231 CHAPTER VI. FRENCH INDIA AT ITS ZENITII. The peace between the Powers of Europe which had C y| p * been signed at Aix-la-Chapelle afforded, as we have already stated, an opportunity for the introduction into 1749. India of a system, afterwards carried to a very consider- able extent, whereby the European Powers, moved by promises of material advantage, lent out their soldiers to the native rulers. It is but right to add, that in almost every case the temptation came from the natives, and it should also be remembered that the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle had been concluded at a time when an unusual number of the troops of both nations had been thrown on the Indian soil, and when therefore the em- ployment of, and provision for, these soldiers, caused no little anxiety to the governors of the settlements. Uupleix, indeed, in a letter* which he wrote to the Company of the Indies at the time, expressly justified his recourse to such a line of conduct by the necessity under which he was to practise the strictest economy. In this custom, however, the English set the example. The account of the expulsion of Eaja Sahuji from Tanjur has been given in a previous chapter.f The duplicity of that monarch, his double overthrow by his own people, and his final expulsion in 1749, in favour of Partab Singh, will doubtless be recollected. It is necessary to refer to it here, because it was this same Sahuji, twice expelled from his kingdom, who, by his promises and entreaties, induced the English to lend
- Dated March 31, 1749. All the tached to the Memoire pour Dupleix.
letters quoted are to be found at f Chapter III. length in the pieces justificative* at-
