Page:White Paper on Indian States (1950).pdf/19

7. The principle of paramountcy although elaborated as a political doctrine later was clearly and vigorously asserted during this period. Wellesley was the first Governor-General to feel and act as the Paramount Power and his paramountcy complex was reflected in the attitude of his immediate subordinates. Of the East India Company, Metcalfe wrote in 1806: "Sovereigns you are, as such must act". During the regime of Lord Hastings, the relative position of the parties changed "too decidedly to be governed merely by the written words of treaties". The first clear enunciation of the idea of paramountcy is to be found in Ochterlony's letter to Metcalfe, dated March 21, 1820, in which he writes: "I hope His Lordship will in Virtue of his Power and Paramountcy forbid all future invasions of Surhoie and fix himself a sum which the Rajah must take". In his Minute, 1825, Metcalfe speaks of the fact of paramountcy by which the British Government had itself the "duty as supreme guardians of general tranquillity, law and right to maintain the legal succession". Thus, as early as the first quarter of the 19th century, Metcalfe and Ochterlony had evolved the full doctrine of paramountcy in a form indistinguishable from that held by Lord Reading in his famous letter to the Nizam. (Appendix I.)

8. The Subsidiary System of alliance which guaranteed to the Rulers their position and their possessions not only against external aggression but also against rebellion, revolution or opposition on the part of their subjects, removed all incentive for good government. Insured against the consequences of misrule, the Princes no longer found it necessary to cultivate the goodwill of the people or to maintain efficiency of administration. On the evils of the Subsidiary System, Thomas Munroe wrote as follows:—