1 oy PREFACE,
2 reason to congratulate themselves on the manifor blessings of
3 British rule.
4 As you have read in history, favour was, in former tihgs, won by
5 those who made the richest presents to the King, or w pleased
6 ministers and favourites with valuable gifts, which were the gpoils
7 of districts, and came out of the pocket of the poor raiyat\, The
8 Amirs vied. with each other who should make richest present.
9 anniversaries of the King’s accession, and the marriages of the myn-
10 bers of the royal household, afforded recurring pretexts for exto,
11 tion. Under the British Government, the servants of the Stat
12 are forbidden to receive any presents whatever, and the Government
13 itself accepts none without giving an equivalent in return. No
14 longer is prostration exacted on the occasion of the visits of princes
15 and rajds to the British rulers, nor is any one of them treated with
16 insolence or contempt. For the respect shown by them as vassals
17 ‘of the Crown, they are treated with every mark of consideration
18 and honour consistent with the dignity of the Imperial Government,
19 and their hereditary rights and privileges are maintained intact and
20 unimpaired.
21 We find the British Government prosperous, and the people
22 under it contented and happy, because it acts on the grand motto
23 that “the prosperity of the country is the only true source of
24 wealth.” The end and aim of that rule is the welfare of the people,
25 not the personal aggrandisement of the rulers.
26 Tavernier has said of Shah Jahan (though, according to our
27 notions, Akber had far better claim to the honour) that “ he reigned
28 not so much as a King over his subjects, but rather as a father over
29 his family and children.” Had that distinguished traveller been
30 alive to-day, he would have clearly seen that what Shah Jahn did
31 for his subjects was, after all, only as a drop in the ocean, compared
32 with what British statesmen have done for the people of this country.
33 The architectural remains of his period, in various parts of India,
34 will ever stand as brilliant monuments to his fame, but, in the
35 eloquent words of the great essayist, De Quincey, in his essay
36 on the British rule in India: “ Higher by far than the Moghal gift
37 of limestone or travelling stations or even roads and tanks, are the
38 gifts of security, of peace, of law and settled order.” And any one
39 who chooses to look impartially around him may at once verify
40 ‘what this eminent writer has said. The real fame and strength
41 of the British rulers lie in the vast schemes undertaken by them
42 for the good of the people. Witness the gigantic railway projects,
43 and the roads which have connected together all the great centres of
44 population, and become the means of developing the trade and increas-
45 ing the wealth of the country. Witness the vast public works that
46 have been carried out. Witness the grand schemes of irrigation
47 Which have converted thousands of acres of barren land into green
48 smniling plains. Witness the great good done to the country by
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