Page:History of the French in India.djvu/14

 viii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. for others to use, than a history which in the present day would commend itself to the general reader. It is often diffuse even to prolixity, and brings into promi- nence actions not mainly affecting the current of the narrative, and such as in the present day would be interesting only to the student of individual character. At the same time, whilst it indulges in the fullest details regarding the exploits of the ensigns and lieutenants who assisted Clive and Lawrence in an- nihilating the schemes of Dupleix and Lally, it re- gards the French rather as accessories than as prin- cipals in the story, seldom entering at any length into the reasons of their military movements, never con- veying to the reader any fixed idea of the policy by which the rulers of Pondichery were guided. Through- out the work, indeed, there is a natural but entire want of sympathy with French aspirations. Even Orme, therefore, full and explicit as he is regarding the doings of the English, would fail to satisfy the in- quirer for a complete and connected account of the deeds of the French in India. Nor is the omission supplied, so far as I am aware, by any French history. The most valuable of these that I have met with in my researches is the Histoire des hides Orientales by the Abbe Guyon, published in Paris in the year 1744. The value of this work consists mainly in the long and copious extracts given by the author from the archives of Pondichery, and in the correspondence, also inserted, between M. Dumas and the Native Princes of India. The supplements to the memoirs of La Bourdonnais, of Dupleix, of Lally, of Bussy, of De Leyrit, of Moracin, and of many others,