the minor native powers was so unsteady through military weakness and financial embarrassments that any of them might be destroyed by the loss of one campaign or even a single battle. But this course of easy victories on the outskirts of India did not last long; for we shall see that as the English penetrated further into the interior their progress became very much slower, was indeed for a time arrested. On the west coast they were already confronted by rivals very different from an incapable Bengalee Nawáb-by the Marathas, whose power had considerable national character, some political stability, and formidable military organization. Under their great Peshwa, Bálaji Bála Rao, they were now attaining the zenith of their predominance; they had conquered great territories; they were pushing forward into north India; they were supreme in the centrall regions; and while one army was dismembering the Nizam's State, another was extorting heavy subsidies in the Carnatic and Mysore. Their operations had hitherto been very serviceable to the English, with whom they were at this time often in alliance, by weakening all the Mahomedan rulerships, and particularly by checking Bussy's military domination at Hyderabad.

On the whole there is good ground for the opinion that if at the time of the dissolution of the Moghul empire India had been left to herself, if the Europeans had not just then appeared in the field, the whole of southern and central India would have fallen under the Maratha dominion 1. It was very fortunate for the English that they did not come into collision with such

1 'We look on the Morattoes to be more than a match for the whole (Moghul) empire, were no European force to interfere.'-Letter from the President and Council of Madras, October, 1756.

antagonists until their own strength had matured; since there can be no doubt that throughout the later stages of the tournament for the prize of ascendancy between England and the native Powers, our most dangerous challengers were the Marathas.

CHAPTER VIII

THE SITUATION IN BENGAL

SECTION I. Physical characteristics of the Province.

CLIVE'S Victory in 1757 was followed by the military occupation of Bengal, which had an immense and farreaching effect upon the position of the English in India. Our resources were so considerably increased that the defeat of the French in the Peninsula became thenceforward certain; for while Lally was cut off by sea and vainly attempting to support himself along a strip of sea-coast, the English had their feet firmly planted in the Gangetic delta and the rich alluvial districts of the lower Ganges. The word Bengal must be understood, here and hereafter, to signify the great territory which includes the three provinces of Bengal, Behár, and Orissa, which were all under the rulership of the Nawab Surâj-ud-daulah. The subordination of the Bengal Nawabs to the English at once extended our predominance north-westward as far as the banks of the Ganges opposite Benares. The capital of our political dominion was thenceforward established at Calcutta.

This transfer of the headquarters of the Company's government to Calcutta marks a notable step forward, since it was from Bengal, not from Madras or Bombay, that the English power first struck inland into the heart