ABSTRACT
Immediately the news of Buckinghamshire’s death became known, William Huskisson wrote to Liverpool urging that his friend, Canning, should be given the first refusal of the Board of Control. He at once agreed and the stage was set for the resumption of a cordial co-operation between the home authorities in the conduct of India business. Before Canning had time to become fully conversant with current Indian affairs, he was called on to take an important decision on the conduct of the Company’s external policy towards the Maratha states. He then consulted Wellesley and Wellington, who, surprisingly enough, expressed doubt as to the wisdom of the policy of extending the subsidiary alliance system in India. The policy that Canning sought to impose on the Bengal Government was feeble and temporising, and fatal to the existence of the native states.
