To any one who has lived long in India it seems unnatural that in old days the small colonies of Europeans settled there should have been incited to mutual conflict and mutual ruin, owing to quarrels which originated in far-off Europe, and which were decided without any reference to the wishes or interests of Europeans living in the colonies.  The British Settlements alone have successfully survived the struggle.  The least we can do is to acknowledge the merits, whilst we commiserate the sufferings, of those other gallant men who strove their best to win the great prize for their own countrymen.  Of the French especially it would appear that their writers have noticed only those like Dupleix, Bussy, and Lally, who commanded armies in glorious campaigns that somehow always ended to the advantage of the British, and have utterly forgotten the civilians who really kept the game going, and who would have been twice as formidable to their enemies if the military had been subordinate to them.  The curse of the French East India Company was Militarism, whilst fortunately for the English our greatest military hero in India, Lord Clive, was so clear-minded that he could write:—­

“I have the liberty of an Englishman so strongly implanted in my nature, that I would have the Civil all in all, in all times and in all places, cases of immediate danger excepted.”

How much might have been achieved by men like Renault, Law, and Courtin, if they had had an adequate military force at their disposal!  They saw, as clearly as did the English, that Bengal was the heart of India, and they saw the English denude Madras of troops to defend Bengal, whilst they themselves were left by the French commanders in a state of hopeless impotence.  On the other hand, owing to the English Company’s insistence that military domination should be the exception and not the rule, British civilians and British soldiers have, almost always, worked together harmoniously.  It was this union of force which gave us Bengal in the time of which I have been writing, and to the same source of power we owe the gradual building up of the great Empire which now dominates the whole of India.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 122:  Probably Portuguese half-castes.]

[Footnote 123:  Matchlock men.  Consultations of the Dacca Council, 27th June, 1756.  Madras Select Committee Proceedings, 9th November, 1756.]

[Footnote 124:  When Courtin was sent by Count Lally with the proposals for the surrender of Pondicherry he had to take an interpreter with him. Memoirs of Lally, p. 105.]

[Footnote 125:  I.e. official order.]

[Footnote 126:  I cannot ascertain where M. Fleurin was at this moment.  If at Dacca, then Courtin must have left him behind.]

[Footnote 127:  MSS.  Francais, Nouvelles Acquisitions, No. 9361.  This is unfortunately only a copy, and the dates are somewhat confused.  Where possible I have corrected them.]