A History of the Mahrattas v1.c29.63

v1.c29.63

The records of the Company’s governments in India are probably the best historical materials in the world: there we find the reasons for every undertaking; the steady rules intended for conduct; the hurried letter from the scene of action; the deliberations of the council, the separate opinions of the members composing it, and their final judgment. The scrutiny, censure, or approval of the Court of Directors from a remote situation, and after a long interval, bring to recollection all that was done and all that was speculated; what has occurred in India in the meantime, and what opinions have stood the test of events. Many inconsistencies appear, both in the orders of the Directors at home and in the measures of their governments abroad, which frequently arose from causes irremediable or excusable, such as the distance of the supreme power and the defective information at the different presidencies. The divided nature of the authority in India was also for a long time a source of great evil; and even after the Act of Parliament¹ had passed, which vested a control in the President and Council of Bengal, the defects, as might have been expected, were not immediately remedied; for it generally requires time and a judicious exercise of power to fit any new law to the end for which it is framed.