ail it as a
blessing.

There are two reasons why we should leave these small native states
under their own chiefs, even when the claim to the succession is
feeble or defective; first, because it tends to relieve the minds of
other native chiefs from the apprehension, already too prevalent
among them, that we desire by degrees to absorb them all, because we
think our government would do better for the people; and secondly,
because, by leaving them as a contrast, we afford to the people of
India the opportunity of observing the superior advantages of our
rule.

'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,' in governments as well
as in landscapes; and if the people of India, instead of the living
proofs of what perilous things native governments, whether Hindoo or
Muhammadan, are in reality, were acquainted with nothing but such
pictures of them as are to be found in their histories and in the
imaginations of their priests and learned men (who lose much of their
influence and importance under our rule), they would certainly, with
proneness like theirs to delight in the marvellous, be far from
satisfied, as they now are, that they never had a government so good
as ours, and that they never could hope for another so good, were
ours removed.[31]

For the advantages which we derive from leaving them independent, we
are, no doubt, obliged to pay a heavy penalty in the plunder of our
wealthy native subjects by the gangs of robbers of all descriptions
whom they foster; but this evil may be greatly diminished by a
judicious interposition of our authority to put down such bands.[32]

In Bundelkhand, at present, the government and the lands of the
native chiefs are in the hands of three of the Hindoo military
classes, Bundelas, Dhandelas, and Pawars. The principal chiefs are of
the first, and their feudatories are chiefly of the other two. A
Bundela cannot marry the daughter of a Bundela; he must take his wife
from one or other of the other two tribes; nor can a member of either
of the other two take his wife from his own tribe; he must take her
from the Bundelas, or the other tribe. The wives of the greatest
chiefs are commonly from the poorest families of their vassals; nor
does the proud family from which she has been taken feel itself
exalted by the alliance; neither does the poorest vassal among the
Pawars and Dhandels feel that the daughter of his prince has
condescended in becoming his wife. All they expect is a servic