n the rule of common sense and of the thumb.
When the circumstances of the time are such that it is deemed right
and proper to abrogate all law, and to establish over the land a reign
of terror and of the sword--to pour out, in deference to the paramount
claims of the safety of the state, public money, whether obtained from
present taxation or the mortgage of posterity, with profusion
absolutely uncontrolled--to decree confiscation on a scale of
unprecedented magnitude; it is obvious that a reputation for clemency,
economy, and respect for the native rights of property, is obtainable
under conditions that are not strictly normal. If you want to
ascertain whether your system will stand in all weathers, you must
test it when the rule of law and order have replaced that of arbitrary
will--when men present themselves, not as the scared recipients of
bounty, but as the assertors of admitted rights. We shall see how far,
in such piping times, it may be possible for the Governor-General to
enforce on the British local authorities the claims of public economy,
without resorting to any interference which can be supposed to
militate against the hypothesis that the said authorities understand a
great deal better than he does what their wants are, and how they
ought to be supplied; or to maintain the peace of India without
questioning the indefeasible title of the native chiefs to do what
they like with their own.

Meanwhile all I want as regards this matter is, to learn what
Canning's policy really was, and to follow it out faithfully. It is
neither fair to him nor to the cause, that we should misjudge its
character by founding our estimate of it on a partial or incomplete
induction.

* * * * *

_To Sir Charles Wood._

Calcutta, December 23rd, 1862.

[Sidenote: Consideration of the natives.]

As to consideration of the natives, I can only say that during a
public service of twenty years I have always sided with the weaker
party, and it is so strongly my instinct to do so, that I do not think
the most stringent injunctions would force me into an opposite course
of action. But I am quite sure that it is not true kindness to the
weaker party, to give the stronger an excuse for using to the utmost
the powers of coercion which they possess, by seeming to be unwi