[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Mughals (1526–1857)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal) › [Later Mughals (1707–1857)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later) › [Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirīn](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin) › [A Translation of the Seir Mutaqherin (Haji Mustafa)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa) › 42.31 # Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 42.31 A Translation of the Seir Mutaqherin (Haji Mustafa) 42.31 - **Language:** English ### [42.31.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.42.31.1) Let us bolt out the truth (fiat-justitia: ruat caelum). It is this: because the civil and criminal distribution of justice is managed in such a manner, that security of person is doubtful, and personal property infinitely more insecure; because no less than twenty enlightened Englishmen, sitting at table, have unanimously uttered this blasphemy: What business has a Governor-General with Mustepha's quarrel with Mahmed-reza-qhan? that is, in other words, what business have Supreme Magistrates with a close inspection into the manner of distributing justice to individuals? and why should they care about procuring them full redress? ### [42.31.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.42.31.2) Because it appears by Bolts, his tracts, written six and twenty years ago (tracts uncontradicted to this day), and also by the historian of the Seir-el-Mutaqherin's eternal complaints these full fourteen years, and lastly by a pamphlet written this year, (and all these form a chain, highly disgraceful), that the maxim: We are come to make our fortune in India, and will make it some way or other, is much adopted amongst the individuals of this nation; and that its very Rulers say, at least by their silence and apathy, the very same sentence adapted to their peculiar stations: We are come in India to gather taxes, kill people, and make conquests, and and and care little about all the rest. What? Gentlemen, a man innocent, and moreover an industrious subject, is despoiled of a property amounting to fifteen hundred pounds sterling, besides receiving several other enormous wrongs. He comes to the fountain-head for redress, and your Rulers tell him: What is it to us whether you are ruined or not by our Government? What? no redress at all to be obtained in Bengal? And what would your travellers say, had such an event happened at Algiers, in Turkey, or in China? What? that boasted Government of yours admits not of a redress, affords it not, is not susceptible of it? The candle, where the wick is yet burning, will soon catch fire again, says the author of the History of India. ### [42.31.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.42.31.3) You have been, Sir, and so has been, I suppose, the people of England, much edified by the accounts, repeatedly sent thither of the satisfaction enjoyed by all ranks of people under the English Government, and especially of their zeal in making feux-de-joyes for the recovery of the King of England's health. Chimeras, all that ! None but the Armenians were sincere in those demonstrations ; nor are they out of Calcutta without severe complaints against the remissness of Government, in judicial matters, &c., &c. This is the general complaint all over the country ; and to my sorrow, I find it has discontented all minds, and alienated all hearts. All hearts! Can that be true? Look at it yourself, and for that purpose remember two facts irrefragable, a very modern one, and a very old one. The first is this : If ever an European was beloved in India, it must have been Hastings, and if ever a man had a chance of rendering the English Government tolerable at least, if not acceptable to the natives, it must have been Hastings ; and yet, behold ! hardly is this man supposed killed, than all, all Sir, (it is the very word) all think of rising on the English. Our Zemindars stand up, keep correspondences with Cheyt-sing ; our Sipahis talk irreverently of their masters, and desert in shoals ; the very old Begums of Faiz-abad raise their drooping heads ; and Middleton and Colonel Martin are obliged to barricade their quarters, and to place cannon ; ### [42.31.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.42.31.4) in one word, the country proves unanimously ripe for a revolution (these being the very words used by the Supreme Council to the Board of Directors). Let us now look up to the other fact. Transport yourself in imagination into that period of years that have elapsed between 1555 and 1570. Rise in the air, and behold the cities and towns of Munster and Osnabruck in Germany, Basle in Switzerland, Antwerp and Mechlin in the Netherlands, Stirling and Perth in Scotland (I omit hundreds of others) ; all these towns to a man were zealous Romanists these hundreds of years past. They were so yesterday ; yesterday they had beheld with a savage exaltation, a poor Jew burned to ashes, (no, roasted alive, first) for the heinous crime of having procured a consecrated host, and sacrificed it on Easter-day, by stabbing it with a knife, ( although Jews have ceased to have bloody sacrifices these thousands of years past ) from which wounds plenty of blood had flowed the blood of Christ, the only begotten son of God Almighty, which son is himself God Almighty. The Priest from whom the host had been stolen, deposes in behalf of the fact, with twenty men more ; twenty honest Christians more depose their having been peeping at the Jew, whilst he gave the stab ; and a hundred more depose their having seen the blood on the floor. ### [42.31.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.42.31.5) The Jew is seized, placed on the highest church steeple, chained to a stake, and roasted slowly, to the mighty exultation of thousands of people, who pride on their having assisted at such a spectacle. All these, to a man, were zealous Romanists to that very hour, as far as ten o'clock at night ; as far as eleven ; as far as twelve ; as far as one in the morning. It is now two o'clock hark what an horrid noise ! what screams ! Good God ! is the town on fire ? No. It is only the multitude of yesterday, which is totally altered ; they plunder the churches of their riches, beat and abuse those Priests and Monks (whose sleeves they had been kissing two hours ago, and whom they now call shavelings), pull down and break to pieces all those wooden Saints, that had performed miracles yesterday, and throw down and trample under foot whole chalices filled with consecrated hosts, those tremendous hosts that contained two hours ago in flesh and blood a man that had suffered two thousand years ago, and now passed for no less than God Almighty himself. Nor is there amongst that multitude, that now tramples on them, and who two hours ago firmly believed, that a wafer as big as a shilling could shed blood in torrents ; nor is there one single individual, afraid of having trampled on flesh and blood and bones. ### [42.31.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.42.31.6) The two facts are now brought within your recollection. Compare then the two events together, and draw your own conclusions. Only let me ask you this plain question : Do you believe that those men became Protestants at once, in the interval which elapsed between one o'clock and two o'clock in the morning? Rest assured that they must have been long ago so, and were kept down only by the irrefragable argument of fagot and fire, id est bayonets and field-pieces. Another irrefragable fact occurs to my mind, and it is a very melancholy one. All the letters of Admiral Hughes in 1780, of General Cootes, of the Council of Madras, all the private letters, as well as all the public ones, dwell constantly on this melancholy fact, "that from Ganjam "to Cape Comorin there was not a native, but proved disaffected "to the English, &c., &c., so that no intelligence could be had "from any of them ; or if any at all, it was always a suggested "one. What ? after forty years' acquaintance, the English had not acquired a single well-wisher in a country of 250 leages in length ? Then there must be, there is, some radical defect lurking under the English Government. What is it ? But all this is an excursion from my subject, which was not my pamphlet on the Courts of justices of Moorshood-abad, but my History of India. ### [42.31.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.42.31.7) This History of India happens to be criticised even as to the title it bears, and so it may ; for it does not bear that which I approve. It appears by the rough draught of my first translation in December 1786, that the title was Review of Modern Times. This title, however, was dashed some months after, and I wrote above it, Amusements of Posterity; and it was the title it bore when in December 1788, I gave the first section of it to Mr. Cooper, the printer. But the printer having shewn it to a Gentleman skilled in oriental languages, (Major K.), the latter dashed the Amusements of Posterity, and substituted Review of Modern Times. Four days after, having called on the printer, I objected to the alteration, gave my reasons for it, dashed the obnoxious words, and re-established the former title ; in which I should have persisted, had I not been deterred by a note of Sir William Jones, who was of the same opinion with the former Gentleman. Indeed S. W. J's, his animadversion alone would have hushed infallibly my own opinion ; but here it came upon me with the additional weight of two to one ; and the Review of Modern Times is now against my opinion become the title of of that book. And here again the pila minantia pilis would recur again; for I have four Englishmen of knowledge, who give their vote for Amusements of Posterity, and who approve the arguments I have advanced to support my opinion. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.42.31](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.42.31) · Pramāṇa