of the decaying monarchy.  At first they were only robbers.  They soon rose to the dignity of conquerors.  Half the provinces of the empire were turned into Mahratta principalities, Freebooters, sprung from low castes, and accustomed to menial employments, became mighty Rajahs.  The Bonslas, at the head of a band of plunderers, occupied the vast region of Berar.  The Guicowar, which is, being interpreted, the Herdsman, founded that dynasty which still reigns in Guzerat.  The houses of Scindia and Holkar waxed great in Malwa.  One adventurous captain made his nest on the impregnable rock of Gooti.  Another became the lord of the thousand villages which are scattered among the green rice-fields of Tanjore.

That was the time throughout India of double government.  The form and the power were everywhere separated.  The Mussulman nabobs who had become sovereign princes, the Vizier in Oude, and the Nizam at Hyderabad, still called themselves the viceroys of the House of Tamerlane.  In the same manner the Mahratta states, though really independent of each other, pretended to be members of one empire.  They all acknowledged, by words and ceremonies, the supremacy of the heir of Sevajee, a roi faineant who chewed bang and toyed with dancing girls in a state prison at Sattara, and of his Peshwa or mayor of the palace, a great hereditary magistrate, who kept a court with kingly state at Poonah, and whose authority was obeyed in the spacious provinces of Aurungabad and Bejapoor.

Some months before wax was declared in Europe the Government of Bengal was alarmed by the news that a French adventurer, who passed for a man of quality, had arrived at Poonah.  It was said that he had been received there with great distinction, that he had delivered to the Peshwa letters and presents from Louis the Sixteenth, and that a treaty, hostile to England, had been concluded between France and the Mahrattas.

Hastings immediately resolved to strike the first blow.  The title of the Peshwa was not undisputed.  A portion of the Mahratta nation was favourable to a pretender.  The Governor General determined to espouse this pretender’s interest, to move an army across the peninsula of India, and to form a close alliance with the chief of the house of Bonsla, who ruled Berar, and who, in power and dignity, was inferior to none of the Mahratta princes.

The army had marched, and the negotiations with Berar were in progress, when a letter from the English consul at Cairo brought the news that war had been proclaimed both in London and Paris.  All the measures which the crisis required were adopted by Hastings without a moment’s delay.  The French factories in Bengal were seized.  Orders were sent to Madras that Pondicherry should instantly be occupied.  Near Calcutta works were thrown up which were thought to render the approach of a hostile force impossible.  A maritime establishment was formed for the defence of the river.  Nine new battalions of sepoys were raised, and a corps of native artillery was formed out of the hardy Lascars of the Bay of Bengal.  Having made these arrangements, the Governor-General, with calm confidence, pronounced his presidency secure from all attack, unless the Mahrattas should march against it in conjunction with the French.