“’It never will do to talk in that kind of way, Smooth; ’twill never do!  When you Yankees make grave charges, you forget to clothe them with style and dignity:  they are things of much importance in government matters, and then it never comes to much for small men to prate against powerful bodies pursuing formidable enterprises.’

“‘Listen, John!’ I retorted, laying my right hand good-naturedly on his left shoulder, ’that which takes from a country without previously spreading nourishment to sustain it is a dredging machine, and will sooner or later dry up its resources.  It takes out, but forgets to put in, thinking only of the present, while the future invites an enlightened policy to nurture and bring out its richer resources.’  But with these small misdemeanors we would not directly charge Uncle John, who is at times as honorable as he is dogged; but he, fathered as he is with the responsibility, is seriously to blame for this neglect.  Viewing these things in their proper light, John and Jonathan, stimulated by the same virtuous inclinations, and weighing well their distinctive prowess, should be careful not to offend by petty means:  how much better to encourage friendly relations, than wound a sensitive but worthy national pride!  Promising to criminate after this fashion so much in vogue no more, we left the desolate Scinde, continued our way across an immense waste, where might have risen up one of the mightiest and most fertile empires.  An enlightened policy only was wanted.  The people were ignorant of their power and resources:  John had conquered, and viewed it well to keep them so.  His East India dredge did not dissent to this verdict.  My friend John thought the acquisition well approved.  But the people, he said, were worthless; they added superstition to ignorance and fierceness, and obstinately opposed the bettering their condition.  ’Without attempting to burden your credulity, Jonathan,’ interpolated John, ’the truth is, we well understood the nature of this people, and having failed to conciliate them in one way betook ourselves to another, and in our characteristic style chastised them into submission.’  John spoke with great seriousness, never for a moment lessening his air of dignity.  Indeed, it embodied and acknowledged serious mode of docilizing a people:  how much real attachment between the conqueror and conquered must follow this system we leave the reader to contemplate.  The honorable Mr. John, notwithstanding, had a very circuitous way of confessing the fact of having taken into his family, by this arbitrary system of wedlock, no end of people; still he accused Jonathan of using his soft-sawder for the same purpose.

“Journeying a few days through a country rich of soil and rivers turned to no account, we reached a dominion called the Punjaub, which John said had limits he knew not where, and was his, too.  He acquired it by the same bold and very honorable stroke of policy.  The chiefs, he said, kept up a continued jarring among themselves; such being fatal to their best interests, he, as a friend, merely stepped in to put an end to their unprofitable disputes.