At a future time, if I live, and remain here, it is possible that I may take the liberty of submitting to you some views of my own on these questions.  It may perhaps turn out that a time of peace is better fitted than one of revolution for the discovery of the true theory according to which our relations with native States ought to be conducted; or, it may be, for the discovery that no theory can be framed sufficiently elastic to fit all those relations and the complications which arise out of them, and that, after all, we must in a great measure rely on 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 unwilling to