AT the beginning of the century which is covered by this volume a group of traders are seen desperately arming themselves to defend their very existence against the ruler of one of the provinces of India; and then, to secure themselves for the future, they are seen taking the lead in a plan to replace this ruler by one who will be more favourable to them. At the end of the century, and in the last chapter of this book, the successors of these traders are called upon, by an Act of the Imperial Parliament,' to transfer to the British Crown the sovereignty of the whole Indian continent, a land equal in area and population to the whole of Europe excepting Russia; a land full of cities of old renown, and inhabited by races of an ancient and noble civilisation.
The history of India has extended over scores of centuries; but no one of these centuries has seen anything to match this amazing change; indeed, there is nothing that can be compared with it in the whole history of the world.
And there is another contrast yet more startling between the beginning and the end of this century. At the beginning of the century India was a mere chaos of warring principalities; dynasties rose and fell; the patient peasant endured the ravages and exactions of one plundering master after another; the waste and carnage of war never ceased; and everywhere Might was Right, and the arbitrary will of the strongest prevailed. At the end of the century, after one final convulsion, war had altogether ceased. There were