Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/275

Rh no serious disquiet to the Governor-General of British India. Even the acute sovereign of the warlike clan which had established a powerful monarchy beyond the Satlaj — even Ranjit Singh foresaw the doom which awaited even the kingdom he had created. "It will all," he said, as he noted on the map the red border which encircled the various provinces already under British sway, "it will all become red." His words were a prophecy. The impetus given to the vast machine could not be stopped until the final goal had been attained. The various, so to speak, indigenous races which had tried to found an empire in India had failed. The Hindus, brave as they were, became to a great extent demoralised by an over-refinement of civilisation; an over-refinement which, amongst other strange forms, made of food a religion. This one law, this article of faith, which prevents combination, restricts men to a certain diet, to be partaken of only under certain fixed conditions, is sufficient in the present day to prevent the race which practises it from holding the chief sway over such a country as Hindostan. The northern warriors who ruled on their ruin had defects of an opposite character not less fatal to permanent predominance. With some brilliant exceptions they were intolerant, and the security — the very existence even — of their rule always depended on the character of the ruler. The Maráthás, who succeeded them, were in every sense of the word adventurers — fortune hunters who rose from nothing, men of neither birth, position, nor descent —