1 PREFACE, xiii
2 the flower of 2¢ educational institutions established by the bounty
3 of the Britisi ; you who are to take our places when we are gone,
4 and in when are fixed our future hopes,—should you not, I say, be
5 thankful to God, after you have gone through the pages I lay
6 before rou, that the days of calamity of our country are over ? Do
7 you gall believe that your country was ever a garden of roses, as
8 ou see it now? Your country, as you must already know
9 wihout my telling you of it, is, by its very situation, the most
10 exposed to foreign danger. Is it not now one of the most secure,
11 and has it not become one of the most prosperous and flourishing,
12 of the countries of the globe under the fostering care of the
13 English ? The same bands of fanatics, marauders and highway
14 robbers who were once a terror to the people, and who had spread
15 devastation throughout the land, are turned into peaceful cultiva-
16 tors and useful citizens. The same land which was stained with
17 the blood of the innocent, or which was the haunt of the leopard
18 and the panther, now smiles with rich harvests and luxuri-
19 ant vegetation. The same dwellings where many a widow pass-
20 ed a gloomy life, lamenting, it may be, over a murdered hus-
21 band, the victim of some strife, or where lived afflicted mothers,
22 grieving over the deaths of their sons, who had, perhaps, fallen
23 bravely defending hearth and home, are now full of life and joy
24 and comfort. No longer are the weak the prey of the strong.
25 Justice is impartially administered. It reaches equally the palace
26 of the Nawab and the cottage of the peasant. The strong arm
27 of the law established by the British Government is put forth,
28 not to destroy but to protect, to shelter and to guide. The
29 people are happy, contented, peaceable, loyal and prosperous. The
30 revenues of the country are a source of strength to the Govern-
31 ment and of advantage to the subject. A financial system, based
32 upon correct principles of political economy, has been instituted.
33 By the introduction of measures of amelioration and a policy at
34 once vigorous and conciliatory, the country of the Five Rivers, in-
35 stead of being a source of perpetual anxiety and danger, as in times
36 of old, has become a source of real strength to the Government of
37 India. Its brave soldiers have shared with the armies of Great
38 Britain the toils of war and the glories of victory; the sagacious
39 fidelity of its people has materially assisted the Government in pre-
40 serving and diffusing the blessings of peace. One Imperial policy
41 has bound the princes and people together in a common tie of loyal-
42 ty to the Crown of England. The various races and nationalities
43 of India, putting aside their religious differences, have become
44 moulded into a united people. Undisturbed in the possession of their
45 hereditary rights, secure in the full enjoyment of their traditional
46 honours, protected in the prosecution of their lawful interests,
47 encouraged in all that is excellent and praiseworthy in their con-
48 duct in life, the princes and people of this country have great
49 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com