DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3461#0019
10 INDIA, AND HER HISTORY.
To Olive—the brave, the enterprising, and saga-
cious—we owe the first foundation of British power
in the East, and without going into a history, which
must be read in all its entirety to enable the reader
to come to just conclusions, we may fairly assume
that if every part of his conduct was not regulated
by the most upright principles, and if some part of
his successes was more owing to good fortune than
wisdom (for he was strangely eccentric in some re-
spects), it cannot be doubted or denied that he was,
from first to last, animated by a noble and unex-
ampled patriotism.
It were impossible, within the limits of this work,
to trace the gradual growth of the British empire in
India, the result of the combined action of commerce
and war, or the rise and progress of the Mahratta
States, and the destruction of the confederacy formed
by them against the English. The reader who would
know how, from simple traders, we have become the
mighty masters of the most extensive empire that
ever has existed since the downfall of Roman supre-
macy, must consult the pages of Mill, Orme, Elphin-
stone, Wilson, and Thornton, and the thousand and
one lesser volumes which enter into the details of
war and the progress of civilization. He would there
learn bow, in their struggles to maintain supremacy,
the native sovereigns and chieftains leagued against
us have succumbed to the valour and discipline of
small united bodies of troops, headed in battle by
daring and sagacious officers; how the infraction of
treaties has led to the chastisement of Nabobs and
Rajahs, and the confiscation of their territory; how
the insolence and violence of the Burmese caused
expeditions to be sent to the kingdom of Ava, end-
ing in victory and the appropriation of the land upon
the coasts, and the once independent kingdom of
Pegu; how the atrocious irruption of the Sikhs into
To Olive—the brave, the enterprising, and saga-
cious—we owe the first foundation of British power
in the East, and without going into a history, which
must be read in all its entirety to enable the reader
to come to just conclusions, we may fairly assume
that if every part of his conduct was not regulated
by the most upright principles, and if some part of
his successes was more owing to good fortune than
wisdom (for he was strangely eccentric in some re-
spects), it cannot be doubted or denied that he was,
from first to last, animated by a noble and unex-
ampled patriotism.
It were impossible, within the limits of this work,
to trace the gradual growth of the British empire in
India, the result of the combined action of commerce
and war, or the rise and progress of the Mahratta
States, and the destruction of the confederacy formed
by them against the English. The reader who would
know how, from simple traders, we have become the
mighty masters of the most extensive empire that
ever has existed since the downfall of Roman supre-
macy, must consult the pages of Mill, Orme, Elphin-
stone, Wilson, and Thornton, and the thousand and
one lesser volumes which enter into the details of
war and the progress of civilization. He would there
learn bow, in their struggles to maintain supremacy,
the native sovereigns and chieftains leagued against
us have succumbed to the valour and discipline of
small united bodies of troops, headed in battle by
daring and sagacious officers; how the infraction of
treaties has led to the chastisement of Nabobs and
Rajahs, and the confiscation of their territory; how
the insolence and violence of the Burmese caused
expeditions to be sent to the kingdom of Ava, end-
ing in victory and the appropriation of the land upon
the coasts, and the once independent kingdom of
Pegu; how the atrocious irruption of the Sikhs into