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the Jains could very well rely, and they do, on the force of the solemn agreements stretching over centuries, which definitely preclude the Palitana Durbar, in consideration of a stipulated amount paid regularly irrespective of there being pilgrims or not, from making any other exactions from the Jain community going on pilgrimage to the Hill in the state. In the latter case, there is, besides these agreements, the much wider principle of imperial policy in India, which precludes any local authority from taxing the citizens of any other local authority, not to mention the still more general principle of national statesmanship in India, which has condemned for centuries past pilgrim taxes as invidious, inexpedient, and unpermissible. The Hon. Mr. Watson has calmly ignored all these treaties, sanads, firmans, agreements, because they do not fit in with his rooted prejudice against the Jains, because they do not square with his determination to enrich the Palitana Durbar at the cost of the Jains of India at laige. The single fact, that in his order he has opined that the Jains ought in the first instance to have had recourse to the municipal courts of Palitana is enough to condemn the legal aspect of his entire Order. For this is not a dispute between the Palitana state and its own subjects, whether Jains or non-Jains. This is a dispute in which the Palitana state is interested against the Jains of all India. Ob
