Boondi. It was a high office for one holding his subordinate military rank,
although scarcely too high for his service and merits, and the confidence which
the Rajpoots reposed in him. But the appointment seems to have given
umbrage to those who perhaps thought themselves better entitled to promotion, irrespective of their fitness for such a peculiar office. The sympathy also
which he felt for the people, and the influence which he possessed among the
native princes caused him for a short time to be regarded at head- quarters with
suspicion and jealousy. But these unseemly feelings, although they annoyed
him at first, he soon refuted by his conduct, while the excellence of his administration endeared him more and more every day to the people. This Bishop
Heber found afterwards, in his Episcopal tour, when he passed through the
province of Mewar. On this occasion, the inquiries of the people as to the
welfare of their "Tod Sahib" were incessant, and whether they should ever see
him again. It is not often that the deputy who rules in the name of foreign
masters is thus endeared to a subjugated, but still high-spirited people. The
nature of his administration, his attempts for the restoration of Rajpootana,
and the estimation in which his labours were held, can be best understood from
the following letter to a friend:—"Regarding Bhilwana, the work of my hands,
in February, 1818, there was not a dog in it; in 1822 I left 3000 houses, of
which 1200 were bankers and merchants; an entire street, arcaded, was built
under my directions, and with my means. The merchants from Calcutta,
Jessulmer, Delhi, Surat—from every mart in India—had their correspondents;
and, in fact, it was becoming the chief mart of Rajast'han. The affection of
these people a thousand times repaid my cares. The females met me at a distance, with vessels of water on their heads, singing the Sohaloh, and the whole of the merchants and bankers advanced in a body to conduct me through it. The streets were crowded; brocades of gold silks were suspended from the shops—it made me proud, not vain. It was with difficulty I checked the determination to call it Todgunge; but whatever I did was in the Rana's name. My conscience tells me I deserved their love. How health and comfort were spurned in their behalf! I have lain on my pallet with high fever, my spleen so enlarged as to be felt in every part of my ribs; fifty leeches at work, left to
a servant to superintend, whilst I had the whole of the territorial officers of the district of Mondelgurh, consisting of 350 towns and villages, at the other side, taking the whole of their accounts, and separating the fisc and the lands of the chiefs even to a beegah all the while half-dead with inanition. But I had the principle of life strong within me. It appears now a dream. But a week before I was at the point of death; but it was vain to tell me to desist from work. A short time after I was knocked off my elephant in going to restore to the chief of the Megawats twenty-seven villages, alienated for forty-five years,
which I recovered from the fangs of the Mahrattas. The animal ran off, crossing
the wooden bridge of his moat, and the arch, being too low, carried me fairly off. That I was not crushed was a miracle. That night the triumphal arch of the Megawats was levelled to the ground! These are the men without gratitude! It was worth a broken limb, yet I escaped with bruises. But my head burns as did my heart for my Rajpoots."
In this short account we have the secret of that wondrous spell by which we retain the empire of the East. Compare Colonel Tod with a Roman praetor or pro-consul! It is only when Britain will impose rulers upon her Indian dependencies who will pillage, rather than protect and benefit the people, that
