enterprise, and avidity of spoil, however, were not diminished. From the banks of the Indus, to those of the Ganges, almost every province had either been conquered or plundered by these marauders. Bengal alone, which was then subject to Aliverdy Caun, had hitherto escaped their depredations. But in 1743, both the Mahratta states united in the invasion of that province. One hundred and sixty thousand horsemen ravaged the plains of Bengal. Their barbarities were dreadful, and their inroad was long remembered with horror. They collected an immense mass of plunder, and imposed on the province a tribute called the chout.

Possessing vast domains and numerous armies, the Mahrattas resolved to attempt the expulsion of Abdalla, king of Candahar, from his Indian provinces, and the establishment of the Hindoo government throughout India. The principal

powers of Hindostan were now arranged in two parties, the Hindoos and the Mahomedans, Sujah Dowla, the Rohillas, and other Mahomedan chiefs of less note, joined Abdalla, while the Juts, and other Hindoos, adhered to the Mahrattas. The army of the Mahomedans amounted to about 150,000, and that of the Mahrattas to 200,000 men; but the Juts deserted their confederates before the hostile parties met in the field. A decisive engagement took place in the year 1761 in the plains of Panniput. Victory declared for Abdallah, after a battle more obstinate and bloody than any other that the annals of Hindostan record. The carnage was horrible. The loss of the Mahrattas in killed and prisoners, was almost incredible; they lost the flower of their army, with all their best generals, and from that period their power has been on the decline.

The

The expulsion of the French, and the establishment of the British power in India are so well related by Mr. Orme, that if the plan of this work would admit of particular details, they would here be unnecessary. It suffices to remark a few leading events, which effected those Oriental revolutions. war in the Deccan, which was terminated in 1754, had been conducted with a vigour and prudence that reflected great honour both on the French and the English commanders. Hostilities recommencing between France and England in 1756, the war was consequently renewed between the two nations in

India. The first object of the English was to wrest the northern Circars out of the hands of the French, and the second to drive M. Bussy's out of the Deccan. But the affairs of Bengal induced the necessity of relinquishing every plan of hostility in the Carnatic.

Aliverdy Caun, nabob of Bengal, dying in 1756, Suraja Dowla, his grandson and successor, being jealous of the rising power of the Europeans in India, resolved to expel the English from Bengal, and accordingly took their fort at Calcutta. The recovery of a station of so great importance, on which the whole trade to Bengal depended, was a measure of absolute necessity. An armament was sent from Madras, under the conduct of Admiral Watson, and Colonel, afterwards Lord Clive, who not only recovered Calcutta, but brought the nabob to terms. The sword was now drawn, and the English could enjoy no security while a nabob inimical to their interests possessed Bengal. But the famous battle of Plassey, in 1757, laid the foundation of their power, by rendering them the arbiters of the succession to the nabobship, which, by a happy turn of affairs, led to the possession of the powers of government. Jaffier Ally Caun, who had been formerly deposed, was replaced on the throne, and at his death the government of the province fell into the hands of the English.*

Since the reign of Ahmed Shah, who was deposed in 1753, the Mogul emperor had been merely a phantom of royalty. Ahmed Shah was succeeded by his son Allumguire II, in whose reign Delhi sharing the misfortunes of its monarchs, was plundered by Abdalla, king of Candahar. The emperor was reduced to the lowest degree of royal misery, lying at the mercy alternately of Abdalla, or the Mahrattas, soliciting the aid of either friends or enemies, and even relying on their generosity for the means of subsistence. Allumguire was deposed and murdered in 1760, and Shah Aulum his son was placed on the tottering and dangerous throne. This unhappy monarch threw himself successively on the Mahrattas, Nidjib Dowlah and Sujah Dowlah, for protection and assistance.

For the rise of the British power in India, the reader must be in general referred to Mr. Orme's excellent history of the military transaçfions, &c. in Hindostan.

From the period of Nadir Shah's invasion, the Mogul empire had been merely nominal, and the latter emperors were of no political consequence, otherwise than as their names and persons, which still retained a considerable degree of veneration among the bulk of the people, were made use of by different parties in order to forward their views. Every usurper who was diffident of his own strength, endeavoured to legalize his usurpation by a real or pretended grant from the emperor, as the paramount sovereign, in order to reconcile the transaction to popular opinion; and each daring rebel who got possession of his person, obliged him to sanction by law every act of violence committed against his authority.

Such was the state of Hindostan, and such the condition of its wretched emperor, the miserable tool of rebels and usurpers, when Lord Clive, after a series of the most splendid successes, assumed the government of Calcutta in 1765. Jaffier Ally Cawn, nabob of Bengal, had recently died, and Lord Clive obtained from the nominal emperor, Shah Aulum, who was without power or territory, money or friends, a grant of the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, with the northern Circars, on condition of paying him twenty-six lacks of rupees, about 260,000l. sterling per annum. Thus a good bargain was struck on both sides. The English acquired without injustice or violence, by a voluntary grant, from the only authority that could be called legal in India, a territory containing at least 10,000,000 of inhabitants, and producing a net revenue of nearly 1,500,0001. sterling per annum;* while the emperor obtained the means of a comfortable subsistence, with the city and fortress of Allahabad for his residence, and the sovereignty over that and the adjacent province of Corah, under the protection of the English. It was, however, the misfortune of the restless emperor, that he could not accommodate his mind to the standard of his circumstances, although these were now far more favourable than they had ever been at any former period of his life. Being the lineal descendant of the house of Tamerlane, he aspired to possess the capital of his ancestors; and in grasping at this sha

• Rennell's Mem. Introd. p. 77 and 95. These revenues are greatly augmented since that time.

dow, he lost the substance of what he already possessed; for after six years of quiet and comfortable residence at Allahabad, he ceded his provinces to the Mahrattas, and put himself into their hands, on their promise of replacing him on the throne of Delhi. The English, in consequence of this alienation of the provinces from the purpose for which they had been originally granted, and the cession of them to a power inimical to them and their allies, again took possession of Corah and Allahabad, which they afterwards ceded to the nabob of Oude. The Mahrattas, however, took the Mogul to Delhi, where they kept him as a kind of state prisoner, allowing him for his subsistence the produce of a trifling domain granted him for the use of his name. After the peace of 1782, Madajee Scindia, a Mahratta chief, obtained the supreme power of Delhi, and the private distresses of the emperor were so great, that in 1784 his son came to Mr. Hastings, the governor general, to solicit the charity of the English. On the defeat of Scindia by the confederated Rajpoots, the Mogul made his escape to Golam Cawdir, a Rohilla chief, who then took possession of Delhi in 1789, and put out the eyes of the aged and unfortunate emperor.

From the time of its first establishment in Bengal, in 1765, the British power in India, notwithstanding the frequent opposition of the native princes, has been greatly aggrandized, and the territorial acquisitions of the Company extended both in Hindostan and the Peninsula. Within two years after this epoch, the English, however, were engaged in an arduous contest with Hyder Ally, Sultan of Mysore. Hyder had originally been a soldier of fortune, employed in the service of the rajah, or king of that country. He is said to have acquired the rudiments of war in the French camps, and in 1753 he distinguished himself as their auxiliary. About ten years afterwards being at the head of the army of Mysore, he dethroned the rajah and usurped the sovereignty. The war between him and the English breaking out in 1767, was carried on with various success during that and the following year. But in 1769 Hyder, with a strong detachment of chosen troops, chiefly cavalry, having eluded the vigilance of the British army, suddenly appeared before Madras, and dictated a peace to the

government of that place, which was not in a condition to with stand an attack. The first war with the Mahrattas was glorious to the British arms, and many important conquests were made. But a second war with Hyder Ally breaking out at this time, in 1780 it was found necessary to conclude a peace with the Mahrattas, and all conquests were restored, except Salsete, and the small islands adjacent to Bombay, which were ceded to the East India Company. Hyder in the mean while expecting to be powerfully supported by the French, broke into the Carnatic with 100,000 of the best troops that had ever been disciplined by a native of India. This was an alarming crisis, and the success of Hyder in cutting to pieces Col. Baillie's detachment, with the consequent retreat of the army of the Carnatic, caused the British interests in that quarter to be given up for lost in the opinion of most people in Europe. Happily, Governor-General Hastings, and Sir Eyre Coote, beheld the danger with firmness, and formed expectations more sanguine. Under Sir Eyre Coote, Hyder was successfully combatted during two campaigns; and saw the possession of his grand object, the Carnatic, so far at a distance, that he appeared sincerely desirous of peace. In this disposition of mind Hyder soon after died, and was succeeded by his son Tippoo Saib, who long made a conspicuous figure on the military theatre of India. This prince entertained an irreconcileable enmity to Great Britain, and the war was consequently continued; but the peace of 1783 having deprived him of all hopes of assistance from France, he consented with reluctance to the termination of hostilities. Peace was concluded at Mangalore in 1784 between Tippoo Saib and the English, and matters were restored nearly to the situation in which they were before the commencement of hostilities. This treaty however secured his fidelity by very feeble ties; and the splendid embassy which he sent to France not very long after the peace, gave reason to believe that the courts of Versailles and Seringapatam had concerted some great design, the execution of which was prevented by the French revolution. Tippoo, however, entered single-landed on a war with the English. Never could a more favourable opportunity have occurred for humbling the pride and the power of the tyrant. The En