Page:The Maharaja of Cashmere.djvu/38

 an external enemy or when the interests of England elsewhere may require that her Eastern Empire shall incur more than ordinary risk, one of our best mainstays will be found in these Native States.' These words from such authority shew more forcibly than volumes of argument the usefulness of the Native States as- valuable auxilliaries in times of trouble and as pillars of strength to support the Empire in cases of internal disorder or external aggression.

Lord Canning was not singular in his, views about the Native States, nor were those 'iews based solely on his over-whelming sense of gratitude for the services his government had, at a most critical time, received unasked from the Indian Princes. He looked at the question from the liberal standpoint of practical politics, and other eminent British Statesmen have expressed similar views on diverse occasions. Lord Ellenborough, for instance, writing in 1853, when the tide of annexation may be said to have