was the system of subsidiary treaties, whereby the British
government assumed a protectorate over native states, providing a fixed
number of troops for their defence and receiving an equivalent in
subsidies. The Nizam of Haidarabad was already in a condition little
removed from vassalage, and now surrendered considerable districts in
lieu of a pecuniary tribute.

A similar course was taken with the Nawab Wazir of Oudh whose territory
was threatened on one side by the Afghan king, Zeman Shah, and on
another by the Maratha lord, Daulat Rao Sindhia, who had gained
possession of Delhi. By forcible negotiations Wellesley obtained from
him the cession of all his frontier provinces, including Rohilkhand, and
consolidated the power of the Indian government along the whole line of
the Jumna and Ganges. The last and greatest object of the
governor-general's ambition was the conquest of the confederate Maratha
states, and for this a pretext was not long wanting. His forward policy,
it is true, had already excited alarm and criticism at home, while the
peace of Amiens had ostensibly removed the chief justification of
it--the necessity of combating the aggressive designs of France. But, in
the case of India, far more than of the American colonies, "months
passed and seas rolled between the order and the execution"; for in
those days ships conveying despatches occupied at least four or five
months on their voyage, and decisions taken in Leadenhall Street might
be utterly stultified by accomplished facts before they could be read in
Calcutta.

[Pageheading: _WELLESLEY AND LAKE._]

The Peshwa, at Poona, still maintained a show of independent authority
over the other great Maratha chieftains, Sindhia, Holkar, and the Raja
of Nagpur or Berar. But the real military power of the Marathas rested
with these leaders, and their predatory troops of horsemen terrorised
all Central India. Happily for Wellesley's purpose, they were often at
feud with each other, and the Peshwa, though aided by Sindhia, was
utterly defeated by Jaswant Rao Holkar. He fled to Bassein near Bombay,
where, on December 31, 1802, a treaty was signed by which not only the
Peshwa but the Nizam of Haidarabad was placed under British protection.
The Peshwa was conducted back to Poona by a British force under Arthur
Wellesley in May, 1803, but the other Maratha chiefs naturally resented
this fresh encroachment on their independence, and a league was shortly
formed between t