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The Indian empire : its peoples, history, and products / William Wilson Hunter
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LORD AMHERST 'S WORK.

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Bithur, near Cawnpur , on a pension of _^8o,ooo a year. Hisadopted son was the infamous Nana Sahib of the Mutiny ofi 8 57-

To fill the Peshwas place, as the traditional head of theMaratha Confederacy, the lineal descendant of Sivajl wasbrought forth from obscurity and placed upon the throne ofSatara . An infant was recognised as the heir of Holkar , and Satara ;a second infant was proclaimed Raja of Ndgpur under Britishguardianship. At the same time, the States of Rajputana Rajputana.accepted the position of feudatories to the paramount Britishpower.

The map of India , as thus drawn by Lord Hastings, remained Map ofsubstantially unchanged until the time of Lord Dalhousie. jgjgt 4 gBut the proudest boast of Lord Hastings and Sir John Malcolm was, not that they had advanced th z pomxrium, butthat they had conferred the blessings of peace and good govern-ment upon millions who had groaned under the extortions ofthe Marathas and Pindaris.

The Marquess of Hastings was succeeded by Lord (afterwardsEarl) Amherst , after the interval of a few months, during whichMr. Adam, a Civil Servant, acted as Governor-General. The Mr. Adam,Maratha war in the peninsula of India was hardly completed I ^ 2 ^when our armies had to face new enemies beyond the sea.

Lord Amherst s administration lasted for five years, from 1823 Lordto 1828. It is known in history by two prominent events, the ^^gfirst Burmese war and the capture of Bhartpur.

For some years past our north-eastern frontier had beendisturbed by Burmese raids. Burma , or the country which Ancientfringes the western shore of the Bay of Bengal, and runs up Burma 'the valley of the Irawadi , has a people of Tibeto-Chinese origin, and a history of its own. Tradition asserts that itscivilisation was introduced from the coast of Coromandel, by apeople who are supposed to preserve a trace of their origin intheir name of Talaing (cf . Telingana). However this may be,the Buddhist religion, professed by the Burmese at the presentday, certainly came from India at a very early date. Wavesof invasion from Siam on the south, and from the wild moun-tains of China on the north-west, passed over the land. Theseconquests were marked by the wanton and wholesale barbaritywhich seems to characterize the Tibeto-Chinese race; but thecivilisation of Buddhism survived every shock, and flourishedaround the ancient pagodas. European travellers in the 15th Burma ,century visited Pegu and Tenasserim, which they describe as centflourishing seats of maritime trade. During the Portuguese