ETIQUETTE IN ASIA.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE sricarkroz."] Sin,—I am desirous of thanking you for the very liberal and courteous remarks in the Spectator of the 8th inst., on the mission from his Highness the Guicowar of Baroda, which has brought me to London. Let me at the same time express my extreme regret
that I failed to explain to yon more fully its real origin and object. Had I succeeded in doing so, I feel sure that you would not have slighted it as a mere " Indian question of Etiquette," as an un- reasonable demand for a " worthless" and "empty privilege." The main deficiency in your statement of the case, attributable certainly to my default in perspicuity, not to yours in generosity or candour, displays itself most clearly to my mind, when you observe that Indian Princes will " argue " about points of cere- monial and precedence " with a pertinacity to which there is no limit," and when you speak of their salutes being sometimes "raised or diminished" by the Viceroy " on specified grounds." The Guicowar has not been allowed to argue the point in dispute, and no grounds have ever been specified for the arbitrary decision against him.
The privilege of precedence within his hereditary dominions may be worthless or unreasonable, but surely, being established by the practice and precedence of half a century, it ought not to be summarily extinguished by a curt and peremptory memo- randum (a yad, you will know what that means,) from the office of the Resident at Baroda. I am sure you will at once acknowledge that this at least was not the style in which such an unpleasant innovation could be made acceptable, or even intelligible, to a Hindoo Prince.
Without prejudice to the case on the side of the Maharajah, let us assume the arguments you bring forward as to the altered position of the Viceroy of India since the transfer of its Govern- ment from the Company to the Crown to be quite conclusive, still, as these arguments have never been brought in any form before his Highness, they can have produced no conviction on his mind. Nor was it with reference to the Viceroy that the new rale of precedence was presented for his Highness's instruction, but with reference to the Governor, who, as you know, may to-morrow be the Lieutenant-Governor of the Bombay Presidency. In the Residents' pads, the Governor of Bombay is said to be " the representative of the British Government." But so is the Resident himself "the representative of the British Government," and he is often so described officially. Where is the Native Prince's descent in the scale of precedence to end? By a succession of brief yads, submissively accepted, he may find himself reduced to the fourth or fifth place in his own Durbar, no longer the host, but a guest.
Allow me, also, to point out that you have fallen into a little confusion between political rank and family rank. What is the pedigree of a Bonaparte or a Bernadotte? Yet there is no doubt as to their political rank, so long as they are reigning Princes. There is no question in India as to the social supremacy of the Maharana of Odeypoor. By the glorious pedigree and history of that family, its head is the first of all Hindoos, the Sun (Soorya Vounah), as we say, of India. But the political rank of the Guicowar ie, as a matter of fact and compact, actually higher than that of the Marahana of Odeypoor. It is of no use going back to what the Guicowar's ancestor was. Who was the great grand- father of the King of Sweden ? In consequence of the uninter- rupted friendship between his predecessors and the British Government, the Guicowar has been placed in the first class of Indian Sovereigns, receiving a salute of twenty-one guns, while Scindia only receives one of nineteen, and the Maharana of Odeypoor only one of seventeen guns.
The merits of the Guicowar's case—not, you will observe, the demand for a concession, but the protest against an abrupt inno, vation—do not, however, account entirely for my presence here. When his Highness, in reply to his repeated requests for an expla- nation, was told at last, in another pad from the Resident's office, that "any discussion on the subject" was declared by his Excel, lency the Viceroy to be " inadmissible," and that his written appeal to Her Majesty's Government would, therefore, not be forwarded, it became necessary that an appeal should be sent to London by the hand of a confidential Agent, No other course was open. If in a matter of ceremonial—to which, however, the Guicowar attaches great importance—an established custom can be set aside, without a request, a reference, or an explanation,—if discussion can then be declared inadmissible,.and an appeal to Her Majesty refused, the same procedure may be put in force in any matter far more deeply affecting the dignity and honour of a Native Prince, the interests and welfare of his family and people. Whatever the merits of the case, whatever the probable results of An appeal, to shrink from making that appeal would have been a defalcation of duty.—I am, Sir, &c., HURRYCHUND CranzreatoN.
4 Addison Terrace, Kensington, November 19, 1873.
[No one but the Viceroy ought to have precedence of any
Native'Prince in hirrown State, nor will anyone be'allciWed.--Ent. Spectatoe.]
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