the
power and person of the Grand Mogul? This is no idle speculation. Awful
lessons are taught by it, and by other events, of which it is not yet
too late to profit.

This is hardly a digression: but I return to the sale of the Mogul. Two
districts, Corah and Allahabad, out of his immense grants, were reserved
as a royal demesne to the donor of a kingdom, and the rightful sovereign
of so many nations.--After withholding the tribute of 260,000_l._ a
year, which the Company was, by the _charter_ they had received from
this prince, under the most solemn obligation to pay, these districts
were sold to his chief minister, Sujah ul Dowlah; and what may appear to
some the worst part of the transaction, these two districts were sold
for scarcely two years' purchase. The descendant of Tamerlane now stands
in need almost of the common necessaries of life; and in this situation
we do not even allow him, as bounty, the smallest portion of what we owe
him in justice.

The next sale was that of the whole nation of the Rohillas, which the
grand salesman, without a pretence of quarrel, and contrary to his own
declared sense Of duty and rectitude, sold to the same Sujah ul Dowlah.
He sold the people to utter _extirpation_, for the sum of four hundred
thousand pounds. Faithfully was the bargain performed on our side. Hafiz
Rhamet, the most eminent of their chiefs, one of the bravest men of his
time, and as famous throughout the East for the elegance of his
literature and the spirit of his poetical compositions (by which he
supported the name of Hafiz) as for his courage, was invaded with an
army of an hundred thousand men, and an English brigade. This man, at
the head of inferior forces, was slain valiantly fighting for his
country. His head was cut off, and delivered for money to a barbarian.
His wife and children, persons of that rank, were seen begging an
handful of rice through the English camp. The whole nation, with
inconsiderable exceptions, was slaughtered or banished. The country was
laid waste with fire and sword; and that land, distinguished above most
others by the cheerful face of paternal government and protected labor,
the chosen seat of cultivation and plenty, is now almost throughout a
dreary desert, covered with rushes, and briers, and jungles full of wild
beasts.

The British officer who commanded in the delivery of the people thus
sold felt some compunction at his employment. He represented these
enormous excesse