The rebuilding the fortress or redoubt of Yunus, which was in a similar condition to the one last mentioned. He also placed a number of paid soldiers in it, and ordered a mosque and bath to be erected in it. A twelfth was—The rebuilding of the fortress of Beít Khaberín, between Gaza and Balad al Khalil-rahman; on which also he ordered a mosque and a bath to be erected, and an aqueduct to be constructed. The painted titles in the dome erected by Sultán Soleiman Khán having become mutilated and loose he replaced them with new titles.

This wonderful man, after having governed Egypt for four years and five months, was recalled to Constantinople. Whether at Cairo or journeying, he was in the habit of visiting holy and consecrated places, and of offering up prayers for the emperor; thus gaining to himself advantage in both worlds. After his return to Constantinople, Jouher Khán Saltána, daughter of the grand sultán, thought him worthy of her affections, and the result was that he became the emperor's son-in-law."-pp. 377-379.

There are accounts in this volume of several treaties entered into at different times between the Turkish emperor and the states of Europe, with respect to the mutual conduct of the subjects of each to one another. Austria, France, and Poland, are amongst the number.

The history of the Turkish empire is consecutively followed up in this volume, and although our extracts would seem to indicate an absence of order in the volume, the reality is far from justifying such an impression. The information is amply and lucidly arranged, and although not destined altogether for the perusal of those who merely seek amusement from books, it is, nevertheless, important as a document containing valuable historical facts calculated to illustrate the character of a very remarkable people.

The second of the works, the titles of which stand at the head of this article, belongs to a more easterly region than that with which we have been occupied above. The original writer was a member of a respectable family, belonged to the court of Delhi, and resided with his father many years in the households of the Nabobs of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. The title of the work, in the language of the author, means literally "Manners of the Moderns." It is a book of more immediate interest than the former, inasmuch as it affords a view of the events which led to the downfall of the Mahomedan power, and the elevation of the Mahrattas. But what is still more interesting, it leads us to the knowledge of the earliest proceedings which directly tended to place Bengal in the first place, and the remainder of India in the next, under the authority of the British government. It would be superfluous to claim attention to a work of such pretensions as this.

The period embraced by the author is about 70 years, the term already chosen, as we have seen, by his Turkish predecessor. The era of the former commences in the beginning of the last century, and the present volume does not convey us beyond some 30 years. Upon the death of Aurengzib, who had spent a great portion of

his life in attempting to subject the Deckan to his jurisdiction, the kingdom became the subject of dreadful contention amongst the sons. Mahomed Muazem ascended the throne under the title of Bahadur-shah, which he maintained against his brothers for a considerable time. When he died, his children again were arrayed against one another as rivals for the throne. Jehandar-shah, one of those sons, defeated his brothers, and mounted the throne; but scarcely had he been settled upon it, when up rose a new claimant, under the name of Ferokh-siar. Some influential persons in the kingdom had him proclaimed, and he finally became emperor. His accession was made memorable by a quarrel between the Hindus and Mussulmans, the cause of which is said to have been excited by an imprudent person placed in the government of Guzerat :

"It happened that in the night in which the Hindus perform the ceremony of the Huli, one of them was going to do so in his own house-yard, a small part of which was connected with some Mussulman's houses, when the latter objected to it. The Hindu, having pleaded that every man was master of his own house, paid no regard to the objection, and finished his ceremony. The very next day the Mussulman, turning the Hindu's argument against himself, brought a cow within that very yard, and killed her for the purpose of distributing beef to the poor, as it was the anniversary of the death of the saint Ali. This action brought upon them all the Hindus of that quarter, who having overpowered the Mussulmans, obliged them to fly for their lives, and to conceal themselves in their houses. Transported by religious fury, the Hindus sought out the butcher who had slaughtered the cow; but not finding him, they dragged his son, an innocent youth of fourteen, into that very yard, and killed him. The Mussulmans, shocked at the outrage, created an outcry throughout the city, and drew after them multitudes of the Mussulman inhabitants, among whom were some thousands of Daud-khan Peny's Afghan soldiers. The whole now repaired to the kazy (the judge) who did not choose to meddle in the affair when he knew that the governor had taken side with the Hindus, and shut his door. This only tended to incense the Mussulmans the more, who carried away by their fury, and possibly urged on by the kazy himself, demolished and burned his gate, and having seized his person, they proceeded to set fire to the shops in the market-place, and to many Hindu houses. They would have gone on burning and destroying, had they not been opposed by one Capur Chand, a jewel merchant, much in favour with the governor, and a violent opponent of the Mussulmans. This man, seeing his own house in danger, armed himself and friends, shut the gate, and defended it. He placed musketeers over the gate, opened loop-holes through the parapets, and in the ensuing fray numbers of lives were lost. The disturbance continued for some days, all the shops were shut, and business was at a stand. At length the tumult subsided, the Mussulmans, who thought themselves aggrieved, deputed three persons of character to carry their complaints to court. These were the very men that had been selected on a former occasion to manage an accommodation between the Mussulmans on one side and the governor and Hindus on the other."pp. 98-100.

The deputies certified that the Hindus were not in the wrong, and that the Mussulmans were the aggressors. About the fifth year of the new emperor's reign, a bloody action was fought on the plains of the Penjab, between the Siks and the Imperialists, in which the latter beat the former. The Siks were a sect, the members of which distinguished themselves by wearing blue garments, and going armed at all times. Of this sect Nanec was the founder. He was the son of a grain merchant, and was much distinguished in his youth for his comeliness and talents. A dervish of note, named Seid Hussein, a man of opulence, took Nanec under his protection, had him educated and well versed in the most esteemed writings of the Islams. His learning made him doubt the propriety of sticking to Hinduism-he wrote a book called Grant, which is the sourse of solemn reference amongst the Siks to this. day.

The Siks could not be distinguished during the early part of their existence, so far as costume or usage were considered, from the Mussulman Dervishes. To this day the difference between them is nearly the same. They live in communities, which are called Sangats, and have superintendants who reign over them.

The reign of Ferokh-siar was marked by bloody wars, and crimes of the greatest cruelty on the part of the government: the peace of the country was ever subject to disturbance, arising from the discontent, real or affected, by the people or a portion of them. We select as a specimen the following account:

"About the end of the same year, a body of Penjaby shoemakers and some other Mussulmans in the capital rising in a body, excited a great disturbance during the Hindu festival of the Huly, on which occasion one of the rioters, a man highly respected on account of his having been on pilgrimage to Mecca, happened to be killed by a Hindu jeweller. The Mussulmans, finding their complaints were unattended to, left the body for three days unpurified and unburied, and resolved not to meddle with it till they had revenged the death of their companion. The ministers, too busy with their own concerns, never thought of affording justice to those injured people. The shoemakers, incensed at such neglect, tumultuously took possession of the great mosque, and prevented divine service being performed, or any Mussulmans assembling there, until their wrongs were redressed. The kazi of the city, in attempting to pacify them, met only with insults. The tumult increasing, at last attracted the attention of the court, and Kamar-ed-din-khan, the vezir, as well as Zafer-khan, the minister, were sent to see divine service performed. They came with their own retinues and a number of other nobles, and were preparing to begin prayers, when the shoemakers commenced cursing and reproaching them for their mal-administration, as well as for their odious supineness, in whatever concerned religion; and proceeding from words to blows, they fell upon the ministers, and put them to flight. Zafer-khan being closely pursued, took shelter under the bucklers of the Afghan soldiers, that accompanied them; the shoemakers, however, continued throwing their slippers at the guards and at the nobles, and again drove them away.

The vezir alone stood his ground, and on his ordering some rockets to be fired, and thrown over their heads, the tumults subsided a little. The vezir, finding them reduced to some order, addressed the mob, and at length prevailed upon it to disperse. The tumult had risen to such a height, that most of the nobles were insulted; and as the people were preparing to proceed farther, some dire event might have occurred but for the vezir's presence of mind and successful eloquence. At the end of this year, between the months of Sheval and Zilcad, there arose for forty days together such an abominable stench throughout the city of Dehli, that the poor and rich being equally affected by it, were attacked by an epidemic fever that filled the houses with sick. The shops and markets were shut up, the streets were deserted, and the city looked like a place forsaken by its inhabitants. People said that they had never before seen or heard of such a calamity. The stench and sickness commenced at Patna and Ilahabad, from whence it proceeded to Acberabad and Delhi, and continued spreading over Paniput and Serhend, until it extended to Lahore, where it stopped. Though many were affected by the sickness, the deaths were not on the whole numerous.

"This strange event was followed by one more strange. The winter proved so severe this year in Shah Jehan-abad, and old Dehli and its environs, that the water froze in vessels of copper, which burst from the pressure of the ice. Running water, and even the river was frozen. This happened for three nights together in the month of Rejeb, of the year 1143: snow also fell in several places on the plain."—pp. 360–362.

The work then proceeds with the subsequent reigns, the account of which may be regarded as analogous, with some slight modifications indeed, to those which preceded them. We doubt not that upon consideration the society would be induced to alter the plan which permits the unlimited extent of details found in the most part of their historical publications. A considerable number of pages are too often devoted to mere catalogues of names and dates, which do not serve in any degree to increase the use or interest of the work in which they are found. But these may be objects in the view of the society with which we are unacquainted; at all events it has shown enough of discretion to justify our fullest confidence.

NOTICES.