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of the fortified walled area within which the temples and the Kunds are situated, and around and about which, by agreement of the parties as well as by the orders of Government, no act can take place which will in any way offend the religious susceptibilities of the Jain community. We shall not consider for the moment the question of the adequacy or otherwise of the compensation or payment made by the community to the Durbar for some centuries in return for the benefit of their protection, which is nowadays nominal only. These are matters which may well be thrashed out before the Agent to the Governor-General, though we cannot disguise from our readers the fact that the indirect effect of the decision on these matters is bound to have immense effect even on the main question of principle.
Leaving, however, the Jains and the Thakore to fight out the immediate issues in the tribunal before which they seem to have agreed to raise these questions in the first instance, we cannot avoid discussing the bearings of the general question of the pilgrim tax, and that of the right of an Indian State to tax in such an indirect mander the subjects of British India. The tax on pilgrims has been condemned ad hoc genus omne, ever since the day that the statesmanship and sagacity of the greatest of the Mughals recognised the futility of such a method of insidi
