180 THE SITUATION IN BENGAL

ward. But an invader landing on the seaboard takes all these defences in reverse. He enters, as has been said, by open ill-guarded water-gates; he can penetrate into the centre of the fortress, can march up inside to the foot of the walls, can occupy the posts, and turn the fortifications against others. This is just what the English accomplished between 1757 and 1849, during the century occupied by their wars with the native powers in India. At the beginning of that period, the conquest of Bengal transferred the true centre of gov- ernment from Southern India to that province; and thus we emerge rapidly into a far wider arena of war and politics. For the English, after their victory at Plassey, the most urgent and important matter was the restoration of some regular administration. They had invested Mir Jafir with the Nawabship under a treaty which bound him to make heavy money payments to them in compensation for their losses by the seizure of Cal- cutta and other factories, and for their war expendi- ture; agreeing in return to supply troops at the Na- wab's cost whenever he should require them. The result was to drain the native ruler's treasury and at the same time to reduce him, for the means of enforc- ing his authority and maintaining his throne, to a con- dition of dependence upon the irresponsible foreigners who commanded an army stationed within his province. Such a situation was by no means novel in India, where the leaders of well-disciplined troops are often as dan- gerous to their own government as to its enemies. At