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24 It is easy now to see how strangely events were working towards the issue which history has since recorded. Had Ahmad Sháh been defeated at Pánípat, a great Maráthá empire would have replaced the crumbling empire of the Mughals. But for the victories of Clive, Knox, Caillaud, and Carnac, our countrymen would have been driven out of Bengal. It was the money furnished by Mír Kásim which brought the siege of Pondicherry to a timely close, before Haidar Alí could march to the rescue of his French allies. But for the jealousies and dissensions of French officers and the absence of due support from home, the fight for empire between the rival settlers in Southern India might have been indefinitely prolonged. Plassey, Pánípat, and Pondicherry are names which represent three critical stages in the growth of our Indian rule. Plassey made us virtual masters of Bengal and Behar; Pánípat opened the way to future conquests northward of Behar; while Pondicherry left us free to dominate in course of time all the wide country that spreads from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal.

From this time forth the Company combine the pursuit of peaceful trade with the functions of an armed territorial power. As far back as 1689 one of their despatches contained these significant words: — 'The increase of our revenue is the subject of our care as much as our trade; 'tis that must maintain our force when twenty accidents may interrupt our trade; 'tis that must make us a nation in India.' They