their East India Company became a more formidable competitor for
the Indian trade than it had hitherto been. Hence the imperial
problem presented itself to the statesmen of that generation as a
problem of power rather than as a problem of organisation; and the
intense rivalry with France dwarfed and obscured the need for a
reconsideration of colonial relations. At length this rivalry
flamed out into two wars. The first of these was fought, on both
sides, in a strangely half-hearted and lackadaisical way. But in
the second (the Seven Years' War, 1756-63) the British cause,
after two years of disaster, fell under the confident and daring
leadership of Pitt, which brought a series of unexampled
successes. The French flag was almost swept from the seas. The
French settlements in Canada were overrun and conquered. With the
fall of Quebec it was determined that the system of self-
government, and not that of autocracy, should control the
destinies of the North American continent; and Britain emerged in
1763 the supreme colonial power of the world. The problem of power
had been settled in her favour; but the problem of organisation
remained unsolved. It emerged in an acute and menacing form as
soon as the war was over.

During the course of these two wars, and in the interval between
them, an extraordinary series of events had opened a new scene for
the rivalry of the two great imperial powers, and a new world
began to be exposed to the influence of the political ideas of
Europe. The vast and populous land of India, where the Europeans
had hitherto been content to play the part of modest traders,
under the protection and control of great native rulers, had
suddenly been displayed as a field for the imperial ambitions of
the European peoples. Ever since the first appearance of the