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50 these states would have been placed under civilised tutelage, the confusion which followed would have been minimised and gradually put an end to, and hence a more stable and worthy system of native rule would have been introduced. But the neutral policy of non-intervention had been accurately carried out, and Holkar, Sindhia, and the Bhonsla Rájá had been left independent in diminished territories, with the result that, deeply resenting their losses, they had free liberty, just outside British protection, to devastate what remained to them or what they could acquire from their neighbours, and to intensify the disorders which endangered the general tranquillity. In 1813 Holkar was unable to exercise much influence outside his own dominions, for reasons already given; but Sindhia and the Bhonsla Rájá were engaged in attacking Bhopál, an important little Muhammadan state connecting British territory in Bundelkhand and Berar, and governed by a Nawáb of superior political intelligence.

Lord Minto had been endeavouring since 1812 to induce the Bhonsla to accept a subsidiary alliance; but that prince, although saved from disaster at the hands of Amír Khán by a British force in 1809, brooded over the losses which he suffered in the last Maráthá war, and, forming schemes for his own aggrandisement, refused to alter the attitude of reserve and distrust which he persisted in maintaining towards the Government of Calcutta. Nor was the Peshwá inactive. He had claims on the