पान:आंग्ल प्रभा.djvu/8

t operations, ordered and recalled Commanders, and he exercised a great controlling power on the chiefs, though he led no armies in the field. It was due to his efforts that Gujarath was divided between the Peishwa and the Dabhades or Gaikwads in equal halves after the battle of Dabhoi. When Balaji Bajirao wanted to invade Bengal, Raghoji Bhosale protested at Satara, and Shahu was strong enough to enforce moderation even over the towering ambition of Palaji, and forced him to leave the Eastern provices of India free for the development of the Bhosale's power. Bajirao was only a general under Shahu, and the Pratinidhis, Bhosles, Nimbalkars, Dabhaides, Gaikwads, Kadamlandes, Angres, Ghorpades, all respected his orders. When Shahu’s great autho rity was withdrawn, this restraint was removed, and though the Peish was succeeded in establishing their authority both over Jonoji Bhosale and Damaji Gaikwad, their submission was made reluctantly; and when the Peish was themselves lost the advantage enjoyed by the first four members of the family, and minorities and internal dissensions commenced at Poona, neither the Gaikwads nor the Bhosles would concern themselves with the common weal, and though Scindia and Holkar, the Patwardhans, and the other chiefs showed more fidelity for a longer period, the balance of power was destroyed, and even Nana Fadinavis's genius could not compel these chiefs to subordinate their private interests to the general good, and they began to strengthen themselves by forming treaties of peace with foreign wers. Nana Fadinavis indeed tried to correct the mistake by setting up the Satara Raja's power after Sawai Madhaorao's death, but he found that this was impracticable, as the dismemberment had proceeded too far. If the Peish was had continued true to the ancient Raj-Mandal, while substituting themselves as the deputies of the hereditary Rajas, had maintained the old constitution intact, and had not tried to rule the Empire by a machinery of subordinates, originally intended by Shivaji for particular offices and commands, there Waf no reason why the great purposes served by the Raj-Mandal under Shivaji, Rajaram, and Shahu, might not have been fulfilled with equal success in the times of their Brahmin ministers. This seems to be the principal point of departure between the old traditions and the new order of things established in their place at Poona, and it was a departure attended with disastrous effects. The change meant the conversion of the organic v, hole into an inorgannc mass, and it reproduced the old Mahomedan methods of single :N No Shivaji had successfully struggled when he Organized ॥