Page:The Marquess of Dalhousie.djvu/163

Rh Dalhousie, always tender to private rights, generously took upon himself to differ from this view, so far as to secure those possessions for the benefit of the Raja's kindred. 'I would therefore propose ,' he wrote, 'that jewels and furniture, and other personal property suitable to their rank having been allotted to the Ránís, the value of the rest of the jewels, etc., should be realized, and that the proceeds should be constituted a fund for the benefit of the Bhonsla family.'

A sum of £200,000 was thus realized as a 'Bhonsla Fund,' after payment of the debts of the household; and pensions amounting to £78,700 (eventually to £98,200) a year, were assigned to the Raja's widows, connections and dependents. The transaction was carried out with great forbearance by the British Commissioner, under the strictest orders from Lord Dalhousie to treat the widows, whatever provocations they might offer, with 'the courtesy due to their rank, their sex, and their changed condition.' Yet it was this transaction, expressly designed by Lord Dalhousie for the benefit of the Raja's family, which was afterwards distorted in England into The Spoliation of the Nágpur Palace.

It requires an effort of imagination to realize that such misrepresentation was possible in regard to a public transaction in Lidia in the middle of