Page:History of India Vol 8.djvu/413

 CHAPTER XVI

THE GOVERNOR-GENERALSHIP OF LORD HASTINGS

1813-1823

Some attempt has already been made to explain the views and circumstances under which, after Lord Wellesley's departure, the British government determined to retire within its own administrative borders, to transact its political affairs in future upon the principle of limited liability, and to maintain, outside its actual obligations, the attitude of a placid spectator, unconcerned with the quarrels or misfortunes of his neighbours. It is a policy which a strong European state, placed in the midst of uncivilized rulers or races, has vainly endeavoured to uphold from time immemorial. It appears at first to be simple and prudent, and to be dictated by enlightened self-interest and by public morality. Unfortunately, it has hitherto invariably failed to do more than check or postpone for an interval the really inevitable tendency of an organized power to override, if not to absorb, loose tribal rulerships and ephemeral despotisms, which spring up and survive merely because more durable institutions are wanting and until they are supplied. Not only, indeed,