ment on the general break up of the Maráthá power in 1818, and confirmed to the 'sons and heirs, and successors' of the recipient in 1819. In 1839 the reigning prince was deposed for misconduct by the British Government in the exercise of its Suzerain rights. By the same rights the British Government then set up the brother of the deposed prince on the throne.
The Governor of Bombay pointed out at the time that as the new Raja had no family, there was a distinct prospect that the principality would lapse on his death to the British Government, 'unless,' to use His Excellency's words, 'it should be thought expedient to allow the line of princes to be continued by the Hindu custom of adoption — a question which should be left entirely open for consideration when the event occurs.' In due time the event thus foreseen, when of our own free will we raised the new Raja to the government of Sátára, did occur; and the Raja, whom in 1839 we had placed on the throne, applied for permission to adopt a son. The British Government deliberately withheld the permission; and in the last hours of his life the Raja, in 1848, hastily adopted a son without the consent of the Government. This was the state of things with which Lord Dalhousie, a few months after his arrival in India, found himself called upon to deal.
He and his advisers acknowledged the right of
