State had declined to adopt an heir, with the express view that his people might after his death obtain the security of the English administration.
A more historically important case was that of Jhánsí. This State, a fragment of the Maráthá plunder of Northern India, was ceded to the British by the Peshwá in 1817. Its new rulers confirmed, in the same year, the hereditary title of the local Subáhdár, and advanced the holder of that office to the dignity of Raja in 1832. In 1835 the Raja, after a weak and oppressive administration, died childless. The British Government declined to recognise a son whom he had adopted, and out of four claimants selected a great-uncle to succeed to the principality. He in his turn oppressed and misgoverned during a brief rule, and after mortgaging part of his territories for debt, disappeared from the scene, also childless. Again four claimants presented themselves, and again the British Government selected a successor to the State of Jhánsí. Meanwhile, however, the country had fallen into such disorder that the British Government had to assume the direct administration. After establishing order and nursing the finances of the State, the management was restored in 1842, to the Raja whom we had selected. He proved in his later years to be a fair ruler judged by native standards. On his death, in 1853, the British Government had to decide whether, in the absence of a male heir, the
