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THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA.


now at an end. Nothing remained but to follow up the fugitives, and to impose conditions for a general pacification. In both these duties Sir John Malcolm played a prominent part. The dominions of the Peshwá were annexed to the Bombay Presidency, and the nucleus of the present Central Provinces was formed out of the territory rescued from the Pindárís. The Peshwá himself surrendered, and was permitted to reside at Bithúr, near Cawnpur, on a pension of £80,000 a year. His adopted son was the infamous Náná Sáhib of the Mutiny of 1857. To fill the Peshwá's place as the traditional head of the Maratha Confederacy, the lineal descendant of Sivají was brought forth from obscurity, and placed upon the throne of Sátára. An infant was recognized as the heir of Holkar; and a second infant was proclaimed Rájá of Nágpur under British guardianship. At the same time, the States of Rájputána accepted the position of feudatories to the paramount British power. The map of India, as thus drawn by Lord Hastings, remained substantially unchanged until the time of Lord Dalhousie. But the proudest boast of Lord Hastings and Sir John Malcolm was, not that they had advanced the British frontier, but that they had conferred the blessings of peace and good government upon millions who had groaned under the extortions of the Maráthás and Pindárís.

Earl Amherst, 1823-1828.—The Marquess of Hastings was succeeded by Lord Amherst, after the interval of a few months, during which Mr. Adam, a civil servant, acted as Governor-General. The Maráthá war in the peninsula of India was hardly completed, when our armies had to face new enemies beyond the sea. Lord Amherst's administration lasted for five years, from 1823 to 1828. It is known in history by two prominent events—the first Burmese war, and the capture of Bhartpur.

Burma in Ancient Times.—For years our eastern frontier of Bengal had been disturbed by Burmese raids. The peninsula was known to the Greeks in ancient times as the 'Golden Chersonese.' Burmese traditions pretend that a pious Indian Prince from Benares founded a kingdom on the coast, of Arakan, centuries before the birth of Christ. They also assert