Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 3.5.10

3.5.10

The reins of government are often committed to the hands of some Vizier, who, that he may reign lord absolute, with security and without contradiction, considers it an essential part of his plan to encourage his master in all his low pursuits, and divert him from every avenue of knowledge. If the sceptre be not firmly grasped by the first minister, then the country is governed by the King's mother, originally a wretched slave, and by a set of eunuchs, persons who possess no enlarged and liberal views of policy, and who employ their time in barbarous intrigues; banishing, imprisoning, and strangling each other, and frequently the Grandees and the Vizier himself. Indeed, under their disgraceful domination, no man of any property is sure of his life for a single day.