Page:The Maharaja of Cashmere.djvu/182

 to legislate and administer for itself.

The Council again is composed of heterogeneous elements with the Maharaja at its head. But as these elements are independent of him, he naturally finds it difficult to control them, subject as they are to opposing forces and conflicting interests. The difficulty that arises in consequence is considerable, and the only way to obviate it and make the machinery work smoothly is .to centrahse power in the Maharaja's hands, and constitute him the de facto as he is the de jure head of the administration. The normal condition of all oriental governments is a benevolent despotism in which all real authority vests in the ruling Prince, and it is impossible that Cashmere should be continued as an independent State and be well governed at the same time, with the system that now prevails in it. The Maharaja burns with a constant desire to regain his good name as a ruler, but he finds himself so hampered on all sides that he nearly despairs of doing so.