Be it as it will, it is certain that this treaty and junction of Governor Hushtin’s with Shudjah-ed-dowlah met with a very bad reception at home, and that the Members of the Council of The treaty of the English with Shudjah-ed-dowlah
highly dis­approved in Europe. London, which is the Capital of the English Empire, finding fault with every part of the whole expedition, repeatedly repri­manded him with great asperity, for his having permitted Shudjah-ed-dowlah to wage war with the Rohillahs, and, more­over, for his having lent him the assistance of the English troops. But the Governor, having vindicated his conduct with equal solid­ity and eloquence, became a great favourite with the people at home, and from that time his favour went on increasing daily, and it put it in his power to regulate to his mind the Company’s affairs at Bengal, as well as to attend to the changes that were taking place at the Capital of Hindostan.

For whilst Shudjah-ed-dowlah was making conquests, Mirza-nedjef-qhan, who had once been in his service, having lately shaken off his inferiority and submission, had risen by dint of merit and achievements to an equality with his old master; and the latter who had hitherto been brooding upon discontents, conceived long ago, now thought it expedient to take a different style with him, to forget his discontent, to commence his friend, and to talk of nothing but completing a perfect union between themselves. He even betrothed one of his daughters to that rising conqueror, and did everything in his power to gain his affection. But Nedjef-qhan, although now at the head of so much power, Alliance between Shud­jah-ed-dowlah
and Nedjef-qhan. thought it incumbent upon his generosity to continue his former submissive style to Shudjah-ed-dowlah, and to abstain from avail­ing himself of the equality to which fortune had raised him on the theatre of the world. He continued to write in a respectful style to Shudjah-ed-dowlah, as to his superior, even in an affai which required to be handled with great firmness as well as much delicacy; for the Rohillah power, having been for some time before in the agonies of death, most of the countries that had belonged to Nedjib-ed-dowlah, and, by succession, to Zabeta-qhan, his son, had been conquered by Nedjef-qhan with the assistance of the Marhattas, some time before Shudjah-ed-dowlah’s expedition, or they had surrendered to his arms. Some of these Districts were on this side of the Ganga, and touched* towards the north to the dominions of Hafyz-rahmet and D8ndy-qhan, Followed by a treaty of partition between them. which were the territories of Chandp8r, Nediah, Patter-ghur, and some others; whereas the greatest part of Zabeta-qhan’s country extended mostly to the west and south of the Ganga, and such were the Districts of Barr, Soharenp8r-b8dia, and the rest. On the other hand, all the countries that had belonged to Hafyz-rahmet, and the children of Aaly-mahmed-Rohillah, as well as to D8ndy-qhan’s posterity, had been taken possession of by Shudjah-ed-dowlah, that is, all that part to the north and east of the Ganga, which was contiguous to the Province of A8d; such as the Districts of Shah-djehan-p8r, Bereily, Anowla, Bedäon, Bissöulah, and some others. The other Districts on the eastern side of the Ganga, such as those of Sumbul, M8rad-abad, Amr8a, &c., together with all the country between the two rivers of Ganga and Djumnah, had been conquered by Ab8l-mans8r-qhan, from Mahmed-qhan-Bangash, and bestowed upon the Marhattas. But this nation having since their bloody defeat at Pany-p8t evacuated so effectually all Hindostan, that there was not one individual Marhatta to be found in any part of it, the conquered countries, bestowed upon that nation by Ab8l-mans8r-qhan, together with some others in the Anterbid tract, were divided amongst themselves, by Hafyz-rahmet, Ahmed-bangash, and the families of Doondy-qhan and Nedjib-qhan, who received thereon the Abdaly-king’s orders. Part of Zabeta-qhan’s spoils then being on the Lucknow side, and part on the Delhi side of the Ganga, Nedjef-qhan, who felt how much such a situation was liable to misunderstandings, set out for Shudjah-ed-dowlah’s Court, with intention to come to an agreement with that Prince about a final division of those territories. Being arrived at that Court, he examined with him the net revenues of those districts that had heretofore constituted Nedjeb-ed-dowlah’s dominions, and it was agreed between them, that whatever was on this side of the Ganga, that is, on the eastern and northern side of it, as Patter-ghur, Chand-poor, Nedjinah, and some other districts, should be annexed to the Province of A8d; and that such parts as were on the other western side, with part of D8ndy-qhan’s and Hafyz-rahmet’s countries, should be annexed to the Prov­inces of Acbar-abad and Delhi, to which they were contiguous. This partition having given satisfaction to both parties, and the limits having been agreed to and ascertained, the Agreement was explained in a written instrument, which received the usual forms; after which Nedjef-qhan departed to his own country, carrying with him the Prince Zabeta-qhan, whom he had requested from Shudjah-ed-dowlah, and to whom he shewed every demonstra­tion of favour and regard, loading him with presents and distinc­tions at every opportunity that offered. Shudjah-ed-dowlah, after this departure, turned his thoughts entirely towards bring­ing to order and submission the Rohillah country, and towards Shudjah-ed-dowlah pre­pares to enjoy his conquests. incorporating his conquests with his hereditary dominions. But Providence, who had been preparing the causes of his dissolu­tion from afar, had appointed the time, and it was not to be foregone by a moment. A disorder of the venereal kind made its appearance between his belly and his thigh—it was of the species called by the vulgar a Qhyarec, (small cucumber). In a little time it broke open, and commenced suppurating abun­dantly. As such an eruption had never been known to be of so serious a nature as to endanger a man’s life, he made no great account of it, especially as the known and usual remedies were from time to time applied by some Indian or Armenian Chirur­geons, and especially by some European ones, who were this long time in his service and enjoyed his confidence. Neverthe­less the wound increased, and as it seemed to baffle all the powers of physic, a suspicion arose amongst his friends and courtiers about the nature of a wound that yielded to no remedy. And it was then that a strange and universal report prevailed, that having cast his eyes upon Hafyz-rahmet’s daughter, actually in his seraglio, the young lady, who had about herself a full measure of that ferocity and sense of honour so remarkable in women of the Rohillah race*, submitted to his embraces, but at the moment he was closing with her person*, she drew a small clasp-knife, which had been dipped in poison by her mother, and thrust it, with all her might, into his groin; from which circumstance people accounted for the rebellious nature of the wound. But this report was certainly without foundation, and is unquestionably erroneous; notwithstanding which it ran then and still continues to run so strong, that there are numbers of people who will admit of no other cause for his death, and who reject the other as fictitious, and as an invention to serve a turn. Be it as it will, Shudjah-ed-dowlah himself, astonished at the state of his health, resolved to return to what he called his home, by which he ment the Palace which he had finished at Fäiz-abad, but which had been commenced and founded, as well as that city itself, by his maternal grandfather, Saadet-qhan. He mounted a Naleky*, and set out for that desired spot, leaving his second son, Mirza-saadet-aaly, as his Deputy in the new con­quered countries, and recommending that young Prince to the care of Sidy-beshir, the Habeshinian, a slave of his grand­father’s, and who being very much trusted both by the father and son, had risen to be one of the principal personages of the Court. He placed him near his son, as a tutor and a guardian, and departed for Fäiz-abad.

Arrived at that Capital, he expected a benefit even from the change of air, but his wound becoming worse and worse, and having by this time considerably affected his health, it was discovered that it had degenerated into a malignant cancer. He now called to his assistance some English chirurgeons, whom he joined to his ancient and trusty ones, and these spared no care or attention, but all to no purpose. Matters now wore a gloomy aspect. For although, according to the Scriptural sentence, that “The moment of death is not to be advanced or retarded by a Remarks on the singular dispensations of Providence. single instant, and delay is undoubtedly beyond the reach of human power,” nevertheless, as the Divine goodness, instead of bringing forth the events of this world by abrupt transitions, hath vouchsafed to make them grow out of one another, by a concatenation of second causes, some of which remain concealed, while others become open to view; these last are often attended to and observed by men of sense, who discover, even in the plainest of them, tokens of an attentive wisdom. And this rule is applicable to Shudjah-ed-dowlah’s dying when young, and to his departing this world with a heart torn by the regret of being deprived of the enjoyment of it, at a time when he had raised his power to a high pitch, had provided every object of enjoyment, and had resolved henceforward to live in a laudable beneficent manner. But I humbly conceive to have discovered the cause. It was too late to remedy all the evils he had caused. It is true that he had many laudable qualifications, and that he lived in a very high style, on purpose to afford subsistence to a greater number of persons; but it is no less true that he used to spoil all the merits of that conduct by two or three ugly customs or pro­ceedings of his, that would render all merit detestable, and doubt­less it was in punishment of such excesses that the Divine Avenger, from whose minute recording there is no concealing anything, thought it high time to drive him from this world, at a period of life when he was still young, and wished to enjoy the vigor of his body and the fullness of his power. He stripped His char­acter highly reprehensible. him of the sweets of dominion and life, and obliged him to take to the road of eternity, whilst he was all the while lamenting his fate, and parting with this world with the most heart-felt regret. The first of these ugly actions of his was his faithlessness and perfidy to Mir-cassim-qhan, who although far from being himself a blameless man, certainly had not deserved from Shudjah-ed-dowlah the unworthy treatment he received at his hands. After having made every promise to that fugitive, and having confirmed those promises by writing them with his own hand on a blank leaf of the glorious Word of God; after having recommended the faith of the treaty to God Almighty himself, to the Prince of the Envoys*, to the Proto-martyr and Prince of the Justs, and to His Highness Saint Abbas, son to Aaly, and grandson to Ab8-taaleb, (upon all whom may peace and grace rest for ever!); after having promised a perfect safety to that fugitive man in his person, honour, and fortune, and having received in immense presents and a variety of services, a full return for the asylum he had afforded him; to change at once so far as to entice his ungrateful servants and soldiers to a revolt, and then to confine his person, together with his consort and children, and after that to confiscate his whole remaining property, without exception, so as to reduce a potent Prince, once a bestower of lacs and treasures, to want the very necessaries of life, and to live on a footing with a wretched beggar, is such a series of shocking and dishonourable actions as no pen could describe without pain and horror. The second of his censurable proceedings, was his merciless dis­regard of the circumstances of more than two hundred thousand persons in his dominions*, who all enjoyed either pensions or salaries, or whole villages or lands on which they subsisted. He confis­cates all the charity-lands. All these were, with one stroke of his pen, swept away, and con­fiscated, and immense multitudes of men were left deprived of their accustomed subsistence, most of them being of a sex or of an age that rendered them incapable of providing for themselves. Insomuch that vast numbers of them, ashamed to beg, and want­ing the very staff of life, rather than shew their faces in public, and undergo thereby a defilement, shut up their doors, and silently perished in want and misery. Vast numbers of others, over­come by the pangs of hunger, quitted their paternal homes, and turning beggars, lingered out a wretched existence, embittered by endless woe and boundless regret. It is possible that about ten or twenty of those holders of charity-lands* may have been arrant hypocrites, and such as were addicted to practices that might excite suspicion, and even fully deserve chastisement. Such people undoubtedly ought to have been ascertained, dragged out of the crowd, and punished according to their deserts, although he himself, after all, seemed inclined to overlook such misdemeanours in others; but he might have remembered that he had succeeded to those Princes and Sovereigns of India, who in humble imitation of the Almighty goodness which bestows its rain and its sun upon the worthy and good, as well as upon the unworthy and wicked, had never thought of depriving any living soul of the subsistence they found it accustomed to enjoy.

“Beware! for God Almighty, who is above and behind,

Never has shut up the door of subsistence, even to the sinner.”