168

States within the plains of India.
Within the peninsula of India there exists a very
large number of protected states, which are more of
less independent. These are all tributary to, in
subordinate alliance with, or controlled by, the British
government, They are none of them independent
in the sense that Afghanistan and Nipal are independent.
 They are surrounded by British territories and
acknowledge the Empress of India as their suzerain.
[n regard to internal affairs they are not interfered
with, except in the event of gross tyranny and misrule
 ; and even then the integrity of the state is
maintained, and a successor is selected from the
reigning family. To prevent the dissolution of the
reigning family, the right of adoption has been
largely recognized ; the proclamation of 1858 secured
their rights in this respect.

Regarding the protected states as a whole they
have, in round numbers, a population of fifty million
of souls, and an area of half a million square miles,
From a political point of view they form an important
factor of the Indian empire.
Sir Richard Temple, in his work fudia in 1880,*
remarks as follows —

The Native States supply some of the unavoidable defi-~iencies
 of a foreign rule, among a people with whom a versarile
 fancy, a passion for external display, and a spirit of veneration
 for visible glories, are often predominant. The citizens

# India in 1880, p. 62, ¢f seq.