He reckoned however without that sturdy force of English rivalry which was soon to bear fruit in the victories of Clive and Lawrence, bettering the lessons they had learned from the French. His own recall in 1755 proved perhaps a yet deadlier blow to schemes which his weaker successors lacked the means or the energy to carry to successful issues. In 1757, the year of Plassey, Clive became master of Chandernagore. His best subaltern, Forde, drove the French, in Bussy's absence, out of the Northern Circars. In vain did the brave but hot-headed Lally attempt to stay the tide of England's fortunes by the capture of Fort St. David, and the siege of Madras. On the road to recover the former "lay the city of the victory of Dupleix, and the stately monument which was designed to commemorate the triumphs of France in the East. Clive ordered both the city and the monument to be razed to the ground. He was induced, we believe, to take this step, not by personal or national malevolence, but by a just and profound policy. The town and its pompous name, the pillar and its vaunting inscriptions, were among the devices by which Dupleix had laid the public mind of India under a spell. This spell it was Clive's business to break. The natives had been taught that France was confessedly the first power in Europe, and that the English did not presume to dispute her supremacy. No measure could be more effectual for the removing of this delusion than the public and solemn demolition of the French trophies." Eyre Coote's crushing defeat of the French at Wandi

"Critical and Historical Essays," by Lord Macaulay, and "Life of Clive," by Sir John Malcolm.

wash was crowned by the capture of Bussy, the only Frenchman who had seemed to approach the genius of Dupleix. With the fall of Karical in 1760, nothing remained of Dupleix's empire save Pondicherry. In the following January Lally himself was starved into surrendering the stronghold which, with failing means and ever-darkening hopes, he had defended against a close siege of four months.

With the fall of Pondicherry the French power in India may be said to have passed away. On the peace of Paris in 1763 the French regained possession both of Pondicherry and Chandernagore. But never again could they make head against the growing power of their English rivals. In 1778, when the two nations were again at war, and Warren Hastings was Governor-General of India, both these places were recaptured by our troops, and the fortifications of Pondicherry once more destroyed. A few months later not an inch of ground in India remained to the French. Twice again, with returning peace, was Pondicherry restored to its first owners, only to fall again, after a brief interval, into our hands.

Meanwhile the old rivalry between French and English was maintained into the beginning of this century by a succession of French officers who placed their swords at the disposal, now of Hyder Ali and Tippoo Sahib, now of the Nizam of Scindia, or of any prince strong enough to strike a blow for the sovereignty of India. But it was all in vain. His French allies failed to avert the doom which overtook Tippoo under the gateway at Seringapatam; Raymond's Sepoy brigades were disarmed by Malcolm, and disbanded at Hyderabad.

Perron was glad to retire from Scindiah's service, "when every hereditary prince, from the Sutlej to the Nerbudda, acknowledged him as master, and he enjoyed an income equal to that of the present Viceroy and Commander-in-Chief of India combined; at this climax of his fortune when he was actually believed to have sent an embassy to the First Consul of the French Republic."

The famous Savoyard General De Boigne's trained battalions were nearly annihilated by Lake's Englishmen and Sepoys at Laswari.

After the peace of Paris in 1814, Pondicherry, Chandernagore, Mahé, Karical, and Yanaon on the Orissa coast, were finally restored to France. Of these places Pondicherry alone retains any of its old importance. The city and surrounding country cover an area of 107 square miles, peopled by about 140,000 souls, of whom less than half are contained within the town itself. Described by Lord Valentia in the beginning of this century as the handsomest town he had seen in India except Calcutta, Pondicherry with its well-built streets, shady boulevards, and white-stuccoed public buildings, still retains much of its former beauty; and its lighthouse, 90 feet high, throws its friendly warning many miles out to sea. But the city has no harbour, and its declining trade now barely exceeds the value of £200,000 a year.

Chandernagore also has seen its best days, and the Hooghly, which once bore the largest vessels thither, now flows in shallow volume past its lonely quays and grass-grown streets. The Prince of Wales was received here with much simplicity and cordiality.

* The Fall of the Moghul Empire, by H. G. Keene.

The rivalry of the English and French for Empire in India has been very remarkable and the contrast of the treatment of the officers of the two countries at the hands of their governments on their return home, will be found not less so.

"The equitable and temperate proceedings of the British Parliament (respecting Lord Clive's conduct in India) were set off to the greatest advantage by a foil. The wretched government of Louis the Fifteenth, had murdered directly or indirectly, almost every Frenchman who had served his country with distinction in the East, Labourdonnais was flung into the Bastille, and after years of suffering left it only to die. Dupleix, stripped of his immense fortune, and broken-hearted by humiliating attendance in antechambers, sank into an obscure grave. Lally was dragged to the common place of execution with a gag between his lips. The Commons of England, on the other hand, treated their living captain with that discriminating justice which is seldom shown except to the dead."* When thus praising ourselves for the treatment of our public men, let us not forget Sir Walter Raleigh, Warren Hastings and Governor Eyre, lest we become too proud.

Critical and Historical Essays by Lord Macaulay.

CHAPTER XXXII.

COMMERCE OF INDIA.

Cotton-Effects of Civil War in America—Cotton Manufacture revived in a new form in India.

Commerce. From the very earliest times, India has been a great commercial country, and to trade with the Indies was the ambition of each European nation as it rose in the scale of civilization and power. To the Portuguese belong the credit of the first successful trade operations between Europe and India by sea, as has been already stated, and to their intrepid Navigator, Vasco da Gama, are we indebted for the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope route, by which for three centuries and a half the vast bulk of the traffic was conveyed.

Our own Commercial relations with this great country date from the year 1600, when Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to a number of London Merchants, and from this small commencement developed the powerful East India Company, which not only displaced the commerce of Portugal, Holland, and France, but became the political ruler of India until absorbed by Her Majesty's Government in 1858.

Since the days of the Company's Factories or trading establishments, the trade of India has undergone, not