Page:Advice to the Indian Aristocracy.djvu/17

 INTRODUCTION.

MY old and valued friend, the Maharaja of Bobbili, has paid me the compliment to ask me to write an introduction to those interesting lectures, in which the common-sense and independence of character, for which he is conspicuous, are amply illustrated. I do not know any Indian nobleman better fitted to advise the youth of his own class, and it is with this object that he has taken his pen in hand "to prepare papers on various subjects of great importance to the landed aristocracy of India." I do not think that I have anything to say worthy of record here. It has been my good fortune to be associated with most capable, public-spirited, and high-minded princes and noblemen such as their Highnesses the Maharaja of Travancore, and the