AFTER some directions, concerning certain gold ornaments, which the workmen belonging to the Tosheh-khâneh (of which Shumsûddeen was the superintendant) were employed in making up, the letter thus proceeds:

You write, “that the druggists* require payment for the articles* “[furnished by them], and that you wait our orders on the subject.” It appears by this, that you have entirely laid aside your instructions, and never peruse them. If it be written therein, that the articles purchased for our use are to be paid for, they must accordingly be paid for: if it be written, that they are not to be paid for, [then] they must not be paid for.

If the foregoing letter, which is a close translation of the original, be understood in its most plain and obvious sense, we shall be obliged to conclude, that the oppressive system of requisitions, adopted some years after the date of it by the French revolutionists, was already known to, and practised by, Tippoo Sultan. It is possible, however, that his meaning might have been, that prompt payment was to be made for articles purchased on his account, in such cases only as were specified in his instructions; and that, in all other instances, the tradesman was expected to submit the period of satisfying his claims to the pleasure and convenience of the Sircar. That the Persian reader may be the better enabled to judge how far this interpretation is admissible, I will here transcribe the original passage.

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