Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/98

90 no effect, Lord Hastings formulated a more urgent demand on that important matter, in December 1815. He had fully made up his own mind to the necessity of eradicating this evil, and he determined to relieve India of a scourge which was a reproach to government, and which rendered all peaceable development impossible. He proposed, not for the first time, to establish a general confederation of native states under the guarantee of British protection, as the only means of putting down the predatory system, which was daily taking deeper root in the country, and disintegrating the territory under the Company's jurisdiction; he boldly stated that 'if there was no choice left, he should prefer an immediate war with the Maráthás, for which he was fully prepared, to an expensive system of defence against a consuming predatory warfare, carried on clandestinely by the Maráthá powers, wasting our resources, till they might see a practical opportunity of coming to an open rupture.' But his efforts to insure the safety of the Company's possessions were thwarted by his Council at Calcutta, and the plan which he elaborated had therefore to be submitted to England without the concurrence of his colleagues.

The home authorities also were still fully persuaded of the wisdom of the policy which had been adopted in 1805, and desired that it should be continued. They were influenced by the fear they entertained for