A very strong appeal is being made to the British
people to annex Cashmere. It is stated that half the population of the beautiful little State has perished of famine, and that this famine has been. deliberately intensified on behalf of the Maharajah Run- beer Singh, either to accumulate more money by disposing of hie stores of grain, or to kill out the Muesulman population. The grain sent into Cashmere has been stolen or bought up, and the hungry peasants driven away as if they had been brigands. There can be. no question of the frightful misgovernment of Cashmere, which the local Sirdars and the Maharajah ad- minister as the Pashas and the Sultan administer Asia Minor, —me a property from which the last shilling is to be extracted ; and the belief that grain is monopolised by the ruler rests upon much evidence. Precisely the same thing was done by Louis XV. and his courtiers, and Cashmeres nota- bilities stand upon that level. But there can be no doubt that Lord Hardinge, in extreme need of money and greatly dreading an immediate revival of the Sikh war, sold Cashmere for 2750,000 to Gholab Singh, the most influential of the Sikh Generals, in the full knowledge that he would recoup himself by oppression. If, therefore, the condition of the :Valley is intolerable—and the evidence points that way--tins money should, on the deposition of the Maharajah, be honestly re- stored.
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