This propofal was complied with; and from this his fubfequent profperity commenced. He was now admitted into the confidence of the vizir; and in the different changes which took place in the councils of his highnefs, as well as in the various negotiations with the English government, he was his fecret adviser. He feldom, however, appeared at the durbar; and he never held any oftenfible fituation in the adminiftration of the vizir's government; but we have reafon to believe that few measures of importance were adopted, without his advice being previously taken. Hence his influence at the court of Lucknow became very confiderable, not only with the vizir, but with his minifters; and that influence was the fource of the immenfe fortune which he 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 mafter, or perfonal favour to afk of him, it was their custom to go privately to Martin, and obtain his intereft in their caufe, 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 compenfa tion. During the reign of Affof-udDowla, father of the prefent vizir, 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 establishing an extenfive credit with 3 the throffs, or bankers, in Oude and the adjacent provinces ; fo that no public loan could be made without his having a share in it. The ex. traordinary 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 muft 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 exposed 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 ing fmall fums of money, and by his will he has left them 25,000l. But the principal object of his ambition, and with of his heart, feems to have been to amafs immenfe trea fures, in order to gratify himself by the poffeffion of them while he lived; and by bequeathing almost the whole of them on his death, to the fupport of pious inftitutions, and public charities, to leave behind him the reputation of a philanthro pift. pift. But every fenfible reader will judge of his title to that name, not from the bequefts 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 1790, 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 obtain. In 1796, when the Company's officers received brevet rank from his Majefty, Martin was included in the promotion of colonels to the rank of major-general. to the third ftory, or ground floor, In his artillery yard, which was Some years before this period, he had finished a fpacious dwellinghoufe on the banks of the river Goomtee, in the building of which he had been long employed. This curious edifice is conftructed entirely of ftone, except the doors and window frames. The ceilings of the different apartments are formed of elliptic arches, and the floors made of stucco. The basement ftory comprises two caves or receffes within the banks of the river, and level with its furface when at its loweft decrease. In thefe caves he generally lived in the hot feafon, and continued in them until the commencement of the rainy feafon, when the increafe of the river obliged him to remove. He then afcended another ftory, 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 men: upon which the vizir replied, "Give yourfelf no concern about that-be you fo good as make a balloon." The experiment, however, was never tried. Befides his house 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 almost eight miles in circumference, fome. what refembling an English park. Here he ufed occafionally to retire in the hot feafon. " In the latter part of his life he laid out a large fum of moncy in Conftructing a Gothic caftle, which he did not live to finish. Beneath the ramparts of this caftle 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-procf. The caftie is furrounded by a wide and deep ditch, fortified on the outer fide by ftockades, and a regular covered-way; fo that the place is fufficiently protected to refift the attacks of any Afiatic power. With in the castle he built a fplendid maufoleum, in which he was interred; and on a marble tablet over his tomb is engraved the folJowing infcription, written by himfelf 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 ufual 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 attefted by the pofitive evidence of feveral gentlemen of the frit refpectability. He took a very fine feel 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 ftone was feated. When he found the wire touch the ftone, 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 dif. charged along with the urine, after the operation, he repeated it in the fame manner from time to time, till in the courfe 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 itfelf ingenious; but his patience and perfeverance in carrying it into effect are fo ve ry extraordinary, that we appre hend there are few men who, in a fimilar fituation, would not rather endure the complaint than have recourse to the remedy. Some years after the operation, gravelly concretions began again to form in his bladder; and as he did not choofe to try the wire a fecond time, thefe continued to increase until the end of the year 1800, when they finally occafioned his death. Though he lived fo long a time amongst the English, he acquired but an imperfect knowledge of our language; notwithstanding this, he chofe to write his Will in Englifh, which is altogether a very fingular production: It is too long for infertion, but the following are its principal bequests.-The amount of his fortune was thirty-three lacs of rupees, or 330,000l. fterling. To his relations at Lyons he be queathed 25,000i. as we have already noticed: And he left the fame fum to the municipality of that city, for the purpofe of appropriat. ing it for the benefit of the poor within their jurifdiction, in whatever manner they fhould think fit, For For the fame purpofe he bequeathed 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 alfo left 15,000l. to endow an alms-houfe for poor children at Lucknow. The remainder of his fortune, (nearly one half,) he left in legacies to the women of his zananah, and his prin cipal 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 forgive. nefs of God, which he hopes this fincere confeffion of his wickedness will avail to obtain. Such are the anecdotes which we have collected of this extraor dinary character. Biographical ANECDOTES of General PERRON. THIS gentleman came to India, in quality of petty officer on board of a fhip, fome time before the arrival of Monf. Souffrein. Having travelled into the upper provinces, he entered into the fervice of the Rana of Gohud, under the orders of Mr. Sangfter. While in this fervice, on a very fmall falary, he married Mademoiselle Deridan, (filter to the officer mentioned in our laft, who was wounded in the battle at Oujein) whofe family refided at Pondicherry. After the deftruction of the Rana, Mr. Perron entered into a corps commanded by Mr, Loftoneaux, in the fervice of Madhoojee Schindiah. There he was quarter-mafter-ferjeant, on the pay of fixty rupees a month. When Gholam Cadir was taken in attempting to escape from Meerut, where he was befieged by Ulee Buhadoor, Mr. Loftoneaux is fuppofed to have got poffeffion of his faddle, in which that Rohelu had concealed all the valuable jewels which he plundered from the palace at Delhi. With this booty Mr. L. made his escape to Europe; and having alfo carried off the money affigned for the pay of his troops, Mr. Pillet, whom he left in charge of them and of his purgunas, being unable to fatisfy the demands of the foldiery, was expofed to the imminent danger of his life. After the defertion of Mr. Lof, toneaux, Mr. Perron received from Rana Khan, Scindiah's general, the command of a battalion: but that battalion being reduced on the return of the army into cantonments, Mr. Perron found himself out of employment. Though recommend. ed by Mr. Montigny to Sumroo's begum, his applications there for fervice were in vain, as her troops were already fifteen months in ar tisfaction of his commander; particularly at the battle of Patun, in which Ifmael Beg, with his auxiliary Rajepoots, maintained a doubtful conflict with De Boigne's brigade, but in the end was completely overthrown. When Ifmael Beg was befieged in Kanoor, Mr. Perron commanded the detachment of General De Boigne's corps employed on that fervice. And there, in making fome experiments with hand-grenades, one of them burft in his hand, which was fo much fhat. tered, that he was obliged to fubmit to amputation. Ifmael Beg having difcovered in the garrifon an intention of delivering him up to the enemy, made his fubmiffion in perfon and unconditionally to Mr. Perron. And it is much to his honour, and to that of Mr. De Boigne, that, notwithstanding the dread which the Mahrattas always entertained of that chief's efcape, and the defire which they confequently had to put him out of the way, his life was refpected, and the terms promifed him were faithfully obferved, not only by Mahdajee Scindiah, but alfo by his fucceffor. When Mr. De Boigne divided his corps into two brigades, he gave the command of the firft to Mr. Frimont, and that of the fecond to Mr. Perron; fo that, on the death of Mr. Frimont, Mr. Perron became the fenior officer commanding a brigade. As Mahdajee Scindiah, a little time before his death, found himself engaged at Poona in intrigues which required the fupport of a powerful army, Mr. Perron, with his brigade, was fent to that quarter. Thus he was about the perfon of Dowlut Row Scindiah, from the time of his acceffion to the mufnud; and having gained the prince's confidence, he was appoint ed, when Mr. De Boigne retired to Europe, to fucceed him in the com mand of the three brigades, and in the management of the country affigned for paying them. Mr. Pedron, who now commands General Perron's third brigade, is a native of Hennebon, near to L'Orient. He ferved the nabob Sujah-ud-Dowla at Lucknow; and after the French were dismissed from his fervice, he entered into that of Moodujee Bonfilu, the Rajah of Burar. When Mr. De Boigne was raifing his brigade, Mr. Pedron entered into it, at Mutra. He received the commiffion of lieutenant, and foon after purchased that of major. Mr. Le Chevalier Drudrenec is the fon of a naval captain in the fervice of the late French monarchy. He is reprefented as a man of highly finished education, and of agreeable manners. He has long been in the fervice of the Holkur family, and held of them the purgunas of Tonk and Rampoora. We have feen that he was lately imprisoned at Kota, where he probably still remains. Abd-ool-rhuman Khan, who was lately honoured with the title of Shanuwaz Khan, was a Khuwas and Hafiz-i-qoran to Shah Alum. He has gradually rifen into favour, fince the time of Gholam Radir, and is at prefent very much in the king's confidence. Raja Shunkurnat is the fon of Raja Ramnath, who was, before the reign of the prefent king, Pehkar of the Deewan-khas, and on his acceffion to the throne was created an Omra, with the title of Mirza Raja. His fon, the perfon in quef tion, daily pays his obeifance to the king, by whom he is regarded in a favourable light, owing to the refpect the king had for his father. Meer A |