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Rh, from May, 1798, to July, 1805, constitute the most important and critical stage in the building up of our Indian dominion on the foundations that had been laid by Clive and Hastings. He had reached India at a moment when the British government was halting dubiously between two political ways, before a horizon that was cloudy and unsettled. On the one hand lay the course that had been prescribed by Parliament, of holding aloof from the quarrels of the native powers and of maintaining an attitude of defensive isolation within our own borders. On the other was the course of going forward to meet dangers and disarm rivals, of striking boldly into the medley before disorder or disaffection could gather strength, and of securing the tranquillity of the British possessions by enforcing peace and submission among our neighbours.

Lord Cornwallis and Sir John Shore, his predecessors, had followed, so far as was possible, the former course. But even before arriving in India, Lord Wellesley had discovered (as he wrote long afterward to Lord Ellenborough) "how vain and idle was poor old Cornwallis's reliance on the good faith of Tippu, and on the strength to be derived from treaties with the Marathas or the Nizam." With such preconceived notions he immediately adopted, without hesitation, the latter course, and it must be admitted that his choice was rewarded by triumphant success. He crushed the Sultan of Mysore in a single brief campaign; he disarmed and disbanded the formidable corps d'armée of fourteen thousand sepoys under French officers that was