276 BETWEEN HASTINGS AND CORNWALLIS

not suffer in the comparison. . . . Through all that vast extent of country there is not a man who eats a mouth- ful of rice but by permission of the East India Com- pany/' There is great exaggeration in this description, and the German parallel is substantially erroneous; never- theless, it is worth observing that more than a century ago, within twenty-five years after the battle of Plassey, the predominance of the Company throughout India was treated as a fact only too completely accomplished. Nor can it be doubted that Burke 's survey of the situ- ation was, in the main, correct; the weakness of all the native states had been ascertained; the ground- work of empire had already been firmly constructed. And subsequent events rapidly verified the judgment of Hastings that " nothing but attention, protection, and forbearance," an equal, vigorous, and fixed admin- istration, and free play for its vast natural resources and advantages was needed to secure the rise of India, under British ascendency, to a high and permanent level of national prosperity. For some years the constitution and conduct of the East India Company had been undergoing thorough investigation before committees of the House of Com- mons, with the result that the need of many reforms, and the expediency of imposing more control on the management of Anglo-Indian possessions, had been agreed upon unanimously. The reports of the commit- tees were submitted, and resolutions proposed, in 1782, at a moment when the old political parties were break-