7. The policy of the first Afghan War has been, it is hardly
necessary to observe, much disputed, and the author's confident
defence of Lord Auckland's action cannot be accepted.
CHAPTER 49
Pindhari System--Character of the Maratha Administration--Cause of
their Dislike to the Paramount Power.
The attempt of the Marquis of Hastings to rescue India from that
dreadful scourge, the Pindhari system, involved him in a war with all
the great Maratha states, except Gwalior; that is, with the Peshwa at
Puna, Holkar at Indore, and the Bhonsla at Nagpur; and Gwalior was
prevented from joining the other states in their unholy league
against us only by the presence of the grand division of the army,
under the personal command of the Marquis, in the immediate vicinity
of his capital. It was not that these chiefs liked the Pindharis, or
felt any interest in their welfare, but because they were always
anxious to crush that rising paramount authority which had the power,
and had always manifested the will, to interpose and prevent the free
indulgence of their predatory habits--the free exercise of that
weapon, a standing army, which the disorders incident upon the
decline and fall of the Muhammadan army had put into their hands, and
which a continued series of successful aggressions upon their
neighbours could alone enable them to pay or keep under control.
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