CHAPTER II

Among the instructions which Lord Cornwallis received from the directors before quitting England, one was to institute a strict inquiry into the mode in which the Company’s investment was provided, and into the gross abuses and frauds which were supposed to be practised, through a corrupt understanding between members of the board of trade and the contractors. The chief localities where these corrupt practices prevailed were Benares and Lucknow, the great marts for silk, and the extent to which they were carried may be inferred from the fact, that as soon as the contractors were dismissed and open competition was invited, the prices fell thirty per cent. So satisfied were the directors of the existence of collusion, that they ordered the prosecution of seven of their servants, who appeared to be most deeply implicated. Lord Cornwallis having, as he himself expressed it, undertaken the government with a full determination to suffer no private considerations to interfere with the discharge of what he conceived to be his public duty, did not hesitate to take all the steps that seemed necessary, both for suppressing malpractices and punishing those who were guilty of them. At the same time he was not blind to the fact, that much of the corruption was fostered by the injudicious custom of allowing inadequately paid officials to eke out sufficient salaries by underhand practices. On this subject he makes the following very startling statement: “I am sorry to say that I have every reason to believe, that at present almost all the collectors are, under the name of some relation or friend, deeply engaged in commerce, and by their influence as collectors and judges of adawlut, become the most dangerous enemies to the Company’s interest, and the greatest oppressors of the manufactures.” His remedy was to improve the position of the collectors, and thus raise them above the temptation of committing fraud, or leave them, if they committed it, without excuse. With the former salaries he held it “impossible that an honest man could acquire the most moderate competency.” He therefore made the necessary increase, and then announced his determination to make an example of every offender against the revenue regulations, and the prohibition to engage in trade. “I am clearly of opinion,” he remarks, “that in such a country as this, where the servants who hold the principal offices are surrounded with temptations, it will ever be found, that the only mode that can be successful to prevent peculiar and other abuses, will be by annexing liberal allowances to those offices, and give gentlemen a prospect of acquiring a moderate fortune from the savings of their salaries.” This maxim, though sound, was not palatable to the directors, who disapproved of the additional salaries. Their conduct, in this respect, seemed to him as the result at once of false economy, and of a want of proper confidence in himself. Hence, in a letter to Mr. Dundas, dated August 26th, 1787, he animadverts upon it with some degree of indignation: “If the essence of the spirit of economy of the whole court of directors could be collected, I am sure it would fall very short of my earnest anxiety on that subject. But I never can or shall think that it is good economy to put men into places of the greatest confidence, where they have it in their power to make their fortune in a few months, without giving them adequate salaries.” And again, “I have saved, since I came, upon the salt, upon the various contracts, upon remittances, balances, and jobs of different kinds, ten times, I may say fifty times, the amount of the salaries that are retrenched. I am doing everything I can to reform the Company’s servants, to teach them to be more economical in their mode of living, and to look forward to a moderate competency, and I flatter myself I have not hitherto laboured in vain. But if all chance of saving any money, and returning to England without acting dishonestly, is removed, there will be an end of my reformation.”

The civil was not the only branch of the public service in which reform was required. The army was also in a most defective state. In a letter to the Duke of York, Lord Cornwallis wrote, on the 10th November, 1786:—“The East India Company’s artillery are very fine, but their European infantry, on whom the defence of their valuable possessions may one day depend, are in a most wretched state. The sepoys or native black troops are fine men, and would not in size disgrace the Prussian ranks; I have heard undeniable proofs of their courage and patience in bearing hunger and fatigue, but from the little I have hitherto seen of them, I have no favourable idea of their discipline.” One great cause of the inferiority of the Company’s European troops to those of the king’s army was the very nature and condition of the service. In the case of the officers “the mainspring,” continues his lordship, “has always been wanting; they have had no head to look up to; the promotion of rank has always gone by seniority; and the lucrative commands have been given to those who have had interest. Consequently there has been no spur to merit. The Company’s officers have no regiments or governments to look forward to; few constitutions can stand this climate many years. If they cannot save some money, they must go home without rank or pay, condemned to disease and beggary. Under these circumstances, the most rigid general must relax a little, and suffer practices that are in some degree repugnant to the nice feelings of a soldier.” Another main cause of inferiority in the Company’s army was the kind of materials from which recruits were obtained. Writing on this subject to the directors, he says, “The abuses or neglects in recruiting your Europeans appear to be scandalous, and if not corrected, may endanger the safety of your possessions in this quarter of the globe; the best men being picked from the whole of the recruits for the artillery, that corps both here and at Madras is in a good and serviceable state, but the other European regiments are in very bad condition, incomplete in numbers, and many of those numbers consisting of foreigners, sailors, invalids, or men under the proper size for military services.” Another singular class of recruits he refers to as “particularly embarrassing.” They were, as he describes them, “gentlemen (among whom there are even some half-pay king’s officers) who never meant to serve, and indeed are unfit for the duties of private soldiers, but who procured themselves to be enrolled as recruits, merely to get a passage on board the quartered ships to India.” On their arrival they escaped from service by providing a substitute, usually a sailor who took the first opportunity of deserting, or some man who would probably have enlisted of his own accord, and then remaining for the most part without employment, were in a short time in great want and distress. To get rid of future importations of such fictitious recruits, Lord Cornwallis begged the directors to notify as publicly as possible, that “if any such young men do come out, either by passing themselves for persons of the proper class for recruits, or by the collusion of others,” he would insist on their serving their time, or, in the event of discharge, on not only providing a substitute, but on giving security to return to Europe at their own expense by the first ships that sailed.

A serious obstacle to the efficiency of the Indian army had arisen in an early period of the Company’s history, from jealousies and disputes about precedence among the officers. Those of the king’s service assumed a superiority which was not only galling to the feelings of the Company’s officers, but detrimental to their interests, by interfering with and impeding the regular course of promotion. The remedy had been much discussed before Lord Cornwallis took his departure, and it had been all but determined to abolish all distinction between the two branches of the military service, and declare the whole European army in India to be king’s troops. Shortly after his arrival in India, Lord Cornwallis, who had previously concurred in this project, began to entertain serious doubts of its practicability or expediency, and did not venture further than to propose that the Company should be furnished with better powers of recruiting, and that the Company’s officers should rank with those of the king’s troops, according to seniority of commission. Both points, though conceded at a later period, were disapproved at home, especially by Mr. Dundas, who had suggested the plan of declaring all king’s troops, and continued strenuously to advocate it. In answer to Lord Cornwallis’ proposals he wrote, “I confess the plan I have suggested is a favourite child, and do not be surprised if I am loath to give it up.” “As to the first of these conditions” (better powers of recruiting), “I do not believe we could ever get the better of the grumbling of the army upon that idea, if it was proposed; and as to the second, I do not believe his majesty would ever be brought to yield up the notion of his commission having a pre-eminence over one flowing from a commercial body of his own subjects. I think my plan obviates all the difficulties.” Mr. Dundas was on this occasion too sanguine. His plan, instead of obviating all difficulties, raised several which could not be surmounted, and was destined, even after the king had formally approved of it and directed the consideration of it in the cabinet, to be thrown aside. The discussion of it, it may here be observed, has, in consequence of recent changes, been revived and still continues, as the highest authorities both civil and military have ranged themselves on opposite sides.

Before the design of declaring the whole India-European army king’s troops was abandoned, it had been resolved, preparatory to its completion, to send out four new regiments to India. When the resolution was first intimated to the directors they seemed rather pleased with it, because at the time a war with France was apprehended, and they did not see how they could otherwise provide effectually for the defence of their territories. The rumour of war having blown past, the directors changed their view, and not satisfied with objecting to the sending out of the regiments, declared their determination neither to receive them on board their ships nor allow their revenue to be employed in paying them. There was thus a direct collision between the directors and the Board of Control, and ministers, taking part of course with the Board, with which they are in fact identified, saw no better mode of explicating the matter than to bring in what they called a declaratory bill, for the purpose of explaining the powers vested in the Board by the act of 1784. This bill, which now ranks as 28 Geo. III. c. 8, was not passed without encountering an opposition which more than once threatened the existence of the ministry. It proceeds on the preamble that doubts had arisen whether the Board of Commissioners, under act 24 Geo. III. c. 25, were empowered to direct that the expense of troops deemed necessary for the security of the British territories in India shall be defrayed out of the revenues of these territories, “unless such troops are sent out at the express requisition of the East India Company,” and removes the doubts by enacting and declaring that the Board “was, and is by the said act, fully authorized and empowered to order and direct that all the expenses incurred, or to be hereafter incurred, for raising, transporting, and maintaining such forces as shall be sent to India for the security of the said territories and possessions, shall be paid, defrayed, and borne out of the revenues arising from the said territories and possessions; and that nothing in the said act contained extended, or extends, or shall be construed to extend, to restrain, or to have restrained the said commissioners from giving such orders or directions as aforesaid with respect to the expense of raising, transporting, and maintaining any forces which may be sent to India for the security of the said possessions, in addition to the forces now there.” So far the victory remained with the Board, but the directors could also boast of a victory, since the above power, instead of remaining absolute, is restricted by subsequent sections, which limit the number of king’s troops that might be paid by the commissioners as above to 8045, and of Company’s European troops to 12,200 men, and prohibits them from increasing salaries or bestowing gratuities beyond amounts proposed and specified in despatches from the directors. The account which Mr. Dundas gave Lord Cornwallis of the discussion on the above bill is amusing: “Although this contest at first began among the directors and proprietors of India stock, yet it was too tempting a bait not to be snatched at by higher powers. It became a complete opposition question, and brought forth all the secret foes and lukewarm friends of government. The Lord Marquis of Lansdowne rode one of the first horses, and it would have amused you in the House of Lords, to have seen him sitting between Lord Stormont and Lord Loughborough, and they all hugging and complimenting each other. It proved, however, all in vain; the bill was carried with a high hand in both Houses of Parliament, and the court of proprietors of India stock have had several meetings called by factious proprietors, but in place of gaining their end or being able to keep up any flame, the proprietors have, three to one, negatived all their motions, and proved to the world in the most unequivocal manner that their confidence is firm and unshaken in the present system of Indian government.¹

While thus engaged in correcting abuses, and suggesting reforms in both the civil and military services, the attention of the governor-general was particularly directed to Guntoor, one of the Northern Circars. It was included in the original grant obtained by Clive from Shah Alum in 1765, but by the subsequent treaty made with Nizam Ali in 1768, it was agreed that the Company should defer taking actual possession during the lifetime of his brother Basalut Jung, to whom it had been granted in jaghire. Basalut Jung died in 1782, and the Company immediately claimed the reversion, but Nizam Ali, under various pretexts, eluded compliance. It was inconvenient at the time to use force, and the Company in the meantime so far compensated themselves by withholding payment of tribute for the other Circars. The value of Guntoor to Nizam Ali was greatly enhanced, because through it alone he could obtain access to the sea-coast. He had thus been enabled, when meditating war against the Company, to obtain supplies of military stores and a considerable body of French troops. To the Company the possession of Guntoor was desirable, both for the very reason which made Nizam Ali anxious to retain it, and because the want of it interrupted the communication between Madras and the other Circars. The directors had at length determined to gain possession of it at all hazards, and given Lord Cornwallis such specific instructions on the subject as scarcely left him an option. Shortly after his arrival, however, he became satisfied that the time was unseasonable. Nizam Ali was engaged in an unsuccessful war with Tippoo, and it would be thought ungenerous, under such circumstances, to subject him to any additional pressure. France, too, seemed to be preparing for war, and it could not be good policy to take a step which might throw him into their arms, and convert an ally into an inveterate and formidable foe. Lord Cornwallis therefore allowed the subject to remain in abeyance till June, 1788, when an European war being no longer apprehended, nor the interference of other native powers suspected, there was good ground to hope that the Nizam, however much he might be offended, would make a merit of necessity, by quietly yielding up a possession which he saw it would be impossible for him to retain. The result was as had been anticipated, and Captain (afterward Sir) John Kennaway, sent on a special mission to Hyderabad, found little difficulty in obtaining the peaceful and final cession of Guntoor.

Nizam Ali, in yielding Guntoor, was not without the hope of compensating himself in some other way. The claim to which he had been compelled to submit was founded on the treaty of 1768. That treaty must therefore, at least in the view of the Company, be still in force. If so, was not he in like manner entitled to take shelter under it, and insist that its stipulations in his favour should also be fulfilled? No sooner had Nizam Ali started this idea, than he began to work it out in the manner which accorded best with his tortuous policy. He despatched two embassies, the one to Tippoo and the other to Lord Cornwallis. To Tippoo he pointed out that they two were now the only Mahometan princes of note in the Deccan, and that it therefore was at once their duty and their interest to combine against the infidels as common enemies. To give at once a religious character to the negotiation, and a sacred pledge of his earnest desire for permanent friendship and alliance, he sent the Sultan a splendid copy of the Koran. At the same time he endeavoured to arouse his suspicion and alarm his fears, by informing him of the apparent intention of the Company to enforce the stipulations of the treaty of 1768. He himself had already, under that treaty, been compelled to give up Guntoor, and Tippoo, a large portion of whose territories were to be given away under that treaty, might easily judge what he had to expect. These arguments, which accorded so well with the views Tippoo had long entertained, were not without effect, and he declared his readiness to return the sacred pledge, and enter into an offensive and defensive treaty, provided it were previously sanctioned by intermarriage between the families. To this condition Nizam Ali’s envoy could only answer that he had no orders; and therefore Kuttub-u-din and Ali Reza were sent back with the envoy to Hyderabad to make a formal proposal of affinity. Ali Reza, on being admitted to an interview, made known the object of his embassy by saying, “We are desirous of partaking of the sheker-bhat,” the dish of rice and sugar sent as the first preliminary ceremonial of marriage. Affinity with the family of Hyder Naick was more than the Nizam’s pride could brook. He disdained to give an answer, and the negotiation ceased.

The embassy to Lord Cornwallis was more successful. When the envoy Meer-Abd-ul-Kasim, better known as Meer Allum, referring to the recent cession of Guntoor, demanded the fulfilment of the other stipulations of the treaty of 1768, his lordship appears to have felt himself in a dilemma. He could not deny that the treaty was still in force, for he had just been acting upon it, and yet, how could he give effect to stipulations which stigmatized Hyder Ali as an usurper, and bound the Company to attempt the conquest of a large portion of the territories now belonging to Mysore. In 1769 a treaty had been made with Hyder, formally recognizing his right to the territories of which the treaty of 1768 would have deprived him, and in 1784 a treaty to the very same effect had been made with Tippoo. How, then, could it be maintained with any semblance of truth, that a treaty, on which the Company could not act without violating two treaties made subsequently to it, and declaring war against a state with which they were at peace, was still binding? It must be confessed, that in disentangling this difficulty Lord Cornwallis failed to display his usual sagacity and straightforwardness, and was betrayed into a series of gross inconsistencies and wretched subterfuges. Having good ground to suspect that Tippoo was meditating war, he was anxious to secure the Nizam as an ally. But a stringent clause in Mr. Pitt’s act of 1784, made it illegal to enter into any new treaty for this purpose, and therefore the singular device was fallen upon, of effecting the object by reviving an old treaty, and at the same time accompanying it with explanations and stipulations which entirely altered its character.

This device of reviving an old treaty so as to give it the effect of a new one, was carried out by means of a letter which Lord Cornwallis addressed to the Nizam, and which, while it purported to be explanatory of the treaty of 1768, was declared to be equally binding as a treaty. This letter, dated 1st July, 1789, after some preliminary explanations, declares it to be the intention of the governor-general, that the treaty of 1768 “be carried into full effect.” By the sixth article of the treaty, the Company was to furnish the Nizam with two battalions of sepoys and six pieces of cannon, managed by European artillerymen, “whenever the Company’s affairs would permit.” The letter declares the meaning of these words just quoted to be, that “the force engaged for by this article shall be granted whenever the Nizam shall apply for it; making only one exception, that it is not to be employed against any powers in alliance with the Company.” These powers are distinctly enumerated as the different “Mahratta chiefs, the Nabob of Arcot, the nabob vizier, the Rajahs of Tanjore and Travancore.” As there is no mention made of Tippoo, the only inference that can be drawn is, either that he was not considered to be one of the “powers in alliance with the Company,” or that, notwithstanding, the Nizam was at full liberty to employ the Company’s troops in attacking him. This is absurd enough, but still not so absurd as what follows. The treaty of 1768 contemplated the conquest of the Carnatic Balaghaut, which was then possessed by Hyder, and which, by subsequent treaties, was solemnly recognized as belonging to Mysore. The dewannee of this territory was to be granted to the Company, who engaged, in return, to pay the Nizam seven lacs annually, as the reserved revenue, and moreover volunteered, without being asked, to pay the Mahrattas their chout. In regard to this projected conquest, the letter goes on to state that “circumstances have totally prevented the execution of those articles of the treaty of 1768 which relate to the dewannee of the Carnatic Balaghaut; but should it hereafter happen that the Company, with his highness’ assistance, should obtain possession of the countries mentioned in those articles, they will strictly perform the stipulations in favour of his highness and the Mahrattas.” Thus, in order to conform to the letter of an act of parliament, enjoining a system of neutrality, Lord Cornwallis violated its spirit, by not only entering into what was, to all intents and purposes, a new treaty, but undertaking engagements which contemplated the dismemberment of the territories of an ally, and thereby broke faith with him. A proceeding so unjustifiable in itself, and so inconsistent with the course of policy which Lord Cornwallis was anxious to pursue, can only be palliated by referring to the circumstances. Tippoo, though nominally an ally, was acting in a manner which made it almost impossible to doubt that he would seize the first favourable opportunity of commencing hostilities. It was therefore absolutely necessary to prepare for the worst, and this could not well be done without forming alliances with other native powers. Unfortunately, the legislature, in their zeal for neutrality, had, by a stringent clause in the act of 1784, made this illegal, and Lord Cornwallis, finding his hands injudiciously tied up, had allowed himself to be betrayed into the above circuitous and not very honourable course of procedure. While apparently unconscious of the evasion he had practised, he furnished the true key to the explanation of it, when he wrote as follows:—“Some considerable advantages have no doubt been experienced by the system of neutrality which the legislature required of the governments in this country, but it has at the same time been attended with the unavoidable inconvenience of our being constantly exposed to the necessity of commencing a war, without having previously secured the assistance of efficient allies.” When this observation was made, Tippoo’s conduct had already furnished what his lordship justly called “a case in point.”

Tippoo’s tyranny and cruelty—His attack on the lines of Travancore—Confederacy against him—Progress of the war under General Medows—Lord Cornwallis assumes the command—Siege and capture of Bangalore—Operations in Coorg—Advance on Seringapatam—Siege of Seringapatam—Treaty of peace.

In the conclusion of the war which he had been carrying on with the Nizam and the Mahrattas, Tippoo returned to his capital, where he spent some months in making innovations, dictated for the most part by no regular system of policy, but by mere bigotry, caprice, and tyranny. Cham Raj, in whose name the government had been nominally conducted, having died by small-pox, no successor to him had been appointed. Though there was consequently no longer any pageant rajah, the ancient capital where the former dynasty resided, and which had given its name to the whole country, still remained. In this Tippoo saw a memorial which was continually reminding him of the usurpation of his family, and he therefore determined on its destruction. With this view he removed all the family of the late rajah, after stripping them even of their personal ornaments, to a miserable hovel, rifled the palace of its contents, laid the fort and town in ruins, and forcibly removed the inhabitants. After this work of destruction, he set out in the beginning of January, 1788, at the head of his army, for Malabar. Having arrived at Calicut, he gave orders for its destruction, as the most effectual means of annihilating the memory of the Zamorin, and continued making converts by thousands to Islamism, by the simple but barbarous infliction of its initiatory rite, till he perceived that in his absurd and excessive fanaticism he had forgotten the approaching monsoon. As soon as it began to break, he determined to hasten back to Coimbatoor, and when warned of the difficulty, answered, that he would order the clouds to cease discharging their waters until he should have passed. He paid the penalty of this impious boast, by being compelled to make a tedious and most destructive march through swamps and floods, amid incessant torrents of rain.

About this time he renewed his negotiations with the French, who had again, in expectation of a new war, turned their attention to India, and even attempted to gain possession of Trincomalee, by means of the Dutch faction opposed to the house of Orange. The possession of this harbour by the French seemed to the Madras presidency so dangerous, that Sir Archibald Campbell, who was then governor, on learning the design to capture it, determined on his own responsibility to retaliate by immediate preparations for the siege of Pondicherry. The French, finding Trincomalee well prepared for defence, desisted, and Sir Archibald Campbell having in consequence abandoned his preparations, peace was not disturbed. Tippoo’s intercourse with the French under such circumstances, gave plain indication of his intentions to break with the Company. Another still stronger indication was shortly after given, by his ordering a minute inspection of the only two routes by which he could march an army into Travancore. This, he knew, could not be done without coming to an open rupture with the Company, since the Rajah of Travancore was specially mentioned as one of their allies in the treaty of Mangalore. Every indication of a design to attack him could only be construed into a design to violate that treaty. Tippoo returned to his capital in August, and was busily engaged in re-organizing his army, when intelligence arrived that all Coorg and Malabar had risen in rebellion. He lost no time in marching with his whole army, and descended, after traversing Coorg, into Malabar. The Nairs were completely overpowered, and submitted in great numbers to the rite of Islamism, as no choice was left them but conversion or death. Many, however, made their escape to Tellicherry, from which they embarked for Travancore. Tippoo had long had designs on this province, and had even attempted the conquest of it indirectly in 1788, by engaging the Zamorin of Calicut to invade it in his own name. This scheme having failed, he endeavoured to turn the flight of the Nairs to advantage. Some countenance had been given to them by the Rajah of Cochin, his acknowledged tributary, and he resolved, in punishing him, to make it conducive if possible to the furtherance of his designs.

Travancore is a long and comparatively narrow tract, forming the southwest corner of the Indian peninsula, and terminating a little to the east of Cape Comorin. On the east it is bounded by the lofty precipices of the Western Ghauts, and on the west and south is washed by the ocean. It is thus secure against a land attack on all sides except the north, where, though partially protected by the Ghauts, it lies open toward Cochin. To supply this want of a natural barrier, a series of artificial works, known by the name of the lines of Travancore, had been constructed. Though more formidable in appearance than in reality, a high opinion was entertained of their strength. Tippoo maintained that part of these lines was built on the territory of Cochin, and that the effect of them was to divide this territory into two parts, and debar him from access to one of them. This allegation seemed plausible, but careful inquiry on the part of the Company proved it to be unfounded, and it was therefore intimated to him, that any attempt to force the lines, as he had threatened to do, would be deemed equivalent to a declaration of war. Meanwhile, to meet Tippoo’s complaint of the reception given to the Nairs in Travancore, Mr. Holland, who had succeeded Sir Archibald Campbell as governor of Madras, desired the rajah to withdraw his protection from the unhappy fugitives, and then spent several months in fruitless negotiation, instead of obeying the orders which he had received from Bengal, to lose no time in preparing for the worst. Lord Cornwallis, while most reluctant to believe that Tippoo would break the peace, could not shut his eyes to the necessity of using every precaution against so faithless a despot, and had he not been restrained by the legislature, would probably have taken the initiative and compelled him to declare himself. As matters stood, he could do little more than wait in anxious suspense till Tippoo should complete his operations, and by some overt act of hostility free him from injudicious legislative trammels. It was not necessary to wait long.

Tippoo had established his camp about six miles northward of the principal gate of the Travancore lines. On the night of the 28th of December, 1789, he threw off all disguise by issuing orders for an attack on them. While the main body of the army manoeuvred in front of the gate, with the view of occupying the attention of the defenders, he himself moved round, with a body of 14,000 infantry and 500 pioneers, by a route which a native had discovered to him. Nothing could be more propitious than this commencement. By daybreak of the 30th, he had with little opposition forced his way within the lines, and gained possession of a considerable stretch of rampart on the right flank. His expectation was, that in the course of the day his whole army would be able to follow. With this view, he ordered the pioneers to throw part of the rampart into the ditch, which was about 16 feet wide and 20 feet deep, and thus fill it up so as to give free entrance. At the same time, the troops advanced along the rampart to force the principal gate, and admit the infantry and cavalry who had been manoeuvring in front of it. The pioneers, worn out with previous exertion, did their work very sluggishly, and had made but little progress, when all the troops were seen rushing pell-mell towards the gap. In advancing towards the gate, a sudden onset by a mere handful of defenders, had caused a panic which speedily communicated itself to the whole detachment. As they crowded towards the gap they did the work of destruction more effectually than the enemy, by crushing and trampling one another to death. No less than 2000 men are said to have been killed. Tippoo himself, after attempting in vain to arrest the fugitives, was obliged to flee along with them; and in clearing the rampart, which he was only enabled to do by being raised on the shoulders of some faithful attendants, received contusions which gave him a certain degree of lameness for life. On arriving in the camp he swore, in a paroxysm of shame and rage, that he would not quit it till he had forced the lines; and there he was in fact destined to remain three months and a half, throwing away the only chance he had of striking a decisive blow, before effectual preparations could be made to oppose him in the field.

The moment Lord Cornwallis heard of the attempt to force the lines of Travancore, he acted on his previously declared determination, to hold it equivalent to a declaration of war. The case, therefore, was completely altered, and the neutrality system of the legislature being no longer applicable, he was left untrammelled to follow his own course. Without loss of time he communicated both with the Nizam and the Mahrattas, and succeeded in forming a triple league against Tippoo. By the treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, concluded on this occasion with the peishwa on the 1st of June, and Nizam Ali on the 4th of July, 1790, it was agreed that immediate measures should be taken to punish Tippoo, and unfit him for again disturbing the public tranquillity—that the Mahrattas and the Nizam should each furnish a contingent of 10,000 horse to act with the British army, and be paid by the Company, and that a British detachment should in like manner act with each of their armies—and that at the conclusion of the war, the conquests should be equally divided. In regard to this last article, however, it was provided that the British should have exclusive possession of whatever forts and territories they might reduce before the other confederates took actual part in the war, and that, in like manner, the Mahrattas should obtain exclusive possession of the territories of certain specified zemindars and polygars formerly dependent upon them, by whichever of the allies these might be reduced. In these exceptions to the equal division of conquest, the advantage was so greatly in favour of the Mahrattas, that it has been thought that Lord Cornwallis could not be aware of the vast extent of valuable country which he was thus surrendering without any equivalent. It would seem, however, that even if he had known the value, he would still have made the surrender, since, in a letter written on the 28th of February, 1790, to Mr. (afterwards Sir) Charles Malet, resident at Poonah, he says expressly, “I should think it incumbent upon me to agree to almost any conditions of that nature, which they (the Mahrattas) might appear determined to annex to their decision for making an immediate declaration in our favour.” From the dates given above, it appears that Nizam Ali was more than a month later than the Mahrattas in executing the treaty. The cause of this delay is curious, and shows how feeble the tie was which bound the confederates. He was afraid that when he had set out with his army, the Mahrattas would take advantage of his absence and invade his dominions. At first he insisted that a specific guarantee of his dominions should be inserted in the treaty, but ultimately, on its being represented to him that the Mahrattas would justly take offence at such an article as implying an unworthy suspicion of them, he consented to accept of a declaration which was deemed equivalent to it.

While Lord Cornwallis was thus exerting himself, he was not at all seconded at Madras. Governor Holland, instead of obeying the orders which he had received from Bengal, acted as if he thought himself possessed of a discretionary power to obey or refuse, just as suited his own particular views. The supreme council had directed him, that on receiving certain information of Tippoo having invaded any part of the dominions of the Nabob of Arcot or the Rajah of Travancore, he was to consider him as from that moment at war with the Company; and was in consequence to cease from providing any investment for Europe, in order that all the funds which would have been so employed, as well as the other pecuniary resources of the Carnatic, might be reserved for the exigencies of the war. He had been further instructed of the determination to defend the rajah, should it be ascertained on inquiry, as it eventually was, that he had a good title to the portion of territory which Tippoo claimed as belonging to Cochin. This determination he had never communicated either to Tippoo or to the rajah, or to the resident at his court, while on the contrary, he sent letters both to the rajah and the resident, “couched,” as the supreme council express it, “in terms calculated to discourage a faithful ally in the defence of his own country against an enemy who was within a few miles of his frontiers, and with the insolence and violence of whose character” Governor Holland had long been fully acquainted. His conduct with regard to the investment was equally contumacious; and he had continued to advertise for articles which were to form part of it, after he was perfectly aware of Tippoo’s attempt upon the lines. In the same spirit, though he had issued orders for a large body of troops to be in readiness to take the field on the shortest notice, he had to a great extent neutralized the order, by delaying to order a sufficient number of draught and carriage bullocks. On all these points Governor Holland and his council were put upon their defence. They had none; and could only answer, in regard to military preparations, that they had delayed them in order to save expense. The answer of Lord Cornwallis to this wretched subterfuge deserves quotation:—“So far am I from giving credit to the late government for economy in not making the necessary preparations for war according to the positive orders of the supreme government, after having received the most gross insults that could be offered to any nation, I think it very possible that every cash (the eighth part of a farthing) of that ill-judged saving may cost the Company a crore of rupees” (£1,000,000).

It would never have done to leave the management of the war in the hands of such a council, and therefore Lord Cornwallis had determined, with the full concurrence of his colleagues, and “upon the ground of state necessity,” to proceed to Madras, invested by the supreme council “with full powers to take a temporary charge of the civil and military affairs at the presidency of Fort St. George, by exercising the functions of governor as well as those of commander-in-chief.” Before he could act on this resolution, he received intelligence which induced him to abandon it. General Medows, previously governor of Bombay, had been regularly invested by the directors with the offices of governor and commander-in-chief at Madras. As he was “a man of acknowledged ability and character,” there was no occasion to interfere, and the governor-general therefore wisely resolved to remain at his post in Bengal. Here his first business was to make its resources available for carrying on the war, and he quickly despatched a large amount of specie, stores, and ammunition, and a battalion of artillery, chiefly gun-lascars, by sea. The prejudices of the high-caste Brahmins made them object to the same mode of conveyance, and therefore a large force, consisting of six battalions of sepoys, completed to ten companies each, marched by land under Colonel Cockerell. To make the resources of the Carnatic also available, application was made to the nabob for a large sum of arrears, and he was told that, during the continuance of the war, he must either appropriate the greater part of his revenue to defray its expenses, or allow the Company to collect it, allowing him a liberal sum for private and family expenses. The latter course was adopted, both in his case and that of the Rajah of Tanjore.

Tippoo remained before the lines as he had sworn to do, waiting the tardy arrival of cannon and other equipments, as if, instead of attacking a miserable wall, he had been about to engage in a regular siege. While thus awaiting, he drew up a letter which he antedated fifteen days, and sent off to Madras. It purported to be an account of the encounter at the lines. His troops, he said, while searching for fugitives, had been fired upon by the rajah’s people; they retaliated and forced the lines, but he on hearing of the affair recalled them. False and hypocritical as this account was known to be, it was so satisfactory to Governor Holland, that he actually proposed the appointment of commissioners to adjust the points in dispute. Tippoo haughtily replied, “that he had himself ascertained the points in dispute; after this, what was the use of commissioners? Nevertheless, if Mr. Holland wished it, he might send commissioners to the presence.” And doubtless, had Mr. Holland been permitted to take his own way, he would have availed himself of this permission, and repeated the ignominious farce of sending commissioners to Tippoo’s camp, to be paraded as before over the country, and perhaps put in bodily terror, as at Mangalore, by the erection of gibbets in front of their tents.

While making hypocritical professions of peace, Tippoo had begun to make regular approaches towards the rampart, and meeting with little resistance, filled up the ditch, and made a practicable breach of nearly three-quarters of a mile in extent. All Travancore was now in his grasp, and the usual merciless devastation followed. The open country was converted into a desert, and the inhabitants, hunted down, were carried off in immense numbers to captivity and death. It was a disgrace to the Company to have left an old and faithful ally exposed to such barbarity. When the rajah first intimated his fears, two battalions of sepoys were sent to his aid, and when Tippoo, after forcing the lines, was engaged in the siege of Cranganore, a small seaport which the rajah had purchased from the Dutch, Colonel Hartley arrived from Bombay with one European and two sepoy regiments. These were the whole troops furnished, and being totally unequal to offensive operations, remained cooped up in Ayacotta, situated on the north extremity of the island of Vipeen opposite to Cranganore. General Medows did not arrive at Madras till late in February. After forming a small encampment at Conjeveram, he set out on the 24th of May to take command of the main army, which had been assembled near Trichinopoly, and mustered about 15,000 men. Before leaving Madras, he had on the 5th of April announced to Tippoo his appointment and arrival in a letter, written in the form usual on such occasions. Tippoo in his answer made the most pacific professions, and complained of “the representations, contrary to fact, of certain short-sighted persons, which had caused armies to be assembled on both sides, an event improper among those who are mutually at friendship.” Formerly, he had with difficulty condescended to allow Mr. Holland to send a commissioner “to the presence.” His tone was now altered, and he begged General Medows to receive an envoy from him, in order “that the dust which had obscured his upright mind might be removed.” The general’s answer convinced him that it was now too late to continue the game of hypocrisy, and he hastened off with his army for Coimbatoor. Before leaving Travancore, he gratified his pride and vainglory by converting the demolition of the lines into a kind of public ceremony. The whole army paraded without arms, marched in divisions to the appointed stations; Tippoo, seated on an eminence, struck the first blow with a pickaxe, the chiefs and courtiers followed, and then the entire camp, not merely soldiers, but money-changers, shopkeepers, and followers of every description, put their hands to the work in earnest. In the course of six days the whole was razed to the ground.

The plan of campaign adopted by General Medows was as follows:—The main army, after reducing Pulghaut and the forts in Coimbatoor, was to ascend into Mysore by the pass of Gujelhutty, while a force under Colonel Kelly, to be composed chiefly of the troops expected from Bengal, was to penetrate from the centre of Coromandel into the Baramahal. So much time had been lost in making commissariat arrangements, that it was the 15th of June before General Medows reached the frontier posts of Caroor, only fifty miles beyond Trichinopoly, and the season of the year was so unfavourable, that upwards of 1200 men were sent back to the hospital of Caroor before a single shot was fired. It had been expected to overtake Tippoo at Coimbatoor, but he was already above the Ghauts. On the 23d of July, Colonel Stuart was detached to reduce Palghaut. In this movement the nature of the climate had not been considered. Though Coimbatoor, from its position, was receiving only a sprinkling of the south-west monsoon, Colonel Stuart, when only twenty miles to the west of it, encountered it in all its force, and became so entangled between two mountain torrents, that he was glad, after escaping with the utmost difficulty, to make the best of his way back to head-quarters. His destination was therefore changed, and he was sent in an opposite direction, above 100 miles south-west to Dindigul, while a detachment under Colonel Oldham was appointed for the capture of Erode, situated on the Cauvery, northwest of Caroor, and on the best route from it to the Gujelhutty Pass. Meanwhile, Colonel Floyd, who had advanced with the cavalry of the army and a light brigade of infantry, had come in contact with a large body of Mysore cavalry, whom Tippoo, on quitting Coimbatoor, had left under the command of Seyed Sahib, with instruction to hang on the British army and disturb its communications. By a series of dexterous manœuvres, Seyed Sahib was driven northward across the Bhowani, a tributary of the Cauvery, flowing eastward from the Neilgherry Hills, and ultimately so close pressed that he ascended the Ghauts for safety. By this injudicious retreat, he left the whole country to the south-east open, and Colonel Stuart was in consequence able to reach Dindigul without seeing an enemy. This place consisted of a town built on a gentle declivity, and a fort crowning a smooth granite rock, nearly perpendicular on three sides, and accessible only on the east by a flight of steps. The fort had within the last six years been strongly rebuilt on an improved plan, and now mounted fourteen good guns and one mortar. These improvements were not known to the British, and hence Colonel Stuart had not been provided with an adequate battering train, or a sufficient supply of ammunition. After silencing the enemy’s fire and making a very indifferent breach, he found that he had shot for only two hours’ firing. As a week would elapse before a new supply could arrive, he determined on risking an assault. The issue was very doubtful, but he was happily spared the trial, as the garrison on seeing the preparations for it, and not knowing the true cause, were frightened into a premature surrender. After returning to Coimbatoor, Colonel Stuart was again despatched against Palghaut. On the 21st of September he opened upon it from two batteries. In less than two hours he had silenced its fire, and before night made a practicable breach. Happily, as at Dindigul, the assault was spared by a capitulation. By his kind treatment of the natives, Colonel Stuart so won upon them, that his bazaar assumed the appearance of a provincial granary, and he was able not only to leave the garrison provisioned for six months, but to carry back a month’s grain for the whole army.

During these operations by Colonel Stuart, Colonel Oldham had captured Erode, and Colonel Floyd Satimangalum. A line of posts had thus been established, leading directly from Caroor to the Gujelhutty Pass, which General Medows still hoped to be able to ascend in October. Still farther up the Bhowani than Satimangalum stood the fort of Dannayakkankottei, still in Tippoo’s possession. Between these two places there was a ford at Poongur, and below Satimangalum another and a better ford, at Gopalchittypolliam. Early in September, Tippoo, leaving his stores and baggage on the summit of the Ghaut, began to descend by the Gujelhutty Pass. Colonel Floyd, having received early intelligence of this important movement, immediately communicated it to head-quarters, with a suggestion that, as the army was now dispersed, about a third of it being under the commander-in-chief at Coimbatoor, another third with Colonel Stuart about thirty miles in the rear, and the remainder with Colonel Floyd himself, about sixty miles in advance, it might be prudent for him to fall back. The intelligence of Tippoo’s descent was not, however, believed, and he was ordered to maintain his advanced position. The force under his command consisted of six troops of his majesty’s 19th dragoons, sixteen troops of native cavalry, his majesty’s 36th foot, four battalions of sepoys, and eleven guns, and was encamped exactly opposite to Satimangalum. On the morning of the 12th September Tippoo commenced the passage of the Bhowani, and encamped with a large portion of his army some miles south of the ford of Poongur, while the remainder was ordered to proceed along the north bank, seize upon Satimangalum, and then cross either at the ford above or below it. Colonel Floyd’s intelligence only led him to believe that Tippoo had nearly accomplished his descent, when he was in fact in his immediate neighbourhood, ready to pounce upon him. The nature of the country, intersected by impenetrable inclosures of prickly shrubs, in some measure explains without excusing such defective intelligence. On the morning of the 13th, three troops of the 19th were sent out to reconnoitre the ford of Poongur, and at daylight, about an hour and a half after, a regiment of native cavalry was ordered to follow and support them. There are two roads to the ford, one winding along the river, and the other more direct at some distance from it. The three troops after meeting and driving off some cavalry, returned by the former road; the native cavalry took the latter, and had only advanced a few miles upon it, when they were suddenly attacked by a strong force, and perceived large bodies of cavalry in every direction. The officer in command seized a favourable post to maintain himself, till he should send intelligence to Colonel Floyd and obtain relief. When it arrived about an hour after, he was surrounded and hard pressed in every direction. Ultimately, however, the enemy were completely repulsed, and the whole troops reached the camp in safety. Their struggle proved only the prelude to one of a more serious nature. A large body of the enemy began to descend the northern bank, and at the same time Tippoo’s columns were seen approaching rapidly from the west. Colonel Floyd had only time to change front, and drew up the infantry in a position difficult to be outflanked, when Tippoo opened a distant but efficient cannonade from nineteen guns, and continued it throughout the day. The British casualties were serious, and it was determined in a council of war to retreat. For the first twelve miles, an open country enabled the infantry, cavalry, and baggage to move in separate lines, but afterwards, owing to inclosures, it was necessary for the whole to move in a single column, the cavalry leading. The retreat was commenced at eight in the morning, and Tippoo, who had drawn off for about six miles, was not made aware of it till an hour after. He immediately commenced pursuit, but was not able before two o’clock to bring any of his infantry into action, nor before five to bring his whole army so close as to make a combined attack. It was done with great spirit, but repulsed with great loss, many of the horsemen coming so near as to fall by the bayonet. Most of the British cannon and of the baggage had by this time been lost, but the cavalry had reached a village two miles in front, where it was hoped that a good encampment might be obtained. Suddenly a cry was raised that General Medows was at hand. A troop sent out to reconnoitre was mistaken for his personal guard. The effect upon both armies was almost as great as if he had actually arrived. The British giving three cheers rushed to the charge; and Tippoo, thinking that General Medows with his whole force was about to attack him, hastily drew off. The junction of the two divisions was effected without further opposition. Shortly afterwards, by the arrival of Colonel Stuart from Palghaut, the whole army was, in the end of September, reunited under its commander-in-chief at Coimbatoor.

The troops sent overland from Calcutta arrived at Conjeveram on the 1st of August, 1790, after a march of 1200 miles. By the addition of three regiments of European infantry, one of native cavalry, and a formidable artillery, it mustered 9500 men. The command, in consequence of the death of Colonel Kelly, on the 24th of September, devolved on Colonel Maxwell, who, in pursuance of the original plan of the campaign, entered Baramahal on the 24th of September. Tippoo, on hearing of this invasion, set off to encounter it with about three-fourths of his army, leaving the remainder under Kumma-u-din, to watch the movements of General Medows. Colonel Maxwell first approached the rocky fortress of Kistnagherry, of which he made a minute examination, as if with a view to a future siege, and then established his head-quarters near the central position of Caveripatam. On the 12th of November, Tippoo made his appearance in full force, and attempted, by a series of manœuvres, to attack with advantage, but being completely foiled in all his efforts, had resolved to depart on the 15th. Meanwhile, General Medows was advancing from the south, and on the very day fixed by Tippoo for his departure, encamped on the northern face of a range of hills overlooking Baramahal, and about twenty-five miles distant from the position of Colonel Maxwell at Caveripatam. When the advanced guard arrived on the ground, they observed at the distance of six miles another camp gradually rising in the plain, and bodies of troops arriving to take up their ground. As no direct intelligence from Colonel Maxwell had been received for nearly three weeks, it was at once concluded that this must be his division, and three signal guns were fired to announce the happy meeting. In five minutes every tent was struck, and heavy columns were seen in full march westward. The mistake was now manifest; it was not Colonel Maxwell, but Tippoo. On the 17th of November, the junction with Colonel Maxwell was effected, and the united army encamped near Caveripatam, about twenty miles from the head, and twenty-six from the southern extremity of the pass of Tapoor. Tippoo, unwilling to be forced to ascend the Ghaut, had determined to double back through this very pass. On the 18th both armies were in motion, and, unconscious of each other’s movements, were tending towards the same point. By proper management Tippoo might have been caught while completely entangled in the pass, but from some cause not explained, when the means were suggested to General Medows, he declined to act upon them, and allowed the enemy to escape with scarcely any loss. Tippoo, astonished at his good fortune, proceeded southward along the left bank of the Cauvery, and never halted till he made his appearance opposite to Trichinopoly. His demonstrations against it proved unavailing, but he was able, before the arrival of General Medows, who had been following on his track, to pillage and lay waste the island of Seringham.

The unsatisfactory results of the campaign of 1790 pointed out the necessity of some change in the mode of conducting it, and there is hence little difficulty in understanding why Lord Cornwallis should have resumed his intention of assuming the command. In a minute dated November 6th, 1790, he enters into a full explanation of his reasons, and says, “Under these circumstances it has appeared to me that, exclusive of every measure that may be adopted for promoting our own offensive operations against the Mysore country, it may be of great consequence to the public interest that some immediate steps should be taken, which may tend to animate and encourage our allies to persevere with firmness in the favourable disposition which they have lately shown to perform their engagements; and although I am not vain enough to suppose that the military operations would be conducted more ably or with more success by myself than by General Medows, yet from the station which I hold in this country, and from the friendly intercourse which I have hitherto had the good fortune to maintain both with the Nizam and the peishwa, I conceive it to be possible that my presence in the scene of action would be considered by our allies as a pledge of our sincerity, and of our confident hopes of success against the common enemy, and by that means operate as an encouragement to them to continue their exertions, and abide by their stipulations.” While thus placing his assumption of the command chiefly on political grounds, he speaks out more plainly in a letter written on the 16th to his brother, the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. “Our war on the coast,” he says, “has not succeeded hitherto so well as we had a right to expect. Our army, the finest and best appointed that ever took the field in India, is worn down with unprofitable fatigue, and much discontented with their leaders, and the conduct of both Medows and Musgrave (the previous commander) highly reprobated. In these circumstances I have no other part to take, but to go myself and take the command, and try whether I can do better; I shall therefore embark in little more than a fortnight for Madras, in the Vestul frigate, with the melancholy reflection that I had hoped about that time to have been bound for a happier port. I have in this war everything to lose, and nothing to gain. I shall derive no credit for beating Tippoo, and shall be for ever disgraced if he beats me.” Lord Cornwallis arrived at Madras on the 12th of December, 1790, with a considerable reinforcement. General Medows, with the greater part of the army, was still pursuing his march towards the encampment at Vellout, about eighteen miles west of Madras. The moment his arrival was announced, Lord Cornwallis set out, accompanied by his reinforcement, including a considerable number of horses and draught bullocks which he had caused to be transported from Bengal, and by a heavy military chest, and assumed the command on the 29th of January, 1791.

Tippoo, on finding that nothing was to be effected at Trichinopoly, hastened northward into Coromandel, marking his progress as usual by plunder and conflagration, till he found that he could more effectually replenish his military chest by levying contributions. At Thiagur, where, from the number of inhabitants from the surrounding country who had crowded into it with their most valuable effects, he expected to find a rich booty, he met with a serious disappointment, two successive attempts to carry the town, which was almost open, having been repulsed by the commandant Captain Flint, the gallant defender of Wandiwash. At Trinomalee, about thirty-five miles farther north, he was more successful, and treated the inhabitants, for having presumed to attempt defence, with horrible barbarity. From Trinomalee he turned south-east, and after taking Permacoil arrived in the vicinity of Pondicherry. Here he opened a communication with the governor, and by arrangement with him, despatched an envoy to the court of France to solicit the aid of 6000 French troops. Bertrand de Moleville, then minister of marine, would have granted it, but the king, the unfortunate Louis XVI., on whose head the storms of revolution were about to burst, peremptorily refused, exclaiming, “This resembles the affair of America, which I never think of without regret. My youth was taken advantage of at that time, and we suffer for it now; the lesson is too severe to be forgotten.” The embassy thus proved a failure. In another quarter Tippoo’s prospects were equally discouraging. He had left Hossein Ali in Malabar with a body of troops estimated at about 9000 men. The general disaffection of the natives made it dangerous to separate them, and though all the force which Colonel Hartley, the Company’s officer, could muster to oppose him, consisted only of a regiment of Europeans, and two battalions of sepoys, Hossein Ali deemed it expedient to assume the defensive by taking up a strong position near Calicut. Notwithstanding his inferiority of numbers, Colonel Hartley did not hesitate to attack him on the 10th December, 1790, and gained a complete victory, losing only fifty-two men, while 1000 of the enemy were killed or wounded, and 900, including Hossein Ali himself, were taken prisoners. In the pursuit afterwards, 1500 more surrendered. Still greater successes followed. General (afterwards Sir Robert) Abercromby, then governor of Bombay, arrived at Tellicherry with a considerable force a few days after Colonel Hartley’s victory, and followed up the recent success with so much spirit, as to capture every place in the possession of Tippoo and his dependants, and effect the entire conquest of the province of Malabar.

Lord Cornwallis commenced his march on the 5th of February, and on the 11th concentrated the army near Vellore. On hearing of this movement, Tippoo broke off the negotiations which he had protracted very uselessly and imprudently at Pondicherry, and hastened rapidly westward to defend the passes leading into Mysore. He expected that the ascent would be attempted by Amboor; and Lord Cornwallis, confirming him in this belief by sending a battalion, apparently his advanced guard, in that direction, suddenly made a dexterous movement with his army in two divisions to the north, and then turning west entered the easy pass of Mooglee, leading west from Chittoor to Moolwagle. By the 17th, before Tippoo could offer any effectual opposition, he had reached the summit and encamped on the table-land with a brigade. In four days more his battering-train and all his equipments, including sixty-seven elephants from Bengal and provisions for forty-five days, were within the encampment. Bangalore, the second town in Mysore, and the first object at which he was aiming, was only ninety miles distant. Though not a shot had been fired nor an enemy seen, the poor villagers had suffered all the horrors of war. Partly, perhaps, in retaliation of the devastations of the Mysorean army, not merely the camp-followers but the soldiers appear to have broken loose from all restraint, and pillaged and burned in every direction. The barbarity thus manifested at the very outset of the campaign required an immediate check, and Lord Cornwallis, besides executing nine of the ringleaders, issued the following general order:—“Lord Cornwallis has too high an opinion of the zeal, honour, and public spirit of the officers of the army, to doubt for a moment, that every individual among them felt the same concern and indignation that he did himself, at the shocking and disgraceful outrages that were committed on the last march. His lordship now calls, in the most serious manner, for the active assistance of every officer in the army, and particularly those commanding flanking parties, advance and rear guards, to put a stop to these scenes of horror, which, if they should be suffered to continue, must defeat all our hopes of success, and blast the British name with infamy.”

After the delay of a few days the army again moved, and took possession of Colar and Ooscotah, the garrisons of which, after threatening resistance, tamely surrendered. Bangalore was now only ten miles distant and no enemy had appeared. Where was Tippoo? The answer says little for his military tactics. He was looking after his harem, which had been lodged in Bangalore, and could not be left exposed to the impending danger. The removal might have been effected by an escort of 500 men, but Tippoo chose to superintend it personally at the head of his whole army, which was thus employed in empty ceremony when its utmost exertions in the field were demanded. On the 4th of March the cavalry appeared in some force, and ineffectually attempted to break through the columns in order to reach the baggage, increased beyond the ordinary amount by the immense mass of stores and grain provided for the siege. The following day the British army took up its ground before Bangalore with only five casualties, though not without a very daring attempt on the life of Lord Cornwallis himself. While, accompanied by General Medows and their respective staff, he was viewing Tippoo’s movements from a gentle eminence, three Mysorean horsemen were seen approaching, but attracted little notice till they suddenly put their horses at full speed and made a dash at his person. Two of them were killed, and the third when seized seemed stupified. The account afterwards given was, that the evening before, one of the horsemen having upbraided the other two with cowardice, they retorted that they would go next day where he durst not follow. They prepared themselves for the trial of courage by a dose of bang, and the above was the result. On the 6th a skirmish in which Colonel Floyd injudiciously engaged very nearly cost him his life, and occasioned a serious loss. While rashly following a body of horse, in the hope of intercepting large masses of baggage on elephants and camels, he fell as if shot by a cannon-ball, a musket-shot having entered his cheek and passed through both his jaws. Though at first left on the ground as dead, his orderly dragoons remounted him and carried him back to the camp. He ultimately recovered, but the rash attempt cost the lives of seventy-one men and the loss of 271 horses.

The fort of Bangalore, entirely rebuilt with strong masonry by Hyder and Tippoo, was nearly of an oval form, with round towers at intervals, and five powerful cavaliers. It was enclosed by a good ditch, and had a good covered way, but the glacis was imperfect. It was entered by two gates, the one called the Mysore and the other the Delhi gate. Opposite to the latter, which faced the north, lay the petah or town, covering a large space, and surrounded by a rampart and ditch. The besiegers early gained possession of the town, but Tippoo, who had encamped at the distance of about six miles, was determined that they should not keep it, and made many determined efforts for its recovery. Ultimately he was driven out with a loss of upwards of 2000 men. The British loss was only 131, but among the killed was Colonel Moorhouse, an artillery officer of distinguished merit and the most amiable manners. Notwithstanding two wounds, he continued animating his men till struck dead by two musket-balls in the breast. Colonel Wilks thus describes him: “He had risen from the ranks, but nature herself had made him a gentleman; uneducated, he had made himself a man of science; a career of uninterrupted distinction had commanded general respect, and his amiable character universal attachment; the regret of his general and the respect of his government were testified by a monument erected at the public expense in the church at Madras.”

As the place was never invested, and the garrison consisting of 8000 men was regularly relieved by fresh troops, the siege was carried on under difficult and discouraging circumstances. Its commencement, too, was rather ominous, the engineers having stupidly erected their first battery without ascertaining the exact distance, and not discovered their mistake till they found the fire inefficient. Good progress, however, continued to be made. By the 20th of March an early assault was anticipated. Tippoo, on perceiving indications of this, on the morning of the 21st drew up his army on the heights to the southwest, to protect an advanced body with heavy guns, which they were about to place in an old embankment where they would have enfiled, and might have destroyed the whole of the trenches and open sap, now advanced near to the crest of the glacis. These preparations seemed so alarming, that Lord Cornwallis resolved on assaulting that very night. According to ordinary practice, much still required to be accomplished, and success could scarcely be expected, unless the garrison could be taken in some measure by surprise. With this view Lord Cornwallis only communicated his intention confidentially to the senior artillery officer, for the purpose of enabling him to take the necessary steps to perfect the breach, and concealed it from the rest of the army until the last moment. The assault was to be made at eleven o’clock at night in bright moonlight, at a breach to the left of the projecting works of the Delhi gate. The storming party on the appointed signal moved on in silence, and had nearly planted the ladders before the garrison took the alarm. Resistance, which had been protracted by the gallantry of the commandant, slackened the moment he fell, and at the end of an hour all opposition ceased. The secret of the assault had not been so well kept as to conceal it from Tippoo, who had not only warned the garrison, but appointed two heavy corps to fall upon both flanks of the assailants. This contingency had been foreseen and provided against, and they were repulsed with great slaughter by a reserve stationed for that special purpose. The capture was, in fact, effected in the presence of Tippoo’s whole army, and the storming party barely amounted to one-fourth of the ordinary garrison. The advantages from success may be estimated from the disasters which must have attended a failure. Short as the duration of the siege had been, the forage and grain found in the petah were all consumed; no supply could be obtained from the neighbouring villages, which had been completely destroyed, and the miserable resource of digging up the roots of grass had been used till not a fibre remained within the limits of the pickets. The draught and carriage cattle were daily dying by hundreds, and those intended for the shambles were so wasted and diseased as to be almost unfit for food. Every necessary, including ammunition, was at the lowest ebb, and a retreat after raising the siege must have been full of disaster. The knowledge of these circumstances was undoubtedly one main inducement to risk the assault, when the success of it was, to say the least, very problematical.

After repairing the breaches and making the place secure against a sudden onset, Lord Cornwallis set out on the 28th of March in a northern direction, taking the route to Deonhully. Tippo had on the same day moved in the direction of Great Balipoor, and the two hostile armies were consequently pursuing routes which crossed diagonally. They were thus brought within sight of each other at the distance of only three miles, but Tippo had no idea of risking an encounter, and was able by his superior equipments to escape with little loss, except of reputation, by allowing himself to be ignominiously chased. The main object of moving northward was to effect a junction with the corps of cavalry which Nizam Ali had agreed to furnish. This being accomplished on the 13th of April, the united force moved south-east to meet a convoy which was advancing by the passes near Amboor, under an escort of nearly 4000 men. On its arrival, the whole army returned to Bangalore. During this march, which occupied fifteen days, full means of estimating the value of the Nizam’s cavalry was given. Nominally 15,000, they were actually 10,000 well mounted, and tolerably, though very dissimilarly armed, but totally without order or discipline, scampering about in wild confusion, and utterly unfit to be employed in any combined movement. It was hoped, however, that they might relieve the regular cavalry by performing the duties of light troops. This hope soon proved fallacious. They were even unequal to the protection of their own foragers, and consumed far more forage and grain than they supplied. The only dexterity they displayed was in pillaging the villagers. At best the Nizam’s troops were little better than a rabble, and the present sample was even worse than the average, owing to the total want of military talent in their commander Tejewunt Sing, a Hindoo, and to the venality, rapacity, and treachery of Assud Ali his second in command.

Lord Cornwallis was now anxious, for many reasons, to terminate the war with as little delay as possible. The French revolution had burst forth with unexampled fury, and all Europe was heaving with commotion. The drain of the war upon the Company’s resources was enormous, and instead of an anticipated surplus from economical reforms, their debt was rapidly accumulating. Then what dependence could be placed on confederates who eyed each other with jealousy and suspicion, and were ready at any moment to change sides, on being convinced that their separate interests would thereby be promoted? Taking all these things into consideration, the only expedient course was to break off all delays, and at once push boldly on for Seringapatam. The great difficulty was, as in all former wars of the Company, to provide the means of transport, but extraordinary obstacles were overcome by equally extraordinary exertions, and the army, amply provided with everything except a sufficiency of draught and carriage cattle, commenced its march from Bangalore on the 3d of May. Tippoo on his part was not idle, but the measures which he adopted indicated only the terror and despair of a savage and brutal nature. Apparently under the impression that his capital was destined to fall, he began to remove every vestige of the evidence which would have revealed to the captors the full extent of his falsehood and cruelty. He had repeatedly affirmed on oath that all British prisoners had been released, and therefore, to avoid detection, all who still remained must be put out of the way. Among the victims were twenty English boys, the survivors of a much larger number, whom he had mutilated and brought up as singers and dancers. They were all handed over to Abyssinian slaves, and barbarously murdered, by the well understood practice of giving the head a sudden and violent twist so as to dislocate the vertebrae of the neck. Many of the prisoners of the preceding war were despatched by other modes of barbarity. In these horrible proceedings cruelty and fear went hand in hand, but other steps were taken, in which the latter passion alone was slavishly and even ludicrously manifested. The walls of the houses in the main streets had by his orders been covered with caricatures of the English. These are thus described by Colonel Wilks:—“In one it was a tiger seizing a trembling Englishman; in another it was a horseman cutting off two English heads at a blow; in another it was the nabob Mahomed Ali, brought in with a rope round his waist, prostrating himself before an Englishman, seated on a chair, who placed one foot upon his neck; but the more favourite caricatures are necessarily excluded from decorous narrative.” All these caricatures he caused to be obliterated by careful whitewashing. Another step, which evinced as much fear but displayed more judgment, was the demolition of the bridge over the northern branch of the Cauvery.

While the British army was advancing on Seringapatam at a very slow pace, and suffering most severely from the nature of the ground, from storms of thunder and torrents of rain, and the increasing difficulty of transport at each successive march, Tippo took up a strong position on the main road leading north-east through Cenapatam to Bangalore. Lord Cornwallis, aware how difficult it would be to force this position, or obtain any supplies in proceeding towards it, took the more circuitous road which passes through Cancahully, and nearer to the Cauvery. During the first day’s march after this route was chosen much benefit was experienced, but the very day after the work of desolation began, and almost every trace of human habitation disappeared, the whole of the inhabitants were carried off, and detachments, sent out on different occasions in search of information, failed to descry a single human being. It was the 13th of May before the army arrived at Arikara, situated on the Cauvery about nine miles east of the capital. The quantity of water in the river did not admit of crossing, and after an ineffectual attempt to break down a dam in the hope of lowering the water, the march was continued westward along the northern bank as far as Caniambaddy, which is as far above Seringapatam as Arikara is below it. The hope of finding a better ford was not the only reason for this movement. General Abercromby, after the subjugation of Malabar, had ascended through the friendly territory of the Rajah of Coorg, and was in possession of Periapatam, situated little more than thirty miles to the west.

This movement westward could not be made without passing immediately to the north of the island of Seringapatam, and Tippo, though he had hitherto carefully avoided a general action, was determined not to allow so near an approach to his capital without disputing it. Accordingly, on proceeding to take up his encampment near Arikera, Lord Cornwallis perceived the enemy strongly posted about six miles in front, with their right on the river, and the left along a rugged and apparently inaccessible height. This position was strengthened by batteries above, and a swampy ravine below, while the British army in approaching was so hemmed in between the river and a ridge of hills, that the only space left them gradually diminished from a mile and a half to a mile. Lord Cornwallis having ascertained that it was possible by crossing the ridge to turn the enemy’s left flank, and even get into his rear, determined on a night march for that purpose, and with the utmost secrecy ordered six regiments of European and twelve of native infantry to march at eleven o’clock. Nizam Ali’s horse were to follow at daylight. The rest of the army remained to protect the camp. Unfortunately, before the appointed hour a dreadful storm of rain and thunder arose, and almost every corps became bewildered. Lord Cornwallis himself, having the best guides, had advanced four or five miles, accompanied by only one company and one gun, and the staff officer who had been the first to make this discovery, on going back in search of the column narrowly escaped riding into the enemy’s camp. As nothing could now be effected before dawn, the night attack had become impracticable, but Lord Cornwallis determined to force an action. Tippoo did not decline it, and displayed much skill in his arrangements, after being deprived of many of the advantages of his former position. In his rear was the hill of Carigat, abutting abruptly on the Cauvery, and crowned by a redoubt. This hill sent off two branches, one of them occupied by Tippoo’s main force, and the other stretching two or three miles to his left in a strong rocky ridge. Opposite to the ridge, and separated from it by a ravine, was the hill on which the British army was posted.

The battle commenced with a struggle for the possession of the rocky ridge. A considerable body of British cavalry and infantry, with eight guns, were marching rapidly to seize it, when a detachment sent by Tippoo anticipated it, and opened its first guns from the ridge, just as the British cleared the ravine. Fortunately the ground between the ravine and the ridge was so broken as to afford good cover and a support to subsequent formations. While Tippoo’s detachment was occupied in seizing the ridge, his main body, which had changed front, was preparing to advance in line. To meet these movements, the British army was formed into two unequal fronts, united at right angles. While the front on the left was being formed, the enemy’s select cavalry, which had been concealed by the ground, rushed out and made a spirited charge, many horsemen falling on the bayonets. When the formation was completed, the smaller of the two fronts, consisting of five battalions under Colonel Maxwell, attacked the position on the rocky ridge, and not only carried it, but overtook some guns on the opposite descent, and captured three of them. On this success, the remainder of the army advanced against the enemy’s main body in two lines, and the action became general. The result seems never to have been doubtful. After the first onset, Tippoo, fearing the loss of his guns, began to draw them off, and leave the battle to be contested by the infantry. At this stage the Nizam’s cavalry began to act, but only managed to throw themselves in an unwieldy mass in front of the left wing, where they could neither advance nor recede. The effect of this obstruction was to impede the advance of the British line, and thus prevent the inevitable capture or destruction of a large portion of the enemy’s guns and infantry. There is reason to suspect, from proofs of treachery afterwards discovered, that this obstruction was intentional, and not owing to mere awkwardness. After it was removed, the pursuit was continued till the works on the island of Seringapatam gave protection to the fugitives. The British loss was 500, that of the enemy above 2000.

Though this victory was most honourable to those who earned it, and but for the treachery or stupidity of the Nizam’s cavalry, would have been decisive, Lord Cornwallis might have exclaimed, like Sir Eyre Coote on a similar occasion, “I would gladly exchange all these trophies, and the reputation of victory, for a few days’ rice.” The whole country was so effectually desolated that no supplies could be obtained, and so many of the draught cattle had perished, or become so enfeebled by want of food, that during the two subsequent marches, which brought the army to Caniambaddy, and were made almost under the eye of the enemy, the battering-train and nearly all the public carts of the army were dragged by the troops. The future thus presented a most gloomy prospect. Some dependence had been placed on General Abercromby; but, short as the distance was, it was so completely scoured by Tippo’s light troops, that communication with him was impossible. The decision could no longer be delayed, and Lord Cornwallis, now convinced that the original plan of the campaign must be abandoned, saw no alternative but to sacrifice his heavy guns and stores. On the 21st of May, he sent off a messenger with orders to General Abercromby to return to Malabar, and on the 22nd the whole of the battering-train and the heavy equipments were destroyed. “The ground at Caniambaddy,” says Major Dirom, “where the army had encamped but six days, was covered, in a circuit of several miles, with the carcasses of cattle and horses; and the last of the gun-carriages, carts, and stores of the battering-train, left in flames, was a melancholy spectacle, which the troops passed as they quitted this deadly camp.” General Abercromby duly received the orders sent him to return. They were entirely unexpected, and he immediately proceeded to execute them, though with extreme mortification. He had, with great difficulty, brought an army of about 8000 men, with a battering-train and a large supply of provisions and stores, over the rugged precipices and through the dense forests of the Ghauts. All this had proved labour in vain, and the soldiers, still suffering from disease and fatigue, were now to retrace their steps amid the storms and deluging rains of the monsoon. After leaving four eighteen-pounders imperfectly destroyed at Periapatam, and burying the rest of the battering-train at the summit of the pass, the Bombay army succeeded in reaching the coast, in a sickly state, with the loss of almost all the cattle.

On the 26th of May, the army, reduced to half rations, and pining away with disease, commenced its return to Bangalore, and had not completed its first short and tedious march of six miles, when a body of about 2000 horse made their appearance on the baggage flank. It was at once concluded to be the enemy, and the necessary preparations were made to ward off an anticipated attack on the baggage and stores. One of the staff, while thus employed, was hailed by a horseman who announced himself as a Mahratta, and part of the advance of two Mahratta armies. It was really so. While Lord Cornwallis suspected that the Mahrattas had left him in the lurch, and had no idea that they were within 150 miles of him, the Poonah army, under Hurry Punt as commander-in-chief, and another more efficient army, under Purseram Bhow, were on the eve of joining him. They had used all the customary means of sending him intelligence of every successive step in their approach, but so completely had Tippo cut off all means of communication, that not a single messenger had arrived. The junction, even now, was a most fortunate event, but would have been far more fortunate had it happened a few days sooner. In that case the destruction of the battering-train and the other disastrous measures recently adopted would have been unnecessary, and the plan of campaign originally contemplated might have been carried out. All the wants of the British army could now be supplied, though at exorbitant prices, at the bazaar of the Mahratta camp. The description of this bazaar by Colonel Wilks is so curious as to deserve quotation:—

“The bazaar of a Mahratta camp presented an exhibition of no ordinary character; and to these famished visitors exhibited a picture of the spoils of the East and the industry of the West. From a web of English broadcloth to a Birmingham penknife—from the shawls of Cashmere to the second-hand garment of a Hindoo—from diamonds of the first water to the silver ear-ring of a poor plundered village maiden—from oxen, sheep, and poultry, to the dried salt fish of Concan—almost everything was seen that could be presented by the best bazaars of the richest towns; but above all, the tables of the money-changers, overspread with the coins of every country of the East, in the open air and public street of the camp, gave evidence of an extent of mercantile activity, utterly inconceivable in any camp, except that of systematic plunderers by wholesale and retail. Every variety of trade appeared to be exercised with a large competition and considerable diligence, and among them, one apparently the least adapted to a wandering life—the trade of tanner—was practised with eminent success. A circular hole dug in the earth, a raw hide adapted to it at the bottom and sides, and secured above with a series of skewers run through its edges into the earth, formed the tan-pit; on marching days, the tan-pit with its contents, in the shape of a bag, formed one side of a load for a horse or bullock, and the liquid preparation was either emptied or preserved, according to the length or expected repetition of the march: the best tanning material (catechu) is equally accessible and portable, and the English officers obtained from these, ambulatory tan-pits what their own Indian capitals could not then produce, except as European imports—excellent sword-belts.¹

After the junction of the Mahrattas, the united armies proceeded slowly towards Bangalore. During the march, the intermediate plan of operation was arranged. The first preliminary was a loan of £144,000. This Lord Cornwallis was enabled to make on the part of the Company, by stopping, in its transit, the money intended for the China investment. Purseram Bhow, with his own army and a detachment of Bombay troops, was to proceed by Sera, for the purpose of operating in the north-west. The Nizam’s cavalry, long regarded only as an encumbrance, were to join the other forces of their own state, and operate with them in the north-east. Hurry Punt, Tejewunt, and Meer Alum were to remain with Lord Cornwallis, the first as representative of the Mahrattas, and the two last as respectively military and political representatives of the Nizam. Each of the representatives was attended by a select body of cavalry, designed to assist in the general operations of the British army.

Various causes had produced the delay which had left Lord Cornwallis to contend with Tippoo single-handed, notwithstanding the promised aid of his allies. The army of Nizam Ali began to assemble in the vicinity of Hyderabad, as early as May, 1790, and was joined by the Company’s stipulated detachment of two battalions of sepoys under Major Montgomery, and a company of sepoys. The cavalry were little if at all better than those which, under Aasud Ali, had encumbered Lord Cornwallis, but the infantry, commanded by M. Raymond, a Frenchman, were as good as he could be expected to make troops imperfectly disciplined. After long delays reached Rachore. Here they remained till they heard of Tippo’s descent to Coimbatoor, in September, and then, having no fear of interruption, continued their march, and sat down on the 28th of October before Capool, situated about 100 miles to the south-west. The British artillery and M. Raymond’s infantry did their part, but the obstinate ignorance of Nizam Ali’s general protracted the siege, which was only terminated by capitulation on the 18th of April, 1791. Other minor places fell, and at last the only one of importance remaining in the enemy’s possession was Goorumconda, about eighty miles north-east of Bangalore. The Mahrattas ostensibly took the field about the same time as the Nizam, and the army under Purseram Bhow was joined at Coompta by Captain Little, who, embarking at Bombay with two battalions of sepoys, one company of European and two of native artillery, landed at the mouth of the Jygurh, and ascended the Ghauts by the pass of Amba. Purseram Bhow’s army, estimated at 20,000 horse and 10,000 infantry, did not march from Coompta till the 3d of August. The first object was to recover the provinces which Hyder had wrested from the Mahrattas during the civil war caused by Ragobah. Darwar, considered as the capital, had been made as strong as native art could make it, and was garrisoned by a force of about 10,000 men. Purseram Bhow arrived before it on the 18th of September. The siege made little progress, partly because the Mahrattas were not provided with the necessary battering-train, and when Captain Little reported this deficiency to the Bombay government, a considerable reinforcement was sent, but unfortunately not accompanied with what was most wanted—cannon and stores. The place was defended till the 4th of April, 1791, and then only surrendered on honourable terms, after the British had lost 500 and the Mahrattas about 3000 men. After this capture, every place north of the Toombudra easily yielded, and Purseram Bhow, crossing the river at Hurryhur, proceeded southward through Myconda, while Hurry Punt followed the parallel but more eastern route by Harponelly and Sera. In this way the junction with Lord Cornwallis had been effected.

During the previous operations, Tippoo had repeatedly professed a desire to negotiate. As early as the 13th of February, 1791, he sent a letter, which, as it was not received at Muglee on the 18th, was probably antedated two days. It proposed either to receive or send an ambassador for the adjustment of differences. Lord Cornwallis replied, that if Tippoo, who had violated the treaty, was willing to make reparation, a statement to that effect in writing must precede the appointment of ambassadors. Another similar overture made on the 27th of March received a similar answer. On the 17th of May, two days after Tippoo’s defeat, he took advantage of an offer to release the wounded prisoners, to renew his proposal of negotiation. Lord Cornwallis being now attended by plenipotentiaries from the Mahrattas and the Nizam, and having also a foresight of the difficulties about to beset him, was rather more conciliatory than before, and not only answered that, if Tippoo would submit his propositions in writing, commissioners might be appointed, but even intimated his consent, should Tippoo desire it, to a cessation of hostilities. In proportion as the allies seemed disposed to yield, Tippoo became more exacting, and ultimately, after Lord Cornwallis had even conceded the point of written propositions, and proposed a conference of deputies at Bangalore, declined the terms, unless his lordship would first remove his army to the frontier. Tippoo had meanwhile been trying the effect of similar overtures with the other confederates, and there can be little doubt that his real object was to stir up the jealousy of each, and thereby break up the confederacy.

In the beginning of July, 1791, Lord Cornwallis moved from Bangalore in a south-east direction by Oossoor, which he found to be evacuated, and thence to the passes of Palicode and Rayacota. His object was to reduce the hill-forts commanding these passes above and below, and thus at once keep open his communications with the Carnatic, and protect it from the inroads of the enemy’s cavalry. By the end of the month, most of the forts had yielded; and he was making arrangements for the blockade of Kistnagherry, when he was suddenly recalled to the assistance of Purseram Bhow, who, by dispersing his forces too widely, had sustained a serious check. It was September before his lordship could resume his own objects. A number of places to the northeast of Bangalore still remained in possession of the enemy, and not only disturbed the communication with the Carnatic, but prevented the advance of the Nizam’s army, still detained before Goorumconda. Major Gowdie, detached with a brigade and some battering cannon, found little difficulty in reducing all of them except Nundidroog, which, crowning a granite rock of tremendous height, had been so much strengthened with artificial works by Tippoo that he deemed it impregnable. The command of it had been intrusted to Lutf Ali Beg, an officer of tried merit and fidelity. Major Gowdie, after forcing the pettah, sat down before the fort on the 27th of September. There was no choice of attack, as it was accessible only on the west. Notwithstanding the extreme difficulty of working up the face of a steep and rugged height, erecting batteries at breaching distance, and dragging up cannon to mount them, two breaches were effected in twenty-one days. When the assault was about to be made, Lord Cornwallis moved the army to the immediate vicinity, and sent in some additional companies to lead the assault. It was made on the 19th of October, with so much spirit and success, that though nothing more than a lodgment for further operations against the interior works was anticipated, the assailants followed the retiring defenders to the inner gate, and by forcing it before it could be completely barricaded, made a complete capture. An attempt made on Kistnagherry on the 7th of November, by a detachment under Colonel Maxwell, was less fortunate. After carrying the lower fort by escalade, the assailants attempted to gain the upper fort by entering it along with the fugitives. They were so near succeeding that they captured a standard on the gateway, but enormous masses of granite, thrown down by a garrison which far outnumbered them, obliged them to retire with considerable loss.

After the return of Colonel Maxwell, Lord Cornwallis having secured access for supplies from Coromandel, turned his attention to several places of strength which the enemy still possessed, between Bangalore and Seringapatam, and without the reduction of which the siege of the latter could not be safely commenced. By far the most formidable of these places was Savandroog, situated about twenty-two miles W.S.W. of Bangalore, and fifty miles north-east of the capital. An enormous mass of granite covering a base of eight miles in circuit, rises in rugged precipices to the height of about 2500 feet. In its lower part, wherever deemed accessible, it was inclined by walls and traversed by cross walls and barriers; towards its summit a deep chasm divided it into two peaks, each of which was crowned with strong works, and capable of separate defence. The reduction of this place seemed to the natives an utter impossibility. Besides the strength of its position and its works, it had another powerful defence in its deadly climate, and hence Tippoo, on hearing of the resolution to besiege it, is said “to have congratulated his army on the infatuation of the English, in having engaged in an enterprise that must terminate in their disgrace, as half the Europeans would die of sickness, and the other half be killed in the attack.”

This important enterprise was intrusted to Colonel Stuart, who commanded the right wing of the army. The force employed consisted of the 52d and 72d regiments under Colonel Nesbitt, three battalions of sepoys, and a park of artillery, consisting of four eighteen-pounders, four twelve-pounders, and two howitzers, under Major Montague. On the 10th of December, Colonel Stuart pitched his camp within three miles of the north side of the rock, and Lord Cornwallis took up a position with the main body of the army, about five miles in his rear. The first operation of the siege was to cut a gun road from the camp, through a forest of bamboos, and transport the artillery by dragging it over rugged ground to the foot of the mountain. This was a work of incredible labour, as the guns, in order to be brought to the places marked out for batteries, required to be drawn or rather lifted over rocks of considerable height, and almost perpendicular. Fortunately the garrison, over-confident in the strength of the place, scarcely interfered with these preliminary operations. On the 17th two batteries opened, one at 1000 and another at 700 yards. Owing to the distance and the thickness of the walls, the effect was less than expected, and on the 19th a third battery was opened, at only 250 yards. By it in the course of two days a practicable breach was effected, and the morning of the 21st was fixed for the assault. The storming party, commanded by Colonel Nesbitt, attacked at four different points—one party gaining the eastern hill on the left, another scouring the works of the western hill on the right, a third attacking the works or parties that might be discovered in the chasm between the hills, and the fourth making a feint by proceeding round the mountain, for the purpose of drawing off the attention of the garrison, and at the same time preventing their escape. A strenuous resistance was anticipated, as a large body of the enemy had been seen descending the hill to defend the breach, but the moment the storming party advanced, they were seized with an unaccountable panic and fled. The eastern hill above the breach was in consequence carried without an effort. In fleeing from the breach the main body of the garrison endeavoured to gain the western hill, but from the narrowness of the paths so impeded and confined each other that the assailants overtook them, entered the different barriers along with them, and completed the capture. Thus, as much by the pusillanimity of the garrison as by the skill and gallantry of the besiegers, a place deemed so impregnable that the very idea of attacking it was derided, fell in a single hour without costing the captors a single man. Ootradroog and Holioordroog, the only intermediate forts of any consequence still remaining, were taken with almost equal facility, and nothing now delayed the commencement of the siege of Seringapatam, but the detention of Nizam Ali’s army before Goorumconda. The siege of this place had commenced early in September, but little progress had been made till the breaching artillery which was at Nundidroog arrived. Even then the detention of the army threatened to be indefinitely protracted, had not Captain Andrew Read, who commanded the British detachment, undertaken, on being allowed to manage in his own way, to capture the lower fort, by which alone access to the upper fort could be obtained. He succeeded, and by thus hemming in the garrison enabled the besiegers to convert the siege into a blockade. A strong detachment sufficing for this purpose, the main body of the Nizam’s army was left free to join Lord Cornwallis. It accordingly set out for this purpose, but had not advanced far when intelligence arrived that the lower fort had been retaken by the enemy, in consequence of the rashness of Hafiz Jee, the officer left in command, who had sallied out and been suddenly overwhelmed by an army of 12,000 horse and foot, led by Hyder Sahib, Tippoo’s eldest son. On this disastrous news, the Nizam’s army retraced their steps and were again detained till, by a second capture of the lower fort, the blockade was re-established.

The rains having ceased, and the men and horses recovered rapidly under the full supplies of grain and corn, which the Brinjarries were induced by liberal treatment to bring into the camp, the three armies of the confederates united on the 25th of January, 1792, near Savandroog, and commenced their advance on the capital. Meanwhile, a fourth army was preparing to join from an opposite quarter. General Abercromby, whose duties as governor had required his presence at Bombay, returned to Tellicherry in the beginning of November, and having on the 23rd assembled his army, consisting of 8400 men, at Cananore, proceeded five miles northward to Iliacore. The stream on which this place stands being swollen with rain, was crossed in boats, and a march of twenty-six miles was continued through a very rugged country, to the western head of the pass of Poodichorrim, on the frontiers of the Rajah of Coorg, on whose friendly aid the utmost dependence could be placed. The ground of this confidence must now be explained.

In the time of Hyder, Coorg, which forms a mountainous tract, stretching along the very summit of the Western Ghauts, from the Tambercherry Pass, opposite to Calicut, in the south, to the confines of Bednore on the north, had been subjugated by treachery, and then treated with the utmost barbarity. The inhabitants were hunted down as if they had been wild beasts, and every effort which they made to throw off the yoke had only rivetted it more firmly. The reigning rajah with his family was carried off to the fort of Cuddoor, and died there in close confinement. His eldest son, the present rajah, had been subjected to the grossest indignity, and forced by the initiatory rite into an outward profession of Islamism. As he grew up he burned to avenge the wrongs of his countrymen. In 1783, when he was only fifteen years of age, he was removed by Tippoo with the other members of the family to Periapatam. This place, before Mercara supplanted it, was considered as the capital of Coorg, and containing many persons who were still strongly attached to the native dynasty, was the very last which Tippoo ought to have selected, if the security of the prisoners was his object. Fortunately this fact had escaped his notice, and the rajah was able to effect his escape in 1788. For some time he could only carry on a kind of guerilla warfare. In this he displayed remarkable ability, and while heard of everywhere was seen nowhere. Success rapidly increased the number of his adherents, and he began to show himself openly at the head of nearly 4000 faithful warriors. Post after post fell into his hands, and ultimately Mercara was the only place within the territory which Tippoo could call his own.

The rajah had for some time maintained the struggle single-handed, when a confidential servant, sent to make some purchases at Tellicherry, entered into communication with the Company’s chief factor there. As the war with Tippoo had then commenced, the value of an ally whose frontier lay within forty miles of his capital was easily perceived, and the Bombay government gladly entered into a treaty for mutual co-operation and the invasion of Mysore. Contrary to the usual practice of native princes, the Rajah of Coorg not only faithfully performed his engagements, but even went beyond them. The only case in which his conduct excited some degree of suspicion is deserving of notice. When General Abercromby, availing himself of the treaty, was preparing for the first time to pass through Coorg on his march to Periapatam, the rajah was engaged in the blockade of Mercara, which had been so long continued that the garrison was starving, and an early surrender seemed inevitable. It was known indeed that a large convoy for its relief was approaching, but the escort which accompanied it had been surrounded and could not possibly escape. How great, then, was the surprise of General Abercromby when the rajah himself arrived in his camp, and announced to him that he had allowed the convoy to enter and the escort to escape! His explanation was, that Kadir Khan, who commanded the escort, had laid him under obligations which made it impossible to treat him as an enemy. While the rajah was imprisoned at Periapatam, he had shown him great kindness, and not only so, but when two of the rajah’s sisters were carried off to Tippoo’s harem, he had been the means of saving the honour of a third sister, and of returning her to him unharmed. In return for these services, the rajah, after the convoy and escort were entirely in his power, caused information to be conveyed to Kadir Khan that he was desirous to save him. A conference thereupon took place, and on Kadir Khan representing that his acceptance of individual safety would be the ruin of his family, and his return with the service unexecuted would be fatal to himself, the rajah, with a generosity and gratitude to which it would be difficult to find a parallel, spared both the convoy and the escort. He was not ultimately a loser, as the garrison ere long consumed the provisions brought by the convoy, and being again reduced to extremity were glad to capitulate. With the aid of such an ally, General Abercromby had little difficulty in again reaching Periapatam.

The confederates, in advancing upon Seringapatam, passed through a country where every human dwelling was consumed or in flames, and on the 5th of February, 1792, after passing over a high ground which gave a full view of the city, and of Tippoo’s army under its walls, encamped six miles to the northward. A bound hedge, formed by a wide belt of thorny plants, commenced on the north bank of the Cauvery, about a thousand yards above the island of Seringapatam, and after continuing due north for nearly two miles, swept round and pursued a south-easterly direction till it again met the river toward the eastern extremity of the island, and nearly opposite to the Carigat Hill. Within this inclosure, at its north-west extremity, was an eminence with a well-constructed redoubt, and at different parts also within the inclosure were seven other formidable redoubts, constructed so as to lend support to each other. A work commenced on the Carigat Hill was unfinished. The bound hedge thus formed the outer limit of a fortified camp, in which Tippoo’s whole army now lay. Lord Cornwallis, who had feared that Tippoo would keep the field and operate on the communications of the besiegers, hoped to be able to strike a decisive blow, and with that view determined on an immediate attack. Orders were accordingly issued at sunset, and the army prepared to move in three columns at eight o’clock with a clear moonlight. The right column, under General Medows, composed of 3300 men, was to leave the redoubt on the eminence at the north-west extremity untouched, and to enter the enclosure about 1500 yards to east of it, then turn to the left and attack everything in its way till it met the centre column. This column, consisting of 3700 men, under the immediate direction of Lord Cornwallis himself, was subdivided into three parts. One of these, under Colonel Knox, was to lead, and endeavour, by mixing with the fugitives, to pass over into the island; the second, under Colonel Stuart, after penetrating deep into the camp, was to turn to the left, attack the enemy’s right wing, and thereafter endeavour to force a passage into the island; the third, left as a reserve under Lord Cornwallis, was to wait for the junction of the column under General Medows. The third or left column, consisting of 1700 men under Colonel Maxwell, was first to attack the unfinished work on Carigat Hill, then descend, penetrate the enclosure, and unite with Colonel Stuart in forcing an entrance into the island.

Owing to some ambiguity in the order, the officer guiding the right column led it directly against the north-west redoubt, instead of avoiding it as had been intended. It was not carried till after a long and desperate struggle, in which the British lost ninety-one men, eleven of them officers, and the enemy 400. After this achievement, the right column, having secured its capture by a strong garrison, wheeled to the left, but on coming to another redoubt of great strength and magnitude, hesitated whether to attack it or to join the centre column, which it was conjectured might require to be strongly reinforced. The latter was the course adopted, and the consequence was, that the column, instead of advancing, countermarched, recrossed the bound hedge, and did not find the centre column till the business of the night was over. The head of the centre column, under Colonel Knox, penetrated by the bayonet alone, but a battalion belonging to his corps was just entering the camp, when a galling fire on its flanks produced some degree of agitation, which ended in confusion. Colonel Stuart, who was immediately behind with the centre division of this column, rode up, but finding that much time would be lost in attempting to rally the men, ordered the 71st, which was the next corps of his own division, to advance. Meanwhile, Colonel Knox, in order to mix more effectually with the fugitives, had pushed on through a crowded mass of them by the main ford, close under the guns of the fort, and by the aid of a guide, penetrated with three companies to the pettah of Shaher Ganjaum, situated near the middle of the eastern part of the island. The other seven companies of the regiment, and three companies of sepoys following in compact order, missed the ford, but crossing a little below, gained possession of the palace of Deria Dowlat Baug. Captain Hunter, the officer in command, thinking his the first party that had crossed, took post to wait for further orders or intelligence, but as none arrived, and he perceived, as the day dawned, that his position immediately under the fire of the fort was not tenable, he recrossed the river and joined the reserve under Lord Cornwallis. Colonel Stuart, with the centre division of the centre column, had penetrated far into the camp, when he came upon a strong work called the Sultan’s Redoubt. He immediately stormed it with far more ease than had been anticipated, and then leaving a party to defend it, turned to attack the enemy’s right wing. After driving a large body of infantry before him, and thinking that they had crossed into the island, he was surprised to observe a line of troops drawn up with perfect regularity, as if to oppose him. He had just ordered a volley and a charge with the bayonet, when the opposing troops were discovered to be Colonel Maxwell’s column. The mistake had been mutual, and might have been attended with serious consequences. Colonel Maxwell, after storming the work on Carigat Hill, had suffered severely in descending from it, from a body of the enemy who had availed themselves of the cover of a water-course at its foot. Ultimately, however, it had surmounted this and every other obstacle, and broken the enemy’s right wing.

Shortly after the junction of the two columns, a heavy fire was opened upon them from works on the island. After an ineffectual attempt to force them where the river was not fordable, Colonel Baird discovered a practicable ford, and effected a lodgment with a small party on the opposite bank. The head of the column following up this success was scarcely halfway across the stream, when the enemy’s fire suddenly ceased. Colonel Knox, with his three companies, penetrating the cause of the heavy fire, had descended from Ganjaum, and taken the batteries in reverse. Lord Cornwallis, who had passed the bound hedge with the centre column, took post with the reserve within it, with the Sultan’s redoubt on his left. He had not as yet taken any active part in the battle, but he was destined to have his full share before it terminated. The unaccountable absence of General Medows had left him without the support on which he had calculated. The enemy, still unbroken on the left, and reinforced by the troops which had been obliged to retire from the centre, having become aware of his comparatively defenceless state, rushed upon him with overwhelming numbers. A charge with bayonet led by himself with the utmost coolness, and executed with the greatest gallantry, drove back the assailants, but they repeatedly rallied, and did not finally desist till near daylight. During this struggle, his lordship was wounded in the hand, and the number of casualties was considerable. General Medows and his division were at last found at Carigat Hill, to which his lordship had repaired, in order to take up a position where his small corps could not be surrounded.

The attack took Tippoo by surprise. His tent was pitched as usual in the rear of the centre of the position, close to the road by which the head of the central column penetrated, and he had just left, after making his evening meal in the Sultan’s redoubt. On the first alarm he mounted, and was first made aware by a mass of fugitives that his centre was penetrated, and that a column advancing to the main ford was about to cut off his retreat. He waited not a moment longer, and was barely in time to pass the ford before the head of the column reached it. Having entered the fort, he repaired to a detached lozenge work at its north-east angle, and there sat until daylight issuing his orders. On counting his loss in the morning, it was ascertained that the killed, wounded, and missing amounted to 23,000. The missing, however, was by far the largest of these items, for no fewer than 10,000 Chelas (native Hindoos carried off and forced to become soldier slaves), taking advantage of the confusion, marched off with their arms to the forests of Coorg. As yet the only positions gained by the British were the unfinished work on Carigat Hill, the redoubt in the north-west corner of the bound hedge, the Sultan’s redoubt, and the post held by Colonel Stuart near the east extremity of the island. Tippoo made several determined efforts to recover the two last positions, but was so signally repulsed that, as if in despair, he abandoned all the other redoubts within the enclosure, and thus allowed the preparatory operations for the siege to be immediately commenced.

On the 12th of January, 1792, Tippoo had again attempted to negotiate, but had only received for answer, that negotiation was useless with one who disregarded treaties and violated articles of capitulation. “Send hither the garrison of Coimbatoor,” said Lord Cornwallis, “and then we will listen to what you have to say.” His lordship alluded to the capture of Coimbatoor by Kummer-u-Deen. After a protracted defence, conducted by Lieutenant Chalmers with a mere handful of men under the most unfavourable circumstances, a capitulation was agreed to. One of the express conditions was, that the garrison should march to Palghaut. This condition, after the performance of it had been delayed under the pretext that the Sultan’s ratification was necessary, was grossly violated, and the whole garrison were marched off as prisoners to Seringapatam. Lord Cornwallis by his answer had convinced Tippoo that his own faithlessness had made future negotiation impossible, and now therefore, when he could not but tremble for the fate of his capital, and see that without negotiation his doom was sealed, he took a step which at least showed the extent of his despair. Sending for Lieutenants Chalmers and Nash on the 8th of February, the day after all his efforts to drive the British from their positions had proved unavailing, he announced their release. He had supposed that the former, from having had the command at Coimbatoor, was either a relative of Lord Cornwallis, or an officer of high rank. On being told the contrary, he asked him if he should not see his lordship on his return to the camp. To this question, Lieutenant Chalmers was able to answer in the affirmative, and Tippoo put into his hand a letter, telling him that it was on the subject of peace, and even begging him to assist in obtaining it. The letter attempted to justify the treatment of the garrison, by asserting, contrary to fact, that Kummer-u-Deen had not engaged to liberate them, but only promised to recommend their liberation. Lord Cornwallis, while he denied the truth of this statement, and upbraided Tippoo with the notorious fact that the garrison were kept in irons, agreed, with the concurrence of the representatives of the Nizam and the Mahrattas, to receive the envoy. One cannot help wishing that, before this concession was made, the liberation not only of the garrison but of all the other prisoners unlawfully detained, had been insisted on as an essential preliminary. By the treaty of Mangalore, every European prisoner then in Mysore ought to have been delivered up, and yet it was perfectly well known that numbers of prisoners whose release was thus stipulated for were pining in its dungeons. Some indeed had been freed from misery by the atrocious assassinations already described, but others, including several whom Suffrein, the French admiral, had infamously consigned to the tender mercies of Hyder, were still alive. The fact was indisputable, for not only had some who had recently escaped from Chitteldroog revealed the horrors of the prison-house in which their companions were still detained, but in Shahar Ganjaum, on its capture only two days before, besides a considerable proportion of the garrison of Coimbatoor, twenty-seven European captives, some of them Suffrein’s victims, had been discovered and set at liberty. Antecedent therefore to the least concession to such a faithless barbarian as Tippoo, he ought to have been made to understand that nothing but the instant release of every prisoner unlawfully detained could avert or delay the ruin evidently impending over him.

Only a few hours before releasing Lieutenant Chalmers, Tippoo had entered upon a scheme which seemed to promise a termination of the war by a speedier process than negotiation. The head-quarters of Lord Cornwallis, known by its distinguishing flag, was placed a little to the left in the rear of Carigat Hill. The situation being somewhat exposed, it seemed possible to make a dash at it and slay his lordship. This project, which, from the circumstances in which it was undertaken, can only be considered as a meditated assassination, was to be carried out by the corps known as the stable horse or guards. On the morning of the 8th of February, the very day, it will be observed, on which Lieutenant Chalmers, doubtless to lull suspicion, was sent with his letter, Tippoo called the principal officers of the corps into his presence, and harangued them on the importance of the enterprise, and the glory they would acquire by terminating the war at a single stroke. All they had to do was to rid him of one individual. The officers pledged themselves not to return till they had done the deed, and retired after receiving the betel from Tippoo’s own hand. Setting out with their detachment, they proceeded down the river and crossed at Arikera; on the 9th they waited to receive further reports from their spies; at dawn of the 10th, their selected advanced guard penetrated between the camp of the Nizam and the British, but attracted no notice, as they were supposed to be Nizam’s troops. After lounging on, they approached the park of artillery, and inquired with seeming indifference at some gun-lascars for the tent of the burra saheb, or commander. Supposing Colonel Duff the commandant of artillery to be meant, the lascars pointed to his tent, and in an instant the horsemen with drawn swords were rushing at it in full gallop. The atrocity was so stupidly managed, that even before they reached the tent supposed to be that of the commander-in-chief, they were fired upon by a small body of sepoys, and obliged to save themselves by flight. Taking this attempt in connection with the one made during the previous campaign at Bangalore, Lord Cornwallis, who had hitherto used only two sentries, native troopers from his body guard, was prevailed on to allow a captain’s guard to mount every night over his tent.

While consenting to the proposed negotiation, it was determined to prosecute the siege, and with this view, General Abercromby, again at Periapatam with an effective force of 6000 men, was ordered to advance. He accordingly, on the 11th of February, crossed the Cauvery at Eratora, about thirty miles above Seringapatam, was met by Colonel Floyd with the cavalry on the 14th, at Caniambaddy, and joined the camp on the 16th. Meanwhile, materials for the siege, obtained chiefly by the destruction of the large and beautiful garden of Lall Baug at the eastern extremity of the island, were industriously provided. The point selected for the principal attack was the northern face near the western angle, a little above which General Abercromby crossed on the 19th, for the purpose of establishing the requisite enfilade. A vigorous attempt to impede his further progress failed, and the siege continued to advance. It is needless, however, to enter into details, as Tippoo’s speedy acceptance of the terms offered him put an end to hostilities. His vakeels or deputies, Gholaum Ali and Ali Reza, arrived in the British camp on the 14th of February, and were met by Sir John Kennaway on the part of the British, Meer Alum on the part of the Nizam, and an individual well acquainted with matters of revenue deputed by Hurry Punt on the part of the Mahrattas. There cannot be a doubt that Seringapatam was now at the mercy of the confederates, and that therefore the ultimatum which they offered on the 22d was not so rigorous as the circumstances would have justified. It consisted of the following five articles:—“I. One half of the dominions of which Tippoo Sultan was in possession before the war to be ceded to the allies from the countries adjacent according to their situation. II. Three crores and thirty lacs of rupees (£3,300,000) to be paid by Tippoo Sultan, either in gold mohurs, pagodas, or bullion—1st. One crore and sixty-five lacs to be paid immediately. 2d. One crore and sixty-five lacs to be paid in three payments, not exceeding four months each. III. All prisoners of the four powers from the time of Hyder Ali to be unequivocally restored. IV. Two of Tippoo Sultan’s three eldest sons to be given as hostages for a due performance of the treaty. V. When they shall arrive in camp with the articles of this treaty under the seal of the Sultan, a counterpart shall be sent from the three powers: Hostilities shall cease, and terms of a treaty of alliance and perpetual friendship shall be adjusted.”

On the 23rd, Tippoo assembled the principal officers of his army in the great mosque, and after swearing them on the Koran to give him their undisguised advice, read to them the above ultimatum, and then asked, “Shall it be peace or war?” The answer was in substance, that the troops had become disheartened and unworthy of confidence. The preliminary articles sealed by Tippoo were sent in the course of the day to Lord Cornwallis, who did not insist on their delivery by the hostages, and while granting them a delay of two days, ordered hostilities to cease on the following morning. This order was received in the British camp with feelings bordering on indignation, and the soldiers in the trenches could scarcely be restrained from continuing their work. Lord Cornwallis endeavoured to soothe their feelings by his general orders, in which he spoke of the conditions as “highly honourable and advantageous,” and “in consideration of the uncommon valour and firmness that has been manifested by the officers and soldiers of the king’s and Company’s troops during the whole course of the war,” announced his “intention to take upon himself to order a handsome gratuity to be distributed to them in the same proportions as prize-money from the sum that Tippoo has bound himself by one of the articles to pay to the Company.

There is said to have been a sad scene in the harem at parting with the boys who were to be sent out as hostages. Hyder Sahib, Tippoo’s eldest son, was, or at least was alleged to be, absent with the troops, and the two fixed upon were Abdul Kalick, about ten, and Mooza-u-Deen, about eight years of age. Lord Cornwallis had instructed the vakeels to say that he would wait upon the princes as soon as they came to their tents, but Tippoo, in a very polite answer, after assuring his lordship that he had “the most perfect confidence in his honour,” begged that he would “allow them to be brought to his tent, and delivered into his own hands.” On the 26th they left the fort under a salute, which was repeated by twenty-one guns from the British artillery. They were each seated in a silver howdah on a richly caparisoned elephant, and attended by the vakeels and several other persons of rank, also on elephants. The procession was led by several camel hircarras and seven standard-bearers, followed by 100 pikemen with spears inlaid with silver. A guard of 200 sepoys and a party of horse brought up the rear. Lord Cornwallis, attended by his staff and some of the principal officers of the army, met the princes at the door of his large tent, and after embracing them, led them in by the hand. When they were seated, one on each side of him, Gholaum Ali thus addressed him: “These children were this morning the sons of the Sultan, my master; their situation is now changed, and they must now look up to your lordship as their father.” When his lordship declared that the greatest care would be taken of their persons, and every possible attention shown them, their faces brightened up, and told that their fears, if they had any, were already removed. They were dressed in long white muslin gowns and red turbans. Round their necks hung several rows of large pearls, and an ornament consisting of a large ruby and emerald surrounded by brilliants; in their turbans they wore a sprig of rich pearls. The elder boy had a dark complexion, thick lips, a small flattish nose, and a long countenance; the younger was remarkably fair, and had regular features, a small round face, large full eyes, and a countenance less thoughtful, but more animated than his brother’s. His lordship presented each of them with a handsome gold watch, with which they seemed much pleased. The next day, the 27th, Lord Cornwallis visited them at their tents, attended by Sir John Kennaway and the vakeels of the Nizam and the Mahrattas.

The adjustment of the definite articles now occupied the attention of Sir John Kennaway and the other vakeels. The extent of the cessions depended on the whole amount of the Mysore revenue, and the value of the particular portions to be ceded. In settling these, some delay was caused by the discussion of conflicting statements, but no decided misunderstanding arose till Tippoo perceived that Coorg was inserted in the schedules as part of the Company’s share. Becoming almost frantic with rage, he asked, “To which of the English possessions is Coorg adjacent? Why do they not ask for the key of Seringapatam? They knew that I would have died in the breach sooner than consent to such a cession, and durst not bring it forward until they had treacherously obtained possession of my children and my treasure (a crore of rupees, £1,000,000 sterling, had already been paid).” Nothing certainly could be more groundless than this charge of overreaching, but there is some reason to regret that the very possibility of making such a charge was not prevented by a distinct stipulation in favour of the Rajah of Coorg. The faithful and valuable services he had rendered entitled him to this honour, and his protection ought not to have been left to depend on the interpretation of a dubious article. At the same time, it is plain that Tippoo, however much he may have thirsted for vengeance on the rajah, never could have imagined that he would be left to his mercy. Strictly speaking, when the ultimatum was signed, Coorg was not adjacent to any of the Company’s territories, but the moment Malabar, in accordance with Tippoo’s own wish, was made part of the British share, Coorg did become adjacent, and therefore, in including it, neither the spirit nor the letter of the ultimatum was violated.

Whether Tippoo’s surprise, when he learned that Coorg was to be taken from him, was real or affected, it is certain that he began immediately after to act as if he had determined to resume hostilities. Immense bodies of men were seen at work on a retrenchment on the face of the fort which had been attacked. When remonstrated with on this violation of the armistice, he had the hardhood to deny a fact which was perfectly visible to both armies. His vakeels also began to procrastinate, and managed to spin out the negotiation to the middle of March. By this time the position of Lord Cornwallis was greatly changed for the worse. The materials prepared for the siege, having been brought from the Lall Baug, were chiefly of the cypress tree, and from having been long made up, had become so dry, brittle, and inflammable as to be unfit for use. A new stock could only be obtained by a long and difficult transport. The camp, too, was sickly, and the season soon arriving at the worst would probably so fill the hospitals as scarcely to leave a sufficient number of effective men for the siege. These facts seem to have burst on Lord Cornwallis all at once, and he despatched fair copies of a treaty to Tippoo, leaving him only a few hours to decide on the alternative of signing or recommencing hostilities. On an attempted evasion, the hostages were moved preparatory to their departure for Coromandel, and their military guard were made prisoners. The vakeels at first blustered, then entreated, and at last, on the 18th of March, returned with the treaty duly signed and sealed. On the following day, the forms of delivery and interchange were publicly concluded.

In arranging the division of the ceded territory among the confederates, the stipulations in the treaties of 1790, which gave exclusive right to the British of all they captured before the others took the field, and to the Mahratta of all that Hyder had wrested from them, were disregarded, and the shares were allotted on the principle of perfect equality. The revenue of the whole territory ceded was estimated at 3,950,098 pagodas, or 11,850,294 rupees, equal to £1,185,029. Each share thus amounted to £395,009. The Mahratta acquisitions were situated to the north and west of the Toombudra, and adjoined their previous territories immediately south of the Kistna, making their frontier nearly the same as it had been in 1779. The Nizam’s acquisitions bounded with those of the Mahrattas on the west, where a considerable tract on both sides of the Toombudra was received; another still larger tract lay farther to the east, extending along both banks of the Penaar, and north as far as the Kistna. The British acquisitions consisted of three distinct tracts, two of them on the east, and the third on the west. The most northerly of the eastern tracts commenced near Amboor, and stretched south to the vicinity of Caroor; on the west it was bounded partly by the Eastern Ghauts, which brought it to the table-land of Mysore, and partly by the Cauvery. Within this tract lay the Baramahal and some important fortresses, together with the chief passes through which the incursions into the Carnatic had hitherto been made. The lesser and more southerly of the eastern tracts included the fort of Dindigul, and the districts connected with it. The acquisitions of the west comprehended a large extent of the Malabar coast, including the ports of Cananore and Calicut, and the whole territory of the Rajah of Coorg, thus giving access to the table-land of Mysore on the west, in the same way as the other acquisitions gave access to it on the east.

The terms of the treaty made with Tippoo have been much criticised on different and even opposite grounds, some maintaining that far too much, and others that far too little was exacted. The former, assuming the possibility of forcing European ideas into India politics, dream of a kind of a balance of power, by means of which Tippoo, the Nizam, and the Mahrattas were to check and counter-check each other, and prevent any one from becoming so great as to endanger the territories of the Company. In accordance with this view Tippoo’s territories are represented as a kind of barrier, which the Company instead of weakening ought rather to have strengthened. Unquestionably, had Tippoo been a faithful and attached ally, and not the inveterate enemy of the Company, it might have been good policy to keep him strong. But in this instance the theory, so far from being based on facts, only contradicts them. Under Hyder the Company had more than once been brought to the brink of ruin, and there cannot be a doubt that Tippoo, though fortunately not possessed of his father’s talents, was bent on following, and did in fact take the first opportunity of following in his father’s steps. So far, therefore, from being available as a barrier against the Mahrattas, he was far more to be feared than they, and nothing but the curtailment of his power could prevent him from employing it for the injury, and if possible for the ruin of the Company. Those, on the other hand, who think that the terms given to Tippoo were too favourable, allow themselves to be hurried away by a just detestation of his personal character, and overlook the fact that the dictation of more humiliating terms, if not inexpedient, might have proved impracticable. Seringapatam, though apparently destined to fall, was not yet taken, and besides the visible obstacles which remained to be surmounted, many still unseen might have arisen and completely changed the aspect of affairs. Sickness was spreading in the camp, and the season was not yet at its worst. The allies, too, while determined to have a full share of the profits of victory, had as yet done scarcely anything to contribute to it. They were not only lukewarm, but suspected of being ready to change sides if a sufficient temptation were offered. In fact, it was afterwards ascertained that the representative of one of them was actually in treacherous correspondence with the enemy. Many other reasons made an early but honourable termination of the war extremely desirable. The directors were urging it in every letter from home; the legislature, not satisfied with a resolution denouncing conquest in India, had embodied the denunciation in an act of parliament, and in this had carried public opinion decidedly along with them; and the French revolution had brought Europe into such a state, that it was impossible to say how soon every soldier lent by the king to the Company might be absolutely required for other battle-fields. Lord Cornwallis had from the first declared, that he “would suffer no prospects, however brilliant, to postpone for an hour that most desirable event—a general peace,” and that he would be satisfied with such concessions as “would put it out of the enemy’s power to disturb the peace of India in future.” The extent of the concessions necessary to curb such a ferocious and ambitious tyrant as Tippoo could not easily be estimated, and future events seem to show that his lordship had rather underrated them; but on a review of all the circumstances, impartial judges will readily concede that he fairly and modestly characterized the treaty, when, announcing it in a letter to Mr. Dundas, he said, “We have at length concluded our Indian war handsomely, and I think as advantageously as any reasonable person could expect. We have effectually crippled our enemy without making our friends too formidable.”

In the beginning of April, Lord Cornwallis, accompanied by the two hostage princes, who were not to be delivered up till Tippoo’s obligations under the treaty were performed, commenced his march homewards. Before he finally parted with Hurry Punt and Azim-ul-Omrah or Meer Alum, the respective representatives of the Mahrattas and the Nizam, they both endeavoured to sound him as to the kind and extent of interference which the Company would be disposed to exercise in the event of any misunderstanding between their governments. The Mahrattas, who had long wished to make the Nizam their prey, were anxious to know how far they might proceed in their ambitious projects, and were moreover desirous of possessing, like the Nizam, a subsidiary force of Company troops at their disposal. Hurry Punt, acting nominally for the peishwa, but really for Nana Furnavese, showed, without actually avowing it, that the object contemplated by such a force was to curb and overawe several of their own chiefs, and particularly Scindia, who had already acquired a kind of independence, and was suspected of a design to seat himself at Pobnah.

The Nizam, on the other hand, was trembling for his dominions, because he knew that if left to struggle unaided with the Mahrattas he would be completely overmatched. Lord Cornwallis thus consulted could only answer vaguely, that the Company would always be ready to interpose their good offices, and mediate between the parties with the view of obtaining an amicable settlement. Farther than this he could not go without entering into a new treaty, a proceeding from which, as peace had been re-established, he was precluded by act of parliament. There was, however, another case to which the legislative prohibition did not apply. By the 13th article of the confederacy of 1790, it was provided that, “if after the conclusion of the peace with Tippoo, he should molest or attack either of the contracting parties, the other shall join to punish him; the mode and conditions of effecting which shall be hereafter settled by the three contracting parties.” This article was still in force, and Lord Cornwallis declared his readiness to convert the conditional stipulation contained in it into an explicit treaty of guarantee. This did not suit the policy of the Mahrattas, who preferred to leave everything open, so as that they might have full scope for taking advantage of contingencies, and hence, after some time wasted in negotiation, they positively refused to concur in the kind of guarantee which Lord Cornwallis had proposed. But the aversion of the Mahrattas to the guarantee was the very ground on which the Nizam desired to obtain it, and he argued with great appearance of justice, that the failure of one of three contracting parties to fulfil a common obligation could not render the obligation null, or justify the violation of it by the other two parties. Not only had he an express right under the treaty to a guarantee against Tippoo, but the letter which he had received from Lord Cornwallis before he consented to sign the treaty was equivalent to a guarantee against the Mahrattas also. It is difficult to answer this argument, and it must therefore be confessed, that when the Nizam obtained nothing more than a vague assurance that the English government would always be ready to act according to existing treaties, Lord Cornwallis rather evaded than fulfilled a subsisting obligation.

Lord Cornwallis arrived at Madras in the end of May, 1792, and was not much satisfied with what he saw. In a confidential letter to Mr. Dundas he writes: “I must confess that I do not observe any material improvement that has been made, and that I see no flattering prospect. Sir Charles Oakley, though not a very capable man, is, I believe, the best of all the civil servants of this establishment that could have been selected to fill the station of governor, and yet you may rest assured that he will never possess sufficient authority, or make any radical reform.” The great defect was, in his opinion, not so much in the men as in the system. Governors had hitherto been usually selected from the Company’s service, and to this he objected in the most decided terms: “It is very difficult,” he says, “for a man to divest himself of the prejudices which the habits of twenty years have confirmed, and to govern people who have lived with him so long on a footing of equality. But the Company’s servants have still greater obstacles to encounter when they become governors; for the wretched policy of the Company has, till the late alterations took place in Bengal, invariably driven all their servants to the alternative of starving, or of taking what was not their own; and although some have been infinitely less guilty in this respect than others, the world will not tamely submit to be reformed by those who have practised it in the smallest degree.” In the course of the letter he returns to this subject and adds, “What I have said about governors is equally applicable to Bombay, and still more to the supreme government, which I hope never again to see in the hands of a Company’s servant.” It is not unworthy of notice, that at this very time, though he did not know it, the directors had appointed a Company’s servant to succeed him as governor-general. The soundness of his opinion, however, in so far as relates to the supreme government, has since been practically recognized, though he overlooked a very important distinction when he applied it indiscriminately to all the presidencies. Admitting that long residence, and the local connections thereby formed, make it inexpedient to appoint a Company’s servant governor of the presidency in which he has served, why should it disqualify him for holding that office in other presidencies? Surely, other things being equal, the experience of twenty years’ faithful service in Bengal might be the best of all qualifications for the office of governor at Madras or Bombay.

Before quitting Madras, Lord Cornwallis availed himself of the opportunity of personal intercourse with Mahomed Ali, to make a new arrangement with him. The directors had called his attention specially to the subject, and the nabob himself was complaining that, in the arrangement made with Sir Archibald Campbell in 1787, he had promised more than he was able to perform. By this latter arrangement, four-fifths of the nabob’s revenues were to be paid to the Company as his proportion in time of war; nine lacs as the expense of the civil and military establishments, together with twelve lacs to his creditors, were to be his payments in time of peace. It looked as if the nabob had entered into this arrangement merely to break it. Some securities for payment had been taken, but these proved unavailing, and the war with Tippoo had no sooner commenced than arrears began to accumulate so rapidly as to leave the Company no alternative but to take the management entirely into their own hands. The nabob as usual strenuously opposed, and even threw obstacles in the way of the Company’s collectors. Of course, the moment the war ceased he claimed the right of resuming his own management, or rather of handing over the management to the numerous harpies who were constantly preying upon him. Such was the state of matters when Lord Cornwallis endeavoured to place them on a better footing. He was perfectly satisfied that the true plan would have been for the nabob to invest the entire management permanently, during peace as well as war, in the Company, reserving a liberal portion of the revenues for the maintenance of his family and dignity, and allotting the rest to the general defence and the liquidation of debt. This plan, however, the nabob at once rejected, and as the time had not yet arrived for forcing his assent, it only remained to provide the best possible substitute for it that could be obtained by persuasion. Accordingly an agreement, styled rather grandiloquently a treaty, was concluded on the 12th of July, 1792. It annulled all former agreements, gave the Company the sole management of the revenues in time of war, with the power of employing four-fifths of them in defraying its expenses, and reserved the management to the nabob in time of peace, but bound him to pay nine lacs of pagodas annually to the Company for the military establishment, and six lacs twenty-one thousand one hundred and five pagodas annually to creditors. The polygars were in future to pay their tribute directly to the Company, who were on this account to credit the nabob annually with a sum of rather more than two and a half lacs of pagodas; and in the event of failure of payment on the nabob’s part, the Company were to enter into the possession of certain specified districts, and continue in it till all arrears were discharged. This agreement being only a compromise, could not be regarded as a perfect remedy, and the utmost that Lord Cornwallis ventured to say in favour of its provisions, was to express a hope that they would prove “well adapted to protect the Company against pecuniary losses and disappointments from the nabob in future, and to promote in an essential degree the quiet and general prosperity of the country.” Referring to the same subject in a letter to Mr. Dundas he says, “I have at length settled everything with the nabob, and I believe in the best manner that it could have been done, unless we had kept possession of the country; but that point could only have been carried by force; without the least shadow of reason or justice, and was therefore not to be attempted.” On the 28th of July, 1792, Lord Cornwallis returned to Bengal. Before this time his successful termination of the war was known in England, and it was determined to bestow the first instalment of his reward by conferring upon him the title of Marquis. Immediately on his arrival he resumed a subject which had long occupied his thoughts, and with which he was busily engaged when the Mysore war commenced. This was the important subject of financial and judicial reform.

During the first five years of Mr. Hastings’ administration, the revenues were collected and paid by farmers, who had for the most part obtained their leases as the highest bidders at public auction. Many of these farmers being mere adventurers, not only displaced the old collectors who, holding the office by hereditary right, had with their families been long connected with the lands, and were thus connected with them by many other ties than those of pecuniary interest, but practised all sorts of extortion on the ryots or cultivators. Under such a system it was impossible that the country could prosper. It was at the time only beginning to recover from a dreadful famine, and when this new instrument of oppression was added, threatened in many districts to return to a state of nature. Before the leases for five years expired, Mr. Hastings, though not willing to acknowledge the failure of a system which he plumed himself on having originated, could not shut his eyes to the misery which it had spread, and the enormous defalcations which had arisen under it; and he therefore proposed a new plan, of which the leading feature was that the lands, or rather the revenue exigible by government from the lands, should be “farmed out on leases for life, or for two joint lives, to such responsible persons as shall offer the most advantageous terms, allowing a preference to the zemindars, provided they have attained the age of eighteen years, if their offers are equal or nearly equal to those of others, or if they are equal to what the council shall judge to be the real value of the lands.” As these leases were renewable to heirs on the same terms as before, or on a new valuation which was never to be less than the former valuation, and never more than ten per cent. above it, this was to all intents and purposes a permanent settlement. The zemindar in possession could not be ousted so long as he paid the fixed rent, and his heirs could immediately on his death enter into possession, either on the same terms or on payment of a fine of limited amount. Where the zemindar declined, or from legal incapacity was unable to accept the terms, he was to receive a pension equal to ten per cent. of the valuation, and when he failed in his payments, the zemindary, or such part of it as might be necessary to cover the deficiency, was to be publicly sold. The only part of the settlement which seems not to have been permanent was that which related to other farmers than zemindars. The minute is not very explicit on the subject, but several passages seem to intimate that, on the expiry of leases held by such farmers, the zemindar, or the heir of the zemindar, who had previously declined, might step in and claim to be preferred on the new arrangement. Mr. Hastings, alluding to this part of his plan, says, “It might be resolved that no proposal should be received from any persons but the zemindars themselves,” and then makes the following observation: “Leases to farmers on fixed terms for life would interest them in the improvement of the country equally with the zemindars, and in one respect would be more effectual; we mean, by being granted to substantial men who have money of their own to lay out in improvements. The principal argument in favour of the zemindars is, the security arising from the power of selling their lands, when landed property is put on such a footing as to become desirable.” The last sentence in this quotation certainly implies that mere farmers and zemindars were considered as standing on a different footing, and that to the former nothing more than a life interest was to be given.

At the time when the above plan was proposed Mr. Hastings was in a minority, and had the support of only Mr. Barwell, who expressed his approval of the plan by signing the above minute along with him. The other three members of council opposed it, and concurred in a very elaborate minute which Mr. Francis drew up, and at a later period published. As some account of this minute was formerly given, it is here necessary only to mention one or two of its leading features. Assuming zemindars to be proprietors in the European sense of the term, he proposed first to form “an estimate of the permanent services which government must indispensably provide for, under the great heads of civil and military establishments and investment, with an allowance of a reasonable reserve for contingencies,” and then “proportion the whole demand upon the provinces, and fix it for ever.” The quit-rent of each zemindary being fixed, “the zemindar must be informed that the due discharge of his rent is the tenure by which he holds his lands, with every possible assurance that no further demands will be made upon him. If he incurs a balance, a part of his zemindary should be invariably sold to make it good, and when the quit-rent is fixed, there can be no doubt of purchasers.” Somewhat inconsistently, while complaining severely of the excessive amount of revenue previously exacted, Mr. Francis is inclined to think that the average of the three last years might be fairly assumed as the basis of a perpetual quit-rent.

In 1776, Mr. Hastings having, by the death of Colonel Monson, obtained the casting vote in the council, resumed his financial plans, and alleging that, in whatever manner the new settlement might be made, “it will be equally necessary to be previously furnished with accurate states of the real value of the lands, as the grounds on which it is to be constructed,” proposed for this purpose the establishment of a temporary office, “under the conduct of one or two covenanted servants of the Company, assisted by a dewan and other officers.” The control of this office was to be under “the immediate charge” of the governor-general, and the officers, besides the principal business of preparing for “the formation of an equal settlement,” were to direct their attention to points of inquiry that might be “useful to secure to the ryots the perpetual and undisturbed possession of their lands, and to guard them against arbitrary exactions.” Mr. Francis objected to the proposed office, both because, if, according to his own plan, an average of the last three years were to be taken, knowledge of the actual value was superfluous, and might, by exciting suspicion, prove pernicious, and because, in his opinion, inquiry for the protection of the ryot was so far from being necessary that, “in the present state of the country, the ryot has, in fact, the advantage over the zemindar.” Mr. Hastings was not moved by these objections, which, indeed, were more captious than forcible, and the new office, with a full staff of officials, was appointed. When the directors were consulted on the subject, they expressed great “surprise and concern,” that, “after more than seven years’ investigation, information is still so incomplete as to render another innovation (the establishment of the temporary office), still more extraordinary than any of the former, absolutely necessary in order to the formation of a new settlement, and while by no means disapproving” the attempt to obtain further information, if it be necessary, declared “that the conduct of the majority of the council on this occasion (in placing the office under the immediate charge of the governor-general) has been such as must have our utter disapprobation.” The office, though thus denounced, was not abolished, and much valuable information was collected, but no attempt was made to use it for the purpose of forming a new system, and after the expiry of the leases for five years, the land revenue was collected by the most objectionable method of annual settlements.

Such was the state of matters when Lord Cornwallis was appointed governor-general. Before he sailed, the state of the land tenures in India had been the subject of conferences, which he held both with the ministry and the directors, and it was expected that he would be able, shortly after his arrival in India, to establish a permanent settlement. The subject, besides being difficult in itself, was entirely new to him, but he had the advantage on the outward voyage of being introduced to the knowledge of it by one of the ablest of Indian financiers. Mr. John Shore, who, after long service in India, had been appointed to a seat in the Bengal council, sailed in the same vessel with him, and must have had ample opportunity of imparting his stores of knowledge and experience to so apt and diligent a pupil. Hence, when his lordship reached Calcutta, he was rather an adept than a novice, and with the able assistance of his teacher, would not have been guilty of much presumption had he immediately begun to legislate. With characteristic modesty and caution, however, he determined not to commit himself till he could clearly see his way, and therefore, in the meantime, allowed the mode of settlement to continue as he found it. One year subsequent to his lordship’s arrival thus passed away, and when the period for making the revenue arrangements for another year arrived, the governor-general in council thus addressed the directors:—“The acknowledged advantages which must result from concluding a settlement for a long term of years, together with your injunctions for carrying this measure into execution, impressed us with the greatest anxiety for completing it at the commencement of the current year, 1195 or 1788–9; but it was with real reluctance we found ourselves under the necessity of postponing the arrangement till the ensuing year, for the reasons which we have now the honour to submit to you.” The reasons were the voluminous nature of the materials which had unavoidably retarded their completion, the short time which remained for inspection even had they been prepared, and “the serious obstacle to forming a settlement on a permanent plan,” in consequence of “the storms and inundations which had so universally prevailed during the last season.”

It will be observed that the above despatch, though it mentions a “permanent plan,” does not appear to contemplate a settlement for perpetuity, but only one “for a long term of years.” Indeed, in a subsequent part of the despatch, the plan deferred for the above reasons is distinctly spoken of as “the ten years’ settlement in Bengal.” This seems, accordingly, to have been the period originally contemplated. On the 7th of August, 1789, Lord Cornwallis intimated to the directors that he was now prepared to proceed. “The settlement,” he says, “in conformity to your orders, will only be made for ten years certain, with a notification of its being your intention to declare it a perpetual and unalterable assessment of these provinces, if the amount and the principles upon which it has been made shall meet with your approbation.” No doubt appears to have been entertained in any quarter as to the persons with whom the settlement ought to be made. The zemindars proper, and an inferior grade of zemindars called independent talookdars, were held to be the only proprietors of the soil, and it was never suspected that there were individuals, and even whole communities, who disputed, and, if they had had the opportunity, could have successfully contested their right. The term zemindar is not of Hindoo but of Persian origin, and must therefore, in all probability, have been unknown in India till the establishment of Mahometan ascendency. It means landholder, but it does not follow that when it came to be applied to a particular class of persons in India it retained its original and literal signification. The Hindoo village system recognized two headmen—the one the headman of a single village, the other the headman of a district composed of several villages. The latter appears to be the official to whom the name of zemindar was subsequently given. At first he was probably elected by the villagers themselves, and held not only some portion of village land in his own right as a villager, but also a portion allotted to him by his fellow-villagers, under the name of nan-kar or subsistence land, in return for the services he was expected to perform. Subsequently, he was nominated by the government, which, in employing him to collect its revenues within the district, paid him by a percentage on the amount of his collections. He was at once a landholder, in respect of the land which he held in his own name and by grant from his fellow-villagers, and a government official paid by a fee. In course of time, when the office had become hereditary, the distinction between the two kinds of land disappeared, and both the village and the subsistence land belonged to the zemindar as one common property. To this extent and no further he was a landholder, and the villagers, though their individual shares might be of less extent than his, were to all intents as much landholders as he. In his other character of government official, he was no landholder at all, and in paying over the revenue of the district he was merely the hand through which the money passed. The villagers who paid it were neither his tenants nor his vassals. What they paid was paid not to him, but to government through him. A very great blunder, as well as gross injustice, was committed when a settlement was made with zemindars alone, and rights of property, every whit as good as theirs, were completely ignored. The utmost that can be said in excuse is, that in Bengal the village system had been much broken down, and the number of those whose rights were thus wrested from them at one swoop was far less than it would have been if that system had still been in vigour.

While all were agreed that the settlement was to be made with the zemindars, a serious difference of opinion arose as to its duration. Lord Cornwallis, convinced that the benefits anticipated never could be realized unless it was fixed and unalterable, proposed, while concluding only a decennial settlement, to issue a notification that the settlement, though fixed for a limited period, was intended to be perpetual, and would be made so if the directors, on being consulted, should give their sanction. Mr. Shore at first confined his objection to the notification, on the ground that the zemindars would regard it as a promise, and might therefore, should the directors refuse to sanction perpetuity, charge government with a breach of faith. Subsequently he carried his objections much further, and argued that, however desirable perpetuity might be in itself, the idea of it ought, at least for the present, to be abandoned. Notwithstanding the long period which had elapsed since the grant of the dewannee, the information necessary to justify a perpetual settlement had not been obtained, many important points still remained to be elucidated, and the experience of ten years would be required to show how the settlement actually worked. In that time many defects and errors would doubtless be discovered, and nothing therefore could be more rash and impolitic than voluntarily to deprive themselves of the power of correcting them. Lord Cornwallis was not to be diverted from his purpose by these or any similar arguments. He was convinced, as he himself expressed it, in an elaborate minute lodged in answer to Mr. Shore, that “by granting perpetual leases of the lands at a fixed assessment, we shall render our subjects the happiest people in India.” Every delay therefore seemed to him repugnant to the dictates of humanity, and the perpetual settlement, after being conditionally promised in a notification, was finally and irrevocably established throughout the provinces of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, as soon as the sanction of the home authorities arrived. The manner in which this sanction was obtained is graphically described by Mr. Dundas, in a letter dated 17th September, 1792, and received by Lord Cornwallis 2d March, 1793:—

“In your letter,” writes Mr. Dundas, “you allude to the important question of the perpetuity of the decennial settlement, and I have the very great satisfaction to inform you that the same conveyance which carries this, carries out an approbation and confirmation of your sentiments on this subject. It has been longer delayed than I expected, but the delay was unavoidable. Knowing that the directors would not be induced to take it up, so as to consider it with any degree of attention, and knowing that some of the most leading ones among them held an opinion different both from your lordship and me on the subject of perpetuity, and feeling that there was much respect due to the opinion and authority of Mr. Shore, I thought it indispensable necessary both that the measure must originate with the Board of Control, and likewise that I should induce Mr. Pitt to become my partner in the final consideration of so important and controverted a measure. He accordingly agreed to shut himself up with me for ten days at Wimbledon, and attend to that business only. Charles Grant stayed with us a great part of the time. After a most minute and attentive consideration of the whole subject, I had the satisfaction to find Mr. Pitt entirely of the same opinion with us. We therefore settled a despatch upon the ideas we had formed, and sent it down to the court of directors. What I expected happened; the subject was too large for the consideration of the directors in general, and the few who knew anything concerning it, understanding from me that Mr. Pitt and I were decided in our opinions, thought it best to acquiesce, so that they came to a resolution to adopt entirely the despatch as transmitted by me.”

Such is the secret history of this celebrated settlement for perpetuity. Lord Cornwallis urged it, Mr. Dundas cordially seconded him, and after ten days’ closeting, gained the assent of Mr. Pitt. The directors as a body were unwilling as well as unfit to deal with it, and remitted to a committee, who, knowing that the decision was already formed, deemed it unnecessary to go through the farce of deliberating, and simply acquiesced. On the merits of the settlement opinions continued to be divided, but future inquiry has undoubtedly tended to increase the regret that the caution recommended by Mr. Shore was not exercised, and that Lord Cornwallis, led away by the idea that he was restoring the principal landholders “to such circumstances as to enable them to support their families with decency, and to give a liberal education to their children, according to the customs of their respective castes and religions,” and thereby supporting “a regular gradation of ranks,” which “is nowhere more necessary than in this country, for preserving order in civil society,” should have conferred the whole property of the country on a body of men so little entitled to such a preference that Mr. Hastings had put on record the following description of them:—“It is a fact, which will with difficulty obtain credit in England, though the notoriety will justify me in asserting it here, that much the greatest part of the zemindars, both of Bengal and Behar, are incapable of judging or acting for themselves, being either minors, or men of weak understanding, or absolute idiots.”

The judicial establishments next engaged the serious attention of Lord Cornwallis. Their numerous defects were well known, and the directors, in the instructions which they gave him on the subject, furnished a kind of plan, in the formation of which they stated that “they had been actuated by the necessity of accommodating their views and interests to the subsisting manners and usages of the people, rather than by any abstract theories drawn from other countries, or applicable to a different state of things.” Before the passing of the Regulating Act, the councils of the different presidencies had not interfered much with the administration of justice among the natives. In Bengal, in particular, the collection of the revenue chiefly occupied their attention, and the administration of justice, when the revenue was not immediately concerned, was considered as lying beyond their province. The subject had, however, been gradually rising in importance, and when the Company had once determined to stand forth in their own names to manage the dewannee, it was soon perceived that the collection of the revenue was so intimately connected with the other departments of government, that it would be impossible to keep them separate. Accordingly, the Regulating Act, by its 36th section, gave power to “the governor-general and council of the said united Company’s settlement at Fort William in Bengal, from time to time to make and issue such rules, ordinances, and regulations for the good order and civil government of the said Company’s settlement at Fort William aforesaid, and other factories and places subordinate, or to be subordinate thereto, as shall be deemed just and reasonable (such rules, ordinances, and regulations not being repugnant to the laws of the realm), and to set, impose, inflict, and levy reasonable fines and forfeitures for the breach or non-observance of such rules, ordinances, and regulations.” Mr. Hastings devoted some attention to the subject, and, as has been already explained, established two courts in each collectorate—a civil, called the dewannee adawlut, and a criminal, called the fougedary adawlut—and also two superior or sudder courts, which sat at Calcutta, chiefly for the purpose of hearing appeals. In 1780 the constitution of these courts was abruptly changed by the corrupt bargain which placed Sir Elijah Impey at the head of the sudder dewannee adawlut, in order to induce him to withdraw the extravagant claims to jurisdiction which had been made by the supreme court at Calcutta, and threatened to goad the natives into rebellion. Some other changes were made, and various regulations framed, but nothing like a general and uniform system existed till Lord Cornwallis tried to introduce it.

The first judicial changes which took place after the arrival of Lord Cornwallis did not originate with him. They were contained in the instructions which he received, and made changes of a kind which could scarcely have commanded his approval, as he afterwards saw occasion to recall them. The directors ordered that the provincial civil courts, which had been withdrawn from the superintendence of the collectors, should be again placed under it, and that criminal justice should continue to be administered by Mahometan judges. As soon as his lordship’s judicial reforms were matured, he entirely disconnected the collectors with judicial proceedings, and by abolishing the office of naib nazim, assumed for the Company the criminal, as they had previously assumed the civil jurisdiction over the whole country. In depriving the collectors of all judicial powers, and “confining their duties and functions to the mere collection of the public dues,” the governor-general and his council state that they had proceeded on a maxim, the soundness of which cannot be disputed, that “when the power to redress oppressions, and functions that must always have a tendency to promote or screen the commission of them, are united in the same person, a strict adherence to the principles of justice cannot be expected, and still less can it be hoped that the people will feel a confidence of obtaining justice.” In future, therefore, revenue was to be placed in the same category as other causes, and decided in the ordinary courts. Of these courts, as now constituted, a very brief account must be given.

Adopting the usual division of courts into civil and criminal, and commencing with the former, we find at the very base of the whole judicial system a species of small debt courts spread over the country, and fixed wherever the population seemed so numerous as to require them. These courts were limited to causes in which the pecuniary amount did not exceed fifty rupees, and were presided over by native commissioners, who received no salaries, but were paid by a fee of an ana per rupee, or a sixteenth of the sum claimed. Next in order were the zillah or district, and the city courts, possessed of jurisdiction within the limits of the respective districts and cities in which they were established, and entitled to take cognizance of all civil causes, of whatever nature and of whatever amount. A single judge, a covenanted servant of the Company, with a Mahometan and Hindoo assessor, presided in these courts; the only other principal official was a registrar, also a covenanted servant, who, in order to relieve the business of the court, had a primary jurisdiction in all causes not exceeding 200 rupees. All the officers of government were made amenable to these courts for acts done in their official capacities, and even government itself, in cases in which it might be a party with its subjects in matters of property. No British subject, except covenanted servants and king’s officers, was to be permitted to reside within the jurisdiction of these courts, “without entering into a bond” to be amenable to them in all civil causes brought against him by natives; but the legality of this proceeding was more than questionable, as the legislature had previously provided that British subjects were to be amenable only to the supreme court at Calcutta. Above the zillah and city courts were four provincial courts, established in Patna, Dacca, Moorshedabad, and Calcutta. These courts had a primary jurisdiction within certain limits, but their chief business was to decide on appeal from the zillah and city courts. This decision, in all cases of real or personal property not exceeding a certain amount, was final, but in cases above that amount might be reviewed, as the minute of Lord Cornwallis expresses it, by “the supreme board as a court of appeal in the last resort, in their capacity of a court of sudder dewannee adawlut.” Each provincial court consisted of three judges, all covenanted servants, a registrar, with one or more assistants, also covenanted, and three assessors—a cazi, a muftee, and a pundit. The decision of the sudder dewannee adawlut was final in all causes under 50,000 rupees, but in those exceeding this sum the Act 21 Geo. III c. 70 gave an appeal to the king in council.

The criminal courts were practically composed of the same judges as those of the civil courts. Thus, the zillah and city judges were appointed to act as magistrates within their respective jurisdictions. In like manner, the judges of the provincial courts were to hold courts of circuits within their respective divisions, the senior judge going the circuit of one half of the stations, and the other two judges the circuit of the other half. By this means there were two annual jail-deliveries in the country; by another arrangement, a jail-delivery every month was secured in towns. In the land settlement, the zemindars were taken bound to keep the peace, and made responsible for robberies and thefts within their limits. This revival of ancient usage soon proved unavailing, and the police establishments of the zemindars were abolished, in order to make way for a system of police conducted under the direct authority of government. For this purpose, the zillah magistrates were instructed to divide their districts into police jurisdictions. Each of these, averaging about twenty miles square, was committed to a durogah or native superintendent, with a suitable staff of officers under him. In cities, the extent of the jurisdiction and the number of officers was determined of course by the population.

While establishing courts for the administration of justice, Lord Cornwallis did not overlook the law according to which it was to be administered, but though aware how much both the Hindoo and Mahometan codes stood in need of reform, he saw the necessity of touching them with a sparing hand. The utmost which he ventured to do, was to order the admission of evidence in certain cases where the religion of the witness was the only ground for rejecting it; to prevent the escape of a murderer, merely because the heirs of the murdered person chose rather to compound with the criminal than to prosecute him; and to abolish the barbarous punishment of mutilation. There is still, however, another branch of judicial reform, in respect of which the administration of Lord Cornwallis is entitled to special and honourable notice. We allude to the complete code of regulations, which not only explained every part of the new judicial system introduced, but was made patent to all who were interested in it, by being printed and published both in the original English, and in translations for the use of the natives. The code so printed and published, was declared to be the standard by which the courts of judicature should be guided, and an important check was thus provided against arbitrary and irresponsible proceedings. The best proof of the intrinsic merit of the code is, that it was used almost without change by several subsequent administrations, but it cannot be out of place to give the testimony of so competent a witness as Sir William Jones. He was then a judge in the supreme court at Calcutta, and Lord Cornwallis had sent the regulations to him with a letter, in which he said:—“I take the liberty of sending the fougedary propositions, according to your obliging permission, and earnestly request that you will use no ceremony with them, but scratch out and alter every part that you do not approve.” Sir William returned the papers with this answer: “The adjournment of the court having given me a whole day of leisure, I have spent the morning in reading with great attention your lordship’s minute on the administration of criminal justice in the provinces, and in perusing the papers which accompany it. I read them all with my pen in my hand, intending to write without reserve all objections that might occur to me; but I found nothing to which I could object, and did not meet with a single paragraph to which, if I were a member of the council, I would not heartily express my assent.” After two short verbal criticisms, he adds: “These are trifling remarks, but I cannot start one serious objection, and think the whole minute unexceptionably just, wise, and benevolent.” It is but fair to mention that, though Lord Cornwallis had the merit of adopting this minute, and probably also of suggesting much that it contains, it is understood to have been drawn up by Mr. (afterwards Sir) George Barlow.

As the Company’s charter was about to expire in 1794, Lord Cornwallis was consulted by the ministry as to the future arrangements. Their original intention was, to make a complete separation between the commercial and the other departments, leaving the former entirely to the Company, and appropriating the latter entirely to the government. His lordship was decidedly opposed to this plan, because he was “perfectly convinced, that if the fostering aid and protection, and what is full as important, the check and control of the governments abroad were withdrawn from the commercial department, the Company would not long enjoy their new charter, but must very soon be reduced to a state of actual bankruptcy.” He was not surprised that “the vexatious and interested contradictions” experienced from the court of directors, had made ministers “desirous of taking as much of the business as possible out of their hands;” but still he thought it would be wiser “to tie their hands from doing material mischief, without meddling with their imperial dignity or their power of naming writers, and not to encounter the furious clamour that will be raised against annexing the patronage of India to the influence of the crown, except in cases of the most absolute necessity.” A court of directors “under certain restrictions, and when better constituted, might,” he thought, “prove an useful check on the ambitious or corrupt designs of some future minister;” but in order to enable them “to do this negative good, or to prevent their doing much positive evil, they should have a circumscribed management of the whole, and not a permission to ruin uncontrolled the commercial advantages which Britain should derive from her Asiatic territories.” It might be said, “If the Company cannot carry on the trade, throw it open to all adventurers.” “To that mode,” says his lordship, “I should have still greater objections, as it would render it very difficult for government to prevent this unfortunate country from being overrun by desperate speculators from all parts of the British dominions.” Notwithstanding this bugbear which frightened most of the statesmen of his time, he saw no objection to the entire opening of the export trade from Britain to India. The directors, he thought, might be advantageously reduced to twelve or nine, and “if handsome salaries could be attached to those situations,” he “should be clear for adopting means for their being prohibited from having an interest directly or indirectly in contracts, or in any commercial transactions whatever, in which the Company may have the smallest concern.” His reason for making these suggestions is well expressed in the following passage:—“The present court of directors is so numerous, and the responsibility for public conduct which falls to the share of each individual is so small, that it can have no great weight with any of them, and the participation in a profitable contract, or the means of serving friends or providing for relations, must always more than compensate to them for the loss that they may sustain by any fluctuation which may happen in the market price of the stock which constitutes their qualifications.” In regard to the military arrangement, he was “clearly of opinion, that the European troops should all belong to the king, for experience has shown that the Company cannot keep up an efficient force in India; this,” he adds, “is a fact so notorious, that no military man who has been in this country will venture to deny it, and I do not care how strongly I am quoted as an authority for it.”

His lordship’s views on the whole subject are thus summed up: “As the new system will only take place when the rights of the present Company cease, you cannot be charged with a violation of charters, and the attacks of the opposition in parliament will therefore be confined to an examination of its expediency and efficacy; I fancy I need hardly repeat to you that they would above all things avail themselves of any apparent attempt on your part to give an increase of patronage to the crown, which could not be justified on the soundest constitutional principles, or on the ground of evident necessity, and would make use of it to misrepresent your intentions and principles, and to endeavour to inflame the minds of the nation against you. An addition of patronage to the crown, to a certain degree, will however, in my opinion, be not only a justifiable measure, but absolutely necessary for the future good government of this country. But, according to my judgment, a renewal of the Company’s charter for the management of the territorial revenues and the commerce of India for a limited time (for instance, ten or fifteen years), and under such stipulations as it may be thought proper to annex as conditions, would be the wisest foundation for your plan, both for your own sakes as ministers, and as being best calculated for securing the greatest possible advantages to Britain from her Indian possessions, and least likely to injure the essential principles of our constitution.” The above extracts are taken from a letter written to Mr. Dundas in 1790, and therefore it is right to mention that two years later, when offended at some obnoxious appointments and proceedings, he wrote to him as follows:—“If the court of directors cannot be controlled, I retract my opinion in favour of their continuance after the expiration of the charter. But I must confess that I cannot help believing that those orders, so degrading to our government, and some of them so slighting to myself, could not have found their way to India, if the Board of Control had not been too much occupied with other matters to have paid proper attention to them.”

The above opinions concerning the renewal of the Company’s charter are creditable to Lord Cornwallis as a statesman. In none of them was he behind, in some of them he was in advance of his age, and the length at which we have quoted them is justified by the fact, that they not only changed the views of ministers in regard to the mode of renewing the charter, but contained the germ of much future legislation. By an act passed 19th June, 1793, and now ranking as 33 Geo. III. c. 52, several previous statutes affecting the Company were consolidated, and the exclusive trade, as well as the management of the territorial revenues, was continued to them for twenty-four years, from the 1st of March, 1794, but “liable to be discontinued at or after the end of such period, upon three years’ notice previously given by parliament for that purpose.” Among the other new provisions, the most important were the power given to his majesty to pay the commissioners of the board such salaries as he should think fit, “provided always that the whole of the salaries to be paid to the members of the said board shall not exceed the sum of £5000 in one year, and the whole of the salaries, charges, and expenses of the said board, exclusive of the members of the said board, shall not exceed the sum of £11,000 in one year;” in other words, that the whole annual expense of the board should not exceed £16,000, payable by the Company—and the power given to the directors, with the approbation of the Board of Control, “to suspend all, or any of the powers hereby given to the governor-general of Fort William to act upon his own sole authority, at and for such time or times as they may judge expedient or necessary.” “For establishing a just principle of promotion” among the covenanted civil servants, all of them under the rank of members of council were “to be entitled to precedence in the service of the said Company at their respective stations, according to their seniority of appointment.” No office or offices yielding more than £500 per annum were to be conferred on any one who had not been “actually resident in India as a covenanted servant” for three years at least in the whole antecedent to the vacancy; and none yielding more than £1500 till six years’ similar residence, nor more than £3000 till nine, nor more than £4000 till twelve years’ residence. The directors were not “to appoint or send out to India a greater number of persons in the capacity of cadets or writers, or in any other capacity, than will be necessary, in addition to those in India, to supply the proper complement of officers and servants,” contained in a list of those establishments which they were required to furnish; and on the declaration that “it is expedient that the said Company shall be put under reasonable limitations in respect to the granting of pensions, or increasing the salaries of their officers and servants, or creating new establishments,” it was enacted, that “no grant or resolution of the said Company, or their court of directors, to be made after the passing of this act, and during the continuance of their right in the said exclusive trade, whereby the said funds may become chargeable with any new salary or increase of salary, or any new or additional establishment of officers or servants, or any new pension or increase of pension, to any one person, exceeding £200 per annum, shall be available in law, unless such grant or resolution shall be approved and confirmed by the board of commissioners.”

This act, containing no fewer than 163 sections, is stated by Mr. Dundas to have “received the sanction of the legislature with an unanimity almost unexampled.” This statement was contained in a letter dated October 23d, 1793, but before it reached its destination Marquis Cornwallis (such was now his title) had sailed for England. On the 11th of June, intelligence arrived that the French war, which was destined to envelope all the states of Europe in its flames, had broken out. Orders were immediately issued to take possession of Chandernagore, and several factories in the presidency of Bengal. This was easily accomplished, but greater difficulty was anticipated in Madras, because it was understood that Pondicherry had again been put into a state of defence, and that an attempt would be made to strengthen its garrison. Marquis Cornwallis determined immediately to repair to the scene of action, but before his arrival the work was already accomplished. Colonel Floyd arrived before Pondicherry on the 11th of July to blockade it on the land side, while Admiral Cornwallis, brother to the marquis, blockaded it by sea. The command of the land troops ultimately devolved on Colonel Braithwaite, who had only opened fire from the first batteries for a few hours when the licentiousness and insubordination of the garrison forced the governor to surrender. On finding that his presence was no longer required, he deemed it unnecessary to return to Bengal, where Mr. (now Sir John) Shore had been installed as general, and sailed directly for England from Madras in the beginning of October, 1793.