A History of the Mahrattas v1.c29.60

v1.c29.60

The English East India Company, after they had overcome their rivals the French and found time to contemplate the situation into which they had been hurried by national hostility, the treachery of the native powers, the ambition of their servants and the bravery of their troops, were astonished and alarmed at the height to which they had ascended, and would have relinquished a part of their acquisitions in order to purchase security for the remainder. But those who fully understood their situation were convinced that they had already gone too far to recede, and that they must be prepared not only to resist, but to punish aggression.