DIVISION OF MYSORE. 15J7 



they did not choose to accept. There remained yet an ex- 

 tensive district in the interior of Mysore, which Marquis 

 Wellesley judged most expedient not to partition, but to form 

 it into a native kingdom under the protection and control of 

 Britain. The question then arose as to the prince in whom 

 the supreme dignity was to be vested. The governor-gen- 

 eral would not have been disinclined to bestow it on one of 

 the family of Tippoo ; but he justly considered, that the 

 recollection of the recent greatness of their house must 

 have rendered them always hostile to the power by 

 whom its downfall had been achieved. It appeared, there- 

 fore, more advisable, after making a liberal provision for 

 these princes, to draw forth from their deep humiliation the 

 ancient race of the Rajahs of Mysore, to whom the people 

 were still fondly attached. The representative of this house, 

 a minor of five years old, and his mother, were found in 

 great poverty and neglect ; from which, amid the applauses 

 of their countrymen, they were raised to the splendour and 

 to some share of the power of Asiatic royalty. 



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