Pindaries. He appears, in his operations against this raja, to have been outwitted, and he was exposed (17th November 1809) to a battle under disadvantages, was defeated, and retreated with great loss, having been exposed to much personal hazard. He was joined by the Bhopal troops, and was ready to fight another battle on the 7th December, when he was again worsted. His force, however, was still large, and his Pindaries swept the Nagpore territores. At length, a large army, consisting of British troops, the Peshwa's forces, and a brigade of Sindhia's, came to the relief of the Bhoosla. The Ameer, thereupon, broke up his army, and

retired into Mewar.

One motive assigned for this was a desire to comply with an invitation of Toolsa Baee, the wife of Holkar, who wrote pressing letters to him to come to her relief, as Dhurman, a chela of Holkar, who had been placed by the Ameer in a military command, was availing himself of Jeswunt Rao's madness, to establish an influence in the administration of affairs. The Ameer told his officers that he had no funds; but that the Holkar affair was pressing, and he called only upon those who were prepared for hard work and no present pay to accompany him. The enterprize cost but little exertion. On approaching the chela's party, his troops deserted to the Ameer; he was seized and put to death. Ample funds were now furnished to pay the troops of Ameer Khan, who proceeded to Oodipore. Here he represented to the rana that, as his territories were defenceless, it was his interest to take one of his brigades into his pay; to which the prince agreed, and to the condition of paying for it a quarter of all his collections. The Ameer gained the confidence of the rana, who exchanged turbans with him in pledge of friendship.

One of the first acts of amity on the part of the Ameer was to represent to the rana that his quarrel with Maun Singh would never be settled so long as his daughter lived, and therefore it behoved him, from motives of policy, as well as regard for the honour of his family, to put her to death: "if you do not," the Ameer added, "it will be my duty, connected as I am with Maun Singh, to seize her by force, and carry her to Joudpore." The rana said he could not consent to her marrying Maun Sing, and to take her off by force would disgrace his family for ever. He added, however, that, if the Ameer would get Khalee Rao from Raja Maun, he would contrive to get rid of his daughter. The Ameer consented, and the rana caused poison to be mixed with his daughter's food. The quantity taken was not sufficient for the purpose, and the princess, guessing her father's object, sent him a message, that, as it was a matter which concerned the honour of the family, there was no occasion to go secretly to work. Accordingly, having bathed, and dressed in gay attire, she drank off the poison," and so gave up her precious life, earning the perpetual praise and admiration of mankind."

This is the Ameer's account of the affair; but Colonel Tod and Sir John Malcolm make it appear that the Ameer's agency was more direct. According to the former authority, a natural brother of the princess was

first employed to stab her; but the dagger dropped from his palsied hand when he beheld her innocent loveliness. Poison was then prepared, and by female hands. Being presented in the name of her father, she bowed and drank it, with a prayer for his welfare. Thrice was the bitter potion rejected from her stomach. It was then administered in a powerful opiate, and "she slept." Colonel Tod hesitates not to stigmatize Ameer Khan as "the murderer of Kishna."

Mr. Prinsep, with more gallantry than success, attempts to palliate this act of Ameer Khan. He observes that the politicians of Asia, especially of Rajasthan, deem a woman's life of small account, and viewed with due allowance of this state of morals and feeling, the advice given by the Ameer was excusable. The death of the princess removed the great source of confusion throughout Rajasthan; "the princess, according to Rajpoot notions, could have had no other husband than one of the two rajas, and, as neither was possible, death was her only resource!"

The Ameer then proceeded to bring about an adjustment of his claims on Jeypore, which was obstructed by a mutiny of his troops, who treated him with great severity. He brought matters to a successful issue, however, with Jeypore, and was subsequently involved in other squabbles respecting arrears with his auxiliaries.

In 1813, he received a pressing invitation from Raja Maun to proceed to Joudpore, where he was employed to seize Induraj, the raja's bukhshee, and to extort money from him on the ground of embezzlement. Meanwhile, the success of the Jeypore troops was prejudicial to the Ameer's interests in Rajasthan, and the biographer enters minutely into details of the transactions in this quarter, which are extremely valuable, and which harmonize tolerably well with the official reports of the resident at Delhi. The projected nuptials of the rajas of Joudpore and Jeypore took place with all the state and ceremony belonging to the Rajpoot courts, about the beginning of October 1813. The Ameer was present at the marriages, by express desire of Raja Maun; he even sat on the musnud with both rajas, a mark of great honour, which was not acceded to without much demur on the part of Juggut Singh, the Jeypore prince. The latter, however, felt it to be politic to conciliate the Ameer, to whom he said that, although his affairs had become like milk and rice by the arrangement with Maun Singh, he (the Ameer) was the sugar that sweetened the mess!

The Ameer, at this juncture, received an application from Shah Shoojaool-Moolk, of Kabool, for succour in his war with his brother Mahmood Shah. He felt a desire to accept this invitation, but his auxiliaries opposed the project, and it was laid aside. He likewise received offers from Sindh, which was at this time distracted by dissensions amongst the rulers, which were, however, soon adjusted.

Events of importance now happened at the Joudpore court. The ministry of Singee Induraj and As Deonath, the raja's guru, was odious to both chiefs and people, and some of the former formed a conspiracy against it, and applied to the Ameer to aid their purpose, offering thirty lacs as the

reward of his "putting the Singee and the priest out of the way." The Ameer declined unless he should be solicited by the ranee and Koonwur Chhutar Singh to take part in the project. The ranee and Koonwur, being discontented with the ministers, and kept in a kind of restraint by them, urged the Ameer by all means to engage in the plot. The Ameer, reflecting that the Singee and the priest had shewn no friendly feeling to him, but, on the contrary, had set the raja against him, obstructed his demands for money, and plotted his assassination, resolved to take part against them. He accordingly contrived an interview between the two ministers and some of his own rasaladars, attended by about a dozen determined Afghans, in order to discuss the claims for money, when "these ministers were despatched."* Such is the cool manner in which these daring acts of villainy are recorded. Raja Maun, finding that he was surrounded by men whom he could not punish, and who would not scruple to remove him, if necessary, feigned madness or idiotcy, and retired for a time from public busiThe testimony of Ameer Khan absolves Raja Maun from the suspicion of being the instigator of the murder of these two ministers, which was the act of the ranee and heir-apparent's faction, intent upon usurping the authority of the state: the crafty plan of the raja probably saved his life. The Ameer received his stipend in money and bonds, and quitted Joudpore in December 1815.

ness.

The Ameer's unruly Afghans again mutinied for arrears of pay, and, getting him in their power, treated him with great severity. He escaped from them, and joined Jumsheed Khan, who was carrying on operations against the Shekhawatees, who were aided from Jeypore. The terror of his name alone caused the Shekhawatees to retire precipitately to a strong position; but the Ameer blockaded them so closely, that they sued for a composition and were suffered to depart.

Chhutur Bhoj, the dewan of Jeypore, said to be in concert with Ameer Khan, having been supplanted by Manjee Das, in January 1816, fled to the Ameer's 's camp, and urged him to restore him. The Ameer finding there was a strong party against the purohit (minister), advanced to Jeypore with his army, levying contributions as he went. Manjee Das strengthened the defences of the city and prepared for a seige, which was regularly commenced and continued for twenty-four days. The obstinate resistance and losses he experienced enraged the Ameer, who bombarded the city, which caused great damage, and induced the raja to send his dewan to stop the operations. The Ameer demanded money, the raja had none wherewith to satisfy his rapacity, and Juggut Singh was about to evacuate the town and retire to the fort of Amer, when his ranee, daughter of the raja of Joudpore, with the spirit of a Rajpootni, sent a message to the Ameer, saying "Raja Maun is my father, and your sworn friend; I regard you as my uncle, nay, father; then bring me not to shame." This message, it is pretended, softened the Ameer's rage and he stopped the bombardment. Holkar's widow, likewise, entreated him to spare the Jeypore state, for it was an old

as my

The full details of the assassination are given in verse.

one, and of the first rank in Hindustan, and the Ameer, reflecting that if it were stormed by his Afghans, "it would be a great calamity," and he should get nothing, broke up the siege in July 1816. Another motive, which the Ameer has not thought it important to specify, was a pending negociation of the raja with the resident at Delhi to be taken under British protection.

The balance of the money due to the Ameer, for the assassination of the Singee and the Guru at Joudpore, not being discharged by the faction in power, who profited by that transaction, he proceeded into the Joudpore territory, levying tribute in his way. Some money was obtained from Koonwur Chhutur Singh, but the Joudpore court was in a state of distraction. The Ameer was also in much perplexity owing to the insubordination of his own troops and the determined resistance he experienced from the zemindar of Madhoorajpoor, who repulsed two storms of his fort. At this crisis, General Donkin advanced into Jeypore, and was followed by General Ochterlony; and the Ameer, it is said, "began to fear that his troops would seize him and deliver him up to the English, for many used to talk, at this time, of the great benefits resulting from accommodation with that nation." Reflecting that there was no quarter from whence he could hope for assistance in his opposition to the British; that the Governor-general had now taken the field and that our armies were advancing from different points; finding that the Peshwa had been defeated, that the Raja of Nagpore had been compelled to submit, and that Holkar and Sindhia were watched, the Ameer yielded to circumstances and determined to ratify the treaty which had been concluded by his agent at Delhi with Sir C. Metcalfe. He had an interview with Sir D. Ochterlony, the forms of respect observed by whom towards the Ameer are duly recorded, and, after some discussion, about verbal promises not mentioned in the treaty, it was ratified by him: it guaranteed to the Ameer and his heirs, in perpetuity, the places he held under grants from Holkar, on condition that he disbanded his army, abstained from aggressions in any country, relinquished his connexion with the Pindaries and other plunderers, entered into no negociations without our consent, and delivered up his military equipments. Some force was necessary to induce the Ameer's bands to surrender their guns.

This may be considered the close of the Ameer's political career. His biographer gives a rapid sketch of the subsequent events, the confusion in the Holkar state, the battle of Maheidpore, and the destruction of the Pindaries. "Since this period," it is said, "the life of the Ameer has been passed in cultivating the arts of peace; his days are spent in the enjoyment of domestic happiness, and in the performance of all religious observances, such as listening to the reading and interpretation of the Koran, or joining in social and instructive discourse with the learned and pious, who have found in his court an asylum and honoured retreat."

This extraordinary personage died in October 1834, at the age of sixtysix, and was succeeded by his eldest son, as nuwab of Tonk.

Ar the rate at which intellect marches, in these days, it is impossible to say how soon the whole structure of native society in India may be revolutionized. One thing, however, seems very clear; it cannot last long in its present state; the position which women occupy must be altered, since more enlarged views and a higher degree of information, on the part of the men, 'will lead to the total abrogation of many of the absurd notions, which have so long obtained amongst Asiatics, regarding the weaker sex. No one can peruse the history of India, study its institutions, or reside in it at the present day, without becoming acquainted with numerous instances of the strange manner în which women are sometimes exalted, and at other times degraded, in a country where they are alternately objects of the highest veneration, and of the deepest contempt; regarded as divinities, and treated like slaves. Virtues of the mosttranscendant nature are expected, and, what is more surprizing, found, amid a race who are reviled in the writings of their lords and masters without limit or decency, to whom both Moslems and Hindoos attribute every weakness and every vice, and who are described to be perfectly incompetent to conduct the commonest affairs of life, Were we to estimate the character of the Asiatic women by the portraitures afforded by law-givers and theological writers, we should look upon them as foul blots upon the face of nature. Fortunately, the historian comes in and relates deeds of heroic virtue and high ́ ́emprize, which fill us with admiration and astonishment: we see what the soil can produce, and are at no loss to attribute all that is offensive and noxious to the want of proper cultivation.

It is well known that the rite of suttee was instituted to prevent the murder of husbands by their wives, and inferences have been drawn most unfavourable to women against whom such precautions have been necessary, their previous ill-treatment never being taken into the account. To this day, it is said that, in most native establishments, the men secure themselves, at night, from a well-grounded apprehension that the weak creatures, who have been the victims of their oppression, may avail themselves of any favourable opportu nity to destroy the authors of their wrongs. There is, at least, no obtuseness of intellect here; ill-treatment, in these instances, has not, as amongst more uncivilized nations, produced apathy, a slavish and contemptible affection for the despots tyrannizing over the wretched creatures to whom nature has given a smaller portion of physical strength. Nevertheless, it will be seen, in the course of this paper, that, although many high-spirited women endure but impatiently the yoke they are compelled to bear, returning with scorn and hatred the indignities they receive; the greater portion, possessing all the yielding tenderness and enduring affection of the sex, continue to be attached, faithful, and obedient to those who have usurped so unjust a dominion over them.

That there is a great deal of folly and vice in the world, there can be no doubt, and it must be very consolatory to lordly man to attribute it almost wholly to the weakness of the frail, fair beings, apparently born to be his toys and his plagues. In India, at least, we read of nothing but the evil dispositions of the women; they are the originators of all mischief, the causers of all strife; to them are the most criminal propensities imputed, and to their misconduct may all the miseries of life be traced. By what process they have become so thoroughly wicked and abandoned, is not stated. Asiatics affect to disbelieve in the existence of female virtue, trusting rather to bolts and bars,

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