of regularity, wisdom, discretion and justice
unparalleled in any native state in India." But, unfortunately for himself
and his subjects, the Maharajah, in 1811, began to rule, and Purnaiya, the
able prime minister, retired, and soon afterwards died. Then followed a
long period of misgovernment, which culminated in the insurrection of
1830, to put down which the aid of British troops had to be called in. A
formal inquiry was then made by the British Government, and the result of
this was that it was determined to transfer the entire administration to
British officers, and put the Maharajah on an allowance for his personal
expenditure. At first two commissioners were appointed to administer the
government, but this was found to be inconvenient, and in April, 1834,
Colonel (afterwards Sir Mark) Cubbon was appointed as sole commissioner
for the province. He occupied the post till February, 1861, when he
retired, and when on his way home died at Suez at about seventy-seven
years of age, having spent the whole of the previous years of the century
in India. He was succeeded by other able commissioners, and nothing of any
political importance happened in the province till June, 1865, when the
Maharajah adopted as his heir a scion of one of the leading families of
his house. It was for some time doubtful whether the Government would
recognize the adoption, as, after the death of the Maharajah, it had been
generally assumed that the province would be annexed, but in April, 1867,
the Home Government decided that it should be recognized, and on September
23rd, 1868, six months after the death of Krishna Rajah, his adopted son,
Chama Rajendra Wodeyar Bahadur, at that time between five and six years
old, was duly installed at Mysore, and it was then decided that the
country should remain under British administration till the Maharajah came
of age. His Highness attained his majority at the age of eighteen, on the
5th of March, 1881, and was formally installed on the throne on the 25th
of that month, and thus the province, after having been directly
administered by the British for almost exactly fifty years, was handed
over, not as we shall afterwards see, to native rule, but to native
administration.

And here a rather interesting question naturally arises. How was such a
change--one quite unique in the history of India--received by the
inhabitants of the country? So far as the planters (of whom I am one of
the oldest, having settled