PART I. VOL. VII INDIA HISTORY TO THE END OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY BY P. E. ROBERTS SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF WORCESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS M DCCCC XVI Oxford University Press London Edinburgh Glasgow New York Humphrey Milford M. A. Publisher to the University XII. ENGLISH AND FRENCH IN INDIA, TO THE PEACE OF PARIS. REASONS FOR THE FRENCH DEFEAT. XIII. THE REVOLUTION IN BENGAL. PLASSEY, AND CLIVE'S FIRST GOVERNORSHIP OF BENGAL. XIV. MISGOVERNMENT IN BENGAL. REFORMS AND XV. THE ADMINISTRATION OF WARREN HASTINGS TO XXI. REACTION FROM THE POLICY OF ANNEXATION. LORD CORNWALLIS, SIR GEORGE BARLOW, Lord XXII. FINAL DEFEAT OF THE MARATHA CONFEDERACY. Sketch-map to illustrate the Maratha Wars Sketch-map to illustrate the Burmese Wars, 1826, 1852, 1885 Ranjit Singh's Dominions in 1839 India in 1857 (the Mutiny year). HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA CHAPTER I PHYSICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES THE geography of India will be treated fully in a separate volume, and in this chapter only such broad aspects of the subject will be indicated as are absolutely necessary for a right understanding of the history. The natural frontiers of India are mountains and sea, and this fact has had a preponderating influence upon her annals. From the mouth of the Indus on the west to the delta of the Ganges on the east the waters of the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean wash the shores of the great triangular peninsula of central and southern India. A vast irregular semicircle of mountains, with a few breaks in the line, extends from a point westward of the Indus to the shores of Arakan-the country on the eastern bend of the Bay of Bengal. This colossal natural rampart, if we trace its course from west to east, begins with the Kirtha range striking northward from Karachi, the seaport of Sind. At Quetta the mountains curve eastward for a time till the Sulaiman range again trends in a northerly direction. Sweeping round to the east are the Hindu Kush and the Karakoram mountains with their tremendous summits, some attaining an altitude of 28,000 feet. Thence the mighty double barrier of the Himalayas, including amongst its peaks Mount Everest, the loftiest elevation on the surface of the globe, stretches in a slightly concave south-eastern curve to the |