Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/349

 THE PRE-REVOLUTION ERA 337 population, accustomed to being ruled, not to ruling themselves, had no sympathy with the aspirations of the other colonies with their English traditions. There the British government had deliberately aimed at conciliating its French subjects and respecting their traditions and prejudices. Canada became a refuge for many of the families of the south, who had remained loyal to the. British Crown in the face of bitter hostility, and preferred remaining under the British Crown to becoming citizens of the new American Republic. In India the same period saw the British rule in Bengal, and the British ascendency among the native powers thoroughly established. The Mogul, still nominally the 1 1 r ^ •* 11 7 - India - legal sovereign and source of authority all over India, recognised the East India Company as being officially the government in Bengal. The British Governor, warren Warren Hastings, in spite of extraordinary diffi- Hastings, culties created by the blunders of subordinates and the unscrupulous opposition of colleagues, as well as the hostile ambitions of native potentates and rivals, successfully main- tained and strengthened the British position; though some- times adopting methods which could only be excused on the ground that without them the British would have been driven out of India. Immediately after the close of the American War of Independence, the British government, headed by the younger William Pitt, established that system of a joint control of the Indian dominion by the East India Com- The pany and by ministers of the Crown which lasted Position in • • India 1784 until 1858. But it must be very clearly grasped ' that as yet the actual British territory consisted of little more than the great province of Bengal on the Lower Ganges, and the two small districts round Madras and Bombay; although the considerable province of Arcot, in which Madras was situated, was practically under their control. Over the great native state into which nine-tenths of India was divided, they exercised only the influence attaching to what every one felt to be the strongest military power. The British and the native princes alike still professed to acknowledge the supreme