(५८) मल्हारराव महाराज गायकवाड यांचा खरा इतिहास. इंडिया असोशिएशन सभेस कांही द्रव्याचें सहाय्य करावें. हे खलिते रवाना झाल्यावर मल्हारराव महाराज यानी दादाभाई यांचे मुलास कंपनी शिक्याचे पन्नास हजार रुपये बक्षीस दिले. दादाभाई यानी महाराजांच्या इच्छेप्रमाणे आपल्या मुलासाठी म्हणून Backward.] 18317 Lord Clare visited Baroda twice. 1832 1841. Sir J. Carnac, at Baroda. 1850. Lord Dalhousie, Governor-General, with Lord Falkland, at Bombay. 1861. Sir George Russel Clerk, at Baroda. 1864. Sir Bartle Frere, at Bombay. 1868. Sir Seymour Fitzgerald, at Broach. 1870. His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, at Bombay. 1870. Sir Seymour Fitzgerald, at Bombay. 1871. Sir Seymour Fitzgerald, at Baroda. I now appeal to your Lordship with the utmost confidence, that a State honour- ed by such men would not now be allowed to be degraded in the eyes of all India at your Lordship's hands. It is this honour, together with that of the Morchals, which gives this State the highest position in all India in the friendship and regard of the British Rulers. I cannot but contemplate with extreme distress of mind, any interfe- rence with such honour. It will hurl down this State from its high and proud posi- tion as if it had been guilty of some seriously disloyal act. It cannot for one moment be imagined that the dignity and honour of the English power can be in the least lower- ed by loyal adherence to an honour allowed by it to its best ally. On the contrary, it the more redounds to its credit that its word is inviolable, and that an honour allowed by it is ever to be unshaken. Your Lordship can hardly conceive the anguish of mind I am suffering since the question has been raised without the slightest occasion, that this State should suffer a degradation in the eyes of India. I rely, my Lord, on your generous feelings; on the sacred promise in her Majesty's gracious Proclamation, "We shall respect the rights, and dignity, and honour of Native Princes as our own; "and on the determination "faithfully to carry out the policy as expressed in Her Majesty's most gracious Pro- clamation to the Princes and People in India. " Your Lordship has recently twice proclaimed, in addressing the Native Rajahs" that your dignity, your honour, and your independence will be carefully respected "and "as Her Majesty's Representative, it will be my duty to maintain to the utmost of my power your diginity and indepen- dence. " And I cannot but be sanguine, that an honour shown to this State by such illustrious personages in Indian history as those I have mentioned above, will not now be torn away from it,-a State which has more than justified the eulogium passed up- on its loyal alliance by Lord Clare forty years ago, by its conduct to the present day, and on the most trying occasions. This State, my Lord, stands first in the regard and distinction of the British Crown. I pray that it may so remain for ever, and that it may be an enduring monument of the appreciation by the British Crown of the un- flinching and unwavering alliance of a staunch and steady ally. Sir John Malcolm, even at a time of displeasure and difference proclaimed more than forty years ago that the regard for the family of Guicowar and the ties of friend- ship which had long bound the two States were too great to allow the contemplation of alienating even one beegha of its dominions. And now, though this regard and these ties have been far more strengthened and established, it is contemplated to de- prive this State, of what to it is infinitely more valuable and dearer than beeghas of land-its highest honour, and its first place among the Princes of India. It is im- [Forward.
