Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/224

216 From this time forward, the native has been taken by the hand, his moral well-being has been regarded as a duty, and gradually has he been brought into contact with European ideas of social duties, and prepared for the reception of a higher form of civilization.

All this progress cannot be justly ascribed to the personal initiative of the Governor-General; but the measures that produced it had his cordial assent, and were advocated and promoted by his expansive sympathy and zealous industry. His title to the gratitude of the nation does not however rest upon these achievements, great though they were; but is founded on a higher claim, namely, on what he did for the consolidation of the Indian Empire.

When he reached Calcutta, English possessions were disjointed and fragmentary, long frontiers had to be guarded and maintained, communications between the parts were uncertain and difficult, rapid access to many of the provinces impossible. These territories were in contact with turbulent and hostile neighbours, and were exposed to the desolating effects of unchecked violence, and to the ruin and misery caused by inroads of predatory hordes. The Maráthá communities were in a state of anarchy, their rule was one of devastation, it was continually destroying and never repairing. The numerous bands of freebooters and mercenary troops that infested the country crushed the inhabitants and sorely embarrassed govern-