Sir Lepel Griffin on Tuesday delivered an eloquent address at
the Colonial Institute, on the Native Princes of India. He has great experience of them, and thinks they are loyal, as they know that in the absence of the British Government their people would sweep them away. English education, however, fails to improve them, as they remain Asiatics under the English veneer, and are carried away by the attractions of the harem. He considers their States, with few exceptions, wretchedly administered, and believes their oppressions are carried by their peoples to the discredit of the British Government, a curious and, we should fancy, inaccurate opinion. No Prince was upset during the Mutiny, though the local Army in some cases insisted on marching against the British. Sir Lepel Griffin, we are surprised to perceive, is in favour of colonising Cashmere with Englishmen who should obey some sort of military law. Where will he get them, on that condition ?—or, supposing he did, how is the Indian Government to control them P He thinks that three millions of English people in Cashmere would keep the Empire safe ; but what would prevent their taking it for themselves ? Englishmen will not work with their hands in Asia while they can make anybody else work ; and a colony containing 800,000 white males, all armed and drilled, could hold India for a century against the world, the Home Government included. White colonists in India would only be an addition to difficulties already severe enough.
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