Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/33

Rh infringe any other part of the treaties by which they or their ancestors have acknowledged the sovereignty of the Great Mogul. These Indian princes are called Rajahs, i. e. kings: more than one half of the empire is at this day subject to these Rajahs, of whom some are princes of very small territories, and others, such as Jasseing and Jessemseing mentioned by Mr. Bernier in the history of Aurengzebe, as also the kings of Mysore and Tanjore mentioned in the history of the present wars of Coromandel, possess dominions almost as large as the kings of Prussia or Portugal. Many of them pretend to great antiquity of family, and one, whom the emperor Acbar conquered, boasted his descent from Porus. BRSIDES the Indians who reside in the territories of the Rajahs, there are every where seen great numbers of them in those parts of the country which are immediately subject to the Great Mogul without the interposition of an Indian prince to govern them. They are the only cultivators of the land, and the only manufacturers of the immense quantities of linnen which are made in the empire; insomuch that at a distance from the capital cities, the great trading towns, the encampments of armies, and the high roads, it is rare to see in the villages or fields a Mahomedan employed in any thing except levying contributions or acting in some other respect as an officer of the Great Mogul.

INTELLIGENT enquirers assert that there are no written laws amongst the Indians, but that a few maxims transmitted by tradition supply the place of such a code in the discussion of civil causes; and that the ancient practice, corrected on particular occasions by the good sense of the judge, decides absolutely in criminal cases. In all cases derived from the relations of blood, the Indian is worthy to be trusted with the greatest confidence; but in cases of property, in which this relation does not exist, as a cunning subtil people they are perpetually in disputes; and for the want of a written code the justice or injustice of the decision depends on the integrity or venality of the judge. Hence the parties prefer to submit their cause to the decision of arbitrators chosen by themselves, rather than to that of the officers appointed by the government.