A History of the Mahrattas v1.c27.60

v1.c27.60

a pride in the conquests of their countrymen; and action, enterprise, and wealth raised them in political consequence above the mass of that humble race, who, by a system of opinions, stand fettered among nations in the growth of wisdom, and are content to live and to die in the same occupation, and with equal apathy, as their thousand progenitors. How far this stimulus in Maharashtra might ultimately have improved them, or elevated them in the scale of human nature, may be left to the consideration of those who indulge in such speculations; but in their conquests, certainly, no other nation can sympathize; they were not animated by that patriotism which devotes itself merely for its country's weal or its country's glory, the extension of their sway carried no freedom even to Hindoos, except freedom of opinion; and it rarely brought protection, or improved the habits and condition of the vanquished. Destruction, rapine, oppression, and tyranny were their more certain concomitants; and although entitled to the negative praise of not being blood-thirsty, they were unfeeling and ungenerous victors. The Mahratta people, however, who have not followed the profession of arms, and where families, unconnected with camps and courts, have lived content in the simple enjoyment of their hereditary rights and fields, are, except in one respect, their habitual disregard of truth, which is strangely contrasted with their probity in dealings with each other, a remarkably moral, kind, humane, and hospitable race.¹