A company of London merchants initiated an attempt to trade with India, being warmly supported by Queen Elizabeth, who never lost an opportunity of opposing Philip of Spain. Several of the first English expeditions met with disaster, whilst those of the Dutch were highly successful. It was the grasping policy of the merchants of this latter nation in raising the price of pepper from three to six and eight shillings per pound (the cost in India being two to three pence), which actually led to the formation of the British East India Company. A meeting of London merchants, headed by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, was held at Founder's Hall in London on 22nd September, 1599. At the meeting a company was formed for the purpose of setting on foot a voyage to the East Indies. The stock, considered a large one at that time, amounted to £30,133 1s. 8d., divided into 101 shares or adventures, the subscription of individuals varying from £100 to £3000. Queen Elizabeth was petitioned to grant a Charter of Incorporation to the Company. She delayed for a few months as negotiations were being carried on at the time with Spain through the mediation of France. These negotiations fell through, and the discussion of the East Indian trading question was then taken up eagerly both in Court and City circles. On the last day of the year 1599 Elizabeth signed a charter on behalf of about 220 gentlemen-merchants, and other individuals of repute constituting them "one bodie-corporate and politique indeed," by the style of "The Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies." This was the origin of the Charter of the East India Company, which subsequently gave rise to the dual Government of India by the Crown and the Court of Directors of the Honourable The East India Company, which was to last until the Indian Mutiny threatened to lose us India.

The sixteenth century, especially during the reign of Elizabeth, had witnessed an extraordinary progress in the bid for commercial supremacy by England; and in great daring and intrepidity in sea exploration on the part of a score and more brilliant sea captains. The issue of the above Charter, although Elizabeth did not live to see the first fruits thereof, was a fitting termination to a period which had seen the foundations of the British Empire surely and truly laid.

During the seventeenth century the English remained simple traders in India with no cravings for political or territorial aggrandisement. They remained absorbed in the business

of buying and selling, and were only anxious for the safety of their fleet, which rapidly became more formidable and extensive in proportion to the rich freight it had to convey through seas infested with pirates and frequently occupied by hostile European fleets. A second Company to trade with India had been formed in London and received recognition from the English Government in 1698. The two companies after considerable friction and loss on the part of each were amalgamated in 1708.

Louis XIV's great minister Colbert, the progenitor of Forest Conservancy in France, formed the first French East India Company on the model of that of Holland in 1664. This Company carried on operations with various vicissitudes throughout the next century. But the French regarded their presence in India more from the political advantages to be gained than the commercial, as we subsequently discovered.

The eighteenth century opened on an entirely new phase in Indian annals. The decay of Mogul power, which had begun before the death of the Emperor Aurungzebe in 1707, was greatly accelerated by that event, and by the usual war of succession which inevitably occurred amongst his sons. The will of the dead Emperor decreed the division of his dominions amongst them, but instead of consenting to this division they fought amongst themselves and the survivor, Bahadur Shah, was left to rule the scattered territories forming the empire. Amongst these several units there was an entire lack of cohesion and organisation. At the time Aurungzebe deposed his father, Shah Jehan, condemning him to lifelong captivity, the dominions were comparatively well governed, and had the former, a man of unquestioned ability, set himself to consolidate the empire into a homogeneous whole it might have kept together. But he spent his time in overrunning and spreading desolation and ruin amongst neighbouring independent states regardless of the internal decay which was sapping the very heart of his empire.

Such was the position of India when the East India Company began to exchange their position as traders on sufferance for that of territorial lords. The first steps taken in the latter direction, as East India House records clearly indicate, were by no means voluntary. For the English merchants were still essentially traders, and had persistently opposed the acquisition of territory and dominion. And the official correspondence of the time shows a complete ignorance of, and consequently

indifference to, Indian politics, and little knowledge of the creeds, manners and customs of the people.

A time arrived, however, when the English could no longer shut their eyes to the alarming political and social state of India. Every decade the disorganisation increased. With the exception of certain Hindu native states-Mysore, Travancore, the mountainous principality of Coorg and a few others-which had escaped Moslem dominion, the rest of the country was nominally under the rule of the Mogul, and strife and anarchy spread throughout the length and breadth of India. This was no organised struggle of race against race or creed against creed; it was the break-up of a loosely knit mighty empire. For Mussulman fought against Mussulman, Hindu against Hindu, and each against the other; Afghan warred with Mogul, Mogul with Rajput; and the Mahrattas against all. And the Pindari, Dacoit and Thug pursued unchecked their murderous and thieving avocations in broad daylight. The peasant went armed to his plough, the shepherd with his flock. Peace and safety were nonexistent.

The English were forced to fortify the various factories which had been gradually established in different parts of India (included, according to their situation, in the three presidencies of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay). Armed neutrality was, however, scarcely practicable, even had they only to protect themselves from the numerous warring native powers. But this was not the case. The conduct of their European rivals forced the English into active intervention if they were to avoid being swept out of India altogether. The French East India Company had proved a failure so far as trade was concerned. Their employees were not the equal of the English as factors. But as political agents they showed themselves possessed of diplomatic instincts superior to the English.

Durmas, Dupleix and the gifted La Bourdonnais entirely upset the English attitude of aloofness from all interference with the politics and quarrels of the native kingdoms, to which they had adhered so strictly during a century.

The Frenchmen saw clearly the opportunity afforded for the territorial aggrandisement of their country, and they eagerly took part in the quarrels around them, making offensive and defensive alliances with the neighbouring states, interfering in cases of disputed succession and taking every

step possible to attain political power in the country. Although the English representatives of the East India Company were not the equals of their rivals in ability of this kind, they recognised the danger of their position and followed the example of the French in organising and drilling forces of native troops on European lines throughout the British settlements. The struggle between the two great European powers in India then commenced, at first merely as auxiliaries to rival native princes only. The outbreak of war between the French and English in Europe brought the opposing forces of the two nations into direct hostility in India. The Carnatic in the Madras Presidency was the scene of this great struggle, out of which the English emerged victoriously.

In Bengal a struggle, which meant nothing less than their expulsion to the British if defeated, also took place against the usurping Mahomedan Governor, Surajah Dowlah. The Mogul Empire had by this time become an empty name so far as its distant provinces were concerned. There was no native state in existence strong enough to protect the British settlements or just enough to be trusted. Surajah Dowlah, a young man of extraordinary beauty, had proved so absolutely depraved and dissolute that he was loathed and distrusted by Mahomedans and regarded with horror by the Hindus. The English were fortifying Calcutta to protect it from an attack by the French, with whom Surajah Dowlah was in collusion. The latter ordered the fortification work to cease, and on representations being made as to the necessity of the step, he advanced, laid siege to the town and captured it in June, 1756. The place was pillaged and the Europeans captured were placed in the "Black Hole," from which few emerged alive the following morning. The tidings of this infamous act spread like wild-fire through the British settlements, and though a peace was patched up with Surajah after Calcutta had been recaptured it was felt that no reliance could be placed in the word of a prince who was not only distrusted, but hated by his own people on account of his depravity and extortions. The Hindus were daily becoming more impatient of the Mahomedan yoke, and the haughty Mussulmans were themselves divided regarding their ruler. The latter in violation of the treaty recommenced negotiations with the French.

Calcutta had been recaptured by Robert Clive with a force of 900 European troops and 1500 sepoys, aided by the Fleet

under Admiral Watson. On discovering that Surajah Dowlah was again plotting with the French with the object of attacking the English, Clive, by means of methods of a rather dubious character, secured the support of some of Surajah Dowlah's ministers and then advanced to give battle to the Governor's Army. Clive had only 3000 men, but 1000 of these troops were British. The Governor's army outnumbered them by 20 to I, and one of the latter's ministers, who commanded a division, and had promised to join Clive at Cossimbazar, failed him and marched to Plassey with Surajah Dowlah's army. The latter had a contingent of French Artillery with him and many elephants. But the issue was never long in doubt and Clive won the Battle of Plassey (1757), which was followed by the flight of Surajah Dowlah and the subsequent establishment of permanent British Dominion in Bengal.

This victory sounded the death-knell of the French in India. In the last struggle for supremacy the gallant but ill-fated Lally was defeated in Madras, and the French power in India came to an end in 1760. Tippoo Sahib, however, still ruled as Sultan over Mysore, Malabar and Coorg, and to him the French turned to make one more effort to retrieve their position. In the first struggles with Tippoo he was defeated in 1792, and in the peace conditions accepted by him he ceded to the English Malabar and Coorg, together with Dindegul, Baramahl and the Lower Gháts. Within a brief interval Tippoo again commenced intriguing with the French with the object of securing their aid and help from Mauritius against the British. He was eventually defeated and slain at the siege of Seringapatam in 1799; and the British assumed sway over the greater part of the Madras Presidency. By this time most of lower Bengal and parts of the Bombay Presidency were in British hands or under British influence.

Success followed success almost without effort. The acquisition of province after province came less from any premeditated plan than from force of circumstances and the impossibility of standing still without hazarding the position already gained. Almost in spite of ourselves we went on extending the limits of the Empire with marvellously little effort on our own part, and this result has proved highly beneficial to the great number of different races in India. For never in its past history has the country been so uniformly tranquil or so prosperous as has been the case under the British Raj.