ritories of the King of Cubal on the one side, and those of the English on the other. Their importance in the population of India, therefore, is sufficiently obvious. If a conqueror indeed had the choice of a spot in which he might establish an empire which might domineer over the whole of India, from the Himmalaya mountains to the Sacred Bridge, he would probably select the very ground which is now covered by the Sikhs. When the productive qualities of the soil, and the health and strength of the inhabitants, are taken into account, there is probably no portion of India which deserves to be compared with it.

The inhabitants of this country, like their Eastern neighbours, were Hindus. Anciently, it was the seat of their most remarkable nations. Not only were its inhabitants the most warlike of the people of India; but in this region, and in the neighbouring districts, were the principal monuments of their religion, and the most celebrated seats of their learning. In this place it probably was, that the Hindu character acquired its highest improvement and civilization.

The armies of the Mahomedan nations, who finally established themselves in the government of India, first took possession of this part of the country, which lay nearest to their own. But the conquests of the Mahomedans in India were not sanguinary. It is an erroneous, though very general opinion, that the Mahomedans moved into India, as the Huns and Goths into Europe, in whole nations, at once desolating and repeopling the land. The truth, on the contrary, is, that they invaded Hindustan with their regular armies alone; and, when they took possession of it, contented themselves with the occupation of the sword. Of the whole Hindu population, the soldiers only were displaced. The land continued to be cultivated, the houses to be occupied, the arts and trades to be exercised, by the very same classes of men as before. The Mahomedan conquerors were not so ignorant as not to perceive that their own interest was promoted by the protection of a people whose labours were the source of their opulence and power; and they established in their new dominions a more perfect system of administration than the knowledge of the Hindus had ever enabled them to devise. We know for certain, that the regions occupied by the Sikhs were not depopulated; that the inhabitants were cherished-because those provinces were the most flourishing and productive portion of the Mahomedan empire. In the reign of Aurungzeb, the province of Lahore alone yielded a revenue of 2,469,500l. Sterling. We even have no manner of doubt, that the texture of Hindu society remained entire. In the provinces of Agra and Delhi themselves, which became the seats of the

Moslem power, the number of Mahomedans was insignificant compared with that of the Hindus, who still constituted the population of the country, and were marked by the same opinions, manners and customs which distinguished their forefathers.

But the truly remarkable, and truly instructive feature of this story is, that the Hindus of this extensive region, a people whom we are daily taught, or rather commanded to believe, absolutely unchangeable, have undergone a more entire revolu tion in religion, in manners, in social and political institutions, than, in so short a space of time, and with the application of such ordinary means, has any where else been known among mankind.

About 500 years ago, there arose among this bigoted and united people, a single obscure individual, who began with the bold experiment of arraigning their ancient religion, and recommending a new one. He was heard with favour; he gained proselytes; he spent a long life in travelling, and in the exhibition of those marks of sanctity which operate the most forcibly upon the minds of an unenlightened people. This was Nanac Shah, the great patriarch of the Sikhs,-who was born in the year of Christ 1469, in the province of Lahore, a Hindu of the Cshatriya caste, and Vedi tribe. He left a successor; and his opinions gained ground extensively. In a period of two centuries, the doctrines of Nanac extended their dominion in peace; nor was it till cruelties had been exercised upon them by the Mahomedans, that his followers betook themselves to measures of revenge or defence. It was in the year 1606 that the consistence and form which had been acquired by the Sikh community first excited the jealousy of the Mahomedan government. From that date the Sikhs may be considered as an armed people; and a series of bloody contentions ensued. The power of the Mogul government, however, was then in its zenith; and the Sikhs were apparently crushed; till Guru Govind appeared, and gave a new character to his people.

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It would be tedious and useless,' says Colonel Malcolm, follow the Skh writers through the volumes of fables, in which they have narrated the wonders that prognosticated the rise of this, the most revered of all their priests, to power; or to enter, at any length, into those accounts which they, and Govind himself, (for he is equally celebrated as an author and as a warrior), have given of his exploits. It will be sufficient, for the purpose of this sketch, to state the essential changes which he effected in his tribe, and the consequences of his innovations.

Though the Sikhs had already, under Har Govind, been initiated in arms, yet they appear to have used these only in self

defence: And as every tribe of Hindus, from the Brahmen to the lowest of the Sudra, may, in cases of necessity, use them without any infringement of the original institutions of their tribe, no viola. tion of these institutions was caused by the rules of Nause; which, framed with a view to conciliation, carefully abstained from all in. terference with the civil institutes of the Hindus. But his more daring successor, Guru Govind, saw that such observances were at variance with the plans of his lofty ambition; and he wisely judged, that the only means by which he could ever hope to oppose the Mahammedan government with success, were, not only to admit converts from all tribes, but to break at once those rules by which the Hindus had been so long chained :—to arm, in short, the whole population of the country; and to make worldly wealth and rank an object to which Hindus of every class might aspire.

The extent to which Govind succeeded in this design, will be more fully noticed in another place. It is here only necessary to state the leading features of those changes by which he subverted, in so short a time, the hoary institutions of Brahma, and excited terror and astonishment in the minds of the Mahammedan conquerors of India, who saw the religious prejudices of the Hindus, which they had calculated upon as one of the pillars of their safety, because they limited the great majority of the population to peaceable occupations, fall before the touch of a bold and enthusiastic innovator, who opened at once, to men of the lowest tribe, the dazzling prospect of earthly glory. The object of Nanac was, to abolish the distinctions of caste among the Hindus, and to bring them to the adoration of that Supreme Being, before whom, he contended, all men were equal. Guru Govind, who adopted all the principles of his celebrated predecessor, as far as religious usages were concerned, is reported to have said, on this subject, that the four tribes of Hindus, the Brahmen, Cshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra, would like pán (betle-leaf), chunám (lime), supari (bitter nut), and khat (terra japonica), become all of one colour when well chewed. All who subscribed to his tenets were upon a level; and the Brahmen who entered his sect had no higher claims to eminence than the lowest Sudra who swept his house. '

After a series of desperate conflicts, in which the mental resources of the leader, as well as the constancy and bravery of his followers, were remarkably displayed, he was at last overwhelmed by the power of Aurungzeb; and, for a season, the Sikhs were contented to owe their security to silence and concealment.

Upon the death of Aurungzeb, they were prompted to place their protection again upon the sword; and as the Sikhs and Mahomedans were now, from reciprocal injuries, animated against one another by the most violent passions, they set no bounds to their cruelties. After a series of disasters, the Sikhs

were once more subdued; and their extermination was now pursued with unrelenting severity. A price was set upon their heads; and they either fled into the mountains and forests, or concealed themselves by suspending the exercise of their peculiar ceremonies. Their principles, however, had taken too deep root to be easily shaken; and, after an interval of thirty years, when the invasion of Nadir Shah had reduced the power of the Moguls, they suddenly appeared in formidable bands, and availed themselves of the ungoverned state of the provinces from the capital to the confines of Persia-to extend at once their spiritual and temporal power-to gain proselytes and to enlist soldiers.

It would answer little purpose to trace, even if we could do it much more perfectly than any documents which we possess admit, the steps by which the strength of Innovation, and the weakness of an old government, enabled the Sikhs to possess themselves of the finest provinces of India, notwithstanding the checks which they received both from the Afghans and the Mharattas. The wars of the Sikhs are too like the wars of other Indians, to afford in the recital much either of pleasure or instruction. Even of their religious opinions, and political or civil institutions, a very slight sketch will suffice for our present purpose. It is not nearly of so much importance to know what they now believe, and how they act, as to know that they believe and act very differently from what they recently did. On the religious innovations of Nanac, Sir John Malcolm gives us the following remarks.

Actuated by the great and benevolent design of reconciling the jarring faiths of Brahma and Muhammed, he endeavoured to conciliate both Hindoos and Moslems to his doctrine, by persuading them to reject those parts of their respective beliefs and usages, which, he contended, were unworthy of that God whom they both adored. He called upon the Hindoos to abandon the worship of idols, and to return to that pure devotion of the Deity, in which their religion originated. He called upon the Muhammedans to abstain from practices, like the slaughter of cows, that were offensive to the religion of the Hindoos, and to cease from the persecution of that race. Nanac endeavoured with all the power of his genius to impress both Hindoos and Muhammedans with a love of toleration, and an abhorrence of war; and his life was as peaceable as his doctrine. His extraordinary austerities are a constant theme of praise with his followers. His works are all in praise of God. Guru Govind gave a new character to the religion of his followers ;--not by making any material alteration in the tenets of Nanac, but by establishing institutions and usages, which, by the complete abolition of all distinctions of castes, destroyed, at one blow, a system of civil polity, that,

from being interwoven with the religion of a weak and bigoted race, fixed the rule of its priests upon a basis that had withstood the shock of ages. The admission of proselytes,-the abolition of the distinctions of caste,-the eating of all kinds of flesh, except that of cows,the form of religious worship,and the general devotion of all Singhs to arms, are ordinances altogether irreconcileable with Hindu mythology, and have rendered the eligion of the Sikhs as obnoxious to the Brahmens, and higher tribes of Hindoos, as it is popular with the lower orders of that numerous class of mankind.'

In contemplating the grand fact which is presented by the history of the Sikhs, we mean, the facility with which a total change may be effected in the religion and institutions of the Hindus, several circumstances are brought forward by our author, which show pretty clearly in what manner such a revolution may be most easily effected. That very part of the Hindu system which has been represented as constituting its chief strength, is that which contains the seeds of its dissolution. The institution of castes exposes it to destruction. It presses on the great mass of the population with so galling a weight, that they are ready, it seems, to hail its dissolution with transport. The patriarchs of the Sikhs extended their sway with so much rapidity, chiefly by opening to the lower classes of the Hindus the prospect of those honours and riches, from which they had. been so carefully excluded, that the hopes of worldly distinction, and the bitter feeling of their present degradation, speedily extinguished within them the veneration which they had been accustomed to feel for their ancient spiritual or temporal superiors. They adopted the religion of Nanac; and the castes were all blended into one. It is an opinion generally diffused among the Hindus, that a time is destined to arrive when this union of the castes will be universal. This, it is easy to see, is one of the prophecies which may be expected to operate to its own fulfilment.

It might be supposed, and is often enough asserted, that the Brahmins employ such effectual means to maintain their own authority, that the minds of the Hindus are altogether unable to emancipate themselves. The history of the Sikhs, however, affords a memorable proof of the contrary; and seems, indeed, to demonstrate, that nothing more is wanting than a popular and bold innovator; and that the system, whenever it is assailed, will assuredly give way.

One consideration, however, bears too directly upon our own interests to be altogether overlooked. It seems that the lower orders of Hindus are most easily stimulated to break the spell which prolongs their degradation, by the prospect of military advantages, by having the sword placed in their hand, and be