Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 4.7
Travels in the Mogul Empire (Constable) 4.7
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- English
4.7.1
Those three countries, Turkey, Persia, and Hindoustan, have no idea of the principle of meum and tuum, relatively to land or other real possessions ; and having lost that respect for the right of property, which is the basis of all that is good and useful in the world, necessarily resemble each other in essential points : they fall into the same pernicious errors, and must, sooner or later, experience the natural consequences of those errors — tyranny, ruin, and misery. How happy and thankful should we feel, My Lord, that in our quarter of the globe, Kings are not the sole proprietors of the soil ! Were they so, we should seek in vain for countries well cultivated and populous, for well-built and opulent cities, for a polite, contented, and flourishing people. If this exclusive and baneful right prevailed, far different would be the real riches of the sovereigns of Europe, and the loyalty and fidelity with which they are served. They would soon reign over solitudes and deserts, over mendicants and barbarians. Actuated by a blind and wicked ambition to be more absolute than is warranted by the laws of God and of nature, the Kings of Asia grasp at everything, until at length they lose everything ; or, if they do not always find themselves without pecuniary resources, they are invariably disappointed in the expectation of acquiring the riches which they covet.
4.7.2
If the same system of government existed with us, where, I must again ask, should we find Princes, Prelates, Nobles, opulent Citizens, and thriving Tradesmen, ingenious Artisans and Manufacturers? Where should we look for such cities as Paris, Lyons, Toulouse, Rouen, or, if you will, London, and so many others? Where should we see that infinite number of towns and villages; all those beautiful country houses, those fine plains, hills and valleys, cultivated with so much care, art and labour ? and what would become of the ample revenues derived from so much industry, an industry beneficial alike to the sovereign and the subject? The reverse of this smiling picture would, alas ! be exhibited. Our large towns would become uninhabitable in consequence of the unwholesome air, and fall into ruins without exciting in any person a thought of preventing or repairing the decay ; our fertile hills would be abandoned, and the plains would be overrun with thorns and weeds, or covered with pestilential morasses. The excellent accommodation for travellers would disappear; the good inns, for example, between Paris and Lyons, would dwindle into ten or twelve wretched caravansaries, and travellers be reduced to the necessity of moving, like the Gypsies, with everything about them. The Eastern Karavan-Serrah resemble large barns, raised and paved all round, in the same manner as our Pont-neuf, Hundreds of human beings are seen in them, mingled with their horses, mules, and camels.
4.7.3
In summer these buildings are hot and suffocating, and in winter nothing but the breath of so many animals prevents the inmates from dying of cold. But there are countries, I shall be told, such for instance as the Grand Seignior's dominions, which we know better than any without going as far as the Indies, where the principle of meum and tuum is unknown, which not only preserve their existence, but maintain a great and increasing power. An empire so prodigiously extensive as that of the Grand Seignior, comprising countries whose soil is so deep and excellent that even without due cultivation it will continue fertile for many years, cannot be otherwise than rich and powerful. Yet how insignificant is the wealth and strength of Turkey in comparison to its extent and natural advantages! Let us only suppose that country as populous and as carefully cultivated as it would become if the right of private property were recognised and acted upon, and we cannot doubt that it could raise and support armies as numerous and well-appointed as formerly: but even at Constantinople three months are now required to raise five or six thousand men. I have travelled through nearly every part of the empire, and witnessed how lamentably it is ruined and depopulated. Some support it undoubtedly derives from the Christian slaves brought from all quarters;
4.7.4
but if that country continue many years under the present system of government, it must necessarily fall and perish from innate weakness, though, to all appearance, it is now preserved by that weakness itself; for there is no longer a governor, or any other person, possessed of pecuniary means to undertake the least enterprise, or who could find the men he would require to accomplish his purpose. Strange means of preservation! Turkey seems to owe its transient existence to the seeds of destruction in its own bosom! To remove the danger of commotion and put an end to all fears on that subject, nothing more appears necessary than the measure adopted by a Brama of Pegu, who actually caused the death of half the population by famine, converted the country into forests, and prevented for many years the tillage of the land. But all this did not suffice: even this plan was unsuccessful; a division of the kingdom took place, and Ava, the capital, was very lately on the point of being captured by a handful of fugitives from China. We must confess, however, that there seems little probability of the total ruin and destruction of the Turkish empire in our day — it will be happy if we see nothing worse! — because the neighbouring states, so far from being able to attack it, are not in a condition to defend themselves effectually, without foreign aid, which remoteness and jealousy will always render tardy, inefficient, and liable to suspicion.
4.7.5
If it be observed that there is no reason why eastern states should not have the benefit of good laws, or why the people in the provinces may not complain of their grievances to a grand Visir, or to the King himself; I shall admit that they are not altogether destitute of good laws, which, if properly administered, would render Asia as eligible a residence as any other part of the world. But of what advantage are good laws when not observed, and when there is no possibility of enforcing their observance? Have not the provincial tyrants been nominated by the same grand Visir and by the same King, who alone have power to redress the people's wrongs? and is it not a fact that they have no means of appointing any but tyrants to rule over the provinces? either the Visir or the King has sold the place to the Governor. And even admitting that there existed a disposition to listen to a complaint, how is a poor peasant or a ruined artisan to defray the expenses of a journey to the capital, and to seek justice at one hundred and fifty or two hundred leagues from home? He would be waylaid and murdered, as frequently happens, or sooner or later fall into the Governor's hands, and be at his mercy. Should he chance to reach the royal residence, he would find the friends of his oppressor busy in distorting the truth, and misrepresenting the whole affair to the King. In short, the Governor is absolute lord, in the strictest sense of the word.
4.7.6
He is in his own person the intendant of justice, the parliament, the presidial court, and the assessor and receiver of the King's taxes. A Persian, in speaking of these greedy Governors, Timariots, and Farmers of Revenue, aptly describes them as men who extract oil out of sand. No income appears adequate to maintain them, with their crowds of harpies, women, children, and slaves. If it be remarked that the lands which our Kings hold as domains are as well cultivated, and as thickly peopled as other lands, my answer is that there can be no analogy between a kingdom whose monarch is proprietor of a few domains, and a kingdom where the monarch possesses, in his own right, every acre of the soil. In France the laws are so reasonable, that the King is the first to obey them : his domains are held without the violation of any right ; his farmers or stewards may be sued at law, and the aggrieved artisan or peasant is sure to find redress against injustice and oppression. But in eastern countries, the weak and the injured are without any refuge whatever ; and the only law that decides all controversies is the cane and the caprice of a governor. There certainly however, some may say, are some advantages peculiar to despotic governments: they have fewer lawyers, and fewer law-suits, and those few are more speedily decided.
4.7.7
We cannot, indeed, too greatly admire the old Persian proverb, Na-hac Kouta Better-Ez hac Deras: 'Speedy injustice is preferable to tardy justice.' Protracted law-suits are, I admit, insupportable evils in any state, and it is incumbent upon a Sovereign to provide a remedy against them. It is certain that no remedy would be so efficacious as the destruction of the right of private property. Do away with this meum and tuum, and the necessity for an infinite number of legal proceedings will at once cease, especially for those which are important, long, and intricate : the larger portion of magistrates employed by the King to administer justice to his subjects will also become useless, as will those swarms of attorneys and counsellors who live by judicial contests. But it is equally certain that the remedy would be infinitely worse than the disease, and that there is no estimating the misery that would afflict the country. Instead of magistrates on whose probity the monarch can depend, we should be at the mercy of such rulers as I have described. In Asia, if justice be ever administered, it is among the lower classes, among persons who, being equally poor, have no means of corrupting the judges, and of buying false witnesses ; witnesses always to be had in great numbers, at a cheap rate, and never punished. I am speaking the language of several years' experience ;
4.7.8
my information was obtained from various quarters, and is the result of many careful inquiries among the natives, European merchants long settled in the country, ambassadors, consuls, and interpreters. My testimony is, I know, at variance with the account given by most of our travellers. They happened, perhaps, in passing through a town, to see two poor men, the dregs of the people, in the presence of a Kadi, Our countryman may have seen them hurried out of court to receive, either the one or the other, if not both, hard blows on the soles of the feet, unless the parties were immediately dismissed with a 'MayhaU-Baha,' or a few soft words which the magistrate sometimes utters when he finds that no bribe can be expected. No doubt this summary mode of proceeding excited the admiration of our travellers, and they returned to France, exclaiming, 'O, what an excellent and quick administration of justice ! O, the upright Kadis ! Models for the imitation of French magistrates ! ' not considering that if the party really in the wrong had possessed the means of putting a couple of crowns into the hands of the Kadi or his clerks, and of buying with the same sum two false witnesses, he would indisputably have gained his cause, or prolonged it as long as he pleased.
4.7.9
Yes, My Lord, to conclude briefly I must repeat it ; take away the right of private property in land, and you introduce, as a sure and necessary consequence, tyranny, slavery, injustice, beggary and barbarism : the ground will cease to be cultivated and become a dreary wilderness ; in a word, the road will be opened to the ruin of Kings and the destruction of Nations. It is the hope by which a man is animated, that he shall retain the fruits of his industry, and transmit them to his descendants, that forms the main foundation of everything excellent and beneficial in this sublunary state ; and if we take a review of the different kingdoms in the world, we shall find that they prosper or decline according as this principle is acknowledged or contemned: in a word, it is the prevalence or neglect of this principle which changes and diversifies the face of the earth.