Page:The Story of India (1897).djvu/137

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
There was a problem when proofreading this page.

CHAPTER VII.

THE INDIA OF THE QUEEN.

IF it were asked what is the principal difference between the India of the Queen and the India of the Company, the unanimous answer of all authorities would be that, whereas the Company never ceased to annex the territories of the native princes of the peninsula and displayed an ambition to the very last hour of its life to absorb the whole of the country within its own administration, the Queen has not annexed a yard of territory within the frontier, and she has even given back one important state to its native dynasty. In this the Queen has been true to her word as conveyed in the Royal Proclamation on assuming the sovereignty of India, for therein occurs the guarantee of their possessions to the Princes on the one condition of good government. This promise, given spontaneously at a moment