text:  Less than half that period sufficed for the establishment of the Anglo-Indian empire on a far firmer basis than that of the Moguls had ever attained; and if the same claim of indefeasible _suzerainte_ which was set forward by their Moslem predecessors had been openly advanced and avowed as a principle as it has long been acted upon _de facto_ it would have been at once far more candid and far more intelligible to the natives than the course which has been pursued of grounding every aggression on some pretended infraction of a compulsory treaty