. The rise and expansion of the British dominion in India. eat territories; they were pushing forwardinto north India; they were supreme in the centralregions; and while one army was dismembering theNizams State, another was extorting heavy subsidiesin the Carnatic and Mysore. Their operations hadhitherto been very serviceable to the English, withwhom they were at this time often in alliance, byweakening all the Mahomedan rulerships, and par-ticularly by checking Bussys military domination atHyderabad. On the whole there is good ground for the opinionthat if at the time of the dissolution of t
. The rise and expansion of the British dominion in India. eat territories; they were pushing forwardinto north India; they were supreme in the centralregions; and while one army was dismembering theNizams State, another was extorting heavy subsidiesin the Carnatic and Mysore. Their operations hadhitherto been very serviceable to the English, withwhom they were at this time often in alliance, byweakening all the Mahomedan rulerships, and par-ticularly by checking Bussys military domination atHyderabad. On the whole there is good ground for the opinionthat if at the time of the dissolution of the Moghulempire India had been left to herself, if the Europeanshad not just then appeared in the field, the whole ofsouthern and central India would have fallen underthe Maratha dominion ^. It was very fortunate for theEnglish that they did not come into collision with such ^ We look on the Morattoes to be more than a match for thewhole (Moghul) empire, were no European force to iateifere.—Letterfrom the President and Council of Madras, October, , Johii AtufTTiy. ] THE NATIVE ARMIES OF THE PERIOD 137 antagonists until their own strength had matured; sincethere can be no doubt that throughout the later stagesof the tournament for the prize of ascendancy betweenEngland and the native Powers, our most dangerouschallengers were the Marathas. CHAPTER VIII _ THE SITUATION IN BENGAL Section I. Physical characteristics of the Province. Clives victory in 1757 was followed by the militaryoccupation of Bengal, which had an immense and far-reaching effect upon the position of the English inIndia. Our resources were so considerably increasedthat the defeat of the French in the Peninsula becamethenceforward certain ; for while Lally was cut off bysea and vainly attempting to support himself alonga strip of sea-coast, the English had their feet firmlyplanted in the Gangetic delta and the rich alluvialdistricts of the lower Ganges. The word Bengal mustbe understood, he
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