of other states, when the means of aggrandisement was placed in their hands[1].'
How far he would have succeeded in eradicating notions then prevalent, it is not easy to say, but the fact was becoming clearer every day that the settlement made in 1805 was far from satisfactory, more especially those treaties concluded with Sindhia and Holkar. These princes were military chiefs of irregular troops in the possession of a country, rather than territorial sovereigns; their dominion over their subjects was uncertain and precarious and was maintained by force, while their principal occupation was to levy, at the point of the sword, contributions and exactions from reluctant tributaries. The natural consequences followed, and there were perpetual scenes of war, anarchy, and bloodshed in those miserable states, disastrous to all prosperity, and dangerous to the neighbouring British provinces. In Holkar's territories disorder prevailed even to a greater extent than elsewhere, owing to the insanity of that prince in 1808 and to his death three years later: the young Holkar was a child, and his custody, and the power it conferred, was contested by his father's widow and by a soldier of fortune, Amír Khán, of whom more will be heard presently[2].
By Wellesley's plan of subsidiary alliances all
