As at present advised, this seems to us a very
sound way of getting over the Indian difficulty. It is no good to pretend that the great Empire of India, for which the British nation is in a most real and literal sense the trustee, is on the same footing, or ever can be, as the self-governing Colonies, peopled by men of our own or kindred blood. To use a useful analogy, they are Daughter States, and stand towards us in the direct relation of children and parent, but children who in all cases are past their majority and enjoy full rights, legal and ConstitutionaL India is a ward of the Empire, or rather a large family of wards, whose estates for various reasons cannot be assigned in severalty, but must continue to be held in a condition of joint tenancy and administered by us for the good of all. There is nothing degrading in such tenancy, but it cannot produce the liberty of action which comes from the independence of a divided estate.
