ABSTRACT
The Peshwa was an ally of the Company in Cornwallis' war with Tipu Sultan, and Maratha contingents rendered good service. The brutality stands out because, in comparison with the hideous cruelty of contemporaries, European as well as Asiatic, the Maratha record has been generally humane. As the century neared its finish, the Nizam was very conscious that he was much the weakest of the four leading Powers of India —the others being Tipu, the Marathas, and the Company—and by long subservience had come to lean heavily on the British. Though Hyderabad was the Company's nominal ally against the Marathas, as against Tipu, Arthur Wellesley considered that it was 'impossible for persons to have behaved in a more shuffling manner'. The British Resident, Major Walker, became practically ruler of Baroda, whose finances and administration were in ruins, and the Gaekwar's dominions subsided into something strangely like peace.
