ABSTRACT
Lastly, the thought that (in 1901) this state — but one of dozens more — containing 9,563 inhabitated towns and villages, with a population of just under three million souls, ostensibly governed by the Maharaja, is in reality guided by a tactful, unseen British Political Agent, almost makes me violate my determination to con ne this little book of impressions to what it endeavours to achieve — the passing of an idle hour or two — and rush into the labyrinth of statistics and politics. But I shall resist the temptation, merely saying that in spite of blunders, impeachments and latter-day arm-chair criticism I feel that we ought, all of us, more deeply to bow the knee of admiration to the little band of pioneers beginning with Clive and Warren Hastings and ending, perchance, with the Lawrences, who supplied us with those ingredients necessary to painting in colours of red the vast dependency that stretches from Cape Comorin to Peshawar.
