272 
EXPANSION OF ENGLAND. 
[lect. VI. 
conquest of India for the most part was made, and it is 
certain that in this period the spirit of trade did not 
preside over our Indian affairs. 
With the appearance of Lord Wellesley as Governor- 
General in 1798 a new era begins in Indian policy. He 
first laid down the theory of intervention and annexation. 
His theory was afterwards adopted by Lord Hastings, who, 
by the way,before he became Governor-Generalhad opposed 
it. Later again it was adopted with a kind of fanaticism 
by the last of the Governors-General who ruled in the 
time of the Company, Lord Dalhousie. 
Now this is the theory which led to the conquest of 
India. I have not left myself space in this lecture to 
examine it. I can only say that it does not aim at 
increase of trade, and that accordingly, instead of being 
favoured, it was usually opposed by the Company. The 
Company resisted Lord Wellesley and censured Lord 
Hastings; if they were strangely compliant in dealing 
with Lord Dalhousie, it is to be remarked that in his time 
the directors had practically ceased to represent a trading 
Company. The theory was often applied in a most high 
handed manner. Lord Dalhousie in particular stands out 
in history as a ruler of the type of Frederick the Great, 
and did deeds which are almost as difficult to justify as the 
seizure of Silesia or the Partition of Poland. But these 
acts, if crimes, are crimes of the same order as those of 
Frederick, crimes of ambition and of an ambition not by 
any means purely selfish. Neither he nor any of the 
great Governors-General since Warren Hastings can be 
suspected for a moment of sordid rapacity, and thus we 
see that our Indian Empire, though it began in trade and 
has a great trade for one of its results, yet was not really 
planned by tradesmen or for purposes of trade.