One of the Native "protected" states of India, Kolapore, has
been taking the trouble to illustrate the bad working of the treaty system, which keeps Native Governments with just enough inde- pendence to be perverse and obstructive in the midst of the great empire that it is our task to keep in order; admirably rendering the "integrity of our dominions" impossible so long as such states are suffered to continue what Indian politicians call "independent." The Rajah of Kolapore is a boy ; his Ministers have provoked the people to rebellion, by attempting to exact some taxes under an innovation ; and British armies are called in to maintain the authority of the local potentate. The British troops do not find it difficult to thrash the Mahratta rebels; but they will probably find it not so easy to make the pageant Government respected. However, the attempt is to be made ; for there is a kind of punctilio in these matters : England exercises an iron rule over these " in- dependent " states, through the bad medium of a pretended Native ruler, until the evil grows intolerable ; and then the territory, after being scourged by war, is formally annexed to the British empire. As the ultimate annexation is inevitable, and as the real authority of Britain would be exercised much more honestly, generously, and beneficially through proper English officials, instead of ignorant barbarians, the question o.curs, whether it would not be better to waive the punctilio, and not to require some years of chronic
anarchy before openly and completely establishing British authority?
