beg it to be distinctly understood that my remarks refer '
only to those Muhammadans who peaceably accept the
British Rule. The foregoing Chapters establish the two
great facts of a standing Rebel Camp on the iVontier,
and a chronic conspiracy within the Empire. The ^English v
Government can hold no parley with traitors ih arms*
Those who appeal to the sword must perish by the sword.
Herr Teufelsdrockh's simile of the Alpine hamlet, Peace
established in the bosom of Strength, applies in a nobler
sense to the Indian Empire ; and the first moment that
the English in that country cease to be able, from financial
or from any other reasons, to go to war upon It just cause,
they had better take shipping from the nearest ports.
With regard, also, to the traitors within our terri- tory, justice must have free course ; but justice tempered with mercy, and mitigated by a knowledge of the not ignoble motives which lead men, sincerely good according to their lights, into treason. The powers of arrist granted by the Legislature to the Executive enable the Govern- ment to deal .with the evil. The ringleaders suffer the penalty of personal restraint, without obtaining the glory of a public stppearance oil behalf of their faith. Even those sentenced to transportation for life by the Courts are treated with contemptuous leniency by the Govern- ment, being generally returned in a few years to the Muhammadan community, as apostates to the Wahdbi cause. Any attempt to stamp out the conspiracy by wholesale prosecutions would fan the zeal of the fanatics into a flame, and array on their side thq sympathies of all devout Musalmdns. The distempered class must be segregated without the slightest feeling of resentment, and indeed with the utmost gentleness, but with absolute strength.
