to the legions thundering past, and turns to thought again, as though we could march past in Asia and go off parade comfortably, without noticing what the oriental Archimedes is meditating in the dust!
To look, however, as best we may, through the untoward mist that thickens yonder, it would seem that, taking the past with the future, there will be altogether four main stages in our Asiatic destiny. We stand to-day midway in the third of these, but with the fourth stage already on the horizon.
Originally, we went to Asia for no loftier motive than to do business. But, though the motive was not particularly lofty, we have no reason whatever to apologise for it. Obviously, trade is for the mutual advantage of buyer and seller alike, and if the European gained, so did the Indian. This trading epoch was the primary stage in our Asiatic career.
The second stage began when we found that, for a twofold cause, we could not trade satisfactorily. Hindustan, during the eighteenth century, in consequence of the break-up of the Moghul Empire, of the Mahratta risings, and of the Pathan invasions, was little short of an inferno. Trade was becoming impossible. Besides this, an European nation, France, had come into India, and definitely aimed at possessing it, with the inevitable result that our commerce would go by the board, if she succeeded in her design. Therefore, extending our original position as traders, we adopted the political
