154
OUR RETIRING RESIDENT.
HYDERABAD, 1st November 1891.
Now that it is known for certain that Sir Dennis Fitz-
patrick vacates the office of Resident here and leaves Hyderabad for Bombay, en route to England on the 12th instant, it
seems advisible that I should lay before the readers of this
journal a brief retrospect of the period of his "stewardship,”
indicating the policy he has pursued, the results it has produced,
in what it differs from that of his predecessor, what changes his
influence has wrought in the state of affairs of the Nizam's
Kingdom, and what sort of a legacy he leaves to his successors.
There cannot be two opinions about Sir Dennis's character
as an official. He is upright, conscientious, even-handed in his
dealings with the meanest as well as the highest, and in short
he is as good a specimen of a British Indian official as it is possible to have. Yet he has not only been of no use to Hyderabad,
but a source, though innocent, of harm to the many millions of
its inhabitants. Strange as this may sound, it is nevertheless a
fact, a fact that any one who has noted with accuracy the events
of the last three years can testify to; and I am inclined to think
it is due to the preponderance in Sir Dennis of the very qualities
we would deem virtues in a man, I shall make myself clear.
It is a well-known fact that Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick's immediate predecessors did not leave behind them any happy records
of work done or attempted. Devoid of self-restraint and farsightedness which alone could have provided against their stranding themselves and made it all fair sailing for them, Messrs.
Cordery and Howell, both very clever men, identified themselves
with some one or other of the factions that this unfortunate
State is always full of, were swayed by party passions, became
amenable to the mean tactics of party warfare, and suffered, as
they richly deserved to suffer, discomfiture, and disappeared
