text:  Had the old Mahratta spirit been then alive in the breast of the degenerate successor of Dowlut Rao the appearance in the field of 20 000 troops with a considerable share of discipline and a numerous and excellent artillery might at once have given the signal and formed a nucleus for a rising which would have comprehended almost every man who could bear arms and would have shaken to the centre if not overthrown utterly the mighty fabric of our Eastern empire