Letter from the Respectful Memorial of Sudashiv Rao Guicowar, alias Rao Saheb, a resident of the City of Baroda to His Excellency the Right Honourable Thomas George Baring, Baron Northbrook of Stratton, Viceroy and Governor General of India in Council [‎7r] (7/18)

To
HIS EXCELLENCY THE RIGHT HONORABLE THOMAS GEORGE BARING,
BARON NORTHBROOK OF STRATTON,
viceroy and governor general of india in council.
The Respectful Memorial of Svdashiv Rao
Guicowav (alias llao Saheh), a vesidcnf of the
City of Baroda.
Siieweth,
That your Excellency's Memorialist has heard with profound regret of the suspension of his
uncle, His Highness Mulhar Rao Guicowar, from the exercise of Sovereign power, and of his con
finement by the British Government on a charge of instigating an attempt to administer poison to
Colonel Phayre, the late Resident at Baroda.
2. That as a memher of the Royal House of Baroda \ our Excellency's Memorialist cannot
hut entertain the earnest desire that the stain of so foul a crime may not be fixed on any
member of the Royal family, and it would, indeed, give Your Excellency's Memorialist very great
satisfaction to learn that His Highness has been found innocent of the very grave offence of which
he has been suspected.
3. That in the event, however, of the inquiry into the said charge proving unfavorable to His
Highness, and of his deposition being finally determined upon, your Excellency's Memorialist begs,
on the faith of the gracious promise contained in Your Excellency's Proclamation of the 13th ultimo
that a Native Administration will be re-established at Barodaj-te wge his claim on Your Exccllencv's
attention as the next legal heir to the Baroda Gadee.
4. That Your Excellency's Memorialist is the great-grandson of His Highness Govind Rao
Maharaj, the grandfather of His Highness Mulhar Rao, at one time the ruling sovereign of Baroda,
and a firm and faithful ally of the British Government. That when the said Govind Rao Maharaj
died, lie. left him sui\i\ing his thiee sons, Anund Rao, Futtehsmg Rao (your Memorialist's grand-
tather) and Sayajee Rao. Anund Rao being the eldest of the sons succeeded to the Gadee ; but as
he was of weak intellect, your Memorialist's grandfather Futtehsing Rao acted as his Regent. The
important and valuable services which as such Regent the said Futtehsing Rao rendered to the
British Government during their early days of con(|uest in India are well known facts of history.
Futtehsing Rao, who by right was entitled to succeed Anund Rao on the Gadee, having died during
Anund Rao's lifetime, your Memorialist's father Govind Rao was, as his duly adopted son, entitled
to succeed him in all his rights on the well established principle of Hindu law that the right of an
adopted son to succession is in every respect the same as that of a son born. The validity of the
adoption of your Memorialist's father has been acknowledged both by the Highest British Authorities
and by the Guicowar himself, as will be seen by the following passage from Lieut. Col. Wallace's
book on "The Guicowar," page 577. The Court of Directors The London-based directors of the East India Company who dealt with the daily conduct of the Company's affairs. , in their Despatch of the 15th March,
184S, "decided in Govind Rao's favor, on the grounds that he was regularly adopted, and
" therefore entitled under our guarantee to all the rights appertaining to an adopted son. To this
" decision Gunpat Rao Guicowar, who had succeeded Sayajee, yielded a most reluctant assent; not, he
" explained, from avaricious motives, as the amount of property was so trifling, but because he feared
" that an admission on his part of the adoption of Govind Rao being valid would be brought np at
" some future time to bar the rights of his family to the Gadee." On Anund Rao's death, however,
your Memorialist's father being a boy of ten years old, Sayajee Rao, at first on his behalf, took
the reins of administration into his hands, and a few months afterwards himself usurped the regal