and Vincennes, from the basins in the gardens of Versailles, and from the ditches on the common highways. Here he found the Rotifer, of the subdivision Vermes, composed of rings like the draw tubes of a telescope, by which it can contract itself into a sphere, and having at its proboscis two wheel-like organs, or wreaths of cilia, by which it swims and produces currents

M Quatrefages has enriched his work with numerous valuable notes and biographical sketches of eminent naturalists, chiefly continental, the largest and most important of which Miss Otté has, very judiciovsly, thrown into an appendix. Amongst these notes the reader will find biographical sketches of several distinguished living naturalists, such as Humboldt, Elie de Beaumont, Milne Edwards, Muller, Van Beneden, Dumas, Agassiz, and Orbigny.

« PreviousContinue »