Page:The empire and the century.djvu/648

 with us. And even those whom shallow observers had thought disloyal came forward with the rest. One chief, who was certainly not believed to be among the most loyal, offered the whole of the resources of his State to the Queen. He frankly told me, when I met him later, that he hated the Government of India in general and us political residents in particular, but he added that he was unswervingly loyal to the Sovereign. And this loyalty towards the Sovereign is, I believe, the strongest tie by which we now hold India, and the supreme influence which will always preserve India from drifting from us.

By their religion Hindus are taught to be loyal and obedient to their chief as appointed by Heaven, and of the strength of their attachment to the chief few who have not actually lived in a Native State can fully realize. A chief may be indolent, oppressive, and cruel to a degree which would shock outsiders, but the patient loyalty and simple affection of the people remain unshaken. Attempts on the lives of rulers in Europe and America are frequent. In India they are almost unknown. Through evil report and good report the people remain touchingly and immovably loyal to their chiefs. It is a wonderful trait in their character, and what is equally remarkable is that this same loyal attachment to their own chiefs is given to the chief of their chiefs—our Sovereign. Even if our Sovereigns had been rough, careless, and unsympathetic, I think this feeling of loyalty would still have existed to a very considerable degree. But when they have been thoughtful of the interests of the people, sympathetic, kindly, and dignified, they have a hundredfold increased this feeling of attachment; so that one of the biggest chiefs in India informed me that he sincerely believed there was in the late Queen some Divine light, for whenever he entered her presence he felt as though he were in a temple.

Indians believe—and I would challenge anyone who has studied not merely the evolution of plants and