and exposure no materials were then available. Famines, agrarian agitations, tribal or sectarian movements, in short all the less common but inevitable incidents of Indian rule, were wont to take the Government not less than the public by surprise. The actual revenues and administration of even a British District were official secrets into which no outsider could penetrate.
The Government of India's relations with its Feudatory States were shrouded in a still deeper mystery. It was not until four years after the East India Company ceased to exist, that anything approaching to an accurate and complete collection of its treaties and engagements with the Native States was rendered accessible to the English public. When a feudatory prince felt himself aggrieved, he sent home a confidential agent laden with uncut gems and bags of rupees, to stir up an agitation in London. If he was a very great prince, and thought it worth his while, he could always secure the services of one of the many English malcontents who had their own grievances against the Company.
Half the lies disseminated in England about India, from the time of Warren Hastings downward, would now be exposed in a moment by a reference to Aitchison's Treaties and The Imperial Gazetteer. These works, at once complete, authoritative, and available to the public, were not produced until
