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64 administer it with the Punjab intervening as foreign territory.

But Kashmír was a tract of country which it was advisable to separate from the Punjab. Here is what the greatest authority on the subject, Sir George Clerk, says: —

'As to the policy of making Kashmír a separate State, Ranjít Singh fostered in the north of his kingdom a Rájput Power, because it could have no affinity with his turbulent Khálsa on one side or with malignant and vindictive Islám on the other. Had proof of the wisdom of this measure been wanting, it has been signally shown in his time and ours on four important occasions.'

As to allowing it to come under the sway of Ghuláb Singh instead of some one else, here again is what Sir G. Clerk says: —

'I have been under the necessity, on more than one occasion, of testing rather severely Ghuláb Singh's loyalty to us; my belief is that he is a man eminently qualified, by character and surrounding territorial possessions, for the position of ruler there (Kashmír), that all his interests lie on the side of friendship with us, that he will always desire, and some time or other may need, our countenance of his authority against enemies. Their aggressions, whether Chinese or Gúrkas on one side of him, or Afgháns on the other, will be retarded rather than precipitated by his proximity to them in that form. If Rájá Ghuláb Singh of Kashmír ever goes against us it will be owing only to his having been handled stupidly by our Government, or by our officers on the frontier and in the Punjab.'

In transferring Kashmír to Ghuláb Singh, it was still remaining under despotic native rule, but not