t a duty to inquire into the condition of the
races whom he subdued and to devise for them ameliorating measures.
He was fond of gardening, of architecture, of music, and he was no
mean poet. But the greatest glory of his character was that
attributed to him by one who knew him well, and who thus recorded his
opinion in Tarikhi Reshidi. 'Of all his qualities,' wrote Haidar
Mirza, 'his generosity and humanity took the lead.' Though he lived
long enough only to conquer and not long enough to consolidate, the
task of conquering could hardly have been committed to hands more
pure.

Babar left four sons: Muhammad Humayun Mirza, who succeeded him, born
April 5, 1508: Kamran Mirza, Hindal Mirza, and Askari Mirza. Before
his death he had introduced Humayun to a specially convened council
of ministers as his successor, and had given him his dying
injunctions. The points upon which he {48} had specially laid stress
were: the conscientious discharge of duties to God and man; the
honest and assiduous administration of justice; the seasoning of
punishment to the guilty with the extension of tenderness and mercy
to the ignorant and penitent, with protection to the poor and
defenceless; he besought Humayun, moreover, to deal kindly and
affectionately towards his brothers.

Thus died, in the flower of his manhood, the illustrious chief who
introduced the Mughal dynasty into India; who, conquering the
provinces of the North-west and some districts in the centre of the
peninsula, acquired for that dynasty the prescriptive right to claim
them as its own. He had many great qualities. But, in Hindustan, he
had had neither the time nor the opportunity to introduce into the
provinces he had conquered such a system of administration as would
weld the parts theretofore separate into one homogeneous whole. It
may be doubted whether, great as he was, he possessed to a high
degree the genius of constructive legislation. Nowhere had he given
any signs of it. In Kabul and in Hindustan alike, he had pursued the
policy of the conquerors who had preceded him, that of bestowing
conquered provinces and districts on adherents, to be governed by
them in direct responsibility to himself, each according to his own
plan. Thus it happened that when he died the provinces in India which
acknowledged him as master were bound together by that tie alone.
Agra had nothing in common with Lucknow; Delhi with {49} Jaunpur.
Heavy tolls marked the divisions of territo