Timooreah Rule.

A. D. 1687. Such, however, was the ftate in which all the Northern Circars, together with the other dominions of Abu'l Huffeen, the last of the race of the Hootub Shahy, fell in the year 1687 to the victorious arms of Alem Geer, the Great Mogul Emperor of Hindoftan. But during the twenty remaining years of his reign, this monarch was too bufily employed in conquering the larger provinces of the Decan, and curbing the upftart Mahrattah power, to infpect, or render, either of the two maritime dependencies of Hydrabad, henceforth termed a Soubah, lying north of the Goadaveri, as productive as they ought to have been to the treafury; and in the pe

Mhals, at 125,000 rupees. But, in truth, the Mogul arms did not penetrate beyond the Chilca lake; and the affeffment of thofe two diftricts annexed to, or making part of, the original Toomar Jumma of Tooril Mull, as exhibited in the the Ayeen Akbary, ferves only to evince the imperfection of that famous rent-role, with respect to the Soubah of Bengal.

riod which immediately followed his death, fucceffive wars or contenfions for empire, having introduced anarchy and ufurpation in fome places, precluded every where the poffibility of reform, or, in general, occafioned a total fufpenfion of all regular government throughout the whole extent of Hindoftan.

Afipheah Rule.

A. D. 1724. At length the memorable battle of Shucker Kerah, in 1724, gave a tranfient repose to the Decan, while it transferred, in fact, though not in form, the fovereignty of this great limb of the Mogul Empire, from the house of Timur to that of Afipheah, in the perfon of the first and famous Nizam Ul Moolk, felf-conftituted, as well as by Sunnuds from Mahommed Shah, the reigning Emperor, Viceroy of all the Six Soubahdarries, south of the Nerbudda, one of the great ancient and modern boundaries of proper Hindoftan. The wisdom and vigour of this new ruler were immediately felt in the Circar of Ci

cacole, by the appointment of Antour Ul Dien Khan Gopamowee, to the post of Aumildar, or Controller of that province; but we are not to eftimate the public benefits derived from an able administration of

fifteen years fucceffively, by the criterion of a rent roll, under the best conftituted Muffulman Government. The pride, the advantage of a great military establishment, though often nominal, must be taken into confideration; and if the policy and passion of princes did not fo powerfully incline them to the fyftem of purchafing perfonal attachments by conferring individual favours; yet it is fo much the intereft of Ministers and the other great courtiers, thus to promote the wealth and influence of provincial delegates, perhaps originally recommended by themfelves, that full credit. ought always to be given in public management, for various acquifition of private fortune, authorised by unqualified defpotifm, written pofitive laws, or a confcientious implication of their reafon and true spirit. Nor will fuch liberality appear fo great when it is confidered, that death legally gave to the prince, entire and uncondition

ally, whatever portion of the riches of his subjects, the forbearance of his arbitrary will left to his delegates for life, only, perhaps, in the hopes of future reversion. To judge, therefore, impartially of Anwur Ul Dien Khan's progrefs in reducing to proper obedience, or in afcertaining and realizing the full revenue of those districts fo long placed under his management, we must take into the account, his ample private emoluments, of which a skilful application probably paved the way to farther preferment, until finally rewarded by the Foujedarry of the Carnatic. That the remains of his fortune escaped the grasping hand of his immediate fuperior, the Soubahdar of Hydrabad, at the period of his death, must be attributed to the inability of even the great Viceroy himself, their common ruler, to affert the more undoubted rights of fovereignty in any part of the Decan, under the terror of the then prevailing power of the Mahrattahs; and it may not be unworthy of remark, that even nineteen years afterwards it required the irrefiftable influence of the British Government to obtain for Mahommed Ali, the

the fucceffor of Anwur Ul Dien, a full difcharge of the arrears, or pretended defalcations in the revenue of Cicacole. But if fuch were the advantages refulting from the ability and good fortune of the Aumildar, deputed by the great Afiph Jah to one of the maritime Circars, greater still were the benefits derived from the vigour and integrity of his contemporary, Rufium Khan, who, from 1732, for seven fucceffive years, ruled, with the moft ample delegated fway, Rajamundry, with the other four more foutherly provinces. There, the Zemindars, or Indian farmers-general, had availed themselves of the furrounding diftractions, on the death of Alem Geer, to ufurp the rights and feeble authority of their corrupt Muffulman fuperintendants. To correct thefe dangerous abufes, and restore the ancient, legal, or neceffary forms of interior administration were the arduous tasks affigned to this new Zelahdar, or Provincial Governor, next in fubordinate degree to, though, on the prefent occafion, vefted in, the plenary powers of a Foujedar; and the conduct of the man fo fully justifies the Nizam's choice, that even to this day