Letter from Colonel Sir Lewis Pelly, Baroda to His Lordship Lord Northbrook, Viceroy of India [‎4v] (8/10)

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of the most practical remarks I have heard here have fallen from him. At
the same time he is childish, vain, sometimes almost cringing in manner, yet
vulgarly tenacious in matters of etiquette and precedence. He has many of Hie
attributes which distinguish men subjected to prolonged danger, political har-
rassment, and other annoyances requiring the subject of them to be pliant,
wary, revengeful, and quite capable, under ordinary circumstances, of con
cealing his feelings. He does not drink ; but I am not sure that he does not
use drugs. He was scandalously loose in regard to women. He is still an
unfaithful husband, but I have heard of no recent scandals. It may be doubted
whether it was wise to place a man of His Highness's antecedents and grudges
on the guddee.
R E S U M t.
The pressing question and the key of the whole reformation is the finance.
My own opinion tends towards the conviction that the revenues of these
territories, inclusive of sayer and tribute, cannot safely be estimated at more
than sixty lacs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees per annum, and that our total outlay must be revised and
re-distributed to meet this income. It is, of course, an immense reduction as
compared with last year's real outlay of 170 lacs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees , or State outlay of 130 lacs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees .
However, I find that in the time of the present Gaekwar's father the
revenues stood at about sixty lacs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees , and I am advising His Highness, not indeed
precisely to imitate his father's outlay, but to accept it as a guide to, and limit
of, expenditure. And this His Highness and the Minister promise to do.
The necessary statements will be ready in a few days, and we then set to
work.
The next question is that of the attitude of the agriculturalists towards
the Durbar A public or private audience held by a high-ranking British colonial representative (e.g. Viceroy, Governor-General, or member of the British royal family). . How much of this is due to agitation and to hopes raised by
our interference ? And what residuum is there of permanent or solid com
plaint ? The present proclamation in regard to remissions being issued, I
propose to let it have its effect, and for a time to rest quiet, and let matters
cool down. We shall meantime learn whether the cultivators persist in their
resolve not to pay even the first instalment of revenue. If they do this, they