Secretary of State to the Government of India
October 12, 1888

Legal Document No 21

(Extract)

1. I have perused with deep interest the papers regarding Kashmir affairs which accompanied your Excellency's letter of the 18th August, 1888. From them I learn that the instability of the several administrations to which Maharaja Partab Singh had entrusted the management of the affairs of his State since his accession in 1885 has much retarded the execution of the various reforms which have been repeatedly pressed on the attention of the Maharaja, and that, after the abrupt dismissal of the president of the Council, Diwan Lachman Has, in March last, by the Maharaja, His Highness submitted for the consideration of your Excellency a scheme for the reconstitution of the State Council, in which the Maharaja proposed to assume the post of the President.

2. Though this scheme of administration is open to many objections, partly on account of the Maharaja's personal character, and for the other reasons, and is not unlikely to prove a failure your Excellency's Government have determined to allow His Highness a further opportunity of showing whether he is competent to discharge the duties of a responsible ruler.

3. Judging from the reports of the Residents in Kashmir. I can have little expectation myself that the experiment of a Council presided over by the Maharaja will be successful; but, on the other hand, the objections to any radical change in the government of the province at the present juncture are such that I am willing to sanction your proposal to give the Maharaja another occasion of proving whether His Highness possesses either the capacity or the will to introduce and carry into effect those administrative measures which are essential to the prosperity and security of the Kashmir State.