NORTHWESTERN
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
EVANSTON
ILLINOIS
J
I
THE HISTORY OF
BRITISH INDIA/
FROM 1805 TO 1835.
BY HORACE HAYMAN WILSON, M.A. F.R.S.
MEMBEB OF TIIB BOYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY AND OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETIES OF PABIS AND
CALCUTTA ; OF THE IMPBBIAL SOCIETY OF NATüBALISTS OF MOSCOW ;
OF THE ROYAL ACADEMIES OF BERLIN AND MUNICH, ETC. ETC. ;
AND BODEN PROFESSOR OF SANSCRIT IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.
VOLUME 1.
LONDON:
JAMES MADDEN AND CO.,
SUCCESSORS TO PARBURY & CO. 8, LEADENHALL STREET.
M.DCCC.XLV.
London :
Printed by S. & J. Bentley, Wilson, and Flby,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.
ADVERTISEMENT.
When I consented to carry a new edition of
Mill's History of British India through the press, I
engaged to continue the History to the date at
which the East India Company's charter was last
renewed. The engagement was somewhat ill-con¬
sidered. It was acceded to under an anticipation
that the task could be accomplished with compara¬
tive facility, as a residence in Bengal during nearly
the entire interval had made me familiar with the
general course of the events which had occurred,
and some of which I had at various times attempted
to record. It was soon evident that I had much
miscalculated.
However lively the impression which had been
made by the interesting and important character of
the transactions I had witnessed, I felt it to be my
duty, before undertaking to narrate them, to consult
all the available authorities of an original and au¬
thentic description in which they were to be traced.
Foremost among these were the valuable but volumi-
vi
ADVERTISEMENT.
nous Records at the India House ; an unreserved
access to which was readily granted by Sir John
Hobhouse, the President of the Board of Controul,
and W. B. Bayley, Esq., then Chairman of the
Court of Directors. The obligation of making use
of this privilege, however imperfectly, has caused
an amount of labour and expenditure of time far
exceeding my expectations.
Beside the manuscript volumes, to which the
great bulk of the Records is necessarily confined,
very extensive portions of them have been occa¬
sionally printed by order of Parliament, or under
the authority of the Court of Directors. To these,
also, it was necessary to refer, and the reference was
not effected without incurring additional trouble
and delay.
The third and last class of authorities to which
extensive application has been made, consists of the
published accounts of persons engaged or interested
in the occurrences which they have related. There
is a grealr body of contemporary evidence of this
description, varying in merit and in weight, but
exacting attention from all who wish to obtain an
accurate knowledge of the origin and progress of
events. The perusal in more or less detail of as
many publications of this class as I could meet with,
has contributed to retard the completion of my task
beyond the limits within which I had trusted that
it would have been concluded.
advertisement.
vii
I have thouglit it necessary thus to account for
the delay which has occurred, and which is not yet
at an end. It has been occasioned by an anxious
wish to offer to the public an historical work in
which they may place some trust. Whether that
object has been attained, remains to be determined ;
but the desire to merit confidence will, perhaps,
be accepted as a sufficient excuse for the apparent
tardiness of the writer.
H. II. Wilson.
London,
25th November, IStt.
CONTENTS.
BOOK I.
From the Conclusion of Peace with the Mahbattas, 1805, to
the Renewal of the East India Company's Charter, 1813.
CHAPTER I.
• Page
General View of the Political State of India.—Relations of
the British Government with the Native States.—Accessions
of Territory.— Protection of Shah Alem.— Bundelkhand,
Sketch of its History and Condition.—Native Princes.—
Mohammedans.—King of Delhi.—Conduct of Prince Je-
hangir.—Nawab of Oude.—Vicious Administration of the
Principality.—Nizam of Hyderabad.—Discontent.—Deter¬
mination of the British Government to maintain the Alliance.
—Career of Raja Mahipat Ram.—Death of Mir Alem.—
Hindus.— Mahraitas.—Peshwa.—Attempts to recover his
Political Consideration.—Gaekwar.—Pecuniary Embarrass¬
ments.—British Interference.—Settlement of Kattiwar.—In¬
trigues at Baroda.—Raja of Berar.—Dissatisfaction.—Re¬
linquishment of Samhhalpur.—Sindhia.—Pecuniary DifiScul-
ties.—Decline of Power.—Quarrels at his Court.—Conduct to
Bhopal.—Holkar.—Exactions from the surrounding States.
—Death of his Nephew, Kandi Rao—of his Brother, Kasi
Rao.—Derangement.—Tulasi Bhai, Regent.—Amir Khan.
—His Rise and Power—Rajputs.—RanaofUdaypur, Rajas
of Jodhpur and Jaypub.—Contest for the Hand of Krish¬
na Kumari, Princess of Udaypur.—Mahratta Extortion.—Ap¬
plication of Jaypur for British Interference—refused.—Policy
of Holkar and Sindhia.—Amir Khan joins the Rana.—Death
of the Princess.—Other Rajput Princes.—Bikaner, Kota,
Bundi, Macheri.—Jáis.—Raja of Bhurtpore.—Rana of
Gohud.—Treaty with him annulled.—Sikhs, their Origin and
Constitution.—Rise of Ranjit Sing.—Remarks .1
X
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER II.
Page
Sir George Barlow, Governor-General.—State of the Fi¬
nances.—Retrenchments.—Supplies.—Judicial and Revenue
Arrangements for Cuttack, the Doab, and Bundelkhand.—
Revenue Settlements in the Ceded and Conquered Provinces.
—Separation of Judicial and Revenue Functions at Madras.
—Murder of Europeans at Vellore.—Arrival of the Dra¬
goons.—Fort retaken.—Military Inquiry.—Disposal of the
Prisoners.—Causes and Circumstances of the Mutiny.—Its
Origin in religious panic occasioned by military Orders.—
Similar Alarms at Hyderabad, Walajabad, and Nandidrúg
allayed or suppressed.—Lord W. Bentinck and Sir John Cra-
dock recalled.—Ultimate Decision of the Court of Directors. 106
CHAPTER HI.
Proceedings in England.—Refusal of the Directors tocon-
cur in the Appointment of the Earl of Lauderdale as Gover¬
nor-General.—Sir George Barlow recalled by the King's
sign-manual.— Discussions in Parliament and with the Board
of Controul.—Lord Minto appointed Governor-General.—
Proceedings in the House of Commons.—Impeachment of
Lord Wellesley by Mr. Pauli.—Papers moved for.—Charges
relating to the Nawah of Gude.—Nawah of Furruckabad.—
Zemindar of Sasnee and others.—Proceedings interrupted by
dissolution of Parliament.—Renewed by Lord Folkestone.—
Impeachment abandoned.—Condemnatory Resolutions nega¬
tived.—Merits of the Gude question.—Motion for an Inquiry
into the Assumption of the Camatic negatived.—Censure of
Lord Wellesley's Policy by the Court of Proprietors.—Ap¬
pointment of a Select Committee of the House of Commons.
—Diminished Import Trade of the Company 146
CHAPTER IV.
Lord Minto Governor-General.—Sir G. Barlow Governor
of Fort St. George.—Character and Policy of the Governor-
General.—Determination to establish Grder in Bundelkhand.
—Description of the Hilly district of the province.—Colonel
Martindell sent against Ajaygerh.—Affair of Rajaoli.—Ajay-
CONTENTS.
xi
gerh surrendered.—Lakshman Dawa sets off to Calcutta—
leaves it again suddenly.—His Family put to death by his
Father-in-law.—Operations against Gopal Sing.—Nature of
his Incursions.—His submission.—Storm of Kalinjar—re¬
pulsed.—Fortress surrendered.—Treaties with the Raja of
Rewa.—Settlement of Hariana.—The Sikh Chiefs east of the
Setlej taken under protection.—Treaty with Ranjit Sing.—
Embassy to Peshawar.—Revolutions of Afghanistan.—Disas¬
trous Life of Shah Shuja.—Return of the Embassy.—Mission
to Sindh.—Revolutions in the Government of that country—
Failure of Négociation.—Intercourse between France and Per¬
sia.—Ill-concerted measures of the British Authorities Sir
Harford Jones sent as Ambassador from England.—Sir John
Malcolm from India.—Unsatisfactory result of the latter Mis¬
sion.—Return of the Envoy.—A military Expedition to the
Gulph projected by the Bengal Government.—Sir Harford
Jones departs from Bombay—proceeds to Shiraz.—Prosecu¬
tion of the Mission prohibited.—He perseveres—reaches
Tehran—concludes a preliminary Treaty.—Disavowed by
the Indian Government.—The Treaty confirmed.—Diplomatic
relations with Persia taken under the management of the Bri¬
tish Ministry.—Sir Gore Ouseley Ambassador.—Definitive
Treaty concluded—productive of little advantage 169
CHAPTER V.
Appointment of Sir G. Barlow to the Government of Ma¬
dras—unacceptable to the settlement.—The state of popular
feeling.—Commencement of agitation.—Case of Mr. Sher-
son.—Proceedings of the Commission for the Investigation of
the Debts of the Nawab of the Carnatic.—Trials of Reddy
Rao—his Conviction.—his Pardon and Death.—Affairs of
Travancore.—Disputes between the Raja and the Resident.—
Enmity of the Dewan—sets on foot an Insurrection—abet¬
ted by the Dewan of Cochin.—Troops ordered to Travancore.
—The Resident's house attacked—^his escape.—Operations of
the Subsidiary Force.—Murder of Europeans by the Dewan.—
Army sent to the Province under Colonel St. Leger.—Storm
of the Arambuli Lines.—Defeat of the Nairs at Quilon.—Ad¬
vance to the Capital.—Submission of the Raja.—Flight of the
xii CONTENTS.
Page
Dewan.—Sanctuary violated.—Death of the Dewan.—Seizure
and Execution of his Brother.—The body of the Dewan gib¬
beted.—Sentiments of the Bengal Government.—Disorganised •
Condition of Travancore.—Administration of Affairs by the
Resident as Dewan under the Raja and his Successors.—Re¬
storation of prosperity.—Similar system and results in Cochin.
—Disputes between the Governor and Commander-in-chief.—
The latter refused a seat in Council by the Court—his dissa¬
tisfaction and resignation.—Discontents of the OflScers of the
Coast Army—their causes.—Tent contract abolished.—Rea¬
sons assigned in the Quarter-Master-General's Report offen¬
sive to OfScers commanding Corps—demand a Court-martial
on Colonel Munro.—The Commander-in-chief places Colonel
Munro in arrest.—Government cancels the arrest.—General
Macdowall issues a General Order on the subject, and em¬
barks for England —Counter Order by the Government.—
Subsequent severity.—Suspension of Major Boles.—Effect
upon the OfScers.—Orders of the 1st of May.—Violent pro¬
ceedings at Hyderabad.—Mutinous Conduct of the Garrison at
Masulipatam.—Threatened march of the Troops to Madras.—
Firmness of the Government.—Consequent arrangements.—
Test proposed to the European Officers.—Appeal to the Na¬
tive Troops—their allegiance.—The Garrison at Seringapa-
tam in open rebellion.—Colonel Close sent to Hyderabad.—
Officers of the Subsidiary Force sign the test.—their example
followed.—Arrival of the Governor-General at Madras.—
Courts-martial.—Sir Samuel Auchmuty Commander-in-chief
and Member of Council.—Proceedings in England.—Warm
Disputes in the Court of Directors.—Officers restored to the
service.—Sir G. Barlow finally recalled 232
CHAPTER VI.
Foreign Policy of Lord Minto's Administration.—Invasion
of Berar by Amir Khan.—A force sent to the aid of the Raja.
—Amir Khan's defeat by the Berar troops.—Retires before
the British.—Disputes between the Peshwa and the Southern
Jagirdars.—Compulsory adjustment.—Suppression of Piracy
by the states of Wari and Kolapur. —Expedition against the
Pirates of the Persian Gulph—Joasmis—their ferocity De-
CONTENTS. Xiii
Page
struction of Ras-al-Khaima and other Pirate stations.—Expe¬
dition to Macao.—Operations against the French and Dutch
Colonies in the Indian Seas.—Successful Depredations of the
French Cruizers.—Expedition against Rodriguez—its occupa¬
tion.—Descent upon Bourbon.—Garrison of Rodriguez rein¬
forced.— Second descent upon Bourbon, and capture.—Naval
Transactions at the Isle of France French frigates in the
harbour of Grand Port attacked by the English squadron.—
Destruction of the English vessels.—Naval actions off the
Islands between the blockading ships and the French frigates.
—Arrival of the Armaments from Bengal and Madras.—
Landing of the forces in Grande Baye.—March to Port Louis.
—Capitulation with the French Governor.— Blockade of the
Dutch Islands.—Expedition against the Moluccas.—Capture
of Amboyna—of Banda—and of Ternate.—Expedition against
Java—accompanied by Lord Minto DiflSculties of the voy¬
age—overcome.—Former operations.—Destruction of Dutch
vessels at Gresik.—Measures of General Daendels and of his
successor, General Jansens.—Arrival of the fleet in the Roads
of Batavia.—Landing of the troops.—Occupation of Batavia,
—Advance to Weltevreeden.—Strength of Fort Cornelis.—
Assault.—March of Colonel Gillespie's column.—Surprise of
the outwork.—Defences forced.—Explosion of a Redoubt—
the Fort taken—the Pursuit and Dispersion of the Enemy.—
Cheribon and Madura occupied.—Final defeat of General Jan-
sens—Surrender of Java and its Dependencies.—Mr. RaflSes
appointed Governor.—Colonel Gillespie Commander of the
Forces.—Capture of Yodhyakarta.—Expedition against Pa-
lembang.—Sultan deposed.—Views of the Court of Directors.
—Beneficial results of the British administration in Java. ... 303
CHAPTER VII.
Return of the Governor-General from Java—Internal Ad¬
ministration.—Indications of future Hostilities.—Relations
with Hyderabad and Nagpore—Misgovernment of Oude.—
Interference of the Government of Bengal.—Differences be¬
tween the Nawab and the Resident.—The latter supported by
Lord Minto.—Defects in the Judicial and Revenue Systems
of the British Government.—Mohammedan and latter Hindu
xiv CONTENTS.
Page
Systems.—Concentration of Functions.—Judicial Officers.—
Circumstances counteracting defective Administration State
of Civil and Criminal Justice.—Consequences of establishing
Civil Courts—multiplication of Suits—arrears of Decisions—
no effective remedy applied.—State of Criminal Judicature—
similar arrears.—State of Police.—Classes of Robbers—preva¬
lence of Dakoiti, or Gang robbery—Atrocities perpetrated.—
DifiBculty of Detection and Conviction.—Evils of excluding Na¬
tive co-operation—attempts to recover it—failures.—Superin¬
tendents of Police and Special Magistrates appointed.—Em¬
ployment of Informers.—Diminution of Dakoiti.—Revenue
System—review of.—Proprietary right of the Sovereign not
of Hindu butof Mohammedan origin.—Doctrines of the latter.
—Notions of the people.—Nature and extent of public de¬
mand under the Hindus and Mohammedans in earlier and
later times—from whom demanded.—Variety of Proprietary
rights Village Communities—their origin—legislation—co¬
lonisation—conquest.—Traces of property extinguished by
the exactions of the Government, and Village communities
destroyed—^in some provinces—not in all.—Variety of Orga¬
nization—different rights of the members—peculiarities of
constitution—general identity.—Classes of tenants—perpetual
—temporary.—The Public Revenue how realised.—Revenue
Officers.—Head-men of Villages—modifications of the office.
—Function of Zemindar—degree of his proprietary right—
contingent advantages—consideration among the people.—
Course adopted by the British Government.—Permanent Ze-
mindari Settlement ordered for Madras.—Commencement of
Ryotwar Settlement.—Principles of assessment urged by Lord
W. Bentinck—abandoned by the Government of Madras.—
Village settlements formed.—Perpetual settlement at Madras
prohibited by the Court of Directors.—Settlement of the Ceded
and Conquered Provinces of Bengal.—Commission of Inquiry
—recommend delay of a permanent assessment—recommend¬
ation disregarded by the Government.—Expected advantages
of permanency—not realisable—illusory nature of the provi¬
sion—moderate assessment all that is essential—principle dis¬
countenanced in England.—Permanent Settlement of the Ce¬
ded and Conquered Provinces forbidden.—Regulations for the
protection of the Ryots.—House-tax—resistance at Benares—
CONTENTS. XV
Page
repealed.—Religious riot at Benares.—Missionaries in Bengal
—established at Serampore—checked hy the Government.—
Lord Minto's encouragement of Oriental Literature—interest
in the College of Fort William.—Financial operations.—Close
of Lord Minto's Administration 371
CHAPTER VIII.
Embarrassed Finances of the Company.—Application to
Parliament for assistance—A Loan granted.—Inquiry into
abuse of patronage.—Renewal of the Charter.—Previous Cor¬
respondence with the Board.—Demands of the Court.—Pro¬
positions of Mr. Dundas—objections of the Court—communi¬
cation suspended—revived.—Determination of Ministers to
open the Trade with India resisted, hut finally acceded to hy
the Company.—Claims of the Outports.—Change of the
Ministry.—Lord Buckinghamshire President of the Board.—
Consequences of delay.—Resistance to the claims of the Out¬
ports.—Appeal to Parliament.—Resolutions proposed hy Lord
Castlereagh in the House of Commons ; hy Lord Bucking¬
hamshire in the House of Lords.—Application of the Com¬
pany to he heard hy Counsel granted.—Questions at issue—
political—commercial.—Trade with India—and with China,
peculiarities of the latter—secured to the Company.—Struggle
for the Trade with India.—Arguments of the Company — of
the Merchants.—Company consent to take off Restrictions
from the Export, not from the Import trade.—Financial and
political evils anticipated and denied—attempt to substantiate
them hy evidence.—Opinions of Warren Hastings and others
respecting the unrestricted admission of Europeans.—Exten¬
sion of Trade—independent resort of Missionaries, &c.—
Debates in the House of Commons—first and second Reso¬
lution carried—debate on the third.—Debates on the Report
of the Committee. — Thirteenth Resolution adjourned —
debate on it resumed—carried.—Other clauses suggested.—
Bill finally passed in the Commons.—Debates in the House
of Lords—previous discussions.—Bill passed.—Proceedings
in the Court of Proprietors—Charter accepted.—Remarks... 492
Appendix.
581
HISTORY
OF
BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I.
from the conclusion of peace with the mahrattas,
1805, to the renewal of the east india company's
charter, 1813.
CHAPTER I.
General View of the Political State of Lidia.—Mela- book i.
. CHAP. 1.
tions of the British Government with the Native
States.—Accessions of Territory.—Protection of
Shah Alem.—Bundelkhand, Sketch of its History
and Condition.—Native Princes.—Mohamme¬
dans. — King of Delhi. — Conduct of Prince
Jehangir.—Nawab of Oude.— Vicious Admi¬
nistration of the Principality.—Nizam of Hy¬
derabad. — Discontent. — Determination of the
British Government to maintain the Alliance. —
Career of Raja Mahipat Ram.—Death of Mir Alem.
—Hindus.—Mahrattas.—Peshwa. —Attempts to
recover his Political Consideration.—Gaekwar.—
Pecuniary Embarrassments.—British Interference.
—Settlement of Kattiwar.—Intrigues at Baroda.—
vol. i. b
2
history of british india.
Raja of Berar.— Dissatisfaction.—Relinquish¬
ment of Sambhalpur.—^mT>Hi\.—Pecuniary Diß-
culties.—Decline of Power.—Quarrels at his Court.
— Conduct to Bhopal.—Holkar.—Exactions from
the surrounding States.—Death of his Nephew, Kan-
di Rao,—of his Brother, Kasi Rao.—Derange¬
ment.—Tulasi Bhai, Regent.—Amir Khan.—His
Rise and Power.—Rajputs.—Rana of Udaypur.
Rajas of Jodhpur and Jaypur.—Contest for the
Hand of Krishna Kumari, Princess of Udaypur.
—Mahratta Extortion.—Application of Jaypur far
British Interference,—refused.—Policy of Holkar
and Sindhia.—Arnir Khan joins the Rana.—Death
of the Princess.—Other Rajput Princes.—Bikaner,
Kota, Bundi, Macheri.—Játs.—Raja of Bhurt-
pore.—Rana of Gohud.—Treaty with him an¬
nulled.—Sikhs, their Origin and Constitution.—Rise
of Ranjit Sing.—Remarks.
The recent hostilities between the British Govern¬
ment of India and the chiefs of the principal
Maliratta states had entirely altered the relative
position of the contending parties, and had engen¬
dered the elements of still more momentous change.
The Mahrattas had occupied through the latter
half of the eighteenth century the chief place
amongst the native states of India : they had brought
under their sway the widest and most valuable
portions of Hindustan, and had possessed them¬
selves of the name and person of the Emperor of
Delhi. On the first occasion on which they had
come into collision with the British arms, they had
inflicted upon them discomfiture and discredit ; and
book i.
CHAP. I.
1805,
policy of the mahratta princes.
3
they had plunged into the late struggle, strong both book i.
in military resources and reputation, and confident
that they should rid themselves of a dangerous and isos.
encroaching rival. The result had disappointed their
hopes, and accelerated the aggrandisement of that
power which they had trusted to overthrow.
In the outset of the contest, native opinion had
inclined to the Mahrattas ; the close of the war had
shaken belief in their superiority. Still, however,
much^of the prepossession in their favour survived
their reverses, and the full consequences of the en¬
counter seem to have been but imperfectly appreciat¬
ed even by those who had been engaged in the strife.
Engrossed by the care of providing for immediate
pecuniary embarrassments, the British Government
overlooked all political considerations ; and, in its
impatience to relieve financial pressure, threw away
some actual and some prospective advantages, shrunk
from the commanding elevation to which it had
been raised, and by unseasonable moderation dis¬
seminated doubts of its vigour, and held out en¬
couragement to future aggression. The Mahratta
leaders, justly ascribing much of their adversity to
internal disunion, misinterpreting the motives of
their enemy's forbearance, and fretting under the
losses and indignities they had sustained, accustomed
themselves to undervalue the resources and energies
of their conquerors, and to look forward to some
favourable opportunity of repairing their reputation
and recovering their territory. At the same time,
with the improvidence inseparable from the charac¬
ter of Indian princes, they set on foot no adequate
preparations for the realisation of their purposes.
B 2
4
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Instead of profiting by the experience of the past,
and the respite which had been granted to them ;
1805. instead of husbanding their means, consolidating
their power, and cementing that union in which
alone lay their safety, they wasted their strength in
a petty and predatory warfare with the princes of
Rajputana, or in intestine dissensions ; and with ter¬
ritories almost depopulated, revenues utterly ex¬
hausted, troops wholly disorganized, and mutual
animosities incurably exacerbated, they again pro¬
voked the resentment of the British Government
when in the full exercise of its energies, and
awakened to a clear perception of its true interests
and of those of Hindustan. The last act of this
extraordinary drama was then consummated. The
Marquis of Hastings completed what Clive had
begun, and all India acknowledged the supremacy
of Great Britain.
As some time intervened before the predomi¬
nance of the British power throughout India was
finally established, we may, for the present, pause to
contemplate the political condition of the country
at the period at which the narrative recommences ;
and for a few years following ; so as to form a correct
notion of the extent of British dominion and au¬
thority, and of the circumstances and objects of the
principal native states. We shall thus be better
able to understand the character of those transactions
which led to a renewal of the struggle, and to the
final attainment of that commanding attitude which
the British Government, after repeated proofs of for¬
bearance, was at last compelled to assume.
The capture of Seringapatam and death of Tippoo
british power in the south of india.
5
Sultan, in 1799, put an end to all fear of any for- book i.
midable enmity in the south of India. Those events
had added largely to the Company's territory in the I805.
Peninsula', and had restored the principality of
Mysore to the representative of its former Hindu
Rajas, on conditions the avowed intentions of which
were, the entire command of the resources of the
country in time of war, and a general controuling
power over its government in time of peace. Tri¬
bute under the denomination of subsidy was also
imposed upon the Raja, and provision was made for
appropriating the whole of the revenue, subject to a
pension to be paid to him in the event of his failing
to fulfill his obligations.^ The Raja, Krishna Raja
Udayavar, was a minor, and the administration of
the affairs of the state was intrusted to a native
minister named Purnia, a Brahman, a man of ability
and judgment, who distinctly understood the position
in which Mysore was placed, and its entire depend¬
ence upon the power to which it owed its existence.
As long as he lived, the connexion was maintained
in a spirit of sincere submission on the part of the
inferior, and of implicit confidence on that of the
superior ; rendering Mysore virtually an integral por¬
tion of the British Indian Empire.
The western coast of the Peninsula was, with a
few exceptions, British territory. At the southern
■ By the Partition Treaty of Mysore, July 1799, territory yielding an
annual revenue of 13,74,000 Cantarai Pagodas was reserved to the Mysore
Raja. To the Company was assigned a portion that was valued at C. Ps.
7,77,000 ; to the Nizam lands to the amount of C. Ps. 6,07,000, and of
C. Ps. 2,63,957 to the Peshwa. The shares of the two latter were sub¬
sequently transferred to the Company.—Collection of Treaties and Engage¬
ments with Native Princes and States of Asia, published in 1812, p. 441.
' Treaty with Mysore, 8th July, 1799, and supplementary treaties, 1803
and 1807.—Coll. of Treaties, pp. 454, 248, 302.
6
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. extremity, the petty states of Cochin and Travan-
core were governed by their own Rajas. These
1805. princes had been rescued by the interposition of the
British arms from the tyranny of Tippoo, and had
agreed to pay a stipulated subsidy for the protection
which they received.^ The amount had however
been determined without an equitable regard to the
advantages for which it was an equivalent, or to the
sources from which it was derived.® The demand
became an exaction, and the payment speedily fell
into arrear. A perpetual and undignified inter¬
change of requisition and evasion ensued, and mu¬
tual dissatisfaction was the unavoidable result. This
was more especially the case with the Raja of Tra-
vancore, as, upon the plea of danger from the designs
of France, an additional subsidy had been levied
upon him subsequently to the capture of Seringapa-
tam ; and, as he neither understood nor dreaded the
peril, the cost of arming against its occurrence was
felt to be both onerous and unjust. Discontent and
indignation were consequently brooding over the
councils of Travancore, and their dictates shortly
afterwards impelled the Raja to an unavailing effort
to throw off the burden under which he laboured.
Proceeding along the ISIalabar coast towards the
' The Raja of Cochin was made to pay to the Company a lakh of rupees
annually; treaty, 1791.—Collection of Treaties,p. 421. An agreement was
made in 1788 with the Raja of Travancore, by which he engaged to sub¬
sidize two battalions of Sipahis. In 1795, he agreed to maintain con¬
stantly one battalion. This was extended, in 1797, to three battalions, and
one company of European artillery. In 1805, the Raja was compelled to
pay for a fourth battalion.—Collection of Treaties, pp. 174, 170, 283.
s The gross revenue of Cochin was estimated at five lakhs of rupees, from
which the charges of collection were to be deducted. The tribute was
therefore about one-fourth of the net receipts. The total revenues of Tra¬
vancore, in 1807, were estimated by the Resident at twenty lakhs of rupees :
the Company's claim was nearly eight lakhs.—MS. Records.
BRITISH POWER IN THE SOUTH OF INDIA.
7
north, a few districts of limited extent were subject book i.
to petty Mahratta chiefs, feudatories of Poona : and '
Goa, and a narrow territory around it, still remained isos.
to the Portuguese : as amicable relations subsisted
with the superior states, the subordinate character
of these dependencies, as well as their insignificance,
divested them of all political consideration. ' Goa,
indeed, was occupied by an English garrison. Far¬
ther to the north, the coast belonged to the Gaek-
war or ruler of Guzerat ; whom a subsidiary treaty,
and à connexion of the most intimate nature, at¬
tached inseparably to the interests of the British
Government. Cutch, the adjacent country to the
west, although independent, was' distracted by civil
broils, the chief parties in which appealed for assist¬
ance to the Presidency of Bombay. Sindh, the
boundary province of India in this direction, was
governed by independent princes, who had shewn
themselves disinclined to entertain any correspond¬
ence with the Company's authorities. They exer¬
cised little or no influence upon the politics of India,
as their situation and circumstances restricted their
intercourse in a great degree to their western and
northern neighbours, the Baluchis and Afghans.
The whole of the eastern or Coromandel coast
of the Peninsula was British, with the exception
of a small tract occupied by the Danish settle¬
ment of Tranquebar. The Nawab of the Carnatic
and the Raja of Tanjore had been deprived of
territorial revenue and political importance, and
had been reduced to the irrevocable condition of
pensioners of the East India Company. The pro¬
vince of Cuttack, which under the Mahratta govern-
8
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. ment of Berar had intercepted the communication
'' between the Presidencies of Bengal and Madras,
1805. now served to connect them ; as it had been taken
from the Raja in the late war, and had been perma¬
nently annexed to the Company's possessions, which
now extended along the whole line of coast from
the Gulph of Manar to the Delta of the Ganges.
Important additions to the British dominions in
Hindustan had been effected by treaty or conquest
during the administration of Marquis Wellesley.
At its commencement, the Bengal Presidency was
bounded on the north by the course of the Gandak
river, and by the confluence of the Ganges and the
Jumna. The cession of Gorakhpur by the Nawab
Vizir, Sadat Ali, carried the boundary across the
Gandak to the foot of the mountains of Nepal ;
and the transfer of the lower Doab, Furruckabad,
and Bareilly, by the same prince, extended the
British authority over the country of the Rohillas.
The victorious career of Lord Lake rescued the
upper provinces of the Doab from Mahratta spo¬
liation, and brought them as far as to the north¬
west of Delhi under British influence or rule. Of
the contjuests on the west bank of the Jumna,
a narrow strip of land alone had been retained;
but its value was more than commensurate with
its extent, as it included the important cities Agra,
Mathura, and Delhi,—the first celebrated for its
reliques of Mogul magnificence, the second sanc¬
tified by the religious veneration of the Hindus,
and the third selected in every age of the history
of India for the capital of those Hindu and Mo¬
hammedan monarchs who aspired to the universal
beitish power in hindustan.
9
sceptre of Hindustan. Along with this imperial book i.
city the British became possessed of the person
and family of the representative of the fallen dy- isos.
nasty of Timur, the venerable Shah Alem, alike
distinguished by his descent and his misfortunes.
Indebted to the British in the dawn of life for
safety and support, he had passed through man¬
hood to old age amidst an unvarying succession
of danger, tumult, treachery, and disaster, and was
happy to end his days in peace and security under
the sfielter of his early friends. However trifling the
accession to the real power of the victors which might
be thought to accrue from their holding in their
hands the titular sovereign of Hindustan, and al¬
though the charge was not unattended by circum¬
stances of anxiety and embarrassment, yet that
the keeping of the person of Shah Alem was not
devoid of political value might be inferred from
the eagerness with which the prize had been dis¬
puted by military adventurers both Mohammedans
and Hindus, and by the weight which chieftains
the most lawless, and princes the most powerful,
still attached to an order or a grant that bore
the seal of the emperor, even though the docu¬
ment conferred but a nominal title to the honours
or possessions which it purported to bestow. Shah
Alem himself was an object of general sympathy,
from the injuries or indignities which he had un¬
dergone from his own rebellious servants or his
Mahratta allies ; and the respectful and benevolent
treatment which he experienced from his new guar¬
dians contrasted favourably with the conduct pur¬
sued towards him by their predecessors. There
10
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA
BOOK I. can be no doubt that the change was most accept-
able to the Mohammedans of Hindustan, and con-
1805. tributed essentially to conciliate their good-will
and gain their allegiance.
The greater portion of the territory on the west
of the Jumna which had been wrested from the
Mahrattas was precipitately relinquished by Mar¬
quis Cornwallis and Sir George Barlow, but on
the south-west the extensive province of Bundel-
khand was permanently comprehended within the
limits of the Presidency of Bengal. The district
had been ceded by the Peshwa in commutation of
territory in the south of India, which he had at
first assigned to the Company in place of the
amount which he had agreed to pay for a subsi¬
diary force.^ At the time when this exchange was
effected, the authority of the Peshwa over any
part of Bundelkhand was little more than nominal,
and his claims were at best of a questionable cha¬
racter, as will be evident upon a brief review of
the history of the province.
The Rajas of Bundelkhand pretend to trace their
pedigree from the Solar dynasty of Hindu kings ;
Kusa, one of the sons of the mytho-heroic prince
Ramachandra, having, it is said, migrated from
Ayodhya or Oude, and settled in Bundelkhand.
The traditions of the Hindus in general do not
countenance such a genealogy; and it seems not
unlikely that the Bundela tribe were foreigners
1 The annual revenue of these lands was computed to be 26 lakhs of
rupees. Treaty of Bassein, 1802. Portions to the value of 19 lakhs were
restored to the Peshwa, in lieu of which he ceded territory in Bundelkhand
of the estimated annual value of 36 lakhs. Supplementary treaty, 1803.
Coll. of Treaties, pp. 233, 242.
NATIVE PRINCES OF BUNDELKHAND.
and conquerors, who immigrated into the country^ book
in comparatively modern times. They long strug-_^|^
gled, with varied success, to maintain their inde- isos
pendence against the Mohammedan kings of Delhi ;
but they sunk under a vigorous effort made in
the beginning of the reign of Shah Jehan, and
were compelled to acknowledge for a season the
supremacy of the Mogul. This state of things was
of no long duration : encouraged by the distracted
condition of the empire during the latter years
of Shah Jehan's reign, a chieftain named Champat
Rai® led the way to the reassertion of the na¬
tional independence. The task was prosecuted
with improved success by his more celebrated son
Chatrasal, and a new dynasty was founded by the
latter, which reigned over the eastern division of
the province : the western division was restored to
the representatives of the ancient Rajas, who, how¬
ever, renewed their professions of fealty to the
throne of Delhi.
The elevation of Chatrasal to the rank and
power of Raja took place towards the end of the
reign of Aurangzeb. The successors of that em¬
peror, unable to make good their pretensions to
' Bundel-khand, "the portion of the Bundela," is not named in any ancient
writings or inscriptions. The country is denominated Chaidya, the land
of the Chedi, or Chandel, the name still borne by the agricultural popula¬
tion. The term Bundela is confined to the military chiefs, who never con¬
descend to engage in the cultivation of the soil, and of whom the first is
said to have been Devada Bir, a Rajput, who invaded and occupied the
country some time in the 14th century.—Memoir on Bundelkhand, by
Capt. J. Franklin ; Tr. Royal Asiatic Society, i. 259.
® Authorities differ with respect to the birth and station of Champat Rai.
One account makes him an officer in the service of the Raja of
Urcha.—Franklin, as above. Another affirms his being a member of the
ruling dynasty, and Raja of Urcha himself.—Pogson, Hist, of the Húnde¬
las, p. 44. This could scarcely have been the case, although he might
have been a kinsman of the Raja.
12
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. supremacy, acknowledged the new Raja, In the
reign of Mohammed Shah, however, Bangash Khan,
1805. the Afghan governor of Allahabad, fell suddenly
upon Chatrasál with an overwhelming force, and
dispossessed him of his dominions. Chatrasál had
recourse to the Mahrattas, who under the first
Peshwa, Baji Rao, were at this time advancing
slowly through Kandesh and Malwa to Hindus¬
tan. The opportunity of establishing their ascen¬
dancy in Bundelkhand, which was afforded by the
application of the Raja, was promptly embraced;
and Baji Rao with a large force surprised and
defeated Bangash Khan, who was glad to escape
with his life. The Mohammedan yoke was now
thrown off for ever, but one not less oppressive
was imposed, in the domination of the IVIahrattas.
In the first instance they replaced Chatrasál in his
principality; but upon his death, which happened
not long afterwards, the Peshwa, whom he had
adopted as a son, succeeded by virtue of that adop¬
tion to one-third of the territory:^ the other two-
thirds were equally divided between the two sons
of Chatrasál; one of whom, Hirdi Sah, became
Raja of Panna, the other, Jagat Sah, of Jetpur.®^
' The Mahratta records assert that this disposition of his Raj was the
spontaneous effect of the Raja's gratitude.—Grant Duff, Hist, of the
Mahrattas, i. 515. It is more probable that the cession was the price of
the Peshwa's assistance, as intimated in the Seir Mutakherin, i. 282. In
the memoirs of Amir Khan it is stated, that, after the expulsion of the
Afghan, Chatrasál adopted the Peshwa, and at once divided his Raj into
four parts, of which he retained one, and apportioned the other three be¬
tween the Peshwa and his sons. Govind Pandit was nominated manager
of the Peshwa's share, which included Ságar, Jhansi, and Kalpi, or a
line of country in the centre of the province from the Nerbudda to the
Jumna, by which the Mahrattas could readily march from the Dekhin to
the Doab.—Mem. of Amir Khan, 55.
® The Raja of Panna, and the Rajas of Ajaygerh, Charkari, Bijawar,
Jetpur, and Sarila, are respectively descended from these princes.
ORIGIN OF THE NAWABS OF BANDA. 13
It was a condition of the arrangement made in book i.
^ CHAP. I.
favour of the Peshwa, that the government of
Poena should guarantee to the descendants of
Chatrasal the portions of the inheritance set apart
for his sons. The stipulation was for some time
faithfully observed; the sons of Chatrasal enjoyed
their portions in peace, and parcelled them at their
death amongst their posterity. Their example was
imitated by their successors, subdivisions were in¬
finitely multiplied, and Bundelkhand was filled with
a swarm of petty Rajas too weak to defend them¬
selves against Mahratta aggression, and too turbulent
to refrain from those mutual hostilities by which
their weakness was aggravated : the state of confu¬
sion and anarchy into which the province was thrown
by the intestine divisions of its rulers, offered it as a
tempting bait to military adventure ; and a follower
of Sindhia, Ali Bahadur, was induced to avail him¬
self of the favourable opportunity.
Ali Bahadur^ was a Sirdar of some repute in the
service of the Peshwa when he was dispatched by
Nana Furnavez, the minister of Poona, with a body
of troops to co-operate with Madhoji Sindhia in
his incursion into Hindustan. He bore an efficient
part in the operations which gave Delhi and Shah
Alem to Sindhia, but was not altogether satisfied
with the requital which his exertions had received.
Ali Bahadur®, therefore, quitted Sindhia, and at the
' The father of Ali Bahadur, Shamshir Bahadur, was the son of the
Peshwa Baji Rao, a Brahman, by a Mohammedan woman. Agreeably to
the ancient Hindu law, he was of the caste, which in this case was equi¬
valent to the religion, of his mother ; a characteristic illustration of the
laxity of manners of the Mahratta court, and of Hindu indifference to re¬
ligious creeds.
' According to Malcolm, All Bahadur separated from Sindhia upon
14
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I, instigation of Himmat Bahadur, who was the mili-
CHAP. I. ° ..iiiPl iJi?
tary leader and spiritual head of a large body or
1805. armed Gosains, combining the characters of reli¬
gious vagrants and mercenary soldiers, and who had
acquired some territory in Bundelkhand, he marched
A. D. 1790. into the province with a considerable force, and in a
few years reduced under his authority the greater
part of the territories which had been distributed
amongst the unworthy descendants of Chatrasál.
The stronghold of Kalinjar alone resisted his im¬
petuosity, and, after a siege of two years, he died in
A. D. 1802. camp before its walls.^ He left two sons, Shamshir
Bahadur, and Zulfikar Ali. The former at the
date of his father's death was at Poona : the latter,
who was an infant, was thereupon raised to the prin¬
cipality by his uncle Ghani Bahadur; but Shamshir
Bahadur speedily arrived to vindicate his claim to
the succession, put his uncle to death, and assumed
the sovereignty over his father's conquests. He was
not long able to maintain his authority.
The exchange of territory accomplished by the
Peshwa was a genuine exemplification of JMahratta
diplomacy^ for it transferred to the British Govern¬
ment the trouble of enforcing claims of questionable
the advance of the latter to Delhi.—Central India. Grant Duff states the
separation to have taken place after the capture of Delhi.—Hist. Mahr,
iii. 75. The memoirs of Amir Khan (p. 86) assert that he invaded Bun¬
delkhand by command of the Peshwa. He no doubt professed to act as
the Peshwa's officer, and hoisted the Zari Patka or regal standard of
Poona.
' Ali Bahadur, to evince his determination not to relinquish the siege until
the capture of the fortress, caused a house to be built near the fort for his
residence. The Kiladar, not to be surpassed in bravado, sent him a pre¬
sent of some mango-seeds to sow in the garden to be attached to the new
edifice, with an intimation that he might hope to take Kalinjar when the
seeds should have grown to trees, and the trees should have borne fruit.—
Pogson's Bundelas, p. 122.
policy of the peshwa. 15
validity, and granted to them districts over which booki.
1 /» tV • 1 1 CHAP. L
the court of Poona had never exercised actual sove-
reignty. The cessions were taken chiefly from the isos.
recent conquests of Ali Bahadur, whose right had
neither become confirmed by time nor by the recog¬
nition of the subjugated people ; and whose posses¬
sions, although, inasmuch as they had fallen to a
subject and officer of the Peshwa, they might be
considered as in some degree dependent upon the
head of the Mahratta state, yet had never acknow¬
ledged. such dependence, nor contributed in any
manner to his power or resources. The attempt of
Shamshir Bahadur to establish himself in the
country which his father had conquered was as
much opposed to the pretensions of the Peshwa, as
to the claims of the English founded upon them,
and he was consequently treated as the enemy of
both. His father's friend and coadjutor, the Gosain
Himmat Bahadur, foreseeing the inability of Sham¬
shir Bahadur to resist this combination against him,
speedily made terms with the British, and joined
their forces on their advance into Bundelkhand.
After an ineffectual show of resistance, Shamshir
Bahadur was content to desist from opposition, and
to accept a pension for himself and for his family,
with permission to reside at Banda.^ Himmat Ba¬
hadur soon after died ; his armed bands were dis¬
missed upon the return of peace, and his descend¬
ants were settled upon a Jagir in the Doab.® So
far, little difficulty was found in the introduction of
' The titular Nawab of Banda is at present Zulfikar Ali, the brother of
Shamshir Bahadur, who resides near Banda, and receives a pension of four
lakhs of rupees.—Bengal and Agra Gazetteer, 1841, vol. ii. part 2, p. 283.
® Sekandra, in the district of Cawnpore. Ibid. p. 287.
16
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. British authority into those portions of Bundel-
_!^^^H_khand which were nearest to the Jumna and the
1805. division of Allahabad.
The establishment of a government in Bundel-
khand that proclaimed order and insisted upon obe¬
dience was, however, no easy task. The feuds of
the numerous petty Rajas, and the depredations of
the Mahrattas, had filled the country with military
adventurers, few of whom had other means of sup¬
porting themselves and their followers than levying
contributions on the peaceable inhabitants, and
plundering those who resisted their exactions. Nor
did they respect the new acquisitions of the Com¬
pany ; and, as these had been left imperfectly guard¬
ed by the precipitate dismissal of the irregular bat¬
talions which during the war had been taken into
British pay, and by the improvident reduction of the
regular force below the necessity for its services, the
leaders of the marauding bands were long suffered
to disturb the tranquillity of the country, and pre¬
vent its return to order and good government. The
inhabitants themselves, a bold and resolute race,
habituated to the use of arms, and unaccustomed to
legal controul, were little inclined to submit to civil
jurisdiction or fiscal regulations ; and, when unable to
resist the enforcement of the laws or the collection
of the revenues, they deserted their villages and
augmented the ranks of the banditti. "Where this
was not the case, they not unfrequently entered into
a compact with the predatory leaders to defraud the
state of its dues, by paying to them a sum less than
the public demand, and receiving in return an ac¬
quittance for the whole. With this evidence of
FORTS IN BUNDELKHAND.
17
their having been compelled to pay their revenue, book i.
— ^ 1#
they claimed exemption from farther payment, alleg-
ing, with sufficient plausibility, that a Government,
which could not defend them, could not claim ful¬
filment of their obligations, and pleading the impos¬
sibility of their paying double the amount at which
they were assessed. The plea was admitted until its
collusive origin was detected, and the refusal to
grant exemptions on this account tended to put a
stop to the fraud ; but not until a loss of revenue
had iSeen sustained, the amount of which would
have economically defrayed the expense of a protect¬
ing military force. Both the marauding chiefs and
the refractory villagers derived support in their
resistance to Government from the numerous small
forts with which the province was studded : at the
time of its occupation there were not fewer than
one hundred and fifty within the limits of the Com¬
pany's acquired territory, the greater proportion of
which were eventually demolished, but not without
opposition.
Amidst the many strongholds which were erect¬
ed in Bundelkhand, two were remarkable for their
position and strength. These were Ajaygerh and
Kalinjar. They were both in the hands of adven¬
turers who had risen to power by the usual methods
of military rapine and violence, and who, by their
own armed adherents, or the marauding hordes to
whom they afforded shelter, spread desolation and
alarm through the adjacent country. A vigorous
effort, early made, might have planted the British
standard on their walls with little difficulty ; but as
it was the policy of the Government to conciliate,
VOL. I. c
18
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. where to suppress and overawe would be attended
with expense, it was determined in the councils of
1806. Calcutta that " a certain extent of dominion, local
power, and revenue would be cheaply sacrificed for
tranquillity and security within a more contracted
circle." It was argued, that " it was not to be appre¬
hended that the furtive depredations of roving ban¬
ditti could be supposed to have intimidated the
military power which had overthrown the combined
force of the Mahratta confederacy, and that there
was every reason to believe that the concessions
which were proposed were not calculated to excite
a renewal of the disorders by which they had been
obtained."^ Upon these principles, falsified as they
were by the history of all past ages, and opposed to
the opinions and recommendations of the principal
civil and military functionaries and of the com¬
mander-in-chief,'' the occupants of Ajaygerh and
Kalinjar were left in possession of their fortresses ;
and to them® and to other usurping chiefs the Go¬
vernment granted sunnuds, formally recognising and
confirming their right of occupancy, upon conditions
of general submission and allegiance. In like man¬
ner, but upon more legitimate grounds, the descend¬
ants of Chatrasál, who still retained portions of their
patrimony, were confirmed in their possessions, but
' MS. Records. Proceedings of Bengal Government, 10th July, 1806.
® Lord Lake in a letter to the Government, recorded the 17th July, 1806,
expressed his conviction, that, until Ajaygerh and Kalinjar were in pos¬
session of the Government, it would be impossible to maintain peace in
Bundelkhand. Events fully corroborated the justice of his prediction.
® Lakshman Dawa, the Kiladár of Ajaygerh, was allowed to keep his
fort for two years upon payment of a small annual tribute, and to hold the
district adjacent in perpetual farm. Darya Sing Chaubè, the Kiladár of
Kalinjar, was confirmed in the occupancy of that fort and the adjacent dis¬
trict; 8th December, 1806.
RAJAS OF BUNDELKHAND.
19
their promise of allegiance was not to entitle them book i.
t f T 1 • p CHAP. I.
to protection ; and so far was the doctrine or non-
interference carried, that they were suffered to de- isoe.
cide by the sword those disputes amongst themselves,
to which the complicated questions of proprietary
right to lands that had repeatedly changed masters
could not fail to give rise. It was not until a change
of administration in Calcutta had taken place that
" it was deemed essential, not only to the preserva¬
tion of political influence over the chiefs of Bun-
delkhand and its consequent advantages, but also to
the dignity and reputation of the British Govern¬
ment, to interfere for the suppression of intestine
disorder, by compelling that submission which it had
till then been found impracticable to conciliate or
command." ^
The western portion of Bundelkhand was dis¬
tributed among the Rajas of Dattea, Tehri, and
Sampthar. They were descended from the ancient
Rajas. They were acknowledged by the British as
independent princes, and were bound to them by
treaties of amity and alliance. No submission was
required from them, and care was taken to avoid any
obligation to defend them against foreign aggression.
They remained, consequently, many years exposèd
to Mahratta insolence and spoliation, and were re¬
duced to the verge of annihilation, when the course
of events, and altered political views, brought them
finally within the pale of British protection.
Such were the principal accessions to the terri¬
tory of British India during the administration of
' Proceedings of Bengal Government, 8th September, 1807. Lord
Miuto had recently assumed charge of the Government.
c 2
20
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Marquis Wellesley, and the position in which it was
'' ])lac6d at the close of that of Sir G. Barlow with
1806. relation to some of the neighbouring princes. The
situation and circumstances of the more important
native states it will now be necessary to describe.
The great distinction of the native ruling powers
was two-fold. They were either Mohammedan or
Hindu. The latter comprised several varieties, and
were mainly distinguishable as Mahrattas, Rajputs,
Jats, and Sikhs.
Although extensive and populous territories still
acknowledged the sway of some of the descendants
of the Mohammedan conquerors of India, yet their
political power was, in every instance of any import¬
ance, extinct; and, with one or two exceptions of
little note or influence, they were either directly or
indirectly dependent upon the British Government.
They were its pensioners, or its subsidiary allies : the
former compelled to forego all the attributes of sove¬
reignty, except an empty title ; the latter obliged to
sheath their swords for ever, and rely for defence
upon troops whom they alienated their dominions
to pay, bul; over whom they held no command. At
the head of the former class was the Great Mogul
himself, the descendant and representative of Timur-
lang.
The actual occupant of the throne of Delhi did
not long survive his transition from a rigorous to a
respectful state of captivity. Shah Alem died on
the 18th of December, 1806. He was succeeded
by his eldest surviving son, who took the title of
Shah Akbar the Second. The father had experi¬
enced the misfortunes inseparable from a powerless
THE KING OP DELHI.
21
sceptre too severely to regret its resignation into book i.
hands able to wield it with vigour : the son, although "
no stranger to distress and peril, anticipated from I807.
the indulgence or indifference of his protectors a
greater share of real power than it was convenient
or safe to permit him to exercise. His attempts to
break through the limits prescribed to him were for
some time after his accession frequent and persever¬
ing ; but they were for the most part of little con¬
sideration, except as paving the way for pretensions of
a more ambitious tendency, and they were checked
without much trouble or the exhibition of severitv.^
»!
On one subject alone it was necessary to act with
energy; and the manifestation of power and will,
which was then called for, terminated the aspira¬
tions of Akbar the Second to become a king in
more than name.
The King of Delhi had several sons : of these,
the eldest was considered to be entitled to the desig¬
nation of heir-apparent, agreeably to the laws of suc¬
cession upheld by the British Indian Government ;
' A principal object of his majesty's ambition was the presentation of
Khelats, or honorary dresses, to the princes of Hindustan, and, above
all, to the Governor-General. As the acceptance of such a compliment is
an admission of inferiority, it was of course declined. Having, however,
obtained leave to send an agent to Calcutta to represent to the Government
matters of public and private interest, Shah Akbar endeavoured to can-y
the point of the khelat by a little ingenuity. His envoy was instructed to
present to Lord Minto an old cloak, which the king himself had worn, as
a mark of personal regard ; but he was to contrive to do this at a public,
audience, when the present would have assumed the character of an hono¬
rary distinction conferred upon the Governor-General by the King of Delhi.
The device was easily seen through, and as easily frustrated : the cloak
was thankfully accepted as a private gift, but the bearer was compelled to
transmit it through the usual channel of communication, through the office
of the Persian secretary. Such were the strange vicissitudes of fortune,
that the Great Mogul was reduced to the necessity of trying to trick the
chief functionary of a trading company into the acceptance of the greatest
honour in native estimation which it was in his power to bestow !
22
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. but, influenced by his favourite queen, Akbar Shah
strove pertinaciously to obtain the recognition of his
1808. third son, Mirza Jehangir, of whom she was the
mother, in that capacity. Although willing to with¬
hold from the eldest son the immediate assumption
of the title which it considered as his birthright,
the Government of Bengal refused to gratify the
wish of the king ; and obliged him, on one occasion,
to cancel and counteract honours and privileges
which he had granted to Mirza Jehangir as indica¬
tions of a purpose to raise him to the rank of heir-
apparent.^ Although obliged to give way for a
season, the king, unable to resist female blandish¬
ments and tears, resumed his project ; and the sub¬
ject of debate might have long continued to estrange
him from his European advisers, had not the rashness
and presumption of the prince given occasion to the
British Government to act decisively, and remove
Älirza Jehangir from Delhi altogether.
Mirza Jehangir, having been empowered by the
injudicious liberality of his mother to take, into
pay a body of armed retainers, occasioned so much
discomfort^ and alarm within the palace by the
turbulence which he encouraged and the excesses
of which he partook, that his parents were at
last convinced of the necessity of subjecting him
to some controul, and the king was prevailed upon
to allow the Company's Sipahis to mount guard at
' These were, 1, the use of the Aftábi, a flat circular parasol, carried
by an attendant, not over the head, but on the side of a person, or palan-
kin, which is next the sun; 2, the Tapach, a state cushion; and, 3, the
Nalki, open state palankin. They were conferred in full Durbar, with
the customai-y solemnities. By desire of the Government the Aftábi was
discontinued, and the use of the other articles extended to all the princes
so as to deprive them of any specitic significance.
prince jehangir.
23
the palace gates. A guard was accordingly stationed book i.
at the outer gates, when the followers of Jehangir 1
took up a menacing position at the inner gateway, I809.
and insisted that the Sipahis should be withdrawn.
The British Resident, Mr. Seton, advancing to ex¬
postulate with them, was fired at and narrowly es¬
caped being shot, as the ball struck the cap of a
soldier who was close by his side. The Sipahis
were then ordered to take forcible possession of
the inner gates ; and after a short conflict, in which
some of the assailants were wounded, and several
of their opponents were killed, the gates were
carried, and the followers of the prince were dis¬
persed. The prince gave himself up to the Re- 24tii July,
sident, and was sent a state prisoner to Allahabad,
where he resided until his death, abandoning all
hopes of succession to a titular crown and passing
his days in indolence and indulgence.^ The king
gradually ceased to exhibit outwardly any concern
for his fate, and abstained from all endeavours to
interfere with the disposal of the throne, or to ac¬
quire a greater portion of authority than it was
thought fit to intrust him with : this resignation
was rewarded by an increase of his pension, which
' He was at first lodged in the fort of Allahabad, but was afterwards
removed to a building that had been a Mohammedan mausoleum, part of
the monument of Sultan Khosru, without the city. The author saw
him here in 1820. He was allowed considerable personal liberty, and
was treated with as much consideration as was compatible with his
security. He seemed to be cheerful and reconciled to his situation, and
was said to have both the means and the inclination to forget political dis¬
appointments in personal enjoyment. He was a man of small stature and
delicate features, of a pleasing though very dark countenance, and of ele¬
gant manners. He wore no turban nor any covering on his head, but let
his long black hair, which shewed symptoms of more than ordinary care
bestowed upon it, hang full upon his shoulders. It was impossible not to
feel some sympathy for his humiliation, although there was nothing in his
character or conduct to inspire respect.
24
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. had been promised conditionally by Marquis Welles-
'' ley, and was granted by Lord Minto.^
1806. A prince, second only to the King of Delhi in
Mohammedan estimation, and far superior to that
sovereign in wealth and power, the Nawab of Oude,
was connected with the British Government by a
subsidiary alliance. The precise nature of the con¬
nexion will have been made known by the ample
details and discussions relating to it inserted in the
preceding pages. For all objects of exterior policy
the Nawab was a nonentity, and even in his interior
administration he was expected to refer questions
of any moment to the consideration of the British
Resident, and to adopt no measures of importance
without the concurrence of the Governor-General.
The reigning Nawab, Sadat Ali Khan, was far from
easy under the bonds which attached him to the
' The original pension was fixed at 76,500 rupees a month, to be pro¬
vided for out of the revenues of certain lands in the district of Delhi set
apart for that purpose ; and a promise was made, that the allowance should
be increased when the funds admitted of it. The extent of the increase
was not specified. In 1809, the revenues of the assigned territory conti¬
nued still short of the pension, but it was determined to increase the latter
to one lakh of rupees per month, of which 7000 rupees were to be appro¬
priated to the heir-apparent. — Governor-General's Minute, 17th June,
1809. Other augmentations have been since made, making the allowance,
including stipends to members of the family both at Delhi and Benares,
fifteen lakhs of rupees (150,0001.) per annum.—Bengal and Agra Gazetteer,
ii. part 2. 362. His majesty has been long urgent for a farther increase,
upon the plea that the revenues of the assigned lands have improved, but
" it was never proposed either to limit the stipends by the amount of the
" produce of the territory, or to augment them to an extent equal to the
" revenue which the territory might eventually yield : the obligation which
" the British Government had imposed on itself was that of providing
" adequate means for the support of the king and his household in a man-
" ner suitable to the condition in which he was placed, while in policy it
" was inexpedient that the provision granted should exceed an amount suf-
" ficient for that purpose."—Minute quoted by Captain Sutherland. The
same authority states, that, if the civil and military charges upon what
may be possibly meant by the assigned lands were deducted from their
revenue, little would remain for the payment of the stipend of the King of
Delhi.—Sketches of the Relations between the British Government of
India and Native States ; by Captain J. Sutherland, Calcutta, 1833.
NAWAB OF DUDE. 25
British ; but he had been raised by them to the book i.
throne, and, being of a timid and inactive character,
could scarcely have maintained his dignity without isoe.
the support of his allies. Even under their guar¬
dianship he lived in constant dread of domestic
intrigue, and was perpetually haunted by unfounded
suspicions that his nearest relatives were plotting
against his throne and his life.^ His chief grati¬
fication was the accumulation of treasure; and the
curtailment of his revenues, consequent upon the
enforced alienation of a valuable portion of his
territory in commutation of the subsidy, was the
main-spring of his dissatisfaction with the relations
in which he stood to the Government of Bengal.
He felt aggrieved, also, by the immunity from transit
duties claimed by trading boats on the Ganges where
it formed the boundary of Onde, under passes from
the Company's custom-offices on the opposite bank,
and agreeably to a commercial treaty into which he
had reluctantly entered. The interference of the
Resident was not unfrequently a source of mortifica¬
tion to him. So far had his discontent proceeded,
that he renewed to Sir G. Barlow the proposition
he had made to Lord Wellesley, to transfer the ma¬
nagement of his dominions to his eldest son and
make a pilgrimage to Mecca. When, however, the
acquiescence of the Government was expressed, the
project was apparently abandoned, as the proposal
was never repeated. In his personal expenditure
' His own brothers, Mirza Mehdi and Shahámat Ali, were accused by
him of having instigated attempts to procure his assassination. The
charges were investigated by the Resident under orders from the Govern¬
ment, and were proved to be void of any foundation. To appease the
fears of the Nawab, the princes were obliged to leave Lucknow, and
take up their residence at Patna in the Company's territories.
26
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Sadat Ali was meanly parsimonious, and the amount
CHAP. L public revenue was more than adequate to
1807. the public disbursements. The landholders were
nevertheless exposed to the systematic extortion of
contractors, to whom the Nawab farmed the assess¬
ments, and whom he authorised to levy their de¬
mands by the most violent and oppressive means.^
Their exactions were as systematically resisted, and
the Zemindars became habituated to refuse pay¬
ment even of what was justly claimable, unless
compelled by superior power. Their villages were
not unusually fortified, and they resided in mud
forts which were not easily captured by the un¬
aided military of the Nawab. In this emergency
it became necessary to have recourse to the subsi¬
diary force, and the Company's battalions were em¬
ployed to reduce refractoiy landholders and collect
the revenue. As obvious objections to such a duty
existed, the aid of the troops was always granted
with reluctance; another subject of grievance to
the Nawab, who considered himself entitled to com¬
mand the services of a force which he virtually
paid. The evil was not so serious in the early part
of the reign of Sadat Ali as it subsequently became,
and, upon the whole, the province of Oude was in
a peaceable and improving condition ; while the
character and situation of the reigning prince en-
' The contractors rarely benefited by their bargains, as Sádat Ali was
well versed in the art of squeezing the sponge when it bad done its office.
As soon as the contractors were thought to be sufficiently gorged, complaints
against their oppression, which were never wanting, were readily listened to,
and they were seized and imprisoned until they had poured into the Nawab's
treasury the whole or greater portion of their spoils. Their incarcera¬
tion depended upon their tenaciousness of the booty. In 1807, the Resi¬
dent stated there were fourteen farmers of the revenue in prison in Luck-
now, some of whom had been confined for years.—MS. Records.
the na wae of hyderabad.
27
sured his entire subservience to the political views book i.
and interests of the British Government. L
Another native JMohamraedan sovereign, Sekan- i^oe.
dar Jah, titular Nizam, Suhahdar, or viceroy of the
Dekhin, possessed of equally extensive territories,
was also a subsidiary ally of the Company.^ The
alliance was more distasteful to him than to the
Vizir ; and his capricious and violent temper, and the
frontier position of his country in contiguity to in¬
dependent states, rendered the preservation of the
political relations which had been established with
him a subject of solicitude and apprehension. He
had succeeded to the principality upon the demise
of his father Nizam Ali, in 1803, without opposi¬
tion, through the support of the British authorities;
by whose interposition the menaced competition of
one of his brothers, who enjoyed much more exten¬
sive popularity with the nobles and people of Hy¬
derabad, was prevented. The sense of gratitude for
this obligation was soon obliterated by the conscious¬
ness of loss of independence ; and the ill-concealed
discontent of the Nizam gave courage to many of
his followers to organize a system of opposition to
the British councils, and still further estrange the
mind of their master from the connexion : they
even contemplated its dissolution, and persuaded the
> By the treaty with the Nizam, dated 12th October, 1800, the subsidized
force was finally fixed at eight battalions of Sipahis, or eight thousand
firelocks, and two regiments of cavalry, or one thousand horse, with their
complement of guns, European artillerymen, lascars, and pioneers. For
the payment of this force the territories acquired by the Nizam under the
treaty of Seringapatam, 13th March, 1792, and that of Mysore, 22nd June,
1799, were given back to the Company, with the exception of some dis¬
tricts north of the Tnmbhadra river, for which Adoni and others to the
south of it were exchanged : the annual revenues of the whole were
estimated at twenty-six lakhs of Kanterai pagodas, about 874,0001.—
Collection of Treaties, p. 188.
28
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Nizam, and perhaps credited it themselves, that it
CHAP« I«
was practicable to form a combination with the
1806. Mahrattas by which the British might be humbled,
and perhaps expelled from Hindustan. These sug¬
gestions gratified the enmity and flattered the pride
of the Nizam; but he was too fondly addicted to
low and sensual indulgence, too irresolute in pur¬
pose and contracted in intellect, to be capable of
prosecuting a dangerous design with the steadiness,
determination, and foresight indispensable to its suc¬
cess. Fortunately also for the ultimate preservation
of his throne, his prime minister, Mir Alem, who
had grown old in the service of the state, and had
been an actor in many of the great events which
had occurred in the Peninsula during the reign of
the late Nizam,^ was well aware of the relative
strength of the British and Mahratta powers, and
accurately appreciated his sovereign's situation. He
knew, in fact, that the government of Hyderabad
subsisted only as long as it remained under British
protection, and that, the moment such protection
should be withdrawn, the principality would be de¬
fenceless against Mahratta ambition, and would, at
no remote period, fall under their yoke ; he there¬
fore sedulously advocated British influence at the
court of Hyderabad, and was in requital supported
' Mir Alem was first employed in 1789 on a mission to Lord Corn-
wallis, and afterwards accompanied the Nizam's army to Seringapatam,
where he conducted the négociations for peace. In 1794 he was deputed
to Poona, but failed in his négociation. In 1798 he negociated with the
British Resident the treaty with the Nizam, and commanded the army which
joined the British troops in the capture of Seringapatam. Some time after
his return he fell into disgrace, and was unemployed between 18G0 and
1803. In 1804, upon the death of Azim ul Omra, the prime minister, and
at the recommendation of the British Resident, he was appointed to that
office. He died in the 56th year of his age.
ENFORCEMENT OF THE ALLIANCE.
by that influence against the effects of his master's
caprice and displeasure.
Notwithstanding the eflbrts of Mir Alem and of
several of the most respectable members of the
court of Hyderabad to preserve unimpaired the
continued friendship of the British Government, the
conduct of the Nizam so manifestly threatened its
forfeiture and the dissolution of the alliance, that
even Sir George Barlow deemed the occasion such
as to justify avowed interference. Mir Alem was
in daftger of assassination, and obliged to seek shel¬
ter with the Resident : secret communications were
opened with Sindhia and Holkar : all appointments
of influence and trust were conferred upon individ¬
uals notoriously inimical to the British connexion,
and considerable bodies of armed men were in
course of assemblage at Hyderabad. It became a
question whether the menaced separation should be
anticipated, or prevented ; whether the connexion
should be spontaneously relinquished, or its continu¬
ation should be authoritatively perpetuated. The
conclusion was, that it should be maintained at all
hazards. " The alliance with Hyderabad," it was
argued, " could not be dissolved without subverting
the foundations of the British power and ascendancy
in the political scale of India, and without becoming
the signal and instrument of the downfall of the
remaining fabric of our political relations. If the
subsidiary force were withdrawn, the territory alien¬
ated for its support would be required to be restored ;
and the power and resources which the British
Government had a right to demand for its own sup¬
port and security would be placed in the hands of a
30
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. hostile party, avowedly eager, not merely for the
' abolition of the alliance, but for the destruction of
1807. the British Indian Empire : the weapons of which
we were now masters would be turned against us ;
universal agitation, alarm, distrust, and turbulence
would ensue ; and elements of a renewed combina¬
tion of hostile states against us would acquire an
uncontroulable latitude of action and eíEcient means
of success."^ Sir G. Barlow, therefore, concluded
that the Nizam had no right to depart from the
obligations of the connexion, and that they must be
vigorously enforced. The political wisdom of the
conclusion was undeniable, however at variance with
the doctrine of non-interference, which even in
regard to the Nizam had not long before been
inculcated by the Bengal Government. The argu¬
ments upon which the resolution was formed are
applicable to all similar relations, indicating the true
character of subsidiary alliances as well as the diffi¬
culty and danger of their dissolution. The question
of right has different aspects, according to the differ¬
ent positions of the contracting parties. The Bri¬
tish Government might have the right, as it had the
power, to enforce obligations which it considered
essential to its own security and support; but the
Nizam had an equal right to claim their abrogation,
if he regarded them as non-essential to his security,
repugnant to his feelings, derogatory to his charac¬
ter, and detrimental to the happiness and prosperity
of his dominions. It was not a question of right,
but of power ; and, as the Subahdar of the Dekhin
was no longer in a condition to assert his indepen-
' Minute of the Governor-General.
SUBMISSION OF THE .NIZAM.
31
dence, he was under the necessity of submitting to book i.
CHAP* I»
whatever terms his European masters were pleased '
to impose. 1807.
The Nizam was indeed thoroughly alarmed by
the tone which the Resident was authorised to as¬
sume. A ready source of intimidation always exists
in the minds of native princes in the indeterminate
laws of succession, and the readiness with which
the ties of relationship are sacrificed to the temp¬
tations of ambition. The Nizam, like the Nawab
Vizir, had brothers of whom he stood in fear, and
of whose promptitude to become the instruments of
British vindictiveness no native courtier or politi¬
cian could entertain a doubt. That he would be
deposed in favour of his younger brother was the
immediate suggestion of his own suspicions, and
they were confirmed by the sympathising fears of
his family and adherents. He therefore changed
the tenor of his conduct, readily acquiesced in
the conditions* to which his assent was required,
promised to repose entire confidence in Mir Alem
and in the Resident, and engaged to dismiss from
their offices, whether of a public or personal nature,
and banish from his capital, certain individuals
known to be hostile to the British interest, and ap¬
point to their duties persons in whom the Resident
' They were, the dismissal from his presence and from office of per¬
sons hostile to the minister and the British alliance ; the separation of the
military from the civil command on the northern frontier, and the ap¬
pointment to both duties of persons in the confidence of the Resident;
admittance of the Resident to an audience whenever he requested it, with¬
out any conditions ; due attention to the just claims of the British Go¬
vernment ; the communication of all petitions and statements of a public
nature without reserve to the minister ; and, should any difference with
him arise, the question should be referred to the British Resident,—MS.
Records.
32
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. could confide. This last stipulation was not accom-
plished without thè employment of military force
1807. for an object, and with results strikingly character¬
istic of the disorganised state of the native princi¬
palities, and which therefore it may be of use to
describe in some detail.
The chief favourite and principal adviser of the
Nizam was Raja Mahipat Ram, a Hindu, who was
originally employed as Dewan, or man of business,
by Monsieur Raymond the commander of the French
brigades. In this situation he had formed an inti¬
macy with the prince Sekandar Jah, and upon the
dispersion of the French force was taken into his
service and obtained his confidence. Upon the
elevation of the prince to the throne, Mahipat Ram
received the honorary title of Raja, and was ap¬
pointed to the united civil and military command
of the north-west or Berar frontier. His public
functions he discharged by deputy, and resided at
Hyderabad, the intimate associate and secret coun¬
sellor of the prince. Aspiring to the supreme di¬
rection of public affairs, he became the opponent
and enemy of the prime minister, and of those by
whom he was upheld. His early connexions, and
the injury to his fortunes consequent upon the break¬
ing up of Raymond's corps, had no doubt disposed
him to cherish unfriendly feelings towards Mir
Alem's English friends ; and he may honestly have
desired, however inconsiderately he may have pro¬
posed, to liberate his sovereign from dependence
upon a foreign power. Whatever may have been
his motives, he was known to be implacably hostile
to the British alliance, and he was one of those
removal of raja mahipat ram.
33
whose removal from the court was inflexibly in- book i.
sisted on. He was also dismissed from his com- ''
mand, and ordered to withdraw to his personal Jagir. I8O8.
However unpalateable to the Nizam and to his
favourite, Mahipat Ram, after some ineffectual
endeavours to obtain a milder doom, was com¬
pelled to retire to his feudatory estates.
Raja Mahipat Ram was incapable of leading
an inactive life, or abstaining from turbulence and
intrigue. He collected a force of five thousand
horse, whom he employed to dispossess some of his
brother feudatories of their territories, and to levy
contributions even upon the districts immediately
subject to the officers of the Nizam ; not, as there
was good reason to suspect, without the connivance
of his prince, who preferred the vexation and em¬
barrassment of his minister to the peace of his
subjects and the maintenance of his own authority.
The remonstrances of the Resident compelled the
Nizam at length to send a force against his vassal,
but it was defeated ; and Mr. Gordon, an officer
who commanded one of his disciplined battalions,
being wounded in the action and taken prisoner, was
put to death after the engagement in the presence
of the Raja. The Nizam's troops being either un¬
able or unwilling to suppress the insurrection, it be¬
came necessary to adopt more vigorous measures ;
and a considerable portion of the subsidiary forced
under its commandant Lieutenant-Colonel Mon-
tresor, marched against the Raja at Shahpur, whilst 22nd Feb.
other divisions moved from the north and the south
' Five companies h. M. 33rd ; two battalions N. i. ; two regiments
N. C. ; a brigade of artillery ; and a body of the Nizam's troops.
vol. i. n
34
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK 1. to intercept him in the event of his attempting to
'• retire into the adjacent Mahratta districts. Unable
1808. to face the force sent against him, JMahipat Ram
retreated towards Berar with the utmost expedi¬
tion, and was followed by Colonel Montresor with
equal celerity. The Raja contrived for three
months to evade his pursuers, but with the loss
of his guns, his baggage, and his infantry. His
flight into Berar, where it was apprehended he
would find numerous adherents, Avas prevented by
the judicious movements of Colonel JMontresor, and
the advance of Lieutenant-Colonel Doveton with
a division of the subsidiary force from the fron¬
tier of that province. Thus foiled in his purpose,
IMahipat Ram directed his course to Kandesh.
Turning to the Avest he crossed the GodaA'eri,
Hay 23rd. Tapti, and Nerbudda rivers ; and threw himself
into the territory of Holkar, whither his pursuers
did not consider themselves authorised to follow
him. The detachment imder Colonel Doveton Avas
left to guard the frontier, and the main body re¬
turned to Hyderabad. Raja IMahipat Ram was no
longer formidable : he was noAv a mere military
adventurer at the head of a party of roving horse,
willing to be retained by any foreign prince by the
promise of pay and the prospect of plunder. He
was accordingly engaged by Holkar ; but the situa¬
tion of that chief, his illness, and the troubles that
distracted his court, rendered the engagement of
little other value than the personal protection which
it afforded him.
It was still thought advisable, in order to obA'iate
the recurrence of mischievous intrigues at Hydera-
MAHIPAT RAM PROTECTED BY HOLKAR.
35
bad, to obtain possession of the person of IMahipat book i.
Ram, and applications to that effect were made to ''
Ilolkar. In reply, the Mahratta declared that it I8O8.
was, and had always been, the Raja's intention to
proceed to Calcutta and appeal to the Governor-
General against INIir Alem and the Resident, to
whose personal animosity he attributed his misfor¬
tunes ; professing himself ready to retire from public
life and settle at Benares, if the liberality of the
British Government afforded him the means. This
arrangement had been proposed before his insurrec¬
tion, but he was now held to have forfeited any
claim to favour ; and a pension, although granted to
his family, was.refused to himself: his unconditional
surrender was demanded, with which he declined to
comply. There is no reason to suppose he was
sincere in his professions, as at the same time he
was writing to the Nizam, offering, if his sanction
were declared, to come to Hyderabad with fifty
thousand horse, which he affirmed Holkar and Amir
Khan were prepared to dispatch to his assistance to
enable him to shake off the English yoke.
It was not in the power, if it had ever been the
practice, of Holkar to observe punctuality in the
payment of his soldiery ; and the funds of IMahipat
Ram, although assisted by secret contributions from
the Nizam, soon fell short of the means of main¬
taining a corps of any strength. After repeated
mutinies for arrears of pay, the principal part of his
followers deserted him : with the remainder he at¬
tached himself to the party in Holkar's camp which
after that chieftain's insanity aimed at the direction
of affairs, under the guidance of Tulasi Bhai, his
D 2
36
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. wife. The opposite faction, headed by a military
leader named Dharma Koar, having acquired a
1809. temporary superiority, JSIahipat Ram was ordered to
quit the encampment. Delaying to obey the order,
he was attacked by a party of Dharma Koar's
troops at a time when his own men were dispersed ;
and whilst he was remonstrating against the ag¬
gression, and professing his readiness to depart, he
was shot in the tumult : his head was cut off, and
cast like that of a common malefactor before tbe
threshold of Holkar's tent. It was, hoM-ever, given
up to the entreaties of his friends, and burnt with
the body ; but his effects were confiscated, and the
horses of his troopers were seized for^the use of the
state. Such was the fate of an individual whose
infiuence had threatened to subvert the alliance
between the Nizam and the British Government,
and had endangered the tranquillity of India. He
seems to have been a man of an active and enter¬
prising character, whose chief error was embarking
rashly in undertakings in which he had no possible
chance of success.
The mkiister of the Nizam, Mir Alem, died on
the 8th of January, 1809. A négociation for the
nomination of a successor ensued, which was not
unattended with difficulties ; the British Government
professing to leave it to the Nizam, whilst stedfastly
resolved to suffer no one unfriendly to its interests
to exercise the administration, and the Nizam with
equal insincerity pretending to defer to the wishes of
the Bengal Government, whilst secretly striving to
secure its acknowledgment of a favourite of his own.
A compromise was at length effected. Monir ul
settlement of the administration. 37
JNIulk, the choice of the Nawab, was appointed nii- book i.
nister under a written engagement to maintain the ''
British connexion unimpaired ; but, as he was incom- i809.
petent to the duties of his office, the real adminis¬
tration was vested in the hands of Chandu Lai as
his Peshkár or deputy, a Hindu of experience and
talent, who had been employed by IMir Alem in a
similar capacity, and who, like him, was deeply im¬
pressed with the essential importance of the Resi¬
dent's support, both to his own authority and to the
integrity of the Nizam's dominions. The connexion
with Hyderabad, after the brief interruption which
has been described, was established on a firmer foot¬
ing than before ; and the growing habits of excess in
which the Nizam indulged, as well as his natural
timidity and indolence, enfeebled his own sentiments
of aversion, and rendered them no longer objects of
apprehension.
A subsidiary alliance^ united the Peshwa also with isos.
the British Government of India, but the connexion
was distinguished by some essential differences from
those which had been formed with the Mohamme¬
dan princes : it was of more recent date and less
stringent obligations : the Mahratta prince retained
a much larger share of independence and power, and
more consistently contemplated the opportunity of
ridding himself of a controul which he equally
felt to be intolerable, but Avhich he had the policy
' By this, commonly called the Treaty of Bassein, dated 31st Decem¬
ber, 1802, the Peshwa agreed to receive a permanent subsidiary force
of not less than 6000 regular infantry, with the usual proportion of field-
pieces and European artillerymen ; for the regular payment of which,
certain districts in the Dekhin were at first assigned, but were, as already
noticed, commuted for others in Bundelkhand by a supplemental treaty,
December, 1803.—Coll. of Treaties, p. 233.
38
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. to affect to submit to with cheerfulness and satisfac-
tion.^ Baji Rao had entered into the alliance in a
1805. moment of despair,- when no other means were open
to him of escaping from the violence of Holkar, but
the treaty was scarcely concluded when he was
busied in intrigues with the other Mahratta princes
for its infraction. The unexpected close of the
war with Sindhia and the Raja of Berar disap¬
pointed his projects, the discomfiture of the con¬
federates showed him that it was vain to expect
immediate release from his engagements, and his
next object was to turn them to his advantage :
there, also, he encountered various disappointments,
and these contributed to enhance his discontent with
the British Government, however veiled beneath the
show of cordiality and good-huniour. The Court of
Poona entertained heavy pecuniary claims upon the
Gaekwar and the Nizam for arrears of tribute, or
for payments stipulated by treaty® : these claims the
British Government undertook to investigate and
adjust, but the accounts were long and complicated,
and the equity of the demand not unfrequently
' For a time»1ie appears to have imposed upon the Government of Ben¬
gal ; as the satisfaction which he expressed was one of the arguments
employed by Sir G. Barlow against the modifications of the treaty of
Bassein, proposed by the Secret Committee.—Malcolm, Political History
of India, i. 380.
® The amount of the demand upon the Gaekwar was nearly three mil¬
lions sterling ; upon the Ni^am about six hundred thousand pounds. As
an instructive illustration of the nature of such claims, and the unfailing
source of dispute which they furnished to the native states of India, the
Peshwa's account with the Gaekwar is particularised in the Appendix.
It is clear that such an account never could be settled, and that it pro¬
vided a permanent plea of quarrel whenever the creditor thought himself
strong enough to insist upon a partial payment, another name for a con¬
tribution ; or whenever the debtor, in the same belief of his power, thought
fit to demand an abatement of the claim. The ascendancy of an umpire
whose award is not to be disputed has put an end to all such grounds of
contention.
DISCONTENT OF THE PESHWA.
39
questionable. The investigation proceeded slowly, book i.
and adjustment was deferred until the patience of
the Peshwa was exhausted, and he felt as a griev- I807.
ance that interposition which barred his attempting
to realise at least a portion of his demands by a
more summary process. Another subject of griev¬
ance was the decided refusal of the Government tO
allow the Peshwa to use the subsidiary force as an
instrument for the establishment of an unprece¬
dented controul over some of his feudatories, and
for tfieir forcible expulsion from their Jagirs : this
was especially the case with regard to Parasuram
Srinivás, the Pratinidhi or principal hereditary no¬
ble of the Mahratta state, between whom and
Baji Rao an inveterate feud had for some time
subsisted.^ The Peshwa advanced also unfounded
pecuniary claims upon portions of Bundelkhand not
included in the cessions he had made to the British;
and demanded arrears of Chouth, the Mahratta tri¬
bute, from the independent Rajas of the province,
as well as from the rulers of Jhansi, Kalpi, and
Ságar, which his relations with the British, that pre¬
vented him from engaging in hostilities or entering
into négociation with other princes without their
participation, disabled him from asserting in the
manner most agreeable to IMahratta policy. He
likewise claimed a share of the contributions ex¬
torted by Holkar and Sindhia from the princes of
Rajputana ; and, attributing the difficulty of realising
these demands to the non-appointment of such a
representative in Hindustan as had been charged
with the interests of the Peshwa anterior to the
' History of the Mahrattas, Iii. 341.
40
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. date of the British connexion, he was urgent with
his allies to sanction the revival of the office of
1807. Sir-subha, or Peshwa's representative, in which cha¬
racter he proposed to send one of his principal
officers into Bundelkhand. To this proposition an
unqualified refusal was given, as it was obviously
designed to replace the Peshwa in the position of
titular head of the IVIahratta confederacy, and to
renew that system of combination which it had
been the especial object of the treaty of Bassein
to overturn. The nomination of an oflficer who
should be acknowledged by Sindhia and Holkar as
the Peshwa's delegate was also an infringement of
the stipulation in the treaties with those princes,
as well as with the Peshwa, by which intemegocia-
tion of a political tendency was prohibited. The
British Government, therefore, required the Peshwa
to desist from the appointment of a Sir-subha, offer¬
ing at the same time to mediate between him and
the chiefs of Bundelkhand for the recovery of his
just demands. The firm opposition made by Sir G.
Barlow to this insidious project, in which it was
ascertained that both Sindhia and Holkar had se¬
cretly concurred, indicted upon Baji Rao severe
disappointment and mortification. He professed,
indeed, to place entire confidence in the wisdom
and friendship of his allies, but it was e\udent that
little reliance on his sincerity could be entertained ;
nor were positive proofs wanting of his being con¬
cerned in négociations incompatible with the spirit
and letter of his engagements to the British and it
' The villages taken from Sindhia, and transferred to the Peshwa, after
the war had been secretly suffered to remain in the possession of the
ALLIANCE WITH THE GAEKWAR.
41
was obvious that his conviction of the impossibility book i.
of forming an effective combination against their
power, alone deterred him from new intrigues cal- I807.
culated to disturb the existing relations and endan¬
ger the tranquillity of India. The other members
of the Mahratta confederacy were not in a situation
favourable to their co-operation in his designs.
The bonds of union with the Gaekwar or Mali- 1802.
ratta ruler of Guzerat were of the most intimate
description ; and the maintenance of his authority,
his very existence as a political power, depended
entirely upon the assistance and support of his
English allies. The contest for the occupation of
Guzerat, adverted to in a former page, terminated
in the acknowledgment of Fattih Sing.^ Upon his
death, in 1793, Govind Rao was recognised by the
Government of Poona as Raja. He died in 1800,
and was succeeded by his eldest son, Anand Rao, a
prince of weak intellect and indolent disposition, who
was incapable of conducting an efficient administra¬
tion. A struggle for the management of affairs
ensued. Kanhoji Rao, the eldest illegitimate son
of Govind Rao, a bold and ambitious young man,
at first secured to himself and his partisans all
former. The nomination of a Sir-subha, as mentioned in the text, was
with the private concurrence of Sindhia and Holkar. When a quarrel had
ensued between those two chiefs after the return of the latter to Hindustan,
an envoy was sent by the Peshwa to mediate between them. As this was
a palpable infraction of the treaty of Bassein, Baji Rao was called upon
for an explanation. He at once disavowed his agent, and, in proof of his
fidelity to his engagements, produced what were also evidences of his
intercourse with the other chiefs, letters from Holkar and Sindhia decla¬
ratory of their desire to renew their subordination to the Poona Govern¬
ment. Baji Rao at the same time pretended a conviction that, although
these proposals might have for their object the advantage of the writers, it
was for his own advantage to adhere to the terms of the subsidiary alli¬
ance.—MS. Records ; also Hist, of the Mahrattas, iii. 333.
' iii. 002.
42
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the principal offices of the state; hut after,a short
time he was disjiossessed of them by one to whom
1803. the authority could be more safely and beneficially
entrusted, Raoji Appa, who had been the minister
of Govind Rao, a man of ability whose exercise of
authority was not incompatible with the continua¬
tion of Anand Rao as titular sovereign. Kanhoji
had recourse to Mulhar Rao, a cousin of his late
father, who held an extensive Jagir under the Gaek-
war, and was a chief of talent and enterprise. Rao¬
ji Appa, unable to oppose this combination, made
urgent application to the Government of Bombay
for the formation of a subsidiary alliance. The pro¬
posal was acceded to, and Major Walker, with a
military detachment, was sent to his succour.^ Mul¬
har Rao and Kanhoji were defeated : the former
declared his submission to the new order of things ;
but Kanhoji kept aloof, and for some time devas¬
tated the country at the head of a predatory body
of horse. He was ultimately routed by a British
division under Major Holmes, and driven out of
Guzerat. Raoji Appa retained the functions of
prime minister and virtual ruler undisturbed, and
Major Walker was appointed Resident at Baroda,
the capital of the Gaekwar.®
' By the agreement entered into, the Gaekwar engaged to pay for the
expenses of the militai-y assistance granted to him, and for a permanent
force to be furnished by the Company ; and to cede in perpetuity the Per-
gunna of Chikli in the dependencies of Surat, with his share of the chouth
or contribution levied on that city. These engagements were confirmed by
a formal treaty in June, 1802. It was also provided that an assignment
of territory should be made to the Company of the estimated annual reve¬
nue of 7,80,000 rupees, for the maintenance of 2000 native infantry ; and,
as the number was subsequently raised to 3000, with a company of Euro¬
pean artillery, other lands were made over by a treaty dated in April,
1805, yielding with the former a total revenue of 11,70,000 rupees.—
Coll. of Treaties, pp. 565-594, and schedule A. p. 601.
" Hist, of the Mahr. iii. 216.
EMBARRASSED FINANCES OF GUZERAT.
43
When tranquillity was re-established, and oppor- book i.
tunity was aiforded for an inquiry into the condition
of the Gaekwar's aifairs, it was found that they were 1803.
so irretrievably involved, that it was indispensably
necessary, if it were thought desirable to continue
the connexion, to extend the assistance to be af¬
forded beyond military support, and to prop the
rapidly declining resources of the principality with
the funds and credit of the British Government. The
annual disbursements greatly exceeded the annual
receipts of the public treasury the revenues were
intercepted by appropriations and mortgages, the
fruits of former improvidence ; heavy debts, bearing
a ruinous rate of interest, were owing to the bank¬
ers and monied men ; and long arrears of pay were
due to the troops, the discharge of which was a
necessary preliminary to their dismissal, and con¬
sequent diminution of public expenditure. The ad¬
ditional burthen imposed upon the state by the
subsidy to be paid to the British force was quite
incapable of being sustained; and it was evident
not only that the engagement could not be fulfilled,
but that national insolvency, general - confusion
and distress, and the dissolution of the Gaekwar's
power, were unavoidable, unless vigorous means
were promptly employed to administer present re¬
lief and ensure future amelioration. Fortunately
the Resident was endowed with more than ordinary
abilities, industry, energy, and judgment ; enjoyed
the unreserved confidence of his own Government;
and speedily commanded the same implicit credit
* The revenue of Guzerat was estima ted at 50 lakhs of rupees per annum ;
the expenditure exceeded 82 lakhs.—MS. Ree.
44
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. with the Gaekwar, his minister, his chief officers,
and the monied and commercial members of the
1803. community.^
The first measure of reduced expenditure that
was adopted, was, -the discharge of the Gaekwar's
troops, the need of whom was superseded by the
subsidiary force ; but for this purpose it was requi¬
site to pay the arrears due to them, and the funds
were to be raised. The British Government agreed
to advance part of the sum required for this object,
and to guarantee repayment of the remainder to
opulent individuals, who, under that security, were
willing to furnish what was requisite. The ad¬
vances in both cases were to be liquidated out of
assignments of territory, the revenues of which
were to be collected and accounted for by the
Company.® The money was supplied, but the
' This is strikingly expressed in the counterpart of the treaty of 1805,
written by the Gaekwar himself, anticipating the possibility of his falling
into the hands of his rebellious subjects or mutinous troops. He enjoins
that, " in such a situation, his subjects will pay no attention to his orders,
but hear what Major Walker has to say, strictly following his instruc¬
tions." And the document concludes with these provisions : " Conformably
to Major Walker's suggestions and wishes, the articles contained in this
declaration were written, and to them I have given my assent ; but in the
event of any evil-disposed persons attempting anything unfair or unrea¬
sonable against my person, my Dewan, Raoji Appaji, his son, his brother,
nephew, or relations, and Madhu' Rao Tántia Mazamdar, or even should
I myself, or my successors, commit anything improper or unjust, the Eng¬
lish Government shall interfere, and see in either case that it is settled
according to equity and reason. I have also required of Major Walker on
the part of the Company to promise that my state and government shall
be permanent, and shall descend to the lineal heirs of the Musnud, and
that the Dewanship shall be preserved to Raoji Appaji. In the last place,
I desire to form the most intimate connexion with the Company, and that
all business with the Poena Durbar may be jointly managed by the
English Resident and my Vakeel. Given at Baroda, 28th July, 1802.
(Signed) Anand Rao, Gaekwar; Sena-khás-khel, Shamshir Bahadur."—
Coll. of Treaties, p. 569. These may have been the sentiments of the
minister rather than of the Raja, but they were generally consistent with
the conduct of Anand Rao.
^ The amount required was 41,38,000 rupees (£413,800), of which the
British Government advanced 19,67,000 rupees (£196,700): the rest was
reduction of expenditure.
45
reduction of the troops was not effected by pecu- book i.
1 CHAP. I.
niary means alone.
The most efficient portion of the Gaekwar's army laos.
consisted of a body of about seven thousand Arabs,
a description of mercenaries whom it was formerly
a frequent practice in the Peninsula to engage, and
who bore a high reputation for fidelity and courage,
but were equally characterised by turbulence and
rapacity. These troops formed the garrison of Ba-
roda, and were extremely averse to the loss of pay
and privileges with which they were threatened.
In order to evade their dismissal, they advanced the
most extravagant demands, and, seizing upon the
capital and person of the Gaekwar, refused to set
him at liberty unless their claims were satisfied.
Major Walker having endeavoured in vain to bring
them to reasonable terms, Baroda was invested by
the subsidiary force under Colonel Woodington,
strengthened by a European regiment from Bom¬
bay. The Arabs defended themselves with spirit,
and inflicted some loss on their assailants ; but, after
a siege of ten days, a practicable breach having
been made in the walls, they capitulated on the
promise that all arrears justly due to them should
be paid, and they engaged in that event to disband
and leave the country.
This transaction, and the flight of Kanhoji, re¬
stored tranquillity to Gilzerat, and enabled the
minister and the Resident to proceed without in-
provided by different Saráfs or bankers at Baroda under the Company's
Bhándári—a general assurance that they should be repaid, not an absolute
surety for repayment. An annual territorial revenue of 12,95,000 rupees
was appropriated to the liquidation of the principal, with interest at nine
per cent, per annum until the whole should be redeemed. — Coll. of
Treaties, p. 601.
46 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. temiption in their projects of reform. Raoji Appa
died in January, 1803, and was succeeded in his
1806. office of Dewan by his nephew Sitaram, who pro¬
fessed the same principles, and for a time pursued
the same policy, as his uncle. The reduction of
the .expenditure proved however no easy task, as
extravagance and dishonesty pervaded every de¬
partment, and little reliance could be placed upon
the co-operation of the servants of the state, who
were themselves the chief plunderers and default¬
ers. Sitaram soon became weary of a duty so
troublesome and unpopular, and lent himself to
the prevailing practice of profusion ; so that the
whole labour and odium fell upon the Resident.
He was ably assisted by Gangadhar Sastri, an ac¬
countant in his employment, who acquired at a
subsequent date a melancholy celebrity in the po¬
litical history of the Peninsula, as we shall have
occasion to relate. The Resident was also firmly
supported by the bankers and public creditors, who
had a deep personal interest in the success of his
proceedings.
The avowed exercise of British controul over the
internal administration of the Gaekwar, which com¬
menced under the authority of Marquis Wellesley,
was continued on the same footing by Sir G. Bar¬
low, although an admitted departure from his policy
of non-interference. " The peculiar situation," he
observed " of the affairs of the Gaekwar state, and
the circumstances under which our connexion with
that state has been established, and has become in a
manner interwoven with its internal concerns, dis¬
tinguish our relations with Baroda from those which
right of interference.
47
subsist with the other powers of India, although the book i.
general political relations and obligations are the
same. The interference, therefore, which we are i8o7.
called upon to exercise, cannot be considered to
constitute a deviation from those principles of po¬
licy which in our intercourse with other allies pre¬
clude our interference in the management of their
internal concerns. It is evident that the alternative
of our interference for the reform of the affairs of
the Gaekwar is not merely the loss of the advan¬
tages to be derived from the efficacy of the alliance,
but the positive dangers to which the certain ruin
of the state would expose our most essential inte¬
rests in that quarter of the Peninsula." These ob¬
servations were undoubtedly just, but the spirit
which they evince was eminently selfish, and no
consideration of the benefit accruing to the Gaek¬
war was allowed to influence the maintenance of
the connexion.
At the same time that the right and policy of in¬
terference were thus explicitly recognised, the eco¬
nomical timidity of the Bengal Government sus¬
pended the execution of a measure recommended
by the Resident as essential to the realisation of the
resources of Guzerat,—the enforced levy of the
tribute due to the Gaekwar by his tributaries in
Kattiwar. The obvious necessity, however, of ren¬
dering this source of legitimate revenue productive,
and the expectation that a judicious display of the
British power might prevent serious opposition,
overcame the reluctance of the Governor-General;
and a military detachment under the command of
the Resident undertook the performance of the
48
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Mulkgiri, or periodical collection of tribute by the
march of troops through the province.
1807. Although correctly applicable to one division
only, that occupied by the Katti tribe, the term
Kattiwar designates the whole of the peninsula of
Guzerat. The country was distributed amongst va¬
rious tribes, of whom the Rajputs and Kattis were
the most remarkable : subject to a number of petty
chieftains of various degrees of power, and possess¬
ing domains differing in extent and value ; some¬
times connected with their neighbours by affinity of
descent, but all equally independent in their own
lordships ; exercising the privilege of private war,
and paying little more than nominal obedience to
the paramount sovereign; presenting, in many re¬
spects, a resemblance to the kingdoms of Europe
during the worst periods of baronial anarchy. The
province had been regarded as tributary successively
to the Mohammedan Kings of Guzerat, to the IVIo-
gul, and to the IMahrattas; but the tribute was
never spontaneously paid, and its collection was
only to be effected by a military progress amongst
the states. Nor was this method always attended by
success. The army of the Peshwa, or of the Gaek-
war, even when amounting to twenty thousand horse,
was not unfrequently resisted. The Rajas shut
themselves up in their forts or castles, and from
their battlements mocked the movements of ca¬
valry. The villages, fortified by mud walls, impene¬
trable hedges, and the martial spirit of the popula¬
tion, were equally inaccessible ; and the invaders
were obliged to content themselves with lajing
the open country waste. Nor were they suffered to
TRIBUTE OP KATTIWAR REALISED.
49
carry off with impunity such plunder as they might book i.
have gathered ; hordes of Katti and Rajput horse '
hovered round their advance and harassed their re- I807.
treat, and the expedition not unusually terminated
in disaster and disgrace.
The diminished power and impaired resources of
the Gaekwar had for several years prevented even
such attempts at military coercion, and tribute
accordingly had ceased. The spirit that now ani¬
mated the counsels of the Government, and the
means at its disposal, no longer permitted the chiefs
of Kattiwar to resist its rightful demands with im¬
punity. Having therefore received the sanction of
his superiors. Major Walker marched with a divi- Oct 1807.
sion of the subsidiary force to Gotu, in the district
of Murvi, to which place the several chieftains had
been previously directed to send their representa¬
tives : the greater number complied with the requi¬
sition : the right of the Gaekwar's Government to
levy a tribute was universally admitted, but it was
not until after many attempts at delay and evasion
that a settlement was accomplished, and the chiefs
consented to pay the amount regularly, without
waiting for the Mulkgiri process of coercion. The
sum of nine lakhs and a half of rupees was promised
in perpetuity, and security was given for a term of
ten years, renewable at its expiration. The security
was characteristic. The sureties were persons
boasting neither rank nor wealth, but who derived
from the usages of the country inviolable sanctity,
and were entitled to implicit trust. They were se¬
lected from the tribe of Charans or Bháts, the here¬
ditary bards, genealogists, and chroniclers of the
VOL. I. E
50
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. principal Hindu races of the West of India, whose
CHAP. 1. Qf person had been received as a substi-
1807. tute for law in a condition of society which, whilst
it felt the necessity of social obligations, could sub¬
mit to none of the human restraints by which they
are maintained and enforced. Superstition supplied
the defect. The Cháran, if his pledge was violated,
murdered himself or some member of his family ; and
the retribution for blood was believed to fall upon
the head of him by whose default he had been im¬
pelled to make the sacrifice. The dread of such a
destiny was generally of power to deter the least
scrupulous from the violation of an engagement
so guaranteed.^ In some instances, additional secu¬
rities were entered into by chiefs and persons of
influence; and the rights of the Gaekwar, then
established in Kattiwar, have never since been the .
subject of any serious contest. At the same time,
the chiefs and people of the principal sea-ports of
' The following illustration of this usage is narrated by Lieut. Mac-
murdo;—" In the year 1806, a Bhat of Veweingaum, named Kunna, had
become security on the part of Dossajee, the present chieftain of Mallia in
Muchoo-kanta, for a sum of money payable to the Gaekwar Government :
the time specified for payment arrived, and Dossajee refused to fulfill his
engagement. Government applied to the surety, who, after several fruit¬
less attempts to persuade Dossajee to comply with his bond, returned to
his house, and, after passing some time in prayer, assembled his family and
desired his wife to prepare a daughter, about seven years of age, for traga.
The innocent child, taught from her earliest infancy to reflect on the sacred
character and divine origin of her family, and the necessity which existed
for the sacrifice, required no compulsion to follow the path by which the
honour of her caste was to be preserved. Having bathed, and dressed
herself in her best clothes, she knelt with her head on her father's knee,
and, holding aside her long hair, she resigned herself without a struggle to
the Sword of this unnatural barbarian. The . blood of a Bhat being
sprinkled on the gate of the chieftain produced an instantaneous payment of
the money : presents of land to the father, and a handsome mausoleum or
doree to the daughter, marked the desire of the Rajput to avert the punish¬
ment supposed to await the spiller of a Cháran s blood."—Trans. Literary
Society of Bombay, i. 281.
CAPTURE OP KANDORNA.
51
the Peninsula, all of whom were in the habit of book i.
committing piratical depredations on native com-
merce, were called upon to renounce piracy, to re- I807.
linquish their claim to vessels wrecked on their
coasts, to "allow the free resort of merchant-ships
from the territories of the Company or their allies,
and to assent to the permanent residence of a com¬
mercial agent at their principal harbours. They
generally acceded to these stipulations.^
The only active military operation which it be¬
came necessary to undertake was designed to adjust
a difference between two chiefs of some considera¬
tion, and to demonstrate the ability as well as the
determination of the Government of Guzerat to
compel obedience. A body of Makranis, or mer¬
cenaries, natives of Mekran, in the service of the
Raja of Purbandar, mutinying for arrears of pay,
seized upon the fort of Kandorna belonging to the
Raja, and sold it to a rival chief, the Jam of Noa-
nagar. This transaction occurred after the arrival of
the Resident and Gaekwar's minister in the pro¬
vince, and was held to be contempt of the superior
authority, as well as disregard of private rights.
The Jam was desired to restore the fortress ; and, as
he refused to comply with the requisition, the de¬
tachment marched against the place : batteries were
erected, and in the course of a day, two practicable
breaches being effected, the troops were drawn out
for the assault, when the garrison surrendered.
Kandoma had formerly sustained successfully a siege
' The sea-ports were Dhingi, Bate, Dwaraka, Amramra, Positra, Jooria,
and Noanagar on the north coast, and different parts of Junagerh on the
south. For the stipulations with them severally, and with other of the
Kattiwar principalities, see Coll. of Treaties, pp. 602, &c.
E 2
52 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. of three months by the Gaekwar's army, and was
'' looked upon by the people as impregnable. Its
1807. capture on the present occasion in so short a time
impressed the native chiefs with a deep conviction
of the uselessness of opposition to the British arms,
and produced a sensible effect upon the progress of
the négociations.
The expedition into Kattiwar was considered as
affording a favourable opportunity for asserting au¬
thority of a different description, and vindicating
the outraged claims of natural affection. The Jha-
reja Rajputs of the province, and of the neighbouring
principality of Cutch, were notorious for the murder
of their female infants. Preferring the death of a
daughter to a matrimonial alliance with an inferior
race, and looking upon most races as inferior, pre¬
cluded by custom from marrying her to a husband
of her own tribe, the Jharejas believed it to be
more humane to nip the flower in the bud, than to
await the risk of its being blighted in maturer
growth. A female child was almost invariably put
to death as soon as born. The Government of
Bombay had for some time past been anxious to
eradicate this cruel and unnatural practice p and
Colonel Walker was instructed to endeavour to
obtain from the chiefs a declaration of its incom¬
patibility with the Hindu religion as well as with
the laws of humanity, and a promise that they
' The head of the Bombay Government, Mr. Jonathan Duncan, had
encountered, when Governor-General's agent at Benares, a similar custom
among the Rajkumars, a Rajput tribe established in that province, and
had succeeded in obtaining from them an engagement to abstain from the
commission of the crime ; this was in 1789.—Papers on Female Infanticide,
printed by order of the House of Commons, 17th June, 1824, p. 22; the
engagement is also printed, ibid. p. 8.
SUPPRESSION OF INFANTICIDE.
53
would desist from its perpetration. The négociation book i.
CHAP« I«
was a subject of some delicacy ; but the Resident by '
the weight of his character, and a judicious employ- I807.
ment of the influence with which the situation and
interests of the several chiefs invested him, over¬
came all difliculties, and carried the instructions of
the Government into effect. An engagement was
signed by all the principal chiefs for themselves and
their fraternities, by which they pledged themselves
to renounce the usage of killing their female chil¬
dren,* to expel from their caste any person who
should be guilty of the crime, and to submit to any
penalties which the Gaekwar's Government and the
British Resident should inflict for breach of the
obligation.^ For some time they seem to have ad¬
hered to the terms of the engagement, but the
Resident and the Government were somewhat too
sanguine in their belief that female infanticide was
suppressed in Guzerat. It was not possible that the
illusions of deep-rooted prejudice and long-esta¬
blished custom should instantly vanish before the
voice of humanity and reason ; and fear of punish¬
ment, the only agent of adequate power to work so
sudden a change, could exercise but little controul
where the detection of an offence committed in the
impenetrable secrecy of domestic privacy was obvi¬
ously almost impracticable. Accordingly, at a long
subsequent date, there were grounds for believing that
the crime was almost as common as it had been before
the interposition of the British Government.® The
' Report of his proceedings by Colonel Walker, 15th March, 1808—
Pari. Papers, 31.
' In 1817, there were but sixty-three Jhareja females liring in all Katti-
54
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. sentiments of that Government have, however, been
'' sufficiently made known to insure its marked dis-
1807. favour to any chief suspected of violating the spirit
of the original contract ; and a sense" of individual
interest, with improved principles of action, manners
softened by the continuance of tranquillity, and
extended intellectual cultivation, must ultimately
effect the extinction of a practice which is not more
inconsistent with reason than repugnant to natural
instinct.^
The adjustment of the Kattiwar tribute tended
materially to facilitate the improvement of the
Gaekwar's finances, but their final settlement was
retarded by the aversion which the new minister
exhibited to the economical measures of the Resi¬
dent, and the secret counteraction which he coun¬
tenanced or practised. It became necessary, there¬
fore, to re-model the administration. Sitarám was
removed from the ofiice of Dewan, the duties of
which were assigned to his uncle. Baba Rao ;
whilst a general controuling and sanctioning au¬
thority was vested in Fatih Sing Gaekwar, the
younger brother of the reigning prince, and heir
to the throne. These ministers, holding their ap¬
pointments by the tenure of the Resident's ap¬
probation, co-operated cordially with him, and re¬
sults the most beneficial were speedily attained.
In place of the seemingly hopeless condition of
the public finances when the process of reform
was commenced, when the expenditure nearly
war, born subsequently to the engagement with Colonel Walker.—Pari.
Papers, 110. In a village called Draffa, containing four hundred families,
there was not a single female child.—Ibid. 112.
' Note by Mr. Elphinstone when Governor of Bombay.—/6id. 116.
ALLIANCE WITH BERAR.
55
doubled the receipts, the revenue of the Gaek-.BOOKi.
war was raised in the course of six years to
sixty-five lakhs of rupees, and his expenses were 1807.
reduced to fifty lakhs, leaving a surplus of fifteen
lakhs applicable to the liquidation of his debts : per¬
severance in the same system for about a similar
period was expected to ensure his liberation from
pecuniary embarrassment, and the full command
of all his resources.^ The connexion which the
Gaekwar had formed with the British had been at¬
tended therefore with unequivocal benefit to that
prince, and, at the period at which we have arrived,
was distinguished above all the existing subsidiary
alliances, by implicit confidence, intimate union, and
mutual satisfaction.®
The other Mahratta states, although they had
acceded to relations of amity, had declined a closer
alliance and the engagement of subsidiary troops.
The most friendly chief amongst them was the Raja
of Berar. A British Resident was admitted at his
court, and exercised considerable infiuence in his
counsels. Some of his ministers also were, with
his knowledge and concurrence, in the receipt of
pensions from the Government of Bengal, as com¬
pensation for private losses suffered from the late
war. The Raja was, however, not altogether con- '
tented with his allies. His dominions had been
heavily mulcted for his share in the recent hosti¬
lities.® He had been compelled to cede part of
' MS. Records.
^ Lieutenant-Colonel Walker left Baroda on account of ill-health in the
beginning of 1809. He returned for a short time at the pressing solicita¬
tion of the Government of Bengal to superintend proceedings relating to
he affairs of Cutch, but finally quitted India in 1810.
® By the treaty of Deogaum, 17th December, 1803.— Coll. of Treaties, 261.
56
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Berar to the Nizam, and the province of Cuttack
to the Company, and he contrasted the penalties
1807. that had been inflicted on him with the undeserved
forbearance which the British Government had
shown to Sindhia and Holkar, notwithstanding the
more prominent part which they had taken in the
operations of the war, and the more inveterate ani¬
mosity which they had manifested. He claimed,
therefore, at least equally favourable treatment, and
a similar restoration of his dismembered territories ;
and in justification of his expectations he pleaded
an implied promise of Lord Comwallis, who, in a
letter addressed to the Raja, had assured him of his
" intention of compensating his losses to the utmost
practicable extent consistent with equity and public
faith." The letter was unquestionably authentic,
and the tenor was sufficiently obvious, although the
expressions were vague : a liberal interpretation of
them would have replaced the Raja in possession of
Cuttack, if not of Berar ; but, as this would have
been inconvenient, it was necessary to explain away
the precipitate generosity of the noble writer. It
was argued with some plausibility that it would be
inconsistent with equity and public faith to resume
the lands ceded to the Nizam, and it was main¬
tained with less show of reason that it would be
equally incompatible with justice to the British
Government of India to deprive it of Cuttack. Ra-
goji Bhonsla's notions of justice were somewhat at
variance \nth those of the Governor-General, and
he not unnaturally demurred to the decision of a
judge who sat in judgment on his own cause, and
pronounced sentence in his own favour. He was
dissatisfaction of the raja.
57
obliged to submit, but he acquiesced unwillingly, book i.
To fulfil in some degree the purpose of restitution '
intimated by Lord Cornwallis, it was proposed to 1807.
cede to the Raja a tract of little extent or value
west of the Warda river, and the more consider¬
able district of Sambhalpur on the east of Berar.
The Raja declined to accept the former : the latter
became, after a season, an unwilling and unpro¬
fitable dependency of Nagpur. Its cession was
scarcely compatible with a strict observance of the
obligations contracted with the people of the pro¬
vince when it came into British possession.
The countries of Sambhalpur and Patna, forming
an extensive tract, were, for the greater part, over¬
run with jungle ; but they afforded support to a
scanty population scattered about in detached vil¬
lages, and subject to the authority of a number of
petty Rajput chiefs, loosely connected by affinity or
allegiance, but not unfrequently disunited and at
variance. The Mahratta Rajas of Nagpur had
availed themselves of the opportunity offered by the
dissensions of the chiefs to interpose, and set up a
claim of supremacy and exact payment of tribute ;
but they had never been able to establish any recog¬
nised influence or authority. The principle of the
Mulkgiri of Kattiwar was therefore here also in
practice : a body of troops was sent every third year
into the province, which plundered the villages and
devastated the fields, until its retreat was purchased
by the payment of the sum demanded. This system
of extortion, and the cruelty and spoliation with
which it was enforced, had rendered the Mahrattas
detested alike by chiefs and people, and they cor-
58
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. dially welcomed and assisted the British division,
'• which, in the late war, was sent in their direction.
1807. On that occasion they had readily promised allegi¬
ance to the British Government, on condition that
they should he permanently retained amongst its
subjects. As, however, little advantage to the re¬
sources of the Company's dominions was to be ex¬
pected from so poor a dependency, the pledge given
to its inhabitants was disregarded, and it was re¬
solved to consign them again to their IVIahratta
oppressors. With a show of attention to its engage¬
ments, the British Government, at the same time
that it annoupced to the chiefs its determination to
relinquish its occupation of the country, pretended
to ask their consent to the transfer ; offering to grant
to those who might prefer the abandonment of their
homes to submission to the Mahrattas, waste lands
in the adjacent province of Cuttack.
The determination of the British Government to
abandon them filled the people of Sambhalpur and
Patna with consternation, and they protested against
the measure in the most earnest and affecting
terms.^ Their remonstrances were unavailing ; and,
after some riegociation, they were prevailed upon to
promise acceptance of the offer of compensation
elsewhere, and agreed to quit the country within a
given period, for the settlement which was proposed
to them in Cuttack. When the time assigned for
' A notion prevailed amongst the people that the province was ceded
by the British Government in consequence of financial embarrassments.
The head men of the villages thereupon assembled, waited upon Captain
Roughsedge the commissioner, and oflfered on the part of their respective
communities to make a free gift to him of half, or, if that were insufficient,
of a still larger proportion of their property of every description, if the
sacrifice would prevent their being abandoned.—MS. Records.
relinquishment of sambhalpur.
their emigration arrived, natural attachment to their book
native soil and the homes of their forefathers 1
overcame their hatred and dread of the Mahrattas, 1807
and they refused to move, declaring it to be their
resolution to remain upon their paternal lands, and
defend them as they best might from the grasp of
the spoiler. Advantage was immediately taken of
their change of purpose : their tergiversation was
held to exonerate the Bengal Government from the
obligations of perpetual protection or equivalent
compeñsation, and the recusants were abandoned
to their fate,^ One chief alone, Jujar Sing of
Raigerh, allowed his allies no such pretext to shuffle
off their responsibility : he had consistently refused
to be a party to the agreement to leave the country,
and declared himself resolved rather to suffer any
extremities, leaving to the British Government the
odium of a breach of faith. They were, therefore,
obliged to except Raigerh from the cessions to
' It is stated in a work which is in general of good authority, the Ben¬
gal and Agra Gazetteer, 1841, vol. ii. p. 312, " that Sambhalpur and Patna
were restored to the Raja of Berar by General Wellesley, in ignorance of
the intention of the Bengal Government to keep them as tributai-y depen¬
dencies ; that many attempts were made to induce the Raja to forego the
concession, and accept an equivalent; and that it was only upon finding
him adhere pertinaciously to the promised restoration, that the Govern¬
ment consented at last to relinquish the provinces ; at the same time, in
order to reconcile the people to the proceeding, they were told, that, should
events again bring them under British rule, they should become permanently
subject to it." The statement does not seem to be correct. In the treaty
of Deogaum, the 10th article confirms all treaties made by the British
Government with the feudatories of the Raja; and the stipulation applies
especially to the agreements with the Rajas of Sambhalpur and Patna, in
which they had conditioned that they should remain permanently under
British authority. Their districts were ceded to Nagpur by Sir G. Bar¬
low in August, 1806, by a formal engagement, in the preamble of which it
is stated that the Governor-General agrees to restore all the territory of
Sambhalpur and Patna which was ceded by the Raja to the Company.
It is clear, therefore, that up to the date of this restoration the provinces
had been held by the Company ; and no claim to them by the Raja, founded
on a promise by General Wellesley, could have been preferred or recog¬
nised.— Coll. of Treaties, pp. 261. 300.
60
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Nagpur ; but they accompanied the exception with
strict injunctions to the Raja to avoid giving offence
1807. to the Government of Berar, on pain of forfeiting
his claim to British support. A Mahratta force was
sent against the other Rajas, which, with some
trouble, and more by treachery than force of arms,
reduced them to obedience.^ At a subsequent era,
and under a different system of policy, Sambhalpur
was finally reannexed to the Presidency of Bengal.
Although deeply disappointed and annoyed by
the refusal of the Bengal Government to understand
the letter of Lord Cornwallis in the sense in which
he interpreted it, the Raja of Nagpur was not in a
position to resent its conduct or dispense with
its friendship. He was pressed for large pecuniary
payments by Sindhia and by Holkar: the latter
threatened to exact the discharge of his demands at
the head of an army, and the threat was subse¬
quently carried into act by Holkar's colleague.
Amir Khan. Instigated also by other Mahratta
princes and the Nawab of Bhopal, with whom the
Court of Nagpur was at enmity, and impelled
by their own habits of plunder, the confederated
marauding bands known by the designation of
Pindaris committed constant depredations on the
' The fort of Sambhalpur was at the time of the cession in the hands of
the Rani, the Raja being detained a prisoner at Nagpur. Finding himself
unable to carry the place by force, the Mahratta general pledged his
Government in the most solemn manner to release the Raja and acknow¬
ledge his authority, on the Rani consenting to a moderate tribute. Having
thus thrown her off her guard, he took advantage of her confidence, in the
course of the négociations that followed, to surprise the fort before any
defence could be offered. The Rani fled with a few followers ; and having
with great difficulty, and after much fatigue and suffering, escaped into
the British territory, protection and a small monthly pension were
granted her. She was one of those who at first entertained the proposal
to emigrate into Cuttack, but who shrunk from its accomplishment.—MS.
Records.
negociations with sindhia.
61
frontiers of Berar, and on more than one occasion book i.
•nil • 1 CHAP. I.
pillaged the country even in the vicinity of the
capital. Ragoji Bhonsla and his ministers were 1807.
well aware that his only security against the aggres¬
sions of his countrymen was the British alliance, and
they were careful, therefore, to maintain it unimpair¬
ed. The connexion added to the strength and repu¬
tation of the British Government, as it was obvious
to all the native states, that the most ancient and
respectable branch of the Mahratta confederacy was
indebted for all the political consideration which it
retained, to the friendly relations established be¬
tween it and the British power, unincumbered by
a subsidiary treaty, and not incompatible with its
independence.
Of all the Mahratta princes engaged in hostilities
with the British, Dowlat Rao Sindhia had suffered
the severest military and political inflictions. The
organised battalions which had rendered him irre¬
sistible to the native powers, and formidable to his
European adversary, had been almost annihilated
and, although much of the territory conquered from
him on the west of the Jumna had been restored,
he had been deprived of extensive tracts in Hindus¬
tan, and of all the reputation and authority he de¬
rived from the guardianship of the Emperor of
' The regular infantry brigades in Sindhia's service at the beginning of
the war consisted of seventy-two battalions, forming a disciplined force of
43,000 men in a highly respectable state of efficiency, with a large propor¬
tion of field artillery.—Malcolm's Central India, i. 138. After the war
they were reduced to two brigades, under the commands severally of a
Frenchman named Baptiste, and an Armenian of the name of Jacob ;
their discipline and organisation were greatly impaired.—Letters from a
Mahratta Camp. There were other bodies of troops under native leaders,
but they were of a still more imperfect and irregular description.—Prin-
sep. Transactions in India, i. 26.
62
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Delhi. He was precluded by positive engagements,
'' as well as by his fear of the consequences of their
1807. infringement, from seeking to re-establish his ascen¬
dancy in the Mahratta confederation ; and the sole
object of his now humbled policy was to obtain
money, on various pretexts, from the British Go¬
vernment, and from the neighbouring states.
The equivocal behaviour of Sindhia in the in¬
terval that elapsed between the treaty formed with
him in 1803, and that with Holkar in 1805, vir¬
tually annulled the existing engagements, and ren¬
dered their renewal necessary. A new treaty was
accordingly entered into with him, by which some
of the stipulations of that of Sirji Anjangaum were
abrogated, others confirmed.^ The intercourse that
ensued in the period immediately following had
principally for its object the fulfilment of the stipu¬
lations then provided : it did little credit to either
of the contracting parties, turning mainly upon mat¬
ters of pecuniary interest, in which it was the aim
of the Mahratta to get as much, and of the Go¬
vernor-General to give as little, as possible. The
disputes were characteristic.
The treaty of Sirji Anjangaum permitted Sindhia
to hold within the British possessions certain dis¬
tricts granted him in Jagir by the King of Delhi ;
* In the engagement now concluded, no notice was taken of the sub¬
sidiary treaty to which Sindhia had acceded in 1804. It might, therefore,
be considered as virtually cancelled. It was in fact altogether nugatory.
The force to be' furnished by the British Government was not to be paid by
the Raja, nor was it to he stationed in his territory. The arrangement
amounted to no more than an agreement to furnish Sindhia with a body
of troops whenever he should require them, if the purpose for which he
required them was approved of by the Government of Bengal. It was
very little probable that the latter would often give their sanction to Sind-
hia's militai-y policy, and as little likely therefore that he would apply for
troops. He never did make the application, and the treaty was a nullity.
disputed pecuniary claims.
63
and it secured to members of bis family, and to book i.
some of his chief officers, compensation for lands
held by them in the Doab before the war, either by i807.
a grant of similar Jagirs or of equivalent pensions,
provided that the whole amount of revenue so
alienated did not exceed the annual sum of seven¬
teen lakhs of rupees. By the final treaty, Sindhia
agreed to relinquish, from the 1st of January, 1805,
pensions to the amount of fifteen lakhs of rupees a
year. The Jagirs to individuals were continued,
not mêrely as compensation for loss, but avowedly
as bribes to purchase their voices for peace ; or, as
it was officially expressed, " to secure the support of
influential officers in the councils of Sindhia, whose
interests being affected by a war, they would oppose
its occurrence." The same engagement contracted
for a pension to the Maharaja himself of four lakhs
of rupees a year, and a Jagir of two lakhs to his
wife, and of one to his daughter. The Jagirs were
eventually commuted to pensions, which lapsed
with the death of the pensioners. These grants and
commutations were the subjects of long and some¬
times angry discussion.
Another contested item was the balance of an
account between Sindhia and the Company, in
which the former claimed arrears of pension, and of
revenue collections for two years prior to 1805 ;
which the latter admitted to a limited extent, but
met with a counter-claim for the public and private
property plundered from the British Residency in
1804, and for monies advanced and charges of col¬
lection. The sum claimed by Sindhia was nearly
twenty-four lakhs of rupees ; that demanded by the
64
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Company, nearly twenty-seven lakhs. They agreed,
CHAP. I. tQ forego a portion of their claim, and
1807. admitted a balance in favour of Sindhia of 63,000
rupees (6300/.), an amount which was vastly inferior
to his expectations and his necessities : for the relief
of the latter he was therefore obliged to look to
other quarters.
The quarrels of the Rajput princes, which will
presently be more particularly adverted to, offered
an ample field for the gratification of IMahratta
rapacity, of which the Mahratta princes in IMalwa
were not slow to reap the harvest. The exhaus¬
tion of Sindhia's resources, and the impossibility
of raising a revenue commensurate \\'ith his ex¬
penditure from his wasted and depopulated terri-,
tories, crippled his movements, and disabled him
from appropriating his full share of the spoil. His
troops, still too numerous for his means, were re¬
peatedly in a state of mutiny for arrears of pay,
and had degenerated into a lawless horde of plun¬
derers, who, in the realisation of their demands,
made little difference between the country of friend
or foe, and pillaged the districts of their own master
and his allies as remorselessly as those of his ene¬
mies. The only prospect of pro\dding them with an
equivalent for pay, and of maintaining amongst
them some degree of subordination, existed in the
le\7 of contributions from the neighbouring princes ;
and from time to time considerable sums were
exacted from the Rana of Udaypur, and the Rajas
of Jodhpur and Jaypur, as arrears of tribute due
under former engagements to the Mahrattas, or as
the price of plighted military service, which was at
nawab of bhopal.
65
best but imperfectly rendered. But Holkar and booki.
Amir Khan had taken the disputes of the Rajputs ''
under their management, and Sindhia was unwilling I807.
or unable to interfere with effect. After a feeble
attempt at interposition, he was contented to allow
some of his principal officers to take occasional part
in the contest, whilst he directed his attention more
especially to the prosecution of designs against the
independence of Bhopal.
The principality of Bhopal presented the singu¬
larity of a petty Mohammedan power in the very
heart of the Hindu states. It was founded at the
close of the seventeenth century by Dost Mo¬
hammed, an Afghan adventurer in the service of
the Emperor of Delhi, who, from being the superin¬
tendent of the small district of Bersia in Malwa,
raised himself, by that mixture of courage, activity,
treachery, and political cruelty, which is not uncom¬
mon in the character of his countrymen and which
in the latter days of the Älogul empire was the
usual title to temporary elevation, to the command
of a territory of some extent, and the appellation
of Nawab of Bhopal. His direct line continued
through his three successors. The two last of these
devoted their lives to religious meditation and
prayer, and left the conduct of public affairs to their
ministers, men of various characters and fortunes;
whose administration often excited, and sometimes
justified, the opposition and violence of the tur¬
bulent nobles and officers of the court. At this
period the Dewan or minister of the Nawab was
his kinsman. Vizir Mohammed, whose father had
been slain in an unsuccessful insurrection, and
vol. i. f
66
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. whose youth had been spent in exile and predatory
warfare : placed, after many vicissitudes, at the head
1807. of aíFairs, he brought to their administration the
qualities of activity, courage, and prudence, which
promised to restore the declining prosperity and re¬
putation of Bhopal. He was not suffered to carry
his projects to maturity. The son of the Nawab,
Ghous Mohammed, jealous of his ascendancy, and
apprehensive of his ambition, invited the Raja of
Berar, and Dowlat Rao Sindhia, to invade the prin¬
cipality, in order to secure his succession to the
throne. The invitation was readily accepted. The
capital, Islam-nagar, was captured by the latter ; and
the city and fort of Bhopal were occupied by Sadik
Ali, the general of the former. Little hope re¬
mained that the state would recover from the pres¬
sure of such a formidable combination.
In this state of things, the old Nawab, Haiyat
Mohammed, died. He was succeeded by his son,
who, finding that , his allies purposed the dismem¬
berment of his territory, reconciled himself to Vi¬
zir Mohammed, and continued him in the office of
Dewan, trusting to his talents for the extrication of
his country from the grasp of his enemies. His ex¬
pectations were not disappointed. Vizir JMohammed
conciliated Sindhia by promising to discharge the
tribute which Ghous JMohammed had engaged to
pay ; and, with the assistance of the Pindaris, he
repelled the forces of Berar. The ruin of his
country was arrested for the time ; but Vizir Mo¬
hammed was well aware of the inadequacy of his
means to cope with such powerful adversaries, and,
anticipating the repetition of their efforts for his
DEATH OP SIRJI RAO GHATKA.
67
destruction, endeavoured to interest the British Go- book i.
« 1 CHAP. 1.
vernment in his favour. The system of policy then
adopted, rendered his application ineffectual, and he 1807.
was left to his own resources until a more auspicious
period arrived, when the debt contracted to the Na-
wab of Bhopal, Haiyat Mohammed, for the assist¬
ance which he gave to General Goddard, and by
which alone the British detachment was enabled to
march unopposed from the Nerbudda to Surat, was
repaid by the seasonable protection afforded to his
descendant.
The counsels of Sindhia were likewise distracted i809.
by the conflicting views of his principal officers and
advisers, and the struggles that prevailed amongst
them for the management of his affairs. Ambaji
Inglia, after having been confined, tortured, and
plundered, as has been described, was restored to
favour, and became the leader of a party opposed
to the former ministers. In order to strengthen
his influence, he invited Sirji Rao Ghatka, whom
the British Government had banished by express
stipulation from Sindhia's presence, to return to
camp ; and although the measure furnished his
adversaries with a plea for alarming the prince, and
inducing him once more to imprison and pillage
Ambaji, yet, when the interdict was withdrawn by
those who had pronounced it, and the Government
of Calcutta no longer entertained an undignified
apprehension of the intrigues of an individual, Siiji
Rao resumed his place at Sindhia's durbar, and con¬
ducted, conjointly with Ambaji, the duties of the
administration. Neither of them long survived the
recovery of their authority. Ambaji Inglia died
F 2
68
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. early in 1809. Sirji Rao Ghatka was killed in an
'' affray in the course of the same year.^ Dowlat Rao,
1809. after Ambaji's death, seized on his fortress of
Gwalior, and for the greater part of his life con¬
tinued encamped in its vicinity, until his camp
grew to he a considerable town, which is still the ca¬
pital of his descendants. No other change ensued ;
the same pecuniary embarrassments continued to he
felt, and the same means of relieving them to he
employed : the fruits of robbery and spoliation were
dissipated by the wasteful and unprincipled system
under which they were gathered, and the hordes of
licensed banditti which were let loose upon the sur¬
rounding states were a source of weakness, not of
strength, to the prince whom they nominally served.
' The importance attached to this individual by his special exclusion
from Sindhia's presence as an article of ti-eaty, gives interest to the follow¬
ing details of his death, derived from an authority on the spot :—" Sirji
Rao had gone to the durbar and was earnestly pressing Sindhia to accede
to some of his proposals ; to which the Maharaja as usual returned evasive
and unsatisfactory replies, and ordered his equipage to be got ready to go
to an elephant-fight. As he was about to depart, Sirji Rao repeated his
remonstrances, and at length had the temerity to seize the skirt of his robe
and endeavoured to detain him forcibly in his seat. Some of the Huzuriyas
(personal attendants) present, incensed at such an insult, thrust him back ;
and Sindhia escaped from the tent, giving an order to secure the minister's
person. Sirji Rao drew his sword and resisted the execution of the order :
a violent scuffle ensued, in which some individuals of both parties were
killed and several wounded. At length Sirji Rao effected his retreat to
his own tent, but was followed by the enraged party from the Deüri,
headed by Anand Rao and Manaji Phankra, two distant relations of the
Maharaja's family. In one minute the ropes of the tent in which the un¬
fortunate minister had taken refuge were cut, and he himself dragged from
beneath it ; and in the next he fell dead in the public street, pierced with a
dozen wounds inflicted by his pitiless enemies. Sindhia is said to have
given orders, when he heard of the scuffle, to spare his father-in-law's life,
and from the known lenity of his disposition it is probable he did so. His
pursuers either wilfully or ignorantly mistook these orders, and in all pro¬
bability rejoiced at an opportunity of getting rid of a man who was an
object of hatred to themselves, of dislike to their master, of terror to the
whole army, and apprehension to every court in India."—Letters from a
Mahratta Camp, by Captain Broughton, commanding the Resident's
escort, 1809, p. 223.
projects op holkau.
69
The British Government, unable to rid itself of book i.
former impressions, continued to treat Dowlat Rao "
Sindhia with a guarded and timid policy for some
time after his friendship had ceased to be an object
of conciliation, or his enmity of fear.
The power and resources of Jeswant Rao Holkar jsoe.
were in like manner for some time estimated rather
by the mischief which he had inflicted, than any
which he retained the ability to commit. The unme¬
rited liberality which the British Government had
evinced, towards him had replaced him in the actual
or prospective possession of an extensive and valuable
territory,^ and its selfish disregard of inconvenient
obligations consigned to his rapacity the chieftains
of Rajputana, particularly the Rajas of Bundi and
Jaypur.® The motives of this uncalled for genero¬
sity were unintelligible to the native princes, and to
Holkar himself ; and both ascribed it to dread of his
military talents, and incapability of providing longer
for the exigencies of war. The necessary conse¬
quence of this notion was, the inflation of Holkar's
ambition with the hope that he should soon be able
to reunite under happier auspices the disjointed
members of the Mahratta confederacy, and exact a
severe retribution for the mutilation which they had
' The treaty with Holkar of December, 1805, restored to him the pos¬
sessions of the Holkar family in Mewar, Malwa, Harauti, and the Dekhin.
—Coll. of Treaties, p. 294.
^ A declaratory article, added to the treaty by Sir G. Barlow, abrogated
the second article, by which Holkar had renounced all right to Tonk-
Eampura and the districts north of the Bundi Hills. The abrogation was
interpreted by him as a virtual withdrawal of the protection granted to the
Bundi Raja. By the eighth article of the treaty Holkar relinquished all
claims of every description upon the British Government and its allies,
amongst whom the Raja of Jaypur considered himself included: his claim
was not admitted, as is subsequently noticed in the text.
70
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I, suffered. So far was he from acknowledging the
'• extent of the leniency which had been shown him,
1806. that he immediately preferred, in insulting lan¬
guage, new and unreasonable claims ; demanding the
cession of additional lands in the Dekhin, and of
eighteen districts in Hindustan, and the grant of
Jagirs for his family and adherents.' Protracting
his march southwards as long as he could find any
one whom he might plunder, he levied contributions
on his way from the petty chiefs whom the British
Government professed to protect, or to regard as
allies;® and he made no secret of his purpose to
punish the Bundi Raja expressly for the aid which
he had given during the war to the British. He
had scarcely returned to his own domains when
he addressed letters, or dispatched emissaries, to the
other Mahratta princes, urging them to renew their
ancient connexions, and prepare for another conflict
with their common foe. They were suffering, how¬
ever, too severely from their recent discomfiture
' In one of his first letters he declared peremptorily that the districts
which he claimed in Hindustan must be restored to him, and he insisted
that others should be assigned to Amir Khan. The Bengal Government
sheltered its dignity under the plea of an erroneous translation of his ex¬
pressions having been made by Colonel Malcolm, through whom the letter
had been transmitted, but apparently with little reason ; and there was no
question as to the general tone of the epistle. The Governor-General de¬
termined to take no offence, ascribing Holkar's language " to the un¬
bridled violence of his temper." The application was answered by Lord
Lake, with an intimation that its repetition might lead to a renewal of
hostilities ; and, although this intimation did not silence Holkar's preten¬
sions, it induced him to urge them in more decent phraseology.—MS.
Records.
® On his way through Hariana, which had been given to Abdul Samad
Khan as a reward for his services in the war, Holkar levied contributions
on the villages, and laid waste the lands. The Khan applied for military
. succour : this was refused him ; but in consideration of the recent date of
the grant, and the impossibility of his having had time to organise his re¬
sources, pecuniary compensation for his losses was awarded to him.—MS.
Records.
PECUNIARY EXACTIONS FROM THE RAJPUTS.
71
to venture precipitately upon so dangerous an en- book i.
terprise and, whatever the opinion which they
might at first have been disposed to entertain of I807.
Holkar's courage and conduct, it was speedily effaced
by his outrageous behaviour and eventual derange¬
ment.
The first object of Holkar's policy after his re¬
turn to Malwa was, the maintenance of a military
force far beyond his own unaided resources. The
plunder of his neighbours offered the only means of
filling Tiis treasury ; and the quarrels of the Rajput
princes unhappily afforded to him, even in a greater
degree than to Sindhia, an opening for pecuniary
exactions. On his return from the Punjab, Holkar
halted for about a month in the Jaypur territory ;
and, whilst his army laid waste its fields, he received
eighteen lakhs of rupees from the Raja as the price
of his withholding his aid from the Raja of Jodhpur,
with whom the Raja of Jayjmr was at strife, and
who, by giving shelter to Holkar's family when the
IMahratta fled from Lord Lake, had established
some claim to his gratitude. The money extorted
from Jaypur precluded him from giving personal
assistance to Jodhpur, but he evaded the strict ful¬
filment of the bargain by permitting his chief
leader and intimate associate. Amir Khan, to carry
his mercenary bands to whichever of the contending
Rajas should bid most largely for their services.
Holkar then occupied himself in the castigation of
the Raja of Bundi, exacting from him heavy con¬
tributions, and in enforcing demands of a similar
' Sindhia, the Peshwa, and the Raja of Nagpur severally communicated
these letters to the Residents at their courts.—MS. Records.
72
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. nature from Zalim Sing, regent of Kota. He then
withdrew to Rampura-Bampura, where his health
1807. rapidly gave way to habitual intoxication and unre¬
strained indulgence, the effects of which were
exacerbated by the compunctious visitings of con¬
science.
The animosity borne by the Peshwa to Holkar
augmented his dissatisfaction with the favourable
terms granted to that chief; and he strongly ob¬
jected to the treaty which the British Government
had concluded, that it conferred upon him rights
and possessions to which he had no claim. In truth,
Jeswant Rao Holkar had become the head of his
house, partly by accident, partly by his own exer¬
tions. Tukaji Holkar, his predecessor, left two
legitimate sons, Kasi Rao and JMalhar Rao. His
third son, Jeswant Rao, was his son by a concubine.
Kasi Rao, the eldest son, was deformed in body and
infirm in mind, and his unfitness for the adminis¬
tration of affairs induced the chief oflScers of the
state to give the preference to his younger brother
Malhar Rao. Sindhia took part with Kasi Rao;
and, in the contest that ensued, JMalhar Rao was
killed, and* Jeswant Rao, who had upheld his cause,
was obliged to seek safety in flight. After encoun¬
tering many vicissitudes, Jeswant Rao by a course of
successful predatory devastation, in which he was
deeply indebted to the companionship of Amir
Khan, found himself strong enough to drive Sind-
hia's troops out of the territories of the Holkar
family, and establish himself in their government
in the name and on behalf of their lawful prince,
Kandi Rao, the infant son of the murdered IMalhar
DEATH OF KANDI RAO. 73
Rao, who was at the time in Sindhia's hands, as well book i.
as Kasi Rao, his uncle. The latter was allowed his
liberty, and gave himself up to Jeswant Rao ; and, I807.
when the war with the British Government was
projected, Sindhia, 'in order to secure Holkar's co¬
operation, resigned to him the charge of the boy
Kandi Rao. At the time of Holkar's return from
the Punjab, Kasi Rao was living peaceably at Ni-
maur, under the charge of Jeswant Rao's Gooroo,
or spiritual guide, Chimna Bhao : his nephew, Kandi
Rao, had accompanied him on his march.
A body of Mohammedan horse in the service of
Jeswant Rao having mutinied for arrears of pay, his
nephew was delivered to them as a pledge for the
promised liquidation of their demands. As the
promises made to the mutineers were slow of ac¬
complishment, it occurred to them to intimidate Hol-
kar into more prompt compliance by proclaiming
Kandi Rao the lawful Raja, and threatening to
depose Jeswant Rao as a usurper.^ The danger was
imminent ; the money was raised ; the mutinous sol¬
diers were paid and dismissed : they dispersed to
their homes without any concern for the fate of the
unhappy youth whom they had used as their instru¬
ment of intimidation, and abandoned him to those
jealous apprehensions which they seem to have first
excited. In a week Kandi Rao was no longer an
object of fear. It was given out that he had died
suddenly ; but it was the universal belief that he had
' Malcolm's Central India, i. 242. According to Amir Khan's account
of the affair, this plan of enforcing payment was adopted by his recommen¬
dation, not without a suspicion on Holkar's part that the whole was a
device of Amir Khan to obtain an adjustment of his own claims.—Mem. of
Amir Khan, 290.
74
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. been poisoned, if not by the orders, at least with
'' the acquiescence of Holkar.'
1808. To this crime succeeded an event which in cur¬
rent belief was of an equally atrocious character—
the death of Kasi Rao. The accounts of this trans¬
action vary in some of the details, although they
correspond in the outline. Kasi Rao resided in a
stronghold in the province of Nimaur, of which
the governor was Chimna Bhao, the Gooroo of
Holkar, and known to be his ready counsellor and
agent in every deed of infamy and guilt. An insur¬
rection under some military leaders had broken out
in the adjoining district of Kandesh, and one of
their parties attacked Cliimna Bhao with a view to
obtain possession of the person of Kasi Rao, and
place him at their head. To disappoint their design,
and prevent Kasi Rao from falling into their hands,
Chimna Bhao caused him to be put to death. There
does not appear to be any conclusive evidence that
Holkar himself had suggested a pretended attack
upon his minister as a pretext for the murder of his
brother, or any reason to infer that the act was not
solely attributable to the unpremeditated and reck¬
less cruelty of Chimna Bhao.® The imputation of
' Central India, i. 244. Amir Khan asserts unhesitatingly that Hol¬
kar caused poison to be administered to his nephew, and so destroyed
him ; Mem. 307.
^ According to Malcolm, on the authority of Bangasb Khan, one of the
insurgent Patan leaders, a party under his confederate, Dadan Khan, at¬
tempted the release of Kasi Rao, who was confined at Kargond, in Ni¬
maur ; to prevent which, Chimna Bhao had him murdered in the thicket
some distance from the fort. According to the evidence of a Sipahi in the
service of Chimna Bhao, present at the murder, Kasi Rao was killed in
Bijaygerh, a fort also in Nimaur, from which Dadan Khan had attempted
to carry him off. The dispatch from the Resident with Sindhia, reporting
the transaction, agrees in making Bijaygerh the seat of the prince's
detention ; but states that, orders having been sent to bring him for greater
security to Holkar s camp, Chimna Bhao was escorting him on the way.
insanity and death of holkar.
being accessory to the deed was however fixed upon book
Holkar by common consent, and popular belief re-
garded his insanity as a just retribution for the mm*- I809
der of a nephew and a brother. He became subject
to fits of mental derangement shortly after the death
of Kasi Rao : they alternated with intervals of
reason for about a twelvemonth, when they sub¬
sided into an unintermitted state of moody fatuity,
which after a duration of three years terminated in
death.
The'affairs of Holkar's dominions were conducted
during his incapacity by his favourite mistress Tu-
lasi Bhai and her minister Balaram Set; but their
hands were too feeble to maintain a steady curb
upon the disorderly troops and their aspiring cap¬
tains, and the country speedily became the scene of
plunder and confusion. The party in Kandesh under
Dadan Khan and other Patan leaders acquired a
when he was attacked at night by Dadan Khan's men, and, in the affray
that followed, Kasi Rao was accidentally shot. Amir Khan's story materi¬
ally differs from the foregoing. He says, that the Bhils of Kandesh, being
in insurrection, had got hold of the wife of Kasi Rao, and, she being preg¬
nant, they declared that if the child were a boy they would make him
Raja ; that Chimna Bhao, being sent to quell the disturbance, took Kasi
Rao along with him from Galna, where he had been detained ; that on the
march he set some of his own people to make a sham attack by night
upon his camp, and, in the confusion thus occasioned, he pretended great
alarm lest Kasi Rao should fall into the hands of the Bhils, and, to prevent
it, ordered him to be put to death ; the whole being in truth the device of
Holkar. Although it is true that the Bhils were in a state of insurgency
at this period, yet the policy of opposing a rival to Holkar was much
more likely to have occurred to the Patans, and it was no doubt to guard
against their availing themselves of the name of Kasi Rao that he was mur¬
dered by some such contrivance as is imputed to Chimna Bhao. Holkar
denied that he had given orders to put his brother to death, and, ascribing
it to accident, publicly expressed himself glad that it had occurred at a
distance, as it might otherwise have injured his reputation. The varieties
of the story afford a striking proof of the difficulty of coming at the circum¬
stances of a fact even upon contemporary testimony. Mr. Prinsep hesitates
to affix a date to this transaction; from the official correspondence it
appears to have taken place about the middle of February, 1808.—Central
India, i. 244 ; Mem. of Amir Khan, 313 ; MS. Records.
76
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. formidable consistency after the murder of Kasi
'' Rao. They placed at their head Mahijiat Rao Hol-
1809. kar, first cousin of Jeswant Rao, and proclaimed
him sovereign. The troops sent against them either
joined their ranks or were defeated ; and they had
a fair prospect of success, when, unfortunately for
their cause, they extended their depredations into
the territories of Poona and Hyderabad, and im¬
posed upon the British Government the duty of pro¬
tecting its allies. The subsidiary forces of both states
took the field. Colonel Wallace marched from Poona
with one division, and Lieutenant-Colonel Doveton
from Jalna with another. By a rapid cavalry move¬
ment of one hundred miles in forty-eight hours.
Colonel Doveton came unexpectedly upon the in¬
surgents whilst besieging Amalner, a fort belonging
to the Nizam. Most of their horse, and part of
their foot, were destroyed. The shattered remains
took refuge amongst the hills north of Kandesh :
they were vigorously followed thither by Colonel
Wallace ; and the leaders were seized and delivered
to him by the Bhils, the inhabitants of the forests
with which the hills are clothed. The Patan chiefs
were conducted prisoners to Poona : Mahipat Rao
escaped, but, separated from his military associates,
he soon fell into obscurity and occasioned no further
trouble.'
A different destiny awaited another of Holkar's
Mohammedan captains, who, by a singular combina¬
tion of enterprise, craft, and good-luck, rose from
the condition of a soldier of fortune to the recog¬
nised rank of an independent prince. Amir Khan
' MS. Records ; Central India, i. 284.
RISE OF AMIR KHAN.
77
was by descent an Afghan, whose grandfather had book i.
emigrated from Buner, and settled in Rohilkhand.
From his earliest youth he had led the life of a sol- 1809.
dier; seeking service, sometimes with a few followers,
sometimes with a larger troop, in the armies of the
various princes and leaders, who in the last days of
the Mogul empire were ever ready to enlist adher¬
ents. For a considerable time his fortunes were
precarious, and he was not unft-equently in want
even of a meal ; hut he gradually became a captain
of softie note, and took a conspicuous share in dif¬
ferent military and political transactions, of which
IVIalwa and the valley of the Nerhudda were the
principal field. He lent good aid to Vizir Mo¬
hammed in the defence of Bhopal; hut, the resources
of that chief being exhausted, he listened to pro¬
posals from Holkar, and united himself thenceforth
steadily to his interests. Holkar was then making
his escape from Nagpur, where he had been de¬
tained by the Raja ; and had no greater following
than a rabble of two or three hundred men, ill
armed, undisciplined, and living by plunder. The
junction of Amir Khan with a force respectable in
numbers and equipment turned the tide of his for¬
tunes, enabled him to possess himself of the terri¬
tories of his family, and placed him in a position
formidable to Sindhia, to the Peshwa, and the Eng¬
lish. Amir Khan shared in his prosperity, and did
not desert him in adversity. He accompanied
Jeswant Rao, as we have seen, in his flight to the
Punjab, and returned with him to Malwa. Al¬
though professing allegiance to Holkar, and acting
in his name. Amir Khan retained the independent
78
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. command of his own troops, and held himself at
CHAP. I. to provide for their support by contribu-
1809. tions levied at his pleasure from the princes in
whose dissensions he found it profitable to interfere.
After Holkar's insanity he interposed occasionally
in the disputes that occurred at court, hut large
bribes secured his general support of Balaram Set
and the Bhai. The necessity of raising funds for
the payment of his soldiers after he had drained the
coffers of the Rajputs impelled him, shortly after
the date at which we have arrived, to turn his steps
in the direction of Berar, and brought him, as we
shall subsequently have occasion to notice, once
more into collision with the Government of British
India.^
Such was the utter prostration of the Mahratta
confederacy upon the close of the war : the Peshwa,
chafing secretly under the fetters to which he had
rashly submitted, but impotent to break them,
and affecting to wear them with cheerfulness ; the
Gaekwar, saved from insolvency and ruin by the
tutelage of his allies ; the Raja of Berar, unable
without the same assistance to protect his country
from Pindari pillage and Afghan arrogance ; Sindhia,
humbly begging a paltry pittance from the power
he had lately encountered with almost equal arms ;
and Holkar, intoxicated and insane, with his country
devastated by his own rebellious soldiery, and his
court disgraced by the turbulence and profligacy of
^ Notices of the career of Amir Khan are to be found in Malcolm's Cen¬
tral India, Prinsep's Administration of the Marquis of Hastings, &c. ;
but the most authentic account is a kind of autobiography, or Memoirs of
Nawab Mohammed Amir Khan, composed in Persian from his own dic¬
tation by Munshi Bashwan Lai, translated by H. T. Prinsep, Calcutta.
1832.
princes of rajasthan.
79
factious competitors for the authority which he was book i.
no longer in a condition to exercise. Yet, notwith-
standing this abject state of the two last-named 1807.
chieftains, the Bengal Government persisted in its
purpose of conciliating their good-will, by leaving
them unquestioned licence to prey upon their still
more feeble and disunited neighbours, the princes of
Rajputana.
That portion of Hindustan which extends from
the districts bordering on the west bank of the Jum¬
na to the desert that skirts the eastern borders of
the Indus, and which lies between the Punjab on the
north, and Malwa and Guzerat on the south, is col¬
lectively known as Rajawara or Rajasthan, as being
in an especial degree inhabited by tribes allied by
community of origin, institutions, and character,
and claiming as Rajputs, or " sons of kings," to re¬
present the military and regal caste of the primitive
Hindus. The country was distributed at the period
in question amongst a number of princes, some of
whom were of comparatively little political import¬
ance, from the limited extent of their territory;
whilst others, although ruling over more spacious
tracts, were equally unimportant, from the ste¬
rility of the soil, and the scantiness of the popu¬
lation. Among these, three princes were acknow¬
ledged to be pre-eminent in rank and power, the
Rana of Udaypur, the Raja of Jodhpur, and the
Raja of Jaypur, so entitled from their respective
capitals; but, more correctly speaking, the rulers
of IMewar, Marwar, and Dhundhár, the names of
their several principalities.
The Rana of Udaypur reigned over a rugged but
80
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. not wholly sterile territory on the north-west of
J- jvialwa. He pretended to a direct descent from
1807. Rama, the mytho-historical monarch of Ayodhya,
or Oude, through his son Lava, who migrated to the
west. The Ranas of Udaypur are therefore re¬
garded as members of the Suryavansa, or Solar dy¬
nasty of the Hindus ; but, as Rajputs, they belong to
the Sisodya branch of the Gahilote tribe. They are
admitted to precedency over all other Rajput
princes, who accept from their hands, upon succeed¬
ing to their principalities, an ornament worn upon
the forehead, in confirmation of their accession.'
From the time of the IMohammedan invasion of
India, the Ranas of Udaypur were constantly en¬
gaged in warfare with the kings of Delhi, and re¬
peatedly sustained fearful reverses. Driven from
their capital, Chitore, they transferred their resi¬
dence more to the west, wLere Udaya Raja built a
city, named after him Uday-pur, towards the end
' Colonel Tod remarks, that, whilst the genealogies of many of the
Rajput princes are questioned, the Hindu tribes yield unanimous suffrage
to the ruler of Mewar as the legitimate heir of the throne of Rama, and
style him Hindua-suraj, the Sun of the Hindus. He subsequently, how¬
ever, adverts to the curious tradition mentioned by Abulfazl ; Ayin Akbari,
ii. 8, and repeated in fuller detail by Wilford, Asiatic Researches, ix. 233,
of the descent of the Ranas of Udaypur from Naoshirwan, king of Persia,
through his son Naoshizad. He is said to have rebelled against his father,
and, being defeated, to have fled into Hindustan, whence he returned to
Persia with an army of Indians : he was again defeated, and was slain in
battle, but his issue remained in India, and from them the Ranas descend¬
ed. Another legend traces the family to Maha-bhánu, daughter of Yez-
degird, the last monarch of Persia.—Annals of Rajasthan, i. 233. Tod
thinks it not improbable that there may have been a connexion between
the Persian and Indian families. The late discovery in the west of India
of coins of the general character of those of the Sassanian kings, and
blending Indian and Persian portraits and inscriptions, establish the fact
that some of those princes exercised authority either directly or through
Indian feudatories on the conflnes of Hindustan, and render it possible
that some such intercourse as that which subsequently united the royal
house of Timur with the Rajput princes may have subsisted, and given rise
to the tradition.—Ariana Antiqua, p. 400.
origin of jodhpür.
81
of the sixteenth century ; and in the strong country book i.
in its vicinity they maintained their independence.
Separated from Mewar by the Aravali JVIoun- 1807.
tains on the north-west, lies the principality of
Marwar, the capital of which is Jodhpur: great
part of this country is a sandy desert, but it con¬
tains some fertile tracts, especially on its southern
boundaries. The Raja of Jodhpur is a member of
the Rah tore tribe of Rajputs, and traces his de¬
scent from the family that reigned over Kanoj at
the period of the Mohammedan conquest ; on which
occasion two sons of the last prince, Jayadeva, fled
to the west, and settled in the almost unpeopled
districts of IVIarwar. From the elder brother de¬
scended the reigning dynasty ; one of whom, Jodha,
was the founder of Jodhpur in a.d. 1459: the
younger is claimed as their ancestor by the chief
Thakurs,. or feudal nobles of the state. The Rah-
tores of Marwar, like the Gah ilotes of Mewar, suf¬
fered many vicissitudes in their encounters with the
Mohammedans ; but, in the reign of Akbar and his
two successors, their Rajas submitted to be treated
as servants of the Mogul empire, holding high
offices both civil and military, and becoming con¬
nected with the imperial house by giving their
daughters in marriage to the Emperor or his sons.
The bigotry of Aurangzeb forced them to take up
arms in defence of their religion ; and in a war of
thirty years' continuance, although frequently de¬
feated in the field, their spirit was unbroken, and
their principality unsubdued. After the death of
Aurangzeb, their friendly intercourse with Delhi
was resumed, and they were seen taking a promi-
vol. i. • g
82
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. nent part in the disorders that ensued. The de-
** cline of the empire freed them from all semblance
1807. of vassalage, but their own dissensions and crimes
were more fatal to-their power and reputation than
their subservience to the Emperor.
The country of Dhundhár, or, from its capital,
Jaypur, lies on the north and east of INIewar and
Marwar, extending towards the Jumna. It is the
territory of the Kachwaha Rajputs, who consider
themselves to be the posterity of Kusa, another son
of Rama. The origin of the principality dates no
earlier than the tenth century, and its capital was
built only in the beginning of the eighteenth.
From its eastern position, the principality lay
exposed to the attacks of the Patán sovereigns of
Delhi ; but it was not until the accession of the
house of Timur that its Rajas became feudatories
of the empire. From the reign of Baber they ac¬
knowledged the supremacy of the Älogul, and were
distinguished as the principal officers and nobles of
his camp and court. They were early connected
also with the imperial house by marriage, several
maidens of the race becoming the brides of the Mo¬
hammedan princes.* Raja Jaysing, the founder of
Jaypur, was actively concerned in all the stormy
transactions of the disastrous period which followed
the death of Aurangzeb ; until, observing the irre¬
trievable ruin of the empire, and the irresistible
progress of the IVIahrattas, he made terms with
' Bhagwaa Das is said to have been the first Rajput who submitted to
an alliance with a Mohammedan family : his daughter was married to the
son of Akbar, Prince Selim, afterwards the Emperor Jehangir. Mán Sing,
nephew of Bhagwan Das, was a great favourite with Akbar ; and was
successively viceroy of Bengal, Bahar, the Dekhin, and Kabul.—Annals
of Rajasthan, i. 353.
disputes of the rajput princes. 38
the latter, and withdrew from the politics of Hin- book
dustan, to the cultivation of the arts of peace, and
the improvement of his country. He died in 1743. 1807.
After his death, Dhundhár became a prey to intes¬
tine divisions and Mahratta spoliation.
At the close of the war with the Mahrattas,
Rana Bhím Sing was reigning at Udaypur; Mán
Sing was Raja of Jodhpur ; and Jagat Sing, of Jay-
pur. Neither of them possessed the qualifications
which the times demanded; the patriotic senti-
ments*which should have suppressed selfish feelings
and.leagued them with their fellows, the judgment
capable of estimating their own true interests, or
the courage and energy necessary to maintain their
independence. Listening alone to the dictates of
personal enmity, they paralysed by their dissensions
the valour of their subjects, and aided and abetted
the foreign robber in the work of mutual destruc¬
tion. The cause of quarrel by which they were at
this time exasperated against one another was pe¬
culiarly characteristic of the race, and to be paral¬
leled only in the poetical traditions of distant ages.
Krishna Kumari, the daughter of Bhím Sing, Rana
of Udaypur, was a maiden of reputed beauty and of
undoubted rank, and was consequently an object of
desire to the other Rajput princes. Whilst yet a
child, the Raja of Jodhpur, named also Bhím Sing,
had made overtures for her hand ; but the alliance
was prevented by his death. She was then solicited
in marriage by Jagat Sing of Jaypur, and his propo¬
sals were accepted by the Rana. An escort of three
thousand troops was sent to Udaypur to convey
the princess to Jaypur for the solemnisation of the
G 2
84
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. nuptials, when the negotiations were interrupted by
CHAP. L pretensions of Mán Sing, the Raja of
1807. Jodhpur. He demanded the princess as the af¬
fianced bride of his predecessor, and declared that
her marriage into any other family would bring
indelible disgrace upon him and his tribe. Man
Sing is said to have been instigated to the asser¬
tion of his claims by one of his chief Thakurs,
Sawai Sing, who, for purposes of his own, sought
to involve his liege lord in hostilities with the sur¬
rounding states.
Bhim Sing, the preceding Raja of Jodhpur, left at
his death his widow pregnant; and it was a condition
of Mán Sing's accession, that, if the child should
prove to be a boy, he should assign to the infant
prince that portion of the royal domains which were
regarded as the appanage of the heir-apparent. A
hoy was born; but, fearing to intrust him to the care
of the Raja, the mother kept his birth secret, and
the infant was sent privily to Pokarna, the castle of
Sawai Sing, where he was concealed. At the expi¬
ration of two years his protector, finding the chief
feudatories of Jodhpur greatly discontented by the
preferencé given by the Raja to certain of his fa¬
vourites, communicated to them the birth and
existence of the prince, and secured their concur¬
rence in the vindication of his claims. They re¬
paired accordingly in a body to the Raja, and de¬
manded the fulfilment of his engagement. Mán
Sing, with some reason, required evidence of the
genuineness of the pretended heir; but the Rani
when appealed to, fearing, it was affirmed, for her
own safety, denied that she had given him birth.
claims of the mahrattas.
85
The chiefs were silenced, but not satisfied ; and book i.
Sawai Sing awaited a more favourable season for
advancing the pretensions of the youth whose cause isor.
he had espoused. It was with this view that he
urged Mán Sing to demand the hand of the prin¬
cess of Udaypur, anticipating the series of diffi¬
culty and danger in which he would be conse¬
quently involved. The anticipation was speedily
realised. The party sent to Udaypur by Jagat Sing
was attacked and routed ; and the Rana was com-
pellecf to retract his assent, and affiance his daugh¬
ter to Man Sing. His rival was furious at the dis¬
appointment and the insult; and a war broke out
between the two Rajas, which was equally destruc¬
tive to all the Rajput principalities.
From the time when the first Baji Rao esta¬
blished the ascendancy of the Mahratta power in
Central India, the princes of Rajputana had been
forced to pay the Chouth, the fourth part of their
annual net revenue, or a sum arbitrarily estimated
equivalent to a fourth, as a fixed tribute. The
payment was at first made to the Government of
Poona ; but, as the authority of Sindhia and Holkar
came to supersede that of the Peshwa, they claimed
it as their right. The indefinite scale by which the
tribute was measured, and the relative ability of the
parties to enforce or resist the demand, rendered
the actual amount payable undetermined ; and it was
no part of Mahratta policy to admit of a composi¬
tion, as the vagueness of the sum afforded them a
convenient plea for unlimited exaction. There was •
consequently a constant arrear due by the Rajput
states, and a constant pretext for the desolating
86
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. incursions of the Mahratta troops. In the division
' of the spoil, the Jaypur tribute was appropriated by
1807. Holkar; that of Udaypur and Jodhpur by Sindhia;
but they had also conflicting pretensions each to a
portion of the plunder of the other. The Peshwa
had likewise his claims to a share, but his alliance
with the British debarred him from their compul¬
sory enforcement.
The Raja of Jodhpur lost no time in influencing
the Mahratta chiefs to befriend his cause. Sindhia
was already at variance with his rival, the Jaypur
Raja having refused to pay some of his extortionate
demands ; and Holkar was indebted to him for pro¬
tection which he had given to the family of that chief¬
tain during his campaigns in Hindustan. The Raja
of Jaypur disregarded the combination, in reliance
upon the British Government, with which he had
entered into alliance ; ^ and which, in the treaty of
peace with Holkar, as concluded by Lord Lake, had
cancelled the Mahratta's claims upon its allies, and
dispossessed him of all territory north of the Bundi
Hills. The declaratory article of Sir G. Barlow, as
already noticed, annulled these stipulations, and vir¬
tually excluded the Raja of Jaypur from the benefits
of the alliance upon which he had depended ; and it
was not to be wondered at that he should have
remonstrated strongly against his desertion. His
1804. abandonment was wholly indefensible. It was not
to be controverted'that a treaty had been contracted
with him, by which the enemies of one of the con¬
tracting parties were to be considered as the enemies
* The treaty is dated 12 Dec. 1803 ; the date of its ratification by the
Raja is left blank.—Coll. of Treaties, p, 253.
TREATY WITH JAYPUR ANNULLED.
87
of both ; and the Raja, in the event of a dispute book i.
with any other prince, was entitled to British media- ___L
tion and aid. When he required the fulfilment of isoe.
the stipulations, he was told that " no treaty existed :
it had been virtually abrogated by the non-perform¬
ance of his part of the compact. He had recalled his
troops from Monson's detachment during its retreat ;
he had not sent his forces to join the British army
when it moved northwards, but dispatched them to
Udaypur; and had not only failed to cut off Holkar's
supplies, but allowed him to march through the
Jaypur territory. He had no longer, therefore,
anything to expect from the British Government."
The Raja denied the justice of the charges adduced
against him. He affirmed that his troops had sepa¬
rated from Colonel Monson with that officer's con¬
sent, and by the orders of Lord Lake; that although
his forces were on their march to Udaypur, yet, as
soon as their services were required, they suspended
their march, and joined the Bombay army under
General Jones, and that General Jones and Lord
Lake had both furnished him with their written
acknowledgments of the promptitude and efficacy of
his co-operation. Lord Lake had also given him
strong assurance of the stability of the alliance.
He represented, that, if the British Government had
been dissatisfied with his conduct at any particular
time, it should at that time have expressed its dis¬
pleasure, and at once have declared the alliance
annulled. To have continued to employ the services
of the Raja until they were no longer needed, and
reserved all expression of dissatisfaction until it
could be used as a pretext for getting quit of an in-
88
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. convenient obligation, was both disingenuous and
CHAP. I. (Jighonourable ; to desert an old friend because the
1806. tide was setting against him, was ungenerous and
unjust ; and the powers of India could not but
regard the conduct of the Government of Bengal
as a departure from that good faith which it
had hitherto been its pride to preserve invio¬
late. The argument was incontrovertibly in the
Raja's favour: the Government had continued to
exact and receive from him services to which he
was bound by treaty after the commission of those
acts which they subsequently held to have virtually
annulled it. Admitting that the Raja had broken
his engagement, the Government, by accepting
his aid as if no such breach had occurred, vir¬
tually admitted its non-occurrence, and recognised
the engagement as still subsisting. It was however
the inflexible policy of the Governor-General to
abstain from interference, and the remonstrances
and reasonings of the Raja of Jaypur were unavail¬
ing.^ He was consigned to the equally inexorable
policy of the Mahrattas ; and the first-fruits of his
desertion were the plunder of his country by
' The remonstrances of the Raja were strongly supported by Lord
Lake, as noticed in a preceding volume. The Court of Directors also,
although they did not enjoin the renewal of the alliance, disapproved of
its dissolution, conceiving its justice extremely questionable ; "as although
the Raja had failed in the performance of his engagements during the war
with Holbar, yet he had furnished assistance towards its conclusion at
the instance of Lord Lake, and under an expectation held out by his Lord¬
ship that the protection of the British Government would be continued to
him ; and they thought it necessary to enjoin the Government of India
to take care, in all its transactions with the native princes, to preserve its
character for fidelity to its allies from falling into disrepute, and to evince
a strict regard, in the prosecution of its political views, to the principles of
justice and generosity." The sincerity of these expressions would have
been less liable to question if the policy which they condemned had been
countermanded.—Malcolm's Political Hist, of India, i. 390.
policy of amie khan.
89
the disorderly bands of Holkar as they returned book i.
from the Punjab, and the payment to their leader of
twenty lakhs of rupees as the price of his withhold- I807.
ing assistance from the Raja of Jodhpur.^
In the war that followed, Holkar so far adhered
to the bargain he had made as to refráin from join¬
ing in person either of the rival Rajas. It did not
however prevent him from permitting Amir Khan
to enlist his mercenaries in their quarrel.® The
Patán entered into the service of Jagat Sing: the
Raja'of Jaypur was also joined by Sawai Sing and
the nobles of Jodhpur who supported the claims of
the posthumous son of their last Raja, and Man
Sing was deserted at the moment of encountering
his enemies by almost all his principal chiefs. He
was compelled to fly, and seek refuge in the citadel
of Jodhpur ; while the confederates overran and
ravaged the rest of the country. They then laid
siege to the capital : but it suited not the policy
of Amir Khan to suffer the Raja's extermination;
and taking, or affecting to take, umbrage at want
of punctuality in the payment of his troops by the
' Holkar's Vakeels expressed their master's acknowledgmeDts to Lord
Lake for the abrogation of the treaty with Jaypur as a personal favour in¬
tended to conciliate him. The act was viewed in the same light by the
Peshwa and Raja of Nagpur.—MS. Records.
' The Amir and Holkar got up a pretended disagreement as an excuse
for the uncontrouled proceedings of the former at the latter's suggestion :
according to his own story, he makes Holkar say, " You must now separate
from me in public as in quarrel, so that our enemies and the world in gene¬
ral may see that your continuing to raise troops is a source of dissatisfac¬
tion and displeasure to me, and not done with my concurrence or sanction.
We may still understand one another in case of occasion arising for us to
rejoin our forces. When the Amir took formal leave in open durbar, harsh
words passed between him and the Maharaj, and so to the time when the
Amir mounted his palki, as in high displeasure. The Maharaj, running on
foot some paces alongside, took hold of the feet of it, and made a show of
endeavouring to soothe and appease the Amir. The Amir, however, pre¬
tended not to listen, but returned to his army p. 309.
90
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Raja of Jaypur, he abandoned Jagat Sing, accepted
money and promises from Mán Sing,^ and, marching
1807. into the country of Jaypur, commenced a course of
depredation which speedily compelled the Raja to
break up the siege of Jodhpur, and hasten to the
defence of his own dominions.
A double game was in like manner played by
Sindhia. In the first instance he befriended the
suit of the Jodhpur Raja, and contributed to the
defeat of the troops sent to escort the princess to
Jaypur;® but, having received payment of consi¬
derable sums affirmed to be due to him from the
Rana, he professed to remain neutral in the con¬
test. His principal captains were, however, al¬
lowed to side with either of the competitors.
They ranged themselves under the banners of Amir
Khan, and assisted to ravage Jodhpur until the har¬
vest was gleaned ; when Ambaji Inglia renewed his
connexion with Man Sing, and Bapu Sindhia and
Baptiste extended their marauding expeditions to
the districts on the west of the Jumna, with which
' The terms of his compact with Mán Sing were, according to Amir
Khan's statement, that he should pay four lakhs and fifty thousand rupees
(£45,000) per mensem, besides taking a brigade into permanent service ;
and should further give the Amir a Jagir of four lakhs for kitchen expenses,
and confer Jagirs also on his principal officers ; p. 824,
° Tod has two apparently contradictory accounts of this transaction.
In one place he states that Sindhia was encamped in the territory of
Udaypur in the course of enforcing pecuniary demands upon the Rana ;
and that, having at the same time been denied a contribution from Jaypur,
he insisted upon the dismissal of the Jaypur embassy. Upon the Rana's
refusal he advanced with his brigades, defeated the troops of Udaypur
joined by the Jaypur detachment, which he dispersed ; and, encamping
near Udaypur, compelled the Rana to submit to his conditions.—Annals
of Rajasthan, i. 461. In another place he says, Mán Sing assembled three
thousand horse, and, joining to them the mercenary bands of Heera Sing
then on the frontier of Mewar, he intercepted the nuptial gifts of Amber;
ii. 142. The first account is probably the more correct, as Tod was in
Sindhia's camp ; or it may be possible to reconcile the two.
murder op sawai sing.
91
the British Government had purposed to recom- book i.
pense the attachment of its adherents. ''
The services of Amir Khan were not confined to 1807.
the relief *of Jodhpur from the presence of a victo¬
rious army, or to the retaliation of the havock which
it had committed. He engaged to rid Mán Sing of
an enemy more formidable than his rival Raja, and
put an end to the internal divisions that in a still
greater degree endangered his security, by the mur¬
der of Sawai Sing, and the extinction of the faction
of which he was the head. Simulating a quarrel
with Man Sing, Amir Khan quitted him in seeming
anger, and marched to Nagore, where Sawai Sing
and the pretender had fortified themselves. Here he
induced the Rahtore chief to believe that he might
be bought over to their cause ; and the advantages
resulting from his alliance blinded the Rajput to
the peril of unguarded intercourse with so perfidious
a confederate. With the assumption of entire con¬
fidence Amir Khan visited Sawai Sing, and gave
him the most solemn assurances of his sincerity:
suspicion was completely disarmed, the visit was
returned, and the Rajput was received in the tent
of Amir Khan with every demonstration of respect
and cordiality. Inventing a plausible excuse for a
short absence. Amir Khan withdrew ; the cords of
one side of the tent were immediately let loose,
and, whilst all within it were entangled beneath its
folds, an indiscriminate fire of musketry and grape
was poured upon them ; Sawai Sing, his friends and
attendants, those of Amir Khan himself, the dan¬
cing girls and musicians, all who had been present at
the interview, were alike the victims of this mur-
92
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. derous device. The death of his rehellious feud-
atoiy put an end to the danger and fears of the
1807. Raja of Jodhpur.^ Nagore was plundered, but
Dhokal Sing effected his escape, and found a pro¬
tector in the Raja of Bikaner ; until a superior force
besieged the Raja in his capital, and compelled him
to withdraw his protection, and pay a heavy fine
for his hospitality. The young prince then fled to
the British territories and there remained in secu¬
rity.
The state of affairs in Holkar's camp ha\Tng called
Amir Khan thither, the Rajput princes were relieved
awhile from his exactions. Jaypur enjoyed but a
brief respite, as Sindhia presently demanded com¬
pensation for the services rendered by his troops ;
services which he had pretended not to sanction,
and which, in truth, they had never discharged.
The claim was not admitted : upon which he led his
army across the Chumbal, and sat down before
Dhuni, which he fruitlessly besieged. Foiled in
this object, he listened to proposals from the Raja,
and agreed to accept seventeen lakhs of rupees as
the price of his retreat, having inflicted upon the
country danlage to an infinitely larger amount.
Although the Rana of Udaj'pur had taken no part
in the war, and had therefore given less occasion
than his neighbours to any pretext for JNIahratta
' According to Tod, the price of the crime was ten laJchs of rupees, and
the two towns of Mundhiawar and Kuchilavas, each yielding an annual
revenue of 30,000 rupees ; ii. 150. Amir Khsm states the sum at thirty-
five lakhs of rupees, of which half was paid at the time. The conditions
formerly agreed upon were renewed, with additional specifications ; and
Jagirs were promised to his son, his father-in-law, and others of his princi¬
pal leaders. The Amir tells the story himself without any attempt at
extenuation, and seems to regard it as an honourable exploit ; pp. 347. 300.
applications to the british government.
93
extortion, he was obliged to drain his treasures in book i.
order to purchase the forbearance of both Sindhia ''
and Amir Khan. The exhaustion of his resources I807.
was however less painful to him than the degrada¬
tion which he felt in being obliged to treat them
as equals, and the total want of deference which
upstart adventurers and military robbers paid to his
exalted rank and ancient descent. In his distress
he applied earnestly for the intervention of the
British Government, and offered the cession of one
half bf his territory if it would protect the other
half from Mahratta spoliation. The same interposi¬
tion was solicited by another Rajput prince, Zalim
Sing of Kota, who, although he had wisely kept
aloof from the contest between the rival Rajas, had
nevertheless been repeatedly mulcted by Amir Khan
and Sindhia ; and the contending princes of Jaypur
and Jodhpur made a similar urgent appeal to the
Government of Bengal, pledging themselves to abide
by its mediation, and to submit to any conditions
it should please to impose. They depended upon
its interference as an obligation which it was bound
to fulfill as inheriting the paramount sovereignty of
Hindustan. The dignity and power of the imperial
court of Delhi had been appropriated by the Go¬
vernor-General and the Council of Calcutta ; and,
along with the authority, the duties which the
Emperors were accustomed to discharge had de¬
volved upon them. The weaker states of India,
they argued, had a natural right to look up to the
British Government for protection against the am¬
bition and rapacity of the stronger; and they de¬
nied that there was any valid excuse for its ques-
94
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. tioning the right when it was fully capable of exer-
cising the power. The Mahrattas, who were at that
1807. moment spreading terror and desolation from the
Setlej to the Nerbudda, were wholly incompetent to
oifer any opposition to the arms and authority of
the Company ; and the Governor-General had only to
speak the word, and universal tranquillity would be
restored. The policy of this course, they main¬
tained, was equally obvious with its justice and hu¬
manity; for the British territories would derive
security and prosperity from the suppression of dis¬
orders, which excluded their population from all
amicable intercourse with the surrounding countries,
and kept their own frontiers in perpetual disquietude
and alarm. To these representations the principle
of non-interference was inflexibly opposed ; and Cen¬
tral India was allowed to fall into a condition of
anarchy and ruin, which was accelerated rather than
arrested by the removal of the innocent cause to
which its present misery was ascribed.^
When all hope of the protection of the British
Government was resigned, the Rana of Udaypur
was driven to the unpalatable measure of retain¬
ing the services of Amir Khan : a fourth of his re¬
venues was assigned to the Mohammedan leader, as
the hire of one of his brigades to be employed in
collecting the revenues and guarding the frontiers of
' So far was adherence to this policy carried, that when the Raja of
Macheri, at the solicitation of the Rani of Jaypnr, sent a party of horse to
escort the women and children of the Raja to a place of safety in his
country, he was enjoined by the Resident at Delhi, under the orders of the
Government, to forego his purpose and recall his troops ; and was told that
any interposition whatever would be regarded as a breach of the alliance
under which he claimed British protection, September, 1807.—MS. Re¬
cords.
death of the princess of udaypur.
95
Mewar.^ The influence thus obtained by Amir Khan book i.
in the counsels of Udaypur afforded an occasion for
a new display of his recklessness of human life, and 1807.
added another victim to the many whom he bad
unscrupulously sacrificed to his interest or his po¬
licy. He instigated the Rana to put his daughter
to death. He also hinted, that, as the ally and friend
of Mán Sing, he should, if he found an opportunity,
carry her off by force and deliver her to the Raja ;
and he promised, if the Rana followed his advice, to
assist tim in recovering possession of a district in
the hands of Man Sing which he coveted. The
natural reluctance of the father was overcome by
the blended motives of policy, fear, and hope, and
poison was administered to the princess.®
The transactions in which the three principal Raj-
' The Amir relates this arrangement with great self-complacency, re¬
marking that the Rana and he exchanged turbands in pledge of friendship ;
p. 399. It most have cost the " son of the Sun'' many a bitter pang before
he could stoop to such an interchange of marks of equality and fraternity
with a Mohammedan trooper.
® Amir Khan relates this transaction without any reserve. According to
his account, the Rana, after reflecting on his recommendation, said, " If
you will pledge yourself to get for me Ehali-rao from Raja Mán Sing, I
will in that case contrive to get rid of my daughter after you shall have
gone, using such means as shall create as little odium as possible.'* The
Amir agreed to the condition ; and the Rana, after his departure, caused
poison to be mixed with his daughter's food, and so administered it to her.
It happened that what she took was not suflicient to effect the purpose,
and the princess guessed the object of her father ; whereupon she sent him
a message, that, as it was a matter that concerned the good of the Raja
and the honour of his family, and it appeared that her living longer was
inconsistent with these in her father's opinion, there was no occasion for
him to have gone secretly to work, for that she was prepared to die by her
own act. Accordingly, having bathed, and dressed herself in new and gay
attire, she drank off the poison, and so gave up her precious life, earning
the perpetual praise and admiration of mankind.—Mem. 399. According
to Malcolm and Tod, the death of the princess, although suggested by
Amir Khan, was pressed on the reluctant Rana by one of the Rajput
nobles, Ajit Sing, whose memory on that account is execrated throughout
Rajasthan. They both agree in the cheerful submission of the princess to
the will of her father, and the grief of her mother, who died shortly after¬
wards.—Central India, i. 339 ; Annals of Rajasthan, i. 463.
96
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. put states were involved with the Mahrattas for
some years subsequently to the restoration of peace
1807. between the latter and the English, have been de¬
scribed at some length, not only on account of their
importance in the general history of Hindustan, but
of their connexion with subsequent events, by which
they were brought within the pale of that protec¬
tion which they now solicited in vain. A brief no¬
tice will suffice for the remaining chiefs of the Raj¬
put tribes.
The Raja of Bikaner, Surat Sing, was a member
of the family which reigned over Marwar. His
ineffective support of the pretender, Dhokal Sing, has
been mentioned. After payment of the stipulated
contribution he was left unmolested, the desert
surface of his country offering little temptation to
the marauder. The same circumstance, and the re¬
moteness of its situation, protected the neighbour¬
ing state of Jeselmer, lying north-west of IVIarwar,
and inhabited chiefly by the Bhatti tribe of Rajputs.
Although secluded from the aggressions of the Mah-
rattas, domestic quarrels did their work as well.
In an angle formed between Jaypur and Malwa,
the province of Hárávati, so called from its prUi-
cipal occupants the Hára Rajputs, was divided be¬
tween Ko ta and Bundi. Kota was under the ma¬
nagement of Zalim Sing, nominally minister, but
exercising the authority of Raja ; his sovereign being
content to lead a life of ease and exemption from
responsibility. By a remarkable association of craft,
prudence, and resolution, Zalim Sing, although
obliged to pay tribute and occasional extraordinary
contributions, contrived to remain on friendly terms
kota and bündi.
9T
with the Mahratta leaders, and to preserve his book i.
country from their ravages : he had also established ''
a character for firm and faithful adherence to his 1807.
engagements, and to his honour and integrity the
chiefs of every nation and tribe were accustomed to
intrust their families and their wealth.^ The state of
Bundi, which in the reign of Akbar was one of the
most considerable Rajput principalities, had been
reduced to narrow limits by a series of misfortunes
and the enmity of Jaypur. In consequence of the
latter, n former Raja had been dispossessed of his
patrimony ; but he had been reinstated by Malhar
Rao Holkar, and had thence become a tributary of
the Mahratta. His grandson, the ruling Raja at
the time of Colonel Monson's retreat, had given the
British detachment a free passage through his ter¬
ritories, and afforded every assistance within his
means. Those whom he had befriended, abandoned
him to the resentment which his conduct had pro¬
voked in their behalf ; and for several years he was
exposed to every species of insult and extortion,
from the vindictive policy of Sindhia and Holkar.®
The only other Rajput principality of any consi¬
deration was that of Macheri, between the Jumna
and Jaypur. Originally a feudatory of Jaypur, the
Raja had taken advantage of the enfeebled condition
of his liege lord, and had early in the Mahratta war
placed his independence under the shield of British
protection.® The engagement was concluded during
' Ambaji Inglia and Amir Khan both placed their families in the safe
keeping of Zalim Sing ; and the former deposited at Kota his treasures,
which were of considerable amount.—Central India, i. 493.
2 Annals of Rajasthan, i. 601 ; Duff's Mahrattas, iii. 281. 311.
' Coll. of Treaties, 251. The treaty was a general engagement of de-
vol. i.
H
98
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the administration of Lord Wellesley, in conformity
'• to his policy of interposing a chain of independent
1807. native princes between the Jumna and the Mah-
rattas. As this was contrary to the views of his
successors, they would have thought it fortunate if
the Rajas of Macheri and Bhurtpore, who were si¬
milarly circumstanced, could have been induced to
seek the dissolution of the alliance : they were
obliged to admit however, that, as the engagements
had been contracted, it would be inconsistent with
the credit of the Government to refrain from grant¬
ing them protection against the menaced aggres¬
sions of Holkar. Notwithstanding reiterated assur¬
ances to this effect, the Raja of Macheri, alarmed
by the abandonment of Jaypm-, continued to appre¬
hend a like desertion, until the obvious change in
the counsels of Calcutta dissipated his fears.
It is equally unnecessary to enter at any length
upon the condition of the Ját princes of Hindustan.
Professing to descend from the illustrious tribe of
Yadu, the Jats on the Jumna had been trans¬
formed, by the necessity of self-defence, from a race
of pacific agriculturists, into a nation of soldiers and
conqueror». Forced into martial distinction by the
distractions of Hindustan which followed the reign
of Aurangzeb, they continued, under a succession of
warlike chieftains, to take a prominent and profit¬
able part in all the troubles which ensued, until the
establishment of the authority of Sindhia at Delhi.
In this interval their leaders acquired extensive
fensive alliance : troops were to be sent to the aid of the Raja when re-
quir€dy after failure of mediation between him and any other prince with
whom he might be at enmity. No subsidy or tribute was imposed.
rana of gohud.
99
and valuable possessions ; and, although their power book i.
had been diminished by the superior resources of
the Mahrattas, the representative of the original I807.
ruling family still retained a country of some ex¬
tent, guarded by strong-holds, one of which was for
many years a monument of British discomfiture.
The Raja of Bhurtpore had become subsequently an
ally of the British Government, and readily had
recourse to its aid in moments of peril.^ The suc¬
cessful defence of his fortress had, however, im¬
pressed him strongly with a mistaken estimate of
his own importance, and in his intercourse vdth
the protecting state he displayed equal arrogance
and distrust.
The only other prince of this tribe, the Rana of
Gohud, was descended from a Ját leader who rose
to distinction in the time of the first Baji Rao
in the Peshwa's service. After the defeat of the
Mahrattas at the battle of Paniput, he set himself
up as independent ruler of the districts which had
been intrusted to his charge ; and his successor was
allowed to retain them on condition of paying tri¬
bute to the Peshwa. The chiefs of Gohud were
both by tribe and by position the enemies of the
Mahrattas ; and in this spirit the Rana, during the
administration of Warren Hastings, joined the Bri¬
tish, and rendered useful service to the detachment
under Colonel Camac. After the peace he was left
to his own unassisted means of defence, and these
were insufficient to save him from the resentment
of Madhoji Sindhia. His territory was invaded;
' For an account of the J4ts, see Tod's Rajasthan, ii. 370; also a
sketch of their history, Calcutta Quarterly Magazine, March, 1826.
H 2
100
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the fort of Gwalior, which after its capture from
Sindhia by the British had been given to the Rana,
1807. was re-taken; and the Rana was compelled to sur¬
render himself a prisoner, upon a verbal assurance
of personal immunity. In the late war with the
Mahrattas, Ambaji Inglia, who governed Gohud on
the part of Dowlat Rao Sindhia, went over to his
enemies ; and, as the reward of his desertion, a por¬
tion of the territory was guaranteed to him by
treaty, whilst the Rana was replaced in the occupa¬
tion of the remainder.^ The policy of Sir G. Bar¬
low, and his anxiety to conciliate Sindhia, led him
to annul the treaty with the Rana of Gohud, upon
the plea that he had not fulfilled its conditions, and
that the agreement was therefore virtually can¬
celled. The territory was in consequence restored
to Sindhia, and compensation was made to the
Rana by the cession to him of Dholpur, which
Sindhia had given up.® The stipulations of the
treaty had pledged the Rana to efforts beyond his
means ; and his failure, as it proceeded from no
defection on his part, was not a sufficient excuse for
the violation of positive engagements. At the same
time, it iá" evident that the British Government had
formed an erroneous conception of the rights and
power of the Rana of Gohud, and that Sindhia had
good reason to complain of an arrangement which
had converted a dependent of his government into
an independent prince. The Rana himself, al-
' Ambaji was allowed to retain territory yielding a revenue of nine
lakhs of rupees a-year. The portion assigned to the Rana was estimated
at twenty-six lakhs.—Coll. of Treaties, pp. 256. 258.
' Second treaty with Kirat Sing, Rana of Gohud, 1806.—Coll. of
Treaties, 298.
ORIGIN OP THE SIKHS. 101
though not placed in the position which was at first
designed for him, had no little cause for self-gratu-
lation in his transformation from the condition of a
prisoner and a fugitive, to that of a prince reigning
in absolute sovereignty, under the security of Bri¬
tish protection, over a portion of those domains the
whole of which were held by his ancestors only
through the sufferance of a Mahratta chieftain, sub¬
ject to his exactions and liable to his resumption.^
Although seceders in some respects from the
orthodbx religion of the Hindus, the Sikhs retain
so many essential articles of the Brahmanical faith,
that they may be justly classed among the Hindu
races. In their original institution, the Sikhs were
a religious community, who, in consonance with
the benevolent objects of their founder, Nanak
Shah, a native of the Punjab, proposed to abolish
the distinctions of caste, and to combine Hindus
and Mohammedans in a form of theistical devotion,
derived from the blended abstractions of Sufyism and
the Vedanta, and adapted to popular currency by
the dissemination of the tenets which it inculcated,
in hymns and songs composed in the vernacular dia-
' The conduct of Sir G. Barlow in regard to the Rana of Gohud has
been vindicated by high authority. In the debate on the India Budget in
the House of Commons, 10th July, 1806, Sir Arthur Wellesley is reported
to have asserted that Lord Wellesley had himself taken into consideration
the expediency of restoring to Sindhia the territory of Gohud and the fort
of Gwalior, and that the cession was not sooner made was owing to a want
of confidence in the steadiness and consistency of Sindhia's counsels. Sir
A. Wellesley states also that it had always been his opinion that Gohud
and Gwalior ought to be restored to Sindhia. " Upon the whole," he con¬
cludes, " the committee will observe, that I consider Sir G. Barlow's treaty
with Sindhia to have been consistent with the spirit of that which I was
the instrument of concluding at the close of the year 1803 ; and that the
late Governor-General, Lord Wellesley, intended to have carried into exe¬
cution that part of its stipulations which refers to Gwalior and Gohud.''—
Hansard's Pari. Deb.
102
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. lects. These still constitute the scriptural authority,
CHAP« I« X •"
the Grantha, the book of the Sikhs. The doctrines
1807. and the influence of the teachers gave a common
faith to the hardy and intrepid population of the
upper part of the Punjab, and merged whatever dis¬
tinctive appellations they previously possessed in the
new general designation of " Sikhs," or " disciples,"
which thenceforth became their national denomina¬
tion. As their numbers increased, they attracted
the notice of the Mohammedan rulers, and were
subjected to the ordeal of persecution. They had
recourse to arms : under a succession of military
leaders, the sword became inseparably associated in
their creed vsdth the book ; and their ranks were re¬
cruited by fugitives from political disorder and fiscal
oppression, who readily adopted a faith which made
but trifling demands upon their belief, and differed
in few material points from that which they pro¬
fessed. Community of danger became the bond of
both a religious and a social organization, and a
nation grew out of a sect. As the birth-place of their
founder Nanak, and of the teacher who in a still
greater degree gave to the Sikhs their characteristic
peculiarities, Guru Govind Sing, was the Punjab;
it was there that they congregated and became
organised, in spite of the efforts of the viceroys of
Lahore for their suppression, until they had become
masters of the whole of the country from the Setlej
to the Indus.
The circumstances under which the Sikhs achieved
their independence were unfavourable to the con¬
solidation of their power. In their hostilities with
the Mohammedans they acted without plan and
formation of the sikh confederacy.
103
without an acknowledged head, and adopted a de- book i,
sultory system of warfare, in which different leaders
collected their relations and friends, and nnexpect- I807.
edly fell upon their enemies and laid waste the
country. As the means of opposing their incursions
declined, they were emboldened to undertake ope¬
rations of greater importance requiring concert and
combination; and, for this purpose, the different
Sirdars assembled occasionally at a public diet
usually held at Amritsar, the site of their principal
shrine.* When the Afghans supplanted the Moguls
in the government of the Punjab, the Sikhs expe¬
rienced some severe reverses from the military skill
and activity of Ahmed Shah; but after his death
they were left at liberty to establish themselves as a
political confederacy in the countries which they now
occupy. The districts were divided amongst differ¬
ent associations termed Misais, implying assemblies
of equals under chiefs of their own selection. The
chief was to lead in war, and arbitrate in peace : he
was treated with deference by the other Sirdars, but
they recognised no obligation to obey his commands.
Towards the end of the last century twelve principal
Misais were formed, varying considerably in the ex¬
tent of territory which they governed, and in the
number of horse which they could bring into the
field.^
In the course of time the inherent defects of a
military federation of this description began to be
manifested, and individual ambition and ability to
' An interesting account of the Sikh federation will be found in the
" Origin of the Sikh power in the Punjab," compiled by Mr. Prinsep
chiefly from the report of Captain William Murray, Political Agent at
Ambala ; Calcutta, 1834.
104 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. assume that ascendancy which they were calculated
to attain. Amongst the least considerable of the
1807. Misais was that of Surat-Chak, so called from the
lands which the progenitors of the chief, Charat Sing,
had originally cultivated. Charat Sing commenced
a career of aggrandisement at the expense of his
neighbours, which his son Maha Sing pursued
with still greater success. The son of the latter,
Ranjit Sing, had, however, surpassed both ; and by a
singular combination of courage and cunning he had
brought most of the chiefs on the west of the Setlej
under his controul. The chiefs on the east of that
river, whose possessions were contiguous to the pro¬
vince of Delhi, professed, after the close of the
Mahratta war, an undefined allegiance to the Bri¬
tish Government ; and some uncertainty with regard
to the protection with which it was repaid com¬
pelled Ranjit Sing to proceed with caution in his
project of extending his supremacy across the Setlej.
That he was disappointed in his projects was attri¬
butable to the altered policy of the British Govern¬
ment upon the accession of Lord.Minto to the
office of Governor-General.^
From th® review that has been thus taken of
the political circumstances of India during the
administration of Sir G. Barlow, it is evident
that the supremacy of the British power was
virtually established, although matters were not
yet sufficiently ripe for its open avowal. Some
' A description of the religious tenets of the Sikhs wiU be found in the
Asiatic Researches, vol. xvii. ; and a more general account of their origin
and history is published in the eleventh volume of the same collection, by
Sir John Malcolm. Mr. Prinsep's work, just referred to, describes their
later progress and the rise of Ranjit Sing.
RESULTS OF BRITISH POLICY. 105
unnecessary forbearance was no doubt exhibited, book i.
and some degree of blame deservedly incurred
for apprehensions needlessly entertained, and en- I807.
gagements unjustifiably violated; but it may be
questioned if the policy of the Government did not,
however undesignedly, promote the consummation
which it was intended to avoid. It would have
been easy, and it would have been generous, to
have interposed in defence of the Rajput princes
and rescued them from Mahratta rapacity ; but, had
the tÁnquillity of Hindustan been restored by a
further expenditure of the resources of Bengal, the
latter would have required a longer period for the
renovation of its exhausted vigour, whilst the former
would have been earlier placed in a condition to
provoke and defy its resentment. The continued
contests of the native princes operated favourably
for the extension of British ascendancy : they dis¬
posed the weaker to welcome the approach of fo¬
reign protection, and they disabled the stronger from
offering effective opposition. On the other hand,
the suspension of military operations of auy magni¬
tude for several years afforded the British Govern¬
ment opportunity to accumulate and improve its
resources, and, when again compelled to employ
them, to put forth its energies with a might which
made resistance to it hopeless, and elevated it to an
eminence from which it directed without dispute
the destinies of Hindustan.
106
histoky of british india,
CHAPTER II.
Sir George Barlow, Governor-General.—State of the
Finances. — Retrenchments.— Supplies.— Judicial
and Revenue Arrangements for Cuttack, the Doab,
and Bundelkhand. — Revenue Settlements in the
Ceded and Conquered Provinces.—Separation of Ju¬
dicial and Revenue Functions at Madras.—Murder
of Europeans at Vellore.—Arrival of the Dragoons.
—Fort retaken.—Military Inquiry.—Disposal of
the Prisoners.—Causes and circumstances of the
Mutiny.—Its Origin in religious panic occasioned
by military Orders.—Similar Alarms at Hydera¬
bad, Walajabad, and Nandidrúg allayed or sup¬
pressed.—Lord W. Bentinck and Sir John Cradock
recalled.— Ultimate Decision of the Court of Di¬
rectors.
BOOK i. When the provisional assumption of the govern-
cHAP.ii. Qf India by Sir George Barlow, consequent
1806. upon the death of Marquis Comwallis, was known
in England, the Court of Directors determined to
nominate him permanently Governor-General, and
the nomination was acquiesced in by the Board of
Controul. The principles of the policy which he
pursued towards the native states have been suf¬
ficiently explained, and their consequences exhi¬
bited in the preceding pages. The other transac-
SYSTEM OF RETRENCHMENT.
107
tiens of his administration were for the most part book i.
of inferior interest, though scarcely of minor im- "*
portance. isoe.
The first cares of the new GoYernor-General
were engaged by the state of the public finances,
which had been seriously deranged by the expenses
of the war. The charges had for some years past
exceeded the revenues by a considerable amount,
and the deficit had been supplied by loans con¬
tracted at a high rate of interest,^ or by the applica¬
tion of the Company's commercial remittances to
tenitorial disbursements. Heavy demands still re¬
mained for liquidation ; the pay of the troops was
seven and eight months in arrear ; large sums were
due on account of pensions to native chiefs and
princes, and funds to meet these claims were for
some time deficient.'^
The restoration of tranquillity admitted of econo¬
mical retrenchments in the principal article of
public expenditure, the charges of the military de¬
partment, and in nothing more than the dismissal
of the irregular troops which had been taken into
the British service during the war : these were dis¬
banded, in several cases with injudicious haste ; and
Jagirs were assigned to some of their leaders in
commutation of pay or pension. A present incon¬
venience was thus in a great measure obviated, but
the newly acquired districts were burthened with
establishments which even in the present day in
* A loan was opened in January, 1805, at 10 per cent., by which sicca
rupees 2,12,47,000 (¿£2,640,000) were raised.
' The demands payable by the Bengal Government amounted in May,
1806, to ninety lakhs of rupees, to meet which not above forty lakhs were
available.
108
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. some degree diminish the revenue that might else
"* be raised from them. Extensive reductions of the
1806. regular forces were at the same time effected.
The economical principles which guided the pro¬
ceedings of the Government of Bengal were equally
impressed upon the attention of the subordinate
Governments, and the importance attached to the
object by Sir G. Barlow is fully shown by the lan¬
guage in which his views were communicated to
Bombay and Madras. He reminded the supreme
authorities at both Presidencies that, " the finances
of the Company having been involved in extraordi¬
nary difficulties by the consequences of the late
war, it had become the solemn duty of the different
Indian Governments to establish a system of the
most rigid economy through every branch of their
civil and military expenditure;" and he therefore
enjoined them " to abrogate all such charges as
were not indispensable to the good government and
security of the provinces under their controul. The
extraordinary demands upon the public resources
had arisen," he observed, " almost exclusively from
the enhanced charges of the military departments ;
but the circumstances of India were now propitious
to their retrenchment, as no danger was to be ap¬
prehended from French aggression, and the condi¬
tion of the native states not in alliance with the
Company precluded all apprehension of their pos¬
sessing the means of making any impression upon
the British power for a long course of years : that
independently of this prospect of future tranquillity,
derived from the preponderating power of the lat¬
ter, the treaties which had been contracted with
EMBARRASSMENTS TEMPORARY.
109
Sindhia and other princes had been drawn up with book i.
a view to remove all grounds of difference, and to
conciliate them by concessions which would render isoe.
it their interest to preserve the relations of amity
so established inviolate." The Governor-General
suggested various specifications of retrenchment, and
concluded by confidently hoping that in a short
time the reductions from those sources would re¬
lieve all pressure upon the finances, and restore de¬
preciated public credit, leaving a surplus to pay off
the public debt and provide the Company's com¬
mercial investment.
This last consideration, the provision of the in¬
vestment of goods for sale in England, was, in fact,
the main-spring of Sir G. Barlow's policy, as it was
of that of the Company. It was the pressure upon
their commercial credit and resources which the
latter were most anxious to relieve; and, as their
instructions to that effect found an obedient agent
in the Governor-General, the necessary result was
the sacrifice of all comprehensive political views
to present commercial exigencies. The financial
embarrassments of the Indian Governments were
merely of a temporary nature : the return of
peace necessarily reduced much of the immediate
charge; and the revenues were rapidly increasing,
from the valuable accessions of territory acquired
during the war, and the certainty of their improve¬
ment under a regular and efficient system of admi¬
nistration. Nor was there any cause for alarm in
the state of public credit, as, although it had been
thought necessary to offer a high rate of interest,
ten per cent, per annum, on a loan contracted in the
110
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. early part of 1805, the rate was not unprecedented
or unusual ; and in the course of 1806 a loan was
1806. opened at eight per cent, per annum, with such en¬
tire success, as in the course of a few years to ab¬
sorb all preceding and more burthensome obliga¬
tions.^ The rate then negotiated commenced a
series of reductions of the interest of the public
debt, which has for some years past nearly equalised
the interest paid in India with that which com¬
monly prevails in the kingdoms of continental Eu¬
rope.®
The exertions made by Sir George Barlow for
the diminution of the public expenditure were not
in vain ; and by the end of April 1807, the close of
the Indian official year, shortly after which he re¬
linquished his office to his successor, he had re¬
duced the excess of annual charge to less than a
half of its amount in 1805, and had matured a sys¬
tem of economy, which, in the first years of Lord
hlinto's administration, transformed the deficit into
a surplus.®
' Sicca rupees 26,65,00,000, or about í30,000,000, were transferred and
subscribed to tbis loan between 1805-6 and 1810-11, when it chiefly merged
into a loan at no higher a rate than 6 per cent.
' The rates of interest now borne by the public debt of India are 4 and
5 per cent.
' The statements appended to the Second Report of the Select Committee
of the House of Commons, printed in May, 1810, present the following
comparative view of the relative revenues and charges of India from
1804-5 to 1807-8.
Revenue. Charge. Eiccess of Charge.
1804-5 . . £14,949,395 . . £16,487,346 . . £1,537,951
1805-6 . . 15,403,409 . . 17,672,017 . . 2,268,608
1806-7 . . 14,535,729 . . 17,688,061 . . 3,152,322
1807-8 . . 15,669,905 . . 15,979,027 . . 309,122
By a statement in the author's possession, compiled in the oSice of the
accountant-general in Calcutta, the returns of the three first years in Sicca
Rupees are as follows :
demands provided for.
Ill
In order to provide for the most urgent and im- book i.
mediate demands, funds were raised by a loan in
1805-6 ; by which, in the course of that and the fol- isoe.
lowing year, about four millions sterling were sup¬
plied to the treasury : the deficit which remained
Revenue. Charge. Excess of Charge.
1804-5 . S.R.I 3,06,49,241 . S. R. 15,76,18,750 . S. R. 2,69,69,509
1805-6 . „ 13,58,28,952 . „ 16,44,88,747 . „ 2,86,49,795
1806-7 . „ 12,97,16,627 . „ 13.99,23,581 . „ 1,02,06,904
and in the fourth year, Surplus Revenue.
1807-8 . „ 13,87,59,682 . „ 13,77,19,952 . „ 10,39,730
which surplus, calculating the rupee at 2s., which is something less than
its intrinsic value, is equal to i;i03,973. These particulars agree with the
statements given by Mr. Tucker ; of which he remarks, that, as they were
prepared from official and authentic documents, they may be received with
confidence.—Review of the Financial Situation of the East India Company,
by H. St. George Tucker, p. 13. One source of difference in the two
statements is the difference of exchange valuation. The old accounts of
the East India Company were converted from Indian into English mo¬
ney at 2s. per current rupee (116 of which were equal to 100 Siccas) for
Bengal, 8s. per pagoda for Madras, and 2s. 3d. per Bombay rupee : a
valuation which, however correct according to the state of the exchange,
was far above the intrinsic value of the coins; the current rupee at par
being worth only Is. 9d. *177, the pagoda 7s.6d.*386, and the Bombay
rupee 2s. "008.— Report of Select Committee on the Finances of the East
India Company, August 1832, App. No. 20. In the above comparison of
receipts and disbursements, the rate being the same on both does not very
materially affect the result, but the excess conveys an exaggerated view of
their amount to the extent of about one-seventh of the aggregate sums.
Now, although the exchange values of the Indian currencies might be
properly taken as the standard for their conversion into English money in
regard to all receipts and disbursements, whether commercial or territorial,
occurring in England, yet such a standard was wholly inapplicable to re¬
venues and charges beginning and ending in India itself. The intrinsic
value of the currencies, as compared with that of the British coinage, was
in such case the least variable and most correct measure. The statements
in Sicca Rupees, converted into Sterling at 2s. the rupee, would therefore
be preferable, as nearer the truth ; but their use is inconvenient, as afford¬
ing results different from those given in the Parliamentary and India
House accounts, the authorities most readily available : these will there¬
fore generally be followed. In the present case, besides the difference
of valuation, there is a discrepancy in the relative statements which is
not easily accounted for. The annual accounts must have been made up
either on different principles or for somewhat different intervals. The
aggregate of the four years, adopting the conversion of the sicca into the
current rupee, offers a near though not close approximation; the Par-
liaimentary accounts making it £7,268,003, the Calcutta statements sicca
rupees 6,47,86,478 (equal to current rupees 7,51,52,314, and, at 2s. the
current rupee, to) £7,515,231.
112
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. was met by remittances from Europe, which, dur-
ing the three years from 1804-5 to 1806-7, exceed-
1806. ed hy two millions sterling the supplies realised
in England from the proceeds of the Company's
trade.
Besides the measures adopted for the removal of
financial difficulties, the Indian Governments were
occupied during the interval between the departure
of Marquis Wellesley and the arrival of Lord
Minto in extending and consolidating the revenue
and judicial arrangements in various districts newly
taken under their authority. Upon the annexation
of the province of Cuttack to the Presidency of
Bengal, commissioners were appointed to effect a
settlement of the revenue with the landholders ; and
in September 1804 the latter were apprised that at
the expiration of a twelvemonth a fixed assessment
would be levied upon their lands, upon a just and
moderate consideration of the receipts of former
years. This announcement was confirmed by a
regulation of the Government;^ and the same enact¬
ment recognised the principle of substituting a quit-
rent for a land assessment in respect to certain
petty Rajas and Zemindars residing in the moun¬
tains and thickets of Orissa. All other sources of
revenue which had existed under the Mahratta Go¬
vernment were abolished, with the exception of an
excise upon spirituous liquors, and a capitation tax
upon pilgrims to the temple of Jagannath. The
latter was the subject of a further enactment® in the -
following year, by which the amount of the tax, the
mode of levying it, and other cirtíumstances con-
' Bengal Regulations. Reg. xii. 1805. ^ Reg. iv. 1806.
judicial arrangements in cuttack.
113
nected with it, were defined, with a view to protect book i.
the pilgrims from the unwarranted exactions of the
officers of the Government or of the temple, and to I8O6,
maintain order and security in the town of Jagan--
nath-pur and its dependencies. At the same time,
provision was made for the administration of justice
in civil causes by the institution of a provincial
court,' and a revision was effected of the system of
police which had been previously in force in Cut-
tack. The duties of the police during the Mahratta
Government had been intrusted to a body of armed
men, termed Paiks, or foot-men; who were com¬
manded by their own Sirdars or chiefs, and occupied
lands exempt from rent, in payment of their ser¬
vices. They were subject to the general controul
of the landholders within whose domains they were
located, and the landholders were responsible to the
Government for the prevention of disorders and
robberies within the limits of their respective es¬
tates.® This system was unchanged ; but, in order
to fix upon the landholders a better defined autho¬
rity and more distinct responsibility, they were
formally invested with the title and powers of
Darogas, or head-officers of police, under the ge¬
neral superintendence of the magistrate of the
province.
' Reg. xiv. 1805. A striking instance is afforded by one of the clauses
of this regulation of the high value of money under the Mahratta Govern¬
ment, and its anticipated reduction under the British. In all disputes
concerning obligations bearing interest which originated before October,
1803, the court was authorised to recognise the following rates : on sums
not exceeding 100 rupees, 30 per cent, per annum ; on larger sums, 24 per
cent, per annum. Subsequently to the date specified, the rate of interest
was restricted to 12 per cent, per annum.
Reg. iv. 1804.
vol. i.
i
114
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. The introduction of the Company's judicial and
revenue regulations into the territories lastly ac-
1806. quired in the Doab and in Bundelkhand had been
accomplished by previous enactments.^ Those af¬
fecting the revenue were based upon the principle
of an ultimate settlement in perpetuity in the Upper
provinces as well as in Bengal, but postponing its
conclusion to the expiration of certain definite pe¬
riods. Two successive settlements were to be made
for a term of three years each, and a third was to
be concluded for a period of four years. On the
close of each of the two first periods, the assessment
was to be revised and augmented according to the
progressive improvement which it was anticipated
would have taken place in the value of landed pro¬
perty ; and at the end of the three terms, forming
an aggregate of ten years, it was proposed to con¬
clude a perpetual settlement for all such lands as
might be in a sufficiently improved state of cultiva¬
tion to warrant the measure, on such terms as the
Grovemment should deem fair and equitable. This
last stipulation, strictly interpreted, rendered the
pledge of little worth ; for it reserved to the Govern¬
ment the determination not only of the final rate of
assessment, but of the condition of the lands to be
assessed. A still more important modification of
the original enactment was, however, introduced by
Sir George Barlow. On the termination of the
first triennial period of the settlement of the Ceded
provinces, he added a clause to its renewal, which
Lord Wellesley either overlooked or considered
superfluous ; and enacted, that the proposed settle-
' Regs. XXV. 1803; v. viii. ix. 1805.
enactments at madras.
115
ment of the revenue in perpetuity in the Ceded and book i.
Conquered provinces should depend upon the con-
firmation of the Court of Directors.^ Their confir- 18O6.
mation was never conceded.
The principal legislative enactment at Fort St.
George had for its object the discontinuance of the
judicial powers theretofore given to the collectors
of the revenue in the districts which had not been
permanently assessed. Distinct courts of civil judi¬
cature were established in the several Zillas, and
the separation of the judicial from the revenue de¬
partment was completed in the territories of the
Madras Presidency as well as in those of Bengal.^
At the same time, the Supreme Court of Appeal
was remodelled. It had hitherto been constituted
of the Governor and Members of Council, a board
already fully occupied. In their stead three Judges
were appointed to the special duty of hearing ap¬
peals from the courts below, in addition to a Mem¬
ber of Council not being Governor of Madras, who
was to act as Chief Judge.® No enactment of any
interest was promulgated during this period at
Bombay.
In the midst of their pacific occupations the Go¬
vernments of India were startled by the occurrence
of an event unprecedented in the annals of British
India, and inspiring fears for the solidity and per-
' " The Governor-General in Council hereby notifies to the Zemindars
and other actual proprietors of land in the Ceded and Conquered provinces,
that the Jumma which may be assessed on their estates in the last year of
the settlement immediately ensuing the present settlement shall remain
fixed for ever, in case the Zemindars shall now be willing to engage for the
payment of the public revenue on those terms in perpetuity, and the
arrangement shall receive the sanction of the Court of Directors.''—Reg. x.
180T. Sect. V.
2 Reg. ii. 1800. 3 Reg. iii. 1807.
1 2
116
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. manence of the empire,—the massacre of the Eu-
ropean officers and soldiers in the garrison of Vel-
1806. lore by the native regiments on duty along with
them. This happened on the morning of the 10th
of July, 1806.^
The fortress of Vellore, situated eighty-eight miles
west from Madras, had been chosen, for the conve¬
nience of its position and the strength of its de¬
fences, as a safe residence for the family of Tippoo
Sultan, which consisted of twelve sons and six
daughters. The six elder sons were married, and
had children : four of the daughters also were mar¬
ried, and the marriage of the fifth was in course of
solemnisation when the mutiny broke out. Their
families, with their connexions and followers, formed
an assemblage of several hundred persons, all living
in the former palace of the Nawabs of the Camatic,
within the fort. The princes had been treated with
a degree of distinction and liberality better suited to
their former dignity than their fallen fortimes. They
were under no other personal restraint than the at¬
tendance of a guard when they moved out, and pro¬
hibition against going out of the fort without the
written authority of the commandant of the garri¬
son and the paymaster of their stipends. Their
allowances not only provided amply for their wants,
but enabled them to support some show of state,
and to collect around them a swarm of needy
' The chief authorities for the following narrative and observations are,
the MS. Correspondence of the Madras Government ; Papers printed for
Parliament in 1813 ; a Memorial addressed to the Court of Directors, and
afterwards printed in 1810, by Lord William Bentinck; and Sir J.
Cradock's Address to the Court, printed in the Asiatic Annual Register
for 1807.
mutiny at vellore.
117
adventurers and vagrant mendicants, the willing booki.
instruments of mischief and eager fomenters of "
discontent.^ The general charge of the princes isoe.
and payment of their pensions were consigned to
Lieutenant-Colonel Marriott. No other officer was
allowed to enter the palace without the permission
of the princes, and no European sentinel did duty
within its precincts. The native sentries were posted
only at the outer doors of the several dwellings.
Colonel Marriott discharged also the duties of su-
perintehdent of police for the fort and the adjacent
town of Vellore, the population of which had largely
increased. The garrison of the fort consisted of
four companies of his Majesty's 69th regiment, six
companies of the first battalion of the 1st regiment
of Native Infantry, and the second battalion of the
23rd. The Europeans were about three hundred
and seventy in number, the natives fifteen hundred.
The whole were commanded by Colonel Fancourt,
the colonel of the 69th. Spacious barracks were
severally appropriated to the use of the European
and native troops. The officers occupied sepa¬
rate, and, for the most part, detached houses.
About three o'clock in the morning of the 10th
of July, the tranquillity of repose was broken by
the sudden discharge of fire-arms, and the sound
was speedily repeated in various directions. The
Sipahis had been assembled silently in their quar¬
ters under arms by their native officers, and led
' The four elder princes were allowed 50,000 rupees a-year each ; the
three next,25,000 rupees; the two younger, 8,400rupees ; and the remain¬
ing three, 6,000 each. There were above 3000 natives of Mysore in the fort
and adjoining Petta or town, and above 500 Mohammedan Fakirs. The
whole population of the town was about 8000.
118
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. to unexpected assaults upon the European posts.
CHAP. II. English sentinels on duty at the main-
1806. guard and the powder magazine were shot or bay¬
oneted almost before they were aware of their dan¬
ger, and the possession of the magazine secured
to the insurgents the sole supply of ammunition.
Their chief body beset the European barracks, firing
through the open doors and windows volley after
volley, and repelling every attempt of its inmates to
sally forth, by a murderous discharge of musketry,
and the fire of a field-piece which they had planted
opposite to the doorway. As soon as these attacks
commenced, detachments were stationed to watch
the dwellings of the officers, with instructions to fire
upon any one who should come forth : and, in pur¬
suance of the order. Colonel Fancourt, as he de¬
scended from his house, received a wound which
proved fatal ; and Lieutenant-Colonel JM'Kerras,
commanding the 23rd, was shot as he was hastening
to the parade. After the barracks were surrounded,
parties of the native soldiers forced their way into
the houses of the Europeans, and put to death with
unsparing ferocity all whom they could discover.
Thirteen officers were killed, besides several Euro¬
pean conductors of ordnance. In the barracks,
eighty-two privates were killed, and ninety-one
were wounded. The mutineers did not venture to
enter the building, where they would have had to
encounter the bayonets of the soldiers, but con¬
tented themselves with pouring their fire into the
apartments ; in which the men, unable for want of
ammunition to return it, screened themselves against
its effects as well as they were able by the beds and
proceedings of the mutineers.
119
furniture. Early in the morninff, a few officers, who book i.
CHAP« 11«
had collected in one of the dwellings and had sue-
cessfully defended themselves, made their way to isoe.
the barracks, and, placing themselves at the head of
the survivors, forced a passage through the muti¬
neers and ascended the ramparts, where they took
post in a cavalier. Hence they reached the maga¬
zine, but were disappointed in their expectation of
supplying themselves with powder, and were obliged
to return to the ramparts, where they found cover
above the main gateway and in a bastion at the
south-east angle of the fort. In these movements
they were exposed to a continued fire, by which all
the officers were disabled and many of the men
were killed ; yet they maintained their ground with
steadfast courage, and repeatedly drove back their
assailants at the point of the bayonet.
During the whole of these transactions an active
communication was kept up between the mutineers
and the palace, and many of the servants and fol¬
lowers of the princes were conspicuously active in
the scenes of bloodshed and plunder which followed
the first success. By some of these a flag, which
had once belonged to Tippoo and bore his insignia,'
was brought out of the palace and hoisted on the
flagstaff amidst the acclamations of the multitude ;
but it was speedily pulled down by the men of the
69th as they passed the flagstaff in- their way from
the barracks to the ramparts. The indications of
regularity and conduct which marked the first pro¬
ceedings of the insurgents soon disappeared : subor¬
dination was speedily at an end; the Sipahis and
' A sun in the centre, with tiger stripes on a green field.
120
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. followers of the palace dispersed in quest of plunder ;
and many who had been reluctant participators in
180G. the mutiny, who began to fear its consequences, or
who sought to secure the booty they had obtained,
availed themselves of the confusion to leave the
fort. No arrangements had been made to hold the
fortress, or to withdraw to any other position, when
the alaiTU was given that retribution was at hand.
Arcot, the ancient capital of the Carnatic, and
the scene of Clive's celebrated defence, was about
nine miles distant from Vellore. It was a military
station ; and, among the troops cantoned there, was
the 19th regiment of dragoons under the command
of Lieutenant-Colonel Gillespie. Information of
the insurrection reached Arcot by six in the morn¬
ing; and a squadron of the 19th, with a strong troop
of the 7th Native Cavalry, with Colonel Gillespie
at their head, was immediately on the road to Vel¬
lore, the galloper guns and remainder of the ca¬
valry being ordered to follow without delay. By
eight o'clock the first party was before the gates of
the fortress : the outer two were open, a third was
closed ; but it was here that a few of the 69th had
effected a lodgement, and some of the men, lowered
by their comrades from the wall, opened the gate
to the cavalry. There was still a fourth gateway,
which was shut, and this was commanded by the
mutineers so completely that it was necessary to
wait for the guns to blow it open : they arrived
about ten. Upon their approach. Colonel Gillespie
caused himself to be drawn up to the rampart,
where he put himself at the head of the party
which had maintained the position, and descended
the fort retaken.
121
from the post to charge the insurgents, at the same book i.
moment that the gate was blown open and the dra-
goons rushed into the fort. No resolute resistance i8o6.
was offered : after a feeble and straggling fire, the
insurgents scattered in all directions, and were cut
down by the cavalry, or bayoneted by the men of
the 69th. Between three and four hundred were
slain, many were taken, the rest escaped by dropping
from thé walls. In the course of ten minutes the
fort was again in the possession of the British troops,
and aif unsparing but not undeserved punishment
had been inflicted on a great number of the muti¬
neers. There still remained a multitude whose de¬
gree of participation in the mutiny and consequent
destiny it was necessary to determine, and it was
also of importance to discover the causes of so
alarming an outbreak.
The number of the prisoners was speedily in¬
creased by the apprehension of the fugitives in va¬
rious parts of the country by the police or by the
villagers, and by the spontaneous surrender of many
who either were, or wished to be thought, innocent.
Some of the latter were allowed to resume their
military duties, but there were still above six hun¬
dred Sipahis detained in confinement at Trichano-
poly and Vellore. A military tribunal had been in
the first instance instituted for their trial, by which
several of those whose guilt was substantiated were
condemned to death.^ The criminality of the rest
was referred to a special commission, upon whose
' Three native officers and fourteen non-commissioned officers and pri¬
vates were executed by sentence of a native court-martial.— General
Orders by the Government, Fort St. George, 14th January, 1807.
122 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. proceedings the Government long hesitated to pro-
"* nounce a final sentence. Although little doubt could
1806. be entertained that most of the Sipahis, whether in
confinement or at large, were deeply implicated in
the mutiny, yet it was impossible to procure satis¬
factory evidence of individual guilt, and it was in¬
compatible with justice to condemn the whole upon
probable imputation. To restore them to their mi¬
litary functions, was to insure impunity to insurrec¬
tion ; to set them at liberty and dismiss them, was
to disperse over the country a number of desperate
and dangerous men, whose example and instigations
might lead to greater mischief. To transport the
whole to Penang or the Cape, would be expensive
and inconvenient, even if it were just. The opinions
of the Governor and the Commander-in-chief were
at variance ; the former advocating the more lenient,
the latter the severer course. The former event¬
ually prevailed. The officers and men who were
absent at the time of the mutiny, or who had given
proofs of their fidelity on the occasion of its occur¬
rence, remained on the strength of the army : the
rest were discharged for ever from the service,
with the grfint to the officers of small pensions
for their support, and the numbers of the regi¬
ments were erased from the army list.^ The dis¬
posal of the prisoners remained undecided until
the arrival of Lord JVIinto at Madras on his way to
Bengal. It was then resolved that a final investiga¬
tion should take place, and, with the exception of
' Two new regiments were formed in their place, the 24th and 25th, to
which the European officers of the 1st and 3rd regiments, and such native
officers and men as were not discharged, were respectively transferred.
General Orders, 14th January, 1807.
causes of the mutiny.
123
those against whom proof of plunder and murder book i.
could be adduced, and who were to be punished ac- ""
cordingly, the whole should be gradually enlarged, isoe.
being dismissed from the service and declared in¬
capable of being again enlisted. As by this time the
agitation had subsided and the confidence of the
native troops was restored, the decision was carried
into effect without difficulty, and without being fol¬
lowed by any perceptible mischief. The ascertain¬
ment of the causes of the mutiny, and of the
principal circumstances attending it, was equally a
subject of prolonged deliberation and productive of
conflicting opinions.
Although the storm had burst so suddenly upon
the victims of its fury, indications of its approach
had not been wanting, and careful and intelligent
observation might have anticipated its violence and
guarded against its consequences. It was known
early in May that deep and dangerous discontent
pervaded the troops in garrison upon the subject of
orders regarding their dress and accoutrements, and
rigorous measures were resorted to for its suppres¬
sion. They had the usual effects of ill-judged seve¬
rity. They stifled the utterance but aggravated
the feelings, and embittered dissatisfaction by for¬
cing it to assume the mask of acquiescence. Secret
associations were formed, not only to resist the ob¬
noxious orders, but to brave the penalty which in¬
subordination incurred, by contracting guilt of a still
deeper dye ; and the native officers and men were
gradually drawn into a conspiracy to murder all the
Europeans in the fort, and elevate one of the sons
of Tippoo to the sovereignty from which his father
124
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. had been hurled by foreigners and infidels. Not-
withstanding the oath of secresy by which silence
1806. was imposed on all who were enrolled amongst the
conspirators, intimations of the plot transpired suf¬
ficient at least to have put the objects of it on their
guard. Not only were dark rumours of an ap¬
proaching tumult current in the fort and Petta,
but in the latter a Mohammedan Fakir repeatedly
proclaimed in the Bazar the impending destruction
of the Europeans. Little regard was paid to his
denunciations, as they were uttered with a wildness
of manner and vagueness of language which in¬
spired doubts of his sanity. Information still more
positive was equally disregarded. At midnight, on
the 17th of June, a Sipahi of the 1st regiment,
named Mustafa Beg, had come to Colonel Forbes,
the commander of the corps, and communicated
to him that a plot was concerted to murder
the European part of the garrison. The agitation
which the man exhibited, and the imperfectly
understood purport of his testimony, induced
the Colonel not only to doubt the authenticity of
his testimony, but to refer its investigation to a
committee of native ofiicers, who, being all more or
less implicated in the conspiracy, reported of course
that Mustafa Beg was unworthy of credence, and
demanded his confinement as the punishment of
his calumnious aspersions. He was accordingly
placed under arrest, and so remained until the mu¬
tiny and murder which he had in vain announced
had taken place.^ The utter neglect of these inti-
' Mustafa Beg escaped during the tumult, but returned to the fort a few
days afterwards, and was rewarded for his conduct by a pecuniary dona-
DISREGARD AND DEFICIENCY OF INFORMATION.
125
mations, and their vagueness and infrequency, might book i.
seem extraordinary, if there were not reason to
believe that there prevailed at the time a more isoe.
than even the usual estrangement between the Eu¬
ropean officers and the native troops, which is too
often engendered by the contemptuous indifference
entertained by the former for the feelings and opi¬
nions of the latter, and by their imperfect acquaint¬
ance with the native languages. Had there been
any cordiality between the European officers and
the native garrison,—had any one of them deserved
the confidence and attachment of his men, it is not
to be credited that only a single individual should
have been found faithful among the many who were
privy to the conspiracy, and that Mustafa Beg
should have stood alone in his communications.
Had there not also been some want of vigilance on
the part of the officers of the garrison, it is dif¬
ficult to conceive that they could have been so
wholly unprepared for such a widely extended and
desperate insurrection.^
tion of 2000 pagodas and a Subahdar's pension.—g. o. Madras, 7th
Aug. 1806. A European woman, who had resided some years in Vel-
lore, also apprised Colonel Fancourt that secret meetings were held by the
Sipahis in the Petta, at which seditious language was held. No attention
was paid to her testimony, as her character was disreputable.—MS. Pro¬
ceedings of Court of Inquiry.
' Shortly before this transaction. Sir John Cradock, the Commander-in-
chief, addressed a letter to the adjutant-general for circulation to the army,
in which he stated his regret to find that it was the prevailing practice of
the service to withhold from the native commissioned officers that respect
and intercourse to which their situation and common opinion entitled
them. The Court of Directors also remark, " We have too much reason
to apprehend, that, to the neglect and disrespect manifested to the native
officers by the European officers, the disposition to foment and conceal the
dissatisfaction of the men is principally to be attributed." They also ob¬
serve, "It has been represented to us that the deficiency in the knowledge
of the languages of the country prevalent amongst the officers of the army
may have operated as another cause of the absence of confidence between
the European officers and the native troops. We are aware of the injurious
126
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. The causes of this alarming occurrence necessarily
"• engaged the attention of the public both in India and
1806. in Europe, and an acrimonious controversy ensued,
which can scarcely be said even yet to be at rest.
Not that there was any sufficient reason for differ¬
ence of opinion. To an impartial judgment the real
cause was liable to no misconception ; but its admis¬
sion involved inferences which were pressed by one
party beyond their due limits, and of which the
grounds were therefore denied altogether by the
other. The question of converting the natives of
India to the Christian religion was supposed to de¬
pend for its solution upon the origin of the massacre
at Vellore. By those who were unfriendly to mis¬
sionary efforts, as well as those who were apprehen¬
sive of their effects upon native feeling, the transac-
effecls which this ignorance on the part of the European officers is likely
to produce, and which we are informed prevails to a great extent." They
proceed to suggest a plan for remedying the defect, but it has never yet
been carried into operation. A generad order of the Commander-in-chief,
issued in August, 1806, announced that he would not recommend, nor
would the Government approve of, any officer for a staff appointment who
did not possess " means of distinct communication with the native army.''
A knowledge of Hindustani had previously been required from cadets as a
condition of promotion, and from all officers as a qualification for the post
of adjutant. Adverting to the disregard of Mustafa Beg's information, the
Court observe, " We fear that Colonel Forbes's conduct upon that occasion
proceeded from the same laxity of system, which, there is reason to suppose,
prevailed at Vellore for a considerable period before the unfortunate mine
was sprung.''—Letter to Fort St. George, 29th May, 1807, printed for the
House of Commons, 13th April, 1813. That the discipline of the garri¬
son was relaxed, is proved by the evidence before the Committee as to a
neglect of military duty on the very night of the mutiny ; the punctual
fulfilment of which might have detected something unusual amongst the
native soldiery, and perhaps prevented the mischief. The European offi¬
cer commanding the main-guard being summoned to go the rounds at
midnight, declared himself indisposed, and directed the Subahdar to take
his place. The Subahdar, in imitation of his superior, pleaded the same
excuse, and delegated the duty to the Jemadar, who was one of the chief
leaders of the conspiracy. His report was, of course, that all was well
at the very hour when the mutineers were arming for the attack.—Pro¬
ceedings of Committee of Inquiry ; MS. Records.
difference of opinions.
127
tion was appealed to as decisive of the reasonable- book i.
ness of their fears, and as justifying their opposition.
No better reply could be devised by the friends and icos,
supporters of missions than a denial that the Vel-
lore mutiny had any connexion with the propagation
of Christianity,—a denial in which they were un¬
doubtedly wide of the truth.^ The essential and
main spring of the mutiny was religious principle,
although its occurrence was influenced in the man¬
ner and season of its development by incidental and
local excitement.
Towards the end of 1805 the new Commander-
in-chief at Madras, Sir John Cradock, had been led
to adopt the project of reducing the regulations of
the army to a systematic code. The article of
dress, a favourite subject of consideration with mili¬
tary men, at least in time of peace, received all the
attention which its importance demanded ; and va¬
rious regulations were drawn up regarding the regi¬
mentals and accoutrements of the native soldiery,
with the avowed purpose of assimilating their ap-
' The Reverend Dr. Buchanan thus writes to the Government of Ben¬
gal : '' I understand that the massacre of Vellore has been unaccountably
adduced as some sanction to the principle of opposing the progress of the
Christian religion in Bengal. I had opportunities of judging of the
causes of that event, which were peculiar. I was in the vicinity of the
place at the time. I travelled for two months immediately afterwards in
the province adjacent with the sanction of Government, and I heard the
evidence of Christians, Mohammedans, and Hindus, on the subject. That
the insurrection at Vellore had no connexion with the Christian religion,
directly or indirectly, immediately or remotely, is a truth which is capable
of demonstration."— Letter from the Reverend C. Buchanan to the Go¬
vernor-General, 7th Nov., 1807 ; Parliamentary Papers relating to Mis¬
sionaries, &c., 14th April, 1813. Dr. Buchanan undoubtedly believed in
what he asserted so roundly, but he was strangely misinformed. The most
zealous and able defenders of the cause, Lord Teignmouth in his Conside¬
rations on the duty of diffusing Christianity in India, and Mr. Wilberforce
in his speeches in 1813, afterwards published by himself, do not go to the
same length : they only deny that the Vellore mutiny was connected with
any unusual extension or activity of Missionai7 proceedings.
128
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. pearance to that of the European troops. AVith
"" this intention, the Sipahis were forbidden to appear
1806. on parade with ear-rings, or the coloured marks
upon the forehead or face significant of sectaria!
distinctions; and they were commanded to shave
their beards and trim their mustachios according to
a standard model. The issue of these orders was
suspended in a few instances by the prudence of
commanding officers of corps ; hut they were gene¬
rally known by the men, and almost universally in¬
terpreted to imply a design on the part of the Go¬
vernment to compel the native troops to assume
the practices, and eventually the religion, of Euro¬
peans.' Other innovations in their dress and ac¬
coutrements, such as a particular undress jacket,
black leather stocks, and a turnscrew, which some
susceptible minds identified with a cross,® had pre¬
viously occasioned wide-spread dissatisfaction ; and
the last drop of the cup was poured forth when a
new pattern for a turban was devised, wliich in the
apprehension of the Sipahis resembled a hat.® This
confirmed their fears, and insubordination was the
result.
The first <0vert exhibition of the spirit thus gene-
■ It was commonly said by the Sipahis, " We shall next be compelled to
eat and drink with the outcast and Infidel English, to give them our
daughters in marriage, to become one people, and follow one faith."
" It appears that Sir J. Cradock was not responsible for the two former :
they were certainly, however, in use.—Lord W. Bentinck's Memorial,
p. 51.
® It is not easy for persons unacquainted with the East to understand
why so harmless a head-dress as a hat should have excited such horror ;
but, in the estimation of the natives, the hat is identified with the wearer,
and, of itself, denotes a European and a Christian. The term Topi-wala,
or hat-man, is a term that is commonly used for both. To substitute a hat
for the equally national characteristic head-dress, the turban, was there¬
fore considered to be a change of deeply significant import.
PREVIOUS DISCONTENTS.
129
rated took place in the second battalion of the book i.
4th regiment of Madras infantry, quartered in
Vellore, early in May. The grenadier company isoe.
refused to make up the turban, stating their repug¬
nance to it honestly, and at first respectfully and
with calmness. Their representations were received
by the commanding officer of the regiment with
extreme intemperance, and his violence' provoked
some disorderly and unmilitary conduct ; in conse¬
quence of which nineteen grenadiers were arrested,
and seift to Madras for trial, by order of the Com¬
mander-in-chief, who announced his resolution to
have the turbans made up and worn, and insisted
on prompt and unhesitating obedience. Of the
prisoners sent to the Presidency, two were sentenced
' According to the official report, the captain of the grenadier company
of the second battalion of the 4th regiment informed the lieutenant-colonel
commanding the corps, that several of his men had waited upon him and
expressed strong objections to the new head-dress on the part of the
whole company. The colonel called the men before him and questioned
them regarding their repugnance ; when they stated firmly, though respect¬
fully, that they were well aware of the consequences of disobedience, but
that they could not consent to wear the new turban, as it would disgrace
them for ever in the eyes of their countrymen. Some of the superior offi¬
cers expressed themselves prepared to waive their objections ; but, as the
non-commissioned officers and privates persisted in their refusal, the former
were immediately reduced to the ranks, and the latter placed in arrest.
In the evening, when the battalion was mustered for parade, the men at¬
tended without their side-arms and refused to put them on : on which, the
colonel deprived even the superior officers of their swords, and dismissed
the battalion ; some of the men of which, as they dispersed, called aloud,
" Dhurtt! dhurtt!" meaning "Away! away!" but with a somewhat uncivil
import. Upon the occurrence being reported to Colonel Fancourt, the
commandant of the garrison, he went to the barracks and expostulated
with the men ; but they unanimously refused to wear the turban, affirming
that it was really a hat. Colonel Fancourt took no further steps in the
business beyond ordering their swords to be restored to the native commis¬
sioned officers. Some further excitement was manifested on the following
day, but, as observed by the Court of Directors in their letter to Fort St.
George, above cited, it was so obviously provoked by the injudicious con¬
duct of the commanding officer that they would not have been surprised if
41 mutiny had immediately followed, attended with all the fatal conse¬
quences arising from the offended prejudice occasioned by so capricious and
wanton an exertion of authority,—Parliamentary Papers.
vol. i.
K
130
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. by a native court-martial to receive nine hundred
"• lashes each, and seventeen to receive five hundred
1806. lashes each. The sentence was carried into exe¬
cution in the two first instances;^ in the others it
was remitted, in consequence of the professed con¬
trition of the culprits. The award showed that
there was no hope of redress from temperate repre¬
sentation ; especially as the Governor in Council
took up the subject in the same unquestioning spirit
•as the Commander-in-chief, and published his de¬
termination to enforce the order, and to employ all
possible means of suppressing any act of insubordi¬
nation. This was the radical error of the whole
proceeding : it proved to the native troops that they
could expect no countenance from their European
officers, no consideration for their feelings from the
Commander-in-chief or the Government, and cor¬
roborated the suspicion that the latter was in¬
flexibly bent upon the abolition of the distinctions
of tribe and caste, and the compulsory introduction
of an outward conformity at least to the practices of
Christians.
In vindication of the course pursued by the
Government, it was maintained that there were no
reasonable grounds of objection to the turban ; that
it had been made up without hesitation in some
corps ; and that two respectable natives, a JSIoham-
medan Syed and a Hindu Brahman, had given evi¬
dence that there was nothing in its construction that
was incompatible with their religious faith. This
' Lord W. Bentinck says, the two ringleaders only received punishment,
—Memorial, p. 3. See also Madras General Orders by the Commander-
in-chief, 2ud July, 1S06.
mistaken inferences.
131
was no more than true ; but although particular in- book i.
fluences might in some cases have overcome the_^2^2Jl.
objection felt by the troops, and, as is not at all un- isoe.
usual among the natives of India, a few individuals
of acknówledged respectability might have been
more free from prejudice than their inferiors, yet
it was undeniable that a very strong and widely
propagated repugnance to the turban did exist in
the army, and it would have been more just and
generous in the Government, as well as more po¬
litic, to Tiave refrained from rating the shape of a
cap at a higher value than the affections of the sol¬
diery.
With regard to the order abolishing marks of
caste on parade, and enjoining a particular cut of
the beard and mustachios, it was urged in defence
of the Commander-in-chief, that although not a
part of the express military code, yet it had been
introduced very generally in practice before the
code was dravm up, and that similar prohibitions
and injunctions had long been in force in several
regiments. This also was no doubt true, but it
evinced great ignorance of the native character to
infer that a positive and universally applicable order
to that effect might therefore be promulgated with
impunity. The commanding officer of a Sipahi
battalion who has acquired the confidence of his
men can do much, even in opposition to their incli¬
nations, without exciting that dissatisfaction which
may be engendered by a formal order of the Com¬
mander-in-chief ; and it can scarcely be considered
peculiar to the natives of India, although in an
especial degree to be predicated of them, that pre-
K 2
132 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. judices, which soften and dissolve before gentle and
CHAP, n. influence, commonly harden into intracta-
1806. hie rigidity when abruptly and harshly denounced.
The practice of particular regiments, therefore, afford¬
ed no safe principle for universal legislafíon; and
the inference displayed little acquaintance with the
character or sentiments of the native army.^
That the prejudices thus shocked, and the feel¬
ings thus exasperated, should have produced their
fatal effects at Vellore, was no doubt attributable to
an additional stimulus applied by the presence of
the family of Tippoo Sultan. The followers and
attendants of the princes, naturally ill-disposed to¬
wards the British Government, availed themselves
of the opportunity afforded by the prevailing dis¬
content, and contributed by all means in their power
to confirm the impression which the Sipahis enter¬
tained of the ulterior objects of the innovations
commanded ; taunting them with the badges of Chris¬
tianity which had been imposed upon them in the
turnscrew and the turban, and calling upon them to
die rather than apostatise from their faith. It was
established by the evidence before the court and
commissidh of inquiry, that some of the confidential
servants of one of the princes, IVIoiz-ad-din, had
been present at the secret meetings which had pre¬
ceded the mutiny, and had brought, or pretended
to bring, messages from the palace encouraging the
mutineers ; promising also, that, if the native troops
would master the Europeans and hold the fort for
' So much of the order as related to sectarial marks and ear-rings was,
in truth, not Sir J. Cradock's. It was circulated by his predecessor, Ma-
jor-General Sir J. Campbell, 11th January, 1805, shortly before Sir J.
Cradock's amval.
implication of the sons of tippoo.
133
eight days, they would be joined by other regiments, book i.
and by many of the principal Poligars, with whose
aid the Mohammedan kingdom of Mysore would 18O6.
be re-established. The influence exercised by these
instigations was the more immediate, from the cir¬
cumstance that the first regiment of native infantry,
which consisted principally of Musselmans, had been
raised chiefly in Mysore, and many of the officers
and men had served in the armies of Hyder and
Tippoo. Former associations, therefore, as well as
community of country and of creed, rendered them
in a peculiar degree accessible to the persuasions of
designing men, and hurried them into the perpetra¬
tion of atrocities which the injury offered to their
prejudices might not of itself have impelled them to
commit. The source of the evil was still, however,
the spirit which had been raised by the severity
and inconsiderateness of the English authorities.
Mischievous hands may have applied a torch, but
no explosion would have ensued had not the mate¬
rials of conflagration been previously accumulated.
That the mutiny of Vellore was of a purely poli¬
tical character, and arose out of a conspiracy to
replace a Mohammedan dynasty on the throne of
Mysore,—an opinion that was strenuously advocated
by those who wished to shut their eyes against the
evidence of its religious connexion,—was wholly in¬
capable of demonstration. Even with regard to the
sons of Tippoo themselves, no proof could be elicited
that they had been concerned in the conspiracy.
There was no evidence that the communications
made to the conspirators in their name had pro¬
ceeded from them, and it was clearly established
134
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. that prior to the mutiny they had never held per-
CHAP, n. intercourse with any of the insurgents. Al-
1806. though it appeared that during the tumult some of
the Sipahis received refreshments at the houses of
two of the princes, Mohi-ad-din and Moiz-ad-din,
and that the Mysore flag was brought from the
residence of the latter, yet it was also in evidence
that they had shrunk from the clamorous invitations
of the crowd to come forth and place themselves at
their head, and that they had carefully abstained
from every word and deed which might implicate
them in the riot. No suspicion whatever attached
to the elder members of the family ; the younger
were of too tender an age to be cognizant of such a
project; and the utmost criminality that could be
charged against some of the intermediate members
of the fraternity was the possibility of their being
aware of the agitation of a plot against the Euro¬
pean part of the garrison, and their omission to give
notice of it to the only European officer with whom
they were allowed to communicate. Colonel Mar¬
riott. Attachment to the Company was not to be
expected from them, but there was little to appre¬
hend from* their animosity. Their own characters
and habits were a sufficient security for their harm-
lessness. They were bitter enemies to each other, ^
and were uniformly destitute of activity, enterprise,
and courage. They had neither the spirit to con¬
ceive, nor the daring to execute, a project that
demanded both ; and, whatever may have been their
own wishes or the participation of their adherents,
' It was believed in the palace, that, on one occasion, Moiz-ad-din had
attempted to poison the eldest of his brothers.
no proof of a general conspiracy.
135
there is ample reason to conclude that the sons of book i.
Tippoo were not personally the originators or instiga-
tors of the mutiny. As, however, their presence isoe.
was calculated to keep alive the hopes of their
adherents, and furnish a rallying point to the disaf¬
fected, they were removed from the Madras Presi¬
dency to that of Bengal, and placed under easy sur¬
veillance in the vicinity of Calcutta.^
Still more untenable were the opinions of those
who beheld in the transaction the evidence of a
generàl plot among the Mohammedans of the Dek-
hin to restore the sovereignty of Islam and expel
the unbelievers ; yet the Government of Madras
was at first inclined to adopt this view, and declared
its impression that a widely diffused confederacy
had been formed to subvert the British power and
raise that of the Mohammedans upon its downfall.
The calm and sound judgment of Sir George Bar¬
low saw the business in its true colours, and ques¬
tioned the reality of any extensive or secret com¬
bination of the natives, and Lord William Ben-
tinck retracted his opinion. It was nevertheless
persisted in by Sir John Cradock and several officers
of the Madras army, although no conclusive proofs
were ever adduced, and probabilities were decidedly
' They were removed from Vellore, ou the 28th of August, 1806, amidst
an immense concourse of spectators, who manifested no sympathy in their
fate, nor was it apparently any object of anxiety to themselves. They
arrived at the Sand-heads on the 12th September, where the second, Abd-ul-
Khalik, died : the rest were placed in suitable residences near Calcutta,
under ofScial surveillance, but no personal restraint. Moiz-ad-din, against
whom circumstances were most unfavourable, was kept for some time in
confinement, but was eventually liberated. Some of the brothers, and a
multitude of descendants, still survive. One of the brothers, Jami-ad-din
Hyder, who at the time of the Vellore mutiny was about ten years of
age, spent some years in England, and died here in 1842.
136
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. against them.^ Of whom was such a confederacy to
be composed ? The JMohammedan princes of the
1806. Dekhin were not likely to feel any great sympathy
for the descendants of a military adventurer whom,
whilst living, they had despised, even while they
feared him. The principal of them, the Nawab of
the Carnatic and the Nizam, could not have en¬
tered into such an association without its coming to
the knowledge of the English authorities ; and no
grounds, even for suspicion against them, were ever
detected. It was still less probable that the Hindu
Rajas and Poligars would engage in a scheme, the
success of which must have brought back the days
of IVIoslem bigotry, intolerance, and persecution. In
short, all the evidence examined tended to show,
beyond the possibility of cavil, that there had been
no intercourse whatever between the family of Tip-
poo and any chief or princes out of the fort ; and,
although some of the mutineers talked vaguely of
the support that was expected from one or two in¬
significant Poligars, yet neither messenger nor letter
' Much stress was laid upon information received from a native Subah-
dar of cavalry, who had been long in the service of the Company, and
professed devoted allegiance to the Government ; but all that was fairly
deducible from Ms communications was, that the disaffection of the troops
was more extensive than had been imagined. All the causes of this
disaffection he declared it was difficult to state, but he expressed his belief
that it arose principally from the intrigues of Tippoo's family and their
adherents : he stated that a number of persons formerly in tíie Sultan's
service, or their relations, were now serving in the native regiments, and
that agents and friends of the family were employed all over the country
in instigating discontent. That the Company's regiments had enlisted
many of Tippoo's soldiers was well known, and that they and the Moham¬
medans generally were dissatisfied with the change of masters was highly
probable ; but there was no evidence of any agency set on foot by Tippoo's
sons, and the discontent of the Hindu part of the army, much the most
numerous, could scarcely be ascribable to intrigues in favour of a Moham¬
medan dynasty. The Subahdar's information was merely individual belief,
unsupported by evidence of facts.— MS. Records; Lord W. Bentinck's
Memorial, 103.
agitation at hyderabad.
137
liad ever been interchanged, and no warrant had book i.
been given by them for such a misuse of their names.
A conspiracy of the Mohammedan princes was a isoe.
mere shadow, created by an alarmist imagination, or
by a wish to shift the responsibility from the real
cause, the military orders, to one wholly visionary.
But positive proof that the mutiny originated
in no political combination, was afforded by oc¬
currences in other quarters. The feelings that
instigated the mutiny at Vellore were likewise
entertained by the subsidiary force at Hyderabad,
and consequences equally serious were apprehended.
There, however, the Resident, Captain Sydenham,
and Colonel IVIontresor the commandant, had timely
notice of the agitation that prevailed amongst the
troops, and justly appreciated the cause. They took
upon themselves the responsibility of disobeying the
general orders of the Commander-in-chief, and pub¬
lished a cantonment order in which the Sipahis
were told that they were wholly mistaken in sup¬
posing that any measures enjoined by the supreme
authority could be intended in the smallest degree
to infringe upon what the Government held so sa¬
cred as their religion ; but that, as they had so mis¬
conceived the object of the order, the commanding
officer of the subsidiary force had no doubt that
the Commander-in-chief would countermand the
obnoxious regulation, and in the meantime he di¬
rected the making up of the new turbans to be sus¬
pended. The effect of this judicious procedure was
immediate, and calm and confidence at once revived
among the troops. In the investigation which suc¬
ceeded, it was found that some of the disaffected
138
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. nobles of the court of Hyderabad had taken advan-
"* tage of the existing discontent to foment the irrita-
1806, tion, and that one or two of the native ofiicers had
so far listened to their own fears and the counsels of
pernicious advisers as to declare that they were
ready to put the Europeans to death rather than
become Christians. No other communion with Vel-
lore could be traced than that of similar despera¬
tion, originating simultaneously from similar appre¬
hensions.^
At Walajabad, again, a like disposition was dis¬
covered, arising from a like cause. The order for
the new turban was issued early in June, and was
received with expressions of dissatisfaction. These
were silenced for a while by the trial and dismissal
of one of the ring-leaders ; but, at the end of July,
reports of a design of the men to murder their
European officers excited the alarm of the latter.®
The 1st battalion of the 23rd regiment of native
infantry was marched out of the cantonments until
the arrival of a party of dragoons from Arcot, when
the corps was disarmed and all the native officers
were put under arrest. The men submitted quietly
to all that was required of them, and the investiga¬
tion that took place showed that there had been
' Rumours the most extraordinary and incredible spread amongst the
troops at this station ; it was reported that the Europeans had a design to
massacre the natives, that a hundred bodies without heads were lying on
the banks of the Músa river, and that the Europeans had built a church
which the heads of these decapitated trunks had been required to sanctify.
Tliere were other stories in circulation equally monstrous.
' Their discontent had been first manifested about the 24th July, in con¬
sequence of long drills and generally harsh or inconsiderate treatment. On
one occasion, after a drill from sun-rise till 7, they were kept in the bar¬
racks till 12 cleaning their arms and accoutrements. On being dismissed,
some angry and menacing exclamations were uttered.
DISTURBANCE AT NANDIDRIJG.
139
great exaggeration in the tales which had inspired book i.
the panic ; and although some of the native officers
and a few men of had character had been active in isoe.
aggravating the irritation caused by the general
order, yet the majority of the men were innocent
of any intention to commit violence. The dismissal
of the incendiaries, and the revocation of the offen¬
sive orders, restored tranquillity, and no further in¬
dications of disaffection were displayed.
It was not to be expected that a ferment so vio- •
lent,* and a catastrophe so dreadful, should at once
have passed over and been forgotten ; and, accord¬
ingly, some months elapsed before confidence and
security were restored. The Sipahis were slow to
credit the sincerity of the Government, and, still
suspecting its having entertained sinister designs,
attributed their frustration to the mutiny at Vel-
lore ; they therefore looked upon those who had
fallen in the recaptme of the fortress as martyrs for
their faith, and in some places secretly solemnised
their funeral obsequies. This was the case at Nan-
didrug, where part of the 18th N. I., a regiment
raised in Mysore, was stationed; and, consequent
upon the excitement thus occasioned, some wild
and mischievous excesses were in contemplation :
timely precautions prevented their commission, and,
upon the discharge of some of those most deeply
implicated, the rest expressed their contrition, and
the agitation subsided. In truth, much of the ex¬
citement that prevailed during the latter months of
1806 was the work of the officers themselves; pass¬
ing from one extreme to the other, they exchanged
the supineness of security for the restlessness of
140
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. suspicion, credulously listened to every whisper of
insurrection, trembled at every idle tale of intended
1806. tumult and massacre, and kept both themselves and
their men in a constant fever of aimless appre¬
hension. The tranquillising operation of time, the
repeated injunctions of both the local Government
and that of Bengal to the officers to abstain from
all manifestations of distrust, and the strongest as¬
surances published to the troops that the British
Government would ever respect their religious creeds,
gradually allayed anxiety and re-established trust.^
Upon considering, therefore, the utter improba¬
bility of any combined co-operation of the JMoham-
medan princes of the Dekhin with the sons of
Tippoo, the absence of all proof of its existence, the
extension of the discontent to places where no poli¬
tical influence in their favour could have been ex¬
erted, the prevalence of disaffection among the Hin¬
dus as well as the Mohammedans, and, finally, admit¬
ting the entire adequacy of the cause to the effect,
there can be no reason to seek for any other origin of
the mutiny than dread of religious change inspired
by the military orders. Here, however, in fairness
to the question of the conversion of the natives of
India to Christianity, the nature of the panic which
spread amongst the Sipahis requires to be candidly
appreciated. It is a great error to suppose that the
people of India are so sensitive upon the subject of
their religion, either Hindu or IMohammedan, as to
suffer no approach of controversy, or to encounter
' " The panic wore away, the Sepoys forgot their fears of an attack
upon their religion, and the officers no longer slept with pistols under their
pillows.''— Lord W. Bentinck's Memorial, p. 40. For the Government
proclamation see Appendix.
real nature of the alarm.
141
adverse opinions with no other arguments than in- book i.
surrection and murder. On the contrary, great
latitude of belief and practice has always prevailed 10O6.
amongst them, and especially amongst the troops, in
whose ranks will be found seceders of various de¬
nominations from the orthodox systems. It was not,
therefore, the dissemination of Christian doctrines
that excited the angry apprehensions of the Sipahis
on the melancholy occasion which has called for
these observations, nor does it appear that any unu¬
sual'activity in the propagation of those doctrines
was exercised by Christian missionaries at the period
of its occurrence. It was not conversion which
the troops dreaded, it was compulsion ; it was not
the reasoning or the persuasion of the missionary
which they feared, hut the arbitrary interposition of
authority. They believed, of course erroneously,
that the Government was about to compel them to
become Christians, and they resisted compulsory con¬
version by violence and bloodshed.^ The lesson is
one of great seriousness, and should never he lost
sight of as long as the relative position of the
• The opinion that the Government had some such project in view was
not confined to the Sipahis. Mir Alem, the veteran minister of the Nizam,
and, as has been seen, the staunch friend of the English, expressed his
surprise that the British Government should think it just or safe to compel
the troops to wear the semblance of Christians ; and a like astonishment
was manifested by the ministers of Nagpur.— Letters from the Residents ;
MS. Records. Of the universality of the feeling, there is also published
an impartial testimony. Purnia, the Dewan of Mysore, gave it as his
opinion that the Hindus were more alarmed and dissatisfied than the Mo¬
hammedans.—Lord W. Bentinck's Memorial, 45. And Sir Thomas Munro
writes : " However strange it may appear to Europeans, I know that the
general opinion of the most intelligent natives in this part of the country
is, that it was intended to make the Sepoys Christians."— Letter to Lord
W. Bentinck, 11th August, 1806. This letter also shows, that, in a part of
the Peninsula where the adherents of the family of Hyder were most nu¬
merous, there were no reasons for believing that any intrigues had been at
work in their favour.—Life of Sir T. Munro, i. 363.
142
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. British Government and its Indian subjects remains
"• unaltered. It is not enough that the authority of
1806. the ruling povrer should never interpose in matters
of religious belief, it should carefully avoid furnish¬
ing grounds of suspicion that it intends to interfere.
A subject of minor importance, but one that was
agitated with no less vehemence, divided the chief
civil and military functionaries at Madras; each
endeavouring to get rid of the responsibility of
having issued the obnoxious orders. Sir John
Cradock urged in his defence that he had acted by
the advice of his official military counsellors, the
Adjutant-General and Deputy Quarter-Master-Ge¬
neral, officers of experience and well acquainted
with the temper and character of the native troops,
who had seen nothing unusual or exceptionable in
the proposed arrangements; and that, before the
orders were embodied in the code, they had been
submitted to the Governor in Council, and had
received his sanction. To this Lord W. Bentinck
replied, that it could not he expected that he or the
members of Council were to read and comment
upon every article of a voluminous code of military
regulations Compiled under the instructions of the
Commander-in-chief, and for which he was respon¬
sible ; that accordingly they sanctioned the regula¬
tions as a matter of form, examining those only
which were designated as novel, and passing over
those to which their attention was not directed as
innovations upon established practice. In this man¬
ner they were not aware of the order regarding the
marks of sect, and the trimming of the musta-
chios ; although they did notice and authorise the
responsibility disputed.
143
alteration of the turbans. The Governor of Madras book i.
seems to make light of the latter, and attaches most
importance to the former ; but certainly the shape isoe.
of the turbans was the most immediate cause of the
dissatisfaction of the soldiers, and Lord William
Bentinck was as decidedly bent upon insisting on
its adoption as was Sir John Cradock. Not only
had he declared his determination to enforce obe»
dience to the order, on occasion of the dislike ex¬
pressed to it in May by the second battalion of the
4th ; but late in June, when the Commander-in-chief
began to apprehend evil consequences from the mea¬
sure, and solicited the advice and authority of the
Governor in Council, in order to be relieved from the
anxiety and embarrassment under which he laboured
in consequence of information he had received from
several moderate and discreet officers of the almost
universal objection which prevailed against the new
turban; his willingness to rescind the order was
overruled ; the Government repeated their convic¬
tion that the pattern of the turban did not militate
against any religious prejudice, and declared that
they could not assent to give way to clamour aris¬
ing from unfounded prejudice. It was proposed to
substitute for the rescission of the order a proclama¬
tion, which, while it announced the determination
of the authorities to enforce obedience, disclaimed
all purpose of religious interference; but in the
mean time information of a different tenor from the
preceding having reached Sir J. Cradock, he was
led to believe that the dissatisfaction had subsided,
and that the proclamation was unnecessary. It
would have been, no doubt, of little avail, as it ex-
144
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. pressed the obstinacy of the authorities in persisting
CHAP, n. offensive innovation; but the inaccuracy of
1806. the intelligence which suspended its publication
was presently afterwards demonstrated by actual
occurrences, and a proclamation of a different
purport was put forth. The reference of the Com¬
mander-in-chief, and the manner in which it was
received, are decisive of the degree of responsibility
which attaches to the local Government ; and how¬
ever injudicious may have been the conduct of Sir
John Cradock in originating measures pregnant
with such serious mischief, and however averse he
may have been to acknowledge his error, the course
pursued by Lord William Bentinck evinced an
equal blindness to the consequences of the act, a
still greater degree of inflexibility in its enforce¬
ment, and a similar ignorance and disregard of the
feelings and prejudices of the native army. The
spirit by which both functionaries were animated
was the same—military absolutism,—a principle
which, however just and necessary in the abstract,
requires to be applied to practice with caution and
judgment, and not without due consideration for the
circumstancfes which may call for its exercise, the
feelings which it may embitter, or the consequences
which it may provoke.^ Herein consisted the error
^ That the same unbending rigour of discipline which may be necessary
in the management of European soldiers, is not needed, or is injurious as
applied to natives, we have had the testimony of competent judges : one of
the latest, and not the least worthy of credit, says, " We are apt to fall
into the error of measuring everything according to the standard of Euro¬
pean discipline, forgetting the different characters of the native and the
Englishman. There is an Asiatic sensitiveness and propriety in the con¬
duct of the Sepoy, which renders the roughness and severity with which
we treat English soldiers offensive and unnecessary towards him."— Re¬
lations of the British Government and Native States, by J. Sutherland,
sentiments of the court.
145
of both Sir J. Cradock and Lord W. Bentinck, book i.
that they excluded every other view but that of
military subordination,^ The Court of Directors isoe.
considered their conduct equally unsatisfactory ; they
were accordingly recalled ; and although at a sub¬
sequent period, and upon a calmer review of the
transaction, they acquitted Lord W. Bentinck and
Sir John Cradock of a wanton or needless violation
of the religious usages of the natives, yet they re¬
tained their opinion that those officers had been
defective in not examining with greater caution and
care into the real sentiments and dispositions of the
Sipahis before they proceeded to enforce the orders
for the turban. This decision seems to be fully
justified by a dispassionate survey of the transaction.
A careful and considerate investigation of the ob¬
jections to the turban, which were advanced by the
Sipahis in May, would in all likelihood have pre¬
vented the mutiny of July.
Captain 3rd Bombay Cavalry, p. 10, It seems extraordinary, that, after so
many years' experience, the character of the native army should be imper¬
fectly understood, but recent events have shown that it is not even yet
accurately appreciated by the Indian Government.
• On receiving advice of the repugnance of the 4th regiment, Sir J.
Cradock wrote to Colonel Fancourt to direct that those men whom the
colonel had placed in confinement should be sent to Madras for trial, and that
the non-commissioned officers of the 4th who had declined to wear the
turban, and the commissioned officers, should immediately make it up and
wear it, on pain of dismission from the service. The officer commanding
the 19th dragoons was ordered to march, if required by Colonel Fancourt,
to Vellore, to assist in enforcing obedience. The Commander-in-chief
would not admit of hesitation to the orders he had given.—Letter from the
Commander-in-chief, 7th May; Memorial of Lord W. Bentinck, p. 92.
Lord W. Bentinck justly observes of this letter, that military command
never was expressed in higher or more imperious language. His own
was something like it. " The opposition which has been experienced in
the late change of turbans is destitute of any foundation in the law or
usage of the Mohammedan or Hindu religion, and any persons who may
persevere in that opposition cannot, in consequence, fail to be subjected to
the severest penalties of military discipline."—G. O. by Government, 4th
■July; Memorial, p. 94.
vol. i.
l
146 history of british india.
book i. It will now be convenient to advert to the pro-
CHAP. n. which during this period took place in
1806. Great Britain relating to the administration of the
affairs of the Indian empire.
CHAPTER III.
Proceedings in England.—Refusal of the Directors to
concur in the appointment of the Earl of Lauder¬
dale as Governor-General. — Sir George Barlow
recalled by the King''s sign-manual.—Discussions in
Parliament and with the Board of Controul.—Loi'd
Minto appointed Governor-General.—Proceedings in
the House of Commons.—Impeachment of Lord Wel-
lesley by Mr. Pauli.—Papers moved for.— Charges
relating to the Nawab of Oude.—Nawab of Fur-
ruckabad.—Zemindar of Sasnee and others.—Pro¬
ceedings interrupted by dissolution of Parliament.—
Renewed by Lord Folkestone.—Impeachment aban¬
doned. — Condemnatory Resolutions negatived. —
Merits of the Oude question.—Motion for an Inquiry
into the Assumption of the Carnatic negatived.—
Censure of Lord Welleslefs Policy by the Court of
Propiñetors.—Appointment of a Select Committee
of the House of Commons.— Diminished Impoi't
Trade of the Company.
CHAP. III. The embarrassed state of the finances of the East
1805. India Company, attributed to the ambition and ex-
proceedings in england.
147
travagance of Marquis Wellesley, and the counte- book i.
CHAPa 111a
nance which he had shown to the extension of the '
private trade, and consequent encroachment on the isoa.
Company's commercial privileges, had excited a
strong feeling of hostility to that nobleman's adminis¬
tration in the Court of Directors, which awakened
a corresponding sentiment in the majority of the
proprietary body. Weakened in political influence
by the secession of many of his adherents, dis¬
heartened by the gloomy aspect of affairs in Europe,
and broken in physical strength, Mr. Pitt was not
inclined to support the measures of Lord Wellesley
in opposition to the views which were entertained
at the India House; and although he resisted,
through the Board of Controul, the expression of
the Court's disapprobation, yet he consented to give
it full effect by the appointment of Lord Corn-
wallis, a nobleman of different character and prin¬
ciples. The death of that nobleman threatened to
frustrate the purposes of his nomination ; but the
zeal with which his intentions were carried out by
Sir G. Barlow, upon his assuming the government,
forcibly recommended to the Court his continuance
as Governor-General. They were at first allowed
to hope that their wish would be complied with :
but they were speedily disappointed, under circum¬
stances which, as involving questions of some im¬
portance, merit to be detailed.
Information of the death of Alarquis Cornwallis
arrived in England at the end of January, 1806,
upon the eve of the total change of Ministers which
followed the demise of Mr. Pitt. A proposal to pay
a public tribute of respect to the memory of Lord
L 2
148
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Cornwallis was one of the last measures of the
retiring Administration : it was readily acceded to
1806. by their opponents, and it was resolved that his
statue should be erected in St. Paul's cathedral.^
The East India Company voted a grant to his heir
of £40,000. The appointment of a successor de-
Tolved on the new Ministers, amongst whom Lord
IVIinto was charged with the superintendence of
Indian affairs as President of the Board of Controul;
and by him a communication was made on the 14th
of February to the Court of Directors, conveying his
impression of the importance, in the actual state of
affairs in India, of investing Sir G. Barlow without
delay with the fullest powers, and recommending
that he should be at once formally appointed Go¬
vernor-General of India. The recommendation was
immediately complied with, and the commission
was made out and signed on the 25th of February.
It was therefore with no small degree of astonish¬
ment that only ten days afterwards, on the 7th of
March, the Court was apprised that Ministers had
determined to supersede Sir G. Barlow in favour of
the Earl of Lauderdale. It was in vain that the
Directors remonstrated against so abrupt a change
of determination, and urged the advantages of ad¬
hering to the original arrangement ; until, finding
that their remonstrances and arguments were inef¬
fectual, they positively refused to cancel the ap¬
pointment. The hlinistry retaliated by a warrant
under the King's sign-manual recalling Sir G. Bar¬
low; and the Court was finally compelled to agree
to a compromise, by which the Earl of Lauderdale
' Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, 3rd February, 1806.
differences with the board op controul. 149
ostensibly declined the acceptance of the office, and book i.
Lord IVIinto was nominated Governor-General.
The difference which had thus arisen between I8O6.
the Directors and the Ministers afforded to the
parliamentary adversaries of the latter a reasonable
pretext for animadversions upon their conduct ; and,
in the House of Lords, Viscount IMelville moved for
copies of the correspondence which had taken place
between the Court of Directors and the Board of
Controul.^ The course pursued by the Administra¬
tion was vindicated by Lord Grenville, and the
motion was negatived without a division.
In the correspondence with the Board, as well as
in the debate in the House of Lords, it was mani¬
fest that there were two main points of difference
between the contending parties ; one of a private,
one of a public nature. No exceptions to the Earl
of Lauderdale were openly advanced by the Court ;
but, besides the preference of the individual in the
instance of Sir G. Barlow, there is no doubt that
the Earl of Lauderdale's known opinions in favour
of free trade and popular government rendered him
unacceptable to many of the members of the Direc¬
tion.® On the other hand, although JVIinisters were
profuse in their professions of the high sense which
they entertained of the merits of Sir G. Barlow, yet
his line of policy was not in accordance with the
views of the leading members of the Cabinet ; Lord
* Pari. Debates, 8th July, 1806.
® Lord Lauderdale was a zealous supporter of Mr. Fox's India Bill, and
an opposer of the Company's privileges. In politics his opinions were
extreme, and led him to advocate the principles of the French Revolution.
He made himself conspicuous in the House of Lords by affecting a cos¬
tume supposed to characterise Jacobinism.—Obituary notice, Gentleman's
Magazine, 1839,
150
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Grenville declaring, that the grounds on which he
was ready to admit those merits being Sir G. Bar-
1806. low's zealous concurrence and effective co-operation
in the measures and in the system of ISIarquis
Wellesley, whose government was, in his opinion,
the most splendid and glorious that India had ever
known. The adoption of a totally opposite system
hy Sir G. Barlow must consequently have been
utterly incompatible with his appointment to the
office of Governor-General, in Lord Gremille's esti¬
mation. At the same time, the Directors com¬
plained \;iTth good reason of the inconsistency of
the Cabinet in precipitately revoking an appoint¬
ment which they had recommended, chiefly upon the
grounds that it was necessary to arm Sir G. Barlow
without delay with full authority to adjust and
settle the various important matters which had been
left undetermined or doubtful hy the death of his
predecessor. Intimation of his appointment would
be so immediately followed by that of his super¬
session, that it was impossible he could have de¬
rived any additional power or consideration from
an elevation so fleeting and delusive, or that in the
interval he could have adjusted and settled any
doubtful measures of public importance. Lord
Minto maintained that he had distinctly apprised
the Court that the arrangement was to be regarded
as merely temporary, until there should he more
leisure to give it that deliberation which its import¬
ance demanded. His letter, however, expressly
stated that there was no intention of making any
immediate change; and the Court, natm-ally in¬
ferring that a much longer period than that of ten
QUESTION OF PATRONAGE.
151
days was contemplated, resented the suddenness of book i.
the alteration as indecorous towards themselves, and "**
unfair and unjust towards Sir G. Barlow. Intended i8o6.
disrespect to the Court was of course disclaimed;
and, in recognition of the admitted value of Sir G.
Barlow's services, a hope was expressed that he
would continue to be a member of the Supreme
Council. The change of appointment was persisted
in. It was evident that the first announcement of
the purposes of the Ministry was premature, and that
either Lord Minto had acted without consulting
his colleagues, or that, in the novel position of
the party to which he was attached, they had not
been fully aware of the value of the patronage, or of
the necessity of securing, by means of it, parlia¬
mentary support.^
A question of greater magnitude than the relative
fitness of individuals was involved in the dispute,
and the result awoke the Directors to the first dis¬
tinct perception of the virtual power of the Crown
to dispose at pleasure of the highest offices in India.
It had been hitherto argued, that the clause in the
act of 1784®—JVIr. Pitt's bill—^which gave to the
Crown authority to recall any of the Company's
servants, civil or military, and to compel them to
vacate whatever situations they might hold, was
intended only to prevent any improper abuse of the
patronage of the Court, by enforcing the return of
persons whom the partiality of friends in the Direc-
' Mr. Fox admitted that the appointment of Sir G. Barlow was made
before the Administration was fully formed.— Pari. Deb. 10th March,
1806.
' 24 Geo. III. cap. 25, sec. 22.
152
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. tion, or the vehemence of partisans in the Court of
Proprietors, might uphold in office, in spite of no-
1806. torious incompetency or misconduct. In such an
extreme case the Crown was empowered by the act
to interpose, but in no other ; for the same act had
vested the appointment of their servants in India
exclusively in the Directors; and, although they
had been in the habit of communicating with his
Majesty's Ministers, in order to preserve that good
understanding which was essential to the conduct of
public affairs, yet they denied that they had thereby
relinquished a chartered right. " If," they enquired,
" the removal of a high public functionary in India
were to be combined with the appointment of a
particular successor nominated by the King's Minis¬
ters, and the choice of the Court were confined to
that person alone, then would not the absolute ap¬
pointment to the important situations of Governor-
General, or Governor of the subordinate Presi¬
dencies, devolve in fact upon the Crown?" The
same arguments were repeated by Lord Melville.
He affirmed, that it was alike the intention of the
Legislature and the sense of the public, in the act
of 1784, tha# the Court of Directors should continue
to enjoy, without interference, the patronage of
India ; and that the clause which gave to the Crown
the power of recall could not be fairly construed as
a transfer of the patronage, by enabling the Crown
to negative appointments made by the Court : and
he appealed to the recollection of Lord Grenville to
bear him out in his understanding of the spirit of
the act, in conformity to which alone its provisions
should be intei-preted. In his reply to the Court,
REPLIES TO THE OBJECTIONS OF THE COURT.
153
Lord Minto confined himself to the question of book i.
right; admitting that of the Court to appoint, assert-
ing that of the Crown to recall. Lord Grenville's isoe.
answer to Lord Melville was, that laws were to be
understood as they were expressed, and not accord¬
ing to the fancies or feelings of individuals; that
the same objections which were now started had
been made when the clause was enacted ; and that
it could not be contended, that, because the Crown
had the power of negativing an appointment, it
followed that the whole of the appointments in
India fell under the controul of his Majesty's
Ministers. He granted, that, if it could be shown
that the power had been exercised in the present
instance merely for the purpose of procuring the
appointment of a person whom Ministers wished to
serve, it would be a violation of the law ; but,
although he denied that the measure originated in
favour to Lord Lauderdale, he refused to assign any
motives for the removal of Sir G. Barlow. He also
denied that his removal was founded upon any
systematic exclusion of the Company's servants from
places of the highest authority in India; and ob¬
served, that such an insinuation came Avith a pecu¬
liarly ill grace from the members of the late Admi¬
nistration, who had exercised their patronage upon
the same principle, and had sent out Marquis
Wellesley, Marquis Cornwallis, and other noblemen
to India. Lord Minto replied in a similar strain
to a like representation from the Court of the in¬
justice done to their civil servants by their exclusion
from the chief dignities in India; and observed,
that no disadvantage had resulted from the nomina-
154
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. tion to the first stations in that country of persons
who possessed rank and influence in Great Britain.^
1806. He further remarked, that it was indispensable that
the Government at home should have at the head
of affairs in India an individual in whom they could
implicitly confide, and of whose views they could
feel assured: a principle which, the Court justly
observed, might make the Governor-General the
mere creature of a party, taking and leaving office
with every change of IMinistry, and regulating his
proceedings in India less by a disinterested regard
for the prosperity of that country, than by anxiety
for the retention of power and place by his col¬
leagues in England; and they maintained, with
unanswerable justice, that the Governor-General of
* The absolute exclusion of the Company's servants from the highest
offices in India was never advocated ; it was only asserted, that, with re¬
gard to the appointment of Governor-General, advantage had resulted from
the preference of persons of exalted station in Great Britain,—a proposition
to which few of the Company's servants would hesitate to accede. With
respect not only to the office of Governor-General, but to those of subordi¬
nate Grovemors, one of the most distinguished and respected of the Civil
servants of the Company, the late Mr. Edmonstone, has left on record sen¬
timents to which all who seek the real good of India will be inclined to
subscribe. While admitting that there may be, and have been, splendid
exceptions, Mr. Edmonstone observes, " My opinion has always been gene¬
rally adverse to selecting the Governors from among those who have be¬
longed to the service, because I think, that, with very few exceptions,
an individual who lias passed through the several gradations of the pub¬
lic service, and has consequently been known in the lowest as well as the
highest grades, cannot assume that tone of superiority, nor exercise that
degree of influence and controul, and attract that degree of deference and
respect, which, in my judgment, contribute importantly to the efficient ad¬
ministration of the office of Governor, as regards both the European and
native population. A person of eminence and distinction proceeding from
England to fill that office, if duly qualified by character and talent, carries
with him a greater degree of influence, and inspires more respect, than an
individual who has been known in a subordinate capacity in India can
usually command."—Evidence, Commons' Committee, 1832; Public Ques¬
tion 1701. There are other obvious advantages from the appointment of a
person of rank and connexion to the office of Governor-General in particular,
that more than compensate for any want of stimulus to exertion which the
possibility of attaining so elevated a station might be thought to aflford to
the servants of the Company.
final arrangement.
155
India ought to be unfettered by party and Ministerial book i.
obligations. The qualification of partisanship for
the office of Governor-General of India, although 18O6.
first avowed by the Whigs, is too congenial to the
selfishness of that party spirit which governs the
national councils of Great Britain to want advocates
amongst their opponents also ; but it may he stated,
in justice to those who succeeded to the short-lived
Administration of 1806, that the principle did not
regulate their practice. Lord Minto, although se¬
lected from the ranks of their adversaries, was
allowed to remain undisturbed in the discharge of
his Indian duties until he was superseded by the
Court of Directors.
The discussion that thus arose was not without
ulterior consequences. Whatever were the osten¬
sible motives of the disputants, however veiled by
sophistical reasoning or unmeaning professions, there
is no doubt that patronage was the prey contended
for, and that which the original clause of the act of
1784 was intended unavowedly to appropriate. The
true import of that clause was now brought to the
test, and its meaning was proved to be the nomination
of the Governor-General by his Majesty's Ministers.
It had been proposed to effect this object in a con¬
ciliatory manner, by leaving the appointment with
the Court of Directors, subject only to its con¬
tingent annulment by the Board through the
power of recall : but, as ou this occasion the Court
manifested a disposition to assert a voice potential
in the designation of a successor to the Marquis
Cornwallis, the intimation was not disregarded ;
and, on the first subsequent opportunity for the re-
156
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. newal of the charter, a clause was inserted^ more
distinctly enunciatory of the power of the Crown,
1806. by which the appointments to the offices of Go¬
vernor-General, Governors of IMadras and Bombay,
and Commander-in-chief, which were made by the
Directors, were declared thenceforth subject to
royal approbation. The patronage has been since
exercised upon this arrangement ; and, as the Court
can appoint no persons save those of whom it has
been previously ascertained that the Board approves,
the nomination is virtually exercised by the Admi¬
nistration of the day.®
The attention of the House of Commons was
called to other subjects connected with the Govern¬
ment of India ; and many of its deliberations were
devoted, with little advantage either to India or
to Great Britain, to a futile attempt to impeach
the late Governor-General, Marquis Wellesley.
IVIr. James Pauli had resided some years in the
principality of Oude,® ánd had there carried on a
lucrative traffic in the cotton manufactures of the
country. His residence had necessarily the sanction
of the British authorities ; and, according to his
own account, he enjoyed the favour of the Nawab
' 53 Geo. III. cap. 155, sec. 80.
' In the examination of Mr. Auber, the Secretary to the Court of Direc¬
tors, before the Commons' Committee of 1832, the relative share of the
Ministers and Directors in the patronage of the highest offices in India
■was a subject fully discussed. Mr. Auber contended stoutly for the power
of the Directors, but was obliged to admit that no Governor-General or
Commander-in-chief had ever been named by the Court of whom the
Crown had disapproved, being in fact nominated upon a previous commu¬
nication with the Board, while several instances of disapprobation of infe¬
rior appointments and their consequent annulment had occurred. The
Directors in fact may be said to exercise a kind of selection, but it must
be from individuals who they are assured -will be acceptable to the
Ministers.
® He is noticed as agent for one of the Nawab's creditors in 1796.
charges against marquis wellesley.
157
until the period of a visit which he paid to Englands book i.
Upon his return, the Nawab strongly objected to
his being again domiciled in Oude ; but his objec- i8o6.
tions were withdrawn in consequence of the inter¬
cession of the Governor-General,^ and Mr. Pauli
repaired to Lucknow, " sensibly feeling the obliga¬
tions he was under to his Excellency, for whom he
had only sentiments of gratitude and profound re¬
spect."® These sentiments were short-lived. Mr.
Pauli, soon after Lord Wellesley's resignation, re¬
turned also to England : his first step was the pur¬
chase of a seat in the House of Commons ; his
second, the institution of charges against his former
patron and benefactor.
In the prosecution of this purpose, Mr. Pauli
moved, on the 25th June, 1805, for the production
of papers intended to illustrate the nature of the
connexion established with the Government of
Oude under the administration of Sir John Shore,
and the changes it had undergone during that of
Lord Wellesley; by which the Nawab, in defiance of
justice, had been degraded and disgraced in the eyes
of the world, and in the face of the most solemn
treaties had been dispossessed of a territory which
had a population of three millions of attached sub¬
jects, and yielded an annual revenue of nearly
two millions sterling. Papers were also moved
for, relating to the appointment of Mr. Henry
Wellesley as Commissioner for the affairs of Oude;
* Private letter to Major Malcolm, Lucknow, 9th Feb., 1803 ; printed by
Auber, History of India, ii. 387.
2 Letter from Persian Secretary to the Nawab Vizir, 17th Sept., 1802.—
Papers printed by order of Parliament, 17th July, 1806, No. 28.
® Correspondence printed by order of Parliament, 16th June, 1806,
No. 20.
158
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. which appointment, he not being a servant of the
East India Company, was in defiance of an act of
1806. parliament and a violation of the law. No opposi¬
tion was made to the production of the papers ; and
subsequently similar documents were granted re¬
lating to Lord Wellesley's treatment of the Raja of
Bhurtpore, the Nawab of Surat, and the Nawab of
Furruckabad. The first charge was submitted to
the House on the 23rd of April, 1806.
The tone of the preliminary proceedings suffi¬
ciently indicated their eventual result. The in¬
dividual who had undertaken to establish the
criminality of Lord Wellesley was ill qualified for
the task, even if he had been provided with more
tenable grounds for his accusations. The intem¬
perance of his language was not redeemed by any
powers of eloquence, or extenuated by the nature of
his facts, and argued more of personal malignity
than public spirit : ^ he stood wholly unsupported in
the House, even by the members of the Court of
Directors who were present, and who in that cha¬
racter had concurred in the unqualified reprobation
of many of those measures of the Governor-General
which were now brought under Parliamentary in¬
vestigation.® He was opposed by both the political
' He accused, in his charge with respect to Oude, Lord Wellesley and
Mr. H. Wellesley of committing murder, when speaking of the employ¬
ment of a militai-y force against the refractory Zemindars in the Ceded
districts ; and, on a subsequent occasion, he calls upon the House to con¬
sider the situation of India, from the accursed day when Marquis Welles¬
ley set foot there, until the day of his departure, during which interval it
exhibited a constant scene of rapine, oppression, cruelty, and fraud which
goaded the whole country into a state of revolt,—Hansard's Pari. Debates,
23rd May and 6th July, 1806.
' Mr. Thornton observed, that impeachment was a step much stronger
than anything which he was prepared to think the conduct of Marquis
Wellesley, improper as he esteemed it, could warrant him in adopting ;
CHARGE OF PRODIGAL EXPENDITURE.
159
parties in the Commons : by the one as participant book i.
of Lord Wellesley's measures; by the other on the
principle that, although the system might be repre- i8o6.
hensible, yet Parliamentary inquiry was neither
necessary nor expedient.^ And he derived no
weight from popular interest, as it was engrossed
by considerations of nearer and more vital import¬
ance.
The first charge brought forward, the prodigal
expenditure of Lord Wellesley's government, took
the House by surprise, as it was unconnected with
any of the papers previously moved for. Even Mr.
Fox felt it incumbent upon him to remark upon
so irregular a course. He observed, that " the honour¬
able member had not told the House what were the
documents to be laid before it in support of the
charge, nor when they were to be produced : he
understood, in fact, that the mover had really no do¬
cuments, although he had proposed a day for discus¬
sion; and if, when that day should arrive, he should
be unprovided with means to substantiate his charge,
and Mr. Grant, although he certainly judged inquiry to be necessary, did
not deem it advisable to proceed to impeachment.— Pari. Debates.
1 The sentiments of Mr. Fox are worthy of note, from the difference of
his language on this occasion and that which he used during the proceed¬
ings against Warren Hastings. He said, "He, and others who agreed
with him, had no wish to disparage the proceeding, or to throw obstacles
in the way ; but, because he disapproved of a system of measures, it did
not follow that it was to be remedied by impeaching the individual. He
and his honourable friend (Mr. Francis) had a good deal of experience on
the subject : this was certainly not a proper time for inquiry ; he might
disapprove of, and strongly oppose systems, but he would not always
think it necessary to resort to inquiries. Impeachment was a bad mode of
proceeding, except in particular cases ; and certainly it was not advisable
to adopt it with regard to a Governor-General of India merely on account
of his system. He could not be said to desert a person whom he never
encouraged ; but, since the trial of Mr. Hastings, they might say if they
pleased, he shrunk from all India impeachments, or flew from them, or any
other worse term might be employed, if worse could be found. To this he
would make no answer."—Pari. Debates, 13th April, 1806.
160
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA. .
BOOK I. he would find himself in a very awkward and un-
pleasant predicament." So ill concerted were Mr.
1806. Paull's proceedings, that, having moved that the
charge be taken into consideration that day three
weeks, the motion found no seconder. It was not
until after some pause that Sir William Geary rose
to second the motion ; not, as he observed, from any
conviction of the culpability of the accused, but
because he thought that the dignity of the House
required that the opportunity of proving charges of
so grave a tenor should not be denied. The ob¬
vious necessity, however, of bringing forward written
vouchers enforced an alteration. The motion was
withdrawn, and, in its place, papers to show the re¬
lative expenditure of successive Indian administra¬
tions were moved for, and granted.
A tangible charge was at length elicited. Re¬
verting to the treatment of the Nawab of Oude,
and the appropriation of the Ceded districts, it
was affirmed that in these proceedings IMarquis
Wellesley had violated subsisting treaties, and every
principle of equity and right; had been regardless
of his duty to the East India Company, his Sove¬
reign, and hfs country ; had contemned the Parlia¬
ment, the King, and the laws ; had dishonoured the
British nation and name ; and had in these respects
been guilty of high offences, crimes, and misde¬
meanours. A second charge was subsequently
brought forward, accusing the Governor-General of
having unjustly and violently compelled the Nawab
of Furruckabad to give up his territory. Evidence
was heard on the Oude charge, which closed on the
4th of July. On the 6th Lord Temple moved that
oude charge disposed of.
161
the charge should be taken into consideration ; but book i.
the motion was resisted on the plea of precipitancy, '
and, as further papers were requested, the discussion 1807.
was postponed. On the following day a third charge
was adduced, relative to the treatment of the
Zemindar of Sasnee and other Zemindars.
The end of the session put a stop to these pro¬
ceedings; and, upon the dissolution of Parliament
which ensued, Mr. Pauli, having canvassed unsuc¬
cessfully the borough of Westminster, ceased to be
a member of the House of Commons. The attack
upon Lord Wellesley, however, was not abandoned:
it was resumed by Lord Folkestone, hut was urged
in a more temperate strain, and for a different ob¬
ject ; all purpose of impeachment being disavowed.
A series of resolutions was proposed, condemnatory
of the demands made upon the Nawab of Oude, in
breach of the treaty of 1798, and the consequent
sequestration of a considerable part of his domi¬
nions ; but, after a prolonged discussion, the resolu¬
tions were rejected by a considerable majority. It
was then moved by Sir John Anstruther, and car¬
ried by a majority equally numerous, that the
Marquis of Wellesley, in executing the late ar¬
rangements in Oude, was actuated by an ardent zeal
for the public service, and by the Jesire of providing
more effectually for the prosperity, the defence, and
the safety of the British possessions in India.
The character of the measures which were thus
subjected to Parliamentary investigation has been
explained in a preceding volume.* It is, therefore,
unnecessary to do more in this place than to advert
' Mill, vol. vi. 193.
vol. i. m
1G2
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. briefly to the principal arguments, which, amidst
much iiTcIevant matter, were urged by either party.
1807. By those who sought to obtain a vote of censure on
the IMarquis it was maintained, that the Nawab of
Oude was an independent prince, with whom, in
that capacity, treaties had been contracted : that a
treaty had been recently concluded with him (in
1798), by which his authority over his household,
his troops, and his subjects, had been recognised ;
and an amount of subsidy, fully adequate to the
expense of the largest force ever raised for the
defence of Oude, had been exacted from him : that
the Nawab had punctually discharged all demands
arising out of this stipulation ; and^ that there ivas
nothing in his domestic circumstances and conduct,
or in the aspect of foreign affairs, which called for
so violent a measure as that of compelling him to
convert a money payment into a territorial conces¬
sion, and to give up half of his dominions, in order
to secure the fulfilment of his pecuniary obligations :
that the demand had been submitted to by the
Nawab solely through his conscious inability to re¬
sist it ; and that the injustice thus inflicted upon a
native prince, the ally and friend of the Company,
Avas calculated to bring discredit on the British
name throughout India : that the acquisition of
territory thus obtained was in opposition to the
sentiments of the Court of Directors as expressed
in a dispatch signed by them all, with one only ex¬
ception ; and was a violation of the declared sense of
Parliament, which had expressly denounced terri¬
torial extension in India as contrary to the honour
and AA-ishes of the nation.
POLICY OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT
163
In opposition to these assertions it was affirmed, booki.
that the Nawah of Oude was not entitled to be re-
garded as an independent sovereign ; the military 1807.
defence of his territories having devolved upon
the British from their first connexion with Oude,
and their interposition in its internal government
having been repeatedly exercisecT. The reigning
prince was in fact indebted to that interposition
for the rank he held ; his predecessor, Vizir Ali,
having been deposed, and himself placed on the
throne, by the Governor-General. That the treaty
of 1798 had reference to the actual position of the
Nawab, but did not preclude interference whenever
circumstances should urgently call for it. That
subsequently circumstances had occurred which de¬
manded strong measures, the Nawab having in¬
timated his apprehensions that the impoverished
and declining resources of his principality would
not long suffice to pay the stipulated subsidy : that
such a failure was to be anticipated from the mal¬
administration of the Nawab, and his inability to
maintain subordination and realise his revenues-:
that, while the means of keeping up an effective
subsidiary force were likely to be thus deficient, the
necessity of augmenting its strength had been ren¬
dered imperative ; first, by the absence of adequate
provision for internal defence ; and secondly, by the
imminence of external danger. The troops of the
Nawab were a disorderly and disaffected body, a
source rather of peril than of safety, whose reduc¬
tion was highly advantageous to the state. Re¬
peated menaces of invasion had been put forth by
Zeman Shah, the ruler of the Afghans ; and the
M 2
164
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. presence of Sindhia's disciplined brigades under
French officers upon the frontiers of Oude menaced
1807. the integrity of the principality, and imperiously
enjoined defensive preparations. Under these emer¬
gencies, the annexation to the British Indian empire
of the districts in the Doab which were most ex¬
posed to foreign aggression was indispensably neces¬
sary for the security of both the protected and
protecting power.
It cannot be denied that the political interests of
the British Government strongly recommended the
appropriation of the Ceded provinces. Continued
punctuality in the payment of the subsidy was an
evident impossibility, from the diminishing resources
of the Nawab; and the subsidiary force must have
been reduced or disbanded, or kept up at the
Company's cost. The condition of the districts in
the Doab was also a subject of uneasiness, as, in the
event of a collision with the Mahrattas, the move¬
ments of the British armies would have been em¬
barrassed by the necessity of holding in check a
disorganised and turbulent population. The readiest
method of preventing such results was the establish¬
ment of the British authority in the territories in
question, the maintenance of order, and the applica¬
tion of the revenues to the payment of the sub¬
sidiary force. That the measure, whilst it strength¬
ened the British Government, would be conducive
to the well-being of the people and the prosperity
of the country, was to be anticipated ; and upon
these grounds the appropriation was susceptible of
vindication ; but that it consulted the dignity and
poAver of the Nawab, or could be acceptable to his
revival of carnatic charge.
165
feelings, it was absurd to pretend. He was help- book i.
less, and he acquiesced ; but he was not so blind to
his own interests as to be deceived by the specious i8o8.
plausibility with which the mutilation of his autho¬
rity was pressed upon him ; and there can he little
douht that the feeble efforts made in England to
procure him redress had their origin in the fallacious
hopes which he had been led to entertain of the
reversal of the sentence of spoliation hy the justice
of the British Parliament.
Notwithstanding the victory gained by the friends
of Marquis Wellesley on this occasion, the ordeal
which he had to undergo was yet incomplete. The
minor charges relating to the Nawab of Furruck-
abad and the Zemindar of Sasnee were disposed of
with the Oude charge, and no further notice was
taken of the case of the Nawab of Surat. The
charge of prodigal expenditure was also abandoned ;
as it had all along been admitted that the personal
integrity of the late Governor-General was unim¬
peachable, and that his profusion was exclusively
instigated by considerations of public credit or ad¬
vantage. There remained, however, a topic which
had been formerly brought forward by Mr. Sheridan,
—the treatment of the Nawab of Arcot. He had
moved for papers relating to the inquiry in De¬
cember, 1802, but had then allowed the matter to
drop. He still declined to renew its agitation, but
he declared himself prepared to support any member
who should introduce the question. Accordingly,
on the 17th May, 1808, after an interval of five
years and a half. Sir Thomas Turton moved a series
of six resolutions, as grounds for the appointment of
IGG HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA."
BOOK I. a committee to inquire into the assumption of the
Camatic. After an adjourned debate, the resolu-
1808. tions were rejected ; and it was moved and carried,
that it was the opinion of the House that the IMar-
quis Wellesley and Lord Poivis, in their conduct
relative to the Camatic, appeared to have been in¬
fluenced solely by motives of anxious zeal and soli¬
citude for the permanent security, welfare, and
prosperity of the British possessions in India.^ Thus
ended the discussions in Parliament resjiecting Lord
Wellesley's administration; having had no other
effect than that of excluding him from a share in
the administration of affairs at home, when his co¬
operation would have been of value to Ministers and
to the country.
A very different result attended the proceedings
of the Court of Proprietors. In May, 1806, a mo*
tion Avas there made for the production of the cor¬
respondence that had taken place with the Board of
Controul on the subject of the late wars in India ;
the main object being to confirm the condemnation
of many of Lord Wellesley's measures which had been
expressed by the Court of Directors in the draft of a
letter to Bengal, the dispatch of which had been
arrested by the Board of Controul. The documents
having been printed,^ a motion was made at a sub¬
sequent meeting, that " this Court, having con¬
sidered the papers laid before it, most highly
approve of the zeal manifested and the conduct
pursued by the Court of Directors, and regard a
firm adherence to the principles maintained by the
' The numbers were, for the motion 98, against it 19 ; majority 79.
" Papers printed for the use of the Proprietors, 7th May, 1806.
sentiments of the proprietors. 167
Court to be indispensably necessary to preserve the book i.
salutary authority over the government of India
vested by law in the Court of Directors, to restrain i8o6.
a profuse expenditure of the public money, and to
prevent all schemes of conquest and extension of
dominion,—measures which the Legislature had de¬
clared to be repugnant to the wish, the honour, and
the policy of the nation ; and this Court do assure the
Court of Directors of their most cordial and zealous
support, with a view to preserve unimpaired the
rights and privileges of the East India Company."
After a debate of some length the resolution was
submitted to decision by ballot, when a very large
majority of the Proprietors expressed their concur¬
rence in the views of the Directors.' It wil^ not
fall within the limits of this work to describe the
proceedings of the Company at a date long subse¬
quent ; but it deserves to be noticed, as a remark¬
able instance of the inconsistency of public bodies,
that, thirty years afterwards, the resolution, now so
numerously and strenuously supported, was virtually
negatived by the unanimous determination of the
same Court of Proprietors to make a pecuniary
grant to Lord Wellesley in recompense of his great
services to the Company, and to erect his statue in
the Court-room;® thus testifying their approbation
of the general policy of his administration, and
consequently of the principles of subsidiary alliances
and territorial aggrandisement.
' The numbers were, iu favour of the resolution 928, against it 195.
Seven hundred and thirty-three Proprietors recoi'ded their condemnation of
Lord Wellesley's policy.— Asiatic Annual Register, 1806 ; Proceedings,
India House.
' Asiatic Journal ; Proceedings at the India House, 1st November, 1837,
and 17th March, 1841.
1G8
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. The only other proceedings of importance at
home affecting the Company's interests were partly
1808. of a financial character, and partly preliminary to
the discussion of a question the determination of
which was now not very remote,—the renewal of
the charter, which expired in 1813. On the 11th
of March, 1808, Mr. Dundas moved the appoint¬
ment of a select committee to inquire into the
present state of the affairs of the East India Com¬
pany. A committee was appointed accordingly ;
and to it was referred a petition submitted by the
Company, pra}ing that 1,200,000/. due to the Com¬
pany by the Government might be repaid, and a
like sum be advanced by way of loan, to enable
the Company to provide for the deficiencies of their
commercial resources, which had been occasioned by
continued remittances of goods and bullion to India,
and the suspension of investments in return, in con¬
sequence of the political circumstances of India, and
the pecuniary wants of the Government of that
country. On the 13th of June the report of the
committee was presented, admitting a considerable
balance to be due to the India Company by his
Majesty's Government ; and it was accordingly re¬
solved that a sum not exceeding 1,500,000/. should
be paid to the Company.
It was at the same time shown that a principal
source of the diminished profits of the Company's
commerce arose from the rapidly decreasing value
of their imports, owing to the failing demand for
one of those articles which they had hitherto, in
great part, successfully inclosed against the tres¬
passing of private trade. The improved and im-
decline of company's trade.
1G9
proving cotton manufactures of England were be- book i.
ginning to exercise a sensible effect upon the similar
products of Indian industry; and the import value of isos.
Piece-goods, which had hitherto formed a main item
in the commerce of the Company, had fallen during
the last ten years to one-sixth of its amount at the
commencement of the term,—ft-om nearly three
millions sterling to less than half a million.'
' Imports, Piece-goods. 1798-9. 1807-8.
Report of Select Committee, No. 1, priated by order of the House of
Commons, 12th May, 1810.
The trade in piece-goods was deemed of such importance at the re¬
newal of the charter in 1793, that it was stated by the Committee of Corre¬
spondence, that without it the Company could not liquidate their political
debts, still less furnish the means of participation to the public to the ex¬
tent which was proposed.—Resolution 8th, April 1st, 1793.
Lm-d Minto Governor-General.—Sir G. Barlow Go¬
vernor of Fort St. George.—Character and Policy
of the Governor-General.—Determination to esta¬
blish Order in Bundelkhand.—Description of the
Hilly district of the province.—Colonel Martindell
sent against Ajaygerh.—Affair of Rajaoli.—Ajay-
gerh surrendered. — Lakshman Dawa sets off to
Calcutta,—leaves it again suddenly.—His Family
put to death by his Father-in-law. — Operations
From Bengal
Coast
Anjengo
£1,219,828 260,262
1,560,470 136,177
193,202 30,381
£2,993,490 £432,820
CHAPTER IV
17ü
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
against Gopal Sing.—Nature of Ms Incursions.—
His submission.—Storm of Kalinjar,—repulsed.—
Fortress surreiidered.—Treaties with the Raja of
Rewa.—Settlement of Hariana.—The Sikh Chiefs
east of the Setlej taken under protection.—Treaty
with Ranjit Sing.—Embassy to Peshawar.—Revo¬
lutions of Afghanistan.—Disastrous Life of Shah
Shuja. — Return of the Embassy. — Mission to
Sindh. — Revolutions in the Government of that
country. — Failure of Négociation. — Intercourse
between France and Persia.—Ill-concerted measures
of the British Authorities.—Sir Harford Jones sent
as Ambassador from England,—Sir John Malcolm
from India. — Unsatisfactory result of the latter
Missiori.—Return of the Envoy.—A Military Ex¬
pedition to the Gulph projected by the Bengal Go¬
vernment.—Sir Harford Jones departs from Bom¬
bay,—proceeds to Shiraz.—Prosecution of the Mis¬
sion prohibited. — He perseveres,— reaches Tehran,
—concludes a preliminary Treaty.—Disavowed by
the Indian Government.—The Treaty confirmed.
—Diplomatic relations with Persia taken under the
management of the British Ministry.—Sir Gore
Ouseley Ambassador.—Definitive Treaty concluded,
—productive of little advantage.
book i. The nobleman on wliom the government of
" India now devolved had been long engaged in
1807. public life, and had been for many years an active
member of Parliament. Connected with the Whisfs
in political principle, and the personal friend of
some of their gi-eat leaders. Sir Gilbert Elliot had
been chosen as one of the managers for the Com-
principles of the government of bengal.
171
mens in the trial of Warren Hastings, and to him book i.
had been intrusted the conducting of the proposed
impeachment of Sir Elijah Impey,^ The knowledge 1807.
he had thus acquired of Indian affairs recommended
him, upon the accession of his friends to power, to
the office of President of the Board of Controul ;
and, when it was found impossible to overcome the
repugnance of the Court of Directors to the ap¬
pointment of the Earl of Lauderdale, he was readily
acknowledged by both parties as eligible for the
situation of Governor-General of India. Lord Minto
was accordingly appointed. He left England in the
Modeste frigate, and arrived at IMadras on the 20th
June, 1807. There, as has been noticed, he stayed
a short time to assist in determining the final dis¬
posal of the Vellore prisoners, and, resuming his
voyage, reached Calcutta on the 3rd July. Lord
William Bentinck having at the same time been
recalled. Sir George Barlow was nominated Go¬
vernor of Fort St. George, and repaired thither in
December of the same year.
The sentiments which had been expressed at
home, both by the Ministry and the Court of Di¬
rectors, adverse to the system of policy followed by
Lord Wellesley, necessarily imposed upon Lord
Älinto the obligation of adopting princii)les of a
less ambitious tenor, and of pursuing the measures
which had been instituted by Lord Cornwallis and
Sir George Barlow for the retrenchment of public
expenditure and the preservation of external tran¬
quillity. The general tone of the new Administra¬
tion was, therefore, moderate and pacific; and the
' See vol. V, of Mill's History, p. 83.
172
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. character of the Governor-General, delighting in
CHAP. IV. milder glories of internal prosperity, the ame-
1807. nities of domestic society, and the cultivation of
literature and the arts, accorded with the spirit in
which it was expected that his government should be
carried on. At the same time. Lord Minto was not
of a disposition to shrink from expense or exertion
when they were recommended or required by the
interests of the state over which he ruled ; and vari¬
ous important transactions, arising out of Indian and
of European politics, signalised his career, and ex¬
hibited not unfrequent departures from the policy of
imperturbable forbearance and scrupulous non-inter¬
ference which had been followed by his predecessors.
The enforcement of submission to authority, and
the final establishment of order in the provinces
recently annexed to the British territories, were
among the first objects of the Governor-General's
attention. The avoidance of interference in the
quarrels of the petty Rajas of Bundelkhand, and
the attempt to secure their allegiance and good-will
by conciliatory means, had entirely failed. The im¬
punity with which some of the most notorious
patrons of the bands of free-booters, by whom the
province was overrun, were suffered to retain pos¬
session of the districts they had usurped, served
only to perpetuate depredation; and the uncon-
trouled liberty which had been left to the Rajas,
of asserting by arms their own real or pretended
rights to each other's lands, was productive of in¬
terminable disputes, and a disorganising repetition
of internal warfare. It was obviously necessary, if
it was worth while to retain the pi'ovince, to adopt
hill districts of bundelkhand.
173
a different mode of governing it ; and a change of book i.
measures was resolved on. It was officially an-
nounced that the submission which milder means isos.
had failed to introduce should be established by
force, and that the Government would compel,
where necessary, obedience to its commands. The
promulgation of these designs went far to effect
their fulfilment. The Rajas who had hitherto be¬
lieved that the interposition of the British Agent
would be limited to advice only, which they had
therefoi-e ventured to treat with utter disregard,
hastened, when they found that something more
than mere advice was seriously contemplated, to
refer their disputes to the decision of the superior
authority ; and lands and villages, long and fiercely
contested, were awarded to those to whom it ap¬
peared upon investigation that they rightfully be¬
longed, in most cases without any necessity for
compulsive measures. It was not found possible,
however, to exterminate the banditti who roamed
through the country, as long as they found shelter
and support in its principal fortresses; and it was
rendered necessary, by the persevering contumacy
of the castellans of the forts of Kalinjar and Ajay-
gerh, to employ a military force for their humiliation.
The province of Bundelkhand, which is generally
a plain where it is contiguous to the Jumna, is en¬
compassed on its southern and south-eastern con¬
fines by portions of the great Vindhya chain of
hills, which stretches across India from the Ganges
to the gulph of Cambay. The portions of the
chain which border upon Bundelkhand, or are in¬
cluded within its limits, consist of four nearly
174
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. parallel ranges, running obliquely from north-east
to south-M'est, distinguished as the Vindhyachal,
1808. Panna, Bhander, and Thamian or Kaimur hills :
they are not of great elevation, but rise one above
the other as they extend to the south and west.
They are separated hy narrow valleys or table-lands
of limited extent, which, as well as the hills, are
for the most part rendered difficult of access by
underwood and thick jungle. From the most north¬
erly range, or Vindhyachal, isolated elevations are
thrown out northwards into the plain, forming a
characteristic feature of this part of the country,
and affording favourable positions for the construc¬
tion of hill-forts : ^ two of these had been selected
for the site of the forts above named, and Kalinjar
and Ajaygerh were regarded by the Bundelas as
impregnable, both from the natural difficulties of
the approach to them, and the fortifications by
Avhich those difficulties had been enhanced.
The Kiladar of Ajaygerh, Lakshman Dawa, ori¬
ginally the captain of a band of plunderers, had
become possessed of that strong-hold through the
connivance of the officer who had been placed in
command of it by Shamshir Bahadur, and who had
been directed to give it up to the British authori¬
ties. Lakshman was permitted to retain the fort as
a temporary arrangement, and to hold in Jagir the
adjacent lands, on condition of paying a small annual
tribute, and relinquishing the fortress at the expi¬
ration of two years, ending in 1808. The tribute
was never paid, the term of occupancy had expired,
' Memoir on Bundelkhand, by Captain Franklin ; Trans. Royal Asiatic
Society, i. 259.
capture of ajaygerh.
175
and no intention of giving up tlie fort was exhibited, book i.
A body of troops was therefore assembled, and sent
under Colonel Martindell against Ajaygerh. isos.
No opposition was encountered by Colonel INIar-
tindell's detachment until they arrived at Rajaoli, a
fortified hill about ten miles from Ajaygerh, which
was occupied by a select body of Lakshman Dawa's
troops. The ascent of the hill was by steep and
narrow paths, overhung in many places by project¬
ing rocks ; from the shelter of which, parties of the
enemy" fired upon the slowly advancing troops.
Driven from these stations they retreated to the
summit of the hill, where they had constructed
parapet walls, and behind them they made a reso¬
lute stand. As no ladders could be brought up
with which to scale the wall, the assailants were
recalled, and preparations made for resuming the
attack on the following morning : the enemy eva¬
cuated the post during the night.'
On the following day Colonel Martindell pro¬
ceeded to Ajaygerh, and batteries were raised against
the fort. Operations were, however, suspended by
repeated messages from Lakshman Dawa promising
to deliver up the fortress, and négociations were
protracted until the 11th of February in this ex¬
pectation. Further delay was then refused, and the
guns opened upon the principal gateways with such
effect as in a few hours to lay three of them in
ruins. On the two following days the firing was
repeated, and early on the 13th a practicable breach
was made. The Kiladar anticipated the assault by a
' The loss of the assailants was 28 Sipahis killed, and 115 wounded,
including three officers, of whom Lieut. Jamieson of the light battalion
died of his wounds.
176
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. timely surrender, and Ajaygerh was taken possession
of in the course of the day.^ Lakshman Dawa gave
1809. himself up to Mr. Richardson, the Governor-Gene¬
ral's agent, and was allowed to remain at large upon
parole. His family removed from the fort, and
found a residence in the adjacent town of Nao-
sheher, where a tragedy ensued, not unprecedented
in the history of the Hindus, and characteristic of
native sentiments of personal honour.
Lakshman Dawa, in surrendering himself, che¬
rished a hope that the British authorities would rein¬
state him in the possession of his fort, and addressed
a petition to the agent, praying either that he might
be restored, or that he might be blown from the
mouth of a gun, as life without reputation was not
worth preserving. As IVIr. Richardson declined a
compliance with either alternative, the chief re¬
solved to make a personal appeal to the Governor-
General, and secretly quitted the camp for the
purpose of repairing to Calcutta. He managed his
flight with so much skill that no traces of him were
discovered until his arrival at the Presidency. He
was treated with kindness, and left at large under
the supervision of the police ; but, as no hope was
held out to him of recovering a possession to which
his only titles were usurpation and fraud, he de¬
parted as unceremoniously as he had arrived, and
endeavoured to effect his return to Bundelkhand :
his flight was intercepted, and he was brought back
to Calcutta, where he was detained until his death.®
' Official Dispatches and Government Orders ; As. Annual Register,
vol. xi. ; Chronicle, p. 27.
" Lakshman Dawa died in the neighbourhood of Calcutta in November,
1828. He had from the first refused to accept any provision in place of
destruction op lakshman dawa's family. 177
Upon the disappearance of Lakshman Dawa from book i.
CHAP« IV«
camp, it was considered advisable to place his family
in greater security as hostages for his conduct. They 1^09.
were ordered to prepare for removal into the fort,
with assurances that they had nothing to apprehend
from their detention ; and that one of their male re¬
latives, who had not forfeited the favourable opinion
of the British Government, should be intrusted
with their guardianship. Baju Rao, the father-in-
law of the absent chief, was instructed to conduct
the party to their quarters. He undertook the
office with apparent cheerfulness, and repaired for
that purpose to the house in which the family re¬
sided. When a considerable interval had elapsed
after his entrance into the house, and no person
seemed to he coming forth, a native officer of the
escort entered, and found the old man seated before
the door of an inner room with a drawn sword in
his hand. As the Suhahdar approached, Baju Rao
retired into the chamber, and closed the door.
Assistance being obtained, the door was forced ;
when the mother, the wife, the infant son of
Lakshman Dawa, and four female attendants, were
discovered lying dead on the floor, having been
killed by Baju Rao, apparently with their own con¬
sent, as no cry nor any expression of alarm or suf¬
fering had been heard. As soon as the door was
the lands of which he had been dispossessed, and was for some time under
the charge of the police. In 1811 his misfortunes affected his intellects,
and he was placed under the care of the Company's medical officer at
Alypore, with whom he continued until 1822, when he appears to have re¬
covered his understanding. He was not i-eleased from all restraint for two
years longer, when he consented to receive a pension of 600 rupees a month.
After his death the surviving members of his family were allowed to return
to Bundelkhand.—MS. Records.
vol. i. n
178
history of british india.
boor i. opened, Baju Rao inflicted a fatal wound upon him-
CHAP. IV. catastrophe was in entire unison with
1809. native feeling ; and several of the Bundela chiefs in
camp hesitated not to avow, that, under similar cir¬
cumstances, they would have perpetrated a similar
deed.^
A protracted course of desultory and harassing
hostilities had some time previously been com¬
menced against Gopal Sing, a military adventurer
who had usurped the district of Kotra, the inhe¬
ritance of Raja Bakht Sing, a descendant of Chatra-
sal. The right of the Raja had been formally re¬
cognised by the British Government during the
preceding administration, and he had been autho¬
rised to recover his lands; but, as he was not allowed
to receive the assistance of British troops, the re¬
cognition and sanction were mere mockeries.® With
the altered policy of the Government its grants
became realities. A British detachment was sent to
place the Raja in possession. The task was easily
accomplished, and even Gopal Sing came into
camp and professed submission. From motives
which are unexplained, or from the instability of
purpose wiiich is not unfrequent in the native mind,
he seems to have speedily repented of his acqui¬
escence, and, departing abruptly from the British
encampment, he retired with a few followers to
' MS. Records ; also As. Annual Register, vol. vi. ; Histoiy, p. 5.
2 See the Ikrai- Nama, or pledge of allegiance, and Sunnud granted to
Raja Bakht Sing; Coll. of Treaties, p. 331. The documents are dated
8th June, 1807. The first article of the answer to the Raja's solicitation to
be reinstated runs, "-Little doubt can be entertained that you will be
able to establish your authority, and to settle the Pergunnas, independently
of the aid and support of the British Government : at the same time, every
proper and necessary aid which you may require, with the exception of
troops, shall be furnished to you.''
hostilities with gopal sing.
179
the thickets above the first range of hills. Sensible book i.
that direct resistance to the superior force of the '
supporters of Bakht Sing would be unavailing, he 1809.
adopted a course of destructive irruptions ; rushing
down upon the plains and spreading terror and
devastation in all directions whenever an oppor¬
tunity occurred, and, when pressed by his enemies,
taking refuge amongst the entangled and rugged
country between the first and second ranges of the
mountains. Although his parties were frequently
overtaken and dispersed, they immediately re-as¬
sembled and renewed their depredations; and it
became necessary to provide a permanent check
upon their ravages. A cantonment was therefore
established at Tiroha, at the foot of the first range,
a few miles to the north-east of Kalinjar, from
whence detachments were sent occasionally to guard
the passes; the unhealthiness of the climate pre¬
venting the presence of a force above the ghats
throughout the year. The marauding attacks of
Gopal Sing were in some measure counteracted
by these arrangements, but they continued at in¬
tervals to disturb the quiet and delay the pacific
settlement of the country.
Towards the end of 1809, the concentration of
the British force in Bundelkhand under Colonel
Martindell, in a different quarter of the province,
having drawn off the principal part of the troops
opposed to Gopal Sing, the protection of the dis¬
tricts was left to the unaided resources of the
Rajas of Panna and Kotra. They proved utterly
inadequate to the duty. Their united contingents
were defeated in an engagement with their more
N 2
180
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. warlike adversary; and the country below the hills
laid open to his attacks was remorselessly devas-
1810. tated, until his progress was stopped by a detach¬
ment under Major Kelly, which was sent from
Colonel Martindell's camp at Chatterpur. As the
force advanced, Gopal retired above the third range
of ghats; in the vicinity of which the 1st battalion
of the 16th native infantry, commanded by Captain
Wilson, was stationed to keep him in check, while
the rest of the detachment rejoined the main army.
Gopal Sing, finding himself more than a match
for the force which remained to oppose him, re¬
sumed offensive operations; and being assailed in
a strongly stockaded position near Kakarati in the
Panna principality, by the detachment under Cap¬
tain Wilson, repulsed the assailants after they had
suffered considerable loss, and compelled them to
fall back towards the plains.^ The junction of
Major Delamain, with a squadron of the 2nd native
cavalry, restored the sujieriority to the British ; hut
Gopal, turning to the north amongst the hills, out¬
stripped their pursuit, and coming suddenly doBTi
upon Tiroha, which was feebly guarded, he plun¬
dered and set fire to the cantonments, before troops,
dispatched from Ajaygerh as soon as the move¬
ment of Gopal Sing upon Tiroha was known, could
arrive for its protection. Major JNIorgan, who com¬
manded the detachment, followed the retreating
enemy ; but whilst Gopal Sing, at the head of his
horse, manœuvred so as to engross his attention,
' On this occasion, Gopal Sing showed that he united humanity with
courage and conduct. Several of the wounded Sipahis having fallen into
his hands, he had their wounds dressed, and sent them back to rejoin the
detachment.
surprise of jhargerh.
181
the infantry marched unperceived again upon Tiroha, book i.
where they not only completed such part of theJ^^^^JIl
work of destruction as they had left unfinished, isio.
but laid the adjacent town in ashes, after having
first made themselves masters of much valuable
booty. The audacity of this enterprise enforced the
adoption of more vigorous measures, and Colonel
Brown was detached from Colonel Martindell's
camp, with the 1st native cavalry and one squadron
of the 8th, to command the troops engaged in this
harassing warfare. A battalion of native infantry
under Major Leslie was also added to the force;
and Gopal, unable to encounter such an armament,
and having been surprised and roughly handled
by Colonel Brown at Bichaund near Ajaygerh,
reascended the passes, and took shelter in an
entrenched position at Jhargerh above the second
range of ghats. Captain Wilson, with a squadron
of native cavalry, the 1st battalion of the 16th
native infantry, three companies of the 7th, and
a company of pioneers, was sent forward in pursuit.
After a laborious march he ascended the hills un¬
perceived, and arrived at Jhargerh almost before
his approach was discovered. The defences con¬
sisted of a rampart and strong stockades situated
upon a rocky eminence in a valley overgrown with
bamboos and brushwood : they were accessible only
on one face, the other sides being covered by almost
impenetrable thickets ; but the garrison, including
Gopal Sing, were so much taken by surprise that
their only thought was of escape. Guided by one
of his prisoners. Captain Wilson effected his en¬
trance into the main body of the works as they
182
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. were evacuated by the enemy, who plunged into
CHAP. IV. thickets and disappeared. After burning the
1810. stockades, and levelling the fort, the detachment
returned to its post at Kakarati. The setting in
of the rainy season put a stop to further proceed¬
ings. Gopal retired to the south ; and the troops
were so stationed as to intercept his return to the
north and west, and confine him to the rugged
valleys between the Bhander and Kaimur hills, to¬
wards the sources of the Sone and Nerbudda rivers.
As soon as the state of the country permitted,
active measures were resumed : a division of the
force under Captain Watson marched from Amghat
on the 17th November, and on the morning of the
19th came upon a strong body of Gopal Sing's
troops at the village of Bhamori, commanded by
some of his principal Sirdars, The party was posted
in two divisions: one in the village, occupying a
brick fort ; the other and larger in an adjacent grove,
protected by a deep ravine. As soon as the ravine
was turned by the native cavalry, the enemy's horse
fled, and were pursued for some distance : the foot
followed their example, and broke upon the first
volley from the advancing column. The troops
in the fort surrendered at discretion. About two
hundred were killed and wounded, and above one
hundred taken prisoners, with little loss on the
side of the British. At the same time Major Kelly
advanced from Lohagong, and Colonel Brown from
the neighbourhood of Banda. The latter, after
a long and fatiguing march, crossed the upper
course of the Sone at Hardi Ghat, and overtook
Gopal Sing near the village of Killeri, whither he
submission op gopal sing.
183
had retreated, after declining to accept an asylum book i.
offered him by the Raja of Rewa. His followers, '
consisting entirely of horse, were completely routed ; isii.
and Gopal Sing escaped, almost unattended, into
the jungle. Here he continued, however, to main¬
tain himself and followers for several months, and,
notwithstanding his repeated discomfiture, remained
unsubdued.
In the month of June, Gopal Sing emerged from
his retreat at Kshirgaon in the country of the
Berai* Raja, and once more descended from the
hills. His movements were closely watched by the
detachments of Colonel Brown's force ; and, having
been nearly surprised by Captain Watson in the
vicinity of Komtara, he retreated to the protec¬
tion of his former asylum. Having received intelli¬
gence of his position. Colonel Brown moved with
great secrecy and expedition, and came by surprise
upon him on the night of the 26th June. The
enemy's camp was pitched at the head of the Do-
wani pass in the JVIarao hills, in the dry bed of
a swamp, protected by thick wood on every side,
and accessible only by steep and narrow defiles.
Through one of these the infantry advanced, and
first gave intimation of their presence by a volley
fired upon the camp. The enemy fled without
attempting resistance : many were killed, and much
plunder was recovered. The nature of the country
and the approach of the monsoon again suspended
pursuit ; but, on the 7th September, the fortified
post of Kshirgaon was attacked and carried by a
detachment commanded by Captain Watson. Gopal
Sing, once more an almost solitary fugitive, fled
184
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. into the district of Sagar; but, becoming now con-
vinced of the hopelessness of so unequal a contest,
1812. he proffered his submission on the conditions of
receiving a full pardon for his opposition, and pro¬
vision being made for his family. The British Go¬
vernment, equally weary of a troublesome and un¬
profitable warfare, acceded to the terms, and granted
him a Jagir of eighteen villages in the district of
Panwari in Bundelkhand, which is still held by his
descendants.^ The transactions are worthy of re¬
cord as an instance of the success with which personal
activity and resolution, aided by a difficult country,
but destitute of any other means than plunder and
the devotedness of a slender band of adherents,
baffled for a period of four years, and ultimately
tired out, the resentment and the resources of a
powerful antagonist. ®
The final establishment of order and tranquillity
in Bundelkhand was in a still greater degree de¬
pendent upon the reduction of Kalinjar ; the strength
of which fastness, and the vain attempts made in
time past for its capture, impressed the natives Math
a universal belief of its impregnability, and inspired
its Kiladar, Dariao Sing, with confidence to persist
in his opposition to British authority, and to con¬
tinue his scarcely covert encouragement of every
predatory leader. The mischievous consequences of
allowing Dariao Sing® to retain possession of Ka-
" See the Sunnud granted to Gopal Sing on the 24th Feb., 1812 ; Re¬
port of Select Committee, August, 1832 ; Political Appendix, p. 561.
' For the operations against Gopal Sing, see the Asiatic Annual Re¬
gister, vol. xii. ; History, 40 : Chronicle, pp. 9, 10, 61, 78 : and Calcutta
Annual Register, 1821 ; History, p. 76.
' See p. 18, note.
siege of kalinjar.
185
linjar were vainly pointed out when the British an- book i.
thority was first introduced into, Bundelkhand; but
the system of endurance having now given place I812.
to a policy of a more resolute character, it was
determined no longer to overlook his contumacy :
a force was accordingly assembled at Banda, ^ the
command of which was given to Colonel Martindell,
and on the 19th January Kalinjar was invested.
The fortified hill of Kalinjar is situated about
twenty miles south-east of Banda, and about half that
distance from the first range of hills. It rises from
a marshy plain as an isolated rock to the height
of above nine hundred feet, being at the base ten
or twelve miles in circumference, and inclosing on
the summit a table-land of more than four miles
in circuit. On this plain were situated the resi¬
dence of the Kiladar, the cantonments of the gar¬
rison, and several Hindu temples, apparently an¬
cient ; ® the sides of the hill are abrupt, and are
covered with an almost impenetrable jungle of
bushes and bamboos, the haunts of beasts of prey
' A squadron of the 8th light dragoons, five companies of the 53rd foot,
a squadron of the 1st N. C. and three of the 3rd, with six battalions of
N. I., three companies of pioneers, a detachment of European artillery,
and a battering train of twelve and eighteen pounders.
' In some places, mutilated Inscriptions were found in characters said to
be the same as those on the staff of Firoz Shah at Delhi. They have
never been collected or published. Cave temples also are described, one
of which is dedicated to Nila-kantha, a form of Siva, as a Linga. Kâlan-
jara, the correct appellation of the mountain, is also a name of Siva—he
who sees time itself decay—and all the Hindu traditions relating to this
hill connect it with his worship. Kalbhiroop (or correctly, Kála-bhairava),
whose colossal image is specified by Abulfazl as existing at Kalanjar,
is an attendant of Siva, or one of his minor emanations. See the word
Callinger, to which Kálanjara is commonly barbarously metamorphosed,
in Hamilton's Gazetteer. A general description of the fort ^uld its anti¬
quities is given in Pogson's History of the Bundelas, but the latter have
been but cursorily and imperfectly investigated.
186
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. and of innumerable monkeys. The crest of the
hill is formed of a ridge of steep black rock, which
1812. forms the base of a wall with loopholes and em¬
brasures surrounding the whole of the summit. The
Petta, or town, lies at the foot of the hill at the
south-eastern angle; and the ascent thence to the
fort is by a broad winding road cut along the eastern
face of the rock, and defended by seven fortified
gateways. Opposite to the north-eastern extremity,
at the distance of about eight hundred yards, rises
another detached elevation, the hill of Kálanjari,
nearly as lofty as the main rock, but of much less
extent : its sides are equally steep, and covered in
like manner with a thick and entangled growth of
low shrubs and bamboos.
After reconnoitring the defences of the fort, it
was determined to erect batteries on the lesser hill ;
and, by the 26th of January, a path having been
cleared of the jungle, four iron eighteen-pounders
and two mortars were hauled up by main force
to the top. Another battery of two eighteen-
pounders was formed lower down on the shoulder
of the hill ; and another of two twelve-pounders
nearer the foot, opposite to the great gateway of
the fort. Négociations having failed, the batteries
opened on the 28th, on which day also possession
was taken of the Petta. No attempt was made to
disturb the construction of the batteries, and not
a shot was fired from the fort until they opened ;
it being a point of Indian honour, it is said, for
a fort not to fire until fired upon. When the firing
of the besiegers commenced, that from the fort was
feebly maintained and did little execution; and it
assault repulsed.
187
was expected, that, as soon as a breach should be book i.
CHAP« IV»
made, the fortress would fall an easy conquest : an
anticipation that was fatally disappointed. 1812.
By the 1st of February the batteries had effected
what was considered to be a practicable breach,
and at sunrise on the 2nd the storming party ad¬
vanced to the assault. The party consisted of the
five companies of his Majesty's 53rd, and the flank
companies of the native regiments, commanded by
Lieut.-Colonel Mawbey. As they ascended the hill,
they ^ere encountered by a brisk fire of matchlocks
and volleys of heavy stones, until they made good
their footing to within fifty yards of the breach,
where they halted, under cover of an old wall.
The top of the breach, and the wall on both sides
of it, were crowded with matchlockmen, regardless
of the fire to which they were exposed from the
destruction of the parapet. Upon a given signal
the assailing column rushed forward, in spite of the
missiles with which they were saluted, and reached
the foot of the parapet. Here they were arrested
by the precipitous and mostly perpendicular rock
on which the wall had stood, and which it was
necessary to scale before they could arrive at the
foot of the breach. Ladders were applied, but the
irregularity of the surface rendered it difficult to
fix them; and, as fast as the men ascended, they
were knocked down by heavy stones hurled upon
them by the defendants, or were shot by their
matchlocks. Equal resolution was displayed on
either side ; but the disadvantageous position of the
assailants rendered the conflict so unequal, that,
after an unavailing struggle of about thirty-five
188
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. minutes, the storming party was recalled. The loss
CHAP. IV. sustained was severe:^ that suffered by the
1812. garrison was not less. The attempt was not un¬
availing ; as the Kiladar, apprehensive of its repeti¬
tion, signified on the day following his acceptance
of the conditions which he had previously rejected.
Lands were assigned to him and the members of his
family who held a united interest in Kalinjar, and
they agreed to cede the fortress. This strong-hold,
which had baffled JNIahmud of Ghazni,® which had
seen Shir Shah® perish before its walls, and which
had sustained a ten years' siege by Ali Bahadur,^ was
thus added to the trophies of British conquest, and
ceased to be the rallying point of lawless spoliation.
After a brief occupancy as a military post it was
dismantled and abandoned. The chiefs who had
once bid defiance from its ramparts to the com¬
mands of the British Government became peaceable
subjects, and their descendants are still enumerated
amongst the Jagirdars of the province.®
' Capt. Fraser, Lieut. Rice, one Serjeant, and ten men of the 53rd,
were killed ; ten officers and one hundred and twenty men were wounded.
Lieut. Faithful, commanding the pioneers, and nearly half his men, were
wounded. The Sipahis had no opportunity of coming into action.
" Mahmud besieged it in A.D. 1023, but made peace with Nanda, its
Hindu Raja, and left it in his possession.— Briggs's Ferishta, i. 66.
' Shir Shaih laid siege to it in A.D. 1554, and was killed by the bursting
of a shell, and consequent explosion of a powder magazine near which he
was standing.— Briggs's Ferishta, ii. 123.
* See above, p. 4.
* Villages were assigned in perpetual Jagir, not only to Dariao Sing
Chaubé, but to his coparceners, descendants equally of Ramkrishna Chaubé,
to the number of eight.—See the separate grants. Report of Select Com¬
mittee, August, 1832 ; App. Political, p. 562 ; also Bengal and Agra
Gazetteer for 1841, vol. ii. part 2, p. 286. The Jagirs thus granted, as well
as others of a similar class, to the number of twenty-seven, were exempted
by a special regulation, xxii. of 1812, from the operation of the general
regulations, and from the Jurisdiction of the courts of civil and criminal
judicature.
operations in rewa.
189
The conduct of Jay Sing Deo, the Raja of Rewa, book i.
a small principality situated on the east of Bundel-
khand, in countenancing Gopal Sing and other I812.
free-hooters, had for some time past been unsatis¬
factory ; and, very soon after the reduction of Ka-
linjar, a party of the plunderers known as Pindaris
penetrated by way of Rewa into the British terri¬
tory of JNIirzapur, apparently with the connivance
of the Raja. It was obvious that he had either
permitted their passage through his country, or
that ñe had not the power to prevent it; and in
either case the duty of self-protection suggested
interposition. After some hesitation the Raja was
compelled to accede to a treaty of friendship and
alliance, by which his possessions were guaranteed,
and his supremacy in the administration of his
government acknowledged ; but he was interdicted
from communicating with foreign states, obliged to
agree to the mutual delivery of enemies and rebels,
and to promise co-operation in military affairs. The
treaty was concluded in October, 1812.
These arrangements were scarcely concluded when
the Raja manifested a disposition to violate them.
He objected to the establishment of a military
post within his boundary ; opposed a communication
. through his country between the British districts
which it separated; treated the British political
agents with indignity ; and either suffered or fu¬
stigated the petty chiefs of Singrana, his depend¬
ants, to commit various acts of aggression on the
adjacent country under British protection. To
punish their ravages, and compel the observance of
the stipulated treaty, Colonel Martindell marched
190
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. into Rewa early in 1813. He had advanced near
CHAP. IV. capital when the Raja solicited a suspension
1813. of hostilities, and consented to enter into a new
treaty, confirming the former stipulations, and en¬
gaging to pay the expenses of the military opera¬
tions. He shortly afterwards abdicated in favour of
his son.
During the suspension of hostilities with the
Rewa Raja, a party of Sipahis escorting military
stores, marching to join the main force, and pro¬
ceeding in the confidence of the armistice which had
then been agreed upon, were suddenly surrounded
near the village of Sathani by a strong body of
horse and foot, by whom some of the men were
killed and the baggage was plundered. The Raja
disclaimed all participation in this atrocity ; and it
appeared to have been the unauthorised act of some
of his feudatories, particularly the Raja of Sathani
and Sarnaid Sing, Raja of Entouri. A force under
Colonel Adams took the field immediately after the
rains to punish the aggressors. Tlie fort of Entouri
was stormed and carried, after an obstinate resist¬
ance. Sarnaid Sing, disdaining to survive its capture,
strewed a quantity of gunpowder upon a cloth, which
he tied round his body, and, setting fire to it, termi¬
nated his existence. Some other forts were taken -
and destroyed ; and the chiefs, alarmed, came into
camp and submitted. A third treaty was then con¬
cluded with the Raja of Rewa ; by which, upon his
renewing the stipulations previously contracted, he
was placed in possession of some of the lands which
the contumacious Zemindars had forfeited, with
certain reservations, under strict promise that he
SETTLEMENT OF HARIANA.
191
would respect whatever guarantees the British Go- book i.
vernment had granted to any of his chiefs, and would
refrain from molesting all such as had evinced towards 1813.
it a friendly disposition. The Raja necessarily acqui¬
esced, but the resentment felt by this petty court
at an interference which it had provoked has per¬
haps scarcely yet given place to friendly feelings.^
These operations put an end for a time to all
serious manifestations of the turbulent spirit by
which the Bundelas have been long distinguished.
A different race, but of a congenial temperament,
in another portion of the western frontier, required,
about the same period, similar coercion.
At the termination of the war, the extensive
and fertile but thinly peopled district of Hariana,
lying immediately west of Delhi, had been taken
within the range of British supremacy. The inha¬
bitants of the province, who were of the Ját race,
a resolute and high-spirited tribe, had some years
before taken advantage of the enfeebled adminis¬
tration of affairs at Delhi to throw off the alle¬
giance which they had previously professed to the
Mogul. Collected together in village communities
they formed so many petty republics acknow¬
ledging no individual head ; and, although com¬
bining occasionally against a foreign enemy, con¬
nected by no common tie of political interest or
authority, and not unfrequently at deadly feud with
each other. From time to time some Mahratta
' See the three treaties of the 5th Oct. 1812, 2nd June 1813, and 21st
March 1814, with the Rewa Raja, in the collection of treaties printed by
order of Parliament, 27th May 1818 ; also in a collection printed for tlie
Proprietors, Aug. 1824.— Administration of the Marquis of Hastings.
The operations are related in Calcutta Annuid Register for 1821, p. 60.
192
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. or Mohammedan chieftain, or individual of their
own body, established a military ascendancy over
1809. them to a limited extent, and for a brief interval ;
and, in one instance, George Thomas, an Irish ad¬
venturer,^ rendered himself the lord over a part of
the province, with Hansi, its chief town, for his
capital. His reign was of short duration; hut its
overthrow was not effected by the discontent of his
subjects or the rivalry of his equals, and it demanded
the overwhelming force of Sindhia's disciplined bri¬
gades, commanded by General Perron, to dispossess
him. Hariana was then governed by Perron in
the name of Sindhia, and, with the defeat of his
troops, passed over to the British. The Govern¬
ment of the day, unwilling to retain the conquest,
' George Thomas arrived in India as a sailor about 1781. At Madras
he deserted, and entered into the service of some of the southern Poligars ;
thence he made his way through the heart of India, and reached Dellii in
1787 : he there received a commission in the brigade of Begum Sumroo,
and rose to high favour ; but, being supplanted in the Begum's good graces
by some other adventurer, he quitted her service in 1792, and joined Apa
Khande Rao, one of Sindhia's discarded captains, who was endeavouring
to form an independent state in the country west of Dellii. He succeeded
in his project, but, dying in 1797, his power fell to pieces, and George
Thomas, thrown on his own resources, determined to conquer Hariana for
himself. He sncceeded so far as to make himself ruler of a petty prin¬
cipality, extending about 100 miles from N. to S. and in its broadest part
about 75 miles from E. to W., comprehending 900 villages and several
small towns. Hansi, which Thomas found in ruins, was restored and for¬
tified by him, and, becoming his capital, was soon tenanted by between
five and six thousand inhabitants. George Thomas was Raja of Hansi
for four years, and had little to fear from any of his neighbours, until Sind¬
hia's authority extended to Delhi, and introduced a power far superior to
that of the European potentate. Thomas was besieged in Hansi by Du
Perron with a strong and well-organised force, and surrendered on condi¬
tion of being conveyed to a British station. The stipulation was observed,
and he was conducted to the British frontier in January 1802. He thence
proceeded towards Calcutta, with the purpose of returning to his native
land, but was taken ill, and died at Berhampore in August. His career is
a striking illustration of the distracted state of a country in which a com¬
mon sailor, with no other aid than European energy, personal strength,
and intrepid resolution, could raise himself even to ephemeral sovereignty.
—See Life of George Thomas, by Colonel Francklin.
SUBMISSION OF THE VILLAGES.
193
transferred it to several native cliiefs in succession ; book i.
• CHAP* IV*
but all found it impossible to establish their power ^
without the assistance of British troops, and sjieedily 3809.
resigned the unprofitable boon. The last of these,
Abd-ul-samad Khan, a military leader of repute,
who had joined Lord Lake early in the Mahratta
war, and who had latterly received Hariana in recom¬
pense of his services, found himself compelled to
follow the example of his predecessors, and the pro¬
vince was thrown again upon the hands of the British
Goverhment. As Hariana was conterminous with the
districts of Delhi under British administration, the
danger arising from the predatory and unrestrained
habits of its population was not to be disregarded,
and it was determined to provide against the
evil by undertaking the immediate regulation of the
country, and bringing the people under the autho¬
rity of British functionaries. With this design the
Honourable hlr. Gardner, assistant to the Resi¬
dent at Delhi, proceeded with a strong escort into
the province. Little difficulty attended his pro¬
ceedings : most of the head-men of the villages
obeyed his summons, repaired to his camp, pro¬
fessed allegiance, promised the regular payment
of a stipulated revenue, and engaged to desist from
intestine broils and from the plunder of travellers
and merchants. Whatever may have been their
sincerity, the prompt display, in two instances, of
the determination of the Government to suffer no
infringement of the compact awed them into the
observance of their engagements. The people of
Baliali, a large village of Jats, who professed Mo¬
hammedanism, having robbed some traders almost
vol. I. o
194
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. in sight of the Commissioner's camp, a military
CHAP. IV. was sent against them. They fled into
1809. the adjacent country of Bikaner, and their village
was destroyed. A more resolute resistance was en¬
countered at another large village or town, that of
Bhawani. The inhabitants of this place, notorious
for the audacity of their depredations, carried off the
camels and baggage of a party of Sipahis on their
march to camp, and fired upon them as they ap¬
proached the town. Immediate measures were
taken to punish the aggressors. A force of four
battalions of native infantry, one regiment of
cavalry, a corps of irregular horse, with a train of
artillery, commanded by Colonel Ball,^ marched
against Bhawani, and appeared before it on the
27th August: batteries were opened, and the walls
were breached by noon of the 29th. An assault
was made in two columns : the right was met by a
sortie of the inhabitants, who fought with courage,
but were driven back and followed into the fort ;
the left column also forced its way into the town,
and, after an obstinate conflict, in which severe loss
was inflicted on the enemy, the place was carried.®
The transaction was productive of the good effects
expected from it. The lawless and turbulent tribes
of Hariana were made to feel that they had now a
master. Submitting to a yoke which they could
' 1st battn. of the 9th, 2nd of the 18th, 1st of the 22nd, and 2nd of the
23rd, besides some companies of the 1st of the 10th, and 2nd of the 24th,
with the 6th regt. N. Cavalry, and Skinner s horse.
' One ofiBcer, Lieut. O'Brien of the 1st batt. of the 22nd, was killed, six
were wounded ; eighteen privates were killed, and one hundred and fourteen
wounded. The loss of the townsfolk was oflBoially estimated at more than
a thousand.— Asiatic Annual Register, vol. xi. ; History, p. 7; Chronicle,
p. 67.
VIEWS OF RANJIT SING.
195
not shake off, they became in due time an orderly book i.
and obedient people, and, devoting themselves to
agricultural occupations, rendered the province one laoa.
of the most valuable districts subject to the British
Government.
A still more important departure from the prin¬
ciple of non-interference occurred in the same direc¬
tion, and occasioned an extension of British supre¬
macy to the frontier which still forms its north-west¬
ern boundary,—the left bank of the Setlej. The
success with which the Sikh chief, Ranjit Sing, had
wrought his ovm aggrandisement at the expense of
all his competitors on the west of the Setlej, en¬
couraged him to pursue the same line of policy
with respect to the Rajas on the east of the river,
and to attempt to spread his influence and power
across it to the Jumna. He was led to believe that
he would not be obstructed in the execution of this
project by the British; as, although the Government
had accepted the proffered submission of the Sikh
Rajas, it had required from them no positive stipu¬
lation of tribute or allegiance, and had contracted
no formal engagement to protect them. He went
to work, however, with his usual caution. A vio¬
lent quarrel having taken place between the Rajas
of Patiala and Naba, the latter called Ranjit Sing
to his assistance. The call was promptly answered ;
and in October, 1806, that chief crossed the Setlej
with a strong body of horse, and dictated terms of
reconciliation to the contending parties. Some ap¬
prehension of his ulterior objects was entertained at
Delhi ; but a letter was received from him express¬
ing his profound respect for the British Govern-
o 2
196
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. ment, and no notice was taken of his proceedings.
CHA.P XV
' The result of this experiment confirmed him in the
belief that he had no opposition to dread from his
more powerful neighbours in establishing his autho¬
rity over the states between the Setlej and Jumna;
but, having other designs in view, or not considering
matters sufficiently mature for the consummation of
his purpose, Ranjit Sing departed, and re-crossed the
Setlej in the beginning of 1807.
In the course of that year the wife of the Patiala
Raja, who was at variance with her husband on ac¬
count of her insisting upon an assignment of re¬
venue for the use of her son, yet a minor, had
recourse to Ranjit Sing, and he again crossed the
Setlej into the Doab. The Sikh chiefs in this
quarter now began to he seriously alarmed, and
made an earnest application to the Resident at
Delhi to defend them against the growing ambition
of their countryman ; protesting that they had ever
considered themselves to be the subjects of the
Company, and entitled to its protection. Before
any reply could be received from Calcutta, the Raja
and Rani had settled their dispute amicably, and
had purchased the withdrawal of Ranjit by a valu¬
able diamond necklace and a celebrated brass gun ;
but, before leaving the country, he levied contribu¬
tions on some other petty Rajas, or seized upon their
forts and confiscated their lands. His return was
probably hastened by a knowledge of the négocia¬
tions going on at Delhi, and by a report, which the
chiefs industriously circulated, that their application
had been favourably considered. In order to dis¬
cover the truth of this assertion, Ranjit addressed a
mission to lahore.
197
letter to the Governor-General, stating that he book i.
had learned that troops were assembling on the
Jumna, and requesting to be informed of the cause, isos.
He declared his wish to continue on friendly terms,
hut ventured to add, " The country on this side of
the Jumna, except the stations occupied by the Eng¬
lish, is subject to my authority. Let it remain so."
Although Lord Minto was resolved to resist the
pretensions of Ranjit Sing to the exercise of any
authority on the right bank of the Jumna, yet the
policy of securing his concurrence in the scheme of
defensive alliance, which it was sought to frame
against the hostile designs upon India avowed by the
Emperor Napoleon, suspended the announcement of
the Governor-General's sentiments ; and Ranjit was
referred for a reply to Mr. (afterwards Sir Charles)
Metcalfe, whom it had been determined to send on
a friendly mission to the Sikh ruler. The envoy
set out from Delhi in August 1808, and, crossing
the Setlej on the 1st of September, reached the
camp of Ranjit, at Kasur, on the 11th: his recep¬
tion was at first courteous and cordial ; but in a few
days a different feeling was displayed, and much
dissatisfaction was expressed that the British Go¬
vernment should hesitate to acknowledge the Jumna
to be the boundary between the two states. Still
further to evince his displeasure, and to induce the
Rajas on the east of the Setlej to believe that the
British envoy acquiesced in his designs, Ranjit broke
up his camp, crossed the river with the envoy in his
train, dispossessed the chief to whom it belonged of
the fort of Farid Koth, seized upon Amhala, and
exacted tribute from the Rajas of Shahabad and
198
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Thanesar. As Sir C. Metcalfe had refused to follow
his extended inarch into the Doab, Ranjit retraced
1808. his steps, and returned to Amritsar, where the mission
awaited him. The circumstances which had influ¬
enced the Governor-General's external policy had
now in some degree ceased, and it was no longer
necessary to temporise with the Raja of Lahore.
Ranjit was consequently apprised that the Rajas
between the two rivers were under British protec¬
tion ; that he might retain such acquisitions as he
had made on this side of the Setlej previously to
the existence of the relations which had been
formed with the protected states, but that he
must restore all that had been made subsequently ;
and that, in order to guard against any future en¬
croachments, a military post would be established
on the left bank of the river. The Raja strenuously
expostulated against this declaration ; arguing, that
he had repeatedly exercised acts of authority in the
Doab of the Setlej and Jumna, without any objection
having been started by the British Government; that
appeals made to the British Resident at Delhi by
refractory chiefs had, to his certain knowledge,
received no countenance or encouragement; that
blood had been shed, and treasure expended, in
asserting a supremacy which he claimed as his right;
and that it was as unfriendly as it was inconsistent
to prevent his reaping the fruit of exertions which
had been suffered to come to maturity in seeming
acquiescence. He, therefore, requested a renewed
consideration of the subject ; and in the mean time
he assembled his troops, and appeared resolved to
maintain his pretensions by arms.
affray near amritsar.
199
Having come to the determination that the Setlej book i.
should be the limit of Ranjit Sing's acquisitions in
that direction, with the exceptions above intimated, I809.
the British Government immediately commanded
the advance of a sufficient body of troops to uphold
their resolution. A detachment under Colonel Och-
terlony crossed the Jumna in the middle of Janu¬
ary, and proceeded to Ludiana, whilst an army of
reserve under the command of Major-General St.
Leger was prepared to support the advance, should
protracted operations become necessary. The troops
of Ranjit Sing fell back as Colonel Ochterlony's
detachment approached ; and an incident took place,
under the observation of the Raja, which might
have suggested to him their unfitness to encounter
disciplined battalions.
During the stay of the British embassy in the
vicinity of Amritsar the anniversary of the Mohar-
ram occurred, and the deaths of Ali and his sons,
Hasan and Hosain, were commemorated by the Shia
Mohammedans of the envoy's escort with the pub¬
lic demonstrations of passionate sorrow and religious
fervour usual on the occasion. The celebration gave
great offence to the Sikh population of Amritsar,
which is the site of their most sacred temple ; and
especially to the Akális, a set of Sikh fanatics who
combine a religious and martial character. Headed
by a party of 'these men, a numerous and infuriated
mob attacked the envoy's camp : they were repulsed
by the steadiness of the escort, although it consisted
of but two companies of native infantry and sixteen
troopers ; but not until several of the assailants were
killed, and many of the Sipahis were wounded.
200
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA,
BOOK I. Ranjit Sing came up at the close of the affray, ami
""• assisted in quelling a tumult which it M'as strongly
1809. suspected he had in some degree fomented. The
camp was removed to a greater distance from the
town, and no further molestation was experienced.
The advance of the troops to the Setlej, and the
experience of their quality which the affair at Am-
ritsar afforded him, dissipated Ranjit Sing's dreams
of conquest, and rendered him anxious to secure the
forbearance and friendship of the British Govern¬
ment. Accordingly, on the 25th April, a treaty was
concluded which stipulated that perpetual friendship
should subsist between the British Government and
the state of Lahore ; that the former should have
no concern with the teiritories and subjects of the
Raja to the northward of the Setlej ; that the Raja
should never maintain on the left bank of the river
more troojis than were necessary for the internal
duties of the territory acknowledged to belong to
him, nor commit nor suffer any encroachment on
the possessions or rights of the chiefs in its vicinity ;
and that the treaty should be null and void in the
event of a violation of either of the preceding arti¬
cles. Thus terminated all unfriendly discussions
with the Sikh chieftain.' That he was deeply mor¬
tified by the result cannot be doubted ; and there
was reason to believe, that, if he could have relied
upon effective support from Hindustan, he would
not have submitted so peaceably to such a diminu¬
tion of his power and disappointment of his hopes.®
' MS. Records ; Prinsep's Life of Runjeet Singh, Calcutta, 1834, p. 64.
= There was credible evidence, that, during these discussions, a commu¬
nication was kept up between the Raja and Sindhia, and uuavowed agents
were resident on either part at Gwalior and Lahore: a correspondence
alliance with ran jit sing.
201
Nor did he for some time lay aside his distrust of book i.
the ulterior designs of his European neighbour. An
exaggerated notion of his resources, and suspicion of 1809.
his ambitious projects, continued also for a consider¬
able period to regulate the policy of the British Go¬
vernment towards him, and to suspend the establish¬
ment of a cordial intercourse almost to the term of
the Raja's existence. During the last five years of
his life, his confidence in British faith, and reliance
on the principles of non-interference which had been
originally professed, were fully confirmed by the
cautious abstinence which had uniformly left him
at liberty to extend his power over the independent
principalities and states north and west of the Pun¬
jab without any interposition or even remark.^
The seasonable succour thus given to the petty
Sikh chiefs between the Setlej and the Jumna® put
an end to the vague character of the connexion
with Sarji Rao Ghatka was also detected. Ranjit's sagacity, however,
soon discovered the weakness to which the Mahrattas had been reduced.—
MS. Records.
' Travellers in Ranjit's territories complain, even to a late period, of ob¬
structions to their proceedings thrown in their way by his subordinate func¬
tionaries and officers, and ascribe them to private instructions issued by
the Raja, whilst ostensibly he gave them permission to go wherever they
wished, and institute whatever inquiries they pleased. This might have
been the case with some of the first visitors of the Punjab ; but, latterly,
whatever impediments were experienced were most probably ascribable to
the ignorance or impertinence of the subordinates. — See the travels of
Moorcroft, Jacquemont, Vigne, &c.
' The chief of these were Saheb Sing, Raja of Patiala ; Bhye Lai Sing,
of Kythal ; Jeswant Sing, of Naha ; Bhag Sing, of Jhind ; Guru-dayal Sing,
ofLadua, JodhSing,of Kalasia; Gopal Sing,of Manimajra; Daya Kunwar,
Rani of Ambala ; Bhanga Sing, Raja of Thanesar ; Sodha Sing, of Maha-
wat; Jawahir Sing, of Bharnp. The Patiala Raja had a revenue of six
lakhs of rupees, and a force of 2000 horse and 1000 foot. The revenues
of the other chiefs varied from one to two lakhs, and their troops from 500
to 1000 horse. There were about twenty others of still inferior importance,
but all claiming independent authority over their vassals ; presenting in fact
a state of things very similar to that of the early feudal anarchy of
Europe.— MS. Records.
202
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. which had hitherto united them with the British
CHAP. IV. Government, and rendered it necessary to define the
1809. reciprocal relations which were thenceforward to
subsist : accordingly, a general declaration was cir¬
culated to them, announcing that the territories of
Sirhind and Maliia had been taken under British
protection ; that it was not the intention of the Go¬
vernment to demand tribute from the chiefs, but
that they would be expected to furnish every facility
in their power to the movements of British troops
through their districts, and to join the British armies
with their followers whenever called upon. The
several chiefs were permitted to exercise, and were
guaranteed, the rights and authorities which they
possessed in their respective territories; but sup¬
plies of European articles for troops, and horses
for cavalry passing through them, were to be ex¬
empted from transit duties. The declaration con¬
veying these provisions became the charter of
rights to which the Sikh chiefs have been accus¬
tomed to refer for the settlement of all questions
that have arisen between them and the British
Government;^ but the mutual relations of supre¬
macy and'Subjection, appeals from the inferior to
the superior in disputes amongst themselves or in
domestic dissensions, and the imperative necessity of
maintaining public order and security, speedily multi¬
plied occasions of interposition, and, after no long
interval, compelled the British Government to pro¬
claim the right and the resolution to interpose.®
' Life of Runjeet Singh, 72.
public proclamation declaratory of the right and determination to
interfere between the different Rajas in all cases of disputed territory, and
projects of napoleon.
203
The regulation of successions was also a subject book i.
which from the first demanded the intervention
of the protecting power and political expedience isos.
has dictated the enforcement of a principle recog¬
nised throughout the feudality of India, the appro¬
priation of a subject territory in failure of lawful
heirs by the paramount sovereign.^
There is no satisfactory proof that the Emperor
Napoleon ever seriously contemplated the invasion
of India. In an early stage of his career, before
his path to greatness was distinctly visible, he seems
to have entertained some vague and wild dream of
founding for himself an empire in the East.® The
conquest of Egypt, in addition to the purpose of
establishing a French colony in that country which
should divert the stream of commerce between
India and Europe from the Cape of Good Hope to
the Straits of Bab-al-mandal, and thus annihilate
one of the sources of British prosperity, had, ac¬
cording to Napoleon, for one of its objects, the
at the same time repeating the resolution not to interfere in the internal
administration of justice between the chiefs and their subjects, was issued
on the 11th August, 1811.—See Report of Select Committee, House of
Commons, 1832 ; Appendix Political, p. 560.
' In 1812, the Raja of Patiala, having rendered himself insupportable to
his subjects by his insane oppression, was deposed in favour of his son, a
minor, under the regency of the Rani, by the British Government. The
measure was obnoxious to some of the Raja's adhei'ents ; and one of them,
an Akali, attacked the Agent, Colonel Ochterlony, in his palanquin, and
severely wounded him.— Life of Runjeet, 76.
' Commonly to the exclusion of females, except in a few families where
a contrary usage has prevailed. Some of the chiefships have so lapsed, the
principal of which are Ambala and Thauesar.— Bengal and Agra Guide,
1841, vol. ii. part 2, p. 268. And, still more recently, Khytal.— Calcutta
Journals, April, 1843.
ä According to his own assertion, if he had taken St. Jean d'Acre, he
would have brought about a revolution in the East, would have reached
Constantinople and the Indies, and changed the destinies of the world.
—Las Cases' Journal, i. 206 ; Scott's Life of Napoleon, ii. 104, 111.
204
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. formation of a basis from which to accomplish the
invasion of India ; but it is scarcely possible to be-
1808. lieve that he could ever have gravely projected so
impossible a scheme as that of sending sixty thou¬
sand troops upon camels across the deserts of Arabia,
and barren wastes of Baluchistan, to the banks of
the Indus.^ The subsequent mission of General
Gardanne to Persia, and the influence acquired at
Tehran, regarded Russia more immediately than
India, and were suggested by the community of
political interests, as Persia and France were simul¬
taneously engaged in hostilities with the former
empire. Such, however, was the impression pro¬
duced by these demonstrations, and such the dread
of Napoleon's power and resources, that a French
invasion of India was reckoned amongst the possi¬
ble contingencies of the time, and one against which
precaution was indispensable. In this conviction,
the Governor-General of India deemed it advisable
to endeavour to establish amicable relations with the
frontier principalities of the Punjab and Afghan¬
istan, and to renew a friendly understanding with
the king of Persia. The mission to Ranjit Sing,
" L'Expédition d'Egypte avoit trois buts : établir sur le Nil une colonie
Françoise ; ouvrir un débouché à nos manufactures dans l'Afrique, l'Arabie,
et la Syrie ; partir d'Egypte comme d'une place d'armes pour porter une
armée de 60,000 hommes sur l'Indus soulever les Marattes et les peuples
opprimés : 60,000 hommes, moitié Européens, moitié recrues des climats
brûlants de l'équator et du tropique, transportés par 10,000 chevaux et
50,000 chameaux, portant avec eux des vivres pour cinquante ou soissante
jours, de l'eau pour cinq ou six jours, et un train d'artillerie de 150
bouches à feu de campagne, avec double approvisionnement, arriveraient
en quatre mois sur ITndus. L'océan a cessé d'être un obstacle depuis
qu'on a des vaisseaux, le désert cesse d'en être un pour une armée qui a
en abondance des chameaux et des dromedaires.—Mémoires de St. Hé¬
lène, ii. 214. Scarcely less insane was his speculation of invading India
by sea, and sending round the Cape a force of sixteen thousand troops un¬
der convoy of thirty-two ships of the line.— Las Cases' Journal, ii. 248.
embassy to kabul. 205
wliicli originated in this policy, has been adverted book i.
CHAP. IV.
to, and we have now to notice the measures adopted
with respect to the two other states. ^808.
The political condition of Afghanistan was almost
wholly unknown to the Government of Bengal. No
English traveller had crossed the Indus^ since Foster;
and his journey was performed under circumstances
of personal disguise and hazard, which restricted
him to hasty and superficial observation. Little
information was to be gathered from his narrative.
It was known from original authorities, that, of the
country occupied by the Afghan tribes, the eastern
portion, including Kabul and Ghazni, had been
usually dependent upon Delhi ; and the western,
comprising Kandahar and Herat, ordinarily subject
to Persia. Upon the murder of Nadir Shah, king
of Persia, Ahmed Shah, of the Durani tribe of
Afghans, a leader of distinction in the Persian army,
took advantage of the distracted condition of both
India and Persia to found a kingdom, independent
of either, extending from the Indus to Herat, and
ultimately including parts of Baluchistan and Sindh.
Ahmed Shah was succeeded by his son, Timur Shah,
who enjoyed a long and tranquil reign under the
shadow of his father's fame. Upon his death the
Durani monarchy speedily fell to pieces. He left
a number of sons necessarily competitors for the
sovereignty." Zeman Shah, although not the eldest
' Mr. Foster, a member of the Civil service of Bengal, returned from
India to England, through the Punjab, Afghanistan, and Persia : he tra¬
velled on foot in the character of a pauper and garb of an Asiatic ; and,
although he communicates some novel information, yet his notices of the
Afghans, amongst whom he was in much danger, are unavoidably meagre.
—See his Travels.
^ They were more than thirty. Humayun, the eldest, after a feeble
206
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. of these, made good his pretensions with the aid
and support of his younger brother, Shuja-al-mulk,
1808. and retained a precarious occupancy of the throne
for seven years. The injustice and insolence of his
favourite Vizir provoked a conspiracy against him
among the principal nobles of his court : it was
detected ; and one of the conspirators, Sirafraz Khan,
chief of the Barikzei clan, to which Shah Zeman
had been mainly indebted for his own elevation,
was put to death. The act was fatal to the mon¬
arch ; for Fatih Khan, the eldest son of Sirafraz
Khan, immediately devoted his abilities and influ¬
ence, which were considerable, to the service of
Mahmud, a brother and rival of the king. Shah
Zeman, deserted by his troops, was taken prisoner,
deposed, and blinded, and Mahmud was made Shah.
The character of Mahmud was unequal to the
exigencies of his perilous position. Indolent and
timid, he transferred the cares of the government
to his ministers, and, as long as his own ease and
enjoyment were provided for, was wholly indif¬
ferent to the prosperity of his kingdom. By his
injudicious partiality to his Persian guards, and the
unbridled licence in which he suffered them to in¬
dulge, he offended both the religious prejudices and
the national feelings of his countrymen, and pro¬
voked them to insurrection. ^ Shuja-al-mulk was
eifort to maintain his right, was taken by Zeman Shah, blinded, and died
in captivity. Zeman Shah, Mahmud, and Shuja-al-mulk, in their turns
held temporary sway, and perished. Firoz-ad din for some time occupied
Herat, but was dispossessed, and fled to Persia, where he died. Shah
Abbas, who was set up as king for a short time, also died in exile. These
were the only members of the family who acquired notoriety.
' The Gholam Shâhis, or Kazal-bashis, the king's Persian guards,
were obnoxious to the Afghans, not only from their insolence and licen-
reign of shah shuja.
207
called to head the insurgents ; and, fortune abandon- book i.
ing Mahmud, his adherents were defeated, and he
himself was taken prisoner. Shuja ascended the isos.
throne : a feeling of fraternal affection induced him
to refrain from inflicting upon Mahmud the usual
disqualification for sovereignty, loss of sight ; and
this act of clemency, which was so unusual in Afghan
policy, proved ultimately his own destruction.
During the five succeeding years Shah Shuja
was nominal monarch of Afghanistan; but his au¬
thority and life were repeatedly endangered by the
attempts of one or other of his brothers to supplant
him, and by the aid which they received from the
turbulent and factious nobles of his court, especi¬
ally from the powerful family of which Fatih Khan
was the head.^ Towards the close of this period
Mahmud escaped from confinement and fled to
his son Kamran, who had been able, during his
father's detention, to maintain himself at liberty
on the western frontier of Afghanistan. Although
joined by the Barakzei chief, the confederates were
defeated by Shah Shuja, and his power seemed to
be finally established on a secure foundation.'^ In-
tiousness, but their professions of the Shla form of Mohammedanism,
which considers Ali as the rightful successor of Mohammed, and de¬
nounces imprecations on the three first Khalifs, Abu-bekr, Omar, and Oth-
man, as usurpers. The Afghans are bigoted Sunis, and assert with equal
zeal the lawfulness of the succession. An insurrection in Kabul, directed
in the first instance against the Kazal-bashis, and ultimately against
Mahmud as their patron, prepared the way for his déposai.—Elphinstone's
Kabul, 8vo., vol. ii. 334.
' The sons of Sirafraz Khan, the hereditary chiefs of the Barakzei clan,
were twenty-two in number : one of them. Dost Mohammed, the chief who
has of late years acquired such extensive European celebrity, was then
one of the youngest of the brethren.
' In August 1808, the Resident at Delhi reported, that, according to the
latest advices from Afghanistan, the authority of Shah Shuja was fully
established.—MS. Records.
208
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. stead, however, of following up his success, and
extinguishing the last sparks of rebellion by the
1809. expulsion or capture of Mahmud, he returned to
enjoy his triumph at Peshawar, and with singular im¬
prudence dispatched the principal part of his army
to recover the province of Kashmir from the chief
by whom the province was governed, and who was
in arms against his sovereign.^ It was at this season
that the mission from Bengal arrived at Peshawar.
The embassy to Kabul was fitted out in a manner
intended to hnpress the Afghans with an exalted
opinion of the power and dignity of the Company,
and was intrusted to a member of the civil service,
JNIr. Elphinstone, whose conversancy with the lan¬
guage and manners of native princes, and whose
abilities, judgment, and personal character ensured
its success, as far as the state of affairs permitted.
Mr. Elphinstone left Delhi on the 13th of October ;
and, as it was uncertain whether Ranjit Sing would
assent to the passage of the mission through the
Punjab, the route followed traversed the hitherto
untrodden wastes of Bikaner and Jesselmer to the
frontiers of Bahawalpur, then a dependency of
Kabul. Proceeding through JSIultan, the Nawab of
which was also at that time, nominally at least, a
feudatory of the Afghan monarch, the mission reach¬
ed the Indus, and on the 7th of January crossed
the river at Kaheri ferry. On the 5th of JNIarch
IMr. Elphinstone entered Peshawar, whither Shah
Shuja had recently returned from Kandahar.
' For the latter history of the Afghans, see Elphinstone's Embassy to
Kabul, vol. ii. p. 279, and Conolly's Overland Journey to India ; Afghan
History, ii. 233. See also the later accounts of Burnes, Vigne, &c.
negociations at peshawar.
209
Although the envoy met with a courteous reeep- book i.
tion, and much cordiality prevailed between the
members of the mission and the principal persons 1809.
of the court, yet the objects of the embassy were
never fully comprehended, ñor was a feeling of dis¬
trust towards it ever entirely effaced. An alliance
to resist a combined invasion of the French and Per¬
sians seemed to the Afghans to be a needless pre¬
caution, as the danger was avowedly contingent and
remote, and as, it was one with which they esteemed
themselves competent to cope. The circumstances
under which the alliance was sought, showed that
British rather than Afghan interests were at stake,
and the court not unreasonably desired to know
what benefit was to accrue to them from the con¬
federacy. It was shrewdly enough argued by the
diplomatists of Peshawar that they could not come
to any decision upon an ex^arte statement, and
that in justice to themselves they ought to hear
what an ambassador from France might have to
urge before they made common cause with either
French or English. To a treaty of defensive and
offensive alliance generally they professed them¬
selves to be willing to accede, as such an alliance
proposed a reciprocal advantage ; but they objected
to enter into engagements intended solely for the
protection of British India. They saw clearly that
the British Government had a point to carry with
the court of Kabul for interests of its own; and,
, when they found that the equivalent demanded
was withheld, they concluded that some ulterior
and unacknowledge4 purpose was entertained.
The importance of the object which Shah Shuja
vol. i. p
210
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. and his ministers had in view—the assistance of
CHAP. IV. British—was speedily enhanced by the course
1809. of events. The troops sent to Kashmir were so
entirely defeated that not more than two thousand
men, dismounted, disarmed, and wholly disorganised,
escaped. Mahmud immediately resumed the offen¬
sive, occupied Kandahar and Kabul, and threatened
Peshawar. The army was annihilated, the treasury
was empty and the means of levying any consider¬
able force were entirely deficient. In this emer¬
gency, a pecuniary grant was urgently solicited from
the British Government ; and such was the state of
popular indifference with regard to the contending
parties, and the readiness of the chiefs to sell their
services to the highest bidder, that a compliance
with the application would in all probability have
secured the ascendancy of Shah Shuja, and have
seated him firmly and permanently in his domi¬
nions.^ The measure was warmly advocated by the
envoy ; but unhappily for the Shah, and for the fate
of Afghanistan, doomed to a long and still unter-
minated course of civil dissension and domestic
anarchy, the policy of the British Government had
undergoiïfe a change. The invasion of Spain by.
Napoleon, and the commencement of the Penin¬
sular war, had indefinitely suspended the execution
' The people of the towns were in general well-affected towards Shah
Shuja, who was recommended to them by his moderation and justice. The
Hill tribes were indifferent, and followed their own chiefs, most of whom
were ready to sell their services to the highest bidder. Ten lakhs of ru¬
pees would probably have turned the scale decidedly in favour of Shah »
Shuja, and have secured him a permanent ascendaincy. The grant of pe¬
cuniary aid was advocated by Mr. Elphinstone, but the measure was not
thought necessary by Lord Minto, expressly on the grounds that the
change of affairs in Europe had indefinitely suspended, if not entirely
defeated, the projects of France against British India.— MS. Records.
treaty with kabul.
211
of his designs upon India, and had made it no book i.
longer necessary to conciliate the good-will or pur-
chase the co-operation of the native states upon the i809.
frontier. It was therefore resolved to decline the
grant of pecuniary aid in any form whatever, and
to withdraw with unmeaning professions of amity
from all intercourse with the Durani sovereign.
The consequences of the ambition of the French
Emperor thus vibrated to the heart of Asia; and
his declaration, that the Bourbons had ceased to
reign, precipitated Shah Shuja from his throne,
consigned him to a life of exile and to a disastrous
death, and ultimately led to the infliction of an
indelible stain upon the military reputation of the
British in the East.
Notwithstanding the disappointment of his hopes
of realising an equivalent advantage from the pro¬
posed connexion, Shah Shuja agreed to the terms
of a treaty in which it was stipulated, that if the
French and Persians, who were in alliance, should
endeavour to cross Afghanistan on their way to
India, the Shah should, to the extent of his power,
oppose their march ; that the expense attending
such opposition should be defrayed by the British
Government ; that friendship and union should con¬
tinue for ever between the contracting states ; that
they should in no manner interfere in each other's
countries ; and that the King of Kabul should per¬
mit no individual of the French nation to enter his
V territories.^ The treaty was sent for ratification to
Calcutta: it was signed there on the 17th of June;
but, before it could be returned to Peshawar,
* Coll. of Treaties, p. 301.
p 2
212
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. neither king nor ambassador remained to exchange
its authentication, Älr. Elphinstone, who had left
1809. the city on the 14th of June to await the restoration
of tranquillity, received on his route the order for the
return of the mission, and proceeded accordingly to
the British territory by way of the Punjab. Shah
Shuja marched against his rival ; on the 29th of
June his army, whilst yet in disorder after its march
through the mountains, was surprised by Fatih
Khan, and completely routed. The Shah fled ; and,
although he made several attempts to recover his
authority, was uniformly unsuccessful. He then
became the guest, and finally the prisoner, of
Ranjit Sing; hut effected his escape from Lahore,
and found an asylum for many years at Ludiana,
under the protection and with the support of the
Government of India. At the end of 1832 he left
his residence, and, proceeding to the westward,
raised a force with which he defeated the troops of
the Amirs of Sindh, and compelled them to pay him
a pecuniary contribution. He then advanced to
Kandahar, which he besieged. The Barakzei chiefs
of that city having been joined by Dost Mohammed
issued into the field, and an action took place which
ended to the advantage of the Barakzeis. The
Shah might, however, have recovered the supremacy,
as many of the principal leaders of the enemy
were prepared to desert to him; but he retreated
precipitately from the contest, and hastened back to
his place of refuge, to be thence conducted once ^
more to Afghanistan,' under more propitious aus-
^ Parliamentary Papers relative to Shah Shuja's expedition into Afghan¬
istan, 1833-34; printed 20th March, 1839.
state of sindh.
213
pices than had ever smiled upon his former efforts, book i.
—the avowed co-operation of Ranjit Sing and the
Government of British India. The auspices were 1809.
deceptive. The powerful support upon which he
relied crumbled beneath his feet, and left him
helpless and alone amidst inexorable foes and
treacherous friends. The end of his chequered
career followed close upon his abandonment; and
the hand of an assassin terminated the life of a
prince whose alliance the Government of India had
once dourted, whose expulsion from his dominions
it had pitied and whose distress it had relieved, and
whom, as fatally for him as for itself, it at last vainly
engaged to replace upon his throne.
The country of Sindh constitutes the most
western limit of India along the southern course
of the Indus. It was conquered by the INIoham-
medans in the commencement of the eighth cen¬
tury, and was retained as a dependency of Persia
until its subjugation by Mahmud of Ghazni. Upon
the downfall of his dynasty, the Sumras, a race of
chiefs of Arab extraction, established themselves as
independent rulers of the country, until they were
dispossessed by the Sumas, who were Hindus, and
who professed a nominal fealty to the Patan sove¬
reigns of Delhi. In the reign of Akber, Sindh
became more intimately attached to the JMogul em¬
pire; but the government of the province was usually
intrusted to native chiefs, whose degree of subordi¬
nation was regulated by the ability of the court of
Delhi to compel obedience. Towards the close of
the seventeenth century, the Kaloras, a race of reli¬
gious teachers who pretended to derive their origin
214
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. fro™ the Abasside Khalifs, and who converted their
CHAP. IV. reputation for sanctity into an engine of worldly
1809. aggrandisement, had become possessed of extensive
territory in Sindh, and usurped an ascendancy in its
government, which was legalised in the reign of
JMohammed Shah of Delhi by the appointment of
Nur JMohammed Kalora as Suhahdar of Tatta. The
vicegerent of Sindh was speedily relieved from his
dependence upon Delhi, but was compelled to pay
tribute to the conqueror. Nadir Shah. The death of
that prince dissolved the connexion with Persia ; but
the new sovereign of Afghanistan claimed the like
supremacy over the country, and Sindh became,
nominally at least, subject to Kabul. Although con¬
firmed by Ahmed Shah, the son and successor of Nur
JMohammed, JMohammed JMurad Khan, was deposed
after a reign of a few years by his disaffected nobles;
and his brother, Ghulam Shah Khan, was placed on
the musnud in his room. After a turbulent and
distracted reign he was succeeded by his eldest son,
Sirafraz Khan,^ who in a few years was deposed by
the heads of the Baluch tribes, who had now ac¬
quired a leading influence in the affairs of Sindh,
and whose enmity he had incurred by putting
Bahram Khan, the chief of Talpura, and one of his
sons, Sobhdar Khan, for some offence to death.
The confederates first placed a younger brother of
Sirafraz Khan, and then a cousin, upon the throne ;
but, dissatisfied with their own choice, successively
removed them, and seated Ghulam Nabi Shah, a
brother of Ghulam Shah, on the musnud. Shortly
after his accession, Bijar Khan Talpura, another son
' He founded the present capital, Hyderabad, in 1182.
expulsion of the kaloras.
215
of Bahrain Khan, returned to Sindh from Arabia, book i.
whither he had gone on pilgrimage, and undertook '
to revenge the death of his father. He was joined " isoa.
by his clan, and by their friends. Ghulam Nabi
Khan immediately assembled his adherents, and a
conflict ensued in which he was killed. Bijar
Khan then marched against the capital, Hyderabad,
where Abd-un-nabi Khan, the brother of the de¬
feated sovereign, had fortified himself, and had put
to death Sirafraz Khan, who had been confined there,
and, along with him, other princes whose pretensions
he thought likely to interfere with his own. Bijar
Khan, unable to reduce Hyderabad, protested his
readiness to acknowledge Abd-un-nabi as his sove¬
reign, and faithfully adhered to his professions.
The Kalora prince was acknowledged to be »the
paramount prince, and the head of the Talpura tribe
became his hereditary minister. The authority ex¬
ercised by Bijar Khan was not of long duration.
In little more than two years he was assassinated by
agents of the Raja of Jodhpur, with the connivance,
or at the instigation, it is said, of Abd-un-nabi.
The belief that the latter, was implicated in the
murder of Bijar Khan roused the vengeance of the
Talpura tribe ; and Abd-ullah Khan, the son of the
deceased, expelled Abd-un-nabi from Sindh. Abd¬
ullah assumed the sovereignty.
Although assisted successively by the chief of
Kelat and by the Raja of Jodhpur, Abd-un-nabi
Khan was unable to recover his authority, and was
obliged to have recourse to the Afghan monarch,
Timur Shall, the son of Ahmed Shah. A force was
placed at his disposal which his enemies were un-
21G
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. able to resist, and an apparent reconciliation was ef-
fected by the intermediation of the principal nobles.
1809. The reconciliation was insincere. The Talpura
chiefs rebelled, were again defeated, and were again
received into seeming favour, when either the dread
of their renewed machinations, or resentment for the
past, induced Abd-un-nabi Khan to perpetrate the
murder of their leading men. Inviting Abd-ullah
Khan, with two of his principal associates and kins¬
men, to an interview on board his boat when upon
an excursion on the Indus, he had them seized and
immediately put to death. The crime was fatal to
his dynasty; for the surviving chiefs of the Talpuras,
led by Fatih Ali, the son of JMir Sobhdar Khan, the
brother of Bijar Khan, who had been put to death
along with their father Bahram Khan, rose in arms,
and, assisted by the neighbouring chiefs of Khyrpur,
Bahawalpur, and Daudputra, compelled Abd-un-
uabi once more to seek an asylum at the court of
Kabul. Circumstances were no longer propitious
to his cause ; and, although assistance Avas promised
him, none of any magnitude was afforded. The
representations of the Talpura chiefs, their profes¬
sions of allegiance, the tribute which they promised,
and the bribes which they distributed, retarded and
ultimately frustrated the intentions, and baffled the
efforts, of Timur Shah, and his successor Zeman Shah.
Abd-un-nabi, after residing some years upon Jagirs
assigned him, first by the Afghan monarch, and after¬
wards by the Raja of Jodhpur, died an exile in the
states of the former prince, in the reign of IMahmud
Shah, and the Talpura chief finally established the
authority of his family in Sindh. His personal ele-
JOINT GOVERNMENT OF SINDH. 217
vation was not undisputed, even by his own rela- book i.
tions ; and the forces on either side were drawn
out to decide the dispute by the sword. The coun- i809.
sels of the elders of the tribe, and the tears and
entreaties of the women, arrested the strife upon
the eve of its occurrence and an accommodation
was effected, by which Mir Sohrab of Khyrpur and
Mir Thara of Mirpur, both descended from a com¬
mon ancestor, were acknowledged to be independ¬
ent in their own districts, while Fatih Ali was re¬
cognised as chief ruler of Sindh. This power he
shared with his three brothers, Gholam Ali, Karam
Ali, and Murad Ali. At the period when a friendly
connexion with the country became an object of the
policy of the Government of India, Fatih Ali was
dead, but the three surviving brothers jointly admi¬
nistered the affairs of Sindh
Imperfectly acquainted with the history and the
resources of Sindh, and attaching to its com¬
merce and alliance more value than belonged to
either, the Government of Bengal had made several
attempts to form friendly relations with the court
of Hyderabad. Its advances were received with
coldness or repelled with insolence, and although a
commercial agent was at one time allowed to reside
at Tatta and carry on trade there, yet little en-
• An interesting account of this transaction is given by Mr. Crow in
his report on Sindh, and is extracted in Captain Postaus's account of
Sindh.
^ See Macmurdo's account of Sindh, Journal, Royal Asiatic Society, i.
223 ; Visit to the Court of Sindh by Dr. Burnes ; Personal Observations
on Sindh by Captain Postans ; and a Persian account, translated by Captain
Pogson and published in Calcutta. This latter differs in some details
from the narratives of the European writers, and is less favourable to the
Talpuras ; ascribing to the latter treacherous designs, which provoked, and
in some degree justified, the treatment they experienced.
218
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. coiiragement^ was given to it by the ruling authori-
ties ; and the factory having been attacked and
1809. plundered in a popular tumult, for which no repa¬
ration or redress was procured, the agency was dis¬
continued. Circumstances now appeared more pro¬
mising. Alarmed by the menaced interference of
Shah Shuja on behalf of the expelled prince, Abd-
un-nabi, the Amirs of Sindh had applied to Persia
for succour, and a Persian army had been directed
to march to their assistance. The death of Abd-un-
nabi, and the embarrassments which Shah Shuja
experienced at home, removed all ground of fear
from Afghanistan, and the Amirs then became most
apprehensive of peril from their allies. They thought
it prudent, therefore, to oppose one powerful friend
to another,—British India to Persia : they therefore
began to conciliate the British Government, and
sent an agent to Bombay to propose the renewal of
the commercial intercourse that had formerly ex¬
isted. The proposal was favourably entertained, and
Captain Seton was sent as envoy to Hyderabad. A
treaty of offensive and defensive alliance was con¬
cluded by the envoy with the Amirs ; but, as the
stipulation^ pledged the British Government to
a reciprocity that was deemed inexpedient, the
ratification of the treaty was withheld, and JMr.
Nicholas Hankey Smith, a Bombay civil servant,
was deputed to explain the cause, and to contract a
less comprehensive engagement. After many delays
and obstructions opposed to his journey by the ser-
• Ghulam Shah Kalora granted perwanas in 1758 to a Mr. Sumption,
in tlie service of the East India Company, exempting the goods he should
import from all duties, and authorising him to build a factory at Aurang-
bunder, or at Tatta.— Coll. of Treaties, 488.
mission to sindh.
219
vants of the Amirs,—^not, it was suspected, without book i.
CHAP IV
their secret approval,^—Mr. Smith reached Hydera-
had on the 8th of August ; and on the 23rd of that isos.
month a treaty was signed, which engaged that
there should he eternal friendship between the
two Governments, that vakeels or agents should be
always mutually appointed, and that the French
should not be permitted to form an establishment
in Sindh.® The apprehension of a French invasion
of India had subsided, and there remained- no mo¬
tive of weight for cultivating the friendship of a
semi-harbarous and arrogant court ; while the Amirs
were equally disinclined to maintain an intimate
intercourse with a poM^er which they feared, and
with which they thought they had reason to be dis¬
satisfied, not only on account of the annulment of
the treaty entered into with Captain Seton, but
because they were apprised that any aggression
upon the neighbouring state of Cutch, to the affairs
of which we shall hereafter have occasion to recur,
would be decidedly resisted. No beneficial result
consequently followed the connexion formed at this
period with the rulers of Sindh.
Négociations of greater importance and of more
durable consequences were at the same period set
on foot with the Government of Persia. They
opened inauspiciously, but their complexion was
changed by the influence of political revolutions in
the west; and the course of events in Europe
cleared the road from Bushir to Tehran, and sub-
' A detailed account of the proceedings of the mission is given by Lieu¬
tenant (now Sir Henry Pottinger) in his Travels in Beloochistan and
Sindh, p. 331.
' Coll. of Treaties, 306.
220
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. verted the influence which the French embassy had
obtained at the latter city.
1808. Napoleon had endeavoured at an early date to
establish a connexion with the King of Persia ; and,
when he projected the invasion of Egypt, the Direc¬
tory, at his suggestion, sent secret agents to Tehran to
prevail upon the reigning monarch Aga IMohammed,
to make a simultaneous attack upon the Turkish pro¬
vinces on the Euphrates. The unavowed character
of the French emissaries perplexed the Persian sove¬
reign: his death shortly afterwards, and the accession
of Fatih Ali, caused their proposals to meet with
but little attention, and no disposition was evinced
to adopt the views of France. This disappointment,
and the successful mission of Sir .John JMalcolm to
Tehran by Älarquis Wellesley, excluded the in¬
fluence of France at the court of Persia for several
years. An accredited agent, who was then sent,
died shortly after having had an audience of the
King, and all intercourse was again suspended.
In the beginning of 1806, Persia being engaged
in hostilities with Russia, and dreading the advance
of the Russian arms, gladly welcomed an agent
from the Frènch minister at Constantinople, and at
his recommendation dispatched one of the nobles
of the court to Paris to negociate a treaty of of¬
fensive alliance. A second envoy from Tehran ac¬
companied IMonsieur Pontecoulant, who had been
dispatched to Persia after the death of his prede¬
cessor, and who was now returning to France. This
disposition of the Persian court coinciding with the
political interests of the French Em})eror, met with
the most cordial encouragement, and a splendid
french embassy to persia.
221
embassy was sent to Tehran under General Gar- book i.
danne, who arrived at the Persian capital towards
the end of December 1807. His suite consisted of 18O8.
twenty-five persons, mostly military, besides a num¬
ber of artillery and engineer officers, and a consider¬
able body of artificers. The draft of a treaty was
speedily completed, and sent to Paris for ratifi¬
cation. It was stipulated that France should, either
by force or négociation, obtain from Russia, Georgia
and other frontier provinces conquered from Persia ;
that the King of Persia should allow an army to
march through his territories to invade India,
should provide for its wants, and join it with all his
force ; that the island of Kharak should be ceded to
France, and French factories should be admitted at
Gombroon, Bushir, and other places ; and that, if
the Emperor required it, the King of Persia should
exclude all Englishmen from his dominions. During
the négociations, and the interval of the ratification
of the treaty, many of the French officers attached
to the embassy were dispersed through the country,
and were actively engaged in making military sur¬
veys of it and ascertaining its resources ; while
those remaining at the capital were as busily em¬
ployed in drilling the new Persian levies, and in¬
structing them in European discipline.
The war between Persia and Russia originated in
the invasion of Georgia by the former power, and
consequent recourse to the latter by the princes of
Georgia, Heraclius and his successor Gurgein, the
second of whom promised perpetual vassalage to
Russia as the price of the aid solicited. The Per¬
sians had been driven out of the country, and they
222
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. had not only been foiled in every attempt to regain
CHAP. IV. sustained many disastrous defeats, and
1808. had lost extensive tracts in Armenia and Daghes¬
tan. In the first moments of distress the court had
applied to the Indian Government for aid, under
the initiatory article of the treaty concluded in
1801, which pledged the two states to perpetual
amity. This interpretation of the article was not
concurred in by the Government of India, and
armed assistance was declined. The refusal had
alienated the court of Persia from the British con¬
nexion, and had thrown it into the arms of France.
Unfortunately for its hopes, the peace of Tilsit, which
was concluded before even the arrival of General
Gardanne at Tehran, had united the Emperors Napo¬
leon and Alexander in bonds of personal friendship
and projects of mutual aggrandisement. Although
not immediately avowed,—although a show of regard
was displayed, and offers of mediation were pro¬
fessed,—yet at the very moment when the King of
Persia was assured that the strongest intercession
in his favour should he addressed to the Czar, his
cause had been utterly abandoned, and the integrity
of his dominions sacrificed to Russia, in exchange
for licence to the French Emperor to pounce with¬
out check or hinderance upon Spain.
The presence of a French embassy at the Persian
court had so far a beneficial operation, that it
roused the authorities both in England and in India
to a sense of the necessity of reacquiring some con¬
sideration at Tehran. Unluckily, their measures
were taken without previous concert, and the result
was an undignified and impolitic collision. The
british missions to persia.
223
Government of England, in communication with the book i.
>-M CHAP* IV*
Court of Directors, resolved to send an ambassador
to Persia, in the person of Sir Harford Jones, who 18O8.
had held for several years the office of Company's
Resident at Bagdad. He was accordingly nomi¬
nated his JMajesty's envoy extraordinary and pleni¬
potentiary; although his allowances and the cost of
the mission were to be defrayed by the East India
Company, and the envoy was ordered to act under
instructions from the Governor-General. The Go-
vernof-General had in the mean time determined
to dispatch his own representative ; and Sir John
ISIalcolm, who had concluded the former treaty,
was again sent by Lord Minto in the same capacity
to Persia.
The appointment of an ambassador to Persia was
one of the "last acts of the administration of Earl
Grey ; and his departure was delayed by the change
of ministry which took place in March, 1807.
From this and other circumstances. Sir Harford
Jones did not arrive at Bombay until April in the
following year, and on his arrival found that Sir
John IVIalcolm had preceded him to Bushir. In
compliance with the orders of the Governor-Gene¬
ral, he remained at Bombay until it should be as¬
certained in what manner the mission was received.
Sir John Malcolm reached Bushir in May, and an¬
nounced his arrival to the court, sending his dis¬
patches by one of his officers. Captain Pasley. The
letters were forwarded, but the messenger was de¬
tained at Shiraz until instructions should arrive
from Tehran. After some delay they were re¬
ceived. The King, still clinging to the hope that
224
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the intercession of France would procure the re-,
storation of some of his lost frontier,—a hope in
1808. which he was strengthened by the assurances of a
Russian agent, and the protestations of the French
ambassador,—chose rather to brave the resentment of
his former allies than give umbrage to both France
and Russia. Affecting, however, an equal unwil¬
lingness to displease the British Government, he
directed one of his sons, Hosein Ali Älirza, go¬
vernor of the province, to carry on the négociations
with its representative at Shiraz. To this Sir John
JNIalcolm strongly objected, as derogatory to the
dignity of his Government. Believing, from the pri¬
vate information he received, that the French em¬
bassy had obtained too firm a footing at Tehran to
be supplanted, and arguing that the connexion was
a breach of existing engagements, and inimical to
British interests, he abruptly sailed from Bushir,
and repaired at once to Calcutta, where his repre¬
sentations induced the Governor-General to con¬
clude that measures of intimidation or hostility
were necessary ; and orders were issued for fit¬
ting out a military expedition, which should oc¬
cupy the island of Kharak, and hold the command of
the navigation of the Persian Gulph.'
The first impression entertained by the Governor-
General, founded upon the envoy's dispatches, was,
that the proceedings of Sir John JMalpolm had been
somewhat precipitate, and that no sufficient cause
had been assigned for the total abandonment of the
objects of the embassy. He had therefore authorised
Sir Harford Jones, in the event of his predecessor's
' Malcolm's Political History of India, i. 415.
orders of the bengal government.
225
withdrawal, to prosecute his voyage " without a book i.
CHAP« IV«
moment's delay, should the circumstances render, in
his judgment, such a step advisable, without further I8O8.
reference to Bengal." The information which he
subsequently received induced Lord Minto to be¬
lieve that a representative of the British power
would not be admitted to the presence of the
King of Persia, and that a repetition of the
attempt to obtain an audience would be incom¬
patible with the dignity of the Government, while
it wouM be productive of no advantage. Sir Har¬
ford Jones was consequently instructed to await
the result of further. deliberations. The coun¬
termand was too late. Before it reached Bom¬
bay, Sir Harford Jones, acting in the spirit of
his first instructions, had sailed for Persia. He
arrived at Bushir on the 14th of October. The
aspect of affairs had changed. No progress had
been made towards the restitution of any part of
the Persian territory, and the court had begun to
lose faith in the professions of the French. In this
feeling of disappointment, regret for having given
offence to the British Government, and apprehen¬
sion of the consequences of its displeasure, found
easy access to the Persian cabinet, and the arrival
of his Majesty's ambassador at Bushir was regarded
as a fortunate means of escaping from its embar¬
rassments. Still, some reluctance seems to have
been entertained to break so entirely with France
as openly to sanction the advance of the mission to
the capital ; and, although an invitation to proceed
to Shiraz was very soon forwarded. Sir Harford
.Tones consented to go thither upon no other se-
vol. i. q
226
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. curity for his ultimate reception at Tehran than the
CHAP, IV. assurances of a native agent that on his arrival
1809. there he would find the official invitation from the
King and his ministers to continue his journey to
the presence. Upon this information, the envoy
accompanied the JNIihmandar who was sent to con¬
duct him to Shiraz, and arrived there on the 1st of
.January. Some faint attempts to inveigle him into
négociations with the local authorities were easily
baffled ; and, all difficulties being surmounted,^
the mission departed from Shiraz on the 12th of
January. Sir Harford Jones entered Tehran on the
14th of the following month, the French embassy
having quitted the city on the preceding day.
During the stay of the mission at Shiraz, the dis¬
patches from Bengal arrived, recalling the ambas¬
sador, and announcing the military projects of the
Government. The information speedily transpired,
and excited great alarm ; to allay which. Sir Harford
Jones assumed, as the representative of the Crown,
a power independent of the Governor-General of
India, and entered into a solemn pledge that no
aggression should be committed upon the dominions
of the Kiñg of Persia as long as his Majesty dis¬
played a wish to preserve the amicable relations by
' Malcolm ascribes this to " the anticipated failure of the French to
fulfil their extravagant promises, the alarm excited by the military prepa¬
rations in India, and the cupidity of the Persian court, which had been
strongly excited."—Pol. Hist. i. 415. Sir Harford Jones states, that
Lord Minto accused him of having found his way to Shiraz by corruption.
—Account of the Mission to Persia, i. 147. According to the plenipoten¬
tiary's own account, the King's willingness to receive him was stimulated
by exaggerated descriptions of a valuable diamond included amongst the
presents intended for his Majesty, and of which he himself remarks, " I
so managed, that, at the expense of £10,000 to the Company, the Shah of
Persia considered he had received twenty or twenty-five thousand pounds
from his Majesty's envoy."— Account of the Mission, i. 144.
objections op the governor-general.
-227
which he had been connected with the King of book i.
Great Britain.
The appointment of an ambassador to Persia by 1809.
the home Government had been regarded by the
Governor-General as an injudicious departure from
the practice of negociating with that country
through India. He protested against the inno¬
vation. Lord Minto argued, that it was inconsistent
to expect from the Government of India effective
precautions against any dangers on the side of
Persia, without leaving to it the power of con-
trouling the minister deputed to the Persian court,
and directing the course and character of the négo¬
ciations to be carried on with it : that such a mi¬
nister appointed in England might not only fail to
appreciate the interests of British India, but might
act in direct opposition to them ; and might not only
pledge the faith of its Government to measures un¬
sanctioned by it, but even to such as were incom¬
patible with its honour and safety : that the Indian
Government was vested with the power of sove¬
reignty within its own limits, and had been recog¬
nised in that character by the King of Persia. " It
was in that character alone that we had been able
to obtain those manifestations of respect, that re¬
gard to the claims of dignity, which amongst all
nations of the world, but in an especial degree
amongst Asiatic states, are essential to the mainte¬
nance 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 dignity of the British Government
Q 2
228 •
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. in India, which under a just sense of its importance
we have hitherto successfully laboured to preserve
1809. among surrounding states, is to fix upon the British
Government the stigma of deceit, to affect the re¬
putation of our public faith, and to expose us to
much of the danger arising from a real loss of
power, by diminishing that awe and respect with
which the Government has hitherto been contem¬
plated, and on which the tranquillity and security
of British India materially depend."^
Notwithstanding the earnestness with which
Lord Minto asserted the sovereign prerogatives of
the Governor-General of India, the transfer of di¬
plomatic relations with Persia from that officer to
» the Ministers of the Crown was persevered in, and
ambassadors to Persia have ever since been sent
directly from Great Britain alone. The destinies of
Persia are, in truth, so much more intimately inter¬
woven with the political interests of the parent
country than of India, the consequences deprecated
by Lord Minto as likely to affect the latter are so
much more calculated to exercise an influence upon
the former, that the relations established, or to be
established, with Persia, can no longer be' con¬
sistently confided to the arbitrement of a delegated
and subordinate functionary, however high his sta¬
tion or absolute his authority.
Until, however, the question was decided against
him. Lord Minto showed himself resolved to exercise
his power. Highly displeased at the determination
of Sir Harford Jones to continue his journey from
' Lord Minto's letter to the Secret Committee, as quoted by Malcolm.—
Pol. Hist. i. 417.
the ambassador disavowed.
229
Shiraz, the Governor-General addressed dispatches book i.
to the court of Tehran, disavowing the public cha-
racter of the ambassador; and, to Sir Harford Jones I810.
himself, orders were sent commanding him instantly
to leave the country, with the intimation, that, on
his failing so to do, any bills drawn by him on the
Indian Governments after the date of such diso¬
bedience would not be discharged. His Majesty's
plenipotentiary could not resist the weight of this
argument, and signified his readiness to obey ;
but in the mean time he had pursued his négoci¬
ation with great activity, had accomplished the
execution of a preliminary treaty, and had prevailed
upon the King of Persia to send Abul Hasan Khan
as his ambassador, in company with JVIr. JMorier, to
England. The Governor-General consented to ra¬
tify the treaty, but peremptorily ordered Sir H.
Jones to quit Persia, making over charge of the
mission to a medical officer of the Company until the
arrival of Sir John Malcolm, whom he still re¬
solved to employ. On the other hand, orders from
England directed Sir H. Jones to remain until the
arrival of another ambassador in the person of Sir
Gore Ouseley ; and he continued in the country until
after the winter of 1810, although not exercising
apparently any ministerial functions. Sir John Mal¬
colm arrived at Tehran in June 1810, — for no
purpose apparently except to vindicate the dignity of
the Governor-General of India, and put the Company
to an unnecessary expense. His presence and ser¬
vices in Persia being speedily rendered unnecessary
by the approach of Sir Gore Ouseley as his Majesty's
representative at the Persian court, he left Tehran
230
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. in the following month. ^ There were consequently
about the same period three English ambassadors in
1810. Persia, whose relative importance it must have per¬
plexed the Persians to determine, although they
were astute enough to take advantage of so much
competition for their friendship, and make the
better bargain for themselves.
By the preliminary treaty concluded between Sir
Harford Jones and the ministers of the King of
Persia it was stipulated that the articles should
form the basis of a definitive treaty without alter¬
ation; that every treaty made by the King of
Persia with any one of the powers of Europe should
become null and void ; and that he would not per¬
mit any European force to march through Persia
towards India. That, should any European force
invade or have invaded the territories of Persia, his
Britannic IMajesty would afford to the King of
Persia a military force, or, in lieu of it, a subsidy
and warlike ammunition ; the number of the forces
and the amount of the subsidy to be regulated by a
definitive treaty. Should his Britannic IMajesty make
peace with the invading power, he should use his
efforts to negociate a peace also between it and Persia ;
' A full account of the circumstances connected with Sir Harford Jones's
embassy has been published by himself,—An Account of the transactions
of his Majesty's mission to the Court of Persia in the years 1807-11,
by Sir Harford Jones Brydges, Bart. A somewhat different view of them
is given by Malcolm in his Political History of India. Some notice of
the proceedings of the mission occurs in Morier's First Journey through
Persia. Whatever may be the case with respect to the means employed,
there is no denying that Sir Harford Jones effected his object; that he
made his way to Tehran, and negociated a treaty which, in substance, was
confirmed by the British Government ; and that the projected military ex¬
pedition to the Gulph would have entailed a heavy cost, realised no solid
advantage, and deeply, perhaps incurably, wounded the pride of the Per¬
sian monarch and the patriotism of his people.
treaty concluded.
231
but, in failure of success, tlie military or pecuniary book i.
aid should be still supplied as long as the invading '
force continued in the Persian territory, or until the isio.
conclusion of peace. That, if the Afghans or any
other power should attack India, the King of Persia
shoidd furnish a force to assist in its defence. That,
if any British troops should have landed at Kharak,
or in any other Persian port, they should not possess
themselves of such places, but be at the disposal of
the King of Persia, subject to the alternative of
a pecuniary payment in their place. That, if war
should take place between the Afghans and the
King of Persia, the King of Great Britain should
take no part in it, except as a mediator at the
desire of both parties. That the object of these
articles should be regarded as mutually defensive ;
and, finally, a hope was expressed that the treaty
might be everlasting, and produce " the most beau¬
tiful fruits of friendship between the two serene
kings."
A definitive treaty, in conformity to these stipu¬
lations, was entered into by Sir Gore Ouseley ; but
some of the conditions underwent a modification
in England, and the final arrangements were not
completed till 1814, when the terms were conclu¬
sively agreed upon. The defensive character of the
treaty was more explicitly stated, and Russia was
specified as the power against which the Persian
frontier was to be defended. The amount of the
subsidy was fixed at 200,000 tomans, about £125,000
per annum ; and it was further agreed that the said
subsidy should not be paid in case a war with any
European nation should have been produced by an
232 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I, aggression on the part of Persia. The other modifi-
cations little affected the preliminary conditions ; and,
1810. at a subsequent date, the Persian court was compelled
to relinquish the stipulated subsidy.^ Little ultimate
advantage accrued to either power from the inter¬
course which it had been considered so essential to
the political interests of both to maintain.
' See the several engagements with Persia of 1809, 1814, and 1828, in
the treaties printed by order of the House of Commons, 11th March, 1839.
CHAPTER V.
Appointment of Sir G. Barlow to the Government of
Madras,—unacceptable to the settlement.—The state
of popular feeling.—Commencement of agitation.—
Case of Mr. Sherson.—Proceedings of the Com¬
mission for the investigation of the debts of the
Nawab of the Carnatic.—Trials of Reddy Rao,—
his conviction,—his pardon and death.—Affairs of
Travancore. — Disputes between the Raja and the
Resident.—Enmity of the Dewan,—sets on foot an
insurrection,—abetted by the Dewan of Cochin.—
Troops ordered to Travancore. — The Resident's
house attacked,—his escape.—Operations of the Sub¬
sidiary force Murder of Europeans by the De¬
wan.— Army sent to the Province under Colonel
St. Leger.—Storm of the Arambuli Lines.—Defeat
of the Nairs at Quilon.—Advance to the Capital.
—Submission of the Raja.—Flight of the Dewan.
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
233
— Sanctuary violated. — Death of the Dewan. —
Seizure and execution of his brother.—The body of
the Dewan gibbeted. — Sentiments of the Bengal
Government. — Disorganised condition of Travan-
C07'e.—Administration of affairs by the Resident as
Dewan under the Raja and his successor's.—Restora¬
tion of prospei'ity.—Similar system and r'esults in
Cochin.— Disputes between the Governor and Com¬
mander-in-chief — The latter r'efused a seat in
Council by the Court,—his dissatisfaction and resig¬
nation. — Discontents of the Officers of the Coast
army,—their causes.—Tent conti'act abolished.—Rea¬
sons assigned in the Quarter'-Master-GeneraVs report
offensive to Officer's commanding corps,—demand a
court-martial on Colonel Munro.—The Commander-
in-chief places Colonel Munro in arrest.—Govern¬
ment cancels the arrest.—General Mavdowall issues a
General Order on the subject, and embarks for Eng¬
land.—Counter Order by the Government.—Subse¬
quent severity.—Suspension of Major Boles.—Effect
upon the Officers.—Orders of the Isi of May.—
Violent proceedings at Hyderabad.—Mutinous con¬
duct of the garrison of Masulipatam.—Threatened
march of the troops to Madras.—Firmness of the
Government.—Consequent arrangements.—Test pro¬
posed to the European Officers.—Appeal to the Native
Troops.—Their allegiance.—The garrison of Serin-
gapatam in open rebellion.—Colonel Close sent to
Hyderabad.— Officers of the Subsidiary force sign
the test,—their example followed.—Arrival of the
Governor'-General at Madras.—Courts-martial.—
Sir Samuel Achmuty Commander-in-chief and
Member of Council.— Pr'oceedings in England.—
234
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
Warm disputes in the Court of Directors.—Officers
restored to the service.—Sir G. Barlowfinally recalled.
BOOK I. To compensate to Sir George Barlow for the dis-
appointment which had been inflicted upon him
1808. hy his supersession in the high office of Governor-
General, the Administration in England consented
to his eventual elevation to that dignity, and in
the mean while concurred in his nomination to the
government of Fort St. George.^ He was accord¬
ingly appointed Governor of IMadras, and assumed
charge of his new duties at the end of December,
1807.'
Various circumstances conspired to render the
appointment of Sir George Barlow unacceptable to
the servants of the Company under the IMadras
Presidency. His being a member of a different
service was one source of his unpopularity, and his
well-known character as a rigorous advocate and
unrelenting enforcer of measures of public economy
and retrenchment produced a still more universal
and profound impression adverse to his person and
' " He (Sir George Barlow) is now subjected to the discredit of being
superseded in the Government-General ; to the succession of which, after
haying once actually filled that high office, he stood for the third time ap¬
pointed."—Protests of Messrs. Parry, Astell, Smith, and Bell, against the
recall of Sir G. Barlow in 1812. So Mr. Grant in a separate protest
observes, " I come now to speak of the order rescinding the appointment
made of Sir G. Barlow, in May 1807, to be Governor-General of Bengal
in succession to Lord Minto."—^Dissents, &c., published by Sir Robert
Barlow. Murray, 1813.
2 The occurrences of Sir G. Barlow's administration are fully detailed,
not only in the numerous pamphlets published both by his friends and
enemies, but in the official documents relating to the transactions them¬
selves, and to the discussions which they occasioned in the Court of Di¬
rectors, which were printed by order of Parliament at the following several
dates, 25th May, 1810; 1st April, 1811; 3rd May, 1811 ; 13th June, 1811 ;
21st June, 1811, and 15th April, 1812.
governor of madras unpopular.
235
his government.^ Unfortunately, he does not ap- book i.
• • CHAP« V»
pear to have been qualified or disposed to dissi- "
pate the prejudices which anticipated his presence, isoe.
His manners were reserved and unconciliating : a
stranger at Madras, and of retiring habits, he gave
his confidence too exclusively to the knot of civil
and military functionaries by whom he was imme¬
diately surrounded : his notions of the claims of the
executive powers of Government to prompt and
unquestioning obedience were lofty and uncompro¬
mising ; and in the stern exaction of acquiescence he
undervalued apparently the necessity, which " every
statesman ought to feel, of mutual accommodation
and concession in the controversies and contentions
of mankind, and was wanting in a liberal consider¬
ation for human feelings and infirmities." These
defects were not counterbalanced, in the estimation
of those whom he was set over, by the acknowledged
merits of his public character, his conscientious sense
of the importance of his duties, or his industry and
ability in their discharge ; nor was time allowed for
the due appreciation of the excellence which, under
an unattractive deportment, distinguished his private
life. The state of society also at Madras, and the sen¬
timents which had for some time pervaded the Coast
' " I am under the necessity of avowing, with infinite regret, another
very operating principle of these discontents, which have since matured
themselves gradually, but without interruption, into the extremes of public
disorder. I allude to the unjust but very general and vehement prejudices
against the person and character of Sir g. Barlow, which may have been
in some degree the unavoidable, but were certainly the unmerited, conse¬
quences of his firm and faithful discharge of ungracious and unpopular,
but sacred and essential duties, not sought or relished by himself, but cast
by circumstances peculiar to the times on the period of his administration
in Bengal."—Letter from Lord Minto to (he Secret Committee, 5th Feb.,
1810 ; Pari. Papers, 1st April, 1811, p. 346.
236
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. army, had accumulated elements of discord which
the slightest breath was sufficient to set in agitation :
1808. dissensions and discontents accordingly immediately
burst forth, and rendered the administration of the
new Governor of Madras a season of unprecedented
private misery, and unexampled public peril and
alarm.
The first occasion of offence occurred in the set¬
tlement of Madras, and followed closely upon Sir
George Barlow's arrival. On assuming the reins
of power, he found in progress an inquiry instituted
by order of his predecessor, Mr. Petrie, into the
conduct of a Mr. Sherson, a civil servant of some
standing, of a respectable character, and a person
much esteemed in society ; who had held the office of
superintendent of the public stores of rice laid in by
the Government of Madras, to be retailed in small
quantities to the people, as a precaution against the
recurrence of those famines which had frequently
desolated the Presidency. Charges of fraud in this
department were preferred against Mr. Sherson, and
a committee was appointed for their investigation.
That abuses in an arrangement * so liable to be
abused seemed probable ; but their nature and ex¬
tent were undetermined, and the participation or cog¬
nizance of the principal unsubstantiated. His ac¬
counts submitted to the civil auditor were pro¬
nounced correct ; yet, as they did not tally with the
native accounts of the office, Mr. Sherson, and Mr.
Smith the auditor, were both removed from their
situations, and the former was suspended from the
service pending the pleasure of the Court of Direc¬
tors. An opinion generally prevailed that both
CIVIL DISCONTENTS.
237
these officers had been harshly, if not unjustly, dealt book i.
with ; and Sir George Barlow incurred much oh-
loquy from having precipitately believed represen- isos.
tations asserted to be interested or malicious.
That he too hastily adopted a decided opinion in
the matter, and, in his intolerance of supposed offi¬
cial peculation, inflicted severe punishment before
its justice was undeniably established, was shown
by subsequent events. A prosecution was com¬
menced in the Supreme Court of Madras against
Air. Sherson, and after considerable delays, during
which a change of Government had taken place, the
cause came on for trial. Air. Sherson was acquitted,
not only of legal, but, in the opinion of one of his
Judges, of moral criminality.^ It was accordingly
resolved by the Court of Directors, " that the severe
measures adopted relative to Mr. Sherson had been
founded upon erroneous grounds;" and he was re¬
stored by them to the service, with a pecuniary in¬
demnification of 20,000 pagodas for his losses. The
resolutions were confirmed in terms still more em¬
phatic by the Court of Proprietors.®
Animosities still more violent and extensive were
engendered by the part which the Governor of Ala¬
dras deemed it incumbent upon him to take in
support of a committee which had been appointed
under an act of parliament for the investigation and
adjustment of the debts of the Nawab of the Car-
' Sir John Newbolt : the other Judges were Sir Thomas Strange £ind
Sir Francis Macnaghten.
^ Report of Debate in the Court of Proprietors, 2Sth April and 5th
May, 1815, by Mr. Fraser; London, 1815. Report of Proceedings in the
Supreme Court, Madras, 28th March, 1814 ; Honourable Company v.
Sherson and others.
238
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. natic. The principles which had been enjoined by
CHAP. V. Board of Controul in 1784 for the settlement
1808. of all claims upon the Nawah have already been
described ; ^ and, under this application, the amount
of debt admitted at that date without any scrutiny,
and which -was knoAvn as the Registered debt, had
been liquidated by JNIay, 1804. But, besides the
amount of debt so discharged, claims to a much
greater extent had been advanced. These had been
submitted to examination before a committee which
was formed at Madras, the operations of which con¬
tinued from 1785 to 1791. They allowed some of
the demands brought before them, but left the far
larger number for further investigation ; and there
the matter rested. When the entire revenues of
the Carnatic were assumed by the Company's Go¬
vernment, it was considered but just to take the
incumbrances along with them, and to pay off all
valid demands upon the former Administration. An
engagement to this end was concluded between the
Company and the creditors in July 1805, and com¬
missioners to make a settlement were nominated.
In the year following, an act of parliament was
passed for enabling the commissioners acting in
execution of an agreement made between the East
India Company and the private creditors of the
Nabobs of the Carnatic the better to carry the same
into effect.^
The engagement thus legalized by the Legisla-
' Vol. V. p. 36.
" Parliamentary Debates, April 14th and 16th, 1806. In moving for
leave to bring in the bill, Mr. Hobhouse gave a full and perspicuous his¬
tory of the arrangements which had been made for the liquidation of these
debts.
CARNATIC COMMISSION.
239
ture provided that a fixed annual sum (3,40,000 book i.
pagodas, or £136,000) should he set apart from the
revenues of the Carnatic for the payment of all i808.
such debts as should he admitted to be just and
valid by commissioners appointed in England for
their adjudication, assisted by similar commissioners
at Madras; whose duty it should be to collect infor¬
mation and evidence, both oral and documentary,
for transmission to the commissioners at home, in
whom alone the power of final admission or rejec¬
tion was vested : and, in order that the Indian
commissioners might be as free as possible from all
motives of local interest or influence, it was agreed
that they should be appointed by the Governor-
General, and that they should be selected from the
Civil service of Bengal. Accordingly, at the period
under review, three commissioners, who were mem¬
bers of the Bengal Civil service, were sitting at
Madras to investigate the demands of persons claim¬
ing to be creditors of the Nawabs of Arcot, and
producing bonds and other vouchers asserted to
have been originally granted by those princes in
acknowledgment of actual loans or real pecuniary
obligations.
The long interval which had elapsed since the
investigation of the Carnatic dgbts had been com¬
menced, and the prospect which the present ar¬
rangement encouraged of their being ultimately
paid, had not only protracted the existence of those
vouchers which were of unimpeachable authenticity,
but had prompted the fabrication of a vast mass of
fictitious documents^ in evidence of unreal transac-
' The extent of these forgeries and fabrications is shown by the result.
240 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. tiens. It was not an easy task to discriminate
between the false and the true bonds ; and the
1808. former, having long passed from hand to hand with¬
out question, had become, in the ordinary course
of transfer, the property of individuals wholly un¬
connected with the original fraud, and entertaining
no doubt of the goodness of the security. Many
bonds of large amount had come very honestly into
the possession of persons of rank and influence in
the society of Äladras, who were naturally and ex¬
cusably interested in establishing the validity of
deeds upon which their fortunes mainly depended.
When, therefore, the commissioners from Bengal,
early in 1808, entered upon their office at INIadras,
they found the difficulties, inseparable from the na¬
ture of their duty and the novelty of their position,
aggravated by the opposition which they encoun¬
tered. In this situation they gladly availed them¬
selves of any assistance which offered a reasonable
chance of affording them the information they were
appointed to obtain ; and they were fully justified in
attaching consideration to the advice and opinions
of a native named Reddy Rao, as he had been the
principal accountant in the financial office of the
late NaAvab of Arcot, and was fully informed of the
extent and character of the claims upon his master,
and as he was a man of ability and had always been
reputed respectable and honest.
Shortly after this selection had been made, a
bond held by Reddy Rao himself came under the
The final report of the Carnatic commissioners, dated March 1830, states
the amount originally claimed to have been above thirty millions sterling
(í30,404,919 Is. The amount allowed was little more than two
millions and a half (£2,686,148 12s. 8fd.)
fabricated bonds.
241
inspection of the commissioners. Its authenticity book i.
was challenged by Avadanam Papia, another native
creditor. The commissioners, upon investigating isos.
the charge, pronounced the bond of Reddy Rao
genuine, and prosecuted the witnesses Papia had
brought forward, for perjury. Papia had the start of
them, and carried his accusation of forgery before
a magistrate, who committed Reddy Rao for trial.
Regarding the prosecution as a mere trick intended
to deprive them of essential assistance, the com¬
missioners appealed to the Government of Madras ;
and upon their representations, and at their request,
the law officers of the Company were ordered to
conduct the defence of Reddy Rao. This measure
and the proceedings against Papia filled all classes
of creditors with alarm, inasmuch as the appearance
of Government as a party in opposition to their
claims, was calculated to deter the natives from
giving any testimony which they might think unac¬
ceptable to the superior authorities, and might de¬
prive the claimants in- many instances of the only
means by which they could substantiate their de¬
mands. Great excitement spread throughout the
settlement ; and many individuals, of high rank in
the service and much consideration in society, in¬
veighed vehemently against an arrangement which
was attributed to the partiality and prejudices of
the Governor. The Government persisted, and with
reason ; for no good cause could be assigned why the
commissioners should be debarred from the aid of
the legal advisers of the state. But, not "satisfied
with a calm perseverance in a right course, measures
vol. i. r
242
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. of ill-timed and injudicious severity towards indi-
viduals were adopted, which had the appearance of
1808. a determination to substitute intimidation for in¬
quiry. Indignant at the impediments which had
been thrown in the way of the commissioners, the
Government dismissed the magistrate, ]Mr. IMait-
land, by whom Reddy Rao had been committed ;
required ISIr. Parry, a merchant residing at Madras,
who had taken a conspicuous part in the opposition
to the acts of the commission, to return immediately
to Europe ; and removed JVIr. Roebuck, a civilian of
long standing, from the situation he filled at the
Presidency, to an office of inferior rank and emolu¬
ment in the provinces, where he shortly afterwards
died. In these manifestations of the displeasure
of the Government undue and unnecessary rigour
was exhibited. The opposition may have originated
in interested motives, and may have been intempe¬
rate and indecorous ; but some consideration might
have been reasonably entertained for the feelings
which the dread of loss of property could not fail
to inspire, and the virulence of which would have
been corrected by the steady perseverance of the
commissioners in the calm and impartial perform¬
ance of their functions. It was not in the power of
any combination to defeat, however it might retard,
the objects of the commission ; and, although en¬
titled to the support of the Government, it needed
not its wrathful and vindictive interposition. The
interference of authority also in this stage of the
business," whilst proceedings in the highest court of
judicature were pending, was, to say the least, ex¬
ceedingly ill-timed, as it afforded a specious plea for
TRIALS OP REDDY RAO.
243
accusing the Government of a design to obstruct book i.
the administration of justice.
The trial of Reddy Rao took place; the Chief isos.
Justice pronounced an elaborate judgment in his
favour; the jury found him guilty. A new trial
was moved for, but the decision was postponed ; and
in the mean time an indictment for perjury was
preferred against a person named Batley, the Eng¬
lish translator and secretary of the Nawab, and one
of the witnesses on behalf of Reddy Rao. It was
in fact*a second trial of Reddy Rao, as it involved
the question of the spuriousness of his bond. A
verdict unfavourable to his cause was given by a
special jury, in the conviction of the defendant.
A third trial was held : Reddy Rao was charged
with having paid a debt due to another native with
a forged bond, knowing it to be forged ; and he was
again found guilty by the jury. The Chief Justice,
strongly persuaded of his innocence and of that of
Batley, suspended delivery of the sentence, and re¬
ferred the evidence through the Board of Controul
to the King, recommending the defendants to his
Majesty, " not as the objects of his mercy, but as
suitors for his justice ; conceiving prosecutions to be
the King's, and that a greater evil could scarcely
happen to society than that they should be suffered
to become, by whatever means, the successful en¬
gines of wrong." ^ Necessarily guided by the opi¬
nions of the Chief Justice, the pardon of the Crown
was granted ; but before it reached Madras the chief
actor in the scene had ceased to be amenable to
' Two letters from Sir Thomas Strange, 27th Feb. and 4th May, 1809, to
the Eight Honourable R. Dundas.—Parliamentary P-apers, Carnatic debts.
R 2
244
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. liuman judgment : Reddy Rao poisoned himself in
little more than a twelvemonth after his last trial.
1808. He had not long continued, after that event, to
enjoy the confidence of the commissioners. Sus¬
picion was awakened : it was discovered that he was
deeply implicated in the issue of the fabricated
securities, and in other frauds upon the Nawab's
treasury ; and the very bond, the genuineness of
which had been so tenaciously upheld by the com¬
missioners, was reported by them to their fellow
commissioners in London a forgery. The result
was little calculated to gain credit or favour for the
Governor of Madras, who, in his eagerness to main¬
tain unimpaired the powers of the commissioners,
had thrown the whole weight of his authority into
the same scale with an impostor and a cheat ; and,
in defence of a knave, had inflicted on men of cha¬
racter and honour penury and disgrace, because in
protecting valuable interests they had been be¬
trayed into indiscretion and intemperance.'
However inveterate the mutual ill-Avill which was
engendered by these proceedings, they were far ex¬
ceeded in intensity and importance by the dissen¬
sions which about the same time broke out between
the Governor of Madras and a large division of
the army. Before entering upon an account of the
lamentable consequences attending them, it will be
' The best authenticated accounts of these proceedings are to be found
in the papers printed for Parliament, 3rd May and 11th June, 1811, re¬
lating to the Camatic debts. Ex-parte statements, which agree as to the
main facts, are to be met with in the Parliamentary papers referred
to : also in Marsh's Re^dew of Sir G. Barlow's Administration ; Lon¬
don, 1812 : Exposure of the Misrepresentations and Calumnies in Marsh's
Review; London, 1813 : Short Narrative of the Late Trials, &:c.; London,
1810 : Correspondence of Messrs. Abbott, Parry, and Maitland, with the
Court of Directors ; Londou, 1813 : and in other pamphlets.
affairs of travancore.
245
advisable to notice the political occurrences by book:.
which they were preceded.
The mutual dissatisfaction which had long sub- 18O8.
sisted between the Raja of Travancore and the
British Government has been already adverted to.
Towards the end of 1808 the subsidy which the
Raja was bound to pay had fallen into a long ar¬
rear, and the Resident peremptorily demanded its
liquidation. The Raja and his principal minister
protested that the revenues of Travancore were in¬
capable of supporting so heavy a burthen as the
charge of four battalions of Company's troops, and
required their reduction. The Resident replied by
insisting on the dismissal of an imperfectly dis¬
ciplined body of infantry in the Raja's service, called
the Carnatic Brigade, as a useless and expensive
corps, the discontinuance of which would obviate
all difficulty regarding the subsidy. The Carnatic
Brigade was looked upon by the Raja as an essen¬
tial part of his dignity, and indispensable to his per¬
sonal safety; and the proposal to disband it was
treated as a preliminary step to the seizure of the
Raja's person, and the annihilation of his authority.
Appeals were made by the Raja to the Governments
of IVIadras and Bengal, in which he asserted that
the treaty of 1805 had been forced upon him ; that
he had been intimidated into its execution by the
menaces of the Resident; and that the expense
which it entailed upon the revenues of his princi¬
pality were beyond their means of defraying it.^
These assertions were denied by the Resident.
' An opinion seems to have prevailed that the difficulty in the realisa¬
tion of the subsidy arose from the refusal of the Company's Government to
246
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Besides the cause of discontent arising out of the
subsidy, which was common to the Eaja and his
1808. counsellors, his De wan or prime minister, Vailu
Tamhi, had personal grounds for fear and resent¬
ment. Considering him to be the chief instigator
of the Raja's backwardness in fulfilling his pecu¬
niary engagements, the Resident had insisted upon
his removal from his situation, and the appointment
of a minister more submissive to British controul.
The Dewan professed himself willing to resign
whenever a successor should be appointed ; but,
under cover of his pretended acquiescence in the
Resident's will, he set himself to work to organise
an insurrection of the Nairs, the martial population
of JVIalabar, and to accompli,sh the murder of the
Resident, whom he hated as the scourge of his
country, and his own avowed and inexorable foe.
receive payment in pepper, agreeably to the terms of the original treaty ;
but, which having fallen in value, a money payment was demanded. In
Sir Thomas Munro's examination before tlie Committee of tlie House of
Commons in April, 1813, he was asked, " Have you not heard that the
Raja originally entered into the treaty with great reluctance, and received
our troops into his dominions, for the payment of which the pepper was
agreed to be delivered?" his reply was, "I have not so heard." The
notion may, perhaps, be traced to the Asiatic Annual Register for 1809, in
which this account of the alteration from payment in pepper to that in
money is assigned as a cause of the discontent of the Raja and subsequent
disturbances. The statement is nevertheless erroneous. In the first cor¬
respondence with the Raja in 1788, the option of paying the subsidy in
pepper or money was offered to him : he chose the latter. In 1793, a con¬
tract was entered into with him for the purchase of pepper for eight years,
wholly unconnected with the subsidy. In 1795, an article of the treaty
provided for the perpetuity of the pepper contract, subject to such modi¬
fications as should from time to time be agreed upon ; but there was no
stipulation that its price should form part payment of the subsidy. No
allusion to such payment is contained in the treaty of 1803. The ori¬
ginal contract provides that the pepper shall be paid for in goods ; and,
should tliey leave a balance, that should be paid in money. The commer¬
cial and political engagements were throughout distinct, and no complaint
occurs in the correspondence on this account. The main gi'ound of conten¬
tion was the Carnatic Brigade.
insurrection of the nairs.
247
He prevailed upon the Dewan of the Raja of book i.
Cochin to join him in the plot ; and, giving en-
couragement to some French adventurers from the i8o8.
Isle of France who had landed from an Arab vessel
on the coast of Älalabar, spread abroad a report
that a large French army was about to come to
assist him to expel the English. He also wrote
circular letters to the neighbouring Rajas to sum¬
mon them to combine for the defence of their reli¬
gion, which he affirmed the English designed to
overthrow. His instigations were effectual : arms
were collected, and the people were prepared se¬
cretly for their use. The popular excitement be¬
came known to the Resident, and at his request re¬
inforcements were ordered to Travancore. His
IMajesty's 12th regiment and two native battalions
were directed to move from JVIalabar ; and his
IMajesty's 69th, and three battalions of native in¬
fantry, with artillery, were commanded to march
from Trichinopoly to his succour.
Alarmed apparently by these precautionary mea¬
sures, the Dewan professed his readiness to resign
immediately if his personal safety were guaranteed,
and arrangements were made for his private removal
from Alepi to Calicut on the night of the 28th of
December. On that same night a body of armed
men surrounded the house of the Resident. He
had retired to rest, but was awakened by the indis¬
tinct noise of the approaching multitude ; and, going
to the window to discover the cause, was fired at
by the assailants. Before an entrance could be
forced. Colonel IMacaulay, with a confidential ser¬
vant, had time to hide themselves in a lower cham-
248
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. ber, the door of which could not be easily distin-
guished from the exterior wall. The insurgents,
1808. having broken into the house, sought for the object
of their vengeance throughout the night in vain.
At daybreak they beheld a vessel under British co¬
lours entering the port, and other ships were discern¬
ible at a little distance making for the harbour.
They now thought only of their own retreat, and
hastily quitted the premises ; affording Colonel Ma-
caulay an opportunity of making his escape and
taking refuge on board the vessel, which proved to
be a transport with part of the reinforcement from
Malabar. The more important division from Trichi-
nopoly had been countermanded, the hladras Go¬
vernment giving ready credence to the simulated
submission of the Dewan. The news of the insur¬
rection obliged them to repeat their first directions,
and in the middle of January the Trichinopoly
force commenced its advance under the command
of the Honourable Colonel St. Leger.
Before he was joined by the principal reinforce¬
ments from IVIalabar, Colonel Chalmers, command¬
ing the subsidiary troops cantoned at Quilon, had
commenceif offensive operations. On the 30th of
December he learnt that great numbers of armed
Nairs had collected at a residence belonging to- the
minister, at no great distance to the north of the
cantonments; and that an equally numerous body
had assembled at Parur, about ten miles to the
south. His measures were promptly taken. Five
companies of the 1st battalion of the 4th regiment
of native infantry, with a field-piece, were detached
to occupy a low hill commanding the Dewan's resi-
atfack on the subsidiary force.
249
dence. They had scarcely reached the spot when book i.
they were attacked by the enemy in numbers greatly
superior, but they maintained their ground during 1809.
the night ; and, being strengthened by the two flank
companies of the 13th N. I. at day-break, they ad¬
vanced against the Nairs, defeated them, and took
possession of the house, with two brass and four
iron guns, with which it had been converted into a
temjjorary battery. Information being received that
a body of the enemy above four thousand strong
were advancing along the coast from the north, the
detachment commanded by JNIajor Hamilton proceed¬
ed to meet them. They were encountered at the
estuary of the Kaladi river, where some had crossed
the bar, while the Carnatic Brigade was drawn up
on the other side of the stream. Those who had
crossed were attacked and compelled to retreat,
but the main body stood firm ; while a strong divi¬
sion ascended the river, in order to pass it higher
up and get into the rear of the British. At the
same time news arrived that the force from the
south, estimated at more than ten thousand men,
was rapidly advancing, and it was judged prudent to
recall the detachment to the cantonment. The re¬
treat of the troops gave courage to the insurgents.
The increasing numbers and confidence of the
Nairs obliged Colonel Chalmers to remain on
the defensive at Quilon, where he was reinforced
early in January by his IMajesty's 12th regiment
under Colonel Picton. On the other hand, the
Dewan, having concentrated his forces, amounting
to between twenty and thirty thousand men, with
eighteen guns, advanced to Quilon, and on the 15th of
250
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. January attacked the British lines, defended by one
CHAP. V. ]]]^j.Qpean regiment and three battalions of Sipahis.
1809. The action began at six in the morning ; the enemy
occupying a rising ground, fx-om which their guns
opened a fire on the British encampment. Leaving
the 4th native infantry to cover the camp, Colonel
Chalmers formed the rest of his troops in tAvo co¬
lumns, the right under Colonel Picton, the left
under Major Hamilton, and led them against the
Travancore force. A stout resistance was encoun¬
tered, and a division of the enemy attempted at the
same time to storm the camp. They were repulsed,
and, after a conflict of five hours' duration, the
whole were driven off the field, leaving seven hun¬
dred slain, and losing fifteen pieces of artillery.
The British loss was comjiaratively trifling.
Thus foiled in his attempt upon Quilon, the
Dewan directed a considerable division of his fol¬
lowers against what promised to he an easier
prey,—the post of Cochin, which was held by
Major Hewitt with two companies of the 12th re¬
giment, and six of the 1st battalion of the 17th
native infantry. The enemy advanced on the 19th
of January to the attack in three masses, each a
thousand strong: the one on the left was met,
charged, and routed. The victors then fell upon the
other two bodies, which opposed a more resolute
resistance, but were forced to give way. Desisting
from further engagements in the field, they spread
round Cochin on the side, land and covered the sea
with their boats, so as to cut off all supplies. Be¬
fore this manœuvre had produced serious distress,
the Piedmontese frigate, with the Resident on
murder of europeans.
251
board, anchored oif the town ; and her boats, with book i.
some small armed vessels belonging to Cochin,
quickly drove the enemy's flotilla into the river, i809.
pursued, and set it on fire. The blockade was con¬
sequently raised ; but the enemy still continued in
overpowering numbers in the vicinity of Quilon
and Cochin, and straitened the resources and
checked the movements of the subsidiary force,
until they were called off by the approach of danger
in other directions. During this interval they dis-
gra'ced their cause by acts of atrocity, which served
no purpose except that of provoking retribution.
An assistant-surgeon of the name of Hume, tra¬
velling at night on the 30th of January, was seized
on his route, and led into the presence of the
Dewan ; who, although he knew the young man
personally, and had benefited by his professional
advice, commanded him to be conducted to the sea-
side, where he was put to death and buried in the
sand. About the same time a small vessel, with
some of the soldiers of the 12th regiment on board,
having touched at Alepi for supplies, the men were
induced to land by the appearance of cordiality
among the people, and assurances that part of the
subsidiary force was in the neighbourhood. Un¬
aware that hostilities had commenced, the men,
thirty in number, disembarked, and as soon as
they landed were made prisoners, and shortly after¬
wards murdered. This was also done by order of
the Dewan, who thus effaced, by his perfidy and
cruelty, whatever credit he might have claimed for
zeal in the cause of his country and his prince.
Finding it no longer possible to avoid the cost of
252
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA-
BOOK I. military operations, the Government of Fort St.
George resolved to act with vigour, especially as the
1809. advancing season of the year admitted not of fur¬
ther loss of time. Colonel Cuppage, commanding
in Malabar, was ordered to enter the province of
Cochin from the north, and join Colonel Chalmers,
with his Majesty's 80th regiment and two bat¬
talions of native infantry ; and Colonel St. Leger
was directed to march immediately from Trichino-
poly, with a force composed of his Majesty's 69th
regiment, a regiment of native cavalry, and tliree
battalions of native infantry,^ besides a detachment
of Royal artillery, and the 3rd Ceylon or Kafri re¬
giment, which was to join from Ceylon. Two divi¬
sions, consisting of a European regiment and a bat¬
talion of Sipahis, severally commanded by Colonel
Wallace and Lieutenant-Colonel Gibbs, were sta¬
tioned in the Tinnivelly district and the vicinity of
Wynad, to keep the Travancoreans in check, and
eventually co-ojierate with Colonel St. Leger's
force. A proclamation was issued by the ISIadras
Government, and distributed with Colonel St. Le¬
ger's advance, ascribing the necessity of military
measures to the intrigues of the minister, and de¬
claring that " the British Government had no other
view than to rescue thè Raja from the influence of
the Dewan, to put an end to the power of that
minister, and to re-establish the connexion of the
' The force consisted of his Majesty's 69th ; both battalions of the 3rd
native infantry ; 1st battalion and one company of the 2nd battalion of the
13th ; five companies of the 2nd battalion of the 10th native infantry ; 6th
native cavalry; a detachment of artillery and pioneers; a detachment of
Royal artillery ; and 3rd Kafri regiment from Ceylon. But the last did
not join till after the capture of the Arambuli Ihies.
ARAMBULI LINES.
253
two Governments on a secure and happy foun- book i.
■I CHAP. V.
dation.
The principality of Travancore is divided from leos.
the province of Tinnivelly by the southern portion
of the mountain-chain which runs nearly parallel
with the coast of IVIalabar, from the upper part of
the Peninsula to Cape Comorin, and is usually
known by the appellation of the Western Ghats.
The mountains are lofty and covered with jungle,
and present in general almost insuperable obstacles
to the march of an army with baggage and artillery.
The most practicable passes are situated near the
southernmost extremity of the chain, where the
mountains decline in elevation as they approach the
sea ; and through one of these, the pass of Arambuli
or Aramuni, it was determined on this occasion to
force an entrance into Travancore. The Arambuli
pass was defended by formidable lines, consisting of
a number of small redoubts, each mounting two or
three guns, and connected by a strong wall of ma¬
sonry. The whole extended about two miles along
the sides of steep and rugged hills, and terminated
at either extremity by a strongly fortified mountain
flanked by impenetrable jungle. The high road
from Palamkota led through the centre of the
works, by a gateway which was commanded by two
large circular bastions armed with several pieces of
ordnance.^ Colonel St. Leger arrived at the foot of
the lines on the 6th of February; and, as the divi¬
sion was unequipped with a battering train, deter¬
mined to attempt to carry the pass by surprise. On
the night of the 10th, Major Welsh, with two com-
' Welsh's Military Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 288.
254
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. panies of the 69th, four flank and five battalion
companies of the 3rd native infantry, quietly
1809. climbed the hill on which the southern works were
erected, and, after six honrs' arduous ascent, reached
the foot of the wall unperceived. The ladders
were planted, and the ramparts scaled, before any
effective resistance could be opposed ; and although
a short stand was made, which was attended with
some loss of life,^ the redoubt .was quickly in posses¬
sion of the assailants. As soon as the day broke,
the guns of the bastion were turned upon the de¬
fences of the pass, which they enfiladed ; and, rein¬
forcements being sent to Major Welsh, he was
strong enough to attack the rest of the lines, and
the whole of the works were speedily cleared of
their defenders.
Having thus secured his entrance into Travan-
core. Colonel St. Leger advanced on the 17th of
February into the interior; and dislodged, after a
short action, a body of troops strongly posted, with
nine guns, on the bank of a river near the village of
Nagarköil. The next march brought the troops to
the forts of Udagiri and Papanavaram, which were
abandoned : the gates were set open, the garrisons
had fled, and ensigns denoting submission were seen
flying in every directiön. Communications were
shortly afterwards received from the Dewan and
from the King, breathing a pacific spirit, and depre¬
cating the nearer approach of the troops to Trivan-
drum, the capital. Having referred the letter of
the King to the Resident, who was at Cochin,
Colonel St. Leger marched to a position half-way
' Captain Cunningham of the 69th was the only officer killed.
the insurrection suppressed.
255
between Udaeiri and Kalachi on the coast, detach- book i.
^ CHAP. V.
ing a part of his force to occupy the latter, and
open a communication with Colonel Chalmers at
Quilon. This officer had continued to be hemmed
in by the enemy during Colonel St. Leger's ad¬
vance ; but, having been reinforced by part of the
19th regiment, had, shortly before the communi¬
cation now opened, rid himself of his opponents.
Marching out of cantonments on the 21st February
in two columns, severally commanded by Colonel
Picton and Colonel Stuart of the 19th, he attacked
the enemy's position in front of his encampment;
and although they were five thousand strong, and
were defended by batteries and entrenchments, he
carried the works, captured their artillery, and dis¬
persed their force. After the action. Colonel
Chalmers marched towards the capital, and arrived
at the high ground within twelve miles of Trivan-
drum much about the same time that Colonel St.
Leger took up a similar position on the opposite
side. About the same period also, the division
under Colonel Cuppage crossed the frontier on the
north without opposition, and advanced to Parur.
The country was now completely in the possession
of the British : the Nairs disbanded, and retired to
their homes ; the Dewan, despairing of forgiveness,
fled into the thickets ; and the Raja, left to himself,
hastened to tender his submission, and profess his
readiness to conform to any conditions which the
Resident should please to dictate.
The troops being concentrated round Trivan-
drum. Colonel IVIacaulay proceeded to the capital,
and concerted with the Raja the conditions on
256 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. which tranquillity was to be restored, and the
prince allowed to retain possession of his dominions.
1809. The terms were adjusted by the 1st of March. The
Raja consented to pay the arrears of the subsidy
and the expenses of the war, and eleven lakhs of
rupees were paid on the former account before the
expiration of the month.* The Carnatic Brigade,
and some Nair battalions in the Raja's service,
were dismissed, and the defence of the prince and
of his country was entrusted exclusively to the sub¬
sidiary force. A new Dewan, supposed to be in
the interest of the English, and recommended by
the Resident, was appointed. The invading forces
were withdrawn immediately upon the conclusion of
the treaty : a portion of the subsidiary battalions
was permanently quartered in the proximity of Tri-
vandrum ; the rest returned to their former canton¬
ments.
The zeal of the new minister in the cause of his
English friends was promptly evinced by the active
measures which were instituted for the capture of
his predecessor. Traces of him were discovered
among the mountains ; and means were devised for
preventing his being supplied with the necessaries
of life by the peasantry, who had hitherto minis¬
tered to his wants. Reduced to extreme distress,
the Dewan made his way, as a last resource, to the
Pagoda of Bhagwadi, which from ancient usage
enjoyed the privileges of a sanctuary. The emis-
' The Madras Government proposed that the guns and stores captured
by the troops should become public property upon the payment to the army
of their value, which should be charged to the Raja. The Government of
Bengal justly objected to this double penalty, and directed the stores to be
paid for by the Madras Government.—Appendix 43, Second Report of
Select Committee, May, 1810 ; and MS. Records.
death of the dew an.
257
saries of the minister, although Hindus, disregarded book r.
CHAP» V»
the sanctity of the temple, forcibly entered it, and '
broke open the door of the chamber to which Vailu isoa.
Tambi and his brother had retreated. As they en¬
tered the apartment, the Dewan was found expiring
of wounds inflicted by his own hand, or, at his en¬
treaty, by the hand of his brother, to save him from
falling alive into the power of his imrelenting foes.
The brother was seized, taken to Quilon, and
hanged in front of the 12th regiment, drawn out to
witñess his execution, as an accessory in the murder
of their comrades. The body of the Dewan was
carried to Trivandrum, and exposed upon a gib¬
bet, amidst, it was said, the acclamations of the
people.
The vindictive measures which were thus adopted
by the Resident were defended by him upon the
plea of their being no more than a just retribution
for the foul treachery and sanguinary cruelty of the
Dewan and his brother.* The Government of Ben¬
gal admitted the defensibility of the summary exe¬
cution of the latter, upon the understanding that he
had been implicated in the murder of Mr. Hume
and the British soldiers ; but condemned, in terms of
merited reprehension, the vengeance which had
pursued the crimes of the Dewan beyond his life.
The ends of justice and the purposes of public se¬
curity were attained, the Governor-General re¬
marked, by the death of the Dewan ; and the prose¬
cution of a vindictive policy, when the object of it
' Beside Dr. Hume, and the men of the 12th, Vailu Tambi was accused-
of having put to death three thousand native Christians, charged with no.
crime but their religion.
vol. i. s
258
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. bad ceased to exist, was repugnant to the feelings
of common humanity and the principles of a civi-
1809. lized Government. He further observed, that al¬
though ostensibly the act of the Raja, yet it would
not be believed by the public that it had not the
Resident's sanction, and did not originate in his
advice ; and that had it been the Raja's act, with a
view to impress upon the British Government the
notion that he had not participated in the treachery
of his minister, yet a sentiment of just abhorrence
of the measure itself, and a regard for the repu¬
tation of the British Government, should have in¬
duced the Resident to prevent the exposure, or, if
anticipated, to have publicly proclaimed his disap¬
probation.
The proceedings in Travancore were, in truth,
among the least justifiable of the many questionable
transactions by which the British power in India
has been acquired or preserved. The protection of
the Raja was, in the first instance, generous and
politic ; the iñilitary command of his country, sub¬
sequently, was necessary for objects of British po¬
licy, and was not incompatible with the pacific in¬
terests of* the Raja and prosperity of his limited
dominion. To impose upon him the maintenance
of a force infinitely more numerous than was neces¬
sary for the defence of the country, and the cost of
which heavily taxed its resources ; to urge the ex¬
action with unrelenting rigour ; and to resent with
unpitying vengeance the passions excited by a
deep sense of national wrong among a semi-bar¬
barous and demoralised race,—were unworthy of the
character of the British nation for justice and gene-
continued disaffection,
259
rosity, of the civilization it had attained, and the book i.
religion it professed.
Notwithstanding the severities exercised upon the isio.
leaders of the late rising, and the submission which
the irresistible superiority of the British arms had
compelled, the spirit of disaffection after a while
revived, and in less than two years the new Dewan
was suspected of being concerned in a plot directed
against the British authority. He had also suffered
the payment of the subsidy again to fall into arrear,
and* improvement in this respect was not to be ex¬
pected from the increasing infirmities and imbecility
of the Raja. Under these circumstances, the Go¬
vernment of Bengal considered itself empowered
by the fifth article of the treaty of 1805 to assume
the management of the country, but suspended the
final adoption of the arrangement until it should
become unavoidable. Its necessity became apparent
at last even to the Raja; and the new Resident,
Colonel John Munro, at his request and with the
authority of the British Government, took upon
himself the administration of the principality as the
minister of the Raja, or Dewan.^ The condition of
Travancore unquestionably requii-ed the intervention
of a stronger and wiser controul. The Raja was a
cypher : the Dewan usurped the whole power, and
' We have Colonel Munro's own statement that he accepted the office of
Dewan at the request of the Raja. In answer to questions put to him, he
states, " The treaty authorized the general interference of the British Go¬
vernment; but I assumed the charge of the administration at . the express
request of the Raja, with the authority of the British Government." And
to the question, whether it was completely voluntary on the part of the
Raja, he replies, " It was at the earnest request of the Raja."—Evidence
of Colonel Munro ; Select Committee of House of Commons, March, 1832.
Hamilton therefore is wrong in stating that the arrangement took place
under the Raja's successor.—^Description of Hindostán, ii. 317.
s 2
260
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. employed it to defraud the prince and oppress the
people. Inadequate as were the resources to the
1810, public exigencies, the country laboured under the
severest fiscal exaction : justice there was none, and
a general state of disorganization prevailed. The
judicious regulations introduced by Colonel Munro
restored order, secured the administration of justice,
and, whilst they liquidated the debt, and discharged
the stipulated payments with punctuality, they more
than doubled the revenues of the Raja, and in a
still greater proportion lightened the burthens of
his subjects. ^ The Raja died in 1812. He was
succeeded by his sister, such being the order of in¬
heritance among the Nairs of Tra van core. Under
the government of this lady, and the regency of
her successor. Colonel Munro officiated as Dewan
until the year 1814 ; when he restored the ma¬
nagement of the state to a native Dewan, extri¬
cated from its embarrassments, with a greatly aug¬
mented revenue, and in a situation of complete in¬
ternal tranquillity.®
' Evidence above referred to : also Extracts from Colonel Monro's
Report to the Madras Government in 1818, quoted by Mr. Jones; App.
Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons ; Political, 4to.
ed., p. 287. In three years. Colonel Munro, beside the current subsidy,
" succeeded in paying eighteen lakhs of rupees due to the Company, and
nearly six to individuals; in abolishing the most oppressive monopolies and
taxes, and in settling the affairs of the country on the principles of justice
and humanity." The land revenue was increased from nine to fifteen
lakhs ; the duty received from the tobacco monopoly, from five to eleven
lakhs; and that on salt, from thirty thousand rupees, to two lakhs and
thirty thousand ; but, to the relief of the people, as many oppressive taxes
and all illegal exactions were abolished.
' For the military transactions in Travancore, see Secret Letter from Fort
St. George printed in the Second Report of the Select Committee of the
House of Commons, App. 43 ; Madras Papers, 15th March, 1811, p. 15 ;
Letter from the Court, 29th Sept. 1809, printed Pai-1. Papers, 22nd June,
1813, No. 10; Welsh's Military Reminiscences; the Asiatic Annual Re¬
gister, vol. xi. History, ch. 3 ; and the General Orders of Government in the
regulation of coçhin.
261
Although the Raja of Cochin had abstained from book i.
actual hostilities and died during their continuance, ^
not without suspicion of having fallen a victim to 1809.
his unwillingness to engage in them, yet the partici¬
pation of his minister in the projects of the Dewan
of Travancore, which was unequivocally established,
subjected the Raja's successor to the displeasure of
the British Government. The Raja was accordingly
condemned to pay a third of the expenses of the
war, and to sign a new treaty, which added to the
amount of his tribute the cost of a battalion of Sipa-
his in the field in place of his own troops, whom he
was required to dismiss, beyond such as might be
necessary for the collection of the revenue. As the
state of his country differed little from that of Tra¬
vancore, a similar system of reform was extended to
Cochin, under the more immediate management of
Captain Blacker, the Assistant Resident. Upon his
departure Colonel Munro assumed the duty ; and,
under their joint superintendence, the like improve¬
ment was effected in Cochin which had been accom¬
plished at Travancore!^
Whilst the Company's troops were thus employed
in the coercion of refractory allies, and in extend¬
ing the authority of the Government of Madras, the
Governor and the Commander-in-chief engaged in
a dispute which speedily involved a large portion
of the Coast army in a contest with the civil power.
Chronicle of Madras Occurrences. The MS. Records have also been
consulted.
' By the treaty of 1791 the Raja of Cochin paid a tribute of 100,000
Arcot rupees per annum. By this of the 6th May, 1809, he was compelled
to pay in addition 1,76,037 Arcot rupees ; making a total of 2,76,037 Arcot
rupees.—Coll, of Treaties, 472.
262
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I, and was productive of the most alarming and dan-
CHAP. V. ggJ.Q^g results.^ Sir John Cradock had been''suc-
1809. ceeded in the command of the Madras army by
Lieutenant-General Hay Macdowall. The former
had held, as Commander-in-chief, a seat in council :
the Court of Directors had thought proper to refuse
equal rank and emolument to his successors. The
appeal of General Macdowall to the Court againsk
this infringement of his dignities had been answered
by the appointment of a civil servant to the vacant
seat. The Commander-in-chief felt the exclusion
as a personal grievance and affront, and, on the
final extinction of his hopes, resigned his command ;
expressing his resignation in terms strongly indi¬
cative of the bitterness of his mortification and
disappointment.^
' " The East India Company, and, I may add, the British empire in all
its parts, never, I believe, was exposed to greater or more imminent danger."
—Letter from Lord Minto, 15th Sept. 1809. " The late revolt of the officers
of the Madras army is the most remarkable and most important event that
has occurred in the history of the British Administration of India since our
first acquisition of territory there. It led to the commencement of a civil
war in the Carnatic ; it threatened to involve the whole Peninsula in anarchy
and blood ; to encourage the numerous adherents of the fallen families of
Tippoo, and Mohammed Ali, to insurrection ; to incite the native powers
to fall upon us whilst in this state of internal convulsion ; and to subvert a
Government which had successfully resisted the repeated attacks of the
neighbouring states."—Paper accompanying Reply of Messrs. Grant and
Astell to the Dissents of several Directors, &c. ; Pari. Papers, 1st April,
1811, p. 45. We may be permitted now to think that this language is
somewhat exaggerated.
^ " The decision of the Court of Directors lias placed me in so extraor¬
dinary, so unexampled, and so humiliating a predicament, that the most
painful emotions have been excited ; and sixteen months' experience has
convinced me that it is impossible to remain with any prospect of perform¬
ing my duty with credit to the East India Company, of acquiring for myself
any reputation, or for doing justice to those over whom I am called to pre¬
side ; divested of the power of selecting for commands by the restriction of
military patronage, or of requiting the meritorious officer ; deprived of the
respectability which attaches in this country to a seat in council, and
abridged in the usual emoluments of office."—Letter to Sir G. Barlow from
the Commander-in-chief, 15th Jan. 1809; Pari. Papers, 25th May, 1810,
part i. p. 8.
MILITARY RETRENCHMENTS.
263
It has been mentioned, that, after the close of the book i.
Mahratta war, the Government of Bengal urgently
pressed upon the subordinate Presidencies the ne- isos.
cessity of extensive retrenchments. In conformity
to these injunctions, various plans for reducing the
military expenditure of the Presidency of Madras
were suggested during the command of Sir John
Cradock; some of which were acted upon, and
deprived officers, in command of regiments or bri¬
gades, of different sources of emolument. These
meifsures were naturally unpalatable to the army.
The difference of military allowances between the
Bengal and Madras services had long been a subject
of discontent ; and the assignment of commands to
officers of his Majesty's regiments, in place of Com- •
pany's officers, occasioned amongst the latter fre¬
quent murmurs. The personal feelings of the Com¬
mander-in-chief heightened his sympathy with the
grievances of those under his command, and fos¬
tered their discontents;^ and a state of disquietude
and dissatisfaction pervaded the minds of the offi¬
cers, which, as compliance with their expectations
' Memorial of the Officers of the Madras Army to the Court of Directors,
forwarded by the Commander-in-chief, with a Letter to the Government of
Fort St. George, 23rd Januaiy, 1809. The Madras Government, viewing
the sentiments expressed in the paper with extreme disapprobation, de¬
clined to transmit it to the Court until it had been laid before the Gover¬
nor-General.—Pari. Papers, 25th May, 1810, No. i. p. 25. At an earlier
date, 1st May, 1808, General Macdowall enumerates, as the seeds of dis¬
content widely disseminated, the abolition of the Bazar Fund ; the de¬
gradation of the military character, from the Commander-in-chief to the
youngest ensign; the late reductions, and especially the abolition of the
Tent Contract ; and adds, " I much lament the expediency which occa¬
sioned these disgusting measures."—Extracts from Lord Minto's Letter to
the Secret Committee, 5th Feb. 1810 ; Pari. Papers, 1st April, 1811, p. 346.
The same letter supplies instemces, if not of " the deliberate intention of
the General to make the army an instrument of opposition and disturb¬
ance," as affirmed by Lord Minto, yet of great disposition to foment and
heighten the prevailing discontents.
264
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. was little to be looked for, required to be allayed
' by gentle management, and the avoidance of addi-
1808. tional irritation. Unluckily, fresh occasions of ex¬
citement did occur, and that excitement was not
gently dealt Avith.
Among the articles of retrenchment put in force
by the Government of Madras was the abolition
of what was known as the Tent Contract ; an ar¬
rangement by which officers commanding native
corps received a permanent monthly allowance,
alike in cantonments as in the field, in peace as
in war, on condition of their providing the men
with suitable camp equipage whenever it might be
required.^ The retrenchment was originally sug¬
gested by Sir John Cradock ; and he called upon
Colonel John Munro, the Quarter-Master-General of
the army, to report whether it was not practicable
without detriment to the efficiency of the troops, and
how it might best be accomplished. The report
advocated the change, and submitted a mode of
effecting it. The plan was approved of by Sir John
Cradock, by Lord W. Bentinck, and by the Govern¬
ment of Bengal. It merely fell to Sir G. Barlow
to carry it into execution. No share of the oppro¬
brium was due to him, even if the measure deserved
it ; but, in fact, the contract was open to objections
of so obvious a character, that no disinterested per¬
son could doubt the reasonableness of its abolition.
The alteration was to be judged of, however, by
those whose interests it affected, and in their esti-
' Letter from Sir John Cradock to Lieutenant-Colonel Munro, 7th Feb.
1807; and his reply, 30th June, 1807: Pari. Papers, 3rd May, 1811,
p. 94.
abolition of the tent contract.
265
mation it was a grievous wrong ; but, unable to book i.
deny the defects of the system, or the expediency
of its reform, their dissatisfaction found an ex- isos.
cuse for its display in some unguarded expres¬
sions which occurred in the Quarter-Master-General's
official report.
The transaction of public business in India by
written statements is not without its inconvenience ;
and one of these is, the temptation it offers to
public functionaries to put upon record more than
is sflypays necessary or judicious. Such was the
case with Colonel Munro. Not contented with in¬
dicating such objections as could not be disputed,
he proceeded to specify others, which, although
equally true in a general sense, were capable of
individual application, and might be construed into
an accusation that the officers in command of corps
had consulted their own profit at the expense of
the public service, and had appropriated the tent
allowance without keeping up an adequate tent
establishment. ^ The officers resented the impu-
' In enumerating the objections to the system, the Report specifies one
of them as follows : " By gi-anting the same allowances in peace and war
for the equipment of native corps, while the expenses incidental to that
charge are unavoidably much greater in war than peace, it places the in¬
terest and duty of officers commanding native corps in direct opposition to
one another : it makes it their interest that their corps should not be in a
state of efficiency fit for field service, and therefore furnishes strong induce¬
ments to neglect their most important duties." It would have been prudent
to have omitted at least one half of this paragraph ; but still, abstractedly
considered, it was scarcely disputable. The measure no doubt, in theory,
placed the interest and duty of the officers in opposition ; but in practice it
left it to be supposed that they did their duty, although their interests suf¬
fered. Unfortunately, the objections were preceded by the assertion, that
" Six years' experience of the practical effects of the existing system of the
camp equipage equipment of the army, and an attentive examination of its
operation during that period of time, had suggested the objections." Here,
therefore, was an assertion that, practically, the officers had preferred their
interest to their duty : an assertion the more objectionable, as no proof was
given ; for, as the officers in their memorial justly replied, " If such a case
266
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. tation ; and, although Colonel Munro earnestly dis-
claimed any intention of reflecting upon the honour
1808, and integrity of any portion of the officers of the
army, they refused to be appeased, and called upon
the Commander-in-chief to bring him to a court-
martial for aspersions on their characters as officers
and gentlemen.
Upon the receipt of the charges against Colonel
J. Munro,^ the Commander-in-chief hesitated whe¬
ther he should admit them, and referred the question
for the opinion of the Judge-Advocate-General, who,
after discussing the circumstances of the case, came
to the conclusion that the charges were such as the
accusers had no right to agitate or prefer.® The
officers acquiesced in the decision, and solicited a
suspension of the direct charge ; substituting in its
place a memorial to the Court of Directors, praying
them to investigate the subject.® Previously, how¬
ever, to his being apprised of their change of pur¬
pose, General Macdowall had also viewed the matter
had occuiTed, why was it not noticed at the time f They had reason to be
offended ; but still, as the offence grew out of an indiscreet mode of pro¬
pounding undeniable generalisations, and was evidently not designed to
apply to any particular case, they might have been satisfied with a decla¬
ration to that effect, and would no doubt have been so contented, had not
an infectious irritability perplexed their sober judgments.—Pari. Papers,
3rd May, 1811, p. 96; ditto, 1st April, 1811, p. 65 ; ditto, 25th May,
1810, p. 13.
' See the charges. Pari. Papers, 25th May, 1810, p. 13.
2 Letter from Colonel Leith, Judge-Advocate-General, to the Adjutant-
General, 7th Nov. 1808 ; Pari. Papers, May, 1810, p. 17.
^ The memorial is printed. Pari. Papers, 3rd May, 1811, p. 79. The
officers say, " Finding the mode (of court-martial) was considered by the
Judge-Advocate-General to be irregular and ineffectual, they respectfully
abide by that opinion for the present, and have solicited a suspension of the
direct charge against the individual, whilst they have appealed to the can¬
dour and justice of the Court." The Government refused to forward it,
as the question was considered to be settled : the Court disapproved of the
refusal to transmit the memorial.—Pari. Papers, May, 1810, p. 13.
arrest of colonel munro.
267
in a new light, and had determined that the charge book i.
should be entertained. On the eve of his quitting
Madras, he placed Colonel Munro under arrest, to 1809.
be brought to trial by the succeeding Commander-
in-chief having, as he declared, received an opinion
of much importance, in expectation of which he had
suspended his decision. From what quarter this
opinion proceeded is nowhere stated.
It appears, however, that, in the interval that had
elapsed since the charge was first brought forward,
circtfmstances had occurred, which, in the state of
the Commander-in-chiefs feelings, were possibly not
without some influence upon his determination.
Major Blacker, of the Quarter-Master-General's de¬
partment, was ordered to join the force in Travan-
core. Another officer. Captain Macdowall, who
had been formerly employed in the province, re¬
monstrated against the arrangement, and urged his
own preferable claims. His pretensions were sup¬
ported by the Commander-in-chief, who requested
that the appointment might be reconsidered. This
was on the 16th of January. On the 18th the
Government of Madras declined to revise the nomi¬
nation, reprimanded Captain Macdowall for the
tone of his application, and threatened to remove
him from the office he held. On the 20th Colonel
Munro was placed under arrest ; the effect of which
was to compel the Government to revoke Major
Blacker's appointment, as the temporary removal of
his superior rendered his presence indispensable at
the Presidency.® The close concurrence of these
1 Pari. Papers, 25th May, 1810, p. 14.
' Ibid. p. 9.
268
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA,
BOOK I. events suggests the possibility of their connexion,
CHAP. V. likelihood that matters of comparative in-
1809. significance, magnified into mischievous importance
by the passions of the individuals interested, contri¬
buted to occasion the transactions which ensued.
As soon as Colonel Munro was made aware of the
decision of the Commander-in-chief, he appealed to
the Government, under whose authority he had acted,
and by whom the measures he had recommended
had been approved and adopted. This appeal was
in the first instance forwarded through the Com¬
mander-in-chief; but, upon his refusing to be the
channel of its transmission, it was addressed direct
to the Governor in Council.
The subject of the communication was referred
to the chief civil and military advisers of the Go¬
vernment, the Judge-Advocate-General and the Ad¬
vocate-General, and fortified by their joint opinions
that it was bound to protect the advisers of mea¬
sures which it had made its own, the Government
exercised the power with which it was intrusted by
the Legislature ; and, having first in vain requested,
next commanded General ISIacdowall to release
Colonel Munro from his arrest.^ The tenor of the
Commander-in-chief s commission subjected him so
explicitly to the authority of the Governor in Council,
that he was under the necessity of yielding obedi¬
ence, protesting against what he designated as an
undue interference. Nor was he satisfied with this
expression of his indignation : on the eve of his em¬
barkation for England he directed the publication
of a General Order, in which he announced that his
' Seethe whole correspondence, Pari. Papers, 25th3Iay, pp. 12—24.
ORDER OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.
269
departure alone prevented him from bringing Colonel book i.
CHAP« V«
Munro to trial for disrespect to the Commander-in- '
chief, for disobedience of orders, and for contempt isos.
of military authority, in having resorted to the power
of the Civil Government in defiance of the judgment
of the officer at the head of the army, who had
placed him under arrest on charges preferred against
him by a number of officers commanding native
corps ; in consequence of which appeal direct to the
Honourable the President in Council, Lieutenant-
Gendral Macdowall had received a positive order
from the chief secretary to liberate Lieutenant-
Colonel Munro from arrest : and the order proceeded
to stigmatize the conduct of Colonel Munro as de¬
structive of subordination, subversive of military dis¬
cipline, a violation of the sacred rights of the Com¬
mander-in-chief, and a most dangerous example to
the service. General Macdowall therefore thought
it incumbent on him, in support of the dignity of
the profession, and his own station and character, to
express his strong disapprobation of Colonel Monro's
unexampled proceedings, and reprimanded him ac¬
cordingly.^
Thus far the Government of Madras had acted
with a degree of calmness and forbearance which
derived additional lustre from the contrast which
it offered to the violence of the Commander-in-chief.
Instead of interposing to heal the wounds which the
needless sensitiveness of the officers had suffered
from the incautious but indefinite language of an
official report, and which a few words of explanation
' General Orders by the Commander-in-chief, head-quarters, 28th Jan.
1809.—Pari. Papers, 25th May, 1810, p. 28.
270
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. from the writer, supported by their own good sense
and the mediation of their common superior, must
3809. have convinced them were more imaginary than real.
General Macdowall echoed and aggravated their
complaints, and, mixing up their grievances with his
own, employed them as instruments with which to
assail the Government in the person of one of its
most meritorious and efficient servants. For the
Government of Madras to have allowed Colonel
Munro to fall a sacrifice to interested clamour or per¬
sonal resentment on account of its own acts, would
have forfeited for ever its claim to the respect of its
subordinates. The opinions of Colonel INIunro had
been called for by those who were entitled to de¬
mand them, and so enjoined, it was his duty to state
his honest convictions without reserve. These con¬
victions were pronounced by the Commander-in-
chief of the day to be his own ; and the Madras
Government, the Government of Bengal, and the
Court of Directors all concurred in their justice
and truth, and took them as the principles of their
public acts. The responsibility of the subordinate
ceased when the supreme power — one acknow¬
ledging no responsibility to its own servants—deter¬
mined to identify his counsels with its own decrees ;
and its decrees would have been issued in vain, if the
'counsels which suggested them were to expose any
one of its instruments to be degraded and punished
by another. There can be no question, therefore,
that the Government of Madras was bound to shield
the Quarter-Master-General from the anger of the
Commander-in-chief; and that it was legally em¬
powered so to interpose, was substantiated by the
resentment of the government.
271
enforced submission of the latter. His threats of book i.
CHAP. V.
what he would have done if he had remained, were
like the fast-retiring wave of the Madras surf wasting
itself in impotent foam and fury upon the beach.
It happened, unfortunately for the character of the
Madras Government and the tranquillity of the settle¬
ment, that, departing from the calm assertion of its
own powers, and the dignified attitude it had hitherto
held, the Government precipitated itself into a career
of recriminatory and vindictive acts. Instead of re-
garditig the general order of the Commander-in-
chief as the idle ebullition of an angry spirit, the in¬
fluence of which was neutralised by its own intempe¬
rance ; instead of taking time to weigh deliberately
the probable results of engaging in an angry con¬
test ; the Government instantly promulgated a pub¬
lic order ^ of scarcely less exceptionable phraseology,
charging General Macdowall with having given
utterance to insinuations grossly derogatory to the
character of the Government, and subversive of
military discipline and of the foundations of public
authority, and with having on that and other recent
occasions been guilty of violent and inflammatory
proceedings, and of acts of outrage : accusations not
wholly borne out by facts, even if it had been deco¬
rous to proclaim them. Taking advantage also of
the non-reception of General Macdowall's formal
resignation, the order cancelled his appointment, and
removed him from the station of Commander-in-
chief of the forces of Fort St. George : a somewhat
superfluous mode of displeasure, as General Mac-
■ ' The Commander-in-chief's order was not published till the 30th of
Jan. The order of the Government is dated the 31st.
272
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. dowall was on board the ship which was to convey
him to England ; a destination he was not permitted
1809. to reach, the vessel being lost at sea on the voyage.
If the Madras Government had vindicated its
authority in more temperate language, and directed
that the offensive order of the General should be
expunged from the order-books of the army, it would
have better preserved its consistency and secured its
triumph. Had its indignation been allowed to ex¬
pire with the cause which had provoked it, few would
have been disposed to call its proceedings seriously
into question ; and after a short period the superficial
and inconsequential ferment, in the activity of which
the Commander-in-chief was so vital an element,
would have subsided. Unhappily, it was thought
that enough had not been done to vindicate the
authority and dignity of the Government. JVIea-
sures were adopted which irritated the passions of
the army more than anything that had yet occurred,
and infused into the quarrel feelings of personal ran¬
cour, by which it had not yet been generally em¬
bittered. The order of the Government, which has
been just described, concluded by suspending from
the service of the Company Major Boles, the Deputy-
Adjutant-General, for having signed and circulated
the general order of the departing Commander-in-
chief in the absence of his immediate superior, who
had accompanied General Macdowall on board ship.
Colonel Capper, the Adjutant-General, avowed him¬
self responsible for the circulation of the order, and
was included in the same penalty.^ It was to no
' General Orders of the Government of Fort St. George, 31st Jan. and
1st Feb., 1809 J Pari. Papers, 25th May, 1810, p. 29.
suspension of major boles.
273
purpose that these officers pleaded the merely minis- book i.
terial character of their duties, and the obligation,
imposed upon them by military discipline, of exe- 1809.
cuting the orders of the Commander of the forces.
It was argued by the Government, that, by giving
authenticity and currency to a paper which they
could not but be aware was in the highest degree
disrespectful to the Government, they were acting
in direct violation of their duty to the latter, and
thereby knowingly committed an illegal act, con¬
nected with views of the most reprehensible nature,
which no authority could justify, and that they
therefore deserved the punishment they had incur¬
red. Colonel Capper sailed for England, and, like
his superior, perished on the passage. To Major
Boles it was intimated, that, if he acknowledged
his error, the sentence might be mitigated ; but he
refused to admit that he had done wrong, and the
penalty was enforced.
It is very possible that the Adjutant-General and
his deputy were more inclined to take part with
their military than with their civil superior, that
they shared in the prevailing discontent, and that
they were not unwilling instruments in the issuing
of the offensive order. Still, the plea of military
subordination was a plausible excuse, and one which
was calculated to find favour with military men. It
might be correct, as afterwards argued by the
Judge-Advocate-General, that, even in the case of
military men, the illegal commands of a superior are
invalid ; but then comes the question, by whom is
the illegality to be determined? Nothing can
justify disobedience of orders but the most unequi-
vol. i. t
274
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. vocal and universal recognition of the illegality ;
CHAP. V. wherever a doubt is admissible, obedience is
J809. the safer course. That General Macdowall's order
was illegal is a proposition by no means so self-
evident as to obtain immediate and implicit assent,
and was little likely to be so esteemed in the actual
state of military feeling at Madras. It was possi¬
ble, therefore, that those who obeyed it did not
consider it to be illegal ; and, although they saw
that it was disrespectful, they did not hold their
interpretation of its tenor to that extent only to be
a sufficient reason for disobeying the positive com¬
mands of the Commander-in-chief.' At any rate,
' Major Boles avers that he does not consider the order illegal or directed
against the Government, and that many officers of rank and experience in
the King's and Company's services concurred with him in concluding it to
be exclusively applicable to Colonel Munro.—Pari. Papers, 25th May,
1810, i. 37. General Maitland, at the time Govemor of Ceylon, in an
elaborate examination of the subject, maintains that there was no proof of
the ministerial officers being aware of the illegality of the order, and that, if
Major Boles en-ed, he erred on the right side ; that the military law was
completely positive on one side, and perfectly indefinite on the other ; and
that he followed a course vindicated by many precedents, instead of one
for which no precedent could be pleaded.—Pari. Papers, 25th May, 1810,
No. vi. p. 158. Although the Supreme Government considered the general
order of General Macdowall to be of a seditious character, and that the
Adjutant-General and his deputy in issuing it had become thereby guilty
of sedition, (Pari. Papers, 20th May, 1810, No. iii. p. 13,) yet the Governor-
General avows that the suspension of those officers gave him great uneasi¬
ness, as he anticipated that it would furnish a plausible, and to military
minds a captivating, pretence for a more general combination against the
Government than any of the circumstances which preceded it : that, although
the merits of the question as an abstract point were clear and confident, yet
they were not less likely to be questioned ; and he felt assured that in the
military world, which was the quarter of the greatest authority in such a
controversy, the sentiment was likely to be nearly unanimous against the
principle adopted by the Government of Fort St. George, whilst other
Opinions would be much divided.—(Pari. Papers, April,1811,No.vi.p.l38.)
Thesense of the Court of Directors was still more decidedly expressed; as,
immediately after the arrival of the first intelligence of the proceedings of
the Madras Government, they ordered that Colonel Capper and Major Boles
should be restored to tlie service. " As those officers were placed in a
situation of difficulty, their removal from their respective emoluments on
the staflf would have been a sufficient mark of your displeasure, and we
therefore direct that their suspension from our service be taken off."—Letter
sentiments op the officers.
275
the plea was urged in extenuation of the act, and it book i.
would have been prudent to have so accepted it ; for
it might easily have been foreseen, that to visit the I809.
offence with extreme punishment would excite gene¬
ral commiseration for the victims and unpopularity
for the judge. The consequences were such as should
have been anticipated. Addresses were immediately
forwarded to Major Boles from all the divisions of
the army, approving of his conduct, denouncing his
sentence as cruel and undeserved, and proposing to
raise* by subscription an income equal to that of
which the Government had deprived him. The
type of the contest was now for the first time durably
stamped upon it. Hitherto the officers of the army
had felt aggrieved by the public acts of the Govern¬
ment: they now combined in hostility to the Governor.
It was henceforward a struggle between men, rather
than between principles; between Sir George Barlow
and a body of officers, rather than between the Go¬
vernment and the army of Fort St. George.
An interval of three months had elapsed from the
suspension of the officers of the Adjutant-General's
department, when another general order of the Go¬
vernment, dated the 1st of May, announced a
from the Court, 15th Sept. 1809. When subsequent advice of the part
taken by the officers in favour of Major Boles reached England, they re¬
scinded the order and confirmed the suspension ; " as it was to be inferred
that he had become a rallying point for dangerous doctrines, with his own
consent."—Letter from the Court, 29th Sept. ; Pari. Papers, May, 1810, p. 13.
They afterwards recur to their first view of the case, and state that they
cannot discover any such inherent and obvious illegality as could justify
the Adjutant or Deputy-Adjutant-General in refusing to obey the command
they had received from Lieutenant-General Macdowall that the said order
should be circulated to the army. " We therefore continue of opinion that
Major Boles ought not to have been suspended from the service."—Military
Letter from the Court of Directors, 5th Februaiy, 1811 ; Pari. Papers,
April, 1811, p. 178.
T 2
276 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. sweeping list of removals, supersessions, and sus-
pensions. Four officers of rank were suspended
1809. the service ; an equal number were removed from
their commands or staff appointments, and four
were superseded in the command of battalions:
among them were Colonels St. Leger, Chalmers,
and Cuppage, who had recently performed such dis¬
tinguished services in Travancore.' The officers
thus punished were accused of having signed, and
influenced others to sign, an address to Major
Boles of the purport above stated; and of having
signed, and influenced others to sign, a memorial
which it was proposed to send to the Governôr-
General, in which the supposed grievances of the
Madras army were detailed. Some of the offenders
were also charged with having signed a statement
in favour of General Macdowall, and forwarded it
to him at Ceylon. Copies of these documents had
come into the hands of Sir George Barlow, and
were communicated by him to his council, with
whose concurrence the order of the 1st of May was
issued.^
Although it could not be denied that the officers
of the army had entered into combinations which
were as decidedly incompatible with their military
obligations as their subordination to the Civil Go¬
vernment, yet it is very questionable if the mea-
' General Order, 1st of May, 1809; Pari. Papers, May, 1810, 2 A.
p. 22. The officers suspended were Lieutenant-Colonel the Honourable
Arthur St. Leger, Major John De Morgan, Captain Josiah Marshall, Cap¬
tain James Grant. Removed: Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Bell, Lieutenant-
Colonel J. M. Chalmers, Lieutenant-Colonel J. Cuppage, Captain J. M.
Coombs. Superseded ; Captain Smith, Major Keasberry, Major Muirhead,
and Major Haslewood.
' Minute of the President in Council, with enclosures, 1st May, 1809 •
Pari. Papers, May, 1810, 2 A. 3. '
OFFICERS SUSPENDED.
277
sures adopted were politic or necessary. The state- book i.
ment of General JSIacdowall's conduct, and the
memorial to the Governor-General, had been drawn 1809.
up under the influence of that excitement which
existed at the time of the embarkation of the Com¬
mander-in-chief ; and the address to IVIajor Boles
originated in the occurrences immediately follow¬
ing. The feelings so vivid in the beginning of
February had in some degree begun to cool even
early in JSIarch ; for at that time a circular letter
was 'addressed by the new Commander-in-chief,
General Gowdie, to the officers commanding the
principal divisions of the army, desiring to know
whether the memorial had been circulated amongst
the officers under their command, and enjoining
them to be vigilant in bringing them to a sense of
their duty ; and it is acknowledged by Sir G. Bar¬
low himself, that, with one exception, the replies
were in general perfectly satisfactory.^ In fact, the
memorial never was sent; and it is admitted that all
intention of sending it had been abandoned, when
it was made the ground of punishing those who
were accused of having taken an active share in its
signature and circulation.®
Another objectionable feature in this proceeding
was its being based on private information, a copy
of the memorial having been forwarded to Sir G.
Barlow through a channel which he did not wish to
reveal. Its existence was farther substantiated by
the testimony of some of the country-born clerks in
the offices of the military department, who had
been employed to transcribe various papers by some
^ Minute last cited. - Minute ditto.
278 HISTOKY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. of the officers particularised. Their depositions
were taken privately. Their testimony was never
1809. communicated to the accused, and might or might
not have been true.^ That papers such as were de¬
scribed had been in circulation, was not improbable;
but to what extent some of the individuals con¬
demned were implicated in their distribution, had
not been clearly established.® Several of them de¬
nied the justice of the charge ; but denial was use¬
less, and proof would have been too late. Ac¬
cusation and condemnation were simultaneous ; the
officers so summarily punished were allowed no op¬
portunity of excuse or justification. They first
heard of the charge against them when they read
their sentence. No wonder that such treatment
should have added fuel to flame.
A further unfortunate circumstance distinguished
this general order of the 1st of JNIay. With sin¬
gular ignorance of the extent to which the same
sentiments pervaded the IVIadras army, and with
a strange unconsciousness of the sympathy which
fellowship in service and in fortunes is so apt to
inspire amongst classes of men and particularly
amongst the members of the military class, the Go¬
vernment thought fit to compliment the subsidiary
force at Hyderabad for its satisfactory and exem¬
plary conduct in having resisted all participation in
' The examinations are appended to the President's minute.
- The oflRcers of the artillery, under Colonel Bell's command, made " a
solemn and unequivocal declaration that he had neither directly nor in¬
directly countenanced or influenced the circulation of any paper of the
tendency alluded to in the order of Government." Colonel St. Leger and
Major De Morgan denied having taken an active part in the circulation
of the memorial, or influenced others to sign it. See their memorials in
the Pari. Papers.
PROCEEDINGS AT HYDERABAD.
279
the improper and dangerous proceedings which the book i.
order described. Nothing could have been more
mischievous.^ The officers of the Hyderabad force isoo.
instantly and indignantly repudiated the distinction,
and, in their eagerness to show that it was unde¬
served, plunged headlong into a career far more
violent and indefensible than any which had yet
annoyed or alarmed the Government. They imme¬
diately published a letter to the army and to the
officers suspended, in which they declared their
entiie disapprobation of the suspension and removal
of so many valuable officers from the service and
from their commands; their willingness to contri¬
bute to the support of those officers ; and their de¬
termination to co-operate with the army in all legal
measures for the removal of the cause of the pre¬
sent discontent, and the restoration of their brother-
officers to the honourable situations from which
they had been removed.® This was followed by an
address to the Governor in Council, signed by a
hundred and fifty-eight officers of the divisions of
Jalna and Hyderabad, urging strenuously the re¬
storation of the removed officers as the only mea¬
sure likely to prevent the possible and probable
consequences which they else apprehended ; namely,
the separation of the civil and military, the destruc¬
tion of all discipline and subordination amongst the
native troops, the ultimate loss of a large portion of
the British possessions in India, and the dreadful
blow it would inflict on the mother country.® In
' General Orders of the Government ; Pari. Papers, May, 1810, 2 A,
p. 24.
" Pari. Papers, May, 1810, 2 B. p. 24. ' Ibid. p. 26.
280
HISTOEY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the course of the following month an address was
chap, v. presented to Colonel Montresor, commanding the
1809. Hyderabad force, by his officers, of a still more
outrageous description.^
About the same time with this manifestation of
the growing sentiments of insubordination at Hy¬
derabad, an overt act of mutiny was committed by
the Company's European regiment quartered at
Masulipatam. The officers of this corps had par¬
taken in the general feelings, and had been further
irritated by the indiscreet harshness with which
their commanding officer had visited some impru¬
dent expressions of those feelings in a moment of
conviviality. The men were also out of humour at
being occasionally drafted to serve as marines on
board of the ships of war in the Bay of Bengal. A
report was current amongst them that the whole
corps was to be broken up in this manner; and,
when an order was issued for three companies to
prepare for marine duty, the men refused to obey,
and the officers placed their own colonel under ar¬
rest. The command was assumed by the next in
rank, a managing committee of officers was insti¬
tuted, and a correspondence was opened by them
with the Hyderabad and other mutinous divisions.
Colonel IMalcolm, who was at IMadras, preparing to
' On the 2Ist of July they presented to Colonel Montresor a paper
•which they styled their ultimatum, but pledging themselves to remain quiet
until a reply from Government should be received. In this they demanded
the repeal of the orders of the 1st May, the restoration of the officers sus¬
pended or removed, the removal from their staff appointments of the officers
who had been the principal advisers of the Government, and the grant of a
general amnesty to the discontented. The signatures of all the officers
except those on the staff were affixed to the paper, and a joint movement
from Jalna and Hyderabad on Madras was projected in case their demands
were not complied with.—Pari. Papers, May, 1810, 2 C. p. 29.
occurrences at masulipatam.
281
proceed on his mission to Persia, was dispatched to book i.
Masulipatain to restore order and subordination :
he was treated with courtesy, but returned to the I809.
Presidency without accomplishing the object of his
mission, and strongly impressed with the persuasion
that the revocation of the Government order would
alone prevent a general and fatal insurrection.^ In
fact, on the 3rd of August garrison orders directed
the regiment to hold itself in readiness for field
service ; a plan having been concerted for the junc¬
tion'of the troops from Masulipatam with those
from Jalna and Hyderabad, and their united march
to Madras, where they threatened to compel the
restoration of the officers, and to depose Sir George
Barlow from the post of Governor. Luckily for all
concerned, these wild and criminal projects were
arrested by the seasonable interposition of the Go¬
vernor-General, and the return of the most violent
and rash to a recollection of their duty-
The Government of Madras had thus, by unques¬
tionable deficiencies in temper and discretion,
brought matters to a position from which it was
equally dangerous to advance or recede. Several
of the most distinguished of its military servants
counselled the rescission of the obnoxious orders,
and the restoration of the suspended officers to the
service.® Such a concession might have moderated
the violence of the tempest, but its efficacy in pro-
' Pari. Papers, May, 1810, 2 B. p. 33, and 2 C. p. 1. Colonel Malcolm
subsequently published " Observations on the Disturbances of the Madras
Army," in two parts; London, 1812.
^ By Captain Sydenham, the Resident at Hyderabad ; by Colonel Mon-
tresor, commanding the subsidiary force ; and by Colonel Malcolm.—Pari.
Papers.
282
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. ducing a continued calm was more than doubtful.
CHAP. V. "v^ould have been an acknowledgement that the
1809. Government had acted with inconsiderateness and
injustice, and possessed neither the strength nor the
spirit to assert its legitimate rights ; and it would
have established a dangerous precedent, and en¬
couraged, in time to come, those who felt or fan¬
cied a grievance, to resist the will of all future ad¬
ministrations, and seek redress by force and intimi¬
dation. There was an end of all civil government,—
of all government,—if military combination was al¬
lowed to set aside constituted authority ; if the army
was suffered to dictate its own laws and choose its
own officers ; if the weapons, with which it was in¬
trusted to defend the state against external aggres¬
sion, were aimed against those functionaries who
had been appointed to guide and govern in India
the civil and military servants of the Comjiany and
subjects of the Crown. Justice demands that full
weight should be given to these considerations in
appreciating the conduct of Sir George Barlow at
this crisis. His determination to uphold at every
risk the rightful claims of the Government to the
obedience of the army was defensible on the
grounds of the responsibility, imposed upon him by
his station, of preserving undisturbed the social re¬
lations of the civil and military power under his
authority, of asserting the superiority of law over
force, and of maintaining inviolate the principles of
the constitution, which had been assigned to the
various members of the Indian empire by the Le¬
gislature of Great Britain. Nor was the hazard of
actual collision so imminent or so great as it
resolution op the government.
283
seemed to be from the menacing attitude which a book i.
part of the army had assumed. It was but a part,
and a considerable portion had not yet taken any I809.
share in their proceedings. The Commander-in-
chief, and the great majority of those officers who
were highest in rank and most distinguished in
reputation, and whose influence with those under
their command was of most importance, were
staunch advocates of the principles of order and
military subordination; many, who had been in¬
volved in the proceedings by the vehemence of
those around them, were known to be averse to the
extremes to which they were urged ; and it was to
be expected, that, even of those who were loudest in
their denunciations, many would pause before they
incurred the guilt of actual rebellion. The Govern¬
ment of Madras was assured of the decided support
of the Government of Bengal, and had the com¬
mand of the resources of that Presidency, as well as
of Bombay and Ceylon, The King's regiments stea¬
dily adhered to their duty ; and there could be little
doubt that the native soldiery, when the case was
explained to them, would prefer the cause of the
Government, from whom they derived their sub¬
sistence and hopes of promotion, to that of their
officers, whose objects they imperfectly understood,
and from whose triumjih they could anticipate no
advantage. Relying on these considerations, the
Government of Madras entered upon the contest
with promptitude and vigour.
In order to ascertain its own strength, and dis¬
cover what proportion of the officers were well-
aflbcted, and at the same time to remove the dis-
284 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. aifected for a season from situations where they
CHAP. V. exercise influence or authority, the officers
1809. generally were called upon to sign a test pledging
themselves to support the measures of the Govern¬
ment. Letters were addressed to the commanding
officers of stations, furnishing them with the pro¬
posed form of the test, and instructing them to pro¬
cure to it the signatures of the officers under their
command, on penalty of being removed from their
regiments to stations on the sea-coast, where they
would he required to reside until the situation of
affairs and the temper of men's minds should allow
of their being again employed.^ As the removal
was avowedly temporary, and the recusant officers
were not to forfeit their pay, all appearance of un¬
necessary harshness was avoided, and a reasonable
plea for remaining neutral was supplied to the least
violent. At the same time, the commanding officers
of corps were ordered to assemble the native officers,
and explain to them, and through them to the Sipahis,
that the discontents of the European officers were
entirely personal ; that the Government had no in¬
tention to diminish the advantages which the men
enjoyed, but, on the contrary, was anxious to im¬
prove them, and that it confidently relied upon their
attachment and fidelity.®® A general order to the
same effect was also promulgated, and active mea¬
sures were taken to secure its circulation. The
' Pari. Papers, May, 1810, 2 C. p. 41. The test or declaration ran thus :
" We, the undersigned officers of the Honourable Company's service, do in
the most solemn manner declare, upon our word of honour as British offi¬
cers, that we will obey the orders and support the authority of the Honour¬
able the Governor in Council of Fort St. George, agreeably to the tenor of
the commissions which we hold from that Government."—Ibid. 2 B. p. 9.
'' Pari. Papers, May, 1810, 2 A. p. 30.
appeal to^ the native troops.
285
Company's troops were also so distributed in con- book i.
nexion with his Majesty's as to render the latter an
efficient check upon the former, and all the avail- I809.
able corps of the central division of the army were
concentrated in the vicinity of the seat of Govern¬
ment.
The majority of the officers, even of those vffiose
loyalty and moderation had never been doubted,
declined to sign the test, and were consequently re¬
moved from their stations.^ The appeal to the native
officers and men was very generally successful.
Wherever the orders of the Government reached
them, they expressed their resolution to remain
faithful to their vows of allegiance, and to obey no
commands but such as they should receive from
Government direct, or from officers whom the Go¬
vernment should set over them. This separation of
the men from their officers was calculated to relax
the reins of discipline and sow the seeds of disor¬
ganization in the native army ; but the Indian soldier
is of a plastic nature, which, where his own imme¬
diate interests or prejudices are not concerned, soon
takes and soon parts with impressions. The only
situations in which the agitation was not suppressed
without recom-se to more stringent correctives were
Mysore and Hyderabad.
In the former of these districts, the officers of the
garrison of Seringapatam, rendered desperate by the
measures of the Government for separating the
native soldiers from their officers, rushed into un-
' Observations of Sir John Malcolm, p. 32. Colonel Bannerman states
that the published returns show but one hundred and fifty signatures, out
of thirteen hundred officers on the strength of the Madras army.—Dissent,
Pari. Papers, April, 18U, 4. 23.
286
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. bridled violence and open rebellion. Compelling a
small detachment of bis Majesty's troops to witb-
1809. draw from tbe fort, tbey seized upon tbe public
treasure, drew up tbe bridges, and placed themselves
in an attitude of defiance ; disobeying tbe orders
of Colonel Davies, commanding in Mysore, and dis¬
regarding tbe remonstrances of tbe Political Resi¬
dent, Mr. Cole. A detachment consisting of tbe
25tb dragoons, a regiment of native cavalry, with a
regiment of bis Majesty's foot, and a native battalion,
commanded by Colonel Gibbs, marched to Seringa-
patam, where tbey encamped ; while a corps of
Mysore horse, which bad been supplied by tbe
Dewan, was detached to intercept tbe advance of
two battalions which were on their way from Chittle-
droog to reinforce the garrison. The Mysore horse
met the battalions at some distance from Seringa-
patam about the 7th of August. No forcible oppo¬
sition was offered until the 11th, when the Chittle-
droog force was in sight of the walls of Seringapatam,
and of the camp of the detachment by which the
fortress was observed. Encouraged by the proximity
of the latter, the Mysoreans began to harass the
march of the battalions, and were fired upon. The
resistance was, however, feeble; for, upon the ap¬
proach of the dragoons, the Chittledroog battalions
broke and dispersed. The greater part effected
their escape into the fort, the garrison of which
had made a demonstration in their favour. The
officer who commanded was wounded and taken
prisoner ; another died of fatigue and anxiety
after reaching the fort. More than two hundred
Sipahis and followers were said to have been killed
colonel close called to hyderabad.
287
and wounded.^ Of the dragoons one officer was book l
wounded slightly. During the night the fortress
cannonaded the encampment; and, although no i809.
great mischief was done, it was necessary to re¬
move the tents to a safer distance. No further
hostility was offered by either party.
Hoping that the personal character of Colonel
Close, the Resident at Poena, and his great popu¬
larity with the native soldiery, might enable him to
exercise a salutary infiuence over the troops at
Hydêrabad, the Government called him from his
political duties to take the command of the sub¬
sidiary force. He arrived at Hyderabad on the 3rd
of August; and, notwithstanding some opposition,
made his way to the cantonments, where he expos¬
tulated with such officers as were present, and with
such of the native officers and men as showed a dis¬
position to listen to his observations. Little effect
was produced apparently by his intervention; and,
having cause to apprehend personal restraint, he
thought it more consistent with his own dignity and
the intentions of the Government to withdraw from
the cantonment to the Residency, and there await
further instructions. Immediately upon his departure,
the committee of officers summoned the divisions at
Jalua, Masulipatam, and in the Northern Circars.
The former made two marches in advance, and the
The returns give nine kilied, one hundred and fifty wounded, and two
hundred and eighty-one missing. The officers of the Chittledroog battalion
affirm that the men were ordered not to fire upon the Europeans, but only
to defend themselves against the Mysore horse. The absence of all casual¬
ties among the dragoons, with the exception of one officer wounded, which
was possibly the consequence of a misunderstanding, is a strong corrobora¬
tion of this assertion.—Pari. Papers, May, 1810, 2 O. p. 40 ; also 2 F.
p. 33, &c. ; also Trial of Colonel J. Bell; Pari. Papers, April, 1811.
288
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. latter were under orders to take the field, when, for-
CHAP. V. tunately, the determinations of the officers at Hydera-
1809. bad underwent a change. On the 11th of August they
addressed a penitential letter to Lord Minto, who
was expected to arrive at Madras ; signed the test pro¬
posed by the Government of Fort St. George ; and
circulated to the several stations of the army a paper
wherein they stated that imperious circumstances
and mature reflection had induced them to sign
the declaration, and they earnestly entreated their
brother-officers to follow their example.^ The de¬
fection of the Hyderabad force arrested the progress
of the mutiny. The Jalna division returned to can¬
tonments. On the 16th of August the garrison at
Masulipatam tendered their adhesion, and gave up
the fort to General Pater ; and on the 23rd the gar¬
rison of Seringapatam submitted unconditionally,
and evacuated the fortress. The declaratory test
was universally signed, and a calm as profound as
' The motives which influenced the officers are recapitulated by Lord
Minto in his letter of the 12th October, 1809, to the Secret Committee,
par. 72. " They represent themselves to have proposed at no period any¬
thing beyond intimidation as a means of controuling Government, and ex¬
acting the concessions they required : they advanced from faction to sedi¬
tion, from sedition to revolt, confident that each step they made towards
further violence would be sufficient for their purpose. In this course they
gradually arrived at the last narrow boundary which they had yet to pass
before the commencement of civil war ; and, while they yet hesitated on
that last decisive step, the measures of Government convinced them that
intimidation would fail, and, if they advanced further, the contest was
actually to be maintained. They then describe their sense of the public
evils incident to such a conflict, and their compunction at becoming the
immediate instruments of such calamities; sentiments which terminated in
a resolution to sacrifice their own objects and feelings to the public safety,
and to submit themselves implicitly to the discretion of Government."
Although Lord Minto doubts, to its full extent, this account of their rea¬
sons for so suddenly stopping in their course, and ascribes it, in part at.
least, to a seasonable fear of failure ; yet he admits that very many must
have been urged onwards, against their own better judgments, by the im¬
pulse of example, and that these must have rejoiced at the first overture of
retreat.—Pari. Papers, May, 1810, No. iv. p. 9.
return to obedience.
289
the agitation had been alarming was at once book i,
restored.
The causes which induced this seasonable re- i809.
action are sufficiently obvious. The officers had hi¬
therto rushed forward in the blindness of their
anger, without seeing whither it was likely to lead
them ; but they had now arrived at the very verge of
the precipice, and another step would have con¬
signed them to irretrievable infamy and ruin. It is
impossible to believe that the most daring and de¬
sperate did not at this moment wish for an excuse to
go no further. The senior officers in almost every
command had throughout acted with so much mode¬
ration and judgment as to have secured the respect,
although they had not been always able to repress
the violence, of those subordinate to them ; and
their representations contributed to awaken in the
minds of their younger brethren a truer perception
of the perilous situation in which they stood. It is
also little to be doubted that the disposition to re¬
tract derived confirmation from the apprehension of
failure in advancing, and from a general belief that
the native soldiery would fall off from their officers
if the quarrel with the Government were urged to
actual warfare.^ These reflections had been for some
time at work. Even in the almost universal rejec¬
tion of the test, the indication of a returning sense
of duty was manifested ; as the chief ground of re-
^ In several of the pamphlets published by the friends of the officers, it
is asserted that " the Sipahis adhered to the officers to the last." Lord
Minto observes, that "the officers never allowed themselves to doubt of the
adherence of the Sepoy battalions."—Letter, 12th October, par. IG; Pari.
Papers, May, 1810, p. 2. In general, however, the native officers and
troops manifested little inclination to support their European officers
against the Government.
VOL. I. U
290
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. fusal was not its general purport, but the possibility
of its placing those who signed it in open hostility
1809. to those with whom they had been so far engaged
in a common cause. Most of the officers declared
themselves from the first willing to sign it, with the
reservation that they should not he required to take
up arms against their brother-officers. The readi¬
ness with which they acquiesced in their removal
from their regiments and stations evinced a similar
state of feeling ; and it wanted only a beginning, an
example of sufficient weight, for the change of sen¬
timent to he universally and unequivocally exhi¬
bited. This was supplied by the conduct of the
Hyderabad force, which had been foremost and
most vehement in its opposition, and, having there¬
fore the greatest sacrifice of personal feeling to
make in yielding obedience, was the more deserving
of imitation. With regard to the officers of the
subsidiary force, they were of course infiuenced by
the same motives as their companions in arms ; and
there is every likelihood that the arguments and
advice and the character of Colonel Close mate¬
rially affected their feelings, aided their judgment,
and decided their determination. Another and
very important circumstance came opportunely to
alleviate the pain and efface the discredit of such
a departure from their previous declarations. It
had been known for some time past that it was
the intention of the Governor-General to repair to
Madras,^ and assume in person an investigation into
the proceedings of the army. It was now ascer¬
tained that he was on his way. To his justice and
' General Orders, Fort William, 20th July, 1809.
expected presence of the governor-general. 291
impartiality the officers looked with coofidence, and book r.
felt assured that they had nothing to apprehend
in him from personal resentment. Although they 1809.
signed the test of the Madras Government, yet it
was to Lord Minto, and not to Sir George Barlow,
that the officers at Hyderabad, Masulipatam, and
Seringapatam addressed their submission.^
Not that the officers of the Madras army had
any reason to anticipate from the Governor-General
a favourable award. His sentiments were known
to be*n accordance with those of the Governor in
Council of Fort St. George. Communication of
their proceedings, from the latter to the former, had
drawn from the Supreme Government a review of
the whole of the discussions, an elaborate vindi¬
cation of the course pursued by the Government of
Madras, and an unqualified condemnation of the in¬
subordinate and seditious spirit which the officers
had displayed.® The letter had been published at
Madras, and circulated to the army ; but, notwith¬
standing its general tenor, there was a calmness in
its tone, and a reasonableness in its arguments,
which opened a prospect of considerate as well as
just decision. Whatever might be the sentence of
the Governor-General, the sting of personality was
removed ; and it was the functionary, not the indi¬
vidual, who was expected to pronounce judgment.
It had been the purpose of Lord Minto to have
sailed for Madras before the end of July ; but his
' Address from the officers at Hyderabad to Lord Minto, 11th August;
Pari. Papers, May, 1810, 2 F. 1. Declaration of those at Masulipatam ;
ibid. p. 12. Address of those at Seringapatam, 2lst August ; ibid. p. 46.
' Letter from the Supreme Government to the Governor in Council, Fort.
St. George, 27th May, 1S09; Pari. Papers, May, 1810, No.iii.
u 2
292
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. departure was delayed by the assurance, which the
Madras Government, with that singularly imperfect
1809. knowledge which it had on other occasions evinced
of the real state of things, conveyed to him, that
the agitation was rapidly subsiding, and that a fair
prospect existed of the army's returning to a sense
of duty.^ As soon as he ascertained that the in-
fonnation was incorrect, he embarked, and reached
IMadras on the 11th of September. All parties
anxiously awaited his fiat. It was not long de¬
layed.^ On the 25th of the same month a general
order announced to the army the Governor-Gene¬
ral's reprobation of their past conduct, and his reso¬
lution to inflict such punishment as might be com¬
mensurate with the offences committed. This de¬
termination was expressed in language designed
and calculated to assuage all irritated feeling, and it
was too evidently grounded upon the nature of the
past transactions for its justice to be called in ques¬
tion. The necessity of vindicating the authority of
the Government was based entirely upon abstract
and incontrovertible principles, and the manner in
which that vindication was to be exercised was
qualifieá with the utmost possible leniency. The
decision of the Governor-General was also distin¬
guished by one remarkable peculiarity,—the more
remarkable from the contrast which it presented to
the whole course of Sir George Barlow's proceed¬
ings,—the non-exercise of absolute power ; the abey¬
ance of the right of the Governor-General to decree
' Letter from the GoTernor-General to the Secret Committee, 10th Octo¬
ber, 1809, par. 37: also Minute of Governor-General, 15th July 1800"
,Parl. Papers, May, 1810, No. iv. : and MS. Records. ' '
' Pari. Papers, May, 1810, No.iv. p. 14.
courts-martial.
293
punistiment of his own will and pleasure ; and the book i.
reference of those who were charged with the high-
est degree of culpability to the judgment of their 1809.
peers. A few only of the offenders were selected;
such as officers in command of stations or of bodies
of troops, commandants of corps, and individuals
conspicuous for violent and forward behaviour. For
the two first, courts-martial were ordered ; to the
others, the alternative was offered of investigation
before the samé tribunal, or dismissal from the
♦
service. The whole of the officers of the Hydera¬
bad force were pardoned, in consideration of the
important example which they had set of submis¬
sion. Only three officers came under the first class,
eighteen only under the latter ; a general amnesty
tranquillised the rest. The order wound up with
expressions of affectionate solicitude for the charac¬
ter and welfare of the Coast army, which sunk deep
into minds that had so long been used to the lan¬
guage of unbending sternness and unqualified re¬
proof, and which now laboured under the humiliat¬
ing consciousness that personal resentment, how¬
ever provoked, was no excuse for a dereliction of
the first principles of military, duty,—obedience to
constituted authority, and allegiance to the state.
Shortly after the promulgation of this order, the
trials commenced. Lieutenant-Colonel John Bell,
the commandant of the garrison of Seringapatam,
was charged with joining in, and with heading, the
mutiny of the troops. The defence set up was, that
he had consented to take the command only to pre¬
vent excesses ; that he exercised no real authority in
the fort ; that he had signed the test without hesi-
294
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. tation himself, and that it was through his influence
the officers also finally signed it, and that the gar-
1809. risen finally surrendered the fort in a peaceable
manner. He was pronounced guilty, and sen¬
tenced to be cashiered. A like charge and sentence
characterised the trial of JMajor Storey, who had
consented to hold the command at Masulipatam,
upon the arrest, by his brother-officers, of Colonel
Innes, their common superior. A similar defence
was offered, and the prisoner was recommended to
the mercy of the Commander-in-chief. In both
cases the sentences were held to be too lenient, and
were sent back for revision ; but they were adhered
to by the courts, and eventually confirmed. Lieu¬
tenant-Colonel Doveton was charo^ed with having
O O
moved his detachment from Jalna with a mutinous
and seditious design against the Government of
IMadras. The defence was the same. Colonel
Doveton, it was affirmed, had only ostensibly parti¬
cipated in a movement which he could not hinder,
with a view so to controul it as to render it inoffen¬
sive : he also produced a private letter from the
Resident at Hyderabad, sanctioning his accompany¬
ing the troops, if he could not prevent their march.
He was consequently fully and honourably ac¬
quitted. This sentence also was disapproved of by
the Commander of the forces, but was confirmed
by the court. Colonel Doveton was nevertheless
suspended by the Governor-General from the service
pending a reference to the pleasure of the Court of
Directors. Of the second class of officers, two,
Lieutenant-Colonel Munro and JMajor Kenny, stood
a trial, and were cashiered : the rest accepted the
termination of the dispute.
295
alternative of dismissal.^ Until the termination of book i.
the trials, Lord IVIinto continued at the Presidency
of Madras ; and when he quitted it, early in 1810, i809.
his authority was in some measure replaced hy the
presence of General Hewett, the Commander-in-
chief of the Bengal army, who assumed the com¬
mand of the army of Madras. At the end of 1810,
General Sir Samuel Auchmuty relieved General
Hewett from his duty, and, with the command of
the army, took his place as member of Council ;
the Court of Directors having learnt too late from
the recent dissensions how essential was the posses¬
sion of a dignity, so vainly coveted by General Mac-
dowall, to the cordial co-operation of their chief
civil and military functionaries.
Thus terminated a struggle which at one period
was thought to threaten the constitution of the
Madras Presidency, and endanger the existence of
the British empire in India. The danger, though
not visionary, was perhaps exaggerated. The quar¬
rel was less between public bodies than between
individuals ; and the army readily yielded to Lord
Minto the allegiance which it had withheld from,
and ultimately conceded with an ill grace to. Sir
George Barlow. However unreasonable the aver¬
sion thus cherished, and however indefensible the
extremities to which it hurried unthinking men,
it cannot he affirmed that the feelings so widely
spread were wholly without extenuation, or that
the measures and character of the Governor were
' Report of the Trials; Pari. Papers, 1st April, 1811, No. vii. Letter
from Lord Minto to the Secret Committee, 1.5th April, 1830 ; ibid. No. ix.
p. 353.
296
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. not calculated to provoke, although not to justify,
disobedience. The Indian Governments of Sir
1809. George Barlow's day were wholly unaccustomed to
have their proceedings canvassed or their wisdom
impugned, and they were intolerant of opposition.
This had been particularly the case in Bengal, where
the imperious rule of Lord Wellesley, relieved by
the brilliant results of his public policy, had been
long accustomed to demand and receive prompt
and unquestioning submission. Brought up in his
school, it is not to he wondered at that Sir George
Barlow carried with him to Madras the same ex¬
alted notions of the authority entrusted to him ;
and when, from the concurrent causes which have
been adverted to, he found, both in the civil and
military branches of his government, contravention
and resistance, he not unnaturally referred them to
unworthy motives, and stigmatised them as personal
and factious. That much of the opposition which
he encountered was personal was undoubtedly true;
hut it was not at first personal in a sense relating
to him, so much as to the individuals themselves,
advocating their own interests, and smarting under
mistaken, perhaps, but not the less hitter, feelings
of injury and injustice. These feelings might have
been soothed, and their mischievous consequences
prevented, by kindly consideration and temperate
forbearance. General JNIacdowall had no right to
complain of the Government of Madras for his ex¬
clusion from the Council ; that was the act of the
Court of Directors: hut he had reason to feel ag¬
grieved when Government gave that exclusion prac¬
tical effect, constructing the plan of a campaign '
review of the proceedings.
297
without consulting him ; or consulting him tardily book i.
and reservedly, and encroaching upon his preten- '''
sions to military patronage. Had he been treated 1809.
with the same deference as if he had filled a seat
at the council-board, all cause of offence would pos¬
sibly have been removed ; for, although warm and
precipitate, his temper does not appear to have
been unsusceptible of conciliation. When the sea¬
son of friendly intercourse had passed, and General
IMacdowall had placed himself in the wrong by his
unjustifiable violence in the case of Colonel Munro,
the cancelling of the arrest was so necessary and so
sufficient a vindication of the authority of the Go¬
vernment, that it must have ensured, after the first
heats were allayed, the concurrence of the whole
army. The annulment of the General's parting
order was also a measure the propriety of which
would have been little questioned, although the lan¬
guage of the order was undignified and intemperate.
But the measures that ensued bore a different cha¬
racter, and were hasty and imprudent, and in some
respects unjust. The suspension of the officers of the
Adjutant-General's department for obeying the com¬
mands of their military superior; the condemnation of
officers without charge or trial, upon private inform¬
ation ; and their severe punishment for an unperpe-
trated offence—the intended transmission of a me¬
morial which was never sent ; all originated in that
spirit of official despotism which conceived that its
own judgment superseded all need of hesitation, all
occasion for inquiry or trial. That Sir George Bar¬
low conscientiously considered the station in which
he was placed to be endowed with such prerogatives ;
298
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. that it was the dignity, not so much of his own per-
son or power, as of that of the office of Governor in
1809. Council of Fort St. George, may be granted : but
the removal of Major Boles was regarded even by the
Government of Bengal and the Court of Directors as
unjust ; and no less so were the orders of the 1st of
May, which pronounced sentence upon meritorious
officers for an uncommitted crime, upon private in¬
telligence and without a trial. That they were most
impolitic was proved by the irritation which they
excited ; and which, from a smouldering fire that
might have burnt itself out among its own ashes,
was thus fanned into a fierce and formidable flame.
In the subsequent transactions, although the army
was most deeply to blame, yet the Government was
not exempt from fault. The stem unfeeling tone
of its general orders, and the absence of all attempts
at explanation or conciliation, were preserved in
stoical consistency to the last ; until the Government
of Bengal introduced a new style, and did not dis¬
dain to blend the language of affectionate and pa¬
ternal solicitude with the assertion of authority;
and until, which was still more important, it con¬
descended to lay aside the sword of justice, and
send the accused to those tribunals to which they
acknowledged themselves to be amenable. That
a profound sense of public duty was the chief
moving principle of Sir George Barlow's conduct
it is impossible to doubt, but he trusted too exclu¬
sively to one only method of discharging that duty,
—the exercise of absolute power.
Although anticipating the course of events, yet,
in order to dispose finally of an unpleasant subject.
proceedings in england.
299
it will be advisable to advert in this place to the book i.
proceedings in England, to which the transactions
at Madras gave rise. The public was speedily inun- 1809.
dated by the statements of the opposite parties
but the interest excited was inconsiderable, as atten¬
tion was absorbed by the great interests of European
politics. Several motions for papers were made in
the House of Gommons, and the documents were
printed; but no ulterior proceedings were based
upon them. It was rather different at the India
House. The Court of Directors at first upheld the
measures of the Government of Madras, and still
more cordially approved of those of the Governor-
General ; but when the alarm had subsided, and
the transactions were more calmly considered, a
serious difference of opinion respecting the merits
of Sir G. Barlow, urged with no little warmth and
acerbity, divided the Court. The first struggle took
place upon the appointment of the new Commander-
in-chief to a seat in Council, which involved the
question of displacing one of the actual members.
After several days of debate, on one of which the
Court was so equally divided, that, agreeably to law,
the Treasurer determined the question by lot, Mr.
Petrie, who had been opposed on many important
matters to Sir George Barlow, was removed. The
' In addition to the publications of Mr. Marsh, a gentleman of the legal
profession, who, while at Madras, had been generally the adviser and
advocate of Sir George Barlow's opponents, and of Colonel Malcolm, with
the observations and replies which they produced, the principal authorities
on either side are the following : 1. A View of the Policy of Sir George
Barlow ; in a series of Letters by Indus, 1810. 2. Letter from an Officer at
Madras. 3. An Accurate and Authentic Narrative of the Dissensions at
Madras. 4. Narrative of the .late Trials, &c. 5. Account of the Dis¬
contents of the Madras Army. The two principal Reviews, also, took
different sides of the question.
300
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. dissents of those members of the Court who disap-
proved of the decision, and the reply of those who
1809. supported it, took a review of the M'hole of the
transactions, and with equal ability and earnestness
commended or condemned the policy of Sir George
Barlow.^ Similar discussions attended the appeals
made by the dismissed or suspended officers ; and at
different dates their dismission was both confirmed
and cancelled. The milder counsels at last prevailed,
and all who had been suspended or dismissed were
pardoned and restored to the service.® In July,
1811, a motion was made for the recall of Sir
George Barlow, but it was defeated under strong
protests from some of the Court.® The same motion
was renewed and carried at the end of the following
year, and was equally the subject of a protest by
those members of the Court who had uniformly sup¬
ported his measures and vindicated his reputation.^
* The proceedings and the dissents of Messrs. Bannerman, Baring, Inglis,
Hiiddlestone, Elphinstone, and Patterson, with the reply of Messrs. Grant
and Astell, are printed in the Pari. Papers, 1811, No. iv.
' Most of the suspended officers were restored in 1811 ; those cashiered
or dismissed, at subsequent dates.
' The dissents of Messrs. Parry, Smith, Astell, Bebb, and Grant were
published by Siç,Robert Barlow, the brother of Sir George. Murray, 1813.
Little occasion now exists, perhaps, for an appeal to authority to deter¬
mine the character of the proceedings of the Madras army; but there is very
high military authority on the subject, that of the Duke of Wellington,
who, amid the anxieties of his position in Spain at the end of 1809, felt a
warm interest in the troops whom he had so often led to victory. The fol¬
lowing passages occur in a letter, dated Badajoz, 3rd December, 1809,
addressed to Colonel Malcolm.
" You cannot conceive how much I have felt for what has passed on the
Madras Establishment. I scarcely recognise in those transactions the men
for whom I entertained so much respect, and had so much regard, a few
years back ; and I can only lament that they, and the army, and the affairs
of that Presidency in general, have been so much mismanaged. These
transactions, and their causes, prove that it is not always the man who has
the character of being the best natured, and one of the easiest disposition,
who will agree best with those placed in authority over him, or those with
whom he is to co-operate. They owe their origin to the disputes of the
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
301
persons in authority in India, that is to say, between the Governor and the BOOK I.
Commander-in-chief. Both, but principally the latter, looked for parti- chap. v.
zans and supporters ; and these have ended by throwing off all subordina-
lion, by relinquishing all habits of obedience, and almost by open resist- 1809.
anee. Nothing can be more absurd than the pretext for this conduct.
" Colonel Monro's opinion might be erroneous, and might have been
harsh towards his brother-officers ; but not only he ought not to have been
brought to a court-martial for giving that opinion, but he ought to have been
brought to a court-martial if he had refrained from giving it, when he was
called upon by the Commander-in-chief to make him a report on a subject
referred to his official consideration. The officers of the army are equally
wrong in the part they have taken in the subsequent part of the question,
which is one between the Governor and the Commander-in-chief, whether
the former had a right to protect Colonel Munro from the acts of the latter,
upon which question no man can have a doubt who has any knowledge of
the constitution of Great Britain, and particularly of that of the Indian
Governments. I, who have arrived pretty nearly at the top of the tree,
should he the last man to give up any point of militai-y right or etiquette.
But I have no doubt whatever, not only that it was the right, hut that it
was the duty, of the Governor in Council to interfere to save Colonel Munro ;
and that if he had not done so, and the public had sustained any loss or in¬
convenience from his trial, or if the public attention had been drawn to the
injustice of his trial, the Governor would have been severely responsible for
the omission to perform his duty.
" So far for my opinion upon the main points of the question. As for the
others, the conduct of officers upon the addresses, the orders issued, the re¬
solutions entered into, the resignations of their offices, &c. &c., they are con¬
sequences of the first error ; that is, of persons in authority making partizans
of those placed under them, instead of making all obey the constituted au¬
thorities of the state. This conduct in the officers of the army would have
been wrong, even if the cause had been just, and the Commander-in-chief
had wished to screen Colonel Munro from the persecution of the Govern¬
ment ; and it is really not worth while to take up my time in describing,
or yours in perusing, a description of the folly, the inconsistency, or the
breaches of discipline and subordination contained in all those documents.
I have so much regard for the Madras anny, to which I owe much, that I
would sacrifice a great deal to have it in my power to restore them to that
state of discipline, union, and respectability in which I left them in the year
1805 ; and I assure you that I shall rejoice most sincerely when I shall hear
that their good sense and good temper have predominated over their feelings
of party and their prejudices."—Dispatches of the Duke of Wellington ;
Supplementary volume to the three first Parts, p. 231.
302
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
CHAPTER VI.
Fweign Policy of Lord Mintd"s Administration.—In¬
vasion of Berar by Amir Khan,—a force sent to the
aid of the Raja.—Amir Kharis defeat by the Berar
troops,—retires before the British.—Disputes between
the Peshwa and the Southern Jagirdars.—Compul¬
sory adjust^nent.—Suppi'ession of Piracy by the
States of Wari and Kolapur.—Expedition against
the Pirates of the Persian Gulph.—Joa^mis,—their
ferocity.—Destruction of Ras-al-Khaima and other
Pirate stations.—Expedition to Macao.—Opera¬
tions against the French and Dutch colonies in the
Indian Seas.—Successful depredations of the French
d'uizers.—Expedition against Rodriguez,—its occu¬
pation.—Descent upon Bourbon.—Garrison of Ro¬
driguez reinforced.—Second descent upon Bourbon,
and capture.—Naval Transactions at the Isle of
France.—French frigates in the harbour of Grand
Port attached by the English squadron.—Destruc¬
tion of the English vessels.—Naval actions of the
Islands between the blockading ships and the French
frigates.—Arrival of the Armaments from Bengal
and Madras.—landing of the forces in Grande
Baye,—march to Poi't louis,—capitulation with the
French Governor.—Blockade of the Dutch Islands.
—Expedition against the Moluccas.— Capture of
Amboyna,—of Banda,—and of Ternate.—Expedi¬
tion against Java,—accompanied by lord Minto.
Difficulties of the voyage—overcome.—Former ope¬
rations.—Destruction of Dutch vessels at Gresik.—
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
303
Measures of General Daendels and of his successor.
General Jansens.—Arrival of the fleet in the Roads
of Batavia,—landing of the troops.—Occupation of
Batavia.—Advance to Weltevreeden.—Strength of
Fort Cornelis.—Assault.—March of Colonel Gilles¬
pie's column, — surprise of the outwork, — defences
forced,—civplosion of a redoubt,—the fort taken,—
the pursuit and dispersion of the Enemy.—Churhon
and Madura occupied. — Final defeat of General
Jansens.—Surrender of Java and its dependencies.
—Mr. Raffles appointed Governor.—Colonel Gilles¬
pie Commander of the Forces.—Capture of Yodh-
yakarta.—Expedition against Palembang.—Sultan
deposed.— Views of the Court of Directors.—Bene-
flcicd results of the British Administration in Java.
No events of any great political importance took book i.
place on the continent of India, the occurrence of
which was likely to aggravate the anxiety expe- I809.
rienced by the British Government from the dissen¬
sions that prevailed at IVIadras ; but, during the same
period, various occasions of minor moment had arisen
for the exercise of its interference and the mani¬
festation of its power. Of this character were the
proceedings consequent upon the conduct of Amir
Khan, of whom mention has been made in our pre¬
ceding pages, and who provoked at this time the
hostility of the Government of Bengal. Left with¬
out controul by the insanity of Holkar, and keeping
together a numerous body of troops, for the pay¬
ment of which he possessed no means of his own,
Amir Khan, after exhausting the resources of the
Rajput princes, was compelled to look abroad for
304 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. plunder, and enlarge the field of his depredations.
CHAP. VI. Raja of Berar was selected as the victim of his
1809. necessities.
In the commencement of his political career Jes-
want Rao Holkar had been detained for some time
as a prisoner at Nagpore, and, according to his own
assertions, was pillaged by the Raja of jewels of
very great value. Amir Khan now demanded, in
the name of Holkar, the restitution of the jewels^
or their price; and, as the demand was not com¬
plied with, he moved, in January 1809, to the fron¬
tiers of Berar with all his force, swelled to a large
amount by the accession of the predatory or Pindari
bands,'^ who had long spread terror through the
dominions of the Bhonsla Raja by their daring and
devastating incursions. No serious opposition was
offered to Amir Khan's advance : he crossed the
Nerbudda and proceeded to Jubbulpore, a consider¬
able city of Berar, of which and of the surrounding
country he took possession.
Although not bound by the terms of the existing
treaty to give military aid to the Raja of Nagpore
against his enemies, yet the aggression of Amir
Khan was considered by the Bengal Government
to demand its vigorous interposition. There were
grounds for suspecting that his movements were not
unconnected with the discontent of the Subahdar of
Hyderabad ; and although the assertions of his en¬
voys at Nagpore, that their master had been induced
' MS. Records. Amir Khan mentions the manner in which Holkar be¬
came possessed of these jewels ; but states that they were sold, and the pro¬
duce was expended in raising troops, when he was seized by the Bhonsla
Raja.—Life, p. 91.
' He states his force at 40,000 horse and 24,000 Pindaris.
»
MILITARY PROTECTION OF BERAR. 305
to invade the country by the invitation of the book i.
Nizam, who had offered to defray the cost of a still
more formidable armament, might not be deserving isoa.
of implicit credit, yet the known sympathies of the
parties rendered such a league between them far
from improbable. The interests of the British
power were therefore implicated with those of the
Raja of Berar. " The question was not," as Lord
Minto observed, " whether it was just and expe¬
dient to aid the Raja in the defence and recovery
of hi^ 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- Dekhin might war¬
rant and require our interference ; but whether an
enterprising and ambitious Musselman chief, at the
head of a numerous army irresistible by any power
except that of the Company, should be permitted to
establish his authority on the ruins of the Raja's
dominions, over territories contiguous to those of
the Nizam, with whom community of religion, com¬
bined with local power and resources, might lead
to the formation of projects probably not uncon¬
genial to the mind of the Nizam himself, and cer¬
tainly consistent with the views and hopes of a
powerful party in his court, for the subversion of
the British alliance. Of such a question there
could be but one solution;"^ this was, the deter¬
mination to defend the Raja of Nagpore : and Co¬
lonel Close was ordered to march with a competent
division to expel Amir Khan from the Berar terri-
' Minute of Governor-Genei-al, Oct. 1809 ; Malcolm's Political History,
i. 402.
VOL. I. X
306
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. tory. As the objects of the expedition were in an
CHAP. VL degree British, the assistance was wholly
1809. gratuitous, no compensation being demanded from
the Raja. Amir Khan protested vehemently against
the interposition ; and appealed with unanswerable
justice, although with no avail, to the stipulations
of the existing treaty with Holkar, on whose behalf
he pretended to act, which engaged that the British
Government would not in any manner whatever in¬
terfere in his affairs : and, in a letter addressed by
him to Colonel Close, he argued that the conduct
of the Government was a manifest infraction of the
treaty, and a breach of the solemn promises made
to Jeswant Rao, that it would not meddle with
his claims upon the Raja of Berar, nor oppose his
exaction of contributions from any princes not in
alliance with it. These representations were no
longer likely to he of any weight. It was not at
present a matter of deliberation whether a helpless
Raja of Jaypur should he abandoned to the grasp of
the spoiler, rather than a passing inconvenience
should he encountered ; hut whether the desertion
of a friendly power might not involve an injury to
British interests, and a still greater injury to British
reputation.
An army was accordingly assembled towards the
end of 1809 on the eastern frontier of Berar, com¬
posed chiefly of the subsidiary troops from Jalna
and Hyderabad ; and another, of suflftcient strength
not only to protect the province from danger, hut
to undertake offensive operations if necessary, was
collected in Bundelkhand. Before either force,
however, could he fully formed and brought into
RETREAT OF AMIR KHAN. 307
action, the invader had been checked by the un- book i.
aided troops of Nagpore. Whilst yet halting at
Jubbulpore, Amir Khan was threatened by the ap- i809.
preach of a considerable force, under Sadik Ali
Khan, to Srinagar, within twenty miles of his en¬
campment. Placing more confidence in intrigue
than in arms, the Nagpore general entered into a
négociation with Amir Khan, and engaged to pay
him thirteen lakhs of rupees as the price of his
retreat. The Raja, emboldened by the promised
suppoft of the British Government, refused to ra¬
tify the disgraceful bargain, and commanded Sadik
Ali forcibly to compel Amir Khan's departure. And
at the same time a letter was delivered to that chief
from the Governor-General, announcing his purpose
of dispatching an army against him unless he im¬
mediately quitted Berar. Although not disposed
to relinquish his prey without a struggle, yet Amir
Khan found himself unable to contend with the Berar
force brought against him. The Pindaris, who had
been dismissed for the rainy season, had not re¬
joined ; and part of his troops had been sent to the
rear, under the impression that a pacific arrange¬
ment was about to be made. Hostages had been
given him as a security for the payment of the sti¬
pulated contribution ; and it was so confidently be¬
lieved by several of his principal captains that part
of the money also had been paid, that they insisted
upon their shares, and refused to fight unless they
obtained a portion of the spoil. Weakened by
their defection and the reduction of his force, Amir
Khan attempted to retreat to Bhopal. He was
pursued by Sadik Ali, and overtaken, on the 17th
X 2
308
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
I
BOOK I. of November, in a disadvantageous position at
CHAP. VI. Gbat, when an engagement of several hours'
1809. duration took place ; in which, after the loss of se¬
veral of his best officers, and exposure to imminent
personal peril. Amir Khan was completely defeated.
He effected, however, his escape to Bhopal.
Being joined by Vizir Mohammed, and rein¬
forced by the Pindaris, Amir Khan was soon in a
condition to resume the offensive : he accordingly
marched against Sadik Ali, who had fallen hack to
the strong post of Chouragerh, one stage to the
south-west of Juhhulpore. The Berar troops were
drawn up, with the fort of Chouragerh in their rear
and a rivulet in their front, the approach to which
was rendered difficult by deep ravines and much
thorny jungle. Disregarding the advice of Vizir
Mohammed to turn the position. Amir Khan at¬
tacked the enemy in front. Their line was defended
by a numerous artillery, the fire of which told
heavily upon the assailants as they slowly toiled
to make good their way over the rough and broken
ground. After suffering severely from this cause.
Amir Khan was compelled to desist from the attack,
and to rètire once more into the friendly terri¬
tory of Bhopal. Sadik Ali refrained from follow¬
ing up his advantage, being probably little desirous
of its prosecution.' This was of no consequence, as
the contest was virtually at an end. Foes more for-
' Memoirs of Amir Khan, p. 368. According to his own showing, he
returned to Chouragerh after his second defeat ; and so closely blockaded
the Hyderabad force in its entrenchments there, " that the enemy could not
breathe or scratch his head at the same time the Pindaris scoured the
country in all directions.. The descriptions of the different actions are
animated, and, with some allowance for Amir Khan's personal exploits and
perils, are in the main apparently accurate.
troops recalled.
309
midable were now approaching the scene of action ; book i.
Colonel Close had arrived at Amrawati on the 1st
December, and Colonel Martindell had moved to I810.
the confines of Bundelkhand : the former crossed the
Nerbudda early in January. Well aware of his ina¬
bility to cope with such enemies, Amir Khan divided
his army, and, sending off his main body by a differ¬
ent route, marched from Bhopal to Bhilsa and Se-
ronj. He was followed to the latter town by Colonel
Close, but to no purpose. Pretending that his pre¬
sence* was urgently required by Tulasi Bai, Amir
Khan abandoned his troops and set off hastily for
Indore. All danger of a further invasion of Berar
had therefore evidently ceased; and although for a
season it was in contemplation to continue military
operations until the complete destruction of Amir
Khan's power should have been effected, yet the pro¬
bability that the prosecution of this policy might
lead to a protracted and expensive series of hostili¬
ties induced the Governor-General to depart from
his original design, and content himself with the ac¬
complishment of the main object of the armament.
The troops were therefore recalled to their several
stations in the Company's territories or those of their
allies;^ the campaign having served to display the
power and the spirit of the Government, and the
necessity of its interference for the preservation of a
state, once held to be of primary consideration in
' Colonel Close was invested with a discretionary power of acting upon
his first instructions, but he was not disposed to take upon himself a re¬
sponsibility from which the Governor-General shrank. The Court of Di¬
rectors were "not satisfied with the expediency of abstaining from dis¬
abling any power, against whom we may have been compelled to take up
arms, from renewing its aggressions."—Letter from Secret Committee;
Malcolm, Pol. Hist. i. 405.
310
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the political scale of Indian potentates, against the
attacks of a mere soldier of fortune and his pre-
1810. datory cohorts.
The state of aifairs at Poona demanded also about
the same period the demonstration of the military
power of the British Government. A spirit of reci¬
procal aversion had long subsisted between the
Peshwa Baji Rao and the members of the Putwur-
dun family, who held extensive Jagirs in the §outh-
ern portion of the Mahratta country on the frontiers
of Mysore. These Jagirdars were the sons or rela¬
tives of Parushram Bhao, the distinguished officer
who commanded the hlahratta army in the first war
with Tippoo ; and who, as the friend and colleague
of Nana Furnavese, had borne a leading part in the
expulsion of Baji Rao's father, Raghunath Rao, from
the Peshwaship, and had been an active agent in
a plot for the exclusion of Baji Rao himself from
the succession.^ A reconciliation had been effected,
but little cordiality had been restored ; and, after
the death of Parushram, his descendants, engaged in
constant and destructive hostilities with their neigh¬
bours, ascribed their suffering's to the continued
animosity and intrigues of the Peshwa.® On the ad¬
vance of the British army to reinstate Baji Rao, the
1 In 1796; Grant Duff's Mahratta History, iii. 134.
^ " Since 1800, when I was in this country before, it has been one con¬
tinued contest for power and plunder between the different chiefs who have
armies under tlieir command : between the Putwurdun family and Gokla
in the countries bordering on the Toombuddra, thelVerda, and Malpoorba;
between the Putwurduns and the Raja of Kolapore in those bordering on
the Gutpurba and the Kishna."—Wellington Dispatches, i. 124. At this
time, the beginning of 1803, the heads of the family were three brothers,
sons of Parushram, Appa Saheb, Baba Saheb, and Dada Saheb, and their
cousin, Chintaman Rao ; each of whom commanded a force of about seven
thousand horse and foot, with some guns.—Ibid. 1. 93.
southern jagirdars. 311
elder brother Apa Saheb was induced, by his regard book i.
for General Wellesley, to accompany him to Poona,
and to contribute to the Peshwa's re-establishment.^ isio.
A seeming renewal of friendly intercourse was in
consequence effected under Sir Arthur Wellesley's
mediation, but the reconciliation was as insincere as
before. It was not in the nature of Baji Rao to
forgive an injury, and the Putwurduns were too
well acquainted with his character to place any faith
in his professions. They accordingly remained neu¬
tral ih the following war, declining to send their
contingents upon the Peshwa's requisition ; but their
neutrality was considered by General Wellesley to
have been an important object for the Company's
possessions, and to have been capable of extenu¬
ation by natural and excusable sentiments of na¬
tionality. This omission was made one ground
of an application from the Peshwa after the war
for the assistance of the British troops to dispos¬
sess the Putwurduns, and transfer their lands to
one of his own officers, Bapooji Gokla; but Sir
Arthur Wellesley firmly opposed the application,
not only on account of the claims of the family
to the regard of the British Government for the
many proofs of attachment which they had ex¬
hibited, but on account of its manifest impolicy
and injustice.'^ In conformity to his sugges¬
tions, the principles to be followed in adjusting
the differences between the Putwurduns and the
Peshwa were, to interfere in a certain degree, to
' Wellington Dispatches, i. 145, 173, 174.
" See the conference with Bapooji Gokla; Wellington Dispatches, ii.
121 : and afterwards with the Peshwa's ministers, on the 1st March, 1804 ;
ii. 140,
312 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. ascertain the extent of the service to which the
CHAP. VI. entitled from the southern Jagirdars,
1810. to oblige them to afford it ; and, on the other hand,
to protect them from the oppression of the Peshwa's
government, and to guarantee to them their pos¬
sessions as long as they should continue to serve
the Peshwa with fidelity.^ Both parties were inte¬
rested in preventing the practical adoption of these
principles, and the final adjustment of the differ¬
ences between them was long delayed.
1811. The interposition of the British Government had
at once been effectual in arresting the attempts of
the Peshwa to crush the Jagirdars : the subsidiary
force afforded his only hojie of accomplishing his
purpose ; and, its employment as the mere instru¬
ment of his revenge being prohibited, his power was
paralyzed. It was not so easy to bring the Jagirdars
to reason; especially as they were required to sur¬
render certain lands which were not comprised in
their original grants, and to which they were not
legally entitled. Their obstinacy was only over¬
come by the movement of the subsidiary force to
the Krishna; when, finding that the British Govern-
1812. ment was »determined to uphold the rightful claims
of the Peshwa, the chiefs consented to meet the
Resident and Baji Rao at Punderpur, and attended
them to Poona, where everything was definitively
settled. The result was less satisfactory to Baji
Rao than to the Putwurduns, as he had long hesi¬
tated to accede to any proposition which did not
comprehend the entire resumption of their Jagirs,
' Wellington Dispatches, ii. 149.
suppression of piracy.
313
and the annihilation of a powerful and obnoxious book i.
/• M 1 CHAP. VI.
lamily.i
The presence of the troops in the field afforded I812.
a favourable occasion for the suppression of the
piratical practices of the two petty ISIahratta states,
Wari and Kolapur, both possessing ports on the
coast of the Concan, from which their vessels were
accustomed to commit depredations on native com¬
merce. Their lawless proceedings had been imper¬
fectly repressed by the occasional presence of one
of the Company's ships of war ; hut it was now re¬
solved to put an end to the system, by depriving
their rulers of the harbom-s which gave shelter to
the pirates. The approach of the British troops soon
awed them, however turbulently disposed, to sub¬
mission; and the Desai of Wari was compelled to
cede the fort of Vingorla, with its port and limits;
while the harbour of JMalwan, which included the
forts and island of Severndroog and its dependencies,
was given up by the Raja of Kolapur. Both states
were bound to renounce piracy, and to permit no
armed vessels to issue from their ports.®
It had been found necessary at a previous period 1809.
to undertake operations for the suppression of piracy
of a more formidable description, and in the year
1809 an armament was dispatched from the western.
side of India to the Persian Gulph. Oman, the
south-eastern province of Arabia, forms a triangle,
the base of which borders upon the deserts ; whilst
one arm extends along the Indian ocean to Cape
' Malcolm's Political History of India, 1. 396.
® Grant Duff's Mahratta History, iii. 350: also Treaties with the Rajas
of Kolapore and Sawant Waree; Collection of Treaties, 27th May, 1818.
314
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Musendom, and is met at that point by the other,
which lies within the gulph. The former or eastern
1809. coast is subject to the Imam of Muscat, and is occu¬
pied by a well-disposed and commercial people. Tlie
inhabitants of the latter or western shore, thinly
scattered from Cape Musendom through a distance
of nearly four hundred miles, had, from a remote
period, been so notorious for piratical habits as to
have secured for their territory the denomination of
the Pirate coast. Among these tribes the Joasmis
were distinguished by their audacity and cruelty.
They had recently embraced the reformation which
Ahd-ul-wahah had some years before introduced into
Mohammedanism, and united to the fierceness of
their lawless trade the ferocity of fanaticism. Pro¬
fession of the faith of Islam, or instant death, was
the fate of their captives. Their vessels, known as
daos or hugalas, varying from one hundred and fifty
to three hundred and fifty tons' burthen, and carry¬
ing from one hundred and fifty to two hundred men,
were clumsily built, with a single mast, and mounted
hut a few guns. Singly, they were little formidable ;
but they usually sailed together in small fieets, from
which a mêrchant-vessel was rarely able to extricate
herself. For a considerable period they refrained
.from molesting English ships. The Company's armed
vessels were instructed to exercise similar forbear¬
ance, and to confine themselves to repelling aggres¬
sion. Emboldened by this policy, and impelled by
their religious ardour, the Joasmis departed from
the caution they had hitherto preserved, and no
longer paid any respect to the British flag. In
1808 the Sylph, a small ship of only one hundred
expedition to the persian gulph.
315
tons, having on board the native Persian secretary book i.
of Sir Harford Jones, was attacked and captured in
sight of the Nereide frigate ; by which she was re- 1809.
taken, and the pirate vessels were sunk. In the
next year the Minerva, a large merchant-ship, fell in
with a fleet of daos, and, after a running fight of two
days, was carried by boarding. The resistance and
loss they had suflered had so exasperated the pirates,
that every male Christian on board was murdered.
It was no longer possible to permit the perpetration
of such outrages, and it was determined to seek
the Joasmis in their chief port, Ras-al-Khaima,
inflict upon them a deserved punishment for their
past crimes, and impair, if not annihilate, the means
of future mischief.^
The expedition consisted of two of his Majesty's
frigates, the Chiflbnne and Clorinde, and six of the
Company's armed vessels, in which nine hundred
European soldiers and five hundred Sipahis were
embarked. The flotilla was commanded by Captain
Wainwright of the Chiflbnne ; the land division by
Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, of his Majesty's 65th.
The armament left Bombay on the 4th September.
Off Cape Musendom it fell in with a fleet of twenty-
seven daos : one was sunk, the others were dispersed.
The force then proceeded to Muscat, the Imam of
which, equally hostile to the Joasmis as pirates and
' Account of the Wahabis, by Sir Harford JoneS, p. 211 ; Travels in
Arabia, by Lieutenant Wellsted of the Indian navy, i. 243. Both mention
that the prisoners, not Mohammedans, were brought singly to the gangway,
where one of the pirates cut their throats, with the exclamation, Allah
Akbar ! God is great! According to Lieutenant Wellsted, the name,
properly Johasmis, was derived from Johasm, a Mohammedan saint, who
had pitched his tent on the promontory where their cliief port was built,
hence called Ras-al-Khaima, the Cape of Tents, i. 256.
316
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. as Wahabis, gave prompt assistance to the objects of
the expedition. The squadron arrived off Ras-al-
1809. Kbaima on the 12tb of November. Notwithstand¬
ing its designation of Ras or bead-land, the town
was found to be situated on a low sandy peninsula,
nearly a mile in length. The neck of the isthmus
was defended by a wall, and the sea-face by batteries
and entrenchments. It was also secure from the
near approach of vessels of war by the shallowness
of the water.
In consequence of this difficulty the bombardment
of the town was impracticable, and it was determined
to carry it by assault. By a skilful disposition the
landing of the troops on the neck of the isthmus
was effected at daybreak on the 13th of November;
and, in spite of a vigorous resistance, the wall was
escaladed. Guns were then brought up, and, under
the cover of their fire, the troops penetrated into the
town. All the principal houses, as usual in Asiatic
cities, were flat-roofed; and from their roofs, and
loop-holes in their walls, a murderous fire of match¬
locks checked for a while the progress of the assail¬
ants. Their perseverance, however, triumphed : the
town was abandoned by its surviving defenders, and
by two o'clock Ras-al-Khaima was in the possession
of the British. Although the place was filled with
valuable merchandize, the spoil of piratical expedi¬
tions, no plunder was permitted : the dwellings and
magazines werê set on fire, and the whole was con¬
sumed, together with forty-eight large daos and a
number of smaller vessels. Several towns of in¬
ferior note along the pirate coast shared the same
fortune. Some escaped it by the sacrifice of their
destruction of pirate towns. 317
boats, but in general the Arabs exhibited striking book i.
proofs of their national spirit. At the attack of the
castle of Shinas, in particular, the most determined isos.
resistance was encountered. After a breach had
been made, and the place was carried, the garrison
retiring into two of the towers refused to surrender.
Offers of quarter were made repeatedly to them in
vain. They maintained an unceasing fire upon their
enemies, and tossed back with the most deliberate
resolution the hand-grenades and fire-balls showered
upoif them without giving them time to explode.
Guns were brought to bear upon their defences, and
the towers soon became a mass of ruins. At length
one of the number gave himself up, and through
his agency his companions were induced to believe
that their lives would be spared, and to desist from
a resistance which had been animated by a notion
that no more mercy would be shown to them than
they were accustomed to exercise towards their cap¬
tives.^ Above four hundred were killed. The others
were protected with difficulty from the fury of the
troops of the Imam of Muscat, of whom four thousand
had joined the detachment, and who mostly belonged
to a tribe which was at deadly feud with the Joas-
mis. The place was delivered to the Imam. At
Luft, also, on the island of Kishme, a desperate op¬
position was experienced, by which an officer and
ten men were killed, and many of the men were
wounded.
' " After the destruction of one of their forts, several of the Arabs were
brought on board our ships as prisoners: while uncertain of their fate, and
before their wounds were dressed, they were asked what fate they antici¬
pated. ' The same immediate death as we should have inflicted on you had
your foilune been ours,' was the stern and characteristic reply."—Well-
sted's Travels, i. 219.
318
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. The success of these operations struck a salutary
terror into the pirate tribes of the coast of Oman,
1809. and procured for some years security for the com¬
merce of the Persian Gulph. The habits, the
native daring, and the fanaticism of these barbarians,
gradually, however, resumed their influence, and
impelled them to the revival of their predatory
courses, which provoked a severer chastisement and
more effectual suppression. This will be the subject
of a future narrative. The armament employed on
the present occasion returned to Bombay, and re¬
ceived the merited acknowledgments of the local
and supreme Governments.^
While thus busily and anxiously engaged in ap¬
peasing internal dissension, and in asserting the
ascendancy of the British empire of India over the
nations of Asia, the attention of Lord ISIinto was
earnestly fixed upon objects of European as well as
of Indian interest growing out of the war which
raged in the Western hemisphere. Upon the occu¬
pation of Portugal by the French, and the flight of
the Prince Regent to Brazil, the Bengal Govern¬
ment received orders from England to take military
occupation of the Portuguese settlements in the
East, to prevent their following the fate of the
parent country. Goa had some time previously been
partly under the protection of the British troops,
the civil administration being left entirely to the
Portuguese authorities; and it was deemed expedient
to provide in a similar manner for the security of
' Asiatic Annual Registers, vol.xi. Chron. 161, and vol.xii. Cliron. 122;
Account of the Expedition against the Pirates of the Gulph of Persia in
1809 ; Asiatic Monthly Journal, vol. ii. 341.
expedition to macao. 319
Macao. A small expedition was accordingly em- book i.
barked in June and July from Madras and Calcutta,
tbe troops of which were commanded by Major I809.
Weguelin. of the Bengal European regiment, and
the ships by Rear-Admiral Drury.' The Madras
division, with the Admiral, arrived off Macao on the
11th September. Their coming, was unexpected,
and by no means acceptable to their allies. Re¬
luctant to part with any portion of their brief autho¬
rity, and fearful of giving offence to the Chinese,
the Portuguese authorities availed themselves of the
absence of instructions from their own Co^rt to
resist as long as they could the disembarkation of
the troops. Fortified with the sanction of the Vice¬
roy of Goa, and determined to execute the instruc¬
tions of the Government of Bengal, Admiral Drury
disregarded the remonstrances and procrastination
of the Governor of Macao ; and, by landing the
troops without his acquiescence, extorted from him
a reluctant assent to the military possession of the
defences of the town.
There was, however, a still more potential voice to
be consulted—that of the Chinese. In some mea¬
sure instigated by the intrigues of the Portuguese,
but still more by becoming feelings of national
dignity, the provincial Mandarins immediately ob¬
jected in the strongest terms to the landing of the
British troops. The Select Committee of Supra-
' The troops from Madras consisted of two companies of his Majesty's
30th régiment, and were embarked on the Russell and Greyhound ships
of war : the former of which can-led the Admiral. From Bengal, two com¬
panies of the European regiment and six hundred Sipahis were embarked
in transports, and his Majesty's vessels Dover, Phaeton, Jaseur, and Dé¬
daigneux.
320
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. cargoes had induced the Governor-General to he-
lleve that the Chinese would be indifferent to the
1809. temporary occupation of Macao, and would consider
it immaterial whether it was guarded by the troops
of Portugal or Great Britain. They had not, how¬
ever, ascertained the sentiments of the Chinese, and
their conjectures were erroneous. The local officers
were still more vigorously upheld by their principals
at Canton ; and the Viceroy, declaring that the un¬
licensed entrance of foreign soldiers into the terri¬
tories of the Celestial dynasty was a violation of
the lay^s of the empire, commanded their immediate
withdrawal. It was in vain urged that INIacao had
been ceded to the Portuguese, that the English
came as their allies, and that their only purpose was
to defend it against the attacks of their common
enemy the French. The Viceroy replied, that Macao
was in all respects a part of the empire, that the
British should have applied for permission to the
Emperor before they landed their troops, and that it
was as absurd as it was disrespectful to presume
that their aid was required to protect any part of
the Emperor's dominions from foreign aggression.
He repeated his orders for the re-emharkation of
the troops ; and, finding that obedience was delayed,
first put a stop to the trade with the. Company's
ships, several of which were at the time taking in
cargoes, and then prohibited their being furnished
with provisions and supplies.
Thinking that the objections of the Government
might be overcome by persisting in the course pur¬
sued, the supracargoes prevailed upon the Admiral,
against his own judgment, to repeat his applications.
opposition of the chinese.
321
and to repair in person to Canton, and demand an book i.
interview with the Viceroy. That functionary,
though he declined to receive the Admiral, sent j809.
some IVIandarins of rank to confer with his officers,
and wrote a reply to his letters. The tenor of his
declarations was unchanged : the withdrawal of the
troops was insisted on as preliminary to all other dis¬
cussion. The Admiral returned indignantly to his
ships, and, still acting upon the suggestions of the
supracargoes, threatened to blockade the port, and
comirtanded all the Europeans to leave Canton.
These measures were unavailing. An order arrived '
from Pekin, whither information of the transaction
had been dispatched, approving of the Viceroy's
conduct, and commanding him, if necessary, to expel
the intruders by force. The imperial commands
were communicated to the Admiral : troops began
to collect in considerable numbers along the shores
of the Canton river, boats passing to the ships were
fired upon, and everything indicated hostile proceed¬
ings unless the armament was withdrawn. Major
Weguelin, who, with the Bengal detachment, had
joined on the 20th October, concurred with the
Admiral in conceiving that they were not warranted
in carrying their instructions into effect, in direct
contravention of the commands of the Emperor ;
and the supracargoes, sensible that further obstinacy
might lead to more serious consequences than they
had anticipated, at last counselled acquiescence.
The troops were accordingly re-embarked on the
23rd December, after three months had been ex¬
pended in the vain attempt to overcome the reason¬
able opposition of the Chinese to the unauthorized
vol. i. y
322 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. establishment of foreign troops upon their coasts.
The reason of the case was not only clearly on their
1809. side, but their conduct exhibited a remarkable com¬
bination of firmness and forbearance. However un¬
yielding in their resolution, no violence was resorted
to ; and, as soon as the ships and troops had de¬
parted, the trade was resumed, and carried on as
quietly as if no interruption had occurred.
The failure of the expedition to IVIacao was more
than redeemed by the success which attended the
employment of the resources of British India in the
furtherance of other objects of greater national im¬
portance ; and it was reserved for Lord ISIinto's ad¬
ministration to accomplish the extirpation of those
remains of the colonial possessions of France in the
Eastern hemisphere that had so long been suffered
to inflict humiliation and injury upon the subjects
of a power which had only to will their extinction,
and they ceased to be. The measures which led to
the conquest of the Isles of France and of Java
have now to be described.
It has been already noticed, that, notwithstanding
the presence of a powerful naval armament in the
Indian ocean,^ armed vessels issuing from the French
islands of Älauritius and Bourbon had throughout
the war preyed upon the maritime trade of India
almost with impunity: occasionally, indeed, they
fell victims to their audacity,® and were made to
' In 1807, Admiral Pellew had under his orders, in different parts of Ihe
Indian seas, six ships of the line, sixteen frigates, and six sloops.
® Among the most gallant actions was one fought in the Balasore Roads
in February, 1798, between La Forte, a frigate of the largest class, and
the Sybille of forty-four guns. Captain Cooke, which ended in the capture
of the former, although Captain Cooke was killed ; and one between La
Piedmontaise and San Fiorenzo, of about equal force, in March, 1808. In
french cruizers.
323
feel the superiority of British skill and prowess ; book i.
but although they swept the seas from Madagascar
to Java, and sometimes carried their depredations I809.
to the immediate vicinity of the British harbours,'
they were for the most part singularly fortunate in
avoiding the track of English frigates and men-of-
war.® Their principal spoil arose from the capture
of the merchant-ships employed in the trade of the
Eastern seas, whose cargoes, often of considerable
value, they carried for sale to the ports from which
they »had sallied ; but they also inflicted serious
damage upon the Company's commerce, and from
time to time valuable Indiamen fell into their
hands.® The equipments of these vessels, which
were well armed, and on the outward-hound voyage
well manned, enabled them sometimes to resist suc¬
cessfully the attacks of their enemies ; and, on one
memorable occasion, a fleet of merchant-ships re¬
turning from China, under its senior captain, Cap-
this also, which was a desperately contested engagement, renewed for three
days successively, and terminating in the capture of La Piedmontaise, the
commander of the English frigate, Captain Hardinge, fell.—Asiatic Annual
Register, vol. ii. Chron. 87, and vol. x. Chron. 191. The official reports are
given in both.
' The Kent East-Indiaman, Captain Rivington, was captured at the
mouth of the Hoogly river by the Confiance privateer, M. Surcouf, in Octo¬
ber, 1800, after an action of an hour and forty-seven minutes : her captain
was killed. M. Surcouf for several years was distinguished for his intre¬
pidity and successful enterprise i most of his prizes, and they were nume¬
rous, were taken in the upper part of the bay and along the Madi-as coast,
—Asiatic Annual Register, vol. ii. Chron. 141.
' The merchants of Calcutta presented a petition to his Majesty's Go¬
vernment, imputing to the navy some degree of disinclination to exert them¬
selves for the protection of the ti-ade.
® It was competed in October, 1807, that in the course of six weeks the
losses by capture to the port of Calcutta alone exceeded thirty lakhs of
rupees (£300,000). Between 1792 and 1810, the Company lost thirty
vessels by capture : the cargoes of twenty-four of the number are stated to
have been worth above ü800,000.—Commons' Committee, 1830 ; First
Report, App. vi.
Y 2
324 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. tain Dance,^ beat off a French squadron of vessels
^ of war commanded by Admiral Linois. In some
1809. actions between single vessels a similar result re¬
flected honour upon the Company's officers : but in
general the merchantmen were unequal to contend
with a French cruizer of respectable force ; especially
on their homeward voyage, when they had been
weakened by the impressment of many of their best
men on board his JNIajesty's ships of war. Latterly
cases of this nature had become more frequent. In
1809 the Company's regular Indiamen, Europe and
Streatham, were taken on their homeward voyage
by the French frigate La Caroline ; and the Charlton
and United Kingdom, by La Venus. In the fol¬
lowing year the Windham, Ceylon, and Astell, out¬
ward bound, were met off the island of Johanna by
the French frigates Bellone and JMinerve, and Victor
corvette, and after an action which lasted from 2 p.m.
until dark the two former struck. The Astell
escaped under cover of the night. It was high time
to rescue the commerce of India from the risk and
peril to which it was exposed, and to vindicate the
pretensions of the British na^y to the undisputed
sovereignty of the ocean.
The most obvious means of paralysing the energies
of the naval poAver of France, which still lingered in
the East, was to take from her ships those places in
' The China fleet, consisting of sixteen ships, on the I4th of February,
1804, ofi" Palo Aor, in the Straits of Malacca, fell in with the French squadron
under Admiral Linois, consisting of the Marengo of seventy-four guns, two
frigates of forty-four guns each, and two brigs. On the 15th, after some
manoeuvring and the exchange of a short fire between the French line and
the headmost ships. Admiral Linois stood off under all sail, deterred from a
closer contest by the gallant bearing of the China ships.—Asiatic Annual
Register, vol. vi. Chron. 102; Brenton's Naval History, iii. 336.
expedition against rodriguez. 325
the Indian ocean where they found a shelter and book I;
CHAP. VI.
obtained supplies. This might have been effected
at a much earlier date ; but, for reasons not easily
comprehensible, the Company's Governments had
been interdicted from engaging in any expedition
against the islands, as involving a certain expense
both for their reduction and maintenance a piece
of parsimonious prodigality, in which even the pecu¬
niary saving bore no ratio to the pecuniary loss ;
as the value of the captured ships, and the charges
of tfieir convoy and equipments, far outbalanced in
the end the cost which in the beginning would have
been incurred by the conquest of the colonies. The
views of the home Administration at this period
underwent a change, and the Government of Bengal
and the chief naval officers in the Eastern seas were
authorized to adopt arrangements of a more enter¬
prising description. It was at first proposed to at¬
tempt nothing more than a rigorous blockade of the
Isle of France and Bourbon by the squadron at the
Cape of Good Hope under Admiral Bertie; but, as
this was impracticable as long as the blockading
ships depended upon the distant settlements of the
Cape or of Bombay for their supplies, it was deter¬
mined to occupy the small island of Rodriguez,
lying about one hundred leagues east of the Isle of
France, and establish upon it magazines, with stores
and provisions for the refitting and revictualling of
the blockading squadron. A small force of two
hundred Europeans and an equal number of natives,
' " At the commencement of the present war, intimation had been given
to the East India Company to guard them against expending large sums in
expeditions against the French islands."—Speech of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, 10th January, 1812 ; Hansard's Debates.
326
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Keating, was
dispatched from Bombay under convoy of his Ma-
1809. jesty's ship Belliqueux, Commodore Byng. They
arrived off the island on the 4th of August, and
found upon it only three Frenchmen, engaged in
growing vegetables for the use of the larger islands.
Rodriguez was about fifteen miles long from east to
west, and seven from north to south. Wood and
water were plentiful, and various vegetables were
raised. The stores were landed, and additional sup¬
plies were sent for ; and Colonel Keating adopted
all necessary precautions in order to strengthen him¬
self in his position. The captures made in 1809
and 1810, however, showed that, whatever benefits
might ultimately result from the occupation of Rod¬
riguez, it was not followed by that of an effectual
blockade of the French islands. French frigates
had continued to sail from their ports, and returned
to them with splendid and valuable trophies of
victory.
Although the position thus taken up proved in¬
adequate to the entire prevention of maritime de¬
predation, yet it had the advantage of enabling the
English men of war to remain more steadily and
continuously in those seas, cramping the enemy's
operations, occasioning frequent distress in the
islands for want of supplies, and affording a salient
point from which to harass and annoy them by oc¬
casional demonstrations or actual inroads. With
this purpose, as well as to determine how far ulte¬
rior and more definite measures were practicable,
the forces at Rodriguez, both military and naval,
were strengthened, and in September 1809 an ex-
descent on bourbon.
327
pedition proceeded from Rodriguez to the Isle de book i.
Bourbon.
A body of four hundred European and native I809.
troops were embarked in his Majesty's ships Ne¬
reide and Otter, and the Company's cruizer Wasp.
Off Port Louis, in the Isle of France, they were
joined by his Majesty's ships the Raisonnable, Com¬
modore Rowley, and the Sirius, Captain Pym. The
whole proceeded to Bourbon, off the eastern ex¬
tremity of which they arrived on the morning of the
20th'of September. In the evening a detachment,
raised to six hundred men by the addition of seamen
and marines, was disembarked to the southward of
Point de Galotte, about seven miles from St. Paul,
the chief town on the western side of the island.
The disembarkation was unperceived by the enemy;
and the troops had marched, and were in possession
of two of the principal batteries on the east of the
town, commanding the shipping, before their ap¬
proach was apprehended. On the advance of a
column to storm a third battery, they came upon
the garrison, now collected, and reinforced by a
hundred men of the troops of the line serving on
board the frigate La Caroline, then lying in the bay
with her prizes. The position of the enemy was
strong, and was supported by eight pieces of artil¬
lery. Their defence was resolute, and it was not
until the main body of the assailants was concen¬
trated that they gave way. By half-past eight, the
whole of the batteries, and the town and magazines,
were in the hands of the English ; and, the escape of
the ships being prevented by the squadron, they
were obliged to surrender. The French ships taken
328
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. were the Caroline frigate, of forty-six guns, and
some small trading vessels ; but, besides a gun-brig
1809. and some small traders, two Indiamen, the Streatham
and Europe, were recovered ; the troops were then
re-embarked.
Upon hearing of this attack, a body of troops
under the command of General Des Bruslys, the
governor of Bourbon, marched from St. Denis, and
made their appearance on the hills on the evening
of the 23rd. Finding St. Paul in possession of
the English, they retired during the night, render¬
ing it useless to continue the preparations which
had been made for the relanding of the troops. A
convention was then concluded between the Eng¬
lish commander and the commandant of St. Paul
for a suspension of hostilities for three days, during
which the English were to remain unmolested in
the occupation of the town. The death of Des
Bruslys, who destroyed himself,^ occasioned the pro¬
longation of the armistice ; during which the public
property was, agreeably to the stipulated conven¬
tion, put on board the ships ; and, the objects of the
expedition having been accomplished, the squadron
with the captured vessels returned to Rodriguez.®
The success which had attended the proceedings
of so feeble an armament confirmed the determina¬
tion of the Government of Bengal to attempt, with¬
out waiting for specific instructions from home, the
' He left a paper intimating his having committed suicide, to avoid
death on the scaffold ; and recommending his wife and children to Provi¬
dence, and those who could feel for them. His family, at the request of
his widow, was sent with a cartel to the Mauritius.
® Official report, and other details ; Asiatic Annual Register, vol. xi.
thron. 155.
expedition against bourbon.
329
complete reduction of the French islands ; and in book i.
the beginning of 1810 a reinforcement of sixteen
hundred European and as many native troops was isio.
dispatched to Colonel Keating, to enable him to
undertake the complete subjugation of the Isle de
Bourbon. The expedition arrived at Rodriguez on
the 20th of June, but from the unfavourable state
of the weather they were unable to proceed to their
destination until the 3rd of July. They were then
conveyed to Bourbon under convoy of a strong
squadron of his Majesty's navy, consisting of the
Sirius, the Iphigenia, the Magicienne, and the Ne¬
reide, commanded by Commodore Rowley, in the
Boadicea, and arrived off the point of debarkation
on the 6th. Colonel Keating on this occasion had
determined to proceed at once against St. Denis,
the capital, in the hope of preventing protracted
operations in the interior of the country, consisting
chiefly of rugged, and in part inaccessible, moun¬
tains. The squadron accordingly sailed to the north¬
ern coast, where the forces, previously distributed
into four brigades, were appointed to land at two
different points ; the first brigade, under Lieute¬
nant-Colonel Fraser, being directed to debark at
Grande Chaloupe, and proceed by the mountains
ajrainst the west side of the town ; whilst the other
o '
three brigades, under Colonel Keating himself, were
intended to land on the east of it, at Riviere de
Pluies, and to cross the rear of the town to the
river St. Denis.
About two o'clock on the 7th of July, the ships
having reached their stations, the landing of the
principal divisions was commenced, and about three
330
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. hundred men of the 3rd and 4th brigades, under
Colonels Campbell and Macleod, with a party of
1810. seamen under Captain Willoughby of the Nereide,
were put on shore. The weather, which had hitherto
been moderate, became suddenly tempestuous : the
surf rose with such violence that the boats were
stove in pieces on nearing the shore, and the disem¬
barkation of the rest of the troops became impracti¬
cable. The division on shore was necessarily left
without support; but, after a communication from
the commander-in-chief,^ Colonel Macleod advanced
to a battery on the Breton river at Ste. Marie,
which he carried, and where he was unmolested
during the night.
The attempt to land at this spot was seen from
the town, but the debarkation was considered to be
impossible, from the fury of the surf, and the prin¬
cipal attention of the enemy was directed to the
division under Colonel Fraser. Flis brigade, which
was composed of his Majesty's 86th regiment and
part of the 6th regiment of Madras native infantry,
with a small detail of artillery and pioneers, on
board of his Majesty's ship Sirius, had been more
fortunate. They reached their destination off Grande
Chaloupe early on the forenoon of the 7th July,
and immediately effected a landing without loss, al¬
though exposed to a harassing fire from the light
troops of the enemy. As soon as the landing was
accomplished. Colonel Fraser pushed on with his
Europeans alone to the vicinity of the town, and
' Lieutenant Foulstone, of his Majesty's 69tli, volunteered to be the
bearer of Colonel Keating s orders : he was carried in a boat to the edge of
the surf, and then swam through it to the shore.
island surrendered.
331
occupied the heights above it to the westward, so book i.
as to cut off all communication between the capital
and St. Paul. In the mean time the Magicienne I810.
and Boadicea, with the 2nd and 4th brigades, and
the chief military stores and artillery, finding little
chance of effecting a landing at Riviere, sailed to
Grande Chaloupe in the night, and early on the 8th
landed the troops on board. Before they could
move forward in force, the business had been de¬
cided. The courage and activity of Colonel Eraser's
division had reaped the full harvest of that good
fortune which had given them the lead in the attack
upon St. Denis.
Having been joined during the night of the 7th
by the rest of his force. Colonel Fraser on the
morning of the 8th, leaving the Sipahis to protect
his rear, descended from the hill with the Euro¬
peans, and soon fell in with the enemy, drawn up in
two columns, each with a field-piece, on the plain,
supported by the heavy cannon of a strong redoubt
upon their flank. On reaching the plain, the regi¬
ment was ordered to charge, when they immediately
rushed upon the enemy with the bayonet, and
broke them. The French attempted to form be¬
hind the parapet of the redoubt, but they were
pushed so closely that they were unable to make
good their footing, and left the redoubt in the pos¬
session of the British, who turned some of the guns
found in it against the town, and were enabled
more effectually to reply to the batteries by which
the latter was defended. At four o'clock in the
afternoon a flag of truce was sent out from the
town to negociate for its surrender. By that time
332
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the bulk of the expedition, which had been sent on
to Grande Chaloupe, had arrived, and advanced to
J810. St. Denis, whilst the 3rd brigade had also come
up from the east to take its part in the assault.^
Dispositions for storming were made, when it was
prevented by the submission of the commandant.
Colonel St. Susanne. By the terms of the capitu¬
lation which ensued, the whole of the island was
ceded to the British with all public property : the
troops of the line surrendered themselves prisoners
of war, to be sent to the Cape or to England. Co¬
lonel St. Susanne was allowed to proceed to the
Isle of France on parole ; and Mr. Farquhar, of the
Bengal Civil service, who had been appointed by
Lord Minto in the confidence of success to the go¬
vernment of the island, assumed charge of its admi¬
nistration. Proclamations were issued by him, as¬
suring to the inhabitants the secure possession of
their property on their remaining peaceable and
obedient, and promising them the provisional ob¬
servance of the established forms of laAv and go¬
vernment, and the maintenance of the established
religion of the colony. This important acquisition
was effected with little loss ; or eighteen killed and
fifty-nine wounded. One officer only, Lieutenant
J. S. Munro, of his Majesty's 56th, was amongst the
former.^
The capture of Bourbon, so creditable to both
the military and naval forces employed, for the
' There is a slight difference between the report of Colonel Keating and
that of Colonel Fraser : the latter says that Colonel Drummond joined him
at four with the 2nd brigade ; the former, that he himself arrived at that
time, and commanded dispositions to be made for a general attack.
Asiatic Annual Register, vol. xii ; Oflicial details, Chron. pp. 27,117.
naval disasters.
333
judgment by wliicli it had been planned and the book i.
spirit by which it had been accomplished, was fol- '
lowed by a series of singular disasters suffered by isio.
the navy, ascribable to no deficiency of courage or
conduct, but to an imperfect acquaintance with the
scene of action, and the want of sufiiciently expe¬
rienced pilotage. The achievements which were
projected would no doubt have been successful,
could they have been executed with the prompti¬
tude with which they were conceived.
Thn operations against Bourbon had been carried
on -without any attempt at interruption from the
Isle of France, in consequence of the absence of the
principal naval strength of the French. On the
20th of August the Bellone, JNIinerve, and Victor
returned, bringing with them the captured India-
men, the Windham and Ceylon. Finding Port St.
Louis blockaded, they made for the harbour of
Grand Port, also called Port Impérial, on the south¬
eastern or windward side of the island. On near-
ing the Isle de la Passe,^ a small islet with a fort
lying off" the mouth of the harbour about three
miles from the land, which had been taken, and
was now occupied by a small detachment from
Bourbon, the French squadron was surprised by a
hostile fire from the guns of the fort, and of the
Nereide frigate, which had been stationed off the
island. With some loss the French vessels made
their way into the harbour; but their prize, the
Windham, not keeping up with the rest, was recap¬
tured by Captain Pym with the boats of the Sirius,
1 It had been taken on the 14th of August by the boats of the Sirius and
Iphigenia, and was garrisoned by one hundred and thirty men from Bourbon.
834
history of british india.
book i. which was cruizing in the neighbourhood in main-
tenance of the blockade. Sending off his prize to
1810. Bourbon, Captain Pym, in communication with Cap¬
tain Willoughby of the Nereide, determined to at¬
tack the French ships in the harbour, and on the
22nd of August the two frigates stood in for that
purpose. Unfortunately the Sirius grounded, and
could not be got off until the next day, when the
Iphigenia and Magicienne, under Captains Lambert
and Curtis, arrived to take part in the engagement.
The delay that had occurred had afforded the gover¬
nor, General Decaen, time to reinforce the crews
of the vessels with seamen and soldiers, and to
strengthen the batteries which had been erected on
this part of the coast since the capture of the Isle
de la Passe, and which mounted sixty guns. These
were fully manned, and were supported by all the
troops that could be assembled, and a numerous
body of militia and volunteers.
The firing commenced at a little after 5 p.m. on the
23rd. The Nereide anchored within half pistol-shot
of the Bellone and Victor. The Magicienne, in fol¬
lowing her, grounded in such an attitude that very
few of hep» guns could bear upon the Minerve, to
whom she was opposed ; but the Iphigenia anchored
on her larboard quarter, and relieved her of her
antagonist. The Sirius again unluckily took the
ground nearly out of gun-shot, and was disabled
from rendering effectual aid. The French ships
were soon driven out of their line, but into a posi¬
tion which enabled them to work their guns with
advantage. Their loss of men was constantly re¬
paired by troops from the shore ; and the batteries
vessels destroyed.
835
and musketry on land poured a galling fire upon book i.
the British vessels, which were incapable of manage-
ment. isio.
The contest was nevertheless continued until after
dark. At ten o'clock, the Nereide, which also had
previously grounded, having most of her guns dis¬
abled, the greater part of her crew killed or wounded,
and being exposed to the fire of the land-batteries as
well as of the shipping, struck her colours but the
French, not noticing or not perceiving that this was
the case, continued firing upon her for some hours,
until not a man on board remained unhm-t. The
firing continued with occasional interruption through
the night. On the morning of the 24th, all hope
of success being necessarily abandoned, it was deter¬
mined to endeavour to retreat. The Magicienne
being unmanageable, and on the point of sinking,
was quitted by her crew, who set her on fire and
retired on hoard the Iphigenia. On the 25th the
Iphigenia warped out of the action, and attempted
to extricate the Sirius; hut, finding this impracti¬
cable, she also was set on fire in the evening, and
exploded. The Iphigenia, the sole remaining ship,
contrived by extraordinary exertion to get hack to
the Isle de la Passe, where she landed the sur¬
viving crews of the other vessels. In this situation,
without provisions, and surrounded by a vastly supe-
> The report published by order of the Government of Bengal, Calcutta
Government Gazette, 18th Oct. 1810, states that the Nereide drifted on
shore, and was taken possession of by the enemy: the account in the text
is from the Nereide's log.—Brenton's Naval History, iv. 468. The French
account asserts that her colours were flying at daybreak, but that informa¬
tion of her helpless situation had been previously received from a French
prisoner on board, who made his escape and swam to the Minerve, and
that from that time she was not fired on.
336
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. rior force of the enemy,—the Astrea, Venus, and
La Manche frigates, with the Entreprenant sloop,
1810, having on the 27th come round from Port Louis,
whilst those recently engaged were rapidly refitting,
—Captain Lambert found himself under the necessity
of capitulating, and surrendered to Captain Hamelin,
the commodore of the French squadron. It was sti¬
pulated that the crews should be prisoners of war, hut
to be sent immediately on parole or in exchange to
one of his Britannic JNIajesty's forts. The convention
was ratified by General Decaen, the governor of the
Isle of France, so far, that he consented to send the
prisoners, after the expiration of a month, to England
or the Cape of Good Hope upon condition of their
not serving again until exchanged.^
The only British ship of war now left of the
blockading squadron was the Boadicea ; and Com¬
modore Rowley was unable to prevent the blockade
of the Isle de Bourbon, which was established by
the French frigates Astrea and Iphigenia, who inter¬
cepted several of the transports arriving with troops
and stores for the destined expedition against the
Isle of France. On the 12th of September, how¬
ever, the Africaine frigate. Captain Corbett, arrived
from England ; and Commodore Rowley, thus rein¬
forced, immediately put to sea. The French fri-
' Asiatic Annual Register, vol.xii ; History, p. 8, Chron.65 : Brenton's
Naval History, iv. 465. A translation of General Decaen's official pro¬
clamation after the action is published in the Calcutta Government Gazette
Extraordinary, 25th November, 1810. Some gasconading was excusable
on such an occasion, but in the main the account is candid and temperate :
the loss of the French is probably undervalued at four officers and thirty-
three men killed, and one hundred and twelve wounded; the latter included
M. Du Ferrée, the captain of the Bellone. In the Nereide alone one hun¬
dred and sixteen were killed, and many of the wounded died on landing.
Captain Willoughby was wounded, but recovered with the loss of an eye.
CHANGES OF FORTUNE.
337
gates fled, and the English gave chase. The Boa- book i.
dicea being a heavy sailer, the French vessels soon
shot far a-head, followed closely by the Africaine, jgio.
Captain Corhett, apprehending the escape of the
enemy, brought them to action, whilst the Boa-
dicea was five miles astern. The wind died away.
The Africaine was overpowered : the captain was
killed, and the senior lieutenant was obliged to
strike his colours. The balance of strength again
turned in favour of the French ; but the Boadicea,
being* joined by the Otter sloop and Staunch gun-
brig, continued the chase. . The enemy's frigates
were little inclined to renew the contest ; and, having
taken out such of her crew as were unhurt, they
abandoned the Africaine in a crippled condition.
Rowley returned with her to St. Paul on the 18th
of September.
Commodore Rowley had not been many hours at
anchor when three sail appeared in the offing, two
of which had suffered in their masts and rigging.
He immediately made sail in pursuit of them, at¬
tended by the Otter and Staunch. The vessel that
appeared not to be disabled had another ship in
tow, which she cast off, to save herself by flight.
The third, having no top-masts, bore up to assist her
consort, but was soon obliged to strike to the superior
force of the Boadicea ; whilst the crippled vessel
yielded at once to the Otter. The former proved to
be the French frigate Venus ; the latter, the Ceylon,
an armed Indiaman from Madras, which had been
captured that morning, after a smart engagement,
by the Venus and the Victor corvette, the vessel
that had escaped. The resolute resistance made by
VOL. I. z
338
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the Ceylon, and the damage she had inflicted upon
CHAP. VI. Venus, were the main causes of her own re-
1810. covery, and of the capture of the Venus. On board
the Ceylon was Major-General Abercrombie, who
commanded the expedition now on its way from
India.
The struggle thus far honourably maintained by
the French was now soon to terminate, and an
effort proportioned to the object was about to put
an end to their maritime depredations in the seas of
India. Shortly after the action last noticed, or early
in October, Vice-Admiral Bertie in the Nisus frigate
arrived from the Cape of Good Hope in the bay of
St. Paul. Great exertions had been made to refit
and equip the vessels which had been captured ; and
eleven days after the Vice-Admiral's arrival he was
able to put to sea with the Boadicea, Nisus, Afri¬
caine, Venus, now named the Nereide, and the
Ceylon, well mannèd and supplied. With this
squadron he proceeded to Port Louis, off which
he arrived on the 19th October. Finding that of
the enemy's vessels lying in the harbour not more
than two were ready for sea, he left the Boadicea,
Nisus, and Nereide to maintain the blockade, and
resumed his voyage to Rodriguez, to join the expe¬
dition which had been directed to rendezvous at that
island. On his way he fell in with the squadron
from India under Rear-Admiral Drury, proceeding
to the same destination, and in company with them
arrived at Rodriguez on the 3rd of November. The
division from Bombay was already present, and that
from Madras made its appearance three days after¬
wards. It was not until the 21st October that the
landing on the isle of france.
339
armament from Bengal arrived. As the season was book i.
far advanced, and the period was approaching when
the winds in these latitudes become variable and I810.
violent hurricanes occur, the commander of the ex¬
pedition considered it of the utmost importance that
no further time should be lost ; and accordingly pre¬
parations had been made for the embarkation of the
troops that had previously arrived, and for the supply
of the vessels from Bengal with such stores as they
might require without their dropping anchor. As
soon as this operation was effected, the whole of
the fleet was under weigh, and early on the 29 th
November came to anchor off the point selected for
debarkation in Grande Baye, near the north-east
extremity of the island, about fifteen miles north
from the capital, where it had been previously ascer¬
tained that a fleet might be anchored in the narrow
passage between a small island called from its out¬
line Gunner's Quoin, and the main-land, and where
openings in the reefs allowed many boats to enter
abreast. A landing in force at this place had been
deemed impracticable, as it was supposed that ves¬
sels of burthen could neither make their way
through the reefs of rocks which formed the ex¬
terior barrier of the bay, nor find anchorage outside,
from the great depth of water close to the rocks.
It had been, however, ascertained by the officers of
the navy, that a passage between the rocks could
be accomplished, and that a fleet might lie at anchor
in the situation to which it had been actually con¬
ducted. No opposition was experienced, and the
whole of the force was landed by three o'clock in
the afternoon. The troops had been distributed into
z 2
340
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. five brigades. ^ The first, under Colonel Picton,
CHAP. VI. Qf ]jjg Majesty's 12th and 22nd regiments,
1810. and the right wing of the IVIadras volunteer bat¬
talion ; the second, under Colonel Gibbs, of his Ma¬
jesty's 59th, with three hundred of the 89th and
a company of the 87th, and of the left wing of
the Madras volunteers ; the third brigade, under
Lieutenant-Colonel Kelso, was formed of the 14th
regiment and the second battalion of the Bengal
volunteers ; and the fourth, commanded by Colonel
Macleod, of the 69th regiment, of the Madras native
flank battalion, with three hundred marines ; the
fifth brigade was composed of his Majesty's 65th, a
troop of the 26th dragoons, and the first battalion
of the Bengal native volunteers. There was also a
reserve division, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel
Keating, comprising the 84th regiment, the flank
companies of some other corps, and the Bombay
native troops. These, with the artillery and a large
body of seamen, formed a force of about eleven
thousand men. To oppose them General Decaen
had not more than two thousand Europeans, includ¬
ing the grews of the ships of war, a considerable
number of colonists, and a body of African slaves,
without discipline, and badly armed.
As soon as the troops could be formed, the force
' The European force was composed of his Majesty's regiments, the 12th,
14th, 22nd, SGth, 59th, 65th, 69th, 84th, and 89th, the Bengal and Madras
artillery, and a company of the 26th dragoons ; six thousand three hundred
strong : and two thousand seamen and marines. The native troops from
Bengal and Madras consisted of four volunteer battalions and a party of
Madras pioneers, three thousand men : altogether, eleven thousand three
hundred. The squadron consisted of the Illustrious 74, and the frigates
Cornwallis, Africaine, Boadicea, Nisus, Clorinde, Cornelia, Menelaus,
Psyche, Ceylon, Nereide, Phoebe, Doris, and Vesper, besides sloops and
gun-brigs.
march of the army.
341
moved towards Port Louis. The road followed the book i.
direction of the coast for the first five miles, passing
through a thick wood much entangled with brush- isio.
wood, through which the men made their way with
great difficulty and fatigue. No enemy was seen
until, on clearing the wood, the heads of the co¬
lumns were fired upon by a small picquet, by which
Lieutenant-Colonel Keating, Lieutenant Ashe, and
some men of the advance, were wounded. The
enemy were quickly dispersed, and greater injury
was inflicted by the excessive heat of the weather
and want of water. Several of the officers and men
employed in the laborious duty of bringing on the
artillery and stores sunk under their exertions, and
fell dead on the march.^ After clearing the wood,
the army bivouacked for the night.
On the following morning the march was resumed,
with the purpose of reaching the capital ; but the
excessive heat and scanty supply of water compelled
General Abercrombie to halt, about five miles short
of Port Louis upon the bed of the Pamplemousse
river. On the 31st the force again advanced, and,
soon after it had moved, came upon the enemy, who
had taken up an advantageous position in front with
several field-pieces. The European flank battalion,
which formed the advance, was led against them by
Colonel Campbell of the 33rd ; and, by a spirited
charge, put them to flight, with the loss of their
guns. The success was dearly purchased ; Colonel
Campbell, and Major O'Keefe of the 12th regiment,
being killed whilst gallantly leading their men to
' Among those who perished from heat and fatigue were Lieutenant Dove
of his Majesty's 14th, and Captain Yates of the City of London Indiaman.
342
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the charge. After the repulse of the enemy, the
army resumed its march, and drew up in front of the
1810. lines defending Port Louis, preparatory to an assault
on the following morning, whilst the ships of war,
which had now come round to the harbour, should
cannonade the town from the sea. This catastrophe
was prevented by the offer of General Decaen to
capitulate ; and, the terms of his surrender being
agreed upon, the Isle of France became subject to
the British crown. The advanced period of the
season rendering it unadvisable to protract the con¬
test, terms more favourable than were merited, al¬
though less so than those demanded,^ were granted.
The troops of the garrison and crews of the ships of
war were to be conveyed in English ships to Euro¬
pean France, instead of becoming prisoners of war ;
taking with them all property declared to be private.
The ships in the harbour, with all stores and public
property, fell to the captors. The inhabitants were
secured in the continuance of their religion, laws,
and customs.® Thus instantaneously disappeared the
fancied strength of the Isle of France when once
the vigour of British India emancipated itself from
the visionary obstacles which the selfish fears of the
British Cabinet had opposed, and the imperfect in¬
formation of the Indian Government had encouraged.
' Decaen had the efFrontei-y to demand that the French frigates, with all
their crews and appointments, should be relinquished for the conveyance of
the ti'oops to France. " Que pour ce transport je conserverai les quatre
frégates de S. M. l'Empereur, La Manche, La Bellone, L'Astrée, et La
Minerve, ainsi que les corvettes La Victoire et L'Entreprenante, avec leurs
officiers et équipages, armements et munitions, et approvisionnement." He
must have expected the reply, " Altogether inadmissible."—Calcutta Go¬
vernment Gcizette, February 9,1811.
^ Asiatic Annual Register, xii.; History, p. 15 : Calcutta Government Ga¬
zette, February 9th, 1811 : London Gazette Extraordinary,February 13,1811.
conquest of the dutch settlements.
343
The very effort that was ultimately made evinced booki.
CHAP* VI,
the strength of the misconception that had invested 1
the capture of the Mauritius with such unreal danger; isio.
and the conquest, although creditable to the spirit
with which it was undertaken, reflected but little
honour on the British arms. The Isle of Bom-bon
was restored to France at the peace. The Isle of
France, or the Mauritius, as it was originally desig¬
nated, is still subject to Great Britain.
The settlements of Holland in the Eastern Archi¬
pelago had never, even after their enforced submis¬
sion in common with the parent country to France,
afforded to any great extent the means of harassing
the trade of India. French privateers only occa¬
sionally haunted the roads of Batavia or cruized
amongst the islands of the Archipelago. Still, how¬
ever, they constituted a rallying point, which was
likely to become of more consideration after the de¬
struction of those asylums which lay more in the
route of the Indian trade ; and it was incompatible
with the interests of India and the policy of England
longer to permit the presence of an enemy in any
part of the Eastern hemisphere. The first measures
for this purpose that were sanctioned contemplated
only a rigorous blockade of Java and the Spice
islands ; but it was soon found that the instructions
of the home authorities, issued in ignorance both of
the localities of the islands and political relations of
India with the principalities on the east of the bay
of Bengal, were impracticable and mischievous.
The numerous and intricate channels among the
islands of the Archipelago could be effectually
blocked up only by the employment of the whole of
344
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the naval armament in the Indian seas ; and the eii-
forcement of laws so unintelligible to the plain sense
J 810. of the Burmese and ISIalays as those of blockade,
could have no other effect than that of irritating and
alarming them, and interrupting their traffic with
our own settlements, even if it did not lead to a
piratical warfare against the country trade. It was
judged, therefore, by Lord Älinto and Admiral
Drury to be the more safe as well as more honour¬
able plan to adopt a decided course, and, instead of
confining their attempts to an unavailing blockade
of the Dutch islands, attempt their annexation to the
Crown of England. No great difficulty in accom¬
plishing this object was anticipated; as, although
reinforcements had airived at Java from Europe, and
the island was commanded by an officer in the inte¬
rest of France, yet the JNIoluccas it was known were
indifferently prepared for resistance, and among the
Dutch colonists at Batavia there existed a strong
party who preferred open conquest by Britain to-their
insidious subjugation by the Emperor of France.
In conformity to these "\'iews, an expedition on
a small scale was fitted out from Madras against
the Molucca islands, consisting of his ISIajesty's
ships Dover, Cornwallis, and Samarang, having on
board part of the Madras European regiment and a
small body of artillery: the troops were commanded
by Captain Court, the squadron by Captain Tucker
of the Dover. They left Madras on the 9th October,
1809, and by the middle of the following February
arrived off the island of Amboyna, the most consider¬
able of the Dutch Spice islands and seat of govern¬
ment. llie vessels anchored off the town, situated
reduction of amboyna,
345
at the bottom of a small bay, beneath a line of book i.
low bills, and defended by batteries along the beach
as well as on some of the neighbouring heights, and isio.
by Fort Victoria, mounting a number of heavy ord¬
nance. As the elevations on the left and in the
rear of the town commanded its defences, it was
determined to carry them ; and, whilst the squadron
occupied the attention of the enemy by a vigorous
cannonade, the troops, aided by seamen and marines,
were landed on the right of the bay unnoticed. The
party consisted of about four hundred men, and were
divided into two bodies ; one led by Captain Phillips,
the other by Captain Court. The first stormed a
battery erected upon an elevation near at hand, the
hill of Wanitu, and carried it after a resolute resist¬
ance, in which the Dutch officer commanding the
post was killed. Captain Court's party had to make
a circuitous détour to the south of the town, and
were further delayed by the rugged surface of the
country. By sunset they reached their destination,
a height above Fort Victoria, surmounted by a re¬
doubt, which was abandoned as they entered it from
the rear. During these operations the ships had
kept up a brisk cannonade on the sea-face of the
town, and had been exposed to a cross-fire from
the batteries in front, or on either side of it, from
which the evening land-breeze enabled them to
draw off. On the following morning, the batteries
in the possession of the British opened on the town
and fort, and soon silenced their fire. A summons
to surrender was thereupon sent to the Dutch go¬
vernor, and was promptly obeyed. A capitulation
was entered into, by which the garrison, composed
346
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA-
BOOK I. of more than thirteen hundred Europeans and Ma-
CHAP, vj. down their arms to a third of their number.
1810, The Dutch troops were sent to Java, where the
commandant was tried and shot by order of General
Daendels. The Malays were taken into the British
service, and were advantageously employed in some
of the succeeding operations. Amboyna, once the
scene of British disgrace and suffering, acknow¬
ledged their authority during the remainder of the
war.^
During the winter and spring months succeeding
the conquest of Amboyna, Captain Tucker reduced
the smaller islands in its vicinity. In the com¬
mencement of the year, the Caroline and Piedmont-
aise frigates, and Baracouta brig, mider the com¬
mand of Captain Cole of the Caroline, with addi¬
tional details of the Madras European regiment,
commanded by Captain Nixon, were dispatched to
reinforce the troops at Amboyna, and provide for
its security. Captain Cole was authorised, if he
saw a reasonable prospect of success, to make a de¬
scent upon the Bandas, a cluster of small volcanic
islands south-east of Amboyna; the principal of
which weïfe Great Banda, or Banda proper, and
Banda Neira, separated by a narrow strait. The
latter was selected for attack, although defended
by two forts—Forts Bélgica and Nassau, by bat¬
teries mounting one hundred and twenty pieces of
cannon, and by a force of above seven hundred re¬
gular troops besides mihtia. These were stationed
towards the northern extremity of the island, where
a landing had been effected in 1801, when the place
^ Asiatic Annual Register, xii. ; History, p. 21.
capture of banda and ternate.
347
was taken by Admiral Rainier, and where it was book i.
expected the disembarkation would be repeated ;
but Captain Cole landed, with a party of two hun- laio.
dred seamen and soldiers, on the eastern side during
the night, in a heavy squall of wind and rain, which
effectually concealed his movements. A battery
close to the landing-place was surprised, and its de¬
fenders made prisoners, without firing a shot ; and, a
guide having been procured. Captain Cole directed
his march to Fort Bélgica, about half a mile distant.
The' men advanced in profound silence, reached the
foot of the ramparts unperceived, applied their
scaling-ladders, and cleared the wall. The greater
part of the garrison had been drawn off to strengthen
the main body of the troops of the island, and but
few men with the Governor had been left in the
fortress. These, after a feeble resistance, endea¬
voured to escape by the gate, but they were met by
a party of sailors ; and, in the conflict which ensued,
the Governor and several of his men were killed.
» When the day dawned, the British flag waved over
Fort Bélgica, which completely commanded the
■ town and its defences. Upon the threat of Captain
Cole to lay the former in ashes, the officer who was
second in command agreed to surrender the island.
A valuable booty rewarded the intrepidity and con¬
duct which had so brilliantly achieved a valuable
acquisition without suffering any loss.
At the same time Ternate was taken by Captain
Tucker with a detachment of Europeans, the seamen
and marines of the Dover, and some of the newly
enlisted Amboyna corps. Captain Tucker arrived off
the island on the 25th August ; but light and baffling
348
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. winds kept him off the shore, and a landing was not
jiracticable before the 28th. A hundred and seventy
1810. men were landed in the night with intent to surprise
the forts and batteries which guarded the bay. The
difficulties of the approach frustrated the scheme,
and the men were re-embarked. Early in the morn¬
ing they were again put on shore ; and, whilst the
frigate engrossed the attention of the enemy, they
proceeded unobserved to an eminence supposed to
command the fort of Kayomaira, the principal Dutch
post. They arrived on the hill at noon, but to their
great vexation they found that the fort was screened
from their view by an intervening forest. They
then endeavoured to proceed by an inland route,
but, after incessant exertion throughout the day, it
was found impossible to disencumber the path of
the immense trees which had been cut down and
piled across it. Turning to the right, they followed
the course of a rivulet which led to the beach, and
brought them about ten o'clock within eight hun¬
dred yards of the fort before they were discovered. '
Disregarding a smart fire of grape and musketry,
they rushed forward, escaladed the walls, and carried
the fort. On the following morning the combined
operations of the detachment and frigate overpower¬
ed the other defences of the bay, and by the even¬
ing the town and island were surrendered. Few
casualties impaired the exultation of the victors.
Their conquest completed the reduction of the Mo¬
luccas, and Java with its dependencies alone re¬
mained in the possession of the Dutch. ^
> Asiatic Annual Register, xii. ; History, 27 ; Chionicle, 80 ; Official
Dispatches.
designs on java.
349
Prior to the departure of Lord Minto for Madras book i.
CHAP* VI*
the practicahility of the subjugation of Java had '
been brought under his consideration by Mr. Raffles, I8I1.
originally a member of the Penang Government,
but who had attracted the notice of the Governor-
General by his acquaintance with the languages and
political circumstances of the tribes of the Archipe¬
lago, and had been in consequence appointed the
Governor-General's agent at Malacca. After Lord
Minto's return to Bengal,, the subject was resumed :
Mi^ Raffles came round to Calcutta for the sake of
its more commodious investigation, and his state¬
ments so entirely satisfied the Governor-General of
the feasibility of the measure, that he determined
to undertake it upon his own responsibility. Its
execution was, however, deferred until the result of
the expedition against the French islands should be
known ; and in the interval the design received the
prospective sanction of the authorities in England.
No time was lost in preparing for the expedition.
The King's regiments, which had returned to Ma¬
dras ^ from the Mauritius, were immediately re-
embarked, with the addition of the 78th regiment
of foot and a portion of the 22nd dragoons ; whilst
in Bengal his Majesty's 59th, four battalions of
Sipahi volunteers, the 20th, or marine regiment, de¬
tails of pioneers, and artillery, horse and foot, with
the Governor-General's body-guard, were assembled
under the command of Colonel Wood. The com¬
mand of the whole was vested in Sir Samuel Auch-
muty, the Commander-in-chief at Madras. The
Bengal troops sailed early in March, and reached
' The 14th, G9th,aDd 89th ; the Madras pioneers were sdso re-embarked.
350
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the appointed rendezvous at IMalacca by the end of
April. Lord Minto accompanied them in the Mo-
1811. deste frigate, in the capacity, as he expressed him¬
self, of a volunteer. The Madras force sailed in
two divisions: the first, under Lieutenant-Colonel
Gillespie, on the 18th of April; and the second,
under Lieutenant-Colonel Gibbs, on the 29th. At
the same time Sir Samuel Auchmuty embarked in
the Akbar frigate, and Commodore Broughton com¬
manding the fleet sailed in the Illustrious. It was
fortunate that their departure had not been de¬
layed, for on the 3rd of May a tremendous hurri¬
cane set in at Madras, in which a great number of
vessels, including the Dover frigate, were driven
ashore and lost. The fleet had reached the outer
edge of the vortex, and felt but little of the vio¬
lence of the storm. Tlie whole of the expedition
was collected at IMalacca by the 1st of June : but
this was much later than had been intended, the
period having been delayed by the necessity of
awaiting the return of the troops and transports
from the JVIauritius ; and it now became a question
of some anxiety whether and by what route the
fleet could proceed.
The setting-in of the south-west monsoon ren¬
dered it highly inexpedient to attempt the usual
navigation through the Straits of Banca. Besides
the danger to which the ships might be exposed
from tempestuous weather, it was certain that the
passage would be tedious, and the commencement
of military operations in Java could not take place
earlier than the rainy season of October and No¬
vember, when the climate would become unhealthy.
INTRICATE NAVIGATION.
351
and the troops be disabled by sickness. The same book i.
objections applied to the track round the north-east
of Borneo; and there remained only the passage isii.
along the south-west coast of that island, in which
the fleet would be sheltered from the fury of the
monsoon, and would be assisted on their way by
the breezes from the land. This route was accord¬
ingly strongly recommended by Mr. Raffles, upon
the authority of Captain Greigh, of the Minto brig,
by whom it had been surveyed. It was as strongly
objected to by the chief naval authorities, who pro¬
nounced it to be impracticable ; but Lord Minto,
confiding in the information of Mr. Raffles, decided
the controversy in favour of the inner passage, and
led the way in the Modeste. The difficulties were
easily surmounted under Mr. Greigh's skilful pilot¬
age. In six weeks the fleet cleared the intricate
channels, through which it had passed without a
single accident, crossed the sea from the point of
Sambas, and anchored on the 2nd of August off the
north coast of Java. Had not the presence of the
Governor-General decided the question, we have his
own testimony that the enterprise must have been
suspended until the following year.^
The island of Java had for some time been al¬
most lost sight of amid the convulsive revolutions
which had shaken the parent country. The last of
these pretended to extinguish the national integrity
of Holland, and reduce it to an integral department
■ Parliamentary Debates, 10th January, 1812 ; Thanks tothe army and
navy, and to Lord Minto. Life of Sir Thomas S. Raffles, p. 90. Lord
Minto remarks in a letter to the Court, " The attempt must have been
abandoned for the present year if I had yielded to the predicted difficulties
of the passage."
352
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. of France. Such a degradation could not fail to
excite deep dissatisfaction both at home and abroad ;
1811. and the inhabitants of the Dutch colonies, more
removed from the influence of the French Govern¬
ment than their countrymen in Europe, were in ge¬
neral more abhorrent of the alteration. Apprised
of the prevalence of these feelings, and of the
weakness of the administration of Java, Sir Edward
Pellew had, in 1807, urgently pressed Sir George
Barlow to sanction an expedition against the island ;
for the reduction of which he required no more
than a thousand Europeans, and as many native
troops, in addition to the resources of the vessels
under his own command. The economical policy
of the Bengal Government was, however, averse to
any undertaking which involved expense; and the
disinclination was fortifled by the prohibitory orders
of the Court of Directors against embarking in en¬
terprises which possibly they regarded as affecting
the interests of the nation more immediately than
those of the Company. The Admiral was per¬
mitted, however, to amuse himself with a simple
demonstration. Taking on board five hundred men
and some artillery at Madras, Sir E. Pellew sailed
on the 20th of October, 1807, with his squadron,^
for Gresik, a harbour on the east coast of Java,
where it was known that several Dutch vessels of
war were laid up. He arrived off Point Parko on
the 5th of December, and pursued his course with
little opposition to Gresik, where he burnt three
' The squadron consisted of the Culloden and Powerful seventy-fours,
Caroline and Fox frigates, and Victoria, Samarang, Seaflower, and Jaseur
sloops.
java strengthened.
353
line-of-battle ships and an Indiaman, and destroyed book i.
the fort and batteries. By a convention with the
Council of Surabaya the fleet abstained from doing I8I1.
further damage, on condition of being furnished
with supplies, which were accordingly provided.
The facility with which this success was achieved
demonstrated the feebleness of the Dutch force in
Java, and the favourable disposition of the inha¬
bitants.
The impunity with which the demonstration had
been followed, awakened the attention of the
French Emperor to the condition of Java; and he
immediately ordered arrangements to be instituted,
in order to place it in a state of greater security.
Reinforcements were sent out ; and General Daen-
dels, an oíRcer of tried activity and resolution, was
appointed governor. Unchecked by any respect
for private rights, and unscrupulous in the means
by which his ends were attained. General Daendels
studied only how to improve the military attitude
of the island, and prepare it for a contest of which
he anticipated the approach. Every consideration
gave way to this design, and the inhabitants were
compelled to submit to enormous exactions, in order
to raise funds by which the army might be reor¬
ganised and recruited, the existing fortresses re¬
paired, new and formidable works erected in the
vicinity of the capital, and ample provision made
for a vigorous defence against future invasion. He
was not, however, allowed to test the efficiency of
his foresight : on the eve of the arrival of the expe¬
dition he had been recalled to France, and was
succeeded by General Jansens, who had been go-
vol. i. 2 a
354 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. vernor of the Cape of Good Hope when it was
taken by the English, and had recently arrived at
1811. Batavia with a reinforcement of several frigates
and a body of one thousand European troops.* The
whole of the troops on the island were estimated at
seventeen thousand men, natives and Europeans, of
whom thirteen thousand were concentrated in the
lines of Cornelis, a position strong both by nature
and art, about eight miles from Batavia.
The fleet, the command of which had been as¬
sumed by Rear-Admiral Stopford, in the Scipio,
and which with transports and brigs mustered above
ninety sail, having on board about twelve thou¬
sand troops, European and Indian, in nearly equal
proportions, anchored in the bay of Batavia on the
4th of August. A landing was immediately ef¬
fected at Chilingp, a village ten miles east of
Batavia. No opposition was met with, disem¬
barkation at this point not having been anticipated.
The ' army was moved forwards two miles, in two
divisions; one on the road to Cornelis, the other
fronting that to Batavia. No effort of any import¬
ance was made to disturb them ; and, the horses and
guns having been landed on the 5th, a general ad¬
vance was ordered towards the capital. On the
night of the 7th, the van, commanded by Colonel
Gillespie, crossed the Anjole river by a bridge of
' The removal of Daendels was a source of great mortification to him,
and he was urgent with his successor to abstain from the assumption of
authority until after the expedition should have arrived, and been, as he
confidently asserted, defeated. Although it is possible that his military
talents might have enhanced the difficulty of the conquest, and delayed its
accomplishment, yet the number and equipment of the invading force, and
the resources at the command of the Government of India, ensured ultimate
success.
batavia occupied.
355
boats, and by dawn hutted near the suburbs. In book i.
the course of the day a small detachment was sent
into the city; by whose presence the work of plun- 18II.
der commenced by the, Malays and Javanese was
arrested, and large stores of colonial goods were
saved from the flames. Many of the principal in¬
habitants had been compelled by General Jansens
to quit Batavia; but those who remained, readily
submitted. In the evening, a large part of the ad¬
vance was quartered in the town. During the
night an attempt at surprise was made by the
enemy; but, finding the place occupied in greater
force than they expected, they speedily retired.
On the morning of the 10th of August, the ad¬
vanced division marched out of Batavia towards the
cantonments of Weltevreeden, which they reached
by daybreak. The cantonments were abandoned ;
but a division of the Dutch army, under General
Jumel, the second in command, had taken up a
strong position about a mile from Weltevreeden, on
the road to Cornells. Their right was protected
by a canal called the Slokan : their left was ex¬
posed ; but the approach both in front and on the
flank was embarrassed by pepper plantations and
marshy ground, as well as defended by an abatis,
with which the enemy had blocked up the road.
From behind this entrenchment they opened a fire
of four horse-artillery guns with grape ; whilst the
infantry, posted in two villages, kept up a brisk'
fire of musketry on the advancing columns. The
guns were answered with effect by those of the
British artillery, and the musketry was replied to
by the skirmishers, whilst an attempt was made to
2 A 2
356
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. tum the énemy's left flank. After some delay,
arising from the nature of the ground, the attempt
1811. succeeded. The villages were set in flames, and
the British troops rushed forward. to the charge.
The enemy broke, and were pursued with vigour
until they took shelter under the guns of Cornells.^
The main body of the army came up towards the
close of the engagement, and took post at Welte-
vreeden ; having secured a free communication
with the town and shipping, a healthy and commo¬
dious station for the troops, and the command of
the resources of the country. Three hundred guns
were found in the arsenal at Weltevreeden, besides
great quantities of ammunition and military stores.
Preparations were immediately made for an at¬
tack upon Cornells, which General Jansens ex¬
pected to be able to maintain against all assaults
until the rainy season should set in, and sickness
should compel the retreat of the invaders. His
post was an entrenched camp between two rivers,
the Slokan on the east, and the river of Batavia on
the west. The latter was unfordable and the banks
were steep and overrun with jungle ; the former was
more practicable, but it was defended by powerful
batteries and redoubts ; one of which was on the
near side of the river, for the protection of the only
bridge that had been left standing. The space be¬
tween the rivers in front, above six hundred yards,
was guarded by strong entrenchments and redoubts,
and was difficult of access from the ruggedness of
' Their loss was severe ; that of the British was inconsiderable : but
several officers were wounded ; of whom Lieutenant Duffield of the horse
artillery died of his wounds. Lieutenant Munro of his Majesty's 78th
was killed.
operations against cornelis.
357
the ground. A like space in the rear of the works book i.
was still more strongly fortified. The whole cir-
cumference of the lines extended nearly five miles, isii.
and was defended by two hundred and eighty pieces
of cannon.
Although the necessity of an ultimate assault
was anticipated by the Commander-in-chief, yet he
thought it expedient to try the effect of regular ap¬
proaches ; and a battering train having been landed,
and batteries constructed, the army broke ground
on the night of the 20th of August. It was not till
the morning of the 24th that the batteries could be
opened with effect, and during the interval a furious
cannonade was kept upon the works by the enemy,
by which some loss was sustained. On the 24th
the guns opened upon the enemy's lines, and, not¬
withstanding the greater number of their ordnance,
with much more decided effect. The principal re¬
doubt was repeatedly silenced, and many of the
guns in their batteries were dismounted. On the
25th the cannonade was resumed, and returned
with spirit: but although the enemy suffered se¬
verely both in men and guns, yet it was evident
that no practicable breach could be made until the
batteries were considerably advanced ; an operation
involving delay, and demanding from the seamen
and troops an amount of exertion to which, from
the heat of the weather and the excessive labour
they would have to undergo, they were unequal.
In the mean tin\e the enemy were daily adding to
their defences, and using every means to render
them impregnable. The period therefore had ar¬
rived at which the place must be carried by storm.
358
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. or a protracted and exhausting course of warfare
'''• would become inevitable.
1811. The comparative facility of an approach on the
enemy's right by the Slokan, and the possibility of
carrying by a coup de main both the redoubt which
was on this side of the river, and the bridge by
which the river was crossed, recommended the prin¬
cipal attack to be made in that direction. The
assault was intrusted to Colonel Gillespie, having
under his orders the infantry of the advance, and a
part of the right brigade of the line commanded by
Colonel Gibbs. At the same time tAvo other attacks
were to he made upon the enemy's lines ; one, under
Lieutenant-Colonel INIacleod, against the principal
redoubt in the angle of the enemy's front and left ;
and the other, under IMajor Yule, upon the bridge
leading to the rear : whilst the main body of the
army threatened the front.^
Colonel Gillespie's column marched soon after
midnight on the 26th. The troops had to make a
considerable détour through a difficult country, in¬
tersected by raAunes, and parcelled out in pepper
plantations and betel gardens. The darkness of the
night aggravated the intricacy of the path; and when,
toM^ards morning, the head of the column had ap-
' The troops under Colonel Gillespie were the two flank battalions, con¬
sisting of the grenadiers of the 78th regiment, and of the 5th and 6th native
volunteer battalions, the light companies of the 14th, 59th, 69th, 7Sth, and
of tlie light infantry battalion and 4th native volunteers, the rifle companies
of the 14th, 59th, and 78th, five companies of the 89th, dismounted dragoons
and body-guard, a body of marines, and Madras pioneers. Colonel Gibbs'
column was formed of the grenadiers of the 14th, 59th, and 69th, first batta¬
lion of the 59th, and 4th and light infantry volunteer battalions. Colonel
Macleod led the 69th regiment. Major Yule had under his orders the gre¬
nadiers of the 20th native infantry, two companies of his Majesty's 69th, the
flank battalion of the reseñ e, with a detachment of the Madi-as pioneers and
artillery, and a troop of the 22nd dragoons.
fort cornelis stormed.
359
preached near to the works, information was brought book i.
CHAPt VI»
to Colonel Gillespie that the rear division had fallen '
behind. A short halt was ordered ; but as it was I8I1.
impossible to remain unobserved after daybreak, and
a retreat in the presence of the enemy might hazard
the success of the expedition. Colonel Gillespie de¬
termined to make the assault at once, trusting that
the strayed column would be guided aright by the
firing, and would be in time to support him before
he was seriously engaged.
fhe morning dawn showed the enemy's videttes
at hand, and the column was challenged. The men,
as commanded, reserving their fire, rushed forward
with the bayonet ; and the picquets were destroyed,
and the advanced redoubt was carried almost as soon
as the alarm was given. At the same moment the
grenadiers of the 78th, under a heavy fire from the
enemy, carried the bridge over the Slokan, a slight
structure which might with ease have been de¬
molished. As soon as the passage was effected.
Colonel Gillespie, turning to the left, stormed a
second redoubt, which was within the lines ; and not¬
withstanding the superior numbers of the enemy, and
a spirited resistance, which caused the loss of many
brave officers and men, carried it at the point of the
bayonet. Each of these redoubts mounted twenty
eighteen pounders, besides several twenty-four and
thirty-two pounders.
The division of Colonel Gibhs having, as was anti¬
cipated, been guided to the scene of action by the
cannonade, had hastened on to take their share in
the confiict; and, having crossed the Slokan, the
grenadiers of the 14th, 59th, and 69th regiments
360
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA,
BOOK I. moved against a redoubt on the right, which they
stormed, and carried with the bayonet in the most
1811. gallant manner. They had scarcely gained possession
when the powder magazine^ attached to it exploded
with a stunning sound, and scattered piecemeal the
mutilated limbs of both defenders and assailants.
This awful occurrence was followed by a momentary
pause ; but the batteries of the enemy soon opened
again upon the attacking column. The assailants
had, however, now gained a firm footing within the
lines, and proceeded with renewed spirit to storm
the remaining redoubts to their right and left.
In the mean time an active cannonade had been
maintained on the front, where the enemy had erro¬
neously expected the main attack would have been
made, and under this persuasion had refrained from
reinforcing their troops on the right. The column
directed to the rear was unable to cross the river,
as the bridge was burnt, and was obliged to remain
contented with firing upon the enemy from the op¬
posite bank. The detachment under Lieutenant-
Colonel Macleod carried the redoubt against which
they had been sent, but, unfortunately, with the
loss of their commander. The success of the assault
on the right, however, soon opened a free access to
the entrenchment, and the British entered Cornelis
in every direction.
When most of the redoubts had been stormed,
and daylight rendered objects distinct, the enemy's
reserve, composed of several battalions, with twenty
^ It was said to have been purposely fired by some of the enemy's officers,
who perished in the explosion. No advantage accrued to the enemy from
the catastrophe.
capture of the fort.
361
pieces of horse artillery, besides heavy guns, and a book i.
large body of cavalry, was seen drawn up on the
plain in front of the barracks and lesser fort of Cor- isii.
nelis, the guns of which commanded the approach.
The duty of dispersing these was consigned to the
59th, and was gallantly effected by that corps, who
not only drove them from their position, but cap¬
tured the fort. The dragoons and horse artillery
then coming up. Colonel Gillespie placed himself at
their head, and pursued the fugitives for ten miles,
cutting off great numbers, and completing the dis¬
organization of their army. Those who sought refuge
in the thickets were killed or dispersed by the 14th
regiment and detachments of the Bengal volunteers.
The efforts of their officers to keep them together as
far as Beutenzorg, where entrenchments had been
thrown up, and a second stand was to have been
made, entirely failed, and the fate of Java was de¬
cided. Six thousand prisoners were taken, mostly
European troops, including a regiment of voltigeurs
recently arrived from France. The loss of the
enemy in killed and wounded was likewise very
considerable. The victory was not won without loss
also to the assailants. In the previous operations,
and in the assault of Cornelis, the killed and wounded
amounted to nearly nine hundred, of whom eighty-
five were officers.^
Although the dispositions of the Commander-in-
chief rendered the fall of Cornelis little doubtful,
' The officers who were killed, or who died of their wounds, were,
Lieutenant-Colonel C. Macleod, his Majesty's 69th, and Lieutenant-Colonel
Campbell, 78th : Captains Kennedy, 14th ; Oliphant, 59th ; and Ross, 69th :
Lieutenants Hutchins, 22nd dragoons ; Waring, Lloyd, Litton, and Mac-
pherson, 59th ; Hipkins, 69th ; Coghlan, 14th ; Macdonald, 5th battalion
volunteers; and Murrall, ditto 6th ; and Ensign Wolfe of his Majesty's 59th.
Ô62
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. yet that it was accomplished so quickly, and with a
CHAP. VI. which, though severe, was disproportionate to
1811. the strength of the position and the importance of
the capture, was mainly attributable to the decision
and activity of Colonel Gillespie. Had he paused
for the junction of the rear division, had he delayed
an instant to attack the exterior redoubt, and make
good his passage over the Slokan, the difficulties of
the attempt would have been immeasurably en¬
hanced, and success would have demanded infinitely
greater sacrifices. The same promptitude and cour¬
age characterised his subsequent movements. The
defeat of the reserve and the pursuit of the flying
foe ; the final dispersion of the enemy's troops, and
the impossibility of again concentrating a force of
any consideration, were mainly attributable to his
exertions. That the troops he commanded were
worthy of their leader is an additional proof of his
military merit.
After the annihilation of his army. General Jan-
sens, with a small body of horse, retired to the east¬
ern districts of Java. A squadron of frigates, with
the marines and a Bengal battalion under Colonel
Wood, was immediately dispatched to Cheribon, and
arrived there two days after General Jansens had
passed. The place was immediately surrendered.
Another expedition proceeded to Madura, off the
north-eastern extremity of Java, and occupied that
island. On the 5th of September Sir S. Auchmuty
proceeded against General Jansens, who had assem¬
bled a force consisting chiefly of native horse, and
taken up a strong and fortified position at Jatu,
about six miles from Samarang. The vessels arrived
capitulation signed,
363
oíf the latter port on the 12th, and the troops were book i.
landed on the following day, the town being aban-
doned. On the 16th they came in sight of the ene- isii.
my, about eight thousand strong, principally natives,
with twenty pieces of cannon, drawn up on some
high and rugged hills forming the southern boundary
of a valley across which lay the road. The troops
with Sir S. Auchmuty were not above one thousand
in number, consisting of the 14th and 78th regi¬
ments, with the gi'enadier company of the 3rd vo-
lunCeer native battalion, and details of artillery and
pioneers, with six field-pieces. Having established
his guns on the heights facing the enemy, so as
to keep down their fire. Sir S. Auchmuty directed
the troops to cross the valley and ascend the hills
opposite. The advance was made with the greatest
alacrity and firmness ; the valley was traversed with
little loss ; and, as soon as the heights were as¬
cended, the enemy retreated in confusion. As they
consisted chiefly of cavalry, they easily outstripped
pursuit ; but on learning that they showed an in¬
clination to rally under the cannon of the small
fort of Onarang, about four miles from the field
of battle. Sir S. Auchmuty marched thither with¬
out halting, again put them to flight, and occupied
the fort. This was the last effort made by Gene¬
ral Jansens. Finding that no dependence could
be placed on the only troops he was now able to
collect, he proposed immediately after the action
to treat for a capitulation. A cessation of arms
for twenty-four hours was allowed him ; and, after
some hesitation on the part of General Jansens,
a treaty was signed. By this it was stipulated that
364
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Java and its dependencies sliould be surrendered to
Great Britain ; that alt the military should be pri-
1811. soners of war ; and that the British governor should
be left unfettered in regard to the future adminis¬
tration of the island, the guarantee of the public
debt, and the liquidation of the paper money.^
Thus, as Lord Minto observed, an empire,
which for three centuries had contributed greatly
to the power, prosperity, and grandeur of one of the
principal and most respected states of Europe, had
been wrested from the short usurpation of France
and added to the dominion of the British crown,
and converted from a seat of hostile machination
and commercial competition into an augmentation
of British power and prosperity. The reduction of
Java left the Eastern seas without an enemy, and
the merchant-vessels of Great Britain and of British
India were at liberty to pursue their peaceful and
beneficent course without dread of molestation or
fear of plunder. The value of the conquest was
perhaps inadequately appreciated in England, but
the acknowledgments of the Prince Regent were
conveyed to the army and navy.'^ Medals were be¬
stowed u'pon the King's and Company's officers who
had distinguished themselves in the expedition, and
' General Jansens had been formerly governor of the Cape of Good
Hope when it was taken by the English. Adverting to this disaster, the
French Emperor, on his departure for the government of Java, significantly
remarked, " Souvenez-vous, Monsieur, qu'un Général François ne se laisse
pas prendre une seconde fois." He had little reason to look for much fa¬
vourable consideration on his return to France.
' In the debate in the Commons on the vote of thanks to Lord Minto and
the army and navy for the reduction of the Isles of France and Java, She-
ridaui and Whitbread professed to doubt if the acquisitions were worth the
cost of money and life by which they had been made. These doubts were
clearly the mere effusions of party spleen.
british authority established.
365
Lord Minto was raised to the dignity of Earl of book i.
Minto.
After the reduction of Java, the government of isii.
the island was placed in the hands of Mr. Raffles,
with the designation of Lieutenant-Governor of
Java and its dependencies, and the command of the
troops left on the island was conferred upon Co¬
lonel Gillespie. Some time elapsed before the au¬
thority of the new government was established.
The Dutch colonists, who could have no particular
affehtion for the French, and who had experienced
the overbearing and extortionary spirit of that mili¬
tary rule which was modelled upon the despotism
to which France was subject, were for the most
part well pleased with the change ; but some of the
native chiefs, deeming the season propitious for the
subversion of all European ascendancy, manifested a
hostile disposition which it became necessary to sup¬
press. Among these chiefs, one of the most power¬
ful was the Sultan of Yodhyakarta, who declared
open war against the British, and called-upon his
countrymen to join him for their expulsion. Having
in vain attempted to come to a friendly understand¬
ing with the Sultan, Colonel Gillespie conducted a
force against his capital, and carried it by storm.
The Sultan was taken prisoner and exiled to Pe-
nang, and his son was placed on the throne. The
capture of Yodhyakarta, a place of great extent and
some strength, defended by one hundred thousand
troops, who, although defective in arms and dis¬
cipline, were not wanting in intrepidity and fierce¬
ness, added another laurel to the wreath M^on by
British valour, and intimidated the native princes
366
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. into a peaceable submission to a government whose
conciliatory policy they had subsequently occasion to
1812. compare with the oppression which they had been
accustomed to suffer from the Dutch.
Previously to the contest with the Sultan of
Yodhyakarta, it had been found advisable to dispatch
an expedition against the Sultan of Palembang, a
state on the north-east coast of Sumatra. Shortly
after the conquest of Java, commissioners had been
sent to the Sultan to renew the engagements in
which he was held by the Dutch. They had been
obliged to return without effecting their object : the
Sultan denied that any such engagements had ever
existed, and asserted that the Dutch factory had
been abandoned before the reduction of Java. To
remove living evidence of the falsehood of this as¬
sertion, he razed the Dutch fort and factory, and
caused the members of tbe factory at Palembang,
now become the subjects of the British Govern¬
ment of Java, to be murdered. To punish this
atrocity, and enforce the stipulation which had
long been maintained in regard to the trade with
Banca especially, a force was sent against the
Sultan in March, 1812, commanded by Colonel Gil¬
lespie. Pie arrived off the Palembang river on the
18th of April, and the troops ascended the river in
boats. No resistance was offered; and, upon the
approach of the detachment to Palembang, the
Sultan fled, leaving his capital and principality at
the disposal of the victors. Colonel Gillespie with
a small party landed on the night of the 25th of
April ; and, being joined by the principal part of his
force on the following morning, commenced an in-
SULTAN OF PALEMBANG DEPOSED.
367
vestigation into the character and behaviour of the book i.
fugitive prince. The process seems to have been
summary. Upon the depositions of two natives I812.
who had been sent to Palembang by the British
Government of Java, and who accused the Sultan
of the murder of the Dutch, he was declared to
have forfeited his sovereignty by various acts of
rapine, treachery, and barbarity, contrary to the
laws of nations and his existing engagements with
the Dutch, to whose right the English Company
had* succeeded in virtue of the cession of Java and
its dependencies. A proclamation to this elFect in
the IVIalay language was read. At the same time
it was announced that the Commander of the forces
had selected Pangerang Adipati, the Sultan's bro¬
ther, in consideration of his virtues, and the love,
esteem, and veneration with which he was regarded
by the people of the country, to fill the vacant
throne. This person was accordingly declared true
and lawful Sultan of Palembang and its depend¬
encies, under the title of Sultan Ratu Ahmed Na-
jam-ud-din. The first use made of his power by the
new Sultan was to enter into a treaty by which he
ceded the island of Banca, a dependency of Palem¬
bang valuable for its mines of tin, in absolute and
perpetual sovereignty and possession to the English.
On the 18th of May, Colonel Gillespie, leaving with
the prin<?e whom he had crowned a hundred men
for his defence, returned to Java, taking possession
of Banca on his way. The measures thus adopted
by IVIr. Rafiles were approved of by the Governor of
Bengal.^
' Most of the particulars given in the text are derived from Thorn's
368
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Although the Court of Directors had sanctioned
CHAP. VI. expedition against Java, their views did not go
1812. beyond the expulsion or reduction of the Dutch
power, the destruction of their fortifications, the dis¬
tribution of their arms and stores to the natives, and
the evacuation of the island. Lord Minto, however,
was not prepared to expose the Dutch colonists
without a government or without arms to the vin¬
dictive passions of the Javanese to consign a rich
and prosperous island to an indefinite perpetuation
of the elements of disorder and bloodshed; or to
throw away the advantages, both commercial and
political, which the occupation of Java ensured to
British India and to Great Britain. He therefore
recommended to the Court a reconsideration of their
orders ; and, upon the conquest of the island, com¬
mitted it to a government composed partly of the
civil and military officers of the Company, and partly
of respectable colonists well affected to the English.
Under their combined administration Java soon came
to enjoy an unprecedented amount of tranquillity and
prosperity. The country was divided into districts,
each of which was placed under the management of
a European Resident, who was charged with the
general collection of the revenue, and the distri¬
bution of justice according to such laws as were in
force, and which were unexceptionable in principle.
The infliction of torture and mutilation wa§ at once
abolished ; and natives were admitted to juries, from
Conquest of Java. Major Thorn served as Deputy Quarter-Master-General
to the forces in Java.
' Letter from Lord Minto to Mr. RafHes, February, 1811 ; Life of Raffles,
p. 23.
IMPROVEMENT OP JAVA. 369
which they had under the Dutch regime been ex- book i.
eluded. The farming of the revenues and imposts
was abandoned, and the collections were made di- isis.
rectly by the officers of the Government according to
fixed rates. The arbitrary exaction of an undefined
proportion of the crops was discontinued, and a set¬
tlement of a specified amount for a given period
entered into with the occupants of the land. All
forced requisitions of labour were prohibited, transit
duties were abrogated, and the duties on external
trade equalised. It were foreign to the scope of
this work to dwell longer upon the improvements
effected in Java whilst under British authority ; but
the prevalence of undisturbed internal order and
peace, concurrently with the improving resources of
the state, evidenced a material advance in the pro¬
ductive industry of the people, and an amelioration
of their condition.^
The question of retaining Java as a colony of the
Crown, or of leaving it under the government of
the East India Company, had been left undeter¬
mined by the British Administration, amid the
mighty transactions which at this period involved
the destinies of the world. One of their results
was the re-establishment of the Netherlands as an
independent monarchy, and the revival of those re¬
lations of amity which had at various intervals
united Great Britain and Holland. In the spirit of
the connexion thus re-established, the British Go-
' The revenues of Java realised, in 1805-G, rupees 492,128. General
Daendels, in 1809, raised them to 800,000. In 1814 they amounted to
5,368,065. For this and other facts, see "Substance of a Minute recorded
by Sir Thomas S. Radies, with Appendix ; printed (not published) by Black
and Co., London, 1814 : also his Life, and History of Java.
VOL. I. 2 B
370
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA-
BOOK I. vernment, without weighing with sufficient delibe-
ration the circumstances which the altered political
1814. condition of Europe had created, and with a dere¬
liction more liberal than politic of its own interests,
hastened to replace the Dutch in their ancient
Eastern possessions ; and by a convention with the
United Netherlands, dated 18th of August, 1814,
engaged to restore all the colonies, with exeeption
of the Cape of Good Hope and some places in the
West Indies. Java was consequently among the
cessions. The more pressing calls at home upon
the attention of the Batavian Government delayed
its availing itself immediately of the generosity of
its ally ; and Java did not reassume the character of
a Dutch colony until the end of 1816, five years
after it had been conquered by the armament from
Bengal. Sir T. Raffles was spared the pain of re¬
signing his power to the Dutch commissioners, by
the appointment of Mr. Fendall, of the Bengal ser-
^ vice, to the government of Java in the beginning of
the same year.^
' Some measures of the administration of Mr. Raffles had been disap¬
proved of hy the Court of Directors, particularly his alienation of the public
domains in order to raise funds, in place of re-issuing a greatly depreciated
paper currency, under an emergent demand for money, and the inexpedience
of drawing on Bengal. Charges implicating his integrity had also been
preferred against him ; which, although acknowledged in most unqualified
terms by the Court to be utterly unfounded, seem to have produced a bias
unfavourable to him in the mind of Lord Moira, and to have had some in-
fiuence in his supersession. His provisional appointment, by Lord Minto,
to be Resident at Bencoolen was confirmed, and he repaired thither after a
visit to England, where he received the honour of knighthood in the end of
1817.—Life, p. 290.
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
371
CHAPTER VII.
Return of the Governor-General from Java.—Internal
Administration.—Indications of future Hostilities.
—Relations with Hyderabad and Nagpore.—Mis-
government of Oude.—Interference of the Govern¬
ment of Bengal.—Differences between the Nawab
and the Resident.—The latter supported by Lord
Minto.—Defects in the Judicial and Revenue Sys¬
tems of the British Government. — Mohammedan
and latter Hindu Systems.—Concentration of Func¬
tions.—Judicial officers.—Circumstances counteract¬
ing defective Administration.—State of Civil and
Criminal Justice.—Consequences of establishing Civil
Courts,—multiplication of Suits, — arrears of De¬
cisions,—no effective remedy applied.—State of Cri¬
minal Judicature,—similar arrears.—State of Po¬
lice.—Classes of Robbers,—prevalence of Ddkoiti,
or Gang robbery,—atrocities perpetrated,—difficulty
of detection and conviction.—Evils of excluding
Native co-operation,—attempts to recover it,—failures.
Superintendents of Police and Special Magistrates
appointed.—Employment of Informers.—Diminution
of Dakoiti.—Revenue System,—review of.—Pro¬
prietary right of the Sovereign not of Hindu but of
Mohammedan origin.—Doctrines of the latter.—
Notions of the people.—Nature and extent of pvhlic
demand under the Hindus and Mohammedans in
earlier and later times,—from whom demanded.—
Variety of Proprietary rights.— Village communi¬
ties,—their cnigin, — legislation, — colonisation, —
2 B 2
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
conquest.—Traces of prcrperty extinguished hy the
exactions of the Government, and Village communi¬
ties destroyed,—in some provinces,—not in all.—
Variety of Organization,—different rights of the
members,—peculiarities of constitution,—general
identity.—Classes of tenants,—perpetual,—tempo¬
rary.—The Public Revenue how realised.—Revenue
officers.—Head-men of villages,—modifications of the
office.—Funetion of Zemindar,—degree of his pro¬
prietary right,—contingent advantages,—considera¬
tion among the people.—Course adopted by the Bri¬
tish Government.—Permanent Zemindari settlement
ordered for Madras.—Commencement of Ryotwar
.settlement.—Principles of assessment urged by Lord
TV. BentincJc,—abandoned by the Government of
Madras.— Village settlements formed. — Perpetual
settlement at Madras prohibited by the Court of
Directors.—Settlement of the Ceded and Conquered
Provinces of Bengal. — Commission of Inquiry, —
recommend delay of a permanent assessment,—re¬
commendation disregarded by the Government.—Ex¬
pected advantages of permanency,—not realisable,—
illusory nature of the p'ovision,—moderate assess¬
ment all that is essential.,—principle discountenanced
in England. — Permanent settlement of the Ceded
and Conquered Provinces forbidden.—Regulations
for the protection of the Ryots.—House-tax,—re¬
sistance at Benares,—repealed.—Religious riot at
Benares—Missionaries in Bengal,—established at
Serampore,—checked by the Government.—Lord
Mintds encouragement of Oriental Literature,—in¬
terest in the College of Fort WiUiam.—Financial
operations.—Close of Lord Mintds Administration.
tranquillity of india.
373
The Governor-General returned from Java to book i.
Calcutta towards the end of 1811; and the
remaining period of his administration was oc- I8i2.
cupied with the resumption and prosecution of
measures affecting the welfare of British India
in its amicable relations with the neighbouring
states and its allies, and in the promotion of its
internal prosperity.
Tlie peace of India remained undisturbed ; hut
various indications occurred of an approaching neces¬
sity for departing from the pacific principles which
had generally regulated the policy of the Govern¬
ment. On the north, the Court of Nepal had as¬
serted claims to territory within the Company's
boundaries which were questioned or denied ; and
had instigated, or allowed its subjects to commit,
encroachments and outrages which demanded serious
notice. In the south, the style assumed by the
oificers of the King of Burma in their intercourse
with the English functionaries at Chittagong, arising
out of insurrections in the intermediate province of
Aracan lately conquered by the Burmese, revealed
an arrogant and usurping spirit which it would pro¬
bably require force to repress. On the western
frontier, the banditti known as Pindaris were be¬
coming daily more confident and daring ; and in
1812 a party of them violated the integrity of the
British dominions, broke through the boundaries,
and advanced to the wealthy commercial city of
Mirzapore, which they threatened to plunder. The
approach of troops saved it from destruction, and
the Pindaris retired. To prevent the repetition of
a similar irruption, treaties were formed with the
374
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Rajas of Tehri and Rewa/ by whicb tbey were bound
cHAP.vn. passes in their several principalities
1812. against the Pindari incursions, and a cordon of
troops was stationed along the frontier from Bundel-
khand to Midnapore. At the same time that these
precautions were taken, it was foreseen that they
would be mere palliatives ; and a time was contem¬
plated when it would be necessary to undertake a
system of military and political operations calculated
to strike at the root of this great and increasing
evil.® The period was not long deferred ; but the
arrangements adopted belong to a different adminis¬
tration. The same was the case with the course
that was ultimately pursued with respect to Nepal
and Burma ; and we may therefore suspend their
consideration until the power of the British Go¬
vernment was exerted to place its rights beyond
dispute, to secure its confines from aggression, and
to eradicate the predatory pestilence which had so
long preyed upon the strength, and wasted the ener¬
gies, of Central India.
The subsidiary alliance with Hyderabad had
undergone no material alteration since the interfer¬
ence of the Government of Bengal in the appoint¬
ment of a minister. The Nizam, discontented and
sullen, took little concern in public business, and
sought consolation for wounded pride in sensual in¬
dulgence. His minister, ÄIunir-al-Mulk, equally in¬
dolent and incapable, followed his sovereign's ex-
' Treaty with Raja Bikramajit of Tehri, 23rd December, 18X2. The
treaties with the Rewa Raja have been previously referred to.—Treaties
with Native Chiefs, xlix.
^ Secret Letter from Bengal, 2nd October, 1812 ; Papers, Pindari War,
p. 14.
arrangements at hyderabad and poona.
375
ample ; and all the labour, but with it much of the book i.
authority, devolved upon the Hindu subordinate,
Cbandu Lai. Strong also in the assured support 1812.
of the Resident, the Dewan made but an indifferent
use of bis responsibility, and to bis own purposes and
emolument sacrificed the interests of the prince and
the prosperity of the people. At the recommenda¬
tion of the Resident, Cbandu Lai consented to the
reorganisation of the military contingent which the
Nizam was bound by treaty to furnish, and, in¬
stead of a body of irregulars, to maintain a standing
disciplined force under British officers. This was
gradually increased to above twelve thousand men,
horse and foot, and proved itself of eminent service
in the subsequent war. Its chief value in the esti¬
mation of the minister was the weight which it
gave him in bis dealings with the Court, and the
coercive means it enabled him to employ against
refractory landholders, and farmers of the revenue,
on occasions when the aid of the subsidiary brigades
was withheld. The sanction of the Government
was given to the arrangement. A similar plan was
recommended to the Peshwa, and he also assented
to the formation of a disciplined brigade under
British officers.^
The necessity which has been described of inter¬
fering for the defence of the Raja of Nagpore natu¬
rally directed the attention of the Government to
the permanent maintenance at his expense of a
military force. Négociations with this view were
opened; but the objections of the Raja to a sub-
' Report, Select Committee, 1832 ; Political Appendix, pp. 133, 2G6.
376
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. sidiary alliance were not to be overcome, and the
arrangement was deferred.^
1812. A long, and occasionally an uneasy, discussion
with the Nawab of Onde engaged at this time in
an especial manner the deliberations of the Govern¬
ment and of the Court of Directors. The frequent
applications made by the Nawab for the services of
the subsidiary force in the compulsive collection of
the revenues of Onde had occasioned extreme dis¬
satisfaction in the minds of both the local and the
home authorities, as they were well aware that
the troops were in this manner often employed on
duties incompatible with their military character,
and were converted into instruments of extortion
and oppression. Supported by the sanction and in¬
junctions of the Court of Directors, the Governor-
General determined, towards the close of 1810, to
express to the Nawab in an unqualified manner the
sentiments with which his fiscal administration was
regarded, and the conclusions of the Bengal Govern¬
ment that a change of system was indispensably ne¬
cessary. A letter was accordingly addressed to him
by Lord Minto, earnestly recommending to him to
institute' a reform which should be based upon the
fundamental principles of a moderate assessment, to
be made by the officers of Government immediately
with the landholders, without the intervention of a
contractor or farmer of the revenue. The settlements
were to be made for a fixed term of years, and the
occupants of the land were to be guaranteed in their
occupancy as long as the amount of the assessment
' Report, Select Committee, 1832; Political Appendix, p. 227.
affairs of dude.
377
was regularly discharged. Other reforms, relating book i.
to the police and the administration of justice, were
suggested at the same time ; and the Resident was 1812.
instructed to use an urgent and decided tone in
pressing these recommendations upon the consider¬
ation of the Nawab.
The interference which was thus exercised by the
Government of Bengal in the internal regulation of
the affairs of Gude was grounded upon the article of
the treaty of 1801, in which the Nawab " engaged
to establish in his reserved dominions such a system
of administration, to be carried into effect by his
own officers, as should he conducive to the prospe¬
rity of his subjects, and calculated to secure the
lives and property of the inhabitants ; and that his
Excellency would always advise with, and act in
conformity to, the counsel of the officers of the Ho¬
nourable Company." The explanation subsequently
given by Lord Wellesley to the Nawab of the prin¬
ciples which were to regulate the intercourse be¬
tween the two states amplified the expressions of
this article ; and whilst it declared that the Resident
was to he the representative of the Governor-
General, and the channel by which the sentiments
and counsels of the British Government were to be
communicated, enjoined that functionary to treat
the Nawab with the utmost degree of respect, con¬
ciliation, and attention, and to maintain cordial
union and harmony in all transactions.
ITow this was to be accomplished when the senti¬
ments of the Nawab differed from those of the
Resident? what security was provided for the ac¬
quiescence of the former in the counsels of the
378
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. latter ? who was to determine whether the counsels
CHAP. VH. British Government and of its representative
1812. were really calculated to promote the interests of
the prince and his people ? and by what means com¬
pliance was to be enforced consistently with the de¬
gree of independence which the Nawab was allowed
to retain? were questions which the vague and in¬
definite phraseology of both treaty and explanation
left for the embarrassment of Lord Wellesley's suc¬
cessors.
On the present occasion all these sources of per¬
plexity occurred. Professing himself willing and
desirous to defer to the advice of the British Go¬
vernment, the Nawab entertained insuperable and
not unreasonable objections to the propositions sub¬
mitted to him. It was recommended to him to
take as a model, the arrangements introduced into
the Ceded provinces with, it was affirmed, entire
success ; to relinquish the practice of farming the re¬
venues ; to institute an inquiry into the productive¬
ness of the lands ; and, upon a determination of their
value, to settle with the proprietors a moderate rate
of assessment for a period of three years. To these
recommefidations the Nawab at first gave his general
assent ; but he started doubts as to the practicability
of their execution, the delays and difficulties which
would attend the valuation of the lands, and the
impossibility of finding functionaries qualified and
fit to form settlements with the landholders. On
the other hand, the Resident, Major Baillie, san¬
guine in his expectations of success, treated the
Nawab's doubts as evasive, and, instead of observing
the conciliatory course prescribed by Lord Welles-
disputes with the na wae.
379
ley, pressed the reform with a degree of positiveness book i.
and importunity which furnished the Nawab with a
fresh cause of alarm, and led him to apprehend that 1812.
the Resident's objects were to take into his own
hands the nomination of the revenue officers and
an inquisitorial scrutiny into his revenues. Each
charged the other with a virtual infraction of the
treaty ; the Resident accusing the Nawab of disre¬
garding the advice of the British Government, and
the Nawab complaining that he was not permitted
to Judge what measures were conducive to the pro¬
sperity of his people, or carry them into effect
through the agency of his own servants. There
were several other sources of disagreement, arising
chiefly out of the advocacy by the Resident of the
rights and claims of the members of the Nawab's
family, or of individuals taken under his especial
protection, in opposition to the wishes of the Nawab.
In most of these cases the conduct of the Resident
might be defended, either by existing or implied
engagements with the British Government ; but it
necessarily reminded the Nawab of the unreality of
the independence with which Lord Wellesley had
pretended to invest him in all matters of a private
and domestic nature.
After much lengthy correspondence and various
personal conferences, in which the Nawab under
the operation of fluctuating feelings repeatedly pro¬
mised acquiescence, and as often evaded the fulfil¬
ment of his promises, the Government of Bengal,
then administered by General Hewett as Vice-
President during Lord Minto's absence at Java, de¬
termined to refrain from urging the question of
380
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. reform further. They argued that it would be of
CHAP. VII. ¿Q oiiforce tho Nawab's adoption of a plan
1812. the execution of which he could easily, and would
most certainly, frustrate ; that his objections to any
particular scheme of reform could not be construed
into a systematic disregard of the counsels of the
British Government, for which, on the contrary, he
professed the utmost deference; and that, conse¬
quently, to have recourse to the only method of
compulsion which could be contemplated, that of
denying him the services of the subsidiary force for
the suppression of insubordination and resistance to
his authority, would be an unjustifiable departure
from the conditions of the alliance. Whilst ex¬
pressing therefore extreme dissatisfaction with the
Nawab for the insincerity and prevarication which
he had displayed, the Resident was instructed to
relinquish for the time all further efforts to obtain
his consent to the proposed reform.^ With regard
to the employment of British troops against refrac¬
tory Zemindars at the requisition of the Nawab's
collectors, the Government confirmed a resolution
to which they had previously come, of not allowing
their employment without an investigation by the
Resident of the occasion which demanded it.
The question of reform remained unagitated dur¬
ing part of 1812, but causes of disagreement were
not wanting. In the commencement of the year an
' Letter from the Bengal Government to the Court of Directors, 15th
October, 1811, in which" the négociations with the Nawab are detailed:
Report, Select Committee, 1832 ; Political Appendix, 414. The correspond¬
ence between the Nawab, the Resident, and the Government, are printed
also in the " Oude Papers," printed for the Proprietors of East India Stock,
June, 1824.
disorders on the frontier.
881
application was made by the Nawab for troops to book i.
put down an insurrection; but the Resident, ascer-
taining that the disturbance was of no importance, I812.
and was connected, as usual, with the exactions of
the farmers of the revenue, insisted on the prior
investigation of the merits of the case, or the depu¬
tation of his own agents for the purpose. The
Nawab declined compliance, and no troops were
sent. Shortly afterwards, some of the Nawab's
proceedings encroaching on the rights of the Bhao
Begum of Fyzabad, the widow of his father, were
opposed by the Resident, as these rights had been
guaranteed by treaty. This interference in his do¬
mestic concerns was a source of severe mortification
to the Nawab, and he strenuously denied the right
of the Resident to interpose. Towards the close of
the same year, the Government of Bengal had its
attention called to outrages and robberies com¬
mitted on the British frontiers by marauding gangs
from Oude, whom the Nawab's officers were either
unable or unwilling to restrain. As this evil had
been the frequent topic of unavailing represent¬
ation, it was now announced to the Nawab that the
plunderers would be pursued into his country by the
British troops without his permission if his acquies¬
cence- were withheld. All these sources of vexation
produced a formal complaint of the Nawab against
the Resident for insolent and arrogant behaviour:
the charge was met by the Resident's denial, and a
recriminatory accusation of an improper want of
respect to the British representative in the tone and
style of the Nawab's correspondence. The Govern¬
ment pronounced their entire approbation of the
382
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Resident's conduct, and required the Nawab to
CHAP, vn, g more deferential style of address.
1813. These proceedings for a while intimidated the
Nawah into professing his resolution to conform to
the wishes of the Government in all things : but the
imperfect execution of his promise drew from Lord
Minto,^ in July, 1813, an address of remonstrance
and expostulation, reminding him that the British
Government had a right, founded upon the basis of
the subsidiary treaty, to propose such reforms in
his internal government as it deemed essential, and
that he was held by the same treaty under an
obligation to follow such advice ; that he had ad¬
mitted the necessity, and both verbally and in
writing had given assurances of his acquiescence in
a manner little less authentic and formal than if
they had been reduced to the form of a treaty, and
equally binding on his honour and good-faith ;
notwithstanding which, he had retracted his consent,
and opposed the most determined resistance to the
efforts made by the Resident, acting under the posi¬
tive orders of the Government, to induce him to
abide by the terms of his engagements. Lord
Minto declared also, that, ujion receiving the Na-
wab's acquiescence, the British Government would
have been entitled, and was perhaps required, to
insist on his carrying the proposed plan into effect
at once ; and instances the patience and respect
with which his objections had been listened to and
refuted, as undeniable proofs of its forbearance and
moderation. Not a single argument against the
' Letter from the Governor-General to the Nawab Vizir, 2nd July, 1813;
Dude Papers, p. 506.
nawab's aversion to reforms.
383
plan had been adduced but bad been respectfully book i.
entertained, deliberately examined, and successfully
combated ; and the doubts and fears still professed I813.
by the Nawab could be ascribed to no other mo¬
tives than a decided resolution to oppose the intro¬
duction of reform altogether, in the vain hope that
the Government would ultimately abandon the ques¬
tion in despair. The Nawab was assured that no
lapse of time, no change of circumstances, would
ever induce the British Government to relinquish a
meásure which it considered essential to the happi¬
ness and prosperity of Oude, the ease and reputation
of the Nawab, and the best interests of both states.
He was also warned, that, if he persisted in his re¬
fusal, he would violate an express stipulation of the
treaty ; and he was requested seriously to consider
the consequences in which he might involve himself
by such a course of conduct. Lord Minto there¬
fore expressed his confident expectation that the
reform recommended would be carried into effect
without further opposition or delay. The Governor-
General explained his views upon the other points
under discussion in a like peremptory strain.
Fortified with the decision of the Government,
the Resident proceeded to insist upon the Nawab's
immediate adoption of the measures proposed, and,
in his ardour and impatience, demanded for the
British Government a degree of participation in the
ordinary administration of Oude scarcely warranted
by the spirit or letter'of the existing engagements,
when he maintained that every act whatsoever—the
lease of a district in farm, the institution of a court
of justice in the capital, the change of any police
384
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. regulation,—without the previous concurrence of
the Governor-General, was a direct violation of the
1813. treaty, for which the Nawab might be made respon¬
sible ; or, in other words, might be divested of all
authority whenever it pleased the Government to
call him to account. That such minute and vexa¬
tious interference was intended by the original
contract, may be reasonably questioned ; but the
present discussions showed the extreme difficulty of
defining the just limits of interposition, and the un¬
avoidable tendency of all such political associations
to render the will of the controuling power the sole
standard of the necessity of its interference. The
Nawab became alarmed, and, in the month of Sep¬
tember, he announced his final determination to
give immediate operation to the project of reform,
by dispatching officers to adjust an equitable assess¬
ment ; and he instituted arrangements for affording
satisfaction on the minor topics of dispute. Before
any important results could be realised from these
preliminary measures, the Government of India
passed into other hands, and different views in¬
fluenced the counsels of Lord JMoira.
Although the countries which had been brought
under British sway had derived from it the benefits
of exemption from foreign invasion and internal
disorder for some years, yet the progressive ameli¬
oration of the condition of the people had failed
to keep pace with the expectations and hopes of
their rulers. This was and is still to be ascribed to
radical defects in the systems of judicature and reve¬
nue which had been introduced; and which, although
they were based upon just and benevolent principles.
administration of justice.
385
were too entirely of a European complexion to be book i.
readily identifiable with the very different aspects
of society which existed in Hindustan. They had isis.
been framed upon insufficient inquiry, and had been
brought in abruptly, without having been suffered
to grow up gradually and spontaneously with the
continuance of the new and anomalous constitution
of things to which they owed their origin. They
were still only in the course of adaptation to cir¬
cumstances; and it was, and has since continued
to bê, the anxious object of both the local and home
authorities to provide a remedy for those defects
which their developement displays.^ The subject
has been already treated of at some length; but
as the observations made in a former volume were
in some degree anticipatory, and the facts on which
they were founded belong to the period now under
review, as also they were restricted to the Bengal
provinces, some further notice of them here may not
be superfluous or out of place.
Whatever may have been the case when the
Mohammedan and Hindu governments were in full
vigour, it was undeniable that, for a considerable
time before the establishment of British supremacy,
the people of India had. been unaccustomed to any
regularly organised and administered system of law
or justice. In Upper India, Mohammedan domina¬
tion had left few and obscure traces of Hindu in¬
stitutions; and those which they had substituted,
' In 1813 the Court of Directors circulated queries regarding the working
of the Judicial system in India, to several of their most distinguished ser¬
vants then in England. The questions and replies are printed in the Selec¬
tions from the Records at the East India House printed by order of the
Court, vol. ii.
vol. i. 2 c
386
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. never very pure or perfect, had almost equally dis-
CHAP. VIL anarchy by which Hindustan had
1813. long been distracted. The same was very much
the case with the territories under the Madras
Presidency that had been subject to the Moham¬
medans ; and, if Hindu usages lingered in the
Mahratta states, they had lost much of their pri¬
mary character amid the irregular and arbitrary
practices of the ruling authorities. The main prin¬
ciple that everywhere regulated the administration
was the concentration of absolute authority ; and
the same individual was charged with the superin¬
tendence of revenue, justice, and police, with little
to g-uide or restrain him except his own perceptions
and sentiments of equity, and a prudent considera¬
tion for his own safety and advantage. Even in
the best of times the sovereign, whether King or
Raja, was the fountain of law and justice; and the
Subahdar, the Nawab, the Jagirdar, all holding de¬
legated or usurped authority, claimed the same pre¬
rogative. The Kazi, or Nyayadhipati, Mohammedan
and Hindu expounders of the law, were sometimes
retained in principal towns as judges of civil and
criminal law; but their authority was ill defined,
their labours were ill paid, and justice received
little profit from their nomination. The police of
cities was also in some places under the authority of
an appointed officer, the Fojdar or Kotwal, who was
responsible to the governor of the district or city;
but in the villages and in the country the village
head-men, or Patéls, where such existed, and in other
parts the Zemindar, who combined the character
of landholder and collector of the revenue, claimed
native systems.
387
the charge of the police, and the decision of civil book i.
and criminal suits. The leading object of the native
governments was the realisation of the largest possi- is is.
ble amount of revenue ; and all persons engaged in
this duty, whether as fiscal officers or as farmers
and contractors, were armed with plenary powers
both as magistrates and judges : a pertinacious appeal
from those whom they oppressed might sometimes
reach the ears of their superiors, hut in general this
resource was imperfectly available, and the people
were left to the uncontrouled will of individuals. ^
' All the Bengal civilians concur in stating, that, according to their belief,
no remains of ancient institutions existed in Bengal. Of the stale of law
and justice among the people, the following are some of the results of their
observations : " The people had no idea of being protected by law against
abuses of power. When an Aumil (a native revenue or executive officer)
was guilty of gross injustice and oppression, they might endeavour to get
rid of him by a clamorous remonstrance in a body to the authority to which
he was accountable for his conduct ; but, generally speaking, they were
quite at his mercy. Probably they had no conception of a more safe and
rational system until they saw the effects of the judicial regulations of 1793.
The spirit of the old institutions of Hindustan survived their formal aboli¬
tion as long as the Company's servants united the offices of collector, judge,
and magistrate."—Ernst, Records, i. p. 27. " During the Mohammedan go¬
vernment in Bengal, in the large Zemindaris, consisting of several pergun-
nas, it was usual to have pergunna Cutcheris (courts), and the Tehsildar
(collector) of the pergunna, who was the Zemindar's agent, decided in
civil suits ; village Gomashtas (agents) also exercised the same autho¬
rity, and recourse was frequently had to arbitration by their orders. The
Zemindars and their Dewans also decided civil suits according to the
ancient Hindu custom. In cities and large towns, and in each pergunna,
Kazis were appointed, who decided in civil suits. They appear to have
been the judicial officers on the part of the Nawabs, but the Zemindars
never gave up their right of deciding in civil suits."—Cox, ibid. p. 47.
" Every province in India is divided into small tracts called villages ; the
allàirs of every village are managed by two head-men, the Potail and the
Curnum ; the Potail is the chief of the village, and acts in it as judge, ma¬
gistrate, and collector."—Munro, ibid. 106. " The authorities by whom
civil justice was administered were the following : in the country, the Potail;
over him the Mamlutdar (district collector), and Sirsubahdar (head of a
large division) ; and above all, the Peshwa, or his minister. Jagirdars ad¬
ministered justice in their own lands; the great ones with little or no in¬
terference on the part of the Governments. In some towns there was a
judicial officer called the Nyáyádesi, (tlie same as Nyáyádhipati, superin¬
tendent of Nyâya—justice,) who tried causes under the Peshwa's autho¬
rity ; and any person whom the Peshwa pleased to authorise might conduct
2 0 2
388
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Incompatible as such a state of things must be
CHAP. VII. feelings and principles of Europeans, its
1813. effects upon the condition of the inhabitants of
India were not wholly subversive of their happiness.
The persons placed over them belonged to them¬
selves, were assimilated in religion and language,
conversant with their usages, and not regardless of
their good opinion. Their decisions, although not
guided by a code of laws, were founded upon an
accurate knowledge of persons and things ; and,
when not distorted by sinister influences, were com¬
monly conformable to equity and good-sense. The
proceedings of these self-constituted courts were
simple, and their sentences summary; they were
not embarrassed or retarded by complicated forms
and technical pleadings ; and the people escaped
the tax upon their money and time, which more
elaborate judicature imposes. Another advantage
contributed to counteract the defects off the sys¬
tem. In the absence of courts of justice provided
by the state, the people learned to abstain from
litigation ; and, when disputes among them arose,
submitted them to the arbitrement of judges
chosen among themselves.^ This expedient had
probably descended from ancient times, in which
it had been a recognised element of Hindu
judiciary administration under the denomination
an investigation, subject to his highness's confirmation."—Elphinstone's
Report on the Mahratta Provinces ; Selections from the Records, iv. p. 188.
' "With all these defects, the Mahratta country flourished, and the
people seem to have been exempt from some of the evils which exist under
our more perfect government : there must, therefore, have been some advan¬
tages in the system to counterbalance its obvious defects, and most of them
appear to me to have originated in one fact ; that the Government, although
it did little to obtain justice for the people, left them the means of procur¬
ing it for themselves."—Elphinstone ; Selections, iv. 194.
institution of panchayats.
389
of Pancháyat;* but it had fallen into desuetude book i.
in most parts of India, and subsisted, in any
degree of efficiency, only in the south.® Although isis.
the Panchayats were not inaccessible to personal
bias or corruption, and their proceedings were occa¬
sionally irregular and tedious, yet they were suited
to the circumstances and congenial to the feelings
of the people, and supplied the place of better or¬
ganised and more solemn tribunals.®
' Rrom the Sanscrit word pancha, or puncha ; mvre, quinqué, five : the
court being originally, perhaps, formed of that number, but in common
practice it was exceeded. Mr. Elphinstone says, " The number was never
less than five, but it has been known to be as great as fifty."—Elphinstone ;
Selections, 189.
" Sir Henry Strachey says, " I do not recollect any remains of ancient
Hindu institutions, not even the Punchayet ; but, the term being well knovni
in Bengal, it is probable that the thing exists in some parts of the Bengal
provinces, and that it is occasionally resorted to voluntarily by the Hindus
in disputes concerning caste, and perhaps in matters of village accounts and
boundary disputes. I remember no instance of parties in a suit proposing
a reference to the Punchayet. Our civil courts never discourage any kind
of arbitration; they constantly recommend it to the parties, who will never
agree to it."—Answers ; Selections, p. 53. All the Bengal civilians state
the same. Mr. J. A. Grant, of Bombay, says of the Panchayats on that
side of India, " They direct their attention chiefly, I believe, to matters of
discipline and ceremonial observance, connected with the customs and
usages of their several sects. They exercise no judicial authority."—Selec¬
tions, ii. 192.
ä It was especially in the Mahratta provinces that " the Punchayet might
be considered as the great instrument in the administration of justice."—
Elphinstone. Mr. Elphinstone, Colonel Munro, and Colonel Walker speak
favourably of their operations, although from the details specified they seem
to have been clumsy instruments. The members were selected by the par¬
ties, and were not uninfluenced by the hope of presents from one or both :
the attendance of the members was very irregular, and there seem to have
been no efficient means of compelling punctuality ; " it was generally effect¬
ed by the intreaties of the party interested." Proceedings were seldom re¬
corded : " in villages the Punchayet was often conducted in the way of
conversation, and nothing was written but the decision, and not always that."
" Throughout the whole proceedings the Punchayets appear to have been
guided by their own notions of justice ; they consulted no books, and it
was only on particular points of Hindu law that they referred to a Sastri
(one learned in the law) for his opinion." The Panchayat had no power to
enforce its decrees ; they required to be confirmed and executed by an officer
of Government, to whom " for this cause frequent references were required,
and he exercised a considerable influence on the progress of the trial." Not¬
withstanding these imperfections, the Panchayat must have exercised a be-
390
ÖISTOKY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Upon the establishment of regular courts of jus-
cHAP. VII. under the government of the East India Com¬
íais. pany, the novelty of a channel exclusively dedicated
to the hearing and determining of complaints, and a
belief that they would be investigated in an upright
and impartial spirit, produced inconveniences which
had not been foreseen. Every one who had, or
fancied he had, a wrong to redress, resorted to the
courts ; and the numbers of the suitors speedily be¬
came so numerous, that the means of hearing and
adjudicating their cases were wholly insufficient.^
The jurisdiction of each court comprehended an ex¬
tent of country and an amount of population vastly
beyond the powers of a single establishment. The
very qualities which constituted the peculiar recom¬
mendations of the new courts added to their in¬
sufficiency.^ As little as possible was left to indivi¬
dual discretion. Deliberate forms and prescribed
modes of procedure, whilst they secured exactness,
impeded dispatch. Reference to the regulations of
the Government, and to the written authorities of
Hindu and IMoliammedan law, retarded decision ;
and the multiplication of opportunities of appeal
neficial influence, as it enjoyed great popularity ; as is proved by the current
phrase, " Panch-Parameswara," Panchayet is God Almighty. — Elphin-
stone; Selections, iy. 191.
' In 1797, the number of suits instituted was 330,977, although the
western provinces had not been acquired ; they began to decrease from
1803, and in 1813 were only 184,790.—Selections from the Records, iv. 34.
^ In the Bengal Presidency the population subject to a Zilla court was
generally about a million. The Zilla of Midnapore was one hundred and
thirty miles long by forty to fifty broad.—Sir Henry Strachey and others.
At Madras the Zillas were more compact, and generally contained about
half a million inhabitants.—Cockburn. " The Ceded districts, at first di¬
vided into three, since into two, Zillas, contain about twenty-nine thousand
square miles,—about the extent of Scotland, but more populous."—Thack¬
eray ; Answers to Queries ; Selections.
INSUFFICIENCY OF CIVIL COURTS. 391
from one tribunal to another encouraged and per- book i.
petuated litigation. The unavoidable deficiencies of
laws, which, whether Hindu, Mohammedan, or Eng- 1813.
lish, were devised for wholly different conditions of
society, and had not yet become adapted to the
changes still in progress, with the unfitness of some
of the European judges, from their imperfect know¬
ledge of the languages of the country and the habits
of the people,^ as well as their ignorance of the prin¬
ciples of law and their occasional negligence, con¬
tributed to aggravate the defects of the system, and
to obstruct the course of judgment. Arrears be¬
came in consequence so numerous, and decisions
were so long delayed, as to amount to a virtual
denial of justice. Attempts were made from time
to time to remedy these imperfections : charges and
fees were imposed, in order to render justice more
expensive and discourage litigation ; additional
courts were established, at a cost which became
burthensome to the state; additional powers were
given to the judges, and the privilege of appeal was
subjected to new limitations ;—measures in some
respects exceptionable, and in all inoperative ; and
the accumulation of arrears, although to a less ex¬
tent, still continued to constitute a serious evil.®
To the most obvious remedy, the multiplication of
courts and judicial functionaries in an equally pro-
' " There is a want of something like professional knowledge, that is,
knowledge of the general principles of law, in both the Zilla and provincial
judges ; and part of the persons in the judicial line are not fit for that part
of the sendee."—Dorin ; Selections.
' The suits depending in Bengal at the end of 1802 were 170,706 ; at the
end of 1813, 145,168 : for the clearance of which it was estimated that three
yeeirs would be required in the Zilla, and four in the provincial courts.—
Commons' Committee, 1832 ; Judicial ; Appendix, vii. 479.
392
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. gre'ssive ratio, was opposed the heavy expense of
CHAP. VII. number of European magistrates.^
1813. Any considerable augmentation of native judges,
who were employed to a limited extent, and whose
services were much more economical, was resisted
by a violent prejudice against their agency. Their
fitness for the office, as far as it required ability and
knowledge, was generally admitted ; but it was
maintained that their notorious want of integrity
rendered it impossible that justice could be distri-
. buted to the people through so corrupt and impure
a channel.® The imputation was not perhaps
' The annual expense of the judicial establishment in Bengal was cal¬
culated by Lord Cornwallis at ¿£306,000. In 1809-10 it had risen to
£806,000. The whole cost at the three Presidencies was at that time
£1,260,840. In 1813 it was £1,572,492.
" I think it quite out of the question to trust the natives with any
principal part in the administration of justice. I am not aware that they
want the ability sufficient to decide ordinary questions with tolerable skill,
but even the better sort of them are notoriously open to corruption; there
is scarcely any thing like principle among them. I know there are some
who think these native judges do more harm than good, and should be dis¬
pensed with altogether."—Dorin. " The natives can rarely, I fear, be exclu¬
sively trusted with the administration of justice ; and, in any part of the
judicial system allotted to their execution, they must be superintended
by Europeans."—Falconar. Sir Henry Strachey, Colonel Munro, and Colo¬
nel Walker entertain different views. " It is my opinion that all the judi¬
cial functions of Benged might gradually be thrown into the hands of natives,
and that the business would be as well conducted under our regulations by
the natives as by Europeans ; in some respects better, and at one tenth of
the expense." And again: " I am of opinion that, with respect to integrity
and diligence, the natives may be trusted with the administration of justice.
I think no superintendence of Europeans necessary." " We place the Eu¬
ropean beyond the reach of temptation ; to the native we assign some minis¬
terial office with a poor stipend of twenty to thirty rupees a month : then
we pronounce that the Indians are corrupt, and that no race of men but the
Company's servants are fit to govern them."—Sir H. Sti-achey. " In a civil¬
ized populous country like India, justice can be well dispensed only through
the natives themselves. It is absurd to suppose that they are so corrupt as
to be altogether unfit to be entrasted with the discharge of this important
duty : if they were so, there would be no remedy for the evil ; their place
could never be supplied by a few foreigners imperfectly acquainted with
their customs and language." Again : " Give a native judge from five
hundred to one thousand rupees a month, he will decide thrice as many
causes as a European. He might be corrupt ; turn him out and try another.
EMPLOYMENT OF NATIVE JUDGES.
393
wholly unmerited, but the charge was much too book i.
unqualified, and the evils anticipated were greatly
exaggerated. Nor was it sufficiently considered by i8i3.
what means they might be remedied : whether they
might not be checked, if not prevented, by better
pay, higher dignity, vigilant superintendence, and
occasional disgrace ; whether natives might not be
influenced as well as Europeans by the hope of re¬
ward and fear of punishment. Corruption could not
be universal. The temptation could not in every
case outweigh the risk ; and no account was made
of the force of public opinion, to which the natives
of India are not insensible. It seems also to have
been forgotten, that, for centuries prior to the in¬
troduction of European agency, law and justice had
been administered solely by natives ; yet society had
been held together : and there had been times when,
according to the testimony of travellers and his¬
torians, India had been populous and flourishing,
the people thriving and happy. This was still the
case in some parts of the country ; and, if it was not
so more generally, the cause was to be found in the
absence of good government and the prevalence of
internal disorder, in which all institutions had been
overturned, and the principles as well as the practice
of justice had disappeared. It was taking a narrow
and ungenerous view of the question to draw a con-
and another. Make it worth his while to retain his post, and he will cease
to risk its forfeiture. If we pay the same price for integrity, we shall find
it as readily amongst natives as Europeans."—Munro. " The aim of the
preceding observations has been to show that the natives of India may, in
respect to integrity, be trusted with the administration of justice ; and that
some of the civil offices of government may be confided to them with safety
and advantage."—Walker; Answers to Queries; Selections, vol. ii.
There will be subsequently occasion to advert to later opinions on this
subject.
394
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. elusion unfavourable to the native character from
the state in which it had been left by the recent
1813. times of trouble, and, overlooking what it had been
in better days, deny the probability of its ameliora¬
tion under more propitious circumstances. The
truth was beginning to be discerned ; and, amid the
prevalence of a contrary opinion, some few of the
Company's servants warmly advocated the extended
emjiloyment of the natives in the administration of
justice as the only practicable means of proportion¬
ing the supply to the demand. The question con¬
tinued in suspense, and little advance was made in
the improvement of the judicial system in Bengal
during Lord jSIinto's government. Measures were,
however, in progress which were brought to matu¬
rity under his successor. Changes of more con¬
siderable magnitude took place at Madras, but they
also underwent important modifications at a shortly
subsequent period.'
' Bengal Regulation xiii. of 1808 enacted that the origination of civil
suits of five thousand rupees and upwards should be transferred from the
Zilla to the provincial courts; and Regulation xiii. of 1810 provided that de¬
crees might be passed by one judge in sundry cases where two had been
necessary, and that the fees on the institution of suits should be partly or
wholly returned when the parties settled the cause by arbitration. At
Madras, in 1808, Regulation v. enacted the payment of fees on the institu¬
tion and trial of suits. Regulation vi. empowered the senior judge of the
courts of circuit and appeal to take his tour of circuit duty. Regulations
viii. to xiii. effected a new arrangement of the jurisdiction of the Zilla courts
in tlie different divisions of the Madras provinces, and established four
courts of appeal and circuit. In 1809, Regulation vii. provided for the
occasional appointment of Zilla judges, extended the jurisdiction of the
registers, limited appeals, and provided head native commissioners in cer¬
tain cases. Regulation viii. defined the duties and powers of judges of
the provincial courts acting singly. Regulation x. increased the number
and powers of native commissioners ; and Regulation xii. limited and regu¬
lated the right of appeal. Up to the year 1808, the Regulations of the Bom¬
bay Presidency were framed as nearly conformable to those of Bengal as
circumstances would admit, with exception that, while the Mohammedan
law was there alone applicable to the decision of criminal trials, the
Hindus under the Bombay Presidency were allowed the benefit of the laws
administration of criminal justice.
395
Delays of a similar nature, although not to a like book i.
extent, were found to prevail in the administration
of criminal justice ; and, in a great measure from a 1813.
like cause, the inadequacy of the provision made for
its distribution. An evil of a still more pernicious
tendency originated in the assignment of the duty
of magistrate to the city or district judge. If as
judge he devoted his attention to the civil suits in
arrear, the business of the magistrate was necessa¬
rily interrupted, and an interval might intervene be-
twe'en the apprehension of a prisoner and his com¬
mitment, which sometimes subjected the innocent
to the punishment of the guilty, and detained for an
indefinite period a person in confinement against
whom no charge could be substantiated.' The same
remedy that was applicable to the former case was
here also obvious, and the separation of incompatible
duties was a necessary preliminary to their effective
discharge. For this purpose the Bengal Government
associated the Zilla and city judges in some instances
with magistrates having a special or joint jurisdiction
in criminal matters only, or gave them the aid of
assistant magistrates, acting in general subordinately
to, but upon emergencies independently of, the
judges. Other enactments were passed for the more
effective conduct of previous investigation by the
local officers, for admission to bail upon charges not
of their religion in all trials, of whatsoever description, wherein they were
the defendant or accused parties. At this period the Government of Bom¬
bay exercised the right, with which it was invested by the 47th of George III.
sect. iii. chap. 68, of making Regulations of its own authority ; and in this
and subsequent years the following Regulations provided for the more
effective administration of civil and criminal justice : 1808, Regulation ii. ;
1812, Regulations iii. to xi. ; 1813, Regulations ii. iv. vii. ix.
' Fifth Report, p. 69.
396' HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. of a heinous nature, for the dismissal of frivolous
CHAP. VIL çQjnpiaints, and the avoidance of all unnecessary
1813. delay between the apprehension of a person accused
and his examination before the magistrate.^ The
criminal, as well as the civil judicature, was the
object of progressive legislation.®^
The state of the police formed in Bengal a more
immediate subject of solicitude than even the de¬
fects of the administration of civil or criminal jus¬
tice. The Lower provinces of the Presidency were
infested by the increasing numbers and audacity
of various classes of robbers, who, under the de¬
signations of Dakoits, Choars, Kuzzaks, Budhuks,
or Thugs, infested the country, and not unfre-
quently added murder to robbery. The Kuzzaks
were mounted robbers, who occasionally singly he-
set the high roads, or, having collected in parties,
attacked and plundered whole villages. The Bud¬
huks and Thugs were distinguished by their prac¬
tice of strangling unsuspecting travellers, with
whom they contrived to fall in upon a journey.
The Dakoits and Choars were robbers who assem¬
bled in gangs, and, entering the villages by night,
attacked the house of some one person reputed to
possess valuables or money. These last were the
' Regulation xvi. of 1810.
^ Regulations ix. 1807, and iii. 1812. Madras Regulation i. 1810 pro¬
vided for the apprehension and punishment of persons resisting or evading
the processes of the courts: Reg. i. of 1811 directed quarterly jail deli¬
veries to be held in certain Zillas: Reg. iv. of 1811 had for its general
scope the objects of the Bengal Regulations : Regs. iv. of 1807, and iii. of
1812, the more speedy trial and punishment, or acquittal, of persons charged
with offences not of a heinous nature ; this also enjoined the Zilla magis¬
trates to furnish an annual report of all cases depending on the 31st of De¬
cember before them or their assistants. The Bombay Regulations are cited
above.
state of the police.
397
most formidable. Their depredations were first no- book i.
ticed in 1772, wben they were described by the
Committee of Circuit as individuals not driven to I813.
such courses by want, but robbers by profession,
and even by birth, following the profession from
father to son. But, however true this may have
been at the period of the report, there was no
doubt that latterly many of the members of the
several gangs were not professional banditti, but
were urged by necessity to enlist in the gangs, or
soiñetimes were compelled by force or fear to join
them.^ Aided by such recruits from the peasantry,
the Dakoits acquired greater strength and con¬
fidence, and from 1800 to 1810 kept the country
in perpetual alarm.® Extraordinary efforts became
necessary for their suppression.
' " In accounting forDecoity or robbery in a Zilla, our first step ought to
be to examine the condition of the Ryots, and we shall always find in their
poverty and oppression the chief cause of this evil."—^Tytler, Considerations
on the State of India, i. 374. " A gang of Decoits does not consist entirely
of professed robbers : many of the party are poor honest industrious people
who are seized for the service of the night."—Letter from E. Strachey,
Judge of Rajshahi; Fifth Report, App. 588.
" In the language of Lord Minto, " a monstrous and disorganised state
of society existed under the eye of the supreme British authorities, and al¬
most at the very seat of that Government to which the country might justly
look for safety and protection. The mischief could not wait for a slow
remedy ; the people were perishing almost in our sight ; every week's delay
was a doom of slaughter and torture against the defenceless inhabitants of
very populous countries."—Minute, 24th Nov. 1810; Pari. Papers, 1st
July, 1819, p. 23. His lordship's language, and that which was generally
employed on this occasion by the members of the Government and by the
judges, is liable to the charge of exaggeration. At this very time, when
it was said by the judicial secretary that " there was no protection of per¬
son or property to the people of India," it was very possible for an indivi¬
dual unconnected with the judicial department to be scarcely aware that
such a crime as gang-robbery existed. In dweUing upon the absolute
amount of crime, its proportional ratio to the population is imperfectly
adverted to. According to official returns, the total number of murders,
including those committed by Dakoits, in the Lower provinces, was in the
year 1813 two hundred and ten, the population being above thirty-seven
millions.—Commons' Committee, 1832; App. Judicial, p. 500.
398
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. The Dakoits, although in their aggregation and
CHAP. VIL following acknowledged leaders or Sirdars
1813. they bore an analogy to the brigands of the south
of Europe, or the banditti of the middle ages, yet
resembled more nearly some of the illegal confede¬
rations which have been organised in modern days
and more civilised communities in Europe, in their
assembling by night only, and dispersing and fol¬
lowing peaceable occupations during the day, most
of them being engaged in the cultivation of the soil
or following mechanical trades. Individuals among
them were well known as Sirdars, by whom their
expeditions were projected, and by whose orders
the gang was assembled at an appointed spot, gene¬
rally a grove near the village to be attacked. The
members of the gang, who were secretly known to
the Sirdars, and sometimes to each other, repaired
to the place variously armed, chiefly with swords,
clubs, and pikes, and some with matchlocks. Their
numbers varied from ten or fifteen to fifty or sixty.
When collected, their marauding excursion was
usually preluded by a religious ceremony, the wor¬
ship of the goddess Durga, the patroness of thieves,
typified by a water-pot or a few blades of grass. The
ceremony was conducted by a Brahman of degraded
condition and dissolute life. Having propitiated
the goddess by the promise of a portion of their
spoil, they marched with lighted torches, and little
attempt at concealment beyond disguising their
faces by pigment, or covering them with masks, to
the object of their expedition, usually the dwelling
of some shop-keeper or money-changer, in which it
was expected to discover treasure. Occasionally the
gang-robbery.
39.9
motive of the attack was vengeance ; and inform- book i.
ation given by the householder, or some of his fa-
mily, against any of the members of the gang, leis.
brought upon him the resentment of the whole
fraternity.^ Upon entering the village, it was cus¬
tomary to fire a gun, as a signal to the inhabitants
to keep within their dwellings : the house against
which the operation was designed was then sur¬
rounded ; and, whilst some of the gang forced an en¬
trance, others remained as a guard without. Unless
exasperated by resistance, or instigated by revenge,
the Dakoits did not commonly proceed to murder ;
but they perpetrated atrocious cruelties upon such
persons as refused to give them, or were unable to
give them, information regarding property which
they suspected of having been concealed, burning
them with lighted torches or blazing straw, or
wrapping cloth or flax steeped in oil round their
limbs and setting it on fire, or inflicting various tor¬
tures, which caused immediate or speedy death."
The object being accomplished, and the booty se¬
cured, the gang retired before daylight, and the in-
' Mr. Secretary Dowdeswell's Report, Sept. 1809. Of the three cases of
which he gives the trials in abstract, one of which has been cited by Mr.
Mill, V. 553, two originated in revenge.—Fifth Report, App. 604.
' In one hundred and four houses attacked by Dakoits in the course of
thirteen months, eight persons were wounded, three were tortured, and five
killed.— Dowdeswell's Report, ibid. 606. In 1813, the whole number of
Dakoitis under the Bengal Presidency was six hundred and ninety ; in
which seventy-one persons were killed, two hundred and forty-six tortured
and wounded. The returns show characteristic differences between the
Lower and Upper provinces :
Dakoitis. Murdered. Tortured and Wounded.
Lower provinces . . 505 31 149
Upper provinces . . 185 40 97
In the latter more were murdered and fewer wounded in little more than
one third of the robberies ; proofs of more fierceness but less cruelty.—
Commons' Committee, 1832 ; App. p. 506.
400
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. dividuals resumed their daily occupations. Such
was the terror inspired by their atrocities, and such
1813. the dread of their revenge, that few of their neigh¬
bours ventured to inform or give evidence against
them, although well aware of their real character
and proceedings. The police, intimidated or cor¬
rupt, rarely interfered until the robbery was com¬
pleted and the perpetrators had disappeared ; and
their interposition was far from welcome to the
people, as their unprofitable and vexatious inquiries
had frequently no other purpose in view than the
extortion of money as the price of forbearing to
drag the villagers, unwilling witnesses, before the
European magistrate, or even of falsely accusing
them of being accessary to the crime.^
The Zilla judge, who according to the existing
system administered, as has been mentioned, both
the criminal as well as the civil law, and was
charged also with the duty of police magistrate, ne¬
cessarily resided in the capital town of his juris¬
diction, which might be a hundred miles remote
from the scene of a robbery. Fully occupied with
his other duties, it was impossible for him to pay
frequenlf visits to places at any considerable dis¬
tance from his station ; and not only was local in¬
vestigation therefore impracticable, but it was im¬
possible for him to exercise a vigilant personal
supervision over the officers of the police. The
police jurisdictions were originally intended to in¬
clude tracts of about twenty miles square ; but they
were of greater or less extent, according to circum¬
stances, and usually embraced a numerous popu-
1 Dowdeswell's Report, and Letters of the Judges preceding.
native police establishments. 401
/
lation. Each of these was under a head officer or book i.
Daroga, who had at his disposal from twenty to
fifty armed men, a very inadequate force in many i8i3.
cases to maintain order amongst the inhabitants of
the district. To render them still more ineffective,
the pay of the whole, the Daroga included, was barely
sufficient for their support, and they were almost of
necessity corrupt. Little or no assistance was to he
expected from the people. Their ancient institu¬
tions had been broken up either directly or indi¬
rectly by the regulations of the Government. The
Zemindars had been formerly charged with the
management of the police, and were held ac¬
countable for all acts of robbery or violence com¬
mitted within their Zemindaris. They abused their
power and neglected their duty in some cases ; and
they were relieved of the one, and deprived of the
other, in a summary manner,^ and they were little
inclined to interest themselves in a troublesome and
thankless office. The instruments employed under
them had been of two classes : one, under the term
Paiks and Chokidars, attached to them and their
agents personally ; the other, known as Pasbans,
Nigahbans, or Haris, connected with the villages :
the former were the police of the whole district,
the latter the watchmen of their respective hamlets.
Both were paid chieffy by allotments of land rent-
free, or held at a low quit-rent under the Zemindar.®
' By Reg. xxii. of 1793 : on the grounds that the clause in their en¬
gagements which had formerly invested them with the anthority had not
only been found nugatory, but in numerous instances proved the means of
muitiplying robberies and other disorders, from the collusion which sub¬
sisted between the perpetrators of them and the police-officers entertained
by the Zemindars and farmers of the land.
' Their numbers may be estimated from those of one district. In Burd-
vol. i. 2d
402
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. When he ceased or was forbidden to have any con-
CHAP. VII. police, he had no inducement to keep
1813. up a police establishment ; and, when it was intimat¬
ed that the'allowances formerly made to him for the
expense were withdrawn, he either levied the same
rent upon the allotments of the watchmen and Paiks
as on any other of his Ryots, or he resumed the land.
The Paiks were generally dismissed : the village
watchmen lingered, but in a state of poverty and
inefficiency which rendered them worse than use¬
less. It was of little avail, therefore, to place them
by law under the authority of the new Darogas, and
to enact that they should be kept up and duly regis¬
tered : the enactments were disregarded, and the
native police establishments ceased to exist, or were
in no condition to give effectual aid in preserving
the public peace. They were much more likely to
be in concert with its disturbers.^
The evil consequences of having so completely ex¬
cluded native co-operation had long been urged upon
the consideration of the Government by many of its
ablest officers, and one of its first remedial measures
was to reinvest the Zemindars with a portion of
their former authority. Regulations were accord¬
ingly enacted, by which respectable inhabitants of
wan, in 1788, there were two thousand four hundred Pasbans or village
constables, and nineteen thousand Paiks.—Judicial Letter from the Court
of Directors, Nov. 1814 ; Pari. Papers, 1 July, 1819, p. 48.
' Reg. i. 1793 reserved the option of resuming the whole or part of such
allowances as had been made to the Zemindars for keeping up police than-
nas, or the produce of any lands which they might have been permitted to
appropriate for the same purpose. " Extensive resumptions were made
under this clause ; resumptions were also made by the Zemindars ; and the
effect of both was to reduce the native police to a state of want, which drove
them to a life of robbery and plunder for a subsistence."—Letter from the
Court ; Pari. Papers, 1819, p. 50.
zemindars authorised to act.
403
the several provinces were commissioned to act as book i.
Amins or superintendents of police : they were
authorised to receive written charges of all offences i8i3.
of a heinous nature, issue warrants for the appre¬
hension of offenders, and send the persons so appre¬
hended to the police Darogas ; to apprehend, or
cause to be apprehended, without warrant, persons
engaged in the actual commission of a heinous crime
or flagrant breach of the peace, and have them con¬
veyed to the nearest police thanna ; they were en¬
joined to assist the Darogas on all occasions ; to
send them information, and see that the village
watchmen did their duty; to obey the magistrate's
orders in instituting any inquiry, and to furnish him
with a monthly report of the persons whom they
had apprehended ; and they were declared liable to
prosecution in the criminal court for any act of cor¬
ruption, extortion, or oppression done by themselves
or any person acting under their authority.^
In these regulations for enlisting persons of credit
and influence in the preservation of the public
peace, there were several radical defects which en¬
sured their failure. These police Amins were not
only to give their services without pay, but, " con¬
sidering the description of persons from whom they
were to be selected, it was not expected that they
would require any distinct establishment of public
officers at the charge of Government to enable them
to perform the duties required of them." They
were, in fact, to pay a police as well as perform its
functions. It is not surprising that few should
have been willing to accept the office. Even had
' Bengal Regs. xii. and xir. 1807.
2 D 2
404
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. these unreasonable stipulations been omitted, it was
CHAP. VII. expected that many persons of respecta-
1813. bility would have been ambitious of a post which
made them subordinate to the police Darogas.
The regulations were rescinded in a few years and
the penalties of fine and imprisonment were then
imposed upon the Zemindars, and all holders of land,
if they failed to give early and punctual information
of the commission of any public offences, or the
resort of robbers in any place within their estates ;
and if they afforded to such offenders food, or shel¬
ter, or concealment, they were liable to forfeit their
lands to the Government.® Similar penalties had
been previously denounced ; but to so little purpose,
that it was doubted if a single instance was known
of their having been enforced.® With respect to
the inferior agents, Paiks, Chokidars, and the like,
they were made liable to corporal punishment by
the magistrate if proved guilty of misconduct or
neglect :* no provisions were enacted at this time for
replacing them in the occupancy of their lands, to
obviate the necessity which made them, according
to Mr^Dowdeswell, alternately watchmen and rob¬
bers.
Actuated by that spirit of exclusive reliance upon
European agency which had been engendered by the
institutions of Marquis Cornwallis, the Government
of Bengal strengthened the department of the police
by the appointment of two superintendents of police,
one for the Lower and one for the Western provinces.
' Bengal Reg. v. 1810. 2 Bengal Regs. ix. 1808 ; ill. 1812.
^ Dowdeswell's Report*; Fifth Report, App. 614.
* Reg. iii. 1812.
special magistrates appointed.
405
These officers, acting in concert with the magistrates, book i.
or, as occasion required, independently of them, were
not restricted to any particular station or defined I813.
district, and were enabled to exercise a more imme¬
diate supervision over the Darogas and police esta¬
blishments, and to apprehend and punish offenders
in a more prompt and vigorous manner.' The
arrangement was beneficial. But, besides these offi¬
cers, magistrates were appointed with special powers
to suppress the crime of gang-robbery in the dis¬
tricts adjacent to Calcutta, which were its principal
seats. Selected for their personal intelligence and
activity, and for their knowledge of the languages
and customs of the people, at liberty to devote their
whole energies to their particular duties, and armed
with large discretionary powers, they speedily arrest¬
ed the mischief ; but in their zeal they had recourse
to unjustifiable rigour, and were almost as severe a
scourge to the country as the Dakoits themselves.
The inhabitants of the villages were indiscriminately
apprehended upon insufficient evidence : many of
them were acquitted upon trial after having been
long detained in prison : some died in confinement.^
' Regs. X. 1808; viii. 1810.
' At Muddenpore, some treasure having been plundered by Dakoits, one
hundred and ninety-two persons were apprehended upon the charge of an
informer ; one hundred and forty-two were released upon examination,
forty-six were committed, six w#ie pardoned upon a pretended confession ;
for it turned out on the trial of those committed, who were detained in
prison above a year, that the whole were innocent, the charge having been
a fabrication. Three of the prisoners died in jail.—Sir H. Strachey ; An¬
swers to Queries; Judicial Records, ii. 70. At Nadiya, two thousand
and seventy-one persons were apprehended as Dakoits from the 20th of
May, 1808, to the 31st of May, 1809 ; of whom no less than one thousand
eight hundred and twenty-eight had been taken >ip as men of bad charac¬
ter and on vague suspicion, forty-four only had been convicted before the
Court of Circuit during two sessions, three hundred and sixty-nine had
heen released by the magistrate, two hundred and sixty-eight acquitted by
406
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. It was argued in defence of this procedure, that,
CHAP. VIL acquitted persons might not have been
1813. concerned in the actual offence, yet they were cog¬
nisant of its perpetration, and neither took any steps
to prevent it, nor to bring the perpetrators to jus¬
tice ; that violent diseases required strong remedies ;
and that it was better that a few innocent persons
should suffer than the whole community live in alarm
and danger. Equally exceptionable was the subor¬
dinate agency by which the objects of the magis¬
trates were in most instances obtained—the em¬
ployment of hired spies or Goyendas : it was ad¬
mitted that the system was liable to abuse ; that
the Goyendas were unprincipled miscreants, who
made their power the means of extortion, and who
hesitated not to sacrifice innocent individuals to
their cupidity or their revenge. But it was main¬
tained that their instrumentality was absolutely
necessary; that no efficient police could be esta¬
blished in any country except upon the basis of
espionage ; that without the aid of hired informers
the most notorious leaders of the Dakoits would not
have been apprehended at all ; and that the im¬
provement manifested in the districts round Cal¬
cutta was proportionate to the skill wdth which this
the court. Of those who remained in jail after the first sessions of 1809,
the greater part had not been brought up 4)r trial at the two sessions which
followed, but stiU remained in confinement. On the 31st of May, 1809,
there were no less than one thousand four hundred and seventy-seven pri¬
soners in the Nadiya jail who had not been examined. Besides the two
thousand and seventy-one prisoners above specified, a considerable number
of persons had been apprehended as Dakoits during the same period by
Messrs. Blacquiere and Leyden, the magistrates of the twenty-four Per-
gunnas and joint magistrates of Nadiya, and by their Goyendas, who, in¬
stead of being examined and tried, were sent down to the Presidency and
there kept in confinement.—Judicial Letter from the Court, 1st Oct. 1814-
Pari. Papers, June, 1819, p. 25. '
suppression op dakom in burdwan.
407
powerful engine had been wielded/ These were book i.
the sentiments of many of the most confidential
advisers of the Government, and they predominated 1813.
in its counsels. Notwithstanding this view of the
case, and admitting the efficacy of the Goyenda
system in the districts which were most disorgan¬
ised, and in hands better adapted to a harsh than
delicate handling of a public nuisance, it was shown
by contemporary experience that such extreme and
mischievous methods were not indispensable, and
that* the evil was susceptible of alleviation by a
milder treatment. In one district at least, that of
Burdwan, gang-robbery, once as prevalent there as
in other places, was nearly extinguished in the
course of a twelvemonth by very different measures.
The instruments employed were the neglected and
undervalued institutions of the country animated by
skilful superintendence and encouragement : the
landholders and head-men of the villages and of
various trades were called upon to enter into en¬
gagements for the performance of those duties,
which it was personally explained to them they
were expected to fulfil ; and the village watchmen
were punished for neglect or connivance, and re¬
warded for courage and goo4 conduct. Attempts
to deprive them of their service-lands weré sedu¬
lously resisted, and the villagers were encouraged to
give them more liberal subsistence. In this in¬
stance it was unequivocally shown that the co¬
operation of the people was to be had, and that when
had it was efficacious.^
' Dowdeswell's Report, p. 615.
' In the year 1810, Mr. Butterworth Bayley was appointed to the office
408
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Notwithstanding this evidence of the feasibility
CHAP, vn. ^ different system, no attempt was made to act
1813. upon it on a more extensive scale; and the only
enactments of the Government, in addition to those
already adverted to, placed the rewards which had
been given for the apprehension of Dakoits upon
safer principles. The amount payable upon convic¬
tion was augmented : it was made payable wholly,
or in part, where conviction could not be establish¬
ed, if circumstances justified the apprehension of
the prisoner ; and it was to be withheld, even where
conviction ensued, if it appeared that improper
means had been pursued by the informer. Rewards
for meritorious exertions, and remuneration for ex¬
pense incurred in cases not specified, connected with
the discovery and apprehension of offenders, were
also authorised. The combined operation of the
measures of the Government was not without effect :
of magistrate of Burdwan. In Feb. 1811, the Circuit judge reports that
" gang-robbery, formerly so prevalent, had become nearly extinct ; and a
regular system had been introduced -which promised fair to secure the co¬
operation of the community in the detection and apprehension of offenders."
The causes of improvement are thus detailed by Mr. Bayley ; " The uniform
punishment and dismission from oflice of the village watchmen wherever
there was any appearance of neglect or connivance on their part in robbe¬
ries, and the rewards which were constantly given to them for any proof of
bravery, activity, or good conduct in opposing or apprehending Dakoits ;
the exertions made by him for obtaining a more adequate subsistence for the
village watchmen, by carefully preventing all attempts on the part of the
Talookdars to resume any part of the Chakeran lands, and by encouraging
the head villagers to subscribe a more liberal remuneration for the support
of their Chokidars than had before been customary." The Mandais, who
were the principal fixed residents, and were vested by long usage with con¬
siderable local authority and immunities, and the Chokidars under them,
were the chief classes upon whom Mr. Bayley relied for information and aid
in the improvement of the police. He however took Moochulkas not only
from tliem, but also from the landholders, gomashtas. Venders of spirituous
liquor, pawnbrokers, gold and silversmiths, &c., explaining to them person¬
ally the duties they were enjoined to perform, and the practices from which
they were expected to refrain.—Letter of Court, 9th Nov. 1814; Pari.
Papers, June, 1819, p. 53. In this letter the Court take a general review of
the past and actual state of the police in Bengal.
revenue settlements.
409
the crime of gang-robbery, although not wholly book i.
eradicated, was materially checked, and during the '
latter part of Lord Minto's administration it became isis.
much less frequent, and was less marked by cruelty
and bloodshed.
Shortly prior to the appointment of Lord Minto,
a controversy had commenced between the autho¬
rities in England and in India respecting the course
to be pursued with respect to the final settlement of
the revenue from the land in those parts of the
British territory where a settlement was yet to be
effected, comprising the Ceded and Conquered pro¬
vinces under the Presidency of Bengal, and the pro¬
vinces in the south of India which had been annexed
to the Madras Presidency by the humiliation and
downfall of the Mohammedan Government of My¬
sore. Opinions at home had undergone a material
change. Principles, which but a few years before
had met with universal assent, were now called in
question ; and measures, which had received the
sanction and commendation of the Court of Direc¬
tors, the Board of Controul, and of successive ad¬
ministrations, and which had been eulogised by high
authorities as the results of consummate wisdom
and enlightened disinterestedness,' were now stig-
' " The distinguished character of Lord Cornwallis, and the authority
which the permanent settlement derived from the approbation of Mr. Pitt,
of Mr. now Lord Grenville, and the late Lord Melville, justly clothed it
with an awful veneration, which for many years precluded the agitation of
any question as to its merits."—Commons' Committee, App. p. 67 ; Obser¬
vations on the Revenue System of India, by the Right Hon. John Sullivan.
In the Parliamentary Debates, House of Lords, 9th April, 1813, Lord
Wellesley observed, " Every Governor of India had acknowledged the
justice and policy of the principle of the permanent settlement, and he was
satisfied that every person qualified to be a Governor of India must do the
same. It formed the corner-stone of the Government of India, and the ex¬
tension of the principle to the Conquered provinces would found a solid basis
410
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. matised as improvident and precipitate, as origi-
CHAP. vu. defective knowledge and erroneous ana-
1813. logies, and as equally detrimental to the prosperity
of the state and the happiness of the people. The
leading members of the Bengal and JNIadras Govern¬
ments, trained in the school of Lord Cornwallis,
and, with the exception of the Governor-General
himself, the instruments and coadjutors of that
nobleman in framing the perpetual settlement of
Bengal, and in extending its provisions to Madras,
tenaciously adhered to the principles of that settle¬
ment, and strenuously urged its universal adoption.
The principal authorities of England, on the con¬
trary, influenced by the proceedings and sentiments
of some distinguished revenue oificers of the Presi¬
dency of Madras, first suspended, and finally pro¬
hibited, the conclusion of an assessment in per¬
petuity in those provinces to which it had not been
extended.^ To render this change of purpose intel-
for that Government to rest upon." On the same occasion Lord Grenville
urged the insertion of a clause in any charter to be granted to the Company
declaratory of the adherence of the Indian Government to the principle of
permanency.
' The SeUct Committee of the House of Commons, in their celebrated Fifth
Report, printed July, 1812, first publicly called the principle in question,
employing what Marquis Wellesley termed ambiguous words, tending, ac¬
cording to Lord Grenville, if not to discredit the original measure, at least
to discountenance its proposed extension. This Report is known to have
been the composition of Mr. Cumming, at that time superintendent of the
revenue and judicial department in the office of the Board of Controul, who
was an implicit believer in the excellence of the Ryotwar settlement as ad-
vacated by Sir Thomas Munro.—Commons' Committee, 1832, App. ; Reve¬
nue remai-ks by Mr. Sullivan. We have also the testimony of Mr. Cour-
tenay, between fifteen and sixteen years secretary to the Board of Controul,
that the opposition to the permanent Zemindari settlement originated in the
Board, not in the Court : " I may here mention, that the system known by
the name of SirT. Munro's system was the work of the Board, and in many
parts of it was opposed by the Court. The same observation applies to
many matters concerning the revival or maintenance of ancient native insti¬
tutions, and the employment of natives in public functions." And again :
land the chief source of revenue.
411
ligible, it will be necessary to take a brief survey of book i.
• CHAP VII»
the condition of the agricultural population of India, '
and the principles upon which the realisation of the 1813.
revenue derived from land was founded, previously
to the establishment of the British Government, as
well as of the proceedings of the British Govern¬
ment subsequently to those which have been already
described in connexion with the permanent settle¬
ments made by Lord Cornwallis.
Land is the main source of the revenue of the
British Government of India. That Government
follows in this respect the principles and practice of
its predecessors, both Mohammedan and Hindu;
and, while it avails itself of a convenient and profit¬
able means of making provision for the public
charges, it consults the advantage, and conforms to
the notions and feelings, of the people.^
" When I said that Sir T. Munro's system was the work of the Board, I
meant that it was taken up and countenanced by the Board rather than by
the Court."—Commons'Com. 1832, App. ; Public answers, 292. 1585.
' " In India the land has always furnished the chief revenue of the state,
and taxes are immediately imposed upon it."—Minute of Lord Teignmouth,
Fifth Report, App. 205. " By the ancient law of the country the ruling
power is entitled to a certain proportion of the produce of every beega of
land, demandable in money or kind, according to local custom, unless it
transfers its right thereto for a time, or in perpetuity."—Preamble to Reg.
xix. 1793. " Any change from established custom in India gives rise to a
great deal of dissatisfaction. The land-rent is what the people readily pay ;
^uld, although it may appear exorbitant, it is a revenue that is paid without
much difiSculty. A tax in any other shape, however small, is comparatively
disliked."—Christian, Evidence, Lords' Committee, 1830 ; Question 848.
" Nine-tenths probably of tlie revenue of the Government of India is derived
from the rent of land, never appropriated to individuals, and always consi¬
dered to be the property of Government : and to me that appears to be one
of the mostfortunate circumstances that can occur in any country; because,
in consequence of tliis, the wants of the state are supplied really and truly
without taxation. As far as this source goes, the people of the country
remain untaxed."—IMill, Evid., Select Committee of House of Commons,
1831; Question 3134. The proportion was overrated, as was subsequently
remarked by the Committee ; it was about six-tenths : nor, as there will be
occasion to remark, was it quite correct to say that the rent of land was
never appropriated to individuals.
412
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I, But, this fact being stated, there occur sundry
' questions, which, although repeatedly and labo-
1813. riously investigated, have not yet been answered in
such a manner as to secure universal acceptance.
They may be briefly resolved into the following:
1. In what character did the native Governments
claim a revénue from the land ? 2. What were the
nature and extent of their demands ? 3. By what
class or classes of the people were those demands
discharged ? 4. Upon what principles were the de¬
mands of the British Government regulated? We
shall endeavour to elicit a reply to these queries
from the mass of conflicting statements by which
the subject has been obscured; but, as the space
which can be devoted to the inquiry is unavoidably
disproportionate to the quantity of unmethodised
materials which have been accumulated with a
view to its elucidation, it will be necessary to select
for description only a few of the most important
points, omitting many of less moment, though
of scarcely inferior interest.^
I. The demand made by the Sovereign has been
commonly referred to his character of proprietor of
the soil. It has been maintained that it is by his
' The principal authorities consulted for the following passages in the
text are, The Fifth Report of the Select Committee of 1810, printed 1812,
1 vol. folio ; Selections from the Revenue and Judicial Records at the India
House, printed by order of the Court of Directors, 1820-1826, 4 vols, folio ;
Reports of the Select Committees of both Houses of Parliament in 1830,
1831, and 1832, with evidence and appendices, reprinted by order of the
Court of Directors, 16 vols. 4to ; Colonel Wilks's History of the South of
India ; Sir J. Malcolm's Central India; Mr. Elphinstone's History of India ;
Rouse on the Land Tenures of India ; General Briggs on the Land-tax of
India ; General Galloway on the Law and Constitution of India; Mr. Tucker
on the Financial Situation of the East India Company ; Colonel Sykes on the
Land Tenures of the Dekhin; Mr. Thomason on the Revenue Settlement
of Azimghur ; and a variety of tracts and papers.
PROPRIETARY RIGHT.
413
permission only, and with his sanction, that the land book i.
is occupied, and that the occupant sows his seed
and reaps his crops; that whatever produce is in 1813.
excess of the bare subsistence of the cultivator and
cost of cultivation, is the property of the king;
that it is rent, not revenue, to which he is entitled,
for he is the one universal landlord ; that this is the
character in which the sovereign appears in the
laws and institutions of the Hindus, in the laws of
the Mohammedan conquerors of India, and in the
practice of all modern native governments, and in
which he is recognised universally by the people.^
Notwithstanding the positiveness with which it
has been affirmed that the proprietary right of the
sovereign is indissolubly connected with the an¬
cient laws and institutions of the Hindus, the ac¬
curacy of the assertion may be reasonably disputed.
In adducing the authority of Hindu writers in fa¬
vour of the doctrine, two sources of fallacy are dis¬
cernible. No discrimination has been exercised in
distinguishing ancient from modern authorities ; and
isolated passages have been quoted, without regard
to others by which they have been qualified or ex-
' See Mill, History of India, i. 305, and notes; also Grant's Reports on
the Northern Circars and the Revenues of Bengal ; and the Minute of Lord
Cornwallis, Fifth Report, App. 473. Colonel Munro says, "Nothing can
be plainer than that private landed property has never existed in India except
on the Malabar coast."—Revenue Sel. i. 94. And the Board of Revenue
observe, " We concur with Colonel Munro in thinking that Government is
virtually the proprietor of the soil.''—Ibid. 480. Such also is Mr. Fortes-
cue's opinion with respect to the Western provinces ; and at a long sub¬
sequent date, "As to the proprietorship, my belief is, that the Govern¬
ment is the proprietor of the land, and that the person occupying it is well
satisfied with the occupation, paying the rent."—Lords' Committee, 1830,
Evid., Question 511. And on the opposite side of India Colonel Bame-
wall asserts that the people in Guzerat claim no property in the soil. Go¬
vernment is vested with the property in the lands ; and, as landlord, entitled
to the rent, or a share of the produce equal to it.—Commons' Committee,
1832, Evid. 1755.
414
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. plained.' If due attention had been paid to these
CHAP. VIL çQjjgjwould have been found that the
1813. supposed proprietary right of the sovereign is not
warranted by ancient writers ; and that, while those
of later date seem to incline to its admission, they
do not acknowledge an exclusive right, but one
concurrent with the right of the occupant; they
acknowledge a property in the soil, not the property
of the soil. In the older jurists we find, indeed,
the right of kingly power over the whole earth as¬
serted ; and the right is based, with every semblance
of historical truth, upon conquest : but there is no
attribution of ownership to the king, nor is there
any trace of a royal property or estate.'' Proprietary
' As observed by Mr. Mill, i. 307 and note, the Digest of Hindu law
compiled by the desire of Sir William Jones, and translated by Mr. Cçle-
brooke, favours the proprietary right of the sovereign, particularly in stat¬
ing, that, if no special engagement for a term of occupancy has been made,
the occupant may at any time be dispossessed by the Raja in favour of a
person offering a higher revenue.—i. 461. Colonel Wilks accuses the
Pundits, who compiled the Digest, of falsifying the law ; but the charge is
undeserved. The original passages of the Digest are not the law, they are
the opinions of the compiler as to the meaning of the law ; and it is open to
any one to contest or admit the interpretation according to the purport of
the ancient texts, which are also given. It is also necessary to collate this
passage with what follows ; it will then be found that Tarka-Panchánana,
the compiler, does not deny proprietary right in the subject, he only infers
the co-existence of concurrent rights : " There is property," he says, " of a
hundred various kinds in land and, when treating of sale without owner¬
ship, he observes, " The property is his who uses the land where he re¬
sides, and while he uses it; and thus, when land belonging to any person
is sold by the king, it is sale without ownership."—i. 475. The sale is
illegal.
' The texts of Menu, which have been cited in proof of the proprietary
right of the Raja, have been misunderstood. In B. viii. v. 39, tlie phrase
rendered by Sir W. Jones " lord paramount of the soil," is Bhumer-adhi-
pati, supreme ruler of the earth : the title Adhipati, " over-lord," no more
implies ownership in this text than when it is used to denote the head-man
of a village, Grámádhipati ; or governor of a district, Désádhipati. In
another text, in which the authority of a king is intimated to be analogous
to that of a husband over a wife, the sources of property in subjects are
also enunciated : " Ancient sages have ealled this earth (Prithivi) the wife
of Prithu ; they have called the field his who has cut down the thicket ; the
wild beast his whose shaft has slain it."—B. ix. v. 44. The subjection
rights of the sovereign.
415
right is vested in the individual who first clears book i.
and cultivates the land : it is therefore referred to '
colonisation ; a source which, as regards India and i8i3.
the Hindus, is probably in a great degree historical.
The king may occupy unclaimed or uncultivated
lands, as well as a subject ; he has no preference :
if he appropriates them, he must give away half to
the Brahmans ; if they are appropriated by a subject,
the king claims only the share of the produce as¬
signed to him by law. Concurrent and not incom¬
patible rights and claims are thus clearly recog¬
nised ; and the king's dues are based, not upon any
indefeasible right of property, but in the first in¬
stance upon conquest, and in the second upon pro¬
tection.
The notion of the proprietary right of the sove¬
reign is rather of Mohammedan than Hindu origin.
The doctrines of the Mohammedan jurists are some¬
what at variance on this matter. Those who belong
of the earth by Prithu is clearly an allegory of its conquest by the military
caste ; see Vishnu Purana, p. 103. The compiler of the Digest expressly
states that the king's proprietary right is " denied by some, because Menu
has only declared that subjects shall be protected by the king."—i. 471.
Menu then, even according to the Pundits, is not authority for this doctrine.
Another ancient lawgiver, Yajnawalkya, is quoted in the Digest to show
that the king has no particular property even in unclaimed or uncultivated
ground ; if a subject choose, he may occupy it without leave, giving the Raja
his due.—i. 461. Another writer of antiquity, Jaimini, the author of the
Mimansa, also denies the king's ownership : " The kingly power is for the
government of the realm and the extirpation of wrong, and for that purpose
he receives taxes from husbandmen and levies fines from offenders ; but the
right of property is not thereby vested in him, else he would have property
in house and land appertaining to the subjects abiding in his dominions.
The earth is not the king's, but is common to all beings enjoying the fruit
of their own labour."—Colebrooke on the Mimánsá Philosophy, Trans.
Royal Asiatic Society, i. 458. Mr. Elphinstone justly concludes, from the
Hindu laws on this subject, that as the king's share was limited to one-sixth,
or at most to one-fourth, there must have been a proprietor for the other five-
sixths, or three-fourths, who must obviously have had the greatest interest
of the two in the whole property shared.— History of India, i. 42.
416
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. to the school M'hich has been chiefly followed in
CHAP. VII. maintain the right of individual ownership :
18)3. yet they do so with considerable reservation, for
they restrict the appropriation of all uncultivated
land to the king ; assign to him the property of all
except arable land ; authorise him to dispossess any
occupant who neglects to cultivate his land, and
transfer it to another;^ and entitle him to claim the
whole of the net produce of cultivation. Other
JNIohammedan lawyers assert unequivocally, that in
all conquered countries, and India is in their esti¬
mation a conquered country, although the inha¬
bitants may be suffered to retain the occupancy of
their lands, the property of them is vested in the
sovereign.® It is apparently to these doctrines, to
the lonsf continuance of Mohammedan domination
over a large portion of India, and to the influence
which it indirectly exercised over the states that
remained subject to Hindu princes, that the notion
of the proprietary right of the sovereign owed its
general and popular acceptance.
For upon whatever system of law that impression
' The Hindu law, as it appears in Menu, does not go this length : it
provides only, that, in case of neglect to cultivate, the owner shall be fined
ten times the amount of the king's share, if his own fault ; five times, if that
of his servants.—B. viii. v. 243.- There is not a word of confiscation or
transfer.
Galloway on the Law and Constitution of India, p. 101. According
to this writer, a high authority in matters of hlohammedan law, the school
of Abu Hanifa was that which was chiefly followed in Hindustan ; and this
jurist aflTirms that in conquered countries the people paying the legal impost
preserved their proprietary rights. General Galloway also states that this
is denied by the Shafia and Malikia schools; according to which the lands,
although retained by the people, become the property of the sovereign.—
Ibid. 45. It is worth observing, that all the authorities cited by Mill, i.
308 note, with exception of Diodorus and Strabo, whose testimony is not
entitled to very great deference, derive their opinions from their observation
of the state of things under the Mohammedan governments.
POPULAR BELIEF.
417
was founded, and whether erroneous or just, there book i.
is little reason to doubt that in later times at least it
has prevailed very widely amongst the people,^ and 1813.
regulated the practice of the native governments.
This gives the question its importance. Abstract¬
edly considered, it signifies but little whether the
king be called the lord of the soil, or by any other
title; but, when in this capacity he superseded all
other rights, it became no longer a matter of mere
speculation. Acting upon this principle, the native
rulers required that a formal grant should legalise
the occupation of all waste land, and sequestrated
estates of which the cultivation was neglected or
the revenues unpaid ; fixed at their pleasure from
time to time the proportion of the produce which
the occupant was to pay, claiming indeed the whole
of the net produce as the rent ; and turned out ac¬
tual occupants in favour of others offering a higher
amount of payment. The almost universal practice
of recent times transferred these rights and powers to
contractors and.farmers of the revenue, from whom
the prince exacted as much äs he could obtain, and
then left them at liberty to extort all they could,
and by whatever means they could, from the people.
His right to do so was not questioned, but its
' The belief of Mr. Fortescue with regard to the opinions of the people of
the Westei-n provinces has been already cited, note, p. 413. The Abbé Dubois
is a good representative of the popular notions prevailing in the Dekhin,
and he says, " The lands which the Hindus cultivate are the domain of the
prince, who is sole proprietor : he can resume them at pleasure, and- give
them to another to cultivate."—Description of the People of India, p. 496.
The author has heard the same sentiment expressed repeatedly by well-in¬
formed Hindus from the Upper provinces. They have admitted the full
right of the Government to dispossess any occupants whatever, although, if
the customary demands were paid, such act would be considered harsh and
oppressive. In Bengal the notion has probably been effaced by the Com¬
pany's regulations : the Zemindars have been taught a different lesson.
VOL. I. 2 E
418
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. exercise through such instrumentality was resisted
CHAP. VU. resistance was thought likely to succeed ; and
1813. the consequences of the system were such as might
have been anticipated—the decline and disorganisa¬
tion of the country.
The proprietary right of the sovereign derives
then no warrant from the ancient laws or insti¬
tutions of the Hindus, and is not recognised by
modern Hindu lawyers as exclusive, or incompatible
with individual ownership. It is the doctrine of one
of the schools of Mohammedan law; it has influenced
the practice of the later native governments, and it
had obtained a very general belief among the people.
The popular belief was however modifled by the
remembrance of original rights and the remains of
primitive institutions ; and while in theory the
people admitted the right of the prince to the
lands they tilled, yet in practice they very com¬
monly regarded them as their own as long as they
paid to the sovereign his undisputed share of the
produce. Unhappily for them, this share was of
late rarely regulated by any other standard than
their ability to comply with the exactions of their
rulers.
H. The ancient Hindu law enacts that the de¬
mand of the Raja shall be levied in kind. The
king is to have a proportion of the grain ; a twelfth,
an eighth, or a sixth.' It is also declared, that in
time of war, if he should take one-fourth, he would
' Menu, B. vii. v. 30. The commentator explains the several rates to
depend upon the quality of the land, and the labour required to bring it
into cultivation; the highest rate being levied on the best, the lowest on the
worst sort of land : the assessment was therefore irrespective of the actual
crops.
proportion of produce levied.
419
commit no sin.' A fourth of the actual crop con- book i.
stituted therefore the utmost limit of demand, and
that only in time of war, under the ancient Hindu 1813.
system; and this proportion evidently left such a
share to the cultivator as was equivalent to a profit
upon his cultivation, or to a rent, enabling him at
his will to transfer the task of cultivation to tenant
farmers, and placing him in the position of a landed
proprietor as far as ownership of rent is evidence of
such a tenure.® The Mohammedan law established
♦
a totally different proportion. It extended the
claim of the Crown to the whole of the net pro¬
duce ; assigned to the cultivator only so much of
the crop as would suffice for one year's subsistence
of himself and his family, and for seed ; and reduced
him to the condition of a mere labourer on his own
land. The whole of the profit or the rent went to
the sovereign, who thus became the universal land¬
lord.' The more equitable spirit and sounder judg-
' It has been argued that this law would furnish a plea to the Raja to
exact a fourth at all times, as a case of necessity could always be made out ;
but this is not possible consistently with a due regai-d to the language and ob¬
vious intention of the law. The passage should be thus rendered: "AKsha-
triya, in time of calamity, protecting his subjects to the utmost of his power,
is liberated from sin although taking a fourth part." The verse occurs in
the section which treats of the conduct of the different castes in times of
distress, and is detached from the passages concerning revenue. That the
distress here indicated means time of war is clear enough from the passage
that immediately follows : " for battle is his duty ; he should never turn
his face from tight : protecting the cultivators with his sword, let him levy
taxes in a lawful manner."—v. 119.
® Such Mr. Mill considered it, and remarked, that tliere was no owner¬
ship of rent in India as in Europe.—Commons' Committee, 1831 ; 3288. The
assertion was incorrect : there was ownership of rent as long as the native
Governments suffered it to continue ; and there still is such ownership under
the British Government, where the assessment is light.
ä " When the Imam conquers a country, if he permits the inhabitants to
remain on it, imposing the Kharáj on their lands and the Jezia on their
heads, the land is their property." Not very valuable property it should
seem, for " Imam Mohammed has said, regard shall be had to the culti-
2 E 2
420
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. ment of Akbar limited the demand of the sovereign
to one-third of the average produce of different sorts
1813. of land ; the amount to he paid preferably in money,
hut not to he increased for a definite term of years.^
Under more modern Governments, whether Hindu
or Mohammedan, the demand seems to have fluctu¬
ated from a third or half of the gross produce, to the
Avhole of the net produce, or even to have exceeded
those proportions leaving to the cultivator in-
vator : there shall be left for every one who cultivates his land as much as
he requires for his own support tUl the next crop be reaped, and for that of
his family, and for seed. This much shall be left him ; what remains is
Kharáj, and shall go to the public treasury." This is the dictum of a great
lawyer of the Hanifia school, Shams-ul-Aima of Sarakhs ; and a firman of
Aurangzeb directs his officers to levy the Kharáj according to the holy law
and the tenets of Abu Hauifa.—Galloway, 40, 43. Here is evidently the
origin of the sovereign's claim to the whole of the rent. The unhappy
" infidel" cultivator had to pay a capitation tax besides.
' Ayin Akbari, i. 306, 314. The term was fixed, in the 24th year of the
reign, for ten years; but the general assessment, or Jama-bandi, of Toral-
Mal was apparently intended to last for an indefinite period.—Ibid.
Appendix.
^ In the south of India, Harihara Rai, of Bijnagar, one of the latest in¬
dependent Hindu principalities, fixed the rate at one-fourth of the gross
produce, fixing it on each field, and requiring a money-payment. The
Mohammedan Governments exacted half the gross produce of the irrigated
lands, and a money-rate equal to from thirty to forty per cent, of the value
of the unirrigated and garden produce.—Revenue Selections, i. 895. Ac¬
cording to the Parásara Madhaviya, a work on law by the minister of
Harihara, the king's share was one-sixth.— Wilks, i. 154. In the
Western provinces the Government share was considered to be half the net
produce.—Fortescue ; Lords' Committee, Evidence, Question 531. Or
even half the gross produce.—Ibid. 532. " But the rule authorizing the
exchequer to take as revenue one-half of the produce in the hands of Go¬
vernment is in a great manner nominal ; for in the unsettled districts we do
not, I believe, on an average, get more than one-fourth."—Mackenzie ;
Commons' Committee, 1832, Evid., Question 2671. Mr. Mill also thinks
it impossible that such a proportion should ever have been taken.—Com¬
mons' Committee, 1831, Question 3887. But he obsei"ves, correctly enough,
with regard to the practice of later times, " According to all I can gather
from the practice of former Governments, the Government demand was
never less than the full rent, in many instances probably more ; not unfre-
quently as much more as could be raised without diminishing the number
of inhabitants and desolating the country."—Ibid., Question 3114. The
state of many parts of India, when first reduced to British authority, showed
that these checks had not always operated ; and that the exactions of impro¬
vident and arbitrary princes, enforced through the agency of farmers of the
parties interested,
421
sufficient means of subsistence, and not unfre- book i,
quently compelling him to abandon in despair the
cultivation of the lands which his forefathers had isis.
tilled, and to which his strongest affections chained
him, extortion being thus punished by dearth and
depopulation.
III. According to the principles of the Moham¬
medan law, and the consequences to which they
led, the classification of the parties interested in the
produce of the soil was exceedingly simple. Two
only were recognised, the Ryot or cultivating te¬
nant, and the Raja, or rent-owning landlord;' the
first earning a scanty support by his labour, the se¬
cond claiming the whole of the surplus return on
his property. Such were the conclusions of the
first inquirers into the tenure of lands in India.
There were found, indeed, persons intervening be¬
tween the state and the cultivators, but these it was
affirmed were in every case persons to whom the
state had delegated its powers or transferred its
rights : they were not—and this was in some import¬
ant respects quite true—proprietors of the soil : there
were no such persons,—at least, there were no per¬
sons who had a right to intercept, without a special
grant to that effect, any portion of the rent or profit
of cultivation. Further investigation showed that the
revenue, had thinned the population, and consigned extensive and fertile dis¬
tricts to the denizens of the forest.
' So General Galloway : " The truth is, that between the sovereign and
the Reb-ul-arz, (master of the ground,) who is properly the cultivator, no
one intervenes who is not a servant of the sovereign."—p. 42. " The land
has been considered the property of the Circar and the Ryots; the interest
in the soil has been divided between these two, but the Ryots have pos¬
sessed little more interest than that of being hereditary tenants."—Thack¬
eray, Fifth Report, App. 992.
422
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. latter propositions were not altogether accurate : the
structure of agricultural society in India was not so
1813. exceedingly simple ; a variety of proprietary rights
and privileges had survived the disintegrating ope¬
rations of foreign conquest, foreign laws, oppressive
government, and popular misconception, and re¬
quired to he carefully studied and correctly under¬
stood before it could he safe or just to come to any
unalterable conclusion. Traces of individual pro¬
prietary rights, of personal ownership of rent, were
extensively discoverable ; and, where they were faint
or extinct, it was because the rapacity of the ruling
power had dimmed or extinguished them.
A peculiarity in the disposition of landed pro¬
perty in India, which was early observable, was its
distribution among communities rather than among
individuals. The earliest records describe the agri¬
cultural population as collected into groupes, vil¬
lages, or townships, having attached to the particular
village or town in which they resided an extent of
land the cultivateable portion of which was suf¬
ficient for their support, and which was apparently
cultivated in common.^ The internal administration
of the affairs of the village was left, in a great
measure, to the people themselves, under the gene¬
ral superintendence of an officer appointed by the
' Menu, vii. 120, and viii. 237. Tlie Madras Revenue Board affirm the
village system is as old as Menu : " That venerable legislator alludes to
disputes about boundaries just as they occur at present, and directs a space
of four hundred cubits wide, round small villages, and twelve hundred
round large ones, to be left for pasture. This could not have been done if
the land had been exclusive private property, for in that case the owner
would have made the most of his laud, and not left it waste for the public
use of the inhabitants ; and boundaries of fields and farms, rather than of
villages, would have been disputed."—Revenue Selections, i. 487.
village communities.
423
Raja, by whom the police was regulated, the go- book i.
vernment revenue was collected, and justice was
administered, in communication with the principal 1813.
persons of the village. The general scheme of
these village corporations has been repeatedly de¬
scribed.^ Besides the officers of the government,
and the individuals who composed the community
strictly so called, the village comprised a varying
number of persons who received small portions of
the crops as the hire of services rendered to the
whole, and persons also not members of the original
establishment, but who were allowed to reside
within the village as independent artificers and
tradesmen, or even as cultivators of the lands
bought or rented from the proprietors. Establish¬
ments of this nature were found in their greatest
completeness in different parts of the south of India,
where Hindu principalities had been longest pre¬
served : but they were also met with in the western
provinces of Hindustan, where their organisation had
assumed something of a military character ; and ves¬
tiges of them were not wholly obliterated even in
Bengal.
The circumstances which led originally to this
distribution of the lands among detached communi¬
ties are now beyond the reach of history. It may
have been the result of a legislative provision, de¬
vised for the ready realisation of the revenue and
' See the description in the first volume of Mill, p. 313, from the Fifth
Report; Elphinstone, History of India, i. 120, and App. 476; and Wilks,
Southern India, i. 117. In a deed of gift by the minister of Bukka Raya,
king of Vijayanagar, dated 1109, Saka (a.D. 1187), the following list of vil¬
lage officers is given:—1. Reddi, or Pedda Reddi, head-man. 2. Karnam,
accountant. 3. Purohit, priest. 4. Blacksmith. 6. Carpenter. 6. Mo¬
ney-changer. 7. Kavel, village watcher or police officer. 8. Potmaker. 9.
424
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. convenient administration of the civil government ;
CHAP. viL there is no record of its institution or its au-
1813. thor. Tradition ascribes it to the spontaneous agree¬
ment of mankind in an early stage of society,^ and
it may have been suggested to the first Hindu set¬
tlers in India by the necessities of their situation.
"Whatever may have been its origin or antiquity,
there is no reason to believe that the village com¬
munities now in existence can boast of any remote
date or legislative creation. They represent with
differing degrees of fidelity the primitive forms from
which they are copied ; but they have deviated in
various respects from the original type, and are in
many instances, probably in all, of comparatively
recent date. They are most commonly the growth
of modern colonisation or conquest, and the pecu¬
liar features which they present have been modelled
by the occurrences from which they have sprung.
The political revolutions of later times, and pro¬
bably of earlier days also, have occasioned frequent
migrations of the people of India from one part of
the country to another. Centuries have elapsed since
the region was fully peopled ; perhaps it never was
wholly occupied : at any rate, abundance of waste
land has for a long time past been available, and
parties from the neighbouring or from distant tracts
have located themselves upon unoccupied spots, with
Washerman. 10. Barber. 11. Barikudu, messenger or menial. 12. Chek-
ári, shoemaker or worker in skins and leather. These are essentially the
same as the Bara-ballowati of other authorities, though some of the names
diifer ; and, in place of the leather-worker, some places have a water-car¬
rier.—Ellis on Mirasi right, App. p. 36. Traces of village institutions were
found by General Briggs in Bengal ; Land-tai, Supplement : although
there, as in other places, the corporation, or association of persons con¬
stituting the proprietary and governing body, had disappeared.
' Vishnu Purana, p. 45.
origin of village communities.
425
or without the cognisance of the ruling power, not book i.
likely to throw obstacles in the way of those who '
purposed to convert an unproductive wilderness into isis.
a source of revenue.^ The settlers would of course
be either of the same family, the same caste, or the
same tribe ; and would be linked together through
succeeding generations by community of origin, as
well as of property. There is an active spirit of
aggregation at work in Hindu society : the very in¬
stitution of caste, which disjoins the people as a
whole, combines them in their subdivisions ; like the
process of crystallisation, which destroys the uni¬
formity of the mass by the condensation of the par¬
ticles. But this is not the only source of reinte¬
gration ; there prevail other combinations of tribe or
avocation, some of which would be sure to influence
the movements of a body of settlers on a new soil,
and unite them into a village community or cor¬
poration. The necessity of combination, in order to
protect themselves against the flnancial oppressions
of the state, or against unauthorised plunderers and
assailants, would further contribute to cement their
union, and would give it consistency and duration.®
In like manner, where the occupation of the new
country was an act of violence and aggression com-
' See the instructions of Aurangzeb to his collectors, as cited by Gene¬
ral Galloway, 55.
' Instances of recent colonisation are specified by Mr. Thomason. " A
family of Chandel Rajputs emigrated from the Jonpur district, and settled
at Purgunna Natherpur, where they acquired much land." "The rise of
some Ahir (shepherd) communities illustrates the formation of such bodies
by sufferance. Familiar with the forest (in the Azimghur district), they
fixed their residence in some favourable spot, and began to cultivate ; and,
when a settlement (of the revenue) came to be made, appeared to be the
most convenient persons with whom to enter into engagements for the land."
—Account of the Settlement of Azimghur, by J. Thomason, Esq. ; Jour¬
nal, Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. viii. p. 96.
42G
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. mitted against their neighbours, or against the bar-
barons tribes inhabiting extensive tracts in different
1813. parts of India, identity of kindred, caste, or tribe, as
well as of interest, would unite the first assailants,
and would extend a bond of union to their suc¬
cessors. Such transactions are known to have oc¬
curred within very recent periods.^ In some in¬
stances one village community has fallen upon an¬
other, and ousted it from its possessions : in others, a
military adventurer has assembled his kinsmen and
followers ; and, having,conquered an extensive tract,
has parcelled it out amongst his chiefs, very much
upon the plan of a military fief. Time, the fiscal
measures of the Government, and the partition of
inheritance among the descendants of the con¬
querors, have loosened the original compact; and
the village, once held by an individual upon con¬
dition of military service to a chief, may have as¬
sumed the form of a village municipality, or it may
still retain many features of its original feudal cha¬
racter.^ In some places the original occupants have
' Mr. Thomason supposes the original conquest of Azimghur by Rajputs,
some time prior to the twelfth century, to have been the general foundation of
the existing proprietary right of the soil; and recently, " Achar and its de¬
pendent villages was held by a tribe of Kaut Rajputs. The Dhunwars,
(another Rajput clan,) of the neighbouring estate of Khulsa, were more
powerful : they attacked and massacred most of the Kauts. This took place
only a few years before the cession. Some of the family fled into the neigh¬
bouring district of Ghazipur, then in British possession, and have since in
vain attempted to recover their rights."—J. B. As. Society, viii. 90. Dur¬
ing the course of the inquiry preceding the permanent settlement, it was
found that the Pergunna of hlongir was divided among the descendants of
two Rajputs, to whom the family tradition ascribed the first settlement of
the country under grants from the Emperor Humayun, having taken it from
the wild inhabitants of the wilderness, which it then was, without the smallest
vestige of cultivation.—Letter from Mr. Davis, Assistant Collector on De¬
putation, 11th August, 1790; Fifth Report, 238.
^ Such is the case with the greater part of the Zemindaris along the
western frontier of Bengal, where, while the peasantry are mostly of the
rights of the villagers.
427
been driven away or exterminated : in others they book i.
appear as serfs or slaves attached to the soil and
accompanying its transfers, or being sold independ- isis.
ently of the land.^
From these sources, — legislation, colonisation,
and conquest,—and from the two latter especially in
modern times, may be derived the origin of the
village communities of India, or confederations of
a definite number of individuals claiming a certain
extent of land as their common property, and a right
to all advantages and privileges inherent in such
property, subject to the payment of a proportion
of the produce to the state. When that proportion
absorbed all the profits of cultivation, the members
of the commune who claimed the ownership of the
lands were reduced to the condition — which has
wild fofest tribes, Kolas, or Gonds, the proprietors of the villages are Raj¬
puts. That these latter came as conquerors as late as the sixteenth and seven¬
teenth centuries is well known amongst themselves, and the origin of their
possessions by allotment from tbe chief on the tenure of military service is
also admitted. The relation between the holders of the several lots, and the
representatives of the first leader, or the Rajas, is more or less perfectly
preserved, but it retains almost universally some impress of its origin.
See tbe remarks on tenures in Sambhalpur, jMill, i. p. 309, note. A similar
state of things prevails in the Pergunnas of Palamú, Sirgvija, Chota Nag-
pur, and others in the same direction. An interesting account of the origin
and progress of the feudal Zemindari of Palamú was printed, but not
published, by the late Mr. Augustus Prinsep, of the Bengal Civil Service.
Mr. Prinsep was disposed to find similar feudal institutions in many of the
Zemindaris of Bengal and Behar.
' In Malabar and Cañara, where the land was very generally divided
and occupied as separate and distinct properties, the labourer was the per¬
sonal slave of the proprietor, and was sold and mortgaged by him inde¬
pendently of the land. In the Tamil country, where land belonged more to
communities than individuals, tlie labourer was understood to be the slave
of the soil rather than of any particular person. In Telingana, where it
was difficult to trace the remains of private property in the land, the la¬
bourers, usually of the degraded or outcast tribes, were free.—Minute,
Board of Revenue, Madras, Jan. 1818'; Revenue Sel. i. 887. Mr.Thomason,
describing the agricultural labourers of Azimgbur, speaks of them as having
been, under former Governments, predial slaves, who were beaten without
mercy for misconduct, and were liable to be pursued and brought back if
they attempted to escape.—J. B. Asiatic Soc. viii. 11.5.
428
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. been ascribed, incorrectly it may be thought, to all
"""• the agricultural population of India—of persons cul-
1813. tivating the ground with their own hands and by
their own means.^ When the further exactions of
the officers of the state, and the usurpations which
in the absence of all government they perpetrated,
reduced the proprietors to extreme distress and in¬
significance, the village corporations were broken
up, and the traces of proprietary right so completely
obliterated as to suggest a belief that it had never
existed. Such seems to have been the state of the
peasantry in Bengal and Telingana. In other
places, in Cañara, in the Dekhin, in Bundelkhand,
and the Western provinces,® the right of property
was better preserved. Where either the demands
of the Government had been more moderate, or the
villagers by union and courage, or combination and
craft, had resisted or evaded extortion, they re¬
tained their character of proprietors, living upon the
profits of their own lands.^ The state of the coun-
' Mill; Commons' Committee, 1831, Evid. 3114.
® Thus in Cañara and Sonda, where the lands had, until a late date, been
lightly assessed, the Government demand having been as low as one-tenth
of the produce, and never more than a third, the lands were generally sub¬
let, the proprietors sometimes cultivating a portion : none of them held any
large estates ; few averaging, in the best of times, a rent of more than fifty
pagodas (or about twenty pounds) a-year. The respective rights of the
Government to the land revenue, and of the proprietor to the land, were
well known : an ancient grant to a temple specified the grant to be the
Government share of the rent, because the land belonged to the proprietor,
and could not therefore be given away by the state.—Fifth Report, 803 ;
Life of Sir Thomas Munro, iii. 161.
' The term village Zemindars has been generally applied to these proprie¬
tors in Hindustan.—Fortescue; Thomason, &c. Janamkars, or birthright
holders, is their name in Malabar.—Board of Revenue, Madras. Amongst
the Mahrattas they were called Thalkaris, holders of the Thai, (Sthal, or
land,) or Watan-dars (holders of the country) ; Coates on the Township of
Lony ; Trans. Literary Society of Bombay, iii. 226 : and in the Tamil coun¬
tries of the Peninsula, Mirásis, or Mirásdars (inheritors). Of the latter
VARIETIES OF ORGANISATION.
429
try, the habits of the people, and the subdivision of book i.
property by the laws of inheritance, prevented the
aggregation of large estates, or the formation of a I813.
landed aristocracy; and the agricultural proprietors
were therefore little else than petty farmers, employ¬
ing, superintending, and not unfrequently assisting
the labourers : but they were in a position to preserve
their hereditary rights, and to perpetuate the or¬
ganisation of the village communities. Much va-
rietj^, however, prevailed in that organisation, not
only in proportion to the degree of entireness in
which it had been preserved, hut from circumstances
Mr. Ellis observes, " Miras, originally signifying inheritance, is employed to
designate a variety of rights diifering in nature or degree, but all more or less
connected with the proprietary possession or usufruct of the soil or of its
produce."—Ellis on Mirasi right ; Selections, 8X0. The Selections have
injudiciously omitted the Appendices of this valuable document, full of im¬
portant historical illustration, which no one but Mr. Ellis was competent,
from a profound knowledge of the languages and literature of the South of
India, and from enlightened experience, to furnish. In the Appendix,
which with the text was printed at Madras in 1818, we find the following
concluding view of Mirasi tenure. " The Cani-sudantraui, or proper
Mirasi right, though founded on the principles of the general law, implies
peculiar privileges and an independent enjoyment of landed property by
the actual cultivator, unknown in other parts of India, and confined, in
fact, to those provinces of the South which formerly constituted the domi¬
nions of the ancient Tamil princes : this mode of holding landed property,
and several of the incidents appertaining to it, are not in resemblance only,
but in fact, the ssime as those which prevailed among our ancestors pre¬
viously to the introduction of feudal tenures into Europe, and wjiich is
usually designated by the term allodium, with which the word Canyatchi
(entire and absolute possession) in derivative meaning intimately corre¬
sponds. One of the most remarkable incidents in Mirasi is, the periodical
interchange of lands, which, in Tonda-mandalam at least, was anciently
universal ; the holding of them in severalty being a modern practice. Now
this was also a practice common to the nations among whom the allodial
possession of land primarily obtained, and from whom it passed to their
Prankish and Saxon descendants ; as Tacitus observes, ' The fields are
occupied, in proportion to the number of cultivators, in turns by all, and
are then divided among them according to the rank of each : the extent of
the plains facilitates this partition. The cultivated fields are interchanged
every year, and yet land remains.'—De Mor. Gerroanorura, c. 20. Were
I to endeavour to describe the mode of periodical repartition practised in
every Arudicadei village in Southern India, I could not convey my mean¬
ing in more appropriate or precise terms."—p. 85.
430
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. connected with its history which were no longer to
be verified. A village or villages had sometimes a
1813. single proprietor, more commonly a greater number;
but these were associated under a variety of condi¬
tions. Sometimes they held in common, sometimes
in severalty ; and the rights which they claimed were
of various descriptions. They were mostly reducible
to two chief classes, the rights of property and the
rights of privilege : they were both hereditary, but
■ the latter only were indefeasible, and subsisted where
the former had been lost. In their capacity of joint
proprietors of Aullage land the members of the asso¬
ciation generally inherited rather a definite propor¬
tion of the whole than any specific spot of ground.
Sometimes the same family cultivated the same
fields for successive generations ; but it was more
usual to arrange amongst themselves for fresh allot¬
ments from time to time, and to distribute different
parcels of land in distant parts of the village estate
to the same individual, according to the qualities of
the soil, and in conformity to regulations sanctified
by prescription. In their character of parties re¬
sponsible to the Government for a portion of its de-
mancls they sometimes paid it individually, in pro¬
portion to their shares; but it was more usual to
make the apportionment amongst themselves, and
pay the whole collectively through their head-man
or head-men. The shares, or the land where the
land was cultivated separately, might be mortgaged,
or let, or sold; but the act ordinarily required the
concurrence of the other members of the com¬
munity, in whom also the right of pre-emption
was vested. The alienation of the land to a stranger
general conformity.
431
did not carry with it of necessity his admission to book i.
the municipality, or give him any voice in the ma-
nagement of the affairs of the village ; neither did it 1813.
divest the person to whom the share or land had
belonged, of his right to interfere in the counsels of
the community, to assist in auditing the village
accounts, or to receive his portion of any emolu¬
ments which were derivable from the fees paid for
permission to exercise any trade or calling in the
village by persons not originally belonging to it, or
from any other source. Should he at any time
become able to resume his land, he was at liberty
to do so. A variety of minor regulations diversified
the village constitution in different parts of India;
but the general plan and most characteristic features
were everywhere essentially alike, and established
the virtual existence of a proprietary right in the
soil, enjoyed by certain classes of the people, whers-
ever it had not been infringed or abrogated by the
usurpations or exactions of arbitrary rule.^
' Occasionally an entire village might have become the property of a
single individual ; Minute, Sir Edward Colebrooke, Selections, iii. : but in
general the lands were divided into an indeterminate number of subdivisions
amongst the descendants of the original stock, or those holding in right of
them. Their right to a certain number of shares was fixed, but adjustments
took place from time to time according to the pleasure and convenience of
the parties interested : the divisions were effected either by integral allot¬
ment, or by fractional parts of each description of the land, to be divided
according to its quality. By the former method the shares were compact ;
by the latter they consisted of many particular spots situated in different
quarters. In some villages, althongh comparatively few, the lands are
undivided ; yet this circumstance neither alters nor affects in any way the
right of property in them. When the lands are undivided, each sharer
usually continues to cultivate the same fields. A proprietary share is con¬
sidered large at two hundred and fifty bégas, an ordinary one about seven
bégas ; some are as small as two bégas.—Fortescue on Tenures in the Dis¬
trict of Delhi ; Selections, iii. 404. The proprietary right may rest either
in a single individual or in a community : the latter may divide among
themselves the profits of the estate, either according to their ancestral shares,
or some arbitrary rule having reference to the quantity of land which each
432
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. The existence of proprietors of the soil not de-
pending upon manual labour involved of necessity
1813. the existence also of a class or classes of persons
willing to undertake the task of cultivating the
land, paying a rent for the occupancy transferred to
them for that purpose. Such persons accordingly
were found in all places where the proprietors
themselves had not been reduced to the level of a
labouring peasantry ; as was the case in much of
the territory of the Peninsula, in the IVIahratta pro¬
vinces, and in Hindustan. They were not wholly
wanting even in Bengal.^ It would occupy too
member cultivates.—Thomason; J. B. Asiatic Soc. viii. 98. In various
places, vrhat was considered the original number of shares remained un¬
altered ; but the distribution came to tlie same thing as their multiplication,
it being in fractional parts : thus, some members might have a whole share,
some a half, or some a hundredth part. This was the case in the Tamil
countries ; and the Thais of the Mahratta villages, and Péns and Thokas
of the Western provinces, seem also to have represented the original shares,
and indicated the number of persons among wbom the land was first divided.
—Colebrooke, Sykes, &c. In the South of India the lands are of two kinds,
privilege and proprietary : the former belong to the whole village, and a
member can sell his share only ; the latter may be cultivated collectively or
separately. In the former case shares only are subjects of sale, in the latter
the land is saleable.—Minute, Board of Revenue, Madras ; Selections, i.
904. The other statements of the text rest also upon these authorities.
' In the Western provinces there were the Kudeem, or ancient Ryot ; the
Páhi, the itinerant or temporary Ryot; and the Kumera, or labourer: there
was also Ae Kamin, or partial cultivator, an artizan or the like, cultivat¬
ing a few higas at his leisure.—Fortescue ; Selections, i. 406. In Azim-
ghur there were the three classes, but generally resolved into two : Ashraf,
respectable; and Arzal, low.—Thomason; J. B. As. Society, viii. 112. In
Bengal the cultivators were long since distinguished as holding Khud-kasht
and Pai-kasht lands ; the former cultivated by a permanent and resident,
the latter by a temporary and migratory, tenant.—Harington, Analysis B.
Regulations ; Introduction. The Zemindari Regulations have merged the
proprietor into the Khud-kasht cultivator, who was probably the perma¬
nent tenant. But there are other designations, less known, which preserve
the distinctions; the Praja, (or subject,) having the right to sell; the
Kalpa, paying him rent, and, while so doing, having the right of occu¬
pancy ; and the Patti-dar, holding of the same by annual lease.—Briggs,
Land-tax of India, Supplement, 500. In the South of India, in the Tamil
countries, tenants are termed Paya-karis, cultivating persons : the perma¬
nent, Ul-kudi Paya-karis ; the temporary, Para-kudi Paya-karis : in Mala¬
bar, Patom-karis, rent-payers : in Cañara, Gahinis, literally tenentes; aiúla-
VARIETY OP TENURES.
433
much space to specify the various tenures by which book i.
they hold, and it will be sufficient to advert to them
as distinguishable into two principal classes : the 1813.
one possessing a right of perpetual occupancy as
long as the stipulated rent was paid; the other
having only a temporary possession, either for a
definite number of years, or being tenants at will.
The former might have tenants under them, and
sublet the land, remaining themselves responsible
to the individual or community of whom the land
was field ; they were also allowed to mortgage, but
not to sell. The tenants for a term were bound of
course by the tenor of their agreements : the tenants
at will were often little better than mere labourers,
and sometimes were degraded to the condition of
slayes.
From this sketch of the distribution of landed pro¬
perty in India it follows, that, whatever might have
been the law or the theory, individual proprietary
right, identifiable with ownership of rent, had a very
extensive existence even to the latest periods of na¬
tive administration. The precise nature of the title
under which it was enjoyed was not always the
same, nor was it always perhaps easy of verification ;
but, whether originating in ancient institutions, in
colonisation, or in conquest, it had a real and sub¬
stantial vitality, and animated the exertions of the
gahinis, radical or permanent tenants ; Chali-gahinis, moveable tenants.—
Madras Revenue Board; Selections. In the Mahratta countries the
tenant is termed Upari, an " over" or " outer" man, an alien ; Sukhwas,
an abider at ease ; a Mahiman, or guest : but the only tenure here knovrn
seems to be that of a tenant by agreement or lease.—Sykes, Land Tenures
of the Dekhin. Of these denominations, some are Sanscrit, some Arabic,
some vernacular, but they are all significant; and, had their significations
been properly understood, little doubt could ever have been entertained as
to the character of the persons to whom they were applied,
VOL. I. 2 F
434
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. great body of the cultivating population, until it was
destroyed or wrested from them, partially at least,
1813. by the progress of events, and by the extortion,
injustice, and ignorance of their rulers.
IV. The produce of cultivation being divided
between the proprietor or cultivator and the sove¬
reign, it was necessary that the latter should pro¬
vide agents to determine and realise his share.
With this view, under the Hindu system an officer
was placed, as has been noticed, at the head of
every village or township, who was accountable to a
superior in charge of ten villages ; he again was re¬
sponsible to the superintendent of one hundred vil¬
lages, and he to the head of a thousand villages.^
This last, the governor in fact of a province, paid
the revenue into the royal treasury. The IMoham-
medan Governments adopted divisions, correspond¬
ing in a great measure with those of the Hindus, but
the organisation was less definite:^ and in the anar¬
chy of the declining empire, and in the general em¬
ployment of the agency of revenue contractors, little
trace was left of the primitive institutions beyond
the head-man of the village, and the chiefs of one
or two large but undefined portions of territory; the
former designated in various parts of India as Mo-
kaddam. Mandai, or Patel, the latter known chiefly
in Bengal and Hindustan as Talukdar or Zemindar.
The head-man of a village was the only func-
' Menu, vii. 119, 123 ; Elphinstone's History of India, i. 39.
ä In Bengal we have the Gráma or Gaon, the village; the Taraf, the
Parganna, and the Taluk or Zemindari, for the larger divisions.—Haring-
ton's Analysis, ii. 67. Among the Mahrattas, the Patel, the Désmukh,
and Sir-dés-mukh, for the gradation of officers.—Sykes; Journal Royal
As. Society, ii. 208.
NATIVE REVENUE OFFICERS.
435
tionaiy that was identified with the primitive insti- book i.
tution, and who had lived on with it through all
the revolutions which India had experienced.^ Al- 1813.
though, however, the office subsisted, it had not
escaped alteration. The tendency of all public em¬
ployment in India, from the office of the prime-
minister to the function of village watchman, to be¬
come hereditary, is familiarly known. The station
of head of a village followed the prevailing bias.
From being an officer nominated by the sovereign,"
he came to claim the post in virtue of his descent :
the family became permanently grafted upon the
village, and the representative of it regarded the
superintendence of its affairs as his right. It is not
unlikely that from the first the duty was entrusted
to a leading member of the community, who, while
he was acceptable to his townsmen, would be most
competent to promote the interests of the state by
his influence and responsibility. Time wrought
other changes : the family decayed or disappeared ;
new men usurped the authority, or were elected by
different portions of the community. The notion of
' " In every village, according to its extent, there are one or more head¬
men, known by a variety of names in various parts of the country, who
have in some degree the superintendence and direction of the rest. I shall
confine myself to the term ' Mandai he assists in fixing the rent, direct¬
ing the cultivation, and making the collections."—Minute by Lord Teign-
mouth ; Fifth Report, 193. He particularises the Mandais of Birbhúm,
Pumia, and Rajshahi, districts of Bengal. " Amongst the crowd of pro¬
prietors, the managers and leaders of the villages are the Mocuddims.
These have been from time immemorial the persons through whom the rents
of the village have been settled and collected, and who have adjusted the
quota of each sharer."—Fortescue; Selections, i. 408.
In the Mahratta countries the confirmation of the head of the state con¬
tinued to be regarded essential to the validity of the Patel's authority.
" The Patels about Poona say they hold their Patelships of the Emperor of
Delhi, or one of the Sattara kings ; but many of them must hold of the
Peshwa."—Township of Lony j Bombay Trans, iii. 183.
2 F 2
436
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. property as well as privilege became attached to
CHAP. viL succession ; and the person holding the office
1813. sold or mortgaged it, or a part of it, and introduced
a colleague.^ Different castes found admission into
the village society, each having its own head; or
different branches of the same family chose to be
severally represented.® The headship was thus di¬
vided amongst fewer or more individuals. Nor was
this a partition of a barren title or a post of honour :
it was an apportionment of shares in certain fees,
perquisites, and profits attached to the situation,
founded upon the provision made originally for the
remuneration of the head-man, but extended to a
variety of objects not contemplated in the primary
institution. From these and other sources of pecu¬
niary benefit, the office became in some parts of
India a means of acquiring wealth, and an object of
competition.®
' The Patelship is hereditary and saleable, but the office is looked upon
as so respectable, and the property attached to it is considered so perma¬
nent, that there are few or no instances of its being wholly sold, although
part of it has been so transferred. This has given rise to there being two
■Patels in many villages, and in some three or four.—Bombay Trans, iii. 184.
^ General Briggs foiind in a village near Calcutta, peopled by Moham¬
medans and Hindus, four Mandais ; three for the former, one for the latter.
—^^Supplement, Land-tax. And in a village near Madras, three Pedda-kars,
or head-men ; one for each caste of the population.—Supplement ; Coll.,
&c. Colonel Sykes gives an amusing and instructive account of the solemn
arbitration of a dispute in which two Patels of a village had sold a third of
the office to a third party, for money wherewith to pay the public revenue.
They subsequently contested the full advantages which the transfer was
maintained to convey : a verdict was given against them in a Panchayat of
Patels, who apportioned to each his separate share of precedence and emo¬
lument. Among other things it was decreed that each was to have a pair
of shoes a-year from the village shoemaker, two bundles of fire-wood on
festival-days from the village menials, three pots of water daily from the
watchmen, and a third of all sheeps' heads offered to the goddess Bhaváni.
What was still more valuable, a similar partition was enacted of the rent-
free lands attached to the office, and of all lands that might lapse from
families becoming extinct.—^Tenures of the Dekhin; Journal Royal Asiatic
Society.
' The founder of the family of Sindhia was a Patel : Madhaji affected
office of zemindar.
437
The officers to whom, the Mohammedan designa- book i.
CHAP* VII»
tions of Talukdars and Zemindars applied, indicated !
less distinctly their Hindu original. They differed isis.
in little except in a greater extent of authority and
amount of collection, and not always in that ; and it
will be sufficient in this place to confine our in¬
quiries to the latter.^ Conflicting speculation has
confounded our conceptions of the character of the
Zemindar : some of the perplexity has arisen from
the application of the term to different classes of
persons, and some to the combination of different
characters in the same class of persons. In some
places the title Zemindar signifies the proprietor of
the soil, either as landlord or cultivator, in his indi¬
vidual capacity, or as a member of a village commu¬
nity : in some places it denotes a sort of feudal pro¬
prietor, either paramount or subordinate : and in
others, an individual responsible to the Government
for its share of the revenue of a district of greater or
less extent; deriving this responsibility from inherit¬
ance, and claiming also as a hereditary right an allow¬
ance out of the Government share for maintenance,
and as compensation for the trouble and responsibi¬
lity of collection.® It was in this latter capacity that
the title, whence the popular saying, " Madhaj i Sindhia made himself master
of India by calling himself a Patel."—Malcolm, Central India, i. 124.
Holkar, the Bhonsla Raja, and others, took not only tlie title, but claimed
the ofiBce and its emoluments in particular villages.—Sykes, Land Tenures.
' A Talook comprehended only a few villages or a small tract of ground.
The Talook-dar, or holder of a ' dependancy,' sometimes held under a
Zemindar, sometimes immediately under the Government, to whom his col¬
lections were paid. In the language of the Company's Regulations the
latter is called an independent Talookdar. The Hindu name, Choudri, (a
word of uncertain etymology, but apparently derived from Chaturtha-dhari,
the, receiver of a fourth part,) was sometimes applied to a Zemindar.—
■Harington's Analysis, ii. 63.
' Of the first class are the Zemindars of the Western provinces, as already
438
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the Zemindar became first conspicuous in the fiscal
arrangements of the Governments of British India,
1813. and was regarded as having a claim to property in
the soil.
Nor was this notion altogether without found¬
ation. The whole of the district for the revenues
of which a Zemindar was accountable, or any very
considerable part of it, might not be his absolute
property ; but there is reason to believe that he was
rarely a mere functionary of the Government, hav¬
ing no property nor interest whatever in the soil. In
his case, as well as in that of the head of a village,
individuals were no doubt appointed to represent
the Government in a particular locality because
they had extensive possessions in it, which conferred
upon them local authority and infiuence on the one
hand, and on the other afforded to the state a sub¬
stantial security for the realisation of its demands.
The additional power which his relation to the Go¬
vernment placed in his hands was liable to be used
by the Zemindar for his own advantage, and oppor-
noticed; and of the second, the Zemindars of the border districts of Bengal,
also adverted to. The Zemindars of Orissa, according to Mr. Stirling, are
also the representatives of feudal chiefs, holding their lands by the tenure
of military service ; Asiatic Researches, xv. 229 : So are the ancient Ze-
raindai s of the Northern Circars, and the Poligars of the Dekhin appear
to have had the same origin. The last class were found chiefly in Bengal
but also in Hindustan. Their claim to a portion of the Government reve¬
nue only is clearly expressed in various Sunnuds or grants of the Mogul
Government. One of these, quoted in the original by Mr. Thomason dated
lti09, is a grant made by Jehangir to a converted Hindu, and his descend¬
ants for ever, of twenty-four Purgannas in the province of Allahabad •
from the Jumma or annual revenue of which he is to deduct one hundred
and twenty-five thousand rupees for his Nankar or subsistence, and one
per cent, for Zemindari dues (Abwáb-i-zemindari) J. Bengal Asiatic
Society, viii. 91. Mr. Shore (Lord Teignmouth) refused to admit a Sunnud
to be a foundation of Zemindari tenure ; Fifth Report, 204 : but that was
because he maintained the Zemindars to be proprietors of the land. Mr.
Grant refers their origin to tlie time of Akbar.—Ibid. 632.
HEREDITARY RIGHTS.
439
tunities were not likely to be wanting which book i.
■LI 1 1 ■ . 1 . 1 CHAP. vn.
enabled him to appropriate to his own uses the
rights both of individuals and the state. The latter
not unfrequently waived its own claims in his fa¬
vour by grants of waste land, or by the assignment
to him of the rent of different places in perpetuity
for his subsistence; the right to the hereditary posses¬
sion of which was admitted even when the Zemin¬
dar was relieved from all share in the collection of
the revenue, was incapable by reason of ag-e or sex
of performing the duty, or when he declined to
engage for the amount of the Government claim,'
Besides this assignment, the Zemindar received a
' For this the term is Nánkár, literally, source of bread; General Gallo¬
way explains it " bread for work it is much the same thing, meaning sub¬
sistence-money. In the Sunnud last referred to it was a specified sum to be
deducted from the whole rent, but it was mure usually the rent or Government
share of the produce of certain tracts of land within the Zemindari set apart
for the support of the Zemindar.— Harington, ii. 65 ; and Fifth Report, 633,
Mr. Trant identifies Nankar with Nijot,the own proper cultivated land of the
Zemindar.—Evid. Com. Committee, 1832; Question 2037. Agreeably to
the tenor of the Sunnud quoted in the preceding note, the Nankar was a
pension assigned upon the revenue without specifying any obligation to col¬
lect the revenue, and hence the foundation, probably, of all such claims.
It was rather a special grant to individuals than to the Zemindars as a
class, and consequently was retainable where the duty of collecting the re¬
venue was resumed or declined. There was another allowance, the Mali-
kana, the origin of which is not so obvious ; properly, it denotes the right of
the Malik or owner; but, until the Zemindars were acknowledged to be
owners by the British Government, it did not belong to them. It not im¬
probably originated (as General Galloway supposes) in the reservation to
the owner of a part of his proper share, amounting to ten per cent, of the
estimated rent where the whole land had been oppressively assigned away
from him.—p. 91, In the course of time it seems to have been appropri¬
ated by the Zemindars, and to have been converted by them into an here¬
ditary claim for ten per cent, on the Government collections ; and finally it
was secured to them professedly in the capacity of proprietors of the soil,
and therefore independently of official function, by the imperfect knowledge
of the British Government.—Regulation viii. 1793, clause xliv. The same
Regulation secured to recusant Zemindars their Nankar lands also, as long
as the joint amount of Malikana and Nankar did not exceed ten per cent.
—CI. xxxvi. Certainly the Zemindars had no right to Malikana independ¬
ently of employment in fiscal duties ; and their right to Nankar depended
upon the nature of the original assignment under which it was held, or the
degree in which it was their Nij or own property.
44a
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. per-centage upon the actual collections, or what
CHAP. VII. understood to be the actual collections ; and he
1813. was authorised to impose, for his own benefit, taxes
upon the industry of the people,—an authority of
which he amply availed himself.^ The distracted
state of public affairs, and the imbecility of the na¬
tive Governments, left the Zemindars still more at
liberty to pursue schemes of personal aggrandise¬
ment and profit, to encroach upon the rights of the
people, and withhold the dues of the Government;
until, in some instances at least, they raised them¬
selves to the station of petty princes, levied troops
and built forts, and defied the sovereign and his im¬
mediate representatives. To the people the en¬
croachments of the Zemindars upon the Govern¬
ment claims were either acceptable or indifferent,
and they were not without equivalent advantages,
which reconciled them to a curtailment of their
own rights. As long as they were allowed to re¬
main upon their lands, it made no difference to
' The unwarrantable exactions of the Zemindars are alluded to in the
instructions of the Bengal Government of 1769 ; and some striking illustra¬
tions are given by Mr. Sisson in his report, dated April, 1815. " One man
buys a house, and celebrates his occupation of it by a religious ceremony ;
more than double the cost is exacted from his Ryots : the birth of a grand¬
son costs him twelve hundred rupees ; he collects from them on this ac¬
count five thousand. Another has his house burnt; he not only extorts
more than the value, but makes it an annual permanent charge to the
Ryots. A third makes an annual progress through his estate, travelling
in great state ; the Ryots are taxed with the cost. A Zemindar buys an
elephant ; the Ryots pay for it. Every public or private religious ceremo¬
nial is an occasion of taxation ; not a child can be born, not a head shaved,
not a son married, not a daughter given in marriage, not a member of the
family dies, but it is a plea for extortion."—Sisson, Report on Rungpore ;
Selections, i. 390. This was the state of tilings in Rungpore so late as
1815, and under the British Government : it could not have been much
worse under the native Governments. It was the same in the South of India,
although there these extra cesses are said to have been brought to the credit
of the Government, no doubt very imperfectly.—Comm. Committee, 1832 ;
Col. Sykes, 1957.
popular influence op the zemindars.
441
them whether the rent they paid went to the Ze- book i.
mindars or the viceroys of the Sultan. The former
lived and died among them, generation after gene- I813.
ration ; they mixed with them on a variety of oc¬
casions ; they expended money upon public festivals,
and supported public institutions; they kept up a
large following and an expensive household, and,
through many different channels, refunded to the
peasantry of the country the money which had been
extorted from them. The revenue was spent among
thos'e from whom it was raised. When, therefore,
the Zemindar was not more than usually oppressive
and extortionate ; when he was satisfied with the
proportion of the produce which usage had esta¬
blished to be his due, and with the occasional im¬
posts or cesses which experience had taught the
cultivators to anticipate ; he was looked up to with
respect, or even with affection, and the people were
ever ready to take up arms in defence of his person
and possessions. It was not surprising, therefore,
that he should have been confounded, by those who
first contemplated him in this condition, as the
hereditary landlord of a large estate and the pro¬
prietor of the soil ; although, had they duly con¬
sidered the limited amount of his acknowledged
share of the proceeds of that estate, it might justly
have inspired doubts of the validity of his claims to
the produce of the whole. It had that result with
some ; and hence arose one argument in favour of
the proprietary right of the sovereign, upon which
the measures of the British authorities in 1793
were founded.
V. The proceedings of the Marquis Cornwallis,
442
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. recognising the Zemindars of Bengal, Behar, and
Orissa as proprietors, and fixing for ever the amount
1813. to he paid by them, have been already detailed;
their results also, as far as they had been then ascer¬
tained, have been described.^ The early arrange¬
ments adopted for the settlement of the revenue
of the Ceded and Conquered provinces have also
been adverted to ; and it only remains to notice the
course of proceedings which had been followed at
JMadras. The territory subject to Bombay was still
too circumscribed to require separate notice.
Immediately after the conclusion of the perpetual
settlement in Bengal, the home authorities directed
its extension to the Presidency of Madras : its in¬
troduction was delayed by the difficulty of discover-
■ Vol. V. 517. It may be convenient here to refer to the following au¬
thorities. The proprietai-y right of the Zemindars was advocated at an
early date by Mr. Francis, in opposition to Warren Hastings, who urged
in favour of a proposed commission of inquiry, that it would tend to
secure to the Ryots the perpetual and undisturbed possession of their
lands. Mr. Francis replied, " The state does not consist of nothing but
the niler and the Ryot; nor is it true that the Ryot is the proprietor of
the land. The true landlord is the Zemindar."—Minutes of Hastings
and Francis, Nov. 1776. Mr. Shore says: "I consider the Zemindars
as proprietors of the soil, to the property of which they succeed by right
of inheritance."—Fifth Rep. 203. The doctrine was next advocated by
Mr. Rouse, in a dissertation on landed property in Bengal, 1791. On
the other hand, it was stoutly contested by Mr. Grant : " There is not in
the northern Circars, any more than within the rest of the wide circle
of the British dominions in India, with exception of a few instances, a
single individual among the native Hindoos, calling themselves Rajas or
Zemindars, who have the smallest pretension, in form, right, or fact, to an
inch of territorial property."—Fifth Rep. 633. But he erred in confining
the right of property exclusively to the sovereign. Mr. Place, at a some¬
what later date, 1799, took up the claim of the Ryots or husbandmen, at
least, in the neighbourhood of Madras.—Fifth Report, 714. Most recent
evidence is adverse to the claim of the Zemindars in any other character
than that of hereditary collectors or farmers of the public revenue ; but, in¬
asmuch as it is exclusive, it is just as erroneous as all that has preceded
it. Mr. Tucker's definition is also applicable in many instances, though
not universally: "The Zemindar was the hereditary administrator, I should
say, of the revenue, with a beneficial interest in the land."—Commons'
Committee, 1S32 ; Evid. 1813.
REVENUE ARRANGEMENTS AT MADRAS.
443
ing individuals with whom the engagements were to book i.
be concluded, for the intervention of persons analo-
gous to the Zemindars of Bengal between the culti- 1813.
vating population and the Government was generally
unknown. The reiterated injunctions of the Court
of Directors, and the positive orders of the Bengal
Government, caused Zemindars to be discovered or
created ; and several regulations were passed in the
course of 1802, declaratory of their proprietary right,
and announcing the principles of a perpetual settle-
meftt, which, after some interval, was effected in the
districts that had been longest subject to the autho¬
rity of the Madras Government.^
Whilst these arrangements were in progress, a
settlement on entirely different principles had been
commenced in the territories latterly conquered
from Mysore. As their circumstances and resources
were imperfectly known, it was deemed prudent,
before forming any assessment in perpetuity, to
institute a detailed survey with a view to the de¬
termination of its amount, and in the interval to
conclude temporary arrangements with the actual
occupants of the lands. These proceedings, under¬
taken for the ultimate purpose of effecting a per¬
manent Zemindari assessment, gave rise to a new
system of revenue administration, since designated
Ryotwar, or a settlement individually and imme¬
diately with the Ryots, meaning by the term the
actual cultivators of the soil. The survey was con¬
ducted by Colonel Reade, having for his assistants
Lieutenants Munro, Macleod, and Graham ; the
former of whom, afterwards Sir Thomas INIunro,
' The northern Circars, the Jagir, part of Salem, Madura, and Tinevelly.
444
HÍSTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. became subsequently more especially identified with
CHAP. VII. system.^ The objects they were directed to
1813. determine were, the extent of the land in cultiva¬
tion, the quality of the different sorts of land, the
tenure by which it was held, the value of the dif-
erent crops, and the share of the produce to which
the Government could justly lay claim. An annual
adjustment was to he made with each cultivator for
the land he cultivated, at a maximum money rent
for each field, according to the circumstances and
capability of the land, whatever might he the pro¬
duce : the amount to admit of reduction where the
necessity of reduction was shown, and to vary from
year to year, until the inquiry should he sufficiently
matured to allow of its being determined for ever.®
The proceedings of the revenue survey were first
directed to the districts of the Baramahal and Salem.
They were extended to the Ceded Provinces above
the Ghats, after the capture of Seringapatam, under
the conduct of different officers who had been mostly
trained under Colonel Reade. There was some va¬
riety in their methods of discharging the duty,® and
> Military collectors were appointed to this duty by Lord Comwallis ex¬
pressly because " few of the civil servants were acquainted with the
country languages, and were therefore obliged, both from habit and neces¬
sity, to fall into the hands of Dubashes (interpreters).—Letter to the Court
of Directors, May, 1792 ; Fifth Report, 744. It appears that the implied
rebuke was not without effect, as in the subsequent settlements several
civilians were employed ; although this was the effect of positive orders
from Marquis B'ellesley, repeatedly confirmed by the Court of Directors
that civilians only should be so employed.—Commons' Committee 1832'
Public. App. (M.) '
' Letter of Colonel Munro to the Board of Revenue, 30th Nov. 1806
with instructions to the surveyors, &c.—Fifth Report, 783. '
3 " The revenue surveys under the Madras Presidency were not regu-
lated by any uniform rule, and in some respects were, perhaps, defective"in
principle. The most ample discretion was vested in the local oflicer on
whom this duty was imposed in each district; and the details naturally
ryotwar settlement.
445
still more in the rate of their assessments : büt their book i.
operations were equally based upon the measurement
of the lands, both cultivated and waste ; the deter- I813.
mination of their fitness for particular crops the
money valuation of the estimated produce of the
land in cultivation, and its partition between the
cultivator and the Government ; the rate varying
from one-third of the supposed value of the gross
produce to little less than a half, or forty-five per
cent.® The measurements and valuations were made
in^the first instance by native surveyors, but the
final assessment by the head collector himself in
personal conference with the Patels and principal
Ryots of every village. Reference was also had to
the recorded collections of the native Governments;
and, where the total of the survey assessment ex¬
ceeded it materially, some remission was granted.
varied vrith the particular views of the individual."—Campbell on the Land
Revenues of India ; Commons' Committee, 1832, App. 44. See also the
Reports from the collectors Munro, Ravenshaw, Hurdis, Garrow, Wallace,
&c. ; Fifth Report, 745.
' In the first instance the land was distinguished into three sorts : Nanja,
wet, or that which was supplied with water by irrigation ; Panja, which
depended wholly upon rain : in these, rice and various other grains were
reared. The third kind of land was that fit for miscellaneous products other
than grain—tobacco, pepper, cotton, and vegetables. Each of these was
subdivided into a variety of species, according to their fertility : as many
as twenty distinctions of each class are enumerated in Colonel Monro's in¬
structions to his assessors ; but they were directed to restrict their specifi¬
cations to ten kinds of dry land, eight of wet, and six of garden ground.—
Instructions, &c. as above cited.
' Colonel Munro observes of the Ceded districts, and of the Dekhin, that
the mode of assessment in force there limits the Ryot to two-thirds of the
gross produce, but reduces it in fact nearly to a half. His own assessment
was forty-five per cent., but as a permanent rate he proposed to reduce it
by one-fourth ; so that the total being . . 100
Deduct Government share . . 45
Less one-fonrth . . . 11^
Final deduction . . 33|
Leaving to the Ryot per cent. . 66J.—Fifth Report, 342.
446
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Remissions were also made upon the realisation
of the year's revenue, if the season had proved un-
1813. favourable or the crops defective.
The incidents of the Ryotwar settlement attracted
the attention of Lord William Bentinck during his
administration of the government of Madras, and
led him to the conclusion that the Zemindari system
was incompatible with the true interests of the
Government and the community at large. The
right of private property in the soil, ascertained by
Colonel Munro to exist in Ganara, satisfied him
that, although similar rights might elsewhere have
been trodden down by the oppression and avarice of
despotic authority, yet they still existed, and were
to be discovered in every village. To create Ze¬
mindars, and invest them with a property to which
they could have no claim but the arbitrary will of
the state, was neither calculated to improve the con¬
dition of the people, nor provide for the future secu¬
rity of the Government.^ The Zemindari settle¬
ments were in consequence arrested, and the prin¬
ciple of the formation of a permanent settlement
with the Ryots was thenceforth to regulate the
revenue arrangements at Madras. The determi¬
nation was of short duration.
The survey assessment of the Ceded provinces
above the Ghats was scarcely completed® when the
Government of Madras was induced to entertain a
doubt whether it was not desirable to relinquish the
Ryotwar system, and substitute for it some plan of
' Minutes of Lord W. Bentinck, and Memoir of Mr. Thackeray • Fifth
Report, 912.
' It commenced in 1802, and was finished in 1807.
ryotwar system suspended.
447
settlement approximating more nearly to that of book i.
estates permanently assessed. The Board of Re-
venue, to whom the subject was referred, adopted 1813.
a view unfavourable to the continuance of the
Ryotwar system, chiefly on the grounds of its in¬
compatibility with the judicial regulations recently
introduced at Madras, by which all questions of
revenue were removed from the cognizance of the
revenue authorities to regular courts of justice,^ As
long as a country was unsettled, and great discre¬
tional authority was vested in the collector, the
Board admitted that a survey settlement with the
Ryots was well calculated to develope the capabilities
of the country, and detect and remedy abuses ; but
when the settlement was effected, and regular courts
of law were established, the power of discretionary
and summary decision was necessarily withdrawn
from the collector, and all disputes were referable
to legal tribunals, which could not possibly provide
for the numerous cases that so many and such minute
disputes, as must arise under the Ryotwar system,
would bring under their cognizance. The perma¬
nence of the Ryotwar system depended also upon
the reduction of the assessment, as proposed by Colo¬
nel Munro, by one-fourth of its amount ; a sacrifice
' The question was first brought forward and was fully treated by Mr.
Hodgson, who had been a member of a committee appointed to inquire into
the causes of the failure of the permanent settlement in Dindigul.—Selec¬
tions, i. 581. It is also worthy of remark, that at this date Colonel Munro
had gone to England, and Sir George Barlow had succeeded Lord W. Ben-
tinck at Madras. The great advocate of the Ryotwar system was absent,
and the head of the Government was naturally biassed in favour of a sys¬
tem, " a large portion of which had engaged his attention for twenty years,
and which he had deliberately resolved on accelerating in the Ceded and
Conquered provinces" of the Bengal Presidency.— Minute of Mr. Cole-
brooke, Sel. i. 45.
448
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. which the exigencies of the Government did not
allow it to contemplate. The"' Board therefore re¬
íais. commended, and the Government resolved, that the
Ryotwar plan should be abandoned,^ and that of
village leases substituted ; the villages being let to
the head of the village, or principal cultivator, for
a term of three years, for the annual payment of
a sum determined by the aggregate collections of
former years, or the survey rent where it could be
depended on. The regulations of the Government,
it was asserted, were fully adequate to protect the
Ryots against the oppression of the renter. The
course thus pursued was sanctioned by the Court of
Directors, who at this period seem to have been per¬
suaded that no advantage was to be expected from
the further prosecution of the Ryotwar assessments.®
In finally approving of the arrangement, however,
they intimated that they were not anxious for the
early extension of the principle of permanency into
any of the territories into which it had not been
introduced, and restricted the IVIadras Government
from concluding such a settlement in any district
without the previous sanction of the Court.®
' Revenue Letter from Fort St. George, 24th Oct. 1808 ; Selections, i. 483.
^ Extracts of Dispatches from the Court, 30th August 1809. The Court
also dwell upon the obvious defects of the system,—the minuteness of in¬
vestigation which it involves, the necessary employment of countless native
agents, the impossibility of effectually preventing their malpractices, and
the difficulty of adjusting the rents to all the varieties of seasons and public
events ; and conclude, that, " although the plan intelligently followed up
might be well calculated to discover the resources of a country, yet it was
not to be preferred for constant practice ; and the doubt which Lieut.-Col.
Munro has properly stated, whether it be equally well fitted for the im¬
provement of a counti-y as for the discovery of its resources, would, they
were strongly inclined to believe, be resolved in the negative."—Selec. i.
598.
' The date of this letter, Dec. 1811, accounts for the change of opinion
which it expresses.—Selections, i. 600.
decennial leases.
449
The prohibition against concluding a settlement book i.
in perpetuity in aity 'of the JVIadras territories was
announced scarcely in time to prevent the Govern- I813.
ment of Fort St. George from pledging itself to the
measure. The results of the triennial settlement,
although in several instances unfavourable, were
considered sufficient guides to the determination of
the utmost capabilities of the land, and the conse¬
quent limitation of tbe Government demand. The
benefits of the measure required, it was affirmed, no
discûssion ; and the only points for consideration
were the time and mode of carrying it into opera¬
tion. With regard to the former, it was concluded
that the period had arrived at which the Govern¬
ment might proceed to a final settlement of the
land revenue without any risk of compromising the
public interests ; and, with regard to the latter, that
the preferable method was that of the Mouzawar or
village settlement. It was resolved, therefore, to
proceed at once to conclude a settlement for ten
years with heads of the villages singly, or with any
respectable inhabitants of the village or district, or,
in the event of their refusal, with any responsible
individuals, conditioning that the amount of revenue
to be paid by them should become a permanent set¬
tlement at the end of the ten years if approved of
by the Court.^ Their approval was not to be ex¬
pected : and, in the reply of the Court, the grant
of the proposed decennial leases was prohibited, or,
if already granted, they were to be declared ter¬
minable at the end of the ten years : the principle
of permanency was discarded, and positive orders
' Letter from Fort St. George, 29th Feb. 1812 ; Sel. i. 513.
vol. i. 2 g
450 HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. were given for an immediate return in all possible
cases to annual and individual settlements with the
1813. cultivators—to the Ryotwar assessments. The or¬
ders were complied with. Sir George Barlow was
presently afterwards removed from the government
of Madras, and the revenue discussions terminated
for the present at that Presidency.'
The discussions in Bengal turned principally upon
the question of permanency. With whom the set¬
tlement should be made had scarcely yet become
a subject of consideration with the Government,
which looked everywhere for Zemindars ; but among
its functionaries, and particularly in the unsettled
districts, a conviction had begun to spread that the
question of tenure was still to be investigated. The
fact was brought to the notice of the Government
more distinctly than it had hitherto been by the
members of a special commission which had been
appointed to superintend the engagements that were
to be concluded with the landholders in the Ceded
and Conquered provinces upon the approaching ex¬
piration of those which were in force.® It was at the
same time announced to the Zemindars and other
actual proprietors of land in the Ceded and Con¬
quered provinces that the revenue which might be
assessed on their estates in the last year of the set¬
tlement which was now to be made should remain
fixed for ever, in case the Zemindars were willing
to engage for the payment of the public revenue
on those terms in perpetuity, and the aiTange-
' The letter of the Court is dated IGth December, 1812 ; Sel. i. 525. Tu
the following August a long and able minute of the Board of Revenue is
recorded in vindication of their views and proceedings.—Ibid. 577.
^ Regulations x. 1807 ; vi. 1808.
settlement in the western provinces.
451
ment should receive the sanction of the Court of book i.
Directors.
The commissioners, Messrs. Cox and Tucker, en- isis.
tered upon their duties at the end of 1807. Early in
the following year they submitted a report of their
proceedings,^ and a description of the several collec-
torates in the districts which they had visited ; and
they came to the conclusion that a permanent settle¬
ment of the revenue of the Western provinces was
at that moment premature, and might be injurious to
the people, while it would be necessarily attended
by a material sacrifice of the public resources.
The right of property in the cultivated lands was in
many cases contested. It remained to be deter¬
mined with what parties a settlement should be
effected. Lands were held free upon tenures the
validity of which required proof, and there were
extensive waste lands of which the rightful appro¬
priation was to be ascertained. At least a fourth
of the arable land was yet uncultivated, and neither
the resources of the provinces nor their means of
improvement were known. Although, therefore,
professing to be fully aware of the advantages which
might be expected from a perpetual limitation of
the Government demand, the commissioners recom¬
mended that the announcement of a permanent
settlement should be suspended, and that the period
for which the engagements were to be renewed
should be devoted to the diligent accumulation of
the information essential to its establishment on
safe and equitable principles. Their recommenda¬
tions were at variance with the established opinions
' Selections, i. 45.
2 G 2
452
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. of the Supreme Council. Mr. Colehrooke, one of
the members, objected to their reasonings, that they
1813. were the same which had been overruled or refuted
in the discussions preceding the permanent settle¬
ment of Bengal ; and that experience had confirmed
their fallacy, as the design of the permanent settle¬
ment of 1793 had been fully accomplished in that
part of India. The same advantages were therefore
to be expected from the application of a like measure
to other places ; and the Government was pledged,
by the terms of the preceding regulations, to its im¬
mediate adoption in the Ceded and Conquered pro¬
vinces.' Mr. Lumsden, the other member of Coun¬
cil, although differing in some respects from his
colleague, came to the same conclusion ; and Lord
Minto, after a deliberate consideration of all the pro¬
ceedings, declared himself satisfied of the sound
policy, or rather the urgent necessity, of no longer
delaying to settle the revenue assessment of the
Western provinces in perpetuity.® The determina¬
tion of the Government was disapproved of in Eng¬
land. The Court of Directors declared, indeed, that
they neither meant to undervalue the advantage of
the permanent settlement in Bengal, nor to desert
the principle on which it was formed ; but it was
evident that the principle was reluctantly enter¬
tained, and that doubts began to be suggested whe¬
ther its consequences were not embarrassing to the
Government, without yielding an equivalent benefit
to the people.®
' See the purport of the regulations referred to in a former place, p. 114.
^ Revenue Letter from Bengal, September, 1808.
3 Revenue Letters to Bengal, 1st Feb. and 27th Nov. 1811 ; Sel. iii. 5.
OBJECTIONS TO A PERPETUAL SETTLEMENT.
453
The expense of any scheme of administration book i.
CHAP* VII«
must be proportionate to the advance of a state in "
wealth and power. The more numerous the people, isis.
the more extensive the territory, the more compli¬
cated the internal and external relations, the more
costly must be the machinery of the Government.
The golden age has not yet come back ; and from
time to time all countries must be placed in situa¬
tions in which an unusual application of all avail¬
able resources is indispensable for their safety. It
were most impolitic, therefore, if it were possible, to
fix for ever impassable bounds to the public re¬
venues, in ignorance of the possible extent of future
exisrencies. Such a limit was of course never in
contemplation : but it was anticipated that the re¬
striction of the Government demand upon the land
would be followed by a proportionate improvement
of the estates of the landholders ; that capital would
accumulate, expenditure increase, and the people
be placed in circumstances favourable to an aug¬
mented consumption of articles both of necessity
and luxury ; that a system of indirect taxation, like
that which is the main source of revenue in Europe,
might be introduced into India; and that in the
end the revenue of the Government would augment
with the augmented affluence and prosperity of the
country. These anticipations had been indulged in
without a due consideration of the obstacles which
impeded their realisation ; without a due regard for
These and similar dispatches are referred to as the letters of the Court of
Directors, as they are so designated in the Records. Agreeably to the
evidence cited in a former note, they would with more propriety be termed
the letters of the Board of Controul.
454
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the manners, the wants, and the feelings of the
cHAP.vn. would be scarcely prudent to predict
1813. that those obstacles will never be overcome ; but
many and great changes must take place before
they can be so far surmounted as to justify a Go¬
vernment of India in ceasing to look to the land as
the principal feeder of the public exchequer. It
were an act of suicidal improvidence prematurely to
divest itself of so commodious and productive a
source of revenue to any extent which may not be
in excess of the fair claims and reasonable expecta¬
tions of the agricultural population, and which is
consistent with their own usages and opinions.
With respect also to the interests of the agri¬
cultural population, the advantages of a permanent
settlement are in a great measure illusory. The
basis upon which it rests is a proportion of the pro¬
duce, a third or a half ; and this is then determined
to be a definite and unvarying quantity. But it is
universally admitted that it is almost impossible to
ascertain with precision the absolute total produce
of any given portion of land ; and the proportional
produce must be fixed therefore in most cases by
conjecture, involving one of the well-known evils of
the permanent settlement—great inequality of as¬
sessment. The total produce indeed cannot be fixed
by regulation: it must vary both in quantity and
quality with the amount of labour and skill be¬
stowed upon its production, and upon the recurrence
of favourable or unfavourable seasons. The propor¬
tion, however, being a fixed unvariable amount, does
not fluctuate with the causes of fluctuation ; and, in
the event of peculiarly unpropitious circumstances.
variable proportion of produce.
455
this amount may be equal in quantity, not to a half, book i.
but to the whole of the crop. In answer to this it
may be said, that in favourable times the fixed rate 1813.
may bear a lower proportion to the whole, and that
a bad year consequently is compensated for by a
good one ; but what then becomes of the principle
of permanency, for the cultivator pays at different
periods a different rate of rent ? To have to make
provision, whilst he prospers, against a possible re¬
verse, subjects him to uncertainty as much as if his
payrhents varied from year to year : and to sujipose
that the Indian cultivator will exercise such fore¬
sight, is to expect a total revolution in his character
and habits. The futility of such an expectation was
shown in the immediate effects of the permanent
settlement,—the ruin of the greater number of the
Zemindars, and the sale of those lands of which
they had been constituted proprietors, for arrears of
revenue.
If a variable ratio is unavoidable when calculated
upon the produce in kind, it is still more obviously
inevitable where, as in the case of the permanent
settlement, the Government demand has been cal¬
culated upon the estimated money value of that
produce. That this value should remain unaltered
for ever is as impossible as that society should stand
still; a stagnation less to be looked for in India
than in any other part of the world amid the ele¬
ments of incessant change that are daily springing
up frbm the novel ascendancy of European prin¬
ciples and forms of civilization. A fall in the price
of silver, and augmentation in the prices of labour
and commodities, are a virtual abatement of the re-
456
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. venue assessment : a rise in the value of silver, and
fall in the price of grain, are a virtual enhancement.
1813. The same might he the result of an extraordinarily
ahundant harvest, and consequent diminution of de¬
mand ; by which prices might be so depreciated, that
the sale of a farmer's whole produce might fail to
realise the fixed money value of the Government
share.^ It is evident, therefore, that a permanent
settlement, or an unvarying amount of revenue de¬
rivable from a money valuation of an unchanging
quantity of produce, is invariable or permanent only
in terms.
It does not follow that because a Government
refrains from declaring that it will at no time, and
on no occasion, raise its demand, that it is therefore
to discourage the industry of the agricultural popu¬
lation, or obstruct the accumulation of capital, by
constantly keeping up its demands at a maximum
rate. There is a principle of permanency which is
more essential to the prosperity of the country than
' In the assessment made by Colonel Briggs in Kandesh,the people were
at first highly pleased with the settlement, which was formed with the vil¬
lages upon the average collections of ten years. At first it fell lightly ; but;
the assessjwent being paid in money, it became heavy when the price of
grain declined. When the country was first taken under British manage¬
ment, the price of grain was about four shillings a bushel ; in four years,
in consequence of increased cultivation and diminished demand, from the
absence of troops and other circumstances, it had fallen to sixteen pence the
bushel : it was quite impossible, therefore, the villagers could pay tlie same
amount in money in the fourth year as they had done in the first. The
public revenue of Kandesh, notwithstanding increased cultivation, therefore,
was reduced from sixteen lakhs of rupees to eleven, and eventually to six
lakhs.—Lords' Committee, 1830; Evidence, Question 4049. So also Co¬
lonel Barnewall, speaking of Guzerat, observes, that in consequence of the
continuation of tranquillity, and the reduction of public establishments, the
bulk of the population has become agricultural, and the supply of grain
so far exceeds the consumption, that agricultural produce is no longer
saleable at its former prices: the profits of the farmer are consequently
diminished, and he is unable to pay the revenue demand of the Govern¬
ment.—Commons' Committee, 1832; Evid. Political, 151.
^ moderate assessment required.
457
that of a nominally perpetual assessment,—the in- book i.
variable recognition of the right of the proprietor of
the soil to a rent from his estate. As long as the isis.
Government constitutes itself sole landlord, and ap¬
propriates the whole, or nearly the whole, of the
rent, there can be no accumulation of capital, no
advance in wealth, no creation of collateral re¬
sources among the mass of the population, for what¬
ever period the assessment may be fixed. A mode¬
rate rather than a perpetual settlement is the real
want of the people. Speculators in revenue, middle¬
men, Zemindars, may be anxious for a perma¬
nently definite amount of the Government demand ;
which, while it limits what they are to pay, permits
them, as did the settlement of Lord Cornwallis, to
crush the cultivator under exorbitant exactions: but
there is every reason to believe that the actual oc¬
cupants and cultivators think and care little about
the question of permanency.^ It may be convenient
to all parties to adjust the assessment for a term of
years ; but as long as the amount is not extortionate,
' The evidence of Mr. Fortescue on this subject, as regards the people
of the Upper provinces, is conclusive. According to him, the Ryots or
cultivators know little or nothing about a permanent settlement, and
have no desire for its introduction : some dislike the notion from fear
of its affecting their local interests, and such as are desirous of it are so
from the representations which interested persons have made to them of
its advantages; that is. Zemindars of the village engaging for the reve¬
nue as landholders, and who expect to derive from it the authority which
they are told that it confers upon the Zemindars of the Lower provinces.—
Commons' Committee, 1832 ; Questions 2330-2340. Mr. Mackenzie ob¬
serves : ■' if not hated by the people (of the Upper provinces), we are
without the slightest hold on their affections. This seems, it may be proper
to remark, to have no connexion with the permanent settlement, on which the
very few who were interested never probably relied, and of which the
great body of the landholders never heard. Of some thousand peti¬
tions which I received when in the Western provinces, and of many tens
of thousands of petitioners whom I saw and talked with, not one touched
upon this point."—Commons' Committee, 1832; General -App. 212.
"458
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. and a persuasion exists that it will not be increased
CHAP, vn. adequate cause, the agricultural popula-
1813. tion of India will be contented; for they will be as
prosperous as they can become under the universal
institution of infant marriages, the equal partition of
inheritance, the few wants which the nature of the
climate and the condition of society impose, and the
entire absence of the countless objects of needless
expenditure which in part disgrace and in part
dignify society in Europe. Upon these and similar
grounds the authorities in England had learned to
question the advantages of a permanent settlement
as affecting the interests either of the people or the
state.
In addition to the objections which might be
urged to the measure generally, there was un¬
doubtedly ample reason to question the propriety of
its immediate adoption in the particular case of the
Ceded and Conquered provinces. The experience
acquired in Bengal had established the mischievous
consequences of precipitancy. Even Mr. Cole-
brooke, who asserted that it had answered the ob¬
jects proposed by it, was obliged to admit that the
persons whose benefit it was intended to promote,—
the Zemindars, whom it was designed to enrich,—
had not profited by the beneficence of the Go¬
vernment ; the greater number of them were in
fact utterly ruined. Wholly unaccustomed to punc¬
tuality in their payments to the state, and bred up
in habits of prodigality and improvidence, they
speedily fell into arrears ; for the recovery of which,
under the stringent enactments of the Government,
their estates were immediately and absolutely dis-
RESULTS OF EXPERIENCE IN BENGAL.
459
posed of by public sale. In tlie course of a few book i.
years, many of the Zemindars whom the settlement
of 1793 had proposed to transform into a landed I813.
aristocracy had been reduced to indigence, or had
utterly disappeared ; and families, which had survived
the successive revolutions of the native Governments,
vanished before the inflexibility of the Company's
regulations.' Nor was the situation of the Ryots bet¬
tered by the change. Originally left to the arbitrary
will of the Zemindars, the exactions to which they
were exposed were tempered by the beneficial influ¬
ence of a long-established intercourse with their an¬
cient landlords. To the new purchasers of the Ze-
mindaris, who were mostly men who had grown rich
in the service of the English, and were residents of
Calcutta or other commercial towns, their tenantry
were merely objects of speculation, from whom they
proceeded to extort the largest possible return for
the capital which had been invested in the purchase.
Under such task-masters the cultivators were soon
reduced to the state of a pauper peasantry, scarcely
gleaning a subsistence from the soil, and in no con-
' " My impression is, that a very small proportion of those with whom
the pennanent settlement was made are now owners of the land, very
great alienations of the land being made in the first year of the settlement."
—Mill, Commons' Committee, 1831 ; Question 3210. In Question 3997
allusion is made to the statement of tlie Fifth Report, that in 1796 one-
tenth of the whole of the lands in Bengal, Behar, and Orissa were put up
to sale. Mr. Tucker and several other well-informed officers of the Com¬
pany affirm, that the number of estates put up for sale is no evidence of
the number of sales ; but Mr. Tucker admits, that of the three largest
Zemindaris, those of Rajshahi, Nadiya, and Burdwan, the whole of the first,
and part of the second, had been sold prior to 1799, and that a very con¬
siderable number of estates passed into the hands of the merchants and
bankers of Calcutta.—Evid. Commons' Committee, 1832 ; Revenue. Ques¬
tion 1861. Even as late as 1821-2, when the sales were much fewer
than in the years immediately following the settlement, the number of
estates sold for arrears of revenue was 396.—Ibid. Q. 2603.
460
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. dition to swell the coifers of the state by their con-
sumption of taxable commodities.^ To disregard the
1813. lesson, and repeat the same errors elsewhere, would
have been wholly indefensible ; and it was so ob¬
viously the duty of the Government to guard
against the evils which could not fail to follow the
conclusion of a perpetual settlement upon imper¬
fect information, that it is difficult to comprehend
how the measure should have found advocates
among men of tried ability and mature knowledge.
Their advocacy was fruitless. The Court of Direc¬
tors persisted in their prohibitions and the Go¬
vernment of Bengal was compelled to rescind a
regulation which had enacted that the amount of
revenue levied in the last year of the temporary
settlement then subsisting should be fixed for ever.®
At the same time, in conformity to previous enact¬
ments, it was provided, that, with respect to those
estates which the commissioners should think suffi¬
ciently improved to justify such an arrangement,
the assessment on them should be revised, and a
rate be fixed in perpetuity. The provision was in¬
operative, as was probably expected. No estates
' The injurious operations of the permanent settlement of Bengal upon
both the old Zemindars and the Ryots are detailed in the Fifth Report, 6Ó ;
see also Mill, v. 518, 522. Sir Charles Metcalfe observes of the Bengal
permanent settlement, that it was an experiment, in the results of which he
can discern no benefit that should induce its repetition. It not only sa¬
crificed the prospective rights of tlie Government for ever, but, by declaring
those to be proprietors who were not proprietors, it in effect destroyed the
rights of all the proprietors and cultivators.—Commons' Committee, 1832;
App. 469. Mr. Mackenzie states, that the Bengal assessment led to the
greatest possible inequality, and left everything in a state of utter darkness
and confusion.—Ibid. Evidence ; Q. 2581.
^ Letter from the Government of Bengal, 11th July 1812.—Selec. i.
134.
' Regulations x. 1807 ; and ix. and x. 1812.—Selec. i. 162.
ryotwar system objected to.
461
were found that had reached the utmost limit of book i.
improvement.^
A difference of opinion also prevailed with re- isis.
spect to the method by which the resources of the
unsettled provinces were to be ascertained. To the
suggestions of the Court that the scheme of the
Ryotwar assessment followed at Madras should be
applied to them, the Government of Bengal justly
objected its inapplicability to a territory where the
lands were jointly occupied and cultivated by nume¬
rous owners, held together by a community of
tenures imperfectly understood. To form engage¬
ments with individual occupants was quite as likely
to invade and overturn the rights and privileges of
the landed proprietary as the Zemindari settlement
had done; and to deal separately with individual cul¬
tivators tended to disorganise and dissolve the village
communities,—thereby depriving the people of the
salutary habit of regulating their own concerns, and
the Government of a ready and economical channel
by which the revenue might be realised.® Instead
of forming engagements with the associated pro¬
prietors, represented by respectable persons of their
own election, it would be necessary to let loose
upon the land a swarm of locusts in the shape of
' Letter from the Court, 10th March, 1813 ; Sel. i. 136.
' Sir C. Metcalfe, although friendly to the principle of Ryotwar assess¬
ment, objected to its introduction into the Western provinces, because it
appeared to him that it must tend to loosen and ultimately dissolve the ties
which bind the village communities together. Instead of all acting in
union with a common interest as regards the Government, and adjusting
their own separate interests among themselves according to established
usage, each would have his separate independent arrangement directly
with the Government, and could hardly fail to be thereby less linked with
his fellows. The village constitution, which could survive all outward
shocks, might be easily subverted with the aid of the Government regu¬
lations and the courts of justice.—Commons' Com. 1832; App. p. 471.
462
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. numberless subordinate collectors and assessors,
CHAP. VII. exactions from the people it would be im-
1813. possible to check, and whose frauds upon the state
it would be equally impossible to discover. Whe¬
ther, therefore, the interests of the Government or
its subjects were considered, a Ryotwar assessment
was regarded, and with reason, as alike objection¬
able.^ There was less reason in the objections urged
against the preliminary measure of a survey of the
lands to be assessed. It was affirmed that the plan
had been repeatedly tried, and had been attended
with so much inconvenience and such unsatisfactory
results, that the Government felt satisfied the most
experienced and capable of its revenue officers
would deem the revival of it an evil burthensome
and oppressive to the people, and unproductive of
any substantial benefit to the pecuniary interests of
the state. In preference to such a mode of obtain¬
ing a knowledge of the resources of the country it
would be advisable to rely upon the Zemindari and
village accounts, although it was admitted that they
were not unfrequently false or fabricated. Such a
preference was evidently dictated by strong and
unfounded prejudice. Revenue surveys may very
possibly be conducted in such a manner as to be
vexatious to the people and unprofitable to the Go¬
vernment : the conclusions to which they lead may
not be entitled to unqualified credit : but experience
has demonstrated that they can be carried on with¬
out giving any offence to the people ; while, although
they may not be exempt from error, they furnish
' Revenue Letter from Bengal, I7th July, 1813 ; and Second Minute of
Mr. Colebrooke ; Sel. i. 179.
protection of the ryots.
463
the only safe means of making an approach to ac- book i.
curacy in determining the productive value of the
land.^ At this point the discussion ceased. Dif- isis.
ferent views influenced the measures of the succeed¬
ing Administration.
Some attempts were instituted by the Govern¬
ment of Bengal to repair the evil which had been
occasioned by the long neglect of the Government to
exercise that interference which at the time of the
permanent settlement it had avowedly retained the
right to exert in protection of the equitable claims
of the Ryots.® At first some intention was mani¬
fested of acting upon the power so reserved ; and
the Zemindars had been in the same year prohi¬
bited from imposing any new imposts, from cancel¬
ling leases legally obtained, or refusing to grant
others for a specific amount of rent.® The main
object of the Government in the regulations^ then
and subsequently passed was, however, evidently its
own security, originating in an apprehension that
the Zemindars might plead the difficulty of realising
their demands from the Ryots in extenuation of
' The exceedingly defective sources of information on which, prior to the
establishment of surveys, assessments were based, are thus enumerated by
Mr. Mackenzie : " Our settlements were made in haste, on general esti¬
mates or surmises, on accounts never believed to be accurate, and never
brought to any clear test of accuracy, on the offers of speculators, on the
biddings of rivals, on the statements of candidates for employment seeking
credit with Government by discoveries against the people, on information
of all kinds generally worthless."—Letter to Mr. Villiers, Commons' Com¬
mittee, 1832 ; Evidence, 417.
' Section 8, Reg. i. of 1793, declares, that " it being the duty of the ruling
power to protect all classes of the people, and more particularly those who
from situation are most helpless, the Governor-General in Council will,
whenever he may deem it proper, enact such regulations as he may think
necessary for the protection and welfare of the dependent Talookdars,
Ryots, and other cultivators of the soil."
ä Reg. viii. 1793.
464
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. their failing to pay the demands of the state.
CHAP. VIL impressions, it was enacted that no
1813. leases should be granted for a period longer than
ten years ; and that, when a Zemindari was sold for
arrears of revenue, all existing engagements should
be void from the day of sale, the purchasers being
entitled to collect from the renters according to the
undefined rates and usages of the country.' Finally,
a power was vested in the landholders of summarily
distraining for rent.^ The result of these measures
was to place the Ryot completely in the hands of the
Zemindar, and to enable the latter to raise his rçnts
at pleasure. It was therefore found necessary to
interpose, and a regulation was subsequently en¬
acted' by which the limitation of the leases was
abrogated ; they were authorised to be granted for
any period, and on any terms to which the parties
should mutually agree, in the hope that they would
thus be obliged to come to some definite under¬
standing, instead of leaving the door open to op¬
pressive fraud and endless litigation, which the
appeal to so vague a standard as that of usage ren¬
dered .perpetual. It was also decreed, that, in the
event of an attachment or sale of a Zemindari, the
leases should not be annulled within the year in
which the attachment or sale should have taken
place ; that where the collections were regulated
by pergunna or district rates, and those rates were
not fixed by anything more precise than custom,
they should be of the same amount as those which
were actually paid in the neighbourhood upon lands
' Regs. xliv. 1793, and iii. of 1796.
' Reg. vii. 1799. 3 Reg. y. 1812.
revenue regulations. 465
of like quality, or they should not exceed the max- book i.
iiniim rate paid upon the same land during any one
of the three preceding years. No enhancement of 1813.
existing rates was to take place, except under an
engagement to that effect, or a formal and written
notice of the specific amount to be required during
the ensuing year being served upon the tenant.
Process of distraint was prohibited, except after due
notification in writing having been given ; and agri¬
cultural implements and cattle were exempted from
seizure. Process was also to be suspended where
the defaulter engaged by bond or sufficient security
to institute a suit for the trial of a contested de¬
mand within a reasonable period. The latter clauses
of this enactment were beneficial ; but the liberty
given to the Zemindar to frame engagements for an
indefinite period, and on such conditions as the
parties might agree to, was speedily interpreted into
an authority to dispossess even the Ryots claiming
hereditary occupancy if they refused to accede to
his demands, however exorbitant.^ The limitation
of the Government assessment in the Western pro¬
vinces rendered it necessary to limit also the en¬
gagements between individuals in those provinces f
and in the same districts the collectors were autho¬
rised, under the Board of Commissioners, to investi¬
gate the titles by which la-kharaj or rent-free
lands were held. Rules were also passed for the
occasional subdivision of estates held in common, so
that the holder of a joint undivided property might
have his share verified and separately assessed.^
' Letter to Government of Bengal, 15th Jan. 1819; Selections, i. 360.
" Reg. xiv. 1812. ' Regs, viii. and ix. 1811.
vol. i. 2 h
466
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. In order to extend the public resources of the
CHAP, vn. thought advísablc to impose a
1813. tax upon houses in the several towns and cities
of Bengal, Behar, Orissa, and Benares:^ religious
buildings were exempted. Such a tax had been
le\ded for some years without any difficulty or ob¬
struction in Calcutta, and it was not expected that
any serious opposition would be offered to it in other
cities. The Government was mistaken. The mea¬
sure was regarded as an innovation, and was vehe¬
mently opposed. At Benares especially the resist¬
ance was most violent, and was curiously character¬
istic of the peculiarities both of the place and the
people.
As soon as the intentions of the Government be¬
came known, great excitement prevailed throughout
the city, and meetings of the different castes and
trades were held to determine upon the course to
be pursued. No obstruction was offered to the
persons employed to assess the houses; but the
shops were closed, every kind of occupation was
abandoned, and such numerous crowds assembled
on th^ outskirts of the town, that it was judged ex¬
pedient by the magistrate to call to the assistance
of the police a detachment of troops from the
neighbouring cantonments. Their services were not
needed, as the people quietly dispersed ; but on the
same day a solemn engagement was taken by all
the inhabitants to carry on no manner of work or
business until the tax was repealed. Everything was
at a stand : the dead bodies were cast unceremo¬
niously into the river, because there were none to
' Reg. XV. 1810.
house-tax at benares.
467
perform the obsequial rites ; and the very thieves book i.
refrained from the exercise of their vocation, al-.ÜÜIlIÜ!.
though the shops and houses were left without pro- 1813.
tection, — the people deserting the city in a body,
and taking up their station halfway between Benares
and Secrole, the residence of the European func¬
tionaries, about three miles distant. A petition was
presented to the magistrate, praying him to with¬
draw the odious impost, and declaring that the peti¬
tioners would never return to their homes until their
application was complied with : a reference to Cal¬
cutta was all that was in the magistrate's power.
Whilst awaiting for a reply from the Government,
the people of Benares continued assembled, and
were joined by many persons from the surrounding
districts : the number was computed at more than
two hundred thousand, comprehending the aged
and infirm, women and children. They were supplied
with food regularly at the expense of the opulent
classes, and were actively enjoined to unanimity and
perseverance by their religious guides and teachers.
Their conduct was uniformly peaceable ; passive re¬
sistance was the only weapon to which they trusted.
They continued in the open air throughout the day,
but many returned at night to their homes.
In this manner about a fortnight passed.^ The
Government somewhat misconceiving the character
of the assemblage, and at any rate deeming it im¬
politic to yield to any semblance of intimidation,
ordered the enforcement of the tax, and the dis¬
persion of the multitude, if necessary, by force. A
sufficient strength had been collected for the pur-
' From the 26th December, 1810, to the 8th January, 1811.
2 H 2
468 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. pose; but, before the receipt of the orders, time, re-
" flexion, and discomfort had enfeebled the vigour of
1813. the opposition, and the people had for the most part
returned to their dwellings. The determination of the
Government caused them to reassemble, with the
avowed determination of marching in a body to Cal¬
cutta to petition the Governor-General personally
for redress ; but this was a much more arduous un¬
dertaking than a bivouac in the immediate vicinity
of Benares, and could not be prosecuted with the
same unity of purpose. Every householder engaged,
indeed, either to go himself, to send a representa¬
tive, or contribute his quota to the expense of the
journey; and a number of persons met, and made
one march towards Calcutta: but the defaulters
were so numerous, and so many of those who had
set out deserted by the way, that the leaders were
sensible of the futility of the scheme, and wanted
only a decent excuse for its relinquishment. This
was furnished by the interposition of the Raja of
Benares, who, at the desire of the Government
officers, repaired to the party, overtook them, and
counselled them to turn back, and rest contented
with the renewed representation of their grievances
through the usual official channel in a quiet and re¬
spectful manner. His advice was followed, and a
second petition was presented, to which in due time
attention was paid.^
' Personal information and MS. Records. The public petitions pro¬
ceeding from native communities in India which are much intermixed with
Europeans are rarely of a genuine native character. They betray more or
less European, and particularly professional, prompting. At Benares there
were few Europeans, no lawyers ; and the pelition of the inhabitants was
most probably of their own unaided dictation. It is a document not with¬
out interest, as it not only expresses the sentiments of the people on the
tax repealed.
469
In consequence of this opposition, and the uni- book i.
versal unpopularity of the tax, it was repealed.^ In
the following year it was revived in a modified 1813.
form, and limited in its application to the cities of
Dacca, Patna, and Murshedabad. In those towns
it was to be applied to the payment of a municipal
police, to be appointed and maintained by a com¬
mittee of natives chosen by the inhabitants of each
ward in the presence of the magistrate : to these
committees also was intrusted the office of assessing
the different shops and dwellings of their respective
wards, the whole not to exceed a maximum average
rate.® Some opposition was made to the arrange¬
ment at Dacca, but it was finally carried into ope¬
ration.
Although not connected with any of the financial
measures of the Government of Bengal, nor result¬
ing from any of its acts, yet it may be useful to
advert in this place to a formidable tumult by
which the tranquillity of the city of Benares was
interrupted in the year preceding that in which
the house-tax excited the discontent of its inhabit¬
ants ; as the disturbance was characteristically illus¬
trative of the peculiarities of one of the most re¬
markable tovms in India, and of the discordant
elements of Indian society, which are alone re¬
strained from frequent and destructive conflict by
the vigilance, vigour, and impartiality of the ruling
power.
Benares is the holy city of the Hindus : it is
occasion on which it was presented, but shows that they were well in¬
formed of the proceedings and views of their rulers. It is therefore given
in the Appendix. ' Reg. vii. 1812. '' Reg. xiii. 1813.
*
470 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. crowded with celebrated shrines : pilgrimage to it is
an atonement for all sin : to die within its precincts
1813. is a certain passage to eternal felicity. Such ad¬
vantages ensure it a large resident population, and
attract to it a numerous resort of Hindu pilgrims.
The character of both classes is in general accord¬
ance with the reputed sanctity of the place : its effi¬
cacy in expiating crime, and purifying from iniquity,
could be of little benefit to any but the wicked and
the profligate, and those who tenant or frequent the
city are for the greater part such as stand most in
need of its expiatory virtues. The population is,
however, not wholly Hindu. Benares is a town of
extensive commercial and manufacturing activity,
and has always comprised a considerable body of
Mohammedans engaged principally in manufactures.
Its convenient situation had also, at the period under
review, recommended it as the residence of several
Älohammedans of high rank, members of the reign¬
ing family of Oude, or the Imperial house of Delhi ;
and their servants and retainers were numerous and
disorderly. Religious differences could not fail to
find in such a mixed multitude ready instruments
of quarrel, and the mutual animosity which at all
times animated the followers of Brahma and Mo¬
hammed was at this time more than usually invete¬
rate. It had unfortunately happened that some of
the moveable feasts of the Mohammedans had oc¬
curred simultaneously with some of the most popu¬
lar Hindu festivals ; and the multitudes which were
collected, and the feelings which were excited,
threatened a violent collision. The precautions of
the English functionaries suspended the season of
religious disturbances.
471
its occurrence, but were unable to prevent it from book i.
eventually taking place, and towards the close of
1809 an open rupture could no longer b,e delayed. 1813,
During the sovereignty of the Mohammedans,
Aurangzeb and other bigoted princes had forcibly
taken from the Hindus of Benares several of their
temples to transform them into mosques, and had
allowed and encouraged the Mohammedans of the
city to erect religious edifices in the immediate
neighbourhood of those places which were esteemed
most sacred by the Hindus. In this manner, in one
part of the city an Imam-bara, a building for the oc¬
casional devotions of the Musselmans, was built in
immediate proximity to a Lât or stone column typi¬
cal of Bhairava, one of their subordinate deities, but
held by the Hindus in peculiar veneration. As the
Lât and its neighbour were both much frequented
by the followers of the different religions, their en¬
counters gave frequent rise to angry feeling and
reciprocal objurgation. On the morning of the
21st of October, a number of both parties having
been assembled, they proceeded from abuse to
blows ; and, in an interchange of missiles which en¬
sued, part of the ornamental architecture of the
Imam-bara was injured, and a hut serving as a tem¬
porary temple to the deified monkey Hanumán was
demolished, and the idol was knocked over. The
intervention of the police prevented further mischief
on the spot ; but the affray was renewed in another
part of the town, and, swords and clubs being had
recourse to, several persons were killed or wounded
before the disturbance could be suppressed.
The presence of the magistrate and a small de-
472
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. tachment of Sipahis restored the appearance of
CHAF. vii. tranquility • j^ut they were no sooner withdrawn
1813. than the tumult recommenced. The Mohammedan
weavers assembled in the evening in great numbers,
and, repairing quietly to the Hindu Lât, heaped a
quantity of combustibles round it and set them on
fire, and, when the stone was hot, threw cold water
upon it, by which it was split to pieces.^ Intel¬
ligence of this profanation reached the Hindus late
in the evening, and filled them with horror and
fury. Measures were taken to prevent the effects
of their resentment on the following morning ; but,
before a sufficient force could arrive, an enraged
multitude had set fire to the Imam-bara, killed four
or five of the persons attached to it, and sprinkled
with the blood of a hog the tombs of those who had
been interred in its consecrated vicinity. From
thence they moved to destroy the Mohammedan
tombs at a burial-ground of reputed extraordinary
sanctity, adjacent to a shrine dedicated to Fatima the
wife of Ali ; and, although defended by a Sipahi
guard and a number of JMohammedans, the mob
partly effected their purpose before reinforcements
arrived ni sufficient strength to render their attempts
unavailing. Other armed bands of Hindus had at
the same time assailed the quarters of the town oc¬
cupied chiefly by the Mohammedans, murdering all
' In the memorial addressed by the Hindus to the magistrate, extenu¬
ating their own conduct and calling for redress against the Mohammedans,
they gravely averred that the Lât resisted every effort for its demolition,
until the Mohammedans killed a cow and a calf, and threw the blood upon
the column. It then trembled and broke. Some of the fragments were
afterwards collected, purified by immersion in the Ganges, and enshrined
in a hollow copper cylinder which was set up where the stone column
formerly stood.
RIOT SUPPRESSED. 473
who came in their way, and plundering and setting book i.
, r a a chap. vu.
fire to their houses, until their excesses were arrested
by the military dispositions which the magistrate and
the commander of the troops were able to effect.
The Sipahis, although of both persuasions, discharged
their duties with perfect impartiality and military
steadiness : the police, equally mixed, had early
taken part in the conflict according to their respect¬
ive creeds. The extent of the mischief inflicted, or
of the loss of life, was imperfectly ascertained ; but
the' disturbance was not suppressed until about
twenty Mohammedans had been killed and seventy
wounded. The principal actors in the tumult were
the Rajputs and Gosains : the Brahmans and prin¬
cipal inhabitants sat fasting upon the steps by the
river-side, night and day, during the continuance of
the disorder, and were with some difficulty prevailed
upon to return to their dwellings on the afternoon
of the 23rd. On the following day the temples
which had been closed were reopened, and this event
was followed by the opening of the shops and the
bazars, and the restoration of tranquillity. Some of
the most active and violent of the ringleaders were
apprehended and punished, and arrangements were
adopted to prevent the recurrence of a like popular
commotion. The resort of persons of all descrip¬
tions from every part of. India, and the dissolute
and riotous conduct of a large proportion of its in¬
habitants or visitors, rendered the maintenance of
order and tranquillity in the sacred city of Benares,
for some time at least, a troublesome and imper¬
fectly accomplished task ; but the unrelaxing firm¬
ness of British rule, a better knowledge of the
474
IIISTORY OP ÄRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. British character, and the improving intelligence of
CHAP, vn. people, gradually lightened the labour, and, ten
1813. years after the transactions described, Benares was
regulated with as much facility as any other city in
the territories of the Company.^
Among the various objects of internal administra¬
tion at this season which deserve notice as marking
the first steps of important changes still in progress,
and likely at some future period to exercise a mo¬
mentous influence upon the destiny of the British
Indian empire, must be comprehended the efforts
which were made in Bengal to promulgate the
truths of Christianity. The South of India had for
many years been the field of missionary labours. In
the beginning of the seventeenth century the church
of Rome had sent thither men of extraordinary
ability and energy, who, by completely discarding
all the indulgences of European civilisation, living
among the natives as natives, applying themselves
with intense diligence to the study of the languages
and literature of the country, and acquiring a mas¬
tery over the vernacular dialects which has per¬
petuated the writings of several European authors
as standard Tamil and Telugu compositions, obtained
a widely extended influence over the people, and
formed a numerous body of professed believers in
Christianity.® The political agitations of Europe
' In 1820 the writer was in the habit of traversing every part of Benares
without fear of molestation or insult. The materials for the beautiful map
of Benares, executed not long afterwards by his lamented friend, Mr.
James Prinsep, were collected by him in the city, in fearless" reliance upon
the good disposition of the people, which he invariably experienced.
' Lettres Edifiantes; Asiatic Researches, vol.xiv.; Hough's Christianity
in India, ii. 400. See also his evidence, Commons' Committee, 1832, Pub¬
lic. He estimates the Roman Catholics in 1823 at between three and four
hundred thousand.—Question 1852.
missions in the south of india.
475
severed the teachers from their congregations, and book i.
the latter remained Christians in little except the
name. To the Jesuit missionaries succeeded those I813.
of the Lutheran church : they were sent to India,
in the first instance, not by Great Britain, but by
Denmark but the example was not lost upon the
former, although it was for some time but feebly
imitated. Some pecuniary assistance was granted
to the Danish mission ; and at last missionaries
were sent direct, at the expense of the Society for
promoting Christian Knowledge. One or two indi¬
viduals found their way to Bengal,^ and instituted
missionary operations there ; but the chief field was
long confined to Madras, and other stations on the
Coromandel coast. The persons employed were
natives either of Denmark or Germany. They were
for the most part men of learning and talent, of
simple habits, and kindly temperaments; and, al¬
though their success in the conversion of the hea¬
then was not very encouraging, they were objects
of general esteem and respect to both natives and
Europeans, and wrought an impression favourable
to the ultimate reception of the doctrines which
they taught.
At length, at the close of the eighteenth century,
' Pearson's Life of Swartz, 1. 12.
' A Mr. Kiemander went from Madras in 1758, and, notwithstanding
many difficulties and discouragements, he laboured there for some years
with exemplary piety and diligence, and with considerable success.—Life
of Swartz, i. 126. It was to him that Dr. Buchanan probably alluded
when he stated that the Protestant mission in Bengal commenced in 1758.
Before 1770, religious tracts were translated into the Bengali language ;
and Hindu converts preached to their countrymen in the time of Hastings,
in the town of Calcutta. This mission continued its labours till about the
year 1790, when the supply of missionaries from Europe failed.—Letter to
the Government of Bengal, printed in Pai-liamentary Papers, 14th April,
1813.
476
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. a private individual, a member of the Baptist com-
CHAP. vn. with zeal as fervent as that of the Ger-
1813. man missionaries of the South, and inferior to them
only in a less scholastic education, William Carey,
the son of the master of a small free-school at
Paulerspury, a village in Northamptonshire, by
trade a shoemaker, and subsequently a preacher in
the chapels of the society of which he was a mem¬
ber, early conceived the project of undertaking a
mission to Bengal ; and, in the face of the most dis¬
heartening difficulties, succeeded in its execution.
Being unable to obtain permission to proceed to
India in a Company's vessel, he procured a passage
in a Danish ship, and arrived in Bengal destitute of
money and friends at the end of 1793. After a
short interval of want and anxiety, he obtained em¬
ployment as superintendent of an indigo factory in
Dinajpur, and remained in that situation for some
years ; pursuing, as far as circumstances permitted,
his missionary calling, labouring assiduously in the
study of the Sanscrit and Bengali languages, and
applying his acquirements to the translation into
them of ^he Holy Scriptures. The sufferance of the
Government permitted his unauthorised residence in
the country, averse as was the policy of the day to
the admission of Europeans; and his diligence, his
learning, and piety secured him friends. His com¬
munications "with his correspondents in England, the
prospects of success which his hopes rather than his
experience dictated, and the example of his ardour
and his perseverance, animated their zeal ; and a so¬
ciety was formed, and funds were raised, for the pur¬
pose of sending other missionaries to his assistance.
baptist missionaries.
477
They arrived in 1799 ; but, having come to Bengal book i
without the licence of the Court, Avere not suffered
to I'emain in Calcutta. The Danish settlement of I813.
Serampore offered them an asylum ; and there they
fixed themselves, with the permission of the Go¬
vernor, and subsequently with the express sanction
of the King of Denmark. They were immediately
joined by Mr. Carey, and a fraternity was organised
which set to work upon a definite system; and by
preaching in the native languages, by forming schools
for native children, by the composition of tracts and
translations of the Scriptures, commenced a pious
warfare against the false doctrines of the Moham¬
medan and Hindu religions, which has been carried
on ever since with unrelaxed vigour, and with im¬
proving prospects of eventual triumph.^
The administration of Lord "Wellesley, although
it avoided giving direct encouragement to the Bap¬
tist missionaries, or recognising them in that capa¬
city, was upon the whole propitious to their exer¬
tions. The learning of their principal was one of
their chief recommendations to the favour of the
Marquis, and Mr. Carey was appointed one of the
professors of the College of Fort William soon
after its institution ; thus obtaining a place of dis¬
tinction in the recognition of the Government, and
a certain and liberal means of subsistence. The
establishment of schools for European children, and
of a printing-press and paper-manufactory at Seram¬
pore, evinced the industry, and added to the re¬
sources of the missionaries: they were further aided,
not only by the funds of their own community, but
' Memoir of William Carey, D.D., by Eustace Carey ; London, 1836.
478 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. by those of other religious bodies, at whose expense,
CHAP, vii. gf Brftish Bud Foreigo Bible
1813. Society, versions of the Scriptures into a great va¬
riety of the Indian dialects were executed; and they
grew daily in wealth, consideration, and confidence
under the countenance of the Government.
The immediate successor of Lord Wellesley, Sir
George Barlow, looked upon the proceedings of the
Serampore missionaries with a less favourable regard.
Entertaining, in common with most of the Company's
servants of that day, a dread of the multiplication of
uncovenanted European residents in India, he was
disinclined to relax any of the restraints which the
Legislature had imposed, and refused to sanction the
continued presence of any new arrivals who had not
provided themselves with a licence from the Court.
The teaching of the missionaries had also begun to
excite some uneasiness among the natives of Cal¬
cutta, and the connexion of the mutiny at Vellore
with their religious apprehensions imposed upon the
Government the obligation of setting the minds of
their native subjects at ease with respect to the
designs of their rulers, by the public prohibition of
those expedients resorted to by the missionaries
which were most likely to oifend the religious senti¬
ments and exasperate the feelings of the people.^
The missionaries were allowed to retain the dwelling
which they occupied as a chapel in Calcutta, and
perform divine service in it in the Bengali language
' Dr. Buchanan acquits the Governor-General of any hostility to the
dissemination of Christianity : on the contrai-y, he says of him, " Sir G.
Barlow has often expressed his approbation of the means used for the dif¬
fusion of Christianity in India, and sincerely desires its success."—Letter
to Government; Pari. Papers.
restrictions imposed.
479
as usual, and no restriction was imposed on their book i.
private instructions or scriptural translations; but
they were forbidden to preach in the public streets, I813.
to send itinerant native preachers through the vil¬
lages, or to distribute gratuitously controversial and
religious tracts. They considered it prudent to yield
to the storm, and promised to conform to the wishes
of the Government in all respects in which they
could conscientiously acquiesce.^
The degree of the conformity rendered did not,
however, satisfy the Government of Bengal ; as one
of the first acts of Lord Minto's Government was a
renewal of the injunctions which Sir G. Barlow had
been obliged to adopt, and the menace of still more
rigorous restrictions.
Pamphlets in Bengali and Persian had been pub¬
lished, which, in the judgment of the Governor-
General in Council, were calculated to excite among
the native subjects of the Company a spirit of reli¬
gious jealousy and alarm, which might eventually be
productive of the most serious evils. The distribu¬
tion of such publications, and the public preaching
of the missionaries and their converts at the very
seat of Government, might he supposed to.,have re¬
ceived the sanction and approval of the supreme
authority ; and the prevalence of such an impression
would both augment the danger, and render more
difficult the application of a remedy. Whatever
might be the propriety of exposing the errors of the
Hindu or Musselman religion to persons of those
persuasions who sought instruction in the Christian
faith, it was contrary to the system of protection,
' Memoir of Dr. Carey, 483.
4
480 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
r
BOOK I. which the Government was pledged to afford to the
undisturbed exercise of the religion of the country, to
I8I3. obtrude upon the great body of the people, by means
of printed works, exhortations involving an inter¬
ference with their religious tenets. The obligation,
therefore, to suppress within the limits of the Com¬
pany's authority in India treatises and public preach¬
ings offensive to the religious persuasions of the
people, was founded on considerations of necessary
caution, of general safety, and national faith and
honour. Accordingly, it was deemed necessary to
direct that public preaching in the mission-house of
Calcutta should be discontinued, and to renew the
prohibition of the issue of religious tracts; and, in
order to bring the missionary press more immedi¬
ately under the controul of the officers of the Go¬
vernment, the missionaries were commanded to re¬
move it from Serampore to Calcutta.'
To the orders and injunctions of the Government
the missionaries proffered a temperate and judicious
reply. They disowned and condemned the language
of a pamphlet which had given the greatest offence,
—a scurrilous account of Mohammed, which had
called forth the remonstrances of the most respecta¬
ble Mohammedan inhabitants of Calcutta,—and at¬
tributed it to the intemperance of one of their con¬
verts, who had translated it into Persian : they
pledged themselves for greater caution in future,
but deprecated the removal of their press, as sub¬
jecting them to great inconvenience and ruinous ex¬
pense. The tone of their representations disarmed
' Letter from Bengal to the Secret Committee, 2nd Nov. 1807, with its
enclosures; Pari. Papers, 14th April, 1813.
f
learning encouraged.
481
the Government of its rigour; and they were al- book i.
lowed to continue their preaching in their chapel,
and to remain at Serampore, on condition that isis.
every work that issued from the press should be
submitted to the inspection of the secretary to
Government. The condition was acceded to ; and,
as the general conduct of the missionaries was more
guarded, no further interference with them ensued.
The alarm of the Government was perhaps more vio¬
lent than the occasion called for, but the check
opposed to precipitate and indiscreet zeal was not
detrimental to the ultimate extension of Christianity.
Little benefit had accrued or was likely to accrue
from street preaching, and virulent language was ill
calculated to convey conviction. The attention of
the Serampore missionaries was thenceforth more
entirely given to the establishment of schools and
the translation of the Scriptures; means more safe
and certain, although their fruits might more slowly
come to maturity.^
Although a sense of public duty imposed upon
the Governor-General the obligation of checking the
over-zealous haste of the missionaries of Serampore,
his personal feelings ensured to their literary efforts
his constant and warmest encouragement. The as¬
sociate in early life of some of the most distin¬
guished ornaments of the literary society of Great
Britain, Lord Minto brought with him to India an
enlightened and cultivated taste, and a generous
' In the representation to the Government made by the missionaries,
which is dated in September, 1807, they state that they had baptized up¬
wards of one hundred natives.—Pari. Papers. No great number in eight
years, reckoning from 1799 only : if from 1794, a still more inconsiderable
proportion.
vol. i. 2 i
482
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. sympathy with every indication of intellectual ex-
CHAP. VII. jjig liberal aid was therefore given to
1813. the works published at Serampore, whether trans¬
lations of the Scriptures, or publications tending to
make the language and literature of India more
generally known and more easily acquired.' The
same feelings led him to befriend those natives of
India who professed the literature of their country ;
and the first printing-press, established and con¬
ducted solely by native enterprise and skill, and for
the purpose of substituting the productions of the
press for the manuscripts hitherto in use, owed its
existence to his patronage. But it was in his con¬
nexion with the College of Fort William that his
sentiments were most especially manifested; and
one great object of his administration was to carry
into full operation, as far as the orders of the home
authorities allowed, the views of the illustrious
founder of the institution.® The result was highly
beneficial : the junior servants of the Company were
animated to honourable 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, exer-
' Several Grammars and Dictionaries, and other rudimental books, in
Bengali, Telinga, Mahratta, and Sanscrit, were printed at Serampore, chiefly
at the cost of the Government. Pecuniary assistance (ten thousand rupees)
was afforded to the Malay translation of the Scriptures ; and aid was
liberally given to the Serampore translation of the Ramayana, the works of
Confucius, and other literary publications.—Roebuck's Annals of the Col¬
lege of Fort William.
® It was not mere official phraseology, for Lord Minto was not addicted
to its use, when in his last annual address he observed, " No part of my
public duties have excited in my mind a more cordial concern or more
lively interest than those which are attached to the office of Visitor of this
College."—Annals of the College of Fort William, p. 376.
financial measures.
483
cising over their countrymeii the combined influ- book i.
ence of learning and religion, who were engaged in
the service of the college, derived from their em- 1813.
ployment some compensation for that neglect to
which the decay and extinction 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 owing a variety of useful works in the lan¬
guages and literature of the East, intended to facili¬
tate ttieir acquirement, and bring within the reach
of the Oriental student the means of becoming fami¬
liar with the laws and institutions, the religion and
the character, of the people. Every attempt so
directed was encouraged and aided by Lord Minto.^
The last class of measures to which we shall ad¬
vert, regard the financial condition of India during
Lord Minto's administration.
The necessity of as rigid a pursuance of the sys¬
tem of economy commenced by Sir G. Barlow as was
consistent with the interests and honour of the em¬
pire was equally impressed upon his successor ; and
during the whole term of his government a careful
avoidance of expenditure was adhered to, carried in
some cases perhaps to a hurtful excess. The occa¬
sions which called for military demonstrations, the
extraordinary embassies which were fitted out, and
' Amongst other arrangements, a plan was proposed by the Governor-
General for the foundation of Hindu colleges at Nadiya and Tirhoot, to
counteract the want of public encouragement afforded to native literature
by princes, chieftains, and opulent individuals under the native Goveni-
ments, and who had lost both the means and the inducement to continue
their patronage under the British Government. He had also in contem¬
plation to found similar institutions for the cultivation of Mohammedan
literature.—Minute by Lord Minto, 6th March, 1811 : Commons' Commit¬
tee, 1832; Public ; App. p. 325.
2 I 2
484 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the expeditions undertaken against the maritime
possessions of France, disturbed the equable tenor
1813. of financial retrenchment, and involved unusual de¬
mands upon the public treasury: but these inter¬
ruptions were only temporary ; and the general re¬
sult was an augmented amount of the revenues of
British India, a diminution of its burthens, and no
enhanced rate of charge.
It has been already mentioned that the arrange¬
ments effected by Sir G. Barlow secured for the
first year of Lord Minto's administration, according
to one system of computation, a surplus receipt, or,
according to a different set of accounts, reduced the
excess of charge to an inconsiderable sum : the same
diversity of result, arising from the same cause, pre¬
vails in the following year ; but from thence to the
close of the period both statements agree in show¬
ing a considerable net local revenue after pro¬
viding for the interest of the public debt : the sur¬
plus of the last year amounted to little less than
two millions sterling.^ A considerable proportion
of this arose from the improved revenues of the
unsettled provinces under the Presidency of Bengal,
and the imposition of new taxes at Aladras : the
rest, from the reduction of the rate of interest
which the Government was enable4, ^7 flourish¬
ing state of its finances, to effect.
The history of the Indian debt presents a sin¬
gular picture of the growth of public credit along
' According to the statements furnished to the Committee of the House
of Lords, the surplus was £1,988,000. In Sicca rupees it was S. R.
1,45,33,190, which, at two shillings to the rupee, is £1,453,319. For a
more particular comparison between the two periods as expressed in the
home accounts, see Appendix.
indian debt.
485
with the increase of financial embarrassment, and book i.
of the increase of embarrassment with the aug-
mentation of the public resources. In proper- isis.
tion as the British Indian empire has extended
its boundaries, and added to its revenues, so have
the means at its command been found inadequate
to extraordinary emergencies, and it has been
obliged from time to time to apply for aid to the
funds of individuals ; and, notwithstanding the addi¬
tions thus made to its incumbrances, its credit has
never failed to procure the assistance that was
needed, on terms much lower than the ordinary
profits of capital, or the rates of interest prevailing
in transactions between individuals. In fact, the
amount of the public debt is far from burthensome
on the state; and the inconvenience which it occa¬
sions is fully compensated by the connexion which
it maintains between the Government and the fund-
holders, a large proportion of whom are natives of
the country, and who are thus interested in the
stability of the ruling power.^
In 1792 the Indian debt, bearing interest, little
exceeded seven millions sterling: the interest ex¬
ceeded six hundred thousand pounds, bearing a pro¬
portion of eight and six tenths per cent.® In 1799
the debt had risen to ten millions ; and in the short
interval of five years, the season of Lord Wellesley's
conquests, it was more than doubled, amounting in
1805 to nearly twenty-one millions, with an annual
' Calcutta Annual Register, 1821 ; Historical Sketch, 18.
^ This was the average rate. Loans opened in 1790-1, 1796-7, and
1798-9, bore twelve per cent.—Government Notices ; Bengal and Agra
Gazetteer, 1841, vol. ii. part ii. 459.
486 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
boOk I. interest of £1,791,000. During the two following -
years the continued eifects of the previous period of
1813. prodigality were still felt, and the debt went on in¬
creasing; so that in 1807 it amounted to more than
twenty-six millions, bearing an interest of £2,228,000.
In 1813-14 the amount of debt remained much the
same, being twenty-seven millions ; but the interest
amounted to £1,636,000, being a permanent dimi¬
nution annually of £592,000.^ This was eifected
by the successful opening of loans in August and
December, 1810, at an interest of six per cent., to
which the whole of the outstanding obligations
were transferred ; the capital of British India, and
the credit of the Government, having thus gone on
improving, so that in about twenty years the rate
of interest on public securities was reduced from
twelve per cent, to half that proportion.
Another important change followed the flourish¬
ing state of the finances, and the payment in Eng¬
land of the principal as well as of the interest of
loans contracted in India ceased to form one of
their conditions. When this provision was first in¬
troduced, it was thought likely to lead to the trans¬
fer of the whole of the Indian debt to Europe,
where it might either be discharged out of the
profits of the Company's trade, or by money bor¬
rowed at a much lower rate of interest. For these
purposes the Indian Government of 1785 was au-
' Second Report, Commons' Committee, 1810, App. 8. It must be borne
in mind that these sums are higher by one-seventh than they should he,
- according to the intrinsic value of the Indian currencies. The real debt of
1806-7, in Sicca rupees, was 23,15,30,12-5, say £23,153,000 ; and the amount
of interest,Sa. rs. 1,97,13,929, or £1,971,000.—Official Documents; Lords'
Committee, 1830, App. C. No. 3.
proposed transfer.
487
thorised to grant bills at eighteen months' date on book i.
the Court of Directors, for the principal of the debt
then owing, to the extent of six crores of rupees, at 1813.
the exchange of Is. Se?, the current rupee, at the
option of the lenders; and in the first year they
took advantage of it to the extent of about a fourth
of the principal sum. In the following year the
amount applied for was so trifling, that the arrange¬
ment was looked upon as a failure ; a result ascribed
by the Government to the low rate of exchange,
the lemote date at which the bills were payable,
the advantages made in India by holding Govern¬
ment securities, and the more advantageous means
of remittance through foreign channels.
On the renewal of the charter in 1793 the prin¬
ciple of the plan was recognised, and it was pro¬
vided that the Indian debt should be in this man¬
ner gradually transferred to England, until it was
reduced to two millions sterling, the exchange
being fixed at Is. 11c?. the current rupee. For some
time the amount transferred reached the prescribed
limit of the bills to be drawn, or £500,000 ; but it
ultimately diminished, and in 1803-4 ceased alto¬
gether. The demand for funds in India, the exist¬
ence of profitable means of remittance by the ex¬
tension of the private trade, and the conditions of
new loans granting for the interest, bills at 2s. Oc?.
the Sicca rupee, payable six months after sight, and
ensuring similar payment of the principal when due,
held out inducements even to the European fund-
holders to leave their capital in the Indian treasury.
With the return of peace in India capital was less
in demand there; while the political state of Europe,
488
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the high price of hullion, and the depression of the
public funds, rendered its transmission to England
1813. highly advantageous. The consequence was a run
upon the home treasury, which was productive of
much embarrassment; and the pressure was ag¬
gravated temporarily by the measures adopted under
the orders of the Court for its relief,—the reso¬
lution of the local Governments to pay oif all the
debts the principal of which was demandable in
England, in the event of the lenders declining to
transfer the security to a new loan opened in 1810,
which offered no such condition. The arrangement
was so far successful that of twenty-three millions,
to which the home treasury was liable, more than
thirteen were transferred to the new loan; rather
more than three were paid in cash by the local Go¬
vernments ; and six millions and a half remained to
be discharged by bills upon the Court. It was for
the purpose of meeting this demand that the Com¬
pany had recourse to Parliament for aid. The incon¬
venience was gradually surmounted ; and, although
in 1812 under the terms of a new six per cent, loan
the option of demanding payment of the principal
by bills on England was partially restored, the
home funds were not again exposed to so severe a
demand.^
Nor had the resources at home been subjected to
these heavy demands without corresponding efforts
having been made in India to provide for them.
Petition of the Company to Parliament; Second Report of the Com¬
mittee of the House of Commons, May 1810, App. 6-10 ; Bengal and Agra
Gazetteer, 1841, vol. ii. part ii. 454 ; Details of Public Loans ; Report of
the Commons' Committee, 1832, article Finance.
supplies from india.
489
During the three concluding years of Lord Minto's book i.
administration, the supplies remitted from India
exceeded the value of the Company's investments I813.
to the extent of nearly ten millions sterling.'^. Of
the amount so remitted nearly two millions were in
bullion ; ® a circumstance which was unprecedented
in the history of the commerce of India, and inti¬
mated an approaching change in the terms of its in-
tercoui-se with Europe. The transaction was also of
peculiar importance at the season of its occurrence :
the 'movements of the vast armies which were
working out the deliverance of Europe from mili¬
tary despotism depended in a great measure upon
the wealth of England. The occasion called for
and deserved the application of all her resources ;
and, although bearing but a small proportion to the
extent of her efforts, the treasuries of her Indian
empire furnished a not inconsiderable nor unim¬
portant contribution.®
The close of Lord Minto's honourable and suc¬
cessful labours was now approaching. The influence
' Excess of supply to London :
in 1811-12 Sa. rs. 3,46,49,832 at 2s. 6d. £4,331,229
1812-13 2,71,49,075 3,393,634
1813-14 1,60,00,000 2,000,000
£9,724,863
—Financial Letter from Bengal ; Papers relating to Finances of India,
printed by order of the Court of Proprietors, March, 1824, p. 18.
^ Bullion remitted to England :
in 1811-12 Sa. rs. 40,42,407 at 2s. 6d. £ 505,301
1812-13 85,44,983 1,068,123
1813-14 22,82,359 285,295
£1,858,719
As the price of bullion was high in England, the remittances realised more
than even the exchange value.
' Alison's History of Europe, viii. 63, ix. 701.
490
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. of party spirit, so long suspended, was at length
CHAP. vii. allowed to operate ; and the continuance in office of
1813. an administration based upon principles, opposed to
those of the ministers by whom the Governor-Gene¬
ral had been nominated was found incompatible
with the longer duration of his power. Circum¬
stances had also imposed upon the ministers the
duty of conferring office upon another distinguished
personage ; and the endeavours of the Earl of IVIoira
to carry into effect the wishes of the Prince Re¬
gent for the formation of a ministry which should
connect the actual servants of the Crown with his
early friends, however unsuccessful, entitled him
to the consideration both of the Prince and of his
advisers. It was consequently proposed to reward
his exertions by his appointment to the govern¬
ment of India, and to make way for him by the
removal of the Governor-General, A resolution
was accordingly moved by the Chairman, under the
dictation no doubt of the Board of Controul, that
Lord Minto should be recalled. No reason for the
measure was assigned ; but it was adopted in oppo¬
sition to the tenor of a letter received from Lord
JNIinto's friends, expressing his wish to he relieved
in January 1814. This letter was assigned as the
reason for the immediate appointment of Earl
Äloira ; hut, as objected by one of the opponents of
the arrangement, INIr. Charles Grant, the plea was
delusive, as no one could pretend to assign it as a
sufficient reason for proceeding to the choice of a
Governor-General in November 1811, whose pre¬
sence at Fort William could only be necessary in
January 1814. On the same occasion it was deter-
close of lord minto's government.
491
mined to supersede Sir George Nugent as Com- book i.
mander-in-chief, Lord Moira uniting both the civil
and supreme authority ; and not only to rescind the 1813.
conditional appointment of Sir G. Barlow as Go¬
vernor-General, but to remove him from the go¬
vernment of Fort St. George. These several mea¬
sures were made the subject of strong protests by
several leading members of the Direction but the
objections were overruled by the predominating
spirit of ministerial obligations, and the change
took place. Earl Moira was appointed Governor-
General of India and Commander-in-chief ; and Ge¬
neral Abercromby, the commander of the forces at
Fort St. George, was nominated for a time Go¬
vernor of Madras. Lord Minto survived but a
short time his return to his native country ; he died
in the course of the same year. Few Governors-
General have stronger claims upon the gratitude of
those over whom or for whom they ruled. No one
ever more conscientiously or disinterestedly laboured
for the happiness of the people of India, for the
prosperity of the East India Company, or the ho¬
nour and advantage of Great Britain. Other ad¬
ministrations may have been signalised by more
stirring events and more splendid triumphs ; but
British India never enjoyed a more healthy and
contented condition, never made a more sure and
steady though an unpretending advance in social
improvement, than during the government of Lord
Minto.
' See Dissents of Edward PaiTy, W. Astell, George Smith, and John
Bebb, Esqrs., 20th Dec. ; and separate Dissent of Mr. Charles Grant, 30th
Dec. 1812: published by Sir Robert Barlow, 1813.
492 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. The term of Lord JVIinto's government was coeval
CHAP. VII. ^ material change in the character of the su-
1813. perior authorities under whom the power of him¬
self and his predecessors had been immediately
held. The East India Company ceased to retain
the monopoly of the East India trade. The circum¬
stances which led to this event we shall now pro¬
ceed to detail.
CHAPTER VIII.
Embarrassed finalices of the Company.—Application
to Parliament foi^ assistance. — A Loan granted.—
Imjuiry into abuse of patronage.—Renewal of the
Charter.—Previous Com'cspondence with the Board.
—Demands of the Court. — Propositions of Mr.
Dundas—objections of the Court—communication
suspended—revived.—Determination of Ministers
to open the Trade with India resisted, but finally
acceded to by the Company.—Claims of the Out-
po7'ts.—Change of the Ministry.—Lord Bucking¬
hamshire President of the Board.—Consequences of
delay.—Resistance to the claims of the Outports.—
Appeal to Parliament. — Resolutions proposed by
Lord Castlereagh in the House of Commons; by
Lcrrd Buckinghamshire in the House of Lords.—
Application of the Company to be heard by counsel
granted.—Questions at issue—political—commercial.
—Trade with India and with China, peculiarities of
history of british india.
493
the latter—secured to the Company.—Struggle for
the Trade with India.—Arguments of the Company
—of the Merchants.—Company consent to take off
restrictions from the Export, not from the Import
trade.—Financial and political evils anticipated and
denied—attempt to substantiate them by evidence.—
Opinions of Warren Hastings and others respecting
the unrestricted admission of Europeans—extension
of Trade—independent resort of Missionaries, Sfc.—
Debates in the House of Commons—-first and second
Résolution carried—debate on the third.—Debates
on the Report of the Committee.—Thirteenth Resolu¬
tion adjourned—debate on it resumed—carried.—
Other clauses suggested.—Bill finally passed in the
Commons.—Debates in the House of Lords—previ¬
ous discussions—Bill passed.—Proceedings in the
Court of Proprietors. — Charter accepted. — Re¬
marks.
The appointment of a Select Committee of the book i.
House of Commons in 1808 to inquire into the ^
state of the affairs of the East India Company has isis.
already been adverted to ; as have the measures
■which, in compliance with their recommendation,
were adopted by the Parliament for the relief of
the financial embarrassments of the Company, by
the discharge of a portion of the debt due to them
by the public. The Committee continued, with
occasional modifications, to sit through the four
succeeding years, and presented to the House in
that period different reports, which were drawn up
with remarkable diligence and ability, and furnished
a mass of authentic information upon every im-
494 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. portant subject relating to the internal administra-
tien of the Indian empire.
1813. The relief afforded to the Company in 1808 by
the sum of £1,500,000 received from the Govern¬
ment, together with more than usually favourable
sales of merchandise, enabled the Court of Directors
to provide for the wants of that and the following
year without requiring further assistance. This state
of prosperity was of no long duration, and in the
beginning of the session of 1810 the Company were
again obliged to apply to Parliament for pecuniary
aid.^ A deficit of two millions was anticipated in
the receipts of the year ending March, 1811, as
compared with the receipts; arising from the exces¬
sive and unexampled drafts made upon the Court,
amounting to nearly five millions, from India, in
discharge of the Indian debt, and from the unex¬
pected losses sustained in the Company's shipping;'^
many of their vessels having, in the course of the
last two years, been taken by the enemy, or perished
at sea. As the state of the money market rendered
it unadvisable to increase the Company's capital
stock, as empowered by law, the Court applied to
the House for such aid as it should see fit to grant,
the property of the Company being offered as ample
security for the repayment of a loan from the public.
The petition was referred to the Committee, by
whom the correctness of its purport was confirmed.®
' See petition of the East India Company for relief; Pari. Debates,
13th April, 1810.
' In the years 1808-9 and 1809-10, fourteen large vessels, chartered by or
belonging to the Company, were captured or were lost at sea : their cargoes
alone were valued at more than a million sterling.—First Report, Commons'
Committee, 1830, App. iv.
' Report from Select Committee, ordered to be printed 11th May, 1810.
petitions of the company. 495
Shortly afterwards, a second petition was presented,^ book i.
praying for a further settlement of the amount due
by the public to tbe Company : it was also referred 1813
to tbe Committee, but does not seem to ba\e been
made tbe subject of any special report. Tbe time was
unpropitious to tbe Company's applications, as tbe
Government was straining tbe resources of tbe coun¬
try to tbe utmost to provide for tbe magnitude of
tbe national expenditure, and was floundering amidst
tbe intricacies of tbe Bullion question. Tbe ur-
gencf of tbe case, and tbe vital importance of main¬
taining unimpaired every form of public credit, gave
irresistible weight to tbe appeal ; and, after some dis¬
cussions, a bill was passed on tbe 14tb of June, 1811,
for a loan of one million and a half to tbe Company.'^
In tbe following year tbe Company petitioned tbe
House of Commons for permission to raise two mil¬
lions upon bond ; and a bill was brought in for tbe
purpose, which, after some slight opposition, was
passed. In June, 1812, a second application for a
loan of two millions and a half was made to tbe
House of Commons, and, although strenuously op¬
posed by Mr. Creevy, complied with.®
Transactions affecting tbe moral credit of tbe
Court of Directors bad also, shortly before this
period, been brought under tbe consideration of
Parliament, and an alleged abuse of patronage was
made tbe subject of inquiry. It was brought for¬
ward by tbe members of the Court themselves, in
consequence of a report having prevailed that ap-
» Pari. Debates, 14th May, 1810.
• Pari. Debates, 10th May, 1811.
' Pari. Debates, 9th and 15th June, and 3rd and 7th July, 1812.
496 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. pointments in the service of the Company in India
CHAP, vin. t)een sold. On the 10th February, 1809, it
1813. was moved by Mr. Smith, seconded by IVIr. Grant,
that a Committee of the House of Commons should
he nominated to inquire into the existence of any
corrupt practices in the distribution of the patron^
age of the Court of Directors. A Committee was
accordingly appointed, which, in the course of a few
weeks, reported the result of the investigation. The
report exonerated the members of the Court from
any imputation of a violation of the oath by which
they were solemnly pledged, neither directly nor
indirectly to accept any pecuniary consideration
whatever on account of the appointment or nomi¬
nation of any person or persons to any place or office
in the service of the Company : ^ hut it appeared
in evidence that the persons to whom they had
given appointments had, in some instances, sold
them to third parties; and that a traffic had been
carried on for situations in their India service with¬
out their participation or knowledge.® Three civil
and twenty military appointments were traced as
having been sold. The obtaining of such situa¬
tions by purchase being prohibited under penalty
of their forfeiture, the appointments were cancelled ;
but, as the punishment fell heaviest on those Mho
Mere not the offending parties,—the young men
holding the appointments, — much sympathy was
excited for their situation, and other appointments
' This formed part of the general oath to be taken by each Director
according to clause 160 of the 33rd of George III.
It appeared that the price of a wi-itership was about ¿£3,500 ; that of
a cadetship yaried from ¿'150 to £500.—Report of Committee, p. 2 to 8 ;
and Eridence.
expiration op the charter.
497
were given to them by different members of the book i.
Court. 1 cH^m.
The main question, however, which occupied the isis.
attention of the Court of Directors and his Ma¬
jesty's Ministers was the renewal of the Company's
charter. The term for which this had been grant¬
ed in 1793 expired on the 10th April, 1814. It
had been provided that notice of the cessation of
the charter should be given to the Company three
years before it expired; and accordingly, on the
4th of March, 1811, the Chancellor of the Exche¬
quer moved, and it was ordered, that the Speaker
should signify in writing to the Directors of the
East India Company that the Company's commer¬
cial privileges would cease and determine on the
date above specified.
The renewal of the charter had for some time
previously been the subject of a correspondence be¬
tween the Board of Controul and the Crown.® On
the 30th of September 1808 Mr. Dundas addressed
a letter to the Chairman and Deputy Chairman, sug¬
gesting that it was now advisable to ascertain whe¬
ther the Court of Directors were desirous to agitate
the question, and submit it to the early consider¬
ation of Parliament. Early in the month following,
the Chairs, after consulting with the Secret Com-
} Report of Committee appointed to inquire into the existence of abuses
in the disposal of the patronage of the East India Company ; printed by
order of the Court of Proprietors, March 1809. See also Pari. Debates, vol.
xiii. ; and Asiatic Annual Register, Proceedings India House, vol. xii.
' The several communications with the Board, and various documents
connected with the discussion, from 1808 to July 1813, were printed by
order of the Court of Directors, for the information of the Proprietors, in a
series of fifteen papers, entitled " Papers respecting the Négociation for a
Renewal of the East India Company's exclusive Privileges," London,
1812-1813.
vol. i. 2 k
498
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. mittee of Correspondence, expressed their concur-
CHAP. vin. considering that the interests of the public
1813, and the Company would be best consulted by an
early renewal of the charter : they professed at the
same time the readiness of the Court to pay due
attention to any modifications that might be pro¬
posed, if they were compatible with the main prin¬
ciples of the existing system, for the conduct of
the trade and the political administration of the
Government of India. The views of the Directors
were more fully developed in a letter addressed to
Mr. Dundas on the 16th December, consequent on
a personal conference which had been held with
him. In this document they asserted the right of
the Company to their territorial possessions, and
stated their expectation that in a new charter the
Proprietors would be permitted to benefit by an
enhanced rate of dividends on their stock propor¬
tioned to the improvement of the revenues of India ;
that the aid of the British public would be con¬
tributed towards the liquidation of the Indian deht ;
and that arrangements would be devised for an
equitable apportionment of the military expenditure
incurred in the prosecution of interests of purely
British origin, and not fairly chargeable to India.
Twenty years were required for the term of the new
charter. The tone of the address was bold, par¬
ticularly at a moment when the Company was a
suppliant for pecuniary aid ; and the eagerness to
extract an augmented dividend out of the antici¬
pated improvement of revenue, instead of proposing
to apply such additional revenues either to the
reduction of the public debt or the benefit of the
correspondence with the board.
499
people of India, savoured more strongly of the little book i.
selfishness of a trading company than of the liberal-
ity becoming a great and enlightened Government. 1813.
In his reply, dated the 13th Jan. 1809, Mr. Dun-
das, although admitting in substance the advantage
of adhering to the system of commerce and admi¬
nistration which had been sanctioned by the exist¬
ing charter, declined to acknowledge the claim of
the Company to a right to the territory of India, and
considered it premature to discuss the proportion of
benefit that was to be derived by the Company or
the public from any improvement in the finances of
India until the debt should be discharged. In like
manner, the liquidation of the debt must be contin¬
gent on the appropriation of the revenues ; as, if the
disposal of them should be assumed by the public,
it would be impossible to disregard the fair claims
of the Company, or their creditors, to a reimburse¬
ment of the expenses incurred in the acquirement
of the territory. He admitted that the Company
had also a right to expect that the public should
defray the cost of all hostile operations growing out
of a state of war in Europe, whether India became
the scene of them or was likely to be their aim.
In the letter from the Chairs of the 16th Dec. all
specific allusion to the Company's exclusive commer¬
cial privilege had been carefully avoided. The phrase
employed, " a regulated monopoly of the trade," ^
implied of course that the commerce was to be left
' " The system by which the Legislature has continued to the Company
the government of the territories acquired by it in the East, with a regulated
monopoly of the trade, has been held by the most eminent persons conver¬
sant with that quarter and its affairs to be the most expedient both for the
foreign and domestic interests of this country."—Letter from the Chairs to
the Right Honourable Robert Dundas, 16th December, 1808; Papers, p. 9.
2 K 2
500
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. on its actual footing,—the assignment of a certain
CHAP. viiL Qf tonnage to private merchandise in ships
1813. taken up by the Company, and the sale of private
import goods through the Company's establishments.
Älr. Dundas vras more explicit : he announced to the
• Court that his JSIajesty's Ministers would not concur
in an application to Parliament for the renewal of
any privileges which should prevent the merchants
and manufacturers of Great Britain from trading to
and from India, and the countries within the limits
of the Company's exclusive trade, the dominions of
the Emperor of China excepted, in ships and vessels
hired or freighted by themselves. Pie also intimated
that it was thought advisable to adopt some plan
for the consolidation of the Indian army with the
troops of the Crown serving in India, in order to put
an end to the jealousies and divisions which had so
repeatedly occurred between the two branches of
the military service in that country, and to the
divided responsibility which had hitherto impaired
the efficiency of both. He thought this would be
found practicable without interfering with actual
arrangements, or weakening ' the authority of the
local Gövernments or of the Court over his IMajesty's
regiments employed in the Company's possessions.
These intimations were anything but acceptable to
the Court ; and they replied, that, if the suggestions
were acted upon to the extent which the terms
seemed to convey, they would effectually supersede
and destroy not merely the rights of the Company,
but the whole scheme of Indian administration es¬
tablished by the previous acts of the Legislature, and
consequences fatal to the Company and most detri-
negociation suspended.
501
mental to the nation would infallibly ensue. Al- book i.
though, therefore, willing to take into consideration
the means of supplying the trade of private mer- isis.
chants with more beneficial and extensive accom¬
modation as far as was consistent with the preser¬
vation of the Company's rights, the Court declared
that they could not recommend to their constituents
to seek a renewal of the charter upon conditions
which would despoil it of all its solid advantages,
deprive the Company of their most valuable privi¬
leges,* and incapacitate them from performing for
themselves and the nation the part hitherto allotted
to them in the Indian system.
The négociation here came to a pause, and the
Ministers, unwilling to engage in a contest with the
Company whilst heavily embarrassed by the state of
public affairs, and finding that the notice of the
House was not likely to be yet attracted to the
question of the Company's charter, determined not
to press the subject. At the end of 1809 the Court
announced their readiness to resume the discussion;
but no notice seems to have been taken of their
challenge until the end of 1811, when the President
of the Board, now Lord Melville, apprised the Di¬
rectors that his Majesty's Ministers could not recom¬
mend to Parliament the continuance of the existing
system, unless they were prepared to assent that the
ships as well as goods of private merchants should be
admitted into the trade with India under such re¬
strictions as might be deemed necessary. If the
Court would agree to the enlargement of the trade,
he was prepared to discuss the measures it might .
be necessary to devise.
502
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. In their reply to Lord Melville the Court con-
CHAP. vin. however reluctantly, to propose to the Pro-
1813. prietors the opening of the trade; repeating their
opinion, that, whilst it would be productive of serious
inconvenience to the political administration of India,
it would not realise to the nation the benefits which
were expected from it. In support of their asser¬
tions, they referred to the accounts of the trade
which had been submitted to the Select Committee.
Influenced too, no doubt, by the measures which
they understood to be in contemplation by the mer¬
chants of the commercial and maritime towns in va¬
rious parts of the British islands, they expressed
their confident belief that no intention was enter¬
tained by his Majesty's Ministers of trying the ha¬
zardous experiment of dispersing over all the ports of
England and Ireland a trade now brought with so
much advantage, both to the Company and the
public, to the single port of London. The letter
also entered into details exhibiting the magnitude
of the Company's transactions, and vindicating the
Company from the accusations which had been urged
against it, and from the objections to the continu¬
ance of a system which they believed to rest, not
upon the grounds of individual interest, but upon
the firm basis of national advantage.
On the day preceding the date of this letter, a
paper of propositions to be submitted to Lord Mel¬
ville had been approved of by the Court of Directors,
and was accordingly communicated to him on the
6th of March, 1812. To these propositions, or hints,
as they were denominated, his lordship replied on
the 12th; and as the main object of the propositions
petition for a new charter.
503
bad been to secure the continuance of the arrange- book i.
ments of the act of 1793, proposing only to adopt
such modifications as should give greater facilities to 1813.
the private trader, but no greater extension to the
trade, they met with no favourable reception. The
President of the Board of Controul told the Court
plainly, that, as far as related to the India trade, they
did not appear to have succeeded in showing that
any detriment would accrue to the public interests
either in this country or India, or ultimately even to
the iftterests of the Company, from the introduction
of private adventure ; and he refused to acquiesce in
any arrangements which imposed a restriction upon
an improved commercial intercourse with India,
approving of such only as were intended to restrain
unauthorised settlements in that country, and to
secure a strict monopoly of the trade with China.
A petition, framed in consonance with the views of
the Board, was accordingly prepared, and, being
concurred in by a Court of Proprietors held on
the 2nd of April, was presented on the 7th to the
House of Commons, praying for a renewal of the
charter.
The announcement of the cessation of the East
India Company's exclusive privileges was, we have
contemporary evidence, received at first with very
little interest. Men's minds were engaged with
mighty events, by which the interests of commerce
were overshadowed ; and it seemed scarcely worth
while to dispute for the profit of any particular
branch of trade, when the independence of nations
was at stake. By degrees, however, attention was
drawn to the topic ; and the Parliament had no
504
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. sooner met than a deluge of petitions poured upon
CHAP, vm. House, assailing the principle of monopoly, con-
1813. demning the career of the India Company, calum¬
niating the motives of the Directors, and advocat¬
ing the abstract right of all British subjects to a ,
participation in every branch of external commerce.
The language of the petitions was prompted by the
same spirit against which it was levelled. The peti¬
tioners looked only to their own anticipated advan¬
tages, and in their selfish eagerness would have
trampled upon all prudent precaution and opposing
claims. A quarrel speedily sprung up amongst
themselves for the spoils at which they grasped ;
and the merchants and ship-owners of London found,
with no small dismay, that the unavowed mono¬
poly which they had enjoyed under the protection of
the Company's privileges, of a portion of the trade
and the whole of the shipping, was no longer to
remain uninvaded. Bristol, Liverpool, Glasgow,
and many other outports had merchants, vessels,
docks, and warehouses ; and demanded not merely to
be permitted to send goods to India, but to bring
back its products to their own doors in their own
ships, and to be liberated from all dependence
whatever upon the metropolis.^ Not only were pe¬
titions to this effect presented, but delegates from
the outports were sent up to London and formed
into a committee empowered to act for the mercan-
• Resolutions of the Buyers of Piece-goods, 21st April, 1812; Merchants,
Manufacturers, Traders of London, 25th ditto ; Petition ditto ; Papers re¬
specting the négociation, p. 133, &c. See also petitions to the House of
Commons from the Merchants, Shipowners, &c. of London, and others, inte¬
rested in the trade with India, and in the tea-trade ; Pari. Debates, 6th
May, 1812.
claims of the outports.
505
tile communities of the several places, and watch book i.
over their interests. Besides the outports, almost
every trading and manufacturing town of any consi- 1813.
deration joined in petitioning against the renewal of
the Company's charter.^
Up to the beginning of 1812, the pretensions of
the outports had excited apparently but little atten¬
tion, and had received little countenance from the
Ministers. Although Lord JVIelville had resisted the
attempt of the Court to restrict the export trade to
the port of London, he had nowhere intimated any
inclination to extend the imports in a similar manner.
On the contrary, he had concurred in the sixth propo¬
sition of the Court, which provided that the whole of
the Indian trade should he brought to London, and
that the goods should be sold at the Company's sales
and under the Company's management, as likely to
secure and facilitate the collection of the duties upon
articles imported from India and China. Had, there¬
fore, his propositions been acceded to in the first
instance, it seems not unlikely that the Ministers
would have been pledged to support the sale and
warehousing system of the Company, and the ad¬
vantages realised therefrom would have been pre¬
served. The delay which the repugnance of the
Court had caused, had given the opponents of the
Company an opportunity to advocate the claims of
the outports ; and the change of Administration
which occurred at this season, and which placed the
Earl of Buckinghamshire at the head of the Board
' See Parliamentary Debates, Session of 1812 ; Petitions from Birming¬
ham, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, Blackburn, Paisley, Dundee,
Perth, Belfast, and many other places in the three kingdoms.
506
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA,
BOOK I. of Controul, was another event which was unpro-
CHAP. viii. their pretensions.^ It was soon evident
1813. that the Company must forego all hope of profit
derivable, directly or indirectly, from the trade with
India.
The conferences and correspondence with the
Board still continued; and, as the opinions of the
new President of the Board of Controul were in
favour of the claims of the merchants of the out-
ports, the proceedings that had taken place were re¬
ported to the Proprietors at large. The sentiments
of the Directors could not fail to find an echo in
such an assembly, and a series of resolutions was
moved and carried in a General Court, held on the
5th May, to the following purport :—That the mea¬
sure of opening the outports to vessels of all descrip¬
tions from India was fraught with consequences
ruinous to the Company, and to the long train of in¬
terests connected with it: the removal of the trade
from London would render large and important
establishments useless, and throw many thousand
persons out of bread. That a departure from the
course of public sales would be injurious to the
trade ; ahd, by dispensing with the interposition of
the Company, smuggling to an unlimited extent
would be uncontroulable, to the great detriment of
the public revenue. That the consequences must be,
the destruction of the Company's China trade, the
' This nobleman, as Lord Hobart, had been Governor of Madras from
1794 to 1798. He had experienced the inconvenience to which the Indian
Governments had been exposed in having to provide, amidst the financial
embarrassments resulting from expensive warfare, for the Company's in¬
vestments.—See Memoir of the late Earl of Buckinghamshire, Monthly
Asiatic Journal, January 1817.
resolutions of the proprietors.
507
failure of their dividends, the depreciation of their book i.
stock, and their inability to perform the functions
assigned to them in the government of British India. I813.
That, if the constitution of the British Indian empire
were subverted, the civil and military services would
be broken down; the tranquillity and happiness of
the people of India, the interests of Britain in Asia,
and the constitution at home, would be imminently
endangered. That the object for which these evils
were to be risked, the increase of the commerce,
was Illusory; as all experience had shown that it was
not capable of increase. That the cause of the Com¬
pany had been deeply injured by prejudice, igno¬
rance, erroneous assumption, and, latterly, by exten¬
sive combinations, and by unfair representation, can¬
vass, and intimidation. And finally, the Court, trust¬
ing that Parliament would decide, not on the sug¬
gestions of private interests, but considerations of
national policy, approved of the firmness with which
the Directors had maintained the interests of the
Company, anjd enjoined them to persevere in the
négociation with his Majesty's JVIinisters on the same
principles.
Although unappalled by the dark catalogue of ima¬
ginary terrors which the interested fears of the East
India Company had conjured up for the salvation of
their monopoly, yet the obvious evils attending the
transfer of the details of an extensive trade from one
class of persons to others, and the confidence with
which disappointment and ruin were predicted to those
who sought to benefit by the transfer, compelled the
Government to proceed with deliberation and caution,
and prevented them from bringing the decision of
508
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. question before Parliament during this session,
CHAP. vin. notwithstanding it was one of the topics adverted to
jgi3 at the opening of the session in the speech from the
throne. Previously to its introduction, another at¬
tempt was made by the JVIinisters to obtain the
acquiescence of the Company in the proposed exten¬
sion of the import trade, as preliminary to any other
arrangements; and, as the attempt was unsuccessful,
they intimated that it would be for Parliament to
determine whether, if the Company still thought the
extension of the commerce incompatible with their
administration of the government of India, measures
might not be devised that would effect the opening
of the trade, and at the same time provide for the
administration of the government of India by some
other means than the intervention of the Company,
upon principles consistent with the interests of the
country and the integrity of the British constitution.'
This intimation closed the discussion on the part of
the Administration. The Court of Directors were
equally resolute, and they were supported by the
great body of the Proprietors. After a meeting of
the latter, which was repeatedly adjourned, a series
of resolutions was adopted,^ which recapitulated the
principal arguments in favour of the continuance of
the present system, approved entirely of the firmness
of the Direction in regard to the vital question of
admitting the outports to share in the import trade
of India, expressed their opinion that on no consi¬
deration whatever should this point be conceded,
• Letter from the Eail of Buckinghamshire, 4th Jan. 1813 ; Papers, 181.
' Proceedings of a General Court of Proprietors, 26th Jan. 1813;
Papers, 194.
parliamentary discussions.
509
and declared their conviction that they might ap- book i.
preach Parliament with confidence, persuaded that
the wisdom of that enlightened body would never I8i3.
consent to the sacrifice of the clear and positive inte¬
rests of one class of men to the contingent advan¬
tages of another, nor demolish a mighty practical sys¬
tem which had been raised by such immense exer¬
tions, in order to place its materials at the disposal of
interested speculation. Conformably to these resolu¬
tions, a petition was presented to the House of Com-
monlS on the 22nd February, 1813, in which the
Company prayed for the renewal of the privileges
granted in 1793, and deprecated any interference
with the China trade, or any extension of the import
trade from India to the outports of Great Britain.
Another petition was submitted at the same time,
soliciting from the nation payment of a debt
claimed by the Company of £2,294,426.^ A similar
petition was presented to the House of Lords.
On the 22nd of March, 1813, the subject was in¬
troduced into the House of Commons, in a Com¬
mittee of the whole house, by Lord Castlereagh,
who, after some general observations in which he
bore testimony to the excellence of the Company's
Indian government, declared it to be the wish
of the Government not to interfere with the poli¬
tical system unless compelled so to do, although
circumstances imperiously demanded the relaxation
of their commercial privileges. He accordingly
submitted to the House a series of resolutions, which
proposed to renew the charter of the Company for a
further period, to continue to them during that
' Pari. Debates, 22nd Feb. 1813 ; see also Papers, p. 252.
510
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. term the exclusive right of trading with China, but
CHAP, viii. admitting to the trade with India, under certain re-
1813. strictions, the mercantile community of Great Bri¬
tain. Some general discussion of the principles on
which the resolutions were founded ensued, but the
Committee agreed that the resolutions should he
read pro formd, and taken into consideration at an
early date. In the House of Lords similar resolu¬
tions were laid on the table by the Earl of Buck¬
inghamshire, and on the motion of the Earl of
Liverpool they were referred to a Select Com¬
mittee. It was agreed by the Lords that the
petitioners should he heard by their counsel, with
permission to examine evidence, should it be deemed
necessary, in compliance with an application to that
effect from the Company. The same indulgence was
accorded by the House of Commons, and evidence
was heard at the bars of both Houses in support of
the Company's objections to the measures proposed
by the Administration.^ In order to form an accu¬
rate notion of the tenor and character of the testi¬
mony thus adduced, it will be convenient here to
offer a summary recapitulation of the objects and
arguments of the conflicting parties.
In the first instance, two great questions were in¬
volved in the consideration of the renewal of the
charter—first the political, and secondly the commer¬
cial claims of the Company. The Court of Directors
claimed the territory of India in the Company's pos¬
session as theirs by right of conquest, achieved ori¬
ginally with money derived from the profits of their
trade : they had paid for it, and it was theirs. But
' ProceeclingsofCourtof Proprietors, 24th March, 1813; Papers, p. 305.
claims of the company.
611
then came the question, What was the Company ? of book i.
Vllle
whom was it composed ? and the answer was neces- "
sarily that it consisted of the dutiful and loyal sub- lais.
jects of the King of Great Britain : and a further
doubt inevitably followed, how they could reconcile
the duties of obedience to their sovereign with the
regal powers which they pretended to exercise in
India. This anomalous position was a sufficient con¬
futation of their claims, without adverting to the con¬
ditions and circumstances under which an association
of merchants had been permitted to acquire exten¬
sive dominions. Waiving the question of right, how¬
ever, the Administration was not only disinclined to
put down the Company's authority, but was anxious
to leave them in the undisturbed enjoyment of the
privileges and advantages which it conferred. The
public was either indifferent to this branch of the
discussion, or preferred that the territory of India
should be administered through the Company; as
the distribution of the patronage which it secured
to those that had the nomination to the greater
portion of the Indian appointments was safer in
their hands than in those of the Ministers, more
likely to be innocuously distributed, and not in
danger of being used as an instrument of parlia¬
mentary corruption—an article of barter exchange¬
able for a vote.
The second question, the commercial privileges of
the Company, was also distinguishable under two
heads—the trade with China, and the trade with
India. Both of these their mercantile antagonists
sought to wrest from them ; but the Ministers came
to their rescue, and were disposed to listen to the
512
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. arguments of the Court in defence of the monopoly
of the trade with China. This trade was carried on
1813. under peculiar circumstances. The Chinese Govern¬
ment entertained a violent jealousy of foreign inter¬
course, and confined the trade not only to a single
port, but to a single society,—to a certain number of
native merchants of Canton incorporated under the
designation of Hong,—interdicting the rest of its
subjects from trafficking with strangers. There was
no field, therefore, for competition ; no possibility of
multiplying demand by reduced prices, as the people
at large were excluded from the market ; and the
only effect of the increased resort of English mer¬
chants would be to place them more entirely at the
mercy of the Chinese Hong. Prompt to take of¬
fence, and affecting, possibly entertaining, utter in¬
difference for foreign trade, the Government of
Canton upon every petty disturbance or cause of
alarm was ready to place an embargo upon all ship¬
ments whatever ; and it had often required the ex¬
perienced judgment, local knowledge, and personal
influence of the members of the Company's factory
at Canton to prevent or remedy occasions of um¬
brage, and preserve the trade from suspension, or
restore it when inteirupted. There was great reason
to apprehend that from the ignorance or incaution
of British traders and sailors, subject to no national
controul, and setting the Chinese authorities at de¬
fiance, frequent interruption, if not a total stop to
the trade, would occur ; to the serious discontent of
the people of England, to whom tea had become a
necessary of life, and to the irreparable injury of
the revenue, which realised nearly four millions a
CHINA TRADE RESERVED. 613
year of duty upon this article of import.^ It was book i.
maintained, indeed, that there were no just grounds
for apprehending such a catastrophe. The Americans 1813.
had traded largely with China without supracargoes
or factory, yet had never given offence ; and the ap¬
pointment of a British consul would provide suf¬
ficiently a local authority, to which the resident
merchants and the crews of British vessels might be
made amenable. The salutary effects of this latter
measure were regarded, however, as doubtful ; and it
seemed not improbable that the immunity of the
American trade from obstruction was in part at¬
tributable to the Company's establishment, which
without actual authority exercised an influence over
all the foreign trade at Canton favourable to its
prosperity. It was also argued, that, if an unlimited
intercourse with China were permitted, it would be
impossible to prevent smuggling, by which the
revenue would be injuriously affected ; and al¬
though the impossibility was denied, yet undoubt¬
edly this argument had great weight with the Admi¬
nistration, who were unwilling, amidst the enormous
pressure upon the finances of the country during
the momentous transactions of this period upon the
Continent, to hazard the diminution of a resource so
valuable and so easily realised as the duty upon tea
paid by the Company. Accordingly from the first
they declared their determination to uphold this
part of the monopoly, and to exclude private
traders from the China seas.
' Considerations on the China Trade, by Sir G. Staunton, Bart., commu¬
nicated in the first instance to the Earl of Buckinghamshire, and subse¬
quently to the Court of Directors ; Papers, &c. p. 281.
vol. i. 2 l
514
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. The struggle therefore was for the India trade.
cHAP.viii. advocates of the mercantile interest assailed
1813. the Company with the anti-monopoly doctrines,
which, started by Adam Smith, were now received
as axioms in the new and growing school of poli¬
tical economists : and although it was undeniable,
that, had not the Company possessed originally an
exclusive trade Avith India, that trade would never
have been established on a secure and permanent
footinof, and not a rood of land in India would have
Ö '
owned the rule of Great Britain ; yet the necessi¬
ties Avhich fully justified the monopoly for many
years had gradually disappeared before its conti¬
nuance, and no sufficient reasons could now be as¬
signed for excluding the merchants of Britain from
a commercial intercourse with British India, espe¬
cially as that intercourse was open to the people of
America and to all foreign nations. The Court of
Directors were unable to offer any valid objections
of a commercial nature. Their only argument was,
that admission to the trade would end in disap¬
pointment ; that the merchants who so eagerly
sought to be allowed to engage in the commerce
would find they had miscalculated the benefits they
derived from it. The experience of two centuries,
they affirmed, had fully determined the nature and
extent of the trade with India; and proved past
questioning that it could not be carried beyond the
bounds to which it had attained, and Avhich yielded
so little profit, that the trade was scarcely worth
the Company's retaining. The imports from India
were of a limited description, and were either on
the decline in competition with the raw produce of
EXTENSION OF TRADE WITH INDIA.
51.5
America, as cotton ; or with the products of home book i.
manufacture, as cotton goods ; or they were inca-
pable of more than a fixed and circumscribed con- 1813.
sumption, as was the case with indigo and various
drugs and spices. The same applied to the exports :
they could not be increased ; the climate, the reli¬
gion, and the usages of the people were all opposed
to the consumption of British goods and manufac¬
tures; and nothing English that could be sent to
Tndia^was likely to find a sale, except among the
few British residents in the country. The interval
that had elapsed since the renewal of the last
charter had given to these conclusions the sanction
of experience ; as the amount of tonnage then pro¬
vided for the private trade had never been fully oc¬
cupied, and not a single new article of export had
suggested itself to the interested enterprise of the
individual trader.
The more ardent of the advocates of free trade
denied the justice of the conclusions drawn by the
Court. The little profit attending the Company's
trade they ascribed to the prodigal expense of the
Company's operations, the want of good manage¬
ment, and the absence of judicious speculation.
The delays and expenses to which the private trade
was subjected under the Company's controul suffi¬
ciently accounted for the limited demand that had
been made for the tonnage : yet, notwithstanding
these obstacles, the Court's own returns showed
that the private trade was on the increase ; and, not¬
withstanding the assertion that no new article had
been introduced, it had been found profitable to
send out cotton manufactures to India. They treated
» 2 h 2
516 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. as monstrous and untenable the assertion that no
extension of trade was possible amongst the millions
1813. of the Indian population.' The more moderate ar¬
gued, that, although it was very possible that such
an extension as was sometimes anticipated, might
not he effected in India itself, or amongst the
Hindus, yet that there was a considerable body of
Mohammedans whose habits were less unpromising ;
and in the Indian Ocean, the Gulph of Persia, and
the Eastern Archijielago, new channels of trade
might and would no donbt be opened out by the
activity and enterprise of the private trader : that, at
any rate, the experiment was worth trying, as it
could only leave the trade as it found it ; and if, as
was pretended, it yielded little or no profit to the
Company, that was a reason the more why they
should not be unwilling to part with it. The exi¬
gencies of the commerce of Great Britain probably
weighed more with the IVIinisters than the argu¬
ments and assertions of either party. Excluded
from the Continent by the decrees of Napoleon, the
merchants and manufacturers were labouring under
alarming difiiculties ; and the country was menaced
with severe distress unless some new vent for the
issue of its industrial products could be discovered,
some new hopes could be held out to animate and
encourage the drooping energies of manufacture and
' It was stated by Lord Castlereagh, that in the last twenty years the
export of cotton manufactures to India had increased from £ 2000 to £"l 08,000,
and was clearly a growing trade.—Debates, June 2, 1813. See also Evi¬
dence of Mr. Brown and Sir Robert Peel, App. First Report. Mr. Sulli¬
van, 3rd June, says, the average export of manufactured cottons from
1792 to 1796 was £730, whilst between 1807 and 1811 it was £96,980 : the
amount of the exports of private trade had doubled within the period of the
charter.
imports to be restricted.
trade. To this great state necessity the interests of book i.
a single corporation were bound to yield ; and the
Company, with however bad a grace, were com- ibis.
polled to consent that vessels from any of the ports
of Great Britain should be allowed to export British
produce and fabrics to the territories of India under
their authority. They still, however, insisted on
the condition that the cargoes which the merchants
imported from India should be brought to London,
deposited in the Company's warehouses, and sold at
the (Company's sales. Upon this point they reso¬
lutely resisted the wishes of the Government.
The arguments with which they opposed the
extension of the imports from India to the out-
ports of Great Britain were, the injury that it
would inflict both upon the Company and the me¬
tropolis, rendering the extensive and valuable docks
and warehouses appropriated during many years to
the India trade no longer available, and throwing
out of employment thousands of persons hitherto
dependent upon their establishments ; the impossi¬
bility it would involve of regulating the supplies by
the demand, which was the effect of the Company's
sales,—the Company keeping back, even to their
own loss, the goods they imported, when they found
that the market was overstocked. But the chief
points upon which they rested their objections were,
the impossibility of preventing smuggling in Britain,
and checking the unlicensed and unlawful naviga¬
tion in the Indian seas, which must result from ex¬
tending the trade to other ports than that of Lon¬
don. The replies of the representatives of the out-
ports were, either of a general tenor, the same with
518
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. which the principle of the Company's monopoly had
CHAP, vtii. assailed ; or they were specially urged against
1813. the limitation of the import trade to the port of
London, which they denounced as unnecessary, un¬
just, and impolitic. It was not necessary for the pro¬
tection of the revenue, for experience had shown
that the Government duties could be levied else¬
where with as much regularity and security as in
London : it was unjust, because every mercantile
place was entitled to the same protection as the capi¬
tal ; and it would be only a transfer of the monopoly
from the East India Company to the merchants of
London, to give to them alone the privilege of im¬
porting goods from India : and it was impolitic, be¬
cause the superior dispatch and economy of the out-
ports were requisite to secure an equality in the
market with foreign nations. With regard to the
duties, the IMinisters also took the care of them
upon themselves, their realisation being more the
business of the State than of the Company; and
they would not admit that any greater danger could
accrue to the Company's authority in India from the
homeward than the outward trade, as the increased
resort of Europeans to India was quite as likely to
be the consequence of the one as of the other. The
Court of Directors had also impaired the force of
their own objections on this ground, by acceding to
the unlimited extension of the outward-bound trade
to any of the ports of the United Kingdom. Not¬
withstanding this palpable objection to the argu¬
ments of the Court, the dangers resulting from the
opening of the trade to their political interests were
pressed upon the IMinisters with still more urgency
danger to the company.
519
than the peril of their commercial ; and their tenure book i.
of the sovereignty of India was declared to be con-
tingent upon the preservation of their mercantile isis.
privileges. The dangers were of two kinds,—one
financial, one political.
The revenues of British India, it was affirmed, had
never been equal to the territorial charges : the de¬
ficit had been made good partly by money borrow^ed
either in India or in England, and partly by the pro¬
fits of the Company's trade. Large payments on ac-
counf of Indian loans, and of expenses growing out
of the Indian system,—such as, the supplies of stores
and the pensions of retired officers, civil and mili¬
tary,—had also to be made iu England ; for which
the commercial capital of the Company was wholly
insufiicient, and for which the sums required were
raised by remittances of goods from India or China,
and the proceeds of the sales at the India House.
Should these sources of supply fail in consequence
of the diversion of the trade to private hands, money
would be wanting for current disbursements : and,
should the profits of the trade be taken away, the
excess of the charge of the Indian territory, the inte¬
rest of the debt, and the dividends on the stock could
no longer be provided for ; in which case the Com¬
pany's stock would be valueless, and their obligations
could not be discharged. The business of the In¬
dian administration could no longer be carried on
by them, and the rescission of their commercial privi¬
leges was therefore equivalent to the annihilation of
their political existence,—to the subversion of that
system which the sense of the nation, the testimony
of all preceding Administrations, and the professions
520
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. of the present Ministers, agreed to recognise as that
CHAP, vm. ijgg^ fitted to maintain the British domi-
1813. nion in India. These arguments were, however,
disposed of in a great measure by the continuance
to the Company of the monopoly of the tea-trade,
from which it was admitted that their commercial
profits were principally, if not wholly, derived. How
far their territorial expenses had been defrayed by
their commercial gains, was also a matter of some
uncertainty, as the accounts of both had been hi¬
therto blended in such a manner as to render it
difficult to distinguish to which head many of the
charges correctly appertained. According to the
Company's adversaries, the Company's investments
were largely indebted to the territorial revenue.
Thus driven from all the disputed posts,—most of
which, to say the truth, were utterly untenable,—the
Company had recourse to their last great stay, the
danger of an unlimited resort of Europeans to
India. It was asserted that merchants and agents
would of necessity follow the trade, and that great
numbers of persons would settle in the country,
upon whose steps craftsmen and labourers would
necessarily follow ; and European colonization, how¬
ever slowly, would surely take place. Once esta¬
blished, it would, after the example of the Ame¬
rican colonies, lead to independence, and India
would be lost to Great Britain. Even before this
consummation took place, extreme embarrassment
and no small peril would be encountered. The
weak and timid natives of India would be the vic¬
tims of European fierceness and brute force. If they
failed to resist, they would be subject to cruelty and
dangers to india.
521
oppression, which the Company's functionaries would book i.
be unable to prevent : if, taking courage from their
numbers, they ventured at resistance, scenes of tu- 1813.
mult and bloodshed must follow, which could not
fail to menace the stability of British rule. In either
case there was an immediate or a remote danger
that the loss of India would follow the opening of
the trade.
These apprehensions had, as above remarked, been
partly neutralized by the assent which the Court had
actually given to the extension of the trade to India,
and it was not difficult to show that they were exag¬
gerated and visionary. The resort of Europeans grow¬
ing -out of the agency of commerce could neither be
numerous nor mischievous. It would be necessarily
confined to the principal settlements, wffiere alone
trade could he largely and profitably carried on, and
where the persons engaged in it would be immedi¬
ately under the eye of the most efficient and power¬
ful officers of the state. The class of persons who
would take up their abode there would be peaceable
merchants, factors, and agents ; not classes amongst
whom matter deep and dangerous to ffie Govern¬
ment was likely to he fostered. Labour in India
was too plentiful and too cheap to hold out any in¬
ducement to the most numerous and disorderly
classes of the community at home to emigrate, and
all danger of popular commotion from such a source
was therefore imaginary. But, it was argued, some
of the settlers would attach themselves to the soil,
and a class of agricultural as well as commercial co¬
lonists would be formed, by whom ultimate inde¬
pendence would be achieved. To the objection, that
522 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. the land was fully occupied, that there was no room
CHAP, vur. cultivators, the answer was, that the new
1813. colonists would displace the natives; but this could
be effected only in one of two ways—by violence, or
by purchase. The former implied that there was
neither law nor government in the country, and
counted vastly too much upon the non-resistance of
the natives, who have everywhere been found ready
to fight for their lands, and who in many parts of
India are destitute neither of strength nor spirit.
Purchase involved the transfer of capital from Eng¬
land to India, to be invested in property of very
equivocal advantage at least, and little likely to be
attended with profit under European management
and the Company's revenue enactments. The cli¬
mate and the habits of the two people rendered it
utterly impossible that a European should compete
with a native farmer in the cultivation of crops of
rice, and the claims of the state to three-fifths of the
net produce held out little prospect to the European
cultivator of realising a fortune. It was not to be
doubted also, that the climate, in some parts of India
at least, was unfavourable to the full developement
of the European organisation ; and, with diminished
physical energy, would engender an inferior de¬
gree of intellectual vigour : so that the children of
Europeans, bom and bred in the country, would
sensibly degenerate; and the course of a few gene¬
rations would, in all probability, find them rather
below, than above, the level of the native population.
These were facts, however, unknown, or kept out of
sight, by those who held out colonization and inde¬
pendence as bug-bears to the advocates of free trade ;
precautions adopted.
523
and the phantoms had so far an influence upon the book i.
determinations of the Government, that it was '
thought advisable to take precautions to prevent 1813-
their substantial existence. It was agreed that no
persons, except those in the Company's employ,
should be allowed to go to India as residents, with¬
out a licence either from the Company or the
Board of Controul; and that the Indian Govern-
ments should retain authority to send out of the
country any individual from Avhom they might
thinlc it advisable to withdraw the licence to reside
in India. This was considered a sufficient conces¬
sion to the real or affected panic of the Court. And
with regard to any embarrassments that might arise
from the diminished remittances from India to meet
the demands upon the Company, the Älinisters en¬
gaged that, if it should arise without any fault of the
Company, they would use their influence with Par¬
liament to afford the necessary relief, as far as equi¬
valent means might exist in India.'
The improbability of the extension of the trade,
and the great risk attending the attempt to effect its
extension, were the especial points which the Com¬
pany endeavoured, by the witnesses whom they
called, to impress upon the Parliament; and with
' The arguments in favour of the continuance of the Company's exclu¬
sive privileges are to be chiefly found in the letters from the Chairs to the
Board of Controul, and the petitions of the Company to Parliament, printed
in the Papers respecting the négociations, &c. Those of the advocates of
free trade, in the petitions of the several towns, and in a shoal of contem¬
porary pamphlets : among which may be noticed Considerations on the
Trade with India, London, 1807 ; and Letters on the East India Compa¬
ny's Monopoly, published at Glasgow. Nor was the Company without its
supporters ; amongst whom one of the most respectable was Mr. Robert
Grant, the author of the " Expediency of continuing the system of the
Trade and Government of India, 1813."
524
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. tijis view several of their most distinguished servants
CHAP. VIII. ^ TT rjM n
were interrogated before toe House. The first per-
1813. son called was Warren Hastings; and, as if impelled
by a sudden conviction of the undeserved severity
with which he had been treated by a former House
of Commons, and by a spontaneous wish to offer him
such atonement as a unanimous tribute of personal
respect could render, the members rose, as one body,
upon his entrance into the House, and stood until he
had assumed his seat within the bar. Similar indi¬
cations of veneration accompanied his withdrawal.
The House of Lords received him also with marked
courtesy and attention. The contrast between his
position now, and that which he held in the same
presence twenty-seven years before, when he was
arraigned of atrocious crimes and misdemeanors be¬
fore both Houses, must have been some, though a
tardy and insufficient, compensation for the unmerit¬
ed neglect in which he had since passed his unob¬
trusive life.^ His evidence was confirmatory of the
assertions of the Company. He expressed it as his
opinion, that if Europeans were admitted generally
to go into the country, to mix with the inhabitants
or form establishments amongst them, the conse¬
quence would certainly and inevitably be the ruin of
the country: they would insult, plunder, and oppress
the natives, and no laws enacted from home could
prevent them from committing acts of licentiousness
of every kind with impunity. A general feeling of
hostility to the Government would be excited ; and
* Of his reception he merely remarks, in a letter to a young friend, " I
have lately received two most convincing and affecting proofs of my having
outlived äU the prejudices which have during so many past years prevailed
against me.'*—Life of Warren Hastings, iii. 458,
evidence as to colonization.
525
although the armed force might he of sufficient book i.
strength to suppress any overt acts of insurrection,
yet the stability of the empire must be endangered 1813.
by universal discontent. The opinions of Lord
Teignmouth, Colonel Malcolm, Colonel Munro, and
other distinguished servants of the Company were
of a similar tendency, and deprecated strongly the
unrestricted admission of Europeans to the interior
of the country. Experience had proved, they
affirmed, that it was difficult to impress even upon
the 'servants of the Company, whilst in their novi¬
ciate, a due regard for the feelings and habits of the
people ; and Englishmen of classes less under the
observation of the superior authorities were notori¬
ous for the contempt with which, in their national
arrogance and ignorance, they contemplated the
usages and institutions of the natives, and for their
frequent disregard of the dictates of humanity and
justice in their dealings with the people of India.
The natives, although timid and feeble in some
places, were not without strength and resolution in
others; and instances had occurred where their re¬
sentment had proved formidable to their oppressors.
It was difficult, if not impossible, to afford them
protection, for the Englishman was amenable only
to the courts of British law established at the
Presidencies ; and although the local magistrate had
the power of sending him thither for trial, yet, to
impose upon the native complainants and witnesses
the obligation of repairing many hundred miles to
obtain redress, was to subject them to delay, fatigue,
and expense, which would be more intolerable than
the injury they had suffered. There was tn îact,
526 HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. therefore, no redress ; and the only security that the
CHAP. VIII. jjatiygg enjoyed was the power vested in the Govern-
1813. ment of removing a troublesome and mischievous
European from the provinces to the Presidency, or
even, if necessary, of sending him altogether out of
India. As long as those powers continued to be
vested in the local Governments, and as long as the
resort of Europeans to India was regulated by
licences granted by the authorities either in Eng¬
land or in India, it was thought by some of the wit¬
nesses that no great danger was to be apprehended.
According to Colonel Malcolm, however, the re¬
strictions could not be too stringent or severe.^
In all the questions, however, to which these replies
were given, it was assumed that not only an unre¬
stricted but an unlimited and numerous influx of
Europeans would follow the opening of the trade,
and that the Europeans would settle as colonists.
Admitting the inferences to be legitimate, the pre¬
mises did not appear to all the witnesses to be
equally indisputable. Thus Colonel Munro, in parti¬
cular, stated his opinion that, although in the first
instance the number of Europeans might be con¬
siderably augmented, yet by degrees that number
would be limited by the amount of the trade, for
the regulation of which alone their residence would
be advantageous. They would not become manu¬
facturers, on account of the superior skill and eco¬
nomy of the natives ; they could not hold land, as
that was prohibited by the Company's regulations:
> See Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committees of both
Houses of Parliament in 1813, printed by order of the Court of Directors
for the information of the Proprietors.
evidence as to trade.
527
and, supposing it to be desirable that the law were book i.
repealed, it was not likely that Europeans could co-
Ionize to any extent ; they would be borne down by 1813.
the superior population of the natives, more indus¬
trious and economical than themselves.
The several witnesses agveed also as to the impro¬
bability of the trade with India being susceptible of
any material extension. The simple habits of the
people, taught them by the nature of the climate and
the condition of society, rendered them, even where
able to purchase superfluities, little inclined to pro¬
vide them. A few opulent natives at the chief
cities occasionally purchased articles of European
furniture and apparel, in compliment to their Euro¬
pean friends, but commonly put them aside and
made no use of them.^ Their superfluous wealth
was expended in the marriages of their children or
at religious festivals, in domestic indulgences or on
the ornaments of their women. The vast majority
of the people were, however, devoid of the means of
buying European manufactures, even if there existed
amongst them any propensity to make use of them.®
«
' A fourth of the second share of the prize-money of Seringapatam was
to be paid to the Nizam, and, with a prudent regard for the interests of
British trade, the Government of Madras thought it expedient to convert
the amount into broad-cloth, plate, china, glass and the like, in order to
initiate his Highness and his Court into a taste for the elegant superfluities
of European living. The articles were graciously received ; but all were
consigned to the Toshak-khana, or magazine of rare and valuable commo¬
dities. On visiting this magazine, the Resident found many rooms fllled
from the floor to the ceiling with European articles, most of which had been
presented to the Nizam and his father by the Governors of the French and
English settlements : some as old as the time of Duplessy and Bussy, sent
direct from the court of Louis XV. Of course the greater portion had
become the nests of the white ant and the moth.—Evidence of T. Syden¬
ham, Esq. before the House of Commons ; Minutes, p. 527.
® Various testimonies were given of the cheapness of labour and the
trifling amount sufficient for the maintenance of the natives. According to
returns obtained by Colonel Munro whilst in India, upon a population of
528
HISTORY OP BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Here, again, the same sagacious officer. Colonel
Munro, placed the question in its true light. Al-
1813. though he admitted that the Hindu was as unal¬
terable in his habits as it was possible to be, and had
in all probability adhered to them ever since he was
first known to the Greek invaders of his country, yet
he denied that the people of India entertained any
invincible prejudices against foreign fabrics : it was
entirely a question of price: whenever we could
undersell the Hindus in any article which they
required, it would find its way into the interior of
the country ^vdthout much help from the British
merchant, and in spite of all regulations to prevent
it. At the same time, he did not conceive it likely
that there would be such a reduction of price as
could bring British manufactures into competition
with those the natives required and could produce
in their own country. He was not aware what ele¬
ments were even then at work to raise the British
manufacture of one of the necessaries of life, cotton
cloth, upon the ruin of the fabrics of India.
A question of still graver importance, although
not affecting the continuance of the Company's pri¬
vileges, was the expedience of adopting measures for
the dissemination of Christianity amongst the natives
of India. The advantages of placing the Company''«
chaplains under episcopal authority had been pressed
upon the attention of the Company and the public
two millions of inhabitants, the average annual expenditure of each indi¬
vidual for clothes, food, furniture, and all the necessaries of life, did not
exceed 25s. : the average expenditure of the rich being 40s. ; that of the
middling classes, comprising the whole of the agricultural and manufac¬
turing classes, 27s. ; and that of the poorest, 18s. It was not likely that
any of these classes should furnish consumers of European commodities.—
Min. of Evidence p. 204.
evidence regarding missions.
529
some years before,' and the Administration was will- book i.
ing to give effect, in part, to the arrangements so
suggested. The appointment of a bishop and arch- isis.
deacons was calculated to give consistency and vigour
to the clerical establishment of British India, and was
not likely to excite any hostile feelings amongst the
natives, as long as they had no cause to suspect that
it was the purpose of the Government to employ
such agency as instruments of their conversion. To
this extent, therefore, the Ministers and the Company
were disposed to go : but there were not wanting a
number of zealous persons who endeavoured to force
upon them the adoption of provisions in the new
charter for the communication of the light of Chris¬
tianity to the benighted heathens of India, and for
affording sufficient opportunities to the benevolent
persons who should be desirous of going to India for
that purpose; or, in other words, to authorise and
assist the exertions of the missionaries. Petitions to
this effect had been presented to both Houses of Par¬
liament, and the members naturally therefore wished
to hear the sentiments of those who were best quali¬
fied to judge of the probable consequences of any at¬
tempt of the Government to introduce the Christian
religion. There was no hesitation or disagreement in
the reply. All concurred in asserting that not only
the attempt, but any notion amongst the natives that
such an attempt would be made, was pregnant with
the most fatal consequences : it would not only defeat
the object for which it was made, and prevent the
diffusion of that religion it was intended to establish,
' In a memoir on the expediency of an Ecclesiastical establishment for
British India, by the Rev. Claudius Buchanan, ISO.'i.
VOL. I. ^ M
530
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. but would lead to universal fear and discontent, and
CHAP, viii. likelihood end in the overthrow of the
1813. British empire. Divided as were the people of the
country by religious differences and distinctions of
caste, any dread of violence to their several forms of
belief would unite them in a common cause ; would
convert timidity into desperation, and subordination
into defiance; and would kindle a flame which, in
its progress, would destroy not only the British Go¬
vernment, but all who professed the faith it was
designed to propagate. Even Lord Teignmouth,
although connected with the religious party, ad¬
mitted that considerable peril might be apprehended
from indiscreet zeal; that, from the experience "which
the natives had had of the disposition of the Govern¬
ment during very many years to pay every attention
to their civil and religious prejudices, they never
could be brought to believe that it meant to impose
upon them the religion of this country; that any
enactment for the conversion of the natives, having
the appearance of a compulsory law upon their con¬
sciences, would be attended with very great danger ;
and that it would be advisable to leave in the
hands of the local Government the controul to be
exercised over persons professing to teach Christi-
nity in India.^
A variety of conflicting evidence relating to the
' See the Resolutions of a meeting of the Protestant Society for the pro¬
tection of Religious Liberty, 2nd March, 1813 ; Papers, &c. 276 : of a spe¬
cial meeting of the Church Missionary Society, 24th April, 1813 ; of the
meetings of the members of the Church of Scotland, the Wesleyans, Bap¬
tists, and others, in March and April, 1813; in tlie Missionary Register for
April of that year. The subject was also warmly discussed in various
pamphlets : Lord Teignmouth and Mr. Fuller taking the lead on tlie side of
missionary encouragement ; and Messrs. Scott Waring, and T. Twining,
among those who denied its expedience or safety.
debate resumed.
531
difficulty of repressing smuggling, and the expe- book i.
dience of continuing the China monopoly, was also
heard. The officers of the outports generally main- isis.
tained that there existed as much security for the
realisation of the duties at the several harbours as
in London. The weight of authority, however, was
against them ; and difficulty was anticipated, al¬
though it might not he insuperable. The evi¬
dence of the Company's officers who had resided in
China was also of a character more entitled to
credit than that of the merchants, who attempted to
qualify or deny the descriptions which were given
by Sir G. Staunton and Mr. Davies of the peculiari¬
ties under which the trade with the Chinese was
conducted, and the danger of its being lost should
an indiscriminate traffic be allowed.
On the 25th of May the subject was again brought
before the House of Commons. Lord Castlereagh,
presuming that the members were now in possession
of the evidence, was desirous of entering upon the
discussion, and coming to a conclusion without fur¬
ther delay. Some opposition was made to an
early day, on the ground of there not being time to
read over the minutes of evidence ; but it was over¬
ruled, and on the 31st the House went into a Com¬
mittee on the Resolutions. The first resolution
purported that the privileges, authorities, and immu¬
nities granted to the East India Company by any
acts of parliament then in force, should be con¬
tinued for a further period of time to be limited,
except as far as hereafter modified and repealed.
In objecting to this, Mr. Bruce, the Company's his¬
toriographer, recapitulated the history of the Com-
2 M 2
532
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. pany, tlie attempts that had been made to interfere
CHAP, viii. their exclusive rights, the little success with
1813. which they had been attended, and the services
rendered to the trade, and the prosperity of the
state, by the Company; and he argued that any
deviation from the existing system would be pro¬
ductive of dangers and losses both commercial
and political, of the destruction of the Company's
trade both with India and China, and of the sub¬
version of their Indian empire. It would be a
melancholy reflection, he concluded, to have lived
to see one political and financial error lose to the
country its American colonies ; and to be convinced
that the proposed resolutions, if passed into a law
in opposition to a most full and complete body of
evidence, would in a short time probably lose its
Indian empire to Great Britain.^ He was followed
by Mr. Charles Grant junior, who impressed upon
the House the peril of disturbing a system of ad¬
ministration under which the people of India were
prosperous and happy, for the sake of imaginary
commercial advantages which never could be re¬
alised. The good of the people of India was the
real point at issue ; and this could not be promoted
by letting loose amongst them a host of desperate,
needy adventurers, whose atrocious conduct in Ame¬
rica and in Africa afforded sufficient indication of
the evils they would inflict upon India. The Com¬
pany had been charged with having excited wars
in India, and furnished an exception to the general
rule that peace and ti-anquillity were the insepa-
' Substance of the Speech of J. Bruce, Esq.; Black, Parry, & Co., 1813 :
also Hansard's Debates, 31st May, 1813.
arguments of mr. grant.
533
rabie attendants of commerce : and by whom was book i.
this charge made ? by the advocates of the slave-
trade, the people of Liverpool. The natives of India I813.
deprecated all change : he gave utterance to their
prayers when he conjured the House not to make
them the subjects of perilous speculation, and, for
the sake of local insignificant interests, barter away
their happiness. The commercial merits of the
question were more particularly dwelt upon by the
father of this speaker, Mr. Charles Grant senior,
who, as Chairman and member of the Court of Di¬
rectors, and a gentleman of great ability and expe¬
rience, had taken the lead in the defence of the
Company's privileges. He urged the arguments al¬
ready adverted to, of the impossibility of materially
extending the trade, which he was satisfied to ob¬
serve was now generally admitted. He denied that
the union of the character of merchant and sove¬
reign was prejudicial to the country over which the
Company ruled ; that any loss had attended their
commercial transactions, the commerce having not
only supported itself, but contributed to the ex¬
penses of the administration of the territory : he as¬
serted that the remittances made to England were
necessary for territorial charges in that country; and
that they were better effected through goods than
the bills of private merchants, of whose solvency
they could not always feel secure. He maintained
the right of the Company to their territorial posses¬
sions, having been acquired at their own hazard and
expense. In reply to the inconsistency of appre¬
hending a dangerous resort of Europeans to India if
merchandise were brought from thence to the out-
584
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. ports, and not anticipating the same from vessels
CHAP, vm, Pqj. export trade, he observed
1813. that, if ships were not allowed to carry their return
cargoes to the outports, the ships fitted out from
those ports would be comparatively few. Of the re¬
ality of the danger, the whole body of the evidence
was full. The transfer of the trade from London to
the outports would yield no advantages to the king¬
dom at large; whilst it would be injurious to the
metropolis, and dangerous to India.
Amongst the speakers on the opposite side, Älr.
Canning was principally distinguished. He very
justly observed, that, of all the questions ever dis¬
cussed in the House of Commons, the present was
one in which on both sides the greatest exagge¬
ration prevailed. He bore no enmity to the Com¬
pany, and was desirous of supporting all their just
claims : but he could not admit their claim to the
rightful sovereignty of India ; or that the anomaly
of their position should impair the principle, that,
whenever British subjects acquired dominion, it was
comprehended within the permanent dominion of
the empire. When Parliament were legislating on
the government and commerce of India, it was as
clearly competent to do so, as to enact laws respect¬
ing any other British possessions properly denomi¬
nated colonies. He would admit, however, the
Company to retain their sovereign capacity as a
concession, not as a right ; but, if it should seem
good to take it away, it was the right of the Par¬
liament so to legislate, and not in the right of the
East India Company to plead their possession.
With regard to the objections offered to the open-
speech of mr. canning.
535
ing of the trade on account of the anticipated mis- book i.
conduct of those who would engage in it, he thought
it was rather hard and unprecedented language for isis.
the advocates of the Company to say to the mer¬
chants, " You are a pack of piratical ragamuffins, who
want to lay our villages in ruins and blood, and to
carry away our children into captivity: we have
heard of the horrible traffic you carried on for the
slave-trade a century without shame, and would not
abandon without a struggle." Fortunately for the
private trader, the right and power of interference
did exist in Parliament, who would consider the
question in all its bearings, without heeding the
exaggerated pretensions of those commercial lords
of Asia to dominions acquired by British enterprise,
and yet held by British arms.
After witnessing the changes in the systems of
judicature and revenue, and in the military organi¬
sation, which had been effected by the Company's
Governments, he could not believe in the alleged
immutability of the native character and habit,
which was to render impracticable any extension of
the trade with them ; and still less could he imagine
that a people, who had been quiet and submissive
for three thousand years, should lose those qualities
all of a sudden if a few pedlars were allowed to
travel in the country with a pack of scissors or
other hardware at their backs. The question was,
not the admission of British merchants to trade
without restrictions, but their trading subject to
restrictions and regulations. He conceived the ge¬
neral principle to be pretty well disposed of, except
between the classes who went to the extreme
536
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. length of contending, on the one side, that the
CHAP, vm. should he abolished, and those who, on
1813. the other, maintained that not a single feather
should be taken from their plume of sovereignty;
but whilst he did not apprehend any insuperable
difficulty in providing for the government of India
independent of the Company, yet he was ready to
admit that the system had many advantages, and
was desirous to continue it in their hands as long
as it did not degenerate into a system of exclusion.
The first resolution was carried without a division.
The second resolution, proposing to continue the
monopoly of the tea-trade with the Company, was
discussed on the succeeding day. It encountered
some opposition from Mr. JNIarryatt, IMr. Ponsonby,
and Sir J. Newport; who argued that it was impo¬
litic and unjust to exclude British subjects from a
trade to which foreigners were admitted, and that,
by opening the trade, the public would be supplied
with better tea at a lower price, the prices of teas in
America being much lower than those at the Com¬
pany's sales. In reply it was asserted, that the
Company put up their teas at little more than cost
price ; and that, if the rates were enhanced by the
buyers, it was their act, not the Company's. Whilst
also it was not denied that the American prices
were lower, it was asserted by Mr. Grant that the
comparison was fallacious ; as the articles, although
bearing similar appellations, were entirely different,
and the American teas were of inferior quality.
This was contradicted ; but the arguments which
had infiuenced the Select Committee—the fear of
exciting the jealousy and provoking the opposition
clauses agreed to.
537
of the Chinese Government, and the inexpediency book i.
of hazarding valuable and readily realisable revenue
which the duty on tea under the present system 1813.
secured,—proved successful ; and this resolution was
also carried without a division. The other resolu¬
tions, with reservation of the third, seventh, eighth,
and thirteenth, were also agreed to.
On the 2nd of June the discussion of the third
resolution took place. This resolution, which gave
permission to the ships of private merchants to sail
from any port in Great Britain to any port within
the limits of the Company's charter, and to return
to certain of the outports, had been qualified by
various clauses, having for their object both the
security of the Company and individuals ; the most
important of them making it necessary for vessels
trading with India to have licences from the Com¬
pany, but empowering the Board of Controul to
issue licences when refused by the Court of Di¬
rectors, if not satisfied with the grounds of the
refusal. The debate was opened with a speech
from Mr. Richards, objecting altogether to the con¬
tinuance of the Company's privileges, and denying
the existence of that prosperity amongst the people
of India which they had been described as enjoying
under the Company's administration ; attributing
much of the misery that existed to the pressure
upon the national industry arising from the Com¬
pany's monopoly, and looking for its relief only to
the extension of a demand for the produce of the
country through the enterprise of the private trader.
He was replied to by Mr. Grant. The singular¬
ity of the debate was a long and elaborate speech
538
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. from Mr. Tiemey, who, in opposition to the senti-
CHAP. vin. jjjg colleagues, maintained that, looking
1813. to the distinguished character and generally con¬
curring tenor of the evidence adduced in favour of
the Company, and the total absence of any evi¬
dence on the opposite part, the existing system
ought not to be interfered with. In fact, there was
a gross inconsistency in the resolution : a Court
of Directors, that could not be trusted with the
commerce of India, was to be confirmed in the go¬
vernment,—twenty-four execrable merchants were
to make excellent political governors ! But there
was no charge against the Company: the main object
of the act of 1793, the happiness of sixty millions,
had been attained. The government of India, he
asserted, was well and ably administered, and was
not to be subverted for the sake of a little more
trade. Amongst all the arguments in favour of the
benefits that were to accrue to the people of India
from a free trade, he had never heard it proposed to
allow one manufacture of India to be freely import¬
ed into Great Britain. It was true that they would
allow cotton-twist : but then, having found out that
they could weave by means of machinery cheaper
than the Indians, they said to them, " Leave off
weaving ; supply us with the raw material, and we
will weave for you."^ Now, although this was a na-
' The history of the trade of cotton cloths with India affords a singular
exemplification of the inapplicability to all times and circumstances of that
principle of free trade which advocates the unrestricted admission of a
cheap article, in place of protecting by heavy duties a dearer one of home
manufacture. It is also a melancholy instance of the wrong done to India
by the country on which she had become dependent. It was stated in
evidence that the cotton and silk goods of India up to this period could be
sold for a profit in the British market at a price from fifty to sixty per cent,
lower than those fabricated in England. It consequently became necessary
speech of mr. tierney.
539
tural principle enough for merchants and manufac- book i.
turers, it was rather too much to talk of the philan-
thropy of it, or to rank the supporters of it as in a I813.
peculiar degree the friends of India. If, instead of
calling themselves the friends of that country, they
should profess themselves its enemies, what more
could they do than advise the endeavour to crush
all Indian manufacture? What would be said of
the East India Company if they were to show as
decided a preference to the manufactures of the
natives of India under their protection as we did to
the manufactures of England ? It appeared to him
that the alterations in the resolutions had been pro¬
posed for no other purpose than to conciliate the
clamour of the merchants, and he would defy any
man to point out anything like the good of India
being the object of any of the resolutions. In con¬
clusion, he expressed his opinion that either the
present system must be maintained, or the Com¬
pany set aside altogether. Lord Castlereagh, in
reply to Mr. Tierney, urged adherence to the middle
course which had been proposed by the Ministers.
In the adjourned debate on the following day, Mr.
Sullivan recapitulated the circumstances which had
to protect the latter by duties of seventy and eighty per cent, on their value,
or by positive prohibition. Had this not been the case, had not such
prohibitory duties and decrees existed, the mills of Paisley and of Man¬
chester would have been stopped in their outset, and could scarcely have
been again set in motion, even by the powers of steam. They were created
by the sacrifice of the Indian manufacture. Had India been independent,
she would have retaliated ; would have imposed preventive duties upon
British goods, and would thus have preserved her own productive indus¬
try from annihilation. This act of self-defence was not permitted her ;
she was at the mercy of the stranger. British goods were forced upon her
without paying any duty ; and the foreign manufacturer employed the
arm of political injustice to keep down and ultimately strangle a compe¬
titor with whom he could not have contended on equal terms.
540
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. taken place on the renewal of the charter of 1793,
CHAP. VIII. measures advocated in 1800 by Mr. Dundas
1813. for the extension of private trade, by the admission
of India-built shipping belonging to merchants in
India at that time, and observed that all the argu¬
ments brought forward against the propositions now
before the House were then urged with greater
force and ability than was now evinced in the dis¬
cussion : the result of a compromise made with the
Company had demonstrated the futility of all objec¬
tions against the private trade, which had largely
increased during the period of the charter. Mr.
Prothero vindicated the merchants of the outports
from the sarcastic observations of Mr. Tierney, and
maintained that they had shown their moderation
in not insisting upon larger concessions than it
had been deemed expedient to grant. IMr. Baring
denied the advantages, and expatiated on the dan¬
gers of augmenting the facilities already given to
private trade. Several other members took part in
the debate ; but the discussion turned chiefly upon
the general merits of the measure, and went over
the grounds previously exhausted. The resolution
was carried without a division ; and the remaininar
' O
resolutions being agreed to, with a reservation that
some of them would be considered more fully on
the bringing up of the report, the House "was re¬
sumed, and the report of the Committee, consisting
of the resolutions in detail, was received.^
On the 14th, when the report was taken into
consideration. Sir J. Newport moved that it should
be postponed to that day three months, expressly
' See Appendix.
amendment rejected.
541
with a view of inducing the House in the next ses- book i.
sion to abolish the monopoly altogether. Lord
Castlereagh expressed his opinion that such an abo- 1813.
lition would be a serious calamity, and that Ministers
would be guilty of a dereliction of duty if they
agreed to any postponement of the question. JMr.
Whitbread passed some severe strictures on the
IMinisters for culpable delay in bringing the question
forward, and then hurrying it to a decision : he ac¬
cused Lord Castlereagh of inconsistency, who, when
PreMdent of the Board of Controul nine years before,
had declared that the Company w^as unable, and
ought not, to exist longer ; and yet now argued that
it ought to be supported. He completely agreed
with the sentiments which had been expressed by
Lord Grenville in the House of Lords, disputed the
eulogium which had been passed upon the Com¬
pany's administration, considered the evidence given
in their behalf as prejudiced and contradictory, and
declared that the information was insufficient: one
thing only was clear, there should be no compromise;
if the Company ought to be destroyed, destroy it ;
if it ought to be maintained, maintain it : he voted
for further delay. Mr. Tierney also urged delay,
which Mr. Canning opposed; and, upon a division, the
amendment was rejected by a considerable majority.
The debate on the resolutions was adjourned.
On resuming the discussion on the 14th June,
Mr. Howorth argued the necessity of asserting in
the preamble a declaration of the sovereignty of
India residing in the Crown ; and Sir J. Newport
proposed a motion to that effect. Lord Castlereagh
objected to the amendment, that it was unnecessary;
542
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDÏA.
BOOK I. that it was raising a doubt where none had been
CHAP, vm. g^gggg¿g(j. wouM bo wull to consider
1813. what Parliament had done on a former occasion,
when the charter was renewed, and when it had not
been thought advisable to accompany resolutions of
a practical and specific character with principles of
universal applicability. Mr. Grant said that the
East India Company had never laid claim to the
sovereignty of the country ; they had only asserted
that right in the soil which they conceived to be
given them by the charter. The amendment was ne¬
gatived. Lord Castlereagh then moved that the
term for the duration of the charter should be twenty
years, which IVIr. Ponsonby proposed should be
shortened to ten ; in which he was supported by Air.
Creevey, who, however, gave a decided negative to
the whole of the resolution. Lord Castlereagh main¬
tained that a period of less than twenty years would
be insufficient to enable Parliament to judge of the
merits or defects of the system about to be esta¬
blished, and reminded the House that they retained
the power of superintending and controuling the
proceedings both of the Company and the Alinisters.
Mr. Canning voted for the shorter period ; and Air.
Whitbread declared that, from what he had heard in
the course of the debate, he should vote against
the resolution. The Company had governed India
badly, and had no right to the monopoly of the
trade with either India or China. The amendment
was rejected, but the minority was considerable.
On the duration of the exclusive trade to China
Mr. Canning also divided the House, proposing to
limit it to ten years ; a motion intended, no doubt.
missionary clause.
543
to propitiate his Liverpool constituents. It was car- book i.
ried against him. An attempt was made, upon the
third reading of the resolution, by Mr. Baring, to 1813.
restrict the return trade to the port of London at
least for a period of five years : but it was vigorously
opposed by the representatives of the maritime
towns, and especially by Mr. Canning, who de¬
nounced the proposition as an insidious attempt to
destroy the whole scheme which Parliament had de¬
vised ; for the outports, thwarted, crippled, and con¬
fined by such a regulation, would abandon the trade,
and then the Company would again possess its mo¬
nopoly undisturbed. The resolution was carried.
Some further discussion ensued upon other clauses
and resolutions, but they were agreed to ; except the
thirteenth, the debate on which was adjourned : it
being understood that a bill should be, in the mean
time, brought in on the other resolutions, and that
they should be sent to the Lords.
The thirteenth resolution, the object of which
professed to be the affording of facilities and encou¬
ragement to missionaries to India, was the subject
of a separate discussion on the 22nd June. In open¬
ing the debate. Lord Castlereagh felt it necessary
to correct an erroneous impression that had gone
abroad, that the resolution was intended to encou¬
rage an unrestrained and unregulated resort of per¬
sons to India for religious purposes : this was not the
case. It was never conceived by the authors of the
resolution that an unrestrained resort of persons
with religious views would be consonant with the
tranquillity and security of the British possessions in
India; although they thought that no danger could
544
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. arise from allowing a certain number of persons, un-
CHAP. vin. cognizance of the Court of Directors, who
1813. were again controuled by the Board of Commis¬
sioners, to proceed as missionaries to India : with
this impression he proposed the adoption of the re¬
solution.
The principal speaker on this occasion was Mr.
Wilberforce, who gave utterance to the sentiments
of the whole religious party of the kingdom. He
denied that the only object of the resolution was to
secure to such missionaries as the Board of Controul
should sanction, permission to go to India, and to re¬
main there as long as they should continue to exer¬
cise the duties of their office in an orderly and peace¬
able manner. Another, perhaps a principal object,
as expressed in the words of the resolution, was to
enlighten and inform the minds of our Indian sub¬
jects, by which he understood their education ; and
from the diffusion of knowledge, the progress of
science, and the circulation of the Scriptures in the
native languages, he anticipated even more than
from direct missionary exertion. He also dis¬
claimed, as preliminary to the discussion, all inten¬
tion to advocate for the conversion of the natives
the influence of Government. With regard to the
inveteracy and unalterableness of the prejudices and
superstitions of the Hindus, Mr. Wilberforce argued,
from their submission to so many changes in the
constitution of the government and the adminis¬
tration of the laAvs, that they were not so incapable
of adopting new opinions as had been represented :
nor were they incapable of change, even in their re¬
ligious sentiments ; as was evinced by the multitude
speech of mr. wilberforce,
545
of Mohammedans who formed part of the population, book i.
and who must have originated from conversion ; by
the formation of a whole nation, that of the Sikhs, 1813.
who within a few centuries had thrown off the re¬
strictions of the Hindu religion; and by the preva¬
lence of numerous sectarial divisions amongst the
Hindus themselves : nay, the work of conversion to
Christianity had been going on for the last century
with signal success, and there were at that moment
hundreds of thousands of native Christians in the East
Indies. So little were the Hindus indisposed towards
the doctrines of the Gospel, that the most zealous,
laborious, and successful missionaries, such as Swartz
and others, had been the most esteemed and beloved
of all Europeans among all classes of natives. In
answer to the assertions of those witnesses who had
vindicated the moral character of the Hindus, and
affirmed that, if practicable, it was not desirable to
effect their conversion, he quoted largely from a
memoir on the Moral State of India by Mr.
Grant, from the opinions of the judges and ma¬
gistrates given in answer to a call from Lord Wel-
lesley to report upon the moral condition of the
people, and from the Appendix to the Fifth Report,
to establish the general depravity of the people of
Hindustan ; and intimated that the opinions which
had been expressed to the contrary only proved the
justice of Burke's sarcasm, that Europeans were com¬
monly unbaptized on the passage to India. The
charge that he was bringing an indictment against
the whole population of India, who had done nothing
to deserve his enmity, he indignantly repelled ; and
accused those of being the worst enemies of the
vol. i. 2 n
546
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. people of India who would keep those miserahle
CHAP. VIII. ]t>owed down under the yoke which oppressed
18] 3. them. The course he was recommending tended as
much to their temporal as to their spiritual advan¬
tage ; for the evils consequent upon the institutions
and superstitions of the Hindus pervaded the whole
mass of the population, and embittered the domestic
cup in almost every family. Such were the effects of
the distinctions of caste, which were more degrading
and intolerable than the fetters of West Indian
slavery; of the practice of polygamy; of infanticide ;
of the burning of widows, of whom ten thousand
were annually sacrificed in Bengal alone ; of the ob¬
scene and bloody rites of their idolatrous ceremonies;
and of the destruction of human life, as instanced in
the worship of Jagannath in Orissa, in whose service
it had been computed, taking in all the various modes
and forms of destruction connected with it, that one
hundred thousand human beings were annually ex¬
pended. Mr. Wilberforce then vindicated the char¬
acter of Dr. Buchanan, and maintained the accuracy
of his statements ; and he defended the conduct of
the Baptist missionaries in Bengal,^ and claimed for
them the merits of discretion and moderation, as
much as for piety and learning. The statements and
reasonings of IMr. Wilberforce were contradicted by
a few of the members ; but no serious opposition
was made to the resolution, and it passed the
House.
On the 28th June the resolutions were presented
to the House in the form of a Bill, which, however,
was not to he suffered to pass without further discus-
' See the preceding chapter.
renewed debate on missions.
547
sion, although little of novelty could be adduced, by book i.
the speakers. On this occasion Mr. Grant entered
into a long defence of the Company's government i8i3.
of India, in reply to the censures pronounced upon
it by Mr. Richards ; and Mr. Lushington vindicated
the moral character and the religious practices of the
people of India from the unqualified and exagger¬
ated assertions of Mr. Wilberforce. On the 1st
July several clauses again underwent examination,
but the thirteenth clause was the principal topic of
debate. Sir J. Sutton, although friendly to the
principle of the clause, objected to the open avowal
that persons were to be sent to India for the propa¬
gation of Christianity, as its only effect would be
to alarm and irritate the feelings of the people of
India ; and he therefore moved as an amendment,
that, instead of the expression in the clause " for
the above purposes,"—the propagation of Chris¬
tianity,— it should be declared " expedient to
send persons to India for various lawful purposes."
Lord Castlereagh objected to the amendment, al¬
though in the wording of the clause he had endea¬
voured to satisfy other feelings than his own. But
the clause enacted nothing ; it declared nothing ; it
made no provisions for enforcing our religion, or
abolishing that of the natives of India : it simply
gave the weight and sanction of Parliament to the
principle ; but, so far from taking away or doing any¬
thing to interrupt or abolish the religion of the
natives, its free exercise was in this very bill se¬
cured to them. Mr. Marsh then at great length
replied to the former address of Mr. Wilberforce.
He considered the provision as a most portentous
2 N 2
548
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. novelty in Indian legislation. In all former modes
CHAP. vm. policy for the government of India, the inviola-
1813. bility of the religious feelings and customs of the
natives was considered a sacred and undisputed
axiom : a departure from that policy would shake
our empire in that part of the world to its centre.
The natives of India could not distinguish between
the projects of those who had worked themselves
up to a morbid enthusiasm on the subject, from
plans countenanced by the authority and intended
to be effectuated by the power of the state. They
were too tremblingly sensitive on the subject of
their religion, and too little versed in the nature of
parliamentary proceedings, to be able to separate the
acts and opinions of a large portion of the country
acting permissively under the state, from the au¬
thentic and solemn act of the state itself. To give
a licence to a missionary to go out to India, was to
impair the authority of the Government abroad to
send him back if he misconducted himself; and the
probability of his so doing was sufficiently evinced
by the dispatch from the Governor-General of the
2nd November, 1807, which stated several alarming
instances» of misguided and intemperate zeal, and
of low and scurrilous invective circulated in the
native languages against the feelings, prejudices,
and belief of the people. Mr. hlarsh then entered
into a detailed argument to prove that the mutiny
at Vellore, and the dangerous plots which were con¬
certed in other parts of the Peninsula, originated in
an alarm excited amongst the natives of their en¬
forced conversion ; which fears were confirmed by
the activity of the missionaries in the Madras set-
speech of mr, marsh.
549
tlement, instigated by the unusual countenance book i.
which they had received for some time previous to
the massacre. Was it possible, he asked, that the I813.
House would fall into such a fit of absurdity and
fanaticism, or be visited with so fatal a fatuity, as
not to keep so awful an event before them in the
grave discussion of matters affecting the religion of
the country ? Mr. Marsh then proceeded to ques¬
tion the practicability of converting the people of
India to Christianity in spite of the existing insti¬
tutions, and particularly that of caste ; the loss of
which, consequent upon the adoption of a new creed,
subjected the neophyte to the most cruel of all
martyrdoms—to separation from all the sweets of
social communion, the ties of friendship, the chari¬
ties of kindred, and all that life contains to support
and adorn existence. He denied that the mission¬
aries were fit engines to accomplish the greatest re¬
volution that had yet taken place in the history of
the world. He could not, he observed, sufficiently
admire the inconsistencies and contradictions of
some of the most ardent advocates of the clause;
of those who would most jealously exclude from
India persons invited thither by commercial en¬
terprise, and having an obvious interest in carry¬
ing on a quiet, prudent, and conciliatory inter¬
course with the natives; and yet would throw open
every port in the dominion to swarms of indivi¬
duals whose nature and character it is to consider
themselves absolved from all human restraints, and
free from all human motives, in effecting the ob¬
jects of their calling. Nay, the same reasoners, who
would persuade us that the Hindus were unsuscepti-
550
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. ble of change in regard to the use of European manu-
CHAP. vin. would have us believe that they were ready
1813. eagerly to welcome whatever articles of spiritual
novelty might be imported. The doctrine, that the
people of India were so brutalized by the grossness of
their superstition as to be incapable of any redeem¬
ing virtue, he denounced as founded on the falsest
assumption ; and vindicated their moral and intellec¬
tual worth from the calumnies with which it had
been assailed by partial and prejudiced testimony.
The moral obligation to diffuse Christianity, binding
and authoritative as he admitted it to be, vanished
when placed against the ills and mischiefs which
were likely to follow its application to India. There
never was a moral obligation to produce war and
bloodshed and civil disorder; such an obligation
would not exist, were the wildest barbarians the
subjects of the experiment : but when, in addition ^
to considerations sanctioned by justice and policy, it
was remembered that the people we were so anxious
to convert were in the main a moral and virtuous
people, not uninfluenced by those principles of re¬
ligion which give security to life and impart conso¬
lation in death, the obligation assumed a contrary
character, and common sense, reason, and even reli¬
gion itself cried out aloud against our interference.^
The support given to the amendment proposed by
JVIr. hlarsh necessarily produced a reply from
hlr. ilberforce. He defended the missionaries
from the opprobrious terms which had been applied
' Substance of the Speech of C. Marsh, Esq., in a Committee of the
House of Commons on the Ilth July, 1813, revised by the speaker: Lon-
don, 1813.
reply of mr. wilberforce.
551
to them by Mr. Marsh, and denied that the transac- book i.
tiens at Vellore were in any degree connected with
their proceedings. He had the authority of the I813.
Governor of JMadras and the Court of Directors
for ascribing it to the military regulations which
had been issued, and the extreme severity with
which the manifestation of reluctance to obey them
had been punished. The unsoundness of the con¬
clusion drawn from this affair might inspire a rea¬
sonable distrust of the correctness of the persua¬
sions entertained by the opponents of the measure
with regard to the .extreme sensitiveness of the
people of India in regard to their religion, when
the attempt to convert them was made in a spirit of
conciliation, and when no other means were thought
of but argument and persuasion. In fact, there were
two remarkable instances on record of successful
endeavours to root out inveterate and pernicious
practices in India : the prohibition of sacrificing at
the change of every moon many victims, chiefly
children, to the river Ganges, which had been
enacted by Lord Wellesley; and the suppression of
infanticide in Guzerat, by the interposition of Co¬
lonel Walker. The law had been obeyed without
a murmur; the interposition had brought down on
Colonel Walker the benedictions of the people.
One such instance as either of these was a sufficient
encouragement to go forward, prudently and cau¬
tiously indeed, but with firmness and resolution.
It was not enough, however, to question the
reality of the danger with which it had been en¬
deavoured to intimidate the friends of the mission¬
ary exertions. It was time, JMr. Wilberforce added.
552
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. for him to speak out, and to avow that he went much
CHAP.vm. yg¿ gone; he maintained not
1813. only that it was safe to attempt by reasonable and
prudent methods to introduce into India the bless¬
ings of Christian truth, but that true imperious
and urgent policy prescribed the same course. He
could not think that the British empire in India
rested on a secure foundation ; on the contrary, as
long as the people and their rulers were separated
from each other by such total differences of senti¬
ment and opinion as now existed, it was impossible
that the two should be united, or that the Govern-
♦
ment could depend upon the permanent attach¬
ment of its subjects, whatever benefits its adminis¬
tration might confer. Would we deserve their affec¬
tion and secure our power, we should endeavour to
perpetuate our influence by the gradual introduc¬
tion and establishment of our own principles and
opinions ; of our own laws, institutions, and manners ;
and above all, as the source of every other im¬
provement, of our religion, and consequently of our
morals. The illustrious Albuquerque, when govern¬
or of Goa, forbade the burning of widows ; and, so
far was this from exciting popular discontent, that
no governor was ever so much beloved. Long after
his death, when a Moor or a Hindu had suffered
wrong and could obtain no redress, he would go
to Albuquerque's tomb and make an offering of oil
at the lamp which burned before it, and call upon
him for justice.^
' These statements rest upon the authority of the Commentaries of the
son of Albuquerque, and were furnished to Mr. Wilberforce by Mr. Southey.
—Substance of Speeches, &c., p. 93.
reply op mr. wilberforce.
553
But, after all, what was demanded ? not that the book i.
Legislature should immediately devise and proceed
without delay to execute the great and necessary I813.
work, but that it should not substantially and in
effect prevent others from engaging in it ; or rather
that the Government should not be prevented from
having it in its power to grant licences to proper
persons to proceed to India, and continue there,
with a view to disseminate Christianity. The com¬
monest principle of toleration would grant much
more than this : it was toleration only that was
asked for ; the advocates of the measure disclaimed
all idea of proceeding by methods of compulsion
or authority. The amendment that was now pro¬
posed came under a plausible and specious appear¬
ance, which only rendered it more dangerous. It
proceeded from a spirit professedly favourable to
the clause, and objecting only to its publicity. On
this head, however, nothing was really to be appre¬
hended, as it was in evidence that the greatest diffi¬
culty existed in making matters of the utmost in¬
terest known amongst the people : news and infor¬
mation of all kinds were slowly and inaccurately
circulated in India. If the people should read the
clause, which was extremely improbable, they would
find in it expressed, for the first time Mr. Wilber-
force believed, a clear recognition, an effectual secu¬
rity, of their right to preserve their religious prin¬
ciples and institutions sacred and inviolate ; the
clause would, therefore, produce satisfaction rather
than discontent on that very subject of religion.
Nor would the object of the enactment be effected
merely by securing the power of licensing mission-
554
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. aries : by affirming the duty of enlightening the
CHAP, viir. improving the morals of our East Indian
1813. fellow-subjects, it established the principle, and
laid the ground for promoting education and diffus¬
ing useful knowledge of all kinds among them.
When truth and reason should obtain access to the
understanding of the natives, they would reject the
profane absurdities of their theological, and the de¬
praving defects of their moral, system : they would
thus be prepared for the reception of Christianity.
To omit the clause would be to omit from the act all
mention whatever of religion or morals, and would
leave the case as it was left by the charter of 1793,
when, although the resolutions of both Houses of Par¬
liament fully recognised the obligation of endeavour¬
ing to communicate to the natives of India the bless¬
ings of Christianity, yet, as it formed no part of the
act of the Legislature, the body whose business it was
to carry the provisions of that act into execution
could not be chargeable with neglecting any duty
which that statute ordained ; when, so far from
favouring, they rather thwarted and hindered the
attempts of the missionaries. The neglect which
was imputable to the former House of Commons
would be still more glaring on the present occasion,
as the subject had been brought so fully to its
notice : and if, after all that had been urged, the
same omission took place, it would be necessarily
inferred that the Parliament upon due deliberation
had disapproved of the project which had been
offered by the advocates of Christianity; and the
whole question had come to this, that, as Christianity
was the religion of the British empire in Europe,
additional clauses proposed.
555
the religion of Brahma and Vishnu was to be the book i.
acknowledged system of our Asiatic opinions.^ chap, vm.
Some further discussion ensued upon the subject isis.
of the proposed amendment, but it was rejected
upon a division. Another attempt was made to
get rid of the clause, upon a motion made by
IMr. A. Robinson on the 12th June, when the re¬
port of the hill was received from the Committee.
It was supported by Mr. Forbes and Mr. Tierney,
and opposed by Mr. Stephen and Mr. Wilberforce,
and rejected.
The main provisions of the bill having thus been
carried, no opposition of any importance was made
to the remaining clauses. Some additional provisions
were suggested : one by Mr. R. Smith, for the appro¬
priation of a sum of money for the promotion of
native literature in the East, and the establishment
of a native college or colleges ; and Mr. W. Dundas
proposed the appointment of a Scotch clergyman
to each of the Presidencies, the majority of the
British resident in India being Scotch, and of the
Presbyterian communion. The latter proposition
was withdrawn, upon the assurances of Mr. Thornton
and Mr. Grant, members of the Direction, that the
East India Company would do not only what was
necessary, but all that could be required for the
maintenance in India of clergymen of the Church
of Scotland. A clause was proposed by Mr. P.
Moore to enable the servants of the Company who
had resided ten years in India to come to England
1 Substance of the Speeches of W. Wilberforce, Esq., on the clause in
the East India Bill for promoting the religious instruction of the natives
of India, on the 22nd of June, and 1st and Í2th of July, 1813, published by
the speaker: London, 1813.
556
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. and return to India, retaining their rank in the ser-
CHAP. vm. w ithout the customary form of receiving per-
1813. mission from the Proprietors ; hut this was objected
to by Lord Castlereagh, on the ground that it was
not the policy of the Government to multiply facili¬
ties for the return of the Company's most experienced
servants to England. An attempt was made to
delay the third reading of the report until the Pro¬
prietors of East India stock should have had time
to read and consider the hill in its amended shape.
Lord Castlereagh, however, considered that any
delay would subject the House to inconvenience at
so advanced a period of the season, and the hill
accordingly was read and passed.
The resolutions adopted by the House of Com¬
mons were communicated to the House of Lords on
the 17th June, and went through similar stages.
They were introduced by the Earl of Buckingham¬
shire, and supported principally by Lords Liverpool
and Melville ; and opposed by Lord Grenville, Earl
Grey, the Marquis of Lansdowne, and the Earl of
Lauderdale, the latter of whom recorded a strong
protest against the passing of the hill. The sub¬
ject had tlndergone a fuller discussion at an earlier
period of the session, on the 9th April, upon the
motion of IMarquis Wellesley for various papers,
chiefly illustrative of the financial and commercial
condition of the Company prior to 1812. On this
occasion the Marquis regretted that the matter had
not been submitted to - Parliament at a time and
under cii'cumstances more fitted to its magnitude,
before passion and prejudice had perplexed and in¬
terrupted the course of calm deliberation; before.
speech of lord wellesley.
557
on the one hand, an idea had gone forth that book i.
the Government of the East India Company was
incapable of improvement, or, on the other, a wild isis.
and frantic notion had been set afloat of throw¬
ing open the whole trade to India. The principles
of political economy, however true in the abstract,
were inapplicable to a case so complex as that of
the Company, in which commercial and sovereign
interests were intimately blended by the manner in
which they had grown up together. Such a com¬
bination might be anomalous, but it was practically
good : it ought not to be altered merely on account
of its anomalous character.
Lord Wellesley then advocated the continuation
of the Company's commercial privilege of exclusive
trade to India as well as to China. It might be
true, although he did not admit the fact to the
extent to which it had been asserted, that the
former was attended with loss ; but it did not there¬
fore follow that it ought to be taken away : it was
very possible for one branch of an extensive com¬
merce to be less profitable than others, and yet the
connexion between them be so intimate that its
discontinuance would expose the whole to ruin.
This was the case with the Company ; and the Indian
trade was equally essential to the maintenance of
their commerce with China, and of the political
administration of the government of India. Nor
was it less essential to the interests of Great Britain
that the trade with India sl;iould be subject to re¬
striction ; as, if it were thrown open, he was certain
the products of the Indian loom would supplant
the cotton manufactures of the country in all the
558
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. foreign markets, and would essentially interfere even
' with their domestic consumption. The questions
1813. then were, What had been the effects of the com¬
bination of powers ? were they so mischievous as to
require a total change, or so beneficial as to deserve
careful and considerate improvement? In his ojii-
nion, there never was an organ of Government so
administered as to demand more of estimation than
the East India Company: that administration had
been productive of strength, tranquillity, and hap¬
piness ; the arts of peace and agriculture now flou¬
rished where ruin and desolation had prevailed ; the
situation of the natives had been ameliorated, and
the rights of property secured, by the permanent
settlement, the extension of m hich, in due season, to
other provinces than those in which it had been
established was alone wanting to its entire success.
No Government had better fulfilled its duties to¬
wards its subjects than that of India.
Lord Wellesley then criticised the several reso¬
lutions seriatim. Of the first he remarked, that the
exceptions it provided for, not only impaired, but
destroyed, the whole benefit of the grant : of the
third, that allowing British subjects to trade with
India, was of a similar tendency ; and that the unre¬
stricted influx of Europeans involved great danger
to the stability of the Government and the happi¬
ness of the people. The power of sending back
unlicensed persons, now exercised by the Govern¬
ment, could not co-exist with a free trade; nor could
individuals engaged in the trade be limited to the
Presidencies. They would have a right to seek for
a market in the interior; and, once scattered over
speech of lord wellesley.
559
the country, they would endanger the efficacy of book i.
the Government, and outrage the prejudices and
habits of the natives. * 1813.
The extension of the import trade to the out-
ports, Lord Wellesley insisted, was objectionable on
various grounds : the danger of interference with
the national manufactures, the additional expense
and difficulty of guarding against illicit speculation,
and the injuries it would produce upon the com¬
merce and the shipping of the port of London. If
the» question were one of a free trade in the true
sense of the word, he would not oppose it ; but if
the House could not give freedom of trade with¬
out injuring great political rights, and without de¬
stroying vast capitals which had been expended on
the undoubted understanding and good-faith of the
existing system, they could not be justified in acced¬
ing to the measure.
His lordship then proceeded to notice what he
* Lord Wellesley's advocacy of the Company's retention of their Indian
trade was, in spirit at least, a wide departure from the sentiments he had
formerly expressed, when he affirmed " that the interests of the Company
and of the British nation were undivided and inseparable with relation to
this important question, and that every principle of justice and policy de¬
manded the utmost possible facility to the British merchants in India for
the export of Indian merchandise beyond the amount of the investment which
the CompEmy's capital was able to provide for ; and for which branch of
commerce, if capital did not exist in India, no dangerous consequences
could result from applying to it funds derived from Great Britain." Bene¬
ficial consequences, he affirmed, would certainly result to the British em¬
pire in India from any considerable increase of its active capital. The
extension of the trade would not, he argued, necessarily produce a propor¬
tional augmentation in the number of British agents resorting to India ; and,
if it should, the local Govemment would controul their operations with
more ease than it could those of foreign agents to whom the trade was then
open. The noble writer was obliged, by his position, to insert some saving
clauses regarding the preservation of the Company's exclusive privileges,
but his main object was decidedly to vindicate at that period the policy
of giving ample space and verge enough to private commerce.— Letter
from the Marquis Wellesley to the Court of Directors, 30th Sept. 1800;
printed London, 1812.
5G0
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. regarded as omissions in the resolutions. He had
CHAP. viiL jjeyer advocated the separation of the royal autho-
1813. rity from that of the Company, but he thought that
some improvement w^as required : a most essential
point was, that the local Governments should know
to whom they were responsible. The instructions
sent out to them, however important, Avere now
liable to be disavowed at pleasure ; there was no
provision for this purpose. Not a word was said
of the army, except as regarded the quota of King's
troops ; but he thought it highly essential to define
a limit between civil and military duties, by which
all difficulties and disputes might be avoided ; and he
considered also that it was the duty of the Govern¬
ment to devise some means of conferring honours on
the Company's officers, who were now held for¬
ward to the public much less frequently than officers
in other parts of the world, and felt that honours
and distinctions conferred for services not more me¬
ritorious than their own were withheld from them.
Whilst approving of the proposed addition to the
ecclesiastical establishment, he thought it important
to take care that there should be no collision be¬
tween the Government and the Church establish¬
ment with regard to their respective powers ; and he
was surprised to find that nothing had been said
regarding the education of either the civil or mili¬
tary servants of the Company. He thought it would
be the most dignified and proper mode of combining
religion with learning in India, as we were accus¬
tomed to see the association in England, by connect¬
ing the proposed Church establishment with the
College of Fort William.
SPEECH OF LORD WELLESLEY.
561
With respect to extending Christianity to the na- book i.
tives of the East, Lord Wellesley declared there was
no person less willing than himself to throw a shade isis.
over so bright a prospect ; but, if success was to be
expected, it must proceed from temperate and gra¬
dual proceedings : the measure should not appear to
be recommended by the authority of the Govern¬
ment, because in the East the recommendation of
the ruler is supposed to be almost equivalent to a
mandate. He never heard when in India of any
danger from the missionaries : he had always consi¬
dered those who were there in his time as a quiet,
orderly, discreet, and learned body ; and he had em¬
ployed many of them in the education of youth, and
in translating the Scriptures into the languages of
the East. He had regarded it as his duty to have
the Scriptures translated, to give the natives access
to the fountains of divine truth. He thought that
a Christian Governor could not have done less, and
he knew that a British Governor ought not to do
more. In conclusion, he observed, that if a project
had been formed for the complete demolition of the
Company, and the creation of an entirely new sys¬
tem, the plan might have been called bold and de¬
cisive; but in the scheme now proposed no such
vigour was to be traced. The Company was to be
continued as the organ and instrument, without any
power or authority, and was to be called upon to
discharge duties which it was incapacitated from per¬
forming: no commensurate advantage was offered to
the country ; the revenues would be endangered, the
manufactures be perhaps ruined, and no additional
benefit could be derived from an open trade. He
VOL. I. 2 o
562
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA,
BOOK I. therefore felt it his duty to resist any general alter-
CHAP. vm. system ; and in order to place his views
1813. in the clearest light, and support them by facts, he
called for various documents necessary to elucidate
the subject.
The Earl of Buckinghamshire, in reply to Lord
Wellesley's objections to a free trade, quoted the
dispatch written by the latter as Governor-General
in 1800, when he had strenuously urged the enlarge¬
ment of the private trade, and denied that any
great influx of Europeans was likely to arise from it,
or the impossibility of maintaining an effectual con-
troul over their proceedings even if their number
should increase. If such were the opinions of the
noble lord when he was Governor-General of India,
he could scarcely expect to excite in the minds of
the members of that House an apprehension of dan¬
gers which did not alarm him in the responsible
situation he then held. Lord Buckinghamshire
then repeated the arguments used in the other
House, maintaining the probable increase of the
import trade from India, the practicability of pro¬
viding against smuggling ; and concluded by anti¬
cipating no results injurious to the Company, but
substantial benefits to the great interests of the
commerce of the United Kingdom.
The Earl of Buckinghamshire was followed by
Lord Grenville, who took a view of the subject dif¬
fering from those of both the preceding speakers.
The present deliberations of the House embraced
the whole question of our future relations with
•India, the government of a vast empire, and the
regulation of the British commerce with every port
speech of lord grenville.
563
and country between the southern promontories of book i.
Africa and America. It was a deception to speak
of any existing rights by which a consideration so 1813.
immense and momentous could be circumscribed.
The charter of the East India Company was origin¬
ally granted, and had since been renewed, for limited
periods. On their lapse the trusts and duties of
that great corporation, its commercial and political
monopolies, expired together. All public right, all
public interest in the subject, thenceforth devolved
on Jlritish legislature, bound by no previous grant,
fettered by no existing law, and having regard only
to the principles of moral duty, and to the rules of a
wise policy and enlightened government.
The measures that had been heretofore adopted
Lord Grenville considered as experiments which
had not always been successful, and which furnished
no precedent for the course now to be pursued.
Whatever was to be done was not therefore to be
placed out of the reach of révisai, even for the pe¬
riod proposed : twenty years would at any time be
too long a period for farming out the commerce of
half the globe, and the sovereignty of sixty millions
of men ; and it was still more so at a season when
the events, not of twenty years, but of the next
twenty months, might be decisive of the whole fate
and fortunes of the British empire. He therefore
thought that the continuance of any plan that
might be devised should be limited to the return of
peace.
Lord Grenville then proceeded to assert that the
primary object to be regarded in the present ar¬
rangement was, not the confirmation of the Com-
2 o 2
564
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. pany's privileges, but the distinct avowal of the
cHAP.Yiii. principle that the sovereignty of India resided in
1813. the sovereign of Great Britain. To ask whether any
territory, dominion, or political authority in any
quarter of the globe could be conquered by British
arms, or acquired by British négociation, otherwise
than to the British Crown, were to ask whether we
lived under a monarchy or a republic. The as¬
sertion, because it was undeniable, was not indif¬
ferent. A manly avowal of the sovereignty of the
Crown would have prevented many of the oatIs ex¬
perienced in India from conflicting and ambiguous
authority, was necessary for the effective controul of
British subjects in India, and still more for the re¬
straints to which, upon the restoration of peace,
foreign nations Avould be exposed in their inter¬
course with that country, as they would never submit
to be excluded from free access at the will of a
trading company, claiming despotic power over that
vast empire, not as the delegates of their own king,
but as the pretended ministers of a deposed JMogul,
a feigned authority derived from an extinct domi¬
nion.
The Sovereignty which we had hesitated to assert,
we were now compelled to exercise; and Parliament
was once more called upon to give laws to India.
And what was the plan pursued ? the very reverse of
that which should have been followed. The inte¬
rests of the people of India, their security, their
happiness, their improvement, were first to have
been provided for ; and then, but far below them,
the interests of Great Britain. Instead of this, the
plan of the Ministers and the recommendations of
speech of lord grenville.
565
Lord Wellesley had in view the entire or partial book i.
perpetuation of the privileges of the East India
Conapany. To neither of these would he give his isis.
concurrence.
The existence of the blended character of mer¬
chant and sovereign, on which the whole of the
Indian system was based, was, in Lord Grenville's
opinion, an anomaly inconsistent with all sound
principles of commerce and of government : no
sovereign ever traded for a profit ; no trading com¬
pany ever yet administered government for the hap¬
piness of its subjects. The unerring principles of
political economy had never been so fully illus¬
trated as in the history of the East India Company.
For fifty years they had exercised dominion over a
country the commerce with which had from the
earliest ages enriched all who had engaged in it,
and in the last few years since the renewal of the
charter they had lost by their trade four millions
sterling. With the country which they governed
they lost by the commerce which they monopo¬
lised ; and they traded with profit only to China,
where they had neither sovereignty nor monopoly,
—not even the common benefit of free access, being
condemned to a commercial quarantine in the soli¬
tary emporium of Canton.
But it was not so much for its own sake, it was
asserted, that the commerce of the Company was not
to be interfered with ; but because its preservation
was absolutely necessary to enable the Company to
conduct the government of India, and this govern¬
ment could only be beneficially administered through
their instrumentality. This Lord Grenville denied.
566
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. If it was true that British India was in the happy
CHAP. VIII. prosperous state in which it was described to be,
1813. the merit was not due to the Company's administra¬
tion: as long as that continued uncontrouled, scarcely
an interval of three years could be found in which
the inherent vices of the system did not forcibly
compel the interposition of Parliament. The law of
1784 was the source of whatever benefits India had
enjoyed : it was the line of demarcation between the
bad and good government of that country. It was
a delusion, therefore, to relinquish any just hopes of
extending the commerce of the country, from the
fear of embarrassing the Company's political function.
He was ready to admit, however, that, if the pa¬
tronage of the Company were transferred to the
Crown, it must weigh down the balance of the con¬
stitution ; but he thought it very possible to devise a
middle course. The highest offices of the Government
of India were already in the gift of the Crown. For
all the servants of the Company, civil or military,
below the Council, the regulations actually in force
might still be continued ; and all that remained for
disposal was the appointment of writers and cadets.
The former might be chosen by competition from
the great public schools and universities : the latter
might be nominated, by some fixed course of succes¬
sion, from the families of officers who had fallen in
the discharge of their duties. These were mere sug¬
gestions; but he entertained no doubt that, if the
occasion should call for such provisions, they might
be so contrived as to preserve the integrity and
efficacy of the Indian services, without adding in the
slightest degree to ministerial influence.
speech of lord grenville.
567
Lord Grenville next maintained that the conti- book i.
nuance of the Company's trade was not expedient
for the sake of effecting remittances to meet the de- 1813.
mands payable in England on account of the Go¬
vernment in India. If a subsidy were wanted for
the Continent, the IVIinisters would never think of
sending their agents to the ports and manufactories
to purchase the goods in which the remittances
would really be made : they would contract as
cheaply as they could ; probably by open compe¬
tition with merchants for their bills, through which
their whole purpose would be at once effected. A
similar course might be pursued in India. No
doubt, all such remittances must be in some degree
detrimental to the prosperity of India, constituting
a drain for which no return was made but in pro¬
tection and good government ; yet, if conducted
through an open trade, and regulated by a due con¬
sideration of the state of the country, he saw no
reason to believe them incompatible with its rapid
and permanent improvement. One obvious com¬
pensation, however, to India, was to throw her
markets open to British capital and enterprise ; and
secure to her, as far as legislation could secure it,
the fullest benefit of the most unqualified commer¬
cial freedom.
The arguments against opening the trade, on the
grounds that it was unsusceptible of profit or exten¬
sion, were then combated by the noble earl. The
skill and vigilance of the private trade would realise
a profit, where the Company's management entailed
a loss : the private trade, under all the disadvantages
under which it laboured, had augmented ; and the
568
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. Americans had carried on a lucrative and growing
CHAP, vm. India until it was interrupted by hos-
1813. tilities. All history showed that commerce would
increase by commerce, and industry by industry.
India was no exception to the universal law; and her
people would derive from the extension of trade, as
every other people had done, new comforts and new
conveniences of life, new incitements to industry, and
new enjoyments, in just reward of increased activity
and enterprise. The same principles applied to the
trade with China, the exclusive possession of which
by the Company he should as deeply lament.
Alluding to the tone adopted in the Fifth Report
when speaking of the permanent settlement. Lord
Grenville expressed his entire concurrence with
Lord Wellesley in the wisdom and benevolence of
the arrangement, and his dread of the disposition
intimated by the language of the report, if not to
discredit the original measure, at least to discoun¬
tenance its proposed extension. He thought it,
therefore, highly necessary to insert in the new act
a declaration of the principle, such as it was declared
in 1784 ; and to place the Government of India
under the obligation of applying, at a convenient
season, to the Ceded and Conquered provinces the
system of settlement effected in Bengal. Above all
he wished, by a solemn and authoritative declaration
of this purpose, to prove to the natives the per¬
manency of the principle of right, and to impress
them with a conviction that a British Legislature
estimated the security of their property far above
the possible increase of its own revenue.
Lord Grenville then briefly adverted to the diffi-
speech of lord grenville. 569
culties attending the military part of the Indian book i.
system ; the only remedy for which he conceived to
be the open establishment of the King's authority leia.
over that, as well as other parts of his dominion :
to the defects of the administration of justice, the
state of the present internal legislation and police,
and the unauthorised power of taxation in the local
Governments, all of which required deliberate con¬
sideration : and he concluded by pronouncing an
unqualified encomium on Marquis Wellesley's col¬
legiate institution, the plan of which was limited
and mutilated, and existed only as a wreck of its
first noble design.. Of the establishment by which
it was partially replaced in England he spoke with
strong disapprobation and regret: not that he ob¬
jected to any degree of attention that could be
given to the earliest instruction and discipline of
those who are destined for the Indian service ; but
he objected decidedly to their separation in edu¬
cation from youths of their own age and station in
life, and to the formation of them into a separate
class. Instead of rejecting, they should, he thought,
have eagerly embraced the advantages which the
great public seminaries afforded ; not only for what
they professed to teach, but for what was there only
to be found, that best of all education to a public
man, which forms the mind to manly exertion and
honourable feeling,—the education which young men
receive from each other in the numerous and mixed
society of their equals, collected from various classes
of society, and destined to various ways of life.^
' Speech of Lord Grenville on the Marquis of Wellesley's motion in the
House of Lords on Friday the 9th of April, 1813 ; published under the ré¬
visai of the speaker, London, 1813.
570
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. The Earl of Liverpool briefly replied in defence
CHAP, vm. resolutions, and the House agreed to the
1813. motion for papers made by Marquis Wellesley.^
The passing of the bill by the House of Commons,
and the certainty that it would suffer no material,
if any, changes in the House of Lords, imposed upon
the Court of Directors the necessity of submitting to
their constituents the alternative of either accepting
or refusing the charter now offered. They resolved
to recommend its acceptance ; as, although it in¬
volved changes which they had firmly opposed, and
which could not but be injurious to the Company's
trade with India, yet, in the retention of the exclu¬
sive trade with China, and the provisions made for
the payment of the Company's dividends, it pre¬
sented sources of profit and security which might in
some degree compensate for the losses which it in¬
flicted. The wild and sanguine expectations of an
indefinite extension of the trade had been so far sub¬
dued by the arguments of the Court and the general
voice of men of Indian experience, that the mer¬
chants were likely to embark in it with caution and
moderation : consequently there was less reason than
at first t® apprehend a sudden and numerous influx
of Europeans into India, by which its tranquillity
would be endangered ; or of a great resort of vessels
to the Eastern seas, by which a mischievous and illi¬
cit trade with China might be carried on. The regu¬
lations respecting the size of the ships admissible
into the trade, the licensing of persons to proceed to
India, and the additional powers of controul over
them when in India, vested in the local Govern-
' Pari. Debates in the House of Lords, 9th April, 1813.
final views op the court of directors. 571
ments, were further calculated to alleviate these ap- book i.
prehensions. The fears of the Court for the secu-
rity of the dividend, on which, as had been repeat- 1813.
edly urged, the Company's efficiency for the dis¬
charge of their political functions depended, had
been proportionably abated : on this latter subject
the first views of the Ministers had been materially
modified by the representations of the Court.
By the engagements finally adopted the commer¬
cial profits of the Company were not to be liable
for* any territorial payment until the dividend was
first satisfied; and, if in any year the fund for the
dividend should fall short, the surplus of territorial
income for the year preceding was to be liable for
the deficiency. By the last charter a million ster¬
ling per annum was to be reserved from the surplus
revenue as a provision for the Company's invest¬
ment; a condition wholly nugatory, as no surplus
existed. By the present it was stipulated that a
sum equal to the disbursements at home on territo¬
rial account should be paid yearly out of the reve¬
nues for investment ; and this secured to the Com¬
pany commercial capital in India to an equal amount,
in addition to the proceeds of goods and stores ex¬
ported from England. With regard, also, to the
amount of Indian debt transferred home, the bill
contained an important provision ; that, in case suffi¬
cient funds should not remain after payment of the
dividend to discharge all such bills as should be
drawn for the interest of loans contracted in India
before the 10th April, 1814, the residue of those
bills should be discharged in such manner as Par¬
liament should from time to time direct. In all
572
#
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. these respects, therefore, the security of the divi-
CHAP. VIII. Qf home funds, and of annual advances in
1813. India for the investment, the new charter might be
considered an improvement on that which the Com¬
pany held.
The additional powers of controul vested in the
Board of Commissioners by the bill were no doubt
mortifying to the Court of Directors ; but they mostly
fell within the scope of the general powers given to
the Board by former acts, and their operation would
depend upon the spirit in which they were exer¬
cised. If that spirit were temperate and just, it
would be practicable to carry on the Company's
business : if they were used in a way which men of
character and liberal feeling could not brook, the
issue might be serious to the system of the Com¬
pany.
Upon a careful consideration then of the compa¬
rative advantages and disadvantages of the bill, the
Court, although they deeply felt the loss of power
and privilege which it inflicted upon the Company,
recommended to the Proprietors to accept the char¬
ter ; trusting that if obstacles to its execution should
arise, and the Company be unable, after a fair trial
should have been given to it, to act under its pro¬
visions, the Parliament which had prescribed the
terms would be disposed to relieve them of the
burthen. Should such relief not be given, the Com¬
pany would have the time and the means of making
a more deliberate and safe bargain with the public
than if they threw up their privileges at the present
moment; whilst there would then be a better op¬
portunity of providing also for the future govern-
recommendations to the proprietors.
573
ment of those immense possessions which the Com- book i.
pany had acquired for the country; possessions of
which the interests must ever be dear to them, I8i3.
and the most powerful of the motives for continu¬
ing as long as they could with safety in the manage¬
ment of that empire which had so much flourished
under their care, and for the prosperity of which
their system appeared to be peculiarly calculated.^
The recommendations of the Court of Directors
were communicated to the Court of Proprietors
held on the 16th and adjourned to the 21st July ;
and it was finally resolved, that although the Court
could not contemplate the bill with satisfaction, yet,
deferring to the sense of the Legislature, and rely¬
ing on its wisdom and justice in the event of the
expectations held out by the act being disappointed,
they determined to accept the charter. The thanks
of the Proprietors were voted to the late and pre¬
sent Directors for the talent, zeal, and perseverance
with which they had struggled to maintain the
rights and support the interests of the Company.®
Thus closed a contest in which the first serious
blow was inflicted on the monopoly of the East
India Company, after it had been enjoyed by them
for two centuries. During this period a mighty
«mpire had been raised upon the narrow founda¬
tions of exclusive commerce. Upon no other basis
could the edifice have been reared. An indiscrimi¬
nate resort of individual, unconnected, and often
' Minute of a Committee of the whole Court of Directors, 15th July,
1813 ; Papers, &c. p. 492.
' Proceedings of a General Court of Proprietors, 21st July, 1813;
Papers, &c. 521. See also the Debates on the Charter at the India House
during the first six months of 1813; separately published, London, 1813.
574
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. hostile competitors could not have been attended
CHAP, vm. consistent or enduring course of operations ;
1813. and must have subjected the trade with India to a
feeble and precarious existence, dependent upon the
caprice and venality of the subordinate officers of
the native governments, and momentarily menaced
with extinction by the follies and passions, the ava¬
rice and the ignorance of Asiatic despots. Adventu¬
rers isolated and at variance with each other would
have been in no situation to resist injustice, repel
aggression, or avenge wrong : much less would they
have been able to place their commerce in an atti¬
tude not merely of defence but of defiance, and to
apply the resources which it furnished to the acquire¬
ment of political power. In the struggle for suffer¬
ance which they would have had to maintain in their
limited ambition of effecting a successful trading
speculation, it could never have dwelt within their
imaginations to gain a firm and lasting footing on
the soil of India, to put down and set up princes, to
seize upon and hold amidst difficulty and danger
masterdom and sway. The oneness of the Company
for so long a period consolidated their commercial
system, enabled them to baffle and defeat rivalry
and opposition, to exact retribution for injury, and,
as the field expanded, to extend their views be¬
yond the circumscribed horizon of purely commer¬
cial profit. At the same time, this result, although
inseparable from the system, was neither project¬
ed nor foreseen by its authors, and was brought
to maturity in spite of their repeated disapproval,
or at best with their reluctant and unwilling con¬
firmation. The East India Company's territorial
concluding remarks.
575
dominion was not the acquisition of the Company so book t.
much as of the Company's servants, who, often in
disregard of the wishes of their masters, and some- isis.
times in disobedience of their positive commands,
entered with no common audacity, determination,
and foresight, in the promising path which the
distracted state of Indian politics laid open to their
ambition; and, with energies and talents of more
than ordinary natures, applied the superior resources
of civilisation to secure rich fragments of the scat¬
tered reliques of native misrule, and remodelled
them into the rudiments of power, of infallible
future expansion. This was not the work of the
Company, although it never could have been brought
to pass by any other instrumentality than that of
the Company's Indian servants. It was the work
of Clive, of Hastings, of Cornwallis, and of Welles-
ley, aided and impelled by the irresistible force of
circumstances, by the inconsiderateness and temerity
of the native princes of India, and by the superior
energy of the European character.
Whatever its origin, however, the system was
now mature; and, whatever the assertions of the
Company's advocates, it was no longer in need of
national commercial sacrifices for its continuance or
development. On the contrary, the longer duration
of the connexion was mischievous. As sovereigns
of India, it was the duty of the Company to look
alone to the interests of the people whom they go¬
verned ; as a trading body, it was their interest to
secure to themselves as large a pecuniary profit as
such a capacity justified. An exclusive privilege of
trade, that barred all competition, necessai-ily pre-
576 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. eluded the people of India from purchasing foreign
CHAP. \ 111. at lowest price, and from realising
1813. the fullest value for the proceeds of their own indus¬
try. To the people of India the Company's monopoly
was as injurious as it was to individual enterprise
in Great Britain; and the period had undoubtedly
arrived when the best interests of both countries
demanded its extinction.
Although extraordinary talents, zeal, and perse¬
verance were displayed in the discussion on both
sides, yet we are now able to decide from events
that there was little of sound judgment or prophetic
prescience in any of the contending parties. The
twenty years of the renewed charter rolled away ;
and colonisation, which was so confidently predicted
as its unavoidable consequence, was as little probable
at its close as at its commencement.^ Neither had
it been found more difficult than before to protect
the native population from the turbulence or vio¬
lence of European settlers. The predictions, equally
confident, that the trade was unsusceptible of ex¬
tension, and that no new article of export could be
introduced,—predictions in which the most intelli¬
gent officers of the Company concurred, and to
which even the advocates of free trade, however re¬
luctantly, assented,—were signally falsified. The
trade, both export and import, did obtain a consi¬
derable augmentation under the new system ; and
articles entirely unknown in the annals of Indian
' The whole number of applications for licences between 1814 and 1832
was but 1547 : of these, 1253 were complied with by the Court, and 71 by
the Board ; making the whole number of persons, not in the service, who
proceeded to India with leave in the course of eighteen years, 1324,
Commons' Committee, 1831 ; General Appendix, p. 368. *
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
577
imports were exported thither from Great Biitain to book i.
an immense amount, to the extinction of several si-
milar products of domestic labour.^ This effect was uus.
prepared for, as has been noticed, by an iniquitous
abuse of the power of Great Britain in excluding
from her own consumption the principal manufac¬
tures of India, and in opening the ports of India to
those of Britain free of charge; but its actual oc¬
currence was little anticipated by any of those who
urged or resisted the removal of the restrictions on
the »trade.®
The proceedings that took place on this occasion
have been detailed at length, because it is of import-
' The value of the whole of the private trade with India was, in
1814-15, Rupees 13,54,19,460, or £13,549,146; in 1826-7 it was.
Rupees 14,83,33,640, or £14,833,364 : being an increase of £1,284,218.
The latter period affords an unfavourable view of the state of the trade, as
it was one of commercial depression. The average value of the whole
private trade for fifteen years subsequently to 1814-15 was more than
seventeen crores or seventeen millions sterling per annum, being an ad¬
vance of nearly four millions a year.—Lords' Committee, 1830, App. B. 5,
and C. 40. In 1813-14 the value of cotton goods imported into Bengal
was £47,000. In 1827-8 it was £561,000. In the former year cotton
yarn was unknown ; in the latter the value imported was £188,000.
Spelter was another article of import not known at the earlier date. At
the latter it was imported to the value of nearly £120,000.—Wilson's Exter¬
nal Commerce of Bengal. These articles were permanent- innovations ;
for in 1843-44 the value of yam imported into Bengal alone is reported
to be £515,000, of piece-goods £1,516,667, and spelter £68,000.—Wil¬
kinson, Report External Commerce of Bengal, 1843-4.
^ There seems to have been but one person connected with the trade to
India who distinctly anticipated the possibility of such a revolution ; and
this was not on the present, but on a former occasion. In a debate on a
motion for papers to illustrate the comparative value of private British and
foreign trade with India, in the House of Commons on the 14th March,
1806, Mr. Alderman Prinsep, speaking of the probable substitution of raw
cotton for cotton goods in the ships of private traders, made the remark¬
able observation, that a sufficient supply of the raw material would acce¬
lerate the period which he saw approaching, when the natives of India
should be supplied with cloth made in England of their own cotton, leaving
to the mother country all the profits of freight, agency, commission, insu¬
rance, and manufacture : all these and many other beneficial results would
follow an extension of the private trade.—Hans. Pari. Debates, 14th March,
1806.
VOL. I. 2 P
578
HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. ance that a readily accessible record should be pre-
CHAP. vm. sentiments of the many very eminent
1813. persons who, both in Parliament and in the Direction,
took a principal part in the discussions, and because
the nature of the connexion which united the trade
of the East India Company with the sovereignty of
India now first underwent a fundamental change. It
may also be of use to contemplate the spirit by which
the opinions of wise and good men were unconsciously
inspired, and to observe how personal interests and
cherished prejudices distorted principle and dark¬
ened judgment. With few exceptions, and those
exercising little or no influence, the charter of 1793
was discussed upon no widely or liberally compre¬
hensive views, upon no distinct perception of the
advantages which it might realise for Great Britain,
upon no generous purpose of providing India with
a compensation for the evils inseparable from the
sovereignty of strangers. Professions of a concern
for the interests of India were, it is true, not unspar¬
ingly uttered, but it would be difficult to show that
the majority of the parties who engaged in the dis¬
cussion were solely instigated by a disinterested
regard for the welfare of the Indian subjects of the
Crown. The Ministers, it was evident, had mainly
in view the extension of their own influence ; and, as
the bill proceeded, made obvious sacrifices to party,
and adopted clauses to which they were themselves
indifferent or opposed, in subservience to particular
interests, in order to conciliate parliamentary sup¬
port. In their original correspondence with the
Court no mention was made of the outports, and the
extension to them of the import trade from India
concluding remarks,
579
"was extorted by their clamour and perseverance, book i.
The legislative encouragement yielded to mission-
ary labours was also a graft upon the original design, isis.
with the purpose of propitiating a numerous and
influential party. Nor were they negligent of their
own advantages ; and in the provisions made for the
nomination to the episcopal see, and for the con¬
firmation of the appointments to the highest tem¬
poral situations, extended, as far as they were then
prepared to extend it, the patronage of the Crown.
The advocates for the authorised extension of mis¬
sionary efforts, although they might claim the merit
of disinterestedness, were little entitled to credit for
candour or discretion. Placing implicit and undis-
criminating reliance upon exaggerated and erroneous
descriptions of the condition and character of the
Hindu and Mohammedan population of India, they
disregarded the danger of precipitately attempting
their reform, and overlooked the possible peril, that,
where a state withholds its protection from the
national faith, the people may exercise the right, as
they have the power, of protecting it for themselves.
The merchants and manufacturers of the United
Kingdom avowedly looked only to their own profits ;
and, in the struggle between London and the out-
ports, was re-acted the battle for exclusiveness
which had previously been fought between the Lon¬
don merchants and the Company. Deprived of the
monopoly of the trade, the Company made a stand
for warehouses and sale-rooms; and, despoiled of
these, sought consolation in the security of their
dividends. All these motives and considerations
were appropriate and venial as regarded the indivi-
2p2
580 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.
BOOK I. dual and peculiar interests and feelings of the per-
cHAP.vm. concerned, but they were little worthy of their
1813. collective capacity of arbiters of the destinies of
India.
END OF THE FIRST BOOK.
APPENDIX.
I.
Page 38.
t)laims of the peshwa upon the gaekwar.
Schedule of the Sums due to the Poona State from
the Gaekwar^s Government.
Rupees,
Balance of an account settled in 1798 . . 39,82,789 no. i.
On account of presents . 7,79,000
On account of troops (3000)
not maintained .... 6,75,000
14,54,000
N. B. These sums have been accumulating for
ten years 1,45,40,000
Damaji Gaekwar conquered the country of
the Babi, upon condition of assuming half, and
delivering the other half to the Peshwa; and
that a karkoon on the part of the Government
should settle this : and a memorandum be given
in of the division, and that the places were to
be given up in the year 1740, and whatsoever
was due before this period was to be remit¬
ted. This was never carried into effect. In
the year 1771 the Gaekwar paid one lakh of
rupees, and in the next agreed to pay 25,000 ;
Carried forward . , . 1,85,22,789
582
APPENDIX.
No. I.
Rupees.
Brought forward . . . 1,85,22,789
and, when Fateh Sing Gaekwar should come,
then it should be executed. This was settled
in 1765, but has never been carried into effect;
therefore a lakh of rupees per year is due for
thirty-seven years
37,00,000
In the year 1794 the dignity of Sena-khás-
khel-Shamshir Bahadur was granted to Govind
Rao Gaekwar, besides lands, for which56,38,001
rupees were given. He died; and the same
honours and lands were granted to his son, for
which he is to pay
56,38,001
The whole amounting to . R"' 2,78,60,790
In the year 1796 it was agreed that 3000 horsemen
should be furnished, and upon a requisition 4000 ; and that
one of the Gaekwar's relations should remain at court;
and that the troops should at all periods he in readiness,
and, if not necessary, that a sum of money should be
given in lieu.
Ahmedabad is under two authorities, hut the same
arrangements continue as under Madhu Rao; and, if any
deviation should have been admitted, let it he abolished.
You agreed, in the year 1792, to give the Sirkar three
of your hçst elephants and five horses ; hut it has not been
done : therefore fail not to do it now.
In the year 1793 you borrowed, through our intervention,
the sum of one lakh of rupees, for which we were secu¬
rities, and agreed to pay the hills drawn upon you ; but
this has not been done : therefore do so now, and pay the
interest.
You were also hound to present a lakh of rupees' worth
of jewels ; but this has not been done : do so now, and
adhere to the engagements which were concluded in the
time of Madhu Rao.
APPENDIX.
583
You owe Balaji Naik Bhora Soukar a sum of money, No. I.
for which Government became security. Liquidate this
at the rate of one lakh of rupees per annum, and so treat
Mulhar Rao and his family as to prevent his complaints
reaching Government.
In addition to this, engagements were also made in
which you admitted the sum of ... . R®®* 78,33,212
but only paid 28,13,325
So that there is still a balance of . . R'«® 50,19,887
Let this he settled.
You have held the village of Rani, in the
Pergunna of Sandi, for these thirteen years,
which was worth 2000 rupees per annum. Pay
this money, and deliver up the village to the
Kamavisdiir 26,000
50,45,887
and wherever the villages have been assessed let the money
be returned.
Several of the papers having been destroyed or laid
aside during the irruption of Holkar, the accounts cannot
he completely made out; but, as the records are found,
other items shall be inserted.
In the year 1796 bills were drawn upon you : let an
account be furnished.
II.
Page 70.
Holkar^s Proposition, Wth Dec. 1807, to Sindhia.
1. His highness the Peshwa is our sovereign, and we No. ii.
are his servants. Let us therefore, hke our ancestors,
continue to obey his orders.
584
APPENDIX.
No. II. 2. Let us keep on friendly terms with the Bhonsla and
other Sirdars of the Peshwa, and let us consult with them
on all occasions.
3. Let the agreements which passed between us at Sub-
bulgerh under the sanction of our oaths be abided by,
and let not the terms of friendship which existed between
our ancestors be departed from.
4. Any Aumils or officers of either party, who may pro¬
ceed into the country of the other with a force, will take
the greatest care to preserve the country. Should they,
contrary to the orders of their master, exact any money
from the country, their master will account for it.
5. Should any new enterprise be contemplated, it shall
be carried on by mutual consultation.
6. That our friendship may be preserved, and doubts
between us be done away, let neither endeavour to tamper
with the army of the other; and, should any Sirdar quit
the service of either party, let him not be retained by the
other.
7. The money collected by Meer Khan from the Mahauls
of Sadourah and others, the five Mahauls, shall be repaid
to Maharaja Dowlat Rao Sindhia.
8. Let the money which may have been collected by the
Soobahdars of one party from the Mahauls of the other
since the settlement of differences at Subbulgerh be ac¬
counted for mutually.
9. Let^ respectable Vakeel from each party attend the
Durbar of the other. Let the tribute from the other Rajas
and wealthy chiefs unconnected with us, as the Gaekwar
and others, remain in the hands of those who have been ac¬
customed to collect them. In this we have no concern.
Should, however, it so happen that any new arrangement
in regard to them should be proposed, let it be prosecuted
by our joint counsels and consent.
10. If any of the ministers or Aumils of either part
should treacherously seek the protection of the other, let
him not be protected, but delivered over to the state he
APPENDIX.
585
belongs to ; but, if he be a man of rank, let the matter of No. II.
dispute be fairly inqmred into and adjusted.
11. Let the tributes for Jaypore and Joudhpore continue
to be collected as they were in the time of our ancestors.
You (Sindhia) will not create any disturbance in the coun¬
try of Jaypore, nor will I (Holkar) interfere in the country
of Marwar (Joudhpore).
Let these eleven propositions be well considered, and an
answer returned to them.
III.
Page 140.
Proclamation.
The Right Honourable the Governor in Council No. III.
having observed that in some late instances an extra-
ordinary degree of agitation has prevailed among se¬
veral corps of the native eirmy of this coast, it has
been his Lordship's particular endeavour to ascertain
the motives which may have led to conduct so differ¬
ent from that which formerly distinguished the native
army. From this inquiry it has appeared that many
persons of evil intentions have endeavoured, for mali¬
cious purposes, to impress upon the native troops a
belief that it is the wish of the British Government
to convert them by forcible means to Christianity; and
his Lordship in Council has observed with concern,
that such maUcious reports have been believed by many
of the native corps.
The Right Honourable the Governor in Council deems
it therefore proper in this public manner to repeat to
the native troops his assurance that the same respect
which has been invariably shown by the British Govern-
586
APPENDIX.
No. III. ment for their religion and for their customs will be
always continued ; and that no interruption will be given
to any native, whether Hindu or Mussehnan, in the prac¬
tice of his religious ceremonies.
His Lordship in Council desires that the native troops
will not give belief to the idle rumours which are cir¬
culated by enemies of their happiness, who endeavour
with the basest designs to weaken the confidence of the
troops in the British Government. His Lordship in
Council desires that the native troops will remember
the constant attention and humanity which have been
shown by the British Government in providing for their
comfort, by augmenting the pay of the native officers and
Sepoys, by allowing liberal pensions to those who have
done their duty faithfully, by making ample provision
for the families of those who may have died in battle,
and by receiving their children into the service of the
Honourable Company, to be treated with the same care
and bounty as their fathers had experienced.
The Right Honourable the Governor in Council trusts
that the native troops, remembering these circumstances,
will be sensible of the happiness of their situation, which
is greater than that which the troops of any other part of
the world enjoy ; and that they wiU continue to observe the
same good conduct for which they were distinguished in
the days of General Lawrence, of Sir Eyre Coote, and of
other renowned heroes.
The native troops must at the same time be sensible,
that if they should fail in the duties of their allegiance,
and should show themselves disobedient to their officers,
their conduct will not fail to receive merited punishment ;
as the British Government is not less prepared to punish
the guilty than to protect and distinguish those who are
deserving of its favour.
It is directed that this paper be translated with care into
the Tamul, Telinga, and Hindoostanee languages, and that
copies of it be circulated to each native battalion ; of which
appendix.
587
the European officers are enjoined and ordered to be care- No. III.
ful in making it known to every native officer and Sepoy
under their command.
It is also directed that copies of the paper be circulated
to the magistrates and collectors under the Government, for
the purpose of being fully understood in all parts of the
country.
Dated in Fort St. George, the 3rd December, 1806.
IV.
Page 176.
Extract from Lakshman Dawa's Petition to the Agent of the
Governor-General in Bundelkhand, 21th March, 1809.
You, Sir, told me that you would say everything you No. IV.
could for me to the Governor-General, and do all in your
power for me. You also desired me to continue near you :
accordingly, I remained in your presence. My condition
and case is this:—For some years I have kept an army,
with which I have plundered a number of Brahmans, vil¬
lagers, and peasants; and also fought against your forces,
and destroyed a great number of your people. I enter¬
tained twelve hundred men for these six years, seven or
eight hundred of whom have perished in these transactions.
I have behaved in an unparalleled, ungrateful, and rebel¬
lious manner to your Government ; so as no one in this
country never behaved, nor ever will. I did not give up
the fort of Ajaygerh, as I promised to do, within two years;
neither did I pay the money which I promised to pay.
The greatest ingratitude and faithlessness appear against
me. I have become infamous all over Bundelkhand. AU
the peasantry are in expectation of my death. All the
Brahmans, Mahájans, servants, Sipahis, Hindus, Muts-
588
APPENDIX.
No. IV. eddis, brothers, connexions of my own father far off or
near, all the Rajas, Fojdars, Amils, religious, educated,
Gods, Jagirdars, Pádárthis, Byragis, Fakirs, the whole of
the inhabitants, great and small, are wishing every instant
to be my last. I would that their wishes were fulfilled.
If I continue to exist, I had better not remain in this
coimtry ; my death were preferable. I have four or five
people sitting under the fort of Ajaygerh. Having called
them to you, you will advise them respecting me, and blow
me and my family away from the mouth of a cannon. This
will be well for me, and it will accord with the wishes of
all. They will be pleased, and I wish it. If I consent
not to this, I am a liar, and agree to be regarded as hateful
to God.
If I hesitate, I call upon God to bear witness. Favour
me with this punishment, and it will be well for me. I
beg you to reflect upon it, and order it to be done ; and I
beg of you to give my brothers and connexions two
•villages each for their support. If what I have requested
be not agreeable to you, I beg you wBl exalt me as you
have done other Rajas, or stiU more. The way to exalt me
is to give me a lakh of rupees in money, and all my own
country, as weU as what is mentioned in the Sunnud given
to me by Captain Baillie. If this. Sir, should please you,
it is well; if not, pray blow me from a cannon's mouth.
The last is. honour ; the first a mere nothing. Do which¬
ever you ¿)lease, I shall be content. I cannot be content
with anything else. I pray you, consider it well. May
the sun of your fortune perpetually shine !
appendix.
589
V.
Page 268.
general orders.
Head Quarters, Choultry Plain, 28 Jan. 1809.
General Order. By the Commander-in-chief.
The immediate departure of Lieutenant-General Mac- îNo. v.
dow^l from Madras will prevent his design of bringing
Lieutenant-Colonel Munro, Quartermaster-General, to
trial for disrespect to the Commander-in-chief, for disobe¬
dience of orders, and for contempt of military authority,
in having resorted to the power of the Civil Government in
defiance of the judgment of the officer at the head of the
army, who had placed him under an arrest on charges pre¬
ferred against him by a number of officers commanding
native corps ; in consequence of which appeal direct to the
Honourable the President in Council, Lieutenant-General
Macdowall has received a positive order from the Chief
Secretary to liberate Lieutenant-Colonel Munro from ar¬
rest.
Such conduct on the part of Lieutenant-Colonel Munro
being destructive of subordination, subversive of military
discipline, a violation of the sacred rights of the Com¬
mander-in-chief, and holding out a most dangerous ex¬
ample to the service, Lieutenant-General Macdowall, in
support of the dignity of the profession and his own sta¬
tion and character, feels it incumbent on him to express
his strong disapprobation of Lieutenant-Colonel Munro's
unexampled proceedings, and considers it a solemn duty
imposed upon him to reprimand Lieutenant-Colonel Mimro
in general orders ; and he is hereby reprimanded accord¬
ingly. (Signed) T. Boles,
Adj utant-General.
590
APPENDIX.
VI.
Page 272.
Fort St. George, 31st Jan. 1809.
General Order. By Government.
No. VI. It has recently come to the knowledge of the Honour-
able the Governor in Council that Lieutenant-General
Hay Macdowall did, previous to his embarkation from the
Presidency, leave to be published to the army a general
order, dated the 28th instant, in the highest degree disre¬
spectful to the Government; in which that officer has pre¬
sumed to found a public censure on an act adopted under
the immediate authority of the Governor in Council, and
to convey insinuations grossly derogatory to the character
of the Government, and subversive of military discipline
and of the foundation of public authority.
The resignation of Lieutenant-General Macdowall of
the command of the army of Fort St. George not having
been yet received, it becomes the duty of the Governor in
Council, in consideration of the violent and inflammatory
proceedings of that officer on the present and on other
recent occasions, and for the purpose of preventing the
possible repetition of farther acts of outrage, to anticipate
the period of his expected resignation, and to annul the
appointment of Lieutenant-General Macdowall to the
command of the army of this Presidency.
The Governor in Council must lament, with the deepest
regret, the necessity of resorting to an extreme measure
of this nature : but, when a manifest endeavour has been
made to bring into degradation the supreme public autho¬
rity, it is essential that the vindication should not be less
signal than the offence ; and that a memorable example
should be given, that proceedings subversive of established
APPENDIX.
591
order can find no security under the sanction of rank No. VI.
however high, or of station however exalted.
The general order in question having been - circulated
under the signature of the Deputy Adjutant-General of the
army, it must have been known to that officer, that, in
giving currency to a paper of this offensive description, he
was acting in direct violation of his duty to the Govern¬
ment. As no authority can justify the execution of an
illegal act, connected, as that act obviously in the present
case has been, with views of the most reprehensible nature,
the Governor in Council thinks it proper to mark his
highest displeasure at the conduct of Major Boles, by di¬
recting that he shall be suspended from the service of the
Honourable Company.
The general order left by the Commander-in-chief for
publication, rmder date the 28th instant, is directed to be
expunged from every public record ; and the Adjutant-Ge¬
neral of the army will immediately circulate the necessary
orders for this purpose.
By order of the Honourable the Governor in Council.
(Signed) G. Buchan,
Chief Secretary to Government.
VII.
Page 438.
Zemindari Sunnud granted by Jehangir,
It has happened in this propitious time that Abhiman No. vii.
Sing, Zemindar of Mahanagar in Nizamabad, has em-
braced Islamism, and been honoured with the title of Raja
Nadir Dowlat Khan. We have therefore bestowed upon
him twenty-two Pergunnas in Soohah Allahabad, from the
commencement of the Khuneef crop, and according to the
specification below. Our illustrious sons and rulers of the
592
APPENDIX.
No. VII. provinces and Mootsuddies must ever use their strongest
endeavours perpetually to maintain this grant, and confirm
the Zemindari of the above Pergunnas to the afore-men¬
tioned person and his descendants for ever. They will de¬
duct 1,25,000 rupees as his Nankar from the total Jumma
payable to the Government, in order that he may spend it;
and the fixed allowance per village and per-centage in the
Jumma and other Zemindari dues from his support. This
Sunnud wiU not require renewal. Dated Rubhee ool Akhir
15th, in the 4th year of the reign. (Specification on the
reverse.) Pergunnas twenty-two (then follow their names).
Nankar 1,25,000 rupees. Zemindari dues per village two
rupees, per-cent. one rupee.—J. Asiatic Society of Bengal,
vol. viii. p. 93.
VIII.
Page 469.
The Petition of all the Inhabitants of the City of Benares,
etc. etc.
Sheweth,
That we, your humble petitioners, have been nourished
from our infancy by the fostering care of the British Go¬
vernment and have been protected from every evil. During
the government of Mr. Hastings especially we enjoyed
ease and tranquillity, when, by the abolition of the tax
on pilgrims, the fame of the Government was extended
from one end of India to the other. In like manner, in the
time of the Marquis Cornwallis we enjoyed various advan¬
tages : the Sayer and town duties, and other descriptions of
oppressive duties, were abolished. The affairs of this pro¬
vince were committed to the administration of Mr. Duncan ;
and such was the indidgence extended to us, that, for the
first time. Vakeels were appointed in the courts of justice
APPENDIX.
593
on the part of Government, and the claims of Government No.viii.
were henceforward judged and determined in common with
the claims of other people. A considerable sum of money
was also appropriated for the expense of the Hindoo col¬
lege, and hundreds of people obtained Jageers, pensions,
and donations : the people of all descriptions were secured
in the enjoyment of their laws and their religion, together
with the customs and usages to which they had been long
habituated. The fame of the Government extended itself
throughout the world; everything submitted to its will,
and the population of the country increased with its pro¬
sperity.
When the court of justice was originally established at
Benares, the fees payable on the institution of suits were
fixed at the rate of five per cent. ; but the people claimed
the interposition of the Governor-General's agent at this
place, and the fees were reduced in consequence to the
rate of one per cent. We fully expected that in a short
time these also would be abolished, but after that gentle¬
man went away they were again increased; and by the
introduction of the stamp duties, transit and town duties,
by the Phatuckbundee and other new institutions, your
petitioners were reduced to distress and wretchedness.
During the last five years the seasons have proved un¬
favourable; the harvests have been injured by drought,
hail, and frost ; and the price of every article of consump¬
tion has increased twofold. In this state of things. Regu¬
lation XV., 1810, is introduced; and the tax it imposes, by
affecting all ranks of people, has thrown the subjects of
your Government into consternation. Accordingly, a num¬
ber of people, in the confident expectation of obtaining
that indulgence which Government has always been accus¬
tomed to extend to its subjects, exposed themselves to the
inclemency of the season, and, with nothing to cover them
but the heavens, bowed their faces to the earth in suppli¬
cation : in this state of calamity several of them perished.
We presented some petitions, setting forth our distresses to
VOL. I. 2 Q
594
APPENDIX.
No. VIII. the magistrate; and, as we did not obtain our object, we
petitioned the provincial court, but from our untoward
fate we were again unsuccessful. In this state of trouble
the proclamation of the 13tb of Jan. 1811 was issued,
under the impression that your petitioners were in a state
of disobedience to the Government; wbicb we humbly
represent was never even within our imagination. In im¬
plicit obedience to this proclamation, as to the decree of
fate, we got up, and returned to our homes, in full de¬
pendence upon the indulgence of the Government. We
set forth our distresses as below stated : we hope that you,
under the authority vested by Government in its officers,
upon the exercise of wbicb the welfare of the country
depends, will be pleased to translate this our petition, and
forward it to the Right Honourable the Governor-General
in Council, that, under the provision contained in clause
1st, Regulation xli., 1793, we may obtain relief. The
indulgent disposition wbicb is invariably manifested by
the Government induces us to entertain a confident hope
that the petition of its affiicted subjects wiU be complied
with.
[The following representation relates to Regulation xv.,
1810, and the proclamation of the 13tb of January 1811.]
First. By Regulation xxiii., 1793, the expense of the
police establishments was to be defrayed by a tax levied
from the merchants, traders, and shopkeepers, who were
considereíí one of the most opulent classes of the people ;
but, by the rules in Regulation vi., 1797, the Regulation
above mentioned was rescinded, and it was declared that
the tax was a source of vexation to the contributors.
The Vice-President in Council accordingly resolved to abo¬
lish this tax, and to substitute the duties on stamp paper
in the room of it. Sire, when the vexations to which the
people were exposed by being subjected to the tax are so
fully known to you, there can be no necessity for us to
employ much detail in representing them; and let it be
understood that the persons who then were affected by
APPENDIX.
595
Regulation xxiii., 1793, are not now in a condition better No. Vlll.
calculated to submit to it. In the new Regulation the tax
includes every one ; thousands who have not wherewithal
to subsist are affected by it : hence to extend the tax to
everybody will be the cause of general ruin.
Secondly. The protection of the people is the duty of
the Government. The Governments to which we were for¬
merly subjected established the transit and other duties
upon traders to defray the expenses of protecting us ; in
other words, for the support of the police. Expenses of
other descriptions were defrayed by the produce of the
Baitooimaul ; and, although these duties still continue to he
levied in Benares, the expense of the roads and the general
protection of the country, such as the establishment of
police and so forth, was also provided for at the settlement
of the province : besides this, the stamp duties were esta¬
blished to defray the expense of the police, as well as the
Phatuckbundee, which has, however, been abolished by
the proclamation of the 13th January. These various re¬
sources for the support of the police well merit the atten¬
tion of the Government.
Thirdly. In Regulation xv., 1810, it is stated, that, as
the tax had been introduced into Calcutta, it should be
also introduced into Benares. Sire, the ground of Calcutta
is the particular property of Government: it was originally
Government property, and became inhabited according to
the usages established in England: all consented to pay the
tax on the same principle as if it were a ground-rent; and
every one, according to his means or pleasure, took ground
and built upon it. But it is otherwise in Benares, where
the ground is the property of its inhabitants, who have
held it by purchase or other means from time immemorial.
Fourthly. In Regulation xv., 1810, it is declared, that
all places of worship are to be exempted from the tax ;
and the whole extent of the city of Benares as contained
within the Punchkos is, in fact, a place of worship, there
positively is not a point of ground within it which is other-
2 Q 2
596
APPENDIX.
No. VIII. wise. Let this be ascertained by a reference to the Sbas-
ter. Besides this, former Governments, on all occasions of
exercising their authority, treated this city with peculiar
indulgence; and the British Government also has done the
same, as is instanced in the exemption of Bralimins from
capital punishment : hence the city of Benares should be
especially exempted from the tax on houses.
Fifthly. The means of procuring subsistence in these
times, such as they are, are well known to Government.
From the annihilation of the profits of our labour, from
the increase of the taxes, from calamities which have
raised the price of every article of consumption, from the
abolition of the Tehseeldarree system, and from the bank¬
ruptcy of the merchants, your petitioners are reduced to
such a state, that multitudes are unable to clothe and feed
themselves, or support and educate their families: hence
numbers, who supported themselves in a respectable man¬
ner, have been robbed of their respectability by distress.
Had it not been for the native colleges of Calcutta and
Benares, there would not have been an educated or well-
bred man to be found throughout the country. How,
then, is it possible to pay the tax ?
Sixthly. Thousands of people in these times have not a
kouree in the world ; and if, in order to realise the tax,
their household property shall be sold, as is prescribed in
the Regulation, to what extremities will they not he
reduced ^
Seventhly. Since the commencement of the English Go¬
vernment the rules contained in the Shera and Shaster, to¬
gether with the customs of Hindostán, have invariably
been observed : it will be found in the Shera and Shaster
that houses are reckoned one of the principal necessaries of
life, and are not accounted disposable property. Even
creditors cannot claim them from us in satisfaction of their
dues ; and in this country, in the times of the Mahomedan
and Hindoo princes, houses were never rendered hable to
contributions for the service of the state.
APPENDIX.
597
Eighthly. Men of business possess no ostensible pro- No. VIII.
perty but their houses. Houses are the foundation of all
worldly affairs, whether in the collector's office, or in the
courts, or in mercantile transactions. If the tax is en¬
forced, what with providing the means of paying it on the
one hand, and what with the apprehension of future inno¬
vations from the interference of Government on the other,
such general distrust will be excited, that there will no
longer be any reliance on the security of property : all mer¬
cantile transactions, all worldly affairs, will be overturned,
and the public at large will become distracted.
Ninthly. By the usages of this country, the rights
of the Government as they were exercised in the times
of the Mahomedan and Hindoo princes do not weigh
heavy upon its subjects : hence it is that under the English
Government, in the sale of estates to realise the public
revenue, the houses of the landholders are exempted. If
the tax is enforced, the public mind will, for many reasons,
be filled with apprehensions.
Tenthly. Although Government certainly devotes par¬
ticular care and expense to the protection of the inhabit¬
ants of the cities, yet the town and transit duties, the
mint and stamp duties, the registry of deeds, the duties
arising from the quarries and the Abkarree, &c. &c., all of
which multiply in proportion to the extent of the popula¬
tion, are levied in a greater degree from the inhabitants of
cities than from those who live in the interior.
Eleventhly. If the tax is enforced, the rent of houses
will increase ; and many of the people, who are come from
distant places to reside in this city and rent the houses they
occupy, will no longer continue to remain in it. People
will build no more stone houses ; and in that case many
classes of workmen, such as carpenters, blacksmiths,
masons, &c. will be left without employment, and the
city vvill be depopulated.
Twelfthly. Those who, from the fame of the justice
and protection to be found under the English Government,
598
APPENDIX.
No. VIII. are come from distant countries to reside in the city of
Benares, and whose residence in it adds to the population
of the place and benefits thousands, wiU by the introduc¬
tion of the tax be disheartened. They will go away, and
multitudes wiU he ruined.
Thirteenthly. The Regulations enacted by the Marquis
Cornwallis were extended to Benares, and we your peti¬
tioners, satisfied with those Regulations, lived happy and
contented: the whole country increased in fertihty and
population, and the resources of Government were im¬
proved, at least so it appeared to us, though we know not
if it appears so to the wisdom of the Government.
Fourteenthly. As a number of persons continued for
some- time assembled together to complain. Government
conceived there was a disturbance, and it was so de¬
clared in the proclamation of the 13th of January, 1811.
Sire, if an order he passed relating particularly to one in¬
dividual, and other persons combine to support him, it
might in that case be denominated a disturbance. As
the introduction of the tax afiected every individual of
every class, every one presented himself to obtain justice.
Thousands of men and women, all the old and the infirm,
Brahmins, devotees, and Pundits, who have no occupation
but prayer and penance, abandoned their houses and were
among them. None were armed, even with a stick. The
manner and custom in this country from time immemorial
is this : tíiat, whenever any act affecting every one gene¬
rally is committed by the Government, the poor, the aged,
the infirm, the women, all forsake their families and their
homes, expose themselves to the inclemency of the seasons
and to other kinds of inconveniences, and make known their
affliction and distress, that the Government, which is more
considerate than our parents, may observe their condition
and extend indulgence to its subjects. Besides tliis, when
the Brahmins in general are involved in distress, it is in¬
cumbent on all Hindoos to abstain from receiving suste¬
nance, and any one who presumes to deviate from this
APPENDIX.
599
custom must incur general opprobrium. If your peti- No. VIII.
tioners, by assembling together in this manner, can be
considered to have created a disturbance, it is our mis¬
fortune.
[The next representation respects the houses of Benares.]
First. Many Mohullahs are upon ground which pays
revenue to Government, and ought accordingly to be ex¬
empted.
Secondly. Many houses and several parts of the city
are held by grants from the native princes and from the
Honourable East India Company, and these are of the
same ^ature as Ultumgah : besides which, thousands of
people subsist on the bounty of Government.
Thirdly. Many of the Seraies and other public places
were built by the Mahomedan princes or by their princi¬
pal officers, and ought to be exempted.
Fourthly. There are hundreds of houses in this city the
proprietors of which pay rent for the ground they are built
upon, while the owner of the ground receives the rent as
his right; which right has never been disputed by any Go¬
vernment. The house having been built by its proprietor,
he holds it like household furniture, exempt from tax¬
ation ; the materials of which it is huilt are liable to town
and transit duties, and to the quarry duties, which are of
course paid upon requisition. Many pieces of ground,
and several of the houses above mentioned, are let to Go¬
vernment by the proprietors, and such proprietors cannot
in consequence be called upon to pay the tax.
Fifthly. Many houses have been purchased by their
present proprietors at public auction, with the permission
of Government.
Sixthly. Many houses which belonged to the Baitool-
maul have been purchased by their present proprietors
from the Government, who, on paying the value of them
to Government, were put into possession.
Seventhly. Many houses are stiU in the Baitoolmaul,
and the occupants pay rent for them to Government.
600
APPENDIX.
No. VIII. Eighthly. Many houses have been bestowed upon
Brahmins and Fucqueers ; and these houses, like Kish-
napun, and according to established rules, must be ex¬
empted.
Ninthly. Many benevolent and humane people lend
their houses for the accommodation of pilgrims and tra¬
vellers, in the hope by so doing to obtain the blessing
of Providence : many lend them out of civility to their
friends. If the tax is enforced, civihty and benevolence
will be excluded from the world.
Tenthly. Many houses have been built by persons of
rank in former times ; these houses are deserted and fallen
to ruin. Those to whom these houses have lineally de¬
scended are unable to repair them ; they inhabit, perhaps,
but one room, without even the means of subsistence : such
persons surely deserve indulgence.
Eleventhly. Many houses are mortgaged, and in the
possession of the mortgagee. The tax cannot be paid by
the mortgager, because he is without the means of paying
it ; nor can it be paid by the mortgagee without diminish¬
ing the legal profit derivable from the established rate of
interest.
Twelfthly. Many houses belong to the Nawaub Vizier
and other persons of distinction, such as Manmundil and
Raujmundil.
Thirteenthly. Several men of rank, such as the Moghul
princes, reside in Benares by order of Government : they
have either received their houses from Government, or
have built them themselves.
Fourteenthly. Many of the buildings of this city are
either Hindoo or Mahomedan places of worship, or pious
bequests. After exempting buildings of these descriptions
and the houses above mentioned, it will appear upon in¬
quiry that the produce of the tax will not be worth the
consideration of Government, which expends laks of
rupees for the welfare of its subjects and for the general
prosperity of the country.
appendix.
601
Our existence and everything we possess have been he- yjjj
stowed upon us by the liberality of Government. Your
humble petitioners feel themselves totally unable to con¬
tend, even in litigation, with a Government so powerful ;
but, perceiving that the Government is always disposed to
be kind and indulgent, we have presumed to represent what
our imperfect understandings have suggested to us. The
indulgence of Government has given us the power to
make this our representation ; and, at all events, we hope
for its indulgence and the forgiveness of our offences.
(Translated.)
IX.
Page 484, Note.
Comparative Statement of the Revenues and Charges of
British India in the Years 1807-8 and 1813-14.
1807. Bengal. Madras. Bombay. Total. No. IX.
Receipts £9,972,000 4,928,000 770,000 15,670,000
Charges £6,372,000 5,194,000 2,059,000 13,625,000
Surplus Revenue £2,045,000
Deduct Interest on Debt £2,226,000
Supplies to England 128,000
£2,354,000
Deficit in 1807-8 £309,000
1813-14. Bengal. Madras. Bombay. Total.
Receipts £11,172,000 5,297,000 759,000 17,228,000
Charges £ 7,135,000 4,893,000 1,589,000 13,617,000
Surplus Revenue 3,611,000
Deduct Interest on Debt i!l,537,000
Supplies to England 116,000
£1,653,000
Surplus in 1813-14 £1,958,000
602
APPENDIX.
No. IX.
ITEMS OF AUGMENTED RECEIPT.
Bengal. Madras.
Bombay.
1S07-8. 1813-14. 1807-8. 1813-14. 1807-8. 1813-14.
Mint
Post-Office
Stamps
Judicial
Customs
Land Rev®.
Do.Ced"'. P
Do.Ced''.&
Conq.do.
Salt
Opium
Marine
Carnatic
Tanjore
Mysore
Nizam
Travancore
Cochin
Farms and
Licences
Dutch Settle- ^
ments )
£17,000
35,000
113,000
511,000
3,729,000
1,718,000
1,013,000
1,895,000
801,000
»
»
»
9,000
43,000
16,000
104,000
322,000
3,928,000
17,000
»
114*000
1,040,000
16,000
20,000
31,000
26,000
190,000
893,000
»
»
»
6,000
6,000
6,000
167,000 108,000
417,000 37,000
2,271,000
yt
yy
yy
206,000
1,664,000
yy
yy
yy
291,000
1,779,000
yy
155,000
yy
yy
964,000
yy
yy
yy
yy
31,000
yy
9,000
yy
46,000
jy
1,027,000
1,131,000
yy
yy
502,000
436,000
yy
yy
M
1,399,000 1,519,000
yy
yy
yy
718,000
685,000
yy
yy
yy
46,000
91,000
43,000
yy
yy
yy
32,000
yy
yy
yy
57,000
62,000
143,000 53,000
yy
7,000
yy
yy
yy
TOTAL INCREASE OP REVENUE.
1813-14
1807-8
Increase
£17,228,000
15,670,000
£ 1,558,000
Of which the Increase in Bengal was £1,200,000
Madras . 369,000
The Deficit in Bombay
Net Increase
1,569,000
11,000
. £1,558,000
INCREASE OF LAND REVENUE IN BENGAL.
Lower Provinces . . £199,000
Ceded ditto . . . 553,000
Conquered ditto . . 651,000
£1,403,000
APPENDIX.
603
These particulars are compiled from the Revenue state- no. ix.
ments of the Second Report of the Select Committee of
the House of Commons, 1810, and the Report of the
Committee of the House of Lords, 1830. The smaller
sums, below a thousand, are purposely omitted. It must
be borne in mind also, that, at the valuation of the rupee
adopted in the Reports, all the sums are about one-seventh
too high.
Page 540.
Resolutions {communicated hy the Honourable the House of
Commons to the Right Honourable the House of Lords at
a Conference) respecting the Affairs of the East India
Company.
1. Resolved, That it is expedient that all the privileges, no. x.
authorities, and immunities, granted to the United Com-
pany of Merchants trading to the East Indies by virtue
of any act or acts of parliament now in force, and all
rules, regulations, and clauses affecting the same, shall
continue and be in force for a further term of twenty
years ; except as far as the same may hereinafter be mo¬
dified and repealed.
2. Resolved, That the existing restraints respecting
the commercial intercourse with China shall be continued,
and that the exclusive trade in tea shall be preserved to
the said Company during the period aforesaid.
3. Resolved, That, subject to the provisions contained
in the preceding Resolution, it shall be lawful for any of
his Majesty's subjects to export any goods, wares, or mer¬
chandize, which can now, or may hereafter, be legally
exported from any port in the United Kingdom to any
port within the limits of the charter of the said Company,
604
APPENDIX.
No. X. as hereinafter provided ; and that all ships navigated ac-
cording to law, proceeding from any port within the limits
of the Company's charter, and heing provided with regu¬
lar manifests from the last port of clearance, shall respec¬
tively be permitted to import any goods, wares, or mer¬
chandize, the product and manufacture of any countries
within the said limits, into any ports in the United King¬
dom which may he provided with warehouses, together
with wet docks or basins, or such other securities as shall,
in the judgment of the Commissioners of the Treasury in
Great Britain and Ireland respectively, he fit and proper
for the deposit and safe custody of all such goods, wares,
and merchandize, as well as for the collection of all duties
payable thereon, and shall have been so declared by the
Orders of his Majesty in Council in Great Britain, or by
the Order of the Lord Lieutenant in Council in Ireland :
Provided always, that copies of all such Orders in Council
shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament in the ses¬
sion next ensuing.
4. Resolved, That as long as the Government of India
shall he administered under the authority of the said
Company according to the provisions, limitations, and
regulations hereafter to be enacted, the rents, revenues,
and profits arising from the territorial acquisitions in
India shall, after defraying the expenses of collecting
the same, with the several charges and stipulated pay¬
ments to which the revenues are subject, be applied
and disposed of according to the following order of
preference :
In the first place, in defraying all the charges and ex¬
penses of raising and maintaining the forces, as well Eu¬
ropean as native, artiUery and marine, on the establish¬
ments in India, and of maintaining the forts and garrisons
there, and providing warlike and naval stores : Secondly,
in the payment of the interest accruing on the debts
owing, or which may hereafter he incurred, by the said
Company in India: Thirdly, in defraying the civil and
APPENDIX.
605
commercial establishments at the several settlements No. X.
there: Fourthly, that the whole or any part of any sur-
plus that may remain of the above-described rents, re¬
venues, and profits, after providing for the several appro¬
priations, and defraying the several charges before men¬
tioned, shall be applied to the provision of the Company's
investment in India, in remittances to China for the pro¬
vision of investments there, or towards the liquidation of
debts in India, or such other purposes as the Court of
Directors, with the approbation of the Board of Commis¬
sioners, shall from time to time direct.
5. Resolved, That the receipts into the Company's trea¬
sury in England from the proceeds of the sales of their
goods, and from the profits arising from private and pri¬
vileged trade, or in any other manner, shall be applied
and disposed of as follows :—First, in payment of bills of
exchange already accepted by the Company, as the same
shall become due: Secondly, for the current payment of
debts (the principal of the bond debt in England always
excepted) as well as interest, and the commercial charges
and expenses of the said Company : Thirdly, in payment
of a dividend of ten pounds per cent, on the present or
any future amount of the capital stock of the said Com¬
pany ; also in the payment of a further dividend of ten
shillings per cent, upon such capital stock, after the sepa¬
rate fund upon which the same was originally charged by
the 124th clause of the 33rd Geo. III. cap. 52, shall have
been exhausted ; the said payments respectively to be
made half-yearly : Fourthly, in the reduction of the prin¬
cipal of the debt in India, or of the bond debt at home,
as the Court of Directors, with the approbation of the
Board of Commissioners, shaU from time to time direct.
6. Resolved, That when the principal of the debt bear¬
ing interest in India shall have been reduced to the sum of
ten millions of pounds sterling, calculated at the exchange
of 2s. the Bengal current rupee, 3s. the Madras pagoda,
and 2s. Sd. the Bombay rupee, and the bonded debt in
606
APPENDIX.
No. X. England shall' have been reduced to the sum of three mil-
lions of pounds sterling, then and thereafter the surplus
proceeds which shall be found to arise from the revenues of
India, and the profits upon the trade, after providing for
the payments aforesaid, shall be applied to the more
speedy repayment of the capital of any public fmids or
securities which have been or may be created for the use
of the said Company, the charges of which have been or
may be directed to he borne by the said Company, in
virtue of any act or acts of parliament; and that any
further surplus that may arise shall be set apart, and from
time to time paid into the receipt of his Majesty's Ex¬
chequer, to he applied as Parliament shall direct, wdthout
any interest to he paid to the Company in respect or for
the use thereof ; but nevertheless to he considered and
declared as an effectual security to the said Company for
the capital stock of the said Company, and for the divi¬
dend of 1per cent, per annum in respect thereof, not
exceeding the sum of twelve millions of pounds sterling ;
and that of the excess of such payments, if any, beyond
the said amount of twelve millions, one-sixth part shall,
from time to time, be reserved and retained by the said
Company for their own use and benefit, and the remaining
five-sixths shall be deemed and declared the property of
the public, and at the disposal of Parliament.
7. Resolved, That the said Company shall direct and
order their Hbooks of account, at their several Presidencies
and settlements in India, at their factory in China, at the
island of St. Helena or elsewhere, and also in England,
to be so kept and arranged as that the same shall contain
and exhibit the receipts, disbursements, debts and assets,
appertaining to, or connected with, the territorial, politi¬
cal, and commercial branches of their affairs ; and that the
same shall be made up in such manner that the said books
shall contain and exhibit the accounts of the territorial
and political departments separately and distinctly from
such as appertain to, or are connected with, the commer-
APPENDIX.
607
cial branch of their affairs ; and that the arrangement of x,
accounts so to be made shall be submitted to the ap
probation and sanction of the Board of Commissioners
for the Affairs of India.
8. Resolved, That it is expedient to make provision
for further limiting the granting of gratuities and pensions
to officers, civil and mihtary, or increasing the same, or
creating any new^ establishments at home, in such manner
as may effectually protect the funds of the said Company.
9. Resolved, That all vacancies happening in the office
of Governor-General of Fort William in Bengal, or of
Governor of either of the Company's Presidencies or set¬
tlements of Fort St. George or Bombay, or of Go¬
vernor of the forts and garrisons of Fort William, Fort
St. George, or Bombay, or of Commander-in-chief of all
the forces in India, or of any provincial Commander-in-
chief of the forces there, shall continue to be filled up
and supplied by the Court of Directors of the said United
Company, subject nevertheless to the approbation of his
Majesty, to be signified in writing under his royal sign
manual, countersigned by the President of the Board of
Commissioners for the Affairs of India.
10. Resolved, That the number of his Majesty's troops
in India to be in future maintained by the said Company
be limited ; and that any augmentation of force exceeding
the number so to be hmited shall, unless employed at the
express requisition of the said Company, be at the public
charge.
11. Resolved, That it is expedient that the Church
Establishment in the British territories in the East Indies
should be placed under the superintendence of a Bishop
and three Archdeacons ; and that adequate provision
should be made, from the territorial revenues of India,
for their maintenance.
12. Resolved, That it is expedient that the statutes and
regulations framed, or to be framed, by the Court of
Directors for the good government of the College esta-
608
APPENDIX.
No X. tlished by the East India Company in the county of Hert-
ford, and of the Military Seminary of the said Company
in the county of Surrey, as well as the establishment of
offices connected therewith, or the appointment of persons
to fill such offices, be subject to the controul and regula¬
tion of the Commissioners for the Affairs of India; and
that the power and authority of the Board of Commis¬
sioners for the Affairs of India shall be construed to ex¬
tend to the issuing or sending orders or instructions to
the Court of Directors, for the purpose of their being
transmitted to India, respecting the rules and regulations
and establishments of the respective colleges at Calcutta
and Fort St, George, or any other seminaries which may
be hereafter established under the authority of the local
Governments.
13. Resolved, That it is the duty of this country to
promote the interest and happiness of the native inhabit¬
ants of the British dominions in India; and that such
measures ought to be adopted as may tend to the intro¬
duction amongst them of useful knowledge, and of religious
and moral improvement. That, in the furtherance of the
above objects, sufficient facilities shall be afforded by law to
persons desirous of going to and remaining in India for
the purpose of accomplishing these benevolent designs :
provided always, that the authority of the local Govern¬
ments, respecting the intercourse of Europeans with the
interior ofr the country, be preserved ; and that the prin¬
ciples of the British Government, on which the natives of
India have hitherto relied for the free exercise of their
religion, be inviolably maintained.
END OF VOL. I.
LONDON :
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