har Rao Holkar, a shepherd, who became Maharajah of Indore. Not
one of their number professed to belong to the ancient ruling families
of India.

As we glance at India as it was under Muhammadan rule, and consider its
state when our conquering career began, we find there were no elements
of stable government: the Imperial power had become a shadow; ambitious
leaders were everywhere striving for the mastery, ready to beat down all
opposition within their own immediate sphere, and then prepared to wrest
power from neighbouring chiefs. India had at that time a very dark
prospect before it.

This review of the past history of India may seem an unduly long
introduction to a brief statement regarding its condition under our
rule, but it is only by looking to the past a right answer can be given
to the questions: What right have we to govern India? From what evils
has our government delivered it? What benefits have we conferred on its
population? Inattention to the past has led many to give in some cases
an utterly wrong, in other cases a very inadequate, answer to these
questions. It is clear that India has been brought under our rule by
what may be rightly called aggressive war only to a very limited
extent. It is also clear that the hostile forces we encountered were not
those of the ancient princes of the land, but of adventurers who were
struggling to rise on the ruins of the disorganized empire. At the
present time, on the mere ground of the length of possession, our rule
has a stronger claim than that of the potentates whom we overthrew.

[Sidenote: THE ADVANTAGES OF BRITISH RULE.]

A review of the past prepares us to see some of the advantages our rule
has conferred. No longer are armies marching over India, supplying their
wants by the plunder of its people, and leaving ruin in their track. No
longer has the husbandman, when he sees at a distance the dust raised by
the tramp of the Mahratta cavalry, to flee to his walled village, if he
has one to flee to, or to his hamlet if he cannot do better, leaving his
field, perhaps ready for the sickle, to be trodden down by the unwelcome
stranger. No longer are hosts of marauders like the Pindarees, who
scarcely professed to be anything else than marauders, allowed to roam
over fertile and populous regions in their robbing and murdering
expeditions. No longer are professional robbers called Dacoits allowed
to set out on excursions, and make their way under various disguises