A History of the Mahrattas v1.c18.127

v1.c18.127

But these apparently vigorous efforts of the government were unsubstantial; there was motion and bustle, without zeal or efficacy: the empire was unwieldy, its system relaxed, and its officers were corrupt beyond all example. It was inwardly decayed, and ready to fall to pieces as much by its own irrecoverable weakness as by the corroding power of the Mahrattas, whom the Mahomedan wars had trained, and their imbecility now allured to that predatory life to which the natives of Maharashtra are prone; as yet, however, their plundering hordes did not comprehend that they were conquerors. A general sentiment pervaded the whole body of the Hindoo population in the Mahratta country, but it was not so actively excited as to create a general union, for a purpose so exalted as that of throwing off a foreign yoke and vindicating their civil and religious liberties. There was a common sympathy, but there was no common effort; their military spirit was not so much excited by patriotism as by plunder, and those who enjoyed greater advantages under the Moghuls, in consequence of the struggle, than they were likely to do by the establishment of the independence of their country, eagerly desired a continuation of the war.