Page:History of India Vol 8.djvu/351

Rh in the councils and armies of the native Indian powers was an alarming evil that demanded extirpation.

When, therefore, it became known that Tippu's embassy to the Isle of France had brought back not only the promise of an offensive and defensive alliance with the French, "for the express purpose of expelling the British nation from India," but also some French officers and recruits for the Mysore army, the Governor-General concluded that he had just ground of hostility. His warlike ardour was easily heated, and he was deterred from attacking Tippu at once only by finding himself unprepared. The finances showed a standing deficit, the Company's credit in the money-market had fallen very low, the Madras army was not fit to take the field; and Lord Mornington was so far from relying on the co-operation of his allies, the Nizam and the Marathas, that he recognized the impossibility of calling them in.

The fruits of the non-interference policy had now shown themselves in the weakness and disaffection of the Mzam, in the ominous preparations of Tippu, and in the spreading power of the Marathas. The six years of English neutrality – from 1792 to 1798 – had been employed by the two last-mentioned states in augmenting their war-resources and extending their territory at the expense of weaker neighbours. The defeat and capitulation of the Nizam at Kurdla had reduced him from the condition of a great and leading power in Hindustan to that of a tributary to the Marathas; the corps of fourteen thousand men under