He was succeeded by other able commissioners, and nothing of any political importance happened in the province till June, 1865, when the Maharajah adopted as his heir a scion of one of the leading families of his house.

It was for some time doubtful whether the Government would recognize the adoption, as, after the death of the Maharajah, it had been generally assumed that the province would be annexed, but in April, 1867, the Home Government decided that it should be recognized, and on September 23rd, 1868, six months after the death of Krishna Rajah, his adopted son, Chama Rajendra Wodeyar Bahadur, at that time between five and six years old, was duly installed at Mysore, and it was then decided that the country should remain under British administration till the Maharajah came of age.

His Highness attained his majority at the age of eighteen, on the 5th of March, 1881, and was formally installed on the throne on the 25th of that month, and thus the province, after having been directly administered by the British for almost exactly fifty years, was handed over, not as we shall afterwards see, to native rule, but to native administration.
And here a rather interesting question naturally arises.

How was such a change--one quite unique in the history of India--received by the inhabitants of the country?
So far as the planters (of whom I am one of the oldest, having settled in the province in 1855) are concerned, I do not think they have been in the slightest degree affected.

They were all well satisfied with the English administration, and I think they are equally well satisfied with the present native administration.