Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/55

Rh spirit of weak conciliation pervaded the negotiations and dictated the terms that were agreed upon; ill-timed concessions were granted, and these not only caused future embarrassments to the Government of Calcutta, but also pressed hardly upon the weaker states who had relied upon British support in moments of adversity. An example of this may be given, and is to be found in the dissolution of the protective alliance, 1806, with the Rájput principality of Jaipur, which was thus handed over to Maráthá and Pathán rapacity, under circumstances reflecting so little credit to English administration, that orders were issued in 1813 to reverse this act.

Lord Minto, who became Governor-General in 1807, found much to occupy him elsewhere, and had no leisure to devote to the affairs of Central India. The time and energies of his government were taken up in allaying discontent which had broken out in the Madras army, in carrying out foreign expeditions directed mainly against the French, and in establishing relations with distant Asiatic sovereigns with whom up to that time there had been little or no communication. The important internal questions had thus to be adjourned or temporarily adjusted. India was still much disturbed, but the Governor-General kept the Maráthás within certain bounds, without the necessity of war, and steered clear between a violation of the doctrine of non-intervention and a sacrifice of former prestige and of national interests.