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prefent to the Public, open interesting views of the moral economy of human nature. As natural convulfions, fays he, discover the fudden ftrata of the earth and ocean, fo violent moral fituations tear up and difplay the paffions and powers of the human foul. The fenfibility of our captive countrymen was powerfully excited, and the energy of their minds called forth in moft ingenious contrivances to beguile the languor of inoccupation, to fupply conveniencies and comforts, and, on fome occafions, to elude fudden affaffination. In the prifons on the coaft of Malabar, particularly that of Seringapatam, we fee the condition of human nature, as it were, inverted. Man, with unbounded liberty, and the world for materials, becomes acquainted with the qualities and relations of things, and advances in the arts by flow degrees. Our countrymen, and others who followed their fortune, immured in a narrow prifon, with a very limited command of inftrumentality and matter, fupplied the deficiency of thefe by knowledge and invention: The strength of their fympathy with one another; the natural connection between ftrong paf fion and poetry; the longing of the circumcifed flave-boys to join their countrymen, though in bonds and in danger of death; that fudden impatience under confinement, and vehement defire of liberty which feized on the minds of all the prifoners on the certain and near profpect of a release; the excitement of their joy incapable of compòfure and carried to painful excefs; the impreffion that was made on their minds, after fo long a confinement in the gloomy jail, by external objects, and the fair face of nature:-Thefe, with other interefting circumftances and confiderations, juftify the publication of a narrative which, tho' it be very particular and minute, is nevertheless interefting throughout. The most trivial facts and circumftances derive an intereft from their relation to perfons in whom we are con

cerned, and to whom they were not indifferent.

With regard to the matter, then, of the Memoirs of the late war in Afia, it may be affirmed, without danger of contradiction, that it is in the highest degree important and interefting. An hundred thousand men, employed in daring enterprizes or courageous defence, in different parts of Hindoftan, on the fide of the English, unsupported by a fingle ally. Thefe, oppofed to almost all the powers of India, encouraged by fuccours from France, and contending often with fuccefs, but always with glory, against Afiatic fubtlety and numbers, confirmed in no fmall degree by European difcipline and inftruments of war, form a scene the moft fplendid that can well exift. The prize is the preponderating dominion in India, the richest and the most venerable country in the world. Courage, genius, and the pomp of war, are difplayed on either fide, in the difficult conteft. The ocean, which divides the Indian nations from Britain and France, unites their arms: and, while fquadron after fquadron from Europe brings fresh supplies of men and warlike ftores to the numerous bands of Afia, fleets co-operate with armies in all the various attempts and ftratagems of war, and bring forward into important action, the valour, the abilities, and the refourees of the two greatest nations in the world.

The most prominent feature in this range of matter, the difficulties with which Great Britain was forced to contend in the Eaft, and the means by which the furmounted them, is the great bond by which the writer of the Memoirs has given an unity of defign to his compofition, and by which he paffes, by eafy tranfitions, from one fcene of action to another. And while he purfues this courfe, he is at pains to fhew all the refources of Britain on the one hand, and the means by which Europeans were and may be oppofed by Alatic enemies on the other. Mau

pers

ners, characters, cuftoms, opinions, and as General Goddard had repeatedly political interefts and intrigues, fill up advifed, and Mr Haftings had propothe interstices between the great out- fed in the Supreme Council, a divers lines of treaties and actions, and give fion of the troops under Sandioli from variety and relief to details which Guzzarat might have been effected by would otherwise be somewhat dry and an invafion of the province of Malva, barren. The author has been enabled, and the chiefs with whom we conby communications and intercourse not tended reduced to the neceffity of aconly with English officers, but certain cepting terms of accommodation. But gentlemen of the French regiments in this opportunity of humbling the Mathe fervice of Hyder-Ally, to bring to rattas being loft, their hoftility to our light a great number of facts highly countrymen was confirmed by the fuc interefting and important. And he has ceffes of Hyder-Ally's arms in the been faithful to his defign of specify- Carnatic, and the exertions of Mr ing the merit and the fuffering of in- Haftings were called from fucceffes dividuals, and of relating the valour which he had not been permitted ta and the addrefs of our enemies, as improve, to the reparation of misfor well as thofe of our friends and coun- tunes which he had not occafioned." trymen. This leads the writer to the history of the war with Hyder-Ally, of whom he gives the following account:

While the difficulties with which the English had to struggle, and the means by which they furmounted them, form the general chain of affociation among the facts that enter into the Memoirs, the end, or upper link of that chain, is Mr Haftings. His great mind is the centre around which other agents appear in action. He, amidst the changes, the confusion, and the alarms of war, rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm. The author having ftated the troubles of Gr. Britain in 1780, and traced them, without the leaft regard to the favour or frown of any, to erFors and misconduct in all parties, proceeds to give an account of the country, the manners, the hiftory, and the refources of the Marrattas, the most powerful of the affociates that had en tered into a confederate war against the English. He goes over the firit and the fecond Maratta war with a clearnefs that fhews a full comprehenfion of the fubject. He gives an account of the fuccefsful expedition, and of the political as well as military talents of General Goddard. The exertions of Major Abington at Tellicherry are alfo particularly defcribed. "Had a detachment, the author obferves, been formed in Gohud previously to the reduction of Gualiorby, Major Popham,

"Hyder-Ally-Cawn was regent of the kingdom of Myfore, a dignity to which he had raised himself by abilities and by crimes; by valour and policy in arms, by intrigue, by treach ery, and by blood. He was the fon of a Mahommedan foldier of fortune, who commanded a fort on the confines of Myfore, and followed, of course, the profeflion of arms. When he first entered into the Rajah of Myfore's fervice he was diftinguished by the name of Hyder Naig, or Corporal Hyder. He rofe by degrees to the command of the Rajah's army; and, on the death of that Prince, he feized the reins of government, under the title of Guardian to the young Prince, whom he confined in Seringapatam, together with the whole royal family; exhibiting them only at certain ftated seasons, in order to foothe and please the people. He poffeffed great vigour of body and mind: but his manners were favage and cruel; and he frequently inflamed the natural ferocity of his temper by intoxication. Like many other chiefs in India, with whom it is not accounted any difgrace to be ignorant of letters, he could not either read or write; fo that he was obliged

to

At the fame time that he was fublime in his views, he was capable of all that minute attention which was neceflary for their accomplishment. His ends were great; his means pru dent. A regular economy fupplied a fource of liberality, which he never failed to exercife, whenever an object,' which he could render in any shape fubfervient to his ambition, folicited his bounty. He rewarded merit of every kind, but he was particularly munificent to all who could bring im portant intelligence. He had his eyes open on the movements of his neighbours, as well as on every part, and almost on every perfon within his dominions.-Hence he knew where to anticipate hoftile designs, and where to take advantages; where to impofe contributions without drying up the fprings of industry; and where to find the most proper inftruments for his purposes, whether of policy or war. He infpected, in perfon, every horfe man or Sepoy that offered himself to his fervice; but with every officer of any note, he was intimately acquaint ed. He made a regular diftribution of his time: and, although he facrificed to the pleasures of life, as well as to the pomp of state, în business he was equally decifive and perfevering.

to make use of interpreters and fecre- to render his name immortal. He taries. The method he contrived for invited and encouraged every useful afcertaining whether his interpreters and ingenious manufacturer and artimade faithful reports of the letters fan to fettle in his dominions, he inthey read, and if his fecretaries ex- troduced the European difcipline in preffed in writing the full and the his army, and laboured, not altoge precife meaning of what he commu- ther without fuccefs, for the forma nicated, difplays, at once, that fuf- tion of dock-yards, and the establishpicion which was natural to his fitua- ment of a navy. tion, and that subtlety which belonged to his nature. He confined three different interpreters in feparate apart ments, who made their respective reports in their turns. If all the three hould make different reports, then he would punish them by a cruel death. If two fhould coincide in their report, and one differ from these two, then that one would fuffer death. But the interpreters, knowing their fate if they fhould depart in one fingle inftance from the truth, explained, as might be expected, the letters committed to their infpection with the utmoft fidelity. As to the method by which he discovered whether his ama nuenfes were faithful or no, he placed three of them, in like manner, in three feparate places of confinement, and to each of them apart he dictated his orders. Their manufcripts he put into the hands of any of thofe that were about him who could read, from whom he learned whether his clerks had faithfully expreffed his meaning. When he paffed fentence of death, he was, on fome occafions, like the Dey of Algiers and other barbarian defpots, himself the executioner: for though he affected to confider his army as his guards, he well knew that he reigned in their hearts, not from love, but fear, mixed indeed with an admiration of his fingular addrefs and intrepidity. The force of this man's mind, fuch is the advantage of nature over art! burst through the prejudices of education and the restraints of habit, and extended his views to whatever European improvements he deemed the most fitted to fecure his government, to extend his empire, and

With regard to the perfon of Hyder Ally, for every circumstance relating to fo diftinguished a character becomes interefting, he was of a middling ftature, inclining to corpulency, his vifage quite black, the traits of his coun tenance, manly, bold, and expreffive : and, as he looked himself with a keen and piercing eye into every human face that approached him, so he judged

of

of men very much from their phyfiognomy, connecting in his imagination a bashful, timid, and wandering eye, with internal confcioufnefs of guilty actions, or privity of intention; but a bold and undaunted look, on the other hand, with confcious innocence and integrity.

With fuch qualities, and by fuch arts as thefe, Hyder-Ally-Cawn raifed a finall state into a powerful empire; and converted into a race of warriors, an obfcure, peaceable, and timid people. By alluring to his ftandard military adventurers, of all nations and tribes, but chiefly Europeans, whenever it was in his power, and by training through their means his Myforean fubjects to the use of arms, he extended his dominions, which were bounded on the Eaft and the South by the Carnatic, and the plains of Combitore, and on the Weft and North by the Malabar regions, and the country of

Ghutta and Bednore, acrofs the penin. fula to the territories of Palnaud and Ganjam, on the coaft of Coromandel, and, on the Malabar fea, as far North as Goa.

The population of Hyder's dominions has not been calculated on any principles, by which it could be af certained with any tolerable precifion. It is computed, that he could raise an army of three hundred thousand men, and that his annual revenue was not lefs than five millions of British pounds. Emboldened by internal profperity, as well as continued fucceffes in the field, Hyder ventured to encounter, not only the Marrattas, but the English; his wars with whom, though not fo productive of advantage and triumph as his contefts with other Indian powers of inferior confequence, yet improved him in the military art, and nourished in his breast a paffion for conquest,"

SIR,

To the Publisher.

THE foreign Prints, having announced that the facred Standard of the prophet Mahomet has been publicly expofed at the gates of the Seraglio at Conftantinople, this event may be confidered as the forerunner of the Grand Vifir's departure to join the army, and previous to that, the ceremony of carrying the Standard in proceffion through the principal ftreet of Conftantinople must take place. I have therefore fent you an account of this folemnity, and of a fingular anecdote relative to it during the laft war between the Turks and the Ruffians, extracted from The Prefent State of the OTTOMAN EMM.

PIRE.

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HE ceremony of expofing the facred Standard of the prophet Mahomet, previous to its being tranfported to the Camp, is a folemnity VOL. VII. No 40.

held in the highest veneration by the Turks, and fo facred, that they will not permit any perfon, of any rank or religion whatever, except Mufful. men, to behold it; for which reafon, three days before the proceffion, heralds are fent to proclaim in every ftreer of Conftantinople, that on fuch a day the Standard of the Prophct will be carried through the city, on its way to the army; and that no perfons, not of the Mahometan religion, are to be in the streets through which it paffes, or looking out into them from any houfes, under the pain of death in cafe of difobedience. Notwithstanding this abfolute prohibition, the Imperial Minifter, unmindful of his public character, which should have made him more delicate than a private perfon upon fuch an occafion, was perfuaded to gratify the curiofity of his wife and his two daughters, who were deter PP

mined

mined to fee this grand proceffion. For this purpofe, he agreed for a chamber in the house of a Moulah, fituated in one of the streets through which it was to pafs; the price was fixed at fifty piaftres; but, two days before the folemnity was to take place, the Minister found out a more convenient apartment at an inferior price, which he immediately took, and relinquished the first. The Moulah in vain reprefented that Europeans generally keep their words, but more efpecially Public Minifters; he was refufed every kind of fatisfaction, and was difmiffed with taunts, the Minifter well knowing that no tribunal would dare to proceed against him ; and tho' the order of the Moulahs have the moft powerful intercft with the go vernment, yet their dread of offending his Royal Mafter was fuperiot to every other confideration. The Moulah fubmitted, in appearance, with out murmuring at his hard lot, but he fecretly meditated vengeance, and only waited a proper opportunity to gratify this darling paffion in the breaft of a Turk.

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In the very moment then that the holy ftandard was paffing through the ftreet in which the Ambaffador, his lady, and two daughters had taken a chamber, and as it approached the houfe, from a window of which half opened they were looking at the fplendid fhew, the Moulah fet up a loud cry, that the holy ftandard was prophaned by the eyes of infidels who were regarding it through the latticed window of fuch a houfe. The multitude, which was immenfe, as all the orders of the people attend the folem nity, inftantly took the alarm, and a party confifting of near three hundred enraged Janiffaries, detached themfelves from the proceffion, and broke open the door of the houfe, determined to facrifice to the prophet thofe daring infidels who had profaned his holy standard. The imprudent minifter in vain reprefented to them that he

was the Imperial Ambassador, he was inftantly knocked down, and the inner doors being forced, they found the Ambaffadrefs, whom they ftripped of her jewels and cluathes, and nothing but her age protected her from further infults. As for the young ladies, they had fallen fenfeless upon the floor in a fwoon, from which they were only recovered by the extreme torture of having their ear-rings torn from them with fuch violence, that part of their ears went with them; they were likewife ftripped to their fhifts, and what they fuffered befides no mortal can tell, as it was reported that fome of the Janiffaries had compassion on their youth and beauty, joined to their tears, and the wretched fituation to which they were reduced, while another party were deaf to all intreaties; be that as it may, after they had plundered them, they retired, and in the evening this deplo rable family were fecretly conveyed to Galata.

As foon as the Grand Vifir recei ved information of the horrid outrage committed on the perfon of the ambaffador and the ladies, he communicated it to the Grand Signor, who condefcended (though the Ambaffador was fo much in the wrong) to fend him compliments of condolance and excufe in his own name, accompanied with a rich pelice, which is a distinguifhing token of peace in Turkey ; and as his Sublime Highness knew that the Minifter loved money, a very handfome fum was fent to him privately, and feparate purfes to the la dies, befides jewels, far fuperior to thofe the Janiffaries had taken from them. Having received fuch ample indemnification the whole family feemed perfectly fatisfied, and the young ladies being recovered from their fright, related the adventure to their Christian friends, in a manner that did no great honour to their modefty.

Had the piece finished with this ac, all would have been well; but unfortunately the Divan thought fomething

was

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