The Decisive Battles of India (From 1746 to 1849)

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WHEN the first edition of this work appeared, two years ago, the dark cloud now threatening our Indian Empire was but a little speck on the horizon, no bigger than a man's hand. The book simply-to use the expression of the critics-told the story of how we had won India. We are now entering upon a period when we shall be called upon to defend the Empire we so greatly gained. Upon this point let there be no mistake in the public mind. Let us at least be honest to our own consciences. A great Power does not go to enormous expenditure to conquer merely sandy deserts. Every previous con- queror of the deserts which Russia has subdued has aimed at the subjugation of the fertile lands beyond them. The rulers of Russia are not less intelligent than were Alexander, Mahmoud of Ghazni, Chengiz Khan, Taimúr, Bábar, Nádir Shih, and Ahmad Shah Duráni. Since the days of the first Peter they have pursued a steady and persistent course towards a definite end. Russia is now at the very gates of Herat. No one can peruse the admirable paper by Captain Holdich, R.E., which, written on the spot, was read at the Royal Geographical Society on the 23rd March last, without being convinced that the present vacillating rulers of India have allowed her to take possession of the several points which command the passes leading to that city. The acquisition of such positions is the natural step to the possession of Herat itself. Nor should any man delude himself with the belief that the possession of the valley of the Herirúd will satisfy the ambition of Russia. Why should it? It did not satisfy the greed of the cor- querors in whose footsteps she is treading. When those conquerors had seized the outer gate of India, they naturally passed through it. Much more readily will Russia do so, when she notices that we have neglected to secure the inner gate-the gate of Kandahar-which, if strongly barred and defended by men the equal of those whose exploits are described in this volume, would yet check her advance!

It is, then, at a time when we may at any moment be called upon to defend the great Dependency of Hindustan, that I offer to the public the second edition of a work which has endeavoured faithfully to describe the mode in which that Dependency was acquired. The thoughtful reader will not fail to discern an enormous difference between our method and the method of Russia. In the tenth chapter of another work, now about to appear, "AMBUSHES AND SURPRISES," I have indicated Russia's principle. I have shown how she watches, intriguing with its principal inhabitants, on the border of a doomed country till she feels herself strong enough to step across it. No sooner does she achieve complete success than she intimidates the aboriginal inhabitants by wholesale slaughter. Thus did she act towards the Tartars of the Crimea; towards the Circassians of the Caucasus; towards the Nomads of the Kizil Kúm and the Kara Kúm; thus, within the last five the Akhal Turkomans. Not in this way did the British years, towards behave towards the races of India. In all their onward progresses they had the assent and support of the popu- lations who desired to maintain law and order. The decadence of the Mughul rule was proceeding rapidly when Clive first landed in Bengal. Then the buffalo was to the man who held the bludgeon. These pages show how, under English rule, the buffalo is the property of the man, woman, or child who has the legal right to possess it. We have shed no blood except on the battle- field, and the blood we have shed there has been the blood of the oppressors of the people.