264 Loyalty of Indian Princes [ x 909 



it might be a President, as in the United States. All would be easy to 

 arrange. He does not give English rule in India more than five to 

 ten, at most twenty, years of survival. A revolution could be accom- 

 plished to-morrow if the funds necessary were forthcoming. Five mil- 

 lion sterling would be sufficient. As to the army, it was a mere matter 

 of money which side it would take. It was mercenary, and would go 

 where its pay was most secure. It was not loyal for any other reason. 

 As for the native Princes whose loyalty was constantly proclaimed, they 

 hated English rule in their hearts ; their loyalty was forced on them 

 by the residents, who ordered all things in their name, by promises held 

 out alternately with threats. One great hold the Residents had over 

 them was this : in former times each independent prince had his 

 treasure house where he stored up his wealth. Now the Residents in- 

 sisted on their investing it in Government securities, so as to bind their 

 money interests to the existing state of things. I showed him my notes 

 of what Mademoiselle Gaignaud had told me in 1884 about Cordery's 

 threats to the Nizam. He assured me it was true. Since I was at 

 Hyderabad, there had been a plot in Lord Dufferin's time, according to 

 which it had been intended to depose the Nizam, on the plea of unsound 

 mind, and to replace him with a Regency, so as once more to get control 

 of the State Funds ; but this had been prevented by the Nizam's appeal 

 to his old minister, the Peshkar, who had him medically examined and 

 pronounced him to be entirely sane before Cordery could get a contrary 

 medical opinion. The plan of Governing by a Regency was a favourite 

 one with our officials, as it threw all power without restraint into the 

 hands of the Resident. As to Scindia, it was the same thing ; none of 

 the native princes were really loyal, in spite of their public professions 

 and their subscriptions. 



" I asked him whether it would not be better to bring about the 

 coming change peaceably. He said, ' Of course. But it would be 

 impossible ; there are too many money interests involved. India, in 

 spite of the great poverty of the people, still had much undeveloped 

 wealth in mines and such like. The Indian Government would always 

 be able to pay a mercenary army for its support, and as long as it could 

 pay its way it would listen to no reason. It would never abdicate its 

 authority while it could buy men to fight. The Government policy was 

 to prevent the growth of wealth in native hands. Nevertheless the 

 present state of things could not be made to last by force for more 

 than twenty years. 



" Dr. Riza Tewfik, Turkish delegate and member of Parliament for 

 Adrianople, lunched with us in Chapel Street. He is by birth an Alban- 

 ian Moslem, his mother a Circassian, nor has he till this year been out 

 of Turkey, yet he talks French like a Parisian, and has a great knowl- 

 edge of French and English literature, and has acquired a very great 



