this country the Jaghirdar of Bangapali and the Rajah of Cananore, who, in addition to his territory now mentioned, holds the Southern Laccadive Islands (p. 176).

In Eastern India the Rajah of Hill Tipperah, though never subjected to the Mogul, receives his investiture from the Mogul's successors. The Kasaa Hill States are twentyfive in number, but with the exception of five, which are semi-independent, they are virtually under the closest subordination to the English Government. In Chota Nagpore, Orissa, Manipore, and Koch Bihar there are a number of small potentates, who exercise more or less absolute sovereignty within their own bounds.

NORTH-WESTERN INDIA.

The Nawab of Rampore governs 390,232 people, but the Rajah of Benares is only a nominal chief of the holy city; his authority merely extends over a patrimonial estate of little value, while his revenue consists of the excess above the fixed tribute. The Garwhul Rajah rules over 200,000 people, while the Shapoora Rajah holds his territory under the British Government, and the Rana of Oodeypore as joint suzerains. The Cis-Sutlej chiefs of a minor character are eight in number, and in the Delhi territory there are three Mohammedan Nawabs. The Hill States comprise a number of small chiefs, Rajahs, Ranas, and Thakurs, who hold their power on various tenures, but with scarcely an exception they are under bonds to render feudal service to Britain; the Rajah of Bhooji, for example, being bound, "in case of war, to join the British in person, with all his retainers, and to construct roads four yards broad in his territory."* Altogether, according to the estimate made by Colonel Malleson, the native chiefs command collectively 5,252 guns, 9,390 trained artillerymen, 61,172 cavalry, and 241,063 foot-soldiers—a force too large to be entrusted in the hands of princes on whose fidelity we do not always rely, and indeed have no right to count.

FOREIGN SETTLEMENTS IN INDIA.

In the necessarily condensed sketches which we have given it will be seen that, though the greater part of India is ours, de jure or de facto, there are a number of native princes who exercise more or less independent sovereignty, maintain mimic armies, and in their distant capitals keep up all the outward state of kings, though in reality only the semblance remains to them. But there are other powers who still hold slices of India, remnants of the greater territory they once ruled when the English merchants were only begging in a humble way for a little bit of ground on which to build a factory.

Portugal was the first of the European nations to carry its commerce to India, but by the middle of the eighteenth century the Lusitanian possessions had dwindled down to very insignificant proportions, and nowadays the Viceroy of Dom Louis reigns over a territory only forty miles long and twenty broad. Panjim, or New Goa, is the seat of government; and if a huge palace overlooking a fine harbour could make Portugal an

Indian power, she ought still to hold herself as as of some consequence in Hindostan. Old Goa, which was in the Middle Ages a splendid city, swarming with rich merchants and adventurers, and from which, as from a centre, Christianity spread through the

surrounding country, is nowadays little better than a heap of ruins, whose splendid fragments are being gradually removed to build up the city of New Goa, which has now taken away most of its trade also. Goa, however, still attracts visitors, for here, towering above the deserted streets, is a noble cathedral, and a church which contains the shrine of Francis Xavier, the "Apostle of the East," and the ruined monasteries and inquisition which in former days aided in securing by terror what had been won by love. Portuguese influence will long remain in India. The church of Xavier still remains; and the traveller who passes through Southern India will often notice large Christian villages under the palm-trees, and the white chapels which were built by this devoted missionary. But monasteries, churches, palaces, and unused public buildings are about the only remnants of Portugal's former greatness which remain. Diu has also fallen into the general decay, though Daman, with its docks and ship-yards, still keeps up a semblance of life.

The Dutch for a time threatened to be the greatest commercial power in India; but by the beginning of this century their day was over, and now they own not a rood of land in the empire, in which at one time Surat, Balasore, and Chinsurah rivalled Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras.

The Danes, who were also among the pioneers of European trade in the East, retired from the struggle in 1845, when Serampore and Tranquebar passed into the hands of the East India Company, in exchange for a goodly sum of money, which to Denmark was then of more value than the burdensome honour of being a petty Eastern

power.

The French came last to the East, but they proved the most formidable of our rivals.* In 1740 the most powerful European in India was M. Dupleix, Governor of the French possessions. But twenty years later Gallic influence was on the wane; and nowadays Pondicherry, Chandernagore, Mahe, Karical, and Yanaon on the Orissa coast are the only remains of the empire which the genius of Lally and Dupleix had all but established in the East, and of these Pondicherry alone retains anything like its ancient importance. With the surrounding country, it covers some 107 square miles, in which live a population of 140,000 souls. Its well-built streets, shady boulevards, and peculiarly French-looking buildings give the town a pleasant appearance; but it has no harbour, and its trade is fast declining. Chandernagore, seventeen miles from Calcutta, has also seen its best days. "The Hooghly, which once bore the largest vessels thither, now flows in shallow volume past its lonely quays and grass-grown streets." These settlements, like the others we have mentioned, are, with one exception-namely, Mahe, on the Malabar coast-situated on the coasts of the Bay of Bengal. Altogether the French claim, according to the latest accounts, to govern 285,000 people in India, while the Portuguese sway extends over between 400,000 and 500,000 people, of whom only a small portion are either Portuguese or Eurasians. The same is, of course, also true of the French, and, to a smaller extent, of the English settlements in India. The European goes to the East not to make it his home. He considers himself only a sojourner, to return whence he came after he has acquired sufficient wealth to enable him to pass * Malleson : "History of the French in India" (1873).