MEMOIRS OF HIS HIGHNESS SHRI SHAIIU GHATRA- PATI MAHAZAYA OF
KOLHAPUR. By A. B. Lattite. (Printed at The Times Press, Bombay.) Tuts is an account of the life and doings of the hereditary Eider of Kolhapur, a native State in the Bombay Presi- dency. The State is about the size of Devonshire and has a population about half as large again. When the biography of a native of India is written by his own countryman front a very eulogistic point of view outlines of character arc apt to become blurred. The impression left upon the reader by two very thick and diffuse volumes is that of a feudal squire who loved his tenantry and who with some courage and the corroboration of the governing power endeavoured to impfove the lot of the lowest of his people, defying custom and even the rules of caste in his efforts to deliver them front any tyranny less exalted than his own. Letters from him to _ the EagliAt authorities and from them to him throw an interesting light upon our relation to the native Princes in India, and this is perhaps the only thing which makes it warth while to wade through the greater portion of the book.
Previous page
