And even were I sure that it could do so, I would not call it in.

My aim, through life, has been to uphold the power of the Peishwa, and to lessen that of Scindia and Holkar and, by playing one against the other, to avert the horrors of civil war.

Were I to call in the aid of the English, I should be acting in contradiction to the principles that I have ever held.
"The arrival of a force of English, here, would at once unite the whole of the Mahrattas against them, as it did when last they ascended the Ghauts; and believing as I do in their great valour and discipline, which has been amply shown by the conduct of Scindia's infantry, which are mainly officered by Europeans, it is beyond belief that they can withstand the whole power of the Mahratta empire.

But granting that they might do so, what would be the result?
I should see my country shaken to the centre, the capital in the hands of strangers, and to what end?
Simply that I, an old and worn-out man should, for a very few years, remain in power here.

It would be necessary for those who placed me there to remain as my guardians, and I should be a mere cypher in their hands.