to have been
bestowed, is particularly complete and well written--unless (as, indeed,
we are almost inclined to suspect) it be a translation _in toto_ from
some popular historical treatise. The Khan's acquired knowledge of
English history, indeed, is sometimes more accurate than his
acquaintance with the annals of his own country; as when, in comparing
Queen Elizabeth with the famous Queen of Delhi, Raziah Begum, he speaks
of the latter princess as "daughter of Behlol Khan, the Pathan Emperor
of Delhi;" whereas a reference to Ferishta, or any other native
historian, will inform us that Raziah died A.D. 1239, more than 200
years before the accession of Behlol Lodi. No such errors as this,
either in fact or chronology, disfigure the Khan's sketch of English
history; but as it would scarcely present so much novelty to English
readers as it may possibly do to the Hindustani friends of the author
for whom it is intended, we shall give but a few brief notices of it.
His favourite hero, in the account of the Saxon period, is of course
Alfred, and he devotes to the events of his reign more than half the
space occupied by the history of the dynasty;[18] thus summing up his
character:--"To describe all the excellent qualities, intellectual and
moral, attributed to this prince by English historians, would be to
condense in a single individual the highest perfections of which the
human species is capable. Qualities contradictory in their natures, and
which are possessed only by men of different characters, and scarcely
ever by one man, seem to have been united in this monarch; he was
humane, prudent, and peaceful, yet brave, just, and impartial; affable,
and capable of giving and receiving counsel. In short, he was a man
especially endowed by the Deity with virtue and intelligence to benefit
the human race!"

The story of Edwy and Elgiva, and the barbarities which the beautiful
queen suffered at the hands of Dunstan, are related with fitting
abhorrence by the Khan, who seems to entertain, on all occasions, a
special aversion to the ascendancy of the Romish priesthood. The loves
of Edgar and Elfrida, and the punishment of the faithless courtier who
deceived his sovereign by a false report of the attractions of the lady,
are also duly commemorated; as well as the fall of the Saxon kingdom
before the conquering swords of the Danes, during the reign of Ethelred
the Unready, the son of the false and cruel Elfrida. But the intrusive
mon