A History of the Mahrattas v1.c17.71

v1.c17.71

¹ [The story of Keigwin’s rebellion has been ably described by R. and O. Strachey (O.H. and L.S., 6, 1916). They explain the cause of it thus: ‘We shall see Josia Child determined to have a creature of his own in command in India, ruthlessly compassing the ruin of John Pettit, the senior and best qualified candidate for the Presidency of Surat, in favour of the unpopular but subservient John Child; we shall see him forcing on the reluctant Anglo-Indian community a policy of retrenchment and disarmament quite incompatible with what they knew to be necessary for the prestige and even the security of the English in India. And we shall see how the irritation caused by the former proceeding combined with the anger and alarm