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 LOED MINTO IN INJ)IA 
 
 LIFE AM) LETTERS 
 
 GILBERT ELLIOT, FIRST EAIiL OF MINTO 
 
 FROM 
 
 1807 TO 1814 
 
 WHILE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA 
 
 BEINO A SEQUEL TO HIS “LIFE AXl) LETTERV’ PUBLISHED IN ISi-l 
 
 EDITED BY HIS GREAT-NIECE 
 
 THE COUNTESS OF MINTO 
 
 LONDON 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 1880 
 
 .m fiijhts rtservtfd 
 
/'^ 64-7 L 
 
 PREFA GE. 
 
 In one of Lord Minto’s letters from India he says, in 
 reference to a recent publication, that, in his judgment, 
 a biography should not be made to contain all that can 
 be told about a man, but should rather aim at giving a 
 judicious selection of what is calculated to represent his 
 actions and character. 
 
 Upon this principle the selection from his letters 
 and papers now published has been made. 
 
 It has no pretension to historical comprehensiveness. 
 The historians of British India have treated the period 
 of Ijord Minto’s administration with a weight of 
 authority, and in a spirit of candour, leaving nothing 
 to be desired. 
 
 Many important transactions are recorded in their 
 pages which find no place in this correspondence, and 
 others again are brought prominently forward in the 
 letters which heretofore have been well nigh overlooked. 
 
 Nevertheless, the life of a statesman floats on the 
 tide of history, and his public conduct cannot be fairly 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 vii 
 
 judged, apart from the conditions of the time in which 
 he lived. 
 
 When Lord Minto landed in India in 1807, fifty 
 years had barely elapsed since the British merchants of 
 t'alcutta had become sovereigns of Bengal. One of 
 his aides-de-camp who visited the battle-field of Plassy 
 in 1808 was conducted over the ground by an eye¬ 
 witness of that memorable victory. In the period that 
 followed it, the genius of Clive and of Warren Hastings 
 extended the Company’s rule. 
 
 Muthin a decade of Lord Minto’s assumption of 
 the Grovernor-Generalship the victorious arms of 
 Ijord Wellesley had asserted the supremacy of the 
 British Power over the greater part of the Peninsula. 
 But his policy was disapproved at home; his career of 
 victory was arrested while his conquests were still un¬ 
 consolidated ; and the services which had been the 
 instruments of his success were subjected to a somewhat 
 drastic treatment of retrenchment and reform. 
 
 On Lord Minto’s arrival in India, he found a con¬ 
 dition bordering on anarchy in the newly ceded 
 territories; a barely suppressed rebellion among the 
 newly subjugated races; discontent in the Company’s 
 services; and a general objection to the restraints of 
 legality. 
 
 Within two years of his instalment in the seat of 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 vii 
 
 government, he came into conflict with pretensions of 
 all others most dangerous to an infant State—those 
 engendered by religious bigotry, and by the spirit of 
 military ascendancy. How unflinchingly he asserted 
 the paramount authority of the civil power, while never 
 forgetting that law and justice are the only stable 
 foundations of government, may be seen in the corre¬ 
 spondence now published. 
 
 \. .AI. 
 
 Minto : Novemlcr 8, 1879. 
 
 Note.— In the first pages of the Introduction to this volume, Lord 
 Minto is stated to have left England in February 1807, whereas 
 October 1806 is given as the date of his departure in the last volume 
 of his ‘Life and Letters,’ published by me in 1874. It had been 
 originally fixed for the earlier period, but was subsequently post¬ 
 poned ;—a fact of which I was ignorant when the volumes of his 
 European correspondence were brought to a conclusion. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAF'TER 
 
 I. Introduction*.1 
 
 11. VoYAoE —Madras—Calcutta—Change of Ad¬ 
 ministration—Lady Malmesbury's Letters . i:5 
 
 III. State of India — External Policy—Internal 
 
 Policy — The Native Races—The Mission¬ 
 aries .4!) 
 
 IV. Family Correspondence.83 
 
 V. Position of England—Defence of India — Rela¬ 
 
 tions WITH Persia and Turkey — Mission to 
 Persia.;)7 
 
 VI. Mission to Lahore. 141 
 
 VII. Mission to Cabul.15!) 
 
 VHI. News fro.m Europe—May in India—Dacoities . ITK 
 
 IX. Mutiny of Madras Ar.my.1!)7 
 
 X. Family Letters—Edinburgh in 180‘J . . . 228 
 
X 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CII.VI'TKU P.\OE 
 
 XI. Foreign Policy—Conquest op French Islands . 239 
 
 XII. Expedition to Java.24!) 
 
 XIII. Calcutta—Official Correspondence—Letters 
 FROM London—from India- Ubcali op Lord 
 Minto— Earldom.318 
 
 XR". Kbvievv of Lord Minto’s Internal Administra¬ 
 tion— Finance — Schemes for IIetrench- 
 ment—Free Trade—Military Expenditure 
 — Balance op Power—College of Fort 
 William—Scheme for Native Colleges . 3.52 
 
 XV. Conclusion—Lord Minto’s return to England— 
 
 London—Minto— His Death .382 
 
 INDEX 
 
 39,5 
 
LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TjORD Minto assumed the reins of government at 
 Calcutta on July 3, 1807. 
 
 Before entering on this new chapter of his life it 
 will be desirable to cast a retrospective glance over the 
 circumstances which had led to his appointment to the 
 government of India. 
 
 On the formation in 1806, of the Whig Ministry, 
 called that of ‘ the Talents,’ Lord Minto became Presi¬ 
 dent of the Board of Control, and in that capacity 
 confirmed ‘ under reserve ’ the succession of Sir George 
 Barlow to the office of Governor General which, vacated 
 by the death of Lord Cornwallis, devolved as a matter 
 of course upon Sir George as senior member of Council, 
 until a fresh appointment coidd be made in England. 
 
 The death of Lord Cornwallis had occurred almost 
 simultaneously with the advent of the Whigs to power. 
 It will be remembered that the brilliant administration 
 of Lord Wellesley was brought to a close by his recall. 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 While he was engaged in creating an empire, his mas¬ 
 ters in Leadenhall Street were learning to their dismay 
 that the process was not a paying one. Impoverished 
 finances with augmented responsibilities led them to 
 the conclnsion that the interests of a trading company 
 might be placed in safer if not in abler hands. At 
 their urgent desire Lord Cornwallis was prevailed on 
 to return to India to inaugurate a reign of peace, 
 and to observe a strict abstention from interference 
 in the affairs of the Native States beyond the British 
 frontier. 
 
 But Lord Cornwallis was old and infirm; he felt 
 that he went out to die, and his death followed 
 almost immediately on his arrival in India. When his 
 authority fell to Sir Greorge Barlow, the Directors 
 were happy to find in him, though a quondam pupil 
 of Lord Wellesley, a thorough-going supporter of 
 the policy which they had committed to Lord 
 Cornwallis, and would gladly have confirmed him in 
 the office of Grovernor Greneral; but such was not the 
 intention of the Cabinet. 
 
 Early in February, Lord Minto was instructed to 
 inform Sir George Barlow that the permanency of his 
 appointment was not to be considered as determined, 
 and on the 1st of April he wrote again to announce to 
 Sir George the intended nomination of his successor; 
 remarking at the same time that when in his former 
 letter he had stated the King’s Government to have 
 reserved their ulterior judgment, he was not aware it 
 was so near the point of decision, for had he known it 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 3 
 
 he would, at once, have frankly and candidly imparted 
 that information to Sir Gleorge himself. 
 
 Writing to his old friend Lord William Bentinck, 
 Governor of Madras, on the same day, April 1, Lord 
 hlinto says:—‘ The arrangements with regard to the 
 Government of Bengal are always considered as belong¬ 
 ing to the Cabinet, in which I have not a seat. But in 
 fact this particular measure has been settled and con¬ 
 ducted I may say with the entire exclusion of my voice 
 or judgment in the afhxir. It was determined upon 
 some weeks before it reached my ears, and it was only 
 communicated to me on the day on which I was de¬ 
 sired to communicate it to the Chairs. I do not say 
 this in the way of complaint, being assured that the 
 perfect cordiality of Lord Grenville towards me pre¬ 
 cludes the possibility of intentional slight.’ 
 
 Whatever the reasons may have been for the con 
 duct of the Cabinet, it certainly had an appearance of 
 want of candour that sufficiently accounted for the 
 irritation manifested by the Court of Directors. They 
 had not forgotten that the Prime INIinister, Lord Gren¬ 
 ville, had warmly approved of the administration of 
 Lord Wellesley which they had condemned, and when 
 the name of Lord Lauderdale was made known as that 
 of the chosen successor to Sir George Barlow, they at 
 once refused to consider the nomination. The Govern¬ 
 ment, persisting in their measure, exercised a power 
 given to the King by 33 Geo. III. c. 52, and vacated the 
 commission of Sir George. Both parties being equally 
 resolved, the quarrel grew hot and bitter. Mr. Fox 
 
4 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 supported the pretensions of Lord Lauderdale with that 
 passionate carelessness of consequences where his feel¬ 
 ings were concerned which made him so beloved as a 
 friend and so distrusted as a statesman. He positively- 
 refused to listen to any other name, and somewhat 
 autocratically desired that the Ministry should abandon 
 the right of nomination altogether, rather than with¬ 
 draw the one they had made in comphance with the 
 objections of the Court of Directors. The discussions 
 in the Cabinet were so prolonged and warm that Lord 
 Minto appears to have had misgivings as to the extent 
 to Avhich the divergences of opinion manifested there 
 might ultimately be carried. In the course of the 
 summer he wrote to Lady Minto that, while believing 
 Lord Lauderdale to have many qualifications for the 
 office of Grovernor Greneral which would justify the 
 appointment, he should himself resign if the Grovern- 
 ment persisted in forcing on the Company an indivi¬ 
 dual obnoxious to them. A rupture between the 
 Directors and the controlling power was imminent 
 when Lord Lauderdale suddenly withdrew his preten¬ 
 sions, induced by the serious illness of JMr. Fox to 
 spare him further agitation on the subject. 
 
 Lord Grrenville immediately nominated Lord Minto, 
 and the appointment proved to be equally acceptable 
 to the Directors and to the public. 
 
 ‘ When the appointment of Lord Lauderdale be¬ 
 came manifestly impossible,’ wrote Lord Minto to Lord 
 William Bentinck, ‘ the views of all parties turned to¬ 
 wards me, and the accidental union which manifested 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 5 
 
 itself on this choice seemed to make my nomination a 
 sort of peace-offering on both sides, and a means of 
 compromise and reconciliation which might solve a 
 great difficulty. Under this inducement I accepted, 
 not without a strong private and domestic struggle, 
 nor without an anxious distrust of my qualifications 
 for so weighty a burthen, a situation which, so far from 
 seeking, I thought a week before no human persuasion 
 could have led me to undertake.’ 
 
 Though by no means an adherent on all points to 
 Lord Wellesley’s policy. Lord Minto was, as Lord Gren¬ 
 ville well knew, second to no man in his devotion to 
 the honour and interests of the Empire, while the 
 natural moderation of his character convinced the 
 Directors that no hankerings after a showy policy 
 would prevent their instructions from being rigor¬ 
 ously observed. If these were limited, as he after¬ 
 wards playfully declared, to a general recommenda¬ 
 tion to maintain a system of non-intervention, and a 
 more definite one to control the consumption of pen¬ 
 knives, we may assume that their confidence in the 
 new Governor General was complete. 
 
 With Lord Grenville he had many conversations 
 in which were foreshadowed the main features of the 
 policy that before the close of his administration left 
 Great Britain without a rival in the Eastern hemi¬ 
 sphere. 
 
 Such having been the circumstances that led to 
 the appointment of Lord hlinto to the government of 
 India, a few words may be permitted to us on the per- 
 
6 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 sonal conditions which pointed him out as singularly 
 fitted for the post. 
 
 Lord Minto’s early and intimate connection with 
 Bmke was the keynote of his political career. For that 
 great man he formed an enthusiastic affection which 
 was returned with so much tenderness and confidence 
 that, when indulging after long years in a retrospect 
 of their old friendship, he was able to say, ‘ I believe I 
 was among those whom Burke loved best, and most 
 trusted.’ 
 
 Some of Burke’s finest orations were due to the 
 profound interest he felt in the relations of England 
 and India, to the indignation with which he saw the 
 interests of the native princes and people trafficked 
 away by the servants of a trading Company, and to the 
 disgust with which he recognised that the riding powers 
 in England had minds too small for the sphere of their 
 duty. These sentiments were intensified by the natural 
 bias of his intellect. There was an epic grandeur in 
 the dramas enacting on that most ancient stage, a 
 tragic dignity in the fallen estate of dynasties as 
 ancient, a magnitude in the scale of the crimes and 
 triumphs, the sorrows and sufferings of which India 
 was the scene, that stirred his keenest sympathies, and 
 called forth the scathing eloquence that imparts to 
 those who hear it something of its divine fervour. 
 Burke must be allowed the honour of having been the 
 first to awaken in the British Parliament and people 
 a sense of their duty to the native races of India; yet 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 it cannot be denied that when the light of his imagina¬ 
 tion played over the stores of his knowledge, an ideal 
 India was created, brilliant and unreal as the luminous 
 pageants which Asiatics love to trace in lines of fire on 
 midnight skies. The following passage from his speech 
 on the East India Bill in 1783, curious for various 
 reasons at the present day, may serve at once to confirm 
 this assertion and to show the traditions of a school 
 of which Burke was the master. 
 
 ‘ This multitude of men does not consist of an abject 
 and barbarous populace; much less of gangs of savages, 
 like the Gruaranis and Chiquitos, who wander on the 
 waste borders of the river of Amazons or the Plate ; but 
 a people for ages civilised and cultivated; cultivated 
 by all the arts of polished life, whilst we were yet in 
 the woods. There, have been (and still the skeletons 
 remain) princes once of great dignity, authority, and 
 opulence. There, are to be found the chiefs of tribes 
 and nations. There, is to be found an ancient and 
 venerable priesthood, the depositary of their laws, learn¬ 
 ing, and industry, the guides of the people whilst living, 
 and their consolation in death; a nobility of great 
 antiquity and renown; a multitude of cities, not exceeded 
 in population and trade by those of the first class in 
 Europe; merchants and bankers, individual houses of 
 whom have once vied in capital with the Bank of 
 England . . . millions of ingenious manufacturers 
 and mechanics; millions of the most diligent, and not 
 the least intelligent, tillers of the earth. Here are to 
 be found almost all the religions professed by men; 
 
8 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 the Brahminical, the Mussulman, the Eastern and the 
 Western Christians. 
 
 ‘ If I were to take the Avhole aggregate of our pos¬ 
 sessions there, I should compare it as the nearest 
 parallel I could find to the Empire of Giermany; om 
 immediate possessions I should compare with the 
 Austrian dominions, and they would not suffer in the 
 comparison. The Nabob of Oude might stand for the 
 King of Prussia ; the Nabob of Arcot I would compare, 
 as superior in territory and equal in revenue, to the 
 Elector of Saxony. The Eajah of Benares might well 
 rank with the Prince of Hesse, at least; and the Eajah 
 of Tanjore (though hardly equal in extent of dominion, 
 superior in revenue) with the Elector of Bavaria. The 
 Polygars and the northern Zemindars and other great 
 chiefs might well class with the rest of the princes, 
 dukes, counts, marquises, and bishops in the Empire; 
 all of whom I mention to honour, and surely without 
 disparagement to any or all of those most respectable 
 princes and grandees.’ * 
 
 It was no doubt due to Sir Grilbert’s ardent sym¬ 
 pathy with the views and the labours of his friend that 
 in 1783 he was designated as one of the seven Parlia¬ 
 mentary Directors (the Seven Kings as they were called) 
 to be appointed under the provisions of ]Mr. Fox’s India 
 Bill. 
 
 The measure was lost, and as with it collapsed the 
 Ministry and the reign of the Whig party, the honour 
 was a barren one; but his first appearance on the 
 * Speech on the East India Bill. Burhe's Worlis, vol. i. p. 338. 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 9 
 
 political stage in a leading part was nevertheless des¬ 
 tined to be connected with the interests of India. 
 Two sessions had passed since he and Mirabeau stood 
 together at the Bar of the House of Commons to 
 listen to the great tribunes of England, when Sir 
 Gilbert himself made his first important effort in that 
 formidable assembly, and moved the Impeachment of 
 Sir Elijah Impey in a speech which elicited the warm 
 admiration of its most illustrious members. 
 
 In the following year he became one of the man¬ 
 agers in the trial of Warren Hastings. ‘ His earnest 
 desire,’ he said in his opening speech on that occasion, 
 ‘ to befriend the natives of India had decided him to 
 undertake a business in many respects most uncon¬ 
 genial to his nature.’ But another determining cause 
 was the urgency with which Burke besought him to 
 throw off his modesty, ‘ his only fault,’ and the warmth 
 of encouragement which hailed his opening effort. A 
 note, written in December 1787 and sent to Sir Gilbert 
 with a book intended to be of use to him while euffaged 
 in the preparation of his charge against Sir Elijah 
 Impey, ends thus : 
 
 ‘ God bless you and forward your good under¬ 
 taking. Stick to it. You have years before you, and 
 if I were of your age, and had your talents and your 
 manners, I shoidd not despair of seeing India a happy 
 country in a few years. Yours ever, 
 
 ‘ E. Burke.’ 
 
 Having kept all these things in his heart he could 
 
10 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 not but ponder on them at the moment when his 
 destiny was about to lead him among the people to 
 whom his early sympathies had been given; nothing 
 could be more natmal than that a few of his last hours 
 in England should be spent with all that remained of 
 his old friend. ‘ I paid my visit to h'lrs. Burke yester¬ 
 day,’ he wrote to his wife a day or two before his 
 embarkation, ‘ and took leave of the old groves as well 
 as of herself by walking round the place which to me 
 and a few other people is sanctified—as I am never 
 there without feeling. Sitting there alone I thought 
 of more things than even you would understand.’ 
 
 From the groves which crown the heights of 
 Beaconsfield it was only a pleasant drive to Taplow 
 Court, where Lord and Lady Thomond (Sir Joshua 
 Eeynolds’ niece) owned one of the loveliest places on 
 the Thames ; thence it was no ‘ far cry ’ to Dropmore, 
 the home of the Grrenvilles ; nor to Park Place, that of 
 the hlalmesburys, with the little ‘ Lavender House ’ ^ 
 nestling under its slopes. Of each and of all these 
 familiar haunts he took a long farewell. While to 
 some of those, for whose sake they were dear, the word 
 itself remained unspoken. 
 
 A pathetic proof of its bitterness to others as well 
 as to himself is given in a letter addressed to him at 
 Portsmouth, by Lady Malmesbury. 
 
 * Belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Culverden, sister of Lady Palmerston. 
 
INTKODUCTION. 
 
 11 
 
 ‘ Spring Gardens : February 10, 1807. 
 
 ‘ I must send you a few lines to thank you for 
 sparing me the most wretched of all things—a parting 
 scene. People feel so differently on these points that 
 I would not ask you to do so, in case you felt 
 differently, and no selfish feelings could be attended 
 to by me on such an occasion. In youth one rather 
 covets such things as call forth the feelings, but in 
 later life there is less spring to support them, and I 
 am inclined to believe that as the passions weaken the 
 feelings strengthen. I therefore repeat that I thank 
 you sincerely for not coming here, and that I consider 
 the last squeeze of your hand as fully satisfactory. . . . 
 I hope and pray that the sacrifice you have made may 
 be rewarded in every possible shape, and that the in¬ 
 terval may be as little irksome as it can be. I am 
 sure that the retrospect of it will be one of its princi¬ 
 pal rewards, as the will of doing good will equal the 
 power in your hands, and the latter is unequalled 
 perhaps in any situation on the globe.’ 
 
 Lord Malmesbury wrote in like strain ; 
 
 ‘London : February 10, 1807. 
 
 ‘ I really could not make up my mind to see you 
 before you left London. I even studiously avoided it. 
 The taking leave of an old and affectionate friend, 
 going for several years to a very distant country, at 
 my time of life and with my infirmities, is a very pain- 
 
12 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 fill task, and calculated to raise so many melancholy 
 sensations that I shrank from attempting it. 
 
 ‘ I feel almost sure you guessed and understood the 
 motives of my conduct, but there is a satisfaction in 
 writing them to you, resting on the same feeling which 
 made it so painful for me to express them personally, 
 
 ‘ If we do meet again, why we shall smile, 
 
 If not, why then this parting was well made.’ 
 
 Before the frigate sailed which was to convey 
 him to India, Lord Minto sent a few parting lines to 
 his wife, in which the following passage occurs. 
 
 ‘ February 6, 1807. 
 
 ‘ I took leave of Grilbert' yesterday after sealing my 
 letter to you, and I may reckon the worst moments of 
 my probation over. The last was one of those of which 
 it is impossible to say all that is felt, and if one could 
 it is better to suppress it. Many people have said of 
 their sons that they have never given them pain; I 
 can say with perfect and literal truth that there has 
 not been an instant of his life on which I have reflected 
 without comfort and delight. So much for that. The 
 Avind has not been fair.’ 
 
 ' His eldest son, Gilbert Elliot, afterwards second Earl of Minto. 
 
VOYAGE TO INDIA. 
 
 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The voyage from England to Madras, in the ‘ Modeste ’ 
 frigate commanded by George Elliot, Lord Minto’s 
 second son, took four months. As it neither pro¬ 
 duced a sea fight nor ended in disaster it was con¬ 
 sidered to have been favoured by fortune. The nearest 
 ajjproach to such naval adventures as Lord JMinto had 
 witnessed in the Mediterranean' was a chase after a 
 couple of our own merchantmen, whence half-a-dozen 
 sailors were extracted to make up the ‘ Alodeste’s ’ own 
 very deficient complement, chiefly composed of raw lands¬ 
 men. No less ill-fitted than ill-manned, the frigate after 
 weathering a severe gale reached IMadeira in need of 
 serious repairs. ‘ A little more would have been too 
 much for us,’ wrote Lord Minto in the log kept for the 
 benefit of the family circle at home ; but he was com¬ 
 forted for the delay by a sight of scenery that reminded 
 him of Nice and Bastia, and the enjoyment of a (piiet 
 morning, ‘ rusticating in all the ways I like, among 
 flowering trees and shrubs regaling the air with per¬ 
 fume.’ A pathetic interest is lent to these few lines 
 by the circumstance that never again in his journal- 
 ' When Viceroy of Corsica. 
 
14 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 like letters is meution made of ‘ ways ’ hitherto so fre¬ 
 quently recorded as to form part of his habitual life, 
 whether the summer hours were spent on the craigs of 
 INIinto, under the chestnuts of Sheen, or by the bright 
 Avaters of the Thames,— 
 
 That, as they bicker'd thro’ the sunny glade, 
 
 Tho’ restless still themselves, a lulling murmur made. 
 
 Of the log no more need be said than that no one of 
 those for whom it was kept but could find some con¬ 
 genial topic there. For his son there were comments 
 on soldiers and sailors, colonists and governors; for 
 his daughters bright little word-pictures of Funchal 
 and Cape Town—for the youngest, the only child left 
 in the family, tales of the mids that came to his cabin 
 for their daily treat of oranges, and of their pet play¬ 
 fellow, a goat that was born on board ship, rated her¬ 
 self one of them, and knew no more of craigs than the 
 INIinto pointers had told her.^ Lastly, for his wife there 
 was the constant recurrence of words showing how all 
 his thoughts ended in her. ‘Cape Town, May, 1807. 
 In the country I am now driving through, there is a 
 quarter called Franzneuk or French corner. It is so 
 called from some French refugees, expelled by the 
 edict of Nantes, who took refuge in South Africa, and 
 obtained grants of land where they cultivated the vine, 
 and I have no doubt advanced that art very materially. 
 To what country has that event not brought some 
 
 ' Lord Minto was carrying a couple of pointers to India as a 
 present to his son. 
 
JEt. 56] 
 
 MADRAS. 
 
 15 
 
 precious acquisition ? ’ It will be remembered that 
 Lady Minto Avas. descended from a Huguenot family. 
 
 After one of these playful entries he says : ‘ Heaven 
 knows I am serious enough as the serious scene draAvs 
 near.’ "A 
 
 The next day he was at Madras. 
 
 The ‘ Modeste ’ anchored in the Madras roads on the 
 evening of June 20, 1807. At six o’clock next morn¬ 
 ing Lord William Bent inch, and John Elliot ’ came on 
 board to Avelcomehim-—‘both unchanged,and unchange¬ 
 able.’ Though Lord IMinto Avas detained at IMadras for a 
 fortnight by the necessity of having a neAv foremast for 
 the ‘ Modeste,’ he could take no official part there since 
 his commission could only be opened on his arrival at 
 Calcutta, but he profited by the opportunity to ac¬ 
 quaint himself Avith the affairs of that perturbed Presi¬ 
 dency Avhere some of the mutineers of Vellore were still 
 under sentence awaiting their fate.^ As those parts of 
 his letters which relate to that disastrous event contain 
 little more than his personal opinion upon facts long 
 since established they are omitted. His first impres¬ 
 sions of Indian life have more interest. 
 
 * John Edmund Elliot, third son of Lord Minto, who had been 
 appointed to a writership in 1805, and now became private secretary 
 to his father. 
 
 - The European barracks at Vellore had been seized in the night 
 of July 10, 1806, by two battalions of Sepoys, in the Company’s 
 service, and their inmates put to tlie sword. The mutiny was put 
 down almost immediately, but a general revolt of the native troops 
 was for some time apprehended. A proclamation of the Madras 
 Covernment, dated December 3, 1806, states the cause of the mutiny 
 to have been an unfounded belief that the Government meant to 
 convert the native troops by forcible means to Christiatiity. 
 
16 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 ‘ Madras: June 29. 
 
 ‘ The novelty of this scene exceeds even my ex¬ 
 pectations. I have already told you of our safe arrival 
 and perfect health. I do not find the heat at all 
 amiss, though it is the hottest season of the year. I 
 never go out at all till five o’clock in the afternoon ; 
 it is then cool enough to drive in the curricle. John 
 is my coachman. We take a giro on the Mount Eoad 
 which is the general resort at that time of day, and 
 strike off occasionally for variety into other roads. 
 The roads are all as fine as the smoothest gravel walks, 
 being composed of pounded brick; the dust of this is 
 rather troublesome. They are extremely wide, with 
 trees on each side, and are in effect handsome avenues. 
 The whole of the Choultry plain, which extends seven 
 or eight miles from Madras, is divided into villas and 
 pleasure-grounds, and the grounds are so extensive 
 that the houses are much farther from each other than 
 on Putney Heath, or Wimbledon Common. These are 
 the habitations of the English, and the higher class of 
 natives. John and I finish our drive where we are 
 invited to dine, the hoirr being seven o’clock. As yet 
 I am in a round of great dinners, at which I meet the 
 same thirty or forty grandees every day. 
 
 IMost peojjle come and go in their palanquins, and 
 travel at the rate of five or six miles an hour, carried 
 by four bearers, and attended by four more to relieve 
 each other, all running and always singing some ditty 
 or other. Indeed, in carriages, going a good round 
 pace with four horses on a smooth road, you are always 
 
jEt. 66] 
 
 MADRAS. 
 
 17 
 
 attended by men on foot, one for each horse, and oft(m 
 more for dignity—so that it is not one running 
 footman or two, with a fine gentleman or fine lady ; 
 here and there one, as in Glermany or Italy, but every 
 sort of person here is followed by a cloud of volantes. 
 This annoys me extremely, very much to John’s amuse¬ 
 ment, who assures me that they like it, while I am 
 thinking how I should like it myself with my lungs in 
 this burning sun. They run thirty miles on end with¬ 
 out thinking much of it, and will set off back again 
 with little or no rest. One advantage is that they are 
 not burdened with a heavy wardrobe. I was not pre¬ 
 pared for the entire nakedness of the Oentoo inhabitants. 
 I mean the men, nine tenths of whom have literally no 
 clothes except only a narrow belt about the waist from 
 which another is passed between the limbs exactly as in 
 the South Sea Islands. In this attire crowds are in 
 the streets, and in the roads, and walk about your 
 house. It seems really strange to a griffin —the cant 
 word for a European just arrived, and would, I suppose, 
 seem still stranger to our countrywomen if these men 
 were white instead of black or bronze. The Queen (of 
 Naples) might here study figures without anything to 
 “ abimer ” her models. This race of men are not 
 exactly Academy figures, not being very muscidar, but 
 their forms are remarkably delicate and elegant, and 
 many of their countenances uncommonly fine. . . The 
 habit of walking without clothes gives them a free and 
 manly as well as a graceful gait. The rest of the in¬ 
 habitants, who are Moors, and the richer Gentoos, are 
 
 C 
 
18 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 dressed in varions degrees and fashions, but universally 
 in white muslin, and mostly robed down to the feet. 
 From that fortunate class to the lowest there is a 
 reafular o-radation of dishabille. The women are almost 
 
 O O 
 
 universally very ugly. They certainly have none of 
 them livers, for the vertical sun makes them no hotter 
 than it makes a cucumber. They work hard in his very 
 beams, and, when they may rest, lie in them on the 
 baked sand even when shade is close to them. 
 
 ‘ The Hindoos are all marked with the distinctive 
 sign of their castes. These are painted or rather 
 plastered on their foreheads with chunam, a sort of 
 very fine plaster lime, for which Madras is famous. It 
 is coloured in various ways, sometimes gilt, but gene¬ 
 rally of a yellow tint. The marks consist in a score 
 or several scores upon the forehead, some horizontal, 
 some vertical, some oblique, according to the caste. A 
 very frequent mark is a round patch just above the 
 nose. They all perform their ablutions every morning 
 before they eat. The marks of caste are therefore 
 effaced. They breakfast without them and renew them 
 immediately afterwards. The best sort wash before 
 each meal, morning and evening-—and must renew 
 their decorations therefore twice a day. 
 
 ‘ There are two sorts of distinction amongst these 
 people on perfectly separate principles, but both exist¬ 
 ing together in their full force ; one, as in the rest 
 of the world, consists in the difference of fortune and 
 power; the other takes no notice of these vulgar sources 
 of consideration, but sets them all at defiance, and 
 
^T. 56] 
 
 MADRAS. 
 
 19 
 
 maintains itself in spite of all worldly vicissitudes. 
 A Brahmin of the highest caste may be the servant or 
 at least the humble dependant of a man of an inferior 
 caste; but the master, in such cases, must not pre¬ 
 sume to sit down or to eat in the presence of his 
 servant, and the latter would think himself dishonoured 
 by being even looked at by his rich superior while 
 cooking his rice. 
 
 ‘ All Christians and other pagans are classed with the 
 lowest or Pariah caste. Sometimes people of this caste 
 enlist in the Sepoy regiments, and Sir John Cradock, 
 Knight of the Bath and Commander-in-chief, told me 
 that a Pariah Sepoy had sometimes come to him for a 
 furlough or some other small favour, and by way of 
 recommending himself has said, “ Master know I be 
 Master’s caste,” and I daresay has paid master no small 
 compliment by acknowledging him even for a Pariah. 
 
 ‘ A thousand whimsical consequences, and ten thou¬ 
 sand inconvenient, often ruinous, restraints, result 
 from these original but firmly established institutions. 
 One great convenience, however, of these singularities I 
 must mention, which is that no servant is fed or even 
 lodges in the house. They receive so much money, 
 and very little it is, and provide for themselves. The 
 coachmen alone wear liveries, and they are dressed 
 exactly like English postilions; but, as soon as they 
 leave their box, they strip oflf their European finery, 
 and walk off stark naked to their own huts and dress 
 their rice, and have no more to do with you till the 
 carriage comes. The coachman would scorn to rub his 
 
20 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 horse down, and the horse-keeper would scorn to rub 
 more than one horse; hence it is lucky that all these 
 gentlemen have no religious prejudice against low 
 wages : eight or ten shillings a month pays all wages. 
 
 ‘ I suppose there are fifty things in sight and hearing 
 every minute that would amuse you in description, 
 but my eye is spoilt already, and I hardly know what is 
 strange and what is common. 
 
 ‘ I have told you very little about the Nabob (of the 
 Carnatic), although no day passes without messengers 
 from him, in the morning to enquire how I slept, and 
 in the middle of the day to present a gift of fruit and 
 flowers. He insists on my seeing these messengers 
 with great silver sticks and returning my salaams by 
 them, which is a great and grievous bore twice a day. 
 After my first visit he sent me a dinner of at least fifty 
 dishes, each of which was brought on the head of a 
 black damsel. This feast was displayed on the floor of 
 the colonnade, and I was brought forth to see the rich 
 embroidered covers taken off, and to admire the cook- 
 shop. I made my salaam, and the repast was devoured 
 by Lord William’s body-guard. This present of a 
 dinner is an established custom in the East. The 
 Nabob is a very fat black-bearded person about 
 thirty. At my first visit he received me at the door of 
 my coach, having bargained that I should do the like 
 when he returned my visit. He embraced me as soon 
 as I was out of the coach with most affectionate hugs, 
 saying each time, “ How d’ye do, Grov'ernor General ? ” 
 
^T. 56] 
 
 MADEAS. 
 
 21 
 
 This I thought a very suitable salutation at our meet¬ 
 ing, but it seemed less neat and appropriate at my 
 departure, when, at the coach door, he repeated the 
 four embraces with “ How d’ye do. Governor General ? ” 
 four times again. During the reception he sat on a 
 sofa in a great hall, in which was also the musnud or 
 throne, I on his right. Lord William on his left. Then 
 our interpreter made us mutually happy by assurances 
 of each other’s perfect health, and the Nabob returned 
 thanks to God for the health of the King, the Queen, 
 the Prince of Wales, all the Princes and Princesses, 
 the Court of Directors, the House of Peers, and all 
 the Members of the House of Commons, every one of 
 whom I assured him I had left in the most blooming 
 health. We were then still more deeply affected by 
 our extreme attachment for each other, and by the 
 singular felicity of beholding each other’s faces. Many 
 other similar affairs of state were transacted between 
 us, and when the painful moment for parting arrived. 
 His Highness dropt a few drops of attar of roses on 
 my handkerchief, then sprinkled me profusely all over 
 my best Vienna embroidered coat with rose-water, say¬ 
 ing affectionately that he knew he was spoiling my 
 coat (but what is a coat to the effusions of friend¬ 
 ship ?). Then he put on my neck a garland of white 
 flowers ; gave me two packets of betel-nut and then 
 two roses. After which Lord William and all my 
 family were treated in the same manner, and we re¬ 
 tired.’ 
 
 The next day the visit was returned, and on the 
 
22 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 following one the Glovernor General was entertained at 
 a Nantch—of which festivity he was quite unworthy—■ 
 t hinking he had never seen such a collection of hideous 
 women in his life. 
 
 ‘ I am sorry to say the season has been most cala¬ 
 mitous here, from the entire failure of the usual mon¬ 
 soon, and a consequent loss of the crop. A sad famine 
 is at this moment desolating several extensive dis¬ 
 tricts ; • • . thousands of country people have swarmed 
 into Madras in quest of bread; thousands are em¬ 
 ployed on public works; to thousands who can’t work 
 rice is distributed gratis daily, by a public subscription. 
 But some arrive too late and too much exhausted, 
 others refrain too long from pride or scruples from 
 accepting this relief, and it has been common to see 
 famished wretches broug^ht at last by friends to the 
 Choultry, where the distribution is made, expire after 
 the first mouthful of food which their stomachs could 
 no longer receive in safety. It has been worse in the 
 country. ... It seems hard that the people of this 
 country should experience distress, for none can expe¬ 
 rience fewer wants ; a little rice is literally the only 
 necessary of life. The man requires no clothes, the 
 woman little more. Fuel to cook their rice is all they 
 want, and they need pay no house-rent, for their habi¬ 
 tations are huts composed of a few mats or hurdles 
 fastened to upright stakes about four feet high, and a 
 roof of as light timbers thatched with large leaves. 
 These hovels can be run up in an hour, and are erected 
 along the sides of the high roads or in any corner of 
 
JEt. 56] 
 
 MADRAS. 
 
 23 
 
 waste land they like. The wind passes through them 
 freely, which is all the better; but the rain enters 
 with as little ceremon}'; and in all wet weather they 
 must go out of their houses to have any chance of 
 being dry. They enjoy the hottest sun and bask in 
 the baked dust without shelter and for pleasure at 
 noon-day, but they all look as miserable as cats in a 
 shower. 
 
 ‘ One thing I have forgotten to tell you of—the 
 prickly heat. To give you some notion of its intensity, 
 the placid Lord William has been found sprawling on 
 a table on his back ; and Sir Henry Giwillin, one of 
 the Madras judges, who is a Welshman and a fiery 
 llriton in all senses, was discovered by a visitor rolling 
 on his own floor roaring like a baited bidl. Here I 
 must close the iMadras chapter. I have been writing 
 down to July 19, and must embark to-morrow morning.’ 
 
 On Lord Minto’s arrival in Calcutta Sir George 
 Barlow resumed the position of senior member of 
 Council vacated by him while holding the office of 
 Governor General. After his appointment to the 
 Government of IMadras which took place a few weeks 
 later, Mr. Lumsden, an experienced public servant, 
 Mr. Colebrooke, ‘ a man of extraordinary talents and 
 extremely agreeable manners,’ and General Hewitt, 
 Commander-in-chief, constituted the Council, in which 
 there were no further changes during Lord jMinto’s 
 administration. Mr. N. B. Edmonstone filled the 
 post of Secretary to Government. Sir Edward Pellew 
 
24 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 —aftenvards Lord Exmoiitb—held the chief naval 
 command, ‘ a sailor of the Nelson school,’ and there¬ 
 fore particularly acceptable to the Grovernor General. 
 Ijord Minto was justified in saying that he found 
 ‘ plenty of ability in all departments.’ 
 
 ‘Calcutta; July ill, 1807.' 
 
 ‘ To have arrived at our destination and all well, is 
 so material a step, though the first one of our design, 
 that I feel, perhaps more than I ever did before, grateful 
 to Providence for this good beginning. ... To return 
 to the fussifications of my arrival and accession. When 
 I found myself lost from my cobbler’s stall in Arlington 
 Street, seated in full possession of this noble and mag¬ 
 nificent marble hall, the crowds of servants and attend¬ 
 ants bowing round me in all the forms of Eastern 
 jirostration, I felt a little like Nell awaking in Lady 
 Loverrule’s bed, with the difference, however, that it is 
 not at all like my notions of Paradise.’ 
 
 ‘Calcutta: September 15.* 
 
 ‘ Notwithstanding the awkward situation in which 
 Sir G. Barlow and I are placed with regard to each 
 other, I find no unpleasant consequences result from it. 
 . . . His good sense and some other neutral qualities 
 in his character have enabled him to act the part he 
 had chosen with dignity and with many marks of real 
 magnanimity. His good properties are of a high class. 
 
 * To Lady Minto. 
 
 * To Hon. Gilbert Elliot. 
 
Air. 56] 
 
 CALCUTTA. 
 
 25 
 
 A real attachment to his public duties, and, I have 
 every reason to believe, a naturally sincere and honour¬ 
 able character, secure his best advice as a colleague. 
 A constitutional coldness and apathy of temper, which 
 has exposed him to the reproach of indifference to the 
 interests of other men, and has enabled him to discharge 
 many harsh duties pretty inflexibly, seems at the same 
 time to have kept his personal feelings in a temperate 
 state, and to render a second place less irksome and 
 irritating than it would be to niuety-niue men in a 
 hundred who had filled the first. He acknowledges, 
 also, the great attention and delicacy I had shown 
 towards his feelings from the beginning of the contro¬ 
 versy concerning his office to the present time. I 
 have omitted nothing, which a real and strong feeling 
 for the unpleasantness of his situation can suggest, to 
 diminish his own discomfort, and create a cordial instead 
 of a jealous feeling between us. 
 
 ‘ The situation of public affairs in this country is 
 particularly favourable to the circumstances in which I 
 am placed. There is in reality nothing of great moment 
 depending, and nothing stirring in the great scale of 
 politics on which I should desire to act on views and 
 principles of my mvn, rather than on the mere expe¬ 
 rience and familiarity of other men with the subject. 
 I have time, therefore, to form my views at leisure, and 
 to acquire a little familiarity of my own with affairs 
 before I need make free with them. In the mean¬ 
 while, my total inexperience iu the details of current 
 business makes the assistance of a colleague who has 
 
26 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 been living with them on the most intimate footing all 
 his life particnlarly seasonable. The principal griev¬ 
 ance I have to complain of is that the quantity and 
 quick succession of current business is such as to em¬ 
 ploy every instant that I can command from ceremony, 
 and the interruption of private solicitation, without 
 affording any time for reading back, or looking 
 forward, and acquiring general information. . . . The 
 routine is this: the secretaries in the different depart¬ 
 ments send in circulation to me and the members 
 of Council the despatches they have received since 
 the last Council, and the documents relating to all 
 business which arises in the interval. These are ex¬ 
 tremely voluminous, and would require pretty nearly 
 the whole interval for mere perusal. The number and 
 variety of affairs is also immense; for everything, small 
 as well as great, must have the sanction of Govern¬ 
 ment, and instead of being transacted by the secre¬ 
 taries, as in England, must be actually stated, and the 
 orders given in Council. A declaration of war, and an es¬ 
 timate for an addition to a barrack a thousand miles off, 
 may come next to each other in the secretaries’ bundle. 
 You may conceive the loads of such ware which such a 
 country as this produces. The secretaries attend at 
 Council, each department in its turn with its mountain 
 of bundles. The secretary reads, or often only states 
 shortly the substance of each paper, and the order is 
 given on the spot. We are enabled to do this by having 
 read these bundles at home. Now, our secretaries are 
 all modest men, who scarcely read above their breath. 
 
^T. 56] 
 
 CALCUTTA. 
 
 27 
 
 It is a constant strain of the ear to hear them ; the 
 business is often the heaviest and dullest kind, the 
 voices monotonous, and as one small concern succeeds 
 another, the punkah vibrates gently over my eyes; and 
 in this warm atmosphere the whole operation has been 
 found in the course of five hours somewhat composing. 
 It is often a vehement struggle to avoid a delec¬ 
 table oblivious wink. But if the sovereign nods, the 
 empire must fall to pieces ; the fear of which has 
 hitherto kept my fond eyelids from kissing each other, 
 but not from most loving dispositions. However, if we 
 nod and listen mtich, we have little occasion to write. 
 The secretaries reduce all our orders into minutes of 
 Council, letters, instructions, &c., and the different 
 Boards and other executive officers carry the measures 
 agreed upon into execution. We hold two Councils a I 
 week—Monday and Friday. We meet at ten and sit / 
 till three or four. From Friday to Tuesday I have my 
 levees, audiences, dinners, and other personal commu¬ 
 nications, besides the reading of papers for Council. 
 
 ‘ On Monday evening I go to Barrackpore, and 
 remain there till Friday morning, when I return at 
 five o’clock a.m. by water to Calcutta, and am there soon 
 after seven. This division of the week, besides making 
 half of it delicious, is of real advantage to business. 
 At Barrackpore I can read, and really do so the livelong 
 day. 
 
 ‘ I can perceive nothing yet in any quarter that 
 indicates a spirit of party, and there is certainly none 
 
28 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 now existing that leads to hostility towards me. If 
 8ir Gr. Barlow had been a very popular character, the 
 case might have been different; but he is not popular, 
 and I believe his merits may have been the cause of it, 
 or at least one among others. In truth, a Company’s 
 servant raised to the commanding height above his 
 fellows which the Giovernor Greneral holds here, excites 
 envy rather than respect or love. They are all com¬ 
 paring themselves with him, and their own preten¬ 
 sions with his. 
 
 ‘ I have never felt anything here equal to the heat 
 of Bastia or even Vienna in summer. These are the 
 most oppressive and most unhealthy weeks in the year 
 —the end of September and beginning of October. 
 Afterwards come four, or sometimes five delectable 
 months. Barrackpore is really delicious, and takes the 
 sting out of India.’ 
 
 ‘ Calcutta : September 20, 1807.‘ 
 
 ‘ The hours and occupations of Calcutta seem con¬ 
 trived to exclude women from society; and I hardly 
 know how it can be helped; for in order to have any 
 air or any exercise you must be riding or driving by 
 five in the morning. This makes it necessary to most 
 of us that we should be in bed by ten. In the evening 
 between five and six, everybody is out again to get a 
 gasp, by which means it is difficult to dine before eight. 
 The only way of seeing ladies that I have discovered is 
 
 ‘ To Hon. A. M. Elliot. 
 
Mt. 56] 
 
 CALCUTTA. 
 
 29 
 
 at table; the moment the meal is swallowed it is time 
 to part. At table I have hitherto been allowed but 
 one dish—namely the Burro Bebee, or lady of the 
 highest rank, and to her, therefore, I am wedded, and 
 care is taken that I should be a faithful husband. 
 Since one cannot have one’s own wife, I should think a 
 little variety not amiss. Accordingly I am laying plans 
 for that purpose, and have begun to invite small do¬ 
 mestic sort of parties to dinner. 
 
 ‘ I drive out almost every morning and evening. 
 The formality of these airings is uncomfortable to me 
 to a degree that I cannot at all accustom myself to. 
 I am always followed by an officer and six troopers 
 of the body-guard. These cannot be dispensed with. 
 Four syces or horse-keepers with fly-flajopers ran along¬ 
 side of the horses till I positively rebelled against this 
 annoyance. Everybody, European and native, salaams 
 as I pass, and the natives, who swarm, draw up in lines 
 and touch the ground almost with their heads. The 
 consequence is that my right hand is never away from 
 my head. I have had thoughts of sticking a wax hand 
 in my hat. It is still worse with a palanquin. Thirty 
 people go before in two lines which extend a great way 
 forward. They carry gold and silver maces and hal¬ 
 berds, and embroidered fans, and cows’ tails to keep the 
 flies off, besides two orderly Sepoys and two troopers. 
 All these run on foot at a round trot, some of them 
 proclaiming my titles; which, as the proclamation is 
 rather long, I imagine must be Hindostanee for Grilbert 
 Elliot, Murray of Melgund, and Kynynmound of that ilk. 
 
30 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 The worst of all is the excessive annoyance at home 
 by the same sort of crowd and incessant entourage. 
 The first night I went to bed at Calcutta I was followed 
 by fourteen persons in white muslin gowns into the 
 dressing-room. One might have hoped that some of 
 them were ladies; but on finding that there were as 
 many turbans and black beards as gowns, I was very de¬ 
 sirous that these bearded handmaids should leave me to 
 single Tom, which with some trouble and perseverance 
 I accomplished, and in that one room I enjoy a degree 
 of privacy, but far from perfect. The doors are open, 
 the partitions are open or transparent also, and it is the 
 business of a certain number to keep an eye upon me, 
 and see if I want the particular service which each is 
 allowed by his caste to render me. It is the same in 
 bed ; a set of these black men sleep and watch all 
 night on the floor of the passage, and an orderly man 
 of the body-guard mounts guard at the door with 
 Sepoys in almost all the rooms, and at all the stair¬ 
 cases. These give you a regular military salute every 
 time you stir out of your room or go up or down stairs, 
 besides four or five with maces running before you. I 
 have gradually got rid of this troublesome nonsense, 
 but enough remains and must remain to tease me and 
 turn comfort out of doors. As to John, he is oriental¬ 
 ised already, and is mighty content to have five fellows 
 attend his toilet; one holds a glass before him, one 
 has hold of his foot, another of his knee, his hair, his 
 body. I have a barber to shave me and a hair-dresser. 
 Tom thought he ought to have some office also; and 
 
^T. 56] 
 
 BARRACKPORE. 
 
 31 
 
 after the man had dressed my hair he chose to tie my 
 cue, till I prevailed on him to be less oriental, and 
 leave the care of my cue to the hairdresser. I have 
 banished as much of this as possible from Barrackpore, 
 and we are more comfortable there ; but after all, I 
 believe the best way will be to endure what it is im¬ 
 possible here to cure entirely. Barrackpore surpasses all 
 my expectations, in the beauty of the ground, the 
 beauty of the situation, and the comfort of its ways, 
 compared to Calcutta. The grounds are a mixture of 
 park and pleasure-grounds. They are laid out with 
 the greatest judgment and taste, and their extent 
 is very considerable. There is a great variety of 
 fine timber and curious ornamental shrubs and 
 flowering trees. Pools of water of very pretty forms 
 and certain inequalities of surface have been artificially 
 produced, but the real beauties consist in the rich 
 verdure which covers the whole, the magnificent tim¬ 
 ber, and the fine river which forms one side of the 
 place from end to end. Although it is a tide river, 
 there is no mud on the sides ; the grass extends to low 
 watermark. The breadth of the Ganges here is suffi¬ 
 cient for grandeur, and not too much for beauty. It 
 is all alive with a brisk navigation of boats and vessels 
 of different build and dimensions, and all of the most 
 picturesque forms and fashions. The present house is 
 what is called a bungalow or cottage, and was intended 
 only as a makeshift while the great house was erecting. 
 It is a cottage, indeed, but a very considerable building 
 compared with the European scale. The bungalow 
 
32 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 was originally composed of three large rooms, which 
 opened into a verandah surrounding the whole. Sir 
 George Barlow, by converting each corner of the 
 verandah into a small room, has greatly improved the 
 comfort of the house. The verandah next the room is 
 a charming apartment. It affords a long, shaded, airy 
 walk with a most beautiful prospect, and we find it an 
 excellent eating-room. It is within forty or fifty paces 
 of the water’s edge. 
 
 ‘ Besides this principal bungalow there are a number 
 of smaller ones like neat Swiss cottages scattered about 
 the lawn. These afford accommodation for aide-de¬ 
 camps, guests, &c., &c. A better and more regular 
 house will certainly be proper. Such an one there 
 was, but it was pulled down to make room for the pro¬ 
 jected palace, of which the ground-floor walls are 
 finished. It would have been magnificent, I have no 
 doubt, but in perfect contradiction with every purpose 
 of the place. It would have been to come from Cal¬ 
 cutta to Calcutta again ; and you must have had the 
 same multitude of troublesome attendants, and have 
 lived the same full-dress, intolerable life at your country 
 house as in town. I am extremely glad it has been 
 stopped, and am selling off the materials which had 
 been laid in, hoping there will be no change in my 
 time. The road from Calcutta to Barrackpore is beau¬ 
 tiful the whole way. The Danish town of Serampore, 
 immediately opposite to these windows, is extremely 
 ornamental, the river not appearing much wider than 
 the Thames at Westminster, though it is considerably 
 
^T. 56] 
 
 CHANGE OF ADMINISTEATION. 
 
 33 
 
 broader. But the clearness of the atmosphere and the 
 strong light make all objects seem near. We have a 
 cantonment of two or three thousand native troops 
 close to us, and that, also, is very ornamental, though it 
 may not sound so. But the officers’ bungalows, ranged 
 along the banks of the river, are extremely pretty, 
 and the men’s huts have the picturesque character 
 of all the cottages of this country. The men them¬ 
 selves are still more ornamental. I never saw so 
 handsome a race. They are much superior to the 
 Madras people, whose forms I admired also. Those 
 were slender; these are tall, muscular, athletic figures, 
 perfectly shaped, and with the finest possible cast of 
 countenance and features. Their features are of the 
 most classical European models, with great variety at 
 the same time; but the females seem still as hideous 
 as at Madras, and one cannot conceive that they should 
 be the mothers of such handsome sons.’ 
 
 The first fleet that came out from England after Lord 
 Minto’s arrival at Calcutta brought the unexpected 
 news of a change of Administration. Though it was 
 known that Ministers had encountered considerable 
 difficulty in proceeding with the Catholic Bill as it 
 was called (a measure to enable Konian Catholics to 
 serve in the Army and Navy with no other condition 
 than that of taking an oath of allegiance'), the world was 
 
 ’ The bill, though intended chiefly for the benefit of the 
 Catholics, extended the proposed concession to persons of every 
 religious persuasion. 
 
 n 
 
34 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 completely taken by surprise when it was announced 
 that, in consequence of the irreconcilable nature of tlie 
 views entertained by the King and his Ministers as to 
 their constitutional duty on the matter in question, 
 Lord Grenville and his colleagues had been dismissed. 
 'In the course of the Parliamentary debates which 
 ensued it became known that the King, not content 
 with the consent of IMinisters to withdraw the objec¬ 
 tionable Bill, had required from them a written pledge 
 that they would never again propose further concessions 
 to the Catholics. This pledge they refused to give, 
 and immediately received their dismissal from the King, 
 who desired the Duke of Portland and Mr. Perceval to 
 form a new Administration. 
 
 The Duke was the nominal chief of the new Cabinet. 
 Its chief members were Lord Camden, President of the 
 Council; Lord Eldon, Chancellor ; Lord Hawkesbury, 
 Home Secretary; Mr. Canning, Foreign Secretary; 
 Lord Castlereagh, War and Colonial Secretary; ]\Ir. 
 Perceval, Chancellor of the Exchequer; Mr. Eobert 
 Dundas, President of the Board of Control. 
 
 The new Ministers took their seats on April 8. On 
 April 16 Lord Grenville addressed the following letter 
 to Lord Minto :— 
 
 ‘ Downing Street: April 16, 1807. 
 
 ‘ You will hear from other quarters of the sudden 
 revolution which has taken place in the political situa¬ 
 tion of your friends here. I have little doubt that 
 you will entirely agree in the propriety of the conduct 
 
^T. 56] COERESPONDENCE WITH LORD GRENVILLE. 35 
 
 which they have held throughout the whole of a very 
 difficult and delicate business, in which the most un¬ 
 fair advantages have been taken of them, and a spirit 
 of low underhand intrigue employed against them, 
 such as I am sure you had much rather see them the 
 victims of, than think it possible for them to have 
 counteracted by similar means. 
 
 ‘ I remember nothing that I have thought more 
 profligate than the attempt to excite in this country a 
 spirit of religious dissent at a time when we have so 
 much need of showing ourselves as an united people. 
 Without giving to our opponents too much credit for 
 talents which they certainly do not collectively possess, 
 it is, however, difficult to think so meanly of their 
 understandings as to believe that they really are 
 themselves impressed with any belief of the dangers to 
 the church establishment of this country from enact¬ 
 ing the same laws here which have for fourteen years 
 been in force in Ireland,* or from extending those laws 
 in so far as was necessary to reconcile them to common 
 sense. All this you will, I am sure, feel as strongly as 
 I could express it, and I need not therefore dwell upon 
 it. To a Grovernment formed by a Court intrigue and 
 resting for its support on an hypocritical attempt to 
 
 ' By a law passed in the Parliament of Ireland in 1793, Catholics 
 ■were allowed to hold commissions in the army in Ireland, and to 
 attain to any rank save that of Commander-in-chief of the forces, 
 master-general of the Ordnance, or General on the Staff. The 
 measure proposed by Lord Grenville’s Ministry in 1807 extended 
 to the Catholics of England the privileges already conceded to their 
 Irish brethren and removed the restrictions enforced by the Act of 
 1793, 
 
 n 2 
 
36 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 excite a popular clamour in favour of religious interests 
 which no man of sense can believe in any danger, no 
 sentiments can exist in my mind but those of decided 
 hostility. Nor do I think yonr own feelings on this 
 point can be at all different from mine. You will hear 
 that the Directors have recalled Lord William Bentinck 
 from Madras; a great disappointment as I believe to 
 those who meant that he should have immediately 
 superseded you in Bengal. With respect to your own 
 conduct, I know you will allow me to speak to you 
 with the utmost plainness and sincerity. I am far 
 from feeling that I have any claim upon you in such a 
 circumstance, nor, if I had, should I feel the slightest 
 wish to use that claim for the purpose of influencing 
 in the least degree the decision you may take about 
 yourself. If you think on a deliberate review of the 
 state of things at home and abroad that you can remain 
 where you are with advantage to the public and with 
 satisfaction to yourself, be assured that I speak quite 
 sincerely when I say that I have no wish that you 
 should act otherwise, and that on the contrary I shall 
 feel sincere pleasme in thinking that one part at least, 
 and that not the least important, of the interests of 
 the country is in hands to which one can look with 
 confidence and satisfaction; and that neither our 
 private friendship nor the sentiments I entertain 
 towards you as a public man will suffer the smallest 
 diminution from your continuing to hold your office 
 under the auspices of persons of whose conduct I think 
 
Mr. 56] COERESPONDENCE WITH LORD GRENVILLE. 37 
 
 SO ill. I hope therefore you will judge for yourself, 
 and whatever your decision is, I beg you to be persuaded 
 that I shall think it right, because it depends in part 
 on circumstances of which you alone can judge—I 
 mean the assurances of support which you may receive 
 from the new Ministers, and the degree of credit which 
 you may attach to their assm*ances. If your resolution 
 should be to send a resignation, let me then suggest 
 the propriety of your enclosing it to Elliot * with dis¬ 
 cretionary powers as to making use of it. This is not 
 said because I believe much in the expectation which 
 some entertain of another change taking place before 
 long. I have seen enough of the politics of this 
 country to know how very long a very weak and in¬ 
 efficient Government may maintain itself, if it has 
 the Court favour with it, and is willing to make large 
 sacrifices and compliances in order to retain that favour. 
 And that this is the case in the present instance I 
 believe no man doubts.’ 
 
 In a letter of later date. Lord Grenville reiterated 
 his earnest hope that Lord Minto would take no deter¬ 
 mination to resign except with the advice of his friends 
 in England. 
 
 Neither of these letters reached him until he had 
 adopted and acted upon a course similar to that indi¬ 
 cated by Lord Grenville. He sent to his son a condi¬ 
 tional resignation to be used or not, according to the 
 judgment of his friends, and left it to the Ministry 
 
 ’ Right Hon. William Elliot of Wells. 
 
38 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 and the Court of Directors to decide whether or no the 
 appointment of Grovernor Greneral of India should 
 henceforth be considered as one of those dependent on 
 the change of parties at home. In his letter to his 
 son he said :— 
 
 ‘ On public grounds I am sure that this distant 
 Government ought not to change with every turn in 
 domestic politics. The contrary principle would be 
 productive of the greatest evil, and possibly danger, in 
 India. 
 
 ‘ When the political connexion of a Governor 
 General with parties at home is found to divert him 
 from the duties of his office it is time enough to 
 remove him. On the question of adherence to political 
 and personal connexion, I cannot think this office at 
 all implicated in those considerations; but I hold that 
 point as so sacred that, if there is a difference of 
 opinion, or the slightest feeling on the subject among 
 my friends at home, I hereby authorise you to resign 
 for me. For I will not place myself or consent to 
 stand upon doubtful ground in that respect. I received 
 my office at the recommendation of Lord Grenville, in 
 very peculiar circumstances, from the Court of Directors. 
 It was not solicited ; it was to me a real sacrifice of 
 many things that are dear to me. It was a public ac¬ 
 commodation at the time, and was generally gratifying 
 to Government, to the Directors, and to the public. If 
 I retain it, I shall not hold it of the favour or good 
 ^vill of the present Ministers; and, remaining subject 
 to all its public duties just as before, I contract no new 
 
^T. 56] COERESPONDENCE WITH LORD GRENVILLE. 39 
 
 political obligations, form no new party engagement or 
 connexion.’ 
 
 The next fleet brought the confirmation of Lord 
 IVIinto’s powers from the new Ministers, coupled with ex¬ 
 pressions of an earnest desire that he should continue to 
 administer the government of India, and a number of 
 private letters from Windham and others urging him 
 to remain in India. To Lord Grenville he replied : 
 
 ‘ Calcutta; October 10, 1807. 
 
 ‘ My dear Lord,—I feel most sensibly the kindness 
 of your letter of April 16, which I have just received. 
 
 ‘ My sentiments on the scene that was then passing 
 
 in England are precisely the same as your own. 
 
 The Ministry which has succeeded you has built not on 
 sand but on dirt, which is a less stable foundation still. . 
 ... I need hardly say that I have thought much and 
 deeply on the part which it becomes me to act on the 
 present occasion. My first consideration was what 
 political connexion, cemented by personal attachment, 
 required or suggested. If I had entertained even a 
 doubt upon that subject I should have considered that 
 doubt as amounting to a decision, and I should have 
 arrived in England by the ship which will carry this 
 letter. But my judgment on that point was clear and 
 immediate. To continue in the exercise of this office, 
 distinguished as it is in so many essential points from 
 any other in the Empire, holding my appointment by 
 your express nomination and by the authority of the 
 
40 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 Court of Directors, and deriving no new title from your 
 successors that can either dissolve or weaken former 
 connexion or create a new one, appears to me entirely 
 free from any indication of separation from friends, 
 and every profession of party connexion with those who 
 are not so. 
 
 ‘ I had determined, however, that there should be 
 nothing questionable on that point, and accordingly 
 I instructed my son to resign for me if there should 
 be even a difference of opinion or of feeling upon it, 
 amonp'st those to whom I am in heart as well as in 
 
 O 
 
 opinion indissolubly attached. Your letter confirms 
 my own judgment on this point, for I am persuaded 
 you would not have contributed in any degree to the 
 chance of subjecting me to a reproach so intolerable as 
 that of preferring office to honour, if that delicate 
 point had appeared to you involved in the question. 
 
 ‘ My opinion, and I presume the universal opinion, 
 is that frequent and light changes in the local Grovem- 
 ment of India are extremely hurtful to the interests 
 of this country. ... If the Ministers have the same 
 sense of their public duties that I have of mine, the 
 service will suffer no prejudice from the want of political 
 connexion or even of personal cordiality between us. 
 
 ‘ If I find a want of support and confidence really 
 detrimental to the interests I am charged with, and 
 if I see reason to apprehend misconstruction of my 
 conduct dangerous to my reputation, in either case 
 the remedy is in my own hands. I shall not suffer in 
 
Mt. 56] COEEESPONDENCE WITH LOED GEENVILLE. 41 
 
 the meanwhile prudential considerations to weaken or 
 cramp my exertions for the public service, but I may 
 be a little more careful to preserve the means and 
 documents of my own justification.’ 
 
 This letter produced the following very hearty one 
 from Lord Grenville :— 
 
 ‘ Dropmore: May 24, 1808. 
 
 ‘ ]My dear Lord,—I cannot express to you the satis¬ 
 faction which I derived from your letter of October 10, 
 the only one I have yet received from you since your 
 arrival in Bengal. I had no doubt that your opinions 
 would entirely coincide with those of your friends 
 here, both as to the general question which has for the 
 second time placed me at a distance from the public 
 service of my country, and as to the particular measures 
 which we adopted under the singular circumstances 
 in which we were placed last year. The infatuation 
 which still prevents the adoption of conciliatory mea¬ 
 sures towards the mass of the Irish nation, and keeps 
 that island exposed to the double peril of civil war and 
 foreign invasion, is indeed deeply to be lamented, nor 
 is there any other quarter in which our prospects, 
 alarming as they are on every side, are so gloomy as 
 they are in respect to Ireland. But I should have still 
 more dejdored this calamity if it had indirectly led to 
 depriving us in India of the advantage of your energy 
 and abilities at a moment when they are likely to be 
 so much wanted there. All my correspondence will, I 
 trust, have sho\vn you that, in taking the resolution of 
 
42 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 remaining there in the discharge of the duties of your 
 most important station, you have done that which on 
 every public and private ground is most agreeable to 
 my wishes. But even if you had been led, from what¬ 
 ever motive, to have adopted in the first instance any 
 different resolution, you would, I am confident, have 
 altered your sentiments in that respect as soon as you 
 learnt the danger to which it seems likely that our 
 Indian Empire is soon to be exposed. As I have no 
 means in my present situation to learn with any detail 
 the information or opinions of Giovernment on that 
 subject (and indeed keep myself studiously at a dis¬ 
 tance from both), I speak only of what is publicly 
 known. It is impossible to be without apprehension 
 on a matter of such vital importance to the country, 
 but I have great comfort in reflecting on the means of 
 resistance which you possess, and on the decision and 
 ability with which I am certain those means will be 
 employed by you. I wish I could say or think the 
 same of this country, but I verily believe I do not 
 speak from party feelings when I declare that no 
 nation was in my judgment ever governed by councils 
 more deficient in every principle of true wisdom, or by 
 men more bent on sacrificing to personal motives all 
 those considerations by which the conduct of a Govern¬ 
 ment ought to be directed. What the issue of the 
 strange scenes now passing is ultimately to be no 
 man can pretend to prophesy, but it is difficult even 
 for the most sanguine mind (and mine is not a little so) 
 to augur good from them to this country; and if evil 
 
^T. 56] LADY MALMESBUEY’S LETTERS. 
 
 43 
 
 is to come the best consolation that can attend it will 
 be the reflection of not having contributed to it. 
 
 ‘ With my best and most earnest wishes for your 
 health and prosperity, 
 
 ‘ Believe me ever, most sincerely and faithfully 
 yours, 
 
 ‘ GrRENVILLE.’ 
 
 In one of Lady Malmesbury’s letters of this 
 period, addressed to her sister at Minto, she advised 
 her, ‘ to collect and arrange all her old letters, for 
 there is nothing so ciu"ious. To consider letters as 
 the true history of the times you should have them 
 on both sides of the question, for we know how dif¬ 
 ferent is a story told by different people. Letters 
 are more the account of prejudices and parties than 
 the truth, but it is that very circumstance that 
 makes them so amusing, as they give the history 
 of the passions instead of passing judgment upon 
 them.’ 
 
 The contrast between her version of the circum¬ 
 stances that led to the dismissal of Ministers in 1807, 
 and that given by Lord Grenville, forms a most apt 
 illustration of her remark. 
 
 While his letters show a natural resentment of the 
 unworthy methods by which his Administration had 
 been undermined, she saw nothing but folly and ob¬ 
 stinacy in an attempt to uphold principles against 
 prejudices. 
 
 ‘Your surprise will be equal to our own,’ she wrote 
 
44 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 to Lord JMinto, ‘ when you learn the great and wonder¬ 
 ful events which have been happening at home. To 
 account for (what I must call it) the infatuation of 
 Lord Grenville, in bringing forward again a measure 
 of which he could less than any man hope for the 
 success after the experience he had had on the sub¬ 
 ject, is impossible. Both he and Lord Howick have 
 admitted that, previous to this business, all went on 
 smoothly between the King and them. But even ad¬ 
 mitting (what I do not at all believe) that he wished 
 them away, how very strange to give him the only 
 means that could not fail ? It is truly what Sheridan 
 said, “ they built a wall against which they might run 
 their heads, and took care to secure it by making it of 
 the strongest materials.” ’ 
 
 Only a few days before the Ministers went out, she 
 had met most of their successors at Blackheath, at a 
 dinner given by the Princess of Wales. The devotion 
 of Lord Eldon and Mr. Perceval to her cause had long 
 since obtained for them special favour in the eyes of 
 Lady Malmesbury. On this occasion she described 
 Lord Eldon as particularly agreeable, and he had 
 assured her that ‘ he would not take office if he could.’ 
 Le jpauvre homme! Within a week it was thrust 
 upon him, and Lady Malmesbury -wrote to her sister 
 with some little bewilderment:—‘ The Prince, who was 
 supposed to hate Lord Eldon and Mr. Perceval, as 
 friends of his wife, appears to be very well pleased 
 with the arrangement. He is all sweetness about it. 
 This I think proves he is dying, but they do say that 
 
^T. 56] LADY MALMESBURY’S LETTERS. 
 
 45 
 
 the Catholics in Ireland have been praying for Mrs. 
 Fitzherbert. Nobody is pleased except Lady Gren¬ 
 ville, who is delighted to escape from London politics 
 to her garden at Dropmore.’ 
 
 For a time a more than common bitterness was 
 infused into the relations of politicians. The Whigs, 
 whether Grenvillites or Foxites, were bound together by 
 a principle and a prejudice. They believed in the 
 justice of the Catholic claims, and they thoroughly 
 mistrusted Canning; their opponents asserted that the 
 safety of Protestantism depended on the King and 
 Lord Eldon, and that the mantle of Pitt had fallen on 
 the shoulders of Canning. 
 
 Even the correspondence interchanged between 
 Spring Gardens and Minto assumed a sharper tone 
 than was usual. ‘ You are outrageous,’ wrote Lady 
 Malmesbury to her sister, in reply to a letter brim¬ 
 ming over with indignation at the treatment received 
 by the dismissed INIinisters, and at the loss of the 
 cause they had espoused. ‘ You are almost as bad as 
 INIrs. Neville, who called my friends “ your fellows,” to 
 my face ! ’ 
 
 Some of Lady IMalmesbury’s most intimate friends 
 had come into power. Mr. Canning had taken 
 the seals of the Foreign Office ; her son. Lord Fitz- 
 harris, held the appointment of Lbider Secretary for 
 Foreign Affairs; Lord Palmerston, whose footing in 
 the iNIalmesbury family was almost that of a son, was 
 in the Government; and Lady INIalmesbury was not 
 the woman to abstain from praise of her friends lest 
 
46 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 it stould displease her opponents, nor did she conde¬ 
 scend to the indifferentism which is content to say: 
 
 Tel sera mon hfiros et tel sera le votre ; 
 
 L’aigle d’nne maison est un sot dans une autre. 
 
 ‘ No Foreign Secretary,’ she wrote to Lord Minto, 
 ‘has been equal to Canning—unless perhaps Fox. In 
 these times when the fate of Europe depends on the 
 Foreign Office in Downing Street, the labour is beyond 
 belief; and when you add to this the House of Com¬ 
 mons, and being up in that vile place till two or three 
 o’clock every night, no constitution can stand it. In¬ 
 deed Canning is quite knocked up, for to bodily fatigue 
 anxiety of mind must be added, which you by experi¬ 
 ence will know how to appreciate; and Canning is 
 naturally of a most anxious nature and not blessed 
 with the impassibilite of a Grenville. Although in 
 the opposite party, I am sure you have la chose puh- 
 lique too much at heart not to rejoice that, in the 
 opinion of the very best judges, his talents and judg¬ 
 ment have far surpassed even the expectation of his 
 friends, and that all that can be done will be done ; 
 but certainly we never stood more alone. I think this 
 an advantage, as we never yet have gained anything 
 from our Continental alliances, and have lost a great 
 deal often and many times. All our resources will 
 now be applied to our own use, and as Eamsay said 
 yesterday, “We can make war as well—and peace 
 much better.” I am glad to see they have left off 
 their childish quarrels in the House of Commons. 
 All the boys now think they have a right to speak and 
 
vEt. 56] LADY MALMESBUKY’S LETTERS. 
 
 47 
 
 discuss and decide, and the two schoolmasters who 
 fell upon them with their rods and chastised them 
 well, being dead and gone, they run riot like any other 
 schoolboys.’ 
 
 Some natural rejoicing at Minto over the success 
 of Lord Milton, the Whig candidate for the 'W’^est 
 Riding, brought down upon them the following cold 
 water douche. ‘ You have heard of Milton’s success 
 against Lascelles. I hear there is to he a petition. 
 All his adherents have flared about London in their 
 orange colours. It is curious enough that this is the 
 true Anti-Catholic colour; the old King-William badge 
 against popery. Many of them, amongst the rest the 
 Cavendishes, had the good taste to go to the Duke of 
 Portland’s ball all over their cockades, and somebody 
 said they looked as if they had stopped at his stables 
 and taken his horses’ accoutrements. These are true 
 English manners.’ 
 
 M’'e fear she must have thought Scotch prin¬ 
 ciples even more olijectionable than English man¬ 
 ners, when in her next letter to Lord Minto, after 
 congratulating him on the birth of his first grandson, 
 she asserted that she had only consented to become 
 his godmother on receiving a petition from the infant 
 himself complaining of the hardship of his case. ‘His 
 mother a Presbyterian, his father he could not tell 
 what, but he was always talking about Catholics with 
 a tall thin gentleman supposed to be an Irish Jesuit— 
 I consented to undertake the charge upon sole condi¬ 
 tion he was christened IMartin Luther, which I think 
 
48 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 must secure him from all principles of emancipation. 
 I trust I shall have the satisfaction of seeing him burn 
 all his family in Smithfield some future day.’ 
 
 The ‘ Irish Jesuit’ was no other than her old friend 
 ]\Ir. Elliot of Wells—‘ Dominie ’ as she herself had 
 named him—who after the recess had escaped from 
 London to join his relations at JNIinto in ‘making love 
 to the rocks and glens, and preferring the notes of 
 blackbirds, thrushes, and cushat-doos, to all the Cata- 
 lanis and Billingtons in Europe; ’ and if he were a 
 little tired of the House of Commons, ‘ was it wonder¬ 
 ful for anybody who had outlived a Burke, a Pitt, and 
 a Fox ? . . . besides it has fallen into a sad snarling 
 sort of style.’ 
 
 ‘ Wood-pigeons. 
 
 ‘ And the deep mellow crush of the wood-pigeon’s note 
 Made music that sweeten’d the calm.’— Campbell. 
 
JEt. 56J 
 
 STATE OF INDIA 
 
 49 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 When the new Governor General arrived in India ^ 
 he was to Indian politicians ‘ a dark horse.’ Though 
 he had taken part in all the great parliamentary ques¬ 
 tions of his time, his reputation as a public man rested 
 mainly on his conduct of affairs while employed in the 
 Mediterranean and at Vienna. 
 
 The few months during which he held the office of 
 Vresident of the Board of Control had given him a 
 certain knowledge of current Indian business, but had 
 hardly sufficed to make him known to Indian officials. 
 
 It was generally understood that he had been in the 
 front rank of those members of the Whig party who 
 had been first to see that the principles endorsed by 
 the French Jacobins were equally subversive of civil 
 liberty and of national independence. There were 
 disciples of the Wellesley school wdio augured well of a 
 Governor General sent out by Lord Grenville, and 
 trained under Pitt; and there were others who gladly 
 remembered that he had sat at the feet of Burke before 
 peace and retrenchment had been driven out of men’s 
 minds by dread of an impending dissolution of civil 
 society. 
 
 While he was taking time as we have seen to gain 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 acqiiaintance with men and things, he himself was 
 being subjected to the closest scrutiny, and very oppo¬ 
 site interpretations were put on his most insignificant 
 words and actions. 
 
 Early in November 1807, Colonel Malcolm * wrote 1 
 to his friend Colonel Close ^ that he had lately learnt ' 
 from a deep observer that Ijord hlinto’s character , 
 appeared to be of a smooth and cautious rather than of 
 a bold and enterprising cast. He therefore wished to 
 know if there were any solid ground for a hint thrown 
 out by Colonel Close himself, that the French intrigues 
 in Persia had made a great impression on Lord Minto’s 
 mind. Whether in reply Colonel Close divulged his 
 authority or not is unknown to us, but among Lord 
 Minto’s MSS. is the draft of a letter addressed to him 
 (of whom Lord Minto in very early days formed a high 
 opinion), dated a month earlier than Malcolm’s enquiry, 
 and strongly urging him to abandon a half-formed 
 intention of leaving his post at Poonah to return to 
 England, on grounds which proved the Grovernor 
 Cleneral to be thoroughly alive to the dangers threaten¬ 
 ing India. 
 
 ‘ Colonel Malcolm, afterwards General Sir John Malcolm. Well 
 known as a soldier, diplomatist, and author of'several Valuable 
 historical works on India and Persia. 
 
 ^ Colonel, afterwards Sir Barry Close, distinguished for eminent 
 services in India as a soldier and diplo-matist. 
 
66] 
 
 STATE OF INDIA. 
 
 51 
 
 To Colonel Barry Close. 
 
 ‘ October 11, 1807. 
 
 ‘ The views which I entertain, not indeed of the 
 actual state of India at the present time, but of pros¬ 
 pects which events now in progress in Europe may 
 possibly unfold, are such as to furnish a strong call 
 on qualifications so tried and approved in the public 
 service as yours. 
 
 ‘ I do not allude at present to any expectation of an 
 actual invasion of the British territories in India by a 
 French army; but many circumstances denote very 
 conclusively the extension of the enemy’s views to this 
 country. 
 
 ‘ There is already a very active French diplomacy in 
 Persia, which, after establishing an actual connexion 
 with that kingdom on the subversion of our influence 
 there, is seeking we know with great diligence the 
 means of extending its intrigues to the Durbars of 
 Hindostan. 
 
 ‘. . . One of the least doubtful consequences of any 
 considerable success in the quarter to which the exer¬ 
 tions of France are now directed, must be to unsettle 
 the minds of the native princes of India—the counter¬ 
 action of which must depend on the personal judg¬ 
 ment and experience and the established weight and 
 influence of those entrusted with British interests at 
 the principal native courts. 
 
 ‘. . . I am happy to think there may as yet be a 
 good deal of speculation in these anticipations of dis- 
 
52 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 tant danger; but when so great an interest is depend¬ 
 ing, prudence will look beyond the scene immediately 
 under our eye, and provide in the midst of apparent 
 security against remote but possible danger.’ 
 
 On the very day on which Malcolm had written to 
 Close to discover the Grovernor General’s political 
 sentiments, the latter wrote to the President of the 
 Board of Control a general sketch of ‘ foreign affairs,’ 
 including an account of the aid he had furnished to 
 the Admiral, Sir Edward Pellew, towards an expedition 
 intended for the capture of the Dutch squadron off 
 Java, and the demolition of the fortifications of Crissy. 
 
 Whenever Bonaparte annexed some European State 
 to his Empire of the West, Great Britain instantly 
 took charge of that State’s colonial possessions in the 
 East. In 1807 Portugal and Holland had been con¬ 
 quered by France. Plans for the reduction of Macao, 
 Goa, and Batavia were at once submitted to the 
 Governor General. But for the execution of such 
 considerable enterprises the hour had not yet struck. 
 
 Some of the considerations which decided the 
 Indian Government to abstain from these are stated 
 by Lord Minto in a private letter to Sir Edward 
 Pellew:' 
 
 ‘ The smallest relaxation in the economical system 
 which is known to be indispensable both for the per¬ 
 manent restoration of our finances, and (which is more 
 immediately in point at this moment) for avoiding 
 
 ' Calcutta, November 1, 1807. 
 
^T. 56] 
 
 EXTERNAL POLICY. 
 
 53 
 
 present distress or embarrassment at our treasury,—the 
 smallest departure, I say, from that severe principle 
 creates immediate speculation in the money market 
 against us, and drives us back from eight to ten per 
 cent, interest. This is one principal consideration, but 
 far from the only one, which restrains us from engaging 
 in plans which are attended with expense and with a 
 great display of it, and which, although useful and de¬ 
 sirable in themselves, are however not absolutely and 
 
 obviously necessary. I certainly knew from 
 
 verbal communications with the ministers whom I left 
 in office that they thought very favourably of some 
 designs which were under consideration for extirpating 
 our European enemies from their military and com¬ 
 mercial posts to the eastward of India, but we have 
 under our eye the positive prohibition of the present 
 ministers conveyed in their former administration 
 against such plans. A positive prohibition of any 
 expedition to Java and other places eastward of India 
 was transmitted to the Indian Glovernment when Lord 
 Castlereagh, at present War Minister, was Secretary of 
 State for the Colonial and War Department, and also 
 President of the Board of Control.’ 
 
 Notwithstanding these doubtful impressions of the 
 ministerial views, the sketch of foreign affairs above 
 mentioned contains a tolerably full outline of the 
 policy which Lord Minto designed to adopt whenever 
 the condition of the Company’s finances admitted of 
 such action. 
 
 ‘ I confess that if economical considerations and 
 
54 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 want of military force had not appeared to me con¬ 
 clusive against the measure ’ (a proposed enter¬ 
 prise against Batavia), ‘ I might not, on an occasion in 
 my judgment so important, have permitted our formal 
 incompetence to stand in the way of a great national 
 service, but should have been disposed on forming the 
 iirst provisional arrangements to exercise the best dis¬ 
 cretion I could on the several points I have alluded to, 
 subject to the future consideration of government, and 
 to embrace the responsibility which must often attach 
 to the most useful public exertions. 
 
 ‘ The main advantage that would result from such 
 an enterprise would be the eradication of a hostile 
 power and influence from every part of the East, and 
 the necessity which that event would impose on our 
 enemies and rivals, of conducting every enterprise 
 against us immediately from Europe, without any es¬ 
 tablished post of their own in this hemisphere for the 
 various indispensable purposes of shelter, supplies, 
 military depots, naval arsenal, or even political intrigue 
 and combination.’' 
 
 Referring to rumours current in India of a project 
 for the establishment of a French maritime post at 
 the entrance of the Persian Gulf, he wrote: 
 
 ‘ If a force adapted to the purpose (of invading 
 India) could be collected there, gradually and in detail, 
 either by sea or land, and the obstacles are not insur¬ 
 mountable either way, the trade of the Arabs and of 
 the Persian Gulf in general is so considerable that 
 > To the President of the Board of Control. 
 
^T. 56] 
 
 EXTERNAL POLICY. 
 
 55 
 
 tonnage would be found without difficulty to transport 
 any number of troops, and the passage is short and 
 easy to territories occupied by our professed enemies 
 in India. 
 
 ‘ We must not forget the nature of our tenure in 
 this Empire, and that it would not require a great 
 European army to disturb our security in India— 
 20,000 French troops commanded by French officers, 
 supplied with all the means which attend such armies, 
 would not, I am firmly convinced, subdue us—but 
 would create a struggle which must be attended with 
 great present calamity, however successfully and 
 honourably it might be overcome. For these reasons 
 I should be sorry to see half the number of troops landed 
 in India. 
 
 ‘ An absolute ascendancy at the Porte or a positive 
 conquest of Turkey, a confederacy with Kussia in 
 Oriental schemes, would tend to the furtherance, I do 
 not say to the accomplishment, of Bonaparte’s scheme 
 against India. 
 
 ‘The mission of an able minister to the Court of 
 Persia is one of the first measures that presents itself. 
 On that point I would take the liberty of saying a few 
 words. 
 
 ‘ Whoever resides in Persia on the part of England 
 should represent His IMajesty and receive his instruc¬ 
 tions from his ministers. The interests of Persia are 
 now so much connected with the politics of Europe, 
 that no negotiation with that Court of a general nature 
 could be carried on from hence. Yet India and the 
 
56 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 interests of England in Asia are so deeply concerned in 
 the conduct of Persia, and so naturally implicated in 
 its affairs, that I trust I shall be excused for suggest¬ 
 ing two useful points in such a mission. First, that 
 the English minister should have a close, confidential, 
 and constant correspondence with the supreme Grovem- 
 ment in India, and should receive from that Government 
 instructions in all matters of local concern which should 
 not commit his Government at home on points of 
 European policy. 
 
 ‘ Next, that the person for that office should be 
 selected here, or at least from the servants of the 
 public in this country. None can, from their habits 
 and from the peculiar case of their knowledge and expe¬ 
 rience, be so well qualified for the station. I confess I 
 have one individual in my mind. I have never seen 
 tlfis gentleman in my life, but hazard the suggestion on 
 a certain knowledge of Colonel Malcolm’s superior 
 qualifications.’ 
 
 Of the financial prospect Lord Minto’s auguries 
 were more favourable than the Coint of Directors had 
 ventured to anticipate when he left England; ‘ but,’ 
 he said, ‘ in the event of war, estimates become wholly 
 fallacious; and the only certain financial conclusion 
 must be that, pending an invasion, no surplus, but on 
 the contrary a great increase of debt, must be expected 
 and provided for. 
 
 ‘ If these regions ever come to he the scene of our 
 contests Avith our European enemies, India will indeed 
 be the apple in immediate view of the combatants. 
 
i?iT. 56] 
 
 EXTERNAL POLICY. 
 
 57 
 
 but Europe herself will be the real prize that is fought 
 for. The struggle will be between two mighty Em¬ 
 pires, and must assume a character and require an 
 effort far beyond the scope of any contest which the 
 E. I. Company can maintain, with resources calculated 
 for a very different state of the world. P'or that occasion 
 therefore, if it should ever arise, we shall receive our 
 orders, and be supplied with proportionate means from 
 England. 
 
 ‘ Consistently, however, with this view of things, I 
 think it right to apprise you that, if an attempt were 
 actually made by France to occupy a post on the Coast 
 of the Persian Gulf, or on any other point so situated 
 as to facilitate any hostile enterprise against our 
 Indian Empire, I should feel the occasion to be so im¬ 
 portant and so urgent as to require an immediate and 
 powerful effort to dislodge the enemy, and to defeat 
 his purpose, before so serious an evil had time to take 
 root. I shall keep the possibility of such an event in 
 mind, and shall endeavour both in my own arrange¬ 
 ments and in my suggestions to the Admiral not to be 
 found unprepared for it.’ 
 
 In the meantime Lord Minto was able to open his 
 official correspondence with the satisfactory assurance 
 that he saw no reason to fear interruption to the 
 system of public economy on which so much depended. 
 No symptoms gave warning of any impending necessity 
 for military intervention in the affairs of the native 
 states. With all the more powerful princes of India 
 the E. I. Company was in alliance; the others were 
 
58 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 not in a condition to cause uneasiness. The sole excep¬ 
 tion to the general tranquillity was a province within 
 British territory which had been permitted to lapse 
 into a condition of anarchy for want ‘ of good rule,’ 
 to borrow an expression once familiar on the Scotch 
 Borders. 
 
 The province of Bundelcund' had been added to 
 the dominions of the Company a few years before. 
 Stretching from the Jumna to the great mountain 
 chain that crosses India from the Granges to the Gulf 
 of Cambay, it includes both hill and plain—therefore 
 also the human varieties which in unsettled times are 
 as true to those respective localities as vultures and 
 field-mice. On the crests of hills so high and steep 
 that each hill is a natural fortress, stood, in the early 
 part of this century, 150 forts more or less strong, 
 held by as many chiefs, who rallied to their standards 
 all the discontented spirits of the district, and the 
 waifs and strays left behind by the ebbing tide of war. 
 Safe in the inaccessibility of their fastnesses they spent 
 their time much after the fashion of the Christian 
 Knights of Europe, of whose exploits many a ‘ castled 
 crag’ remains to tell. They lived by plunder and rapine 
 on their weaker neighbours—till at last a great cry 
 went up from throughout the land which found a merci¬ 
 ful hearing in the Council-room of Calcutta. 
 
 Lord Lake had assured the Government of Sir 
 George Barlow that peace would never be restored to 
 
 ‘ Bundelcund had been ceded in exchange for some districts in 
 the South Mahratta country by the treaty of Bassein. 
 
JEt. 56] 
 
 INTEENAL POLICY. 
 
 59 
 
 the district till the most important of these strongholds 
 had surrendered, and Sir Greorge had made answer 
 that ‘ a certain extent of dominion, local power, and 
 revenue would be cheaply sacrificed for tranquillity and 
 security within a more contracted circle.’ 
 
 Unhappily something more than this was likely to 
 be sacrificed—viz. the character of the British Govern¬ 
 ment for justice, and the very existence of the popula¬ 
 tion it was bound to protect. When Lord INIinto arrived 
 in India Bundelcund was rapidly becoming a desert. 
 One of his first measures, taken within a few weeks of 
 his arrival at Calcutta, was the despatch of a military 
 force into the disturbed districts. It was at the same 
 time officially announced that ‘ the Government con¬ 
 sidered it essential, not only to the preservation of 
 political influence over the chiefs of Bundelcund, but to 
 the dignity and reputation of the British Government, 
 to interfere for the suppression of internal disorder.’ 
 Writing to the Chairman * of the E. I. Company he said : 
 ‘These petty troubles have no very distinct object, 
 certainly none in which the Company have any other 
 interest than that which they must always feel in a 
 punctual and easy collection of their revenues, and in 
 the discharge of a duty which a Sovereign owes to its 
 subjects, I mean that of preserving the public peace 
 and protecting the weaker and more pacific part of the 
 community against the oppression and violence of the 
 stronger. 
 
 ‘ The administration of Sir George Barlow has 
 ' E. Parry, Esq. 
 
60 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 hitherto employed on such occasions the usual and 
 ordinary powers of legal government, aided by every 
 effort of conciliation and persuasion to repress the in¬ 
 subordinate spirit of which I am speaking, and success 
 has in general attended that just and prudent system. 
 But in one or two instances these means have been 
 exhausted without accomplishing the object, and an 
 immediate necessity has arisen of resorting to military 
 force, for the double purpose of suppressing a rebellious 
 resistance to law, and of displaying both the power 
 and the determination of Government to vindicate its 
 just authority in the eyes of a people who would wait 
 only for the assurance of an opposite character in 
 Government, and of consequent impunity, to fall into 
 general disobedience and anarchy.’ The tone was 
 new to ears accustomed to that of late assumed by the 
 supreme Government, and produced an immediate and 
 decisive effect. Many a petty Kajah rapidly discovered 
 his interest to lie on the side of order, and long before 
 the British force succeeded in quelling the fiercer 
 spirits of the hills, cultivation and peace had returned 
 to the plains. 
 
 The reduction of the most important of the moun¬ 
 tain strongholds was not effected till after several 
 campaigns, nor without considerable losses—‘ losses 
 particularly in officers,’ wrote Lord Minto, ‘ for which 
 one feels inconsolable for such an object. That object, 
 however, it had become indispensable to accomplish, 
 and its necessity is strongly confirmed by the difficulty 
 which has attended it.’ 
 
^T. 66] 
 
 THE NATIVE RACES. 
 
 G1 
 
 While the rumours of intended attacks upon our 
 Eastern possessions acquired with every day greater 
 consistency and probability, the attention of the Govern¬ 
 ment was earnestly directed to the maintenance of such 
 relations with their Indian subjects as would tend to 
 obtain their loyal support. 
 
 Of the races subject to British nde, the most 
 adverse to our power was necessarily the INIahommedan. 
 To the Hindoos, though foreigners and conquerors, we 
 were nevertheless the justest and gentlest who had 
 ever held sway over them. To the Mahrattas we were 
 a formidable danger indeed, but one the magnitude 
 of which they did not as yet thoroughly appreciate. 
 Among the IMussulmans alone, especially of the higher 
 class, there existed an immense and weighty body of 
 irreconcilable discontent, the natural result of the 
 establishment of the Company’s Government over a 
 great portion of the Peninsula, to the extinction of 
 the Mussulman power and the ruin of the individual 
 influence, consideration, and fortunes of the race in 
 which the principal native energies reside. ‘ In their 
 minds had been planted all the hostile dispositions that 
 are bred of despair.’ Instruments therefore could not 
 be wanting to foment real discontent, or to create 
 artificial grievances. Some of this disaffection, it was 
 hoped, would subside by the mere lapse of time, by the 
 gradual extinction of old influences and the growth of 
 new interests in the soil and prosperity of the country, 
 originating in and dependent upon the British Govern¬ 
 ment. Such had been the case in Bengal, where the same 
 
62 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 course was run from the demolition of the Mussulman 
 power to the steady establishment of our exclusive 
 authority, and the perfect identification of the mass 
 of the people, their interests and feelings, with our 
 government. ‘ If we avoid,’ wrote Lord Minto to the 
 Chairman of the East India Company,' ‘ as we shall 
 with scrupulous attention, every measure that might 
 furnish our enemies with even a pretence to work upon, 
 —if we maintain discipline with a firm hand, and keep 
 a watchful and observant eye on every attempt to prac¬ 
 tise on the prejudices of the native soldier—the danger 
 will be confined to those general circumstances inherent 
 in our situation, for which, as there is no remedy, it is 
 neither profitable nor manly to make them the topics 
 of fruitless dread and lamentation. . . . The only 
 successful engine of sedition in any part of India must 
 be that of persuading the people that our Government 
 entertains hostile and systematic designs against their 
 religion. This persuasion, if it could be established in 
 Bengal, would be as fatal there as on the coast; but 
 the difference is that nobody in Bengal is interested in 
 propagating that falsehood, and to incur danger here 
 we must ourselves furnish probable cause for sincere 
 alarm.’ The belief that ‘this engine’ could be suc¬ 
 cessfully worked had been confirmed by recent events; 
 for though the Vellore massacres were no doubt in 
 part attributable to the general state of disaffection 
 and humiliation of the Mahommedan population of the 
 country, it was clearly proved that the sentiment on 
 ' Lord Minto to E. Parry, Esq., September 1807. 
 
^Et. 56] DESPATCH FROM COURT OF DIRECTORS. 63 
 
 which the agents traded was a universal though 
 unfounded dread that the British Government was 
 about to exact a forcible conversion of the Sepoys to 
 Christianity. What to the natives could seem less 
 incredible, or indeed more natural ? Had not 
 Hindoos seen their holy places defiled by Mahomme- 
 dans ? Why should Christians spare either the one 
 or the other ? 
 
 To calm such apprehensions, the Court of Directors 
 had declared in a despatch,* dated May 1807, their 
 firm resolve to uphold throughout their dominions 
 the most perfect toleration of all creeds and rites ; and 
 at the same time they clearly stated the position of 
 Government in respect to the missionaries. 
 
 ‘ In the whole course of our administration of the 
 Indian territories it has been our known and declared 
 principle to maintain a perfect toleration of the various 
 religious systems which prevailed in them; to protect the 
 followers of each in the undisturbed enjoyment of their 
 respective opinions and usages ; neither to interfere with 
 them ourselves, nor to suffer them to be molested by 
 others. When we afforded our countenance and sanc¬ 
 tion to missionaries who have from time to time pro¬ 
 ceeded to India for the purpose of propagating the 
 Christian religion, it was far from being in our contem¬ 
 plation to add the influence of our authority to any 
 attempts they might make; for on the contrary we 
 were perfectly aware that the progress of such conver- 
 
 ‘ Instructions addressed to the Governor of Fort St. George, 
 May 29, 1807. 
 
64 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 sion will be slow and gradual, arising more from a con¬ 
 viction of the principles of our religion itself, and from 
 the pious examples of its teachers, than from any 
 undue influence or from the exertions of authority, 
 which are never to be resorted to in such cases.’ 
 
 In accordance with these instructions it became 
 the duty of the Indian Glovernment, not long after the 
 Governor General’s arrival in Calcutta, to take certain 
 measures which had the result of embroiling him with 
 the missionaries of Serampore, and with a party in 
 Calcutta and in London of growing importance. 
 
 It is well known that Christian missionaries had 
 long been familiar to the populations of Southern India. 
 Eoman Catholic missions had been established since the 
 beginning of the seventeenth century in the Portuguese 
 and French settlements on the west coast of the Pen¬ 
 insula. In comparatively recent times some Protestant 
 missionaries, Danes and Germans, had established them¬ 
 selves at Madras, whence a few individuals made their 
 way to Bengal. But it was not till the last decade of 
 the eighteenth century that an Englishman was found 
 to carry the Gospel to the natives of India. William 
 Carey was the first English missionary to Bengal; and 
 his life is a happy illustration of what may be done 
 to overcome the most apparently insurmountable ob¬ 
 stacles by a noble enthusiasm and an ardent character. 
 Carey was the son of a shoemaker in Northampton¬ 
 shire ; a Baptist by creed. Alone and destitute of 
 resources he arrived in Bengal, where without the 
 licence of the Company no one was permitted to reside. 
 
^T. 56] 
 
 THE MISSIONAKIES. 
 
 65 
 
 but where, nevertheless, he remained on sufferance 
 until, being joined by others who desired to assist in 
 the good work, he and they removed together to the 
 Danish settlement of Serampore. There they preached 
 in the native languages, formed schools for the young, 
 set up a printing-press, and a paper manufactory (this 
 was the industry by which they lived), and devoted 
 all their remaining time and energies to the translation 
 of the Holy Scriptures and the dissemination of tracts 
 in the various native dialects. Soon after Lord Minto’s 
 arrival, some of these publications attracted the atten¬ 
 tion of Government, and it being undeniable that they 
 were calculated to ofl’end the feelings of the native 
 })opulation, containing as they did oflensive attacks on 
 the Hindoo mythology and the Mussulman Prophet, the 
 Secretary to Government received instructions to com¬ 
 municate to the Kev. Dr, Carey, the leading member of 
 the mission at Serampore, a resolution arrived at by 
 the Governor General in Council, to place their press 
 under regulations, and to suspend the practice of public 
 preaching by natives in the native dialects at the seat 
 of government. 
 
 In an official letter addressed by Mr. Edmonstone to 
 Dr. Carey it is stated, that ‘ the issue of publications and 
 the public delivery of discourses of the nature above 
 alluded to, are evidently calculated to produce conse¬ 
 quences in the highest degree detrimental to the tran¬ 
 quillity of the British dominions in India, and it becomes 
 the indispensable duty of the British Govermnent to 
 arrest the progress of any proceedings of that nature. 
 
66 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 In the present instance this objection is enforced by 
 the necessity of maintaining the public faith, which 
 under the express injunctions of the Legislature has 
 been repeatedly pledged to leave the native subjects of 
 the Company in India to the full, free, and undisturbed 
 exercise of their respective religions.’ The letter 
 concluded by expressing the Grovernor Greneral’s ex¬ 
 pectation ‘ that the press would be removed to the 
 Presidency, where alone the same control that is 
 established over presses sanctioned by the Government 
 can be duly exercised.’' 
 
 Though the action of the Government was in strict 
 accordance with the instructions issued by the Court of 
 Directors, it raised a storm of angry feeling which 
 temporarily obscured all sense of justice, and led to a 
 remarkable oblivion of the Apostolical injunction, ‘ Be 
 pitiful, be courteous.’ 
 
 ‘ This is the first instance,’ says the author of a 
 well-known biographical work,^ ‘ in which the Govern¬ 
 ment of India brought forward the plea of being bound 
 by a ‘Pledge to grant the natives the undisturbed exer¬ 
 cise of their “ respective religions.” No such pledge 
 was ever exacted by the natives or granted by the 
 Government. British rule was established in India by 
 the sword and the sword alone, and at no period were 
 the conquerors in a position which obliged them to 
 give pledges to the conquered.’ 
 
 Dean Milman, in the opening chapter of his ‘ History 
 
 ' Letter to Kev. Dr. Carey, Feptemher 8, 1807. 
 
 2 Lives and Times of Carey. Murslunan, and Ward. 
 
^T. 56] 
 
 THE MISSIONARIES. 
 
 fi7 
 
 of Christianity,’ remarks that the Romans conquered 
 like savages, but ruled like philosophic statesmen. 
 ‘The kingdoms which were won by the most unjustifiable 
 aggression were for the most part governed with a 
 judicious union of firmness and conciliation, in which 
 the conscious strength of irresistible power was tempered 
 with the wisest respect for national usages.’ 
 
 Some such rule as that under which Christianity 
 found its appointed time appeared to Lord INIinto not 
 unworthy of a British Government though deriving its 
 title from the sword. 
 
 When a public man is better liked than his mea¬ 
 sures, it is not uncommon to hear them ascribed to bad 
 advisers. So it was in this case. But Lord Minto was 
 not willing to accept a defence based on his ignorance 
 of matters which he was bound to know; still less on 
 his docility in accepting views inculcated by others. 
 He had, he said, after deliberate investigation and re¬ 
 flection, thought it his duty to prohibit, for a time, 
 public preaching by natives for the purpose of conver¬ 
 sion, and also to prevent the dissemination of publica¬ 
 tions in the native languages, containing scurrilous 
 abuse of persons and things holy in the estimation of 
 our Indian subjects, whether Hindoo or ■Mahommedaii. 
 He had not, he confessed, been aware of the ruin which 
 a removal of the mission press from Serampore would 
 inflict on the missionaries, ‘ owing to the peculiar circum¬ 
 stances of their property’there. No sooner was this in¬ 
 evitable consequence of the intended measure seen than 
 the order for it was rescinded. It was due to Dr. Leyden, 
 
68 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 the emiuent Orientalist, that at this juncture the 
 Governor General and the leading members of the 
 mission were brought face to face, and that the latter 
 were enabled to state their case personally to the 
 Governor General. Dr. Leyden stood high in the esti¬ 
 mation of Lord Minto, by whom his learning and his 
 energy of character were fully appreciated. Moreover 
 there was a link between them of which both acknow¬ 
 ledged the strength. Both came from ‘ Teviot-water,’ 
 a fact held sacred even on the banks of the Ganges. 
 Dr. Leyden, as the personal friend of iV'Ir. Marshman 
 and Dr. Carey, advised them to lose no time in crossing 
 the river to the pleasant park of Barrackpore ; there to 
 seek an interview with the ‘ great chief,’ for the osten¬ 
 sible purpose of olfering him their translation of the 
 Eamayan. With knowledge of men, not always pos¬ 
 sessed by students of books. Dr. Leyden had seen that 
 sympathetic relations in one class of subjects would 
 indubitably lead to smoother ones in others. So it 
 proved. The conversation passed easily from literary 
 topics to those specially interesting to the missionaries, 
 and when the interview was over, both parties retained 
 impressions of mutual good-will. His visitors recog¬ 
 nised in Lord Minto the candour and simplicity that 
 were natural to him; he found in them a sincerely 
 pious zeal, tempered with discretion, which won his 
 respect. The Governor General declared that nothing 
 was further from his intentions, or more foreign to the 
 views of Government, than to affect in the smallest 
 degree either the interests of the missionary body, or 
 
Mt. 56] 
 
 THE SERAMPOEE PRESS. 
 
 69 
 
 the personal comfort and convenience of those worthy 
 men, and he remained satisfied with their assurance 
 that the works hereafter to be printed at Serampore 
 should be previously submitted to the revision and 
 sanction of Grovernment. The press therefore remained 
 at Serampore. It may be that he felt a little dis¬ 
 appointment when, a few days after these events, an 
 address was presented by the missionaries to the 
 (Tovernment of Serampore, in which the concessions 
 made to them were ascribed to the particular interposi¬ 
 tion of Divine Providence and the instrumentality of 
 the Danish Governor. ‘ I confess,’ Lord Minto good- 
 humouredly remarked, ‘ that I thought it was to the 
 Governor General in Council that gratitude w’as due, 
 but I suppose I was wrong.’ 
 
 Nevertheless his kindly sentiments towards the in- 
 dividvials belonging to the mission and his respect for 
 their aims never altered. They are often mentioned 
 in his correspondence as his ‘very good friends,’ and 
 though a sense of public duty had imposed upon him 
 the obligation of checking their over-zealous haste, 
 his personal feelings ensured to their literary efforts 
 his constant and warmest encouragement. 
 
 The whole question as between Calcutta and Seram¬ 
 pore was disposed of in less than a month from the date 
 of INIr. Edmonstone’s despatch. In reply to the me¬ 
 morial of the missionaries—drawn up after the inter¬ 
 view at Barrackpore—he was directed to state that ‘ the 
 Governor General in Council was fidly convinced of the 
 rectitude of the intentions of the Society of Missionaries, 
 
70 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 and that the precautions which Grovemment deemed it 
 necessary to adopt against the unlimited employment 
 of the press, proceed exclusively from the duty imposed 
 on Government of reserving to itself the authority of 
 determining what publications may, or may not, expose 
 the public tranquillity to hazard, or involve a violation 
 of public faith, instead of leaving the decision of such 
 important questions to the judgment of others.’ 
 
 But in the meanwhile ‘ the Battle of the Missions ’ 
 was raging fiercely in London, where it occasioned the 
 publication of more than twenty-five pamphlets; the 
 charge, repeated again and again in them, against the 
 Government of India being that of a proved desire 
 to root up the Serampore mission and extirpate Chris¬ 
 tianity from India. 
 
 The Indian Government had distinctly stated that 
 it had no desire to impede the circulation of the Scrip¬ 
 tures in the native dialects, ‘ if unaccompanied by any 
 comments on the religions of the country.’ This was 
 construed into a prohibition to carry the Gospel among 
 the natives of India; though the missionaries were 
 all the time very properly using the privilege accorded 
 to them to print and circulate the Scriptures freely. 
 
 Lord Minto himself took great personal interest in 
 the translations of the Scriptiues proceeding from the 
 Serampore press. In a public and published discourse, 
 on the occasion of his annual visit to the College of 
 Fort William, after warmly praising the efforts of the 
 mission to cultivate the Chinese language, he said: ‘ I 
 must not omit to recommend the learned and pious 
 
^T. O'j] 
 
 THE SEKAMPORE PRESS. 
 
 71 
 
 persons who have accomplished, for the future benefit, 
 we may hope, of that immense and populous region, 
 Chinese versions in the Chinese character of the Gos¬ 
 pels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, throwing open that 
 precious mine with all its moral and religious trea¬ 
 sures to the largest associated population in the world.’ 
 
 Not long afterwards a specimen of printing in the 
 Chinese characters by the natives employed on the 
 Serampore press won Lord iNIinto’s hearty admiration. 
 He would gladly have headed the list of subscribers to 
 the first work in the Chinese language to be pub¬ 
 lished at Serampore—a translation of the Gospel of St. 
 Matthew ; but on finding that he could not ‘ step out 
 of himself and separate his private from his public 
 character,’ and that objections were made to his 
 appearing in the undertaking in his public capacity, 
 he subscribed largely to a copy of Confucius about 
 to emanate from that press, desiring that the profits 
 derived from the sale of that book should be ap¬ 
 plied to the publication of the Scriptures. The idea 
 was at once taken up, and the friendly spirit displayed 
 by Lord Minto was cordially acknowledged. In a few 
 days subscriptions to the amount of 2,000^. were ob¬ 
 tained, intended to be applied collectively to the pub¬ 
 lication of the Scriptures ; besides, we are told, direct 
 contributions to the extent of 300^. Every gentleman 
 in Calcutta was ready to add his name to the list. 
 Lord Minto’s example having ‘ served to stimulate the 
 liberality of the community.’ * 
 
 ‘ lAves and Times of Carey, Marshman, and Ward. 
 
72 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 At a later period of his administration, the Grovern- 
 ment subscribed a sum of 10,000 rupees towards de¬ 
 fraying the expense of translating the Scriptures into 
 the Malay language. 
 
 So much for the prohibition of the sacred Scriptures 
 in British India. 
 
 The good understanding arrived at with Dr. Carey 
 and Mr. Marshman was not sufficient to allay the irri¬ 
 tation caused by the censorship instituted by the Gio- 
 vernment over the publications of the Serampore press. 
 There were men in Calcutta whose views were of a 
 more worldly nature, and who were by no means un¬ 
 willing to cause trouble to the Grovernment by assuming 
 some of its functions to themselves. The Kev. Claudius 
 Buchanan, one of the chaplains of the Presidency, was 
 prominent among these. Though making use of the 
 Serampore press, and in friendly relations with the 
 missionaries, nothing could be less like the simplicity 
 of their tenets than those held by him. In a memoir, 
 ‘ on the expediency of introducing an ecclesiastical 
 establishment into India for the benefit of our own 
 countrymen, and as a foundation for the ultimate 
 civilisation of the natives,’ of which Mr. Buchanan was 
 the author, he wrote : ‘ An archbishop is wanted for 
 India—a sacred and exalted character, surrounded by 
 his bishops, of ample revenue and extensive sway. . . . 
 We want something royal in a spiritual and temporal 
 sense for the abject subjects of this great Eastern em¬ 
 pire to look up to.’ Again : ‘ When once our national 
 Church shall have been confirmed in India, the members 
 
Mt. 56] 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL PRETENSIONS. 
 
 73 
 
 of that Church will be the best qualified to advise the 
 State as to the means by which from time to time 
 the civilisation of the natives is to be effected.’ The 
 belief that the institution of a hierarchy would be 
 efficacious in producing the conversion of the Hindoos 
 was so firmly held by Mr. Buchanan that, as it was re¬ 
 lated at the time, while rejecting a suggestion that he 
 might himself be the first archbishop of the East, he ex¬ 
 claimed, ‘ Place the mitre on any head. Never fear, it 
 will do good among the Hindoos ! ’ To Lord Minto, as 
 a Scotchman, it may have been hard to perceive that the 
 placing of a mitre on one head would inevitably infuse 
 Christianity into another; but he fully recognised the 
 meaning of the claim set up by Mr. Buchanan on behalf 
 of his fellow-Churchmen to advise the State on the 
 means to be adopted for the civilisation of the natives, 
 and he did not therefore share the surprise of the 
 simple-minded men of Serampore when they discovered, 
 at a subsequent period, that Mr. Buchanan had never 
 been entirely reconciled to the influence obtained by 
 the press /or Dissenters. 
 
 A memorial, drawn up by Mr. Buchanan for presen¬ 
 tation to the Governor General in Council in reference 
 to the measures lately adopted by Government with 
 reference to the Serampore mission, was forwarded to 
 the Court of Directors, with the comments and expla¬ 
 nations of the Governor General and his colleagues. 
 These appear to have satisfactorily disposed of the 
 questions at issue. But it is remarkable that while the 
 statements in this memorial were categorically refuted 
 
74 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 at the time, they have reappeared again and again with 
 all the virulence peculiar to ecclesiastical censures. As 
 late as June 1845, the ‘Calcutta Eeview ’ contained 
 an article entitled ‘ The early or exclusively Oriental 
 period of Government Education in Bengal,’ repeating 
 the three leading charges in the paper of 1807;— 
 that the Government had virtually suppressed the 
 circulation of the Scriptures and the preaching of 
 the Gospel ;—that it only consented with extreme 
 reluctance to abandon an intended removal of the 
 missionary press from Serampore upon the remon¬ 
 strances of the Danish Governor, who felt the honour 
 and sovereignty of his nation to be involved in the 
 issue;—that the consequence of the imprimatur 
 imposed by Government was the submission of religious 
 works to their native officers. 
 
 The charge of having suppressed the preaching of 
 the Gospel Lord Minto disposed of as a misrepresen¬ 
 tation of facts. ‘ I suspended the public preaching 
 of natives to natives in the native languages at the 
 seat of government, because, with the zeal of proselytes, 
 they preached the same inflammatory matter and the 
 same exhortations to civil dissensions as had been 
 printed. The press is not suspended, but is kept 
 under regulation. Preaching is suspended, but is not 
 intended to be Anally prohibited.’ 
 
 The second charge, according to Lord Minto, ‘ did 
 not contain a particle of truth.’ Though the press was 
 set up in Danish territory, the only market for its 
 publications was British India; though the leading 
 
-Ht. 56] 
 
 MEMOEIAL OF ME. BUCHANAN. 
 
 75 
 
 missionaries resided at Serampore, they were British 
 subjects ; Dr. Carey holding moreover an official appoint¬ 
 ment under Government, that of Professor of Sanscrit 
 and Bengalee in the College of Fort William. Under 
 such conditions it never occurred to anyone concerned 
 that the honour of the Danish Government could be 
 affected by the transactions that have been related, nor 
 that the amicable relations between the Governor of 
 Serampore and the Government of Calcutta were en¬ 
 dangered because the former had made friendly repre¬ 
 sentations to the latter concerning the peaceable 
 demeanour and general good conduct of his neigh¬ 
 bours, the British missionaries residing at Serampore. 
 
 To the third subject of complaint, that the impri¬ 
 matur established by Government over the publica¬ 
 tions of the press necessitated the submission of works 
 on the subject of our holy religion to the native agents 
 of the Government, Lord Minto replied, that the 
 intervention of a native was not necessary to enable 
 members of Government to form their own opinions 
 of writings produced in Persian and Bengalee ; and 
 that the regulation complained of already existed 
 towards all the presses of Calcutta. If, therefore, the 
 right of the Government to exercise an imprimatur 
 over the press of Serampore were denied on the ground 
 taken up by Mr. Buchanan that the civil power was 
 incompetent to form a sound judgment of religious 
 works. Lord INIinto observed that the next step must 
 he an ecclesiastical censorship of the press and a 
 return to the dark ages. He disclaimed all desire 
 
76 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 to judge of the orthodoxy or the error involved in any 
 theological propositions, but he asserted that it was in 
 the capacity, and that it was the duty, of Government 
 to decide whether or no the publication of certain 
 propositions under the existing conditions could be con¬ 
 tinued with safety to the State. In illustration of 
 his opinion that they could not be so, he quoted in a 
 Government letter to the Secret Committee the follow¬ 
 ing passage from a religious pamphlet published by 
 Mr. Buchanan:— 
 
 ‘ The Mahommedans profess a religion which has 
 ever been characterised by political bigotry and intem¬ 
 perate zeal. In this country that religion still retains 
 the character of its bloody origin, particularly among 
 the higher classes. Whenever the Mahommedan feels 
 his religion touched, he grasps his dagger. This spirit 
 was seen in full operation under Tippoo’s government, 
 and it is not soon extinguished.’ 
 
 It might well be asked whether such a passage 
 as this should not reasonably induce the licenser 
 to withdraw Iris imprimatur from a book, which, 
 although containing no proposition that is not ‘ ortho¬ 
 dox and true, and entitled on that account to a severely 
 ecclesiastical imprimatur,' might nevertheless sharpen 
 every Mahommedan dagger and plunge them into every 
 Christian bosom in the country ? ’ 
 
 ' A somewhat amusing instance of the carelessness as to accu¬ 
 racy which distinguished the opposition to Lord Minto’s measures is 
 to be found in the accusation that he had manifested an intention to 
 suppress the Christian prophecies. The fact was that an advertise¬ 
 ment, sent by Mr. Buchanan to the Government Gazette, of the in¬ 
 tended publication of a series of sermons on the Christian prophecies, 
 
JEt. 56] 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE FROM LONDON. 
 
 77 
 
 Lord Minto’s correspondence from London left him 
 no doubt as to the fierceness of the controversy that 
 had arisen out of his policy towards the missionaries ; it 
 had extended to the Court of Directors; but he was con¬ 
 fidentially informed that he had not only the entire 
 approval, but the warm admiration, of four-fifths of the 
 Court for the courage with which he had adopted a 
 policy at once firm and moderate, though certain to 
 provoke rancorous hostility to his government. It has 
 been said that to some such hostility may be attri¬ 
 buted the fact of Lord ]\Iinto’s administration having 
 failed to obtain the measure of public approbation 
 which was its just due. But at the time not a few 
 of those statesmen whose opinions he most highly 
 valued considered that he was entitled to the warmest 
 thanks of the public. Perhaps it was only to states¬ 
 men that the full extent of the danger to our empire 
 in India was a])pareut, not alone from the immediate 
 
 delivered by himself in the Presidency churches, was suspended, ac¬ 
 cording to the usual practice of that paper, until the MS. had been 
 submitted lo the superintendent of the Company’s press. 
 
 The MS. never was so submitted, because Mr. Buchanan thought 
 it his duty to protest against the civil revision of any theological 
 work. He, however, represented his sermons to have been suppressed, 
 and then, ‘ by a graceful negligence of style,’ said Lord Minto, ‘ he 
 made it appear that the prophecies themselves had been supj)ressed, 
 and the Government was threatened with their accomplishment as a 
 matter of great alarm and affliction to themselves.’ What the con¬ 
 tents of the sermons might be. Lord Minto would not undertake to 
 say, as he had had no opportunity of perusing them. The Christian 
 prophecies would certainly not have been objected to, and the so- 
 called suppression of the sermons was due entirely to Mr. Buchanan’s 
 scruples of conscience which did not permit him to submit them to 
 Government. 
 
78 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 risk of collision with native sentiment, but from the 
 pretensions of a section of the Anglo-Indian community 
 to a dictatorial supremacy over the policy of the State. 
 A private letter, addressed by Lord Minto to the Chair¬ 
 man of the East India Company, who was also a mem¬ 
 ber of the Society for Missions to Africa and the East, 
 and who was therefore naturally to be supposed well 
 affected to their cause, shows that the Governor 
 General was prepared uncompromisingly to assert the 
 views on which his Government had acted. 
 
 ‘ Let me recommend to your serious consideration 
 the principal publications which have issued from the 
 Serampore press, in the native languages, the sole effect 
 of which was not to convert, but to alienate, the pro¬ 
 fessors of both religions prevalent amongst the natives 
 of this country. Pray read especially the miserable 
 stuff addressed to the Gentoos, in which, without one 
 word to convince or to satisfy the mind of the heathen 
 reader, without proof or argument of any kind, the 
 pages are filled with hell fire, and hell fire, and still 
 hotter fire, denounced against a whole race of men for 
 believing in the religion which they were taught by 
 their fathers and mothers, and the truth of which it is 
 simply impossible it should ever have entered into 
 their minds to doubt. Is this the doctrine of our 
 faith ? In saying that it is not mine I am well 
 assured that I express your sentiments as well as my 
 own. If there are two opinions among Christians on 
 this point, I can only say that I am of the sect which 
 believes that a just God will condemn no being with- 
 
^T. 66] 
 
 LETTER FROM LORD xMINTO. 
 
 79 
 
 out individual guilt. But is this a judicious course to 
 pursue for the purpose of conversion ? The remainder 
 of this tract seems to aim principally at a general 
 massacre of the Brahmins of this country. A total 
 abolition of caste is openly preached. A proposal to 
 effiice a mark of caste from the foreheads of soldiers 
 on parade has had its share in a massacre of Chris¬ 
 tians. Is it possible that your Government should be 
 required to countenance public exhortations addressed 
 to a Gentoo nation to eft’ace at once, not a little spot 
 of yellow paste from the forehead, but the whole insti¬ 
 tution of caste itself, that is to say, their whole scheme 
 of civil polity as well as their fondest and most rooted 
 religious tenets ? This is to be accomplished by coarse 
 and sciirrilous invective against the most revered order 
 of Hindoo society and addressed to that order itself. 
 
 ‘ I leave you to form your own judgment on these 
 performances, which will be that of a Christian gentle¬ 
 man. ... 1 am no enemy to the progress of Christi¬ 
 anity in India. It is the way, I observe, of some who 
 are personally engaged in the work of conversion to 
 confound any little check in correction of their own 
 errors with opposition or hostility to their purpose, 
 and to call out Atheism, Deism, and above all persecu¬ 
 tion, whenever a slip in their own conduct has required 
 to be rectified. ... I do not think we shoidd be justi¬ 
 fied in refusing the dispensation of the Christian reve¬ 
 lation to this great country for our interest or security, 
 but I am not equally ready to sacrifice the great inte¬ 
 rests which are confided to me to a blind principle of 
 
LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 80 
 
 [1807 
 
 complaisance towards every indiscretion which zeal 
 or negligence may commit. 
 
 ‘ In my opinion the missionaries would advance 
 better by mixing with the people, by habituating them 
 individually to the more amiable points of their doc¬ 
 trine, and attracting to the latter by its beneficent in¬ 
 fluences, rather than by the mysteries and dogmas of 
 their faith. I have some reason to think that the 
 press and the puljfit have not worked well. In many 
 instances I know that those who have not been made 
 angry have been made merry by these engines of con¬ 
 version. When the truth of his faith is questioned 
 the Mahommedan frowns and the Hindoo smiles.’ 
 
 A more formal document—namely, a general letter 
 to the Secret Committee—ends thus : ‘ With regard to 
 translations of the Scriptures into all the languages of 
 the world, it is a work with which we warmly sympa¬ 
 thise, and to which every countenance will be cordially 
 afforded by us ; but if the pupils of Mr. Buchanan should 
 employ themselves in translating the wretched compo¬ 
 sitions which we have transmitted to your Honourable 
 Company, we shall not think that they advance the 
 cause either of religion or of letters, and they must 
 expect no countenance from us either as Christians, as 
 scholars, as statesmen, or as gentlemen.’ 
 
 Serampore passed from Danish into British hands 
 in January 1808, just a month after the date of 
 Lord Minto’s letter to Mr. Parry. Immediately on the 
 receipt in India of the intelligence of a rupture be¬ 
 tween England and Denmark, the order to occupy 
 
^T. 56] MISSIONS IN NORTH-WEST INDIA. 
 
 81 
 
 Serampore was given to the Company’s forces. Writing 
 of this event to Mr. Parry, Lord Minto said: ‘ Our 
 worthy neighbours, the Serampore missionaries, have 
 experienced no sort of inconvenience from our occupa¬ 
 tion of that factory. I flatter myself I am on the best 
 possible footing with them, at least in temporal con¬ 
 cerns. If they should be less satisfied on other points, 
 I may hope, from the religion they and I profess, that 
 charity will accompany zeal,’ 
 
 Two years later he actively interfered to promote 
 the extension of the ministrations of the missionary 
 body to the great cities of Northern India. 
 
 In the course of 1810, permission was sought of 
 the Government to establish missions in the N. W. 
 Provinces. Two gentlemen in the Serampore mission 
 desired to proceed to Agra and Delhi. The Governor 
 General in Council stated that he saw no objection to 
 allow them to do so, but desired them to make the 
 application for leave to proceed there, saying nothing 
 of anything else. This sentence was understood to 
 mean that as their objects, more distinctly stated, might 
 provoke a prohibition from the Court of Directors, 
 Lord Minto took it on his own responsibility to give 
 them the desired permission. 
 
 It seems strange that this act of grace, instead of 
 being grateful to the missionaries, drew from the Kev, 
 — Ward the comment: ‘ Now we are likely to get 
 stations fixed with the public permission of Govern¬ 
 ment, and we shall be tolerated like toads, and not 
 hunted down like wild beasts.’ 
 
 a 
 
82 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 At that very time no one, however influential, was 
 allowed to travel in India without a passport, or to 
 reside there without a direct license from the Court of 
 Directors. There are copies at Minto of several letters 
 in which Lord Minto expresses regret that he cannot 
 give the permission requested by residents at Pondi¬ 
 cherry to travel in the Company’s dominions; and in a 
 letter addressed to one of his family he mentions the 
 receipt of a somewhat harsh order for the immediate 
 return of a gentleman to England, who had gone out 
 in the same ship as himself, had lived eight months 
 in his house, and had subsequently held some small 
 appointment in Calcutta. That he had so done with¬ 
 out license was no doubt an irregularity, and the 
 orders of the Court had to be obeyed ; but no evidence 
 remains that the gentleman, who submitted to the 
 undoubted authority of law, felt himself thereby to 
 have had anything in common with a wild beast. 
 
 Yet when, in 1811, some missionaries who had 
 arrived in India without license, though not without 
 knowledge of the Company’s regulations, were requested 
 to depart, an outcry was raised against the persecution 
 of the Grovernment, and the irreconcilable enmity of 
 its members to Christianity. 
 
^T. 56] 
 
 FAMILY COKRESrONDEXCE. 
 
 83 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Before the transactions described in the last chapter 
 came to an end, Lord Minto had become familiar with 
 Indian life. He had had experience of summer and 
 winter, had found the cold weather delightful, save for 
 the insatiable voracity of the mosqiutoes that came in 
 swarms from the cool air to the warmer house; and in 
 the heat of summer had cooled and consoled himself 
 ‘ by thinking of Minto and of those who were enjoying 
 the green pleasures and calm comforts of that chosen 
 spot. So pray be as happy there all of you as ever 
 you can, for your enjoyments are my best punkahs, and 
 your repose is my best recreation in this torrid zone of 
 trouble and fatigue.’ 
 
 One of the greatest trials of absence in those days 
 consisted in the long interval which necessarily elapsed 
 between the despatch of letters and their delivery in 
 distant lands: it was sensibly enhanced by the un¬ 
 certainty attending on their ever reaching their desti¬ 
 nation. The safest course was to entrust them to the 
 Indian fleets, which only sailed twice or thrice a year, 
 but which, being escorted by a convoy, generally arrived 
 in safety. Next to the fleet, a King’s ship was pre- 
 
84 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 ferred; but chance ships or single merchantmen were 
 deemed too liable to be captured, to be safe depositaries 
 of letters. When these were of importance duplicates 
 were generally sent by different vessels ; but, in spite of 
 all precautions, lamentations were perpetually recurring 
 over the loss of letters, of many a gift of ‘ orient pearl 
 and barbaric gold,’ and, worse than all, of the ships 
 that bore them, which found their way to the ports of 
 our enemies and still more often to the bottom of the 
 sea 
 
 Some smaller inconveniences there were in the 
 slowness of communications that had occasionally a 
 comic aspect, as when letter-writers in London, who had 
 missed the May fleet, served up cold at Christmas the 
 materials which six months before had been far more 
 highly spiced; or when their correspondents in India 
 congratulated them a year after date on events already 
 repented of. 
 
 ‘•February 8, 1808.' Our last letters from home 
 were still dated June, but we expect a fleet very soon. 
 It will bring packets from you all, I trust. I may safely 
 say that the single interesting occupation I have (bating 
 my business, which is becoming interesting enough) 
 is thinking of you and all your occupations. I am 
 ravenous for all details and particulars, especially such 
 as are agreeable to you, within doors and without. 
 
 ‘ Nothing has come from England since the June 
 fleet which sailed the 23rd of that month, and we are 
 
 To Lady Minto. 
 
^T. 56] 
 
 FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 85 
 
 wondering that some vessel or other has not been des¬ 
 patched to tell us of the events which have happened 
 since that time. We have had no letters overland, the 
 road being shut that way as you know, and all the 
 news we live upon is rumour and surmise from such 
 places as Aleppo, Bagdad, Bushire, Muscat, and other 
 out-of-the-world regions. The war with Denmark came 
 from Aleppo, where the Danish consul received it from 
 Constantinople.’ 
 
 It was not till April 14 that the long looked-for 
 letters arrived. ‘ It is totally impossible to describe 
 the excessive delight which they have bestowed upon 
 us. In the first place I never received such a num¬ 
 ber of letters in my life ; and I never received any more 
 precious in every possible way. I have been reading 
 and re-re-reading all yesterday and to-day. Thank 
 tiod you were all well on September 8. I assure you it 
 is a nervous thing to open letters after an interval of 
 several months. . . .’ 
 
 The tone of the family letters was especially jubi¬ 
 lant, for they gave the news of the birth of Lord 
 Minto’s first grandchild—the son of his eldest son—and 
 the answers from India were no less joyful. 
 
 To the young mother Lord Minto wrote: ‘ I have 
 so many things to thank you for, I hardly know where 
 to begin : first, for dancing with me at Kelso; secondly, 
 for marrying graceless; thirdly, for making him so 
 good a wife,—I really am much obliged to you for 
 that; fourthly, for being such a good, dutiful, beautiful 
 
8G 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 daughter to your good mother, Grod bless her ! fifthly 
 and sixthly, for two letters to me; and lastly, but indeed 
 this is scarce worth mentioning, for being the mother 
 of Gilbert’s son. 
 
 ‘It is really hard upon me to have been away 
 just when all this was about. I don’t believe any of 
 you could be more worthy of the occasion, or busier, or 
 more frightened, or more nervous, or more delighted, 
 or a more sincere admirer of the boy’s fine figure. 
 It certainly is very hard upon me; that you must 
 allow. Still this most happy event has given me many 
 a pleasant hour, and affords such a quiet dulcifying sort 
 of satisfaction of mind as even the pains of absence 
 cannot sour. I may live to toss him about and break 
 his bones yet, though his father will have been before¬ 
 hand with me. . . . One command that I lay upon 
 you all is that he shall on no pretence whatever go to a 
 Harlequin Farce till I return, and that then he shall 
 sit between his two grandfathers; and three well-enter¬ 
 tained babes we shall be. How we shall laugh—all 
 three—except a few compassionate tears which I may 
 shed at the cruel crosses of poor Columbine and at the 
 parental distress of Pantaloon. 
 
 ‘ Now, to be serious, I beg you to make the boy love 
 grandpapa with all his little baby heart. . . .’ 
 
 His letter to Lady Minto on the same occasion ends 
 thus : ‘ The perfect happiness of the worthless pair, 
 Gilbert and Mary, is really a sort of felicity to us all 
 that makes me feel independent of fate and fortune. 
 Whatever fall out, the family bark seems in harbour. 
 
^T. 56] 
 
 FAMILY COREESPONDENCE. 
 
 87 
 
 Gilbert himself is happy, and the rest can never want 
 a home or friend. 
 
 ‘ Guid angels keep young Minto’s heir, 
 
 And a’ thae lads and lasses spare. 
 
 I’ll surely trust when I’m nae mair, 
 
 The bairns shall prove, 
 
 In yon true fallow’s bosom there, 
 
 A Parent’s luve.’ 
 
 A few extracts from his letters to his family will 
 suffice to give us a glimpse of what may be called his 
 private life—in all respects so different from any of 
 the varied experiences of former years. 
 
 ‘ April 1808. 
 
 ‘ I continue to enjoy Barrackpore, and to find it a real 
 consolation. My life would be very comfortless without 
 it. I hardly ever go out at Calcutta. There is but one 
 dusty drive, and I have hardly time for that . . . All 
 that is to be done with people belongs to Calcutta. At 
 Barrackpore I may read my despatches in peace and 
 quiet the livelong day, and write what requires my own 
 pen without interruption. Accordingly these are my 
 employments from early in the morning till dinner at 
 eight, excepting only a walk at sunset to catch the 
 breeze along the river-side. My walks are generally, 
 I may say next to always, alone ; for John and all the 
 young party are at that time hunting jackals, and very 
 fit they should. The evenings as well as the mornings 
 have been very delightful, and as the walk is the prin¬ 
 cipal event of my Barrackpore day, it answers extremely 
 well, though it would be improved, I confess, by a lady 
 
88 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA 
 
 [1807 
 
 of my own age under my arm to tell how I like the 
 breeze, and the moon, and the planets, and such pretty 
 prattle . . . 
 
 ‘ The principal defect in my comfort here is the total 
 want of anything that can be called society to me. I 
 am never alone, I mean when out of my shop; but there 
 is seldom anybody who, either in age, tastes, or any other 
 article, has anything in connexion with me; so that 
 except on business there is a total and constant sus¬ 
 pension of everything that is properly myself. This is 
 nobody’s fault but my own, for what business have I 
 to grow old ? . . . 
 
 ‘ I have lately had a most agreeable visit from 
 IVIr. Smith, ‘Bobus,’ * the Advocate Gleneral. Though he 
 is not exactly my contemporary, he has a great deal of 
 excellent conversation that is a feast for all ages. We 
 think alike too on European politics, which is rare here; 
 and for that reason, as well as from a sense of propriety, 
 I abstain entirely from that topic; but it is not un¬ 
 pleasant to be agreed with once in a way when one gets 
 into good company.’ 
 
 One of Lord Minto’s most characteristic attributes 
 was his sympathy with youth. He was adored by 
 young people, and was equally the confidant of their 
 
 * Mr. Kobert Smith, father of the late Lord Lyveden, and 
 brother of the Kev. Sydney Smith. ‘ Bobus,’ though he preferred a 
 solitary to a social life, was well known to have no small measure of 
 the same gifts for which Sydney was celebrated. One day when 
 the Governor General complained of the torment he suffered from 
 the mosquitoes at dinner, Bobus had a resource to suggest: ‘ You 
 
 should always contrive to have some blooming youth fresh from 
 England to sit next to you. They are sure to go to him. 
 
jEt. 56] 
 
 FATMILY COREESPONDENCE. 
 
 89 
 
 pleasures and their troubles. If an imprudent marriage 
 had to be condoned, it was his part to write a soothing 
 letter to an angry parent, and to insinuate as 
 gently as he could that, ‘ after all, a man marries to 
 please himself, and not his father : ’ but when by vice 
 and folly sons brought shame and ruin on their 
 families, and cut themselves off from an honourable 
 career, though his sympathy with the sufferers never 
 failed, he was inflexible in the coiirse he deemed due 
 to the interests of the public service. The disclosure 
 of some very grave irregularities in the conduct of the 
 cadets at the military college of Barasut led to the 
 ejection of some of the offenders and the removal of 
 the governor. His successor met with a degree of re¬ 
 sistance on his first appointment sufficient to daunt a 
 keener reformer, whereupon Lord Minto wrote him the 
 following letter, which inculcates on a public officer the 
 system he always advocated in private education :—‘ As 
 few rules and regulations as possible, but unswerving 
 obedience to those that are necessary.’ He was wont 
 to say that good temper, more than any other virtue, 
 is the result of habit, and that half the domestic 
 unhappiness in the world is caused by a captious and 
 irritating rule in early life. 
 
 To Captain Malcolm Macleod, Commanding at 
 Barasiit. 
 
 ‘ Barrackpore : July 26, 1808. 
 
 ‘ Dear Sir,—You will receive along with this a 
 public letter, which will afford you sufficient support in 
 
90 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 carrying the proposed indispensable reforms into im¬ 
 mediate effect. ... I do not at all agree with you in 
 thinking that your first arrival at Barasut is an unfa¬ 
 vourable time for correcting these abuses ; on the con¬ 
 trary, it was entirely expected that the change of the 
 Commanding Officer was to be accompanied by a change 
 of management; and the best policy is to begin with 
 the same system which you are afterwards to pursue. 
 
 ‘ I should wish, both for your own ease and for the 
 benefit of the institution, that you may enjoy the good¬ 
 will and regard of the young men under your charge. 
 But essential points must not be sacrificed to that 
 object. Indeed, it is not the way to obtain it; the 
 respect, and even the regard of boys is always lost by 
 concession, and by any appearance of feeble conduct, 
 which they are very quick at perceiving. Glreat com¬ 
 mand of temper is necessary ; they should be dealt with 
 as men, and as gentlemen. But perfect steadiness in 
 material things is the quality most sure of obtaining 
 not only their submission, but their respect and affec¬ 
 tion. I would not trouble and harass them much 
 about trifles, but be inflexible in matters of importance. 
 .... It will not be enough to ‘prohibit private enter¬ 
 tainments by an order; you will have to enforce the 
 prohibition by seeing that it is not infringed. Your 
 adjutants must occasionally visit their quarters, and 
 take every other means to know whether this abuse is 
 still practised. 
 
 ‘ I flatter myself that, with every proper attention 
 to conciliation, you will not lose sight of that firmness 
 
JEt. t56] 
 
 FAMILY COKEESPONDENCE. 
 
 91 
 
 without which such a republic as you have to govern is 
 sure of running into anarchy. 
 
 ‘ The want of that one quality was your predecessor’s 
 only defect; and that defect has brought this important 
 institution into discredit, besides drawing ruin upon 
 a number of young men, and a severe affliction upon a 
 number of families.’ 
 
 In another letter on the conduct of the cadets, he 
 wrote: ‘ I hear with regret of cruel and oppressive 
 conduct to the natives. This I consider as ungenerous 
 and unworthy of gentlemen.’ 
 
 Occasionally it was the unreasonable desires of 
 parents on behalf of their sons which caused him 
 matter of regret. In a letter to Lady Minto he says : 
 
 ‘ There is nothing in this country that a young King's 
 officer can hold except an appointment as aide-de- 
 camp. It is no sort of advantage to him to get it; on 
 the contrary, it takes a young man entirely out of his 
 profession, makes him idle, luxurious, and expensive, 
 the consequence of which, I observe, is debt and dis¬ 
 tress. No parent at a distance will see the thing in 
 that light, and I have been obliged to place several 
 young men in that situation, with the consciousness 
 that I was doing them a real injury in the shape of a 
 very great favour. . . . 
 
 ‘ The young men here would be better off if there 
 were neither horses nor dogs in the world. ... A 
 hundred pounds is no violent price here for a dog; and as 
 for horses, I wanted a quiet pad for my own hack, only 
 just to carry me safe to cover, and a horse was brought 
 
92 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 for trial the other day who was nearly blind, so as to 
 start at every bush, and not over sure. However they 
 only asked 300L for him, and I should have been 
 tempted by the bargain if John had not advised me 
 against a blind pad. Yet a horse I must have at any 
 price, for I ride at least twice a year. I have just per¬ 
 formed on a charger, having presented honorary colours 
 to the 15th regiment of native infantry at Barrackpore, 
 mounted on a war-horse decorated with gold em¬ 
 broidered housings, besides the ornaments which shone 
 on my own head and heels. Prince Esterhazy, at the 
 head of the Garde Noble, is a sloven to my resplendence. 
 Then, as my respected friend, Mr. Merryman, would 
 sometimes truly say, “ The riding is nothing ; speaking 
 is the thing.” However, as one ought not to do two 
 things at once, I thought it more prudent to dismount 
 before I delivered a neat and appropriate speech. This 
 part of the ceremony was at sunrise; the officers 
 breakfasted with me, and I dined with them. Next 
 day they gave a ball; but I was best entertained with 
 a Nautch given by the Sepoys. This was much the 
 prettiest Nautch I had ever attended, or rather ap¬ 
 proached nearer to pretty than any former specimens 
 of that amusement which I had witnessed. It was 
 performed in a large tent, and was extremely scenick. 
 The lights, which were torches of hollow bamboo, with 
 a thick wick on which oil was poured every now and 
 then by way of snuffers, were held by men, black but 
 handsome, and almost as naked as bronze figures which 
 serve for candlesticks usually are. Chairs were set in 
 
^T. 56] 
 
 FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 93 
 
 a semicircle towards the bottom of the pavilion, on 
 which we sat, and were plentifully sluiced with rose¬ 
 water. A circle was formed of the Sepoys, in their 
 own clothes (not in regimentals), all seated on their 
 hams, and making a most picturesque amphitheatre. 
 In front the dance was performed with the music, which 
 was all national—instr um ents as well as airs and words 
 —behind the dancers. The dancing was much in the 
 same monotonous style as I have described in other 
 letters, but the girls were Cashmerians, and accounted 
 very superior to those of the Bengal provinces. They 
 were handsomer than I had seen, and were better 
 dressed; but beauty would be a strong word even for 
 these paragons. The music was also Cashmerian, and 
 some of the airs really were very pretty. They danced 
 with something approaching occasionally to grace, and 
 managed their drapery very prettily, so as to remind 
 one for a moment now and then of the Etruscan figures 
 or those found at Pompeii. But they are over-clothed ; 
 nothing is seen but the head, arms, and toes—all of 
 which are displayed for the sake of the ornaments—and 
 there is such a quantity of clothing that it cannot well 
 take the picturesque sort of folds which such flexible 
 stuffs should take.’ 
 
 ‘ Barrackpore : May 24, 1808. 
 
 ‘ I often wonder at my being able to labour all day 
 and every day in this climate without ever flagging, 
 much less having any notion of being ill. The weather 
 seems a dull topic, but it concerns one so much here 
 
94 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 that I must give it a place in my true and particular 
 history of our lives. This year has been uncommonly 
 favourable to beginners. The best weather generally 
 comes on about the middle of March, but our March 
 was the finest month in the year from beginning to 
 end. It was delightful. The heat increased about 
 the middle of April, but was quite endurable till the 
 end of the first week in May. By that time the hot 
 winds had set in, and their very name is sufficiently 
 descriptive of discomfort. However, at this period we 
 have relief a great part of the four-and-twenty hours, 
 for at sunset the wind cools, and, continuing to blow, 
 one draws it in luxuriously and revives. The heat does 
 not come on again till next forenoon. During the 
 first days of the very hot winds I bore it, and thought 
 that patience would carry me through; but it was too 
 oppressive at last, and I submitted to use the tatty. 
 That invention is quite effectual, and makes a temperate 
 zone between the tropics. I sat the livelong day be¬ 
 hind the tatty, subject to no inconvenience but want of 
 light; however, with spectacles I coidd manage to read 
 my book and write my lesson. I began, nevertheless, 
 to count the days to the rains, which I had fixed for 
 June 10; when all at once, without any notice, as we 
 sat in Council on Friday, May 20, it became so dark 
 that we could not see our desks, and then came a deluge 
 with a tempest of east wind that woffid have made 
 Elliot shiver. From that hour the climate has been 
 quite heavenly, and not the less so in my estimation 
 for a good pouring shower almost everyday. You must 
 
AiT. 56] FAMILY COEEESPONDENCE. 95 
 
 not imagine that these are the rains. They are known 
 by the name of the small rains; not that they are small 
 while they are falling, for they come down in buckets; 
 but they do not last long, and there is always an in¬ 
 terval between these little gentlefolks and the grander 
 rains that come in June. The whole surface of the 
 country is already soaked, and the wind, therefore, is 
 cool and pleasant. The thermometer was about 96° 
 in the shade during the hot winds. 
 
 ‘ 28t/i—in continuation. I came to town yesterday to 
 Council. I started at half after five in the morning 
 which is early enough in this cool weather. An hour and 
 fifty minutes is the time I generally pass on the road ; 
 the distance sixteen miles ; but the road as smooth and 
 level as the Mall; the carriage very light with four 
 strong horses. 
 
 ‘ 2dth .—I have been at church to-day, which is being 
 a very good Christian, for it is close and warm, notwith¬ 
 standing punkahs which are pulled by INIahommedans 
 in turbans looking on their masters with the contempt 
 which the faithfid bestow upon infidels performing the 
 impious rites of a false religion. There are few coun¬ 
 tries in which thei'e is such a quantity of reciprocal 
 contempt, from the mixture of so many different races ' 
 professing different religions, and in general extremely 
 bigoted each to his own. However, as a Christian, I 
 am charitable enough to despise none of them, but only 
 wish some of their superstitions were not so bloody 
 and cruel. Human sacrifices are kept down with some 
 difficulty, and particularly infanticide. Widow-burning 
 
96 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1807 
 
 is extremely prevalent, especially in this neighbour¬ 
 hood, I am sorry to say. The Brahmins have some 
 profit from it, and it relieves the heir of the jointure 
 or maintenance of the dowager ; so that, to be sure, one 
 ought not to wonder at Brahmins and heirs for encour¬ 
 aging the practice. The odd thing is that it prevails 
 in the lowest condition of life. When a poor miserable 
 peasant’s wife happens to be of a good caste, which is 
 often the case, nothing in the world will prevent her 
 burning from pure gentility.’ 
 
 f 
 
i^T. 57] 
 
 POSITION OF ENGLAND. 
 
 97 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The year 1808 was memorable in the annals of Eu¬ 
 rope as that of a supreme crisis in her fortunes. It 
 found all the nations, save one, enthralled in the chains 
 of the greatest military despotism recorded in history. 
 It beheld the first link give way, when the spirit of 
 national independence burst into vigorous life on the 
 wild hills of Spain. 
 
 The position of England relatively to Europe after 
 the Peace of Tilsit (June 1807) is thus commented on 
 in a letter from a young Englishman in India to a friend. 
 ‘ What an unexampled and surprising picture the state 
 of Europe now presents; France, Russia, Austria, 
 Prussia, Germany, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, 
 Italy, Turkey—all Europe, save little Sweden—com¬ 
 bined against our country. We may truly call ourselves 
 “ divisos orbe Britannos.” Although this is a state of 
 things which no one could ever have wished to see, I 
 confess that I feel a pride in it. ... I hope that we 
 shall do as well as possible under such strange circum¬ 
 stances. 
 
 ‘ We have at different times paid Austria, Prussia, 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 France, and Germany; we preserved to Turkey a great 
 portion of its empire, driving out its enemies, the 
 French; we have constantly fought the battles of 
 ' Europe against France; and all Powers are now ranged 
 on the side of France against us. Hurrah for the tight 
 little Island! ’ 
 
 We should hardly have ventured to quote so glaring 
 a specimen of a spirit described in the slang of the 
 present day as Jingoism —the English language having 
 apparently no term of reprobation for it—had the 
 writer borne a name less known and honoured than that 
 of IMetcalfe. 
 
 It was, however, the sort of spirit which, combined 
 with conspicuous ability and strong character, had 
 attracted the attention of Lord Wellesley, who, when 
 Metcalfe was only nineteen, sent him in a political 
 capacity to the camp of Lord Lake; and which in this 
 year, 1808, marked him out in the judgment of Lord 
 Minto for a still more important mission. To appre¬ 
 ciate the policy of the Indian Government at this 
 juncture it is necessary to revert for a moment to the 
 events of the preceding year. 
 
 At the beginning of 1806 Persia, being engaged in 
 hostilities with Russia, sent an Ambassador to Paris 
 to desire the assistance of France. A cordial reception 
 was given him, and it was announced that a splendid 
 mission, having authority to make a treaty of alliance 
 between France and Persia, would be despatched from 
 Paris to Teheran. 
 
 In order to counteract the effect of these proceed- 
 
Mr. 57] 
 
 DEFENCE OF INDIA.—PERSIA. 
 
 99 
 
 ings a similar course was adopted by England. An 
 Envoy was appointed to Persia, and, with the object of 
 lending greater dignity and importance to his creden¬ 
 tials, it was suggested by the Court of Directors that, 
 while remaining their own paid agent, he should be in¬ 
 vested with the character of representative of the Crown. 
 The proposal was acceded to by the IMinistry of Lord 
 Grenville. There coidd be little question that Persia 
 was only important to France as a weapon of offence 
 against Great Britain. Hence, those who knew most 
 of Indian matters saw the necessity of selecting the 
 most skilful of Indian diplomatists for the task of 
 countermining the progress of Phance at the Persian 
 Court; and the name of Colonel Malcolm, already 
 known in connection with a successful mission to 
 Persia in the time of Lord Wellesley, was pressed upon 
 the Directors by Sir Arthur Wellesley,’ by Lord Minto, 
 then President of the Board of Control, and by other 
 qualified judges :—‘ but,’ wrote Sir Arthur from London 
 to Malcolm himself, ‘ nobody here knows or cares any¬ 
 thing about Indian matters, nor are those considted 
 who could give the information.’ The Wellesley school 
 of politicians was not in favour in Leadenhall Street ; 
 and thus it came about that the claims of Malcolm were 
 ignored, and that Sir Harford Jones ” was appointed to 
 the Persian IMission, to represent the Crown while re- 
 
 ' Afterwards Duke of Wellinoton. 
 
 2 A baronetcy was gnnted to Mr. Harford Jones on Ids appoint¬ 
 ment to Persia, which was not made till after Lord Minto had left 
 England. 
 
100 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 ceiving instructions from the Company. Unfortunately, 
 Sir Harford, though he had lived for many years in the 
 East as a merchant, and latterly as consul at Bushire, 
 was considered in India to be totally unfit to conduct 
 so delicate a mission. 
 
 In January 1808, rumours reached India of the 
 march of a French army under General Menou towards 
 Persia on the way to India, while it became known 
 that a great military embassy attended by four-and- 
 twenty French officers and three hundred French 
 soldiers had actually arrived there, giving it out that 
 they were the advanced guard of an army. ‘ The first 
 project is believed to be to take possession of a port 
 on the coast of the Persian Gulf, by which they may 
 communicate with the Mauritius, and receive supplies 
 by sea, and from whence they may attempt an invasion 
 of the western coast of India, and unsettle the minds 
 of the native princes by promises, menaces, and in¬ 
 trigue.’ * 
 
 Of the English envoy to Persia nothing was known 
 at all. The last act of Lord Grenville’s administration 
 had been the appointment of Sir Harford Jones, who 
 was directed to proceed in the first instance to St. 
 Petersburg to offer to the Czar the mediation of Great 
 Britain between Eussia and Persia. 
 
 The peace and alliance between France and Eussia 
 had rendered the failure of this preliminary mission a 
 certainty; while the fall of the Ministry that had en- 
 
 • Lord Minto to Lady Minto. 
 
JEt. 67j 
 
 DEFENCE OF INDIA.—PERSIA. 
 
 101 
 
 trusted it to him made it doubtful whether Sir Harford 
 Jones would be confirmed in the more important ap¬ 
 pointment. 
 
 In the meanwhile the aspect of affairs was becom¬ 
 ing daily graver, as the co-operation of France aird 
 Russia in the East grew more probable. 
 
 ‘ As long as France,’ wrote Lord Minto,* ‘ might be 
 engaged in continental wars in Europe, the project of 
 directing her arms towards this quarter must be con¬ 
 sidered impracticable; but if her armies have been 
 liberated by a pacification with Russia and by the 
 continued submission of the Powers of Europe, the 
 advance of a considerable force of French troops into 
 Persia under the acquiescence of the Turkish, Russian, 
 and Persian powers, cannot be deemed an undertaking 
 beyond the scope of that energy and perseverance 
 which distinguish the present ruler of France. 
 
 ‘ If one body of troops should succeed in penetrating 
 as far as the Persian dominions, others may be ex¬ 
 pected to follow; and it may then be no longer at the 
 option of the Government of Persia to prevent the 
 complete establishment of the French power and as¬ 
 cendancy in Persia. 
 
 ‘ The ascendancy of France being once established 
 in the territories of Persia in the manner described, it 
 may justly be expected that, from that centre of local 
 power they may be enabled gradually to extend their 
 influence by conciliation or by conquest towards the 
 
 ' Secret and separate general letter, February 2, 1808, par. 24. 
 
102 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 region of Hindostan, and ultimately open a passage 
 for their troops into the dominion of the Company. 
 
 ‘ Arduous as such an undertaking must necessarily 
 be, we are not warranted in deeming it in the present 
 situation of affairs to be altogether chimerical and 
 impracticable under the guidance of a man whose 
 energy and success appear almost commensurate with 
 his ambition. We deem it our duty to act under a 
 supposition of its practicabihty, and to adopt whatever 
 measures are in our judgment calculated to counter¬ 
 act it, even at the hazard of injury to some local and 
 immediate interests.’ 
 
 In a private letter he wrote : ‘ What would have 
 seemed impossible has become scarcely improbable, 
 since we have seen one State after another in Europe, 
 among them those we deemed most stable and secure, 
 fall like a house of cards before the genius of one 
 man.’ 
 
 Before long, the vague rumours that had filled the 
 world ever since the interview of Tilsit assumed more 
 definite proportions. Though all that was possible had 
 been done to secure secrecy, and though no written 
 records have ever come to light of the personal com¬ 
 munications interchanged without witnesses between 
 the two sovereigns, it is now pretty well ascertained 
 that the surmises hazarded from the first by those 
 accustomed to watch the political skies, were nearly, if 
 not absolutely, correct. Like those happy strokes of 
 divination by which great discoveries have been made. 
 
^T. 57] DEFENCE OF INDIA.—PERSIA. 103 
 
 what seemed to be the intuitions of statesmen were 
 sagacious deductions from certified facts. 
 
 The indiflference in England as to the dangers threat¬ 
 ening India, of which Sir Arthur Wellesley complained 
 two years before, now gave way to grave apprehensions. 
 He himself wrote again to his former correspondent, 
 Colonel Malcolm, that ‘ the state of affairs caused 
 great anxiety, but it is of that nature which you have 
 occasionally witnessed in timid and undecided men 
 who fear something, they know not what, and are more 
 afraid of the remedy than they are of the danger to 
 which they are exposed.’ This was in February 1808. 
 In the course of the spring Lord Grenville, in a letter 
 to Lord Min to already given, alluded to ‘ dangers to 
 our Indian Empire, in presence of which Lord Minto 
 could hardly have executed an intention, had it been 
 formed, to resign his important functions there; ’ and 
 the official correspondence from London showed that 
 an invasion of India was looked upon by the ministers 
 as a very serious danger. 
 
 It was believed, on what was considered to be good 
 authority, that, in pursuance of an arrangement made 
 at Tilsit, a Persian army of 30,000 men, with a body 
 of Cossacks, was to assemble early in the spring of 
 1808 at Astrachan, to penetrate thence through the 
 northern provinces of Persia, and support the opera¬ 
 tions of a French army, advancing simultaneously 
 through the Turkish dominions, for which permission 
 had been obtained from the Porte. To these projects 
 
104 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 seemingly pretty generally known, was added the 
 ‘ secret information, to be, however, received with 
 caution,’ that advices from Paris described ‘ Bonaparte 
 as considerably chagrined at learning that the Kussians 
 had entirely failed in their engagement to assemble a 
 force at Astrachan, alleging the impossibility of pro¬ 
 viding supplies for an army in that country, and the 
 unwillingness of the Cossacks to march (possibly in a 
 direction where there was no plunder); that in con¬ 
 sequence he had ordered Caulaincourt to remonstrate 
 most strongly with the Emperor on the necessity of 
 fulfilling his engagement. From the same source it is 
 stated that Sebastiani has written from Constantinople 
 that the Pasha of Bagdad (whom he accuses of being 
 gained over to the English) has declared his resolution 
 of opposing the entrance of any foreign forces into his 
 territory, and that, the Porte having obtained informa¬ 
 tion (possibly from Mr. Adair at Vienna) that by the 
 secret articles of Tilsit' Moldavia and Wallachia were 
 ceded to Kussia, Servia and Bosnia to Austria, and 
 Greece and the Islands of the Archipelago to France, 
 the Turks must be considered as either secret or open 
 enemies, and therefore he (Sebastiani) presses the 
 immediate march of the French troops into Macedonia, 
 
 ' If Turkey resisted, the two Powers were to divide her do¬ 
 minions. ‘ Si de son cote la Porte n’acceptait pas, on s’obligerait A 
 soustraire au joug des Turcs toutes les provinces ottomanes, Con¬ 
 stantinople et la Roum61ie except^es.’ Lanfrey, from whose history 
 of Napoleon the quotation is made, adds that the authenticity of 
 these stipulations is ‘ indiscutable .’—Histirire de Napoleon, 
 tome iv. 
 
^T. o7] 
 
 KELATIONS WITH TUEKEY. 
 
 105 
 
 as well as the throwing forces into the islands, when¬ 
 ever any opportunity of escaping the English fleet 
 should occur.’ 
 
 The sudden revolution in the Emperor Napoleon’s 
 policy towards the Turk, whom he had so lately called 
 his best ally, was an essential element in the considera¬ 
 tions upon which the policy of the Indian Government 
 was shaped. 
 
 Lord Minto’s view of the possible eventualities 
 which might ensue is given in a private letter to 
 Lord Caledon:' ‘A partition of European Turkey is 
 a step in the regular approach to India. It seems to 
 facilitate in some points, though it may retard that 
 enterprise. 
 
 ‘ In other respects, I should think it reasonable to 
 hope that the expulsion of the Turks from Europe may 
 create obstacles in the way to India. It is impossible 
 that the Ottoman Government and the whole Turkish 
 race should not conceive the deepest and most bitter 
 resentment against such an injury. One should look 
 for a close communion between Great Britain and the 
 Turk. And if that consequence were to follow the 
 partition of Turkey, our opposition to the progress of a 
 Erench army might begin on the banks of the Bosphorus 
 instead of the Indus. The Turks may be terrified, it is 
 true, and grant a passage to the French through their 
 territories in Asia. But even in that case the I'rench 
 must be deeply committed in countries which will 
 
 Governor of tlie Cape of Good Hope. 
 
106 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 abhor them, and have conceived probably an affection 
 for our cause.’ 
 
 On a review of all the circumstances Lord Minto 
 came to the conclusion that the Indian Government 
 would be wanting in vigilance and prudence if they did 
 not put themselves in a state of preparation to meet a 
 possible if not probable struggle with France, or with 
 France and Eussia combined. 
 
 ‘ Yet I am not sure,’ he wrote in a letter on this sub¬ 
 ject to Lady Minto, ‘ that I shall not be blamed; for the 
 attack, though we are strongly and positively warned 
 of it, is not certain, and the most necessary preparations 
 cannot be made without expense, which naturally comes 
 more home to the feelings of my masters than remote 
 dangers, however serious. However, in this as in every¬ 
 thing else, I shall do what in my best judgment appears 
 right, and not be led astray by the fear of the Qu’en 
 diror-t-on ? In the meanwhile the French are smoothing 
 their way by magnificent embassies and numerous 
 military retinues in Persia, and by swarms of agents of 
 all ranks, qualities, and countries, all over the East; 
 and they are beginning to be heard of at the Courts of 
 our Indian princes and chieftains. But I think we 
 shall overtake them in that race.’ 
 
 To an enquiry concerning the disposition towards us 
 of the native states he repHed : ' ‘ We have every reason 
 to believe that all the states of India are satisfied of 
 our disinclination to extend our dominions or to invade 
 
 * May 16, 1808. Secret and separate general letter. 
 
Air. 57] 
 
 THE NATIVE STATES. 
 
 107 
 
 their rights, and of our solicitude to maintain peace. But 
 those states of which the power and dominion have 
 been abridged, or of which the influence has been 
 circumscribed, and against which the field of ambition 
 and enterprise has been closed by the political position 
 of the British power and ascendancy in India, cannot 
 reasonably be supposed to entertain that sense of 
 common interest with the British Oovernment which 
 should induce them to prefer the security of their 
 actual condition to the alluring prospect of restored 
 possessions, consequence, and authority. And demon¬ 
 strations of the dangers to which their authority and 
 independence would be exposed by the ambition of 
 France would have little weight when opposed to the 
 assurance of restoration to the dominion they have lost. 
 
 ‘With states of another description, engagements of 
 co-operation might no doubt be formed, provided these 
 engagements should involve obligations of defensive 
 alliance against all enemies. Of such alliances there is 
 too much reason to doubt the efficiency and the policy.’ 
 
 A wise man will not allow an enemy to approach 
 the gates behind which stand doubtful friends. ‘ I am 
 strongly of opinion,’ wrote Lord Minto to Sir George 
 Barlow, ‘ that if this great conflict is to be maintained, 
 we ought to meet it as early and as far beyond our own 
 frontiers as possible. We ought to contest Persia itself 
 with the enemy, and to dispute every step of their pro¬ 
 gress. The force which we can oppose to them in that 
 stage of the contest is indeed much smaller than they 
 would find assembled against them in our own terrih)- 
 
108 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 ries; but in Persia we should have much less to contend 
 with also, and we should meet an enemy much less 
 prepared than he will be if we wait at home till he is 
 ready to face us. 
 
 ‘ This system, however, depends on the disposition 
 of Persia herself to neutrality-—that is, to let the 
 French and us fight it out fairly between us. For if 
 Persia is determined to support the French with all her 
 power, I acknowledge that we cannot possibly detach 
 such a force from our Indian Army as that state of 
 things would require. At least we could not do so 
 without finding some means to divide Persia and to 
 have allies on our side as well as the French.’ 
 
 For the elucidation of such problems as these the 
 presence of an Envoy gifted with special powers of 
 observation, as well as with diplomatic talents, was 
 imperatively necessary. The state of affairs admitted 
 of no further delay. And in absolute ignorance of Sir 
 Harford Jones’s movements. Lord Minto determined to 
 send Colonel Malcolm on a mission to Persia.* ‘ By 
 Colonel Malcolm, if by any man living, we may hope to 
 detach Persia from her hostile alliance with our enemy ; 
 and, if that benefit is no longer attainable, we shall 
 receive from Colonel Malcolm authentic information 
 and judicious advice. If Sir H. Jones should have 
 arrived in Persia, Colonel Malcolm will of course with¬ 
 hold his own credentials and diplomatic powers in 
 Persia, and I do not see any necessary and unavoidable 
 inconvenience from the character which he would in that 
 
 * To Et. Hon. R. Dundas, President of the Board of Control. 
 
JEt. 57 ] 
 
 MISSION TO PERSIA. 
 
 109 
 
 case assume of Political Agent to the Governor General 
 —the political (not diplomatic) representative of the 
 E. I. Company, and of British affairs in India. He 
 might furnish essential aid to the King’s Envoy. If 
 they clashed he could be recalled.’ 
 
 To Malcolm himself he wrote ' most confidentially 
 upon the point of the military arrangements which 
 certain contingencies might involve. ‘ Of these trans¬ 
 actions our opposition to Fi’ance in Persia is the 
 anchor on which our hopes must rest; for if we per¬ 
 mit that country to be the depot of her preparations 
 against us, and wait at home till the enemy thinks 
 himself that he is equal to the undertaking, we shall 
 give him a great, and, as it appears to me, a most 
 manifest advantage. My first anxiety, therefore, will 
 be to know from you whether the disposition of the 
 Persian Court or the state of that country admits of our 
 meeting the enemy at the very moment of his arrival 
 or approach to the Persian frontier. I am aware that 
 this system will require a very considerable force. I 
 shall learn from you what its amount must be, and 
 shall in the meanwhile make every effort which the 
 state of our resources admits of, to be prepared with an 
 army, and the means of transporting it. In the mean¬ 
 while, I have imagined that a force of 20,000 or 
 25,000 men may be necessary. This will be a great 
 exertion, and I don’t think that we can go further. . . 
 If 10,000 French troops were to come I conceive that 
 
 ’ This letter is printed in Kaye’s Cvrresjfoiidence of Sir J. 
 Malcolm, vol. i. 
 
]10 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 our force, which must consist of Sepoys in a great pro¬ 
 portion, should be double; but if, instead of sending 
 such an army, as has been announced, they should 
 begin by collecting gradually a small force capable of 
 establishing a French post on the coast, and endeavour 
 to take root there before the grand design is entered 
 upon, I think it of the utmost moment to disappoint 
 this preparatory measure, and to expel the enemy with 
 the least possible delay. We shall be prepared to push 
 off 4,000 or 5,000 men on the first summons.’ 
 
 The letter ends with the confession that ‘ Sir H. 
 Jones is rather a marplot (I am writing confidentially) 
 in our play.’ 
 
 The instructions sent to Colonel IMalcolm from 
 Calcutta show that the policy he was desired to pursue 
 was to be of a tentative character. 
 
 ‘ First, to detach the Court of Persia from the 
 French alliance ; and to prevail on that Court to re¬ 
 fuse the passage of French troops through the terri¬ 
 tories subject to Persia, or the admission of French 
 troops into the country. If that cannot be obtained, 
 to admit English troops with a view of opposing the 
 French army in its progress to India, to prevent the 
 cession of any maritime port, and the establishment of 
 French factories on the coast of Persia. 
 
 ‘ Second, to obtain authentic intelligence on all 
 points interesting to the Government. It is scarcely 
 necessary to particularise those points, which will 
 necessarily suggest themselves to the mind of Colonel 
 Malcolm. The principal of them are, the real nature and 
 
Mt. 57] 
 
 MISSION TO PERSIA. 
 
 Ill 
 
 extent of the engagements entered into liy France and 
 Persia, and the real disposition of Persia respecting the 
 execution of them. Colonel IMalcolm’s opinion and 
 advice would also be required by the Government as to 
 the policy to be adojjted in either of two contingencies 
 supposed—the active hostility of Persia, or her neu¬ 
 trality.’ 
 
 With these instructions, Malcolm sailed for Persia; 
 but before he left Bombay, though not in time for 
 the most rapid express to communicate the intelligence 
 t o him, the news reached Calcutta of Sir Harford Jones’s 
 arrival at the Cape of Good Hope on his way to 
 India, where he expected to receive the Governor 
 General’s instructions for the mission with which he 
 had been entrusted to Persia. 
 
 Up to the arrival of Sir H. Jones’s communication 
 from the Cape, everyone in India had been in total ig¬ 
 norance of his movements. It was possible that 
 IMalcolm might find him in Persia, in which case. Lord 
 Minto I'elied on his envoy’s conciliatory qualities and 
 magnanimity. ‘ For the first he would find exercise in 
 his intercourse with Sir Harford Jones, and for the 
 second in dealing with himself.’ The contingency of 
 Sir Hai'ford’s arrival at Bombay before the departure of 
 Malcolm had also been foreseen. ‘ In that case,’ -ftTote 
 Lord Minto to Sir George Barlow, an old and cordial 
 friend of Malcolm’s, ‘ 1 have resolved to withdraw i\Ial- 
 colm’s Persian mission altogether ; but to beg Colonel 
 Malcolm to accept a mission to Bagdad, and to take 
 charge of our political interests and affairs in all the 
 
112 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 countries westward of Persia even to Constantinople. 
 This is a wide and important field ; it is entirely dis¬ 
 tinct from the province assigned to Sir H. Jones, and 
 it requires judgment, ability, and activity which are not 
 to be found there now. We should lose the advantage 
 of Malcolm’s talents and influence at the Court of 
 Persia. But this loss we cannot avoid. We shall gain 
 his exertions still nearer to the approaching danger 
 . . . and his observation and judgment will not be 
 confined to the spot on which he may reside, but will 
 embrace the whole range of politics from the Indus to 
 Constantinople.* This measure cannot but be attended 
 with expense, which no man can wish to avoid more 
 earnestly than I do; but to save the expense of an 
 essential service, and to lose an advantage affecting so 
 deeply the interests and even safety of the State, would 
 be the greatest and worst of prodigalities. 
 
 ‘ If India is invaded by a French and Kussian army, 
 that event cannot be ascribed to the character or coun¬ 
 sels of the Indian Grovernment. It is to the disasters 
 of Europe, to battles in Poland, to the Peace of Tilsit, 
 that the necessity of waging a burdensome war in India 
 must be traced. This is a consideration very fit, in my 
 opinion, to weigh in the councils of the British Empire, 
 and one which constitutes a strong claim on the policy 
 of the British nation for whatever support and co¬ 
 operation the defence of India may be found to require.’ ^ 
 
 This was written on April 21; on the following day 
 
 ’ To Sir George Barlow. 
 
 * To the Chairman of the East India Company, April 21, 1808. 
 
JEt. 57 ] 
 
 MALCOLM IN PERSIA. 
 
 113 
 
 came the letter of Sir Harford Jones, announcing his 
 arrival at the Cape. On the 23rd Lord Minto wrote to 
 inform Colonel Malcolm of this event. 
 
 ‘ After perusing all that has been written to us from 
 England on the subject of the mission, and after con¬ 
 sidering the authorities (the East India Company as 
 well as Grovernment) from which his powers are derived, 
 I confess I feel that no authority in this country can be 
 competent to delegate similar powers for precisely the 
 same purpose to any other person. You know enough 
 of my opinions on the whole of this important subject 
 to make it unnecessary for me to describe the regret, 
 public and private, which I experience in renouncing a 
 measure on which I rested my chief hope of a successful 
 issue to the struggle iir which we are engaging ; but 
 there is no deceiving oneself on this point, and it is 
 clear that your mission to Persia must be abandoned 
 in the event of Sir Harford Jones’s arrival in that 
 country.’ The letter concluded by offering Malcolm in 
 the most urgent and flattering terms the commission 
 to Bagdad, adding that his information and counsels 
 would be required respecting all the territories from the 
 Indus to Constantinople. 
 
 Of the success of his mission to Persia, or at all 
 events of the diplomatic tact and skill which his measures 
 would evince, none of Malcolm’s Indian friends permitted 
 themselves to doubt. Hence it was with equal surprise 
 and consternation that his first despatches from Bushire 
 were received. Lord INIinto has told the story many 
 times in despatches, letters, and minutes, but the most 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 informal, and therefore the best version of it is that in 
 the following letter to Greneral Hewitt, the Commander- 
 in-chief. 
 
 To Lieutenant General Hewitt. 
 
 ‘ July 30, 1808. 
 
 ‘ I am sorry to say in strict confidence that Malcolm 
 has disappointed me exceedingly at the beginning of his 
 mission. Instead of facilitating the commencement 
 of his negotiation, he has begun by creating, I fear, in- 
 suiTnountable obstacles to his own progress. 
 
 ‘ It is impossible to attempt in a letter even a 
 summary of the proceedings to which I allude; but the 
 general features are these. He charged Captain Pasley 
 with a letter to the King, containing little more than 
 the usual complimentary matter. But he charged him 
 at the same time with a negotiation to be conducted 
 by Captain Pasley with the principal Ministers of the 
 King at Teheran,* the professed object of which was to 
 obtain certain concessions, in the way of prehminaries 
 to all negotiations, in consideration of which General 
 Malcolm might be prevailed upon to advance. Fa ilin g 
 such concessions, he threatened the immediate vengeance 
 of the British Power, and declared his own determination 
 to retire immediately from the Persian territory. You 
 will be, I daresay, as much surprised as we have been 
 to learn that the first condition required by Malcolm 
 was the immediate expulsion from Persia of the French 
 
 ' The King of Persia held his court at Teheran. 
 
^T. 57] 
 
 MALCOLM IN PERSIA. 
 
 115 
 
 embassy with every man of that nation, and this 
 Captain Pasley was authorised to modify only by ad¬ 
 mitting the temporary residence of a few French 
 individuals who are engaged in works useful to Persia, 
 but the whole mission was to he peremptorily dismissed. 
 If Malcolm had obtained this object after a considerable 
 residence in Persia, and after the utmost exertion of his 
 own uncommon talents, I should have thought him 
 eminently successful. But I am compelled to say that 
 my confidence is entirely shaken by the injudicious 
 course he has pursued, and the disadvantageous ground 
 he has taken. Persia is in the hands of France, and 
 was only to be weaned from that connection by good 
 and convincing reasons urged in a conciliatory form. 
 Intimidation, which INIalcolm has chosen as the character 
 of his negotiation, cannot succeed against the united 
 force of the French and Russian empires, the vengeance 
 of which jNIalcolm would induce Persia to provoke by 
 menaces which she cannot think so formidable. 
 
 ‘ Malcolm was received with every mark of distinction 
 at Bushire by orders from Court, and Captain Pasley 
 no less so at Shiraz, where the Prince’s Court professes 
 to be entirely English. The fact is that Persia is 
 puzzled between the two great candidates for her fiivour, 
 and while the French are well received at Teheran, the 
 intention was that the English officers should be con¬ 
 ducted with similar demonstrations of favour to Shiraz. 
 A Russian Embassy has entered the Persian provinces 
 from Georgia.’ 
 
 ‘ Malcolm’s proceeding at Muscat,’ wrote Lord Minto 
 
116 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 to Mr, Edmonstone, ‘ has been affected with the 
 original sin of his whole system.’ What that was may 
 be inferred from certain passages of a memorandum 
 addressed by Lord Minto to Gleneral Malcolm, contain¬ 
 ing an explicit condemnation of the policy adopted 
 towards Persia. This memorandum, docketed by him¬ 
 self as ‘ a rough draft of a minute to be forwarded 
 immediately to General Malcolm, July 21, 1808,’ 
 begins by expressing the great concern caused him by 
 the perusal of Malcolm’s despatches from Bushire, 
 setting forth the line of conduct which had resulted in 
 his immediate departure from Persia. The difference 
 between his own and General Malcolm’s sentiments on 
 the subject of the mission appeared so great, as to touch 
 the general principles of the policy to be pursued at the 
 present conjuncture. Lord Minto therefore felt that 
 he must not from motives of personal delicacy shrink 
 from the duties of his station, but must endeavour to 
 provide for the public interests by recurring to methods 
 more likely to lead to the important objects which he 
 desired to attain. The grand and ultimate purpose of 
 the mission to Persia was to withdraw that Court from 
 its new and dangerous connection with France. Mal¬ 
 colm’s peremptory demand for the expulsion of the 
 French mission had left no room for consideration. 
 
 ‘ The demand cannot be supported on any ground 
 of justice. Persia, as an independent Government, has 
 a right to receive accredited ministers from any other 
 Court, and to enter into any negotiation she may think 
 advisable. She may be indeed precluded by previous 
 
^T. 67] 
 
 MINUTE BY LORD MINTO. 
 
 117 
 
 treaties with us from contracting engagements in con¬ 
 tradiction to them ; bnt if our claim to exclude the 
 French mission were better supported on the point of 
 right, it would still in the actual circumstances of the 
 case be- unreasonable to insist on it as a 23reliminary. 
 Persia was and continnes to be exposed to an invasion, 
 from Pnssia, which is to her a subject of great and 
 reasonable alarm. She first applied to us for assistance. 
 It was impossible for us, consistently with the relations 
 in which we stood to Russia, to afford the aid she asked. 
 She therefore gave us fair notice that, although she 
 would have preferred our co-operation to every other, 
 she ■was constrained to provide for her safety, by look¬ 
 ing elsewhere for the aid which she could not obtain 
 from us. 
 
 ‘ Upon this ground her connection with France has 
 been formed. France has promised on certain condi¬ 
 tions to protect her against a Russian invasion; the 
 promised service was to have been performed by military 
 force. France is now in alliance with Russia, and is to 
 employ her influence instead of her arms for the pro¬ 
 tection of Persia. If Persia in these circnmstances 
 suddenly and offensively breaks off the subsisting nego¬ 
 tiations with France, instead of a contest 3vith Russia 
 alone, or instead of being protected by France against 
 Russia, she must prepare for a conflict with the united 
 force of those two Phnpires. 
 
 ‘ It is therefore reasonable that, before she accedes to 
 a demand involving her in such consecpiences, she should 
 be informed of the means by which we propose to ])ro- 
 
118 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 tect her against them. This is matter of negotiation, 
 not for a preliminary, &c. &c. 
 
 ‘ Greneral Malcolm, knowing the political complexion 
 of the Court, seems to have conceived that timidity was 
 the quality on which he had the best chance of opera¬ 
 ting, and that the fear of France and Eussia could only 
 be combated by a still stronger apprehension of British 
 power. 
 
 ‘ Intimidation, therefore, was the engine he proposed 
 to employ in the first stages of his mission. I confess 
 that I should have thought it more advantageous to 
 give an entirely different character to the negotiation. 
 I can easily believe that the arrival of our Envoy in 
 I'ersia in circumstances which would justify hostile 
 measures on our part must have created solicitude con¬ 
 cerning the intentions of this Government, and that the 
 menace of some great measure of coercion or resentment 
 on our part, to follow on General Malcolm’s retreat from 
 Persia, might operate favourably to his views in some of 
 the minor points under discussion; but it cannot pro¬ 
 duce any substantial benefit, because in truth we find 
 I^ersia herself under circumstances of extreme difficulty 
 from which she cannot be driven violently, but from 
 which she requires the hand of friendship to extricate 
 her gradually. I regret that this expedient was resorted 
 to ; for not being founded in truth it savours more of 
 artifice than I think suits the true dignity of this 
 Government. If Persia is found to be decidedly hostile, 
 it does not enter into our views to weaken our force and 
 resources, in the fruitless endeavour to subdue that 
 
^T. 57] 
 
 MINUTE BY LOED MINTO. 
 
 119 
 
 great country, whether supported or not by a great 
 European army. I regret it also because, whether any 
 short advantage is obtained by this species of intimida¬ 
 tion or not, it must create irritation and disgust, and 
 so far retard the desirable work of conciliation and of 
 union which we have in hand. 
 
 ‘ I should certainly not think it either becoming or 
 politic to approach the Persian Court in a posture of 
 supplication; on the contrary, we have ground for 
 remonstrance against the more than unfriendly conduct 
 of that Court. But we have not now to learn that a 
 temporising compromising policy is the frequent refuge 
 of weak governments, implicated in the disputes of 
 more powerful States ; and our intercourse with her 
 should be tempered with indulgence for those obstacles 
 to a cordial demeanour which we know exist. 
 
 ‘ The dignity of our Sovereign and of our national 
 character will not be impaired by forbearance, which is 
 due from the strong towards the weak. 
 
 ‘ In my opinion the most dignified basis on which we 
 can treat with Persia is that of common interest. The 
 measures we have to propose to Persia are those which 
 I sincerely think can alone afford her any prospect of 
 escaping from the pressing danger of being involved in 
 the general scheme of French conquest. I would avow 
 at the same time, without scruple or disguise, that we 
 also have an interest in securing Persia against its occu¬ 
 pation by French armies, and that the defence of Persia 
 will be an additional means of security to ourselves. 
 
120 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 ‘ From this avowal they will learn nothing that the 
 French Ambassador has not long since taught them. 
 But we shall obtain better credit in the advice we 
 prolfer to them for their own interests, when they 
 know we have at least no hidden motive, and when we 
 shall have given this pledge of our friendship and 
 sincerity.’ 
 
 The minute concludes with a hope that a door may 
 still be left open to negotiation. 
 
 INIalcolm meanwhile had convinced himself that the 
 Persian Court was under the absolute control of the 
 French Ambassador. It had issued the most positive 
 orders, dictated jointly by the French Ambassador and 
 by an Envoy lately arrived from the Eussian camp on 
 the frontiers, prohibiting the advance of Malcolm or of 
 any individual of his mission towards the capital. It 
 was suspected, and the fact was afterwards admitted, 
 that designs were entertained of preventing the depar¬ 
 ture of the mission, or of retaining the chief members 
 of it as hostages. Malcolm therefore took the resolu¬ 
 tion of leaving Bushire without awaiting orders, and 
 of proceeding in all haste to Calcutta to make his ex¬ 
 planations and to receive further instructions. 
 
 The mission from which so much had been expected 
 had failed. It is possible, even probable, that a more 
 conciliatory course than that adopted by the British 
 Envoy might have enabled him to remain in Persia 
 until a change of circumstances produced a change of 
 sentiments on the part of the Persian Grovernment, 
 when his personal popularity and his conspicuous 
 
^T. 57] 
 
 MALCOLM KETURNS TO INDIA. 
 
 121 
 
 talents might have restored the prestige of the British 
 name, and enabled him to conduct his negotiations 
 with better effect than Sir Harford Jones ; but the 
 neglect with which the Indian Grovernment had treated 
 Persia during the years that had elapsed since 
 Malcolm’s first mission, had perhaps a greater share in 
 producing the present disappointment than his some¬ 
 what ill-timed arrogance.* 
 
 The first intimation of Malcolm’s return to India 
 was given by the despatches which he brought himself, 
 and forwarded to Calcutta from the north of the 
 Hooghly. 
 
 It appears from his own journals that he was some¬ 
 what doubtful as to what his reception might be, 
 and was proportionably relieved and gratified by it? 
 warmth. 
 
 ' ‘ Malcolm,’ says his biographer, ‘ found our enemies supreme 
 at the Persian capital. Whilst we had been sleeping they had 
 been striving. We had left the field of action clear for them, and 
 they had occupied it with vigour and address. 
 
 ‘ Malcolm had not estimated aright the extent of this occupa¬ 
 tion. He had relied too much on the influence we had established 
 eight years before at the Persian Court, and had not sufficiently 
 taken into account the alteration of circumstance and feeling re¬ 
 sulting from the progress of Russian arm.s in that momentous 
 interval. The Persians believed that we had deserted them. We 
 had at all events looked unconcernedly on, or purposely turned our 
 backs upon them, whilst they had been spoliated by the Northern 
 conqueror. 
 
 ‘ What, they asked, had we done for them ? who were we that 
 we should now expect a single word from us to dissolve a promising 
 alliance, and to disperse a magnificent embassy, strong in all those 
 external attributes best calculated to rivet the confidence of the 
 Persians in the military strength and national greatness of their 
 energetic allies ? ’—Kaye’s Life of Sir John Malcolm. 
 
122 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 Lord Minto rejoiced in his arrival as enabling them 
 to discuss future measures by personal communication, 
 and as an opportunity given to Malcolm ‘ to acquire a 
 juster notion’ of his sentiments. 
 
 ‘ I confess I have not seen reason to recall the 
 sentiments I entertained concerning the general policy 
 adopted by him in Persia, but I note with satisfaction 
 that what appears to have been the least prudent and 
 judicious course has proved, as often happens in human 
 affairs, the most useful and advantageous. 
 
 ‘ Since success was impossible, it is satisfactory to 
 have arrived at the knowledge of that fact as early as 
 possible, and since moderation and forbearance could 
 have made no difference in the result, it is well that 
 his line of conduct has asserted the power of our 
 country, and made manifest our knowledge of the 
 influence under which Persia had adopted so hostile a 
 course.’' 
 
 General Malcolm’s information convinced the Indian 
 Government that Persia was so entirely dependent on 
 France and Russia as to give no mission from England 
 a chance of success. This state of things was not occa¬ 
 sioned by General Malcolm’s conduct, as was proved 
 by the plain avowal at Shiraz of orders issued in the 
 most peremptory terms, before Malcolm’s letters had 
 been received, to prohibit his advance. The motive 
 was no less clearly demonstrated—the i/nsistanee of the 
 French and Russian Ambassadors, accompanied with 
 menaces of an immediate rupture if the King’s unwill- 
 ’ To General Hewitt, Commander-in-chief. 
 
iliT. 57] 
 
 MALCOLM AT CALCUTTA. 
 
 123 
 
 ingness to break altogether with England were not 
 overcome. 
 
 Terror governed the conduct of Persia. 
 
 A French Ambassador could not but be absolute 
 when France offered the only visible and imaginable 
 protection against Kussia. 
 
 All preparations for the despatch of military forces 
 to Persia, on a large scale, and for the purposes de¬ 
 tailed in the instructions carried with him by Malcolm,, 
 were now set aside; but Lord Minto did not think it 
 advisable to renounce altogether ‘ that interesting 
 (quarter.’ While refusing to entertain the whole scheme 
 elaborated by Malcolm on his sea voyage, for the con¬ 
 fusion of his enemies. Lord Minto, on the assumption 
 that Persia was fairly entangled in the schemes of 
 France and Kussia, accepted the suggestion that a 
 station on her coast might under the circumstances be 
 usefully occupied by British troops. This station, ‘ to 
 serve as a rendezvous, a depot, a point of departure 
 and a point of retreat, as well as a centre of observa¬ 
 tion,’ was to be the Island of Carrack, at the mouth 
 of the Bassora river. It contained only twelve square 
 miles, was healthy, and well supplied with water, and on 
 it Malcolm had long cast covetous eyes. 
 
 ‘ The primary inducement to the adoption of that 
 plan (the occupation of Carrack) is that of placing 
 ourselves in such a posture as might enable us to pursue 
 whatever system of measures the progress of events 
 and the many possible turns and changes in the con¬ 
 duct of the adjacent countries might render expedient. 
 
124 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 ‘ The separation of Persia from the cause of our 
 enemy is obviously hopeless at present. ... If Persia 
 remains hostile to the last, and nothing is left but 
 to impede and obstruct the joint operations of that 
 Government and France, the post of Carrack can alone 
 furnish the possibility of putting to profit such oppor¬ 
 tunities as may offer to make that attempt. 
 
 ‘ To follow any other course would be to withdraw 
 ourselves from the whole of that important scene, 
 without divesting ourselves of the deep interest which 
 attaches to it. It would be to throw up the game 
 without withdrawing our stake, because the first deal 
 has not been favourable to our wishes. 
 
 ‘ Views of a similar nature, but applied to Bagdad, 
 recommend the same measure of an independent foot¬ 
 ing in the Gulf. It must at present no doubt be 
 considered as uncertain whether occasions will arise or 
 not to call forth our exertions in the quarter now under 
 consideration. The route of the French army may be 
 very remote from the shores of the Gulf, and it may 
 happen that no effort of ours, either in the southern 
 provinces of Persia or in the territories of Bagdad, can 
 have any influence on the actual defence of India. 
 
 ‘ This may be true, and our position and preparations 
 in the Gulf may not impossibly become the cause of 
 their own apparent inutility, by diverting the enemy 
 from the attempt in that direction. But in the first 
 place this is not certain, and we should leave an im¬ 
 portant post unguarded if, on any such speculation, we 
 should abandon that great means of our defence, and 
 
^T. 57] 
 
 MEASUEES OF DEFENCE. 
 
 125 
 
 resign the whole of the southern route to fortune, or, 
 to speak more justly, to the uudisturbed progress 
 of the enemy. In the next place, as I have already 
 hinted, these measures may accomplish their purpose 
 by impression alone, which, though its operation is 
 less perceptible, may not be less efficient to its end, 
 and the actual contest may be precluded by these 
 demonstrations alone that we are prepared to main¬ 
 tain it.’ ‘ 
 
 ‘ There are so many turns and chances in human 
 affairs that I should think it highly imprudent to 
 abandon all connexion with the countries bordering on 
 the Grulf of Persia. If a partition of Turkey in Europe 
 were to take place, it would become advisable that we 
 should take some part in the affairs of Asiatic Turkey. 
 I should not play the whole game in this great match 
 if I neglected to provide a secure station for that pur¬ 
 pose.’ 
 
 General INIalcolm appeared to Lord IMinto singularly 
 qualified for the execution of measures of this undefined 
 but eventually active, enterprising, and complicated 
 nature; and to him direction of fhem was therefore to 
 be entrusted. ‘ Particular instructions cannot well be 
 framed for cases which are only seen in anticipation, 
 and may assume an almost infinite variety of forms and 
 modifications; the defect must be supplied by the 
 known talents, activity, and judgment of the man ; and 
 next by general principles laid down for his guidance 
 which will embrace many particular points of conduct, 
 ‘ To the Eight Hon. R. Dundas, 
 
126 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 and serve to regulate at least the general character of 
 the system ; the particulars of which will thus in its 
 execution be more easily directed by himself. 
 
 ‘ In the result, as I fear no want of energy in 
 General Malcolm, so I am not apprehensive that those 
 restrictive principles by which it ought to be regulated, 
 and which have been fully inculcated both by written 
 instructions and by frequent personal advice and ad¬ 
 monition, will be in any degree forgotten.’ 
 
 It is remarkable that, among the possible contin¬ 
 gencies commanding the attention of Indian statesmen, 
 the one never contemplated was that which actually 
 occurred,—namely, a check to the power of France in 
 Europe, decided enough to cause the abandoning of her 
 views on the East, and the withdrawal of her troops from 
 Persia. That France might do as she listed seemed to 
 have become an axiom in the pohtics of the time. 
 
 We must now revert to Sir Harford Jones. 
 
 He had arrived at Bombay in April, following 
 rapidly on his letter addressed from the Cape of Good 
 Hope to the Governor General, yet not rapidly enough 
 to arrest the departure of General Malcolm, which had 
 taken place before his arrival. He therefore remained 
 at Bombay to await the result of Malcolm’s mission— 
 a course warmly approved and encouraged by Sir James 
 Mackintosh, then Eecorder of Bombay, and a hearty 
 admirer of General Malcolm.' 
 
 When intelligence reached Calcutta of the probable 
 
 ' Colonel Malcolm received the rank of a Brigadier General 
 before his departure for Persia. 
 
^r. 67] 
 
 SIE HARFORD JONES. 
 
 127 
 
 failure of Malcolm’s negotiation and of his withdrawal 
 from Persia, the Governor General saw no further reason 
 for detaining Sir Harford in India, and he, to whom every¬ 
 thing relating to Persia had been unreservedly commu¬ 
 nicated, now received Lord Minto’s authority to depart 
 on the mission to which he had been appointed in 
 England. This was on August 12. On the 22nd, 
 JMalcolm reached Calcutta, and on the same day, before 
 the Governor General in Council had finished reading 
 the despatches forwarded from the mouth of the 
 Hooghly a few hours before IMalcolm’s arrival, orders 
 were sent to Sir H. Jones to await fiu’ther instructions 
 at Bombay. 
 
 They appear to have had the effect of quickening 
 his movements. He stood not on the order of his 
 going, but went at once. On the 29th a still more 
 urgent communication was addressed to him, after the 
 decision to occupy Carrack had been arrived at; but, 
 when it reached Bombay, Sir Harford was on the high 
 seas. Letters at that period seem usually to have taken 
 from eighteen to twenty days on the road between Cal¬ 
 cutta and Bombay. On this occasion the rains caused 
 a delay of five days in the arrival of the express. From 
 Bombay it was despatched with great expedition after 
 Sir Harford in a quick sailing vessel, and would have 
 come up with him if she had not sprung a mast and 
 been constrained to return to Bombay to repair. 
 
 Fortune at this juncture decidedly favoured Sir 
 Harford. It was obvious that the measures in contem¬ 
 plation could not be proceeded with while an Envoy, 
 
128 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 representing His Majesty, was on his way to Persia, 
 Some sanguine spirits entertained the belief that on 
 the receipt of Lord Minto’s despatches, Sir Harford’s 
 re-embarkation would immediately follow on his arrival. 
 Jjord Minto thought otherwise; and when, at the end 
 of September, he acquired intelligence that Sir Harford’s 
 determination to proceed on his embassy had not been 
 shaken by the first despatch from Calcutta, relating 
 the circumstances under which Malcolm had withdrawn 
 from Persia, Lord Minto did not hesitate to suspend 
 the preparations which Malcolm had gone to Bombay 
 to superintend. On September 30 the Grovernor 
 General wrote to Malcolm that he had abandoned all 
 hope of arresting Sir Harford’s departure, and that in 
 their ignorance of the reception he might meet with in 
 Persia the expedition to Carrack must be necessarily 
 suspended, ‘ We cannot commit hostilities in Persia 
 while the King of England is negotiating with the 
 King of Persia. . . . You will have to withdraw 
 Captain Pasley and all your establishment from Bushire. 
 There should be no possibility oi jostling between any¬ 
 thing that is yours and Sir Harford Jones’s—I mean, 
 no possibility of its being suspected or imputed by 
 him.’ The letter ends with the remark that he had 
 great doubts of being able to control Sir Harford from 
 Bengal, but that he had the right to do so, and should 
 assert it. 
 
 It must be remembered that at this time the 
 Government at Calcutta was convinced of the futility of 
 any negotiation with Persia, and of the reality of the 
 
^T. 57] 
 
 CHANGE OF POLICY. 
 
 120 
 
 designs against India entertained by those who guided 
 the counsels of the Persian Court. It followed that, 
 in their judgment, Sir Harford’s proceedings were 
 simply obstructive, causing loss of precious time. 
 But in the course of the winter a change came over 
 the views of Indian statesmen. The apprehension 
 of a French invasion had diminished, if it was not 
 altogether removed, and in March 1809 Lord Minto 
 was able to write to General Malcolm, with many 
 expressions of regard and of regret at the inevitable 
 disappointment the announcement he was about to 
 make must cause him, that he had determined to 
 abandon the expedition to the Persian Gulf; the last 
 information from England having satisfied him that 
 the affairs of Europe were sufficiently agitated to 
 preclude for a time, on the part of the French, 
 such difficult and distant projects as had called forth 
 the late policy and measures of the Indian Govern¬ 
 ment. 
 
 ‘ He knew that a struggle was to be maintained for 
 Spain, and had great hope, thank God, of that great 
 and noble cause.’ 
 
 With this letter the story of the Persian mission 
 would have fitly ended, but the conduct pursued by Sir 
 Harford Jones, on receiving in Persia the despatches 
 forwarded to him after his hasty departure from Bom¬ 
 bay, produced results which cannot be passed over in 
 silence. All disputes are unpleasant to relate, more 
 especially when in such a life as Lord Minto’s they jar 
 upon one like a false note in music; but as this episode 
 
 K. 
 
130 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 has been frequently, and not always accurately related, 
 it is necessary to treat of it in some detail. 
 
 It has been represented that the despatch of two 
 missions to Persia had arisen from the jealousy enter¬ 
 tained by the Indian Grovernment of an Envoy from 
 the Crown. This was not the case. The resolution to 
 appoint an Envoy to represent both Crown and Com¬ 
 pany had been taken with Lord Minto’s knowledge and 
 participation, before he left England. He had doubt¬ 
 less strongly urged the propriety of selecting the in¬ 
 dividual to fill the office from the Indian service, which 
 contained many eminent men well qualified for 
 the post; but the advice related to the choice of 
 the individual Envoy, not to the nature or source of 
 his powers; concerning these there had been no discus¬ 
 sion or difference of opinion. For nine months after 
 his arrival in India Lord Minto heard no word of Sir 
 Harford Jones, beyond the fact of his having been 
 selected for the mission to Persia, to include a prelimi¬ 
 nary mission to St. Petersburg. In the meanwhile 
 events were hurrying on: the circumstances under 
 which the appointment had been made, and the Ministry 
 who made it, had changed. The state of affairs in Persia 
 was urgent. It caused, as we have seen, great anxiety 
 in England as well as in India. Lord Minto conse¬ 
 quently deemed it his duty to send a mission from 
 India to Persia on the distinct understanding that 
 Colonel Malcolm, to whom he entrusted it, was not to 
 present his credentials if he found Sir Harford Jones 
 there. In that case he was to subside into the agent 
 
JEt. 57] 
 
 MALCOLM RECALLED. 
 
 131 
 
 of the Governor General. Bnt even this secondary 
 position originally assigned to him was cancelled im¬ 
 mediately on the receipt of Sir Harford Jones’s commu¬ 
 nication from the Cape. 
 
 Instructions were sent forthwith to Malcolm to 
 abandon Persia, and undertake the mission to Bagdad. 
 But in those days weeks were requisite for the transit 
 of letters to Persia, and it does not appear that the 
 orders of recall had reached IMalcolm before his hurried 
 departure from Bushire. When, at a subsequent 
 period. Lord IMinto sought to arrest Sir Harford’s em¬ 
 barkation at Bombay, it was under the conviction that, 
 the time for profitable negotiation was past. His desire 
 that there should be no clashing or jostling between 
 Malcolm and Jones has been stated. AMiat then was 
 the cause of the bitter strife which reams of paper still 
 exist to prove, if not the action of Sir H. Jones in re¬ 
 pudiating the authority of the Government of India, 
 in the higher character of rejjresentative of His 
 Majesty ? On his arrival in Persia he found that the 
 aspect of things had entirely changed during the three 
 months which had elapsed since IMalcolm’s departure. 
 French promises had not been followed by performance ; 
 the Persian Court had cooled towards their new friends, 
 and had grown alarmed at the prospect of a rupture 
 with their powerful neighbour in India. On the receipt 
 of the intelligence contained in the despatches to Sir 
 Harford Jones from Calcutta, of the intended expedition 
 against Carrack, anger was added to a})prehension. 
 Thereupon Sir Harford saw no better wav of restoring 
 
132 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 the equanimity of the Persian Court, and of smoothing 
 his own advance to Teheran, than to give them the 
 assurance that a greater than the Governor General 
 stood before them in his own person. Throwing off all 
 allegiance to the Indian Government he proceeded to 
 give a solemn pledge that no aggression should be 
 committed on the dominions of the King of Persia as 
 long as he displayed a wish to jjreserve amicable rela¬ 
 tions with the King of Great Britain. 
 
 How these pretensions were viewed at Calcutta will 
 be best shown in the following extracts from the corre¬ 
 spondence of the Governor General in Council with the 
 Secret Committee. They distinctly state the nature of 
 the powers with which Sir H. Jones had been invested, 
 and also the responsibilities which attached to the 
 Indian Government.' 
 
 ‘ As we have already observed in our despatch to 
 yoim Honourable Committee of January 20, we conceive 
 that it was the express intention of Government in 
 England in acceding to the request of the Honomable 
 the Court of Directors, that Sir Harford Jones might 
 be vested with diplomatic functions on the part of the 
 Crown, to add weight and consequence to the authority 
 of the local Government of India, and that it was the 
 special duty of Sir H. Jones rather to combine than to 
 ■separate the two anthorities, and to employ the one as 
 the means of adding dignity and efficiency to the other. 
 We conceive that though Sir H. Jones was vested with 
 a commission from the throne, he was bound by the 
 ‘ Extract from secret and separate general letter, April 3, 1809. 
 
JEt. 58] LETTER TO SECRET COMMITTEE. 
 
 133 
 
 spirit and letter of the orders which accompanied that 
 commission to act exclusively under the instructions of 
 your Honourable Committee and of the Honourable 
 Company’s Government in India. 
 
 ‘ In Mr. Secretary Canning’s instructions to Sir 
 H. Jones of August 28, 1807, it is stated that “ the 
 Court of Directors of the E. I. Company, having repre¬ 
 sented to His Majesty’s ministers, through the President 
 of the Commissioners for the affairs of India, that the 
 mission with which Sir II. Jones was charged to the 
 Court of Persia would be likely to experience a more 
 favourable reception at that Court if he were directly 
 accredited from His Majesty, and enabled to bring 
 forward in His IMajesty’s name the different propo¬ 
 sitions which he might be instructed to submit to 
 the consideration of the Persian Government. IMr. 
 Secretary Canning had received His Majesty’s com¬ 
 mands to authorise Sir H. Jones to assume the character 
 of His jMajesty’s Envoy to the Court of Persia.’’ It is 
 further distinctly stated in the same letter, that the in¬ 
 structions by which Sir H. Jones’s conduct in the execu¬ 
 tion of his mission was to be guided, he would receive 
 from the Court of Directors of the E. 1. Company, or 
 the Secret Committee, or from their Government in 
 India; and to those instriictions Sir H. Jones was 
 desired to conform. Sir H. Jones was at the same 
 time authorised to sign in His Majesty’s name any 
 treaty which in pursuance of these instructions he 
 might have occasion to negotiate with the ministers of 
 the King of Persia, but was informed that, in the event 
 
134 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 of his being directed to hold out any promise of pecu¬ 
 niary or military assistance, such engagements were to 
 be made only in reference to the forces actually in 
 India, and to the funds of the E. I. Company, by whom 
 all the expenses attending his mission were to be 
 defrayed. 
 
 ‘ Your Honourable Company did at the same time 
 communicate to Sir H. Jones the general objects of his 
 mission, and direct him as prescribed in Mr. Secretary 
 Canning’s letter to conform to such instructions as he 
 might receive from their Company’s Government in 
 India for the accomplishment of these objects. 
 
 ‘ It cannot be necessary to enter into any discus¬ 
 sion for the purpose of demonstrating the inconsist¬ 
 ency of our being charged with the defence and security 
 of India against the dangers in which the mission to 
 Persia originated, without possessing power to direct 
 the negotiation with that Court, or to control the con¬ 
 duct of the minister deputed there; mthout being at 
 liberty to determine the point of time at which negotia¬ 
 tion should be undertaken ; to judge whether or not 
 the prosecution of it is compatible with the honour and 
 interests of the Government committed to our charge, 
 or to limit or extend the engagement for which Ave are 
 exclusively responsible. 
 
 ‘ A state of affairs may readily be supposed which 
 woidd render the prosecution of a mission to Persia on 
 the part of the British power, utterly subversive of the 
 dearest interests of this country. In such a case it 
 cannot be contended that the apppointment of a 
 
JKt. 58] LETTER TO SECRET COMMITTEE. 135 
 
 minister accredited to the Court of Persia by the au¬ 
 thorities in England, under the contemplation of a 
 ditferent condition of affairs, should supersede a discre¬ 
 tionary power, on the part of the local Government, 
 to require him to suspend the exercise of his ministerial 
 functions ; or that a minister so appointed, proceeding 
 without the authority of this Government, or in direct 
 opposition to it, is empowered by his commission to 
 pledge its faith to the adoption of a course of measures, 
 not only unsanctioned by the Government on which 
 the execution of those measures must depend, but 
 expressly declared to be incompatible with its honour 
 and interest. The assumption of such a power is the 
 assumption of the government of this country, not the 
 exercise of the ministerial powers delegated by the 
 Crown to its accredited envoy. It is the assumption 
 of power which the throne itself never claimed ; and it 
 is a direct opposition, not only to the spirit, but to the 
 very letter of His ^Majesty’s commands.’ 
 
 Lord Hinto, describing the grounds on which the 
 supreme Government of India had hitherto carried on 
 the connection with Persia, continues : ‘By the ,laws 
 which have been framed for the management of the 
 honourable Company’s affairs, the local Government of 
 this country is vested with the power attached to 
 sovereignty. It is empowered to administer civil and 
 criminal justice, to levy war, and to conclude peace. 
 It is equally essential to the preservation of this valu¬ 
 able branch of the British Em})ire that the States of 
 Asia should consider the British establishment in India 
 
136 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 in the light of a sovereign State, as that the G-overn- 
 ment should actually exercise the powers annexed 
 to it. 
 
 ‘ In this character, the Company’s Government has 
 legitimately negotiated by means of ambassadors, and 
 concluded treaties with the State of Persia on a footing 
 of equality. In this character, the State of Persia has 
 been accustomed to consider the British Government 
 in India as vested with absolute authority to employ 
 its resources in aid of the Persian monarch as an 
 ally, or to direct its power against him as an enemy. 
 It is in this character alone that we have been enabled 
 to obtain those manifestations of respect, that regard 
 to the claims of dignity, which, amongst all nations of 
 the world, but in a special degree among Asiatic States, 
 are essential to the maintenance of real power in the 
 scale of political interest. This acknowledged character, 
 as it constituted the basis, so it must form the cement 
 of our external relations. To depreciate therefore that 
 estimation of the power, and the dignity of the British 
 Government in India, which, under a sense of its im¬ 
 portance, we have successfully laboured to preserve 
 amongst neighbouring States, is to fix upon the British 
 Government the stigma of deceit, to affect the reputa¬ 
 tion of our public faith, and to expose us to much of the 
 danger arising from a real loss of power and authority, 
 by diminishing that awe and respect with which this 
 Government has hitherto been contemplated, and on 
 which the tranquillity and security of the Britisfi 
 dominion in India mainly depend.’ 
 
vEt. 58] 
 
 TREATY WITH PERSIA. 
 
 137 
 
 In the meanwhile Sir Harford had succeeded in 
 negotiating a preliminary treaty, and had prevailed on 
 the King of Persia to send an Ambassador to England 
 in company with Air. IMorier.' 
 
 The. draft of this treaty was sent to the Indian 
 (iovernment for ratification, accompanied by a letter 
 from the King of Persia to the Governor General, which 
 was couched in language that the Indian authorities 
 deemed to be intentionally disrespectful. Writing to 
 jVlalcolm on June 27, 1809, Lord iMinto said: ‘ iMr. 
 Kdnionstoue tells me that in every circumstance and 
 form of language it is wanting in the respect which has 
 till now been rendered to the station of Governor General. 
 It acquaints me with the arrival of an Envoy from 
 the King of England, and the conclusion of a treaty of 
 alliance between the two Crowns. It therefore requires 
 me to give effect to the intentions of the two monar¬ 
 chies and of my Sovereign, by attending to the due 
 and strong execution of all the conditions agi-eed on.* 
 
 This letter was looked upon as amounting to a 
 
 ' In a letter of the following year Miss Elliot wrote to her 
 father that ‘ the new Persian Ambassador wlio came home with Mr. 
 Morier is very handsome and extrc'mely admired by the ladies. 
 Some people stispect he is “ no rvoAter, hut a Knhjld Templar in dis¬ 
 guise” or rather no Ambassador, but a renegade Jew. Some wise 
 man asked him if he adored the sun in Persia; he said, “ No, not in 
 Persia, but he should adore it in England if he happened to see it.” 
 Ihere is only one lady who can speak Persian to him, a Miss 
 Metcalfe, who cracks Persian jokes to him, and lauglis in Persian, 
 just as if it was English. They say of course he is in love with her, 
 but having two or three dozen wives already, there is no room for 
 her, the more’s the pit}'.’ — This Persian Envoy is the hero of Mr. 
 Morier’s entertaining work. The Adventures of llajji Bala. 
 
138 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 deposition of the Government of India from the sovereign 
 powers with which it had been invested. 
 
 Lord iMinto did not hesitate to ratify the treaty, 
 knowing that the public faith of England was thereby 
 engaged, but he sent instructions to Persia disavowing 
 the jDublic character of the Ambassador, and desiring 
 him to quit Persia immediately, on pain of having his 
 bills dishonoured.* 
 
 This was in the summer of 1809, but so slow were 
 the communications with England, that a twelvemonth 
 elapsed before the final decision of the Home Govern¬ 
 ment to assume the sole direction of diplomatic rela¬ 
 tions with Persia, reached India. While still believing 
 the conduct of affairs in Persia to remain with the 
 Government of India, Lord Minto thought it his duty 
 to re-assert their claim to supreme authority over all 
 their agents in the East. 
 
 ‘ To despise is to weaken. Eeputation is Power’— 
 said an English writer well versed in the knowledge 
 of courts and men. So thinking. Lord Minto asked 
 
 ‘ The chief points of the treaty were, that any treaty made with 
 other European powers should be considered void ; that no force 
 commanded by Europeans should be permitted to march through 
 Persia towards India; and that, if any European army invaded 
 Persian territory, the British Government should afford the aid of a 
 military force or subsidy, ‘ The last point is the only one of im¬ 
 portance,’ wrote Lord Minto to Sir Gore Ouseley, ‘and in my 
 judgment it is fraught with mischievous consequences and may 
 entail very grave ones.’ This opinion w^ justified by the events of 
 1826-7, when, Russia and Persia being at war, these stipulations 
 were not fulfilled by England ; Mr. Canning being War Secretary at 
 Die time, Russia was allowed largely to extend her territories at the 
 expense of the State which by the treaty of Teheran England was 
 bound to defend. 
 
iEx. 58] MALCOLM’S SECOND MISSION. 139 
 
 Colonel Malcolm once more to undertake a mission to 
 Persia, from whence it was believed that Sir H. Jones 
 had retired in pursuance of the orders from Calcutta. 
 He, however, had received orders from the Foreign 
 Office in England to await the arrival of an Ambassador 
 from His Majesty—Sir Gore Ouseley, who in pursu¬ 
 ance of the new arrangement, was on his way to Persia. 
 Thus it happened that IMalcolm and Sir Harford Jones 
 met at last in Persia. To Malcolm were given the 
 honours of the situation by the King, who had a pei- 
 sonal regard for him, and created for his special behoof 
 a new order of knighthood, entitled that of the ‘ IJon 
 and the Sun.’ 
 
 But Sir Harford Jones carried away the more sid)- 
 stantial satisfaction of having execmted a treaty, which 
 though it received much criticism from the Indian 
 Government, was accepted and ratified.* 
 
 One of the disadvantages which could not but accrue 
 to the diplomacy of the Company’s Government by 
 the withdrawal of Persia from the sphere of its opera¬ 
 tions, was seen when it appeared that, by an article of 
 the treaty negotiated at Teheran by Sir Harford Jones, 
 it was stipulated that, in case of war between Persia and 
 Afghanistan, ‘ His IVIajesty the King of Great Britain 
 should not take any part therein, unless at the desire 
 of both parties;’ while, in ignorance of the existence 
 of any such agreement, Mr. Elphinstone had been au¬ 
 thorised to form a defensive alliance with Afghanistan 
 
 ' It was not finally executed till 1814, when the name of Russia 
 was substituted for that of France. 
 
140 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 against an attack from Persia, as was stated in the treaty 
 signed at Calcutta on June 17, of the same year, 1809. 
 Yet Persia and Cabul were both necessary members of 
 the confederacy with which the Indian G-overnment 
 had proposed to resist an invasion of India. 
 
^T. 58] 
 
 DEFENCE OF INDIA. 
 
 141 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 LAHORE. 
 
 In order to obtain an nninterrupted view of all the 
 circumstances connected with the Persian mission, they 
 have been related without reference to other measures, 
 which were simnltaneously cai’ried out and directed to 
 the same object—namely, the formation of defensive 
 alliances with the independent States on the North- 
 Western frontier of India. 
 
 In a minute by the Giovernor Ceneral, September 
 15, 1808, it is remarked that even should France 
 succeed in establishing an ascendancy in Persia, much 
 would remain to be accomplished before India could be 
 successfully invaded, and the hostility of the interjacent 
 States, especially if seconded by the co-operation of the 
 British power, might yet be expected to frustrate the 
 design, or at least to reduce the invading army to a de¬ 
 gree of debility which would give our troops a decided 
 superiority in the field. The importance to our interests 
 of previously establishing with these States a direct 
 conunnnication was obvious. 
 
 It was therefore proposed to send missions to the 
 States lying on and beyond the Indus—Lahore, Cabul, 
 
142 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 and Scinde—for the purpose of organising a system of 
 defensive alliances, based on a common interest in re¬ 
 sisting the advance of an invading force. 
 
 The Home Government had been prepared by 
 despatches of a previous date for the measures carried 
 out in the summer of 1808. In a letter to the Pre¬ 
 sident of the Board of Control, February 10 of that 
 year. Lord Minto had written : 
 
 ‘ If the views of the enemy should extend to the 
 direct invasion of India by an army proportioned to that 
 undertaking, their march must probably be to the Indus, 
 and must lead through the kingdom of Cabul and the 
 territbries of Lahore, as well as through the countries of 
 several independent chiefs situated between Persia and 
 the Company’s possessions. It has appeared to be ex¬ 
 tremely desirable to push forward a British agency as 
 far beyond our own frontiers, and as near the countries 
 from which the enemy is to take his departure, as pos¬ 
 sible. We have not, till of late, had much inducement 
 to frequent or to make much enquiry concerning the 
 countries beyond the Indus ; and there are difficulties 
 attending the usual means of establishing an amicable 
 intercourse with those governments or their subjects. 
 We cannot safely rely on the fidelity or discernment 
 of native agents, either for furnishing information 
 or accomplishing any political objects our interests 
 might require. I understand that the employment of 
 Europeans in such services would be subject to great 
 difficulties. Regular and avowed embassies, which would 
 furnish occasion to the fixed residence, dui'ing periods 
 
Mt. o7] 
 
 MISSION TO LAHORE. 
 
 143 
 
 like the present, of Europeans properly qualified in those 
 countries, would undoubtedly be best calculated to fulfil 
 my present views, which aim, first at obtaining early 
 intelligence of the enemy’s designs, and secondly at 
 casting obstacles to his progress. The practicability of 
 obtaining a reception for such embassies as 1 have 
 alluded to, at any Court beyond the Indus, is still to be 
 enquired into.’ 
 
 The most formidable obstacle to any successful 
 combination with the Western States was to be found 
 in their mutual jealousies and conflicting interests. 
 Iletween the Jumna—at that time the British frontier 
 —and the Sutlege, the country was occupied by inde¬ 
 pendent principalities belonging to the semi-religions, 
 semi-military commonwealth of the Sikhs. Beyond 
 the Sutlege, the territory known as the Punjaub, also 
 occupied by Sikhs, was under the rule of Kunjeet 
 Singh, Eajah, or rather INIaharajah, of Lahore—a prince 
 distinguished for military capacity and ambition, whose 
 dominions had rapidly increased since the downfall of 
 the Mahratta power, and whose intention of extending 
 them by further conquests over the Sikh chieftains 
 eastward of the Sutlege had roused the watchfulness of 
 the Indian Government. Beyond the Indus lay the 
 kingdom of Cabid—the remains of a once splendid 
 empire, which had extended from the Jumna to tlie 
 Caspian Sea, from the Oxus to the Persian Gulf. Of 
 this country scarcely anything was known before Lord 
 Minto sent to it the embassy of Mr. Mountstuart 
 Elphinstone. The States immediately surrounding it 
 
144 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 had been carved out of its ancient dominions, and Persia, 
 Tiahore, and Scinde were therefore equally the objects 
 of its open or covert hostility. Among these rival po¬ 
 tentates it became the duty of the Indian Grovernment 
 to decide whose alliance would be the most valuable, 
 and to discover Avhether any of their conflicting interests 
 Avere inveterately antagonistic to our own. Unluckily 
 it proved that the Eajah of Lahore, whose territory lay 
 in the track of every invader of India, was at once our 
 most necessary ally and our most dangerous neigh¬ 
 bour. 
 
 In the stringent instructions given to Lord Minto 
 by the Company, to observe a policy of non-intervention 
 in the affairs of States beyond our borders, it does not 
 appear that any rules were laid doAvn for the case of 
 an urgent appeal by them for such intervention. A 
 claim, based on the right of the weak powers to obtain 
 protection from the stronger, had been made during the 
 administration of Sir G. BarloAv, by the Sikh principal¬ 
 ities lying between the British frontiers and the Punjaub, 
 Avhich, after the overthrow of the Mahratta supremacy 
 in those regions by the arms of Lord Wellesley, were 
 unable to protect themselves against the encroachments 
 of Runjeet Singh. The appeal had been met Avith a 
 refusal; and what appears to be the inevitable result 
 among populations in similar conditions, had ensued 
 —the poAver and influence resigned by the Indian 
 (rovemment Avere transferred to another. The Rajah 
 of Lahore, in his character of protector over his brother 
 Sikhs, now threatened us with the establishment of a 
 
Mt. 57] 
 
 MISSION TO LAUOEE. 
 
 145 
 
 formidable military power on our frontier. ‘ Eunjeet,’ 
 wrote Lord Minto, ‘ had alone been induced to meditate 
 the extension of his dominions over the territories 
 between the Sutlege and Jumna, by a manifestation of 
 our intention not to exercise those rights of supremacy 
 over the southern Sikhs which had been exercised by 
 the Mahrattas. If we had not at an early period of 
 time declared the Sikh chiefs to be entirely independent 
 of our control; if at the time when the Eajah pro¬ 
 jected his first invasion of those territories we had 
 declared a resolution to protect them; or even if we 
 had attended to the united solicitations of the chiefs 
 of those territories about the middle of last year to 
 protect them against a second projected invasion, by 
 announcing that resolution, no doubt can be entertained 
 that the mere declaration of it would have been suf¬ 
 ficient to deter Eunjeet Singh from the execution of his 
 design.’ 
 
 To prevent him from carrying it out was an impe¬ 
 rative duty on the part of the Government, which Lord 
 Minto did not hesitate to acknowledge; but the im¬ 
 mediate importance of securing his co-operation in a 
 system of common resistance to an invading force 
 made it unadvisable to proceed to extremities on behalf 
 of the southern Sikhs, until all diplomatic methods had 
 been exhausted to obtain his renunciation of further 
 conquests in the direction of Hindostan. 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 ‘ March lf08.’ 
 
 ‘ Although as a general principle we cordially recog¬ 
 nise the wisdom and the justice of abstaining from all 
 interference in the contests, disputes, and concerns of 
 States with which we are unconnected by the obli¬ 
 gations of alliance, and are fully convinced of the 
 embarrassments and inconvenience of extending our 
 protection to petty chieftains, who are unable to protect 
 their territories from the aggressions of more powerful 
 neighbours, yet we are disposed to think that cases 
 may occur in which a temporary deviation from these 
 general principles may be a measure of defensive 
 policy, the neglect of which might be productive of 
 much more danger and embarrassment than the 
 prosecution of it, and that the certain resolution of 
 the Rajah of Lahore to subjugate the States situated 
 between the Sutlege and the frontier of our dominion 
 would, under other circumstances than the present, 
 constitute a case on which, on grounds of self-defence, 
 the interposition of the British power, for the purpose 
 of preventing the execution of such a project, would be 
 equally just and prudent. Yet the accomplishment 
 of the more important views already described seems 
 evidently incompatible with a rupture with him.’ 
 
 It was reasonable to suppose that the Courts of 
 Lahore and Cabul would consider such missions as 
 were in contemplation as a peculiar distinction calcula¬ 
 ted to give them consequence in the eyes of surrounding 
 ' Despatch to the Secret Committee, par. 91. 
 
^T. o7j MINUTE BY GOVERNOR GENERAL. 
 
 147 
 
 powers; nevertheless the Governor General did not 
 consider it either necessary or expedient to sufi'er the 
 prosecution of the measure to depend upon the result 
 of a previous reference to those Courts. He therefore 
 proposed to despatch envoys to both Courts without 
 delay. 
 
 The personal solicitude with which he watched over 
 the preparatory arrangements for the missions is shown 
 by a minute in his handwriting, stating the grounds 
 on which he deemed it his duty to disallow a measure 
 proposed by the Commander-in-chief, General Hewitt, 
 namely, the appointment of two officers of high rank 
 to accompany the missions for the purpose of making 
 a survey of the country for military purposes. 
 
 ‘June 1808.' 
 
 ‘ It must always be with much concern that I find 
 myself under the necessity of objecting to any mea¬ 
 sure proposed by the Commander-in-chief, especially 
 on occasions of importance, and on points on which 
 his Kxcellency appears to have formed a decided 
 ojiinion. It is the importance of the proposition, how¬ 
 ever, recommended by his Excellency’s minute, which 
 constrains me, after a full and anxious consideration of 
 the subject, to state the objections which in my mind 
 oppose its immediate adoption. . . . For a due con¬ 
 sideration of this subject it is necessary to keep in 
 mind the proper object which is proposed by these 
 
 Minute on propo.sal made by Commauder-iii-cliief, 
 
148 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 missions, and the particular circumstances under which 
 they are undertaken. 
 
 ‘The object proposed is to conciliate the Princes 
 who govern the States of Cahul and Lahore, to obtain 
 their consent to the passage of our troops through 
 their country, or their admission into their territories, 
 for the purpose of opposing a French army in their 
 projected invasion of Hindostan; and our hope also is 
 to establish such defensive engagements with those 
 Governments as may obtain their co-operation, or at 
 least their friendly aid and assistance, to our military 
 operations and to our cause generally. 
 
 ‘ I am persuaded that the Commander-in-chief will 
 agree with me in considering it at least as questionable 
 whether, in the event of Cabul and Lahore proving 
 hostile or becoming so, it would be advisable to pene¬ 
 trate through their countries or to enter them at all. 
 
 ‘ It is well known that the habitual and undistin¬ 
 guishing jealousy which is the personal character of 
 Runjeet Singh, and is said to characterise also the 
 regions in which his territories are situated, has been 
 directed specifically against the British Government. 
 He is aware that our interests and principles are un¬ 
 favourable to some of the chief objects of his ambition ; 
 and, in addition to this particular cause of distrust, 
 means have been found to create in his mind a still 
 stronger jealousy—amounting almost to personal ap¬ 
 prehension. 
 
 ‘ It is certain that our endeavours to open a com- 
 
-SiT. 57] MINUTE BY GOVERNOR GENERAL. 
 
 149 
 
 munication with Cabul, and to establish intimate 
 relations with that State, will furnish abundant matter 
 of uneasiness, and supply fresh food to the jealousy 
 already entertained by Kunjeet Singh, both of Cabul 
 and of our Government. 
 
 ‘ It is the business of the proposed mission of ]Mr. 
 jNIetealfe to remove these suspicions, and to plant in 
 their room the seeds of confidence and union. This 
 must be done in my opinion by a frank, open, and sin¬ 
 cere avowal of our ultimate objects; and the best sup¬ 
 port which can be given to our negotiation must be a 
 scrupulous and delicate conduct in every point of our 
 intercourse with him. . . . The progress of two 
 officers, especially of the distinguished rank and station 
 proposed in his Excellency’s minute, through the terri¬ 
 tories of Lahore, without permission or even any inti¬ 
 mation of their intention, for the avowed purpose, or, if 
 not avowed, for a purpose which cannot be otherwise 
 than obvious, if the jnission is to have any effect, would 
 be an occurrence calculated to awaken the suspicion of 
 less jealous governments than that of Kunjeet Singh. 
 I confess it appears to me highly improbable that these 
 officers woidd be allowed to advance a step, after the 
 intelligence of their operations shoidd have reached the 
 ears of Eunjeet Singh ; nor could anyone, in my opinion, 
 answer for the personal safety of these gentlemen. If 
 they should attempt to cover their proceedings under 
 any connection with the political mission, it would only 
 make the case worse; because it would give to the 
 whole measure an air of artifice and deception which 
 
150 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 must preclude all hopes of conciliating the confidence 
 of Runjeet Singh. 
 
 ‘With regard to Cabul the objection is jorecisely 
 similar. With the King of that country we have 
 never had any intercourse whatever. I hope that a 
 sense of common danger, and a real identity of interests, 
 may in the very able hands to which that mission 
 is committed, become a foundation of solid union and 
 of zealous and efficient co-operation. But here the 
 work of confidence is to begin. All is yet to do, 
 and I rely for success—here as at Lahore—only on 
 the candid explanation of our true and real purpose, 
 countenanced and supported by a general sincerity of 
 demeanour and by the absence of all those traces of 
 indirect and collateral design which, while they 
 frequently fail in their own object, are very apt to 
 frustrate and disappoint every other with which they 
 are in any way connected.’ 
 
 The minute ends thus:—‘ Speaking purely of mili¬ 
 tary advantages, my opinion, I confess, is that the 
 movement and operation of troops, as well as the 
 success of a campaign, would be more facilitated and 
 favoured by the friendship and assistance of the country 
 which is the theatre of their operations without a pre¬ 
 vious topographical knowledge of the ground, or niifitary 
 report of its condition and resources, than by the pos¬ 
 session of that knowledge in a hostile country.’ 
 
 Mr. Metcalfe ' was the envoy selected for the mission 
 
 ' Afterwards Lord Metcalfe. Late Governor General of India, 
 Governor of Jamaica, and Governor General of Canada. 
 
iRr. 57] 
 
 CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 151 
 
 to the Punjaub, and a more difficult task than that 
 entrusted to him can hardly be conceived—to woo the 
 great Eajah to an alliance, while refusing him the 
 increase of territory on which he had set his heart, 
 (diaries Metcalfe was at this time twenty-three years of 
 age ; he was a lad of nineteen when Lord Wellesley sent 
 him as political officer to the head-quarters of Lord 
 I/ike, wffiere a combination of tact and spirit had 
 established his reputation as one of the most promising 
 of the younger civilians. On Lord Minto’s arrival in 
 India no name was brought before him with higher 
 encomiums; and when selected for the most delicate 
 of political missions, it was entrusted to his sole 
 charge. He ‘ was to move ’ we are told ‘ without 
 secretaries, assistants, or attaches; a military escort 
 was to be provided, and a proper establishment 
 of moonshees, writers, and servants was to be fur¬ 
 nished. But the work of diplomacy was left entirely 
 to his unaided counsels.’ ‘ He was to be the pioneer 
 of the mission to Cabul. Besides collecting and com¬ 
 municating every information, political, geographical, 
 and topographical, concerning the country he was 
 despatched to, together with the real disposition of its 
 ruler, the state of his government, troops, resources, 
 tkc., he was to push his reconnaissances, by means of 
 secret news-writers, to Cabul, Cashmere, Peshawur, 
 Candahar, Herat, and as far as possible into the in¬ 
 terior of Persia. 
 
 Kaye's Correspondence of Lord Metcalfe, 
 
r 
 
 152 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. [1808 
 
 It was not the magnitude of an undertaking which 
 would have daunted the men of those days. 
 
 IMetcalfe left Delhi on August 12, during the monsoon 
 of 1808 ; on September 12 he reached Runjeet’s camp 
 near the Sutlege, after a weary march over a country 
 under water. Eains from above, quagmires below, had 
 reduced the appearance of his escort to that with which 
 Sir John Falstaff objected to march through Coventry, 
 and IMetcalfe was not without some similar sentiments. 
 Rut when the Eajah contented himself with sending 
 his Prime Minister and an escort of 2,000 men to meet 
 him on his arrival, the young Envoy thought he might 
 have come himself, and was careful to let it be under¬ 
 stood that, whether in purple or in rags, he came to 
 treat as the representative of British power; and Eun- 
 jeet—who possibly experienced some such feeling as that 
 expressed by Hyder Ali to General IMalcolm, ‘ It is 
 not what I see, but what I do not see, that I fear ’— 
 received him ever after as became his ambassadorial 
 character. 
 
 Before the purpose of the mission was opened, its 
 mere arrival had sufficed to awaken the jealousy and 
 suspicions of Eunjeet Singh. When its object appeared 
 to be to gain his aid in counteracting the advance of 
 hostile armies into India, the Eajah made it manifest 
 that his co-operation, against a danger which produced 
 no great impression on his mind, was only to be secured 
 by the furtherance on the part of the Company of his 
 own designs against the territories of the independent 
 Sikhs. On finding that no promise of countenance to 
 
^T. 57] 
 
 CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 153 
 
 these designs formed part, of Mr. INIetcalfe’s instruc¬ 
 tions, the Sikh Prince suddenly broke up his camp and 
 proceeded to cross the river and attack the coveted 
 territories. Then began a weary period of marching 
 and counter-marcliing,—of fruitless negotiations and 
 helpless acquiescence in the spoliation of those whom 
 ]\Ietcalfe’s employers proposed ultimately to protect ; 
 while the Government at Calcutta looked on, not without 
 anger, but with the determination to avoid a rupture 
 while it was yet uncertain whether the big cloud in 
 the distant horizon was to burst upon them or to dis¬ 
 perse. 
 
 During this period of doubt and suspense IMetcalfe’s 
 qualifications as a first-rate diplomatist were brought 
 to the test. Nothing could exceed, we are told, the 
 lucidity of his despatches, or the tact, skill, patience, 
 and dignity with which he conducted these critical 
 negotiations and finally carried all his points. It is 
 impossible not to be struck by the respectful attention, 
 the warm approbation, with which the practised states¬ 
 men of Calcutta received the reports and adopted the 
 suggestions of a youth of twenty-three. 
 
 We have largely developed since then our systems 
 of education, but it is questionable whether any system 
 of mental training can equal that of early initiation int() 
 important and responsible business. As (loethe says :— 
 
 Es bildcf sicli ein Talent in der Stille, 
 
 Sich ein Cliaracter in dem Strom der Welt. 
 
 Had the Government at this juncture taken a more 
 decided course, and prohibited the further acquisitions 
 
154 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 of Runjeet Singh, ‘ they must,’ %Yrote Lord Minto,’ ‘ have 
 proceeded at once to employ a military force for the 
 purpose of affording open and immediate protection to 
 the Sikhs. For to declare that we do not consent to 
 the proposed conquests, and at the same time to look 
 on while they are achieved, is a contradiction calculated 
 alike to alienate the Sikhs and to provoke the enmity 
 of Runjeet Singh.’ But though temporising, they were 
 not idle. The Commander-in-chief received orders to 
 prepare for an advance, and a private letter to him 
 from Lord IMinto shows that in the event of serious 
 resistance from Runjeet, it was in the contemplation of 
 Government to substitute a friendly for a hostile power 
 between our frontier and the Indus. ‘ There is reason 
 to beheve that a considerable portion of the country 
 usurped by Runjeet Singh is strongly disaffected, and 
 should any grand effort be made, and be crowned with 
 success, nothing would be more advantageous to our 
 interests than the substitution of friends and dependants 
 hu’ hostile and rival powers throughout the country 
 between our frontier and the Indus.’ 
 
 These more extensive designs, depending on the 
 contingency of a failure in the negotiations with Runjeet 
 Singh, were not destined to be carried out. When from 
 Europe came assurance that the arch-disturber of the 
 world’s peace had turned his mind from Asiatic conquests 
 to others nearer home, the Indian Government prepared 
 to withdraw from the more considerable undertakings 
 which were required for the security of our Indian 
 ' Calcutta, November 15, 1808. 
 
AiT. 57] DECISION OF THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT. 155 
 
 frontier. But with the cessation of their apprehensions 
 on the larger question, ceased also the necessity for an 
 alliance with Runjeet Singh at the expense of those it 
 was the desire and the interest of the Government to 
 ])rotect. l\Ir. Metcalfe was informed that the Govern¬ 
 ment had come to the conclusion that the approxima¬ 
 tion of the Rajah of Lahore’s military dominion to the 
 (’ompany’s possessions, and the introduction of his power 
 into Hindostan, wordd expose to imminent hazard the 
 tranquillity and security of the British possessions. 
 Upon principles purely defensive, the Government con¬ 
 sidered it incumbent upon them ‘ to oppose the extension 
 on the Indian side of the Sutlege of an ambitious and 
 military power, which would be substituted upon our 
 frontier for a confederacy of friendly chiefs rendered 
 grateful by our protection and interested in our cause.’ 
 He was desired to declare, and enforce, if necessary, the 
 resolution of the Government to confine the dominions 
 of Lahore within their ancient limits, and to inform the 
 Rajah that it was the design of the Indian Government 
 to establish a military post near the frontier of the 
 Punjaub, not only for the security of the independent 
 Sikhs, but, as our advanced post, to be connected mth 
 future defensive arrangements against the approach of 
 an enemy from the quarter of Persia. 
 
 The sacrifices demanded of Runjeet were not to be 
 wholly without compensation. It had long been his 
 desire to form a treaty of general amity with the 
 (lovernment of Calcutta, by which the territories of 
 each Power should be respected by the other. ‘ Although 
 
156 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 he mistrusted the sincerity of verbal professions of 
 amity, he believed that implicit confidence might be 
 reposed on the validity of our ■written engagements.’ 
 Lord IVIinto was not of those, who, according to the 
 Eastern proverb, show nothing of the lion but his claws ; 
 INIr. Metcalfe was therefore instructed to conclude the 
 desired treaty with the Kajah whenever the previously 
 stated conditions were accepted. 
 
 When the final decision of the Council of Calcutta 
 reached their Envoy, he was at Umritsur, where the Eaj ah 
 had betaken himself to rest and recreation after the 
 fatigues of war. Eevellings and feastings had succeeded 
 to military conflicts, and it became as difficult to And 
 the Eajah sober as it had been to overtake him at all. 
 When at last the communication of the Glovernment 
 was conveyed to him, the immediate effect upon him 
 was that of ‘ a shock which sobered him at once.’ 
 Next day he took advantage of a disturbance between 
 the Hindoos and Mussulmans of his holy city to remove 
 to Lahore; but there too Metcalfe followed him, and 
 at last the Eajah was brought to bay. The time for 
 defiance as well as for conciliation was past. He must 
 submit to retire to his ancient limits, to restore his 
 late conquests, and to learn that a British force was 
 advancing to see that the work was done. With praise¬ 
 worthy self-restraint Eunjeet received the decree in 
 silence ; then, turning on his heel, left the room. A few 
 minntes more, and the astonished Envoy, looking from 
 the window, saw him madly galloping his favourite horse 
 round and round the courts of the palace. Metcalfe 
 
^T. 58] 
 
 RUNJEET SINGH. 
 
 157 
 
 described the action as one of ‘ surpassing levity: ’ it was 
 more probably the instinct of a proud and fierce nature 
 aiming at self-mastery. But the struggle was not over ; 
 many weary months were still to pass, and many were 
 the shiftings of purpose and of place, before, on April 25, 
 1809, the treaty was signed which advanced the frontier 
 of British India from the Jumna to the Sutlege. 
 
 By it the contracting parties bound themselves to 
 respect each other’s territories, and the treaty was never 
 infringed to the day of the Rajah’s death. 
 
 This was perhaps the most decisive moment of 
 Kunjeet’s career. The last great event of his life was 
 the splendid reception given by him to the Governor 
 General, Lord Auckland, when he, with his sisters, 
 visited Lahore in 1838. They, the nephew and nieces 
 of Lord Minto, were in the Upper Provinces when the 
 old man died; and our last sight of the great Sikh is in 
 Miss Kden’s letters from ‘ Up the Country.’ 
 
 Thirty years had brought about many changes. 
 The tide of Runjeet’s conquests, forcibly arrested in the 
 east, had rolled back over the territories of many a 
 chief whose palaces had been made desolate, whose holy 
 places waste. Nor had those of the great King of Cabul 
 been spared; from Peshawnr to JMooltau all was the 
 Sikh’s. With the increase of dominion and dignity had 
 increased the Oriental magnificence of his surroundings. 
 Gold and gems wei’e spread with lavish hands on all 
 things pertaining to him—from the sacred temple of 
 his holy city to the trappings of his steeds. But if 
 there was less of martial simplicity than in his early 
 
158 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 habits and surroundings, there was far more of warlike 
 pomp in the display in which his eye delighted; the 
 English visitors were not left in doubt that the Sikhs 
 and their Ruler were more even than of yore what 
 their great teacher had proposed to make them—Lions 
 of the Punjanb—‘ Lions of Giod like the lion-like men 
 of Moab.’ * But thirty years before, the facts would 
 not have been recorded by an English lady after a 
 morning spent in quietly sketching under the limes and 
 the oranges of the Shalimar gardens. 
 
 Metcalfe’s relations with Lord Minto during his 
 mission to Lahore passed rapidly into those of mutual 
 regard. On his return to the seat of Grovernment he 
 was added to the establishment as deputy to Mr. 
 Edmonstone—‘for’wrote Lord Minto to his wife, ‘ I 
 have lately conceived a very high opinion of his talents 
 and character, and particularly of his cool judgment 
 and conciliatory disposition.’ And a little later on, 
 when Metcalfe had fallen into habits of intimacy in the 
 society of Grovernment House he wote again—‘he 
 really is the ugliest and most agreeable clever person— 
 except Lady GHenbervie—in Europe or Asia.’ 
 
 Lord Minto’s warm regard for him was shown in 
 many a kindly letter, some of which are preserved in 
 his biography; while the estimation in which he held 
 the young diplomatist was evidenced by the high 
 appointments in which he placed him; and we know 
 from private sources that these cordial feelings were 
 returned with an almost filial veneration. 
 
 ’ 2 Samuel, xxiii. 20 
 
JEt. 58] 
 
 DEFENCE OF INDIA.—CABUL. 
 
 159 
 
 CHAPTEK Vir. 
 
 Of the three great missions sent ont from Britisli 
 India in the course of 1808, the last—to the King of 
 Cabnl—was by no means the least interesting to the 
 Governor General. Personally unacquainted with Mr. 
 Monntstnart Elphinstone, Lord Minto had formed a 
 very high opinion of his character and attainments. 
 All men agreed that no better choice could have been 
 made for an Envoy to what was still one of the most 
 polished of Asiatic Courts, iMr. Elphinstone being 
 as distinguished for his courteous and sympathetii- 
 bearing as for his wide accpiaintance with Oriental 
 languages and literature. By Lord IMinto’s request he 
 was to correspond freely and fully with the Governor 
 General; unluckily only a few out of a large number of 
 his letters are preserved at Minto. The members of 
 his mission were specially chosen for their fitness to 
 acquire information concerning the nature of countries 
 and populations almost unknown to us. In his delight¬ 
 ful introduction to the ‘ History of Cabul ’ Mr. Elphin¬ 
 stone says : ‘ The countries under the King of Cabul had 
 once extended sixteen degrees in longitude from Sii’hind 
 about 150 miles, from Delhi to Meshed about an equal 
 distance from the Caspian Sea. In breadth they reached 
 
160 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 from the Oxus to the Persian Gulf, a space including 
 thirteen degrees of latitude, or 920 miles.’ This great 
 kingdom had suffered considerable diminution before 
 the days of our embassy to it, but there was a stamp of 
 grandeur about it still. To the King of Cabul not only 
 had the Mahommedan Sovereigns of India addressed 
 their complaints, but the Mahratta princes had done 
 the same. Eunjeet Singh, though himself the chief de¬ 
 spoiler of the Douranee power, manifested much jealousy 
 of the British approach to the throne of the great 
 King. To confront this potentate with due dignity the 
 mission had been fitted out with considerable care and 
 splendour. 
 
 The Envoy’s staff, suite, and escort, were unusually 
 numerous ; nothing was neglected to ensure its success, 
 or at all events to give a proper impression of the 
 Power whence it came. 
 
 A very serious obstacle to the success of a scheme of 
 co-operation between British India and the States on 
 her north-western frontier lay in the difficulty of com¬ 
 munication. The length of time required to move from 
 point to point over unsettled districts, imperfectly 
 known to the English, could not be calculated upon 
 beforehand, and each Envoy had to carry on his nego¬ 
 tiations in ignorance of the success of those simul¬ 
 taneously proceeding in countries which were to form 
 part of a combined system. 
 
 The uncertainty of their relations with Persia and 
 Lahore had obliged the Indian Government to give 
 very indefinite instructions to Mr. Elphinstone when, in 
 
^T. 57] 
 
 MISSION TO CABUL. 
 
 161 
 
 the month of October 1808, he set out from Delhi on 
 his mission to the King of Cabul; and the same 
 uncertainty as to the disposition of Kuujeet Singh had 
 led Lord yMinto to advise the adoption of a route by 
 the Cabul mission which, though longer than that 
 through the Punjaub, would avoid the dominions of 
 Kunjeet, and would also give an opportunity of gaining 
 information concerning a part of the country unknown 
 to travellers. 
 
 The line of march adopted took them over part of 
 the desert—at that time untrodden by Europeans — 
 which lies between Delhi and the Indus, and led them 
 by the great town of Bikaneer, where, before the vast 
 circumference of the encircling walls, five besieging 
 armies lay encamped. As the English caught sight of 
 the high battlements and forts, the cupolas, domes, 
 and spires, they were nigh believing that the delusions 
 of the desert accompanied them still, and that the 
 proud city, as big as Delhi, was no less the baseless 
 fabric of a vision than the lovely lakes of seemingly 
 clear and transparent water, reflecting in their jmre 
 depths every passing object, every tint of colour, with 
 which the mirage had adorned the barren scene 
 where no water was. From Bikaneer, where they were 
 well received, though with great astonishment, they 
 passed on through dependencies of the King of Cabul, 
 till they reached Mooltan, five hundred miles from 
 Delhi. 
 
 At this point of their journey they were detained 
 for some time while communications were carried on 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 by letter witb the King of Cabul, then at Candahar. 
 Without his consent, and the protection of a guard 
 from His Majesty, ‘ it would be impossible,’ wrote Mr. 
 Elphinstone, ‘ to travel among the tribes beyond the 
 Indus.’ The answer to Mr. Elphinstone’s application 
 was long in coming, for, as they afterwards learned, 
 the news of the approach of the mission was at first 
 regarded with strong prejudice and distrust; the 
 Afghan nobles disliked the idea of an alliance between 
 the King and the British power, as likely to strengthen 
 him to their detriment; and the King himself thought 
 it ‘very natural that the British should seek to profit by 
 the internal dissensions of a neighbouring kingdom, 
 and endeavour to annex it to their empire.’ Curiosity 
 is said to have had much to do with the final decision 
 to receive the mission at Peshawur ; but before it was 
 made known to Mr. Elphinstone, he wrote a long 
 letter to the Grovernor Greneral, stating fully the reasons 
 which appeared to him to necessitate an enlargement 
 of his powers and authority to negotiate with the Afghan 
 Court. 
 
 The dissensions, of which the King of Cabul 
 had made mention, were many and serious. With 
 Persia, with Lahore, with Scinde, with Cashmere, the 
 King’s relations were troubled ; within his gates his 
 rebellious brothers had raised the standard of a civil 
 war. In the event of the British proposals being found 
 acceptable to him, there could be little doubt that he 
 would meet them with conditions which would secure 
 assistance from the Company against his enemies, and 
 
^T. 57j 
 
 MISSION TO CAEUL. 
 
 1(;3 
 
 that this assistance would be demanded in the shape of 
 money, troops, and ordnance. 
 
 To send an army to Cabul Mr. Elphinstone thought 
 would be impolitic, ‘ because it would be to meet the 
 French on equal terms, and to waive the advantage of the 
 strong frontier to the westward presented by the rivers 
 of the Punjaub, the Indus, and the desert. In the 
 present state of the intermediate country, I fear it will 
 be found impossible to defend Cabul; it is, however, 
 very much to be wished that it were practicable for us 
 to contribute more directly to prevent that country 
 falling into the hands of the French; for if they were 
 once in possession of it, their invasion of our territories 
 would no longer be a great and desperate enterprise, 
 but an attempt which they might make without risk 
 when they pleased, and repeat whenever the state of 
 our affairs gave a prospect of success.' It is also very 
 desirable that we should be able to hold out some 
 advantage to the King of Cabul more attractive than 
 that of mere safety from the French. 
 
 ‘ If that specious people send an emissary to the 
 King of Cabul, he will probably assume His Majesty’s 
 entire safety from the f'rench, offer protection against 
 the designs of the English, and promise in the course 
 of the operations against India to reduce this Soubah, 
 Phawul Khan’s country, and Scinde, entirely under the 
 King’s authority; perhaps he may also promise tlie 
 
 ' We are informed that papers exist to prove tiiat Bonaparte 
 iiad fixed on the Gomnl Pass, leading from Glniznee to Dera Ismael 
 Khan, as the line of his advance from Afghanistan into India. 
 
164 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 Punjaub, Cutch, Griizerat, or some other country on 
 this side of the Indus; or he may engage to procure a 
 desirable settlement of the disputes about the Wharasan, 
 getting over all difficulties by promised indemnities in 
 India. 
 
 ‘ Amidst all these dazzling prospects I fear an Eastern 
 monarch might lose sight of the danger to which he 
 exposes his crown by associating with such a nation of 
 military adventurers, and would not give a very favour¬ 
 able hearing to a person who could only offer to destroy 
 the illusion. 
 
 ‘ The state of our affairs may hereafter admit of 
 our holding out many attractions to the King of Cabul, 
 but at present we can only display that of money. It 
 might be expedient to instruct me how far to offer pe¬ 
 cuniary aid, in case I found it necessary to counteract 
 French promises, and what assistance we could give in 
 ordnance, stores, and officers. It is desirable that I 
 should be furnished with those materials to treat on as 
 soon as possible, as some open negotiation will probably 
 be required as a pretence for my remaining at Cabul. 
 The Asiatics know nothing of the character of a resident 
 minister, and so much are the Afghans impressed with 
 the idea of an ambassador being always charged with 
 some important communication, that their etiquette 
 allows him only one audience to deliver his message, 
 receive a reply, and take his leave. I have to beg your 
 Lordship’s forgiveness for obtruding the above questions 
 on you, but great importance appears to me to attach 
 to their early decision. I am afraid it will appear to 
 
JEt. 57] 
 
 MISSION TO CABUL. 
 
 165 
 
 your Lordship that my progress towards Cahul has 
 hitherto been very slow ; but the delays which have 
 occurred have been unavoidable, and they are of the 
 less consequence, as 1 must remain at this place till I 
 receive an answer to my letter to the King. It would 
 be quite impossible to travel among the tribes beyond 
 the Indus without a guard froin Ilis IMajesty. I expect 
 to receive an answer in course of a week, and if he con¬ 
 tinues at Candahar, where the last accounts left him, 
 I shall be able to join him in a month from the time I 
 leave INIooltan. Keport states his intention to be to 
 move to Peshore, in which case I should probably 
 meet him within a fortnight after I leave this place.’ ‘ 
 Before this letter was received, the policy at Cal¬ 
 cutta had undergone considerable modifications, and 
 the reply informed INlr. Elphinstone that no thought of 
 offensive operations against Persia was any longer en¬ 
 tertained. He was, however, authorised to accede to 
 engagements of a purely defensive character against 
 her in the event of her aggression against the State of 
 Cabul; in this case military stores, arms, and ordnance 
 would be furnished to the King on condition of his 
 readiness to oppose the advance of a French army on 
 India. ‘ It would probably,’ said the despatch, ‘ be 
 found impracticable to obtain the King’s cordial 
 attachment to our views and interests without some 
 sacrifice to his.’ These instructions were stated ‘with 
 a view to point out rather what is admissible than what 
 
 ' Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone to Lord Minto, Mooltan, Deccniher 
 14 , 1808 . 
 
1G6 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1808 
 
 is desirable in the present situation of affairs, and under 
 any circumstances the Government would approve of 
 the Envoy endeavouring to limit the aid to be eventually 
 afforded to the object of defensive engagements as 
 much as possible, and consenting to afford assistance 
 in ai'ms, ordnance, and military stores rather than in 
 troops.’ ’ 
 
 The instructions from which the above extract is 
 made, were not written when Mr. Elphinstone entei'ed 
 Peshawur, where the King had determined to receive 
 him. 
 
 On leaving Mooltan the mission proceeded up the 
 Indus, with much discourse of Alexander, whose ex¬ 
 ploits appear to have been singularly mixed up in the 
 traditions of the people with those of Solomon and 
 of Lord Lake. After crossing the great river they 
 followed pretty closely the line of the late frontier at 
 the foot of the Suleiman mountains. Encamping at 
 the mouth of the Kurrum, where English troops now 
 hold the ascending valley, they rested later on by the 
 springs and the sycamores of Kohat,—a name grown 
 familiar to us as a place of arms, of convoys, and of 
 
 ' This passage of the despatch to Mr. Elphinstoneis an adaptation 
 of the suggestions made by himself in a pajrer addressed to Lord 
 Minto some time before. ‘ The practicability of assisting the 
 King with troops would be very doubtful. But a present of guns, 
 stores, &c., and some instruction in the use of artillery might have 
 the best effect. Such an arrrangement would strengthen the King 
 of Cabul, and would give him confidence in us and remove any sus¬ 
 picions he may be persuaded to harbour that we have designs on his 
 country, and would show him that we take a lively interest in his 
 welfare.’ 
 
57] 
 
 MISSION TO CABUL. 
 
 167 
 
 staff-officers, but to the Elphinstone mission suggest¬ 
 ing gentler thoughts, for there their hearts were glad¬ 
 dened by an unexpected meeting with wanderers like 
 themselves from English lanes and fields. The songs 
 of thrushes and blackbirds were in the air; wild 
 raspberry and blackberry bushes, ‘ all the better for 
 being out of leaf, were putting forth new buds; ’ 
 clover and chickweed, and golden disks of dandelions, 
 peered up among the ‘ soft fresh verdure ’ of the early 
 year; and, far more grateful to their eyes than the 
 monotonous splendour of Indian vegetation, was last 
 year’s brown leaf, and the willow’s soft and scented 
 buds. 
 
 At Kohat to-day, the humble English flowers may 
 grow by English graves, in the shadow of the church 
 where are preserved the names of a long list of officers 
 who have fallen since the frontier force was started 
 about thirty years ago — ‘names scarcely heard of in 
 England, but acknowledged out here to be those of 
 first-rate leaders, first-rate soldiers, who have fallen 
 like heroes, one after the other, in these frontier fights. 
 The Englishmen we have on this frontier are a race to 
 be proud of.’ ‘ 
 
 When the mission reached the fine old city of 
 
 ' Lord Melgund to the Editor. Kohat, February 1879. 
 
 The frontier force is under the Government of the Punjaub, and 
 has held, at a fearful cost of life, a frontier which it is hoped will 
 now be exchanged for a better. This force is composed of native 
 troops under a handful of British officers, and its duty has been to 
 keep at bay all the wild tribes of the mountains, over a line ex¬ 
 tending many hundred miles. 
 
168 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 Peshawur, croAviied with its palace, shady Avith gardens 
 and oA^erflowing AAnth population, the surrounding plain 
 Avore the first greenery of spring; and, in the glory of 
 blossoming orchards and young leaves, Asia wore to 
 them the hues of England. A remark to that effect 
 having been repeated to the King, he courteously replied 
 that Avhere there Avas such affinity betAveen countries 
 there should be friendship betAveen their peoples. It 
 was no doubt politic to overlook some other features in 
 the scene which suggested widely different thoughts; 
 for, as unlike anything English as the barren hills that 
 girded the plain, Avas a sight that gave the Envoy ‘ a 
 strange notion of the system of manners in CabuL’ 
 
 Perched like birds of prey upon the rugged rocks 
 sat ‘ a number of armed banditti, the fierce clan of 
 the Khyberees,’ appraising the worth and the strength 
 of the approaching mission. Nor could it proceed in 
 safety till terms had been made with the leaders of 
 the hand by the Afghan nobleman deputed to conduct 
 the strangers into the town, Avho, in his rich dress and 
 golden armour, ventured, almost unattended, into the 
 midst of their matchlocks. 
 
 At this very time the Punjaub was quite safe for 
 travellers. ‘ The Maharajah,’ says one of Lord 
 ^linto’s correspondents, ‘ has instituted a good police, 
 and has made severe examples of the districts in which 
 capital crimes and robberies have been committed, by 
 putting to death all the iuhahitants of the neighbour¬ 
 ing toAvns and villages.’ 
 
 The reception of the embassy by the king took 
 
JEt. 58 ] 
 
 MISSION TO CABUL. 
 
 169 
 
 place on March 5. It is described as magnificent. 
 After passing through courts filled with guards, and 
 halls with courtiers, over rich carpets and under silken 
 draperies, they reached the presence of the King, Shah 
 Soojah, a handsome man of about thirty years of age, 
 who received them seated on a throne covered with 
 cloth of gold and pearls, himself a blaze of emeralds 
 and diamonds, the fiimous Kohinoor being conspicuous 
 above all. 
 
 On subsequent occasions the Envoy was admitted 
 to more private interviews with the King, ‘when it 
 would scarcely be believed how much he had the man¬ 
 ners of a gentleman, and how well he preserved his 
 dignity, while he seemed only anxious to please.’ The 
 Afghan nobility struck Mr. Elphinstone as superior in 
 refinement and tastes to the great men of India—their 
 jnanners were more simple and their knowledge greater. 
 It soon appeared that they were shrewd enough to 
 perceive that dangers, against which the British sought 
 their co-operation, must be of considerable magnitude, 
 and that an advantageous bargain might therefore, not 
 inq)robably, be struck between themselves and the 
 C'ompany. They remarked that, before making common 
 cause with either of the European powers, they ought 
 to hear what Erance as well as England had to say. 
 
 Some among them were by no means ill-informed 
 as to the object of the mission, and even as to the 
 events of recent history. IMr. Elphinstone having 
 stated in conversation with the Khans that, since 1745. 
 there had been no rebellion against the Government of 
 
iro 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 England, one of those gentlemen smilingly replied 
 that Mr. Elphinstone had forgotten the American 
 War; and then ‘ asked seriously why the insurance of 
 ships should be raised so high by the French privateers 
 when we had so manifest a superiority at sea.’ * 
 
 A despatch ^ from Mr. Elphinstone, written some 
 weeks after his arrival at Peshawur, gave every reason 
 to hope that a treaty of alliance against the common 
 enemy would be executed; but it was rapidly followed 
 by a second containing far less favourable intelligence. 
 In consequence of a renewal of insurrectionary move¬ 
 ments, the King earnestly solicited pecuniary aid from 
 the Company. The sum said to be required by him 
 to ensure his success was not less than fifteen 
 lacs of rupees. The Envoy, however, intimated that a 
 much smaller sum would be of the most essential con¬ 
 sequence to the King’s affairs, and that, if he were at 
 that moment authorised to offer two lacs of rupees, he 
 had no doubt that, for the mere purpose of the alliance, 
 he could obtain all the security that promises and treaties 
 could give for the King’s co-operation. 
 
 ‘ The condition of the King’s affairs as represented 
 in these despatches, appeared pregnant with danger, 
 
 ‘ The knowledge possessed by the Afghan nobleman sinks into 
 insignificance before that of a Caffre chief as related to me by a cor¬ 
 respondent. ‘ A friend of mine who fought in one of the early Caffre 
 campaigns soon after 1840, I think, told me that, when after some 
 internecine struggles they came to parley with their native foe, 
 they were astonished to be addressed by the half-naked chief with 
 the remark that he respected the British infantry, but that lie had 
 tieen looking into Napier’s Peninsula/)' Ika?', and could not say that 
 either then or now he thought so much of the British cavalry.’ 
 
 Secret and separate general letter, April 20, 1809. 
 
iEr. 58] 
 
 MISSION TO CABUL, 
 
 171 
 
 and it seemed probable that before onr instructions 
 would reach the Envoy in reply, the crisis would be 
 j)assed, and the King’s dominion be either confirmed 
 or subverted. We judged it proper, however, to decide, 
 and communicate immediately our decision, on the 
 case submitted to our consideration, and we observed 
 that, under present circumstances, no advantages could 
 be obtained from the state of Cabul, so important, solid, 
 and permanent as would warrant a pecuniary sacrifice 
 so large as that which our Envoy had represented that 
 the King would require to ensure success; that the 
 suspension of the projects of h^rance, and the alienation 
 from her alliance of the Persian Court, had removed 
 the immediate importance of an alliance between the 
 Indian Government and Cabul; but that, if the Envoy 
 had reason to believe that a sum of money not exceed¬ 
 ing three lacs of rupees would produce a disposition 
 (ui the part of the King of Cabul to co-operate cordi¬ 
 ally at a future season in repelling a contemplated in¬ 
 vasion—in other words, if morally assured of correspond¬ 
 ing benefit to the British interests—the Envoy was 
 authorised to advance that sum. 
 
 ‘ We are aware, and have frequently advanced the 
 principle as a rule of action in the prosecution of the 
 late measures for the formation of defensive alliances 
 against a European invasion, that a sense of common 
 interest and common danger must form the basis of 
 such alliances. At the same time, a rigid exclusion 
 on our part of all acts of concession, and of all assist¬ 
 ance to the views of the other party, though not directly 
 
172 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 tending to the main purposes of the alliance, is adverse 
 to the successful cultivation of mutual harmony and 
 good-will. Such acts of concession or assistance may 
 influence a disposition balancing between the advan¬ 
 tages and the hazard of accepting or rejecting the pro¬ 
 posed connection; and a seasonable aid may afford to 
 the other party that latitude of choice which is alone 
 compatible with the power of action, by enabling it to 
 maintain its independence and preserve the means of 
 resistance against a foreign force, which, however dan¬ 
 gerous as an ally, a conscious sense of weakness and 
 the dictates of a temporising policy might compel it to 
 conciliate.’ 
 
 In the instructions forwarded to Mr. Elphinstone 
 himself, of which the substance is embodied in the 
 above despatch, it is stated that, ‘ although there is not 
 now the same immediate exigency for forming a friendly 
 connection with the Court of Cabul, yet that measure 
 is of importance, and contains an object of sound policy, 
 in the event, however remote, of either the French or 
 any other European Power endeavouring to approach 
 India by that route.’ 
 
 Almost on the same day when these paragraphs 
 were being written at Calcutta, Mr. Eljihinstone was 
 addressing the Governor General in a private letter as 
 follows :' 
 
 ‘ A very xmfavourable turn has taken place in the 
 King of Cabul’s affairs. For some time past his pro¬ 
 spects had appeared to be much improved. During 
 ' April 26, 1809. 
 
Mt. 58 ] 
 
 MISSION TO CABUL. 
 
 173 
 
 this period the negotiations continued, and the treaty 
 was signed on the 19th inst. It merely binds your 
 Lordship to assist the King of Cabul with money 
 against a confederacy of French and Persians, and 
 the King of Cabul to resist these Powers while 
 their confederacy lasts, and to exclude all brenchmen 
 from his country for ever. 
 
 ‘ A few days ago intelligence was received of the 
 approach of Shah jMahommed s troops to Cabul, and 
 of the entire failure of Ameer Ool Moolk's attack on 
 Cashmere, and of the loss or defection of the greater 
 part of his army. 
 
 ‘There are many contradictory accounts of this 
 affair, but it seems certain that Ameer Ool Moolk had 
 advanced very far into the passes when his supplies 
 were cut off by one of the Rajahs on the hills on the 
 way to Cashmere, who had afforded a passage to his 
 army, but whom the Minister had afterwards disobliged. 
 The army which had before been discontented for want 
 of pay, being now reduced to much distress, and the 
 most liberal promises being held out to deserters, a 
 considerable number of the troops went over to the 
 enemy. 
 
 ‘ Shah Ool INIoolk is making what preparations he 
 can to oppose his enemies, but he is almost destitute 
 of money ; and though several of his ministers are rich, 
 the habitual covetousness of the Douranees prevents 
 their giving him any assistance. Ameer Ool Moolk, 
 who is said to be possessed of a crore of rupees, has 
 never assisted the King in any of his distresses, and is 
 
174 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 not expected to do so in this extremity. The King’s 
 forces, it is said, will be sent out immediately, and I 
 suppose he will march as soon as Ameer Ool Moolk 
 arrives on the way to Cabul. 
 
 ‘ He is reported to have sent off some of his jewels 
 to a fort of Akran Khan’s among the Eusafzyes. The 
 Khybers, in whose hills he formerly took refuge, are now 
 divided, and part of them have refused him an asylum 
 in case he is defeated. The tribes in this neighbour¬ 
 hood are all arming and assembling, to be ready to, act 
 as the times may require: some of them are connected 
 with Mahommed, but the greater part of them are in¬ 
 different to both parties. This city and the country 
 round it continue in perfect tranquillity. 
 
 ‘ As the battle between the two Kings will probably 
 be fought at no great distance from this, I shall, for 
 the reasons I have formerly stated, desire to have my 
 audience of leave, which it was always understood I 
 should have when the King marched towards Cabul. 
 I shall then repair to Attock, and wait the event of 
 the struggle. If Mahommed is victorious, I shall wait 
 the orders of Government, unless I find a speedy ac¬ 
 knowledgment of the new King necessary. I do not 
 conceive that it will be difficult to prevail on Shah 
 Mahommed to agree to the same terms as those settled 
 with Shah Soojah, but it appears to me that to do so 
 will require an extra expense of about three lacs of 
 rupees. For this reason in particular I am anxious to 
 receive the orders of Government before I enter on any 
 negotiation with him.’ 
 
^T. 58] 
 
 MISSION TO CABUL. 
 
 175 
 
 On June 14 the mission retired from Peshawur, 
 leaving its cool and shady gardens and sparkling 
 fountains with regret. On June 17 the treaty men¬ 
 tioned in Mr. Elphinstone’s letter was signed at Cal¬ 
 cutta. Before the month had expired Shah Soojah 
 had been completely defeated and had fled from his 
 dominions. 
 
 With his successor the Envoy was not authorised to 
 treat. The changed aspect of affairs in Europe, and 
 the friendly relations established by Mr. Metcalfe’s 
 diplomacy with Runjeet Singh, had brought the Indian 
 (lovernment to the determination not to risk consider¬ 
 able expenditure upon uncertain and unprofitable 
 alliances. 
 
 The most important result of the policy adopted by 
 the Indian Government towards the frontier States 
 during Lord Minto’s administration, was the treaty 
 with Runjeet Singh, which for thirty years maintained 
 peace between the British power and the most energetic 
 and powerful of native rulers. 
 
 The treaty with Persia, in so far as it pledged Great 
 Britain to subsidise Persia in the event of her being 
 engaged in ‘ an unprovoked war with any European 
 State,’ was, in Lord Minto’s opinion, calculated to pro¬ 
 duce grave complications in the future. 
 
 The treaty with Clabul was rendered nugatory by 
 the fall from power of one of the contracting parties 
 who signed it.* 
 
 ' An original copy of the treaty drawn up by Mr. Mountstuart 
 Elphinstone and sigaied at Calcutta in 1809, is still inexistence, and 
 
176 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 It may nevertheless remain an open question 
 whether the friendly relations established between 
 the Company’s Government and Afghanistan might 
 not have been cultivated with better success if the 
 far-sighted policy iuaugm’ated by Lord Minto had 
 been pursued and developed, and due importance 
 attached to the movements of European States in 
 that quarter: in such a course there might have been 
 more of statesmanship and less of saltpetre. 
 
 One undeniable and important result of the scheme 
 for the defence of India was the greater knowledge 
 obtained by the missions of the countries and popula¬ 
 tions to which they were sent, and Mr. Elphinstone’s 
 ‘ History of Cabul,’ Colonel Malcolm’s ‘ Persian History ’ 
 and ‘ Sketches of Persia,’ and Sir Henry Pottinger’s work 
 on Beloochistan were conceived during the embassies 
 sent out by Lord Minto. The first two works were 
 compiled and published at the expense of, or with the 
 assistance of ample and liberal aid from, the Indian 
 Government, at the instigation of the Governor 
 General. 
 
 is in the possession of Mir Hasliam Khan, native officer in the 12th 
 Bengal Cavalry, and grandson of the Vizier of Shah Soojah. The 
 fact became accidentally known to Lord Melgund, the great-grand¬ 
 son of Lord Minto, while with the column of General Eoberts in the 
 Kurrum vallej’ in the spring of 1879. He did not see the treaty, 
 but he was informed that the original signature of Lord Minto was 
 attached to it. MirHasham Khan is described as a very smart officer 
 in one of our best cavalry regiments. This rapprochement between the 
 descendant of the Governor General and of the Afghan statesman, 
 was related in a letter from India while the foregoing pages were 
 being written. 
 
58 ] 
 
 DEFENSIVE ALLIANCES. 
 
 177 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The State of Scinde had come within the scope of the 
 defensive arrangements pi'oposed i)y the British Government, 
 but the indiscretion of theii' agent, Captain Seton, led to the 
 annulling of the treaty concluded by him with the Ameer 
 of Scinde. 
 
 It was found that Persian agents were negotiating with 
 the Government of Scinde at the same time as the Envoy of 
 the Indian Government; that they had authority to act for 
 both France and Persia, and that the bait held out to the 
 Govei'nment of Scinde was military aid to throw off the yoke 
 of the King of Cabul, to whom they owed a nominal allegi¬ 
 ance, and the possession of the Afghan fortress of Candahar. 
 ‘The cliief ruler of Scinde informed Captain Seton distinctly 
 that, despairing of the good-will of the British Government, 
 he had intended to close with the offers of the French and 
 Persians, but preferred the British alliance on the same 
 terms.’ These terms, agreed to by Captain Seton, were not 
 consistent with the endeavours making to secui’e the friend¬ 
 ship of the King of Cabul; hence the Indian Government 
 repudiated the engagements made by Captain Seton, and 
 sent another Envoy (Mr. II. Smith) to Scinde, to renew 
 the negotiations with that Government, on the footing 
 on which alone Captain Seton had been empowered to 
 treat—namely, the admission, as a preliminary step to all 
 further transactions, of a resident agent of the British 
 Government (the commercial resident having been expelled 
 in 1802). 
 
 ‘ Tins measure is necessarily preliminary to the acccm- 
 N 
 
178 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 plishment of our ultimate purpose, that of withholding or 
 detaching the Government of Seinde from connections with 
 our enemies, as wmll as the more proximate purpose of 
 securing an authentic channel of information and intelli¬ 
 gence on points of the utmost importance to our interests.’ 
 ‘ No specific engagement coiild be entered into with that 
 Government without the establishment of direct intercourse 
 on a permanent footing,’ ‘ the attainment of which will 
 afibrd the means of watching its proceedings and of obtain¬ 
 ing authentic intelligence concerning the designs of our 
 enemies.’ * 
 
 The conditions pi'oposed by the British Government 
 were ultimately accepted as the basis of a treaty of general 
 amity between the Company’s Government and that of the 
 Ameer. 
 
 ' Secret and separate general letter. 
 
AZt. 58J 
 
 NiiWS FKOM EUKOPE. 
 
 179 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The news from Europe which exercised so decisive an 
 influence over the course of events in India was that 
 of the determined resistance of Spain to the French 
 invasion, and the first successes of the British army in 
 Portugal under Sir Arthur Wellesley. 
 
 The Battle of Vimiero ' was hailed as the ‘ trumj)et 
 of a prophecy.’ So unbroken had been the tide of 
 Napoleon’s prosperity that the defeat of one of his 
 lieutenants, Junot, by Sir Arthur Wellesley, was magical 
 in its effect on the temper of the nation. ‘ All the 
 Whigs, as well as Tories, down to democrats and 
 Methodists, are eager to send English troops and money 
 to the assistance of that oppressed nation. . . . Tlie 
 Princess of Wales gave a dinner to the Spanish patriots. 
 It was a mixed party, but none the worse for that, as 
 all parties there were united in the grand cause.’ ^ 
 
 ' Auga^st 1808. 
 
 ^ Lady Crewe to Lord Minto, December 1808. She goes on d 
 propos of the Princess's dinner-party : ‘ You would have smiled if 
 you had heard the Pindaric jokes which flew across the table from 
 our Royal hostess to Mr. Windham across Mr. Frere, and then across 
 other people to Sir William Scott, for she spared no one of the party. 
 There is nothing more propitious to mental coquetry than a dis¬ 
 union among statesmen.’ 
 
180 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 The rejoicing was not less in India. ‘ Great news 
 is come to town,’ wrote Lord Minto on February 2, 
 1809. ‘ A ship has just arrived from England which 
 
 she left on September 17. She has brought us the 
 triumphs of Sir A. Wellesley in Portugal. What a 
 sunshine has broken upon the Avorld! I feel now as 
 if Gilbert the Sixth * might have a chance to cut the 
 trees which you are planting, which, let me tell you, is 
 a comfortable reflection.’ The tidings of Wellesley’s 
 victoi'y swept over India to Metcalfe’s little camp on 
 the distant Sutlege, and were sounded again from 
 every gun, great and small, as they poured forth a 
 Koyal salute. On learning its cause, Kunjeet desired 
 his guns to take up the tale, and a second salute from 
 the Sikh Latteries proclaimed the participation of the 
 Eajah in the British rejoicing—an act of courtesy which 
 was much appreciated at the time. 
 
 ‘ The news continues good from Spain,’ wrote Lord 
 INlinto, ‘ yet I hope the rest of the world will not let this 
 occasion slip once more; for, if they give him leisure, 
 the monster will collect his rage, and it may go hard 
 with the beautiful Spanish cause yet. Oh ! that the 
 
 In his reply to this letter, Lord Minto says of the Princess : ‘She 
 has been badly treated, for the stones cast at her do not come from 
 hands entitled to throw them. One bad thing, however, she is guilty 
 of—ingratitude to Windham. I say nothing of myself, though she 
 entertained me the day I took leave of her not only with the wish 
 that Windham might be turned out of Norfolk with some great 
 personal disgrace, but with the hope that Lord Melville would dis¬ 
 turb me in India. However, I continue to lament her discomforts and 
 to wish for her welfare.’ 
 
 * His infant grandson. 
 
JEt. 68] CONDITION OF FEELING IN ENGLAND. 181 
 
 fable of the bundle of sticks bad ever been translated 
 into any of the modern languages, for want of wbicb, 
 alas! it has become sad sober history instead of fable.' 
 The first fleet that arrived in India after these lines 
 were written told that the pride and rejoicing called 
 forth by the brilliant campaign of Talavera had been 
 severely checked by the retreat of our armies from 
 Spain, and the Convention of Cintra. ‘ I grieve,’ wrote 
 Mr. Windham, ‘over the circumstances that prevented 
 the complete defeat of Junot’s army, which I believe 
 would have happened if Wellesley had been left to 
 himself; though no doubt the insolence of the Minis¬ 
 ters, founded on merits not their own, would not less 
 have excited in one’s mind great impatience.’ 
 
 ‘ It has been a disastrous month,’ wrote Lady 
 Malmesbury in February 1809 ; ‘ but after all the French 
 have had a practical lesson as to our fighting, and the 
 world has seen they are not invincible.’ Lord Minto’s 
 correspondents in general betook themselves to the usual 
 consolation of Englishmen in disaster, and abused the 
 leaders of parties all round. 
 
 ‘ There is not a statesman endowed with superior 
 talents. The deaths of Pitt and Fox have produced the 
 same effect on the public as that of Garrick did on the 
 stage. Stars will not do when we are used to the light 
 of the sun.’ 
 
 ‘The Hollands are in Spain,’wrote Lady Crewe; 
 ‘ but Miss Fox wrote to me some months ago that her 
 brother was very angry with his Spanish friends for 
 their absurdity in supposing that they shall be able to 
 
182 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 restore their present King, and that they ought to feel 
 gratitude to Bonaparte for having rid them of so weak 
 a prince. “ Is it possible,” she said, “ that we are to 
 light in so bad a cause ? ” When I read this, I could 
 not help thinking that we should always have something 
 to dread of the republican hobby-horse in the part of 
 opposition ! I am sorry to say that I see this tendency 
 prevail much more since the last defeats than it did 
 before. Mr. Whitbrea,d, however, met with no encour¬ 
 agement at the time he published a pamphlet to advise 
 peace with Bonajaarte in the summer, and Heaven 
 grant that IMr. Canning may have influence enough over 
 the present Parliament to prevent that experiment for 
 a year.’ 
 
 To these letters Lord Minto replied: ‘ Spain is 
 indeed a lamentable tale. As to the invasion of India, 
 I presume if Europe is entirely subdued, the King of 
 Men may carry his views to the eastward, but I am 
 strongly inclined to believe that they would be limited 
 to disturbing us by inciting some of the Asiatic States 
 to make incursions into Hindostan, supported and 
 directed by partial aid in small bodies of French and 
 perhaps Eussian troops, and good European officers. 
 The difficulties in the way of an advance by a lai'ge 
 European army are scarcely surmountable. However, 
 we should always have ample notice ; for rapidity is 
 practicable in the invasion of Spain or Italy, but is 
 simply impossible in transporting a French army to the 
 Indus, with all its artillery, stores, and apparatus, the 
 whole of which must attend it, for the most indis- 
 
Air. 58] 
 
 MAY IN INDIA. 
 
 183 
 
 pen sable equipment s of a great European force do not 
 exist on this side of Vienna, and can neither be kept 
 up nor, if lost or wasted, can be renewed in Asia, 
 excepting only in our own provinces, where all the 
 r(*sources of war abound, and are to us at hand.’ 
 
 It must have been grateful to him to learn from 
 Lady Minto that his Indian administration had won 
 the warmest approbation of Lord Wellesley. ‘ He highly 
 approves of all you have been doing in your kingdom. 
 We are now enjoying Minto,’ she goes on, ‘ in its greatest 
 beauty. Everything looks fresh and delightful: you 
 know I enjoy this season (May), and this year it affords 
 me double pleasure, for I have learnt to look with com¬ 
 posure from Minto to India, and without the misery 
 which made even green leaves look dusky and the 
 clear streams troubled. I believe you all to be well 
 and happy, and I hear from every quarter, and in every 
 account of India, nothing but praise of you and your 
 government. If Burke could look down and see you 
 at the head of that oppressed people, it would increase 
 even the happiness of heaven.’ 
 
 May in India wore a very diiferent aspect from 
 that with which it smiled on Minto. 
 
 ‘ I do remember a time,’ wrote Lord Minto,' ‘w’hen 
 iNlay was a season of tempered pleasures. Here it 
 brings rains so perpetual and heavy, that if in June 
 greater rains come, I don’t know how we shall get our 
 
 May 15, IBCJ. 
 
184 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 house repaired, which is already leaking at every pore. 
 The country is one sheet of water. Here and there 
 you see a little island about the size of half an acre, 
 which happens to stand a few feet higher than the rest. 
 It is no exaggeration to say that persons now pass in 
 boats across the country which they were ploughing 
 two or three days back; but the crops will be im¬ 
 proved by this operation, for paddy rejoices in water. 
 The native children, I mean the young ones, are all 
 stark naked, and, most of the habitations being on the 
 edge of ponds, are not very nnlike tadpoles; they are 
 uncommonly Lively merry monkeys, and I am not at all 
 annoyed by their black skins. You never saw a country 
 so swarming with population. . . . Business here ap¬ 
 pears to me to breed in the boxes, as Lady Palmerston 
 used to say of keys in a lady’s pocket. However, the 
 business is pleasant now, consisting principally of 
 orders to countermand military operations and prepa¬ 
 rations, and to save Johnny Company’s cash.’ 
 
 The two years 1808 and 1809 were, perhaps, the 
 1 busiest of Lord Minto’s administration. India was 
 supposed to be at peace; but that word must be taken 
 in a relative sense, for in India the public peace was 
 kept by armies. If certain feudal chiefs rejected the 
 authority of their lord paramount, their relations with 
 whom had been recognised by the Government of 
 Bengal, British troops brought them to reason. If an 
 ambitious Rajah cast a covetous glance on his neigh¬ 
 bour’s territory, a British detachment gave him an 
 unmistakable reading of the dictum, ‘ Cursed is he 
 
Mt. 58] 
 
 THE DACOITS. 
 
 185 
 
 who removeth his neighliour’s landmark.’ If tlie free 
 lances of the hills showed too great a fondness for the 
 mango groves and rice fields of the plain, English 
 colonels and their soldiers appeared rapidly on the 
 scene, and the depredators were chased Tip the high 
 hills and expelled from their strongholds on their 
 summits. From such operations as these there was 
 no rest.' 
 
 The internal safety of Bengal, how^ever, remained 
 intact from open enemies, and it was with equal dismay 
 and surprise that it was found necessary, in the course 
 of 1809, to employ the regular forces to extirpate the 
 gangs of banditti or dacoits who had penetrated into 
 the heart of the Presidency, and with whom the native 
 j)()lice were accused of being in league. 
 
 ‘ They have of late come within thirty miles of 
 Karrackpore.'' The crime of gang robbery has at all 
 times, though in different degrees, obtained a footing in 
 Bengal. The prevalence of the offence occasioned by 
 its success and impunity, has been much greater in 
 this civilised and flourishing part of India, than in the 
 wilder territories adjoining, which have not enjoyed so 
 long the advantages of a regular and legal government; 
 and it appears at first sight mortifying to the English 
 administration of these jirovinces, that our ohlest 
 
 ' In 1812-18 several Rajahs and Chiefs, such as the Prince of 
 Rewa and the Rajah of Machery, were punished for high-handed deal¬ 
 ings wilh their neiglibours. In reference to such oj>erations,Malcolm 
 in his History of India remarks : ‘ All these acts of consideration and, 
 vigour kej)t the smaller dependencies of the State in good humour. 
 
 * Lord Minto to Lady Minto. 
 
186 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 possessions should be the worst protected against the 
 evils of lawless violence. 
 
 ‘ It has been said that the prosperity and undis¬ 
 turbed tranquillity of these lower provinces, which have 
 never seen war within their limits during the present 
 generation of their inhabitants, that is to say, for half 
 a century, have afforded two inducements to the despe¬ 
 rate associations which have so constantly harassed 
 them under the name of dacoits. First, the riches of 
 the country have presented the temptation of good 
 plunder. Second, the long security which the country 
 has enjoyed from foreign enemies, and the consequent 
 loss of martial habits and character, have made the 
 people of Bengal so timid and enervated, that no re¬ 
 sistance is to be apprehended in the act, nor punish¬ 
 ment afterwards. There have, however, certainly been 
 other more specific causes for the extraordinary preva¬ 
 lence of the crime at particular times or in particular 
 quarters. Among these has been the nature of our 
 judicial and police establishments. The judge and 
 magistrate is an English gentleman; but all his sub¬ 
 ordinate officers and instruments are necessarily 
 The probity and good intentions of the English magis¬ 
 trate may in general be relied upon ; but his vigilance, 
 personal activity, intelligence, or talents, are not equal 
 in all cases to his integrity. The consequence often is, 
 that the practical and efficient part of the police is 
 cast upon the black subaltern officers, amongst whom 
 it is hardly too much to say, although it sounds like 
 an uncharitable partiality to my own fair complexion, 
 
^T. 58] 
 
 THE DACOITS. 
 
 187 
 
 that there is scarcely an example of fidelity to any 
 trust, and scarcely an exception to universal venality 
 and corruption. The magistrate derives his informa¬ 
 tion of the crimes committed in his zillah from this 
 corrupt source, and trusts for the detection, apprehen¬ 
 sion, and punishment of the criminals to these venal 
 agents. The consequence has in many instances been, 
 as it has been lately ascertained by the most minute 
 and authentic investigations, that the magistrate has 
 remained entirely ignorant of a very large proportion 
 of the offences committed within his jurisdiction, and 
 has congratulated himself on the good order and exact 
 police of a country in which the inhabitants could not 
 sleep securely in their houses, and in which great 
 bodies of armed banditti have been robbing and burn¬ 
 ing the villages, and murdering and torturing the 
 people all round him. The native officers of police 
 have very generally been connected with the gangs, 
 and I may say universally silenced either by bribes or 
 intimidation. Another pecidiarity in India is the 
 total absence of a local gentry to whom the charge of 
 the local police and other local interests may, as in 
 England, be at least in part committed. 8o far from 
 aid in these objects, (xovernment has often to contend 
 with the counteraction of the landed interest. The 
 zemindars, or gentlemen of landed property, have very 
 commonly no other idea of an estate than as a field to 
 plunder in, nor of the influence which property gives, 
 than as a power to extort and pillage amongst the 
 peo])le subject to them. The leaders of the dacoits 
 
188 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 find it their interest to conciliate this class of people, 
 and by a participation in the plunder, or by other in¬ 
 ducements, obtain a secure refuge and protection in 
 their estates. The best security of all, however, en¬ 
 joyed by the dacoits, has been the intimidation of the 
 unhappy people who are the objects of their rapine 
 and cruelty. It is impossible to imagine, without see¬ 
 ing it, the horrid ascendancy they had obtained over 
 the inhabitants at large of the countries which have 
 been the principal scene of their atrocities. They had 
 established a terrorism as perfect as that which was 
 the foundation of the French republican power, and 
 in truth the sirdars, or captains of the band, were 
 esteemed and even called the hakim or ruling power, 
 while the real Government did not possess either 
 authority or influence enough to obtain from the people 
 the smallest aid towards their own protection. If a 
 whole village was destroyed, not a man was found to 
 complain. If a family was half murdered, and half 
 tortured, the tortured survivors could not be prevailed 
 upon to appear against the criminals. Men have been 
 found with their limbs and half the flesh of their 
 bodies consumed by slow fire, who persisted in saying 
 that they had fallen into their own fire, or otherwise 
 denying all knowledge of the event that could tend to 
 the conviction or detection of the offenders. They 
 knew, if they spoke, they would either themselves or 
 the remaining members of their families be dispatched 
 the same evening. By these measures such a vigorous 
 efficient government was erected by the banditti in 
 
^T. 58] 
 
 THE DACOITS. 
 
 189 
 
 these districts, that they could send a single messenger 
 through the villages with regular lists of requisitions 
 from the different houses and families,—some to fur¬ 
 nish grain, some forage, some horses, some two sons to 
 join the gangs, some labourers to carry the plunder, or 
 to bear torches, or to act as scouts; some were to send 
 a wife or daughter to attend the gangs. 
 
 ‘ I was not a little shocked, and could not heljj feel¬ 
 ing some shame, when 1 became fully apprised of the 
 dreadful disorders which afflicted countries under the 
 very eye of Government; and for many months past it 
 has been one of the principal objects to put this mon¬ 
 strous evil down. Partly by a new selection of magis¬ 
 trates, who appeared peculiarly qualified for that species 
 of service, by new regulations and additional penalties, 
 and by the employment of the most active efforts, 
 supported by regular force, to seize the sirdars and 
 make some signal examples, I am happy to say that 
 hitherto the success has even exceeded my expecta¬ 
 tions. In Nuddeah, which was the principal seat of 
 this evil, there has not been a single dacoity during the 
 last months; and it is in that one district that the 
 computed average of persons })ut to death in torture 
 was seventy a month. Nine sirdars have been executed 
 at one spot, and the impression of that example was 
 remarkable. The people had come to think it impos¬ 
 sible that the leader of an established gang should be 
 punished, or at least capitally punishtxi, and they 
 looked on with fidly as much awe as satisfaction on 
 this proof of the supreme power of Government. The 
 
190 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 consequence of these examples, and of the determina¬ 
 tion Grovernment has evinced to subdue these villains, 
 has been the breaking up of the gangs, the flight or 
 seizure of the captains, and a sufficient return of cour¬ 
 age and of confidence in the protection of Government 
 amongst the people to procure both prosecutors and 
 witnesses for the detection and punishment of these 
 and all other crimes. It will require a continuous 
 exertion, however, with such improvements in the 
 general system as events and reflection may suggest, to 
 enable us to triumph finally and permanently over this 
 deep-rooted mischief.’ 
 
 The dacoits unhappily still ply their trade in cer¬ 
 tain parts of India, under much the same circumstances 
 as those in which flourish their congeners, the ban¬ 
 ditti of Europe ; but, unlike them, they follow peaceful 
 occupations by day, and their own peculiar industry 
 by night. Both dacoit and brigand are at the lowest 
 depth of their respective civilisations, the essential 
 distinction between them being that the dacoit begins 
 his campaign by a propitiatory sacrifice, and the brigand 
 ends his with an expiatory offering. 
 
 About the same time, the early part of 1809, 
 troubles suddenly broke out beyond the British fron¬ 
 tier, which brought the Indian Government face to 
 face with the problem how to reconcile the interests of 
 India with the peremptory instructions issued by their 
 chiefs at home on the subject of non-interference with 
 the internal affairs of States so situated. 
 
 One of the consequences which had followed on the 
 
JEt. 58 ] 
 
 A PATHAN INVASION. 
 
 191 
 
 defeat of the great native States of the peninsula, 
 before the British power was far-stretching enough to 
 assume their lost authority, was an increase of audacity 
 on the part of the semi-civilised tribes whose home was 
 in the wild recesses of the Grhauts, or on the table-lands 
 of the Deccan. The Pathans, Pindarics, and others, 
 with more or less countenance from the Mahrattas, 
 became exceedingly dangerous to their weaker neigh¬ 
 bours. 
 
 In the early part of 1809, Ameer Khan,* a Pathau 
 chief, at the head of a numerous army invaded the 
 territories of the Rajah of Berar—who, though not an 
 ally of the British, was in close contiguity with their 
 frontier—and threatened the whole country of Nag- 
 pore. Here was a case in which the instructions of the 
 Court of Directors as to the duty of non-interventioji 
 could only be observed to the detriment of British power. 
 
 ‘ The question was not,’ observed I.ord Minto, 
 
 ' Tliis adventurer made himself hateful throughout India when 
 in the following year he instigated a murder which would have 
 seemed less unnatural in the annals of antiquity than in those of the 
 nineteenth century. The most ancient of the Rajpoot Princes, the 
 Rajah of Oodypore, had a daughter so young and fair that, like a 
 second Helen, she set the world on fire. Rajpootana was distracted 
 by the wars of her suitors, till one fatal day it was suggested to her 
 father by Ameer Khan that peace could only be restored to his dis¬ 
 tracted country by her death. Ameer Khan's power lent weight to 
 his words; the counsel was listened to, and finally accepted. The 
 elder sister of the ill-fated princess was deputed to present her with 
 a poisoned bowl, desiring her to save her country by the sacrifice of 
 her own life. iShe, a young and lovely girl of sixteen, is .said to have 
 accepted the decree in all meekness, and to have drunk off the fatal 
 potion, exclaiming, ‘ This is the marriage to which I was fore¬ 
 doomed.’ 
 
192 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 ‘ 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 our interference; but whether 
 an enterprising and ambitious Mussulman chief, at 
 the head of a numerous army, irresistible by any 
 power except that of the Company, should be per¬ 
 mitted to establish his authority on the ruins of the 
 Rajah’s dominions, over territories contiguous to those 
 of our ally, the Nizam, with whom community of 
 religion, combined with local power and resources, 
 might lead to the formation of projects for the subver¬ 
 sion of the British alliance: of such a question there 
 can be but one solution.’ That solution was the 
 immediate expidsion by the Company’s troops of the 
 invader from Berar, whose Rajah must have been 
 agreeably surprised to find that the assistance of the 
 British, being designed for the preservation of their 
 own interests, was to be gratuitously given. Colonel 
 t'lose, who commanded the troops employed in the 
 operation, not only carried it out successfully, but 
 proceeded to occupy the capital and territory of Ameer 
 Khan, who retired rapidly before the British advance. 
 Its arrest, by order of the Grovernment, at the moment 
 when the annihilation of Ameer Khan’s power, and 
 the dispersion if not destruction of his army, were 
 seemingly within the grasp of the English commander, 
 has been criticised as an error of policy on the part of 
 
JEt. 58] MINUTE BY THE GOVERNOR GENERAL. 193 
 
 Lord Minto’s Groverninent. He himself said of it that 
 ‘ the extent of the political arrangements, as well as of 
 the military operations, to which the prosecution of these 
 views would lead, together with the great increase of 
 expenditure which must ensue,’ had determined him to 
 content himself with the immediate object of arresting 
 the invasion which threatened the integrity of our own 
 dominions. 
 
 In Enndelcund, where the military operations, begun 
 two years before, were not yet completed ; in Mariana, 
 a territory which more lately the Indian Government 
 was forced to annex in the interests of civilisation and 
 hnmanity, ‘ because nobody else woidd have it,’ he 
 had had occasion to experience the truth of a leading 
 principle in the government of semi-civilised popula¬ 
 tions — that where one rule is destroyed, another must 
 be substituted. 
 
 He was not prepared to pursue the defeat of Ameer 
 Khan to the point of assuming new and permanent 
 responsibilities; but in a minute dated December 1, 
 1809, he observed that ‘it has not perhaps been suffi¬ 
 ciently considered that every native State in India is a 
 military despotism ; that war and conquest are avowed 
 as the first and legitimate j)ursuit of every sovereign 
 or cliief, and the sole S(nirce of glory and renown; it is 
 not therefore a mere conjecture deduced from the 
 natural bias of the human mind, and the test of general 
 experience, but a certain conviction founded on avowed 
 principles of action and systematic views, that among 
 the military states and chiefs of India the pursuits of 
 
 o 
 
194 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 ambition can alone be bounded by the inability to 
 prosecute them. It was for the Grovernment of England 
 to decide whether it was expedient to observe a strict 
 neutrality amidst these scenes of disorder and outrage 
 which were passing under our eyes in the north of 
 Hiudostan, or whether we should listen to the calls 
 of suffering humanity, and interfere for the protection 
 of those weak and defenceless States who implore 
 our assistance, to deliver them from the violence 
 and oppression of an ambitious and lawless upstart.’ 
 When these observations were answered, it was found 
 that a considerable change had come over the policy 
 of the Court of Directors. They stated that ‘ they did 
 not conceive that measures of defensive policy could 
 be construed into acts of unnecessary interference in 
 the affairs of foreign States,’ and they expressed them¬ 
 selves ‘ not satisfied with the expediency of abstaining 
 from disabling any Power against whom we have been 
 compelled to take up arms, from renewing its aggres¬ 
 sion’ (September 1811). 
 
 A more complete exoneration of the Wellesley 
 policy, so violently assailed a few years before, coidd 
 hardly be required ; nor a more instructive commentary 
 on Talleyrand’s celebrated reply to one who asked him 
 the meaning of the term ‘ non-intervention ’: ‘ C’est un 
 mot politique et metaphysique qui vent dire a peu pres 
 la meme chose qu’ intervention.’ 
 
 Lord Minto was in Java when this despatch was 
 addressed to him : after his return to Tndia questions 
 of a more pressing nature occupied his attention, but 
 
JEt. 68] EXPEDITION TO THE PEKSIAN GOLF. 
 
 195 
 
 almost his last letter to the Secret Committee related 
 to the increasing importance of the Pindarics. 
 
 The last and not least important measure of this 
 year (1809) consisted in a naval expedition against a 
 formidable horde of pirates on the Persian Gxdf. 
 Their settlements extended for a stretch of 400 miles 
 along the coast, whence these sea brigands scoured 
 the Indian seas, their small fleets carrying off the 
 inhabitants of the villages of the shore, destroying 
 the coasting trade, and capturing, not only small 
 vessels, but any stray merchantmen that came in 
 their way. One such capture, accompanied with 
 circumstances of great barbarity, was an exploit 
 which drew upon them the signal vengeance of the 
 Indian Government. A formidable expedition con¬ 
 sisting of two frigates, six armed vessels, 900 Euro¬ 
 pean troops, and 500 Sepoys, was sent to their coasts, 
 and, after a desperate resistance, their settlements and 
 fleets were captured and destroyed, and the commerce 
 of the Persian Gulf was rescued from their depreda¬ 
 tions. 
 
 Thus, by land and sea, the Company s dominions 
 were preserved intact, and its power upheld. And 
 every despatch to England contained well-deserved 
 encomiums of the skill and valour and discipline of 
 the forces employed in defending the frontiers, or 
 in protecting the subjects of the Empire. And yet, 
 while the events described were in progress, a cloud 
 had appeared on the horizon of more portentous dimen- 
 
196 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA,. 
 
 [1809 
 
 sions than any of its predecessors in those stonny 
 regions. ‘ I have determined to go to Madras as soon 
 as possible,’ wrote Lord Minto in June 1809. ‘The 
 differences between the Madras army and Sir George 
 Barlow’s Government have risen to a most violent 
 height, and more suddenly than I imagined.’ 
 
^T. 58] 
 
 MUTINY IN THE MADRAS ARMA". 
 
 197 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 The troubles in the coast army require to be dealt 
 with in some detail, because Lord Minto’s share in their 
 final reduction has been scarcely appreciated, while he 
 himself considered it second to no other part of his 
 administration in the importance of its results. When 
 he arrived in India in 1807, he found Madras still sim¬ 
 mering in the dregs of the agitation produced by the 
 mutiny and massacre of Vellore. The danger frojn the 
 native soldiery was past, but there remained a state of 
 excited feeling and' of bitter antagonism among the 
 higher officials of the Presidency that boded future 
 mischief. 
 
 Their controversies produced a general spirit of 
 cabal and combination, and violent attacks made by 
 high functionaries on each other diminished the respect 
 due to them in their pidilic capacity. While the 
 question of the recall of Lord William Bentinck was 
 still pending. Lord Alinto gave his opinion as opposed 
 to that measure. lie thought that the conduct of 
 individuals on that occasion (the Vellore mutiny) had 
 been blamed with too little attention to the different 
 points of conduct under consideration in connection with 
 tlie precise circumstances of the time when they took 
 
198 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 })lace. ‘ I am apprehensive also that these occurrences 
 may not be favourable to the restoration either of civil or 
 military authority. The mutiny was completely sub¬ 
 dued, opinions were settled, and men’s minds were com¬ 
 posed on these questions. Those who had suffered the 
 sentence of the law were regarded as criminals justly 
 punished for atrocious offences. Now that a Grovernor 
 and Commander-in-chief are publicly condemned and 
 punished, on the other hand, in the view of the very 
 mutineers and their adherents, the public mind may 
 perhaps be unhinged again, and those who were hanged 
 and shot by the subordinate local authorities for mutiny 
 and murder, may seem to have been justified by still 
 higher tribunals, and may start up under our sanction 
 into saints and martyrs. I do not say this reasoning 
 would be just, but worse reasoning has often satisfied 
 men’s passions in their own cause.’ ' 
 
 These representations were disregarded, and some 
 of the consequences foreseen by the Governor General 
 took place. The native soldiery, indeed, do not appear 
 to have been affected as he had conceived it possible 
 they might be ; but the dissensions in the European 
 society were aggravated, and the Government of P’ort 
 St. George necessarily suffered in the estimation of the 
 Presidency. 
 
 In the same despatch of November 26, 1807, Lord 
 Minto answered in the following terms a question that 
 had been addressed to him by the Court of Directors con- 
 
 ‘ To the Right Hon. R. Duudas, President of the Board of Control, 
 November 26, 1807. 
 
Mr. 58] 
 
 DISSENSIONS AT MADRAS. 
 
 199 
 
 cerning the expediency of excluding tlie Coininanders- 
 in-chief of the two minor Presidencies from seats in 
 (’ouncil. 
 
 ‘The point is so entirely new that I cannot, on 
 the sudden, offer any opinion worthy of attention. I 
 ])resume that measure may have been suggested to the 
 t’ourt of Directors by the experience they have so fre¬ 
 quently had, especially at Fort St. (leorge, of long 
 controversial and often warm and intemperate dis¬ 
 cussions in Council between the civil and military 
 authorities. It has happened also in late instances 
 that notions concerning military ascendancy have beeii 
 entertained and asserted which are wholly incompatible 
 with the received and established principles of a govern¬ 
 ment by law. 
 
 ‘The introduction, for example, of the judicial sys¬ 
 tem, that is to say, the administration of civil justice 
 l)etween man and man, and the supj)ression of jjublic 
 disorder and crime by a regular magistracy, has been 
 objected to and resented as a degradation of the military 
 chai’acter, and an unjust diminution of its influence 
 and authority in India, where it once stood in the place 
 of law, and was more suited, as it is contended, to the 
 habits and tastes of the people than civil justice admin¬ 
 istered judicially by magistrates. This doctrine will 
 sound so strange in English ears that the fact of its 
 being maintained will scarcely meet with credit. These 
 sentiments, however, have been distinctly recorded in 
 the enclosed pamphlet which Sir John C'radock left 
 beliind him, and, 1 am sorry to learn, are not less 
 
200 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 warmly professed by General McDowell . . . The in¬ 
 conveniences which have been in some instances felt 
 from the Commander-in-chief holding officially a seat, 
 in Council, have I believe been very real, but I confess 
 I donbt the expediency of adopting the particular 
 remedy proposed. I am disinclined to it as a very 
 considerable change, and as one calculated to separate 
 still more from the general government of the country, 
 and not only to alienate but to irritate in a high de¬ 
 gree, the mind of the army, a great and powerful body 
 in India, whose cordiality and co-operation in the views 
 of Government is extremely essential. 
 
 ‘ There is little doubt that the measure in question 
 would produce this effect. It appears to me that other 
 remedies, not liable to the same objection, might be 
 applied in most instances to the inconvenience com¬ 
 plained of. The first is a careful and fit choice of the 
 man for the office of Commander-in-chief. Military 
 endowments he ought certainly to have. He should 
 possess also a sound judgment and a conciliatory dis¬ 
 position. He should come out penetrated with, and 
 well instructed in, the indispensable subordination of the 
 military power to the superintending superiority of the 
 civil Government.’ 
 
 The Court of Directors nevertheless decided on 
 excluding the Commanders-in-chief of the minor Presi¬ 
 dencies from Council, and appointed General McDowell 
 to the post of Commander-in-chief vacated by the recall 
 of Sir J. Cradock. 
 
 Thus early in his Indian career did Lord Minto 
 
JEt. 58] 
 
 MILITARY DISCONTENTS. 
 
 201 
 
 impress on the Court of Directors the necessity of an 
 unfaltering insistance on the supremacy of the civil 
 over the military power. His own experience in Cor¬ 
 sica had shown him the inconveniences arising from 
 excessive military pretensions. He had learnt at 
 Vienna to attribute the misfortunes which had befallen 
 Austria to ‘ a military faction which sidistituted party 
 spirit in the room of all the duties of soldiers or citizens 
 —that party spirit spread through the Empire.’ • 
 
 He found in India a state of atfairs peculiarly 
 favourable to the developinent of strife between the 
 civil and military authorities. A recently conquered 
 and imperfectly settled country had been brought under 
 the influence of the civil Government within the 
 memory of the senior officers of the army, leaving some 
 chagrin and jealousy with those who had been used to 
 wield both political and military authority. Since 
 1765, when Clive put do\vn a mutiny of the officers of 
 the Dengal army, scarce a decade had passed without 
 an open struggle between the military and the civil 
 {)ower;' and only ten years before Lord IMinto’s arrival 
 in India a mutiny of the Bengal officers, which had la st('d 
 upwards of two years, had ended in complete victory. 
 Sir John Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth, the Go- 
 
 ' In an able article on the mutiny of 1809 which appeared 
 in the Qunrterhj Berien' for May 1811 (vol. v.), the following 
 summary of the various mutinies of the Company’s officers, from 
 178.5 to 1798, is quoted from a published paper entitled, ‘ lieiilj" to 
 the publication of William I’etrie, Esq., regarding the late transac¬ 
 tions at iMadras.’ 
 
 ‘ X mutiny of the officers took place in the year 1766 ; which was 
 only suppressed by the firmness of Lord Clive. 
 
202 
 
 LOrxD JUNTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 ^•ernor Greneral at the time, had no doubt been recalled; 
 but the fact that open resistance to regular authority 
 had successfully wrung from a weak Government more 
 than it had contended for, justified the belief that 
 representations made by numbers and supported by 
 clamour would not fail to obtain their ends. Lord 
 Wellesley’s commanding character and his brilliant 
 military achievements had suppressed any open ex¬ 
 pression during his government of military discontent, 
 but there still I’einained the fact that India had been 
 won by the sword and was held by the sword. Lord 
 
 ‘ At an earlier period, in Bombay, the military rose upon the 
 civil power, and assumed the government which they held and re¬ 
 tained in their hands for two years. In or about the year 1776, 
 Major-General Stuart at the head of the army seized on the then 
 Governor of Madras, Lord Pigot, confined his person and subverted 
 his government. In the year 1783 the army of Madras compelled 
 the Governor, Lord Macartney, to revoke his orders, and to re-estab¬ 
 lish some allowances which he had found it neoessaiw to discontinue. 
 Actual violence was not indeed resorted to, but the receipt of three 
 addresses on the same day on the subject from the three principal 
 stations of the army convinced his lordship of the necessity of giving 
 up the point. At a more recent period in Bengal, in or about the 
 year 1796, the countenance which the army assumed must be fresh in 
 the recollection of everyone. 
 
 ‘ It appears further, from the Parliament ary papers before us, that 
 even at the commencement of the late mutiny, 180!), the notion of 
 the rif/his of the army, and that of forming associations to plead 
 these rights, were familiar to the Madras officers. In notions of 
 this kind the officers of the Indian army, in general, seem to have 
 been encouraged by the British Government. . . . Persons avowedly 
 acting in the capacity of agents of the Indian army have been ad¬ 
 mitted to a formal audience by Her Majesty's ministers in England. 
 On what principle men of the highest ability, political knowledge, 
 and patriotism, for such these ministers were, could consent thus to 
 recognise in the arm)'an independent and substantive power, we are 
 at a loss to imagine.’ 
 
^T. 58] DISCONTENTS AT BOMBAY. 20.*? 
 
 jNIinto was resolved that India should not be governed 
 by the sword. 
 
 In the course of 1808 when an expedition to Persia 
 was under consideration, the supreme Government 
 announced to that of Bombay an intention of raising 
 a cavalry regiment on the Bombay establishment; it 
 was subsequently found that this might be done with 
 greater facility at Madras, and the first plan was 
 therefore abandoned; but not without exciting the 
 resentment of the officers of the Bombay army, dhey 
 considered their honour and dignity to be wounded by 
 the course the Government had adopted. How Lord 
 Minto received their complaints, his letter in reply 
 to Jonathan Duncan, Esq., Governor of Bombay, will 
 show. 
 
 ‘ I enter, I assure you, warmly into every feeling 
 which belongs to the disappointment of expectations 
 reasonably entertained, and necessarily near the hearts 
 of those concerned, although I cauuot with the same 
 truth and sincerity consent to their aggravation by 
 pressing into their alliance imaginary, or, at best, 
 gratuitous sentiments of offended honour which have 
 no room in the case. 
 
 ‘ Our option lay between the course which was 
 evidently the best for the public advantage and secu¬ 
 rity, and that by which we might desire to gratify a 
 few officers of the Bombay army by a deliberate sacri¬ 
 fice of higher interests. We made the choice which 
 our duty required, and which must obtain, I have 
 
204 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 no doubt, when clearly explained, tbe suffrages of 
 the Bombay army itself; a body as much distin¬ 
 guished for genuine public spirit as for mihtary 
 excellence. 
 
 ‘ I consider the interests of all the servants of the 
 public, and more especially of that honourable class 
 vphich provides for the safety and prosperity of the 
 country by their own dangers and privations. 
 
 ‘ But the interest and security of the public are the 
 first and highest care of those to whom that public has 
 committed the trust of exercising authority in its 
 name, and that great charge constitutes the primary 
 duty of governments,—a duty, indeed, in which all those 
 participate to whom their country has in any rank or 
 condition confided any portion of its power, whether 
 civil or military. These are indeed, very trite and 
 general principles, but they are none the less those 
 which must govern my conduct. 
 
 ‘ In the application of them, therefore, if a regiment 
 is to be added to the Company’s establishment, the first 
 point to be considered in the mode of its formation 
 must be the public interest; next, but subordinate 
 to that consideration, the interest and pretensions of 
 individuals or bodies connected with the measure. . . . 
 Our military arrangements in all circumstances must 
 be determined by the exigencies of the State. 
 
 ‘ As to menace, or any attempt at intimidation, 
 the case is not to be supposed; the suj)position alone 
 would constitute an injury and insult to the honourable 
 
ililT. 58] 
 
 MUTINY OF OFFICERS. 
 
 205 
 
 men who compose the Bombay army. But if in any 
 (piarter of the world, where I might happen to be the 
 depositary of public authority, such a case should arise, 
 my mind is settled on the only principle adapted in 
 any circumstances to that exigency,—to admit of no 
 compromise with an evil far greater than any that can 
 be incurred, even by a defeat, in resisting it; but to 
 maintain the full and unqualified sovereignty which is 
 in reality the safety of the State, by combating either 
 the seditious combinations and cabals, or the criminal 
 violence, of its servants, to the last and utmost extre¬ 
 mity. I am clear that if such an event could be 
 imagined, it would be better for the public interest to 
 be fairly subdued than to yield. The former would 
 lx; a single, local, and very transient evil, quickly 
 and certainly repaired. The latter never happens 
 without operating a general and permanent re¬ 
 laxation of authority and diminution of all the 
 public energies throughout the empire in which it 
 occurs. 
 
 ‘ I take the two great pillars of every human govern¬ 
 ment to be—first, that all its measures be directed to 
 the public good; next, that its authority, thus exer¬ 
 cised, be maintained with unshaken firmness and reso¬ 
 lution.’ 
 
 This warning note had a graver significance wdien, 
 in the following year of 1809, the mutiny of the officers 
 of the iVIadras army broke out. It was no doubt 
 attributable to a variety of causes, among which must 
 be acknowledged certain real grievances on the part of 
 
206 
 
 LORI) MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 the army, and certain serions mistakes on the part of 
 Sir Greorge Barlow, Governor of Madras. A considera¬ 
 tion of these lies beyond our province, which is simply 
 to relate the position assumed by Lord Minto witli 
 regard to the powers in conflict—always bearing in 
 mind that his active interference, by written and 
 personal advice and support, only began after the dis¬ 
 content of the officers had taken the form of insubor¬ 
 dinate opposition to the Government. The immediate 
 cause of the disturbances at Madras is stated in 
 IMarshman’s ‘ History of India ’ as follows : * ‘ After the 
 Mahratta War the Court of Directors had been fierce 
 for retrenchment, and had threatened to take the 
 pruning knife into their own hands,’ if the Madras 
 Government hesitated to use it. ‘ Among the plans 
 suggested for reducing the military charges was the 
 abolition of the tent conti'act, which furnished the 
 officers in command of regiments with a fixed monthly 
 allowance to provide the men ^vith camp equipage 
 whether they were in the field or in cantonments. 
 The system was essentially vicious, . . . the Quarter¬ 
 master General, Colonel Munro, had been requested to 
 draw up a report, and both Sir John Cradock and Lord 
 William Bentinck had come to the determination to 
 abolish the contract, when they were suddenly recalled. 
 It fell to the unhappy lot of Sir George Barlow, 
 already sufficiently unpopular, to carry this resolution 
 into effect. This retrenchment increased the resent- 
 
 ‘ Vol. ii. p. 240. 
 
^T. 58] 
 
 MUTINY OF OFFICERS. 
 
 207 
 
 nient of the officers, and they determined to wreak their 
 vengeance on the Qnarterinaster General, who had 
 stated in his report that the result of granting the 
 same allowance in peace and in war for the tentage of 
 the native regiments, while the expenses incidental to 
 it varied with circumstances, had been found by experi¬ 
 ence to place the interest and the duty of commanding 
 officers in opposition to each other. . . . The officers 
 called on the Commander-in-chief to bring Colonel 
 INIunro to a court martial for aspersions on their 
 character as officers and gentlemen. The Judge 
 Advocate General to whom the question was fidly 
 referred, considered that the officers had neither right 
 nor reason on their side; but General McDowell, then 
 on the eve of retiring from the serGce, yielded to 
 their wishes, and at once placed him under arrest. 
 He appealed to the Governor in Council, under whose 
 authority he had acted, and the Commander-in-chief 
 was ordered to release him.’ 
 
 ‘The battle was then joined,’ wrote Lord Minto in 
 a private letter to the Chairman of the East India 
 Company.' ‘ The Commander-in-chief committed open 
 sedition, and sent forth an inflammatory appeal from 
 the acts of Government,’ the effect of which, as described 
 by Colonel IMalcolm, was that of ‘ waving a torch over a 
 powder magazine.’ To General IMcDowell’s unwearied 
 efforts ‘to establish a confederacy between his own 
 resentment at his exclusion from Council, and the 
 
 ' April 25, I80y. 
 
208 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 imaginary grievances of the army,’ Lord Minto ascribed 
 tlie state of feeling that displayed itself in the absurd 
 attempt to try Colonel Munro for his report on the 
 tent contract. The arrest of Colonel Munro on those 
 scandalous charges was a gross abuse of his authority. 
 ‘ I consider the standard to have been set up against 
 the Groverument by that act, the scope of which was 
 to bring a military regulation solemnly adopted by the 
 Government of Fort St. George and by the supreme 
 Government, under the cognisance of a band of officers 
 to be tried as a base and scandalous crime. 
 
 ‘ The attempt was to wrest the regulation of the 
 army, and the control of military arrangements and 
 economy, out of the hands of Government, in which 
 the constitution of these Provinces and of e\'ery other 
 country in the world, and, above all the rest, of Great 
 Britain, has anxiously and jealously placed it, and com¬ 
 mit it to the officers of the army themselves.’ 
 
 Up to this point there seems to ha ve been no differ¬ 
 ence of opinion among calm men as to which party in 
 the conflict had right on its side ; but a change became 
 apparent when the violent order of the Connnander-in- 
 chief was immediately followed by a counter order no less 
 intemperate from the Government, coupled with the 
 dismissal of two officers of high rank who had counter¬ 
 signed and published the order of their superior. Lord 
 Minto, true to his principle that the specific questions 
 iti the controversy were of very minor importance com¬ 
 pared with the fundamental and most important con¬ 
 sideration of the permanent relations between the civil 
 
.lilT. 58] 
 
 MUTINY OF OFFICERS. 
 
 209 
 
 and military powers, publicly and steadily supported 
 the Government of P’ort St. George. That he did not do 
 so in a spirit of blind partiality to the proceedings of 
 Sir George Barlow, is proved by a confidential letter to 
 his son, in which he confessed his real sentiments and 
 the reasons for their suppression. 
 
 ‘ This measure—the removal of the Adjutant and 
 the Deputy Adjutant General for giving circulation to 
 General McDowell’s general order of January 28— 
 started a question likely to unite military opinions 
 against the Government of Fort St. George. It became 
 the immediate ground of the general combination of 
 the army, and furnished the first questionable matter 
 in the struggle Sir George had to maintain against 
 a military faction already determined to carry their 
 personal opposition against him to extremity. It was 
 made the hinge of these dissensions. 
 
 ‘ You will see that I have given unqualified support 
 to the Government of Fort St. George on this delicate 
 point. I was not and could not be consulted when the 
 measure was adopted. If my judgment had been to be 
 given in that stage 1 should certainly have dissuaded 
 it; and in truth both I and my colleagues in Bengal 
 learnt the occurrence with the greatest possible regret. 
 Y'e felt distinctly all the consequences that were to 
 follow ; a general bond of union among the disaffected, 
 and a plausible pretext, which had not before existed, 
 for discontent and clamour, was now furnished liy this 
 most unfortunate and impolitic measure. I am making 
 this confession most confidentially to you and my very 
 
 p 
 
210 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 few confidants. In India it is a secret to everybody but 
 Mr. Lninsden, ]\Ir. Colebroke, and Greneral Hewitt. 
 
 ‘ I had to consider, however, not whether the 
 measure was to be taken, but, being already taken, 
 whether it should be reversed. To put Sir Cleorge in 
 the Avrong on any point, but especially on the main 
 point, was to overthrow his Groveminent and give a 
 complete triumph to military combination for all time 
 to come : for it must not be forgotten that the success¬ 
 ful combination of the Bengal officers in 1796, when 
 Government at home took fright, is the real root of 
 the late insubordination in the army of the JMadras 
 Presidency. 
 
 ‘ I had nevertheless to satisfy myself upon the 
 abstract merits of the question : for, although the pubhc 
 safety might require that I should support an impolitic 
 measure, nothing could have induced me to strain the 
 point of justice ; and if these officers had appeared to 
 me unjustly removed, or if military principles had in 
 my judgment been really violated on this occasion, I 
 must have restored the officers, and disavoAved the 
 principle, Avithout regard to consequences.’ 
 
 The letter goes on to state at considerable length 
 the incontrovertible gTounds or arguments by which 
 Lord IMinto satisfied himself that the action of the 
 Adjutant and Deputy Adjutant General, in publishing 
 and disseminating the general order of the Commander- 
 in-chief, in defiance of the regulation that all orders 
 should be in the first instance submitted to the Govern¬ 
 ment, Avas a dereliction of duty that justified their 
 
68] 
 
 MUTINY OF OFFICERS. 
 
 211 
 
 dismissal by Sir George Barlow from a legal, though 
 not from a politic, point of view. Having reached 
 which conclusion he did not hesitate to give his un¬ 
 qualified support to the Government of Fort St. George. 
 In a letter to the Secret Committee he urged upon them 
 the adoption of a similar course. 
 
 ‘ In these circumstances the safety of India must 
 depend upon the support given to the local Government 
 by the authorities in England. I can have no right to 
 dictate any judgment to those to whom I am myself 
 subordinate, but my duty requires that I should state 
 my opinion. 
 
 ‘ An army, that is not subordinate to the Govern¬ 
 ment of the country in which it serves, is its master; 
 and, while this inverted order of things continues, no 
 Government can be responsible for the conduct of affairs 
 of which they are in reality divested. The present is a 
 fair trial of strength between legal government and its 
 most formitliible rival. Feeble measures will not decide 
 the contest, and a mere negative to the pretensions of 
 the factions will not prevent the frequent repetition of 
 the experiment which is now making. That can be 
 effected only, not by demonstrating the vanity, but by 
 showing the dangers, of such transgressions. The two 
 leading points, therefore, in the measures which I re¬ 
 commend at home are,—first, a clear and distinct 
 support of the Government of Fort St. George ; second, 
 the signal punishment of the principal offenders 
 
 ‘One essential point is to take care that the present 
 factions be not enabled to claim the slightest degree of 
 
212 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 Ll80» 
 
 success in any of their real or professed objects. What¬ 
 ever may be thought of the question concerning the 
 restoration of the Commander-in-chief to Council, it 
 could not, I think, be adopted at the present moment 
 Avithout great and important mischief.’ * 
 
 When Lord Minto wrote these lines he evidently 
 thought the crisis over. Nothing was further from the 
 truth. Within two days, on May 11, an order, issued by 
 Sir Greorge Barlow, for the removal of four officers from 
 their commands, and the suspension of eight others, 
 caused the scarcely smothered flames of disaffection to 
 burst out with renewed fierceness. The grounds of this 
 summary proceeding were stated to be the discovery by 
 the Giovernor of the existence of combinations and cabals 
 among the officers; in proof of this a memorial was 
 produced, confessedly drawn up by the officers and for 
 private circulation among them, stating their grievances 
 and demands, and appealing from the Grovemment of 
 Fort St. Gieorge to the Grovernor Greneral to whom it 
 was addressed. This memorial, having been obtained 
 by the Government of Madras from sources not divulged, 
 was forwarded to Calcutta. There appears to have 
 been no question as to its authenticity, and though it 
 had not reached him by the channel intended by the 
 memorialists, the Governor General answered it point 
 by point in a letter to Sir George Barlow, who was 
 directed to publish it to the Madras army. 
 
 This paper in its entirety is too long to be inserted 
 
 ' April 25, 1809. 
 
jEt. 58] 
 
 MUTINY OF OFFICEES. 
 
 213 
 
 here; it is too good to be mutilated. It is, in fact, an ex¬ 
 haustive statement of the questions at issue between the 
 officers and the Madras Government, and likewise of the 
 general principles which necessitated the subordination 
 of the army to the State. When in due time it reached 
 England, Lord Malmesbury described it as the finest 
 and ablest State paper he had ever read. Lord Minto 
 himself thought it far too long; but he desired, he said, 
 ‘ to conGnce the reason of the younger officers as well 
 as to enforce their obedience, and to lay a statement 
 before the army of principles he thought ill understood.’ 
 While Sir George Barlow was content to reiterate that 
 the first attribute of the executive is strength. Lord 
 Minto insisted also on what he considered to be the 
 corollary of the same principle—that the strength of 
 the executive lies in its being derived from the national 
 will, whence its rightful claim on the obedience of all 
 classes of men. The antagonism displayed to the 
 executive at Madras arose in its seeming to be the will 
 of Sir George Barlow. 
 
 It was a habit of mind with Lord IMinto to look for 
 the causes of things below the surface. In this case 
 he saw in the majority of the officers very young and 
 half-instructed men (‘ and who so confident of himself 
 as a half-instructed man ? ). He saw them brought to¬ 
 gether in a distant corner of the Empire, removed from 
 the influence of such pidilic opinion as exists in all large 
 and mixed societies, tempted by the circumstances of 
 their case to exaggerate their own importance, till the 
 interests of a few officers became in their eyes the 
 
214 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 cause of an army, and till the reciprocal duties of 
 brother officers became more to them than the primary 
 relations which knit together the citizens of a common 
 State. He entertained, therefore, a sanguine hope that 
 the promulgation of sounder principles would check the 
 progress of error. From the letter to Sir Gleorge 
 Barlow we propose to quote only one passage, from 
 which the general tone and spirit of the argument may 
 be inferred. 
 
 ‘ We are accustomed in England, without distinc¬ 
 tion of profession or degree, to speak with pride and 
 reverence of that nice and scrupulous solicitude which 
 pervades the constitutional policy of Great Britain on 
 every point that affects,,however remotely, the great 
 and primary concerns of civil liberty and domestic 
 security,—blessings which it is natural to value most 
 highly in a country where they are best known and ex¬ 
 perienced. It is this great national sentiment which 
 requires, as the main and most indispensable provision 
 for civil security, the absolute unqualified subordination 
 of the army to the State, or in other words to the 
 Government of the country. Out of the same principle 
 springs the necessity of peculiar restraints on the 
 military body, and the abridgment in their case of some 
 privileges and practices which are permitted, because- 
 they are not deemed hazardous, in other parts of life. 
 
 ‘ Among the chief of these restraints are to be placed 
 the strict prohibition of military combination for the 
 furtherance of professional views or wishes, and of 
 open and concerted opposition by military men in their 
 
^T. 58] 
 
 MUTINY OF OFFICEKS. 
 
 215 
 
 military character to the Government or the persons 
 who administer it. . . . 
 
 ‘ It were to be lamented, and little to the credit 
 of military men, if, on points which touch so nearly all 
 that is most dear to their country, they should cease 
 to think and feel as Englishmen when they become 
 soldiers, and should suffer the partial spirit of a pro¬ 
 fession to wean them from those sentiments and sym¬ 
 pathies which, like their brethren in civil life, they 
 imbibed with their milk, and which distinguish and 
 illustrate their nation.’ 
 
 Though this paper, dated Fort William, May 27, 
 1809, purported to emanate from the Governor General 
 in Council, and was therefore signed by the members of 
 Council generally, he himself said of it: ‘ Whether it 
 is thought good or bad, prosy or otherwise, it is cer¬ 
 tainly my own, for I wrote every word of it myself.’ 
 
 Several of the suspended officers went to Calcutta 
 and laid their grievances before Lord Minto. From 
 them, and by letter from Colonels Malcolm and Close 
 and Sir George Barlow, he was kept aware of the pro¬ 
 gress of events. INIalcolm wrote that Barlow’s blind¬ 
 ness to the increasing dangers amounted to a disease 
 of mind : Barlow, that Malcolm’s love of popidarity 
 prompted him to recommend concessions which the 
 honour of the Government forbad it to grant. Colonel 
 Close agreed with I..ord Minto that submission must 
 precede concession. But of the former there was no sign. 
 A regular organisation of revolt was framed. The open 
 
216 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 revolt of Masulipatam (where the officers seized the 
 fortress and put their commanding officer under arrest) 
 left no doubt as to the lengths to which they were 
 prepared to go. It was quickly followed by the mutiny 
 of Seringapatam. From Masulipatam, where he had 
 been sent by Sir Greorge Barlow on a mission, Malcolm 
 wrote ‘ that there was not a Company’s corps from 
 ■Cape Comorin to Glanjam that was not implicated in 
 the general guilt—that is not pledged to rise against 
 Government unless what they call their grievances are 
 redressed.’ Colonel Close, who, on account of his great 
 popularity with the army, had been sent to Hyderabad 
 to take command of the subsidiary force, was met at 
 the camp by the whole of the troops under arms and 
 prepared for action. Plans were formed for concentra¬ 
 ting the rebel force; all concealment Avas throAvn off, 
 and menaces were heard that 30,000 men would march 
 upon Madras. The Jaulna detachment actually quitted 
 their station in the execution of that plan. Public 
 treasure was seized, correspondence interrupted—in a 
 word, civil war had commenced. At this juncture the 
 cool courage and energy of Sir George BarloAV saved the 
 Empire from what at best must have been a disastrous 
 struggle.' ‘ He determined,’ says Marshman in his 
 
 ‘ ‘ There are men now living,’ writes Sir J. Kaye, in the Corre¬ 
 spondence of Sir J. Malcolm, ‘ who look back with astonishment, 
 almost with incredulity, to that period of mutinous excitement. At 
 many of the large army stations the officers of the Company’s regi¬ 
 ments avowed themselves ready for any act of daring revolt. They 
 encouraged one another in treason ; they talked of fighting against 
 a tyrannical Government in defence of their rights to the last drop 
 
Mr. 58] 
 
 MUTINY OF OFFICEES. 
 
 217 
 
 ‘ History of India,’ ' ‘ if necessary, to march the loyal 
 portion of the army against the disaffected. The 
 fidelity of the King’s troops coidd be relied on. To 
 test the loyalty of the officers he demanded the signa¬ 
 ture of all, without distinction, to a pledge to obey the 
 orders and support the authority of the Government in 
 Council at Fort St. George on pain of removal from 
 their stations on the coast, though without forfeiture of 
 rank or pay. This measure, however, did not produce 
 the intended effect, as not a tenth of the whole body 
 of officers consented to affix their signatures ; lastly, 
 he directed the commanders of native regiments to 
 assemble the Sepoys and assure them that the discon¬ 
 tent of the officers was a personal affair, and that the 
 Government had no intention to diminish the advan¬ 
 tages which they had enjoyed, but were rather anxious 
 to improve them. The Sepoys and native officers re¬ 
 mained faithful to their salt.’ 
 
 In Lord Minto’s opinion this measure was as wise 
 and bold as it proved to be decisive. Without their 
 instruments the officers were ])owerless; they had not 
 doubted the readiness of their soldiers to adhere to them ; 
 inability to proceed in their criminal designs was the real 
 
 of their blood. Seditious toasts were given at the mess tables, and 
 drunk with uproarious applause. From day to day t idings went forth 
 from one excited station to another- tidings of progi'essive insubor¬ 
 dination which fortified with assurances of sympathy and support 
 the insane resolves of liie scattered mutineers. The arrival of every 
 post raised a fever of expectancy. Letters from tlie disaffected can¬ 
 tonments were eagcrl}^ read and instantly circulated. The moral 
 intoxication pervaded all ranks from the colonel to the ensign.’ 
 
 ' Vol. ii. p. 243. 
 
218 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. [180i) 
 
 ground of the collapse which ensued. Sir James Mack¬ 
 intosh took a different view. Writing of these events 
 to Colonel Malcolm he ‘ confessed that were he asked 
 whether the deposition of a Grovernor by military force 
 or an appeal to private soldiers against their officers be 
 the greater evil, I am compelled to own that I must 
 hesitate.’ ’ Lord Minto did not hesitate to declare 
 his conviction that the power which entrusts to the 
 soldier his sword has a supreme claim to his fidelity.^ 
 
 ‘ If,’ he wrote in a despatch to the Secret Com¬ 
 mittee, ‘ they had in truth, as their officers appear 
 never to have allowed themselves to doubt, adhered to 
 their cause, and had been thereby betrayed to their 
 ruin in the pursuit of criminal designs totally foreign 
 to their own interests and concerns, it is impossible to 
 foresee the dreadful extremities to which they might 
 have been impelled against those who would have been 
 justly responsible for these disasters.’ 
 
 Lord Minto had intended to go to Madras in July ; 
 but the confident assurance of Sir Gi. Barlow that 
 matters were quieting down, added to his own wish to 
 
 ' Sir J. Mackintosh to Colonel Malcolm. Bombay, August 20, 
 180!), published in Corres 2 >ondcnee of Sir J. Malcolm,. 
 
 - In the article on the Madras mutiny, already quoted ( QuaM.crltf 
 Revieiv, Jlay 1811), the following passage occurs: ‘The policy 
 of detaching the Sepoys from their rebellious officers had been 
 adopted by Lord Clive, the father of our Indian dominion, on the 
 mutiny of the Bengal officers in the year 176.5. In truth, he in 1765 
 carried his policy to a much further extent than Sir George Barlow 
 in 1800 ; for the former, finding that the refractory officers whom he 
 had discarded, showed some disposition to continue embodied in his 
 neighbourhood, actually dispatched a corps of Sepoys to disperse 
 these officers or to laring them prisoners into the camp.’ 
 
^T. 58] 
 
 LORD MINTO AT MADRAS. 
 
 219 
 
 let tile minor Gmernment do its own work if it could, 
 caused him to delay his departure, until the news of 
 the revolt at iNlasulipatam reached him, when he at 
 once embarked for Madras on August 5. Before leaving 
 Bengal he wrote to Gleneral Hewitt, who was at Agra, 
 to prepare himself for civil war. The monsoon delayed 
 his passage, and when he arrived he found to his sincere 
 satisfaction that the crisis was at an end. 
 
 Sir J. Alackintosh was not disappointed in the ex¬ 
 pectation he expressed in a letter to Colonel Malcolm 
 that Lord iMinto’s great abilities and humane character 
 would dispose him to conciliation. On his arrival at 
 Aladras he was informed that the officers had made 
 their submission, and addressed on August 11 ‘ a peni¬ 
 tential letter ’ to himself. His own letter, nominally 
 addressed to Sir (leorge Barlow, but substantially to 
 the army, had been pidilished by order of the IMadras 
 Government at every military station in the Presidency; 
 and though too late to stay the seditious proceedings 
 then on the point of breaking out, it seems, neverthe¬ 
 less, not to have failed altogether of effect ; for it was 
 remarked at the time that their general confidence in 
 Lord Minto’s justice and moderation caused the news 
 of his approach to be welcomed even by those who knew 
 how unflinching had been his support of Sir George 
 Barlow. Lord IMinto desired to weaken as little as pos¬ 
 sible the Government of Fort St. George ; he therefore, 
 on arriving at ^Madras, announced his determination to 
 interfere in no degree in the government of the Pn'si- 
 dency, which was in all respects to be carried on as if 
 
■220 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. [180S> 
 
 Calcutta ■were still the seat of the supreme authority; 
 but he felt that he should discharge imperfectly the 
 extraordinary powers entrusted to him if he contented 
 himself ■with professing a blind concurrence in counsels 
 over which he had come to preside. He determined 
 therefore ‘ to pursue a personal investigation of the 
 facts, followed by a mature deliberation on their results, 
 before committing himself to any of the principal 
 points depending.’ 
 
 An order, dated September 25, 1809, conveyed the 
 judgment at which he arrived after the most search¬ 
 ing enquiry and anxious consideration. It stated in 
 ■clear but most moderate terms the offence against the 
 just authority of Government, of which the coast army 
 had been guilty, and then proceeded to make a selection 
 of the offenders for punishment. 
 
 ‘ The selection,’ says the order, ‘ is to consist of the 
 officers in command of stations, or bodies of troops; 
 commandants of corps; and persons peculiarly distin¬ 
 guished for a foi’Avard and violent part in the most 
 criminal acts or proceedings of the army. Officers in¬ 
 cluded in the two first categories would be sent for 
 trial to courts martial, the number not exceeding 
 twenty-one.’ Those in the last Avere permitted to take 
 their choice of trial or dismissal from the service. To 
 the rest of the army a general and unqualified amnesty 
 was granted. The language of this general order ad¬ 
 mirably reflected the spirit of its author. It was at 
 once firm and generous. It demonstrated the Governor 
 General’s determination to do no more than was neces- 
 
JEt. 58] 
 
 OEDER TO THE ARIO^'. 
 
 221 
 
 sary for the vindication of justice. It firmly reasserted 
 the principles of military sidiordination to legal au¬ 
 thority, which the proceedings of the army had set 
 at defiance, and it did not shrink from a tribute to 
 Sir George Barlow, to whose firmness and energy it was 
 due that a monstrous conflict had been avoided between 
 the coast army and their country. The order ended 
 by an earnest exhortation to the officers to think less 
 lightly than they had been accustomed to do of violating 
 the first, the most sacred, and the most characteristic 
 duty of a soldier, fidelity to the power he serves. ‘ I 
 entreat them to be persuaded that no man of honour 
 at the head of a Government will ever compromise Avith 
 revolt, and that in every case the conflict must be 
 carried to the last extremity. ]My sentiments on that 
 subject are not equivocal, and are not assumed for the 
 occasion. They have been pronounced long since, and 
 previous to any indication of troubles on the coast. JMy 
 fixed and firm principle is, that the utmost e\dls that can 
 flow from a contest with revolt, and even from defeat, are 
 much inferior to the greater, more permanent, and more 
 extensive mischief of concession. In such cases the 
 revolted party may recede, and will always do so with 
 honour, sacrificing nothing but passions and crimes. 
 The Government against which the revolt is made, has 
 no option but to maintain the contest or abandon its 
 trust and fly from its duty.’ 
 
 In the letter he addressed from Madras to the 
 Secret Committee, congratulating them on the ter¬ 
 mination of the dangerous troubles which had agitated 
 
222 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 the Presidency since the month of January, he 
 says :— 
 
 ‘ Greater perils have, perhaps, never threatened 
 the possessions of the Honourable Company, or the 
 British empire in India ; and so great an alarm has 
 seldom subsided so suddenly, so entirely, and with so 
 fair a prospect not only of the permanent restoration 
 of former security and tranquillity, but of the improve¬ 
 ment of these blessings. . . . When I embarked at 
 Fort William on August 5, the most recent events were 
 the mutiny and revolt at Masulipatam. I received 
 also with considerable uneasiness casual accounts of 
 an engagement between the King’s and the Company’s 
 troops at Seringapatam. 
 
 ‘ The only certain and infallible issue of a contest so 
 unnatural and so lamentable as that which we might 
 have had to maintain was the total and irretrievable 
 ruin of thirteen hundred English gentlemen, who were 
 engaged in an enterprise equally criminal and hope¬ 
 less. 
 
 ‘ In a case of such general participation by a nu¬ 
 merous body in the offence which is to be punished, it 
 is obvious that the penalty cannot be extended to all, 
 and that some must be selected for examples; . . . 
 that these examples need not be numerous is my 
 opinion.’ 
 
 In a later letter, describing his final measures, he 
 wrote: 
 
 ‘ I considered that the mass of the offending officers 
 
^T. 58] 
 
 OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE, 
 
 223 
 
 were to be necessarily replaced in stations of trust; 
 that our native armies were still to be commanded by 
 them, and that, whether the penalty should fall on few 
 or comparatively on many, our army was still to be 
 composed of associates in the common offence. 
 
 ‘ Policy, therefore, if not a more generous principle, 
 points to conciliation as the most expedient as well as, 
 in other points of view, the most commendable founda¬ 
 tion of our measures. The change in events has changed 
 the principle. 
 
 ‘ \Miile revolt was on foot, conciliation which would 
 have been mistaken, or perhaps justly taken for weak¬ 
 ness, must have impaired both dignity and power. 
 After submission, a conciliatory course becomes a 
 point not merely of prudence but of magnanimity.’ 
 
 It had been Lord INIinto’s anxious wish that a Com¬ 
 mander-in-chief should arrive at Madras from England 
 before his own departure took place; when that was 
 found impracticable, he invited General Hewitt to 
 Madras. ‘ The fit moment had arrived for the important 
 work of reviving discipline. The power of Government 
 and of the Commander-in-chief cannot at present be 
 disputed or opposed. Futurity is so impenetrable that 
 the favourable moment ought not to be lost. The task 
 will not, I think, be difficult, but it requires prudence 
 and judgment as well as firmness and power, for the 
 disease is pretty much fixed in the habit. It is one of 
 those imdertakings which precipitation has a tendency 
 to retard. The art of government consists in distin¬ 
 guishing between the course which is suited to extra- 
 
224 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA 
 
 [1803' 
 
 ordinary conjnnctnres, and the permanent policy by 
 which men are to be governed.’' 
 
 ‘ Revolt must first be subdued ; the next care is tO' 
 prevent a return of that evil. No doubt the strong and 
 successful repression of the late seditions would tend 
 to discourage similar dispositions in the future; but 
 other means yet more efficacious should be combined 
 with these, for the actions of men being prompted as 
 much by their passions and tempers as by their reason, 
 a sense of danger will not always restrain them. That 
 real grievances must be redressed will not be disputed; 
 liut it appears to me that a Government should study 
 even the passions, the temper, the prejudices, and the 
 errors of those who are subject to their rule. It would 
 follow from this principle that if any peculiar circum¬ 
 stances in the late events should appear to have pro¬ 
 moted them, or to have increased the difficulty of re¬ 
 straining them, and that these circumstances should 
 be capable of alteration, it should be done. 
 
 ‘ If there be reason to think that any obstacle to the 
 restoration not merely of discipline, but of temper and 
 harmony, now stands in the way, that obstacle, although 
 it should be connected with the most unreasonable and 
 most unjustifiable passions and prejudices of the time, 
 had better be removed, provided the measures taken 
 for that purpose can be ascribed to a spirit of wise 
 conciliation, and cannot by any possibility be set down 
 to motives of intimidation—and this advantage does 
 
 * Lord Minto to the Secret Committee. 
 
jEt. 59] 
 
 FAMILY LETTERS. 
 
 225 
 
 belong to the stronger party after victory—with a view 
 to promote future harmony with a subdued adver¬ 
 sary.’ * 
 
 ‘ Madras: February 3, 1810.’ 
 
 ‘ It is quite uncertain when I shall get home (to 
 Bengal). I intended to go about the middle of this 
 month. But although the army is in a perfectly safe 
 state, it is not like any other army or any other set 
 of people that ever was. There is a good deal of irri¬ 
 tation kept up by the courts martial; and different 
 incidents in the late troubles are still fresh enough 
 to make bad blood between one corps and another. 
 Wherever there is any agitation at all, the Company’s 
 officers cut the King’s, who make them very welcome 
 and hold them mighty cheap, as well they may, being 
 in the right and the others in the wrong. This is not 
 like discipline, nor like an entire return to tranquillity, 
 but it is not quite out of nature; and I think myself 
 that all will get right, provided jthere is a little temper 
 and patience with this temporary evil. Eegular and 
 steady discipline must certainly be restored, or rather 
 created, for it never existed here; but these wild 
 steeds must be handled and bitted, and not backed in 
 a moment by a rough-rider. Everything is so per¬ 
 fectly secure on material points, that a quiet process 
 may be tried, without danger from new mischief. As 
 discipline ^aust be enforced, however, quicker or slower, 
 
 ‘ The letter ends with some practical suggestions for improving 
 the condition of the higher ranks of the army. 
 
 ’ To Lady Minto. 
 
226 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809' 
 
 that undertaking cannot be left to Sir George and 
 General Gowdie. 
 
 ‘ One is hated, indeed execrated, though unjustly, 
 yet heartily. The other does not inspire much awe. 
 I propose, therefore, to invite General Hewitt here 
 immediately. He has all the qualities that suit the 
 occasion. His authority, which is the highest military 
 authority in India, will be respected. He has excel¬ 
 lent military principles, abhors a departure from the 
 soundest military character, is firm, temperate, and 
 judicious. We are on a most cordial footing, and I 
 shall wait for him here, and leave him in charge with¬ 
 out anxiety when we have thoroughly compared our 
 ideas. Coventry is the order of the day. Indeed there 
 is no other deviation from discipline, or none to speak 
 of. This is closely connected -with the recent violence, 
 and if no new exciting cause, as Wilson calls it, be 
 created, the old impressions will gradually wear them¬ 
 selves out, and the effect will disappear with the cause.’ 
 
 The disappearance could not be counted upon so 
 long as the courts martial continued in session, nor 
 until, by the arrival of the Commander-in-chief, a mili¬ 
 tary authority should have been established superior 
 to that of the very well-intentioned, but not able officer 
 who commanded the coast army in the meantime; 
 and thus Lord Minto remained at Madras for fourteen 
 months. 
 
 The sentences in several instances were not ap¬ 
 proved by the Government, and were suspended during 
 re-consideration; and in England, as in India, a violent 
 
^T. 59] 
 
 FAMILY LETTERS. 
 
 227 
 
 controversy arose upon the general policy which had 
 been observed towards the rebellious army. Some 
 blamed it as too severe, some as having unduly slack¬ 
 ened the reins of authority. It was no doubt due to 
 the dissensions on the subject in the Court of Directors 
 that Lord Minto was left without any official statement 
 of their opinions on these weighty matters for more 
 than hoo years after they took place. 
 
228 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1809 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Lord Minto’s pre-occupations at Madras were not 
 wholly of an unpleasant kind; for, during his residence 
 there, a marriage took place between his youngest son, 
 John, and Ameha Casamaijor,* a young lady whose family 
 had long been in friendly relations with that of Lord 
 Minto. He told his correspondents at home in a very 
 amusing style of the series of emotions which possessed 
 his whole being, and dispossessed each other during 
 the space of one quarter of an hour; from the incredu¬ 
 lous horror with which he had learnt that ‘ the boy ’ 
 contemplated matrimony, through various phases of 
 fury and amusement, till all culminated in a sudden but 
 profound conviction, that it was the very best thing 
 that could have happened; and he found himself blessing 
 and kissing everybody all round, thinking in his heart 
 all the time that it would have been more natural to 
 fall in love with her mother, a very handsome woman, 
 than with a chit of eighteen. The marriage took place 
 at Madras, in December 1809, and, besides being a 
 very happy arrangement for the principals, greatly con- 
 
 ■ Third daughter of James Henry Casamaijor, Esq., of Madras. 
 
Mt. 59] 
 
 FAMILY LETTEES. 
 
 229 
 
 tributed to the cheerfulness and comfort of Lord Minto’s 
 life in India. 
 
 After describing the wedding, he wrote to his wife, 
 
 ‘ December 20, 1809. 
 
 ‘ My domestic longings are becoming every month 
 more importunate and unreasonable. I first deter¬ 
 mined not to reckon for many years to come, well 
 knowing that the hours of expectation would not be 
 made fewer by any sort of computation I could con¬ 
 trive, but that they would be much increased in length 
 and retarded in velocity. Then I compromised for 
 quarters of a year. Then it came to months, and now 
 I grieve to say that I am actually counting days, with 
 all the exactness of a clock. The days are innumer¬ 
 able indeed, yet, being a good arithmetician, I actually 
 know their number. It is a long line of march in 
 which one rank seems to stop another, and the whole 
 column seems to stand still. It would be a great joy 
 to skip a day, but that never happens. I reckon 
 this diurnal reckoning one of the most improvi¬ 
 dent acts of my life, and I must go on counting and 
 longing to the end of the chapter. One of my common 
 vigils is performing the voyage home, and then the 
 journey from one well-known sign-post to another, 
 from the Ked Lion, Barnet, to Minto. As I have a 
 perfectly fair wind, and plenty of it all the way to 
 Portsmouth, and good roads and horses to iMinto, I 
 meet with no let or hindrance till I come to the Lower 
 Lodge, and from thence to the Lilly Law is a tedious 
 
230 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1810 
 
 distressing job. I always go the Cornhill Eoad, for 
 the sake of touching at Lennel,* and sometimes I meet 
 a Mintonian there, looking out for me.’ 
 
 ‘March 29, 1810. 
 
 ‘I shall be happy, I confess, to find myself at 
 Barrackpore once more. I think I have the business 
 in as favourable a state here as it is reasonable to ex¬ 
 pect. The ways of thinking of this army are radically 
 bad; but there is not a shadow of danger left, and I 
 feel great confidence in the efficacy of all that has been 
 done, in preventing any return of the confederating, 
 that is to say, in truth, mutinous practices, which have 
 been witnessed on so many other occasions, There is 
 still, however, a great deal more petty indiscipline, 
 such as Coventry and insults to obnoxious individuals, 
 than can be accounted military or suffered to continue. 
 But these irregular habits are naturally cultivated in 
 times of trouble, and they have been kept in more than 
 their usual or natural activity by the irritation of the 
 courts martial sitting on the comrades, associates, and 
 only the other day accomplices, of those who witnessed 
 their proceedings. The trials are now all concluded ; 
 and that exciting cause being removed, a steady and 
 temperate course of alterative remedies, that is to say, 
 a gradual but uniform introduction of regular discipline, 
 and inculcation of sound military principles, of which 
 I have not been sparing, may in my opinion accom¬ 
 plish the object. The courts martial have been very 
 
 ' The residence of Mr. and Mrs. Brydone. 
 
59] 
 
 PKIVATE LETTERS. 
 
 231 
 
 soft, which, besides depriving the cause of discipline 
 of salutary examples, has laid Government under the 
 necessity of doing ungracious things and incurring 
 odium which ought not to have been thrown upon it, 
 by censuring and refusing to confirm sentences of too 
 much lenity. The courts martial have found all those 
 who have been tried, guilty, except one who is honour¬ 
 ably acquitted, directly contrary to evidence ; and those 
 who have been convicted have only been cashiered for 
 the most flagrant and dangerous mutiny. But I can¬ 
 not afford to write another despatch on this subject.’ 
 
 Soon after Lord Minto’s return from Madras to 
 Calcutta, his second son, George Elliot,' following the 
 example of his younger brother, married a young lady of 
 great personal attractions, who was much admired in the 
 society of Calcutta. Like her sister-in-law she was im¬ 
 mediately installed in apartments at the Government 
 House, which ‘ was much improved thereby in cheerful¬ 
 ness and comfort.’ ‘ My reigning theme is my daughters- 
 in-law. I cannot repeat too often that E. is really 
 lovely in face, person, and character. There never was 
 a more sweet and gentle disposition; and A. is my 
 grand favourite, with mirth, good temper, good sense, 
 and good character. I have occasion for all the comforts 
 I can snatch ; for my work is hard and fatigues both 
 body and spirit, not by bodily exercise but by the effect 
 of mental labour on a body entirely at rest. I am as 
 entirely done up by ten o’clock as if I had been all day 
 
 ' Captain George Elliot, afterwards Admiral and K.C.B., married 
 in 1810 Eliza, daughter of James Ness, Esq. 
 
232 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [181(> 
 
 on the moors, and I am in general too much over¬ 
 worked to be frosty-mornish. However, I have a good 
 quiet sort of contentedness, and spectator-like enjoy¬ 
 ment of all the happiness about me, which serves my 
 turn. A few gulps of caller air down our strath will 
 make me too young and oppressive for the best nerves 
 among you.’ 
 
 A present from his eldest daughter of Scott’s last 
 poem, ‘ The Lady of the Lake,’ gave him great delight. 
 ‘ I wish,’ she wrote to him from Edinburgh, where the 
 family were spending the winter of 1809-10,—‘ I wish 
 that the Edinburgh Review was to be out before the 
 ships go, but it will not. Mr. Jelfrey will certainly 
 review it himself, and I cannot help thinking he will be 
 a little puzzled; for he does not like to be scolded by 
 Mrs. Scott or to hurt Walter, though he pretends not 
 to care; and yet he is very likely to bully himself into 
 being more severe than he would naturally be, to prove 
 to himself he really does not care. It is impossible 
 for anybody that does not know this odd little man to 
 enter into the merits of his character; but it is the 
 most amusing thing to watch when you do understand 
 it, and to observe all the odd contradictions, or seeming 
 contradictions, produced by the same causes. It seems 
 a paradox to say that he is not in the least ill-natured; 
 and yet I never knew an acquaintance of his that did 
 not say the same thing, and though he wonders how 
 anybody can be so silly as to mind the tone of ridicule 
 he assumes and the severe things he says in his Reviews, 
 he really is sorry when they do. He is very proud of 
 
JEt. 69] 
 
 EDINBURGH IN 1809. 
 
 233 
 
 himself because he has bullied us all (Jjord Webb,' and 
 I can’t tell you who) about Crabbe; who has just 
 published a new volume, full of horrors of all kinds 
 which he chooses to admire; and we expect a very 
 favourable review of it in the next number. I have 
 not much objection to this ; but if he is not more re¬ 
 spectful in his review of ‘ The Lady ’ than he was in that 
 of ‘ Marmion,’ I shall vow vengeance on his little head. 
 How to execute it will be the most difficult job ; for he 
 cares for nothing that anybody can say or do, unless 
 perhaps one was to gag him ; but then death would soon 
 put an end to his torments, and he woidd die of a reple¬ 
 tion of words.’ 
 
 The winter of 1809-10 was a very pleasant one in 
 Edinburgh. Dugald Stewart had not yet quitted the 
 chair of IMoral Philosophy; and the influence of his 
 character, manners, and taste, gave a tone to the College 
 which was said to be of even greater iidvantage to the 
 students than that they derived from attendance at his 
 lectures. Playfair still occupied the chair of Natural 
 Philosophy, and found time to fall into the chains of 
 the lively IMrs. Apreece, better known in after years as 
 Lady Davy, but Avho in 1810 made the world of Edin¬ 
 burgh stare when intn)duced to it under the aus])ices of 
 the Duchess of tlordon as the true Corinne. Where 
 Playfair was, generally came Lord Webb Seymour, the 
 gentle and the wise, the two friends being so inseparable 
 as to be dubbed husband and wife. These were intimate 
 friends of the IMinto family, as were also ‘John Murray 
 ‘ Lord Webl) Seymour. 
 
234 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1810 
 
 and Henry Cockbnrn, as full of fun and sense as an egg 
 is full of meat,’ Thomas Thomson, ‘the oldest, the 
 gra^’est, and the most learned of all,’ and the Clerks 
 of Eldin, ‘ a family of geniuses ’ revolving round their 
 aged father, irreverently nicknamed ‘ old Tactics.’ ^ On 
 this foundation Lady IMinto and her cousin. Lady 
 Carnegie, had in a former year instituted a coterie, 
 dignified by the name of the ‘ Bro'wn Toast Club,’ in 
 allusion to one of its fundamental laws—that the mem¬ 
 bers should trust to ‘ the cup which cheers and not 
 inebriates ’ for their exhilaration, and to buttered toast 
 for their support. So popular were these meetings that 
 hard-worked lawyers sat up all night to prepare their 
 work in Court next day rather than lose the evening 
 hours with the Brown Toasters. ‘ Jeffrey is most enter¬ 
 taining with his miseries of Avriting reviews with his 
 head full of bad law, and his law with his head full of 
 reviews, and passing his nights scribbling and being 
 abused for his pains. He is so smitten just now with 
 M.’s beauty that his friends say she must cover her face 
 if he is to write any more reviews. Many people would 
 in that case bid her show it for humanity’s sake.’ ^ To 
 one of these ‘ small parties ’ came Madame Catalani. 
 ‘ She sang one song delightfully,’ wrote Lady IMinto; 
 ‘ then, having a cold, would not sing again, bnt consented 
 to show attitudes,—as Lady Hamilton did in her days of 
 beauty,—and we were all in ecstasies. I think her beau- 
 
 ' John Clerk of Eldin, ‘ inventor of the modern system of naval 
 tactics.' 
 
 ^ Hon. A. M. Elliot to her father. 
 
Mi. 59] 
 
 THE BROWN TOAST CLUB. 
 
 235 
 
 tiful, the finest eyes I ever saw; and her manner so gay 
 and natural as well as graceful that I rejoiced I was 
 not a man to become her slave. The evil-minded accuse 
 her and her family of being spies employed by Bona¬ 
 parte: certain it is that the husband’s sister is established 
 here as a person of very considerable fortune, and says 
 Bonaparte gave her permission to come to England for 
 no given time; but I do not see what they can spy, for 
 in England nothing is a secret, or ever will be. They 
 may tell him all the Ministers are at variance, and the 
 country with the Ministers; but, as to anything they 
 intend to do, I suspect it is more than they know them¬ 
 selves.’ 
 
 To these cheerful letters I^ord Minto I’eplied : 
 
 ‘ You were Bro^vn Toasts at the date of your last 
 letter from Edinburgh, and I think this must be aliout 
 the pleasantest part of your lives; inasmuch as wit, 
 and learning, and good sense, and good humour, and 
 good character withal, which are the portion, I believe, 
 of every member of your Chdi, make excellent four 
 hours. I shall be delighted to be admitted to your 
 The, though not legally qualified; but the black kettle 
 and brown toast would make my outlawed mouth water 
 if it were only for the base corporeal gluttony of the 
 thing. So, Molly, put the kettle on, and I’ll be with 
 you in a trice. You will find me an old carle; I really 
 am tired—I mean weary; and it is fidl time I was out of 
 harness, and without my shoes in one of your mother’s 
 best improved grass-parks. It would be a vain attempt 
 to tell you how I long for the goal of my seven years’ 
 
236 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1810 
 
 race. I have been at full speed the whole way, and a 
 round or two more would break me down, I do believe.’ 
 
 The last fleet of 1810 brought to India the dis¬ 
 tressing news of the death of Mr. Windham. To Lord 
 Minto it was an irreparable loss, for their friendship 
 had begun in early life and been faithful through long 
 years. No important step had been taken by the one 
 without previous consultation with the other; and, with 
 considerable difference of character, there had been sin¬ 
 gular harmony in their sentiments. 
 
 ‘ Windham expired at between eleven and twelve 
 o’clock on Monday,’wrote Lady Malmesbury on June 6. 
 ‘ He had taken the opinion of eleven medical persons 
 before he consented to the operation, and only one was 
 against it. He is universally regretted by all parties 
 and persons. He was of that valuable description of 
 men, whom Burke so finely described, that become daily 
 more valuable as the race becomes extinct, for such it 
 will be soon—the high-minded, honourable, true-born 
 gentleman; and yet he was an illegitimate son, and his 
 mother of the lowest description. As Fitzharris said 
 to me, he was one under whom, if bad times came, 
 one might have fought without fear of disgrace. My 
 Dominie never left his bedside nor rested the three 
 last nights.’ Another correspondent wrote: ‘ I am 
 assured by the physicians that the solicitude and 
 enquiries have been double what were expressed for Mr. 
 Pitt and Mr. Fox.’ 
 
 The operation mentioned by Lady Malmesbury, 
 which appears to have been very doubtfully neces- 
 
Ml. 59] DEATH OF WINDHAM. 237 
 
 sary, was occasioned by the results of an accident met 
 with by Mr. Windham in the preceding year. 
 
 ‘ One night,’ wrote another correspondent, ‘ in the 
 beginning of July 1809, as he was returning home 
 alone and on foot from the Miss Berrys’, where he was 
 spending the evening, he perceived a fire; and after 
 tracing it found it next door to the house of his 
 friend, Mr. North. The exertions he made to save 
 different articles of value showed all his characteristic 
 energy. In carrying a load of books he fell, and 
 received a contusion on the hip. A tumour was the 
 consequence, and an operation the conclusion. His 
 constitution did not rally. He saw the approach 
 of dissolution without the least unmanly repining, 
 though he owned he had many reasons for •wishing the 
 prolongation of life, particularly in so far as affected 
 Mrs. Windham. On the evening before he died he 
 signed a codicil to his will, and, having done so, shook 
 hands with the witnesses with a smile on his face, and 
 in half an hour fell asleep never to awake again in this 
 world. As a statesman, an orator, a man of literature 
 and science, a man of purity and integrity in public 
 and private life, of various accomplishments and social 
 qualities, he has not left his equal behind him. 
 
 ‘ Previous to the operation he wrote to his friend, 
 Ur. Fisher, and told him what he was about to undergo; 
 that he iinderstood there was much hazard in his case 
 either way, and he very earnestly wshed to receive the 
 Sacrament, which was accordingly administered to him. 
 and he expressed much satisfaction in having performed 
 
238 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1810 
 
 this duty, as if he expected that this might be his last 
 opportunity. 
 
 ‘ By an observation in his diaiy, the day you took 
 leave of him, he seems to have had a presentiment that 
 you would never meet again. 
 
 ‘ Though he reached the age of sixty, I wonder how 
 he could accomplish half the manuscripts he has left 
 behind him. 1st, a complete translation of De Thou’s 
 history ; 2nd, an immense body of mathematics ; and 
 lastly, an uninterrupted journal from January 1782 to 
 within four days of the operation that proved fatal 
 to him. Nothing, however, is likely to prove fit for 
 publication except the mathematical works, which he 
 desired, only two days previous to his death, to be 
 submitted to the inspection of Dr. King, Bishop of 
 Eochester.’ 
 
^T. 59] 
 
 FOREIGN POLICY. 
 
 239 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The most brilliant chapter in Lord Minto’s Indian 
 government is that of his foreign policy. When Mr. 
 Canning declared that he would call the new world into 
 existence to redress the balance of the old, he expressed 
 in an effective phrase the spirit of the policy carried 
 out by Lord Minto in the East. The conquests of 
 England in one hemisphere redressed the balance of 
 power in the other. Every fresh gain by France in 
 Europe was followed by a corresponding loss in Asia. 
 It was the glory of Lord iMinto’s administration that, 
 whereas at its commencement dread of a French in¬ 
 vasion of India haunted the imagination of statesmen, 
 at its close France had lost all her acquisitions eastward 
 of the Cape. The isles of Bourbon and of France, the 
 Moluccas, and Java, had been added to the colonial 
 possessions of Great Britain, the fleets of France were 
 swept from the Indian seas, and England was without a 
 rival in the Eastern hemisphere. 
 
 The first step in this great scheme was not the 
 most successful. On the conquest of Portugal by the 
 French, the Indian Government received orders to 
 occupy the Portuguese settlements in the East. Goa 
 
^40 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1810 
 
 was already protected by British troops, though the 
 civil administration was still carried on by Portuguese. 
 It was intimated that Macao should in similar manner 
 be protected by a British occupation from annexation 
 to France. A small expedition was sent from India to 
 Macao in September 1809 ; but, though it effected a 
 landing, it was met with such firm though courteous 
 opposition by the Chinese authorities, that it was deemed 
 expedient to re-embark the troops and to abstain from 
 any further designs in that quarter, leaving the Chinese 
 to guard their own coasts, which they appeared well 
 prepared to do. 
 
 About the same time, three ships of the line, car¬ 
 rying troops, took possession of Amboyna, the chief of 
 the Dutch Spice Islands, or Moluccas, and early in the 
 spring of 1810 the whole of the group was annexed 
 to the British crown. These small expeditions were 
 despatched from India while Lord Minto was at Madras. 
 Immediately on his return to Calcutta preparations were 
 commenced for more important enterprises. 
 
 It -will be remembered that within a few weeks 
 after Lord Minto’s assumption of the reins of govern¬ 
 ment in 1807, plans were submitted to him for the 
 reduction of the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius, and 
 of Java, which the fortune of war had transferred, along 
 with the Moluccas and other settlements eastward of 
 India, from the possession of the Dutch to that of the 
 French. 
 
 These plans had been laid aside on the ground 
 that the time for their execution was not come ; first, 
 
^T. 59] 
 
 FOEEIGN POLICY. 
 
 241 
 
 because of the financial difficulties in which the Com¬ 
 pany’s affairs were then involved; secondly, because 
 of some uncertainty as to the approval of the Minis¬ 
 try which had lately taken office in England. The 
 Whig Ministers, Lords Grenville and Grey, while yield¬ 
 ing to none in their desire to promote a system of 
 public economy, had entertained and discussed such 
 ‘ plans ’ with Lord IMinto before he left England ; but 
 the Ministers who succeeded them were believed to have 
 other views. Lord Castlereagh, who had become War 
 Secretary, had in 1800 forbidden any operations east¬ 
 ward of India, and expeditions against the French 
 islands had been positively interdicted to the Indian 
 Government, in spite of the severe damage sustained by 
 their merchant trade from French cruisers. 
 
 In one of his first letters from India to the Chair¬ 
 man of the East India Company, Lord Minto had 
 pointed out the importance of a concpiest of the Isle of 
 France or IMauritius, and the Isle of Bourbon :—‘ The 
 Mauritius aftbrds a secure port for equipping and re¬ 
 fitting ships of war and other cruisers against our 
 trade, and a place of refuge and safety for them and 
 their prizes. Every project of the enemy which re¬ 
 quires a naval and military force, will find facilities in 
 the possession of the 'Mauritius. Troops, stores, and 
 shipping may be almost imperceptibly assembled there, 
 separately and in detail, which could not without ex¬ 
 treme hazard of failure, be dispatched in a body from 
 France.’ Twice during the administration of Lord 
 Wellesley, had expeditions to the Coast of Malabar 
 
 K 
 
242 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1810. 
 
 been sent out from the Mauritius, and the capture of 
 British merchantmen even in the Bay of Bengal had 
 grievously humiliated the Grovernment of India, which 
 would at once have resented the injury by a descent 
 upon the islands, but for the refusal of the Admiral on 
 the station to act under any orders unless issued 
 through the Admiralty.' 
 
 In 1809 no fewer than six Indiamen were taken 
 on their voyage. It was then felt to be high time to 
 protect our maritime trade from further depredations, 
 and early in 1810 an expedition sailed from India to 
 the P’rench islands under circumstances which Lord 
 INIinto’s letters will best describe. 
 
 ‘ On the first occasion, a frigate from the Mauritius landed a 
 number of French troops and others at Mangalore on the coast of 
 Malabar, who joined the standard of Sultan Tippoo, dignified him 
 with the title of Citizen Tippoo, declared his dominions a republic, 
 U7ie et indivisible, and planted a tree of liberty. On the second oc¬ 
 casion a large armament arrived off Pondicherry, consisting of two 
 ships of the line, two frigates, and two corvettes, with a large staff of 
 officers and 1,400 European troops, destined to re-occupy Pondicherry 
 after the Peace of Amiens had restored that dependency to France. 
 On the appearance of the French squadron in the roadstead of Pon¬ 
 dicherry they were informed that the Governor General had resolved 
 not to give up the French settlements (as he had nevertheless been 
 ordered by Royal warrant to do) until he had had time to communi¬ 
 cate with the English ministry. The fleet returned to Mamitius, 
 and before a reply to Lord Wellesley was received, England and 
 France had resumed hostilities. Lord Wellesley had designed an 
 exjjedition against the French islands which was frustrated by the 
 jealousy of the Admiral. The troops intended for the pm-pose were 
 the contingent of 4,000 Europeans and 5,000 Sepoys afterwards sent 
 to co-operate with Sir R. Abercromby in Eg 3 rpt, and who encamped on 
 the shores of the Mediterranean on August 27, 1800. This exjsedition 
 —for the troops marched 120 miles over the desert to the Nile—was 
 thought at the time a feat to be projd of, and greatly to illustrate 
 the resources of the Empire. 
 
^T. 59] EXPEDITION TO THE FRENCH ISLANDS. 243 
 
 ‘ March 26, 1810.' 
 
 ‘ I am just sending an expedition to make the con¬ 
 quest of the Isle of Kourhon. There is the fairest pros¬ 
 pect of success. I propose to follow up the blow hy 
 attacking the Mauritius, generally called the Isle of 
 f'rance. These two acquisitions will be of extreme im¬ 
 portance : they are the only French possessions east of 
 the Cape, and furnish the only means our arch-enemy can 
 command for annoying us in this quarter of the world, 
 till an army can come here in its shoes. From the Isle 
 of France all the cruisers have been sent out against 
 our trade; against which a very large squadron have 
 done little to protect us. The losses of the Company, 
 as well as of the general trade, have been enormous. 
 The Islands have been blockaded by a squadron under 
 Admiral Bertie who commands at the Cape, and they 
 have experienced some distress from that measure, 
 but none sufficient to produce a chance, as it appears 
 to me, of their surrender. In the meanwhile the small 
 island of Rodriguez was, in consequence of orders from 
 England, taken possession of by a detachment of 
 European and native troops from Bombay. The in¬ 
 tention was merely to secure water and send refresh¬ 
 ments to the blockading squadron. The command of 
 the troops was given to Lieutenant-Colonel Keating. 
 Two captured Indiamen were taken by the P’rench 
 frigate Caroline into Port St. Paul on the Island of 
 Bourbon. This tempted Commodore Rowley, who 
 
 To Lady Jlinto. 
 
 K 2 
 
244 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1810 
 
 commanded the blockading ships, and Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Keating to attack Port St. Paul, an enterprise 
 which was conducted and executed in a very masterly 
 manner, and with entire success. . . The success of 
 this operation induced them (these officers) to recom¬ 
 mend that a reinforcement of about 2,000 men should 
 be sent from India with which addition to the force at 
 Kodriguez they had a confident expectation of being 
 able to make the entire conquest of Bourbon; which 
 they consider as an important step towards the reduc¬ 
 tion of the Isle of France. It is upon these grounds that 
 I have fitted out the present expedition, which I have 
 made somewhat stronger than was desired, in order to 
 provide against the preparations for defence which may 
 have been made since the attack on Port St. Paul. 
 
 ‘ A second expedition must be sent against the Isle 
 of France, and a much larger force: including those 
 going now about 10,000 men. The first will sail from 
 IMadras about May 1 ; the second will probably depart 
 from India in August. 
 
 ‘ Calcutta; September 19, 1810. 
 
 ‘ I have been forced to suspend, much longer than 
 I like, my quotidian plan of correspondence by two 
 reasons, hard work and constant attendance, required 
 principally by the expedition to the Isle of France, 
 which has been pushed forward through many difficul¬ 
 ties, sometimes by absolute determination rather than 
 by visible means. I have been pretty nearly alone at 
 times in thinking it practicable to make the attempt 
 
^T, 69] EXPEDITION TO THE FRENCH ISLANDS. 245 
 
 before next April, a delay which might probably have 
 been fatal to the ultimate success. If the troops do 
 not rendezvous off the island in time to attack by the 
 middle of November, it is not entirely prudent to at¬ 
 tempt it later, for the violent hurricanes which seem 
 to live in those islands and to come out, like swallows, 
 at certain seasons, sometimes are experienced in the 
 course of November, though seldom before the middle 
 of December; and, indeed, they will be ([uiet in their 
 caves sometimes the whole year, without taking the 
 trouble of coming abroad at all. Although it woidd be 
 hazardous to keep a large fleet of transports exposed 
 to these birds of prey, or to land troops at a time when 
 their ships and stores may be blown off or worse ; yet 
 single ships or more which have a port to come to, 
 may run in and bring succours during the tempestuous 
 season, without greater hazard than the object deserved. 
 The French accordingly employ the hurricane months, 
 when the blockading squadron is obliged to cpiit the 
 ground, to throw in supplies, and we are informed 
 that, in consequence of the ap])rehensions excited by 
 our late measures, the most positive assurances have 
 been given to the Governor of the Isle of France that 
 troops, military stores, and all other means of defence 
 shall be dispatched from Europe this very season. It 
 is of great consequence therefore, that we should be at 
 Port Louis to receive such supjdies from France, rather 
 than IMonsienr I)e (^aen. This is one of several reasons 
 and certainly the strongest, which has made me dam- 
 natus ohstinoAvs midier (vide Cowslip’s translation), 
 
246 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1810 
 
 and determined me to push off the expedition now, 
 whether it was possible or not. The weight of opinions 
 Avas strong against me in all quarters, but Avhen once 
 the point Avas decided, all hands concurred lustily in 
 the execution, and lo and behold! everything is actu¬ 
 ally afloat. Three divisions of troops from three Presi¬ 
 dencies are noAv on their passage, with a very perfect 
 equipment, having six Aveeks to perform a voyage 
 which may be done in one month; flve Aveeks is a fair 
 allowance, so as to arrive at Rodriguez before Novem¬ 
 ber 1. And this reminds me of a Piedmontese gentle¬ 
 man, Avho said that he had watched the quarrels of 
 mides Avith men for several years, but had never in any 
 instance found the mules in the wrong. Our fleets 
 may still be dispersed by bad weather on the passage; 
 or some accident, not to be foreseen, may occasion 
 delay; but we have done our part, and there is the 
 most reasonable prospect of success. The force is quite 
 equal to the service, according to the most prudent 
 and scientific opinions; and all the information we 
 possess, down to a very late date, avouIcI make the diffi¬ 
 culties less than Ave are prepared to surmount. 
 
 None of the officers who have served against Bourbon 
 consider the event as in any degree doubtful. . . . We 
 ought not therefore to fail, although War is a fine 
 lady and too capricious to be entirely depended upon.’ 
 
 A month after the expedition had sailed from 
 India, instructions' were received from home, re- 
 
 ' From the Right Hon. R. Dundas, dated June 13, 1810. 
 
JEt. 69] EXPEDITION TO THE FEENCH ISLANDS. 247 
 
 commending' the measure which—wrote Lord Minto— 
 ‘ a strong sense of duty to the public had induced him 
 to adopt under a heavy responsibility.’ ‘ About the time 
 your letter reached Fort William,’ he wrote to Mr. 
 Dundas,* ‘you had probably received in London ac¬ 
 counts of the surrender of the Island of Bourbon ; and 
 the expedition against the Mauritius had been des¬ 
 patched from the three Presidencies a month before 
 I had the honour to receive your commands. 
 
 ‘ The change which has taken place in the finances 
 of the Company in India since 1807 has removed all 
 the difficulties which then existed in the supply from 
 hence of pecuniary funds for the expedition. The 
 remarkable improvement which has happened in that 
 branch of our affairs, and the present flourishing state 
 of our finances, I believe unexampled, afford no motive 
 for undertaking chargeable and unnecessary operations; 
 but these circumstances do certainly remove from 
 measures which are expedient and important, the ob¬ 
 stacles of pecuniary embarrassment; especially when 
 the Company is only required' to make the advances, 
 without being ultimately charged with the burden, as 
 in the present instance. 
 
 ‘ Let me here indulge the flattering hope that, 
 while the amount of this armament must give a satis- 
 facfory proof of the Company’s resources in India, . . . 
 the perfect tranquillity which has been maintained in 
 the absence of so large a body of troops, principally 
 His Majesty’s regiments, may afford views not less 
 
 * To the Right Hon. R. Dundas, Jan. 1, 1811. 
 
248 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 favourable, first, of oiir political state without, and 
 next of that more important point of our security, 
 which depends upon the entire suppression of recent 
 troubles within. The expedition against Bourbon, 
 composed entirely of troops from the establishment of 
 Fort St. Greorge, sailed from Madras roads the day on 
 which I myself took leave of the coast. I certainly 
 could not have ventured such a measure, if notwith¬ 
 standing some vexations and disgusts down to the latest 
 period, which might be regarded as the dregs of former 
 disorder, 1 had not confidently relied on the stability of 
 those considerations, stated at the time to the Secret 
 Committee, on which my conviction rested of the effec¬ 
 tual suppression of insubordination and disloyalty in 
 the Madras army. It cannot but be matter of public 
 gratification that these sentiments have been con¬ 
 firmed by every subsequent event. 
 
 ‘Fort William : January 26, 1811. 
 
 ‘ I have this morning received, by despatches from 
 Mr. Farquhar, the happy accounts of the surrender of 
 the Mauritius. I will not postpone my cordial congra¬ 
 tulations on the fortunate accomplishment—with loss 
 so much less considerable than might have been ex¬ 
 pected—of a service, the most important as it is univer¬ 
 sally considered here, and as in truth I believe it to be, 
 that could be rendered to the East India Company 
 and the nation in the East.’ 
 
60) 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 249 
 
 CHAPTER XI r. 
 
 In a letter to Lady IMinto, written before the armament 
 destined to capture the French islands had sailed, I.iord 
 Minto wrote:—‘I have still, one object more, in the 
 event of a prosperous issue to the present enterprise, 
 which will fill up the whole scheme of my warlike pur¬ 
 poses, and which will purge the Eastern side of the 
 globe of every hostile or rival European establish¬ 
 ment.’ 
 
 The first letter of 1811 opens thus:—‘ We are now 
 in the agony of preparation for Java ; and I will whis¬ 
 per in your ear that I am going there myself, not to 
 command the army, but to s(h^ all the political work 
 done to my mind. 
 
 ‘ “ Modeste ” is to be my state coach.’ 
 
 ‘ Calcutta ; February 25, 1811. 
 
 ‘ I am to emltark in a few days for IMadras. I 
 shall then, I hope, proceed to Malacca on board the 
 “ Modeste.” ' . . . My going in ptu'son upon this service 
 is not a very usual measure, and my motives not being 
 generally understood, many ingenious conjectures are, 
 
 ' The ‘ Modeste,' commanded by Captain the Hon. George Elliot, 
 was expected at Madra.s from China on JIarch 15. 
 
250 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA 
 
 [1811 
 
 as usual, in circulation. The first notion Avas that I 
 was going home, and that my touching at Madras Avas 
 only a cover for my retreat; others reported that I 
 was going to the Mauritius, and from thence to visit 
 Bencoolen and all the other outlying settlements. A 
 third conjecture Avas that some great fault had been 
 committed at Madras, and that I was going to set 
 things right there. IMy OAvn reasons are that there are 
 many important points, regarding our future relations 
 Avitli the Dutch, and Avith the native States in Java, 
 which ought to be adjusted at the moment of the 
 attack; that it is impossible to obtain at this dis¬ 
 tance the information and materials on which a satis¬ 
 factory judgment can be formed, and which should 
 enable me to issue instructions sufficiently distinct or 
 well-founded to meet all the possible exigencies; that 
 if the general system could be settled here, events 
 might require modifications not to be foreseen or pro¬ 
 vided for; and lastly, that, as Admiral Drury acts under 
 a distinct authority and is fond of acting for himself, 
 I have no security for the execution of any plan I 
 might adopt, or any instructions which might be given 
 by this Giovernment. Upon the Avhole, I am of opinion 
 that I should not perfectly discharge my duty if I did 
 not attend the Avhole affair in person; and although it 
 is not necessary that the public should be in possession 
 ■of my motives, I have the satisfaction of knoAving that 
 they are entirely approved by my colleagues and other 
 men of experience and judgment Avith Avhom I have 
 communicated on the STibject. I have had Mr. Eaffles, 
 
JEt. 60] PEEPARATIONS FOE DEPAETUEE. 251 
 
 secretary to the Government of Prince of Wales’ 
 Island, a very clever, able, active and judicious man, 
 perfectly versed in the IMalay language and manners, 
 and conversant with the interests and affairs of the 
 Eastern States, in advance for some months past, to 
 collect recent intelligence, to open communications 
 with the Javanese chiefs, and to prepare the way for 
 our operations. I carry with me good assistance of 
 every sort, though few in number. Among these are 
 jMr. Hope, brother of Sir John Hope, a tolerable 
 Dutchman, with excellent talents and habits of busi¬ 
 ness ; Dr. Leyden, a perfect Malay; Mr. Seton, now 
 resident at Delhi, who is to be Governor of Prince of 
 Wales’ Island (in the room of poor Mr. Bruce, Lord 
 Elgin’s brother, lately dead), but who will go on with 
 me to Java. Nothing can exceed his talents except the 
 enthusiasm of benevolence which marks his character. 
 I have John, and Taylor;* Captain Kobinson, who 
 married a Dutch beauty at the Cape, and mastered his 
 wife’s tongue ; and Lieutenant George, who is an excel¬ 
 lent draughtsman. . . . The object we have in view is 
 of the greatest national importance, and it is of infi¬ 
 nite consequence that the first political arrangement 
 should be made on right principles. For this I should 
 have been equally responsible if I had remained at 
 Calcutta, but I could not have made an adequate pro¬ 
 vision for it by any other course than that I am now 
 pursuing. It is not matter of taste or choice, but of 
 duty, or rather of necessity, that I am going to friskify 
 ' Captain Taylor, military secretary. 
 
252 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 in this manner, although I confess, since it is right, 
 that I never engaged in any affair with greater interest 
 or with more pleasure; and you will easily conceive 
 what a gratifying break this kind of adventure must 
 make in the monotony of my not less laborious life at 
 Fort William. 
 
 ‘ I expect to be absent from Bengal seven or eight 
 months ; and of that period I shall probably not pass 
 above six weeks or two months on land, so that, as for 
 sailing, I might as well go to England at once.’ 
 
 The next passages from his journal are dated 
 ‘ “ Morleste" at sea: ’—‘ I have been reading “ Ossian,” 
 and Crabbe’s “ Borough,” &c. I have also with me 
 “ The Lady of the Lake,’’ and the six volumes of Scott’s 
 works, besides Mr. Dugald Stewart’s new volume. His 
 matter is always attractive to me, and his style most 
 captivating. Mr. Fox’s History, the whole corpus of 
 Latin poets, and Cicero’s works, not to mention Dry- 
 den’s, edited by Scott. These Avith many manuscript 
 volumes to read, and some, alas! to write, will serve 
 me for pastime for this trip. 
 
 ‘ March 21.—We have thirty soldiers of the Com¬ 
 pany’s Bengal European regiment sent on board as 
 marines. They are all recruits just come out, and all 
 boys of about sixteen or seventeen years of age,—fine- 
 looking lads, but never having seen a firelock, without 
 clothing, without an officer, commissioned or non-com¬ 
 missioned, or so much as a corporal—in short the raw 
 raaterial perfectly unsophisticated. John has under¬ 
 taken to manufactulre the article, and has accordingly 
 
^T. 60j 
 
 JOUENAL AT SEA. 
 
 253 
 
 been teaching them the manoeuvres on deck in great 
 style. . . . We caught a shark yesterday, and a most 
 butchering business it was. The shark would not have 
 treated one of us half so inhumanly, but would have 
 put us out of our pain in half the time. 
 
 ‘ April 2.—C-told me at iMadras that his plan 
 
 is to consume what remains of life, whatever it may be, 
 in the pursuit of fortune for his family, and to be over¬ 
 taken by the gentleman who is coming up behind us 
 all, before he has accomplished his object. My plan is 
 somewhat like his—with this difference, that I have 
 fixed a period, and that I propose to twaddle a space 
 (I have not settled how long) amongst you all. I 
 allow that the gentleman behind may put out a little, 
 and win the race before 1 intend it; but this is no part 
 of my plan, and I really hope he will not be so uncivil 
 nor such a marplot. After all, if the fellow should be 
 a brute, I hardly know how I should have the face to 
 complain, seeing that on March 23 I turned the corner 
 of three score, after a happy and prosperous journey so 
 far, and seeing that much of my plan, by far the best 
 and most interesting part of it, I mean what secures 
 comfort to those who seem now to make me live be¬ 
 yond my life and survive myself, will have been 
 accomplished, before the trouble-fete could come up to 
 spoil sport.’ 
 
 ‘ “ Modeste,” at sea, May 1811. 
 
 ‘ Dr. Leyden’s learning is stupendous, and he is also 
 a very universal scholar. His knowledge, extensive and 
 minute as it is, is always in his pocket, at his fingers’ 
 
254 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 ends, and on the tip of his tongne. He has made it 
 completely his own, and it is all ready money. All his 
 talent and labonr indeed, which are both excessive, could 
 not, however, have accnmulated such stores without his 
 extraordinary memory. I begin, I fear, to look at that 
 faculty with increasing wonder; I hope without envy, 
 but something like one’s admiration of young eyes. It 
 must be confessed that Leyden has occasion for all the 
 stores which application and memory can furnish, to sup¬ 
 ply his t-ongne, which would dissipate a common stock 
 in a week. I do not believe that so great a reader was 
 ever so great a talker before. Yon may be conceited 
 about yourselves, my beautiful wife and daughters, 
 but with all my partiality I must give it against yon. 
 Yon would appear absolutely silent in his company, as 
 a ship under weigh seems at anchor when it is passed 
 by a swifter sailer. Another feature of his conversation 
 is a shrill, piercing, and at the same time grating voice. 
 A frigate is not near large enough to place the ear at 
 the proper point of hearing. If he had been at Babel 
 he woidd infallibly have learned all the languages there, 
 but in the end they must all have merged in the 
 Tividale How,^ for not a creature would have got 
 spoken but himself. I must say to his honour that he 
 has as intimate and profound a knowledge of the geo¬ 
 graphy, history, mutual relations, religion, character, 
 and manners of every tribe in Asia as he has of their 
 language. On the present occasion there is not an 
 island or petty state in the multitude of islands and 
 
 ' How, twang. 
 
^T. 60 ] 
 
 LEYDEN. 
 
 255 
 
 nations amongst which we are going, of which he has 
 not a tolerably minute and correct knowledge. 
 
 ‘ His conversation is rather excursive; because, on 
 his way to the point of enquiry, he strikes aside to some 
 collateral topic, and from thence diverges still wider 
 from the original object. I have often tried without 
 success to fix him to the point in hand, and the only 
 way has been a more peremptory call than I like to use, 
 especially to one whom I like and esteem so highly. 
 But nothing can differ more widely from his conversa¬ 
 tion in this respect than his writing. His pen is sober, 
 steady, concise, lucid, and well fed with useful as well 
 as curious matter. His reasoning is just, his judgment 
 extremely sound, and his principles always admirable. 
 His mind is upright and independent, his character 
 spirited and generoiis with a strong leaning to the 
 chivalrous; and in my own experience I have never 
 found any trace either of Avrong head, or of an imprac¬ 
 ticable or unpleasant temper. The only little blemish 
 I have sometimes regretted to see in him is a disposi¬ 
 tion to egotism ; not selfishness—but a propensity to 
 bring the conversation from whatever quarter it starts 
 round to himself, and to exalt his own actions, sufferings, 
 or adventures in a manner a little approaching the 
 marvellous. I have indulged myself in this portrait 
 because I feel an interest which I know you all share in 
 so distinguished a worthy of Teviotside.’ * 
 
 * Dr. Leyden was born of humble parentage in the village of 
 Denholm, Roxburghshire. In his native districthe is best remembered 
 as the author of Scenes of Infancy and other poems. A graceful 
 monument was erected to his memory at Denholm a few years ago. 
 
256 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 ‘ Penang, Prince of Wales’ Island : May 12, 1811. 
 
 ‘ Mr. Bruce, Tjord Elgin’s brother, was the last 
 Governor of Prince of Wales’ Island ; and his death, 
 which is much and justly lamented, placed the senior 
 member of Council, Mr. Phillips, provisionally in the 
 chair. We were received therefore by him, and carried 
 immediately to liis house about two miles from George 
 Town, the only place to be called a town in the island. 
 Mr. Phillips is magnificently lodged ; and his house, 
 which he built himself, is one of the handsomest I have 
 seen in India. . . . This mansion is not quite propor¬ 
 tioned to the island, and looks like the great lady in 
 the little parlour. The situation is beautiful—on the 
 bank of a running stream fresh from mountain springs. 
 Beyond the stream the plain extends perhaps a quarter 
 of a mile to the foot of a sublime mountain, and not 
 more sublime than beautiful, steep, craggy, broken into 
 smaller hills, and the whole covered with the most 
 magnificent wood, interspersed with underwood, and 
 here and there vacant spaces which are green and 
 flourishing. On the otlier side of the stream stands 
 Kelso —a bungalow or cottage built by Scott of Raeburn’s 
 eldest son, who gave his house and ground that name, 
 because the little stream divides itself into two branches 
 and forms a sort of microscopic Tweed and Teviot, 
 principally I presume from love and affection for home, 
 which is brought to mind by slight affinities. I ex¬ 
 perienced something of the pleasure which the giver of 
 the name found in it, and felt comfort from the view 
 
60] 
 
 PENANG. 
 
 257 
 
 the name found in it, and felt comfort from the view 
 and neighbourhood of miniature Kelso. 
 
 ‘ The island is about ten miles long, and, like most 
 high islands, has a space between the sea and the moun¬ 
 tain flat enoiigh for cultivation. The interior is all 
 mountain. In Penang, however, the plain is narrow 
 every^vhere, and in a great part of the circumference 
 the mountain comes down steep to the very water, so 
 that of this small territory a very small proportion can 
 be cultivated or even inhabited. The principal plain 
 was made the seat of the settlement ; and, considering 
 that it was desert twenty-five years ago when it came 
 into our possession, great progress has been made both 
 in useful and ornamental improvements. The popula¬ 
 tion is called in round mimbers 30,000 souls—of which 
 two-thirds are Chinese, the rest Malays, people from 
 the coast of Coromandel and other parts of India, con¬ 
 victs from Bengal—a garrison of Bengal Sepoys of about 
 1,000 men, and about 100 English gentlemen and sea¬ 
 faring 2 )eople. The whole of this community may be 
 considered as industrious, for without industry they 
 could not live ; but tlie Chinese are superior to all other 
 Easterns in industry and ingenuity. Agriculture and 
 most of the handicraft and mechanic trades are in the 
 hands of the Chinese. Georgetown is well and regu¬ 
 larly Imilt—the fort is little more than nominal. 1 
 presume you know that Pulo Penang is the native 
 name of Prince of Wales’ Island. 
 
 ‘ Upon the cession of the island the English colours 
 happened to be hoisted on August 12, the Prince’s 
 
 s 
 
258 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 birthday, and hence this new part of Her Majesty’s 
 dominions received his name. 
 
 ‘One of the favourite sights is a flour-mill and bak¬ 
 ing establishment invented and executed by a Chinese. 
 There is nothing very ciurions or difficult in the ma¬ 
 chinery; but the estabhshment is on a great scale, and 
 owes its success not only to the ingenuity, but to the 
 capital and to the very liberal spirit of enterprise of the 
 owner; — to crown all, the bread is preferred by the navy 
 to anything they had even in England. There is a good, 
 regularly built road from Gleorgetown to the furthest 
 extremity of the island, and there are extremely pretty 
 green lanes, smooth and safe for buggies or little phae¬ 
 tons. The horses are universally little Acheen ponies, 
 an excellent and handsome breed of the smallest fairy¬ 
 like horses you ever saw, from the great island of 
 Sumatra, and particularly from Acheen, one of its king¬ 
 doms. What struck my Scotch mind most forcibly at 
 Penang is the timber which covers every inch of the 
 surface not under cidtivation. I am certain that your 
 poor, diminutive European imagination never conceived 
 such trees and such innumerable multitudes of them. 
 They stand as close to each other over the whole moun¬ 
 tain as a larch plantation that never was thinned. The 
 height of the bole before it loses the character of timber 
 may be called, one with another, 150 feet. They are 
 thick enough at this height for the mainmast to a large 
 ship. They are in general perfectly straight and withoiit 
 branch for seventy feet high. The thickness near the 
 
^T. 60 ] 
 
 PENANG. 
 
 259 
 
 ground is magnificent. I am afraid though, this side the 
 Cape and far ayont, to say what they measure, but thirty 
 feet in the girth is common. When you see them down, 
 theyare stupendous sticks. Being straight, they do not 
 furnish the most essential timbers for ship-building ; 
 but they are excellent masts, yards, spars of all sorts. 
 The luxuriance and vigour of all the Eastern vegetation 
 is scarcely to be conceived on your side of the Cape. 
 The freshness and verdure are well maintained here by 
 showers like the Flood every night in the year, or the7'eby, 
 I have found the climate, so far, much more temperate 
 and even pleasant than 1 expected ; and I reckon that 
 I shall skip a summer by this trip, for in Bengal it is 
 at this time the height of the hot winds, which are no 
 joke. Here we have gratefid and refreshing winds 
 during the greatest part of the twenty-four hours, and 
 rain and pui'gative thunder, and the sting is taken out 
 of the tropical sun. 
 
 ‘ Mr. Seton was put in possession of his government 
 the day we landed, and I took my seat at the same 
 time as Governor General in Council, converting this 
 small presidency into the supreme Government of India, 
 and acting myself the part of the great lady in the httle 
 parlour. There were some few points of business to 
 transact, and Penang will have upon its consultations 
 some proceedings of the Governor General in Council, 
 which is an odd accident in the history of both Govern¬ 
 ments. We landed here on the 9th, and are getting 
 under weigh for Malacca on the 12th—a short space for 
 so long a chronicle.’ 
 
260 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 ‘Malacca; May 31, 1811. 
 
 ‘ We embarked at Penang on May 12, and arrived at 
 Malacca on the 18th. Nothing remarkable happened 
 on the passage. The weather was a succession of calms 
 or light winds and squall s, with heavy rain and thunder. 
 This is the case pretty generally through the year 
 in the Straits of Malacca. . . . The passage through 
 these straits is made pretty and interesting by the va¬ 
 riety of islands, and by the high coast of the Malay 
 peninsula, which is always in view, and often at a very 
 discernible distance. Both the islands and the main 
 are much in the same character as Penang—moun¬ 
 tainous, and covered with timber, of which there must 
 be inexhaustible treasures in these regions. We some¬ 
 times had the Malay coast and the mountains of 
 Sumatra in sight at the same time, to our right and 
 left. At iNIalacca we found all the Bengal troops 
 arrived . . . the troops form two camps, in dry, healthy 
 situations, on the sea-shore, close to the water. One 
 is at two miles, the other and most considerable at six, 
 from the town, which helps to defend them against the 
 incursions of barrack-fever and dysentery. The camps 
 very much adorn and enliven the scenery of this pretty 
 bay. Malacca stands on the banks of a small stream, 
 about the breadth of the Rule at Spittal, but resem¬ 
 bling it in no other respect. The town is built along 
 the right bank of the river, one side of the houses pro¬ 
 jecting a few feet over the stream, supported on piles, 
 which elevate them seven or eight feet above the surface 
 
JEt. 60j 
 
 MALACCA. 
 
 261 
 
 of the water. This gives the place in that quarter 
 rather an amphibious appearance. The town runs 
 down to the edge of the sea, and runs back in the 
 direction of the beach, sometimes advancing into the 
 tide upon piles, sometimes leaving a handsome terrace 
 between the houses and the water. 
 
 ‘ (3n the opposite bank of the river, close also to the 
 sea, the Portuguese built a small fort, on their acqui¬ 
 sition of the place in the sixteenth century. The Dutch 
 dispossessed them in the following century, and main¬ 
 tained everything as it was. We came next, about 
 sixteen years ago, and by orders from home have pulled 
 down the fort. This work of destruction has been very 
 recently accomplished, at considerable expense—a most 
 useless piece of gratuitous mischief, as far as I can 
 understand the subject. The ruins of the Avails remain, 
 and Avill long transmit a memorial of the narroAv, and 
 Avhat is felt by the people here to be the malevolent, 
 policy displayed by England to this new portion of her 
 dominions. The (TOA^ernment House, hoAve\'er, built 
 by the Portuguese, and a church erected by the Dutch 
 Avithin the limits of the fort, are still on foot, together 
 Avith a feAv other buildings, public and priA'ate. I 
 iidiabit the Government House, Avhich is not magni¬ 
 ficent, but ansAvers my purposes perfectly in most 
 respects. Puit it staiids at the foot of a steep hill, 
 Avhich covers the Avhole tenement from the sea. Noav 
 as the sea-breeze is in these climates the true vitcd air, 
 and as delicious as the gas of Paradise, suffocation is 
 our portion at the GoA’ernment House. As I see you 
 
262 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 gasping at this account, and opening all the windows in 
 spite of Elliot of Wells, it will give your ladyship great 
 satisfaction to find that the hill makes amends for the 
 harm it does below, by supporting up in the air very near 
 the top a small bungalow, composed of one room and 
 an open verandah, fronting the sea. Greorge is the real 
 owner; but the dutiful boy permits me to sit in the 
 verandah from breakfast to dinner, and has thereby, 
 beyond a doubt, prolonged my life almost a fortnight 
 already. It is in this verandah that he and I are at 
 present, writing love-letters to our absent wives. We 
 swallow the breeze fresh from the sea, and the climate 
 is entirely disarmed. The prospect, too, is a re¬ 
 freshing one to the eye, and possesses beauty on shore 
 and on sea. We have the roads with all the ship¬ 
 ping and a string of small islands in front; to the 
 right we have a bird’s-eye view of the little river and 
 town beyond ; the coast, wooded down to the water, 
 runs curving and waving, and throwing out pretty pro¬ 
 jecting points, made interesting by the camps at different 
 distances; the whole backed inward from the sea by an 
 uneven plain, springing first into elevations, then hills, 
 and at length high mountains in the distance; all 
 clothed near the eye with the richest vegetation and 
 verdure, and, far as well as near, with one universal wood. 
 Of the distant mountains the most important is Mount 
 Ophir, which has pretensions, of which I will not pretend 
 to judge, to be the true Mount Ophir. Certain it is 
 that gold is collected there at this day. 
 
 ‘ Even close to [Malacca the country seems a forest of 
 
^3iT. 60] 
 
 MALACCA. 
 
 263 
 
 lofty timber. But the timber has been long since re¬ 
 moved, and all that are now seen are fruit-trees, some 
 of which are rather of the forest than of garden dimen¬ 
 sions, and under their close, thick shade the Malay and 
 Chinese peasants cultivate their grounds with industry 
 and not without skill. There are many green drives 
 from three to five and six miles round in these woods, 
 and they pass through a great deal of beautifid forest 
 scenery. The conveyance here, as at Penang, is in low 
 buggies and phaetons drawn by Acheen ponies, which 
 l)ustle on with great activity and at a good rate. 
 
 ‘ Mr. George has made a number of sketclies which 
 will help to fill up my blanks. 
 
 ‘ There are about 15,000 souls in the town and 
 adjoining district. About two-thirds of these are 
 IMalays—that is to say, natives; the remainder are prin¬ 
 cipally Chinese who have been long settled, and have 
 colonised here contrary to their usiial custom, which is 
 to ret\irn to China when they have made a little inde¬ 
 pendence to live on at home. The Chinese emigrants 
 never bring women with them, but foregather with 
 Malay females—mostly slaves—and leave them behind 
 when they go home. At iNIalacca they have married 
 the daughters of these Malay mothers, and these, inter¬ 
 marrying, have in a number of generations converted the 
 Malay coarse clay into fine China; so that the colony is 
 now whole blood on both sides of the house, and maybe 
 accounted curious in that respect as well as in that of 
 the men not b(*ing emigrants from China, but descended 
 from emigrant ancestors and born for several generations 
 
264 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 at Malacca. There are also some remains of the old 
 Portuguese stock. These are very degenerate, and little 
 trace of European origin is left, except their professing 
 the Catholic religion. There are people, both IMussul- 
 man and Hindoo, from different parts of India ; but the 
 most thriving class, though not the most numerous, is 
 Dutch, pure, and mixed with Malay blood. The better 
 kind of Dutch are the only substantial part of the com¬ 
 munity. They continue, under our Grovernment, to fill 
 the principal offices, particularly the judicial, Dutch 
 law being established by the capitulation. Some are 
 'merchants, several of them are well-informed, respect¬ 
 able people, and one or two are polite, accomplished 
 men. Of the ladies, the elder matrons preserve a smack 
 of the primitive Dutch colonial fashion in dress and 
 manners. The daughters dress, dance, and flirt very 
 much as well-educated young women do in Europe, with 
 the advantage of being intensely and beautifully brown. 
 You are lily-fair compared with the fairest of the 
 Batavo-lMalaya fail’ sex. My fidelity, you see, is put 
 to the test. Of English there is but a commandant 
 with one or two officers and medical men attached to 
 the small garrison, which consists of two companies of 
 Sepoys from Bengal. Malacca is a dependency of the 
 Penang Grovernment. 
 
 ‘ This account of Malacca is for ordinary times. At 
 present we have a great fleet and army officered by 
 English gentlemen; we have also my establishment, 
 including Mr. Raffles, who has a pretty numerous family, 
 Mrs. Raffles is the great lady, with dark eyes, lively 
 
Mt. 60] 
 
 MALACCA. 
 
 265 
 
 manner, accomplished and clever. She had a former 
 husband in India ; and I have heard, but am not sure of 
 the fact, that she was one of the beauties to whom 
 Anacreontic INloore addressed many of his amatory 
 elegies. . . . 
 
 ‘ I have mustered the whole female community of 
 Malacca art a ball, for I am now writing on June 7. I 
 celebrated the King’s birthday by a levee in the fore¬ 
 noon, a great dinner to all mankind, and a ball in the 
 evening to all womankind. I escaped during the first 
 dance, having had enough of the day by the earlier 
 festivities; and I slept that night up in George’s bun¬ 
 galow to be oiit of earshot of the fiddlers. One of the 
 pleasantest j^arts of the celebration took place privately 
 after the levee. T released all the Government slaves at 
 IMalacca, presenting to each with my own hand a cer¬ 
 tificate of their freedom, and four dollars to provide for 
 their immediate sulisistence till they can get into some 
 way of life. Tliey ha\e also the option of resuming 
 their former state if they find a difficulty in maintaining 
 themselves. They are only nineteen in number, male 
 and female, of all ages, from infants in arms to old, 
 helpless people. INIost of them were born slaves to the 
 Dutch Company, some to the English, and all their 
 children would have continued slaves. Slavery is esta¬ 
 blished in all these couuti'ies to a shocking extent. An 
 insolvent debtor, however small his debt, is condemned 
 to be the slave of the creditor. Some have been slaves 
 for life for 100 or 200 dollars, and if the sum is consider¬ 
 able the whole family shares the same fate. IMen may 
 
266 
 
 LORI) MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 gamble their children, their wives, and lastly them¬ 
 selves into slavery, in satisfaction of bets upon fighting 
 cocks, or any other gambling debt; and nothing is more 
 common. If a criminal is condemned to slavery, his 
 Avhole family goes with him ; or, if he is put to death, 
 the wife and children, young and old, after mtnessing 
 the execution, are sold into slavery—the mother to one 
 master, the children to others. I speak now, not of 
 INIalacca, but of other Malay countries, including Java. 
 I hope something may be done—-partly by authority, 
 partly by influence—to mitigate these horrors ; in the 
 meanwhile the people of IMalacca have been told and 
 have seen that the English think no man should be 
 deprived of his liberty except criminals. Another 
 proof has been given to them that we dislike cruelty. 
 Finding some instruments of torture still preserved, 
 although they have been long disused, I had the cross 
 upon which criminals were broken, and another wooden 
 instrument that had served as a sort of rack, burnt 
 under the windows of a room from which executions are 
 seen by the magistrates, where I and the magistrates 
 Avere assembled for the purpose; and at the same time 
 various iron articles for screwing thumbs, wrists, and 
 ankles, and other contrivances of that diabolical sort, 
 Avere carried out in a boat by the executioner into the 
 roads, and sunk in deep Avater, never to rise or screw 
 poor people’s bones and joints again. 
 
 ‘ Talking of slaves, I must tell you that I am myself 
 the master of several. A Eajah of Balli, an island 
 adjoining the east end of Java, has sent me, amongst 
 
Mt. 60] 
 
 A PEESENT OF SLAVES. 
 
 267 
 
 other presents, five boys and two girls, all slaves, at rny 
 service. They have been some time kept at ]Mr. 
 Eaffles’s house, who has agreed to take one or two. 
 They are all emancipated, of course, but remain an 
 orphan charge upon ns. The boys are from about 
 eight to thirteen years old, and are all fine, spunky- 
 looking boys. The girls are four or five years old. 
 Now to give you a notion of the manners and scenes 
 they are accustomed to : they were all dressed in their 
 bettermost upon the occasion of their being first showm 
 to me. They perceived that there was a sort of so¬ 
 lemnity, which seemed to give them some uneasiness. 
 While they were paraded in this manner, and they were 
 all gazing round them, two Malay spears unfortunately 
 caught Taylor’s eye, in the corner of the room, and of 
 necessity he began tossing and brandishing them about, 
 and at length the scabbards were pnlled otf the bright 
 blades at the ends of the weapons. The moment this 
 happened the poor boys all huddled together, and the 
 youngest left the rest and came with his little hands 
 joined together, in the 7nost supplicating manner, and 
 with the most imploring fiice, walking from one of us 
 to the other, and evidently begging for his life, though 
 he did not utter a word, nor even cried ; but he appeared 
 terrified. It was like one who had little hope of obtain¬ 
 ing his request, and who had been accustomed to con¬ 
 sider the thing he feared as a sort of natural doom 
 that was to be expected. It was with some difficulty, 
 even after the spears w,ere removed, that the children 
 were reassured. They certainly thought that they had 
 
268 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. [i8Il 
 
 been dressed out to be sacrificed or put to death for 
 some cause or other, and when they saw the naked 
 points of the spears they thought their time was come. 
 This is the less surprising, as there is every reason to 
 believe that each of them had seen his father put to 
 death by a number of spears, which is a common mode 
 of execution. Next day they were all very merry and 
 happy. Greorge has taken one of the boys to serve 
 him on board of ship, and that boy has fallen on his 
 legs. ]Mr. Eaffles will take care of one or two, and the 
 rest liave fallen to my lot. They will probably grow 
 into very good servants. The girls will puzzle me 
 most. I have some thought of baking them in a pie 
 against the (bieen’s birthday, unless I shoidd strike out 
 some other idea in the meanwhile. Upon the whole, 
 this present from the Eajah of Balli is providential for 
 the poor children. The Eajah has sent two Vakeels, or 
 Ambassadors, to meet me here, and I gave their Excel¬ 
 lencies audience on June 4. They are young, well¬ 
 looking men. I do not remember having seen the 
 same costume at St. James’s. They Avere naked doAvn 
 to the middle; biit the garments, Avheu they once began, 
 were rich enough. I have one slave more who was 
 given me in a present from the Sidtan of Pontiana, a 
 great chief in the island of Borneo, whom I am likely 
 enough to thank in person on my way to Java. This 
 gentleman is Lord Monboddo’s geniiine oran-outang, 
 which in the iNIalay language signifies literally wild 
 man. He is really too like a.man—that is to say, a 
 Malay man. His features and the Avhole cast of his 
 
Mr. 60] 
 
 ‘ IIAKAYIT ABDULLA.’ 
 
 269 
 
 face are identically the same, for iNIalays are all exactly 
 like each other. Some people think very seriously 
 that the oran-ontang was the original patriarch and 
 progenitor of the whole Malay race, and there is cer¬ 
 tainly a good deal to he said on both sides. It is 
 true the oran-ontang has one manifest advantage over 
 his degenerate posterity, having fonr hands instead of 
 two, and this is the principal difference. My Avild man 
 is but a boy—indeed, a baby; but he is much larger 
 than any monkey I ever saw. He is also too much 
 civilised to deserve the name of wild. I saw him yes¬ 
 terday sitting on a stool, and eating his rice on a table 
 like a Christian gentleman.’ 
 
 While Lord .'Minto was watching the gay and 
 moving scene from the Iningalow on the hill, it was 
 attracting the curious gaze of the natives of ^Malacca, 
 who had never before assisted at pareille fete, and 
 he himself was more closely scanned by an observant 
 eye than he was at- all aware of. 
 
 A most entertaining narrative of the arrival at 
 Malacca of the expedition, consisting of ninety sail, 
 carrying 6,000 Kuropean and 6,000 native troops, 
 forms a chapter in the autobiography of a IMalay, 
 Abchdla by name, Avhich was translated by the well- 
 known vuiter Mr. .1. T. Thomson, b .K.fr.S., and 
 published about six years ago.* From it we shall ven¬ 
 ture to (piote a few passages to complete the narrative- 
 contained in the letters. 
 
 ' Under the title of ‘ Hakayit Abdulla.’ 
 
270 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 Abdulla was only fourteen years of age at tire time ; 
 yet, in his description of their camps, he is said to have 
 painted the Sepoys to the life; and in the few lively 
 touches with Avhich he puts before us the English 
 officers, and the Grovenior Gleneral himself, we are able 
 to recognise the photographic fidelity of his sketches. 
 
 ‘ They erected their tents from Lambongan as far 
 as Tanjong Kling, this without break, each with their 
 entrances. And amongst these were various races of 
 Hindoos and Mussulmans; and I saw some who ate 
 like dogs, to wit, they licked their food with their 
 tongues; while there were others who, on being seen 
 eating, would throAV the food away, and chase you as if 
 they would kill you, they were so angry. There were 
 some who only half-heated the food, and ate it then,, 
 covered with perspiration as if bathing in it. And 
 when they had eaten, they buried the rice and curry 
 that was over in the sand. And there were others who 
 tied three strands of thread round their body before 
 they ate, nor did they stop eating till the thread had 
 broken. There were others who took white and red 
 earth and smeared it on their breasts, with three stripes 
 on their arms and brow; then they bowed themselves 
 in front, then to the right and to the left, then to the 
 back, then off they ran into the sea, and worshipped 
 the sun for some time, turning their faces to the right 
 and left. Then they came ashore, and went to eat 
 within white cloth screens, so that no one could see 
 them at their meals. But if persons should happen to 
 see them, they would cast out their food, and break the 
 
^T. 60] 
 
 ‘HAKAYIT ABDULLA,’ 
 
 271 
 
 earthen vessels in pieces, haying others for the 
 next time. Others there were who could eat before 
 people, but they could not speak. ... I saw many 
 foolish customs. . . . How many forms of people did 
 I then not see, and kinds of dresses that I had never 
 in my life seen before! And it was to be perceived 
 that the English had provided their leaders with 
 different dresses: some had tigers’ skins for coats, 
 others had hats covered with fowls’ feathers, dyed red, 
 white, or black, while others had beasts’ skins for trou¬ 
 sers ; there were others who had clothes spotted like 
 leopards.’ 
 
 To their young co-religionist—for Abdulla was a 
 IMussulman—the ^Mahometan Sepoys from Delhi and 
 Oude wore a far more dignified aspect than the Hindoos 
 with their strange and ‘foolish’ customs. ‘These 
 Sepoys were well acquainted with the Koran; amongst 
 them were many descendants of the Arabs of the race 
 of Syeds. They were gracious, manly, and courteous.’ 
 ‘ They were under the command of English officers, who 
 drilled f hem every day.’ Here follows a frait as charac- 
 ferisfic of the Englishmen as any of those attributed 
 to the men under their command. ‘And when they 
 had done drilling and were returning, the officers did 
 not take their horses through the gates, but leaped 
 over the fence, which was seven cubits high.* The 
 Malacca people came in hundreds every day to see 
 this feat, and the officers leaping the fence; loud were 
 
 ' The Editor informs us tliat this must be taken as Oriental 
 hy^ierbole, since seven cubits would be ten and a Italf feet. 
 
272 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [181 
 
 they in their cries of astonishment at seeing the skill 
 of the horses—equal as it was to that of mankind—in 
 understanding the sound of the trumpet. Says one, 
 ^‘This is not men’s bntywi’.s work.’” 
 
 When at last came the ship with Lord Minto on 
 hoard, ‘ there went out an order for everyone to clean 
 their frontages in all the streets. Then thousands of 
 all races collected at the sea-shore to have a sight of 
 him and his dress, his name being so great. After this 
 a great noise was heard of the regiments coming in 
 full force, with the music of drums, fifes, and other 
 instruments. . . . And the multitude in Malacca in¬ 
 creased so greatly that there was no kno\ving who they 
 were, but that they were of the human race. . . . 
 At the time of his lea\'ing his ship the cannon 
 roared like thunder—the sea became dark with smoke. 
 And when I had seen the appearance and circumstance 
 of Lord Minto, I was much moved; for I guessed in 
 my mind as to his appearance, position, and height, 
 that these would be great, and his dress gorgeous. . . . 
 But his appearance was of one which was middle-aged, 
 thin in body, of soft manners and sweet countenance, 
 and I felt that he could not carry tiventy cutties (about 
 thirty pounds), so slow were his motions. His coat was 
 black cloth, trousers the same, nor was there anything 
 peculiar. And when the leading men desired to pay 
 their respects they remained at a distance, none daring 
 to grasp his hand; but they took off their hats and 
 bent their bodies. . . . When he landed he bowed to 
 the right and to the left. How he had not the remotest 
 
JEt. 60] 
 
 MALACCA. 
 
 273 
 
 appearance of pomposity or lofty-lieadedness; but tliere 
 was real modesty and kindly expression. . . . Xow as 
 long as Lord Minto remained in ^Malacca he took a 
 round in his carriage every evening, one day visiting 
 the mosque, another the t'hinese Joss-house, another 
 the Dutch and Portuguese ('hurches; and wherever he 
 was met by rich, poor, or low, they stopped to make 
 their bow, which he returned with good-humour and 
 courtesy, without the slightest shadow of pomposity.’ 
 
 Lord Minto’s visit to the debtors’ prison is related 
 with much sympathy and great amplifications. One 
 fact told by Al)dulla, which we do not find in the cor¬ 
 respondence, is worthy of mention ; namely, that when 
 the cells of the filthy dungeon were destroyed, a new 
 gaol was built in its place which was ‘ a residence free 
 of all annoyances but one, that you could not get out 
 of it.’ 
 
 We learn from the editor of Abdulla’s autobiography 
 that, ‘as a memento of the deliverance of the prisoners, 
 and of other high-minded acts at Malacca, Lord Minto’s 
 portrait was procured and hung up in the resident 
 magistrate’s office, where he is represented as breaking 
 the shackles of cruelty. When I saw it in 1848 1 
 viewed it with great curiosity. The climate had so 
 destroyed the colours that it might have served for a 
 black Madonna.’ 
 
 ‘ H.M.S. “ Modeste,” off Java : ended August 3, 1811. 
 
 ‘ The fleet having at length assembled at ^Malacca 
 it was despatched towards its destination in a number 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 of small divisions, which sailed successively, each under 
 charge of a frigate, and attended also by sloops of war or 
 Company’s cruizers. The “Modeste ” was not attached 
 to any division, and, being sure of overtaking the 
 earliest and swiftest, we remained at anchor till the 
 whole had departed. The fleet consisted of 81 sail 
 of all descriptions, and it was despatched in many 
 divisions because we had several narrow straits and 
 difficult passes before us, which must have occasioned 
 confusion, and probably accident and loss, if so large a 
 body of shipping had kept together. This voyage is 
 made interesting by the very positive opinions which 
 Admiral Drury had given himself, and had managed 
 to obtain a countenance to from several quarters of 
 authority on such questions, that it was absolutely 
 impracticable to make a passage to Java with a fleet of 
 transports, if it should sail from Madras later than 
 March 1. It was with this opinion that I had to con¬ 
 tend, pushing forward the expedition in the present 
 season, although it could not take its departure so soon 
 as the day fixed by the Admiral, by six weeks accord¬ 
 ing to my expectations, and, as it has proved on trial, 
 by two months. The result has furnished another 
 testimony in favour of the virtue called obstinacy, 
 which is entitled by success to the more polite name 
 of firmness. The difficulty was this. As soon as what 
 is called the south-east monsoon in the eastern seas 
 sets in, the wind blows hard and pretty steadily from 
 the east along the channel between the north of Java 
 and the south of Borneo; it blows to the north-west 
 
JiT. CO] 
 
 STRAITS OF MALACCA. 
 
 275 
 
 along the east coast of Sumatra, and lietween that 
 coast and the Malay Peninsula; it blows to the north 
 between the west coast of Romeo and the straits of 
 Malacca. So that, starting from Malacca, the wind was 
 directly contrary in every part of the course to the 
 northern coast of Java. Besides this difficulty there is 
 a current in the same direction as the wind through¬ 
 out. To carry a great fleet of transports, not famous 
 in general for working to windward, a long voyage 
 directly against wind and current, did not appear pro¬ 
 mising. It was known, however, that with a little 
 patience a fleet can at that season make a passage 
 down the Straits of iNIalacca by any one of the several 
 passages which lead to the eastward. This is done by 
 the help of scpialls which generally blow from the 
 northward ; by occasional shifts of wind ; and by altera¬ 
 tions of tide or current which afford a favourable start 
 to the eastward. It was ascertained by investigation, 
 eiupiiry, and actual sm:vey and trial recently made for 
 the present occasion, that after making the west coast 
 of Romeo, land winds at night, and the sea breeze 
 during part of the day, together with a slackening of 
 the current, and even a fa\ourable current during 
 particular periods of the tide, will enable ships to make 
 a passage along the coast to the southward without 
 much delay; and from the south-west point of Romeo, 
 having the wind at east, you may stand at least as high 
 as south to Java, and make that island as far to the 
 east as Samarang—which is more than we desire. The 
 plan was therefore settled upon this foundation. The 
 
276 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. [l811 
 
 fil'st object was to make the west coast of Borneo as 
 much to the southward as Ave could. ItAvas determined 
 to go through the Straits of Singapore in pi'eference 
 to any of the more southerly issues from the Straits 
 of Malacca, partly because the A¥ind Avas rather more 
 faA'ourable, and partly because it is the common way 
 to China and better known to the masters of ships 
 under couA^oy. The “ Modeste ” sailed from Malacca 
 on June 18. We soon passed a great part of the fleet, 
 and left them in the Straits of Singapore, Avhen Ave got 
 into the open channel between those Straits and Borneo. 
 The navigation so far is beautiful in the highest degree. 
 We were always very near the Malay coast, Avhich is richly 
 furnished Avith islands of many patterns, and were often 
 sailing in archipelagos of them, so close and thick round 
 us that Ave could not ahvays see the Avay out, and at 
 such moderate distances from the opposite shores as 
 to alloAv us the full benefit of Avood, mountain, and all 
 the shifting lines of land and water Avhich make that 
 sort of scenery interesting and picturesque to those 
 passing quickly through it. We cleared the Straits on 
 June 20, at sunset, leaving a great part of the fleet 
 at anchor behind us, and stood across toAvards Borneo. 
 We made that island off Sambas, a little to the north 
 of Pontiana. Here Ave came up Avith a division under 
 the command of Captain Cole, Avhich had sailed from 
 Malacca some time before us, and which was preceded 
 by another under Captain Edgell not yet in sight. 
 We soon, hoAvever, came up Avith it, and had then the 
 lead of all. On the 29th anchored close to the island 
 
jEt. go] 
 
 PANAMBANGAN. 
 
 277 
 
 of Panambangan, which was the first rendezvous from 
 Malacca. 
 
 ‘ The different divisions of the fleet came up gradu¬ 
 ally and slowly, but we saw them arrive with great 
 satisfaction, as the possibility of working to the south¬ 
 ward was thereby completely established, and our pas¬ 
 sage to Java appeared to be secured. The “IModeste” 
 remained at this anchorage from June 29 to July 6, and 
 it was the more fortunate that the situation was un¬ 
 commonly pretty. The island is five or six miles long 
 and somewhat less across. It rises into three or four 
 hills of different shapes, and of considerable height, 
 covered as usual with wood of various sorts and dimen¬ 
 sions. There are several snug bays, with two of which 
 we wei’e principally concerned. In each of these there 
 is a waving beach of Avhite sand, about fifty or sixty 
 paces wide from the sea to the wood, and a nice stream 
 of fresh water running into the sea. The scenery all 
 round is beautiful, and while we were there ani¬ 
 mated by tents and watering parties, boats and their 
 crews, carpenters and their gangs felling trees for spars 
 and planks, washermen, smith’s forges. Sepoys bathing 
 and cooking—in short, a most gay and picturesque 
 scene. The island is uninhabited by man, and nothing 
 more formidable was seen of the brute population than 
 wild boars ; there are deer, however, and some of the 
 small kind called mouse deer, really not so large as a 
 hare. 
 
 ‘ I went on shore once, to see (ieorge and Captain 
 
278 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 Edgell’s works. They constructed dams across the 
 stream of fresh water, to raise the surface higher than 
 the tide at high water. The pond head was carried 
 down every shower that fell, which were not a few, but 
 they renewed the work next morning indefatigably, 
 having plenty of hands; and in fact their labours 
 answered the purpose, and a fidl stock of excellent water 
 was obtained. The Sepoys are particidarly happy on 
 these short visits to the land. Their religion makes it 
 difficult to supply them with food at all on board, and 
 it is always attended with inconvenience and privations 
 of various sorts, the whole heightened by uneasy scruples 
 by way of spice. When they get on shore, each man 
 cooks his own meal according to his taste and pre¬ 
 judices, and they bathe comfortably both to their sldns 
 and consciences. The Avhole scene of black and white 
 men, of trades and occupations, with the sort of spirit, 
 energy, and cheerfulness which belongs to British sea¬ 
 men, made this Panambangan beach a most lively and 
 agreeable spot. 
 
 ‘ From Malacca the “ Modeste ” was accompanied by 
 the schooner “ hlinto,” a vessel attached to me, and con¬ 
 taining Dr. Leyden Avith a number of Malay moonshees 
 or interpreters and writers of that learned language. She 
 is commanded by Captain Glreig, a remarkably intelH- 
 gent country ship-master, who is perfectly at home in 
 the eastern seas. He has already been of the greatest 
 use, both by missions to some islands adjacent to Java; 
 and more particularly by having pointed out the passage 
 which Ave are now making to .Java, and ascertained its 
 
Mt. 60] 
 
 PANAMBANGAN. 
 
 279 
 
 practicability by actual survey himself. While thus 
 engaged he was attacked by a very strong Pirate Prow, 
 whom he beat off with difficulty and with the loss of 
 several killed and a greater number wounded. . . . 
 Greig is a plain, modest, unassuming Fife-man, with 
 excellent natural parts and character, such as “ Caly- 
 donia, altrix terra exuberaiitium virum,’ so often sends 
 from her lower ranks to all the quarters of the globe. 
 Greig is ennobled, however, by another exuberant member 
 of his family, who sent home honour and reputation to 
 his stock from Russia and the Archipelago,—Admiral 
 Greig himself, who was a near relation of our Greig of 
 the “ IMinto ” schooner. . . . 
 
 ‘. . . I return to Panambangan, where our gay fleet 
 encampments on shore, and all the occupations which 
 this halt afforded, would make a mighty good engraGng 
 to illustrate this chapter of my journal when it is 
 published, as it will be by my executors, in quarto, 
 price ten guineas. 
 
 ‘ You must know, fresh fish is a great treat at sea, 
 and with this luxury we solaced ourselves and the crew. 
 There were oysters also, but none fell to my share ; but 
 do not imagine our pleasures were confined to the 
 table; for we gratified our higher tastes and improved 
 our minds and morals at the Theatre. A play has 
 been performed every Saturday evening by His Majesty’s 
 servants on board His Majesty’s Ship “ Modeste,” and 
 when the fleet was collected at Panambangan the 
 house was crowded with rank and fashion. I omit 
 beauty, because the manager admits no female either 
 
•280 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 before or behind the curtain; so that we enjoy the 
 moral entertainment of stage plays in all its purity. 
 T was never near so well amused at any other perform¬ 
 ance of amateurs. It is really surprising to observe 
 the propriety with which these rough, uninstructed, 
 unassisted sailors represent all the varieties of character 
 which are found in comedy, and, amongst the rest, 
 young, accomplished, and generally sentimental ladies 
 of quality; rendering vdth perfect justness all that 
 concerns nature, failing only in what is artificial and 
 arbitrary, as in the extraordinary work they make of 
 what appears to us very ordinary words of the English 
 language. We now hear exqtiisitive for exquisite, 
 etiquity for etiquette, and axe for ask, with as little 
 prejudice to the play or the performer as a Scotch 
 vowel or phrase is heard in the House of Commons from 
 an eloquent member for Scotland. . . . 
 
 ‘ From Panambangan anchorage we were to pass 
 lietween that island and an adjacent one to the east¬ 
 ward in order to make the west coast of Borneo. But 
 no part of this track had been examined. Gleorge ac¬ 
 cordingly sent Captain Glreig with the “Minto” schooner 
 to perform that service, and he made a perfectly satis¬ 
 factory report before Commodore Broughton had arrived 
 at Panambangan with the bulk of the fleet. 
 
 ‘ Commodore Broughton,’ who is the most cautious 
 navigator that ever wore a blue coat, was not satisfied 
 
 * Commodore Broughton had taken the command of the naval 
 force on the death of Admiral Drury, which occurred before the 
 expedition left Madras. 
 
JEt, 60] 
 
 OFF FORNEO. 
 
 281 
 
 to abide by (ireig's report, but ordered the “Modeste’^ 
 to go ahead and reconnoitre the whole passage to the 
 Kendezvons, thinking very properly that I had better 
 be drowned than he. As I was entirely of the same 
 opinion I accepted the service very thankfidly. In 
 reality I knew that George was much fitter to perform 
 this duty than any other officer in the fleet, and I 
 thought it would be amusing to myself. 
 
 ‘. . . We made the coast of Borneo as far to the 
 north as we coidd, and then zigzagged our way along 
 the shore in five or six fathoms of water to the point 
 proposed. 
 
 ‘. . . The C'omniodore had also ordered George to 
 survey the neighbourhood of I’ulo Mancap, which is 
 situated beyond the rendezvous, and is surrounded with 
 shoals. This duty we also performed, returning to the 
 Eendezvous before the Commodore and fleet reached 
 it. 
 
 ‘ We had fallen in with a fleet of nine Bnggese Brows' 
 when we went out towards Bulo IMancap, and from 
 them George was informed of a shoal which lay some¬ 
 what in the course to Java. George, in commnnicating 
 the rest of his information to the Commodore, men¬ 
 tioned this shoal. Ilpon this he ordered the “ INIodeste ” 
 to explore it, whereupon we sailed again, but returned 
 the second day without having found it. Immediately 
 after, accounts were received that three French frigates, 
 with 1,000 troops, had got into .Java, and again the 
 
 ‘ Another letter says, ‘ l’>u"gese, jn’opeiiy Bouginese, I’rows, 
 belonging to the Rajah of Bontiana.' 
 
282 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 Commodore stood my frieud imd gave me the post of 
 honour, which I accepted with I’eal pleasure. He 
 ordered the “ Modeste” immediately to Java. We.sailed 
 that night and fell in with the very shoal, which we 
 had missed by one mile of longitude a couple of days 
 before. But as the Commodore would not allow us 
 any small vessel to send back with intelligence, if we 
 should meet with any, we could not convey notice to the 
 fleet of this danger. However, there is little risk, for it 
 lies further to windward than they can well keep up to. 
 
 In less than forty-eight hours from Eendezvous Island 
 we were near enough Java to have seen the land if it 
 had been daylight. On the next morning, July 25, we 
 got a sight of the Land of Promise.’ 
 
 That afternoon Lord INIinto received from Captain 
 Sayer of the ‘ Leda,’ the intelligence that Rear-Admiral 
 Stopford, on learning the death of Admiral Drury, had s 
 determined to jjroceed at once to Java, and was actu- j 
 
 ally within a feAV days’ sail of Java.' ‘ The little Com- ] 
 
 modore’s brief hour of authority came to an end to the j 
 great relief of all in the fleet and army. There coidd 
 
 * Another piece of intelligence derived from Caijtain Sayer is 
 recorded thus : ‘ He hrougiit the news of the Enipresst liariiui an heir. 
 
 The Empress Maria Louisa, daughter of the Emperor of Austria, 
 granddaughter of Maria Theresa, niece of tlie Queen of Naples, wife 
 of Bonaparte ! ! ! ’ It was no doubt strange news to tJie late Envoy 
 Extraordinary to the Court of Vienna, and it was scarcely less 
 strange that it should have reached him in a remote island in the 
 Java Sea, on his way to wrest an important conquest from the grasp 
 of Bonaparte. ‘It seems to me,’wrote Lndy Malmesbury, ‘that 
 while you have taken to make conquests, Bonaparte is becoming 
 quite a family man.’ 
 
Mt. 60] 
 
 OFF JAVA. 
 
 283 
 
 not be a man less fit for the important situation into 
 which chance had brought him. 
 
 ‘ Wliat information we have is all favourable to our 
 views, and I do flatter myself that my last military 
 labour will terminate as successfully as the former have 
 done. 
 
 ‘ Having met a prize vessel, very lately from Grrissy 
 in the east of Java, we have learnt that the new 
 Governor General Janssens, (formerly Governor of the 
 Cape) arrived in one of the French frigates, and that 
 Marshal D’Aendels, whom he has superseded, has since 
 departed in the same frigate. The other two frigates 
 are blocked up iu Sourabaya. We have been long ex¬ 
 pected in .Java, and the disposition of all tribes and 
 nations, inchiding the Dutch, is entirely favourable to 
 the establishment of our Government. 
 
 ‘ Having now brought these annals do^vn to the 
 present hour, dinner-time, July 27, cruising till our 
 expedition comes on, I shall conclude with the event 
 whenever it happens, and ojien a new number for our 
 exploits on shore. 
 
 ‘ AuguM 3.—We cruised to the eastward, and 
 George sent his boats in the night to a small place, 
 called Taggul, to cut out some Prows of which he had 
 intelligence, lading rice for Hatavia by the order of the 
 Dutch Government. Instead of that sort of (juiet 
 craft, the boats fell in with four strong gun-boats, each 
 carrying thirty-two pounders and full of men. Xot 
 being equipjieil for that sort of contest our boats re¬ 
 turned without attacking. We returned to the Rendcz- 
 
284 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 vous, and the fleet not having yet arrived, we stretched 
 out again to the eastward, and the boats of the 
 “Modeste”and “ Leda” went in again to Taggul prepared 
 to carry the gun-boats. But this time these warriors 
 had retired and sailed towards Batavia; so that onr boats 
 only brought off a small brig and two Prows laden with 
 rice for Batavia. 
 
 ‘ On returning to the Rendezvous, we found yester¬ 
 day morning, at daybreak, a ship looking out for us to 
 say the expedition had arrived on July 30, and had 
 sailed towards Batavia early that morning. We soon 
 came up mth them, and are now approaching the place 
 of disembarkation which will take place this morning 
 or at daybreak to-morrow.—God bless you.’ 
 
 The expedition arrived on July 30, and on August 
 4 the disembarkation was effected at a small town 
 called Chillinching in Batavia Bay. 
 
 ‘ Chillinching, Java: August 6, 1811. 
 
 ‘ The disembarkation took place without any kind 
 of opposition. All the troops, a few field-pieces, and 
 part of the stores were landed that evening and in 
 the course of the night. The horses, ordnance, and 
 additional stores were put on shore next day. . . . 
 This village is principally Chinese. They made us 
 welcome, and brought their articles out for sale with 
 very flattering confidence. This was justified by the 
 exemplary behaviour of the troops, who paid their way 
 and did not even kiss an old woman without her con¬ 
 sent. There has been but one drunken man in two 
 days. 
 
Mt. 60 ] 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 285 
 
 ‘ Aiigust 7. As everytliing has been quiet, and 
 the army remains at Ghillinching, where the Gieneral ‘ 
 occupies the only gentleman’s house, I have continued 
 on the “ Modeste,” and go on shore when I like. Yester¬ 
 day I took a ride with the General to the advanced post, 
 about four miles, and then returned to the “ Modeste.” 
 The country is like Chinese paper on a wall. Canals, 
 tanks, and narrow ways between ; here and there a little 
 dry ground, and these spaces are in a state of high cul¬ 
 tivation. Every now and then we found a gentleman’s 
 house Avith no appearance of splendour, but always 
 marked by the characteristic neatness of the Dutch. 
 Our road ran westward parallel to the sea; the right 
 of the line of the troops on the sea, the left inland. 
 I had an opportunity of observing Avhat may be deemed, 
 I believe, a pretty nearly unexampled degree of disci¬ 
 pline in the troops. They do not use tents, and have 
 as yet had only their salt provisions. They are posted 
 in gardens and orchards with cottages and houses of a 
 better description, surrounded Avith poultry, fruit, and 
 vegetables. Xo fresh beef or pork Avas to be procured, 
 the cattle and pigs having been very generally removed 
 by order of Government. In these circumstances Ave 
 saAv the peasants living as quietly in tlieir OAvn houses, 
 and carrying on their usual occupations Avith as little 
 annoyance, apprehension, or OA^en notice of an invading 
 army in the midst of them, as if Ave Avere all their nc'ar 
 relations on a visit. You see the trees laden Avitli 
 cocoa-nuts and plantains, acres of onions, cabbage, and 
 ' Sir Samuel Auchmuty. 
 
28G 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 many tempting things, not one taken, nor the slightest 
 ofience given to a single inhabitant. Not a chick or a 
 hen made free with, money offered and given in every 
 instance for what the people are willing to spare. . . . 
 The gentlemen’s houses and other habitations of a 
 middling land being deserted, with some old slave or 
 servant left behind to look after them, the officers have 
 astonished these guai’dians by refusing to occupy the 
 houses with clean beds and neat furniture, and sleeping 
 sometimes in the verandah, sometimes in a separate 
 pavilion, and never in the house; and the cocks are 
 seen fighting, the hens and chickens pecking about, and 
 the ducks gobbling and dabbling, just as if they were 
 our own fellow-subjects. I observed yesterday to the 
 General, as we were passing the house of the Dutch 
 Paymaster General, that a battle which we saw between 
 two of his cocks was the only thing like war that I 
 could perceive in our invasion. 
 
 ‘ August 9. The advance of the army having 
 moied forward to a place about three miles from 
 Batavia, the General sent a summons to the city which 
 was immediately answered by a surrender at discretion. 
 The enemy, in order to concentrate their force at a place 
 called Cornelis, had withdrawn their troops on the 6th, 
 and set fire to some public stores and to the citadel; the 
 town was therefore glad of our protection against a 
 disposition to plunder and disorder manifested by the 
 slaves and lower class of Malays. We were thus in 
 possession of the metropolis of the Dutch East Indian 
 
JEt. 60J 
 
 BATAVIA. 
 
 287 
 
 Empire the fourth day after our landing. Not a gentle¬ 
 man, not a person of any note was left in the city. The 
 Dutch, that is, the French Governor, had required them 
 under pain of death to quit their houses and repair to 
 the head-quarters of the army, where they are narrowly 
 watched. They have left their houses, however, richly 
 furnished, their wives, children, and slaves to the safe¬ 
 guard of the invaders’ generosity ; and we are all Scipios. 
 The deserted women were in terror, not of us but of their 
 own slaves, who have a slavish trick of using the oppor¬ 
 tunity of public disorder to gratify their private pas¬ 
 sions by rising on the defenceless whites and murdering 
 those they rob. . . . Everything p(.)rtable of public 
 property had been removed from the town, but much 
 valuable public property was consumed, and much 
 plundered. In some streets people walked during the 
 first days of our occupation over the shoes in sugar, 
 coffee, spices, and rice. Ihit much has been preserved. 
 In that great city were fonnd only six horses (ponies) 
 and not one head of cattle. 
 
 ‘ I sent a letter yesterday morning to General 
 Janssens, the Governor General, containing a summons, 
 and distributed at the same time a sort of manifesto 
 to the Dutch inhabitants to remo\ e their apprehensions 
 and invite their co-operation. The summons was re¬ 
 fused, and I received the answer that night. 
 
 ‘ August 12. I went on shore on the 9th about 
 noon to speak to the General. Admiral Stopford had 
 joined the fleet that morning, and landed for the pur¬ 
 pose of visiting the General and myself. 
 
*288 
 
 LORI) MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 ‘ Captain Eohison, my aide-de-camp, who carried my 
 summons to Greneral Janssens found him at Cornelis, a 
 strong post about six miles from Batavia. He went to 
 Weltevreeden, halfway, Avithout molestation ; but Avas 
 blinded the rest of the road. As far as Weltevreeden 
 he saw that there Avas no obstacle to the advance of 
 troops; from thence to Cornelis he perceived by the 
 motion of the carriage that the road Avas smooth and 
 the bridges, if any, Avere standing. Upon this rejiort, 
 confirmed by their information, the Greneral determined 
 to push on and take post at Weltevreeden. Welte¬ 
 vreeden is an immense and magnificent military can¬ 
 tonment, but not fortified. Cornelis is a military post 
 of great strength, on Avhich all the art of French 
 engineering has been long bestoAved. It is considered 
 as the citadel of Java, in Avhich the colony itself is to 
 be defended. The advance of the army moved foi’Avard 
 accordingly on August 10, and Avere followed by other 
 troops. 
 
 ‘ They met no opposition till they had passed through 
 the cantonments of Weltevreeden, but immediately 
 afterAvards a, very slrarp action commenced. It lay 
 principally betAveen the riflemen and the light troops 
 in the jungle on each side of the road, and in this con¬ 
 test the superiority of our men was immediately decisive, 
 driving the enemy from the woods Avith great loss. 
 Another principal feature of the day Avas the capture, 
 sword in hand, of four of the enemy’s field-pieces, Avhich 
 had been planted in the road behind an abbatis. They 
 Avere deserted by the men, but Avell defended by an 
 
jEt. 60 ] 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 289 
 
 officer or two and a non-comnaissioned officer who were 
 cut down at fheirgun.s. Our troops suffered principally 
 on this road from grape and musketry under cover of 
 the ahbatis; but they drove the enemy in such confu¬ 
 sion before them that tVdonel Gillespie was prevented 
 only by repeated orders from the General, from dashing 
 at once into the place along with them. Our troops 
 halted, and took post under the guns of Cornells. This 
 was a most important and most honourable success. 
 It gave us every imaginable accommodation for the army 
 in the barracks and cantonments of Weltevreeden, great 
 stores and magazines, some hundred pieces of artillery, 
 mostly brass, of all calibres, horses, labourers, and an 
 easy conveyance of every article by water. 
 
 ‘. . . . The loss of the enemy Avas great, ours in¬ 
 considerable. Taylor, who is attached to Gillesine, dis¬ 
 tinguished himself on this maiden occasion bv the 
 greatest activity, courage, coolness, and judgment. 
 
 ‘ August 15. I continued on I)oard the “ Modeste ” 
 till the 14th, when I landed privately, and settled, Avith 
 all my friends, in a good spacious house near the can¬ 
 tonments of Weltevreeden. Cornells is found too strong 
 to be carried without heavy artillery. The battering 
 train is therefore landing from the transports, and 
 nothing material has happened since the 10th. The 
 humanity of the men to their Avounded ])risoners on 
 that day Avas admirable. No distinction of colour on 
 that occasion. Our soldiers picked uj) English, Dutch, 
 and Malay, Avithout distinction, in the jungle and carri(‘d 
 them with great labour to the hospital. The INlalays 
 
 IT 
 
290 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 and other native troops are all in amazement, having 
 been made to believe that we are savages, and should 
 treat them with all sorts of barbarities if they fell into 
 our hands. 
 
 Batavia shines in the national neatness of the Dutch. 
 The streets wide, not paved, hut the roads formed of 
 very fine gravel, and excellent. From the town the 
 roads run along canals, or streams of water, in some 
 places quick and almost lively, mostly, however, slow, 
 dull, and always yellow. On the other side of the road 
 there is a succession of garden houses ; the garden gate 
 and rail close to the road; the houses more or less 
 retired, and standing each in an open space of its own. 
 They are not remarkable for show and cheerfulness, and 
 the architecture is not Vitruvian ; but they indicate the 
 neighbourhood of a great capital, and they convey a 
 strong idea of opulence and luxury. The houses, 
 indeed, are to be admired for space, loftiness of rooms, 
 and fitness for a warm climate. In the house that I 
 inhabit there is a high open gallery of 100 feet by 32. 
 My bedroom is immediately over it, and of the same 
 dimensions. A great hall crosses from the gallery to 
 the front, so that the winds blow in and through from 
 four quarters. 
 
 ‘ August 23. The batteries have been very tedious, 
 and there does appear to have been a good portion of 
 fiddle-de-dee twaddlification in the departments con¬ 
 nected with our works. 
 
 ‘ August 28. Nevertheless, the enemy’s impregnable 
 
Mt. 60 ] 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 291 
 
 works were stormed at daybreak on August 26—a new 
 day in our military calendar. The place was most 
 formidable in strength, and it really seems miraculous 
 that mortal men could live in such a fire of round, grape, 
 shells, and musketry long enough to pass deep trenches 
 defended by pointed palissades inclining from the inner 
 edge of the ditch outwards, force their way into redoubt 
 after redoubt, till they were in possession of all the 
 numerous works, which extend at least a mile. . . . 
 The slaughter was dreadful, both during the attack 
 and in the pursuit, when the total destruction of the 
 enemy’s army was prevented only by their surrender¬ 
 ing prisoners, or dispersing and finally deserting the 
 French. We have upwards of 5,000 prisoners, including 
 all the Europeans left alive. General Janssens escaped 
 captiure most narrowly, by the most precipitate flight, 
 leaving all his official papers behind him. General 
 Jumelle, a Frenchman sent out to watch and succeed 
 Janssens, was glad to get into a bog up to his chin till 
 the heat of the pursuit was over, and then crept out 
 in a dirty plight to a hospital, where he remained till 
 dark, and then made off as hard as he could gallop to 
 Buitenzorg, to join Janssens. There never was 
 
 such a rout. 
 
 ‘ The General immediately despatched Captain 
 Eohison with a second summons to be delivered verbally. 
 It was again refused. But the affair is not the less 
 decided. Janssens has not 600 men, out of 7,000 or 
 8,000 whonr he commanded in the morning, and his 
 government is at an end. Troops will advance to- 
 
292 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 morrow morning to Buitenzorg, and on their arrival, two 
 days hence, he must either capitulate, or fly alone to the 
 eastern part of the island, where he may alfect to hold 
 out till he is pursued. ... I do really believe that 
 August 26 is a glorious day to Sir Samuel Auchmuty 
 and the army.The seamen have afforded enter¬ 
 
 tainment as well as acquired honour by their eccen¬ 
 tricities and courage. They fell in with a galloper of 
 the enemy’s, of which they took possession, when they 
 mounted the four horses, and drove the gun on in the 
 character of horse artillery. They were very soon all 
 mounted at the expense of the French officers and 
 troopers, and have obtained the title of His Majesty’s 
 Marine Light Dragoons. In short, Johnny has main¬ 
 tained a consistency of character with no feature of 
 which I hope he will ever part. 
 
 ‘ I knew the night before that the storm was to take 
 place, and you may imagine the anxiety with which I 
 heard the cannon and the musketry rather before day¬ 
 light. By its long continuance and violence I per¬ 
 ceived that the enemy had not instantly fled in a panic; 
 and if they stood, with such an advantage as their 
 works gave them, I dreaded the loss which must be 
 sustained even with success. Taylor and Robert were 
 constantly in my mind. On the event of this enterprise 
 depended also the issue of this grand undertaking. 
 George slept in my room. He soon got on horseback, 
 and I into my buggy with Mr. Hope as expeditiously 
 as I could. We drove on briskly to the field ; the 
 action still lasting; but at a mile distance I met a 
 
JEt. 60] 
 
 STOEMING OF COENELIS. 
 
 293 
 
 wounded officer and soldier walking tq the hospital, a 
 mile back. I therefore sent Mr. Hope to drive them 
 to the hospital, and walking on myself soon came to 
 the field, where the victory was by this time decisive, 
 and the enemy in fidl flight. The General hearing I 
 was there rode to meet me, and reported his triumph 
 with a most radiant countenance. I then inquired 
 after Taylor and my particidar friends, and most hap¬ 
 pily found all unhurt. 
 
 ‘ Next morning I went, before daylight, to visit all 
 the works—our o^vn as well as the enemy’s. A field of 
 battle seen in cold blood the day after is a horrid 
 spectacle, but is too horrid for description. The 
 number of the dead and the shocking variety of 
 deaths had better not be imagined. In this instance, 
 besides the objects scattered along the road and over a 
 Avide plain, there was a crowded, accumulated scene of 
 slaughter and destruction, in all their worst shapes, 
 collected together in a small space Avithin each of the 
 many redoubts that had been taken from the enemy. 
 In one of them the dead, more mangled than can be 
 described, were the conquerors themseh’es. They Avere 
 the Grenadiers of Iaax) English regiments, and of course 
 the finest men in the army. After forcing their way 
 into the Avorks, and having given three cheers for their 
 success, the explosion of a magazine in the centre bleAv 
 them into the air. 
 
 ‘When Hope and I visited this place, there Avas a 
 
•294 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [18JI 
 
 corner or bastion still burning violently. We looked 
 into the fire, standing close to its edge, and going 
 afterwards a few paces towards another corner, we were 
 surprised by a loud explosion from the place we had 
 just left. This proved to be a blind shell which had 
 become red hot, and went off close to us, so that we 
 might have paid for our peeping. Many officers were 
 killed and wounded by the explosion of this magazine, 
 which, I am disposed to think, happened by accident.’ 
 
 In a despatch addressed by Sir Samuel Auch- 
 muty to the Grovernor Gleneral, after the captm'e of 
 Cornells and the subsequent dispersion of the enemy’s 
 forces, he stated that, in the action of the 26th, 
 near 5,000 prisoners had been taken. Among them 
 three Gleneral officers, thirty-four field officers, 
 seventy captains, and one hundred and fifty subaltern 
 officers. Gleneral Janssens made his escape mth diffi¬ 
 culty during the action, and reached Buitenzorg, a 
 distance of thirty miles, with a feAv cavahry, the sole 
 remains of an army of ten thousand men. This place 
 he subsequently evacuated, and fied to the eastward. 
 
 ‘ August 29.—Janssens is gone Avith a fragment of 
 his force, under two thousand of all sorts, towards 
 Samarang. Two frigates haAn already sailed Avith a 
 small force, and will be folloAved by more, to inter¬ 
 cept him. The game is ours. . . . The Gleneral con¬ 
 siders the affair as so entirely decided that he proposes 
 returning to Madras after visiting Samarang. I have, 
 on my part, published a proclamation declaring the 
 French Glovernment to be dissolved and the English 
 
^T. 60] 
 
 STOKMING OF CORNELIS. 
 
 2'Jo 
 
 estilblished. Such is the state of our affairs at this 
 date. 
 
 ‘ I have now a melaucholy account to send you of 
 the heavy loss we hav^e sustained in my poor friend Dr. 
 Leyden. He was seized with fever a few days after 1 
 landed at Batavia, and struggled hard with it till 
 yesterday morning, when he expired, and I assisted 
 at paying him the last honours in the evening of 
 the same day. He had been subject to bihous 
 attacks from the time of leaving Calcutta, and indeed 
 long before; but he was frequently ailing on the 
 voyage, and always making great efforts of mental and 
 sometimes of bodily labour. In Java he pushed his 
 exertions of every kind far beyond his strength, and 
 was totally regardless of the precautions against the 
 sun, which are indispensable in these climates. He 
 was seized, after great fatigue in the examination of 
 a public library which I had committed to his 
 charge ; and having gone heated from the library into 
 another room, which had not been opened for a long 
 while, he was suddenly struck with a chill. He ran 
 ont of the place saying it was enough to give any 
 man a fever; but, in truth, his habit was predis¬ 
 posed, and he never surmounted the first attack, 
 though he struggled against it longer than is usual, tor 
 fevers are rapid here. This must be accounted the 
 illness of a hot climate, but not of Batavia in par¬ 
 ticular. The climate, indeed, in this place, a little 
 above Batavia, seems to us milder and more favourable 
 to health than Bengal, and this is not reckoned a 
 
296 
 
 LOEl) MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 healthy month by the inhabitants. September and 
 October are among the best in the year. I am myself 
 perfectly well. 
 
 ‘ Septe'tnher 4.—The despatches for England are to 
 be sent on board this day, and I must close here. Sir 
 Samuel has embarked for the eastern expedition, with 
 3,000 men, which far exceeds the force required, but they 
 \vill garrison that end of the island. The “ Modeste ’’ 
 carries the Greneral to the easOvard, and, when she has 
 landed him, will retinn to be ready for me. I still 
 think October 15 the likely time for my departure. 
 This country is annexed, like the East India Company’s 
 territories. I leave Mr. Kafiles with the title of Lieu¬ 
 tenant Giovernor, and this Grovernment is sidiordinate 
 to the Giovernor Gieneral in Council in Bengal. All 
 these arrangements, however, are hitherto made provi¬ 
 sional by me, subject therefore to confirmation or 
 alteration at home, for I have been obliged to deviate 
 materially from my instructions. The country is great, 
 fertile, and flourishing beyond my expectations, and, 
 with all that depends upon and is connected with it, 
 will, I hope, prove an acquisition of great value and 
 importance. 
 
 ‘ Colonel Gillespie will be left in command of the 
 troops on the island. He has been the great hero, and 
 the chief means of our success. He was very ill of a 
 fever the day he led the storm of Cornells, but is better; 
 and T think this appointment, which I sent Taylor to 
 communicate to him yesterday, will prove a good medi¬ 
 cine.’ 
 
^T. 60] 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 297 
 
 ‘ Jina, October 3, 1811. 
 
 ‘ This letter accompanies the final surrender of 
 Java by capitnhition, tincl the successful temiination 
 of my hist m:irti;il labour. I am certainly relieved 
 from many cares which have been my companions from 
 the moment of losing the grand care of the IMadras 
 mutiny; and these comrades ha^■e made room for a 
 most comfortable quiet consciousness of having done 
 well, and employed the powers that have been placed 
 in my hands profitably to England, from which I held 
 them. Gilbert tells me I musf not expect any great 
 rewards. This was last Eebruar}-, on the occasion of the 
 compiest of the Mauritius. I do not expect them now, 
 and I feel little concern in that affair. 1 have certainly 
 deserved some public acknowledgment or other by 
 a very unusual train of successful and of unusually 
 important services. 
 
 ‘ The withholding the usual recompense of seiAuce 
 is one thing, but to conceal or equivocate about the 
 nature of a ser\ice is another. 1 should certainly 
 not become a suitor for reward, which loses its very 
 substance if given to importunity or favour; but I 
 would, on the other hand, assert my right simply to the 
 pablic k}iowle(l(je of what I ha\e done. I cannot help 
 suspecting that an attempt has been made by ^Ministers 
 to cloke themselves in my feathers, and if they have 
 done so, it must have been by nothing more noble than 
 a juggle. 
 
 ‘ I have seen English papers down to the middle of 
 
■298 
 
 LOEU MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 March, and I certainly cannot perceive that any mortal 
 has suspected my having any concern mth the French 
 islands, beyond the execution of an order sent out by 
 CTOvernment. That order was not received by me till 
 the army sent by me was landing in the Isle of France. 
 That order was for an expedition in April 1811 : The 
 Isle of France surrendered on December 3, 1810, to 
 the army I had sent. If I had not pushed the thing 
 forward, through a thousand difticidties, and at an 
 immense personal hazard, just at the moment when I 
 did, the expedition ordered by the Grovernment could 
 not have been sent, or if sent could not have been 
 successful; for the island would have been reinforced 
 —the certainty of which has been demonstrated by 
 the arrival of French squadron after squadron since the 
 capture—and would have been impregnable in April to 
 any force it was possible for India to furnish. If I 
 had failed in my own expetlition, from whatever chance, 
 and without auy fault of mine, I shmdd have been torn 
 to pieces by the very same iMinisters, who woidd have 
 told the world very distinctly, and without any equivo¬ 
 cation, whether the calamitous expechtion had been 
 .sent by me or by themselves. . . . 
 
 ‘ With regard to Java, I acquainted Government 
 Avith my intention to folloAv up the reduction of the 
 French islands Avith an expedition against Java. This 
 Avas done in my first communications concerning the 
 fi'rench islands; and I ])ressed hard for instvactions on 
 the latter undertaking, saying that I should Avait as 
 long as I cmdd for their ansAver Avithout hazarding the 
 
Mt. 60 ] 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 299 
 
 success of the plan, and if I should receive no orders, 
 when there had been time sufficient to send them, I 
 shoidd conchide my design was not disapproved, and 
 should proceed to the execution of it. In the mean¬ 
 while, everything was concerted for the return of troops 
 and transports from the Isle of France to India, for 
 the purpose of serving against Java. This was exe- 
 ■cuted accordingly, and these resources arrived in time. 
 Arrangements were made at all the Presidencies of 
 India, and every preparation was put in motion the 
 moment the news arrived of our success in the Isle of 
 France. Everything was in forwardness when I re¬ 
 ceived the orders of the Secret Committee to attack 
 Java; and I shoidd have gone on that expedition when 
 I did if no orders had come. Java, therefore, so far as 
 credit is concerned, is as much my own as the French 
 islands ; for the plan was formed, and the resolul ion 
 taken, and the prejiarations made, and the service 
 would have been performed precisely as it has, on my 
 own judgment and at my own risk. I do not think 
 Government has neglected anything either. They 
 could not have sent their orders sooner. But cir¬ 
 cumstances were such that if I had not taken the 
 whole thing upon myself, and despatched it in the 
 shortest imaginable time, the orders from England 
 would have been too late in both cases. This is, I 
 think, enough on the first pronoun personal. 
 
 ‘This country far surpasses all the expectations any 
 stranger had ever formed of its fertility and the richness 
 of its produce, its population and civilimtlon, a praise 
 
300 
 
 LOED MIETO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 which you probably did not look for. I have pleasure 
 in seeing also that the worst system of government and 
 of laws imaginable present a wide field for active im¬ 
 provements, which better principles of policy and a 
 purer administration cannot fail of producing. If I 
 am happy enoirgh to see some progress made in these 
 ^fiews, and to Avitness a substantial amelioration in the 
 condition of the five millions who inhabit this beautiful 
 country, or even a tendency to that result, from the 
 foundations I shall have laid, I shall bear the want 
 of reAvards Avith the greatest equanimity and indiffer¬ 
 ence. 
 
 ‘ I am a great philosopher of late, having studied 
 hard in all the leisure moments of this expedition, by 
 sea and land, under the best precepts and the worst 
 practice that Avere ever united in the same master, 
 Cicero himself. I am near the end of his twenty volumes, 
 and have had great delight in almost every page. Let 
 Gilbert read you the “ Somnium Scipionis,” one of the 
 finest Avorks of antiquity; or at least this passage, which 
 is near the end, and the parting advice of the elder 
 Scipio to his son, before the close of the vision, when 
 he returns to the regions of light and immortality. 
 
 ‘ Igitur alte si spectare voles, atque hanc sedem, 
 et aeternam domum contueri: neque te sermonibus 
 A’ulgi dederis, nec in premiis humanis spem posueris 
 rerum tuarum: suis te opportet illecebris ipsa virtus 
 trahat ad verum decus.’ ‘ Verum decus ’ is Latin for 
 nobility Avithout a patent; and the last passage, begin¬ 
 ning ‘ suis te opportet ’ and ending ‘ verum decus,’ is 
 
^T. 60] 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 301 
 
 most beautiful. I have chosen it for the family motto, 
 if not on our seals and panels, on our lives. In the 
 meantime I have put this discourse of Scipio’s appari¬ 
 tion to his son, in the mouth of our family genius in 
 “ the IMinto vision.” * 
 
 Lot Reason’s torch on zeal attend ! 
 
 Her calm undazzling light to lend : 
 
 With patriot ardour wisdom blend. 
 
 Be these your guides ! 
 
 Your country’s good the noble end, 
 
 And nought besides. 
 
 Heed not the bellowing crowd’s acclaim, 
 
 And fleeting roar of vulgar fame. 
 
 Powerless to giace an lionest name, 
 
 Or to defile; 
 
 The drunken praise or ruffian Idame 
 Of clamoiu’ vile. 
 
 Guerdons that prompt the worldly race 
 Thy generous toil siiall ne’er debase ; 
 
 Won by fair Virtue's inborn grace. 
 
 Her smiles alone 
 Sliall woo tliee to tlie lofty place 
 Of true renown. 
 
 Oh, treasure in thy filial breast. 
 
 My parting counsel, last and best. 
 
 Re Virtue for herself caress’d ; 
 
 Her heavenly love 
 
 Such transport yields as Spirits blest 
 Enjoy above. 
 
 ‘ I shall fjosltivehj sail by tlie 2()th lust. (October) ; 
 I hope sooner; and shall be most h.ippy to turn my 
 
 ‘ A poem written by himself in India and dedicated to his family. 
 “ Concluditur prefecto, et virtutes omnes, et honestum illud, quod 
 e.v his virtutibus exoritur, et in his h.eret, esse se expetendum. 
 —Cic. Dc Finihux, v. 215, et passim. 
 
302 
 
 LORD IMINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 head towards one of my homes, till the grand departure 
 of all arrives. That will happen at latest in twenty- 
 seven months from October 1. I reckon to January 
 1, 1814.’ 
 
 ‘ Java, October 13, 1811. 
 
 ‘ Nothing has happened since my last at all memor¬ 
 able . . . This letter goes by a transport, the “ Countess 
 d’Harconrt,” which carries General Janssens and his 
 suite to England as prisoners of war. If you should 
 by any chance come in his way. Palm, he civil '—for he 
 is one of the very best and most estimable men I ever 
 knew. He has suffered a great and severe reverse, 
 which he has felt so deeply as to affect his health. 
 His predecessor was a -wretch in every imaginable way, 
 one of the monsters which the worst times of the 
 hh'ench Eevolution engendered, or rather lifted from the 
 mud at the bottom, to flounce and figure away their 
 hour upon the surface. He was greedy, corrupt, and 
 rascally in amassing money for himself, and equally 
 unjust and oppressive in procuring public supplies. 
 He was cruel, and regardless of men’s lives beyond most 
 of the revolutionary tyrants in the Eeign of Terror, He 
 forced the Javanese to cut a road through a morass at 
 the expense of 6,000 lives for that short space. He 
 ordered two Javanese Princes, confined by him as state 
 prisoners, to be pri\'ately murdered, and became savage 
 from the delay which arose from the scruples of the 
 officer in Avhose custody they were; a providential 
 delay; for Janssens arrived in the interval, and passing 
 ‘ A phiase frequently addressed by Lady Palmerston to her lord. 
 
JEt. 60] 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 303 
 
 throiigh the place, on his way to Batavia, saved the 
 victims. D’Aendels was as great a brute as tyrant in 
 his pleasures—-no man’s family was safe. ... In short, 
 none of the worst of the Koman pro-consuls ever vexed 
 and scourged their provinces, too distant for control, 
 with more extortion and cruelty than this villain. His 
 successor is his opposite in every point—a virtuous, just, 
 and humane man ; a brave and good officer; and, I think 
 from his conversation, a wise and even enlightened 
 statesman. 
 
 ‘ Bonaparte certainly did one good action in sending 
 a character so respectable to supersede D’Aendels at 
 twenty-four hours’ notice; for he was peremptorily 
 ordered to resign the government in that time, and to 
 embark immediately for Europe. As soon as the ship 
 was under weigh, it is vmderstood here that the cap¬ 
 tain produced an order to carry him to France as a 
 prisoner. The attachment of all ranks of men to 
 Janssens is remarkable; and he certainly deprived ns of 
 the support which, if we had found D’Aendels in the 
 government, the Dutch part of the colony would have 
 given us. So pray he civil to my virtuous predecessor 
 in Java, if you have an opportunity. 
 
 ‘ Cteorge sent yon the history of my orgies at a 
 dinner given bv me to Sir Samuel Auchmuty and the 
 army. The army has since given a ball and supper to 
 Sir Saimiel and me jointly ; and we entered hand in 
 hand, like the two kings of Brenttord smelling at one 
 nosegay. This festival was at the residence of the 
 former (lovernors General, and the decorations had been 
 
304 
 
 LORO .MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 all or nearly so in a state of preparation for the cele¬ 
 bration of Napoleon’s birthday, which we disturbed 
 like trouble-fetes as we were, by landing and getting 
 possession of Batavia, (iovernment Honse, decorations 
 and all, a few days before the grand occasion. ... It is 
 impossible to give yon anything like an adequate 
 notion of the total absence of beauty in so crowded 
 a hall. There never is a dozen of women assembled 
 in Europe without a. few attractions amongst them. 
 Here there was no difference, except in some few varie¬ 
 ties of ugliness and ordinariness of dress and manners. 
 The Dutch rlid not encourage, nor indeed allow freely, 
 European women to go out to their colonies in India. 
 The consequence has been, that the men lived with 
 native women, whose daughters, gradually borrowing 
 something from the father’s side, and becoming a mixed 
 breed, are now the Avives and ladies of rank and 
 fashion in Java. The young ladies have learnt the 
 European fashions of dress, and their carriage and 
 manners are something like onr own of an ordinary 
 class. Their education is almost wholly neglected; or 
 rather no means exist here to provide for it. They 
 are attended from their cradles by numerous slaves, 
 by whom they are trained in helplessness and laziness; 
 and from such companions and governesses, you may 
 conceive how much accomplishment or refinement in 
 manners or opinions they are likely to acquire. 
 
 In dancing, the young beauties seemed lame 
 in English country dances, (jf which they kneAv 
 neither the steps nor the figures ; but in their own 
 
^T. 60 ] 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 305 
 
 dance, which was to a very slow valse tune, the figure 
 inuch the same as ours, with a valse embrace however, 
 instead of an allemande, they were at home, and not 
 without grace ; while our English damsels and cavaliers 
 were all abroad, and about as awkward and cri2:)pled 
 as their Dutch fellow-subjects had been before. Mrs. 
 Bunbury, the wife of an officer, a young pretty English¬ 
 woman, stood up in the dance; but seeing, when the 
 first couple reached her, the Dutch gentleman take his 
 partner fairly in his arms and hug her, as it appeared 
 to her as a bear does his prey, she fairly took to her 
 heels, and could not be brought back again by any 
 means, to see or share such horror. The Dutch valsers 
 certainly deal in very strict embraces, but our English 
 gentlemen, to their shame be it said, appeared so en¬ 
 tirely unpractised in that art, that their Dutch partners 
 gave the point uji as a bad job, and were forced to con¬ 
 tent themselves with merely taking hands and swinging 
 the loobies about. The chapcn-ons and older Dutch 
 ladies are a class not yet described in Europe. The 
 principal mark to know them by is their immense size. 
 Tlie whole colonial sex runs naturally to fat, jvartly 
 from over-feeding—jxirtly from total want of exercise. 
 The morning air is the grand pursuit of the English 
 Orientalists; the Dutch of both sexes have a honw for 
 it, and prefer their beds. In the re.st of the day nobody 
 can go out; and in the evening they think a drive in 
 a carriage too great an effort. They pass their time 
 as follows. There is a canal opposite to every door on 
 the other side of the road. Each house has a little 
 
 X 
 
306 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 projecting gallery supported by posts in the canal. 
 The lower part of this, that is to say, from the level of 
 the road down into the water, is made in some small 
 degree private, by upright bars at a little distance 
 from each other, and with this bath the road communi¬ 
 cates by wooden steps. Here the lady of the house, 
 her relatives, and female slaves, lave their charms, and 
 here you may behold the handmaids of Diana sporting 
 on and under the wave in sight of all passing Actaeons. 
 Th is is the morning scene. In the evening, as I was 
 saying, they have chairs brought out in the gallery 
 above, and sit with their beaux in conversation and 
 repose. Suppose an immense woman sitting behind a 
 stall mth roasted apples, and we have an old Dutch 
 lady of the highest rank and fashion. Her upper 
 garment is a loose coarse white cotton jacket fastened 
 nowhere, but worn with the graceful neghgence of pins 
 and all other fastenings or constraints of a Scotch lass, 
 an equally coarse petticoat, and the coarsest stockings, 
 terminating in wide thick-soled shoes ; but by standing 
 behind her you find out her nobility, for at the back of 
 the head a little circle of hair is gathered into a small 
 crown, and on this are deposited diamonds, rubies, and 
 precious stones often of very great value. It is well 
 ■with this if they can speak even Dutch, many knowing 
 no language but Malay.’ 
 
 In the instructions sent from the Court of Directors 
 to Lord Minto respecting an expedition to Java, no 
 provision was made for any permanent occupation of 
 the island : no such measure had been in contemplation 
 
^T. 60] 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 307 
 
 previous to Lord Minto’s arrival in Java, and to the 
 personal acquaintance he thereupon attained with the 
 condition of the popnlation. The Court of Directors 
 had simply intended an expedition to expel the Dutch 
 Power, to destroy the fortitications, and to distribute 
 the arms and stores among the natives. These in¬ 
 structions Lord Mintotook it on his own responsibility 
 to disobey, preferring to give time for reconsideration of 
 orders issued in ignorance of the hicts, to their execu¬ 
 tion at the cost of bloodshed and anarchy, if not of 
 certain destruction to the colonists. 
 
 It would be mere waste of time at the present day 
 to enter into any detailed account of the measures in¬ 
 augurated by Lord Minto for the administration of 
 Java, thus incorporated into the British Empire. 
 
 A few extracts from his despatches will siifhce to 
 show the condition in which he found the island and 
 the nature of the amelioration he proposed to effect. 
 The ‘History of Java,’ by Sir S. Baffles, and other 
 works demonstrate that the brief period during which 
 the connection of Glreat Britain and Java existed, was 
 one to the island of prosperity and traiKpiillity. 
 
 In a despatch to the Secret Committee dated 
 September 3, 1811, Lord Minto stated that he had 
 taken possession of the Island of Java in the Company’s 
 name. 
 
 ‘ I am aware,’ he said, ‘ that all conquests of terri¬ 
 tory from European Powers accrue by the constitution 
 of the Empire to the Crown ; and, if I had been under 
 the necessity of prosecuting this enterprise on my own 
 
308 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 responsibility and witbont orders, Java must have been 
 simply annexed to His Majesty’s dominions subject to 
 any arrangement which might afterwards be adopted 
 by His Ma,iesty with the Company. But since the 
 -establishment of the Board of Control, every order that 
 issues from the Honourable Court, or your Honourable 
 Committee, bears with it the sanction of His Majesty’s 
 Government, and I am therefore to consider the com¬ 
 mands with which I was honoured respecting Java, as 
 importing a transfer of His Majesty’s rights of conquest 
 in this instance to the Honourable Company. 
 
 ‘ I shall appear on first sight to have departed from 
 the tenor of your Honourable Committee’s instructions, 
 by keeping possession instead of dismantling and evacu¬ 
 ating the island. 
 
 ‘ This is a much greater country than I believe is 
 generally conceived, and the destructive field of massacre 
 and ruin, to which the disarming of the colony and 
 arming the natives must have led. is too extensive, and 
 the scene would have been too shocking to every 
 virtuous and natural feeling, to remain for a moment 
 in the contemplation of minds to which the object 
 should have been presented in its true colours. In 
 deviating from this part of the plan I have, therefore, 
 most assuredly been long since approved. 
 
 ‘ I have presented no exaggerated view of this sub¬ 
 ject, but am more than ever confirmed in the truth and 
 justice of the picture that has been set l^efore you,* by 
 
 ' Id an earlier and fuller despalcli. 
 
^T. 60] 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 309 
 
 what I have witnessed of terror created in this populous 
 and flourishing quarter of Java by the absence of 
 military protection for the short interval of two days 
 only, which passed between the departure of the French 
 and the arrival of our troops; as well as by the actual 
 massacre and pillage which in the circiut of a few 
 miles have followed the dispersion of Janssen’s army, 
 before a detachment of our own could be advanced to 
 Buitenzorg. 
 
 ‘ It would have been an abuse therefore of the word 
 obedience, and offensive above all to the authority from 
 which the order had been issued under a defect of local 
 information, to have carried into effect a command of 
 which the consequences described were manifest on the 
 spot to those who were charged with the execution. 
 
 ‘ Tlie only modification of which the measure was 
 susceptible, would have been to provide the means of 
 retreat and of future security and maintenance to the 
 imdtitudes whose lives and property were concerned. 
 Tliis would have entailed an immense burden on the 
 British Government, and would have required pecuniary 
 sacrifices and arrangements which could have been 
 hazarded by no sid)ordiuate authority abroad. 
 
 ‘ The three courses which ai’e open to your choice 
 are—to withdraw the whole European population and 
 to make a provision for their support; to restore the 
 colony unweakened to the Dutch ; ttr to retain it under 
 the British protection and Government. 
 
310 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 ‘I have found here the favourable disposition which 
 I expected from the Dutch inhabitants. They are 
 generally repugnant to the French usurpation both of 
 the mother country and of the colonies. . . . But the 
 French Government had established so strong a power 
 by a system of severity and terror, and there still exist 
 so many collateral means of influence by connections 
 both of family and fortune in Europe, that we have 
 experienced only silent and inefficient favour, and 
 derived no active aid whatever from the friendly dispo¬ 
 sition of the people. Our difficulties have been con¬ 
 siderably increased by this neutral spirit; but, had the 
 Dutch been apprised that, in the e\’ent of success, it was 
 our design to deliver them up disarmed to the Javanese, 
 we should have had to contend with all the energies of 
 despair, and I am quite persuaded that we should have 
 found our force inadequate to the enterprise. 
 
 ‘ The multitude of arrangements, especially for the 
 public security and tranquillity which the sudden as¬ 
 sumption of the government demand, do not in the 
 present moment leave me at liberty to prosecute in¬ 
 quiries and pursrre deliberations concerning your more 
 general interests in this quarter. 
 
 ‘ I propose to vest the chief authority in Mr. 
 Raffles, under the title of Lieutenant Governor; . . . . 
 that the Government of Java should be subordinate to 
 the supreme Government of Bengal; that a regular 
 report of all proceedings should be made there ; and that 
 
JEt. 60] 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 311 
 
 the orders of the Governor General in Council should 
 be binding in Java, sidiject to the higher authority of 
 the Honourable Court of Directors.’ 
 
 ‘ I can say' with certainty that the value of the island 
 and the face of prosperity which every part of the island 
 wears, even weighed down as it has been by a most 
 oppressive system, and after a most iniquitous and 
 grinding administration of government, very far exceeds 
 any other which had ever been conceived by strangers, 
 and is a constant and general subject of observation 
 amongst ourselves. Yet every acknowledged principle 
 of good government is unknown in Java, and all the 
 mischievous, deteriorating, and grievous maxims of a 
 narrow, monopolising, and harsh policy are in full force 
 and vigour in every department of affairs. No man’s 
 interest in land exceeds the term of one year. This 
 admits of a small number of partial exceptions, but is 
 generally true. The whole surface is the property of 
 Government, and very extensive territories are cultivated 
 and managed on the account of Government under the 
 direction of pidilic affairs. Government exacts a pre¬ 
 emption at an arbitrary price in the produce of many 
 other lands. 
 
 ‘ In a word the whole system of property is vicious 
 and adverse to the interests of Government and people. 
 
 ‘ The revenues, &c., have long been all in farm : the 
 farmers are universally Chinese, who have no competi¬ 
 tors. Hence arises necessary loss to Government and 
 
 ' To Uie Secret Committee of tlie Court of Directors, October 5, 
 1811. 
 
312 
 
 LOED MIXTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 oppressive extortion on the subject. I have neverthe¬ 
 less been obliged to renew the farms for the remaining 
 months of the present year. A change in the system 
 of collecting will require considerable preparation both 
 in regulation and in providing instruments, who ai’e now 
 entirely Avanting. The duties of export and import in 
 the harbour of Bata\ia haA'e, hoAvever, been placed under 
 a custom-house, collection being immediately under the 
 A'igilance of Grovernment. 
 
 ‘ On this subject it may be satisfactory to your 
 Committee to observe that I have abolished the duties 
 and suppressed the farms on gaming and cock-fighting, 
 lea\dng Grovernment free by that sacrifice to employ 
 such prohibitory means as can be devised to check this 
 prevailing and destructive vice of the native population. 
 
 ‘ The state of slavery has attracted my serious and 
 anxious attention. That monstrous system prevails to 
 a calamitous extent throughout these Eastern regions 
 of India, and produces, as it cannot fail of doing, most 
 of the miseries incident to that mode of procuring the 
 service of men. But it is too general to be suddenly 
 suppressed by any one Power in so many separate and 
 independent countries. In Java it is fortunately not 
 grievous to the slave; ser\’itude being almost Avholly 
 domestic or menial. I hope something may be done 
 immediately for modifying this e\"il, and I propose that 
 Grovernment should set the example in this reform by 
 abstaining entirely from the future purchase of slaves. 
 A return is preparing of the public slaves of Grovernment 
 now existing, and if the number shoidd prove incon- 
 
^T. 60] 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 315 
 
 siderable, as 1 hope it will, I have it in contemplation 
 to hazard an anticipation of yonr approbation, which I 
 shall surely receive, by emancipating all those to whom 
 that change would be advisable. The importation of 
 slaves may also be checked, although it cannot yet be 
 abolished.’ 
 
 ‘ tVeltevreedeii. Java : October 6, 1811.' 
 
 ‘ I consider the main point as ascertained, and that 
 Java will supply resources at the least for its own 
 expenses. I need not say to you how great a benefit, 
 not reducible to the columns of an estimate in dollars, 
 will in that case accrue to the Company and the nation. 
 AVe now know from proof that it was the policy of the 
 Dutch to conceal the value and to exaggerate the 
 defects of their possessions, especially of Java. This 
 will account for the inadequate opinion entertained, at 
 least I imagine so, at home of this island. It is now 
 most nourishing; but the field for improvement is in¬ 
 exhaustible. All that I fear is the general peace. 
 This ought not surely to prevent us from beginning to 
 perform the first duty of Crovenunents in improving the 
 condition of a people that has become tributary to our 
 authority and tributary to our prosperity. All we are 
 justified in avoiding is the prosecution in this interval 
 of expensive works. The exclusion of European masters 
 from Java is impt)ssible in the present state of things. 
 To make them richer, happier, and to give the people 
 itself a feeling of independence, which they are now 
 
 To the night Hon. Ih Hnndas. 
 
314 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 totally mtliout, would be the best receipt for making 
 their country less accessible to European invaders. But 
 in our orvn times this cannot be looked to, and the 
 Giovernment we have established must instantly be re¬ 
 placed by the French whenever it is withdrawn. The 
 more flourishing the country may be at the time of 
 such a revolution, the better, I think, for the nations 
 without, although it may also be advantageous to the 
 ruling European power mthin. But I feel assiured that 
 you agree with me in thinking our policy should lead 
 to the improvement of the country, and, if not our 
 policy, the eternal and fundamental law by which Gro- 
 vemments and subjects are united. I think we ought 
 to make it an English colony as soon as we can, by the 
 introduction of English colonists, English capital, and, 
 therefore, an English interest. This does not require 
 the exclusion of the old Dutch, who will not bear a 
 great proportion to the whole, and who will become 
 English the more readily as they are now -without a 
 country.’ 
 
 ‘ I shall embark to-morrow evening, and hope to 
 make the passage in about thirty days.' Local business, 
 and the extreme pressTire of such affairs as concern 
 either bodies of men or individuals, have, as is usual, 
 accumulated irpon me to such a degree for some time 
 past in the expectation of my approaching departure, 
 that it would have been entirely impossible for me to 
 throw the information I possess, or the resolutions and 
 
 ' Extract from a despatch of Lord Miiitoto the Secret Committee 
 October 18, 1811. 
 
JEt. 60 ] 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 315 
 
 opinions I have been able to form, on the affjiirs of this 
 new Government, into a shape fit for inspection. . . . 
 The leisure of my voyage to Bengal will enable me to 
 digest the material I take with me, and to present to 
 your Honourable Committee by the first ship from 
 Bengal after my arrival there, a full, and I would anx¬ 
 iously—fondly hope, a satisfactory report of my pro¬ 
 ceedings in this country. 
 
 ‘ In the meanwhile, conscious that in the share 
 which has fallen to my lot in the arduous but successful 
 measures which have placed this important territory at 
 your disposal, I have looked only to the general interests 
 of the nation and the East India Company, and that in 
 every point of the arrangements which I have pro\rsion- 
 ally adopted since the acquisition was made, the 
 advantage of the Company and the improvement of 
 the country have been the united but exclusive ob¬ 
 jects of contemplation, I cannot help entertaining an 
 earnest wish, which I should be happy indeed if all 
 circumstances authorised me to call a hope, that suffi¬ 
 cient confidence might be felt in the judgments which 
 I have formed, with much incpdry and reflection on 
 the spot, to make at least a trial of the system and 
 arrangements I now presume to recommend. ... I will 
 therefore specify two points at least of the present 
 system in Java, which in my faithfid and deliberate 
 judgment it would be prejudicial to every interest of 
 the Conjpany or the public in this country to alter or 
 reverse in the present period of our connection. 
 
 ‘ Fir.st, I strongly recommend that the arrangements 
 
316 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 now established may not be superseded for the purpose 
 of uniting the Government in the same person with the 
 command of the army. 
 
 ‘ Secondly, that this island and all its affairs, civil 
 and military, may be left under the superintendence of 
 the Governor of Bengal, and not transferred to any 
 other authority in India. 
 
 ‘ I am happy to confirm the opinion I have already 
 submitted to your honourable Committee that the 
 resources of the island will assuredly cover all charges, 
 civil and military.’ 
 
 Before quitting Batavia Lord Minto remarked to 
 one of its chief residents, that it was not certain whether 
 England would retain permanent possession of Java,— 
 ‘ but,’ he added, in words which were long remembered, 
 ‘ while we are here let us do as much good as we can,’ 
 To the close of his administration of the government 
 of India he watched over the welfare of Java with un¬ 
 failing solicitude—a fact recognised in feeling language 
 by Sir Stamford Baffles when, addressing the Batavian 
 Society subsequently to Lord Minto’s death, he said : 
 
 ‘ A tender and parental care for the island of Java was. 
 publicly avowed on different occasions; the proofs of it 
 were received; the European community was saved and 
 preserved by his humanity, and on his responsibility; 
 for the native administration principles were laid down 
 on which the whole of the present structure has been 
 raised; and in every instance a wish was evinced of 
 
^T, ',60] 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 317 
 
 improving the successes of war, as much in favour of 
 the conquered as of the conqueror. 
 
 ‘ It would not be proper on this occasion to enter 
 into particulars, but who does not gratefully recollect 
 the general tenor of his conduct and demeanour Avhile 
 in Java ? administering aid and assistance with his own 
 hands to the maimed and wounded of his enemies; 
 setting, in the midst of his successes, an example of 
 moderation and simplicity of manner even to the van¬ 
 quished ; proceeding often in public without any other 
 signs of greatness and distinction than what the whole 
 community singly and jointly were eager to show him ; 
 never missing an opportunity of doing even a temporary 
 good; and conciliating by these means the minds of 
 the public to such a degree, that enemies were rendered 
 friends, and that the names of conqueror and subduer 
 were lost in those of protector and liberator.’ 
 
 The energy and devotion which Lord iMinto brought 
 to bear on the affairs of Java were all the more praise¬ 
 worthy, because of the acute grief he endured during 
 the months passed by him in the island. There he 
 learnt the death of his youngest son, William, who had 
 been left at hladras, having already shown symptoms 
 of the illness which was the cause of his death—an 
 attack of congestion of the lungs. 
 
 Of this sad event Lord Minto said to tliose who 
 were near him when he learnt it, that ‘ it was the first 
 and only grievance which either this son or any of his 
 children had ever inflicted on their parents.’ 
 
318 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA 
 
 [1811 
 
 CHAPTEE XIIT. 
 
 Heavy and numerous were the letter-bags which awaited 
 at Calcutta Lord Minto’s return from Java. It was 
 therefore mth no small share of surprise that he found 
 the official letters addressed to him absolutely silent on 
 the most important transactions of the preceding years, 
 namely, the Madras mutiny, and the conquest of the 
 French islands. 
 
 ‘ It does not appear,’ he wrote to Lord Melville, in a 
 j:)rivate and confidential letter dated December 10, 1811, 
 ‘ it does not appear from anything official that the 
 Court of Directors ever heard that the French cruisers 
 had been for ever excluded from the port of Mauritius, 
 and that the French islands themselves had been cap¬ 
 tured by an army of their own under their own Grovem- 
 ment. This seems strange to ns, to whom no doubt 
 those events have appeared of greater moment than 
 they are, owing, perhaps, to their having so long occu¬ 
 pied our whole hearts and souls. I have not been able 
 sometimes to help asking myself whether the same 
 silence would have prevailed if I had failed, and whether 
 the public would not in that case have been very dis¬ 
 tinctly informed whose expedition it was.’ 
 
^T. 60] 
 
 CALCUTTA. 
 
 319 
 
 In another letter to the same correspondent, he 
 wrote: ‘ I do not foresee that in what may remain of 
 my puldic life any occasion can ever occur again in which 
 the interests confided to me shall require the assumption 
 at my own hazard of unauthorised powers. I am firr 
 from thinking that measures undertaken on respon¬ 
 sibility are by any means meritorious on that account. 
 On the contrary, success itself should in my judgment 
 be put on its defence, and it is not till after acquittal 
 that the irregular service, however important, can ob¬ 
 tain acknowledgment. . . My defence is, first, I knew 
 in an authoritative way (I include the French islands 
 in this argument) that the objects proposed by the 
 measures I hazarded were deemed desirable by Govern¬ 
 ment. I knew, secondly, that they could not be ob¬ 
 tained in any other way. Thirdly, I had good grounds, 
 since established by success in each instance, to believe 
 that they might then be accomplished. Fourthly (and 
 this is the strong point of my defence, without which all 
 the rest would be invalid), 1 was intimately convinced, 
 and I am now sanctioned by the events, that the service 
 woidd have become impracticable by delay. 
 
 ‘ It has been made manifest that if the PTench 
 islands had not been reduced before the last hurricane 
 month, that conquest would never have been accom¬ 
 plished by any scale of force or measures which have 
 hitherto been in contemplation. . . . Three thousand, 
 or four thousand, indeed a smaller number of PTench 
 troops of the line—and that succour, we have now 
 reason to know, would have been actually thrown in— 
 
320 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 would, in all the opinions I have heard, have rendered 
 the Mauritius impregnable to any expedition from 
 India. 
 
 ‘ Again, if the Mauritius had not fallen in December, 
 it would have been totally impossible to prosecute the 
 views against Java, always combined with the former, 
 before the rainy monsoons in the Eastern seas. And if 
 we had waited for the succeeding favourable season, we 
 have now seen that Java would also have been re¬ 
 inforced beyond any means we could have employed 
 for the conquest. In a course of measures, therefore, 
 necessarily to follow each other, depending all through 
 upon a chain of success without a broken link, and each 
 limited to the narrowest period of time, and treading 
 upon the heels of the other, I had,—first, to be reasonably 
 satisfied that by great exertion success was possible 
 and probable,—and next, to push on without delay. 
 “ Nos quidem hoc sentimus ”—this is the sentiment of 
 Cicero to Lentulus when he advises him ft) undertake 
 the conquest of Egypt—“ si exploratum tibi sit, posse 
 te illius regni potiri, non esse cunctandum; si dubium 
 non esse conandum.’’ 
 
 ‘ . . . and in the progress of these successive 
 anxious events I have been more than once reminded 
 of what Lentulus is told in the same epistle from his 
 friend: ‘Totius facti tui judicium, non tarn ex con- 
 silio tuo, quam ex eventu, homines esse factnros. 
 
 ‘ I have been most fortunate in Sir S. Auchmuty, not 
 only as a Glen era! but as a gentleman. Collision has 
 
^T. 60] 
 
 CALCUTTA. 
 
 321 
 
 been entirely excluded from this joint service, and the 
 most cordial harmony has prevailed between ns. 
 Indeed, I have taken care there should be no collision 
 by effacing myself entirely till the conquest was made, 
 and the moment came for assuming the govern¬ 
 ment ; taking care that one sun should be in eclipse 
 while the other was shining in the same hemisphere. 
 . . . You cannot well imagine the discomfort I feel in 
 writing a line that expresses even a shade of discontent, 
 and especially in addressing it to yourself, whose whole 
 conduct towards me has been calculated to inspire sen¬ 
 timents of the very opposite kind; but in truth I have 
 had occasion to perceive for a certain time back a 
 change in the comfortable footing on which I stood at 
 home when I left England.’ After alluding to certain 
 measures which in his judgment appeared to claim an 
 acknowledgment that they had not received. Lord Minto 
 continued : ‘ At the head of these I place all that relates 
 to the IMadras troubles, on which I am anxious to say 
 beforehand that I join issue with any adversaries I may 
 appear to have, and to assert for myself that from the 
 first origin to the last date of these events I acted the 
 part that became me, considting alike the duty I owed 
 to the public, and the justice or indulgence which it was 
 fitting to administer to individuals. A mutiny of officers 
 and gentlemen was subdued; the distracted army was 
 tranquillised and reconciled; the same army has since, 
 and did indeed instantly evince, not merely its fidelity, 
 but its courage and discipline in action and distin¬ 
 guished service.’ 
 
 Y 
 
322 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1811 
 
 And to the Chairman of the Court of Directors * he 
 Avrote in the same strain;— 
 
 ‘ If I had acted on any feeble and false principle—if 
 I had Aveakened my support to the Company’s govern¬ 
 ment by any refined or capricious modification—if I 
 had but Avavered and suffered a shade of doubt to exist 
 concerning me, Sir Gleorge himself has often acknoAV- 
 ledged, since the event has been closed, that all Avas lost. 
 After the submission of the guilty I claim to have done 
 all that Avas necessary for discipline and future security; 
 and it is my boast, and abvays Avill be, that I did no 
 more ; that I stopped the torrent of individual calamity 
 at the point Avhere it ceased to be indispensable for the 
 public interest and safety. I claim to have tranquil- 
 lised the army as quickly after the tempest as the SAvell 
 that survives tempests alloAved; and from a condition 
 dangerous to the existence of our nation, I sent out 
 that army instantly, entitled to our confidence Avhen it 
 Avent, and to our thanks and applause when the service 
 was performed. 
 
 ‘ In the last days of 1811 I have still to say that I 
 do not know by a single official word that my residence 
 at Madras during eight months of the years 1809 
 and 1810 has ever reached the ears of the Court of 
 Directors. I hazarded from thence several important 
 suggestions for the public good, but they have lain 
 Avithout notice until the present time.’ 
 
 Again, as in his differences with the missionaries, 
 
 ' Dec. 12, 1811. 
 
^T. 60] 
 
 LETTERS FROM HOME. 
 
 , 32.3 
 
 the Court of Directors was a house divided against 
 itself. Sir (xeorge Barlow’s friends were offended liy 
 the leniency shown to the officers; his opponents 
 resented the approbation bestowed by Lord Minto on 
 Sir George Barlow for the energetic measures by which 
 he had stemmed the tide of mutiny. 
 
 The Governor General had strcjiigly recommended 
 Sir George, ‘ and other faithful servants of the Madras 
 mutiny,’ for some mark of public approbation. ‘ If 
 this is not done, I must say that Government will be 
 deficient in a just estimate of the evil that has been 
 averted, and of the service that has been rendered to 
 the empire,’ But though the despatches, when at last 
 they arrived in India, contained a cordial approbation 
 of the part taken by the Governor General, the con¬ 
 duct of Sir George Barlow was commented upon in 
 terms which foreshadowed his recall in the following 
 year. 
 
 Some passages fixan a letter written by Lord 
 ]\Iinto’s eldest daughter, give an amusing and pro¬ 
 bably an accurate view of certain circumstances which 
 deprived her father’s services at this period of their just 
 meed of approbation. 
 
 ‘ Minto, May 1, ISl 1. 
 
 ‘ T think it has been the way all along for the 
 Foxite Whigs to take part tvith the officers at Madras; 
 and I Avas convinced, from the time Cecil Smith came 
 home, that not only the ‘ Edinburgh Review ’ Avould take 
 that side, but that Sidney Smith Avould be the oracle 
 
324 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1812 
 
 upon the subject at Holland House, &c.; and so I 
 verily believe it is. 
 
 ‘ There is such a complication of plots and wheels in 
 the political world that it is not very easy to say at any 
 time what will be thought or done by those who call 
 themselves your friends. I believe that if the present 
 fxovernment brought forward any proposal of rewarding 
 you, or Sir George either, for the Madras business, or 
 had even voted thanks for the Isle of France, Opposi¬ 
 tion would, as in duty bound, have opposed the mea¬ 
 sure ; and the Directors, amidst the variances in their 
 Court on all the late Indian business, may think like 
 Mrs. Beaumont, in “Manoeuvring,”* that m general 
 it is safest not to mention things. As for the Isle of 
 France, they wish it had been taken for them, instead 
 of the Crown. The Croivn, or at least the Ministers, 
 seem detei’mined not to approve too hastily of any¬ 
 thing you do; and therefore General Abercrombie goes 
 ■without his thanks, all Melvillite though he be. Lord 
 Grenville, &c., think, I suppose, that it might have 
 been done during their Administration (as Lord 
 Wellesley knows he might have done it). Lord Grey 
 is, they say, chspleased that his brother did not com¬ 
 mand the Expedition; and while in their eyes your 
 measures are those of the present iMinistry, and your 
 honour and glory theirs, consequently not to be pro¬ 
 moted—in the eyes of said Ministers you are an 
 Oppositionist, and equally an unfit person to be exalted 
 
 One of Miss Edgeworth’s Tales of Fashionable Life. 
 
.Et. 61] 
 
 LETTEES FROM HOME. 
 
 325 
 
 by their approbation. The great men of the age are 
 certainly not governed by great motives. So much 
 the worse for them. . . . Certainly if it were possible 
 to unravel such mysteries, one would think that one 
 had the key to the hearts of the Directors, when one 
 
 praised Sir G. Barlow ; yet G-always seems to think 
 
 his friends in the Direction are least friendly to you. 
 The thing I dislike is the apparent indifference of the 
 AMiigs; but mamma says she is used to that, and that 
 it is the way of the world and of politicians; and we 
 certainly don’t worry ourselves about any part of it. 
 We never can be sufficiently thankful that the Isle of 
 France business succeeded. If we had received your 
 letter and the account of a failure at the same time, 
 and in these times, we should really have been in de¬ 
 spair. I am not much apt to think about politics; but 
 lately they have come in everybody’s way to observe, 
 and I am like the rest of the world, and look and 
 wonder how it will all end. 
 
 ‘The King seems regaining his bodily health; but, 
 as no one seems to expect his mind really to recover, I 
 cannot see any reason, public or private, for wishing his 
 recovery; excepting that in that case Lord Eldon has 
 almost promised to depart in peace, which certainly 
 woidd be a pleasing circumstance. I think there 
 would be some pleasure (enough to make up for 
 many disadvantages) in laying one’s hand upon his 
 lordship’s head, and, like the old Abbot in “ Marmion ” 
 dismissing him with—“ Sinful Brother, part in 
 peace.'’ ’ 
 
326 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1812 
 
 As ill 1811, so in 1812, the state of affairs at home 
 absorbed all the interest which in more fortunate times 
 might have been extended to the empire at large. 
 After the death of Percexal and the various abortive 
 attempts at the formation of a new ministry which 
 followed on that tragical event. Lord Holland wrote to 
 Lord IMinto that ‘ whatever indifference may have 
 been shown to events in India, has been extended also 
 to the war in Spain, the concerns of the North of 
 Europe, the Catholics in Ireland, the ()rders in Council 
 at home, and the events in America; for while the 
 various negotiations for forming a ministry Avere pend¬ 
 ing, it is true that they so entirely engrossed all the 
 attention of the public, that Auctories and defeats, 
 peaces and Avars, insurrections and scarcities were 
 OA^erlooked as matters of inferior importance; and a 
 ueAvspaper which contained nothing but extraordinary 
 gazettes, and no minute of a conversation between 
 priA^ate gentlemen on their vieAVs of policy or party 
 connections, Avas a dull, insipid, and uninteresting pro¬ 
 duction. I do not knoAv Avhether Ave are quite come 
 to our senses yet—there are strong suspicions that 
 Lord Liverpool has said something to Mr. Canning, and 
 ]\lr. Canning answered something to Lord Liverpool, 
 Avith Avhich the public is unacquainted; and, in the 
 language of the neAvspajAers, the Avorld has much reason 
 to complain of this suppression of intelligence.” 
 
 At the present time neAvs from our distant depend¬ 
 ency comes to us Avith the rapidity of the lightning’s 
 ' Lord Holland to Lord Minto, September 1812. 
 
jEt. 61] 
 
 LONDON IN 1812. 
 
 327 
 
 flash, and not seldom with something of its dread 
 effects. In the time of Lord Minto it travelled like 
 light from a distant star—paled by distance ere it 
 reached our shores. Besides this unavoidable disad¬ 
 vantage attending on the imperfection of communica¬ 
 tion between England and India, the brilliant residts 
 of the expedition to Java were made known in England 
 at a moment, not only of political anxiety, but of great 
 national depression. The prolongation of the war, the 
 consequent rise of prices, the prevailing disaffection in 
 the country towards the person of the Regent, had 
 created a general sentiment of uneasiness among the 
 best-informed portion of the public. Lady Minto’s 
 letters from London in 1812 give a vivid impression of 
 the troubled condition of the times. 
 
 ‘April 22, 1812. 
 
 ‘ You will see by the papers that the whole country 
 is up in arms at the immoderate price of everything. 
 Bread is double what it was last year, and four times 
 its original price, and all other necessaries equally high. 
 As to luxuries, they are beyond imagination; but you 
 may guess that of necessaries when I tell you I am 
 obliged to give the maid-servants shillings a day,* 
 which with difficulty will suffice. Riots have taken 
 place in most of the great manufacturing towns, of a 
 most formidable character; they are increasing rather 
 than diminishing, and there is a most general dread of 
 what will be the result of the present state of things. 
 
 ' For their Board. 
 
328 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1812 
 
 Koyalty seems to court its downfall, and has already 
 forfeited even artificial respect. He seems determined 
 to leave the nation to its fate, and mil not even go 
 through the labour of signing his name to one paper 
 in twenty that awaits his signature. He gets up at 
 three; has jewellers, tailors, and all sorts of tradesmen 
 as soon as he is up, whom he receives before he dresses ; 
 and metamorphoses the dress of the army and navy, 
 and fiddle-faddles away an hour or two, dresses and 
 goes to Hertford House, drinks the hottest and strong¬ 
 est mixtures of spirits and strong wines, and forgets 
 the pleasures and the cares of life.’ 
 
 ‘ May 21, 1812. 
 
 ‘ I have long been holding forth on the badness of 
 the times, but the horrible and atrocious murder of the 
 Prime IMinister ^ last week has really made everybody’s 
 hair stand on end. I need not describe it, as every 
 circumstance is most truly detailed in all the news¬ 
 papers. It does not appear that the assassin was con¬ 
 nected with any of the great variety of discontented 
 or riotous mobs which exist in different parts of the 
 kingdom; at the same time his conduct has been ap¬ 
 plauded and commended, as you will see at Nottingham, 
 by huzzas and ringing of bells. 
 
 ‘ In London, I am very sorry to say, the lower and 
 even the middle classes rejoice in the event, and make 
 no scruple of saying openly, “ It is all the better; more 
 should go the same way.” There have been, and still 
 
 ' Mr. Perceval was shot by Bellingham on May 11, 1812. 
 
JEt. 61] 
 
 LONDON IN 1812. 
 
 329 
 
 are, numberless anonymous letters sent to xarious 
 persons in high situations of the most threatening de¬ 
 scription. Infamous handbills are dropped in the streets 
 and areas; and one yesterday was, “ Mr. Perceval’s 
 ribs as a gridiron for the Prince Kegeut; “ another, 
 “ 10,000h for the Prince Regent’s head.” 
 
 ‘ The price of bread and the want of work have 
 caused the riots in the manufactm-ing districts, and, as 
 far as one can see, must continue to cause them. In 
 addition to these evils the season has been wonderfully 
 backward, and is so still; no vegetation has taken place, 
 and the accounts from Scotland are dreadful.’ 
 
 Nor were Lady iMinto’s opinions of the society of 
 London much more favourable than those she held on 
 the state of the nation. After five years of absence, 
 she found it more insipid than of old; the hours had 
 grown so late, that dinners might properly be called 
 suppers. ‘ Seven is the hour, and ten as early as 
 even ladies can get away.’ The heat of the rooms 
 seemed to have increased with the multitude of 
 Argand lamps, and the only engagement which did 
 not deprive her of a night’s rest was a dinner. In 
 general she found a total want of animation where all 
 came to be amused, and ‘ the horrid phrase tvell-'imin- 
 nered means silent, dull, and no-carey.'’ ' ‘ It is melan¬ 
 choly to see the total want of character and capacity 
 in the upper ranks; the excessive expense bestowed 
 
 ' A favourite expression of the sisters Ladies Minto and Malmes¬ 
 bury when describing tlie nil admirari disposition which was so 
 antagonistic to their own. 
 
330 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1812 
 
 on education, and by men —nothing attained. A young 
 man passes through the common routine of a public 
 school and Oxford, and escapes acquiring any informa¬ 
 tion from either ; having, I fancy, only got into a variety 
 of scrapes of every kind, and appearing to be completely 
 a sheet of white liaper.’ 
 
 The severity of these remarks is occasionally tem¬ 
 pered by the pleasure she received from the society 
 lirought together by the hosts of Holland House and 
 1 iansdowne House. 
 
 Lansdowne House was pleasant enough to compen¬ 
 sate for much didness elsewhere. ‘ There is nothing 
 in this town half so comhjrtable as that house and its 
 inhabitants.’ Again: ‘I have been living a great deal of 
 late with the most agreeable people I have met with : the 
 ►Smiths, who are delightful; Sir J. Mackintosh, who is 
 not less so. I wish I could board ;md lodge with them. 
 
 ‘ All London is now agog about Lord Byron, a 
 person who three months ago was not known or thought 
 of. The truth is, he is crazy —as all his forbears have 
 1 )een-—not to say mad and bad ; b;it he lately published 
 a poem called “ Childe Harold,” which all London has 
 fallen in love with, and which in good honest truth has 
 a good deal of genius in it, with a certain portion of bad 
 taste and bad writing; but certaiidy very striking from 
 a man of five-and-twenty; and so he is all at once the 
 thing to see and to meet. Linfortunately, he has been 
 flattered into trying his hand at oratory, and made a 
 ridiculous appearance. To-morrow we dine at Lord 
 Glenbervie’s to meet him.’ 
 
^T. 61 ] 
 
 CALCUTTA, 
 
 331 
 
 One more quotation we may allow ourselves from 
 Latly Minto’s letters from London; because it is always 
 interesting to see the effect produced on contemporaries, 
 before fame has been attained, by one destiired to fill 
 a large space in public estimation. ‘ Harry ’ (Lord 
 Palmerston), she wrote, ‘ is doing very well—with a clear 
 head and a good understanding. He will never be a great 
 man because he has no great views; but he is pains¬ 
 taking and gentlemanlike to the highest degree, and 
 will always swim where greater talents might sink. 
 Nothing can be more amiable, and I have always 
 regretted that he should have set out in life on the 
 shahhif side, which he must now stick to.’ 
 
 Lord Minto returned to Calcutta towards the end 
 of 1811. During the two years which ensued before 
 he resigned his high office into the hands of Lord Moira, 
 many considerable questions fell under the consideration 
 of his Government, and led to measures of importance. 
 Some of these referred to the relations of the Company’s 
 Government with that of the native States—of Gude, 
 of Nagpore, and of Hyderabad—and to the irruptions 
 of the Pindarees on the British frontier; others to the 
 internal administration of British India, to the revenue 
 system, and to the settlement of the ceded and con¬ 
 quered provinces of Bengal. But with none of these 
 shall we attempt to deal. They find no place in Lord 
 IMinto’s unofficial correspondence, and they occupy 
 their proper one in the valuable histories of IMessrs. 
 Wilson and IMarshman. The silence maintained in 
 the private letters with regard to many of the subjects 
 
332 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1812 
 
 which at this period absorbed Lord Minto’s most care¬ 
 ful thoughts and laborious hours is explained by 
 himself. 
 
 ‘ I feel anxious to tell you why, with the same good 
 intentions, I have fallen lately so far short of my former 
 voluminous virtues in correspondence. One grand 
 reason is that I have too much to do by several hours’ 
 work every day. Our conquests, among other causes, 
 have increased our labours greatly. But since you will 
 know my infirmities, the honest truth is that I am 
 older every birthday, which is very common in the East; 
 and I find, first and foremost, that writing in windy 
 weather by candlelight is a thought more kittle than it 
 was last century; secondly, and lastly, I used to write 
 to Minto between the evening’s drive and supper Avhich 
 is now called tea; but now-a-days getting up to open 
 my shop at five or half-past, and slaving like a maid-of- 
 all-work the whole day, I am ashamed to own that be¬ 
 tween 7 and 8 p.m. I am so thoroughly done up, that 
 I coup o'’er like a leaden statue, on a sofa ready set 
 in the breezy verandah, and doze, and dream of Minto; 
 but am fairly unable to sit up and write, fighting TOth 
 the flare and with the darkness and the mosquitoes, as 
 I was wont in my youth, a year or two ago. This is the 
 melancholy truth.’ 
 
 After his return from Java a perceptible change 
 came over the tone of his letters. Passages in the 
 minor key preponderate. The expressions of love and 
 longing for home, frequent enough before, become almost 
 painful in their repetition and intensity—the more so 
 
JEt. 61] 
 
 CALCUTTA. 
 
 333 
 
 when a certain anxiety is discoverable shadowing the 
 exuberance of hope. 
 
 For this there were many causes. The last two years 
 had brought griefs such as do not leave a man without 
 taking away great part of himself. The death of his 
 young son, the Benjamin of the family, who by a com¬ 
 bination of modesty and spirit had wound himself closely 
 round his father’s heart during the companionship of 
 the long sea voyage, and the lad’s subsequent adventures 
 in his naval career, and the death of his earliest and, 
 beyond the circle of his family, best loved friend, Mr. 
 Windham, were events that not only enshrouded the 
 present in gloom-, but cast their shadow over the past 
 and the future. He was wont to say that no grief 
 shoidd be indidged at the cost of duties to the living, 
 or to the exclusion of a thankful acknowledgment of 
 past happiness and of blessings untouched; and he did 
 his best to act up to his professions; Imt, as he wrote 
 to his wife, ‘ though their names may be seldom on my 
 lips, their memory will be ever present to me; ’ and again 
 of his long intimacy with Windham ; ‘ The earliest fruit 
 of friendship’s tree is the sweetest, and the latest in 
 rotting; but of it there is no second crop.’ 
 
 By the side of these weightier griefs he himself 
 would have given no place for such disappointments as 
 arose from the neglect of his public services by ministers 
 and directors. Yet, if they were not causes of depression, 
 tliey can hardly have raised the tone of his spirits ; and 
 the climate of India and hard and anxious labour had 
 begun to tell on the vigour of his bodily frauie. 
 
334 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1812 
 
 Arriving as his letters did at long intervals, it is 
 possible that they may not have impressed those who 
 received them, as they do ourselves, with a conviction 
 that he had already recognised the first tones of a voice, 
 ‘‘ no other heard, that summoned him away.’ 
 
 ‘ Calcutta : begun middle of January, ended February 7, 1812. 
 
 ‘ I never was such a slave since I came to India as I 
 have been since my return from Java. A great deal of 
 additional work has fallen upon me from that quarter ; 
 and the necessity of looldng back to proceedings here 
 during my absence has also increased the demands— 
 always greater than I can answer—upon my time. 
 However, there is nothing saved to me by fatiguing you 
 all with my fatigues. . . . This Barrackpore is a most 
 happy change of scene from Batavia, and is indeed to 
 me a kind of little Minto, having a faint smack of some 
 virtue in it. I have kept January 3 in a grand style 
 this year; giving a ball and supper on my wedding day, 
 as appearing to myself more worthy of celebration than 
 any other feast in the calendar, especially as it is also 
 the birthday of Cicero, a gentleman who attended ns 
 faithfully through the whole campaign. Seven hundred 
 sat down to supper, and you see how I must oppress the 
 provinces to support such extravagance. We have had 
 a christening of seven souls at once. . . . Five of them 
 were presents from various Jlalay kings and potentates, 
 “ rich in slaves, but low in cash,” like the King of Cappo- 
 docia—“ Mancipiis locuples, egit seris Cappadocum rex.” 
 You have heard of them before from Malacca, where they 
 
Mt. 61] 
 
 LJOTTERS FROM INDIA. 
 
 335 
 
 were waiting for my gracious acceptance, and you have 
 also heard of their arrival at Calcutta in my last. I 
 had sjiven the simiames of Man and Fi’iend to the two 
 eldest boys, who continue to he my owi hlan and 
 Friend. I forget whether I have given you an account 
 of these sentimental appellations ; hut, to save you from 
 the chance of a second seccatore, I shall now refer you 
 briefly to an amiable passage in Seneca, Epistle 47, 
 where, preaching humanity and kindness towards slaves, 
 he says: “ Servi sunt, imo homines ; servi sunt, imo 
 contubernales; servi sunt, imo humiles amici (this I 
 think beautiful), servi sunt, imo conservi,” &c. I gave 
 them the Christian names, therefore, of Homo and 
 Amicus, that I may always be put in mind to treat 
 my humble property like men and friends instead of 
 cattle. Indeed, they deserve it; for better, gentler boys 
 were never born in Christendom. However, they were 
 to have Christian names in the usual sense of that word 
 at their baptism, and one of them is fhancis ]Man, and 
 the other Edmund Friend ; but I do not mean to jiart 
 with the names given them by their godfather Seneca, 
 
 and they will continue to be Man and Friend. 
 
 ‘ I have read seven volumesof “ Madame du Deffand”' 
 
 ‘ ‘Thereis abooJcpublished, called Cm-roijmiidance de Madame de 
 Deffand, which contains an account of tlie court of Madame de 
 Maine, "reatly roseuilding what is to be seen at Kensington. Tlie 
 mixture of kindness and torment exercised towards her ladies, tlur 
 violent walks and agitations of l)ody to malve uj) for tlie want of 
 events, the jealousy about her friends, and her caju'iee, the shortness 
 of her emotions, the extreme gaiety and extreme dulness of her 
 house, are exactly like tlie ways of Kensington.'—Anna Jlaria Elliot 
 to her fa'her, Lord Minto, February 26, 1810. 
 
336 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1812 
 
 most faithfully, which I confess is a great waste of life, 
 especially as both her topics and her thoughts are 
 identically the same in every letter. But I felt so 
 much interest both in herself and in many of the 
 persons who belonged to her society and are found in 
 her correspondence either as parties or subjects, that I 
 did not like to skip. Her style also is so good that I 
 was afraid of losing a pleasure, such as good writing 
 bestows, if I missed a sentence. I did really feel for¬ 
 merly a sort of affectionate veneration for her; but I 
 knew nothing more of her real character and value than 
 what she chose to show in the best part of her day,— 
 that is to say, in her evening circle, which had in truth 
 all the freshness of other people’s mornings, as she was 
 just out of bed. But now that I have seen the rest 
 of her four-and-twenty hours, and am in all the secrets 
 of her insomnies by night and her ennui by day, I 
 confess that my veneration has much abated; and if a 
 kind feeling still remains it is the glimmering of an 
 old flame which a knowledge of her life, character, and 
 opinions has not served to feed or brighten. There 
 certainly never was anybody with talents and a good 
 understanding whose philosophy had taught them less 
 d(i finilms, and who had lived eighty years in greater 
 or more childish error concerning the ends of life and 
 the means of happiness. The only virtue she professed 
 was sincerity, of which she has left an illustration in her 
 correspondence mth Voltaire; and her only passion 
 friendship ; witness her teasing quarrelsome connection 
 with the President H4nault. As for Mr. Walpole, his 
 
^T. 61 J 
 
 MADAME DU DEFFAND. 
 
 337 
 
 brutality seems to have been a judgment upon her sins 
 to others. He was a prim, precise, pretending, con¬ 
 ceited savage, but a most uri-Eutflisli one. It is not 
 odd that she should have thought a little incorrectly 
 of the English character, having formed her notion of 
 it principally from iMr. Walpole, Fish Crawfurd, and 
 George ISelwyn. I have taken of late a good course of 
 epistolary reading, just before Madame du Detfand, 
 having gone through the whole of Cicero’s correspond¬ 
 ence with his contemporaries, Atticus included. 
 
 ‘ Pray never pubhsh mine, for it is a sort of post¬ 
 humous work that I think seldom does much for the 
 fame of the writer. But Cicero repays the reader by the 
 history, or rather memoirs, of a period more interesting 
 than that of Louis XV., and by the charm of his style, 
 which is always admirable. I am now reading Middle¬ 
 ton’s “ Life of Cicero ” for the third time. It has always 
 entertained and interested, but not editied me, as to the 
 character of the times, of the Koman people, of Cicero 
 the hero of the book, or of any one of the able but 
 universally profligate and generally detestable actors in 
 that turbulent and calamitous though splendid scene.’ 
 
 ‘ Calcutta: March 10 1812. 
 
 ‘ 1 am in perfect health, but have been less robust 
 since my Java excursion than before. . . . My onl} 
 concern is about the use of my legs. They have been 
 so entirely confined to purposes of ornament, having 
 touched nothing harder than a carpet or a mat, and 
 carried their master no further than the length of a 
 
 z 
 
338 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [181-2 
 
 verandah, for so many years, that I have often serious 
 donhts and anxieties ahont the craigs. If I cannot 
 enjoy them, wherefore should I live ? and at Prince of 
 Wales’ Island, scrambling np to the waterfall, my 
 gentlemen gave themselves such fine airs that I have 
 been rather nneasy on the subject ever since. How¬ 
 ever, I shall hopQ both in the climate and the exercise 
 of the craigs, for the recovery of at least some share of 
 what I have been losing all this time. I have long 
 been content to ^valk through the remainder of life, 
 and to leave the old leaping and skipping paces to my 
 betters ; but if I cannot follow my own kilted lady to 
 Topwood or Fatlips I shall stand in need of more 
 philosophy than any of my books have yet tanght 
 me. . . . 
 
 ‘ Jan nary 1, 1814, is the day at which my reckonings 
 end. It cannot probably be that identical day, but 
 it will be as few over or under as we can contrive. 
 
 By the deep nine, and then a quarter less five,” 
 will be sung out at last, and reward our long voyage 
 with home and perfect happiness. So man proposes; 
 the out-tirrn is not our affair; and we have a right 
 to enjoy hope till the event comes, whatever it 
 may be. 
 
 ‘ I have received yonr letter of April 8 ; and the few 
 words it contains concerning the Farms, the House, and 
 other subjects of that sort, gave me the assurance that 
 you had resumed your ordinary occupations, and that 
 by the providential and merciful arrangements of 
 
J&T. 61J 
 
 FAMILY LETTERS. 
 
 . 3.39 
 
 nature, surviving cares and duties and the daily offices 
 of life would, with the healing influences of time, 
 soften the sharpness of recent affliction and leave only 
 those tender impressions which are not inconsistent 
 with the calm enjoyment of our remaining blessings, 
 and with what may be considered the happiness of our 
 period of life, in which, without losing our sensibilities 
 either to good or evil, the edge at least of the latter 
 may be less acute than when life and all its events are 
 new. ... I do what I can to check the pains of im¬ 
 patience; and in that difficult attempt I am much 
 assisted by the total occupation of my hours and even 
 moments in this laborious office. But I make no 
 endeavour to weaken my notions of the happiness 
 which I trust awaits us all, and give full scope to 
 memory and imagination in painting the joys of home. 
 1 am sure they cannot be exaggerated, because I am 
 sure of your love, and of my own, and of the love of 
 every mother’s son and daughter. I may be vexed a 
 little by the injustice of the world; but I have made a 
 true estimate of all that can happen from without, and 
 the treasure of all I possess within sinks the rest to 
 cowries, which is infinitely less than brass farthings. 
 The one is all sterling, and the other all Birmingham, 
 and not worth a thought, much less a care. 
 
 On June 10, 1812, the following sentence begins a 
 letter to his wife : ‘ I have received from Lord TJver- 
 pool a full and handsome acknowledgment of my 
 services with regard to all the conquests in which 1 
 
340 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1813 
 
 have had a share, as well as of the general merit of my 
 administration in India.’ 
 
 ‘ Calcutta; February 4 and 9, 1813. 
 
 ‘ The whole family is in perfect health. 
 
 ‘ If we can but take care and keep out of mischief 
 this last year, and then find you all as perfect as our¬ 
 selves, my vows and hopes will be fulfilled. A space 
 more for you and me to witness and partake in the 
 happiness around us, and to make up for the spoils of 
 time by blessings which we can bestow and receive, 
 whatever the young may think, to and from each other 
 as long as we live, but to and from no mortal besides, 
 will be a welcome winding up of Fortune’s beautiful 
 gifts. However she has been a good dame, and will 
 be out of debt to us whenever our books may close.* 
 My thought and fancy, having a free choice, dwell 
 only, and that perpetually, on the bright side of the 
 prospect. 
 
 ‘ By our latest news. Parliament was prorogued, 
 and no change of Ministry. I am sorry for the interests, 
 and indeed honour of the country ; and one cannot see 
 without some apprehension the inefficacy of a vote of 
 
 ‘ To this passage Lady Minto replied : ‘ I agree with you tliat 
 Dame Fortune has not dealt unkindly by iis. The grand favom" of all 
 she has shown us, is in our family; though I do not feel insensible 
 of her other gifts ; but without the first the rest would have failed 
 in securing the happiness we can now enjoy round us. Honours have 
 been the result of your labours, ability, and character; but the dis¬ 
 positions of a family do not always go with inheritance.’ 
 
JiT. 62 ] 
 
 FAJVIILY LETTERS. 
 
 .‘^41 
 
 Parliament. Parliament stands between anarchy and 
 order, and when that defence is removed, either the 
 Crown or the people must be vanquished. The Crown 
 must probably fall in that contest, and after an interval 
 of blood and misery, either a foreign or domestic des¬ 
 potism will be the fruit of the popular triumph. These 
 may seem visionary notions, and I hope and pretty well 
 believe they are. (_)uly one has seen in our own time 
 these very events run their course, and many a time in 
 history. Why should we be privileged against the 
 common laws of cause and effect ? The times require 
 a decent, at least not a depraved and discredited. 
 Court; an able, tirm, and well-supported (xovernment, 
 not a broken, selffsh, and disjointed gentry, leaving 
 mediocrity in possession of feeble and precarious 
 power. 
 
 ‘I have read “Portugal,” by Lord Nugent, and 
 admire both the versification and the poetry. ... Yet 
 in one point I could have wished that a sentiment 
 generally good, but not suited to the times, and there¬ 
 fore not a virtue of the day—I mean, a longing for 
 peace—had been withheld or expressed with less ear¬ 
 nestness. I perceive with great concern, and sometimes 
 with a little dismay, a tone of whimpering after peace, 
 arising gradually iu England, and growing too much 
 into a fashion. A desire for peace, because we are tired 
 of war, not because its object is attained—which in the 
 present war is mere security against subjugation—is 
 little better than to call craven, and submit to all the 
 consequences of defeat. What those are we have only 
 
342 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [181S 
 
 to look rovind upon the craven-callers of Europe to 
 understand.’' 
 
 Lord hlinto alludes in this letter to a vote of the 
 House of Commons on a motion for an Address to the 
 Prince Kegent praying him to take measures for form¬ 
 ing a strong and efficient Administration which was 
 unexpectedly carried by a majority of 174 to 170. 
 The prayer was not granted, and on June 8 Lord 
 Liverpool assumed the first place in a Grovernment, 
 which was neither strong nor efficient, though it proved 
 tough and lasting. Parliament was dissolved in the 
 autumn, when a good harvest and the glorious victory of 
 Salamanca had done much, in spite of exorbitant prices 
 and scarcity of grain, to counteract the depression de¬ 
 scribed in Lady Minto’s letters in the early part of 1812. 
 
 The first fleet of 1813 brought to India the account 
 of the general election, when Lord Minto’s eldest son 
 came into Parliament for Eoxburghshire. In the en¬ 
 suing session (1813) he had the pleasnre of recording 
 his vote in support of the very measure which had 
 turned out Lord Glrenville’s ministry in 1806 ; a Bill 
 to allow Roman Catholics to hold commissions as field 
 officers. ‘ This,’ wrote Lady Minto, ‘ we must devoutly 
 hope will prove a first step in a policy of liberality and 
 justice towards our injured fellow-subjects.’’^ 
 
 ' ‘ La paix u’est rien,’ said Napoleon I. ‘ Ce sont les conditions 
 de la paix qui font tout.’ 
 
 ^ In one of her letters of this summer Lady Minto gives a glimpse 
 of Teviotdale which seems worth preserving : 
 
 ‘ Gilbert is at Jedburgh with his troop ; 640 new recruits out of 
 
Mt. 62] 
 
 EECALL OF LOED JVIINTO. 
 
 343 
 
 Lord Miiito had intimated to the Directors his wish 
 to be relieved from the government early in 1814. The 
 day he had named as that of his departure from India 
 was indeed January 1. In the summer of 1813 he 
 learned that, six months before, it had been decided to 
 supersede him in the government of India, and that 
 the appointment had been bestowed on the Earl of 
 IMoira, to whom the Prince Eegent conceived himself 
 peculiarly indebted for the assistance rendered by 
 him while a new ministry was in process of formation 
 after Mr. Perceval’s death. It was stated at the same 
 time that Lord INIoira would reacli India in October 
 1813. The Court of Directors reluctantly submitted 
 to the pressure put upon them by the Board of Control 
 and accompanied their resolution of recall with another 
 warmly acknowledging Lord Miuto’s euuuent services. 
 Nothing coiild be more undeserved, more ungracious, 
 or more discreditable to the parties concerned, than 
 the recall of an able and uniforndy successful (xovernor 
 General to make room for a personal friend of the 
 Kegent’s. The calmness with which Lord Minto received 
 
 his 800 men. This is the day of in.spection. We expect our cousin. 
 Sir John Dalrymple, here, who is the inspecting General. To the 
 lionour of the race of Teviotdale, Gilbert says he never saw so tine- 
 looking a l)ody of men, a very great proportion, five feet ten — fine 
 hand.some fellows. The breed of men is as much clianged for the 
 better of late years as that of other stock, and we have often observed 
 among our hosts of masons, carpenters, and labourers in the last 
 three years the extreme good looks of the population. The men have 
 got before tlie women, and are a sharp, cleanly set, though 1 am 
 happy to see the younger women with cleaner, tidier houses than 
 their grandmothers, and all are anxious to adorn their walls with 
 roses and honeysuckles.’ — August 26, 1813. 
 
344 
 
 T.OED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 f i8i;^ 
 
 the first intelligence of the slight ahont to be put upon 
 him may be seen in the following letter to Lady Minto. 
 
 ‘June 26, 181:?. 
 
 ‘ Your last letter, dated Minto, November 7, brought 
 me the first notice of Lord Moira, or of any intention 
 to supersede me earlier than the time I had myself 
 fixed. By the same fleet I had half a page from Lord 
 Buckinghamshire with the dry fact of Lord Moira’s 
 appointment, and of his having himself proposed an 
 earldom to Lord Liverpool, who had concurred very 
 readily, and in a friendly manner. By the second line 
 from Lord Buckinghamshire in December I am informed 
 of the Prince’s assent. 
 
 ‘ I shall not launch into the question of Lord 
 Moira’s appointment to this office before I had re¬ 
 signed it. The feelings and opinions of us all upon 
 this occasion must be very much alike. . . . Some cir¬ 
 cumstances, however, soften the matter so far as I am 
 personally concerned. First, the offer of the earldom,* 
 as well as what everyone knows of the motive, origin, 
 and progress of the measure, proves that my removal 
 from this office has no relation whatever to my con¬ 
 duct ; and the measure is defended by its authors 
 and instruments by arguments entirely foreign to the 
 usual merits of such questions,—that is to say, upon 
 the several grounds of excessive favoiur to another man, 
 
 ' Lord Minto was created Viscount Melgund and Earl of Minto 
 on February 24, 1813. 
 
^T. 62] RECALL OF LORD MINTO R45 
 
 of political arrangements of office, and of commands 
 which must be obeyed without hesitation or remon¬ 
 strance. Part of this is new in England, and the 
 remainder entirely new regarding the (fovernment of 
 India, but it does not touch me personally. The other 
 softening is a vigorous protest against the measure, 
 both on the personal and public ground, by some of the 
 ablest and most respectable members of the Court of 
 Directors. I might perhaps have felt mortihed (though 
 the feeling would have been false, since I have done 
 nothing amiss) if such an affront had been passed on 
 me through such a body without dissent. As it is, 1 
 have been well and handsomely defended, and the 
 mere obedience of the servum pecus to a master ought 
 not to humiliate me or any other man. Whether it is 
 pleasant to their own feelings or not is their affair. 
 It may be from this view of the subject that I cannot 
 perhaps get myself to be quite angry enough. 
 
 ‘ The consequence of the arrangement might to 
 many people he uncomfortable. 1 must remain at 
 Calcutta some months after my successor wn'll have 
 assumed the government, but I confess this circum¬ 
 stance appears to me perfectly indifferent. Lord iNIoira 
 is naturally disposed to act handsomely on all occasions, 
 and I shall have no disposition to give him umbrage; 
 so that I think the rising and setting suns may drive 
 their chariots very peaceably and amicably round the 
 Calcutta Course. 
 
 ‘ ... It is comical enough that my resignation 
 
346 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1813 
 
 should have arrived just at the moment they were 
 turning me out without leave. My answers to the 
 thanks of the two Houses of Parliament were received 
 by the Chancellor and the Speaker at the same critical 
 time when the movers of the thanks were treating me 
 like a criminal. 
 
 ‘ We have got through the hottest hot season that 
 anybody ever remembers in India. It has lasted longer 
 than usual, and the rains have come so late that there 
 has been a pretty serious scarcity in the provinces ; and 
 some apprehension of it even in this fertile quarter; 
 for Bengal is the proper granary of India. The 
 tanks were almost entirely dry, and the little water that 
 remained was of course putrid and corrupted. This is 
 a serious evil and always occasions sickness and mor¬ 
 tality, as well as distress to those who escape disease 
 or death. 
 
 ‘ As the time advances, I am sorry to say it seems 
 more tedious instead of more rapid, as I expected it 
 would. I have opened a new account for November 
 instead of January, and am at my old work of counting 
 days, weeks, and decades, with painful earnestness. I 
 dare hardly let my thoughts loose upon the end of our 
 wanderings and separation, because it makes me down¬ 
 right giddy ; and yet I seldom miss a night dreaming 
 of being at home. I had been talking of the discom¬ 
 fort of waking out of such dreams, and the next night, 
 three or four nights ago, I had a most lively and 
 insidious dream of Minto. I thought we were aU 
 walking on the haugh ; John was one of the party, and 
 
Mr. 62] 
 
 LETTEKS FROM HOME. 
 
 347 ■ 
 
 I said to him in perfect confidence of the reality, and 
 by way of triumph in that certainty, “ Now, John, if I 
 should awake this moment to find myself in India ! 
 That would be a proper job, would it not?” 1 said 
 this with a sort of grin t)f satisfaction at my positive 
 knowledge that I was in the midst of you on the haugh 
 at jMinto. I had hardly spoken the words when 1 did 
 awake at Barrackpore. However, I shall be revenged 
 one of these days by dreaming myself in India and 
 waking at Minto. 
 
 ‘ I should certainly wish to make the ash ‘ that has 
 the North Pole over it our trystiug tree in preference 
 to any elm in Carlton (xardens; and I know you will 
 only adopt the latter plan in case of necessity.’ 
 
 A letter from a friend ^ he highly valued, written 
 when the decision to supersede him became knowiiy 
 finds a fit place here. 
 
 ‘ Edinburgh: October 11, 1812. 
 
 ‘ Your Indian administration has been thrown away 
 uj)on an administration at home incapable of apprecia¬ 
 ting it, and perhaps with a selfish motive of keeping it 
 back from the jinblic. Either IManritius or Batavia 
 should have made the fortune of a Governor General; 
 and this great success without any mixture of bad for¬ 
 tune, should at least afford a presumption of merit. 
 
 ' The old ash tree which .stands on the grass oijposite to the 
 entrance of the house at Minto. 
 
 - Mr. George Wilson, an English barrister, who resided in 
 Edinburgh, and enjoyed the friendship of some of tlie most eminent 
 men of his day. 
 
348 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1813 
 
 Yolir peaceful administration of India, affording fewer 
 materials for history, as happy times always do, Avill 
 probably remain unknowi except to a few old clerks at 
 the India House. All this you must bear—with this 
 consolation only, that it has been the lot of the best 
 and wisest men in all ages, and will continue to be the 
 lot of all those who go somewhat beyond the reach of 
 the times they live in. There are at Minto a great 
 quantity of letters and papers, all ready in portfolios, for 
 you to work upon ; and it is not impossible that, fifty 
 or a hundred years hence, posterity may understand a 
 little of these matters, and begin to do you justice. 
 You are not of those who will say posthumous fame is 
 of no value. But independent of that, the sons or 
 grandsons of the present little Giilbert may feel the 
 effect of it, and people mil say, “ He comes of a good 
 stock.’' ’ 
 
 When the Grovernor Gieneral’s recall was made 
 known in Calcutta, surprise and indignation were 
 loudly expressed. As the moment of his departure 
 drew near, the manifestations of regard, of respect, 
 and of regret, were general and cordial. Addresses 
 poured in from all classes of the community, couched 
 in the most gratifying terms. Not only were his bril¬ 
 liant ser^dces duly acknowledged, but also the fact, 
 patent to all, that from the beginning to the end of 
 his administration he had laboured unremittingly for 
 the public good, and that he and his family had given 
 an example of domestic life, not only irreproachable in 
 
^T. 62] 
 
 FEELING IN CALCUTTA. 
 
 349 
 
 its purity, but attractive by its social charm. No other 
 circle in Calcutta contained prettier women or abler 
 men. Youth, wit, and high spirits defied the languid 
 atmosphere of India; and wherever the Governor 
 General was the centre of the society it could not be 
 otherwise than distinguished for simplicity of manners 
 and cidtivated tastes.' Lord IMinto was at his best in 
 the ease of private society. In London and at Vienna 
 some of the most brilliant men and women of their 
 time had shared his friendship and had met in familiar 
 intercom'se under liis roof. The volumes of corre¬ 
 spondence preserved at Minto testify to the regard in 
 which he was held by friends whose signatures would 
 rejoice the heart of a collector of autographs; and 
 who wrote to him with the sort of easy confidence that 
 can only co-exist \vith perfect social equality. At Cal¬ 
 cutta he was a big man—bigger by head and shoulders 
 than any one near him—yet nobody could be more un- 
 feignedly grateful than he when some amiable person 
 ignored the circumstance—nor more happy than when, 
 under the shadow of the banians of Barrackpore, he 
 gathered round him those to whom his public capacity 
 was the least of his merits. 
 
 In the diary kept by General iNlalcolm for the 
 benefit of his wife during his visit to Calcutta in 1808, 
 
 ' Luring the last yeai's of Lord Minto's residence at Oalcutta, 
 Government House was thc'home, not only of the f.amily circle, but 
 of Colonel Taylor, n ilitary secretary, who in I80i» married Miss 
 Petrie, a lady remarkable for iiersonal and other gifts, and of the 
 sisters of Mrs. John Elliot, whose popularity and agreeable qualities 
 had made their father’s house at Madras a centre of pleasant society. 
 
350 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1813 
 
 we find the following entry: ‘Mrs. W- happened 
 
 not to have been introduced to Lord Minto when he 
 dined here, and, mistaking him for another, she said: 
 “ Do you know the cause of Greneral Malcolm’s return 
 to Calcutta? ” “I believe I can guess,” was the Lord’s 
 reply. “ Pray then tell me,” said the lady. Lord Minto 
 hesitated till after we were at table, and then said: 
 “ We had better give the Greneral plenty of wine, and 
 we shall get this secret out of him.” The lady, who 
 had now discovered his rank, began to make apologies. 
 “ I assure you, my Lord,” she said, “ I did not know you.” 
 “ I am delighted at that compliment,” he replied; “ not 
 to be known as Grovernor Greneral in private society is 
 my ambition. I suppose you thought I looked too 
 young, and too much of a puppy for that grave old 
 fellow, Lord JNIinto, whom you had heard people talking 
 about.” I mention this anecdote as very characteristic 
 of that playful pleasantry which makes Lord Minto’s 
 society so agreeable to those he associates with.’ 
 
 In another passage Malcolm says that it had been 
 ‘ an equal subject of astonishment and delight to him to 
 find a man whose fife had been passed in all the bustle 
 of public affairs, cherishing local attachments with all 
 the enthusiasm of a country gentleman, and resting 
 his happiness upon the best and truest basis, natural 
 ties, and consequently finding in the constantly in¬ 
 creasing affection of his family that which gives success 
 its highest zest, and brings comfort under every reverse 
 of fortune.’ ‘ 
 
 Kaye’s Life of Malcolm, 
 
^T. 62] 
 
 FEELING IN CALCUTTA. 
 
 351 
 
 The sympathy which his strong love of home 
 excited among his brother exiles of Calcutta was 
 gracefully displayed when, at the close of 1812, the 
 bachelors of Calcutta gave the Glovernor General a 
 ball. As he entered the door, the opposite end of 
 the room disclosed a \dew of Minto House, ‘ the burn, 
 the green hills all to the life, and on so large a scale as 
 to reach from side to side of an immense room.’ Mer¬ 
 cifully, no prophetic instinct warned him that in the 
 vision created by friendly regard he was alone to see 
 the scene he loved so well. 
 
352 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [Ch. XIV. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 We have endeavoured in the preceding chapters to re¬ 
 produce from Lord Minto’s correspondence the most 
 eventful transactions of his government of India. Yet 
 that which he would himself have regarded as the most 
 important branch of his administration, namely, its 
 internal policy, has been altogether omitted. To enter 
 into any details of the financial, judicial, and legislative 
 measures which were either executed or prepared while 
 he held the direction of public affairs in India, is beyond 
 the competency of his present editor; but to show from 
 his correspondence the general principles which approved 
 themselves to his mind in connection 'with the subjects 
 idDove named is within the province of this work. It 
 will be remembered that when Lord Minto went to 
 ■India the financial affairs of the Company were in a 
 [highly embarrassed condition. Fresh obligations had 
 been recently incurred iDy the extension of their territo¬ 
 ries ; an empty exchequer and high interest threatened 
 a, financial crisis ; and the necessary retrenchments of 
 expenditure consequent on the deficiency of revenue 
 had gone far to provoke a political and social catastrophe. 
 
Ch. XIV.] SCHEMES OF RETRENCHMENT. 
 
 .353 
 
 During the interval between the recall of Lord Wellesley 
 and the appointment of Lord INIinto, anarchy had spread 
 unchecked in the newly ceded proxdnces, and a spirit of 
 dissatisfaction had crept over the services whose emolu¬ 
 ments had been subjected to the pruning knife with 
 more vigour than tact by Sir (feorge Barlow. Lord 
 Minto, when assuming the reins of gov^emment, was 
 strictly charged to abstain from all political measures 
 having a tendency to increase the expenditure of the 
 Company, and to reduce all expenses capable of dimi- 
 nution. How, under these instructions, he dealt wth 
 the vexed questions which he found seething in the evei- 
 boiling cauldron of Indian politics has been already 
 told. His views concerning the advantages to be 
 derived from further reductions in the general ex¬ 
 penditure of the Company, especially in regard to the 
 emoluments of their servants, may be seen in the 
 following letter to IMr. Elliot of Wells, who had in¬ 
 formed him of the probability that a Commission, com¬ 
 posed of members of both Houses, woidd be sent out to 
 India for the purpose of inquiring into the condi¬ 
 tion of the Company’s finances and of suggesting 
 retrenchments. 
 
 ‘ September 4, 1809.' 
 
 ‘ With regard to the Commission, the two services, 
 civil and military, have scarcely had a breathing time 
 from an operation jirecisely similar in its object, which 
 was executed with a very steady and a very efficient 
 
 ' To Mr. Elliot of Wcll.s. 
 
 A A 
 
1 
 
 354 LORD IVUNTO IN INDIA. [Ch. xiv. 
 
 hand by the local Government imder the administration 
 of Sir G. Barlow. It is evident to me that retrench¬ 
 ments can no longer be classed amongst the material 
 resources of the Company. The establishments will in 
 reality not afford it. I do not mean that you may not 
 lay your finger upon some isolated case of a civil 
 office that may bear a reduction of salary, or some 
 military staff appointment, or allowance to a military 
 office, that might be reformed without injury to the 
 efficiency of the service. 
 
 ‘ I have myself constituted, and carried through, a 
 formal inquiry of this nature with regard to the civil 
 departments : it has terminated in some few, but in no 
 degree considerable, reductions of charge; amongst which 
 I may, indeed, reckon the diminution of my own salary 
 as the principal. The investigation has nevertheless 
 led to some alterations which, both in point of economy 
 and regulation may, I hope, conduce to improvement in 
 the prosperity both of the Company and the provinces. 
 But it is demonstrated by the same proceeding that 
 retrenchment of civil establishments, though not to be 
 neglected, can afford no supply adequate to the great 
 object of meeting the general exigency of the Company’s 
 financial situation. It is an unwelcome truth, I know, 
 at home; but I am much inclined to believe that 
 the general scale of legitimate emolument is perhaps 
 already lower than is entirely consistent with justice 
 to the Company’s servants, and with sound policy, even 
 financial, but especially with those general principles of 
 Government on which the security and prosperity of 
 
Ch. XIV.] SCHEMES OF EETEENCHMENT. 
 
 355 
 
 iStates are founded. The loose principles which formerly 
 prevailed amongst the Company’s servants, and the 
 fashion, if I may so term it, of corruption which now 
 forms the reproach of what is called the old school, 
 deserved, however, a little more indulgence perhaps 
 than, as one of its sworn enemies and persecutors, I was 
 disposed to show it, Pecidation and abuse were not 
 merely tolerated; they were in a manner established 
 and authorised by the parsimony of the Company in tlie 
 regular remuneration of its servants. The Company, 
 perhaps, in those older times pursued that impolitic 
 policy upon a principle which would deserve less in¬ 
 dulgence than the practice of its servants; I mean that 
 of 'participation, or something like pjomidage, in 
 abuse and even oppression; for the charge of adequate 
 salaries is saved by the toleration of irregular emolument. 
 If these supplementary profits had continued to be 
 furnished oidy from the extortions and oppressions 
 practised on the Princes and people of India, and 
 had not at length—through the disorder of provinces 
 become our own—touched the direct interests of the 
 Company herself, we are not positively entitled to say 
 that the abuses of the old Indian administration would 
 have roused the vigilance of Parliament so effectually 
 or so early, and that the only radical, as it is the only 
 rational, remedy for abuse would have been applied. 
 The provision of legal and authorised emoluments, cor¬ 
 responding with the just and fair expectations of the 
 Company’s servants, completely changed tlie fashion ; 
 and at this day I have great satisfaction in saying that 
 
356 
 
 LOED MINTO IE INDIA. 
 
 [Ch. XIV. 
 
 a more pure and highly honourable administration does 
 not exist than that of the E. I. Company in India ; by 
 administration, I mean the service at large. 
 
 ‘ Now I speak from a firm conviction, founded on 
 personal observation and knowledge, when I say that 
 any scheme of general retrenchment, which should 
 reduce the scale of authorised and avowed emolument 
 materially below its present standard, would have the 
 effect of countenancing abusive profits. 
 
 ‘ There is another consideration, which recent events 
 have rendered too prominent to be overlooked—I mean 
 the effect on the pubhc temper in India —that is to say, 
 on the temper of the British public in India, likely to 
 be produced by frequent and teasing renewals of odious 
 and alarming investigations which seem to leave no 
 man a year’s security in the most moderate reward of 
 labour. The diminution of salary is not in this countrv 
 a mere loss of money, but it retards the accompHshment 
 of that wish which is at the bottom of every heart, a 
 return to England; and in many cases it extinguishes 
 even hope upon that subject. . . . Anything like de¬ 
 spondency or loss of energy in the temper of the ser\dce 
 would cause an abatement of public zeal and public 
 usefulness, which would seriously damage the interests 
 of the Company, if no worse evils were to ensue. 
 
 ‘ With regard to military retrenchments, anything 
 short of reduction of the establishment itself will pro¬ 
 duce no essential relief to the finances of the Company; 
 and the excited, well-nigh disaffected, state of feehng 
 existing in large portions of the army tend to make the 
 
Ch. XIV.] 
 
 FINANCIAL SITUATION. 
 
 357 
 
 operation of such a Commission as that proposed of very 
 doubtful residt. 
 
 ‘ Great injustice woidd be done to me if it were 
 supposed that backwardness to incur personal odium in 
 the performance of a duty has any influence whatever 
 on my opinions. It is not the disaffection of the 
 provdnces over which I preside to my ‘person that would 
 deter or for a moment obstruct me in carrying through 
 a wise and beneficial reform; it is disafiection to the 
 Company and to the Government itself t hat I apprehend, 
 and it is that apprehension that appears to me strongly 
 to dissuade from the undertaking. These sentiments are 
 not in any degree inconsistent with a vigilant superin¬ 
 tendence of the public expenditure, with the suppression 
 of all abuse and embezzlement, or even mth partial and 
 occasional reductions of charge in which the interests 
 aird feelings of individuals shall not be too harshly 
 neglected. In this course I am proceeding, not without 
 sensible benefit to the country, and without any sen¬ 
 sible opposition from the public or individuals. But 
 my views have always been more directed, because 
 directed with better hope, to an improvement of the 
 resources of the country and an augmentation of the 
 Company’s revenue ; and I do flatter myself that, by the 
 aid and advice of the ablest men I have ever met mth, 
 intimately acquainted with all the affairs of this country 
 and well versed in political science, much has been 
 effected, and more, which requires a little time to mature 
 its fruits, is in prospect. 
 
 ‘ A solid and substantial accession of resources to 
 
358 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [Ch. XIV. 
 
 (fovernment will arise, coiiplerl with material improve¬ 
 ment in the comfort and condition of the people. In 
 effect the present state of our finances is so much more 
 favourable than was expected by the most sanguine 
 Avhen I left England, that we may wait without im¬ 
 patience for the benefit which rests on the fair fomida- 
 tion of general and permanent principles. Instead of 
 annual deficits of three millions, which naturally alarmed 
 Government when the Commission was proposed as a 
 strong expedient in an ixrgent case, we have in this 
 very year of account to show a surplus of one million.* 
 Therefore I say with the best physicians, “Hands off! 
 let Nature work.” 
 
 ‘I cannot close this subject without saying that I 
 have never conceived the Commission to have been pro¬ 
 posed in any quarter in an unfriendly spirit to me. 
 The apparent distress in the Company’s affairs, and 
 the necessity of going to Parliament for relief, might 
 naturally suggest some extraordinary measure to meet 
 the exigency; and I am satisfied that it was not a 
 diminution of the authority of the Indian Government, 
 but a relief from responsibility and an accession of 
 strength, that was truly and sincerely proposed.’ 
 
 The close connection between the temper of the 
 ruling class, and the character of their rule, is briefly 
 
 ' ‘ During- the three concluding years of Lord Minto’s adminis¬ 
 tration the supplies remitted from India exceeded the value of the 
 Company’s investments to the extent of nearly 10 millions sterling. 
 Of the amount so remitted nearly 2 millions were in bullion, which 
 was unprecedented in the history of the commerce of India.’— 
 Wilson’s History of British India, vol. vii. 
 
€h. XIV.] 
 
 OFFICIAL COERESPONDENCE. 
 
 359 
 
 touched upon in this letter: it finds place, however, in 
 many others. Writing to Lord Grrenville on the sub¬ 
 ject of the Company’s affairs, he said:—‘ I subscribe 
 heartily to the advantage of a general and comprehen¬ 
 sive view of that subject in preference to partial and 
 individual reforms. 
 
 ‘ To keep iip establishments, or to pay them on a 
 scale for which onr funds are insufficient, is impossible 
 on a permanent system. On the other hand, I doubt 
 whether reductions of emolnments can ever furnish a 
 very considerable result; for if pushed too far it extin¬ 
 guishes exertion and energy and creates general dis¬ 
 content and inaction. Tt produces also the danger of 
 abusive and irregular profits, which is the greatest evil 
 of all.’ 
 
 And again to the same correspondent, writing with 
 reference to the salary of a high legal functionary, the 
 Recorder of Prince of Wales’ Island, he says:—‘ It is 
 of great moment to send a capable and respectable man 
 to administer civil and criminal jixstice where he will 
 be the only lawyer in the country ; and such a man is 
 entitled to live without penury and anxiety. He is 
 not placed there as a step in his career; but must 
 limit his views to the enjoyment of his office in a dis¬ 
 tant and secluded country while he holds it, and to a 
 very moderate retreat at the close of his labours and 
 exile.’ 
 
 The peculiar conditions in which the British rule 
 in India exists were ever present to his mind when the 
 interests of the iState or of individuals were under con- 
 
360 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [Cn. xiY. 
 
 sicleration. A few thousands of men were called upon 
 to govern millions; between the few and the many 
 there were no sympathies of race or of religion, no 
 similarity in civilisation, none of the links which bind 
 men together. Exiles from their native country, often 
 from their families, when time and distance were 
 e\ ils of a magnitude ^vhich we can hardly appreciate, 
 the dearest hope of Anglo-Indians was the achieve¬ 
 ment of such an independence as would permit them to 
 escape from the land where the best years of their man¬ 
 hood had to be spent; yet the fate of India depended 
 on the faithfidness of such men to the functions of 
 go\"ernment. To their energy and integrity England 
 looked for safety, and India for justice. ‘ Destroy or 
 even retard their hopes, and you sap their energy, and 
 tempt their probity, and by so doing you weaken the 
 governing power of your empire.’ 
 
 In the same spirit he wrote on the general ques¬ 
 tion of the suitability of a Commission to elfect mea¬ 
 sures of retrenchment. 
 
 ‘ All schemes of sound economy must be combined 
 with other points of public policy. If simple retrench¬ 
 ment is ordered, without regard to other principles of 
 government, either the economical result will itself 
 lie fallacious, and the worst as well as greatest of 
 all prodigalities Avill be the real consequence, by the 
 substitution of abuse in the room of avowed remunera¬ 
 tion for service; or, if the economy should prove real, 
 the State itself, for the benefit of which that economy 
 is sought, will suffer more essentially, perhaps vitally, 
 
Cm. XIV.] 
 
 OFFICIAL coerp:spondence. 
 
 361 
 
 iu its higher interests, liy the inefficiency of all the 
 branches of the public service. . . . Ketrenchment is 
 the specific object of the appointment of a Commission. 
 It is in that branch that the pnblic looks for the proofs 
 of their exertion; and the accomplishment of those 
 expectations is to be their title to pnblic notice and 
 approbation on their return to Europe. They are not 
 sent out to govern India. The permanent interests 
 of that country are not committed to them, although 
 these objects may be recommended to their collateral 
 regard. In this respect, therefore, I cannot help think¬ 
 ing a Commission of retrenchment is, by its very con¬ 
 stitution, subject to the objection of separating those 
 objects of pnblic policy which ought to be combined, 
 and of throwing an extraordinary share of the public 
 authority and energy into a single branch of the pub¬ 
 lic concerns, in a manner which is distinct, from, and is 
 on that account prejudicial to, the general interests of 
 the State. It is in this view that I still consider the 
 established government of India as the most convenient 
 — I might say, as the only convenient—instrument of 
 such economical reforms as the present conjuncture of 
 the Company’s concerns may require. 
 
 ‘ I hope that a remedy for the disorder in our 
 finances may be sought, in part at least, from an aug¬ 
 mentation of resources as well as from diminution of 
 charges. I am persuaded much may be done by an 
 economical administration, by avoiding unnecessary 
 expenses, and by combating abuse, fraud, and extrava¬ 
 gance in the pidilic expenditure.’ 
 
362 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [Ch. xiy. 
 
 One source to which Lord Minto looked for an 
 augmentation of resources,’ was the gradual extension 
 of free trade, in the place of the existing system of 
 exclusion and monopoly. 
 
 In a private letter to the Hon. E. Dundas, Decem¬ 
 ber 1808, he wrote: ‘ The great question between the 
 Company’s monopoly and the private trade is too exten¬ 
 sive and complicated for a letter. I shall only say that 
 the circumstances on which the necessity for monopoly 
 for the trade of India was originally founded, have 
 passed away ; and a state of the -world, as well as a 
 change in the condition of the Eastern world itself, 
 has arrived which, so far from requiring monopoly, will 
 I suspect, be found no longer compatible with that 
 system. Sudden and radical changes in great institu¬ 
 tions are however, seldom, perhaps never, free from 
 danger and evil. 'My mind certainly leans to the 
 system which appears to.be in agitation—namely, that 
 of relaxation in the present monopoly, rather than to 
 its total or immediate abolition. 
 
 ‘ Of this I Avill venture to assure you, looking to 
 the Indian side of the question only, that every exten¬ 
 sion that can be given to the freedom of trade Avill 
 operate most powerfully and sensibly to the instant 
 improvement of the wealth and prosperity of India. I 
 am strongly inclined to the opinion that the East India 
 Company itself will find more advantage in the pros¬ 
 perity of its territories than in the profits of its exclu¬ 
 sive trade ; and is in reality more interested as a Stock 
 Company in the former than in the latter. As Sove- 
 
Ch. XIV.] 
 
 FKEEDOM OF TRADE. 
 
 363 
 
 reigns of an Empire the question Avill admit of no 
 doubt, and the duties arising from that relation may be 
 thought entitled to their share in its decision.’' ^ 
 
 ‘ I should conceive that if the import and exjiort. 
 trade is thrown open to the extent mentioned in the 
 Articles 3rd, 4th, and 7th, of your letter, a liberty to 
 individual traders to employ European factors, of their 
 own appointing, in the interior of the pimdnces will 
 become necessary. This ^vill increase the number of 
 Europeans resident in the provinces, and it will be im¬ 
 possible to protect the native people from oppression 
 if Europeans residing in the provinces continue to be 
 amenable only to the Supreme Court in Calcutta, and 
 exempt from the local control of the Company’s Courts. 
 This inconvenience is already felt most sensibly.* 
 
 ‘Redress is in reality entirely refused if it must be 
 sought by poor men from a h^reign court at a great 
 distance. The proper remedy will in my apprehension 
 
 * Tlie exclusive monopoly by the Company of the India trade 
 was abolished on the renewal of the Bast India Charter in 1813. 
 The exclusive trade to China was confirmed to them. 
 
 * The system of judicature referred to was that instituted by 
 Lord Cornwallis, of which the chief feature was the establishment of 
 a number of coiu'ts throughout the British territory—one in the 
 chief city of every district—over which presided a judge with one 
 or two assistants chosen from the Company’s servants. Eacli court 
 was provided with a native to expound the Hindoo or Mahommedan 
 law. All descriptions of persons, British subjects alone excepted, were 
 amenable to these tribunals. From their decisions there were two 
 stages of appeal ; the (irst to the provincial courts, of which there 
 were four ; the last and highest Court of A])])eal was the Sudder 
 Dewanee Adawlet, composed of the chief members of Government, 
 assisted by natives. British subjects were amenable only to the 
 Supreme Court at Calcutta. 
 
364 
 
 LOKD MINTU IN INDIA. 
 
 [Ch. XIV. 
 
 he to subject Europeans at a certain distance from 
 Calcutta to the jurisdiction of the Company’s Courts, 
 with such limitations as may be thought necessary. 
 Ihit I must take the liberty of cautioning you 
 auxiously against any proposition (and such will 
 certainly be made) for extending the administration 
 of English law to the provinces; and consequently 
 sending English lawyers and attorneys among the 
 people of India. I would also caution you against any 
 admixture of the two judicatures, by giving appeals 
 from the Company’s courts to the Supreme Court, or 
 by placing a judge or the Chief Justice of the Supreme 
 Court ill the Sudder Dewanee Adawlet, which is the 
 Court of Appeal from all the Company’s tribunals. 
 Our judicial system is not without defects. It is yet 
 in an early stage, but I am persuaded it will mature 
 itself into a good, rational, and for this country whole¬ 
 some and convenient system of law, with a pure 
 and efficient administration of justice, provided it be 
 not perplexed by an alliance with a foreign code, and 
 borne down by the superior authority of English and 
 professional lawyers.’ 
 
 The great burden on the finances of the Company 
 was the size of their army. ‘ On all sides I am assured,’ 
 wrote Lord Aliuto, ‘ that this great expense is a neces¬ 
 sary one.’ Surrounded by rival ambitions, by popula¬ 
 tions indifferent when not hostile, the ascendancy of 
 Great Britain could only be maintained by indispu¬ 
 table military supremacy. 
 
 A discussion having arisen, in connection with this 
 
Ch. XIV.] 
 
 lUL.VNrE OF POWER. 
 
 365 
 
 question, between the Court of Directors and the 
 Indian Giovemment, regarding the policy of endeav¬ 
 ouring to restore the balance of power among the 
 States of India, which it Avas assumed had been de¬ 
 stroyed by the territorial acquisitions of the Company, 
 Lord Minto observed in a secret despatch, that, ‘ as an 
 abstract proposition, all opinions will agree that a 
 balance of the power of States, united in political or 
 commercial intercourse, affords the best, if not the 
 only security which human ingenuity can devise 
 against the projects of ambition or the ruinous effects 
 of reciprocal enmity. But a balance of power, to be 
 efficient, must be formed on principles of convention 
 such as those under which it subsisted on the Conti¬ 
 nent of Europe before the French Bevolution. 
 
 ‘ It must arise out of a consentaneous submission to 
 a system of public Lvav, and a recognition of reciprocal 
 rights as they respect the several States individually, 
 and of reciprocal duties as they relate to the imposition 
 of restraints on their own ambition, or on the ambition 
 of their neighbours. It must be foundcvl at least on a 
 declared renunciation of vieAvs of corupiest, as a ])rin- 
 ciple of government; and it must operate by the ajjpn*- 
 hended, and, as the occasion may require, the actual 
 association of several States to resist the endeavours 
 Avhich any one State may employ to aggrandise its 
 power at the expense f)f another. At no period of the 
 history of India do we recognise the existence of any 
 such system of federation or balance of the power of 
 States; nor indeed is it compatible with the character. 
 
366 
 
 LOKD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [Ch. XIV. 
 
 principles, or constitution of the States which have 
 been established on the Continent of India. With 
 them, war, rapine, and conquest constitute an avowed 
 and legitimate pursuit, and the chief source of public 
 glory, sanctioned and even recommended by the ordi¬ 
 nances of religion, and prosecuted without the sem¬ 
 blance or pretext of justice, Avith a savage disregard of 
 every obligation of humanity and public faith, and 
 restrained alone by the poAver of resistance. Under 
 the successful impulse of these principles the vast 
 empire of the hlahommedans Avas established over more 
 than the Continent of India. 
 
 ‘ On its ruins arose the poAver of the INIahratta States, 
 Avhich subsequently branched out into a confederation 
 of chiefs, professedly directed to objects of conquest 
 and universal exaction, the fruits of AAUich, by regular 
 convention, Avere to be divided in specific proportions. 
 The same vieAvs and principles animated and extended 
 the usurpations of Hyder Ali and his successor. The 
 checks which the Mahrattas and the rulers of Mysore 
 occasionally received from the poAver of the Nizam, and 
 from different combinations among these three States, 
 Avere the result, not of a predetermined federation and 
 ))alance of poAver, but of the prevalence of a system of 
 concpiest, violence, and usurpation. The efforts of the 
 contending parties Avere directed, not to the just limita¬ 
 tion, but to the subversion of each other’s poAver, and 
 the aggrandisement of their OAvn ; and it is unnecessary 
 to refer to the testimony of specific facts, Avith a view 
 to demonstrate the self-evident proposition, that the 
 
Ch. XIV.] 
 
 MILITARY DISCIPLINE. 
 
 367 
 
 permanent existence of a balance of power is incompa¬ 
 tible with reciprocal views of conquest and ambition. 
 
 ‘ We shall not adduce, in proof of the existence of 
 that spirit of insatiable coiKpiest which we have 
 ascribetl to the native States without distinction, the 
 various etforts which they have employed to subvert 
 the British broverunieut in India, since the period of 
 its establishment. The existence of it, as the actua¬ 
 ting principle of every Indian Power, requires no de¬ 
 monstration; and we found upon it this undeinable 
 conclusion—that no extent of concession or territorial 
 restitution on our part would have the effect of estab¬ 
 lishing any real or effectual balance of power in India, 
 or forbearance on the part of other States when the 
 means of aggrandisement should be placed in their 
 hands. Vour Honourable Committee has indeed justly 
 remarked, in your letter of October 30, 1805, “that to 
 recede is often more hazardous than to advance ; ” add¬ 
 ing “ that this observation is peculiarly applicable to 
 India, where there is little probability that concession 
 woidd be attributed by the native Powers to any other 
 motives than weakness and fear.” To enter more 
 amply into this discussion would require a laborious 
 review of events during a long course of years . . . 
 the necessity of which is superseded by the conviction 
 which we entertain, that no argument can be retpusite 
 to demonstrate how vain would be the expectation of 
 augmenting our security by dinuuishing our power and 
 political ascendancy on the Continent of Asia.' 
 
 It is perha])s scarcely sufficiently remembered that. 
 
368 
 
 LOED JUNTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [Ch. XIV. 
 
 in countries where a low state of ci\dlisation exists, 
 military discipline is generally found to be the first 
 and most efficient school to teach the rudiments of 
 social order. 
 
 A curious instance of this ffict is given in a passage 
 of a journal -written by Colonel Taylor, aide-de-camp to 
 Lord ]\Iinto, while accompanying the Commander-in- 
 chief on a visit to the Upper Provinces. After de¬ 
 scribing a visit to the ruins of iShah Soojah’s palace 
 on the Ganges, he goes on to describe a mosque some 
 miles further on. ‘ We found it surrounded with 
 jungles; in it a very picturesque and savage-looking* 
 group had taken possession of the ruins; about twenty 
 hill-men were just taking their breakfast of venison 
 steaks on plantain leaves ; half of the deer, not skinned, 
 lay among them; some were repairing their arrows; 
 each had a large bamboo bow leaning against the wall, 
 and quantities of arrows of different kinds were by 
 them. The next day we inspected the hill rangers, a 
 corps of about 300 men, formed entirely from the in¬ 
 habitants of the hills. It is curious to see men who 
 were, before enlisting, such as rve saw in the Jumna 
 Mesjid, or mosque near Kajemahl, with their clothes, 
 arms, and accoutrements in high order, and going 
 through their manoeuvres by the word of command in 
 English -with more steadiness than is always to be met 
 with in an English regiment; though I observe the 
 native corps are generally slower in their movements.’' 
 
 * The discipline of the Sepoys was shown in a remarkable degree 
 during a great riot at llonares in ISOlt. 
 
Ch. XIV.] 
 
 VAEIOUS MEASURES. 
 
 369 
 
 Lord Minto’s expectations as to the development 
 of a ‘ wholesome and convenient system of law,’ from 
 the basis of the scheme instituted by liord Cornwallis, 
 do not appear to have been realised. In the year 
 following that in which this letter was written, he had 
 occasion, as we have seen, to deplore the lawless con¬ 
 dition of districts at no considerable distance from 
 Calcutta, and to trace them in part to the ignorance 
 of European magistrates, and the corruption of the 
 native poUce. 
 
 Various measures for the improvement of the 
 administration of justice were under consideration at 
 various periods of his tenure of office ; but he himself 
 appears to have rested his best hopes of attaining a 
 more efficient system upon a previous amelioration in 
 the relations of the two races, and upon the gradual 
 instruction of the native population in those elemen¬ 
 tary principles of truth and honesty without which 
 there can be neither law nor justice. 
 
 The mutual ignorance of eacli other’s motives, in¬ 
 tentions, and actions, in which Europeans and natives 
 seemed content to live, had forcibly struck Lord IMinto 
 during his short residence at IMadras in 1807. ‘ 1 do 
 
 not believe that either Lord VVilliajn (Bentinck) or Sir 
 .John Cradock had the slightest idea of the aversion 
 their measures woidd excite. I fidly believe that their 
 intentions were totally misapprehended by the natives.’ 
 His subsequent letters show his conviction that the 
 chief impediment to the improvement of the native 
 race, and the chief disadvantage under which their 
 
 B B 
 
370 
 
 LORD MINTO IN IISDIA. 
 
 [Ch. XIV. 
 
 European rulers laboured, was to be found in their 
 reciprocal ignorance of each other’s language and 
 modes of thonght. One of the first objects of 
 Grovernment, he said, should be to assist them to 
 understand each other. 
 
 In a despatch to the Home Grovernment, written 
 soon after his arrival in India, the following passage 
 occurs :—‘ Some unnecessary mortifications experienced 
 at present by the native officer might, I think, be re¬ 
 moved with great propriety and advantage; and a very 
 material and essential improvement wonld result from 
 every encouragement that could be given to a closer 
 interconrse between European officers and the Sepoys 
 they command. To this very important object the 
 attention of Grovernment is now directed, and mnch 
 benefit may be expected from the means of instruction 
 in the native language which are now furnished to the 
 younger branches of the service. It must be the care 
 of Grovernment to inculcate throughout the army that 
 an intimate acquaintance and intercourse with the 
 native soldier will constitute one of the strongest titles 
 to the favour of their superiors, and advancement in 
 their profession.’ 
 
 In a similar spirit Lord Minto addressed himself to 
 the students of the College of Fort William, remind¬ 
 ing them that they were about to be employed in the 
 administration of a great country, in which it would 
 not be much beyond the truth to say that the English 
 iangnage was not known; that they wonld have to 
 deal with mnltitudes who could only communicate with 
 
Ch. XIV.] COLLEGE OF FOKT WILLIAM. 
 
 371 
 
 them in some one or other of the languages taught at 
 the College of Fort William; that ignorance of the 
 languages of India created almost unavoidable and 
 almost unlimited dependence on the native and sub¬ 
 ordinate officers. ‘ How much prejudice to the inter¬ 
 ests of the Company, how much vexation, extortion, and 
 cruelty towards our native subjects, how much indi¬ 
 vidual shame and ruin have resulted from this cause, a 
 very short acquaintance with the affairs of India will 
 too clearly show.’ He could not therefore declare too 
 explicitly his determination to give the preference in 
 the selection of gentlemen for public trust and employ¬ 
 ment to those who should have established a reputation 
 for conduct, diligence, and talents during their studies 
 at the College of Fort William. 
 
 The College of Fort William was, as is well known, 
 founded by Lord Wellesley. The parsimony of the 
 Directors led to several important restrictions of its 
 original functions before Lord Minto went to India. He, 
 however, lent it the fidl aid of his support, recognising 
 in it the twofold object of promoting knowledge among 
 the Anglo-Indian pidilic servants and the restoration 
 of (Oriental literature to its due position among the 
 scientific studies. A number of important and learned 
 works on the science of language and of jurisprudence 
 were published by the College in the years 1808, 1809, 
 and 1810; as also others of a more literary character, 
 reproducing the most important and esteemed produc¬ 
 tions of Hindoo, Persian, and Arabian poets and writers. 
 A printing press, established by learned Hindoos, for 
 
 JJ B 2 
 
372 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA, 
 
 [Ch. XIV. 
 
 the printing of books in the Sanscrit language, was 
 munificently aided by T./ord Minto, and was encouraged 
 by the College to undertake an edition of the best 
 Sanscrit dictionaries, and a compilation of the Sanscrit 
 rides of grammar. 
 
 His first address in the character of Visitor to the 
 College, in 1808, contains a passage which, emanating 
 from the lips of the man ivho was shortly to open nego¬ 
 tiations with the ruler of Afghanistan, and who later 
 on enrolled an important portion of the Malayan race 
 among the subjects of the Company, possibly contained 
 more meaning than met the ear. 
 
 There were two languages which, though included 
 in the comprehensive scheme of Oriental study 
 embraced by the College of Fort ’William at an earlier 
 period of the institution, were not provided for in the 
 modified plan of instruction to which the College was 
 now restricted—the Alalay, and the Afghan or Pushtoo. 
 
 ‘Yet,’said Lord Minto, ‘ I cannot think either of 
 those I have mentioned entirely devoid of interest; in 
 the first place as branches of the general and liberal 
 pursuit of Eastern learning which we profess; and in 
 the next place as bearing either a present and imme¬ 
 diate, or in the many chances of human vicissitude, a 
 prospective, and perhaps not remote, affinity to our 
 affairs.’ Some steps had been already taken in the 
 direction indicated, by the joint labours of a learned 
 native of Peshawur and of a British Orientalist, of 
 which a vocabulary, dictionary, and essay on Afghan 
 grammar were the result. 
 
Ch. XIV.J 
 
 COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM. 
 
 373 
 
 We have seen it stated, with what trutli we know 
 not, that at the present time fewer of onr officers are 
 accjiiainted with the Pushtoo dialect than might be 
 desired, and ‘ enlightened foreigners ’ have commented 
 on the insufficient knowledge of Oriental tongues ob¬ 
 servable among British agents in the East. 
 
 Not one of his public duties, said Lord INIinto in his 
 last annual address to the College of Fort \\hlliam, had 
 excited in his mind a more cordial concern and more 
 lively interest than those appertaining to the office of 
 A^isitor of the College. 
 
 And, perhaps, no more intellectual treat was to be 
 olitained at Calcutta than was offered by the discourse 
 of Lord INIinto on the occasion of the annual chstribu- 
 tion of honorary degrees, of prizes, and medals to the 
 successful students of the College. Alauy went to 
 hear him who had no other attraction than the plea¬ 
 sure of listening to a thoughtfid address, expressed 
 in language worthy of the thought. It is probable 
 that none of his pnblic appearances were so well adapted 
 to disclose the natural bias of his tastes as this; in 
 which the pursint of literature in all its branches was 
 his theme, while the almost paternal tenderness with 
 which he sympathised in the hopes and eftorts of the 
 young gave at times a touching as well as impressive 
 character to his exhortations. 
 
 It is pleasant to learn, on the authority of the 
 eminent historian of British India, that Lord Alinto’s 
 earnest efforts to bring into fnll operation the benefits 
 intended by the illnstrious founder of the College were 
 
374 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA, 
 
 [Ch. XIV. 
 
 crowned with eminent siiccess. ‘ The junior members 
 of the service were animated to hoirourable exertions, 
 which formed the foundation of their future distinction; 
 their seniors were induced to apply their knowledge 
 and acquirements to the instruction of their younger 
 brethren; and a number of natives of talent, exercising 
 over their countrymen the combined influence of learn¬ 
 ing and religion, who were engaged in the servuce of 
 the College, derived from their employment some com¬ 
 pensation for that neglect to which the decay and ex¬ 
 tinction of native patrons of rank had subjected them, 
 and learned to identify their interests with those of a 
 foreign and intrusive race. To them and to their 
 European associates were due a variety of useful works, 
 tending to make the Oriental student familiar with 
 the laws and institutions, the religion and character of 
 the people. Every attempt so directed was encouraged 
 and aided by Lord Minto.’ 
 
 Some years’ experience of the beneflcial results 
 already attained from the prosecution of Oriental studies 
 at the College of Fort William, and through the medium 
 of the learned works produced by the Serampore Press, 
 induced Lord Minto to consider the propriety of in¬ 
 stituting colleges for the two great races—the Hindoo 
 and Mahommedan—forming the immense majority of 
 the population over which we were called to rule. Both 
 were races boasting histories of great renown; \'isible 
 monuments of their public spirit were scattered over 
 the land—monuments of exquisite art and refined taste. 
 In Sanscrit literature lie imbedded some of the earliest 
 
Ch. XIV.] 
 
 nativp: colleges. 
 
 375 
 
 and some of the highest theological conceptions to which 
 the uninspired mind has attained; and with Hindoo 
 and Mussulman—as with all men—‘ the natural law of 
 which St. Paul speaks, was capable of development under 
 moral cidture, whatever the figments of their faith. 
 
 Therefore it seemed to Lord Minto that to give a 
 higher education on general subjects of learning through 
 the channels by which alone they could receive it, was 
 an object worthy of the State, and shortly before he 
 went to Java in 1811 he wrote a minute from which 
 the following passages are extracted. 
 
 ‘Fort William: March 6, 1811.' 
 
 ‘ It is a common remark that science and literature 
 are in a progressive state of decay among the natives 
 of India. From every enquiry which I have been en¬ 
 abled to make on this interesting subject, that remark 
 appears to me but too well founded. The number of 
 the learned is not only diminished, but the circle of 
 learning, even among those who still devote themselves 
 to it, appears to be considerably contracted. The 
 abstract sciences are abandoned, polite literature neg¬ 
 lected, and no branch of learning cultivated but what 
 is connected with the peculiar religious doctrines of the 
 people. The immediate consequence of this state of 
 things is the disuse, and even actual loss, of many 
 valuable books; and it is to be apprehended that, un¬ 
 less Government interposes Avith a fostering hand, the 
 
 Minute by the Governor General 
 
376 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [Ch. XIV. 
 
 revival of letters may become hopeless, from a want of 
 books, or of persons capable of explaining them. 
 
 ‘ The principal cause of the present neglected state 
 of literature iu India is to be traced to the want of that 
 encouragement which was formerly afforded to it by 
 princes, chieftains, and opulent individuals under the 
 native governments. Such encouragement must always 
 operate as a strong incentive to study and literary 
 exertions, but especially in India, where the learned 
 professions have little if any other support. 
 
 ‘ The justness of these observations might be illus¬ 
 trated by a detailed consideration of the former and 
 present state of science and literature at the three 
 principal seats of Hindoo learning, viz. Benares, Tirhoot, 
 and Nuddea. Such a review would bring before us the 
 liberal patronage which was formerly bestowed, not 
 only by princes and others in power and authority, but 
 also by the zemindars, on persons who had distin¬ 
 guished themselves by the successful cultivation of 
 letters at those places. It would equally bring to our 
 view the present neglected state of learning at those 
 once celebrated places ; and we should have to remark 
 with regret, that the cultivation of letters was now 
 confined to the few surviving persons who had been 
 patronised by the native princes and others, under the 
 former governments, or to such of the immediate de¬ 
 scendants of those persons as had imbibed a love of 
 science from their parents. 
 
 ‘ It is seriously to be lamented that a nation particu¬ 
 larly distinguished for its love and successful cultivation 
 
Ch. XIV.] MINUTE I!Y THE GOVEliNOR GENERAL. 377 
 
 of letters; in other parts of the empire, should have 
 failed to extend its fostering care to the literature of the 
 Hindoos, and to aid in opening to the learned in Europe 
 the repositories of that hterature. 
 
 ‘ It is not, however, the credit alone of the national 
 character which is affected by the present neglected 
 state of learning in the East. The ignorance of the 
 natives in the different classes of society, arising from 
 the want of proper education, is generally acknowledged. 
 This defect not only excludes them as individuals from 
 the enjoyment of all those comforts and benefits which 
 the cultivation of letters is naturally calculated to afford, 
 but, operating as it does throughout almost the whole 
 mass of the population, tends materially to obstruct the 
 measures adopted for their better government. 
 
 ‘ Little doubt can be entertained that the prevalence 
 of the crimes of perjury and forgery, so frequently 
 noticed in the official reports, is in a great measure 
 ascribable both in the Mahommedans and flindoos, to 
 the want of due instruction in the moral anil religious 
 tenets of their respective faiths. It luis even been 
 suggested, and apparently not without foundation, that 
 to this uncultivated state of mind of the natives is in 
 a great degree to be ascribed the prevalence of those 
 crimes which were recently so great a scourge to the 
 country. 
 
 ‘ The latter offences against the peace and happiness 
 of society have indeed, for the present, been materially 
 checked by the vigilance and energy of the police ; but 
 it is probably only by the more general diflusion of 
 
378 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [Oh. XIV. 
 
 knowledge among the great body of the people that the 
 seeds of these evils can be etfectually destroyed. 
 
 ‘ Snfificient, I presume, has been already said to 
 show the fitness of incurring some additional expense 
 with a view to the restoration of learning in the 
 extensive provinces subject to the immediate govern¬ 
 ment of this Presidency.’ 
 
 The minute indicates certain reforms which were 
 required to adapt the existing college at Benares (for 
 which a liberal sum was allowed by Grovernment) to 
 the prevailing opinions and habits of the natives, and 
 to correct the abuses which had crept into it; it then 
 proceeds to recommend that two other Hindoo colleges 
 at Nuddea and at Bhour should be constituted; and 
 ends thus :' ‘It will be observed that in the foregoing 
 remarks I have confined myself almost exclusively to 
 the plan necessary to be adopted for the restoration of 
 Hindoo science and literature. . . . With the difference 
 only in the population of Hindoos and Mahommedans, 
 all the arguments which have been above stated in 
 support of the arrangements proposed to be adopted 
 for the propagation of knowledge among the former 
 would equally apply to similar institutions for the 
 benefit of the Mahommedans. A sentiment, however, 
 of deference for the Honourable Court of Directors re¬ 
 strains me from recommending any extension of the 
 plan until their orders shall have been received on the 
 subject generally of this minute. I deem it therefore 
 sufficient to add on the present occasion that Mahom- 
 medan colleges might be beneficially established at 
 
Ch. XIV.] PUBLIC ADDRESS TO LORD MINTO. 
 
 379 
 
 Bhangiilpore, Juanpore (where Persian and Arabic litera¬ 
 ture formerly flourished), and at some place in the ceded 
 and conquered provinces; and that it might be advisable 
 to reform the iNIadrissa, or iMahommedan collegiate in¬ 
 stitution, at ('alcntta, on the principles recommended 
 with respect to the Hindoo colleges. The attention of 
 the Honourable Court will be of course drawn to this 
 interesting subject in the next despatch from the 
 Revenue Department.’ * 
 
 We cannot terminate this chapter more effectively 
 than by a few extracts from an Address presented to 
 Lord Minto on his departure from India by the British 
 residents at Calcutta. 
 
 ‘The arduous and sacred trust of administering this 
 great government devolved upon your Lordship soon 
 after the termination of wars, which had far extended 
 the limits of the Empire, and had raised to the highest 
 pitch the reputation of the British councils, together 
 with the fame of the British arms; but the mighty 
 efforts necessary to ensure those splendid results coidd 
 not be supported without proportionate sacrifices. To 
 repair, therefore, the evils inseparable from the most 
 
 ' This minute is quoted in an article on the ‘ Early or exclusively 
 Oriental period of Government Education in Bengal,’ in the Cdlcvtta 
 jR(‘vic)v, vol. iii. 1845, and is ushered in with the remark that ‘ The 
 Earl of Minto, having succeeded to his heart’s content in crushing 
 the efforts of Christian evangelists, next directed his attention to the 
 heathenish institutions which owed their origin and support to 
 ■the munificence of some of his predecessors. These he re.solved 
 not only to perpetuate but to render still more efficient. And not 
 only so, but his purpose was consentaneously formed to add to their 
 number at the expense of the State. . . . This document of great 
 historical importance is little known.’ 
 
380 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [Ch. XIV. 
 
 fortunate warfare, to recruit and husband our resources, 
 to consolidate our recent conquests, to introduce among 
 our new subjects the inestimable blessings of security, 
 of order, and of justice, were among the first objects 
 which called forth the exercise of your Lordship’s 
 wisdom and talents. 
 
 ‘ The consummate prudence and complete success 
 of the measures directed to the accomplishment of 
 these momentous objects are attested by the flourish¬ 
 ing condition of every branch of the public revenue ; 
 by the state of tranquillity in which these Provinces 
 have been maintained, and by the increasing opulence 
 and prosperity which, notwithstanding the privation 
 of foreign commerce, they unequivocally manifest. 
 
 ‘ At the period of your Lordship’s arrival in India, 
 the undisguised and ambitious projects of our in¬ 
 veterate enemy in Persia, in Turkey, and in every 
 quarter of the East to which his agents and emissaries 
 found means of access, threatened to interrupt the 
 tranquillity and security of these dominions. . . . The 
 vigilant exertions and comprehensive arrangements of 
 that period of your Lordship’s administration were 
 commensurate with the exigency of the times, and 
 were eminently calculated to secure those external and 
 internal combinations of policy and power which in the 
 season of approaching peril constitute the most efficient 
 means of national defence. 
 
 ‘ We have witnessed the successful exertion of 
 promptitude, energy, and foresight in restoring tran- 
 (|uillity to a vast portion of the Empire ; in repelling 
 
Ch. XIV.] PUBLIC ADDRESS TO LORD MINTO. 
 
 381 
 
 the aggression of foreign enemies ; in maintaining the 
 efficiency of our political relations, in vindicating the 
 rights and dignity of the British Government, and in 
 supporting the reputation of its faith and the vigour of 
 its arms. 
 
 ‘ These brilliant results of foresight and of energy 
 formed a happy presage of the triumphant expeditions 
 in which the zeal, discipline, and valom- of our armies, 
 under the guidance of your Lordship’s councils, ac¬ 
 complished the subjugation of the Islands of Bourbon 
 and Mauritius, and achieved the still greater compiest 
 of the Dutch possessions in the East. 
 
 ‘ We cannot forego the gratification of bearing our 
 testimony to the wisdom and humanity which extended 
 to the conquered the blessings of British protection 
 and of British laws, and saved an ancient and popidous 
 colony from that devastation to which a less generous 
 policy might have doomed it.’ 
 
382 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1814 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Lord jMinto returned to England as he had left it, on 
 board a frigate commanded by his son, Captain George 
 Elliot; but on this occasion accompanied by his younger 
 son John, and the wives and infants of both brothers. 
 All the family had assembled in London to receive him, 
 with the exception of his wife and yonngest daughter 
 and daughter-in-law. These awaited him at Alinto. 
 
 If the letters of 1812 gave us a glimpse of the 
 gloomiest period of England’s long struggle with the 
 despotism that had enchained the Continent of Europe, 
 those of 1814 mark the high tide of her triumph. London 
 overflowed with Emperors, Kings, and field-marshals. 
 
 These were the heroes of the Harvest-Home, but 
 the sheaves had been gathered by the nations in arms 
 - -from the Tyrolese Alps to the ramparts of Saragossa ; 
 
 From Moscow, self-devoted in a blaze 
 Of dreadful slaughter, 
 
 to the heights where German armies paused in their 
 headlong course to gaze upon and hail the free ‘ exult¬ 
 ing ’ Rhine. 
 
 And in English hearts was the proud consciousness, 
 
JEt. 63] 
 
 AKRIVAL IN LONDON. 
 
 383 
 
 to which a great Whig statesman ' has given expression, 
 that ‘ the constancy, courage, and perseverance of the 
 J^ritish people, animating the prostrate nations of the 
 Continent, had at length achieved a triumph over the 
 most formidable combination of military genius, war¬ 
 like popidation, conquering armies, and political talent, 
 which ever threatened the independence of our country.’ 
 
 ‘ Is it not (piite glorious to have lived to see this 
 holiday—this festival for all the nations under heaven ? ’ 
 wrote the calm Lord Webb tSeymour; ^ ‘ yet it is 
 humiliating to think that the bar to all this happi¬ 
 ness—the bar we have removed—was the ascendancy 
 of one baneful mind.^ This is a sad check to those 
 splendid contemplations which Mr. Stewart and other 
 philosophers would encourage, respecting the influence 
 of general causes upon the progressive improvement of 
 the human race. ]\Ir. Playfair mil go to Paris if he 
 finds Lord J. Pussell, the Miss Jlerry’s, or any old 
 intimates ready to go with him.’ 
 
 Another correspondent—deorge Eden, afterwards 
 Lord Auckland—did go to Paris, and with all the 
 sympathies of Holland House about him, saw nothing 
 so interesting there as Josephine and Hortense. 
 ‘ Very few of those to whom we talked disguised their 
 ailiiiiratiou for Napoleon; but, with the exception of 
 some of the army, very few would risk their internal 
 
 ' Lord Russell. - To Lady Minto, May lil, 1814. 
 
 ’ ‘ He must fall,’ wrote Benjamin Constant to Sir James Mack¬ 
 intosh (March 1814)—‘he must fall before we can think of 
 anything else ; he mu.st fall that we may have time to think of any¬ 
 thing else.’ 
 
384 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1814 
 
 quiet to have him back again. By the bye have you 
 heard the calembourg ? “ Les Anglais nous ont vendu 
 un cochon de dix-huit Louis qui ne vaut pas un 
 Napoleon.” His works in roads, buildings, and mili¬ 
 tary establishments are magnificent beyond all idea, 
 and I conld not help being indignant at the pains taken 
 to efface all remembrance of his being the author of 
 them.’' 
 
 Into this scene of splendour and triumph arrived 
 the returning Grovernor General; but to him and to 
 those who waited for him all other feelings were swal¬ 
 lowed up in the joy of reunion—actnal, or at hand. 
 What that moment was to them, and what too the days 
 that followed it, their own letters will most fitly tell. 
 
 Lord Minto to Lady Minto. 
 
 ‘ H.M.S. Hussar ” at sea : May 7, 1814. 
 
 ‘We are all well—off the sonth of Ireland—hope 
 to land in four days. We fell in with an English frigate 
 this forenoon with which we conversed by telegraphic 
 signals and received the most happy intelHgence. 
 “ Peace with France—the old kingdom restored,” by 
 which we understand the Bourbons restored. We 
 now hear from the Irish boat that the Emperor of 
 the West is sent to Elba —relegatus ad insulas. We 
 are all out of our wits, and especially myself, at the 
 thoughts of meeting you all. 
 
 ' Lord Auckland to Miss Emma Elliot, who was at Madras with 
 her father, the lit. Hon. Hugh Elliot, Governor of the Presidency. 
 
^T. 63] 
 
 ARRIVAL IN LONDON. 
 
 385 
 
 ‘ London: May 19. 
 
 ‘ I arrived yesterday, and was in a complete whirl of 
 delight for the first two or three hours ; and I was 
 caught by the last bell, the sound and meaning of 
 which I had forgot. I am excessively glad that you 
 did not come to town; and the delay in our meeting 
 will be fully compensated by the superior happiness of 
 meeting at home. You may reckon on this day fort¬ 
 night as the longest period of my stay in London. I 
 was delighted, as you may imagine, with A. ]\I. 
 and Gilbert. Yesterday was indeed one of the very 
 happiest days of my life; but there is one happier still 
 in store, when I shall have you once more in my arms, 
 with the certainty of having no more of those sad 
 absences from which we have so often suffered, and 
 Cat an to kiss and to spoil, and Mary and her four 
 upon my knee. It is in short to me, like the events of 
 this annus mirabilis to the world, the commence¬ 
 ment of a new era of happiness and repose. You will 
 have heard from other quarters, and spare my blushes 
 in repeating, all the compliments that are paid me, by 
 everybody I meet, on my youth and beauty. To the 
 latter I must plead guilty, since they all tell the ssime 
 story; but of youth there is little left. I have seen 
 crowds of old friends to-day—Glenbervies—Aucklands 
 —Chichesters—Temples—Fred North—Henry Gaily 
 Knight—Harrises—Mrs. Robinson—Elliot of Wells— 
 John Frere. I go to Park Place in my way to Scot¬ 
 land. 
 
 V c 
 
386 
 
 LOED JVnNTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1814 
 
 Lady Melgund to a Friend. 
 
 ‘ Minto : May 20, 1814. 
 
 ‘ The “ Hussar ” has arrived, and every soul on 
 board well. They landed at Plymouth on the 14th; 
 wonld get to London as yesterday or to-day. We shall 
 probably see them in about ten days. We got this 
 joyful news yesterday morning, and we spent such a 
 day! It would have raised the spirit of a Dutchman 
 to see the happiness that reigned at Minto. The 
 news spread through the house like wildfire, every¬ 
 body was running here and there, not knowing how to 
 show their joy. When I told them to go to the top of 
 the house to cheer, in ten minutes there were about 
 seventy people assembled; I gave them a quantity of 
 guns, and we had volleys and cheering from that time 
 till one o’clock, the local militia colours flying on the 
 house all the time. After the children’s dinner we had 
 a grand procession of all the people, with fiddles play¬ 
 ing and colours flying, followed by Lady Minto, Gilbert, 
 and me in the little gig, to the Eocks, to fire the 
 cannon, which was done four times with great effect. 
 Then we had cheering, &c. till dinner-time, when the 
 procession returned, and we had a song from one of 
 the workmen, made on the occasion. The moment he 
 heard the news he ran home to make his poem, and it 
 was all ready by two o’clock. In the evening we had 
 dancing, and, as one of the carpenters observed, “ the 
 day ended with the utmost hilarity." Lady Minto 
 behaved admiiably; she was not overcome with all 
 
jEt. 63] 
 
 LETTERS FROM MINTO. 
 
 387 
 
 this joy; but it was a long while before she durst 
 trust herself to speak to me.’ 
 
 Lady Minto to Lord Minto. 
 
 ‘ Thursday, May 19. 
 
 ‘ Oh, dear me ! I can hardly breathe or speak or 
 think or run about, or sit still, or believe that all my 
 cares, all my wishes, and all my anxieties are whisked 
 away in a moment by the most delightful certainty 
 that here you are in our own little island safe and 
 sound; and I cannot say how more than delighted I 
 am, as a secondary feeling, to find that my having re¬ 
 mained here proves the decision you wished for. I felt 
 so sure of this that I have been as obstinate as any 
 mule, and positively set my face against the opinions 
 and advice of most of my friends, feeling sure I knew 
 better than they could, all the feelings you must have 
 respecting Minto itself, not to mention the everlasting 
 delight in future years of the sweet recollections that 
 will ever attach to the spot of our reunion. I will 
 not say that I would not at this moment give my ears 
 to be amongst you; but even at this moment, in ail 
 the delirium of delight, I know it is best as it is. I 
 can be patient, and shall be in a more composed state 
 than is possible just now, when all is flutter, flutter, 
 and not one idea is settled for an instant, and every 
 possible demonstration of joy has been made through¬ 
 out the house. I was called away here by the sound 
 of firing from the top of the house, and ran upstairs 
 to that beautiful terrace, where I was received with 
 
388 
 
 LOED MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1814 
 
 three cheers, and found all the work-people assembled. 
 The day being perfectly divine, I thought I had never 
 seen so beautiful and interesting a scene, the air ring¬ 
 ing with joyful sounds, and all nature gay and seeming 
 to partake of my feelings. 
 
 Friday .—I have not slept so sound for years as I 
 did last night. 
 
 Saturday .— You really are in London — only 
 think ! Comparatively speaking, I feel as if you were 
 at Hawick or Jedburgh ; and all the letters to-day, mad 
 or sober, are full of your youthful looks and beauty, 
 and declare you look younger and fresher than when 
 you left England. I begin to think I did very wrong 
 to stay at home; for I can’t say our northern blasts have 
 had the same effect on me.’ 
 
 Such was the happiness and such the hopes created 
 by Lord Minto’s return. Every day brought him letters 
 from his wife, showing that she lived in the thought of 
 their approaching reunion, while with the unselfishness 
 and strong sense of duty which distinguished her, she 
 assured him she would not be miserable, and that he 
 must not hurry away from London till all claims on 
 his attention had been satisfied. Nothing interested 
 her but the preparations for the moment to which all 
 were looking forward; nothing calmed her but an 
 active participation in them. 
 
 ‘ I have myself been arranging the rooms, and 
 dragging about the furniture; Grilly, who certainly 
 expects to find you the youngest thing here, has a 
 trap and ball ready for you.’ 
 
 r 
 
^T. 63] 
 
 MINTO AND LONDON. 
 
 389 
 
 The poor little Malay boys brought home from 
 Malacca were welcomed at INIinto as the first detach¬ 
 ment of the home-coming party. Lady Minto shivered 
 for them in their ship’s clothing, and at once set about 
 clothing them in flannel. ‘Are they my cousins?’ 
 asked the little son of the house, and on being told 
 not, ‘ I am glad of that, as I should rather not have 
 black cousins, but they are, ver?/ nice.’ Then black 
 boys and white went off to the hills together, which the 
 little darkies climbed on all fours, chattering most 
 excitedly in their native lingo. 
 
 ‘ Hay 20, 1814.' 
 
 ‘ I breakfasted this morning with Mr. Elphinstone, 
 the Chairman, and it is settled that I am to dine with 
 the Court of Directors at one of their court dinners, 
 without the fussification to both parties of an immense 
 public dinner. The day is not fixed, but it will be very 
 soon, which will be one step towards Minto. I am as 
 perfectly delighted and as perfectly happy as it is pos¬ 
 sible for me to be till I see you.’ 
 
 ‘ May 24.—I have your letters of Thursday and 
 Saturday, and I am thankful, my dearest love, that your 
 cares are heaved overboard. We have nothing now to 
 do but to be thankful and happy. The period to come 
 will, I trust, be unshadowed by absences, or that they 
 will be very short, and that we shall enjoy the tranquil 
 comforts of content and of mutual love for the rest of 
 
 • Lord Slinto to Lady Minto. 
 
LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 390 
 
 [1814 
 
 our time while the younger generations flourish away 
 in the more lively joys of their period of life.’ 
 
 ‘May 27, 1814. 
 
 ‘ I meet a very cordial reception from everybody of 
 all descriptions; and general esteem, sincere as it 
 appears to be, is a satisfactory result of public life. 
 jNIy w'ish is to close it here. Indeed, young and beau¬ 
 tiful as I am, I feel that I am not equal to the fatigues, 
 either mental or bodily, of public business in England. 
 My legs improve a little, and I hope to make them 
 younger at Minto; but really young they can never be, 
 of course; and I am not only content to toddle on 
 with you through the rest of my journey, but shall 
 think and find it the best part of our lives. There 
 certainly never were happier parents, and the children 
 who make us so, appear to be rewarded by happiness 
 themselves.’ 
 
 June 3, the day after the Drawing-room, was fixed 
 for Lord hlinto’s departure from London; but on May 
 28 an event occurred which altered his plans, and was 
 big with fate. Lord Auckland, who had gone to rest 
 in perfect health, was found dead in his bed by his 
 daughters when they went to summon him to break¬ 
 fast. In order to be with his sister in her over¬ 
 whelming grief, and to follow his brother-in-law to the 
 grave. Lord Minto at once postponed his departure. 
 Unhappily the funeral was arranged to take place at 
 Beckenham—the parish in which Eden Farm, the 
 happy home of the bereaved family, was situated— 
 
JEt. 63] 
 
 DEATH OF LORD AUCKLAND. 
 
 391 
 
 and at night. The sad procession by road from London 
 to Beckenham, and the subsequent funeral service, 
 occupied five hours—from half-past seven till half- 
 past twelve, in a cold drizzling rain. Four days later 
 we have the first note of the coming tragedy. A 
 cold, which Lord Minto had complained of before, had 
 been greatly increased by the exposure of that fatal 
 night. He was ordered to stay indoors. On the 8th 
 ‘ he broke prison to visit Lord Melville, and obtain a 
 nephew's well-earned promotion.’ On the 13th he 
 confessed himself so low in strength and spirits that 
 he could not attempt a letter. In proportion to his 
 bodily weakness was the increase of his passionate 
 longing to reach iSIinto; and his family, having no 
 apprehension of any impending danger, were equally 
 anxious with himself to get him out of town and in 
 the safe keeping of his home. ‘ With the affectionate 
 kindness which never flagged he resolved to visit 
 Lady Malmesbury at Park Place, although this added 
 at least another day to the length of his journey.’ 
 There he made the greatest exertions to conceal his 
 weakness, and his conversation was cheerful and gay; 
 but by this time his eldest son, his constant companion 
 and now tender nurse, was greatly, though still in¬ 
 sufficiently, alarmed. A medical man was sent for to 
 attend them on their journey; and from him it was for 
 the first time ascertained that Lord jMinto was suffer¬ 
 ing from an attack of a most alarming disease, which, 
 under the treatment of those days, too frequently 
 proved fatal. 
 
392 
 
 LOBD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1814 
 
 His longing to push on was, however, too strong to 
 be opposed. Thejoumey was proceeded with. ‘He has 
 but one wish, to see the person on whom his thoughts 
 are ever fixed; ’ one anxiety—to reach home. The rest 
 may be guessed. From the first horrid misgiving, 
 when the groimd seems to fail away from under 
 one’s feet, to the full con^iiction that there is no 
 help, no hope, no escape from an overwhelming cala¬ 
 mity, most of us know the course. 
 
 By short stages, Stevenage on the northern road 
 was reached; but in a state of prostration which left 
 no room for hope ; and there he quietly sank early in 
 the night on June 21. ‘Oh! my poor mother—take 
 care of her—I know you will do all you can,’ was the 
 note sent home by his son that night. 
 
 How fearful the shock, how profound the grief, may 
 be imagined by any reader of the letters now pub¬ 
 lished ; but the degree and the faithfulness of the 
 sorrow with which he was mourned may best be told in 
 a few affecting lines, written by his eldest son very 
 many years after the event, and found by his children 
 at his death. They were obviously intended to find 
 place in the opening chapter of a biography of Lord 
 Minto, which was, however, never proceeded with; for 
 the date proves that the writer’s own days were thence¬ 
 forth but few. 
 
 ‘ During the period of an absence of seven years, 
 engaged in laborious and absorbing duties, there was no 
 one day in which the evidence does not exist of the 
 fond affection with which his mind dwelt on the 
 
;Et. 63J 
 
 DEATH OF LORD MINTO. 
 
 393 
 
 domestic circle from which he was severed, and on the 
 distant prospect of reunion with those he loved. Nor 
 on our side was there a single day in which he was not 
 the constant object of our thoughts, or in which we 
 did not anxiously count the days of our separation. 
 The one great object looked to on either side, as the 
 greatest happiness that could await us, was his return 
 to England, and to the tranquil enjoyment of honour¬ 
 able repose in the home he loved. In order to under¬ 
 stand the intense anxiety with which we contemplated 
 this reunion, it would be necessary to have known the 
 feelings with which he was regarded by his family—as 
 the friend, the companion, the playfellow, the guide 
 and example for all ages—feelings in which were 
 combined the warmest familiar affection, with admira¬ 
 tion, respect, and veneration.’ 
 
 Here follows an account of his gratifying reception 
 in London; the splendid success of his government 
 being a subject of general congratulation; and then, 
 after some details of the comrse of the illness, comes 
 the end: ‘ Thus at once were dashed those hopes in 
 the moment of their accomplishment, which had been 
 the solace of seven years of painful separation. Any 
 attempt must be vain to describe the overwhelming 
 weight of this blow. The first object of our affection, 
 of our reverence, was lost in the first days of its resto¬ 
 ration ; the feehngs and the mind were subdued and 
 prostrated almost to a condition of insensibihty and 
 indifference to all the interests of life. Many, many 
 years elapsed, chequered by other and deep affliction, 
 
394 
 
 LORD MINTO IN INDIA. 
 
 [1814 
 
 before it ceased to hang as a dark cloud over our exist¬ 
 ence ; nay, even now, at the distance of nearly forty 
 years, the impressions of that sad time are fresh in my 
 heart. Though grief may have yielded to the hand of 
 time, the fond remembrance of affection still survives 
 in all its warmth.’ 
 
 When, in process of time, it became the part of 
 another generation to ‘ open the places that were closed,’ 
 and when, upon those who did so, came the desire ‘ to 
 show the image of a voice and make green the flowers 
 that were withered,’ the last year’s letters from 
 IMinto to India^—so full of hope, of joy—were found 
 tied together with a black string, and inscribed ‘ Poor 
 Fools.’ With these was a note with unbroken seal, 
 the last written by Lady Minto to her husband. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 ABD 
 
 BYE 
 
 A bdulla, extracts from Auto-,■ "^entinck, Lord William, 15, 20, 
 biography of, p. 269 sq. 21,-23, 36, 197, 206, 369 
 
 Abercromby, Sir K., 242 (note) 
 Adair, Mr. 104 
 
 Afghanistan, British alliance 
 with, 139 sq .; Mountstuart 
 Elphinstone’s mission to, 159 sq ; 
 troubled condition of, 162; 
 French designs upon, 163 ; the 
 king and nobility of, 169, 170; 
 despatch on affairs of, 170; 
 changed prospects of, il >,; 
 anarchy in, 174 
 Amboyna, 240 
 Ameer Khan, 191, 192 
 "Auchmuty, Sir Samuel, 285, 292 
 294, 296, 303 
 
 Auckland, Lord, 157, 390 
 
 ALLI, Rajah of, 266 .sq. 
 Barasut, cadets of, 89 
 “S^arlow, Sir George, 1, 2, 23, 24, 
 25, 28, 32, 59, 107, 111, 144, 206, 
 209, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 
 217, 218 (note), 219, 221, 226, 
 322 
 
 Barrackpore, 27, 28, 31, 334 
 
 Batavia, 64, 290; surrendered to 
 the British, 286 sq ; the Dutch 
 in, 304 sq. 
 
 Jlengal, natives of, 32, 33 ; ban¬ 
 ditti in, 185 .<tq.; mutinies in, 
 201, 202 (note) 
 
 Berar, Rajah of, 191 sq. 
 
 Bertie, Admiral, 243 
 Bikaneer, 161 
 
 Bombay, mutiny in, 202 (note) ; 
 
 complaints of the army of, 203 
 Bonaparte, counter-policy of 
 Indian government, 52 sq. ; his 
 designs on the East, 54, 56, 100 
 sq., 103 sq., 163 (note); on treaties 
 of peace, 342 (note). See Minto. 
 
 -JBourbon, Isle of, 240, 243, 244, 
 247 sq. 
 
 ‘ Brown Toast Club,’ 234 
 Broughton, Commodore, 280 sqq, 
 Bruce, Mr., 251, 256 
 Buchanan, Rev. C., 72; his 
 
 memorial to the Court of 
 Directors, 73 sq .; charges 
 against Lord Minto, 74 sq.; 
 alleged suppression of his Ser¬ 
 mons, 76 (note). See Mission¬ 
 aries 
 
 Bundelcund, 58 (note), 69 sq., 193 ; 
 reduction of, 60 
 
 Burke, Edmund, Lord Minto’s 
 affection for, 6; his S3'mpathy 
 for India, 6, 7 ; speech on the 
 India Bill of 1783, 7 ; letter to 
 Sir Gilbert Elliot, 9 
 Burke, Mrs. 10 
 
 Bj’ron, Lord, described by Lad^' 
 Minto, 330 
 
396 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 CAB 
 
 O ABUL, Kingdom of, 143 sq .; 
 British mission to, 147 sq., 
 159 sq., 169 ; the King of, 162, 
 169 sq., 172, 175. See Afghan¬ 
 istan. Shah Soojah. 
 
 Caffres, an intelligent chief, 170 
 — (iiote) 
 
 Calcutta, society in, 28; Lord 
 Minto’s popularity, 348 sq .; 
 address of Ilritish residents to 
 Lord Minto, 379 sq. 
 
 Calcutta Reviem cited, 74; 'on 
 Lord Minto, 379 sq. 
 
 Caledon, Lord, 105 
 Camden, Lord, 34 
 Canning, Sir., 34, 45, 46,182, 239, 
 138 {note) 
 
 Capetown, French refugees in, 14-. 
 Carey, Dr. William, 64 sq., 68, 72, 
 75 
 
 Carnatic, Nabob of the, 20 sq .; his 
 present to Lord Minto, ih. 
 Caroline, Princess of Wales, 44, 
 179 (note), 180 (note) 
 
 Carrack, Island of, proposed occu¬ 
 pation of, 123 sq., 127 sq., 131 
 Casamaijor, Mr. J. H., 228 
 Casamaijor, Miss. A., 228 
 Caste, marks of, 18 
 Castlereagh, Lord, 34, 241 
 Catalan!, Mme., 234 sq. 
 
 Catholic claims, 33 (note), 34, 35 
 (note), 41, 45, 342 
 Chillinching, 284 sq. 
 
 Choultry plain, the, 16 
 Cicero, Lord Minto’s partiality 
 for, 300; passage from the 
 ‘ Somnium Scipionis,’ ih .; from 
 the ‘ De Pinibus,’ 301 (note) ; 
 cited, 334, 337 
 Clerks, the, of Eldin, 234 
 —• Clive, Lord, 201, 218 (note) 
 
 _^Close, Colonel (Sir Barry) 50 
 
 (note), 51 sq., 52, 192, 215, 216 
 Cockburn, H., 234 
 Cole, Captain, 276 
 Colebrooke, Mr., 210 
 Constant, Benjamin, cited, 383 
 (note) 
 
 EDO 
 
 Cornelis, 288, 289; storming of, 
 
 291 
 
 Cornwallis, Lord, death of, 1, 2 ; 
 his Indian system of judicature, 
 
 363 (note) 1 
 
 Coulaincourt M., 104 [ 
 
 Councils, Indian, 27 i 
 
 Court of Directors, in collision 
 with the Cabinet, 3 ; despatch 
 on religious toleration in India, 
 
 63 sq. ; appoint an envoy to 
 Persia, 99; on Lord Minto’s i 
 
 military policy, 194, 198, 200 ; ' 
 
 instructions concerning Java, j 
 
 306 sq. ; silence on Lord Minto’s [ 
 
 measures, 318 sq., 323 sq. See ! 
 
 India. Minto, Lord. I 
 
 -Cradock, Sir John, 19,199 sq., 206, ; 
 
 369 ; 
 
 Crewe, Lady, letter to Lord 
 Minto, 179 (note ); on the 
 afEairs of Spain, 181 I 
 
 D ACOITS, in Bengal, 185 sq. 
 D’Aendels, Marshal, 283, 302 
 sq. 
 
 Davy, Lady, 233 
 Deccan, the wild tribes of, 191 
 DefEand, Mme. du. Correspondence 
 of, 355 sq. 
 
 Drury, Admiral, 250, 274, 280 
 (note) 
 
 Dugald Stewart, 233 
 Duncan, J., Governor of Bombay, 
 203 
 
 Dundas, Right Hon. R., 34, 108 
 (note), 246, 247, 362 
 Dutch, the, in Batavia, 304 sq. 
 
 E ast India Company. See 
 Court of Directors. Minto, 
 Lord, India 
 
 Eden, Miss, her letters from Up 
 the Country cited, 157 
 Eden, Mr. G. (afterwards Lord 
 Auckland), 383 
 Edgell, Captain, 276, 278 
 
INDEX. 
 
 397 
 
 EDI 
 
 Edinburcrh, the winter of 1809-10 
 in, 233 sqq. 
 
 Edmonstone, Mr., 23, 65, 69, 116, 
 137 
 
 Egypt, British troops from India 
 in, 242 {note) 
 
 Eldon, Lord, 34, 44, 45 
 
 Elliot, Sir Gilbert. See Minto, 
 Lord 
 
 E^lliot, Hon. Gilbert (2nd Earl of 
 Minto) 12 {noti^, 85. 86, 297,300, 
 342 : on the death of his father, 
 392 
 
 Elliot, Hon. George, 13, 231, 249, 
 263, 268, 277, 281, 283 
 
 Elliot, Hon. John, 15 {note), 16, 
 17, 228, 251, 253 
 
 Elliot, Eight Hon. Hugh, 384 
 {note) 
 
 Elliot, Right Hon. W., 37, 48, 317 
 
 Elliot, Mr., of Wells, letter to, 
 from Lord Minto, 353 sq. 
 
 Elliot, Miss A. M., letters to her 
 father, 137 {note), 232 sq., 335 
 {note) 
 
 Elphinstone, Mountstuart, 129; 
 sent as envoy to Afghanistan, 
 159 sq. ; difficulties of his mis¬ 
 sion, 160 ; lineof march, 161 sq. ; 
 letters to Governor - General, 
 162 sq. ; asks for increased 
 powers, 163 sq.-, delays, 165; pro¬ 
 gress to Peshawur, 166; arrival 
 at his destination, 168 ; recep¬ 
 tion, 169 ; interviews with king 
 and nobles, 169, 170 sq.-, des¬ 
 patches to and from Indian 
 Government, ih.-, signs a treaty, 
 172 sq.-, treaty ratified at Cal¬ 
 cutta, 175; withdrawal of mis¬ 
 sion, ih. ; the treaty, 175 {note) ; 
 his History of Ctihul, 176. See 
 Cabul. Shah Soojah. 
 
 England, Administration of the 
 ‘ Talents,’ 1 ; the Duke of Port¬ 
 land's Cabinet, 34 ; Lord Gren¬ 
 ville on home politics, 34 sqq. ; 
 state of parties in, 45; Lady 
 Malmesbury on the Duke of 
 
 GWI 
 
 Portland’s Administration, 43 sq., 
 46; diplomatic relations with 
 Persia, 138; foreign acquisi¬ 
 tions of, 239 sq.-, state of in 1811- 
 12, 326 sqq. ; triumphs in 1814, 
 382 sqq. See Minto. 
 
 Europe, state of, after the Peace of 
 Tilsit, 97 
 
 ARQUHAR, Mr., 248 
 Fisher, Dr., 237 
 Fitzharris, Lord, 45 
 Fitzherbert, Mrs., 45 
 Fort St. George. See Madras. 
 P'ort William, College of, 371 sq. 
 Fox, Mr., 3, 4, 8, 46 
 Fox, Miss, 181 
 
 France, ascendancy of, 97 sq. ; cap¬ 
 ture of British Indiamen, 242 ; 
 expeditions against the Eastern 
 settlements of, 243 sq., 318 sqq. 
 France, Isle of. See Mauritius. 
 Frere, Mr., 179 {note) 
 
 G eorge hi., dismisses his 
 Ministry, 34; new Cabinet, 
 ih. 
 
 Gillespie, Colonel, 289, 296 
 Goa, 239 
 
 Gowdie, General, 226 
 Greig, Admiral, 278 sq., 279 
 Grenville, Lord, 37, 43, 44, 45, 46, 
 99, 100, 103, 241 ; his approval 
 of Lord Wellesley’s administra¬ 
 tion of India, 3 ; nominates 
 Lord Minto to Governor-Gene¬ 
 ralship, 4 ; conferences with the 
 new Viceroy, 5; fall of his 
 Administration, 33, 34 ; letters 
 to and from Lord Minto, 34 sq., 
 41 sq., 359 ; his hostility to the 
 Duke of Portland’s Cabinet, 
 35 
 
 Grenville, Lady, 45 
 Grey. Lord, 241 
 Gwiilin, Sir U., 23 
 
398 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 HAR 
 
 H ARIANA, 193 
 
 Hawkesbury, Lord, 84 
 ..-dBewitt, General (Commander-in- 
 Chief of India), 23, 114 sq., 122, 
 147 sq., 210, 223, 226 
 Holland, Lord, letter from, to 
 Lord Minto, 326 
 Hope, Mr., 261, 292 sq. 
 
 Howick, Lord, 44 
 Huguenots, at Capetown, 14 
 Hyder All, 152 
 
 MPEY, Sir Elijah, 9 
 India, successive Governors- 
 General of, 1 sg.; action of the 
 Cabinet in relation to, 3; 
 Burke’s speech on the Bill of 
 1783, 7 ; native sovereigns, 8 ; 
 Lord Minto’s first impressions 
 of, 16 sq. ; the Gentoos of 
 Madras, 17 sq,; Caste, 18, 19 ; 
 Pariahs, 19; results of Caste, 
 ib. ; Nabob of the Carnatic, 20 
 sq. ; prickly heat, 23 ; famine in, 
 22 ; condition of, on arrival of 
 Lord Minto, 25; routine of 
 government, 26; climate, 28; 
 financial prospects of, 53, 56 sq., 
 247, 353 sqq. ; French designs 
 on, 54 sq., 56,100 sq., 163 (note) ; 
 British tenure of, 55; disaffec¬ 
 tion among the Mohamedans, 61 
 sq ; religious toleration pro¬ 
 claimed, 63 sq, ; Christian mis¬ 
 sionaries in, 64 sq.'] conflict of the 
 Government and the mission¬ 
 aries, 65 sq. ; an ecclesiastical 
 hierarchy demanded for, 73; 
 licensed missionaries, 81, 82; 
 Government accused of persecu¬ 
 tion, 82 ; inconveniences of life 
 in, 83 sq.; prodigality of Euro¬ 
 pean residents, 92; alternations 
 of climate, 94; differences of 
 religion in, 96; apprehended 
 French invasion of, 103 ; letters 
 of Lord Minto on defence of, 
 105 sqq. ; disposition of the 
 
 JAV 
 
 Native States, 106 sq.‘. Lord 
 Minto on the powers of the ; 
 Governors-General of, 135 sq. ; * 
 
 alliance with the States of the ' 
 North-West, 141 .sq. ; missions to i < 
 Lahore and Cabul, 14:7 sq. ; rela- j 
 tions with Runjeet Singh, 154 , 
 
 sq. ; Mormtstuart Elphinstone's ! 
 
 mission to Afghanistan, 169 sq. ; j 
 results of Lord Minto’s scheme ■ i 
 for defence of, 176; news of 
 British victory in Spain, 179 [; 
 
 sq. ; Lord Minto on the possi- 1 
 bility of a French invasion of, : I 
 182; the rains in, 183; the 
 natives, 184; dacoity in, 185 
 sqq .; mutinies in, 201 (note) ; i 
 strife between the military and 
 civil authorities, 201,208 ; Lord :! 
 Minto’s foreign policy, 239 sq.; 
 expeditions sent from, 240 sq.; 
 troops despatched to Egypt I 
 
 from, 242 (note) ; finances of, 
 
 247, 354 ; indifference of Home 
 Government to, 297 sq., 318 sqq., i 
 
 323 sqq.; last years of Lord j 
 
 Minto’s rule, 331 sq.; Viceroy’s , 
 account of his civil administra¬ 
 tion of, 353 sqq. ; the Company’s 
 monopoly, 362 sq. ; balance of 
 
 power among Native States, 365 , 
 
 .sq .; administration of justice, , 
 
 369 ; obstacles to the improve¬ 
 ment of,■iJ.; Native officers, 370; 
 
 Lord Minto’s Minute on educa¬ 
 tion in, 375 sq.; address to the 
 Viceroy from the British resi¬ 
 dents in Calcutta, 379 sq. See 
 Minto 
 
 Ireland, the Catholics of, 36 (note) 
 
 J ANSSENS, General, 283, 287, 
 288, 291, 294, 302 
 
 -Java, British expedition to, 240, 
 249 sq., 269 sq., 284 sq., 287 sq., 
 294 ; arrival of French troops 
 in, 281; surrender of Batavia, 
 286; action at Weltevreeden, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 399 
 
 jDr 
 
 288; storming of Cornells by 
 the British, 291 sq.; made a 
 British dependancy, 296; the 
 Dutch in, 304 .‘‘q. 310 ; instruc¬ 
 tions concerning, from Court of 
 Directors, 306 sq.; Lord Minto’s 
 settlement of, 310 sq.; slavery 
 in, 312; Lord Minto’s care for, 
 316 sq. See Minto 
 Jeffrey, Mr., 232 .<iq., 234 
 .fnnpn Sir Harford, envoy to the 
 court of Persia, 99 sq., 108, 110 
 ,sq., 113, 126 sqq., 129 sq.; Lord 
 Minto on his diplomatic powers, 
 132 sqq.; his treaty with Persia, 
 137, 139; disavowed by Lord 
 Minto, 138. See Persia. Mal¬ 
 colm. Minto 
 Jumelle, General, 291 
 Junot, Marshal, 179, 181 
 
 K aye, sir John, his Zi/e and 
 Correspondence of Sir John 
 Malcolm cited, 121 (jwte), 216 
 (note), 350; C'orrcspondenco of 
 Lord (Metcalfe cited, 151 
 (note) 
 
 Keating, Lieutenant-Colonel, 243 
 sq. 
 
 Khyberees, the, 168, 174 
 Kohat, 166, 167 
 
 L ahore, Government of. See 
 Runjeet Singh 
 Lake, Lord, 58, 98 
 Lanfrey, M., his Histoirc dc 
 Napoleon I. cited, 104 (note) 
 Lauderdale, Lord, appointed 
 Governor-General of India, 3 ; 
 resigns, 4 
 
 Leyden, Dr., 67 sq., 251, 253 sq., 
 255 (note), 278, 295, 339, 342 
 London, condition and society in, 
 in 1812, 328 sqq. 
 
 Lumsden, Mr., 23, 210 
 
 MAL 
 
 ACAO, 240 
 
 Macartney, Lord, 202 (note) 
 Machery, Rajah of, 185 (note) 
 Mackintosh, Sir J., 126, 218, 219, 
 330 
 
 Macleod, Colonel M., 89 sq. 
 
 Madras, Government of and 
 Vellore mutiny, 15 (note); Lord 
 Minto’s impressions of, 16 sqq. ; 
 affairs of, 197 sq.; mutiny in 
 the army, 202 (note), 205 sqq.; 
 grievances of officers, 206 .‘tqq. ; 
 conflict of civil and military 
 authorities, 208 ; memorial of 
 officers, 212 sqq, ; Lord Minto's 
 answer to the memorial, 213 sq.; 
 progress of insubordination, 215 
 sq. ; energetic action of Sir G. 
 Barlow, 217; effect of the 
 Viceroy's letter, 219; General 
 order to the army, 220; ter¬ 
 mination of the revolt, 221; 
 Lord Minto on the revival of 
 discipline, 223 sq. ; conflicting 
 opinions on the mutiny, 227, 
 230, 321. See Minto. Barlow 
 Madrassees, the, 17, 18 sqq. 
 Mahommed Shah, 173, 174 
 Malacca, 260 sq. ; slavery in, 265 
 sq.; British expedition at, 269 
 sq. ; debtors’ prison in, 273 
 Malcolm, Colonel (Sir John), 50 
 (note), 99, 103, 112, 113, 128, 
 129, 137, 152, 215, 216, 21£L- 
 219 ; sent as envoy to Persia, 
 108 sq.; instructions from the 
 Indian Government, 110 sq. ; 
 account of his mission to Persia, 
 
 114 sq. ; failure of his embassy, 
 120 sq.; his scheme for the 
 defence of India, 123 sq.; made 
 brigadier-general, 126 (note) ; 
 again deputed to Persia, 139; 
 his History of Perna and 
 Sltetclu'S in Persia, 176; his 
 History of India, 115 (note); 
 his Diar>' quoted, 350. Sec 
 Persia. .Jones, Sir Harford. 
 Minto, Lord 
 
400 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 MAL 
 
 Malmesbur}^ Lady, letters to Lord 
 Minto, 11, 12, 4.S gq., 46, 181, 
 282 {note) ; to Lady Minto, 43 ; 
 to her sister, 44, 46; on the 
 death of Mr. Windham, 236 
 Malmesbury, Lord, 213 
 Maria Louisa, empress, 282 
 Marshman, Mr., 68, 72 ; his His¬ 
 tory of India cited, 206, 217 
 Masulipatam, military revolt at, 
 216, 219, 222 
 
 Mauritius, 240, 242 {note), 318,320 : 
 British expedition sent against, 
 244 sq. ; surrender of, 248 
 McDowell, General, 207 sq. 
 Melgund, Lady, 386 
 Melgund, Lord, 167, 176 {note) 
 Menou, General, 100 
 Metcalfe, Lord, 97 sq., 149 sq. ; sent 
 as envoy to Eunjeet Singh, 
 151 ; his services and instruc¬ 
 tions, ib. ; proceeds on his 
 mission, 152; progTess of ne¬ 
 gotiations, 152 ; conclusion of 
 treaty, 156 sq. ; his relations to 
 Lord Minto, 158. See Eunjeet 
 Singh 
 
 Milman, Dean, cited, 66, 67 
 Milton, Lord, 47 
 
 Minto, Lord (Sir Gilbert Elliot), 
 assumes the government of 
 India 1; President of the Board 
 of Control, ib. ; letters to Sir G 
 Barlow and Lord William 
 Bentinck, 3, 4, 5 ; on Lord 
 Lauderdale’s appointment, 4 ; 
 his Indian policy and character, 
 5 ; early intimacy with Burke, 
 6; designated Parliamentary 
 Director, 8 ; speech at trial of 
 Warren Hastings, 9; letter 
 from Burke, ib. ; moves the im¬ 
 peachment of Sir Elijah Impey, 
 ib. ; his visit to Beaconstield, 
 10 ; letters from Lord and Lady 
 Malmesbury, 11; letters to his 
 wife, 12, 24,91 sq., 93 sq., \ %osq., 
 225, 229 sq., 384 ; voyage to 
 India, 13 ; at Madeira, ib. ; log 
 
 MIN ; 
 
 on board the ‘ Modeste,’ 14 ; at 
 Capetown, 14, 15 ; at Madras, 
 
 15 ; his first impressions of India, 
 
 16 sqq.; reception by the Nabob 
 of the Carnatic, 20 sq. ; descrip¬ 
 tion of an Indian famine, 22 ; 
 arrives at Calcutta, 23; letter 
 to his son, 24 sq. ; condition of 
 India, 25 ; routine of business, 
 
 26 sq. ; Councils, 27 ; absence of 
 opposition to his government, 
 
 28 ; his mode of life and en- | 
 touraqe, 29 sq., 87; his con¬ 
 ditional resignation, 37 ; on the j 
 office of Governor-General, 38 
 sq.; confirmed by the new I 
 Ministry, 39; letter to Lord t 
 Grenville, 39 sqq.; hisreputation 
 in India, 49 ; letter to Colonel 
 Barry Close, 51 sq.; to Sir E, I 
 Pellew, 52 sq.; correspondence 
 on Indian and Persian affairs. 
 
 53 sq.; on the state of Bundel- 
 cund, 59 sq.; causes of Indian 
 sedition, 62 ; dispute with the ; 
 missionaries, 65 sq., 67 sq., 70 sq., 
 liberality to the missionaries 
 71 ; charges against him, 74 ; 
 
 on the Serampore press, 78 sq.‘, 
 letters to and from home, 84 ; 
 letter to Colonel Macleod, 99 ; 
 
 on French designs on India, 100 
 sq. ; on the defence of India, ' 
 105 sq., 109 sq., 123 sq. ; letter to 
 Eight Hon. E. Dundas, 108; to ; 
 Colonel Malcolm, 113; to 
 General Hewitt, 114 sq., 122; 
 memorandum to Colonel Mal¬ 
 colm, 116 sq. ; on Sir Harford 
 Jones’s mission to Persia, 128, 
 
 132 sq. ; ratifies treaty with 
 Persia, 138, 139; letter to 
 Board of Control, 142; on 
 intervention in the affairs of 
 Native States, 146; on the 
 missions to Lahore and Pesha- 
 wur, 147 sq. ; relations with 
 Eunjeet Singh, 154 sq.-, opinion 
 of Mr, Metcalfe, 158 ; change 
 
INDEX. 
 
 401 
 
 MIX MIE 
 
 in the policy of his government, 
 165 ; instructions to Mr. Elphin- 
 stone, ih.; despatch on the 
 affairs of Afghanistan, 170; 
 private despatch from Mr. 
 Elphinstone, 172 .ti/.; results of 
 his scheme for defence of India, 
 176; receives news of the battle 
 of Vimiero, 180; on Caroline, 
 Princess of Wales, 180 (note) ; 
 on the possibility of French 
 invasion of India, 182 ; his ad¬ 
 ministration during the years 
 1808-0, 184 ; on the cam- 
 
 I)aign against Ameer Khan, 10.8 
 xq. ; sends an expedition to th3^ 
 Persian Gulf, 105; on the affairs 
 of Madras, 107 sq. ; on the ex¬ 
 clusion of the Commanders-in- 
 Chief from seats in Council, 109 
 xq. ; on the subordination of tlie 
 military to the civil power, 201; 
 on the complaints of the 
 I’omba}' army, 203 xqq. ; on the 
 military disturbances in Madras, 
 207 xq. ; on the conflict of 
 authorities in Madras, 200 .<uq. ; 
 his repl}’’ to the memorial of the 
 Madras officers, 213; goes to 
 Madras, 219 ; his stay at Fort 
 St. George, 220, 221, 228; 
 
 despatches and letters on the 
 Madras mutiny, 222 xq.; returns 
 to Calcutta, 231; hisdaughters- 
 in-'.avv,?7i.; letter to his daughter, 
 235 ; receives netvs of Mr. 
 Windham's death, 236 .<iq.; his 
 foreign policy, 230 .xq.; plans for 
 the acquisition of the French 
 settlements. 241 .xq. ; expeditions 
 for the purpose, 243 xq. ; expedi¬ 
 tion to Java, 240 xq. ; reasons 
 for going to Jav.a, 250; his 
 suite, 251 ; occupations during 
 his voyage thither in the 
 ‘ Modeste,' 252 xq. ; arrives at 
 Penang, 256 ; his description of 
 5Ialacca, 260 xq. ; receives at 
 jiresent of slaves, 267—xy. ; 
 
 correspondence on the Java ex¬ 
 pedition, 273 .xqq., 284 xqq., 285 ; 
 storming of Cornelis and scenes 
 after the battle, 291 xq.; on his 
 relations with the Home 
 Government, 297 .xq. ; the*Minto 
 Vision,' 301 ; on the annexation 
 of Java, 307 .xqq. ; settlement of 
 the island, 310 xq.; his care for 
 Java, 316 .xq. ; Home Govern¬ 
 ment and his foreign policy, 
 318 xqq.; returns to Calcutta, 
 318, 331 ; correspondence from 
 Calcutta, 318 xq.: letter from his 
 daughter, 323 .xqq. ; last years of 
 his Viceroyalty, 331 xqq.: long¬ 
 ing for home, 332, .346 ; his 
 Malav' slaves, 334 xq., 389; re¬ 
 cognition of his services, 339 ; 
 recalled, 343, 348 ; created 
 
 Viscount Melgund and Earl of 
 Minto, 344; correspondence on 
 Lord Moira’s appointment, 344 
 .xqq. ; his popularitj*' in Calcutta 
 348; his social circle at Govern¬ 
 ment House, 349; Sir John 
 Malcolm’s anecdote of him, 
 3.50; bachelors' ball given to 
 him in Calcutta, 351 ; his 
 internal policy, 352 .xqq.; corre¬ 
 spondence on his civil adminis- 
 tnition cf India, 353 .xqq. ; 
 addresses to the students of the 
 College of Fort William, 370 
 .xq. ; minute on education, 375 
 .xq.; his return and arrival in 
 England, 382, 385 ; correspon¬ 
 dence with Lad3' Jlintoafter his 
 return, 385 .xqq.; his reception 
 in London, 3!t0; falls ill, 391; 
 his iournev’ northward, 392 ; 
 iuid death, 75. 8ee India. 
 
 Minto, Ladv, descended from a 
 Huguenot famiH, 15; letters to 
 her husband, 183, 386 xqq., 391 ; 
 on the state of England, social 
 and political, in 1812, 327 .xqq. 
 See Minto, I.ord 
 
 Mir Hashan Khan, 176 (ni fe) 
 
 I) D 
 
402 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 EUN 
 
 -Alissiouaries in India, C3 sq., 81 : 
 action of the Government re¬ 
 garding, 65 t:q. ; interviews with 
 Lord Minto, 68 ; their partisans' 
 in England, 70. See Seram- 
 ]5ore. 
 
 ‘ IModeste ’ frigate, voyage of, to 
 India, 13, M, 15; voyage to 
 Java, 252 sq. 
 
 Mohamedans, 76. See India 
 Moira, Lord, 331 ; appointed Lord 
 Minto’s successor, 3-13 
 ^Moluccas, the, 210 
 Mooltan, 161 
 IMorier, Mr., 137 
 -l^Iunro, Colonel, 206 sq. 
 
 IMurray, J., 233 
 
 Mutinies in India, 201 {note). 
 See Madras. Vellore. 
 
 I^APIER, Sir W., his History of 
 J-i the Peninsular tl'ar quoted 
 by a Caffre chief, 170 {?iote) 
 Napoleon I. See Bonaparte 
 Nautches, 22, 92 
 Ness, Miss, 231 
 
 North-West, British alliances with 
 file States of the. 111 sqq.; rival¬ 
 ries of the States of the, ih. 
 See Cabuh lUinjeet Singh 
 Nugent, Lord, his Portugal, 311 
 
 0 ODYPORE, beautiful daughter 
 of the Rajah of, 191 {note) 
 Ool Moolk, Ameer, 173 sq. 
 
 Ophir, Mount, 262 
 
 Ouseley, Sir Gore, 138 {note), 139 
 
 P ALMERSTON, Lord, 15, 331 
 Palmerston, Lad_y, 184 
 Panambangan, Island of, 277 sqrq. 
 Pariahs, 19 
 Parry, Mr., 78, 80, 81 
 Pasley, Captain, 114 sq., 128 
 Pellew, Sir E. (Lord Bxmouth), 
 23, 52 
 
 Penang, Lord Minto’s arrival at, 
 and account of, 257 sq. 
 
 Percival, Mr., 31, 41, 326, 328 
 'ersia, French intrigues in, 51 sq., 
 54 sq., 98 .vy., 100s^’., 120, 121 sq.\ 
 British mission to, 56, 99,108 sq., 
 114 sq., 130 .'fj'g'., 131 ; an ambas¬ 
 sador sent from the Shah to 
 London, 137 (note) ; letter from 
 Shah to Lord Minto, 137; 
 treaty, 138 (iiote), 176. See 
 Jones, Sir Harford. Malcolm. 
 Minto. 
 
 Persian Gulf, expedition against 
 brigands of the, 195 
 Peshawur, British mission at, 161 ; 
 banditti of, ih. ; withdrawal of 
 mission from, 175 
 Petrie, Miss, 349 {note) 
 
 Phillips, Mr., 256 
 Pigot, Lord, 202 {note) 
 
 Pindarries, the, 191, 195 
 Playfair, Mr., 233, 383 
 Pontiana, Rajah of, 268, 281 {note) 
 Port St. Paul, capture of, 244 
 Portland, Duke of, 34 
 Pottinger, Sir H., 176 
 Press, Indian missionary, 64 .sqq. 
 71,72. See Missionaries. Ser- 
 ampore 
 
 Pricklj"^ heat, the, 23 
 Prince of Wales’s Island, Recorder 
 of, 359 
 
 Punjaub frontier force, 167 {note). 
 See Cabul. llunjeet Singh. 
 Afghanistan 
 Punkahs, 95 
 
 PAFFLBS, Sir S., 251, 264, 268, 
 11 296, 307, 310, 316, 317 
 Rewa, Rajah of, 185 {note) 
 Robison, Captain, 261, 288, 291 
 Rodriguez, Island of, 243 
 Rowley, Commodore, 243 
 Runjeet Singh, 143, 144, 180; 
 ambitious designs of, 145; pro¬ 
 posed mission to, 147 sq .; his 
 reception of Lord Metcalfe’s em- 
 
indp:x. 
 
 403 
 
 Rrs -WIN 
 
 bass}’ 152 ; progress of negotia¬ 
 tions with, 152 sq ■, treaty con¬ 
 cluded witlj, 15C sq., 176 ; his 
 conquests, 157; his reception 
 by the British, and death, ib ; 
 his jealousy of the embassy 
 to Afghanistan, IfiO See. 
 
 Metcalfe. 
 
 Uussell, Lord, on tlie humiliation 
 of lionaparle, H8.‘! 
 
 ^ALAMANC.\, victory of, 342 
 O Sayer, Captain, 282 
 Scinde, French and I’ersian in¬ 
 trigues in, 177 Kq. ; British treaty 
 with, 178 
 
 Scott, Sir William, 179 (note) 
 Scott, Sir Waller, his Lady of the 
 Lahe, 232 
 Sebastiani, .M., 104 
 Seneca, quotation from, 335 
 Sejioys, di.scipline of, 3(58. See 
 Minto. 
 
 Serampore press and missionaries, 
 32, 64 sq., 70, 71, 72, 78, 80, 81 
 Seringapatam, military revolt at, 
 216, 222 
 
 Seton, Mr., 251, 259 
 Seton, Captain, his engagements 
 with the Ameer of Scinde re¬ 
 pudiated, 1 77 sq. 
 
 Seymour, Lord Webb, 233, 383 
 Shal’. Soojah, British mission to, 
 152 sq., 162, 169, 170; treaty 
 with, 172 sq., 175 (note); turn 
 in affairs of, 172 ; his defeat 
 and exile, 175. See Cabul. 
 Afghanistan, Klphinstone 
 Sikhs, the, 143, 144 
 .Slavery in Malacca, 265 sq. ; in 
 Java, 312 
 
 ith, Mr. Bobus, 88 (note) 
 
 Smith, Mr. II,, envoy in Scinde, 
 177 
 
 Spain, affairs of, 179 ,sq. 
 
 Spice Islands, 240 
 Stopford, Admiral, 282, 287 
 ^.Stuart, Major-General, 202 (note) 
 
 T .\LENTS,’ Ministry of the, 1, 
 3, 8, 33. See Whigs 
 Talleyrand, on non-intervention, 
 194 
 
 Tatties, 94 
 
 Taylor, Colonel, 251, 289, 349 
 (note) ; citation from his Jour¬ 
 nal, 368 
 
 Teignmouth, Lord, 201 
 Teviotdale, the men of, 342 (note) 
 Tlieatricals at sea, 279 sq. 
 Thomson, Mr., 234, 269 
 Tilsit, Peace of, 97, 103 sq. 
 
 -Tippoo Sultan, 242 (note) 
 
 TTELLOIIE, mutiny of, 15 (iwte), 
 > 62, 197 sq. 
 
 Vimiero, battle of, 179 
 
 W .VLES, Prince of, 44. See 
 Caroline, Princess of M’ales 
 Ward, Rev. Mr., 81 
 Warren Hastings, trial of, !i 
 ■ Wellesley, Lord, 2, 3, 98, 151, 183. 
 194, 202, 241, 242, 371 
 AVellesley, Sir Arthur, 99, 103, 
 179 sq'., 180, 181 
 
 AVeltevreeden, battle at, 288 sq. 
 Whigs, the, 1, 33, 43, 46, 47 sq., 
 323 
 
 Wliitbread, Mr., 182 
 Widows, burning of, in India, !)6 
 Wilson, Mr. G., on Lord Minto's 
 administration, 347 sq. 
 Windham, Mr., 179 (note), 180 
 (note), 236, 237, 333 
 
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22 WORKS published by LONGMANS 6- CO. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abbey ^ Overton's English Church History 
 
 - 's Photography . 
 
 Acton's Modern Cookery. 
 
 Alpine Club Map of Switzerland . 
 
 Alpine Guide (The). 
 
 Amos’s Jurisprudence . 
 
 -Primer of the Constitution. 
 
 Anderson's Strength of Materials. 
 
 Armstrong's Organic Chemistry . ii 
 
 Arnold's {Dr.) Lectures onModern History 2 
 
 -Miscellaneous Works . 7 
 
 -Sermons . 15 
 
 ■-(T.) English Literature. 7 
 
 Arnott's Elements of Physics. 10 
 
 Atelier (The) du Lys . 19 
 
 Atherstone Priory. 19 
 
 Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson ... 7 
 
 Ayre's Treasury of Bible Knowledge . 21 
 
 Bacon's Essays, by Abbott . 6 
 
 •---by Whatcly . 6 
 
 -Life and Letters, by ... 5 
 
 -Works. 5 
 
 Bagehot's Literary Studies. 7 
 
 Bailey's Festus, a Poem. 19 
 
 Bain's Mental and Moral Science. 6 
 
 -on the Senses and Intellect . 6 
 
 -Emotions and Will. 6 
 
 Baker's Two Works on Ceylon. 17 
 
 Alpine Guides . 18 
 
 Barry on Railway Appliances . ii 
 
 Beaconsfield's (Lord) Novels and Tales ... 18 
 
 Beesly s Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla. 3 
 
 Bent's Republic of San Marino. 17 
 
 Black's Treatise on Brewing . 21 
 
 Blackley s German-English Dictionary. 8 
 
 Blaine's Rural Sports. 20 
 
 Bloxam's Metals . ii 
 
 Bolland and Lang's Aristotle’s Politics. 6 
 
 Boultbee on 39 Articles. 15 
 
 - 's History of the English Church... 15 
 
 Bourne's Works on the Steam Engine. 14 
 
 Bowdler's Family Shakespeare . 19 
 
 Bramley-Moore s Six Sisters of the Valleys . 19 
 
 Brande's Dictionary of Science, Literature, 
 
 and Art . 12 
 
 Brassey's Voyage of the Sunbeam . 17 
 
 Brian Boru, a Tragedy . 19 
 
 Browtie's Exposition of the 39 Articles. 15 
 
 Brownings Modern England . 3 
 
 Buckle's History of Civilisation. 2 
 
 -Posthumous Remains. 7 
 
 Buckton's Food and Home Cookery. 21 
 
 - Health in the House. 13 
 
 -Town and Window Gardening... 12 
 
 Bull's Hints to Mothers. 21 
 
 - Maternal Management of Children. 21 
 
 Bullinger's Lexicon to the Greek Testa¬ 
 ment . 8 
 
 Burgomaster's Family (The) . 19 
 
 Burke's Vicissitudes of Families. 4 
 
 Cabinet Lawyer. 21 
 
 Capes's Age of the Antonines. 3 
 
 - Early Roman Empire . 3 
 
 Cayley's Iliad of Homer . 19 
 
 Changed Aspects of Unchanged Truths ... 7 
 
 Chesney's Indian Polity . ( 
 
 -Waterloo Campaign . • 
 
 Churclis Beginning of the Middle Ages... 
 
 Colenso on Moabite Stone &c. 
 
 -Pentateuch and Book of Joshua. 
 
 Commonplace Philosopher. 
 
 Comte's Positive Polity . 
 
 Congreve's Politics of Aristotle . 
 
 Conington s Translation of Virgil’s ^neid ] 
 
 -Miscellaneous Writings. 1 
 
 Conta?iseau's Two French Dictionaries ... ! 
 
 Conybeare and Howso?i's St. Paul. i' 
 
 Cooper's Tales from Euripides . i 
 
 Cordery s Struggle against Absolute Mon¬ 
 archy . 
 
 Cotta on Rocks, by Lawrence . j 
 
 Counsel and Comfort from a City Pulpit... ' 
 
 Cox's (G. W.) Athenian Empire . 
 
 ■-Crusades. 
 
 --Greeks and Persians. 
 
 Creighton's Age of Elizabeth. 
 
 -England a Continental Power 
 
 -Shilling History of England ... 
 
 -Tudors and the Reformation 
 
 Cresy's Encyclopaedia of Civil Engineering i 
 
 Critical Essays of a Country Parson. 
 
 Crookes's Anthracen. i 
 
 - Chemical Analyses . i, 
 
 - Dyeing and Calico-printing . i 
 
 Crump's Manual of Banking. 2 
 
 Culley's Handbook of Telegraphy. i; 
 
 Curteis's Macedonian Empire . ;l 
 
 De Caisne and Le Maoui's Botany . i;t 
 
 De Tocqueville's Democraey in America... I 
 
 Digby's Indian Famine Campaign . 
 
 Dobson on the Ox. 2c| 
 
 History of Taxes . I 
 
 Doyle's (R.) Fairyland. ij 
 
 Drew's Hulsean Lectures . ig 
 
 Jewish Messiah . iC' 
 
 Eastlake’s Hints on Flousehold Taste. i,)i 
 
 Edwards's'leiWe . 17’ 
 
 Ellicott's Scripture Commentaries . iq 
 
 -Lectures on Life of Christ . 15I 
 
 Elsa and her Vulture . 19' 
 
 Epochs of Ancient History. 3 
 
 --English History . 3' 
 
 - Modern History . 3* 
 
 Ewalds History of Israel . 16 
 
 - Antiquities of Israel. 16 
 
 Fairbairn s Applications of Iron. 14' 
 
 -Information for Engineers. 14! 
 
 -Mills and Millwork. 14 
 
 ! Farrar’s Language and Languages. 7I 
 
 Fitzwygram on Horses and Stables. 20 1 
 
 Frampton s (Bishop) Life . 4' 
 
 Francis's Fishing Book . 20I 
 
 Frobisher's lAiehy'pones . 4 1 
 
 -English in Ireland . 
 
 -History of England . i' 
 
 -Short Studies. 7’ 
 
 Gairdner's Houses of Lancaster and York 3J 
 -Richard HI. & Perkin Warbeck 2' 
 
 IS 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 S 
 
 5 
 
 II 
 
WORKS published by LONGMANS 6- CO. 
 
 23 
 
 not's Elementary Physics . 
 
 -Natural Philosophy . 
 
 rdiner's Buckingham and Charles . 
 
 _Personal Government of Charles I. 
 
 I-First Two Stuarts . 
 
 j -Thirty Years’ War . 
 
 rman Home Life. 
 
 yldziher's Hebrew Mythology. 
 
 \odeve s Mechanics. 
 
 - Mechanism . 
 
 res Art of Scientific Discovery. 
 
 -Electro-Metallurgy. 
 
 ant's Ethics of Aristotle. 
 
 aver Thoughts of a Country Parson. 
 
 Journal. 
 
 \ipins Algebra and Trigonometry. 
 
 ■ove on Correlation of Physical Forces... 
 
 'lilt's Encyclopaedia of Architecture. 
 
 \les Fall of the Stuarts. 
 
 irtwig's Works on Natural History and 
 
 Popular Science ... 
 
 xughton's Animal Mechanics. 
 
 lyward's Selected Essays . 
 
 •er's Primeval World of Switzerland. 
 
 'ine s Life and Works, by Stigand . 
 
 \lmholtz on Tone. 
 
 •Imholtz’s Scientific Lectures. 
 
 'rschtls Outlines of Astronomy. 
 
 )ison's Amateur Mechanic .. 
 
 fdgson’s Philosophy of Reflection. 
 
 ipkins's Christ the Consoler .. 
 
 \‘skold's Engineer’s Valuing Assistant ... 
 
 \dlah:s History of Modern Music . 
 
 [: - Transition Period . 
 
 [me s Essays . 
 
 \ -Treatise on Human Nature. 
 
 \ie’s Rome to its Capture. 
 
 i— History of Rome . 
 
 t iian Alps . 
 
 %elow's Poems . 
 
 Vmeson's Sacred and Legendary Art. 
 
 t — Memoirs. 
 
 \nJiins Electricity and Magnetism. 
 
 'xrrold's Life of Napoleon. 
 
 \hnson's Normans in Europe . 
 
 I "- Patentee’s Manual . 
 
 hnston's Geographical Dictionary. 
 
 ^nson's (Ben) Every Man in his Humour 
 
 • lies’s Types of Genesis . 
 
 Ukes on Second Death . 
 
 \%lisclis Bible Studies .. 
 
 -- Commentary on the Bible. 
 
 Mcr's Lake Dwellings of Switzerland.... 
 ;rls Metallurgy, by Crookes and Rohrig. 
 
 \ngzett's Alkali Trade . 
 
 - - Animal Chemistry. 
 
 Why and Spence's Entomology . 
 
 tatchbull-Hugessen s Fairy-Land . 
 
 - -Higgledy-Piggledy 
 
 '■lenen's Prophets and Prophecy in Israel 
 
 .ndscapes. Churches, &c. 
 
 '.tham's English Dictionaries . 
 
 - Handbook of English Language 
 
 icky's History of England. 
 
 f _European Morals. 
 
 j -Rationalism . 
 
 -Leaders of Public Opinion. 
 
 proy's Bermudas . 
 
 Insure Hours in Town . 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 3 
 7 
 
 16 
 
 11 
 II 
 
 14 
 
 II 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 II 
 
 10 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 10 
 
 10 
 9 
 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 17 
 
 14 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 17 
 19 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 I 
 
 3 
 21 
 
 8 
 6 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 12 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 18 
 18 
 
 16 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 8 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 17 
 
 7 
 
 Leslie's Essays in Political and Moral 
 
 Philosophy . 6 
 
 Lessons of Middle Age . 7 
 
 Lewes's Biographical History of Philosophy 3 
 
 Lewis on Authority . 6 
 
 Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Le.xicons 8 
 Lindley and Moore's Treasury of Botany ... 21 
 
 Lloyd’s Magnetism . 10 
 
 - Wave-Theory of Light. 10 
 
 London Series of English Classics . 6 
 
 Longman's (F. W.) Chess Openings. 21 
 
 -German Dictionary ... 8 
 
 -(W.) Edward the Third.. 2 
 
 -Lectures on History of England 2 
 
 -Old and New St. Paul’s 13 
 
 London's Encyclopedia of Agriculture ... 15 
 
 -Gardening. 15 
 
 __ Plants. 12 
 
 Lubbock's Origin of Civilisation. 12 
 
 Ludlow's American War. 3 
 
 Lyra Germanica . 17 
 
 Macalistcr's Vertebrate Animals . ii 
 
 Macaulay's (Lord) Clive, by Bowen . 6 
 
 -Essays . i 
 
 -History of England ... i 
 
 -Lays, Illus. Editions... 13 
 
 _Cheap Edition... 19 
 
 _Life and Letters. 4 
 
 ___Miscellaneous Writings 7 
 
 -Speeches . 7 
 
 -Works . I 
 
 _Writings, Selections from 7 
 
 McCulloch's Dictionary of Commerce. 8 
 
 Macfarrcn on Musical Hpmony. 13 
 
 Macleods Economical Philosophy. 5 
 
 -Economics for Be^nners.. 21 
 
 -Theory and Practice of Banking 21 
 
 -Elements of Banking. 21 
 
 Mademoiselle Mori. 19 
 
 Malet's Annals of the Road . 19 
 
 Manning's Mission of the Holy Spirit. 17 
 
 Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, by Wagner ... 6 
 
 Marshman s Life of Havelock . 4 
 
 Martineau's Christian Life. 17 
 
 -Hours of Thought. 17 
 
 -Hymns. 17 
 
 Maunder s Popular Treasuries. 20 
 
 Maxwells Theory of Heat. 11 
 
 Mays History of Democracy. 1 
 
 -History of England . i 
 
 Melville's (Whyte) Novels and Talcs . 19 
 
 Memorials of Charlotte Williams- Wynn 4 
 
 Mendelssohn s Letters . 4 
 
 Merivale's Early Church History. 15 
 
 - Fall of the Roman Republic ... 2 
 
 -- General History of Rome . 2 
 
 - Roman Triumvirates. 3 
 
 -- Romans under the Empire. 2 
 
 Merrifields Arithmetic and Mensuration... ii 
 Miles on Horse’s Foot and Horse Shoeing 20 
 
 -on Horse’s Teeth and Stables. 20 
 
 Mill (J.) on the Mind. 5 
 
 Mills (J. S.) Autobiography. 4 
 
 -Dissertations & Discussions 5 
 
 -Essays on Religion. 16 
 
 -Hamilton’s Philosophy . 5 
 
 -Liberty . 5 
 
 _Political Economy . 5 
 
 _Representative Government 5 
 
24 
 
 WORKS published by LONGMANS 6- CO. 
 
 Mills (J. S.) Subjection of Women. 5 
 
 -System of I^ogic . 5 
 
 -Unsettled Questions . 5 
 
 -Utilitarianism . 5 
 
 Miller's Elements of Chemistry . 13 
 
 - Inorganic Chemistry. ii 
 
 - 6= Skertchley s Fenland . 18 
 
 Mitchell's Manual of Assaying. 15 
 
 Milton's Paradise Regained, by Jerratn ... 6 
 
 Modern Novelist's Library .18-19 
 
 Spiritual Songs. 17 
 
 Moore's Irish Melodies, Illustrated Edition 13 
 
 -Lalla Rookh, Illustrated Edition.. 13 
 
 Morell's Philosophical Fragments. 5 
 
 Morris s Age of Anne. 3 
 
 Mozart's Life, by Nohl . 4 
 
 Muller's Chips from a German Workshop. 7 
 
 -Hibbert Lectures on Religion ... 16 
 
 -Science of Language . 7 
 
 -Science of Religion. 16 
 
 Mullinger s Schools of Charles the Great ... 6 
 
 Neison on the Moon. 9 
 
 Neviles Horses and Riding. 20 
 
 Newman's Apologia pro Vita SuS,. 4 
 
 Nicols's Puzzle of Life. 12 
 
 Noiri's Muller & Philosophy of Language 7 
 
 Northcott's Lathes & Turning . 14 
 
 O'Conor's Scripture Commentary. 16 
 
 Owen's Comparative Anatomy and Phy¬ 
 siology of Vertebrate Animals . II 
 
 Packe's Guide to the Pyrenees . 18 
 
 Pattison's Casaubon. 4 
 
 Payen's Industrial Chemistry. 14 
 
 Pewtner's Comprehensive Specifier . 21 
 
 Phillips's Civil War in Wales . 2 
 
 Poles Game of Whist. 21 
 
 Popes Select Poems, by Arnold . 6 
 
 PowelTs Early England. 3 
 
 Preece & Sivewright's Telegraphy. 11 
 
 Present-Day Thoughts. 7 
 
 Proctor's Astronomical Works . 9 
 
 -Scientific Essays (Two Series) ... 11 
 
 Prothero's De Montfort . 2 
 
 Public Schools Atlas of Ancient Geography 8 
 
 -Atlas of Modern Geography 8 
 
 Rawlinson s Parthia. 3 
 
 -Sassanians . 3 
 
 Recreations of a Country Parson. 7 
 
 Reynardso 7 i's Down the Road . 19 
 
 Rick's Dictionary of Antiquities . 8 
 
 Rivers's Orchard House. 12 
 
 - Rose Amateur’s Guide. 12 
 
 Rogers's Eclipse of Faith. 15 
 
 - Defence of Eclipse of Faith . 13 
 
 Roget’s English Thesaurus. 8 
 
 Ronalds' Fly-Fisher's Entomology . 20 
 
 Rowley's Rise of the People . 3 
 
 -Settlement of the Constitution ... 3 
 
 RUtley s Study of Rocks. 11 
 
 Justinian's Institutes. 5 
 
 Sankey's Sparta and Thebes . 3 
 
 Schellen's Spectrum Analysis. 9 
 
 Seaside Musings . 7 
 
 Scott's Farm Valuer. 21 
 
 Seebohm's O-xford Reformers of 1498. 2 
 
 Seebohjn s Protestant Revolution . 3 
 
 Sewelfs History of France. 
 
 -Passing Thoughts on Religion ... 
 
 -Preparation for Communion . 
 
 -Stories and Tales . 
 
 -Thoughts for the Age . 
 
 Shelley's Workshop Appliances. 
 
 Short's Church History . 
 
 Smith's (Sydney) Wit and Wisdom. 
 
 -(Dr. R. A.) Air and Rain .. 
 
 -(R. B.) Carthage & the Carthaginians 
 
 Southey's Poetical Works. 
 
 Sta?iley's History of British Birds. 
 
 Stephen's Ecclesiastical Biography.. 
 
 Stonehenge, Dog and Greyhound. 
 
 Stoney on Strains. 
 
 Stubbs's Early Plantagenets .. 
 
 Sunday Afternoons, by A. K. H.B. 
 
 Supernatural Religion. 
 
 Swinbourne's Picture Logic . 
 
 Tancock's England during the Wars, 
 
 1778-1820 . 
 
 Taylor's History of India . 
 
 -Ancient and Modern History ... 
 
 - (Jeremy) Works, edited toy Eden 
 
 Text-Books of Science. 
 
 Thomi's Botany . 
 
 Thomson's Laws of Thought. 
 
 Thorpes Quantitative Analysis . 
 
 Thorpe and Muir's Qualitative Analysis ... 
 
 Tilden's Chemical Philosophy . 
 
 Todd on Parliamentary Government. 
 
 Trench's Realities of Irish Life. 
 
 Trollope'sNlaxHtn and Barchester Towers 
 
 Twiss's Law of Nations. 
 
 Tyndalls (Professor) Scientific Works ... 
 
 Unawares . 
 
 Unwins Machine Design . 
 
 Ure s Arts, Manufactures, and Mines. 
 
 Ville on Artificial Manures. 
 
 Walker on Whist. 
 
 Walpole's History of England . 
 
 Warburton's Edward the Third . 
 
 Watson's Geometery . 
 
 Watts's Dictionary of Chemistry. 
 
 Weinhold's Experimental Physics. 
 
 Wellington s Life, by Gleig . 
 
 Whately's English Synonymes. 
 
 -Logic . 
 
 -Rhetoric . 
 
 Whites Four Gospels in Greek. 
 
 -and Riddle's Latin Dictionaries ... 
 
 Wilcocks's Sea-Fisherman . 
 
 Williajns's Aristotle's Ethics. 
 
 Willich's Popular Tables . 
 
 Wilsons Resources of Modern Countries... 
 Woods (J. G.) Popular Works on Natural 
 
 History . 
 
 -(J. T.) Ephesus . 
 
 Woodward's Geology. 
 
 Yonge's English-Greek Lexicons . 
 
 - Horace. 
 
 Youatt on the Dog . 
 
 - on the Horse . 
 
 Zeller's Plato, Socrates, &c. 
 
 Zinijnern's Lessing . 
 
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