Page:Sir Henry Lawrence, the Pacificator.djvu/141

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
132
SIR HENRY LAWRENCE

satí, female infanticide, and the maltreatment of prisoners. Satí he practically suppressed, and the prison arrangements were greatly improved. In all such matters his principle was to interest the chiefs, to work through them, and lead them to realize that these were the proper matters for the exercise of their position and functions as rulers, and that to them would accrue the credit for success. With what delight would he have seen the noble and successful efforts made by Lord Mayo for the education and enlightenment of the Rájputána chiefs and nobles!

In the suppression of infanticide, he had not, when he left the Province, made as much way as he had hoped, or as he had done in the Punjab. Inordinate pride of race was at the bottom of the difficulty; partly in respect of the restrictions of lineage and family honour on the castes with which marriage was desirable, and partly from the extravagance and consequent impoverishment that in many cases attended the marriage ceremonies. It was only by the insistence on the principle that infanticide, like satí, involved murder, that progress was by degrees made in the suppression of the evil.

During the remainder of his stay in Rájputána the Crimean War was going on, and his thoughts were a good deal directed towards the action that Russia might be taking in regard to India and the intervening countries; and he approved of the treaty which, initiated by Herbert Edwardes, Lord Dalhousie made with Dost Muhammad.