VI.] PHASES m THE CONQUEST OF INDIA. 207 
to a transformation, which was strictly periodic and re 
curred at absolutely equal intervals. These intervals were 
of the length of twenty years, beginning with Lord North’s 
Regulating Act in 1773. If then we bear this date in 
mind, we acquire at the same time four other dates which 
of necessity are of primary importance in the history of 
the Company. These are 1793, 1813, 1833 and 1853. 
We shall find these five dates quite as important as we 
might expect, and they form a very convenient framework 
for the history of the Company. The first is one of the 
most important of all. If 1748 marks the beginning of 
the movement which led to the creation of British India, 
1773 may be said to mark the creation itself of British 
India. In that year began the line of Governors-General, 
though for a long time they had not the title of Governor- 
General of India but only of Bengal; then too was founded 
the Supreme Court of Calcutta. The enormous danger 
which attended the new state of our Indian affairs was at 
the same time met, and the root of corruption cut through, 
by the abolition of the power in the Company's affairs of 
the share-holders or so-called Proprietors. 
The next renewal in 1793 is less important, though 
the debates which then took place are interesting now for 
the picture they present of the phase of Anglo-Indian life 
when it was brahminised, when the attempt was made to 
keep India as a kind of inviolate paradise, into which no 
European and especially no missionary should be suffered 
to penetrate. But the date 1793 is itself as important as 
any other, being the date not merely of a renewal of the 
Charter, but also of the famous Permanent Settlement of 
Bengal, one of the most memorable acts of legislation in 
the history of the world. 
It was at the next renewal in 1813 that the aged