nglish monarch who sent an ambassador (Sir Thomas Roe) to the court of
Delhi, and refers to the history of Ferishta for an account of his
reception by the Emperor Jehanghir. He next proceeds to describe the
climate, productions, and statistics of the country, its division into
_zillahs_ or counties, the law of primogeniture as regards succession to
landed property, &c.; and enters into minute details on the laws
regulating the succession to the throne, the responsibility of
ministers, the election of the members of the House of Commons, and the
mutual dependence of the three branches of the legislature; but his
remarks on these subjects, though creditable from their general
accuracy, possess little originality; and may be left without comment
for the edification of his friends in Hindustan, for whose benefit it is
to be presumed they were intended. The doctrine of the responsibility of
ministers, (which the Khan in a former part of his narrative, as we had
occasion to remark, seemed either to have been unacquainted with, or to
have lost sight of,) is here stated with a full appreciation of its
practical bearings; and is pronounced to be "the best law which the
English ever made for the government of the people, by imposing a check
on the absolute will of the sovereign; resembling the similar restraint
on the power of our monarchs which prevails in Islam, though with us the
check is still more powerful and effectual, as the judge is empowered by
the Koran to demand satisfaction from the sovereign himself!" The
details of the British finances are briefly touched upon, with a special
denunciation of "that most extraordinary tax laid on the light of the
sun when it comes through a window:"--but the Khan contents himself with
stating the amount of the national debt, and the interest annually paid
to the public creditors, without offering any scheme for its extinction,
like that of his countryman Mirza Abu-Taleb, who with perfect gravity
and good faith proposes that the fundholders should be summoned before
Parliament, and informed by the minister, that since the pressure of the
taxes necessary to meet the interest must inevitably, erelong, produce a
revolution, in which the whole debt would be cancelled, it would be far
better for them at once to relinquish with a good grace great part of
their claim, and accept payment of the balance by instalments. Of the
feasibility, as well as equity of this plan, the Mirza does not appear