Lord Curzon on April 26th addressed to the Frontier Chiefs
assembled in Durbar at Peshawur a rather remarkable speech. He assured them that the British Government never interfered with religion, that it sought no land on the Frontier, and that if the Chiefs would keep down their passion for spilling blood it would carefully maintain their honour. Their allowances for keeping the passes open would be regularly paid, and the defence of the passes would be entrusted to a Militia composed of their own tribesmen. The speech is a wise one, as the Chiefs attach weight to words uttered by the bead of the State, and as it would dissipate many rumours caused by the formation of the new Frontier Province. The Chiefs were under the impression, we are told, that they were all to be regularised, that is, reduced to the position of country gentlemen, as so many Chiefs have been within our own dominions. They resented this design, but they will believe the Viceroy, and go back to their hills con- fident that, however unaccountable the infidels may be, with their eternal fuss about a few lives taken half for vengeance and half for excitement, it is not intended to degrade them- selves. It seems strange that we have governed for eighty years at least two hundred millions of men through supreme agents not one of whom could address to any one of his subjects a single intelligible sentence ; but the Roman Caesars could have spoken to only few.
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