CHAPTER X.

Lord Minto governor-general—Disturbances in Bundelcund—Arrangements with the Nizam—Embassies to Scinde, Cabool, and Persia—Mutiny at Madras—Disturbances in Travancore—Capture of the French and Dutch islands—Misgovernment of Oude—Revenue and judicial systems—The ryotwar settlement—Riot at Benares—The Bengal missionaries—Discussions on the Company’s charter—Close of Lord Minto’s administration.

On the 3rd of July, 1807, Lord Minto reached Calcutta. He was not new to Indian affairs. For many years, when Sir Gilbert Elliot, he had taken a prominent part in parliament, and strenuously supported the policy of the Whigs in regard to eastern politics. He was one of the managers appointed by the House of Commons to conduct the impeachment of Warren Hastings, and made the abortive motion for the impeachment of Sir Elijah Impey. On the accession of his party to power his antecedents marked him out for the important office of president of the Board of Control, and when the repugnance of the directors to the Earl of Lauderdale could not be overcome, the known moderation of his views united the suffrages of both parties in his favour, and thus terminated what had always been an unseemly, and might ere long have become a most pernicious quarrel. His leaning was decidedly in favour of the restrictive system of policy; and his desire to keep on good terms with the directors and proprietors, who had formally and strongly declared their approval of this system, must have confirmed him in his determination to adhere to it; but he could not shut his eyes to some of its inconveniences, and he was not so wedded to it as to be unable to abandon it when it threatened to be mischievous.

One of the first subjects which engaged his attention was the condition of Bundelcund. It had not, like some other territories, been gifted away as not worth the keeping, but on the principle of non-interference had been so much neglected that it was rapidly approaching to a state of anarchy. With the view of at once avoiding trouble and expense, and conciliating good-will, the petty rajahs were left as much as possible to self-management, and the consequence was, that they were soon involved in interminable quarrels with each other, and bands of armed marauders roamed the province in every direction. Lord Minto had no difficulty in determining to put an end to this state of misrule; and he therefore announced that, wherever mild measures had failed to secure tranquillity, force to any extent that might be necessary might be employed. In many cases this announcement proved of itself sufficient, and many disputes were settled at once by the voluntary consent of the parties to submit them to British arbitration. It could not be expected, however, that lawless banditti, who knew that they had no rights but those which the sword had given them, would yield to anything but compulsion; and it therefore became necessary, as the first step to their expulsion, to obtain possession of the strongholds of the leading chiefs by whom they were countenanced and protected. One of the most notorious of these was Lakshman Dawa. He was originally the captain of a band of plunderers, and had succeeded in possessing himself of the fort of Ajagerh. He had no kind of legal title to it, but when it became British territory an arrangement had been made by which he was permitted to retain it and the adjoining district. The district was to belong to him permanently as a jaghire on payment of a small tribute, but he was to give up the fort at the end of 1808. He never paid the tribute, and as it was also evident that he did not mean to resign the fort, a body of troops under Colonel Martindale was sent against him. He did not hesitate to defend himself, and it was necessary to lay regular siege to Ajagerh. After a practicable breach had been made he capitulated, and was allowed to go at large on parole, while his family was removed to the town of Naosheher. He was in hopes of being re-established in possession of the fort, but an application to that effect having been rejected by Mr. Richardson, the British agent, he suddenly disappeared. For a time no traces of him could be discovered, and when first heard of he was in Calcutta. In his petition to the agent he had prayed to be either restored or blown from a gun, as life without reputation was not worth the having, and on being refused, had adopted the singular resolution of applying in person to the governor-general. Having been again unsuccessful, he attempted to return to Bundelcund; but as his presence there might have led to new disturbances, he was intercepted and brought back to Calcutta, where he was detained till his death. In the meantime a tragical event had taken place. On his disappearance it was deemed advisable to detain his family as hostages, and orders were accordingly given to take all its inmates back to the fort. They were assured of kind and honourable treatment, and the charge of conducting them to their new quarters was committed to Bajee Row, Lakshman Dawa’s father-in-law. He undertook it with apparent cheerfulness, and went to execute it. He remained so long within the house that some surprise was felt, and a native officer of the intended escort entered to ascertain the cause. The first thing he saw was Bajee Row seated before the door of an inner room with a drawn sword in his hand. As the officer approached the old man retired and closed the door. When it was forced a bloody spectacle was seen. The mother, the wife, the infant son of Lakshman Dawa, and four female attendants, lay dead on the floor, murdered by Bajee Row, and apparently with their own consent, as no cry had been heard. The moment the door gave way Bajee Row inflicted a fatal wound on himself, and thus completed his horrid tragedy. The deed was openly justified by several Bundela chiefs, who avowed that had the case been theirs they would have done the same thing. The disturbances in Bundelcund were still far from being quelled, but the details must be deferred for the present to make way for matters of higher importance.

While breaking up the connections which Marquis Wellesley had formed, that with the Nizam naturally engaged Sir George Barlow’s attention. According to the policy which he had avowed and was actually pursuing, there was no room for hesitation, and he ought, on the principle of non-interference, to have hastened to rid himself of the subsidiary alliance as at once cumbersome and dangerous. And he could not have been at any loss for an opportunity, for the new sovereign, Secunder Jah, though his succession without opposition was owing entirely to British support, had forgotten the obligation and become inimical to British interests. The interests involved, however, were too important to be disposed of by a kind of hap-hazard, and Sir George, after pausing, proved the soundness of his judgment at the expense of his consistency, by deciding that the subsidiary alliance, and all the rights under it, were to be firmly maintained. Fortunately his decision was powerfully seconded by the prime minister, Meer Allum, and the ruin in which the Nizam would have involved himself by his folly in provoking hostilities was prevented. Still, however, a powerful party hostile to British interests existed at Hyderabad, and Meer Allum, threatened with assassination, was driven to seek shelter with the resident. Under these circumstances the resident was instructed to adopt the most energetic measures. The Nizam, made aware that his deposition might be deemed the only effectual guarantee for good behaviour, became thoroughly alarmed, and readily acquiesced in conditions which pledged him to dismiss every person hostile to the British alliance, to reinstate Meer Allum, and in the event of any difference with him to submit it to the resident. Such was the state to which Secunder Jah’s imbecile and dissolute character had reduced his government, that his chief favourite and adviser, Mahiput Ram, refused to be dismissed, and successfully resisted for a time by force of arms.

Meer Allum, who had nearly succeeded in replacing the relations with the Nizam on their former footing, died at an advanced age on the 8th of January, 1809. The appointment of a successor, after causing some difficulty, was settled by a compromise. Monir-ul-Mulk, as the Nizam’s choice, was appointed, but to remedy his acknowledged incompetency, the real administration was intrusted to an able Hindoo of the name of Chandu Lal, who had served under Meer Allum, and imbibed his spirit. This arrangement, though perhaps the best which circumstances permitted Lord Minto to make, did not work well. Monir-ul-Mulk thought himself entitled, as well as qualified, to possess the reality along with the name of power, and a series of intrigues were carried on, in consequence of which the interference of the resident was constantly required in support of Chandu Lal. The governor-general would probably have interfered still more effectually had he not been unwilling to run counter to the views of the directors. In a despatch dated September 14th, 1808, they had inculcated the necessity of carefully abstaining from all concern with the internal affairs of Hyderabad, further than might be necessary in organizing the Nizam’s army. To this object, accordingly, the governor-general’s views were almost exclusively directed, and a regular army in consequence sprung up, disciplined by British officers, and subordinate to British interests. Chandu Lal, as dewan, implicitly acquiesced in everything which the resident proposed relative to the appointment of officers, and the pay and equipment of the troops, and was in turn protected in his office, and left uncontrolled in the internal government.

This complete separation of civil and military authority was attended with many inconveniences. “The prosperity of the country,” says Sir John Malcolm, “began early to decline under a system which had no object but revenue, and under which, neither regard for rank nor desire for popularity existing, the nobles were degraded and the people oppressed. The prince (of whose sanity doubts had often been entertained) lapsed into a state of gloomy discontent; and while the dewan, his relations, a few favourites and moneybrokers flourished, the good name of the British nation suffered; for it was said, and with justice, that our support of the actual administration freed the minister and his executive officers from those salutary fears which act as a restraint on the most despotic rulers.” Lord Minto is said to have felt and deplored these evils, but the principle of non-interference laid down by the directors left him without the means of applying any adequate remedy.

The relations with the peishwa, though they seemed friendly, were not on a very satisfactory footing. Bajee Row having by the treaty of Bassein bartered his independence for personal security, immediately repented, and would gladly have availed himself of any opportunity which the course of events might have afforded of again becoming the real head of a Mahratta confederacy. He had been privy to many intrigues having this object in view, but the issue of the war disappointed all his expectations, and the British alliance having become absolutely necessary to him, he had dissimulation enough to disguise his aversion to it, and even impress a belief that it had his cordial approbation. He was accordingly ever ready to apply to it for aid when his purposes could not otherwise be gained, and at the same time often betrayed his real feelings when any of these purposes were thwarted. During the war of 1803, in which Scindia and Ragojee Bhonsla were confederates, good service had been rendered to the British by a number of the peishwa’s feudatories, known by the name of the Southern Jaghirdars. In consequence of this, they were considered under British protection, and therefore, when the peishwa endeavoured to stretch his powers over them to a much greater length than before, and was obviously aiming at their utter extinction, the aid of the subsidiary force when he applied for it was refused, and all that he received was an offer of the British government to arbitrate in the dispute. His title to be regarded as lord-paramount could not be disputed, and should it be necessary to compel a recognition of that title, the subsidiary force was at his disposal for that purpose. This, however, was far from satisfying him. What he wished was to resume the jaghires, and compel the jaghirdars to submit by force of arms, and on this being denied him, he did not disguise his dissatisfaction. When Lord Minto’s attention was called to the subject, he lodged a minute in which, while admitting that the treaty of Bassein entitled the peishwa to the aid which he asked, provided the justice of his claims could not be impugned, he approved of a compromise which the resident at Poonah had suggested, and by which the jaghirdars, while acknowledging themselves to be the peishwa’s feudatories, and relinquishing all acknowledged usurpations, were guaranteed in the possession of their lands. To these terms Bajee Row was obliged to submit, but he did it with visible reluctance, and showed that feelings were rankling in his breast which might be expected sooner or later to display themselves in overt acts of hostility.

During Lord Minto’s administration, a few unsettled points in the treaty with Scindia were amicably adjusted, and no part of his conduct was considered to give any just cause of complaint, except the countenance given by him to some bands of Pindarees, whose indiscriminate ravages were already becoming intolerable. Holkar’s conduct was less pacific, but however hostile his designs may have been, he was not permitted to execute them. He had long been addicted to intoxication and unrestrained indulgence, which had seriously affected his health, and he had recently, in order to establish himself as undisputed head of the Holkar family, poisoned his nephew, and been at least accessory to the murder of his brother. After these crimes, the stingings of conscience and new excesses for the purpose of stifling remorse overthrew his reason. During a few months his madness alternated with lucid intervals, but at last he sank into a state of complete fatuity. For three years he was fed and treated like an infant, and died on the 20th of October, 1811. When he became insane, the management of affairs was usurped by his favourite mistress, Toolasi Bhai, who employed Balaram Seit as her minister. In such feeble hands the whole country soon became a scene of confusion, and leaders, aiming at independence or bent on plunder, started up in various quarters. One of the most formidable combinations was headed by Mahipat Row Holkar, first cousin of the Jeswunt Row, who was proclaimed his successor, and might have made his right good, had not the depredations of his followers, extended into the territories of the peishwa and the Nizam, brought him into collision with the subsidiary forces of both these states. The one force advancing from Poonah under Colonel Wallace, and the other from Jalna under Colonel Doveton, gave him two successive defeats which completely ruined his cause.

Ameer Khan, who had long shared Holkar’s fortunes, might have been expected to take a prominent part in the changes occasioned by his insanity. At first a large bribe from Balaram Seit induced him to give his support to the Bhai, but as he had a large number of troops in his own pay, and had no means of supporting them except by depredations, he soon took his departure and made an irruption into Berar. He had previously pillaged the Rajpoots, and knowing that their resources were completely exhausted, he saw no territories so tempting as those of Ragojee Bhonsla. He was not without a pretext. Jeswunt Row Holkar, when, during the disasters of his early career, he sought an asylum at Nagpore, was said to have been ungenerously pillaged by the rajah of valuable jewels. Ameer Khan, acting in Holkar’s name, demanded restoration of the jewels or their value in money. On receiving a refusal, he made his appearance in January, 1809, on the frontiers of Berar, at the head of a force amounting, according to his own statement, to 40,000 horse and 24,000 Pindarees or robber bands. Meeting with no serious opposition, he crossed the Nerbudda and made himself master of Jubbulpore and the surrounding country.

The Rajah of Berar had no subsidiary alliance with the British, nor any treaty under which he was entitled to claim their protection, and therefore, on the principle of non-interference, he ought to have been left to his fate. There were also serious obstacles to be surmounted before any assistance could be given to him. Ameer Khan professed to be acting in the name of Holkar, and in this character could plead that any assistance given by the British government to the rajah would be a violation of the treaty by which they had engaged not to interfere in any manner whatever with Holkar’s affairs, nor with his exaction of claims on any state with which they themselves were not actually in alliance. It was not easy to answer this objection. Ameer Khan’s pretext of being in the service of Holkar could be easily disposed of, but how was it possible, consistent with the policy on which the Indian government was now professedly conducted, to take part in the quarrels of native princes when not under any positive obligation to do so? Lord Minto, though aware of the inconsistency, refused to be trammeled by it, and placed the question on broader grounds than those of any routine of policy, when he said in a minute, lodged 10th October, 1809: “The question was not whether it was just and expedient to aid the rajah in the defence and recovery of his dominions (although in point of policy the essential change in the political state of India which would be occasioned by the extinction of one of the substantive powers of the Deccan might warrant and require our interference), but whether an interfering and ambitious Mussulman chief, at the head of a numerous army, irresistible by any power but that of the Company, shall be permitted to establish his authority on the ruins of the rajah’s dominions, over territories contiguous to those of our ally the Nizam.” Considering the encouragement which would thereby be given to projects probably entertained by the Nizam himself, and certainly entertained by a powerful party in his dominions, “for the subversion of the British alliance,” his lordship held that there could be “but one solution” of the above question, and therefore decided that Ameer Khan must at all hazards be repelled. Gratuitous assistance was therefore immediately tendered to the rajah, and provided by assembling a body of troops on the eastern frontier of Berar, under Colonel Close, and ordering another stationed in Bundelcund under Colonel Martindale to be prepared to co-operate with it. The rajah, though he had not formally applied for assistance, gladly accepted it, more especially when assured that no compensation either pecuniary or territorial was expected.

As soon as Colonel Close was ready to act, Lord Minto wrote both to Holkar and to Ameer Khan; to the former asking whether the invasion of Berar was by his order, and to the latter, simply requiring him to withdraw. Holkar’s minister disavowed Ameer Khan’s proceedings, but Ameer Khan himself denied the right of the British to interfere with his proceedings, and threatened to retaliate by invading their own territories. The rajah in the meantime had exerted himself to the utmost, and raised a force which had successfully encountered Ameer Khan, and obliged him to take refuge in Bhopaul. Here having been reinforced, he had again entered Berar, and sustained a second repulse, when the approach of Colonel Close left him no alternative but flight. He hastened off to Seronge, his own capital, and on being followed, abandoned his own troops and made the best of his way to Indore. As there was now no danger of an incursion into Berar, Lord Minto, who had at one time intended completely to destroy Ameer Khan’s power, took fright at the protracted hostilities which might ensue, and ordered the British troops to be recalled. To provide against the recurrence of a similar danger, the governor-general entered into a negotiation with the rajah, with a view to furnish him with a permanent subsidiary force. The negotiation, protracted by the rajah’s repugnance to the force itself, and still more by his unwillingness to pay for it, did not lead to any satisfactory result.

Lord Minto’s interference in the case of Berar was a practical proof of his disapprobation of the extent to which the neutral system of policy had been carried by his predecessor. He had previously given a still more decided proof by the part which he had taken in regard to some disturbances in the northwest. The reduction of the fort of Ajagerh, in Bundelcund, and the fate of the family of Lakshman Dawa, its petty chief, have already been described. Though the vigorous measures taken induced several of the other chiefs to make their submission, there were some against whom it was still necessary to employ force. One of these was Gopal Sing, who had usurped the district of Kotra. The legal heir was Rajah Bakht Sing, whose title had been formally recognized by Sir George Barlow, but more in mockery than in good faith, since, on the principle of non-interference, he was denied the assistance necessary to make it effectual. Lord Minto, acting in a different spirit, sent a detachment to put him in possession, and Gopal Sing, apparently convinced that resistance was hopeless, did not even attempt it. He was too restless a spirit to be long tranquil, and abruptly quitting the British camp, to which he had come to make his submission, he retired with a few followers to the thickets of the neighbouring hills, and commenced a predatory warfare. Before he could be effectually checked, the removal of the force under Colonel Martindale from Bundelcund to Berar towards the end of 1809, for the purpose of acting against Ameer Khan, left Gopal Sing at liberty to pursue his depredations, and the whole country below the hills was remorselessly devastated. Various detachments were sent in pursuit of him, and at last, after he had eluded pursuit and carried off large quantities of plunder, he was surprised in an entrenched position among the hills. With the utmost difficulty he made his escape and recommenced his warfare. Again and again his capture was confidently predicted, but never realized; and he was ultimately able, instead of meeting the fate which he had deserved, to make terms with his pursuers. Besides a full pardon for four years of devastation, he received a jaghire of eighteen villages. It is difficult to understand the policy of an arrangement, the obvious tendency of which was not to repress, but to encourage depredation.

Another chief remained, and kept frowning from his fort, which, in common with his Bundela countrymen, he deemed impregnable. His name was Dariao Sing, and his fort was Kalinjer, situated 112 miles south-west from Allahabad. This place, which figures much in the early history of India, and still by its fabled sanctity attracts numerous pilgrims, crowns an isolated hill which rises from a marshy plain to the height of 900 feet, and terminates in a flat area about four miles in circuit. The lower sides of the hill were covered with almost impenetrable jungle; the upper part of it was a naked precipice. Where not absolutely inaccessible by nature, artificial means had been employed to make it so. The whole of the flat summit was enclosed by a strong wall with loop-holes and embrasures, and the only ascent to it was by a winding road, commencing at the south-eastern angle, where the pettah was situated, and winding along the eastern face. This road was defended by seven fortified gates. Dariao Sing, confident that this stronghold could not be wrested from him, not only resisted the British authority, but was ever ready to give protection to all the predatory bands that applied for it, and it was therefore vain to hope that till he was dispossessed there could be any permanent tranquillity in Bundelcund. This fact Lord Lale had brought distinctly under the notice of Sir George Barlow, but no heed was given to it, and a well-known nucleus of disturbance remained untouched till the beginning of 1812, when Colonel Martindale advanced against Kalinjer at the head of a considerable force which had assembled at Banda.

Against the north-east extremity of Kalinjer, at the distance of about 800 yards, rises another hill called Kalinjari, of much less extent but nearly as elevated. This was obviously the point from which the attack ought to be made, and accordingly on the 26th of January, after great difficulty in clearing a path through the jungle, four eighteen-pounders and two mortars were dragged up by main force and planted on its top. Lower down, other two batteries were mounted, one of them opposite to the great gateway. Fire was opened on the 28th, and the breach having been reported practicable on the 1st of February, the assault was given at sunrise on the following morning. The storming party with great difficulty arrived within fifty yards of the breach, and after a short halt, under cover of an old wall, rushed forward to the foot of the parapet. Here an unexpected obstacle arrested them. Before the breach could be entered, it was necessary to scale the almost precipitous rock on which the demolished wall had stood, and as fast as ladders could be applied for this purpose, the men who endeavoured to ascend by them were shot down by crowds of matchlock-men or overwhelmed by heavy stones. Unequal as the conflict was, it was maintained by the assailants with the utmost gallantry for above half an hour before they were recalled. The loss, though severe, was not unavailing, for Dariao Sing, convinced by what he had seen that the fort was not so impregnable as he had imagined, chose rather than risk a second assault, to capitulate on the terms which he had previously rejected. The fort, after being used a short time as a military post, was dismantled and abandoned. After the reduction of Kalinjer, the tranquillity of Bundelcund was completed by obliging the Rajah of Rewa, a small principality adjoining it on the east, to enter into a treaty which, while it guaranteed his own territory, restrained him from disturbing or countenancing those who disturbed the territories of his neighbours.

Another district in which Lord Minto found it necessary to interfere by force in order to secure tranquillity was Hariana, lying immediately to the west of Delhi. Its Jat inhabitants, having thrown off their allegiance to the Mogul, became divided into a number of petty clans, which, though occasionally uniting to oppose a common enemy, were usually so much distracted by intestine feuds as to be incapable of a protracted struggle for independence. They were hence subject for the most part to military adventurers, of whom the most remarkable was George Thomas, an Irish sailor. Shortly after his arrival at Madras in 1781, he deserted and took service with some of the southern polygars. Leaving them, he proceeded through the heart of India and reached Delhi in 1787. The Begum Sumroo gave him a commission in her brigade, and he stood high in her favour, till some other adventurer supplanted him. In 1792 he entered the service of one of Scindia’s discarded captains, who died in 1797, after establishing an independency to the west of Delhi. At his death, the newly-formed state fell to pieces, and George Thomas seized the opportunity to make himself a rajah. He succeeded, and during four years reigned in his capital of Hansi, over a territory 100 miles long from north to south, and at its widest part 75 miles broad. Scindia, pursuing his conquests in Hindoostan, sent Perron to besiege him in his capital, and he surrendered on condition of being conducted to the British frontier. He arrived at it in January, 1802, and was on his way to Calcutta to embark for his native land, when he was taken ill and died at Berhampore. Hariana passed to the British during the war with Scindia, and during the rage which prevailed for throwing away provinces was given away to several successive chiefs. As they were unable to keep it, it again became a British possession, but remained in such an unsettled state as to endanger the tranquillity of Delhi itself. Lord Minto saw its value, and after a short struggle with its turbulent tribes, succeeded in withdrawing them from lawless pursuits, and inducing them to become peaceful agriculturists.

Proceeding still farther north, Lord Minto ventured on a bolder step than any he had yet taken. The Sikhs living on the left or east bank of the Sutlej had, at the termination of the Mahratta war, professed submission to the British. It was nominally accepted without being defined. Neither was tribute paid nor protection promised; and the known determination of the government to retire from their conquests gave countenance to the belief that any native chief who could establish his ascendency over this portion of the Sikh territory was welcome to do so. The celebrated Sikh chief, Runjeet Sing, had gained the ascendant over all competitors, and being thus brought to the right bank of the Sutlej, saw the tempting prospect which lay beyond it. Before committing himself, however, he proceeded to feel his way, and did not venture to cross till he could plead that he had received an invitation. It was not necessary to wait long for this purpose. During a quarrel between the Rajahs of Patiala and Naba, the latter applied to him for aid. He at once granted it, and crossing the Sutlej in October, 1806, with a strong body of horse, obliged the contending parties to submit to his dictation. His presence did not pass unnoticed at Delhi, but any apprehensions which were felt were removed by a letter professing profound respect for the British government, and he departed with the conviction that whenever it might suit him to return, he had nothing to fear from the only power capable of resisting him. His experiment had thus succeeded, and as might have been anticipated, he was not long of turning it to practical account.

In the course of 1807 a feud broke out in the family of the Rajah of Patiala. His wife being refused an assignment of revenue to her son, carried her displeasure so far as to send for Runjeet Sing. He lost no time in again crossing the Sutlej. This repetition of the visit spread alarm among the Sikh chiefs, who considered themselves as British subjects, and they applied urgently to the resident at Delhi for protection against the designs of their countryman. The application was forwarded to Calcutta, but before an answer could be received, the Rajah and Ranee of Patiala had settled their quarrel, and purchased Runjeet Sing’s departure by a valuable diamond necklace, and a celebrated brass gun. Before departing, however, he gave the petty rajahs full proof of the treatment they might expect by levying contributions on them, or by seizing their forts, and confiscating their lands. Shortly after his return he addressed a letter to the governor-general, in which, while professing friendly dispositions, he asked why a British force was assembling on the Jumma, and added, “The country on this side of the Jumma, except the stations occupied by the English, is subject to my authority. Let it remain so.” Lord Minto, instead of fully answering by letter, resolved on sending a mission to Lahore. Mr. Metcalfe, whose subsequent services made him successively a baronet and a peer, set out from Delhi in 1808 as envoy to Runjeet Sing, and after crossing the Sutlej, found him in his camp at Kasur or Kussoor. His reception, at first friendly, changed its character as soon as Runjeet Sing learned that the British government refused to accept the Jumma as the boundary between the two states. Openly testifying his dissatisfaction, he did not hesitate to give the strongest practical proof of it by suddenly crossing the Sutlej, with the envoy in his train, and proceeding to exercise sovereign rights within the disputed territory. Mr. Metcalfe refused to proceed any further in that direction, and Runjeet Sing was under the necessity of retracing his steps to Amritsur, where the other members of the mission had been left. The negotiation did not open favourably. On being informed that he must resign all the conquests which he had made on the left bank of the Sutlej since the period when the Sikhs there had been taken under British protection, he seemed so determined on an appeal to arms that a detachment under Colonel Ochterlony proceeded across the Jumma to Lodiana, while a larger force under General St. Leger was prepared to follow. Runjeet Sing, now convinced that the governor-general was in earnest, abandoned his dreams of conquest, and on the 25th of April, 1809, a treaty was concluded, by which the Rajah of Lahore agreed not to maintain more troops on the left bank of the Sutlej than necessary for the internal management of the territories there acknowledged to belong to him, nor to make any encroachment on the protected Sikh rajahs, and the British agreed not to interfere in any way with his territories in the north of the river. In connection with this treaty it became necessary more exactly to define the relation between the British government and the protected chiefs, and it was formally announced that Sirhind and Malwah had been taken under British protection, and that the chiefs, though not subjected to tribute, nor interfered with in regard to internal management, would be expected, when called upon, to join the British army with their forces. At a later period it was explained that the declaration as to internal management did not preclude British interposition whenever it might be necessary to settle disputes among the rajahs, or suppress domestic dissensions.

At the time when the above treaty was concluded with Runjeet Sing, a serious disturbance broke out at Delhi. Shah Alum, as already mentioned, died on the 18th of December, 1806, and was succeeded by his eldest son, who took the title of Shah Akbar II. The new monarch, not yet reconciled to the reduced fortunes of his family, made several attempts to break through the limits which the British, now his masters, had prescribed for him. On only one occasion, however, did Lord Minto find it necessary to interfere decidedly. Shah Akbar had several sons. The eldest had naturally the best title to the designation of heir-apparent; but the mother of the third son, Mirza Jehangir, being the favourite queen, intrigued in his behalf, and induced the king to take certain steps which indicated a design to give him the succession. When the British government interfered, Mirza Jehangir began to act for himself, and by means of a body of armed retainers kept the palace in a state of alarm. A body of the Company’s sepoys began in consequence, with the king’s consent, to mount guard at the palace gates. The prince’s retainers immediately took up a menacing position within, and when the resident, Mr. Seton, advanced to expostulate with them, he was fired at, and made a very narrow escape, a ball evidently intended for him having struck the cap of a sepoy at his side. On this the inner gates were forced, the retainers dispersed, and the prince himself sent off as prisoner to spend the remainder of his life in the fort of Allahabad. From this time Shah Akbar resigned himself to his fate, and his pension of 76,500 rupees a month, which had only been promised conditionally by Marquis Wellesley, was confirmed by Lord Minto, and subsequently increased till it reached its maximum of £150,000 per annum.

The propriety of concluding a treaty with Runjeet Sing had been partly suggested by the supposed designs of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte against the British dominions in the East. To the same cause are to be ascribed the three important missions which Lord Minto despatched about this time to Persia, Cabool, and Scinde. The embassy to Persia, intrusted for the second time to Sir John Malcolm, was mainly designed to counteract the influence which the French had succeeded in establishing at the Persian court. So important did this object seem to the British ministry, that they too had despatched Sir Harford Jones on a similar errand. This double embassy was unfortunate. Lord Minto protested against the embassy of the ministry as an interference with his prerogative, and several measures were adopted, as much with a view to maintain this prerogative as from any practical benefit anticipated from them. Sir John Malcolm, who had the start of his competitor, arrived at Bushire, but he returned to recommend the immediate preparation of a hostile armament for the Persian Gulf. Sir Harford Jones followed, and had succeeded in concluding a preliminary treaty, when a letter from Lord Minto to the court of Teheran arrived, disavowing his character as an ambassador. Ultimately, however, his preliminary treaty was ratified by the governor-general, and Sir John Malcolm returned, under his auspices, to perfect the negotiation. He arrived at Teheran in June, 1810, but quitted it without accomplishing anything, on being made acquainted with the approach of Sir Gore Ouseley as the accredited ambassador of the British court.

The embassy to Cabool was intrusted to Mr. Elphinstone, and fitted out so as to impress the Afghans with a high idea of the British power and dignity. Little was known either of the country or the government, and the chief value derived from the mission consisted in the full and accurate information furnished with regard to both, in the excellent work which Mr. Elphinstone published after his return. Zemaun Shah, who had excited the apprehension of successive governors-general, had ceased to reign, having been deposed and blinded by his brother Mahmood, who had usurped his throne. Mahmood was not permitted to profit long by his usurpation, and was obliged to give way to another brother, who took the title of Shah Shuja. He had held the nominal sovereignty for five years, and was still in possession of the sovereignty when Mr. Elphinstone, after a long and perilous journey across the deserts of Bikaneer and Jessulmeer, arrived at Peshawar on the 5th of March, 1809. He met with a friendly reception, and would have had no difficulty in concluding an offensive and defensive alliance; but when he declined this, and showed that the only object aimed at was the protection of British interests, without any reciprocal advantage, Shah Shuja demurred, and became more difficult to deal with. Ultimately, however, he agreed to a treaty by which he was to oppose the French and Persians in any attempt to cross Afghanistan on their way to India, and was to be defrayed the expense which he might thus incur. This treaty was ratified at Calcutta on the 19th of June, 1809, but when returned to Peshawar was absolutely worthless. Civil war was raging—Mr. Elphinstone had left the capital to await the restoration of tranquillity, and Shah Shuja was fleeing before his enemies. A pecuniary grant which he urgently solicited, and Mr. Elphinstone strongly recommended, might have enabled him to regain the ascendency, but Napoleon’s reverses, and the restoration of the Bourbons, having removed all fear of French influence in the East, the grant was refused, and friendly intercourse with the Afghans was no longer courted.

The third embassy was to Scinde. The Company had, with a view to commercial privileges, repeatedly attempted to establish friendly relations with Hyderabad, the name of the capital of Scinde, as well as that of the Nizam’s dominions, but their overtures had been coldly, and even insolently repelled. Political changes had, however, produced a change of inclination; and three brothers, Gholam Ali, Karam Ali, and Murad Ali, who, as the principal chiefs or Ameers of Scinde, jointly administered its affairs, became anxious for British protection, as a security against the threatened ascendency of Persia. On their own proposal to renew the commercial intercourse, which at an early period had been carried on by means of a factory at Tatta, Captain Seton was sent as envoy to Hyderabad, and concluded an offensive and defensive alliance. The terms, however, pledged the Company further than was thought expedient; and hence, while the ratification was withheld, Mr. Nicholas Hankey Smith was deputed to explain the cause and restrict the stipulations. After many obstructions, to which the Ameers themselves were suspected of being privy, Mr. Smith reached Hyderabad on the 8th of August, 1809, and on the 23rd concluded a treaty stipulating eternal friendship, the mutual appointment of ambassadors, and the exclusion of the French. This last object, which had long been regarded as of primary moment, had in consequence of Napoleon’s reverses become unimportant, and the treaty therefore remained almost inoperative.

While the governor-general was thus endeavouring to extend friendly relations with neighbouring states on the north and west, occurrences of an alarming character took place within the presidency of Madras. Sir George Barlow, when deprived unceremoniously of the office of governor-general, succeeded Lord William Bentinck, who had been as unceremoniously recalled from Madras. He entered upon the duties of his office in the end of December, 1807. His appointment was by no means popular. As he belonged to a different presidency he was considered an intruder; and as he had proved himself in Bengal to be a resolute financial reformer, a very powerful party, whom such reform would seriously affect, were disposed to view all his proceedings with suspicion, and use every means in their power to thwart them. Under such circumstances it would have been difficult for any governor, however conciliating, to have made himself popular, and Sir George Barlow, so far from being conciliating, was of a stiff, dogged temper, which provoked opposition by unnecessarily defying it. The mutiny which took place in the Madras army is by far the most important event in Sir George Barlow’s government;

but before proceeding to give the details, it will be proper to give some account of disturbances which occurred about the same time in Travancore. The close friendship which subsisted between the rajah and the Company, and which was signally manifested when an encroachment on his rights by Tippoo was regarded as a sufficient ground for declaring war against Mysore, had subsequently suffered considerable interruption. Two treaties had been afterwards concluded with the rajah, one in 1795, which guaranteed his territories, and merely bound him to furnish what troops he was able, and another in 1805, which bound him to pay a certain amount for a subsidiary force. Towards the end of 1808 the subsidy was largely in arrear, and when payment was demanded, the rajah protested that the treaty of 1805 had been forced upon him, and that the payment of four battalions with which it saddled him, was a far heavier burden than his revenues could bear. The resident, on the other hand, insisted that difficulty in paying the subsidy was owing to the expenditure lavished on a body of useless troops, maintained by the rajah under the name of the Carnatic brigade. The real question in dispute thus was, whether the subsidiary force or the brigade should be reduced, the rajah advocating the former and the resident the latter.

Vailoo Tambi, the dewan or prime minister, was another cause of contention. The resident blamed him for allowing the subsidy to fall into arrear, and insisted on his removal. This was seemingly acquiesced in, but Vailoo Tambi, while professedly holding office only till a successor should be appointed, secretly organized a conspiracy of the Nairs, induced the dewan of the Rajah of Cochin to join him, and giving encouragement to some French adventurers who had landed on the coast, spread a rumour of the expected arrival of a French army to expel the English. He also entered into communication with the neighbouring rajahs, and gained their support by pretending that their religion was in danger. Colonel Macaulay, the resident, alarmed at the general excitement which began to prevail, applied for reinforcements. The dewan, aware of this precautionary measure, again professed a willingness to resign if his personal security were guaranteed, and arrangements were made for his removal to Calicut on the 28th of December, 1808. The very same night the house of the resident was surrounded by a body of armed men, and he had only time to conceal himself, before they broke in and commenced a search with the avowed purpose of murdering him. In the morning Colonel Macaulay escaped on board a vessel, which proved to be a transport with part of the expected reinforcements. Colonel Chalmers commanding the subsidiary force, which had its station at Quilon, immediately commenced operations, but the insurgents increased so rapidly that he was obliged to return to Quilon. Here he was joined early in January, 1809, by his majesty’s 12th regiment under Colonel Picton from Malabar. The disparity of force was however still very great, for the dewan was advancing at the head of nearly 30,000 men, with eighteen guns. On the 15th of January the encounter took place. The attack was made by the dewan, and maintained for five hours, at the end of which he was driven from the field with considerable loss.

After this repulse Vailoo Tambi, despairing of success at Quilon, hastened off to Cochin, which was held by Major Hewitt with only two companies of the 12th regiment, and six companies of native infantry. The insurgents advanced to the attack in three masses, each 1000 strong, and were again repulsed. Meanwhile reinforcements were arriving. Colonel Cuppage, commanding in Malabar, entered the province of Cochin from the north with his majesty’s 80th regiment, and two native battalions; Colonel St. Leger was marching from Trichinopoly with his majesty’s 69th regiment, a regiment of native cavalry, three native battalions, and a detachment of royal artillery, and was, moreover, to be joined by a Kaffre regiment expected from Ceylon. Colonel St. Leger directed his march through the province of Tinnevelly, determined to force his way into Travancore, across the mountain range by which the Western Ghauts are continued to Cape Comorin. For this purpose it was necessary to diverge far to the south, as in that direction the most practicable passes are situated. The one which he selected was the pass of Arambuli or Aramuni, which leads westward across the mountains by the highroad from Palamkota. This pass was defended by formidable lines, and as Colonel St. Leger had no battering train, the task which he had undertaken was one of no ordinary difficulty. It was accomplished however by a well-managed surprise, and the British troops began on the 17th of February to advance in the direction of Trivandrum, the Travancore capital. Colonel Chalmers was also advancing upon it from the opposite direction, while Colonel Cuppage, who had crossed the northern frontier, was continuing his march southward without opposition. All resistance now ceased, and it only remained to dictate to the rajah such terms as seemed necessary to prevent the recurrence of similar insurrections. The dewan had in the meanwhile fled, and being abandoned by his master, who, as a proof of his zeal for the British interests, despatched various parties in search of him, was driven at last to take refuge in the pagoda of Bhagwadi. Though venerated as a sanctuary, his Hindoo pursuers did not hesitate to force it. The dewan was found expiring of wounds, apparently self-inflicted; his brother who was with him was taken to Quilon and hanged. There cannot be a doubt that both brothers richly deserved their fate. Vailoo Tambi in particular had atrociously murdered Mr. Hume, a British surgeon, to whose professional services he had at one time been indebted, and thirty-four soldiers of the 12th regiment whom he had entrapped into his custody, and was, moreover, accused of having put to death in cold blood 3000 native Christians, charged with no crime but their religion. His dead body was carried to Trivandrum and exposed upon a gibbet. This proceeding, though said to have been the act of the rajah, was strongly censured by the governor-general, who held that the resident had made himself responsible by neither preventing the exposure nor proclaiming his disapprobation. The ends of justice were served when the dewan ceased to exist, and the attempt to carry punishment further was, his lordship remarked, repugnant to humanity and to the principles of a civilized government.

Though the pacification of Travancore seemed to be complete, scarcely two years elapsed before the new dewan was suspected of following in the footsteps of his predecessor. The subsidy again fell into arrear, and indications were not wanting of a new plot. It was therefore determined to give effect to an article in the treaty of 1805, which provided that on failure of the conditions the British government should be at liberty to assume the management of the country. The necessity for this had become so apparent that the rajah himself is said to have requested it. Similar treatment was applied to the Rajah of Cochin. His dewan was certainly implicated in the Travancore insurrection, and the same security against its recurrence was therefore taken. The expenses of the war were levied from the two rajahs in the proportions of two-thirds from Travancore and one-third from Cochin. There is some reason for holding that the union of the two rajahs, or rather of their ministers, in an insurrection which from the first must have been felt to be almost desperate, never could have taken place without strong provocation, and that the rigorous exaction of payment for troops which the rulers held to be unnecessary, and which are admitted to have been intolerably burdensome, was therefore a violation both of justice and of sound policy.

During these transactions at Travancore, dissatisfaction with the governor had been greatly increased by the introduction of a new element of discord. Sir John Cradock having, like Lord William Bentinck, been abruptly recalled, in consequence of the mutiny at Vellore, was succeeded as commander-in-chief by General Hay Macdowall. Sir John had held a seat in council. Both offices of course became vacant by his recall, but the directors thought proper in conferring the one upon his successor to deny him the other. General Macdowall was not a man to submit quietly to what he thought an insult and an injustice; and therefore, after he had failed in an appeal to the directors, he addressed a letter to Sir George Barlow, in which he declared that their refusal had placed him “in so extraordinary, so unexampled, and so humiliating a predicament, that the most painful emotions have been excited.” Having thus a great grievance of his own, his sympathies were naturally given to those who had any list of grievances; and hence when the officers under his command became loud in their complaint of certain retrenchments to which they were subjected, so far from repressing he rather encouraged them. Under such circumstances the rules of military subordination were not strictly enforced, and a mutinous spirit began to prevail.

All the military retrenchments enforced by the Madras government were naturally unpalatable to the army, and a strong inclination was therefore felt of seizing upon any pretext which would afford an opportunity of giving open and formal utterance to dissatisfaction. The desire thus entertained was ere long gratified. Among the retrenchments was the abolition of what was called the “Tent Contract,” under which officers in command of native troops received a monthly allowance for providing the men with suitable camp equipage. This allowance did not vary with the nature of the service, but was fixed in its amount, and payable alike in cantonments and in the field, in peace and in war. Sir John Cradock, by whom this retrenchment was originally suggested, had instructed Colonel John Monro, the quartermaster-general, to report on its practicability, and the best mode of effecting it. The report entered fully into the subject, and placed the objections to the tent contract in so clear a light as to make it impossible to doubt the propriety of abolishing it. Sir John Cradock, Lord William Bentinck, and the Bengal government were perfectly at one on the subject, and held that the retrenchment ought forthwith to be made. The task, of course, devolved on Sir George Barlow as governor, and to this extent only was he responsible.

The officers whose emoluments were affected were not much disposed to grapple with the subject on its merits. The objections were obviously unanswerable, but it was discovered that the mode of stating them was not very guarded. There were passages in the report which, when brought into juxtaposition, might be construed not merely as hypothetical objections to the tent contract, but as specific charges against the officers who had profited by it. Colonel Monro set out with stating that “six years’ experience of the practical effects of the existing system of the camp equipage of the army, and an attentive examination of its operation during that period of time, had suggested the objections.” One of these objections was as follows:—“By granting the same allowances in peace and war for the equipment of native corps, while the expenses incidental to that charge are unavoidably much greater in war than in peace, it places the interest and duty of officers commanding native corps in direct opposition to one another—it makes it their interest that their corps should not be in a state of efficiency fit for field service, and therefore furnishes strong inducement to neglect their most important duties.” Here, then, argued the officers, are two distinct statements. In the one Colonel Monro points out a dereliction of duty which the tent contract tends to produce, and in the other he gives it as the result of his own experience that this dereliction of duty has actually taken place. This charge he must either prove, or be punished as a calumniator. Colonel Monro now disclaimed all intention of insinuating anything against the honour and integrity of the officers of the army. This would not do. They had clearly been charged with gross and corrupt neglect of duty, and they called upon the commander-in-chief to bring Colonel Monro to a court-martial for aspersions on their characters as officers and gentlemen.

While admitting that the language of the report ought to have been more guarded, we are not at all disposed to admit that the inference which the officers drew from it was legitimate. Colonel Monro’s experience had convinced him that the practical working of the system was bad, but it did not follow that he had seen every one of the objections which he made to it actually exemplified. His experience suggested the objections, but how many of them had been realized, and how many of them existed merely as temptations to which his fellow-officers were unnecessarily exposed, he had nowhere stated. It was, therefore, as illogical as it was disingenuous to give his words a meaning which they did not necessarily bear, and then insist that this forced interpretation should be adopted as the only true one, and that in the face of his own disclaimer. Colonel Monro had not volunteered a report. He was ordered to make it, and he was bound in conscience to state every objection which he believed to be well founded. Even had he made specific charges, and said in plain terms that he had known cases where temptation had produced neglect, his statement might have been strictly true, and therefore justifiable, even though the evidence which he possessed might not have enabled him to establish it by legal proof.

If the officers had no good ground for the outcry which they raised against Colonel Monro, what must be thought of the commander-in-chief, who, after consulting the judge advocate-general, and receiving his opinion that the accusation of the officers could not be entertained, not only entertained it, but placed Colonel Monro under arrest in order to wait his trial upon it. Two circumstances connected with this proceeding made the conduct of the commander-in-chief absolutely inexcusable. First, he had resigned his office, and was on the point of sailing for England when he took this extraordinary step, though he must have been aware that delay could not have prejudiced the right of the accusers, while his premature decision would necessarily embarrass his successor. Secondly, at the very time when General Macdowall set the opinion of the judge advocate-general at nought, the officers themselves had acquiesced in it, and withdrawn their application for a court-martial, to substitute for it a memorial to the directors, praying for investigation. An examination of the motives by which the commander-in-chief appeared to have been influenced only placed his misconduct in a still stronger light.

When Colonel Monro was placed under arrest, he appealed for protection to the government. The commander-in-chief, through whom the appeal was in the first instance sent, refused to transmit it, and it was, in consequence of his refusal, sent directly to the governor in council. The government, in accordance with the opinion of their legal advisers in military matters, at once interfered; and after in vain requesting, peremptorily ordered the commander-in-chief to release Colonel Monro from arrest. Reluctant though he was, he did not venture to disobey, but besides protesting, took the only revenge still in his power, by issuing a general order, in which he severely reprimanded Colonel Monro for appealing to the civil government, and declared that nothing but his immediate departure prevented him from bringing him to trial for disobedience of orders, contempt of military authority, and disrespect to the commander-in-chief. Hitherto the conduct of the government had been firm, but temperate. The only part of their conduct which admitted of question was their refusal to transmit the memorial of the officers to the directors. Now, however, they were about to take a step which placed them decidedly in the wrong, and in fact exhibited them as the imitators of General Macdowall’s violence. Not satisfied with replying to his general order, by issuing a government order couched in language as unbecoming as his own, they proceeded to suspend from the Company’s service Major Boles, the deputy adjutant-general, and Colonel Capper, the adjutant-general, the former because he had signed and circulated the general order, and the latter because, though absent at the time, he avowed himself responsible for the conduct of his deputy. Nothing could be more absurd and inconsistent than this procedure on the part of the government. Colonel Monro and Major Boles stood to all intents in the same position. They acted ministerially in obedience to the command of their superiors, and were therefore entitled equally to protection. Government, however, instead of dispensing justice with an even hand, protected the one and punished the other. They thus descended from the vantage ground on which they had previously stood, and became, instead of impartial judges, mere partizans. According to their new doctrine, an officer acting in obedience to orders was yet liable to punishment, if he did not refuse to obey when the orders given might happen to be illegal. If so, the subordinate, when called to act ministerially, is entitled for his own safety to sit in judgment on his superior, and to refuse obedience whenever he can satisfy himself that his superior has erred. This doctrine, if acted upon, would soon make sad havoc with military discipline. It were easy, indeed, to put extreme cases in which the subordinate might be bound to disobey. He might be ordered, for instance, to betray his trust, or commit some other manifest crime. As a general rule, however, his only duty is to obey without incurring the least responsibility. It is probably true that Major Boles, in signing and circulating the general order, displayed not only obedience but zeal. Still, in point of form, he was an irresponsible servant, and the government went far astray when they endeavoured to fasten upon him a different character.

The pernicious results of the course on which the government had now entered soon became apparent. Major Boles was regarded by his fellow-officers as a persecuted man, and as the cause in which he had been made a martyr was theirs, they not only presented addresses to him approving of his conduct and denouncing his sentence, but commenced a subscription to compensate him for his pecuniary loss. The struggle between the government and the army had thus become inevitable, and could not be terminated unless one of the parties gave way. The government took a step which declared that they had no idea of yielding or even of remaining on the defensive. Three months after the suspension of Colonel Capper and Major Boles, a new government order announced a sweeping list of suspensions and supercessions. At the head of those suspended from the service was the Honourable Colonel St. Leger, who had recently terminated the war in Travancore; and among those removed from the command of battalions were Colonels Chalmers and Cappage, who had distinguished themselves in the same campaign. The offences thus punished were stated to be, the signing and influencing others to sign the address to Major Boles, a memorial enumerating the grievances of the Madras army, and intended to be submitted to the governor-general, and a statement which had been drawn up in favour of General Macdowall and forwarded to him at Ceylon. The memorial, the most exceptionable of all the documents, had not been transmitted, and the intention of transmitting it was said to have been abandoned, when a copy of it fell into the hands of Sir George Barlow, and was made the ground of penal proceedings. In one respect these proceedings were wholly unjustifiable. The officers punished were made acquainted at the same moment with the charge and the sentence. They were not tried, and even those who declared their innocence were not allowed to prove it.

In the government order a serious blunder was committed. From strange ignorance of the nature of the disaffection, and the extent to which it had spread, the subsidiary force at Hyderabad was complimented at the expense of the other divisions of the army, for having refused to take any part in the proceedings, which the order characterized as improper and dangerous. The compliment was very unwelcome, and those to whom it was paid took the most effectual means of showing how little they deserved it, by publishing a letter in which they condemned the proceedings of the government, expressed their willingness to contribute to a subscription fund for compensating the suspended officers, and declared their determination to co-operate cordially with the rest of the army in endeavouring to remove the causes of the present discontent. This letter was followed by an address to the governor in council, signed by 158 officers of the Jaulna and Hyderabad divisions, and calling for the restoration of those who had been suspended or removed, as the only means likely to prevent a collision between the civil and military authorities, the destruction of discipline and subordination among the native troops, and the ultimate loss of a large portion of the British dominions in India. Having advanced thus far their boldness increased, and Colonel Montresor, the officer in command of the Hyderabad force, received a paper from his officers which they styled their ultimatum. No longer mincing matters, it demanded the repeal of the government order, the restoration of the officers punished by it, the removal from the staff of the officers who had advised the government, and a general amnesty for all past proceedings. This paper was signed by all the officers, except those on the staff, and to give effect to it, a joint movement from Jaulna and Hyderabad on Madras was actually projected.

At Masulipatam, the natural result to which the prevailing disaffection inevitably tended was realized, and an act of open mutiny was committed by the European regiment quartered there. The officers had borne their full share in the general discontent, and at a convivial meeting had drunk toasts and uttered sentiments, on which their commanding officer had animadverted with some severity. The privates also had some grievances, one of which was their being occasionally drafted as marines to serve in the ships of war in the Bay of Bengal. Hence, when three companies were ordered for marine duty they refused, and the officers taking part in the mutiny arrested their colonel, instituted a committee of managing officers, and opened a correspondence with disaffected divisions at Hyderabad, and in other quarters. Colonel Malcolm, who was at Madras preparing for his Persian mission, was despatched to Masulipatam, and after various attempts to restore order and subordination, returned to report his conviction that nothing but a revocation of the government order would suffice to prevent a general and fatal insurrection. This concession would have been as fatal as insurrection could have been, and Sir George Barlow did wisely in repudiating it. He had undoubtedly committed serious blunders, but none so serious as that which he would have committed had he yielded to the counsels of those who would have escaped from a present mutiny, by placing his neck beneath the foot of the mutineers, and thus destroying all future discipline. As the contest seemed now inevitable, he took his measures with the utmost promptitude and vigour, and struck terror into the mutineers, by showing them plainly what now awaited them. His majesty’s troops were firm to a man; the native troops, when made aware of the fate which their officers were preparing for them, would pause before committing themselves to hostilities with the government, on whom their pay and pensions absolutely depended; and not a few of the officers, having been pushed farther than they ever meant to go, were desirous to recede.

In order to ascertain the relative proportions of well-affected and disaffected officers, and take the necessary steps for the removal of the latter, recourse was had to the very questionable device of employing a test. A paper in this form was accordingly drawn up, and copies of it were sent to the commanding officers of stations, with instructions to require the signatures of their officers to it. Those who refused to sign were to be removed from their regiments to stations on the coast, and remain there till better times might allow of their being again employed. At the same time, the native officers were made acquainted with the points in dispute, and instructed to acquaint the sepoys that the complaints of the European officers were entirely personal, and that their own position and emoluments, if they remained faithful, would not be in the least affected. The Company’s troops were also so stationed as to be kept in check by his majesty’s regiments. All of these measures were very successful except the test, which, on account of the suspicion which it was supposed to imply, was very obnoxious, and was refused by many of whose loyalty there could be no doubt. According to the returns, of 1300 officers on the strength of the Madras army, only 150 signed.

The officers generally, perceiving the hopelessness of the struggle which they had provoked, and not only alarmed at the penal consequences, but also, it is to be charitably presumed, ashamed at the loss of character which they had sustained by their violent and unsoldierlike conduct, began to make their submission; but there were two localities in which the mutinous spirit could not be exorcised without coercive measures. At Seringapatam the European officers, on learning that they were to be separated from their native soldiers, broke out at once into open rebellion. After compelling a small body of his majesty’s troops to quit the fort, they seized the public treasure, drew up the bridges, and placed themselves in an attitude of defiance. A detachment, consisting of the 25th dragoons and one of his majesty’s regiments of infantry, together with a regiment of native cavalry and a native battalion, hastened under Colonel Gibbs to Seringapatam. Meanwhile two native battalions were on their way from Chitteldroog to join the garrison. Some Mysorean horse were sent out to intercept them, but no serious obstacle to their progress was opposed till they arrived within sight of the fort, when seeing the dragoons approaching to encounter them, they took fright, broke, and dispersed. Most of them, however, by means of a demonstration in their favour from the fort, managed to escape into it, though not without a loss of nearly 200 in killed and wounded. During the night the garrison cannonaded the British encampment, and compelled its removal to a greater distance, but this was the last act of hostility on which the mutineers ventured. Afterwards, on learning how gloomy their prospects were, they hastened to make their submission.

The only other locality in which an obstinate resistance was threatened was Hyderabad. When the demonstration there was at its height, it was deemed advisable to send for Colonel Close, the resident at Poonah, whose popularity with the sepoys might, it was supposed, be turned to good account. He arrived on the 3d of August, 1809, and after making his way with some difficulty into the cantonments, succeeded so little by expostulation, that, under some apprehension of personal restraint, he withdrew to the residency to await further instructions. As soon as he withdrew, the committee of officers sent for the divisions at Jaulna and in the Northern Circars. The troops at the former place, at once obeying the summons, made two marches in advance, and those in the Circars were preparing to take the field, when the views of the officers of Hyderabad underwent a change, which they themselves, in a penitential letter to the governor-general, attributed to a kind of sudden conversion, though there is reason to suspect that they were influenced as much by fear as by genuine repentance. All their blustering and violence thus ended in abject humiliation. They signed the test, and began to preach submission by sending to the different stations of the army a circular in which they entreated their brother officers to lose no time in following their example.

On the 11th of September, 1809, Lord Minto arrived at Madras, and was gratified to find the mutiny already quelled. His decided reprobation of the conduct of the mutineers, and his general concurrence with the views of Sir George Barlow were well known, but still, from his known moderation and leniency, much was expected which it would have been vain to expect from the sternness and almost vindictive severity of the governor of Madras. General Macdowall, in some respects the greatest culprit of all, was already beyond the reach of human punishment, the vessel in which he sailed and all on board of her having perished at sea. Other culprits however remained, whose misdeeds could not be passed over. These were officers in command of stations or of separate corps, and officers who had made themselves conspicuous for activity and violence. Only three of the one class and eighteen of the other were selected, the former to be tried by court-martial, and the latter to be at their option either tried in like manner or dismissed. The proceedings of the home authorities with reference to the mutiny may be briefly stated. In the House of Commons papers were called for, but no motion was founded on them. In the court of directors the conduct of Sir George Barlow was generally approved, with two important exceptions—the one, the suspension of Major Boles for signing and circulating General Macdowall’s general order, and the other the suspension of a number of officers, on private information, without notice and without trial. In appointing a new commander-in-chief the impolicy of excluding him from the council was so strongly recognized, that one of the civil members was removed to make way for him. A motion for the recall of Sir George Barlow, though defeated in July, 1811, was renewed at the end of the following year and carried.

The nature of the Madras mutiny, the questions which it raised, and the proper mode of disposing of them, cannot be more clearly stated, nor more authoritatively stated, than in the following extract of a letter written by the Duke of Wellington from Badajoz on the 3d of December, 1809, to Sir John Malcolm: “These transactions and their causes prove that it is not always the man who has the character of being the best-natured, and one of the easiest disposition, who will agree best with those placed in authority over him, or those with whom he is to co-operate. They owe their origin to the disputes of the persons in authority in India, that is to say, between the governor and the commander-in-chief. Both, but principally the latter, looked for partizans and supporters; and these have ended by throwing off all subordination, by relinquishing all habits of obedience, and almost by open resistance. Nothing can be more absurd than the pretext for this conduct. Colonel Monro’s opinion might be erroneous, and might have been harsh towards his brother officers; but not only he ought not to have been brought to a court-martial for giving that opinion, but he ought to have been brought to a court-martial if he had refrained from giving it, when he was called upon by the commander-in-chief to make him a report on a subject referred to his special consideration. The officers of the army are equally wrong in the part they have taken in the subsequent part of the question, which is one between the governor and the commander-in-chief, whether the former had a right to protect Colonel Monro from the acts of the latter, upon which question no man can have a doubt who has any knowledge of the constitution of Great Britain, and particularly of that of the Indian governments. I who have been much in India, and have seen much of the working of the Indian government, am convinced that the governor has a right to protect Colonel Monro, and that the commander-in-chief had no right to arrest him.”

After the reduction of the French islands, the settlements of the Dutch, who, in consequence of Napoleon’s successes, had become, more by compulsion than choice, the allies of the French, became the next objects of attack. All that the British ministry originally contemplated was a vigorous blockade of Java and the Spice Islands. Lord Minto and Admiral Drury concurred in recommending a more decided course, and instead of resting satisfied with blockade, decided on capture. With this view, a small expedition was in the first instance fitted out against the Moluccas, and sailing from Madras, arrived off Amboyna, the largest of the group, in February, 1810. The town, situated at the bottom of a small bay, was defended by batteries placed along the beach and on the adjoining heights, and also by Fort Victoria mounting heavy ordnance. The resistance was feeble, and a summons to surrender, sent as soon as the commanding heights were gained, was at once obeyed. The defence had been disgraceful, for a body of more than 1300 Europeans and Malays surrendered to a third of that number. The governor paid the penalty of his treachery or cowardice with his life. On arriving at Java, to which he was sent in terms of the capitulation, he was tried by a court-martial, found guilty, and shot. In the capture of Amboyna, the so-called massacre which was perpetrated upon it in the early annals of the Company, was for the first time avenged. The Bandas, Ternate, and the other islands of the group, were shortly afterwards taken, and the only important settlement which remained with the Dutch in the Eastern Archipelago was the island of Java. The expedition against it, though previously contemplated, had been deferred till the return of the troops from the Mauritius. These, with the addition of his majesty’s 78th regiment and a portion of the 22d dragoons, were immediately re-embarked, while a large detachment, accompanied by the governor-general in person, sailed from Bengal. The expedition was commanded by Sir Samuel Auchmuty, commander-in-chief at Madras. At Malacca, the appointed rendezvous, the different detachments were assembled by the 1st June, and after an intricate navigation, not as usual through the Straits of Banda, but by an inner passage along the south-west coast of Borneo, the whole force anchored off the north coast of Java, on the 2d of August, 1811. Napoleon’s attention had been particularly called to the island by a feeble attempt made upon it by the British in 1807. Reinforcements had in consequence been sent out, and General Daendels, an able and determined officer, had been appointed governor. Under his management the old forts had been repaired and new formidable works had been erected, but fortunately, perhaps, for the expedition, he had been superseded by General Jansons, just before the expedition arrived.

Instead of entering into details, it must here suffice simply to mention that after Batavia had been easily occupied, and Fort Cornelis carried by a dreadful assault, in which British prowess was signally displayed, the whole island, with its dependencies, was formally surrendered by treaty to Great Britain. Mr. (afterwards Sir) Stamford Raffles, by whom the expedition had been first suggested and its practicability demonstrated, was appointed lieutenant-governor, and Colonel Gillespie, whose skill and gallantry had greatly contributed to the conquest, was left in command of the troops.

The governor-general, shortly after his return to Calcutta in the end of 1811, received information that Earl Moira had been appointed his successor. He had himself expressed a wish to resign in January, 1814, but a change of ministry had made patronage desirable, and the period he had mentioned seeming to the dispensers of it too distant, they had not been able to refrain from manifesting their impatience by recalling him. The short period of office remaining to him was employed in endeavouring to place the amicable relations of the British government with allies and adjoining states on a satisfactory footing, and promoting the internal prosperity of the country. In the former class of arrangements he was not very successful. Oude continued to be in as diseased a state as ever, and the very vague terms in which Marquis Wellesley’s subsidiary treaty was couched, gave rise to interminable misunderstandings between the nabob and the resident; the nabob interpreting them in the sense which gave him the greatest freedom from restraint, and the resident stretching their meaning so as to give him an almost unlimited right of interference. Lord Minto took part with the resident, but ceased to rule before he had completed a final arrangement. In regard to the Nepaulese and the Burmese, his policy was chargeable with dilatoriness, if not with timidity. Both of them had actually encroached on the British territory. Had they been instantly checked in a resolute spirit, they might easily have been intimidated, whereas, by first complaining of encroachment, and then temporizing, Lord Minto encouraged future insolence and aggression, and left the necessary punishment of them as a burdensome legacy to his successor. The same thing may be said of the half measures he adopted to check the incursions of the Pindarees.

In regard to financial arrangements Lord Minto’s administration was eminently successful. The continuation of peace enabled him to give effect to the system of economy which his predecessor commenced, and in the very second year of his administration, the annual deficit disappeared, and a surplus of revenue over expenditure was obtained. This surplus, in his last year of office, amounted to about £1,500,000 sterling. This favourable state of matters, however, was produced, not so much by any increased aggregate of revenue, or by any diminished aggregate of expenditure, as by improved credit, which enabled the Company to contract new loans at a lower, and thus pay off those which they had contracted at a higher rate of interest. On loans opened in 1790, 1796, and 1798, the rate of interest was 12 per cent.; in 1810, the rate on the whole of the Company’s outstanding obligations was reduced to 6 per cent. Simultaneously with this improved power of borrowing, the debt itself had rapidly increased in amount. In 1792 it was little more than £7,000,000 sterling; and in 1799, £10,000,000. In 1805, towards the end of Marquis Wellesley’s administration, it had risen to nearly £21,000,000, and in 1807 to £26,000,000. In this last year the interest was £2,228,000. In the last year of Lord Minto’s administration, though another £1,000,000 had been added to the debt, making it in all £27,000,000, the interest was only £1,636,000; in other words a reduction of interest to the amount of more than £500,000 sterling had been effected.

Among the personal merits of Lord Minto must not be forgotten the interest which he took in native literature, and the liberal patronage which he extended to those who cultivated it. So far as compatible with the restrictions imposed upon him by the home authorities, he endeavoured to carry out the view of Marquis Wellesley in founding the college of Fort William, and he also proposed a plan for the foundation of Hindoo colleges at Nadiya and Tirhoot. These were to have been followed by Mahometan colleges in other localities. The object contemplated by these institutions was to continue to native literature that encouragement which it received from native governments, but which had ceased in consequence of the political revolutions which the country had undergone. In regard to the Baptist missionaries at Serampore, the conduct of Lord Minto unfortunately is inconsistent with itself, and at variance with the good sense and enlightened spirit which he usually displayed. Besides defraying out of the public treasury the expense of several native grammars, dictionaries, and other rudimentary works printed at the Serampore press, he gave liberal aid to the Serampore translations of the Scriptures, and yet issued an edict which evidently tended, if not to crush them altogether, to diminish their usefulness, and bring them under bondage. Sir George Barlow, sharing the prejudices then generally entertained by old European residents, and alarmed at the supposed connection between missionary labours and the Vellore mutiny, prohibited the missionaries from preaching in the public streets, or sending itinerant native preachers through the villages, or gratuitously distributing controversial and religious tracts, but imposed no restriction on their private instructions or Scripture translations, and left them at liberty to perform divine service in Bengalee in their mission-house at Calcutta. One of the first acts of Lord Minto’s government was not merely to renew the restrictions, but to threaten the missionaries with others of a still more rigorous description. The pretext for this procedure was the circulation of a tract in Persian containing what was called a scurrilous account of Mahomet. By a strange perversion of the meaning of words it was held that government, by promising to protect the great body of the people in the undisturbed exercise of their religion, were thereby pledged not to allow any one to obtrude upon them printed works containing arguments or exhortations at variance with their religious tenets. The inference drawn was, that the Company were under an obligation to suppress, within the limits of their territory, treatises and public preaching offensive to the religious persuasions of the people—an obligation which considerations of necessary caution, of general safety, and national faith and honour, made it imperative on them to fulfil. In conformity to this very curious pledge and obligation, the governor-general in council not only prohibited the issue of religious tracts, but ordered that public preaching in the vernacular tongue in the mission-house at Calcutta should be discontinued. Even this was not deemed sufficient, and for the avowed purpose of bringing the missionary press more immediately under the control of the officers of the government, the missionaries were commanded to remove it from Serampore to Calcutta.

In order to see all the enormity of this edict it is necessary to remember that at this time Serampore was Danish, not British territory, and that the governor-general in council had no more right to expel the missionaries from it than to expel them from Copenhagen. Thus, under the pretext of maintaining what was called “national faith and honour,” he was grossly violating both, by tyrannically interfering with the rights of an European sovereign. The removal of the missionaries from Serampore was equivalent to a confiscation of their property there, since it rendered the whole establishment on which their capital had been expended worthless. If, by some absurd misnomer, this could be called toleration to Hindoos and Mahometans, what was it to Christian missionaries but rank persecution? They were to be put to an expense which they declared to be ruinous, and their mouths were to be gagged in order that they might not be able to preach the gospel within their own mission-house to the natives who would have come of their own accord to listen to it. The whole proceeding was so monstrous, that when the missionaries remonstrated, government hesitated in carrying out coercive measures which could only have been characterized as an anti-Christian crusade. The interdict on preaching in the chapel at Calcutta was withdrawn, and the missionaries saved their Serampore press by submitting to a censorship. Henceforth, not one of the tracts penned by such men as Carey, Marshman, and Ward, nor indeed any work whatever, could issue from their press until it had undergone a degrading inspection, and received the imprimatur of the government secretary at Calcutta.

The tyrannical edict directed against the Baptist missionaries is the great blot on Lord Minto’s administration, and is the more to be regretted, because he had in many respects well earned the honour of being regarded as a model governor-general. Before he quitted the government, the crown testified its approbation of his services by advancing him a step in the peerage, by which he became Earl Minto. This honour, apparently the only reward which he received, he was not permitted long to enjoy, as he died in 1814, a few months after his arrival in this country. With the termination of his administration, a new era in the history of British India commenced. The twenty years for which the Company’s charter was renewed by Act 33 Geo. III. c. 52, expired on the 1st of March, 1814, and with a view to this event, the three years’ notice to which the Company were entitled, was given in the beginning of March, 1811. An account of the important discussions which preceded the renewal of the charter, and the terms on which it was ultimately granted, must be reserved to form the appropriate commencement of a new volume.