text: [23] The defeat of British force in a pitched battle on the soil of India would be a calamity of which no man could calculate the consequences; yet such a result would not have been impossible if the contempt of our commanders for the enemy had brought them to the encounter with inadequate numbers; and the rulers of India have reason to congratulate themselves that this underrated force remained quiescent during our Affghan disasters when intrigue and difficulties were at their height among both Hindoos and Moslems and every disposable regiment was engaged beyond the Indus in a warfare of the speedy termination of which there then appeared little prospect; while the Moslems both of the north and south in Rohilcund and the Dekkan were on the verge of insurrection the Rajah of Sattarah the representative of the former head of that great Mahratta confederacy of which Sindiah was then the only member retaining any degree of independence was busied in conspiracies the absurdity of the proposed means for which was not[24] (as some of his advocates in England attempted to maintain) a proof of their non-existence