political power in India should he deficient in the quality of cohesion, the empire of Sevajee was already falling to pieces during the reign of one of his weak successors, all authority being usurped by the principal officers of state. Two powerful kingdoms were thus formed; the one under the Peishwa (Prime Minister), at Poona; and the other subject to the Commander-in-Chief, who fixed the seat of his government at Naghore. The latter acknowledged a nominal dependance on the former, and both mocked the Rajah of Sattara with ceremonious but empty homage, while they withheld from him all substantial authority. Other Mahratta chieftains of inferior importance also assumed sovereign power, the principal of whom, with the title of Guicomar, held part of Guzerat in a sort of feudal dependence upon the Peishwa, and fixed his residence at Baroda.
Such was the state of Hindostan about the middle of the eighteenth century, when the British first entered the field of Indian politics, and laid the foundation of a new empire, as extensive as any that had ever previously existed in the East, but possessing the principle of vitality infinitely more than all of them together.
