Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/188

180 Great Britain in Asia. As a result, about two-thirds of the Indian Continent was held under the direct management of the British Government, and in the newly acquired provinces, as had been the case in the older, an enlightened administration soon improved the face of the country and the lot of the inhabitants; the people speedily became reconciled to their new masters and to the civilisation they introduced. In the remaining third, native rulers governed, but subject to the vigilant and judicious control of the Supreme Government. It naturally took a longer time for an improvement to take place in these districts, but nevertheless a marked change for the better did shortly manifest itself. Villages which had been desolate and ruined were re-peopled, confidence was gradually restored, the wandering bands of military marauders and adventurers ceased, the revenues increased, and general prosperity was introduced. 'The dark age of trouble and violence,' says a writer of the day, already often quoted, 'which so long spread its malign influence over the fertile regions of Central India, has thus ceased from this time; and a new era has commenced, we trust, with brighter prospects, — an era of peace, prosperity, and wealth at least, if not of political liberty and high moral improvement.'

This prophecy has not been falsified, but it is not to be supposed that the new order which was established was a perfect work, and that it did not give rise to