amaffed. Befides a large falary, with extenfive emoluments annexed to it, he used to receive from the nabob frequent prefents of confiderable value. And when any of the nabob's minifters, or other men of confequence about court, had any particular measure to carry with their matter, or perfonal favour to afk of him, it was their cuftom to go privately to Martin, and obtain his intereft in their cause, by offering him handfome prefents, which, if he was at times induced to refufe, he took due care to procure from them ultimately by other means an adequate compenfation. During the reign of Affof ud-Dowla, father of the prefent vizit, Martin made a confiderable fum of money, by encouraging that prince's tafte for the productions of Europe, with which he undertook to fupply him. Another mode by which he realized money was, by effablishing an extenfive credit with the fhroffs, or bankers, in Oude and the adjacent provinces; fo that no public loan could be made without his having a fhare in it. The extraordinary degree of favour and credit which he thus acquired in the vizir's dominions, induced all defcriptions of people to repofe in him fuch an implicit confidence, that in times of public commotion, they flocked to him from all quarters, to depofit their moveable property, which, on the condition of paying him twelve per cent. on its full value, he engaged to fecure, and to return to them on demand. This alone must have been a fource of immenfe profit, in a country where, for upwards of twenty years, of his refidence in it, perfonal property was fo often expofed to danger. "The vaft riches which he at laft accumulated by these various and fingular modes, he does not appear to have laid out with a very gene-, rous fpirit. He is faid, indeed, to have been hofpitable to the English gentlemen who refided at Lucknow; but his table was little calculated to invite his acquaintance to it, either by the elegance of the enter tainment, or the conviviality that prefided at it. Very few inftances. have come to our knowledge, of his private bounty and benevolence. He is faid to have affifted his family at Lyons, by occafionally remit ting fmall fums of money, and by his will he has left them 25,000l. But the principal object of his ambition, and wifh of his heart, seems to have been to amals immenfe treasures, in order to gratify himself by the poffeffion of them while he lived; and by bequeathing almoft the whole of them on his death to the fupport of pious inftitutions, and public charities, to leave behind him the reputation of a philan thropist. But every fenfible reader will judge of his title to that name, not from the bequests of his will, but from the actions of his life. "After having lived twenty-five years at Lucknow, he had attained, by regular fucceffion, the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Company's fervice. "At the commencement of the war with Tippoo Sultan, in 1799, he prefented the Company, at his private expence, with a number of fine horfes, fufficient to mount a troop of cavalry. He was foon afterwards promoted to the rank of colonel in the Company's army, which object the prefent of the horfes was obviously defigned to ob tain. In 1796, when the Company's officers received brevet rank from his Majelly, Martin was included in the promo ion of colonels to the rank of major-general. Some years before this period, he had finished a spacious dwelling houfe on the banks of the river Goomtee, in the building of which he had been long employed. This curiou- edifice is conftructed entirely of stone, except the doors and window-frames. The ceilings of the different apartments are formed of elliptic arches, and the floors made of flucco. The bafement story comprifes two caves or recelles within the banks of the river, and level with its furface when at its lowest decrease. In these caves he generally lived in the hot season, and continued in them until the commencement of the rainy feafon, when the increase of the river obliged him to remove. He then afcended another story, to apartments fitted up in the manner of a grotto; and when the further rife of the river brought its furface on a level with thefe, he proceeded up to the third flory, or ground floor, which overlooked the river when at its greatelt height. On the next ftory above that, a handfome faloon, raifed on arcades, projecting over the river, formed his ha itation in the fpring and winter seasons. By this ingenious contrivance he preferved a moderate and equal temperature in his house at all feafons. In the attic story he had a mufeum, well fu.plied with various curiofities: and over the whole he erected an oblervatory, which he furnished with the bett attronomical inftruments. Adjoining to the house there is a garden, not laid out with taste, but well filled with a variety of fine tres, fhrubs, and flowers, together with all forts of vegetables. In his artillery yard, which was fituated at fome distance from his houfe, he erected a steam engine, which had been fent to him from England; and here he used to amufe himself in making different experiments with air balloons. After he had exhibited to fome acquaintances his first balloon, the vizir Aff-ud-Dowla requested he would prepare one large enough to carry twenty men. Martin told his highness, that fuch an experiment would be attended with confiderable hazard to the lives of the ment upon which the vizir re plied, "Give yourself no concern about that-be you fo good as make a balloon." The experiment, however, was never tried. Befides his houfe at Lucknow, he had a beautiful villa, about fifty miles from thence, fituated on a high bank of the Ganges, and furrounded by a domain, of almoft eight miles in circumference, fomewhat refembling an English park. Here he used occasionally to retire in the hot season. In the latter part of his life he laid out a large fum of money in conftructing a Gothic castle, which he did not live to finish. Beneath the ramparts of this cattle he built cafements, fecured by iron doors and gratings thickly wrought. The lodgments within the walls are arched and barred, and their roofs completely bomb-proof. The caf tle is furrounded by a wide and deep ditch, fortified on the outer fide by tockades, and a regular covered-way; fo that the place is fufficiently protected to refiit the attacks of any Afiatic power. Within the cattle he built a fplendid maufoleum, in which he was interred; and and on a marble tablet over his tomb is engraved the following infcription, written by him!elf fome months before his death: HERE LIES CLAUDE MARTIN: HE WAS BORN AT LYONS A. D. 1732: HE CAME TO INDIA A PRIVATE SOLDIER, AND DIED A MAJOR-GENERAL. "During the last fifteen years of his life, he was much afflicted with the ftone and gravel; and difliking to undergo the afual furgical operation for that complaint, his ingenuity fuggefted to him a method of reducing the ftone, fo curious in itself, and fo difficult in the execution, that we fhould have doubted the truth of the fact, were it not attefled by the pofitive evidence of feveral gentlemen of the firft refpectability. He took a very fine fleel wire, of about a foot long, one end of which he cut in the manner of a file. The wire, thus prepared, he introduced by a catheter, through the urethra, into the bottom of the bladder, where the flone was feated. When he found the wire touch the tone, he gently worked the wire up and down, fo as to give it the effect of a file; and this he continued to do for four or five minutes at a time, until the pain, which the operation of the wire produced, was fo excruciating, that it obliged him to withdraw it. But finding that fmall particles of the ftone difcharged along with the urine, after the operation, he repeated it in the fame manner from time to time, till in the course of twelve months, he fucceeded in completely reducing the tone. "This circumftance exhibits a curious and remarkable trait of the eccentricity of his character. The contrivance was in itself ingenious; but his patience and perfeverance in carrying it into effect are fo very extraordinary, that we apprehend there are few men who, in a fimilar fituation, would not rather endure the complaint than have recourfe to the remedy. "Some years after the operation, gravelly concretions began again to form in his bladder; and, as he did not choose to try the wire a fecond time, thefe continued to increafe until the end of the year 1800, when they finally occafioned his death. "Though he lived fo long a time among the English, he acquired but an imperfect knowledge of our language; notwithstanding this. he chofe to write his Will in English, which is altogether a very fingular production: it is too long for infertion, but the following are its principal bequefts.-The amount of his fortune was thirty-three lacs of rupees, or 330,000l. fterling. To his relations at Lyons he bequeathed 25,000l. as we have already noticed: and he left the fame fum to the municipality of that city, for the purpose of appropri ating it for the benefit of the poor within their jurisdiction, in whatever manner they fhould think fit. For the fame purpo'e he be queathed 25,000l. to the city of Calcutta, and the like fum to Lucknow. To the church at Chandernagore, in Bengal, he bequeathed 15,000l. as a fund, the intereft of which is to be appropriated to the fupport of the establishment; and the like fum, to be laid out in the fame manner, for the benefit of the Romish chapel at Calcutta. He also left 15,000l. to endow an alms-houfe for poor children at Luck now. The remainder of his fortune, (nearly one half,) he left in legacies to the women of his zananah, and his principal fervants. The will concludes with a curious expofition of the principles by which he regulated his conduct through life. He avows that felf-intereft was his fole motive of action, and that the fins of which he had been guilty were very great and manifold; and he concludes by praying for forgiveness of God, which he hopes this fincere confeffion of his wickednefs will avail to obtain. "Such are the anecdotes which we have collected of this extraor dinary character." P. 35. Among the mifcellaneous papers are many entertaining, and fome original documents on the fubject of Indian geography, the monfoons, and the curious cuftoms and manners of the natives of India; but the moft interefting article is that which contains the letters and the will of the dying Aurengzebe to his fons, tranflated from the Perfic originals in the poffeffion of Richard Jobnfon, Efq. of Stratford-Place. The letters dictated in his last moments to his two fons mark a mind replete with fuperftition, and agonizing with remorfe for the fanguinary actions of his past life. His will is a very different one from what we fhould be led to expect from the triumphant conqueror of the ravaged peninfula; where, at the period of his death, he refided amidst the ruins of fallen kingdoms, and the plunder of dethroned fultans. Thus widely at variance are the actions and fentiments of man in different periods and in oppofite fituations; in the field of victory, and in the chamber of difeafe! Though we have fcarcely room for fo large an extract, yet we cannot refufe our readers the gratification of a perufal of a part of fo interesting and so instructive a collection. "The Letter which the Emperor Aurengzebe dictated at the point of death to his fon Prince Allijah. "Old age is arrived, weakness is grown powerful, and strength is departed from my joints. I came into the world a ftranger, and a ftranger I leave it: I have no knowledge of myfelf who I am, or for what purpose I am. I have no certain knowledge of any one, not I: That is, I have none of myself, not I. Breath has gone without humility, and contrition remains. The empire has not been properly governed or protected by me; and my precious life has been fpent on nothing. I have a Lord in the houfe, but do not perceive his light in my dark eyes. Life gives me advice of death, the departure of reafon rends the thread of iny breath, and my hopes of living longer are frustrated. The troops, all afflicted, with their hands and feet contracted, are like myself flupified and confounded. I have no ftock of works to lay before my bountiful Sovereign, except the fins I carry with me, and I know not in con fequence fequence to what punishment I fhall be doomed. How firm foever my hope in his goodnefs and mercy is, yet, upon a review of the condaЛ and actions of my life, fearful apprehenfions, and terrifying reflections, will not fuifer me to remain ftedfaft in it. Let what will happen, we have launched the fhip into the deep, "Tho the Aimighty will fufficiently protect our fubjects and ferwants, yet in the viûble world, it is also incumbent on our fons to take care that the people of God are not wantonly facrificed. You will give my last blefiing to my grandfon. Alas! that I did not fee him when he went away: trong defire to do it remains.. # "The empress is apparently much afflicted; but God is the fovereign of hearts. The contracted thoughts of women are productive of nothing but difcontentment. Adieu, O light of my eyes, adieu! 66 LETTER. "The following letter was dictated immediately after by the enperor, to his fon prince Mohammed Kam Bukhfh, who was at Bijapoor: My fon, my vitals. In the world of empire, I unavoidably advifed you, by the will of God; but as it was not the divine pleafure, you did not hearken to my advice with fatisfaction. I now depart a stranger, and with the tenderness of a father regret your inexperience and want of knowledge. Of what advantage is fin? Whatever I have done, I bear the fruit thereof myself. It is very vexatious: I came alone, and muft go alone: he that would have kept me company has departed twelve days before me. Notwithstanding I now look upon my friend, I have nothing but despair in my eyes. My back is bent, and my feet have loft their motion. The breath which I breathe is refolved to leave my narrow breaft. I have committed many fins: what will be the confequence of them? The troops, from the reflection on this event, are fitting haif dead with distraction, and withing their own diffolution before mine. Though God is all- fofficient to protect my subjects and fervants, yet it is alfo incumbent on my fons and emirs to do it: while I poffeffed vigour of being, no protection was wanted for them; God only knows what will befall them now but you with whom I leave them in depofit, have the hand of power, and will find that their protection is neceffary from external motives. Allijah is also near at hand: God forbid that true believers fhould be flain, and by their death bring a punishment upon my head. Committing you and your children to God, I myfelf am departing. in great and incxpreffible torture. The emprefs, from knowing my fituation, is in deep affliction; and Heiyat un Nilla, who never faw any thing from her infancy, is perplexed in a labyrinth of grief. Your mother, who, like me, is very dangerously ill, intends perhaps to attend the ftirrup of this frail imortal. Those born in my houfe, ́and the attendants of the prefence, notwithstanding they shew wheat, are no more than venders of barley, and at a distance from you, which renders it more neceffary that you should endeavour to make fome ule of them. At all events, commit yourself to God, and that |