INDIA ON THE EVE OF THE BRITISH CONQUEST: A HISTORICAL SKETCH

The following pages contain the substance of a course of lectures delivered at Oxford last year, and which had a threefold aim. First, to give such an account of the state of affairs in India, immediately previous to the establishment of British Rule, as seemed essential to a proper appreciation of their historical position in relation to that country and its native Governments; and as might facilitate, in some measure, the formation of just judgments on the character of our earlier Eastern policy. A second object was, to trace the outlines of one of the most remarkable and dramatic revolutions which the world has ever witnessed the rapid decline and dissolution of the Mogul Empire, and the rise and culmination of the Maratha Power. Thirdly, it was attempted to survey this revolution not as an isolated and abnormal series of occurrences, but as forming, not the less because its actors bore strange names, and had (like Mahomet and Saladiu) dark complexions, an essential portion of the history of the world; a portion closely akin, both in its phenomena and in their concatenation, to more popular and hackneyed, but not intrinsically more interesting or important passages; a portion suggestive of striking and instructive analogies to the leading circumstances, characters, and events of European annals, which it thus illustrates all the more usefully, if unexpectedly; and hence, in short, both claims and repays the attention of the general student of history and politics. It is a comprehensive work that must be read by anyone interested in Indian history.