robber chiefs, primus inter pares. The British Government succeeded to many large estates under this rule, such as Búriya, Ambála, Thaneswar, Diálgarh, Rudour, Mustafábád, Firozpur, and Kaithal. After 1860 the Government decided to change its policy, and, conferring on all the principal chiefs the privilege of adoption, practically waived for ever its right of escheat. That this policy was, in the main, wise may be admitted, and its results have been to strengthen the position of the Government with the native States. But it may be questioned whether it was not carried out in too general and liberal a manner, and whether it would not have been more judicious to have granted the right of adoption for a term as a special reward for the highest services to the Government, renewable or denied after full consideration of the circumstances of each case. As it is, the indiscriminate grant of the right of adoption by Lord Canning, making the Government an earthly Providence whose favours are conferred alike on the just and the unjust, has deprived it for ever of the power of rewarding loyalty and devotion most splendidly, and of most effectively punishing treason.
