1 SINDE. 223
2 rulers. In 1839 there were four Ameers of Hyderabad, the sons of
3 the first who enjoyed the dignity. There were, at the same time,
4 three Ameers at Khyrpoor, and one, or according to Kennedy? 7}. 140.
5 two, af Meerpoor. The revenue of the three states has been
6 estimated by Pottinger %* at sixty-one lacs of rupees, or 610,000U. ; * 401.
7 by Macmurdo,4 about twenty years later, at half a crore, or rg aeriee
8 -500,0007.; by Burnes,’ about the same time, at thirty lacs, or 241.
9 300,0002. ; of which he assigns 150,000/. to Hyderabad, 100,0002. ° 2h" 215-
10 to Khyrpoor, and 50,0007. to Meerpoor. So necessarily uncer-
11 tain and liable to error must statements of this nature be respect-
12 ing such barbarous and ill-governed states. Burnes, in the
13 same page, states, “ the treasure, it js said, amounts to about
14 twenty millions sterling, thirteen of which are in money, and the
15 remainder in jewels.” He does not, “however, explain how this
16 enormous sum could have been saved in less than fifty years, out
17 of an annual income not exceeding 300,000/. sterling. The reve-
18 nue was derived in part from customs, dues, and other imposts,
19 but principally from a proportion of the produce of such lands as
20 have not been granted in jaghir, or feudal tenure, to individuals.
21 In some cases the revenue was collected in kind, in others in
22 money. The amount, exacted in proportion to the gross pro-
23 duce,® was regulated by the greater or less fertility, or faci- etna
24 lities for irrigation, and being in some instances a third, in some :
25 a fourth, and in some as low asa fifth. These rent-payments
26 are in general as moderate as those required on similar accounts
27 in India, and more so than those usually exacted in Britain.
28 The government under the Talpoor Ameers appears to have
29 been a military despotism, unchecked, except by a regard to the
30 dogmas of Islam. The Ameers’ held courts of justice every 714, 24s.
31 Friday, and reserved to themselves the rigkt of deciding in cases
32 of life and death. Those potentates,® in time of peace, had no ® Lecch, on Sind.
33 more standing army than was sufficient to guard their persons sai
34 and treasury, to collect the revenue, and retain the forts. Their
35 avarice made them keep the regular military force so low in point
36 of number, that it probably did not exceed one thousand five
37 hundred men. For great and important occasions of national
38 warfare, the army consisted of a feudal soldiery,® maintained by peor ereiiee
39 the respective chieftains, to whom had been allotted jaghires or tm Jour. As. Soc.”
40 Beng. 1840, p.
41 * Who wrote between 1813, which year he mentions (p. 401), and 1816, 1105; Leech, ut
42 when his work was published. supra, 67.