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158 ourselves capable of retaining the great position that had been recommitted, as it were, into our hands by Providence. The time was coming when it would be our duty to think less of ruling by the sword, and more of securing the goodwill and affection of the people. But that time had not yet arrived, and the Indian Government had therefore to pay almost exclusive attention, for several years after the Mutiny, to military measures and military precautions.

The general population and educated classes in the British provinces had stood aloof from the revolt, and the closer incorporation of their interests with the Ruling Power formed part of the scheme. But territories that for a thousand years had been held by the sword, and the great kingdoms of Oudh and Haidarábád, the Maráthá States, and the Punjab, which had been established since the rise of British power, must still, it was rightly considered, be held by a sword firmly grasped. These were the sentiments that actuated the minds of Indian administrators during the eventful years of change and reconstruction which followed the suppression of the Mutiny.

They were years of destruction as well as of construction. The first institution to be abolished was the East India Company itself. However useful in earlier generations, a dual government had resulted disastrously in divided responsibilities; and there was no other alternative open but to replace the Company's depreciated authority by the sceptre of the Queen. Accordingly, after an existence of some two and a