This he gave to me on the road between Poknapoor and Gokurnath by one of his belted attendants, who, after handing it up to me on the elephant, ran along under the nose of Rajah Bukhtawur Sing's fine chestnut horse without saying a word.
I asked the Rajah whether he knew Lonee Sing?
"Yes," said he; "everybody knows him: he is one of the ablest, best, and most substantial men in Oude; and he keeps his estate in excellent order, and is respected by all people."-- "Except his own relations," said the belted attendant; "these he robs of all they have, and nobody interposes to protect them, because he has become wealthy, and they have become poor!" "My good fellow," said the Rajah, "he has only taken what they knew not how to hold, and with the sanction of the King's servants."-- "Yes," replied the man, "he has got the sanction of the King's servants, no doubt, and any one who can pay for it may get that now-a-days to rob others of the King's subjects.

Has not Lonee Sing robbed all his cousins of their estates, and added them to his own, and thereby got the means of bribing the King's servants to let him do what he likes ?" "What," said the Rajah, with some asperity, "should you, a mere soldier, know about State affairs?
Do you suppose that all the members of any family can be equal?
Must there not be a head to all families to keep the rest in order?
Nothing goes on well in families or governments where all are equal, and there is no head to guide; and the head must have the means to guide the rest."-- "True," said the belted attendant, "all can't be equal in the rule of States; but in questions of private right, between individuals and subjects, the case is different; and the ruler should give to every one his due, and prevent the strong from robbing the weak.

I have five fingers in my hand: they serve me, and I treat them all alike.

I do not let one destroy or molest the other." "I tell you," said the Rajah, with increasing asperity, "that there must be heads of families as well as heads of States, or all would be confusion; and Lonee Sing is right in all that he has done.
Don't you see what a state his district is in, now that he has taken the management of the whole upon himself?
I dare say all the waste that we see around us has arisen from the want of such heads of families."-- "You know," said the man, "that this waste has been caused by the oppression of the King's officers, and their disorderly and useless troops, and the strong striving to deprive the weak of their rights." "You know nothing about these matters," said the Rajah, still more angrily.

"The wise and strong are everywhere striving to subdue the weak and ignorant, in order that they may manage what they hold better than they can.