, as the finances are in a flourishing
condition, and, beyond the subsidy annually levied, are free from any
obligation to contribute to the general expenditure of British India,
there are ample and certain means available for developing the resources
of the country. And that these means shall be devoted to that end
exclusively, I would call particular attention to the fact that it has
been laid down by the British Government that, after deducting the amount
set apart annually for the personal expenses of the Maharajah, the
remaining revenues of the province are to be spent on public purposes
only, under a regular system of an annual budget appropriation, and the
proper accounting for such expenditure. So that, taking all the
circumstances into consideration, it is clear that the settlers in Mysore
have advantages over any other settlers in India. The taxes they pay on
their lands are fixed and most moderate in amount, they have every
security that capital can enjoy, and they are living in a country which,
after an ample expenditure on public works of all kinds, has an ample
annual surplus. But, besides those circumstances, the settlers in the
province, and the inhabitants as well, have another advantage which must
by no means be lost sight of, for Mysore has a Representative Assembly,
which sits once a year, and which affords a ready means for publicly
ventilating any grievance, or making known any want which may be felt by
the community; and as there is no institution exactly like it in the
world, I propose to describe the constitution of the Assembly and its
proceedings with some degree of minuteness.

The Mysore Representative Assembly, then, which was originated by Mr.
Rungacharlu, the first Prime Minister of Mysore, was inaugurated on the
25th of August, 1881, or about five months after the accession of the
Maharajah, by the following notification:

"His Highness the Maharajah is desirous that the views and objects which
his Government has in view in the measures adopted for the administration
of the Province should be better known and appreciated by the people for
whose benefit they are intended, and he is of opinion that a beginning
towards the attainment of that object may he made by an annual meeting of
the representative landholders and merchants from all parts of the
Province, before whom the Dewan will place the results of the past year's
administration, and a programme of what is intended to be carried out