Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/86

80 quests have in a few short years crumbled to pieces. He is the truly great king who makes it the chief business of his life to govern his subjects with equity .'

One is naturally curious to trace how far Aurangzíb carried those admirable theories into practice – to discover whether he really tried to rule after the exalted standard he set up in his letters and conversation, or whether those were merely fine phrases and diplomatic assurances, such as the Emperor was only too fond of using. He was undoubtedly 'reserved, subtle, and a completo master of the art of dissimulation,' as Bernier says; and the utterances of a man so little frank, and so prone to the art of managing men by diplomatic craft rather than by an outspoken candour, require to be watched and weighed before they can be accepted as his honest convictions. All we know of his methods of government, however, goes to prove that his fine sentiments were really the ruling principles of his life. No act of injustice, according to the law of Islám, has been proved against him. Ovington, whose personal authority is worth little, but who derived his opinions and information from Aurangzib's least partial critics, the English merchants at Bombay and Súrat, says that the Great Mogul is 'the main ocean of justice. ... He generally determines with exact justice and equity; for there is no pleading of peerage or privilege before the Emperor, but the meanest man is as soon heard by Aurangzíb as the chief Omrah: which makes the