trained in the discipline of Europe, and | rope, than the Anglo-Indian of the were armed, some with swords and present day. shields, some with bows and arrows. Within the fort and its precinct, the The business of the servant of the Com- English exercised, by permission of the pany was not, as now, to conduct the native government, an extensive aujudicial, financial, and diplomatic busi-thority, such as every great Indian ness of a great country, but to take landowner exercised within his own stock, to make advances to weavers, to ship cargoes, and above all to keep an eye on private traders who dared to infringe the monopoly. The younger clerks were so miserably paid that they could scarcely subsist without incurring debt; the elder enriched themselves by trading on their own account; and those who lived to rise to the top of the service often accumulated considerable fortunes. domain. But they had never dreamed of claiming independent power. The surrounding country was ruled by the Nabob of the Carnatic, a deputy of the Viceroy of the Deccan, commonly called the Nizam, who was himself only a deputy of the mighty prince designated by our ancestors as the Great Mogul. Those names, once so august and formidable, still remain. There is still a Nabob of the Carnatic, who lives Madras, to which Clive had been ap-on a pension allowed to him by the pointed, was, at this time, perhaps, the English out of the revenues of the profirst in importance of the Company's vince which his ancestors ruled. There settlements. In the preceding century is still a Nizam, whose capital is overFort St. George had arisen on a barren awed by a British cantonment, and to spot beaten by a raging surf; and in whom a British resident gives, under the neighbourhood a town, inhabited the name of advice, commands which by many thousands of natives, had are not to be disputed. There is still a sprung up, as towns spring up in the Mogul, who is permitted to play at East, with the rapidity of the prophet's holding courts and receiving petitions, gourd. There were already in the su- but who has less power to help or hurt burbs many white villas, each sur-than the youngest civil servant of the rounded by its garden, whither the Company. wealthy agents of the Company retired, after the labours of the desk and the warehouse, to enjoy the cool breeze which springs up at sunset from the Bay of Bengal. The habits of these mercantile grandees appear to have been more profuse, luxurious, and ostentatious, than those of the high judicial and political functionaries who have succeeded them. But comfort was far less understood. Many devices which now mitigate the heat of the climate, preserve health, and prolong life, were unknown. There was far less intercourse with Europe than at present. The voyage by the Cape, which in our time has often been performed within three months, was then very seldom accomplished in six, and was sometimes protracted to more than a year. Consequently, the Anglo-Indian was then much more estranged from his country, much more addicted to Oriental usages, and much less fitted to mix in society after his return to Eu Clive's voyage was unusually tedious even for that age. The ship remained some months at the Brazils, where the young adventurer picked up some knowledge of Portuguese, and spent all his pocket-money. He did not arrive in India till more than a year after he had left England. His situation at Madras was most painful. His funds were exhausted. His pay was small. He had contracted debts. He was wretchedly lodged, no small calamity in a climate which can be made tolerable to an European only by spacious and well placed apartments. He had been furnished with letters of recommendation to a gentleman who might have assisted him; but when he landed at Fort St. George he found that this gentleman had sailed for England. The lad's shy and haughty disposition withheld him from introducing himself to strangers. He was several months in India before he became acquainted with a single family. The climate affected his health and spirits. His One solace be found of the most respectable kind. The Governor possessed a good library, and permitted Clive to have access to it. The young man devoted much of his leisure to reading, and acquired at this time almost all the knowledge of books that he ever possessed. As a boy he had been too idle, as a man he soon became too busy, for literary pursuits. But neither climate nor poverty, neither study nor the sorrows of a home-sick exile, could tame the desperate audacity of his spirit. He behaved to his official superiors as he had behaved to his schoolmasters, and was several times in danger of losing his situation. Twice, while residing in the Writers' Buildings, he attempted to destroy himself; and twice the pistol which he snapped at his own head failed to go off. This circumstance, it is said, affected him as a similar escape affected Wallenstein. After satisfying himself that the pistol was really well loaded, he burst forth into an exclamation that surely he was reserved for something great. bon took the opposite side. Though England was even then the first of maritime powers, she was not, as she has since become, more than a match on the sea for all the nations of the world together; and she found it difficult to maintain a contest against the united navies of France and Spain. In the eastern seas France obtained the ascendency. Labourdonnais, governor of Mauritius, a man of eminent talents and virtues, conducted an expedition to the continent of India in spite of the opposition of the British fleet, landed, assembled an army, appeared before Madras, and compelled the town and fort to capitulate. The keys were delivered up; the French colours were displayed on Fort St. George; and the contents of the Company's warehouses were seized as prize of war by the conquerors. It was stipulated by the capitulation that the English inhabitants should be prisoners of war on parole, and that the town should remain in the hands of the French till it should be ransomed. Labourdonnais pledged his honour that only a moderate ransom should be required. But the success of Labourdonnais had awakened the jealousy of his countryman, Dupleix, governor of Pondicherry. Dupleix, moreover, had already begun to revolve gigantic schemes, with which the restoration of Madras to the English was by no means compatible. He declared that Labourdonnais had gone beyond his powers; that conquests made by the French arms on the continent of India were at the disposal of the governor of Pondicherry alone; and that Madras should be rased to the ground. Labourdonnais was compelled to yield. The anger which the breach of the capitulation excited among the English was increased by the ungenerous manner in which Dupleix treated the principal servants of the Company. The About this time an event which at Governor and several of the first genfirst seemed likely to destroy all his tlemen of Fort St. George were carhopes in life suddenly opened before ried under a guard to Pondicherry, and him a new path to eminence. Europe conducted through the town in a trihad been, during some years, distracted umphal procession under the eyes of by the war of the Austrian succession. fifty thousand spectators. It was with George the Second was the steady ally reason thought that this gross violation of Maria Theresa. The house of Bour-of public faith absolved the inhabitants of Madras from the engagements into which they had entered with Labourdonnais. Clive fled from the town by night in the disguise of a Mussulman, and took refuge at Fort St. David, one of the small English settlements subordinate to Madras. The circumstances in which he was now placed naturally led him to adopt a profession better suited to his restless and intrepid spirit than the business of examining packages and casting accounts. He solicited and obtained an ensign's commission in the service of the Company, and at twenty-one entered on his military career. His personal courage, of which he had, while still a writer, given signal proof by a desperate duel with a military bully who was the terror of Fort St. David, speedily made him conspicuous even among hundreds of brave men. He soon began to show in his new calling other qualities which had not before been discerned in him, judgment, sagacity, deference to legitimate authority. He distinguished himself highly in several operations against the French, and was particularly noticed by Major Lawrence, who was then considered as the ablest British officer in India. guls reared in the sixteenth century was long one of the most extensive and splendid in the world. In no European kingdom was so large a population subject to a single prince, or so large a revenue poured into the treasury. The beauty and magnificence of the buildings erected by the sovereigns of Hindostan amazed even travellers who had seen St. Peter's. The innumerable retinues and gorgeous decorations which surrounded the throne of Delhi dazzled even eyes which were accustomed to the pomp of Versailles. Some of the great viceroys who held their posts by virtue of commissions from the Mogul ruled as many subjects as the King of France or the Emperor of Germany. Even the deputies of these deputies might well rank, as to extent of territory and amount of revenue, with the Grand Duke of Tuscany, or the Elector of Saxony. There can be little doubt that this great empire, powerful and prosperous as it appears on a superficial view, was yet, even in its best days, far worse governed than the worst governed parts of Europe now are. The administration was tainted with all the vices of Oriental despotism, and with all the Clive had been only a few months in vices inseparable from the domination the army when intelligence arrived that of race over race. The conflicting prepeace had been concluded between tensions of the princes of the royal Great Britain and France. Dupleix house produced a long series of crimes was in consequence compelled to restore and public disasters. Ambitious lieuMadras to the English Company; and tenants of the sovereign sometimes asthe young ensign was at liberty to re-pired to independence. Fierce tribes sume his former business. He did in- of Hindoos, impatient of a foreign yoke, deed return for a short time to his desk. frequently withheld tribute, repelled the He again quitted it in order to assist armies of the government from the Major Lawrence in some petty hostili- mountain fastnesses, and poured down ties with the natives, and then again in arms on the cultivated plains. returned to it. While he thus wavering spite, however, of much constant malbetween a military and a commercial administration, in spite of occasional life, events took place which decided convulsions which shook the whole his choice. The politics of India as- frame of society, this great monarchy, sumed a new aspect. There was peace be- on the whole, retained, during some tween the English and French Crowns; generations, an outward appearance but there arose between the English of unity, majesty, and energy. But, and French Companies trading to the throughout the long reign of AurungEast a war most eventful and impor-zebe, the state, nowithstanding all that tant, a war in which the prize was nothing less than the magnificent inheritance of the house of Tamerlane. In the vigour and policy of the prince could effect, was hastening to dissolution. After his death, which took The empire which Baber and his Mo-place in the year 1707, the ruin was fearfully rapid. Violent shocks from without co-operated with an incurable decay which was fast proceeding within; and in a few years the empire had undergone utter decomposition. which passed on the Mogul empire during the forty years which followed the death of Aurungzebe. A succession of nominal sovereigns, sunk in indolence and debauchery, sauntered The history of the successors of The-away life in secluded palaces, chewing odosius bears no small analogy to that bang, fondling concubines, and listenof the successors of Aurungzebe. But ing to buffoons. A succession of feperhaps the fall of the Carlovingians rocious invaders descended through furnishes the nearest parallel to the the western passes, to prey on the defall of the Moguls. Charlemagne was fenceless wealth of Hindostan. A scarcely interred when the imbecility Persian conqueror crossed the Indus, and the disputes of his descendants be- marched through the gates of Delhi, gan to bring contempt on themselves and bore away in triumph those treaand destruction on their subjects. The sures of which the magnificence had wide dominion of the Franks was se- astounded Roe and Bernier, the Peavered into a thousand pieces. Nothing cock Throne, on which the richest more than a nominal dignity was left jewels of Golconda had been disposed to the abject heirs of an illustrious name, by the most skilful hands of Europe, Charles the Bald, and Charles the Fat, and the inestimable Mountain of Light, and Charles the Simple. Fierce inva- which, after many strange vicissitudes, ders, differing from each other in race, lately shone in the bracelet of Runjeet language, and religion, flocked, as if by Sing, and is now destined to adorn the concert, from the farthest corners of the hideous idol of Orissa. The Afghan earth, to plunder provinces which the soon followed to complete the work of government could no longer defend. devastation which the Persian had beThe pirates of the Northern Sea ex- gun. The warlike tribes of Rajpootended their ravages from the Elbe to tana threw off the Mussulman yoke. the Pyrenees, and at length fixed their A band of mercenary soldiers occupied seat in the rich valley of the Seine. Rohilcund. The Seiks ruled on the The Hungarian, in whom the trembling Indus. The Jauts spread dismay along monks fancied that they recognised the the Jumna. The highlands which borGog or Magog of prophecy, carried der on the western sea-coast of India back the plunder of the cities of Lom- poured forth a yet more formidable bardy to the depths of the Pannonian race, a race which was long the terror forests. The Saracen ruled in Sicily, of every native power, and which, after desolated the fertile plains of Campania, many desperate and doubtful struggles, and spread terror even to the walls of yielded only to the fortune and genius Rome. In the midst of these sufferings, of England. It was under the reign a great internal change passed upon the of Aurungzebe that this wild clan of empire. The corruption of death began plunderers first descended from their to ferment into new forms of life. While mountains; and soon after his death, the great body, as a whole, was torpid every corner of his wide empire learned and passive, every separate member to tremble at the mighty name of the began to feel with a sense and to move Mahrattas. Many fertile viceroyalties with an energy all its own. Just here, were entirely subdued by them. Their in the most barren and dreary tract of dominions stretched across the peninEuropean history, all feudal privileges, sula from sea to sea. Mahratta capall modern nobility, take their source. It tains reigned at Poonah, at Gualior, is to this point, that we trace the power in Guzerat, in Berar, and in Tanjore. of those princes who, nominally vassals, Nor did they, though they had become but really independent, long governed, great sovereigns, therefore cease to be with the titles of dukes, marquesses, and freebooters. They still retained the counts, almost every part of the domi- predatory habits of their forefathers. nions which had obeyed Charlemagne. Every region which was not subject to their rule was wasted by their incur Such or nearly such was the change sions. Wherever their kettle-drums | man, however sagacious, would have were heard, the peasant threw his bag thought it possible that a trading comof rice on his shoulder, hid his small pany, separated from India by fifteen savings in his girdle, and fled with his thousand miles of sea, and possessing wife and children to the mountains or in India only a few acres for purposes the jungles, to the milder neighbour-of commerce, would, in less than a hood of the hyæna and the tiger. Many hundred years, spread its empire from provinces redeemed their harvests by Cape Comorin to the eternal snow of the payment of an annual ransom. the Himalayas; would compel MahEven the wretched phantom who still ratta and Mahommedan to forget their bore the imperial title stooped to pay mutual feuds in common subjection; this ignominious black-mail. The would tame down even those wild races camp-fires of one rapacious leader were which had resisted the most powerful seen from the walls of the palace of of the Moguls; and, having united Delhi. Another, at the head of his under its laws a hundred millions of innumerable cavalry, descended year subjects, would carry its victorious after year on the rice-fields of Bengal. arms far to the east of the BurramEven the European factors trembled pooter, and far to the west of the Hyfor their magazines. Less than a hun- daspes, dictate terms of peace at the dred years ago, it was thought neces- gates of Ava, and seat its vassal on sary to fortify Calcutta against the the throne of Candahar. horsemen of Berar, and the name of the Mahratta ditch still preserves the memory of the danger. Wherever the viceroys of the Mogul retained authority they became sovereigns. They might still acknowledge in words the superiority of the house of Tamerlane; as a Count of Flanders or a Duke of Burgundy might have acknowledged the superiority of the most helpless driveller among the later Carlovingians. They might occasionally send to their titular sovereign a complimentary present, or solicit from him a title of honour. In truth, however, they were no longer lieutenants removable at pleasure, but independent hereditary princes. In this way originated those great Mussulman houses which formerly ruled Bengal and the Carnatic, and those which still, though in a state of vassalage, exercise some of the powers of royalty at Lucknow and Hyderabad. In what was this confusion to end? Was the strife to continue during centuries? Was it to terminate in the rise of another great monarchy? Was the Mussulman or the Mahratta to be the Lord of India? Was another Baber to descend from the mountains, and to lead the hardy tribes of Cabul and Chorasan against a wealthier and less warlike race? None of these events seemed improbable. But scarcely any The man who first saw that it was possible to found an European empire on the ruins of the Mogul monarchy was Dupleix. His restless, capacious, and inventive mind had formed this scheme, at a time when the ablest servants of the English Company were busied only about invoices and bills of lading. Nor had he only proposed to himself the end. He had also a just and distinct view of the means by which it was to be attained. He clearly saw that the greatest force which the princes of India could bring into the field would be no match for a small body of men trained in the discipline, and guided by the tactics, of the West. He saw also that the natives of India might, under European commanders, be formed into armies, such as Saxe or Frederic would be proud to command. He was perfectly aware that the most easy and convenient way in which an European adventurer could exercise sovereignty in India, was to govern the motions, and to speak through the mouth of some glittering puppet dignified by the title of Nabob or Nizam. The arts both of war and policy, which a few years later were employed with such signal success by the English, were first understood and practised by this ingenious and aspiring Frenchman. The situation of India was such that |