Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/105

Rh in British territory in the season 1816-17, and they at last agreed that 'the resolution adopted of refraining from any system of offensive operations against the Pindárís, till the sanction of the Court could be received, should be abandoned, and that vigorous measures for the suppression of the Pindárís had become an indispensable object of public duty .' Armed with this important decision, without which he was powerless to act, Lord Hastings now took his own measures ; and having made up his mind definitely on the plan to be pursued, and upon its feasibility, he determined on the 21st December to attack the Pindárís, and he gave immediate notice of this intention, to be carried out in spite of obstacles which might be raised by open or secret foes.

The execution of this project was necessarily delayed until the following autumn, 1817; but in the meanwhile the Supreme Government was not inactive, and in addition to the military arrangements necessary for the undertaking, prepared for the contingencies that were likely to arise. It was evident to the Governor-General that the annihilation of the predatory system must entail a thorough change in the conditions then existing in Central India. The evil that grew there in such alarming proportions was no accidental circumstance; in his opinion it was the