Agents, but on due enquiry conducted on some intelligible principles of justice and fair play, in which the alleged offender may have at least a chance of a hearing. Such proceedings cannot fail to produce the double beneficial effect of reassuring our Princes and enhancing the durability and glory of the British Government.
It would be beyond the scope of this little book to dilate on the urility of the Native States, or the purposes they are capable of serving in the domain of modern Indian politics. Yet, when it is remembered what deep sympathy is felt for the welfare of these States throughout the country and what loud clamour of dis- pleasure and indignation is evoked when any of their chiefs meet with undeserved treatment, a few words of explanation may not be regarded unnecessary. There was a time when the whole country from the Himalayas to the sea used to be governed by indigenous agency. With the advent of the Mahomedans, the agency changed in a few places for a time, but our Maho-
