468 THE INDIAN EMPIRE [CHAP.
their mistresses, might have been displayed throughout a wide
Causes of Indian empire. The German Companies, whether Austrian
failure of or Prussian, were sacrificed to the diplomatic necessities of
mans. their royal patrons in Europe, and to the dependence of the
German States in the wars of the last century upon the maritime
powers.
Causes of England emerged the prize-winner from the long contest of
England's the European nations for India. Her success was partly the
success in
India. gift of fortune, but mainly the result of four elements in
the national character. There was-first, a marvellous patience
and self-restraint in refusing to enter on territorial conquests
or projects of Indian aggrandizement, until she had gathered
strength enough to succeed. Second, an indomitable per-
sistence in those projects once they were entered on; and a
total incapacity, on the part of her servants in India, of being
stopped by defeat. Third, an admirable mutual confidence of
the Company's servants in one another in times of trouble.
Fourth, and chief of all, the resolute support of the English
nation at home. England has never doubted that she must
retrieve, at whatever strain to herself, every disaster which may
befall Englishmen in India; and she has never sacrificed the
work of her Indian servants to the exigencies of her diplomacy
in Europe. She was the only European power which un-
consciously but absolutely carried out these two principles of
policy. The result of that policy, pursued during two and
a half centuries, is the British India of to-day.
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