Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/68

60 north-west of the Indian continent beyond the Sutlej river was, in 1813, outside the pale of her direct activity, but the sphere of her responsibility spread through more than half the remainder; that is to say, it extended roughly speaking over the whole of Hindustán, except where a huge double wedge of territory was driven into the centre of the Empire and separated the Presidency of Bombay from the remainder.

This wedge divided Delhi from Baroda, and formed on the one side an immense irregular triangle whose apex was south of Nágpur near the Godávari river, and on the other side an elongated figure running south as far as Mysore and lying between the sea and the Nizám's dominions of Haidarábád. This alien territory occasioned extensive frontiers, which were not easily guarded, and made communications difficult, sometimes impossible, between the various portions of the growing Empire. But in addition, the independent portion of India was in a state bordering on chaos, and was in close proximity and in intimate relations with states only recently absorbed into the British confederation. Anarchy is always contagious, and a danger had thus arisen which it was time to remove. To effect this, and to settle this immense tract of country, was the great and primary problem that was to occupy Lord Hastings, and his course of action in the matter forms the central object of interest of his administration.

But on assuming control of affairs, he found himself