softened, by means of an admirable perseverance, the ferocious and almost savage character of the Maráthás. He submitted to the discipline and to the civilisation of European armies, soldiers who till then had been regarded as barbarians; and to such an extent did he succeed, that the rapacious licence which had formerly been common amongst them came at last to be looked upon as infamous even by the meanest soldier.'"
Such was the opinion formed of de Boigne by those who lived in his times and who knew him personally. To us, who can look back on all that he accomplished, and who can form a tolerably accurate idea of the difficulties he must have had to encounter, he stands out as pre-eminently the foremost European figure between the departure of Warren Hastings and the arrival of Marquess Wellesley. It was de Boigne who made it possible for Sindia to rule in Hindostan, at the same time that he controlled the councils of Púna. It was through de Boigne alone that Mádhají's great dream, dissolved by his death, became possible of realisation. But for de Boigne the power of the Maráthás would never have become so formidable, would never have been able to offer a resistance to the British so determined and so prolonged. It was de Boigne who introduced into the North-West Provinces the germs of that civil administration which the English have since successfully developed. I cannot do better, in concluding this sketch of his career, than quote the
