Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 4.7.6

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.