Page:The Maharaja of Cashmere.djvu/24

 be predicated of his individual case. The question involves not merely the narrower issue whether one individual is to be unjustly kept out of bis rights, but also  the much broader one, namely, whether a Christian Paramount Power, placed by  Providence to rule over the destinies of this vast country, should tolerate any injustice to one of its most loyal and devoted feudatories, and thereby lower  its prestige in the eyes of the public here and in Europe. I am fully persuaded that the adoption of such a course cannot fail to be highly injurious to its interests in the long run ; and thus impelled by loyalty on the one hand and by gratitude on the other, I make bold to write these pages, in hopes that they will contribute to advance  the cause of righteousness and truth.

There is another potent consideration which has swayed me in pursuing the resolution I have proposed to myself. In common with many of my countrymen, I am an ardent well-wisher of the Native States, and feel convinced that, in the