A History of the Mahrattas v1.c29.61

v1.c29.61

All the states in India were inimical to Europeans of every nation, and even when bound down by treaties, they were at best but faithless friends, who would never maintain an alliance, unless when controlled either immediately or remotely by their interests or their fears. Their jealousy, no less than their prejudice, would have prompted them to extirpate the foreigners, and the English had, therefore, only the choice of offensive or defensive war. To have adopted the latter would have lost them the advantage of all favourable conjuncture, and must have obliged them to oppose the united armies of the natives, instead of having to contend with their divided force. They might, indeed, have avoided the contest by resigning the trade, privileges, and dominion they had acquired; but those mistaken philanthropists who imagine that the happiness of India would have been secured by such a sacrifice, require no other answer than is afforded by the series of mismanagement and devastation which it has already been my duty to record.