Page:Dupleix and the Struggle for India by the European Nations.djvu/192

Rh character as that which had forced the hand of Clive, forced subsequently the hand of Warren Hastings; and later still, the hand of Wellesley. Vainly did Cornwallis, and Teignmouth, and Adam, and Minto try to stop the inevitable march forward. Such a march was the certain ultimate consequence of the establishment of a factory on the Húglí by a dominant race. There was no middle point between crushing or being crushed. The possibility of succeeding in the former process was first demonstrated by Dupleix, when he declined to surrender Madras to the Nuwáb of the Karnátik. The defeat his general inflicted upon the Nuwáb's troops on the Adyár, not only reversed the moral position of the European and the Asiatic in India, but it revealed to his soaring and receptive mind the possibility of bringing the whole of Southern India under French domination. Had France but seconded him, who can say that his dream might not have been realised? It remains only to us, whilst concluding this record of his splendid struggles to that end, and his glorious and unmerited failure, to admit to the full the contention of M. Xavier Raymond, which, though already quoted, may well bear repetition. 'England has been much