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Quote#Wisdom

If you can keep Peace, reduce expense, extend Commerce, and…

Quote byRobert Peel · 1788–1850

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Prime Minister, Letter to Henry Hardinge, the Governor-General of India (6 November 1844), quoted in Donald Read, Peel and the Victorians (1987), p. 154.

English (original)

If you can keep Peace, reduce expense, extend Commerce, and strengthen our hold on India by Confidence in our justice and kindness and wisdom, you will be received on your Return with acclamations a thousand times louder and a welcome infinitely more cordial than if you have a dozen victories to boast of, and annexe the Punjaub to the overgrown Empire of India.

— Robert Peel

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