Page:History of the French in India.djvu/13

 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. A COMPLETE and connected account of the doings of the French in India throughout the period embraced in this volume has never yet been given to the world. The student and the soldier whose curiosity and whose interest may have been alike aroused by the outline of the deeds of Dupleix and of La Bourdonnais, of Bussy and of Lally, given in the pages of Mr. Mill's History of India, and who may have felt anxious to learn some- thing more of the policy and aims of those famous Frenchmen, have hitherto been compelled to fall back for such information upon the voluminous work of Mr. Orme. Of the historical value of this work there can be no doubt. Mr. Orme was a member of the Madras Council and had access to all the Madras records, besides enjoying, as a contemporary, the opportunity of conversing with many of the actors of that stirring period. Of the feelings of the English in Madras, of the principles which animated their leaders civil and military, of the movements of their fleets and armies, his history is a most full and detailed, and, I believe, generally a faithful, record. Yet, with all this, Mr. Orme's work, judged even from an English point of view, constitutes rather a compendium of information