UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
 
 
 -
 
 'ceremony to-day claims from all at least 
 a respectful attention, and in many hearts 
 will touch deep reminisce ncea of affection 
 and admiration. A statua of Sir JAMES OOTBAM 
 will be unveiled on the Thames Embank- 
 ment. It is eight years since the bearer of that 
 name pacsed away from us ; but his fame will 
 live aa long a.i our Indian Empire and his 
 memory will be cherished aa long aa any of 
 his comrades or friends survive. No man better 
 deserved thU conspicuous, though slight, comme- 
 moration. His career was peculiarly brilliant ; but, 
 as he himself delighted to insist, it was but a 
 brilliant illustration of ordinary English work and 
 English character in ludia. His history, in its lead- 
 ing outlines, is that of numbers of his predecessors 
 and contemporaries, and it scarcely differs from 
 them in its substantial labours, though its personal 
 glory is all his own. It is but scant justice which is 
 done by the public in general to the services which 
 have created and maintained our Indian Empire, 
 and it needs some extraordinary personal qualities, 
 such as OUTRAM possessed, to extort the recogni- 
 tion he received. It was his destiny to adorn 
 as well as to fulfil his career, and though eight 
 eventful years have passed since his death, there 
 are few names more fresh or more honoured in the 
 modern roll of English renown. 
 
 In 1819, at the age of sixteen, JAMES OUTRAM 
 went out to Bombay as a cadet iu the military ser- 
 vice of the E;ut India Company. It was a 
 service in those days which, under a simple guise, 
 opened to men of energy and character careers 
 which ancient conquerors might have envied. The 
 supremacy of the civil over the military element in 
 our administration was far from being as decided as 
 at present, and military chiefs had peculiar oppor- 
 tunities for becoming rulers of men. They might 
 often be mere Captains or even Lieutenants, and 
 very few at home thought anything of their powers 
 or their exploits. Yet they might daily be perform- 
 ing feats of generalship or administration which 
 have made the fame of historic chieftains, and they 
 were at least silently building up by immense exer- 
 tions a fabric of Empire such as the East has never 
 seen. The young OUTRAM soon attracted attention 
 for his energy and ability aa a soldier, and while yet 
 a very young man was charged by the Gover- 
 nor of Bombay with the duty of pacify- 
 ing the wild Bheel tribes of Candeish. He in- 
 stinctively discerned the method which is 
 alone and always successful in dealing with less 
 civilized races. He tirst asserted his power, and 
 then offered his confidence to hia foes. The Bheeis 
 were defeated, and then OUTRAM undertook to or- 
 ganize them into a military corps, and to turn 
 their restless spirit against other marauders. 
 from subduing and organizing wild tribes, he 
 was transferred to the task of repressing rebellion or 
 supervising native government in more settled 
 districts, but hia element was always found in active 
 warfare. Among the glorious though sad reminis- 
 cences of the Afghan campaign his exploits hold a
 
 ' ~ ' ~"** 1 ( - '* - ""f*"*"*" ^"P"*" 
 
 'conspicuous place. The peculiar qualities which 
 
 1 won for him from Sir CHARLES NAPIEB the title of 
 'the " BAYARD of India, without fear aud witho^ 
 *' reproach," found in those disastrous days the test 
 most fitted to discover them, in daring, re- 
 sources, devotion, and self-sacrifice be recalled 
 amid similarly wild scenes the deeds and spirit of 
 chivalry. It was nob merely, either then or at any 
 other time,that he did his doty. He aimed at the le- 
 gitimate glory of his profession aud he fully attained 
 it. The same generosity of spirit was hia distinguish- 
 ing characteristic when in more peaceful times he be- 
 came the guardian of the rights of the Princes 
 and people of India. He would not for an instant 
 yield or diminish the might and authority of 
 British rule. As at the first, so to the last, he 
 would, before all things, make our power felt and 
 acknowledged. But it was contrary to his nature to 
 use-power as a despot. It was his fitting prerogative, 
 or the prerogative of his countrymen ; but it was a 
 prerogative of trust rather than of dignity, and if 
 he was conscious of a giant's strength he was 
 equally conscious of a claim to use it for purposes 
 of protection aud mercy. He was the uncompro- 
 mising defender of Native Rulers against what he 
 deemed unjust encroachment on the part of his own 
 Government, and an unfortunate difference, which 
 embittered for a time the relations between him and 
 
 Sir CHARLES NAPIEH, arose out of his stand), adher- 
 ence to what he deemed the rights of the Ameers of 
 Scinde. When OUTRAM believed that wrong was 
 being done, he was incapable of restraining hh ! 
 words or his feelings. He conld not tutor himself j 
 to the tame forms of conventional remonstrance. 
 He acquired in this way a character for a fiery 
 temper, which may have in some measure re- 
 tarded hia advance. Bat his anger was as noble I 
 an element in his disposition as any other 
 constituent of it. He was not excited by petty 
 or personal vexations, but he felt a righteous 
 and uncontrollable wrath against wrongdoing of 
 all sorts. It may be an uncomfortable charac- 
 teristic in a country where life is content to 
 dwell " in decencies for ever ; " but those who 
 distrusted such a temper were probably unaware 
 of tha immense power for good it exerts among less 
 artificial natures. Indignation to au Eastern is noS 
 real unless it blazes and thunders, and a fiery tem- 
 per likeOuTRAJi's is, as it were,the necessary furnace 
 for separating right from wrong among such people 
 as he ruled. One character like his, prompt, ener- 
 getic, just, and fierce, acts like a healthy storm 
 amid the languid indifference of Indian life. 
 . Perhaps, like the lightning and thunder, it must 
 be left in some degree to irregular action ; 
 but no greater mistake is ever committed 
 in our Indian administration than that of 
 being afraid to trust such man as OUTRAM. He 
 inspired hia comrades, whether in the Army or 
 the Civil Service, with his own spirit, and so 
 long as he waa among them they had the in- 
 estimable encouragement of a loved and trusted 
 leader.
 
 The hour camo at l;m wh>"i the cure* 
 animated and thus Checkered was to bo ( 
 trated in one great crisi?. OUTRAM'S was already a 
 wearied frame who* he was appointed to command 
 the Persian Expedition 4>f 1857 ; but he recovered 
 his energies in active ssrvic^, and conducted the 
 campaign with honour and success. His sword 
 had soon to be drawn for service in a. more 
 terrible and critical struggle. When he returned 
 to India ttye mutiny of the Bengal troops was 
 at its height ; the capital of Oude, at which ho 
 had been Chief Commissioner, was besieged, and 
 HAVELOCK, after making gallant but deaperate 
 efforts to relieve the garrison, was himself besieged 
 at Cawupore. OUTRAM promptly relieved his old 
 comrade and subordinate, arid it was then his duty 
 to lead their combined forces to the deliverance of 
 Lucknow. Amid the excitement of that struggle 
 the chivalrous habits of years asserted their 
 sway, and received their most honourable ex- 
 pression. He refused to deprive HAVELOOK of 
 the honour of completing tha work he had main- 
 tained against such odds. He waived his military 
 rank, and accompanied the force as a volunteer into 
 Lucknow. The act was more than a graceful tri- 
 bute. It could only have -been done by one of 
 those rare natures which are capable of recognizing 
 the equal abilities of others and lovo to do them 
 honour. After all, it is the characteristic of a 
 noble heart to be inoro willing to obey than to rule, 
 and rule itself assumes with them the form of obe- 
 dience to a loftier authority. OUTKAM'-S militar}' 
 ability and administrative skill were both taxed to 
 the utmost and displayed in their fullest capacity 
 during the anxious months in Oude which followed 
 the relief of the Residency, and then his work was 
 done. His o'ager spirit had burnt itself out, and 
 after a brief tenure of oiiice in the Supreme Council, 
 he returned home only to fade and die. [Je re- 
 ceived the honours of a baronetcy, the thanks 
 of Parliament, and an admiring welcome ; 
 but Scarcely any honours or rewards could 
 have been too high a recognition of his life 
 and his work. Had such work been done- in' 
 Europe, or such' a fame been gained among 
 comrades and subordinates, a Peerage would have 
 been deemed an inadequate acknowledgment. As 
 with his fellows, however, in India, the achieve- 
 ments we have recalled were all performed in 
 the modest discharge of ordinary duty. There 
 are political functions among them, but no political 
 ambitions such as excite European society. OUTKAM 
 was proud to be a servant of the Company, and 
 moat Indian commanders have been men of 
 modest origin, single aims, and simple ex- 
 pectations. A great task is laid on them, and 
 they fulfil it to the uttermost, revealing, under 
 pressure of circumstances, qualities which are an 
 honour to our race and our country. There isi 
 still no lack in India of either the energy, the 
 ability, or tha justice which animated GOTHAM, 
 though they may rarely be fused into such 
 a unique .- and chivalrous mould. That is, 
 the chief of the many services he has 
 
 .s a - s '=< 
 
 
 
 
 
 a _ .s 
 
 r QQ 
 
 2 a 
 
 o a t- 
 
 "* m O 
 
 
 ~ e _ ~ m 
 
 .2 "3 
 
 2 O 
 
 , * 
 
 >J a 
 
 03 CD 'r 
 B 41 % 
 
 8-I.S
 
 LIYES 
 
 INDIAN OFFICEES, 
 
 Jlltt&tratt&e of % ift 
 
 CIYIL AND MILITARY SERVICES OF INDIA. 
 
 BY JOHN WILLIAM 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE BISTORT OP THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN," "THE LIFE OF T,ORD METCALFK, 
 "THE HISTORY OF THE SKPOT WAR," &c. &c. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 A. STRAHAN AND CO., LUDGATE HILL; 
 
 AND 
 
 BELL AND DALDY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
 
 1867. 
 
 [The right of Translation is reserved.]
 
 LONDON : 
 PKISTR1) BY C. WHITING, BEAUFORT BOUSE, STRAND.
 
 0)5 
 K . 
 
 CO 
 
 >- 
 
 y, GENERAL 
 
 ^ SIR GEORGE POLLOCK, 
 
 O G.C.B., G.C.S.I., 
 
 
 
 in AN 
 
 <M 
 
 o THE RIGHT HONORABLE 
 
 o 
 
 SIR JOHN MAIR LAWRENCE, BART,, 
 
 G.C.B., G.C.S.I., 
 
 THE MOST DISTINGUISHED LIVING REPBESENTATIVES 
 
 MILITARY AND CIVIL SERVICES OF THE EAST 
 INDIA COMPANY, 
 
 THESE VOLUMES ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 
 
 X 
 
 H 
 
 a 
 
 35T176
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 I THINK that something should be said regarding the cir- 
 cumstances, which have resulted in the publication of this 
 book. 
 
 Two or three years ago, I was invited by the editor and by 
 the proprietor of Good Words to write a series of biographical 
 papers illustrative of the careers of some of our most distin- 
 guished " Indian Heroes." As the materials, in most in- 
 stances, were not to be obtained from printed books or papers, 
 to perform this task in a satisfactory manner that is, to 
 write month after month, throughout the year, a memoir of 
 some soldier or statesman distinguished in Indian history 
 would have been impossible to one, the greater part of whose 
 time was devoted to other duties, if it had not chanced that 
 for many years I had been gathering, from different original 
 sources, information relating both to the public services and 
 the private li ves of many of those whose careers it was desired 
 that I should illustrate. I had many large manuscript volumes, 
 the growth of past years of historical research, full of per- 
 sonal correspondence and biographical notes, and I had exten- 
 sive collections of original papers, equally serviceable, which 
 had not been transcribed. As, therefore, only to a very 
 limited extent, I had to go abroad in search of my materials,
 
 Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 I felt that I might accept the invitation and undertake the 
 task, God willing, without danger of breaking down. The 
 temptations, indeed, were very great the greatest of all being 
 the opportunity of awakening, through a popular periodical 
 counting its readers by hundreds of thousands, the interests of 
 an immense multitude of intelligent people, whom every writer 
 on Indian subjects is painfully conscious of being unable to 
 reach through the medium of bulky and high-priced books. 
 
 Of the Lives, which I selected for illustration, the greater 
 number had never been written before, and of those, which 
 had been written before, I had unpublished records which 
 enabled me to impart some little freshness to my memoirs. 
 The sketches were published originally without any chrono- 
 logical arrangement. They appeared, in uninterrupted suc- 
 cession, during the year 1865. The great difficulty with which 
 I had to contend was the necessary limitation of space. I was 
 often compelled to curtail the memoirs after they were in print, 
 and thereby to exclude much interesting illustrative matter. 
 As, however, the republication of the Lives in a separate work 
 had been determined upon, I had less regret in effecting these 
 mutilations. The excised passages are now restored, and new 
 additions made to the memoirs, considerably exceeding in 
 extent the whole of the original sketches. I may say, indeed, 
 that the work has been almost entirely re-written, the chapters 
 in the periodical having been little more than sketches of the 
 more finished portraits which are now produced after fifteen 
 additional months of conscientious research. 
 
 Of the materials, of which I have spoken, something more 
 should be said, the more especially, as in one or two instances 
 I have to acknowledge the assistance that I have derived from 
 other writers. For much of the valuable information con- 
 tained in the memoir of Cornwallis I am indebted to Mr. 
 Boss's very ably-executed work. It should be stated, how- 
 ever, that long before his book was announced I had con- 
 templated the preparation of a Life of Lord Cornwallis, and 
 had amassed a considerable stock of materials in illustration
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 of it. In 1850, I wrote to Lord Braybrooke, soliciting per- 
 mission to consult the "records of the Cornwallis family, and I 
 received in reply a very courteous refusal which, indeed, as 
 I was wholly unknown in England at that time, I ought to 
 have expected accompanied with a statement that a prohi- 
 bition had been laid upon the publication of these family papers. 
 I was rejoiced to find afterwards that the prohibition had been 
 removed, and that the editing of the correspondence had been 
 placed in such good hands. I believe, however, that the stu- 
 dent of Mr. Ross's book may find something new in my slender 
 memoir ; and, at all events, for reasons stated at its com- 
 mencement, there is a peculiar fitness in its insertion in this 
 work, which the reader will be well disposed to recognise. The 
 Lives of Sir John Malcolm $nd Sir Charles Metcalfe I had already 
 written in detail, but I felt that two such names could not be 
 excluded from my muster-roll. For a memoir of Mr. Elphin- 
 stone I had a considerable mass of original memorials, but 
 no amount of correspondence in my possession would have 
 rendered me wholly independent of the very able and interest- 
 ing biography communicated by Sir Edward Colebrooke to 
 the Journal of the Asiatic Society. The well-known volumes 
 of Sargent and Wilberforce, illustrative of the life of Henry 
 Martyn, have of course yielded the chief materials on which 
 the brief memoir of that Christian hero is based ; but from the 
 correspondence of Charles Grant the elder, made over to me 
 by his son, the late Lord Glenelg, I have been able to glean 
 something to impart a little novelty to this the most familiar 
 chapter of my work. 
 
 The memoirs in the second volume are all written from 
 original materials supplied to me by relatives or friends. The 
 journals and correspondence of Sir Alexander Burnes were 
 given to me by his brother, the late Dr. James Burnes, and 
 much supplementary information has been derived from other 
 sources. The journals of Eldred Pottinger were obtained for 
 me from his family, when I was writing the History of the 
 War in Afghanistan, by the assistance of Captain William
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 Eastwick, now of the Indian Council, who was one of Sir Henry 
 Pottinger's most cherished friends and associates; and the 
 journals of Arthur Conolly came into my possession when I 
 was writing the same work. From the families of both I have 
 received very valuable assistance since I commenced the pre- 
 paration of these volumes. With D'Arcy Todd and Henry 
 Lawrence, officers of the Bengal Artillery, I had the privilege 
 of being on terms of cherished friendship. For the memoir of 
 the former abundant materials were supplied to me by his bro- 
 ther, Colonel Frederick Todd ; and for that of the latter I have 
 chiefly relied on my own private resources, knowing that Sir 
 Herbert Edwardes is writing a life of his great and good 
 friend, which will leave nothing unsaid that ought to be said 
 about him. Following out the list in chronological sequence, 
 I then come to the memoirs of those two great soldiers who 
 died so nobly for their country just as Fame was dawning 
 upon them Neill and Nicholson. From the widow of the one 
 and from the mother of the other I received the memorials 
 which have enabled me to write, very imperfectly, I fear, the 
 lives of those heroic men ; but an opportunity may yet be 
 allowed to me, in another work, of doing . further justice to 
 soldiers who have reflected so much glory on the great Army 
 of the East India Company. 
 
 Although to some small extent, perhaps, accidental circum- 
 stances may have favoured my choice of these particular Indian 
 worthies, from among so many, I think it will be considered 
 that on the whole they represent the Indian Services as fairly 
 and as completely as if the selection had been wholly the 
 result of an elaborate design.* For it will be seen that I 
 have drawn my examples from all the three great national 
 divisions of the British Empire that Englishmen, Scotch- 
 men, and Irishmen come equally to the front in these pages. 
 
 * There is one omission, however, so than that he is entitled to a book to 
 
 observable, that something should be himself, and that I hope soon to be able 
 
 said respecting it. It will occasion sur- to discharge what is both a trust con- j 
 
 prise to many that the name of Sir fided to me byjthe departed hero, and a 
 
 James Outram does not appear in the promise made to the loving ones whom 
 
 ist. There is no other reason for this he hasleTTBehind.
 
 PREFACE. xi 
 
 Cornwallis, Metcalfe, Martyn, and Todd were Englishmen 
 pure and simple. Malcolm, Elphinstone, Burnes, and Neill 
 were Scotchmen. Pottinger and Nicholson were Irishmen. 
 Ireland claims also Henry Lawrence as her own, and Arthur 
 Conolly had Irish blood in his veins. It will be seen, too, 
 that I have drawn my examples from all the three great pre- 
 sidential divisions of India. Metcalfe, Martyn, Conolly, Todd, 
 Lawrence, and Nicholson were Bengal officers, and served 
 chiefly in that Presidency ; Malcolm and Neill came from 
 the Madras Presidency; Burnes and Pottinger belonged to 
 Bombay ; whilst Elphinstone, though nominally attached to 
 the Bengal Civil Service, spent the greater part of his official 
 life in Western India. It will be also seen that nearly every 
 branch of the Service is illustrated in these biographies,* and, 
 in the military division, every arm is fairly represented. 
 Todd, Lawrence, and Pottinger were Artillery officers. 
 Arthur Conolly was of the Cavalry. Neill was attached to 
 the European Infantry, and Burnes and Nicholson to the 
 native branch of the same service in which also Malcolm 
 commenced his career. From all of which it may be gathered 
 that it little mattered whence a youth came, or whither he 
 went, or to what service he was attached ; if he had the right 
 stuff in him, he was sure to make his way to the front. 
 
 The memoirs being now published in chronological sequence, 
 I am not without a hope that the collection may be regarded 
 in some sort as a Biographical History of India from the days 
 of Cornwallis to the days of Canning. All the great wars 
 which, during those momentous three-quarters of a century, 
 have developed so remarkably the military and political genius 
 of the " Services," are illustrated, more or less, in these pages. 
 The two great wars with Tippoo, the earlier and later Mahrattah 
 wars, the war in Afghanistan, the Punjab wars, and the Sepoy 
 
 * I must express my regret that the are exercised so unstintingly in the 
 volumes contain no example drawn cause of our suffering humanity, and 
 from the Medical Service of the East for those heroic qualities which are ex- 
 India Company a service which was emplified by deeds -of gallantry in the 
 never wanting in men equally eminent field, and by lives of daring adventure, 
 for those professional attainments which
 
 XU PREFACE. 
 
 \var, afford the chief incidents of the book. But the Historical 
 is everywhere subordinated to the Biographical. I have not 
 attempted, indeed, to write History ; it has grown up spon- 
 taneously out of the lives of the great men who make History. 
 But if it should not be of any value as a History of India, I 
 may still hope that it will be accepted as a not uninteresting 
 contribution to a History of the great Indian Services the 
 Military and Civil Services of the East India Company. Those 
 Services are now extinct. I have striven to show what they 
 were in their best days ; and unless the ability of the execu- 
 tion has fallen far short of the sincerity of the design, I have 
 done something in these pages to do honour to a race of public 
 servants unsurpassed in the history of the world. 
 
 And I hope that, as a record of those services, this book, 
 however imperfect the execution of it, may not be without its 
 uses. I have striven to show how youths, from the middle- 
 class families of our British islands, have gone forth into the 
 great Eastern world, and by their own unaided exertions 
 carved their way to fame and fortune. The Patronage-system 
 of the East India Company, long condemned as a crying 
 abuse, and at last, as such, utterly abolished, opened the gates 
 of India to a hardy, robust race of men, who looked forward 
 to a long and honourable career, and looked back only to think 
 of the joy with which their success would be traced by loving 
 friends in their old homesteads. But it is not now said for the 
 first time that the system could not have been very bad which 
 produced a succession of such public servants as those who are 
 associated with the history of the growth of our great Indian 
 Empire, and as many others who in a less degree have con- 
 tributed to the sum of that greatness. For the heroes of 
 whom I have written are only representative men; and, 
 rightly considered, it is the real glory of the Indian Services, 
 not that they have sent forth a few great, but that they 
 diffused over the country so many good, public officers, eager 
 to do their duty, though not in the front rank. Self-reliance, 
 self-help, made them what they were. The " nepotism of the I
 
 PREFACE. xiii 
 
 Court of Directors" did not pass beyond the portico of thel 
 India House. In India every man had a fair start and an open 
 course. The son of the Chairman had no better chance than 
 the son of the Scotch farmer or the Irish squire. The Duke 
 of Wellington, speaking of the high station to which Sir John 
 Malcolm had ascended after a long career of good work accom- 
 plished and duty done, said that such a fact " operated through- 
 out the whole Indian service, and the youngest cadet saw in 
 it an example he might imitate a success he might attain." 
 And this, indeed, as it was the distinguishing mark, so was it 
 the distinguishing merit of the Company's services ; and there 
 grew up in a distant land what has been rightly called a great 
 " Monarchy of -the Middle Classes," which, it is hoped for the 
 glory of the nation, will never be suffered to die. 
 
 I wish that the youth of England should see in these 
 volumes what men, merely by the force of their own personal 
 characters, can do for their country in India, and what they 
 can do for themselves. I feel that on laying down the 
 book some readers may say that the discouragements are at 
 least as great as the encouragements, for that to a large pro- 
 portion of those of whom I have written Death came early, and 
 in many instances with sudden violence. But I know too 
 well the temper of the men from whom our armies are re- 
 cruited to believe that the record of such heroic deaths as 
 those of Todd and Lawrence, Neill and Nicholson, will make 
 any man less eager to face the risks of Indian life. 
 
 " Whoe'er has reached the highest pinnacle 
 Of fame by glorious toil or daring skill, 
 .... let him possess his soul in quietness 
 And bear his honours meekly ; at the last, 
 E'en gloomy death will have for such a one 
 Some gleams of brightness, for he will bequeath 
 To the dear offspring of his heart and race 
 Their best inheritance an honoured name."* 
 
 The deterring circumstances which threaten to impair the 
 
 * TREMENHERE'S PLNDAR a book in simple, manly English, well adapted to 
 which the noble and inspiring thoughts such a theme as the exploits of Heroes, 
 of the old Greek poet are rendered in
 
 XIV PREFACE. 
 
 efficiency of the Services are of a different kind. I am afraid 
 that there has grown up, in these latter days, a general dislike 
 to Indian service, and that those who go out to the East are 
 ever in a hurry to come home again. The " nepotism of the 
 East India Company" had its uses. It was said to be a mon- 
 strous thing that the services of the East India Company were, 
 to a great extent, hereditary services, and that whole families 
 should be saddled upon India, generation after generation. We 
 only discovered the good of this after we had lost it. That 
 enthusiasm which is so often spoken of in these volumes as the 
 essential element of success in India, was nourished greatly by 
 these family traditions. The men who went out to India in 
 those old days of the East India Company 'did not regard 
 themselves merely as strangers and sojourners in the land. 
 They looked to India as a Home, and to Indian service as a 
 Career words often repeated ; but as their repetition is the 
 best proof of their truth, I need not be ashamed of saying 
 them again. It is in no small measure because I wish that 
 others should go forth from our English homes on the same 
 mission, and with the same aspirations, that I have written 
 these memoirs, and if I have induced even a few, contem- 
 plating these heroic examples, to endeavour to do likewise, I 
 shall not have written in vain. 
 
 J. W. KAYE. 
 
 Norwood, May, 1867.
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 LORD CORNWALLIS 1 
 
 SIR JOHN MALCOLM 129 
 
 THE HONORABLE MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE . . .233 
 
 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN 321 
 
 SIR CHARLES METCALFE . . 375 
 
 APPENDIX 465
 
 NOT ONCE OR TWICE IN OUR FAIR ISLAND-STORY 
 THE PATH OF DUTY WAS THE WAY TO GLORY : 
 HE THAT EVER FOLLOWING HER COMMANDS, 
 ON WITH TOIL OF HEART AND KNEES AND HANDS, 
 
 THROUGH THE LONG GORGE TO THE FAR LIGHT HAS WON 
 
 HlS I'ATH UPWARD AND PREVAILED, 
 
 SHALL FIND THE TOPPLING CRAGS OF DUTY SCALED, 
 
 ARE CLOSE UPON THE SHINING TABLE-LANDS 
 
 To WHICH OUR GOD HIMSELF IS MoON AND SUN. 
 
 Tennyson.
 
 LIVES 
 
 OF 
 
 INDIAN OFFICERS. 
 
 LOKD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 [BORN 1738. DIED 1805.] 
 
 NOT of men of large estate, born to greatness, whom family 1738 1805. 
 influence and political power elevated to high official position, 
 without the toilsome and the patient ascent, has it been my 
 purpose to write in these Memoirs, but of men who, by the 
 unaided force of their own personal characters, made their way 
 to the front, along the open road of a graduated public service. 
 But there can be no fitter prologue to these illustrations of 
 native worth and noble self-reliance than that which may be 
 found in the life of the man who made the public service of 
 India what it has been and is in this nineteenth century. By 
 Lord Cornwallis, who was three times selected by the King's 
 Government to fill the chief seat of the Indian Government, 
 and who twice discharged its duties, the civil and military 
 servants of the Company were raised from a band of adven- 
 turers, enriching themselves by obscure processes and doubtful 
 gains, to a class of virtuous and zealous public functionaries, 
 toiling ever for their country's good. There were, doubtless, 
 brave and strong men before the coming of this Agamemnon ; 
 but official purity was almost unknown in those days, and 
 rapidly to acquire wealth by dishonourable means was so uni- 
 formly the rule of the adventurer, that no one accounted it 
 dishonour in others, or felt it to be dishonour in himself. Of 
 the corruption, which then traversed the land, Lord Cornwallis 
 sounded the death-knell. And from that time the great Com- 
 VOL. I. B '
 
 2 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 17381805. pany of Merchants, which governed India, was served by a 
 succession of soldiers and civilians unsurpassed in rectitude of. 
 life by any whose names are recorded in the great muster-roll 
 of the world. Therefore, I say, there can be no fitter intro- 
 duction to such a work as this than a brief account of the 
 soldier-statesman who, by purifying the public service of 
 India, has enabled the historian to write of men as good as 
 they were great, and to illustrate their careers in detail with- 
 out any dishonest reserve or any painful admissions. 
 
 Family of The family of Cornwallis is said to have been, as far as it 
 
 Comwailis. can ^ traced backwards, originally of Irish stock; but its 
 grandeur seems to have been derived, in the first instance, 
 from the city of London. One Thomas Cornwallis settled 
 himself in the great English capital, took successfully to trade, 
 and in 1378 became one of the sheriffs of the City. Having 
 amassed considerable wealth, he bought some broad lands in 
 Suffolk, to which his son John, who represented the county in 
 Parliament, added by the purchase of the estate of Brome. 
 From that time the family rose steadily in importance, being 
 always steadfast in their loyalty to the Throne. In 1599, 
 William Cornwallis was knighted at Dublin for his services 
 against the Irish rebels, and in 1627, Frederick Cornwallis, 
 his son, was created a baronet by Charles the First. After the 
 death of Sir William Cornwallis, his widow married Sir 
 Nathaniel Bacon, a half-brother of the philosopher, but only 
 enjoyed a single year of this second stage of wedded life. The 
 marriage, however, had one important result. Sir Nathaniel 
 Bacon, who died in 1615, left the estate of Culford, near 
 Bury, in Suffolk, to his widow, from whom it in due course 
 descended to Sir Frederick Cornwallis, and became the prin- 
 cipal seat of the family. Having thus become an important 
 member of the landed aristocracy of the county, and being 
 distinguished for his loyalty to the Stuarts, Sir Frederick 
 Cornwallis, on the 20th of April, 1661, was created Baron 
 Cornwallis of Eye. On the 30th of June, 1753, the fifth 
 baron was raised to an earldom by the title of Earl Cornwallis 
 and Viscount Brome. 
 
 He had married in 1722 a daughter of Lord Townshend ;
 
 SCHOOL LIFE. 3 
 
 and five daughters in succession had been born to him, when 1788. 
 just as the old year, 1738, was dying out, the Cornwallis Parentage and 
 family, then resident in Grosvenor-square, were gladdened by educatioD - 
 the birth of an heir to the title. On the 15th of January fol- 
 lowing the boy was baptised at St. George's, Hanover-square, 
 and received the name of Charles. Of his childhood it would 
 appear that there is no record ; but whilst yet a little fellow 
 Charles Cornwallis was sent to Eton, and made such good 
 progress, that, when only half through his sixteenth year, he 
 was near the top of the sixth form.* At school an accident 
 befel him which might have had very serious consequences. 
 It would seem that in those days the laws of " hockey," as 
 played at Eton, were not instituted in accordance with those 
 principles of safety which were observed at a later period. A 
 schoolfellow, by a sad mischance, struck him on the eye with 
 his hockey-stick, so violently as for a time to endanger his 
 sight, and to produce " a slight but permanent obliquity of 
 vision, "f It was, not improbably, in consequence of this and 
 similar accidents, that a rule was passed compelling the player 
 to use his stick with both hands and never to lift the crook 
 above the knee of the striker. 
 
 On leaving Eton, Lord Brome for by this time his father Military 
 had been promoted to an earldom made free choice of the educatlon> 
 Army for his profession. At the age of eighteen a commis- 
 sion was obtained for him in the First Regiment of Guards ; 
 and he began at once to think seriously of doing his duty, with 
 all his miffht, in the state of life to which he had been called : 
 
 O 7 
 
 and, being a soldier, to make himself a good one. The Duke 
 of Cumberland then commanded the Army, and from him 
 permission was sought for the young Guardsman to travel on 
 the Continent, and at some foreign Military Academy to qua- 
 lify himself for the active duties of his profession. The desired 
 leave was granted in a letter from his Royal Highness to Lord 
 
 * I stated in this Memoir as origin- year, it is obvious that he went to Eton 
 ally published, that he went to Eton as not as Lord Brome, but as Mr. Corn- 
 Lord Brome. The same statement is wallis. 
 
 made by Mr. Ross in his most valuable t Ross, p. 3. The boy was Shute 
 
 and well-edited collection of Cornwallis Barrington, afterwards Bishop, succes- 
 
 papers. But as the title of Viscount sively, of Llandaff, Salisbury, and Dur- 
 
 Brome was not created until the young ham. 
 heir was far advanced in his fifteenth 
 
 B2
 
 4 LORD COBNWALL1S. 
 
 175758. Cornwallis, without any stops in it, in which he paid Lord 
 Brome a somewhat equivocal compliment by saying that he 
 had " less of our home education than most young men." So, 
 accompanied by a Prussian officer named Roguin, as his tra- 
 velling tutor, the young nobleman left England, and after 
 exploring some of the great continental cities, established 
 himself at the famous Military Academy at Turin, where he 
 entered upon a course of study profitable alike to body and 
 to mind. He began his day's work at seven o'clock with 
 dancing exercise in the public salon ; at eight he took a course 
 of German ; from nine to eleven he spent in the riding-school ; 
 at eleven he was handed over to the Maitre d'Armes; from 
 twelve to three was devoted to dinner and recreation ; at three 
 he received private instruction in mathematics and fortification ; 
 and at five he had private dancing lessons. " En suite," said 
 M. de Roguin, in an amusing letter to the Earl, written in 
 very bad French, " quelques visites, 1' Opera et le souper." 
 He made good progress in his exercises, especially in those of 
 the more active kind, and evinced an excellent disposition, a 
 power of self-control and resistance of evil, very unusual, at 
 that time, in young aristocrats at the dawn of manhood. 
 The Seven But there was better training than that to be derived from 
 
 Tears' War. scholastic life in any military academy, and Lord Brome was 
 eager to gain experience in the great school of active warfare. 
 Events were taking shape which threatened, or, in the esti- 
 mation of the young soldier promised, to turn the continent 
 of Europe into a great camp. "I see swarms of Austrians, 
 French, Imperialists, Swedes, and Russians," wrote Lord 
 Chesterfield in August, 1758, "in all near four hundred 
 thousand men, surrounding the King of Prussia and Prince 
 Ferdinand, who have about a third of that number. Hitherto 
 they have only buzzed, but now I fear they will sting." Eng- 
 land was about to cast in her lot with the weaker side, and to 
 espouse what to many on-lookers seemed a hopeless cause. 
 " Were it any other man than the King of Prussia," said the 
 same brilliant letter- writer a few weeks afterwards, " I should 
 not hesitate to pronounce him ruined, but he is such a prodigy 
 of a man that I will only say I fear he may be ruined." Lord 
 Brome was at Geneva when tidings reached him that an 
 English army was about to be employed in Germany, and that
 
 THE SEVEN YEAKS' WAR. 5 
 
 the Guards were to take the field. This roused all his military 1758 ci. 
 enthusiasm, and he hurried through Switzerland, cursing the 
 country for its want of posts, and arrived at Cologne only to 
 find himself too late. " Only imagine," he wrote to his friend 
 and relative, Tom Townshend, " having set out without leave, 
 come two hundred leagues, and my regiment gone without 
 me !" What was to be done ? He might offer himself as a 
 volunteer to Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, but it was re- 
 ported that the King had forbidden, and that the Duke had 
 set his face against, volunteering. He " resolved, however, 
 to try, and was received in the kindest manner." Six weeks 
 afterwards the English, under Lord Granby, joined the camp 
 at Dulmen, in Westphalia ; and the General then appointed 
 Lord Brome an aide-de-camp on his personal staff. 
 
 Nothing could have pleased the young soldier better than 
 this, for there was an opportunity of seeing service under the 
 happiest auspices. After little less than a year's campaigning, 
 it was his fortune to be present at a great action, in which the 
 English took a conspicuous part. On the 1st of August, 1759^ 
 the battle of Minden was fought not wholly to our national 
 glory and Lord Brome rode beside the Commander of the 
 British forces. Soon after this affair, he was promoted to a 
 company in a newly-formed regiment, the Eighty-fifth, and 
 was compelled to join it in England. There lie remained 
 until 1761, when, in his twenty-third year, he was promoted 
 to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and placed in command of 
 the 12th Foot, which was then with the army in Germany. 
 Hastening to join the camp of Lord Granby, he found his old 
 friend preparing for active operations against the enemy. The 
 French General, Broglie, had been joined by the Prince de 
 Soubise, and they were meditating an -attack on the English 
 and Hanoverian lines near Hohenower. On the evening of 
 the loth of July, Broglie flung himself with desperate resolution 
 on Lord Granby's outposts, feeling well assured that he would 
 carry everything before him. The English General, not for- 
 getful of his old aide-de-camp, gave Lord Brome an oppor- 
 tunity of distinguishing himself, by sending him to the sup- 
 port of the picquets ; and he did his work so well that the 
 enemy were repulsed with heavy loss, and next day, when the 
 action became general, were fairly beaten. Throughout the
 
 6 LOED COBNWALL1S. 
 
 176166. remainder of this year and the earlier part of 1762, Lord 
 Brome saw much service with his regiment in Germany, and 
 was repeatedly engaged in minor affairs with the enemy. The 
 Twelfth was one of the best regiments in the field, and was 
 always in the front when there was work to be done. 
 
 But the famous Seven Years' War was now drawing to a 
 close. France was exhausted; England was weary; and 
 Prussia had gained, or rather retained all that she desired. 
 The time had come for serious negotiation tending to a favour- 
 able issue. In the personal history, too, of Lord Brome an 
 important conjuncture had arisen. On the 23rd of July, 
 1762, his father died, and he became Earl Cornwallis. In the 
 course of the following November he took his seat in the 
 House of Lords. But his heart was with his old regiment, 
 and he still clung to his military duties. He loved country 
 quarters better than the atmosphere of Parliament and the 
 Court, and he went with the Twelfth from one country town 
 to another, with no wish to take part in the strife of political 
 factions, or in the intrigues surrounding the throne of the 
 young King. He was at no time of his life a very vehement 
 partisan. Loyal to the core, he supported the Sovereign and 
 his Ministers when he could do so with a safe conscience. If 
 he followed any man, it was 'Lord Shelburne, with whom he 
 had lived on terms of intimacy, when they were brothers-in- 
 arms on the great battle-fields of Germany, and wKb had laid 
 down the sword for the portfolio, and entered upon that career 
 of statesmanship which led him in time to the Premiership of 
 England. 
 
 In 1765, the Rockingham Ministry was formed, and the 
 new Prime Minister being anxious to conciliate Lord Shel- 
 burne by serving his friends, appointed Lord Cornwallis a 
 Lord of the Bedchamber. A few weeks afterwards he was 
 made an Aide-de-camp to the King. In the following year 
 he was appointed Colonel of the Thirty-third Regiment, and 
 one of the Chief Justices in Eyre, a conjunction of offices 
 which may appear to the uninitiated reader strange and in- 
 consistent, but the functions of the Chief Justiceship, which 
 was a relic of old feudal times, mainly relating to the matter 
 of forest rights, had long since fallen into desuetude, and the 
 office had become a sinecure.
 
 COBNWALL1S AND JUNIUS. 7 
 
 In the month of July, 1768, being then in his thirtieth 176870. 
 year, Lord Cornwallis marriecl a daughter of Cojlonel Jones, 
 of the Second Regiment of Guards. With this lady, who was 
 eight or nine years his junior, he lived for some time in a 
 state of almost unclouded happiness. In March, 1769, a 
 daughter was born to them. He does not appear to have 
 taken, at this time, much part in public affairs. The Ame- The American 
 rican question was then beginning to assume gigantic pro- i uestlon - 
 portions, and no man could help having, or avoid expressing 
 opinions on such a subject. The sympathies of Lord Corn- 
 wallis were with the Americans and Lord Chatham. In 
 March, 1766, a few months before that great statesman was 
 raised to the Peerage, the young Earl had voted in a minority 
 of five against the asserted right of taxing the American colo- 
 nies. It is probable, however, that he was not sorry to absent 
 himself as much as he reasonably and properly could from the 
 House of Lords, that he might not vote against the King. 
 What was the precise character of his relations with Govern- 
 ment it is impossible "to say. But in the early part of 1770, 
 when the Duke of Grafton was Prime Minister, he was ap- 
 pointed to the lucrative office of Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, 
 the duties of which were performed by deputy, and before the 
 end of the year he was made Constable of the Tower. There 
 was something strange and inexplicable in his position, which 
 did not escape remark ; and r the great anonymous writer, 
 whose malignant vigilance nothing in high places could escape, 
 fell upon him with remorseless vigour.* 
 
 * What Junius, under the acknow- of Lord Bute, the Bedfords, and the 
 ledged signature of " Domitian," said of Tories ? Since the time at which these 
 him was this : " My sincere compassion were the only topics of his conversation, 
 for Lord Cornwallis arises not so much I presume he has shifted his company 
 from his quality as from his time of as well as his opinions. Will he tell the 
 life. A young man by his spirited con- world to which of his uncles, or to what 
 duct may atone for the deficiencies of friend to Phillipson or a Tory Lord 
 his understanding. Where was the he owes the advice which has directed 
 memory of the noble Lord, and what his conduct ? I will not press him fur- 
 kind of intellect must he possess, when ther. The young man has taken a wise 
 he resigns his place, yet continues in the resolution at last, for he is retiring into 
 support of the administration, makes a a voluntary banishment in hopes of re- 
 parade of attending Lord North's levee, covering the ruin of his reputation." 
 and pays a public homage to the deputy This letter was dated March 5, 1770, at 
 of Lord Bute ? Where is now his at- which time Lord Cornwallis was Irish 
 tachment, where are now his professions Vice-Treasurer. The place, therefore, 
 to Lord Chatham, his zeal for the Whig which he is said to have resigned must 
 interest of England, and his detestation have been the Chief Justiceship in Eyre,
 
 8 LOUD COKNWALL1S. 
 
 177076. From the close of the year 1770_to the dawn of 1776, 
 during which England drifted into the American war, there 
 is but little trace of the public career of Lord Cornwallis. He 
 continued to hold the office of Constable of the Tower, but in 
 May, 1771, the Vice-Treasurership of Ireland passed from 
 him. He was very happy in his domestic life, and his happi- 
 ness was increased, in the course of the year 1774, by the birth 
 of a son. If he had followed only his own tastes and incli- 
 nations at that time, he would have retired altogether from 
 public life ; for he was very little incited by ambition, and 
 there was not a taint of avarice in his nature. But England 
 was now on the eve of a great crisis, and the King had need 
 of the best energies of all his servants. It was not a good 
 cause for which Cornwallis was now again called upon to 
 unsheath the sword ; he had publicly, indeed, proclaimed his 
 antipathy to the measures out of which had arisen the bitter 
 strife which could now be allayed only by the last arbitrement 
 of arms. In such a conjuncture there will, perhaps, always 
 be some conflict of opinion among honourable men with re- 
 spect to the right course of individual action. Lord Chatham, 
 by temporarily withdrawing his own son from the King's 
 army, demonstratively asserted the doctrine that no man ought 
 to use his sword in an unrighteous cause. But Lord Corn- 
 wallis believed that it was his first duty, as a soldier, to obey 
 the orders of his King ; and to render unto Caesar the things 
 that were Caesar's, at any sacrifice both of private judgment 
 and of private convenience. It was a sore trial to him, for his 
 wife importuned him not to go, and even, it is said, by the 
 help of a powerful relative, prevailed upon the King to release 
 him from his obligations. But he would not avail himself of 
 this permission to remain in England. He took up the com- 
 mission of Lieutenant-General, which had been bestowed upon 
 him, and at the beginning of 1776 took command of his divi- 
 sion, which was under orders to embark at Cork. 
 
 which he had ceased to hold in the pre- American questions were " adverse to 
 
 ceding year. The reference can scarcely the well-known wishes of the King." 
 
 be to the appointment in the Household, It is suggested that " absence from 
 
 which he had resigned some four years London on account of regimental 
 
 before. Mr. Ross says that it is "im- duties," might have, to some extent, 
 
 possible to explain" the letter of " Do- interfered with regular attendance in 
 
 mitian," as Lord Cornwallis was present Parliament, but this could not have ex- 
 
 in the House of Lords as frequently as tended beyond March, 1766, when Lord 
 
 in former years, and all his votes on Cornwallis became a full Colonel,
 
 IN AMERICA. 9 
 
 The arrangements for embarkation were defective. There 1776. 
 were unfortunate delays on shore ; and then there was a long The American 
 and disastrous voyage, at a time when it was beyond calcula- war ' 
 tion important that the reinforcements should arrive in time 
 to co-operate with Clinton for the defence of the loyalists in 
 Carolina. Everything went wrong, and continued to go 
 wrong. It was altogether a hopeless case even when first Lord 
 Cornwallis arrived in America. A few weeks afterwards the 
 Declaration of Independence was signed ; and no efforts of 
 the King's Government could then crush out the liberties of 
 the nation. Our soldiers did their work, but as men oppressed 
 and weighed down by the badness of the cause. Neither 
 skill nor gallantry availed ; nothing prospered with us ; and 
 there was not a general officer in the service who did not long 
 to be relieved of his command, if he could honourably with- 
 draw from the contest. 
 
 At that time Sir William Howe commanded the King's 
 troops in America. The successes which he obtained were 
 more like defeats, for he never followed them up ; and oppor- 
 tunities were lost never to be recovered. It seemed as though 
 the English General had been sent out for the express purpose 
 of letting the enemy escape. He never would cut them up 
 himself, nor would he suffer the officers who served under him 
 to be more prompt in their movements and more vigorous in 
 their acts. Once Cornwallis had it within his power to inflict 
 a blow upon Washington's army, from which it could never 
 have recovered. The rebel troops, encumbered with a heavy 
 train of artillery, were in panic flight before him, and he had 
 been strongly reinforced ; but just as the enemy seemed to 
 be within his grasp, he received orders to halt at Brunswick, 
 and before he had permission to advance again, the fugitives 
 were beyond his reach. * This was in the earlier part of De- 
 cember, 1776 ; but, before the end of the month, Washington 
 had sufficiently recovered to cross the Delaware, to surprise 
 
 * Sir "William Howe, in his official so great was the confusion among them, 
 account of this matter, says : " In that their army must inevitably have 
 Jersey, upon the approach of the van of been cut to pieces. My first design ex- 
 Lord Cornwallis's corps to Brunswick tending no further than to get and keep 
 by a forced march on the 1st instant, possession of East Jersey, Lord Corn- 
 the enemy went off most precipitately wallis had orders not to advance beyond 
 to Prince-town ; and, had they not pre- Brunswick, which occasioned him to 
 vented the passage of the Raritan, by discontinue his pursuit," &c. &c. Corn- 
 brpnkinga part of the Brunswick bridge, iraHis Correspondence. Ross.
 
 10 LOBD COBNWALLIS. 
 
 1777. the English posts at Delaware, to capture our guns, to make 
 prisoners of nearly all our men, and to occupy the place with 
 rebel troops. The English and the Hessians had been keeping 
 up Christmas somewhat freely, and the American General 
 found them in a helpless state of drunkenness or sleep. Corh- 
 wallis had by this time put his troops into winter-quarters, 
 and, believing that the operations of the season were at an 
 end, was meditating a visit to England, when news of the 
 enemy's success reached him at New York, and he at once 
 abandoned his design. Starting on New Year's-day from 
 New York, he reached Prince-town on the same evening, 
 took command of the British troops in Jersey, and advanced 
 to give battle to the enemy. Before nightfall on the 2nd he 
 had reached Trenton. The Americans evacuated the place, 
 and bivouacked on the opposite bank of a creek which ran 
 through the town. The night was spent by the two Generals 
 in reflections of a very opposite character. Cornwallis was 
 thinking how best to bring on a general action next morning, 
 whilst Washington, clearly seeing that the odds were greatly 
 against him, and victory hopeless, determined to escape under 
 cover of the night. He could not recross the Delaware, for a 
 thaw had set in, so doubled back towards Prince-town, hoping 
 to get into the rear of Cornwallis's army ; but in the thick fog 
 of the January morning he had the mischance to fall in with a 
 body of British troops, who gave him battle, and, in spite of 
 their inferiority of numbers, threw the American battalions 
 into confusion, and inflicted a severe chastisement upon them. 
 There were but two English regiments, and neither was nume- 
 rically strong ; so the advantage gained at the outset was not 
 followed up, and before Cornwallis could proceed to their sup- 
 port, the enemy had made good their retreat, had crossed the 
 Millstone river, and destroyed the bridge in their rear. It is 
 not necessary to pursue the narrative. The winter was ren- 
 dered disastrous to the King's party by the activity of Wash- 
 ington and the paralysis which had fallen upon Howe. Corn- 
 wallis received the especial thanks of his Sovereign ; but he 
 felt that there could not be a worse field of distinction than 
 that which lay before him in the American provinces.* 
 
 * I read with much pleasure your applauds the ability and conduct which 
 
 commendation of Lord Cornwallis's ser- his Lordship displayed, &c. &c. Lord 
 
 vices during the campaign, and I am to George Germain to Sir W. Howe, March 
 
 acquaint you that the King very much 3, 1777. Cornwallis Correspondence.
 
 RETURN TO ENGLAND. 11 
 
 But the time had passed for him to proceed to England 177778. 
 during that winter; so the year 1777, almost to its close, saw 
 Lord Cornwallis in the command of his division. Of the h'ttle 
 that was done well during that year, he did the greater part. 
 Sir William Howe was an easy, good-natured, popular man ; 
 but his qualities were rather of a social than a military cha- 
 racter, and excessive sloth was the characteristic of the Bri- 
 tish army under his command. It was his habit to move 
 too late and to halt too early for any useful purpose. The 
 military annalists are continually reciting the successes which 
 were within the reach of the British troops, but which were 
 always abandoned just at the point of attainment. It is ad- 
 mitted, however, that Lord Cornwallis was more prompt and 
 rapid in his movements than the other British Generals, and 
 it appears that when there was real work to be done he was 
 ever the man to be sent to the front. He did the work well, 
 too as far as he was permitted to do it. One instance will 
 suffice to show the quality of the General. In the burning 
 month of June, it seemed to the English Commander that 
 circumstances were favourable for an attack on Washington's 
 force ; and Cornwallis was sent forward, in command of the 
 van of the British army, to give him battle. He had not 
 marched far before he fell in with the leading columns of the 
 American army. No orders were now needed from higher 
 authority, so Cornwallis flung himself upon the enemy with 
 so much impetuosity that they staggered at the first onset, 
 and were soon in a state of inextricable confusion. Leaving 
 behind them their guns and their killed and wounded, they 
 fled in disorder from the field. 
 
 But the winter came round again, and Cornwallis, disap- 
 pointed in the preceding year, was now eager to return to 
 England. Sir William Howe sent him home with a commis- 
 sion to communicate with the King's Government regard- 
 ing the general history and conduct of the war. On the 18th 
 of January, 1788, he disembarked from the Brilliant, and 
 hastened to embrace his wife and children. The joy of meet- 
 ing even then was clouded by the thought of the coming 
 separation. Brief was the time of absence allowed to him, 
 and there was much in that little time to be done. The 
 months of February and March and the earlier weeks of 
 April passed rapidly away in the transaction of business with
 
 12 LOED CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1778. the King's Ministers, in attendance at the House of Lords, 
 and in sweet communion with his family. The prospect before 
 him was not cheering. His sentiments were unchanged. He 
 had heard with reverential sorrow the dying voice of Chatham 
 lifted up in a last despairing effort to save his unhappy 
 country from an ignominious peace; but he did not the less 
 deprecate the causes of the war, or disapprove of the manner 
 in which it was conducted. He had seen everything going 
 wrong, when there was only an undisciplined militia to be 
 coerced by the best troops of the King, and now France was 
 lending her aid to the cause of American Independence. It 
 was true that General Howe, who had done so much to favour 
 the triumph of the rebels, was about to resign the command of 
 the King's forces in America. But the General's place was 
 to be filled by one whom he did not like so well as a man, and 
 whom he did not trust much more as a commander. So he 
 went to the place of embarkation, at the end of the third week 
 of April, in a state of sore depression of spirit, with nothing 
 but the one abiding sense of his duty as a soldier to sustain 
 him. 
 
 Death of Lady His wife and children accompanied him to Portsmouth. 
 The parting was very painful, and Lady Cornwallis went 
 back to Culford utterly weighed down by the burden of her 
 grief. She had lived in strict retirement during the first 
 absence of her lord, and now she relapsed into her old soli- 
 tary ways, grieving and pining as one without hope, until her 
 health gave way beneath the unceasing weight of her sorrow, 
 and she said that she was dying of a broken heart. In this 
 piteous state, a strange fancy seized her. She desired that a 
 thorn-tree might be planted over her grave in the family vault 
 at Culford, just above the spot where her poor broken heart 
 would be laid, thus emblematising the fate of one whom the 
 " pricking briars and grieving thorns" had torn and pierced 
 in the tenderest parts of her humanity. This was to be her 
 epitaph. Not a word was to be graven on her tomb. 
 
 In the mean while Lord Cornwallis had rejoined the King's 
 army in America. He found that Sir Henry Clinton was on 
 the point of evacuating Philadelphia, and that there was small 
 chance of his ever being able to co-operate harmoniously with 
 his chief. He was now second in command, and he held a
 
 DEATH OF LADY COENWALLIS. 13 
 
 dormant commission to succeed, in the event of Clinton's 1779. 
 death or retirement, to the chief command of all the forces. 
 It is not very clear what was the main cause of that disagree- 
 ment, which in time ripened into a bitter feud between the 
 two Generals ; but Cornwallis had been only a very few weeks 
 in America when his position was so unbearable that he wrote 
 to the Secretary of State, begging him to lay a humble re- 
 quest before his Majesty that he might be permitted to return 
 to England. The request was not granted. His services 
 could not be dispensed with at such a time; so he went on 
 his work. But the official answer of the King's Government 
 had scarcely been received, when tidings reached Cornwallis 
 that his wife was dying. The year was then far spent, and 
 the army was going into winter-quarters ; so he determined 
 to resign his command, and to set his face again towards Eng- 
 land. The necessary permission was obtained from Clinton ;* 
 and, in a state of extreme anxiety and depression, Cornwallis 
 put himself on board ship. In the middle of the month of 
 December he reached Culford. His wife was still alive ; but 
 all hope of her recovery had gone. It was now too late even 
 for his presence to save. She survived her husband's return 
 for two months, and then passed away to her rest.f 
 
 Then a great change descended upon the character, and in- 
 fluenced all the after-career of Lord Cornwallis. It is not to 
 be doubted that the bent of his natural affections was towards 
 a quiet domestic life, and it is probable that, if this great cala- 
 mity had not fallen upon him, he would have endeavoured to 
 detach himself from the public service. But all now was 
 changed. That which had been a burden became a relief to 
 him. He turned to the excitements of active life to fill the 
 
 * Clinton put the best gloss upon the which she had expressed to be buried 
 
 matter that he could. " The Army being with_a thorn-tree planted over her heart 
 
 now in winter-quarters," he wrote to the was complied with, and no name was 
 
 Secretary of State, "and the defences engraved on the slab which marked the 
 
 of the different posts assigned, I have place in the vault at Culford where her 
 
 consented that Lieutenant-General Earl remains were interred. Mr. Ross adds, 
 
 Cornwallis should return to England, that " the thorn-tree was necessarily 
 
 where his knowledge of the country and removed in March, 1855, in consequence 
 
 our circumstances may during this sea- of alterations in the church : it was 
 
 son be as serviceable as I have found his carefully replanted in the churchyard, 
 
 experience and activity during the cam- but did not live more than three years 
 
 paign." afterwards." Cornwallis Correspond- 
 
 f Lady Cornwallis died on the 16th ence, Ross. 
 of February, 1779. The morbid fancy
 
 14 LORD COBNWALLIS. 
 
 177980. void that was left in his heart and to appease its cravings. 
 After a brief interval of mournful retirement, he looked the 
 world again in the face, and tendered his services to the King 
 for re-employment in America. 
 
 The offer was eagerly accepted, and again Lord Cornwallis 
 was appointed second in command and provisional Com- 
 mander-in-Chief in America, He was now forty years of 
 age, in the very vigour of his manhood ; and if he was not 
 stirred by any strong impulses of ambition, there was not one 
 of the King's servants who was sustained by a higher and 
 more enduring sense of duty. Duty, indeed, was now every- 
 thing to Cornwallis. The wreck of his domestic happiness 
 had endeared his work to him, and that which had before been 
 submission to a hard necessity, now became, in the changed 
 circumstances of his life, a welcome relief from the pressure 
 of a great sorrow. Perhaps even certain painful peculiarities 
 in his situation were not without their uses in distracting his 
 mind, and breaking in upon the monotony of his distress. 
 Rupture with How it happened I cannot very distinctly explain, but the 
 Clinton. King's Ministers had assuredly placed him in a position which 
 
 rendered a conflict with Sir Henry Clinton sooner or later in- 
 evitable. As second in command, with a provisional commis- 
 sion to succeed to the chiefship of the army, it was not easy 
 altogether to keep clear of jealousies and rivalries ; but as the 
 King's Government had authorised him to correspond directly 
 with them, as though he held altogether an independent com- 
 mand, there was a vagueness about the limits of authority, 
 which was sure to create perplexity and to excite antagonism 
 between the two Generals. It is probable that Clinton foresaw 
 this, for he asked permission to resign. If there were, how- 
 ever, any bitterness of feeling in his mind, he veiled it with 
 becoming courtesy. " I must beg leave," he wrote to Lord 
 George Germain, " to express how happy I am made by the 
 return of Lord Cornwallis to this country. His Lordship's 
 indefatigable zeal, his knowledge of the country, his pro- 
 fessional ability, and the high estimation in which he is held 
 by this army must naturally give me the warmest confidence 
 of efficacious support from him in every undertaking which 
 opportunity may prompt, and our circumstances allow. But 
 his presence affords to me another source of satisfaction. When
 
 BATTLE OF CAMDEN. 15 
 
 there is upon the spot an officer every way so well qualified 1780. 
 to have the interests of the country entrusted to him, I should 
 hope I might without difficulty be removed from a station 
 which nobody acquainted with its conditions will suppose to 
 have sat lightly upon me." His resignation was not ac- 
 cepted ; and the two Generals were left, to be drifted, by the 
 first tide of hostile circumstances, into deadly collision. 
 
 But at no time did Lord Cornwallis dispute the superior 
 authority of Sir Henry Clinton, or fail publicly to recognise 
 that officer as his chief. He had not long returned to America, 
 when, having heard that Clinton proposed to carry Charleston 
 by assault, he offered his services to him, and sought permis- 
 sion to accompany the stormers. " If you find," he wrote, " that 
 the enemy are obstinately bent on standing a siege, I shall 
 take it as a favour if you will let me be of the party. I can 
 be with you in eight hours from your sending to me. I should 
 be happy to attend my old friends, the Grenadiers and Light 
 Infantry, and perhaps you may think that on an occasion of 
 that sort you cannot have too many officers. I can only say 
 that, unless you see any inconvenience to the service, it is my 
 hearty wish to attend you on that occasion. As it may not be 
 proper to commit to writing, if you should approve of it, your 
 saying ' Your Lordship will take a ride at such an hour' will be 
 sufficient." It may be doubted whether it was the duty of 
 Lord Cornwallis, holding such a commission as he held, to 
 volunteer for a storming party ; but it is very difficult to blame 
 a soldier who thus for a time forgets his rank, and sinks the 
 officer in the soldier. 
 
 But Charleston was not carried by assault ; and there was The battle of 
 General's, not Subaltern's, work to be done by Cornwallis. On Camden - 
 the 12th of May, the American General, Lincoln, surrendered ; 
 and early in the following month Clinton moved to the north- 
 ward, whilst Cornwallis took the command in South Carolina, 
 with his head-quarters at Charleston. Whilst he was debating 
 in his mind the course of future operations, news came that a 
 strong body of the enemy, under General Gates, were ad- 
 vancing to attack the British troops posted at Camden ; so he 
 hastened to join the army, and placed himself at its head. It 
 was plain that the Americans were in far greater force, but he 
 at once resolved to give them battle. On the morning of the
 
 16 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1780. 16th of August, Cornwallis and Gates found themselves within 
 reach of each other. The English General commenced the 
 attack, and, after a sharp conflict, totally defeated the enemy, 
 and took their guns, ammunition, and baggage. " In short," 
 wrote the English General, " there never was a more complete 
 victory." But victories, in those days, however complete, did 
 not lead to much. After the battle of Camden, Cornwallis 
 determined to execute the design, which he had previously 
 formed, of advancing into North Carolina. But he had not 
 proceeded farther than Charlotte-town, when he found that the 
 situation of affairs was such as to preclude all hope of the suc- 
 cess of offensive operations. There was a scarcity of carriage ; 
 there was a scarcity of stores ; and, worse than all, there was 
 such a scarcity of active loyalty in North Carolina, that even 
 the most sanguine of generals could have seen but little bright- 
 ness in the prospect before him. The militia of so-called 
 " loyalists," raised in America, were not to be trusted. They 
 were as likely as not to forsake the standard of King George 
 in a critical moment, and go over bodily to his enemies. The 
 people who would have remained true to the parent State 
 were disheartened by the want of vigour with which the war 
 had been prosecuted by the King's Government, and found 
 that there was no safety for them except in adhesion to the 
 "rebel" cause. Whilst things were in this state, a serious 
 disaster occurred to a detachment of loyalists under Major 
 Ferguson, which dispelled all doubt upon the subject of the 
 comparative strength of the two parties in North Carolina ; so, 
 as it was now the month of October, Cornwallis determined to 
 take up a defensive position, and to place his army in winter- 
 quarters. He had himself fallen sick ; a severe fever had 
 seized him ; and he was incapacitated for a while for service in 
 the field. 
 
 During the winter months, Lord Cornwallis remained in- 
 active, with his forces, atWynnesborough ; but the advance into 
 North Carolina had been deferred, not abandoned, and his 
 mind was busy with the thought of the coming campaign. The 
 new year found him with restored health and renewed eager- 
 ness for action. It was scarcely, indeed, a week old, when he 
 wrote to Sir Henry Clinton that he w r as ready to begin his 
 march. But the new campaign rose, as the old had set, in a
 
 THE BATTLE OF GUILDFOED. 17 
 
 cloud of disaster. A force of all arms, sent forward under 1781. 
 Colonel Tarleton " to strike a blow at General Morgan," re- 
 ceived itself such a blow from the American, that it reeled and 
 staggered, and was so sore-stricken that it never recovered 
 again. At the first onset the enemy's line gave way, and re- 
 tired ; but when the King's troops went in pursuit, the 
 " rebels" faced about, and delivered such a sharp fire that both 
 our Infantry and our Cavalry were thrown into confusion, 
 and were soon in a state of panic flight. The Artillery, after 
 the fashion of that branch of the service, stood to their guns, 
 and surrendered them only with their lives. 
 
 This disaster at Cowpens was as serious as it was unexpected ; Battle of 
 and, although it incited Cornwallis to redouble his exertions, 
 he never wholly recovered from its effects. When the news 
 reached him, he pushed forward with all possible despatch, 
 hoping to overtake Morgan ; but the American General had a 
 clear start, and was not to be caught. So Cornwallis planted 
 the King's standard at Hillsborough ; but, forage and pro- 
 visions being scarce in the neighbourhood, he crossed the Haw 
 River about the end of February, and posted himself at Alle- 
 manse Creek. There, at the beginning of March, he gained 
 tidings of the movements of the enemy under General Greene, 
 and was eager to give them battle. On the 14th, the welcome 
 news came that the enemy had advanced to Guildford, some 
 twelve miles from the British camp. The following morning 
 saw the army under Cornwallis pushing forward to meet the 
 American forces, or to attack them in their encampments. 
 They were soon in sight of each other. An hour after noon 
 the action commenced. The country, bounded by extensive 
 woods, was unfavourable to open fighting, and afforded little 
 scope for any complicated generalship. But the simple dis- 
 positions of Cornwallis were admirable, and the English troops, 
 among which, conspicuous for their gallantry, were the Guards, 
 covered themselves with glory. They were greatly outmatched 
 in numbers.* The American General had chosen his ground, 
 had disencumbered himself of his baggage, and had ample time 
 
 * In a letter to General Phillips, given on the morning of March 15, shows that 
 
 in Mr. Ross's work, Lord Cornwallis he had nearly two thousand men, and 
 
 says that the enemy were " seven times the enemy had about seven thousand, 
 his number." But his "present state," 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 18 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1781 - to concert his plans before the English had come within reach 
 of his guns. In short, everything was against the English 
 Commander. But his own coolness and confidence in the 
 face of these heavy odds, and the unflinching courage of his 
 men, made inferiority of numbers and disadvantages of position 
 matters only of small account. Throughout the long series of 
 military operations which preceded the disruption of the Ame- 
 rican colonies from the parent State, no battle was better 
 fought by the English, no victory was more triumphantly ac- 
 complished, than that which crowned this action at Guildford. 
 The Americans, disastrously beaten at all points, fled from the 
 field of battle, and when, at a distance of eighteen miles from 
 the scene, Greene was able to rally his disordered troops, he 
 found that he had few except his Kegulars with him. The 
 American historians admit that this was a signal illustration of 
 the steadfastness and courage of the English troops when 
 effectively commanded ; whilst the English annalists of the war 
 relate that nothing grander was seen at Crecy, Poictiers, or 
 Agincourt.* In this action Cornwallis was wounded ; but he 
 would not suffer his name to appear in the list of casualties. 
 
 But it was one of the sad and sickening circumstances of 
 this unhappy war, that when the King's troops gained a 
 victory and they were victorious in well-nigh every pitched 
 battle they could never turn IfTto account. In effect, it was 
 commonly more like a defeat. Regarding it solely in its 
 military aspects, no success could have been more complete 
 than that which crowned the day's hard fighting at Guildford ; 
 but it hurt the British more than the Americans. So shattered 
 and sore-spent was Cornwallis's little army after that unequal 
 contest, that to follow up the victory was impossible ; nay, to 
 fall back and refit was necessary. There was no forage in the 
 
 * Stedman, after describing in glowing by the British troops on that memorable 
 terms the victory of Guildford, says : day. The battles of Crecy, of Poictiers, 
 " History, perhaps, does not furnish an and of Agincourt the glory of our own 
 instance of a battle gained under all the country and the admiration of ages 
 disadvantages which the British troops, had in each of them, either from parti- 
 assisted by a regiment of Hessians and cular local situation or other fortunate 
 some Yagers, had to contend against at and favourable circumstances, something 
 Onildford Court House. Nor is there, in a degree to counterbalance the supe- 
 perhaps, in the records of history, an in- riority of numbers ; here, time, place, 
 stance of a battle fought with more de- and numbers, all 'united against the 
 terminal perseverance than was shown British."
 
 THE VIRGINIAN CAMPAIGN. 19 
 
 neighbourhood ; there was no shelter. The troops were with- 1731. 
 out provisions, and the people in the vicinity were afraid to 
 supply them. Having done the best he could, therefore, for 
 his wounded, which was but little, he determined to fall back 
 to a more desirable resting-place. Three days after the battle 
 he marched out from Guildford. But he could find no con- 
 venient halting-place nearer than Wilmington ; so there he 
 planted his army on the 7th of April, and in no very sanguine 
 mood began to meditate the future of the war. 
 
 The prospects before him were anything but cheering. If Prospects of 
 it were true in tfiis instance that those who were not with the war ' 
 him were against him, nearly the whole population of the 
 American colonies was now arrayed against King George. 
 There was but little loyalty left in the country, and that little 
 was afraid to betray itself. The colonists who would have sup- 
 ported the King's cause by passive submission, if not by active 
 assistance, were weary of waiting for the deliverance they ex- 
 pected ; and as his enemies were waxing stronger and stronger 
 every day, and with increased strength gathering increased 
 bitterness, it had become absolute ruin to be on the King's 
 side. But, hopeless as was the issue, the King's Generals 
 were constrained to continue the war as best they could ; and 
 to Cornwallis it seemed best to carry it into Virginia. u If," 
 he wrote to Lord George Germaine, " it should appear to be 
 the interest of Great Britain to maintain what she already 
 possesses, and to push the war in the Southern Provinces, I 
 take the liberty of giving it as my opinion that a serious at- 
 tempt on Virginia would be the most solid plan, because suc- 
 cessful operations might not only be attended with important 
 consequences there, but would tend to the security of South 
 Carolina, and ultimately to the submission of North Carolina," 
 And there were immediate considerations which rendered it 
 expedient that he should put his plans into execution without 
 any loss of time. " My situation here is very distressing," he 
 wrote from Wilmington to his friend General Phillips, on the 
 24th of April. " Greene took the advantage of my being 
 obliged to come to this place, and has marched to South 
 Carolina. My expresses to Lord Rawdon on my leaving Cross 
 Creek, warning him of the possibility of such a movement, 
 have all failed ; mountaineers and militia have poured into the
 
 20 LOED CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1781. back part of that province, and I much fear that Lord Rawdon's 
 posts will be so distant from each other, and his troops so 
 scattered, as to put him into the greatest danger of being beat 
 in detail, and that the worst consequences may happen to 
 most of the troops out of Charles-town. By a direct move 
 towards Camden, I cannot get time enough to relieve Lord 
 Rawdon ; and, should he have fallen, my army would be ex- 
 posed to the utmost danger, from the great rivers I should 
 have to pass, the exhausted state of the country, the numerous 
 militia, the almost universal spirit of revolt which prevails in 
 South Carolina, and the strength of Greene's army, whose 
 continentals alone are at least as numerous as I am ; and I 
 could be of no use on my arrival at Charles-town, there being 
 nothing to apprehend at present for that post. I shall, there- 
 fore, immediately march up the country by Duplin Court 
 House, pointing towards Hillsborough, in hopes to withdraw 
 Greene. If that should not succeed, I should be much tempted 
 to try to form a junction with you."* On the following day 
 he marched from Wilmington; but at that very time Lord 
 Rawdon was in hot conflict with Greene at Hobkirk's Hill. 
 The English troops, according to their wont, were victorious in 
 action ; but they could make nothing of their victory, and the 
 enemy, though beaten, escaped. 
 
 Advance into ^he ground, however, was clear for Cornwallis's advance, 
 and, during the space of three or four weeks, he marched un- 
 interruptedly right through North Carolina into the Virginian 
 provinces. He had spoken of the attempt, in the letter above 
 quoted, to form a junction with Phillips only as a contingency, 
 but he appears in reality to have determined upon it ; and on 
 the 20th of May he was at Petersburg. He arrived with a heavy 
 heart ; for, as he entered Virginia, he learned that his friend, 
 whom he was advancing to relieve, and on whose co-operation 
 he had relied, was lying cold in his grave. It was, indeed, a 
 heavy loss both to himself and to his country, and it cast a 
 cloud over the prospects of the campaign. He had at no time 
 been very hopeful of the issue ; but he saw that the only thing 
 to be done was to carry the war into Virginia, and so he pro- 
 ceeded at once to map out his operations. " I shall now pro- 
 
 * This letter is printed at length in ply to Sir Henry Clinton's Narrative," 
 the Appendix to Lord Cornwallis's " Re- published in 1783.
 
 THE VIKGINIAN CAMPAIGN. 21 
 
 ceed," lie wrote to Clinton on the 26th of May, "to dislodge 1781. 
 La Fayetto from Richmond, and, with my light troops, to 
 destroy any magazines or stores in the neighbourhood which 
 may have been collected either for his use or General Greene's 
 army. From thence I purpose to move to the neck at Williams- 
 burg, which is represented as healthy, and where some sub- 
 sistence may be procured, and keep myself unengaged from 
 operations which might interfere with your plan for the cam- 
 paign until I have the satisfaction of hearing from you. I hope 
 I shall then have. an opportunity to receive better information 
 than has been in my power to procure relative to a proper 
 harbour and place of arms. At present, I am inclined to think 
 well of York."* He had already, indeed, commenced his 
 march, and was pressing on towards Richmond when he wrote. 
 Once he contrived to draw La Fayette into battle, and gave 
 him so warm a reception, that if night had not fallen on the 
 conflict, he might have taken the Frenchman's whole corps. 
 But from this time the tide of fortune turned, darkly and 
 sadly, against the English Commanders. The eventual success 
 of the King's troops had long become hopeless. Ah 1 the seeds 
 of a great failure were in the very nature of the business itself, 
 and it needed but one adventitious circumstance to develop 
 them speedily into a great harvest of disaster. Small chance 
 is there that a military expedition should prosper at any time, 
 when the leaders are divided against themselves. There was 
 need, at this time, for the most perfect unity of action. But 
 Cornwallis and Clinton were operating, in different parts of 
 the country, without any common plan of action. The com- 
 munications between the two forces were extremely defective, 
 and it is doubtful whether the Generals cared to improve them. 
 It was for years afterwards a subject of vehement controversial 
 discussion whether Clinton had or not approved of the ex- 
 pedition into Virginia at all. Irritated, and perhaps not with- 
 out reason, by the permission given to Cornwallis to correspond 
 directly with the King's Government, the Commander-in- 
 
 * The truth is, that not feeling cer- had " resolved" to take advantage of 
 
 tain that he would succeed, he was un- General Greene's having left the back 
 
 willing to raise expectations in Phillips's part of Virginia open, and march imme- 
 
 mind which might not be realised by diately into that province to attempt a 
 
 the result ; but he wrote at the same junction with General Phillips." 
 time to the King's Government that he
 
 22 LORD COBNWALL1S. 
 
 1781. Chief said sneeringly that he did not know but that his Lord- 
 ship had received his orders from the Secretary of State ; and 
 Cornwallis declared that the style of Clinton's letters to him 
 was so offensive, that he would have thrown up his command 
 in disgust, had the circumstances of the war at that time been 
 of a less critical character. It is not necessary to pursue the 
 story of these dissensions. It is enough that whilst the power 
 of the English was rapidly crumbling away, the Americans 
 were gathering fresh strength for the contest. Large rein- 
 forcements were coming in from France ; and the military 
 genius of the colonists was in course of rapid development. 
 It was plain that the Allies were meditating a grand attack 
 upon the English forces ; but so imperfect was our knowledge 
 of their movements and their designs, that it was uncertain 
 whether the great descent would be made on Clinton's position 
 at New York or on Cornwallis's on the York River. So each 
 General was eager to be reinforced by the other, and the 
 energies of the British troops were wasted in embarkations and 
 disembarkations and fruitless preparations for contingencies 
 that never occurred. 
 
 All idea of offensive operations in Virginia had now been 
 abandoned. Cornwallis had posted his troops at York and Glou- 
 cester, two small towns or villages on opposite banks of the 
 York River, and there he began at once to throw up defensive 
 works. On the 22nd of August he wrote to Clinton, saying that 
 " his experience of the fatigue and difficulty of constructing 
 works in that warm season, convinced him that all the labour 
 that the troops there would be capable of without ruining their 
 health would be required for at least six weeks to put the in- 
 tended works at this place in a tolerable state of defence." And 
 as time advanced, and the works proceeded, it was manifest 
 that he would have need of all the defensive power that he 
 could create ; for in the early autumn it became certain that 
 Washington was about to concentrate all his energies upon a 
 decisive attack on Cornwallis's position. In truth, he was now 
 in imminent danger and all that he could do was to work and 
 to wait. " While fleets and armies," writes one of the histo- 
 rians of the war " Frenchmen from Rhode Island and the 
 West Indies, and Americans from North, South, East, and West 
 were gathering round him, Lord Cornwallis continued to for-
 
 THE SURRENDER OF YORK TOWN. 23 
 
 tify his positions as well as he could, and to indulge in the 1781. 
 hope that Sir Henry Clinton would be enabled, by means of 
 the arrival of Admiral Digby, to co-operate with him, and to 
 bring round to the Chesapeake such a force of men and ships 
 as would turn the scale entirely in favour of the British." He 
 was now, indeed, in the toils of the enemy, who were closing 
 around him, and the success so eagerly looked for still seemed 
 to be far off. If in that conjuncture he had wholly desponded, 
 he would, as his own natural inclinations prompted him, have 
 gone out to try conclusions with the enemy, and, in his despair, 
 risked everything upon the gambler's throw ; but he still hoped 
 that the promised relief would come, so he continued to stand 
 upon the defensive. 
 
 What follows is a well-known passage in English history. The surrender 
 As the autumn advanced, the French and American armies, 
 strong in numbers, strong in all the equipments of war, with 
 the best skill of European artillerymen and engineers, con- 
 .tinuecl to close around Cornwallis's lines ; and at the end of 
 September they commenced the attack. York Town was but 
 a poor village, and the King's troops had not been able so 
 to strengthen their defences as to enable them to stand a 
 regular siege. In this emergency the only substantial hope 
 of success lay in the arrival of succours from Clinton's 
 force. The tactics of the enemy, which had before been 
 doubtful, were now fully developed beyond all questioning, 
 and there was no longer any doubt respecting the point on 
 which all the strength of the British should be concentrated. 
 But the reinforcements, which might have saved him, did not 
 come. Day after day, Cornwallis waited eagerly for tidings 
 of the coming help that might turn a disastrous failure into a 
 glorious success. Clinton had written to say that he was send- 
 ing five thousand men to his relief. But the troop-ships from 
 New York did not make their longed-for appearance in the 
 Chesapeake, and, in the mean while, the heavy ordnance of 
 the enemy was telling with mighty effect upon the British 
 works. The courage and constancy of the besieged were of 
 the highest order, and Cornwallis was not a man to be inactive 
 if anything could be done by fighting. But never since the 
 world began has there been so pitiful a record of wasted 
 bravery as that which lies before us in the annals of our cam-
 
 24 10ED COENWALLIS. 
 
 1781. paigns in America. When our people made a gallant sortie 
 upon the destroying batteries of the enemy, and spiked their 
 guns, complete as was the first success of the brave exploit, it 
 was as profitless as all our other successes. The guns were 
 soon made serviceable again, and our position was more sorely 
 pressed than before. Then Cornwallis saw clearly that there 
 was no longer any hope of a successful issue to his defensive 
 operations. The month of October was fast wearing away, 
 and there was no appearance of the promised succours. There 
 were only two ways of saving the army under his command. 
 One was by surrender, against which his soul revolted, and 
 the other was by cutting his way through the enemy ; and 
 this, hazardous as it was, had far greater attractions for him. 
 So he resolved, under the cover of the night, to embark his 
 troops, to cross the river, and to force his way through the 
 enemy's lines on the opposite bank. It was a resolution 
 worthy of a brave man; but Providence forbade its suc- 
 cessful issue. The attempt was made, but it failed. A violent 
 storm arose, and baffled the enterprise midway towards com- 
 pletion. The boats which had crossed the river with a portion 
 of the force could not be sent back to bring over the re- 
 mainder, and before the wind had moderated the favouring 
 darkness had passed. All that Cornwallis could then do was 
 to withdraw the regiments that had passed over from their 
 perilous position on the opposite bank of the river, and to 
 seek safety behind the lines of York Town. 
 
 But there was no longer any safety to be found there. 
 The works were crumbling to pieces. The ammunition in 
 store was well-nigh exhausted. Sickness had broken out 
 among the troops, and there was barely enough effective 
 strength in garrison to man the lines. The longed-for suc- 
 cours were now past hoping for ; and the last throw of de- 
 spairing heroism had failed. In this extremity, on the 18th 
 of October Cornwallis called a council of his chief officers and 
 engineers ; but no man could speak words of comfort to him, 
 or fortify him with assurances that there were any means of 
 resisting the assaults of the enemy, which were then hourly 
 expected. " Under all these circumstances, I thought," he 
 wrote afterwards to Sir Henry Clinton, " it would have been 
 wanton and inhuman to the last degree to sacrifice the lives
 
 THE SURRENDER OF YORK TOWN. 25 
 
 of this small body of gallant soldiers, who had ever behaved 1781. 
 with so much fidelity and courage, by exposing them to an 
 assault which, from the numbers and precautions of the 
 enemy, could not fail to succeed. I therefore proposed to 
 capitulate." 
 
 A letter was, therefore, addressed to Washington, who 
 answered that, ardently desirous to spare the further effusion 
 of blood, he would willingly discuss such terms of surrender 
 as he might consider admissible. The terms agreed upon were 
 that the British garrison should march out of York Town 
 "with shouldered arms, colours cased, and drums beating" 
 the cavalry with swords drawn and trumpets sounding 
 and that then they were to ground their arms, and to become 
 prisoners of war. The officers, however, were to be allowed 
 to retain their side-arms.* In effect, this humiliating reverse 
 brought the war in America to a close, though it was feebly 
 maintained for a space of more than another year. Corn- 
 wallis had attempted to negotiate terms, permitting the offi- 
 cers and men under him to leave America for England or 
 Germany on parole. To this Washington would not accede, 
 and so the prisoners of war were to remain on the scene of the 
 disaster, under the supervision of the allies. The French in 
 this conjuncture behaved with a generosity that it is pleasant 
 to record. " The treatment in general," wrote Cornwallis, a 
 few days after his surrender, " that we have received from the 
 enemy has been perfectly good and proper ; but the kindness 
 and attention that have been shown to us by the French 
 officers in particular their delicate sensibility of our situation 
 their generous and pressing offers of money, both public 
 and private, to any amount has really gone beyond what I 
 can possibly describe, and will, I hope, make an impression 
 on the breast of every British officer, whenever the fortune of 
 war should put any of them into our power." Good words, 
 and worthy to be remembered ; a generous recognition of con- 
 duct right generous in an enemy, becoming the chivalry of the 
 two foremost nations of the world. 
 
 But Coruwallis was not doomed to remain long a captive 
 in America. It happened that one of the commissioners ap- 
 
 * There were several other subsidiary articles, but it is necessary only to recite 
 the above.
 
 26 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 178183. pointed by Washington to negotiate the terms of capitulation 
 was Colonel John Laurens, whose father, Henry Laurens, 
 President of Congress, had been captured by the English, 
 and was then a prisoner in our hands. Nay, more having 
 been committed to the Tower, he was nominally in the cus- 
 tody of Lord Cornwallis, who still retained the office of Con- 
 stable. So it was thought that an exchange of these two 
 Return to illustrious prisoners might be effected. Cornwallis, therefore, 
 England. was allowed to leave America on his parole. He arrived in 
 England a few days after the dawn of the new year. But the 
 negotiation of the exchange was a long and weary business, 
 and dragged painfully all through the year. The Americans 
 denied that they had promised to release Cornwallis in ex- 
 change for Laurens, and having taken another English Ge- 
 neral,* who might be exchanged for their countryman, thought 
 it would be well to continue the parole of the first, and at one 
 time threatened to recal him to America. All this disquieted 
 him greatly. There was at the same time, too, another source 
 of trouble. Sir Henry Clinton had returned to England, and 
 had commenced a war of pamphlets, in which Cornwallis feft 
 himself obliged to take part in self-defence. The main ques- 
 tion so acrimoniously discussed was whether Clinton had, or 
 had not, sanctioned the operations in Virginia which were 
 brought to so disastrous a close. A large mass of correspond- 
 ence was produced by both disputants in support of their 
 several assertions, with the result that generally attends paper- 
 warfare of this kind. Neither party was convinced by the 
 other ; public opinion was divided ; and the question remained 
 at the end of the controversy in the same state as when it was 
 commenced. 
 
 But the discussion came to an end without a duel, and at 
 last Cornwallis was released from his parole. He then became 
 eager for re-employment in the line of his profession. He 
 had little taste for party politics, and his position was not a 
 pleasant one, for the most cherished of his personal friends, 
 and those with whose sentiments he most sympathised, were 
 in Opposition ;f and as he held an appointment under Go- 
 
 * General Burgoyne. Prime Minister from July, 1782, to 
 
 f Lord Shelburne, whom he always April, 1783, when his ministry was 
 regarded as his political leader, was overthrown.
 
 RESIGNATION OF THE CONSTABLESHIP OF THE TOWER. 27 
 
 vernment,* he considered it his duty to take a decided course, 178384. 
 and to place his office at the disposal of the Crown. The King 
 had at first declined to accept his resignation ; but, in the be- 
 ginning of 1784, Cornwallis felt that he could no longer hold 
 the office with honour. " You will agree with me," he wrote 
 to his friend Colonel Ross, in January, " that in the present 
 state of parties in this country it was impossible for me to 
 hold it long without becoming contemptible to all sides, and 
 that, perhaps, I had already held it too long; indeed, I am 
 convinced that I ought to have resigned on the coming in of 
 the Coalition."f He had now fully made up his mind, and 
 although, as he said, he should " lose a much greater part of 
 his income than he could afford/' he resigned the Constable- Resignation of 
 ship, and Lord George Lennox was appointed to succeed him. *i? 
 But the King had not many good soldiers in those days ; and 
 Cornwallis was not a man to be shelved. If no great success 
 had attended his operations in America, it was generally con- 
 ceived that he had done better than any one else. He was a 
 brave soldier, and, when opportunity offered, he had proved 
 himself to be a good general. But, above all, he was a man 
 of true nobility of nature, and thoroughly to be trusted. The 
 King's Government, indeed, had unabated confidence in him, 
 though the " fortune of war" had been adverse, and were 
 
 o * 
 
 anxious again to re-employ him on some service of responsi- 
 bility, and sounded him as to his willingness to go to India. 
 Lord Shelburne had been the first to enter into friendly com- 
 munication with him on the subject ; but whilst he was on his 
 parole, Cornwallis would not suffer himself even to think of 
 employment abroad. It was not, however, the partiality of 
 a friend that dictated this proposal. When Shelburne was 
 driven from office and the Coalition were in power, Lord 
 NorthJ and Mr. Fox seemed to be equally anxious to secure 
 
 .* The office of Constable of the North had asked whether I would go to 
 
 Tower was then a civil office. India. He answered that he supposed I 
 
 f This was the coalition between would, if it was proposed to me to go 
 
 North and Fox, which drove Lord Shel- in a proper situation. As, however, I 
 
 burne from office, and afterwards, in the have heard nothing from Lord North, 
 
 face of much regal reluctance, was per- with whom I have such easy communica- 
 
 mitted to form a Cabinet; tion, I conclude that nothing is seriously 
 
 J " Lord Hinchinbrook," wrote Lord meant. As the time of year for talking 
 
 Cornwallis to Mr. Ross, Oct. 26, 1783, on the terrace was over, I could not con- 
 
 " whom I saw when I was at Eton, told veniently see his Majesty." Cornwallis 
 
 me that the King said to him that Lord Correspondence. Ross.
 
 28 LOKD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1783. the services of Cornwallis. Fox, indeed, though in no wise 
 his friend, private or political, paid him the highest possible 
 
 Nov. 18, 1783. tribute in the course of his speech on the India Bill.* But 
 there was a change of Ministry, followed by a general elec- 
 tion ; and the reins of empire were now securely in the hands 
 of Mr. Pitt. The new year found Cornwallis manifestly re- 
 luctant to take service in India. " Should any proposals be 
 hereafter made to me relative to India," he had written to 
 Colonel Ross in December, " I do not feel at all inclined to 
 listen to them. I am handsomely off, and in the present 
 fluctuating state of affairs at home, with violent animosities 
 about India, I can see no prospect of any good. I am aware 
 that present ease may have some weight, but it requires 
 great resolution to engage a second time in a plan of certain 
 misery for the rest of my life without more substantial en- 
 couragements." The change of Ministry rendered it certain 
 
 Dec. 1783. that the offer would be renewed ; and as soon as the abate- 
 ment of popular excitement at home allowed Mr. Pitt and his 
 friends to give a thought to the remote dependency of India, 
 they began to sound him as to his willingness to turn his face 
 towards the East Indies. 
 
 Ministerial It appears to have been, at this time, in contemplation to 
 
 invite Lord Cornwallis to assume the chief command of the 
 army in that country. But the idea was not an attractive one 
 
 May 9, 1784. to him. " The more I turn it in my mind," he said, " the less 
 inclination I feel to undertake it. I see no field for extra- 
 ordinary military reputation, and it appears to me, in every 
 light, dangerous to the greatest degree. To abandon my 
 children and every comfort on this side the grave ; to quarrel 
 with the Supreme Government in India, whatever it might be ; 
 to find that I have neither power to model the army or correct 
 abuses ; and, finally, to run the risk of being beat by some 
 Nabob, and being disgraced to all eternity, which from what I 
 have read of these battles appears to be a very probable thing 
 
 * " A learned gentleman (Mr. Dun- The name of such a man might make 
 
 das) last year proposed to give the most Parliament consent to the vesting of 
 
 extraordinary powers to the Governor- such powers in a Governor- General ; but 
 
 General ; he at the same time named certain he was that nothing but the 
 
 the person who was to fill the office. The great character of that noble Lord could 
 
 person was Earl Cornwallis, whom he ever induce the Legislature to commit 
 
 (Mr. Fox) named only for the purpose such powers to an individual at the dis- 
 
 of paying homage to his high character, tance of half the globe."
 
 OFFER OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERALSHIP. 29 
 
 to happen I cannot see, in opposition to this, great renown 1784. 
 and brilliant fortune." But when his sentiments were known, 
 the King's Government, as represented by William Pitt, was 
 willing to place both the civil and the military power in his 
 hands. This changed the complexion of affairs because it noAV 
 appeared to him that there were prospects of more extensive 
 usefulness in India. " My mind is much agitated," he wrote 
 shortly afterwards to Colonel Ross. tl I can come to no resolu- 
 tion till I know the plan ; yet inclination cries out every mo- 
 ment, * Do not think of it ; reject all offers ; why should you vo- 
 lunteer plague and misery ?' Duty then whispers, ' You are not 
 sent here merely to please yourself; the wisdom of Providence 
 has thought fit to put an insuperable bar to any great degree of 
 happiness ; can you tell, if you stay at home, that the loss of 
 your son, or some heavy calamity, may not plunge you in the 
 deepest despair ? Try to be of some use ; serve your country 
 and your friends ; your confined circumstances do not allow 
 you to contribute to the happiness of others, by generosity 
 and extensive charity ; take the means which God is willing 
 to place in your hands.' . . . After all I have said, I can hardly 
 think the India business will come in such a shape as to oblige 
 me to accept. I will, however, give my reason as free scope 
 as possible to act by boldly combating my passions, and hope I 
 shall decide for the best." And again, a few weeks afterwards, 
 he wrote : " I am sensible that finding I can live comfortably 
 in England, and having every reason to expect comfort from 
 my children, who are now nearly arriving at an age when an 
 anxious and affectionate father would wish to be constantly 
 watching them, I should, by going to India, sacrifice all 
 earthly happiness without even gratifying my favourite pas- 
 sion, which has hitherto excited me to quit ease and enjoy- 
 ment for mortification and anxiety ; yet I flatter myself I 
 shall have fortitude enough to do my duty, if I should see a 
 prospect of being really serviceable to my country."* In this 
 sentence we see the very key-stone of his character a pre- 
 vailing sense that he was not sent into the world only to please 
 himself, but commissioned to do an appointed work ; and that 
 it was his duty to do it manfully and with all his might. 
 
 * Cornwallis Correspondence. Ross.
 
 30 LORD CORN WALL IS. 
 
 1784. But he was very doubtful at this time whether the con- 
 
 ditions of the proffered employment in India would be such as 
 to satisfy him that he could be of substantial use to the State. 
 His American experiences had painfully impressed upon him 
 the fact that there are conditions of service which may frustrate 
 the best efforts of zeal and ability of the highest order ; and 
 the reports from India, which from time to time had reached 
 him since his return from the West, did much to confirm this 
 impression of the evil of divided authority and responsibility, 
 and the impossibility of escaping unsoiled from the antagonism 
 of jealous rivals. Pitt was now about to bring in a new India 
 Bill, and much would depend upon the extent of the power to 
 Pitt's India be conferred upon the Governor- General. The bill was a very 
 good bill ;* but the framers of it had striven rather to perfect 
 the machinery of the Home Government, and to establish just 
 relations between its several parts, than to institute a system 
 of government in India so contrived as to prevent those 
 desperate collisions which had yielded such a growth of 
 scandals during the protracted administration of Warren 
 Hastings. The bill did not fulfil the conditions under which 
 alone Lord Cornwallis believed that he could be serviceable to 
 the State. Even before it had passed through committee, the 
 King's Government had offered him any appointment under 
 it that he might be inclined to accept. He might go out as 
 Governor- General, or he might go out as Commander-in- 
 Chief ; but he could not hold both offices. The " favourite 
 passion," of which he had spoken in the letter quoted above, 
 was a desire for military glory. He was very reluctant to 
 
 * Lord Russell, in his Memoirs of tration of the Company, and placed the 
 
 Charles Fox, has observed with infinite affairs of India under that guarantee of 
 
 truth : " It was easy for Mr. Fox, with his ministerial responsibility by which all 
 
 vast powers of reasoning, long exercised things in Great Britain are ordered and 
 
 on this subject, to prove that these two controlled. The Directors of the East 
 
 authorities must be always in conflict; India Company have not ventured to 
 
 that, with two supreme heads con- connive at acts which a Minister of the 
 
 fronted, confusion must ensue, and that Crown would not sanction, and a Muiis- 
 
 the abuses of the Indian Government ter of the Crown would not sanction acts 
 
 must be perpetuated under so strange and which he could not defend in Parlia- 
 
 anomalous a system. The experience of ment. Thus silently, but effectually, 
 
 seventy years, however, has blunted ar- the spirit of the British Constitution has 
 
 guments which could not be logically pervaded India, and the most absolute 
 
 refuted. The real supremacy of the despotism has been qualified and tem- 
 
 Ministers of the Crown, usually kept in pered by the genius of representative 
 
 the background, but always ready to l>e government." 
 exerted, has kept in check the admin is-
 
 MINISTERIAL JOBBERY. 31 
 
 leave the line of his profession. But he could not bring him- 1784. 
 self to accept the chief command of the Indian Army, because, 
 as he said, " in the present circumscribed situation of the 
 Commander-in-Chief, without power or patronage, an officer 
 could neither get credit to himself nor essentially serve the 
 public ;" and, as to the Governor- Generalship, he said that if 
 he should relinquish the profession to which he had devoted his 
 life from his youth upwards, and had " abandoned every con- 
 sideration of happiness," he might find himself " in competi- 
 tion with some person whose habits of business would render 
 him much more proper for the office."* Lord Shelburne had 
 offered him the Governor-Generalship, together with the Chief 
 Command of the Army, and he was now resolute, for these 
 reasons, to accept both offices or none. 
 
 The decision was conveyed in August to his old friend Treatment of 
 Lord Sydney, then Secretary of State, f CornwaUis had dis- 
 tinctly declared, on this and other occasions, his desire for pro- 
 motion in the military service of his country, to which, as both 
 the King and the King's Ministers freely admitted, no man 
 had a better claim. George, indeed, had blurted out that it 
 was a shame that Lord Cornwallis had not a better military 
 appointment. But when some vacancies occurred at this 
 time as the Colonelcy of the Grenadier Guards and the 
 Governorship of Plymouth the King's Ministers, in a spirit 
 of the most inexcusable jobbery, nominated men whose pre- 
 tensions were confined to their family connexions or political 
 influence. This injustice Cornwallis resented with becoming 
 dignity. He told Lord Sydney, and he told Mr. Pitt, that if 
 they had informed him it would be for the benefit of the King 
 and the King's Government that his claims should be ignored 
 in favour of others, he would not only have consented cheerfully 
 to the arrangement, but have given up a part of his fortune, 
 if required, to the recipients of the royal patronage. But he 
 had been rudely set aside without explanation. So he left the 
 presence of Lord Sydney, who had stammered out some lame 
 excuses, with an intimation that the friendship between them 
 was at an end ; and he wrote to Mr. Pitt, saying, " I still 
 
 * Lord Cornwallis to Lord Sydney, hend of Cornwallis's boyhood days. The 
 
 August 4, 1784. Cornwallis Corre- " dear Tommy " to whom he addressed 
 
 spondence. Ross. the letter quoted at page 5. 
 
 f Lord Sydney was the Tom Towns-
 
 32 LOBD COENWALL1S. 
 
 1784. admire your character. I have still hopes that your abilities 
 and integrity will preserve this distressed country ; I will not 
 be base enough, from a sense of personal injury, to join faction, 
 and endeavour, right or wrong, to obstruct the measures of 
 Government ; but I must add and with heartfelt grief I do 
 it that private confidence cannot easily be restored." But it 
 was restored after a lapse of only two days. Cornwallis and 
 the young Minister met by the request of the latter ; and Pitt 
 offered him the post of Constable of the Tower, which he had 
 before held for many years. Cornwallis declined the offer. 
 But when Pitt said that nothing had been further from his in- 
 tention than to slight one who had rendered such distinguished 
 service to his country, and that if he had unwittingly offended, 
 he could only ask pardon, and offer any reparation in his 
 power, the generous nature of the soldier was satisfied ; he ac- 
 cepted the appointment ; and there was an end of the rupture 
 between him and both Sydney and Pitt. 
 
 This was in November, 1784. The new India Bill was by 
 this time in full working order ; and Mr. Dundas had become 
 the Indian Minister, as the working member and real autocrat 
 of the Board of Control. Cornwallis did not predict that much 
 good would result from the arrangement ; for he thought that 
 Dundas, though " a very clever fellow," was " but a short- 
 sighted politician." But the latter was sufficiently far-seeing 
 to be anxious to secure for India the services of so good a man 
 
 1785. as Cornwallis; and the new year was not many weeks old, 
 when Pitt wrote a friendly, flattering letter, pressing the 
 Governor- Generalship again upon him, and earnestly request- 
 ing an interview. The result was, that Pitt asked him to talk 
 the matter over with Dundas. When he met the Minister, 
 Cornwallis thought that he espied trickery and intrigue ; that 
 it was intended to smoothe down some ministerial difficulty, 
 and had little reference either to what was due to him or what 
 was due to the public. In order to propitiate him, Dundas said 
 that it would be easy to amend certain provisions of the India 
 Bill which restricted the powers of the Governor- General. 
 But Cornwallis still thought that the whole affair savoured of 
 an arrangement ; and so, after deliberating with himself for 
 four-and-twenty hours, he respectfully declined the offer.* 
 
 * Lord Cornwallis to Colonel Ross, are : " I easily found out from him 
 Feb. 23, 1785. The words of the letter (Dundas) that, after having lost sight
 
 LORD MACARTNEY AND THE GOVERNOR-GENERALSHIP. 33 
 
 On tho 8th of February, 1785 almost at the very time 1785. 
 when Pitt was pressing tho Governor- Generalship on Lord 
 Cornwallis* Warren Hastings, amidst a shower of valedictory 
 addresses, carrying with him the good wishes of large bodies 
 of people, of all races and professions, walked down to the 
 river-side at Calcutta, and embarked on board the pinnace 
 which was to convey the departing Governor- General to the 
 vessel then waiting to bear him to England. He was suc- 
 ceeded in the government by Mr. John Macpherson, the 
 senior member of Council. In the course of the summer of 
 that year, Lord Macartney, who had been Governor of Madras, 
 went round to Calcutta, where, being determined to set the 
 young gentlemen of the settlement an example of frugality 
 and endurance, he walked out in the sun without an umbrella, 
 and nearly died from 'the effects of his devotion. This was not, 
 however, the only incident which distinguished his visit to 
 Bengal. He received there a letter from the Court of Directors 
 addressed to him as Governor- General, f The refusal of Lord 
 Cornwallis to accept the office had been followed by the nomi- 
 nation of Lord Macartney, who had the claim of good Indian 
 service, and who was on the spot to take up the reins of office. 
 But the arrangement was not palatable to all the members of 
 the King's Government ; and I suspect that the " momentary 
 rub among themselves," of which Cornwallis had spoken as the 
 cause of the renewal of the offer to him, was in reality a differ- 
 ence of opinion regarding the expediency of selecting Lord 
 Macartney. But the latter nobleman had no greater desire 
 than the former to be the successor of Warren Hastings. He 
 
 O 
 
 required rest ; he required, after the dangerous experiment of 
 walking in the sun, a visit to a milder climate for the restora- 
 
 of my going for six months, it was now selves, I was convinced it would be 
 
 taken up to prevent some disagreement madness in me to engage ; so that, after 
 
 of the Cabinet. He told me that if I taking twenty-four hours to consider, I 
 
 would say I would go, many things gave a very civil negative." Corn- 
 
 which I objected to in the bill should wallis Correspondence. Ross. 
 be altered. I was well aware of the * In the above letter, dated Feb. 23, 
 
 danger of a declaration of that sort, and it is said that Pitt made the offer " a 
 
 indeed from their manner of conducting fortnight ago." 
 
 business ever since their bill passed, f Lord Macartney was appointed 
 
 their disagreements at home, and the Governor-General of India by a reso- 
 
 ' circumstances attending, the appoint- lution of the Court, dated Feb. 17, 1785. 
 
 ment of their generals, and the present The votes for and against were equal, 
 
 sudden application to me, merely to get and the decision was arrived at by lot. 
 rid of a momentary rub among them- 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1785. tion of his shattered health; so he turned his face towards 
 England, and left the interregnum of Mr. Macpherson to con- 
 tinue for another year. 
 
 Cornwallis in In the mean while, work of another kind had been found for 
 Prussia. Lord CornwaUis. The continental relations of Great Britain 
 
 were at that time in a state which it was impossible to regard 
 without some apprehensions of evil. We were in a condition 
 of most discouraging isolation. Our only friend and ally was 
 Prussia ; and Frederick was not very eager to boast of the con- 
 nexion. It was thought, however, that he might be persuaded 
 to put aside the over-cautious reserve which stood in the way 
 of a closer alliance between the two countries, and that this 
 object might more readily be attained through the agency of 
 some unaccredited Englishman of rank, than through the 
 ordinary official channel of the British Minister at Berlin. It 
 happened that Lord Cornwallis had been contemplating a con- 
 tinental tour with the avowed object of improving his pro- 
 fessional knowledge by visiting the great Prussian Reviews. 
 He was just the man, therefore, for the purpose, as one not 
 likely to awaken the suspicions of the King. Solicited by our 
 Ministers, he readily undertook to do his best, and at the end 
 of the summer he crossed the Channel. His instructions in- 
 culcated caution. He was to listen rather than to talk ; to 
 receive rather than to give ; to draw Frederick into an avowal 
 of his wishes rather than to declare those of his own Court. 
 But it was soon apparent to him that he was not likely to 
 make much political progress in Prussia. He was disappointed 
 with everything ; disappointed with his reception, disappointed 
 with the reviews, and very glad when the time came to return 
 to England. Before he set his face homewards, however, he 
 Interview \rith had accomplished an interview with Frederick, which resulted 
 * n a c ^ ear declaration of the views and wishes of the great 
 King. The growing infirmity of monarchs is the best security 
 for peace. What Frederick might have said, years before, we 
 can only conjecture ; but, in his decrepitude, he longed to be 
 left to his repose, and the policy which suited him best was 
 that which was most certain to have a pacific issue. He said, 
 in effect, that England and Prussia were not strong enough to 
 contend with France, Austria^ and Russia, and that any open 
 alliance between the two first-named powers might result in a
 
 QUESTION OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERALSHIP. 35 
 
 disastrous war. If Russia could be weaned from the Austrian 1785. 
 connexion, a tripartite alliance might do something ; but Eng- 
 land and Prussia alone would be powerless against those three 
 great states, with all their lesser allies. England would have 
 to bear the brunt of the war by sea, and Prussia by land ; and 
 the astute monarch saw plainly that nothing but ruin could 
 result from such a combination against him.* 
 
 Lord Cornwallis returned to England before the end of the Return to 
 year. On the 9th of January, 1786, Lord Macartney arrived England, 
 from India. The question of the Governor- Generalship was 
 now to be definitively settled. Lord Macartney had been 
 formally appointed Governor- General ; but he desired to attach 
 to his acceptance of the office certain conditions to which the 
 King's Ministers demurred. He was an Irish Peer. He 
 asked for an English Peerage. The Government thought that 
 this should be rather a reward for good service done than a 
 " bid" for good service to be done, and therefore refused to 
 comply with his request. It would seem that they were not 
 sorry to split with him. He had some enemies in the Cabinet, 
 and external influences had been brought to bear against his 
 succession.! Moreover, there was a growing conviction that 
 Lord Cornwallis was the right man to be sent to India, if his 
 
 * Memorandum by Lord Cornwallis. f This is very clearly stated in the 
 
 Cormcallis Correspondence. Jtoss. following passage of a letter from Mr. 
 
 The following extract from the " Heads" Dundas, given in " Barrow's Life of 
 
 of Conversation is interesting, on more Macartney :" "You are rightly informed 
 
 than one account. " The King said that when you suppose that the appointment 
 
 he knew France was trying to hurt us of Lord Macartney was not a favourite 
 
 everywhere ; that she had sent people measure wittfseveral members of the ad- 
 
 to India to disturb the tranquillity of ministration. Neither was it popular 
 
 that country, but they had returned with a great body of the directors and 
 
 without effecting anything ; that she proprietors of the East India Company, 
 
 was busily employed in Ireland. He I need not mention that it was not 
 
 hoped we would lose no time in putting agreeable either to the partisans of Mr. 
 
 our affairs there on so safe a footing as Hastings or of Sir John Macpherson. 
 
 to be in no danger of a civil war, which, When, therefore, against such an accu- 
 
 on an appearance of a foreign one, mulation of discontent and opposition 
 
 France would not fail to use her utmost Mr. Pitt was induced by me to concur 
 
 efforts to foment." This interview took in the return of Lord Macartney to 
 
 place on September 17, 1785. Carlyle, India as Governor-General, it was not 
 
 in his " History of Frederick the Great," unnatural that both of us should have 
 
 makes no mention of it ; but it was well felt hurt that he did not rather repose 
 
 worthy of mention. He, however, speaks his future fortunes in our hands than 
 
 of a royal dinner-party, on a previous make it the subject of a sine qua non 
 
 day, after a review at Gross-Tinz, at preliminary. And I think, if Lord 
 
 which entertainment were present " La Macartney had known us as well then 
 
 Fayette, Cornwallis, and the Duke of as he did afterwards, he would have felt 
 
 York." as we did." 
 
 D2
 
 36 LORD COENWALLIS. 
 
 1786. scruples could be overcome. He had always believed that 
 unless large powers were vested in him, he could render no 
 service to his country. He desired to hold in his own hands 
 both the supreme civil and the supreme military authority; 
 and, seeing that if thwarted, as Hastings had been by a factious 
 opposition in the Council, he would have no real power of any 
 kind, he declared it to be an essential condition of his accept- 
 ance of the office that he should be empowered on great oc- 
 casions to act upon his own responsibility, against the votes of 
 the majority of the Council. To these conditions Pitt and 
 Dundas readily consented. They .could not have placed these 
 extended powers in any safer hands than those of Lord Corn- 
 wallis ; and in safe hands this extension of authority could not 
 Acceptance of be other than a public good. So at last Cornwallis consented 
 to be Governor- General and Commander-in- Chief in India.* 
 " The proposal of going to India," he wrote on the 23rd of 
 February to Colonel Ross, "has been pressed upon me so 
 strongly, with the circumstance of the Go venior- General's 
 being independent of his Council, as intended in Dundas's 
 former bill, and having the supreme command of the military, 
 that, much against my will, and with grief of heart, I have 
 been obliged to say yes, and to exchange a life of ease and con- 
 tent, to encounter all the plagues and miseries of command and 
 public station. I have this day notified my consent, and shall 
 go down to-morrow for a few days to Culford."f It was all 
 settled now. There was an end to the doubts, and questionings, 
 and obstinate self-conflicts of years. 
 
 Of the two nominees, the rejected one was, probably, far 
 the happier of the two. Lord Macartney is said to have been 
 delighted with the result. " That he had a strong disinclina- 
 tion to accept the appointment," says his biographer, Mr. 
 Barrow, " and that the conditions on which only he could 
 accept it were made solely on public grounds, the following 
 anecdote, obligingly communicated by Lady Macartney, is 
 an unequivocal proof. Her ladyship being one evening at a 
 large party, Lord Macartney came in, and being impatient to 
 communicate some intelligence to her, took out a card, and 
 
 * Lord Cornwallis was appointed solution of the Court of Directors, dated 
 Governor-General by an unanimous re- February 24, 1786. 
 f Cornwallis Correspondence. Ross.
 
 INCREASED POWERS. 37 
 
 wrote with a pencil on the back of it as follows : 1 1 am the 1786. 
 happiest man in England at this hour. Lord Cornwallis, I Jiear, 
 is Governor- General of India.' The card is still in her lady- 
 ship's possession, with the pencil writing upon it."* 
 
 The King's Ministers kept their promise, and prepared at 
 once to bring in a supplementary Act of Parliament, explain- 
 ing or amending the objectionable clauses in the India Bill of 
 1784. f It was certain that it would be opposed. The party 
 who saw, or pretended to see, only a constitutional safeguard 
 in such opposition as that with which Francis and Clavering 
 had held in restraint the independent action of Governor- 
 General Hastings, were alarmed and indignant at the thought 
 of placing such large powers in the hands of a single man. It 
 was to establish a gigantic despotism. So against this mea- 
 sure Edmund Burke lifted up his voice, declaring that it con- 
 templated the introduction of an arbitrary and despotic go- 
 vernment into India, on the false pretence of its tending to 
 increase the security of our British Indian possessions, and 
 to give fresh vigour, energy, and promptitude to the conduct of 
 business, where before had been only weakness, decrepitude, 
 and delay. To this Dunclas replied in a convincing speech, 
 
 * Barrow's Life of Macartney. if, after considering the same, the said 
 j- The following is the portion of the Governor-General, . . . and the other 
 bill which relates to the extension of the Members of the said Council, shall 
 powers of the Governor-General. It severally retain their opinions, it shall 
 was " enacted, that when and so often and may be lawful to and for the said 
 as any measure or question shall be pro- Governor-General ... to make and 
 posed or agitated in the Supreme Council declare any order (to be signed and sub- 
 at Fort William, in Bengal . . . whereby scribed by the said Governor-General 
 the interests of the said United Com- . . . .) for suspending or rejecting the 
 pany, or the safety or tranquillity of measure or question so proposed or 
 the British Possessions in India, are or agitated, in part or in whole, or to 
 may be essentially concerned or affected, make and declare such order and reso- 
 and the said Governor-General .... lution for adopting and carrying the 
 shall be of opinion that it will be ex- measure so proposed or agitated into 
 pedient either that the measures so pro- execution, as the said Governor-Gene- 
 posed or agitated ought to be adopted ral . . . shall think fit and expedient ; 
 or carried into execution, or that the which said last-mentioned order and re- 
 same ought to be suspended, or wholly solution, so made and declared, shall be 
 rejected, and the several other members signed, as well by the said Governor- 
 of such Council then present shall dis- General ... aa by all the other Mem- 
 sent from such opinion, the said Go- bers of the Council then present, and 
 vernor-General, . . . and the Members shall be as effectual and valid to all 
 of the said Council, shall communicate intents and purposes as if all the said 
 in Council to each other in writing, other Members had advised the same, or 
 under their respective hands (to be re- concurred therein." The words omitted 
 corded at large on their Secret Consulta- relate to the extension in like manner 
 tions), the respective grounds and rea- of the powers of the Governor of Madras 
 sons of their respective opinions ; and and Bombay. 
 
 357176
 
 38 
 
 LORD CORNWALL IS. 
 
 1786. which must have touched, in a sensitive place, Philip Francis, 
 who had endeavoured to introduce a bill of his own that 
 arbitrary and despotic government might result from the 
 action of two or three, no less than from the action of one ; 
 and that it was certain that all the mischief and misfor- 
 tune that had, for many years, afflicted India, had arisen from 
 the existence of party feelings and factious behaviour among 
 the different members of Council. The bill was passed by 
 large majorities in both Houses of Parliament. 
 
 1786. 
 
 Embarkation 
 for India. 
 
 John Shore. 
 
 Before this bill had passed into law, Lord Cornwallis had 
 sailed for India. He embarked on board the Swallow packet 
 in the first week of May,* accompanied by his staff, which 
 then consisted of his dear friend Colonel Ross, Captain Hal- 
 dane, and Lieutenant Madden. It happened that among the 
 passengers on board the Swallow was one of the ablest and 
 most esteemed members of the Company's Civil Service. 
 After many years of good work in India, where he had chiefly 
 distinguished himself in the Revenue Department, John Shore 
 had returned to England in the hope of ending his days there 
 in the enjoyment of the very moderate competence which he 
 had earned by honest exertion. But the high character which 
 he carried home with him had recommended him to the Court 
 of Directors for employment in a more important situation 
 than any which he had yet held ; and they had invited him to 
 return to India to fill a coming vacancy in the Supreme 
 Council. He had accepted the offer with manifest reluctance ; 
 but he had not proceeded far on his voyage, when the prospect 
 before him sensibly brightened, and the regrets with which he 
 had abandoned ease and happiness in England began to lose 
 half their poignancy. He was soon in habits of intimacy with 
 Lord Cornwallis of intimacy cemented by mutual esteem ; 
 and there was in the disposition of the new Governor- Ge- 
 neral, and in the high sense of public duty which he was 
 
 * Lord Teignmouth, in his life of his 
 father, says that Mr. Shore "sailed 
 from Portsmouth on the 12th of April ;" 
 but it is obvious, from a letter in the 
 Cornwallis Correspondence, that the 
 vessel had not left Portsmouth on the 
 
 30th. It is probable that Shore went 
 on board in the river, and that the 
 vessel sailed for Portsmouth on the 
 12th. The point, however, is of no im- 
 portance.
 
 JOHN SHORE. 39 
 
 carrying out to his work, ample assurance that the Future of 1786. 
 the Government of India would in many material points differ, 
 most honourably, from the Past.* 
 
 Mr. Shore, who had served under the administration of 
 Warren Hastings, knew well what kind of relations might 
 subsist between a Governor- General and a Member of his 
 Council. He had taken some part undesignedly, perhaps, for 
 he was eminently a man of peace in the fierce dissensions 
 which had agitated the settlement, and had for a time sided 
 with Francis, rather on public grounds than by reason of any 
 personal sympathies, for he had instructed the Councillor in 
 Revenue matters, and was supposed to have written some of 
 his minutes, f But he had returned to England in the vessel 
 which carried Warren Hastings from India, and on board ship 
 a close friendship had grown up between them. Hastings had 
 turned the dreary inactivity of life at sea to account by devot- 
 ing himself to literary pursuits, and among his other efforts in 
 the Humanities he had paraphrased an ode of Horace into an 
 affectionate poetical address to his friend. And Shore had seen 
 quite enough, since his return to England, to cause him to re- 
 gard the violent conduct of Hastings's opponents with disap- 
 probation and dislike. He clearly discerned the malignant 
 injustice with which the great Indian statesman was pursued ; 
 
 * " Lord Cornwallis is a most amiable with whom he h;^d once resided, as col- 
 
 man, and fully deserves the character lecting chief. Mr. Francis, having not 
 
 which he holds with the rest of the one of his assistants at hand, fell sick, 
 
 world. I am proud to say that my sen- and could not attend at the council- 
 
 timents on political business and public table, but desired that he might have 
 
 principles correspond with his. He all minutes sent to him, and he would 
 
 treats me with all possible regard and consider them, and give his opinion at a 
 
 confidence, and I could not live on future meeting. After Mr. Hastings had 
 
 happier terms with him. He was also laughed at him for his schoolboy truancy 
 
 pressed into the service contrary to his for ten days or a fortnight, he wrote 
 
 inclinations. Colonel Ross, Captain privately to Mr. Shore to return to 
 
 Haldane, and Lieutenant Madden, are Calcutta. This Mr. Shore let Francis 
 
 all respectable friends and agreeable know, and he instantly grew better, 
 
 companions." Correspondence of John This recovery Mr. Wheler announced 
 
 Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmoulh. at the Council Board. Mr. Hastings 
 
 f A cotemporary pamphleteer (Cap- said that he had known as much two 
 
 tain Price) says, " That at one tune days before, adding, that Mr. Shore was 
 
 Messrs. Anderson and Ducarrell were out coming down. Whether Mr. Wheler 
 
 of Calcutta, and Mr. Hastings, knowing comprehended the jest or no, I know 
 
 that Mr. Shore was the only man that not ; but Mr. Francis, after having 
 
 Mr. Francis had left to assist him in taken a few doses of salts, to save ap- 
 
 drawing up minutes, contrived, as it pearances by making pale his visage, 
 
 was reported, to order Mr. Shore on an returned to his duty." 
 Embassy to the Rajah of Kishnagur,
 
 40 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1786. and no man knew better the eminent services which he had 
 
 The voyage to rendered to his country. But he had a keen sense, also, of the 
 
 ** errors which Hastings had committed both in his public and 
 
 his private life, and he felt that the political and social 
 
 morality of the English in India alike demanded a sweeping 
 
 reform. 
 
 Upon general subjects of this kind, and upon more par- 
 ticular questions of administration, Shore had so much to say, 
 and Cornwallis was so well disposed to inquire and to listen, 
 that the new Governor- General found that his voyage to India 
 by no means covered a period of lost time. When he reached 
 Calcutta, he was as well informed on Indian affairs as any 
 man could be who had been fighting the battles of his country 
 so long in the opposite hemisphere, and had never thought 
 that Providence would cast his lot in the Eastern world. But, 
 even in circumstances the most favourable, it is a strange and 
 perplexing situation in which a man, whose experiences of 
 other countries, however great, can neither guide nor help 
 him, finds himself, when first called upon to administer the 
 multitudinous affairs of our Eastern Empire. That empire, 
 compared with the extent which it has now attained, was, 
 when Cornwallis entered upon its government, one of very 
 limited dimensions. But that which then contracted the 
 sphere of our internal administration enlarged the scope of our 
 foreign policy, and the unsettled state of our relations with the 
 Princes and Chiefs of the neighbouring dominions was a source 
 of even greater anxiety than the disorders which obstructed 
 the domestic government of our own possessions. To be a 
 little staggered and bewildered at first is the necessary condi- 
 tion of humanity in such a conjuncture ; and Lord Cornwallis 
 was not one to form more than a modest estimate of his in- 
 dividual power to cope with the difficulties which beset his 
 position. 
 
 Arrival at On the llth of September, 1786, the Swallow anchored in 
 
 the Hooghly, and on the following morning Lord Cornwallis 
 disembarked with his staff. All the principal people of the 
 settlement, headed by Mr. Macpherson, went down to the 
 river-side to welcome him and to conduct him to the Fort, 
 where his commissions were read, and he took the oaths of
 
 THE NEW GOVERNOR-GENERAL. 41 
 
 office.* It was a great event for Bengal; a great event for 1786. 
 India. For the first time, an English nobleman of high rank 
 and high character had appeared in Bengal, fresh from the 
 Western world, knowing nothing of India but what ho had 
 read in books or gleaned from conversation ; bringing a new 
 eye, a new hand to the work before him ; and having no regard 
 for the traditions and the usages which had given the settle- 
 ment so unsavoury a reputation. What had been heard of him 
 before his coming was not much ; but the little was of a nature 
 to win the respect of some, perhaps to excite the alarm of 
 others, and there was a general feeling of a coming change. 
 It was known before his arrival, that in England, beset by 
 petitioners for place and patronage as he was from the very 
 moment of his acceptance of office, he had resolutely refused to 
 make any promises even to his nearest friends, f And now it 
 soon became apparent that he was proof against all similar 
 importunities in India. He knew that he had a great work 
 before him, and that he could do it only with the cleanest 
 hands. If he had been followed to India by wistful hangers- 
 on and hungry parasites, he could have accomplished little; 
 but the purity and disinterestedness of his conduct were so 
 
 * The following is the account of the . being introduced to his Lordship. With 
 
 Governor-General's arrival, as given in Lord Convwallis came Mr. Shore (though 
 
 a cotemporary Calcutta journal. I am indisposition prevented him from attend- 
 
 indebted for it to an interesting volume ing his Lordship in person), Colonel 
 
 of extracts from the Indian newspapers Ross, Captain Haldane, and Mr. Mad- 
 
 of the last century, published by my den, a nephew of his Lordship." 
 
 friend Mr. Seton-Karr, now a judge of f " Earl Cornwallis has conducted 
 
 the High Court of Calcutta : himself, since his appointment, with 
 
 " Thursday, Sept. 14, 1786. Calcutta, singular reserve: To the numerous so- 
 
 On Monday last arrived in the river licitations which have been poured in 
 
 the Right Honourable the Earl Corn- upon him from all quarters, he has 
 
 wallis, and on Tuesday morning he came given the most peremptory refusal, and 
 
 on shore. His Lordship was met at the has informed his friends that it is his 
 
 water-side by a party of the body- determined purpose not to make any 
 
 guard ; from thence he walked into the arrangements, nor to give any appoint- 
 
 Fort, where he was received by the late ments, until he is seated in his govern- 
 
 Governor-General with every respect ment. The noble Earl takes out but 
 
 due to the dignity of his rank and cha- three friends : Colonel Ross, who is to 
 
 racter. The troops were under arms, be his secretary, Captain Halden, and 
 
 and received his Lordship as their future Captain Maddox. Colonel Tarleton has 
 
 Commander-in-Chief with all the mili- come home in the prospect of securing 
 
 tary honours. His Lordship's commis- an appointment from Lord Cornwallis, 
 
 sion investing him with the extensive but the Colonel has received the same 
 
 powers of Governor-General and Com- answer with all the other applicants, 
 
 mander-in-Chief was then read, after that the noble Lord had it not in his 
 
 which he retired to breakfast, when power to make a single appointment in 
 
 several gentlemen had the honour of England." Calcutta Gazette,
 
 42 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1786. apparent from the beginning, that people soon began to ac- 
 quiesce in that which, however inconvenient to them, they 
 knew had its root only in the public virtue of their new ruler. 
 He was a, kind-hearted man, hospitable and courteous, and 
 the social amenities ever due from the Governor- General to his 
 companions in exile were dispensed with no niggardly hand. 
 At that time, the spacious and imposing edifice on the skirts of 
 the great plain of Calcutta, which now receives the Viceroys 
 of India on their arrival, was only a design for future execu- 
 tion. Lord Cornwallis occupied a house of inferior pretensions 
 to many that were held by the leading servants of the Com- 
 pany. But he was always averse to pomp and display, and 
 was well content to divest himself as much as possible of the 
 accessories of State. " My life is not a very agreeable one," 
 he wrote soon after his arrival, " but I have ventured to leave 
 off a good deal of the buckram, which rather improves it." 
 The inconvenience of limited space, as an impediment to 
 hospitality on a grand scale, was obviated by a resort on great 
 occasions to one of the public buildings of Calcutta. The 
 guests of the Governor- General were received in the " Old 
 Court House."* At these entertainments there was no lack 
 of geniality, but an example of moderation was set which per- 
 manently influenced the social usages of the English in India. 
 It was soon known that hard drinking and high play were dis- 
 tasteful to Lord Cornwallis, and would be discountenanced by 
 him. And from that time a steady improvement supervened 
 upon the social morality of the Presidency. People began to 
 keep earlier hours ; there was less of roystering and of gambling 
 
 * The following is the account of the accommodation of room. The house of 
 English Government House, given by a the Governor of Pondicherry is much 
 cotemporary French writer, M. Grand- more magnificent." There is a question 
 pre' : " The Governor-General of the at this time as to the spot on which the 
 English settlements east of the Cape of old Government House stood. An in- 
 Good Hope resides at Calcutta. As genious writer in the Calcutta Review 
 there is no palace yet built for him, he (the Rev. Mr. Long, I believe) says : 
 lives in a house on the Esplanade, oppo- " Opinions differ as to the precise local- 
 site the Citadel. The house is hand- ity of the old Government House. Some 
 some, but by no means equal to what it say it was where the Treasury is now, 
 ought to be for a person of so much im- and others at the south-east corner of 
 portance. Many private individuals in Government-place." The " old Court 
 the town have houses as good ; and if House," which also did duty for a 
 the Governor were disposed to any ex- town-hall, stood on the site now occu- 
 traordinary luxury, he must curb his pied by the Scotch church. It was 
 inclination for want of the necessary pulled down in 1792.
 
 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC CHARACTERISTICS. 43 
 
 than before his arrival, and, as a natural result, less duelling 1786. 
 and suicide, both of which were fearfully rampant at the time 
 of Lord Cornwallis's arrival in Calcutta. 
 
 He was a tolerant and charitable man, too ; and he was fain 
 to attribute the irregularities, which forced themselves on his 
 notice, in a great measure to the " intense heat and unhealthi- 
 ness of the climate." He had arrived in the worst month of 
 the year the month in which the heavy rains of the preceding 
 quarter begin to intermit, and the saturated plains exhale a 
 steamy fog more deleterious to European health than the 
 fierce sun and the arid wind of the summer solstice. His 
 correspondence during the first few months of his residence in 
 India indicate the lassitude which falls on all men in that 
 trying interval between the hot and the cold seasons. But his 
 health was not injuriously affected by the climate, and his only 
 complaint was that it was not pleasant. Perhaps, in his inmost 
 heart, he sometimes repented of the step that he had taken, 
 and wished that he was again at Culford. It is certain that 
 his "heart untravelled" often turned fondly towards the 
 children whom he had left behind him, and it was only by a 
 strong effort that he could reconcile himself to his lot, by 
 thinking that his tenure of office in India would enable him, 
 for their sakes, to increase his fortune. He had not been 
 many days in India when he wrote to Lord Brome, saying, 
 " I am always thinking of you with the greatest anxiety. I 
 have no fear but for your health. If that is good, I am sure 
 everything will be right. You must write to me by every 
 opportunity, and longer letters than I write to you ; for I have 
 a great deal more business every day than you have upon a 
 whole school-day, and I never get a holiday. I have rode once 
 upon an elephant, but it is so like going in a cart that you 
 would not think it very agreeable. "* A little later, he wrote 
 to his boy about the Order of the Garter, which, shortly after 
 his departure from England, the King had spontaneously con- 
 ferred upon him. " You will have heard that soon after I left 
 England I was elected Knight of the Garter, and very likely 
 laughed at me for wishing to wear a blue riband over my fat 
 belly. I could have excused myself in the following lines : 
 * Cornwallis Correspondence. Ross.
 
 44 LOKD COKNWALLIS. 
 
 1786. Behold the child, by nature 1 ? sickly law, 
 
 Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw ; 
 Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight, 
 A little louder, but as empty quite ; 
 Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage, 
 And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age. 
 
 But I can assure you, upon my honour, that I neither asked 
 for it nor wished for it. The reasonable object of ambition to 
 a man is to have his name transmitted to posterity for eminent 
 services rendered to his country and to mankind. Nobody 
 asks or cares whether Hampden, Marlborough, Pelham, or 
 Wolfe were Knights of the Garter." This is very pleasant in 
 its good sense, its good feeling, and, above all, its undeniable 
 truth. It is, moreover, essentially characteristic of the writer ; 
 for he was the least ambitious and self-seeking of public men, 
 and if he could only serve the State and benefit his family, he 
 was content. The Blue Riband was really nothing to him. He 
 could afford to laugh at it. "I am a Knight and no Knight," 
 he wrote hi another letter to his son ; "for my stars, garters, 
 and ribands are all lost in Arabia, and some wild Arab is now 
 making a figure with Honi soit qui malypense round his knee.* 
 I hope you have got French enough to construe that, but I 
 own it is not a very easy sentence. If I continue to hear good 
 accounts of you, I shall not cry after my stars and garters. 
 .... I think, upon the whole, as you intend your bay horse 
 for a hunter, you were right to cut off his tail." 
 
 Thoughts of this kind keep men alive in India. In few 
 breasts have the domestic affections been more deeply rooted 
 than in that of Lord Cornwallis. The burning sun of India 
 took nothing from then* greenery and freshness. Amidst the 
 incessant toil and anxious responsibility of his twofold office, 
 
 1 * They seem, however, to have been of the Supreme Council, to execute that 
 recovered, or another set of insignia was office, and to fix on Thursday last for 
 sent ; for the Calcutta Gazette of the the purpose. Accordingly, in presence 
 15th of March, 1787, says : " We had of a numerous and splendid company, 
 the pleasure of announcing to the public his Lordship was invested at the Govern- 
 in last Gazette the arrival of the Blue ment House with the Ribbon by Mr. 
 Ribbon, and all the insignia of the Order Stuart, and by Mr. Shore with the 
 of the Garter, for the Right Honourable Garter, when a salute of twenty-one 
 the Governor-General. His Lordship, guns was fired from Fort William, and 
 having been authorised to make his own his Lordship received the congratulations 
 choice of the persons to perform the of the company present, on being ho- 
 ceremony of investiture, was pleased to noured with so distinguished and well- 
 nominate the Honourable Charles Stuart earned a mark of his royal master's 
 and John Shore, Esquires, two members regard and approbation."
 
 STATE OF THE CIVIL SEEVICE. 45 
 
 he was sustained by thoughts of his Suffolk home. " Let me 1786. 
 know that you are well, and that you are doing well," ho wrote 
 to his children, " and I can be happy even in Calcutta." He 
 had found that his work was very onerous and his duties very 
 unpleasant especially unpleasant, it may be said, to a good- 
 tempered, kindly hearted man, who was always very happy 
 when he was doing some good office to another for his public 
 duty was continually bringing him into conflict with private 
 interest. There was necessarily much perplexity in the new- 
 ness of his situation, and many points upon which time alone 
 could enable him to form self-satisfying and conclusive opinions. 
 But amidst all the doubts and uncertainties which distracted 
 him, one clear demonstrable truth gleamed out from the sur- 
 rounding darkness. He had an overpowering conviction that 
 the prosperity of the British Empire in India depended more 
 upon the character of the European functionaries employed in 
 its administration than upon anything in the world beside. He 
 could see, somewhat indistinctly, perhaps, at first, that the 
 system itself was bad ; but he knew that the best systems in 
 the world must fail if its agents were wanting in wisdom and 
 integrity. What Mr. John Macpherson had called a little too 
 blandly, perhaps the " relaxed habits" of the public service 
 of India was an insuperable obstacle to successful administra- 
 tion. There was nothing strange or inexplicable in the state 
 of things which then existed. In good truth, it was the most 
 natural thing in the world to be accounted for without any 
 large amount of philosophic penetration. The East India 
 Company had not at that time learnt to appreciate the great 
 truth, which soon afterwards became the very root of their 
 marvellous prosperity, that good pay is the parent of good ser- 
 vice. They had granted to their servants only a small official 
 pittance, with the tacit understanding that the small pay was 
 to be atoned for by the great opportunities of official position. 
 It was a very old story ; but so curious, that even now it may 
 be worth telling in detail. 
 
 When, in the reign of James the First, Sir Thomas Eoe Rise and P r - 
 went out as Ambassador to the Court of the Mogul, and took company's 
 a comprehensive survey of the Company's establishments, his CivU Service.
 
 46 LOKD COENWALLIS. 
 
 16001700. quick eye hit the blot at once. He saw that their servants, 
 being permitted to trade on their own account, neglected the 
 affairs of their masters. How could anything else be expected ? 
 What did they leave their homes for? for what did they banish 
 themselves to a wretched country, and consent to live far away 
 from all the amenities of civilisation ? The Private Trade was 
 naturally more to them than the Public Trade. The ambas- 
 sador, therefore, recommended the Company to prohibit it 
 altogether, and to grant sufficient salaries to their servants. 
 " Absolutely prohibit the private trade," he said, " for your 
 business will be better done. I know this is harsh. Men 
 profess they care not for bare wages. But you will take away 
 this plea if you give great wages to their content ; and then 
 you know what you part from. But then you must make 
 good choice of your servants, and have fewer." He was a 
 great man obviously in advance of his age ! But it took 
 nearly two centuries to ingraft this truth on the understanding 
 of the Company. 
 
 And so their servants, as they settled down, first in one 
 factory, then in another, took their bare wages, and made 
 what money they could by trade. It had not been made worth 
 their while to be diligent and honest servants; and, cut off 
 from their employers by thousands of miles of sea, which it 
 then took five or six months, and often more, to traverse, they 
 did not stand in much fear of the controlling authority at 
 home. Every now and then some one was sent out with 
 special powers to set the different factories in order, and to re- 
 form the establishments ; but it was a mercy if, in a little time, 
 he did not mar what he was sent to mend, and, being more 
 powerful than all the rest, become more profligate too. 
 
 Still, if there was not much order, there was some form. 
 A system of promotion was established which, with but slight 
 variation, lasted not far from two centuries. It was laid down 
 in London in the following terms, and carried out at all the 
 factories : " For the advancement of our apprentices," said 
 the Court of Directors, " we direct that, after they have 
 served the first five years, they shall have 10 per annum for 
 the two last years ; and, having served these two years, to be 
 entertayned one yeare longer as writers, and have writers' 
 sallary ; and having served that yeare, to enter into the degree
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 47 
 
 of factors, which otherwise would have been ten years. And, 16001700. 
 knowing that a distinction of titles is in many respects neces- 
 sary, we do order that when the apprentices have served their 
 times, they be stiled writers ; and when the writers have served 
 their times, they be called factors ; and factors having served 
 their times, to be stiled merchants ; and merchants having 
 served their times, to be stiled senior merchants." After a 
 time, the style and rank of apprentice ceased, but the title of 
 "writer," "factor," "junior merchant," and "senior mer- 
 chant," lasted long after the civilians had ceased altogether to 
 trade lasted, we may say, almost as long as the Company 
 itself. 
 
 A clear idea of one of the Company's establishments, at the 
 end of the seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, may be derived from a little volume of travels written by 
 one Charles Lockyer, and 'published in 1711. The most 
 flourishing of their settlements at that time was Madras. Mr. 
 Lockyer says, " that it was the grandest and the best ordered. 
 As it surpasses their other settlements in grandeur, so the 
 orders of the Council are more regarded and punctually 
 executed, and each member has a respect proportionably 
 greater than others shown to him." The civil establishment 
 consisted of a president, with a salary of 200/. per annum, 
 and gratuity of 100Z. ; six councillors, with salaries from 100. 
 to 40 a year, according to rank ; six senior merchants, 40Z. 
 each ; two junior merchants, at 301. per annum ; five factors, 
 at 151. ; and ten writers at 51. per annum. Married men were 
 allowed " diet money" besides their pay, at a rate of from five 
 to ten pagodas (say from 21. to 4/.) a month. " But for in- 
 ferior servants, who dine at the general table, they have only 
 washing and oyl for lamps extraordinary." The Company's 
 servants lived together in the old fort. " The Governour's 
 lodgings," says Mr. Lockyer, " take up about a third part of 
 the inner fort, is three stories high, and has many appartments 
 in it. Two or three of the Council have their rooms there, as 
 well as several inferiour servants ; the 'countant's and secre- 
 tary's offices are kept one story up ; but the consultation-room 
 is higher, curiously adorned with fire-arms, in several figures, 
 imitating those in the armory of the Tower of London." 
 There were two common tables ; one at which the Governor
 
 48 LORD CORNWALL! S. 
 
 16001700. and the higher servants dined ; another appropriated to the 
 factors and writers "differing only in this," says Mr. 
 Lockyer " here you have a great deal of punch and little 
 wine ; there what wine you please, and as little punch." The 
 Governor went abroad with an escort of native peons, " besides 
 his English guards to attend him," with two Union flags 
 carried before him, and " country musick enough to frighten a 
 stranger into a belief the men were mad."* 
 
 This account of the factory at Madras may, with slight 
 variations, be held to describe also the factory at Surat, the 
 only one which at that time could vie with it. The salaries 
 were nearly the same, and the customs of the settlement almost 
 identical. It would appear, however, that all the Company's 
 servants (sitting according to their rank) dined at one table, 
 which is said to have been kept up in great style " all the 
 dishes, plates, and drinking-cups being of massive and pure 
 silver." A band of music attended the President at dinner, 
 and when the kabobs came in after the soup, and the curry 
 after the kabobs, there was a flourish of trumpets to announce 
 each arrival. 
 
 The cost of all this was doubtless very small, and the parade 
 thereof very modest, judged by the standard of the present 
 times. But those were the early days of the Company, 
 who started from small beginnings, and were proceeding 
 upon what was then called a " purely mercantile bottom." 
 They were, therefore, not very well pleased when the ship- 
 captains carried home to them grievous accounts of the pomp 
 and extravagance of their servants ; and so they set themselves 
 to work, heart and soul, to correct this licentiousness. Next 
 to the matter of good investments, it was for a long time to 
 come their leading idea to inculcate personal economy and 
 purity of life; and though the thrift was somewhat exag- 
 gerated, it cannot be said that there was not some reason for 
 the uneasiness that they felt. 
 
 The seventeenth century closed in darkly and turbulently 
 upon the Company's establishments in all parts of India. East 
 and West it was all the same. Bengal vied with Surat in the 
 
 * This writer gives a minute account per cent, by a venture, money borrowed 
 
 of the trade carried on by the Com- at twenty-five per cent, from a native 
 
 pany's servants. He says, that as it capitalist turned out very well, 
 was no uncommon thing to make fifty
 
 DISORDERS IN THE SETTLEMENTS. 49 
 
 lawlessness and licentiousness of the English factories. The 17001800. 
 fierce internecine contentions which arose among the Com- 
 pany's servants were the greatest scandal of all. Now-a-days, 
 when members of Council fall out, they write strongly-worded 
 minutes against each other, content with a war of words. At 
 the end of the eighteenth century they " went out," accord- 
 ing to the most approved laws of honour, and fired pistols at 
 each other; but at the close of the seventeenth they used 
 their fists, supplemented by an occasional cudgel the argu- 
 mentum bacculinum being held in great esteem in the English 
 councils. The President kept his councillors in order with a 
 staff, and sometimes enforced his authority with such a lavish 
 expenditure of blows, that human nature could not bear up 
 without complaining. One unfortunate member of the Civil 
 Service of the period complained that he had received from 
 the President " two cuts in the heads, the one very long and 
 deep, the other a slight thing in comparison to that ; then a 
 great blowe on my left arme, which has enflamed the shoulder, 
 and deprived me of the use of that limbe ; on my right side a 
 blowe in my ribs, just beneath the pap, which is a stoppage 
 to my breath, and makes me incapable of helping myself; on 
 my left hip another, nothing inferior to the first ; but, above 
 all, a cut on the brow of my eye." Truly a hazardous service ; 
 but there were greater dangers even than these cudgellings, 
 for it was reported home to the Company, in 1696-97, that 
 there had been a plot among their servants at Surat to murder 
 the President. " There is strong presumption that it was 
 intended first that the President should be stabbed ; when 
 hopes of that failed by the guards being doubled, it seems 
 poison was agreed upon, and all bound to secresy upon a 
 horrid imprecation of damnation to the discoverer, whom the 
 rest were to fall upon and cut off." 51 
 
 In Bengal, matters were in no better state. That settle- 
 ment was not then what it afterwards came to be the chief 
 seat of English trade and English government but was 
 looked upon, by reason of its remoteness, as a sort of outlying 
 factory of no great credit or promise. The Company's esta- 
 blishment was then at Chuttanutty, which has since come to 
 
 * MS. Records. 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 17001800. be called Calcutta, a place then of no great account; and the 
 Company's servants, under the chieftainship of Job Charnock, 
 had not lived together more peacefully than their brethren at 
 Surat. Charnock appears to have been a bold bad man, half 
 a heathen, immoderately addicted to fighting, and not only 
 contentious himself, but the cause of contention among others. 
 As a man of business he was slothful in the extreme, hated 
 writing letters and recording " consultations" for the perusal 
 of his masters at home, and therefore threw himself into the 
 hands of a fellow named Hall, " captain of the soldiers," who 
 kept a punch-house and a billiard-table, and soon came to 
 rule the settlement. There were besides, at that time, among 
 the chief servants of the Company, a Mr. Ellis, who is said 
 to have been as ignorant as Charnock was slothful ; and one 
 Charles Pale, who was as fond of fighting as his chief, and 
 " whose masterpiece," it is said, " was to invent differences 
 between man and man, and deeply swear to the most extra- 
 vagant lies he could invent." Things were, indeed, in so bad 
 a state, that Sir John Gouldsburgh went round from Madras 
 to reduce them to order. Before he arrived, Charnock and 
 Pale had died ; and so two obstacles to the reformation of the 
 settlement were removed. 
 
 The equanimity of the Company was at this time much dis- 
 turbed by the bad writing and the bad morals of their ser- 
 vants. Whether there was any connexion discovered between 
 the two is not very apparent, though more unlikely relation- 
 ships have ere now been detected. It would be hard to 
 judge by their penmanship some public men whom I could 
 name. But in the early days of the East India Company's 
 establishments, bad writing may have been the direct result 
 of bad morals the feeble, shaky, indistinct letters of the 
 morning clearly reflecting the debauch overnight. Be this 
 as it may, the managers at home wrote out in their general 
 letter of the 5th of January, 1710-11 : " We find the papers, 
 in the packets and other writings, are very badly performed. 
 We expect this to be remedied ; and if any of the writers 
 don't write so good hands as might be expected, we hope 
 they will improve and do better. If, through pride or idle- 
 ness, they, or any other with you, will not, give them fair 
 warning, and if they don't mend, dismiss them our service.
 
 ADMONITIONS OF THE DIRECTORS. 51 
 
 The same we say of all that are immoral and won't be re- 1700 1800. 
 claimed. And let this be a general rule for all time to 
 come."* This, at all events, is short, sharp, and decisive. 
 But the Company had, in addition to these general orders, 
 some specific rules to prescribe. They were always steady 
 advocates and promoters of the messing system. They be- 
 lieved that a general table tended greatly to good morals as 
 well as to public economy. But the Company's servants, in 
 spite of orders from home, were continually drifting into more 
 independent habits. The restraint of the general table was 
 irksome to them ; they liked better to receive " diet money," 
 and to provide for themselves. The Company thought that 
 this was provocative of extravagance and licentiousness, so 
 they wrote out to Bengal, saying : " We observe in your 
 letter by the Recovery, you keep no general table, which we 
 don't like, for the following reasons : Our factors and writers 
 are thereby exposed to a loose way of living, to loss of time, 
 and ill company, which, by being at a general table, would be 
 prevented; but business is not so likely to be well minded, 
 and they have specious pretences for their absence if found 
 fault with. Besides, when they are every day at 1 meals, under 
 the eye of their superiors, they will be necessitated to observe 
 a better decorum ; and if any of them are careless, extra- 
 vagant, and otherwise blameworthy, they will be soon re- 
 claimed, when they know that they must every day expect to 
 hear of it from you, the President and Council ; and then we 
 are sure we shall be at a less charge by a general table, if any 
 tolerable care be taken therein, than we are by making allow- 
 ances to each severally."! The thrift of the Company was 
 sure to creep, sooner or later, into these admonitions ; but it 
 is to their credit that we soon find them falling back upoji the 
 moralities, for they go on to say : " We have reason to believe 
 what is told us, that those allowances give some of our 
 servants the temptations, and, of consequence, expose them to 
 drunkenness and lasciviousness ; and we would take away the 
 temptation, looking upon it as a certain rule, if they once lose 
 their virtue, we have no reason long to expect their fidelity. 
 For all these reasons, we require you to restore the general 
 table ; and if you can give us any that you think have greater 
 
 MS. Records. f 
 
 E'2
 
 52 LORD COENWALLIS. 
 
 17001800. weight to the contrary, when we hear them you shall know 
 our minds in future." Then the instruction proceeds in a 
 right good paternal spirit : " Our main danger in this is to 
 remove all occasions from our servants of debauchery, and 
 being tainted by ill example, which is very infectious to young 
 people; also, to keep them under a regular and virtuous 
 course of living, and thereby to have our own business better 
 minded, and the interest of the Company promoted. And to 
 render this our design more effectual, we direct that you, the 
 President and Council, do, at certain standing seasons, set 
 apart a time to inquire into the behaviour of all our factors 
 and writers, of the persons under whom they are ; and, calling 
 them severally before you, let them know the account you 
 have of them, and, as they deserve, either admonish or com- 
 mend them." Then comes another practical remedy for 
 licentiousness. It was thought as desirable that the younger 
 Company's servants should lodge under a general roof as that 
 they should board at a common table : so the Company issued 
 a prohibition against promiscuous lying, or, as they called it, 
 laying, up and down in the town : " We positively direct 
 that all our unmarried young people do lodge in our own 
 factory, if there be accommodation for them, and not lay up 
 and down in the town, which exposes them to several incon- 
 veniences." Neither these rules nor these admonitions appear 
 to have had much effect ; for the Company soon afterwards 
 were driven to prescribe a penalty for the infraction of their 
 mandates. If any Company's servant proved to be incor- 
 rigible, he was to be sent home. " If any factor or writer," 
 says the Court's general letter of the 2nd of February, 1712-13, 
 "proves not diligent, but idle or vicious, send them home; 
 don't^ let them stay to infect others ; we know no better way 
 to deal with them." 
 
 Meanwhile, however, the President and Council of Bengal 
 contrived to give their masters some " reasons that have 
 greater weight to the contrary," in respect of the alleged ad- 
 vantages of the "general table," especially protesting that it 
 was by no means an economical institution; so the Court 
 gave way, especially, they said, " as in your consultations you 
 make it plain that we shall, in your opinion, be great savers 
 by the diet money." " Let us find," they add, " you will all
 
 GAMBLING IN THE SETTLEMENTS. 53 
 
 bo faithful and diligent for us, and not make our benefit 17001800. 
 always give place to yours, as though the proverb was, l Self 
 and then the Company.' ' 
 
 This was written in 1714-15. Some twelve or thirteen 
 years later, sad news came to England of the addiction of the 
 Company's servants to the vice of gambling. These tidings 
 greatly disquieted the souls of the worthy managers of 
 Leadenhall, who determined to check by stringent measures 
 the destructive practice. So they wrote out a general letter, 
 saying : " We are greatly concerned to hear that the mis- 
 chievous vice of gaming continues, and even increases, among 
 our covenant servants, free merchants, and others, residing at 
 our settlements in India, for great sums of money, and that 
 the women also are infected therewith ; by which means 
 many persons have been ruined, as well on board ship as on 
 shore. Of this there are several flagrant instances. By Act 
 of Parliament, all gaming here above 101. is strictly pro- 
 hibited, under severe penalties. That we may do what in us 
 lies to prevent the evils which, sooner or later, generally 
 attend all gamesters, and frequently prove their ruin, we do 
 hereby peremptorily forbid all manner of gaming whatsoever, 
 in any of our settlements or elsewhere in India, to the amount 
 of 10, or upwards; and if any of our covenant servants, or 
 others in our employ whether civil, maritime, or military, 
 or any free merchants under our protection shall have been 
 discovered to have played at any sort of game, for the value 
 of WL sterling, or upwards, at a time, and be thereof con- 
 victed before you by two creditable witnesses (which witnesses 
 we require that you shall be always ready to hear and admit 
 of them), such offender, be he who he will, and in what 
 station soever, shall, ipso facto, be sent home and dismissed 
 the Company's service by the first shipping, as likewise all 
 free merchants, and all women, married or unmarried, whether 
 belonging to our covenant servants, or who are under our 
 protection."* 
 
 It is easy to drive a coach-and-four through such pro- 
 hibitory enactments as these ; and in all probability, there- 
 fore, they were found as dead letters. A man who may play 
 for 9. 19s, "at a time" may win or lose a large sum of 
 * MS. Records.
 
 54 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 17001800. money in the course of a night. For whatever the intended 
 meaning of the interdict may have been, the actual prohi- 
 bition seems only to have extended to the staking of 10, 
 or upwards, on any one game. Any difficulty on this score, 
 however, does not seem to have occurred to the Company, 
 who regarded rather the obstacles in the way of the detection 
 of the offenders, and therefore offered a premium to those who 
 would inform against their comrades. " We easily foresee," 
 they wrote, "that the reproach of being an informer may 
 keep back persons who may know of such gaming from dis- 
 covering of it : to prevent this, we direct and order that you 
 enter into your consultations a particular account, from time 
 to time, of the persons who shall be proved guilty of such 
 gaming" [they were before ordered to be sent home], " as 
 also of the accuser or accusers ; and for the encouragement of 
 such accuser, if he be a covenant servant, Ave direct that he 
 shall have a year's standing allowed him in our service, and 
 be further entitled to our favour as a person inclined to check 
 this vile practice." This was clearly an error, and a very- 
 base one. If the Company were to have either gamesters or 
 informers in their service, I would have given them the 
 former for choice. Did the Company think to take away 
 " the reproach" of betraying a friend and companion by pay- 
 ing the betrayer for the dirty job ? Would " a year's stand- 
 ing" wash him white ? He, who would take the forty pieces, 
 would not only game but cheat at cards or at dice. 
 
 But gaming was only one kind of extravagance of which 
 the Company's servants were, in the opinion of their masters, 
 guilty to a most reprehensible extent. There were others 
 which demanded suppression by the strong hand of authority. 
 The civilians were waxing proud, ostentatious, and self- 
 indulgent keeping many servants, horses, and equipages, in 
 a faint attempt at Oriental pomp. Quiet homely men were 
 they in Leadenhall-street, and they could not tolerate the airs 
 of their factory servants. So, in December, 1731, they wrote 
 out to Bengal, saying, that none the least of the complaints 
 from that place were of the " extravagant way of living" 
 common among their servants. " We can only recommend 
 it very seriously," they said, " to our President, that he 
 shows a good example of frugality, by keeping a decent
 
 EXTRAVAGANCE OF THE COMPANY'S SERVANTS. 55 
 
 retinue, such as formerly was practised, for the dignity of his 1700 1800. 
 station, and not fall into the foppery of having a sett of 
 musick at his table, and a coach-and-six, with guards and 
 running footmen, as we are informed is now practised, not 
 only by the President, but some of the inferior rank." The 
 sultanising process, it appears, was already going on bravely ; 
 and I am not quite sure that it was sound policy in Leadeu- 
 hall-street to endeavour to restrain it. 
 
 Perhaps, indeed, notwithstanding their thrift, there was 
 some glimmering perception in the minds of these city mer- 
 chants that pomp and parade might have its uses in India, for 
 they wrote out soon afterwards, not without some logical con- 
 fusion, saying : " That a distinction and decorum ought to be 
 kept for the President and Council we think it reasonable, 
 and this we ourselves would encourage, but should be glad 
 that this was brought down to the old standard, when a Pre- 
 sident used to be satisfied with a palanquin, and two men 
 only went with arms before ; and in that time we don't find 
 that our President had less respect shown him by the natives 
 than now. However, as times are altered, and that it may 
 be thought necessary to make some more outward show than 
 formerly, we first recommend to you, if possible, that you 
 bring it back to the old standard, and exercise in every respect 
 frugality, as well in outward show as in your private way of 
 
 living If you should think it fit, by the alteration of 
 
 times, or any other reasons, to keep up the dignity and honour 
 of your employers by making some show when you appear 
 abroad, it is our positive order that none of you, or any of 
 our servants, shall exceed the rules we now lay down, which 
 are, that the President, at his own expense, may make use of 
 a coach-and-four, and each of the gentlemen in council a 
 coach-and-pair, and that any of our other servants, and the 
 free merchants under our covenants who think they can afford 
 it, a single chaise or saddle-horse." And, the better to enforce 
 this rule, the President was instructed to send home every 
 year an exact list of every person under him, and of the equi- 
 pages and horses kept by each, " that we may judge whether 
 such persons are fit to be continued in our service." 
 
 Neither these admonitions nor these warnings had much 
 effect upon the Company's servants, who grew more licentious
 
 56 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 17001800. and more troublesome as time advanced, living extravagant 
 lives, and running into debt with native merchants, " so as 
 to bring you under dependency to them." The Company 
 were continually writing out to their Presidents to set a good 
 example to their junior servants, and to report their misdeeds. 
 But the Presidents appear to have done neither the one thing 
 nor the other. So the Company again wrote out, in language 
 of grave remonstrance to their servants. In the Court's 
 general letter of the 8th of January, 1752, they say : " Much 
 has been reported of the great licentiousness which prevails 
 in your place [Bengal], which we do not choose particularly 
 to mention, as the same must be evident to every rational 
 mind. The evils resulting therefrom to those there and to the 
 Company cannot but be apparent, and it is high tune proper 
 methods be applied for producing such a reformation as com- 
 ports with the laws of sound religion and morality, which are 
 in themselves inseparable. We depend upon you who are 
 principals in the management to set a real good example, and 
 to influence others to follow the same, in such a manner as 
 that virtue, decency, and order be well established, and 
 thereby induce the natives round you to entertain the same 
 high opinion which they formerly had of the English honour 
 and integrity a point of the highest moment to us." But 
 these sermons were worse than profitless ; for instead of their 
 producing any reformatory effect upon the lives of the 
 Company's servants, the rebellious civilians laughed at their 
 masters, and ridiculed their homilies outright. It would 
 appear that there were never wanting persons to inform the 
 Directors at home of what was going on in their distant set- 
 tlements. These were, probably, the ship-captains who brought 
 home the news of the factories, together with the merchandise 
 of the East, and probably ingratiated themselves with their 
 employers by condemning the irregularities of their brethren. 
 At all events, the Court were credibly informed of the manner 
 in which the letter last quoted was received in Bengal : " We 
 are well assured," they wrote out again, in January, 1754, 
 " that the paragraph in our letter of the 8th of January, 1752, 
 relating to the prevailing licentiousness of your place, was 
 received by many of our servants in superior stations with
 
 SUMPTUARY REGULATIONS. 57 
 
 tho great contempt, and was the subject of much indecent ridi- 1700 1800. 
 culo ; but whatever turn you may give to our admonitions 
 call it preaching, or what you please unless a stop is put to 
 the present licentious career, we can have no dependence on 
 the integrity of our servants, now or in future ; for it is too 
 melancholy a truth that the younger class tread too closely 
 upon the heels of their superiors, and, as far as circumstances 
 will admit, and even farther, copy the bad examples which 
 are continually before their eyes." It was plainly, the Direc- 
 tors continued, no use to expostulate any further, so, as 
 supreme masters, they were determined to put forth their 
 authority, and to dictate commands which " all who value 
 their continuance in our service" were called upon to obey. 
 I now give these commands in their integrity. They illus- 
 trate very forcibly the simplicity of the Directors of those 
 days, who appear readily to have believed that such instruc- 
 tions as these would have a mighty effect upon the morals of 
 their servants : 
 
 " That the Governor and Council, and all the rest of our 
 servants, both civil and military, do constantly and regularly 
 attend the divine worship at church every Sunday, unless 
 prevented by sickness or some other reasonable cause, and 
 that all the common soldiers who are not on duty, or pre- 
 vented by sickness, be also obliged to attend. 
 
 " That the Governor and Council do carefully attend to the 
 morals and manner of life of all our servants in general, and 
 reprove and admonish them when and whenever it shall be 
 found necessary. 
 
 " That all our superior servants do avoid, as much as their 
 several situations will allow of it, an expensive manner of 
 living, and consider that, as the representatives of a body of 
 merchants, a decent frugality will be much more in character. 
 
 " That you take particular care that our younger servants 
 do not launch into expenses beyond their incomes, especially 
 upon their first arrival ; and we here lay it down as a standing 
 and positive command, that no writer be allowed to keep a 
 palanquin, horse, or chaise, during the term of his writership. 
 
 " That you set apart one day in every quarter of the year, 
 and oftener if you find it necessary, to inquire into the gene-
 
 58 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 17001800. ral conduct and behaviour of all our servants below the 
 Council, and enter the result thereof in your Diary for our 
 observation." 
 
 The conquest of Bengal imparted a new aspect to the cha- 
 racter of the Company's service. Indeed, it may almost be 
 said that the Civil Service proper dates from that momentous 
 epoch. Up to that point in the history of our Indian Empire 
 the Company's servants had been almost exclusively mer- 
 chants. Then they grew into administrators. What were 
 known as the " Company's affairs" had been simply affairs of 
 trade buying and selling, the provision of investments. But 
 after this new compact with the Soubahdar there was revenue 
 to be collected, and justice to be administered, and relations 
 with native Princes to be established. It was a great turning- 
 point ; and if the Company had been wise in their generation, 
 they would have looked the position in the face, and placed 
 their servants on an entirely new footing with respect to their 
 permitted sources of emolument. Nearly a century and a 
 half had passed away since Sir Thomas Roe had recommended 
 them to give "great wages, to the content" of their servants ; 
 " for then you know what you part from," but they had not 
 taken the hint. And even now, when they found that they 
 had emerged from the proprietorship of a few factories into 
 the sovereignty of great provinces, they still could not recog- 
 nise the wisdom of detaching: their servants from trade, and 
 
 O ' 
 
 depriving them, by the grant of liberal salaries, of all pretexts 
 for receiving bribes from the natives of the country. In 1758 
 they thought they were straining their liberality by raising 
 the pay of a writer to 40 per annum. " We do hereby 
 direct," they wrote out to Bengal, " that the future appoint- 
 ment to a writer for salary, diet money, and all allowances 
 whatever, be four hundred current rupees per annum, which 
 mark of our favour and attention, properly attended to, must 
 prevent their reflection on what we shall further order in 
 regard to them, as having any other object or foundation than 
 their particular interest or happiness." They then referred 
 to their letter of the 23rd of January, 1754, the instructions 
 contained in which they were determined to enforce, " from a 
 persuasion that the indigence of our junior servants, which 
 may too often have been the effect of their vices and the
 
 PILLAGING THE NATIVES. 59 
 
 imitation of their seniors, hath not a little contributed to in- 1700 1800. 
 crease that load of complaints which have been so strongly 
 and repeatedly urged by the Nabob in regard to the abuse of 
 dusticks, a practice we have ever disclaimed ; and are deter- 
 mined to show in future the strongest marks of our resent- 
 ment to such as shall be guilty of, and do most positively 
 order and direct (and will admit of no representation for your 
 postponing the execution of it) that no writer whatsoever be 
 permitted to keep either palanquin, horse, or chaise during 
 his writership, on pain of being immediately dismissed the 
 service." 
 
 In this despatch the Company spoke of " the distressed 
 situation of our once-flourishing settlement of Fort William." 
 But the settlement was flourishing as it had never flourished 
 before. The Company's servants had taken up a trade beside 
 which every other was poor and unremunerative. They had 
 become king-makers, and untold wealth was flowing into their 
 coffers. The English were now the dominant race in Bengal, 
 and there was nothing that they could not do. For the first 
 time they knew their power, and they turned their knowledge 
 to profitable account. The feeble natives could not resist the 
 white men, but they could buy them. It was soon seen that 
 they all had their price. The situation was new to the Com- 
 pany's servants, and it dazzled them, so that they could not, 
 or they would not, "see right from wrong. Large fortunes 
 were made in an incredibly short space of time. It was the 
 blackest period of all in the whole history of the Indian 
 service. 
 
 There is nothing strange in the picture. The Company's 
 servants were unaccustomed to power, and they did not know 
 how to exercise it with moderation. Between the date of the 
 conquest of Bengal and Clive's return to Calcutta in 1765, 
 there was more money made and more wrong done by the 
 Company's civilians than in any like number of years twice 
 told. But Clive went out again, resolute to " cleanse the 
 Augseaii stable;"* and whilst he was instituting great reforms, 
 the honest Directors in Leadenhall-street were still maundering 
 
 * We print in the Appendix a por- of Directors in. 1765. Only a few sen- 
 tion of a despatch, signed by himself tences are given in Malcolm's " Life of 
 alone, which he addressed to the Court dive.''
 
 60 LORD COKNWALLIS. 
 
 17001800. about the irregularities of their younger servants. It always 
 distressed them greatly to think that their young writers were 
 not so thrifty in their habits or so regular in their lives as 
 they might have been ; and they were continually exhorting 
 their high functionaries to bring the mischievous youngsters 
 to account. Send us home the names, they said, of those 
 who will not obey you. But Olive was sending home his lists 
 at this time, and they contained the names of men, not low 
 down in the roll of the Company's establishment, but up 
 among the great merchants. Still the Company kept to their 
 text ; and, still solicitous for the morals of their young men, 
 wrote out to the Governor, in 1765, that all superior servants 
 were to lodge in the new fort so soon as accommodation could 
 be provided, and not, as they did of old, " to lay up and down 
 in the town." Of course Government were no longer to 
 make them " an allowance of house-rent." Although this 
 was imperatively directed to be a standing order, it does not 
 appear to have been very strictly obeyed ; for it is certain 
 that when John Shore went out to India soon afterwards, he 
 lodged, not in the fort, but in the town of Calcutta. 
 
 The measures which were taken to check illicit gains appear 
 to have compelled some of the servants of the Company to 
 draw bills on their friends at home. When news of this 
 reached the Directors, they were greatly distressed, for they 
 suspected that such as had not these resources were getting 
 into debt to their native Banyans, and thus rendering them- 
 selves " liable to be tempted to infidelity in the offices they 
 were trusted with." But instead of deducing from these 
 things the inference that their servants should have better 
 pay, they still clung to the old idea of the excessive extra- 
 vagance of the writers, and again strenuously insisted on 
 the necessity of sumptuary regulations. It was imperatively 
 enjoined that no writer should keep a palanquin unless " ab- 
 solutely necessary for the preservation of health ;" that no 
 writer should keep " more than one servant besides a cook ;" 
 that no writer should be permitted to keep a horse without 
 the express permission of the Governor ; and that no writer 
 should be permitted, either by himself or jointly with others, 
 to keep a country-house. " With respect to table liquors," 
 they added, "we cannot pretend to form regulations for
 
 MEASURES OF LORD CLIVE. 
 
 61 
 
 them," nor " with respect to general extravagance in dress," 17001800. 
 of which sad accounts had reached home ; but the Governor 
 was to keep a watchful eye upon them, and to see that they 
 conformed to that system of economy which had been so often 
 prescribed. * 
 
 Lord Olive's cleansing mission to India did much to put an 
 end to the reign of the adventurers, who had no connexion 
 with the graduated service of the Company. Ever since the 
 conquest of Bengal the cupidity of England had been excited, 
 and men of all kinds had gone forth with letters of introduc- 
 tion in their pockets, and perhaps a clue to some desperate job, 
 by which they might enrich themselves in a year or two, and 
 return to England as nabobs of the real mushroom type.f 
 
 * These sumptuary regulations were 
 always a chronic source of amusement 
 to the Company's servants, who evaded 
 them, and sometimes with a good deal 
 of humour in the manner of evasion. 
 For example, at Madras, where the re- 
 strictions appear to have been greater 
 than at Calcutta, an order had gone 
 forth against the use of umbrellas as 
 protections against the sun. These sun- 
 shades, principally made of broad leaves 
 or split bamboos, were called roundels, 
 from their shape. These being pro- 
 hibited by name, the young writers had 
 their umbrellas made square, and set 
 forth that, although they knew that 
 roundels were prohibited, there was no- 
 thing in orders against squaredels. On 
 another occasion, a regulation having 
 gone forth against the use of gold lace 
 on the coats of the writers, a young 
 civilian, when brought up for infringing 
 the law, and asked if he did not know 
 the regulation, said that he was aware 
 of an order against gold lace, but he did 
 not think that it was binding ! 
 
 f The following anecdote, very illus- 
 trative of the history of the adventurers 
 of those days, was related by Macaulay, 
 in his speech on the second reading of 
 the India Bill of 1853 : " These were 
 the sort of men," he said, " who took no 
 office, but simply put the Governor- 
 General to a species of ransom. They 
 laid upon him a sort of tax what the 
 Mahrattas call chout, and the Scotch 
 black-mail ; that is, the sum paid to a 
 thief in consideration that he went away 
 without doing harm. There was a tra- 
 dition in Calcutta, where the story was 
 
 very circumstantially told and general!}' 
 believed, that a man came out with a 
 strong letter of recommendation from 
 one of the Ministers during Lord dive's 
 second administration. Lord Clive saw 
 that he was not only unfit for, but would 
 positively do harm in, any office, and 
 said in his peculiar way, ' Well, chap, 
 how much do you want?' Not being 
 accustomed to be spoken to so plainly, 
 the man replied, that he only hoped for 
 some situation in which his services 
 might be useful. ' That is no answer, 
 chap, ' said Lord Clive ; ' how much do 
 you want ? Will one hundred thousand 
 pounds do?' The person replied, that he 
 should be delighted if by laborious ser- 
 vice he could obtain that competence. 
 Lord Clive then wrote out an order for 
 the sum at once, and told the applicant to 
 leave India by the ship he came in, and, 
 once in England again, to remain there. 
 I think the story is very probable, and 
 I also think that the people of India 
 ought to be grateful for the course Lord 
 Clive pursued; for though he pillaged 
 the people of Bengal to give this lucky 
 adventurer a large sum, yet the man 
 himself, if he had received an appoint- 
 ment, might both have pillaged them 
 and misgoverned them as well." I have 
 taken this passage, verbatim, from Han- 
 sard ; but I believe that the sum named 
 should have been, not a hundred thou- 
 sand pounds, but ten thousand pounds. 
 My own recollection of the speech and 
 sitting under the gallery I heard it most 
 distinctly is, that Macaulay used the 
 words, " a lakh of rupees."
 
 62 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 17001800. These interlopers were in the way of the regular service, 
 whom they deprived of some of the best pickings which the 
 country afforded. A letter from a Minister in England, or 
 from an influential member of the Court of Directors, often 
 stood in lieu of all covenants and indentures. But, as a body, 
 the latter were convinced that these irregular appointments 
 were injurious to their interests ; and in 1773, having ex- 
 pressed their satisfaction that their settlement in Bengal had 
 been " put into a train of reform," wrote out that the next 
 thing to be done was u to revert to the old system, when the 
 business of your Presidency was principally performed by our 
 own servants, who then had knowledge of our investments, 
 and every other department of our concerns. You will, 
 therefore, fill the several offices with the writers and factors 
 on your establishment." And from that time the Company's 
 own servants had it pretty well to themselves. 
 
 But a far more powerful body of men than the Court of 
 Directors of the East India Company were now seriously con- 
 sidering the character and conduct of the Company's servants. 
 The Houses of Parliament, instructed by the King's Ministers, 
 had begun to take heed of the dark histories on which then a 
 new light had been thrown, and among other great reforms 
 instituted by them they prohibited all further acceptance by 
 the Company's or other servants of presents from the Princes 
 or other inhabitants of India. The famous Act of 1773 de- 
 clared "that, from and after the first day of August, 1774, 
 no person holding or exercising any civil or military office 
 under the Crown or the Company in the East Indies shall 
 accept, receive, or take, directly or indirectly, by himself or 
 any other person or persons on his behalf, or for his use or 
 benefit, of and from any of the Indian Princes or powers, or 
 their ministers or agents (or any of the natives of Asia), any 
 present, gift, donation, gratuity, or reward." On conviction 
 of any infraction of this law, the offender was to forfeit double 
 the value of the present, and to be amenable to deportation 
 from .the country.* 
 
 * In 1784 these penalties were re- And so the matter stands at this time, 
 scinded ; but the Act of 1793 made the Large quantities of presents are received 
 demanding or receiving presents of any from the native Princes and chiefs ; but 
 kind, even for the use of the Company, a they are thrown into a common store 
 misdemeanor. In 1833 this was again and sold, and from their proceeds re- 
 modified, and the offence limited to the turn-presents are purchased to be given 
 receipt of presents " for his own use." to the donors.
 
 TIMES OF WARREN HASTINGS. 63 
 
 The reforms introduced by Lord Olive, and the severe 1700 1800. 
 orders of the Court of Directors, now backed by Parlia- 
 mentary enactments, reduced the primary advantages of the 
 service to a very low state. Mr. Shore, who had then been 
 for some years in India, wrote to England complaining that 
 " the road to opulence grows daily narrower." " The Court of 
 Directors," he added, " are actuated with such a spirit of 
 reformation and retrenchment, and are so well seconded by 
 Mr. Hastings, that it seems the rescission of all our remaining 
 emoluments will alone suffice it. The Company's service is, 
 in fact, an employ not rendered very desirable. Patience, 
 perseverance, and hope are all I have left." His pay as a 
 writer, he tell us, was, when he first entered the service, eight 
 rupees, or less than a pound, a month a statement which I 
 do not know how to reconcile with the Court's orders, quoted 
 previously, fixing the allowance of a writer at 40 a year. That 
 the young civilians of that period, however, underwent con- 
 siderable hardship, may be learned both from Mr. Shore's 
 Memoirs and from those of Mr. Forbes, who served the Com- 
 pany in Western India. Most readers are familiar with the 
 statement of the latter gentleman, that he was often compelled 
 to go to bed before nightfall, because he could not afford the 
 expense of a candle. 
 
 If we are to believe Captain Joseph Price, who, about the 
 year 1780, wrote certain pamphlets on Indian affairs, to which 
 I have already alluded, the young civilians of that period 
 were, on the whole, very well conducted. a There are, 110 
 doubt," he says, " vices in some constitutions which no 
 climate can control, and a warm one the least of any. On 
 this I shall say nothing more than that, in all societies, some 
 few individuals will run riot. Time, and time only, is able to 
 rein in some of our natural passions. But as for the acci- 
 dental ones of wine and gaming, if they are enjoyed anywhere 
 in moderation, and without gross abuse, it is in the East 
 Indies ; for I never knew a young man guilty of either who 
 did well in the Company's service, for they are by no means 
 countenanced in such excesses by men in power." The logic 
 of this must be admitted to halt a little ; but, at all events, it 
 shows that during the government of Warren Hastings ex- 
 cesses of this kind were discouraged by the higher servants of
 
 64 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 17001800. the Company. In the next paragraph, however, Captain 
 Price goes beyond this, for he asserts that the young civilians 
 were much less profligate than youths of the same standing at 
 home. " The study of the country languages," he says, " and 
 the daily duties of the office to which they are, from their 
 first arrival, allotted, find employment enough for the most 
 active mind ; and in Asia, as in all other parts of the world, 
 the man who best attends to the duties of his station and 
 situation succeeds best in life. But as to dissipation, and cor- 
 ruption of manners and morals, a merchant's or banker's clerk 
 of twenty years old in London is further gone than the Com- 
 pany's servants in Asia during their whole life." It is right 
 to add that this statement, though of questionable accuracy, 
 is confirmed by another writer, Mr. Robert Lindsay, of the 
 Company's service, who tells us that idleness rather than 
 extravagance was the besetting sin of the civilians at that 
 time. " It was not then the fashion," says this writer, " to 
 fatigue ourselves with hard labour ; there were abundance of 
 native scribes in all the offices to do the drudgery, and our 
 taskmasters were not strict. Under these circumstances, it was 
 not a matter of surprise if many of us were more idle than 
 otherwise. I followed the tide, and a merrier set could not be 
 found. There was fortunately little or no dissipation amongst 
 us." Elsewhere, Mr. Lindsay says that " the public business 
 was transacted by a few able individuals, and the younger 
 servants had full leisure to amuse themselves."* 
 
 And they had not only leisure to amuse themselves, it 
 would appear, but they had still leisure, and were allowed, to 
 enter into commercial speculations on their own account. Mr. 
 Lindsay had large dealings in salt, taking in a native capitalist 
 as his partner, " provided I would appear as the ostensible 
 person." By one fortunate speculation, or, as he calls it, 
 " well-timed energy," he was enabled to pay off all the debts 
 he had contracted during a long residence in Calcutta, and 
 " to put a few thousand rupees in his pocket." Encouraged 
 by this venture, he launched, whilst a revenue collector in the 
 
 * A very goo< j ^ ea O f t jj e state O f noteg O f the Hoiu R b er t Lindsay, 
 
 civilianism in India, during the admi- which are given in the third volume of 
 
 nistration of Warren Hastings, may be that very entertaining work, the " Lives 
 
 derived from these autobiographical of the Lindsays."
 
 CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. $5 
 
 Dacca district, " into various speculations in trade." His 1780 1800. 
 
 pay was only 500/. a year, so he " contemplated with delight 
 
 the wide field of commercial speculation opening before him."* 
 
 And he soon afterwards naively informs us, that from the 
 
 " conspicuous advantage he derived from the great command 
 
 of money to carry on his commercial pursuits," he dates the 
 
 origin of the fortune he acquired in the Company's service, f 
 
 In this we see fairly reflected the state of the Company's 1786. 
 Civil Service before the time of CornwaUis's arrival in India. 
 The Honourable Eobert Lindsay may be taken as a good type 
 of his order. He was an honourable, well-meaning man, 
 wise after his kind, and he only did what was sanctioned by 
 universal usage. For a civil servant of the Company, at that 
 time, was a hybrid monster ; half a public functionary and 
 half a private trader. If he had attempted to live on his 
 official salary, he must have starved, or been eaten alive by 
 rats and mosquitoes. Thus cast upon their own resources, the 
 better men traded with their employers' money; the worse 
 grew rich by the more rapid process of peculation and cor- 
 ruption. The India Bill of 1784 prohibited private trade on 
 the part of the Company's servants ;| but they evaded the act 
 by putting forward some native underling or other person as 
 the ostensible trader. All this was to be deplored. But it was 
 clearly impossible to create a pure public service in India, 
 without paying the servants in proportion to the risks which 
 they incurred, and the inconveniences to which they were 
 subjected. To Lord Cornwallis this was so apparent that he 
 could not wonder at the " relaxed habits" of the agents of 
 Government, and could scarcely condemn what had its root 
 deep down in an evil system for which they were not respon- 
 sible. There was but one remedy for the evil, and that he 
 
 * Among other speculations in which of the Indian Civil Service is printed, 
 
 he engaged was ship-building ; but this with certain alterations, from some 
 
 does not appear to have been very sue- papers which I contributed, in 1861, to 
 
 cessful. His mother wrote out very Blackwood's Magazine. The informa- 
 
 pleasantly that she had no doubt he was tion was derived from old India House 
 
 a very scientific ship-builder, but that records. 
 
 she had one request to make of him, J They were forbidden to " have any 
 
 which was that he would not come to dealings or transactions, by way of 
 
 England in a ship of his own making. traffic or trade, at any. place within any 
 
 ) This sketch of the rise and progress of the provinces in India." 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 fiG LORD CORWALLIS. 
 
 178687. determined at once to apply. He was convinced that it would 
 be a wise economy in the end to place within the reach of the 
 Company's servants such lawful and recognised gains as would 
 enable them to disregard the temptations and opportunities 
 which surrounded them. So he decreed that they should 
 receive high official salaries, and should be wholly cut off from 
 personal trade. " I am sorry to say," he wrote to Mr. Dun- 
 das at the Board of Control, "that I have every reason to 
 believe that at present almost all the collectors are, under the 
 name of some relation or friend, deeply engaged in commerce, 
 and by their influence as judges and collectors of Adaulut, 
 they become the most dangerous enemies to the Company's 
 interests and the greatest oppressors of the manufacturers. I 
 hope you will approve of the additional allowances and the 
 commission that we have given to the collectors, for without 
 them it was absolutely impossible that an honest man should 
 acquire the most moderate competency."* And at a later 
 period he wrote to the same correspondent, with reference to 
 the Company's civil servants, " There are some as honourable 
 men as ever lived. They have committed no fault but that of 
 submitting to the extortion of their superiors. They have no 
 other means of getting their bread. ... I sincerely believe 
 that, excepting Mr. Charles Grant, there is not one person in 
 the list who would escape prosecution." 
 
 To the earnest recommendations of the Governor- General 
 recommendations which, indeed, he had practically anticipated 
 the Court of Directors gave their assent, but it was a 
 grudging one. They had great notions of economy ; but 
 their economy was based upon the extravagant principle of 
 "penny-wise, pound-foolish." They were slow to comprehend 
 the truth, that of all things in the world that which is best 
 
 * In another letter (addressed to the lutely precluding him from any emolu- 
 Court of Directors) he said : " When ment whatever, excepting such as are 
 you consider the situations of your ser- publicly allowed, and when you are 
 vants in this country, the very high re- further pleased to consider that, ex- 
 sponsibility now more particularly an- cepting instances of extraordinary 
 nexed to the office of collector, the merit, your servants cannot in future 
 temptations of the situation, the inces- expect to obtain the office of a collector 
 sant labour of his office, and the zeal under a period of twelve years spent in 
 which must be -exerted to promote the your service, we trust that we shall be 
 prosperity of the revenues and country found to have consulted your true in- 
 at large ; when, on the other hand, you terests with every compatible attention 
 advert to the solemn restrictions imposed to economy, and that you will approve 
 upon him by the Legislature, as well as the allowances and commission fixed by 
 those in the public regulations and the us for your servants in the Revenue De- 
 separate orders already noticed, abso- partment."
 
 MEASURES OF REFORM. 67 
 
 worth paying for is good service, and that even in its narrowest 178687. 
 
 financial aspect it is wise and prudent for the State to consider 
 
 the prosperity of those upon whom its own prosperity depends. 
 
 So convinced was Cornwallis of this, that he wrote to Dundas, 
 
 that the Company might advantageously save the salary of the 
 
 Governor-General if they would not give better pay to their 
 
 inferior servants, for that under the old system it would be easy 
 
 to find a man to take his place for nothing. " If the essence 
 
 of the spirit of economy," he said, " of the whole Court of 
 
 Directors could be collected, I am sure it would fall very short 
 
 of my earnest anxiety on that subject. But I never can or 
 
 shall think that it is good economy to put men into places of 
 
 the greatest confidence, where they have it in their power to 
 
 make their fortune in a few months, without giving them any 
 
 salaries. If it is a maxim that no Government can command 
 
 honest services, and that pay our servants as we please they 
 
 will equally cheat, the sooner that we leave this country the 
 
 better. I am sure that, under that supposition, I can be of no 
 
 use, and my salary is so much thrown away : nothing will be 
 
 so easy as to find a Governor- General of Bengal who will 
 
 serve without salary."* 
 
 In another letter, written at a later period, he said : " I have 
 been a most rigid economist in all cases where I thought rigid 
 economy was true economy. I abolished sinecure places, put 
 a stop to jobbing, agencies, and contracts, prevented large sums 
 being voted away in Council for trumped-up charges, and 
 have been unwearied in hunting out fraud and abuse in every 
 department. As a proof that I have succeeded, you will see 
 this year, what never happened before, that our expenses have 
 fallen short of our estimates. But I shall never think it a wise 
 measure in this country to place men in great and responsible 
 situations, where the prosperity of our affairs must depend 
 upon their exertions as well as their integrity, without giving 
 them the means, in a certain number of years, of acquiring 
 honestly and openly a moderate fortune." 
 
 But, do what he might in India, it was difficult to restrain English job- 
 the tide of attempted jobbery, which was continually pouring y> 
 in from England. From all the high places at home from 
 the King's Court, from the council-chamber of the King's 
 Ministers, from the Houses of Parliament, from the lobbies of 
 
 * Cornwallis Correspondence. Koss. 
 F2
 
 68 LOBD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 178687. the India House solicitations on behalf of all sorts of people 
 kept streaming into Calcutta. Men and women of rank and 
 influence in London had been so long accustomed to get rid of 
 troublesome petitioners for place and patronage by sending 
 them out to India with a letter of recommendation in their 
 pockets, and the plan on many occasions had been found so 
 successful, that the evil habit was not to be readily abandoned. 
 To Cornwallis, who would not perpetrate a job to please the 
 King himself, and who could with difficulty find honourable 
 employment for these adventurers from England, all this was 
 very distressing. His correspondence bears the impression of 
 the vexation which it occasioned him. " Lord Ailesbury 
 (Queen's Chamberlain)," he wrote to his friend Lord Sydney, 
 " has greatly distressed me by sending out a Mr. Ritso, recom- 
 mended by the Queen ; but I have too much at stake. I can- 
 not desert the only system that can save this country even for 
 sacred Majesty." And again : "I told you how Lord Ailes- 
 bury had distressed me by sending out Mr. Ritso. He is now 
 writing in the Secretary's Office for two hundred or two hun- 
 dred and fifty rupees a month, and I do not see the pro- 
 bability of my being able to give him anything better, without 
 deserving to be impeached. I am still persecuted every day 
 by people coming out with letters to me, who either get into 
 jail or starve in the foreign settlements. For God's sake do all 
 in your power to stop this madness." He was a very kind- 
 hearted man, but the state of things was so bad, and it was so 
 necessary to arrest it, that he wrote to the men himself who 
 came begging to him for a place, after this formula : " If I 
 was inclined to serve you, it is wholly out of my power to do 
 it, without a breach of my duty. I most earnestly advise you 
 to think of returning to England as soon as possible. After 
 the 1st of January next, I shall be under the necessity of 
 sending you thither." If anything in the world, could have 
 arrested the evil, this would have done it. The remedy was 
 severe, but it was effectual. 
 
 The Company, I am afraid, were not much better than the 
 Court. The Directors were not disinclined to perpetrate little 
 private jobs of their own. But to applications from Leaden- 
 hall-street the Governor- General sent back only threats of 
 resignation. " I must beg leave," he wrote to a member of 
 the Direction, " to observe that I do not conceive any man
 
 POLITICAL JOBBERY. 
 
 69 
 
 can have behaved with more proper respect to the Court of 178687. 
 Directors than I have done ever since I have held my present 
 station ; but I must freely acknowledge that before I accepted 
 the arduous task of governing this country, I did understand 
 that the practice of naming persons from England to succeed 
 to offices of great trust and importance to the public welfare 
 in this country, without either knowing or regarding whether 
 such persons were in any degree qualified for such offices, was 
 entirely done away. If, unfortunately, so pernicious a system 
 should be again revived, I should feel myself obliged to re- 
 quest that some other person might immediately take from 
 me the responsibility of governing these extensive dominions, 
 that I might preserve my own character, and not be a witness 
 to the ruin of the interests of my country."* So the Com- 
 pany's proteges were sent away as empty-handed as those 
 who came from the King and Queen. 
 
 A consistent perseverance in a course of this kind, though 
 at the outset it may alarm and irritate, will in the end secure 
 general respect and admiration, and extract unwilling tributes 
 
 * It does not appear either that the 
 activity of Party Politics in the direc- 
 tion of rank jobbery was less notorious 
 than that of the Court or the Company. 
 Perhaps the rankest jobs ever attempted, 
 and in some measure perpetrated, were 
 those by which Mr. Edmund Burke's 
 brother William was to enrich himself. 
 It was said, and not without some show 
 of probability, that Warren Hastings's 
 neglect of William Burke added much 
 to the rancour, if it did not originate 
 the enmity, of his assailants. It appears 
 that Lord Rawdon, who was a good 
 deal behind the scenes, thought it ad- 
 visable, in the interests of friendship, to 
 give Cornwallis a hint of this. Nothing 
 daunted, however, the Governor-Gene- 
 ral replied : " I am much obliged to 
 you for your friendly hint about Wil- 
 liam Burke. Although I may perhaps 
 suffer a little in the opinion of the great 
 personage to whom you allude, for my 
 predilection for what I think great qua- 
 lities and eminent services to his country 
 in Mr. Pitt, I should en all other points 
 most earnestly wish to give every proof 
 of the most sincere attachment and 
 anxious desire to do what I should have 
 every reason to believe would be agree- 
 able to him. I have, ever since I have 
 been in India, treated William Burke 
 
 with the greatest personal attention ; 
 and I have done little favours, such as 
 ensigncies in the King's service, &c., to 
 his friends. But it is impossible for me 
 to serve him essentially that is, put 
 large sums of money into his pocket, 
 without a gross violation of my public 
 duty, and doing acts for which I should 
 deserve to be impeached. He has him- 
 self suggested to me two modes of 
 serving him, which I will explain to 
 you. The first is, that he should re- 
 ceive money here, and be allowed to 
 manage the remittances for the payment 
 of the King's troops at Madras and 
 Bombay. I found him in possession of 
 such a remittance to Madras when I 
 first arrived, which was given to him 
 by Macpherson (in order to pay his 
 court to Edmund Burke), and fixed at 
 the scandalous exchange of 410 Arcot 
 rupees for 100 pagodas, by what he, 
 Macpherson, called a committee of re- 
 spectable merchants, consisting of Wil- 
 liam Burke himself (the Company's 
 Military Paymaster-General), an inti- 
 mate friend of Burke's, and a principal 
 proprietor in the bank through which 
 he remitted his money, and poor ^-, 
 who, I believe, to this day scarcely 
 knows the difference of value between a 
 rupee and a shilling."
 
 70 .LOUD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 178687. of applause even from those whose immediate interests have 
 been injuriously affected by it. The correspondence of Mr. 
 Shore in the years 1786-87 indicates that the new Governor- 
 General soon lived down the unpopularity which attended his 
 first efforts to purify the administration. " I live upon the 
 happiest terms with Lord Cornwallis," wrote the Councillor in 
 November, 1786. " I love and esteem his character, which is 
 what the world allows it. The honesty of his principles is in- 
 flexible ; he is manly, affable, and good natured ; of an excel- 
 lent judgment ; and he has a degree of application to business 
 beyond what you would suppose. I could not be happier with 
 any man. His health is sound ; for he has not had an hour's 
 indisposition since first I saw him. If the state of affairs 
 would allow him to be popular, which he is most eminently at 
 present, no Governor would ever enjoy a greater share of popu- 
 larity. . . . Natives and Europeans universally exclaim that 
 Lord Cornwallis's arrival has saved the country." 
 
 And again, writing a few months afterwards to Warren 
 Hastings, he said : " The respect, esteem, and regard which I 
 have for Lord Cornwallis might subject my opinion of his 
 government to a suspicion of partiality. Yet I cannot avoid 
 mentioning that it has acquired the character of vigour, con- 
 sistency, and dignity. The system of patronage which you 
 so justly reprobated, and which you always found so grievous 
 a tax, has been entirely subverted. The members of Govern- 
 ment, relieved from the torture of private solicitations, have 
 more time to attend to their public duties ; and the expenses 
 of Government are kept within their established bounds. On 
 these principles, I acknowledge it difficult to gratify my wishes 
 with respect to my own friends, or those who, from recom- 
 mendations, have claims upon me ; and I cannot expect to 
 escape reproaches for a conduct which the interest of the 
 Company renders indispensable. With Lord Cornwallis I 
 have had the happiness to live constantly on terms of the 
 most intimate confidence, and on this account, as well as by 
 a knowledge of his character, I am precluded from making 
 any solicitations but such as are warranted by the strictest 
 propriety. You will learn from others how well his time is 
 regulated, and of his unremitted application to business. . . . 
 His situation was uncomfortable on our arrival ; he now re-
 
 STATE OF THE ARMY. 71 
 
 ceives the respect due to his zeal, integrity, and indefatigable 1787. 
 application."* 
 
 In August, 1787, Lord Cornwallis started on a tour in the Tour in the 
 provinces eager to see for himself the state of the country 
 and the progress of the administration, and to inspect the 
 troops under his command. Holding, as he did, the double 
 office of Governor- General and Commander-in- Chief, and liis 
 natural tastes, no less than his antecedent experiences, in- 
 clining him towards military rather than civil affairs, he had 
 from the first taken into his consideration the condition of the 
 army, which was at that time not very encouraging. " I am 
 now going up the river to visit the military stations," he 
 wrote to his friend Colonel Fox, with whom he had attended 
 more than one review of the Prussian Army. " The Com- 
 pany's Europeans are not exactly like what we saw two 
 years ago. On the whole, everything goes on in this country 
 as well as I could reasonably expect. I have made great and 
 essential reforms, and, I think, without unpopularity. Bad 
 as the evil was, I think the abuses of the army were the 
 greatest, not one of which Sloperf had attempted to correct." 
 He wrote this on board his pinnace working up the river. It 
 was a propitious season for clearing off arrears of private cor- 
 respondence ; and amongst others to whom he wrote, as 
 the government party tracked up the Granges, was his old 
 friend Lord Shelburne, now Lord Lansdowne, to whom he 
 said : " As I must lay my coming to India to your door, and 
 
 * Life, of Lord Ttignmouth, by his conduct an almost unexampled aptitude 
 Son. In another letter, written in 1789, for jobbery. On his supersession, he 
 the same writer said : " The task upon went home, and was received with open 
 which Lord Cornwallis and myself em- arms by the Prince of Wales. A co- 
 barked was reformation and improve- temporary journalist says : " The recep- 
 ment. We had inveterate prejudices tion of General Sloper by the Prince 
 and long-confirmed habits to encounter, of Wales was flattering to the General 
 To serve our constituents, it was neces- beyond conception. The Prince met him 
 sary to retrench the emoluments of in- in Pall-Mali, as the General was going 
 dividuals, and to introduce system and into London. He rode up, stopped the 
 regularity where all before was disorder chaise himself, shook the General by the 
 and misrule." hand, and seemed overjoyed to see him ; 
 
 f General Sloper had been sent out as and in every place where they have met 
 
 Commander-in-Chief to Bengal before since his Royal Highness has paid him 
 
 the appointment of Lord Cornwallis, and the most pointed and marked attention." 
 
 had been superseded by that nobleman. No one, after reading this, will be sur- 
 
 Ile had been tried in the balance, and prised to learn that Lord Cornwallis had 
 
 found wanting. He had exhibited in his the worst possible opinion of him.
 
 72 LOKD COKNWALLIS. 
 
 1787. as you are consequently in a great degree responsible for my 
 conduct, I think it fair to tell you that I natter myself I have 
 not yet disgraced you. I can safely say that I have not been 
 idle ; I have selected the ablest and honestest men in the dif- 
 ferent departments for my advisers, and I am not conscious 
 that I have in any one instance sacrificed the public good to 
 any private consideration. ... I have already told you that 
 I had patronised Fonbelle ; I have likewise brought forward 
 the two Kenneways, who are both very deserving men ; the 
 soldier is my aide-de-camp, the other I have put into the 
 Board of Trade, where he is rendering most essential services. 
 ... I am now going to visit the Upper Provinces and the 
 stations of the army, which is, I am sorry to say, still in a 
 most wretched condition, almost, indeed, without subordi- 
 nation."' 
 
 In those days travelling in India was slow and tedious. 
 The river was full after the rains, and everything was in his 
 favour ; but it was held to be a great achievement that he 
 reached Benares on the 29th of August, " in the course of a 
 month from the day on which he left the Presidency "f a dis- 
 tance now accomplished in twenty-four hours. In the middle 
 of the following month he was at Allahabad. He visited 
 Futtehgurh, Cawnpore, and other principal stations, where 
 he inspected the troops in cantonments, and formed an opinion 
 not very favourable to any part of the Company's establish- 
 ment, except the Artillery. But if the Commander-in-Chief 
 was active at this time, the Go venior- General was thoughtful. 
 For as he proceeded up the country, vague rumours of hos- 
 tile designs on the part of the great Mahomedan usurper of 
 Mysore came to him from Southern India. They greatly 
 
 * " Lord Cormvallis is gone up the f " By the last accounts received from 
 
 country to review the military stations, some of the Right Honourable the Go- 
 
 and has left Stuart and myself to go on vernor - General's suite, we have the 
 
 with the business What I feel pleasure to announce his Lordship's ar- 
 
 most is the distress of numbers with rival at Benares on the 29th ultimo, 
 
 whom I am connected. The former His Lordship has had a very favourable 
 
 extravagance of the service has pro- passage, as, including the several days 
 
 duced this consequence. . . . The prin- he has stopped at different settlements, 
 
 ciples upon which we act will make me he will have got to Benares in the course 
 
 more enemies than friends ; but how of a month from the day he left the 
 
 can I help it? There is no serving God Presidency." Calcutta Gazette, Sept. 6, 
 
 and Mammon." John Shore to H. I. 1787. 
 Chandler, August 3, 1787. Life of Lord 
 Teignmouth, by his Son.
 
 DESIGNS OF TIPPOO. 73 
 
 disquieted him. He was a soldier, right soldierly ; but he 1787. 
 had lived so much in the camp, he had seen so much of the 
 stern realities of actual warfare, that his desires were all for 
 peace. Experience has since shown that the soldier-states- 
 men of India have ever been more moderate in counsel, and 
 more forbearing in act, than her civil rulers. Lord Cornwallis 
 saw clearly that there was a great work before him, which 
 war would disastrously interrupt ; but, " equal to either for- 
 tune," he began to meditate hostile contingencies, and to 
 turn his visit to the provinces to the best account. On the 
 5th of September, 1787, he wrote, from Chunar, to Mr. 
 Stuart, senior member of his council : "I wish, with all my 
 soul, that my apprehensions could be quiet respecting the 
 Carnatic. Should the worst happen, and Tippoo actually 
 break with us, I think it may prove ultimately fortunate that 
 I am at present in this part of the country. I can take im- 
 mediate measures to endeavour to form a close connexion with 
 the different chiefs of the Mahrattas, and to incite them to 
 attack Tippoo on their side to recover the territories that he 
 and his father had wrested from them during their internal 
 dissensions. Every other means must likewise be taken to carry 
 on the war against him with the utmost vigour, and to pro- 
 vide against any foreign interference." On the 15th of October 
 he wrote to Mr. Shore : " I lose no time in assuring you and 
 Mr. Stuart that I most perfectly approve of your having re- 
 solved to support the declaration of the Madras Government, 
 and of its being our determination to protect the Rajah of 
 Travancore as one of our allies. If it will give you the 
 smallest satisfaction, you may put my concurrence on record. 
 . . . We must, no doubt, make every preparation in our 
 power. ... It is impossible to enter into particulars, until 
 we are acquainted with the manner in which Tippoo means to 
 carry his designs into execution." A month later, he wrote 
 to Mr. Dundas in England, saying : " There appears such a 
 jealousy and coldness in the disposition of the Mahrattas to- 
 wards us, that I do not natter myself, in the event of a breach 
 with Tippoo, that we could derive any immediate assistance 
 from them. The timidity of the Nizam, and the wretched 
 state of his army and his country, do not render his intrigues 
 with the French and Tippoo very formidable, and I think they
 
 74 LOUD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1787. may alarm the jealousy of the Poonah Ministry, and welcome 
 
 them more readily to take part with us." 
 
 Stafe of Oude. He was then sailing down the river, on his return journey 
 to Calcutta. Among the other duties which he had imposed 
 upon himself, was a visit to Oude, then, and for years after- 
 wards, in a state of disorder, aggravated by the intense job- 
 bery of English adventurers, sometimes with the stamp of the 
 Company upon them, who entangled the unfortunate Newab- 
 Wuzeer in half-fraudulent pecuniary transactions, and then 
 endeavoured to obtain the aid of the sword of Government to 
 cut the Gordian knot of the complications they had adroitly 
 contrived for their own advantage. This was not the only 
 evil. The connexion between the Company's Government and 
 the Newab was one which was certain, in the end, to engulf 
 him and his people in ruin. Lord Cornwallis brought a clear 
 unbiased judgment to bear upon the past history of Oude ; 
 and he could not help sympathising with the distressed condi- 
 tion of the ruler of that fair province. " I was received at 
 Allahabad," he wrote to the Court of Directors, u and at- 
 tended to Lucknow by the Vizier and his Ministers with every 
 mark of friendship and respect. I cannot, however, express 
 how much I was concerned during my short residence at his 
 capital, and my progress through his dominions, to be witness 
 to the disordered state of his finances and government, and of 
 the desolated appearance of the country. The evils were too 
 alarming to admit of palliation, and I thought it my duty to 
 exhort him in the most friendly manner to endeavour to 
 apply effectual remedies to them." And then, after some 
 further observations on the disorganisation of that unhappy 
 province, he said, with the unflinching sincerity which distin- 
 guished all his utterances, " I shall avoid making any remarks 
 upon the original grounds, or supposed right, which induced 
 us to interfere in the details of that unfortunate country, and 
 shall only say that I am afraid it has done us no credit in 
 Hindostan ; but that the imperfect manner in which we did 
 or could interfere could hardly fail of being attended with the 
 consequences that have been experienced that of giving con- 
 stant disgust and dissatisfaction to the Vizier, without pro- 
 ducing a shadow of benefit or relief to the body of the inhabi- 
 tants." He was the first, indeed, to hit that great glaring
 
 STATE OF THE ARMY. 75 
 
 blot, which afterwards was discerned for more than half a cen- 1787> 
 tury, and was the source of all kinds of protests, remonstrances, 
 and menaces, but which at last could be removed only by the 
 sharp knife of annexation. 
 
 Early in December Lord Cornwallis was again in Calcutta. Return to Cai- 
 " I was so fortunate," he wrote to the Duke of York, on the cu 
 10th of that month, " in wind and weather, that I completed 
 my expedition, during which, by land and water, I travelled 
 above two-and-twenty hundred miles in less than four months, 
 without omitting any material object of my tour, civil or 
 military." He had brought back with him, from this tour of 
 inspection, a very high estimate of the military qualities of the 
 Company's Sepoys, but the worst possible opinion of their 
 Europeans. "A brigade of our Sepoys," he said, "would 
 easily make anybody Emperor of Hindostan." " The appear- 
 ance of the native troops," he added, " gave me the greatest 
 satisfaction ; some of the battalions were perfectly well trained, 
 and there was a spirit of emulation among the officers, and an 
 attention in the men, which leaves me but little room to doubt 
 that they will soon be brought to a great pitch of disci- 
 pline . . . . ; but the Company's Europeans are such mise- 
 rable wretches that I am ashamed to acknowledge them for 
 countrymen." To any one considering the manner in which 
 the Company's regiments were recruited, there could be nothing 
 surprising in this. The refuse of the streets was swept up and 
 shovelled at once into the ships. Embarked as rabble, they were 
 expected to land as soldiers. No experiment could be more 
 hopeless. Yet it was clear to Lord Cornwallis that the per- 
 manence of our Indian Empire depended upon its defence by 
 a fixed establishment of well-ordered European troops. " I 
 think it must be universally admitted," he said, " that with- 
 out a large and well-regulated body of Europeans, our hold of 
 these valuable dominions must be very insecure. It cannot 
 be expected that even the best of treatment would constantly 
 conciliate the willing obedience of so vast a body of people, 
 differing from ourselves in almost every circumstance of laws, 
 religion, and customs ; and oppressions of individuals, errors 
 of government, and several other unforeseen causes, will, no 
 doubt, arouse an inclination to revolt. On such occasions it 
 would not be wise to place great dej>endence upon their
 
 76 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 178788. countrymen who compose the native regiments, to secure 
 their subjection." He wrote this, in a strongly-worded letter, 
 to the Court of Directors, telling them that it was absolutely 
 necessary, for the correction of this evil, that a better system 
 of recruiting in England should be established, and that the 
 officers of the Company's Europeans should be permitted to 
 rank equally, according to the dates of their commissions, 
 with those of his Majesty's troops. He saw that the depressed 
 state of the Company's officers at that time was most injurious 
 to the public interests, and that nothing could be more fatal to 
 the general efficiency of the army than the "jealousies sub- 
 sisting between the two services." " I recommend," he wrote 
 to the Court, in another letter, "that they may be put, as 
 nearly as possible, on a footing of equality in every respect, 
 whenever they may happen to T>e~employed l;6gether on the 
 same service." 
 
 Administrative Whilst these recommendations were travelling to England, 
 reform. Lord Comwallis, at the head-quarters of his government, was 
 
 assiduously superintending the details of its internal adminis- 
 tration. There was still much to be done in the way of what 
 Avas called "the correction of abuses;" and in this he had a 
 zealous and an active fellow-labourer in Mr. Shore. It was a 
 happy circumstance that at this time all immediate appre- 
 hensions of a war with Tippoo had passed away with the old 
 year. On the 7th of January, Cornwallis wrote to England, 
 saying : " Our alarm from Tippoo's preparations has ceased, 
 and there is no reason to believe from General Conway's* 
 conduct that he has any desire to foment disturbances to 
 promote a war in this country. . . . No man can be more 
 seriously interested in the continuance of peace than myself; 
 we have everything to lose and nothing to gain by war ; and 
 a peace for these next three years will enable me to put this 
 country into such a state, that it will be a difficult task even 
 for a bad successor to hurt it materially." " If, however," he 
 wrote a few days afterwards, " the politics of Europe should 
 embroil us with the French, I lay my account that Tippoo will 
 be ready at the shortest notice to act in concert with them 
 against the Carnatic." It was therefore necessary to make 
 
 * General Conway, a French officer of Irish extraction, was then Governor of 
 Pondicherry.
 
 INTEKNAL ADMINISTRATION. ... 77 
 
 quiet preparations for the too probable contingency of war. 178889. 
 But there was abundant time for the business of administrative 
 details, and in the years 1788-89 Lord Cornwallis assiduously 
 applied himself to them, eager to reform altogether the re- 
 venue and judicial systems of the country. In this great 
 work of amelioration he had, on all questions of land-tenure, 
 the advice and assistance of Mr. Shore. In matters connected 
 with the administration of justice, and generally with the law or 
 regulations of the British settlements, he was guided primarily 
 by the advice of Mr. George Barlow,* one of the Government 
 secretaries, and one of the ablest and most promising members 
 of the Company's Civil Service. Cornwallis had from the 
 first discerned Barlow's great merits, and had placed un- 
 bounded confidence in him. With the exception, perhaps, of 
 Mr. Charles Grant, whom to know was to honour, and Mr. 
 Jonathan Duncan, who was rising into eminence as an ad- 
 ministrator, mainly by the force of an overflowing humanity 
 and an honesty and simplicity of character rarely surpassed, 
 there was no man in the Company's service of whom Lord 
 Cornwallis entertained a higher opinion than of George Barlow. 
 And it may be added that, with, the exception of the members 
 of his own " family," or staff, there was no man for whom he 
 felt a warmer affection. Barlow worked with all his might 
 at the elaboration of a new Code of Regulations. And there 
 was another man from whom, in legislative difficulties, the 
 Go vernor- General was fain to apply for advice and assistance 
 a man whose name is very dear to literature and to learn- 
 ing, the accomplished Sir William Jones. 
 
 I do not purpose, at this point of the narrative, to write in 
 detail of the administrative reforms which were instituted by 
 the Government of Lord Cornwallis. It is enough to say that 
 these two years were spent by him in hard, continuous work, 
 not unenlivened by the exercise of those social amenities 
 which are among the duties, as they are among the privileges, 
 of the Chief of the Government of India. He had it very 
 much at heart to improve the social morality of the English in 
 India ; for though very much better than it had been some 
 years before, it was, notwithstanding the assertions of Captain 
 
 * Afterwards Sir George Hilaro Barlow, Governor-General ad interim, and 
 subsequently Governor of Madras.
 
 78 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 178789. Price and Mr. Lindsay, considerably in want of reform. The 
 narrow limits of his residence, as I have before observed, com- 
 pelled him to entertain the society of Calcutta in one of its public 
 buildings. The newspapers of the day contain frequent notices 
 of Lord Cornwallis's banquets and balls.* It may be gathered 
 from a variety of cotemporary sources, that, though greatly 
 respected as one who had the true nobleman stamp upon him, 
 he was very popular hi the settlement. For he was one 
 who ever maintained the dignity of his station, without per- 
 sonal arrogance or exclusiveness ; and who rendered his own 
 good example more potential for good by the kindly con- 
 sideration with which he treated his inferiors. The kind- 
 ness of his heart and the courtesy of his manners compelled 
 his countrymen to regard him with equal affection and respect. 
 And year after year it might not untruthfully be said, 
 month after month a progressive improvement was observ- 
 able in the morality of English residents in Bengal, which 
 was soon communicated to the other presidencies. One cha- 
 racteristic illustration of this is worthy of notice. At the 
 Calcutta balls, before the coming of Lord Cornwallis, there 
 had seldom been much, if any, dancing after supper. The 
 gentlemen-dancers were commonly too far gone in drink to 
 venture upon any experiments of activity demanding the 
 preservation of the perpendicular. But, when Lord Corn- 
 wallis set his mark on Anglo-Indian society, all this was 
 changed. The Lidian journals remarked that many " young 
 bloods," who had before remained at the supper-table, re- 
 turned to the dancing-room, and the ladies had all proper 
 respect. At the same time there was a manifest diminution 
 
 * Take the following (from a Cal- that which graced the entertainment in 
 
 cutta newspaper), drawn from Mr. Seton honour of the King's birthday. Lady 
 
 Karr's volume, as an example of Corn- Chambers and Colonel Pearse danced 
 
 wallis's hospitality : "A very large and the first minuet, and the succeeding ones 
 
 respectable company, in consequence of continued till about half-after eleven 
 
 the invitation given by the Right Hon- o'clock, when the supper-tables pre- 
 
 ourable the Governor-General, assembled sented every "requisite to gratify the 
 
 on Tuesday (New Year's Day) at the most refined epicurean. The ladies soon 
 
 Old Court House, where an elegant din- resumed the pleasures of the dance, and 
 
 ner was prepared. The toasts were, as knit the rural braid, in emulation of the 
 
 usual, echoed from the cannon's mouth, poet's sister graces, till four in the 
 
 and merited this distinction from their morning, while some disciples of the 
 
 loyalty and patriotism. In the evening jolly god of wine testified their satisfac- 
 
 the ball exhibited a circle less extensive, tion in paeans of exultation." January, 
 
 but equally brilliant and beautiful, with 1788.
 
 PERSONAL HABITS. 79 
 
 of gambling ; and as necessary results of less drink and less 1789. 
 play, duelling and suicide ceased to furnish the ghastly inci- 
 dents of the preceding years.* 
 
 The personal habits of Lord Cornwallis were at all times 
 very simple. He was not at all addicted to official display, 
 and perhaps on the whole, in his daily life, fell somewhat 
 short of the outer stateliness which should environ the posi- 
 tion of a Governor- General. He was fond of horse-exercise, 
 and he had a partiality for high-trotting horses, perhaps 
 because he was sensible that it would profit him to check 
 his natural tendency to obesity. His companion in these 
 rides was commonly his dear friend and cherished associate, 
 Colonel Ross, whose society was a continual solace to him. 
 Between the morning and the evening rides he worked hard. 
 He told his son that it was all clockwork. " My life at Cal- 
 cutta," he wrote, in January, 1789, to Lord Brome, " is 
 perfect clockwork. I get on horseback just as the dawn of 
 day begins to appear, ride on the same road and the same 
 distance, pass the whole forenoon after my return from riding 
 in doing business, and almost the same exactly before sunset, 
 then write or read over letters or papers of business for two 
 hours, sit down at nine, with two or three officers of my 
 family, to sonieTruit and a biscuit, and go to bed soon after 
 the clock_strikes ten. I don't think the greatest sap at Eton 
 can lead a duller life than this." 
 
 But the dulness was not to continue much longer. Already Prospects of 
 were there ominous mutterings of a coming storm. The peace w ' 
 which had been so long threatened was now about to be 
 broken by the unscrupulous conduct of Tippbo Sultan of My- 
 sore, who was eager to swallow up the territories of our 
 faithful ally, the Rajah of the Travancore. This was not to 
 be borne. There was no difference of opinion in the council- 
 
 * An English clergyman named gular hours and sobriety of conduct be- 
 
 Tennant, who wrote a book about India came as decidedly the test of a man of 
 
 under the title of " Indian Recreations," fashion as they were formerly of irre- 
 
 speaking of the improvements in the gularity." (The writer means to say 
 
 social morality of the English in India "as irregularity formerly was.") "Thou- 
 
 at the end of the last century, says : sands owe their lives, and many more 
 
 " A reformation, highly commendable, their health, to this change, which had 
 
 has been effected, partly from necessity, neither been reckoned on, nor even fore- 
 
 but more by the example of a late seen,' by those who introduced it." I 
 
 Governor-General, whose elevated rank have not the least doubt, however, that 
 
 and noble birth gave him in a great Lord Cornwallis clearly foresaw it. 
 measure the guidance of fashion. Re-
 
 80 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1789. chamber of Calcutta. The honour and the safety of the 
 British empire in India alike demanded that we should resort 
 to arms. But, unfortunately, there was at that time a very 
 feeble state of government at Madras. Mr. Holland, though 
 continually warned that war was not merely probable, but 
 inevitable, had done nothing to prepare for it. Lord Corn- 
 wallis knew that in such an emergency he was not to be 
 trusted, so he determined to proceed to Madras, and take 
 charge of the civil government and the command of the 
 army. But, before he was able to execute this design, he re- 
 ceived intelligence that his friend General Medows had been 
 appointed Governor and Commander-in- Chief at Madras. 
 The tidings were received by Lord Cornwallis with mingled 
 emotions of gratification and regret. He rejoiced that 
 his old friend Medows was coming to the Coast, but he could 
 not help being sorry that there was no longer a laudable 
 pretext for taking personal command of the army which 
 was about to march into Mysore. His sentiments have 
 been so clearly recorded in an official minute which he wrote 
 on receiving intelligence of the appointment of General 
 Medows, that I cannot do better than transcribe his words. 
 After speaking of the deplorable state of the Madras Govern- 
 ment, he proceeded to say : " Under the impressions which I 
 have described, I thought myself called upon by a sense of duty 
 to the Company, as well as by an attention to the general 
 interests of my country, to stand forth and endeavour to avert 
 the misfortunes with which negligence and misconduct, or 
 jealousies between the civil and military departments, might 
 be attended. With that view, and upon the ground of state 
 necessity, it was my intention to take the responsibility 
 of an irregular measure upon myself, and to propose that the 
 Board should invest me with full powers to take a temporary 
 charge of the civil and military affairs at the Presidency of 
 Fort St. George, by exercising the functions of Governor 
 as well as those of Commander-in-chief. ***** It is, 
 however, with great satisfaction that I congratulate the Board 
 on the arrival, in the mean time, of the advices by the Vestal 
 frigate, by which we have been informed that the commission 
 appointing General Medows to be Governor of Fort St. George 
 was on board that vessel, and as the Vestal proceeded from
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. 81 
 
 Agengo to Bombay on the 3rd ultimo, there is every reason to 1790. 
 hope that he will be able to take charge of the Government 
 before, or at least as soon as, it would have been possible for 
 me to have reached Madras. The grounds upon which I 
 formed my first resolution are, therefore, in a great measure 
 or entirely done away. For, as it would have been incom- 
 patible with the station which I hold in this country to have 
 rendered myself in any way subordinate to the Government of 
 Madras, and as General Medows is a man of acknowledged 
 ability and character, and regularly invested by the Court of 
 Directors with the offices of Governor and Commander-in- 
 Chief at the Presidency of Fort St. George, I will not ven- 
 ture to say that, by relinquishing the immediate direction of 
 the supreme government after a knowledge of the appoint- 
 ment of General Medows, I should not be justly exposed to 
 blame and censure for executing a determination which had 
 been made a few days before under the belief of the existence 
 of different circumstances." 
 
 In a private letter to his brother, the Bishop of Lichfield, 
 the Governor-General expressed clearly the sentiments with 
 which he regarded the concession to General Medows of the 
 command of the army in the field. " I wish," he wrote, " it (the 
 news of Medows's transfer to Madras) had arrived either three 
 months sooner or three months later ; in the first case, I believe 
 that we should have had no war, for I am convinced that 
 Tippoo was encouraged by the weakness and corruption of Mr. 
 Holland's government ; and in the second, without any dispa- 
 ragement to Medows, whose character and abilities I highly 
 respect, I think I could, for a time, have conducted the civil 
 and military business of the Carnatic with more ease and 
 advantage than he could, from the greater experience I have 
 had in the general affairs of India. I must now be satisfied 
 with being Medows's commissary, to furnish him with men, 
 money, and stores ; to get no share of credit, if things go 
 well, and a large proportion of blame, if they do not succeed. 
 All this I felt severely, but I could not think it justifiable to 
 leave my own government in order to supersede such a man 
 as Medows." And then, after speaking of his own private 
 affairs, he gave utterance to the very natural lament of the 
 successful administrator, who sees all the great structure of 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1790. his financial reforms swept away by a sudden tempest : " It is 
 a melancholy task to write all this, and to see all the effects 
 of my economy and the regulation of the finances, which cost 
 me so much labour, destroyed in a few months. But I am 
 pretty well inured to the crosses and vexations of this world, 
 and so long as my conscience does not reproach me with any 
 blame, I have fortitude enough to bear up against them."* 
 
 General I must pause here to devote a few sentences to the brave 
 
 Medows. and noble-hearted man to whom' Cornwallis was now prepared 
 to delegate the command of the army of Mysore. He was one 
 of the most chivalrous of soldiers, and the most generous and 
 gentle of men. He had served with distinction in the American 
 war, and had built up a character in the eyes of his comrades, 
 in which a masculine courage, almost reckless in its hardihood, 
 was not less conspicuous than a womanly kindness of heart 
 and tenderness of manner. He was so much beloved by the 
 soldiery, that there was not a man who, having once served 
 under him, would not have followed him delightedly all over 
 the world. When he was first ordered to America, having been 
 appointed to a new regiment, he received permission to take 
 as many men from his old corps as might volunteer to accom- 
 pany him. Accordingly, he drew up the regiment in line, and, 
 after a few words of explanation, stepped on one side, and ex- 
 claimed, " Let all, who choose to go with me, come on this 
 side." The whole regiment to a man accepted the invitation ; 
 the corps went over bodily to the spot on which their beloved 
 commander was standing a proof of then* attachment which 
 affected so sensibly his warm heart that he burst into tears. 
 
 On service, wherever danger was to be found, Medows was 
 sure to be in the thick of it. In the battle of Brandywine, 
 when leading on his grenadiers to the charge, with orders to 
 reserve their fire, he received in the sword-arm, just above the 
 elbow, a shot, which went out at his back ; and, falling from 
 his horse, he broke his collar-bone on the other side. Major 
 Harrisf found him in this situation almost insensible ; but the 
 well-known voice of his friend seemed to restore him ; he tried 
 
 * Cornwallis Correspondence Ross. f Afterwards General Lord Harris.
 
 GENERAL MEDOWS. 83 
 
 to extend a hand, but neither was at his command. " It's 1790. 
 hard, Harris," he said ; but presently added, " it's lucky poor 
 Fanny (his wife) does not know this." 
 
 Another anecdote, still more characteristic, may be given in 
 the words of Mr. Lushington, the biographer of Lord Harris : 
 " The General (Medows), acting upon that principle which 
 continually influenced his military career, and which taught 
 him that it made little difference in the chances of a soldier's 
 life whether he did his duty cautiously and shabbily, or promptly 
 and handsomely, exposed himself to the hottest fire wherever 
 he could. On one occasion he persevered so heedlessly in doing 
 so, that Colonel Harris and the other officers with him implored 
 him to come down from the position where he stood as a mark 
 to the enemy. He disregarded their remonstrance, when 
 Colonel Harris jumped up and placed himself beside him, 
 saying, ' If you, sir, think it right to remain here, it is my 
 duty to stand by you.' This act of generous friendship had 
 an immediate effect upon the noble heart of General Medows, 
 and he descended from his perilous station." 
 
 Nor was the humanity of the General less conspicuous than 
 his gallantry and devotion. It was one of his favourite maxims 
 one which he never neglected an opportunity of enforcing 
 upon the troops under his command that " an enemy in our 
 power is an enemy no more ; and the glorious characteristic 
 of a British soldier is to conquer and to spare." Even when 
 opposed to the most barbarous and remorseless enemy against 
 whom we have ever taken up arms, he still preached the doc- 
 trine of "no retaliation" to his followers. Contending with 
 enemies of a different description, no man was more anxious 
 to acknowledge their merits than General Medows. At St. 
 Lucie he issued an order, commencing with the following 
 words : "As soon as our gallant and generous enemy (the 
 French) are seen to advance in great numbers, the troops are 
 to receive them with three huzzas, and then to be perfectly 
 silent and obedient to their officers."* 
 
 * This was in 1778. Medows com- of courtesies between the English and 
 
 manded a brigade. An amusing account French officers is pleasantly represented, 
 
 of the operations is given by the Ho- Following their example, an English sol- 
 
 nourable Colin Lindsay (" Lives-of the dier took a pinch of snuff from a French 
 
 Lindsays"), in which the reciprocation sentry, and got into trouble for it. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 
 
 LOED CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1790. In the course of the year 1788, General Medows, mainly on 
 
 the recommendation of Lord Cornwallis, was appointed Go- 
 vernor and Commander-in- Chief of Bombay. Accompanied 
 by Colonel Harris as his Secretary,* he sailed in the early 
 part of the year for that presidency ; but he had not long dis- 
 charged the duties of his station when he was transferred in a 
 similar capacity to Madras. This change had been in con- 
 templation from the first, and indeed the King's Ministers 
 had intended that he should eventually succeed to the Go- 
 vernor-Generalship an arrangement which, it was felt, would 
 be gratifying to Cornwallis. f But Medows, who was no 
 courtier, and who scorned to purchase promotion by servility, 
 contrived to give offence to the Directors in Leadenhall-street, 
 and for some time it appeared to Lord Cornwallis that his 
 friend had thrown away his chance of succession. In April, 
 1790, however, General Medows was formally appointed, on 
 the recommendation of Mr. Pitt, to " succeed to the Govern- 
 
 * The circumstances of this appoint- 
 ment are worthy of record, especially in 
 connexion with the history of the con- 
 quest of Mysore. Happening shortly 
 after his appointment to meet Harris in 
 St. James's-street, General Medows 
 asked his old friend and comrade what 
 he had been doing. Harris replied that 
 he had been to the Army Agents to 
 arrange the sale of his commission, and 
 that he was about to make preparations 
 to emigrate with his family to Canada, 
 as he saw little chance of advancement 
 in the service. The General heard the 
 story with manifest vexation and im- 
 patience, and then asked his friend if 
 the sale had been actually effected and 
 the money paid ? The reply was that 
 there would be a day's delay, owing to 
 the death of the Princess Amelia. 
 "Then," said Medows, "you shall not 
 sell out. I am going as Governor to 
 Bombay, and you shall go with me as 
 secretary and aide-de-camp. I will 
 stop the sale of the commission." He 
 did so at once, and consummated his 
 kindness by lending his friend a large 
 sum of money to enable him to insure 
 his life. And from this accidental 
 meeting in St. James's-street came the 
 gradation of circumstances and events 
 which turned the despairing soldier into 
 the conqueror of Mysore and the founder 
 of an illustrious family. 
 
 f The following extract of a letter 
 from Mr. Dundas to Lord Cornwallis, 
 dated July 22, 1787, places this beyond 
 a doubt : " We are all agreed that mili- 
 tary men are the best of all Governors 
 for India, and our wish is to persuade 
 General Medows to accept the Govern- 
 ment of Bombay, with a commission of 
 Commander-in-Chief of that settlement. 
 He will remain till Campbell leaves 
 Madras, and can be appointed to that 
 settlement when Campbell leaves it; 
 and there he can remain till you leave 
 India, and be ready to succeed you 
 when you choose (which I hope will 
 be as late as you can) to leave it." What 
 Cornwallis thought of the plan is 
 equally clear : " I should now be in- 
 clined to say," he wrote to Mr. Dun- 
 das, " you had better stick to your plan 
 of military Governors, and have done 
 with the civil line, if I did not remem- 
 ber there have been some military cha- 
 racters in this country that have not 
 been very correct. I hope, however, at 
 all events, that Medows will be my suc- 
 cessor not that I mean to run away 
 whilst the house is on fire ; for much as 
 I wish to return to England next year, 
 I would not do it unless the Company's 
 possessions were in a state of security." 
 Cornwallis Correspondence, fioss. Feb. 
 7, 1790.
 
 GENERAL MEDOWS. 85 
 
 merit-General of Bengal, upon the death, removal, or resigna- 1790. 
 tion of Earl Cornwallis." 51 
 
 In the spring of 1790, as already stated, General Medows 
 disembarked at Madras, and lost no time in placing himself at 
 the head of his army. On the 25th of May the order-book 
 contained his first characteristic address to the troops under 
 his command, dated from Head-Quarters Camp, Trichinopoly 
 Plain : " The Commander-in- Chief, Major-General Medows, 
 is happy to find himself at the head of that army whose 
 appearance adorns the country, he trusts their bravery and 
 discipline will save. An army that is brave and obedient, 
 that is patient of labour and fearless of danger, that surmounts 
 difficulties, and is full of resources, but above all, whose cause 
 is just, has reason to hope to be invincible against a cruel and 
 ambitious tyrant, whose savage treatment of his prisoners but 
 too many present have experienced. However, should the 
 fortune of war put him in our hands, uncontaminated by his 
 base example, let him be treated with every act of humanity 
 and generosity, and enlightened, if possible, by a treatment so 
 much the reverse of his own. To a generous mind, a fault 
 acknowledged is a fault forgot ; and an enemy in our power is 
 an enemy no more. That the army and Commander-in-Chief 
 may understand each other and the sooner the better, as there 
 is nothing on earth that he idolises more than a well-disciplined 
 army, so there is nothing on earth that he detests or despises 
 more than the reverse he is, therefore, determined to make 
 the severest examples of the few that may dare to disgrace the 
 army in general by a different conduct. No plunderers will 
 be shown the smallest mercy; he is resolved to make ex- 
 amples severe, in the hope of making them rare, and would 
 think it one of the greatest blessings he could enjoy to make 
 none at all. Among the first wishes of his heart is the army's 
 
 * Pitt's letter is dated April 28, 1790. more for the public service than the ap- 
 
 He wrote to the Chairman and Deputy- pointment of General Medows to be 
 
 Chairman, saying : " As you expressed Governor-General." The Court's 
 
 a wish that I should communicate to resolution was passed on the same day. 
 
 3 r ou, in writing, my sentiments respect- On the 28th April, 1790, Major-General 
 
 ing the nominations for. the Governments William Medows was appointed by the 
 
 of Bengal and Madras, I think it right to Court of Directors " to succeed to the 
 
 state to you, that as far as I am enabled Government-General of Bengal, upon the 
 
 to form an opinion on that subject, I death, removal, or resignation of Earl 
 
 think no arrangement can be made under Cornwallis." MS, Records, 
 the present circumstances which will be
 
 86 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1790: reputation and success ; but it must be prepared for hardships, 
 and to endure them for difficulties, and to surmount them 
 for numerous enemies, and to beat them." 
 
 But the noble soldier is not always the accomplished Ge- 
 neral, and the high qualities which distinguished Medows 
 were not those which command success in such operations as 
 were now confided to him. He took the field under many 
 disadvantages. His army was ill equipped ; the country and 
 the mode of warfare were new to him. He was imperfectly 
 acquainted with the resources of the enemy, and was too eager 
 for action in detail to take a comprehensive view of the 
 general demands of the campaign before him. He was blamed 
 for dividing his forces in such a manner as to expose them to 
 disaster by the impossibility of supporting them when engaged 
 with superior bodies of the enemy ; and it is not to be doubted 
 that the army was harassed and wearied without attaining any 
 proportionate results.* Lord Cornwallis had from the first 
 entertained some private misgivings as to the wisdom of his 
 friend's plan of operations ; but he had waited patiently for 
 the fuller development of the scheme, and had passed no hasty 
 judgment upon it. But month after month passed, and it 
 was plain that Medows was making no way towards the sub- 
 jugation of Tippoo, and, in spite of his eager wish for hard 
 fighting, had failed to bring the Sultan to a general action. 
 At last, the imminent danger to which the force under Colonel 
 . Floyd was exposed, in the half-glorious, half-disastrous affair 
 of Sattemengulum, where the gallantry of our troops was far 
 more conspicuous than their success, roused the Governor- 
 General from his generous delusion that the conduct of the 
 war was in good hands. Moreover, it required good and ex- 
 perienced management to keep our allies, the Nizam and the 
 Peishwah, up to the mark of good faith and vigorous action 
 under the depressing influences of an unsuccessful campaign. 
 So, after much self-communing and some consultation with 
 
 * The following passage in Major dows had some time since referred, to 
 
 Price's narrative, drawn from his co- have thus exposed his army to be cut 
 
 temporary journals, is significant : " On off in detail by placing so valuable a 
 
 this subject I find it here rather boldly division of it, in defiance of so many 
 
 remarked for a subaltern of nine years' fatal examples, so far beyond the possi- 
 
 standing, how much it derogated from bility of support. It was, however, the 
 
 the judgment of the Roman Brutus, to general opinion at the time." 
 whose vigorous example General Me-
 
 SUPERSESSION OF GENERAL MEDOWS. 87 
 
 his colleagues in the government, Lord Cornwallis determined 
 to take command of the army in the field. 
 
 But he was very careful of the reputation of his friend, 
 and with some perhaps excusable obscuration of the truth, 
 recorded in his public despatches that he did not supersede 
 General Medows on account of any distrust of his military 
 skill.* " I entertain," he wrote to the Court of Directors on 
 the 17th of November, " too high an opinion of General 
 Medows's professional abilities, and feel too great a confidence 
 in his zeal to promote the public good, to imagine that the 
 war will be conducted with more success under my own im- 
 mediate direction ; but as Tippoo may have it in his power, 
 during a temporary inactivity on our part, to turn his whole 
 force against our allies, and, unless counteracted by us, may 
 intimidate or otherwise prevail upon them to treat for a sepa- 
 rate peace, I have thought it incumbent upon me, on this 
 occasion, to step beyond the line of regular official duty, upon 
 the supposition that my presence on the coast may operate in 
 some degree to convince them of our being determined to per- 
 severe in a vigorous prosecution of the war, and by that 
 means encourage them to resist the common enemy with 
 firmness until the north-east monsoon shall break up, and we 
 shall, in other respects, be prepared to act with efficacy in co- 
 operation with them." To Mr. Dundas he wrote about the 
 same time, saying : "It is vain now to look back ; we must 
 only consider how to remedy the evil, and to prevent the ill 
 effects which our delay may occasion in the minds of our allies. 
 It immediately occurred to me that nothing would be so likely 
 to keep up their spirits, and to convince them of our determi- 
 nation to act with vigour, as my taking the command of the 
 army ; I have accordingly declared my intention of embarking 
 for Madras in the first week of next month." 
 
 It was a fortunate circumstance that General Medows ever 
 regarded Lord Cornwallis with the warmest feelings of admi- 
 ration and esteem, and that, with all his eager desire for mili- 
 tary glory, he did not receive with a sentiment of jealousy the 
 
 * In a letter to his brother, Lord ever took the field in India, is worn 
 
 Cornwallis says : " Our war on the down with unprofitable fatigue, and 
 
 coast has hitherto not succeeded so well much discontented with their leaders, 
 
 as we had a right to expect. Our and the conduct of both Medows and 
 
 army, the finest and best appointed that Musgrove highly reprobated."
 
 88 LOED COENWALLIS. 
 
 1790. tidings of his supersession by the Governor- General. It is 
 possible, indeed, that he may have seen in this new distribu- 
 tion of authority increased opportunities of personal distinc- 
 tion ; for he was one who, in these days, would covet a Vic- 
 toria cross more than a peerage, and a wound received at the 
 head of a storming party more than all the prize money in 
 the world. By Lord Cornwallis himself the noble bearing of 
 his friend was held in all due honour. " I hope," he wrote to 
 Dundas, " you will give Medows full credit in England for his 
 generous and noble conduct on the trying occasion of my 
 superseding him in his command. I knew the excellence of 
 his temper and of his heart, but he has really, in this instance, 
 surpassed my expectations. It is, besides, but justice to him 
 to observe that, owing to untoward accidents, the first intelli- 
 gence he received of my coming was attended with the most 
 mortifying circumstances ; for although I had, out of delicacy, 
 kept my resolution a profound secret for three weeks after I 
 had written my intentions to him, it unluckily happened, 
 owing to the interruption of the posts, that he first heard of it 
 from the Madras Board." 
 
 Cornwallis at On the 12th of December, 1790, Lord Cornwallis arrived 
 a8 ' at Madras. He found, in the civil administration of that 
 
 presidency greater abuses than he had discovered in Bengal. 
 " The whole system of this presidency," he wrote, " is founded 
 on the good old principles of Leadenhall-street economy 
 small salaries and immense perquisites ; and if the Directors 
 alone could be ruined by it, everybody would say they deserved 
 it ; but unfortunately it is not the Court of Directors, but the 
 British nation that must be the sufferers. We must, how- 
 ever," he continued, " put an end to the war before we can 
 attempt any serious reform, and my thoughts for some months 
 to come will be wholly occupied in endeavouring to reduce 
 the overgrown power of Tippoo." 
 
 1791. From Madras, on the 22nd of January, 1791, he wrote to 
 
 Mr. Barlow, after some observations on the new scheme of 
 civil administration : " I have led a life of the greatest anxiety, 
 in the first place from the disappointment in the arrival of our 
 ships, and the total failure of the monsoon, which has not,
 
 PROSECUTION OF THE WAR. 89 
 
 perhaps, occurred for the last forty years, and afterwards from 1791. 
 
 the General's having brought too small a force from Arnee to 
 
 ensure the safe conveyance of so great a train of artillery and 
 
 provisions as we must take from hence. The latter is now set 
 
 right, after its having caused me many sleepless nights, and we 
 
 have now provided bullocks to enable us to march, even if none 
 
 should arrive from Bengal. What fools are men, for wishing 
 
 for power and command ; and how much greater a fool am I, 
 
 for embarking in all these troubles and anxieties without 
 
 wishing for either. Tippoo in person has gone either against 
 
 the Mahrattas or Abercromby ; but his numerous horse have 
 
 committed, and still commit, the most shocking cruelties in 
 
 the Carnatic. I shall march from hence on the 4th or 5th of 
 
 next month for Bangalore and Seringapatam ; and everything 
 
 is so arranged that I do not expect to meet with any great , 
 
 obstructions, either from the want of stores or provisions." 
 
 Before the end of the month Cornwallis met General 
 Medows at Vellout, and assumed command of the army. On 
 the 5th of February, they broke ground for Yellore. On the 
 12th he wrote from that place, saying that by the 5th or 6th 
 of March he hoped to invest Bangalore. On the 23rd of 
 February he wrote to his brother, saying that he had brought 
 all his heavy artillery and stores over the mountains without 
 accident. " Two or three months," he added, " must pro- 
 bably bring this war to a crisis, and I shall then be able to 
 form some judgment about the time of my going home." 
 There was small prospect at that time of such a consumma- 
 tion, for he had talked to Medows about the succession to the 
 Governor- Generalship, and the General had shown no inclina- 
 tion to go to Bengal at the end of the war. 
 
 Cornwallis kept his word to the letter, and on the 5th of Fall of Banga- 
 March he invested Bangalore. Two days afterwards the ore ' 
 pettah, or town, was carried, to the astonishment of Tippoo, 
 who had been entirely outmanoeuvred by the English General ; 
 and then preparations were commenced for the capture of the 
 fort. The operations of the siege were continued until the 
 20th of March, when everything was ready for the assault.* 
 There was a stout and gallant resistance ; but the steady gal- 
 
 * The best account with which I am long rather to history than to biography, 
 acquainted of these operations, which be- is to be found in a letter written by Sir
 
 90 LOKD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 March 21, lantiy of the English forces prevailed. Bangalore was taken 
 by assault. Large numbers of the enemy were bayoneted 
 in the works, and Tippoo, surprised and disheartened by the 
 seizure of so valued a stronghold, withdrew the force with 
 which he had hoped successfully to support the besieged, and 
 fell back towards Seringapatam. 
 
 The advance on A more cautious general than Lord Cornwallis one less 
 rmgapatam. ggggj. fo fo jjj g wor k by bringing the enemy to action would 
 now, perhaps, have hesitated to attempt to bring the campaign 
 to a close in the existing season. The line of country before 
 him was far more extensive than that which he had already 
 traversed, and his resources were far less. During the opera- 
 tions against Bangalore, he had lost a considerable part of his 
 carriage cattle. Large numbers of his draft bullocks had 
 been killed to supply his European troops with food, and a 
 still greater number had died. But these formidable obstacles 
 did not deter Cornwallis from advancing. He knew the 
 chances and the cost of failure, but he balanced them against 
 the immense advantages of success. At any moment 'a letter 
 might have been brought into his tent announcing that France 
 and England were again at war with each other in which 
 case the French in India would have given their best help to 
 the Sultan of Mysore. So he determined, after forming a 
 juncture with the Nizam's cavalry,* to push forward into the 
 
 Thomas Mnnro, when a young officer with sixty men in the ranks, which so far got 
 the army. He says that Lord Cornwallis, the better of his Lordship's temper, that 
 " from his uniform steady conduct, de- he determined to advance, and was 
 served success : he never lost sight of giving directions to that effect when 
 his object to follow Tippoo ; neither did Tippoo drew off his army." Gleig's 
 he, in the different cannonades, ever Life of Sir Thomas Munro. 
 permit a shot to be returned." " On the * I cannot help thinking that this 
 17th, in the morning, Lord Cornwallis was by far the greatest error which 
 was visiting the batteries, when, about Cornwallis committed. He lost exactly 
 eight o'clock, fifteen guns opened snd- a month by it, when time was every- 
 denly on the left wing. The nature of thing to him, by going round to pick up 
 the country, which is full of hollow a body of horse, whose co-operation was 
 ways, had enabled Tippoo to advance not likely to be of much use to us when 
 unperceived, and the report of the guns obtained. Munro says : " We had al- 
 was the first notice that General Me- ready seen that they would distress us 
 dows had of his being so near. The line greatly by destroying our forage, as 
 formed without striking tents, and the they would not venture beyond our out- 
 troops sat on the ground whilst the posts to collect it ; and that they could 
 enemy kept up a brisk cannonade, have been of no use to us, as the whole 
 which, though distant, did a good deal of them would not face five hundred of 
 of execution among the followers the enemy's horse." This statement is 
 crowded together in the centre of the amply confirmed by Lord Cornwallis's 
 camp, between the two lines of infantry, own correspondence, 
 and it also killed or wounded fifty or
 
 FIRST ATTEMPT ON SERINGAPATAM. 91 
 
 very heart of Tippoo's dominions, to invest the capital, and 1791. 
 to dictate terms of peace under the walls of Seringapatam. 
 Before the middle of May, he was within ten miles of that 
 city ; but, although he was strong enough to beat the enemy 
 fairly " in the open," he saw at once that he had not the 
 means of carrying so formidable a place as that which now 
 stood, in proud defiance, before him. On the 15th of May he 
 was in some measure rewarded for all the toil and anxiety 
 of his difficult march to the Mysore capital, by the occur- 
 rence of the long-coveted opportunity of drawing Tippoo 
 into action in the field. He accomplished this, and aided 
 by the Nizam's troops, who fought better than he had ex- 
 pected, he fairly beat and dispersed them. But he was not 
 in a position to follow up the victory. The junction which 
 he had expected to form with General Abercromby, the Bom- 
 bay Commander, was not immediately practicable. The ele- 
 ments were hostile, and the material resources of the army 
 were failing him. Bitter, indeed, was the mortification which 
 overwhelmed him, when he found that just at what he had 
 believed to be the point of victory, he was compelled to retire. 
 But he had neither stores nor provisions for a long siege ; and 
 to have attempted, at the end of May, to carry the place with 
 such insufficient means, would have been only to court a dis- 
 astrous failure. So he determined to break up his siege train, 
 and to fall back upon Bangalore.* 
 
 Then Lord Cornwallis began to experience, in all their Retirement of 
 bitterness, the horrors of a hot-weather campaign in India, 
 with insufficient appliances for the maintenance and protec- 
 tion of his army. An epidemic disorder broke out among his 
 cattle. Numbers fell by the way, and the remainder with 
 difficulty struggled on with their burdens. Grain was so 
 scarce, that the famished camp-followers were compelled to 
 
 * Munro thus describes the situation settled monsoon. The remaining bul- 
 
 of Cornwallis's army : " We had by locks, it was apprehended, would hardly 
 
 this time lost the greatest part of our be able to drag the field-pieces back to 
 
 cattle ; the guns had for the two last Bangalore, and we had only twelve days' 
 
 marches been brought forward with rice at half-allowance. In this situa- 
 
 much difficulty by the assistance of the tion it became absolutely necessary, on 
 
 troops, and the battering-train had sel- the 22nd, to burst our heavy cannon, to 
 
 dom got to its place before ten at night, bury the shot, to throw the powder into 
 
 The weather, too, which had been un- wells, and to destroy all the other be- 
 
 favourable ever since our leaving Ban- sieging materials." GUigs Life of Sir 
 
 galore, had now all the appearance of a Thomas Munro.
 
 92 LOED CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1791. feed on the diseased carcases of the bullocks. The cavalry 
 horses were reduced to such a state that they could not carry 
 their riders, and many were shot as useless incumbrances. 
 The officers, who had given up the greater part of their pri- 
 vate carriage for public uses, suffered so severely, that in many 
 cases they were compelled to ask for the rations which were 
 served out to the privates. The tents were little better than 
 tinder ; and the clothes of officers and men were reduced to 
 mere rags. "The ground at Camiambuddy," wrote Major 
 Dirom, the historian of the war, " where the army had en- 
 camped but six days, was covered in a circuit of several miles 
 with the carcases of cattle and horses ; and the last of the 
 gun-carriages, carts, and stores of the battering train, left in 
 flames, was a melancholy spectacle which the troops passed, as 
 they quitted the deadly camp." 
 
 It was not strange that, in such distressing circumstances, 
 the spirits of the commander should begin to droop. There 
 was a necessary suspension of operations, for the rains had set 
 in ; and there is nothing so wearisome and enervating as the 
 inactivity of camp-life in an unhealthy season of the year. 
 His constitution, on the whole, bore up bravely ; but con- 
 tinued anxiety began to tell upon him. " My health," he 
 wrote to his brother on the 13th of July, " has not suffered, 
 although my spirits are almost worn out, and if I cannot soon 
 overcome Tippoo, I think the plagues and mortifications of 
 this most difficult war will overcome me." Six long, dreary 
 weeks of waiting passed away ; and he still felt sad and sick 
 at heart. " If Tippoo," he wrote to his son, on the 8th of 
 September, " does not offer reasonable terms before that time, 
 I hope to oblige him to do so by a successful attack on Se- 
 ringapatam in November next ; but however favourable a turn 
 our affairs may take, I cannot now expect, consistently with 
 the duty I owe to my country, to leave India before January, 
 1793, and I trust that my evil stars cannot detain me longer 
 than that period. I grow old and more rheumatic, and have 
 lost all spirits, and shall only say when I return : 
 
 ' A soldier, worn with cares and toils of war, 
 Is come to lay his weary bones among you.' 
 
 "You remember Wolsey's speech, but I shall have an
 
 BECOMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES. 93 
 
 easier conscience than he, probably, had." And on the same 1791. 
 day he wrote to his friend Mr. Grisdale, saying : " God knows 
 when our war will end I hope and trust it will end soon, or 
 it will end me. I do not mean that I am sick. I have stood 
 a burning sun and a cold wind as well as the youngest of 
 them ; but I am plagued and tormented and wearied to 
 death." 
 
 The time, however, had now come, for the commencement, Capture of 
 at least, of those minor operations which were necessary to 
 secure the success of the grand march upon Seringapatam. 
 Some forts were to be taken at no great distance from Banga- 
 lore, where the army was encamped ; stubborn, obstinate 
 places, of immense natural strength, which the enemy believed 
 to be impregnable. One of these places, known as Nundy- 
 droog, was to be carried at the end of September. The for- 
 tress was described 'as standing on a rocky mountain, 1700 
 feet in height, " three-fourths of its circumference being 
 actually inaccessible." After some weeks, however, a practi- 
 cable breach was made, and then General Medows, who had 
 all this long weary time been panting for an opportunity of 
 personal distinction, offered his services to command the de- 
 tachment that was to proceed to the assault, and Lord Corn- 
 wallis accepted them. On the 18th of October everything 
 was ready for the advance of the stormers. General Medows 
 placed himself at the head of his men, and the word had been 
 given to move forward upon the breach, when some one vocife- 
 rated that there was a mine beneath it. " If there be a mine," 
 cried Medows, " it is a mine of gold;" and he called on his 
 men to push forward. And amidst a continued hail of heavy 
 stones from the impending precipice, more formidable than 
 the fire of the guns, the storming party entered the breach ; 
 and so a place which, in the hands of the Mahrattas, had de- 
 fied Hyder Ali for three years, was wrested from his sons 
 after a siege of a few weeks. 
 
 The cold weather, so eagerly looked for, came at last ; 
 and the interval of repose, wearisome and dispiriting though 
 it was, had been, turned to the best possible account. The 
 army, which was now about to take the field, was very dif- 
 ferent from the army with which, in the hot weather, Lord 
 Cornwallis had retired from Seringapatam. Great prepara-
 
 94 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1791. tions had been made for the renewal of the war. Bengal had 
 been drawn upon for artillery and carriage cattle especially 
 elephants. A large supply of specie had come from England. 
 Success was now almost a certainty. The army was set in 
 motion again, and, as it advanced, the spirits of Lord Corn- 
 wallis rapidly revived. There was something to be done be- 
 fore the great crowning work of the investment of the Mysore 
 capital was to be accomplished. The great stronghold of 
 Savindroog more formidable, even, than that of Nundydroog 
 was to be carried by assault. As long as it remained in 
 the enemy's hands our lines of communication could not be 
 secured, and our convoys might, at any time, have been 
 intercepted. Tippoo had laughed to scorn the idea of such 
 a place being carried by human agency ; and the garrison, 
 which he had posted in it, relied mainly on its natural 
 strength. But the batteries which opened on the 17th of De- 
 cember had soon effected a practicable breach, and on the 
 
 Capture of 22nd the place was carried by assault. Cornwallis was over- 
 
 Q . J V 
 
 joyed at the result. " I have been fortunate," he wrote to his 
 brother on the 29th, " in taking, in a very few days, and with 
 very little loss, the important fortress of Savindroog, the posses- 
 sion of which was absolutely necessary to enable us to maintain 
 a secure communication with Bangalore when we advance to 
 the attack of Seringapatam. The speedy reduction of this 
 place, w r hich has been considered all over India as impregnable, 
 has struck great terror into the enemy's other garrisons ; for, 
 in the three days subsequent to the assault of Savindroog, 
 three other strong forts in its neighbourhood, each of them 
 capable of making a good resistance, fell into our hands. By 
 these successes we have now a frontier-line by which our sup- 
 plies may with ease be brought forward within fifty miles of 
 the enemy's capital. God send that we may soon see a happy 
 termination of this war, of which I am most heartily tired." 
 
 1792. The new year found the army full of heart and hope, eager to 
 advance. The arrangements of our Native allies, always tardily 
 effected, were at last complete, and the armies of the Nizam 
 and the Peishwah were ready to accompany us to the Mysore 
 capital. On the 25th of January the junction with the Con- 
 federates had been formed, and everything was ready for a 
 combined advance on the capital of Mysore. The army
 
 SERINGAPATAM. 95 
 
 marched, and on the 5th of February Seringapatam was 1792. 
 again in sight. No painful doubts and anxieties now as- 
 sailed the mind of the Commander. Confident of success, he 
 was eager to do his work quickly; and whilst Tippoo was 
 congratulating himself on the thought that time would be 
 his best ally, Cornwallis was taking it by the forelock, and 
 making his dispositions for an immediate attack on the 
 enemy's camp. Seringapatam stands at one extremity of an 
 oblong island formed by two branches of the Cauvery river. 
 Between the northern bank of the river and a strong " bound 
 hedge," Tippoo's army was posted, under the shelter of the 
 guns of the fort and the batteries of the island. Once assured 
 of their position, Cornwallis determined to dislodge them. His 
 best hope lay in a prompt and vigorous movement at an un- 
 expected time ; so in the course of the 6th of February he 
 made his arrangements for a night attack by a lightly-equipped 
 body of Foot on the enemy's camp and the works which they 
 were constructing. General Medows was to command the 
 right, Colonel Maxwell the left, whilst Cornwallis himself 
 took command of the centre division of the force. 
 
 To our Native allies this movement seemed to be nothing 
 less than a spasm of madness. That a few regiments of In- 
 fantry, without guns, should be sent forward to attack the 
 enemy in position in a fortified camp, under the shelter of 
 their guns, and that the Governor-General and Commander-. 
 in-Chief should go with the fighting party, as though he were 
 a common soldier, were eccentricities of warfare unaccount- 
 able in their eyes save by the hypothesis of the insanity of 
 the Lord-Sahib. But never in his life did Cornwallis go 
 about his work more sanely never with a cooler calculation 
 of the chances, or a juster appreciation of the immense ad- 
 vantages, of success. He started in high spirits. It was a 
 fine, still, moonlight night, and unencumbered as they were 
 they moved forward rapidly and quietly, and soon came in 
 front of Tippoo's astonished army. The story of that event- 
 ful night has often been told before. The left and the centre 
 divisions were completely successful ; but the right division, 
 under General Medows, " by one of those accidents to which 
 all operations in the night must be liable," failed to accom- 
 plish the work entrusted to it. Medows found himself
 
 96 LOBD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1792. before a well-defended redoubt, the assault of which was not a 
 part of the intended plan of operations, and before he could 
 carry it, and proceed to support the Commander-in-Chief, day 
 had broken, and Lord Cornwallis had done his work.* 
 
 But although the English General had accomplished more 
 than he had ventured to hope, and Tippoo, who had seen, first 
 with incredulity and then with dismay, the long line of 
 English Footmen advancing under the silence of the night 
 into the very heart of his camp, had shut himself in his fort, 
 the daylight did not bring with it any cessation of the strife. 
 Our troops had effected a lodgment on the island of Seringa- 
 patam, and detachments there and on the other side of the 
 river in rear of Tippoo's camp were now exposed to the 
 attacks of the enemy, who in vain endeavoured to dislodge 
 them. There was some hard fighting throughout the day, the 
 result of which made it clear to the Sultan that the game 
 must now be played out by him behind the walls of Seringa- 
 patam ; so he withdrew his troops from all the outlying re- 
 doubts, and abandoned every part on the north side of the 
 river. So that now, in the words of the military historian of 
 the war, " the proud city of Seringapatam, which we could 
 scarcely discern from our first ground, was now in forty-eight 
 hours strongly and closely invested on its two principal sides ; 
 the enemy's army broken and dispirited; ours in perfect 
 order, and highly animated by their success," 
 
 Preparations were now made for the commencement of the 
 siege. But Tippoo had, by this time, measuring rightly the re- 
 sources of the English, begun to think of the expediency of not 
 risking conclusions with the formidable force which had just 
 routed his best troops, and was now preparing to attack his 
 stronghold. But one despairing effort might yet be made, if 
 not by fair means, by foul, to cast confusion into the ranks of 
 the enemy. In the eyes of an Oriental potentate, to destroy the 
 leader of an expedition, is to destroy the expedition itself. If 
 Lord Cornwallis, who, in his own person, represented the su- 
 
 * During a great part of the opera- had made, " I, my Lord, not you, should 
 
 tions, Cornwallis was personally ex- have had that rap over the knuckles." 
 
 posed to the fire of the enemy. He was The main brunt of the fighting must 
 
 wounded in the hand, but not severely, have fallen on the centre division, for it 
 
 It is related that when Medows joined lost 342 men killed and wounded out of 
 
 him, he said, alluding to the mistake he a total of 535.
 
 PEACE NEGOTIATIONS. 97 
 
 preme military and civil power of the English, could be cut off 1792. 
 by any base stratagem, it appeared to Tippoo a certainty that 
 the army would retire, discomforted and despairing, from Se- 
 ringapatam. He did not think that the foul act would have 
 excited to deeds of still higher daring the irrepressible manhood 
 of the English Army, and that Medows would certainly, in 
 such a case, amply avenge the murder of his leader. So he 
 sent a party of Mahomedan horsemen, drugged to the point 
 of fury with bang, to make their way into the English camp, 
 and cut the English leader to pieces in his own tent. A man 
 of simple and unostentatious habits, and ever disinclined, for 
 the sake of his own safety or comfort, to give trouble to 
 others, the Governor- General and Commander-in- Chief had 
 always been content with a guard consisting of a couple of 
 troopers of his own escort. If, then, Tippoo's horsemen, who, 
 in such a heterogeneous assembly as that which was composed 
 by the forces of the Confederates, might easily have escaped 
 observation, had taken their measures with any calmness and 
 collectedness, they might have accomplished their object. But 
 they went about their work wildly, and they failed. A party 
 of Bombay Sepoys turned out against them, and they fled in 
 dismay from the English camp. After this, Lord Cornwallis 
 was reluctantly persuaded to allow a party of English soldiers 
 to mount guard over his tent. 
 
 Foiled in this desperate attempt upon the life of the English 
 leader, Tippoo was eager to negotiate a peace. The negotia- 
 tions extended over many weeks, and there was at least one 
 man in camp who watched their progress with the deepest in- 
 terest, hoping that the peace-efforts would break down utterly, 
 and that orders would be issued for the commencement of the 
 siege. This jvas General Medows, who knew that he would 
 regain all the credit he had lost, and a large measure besides, 
 whether living to bear his honours or dying in the breach. 
 The accident which had befallen him had preyed tormentingly 
 on his spirits. Seringapatam, however, was not yet taken. 
 There was prospect of a siege, and General Medows sought per- 
 mission to command the storming party. This had been the 
 cherished wish of his heart ever since the commencement of 
 the campaign. He had modestly declined the offer of the 
 Governor-Generalship, which had reached him in camp, but 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1792. had added : " I will never quit this country till I have com- 
 manded the storming party at Seringapatam."* And now he 
 was more than ever anxious to lead his men to the assault, for 
 he felt that there was a stain upon his character to be effaced. 
 The request was readily granted, and the prospect of new glory 
 buoyed him up for a time ; but only to make more unendurable 
 his subsequent disappointment. 
 
 With bitter anguish of heart, therefore, did he learn, towards 
 the end of February, that the negotiations had so far succeeded, 
 that Tippoo had consented to send two of his sons into the 
 British camp as hostages for the fulfilment of the terms of 
 the peace. What follows is one of the saddest things in Indian 
 history. I tell it, as it was told, on the same day, by an 
 officer on Lord Cornwallis's staff, writing to a friend in Cal- 
 cutta.! " Tippoo," he said, " has, this afternoon, commenced 
 the execution of the preliminaries of peace, by sending to 
 camp his second and third sons as hostages, conformably with 
 one of the articles ; and this act was made particularly in- 
 teresting and satisfactory to Lord Cornwallis, by Tippoo, 
 without mentioning any of the other confederates, insisting 
 that his children should be carried directly to his Lordship's 
 tent, and there delivered into his arms, with a request that he 
 would, during their absence from their father, consider them, 
 and treat them as his own children. It would at any time 
 have been impossible to witness such a scene, which marked 
 
 * The passage of the letter to the Court while he stays another year, to complete 
 
 of Directors, in which Medows declined the great and arduous undertaking he so 
 
 the Governor-Generalship, is altogether happily began, has so nobly continued, 
 
 so characteristic, so honourable alike to and, I have no doubt, will so perfectly 
 
 him and to Lord Cornwallis, that some conclude, to his own honour and your 
 
 further passages of it may be given in satisfaction. But should things take 
 
 a note : " Though the elements, more another turn, and there should not be 
 
 faithful allies to Tippoo than either the peace, though I beg leave to decline 
 
 Nizam's troops or the Mahrattas to us, going to Bengal afterTanuary, 1792, I 
 
 have obliged us to defer the siege of Se- will never quit this country till I have 
 
 ringapatam, I still flatter myself it is only commanded the storming party at Se- 
 
 postponed, and not put off further than ringapatam, or until the war is over, 
 
 from June to January, when, if he does When, after the handsome and inde- 
 
 not make a peace, which I take to be so pendent fortune I shall have made in 
 
 much the interest of all parties, the loss your service (I should guess about forty 
 
 of his capital, I hope and expect, will thousand pounds, but I will tell you the 
 
 be soon followed by the loss of his king- uttermost farthing the moment I know 
 
 dom. Lord Cornwallis, who sees every- it), entirely by proper saving from your 
 
 thing, who does everything, and who is liberal appointments, if you shall think 
 
 everything, will, I hope, have the peace ' the labourer worthy of his hire,' I 
 
 in such forwardness by January, as to shall be most amply compensated." 
 
 enable me to go home with propriety, f MS. Correspondence.
 
 ATTEMPTED SUICIDE OF MEDOWS. 99 
 
 so great a change in their father's fortunes, without cer- 1792. 
 tain reflections on the instability of human grandeur. But 
 all sensations of that nature were almost totally absorbed 
 in the melancholy clamp into which we had been thrown 
 a few hours before, by a fatal act that General Medows 
 had committed upon himself. The column that the General 
 commanded on the night of the 6th did not execute precisely 
 what was allotted to it. But he has, by his uniform conduct 
 through life, established his character with all mankind as the 
 essence of honour and courage, and the mistake on that night 
 was never considered, by any man in the army, in any other 
 light than as one of those errors to which night attacks have 
 been, and ever will be, liable. The General, however, not- 
 withstanding every consolation which his Lordship could give 
 him, continued dissatisfied with himself, and allowed this 
 unlucky affair to prey continually upon his spirits, till this 
 morning, when it seems he could bear it no longer, and dis- 
 charged a pistol loaded with three bullets into his body. He 
 is still alive, but there can scarcely be hopes that he will 
 recover. You will be able to judge of the severity of this 
 blow upon Lord Cornwallis, when I tell you that there are few 
 men in the world whom his Lordship more esteems and loves. 
 This cruel stroke has poisoned all our enjoyment of the present 
 favourable appearance of public affairs." These gloomy anti- 
 cipations, however, were not realised. " Most miraculously," 
 as the same officer afterwards wrote, " General Medows re- 
 covered, and became perfectly reconciled to himself and all 
 the world." * 
 
 * The following cotemporary account This column had been directed to pene- 
 of this painful circumstance is given in trate the enemy's lines towards their 
 the "Memoirs of a Field Officer," written extreme left. Unfortunately, the head 
 by Major Price, formerly Judge Advo- of the column, instead of entering the 
 cate-General of the Bombay Army. It bound-hedge, became engaged in an at- 
 has the strongest possible impress of the tack upon the Eidgah redoubt some- 
 truth, and as it was not published till times called Lally's where the defence 
 nearly fifty years after the event oc- turned out so obstinate and protracted, 
 curred, it may be assumed that the cur- and occasioned so great a delay, as 
 rent story of the day was confirmed by might have produced results the most 
 later information : " To account for disastrous. For, during the untoward 
 this rash and extraordinary act, in an delay it was that the enemy from the 
 individual so eminently distinguished, left were permitted to bear down upon 
 it is only necessary to explain, that on the centre column, commanded by Lord 
 the night of the memorable attack on Cornwallis in person. His Lordship had 
 the enemy's lines of the 6th February, successfully penetrated the line in his 
 the General commanded the column front ; and having detached the greater 
 which formed the right of that attack, part of his column in pursuit of the 
 
 H 2
 
 100 
 
 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1792. On the 18th of March, after much negotiation, and many 
 
 hitches and obstructions, which every now and then threatened 
 a general break-down, the definitive Treaty was sent out of 
 the Fort, " signed and sealed by Tippoo," and was delivered 
 to Lord Cornwallis on the following day under a salute from 
 a Park of British Artillery and from the guns of Seringapatam 
 booming together. Some considerable accessions of territory 
 to the British Empire in India were the result of this war, but 
 it belongs rather to the historian than to the biographer to 
 write of these things in detail.* Lord Cornwallis returned to 
 
 enemy towards the river-side, was for 
 some time exposed to the greatest 
 jeopardy of being cut off by the supe- 
 rior force which now poured upon him. 
 Providentially the troops that remained 
 about his Lordship's person fought with 
 such devoted steadiness and resolution 
 that the assailants were repelled with 
 loss; and it was only about break of 
 day, when not far from the foot of 
 Carigaht Hill, that General Medows 
 made his appearance with the right 
 column of attack. It is said that in 
 the irritation of the moment a sharp in- 
 terrogatory dropped from his Lordship 
 as to ' where General Medows had been 
 disposing of himself?' It has never 
 been satisfactorily explained why it 
 was, that after silencing the Eidgah 
 redoubt, the column was led to the left 
 without, rather than, as directed in the 
 plan of the attack, within, the bound- 
 hedge. Some, indeed, have asserted 
 that it was through the cowardice or 
 treachery of the guides. This, how- 
 ever, has been denied ; and that, al- 
 though the General was spoken to on 
 the subject, he, as it was said, persisted 
 in moving to the left, without the hedge. 
 Harassed by the reflection of the tre- 
 mendous mischief that might have oc- 
 curred, had anything fatal occurred to 
 Lord Cornwallis and the column in the 
 centre in consequence of this unfortu- 
 nate deviation, a mind so sensitive as 
 that of General Medows sunk under the 
 impression ; and he felt it beyond all 
 endurance. He had looked forward to 
 the hope that the Sultaun would have 
 held out to extremity ; and that he 
 must, of course, have been the officer 
 selected to command the storming party. 
 He had, indeed, been frequently heard 
 to repeat that ' a storm was necessary 
 
 to his peace of mind.' When, therefore, 
 these hopes were frustrated, and that 
 peace was determined upon, he gave 
 out a report that he was going home in 
 ' the Dutton East Indiaman, then about 
 to sail for England. On the very morn- 
 ing on which he made the lamentable 
 attempt he had conversed privately, 
 and with apparent indifference, with 
 Mr. Uhthoff on the subject of his 
 voyage. The day which had been de- 
 termined upon by Lord Cornwallis to 
 receive the first visit of the two hostage 
 Princes was the one fixed upon for the 
 perpetration of this act of extraordinary 
 desperation. The moment the salute 
 was firing, on the approach of the 
 Princes, was that chosen by the Ge- 
 neral to put a period to his existence. 
 His pistol had been loaded with slugs, 
 three of which had lodged in his body. 
 Two of them were promptly extracted. 
 He is said to have expressed the deepest 
 regret for what he had done, as well 
 as his unreserved approbation of every 
 measure adopted by Lord Cornwallis, 
 and that nothing on the part of that 
 noble person had had the slightest influ- 
 ence on his conduct on this melancholy 
 occasion. He could, indeed, be some- 
 times facetious on the subject, remark- 
 ing that ' Mr. Medows had had a mis- 
 understanding with General Medows, 
 that had terminated in a duel, in which 
 matters had been amicably adjusted.' " 
 * Thomas Munro, writing of the 
 peace, says : " In this situation, when 
 extirpation, which had been talked of, 
 seemed so near, the moderation or the 
 policy of Lord Cornwallis granted him 
 peace on the easy terms of his relin- 
 quishing half his dominions to the Con- 
 federates. Tippoo accepted these con- 
 ditions on the 24th of February, and
 
 CHARACTER AS A COMMANDER. 101 
 
 Madras, and was detained there some time for the settlement 1792. 
 of the affairs of the Carnatic. It was not until the 17th of 
 July that he was able to write to Mr. Dundas : " I have at 
 length settled everything with the Nabob, and I believe in the 
 best manner that it could have been done, unless we had kept 
 possession of the country ; but that point could only have been 
 carried by force, without the least shadow of reason or justice, 
 and consequently was not to be attempted." Soon after this 
 he sailed for Calcutta. 
 
 The generosity and humanity of his nature were signally Comwallis as a 
 ,. J j j.1- u ,. Commander, 
 
 displayed, in many ways, during this campaign, but in none 
 
 more than in his tender regard for the interests of the soldiery, 
 who looked up to him as their leader. He was a man of a 
 kind heart and a compassionate nature, and the meanest soldier 
 in the camp was in his eyes an object ever worthy of his most 
 thoughtful care. When he first joined the army, he saw, to 
 his dismay, that the Sepoy regiments of the Madras force had 
 no hospital doolies (litters) attached to them, and that their 
 sick and wounded were carried in the rude blankets or horse- 
 cloths of the country. " It is hardly credible," he wrote from 
 camp to the Governor of Madras, " that so shocking a prac- 
 tice should have existed so long, and that successive Generals 
 could, without making the strongest remonstrances, have seen 
 their wretched soldiers, either with a broken bone or a violent 
 fever, squeezed into a blanket and carried by two of their 
 comrades." It was not so in the Bengal Army ; so Lord 
 Comwallis at once directed the deficiency to be supplied. 
 Not long afterwards, it happened that an army surgeon was 
 tried by court-martial, and convicted, of neglecting to dress 
 the wounds and to take proper care of the Europeans who had 
 been wounded at Seringapatam " for which heinous breach 
 
 orders were instantly issued to stop all presently adds : " So much good sense 
 
 working in the trenches. The words and military skill has been shown in the 
 
 which spread such a gloom over the conduct of the war, that I have little 
 
 army, by disappointing, not so much doubt that the peace has been made with 
 
 their hopes of gain, as of revenge, were equal judgment." His natural leanings, 
 
 these : ' Lord Comwallis has great plea- however, towards the more vigorous 
 
 sure in announcing to the army that course of action were too strong to be 
 
 preliminaries of peace have been settled altogether repressed, and he soon broke 
 
 between the Confederate power and out again into the language of doubt 
 
 Tippoo Sultan.' " But the young critic and reproach.
 
 102 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1792. of duty," said Lord Cornwallis, in a general order, " and 
 offence against the strongest and most affecting ties of hu- 
 manity, which forcibly plead in every generous breast in 
 favour of men who have shed their blood in the cause of their 
 country, he is condemned only to be suspended from his rank 
 and pay in the service for eight months, and to be repri- 
 manded in public orders." " It is incumbent upon Lord 
 Cornwallis," continues the order, " to show that he sets a 
 higher value upon the lives and limbs of the soldiers than to 
 expose them again to the hazard of falling under the charge 
 of a man who has been guilty of such gross neglect. And he 
 therefore declares to the army that he shall recommend it to 
 the Governor of Fort St. George to continue Mr. 's sus- 
 pension until the pleasure of the Court of Directors shall 
 be known ; and that he shall order the Paymaster to give no 
 
 share to Mr. of that gratuity which was obtained by 
 
 the blood of those brave men, whom he afterwards suffered 
 either to perish or to languish miserably for several weeks by 
 an inhumanity which, by any person unacquainted with the 
 evidence that was produced against him, would be scarcely 
 credible." 
 
 It happened that the same court-martial sat in judgment 
 upon an officer of one of the King's regiments, who had acted 
 with great brutality towards a native of the country. The 
 officer owed money to the poor man, and when he was asked 
 for it, paid the debt, not in coin, but in blows. It is an old 
 story a common mode of requital, I am afraid, familiar to 
 many generations. The man was sent back again, by order 
 of the commanding officer, accompanied by the Adjutant of 
 the regiment, and the debtor received him, " with the money 
 that was due to him and the stick that was prepared to beat 
 him lying on the same table," and administered a second cor- 
 rection to him, which " divided his ear." But the sympathies 
 of the court were all with the white man, and he was acquitted 
 as though this " new way to pay old debts" were quite in 
 consonance with the acknowledged usages of officers and gen- 
 tlemen. But Lord Cornwallis branded the man's conduct 
 " as partaking both of ferocity and injustice, and no less un- 
 worthy of the manners of gentlemen than disgraceful to the 
 character of officers;" and whilst severely censuring the
 
 CHARACTER AS A COMMANDER. 103 
 
 Court, and reminding it that " true humanity consists not in 1792. 
 screening the guilty, but in protecting the innocent and re- 
 dressing the injured," he told the culprit that if he should 
 " persevere in the shameful practice of beating his creditors 
 instead of paying them, he should not on a future occasion 
 escape the punishment that such conduct deserves." Cruelty, 
 whether active or passive, evincing itself in brutal outrages, 
 or in negligence scarcely less brutal, filled him with measure- 
 less indignation. 
 
 But it was not only by words such as these, and by the due 
 exercise of his authority, that he manifested his kindly and 
 generous consideration for all who looked up to him for pro- 
 tection. He was a large-hearted man, capable of heroic self- 
 sacrifice for the good of others. To go to India, in those 
 days, was to go in quest of money. Large fortunes were 
 rapidly made ; and men returned to England to buy estates, 
 and to found families. There were many ways to wealth in 
 the last century, lawful and unlawful ; honourable and dis- 
 honourable. Among the former among the most lawful and 
 the most honourable means of attaining wealth, the only law- 
 ful and honourable way of attaining it per saltum was the 
 acquisition of prize-money. If Lord Cornwallis had at one 
 stroke added 50,000/. to his fortune, by receiving his " share" 
 of the booty taken in the war, it would have been simply so 
 much honourable gain, which the world would have said he 
 fairly deserved. He was not a rich man. His estate, indeed, 
 was scarcely adequate to the due maintenance of his title ;* 
 but he gave up to the army serving under him his own mag- 
 nificent share of the prize-money as Commander-in-Chief ; 
 and General Medows, as second in command, followed his 
 illustrious example. 
 
 The unqualified approval of the King and his Ministers 
 was conveyed to him in the most flattering words and in the 
 
 * It should also be recorded that rupee at two shillings) between the 1st 
 
 during the war he found his expenses of December, 1790, and the 31st of July, 
 
 far heavier than during peace, and was 1792, besides the wine from England, 
 
 able to add little to his savings. " You' and two Arabian horses, for which I am 
 
 will judge," he wrote to his brother, to give English hunters. The imma- 
 
 " from the savings of other years, that culate understood making war in 
 
 I must have been considerably out of India better, or he would not have paid 
 
 pocket by the war when I tell you that off the mortgage on one estate in Scot- 
 
 I spent 27,3(iO/. (reckoning the current land, and bought another."
 
 104 LOED COKNWALLIS. 
 
 1792. most practical manner, for his services throughout the cam- 
 paign. The King conferred a marquisate on Earl Cornwallis, 
 and Mr. Pitt offered him the seals of one of the State Secre- 
 taryships on his return to England. He had, however, lived 
 too much in the camp to qualify him for parliamentary states- 
 manship, and he doubted whether his want of skill and prac- 
 tice as a debater would not mar his utility as a member of 
 the Cabinet. " I will freely own to you," he wrote to the great 
 minister, " that if anything could induce me to come forward 
 in a state of business and responsibility at home, it would be 
 the allurement which would be held out to my vanity by being 
 enrolled as a member of an administration, the uprightness of 
 whose principles, and the wisdom and vigour of whose con- 
 duct, I so truly respect. I have, however, always been of 
 opinion that no man, who has a regard for the consideration 
 in which he is to stand with this country, should produce 
 himself, even in the House of Lords, as an efficient member 
 of the administration, without possessing such powers and 
 habits of parliamentary debate as would enable him to do 
 justice to a good cause, and defend his measures as well as 
 those of his colleagues. This maxim of orator Jit, which has 
 produced so much bad speaking and so much ennui in the 
 world, may be true in some instances ; but he is not to be 
 made e guovis ligno, and I should doubt whether the timber 
 ought to undergo the seasoning of above half a century."* In 
 this the extreme conscientiousness of the man was apparent. 
 These considerations have not, in a later, and, it is said, a 
 purer generation, deterred men, wanting in the power of ex- 
 pression, from accepting high office under the Crown. And 
 I cannot help thinking that it would be a misfortune to the 
 country if great administrative powers were, in all cases, 
 subordinated to natural rhetorical gifts. 
 
 Civil adminis- On the return of Lord Cornwallis to Calcutta, it was his 
 duty to gather up a number of official threads. It would have 
 pleased him much better if the exigencies of war had never 
 drawn him from Bengal, where all the energies of his mind 
 were devoted to the completion of a great scheme of civil ad- 
 
 * Cornwallis Correspondence. Ross.
 
 INTERNAL REFORMS. 105 
 
 ministration. I have said elsewhere, that " Lord Cornwallis is 1793. 
 the first Indian ruler who can properly be regarded as an ad- 
 ministrator. Up to the time of his arrival, the English in 
 India had been engaged in a great struggle for existence. 
 Olive conquered the richest province of India. Hastings re- 
 duced it to something like order. But it was not until Corn- 
 wallis carried to that country the large-minded liberality of a 
 benevolent English statesman, that our administrative efforts 
 took shape and consistency, and the entire internal manage- 
 ment of the country under our rule was regulated by a code 
 of written laws (or regulations) intended to confer upon the 
 natives of India the benefits of as much European wisdom and 
 benevolence as was compatible with a due regard for the cha- 
 racter of native institutions." Aided by Mr. Barlow, then 
 secretary to Government afterwards Provisional Governor- 
 General, and for some years Governor of Madras, he drew up 
 a code of laws, or as he, correcting the language of the secre- 
 tary, called them " Regulations," now known to history as the 
 Regulations of 1793, which have since been the basis of our 
 civil administration of India. Sir William Jones, to whom 
 the scheme was submitted, declared that it was worthy of 
 Justinian, and another eminent English lawyer said that they 
 were " worthy of every praise which can be- bestowed upon 
 them, and would do credit to any legislation of ancient or 
 modern times."* 
 
 It is plainly beyond the scope of such a narrative as this 
 to enter minutely into the details of the reforms which Lord 
 Cornwallis introduced into the judicial and revenue systems 
 of the country. The general principle on which the former 
 were based was years afterwards so well described by the man 
 who, of all others, was most competent to speak on the sub- 
 ject, in an autograph memorandum in my possession,! that I 
 cannot do better than insert a portion of it. " Great misun- 
 derstandings," wrote Sir George Barlow, "have prevailed 
 with regard to the new constitution for the civil government 
 of the British possessions in India, established by the Mar- 
 quis Cornwallis in 1793, and completed by his successor, 
 Marquis Wellesley. The change did not consist in altera- 
 
 * Mr. Advocate-General (afterwards f It has been already quoted in a 
 Sir William) Boroughs. previous work by the present author.
 
 LORD CORNWALL1S. 
 
 tions in the ancient customs and usages of the country, 
 affecting the rights of person and property. It related chiefly 
 to the giving security to those rights, by affording to our 
 native subjects the means of obtaining redress against any 
 infringement of them, either by the Government itself, its 
 
 officers, or individuals of any character or description 
 
 Lord Cornwallis made no innovations on the ancient laws and 
 customs of the people. On the contrary, the main object of 
 the constitution which he established was to secure to them 
 the enjoyment of those laws and customs, with such improve- 
 ment as times and circumstances might surest. When he 
 
 o oo 
 
 arrived in the country, the Government was, in fact, a pure 
 despotism, with no other check but that which resulted from 
 the character of those by whom the Government was admi- 
 nistered. The Governor-General not only was the sole power 
 for making all laws, but he exercised the power of adminis- 
 tering the laws in the last resort, and also all the functions of 
 the executive authority. The abuses to which such a system 
 of government is liable, from corruption, negligence, and want 
 of information, are too well known to require being par- 
 ticularised. It is, in fact, from the want of a proper distribu- 
 tion of these authorities in different hands that all abuses in 
 government principally proceed. His Lordship's first step 
 was to make it a fundamental law (1793) that all laws framed 
 by the Government should be printed and published in the 
 form prescribed by Regulation 43, and that the Courts of 
 Judicature should be guided by the laws so printed and pub- 
 lished, and no other. It had before been the practice to carry 
 on the affairs of the Government, and those of individuals, by 
 a correspondence by letter with all the subordinate officers." 
 
 The important Revenue measures which were introduced 
 into Bengal during the administration of Lord Cornwallis, 
 though necessarily occupying a large space in the history of 
 his government, are so little akin to the general scheme and 
 purport of this book, that any detailed account or discussion 
 of them would be out of place. I think that, perhaps, the 
 merit or the demerit of the great Zemindarry settlement 
 has been assigned overmuch by some writers to the peculiar 
 tastes and tendencies of Lord Cornwallis. Mr. James Mill, 
 in his great history, has said that, " full of the aristocraticul
 
 THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 107 
 
 ideas of modern Europe, the aristocratical person now at the 1793. 
 head of the Government avowed his intention of establishing 
 an aristocratic upon the European model." In reality, how- 
 ever, the settlement was the work of the middle class civilians 
 of the Company, nearly all of whom advocated a Zemindarry 
 settlement, and many of them a perpetual one. The father 
 of the Permanent Settlement, indeed, was Mr. Thomas Law,* 
 Collector of Behar, who, long before Cornwallis had given 
 the subject a thought, had exhausted the budget of arguments 
 in favour of a system that was " to found on a permanent 
 basis the future security, prosperity, and happiness of the 
 natives." Cornwallis, indeed, when he sailed for India, left 
 this system, which he is said to have initiated, thoroughly 
 understood and in high favour at home, and found it when he 
 arrived to be better known and more cherished in Bengal. 
 That he strongly supported it from the first, and carried it 
 through to its conclusion with no little heartiness and energy, 
 is certain, but it neither took shape nor colour in his mind, 
 and he was no more the originator of it than was Pitt, 
 Dundas, or Charles Grant, who together composed the de- 
 spatch which gave to the measure the final sanction of the 
 Home Government-! 
 
 * A brother of the first Lord Ellen- measure must originate with the Board 
 
 borough. of Control, and likewise that I should 
 
 f This statement, made in a former induce Mr. Pitt to become my partner 
 work by the author, is placed beyond a in the final consideration of so im- 
 doubt by the following extract of a portant and controverted a measure, 
 letter from Mr. Duudas to Lord Corn- He accordingly agreed to shut himself 
 wallis : " In your letter you allude to up with me for ten days at Wimble- 
 the important question of the perpetuity don, and attend to that business only, 
 of the Decennial Settlement, and I have Charles Grant stayed with us a great 
 the very great satisfaction to inform part of the time. After a most minute 
 you that the same conveyance which and attentive consideration of the whole 
 carries this carries out an approbation subject, I had the satisfaction to find 
 and confirmation of your sentiments on Mr. Pitt entirely of the same opinion 
 that subject. It has been longer de- with us. We therefore settled a de- 
 layed than I expected, but the de- spatch upon the ideas we had formed, 
 lay was unavoidable. Knowing that and sent it down to the Court of Direc- 
 the Directors would not be induced to tors. What I expected happened ; the 
 take it up so as to consider it with any subject was too large for the considera- 
 degree of attention, and knowing that tion of the Directors in general, and the 
 some of the most leading ones among few who knew anything concerning it, 
 them held an opinion different both from understanding from me that Mr. Pitt 
 your Lordship and me on the question and I were decided in our opinions, 
 of perpetuity, and feeling that there was thought it best to acquiesce, so that 
 much respect due to the opinion and they came to a resolution to adopt . 
 authority of Mr. Shore, I thought it entirely the despatch as transmitted by 
 indispensably necessary both that the me."
 
 108 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1793. But although these great administrative arrangements may 
 
 be passed over thus briefly, something must be said in this 
 place of the efforts which Lord Cornwallis made to secure 
 their effective execution. " We have long been of opinion," 
 he wrote, " that no system will ever be carried into effect so 
 long as the personal qualifications of the individuals that may 
 be appointed to superintend it form the only security for the 
 due execution of it. The body of the people must feel and 
 be satisfied of this security before industry will exert itself, 
 or the moneyed men embark their capital in agricultural or 
 commercial speculations. There are certain powers and func- 
 tions which can never be vested in the same officers without 
 destroying all confidence in the protection of the laws. This 
 remark is particularly applicable to the various functions 
 vested in the present Collectors." And upon these grounds it 
 was resolved that all judicial powers should be withdrawn 
 from the Collectors. Not only had the judicial and the fiscal 
 offices been blended, but the former was altogether subor- 
 dinated to the latter. The Collector " received no salary as 
 Judge of the Court of Justice or as magistrate of the district. 
 These two offices were considered as appendages to that of 
 Collector, and the duties of the two former stood still when- 
 ever they interfered with those of the latter."* That the 
 separation of the offices was an important administrative step, 
 and tended much to the purity and efficiency of the service, 
 is not to be doubted. 
 
 The reform of the military service of the country engaged 
 also much of his attention during these last days of his rule, 
 but it had been arranged between the Governor-General and 
 the King's Government that the discussion of the subject 
 should be deferred until Lord Cornwallis's return to England, 
 and it was not, therefore, until November in the following 
 year that he placed on record his views on this important 
 subject, in an elaborate letter to Mr. Dundas, which contains 
 the following suggestive passage : "As the above propositions 
 not only secure a competent income to the military officers 
 serving in India during the early periods of their service, but 
 also the substantial advantage and gratification of an opening 
 being made for their attaining high military rank, as well as 
 
 * Minute by Lord Cornwallis.
 
 HIS SUCCESSOR. 109 
 
 the indulgence of being enabled to visit Europe occasionally 1793. 
 without relinquishing their pay, and the satisfaction of having 
 it in their power to spend the latter part of their lives in their 
 native country, either by retiring on their full pay, by selling 
 their commissions, or by remaining in the service until they 
 obtain the command and emoluments of a regiment. All 
 ideas must be given up in the army of looking for perquisites 
 or advantages in any shape whatever beyond the open and 
 avowed allowances which shall be allotted to the respective 
 ranks, and if any officer shall be detected in making such 
 attempts, he ought to be tried by a general court-martial for 
 behaving in a manner unbecoming the character of an officer 
 and a gentleman, and, if convicted, dismissed from the 
 service." Nothing did more to improve the character of the 
 officers of the Indian Army than this important reform. 
 
 He resigned his seat at the head of the Government to his 
 old friend John Shore, who had come out with the appoint- 
 ment a short time before the date fixed for his Lordship's de- 
 parture. Of all the servants of the Company he was the one 
 whom Cornwallis would most warmly have welcomed as his 
 successor ; but it was his opinion that the Governor-General- 
 ship should be reserved for men of high position in England, 
 who had not been connected with Indian administration.* 
 At one time Dundas himself had thought of going out to 
 India to take the supreme direction, but he had the Com- 
 pany's new charter to carry through Parliament, so he could 
 not leave England in time to relieve Lord Cornwallis. In 
 conjunction with Pitt, therefore, he recommended Mr. Shore 
 for the provisional appointment to the Governor-Generalship, 
 with the understanding that if it was afterwards considered 
 advisable to send out a statesman from home, Shore would 
 
 * " It is very difficult for a man to although some have been infinitely less 
 divest himself of the prejudices which guilty in this respect than others, the 
 the habits of twenty years have con- world will not tamely submit to be re- 
 firmed, and to govern people who have formed by those who have practised it 
 
 lived with him so long on a footing of in the smallest degree A man of 
 
 equality. But the Company's servants upright intentions, with ability and ap- 
 
 have still greater obstacles to encounter plication, that would undertake this 
 
 when they become Governors, for the government for six or seven years, 
 
 wretched policy^ of the Company has, might do great things for the public, 
 
 till the late alterations took place in and save a considerable fortune for him- 
 
 Bengal, invariably driven all their ser- self. If you cannot tempt such a man 
 
 vants to the alternative of starving or with these prospects, I have no effectual 
 
 of taking what was not their own ; and remedy to propose."
 
 110 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1793. take the second seat in Council. When he arrived, Cornwallis 
 was agreeably surprised to find how much he had improved. 
 " I have had the pleasure," he said, " since I wrote last, of 
 receiving my friend Shore, whose mind is become much more 
 enlarged, and whose sentiments are greatly improved by his 
 visit to England."* And in one of the last letters he wrote 
 from India, he assured his friend of his hearty support. So, 
 hopeful of a bright future, he made his preparations for his 
 final departure from Calcutta ; and in the autumn of 1793 
 proceeded to Madras, where he was detained for some time, 
 in consequence of the Bang's ship bearing the admiral's flag, 
 in which he was to have been conveyed to England, having 
 been compelled to go into dock at Bombay. Lord Cornwallis, 
 therefore, as his military secretary wrote, " took his chance 
 on the Sicallow ;" and sailed from Madras on or about the 10th 
 of October, 1793. 
 
 So ended the first Cornwallis administration. It had em- 
 braced a period of seven years, during which much good 
 work had been done both in the Camp and in the Council 
 Chamber; and now, as he turned his face homeward, he 
 thought with well-grounded pride and satisfaction of the 
 great changes which had been wrought during his tenure of 
 office, and, most of all, perhaps, of the improved character of 
 the public service of our Indian Empire. If he did not make 
 the military and the civil services of India altogether what 
 they were in the last years of the Company, he so purified, 
 elevated, and invigorated them, that there was no chance of 
 their ever again relapsing into corruption or imbecility. A 
 healthy progress from that time was ensured. It is scarcely 
 too much, indeed, to say that but for the chastening influences 
 of Cornwallis's good seven years' work, it would not have 
 
 * Marquis Cornwallis to Mr. Dundas, hope that I shall have grounds to retract 
 March 24, 1793. (Cornwallis Corre- the opinion I before gave, and to admit 
 epondence. Ross.} To this Lord Corn- him as an exception to my general rule, 
 wallis added : " He has been perfectly He did not appear to be in the least dis- 
 f air and good humoured about the Per- appointed by my resolution to retain the 
 manent Settlement, and his declaration government till August, but offered me 
 that he will persevere in the present his cordial assistance whenever I might 
 system of external management, and, wish to employ him." Shore was 
 above all, his approbation and resolution always of opinion that it was a mistake 
 to support and enforce the late domestic to make the Settlement permanent in 
 arrangements, have afforded me the the first instance. He would have corn- 
 greatest satisfaction, and induce me to menced with a Decennial Settlement.
 
 IN ENGLAND. Ill 
 
 been my privilege to write the stories of such lives as are in- 1794. 
 eluded in these volumes. 
 
 He arrived m England in the early part of February. 1794, Return to 
 
 1 ILIJ V Q a- 11 i. -D x ,' England. 
 
 and was soon settled in his buttolk home. r>ut to one who 
 looked for nothing so much as for repose, the times were un- 
 propitious. Europe was in an unsettled state, and the country 
 had need of the services of all her best soldiers and diplo- 
 matists. At such a season it was not to be expected that her 
 Majesty's Ministers would give much time and attention to 
 the affairs of India. They looked upon Lord CornwaUis not 
 as one who had been employed for his country's good in the 
 East, but as one to be employed for his country's good in the 
 West. They concerned themselves with the future, not with 
 the past ; and very soon resolved to draw him from his retire- 
 ment. Early in March he wrote to Mr. Barlow : " Ministers 
 highly approve of all we have done, but in the hurry of such 
 pressing business as must daily occur, and so many urgent 
 avocations, it is difficult to extract from them even a para- 
 graph. Mr. Beaufoy, the Secretary of the Board of Control, 
 who is a very sensible and zealous man, and who knows as 
 much of Indian affairs as most people here (which, God knows, 
 is very little), has promised to send out by these ships a com- 
 plete approval of the judicial regulations, and a recommenda- 
 tion to extend them if possible to Benares. Lord Hobart, 
 who goes to Madras, with the provisional succession to Bengal, 
 has abilities and habits of business. I have had many long 
 conversations with him, and have endeavoured to tutor him 
 well. I have not time to enter into European politics. The 
 great body of the nation are convinced of the necessity of the 
 war, which may truly be called a war of self-defence, and are 
 warm in support of the Ministers ; but the great exertions of 
 the latter have not been seconded by the skill of our military 
 commanders, and the campaign of '93 in Europe has little 
 resemblance to the campaign of '90 in India. God send that 
 we may do better ; but I do not see any flattering prospect." 
 A month later, he wrote to the same correspondent, saying : 
 " Much as I wish for quiet, I am afraid that I shall be forced 
 from my intended retirement, and be engaged in a very diffi-
 
 112 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1794. cult and hazardous situation in the busy scene on the Con- 
 tinent." 
 
 These anticipations were soon fulfilled. Before the end of 
 May, Lord Cornwallis had received the expected summons 
 from the King's Government to proceed to Flanders. On the 
 2nd of June he landed at Ostend ; but his mission was not a 
 successful one. He had interviews with the Emperor of Austria 
 at Brussels, but his Imperial Majesty was obdurate, and could 
 not be induced to comply with the wishes of the British Go- 
 vernment. Before the end of the month he was recalled to 
 England ; and was, on his arrival, in frequent communication 
 with Pitt and Dundas on the subject of the prosecution of the 
 war. " I have taken Lord Hertford's house in Lower Gros- 
 venor-street," he wrote to his brother in July, " completely 
 furnished, for one year, for six hundred guineas, which gives 
 me time to look about me. My expedition has not been a 
 profitable one, but my baggage, horses, and wine are returned ; 
 and I shall keep everything in readiness till the end of the 
 war, that I may not be subject to another expensive equip- 
 ment." It was then in contemplation to confer upon him the 
 military command in Flanders, to counteract the incapacity 
 of the Duke of York ; but the appointment never took effect, 
 and it was well for him that it did not, for it would have 
 placed him in an anomalous and trying position, in which he 
 might have acquitted himself with honour, but scarcely with 
 success. It was, therefore, a great relief to him to find that 
 the scheme was abandoned. " I should have been," he wrote 
 to Mr. Dundas, "in the most embarrassing and dangerous 
 situation possible, with every prospect of ruin to myself, and 
 very little probability of rendering any essential service to 
 my country." Indeed, he feared that the mere suggestion 
 might have done him injury at Court. " I conclude I am 
 now completely ruined at St. James's," he said. " Indeed, I 
 could not be much worse than I was before ; but that is a cir- 
 cumstance which will not disturb my rest, nor abate in the 
 smallest degree my attachment and affection for the great per- 
 sonage from whom I have formerly received much favour and 
 kindness." 
 
 He was now eager to escape into the country, but the 
 critical situation of affairs on the Continent detained him in 
 London till the beginning of September, when he betook him-
 
 MASTEfi-GENEKAL OF THE OKDNANCE. 113 
 
 self to Bromo. From this place he wrote on the 7th to Mr. 179495. 
 Barlow : " The very critical situation of the affairs of Europe, 
 and the part which I have thought it my duty to take in giving 
 every possible assistance to Government, by personal services 
 and military counsel, have a good deal diverted my attention, 
 and still more the attention of those with whom I converse, 
 from the affairs of India ; which, however, next to the imme- 
 diate safety of Great Britain, will be always uppermost at my 
 heart. . . . When I tell you that I have not had ten days' 
 leisure, since my return from India, to attend to my private 
 affairs, and that my situation is now so uncertain that I may 
 be called upon in twenty-four hours to go to Flanders, you 
 will not expect long letters, and it would require a large 
 volume, if I were to attempt to enter into the politics of 
 Europe, and the horrors of France which increase daily, and 
 exceed all power of belief; I shall, therefore, only say that, 
 although we have some amongst us that are wicked enough to 
 endeavour to involve this happy island in the same scenes of 
 misery and desolation, and to fill our streets with blood, their 
 number, thank God, is but small, and the great body of the 
 people of all ranks appears firmly attached to our present con- 
 stitution ; but it is impossible to tell what effect ill success 
 and heavy taxes may have upon this happy disposition." 
 
 At the commencement of the following year, Lord Corn- Master-Gene- 
 
 1 f t h 
 
 wallis was appointed Master- General of the Ordnance, with a Ordnance, 
 seat in the Cabinet. This compelled him, much against his 
 natural inclinations, to spend the greater part of the year in 
 London. In April, he wrote to his Indian correspondent, Mr. 
 Barlow, assuring him that although he had little time to 
 devote to Indian affairs, he had not ceased to take a lively 
 interest in them. u When I left India," he said, " I thought 
 that I should have nothing to do on my return to this country 
 but to look a little to Asiatic affairs, and to call the attention 
 of Ministers to those points which I knew to be of the most 
 pressing and important nature. The critical situation, how- 
 ever, of all Europe, and of our own country in particular, has 
 entirely engrossed my mind, and the doubt whether we could 
 possibly keep England has almost effaced all ideas of improving 
 our government in India. It is a great personal satisfaction 
 to me, that without my declining the most arduous situations 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 LOUD CORNWALLIS. . 
 
 179596. in which it was possible a man could be placed, it so happened 
 that I had no share in the last disastrous and disgraceful cam- 
 paign. But still the prospect of public affairs is exceedingly 
 gloomy, and the ruin which so imminently threatens my 
 country, and all that are most dear to me, presents itself con- 
 stantly in the most alarming colours to my imagination. Not- 
 withstanding all this, and the great pressure of business which 
 my office of Master- General of Ordnance has imposed upon 
 me, I have sometimes talked to Mr. Dundas about our Regu- 
 lations, and often to Beaufoy, and to the latter I have given a 
 copy, with your observations, and as he has nothing to attend 
 to but the business of the Board of Control, I have desired 
 him most carefully to watch the correspondence, and not only 
 to be on his guard to prevent any counteraction from design 
 or ignorance, but to see that all instructions were in perfect 
 unison with our general plan, and to consult me whenever he 
 entertained the smallest doubts." 
 
 The following year (1796) still found him writing in the 
 same strain. The critical state of affairs in Europe so occupied 
 the minds of the King's Ministers, that they gave no heed to 
 Indian affairs, and Coniwallis himself felt that he was power- 
 less to interfere to any advantage. He was, at this time, dis- 
 quieted by apprehensions that the system of civil administra- 
 tion, which he had introduced into India, would not be main- 
 tained inviolate, and he wrote to his friend and fellow-labourer, 
 Mr. Barlow, encouraging him in the good work which they 
 had both so deeply at heart. " I have received your letters to 
 the 28th May," he wrote, on the 23rd of January, 1796, 
 " and have read them with the enclosures with great atten- 
 tion, and with the warmest gratitude to you, both public and 
 private, for upholding a system which is of such infinite con- 
 sequence to the cause of humanity, as well as to the British 
 interests in India, and which, without your powerful support, 
 could never have been carried into useful effect. Sorry I am 
 to say that I can render no further service than to endeavour 
 to prevent mischief, for in the present critical situation of 
 affairs, when we are surrounded by so many pressing difficul- 
 ties and dangers, it is impossible to call the attention of Mr. 
 Dundas and the principal members of administration to so 
 remote and so peaceable a subject as the good government of
 
 SUMMONED TO RETURN TO INDIA. 115 
 
 India ; and until we can obtain peace at home, I see no pros- 1796. 
 pect of succeeding. At the same time, I must request that 
 you will not be discouraged from persevering in a conduct 
 which must reflect the highest honour on yourself, whilst it 
 renders the most essential service to your country, and from 
 which your benevolent mind will ever derive the most gra- 
 tifying reflections. Whilst Mr. Beaufoy lived, I could by his 
 help get some paragraphs prepared for approbation, but there 
 is now no officer under the Board of Control that knows 
 anything about India, or that can be a useful instrument to 
 me in any respect. The department over which I preside 
 keeps my hands full of business ; but if I had more leisure, I 
 could not act from myself, or, without invitation, take a part in 
 the official line of the Board. Mr. Dundas and I are, how- 
 ever, the best friends possible, and I have no doubt that when 
 the present anxieties which occupy his mind are past, I shall 
 obtain all reasonable attention." 
 
 But the time was now approaching when there was to be state of the 
 also a " critical state of affairs" in our Indian possessions. Indian 
 The officers of the Bengal Army were on the brink of mutiny. 
 They dreaded a serious invasion of their rights, and were 
 banding, or, as it was said, " conspiring" together to maintain 
 them. There was a scheme of " amalgamation" afloat, the 
 result of which would have been seriously detrimental to the 
 interests of the Company's officers, and they resisted it, in 
 some instances, with an amount of vehemence not consistent 
 with military discipline. Indeed, the excitement at one time 
 was so great that a very little would have stirred the smoul- 
 dering fire into a blaze. The state of affairs was alarming, 
 and the alarm communicated itself to the Government in 
 England. It was plainly necessary to do something. The 
 something to be done took the shape of a peace mission from 
 home. Some high officer of the Government was to go out 
 to India, conciliatory but resolute, with the olive branch in 
 one hand, and the fasces of the law in the other. But who 
 was to proceed on this mission ? The choice lay between Mr. 
 Dundas, the President of the Board of Control, and Lord 
 Cornwallis, the sometime Governor- General of .India; and 
 for a while the probabilities of selection oscillated between the 
 two. Mr. Dundas was more willing to go than Lord Corn- 
 
 12
 
 116 LORD CORNWALL1S. 
 
 179697. wallis ; but the Government, who probably thought also that 
 the latter was the more fitting agent of the two, declared that 
 the services of Dundas could not be spared in that conjuncture 
 at home ; so most reluctantly Cornwallis accepted the mission, 
 and forthwith began to make preparations for his voyage to 
 India. " You will, no doubt," he wrote from Culford, to a 
 friend in India, on the 31st of January, 1797, " be much 
 astonished at the news of my return to India, but my earnest 
 solicitude for the welfare of my country, and my particular 
 apprehensions lest our Asiatic possessions should either be torn 
 from us, or rendered a useless and unprofitable appendage to 
 the British Empire, have induced me to sacrifice every per- 
 sonal consideration, and to gratify the wishes of Government, 
 and I may venture to say of the public at large, by coming 
 forward again, at this late period of my life, to endeavour to 
 restore our affairs in India to the prosperous state in which I 
 left them. As I am not quite certain that Scott or Eobinson 
 may be at the Presidency, I have thought it more safe to 
 address myself to you, to request that you will apply to them, 
 or, in their absence, to some friend who will undertake the 
 commission, to provide for me against my arrival three good 
 and quiet saddle-horses, such as Robinson or Scott, or those 
 who were in the habit of riding with me, may judge to be 
 likely to suit me. I shall likewise want a set of servants for 
 the house upon a similar plan to the establishment I formerly 
 had. The Consomah who was before with me was a good 
 man. I shall also want a palanquin, a phaeton, and a good 
 coach, or chariot, with six carriage-horses, two of which must 
 be very quiet and proper for the phaeton. I shall bring my 
 successor out with me, and I shall hope that the object of my 
 mission may be attained in about a twelvemonth, as you will 
 easily conceive that a long residence in India will not suit me. 
 It is not probable that any person will come out with me 
 except Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan, of the Bengal establish- 
 ment, and one aide-de-camp ; you will oblige me, therefore, 
 if you could, on my arrival, point out any young man who 
 would act as my private secretary in Haldane's situation, and 
 take a degree of superintendence of my household. I think 
 if Mr. Phillips is settled in Calcutta, and not engaged in com- 
 mercial concerns, that he would be a proper person."
 
 LORD MORNINGTON. 117 
 
 But this special mission to India belongs only to the " His- 1797. 
 tory of Events that never happened." The danger subsided, 
 and with it the alarm. The officers of the Company's army, 
 under sedative assurances, and satisfying concessions, began 
 to return to their allegiance, and it was not necessary to apply 
 the special remedies, of which I have spoken, to a disease 
 which was dying out by itself. Instead of Lord Cornwallis 
 going out to India as Governor-General, with his successor in 
 his train, Lord Mornington was selected to be Governor- 
 General in succession to Sir John Shore. The change de- 
 lighted Lord Cornwallis. At the call of his King and his 
 country, he was ready to go to India as he would have gone 
 anywhere, under a strong sense of duty but he thankfully 
 withdrew from the mission when he was no longer bound by 
 these loyal considerations to undertake it. He had faith in 
 the young statesman who had been selected for office ; and he 
 saw him depart with pleasure. 
 
 " When the shameful conduct of the Bengal officers," he The new 
 wrote to Mr. Barlow, in October, "threatened India with 
 immediate ruin, and it was thought that my services might 
 be of consequence, I did not refuse to come forward. The 
 business of my instructions was ill-managed here, and the 
 favourable turn of affairs in Bengal rendered my presence less 
 necessary. It is not wonderful, therefore, that I should avail 
 myself of so fair an excuse to decline an arduous task, which, 
 from untoward circumstances, I should have undertaken with 
 peculiar disadvantage. Lord Mornington, your new Governor- 
 General, is a man of very considerable abilities, and most ex- 
 cellent character. I have known him from his childhood, and 
 have always lived on the most friendly habits with him. He 
 goes out with the best and purest dispositions. He is an 
 enthusiast for the preservation of that plan of government 
 which, without your powerful assistance, could never have 
 been either formed or maintained. His Lordship has no private 
 views, nor a wish to do anything but what is for the public 
 good ; and I have taken upon myself to answer that you will 
 have no reserve with him, either in regard to men or measures. 
 Having assured you that Lord Mornington thinks exactly as I 
 do both about India and yourself, I have only to add my 
 sincere good wishes for your health and prosperity, and to ex-
 
 118 LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 1798. press my hopes that when our dangers are over, we may meet 
 happily in this country." 
 
 And now we come to an epoch in the great and varied 
 career of Lord Cornwallis, which, though to the general student 
 of English history more interesting than any other, is the one 
 of which most has been written by others, and of which I am 
 least called upon to write. In a time of the greatest trouble 
 and difficulty he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant and Com- 
 mander-in-Chief in Ireland. Mr. Pitt said that, in accepting 
 the office, Cornwallis had " conferred the most essential obli- 
 gation on the public which it can, perhaps, ever receive from 
 the services of any individual." For it was one of those 
 situations in which no virtue and no wisdom can preserve a 
 man wholly from reproach. He had to combat a great re- 
 bellion, and in combating it he was as merciful as he was 
 resolute and courageous. But it was a necessity of his position 
 in such a conjuncture that, in the eyes of some, he should 
 have done too much, and that in the eyes of others he should 
 have done too little. Of all the posts which he ever held, this 
 was the one the tenure of which was least gratifying to his 
 feelings. " The violence of our friends," he wrote to General 
 Eoss, " and their folly in endeavouring to make it a religious 
 war, added to the ferocity of our troops, who delight in 
 murder, most powerfully counteract all plans of conciliation. 
 The life of a Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland comes up to my idea 
 of perfect misery ; but if I can accomplish the great object of 
 consolidating the British Empire, I shall be sufficiently re- 
 paid." And again, soon afterwards, to the same corre- 
 spondent : " Of all the situations which I ever held, the pre- 
 sent is by far the most intolerable to me, and I have often 
 within the same fortnight wished myself back in Bengal." 
 One of his troubles was the Irish Militia, who had all the 
 characteristic cruelty of cowards. " The Irish Militia," wrote 
 Cornwallis to the Duke of Portland, "are totally without 
 discipline, contemptible before the enemy when any serious 
 resistance was made to them, but ferocious and cruel in the 
 extreme when any poor wretches either with or without arms 
 come within their power; in short, murder appears to be 
 their favourite pastime." The intemperate language of the 
 ultra-loyalists was another source of inquietude to him. " The
 
 LORD-LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND. 119 
 
 minds of people are now in such a state," he wrote to the Duke 17991801. 
 of Portland, " that nothing but blood will satisfy them ; and, 
 although they will not admit the term, their conversation and 
 conduct point to no other mode of concluding this unhappy 
 business than that of extirpation." There were others 
 whose tendencies were towards the opposite extreme ; but 
 Lord Cornwallis endeavoured to steer a middle course, and 
 when he wrote to the Duke of Leinster, saying : " I hope and 
 trust that to every candid mind the system of my government 
 will appear conciliatory and moderate ; but if I were to insult 
 the feelings of the loyal, and to protect the characters and pro- 
 perties of those who attempted to destroy them, such conduct 
 would not be called moderation, but criminal weakness" I 
 think when he said this he expressed a well-grounded confi- 
 dence in the success of his measures, and in the rectitude of 
 principle which inspired them. 
 
 Engaged in these great measures, firstly of suppression and 1801 
 then of conciliation, Lord Cornwallis remained at his post in 
 Ireland up to the end of May, 1801. He had not much 
 leisure to think of India, but a letter from Lord Wellesley, 
 announcing the conquest of Mysore and the death of Tippoo 
 Sultan, for a while revived his old interest in the country 
 which he had so long governed. " This is, indeed, a great 
 event," he wrote to General Boss, tl and perfectly secures us 
 in that part of the world ; for I think, even if Zeman Shah 
 could get to India, that he could not succeed when deprived of 
 the co-operation of Tippoo." Soon afterwards the gratifying 
 intelligence came to him that the army which had taken 
 Seringapatam, not less mindful, perhaps, of his personal gene- 
 rosity, in foregoing his prize-money, than of his military 
 exploits in the first Mysore war, had voted him an address, 
 and presented him with the sword and turban of Tippoo. He 
 was sometimes appealed to in matters connected with Indian 
 government, and his interposition was sought, but he was 
 unwilling to interfere, and he was personally reluctant to 
 place himself in opposition to Mr. Dundas, who, he said, had 
 behaved to him " in a more fair and friendly manner than any 
 other member of the Cabinet." 
 
 Lord Cornwallis, as I have said, crossed the Channel at the 
 end of May, 1801, but the blessing of repose was not then
 
 120 LORD CORNWALL! S. 
 
 18011802. within his reach. A French invasion was at that time ex- 
 pected, and he was placed in command of the Eastern division of 
 the army " eight weak regiments of militia," as he said, " and 
 two regiments of dragoons." " In our wooden walls alone," 
 he wrote, a day or two afterwards, " must we place our trust ; 
 we should make a sad business of it on shore." But instead 
 of an invasion, there was peace. And Lord Cornwallis was 
 selected to be the British Plenipotentiary who was to proceed 
 
 The Peace of to Amiens to negotiate the treaty with Napoleon. On the 3rd 
 of November, 1801, he crossed over to Calais. On the 18th 
 of November he wrote to his friend Barlow, in Calcutta, say- 
 ing : "I have been so constantly occupied, and my mind has 
 been so much agitated by the critical state of public affairs, 
 and the very important part which I was obliged to take in 
 the great questions of the Union, and the privileges proposed 
 to be granted to the Catholics of Ireland, that I could attend 
 to no other matters. On my return to England, on the 
 change of administration, where I expected (after winding up 
 the Irish business, and pacifying those who had claims for 
 services in the Union contest) to retire and enjoy some quiet, 
 I was called upon, in consequence of the serious preparations 
 which the French were making to invade us, to accept the 
 command in the Eastern District, and by the date of this 
 letter you will see that I have now undertaken to put the 
 finishing hand to the work of peace, which was most ardently 
 desired by the nation, and which appeared to me to be neces- 
 sary for the preservation of our country The Defini- 
 tive Treaty will, I hope, be concluded in a few weeks. 
 Bonaparte has, for the present, tranquillised France. The 
 people are kept in excellent order : would to God that the 
 discontented in England could see the state of liberty which 
 this country, so much the object of their envy, enjoys ! All 
 persons here speak with horror of the Kevolution." 
 
 At last it seemed that the long-coveted season of repose was 
 really at hand. The peace of Amiens was concluded; and 
 Lord Cornwallis returned to England, and betook himself to 
 the country. " For a long time past," he wrote from Brome, 
 in September, 1802, to the same correspondent, "I have been 
 out of the way of knowing what was going forward respecting 
 India, and it was not until Lord Castlereagh called on me last
 
 LORD WELLESLEY AND THE COMPANY. 121 
 
 week on his way from Ireland (by Mr. Dundas's house in 18021803. 
 Scotland) to London, that I had an idea of the style of letters 
 which have of late been sent by the Court of Directors to 
 Lord Wellcsley.* I most earnestly hope that matters maybe 
 so accommodated as to induce his Lordship to continue another 
 year in the Government, which, either with a view to its im- 
 mediate or future effects, I conceive to be of the utmost im- 
 portance to the interests of the British Empire I have 
 
 now retired for ever from all public situation, but my feelings 
 are still alive to the honour and interests of my country, and 
 I shall to the end of my life reflect with the most heartfelt 
 satisfaction, that by adopting and patronising your sugges- 
 tions, I laid the foundation of a system for the prosperity of 
 our Indian Empire, which has so gloriously flourished and 
 risen to such height under the splendid administration of Lord 
 Wellesley." 
 
 But, brilliant as were these prospects, the time soon came State of 
 when the territorial acquisitions of Lord Wellesley alarmed India< 
 Lord Cornwallis. It seemed to him that our empire was 
 growing too large, and that we should find it difficult to ad- 
 minister its affairs with advantage to so immense a popula- 
 tion. On this subject he wrote from Culford, in August, 
 
 * In another letter to Barlow, who, it which your zeal for the public welfare 
 was then held, would succeed Lord Wei- would make you desire. Lord Castle- 
 lesley, Lord Cornwallis wrote : " When reagh has fought a hard battle for the 
 you take upon yourself the burdensome College, and has succeeded as far as re- 
 charge of administering the affairs of our lates to Bengal. I have taken great 
 vast Asiatic Empire, your experience and pains, and I think I have nearly con- 
 excellent understanding will, I am per- vinced him, not only that there should 
 suaded, conduct you safety and with be but one College for all our Indian 
 honour through all difficulties, and in settlements, but that he should prepare 
 your Eastern government you will not his mind to look for an early period 
 need any counsel from your friends. But when the allowances of the servants of 
 there is one part of your business on the subordinate Presidencies should, in 
 which, as it relates to this country, I proportion to the trnst and labour of 
 will presume to offer some friendlyjadvice. their respective offices, be made equal to 
 The point to which I allude is your corre- those in Bengal, and that it was as well 
 spondence with the Court of Directors, worth while not to force a war to cheat 
 and your seeming attention to them, on the Company and rob and oppress their 
 those subjects in which they have a con- subjects in latitude eleven as in lati- 
 stitutional right to interfere. It has tude twenty-three. Had Lord Wellesley 
 fallen in my way to know the embar- thought it worth while to use a little 
 rassments which the neglect or incivility management with the Court of Directors, 
 of Lords Wellesley and Clive to their he might have settled his College, or 
 honourable masters have occasioned to any plan within moderate bounds that 
 the Ministers and the Board of Control, he might have chosen." On this subject 
 Be civil to the Directors, and avoid any of the College, further information is 
 direct attack on the authority of the given in the Memoir of Sir Charles 
 Court, and you may do everything Metcalfe, and in the Appendix.
 
 122 LORD OORNWALLIS. 
 
 1804. 1804, putting the whole case in a few pregnant sentences : 
 " By the last accounts from India, affairs appear to be in a 
 most prosperous state. You have dictated the terms of peace, 
 and have obtained every possession in India that could be de- 
 sired. The question here from many persons is, Have we not 
 too much ? But I hardly know, when the power was in our 
 hands, what part of our acquisitions we could prudently have 
 relinquished." He little thought, when he wrote this, that 
 out of the state of things that had then arisen in India, there 
 was growing up that which in a very little time would draw 
 him again from his retirement, and compel him to go forth 
 once more with the harness on his back. But so it was. Lord 
 Wellesley had been playing the great game with such success, 
 that he had brought our Indian Empire to the very verge of 
 bankruptcy. And the game was not yet played out. What, 
 then, was to be done ? Lord Wellesley was ambitious. Lord 
 Wellesley was insubordinate. The advisers in whom he most 
 trusted counselled him not to throw up the cards. But there 
 was no money even to carry on the Trade ; for the war 
 engulfed every rupee. To the Directors in Leadenhall-street 
 the crisis of ruin appeared to be imminent. They stood aghast 
 at the prospect before them. It was necessary to do some- 
 thing and that speedily. Nothing but a change of govern- 
 ment would suffice to meet the difficulties of the case. Orders 
 might be sent to India ; but it was one thing to draft instruc- 
 tions, another to secure obedience to them. It had been 
 arranged that Sir George Barlow should succeed Lord Wel- 
 lesley in the Governor-Generalship. But Barlow was a 
 member of Lord Wellesley's Government ; and the Court of 
 Directors were, therefore, alarmed at the thought of his suc- 
 cession. The King's Ministers concurred in opinion with the 
 Company that it was desirable to send out an English states- 
 man with no leanings towards the prosecution of the war a 
 safe man, moderate but resolute, and if clothed with the au- 
 thority of a great foregone career, so much the better. It was 
 only in the common course of things that the thoughts of the 
 Government should have turned at once to Lord Cornwallis. 
 There was a difficulty an emergency and again they turned 
 to the old quarter for help.
 
 THE THIRD SUMMONS. 123 
 
 What followed may be told in the words of Lord Corn- 1804 1805. 
 wallis. Writing from Culford, on January 6th, 1805, to Sir 
 George Barlow, he said : " I can hardly figure to myself the 
 astonishment which you must feel at hearing that I am again 
 returning to the station of Governor- General, and, lest you 
 should suppose that I can in the smallest degree have altered 
 my sentiments with regard to yourself, and have ceased to 
 think you capable of discharging the duties of that office to 
 your own credit, and to the honour and advantage of the 
 Company and of your country, I take the earliest opportunity 
 that offers to explain to you in a few words the circumstances 
 which have produced this extraordinary event. You will re- 
 collect that in the course of last year I informed you that 
 Lord Wellesley's neglect and contemptuous treatment of the 
 Court of Directors was exceedingly embarrassing to the 
 King's Government at home. A line of conduct on his part 
 somewhat similar has of late extended itself to that very Go- 
 vernment, and his Majesty's Ministers have been liable to be 
 called upon to account for measures of great importance, of 
 the causes of which they were totally ignorant, although op- 
 portunities had offered for communication. I shall enter no 
 further into these matters, but pass over to what immediately 
 concerns yourself and my appointment. A few weeks ago 
 Lord Castlereagh came down to this place, and after some 
 previous conversation about India, informed me that the dis- 
 satisfaction of the Court of Directors with the conduct of 
 Lord W. had risen to such a height, that it was absolutely 
 necessary that he should be desired to leave the Government, 
 that Ministers were very uneasy at the present state of mat- 
 ters, and expressed the earnest wish of his Majesty's confi- 
 dential servants, that I would for a short time take the 
 direction of affairs in that country. I answered, that I had 
 not been in the habit of refusing my services, whenever they 
 might be thought useful, but that I was too old for such an 
 undertaking, and I felt it to be the more unnecessary, as the 
 person named for the succession to the Government was, in 
 my opinion, more capable of making a satisfactory arrange- 
 ment than myself. He then informed me that the appoint- 
 ment of any Company's servant to the Government-General
 
 124 LOED CORNWALLIS. 
 
 18041805. was at this moment out of the question ; and in the particular 
 case alluded to, it was the more impossible, as the Court of 
 Directors could by no means be brought to consent to the 
 succession of a member of Lord Wellesley's Government. 
 After some discussion upon this subject, I proposed to under- 
 take the present mission, provided that on my leaving the 
 country I could be assured that you were to succeed me. 
 Lord Castlereagh declared that an assurance of that kind was 
 not to be expected, and could only say that my going would 
 open the only chance for your succession. Unemployed as I 
 have long been, and appeared likely to remain, in the line of 
 my profession, and, in its present state, useless to my own 
 family, I have consented to take the rash step of returning to 
 India, by which, if I should ultimately be the means of placing 
 the charge of our Asiatic Empire in your hands, I shall feel 
 that I have rendered an essential service to my country." 
 
 Truly was it a hazardous duty, which he had thus under- 
 taken at the age of sixty-five. There was nothing for which 
 he longed more than for rest. He had an ample store of 
 honour he had an ample store of wealth. It was intended 
 that he should sojourn only for a little while in India, and he 
 could add but little, therefore, to either store. The service, 
 indeed, upon which he was going, was an unpopular and 
 a thankless one. He was going upon a service of peace and 
 retrenchment. Many private interests were likely to suffer 
 grievously by the course of severe economy on which he was 
 about to enter ; and people, in such a case, rarely discriminate 
 between the authors and the agents of the measures which 
 injuriously affect them. War is always popular in India; 
 and there was scarcely a man in the two services, from the 
 veteran warrior Lake, to the boy-civilian Metcalfe, who did 
 not utterly abhor and vehemently condemn the recreant policy 
 of withdrawing from the contest before the great game had 
 been played out. It is scarcely possible to conceive a mission 
 less attractive than that on which the fine old soldier now set 
 out, leaving behind him all that he held most dear, because he 
 felt that it was his duty to go. It has been said that he 
 " caught with the enthusiasm, which belongs to good and 
 great minds, at the prospect of performing one more im- 
 portant service to his country before he died;" and that hq
 
 Malcolm. 
 
 RETURN TO INDIA. 125 
 
 " listened with avidity to those who, desirous of the authority 18041805. 
 of his great name to their plans, represented to him that his 
 presence alone could save from inevitable ruin the empire 
 which he had before ruled with so much glory." But I Sir John 
 doubt whether he caught with any enthusiasm, or any avidity 
 at the'proposal, honourable as it was to him, and serviceable 
 as it might be to his country. He did not hesitate to accept 
 the charge entrusted to him. He had never hesitated in his 
 life to do, at any cost to himself, that which he believed his 
 country demanded from him. But he would fain have spent 
 the remaining years of his life in repose. It was not the 
 enthusiasm of youth that sent him, but an irresistible sense 
 of self-denying duty. 
 
 Too soon, however, did Lord Cornwallis find that the task Second 
 which he had set himself was one beyond his powers adequately Generalship, 
 to perform. The hardships of life on board ship tried him 18 5 
 severely. He would not suffer any distinctions, with respect 
 to food and water, to be made in his favour, and the vessel 
 was inadequately supplied. The discomforts to which he was 
 subjected might have been nothing to a young man in robust 
 health, but they aggravated the growing infirmities of age, 
 and he arrived in Calcutta in very feeble health. He found 
 things there even in a worse state than he had anticipated. 
 Assuming the reins of government on the 30th of July, 1805, 
 he began at once to perform the ungrateful work which had 
 been assigned to him. " Finding," he wrote two days after- 
 wards, " to my great concern, that we are still at war with 
 Holkar, and that we can hardly be said to be at peace with 
 Scindiah, I have determined to proceed immediately to the 
 Upper Provinces, that I may be at hand to avail myself of 
 the interval, which the present rainy season must occasion in 
 the military operations, to endeavour, if it can be done with- 
 out a sacrifice of our honour, to terminate by negotiation a 
 contest in which the most brilliant success can afford us no 
 solid benefit, and which, if it should continue, must involve us 
 in pecuniary difficulties, which we shall hardly be able to 
 surmount." At this time Lord Wellesley was in Calcutta, 
 and it devolved upon Sir George Barlow to bridge over the
 
 126 LORD COIiNWALLIS. 
 
 1805. gulf which lay between the old policy and the new, so as to 
 mitigate as much as possible the evils of an abrupt and violent 
 transition to make the new ruler thoroughly understand the 
 measures of the old, and to reconcile the old to the measures 
 of the new. In this he succeeded with wonderful address. 
 The fact is, that Lord Wellesley had already begun to see 
 plainly that it was wholly impossible to play the great game 
 any longer with an exhausted treasury, and with our credit 
 at the lowest ebb.* 
 
 Last days. Attended by some of the chief officers of the Secretariat, 
 
 and by the members of his own personal Staff, Lord Corn- 
 wallis embarked on board his state-pinnace, and proceeded up 
 the river. But it was very soon apparent that he was break- 
 ing down. Day by day the executive officers who attended 
 him saw that he was growing more feeble, and that sustained 
 labour was becoming a greater difficulty and a greater pain. 
 There were times when he could converse clearly and forcibly 
 on the state of public affairs, and communicate to his chief 
 secretary, Mr. Edmonstone, the instructions which he wished 
 to be conveyed to the leading functionaries, civil and military, 
 in different parts of the country ; but at others he was wholly 
 incapable of holding the helm, and the orders which went 
 
 * At the commencement of a memo- appeared at variance with it) that it 
 randum before me in the handwriting of was Lord Wellesley's intention, what- 
 Sir George Barlow, I find it written : ever might be his immediate impres- 
 " With a view of giving to Lord Corn- sions on the subject, to renew our alli- 
 wallis a correct view of the arrangements ances and connexions with the petty 
 which Lord Wellesley had it in contem- states in the north-west of India as soon 
 plation to make with Scindiah respect- as (but not before) he had come to a 
 ing the territories conquered from him settlement with Dowlut Row Scindiah. 
 in Hindostan, Sir George Barlow drew A lasting peace with Scindiah was the 
 up a letter on the subject addressed to paramount consideration in his Lord- 
 Lord Cornwallis. This letter was dated ship's mind, and there is every pre- 
 the 7th of August, 1805, at which time sumption that he would not have 
 both Lord Cornwallis and Lord Welles- allowed any fanciful theories of sup- 
 ley were present at Calcutta, the latter posed advantages from taking all these 
 waiting only the completion of the ar- petty states under our protection as 
 rangements for his embarkation for allies to have interfered with the great 
 England. Previous to sending this letter objects to be accomplished by a per- 
 to Lord Cornwallis, he enclosed the draft manent and satisfactory peace with 
 to Marquis Wellesley, who returned it Scindiah. It is probable that when he 
 with a note in his own handwriting in had come to a full knowledge of the 
 the margin. This note Sir George gross misconduct of the Rajah of Jerg- 
 Barlow incorporated with the [ ] para- nagur, he would not, as was the case 
 graph of his letter numbered 26, and with Sir George Barlow, have allowed 
 then sent the fair draft to Lord Corn- his interests to have stood in the way of 
 wallis. This letter affords evidence the conclusion of that arrangement." 
 (which must supersede whatever has
 
 LAST DAYS. 127 
 
 forth in his name, though based upon the sentiments which 1805. 
 he had been able to express at intervals, were never supervised 
 by him. I have before me the daily bulletins of the Governor- 
 General's health, written by his private secretary, Mr. George 
 Robinson,* to Sir George Barlow, throughout the whole of 
 September up to the hour of Cornwallis's death. It is obvious 
 that at the beginning of the former month little hope was 
 entertained of his final recovery, for he frequently, in the 
 mornings, fell into fits, attended sometimes with convulsions, 
 and more frequently with deadly chills ; and although he im- 
 proved as the day advanced, and gained some strength under 
 the influence of stimulants, it was plain that his vigour was 
 gone, and that he was gradually sinking. The actual disease 
 which had developed itself was dropsy; but his medical 
 attendants were more fearful of the results of general debility, 
 of which this specific complaint may have been more a conse- 
 quence than a cause. And for many hours together there 
 was often extreme languor, and then a sudden outburst of 
 unexpected physical and intellectual vigour. Mr. Edmonstone 
 received his political instructions whenever he was capable of 
 issuing them ; and though there was a varying amount of 
 clearness and distinctness in them, it was plain that he always 
 thoroughly comprehended the question under consideration. 
 About the middle of the month there were apparent symptoms 
 of improvement ; but it was considered advisable, as the 
 pinnace laboured up the river, that, although it might on 
 some accounts be advantageous that the Governor- General 
 should be landed, it would, on the whole, be better that he 
 should remain on board, to escape the fatigue and distrac- 
 tion of deputations and addresses, which would pour in at 
 different points, if it were known that he was on shore. As 
 the month advanced, there were very manifest fluctuations, 
 which sometimes encouraged his friends to hope that he might 
 yet rally ; but towards the close of it these favourable antici- 
 pations ceased, and it was necessary to send for Sir George 
 Barlow to take up the reins of government. On the 1st of 
 October, Mr. Robinson wrote to him, saying that he feared the 
 hopes they had encouraged were delusive, " for Lord Corn- 
 wallis," he added, " has had a very restless night, attended 
 
 * Afterwards Sir George Robinson.
 
 128 LOED COENWALLIS. 
 
 1805. with a considerable difficulty in breathing, and though he per- 
 severes in not taking to his bed entirely, and probably will do 
 so to the last, I feel no confidence in his existence being pro- 
 longed even from hour to hour, so extremely feeble and weak 
 is he become. Yet in this state, his anxiety for the accom- 
 plishment of those objects to which his valuable life will ulti- 
 mately fall a sacrifice, adheres to him still ; he is impatient of 
 detention here, speaks of the impropriety of delays, has in- 
 quired after Edmonstone, and asked whether any news was 
 received to-day from Malcolm. I have no idea, however, that 
 he can survive to the period of your arrival, and in his present 
 weak state I cannot say I wish he should, as it could only 
 wound your feelings, as much as it does ours, to see him in a 
 condition which precludes all rational hope of a recovery. I 
 shall watch, however, his most conscious moments, and many 
 such occur through the day, to tell him that you entirely con- 
 cur in all the principal points of the plan, submitted by way 
 of outline at first, but subsequently put into the form of 
 official instructions to Lord Lake, for a final arrangement with 
 Scindiah ; and if anything can afford him satisfaction, I think 
 the assurance of this will." On the 3rd, the report was that 
 the Governor- General was growing weaker and weaker ; and 
 on the 5th of October it was announced that, at a quarter past 
 seven on the evening of that day, " our most revered friend 
 quitted the world without pain or struggle." He seemed to 
 have died from absolute exhaustion. 
 
 And so passed away one of the best and most blameless men 
 that have ever devoted their lives to the service of their 
 country. He was not inspired by any lofty genius, but in no 
 man, perhaps, in the great muster-roll of English Heroes, can 
 it truly be said that there were more serviceable qualities, 
 more sterling integrity, and a more abiding sense of Public 
 Duty. For Dutyhe_Jiv^d_and^he died. I do not know in 
 the whole range of our history a more reliable man a man 
 who in his time was more trusted for the safe performance of 
 duties of a very varied character. But, as I have said at the 
 outset of this sketch, I have selected his life for illustration 
 because no man did more to purify the public services of 
 India, and to make the writing of such a book as this a privi- 
 lege and a pleasure to the biographer.
 
 129 
 
 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 [BORN 1769. DIED 1833.] 
 
 A SHORT hour's walk from the thriving little town of 1769. 
 Langholm, in Dumfries-shire, there lived and toiled an in- Birth and 
 dustrious farmer, named George Malcolm, who cultivated an parentage. 
 estate > kno\vn as " Burnfoot," and lived there, on the beautiful 
 banks of the Esk, surrounded by a fine family of children at 
 that time far from complete. He was a man of more than 
 common enlightenment for his station, for he had been trained 
 for the Church, and, better still, of sterling integrity of cha- 
 racter. His wife, too^-a member of the Pasley family was 
 a woman excellent in all domestic relations, and of intelligence 
 of a high order. As they dwelt together there, at Burnfoot, 
 on the 2nd of May, 1769,, a fourth son was born unto them, 
 who in due course was christened" John, It happened that on 
 the very day before there came into the world one who was 
 afterwards one of John Malcolm's closest friends, and the 
 greatest man of the age in which he lived Arthur Wesley, or 
 Wellesley, known to A later generation as the Duke of Wel- 
 lingtonthe " Great Duke."* 
 
 I have no passion for the discovery of juvenile phenomena, 
 I do not know that John Malcolm differed much from other 
 healthy, yobust, intelligent boys, such as swarm in all parts of 
 our country. He was very good at " paddling in the burn," 
 from which the name of the paternal estate was derived. Per- 
 haps he was rather prone towards mischief, and not as in- 
 dustrious as could have been wished. He was rather given to 
 the bad habit of putting off the learning of his lessons until he 
 was fairly on the start for the parish school, when he trudged 
 
 * Napoleon the First was born in the same year. 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 SIB JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1780. up the hill book in hand, and eye intent on the page. The 
 
 tion. y C schoolmaster used to say, when any wild pranks of mysterious 
 
 origin had been committed, " Jock's at the bottom of it." 
 
 There was not always good evidential proofs of this, but 
 
 worthy Archibald Graham had ever a strong conviction of the 
 
 fact, and solemnly enunciated his belief that Jack, who was 
 
 indeed the scapegrace, perhaps the scapegoat, of the family, 
 
 was profoundly " at the bottom of it " deep in amidst the 
 
 mud, not of the transparent Esk, but of some slough ima- 
 
 \ gined by the worthy preceptor of Westerkirk.* 
 
 It is not forbidden to us to believe that Promotion cometh 
 from the North. In those days an astonishing amount of 
 patronage fell upon the striving inhabitants of Scotland and 
 the Border. It may seem strange that a yeoman of Dumfries- 
 shire should have the power of providing, in all the finest 
 services open to the nation, one after another, for a number of 
 brave, clever Eskdale boys. But so it was. Robert, the 
 eldest, had permission from the East India Company to go 
 \ out to shake the pagoda-tree, as a member of their Civil 
 Service. James, the second son (afterwards Sir James), re- 
 ceived a commission in the Marines. For the third son, 
 Pulteny (afterwards Admiral Sir Pulteny), a midshipman's 
 berth was provided. And John, as soon as he was old enough, 
 was set down for the Company's military service. He was 
 only eleven years old when his father received, through the 
 Johnstones of Alva, an offer of an appointment in the Indian 
 Army ; but John was then too young to go abroad. Soon 
 afterwards, however, his uncle, John Pasley, a thriving 
 merchant, carried him up to London, and was anxious, above 
 all things, to qualify him to " pass at the India House." But 
 "*\ the good uncle, in November, 1781, wrote that, although tall 
 of his age, Johnny would certainly not pass. In this he was 
 altogether wrong. The experiment was made. John Malcolm 
 went up, nothing daunted, before an august assemblage of 
 Directors. They were pleased by his juvenile appearance and 
 his good looks, and one of them said, " My little man, what 
 would you do if you were to meet Hyder Ali ?" " Do !" said 
 
 * Mr. Graham lived to see his old of the "History of Persia," with "Jock's 
 
 pupil recognised hy the world both as a at the bottom of it " written on the 
 
 man of thought and a man of action, title-page. 
 Malcolm is said to have sent him a copy
 
 EARLY EXPERIENCES. 131 
 
 the boyish aspirant ; " why, sir, I would out with my sword 1783. 
 and cut off his head." Upon which evidence of spirit and 
 determination they declared that he " would do," and forth- 
 with passed him as a cadet. It was not necessary that he 
 should sail immediately ; so his good uncle put him to school 
 again in the neighbourhood of London ; and not until the 
 month of April, 1783, did the ship which conveyed him to 
 India anchor in the Madras Roads.* The family connexions, 
 who received him on his arrival, wrote to Burnfoot that Jack 
 had grown a head and shoulders on the voyage, and was 
 one of the finest and best-tempered lads ever seen in the 
 world. 
 
 When John Malcolm arrived in India, the French and First years in 
 English were contesting the possession of Southern India. 
 John went with his friends to Vellore to do garrison duty 
 there, as he was considered too young to take the field. Peace, 
 however, having been declared in the West, the English and 
 French left off fighting in the East ; and so the former had 
 nothing to do but to carry on, without any distractions, the 
 war against the great Mahomedan usurpers of Mysore. Hyder 
 Ali had died without the aid of Johnny Malcolm's sword, and 
 Tippoo raged in his stead. After a while, however (1784), a 
 treaty of peace was signed, and an exchange of prisoners was 
 decreed. This interchange sent young John Malcolm on his 
 first detached service. The English prisoners were to be 
 brought to our frontier, and there received by a detachment of 
 British troops. John Malcolm was appointed to command this 
 detachment, which was to meet Major (afterwards Sir Thomas) 
 Dallas, who was to convey them safely beyond the territory of 
 Mysore. When Dallas met the detachment coming from the 
 Company's territories, he saw a slight, rosy, healthy-looking 
 English boy astride on a rough pony, and asked him for his 
 commanding officer. " I am the commanding officer," said 
 John Malcolm, drawing himself up on his saddle. Dallas 
 smiled ; but the friendship which then commenced between the 
 two lasted until it was severed by the death of the elder man. 
 
 John Malcolm went out so very young to India he was a 
 
 * In the following year (1784), fifteen vice, by Act of Parliament Pitt's 
 was fixed as the minimum age for en- India Bill, 
 trance into the Company's Military Ser- 
 
 K2
 
 132 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 178490. commissioned officer and his own master at an age when, in 
 England, boys were commonly subjected to the discipline of 
 the flogging-block that if he did not at first make use of his 
 liberty and his pseudo-manhood in the most virtuous and 
 forbearing manner, there is nothing very surprising in the 
 failure. He was assailed by many temptations, and, being of 
 a frank, open, unsuspecting nature, he went astray before he 
 knew whither he was tending. He was generous, open- 
 hearted, and open-handed. ^He got into debt, and suffered for 
 it. He did not, as some are wont to do in such an extremity ; 
 he did not wipe out old obligations by incurring new. But he 
 set to work right manfully to extricate himself. He stinted 
 and starved; and it is recorded of him that an old native 
 woman in the regimental bazaar, taking compassion upon his 
 youth, implored him to receive supplies from her, to be paid 
 for at his convenience. For this act of kindness and humanity 
 he was ever grateful ; and it did not merely take the shape of 
 words, for, in after days, he settled a pension on her for the 
 rest of her life. 
 
 Soon better days began to dawn upon him. He was con- 
 trite, and confessed his errors ; and he wrote home that he 
 was afraid his parents would think that all their good advice 
 had been quite thrown away upon him. " I must own, to my 
 shame," he said, " that you had too much reason to think so. 
 All that I now expect is, that my friends will forget the past 
 part of my conduct." And from that time (1788) he never 
 relapsed, but went forward steadily to the great goal of 
 honourable success. 
 
 The war A life of active service was now before him. The peace was 
 
 with Tippoo. a t an end. Tippoo had broken it by ravaging the country of 
 our ally, the Eajah of Travancore, and Lord Cornwallis had 
 taken the field against him. Of the events of the two cam- 
 paigns which followed I have spoken in the preceding Memoir. 
 The regiment to which John Malcolm was attached was ordered 
 to co-operate with the troops of the Nizam. On this service 
 he was exposed to great hardships, and first learnt the 
 realities of Indian war. There was little resistance, however, 
 to the progress of our troops until they came to Copoulee. 
 There he saw how a strong Indian fortress may resist for 
 months the fire of European artillery. For six months
 
 HIS EARLY STUDIES. 133 
 
 Copoulee held out, and then the garrison surrendered under 179091. 
 the moral influence engendered by the fall of Bangalore to 
 Cornwallis's army. Not long afterwards, Malcolm's regiment 
 joined the main army of the Nizam, which was pushing 
 forward to co-operate with the British troops then marching 
 on Seringapatam. In the Nizam's camp he made the ac- 
 quaintance of two of the foremost of our political or diplomatic 
 officers Sir John Kennaway and Mr. Graeme Mercer.* A 
 new ambition then stirred within him. He asked himself 
 whether he also might not detach himself from the formalities 
 of regimental life, become a diplomatist, and negotiate great 
 treaties with the Native powers. 
 
 He was now a man full-grown, tall and handsome, and of Preparing for 
 such a cheerful address, that he carried sunshine with him w ' 
 whithersoever he went. He was remarkably active and fond * 
 of sport, and so playful, that he went by the name of " Boy' 
 Malcolm," and retained it long after he was well advanced in 
 years, and had attained high office in the State. But he had 
 begun seriously to consider that it was his duty to earn a 
 reputation as something more than a crack shot and a noted 
 gymnast. The first step towards this was the study of the 
 native languages ; and Mr. Graeme Mercer, taking a fancy for 
 the youth, encouraged his desire to learn Persian, and gave 
 him the use of his own Moonshee. Of the opportunity thus 
 afforded him he made good use. Nor was the study of the 
 languages the only improving pursuit to which he devoted / 
 himself. He applied himself to the investigation of Indian 
 history, and endeavoured to master the principles by the ob- 
 servance of which our great Indian Empire had been founded, 
 and on which alone it could be maintained. In the prosecution/ 
 of this, he began diligently to record upon paper the results of 
 his inquiries and the substance of his reflections, and from that 
 time to the end of his days he was ever a great writer. In the 
 
 * As the terms " Political Officer " who have governed Native States ; but 
 and " Political Department " will be sometimes their functions are of an ad- 
 found of frequent occurrence in these ministrative as well as of a diplomatic 
 Memoirs, it may be advisable to explain character ; and, in attendance upon 
 that in the phraseology of the Anglo- an army in the field, they conduct ne- 
 Indian Government "political" means gotiations, advise, and sometimes con- 
 diplomatic, and something more. The trol the military authorities, superintend 
 duties of a political officer are mainly in the Intelligence Department, and often 
 connexion with the Native States of collect the supplies. 
 India, or with the princes and chiefs
 
 134 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1791. entries, scattered over a large collection of manuscript books, 
 may be seen at how early a period he formed, and how con- 
 sistently he clung to, the opinions of that best school of Indian 
 statesmanship of which he lived to be one of the greatest 
 teachers. He was only a subaltern in a Sepoy regiment when 
 he wrote : " An invariable rule ought to be observed by all 
 Europeans who have connexions with the natives of India 
 never to practise any art or indirect method of gaining their 
 end, and, from the greatest occasion to the most trifling, to 
 keep sacred their word. This is not only their best but their 
 wisest policy. By this conduct they will observe a constant 
 superiority in all their transactions; but when they act a 
 different part when they condescend to meet the smooth- 
 tongued Mahomedan or the crafty Hindoo with the weapons 
 of flattery, dissimulation, and cunning, they will of a certainty 
 be vanquished." 
 
 I have said that it was John Malcolm's great ambition to 
 obtain an appointment in the Political Department. After 
 a while, he thought that he saw an opening. A subordinate 
 post was vacant ; he applied for it, and was just half an hour 
 too late. It had been bestowed upon another young officer. 
 His disappointment and vexation were great. He went back 
 to his tent, flung himself down on his couch, and gave way to 
 a flood of tears. But he lived, as many a man before and 
 since has lived, to see in his first crushing miscarriage the 
 crowning mercy of his life. The officer who carried off the 
 prize so coveted by John Malcolm, went straight to his death. 
 On his first appearance at the Native Court, at which he was 
 appointed an assistant to the Resident, he was murdered. 
 This made a deep impression at the time on Malcolm's mind, 
 and was ever afterwards gratefully remembered. He often 
 spoke of it in later days, as an illustration of the little that 
 man knows of what is really for his good, and he taught 
 others, as he himself had learnt, never to repine^ at the acci- 
 dents and mischances of life, but to see in all the hand of an 
 all-merciful Providence working benignly for our good. 
 1792. In God's time, however, that which he sought came ; and 
 
 First staff John Malcolm received his first appointment. " I served." he 
 
 appointment, . . , 
 
 wrote many years afterwards, " as a regimental officer, with 
 European and Native corps (without ever having one week's
 
 ENGLAND REVISITED. 135 
 
 leave of absence), for nine years. In 1792, when at Seringa- 1792. 
 patam, I was appointed Persian interpreter to the detachment 
 serving with the Nizam, by the Marquis Cornwallis, on the 
 express ground of being the officer with that corps best qualified 
 for the station." His foot was now on the ladder of promo- 
 tion ; but, for a while, his upward progress was checked by 
 the failure of his health. Continued exposure to the climate 
 had done its sure work upon him ; and he was compelled to 
 return to England. He did not like it ; but his friends per- 
 suaded him to take the advice of his physicians, and he con- 
 sented, with less reluctance, perhaps, than he would otherwise 
 have felt, because Sir John Kemiaway, his friend and patron 
 in the political service, was going home also, and proposed to 
 take young Malcolm with him. 
 
 It was great joy to him, and great joy to others, when John 1794. 
 Malcolm reappeared in Eskdale, a^fine, handsome young man, Visit to 
 reinvigorated by thevpyage, with an unfailing supply of animal 
 spirits, and an inexEaustible budget of amusing and instructive 
 talk. Great days were those at Burnfoot, when John sat by 
 the fire and told to the admiring family circle pleasant stories 
 of all that he had seen and heard in the Far East. But, having 
 a career before him, he was not one to protract his stay in 
 England a day longer than was perfectly necessary for the 
 restoration of his health, so he returned to India, and under 
 happy auspices, for he went out as aide-de-camp to General 
 (afterwards Sir Alured) Clarke, who had been appointed Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the Madras Army. On his way out they 
 stopped at the Cape of Good Hope; found the English and 
 Dutch at open war ; and were present at the operations which 
 ended in the transfer of the settlement to the English, by 
 whom, save for a short interval, it has ever since been re- 
 tained. 
 
 When, in the cold weather of 1795-96, John Malcolm again 179596. 
 found himself at Madras, he was still a subaltern ; but he was Return to 
 on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief. " I am well," he India ' 
 wrote to his mother, " and situated in every respect as I could 
 wish. I am secretary to General Clarke, who is, without ex- 
 ception, one of the best men I ever knew. The employment 
 is of that nature as to leave me hardly one idle moment all 
 the better you will say, and all the better / say." But this
 
 136 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 179596. did not last long. General Clarke was transferred to the chief 
 command of the army in Bengal, and there were circum- 
 stances which prevented him from appointing John Malcolm 
 to the military secretaryship in that Presidency. But though 
 his old master was gone, the office which he had held was not 
 lost to him also, for Sir Alured Clarke's successor invited 
 Malcolm to remain as his Secretary and Interpreter. The 
 Colonel Harris of the preceding Memoir, who had served on 
 the Staff of General Medows, was now General Harris, Com- 
 mander-in-Chief and temporarily Governor of Madras ;* and 
 he was glad to receive Malcolm into his house, and to wel- 
 come him as a member of his family. 
 
 In this situation John Malcolm was sufficiently happy ; 
 but the personal staff of a Commander-in- Chief, or even of a 
 Governor, or Governor- General, afforded no great scope for 
 the development of his powers, and he still longed for employ- 
 ment in the diplomatic line of the service. His next advance- 
 ment, however, was in the military direction, for he was ap- 
 pointed Town-Major of Madras in those days, an honourable 
 and a lucrative office. But his hopes were about speedily to 
 be realised, in a manner wholly unexpected. Lord Wellesley 
 then Lord Mornington went out to India as Governor- 
 General, and, on his way to Calcutta, touched at Madras. 
 There he made the acquaintance of John Malcolm, by that 
 time a captain in the army, who sent his Lordship some reports 
 which he had drawn up, on our relations with the native states 
 of India, especially the state of Hyderabad in the Deccan. The 
 result was, that soon after his arrival in Bengal, the Governor- 
 General offered him an appointment as assistant to the Resident 
 at the Nizam's Court ; so, without loss of time, Captain Mal- 
 colm proceeded to the chief city of the Deccan, and was soon 
 in the thick of an exciting political contest. 
 
 Political em- At the Court of Hyderabad the French had for some time 
 been making effectual progress. French officers had disciplined, 
 and now commanded, several battalions of the Nizam's troops. 
 
 * Colonel Harris had gone home with William, but lost his command on pro- 
 Sir William Medows at the end of the motion to the rank of Major- General, 
 first Mysore war, but had returned to He was about to return home, when he 
 India at the end of 1794 to rejoin his received an intimation that he had 
 regiment in Calcutta. Soon afterwards been appointed Commander-in-Chief at 
 he was appointed commandant of Fort Madras.
 
 THE FRENCH CORPS AT HYDERABAD. 137 
 
 " Assignments of territory," it has been said, " had been made 1798. 
 for their payment. Foundries were established under com- 
 petent European superintendence. Guns were cast. Muskets 
 were manufactured. Admirably disciplined and equipped, Ray- 
 mond's levies went out to battle with the colours of revolu- . 
 tionary France floating above them, and the Cap of Liberty / 
 engraved on their buttons." Such a state of things could not 
 be suffered to endure, on the eve of a great war with Tippoo ; 
 so Lord Wellesley determined to make a bold stroke for the 
 destruction of the French force at Hyderabad. The consent of 
 the Nizam was obtained ; but it was still necessary to do it by 
 a coup d'etat, for which the British must be responsible. There 
 was a considerable body of British troops at no great distance 
 from the Residency, and with these Kirkpatrick, the Resident, 
 and his assistant, Malcolm, determined to accomplish their 
 object. Fortunately, it happened that at the critical moment 
 the troops were mutinying against their officers, because they 
 were in arrears of pay, and had made a prisoner of their 
 French commandant. Malcolm was sent down to allay the 
 tumult ; but the crowd would not listen to him. They said 
 that they would treat him as they had treated their own 
 officers. And they Avere about to lay violent hands upon him, 
 when some Sepoys of the French battalion, who had formerly 
 been in the Company's Army, and served in John Malcolm's 
 regiment, recognised him, and remembering many old kind- 
 nesses done to them by their English officer, went at once to 
 the rescue. ' They lifted him up above the crowd, and bore 
 him on their heads to a place of safety, out of the reach of 
 the exasperated mob of mutinous Sepoys. 
 
 How the French corps was afterwards dispersed, without 
 the shedding of a drop of blood, is a matter of history, on 
 which, however interesting, I cannot afford to enlarge. It 
 was Malcolm's first great lesson in the stirring business of that 
 " political department," whose concerns often savour more of 
 war than of diplomacy, and are more peril-laden than the 
 fiercest conflicts in the field. But the Governor- General had 
 summoned him to Calcutta ; and, the French corps dispersed, 
 he set out with all possible speed to join the Vice-Regal Court 
 in the great City of Palaces. He carried with him, as a 
 palpable embodiment of success, the colours of the annihilated
 
 138 
 
 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 179899. 
 
 The Mysore 
 war. 
 
 French battalions. At the capital, he was warmly welcomed. 
 The Governor- General no mean judge of character saw at 
 once that he was a man to be trusted and to be employed. In 
 truth, this meeting with Lord Wellesley was the turning- 
 point of John Malcolm's career. From that day his future 
 was made. He found in the Governor- General a statesman 
 after his own heart ; and Lord Wellesley listened attentively 
 to all that was said by the political assistant, because he found 
 in John Malcolm's ready words fit and forcible expression of 
 the opinions which were taking shape in his mind. 
 
 Eager for action, the young Go vernor- General, on his first 
 arrival in India, had contemplated the immediate renewal of 
 the war with Tippoo, and had directed the authorities of 
 Madras at once to commence hostilities. Mr. Webbe, whom 
 the Duke of Wellington afterwards described as one of the ablest 
 and honestest men he ever knew, was Chief Secretary. He knew 
 what were the resources of the Government better than any 
 man in the country ; he knew that there was an empty trea- 
 sury and an army on a peace establishment ; and he was so 
 startled by the announcement that the Go vernor- General pur- 
 posed at once to plunge into war with so powerful an enemy 
 as Tippoo, that he declared he could see nothing in the pros- 
 pect but the most shocking disasters to our arms and the 
 impeachment of Lord Mornington for his temerity. General 
 Harris, with the true instinct of the soldier, prepared at once 
 to obey orders, and said that he would use his own funds for 
 the purpose, to the last rupee, if there was no money in the 
 Treasury. But he strongly protested against the immediate 
 commencement of hostilities, as something hazardous in the 
 extreme ; and the Go vernor- General had consented to pause. 
 There was then a season of active preparation ; and when 
 Malcolm reached Calcutta, he learnt that there was no thought 
 of further delay. The disarming of the French corps at 
 Hyderabad had removed not the least of our difficulties, for 
 there was hope now of effective assistance from the Nizam. 
 The want of money had been a grievous stumbling-block ; 
 but what the public treasury could not supply, private pa- 
 triotism and liberality readily advanced. The Governor- 
 General set the example by subscribing a lakh and twenty 
 thousand rupees towards a new loan an example which was
 
 PREPARATIONS YOU WAR. 139 
 
 nobly followed by a large number of European and native 179809. 
 money-holders ; and so, from private sources, within a short 
 time, a considerable sum was raised to defray the expenses of 
 the war. Thus treasure was found. Stores of all kinds had 
 been collected ; carriage had been drawn from every part of 
 the country ; and the scattered components of the Coast Army 
 gathered into one effective whole, well organised, well equipped, 
 and well commanded. 
 
 The time had now come when the personal presence of the 
 Govern or- General at Madras was needed, either to negotiate 
 peace or to expedite war ; so at the end of the year, Lord 
 Mornington, accompanied by Malcolm and others, sailed for 
 Madras to meet the new Governor, Lord Olive, and to take 
 counsel with him and the Commander-in- Chief. He found 
 those two authorities acting zealously and harmoniously to- 
 gether. He had great confidence in Harris, and he at once 
 offered him the command of the expedition. But, with rare 
 modesty, the General mistrusting his own powers, suggested 
 the expediency of placing the chief conduct of operations in 
 the more experienced hands of Sir Alured Clarke. The 
 Governor-General recommended him not hastily to decline 
 a command which might lead him to fame and fortune, 
 but to take a night to consider well, and to weigh against 
 each other, all the consequences of the acceptance or re- 
 jection of such an offer, and to announce his decision on the 
 morrow. On the following morning, when he went in to 
 Lord Mornington, the cheerfulness of his countenance ren- 
 dered words unnecessary, and, before he had spoken, the 
 Governor-General had congratulated Harris on his decision, 
 and commended his wisdom in accepting the command.* 
 
 For Malcolm himself, employment had been marked out, 
 and of a kind to demand all his energies. He was ap- 
 pointed to accompany the Hyderabad troops, which, in ac- 
 cordance with our engagements with the Nizam, were to co- 
 operate with the British Army in the invasion of Mysore and 
 the assault of Seringapatam. In effect, this political superin- 
 tendence was little less than the military command of the 
 Nizam's force, and he hastened to join the Head-quarters of 
 the Allies, assured that there was stirring work before them. 
 
 * Lushington's Life of Harris.
 
 140 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1799. It was no easy matter to enforce discipline among a body of 
 Sepoys, large numbers of whom had belonged to the old 
 French corps ; so Malcolm was not surprised that one of his 
 first duties was to quell a dangerous mutiny that threatened 
 to turn the Nizam's army into a vast rabble. He accom- 
 plished this hazardous work with a mixture of courage and 
 address, which won the admiration of the Nizam's com- 
 mander, Meer Allum, and of another far greater man. The 
 British subsidiary force, which had marched at the same time 
 from Hyderabad, had consisted wholly of Company's Sepoys. 
 But afterwards it was considered advisable to attach an 
 European regiment to this force, and his Majesty's 33rd 
 Regiment, then stationed at Vellore, was selected for this 
 duty. The regiment was commanded by Colonel the Ho- 
 nourable Arthur Wellesley, brother of the Governor- General, A 
 who took command of the whole force ; and the friendship y 
 which then commenced between Colonel Wellesley and Cap- ( 
 tain Malcolm endured, without intermission, until, nearly 
 thirty-five years afterwards, the Duke of Wellington mourned, 
 with all the tenderness of his heart, the death of his old com- 
 rade, General Sir John Malcolm. 
 
 The Head-quarters of the Army were fixed at Vellore ; and 
 on the 29th of January, General Harris assumed command. 
 The season was far advanced for the commencement of such 
 an expedition, and he could not contemplate the work be- 
 fore him without some gloomy forebodings. The disastrous 
 retreat of the army under Lord Cornwallis some eight years 
 before a calamity of which the General had been a witness 
 and a partaker recurred forcibly to his recollection ; the 
 evil consequences of a scarcity of carriage and provisions in 
 the enemy's country were ever present to his mind ; and he 
 steadfastly resolved that nothing should draw him aside from 
 the main object of his expedition nothing induce him to 
 waste his time and his resources on the march to Seringapa- 
 tam. It was his fixed resolve to march straight upon the 
 capital, never pausing, unless compelled by the positive oppo- 
 sition of Tippoo's army intercepting his line of march, to 
 strike a single blow by the way. To this resolution he steadily 
 adhered. The army commenced its march. It was a splendid 
 force. "The army of the Carnatic," wrote Lord Mornington
 
 ADVANCE OF THE ARMY. 141 
 
 to General Harris, " is unquestionably the best appointed, the 1799. 
 most completely equipped, the most amply and liberally sup- 
 plied, the most perfect in point of discipline, and the most 
 fortunate in the acknowledged experience and abilities of its 
 officers in every department, which ever took the field in 
 India." On the 6th of March this fine army, accompanied by 
 the Nizam's contingent, which Malcolm had hurried forward 
 with surprising rapidity, had crossed the frontier of Tippoo's 
 dominions, and on the following morning it commenced its 
 march upon Seringapatam. 
 
 On the 4th of April, the British Army were encamped in 
 sight of the celebrated stronghold of Tippoo Sultan. The 
 march had been a difficult and a distressing one. The cattle 
 attached to the army of the Carnatic had died off by scores. 
 The loss of carriage had necessarily been attended by a con- 
 siderable loss of commissariat and ordnance stores ; and there 
 being no possibility, in the heart of the enemy's country, of 
 obtaining fresh cattle to supply the place of those which had 
 fallen dead by the wayside, it was at one time feared that 
 the European soldiers would be necessitated to take the place 
 of the draft bullocks, and drag the heavy ordnance along the 
 remainder of the way to Seringapatam. Fortunately, how- 
 ever, Tippoo in the first instance had come to the determina- 
 tion of attacking the auxiliary force advancing from the 
 Bombay side ; and it was not until the '27th of March that 
 the grand army under General Harris was engaged with the 
 enemy. - This engagement took "place at Malavelly, whither 
 Tippoo had despatched a force to intercept the progress of the 
 British, and was the precursor of a career of victory. Tippoo's 
 troops, after much hard fighting, and a fine display of British 
 generalship, were dispersed ; but the British force was not in 
 a condition to follow up the success, by a pursuit of the 
 enemy, whose loss in the affair is, however, estimated at two 
 thousand. On the following day, General Harris steadily 
 continued his march towards the banks of the Cavery, and 
 halted at Angarapooram. Here he came to the resolution of 
 abandoning the direct road, and crossing the river near Soo- 
 silly, so as to attack the western front of Seringapatam, and 
 at the same time facilitate the junction with the Bombay 
 troops. This masterly project was put into execution, and
 
 142 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1799. crowned with complete success. Whilst Tippoo was looking 
 for the advance of the British along the direct road to Se- 
 ringapatam which had been taken by Lord Cornwallis, the 
 British troops were crossing the Cavery and encamping near 
 the fort of Soosilly. When the Sultan discovered that he 
 had been so completely out-generaled, he was filled with 
 alarm and despair. Summoning his principal officers, he ex- 
 claimed, " We have arrived at our last stage what now are 
 we to do ? What is your determination ?" They all replied 
 that they would die with him. 
 
 It would be difficult to over-estimate the delight and grati- 
 tude of General Harris on finding himself, with his fine army 
 and splendid battering train, under the walls of Seringapatam. 
 The march had been long and hazardous ; the impedimenta 
 of the expedition far more cumbrous than any that had ever 
 accompanied an Anglo-Indian Army in the field. An unto- 
 ward check might at any hour have baffled all the plans of the 
 British Government, and sent back this immense army to the 
 point from which it started, after enduring all the misery of a 
 long, disastrous, and discreditable retreat. It was necessary 
 that the force should reach Seringapatam within a certain 
 time ; an obstruction of a few weeks would have rendered it 
 impossible for any human combination of energy and skill to 
 bring the war to a successful termination. Had the march of 
 General Harris been lengthened out until the setting in of the 
 monsoon, he must have retired, re infectd, across the confines 
 of the Company's dominions. But now the proud heights of 
 that renowned fortress, from which Tippoo had so long snorted 
 defiance at the British Government, rose up before the eyes 
 of the delighted commander. There was great work for him 
 to do, and, under Providence, he felt equal to its accomplish- 
 ment. 
 
 On the 4th of May all was ready for the assault. The 
 storming party had been told off, and the hour fixed for their 
 advance had nearly arrived, when Malcolm entered the tent 
 of the Commander-in- Chief. The General was sitting alone, 
 very gravely pondering the important work before him and 
 the great interests at stake. " Why, my Lord, so thought- 
 ful?" cried Malcolm, congratulating him, by anticipation, on 
 the peerage within his reach. The lightness of his tone was not
 
 FALL OF SERINGAPATAM. 143 
 
 pleasing to the overburdened General, who answered sternly, 1799. 
 " Malcolm, this is no time for compliments. We have serious 
 work in hand ; don't you see that the European sentry over 
 my tent is so weak from want of food and exhaustion, that a 
 Sepoy could push him down ? We must take this fort, or 
 perish in the attempt. I have ordered General Baird to per- 
 severe in his attack to the last extremity. If he Is beaten off, 
 Wellesley is to proceed with the troops from the trenches. If 
 he should not succeed, I shall put myself at the head of the 
 remainder of the army; for success is necessary to our ex- 
 istence."* 
 
 Malcolm never doubted for a moment that the issue of that Conquest of 
 day's, conflict would be . a crowning victory to our British ^ sore> 
 Army. But the result was even greater than he anticipated. 
 Seringapatam was carried by assault ; Mysore lay prostrate at 
 the feet of the Allies ; and all that was left of Tippoo Sultaun 
 was found in a gateway among a heap of slain. It was but 
 the simple language of truth which Malcolm employed when 
 he wrote to Lord Hobart, saying : "On the 4th of May all 
 our labours were crowned by the completest victory that ever 
 crowned the British annals in India. A state that had been 
 the rival of the Company for nearly thirty years was on that 
 day wholly annihilated." The great Mahomedan usurpation 
 of Southern India had thus suddenly collapsed in a day ; and 
 the country governed by the usurper became by right of con- 
 quest the property of the Allies. It might then have been 
 divided between the British Government and the Nizam ; but 
 the Govern or- General, then only in his novitiate, and not un- 
 mindful, perhaps, in that early stage of his career, of the 
 prohibitory clauses in the Act of 1793, by which the Parlia- 
 ment of Great Britain vainly endeavoured to stem the tide 
 of Indian conquest, shrank from so great an extension of 
 empire as the appropriation of the whole of the conquered 
 country by the Allies would have entailed upon the British 
 Government. Perhaps, too, there may have been, as the 
 very natural growth of the violence of the French Revolution, 
 some sentiments, in English breasts, in favour of legitimacy, 
 and that the hard fate of the wretched Bourbons of Mysore 
 
 * Lushington's Life of Lord Harris, was narrated to him by Sir John Mai- 
 Mr. Lushington says that this story colm in 1813.
 
 144 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1799. might have excited the sympathies of our English statesmen 
 in India. But whether it were mere policy, or whether there 
 were blended with it any sense of justice, or any feeling of 
 compassion, it was decreed that a large portion of the con- 
 quered country should be erected into a new Hindoo princi- 
 pality, under the government of a descendant of the old 
 Rajahs of Mysore. A descendant was found a mere child ; 
 and his legitimacy was acknowledged. So the British took a 
 slice of the conquered country ; the Nizam took another slice ; 
 and each Government surrendered a great part of its share of 
 the territorial spoil to establish the new Hindoo kingdom of 
 Mysore. On a given day, Colonel Kirkpatrick, as the repre- 
 sentative of the British Government, and Meer Allum, as the 
 representative of the Nizam, each taking one hand of the boy- 
 prince, placed him upon the guddee ; and, as I write, the aged 
 Maharajah is the only actor in that scene who now survives. 
 
 The arrangement thus briefly described was wrought into 
 enduring shape by a Commission, of which John Malcolm was 
 one of the secretaries. His associate was Thomas Munro, 
 who rose afterwards to the highest seat in the Government of 
 Madras, and for whom Malcolm ever entertained both the 
 warmest affection and the highest respect.* The members of 
 the Commission were General Harris, the two brothers of the 
 Governor-General, Arthur and Henry "Wellesley, Colonel 
 Kirkpatrick, and Colonel Barry Close. The Commission was 
 in work only for a single month, in continual communication 
 with the Governor- General, who tarried at Madras ; but in 
 that space two treaties were negotiated, which placed the 
 division of the conquered country, and the provision to be 
 made for Tippoo's family, upon a footing so permanent, that 
 up to the present time the results of that May-day fighting 
 have never ceased to be an ever-recurring source of trouble 
 and perplexity to the Governments of India at home and 
 abroad. There are no documents to which more frequent 
 references are made than to the Partition and Subsidiary trea- 
 ties of Mysore. 
 
 * Sir Thomas Munro was so empha- Iain-General had not so entirely ex- 
 
 tically a " representative man," that I hausted the subject so pleasantly and 
 
 should have included him in this series so instructively as to leave me nothing 
 
 of biographies, if my friend the Chap- new to say about his hero.
 
 THE FIRST PERSIAN MISSION. 145 
 
 When the Subsidiary Treaty had been concluded, the Com- 1799. 
 mission was dissolved. Malcolm had done his duty so well 
 indeed, he had altogether so strongly recommended himself, by 
 his good service, to the Governor- General that Lord Morn- 
 ington, when the work of the Commission was complete, 
 offered him far higher employment. He selected him to pro- 
 ceed on a mission to the Persian Court. In those days, we 
 knew little or nothing of that country. But Zemaun Shah, 
 the Kuler of Afghanistan, had been suspected of intriguing 
 with Tippoo and with the deposed Prince of Oude,* and we 
 had visions of the French disporting in the background. The 
 anti-Gallican tendencies of Lord Wellesley and of Captain 
 Malcolm were equally strong, and the latter rejoiced all the 
 more in the honourable appointment that had been offered to 
 him, because there was a grand opportunity before him of 
 check-mating France in the regions of Central Asia, f 
 
 At the end of the year 1799, Captain John Malcolm, being 1799 isoo. 
 then in his thirty-first year, sailed from Bombay to the Per- First mission - 
 sian Gulf. After visiting Muscat, he steered for Bushire, 
 whore he landed, and made his preparations to advance into 
 the interior of the country. This, however, was not very 
 easily accomplished, for he was continually being arrested by 
 absurd formalities, at which he laughed with the utmost pos- 
 sible good humour; but, at the same time, maintained the 
 dignity of the great nation which he represented, by demand- 
 ing from the Persian Government all the respect which he 
 yielded on the part of his own. But he did not wrap himself 
 up in his diplomacy. He was ever an enthusiast in the acqui- 
 sition of knowledge ; and he lost no possible opportunity of 
 adding to his stores. From Shiraz, he wrote to his friend 
 Mr. Edmonstone, then Persian Secretary to Government, 
 who was making rapid strides towards the attainment of the 
 eminent position which he so long held in the Councils of 
 India : " I employ every leisure hour in researches into the 
 history of this extraordinary country, with which we are but 
 
 * Vizier Ali. his Persian provinces ; to counteract the 
 
 f Malcolm described the object of the possible attempts of those villanous but 
 
 mission in these words : " To relieve active democrats the French ; to restore 
 
 India from the annual alarm of Zemaun to some part of its former prosperity a 
 
 Shah's invasion, which is always at- trade which has been in a great degree 
 
 tended with serious expense to the Com- lost are the leading objects of my 
 
 pany, by occasioning a diversion upon journey." 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1800. little acquainted. Of the little information we have received 
 respecting its ancient history from the Greeks, you will form 
 an idea when I assure you that, with the exception of 
 Alexander's conquests, which are related by the authors of 
 both countries (though in a very different manner), there is 
 no fact recorded by the Greeks of which Persian histories 
 make the least mention, nor is there one name that the 
 Greeks have given to either the Persian Generals or Towns 
 that can be understood by any Persian. Indeed, there are 
 many so foreign to the idiom of the language, that he cannot 
 pronounce them when repeated. I shall, I trust, collect 
 materials that will either enable myself, or some one better 
 qualified, to give much information on this subject. The 
 climate of this country is delightful. Had it the constitution 
 of Great Britain, its inhabitants need not sigh for Paradise. 
 As it i$, I would rather live on Douglan Hill." From Ispahan, 
 he again wrote, on the 9th of October, to the same corre- 
 spondent, that the mission was prospering. " All goes on 
 swimmingly," he said. " Attention increases as I advance. 
 The entertainment given me yesterday by the Begler Bey ex- 
 ceeds all I have yet seen. The illuminations and fireworks 
 were very grand ; and, to crown all, when we were seated in 
 an elegant apartment, one side of it, which was chiefly formed 
 of mirrors, opened, and a supper laid out in the English style, 
 with tables and chairs, presented itself to our utter astonish- 
 ment, for we little expected such apparatus in the middle of 
 Persia. The difficulty of feasting us in our own style made 
 the compliment the greater." 
 
 Treaty- O n ^ ne 16th of November Malcolm was presented to the Shah 
 
 negotiations. a t Teheran. Some days afterwards he laid before his Majesty the 
 magnificent presents with which he was charged. But he was 
 in no hurry to enter upon the political business of his mission. 
 He exhibited his diplomacy by leading on the Persian Ministers 
 to make their proposals for the establishment of treaty-negotia- 
 tions between the two powers. The result was, that after a 
 good deal of skirmishing, two treaties, the one commercial, the 
 other political, were drawn up and discussed. There was little 
 need now to make a grand combination against Zemaun Shah, 
 for in truth that unhappy ruler, who had threatened such 
 great things, was, in a political sense, very nearly at his last
 
 DEPARTURE FROM I'EUSIA. 147 
 
 gasp. But very potent were the French ; so, after disposing 1800 isoi. 
 of the Afghans, the treaty ruled that if any people of the 
 former nation should endeavour to effect a landing on Persian 
 territory, the Persians and English together should make short 
 work of them ; and that the King of Persia would never allow 
 the French, or any European power in alliance with them, to 
 build a fort or to settle in any part of the Persian dominions. 
 Whether these treaties were ever really in force is matter of 
 historical doubt. But at all events a good understanding was 
 established between the two countries. The Persians were 
 well pleased with the magnificence of the presents which were 
 lavished upon them ; they derived from them a grand idea of 
 our national wealth ; and it must be added that the personal 
 belongings of the Envoy himself made a profound impression 
 on the Persian Court. His fine stature, his commanding pre- 
 sence, and the mixture of good humour and of resolute prowess 
 with which he conducted all his negotiations, compelled them 
 to form a high estimate of the English people. He was in 
 their eyes a " Roostum," or hero of the first magnitude. 
 
 On his return to India, Captain John Malcolm was greeted visit to 
 by letters from the Governor- General, directing him to pro- Calcutta - 
 ceed at once to Calcutta.* His reception at Government House 
 was most cordial. Lord Wellesley bestowed his unqualified 
 commendation on what had been done, and promised to give 
 him, on the first opportunity, a high appointment in the poli- 
 tical service. Meanwhile, he requested him to act as his 
 private secretary, during the absence of Henry Wellesley, 
 who had gone on a special mission to Oude. All this, it may 
 well be conceived, filled with delight and gratitude the hearts 
 
 * Or rather from Henry "Wellesley, measure but with a view of condemning 
 the brother and private secretary of the it." . . . And then in a postscript came 
 Governor-General, who wrote : " While the important words : " My brother " 
 I was in England, I frequently heard (Lord Wellesley), " hearing I was writ- 
 Mr. Dundas and other great men speak ing to you, has this moment desired me 
 of you in a manner which gave me great to summon you to the Presence." A 
 pleasure, and ought not to be less gra- later letter from the same writer con- 
 tifying to you. . . . All wise people in veyed to him the gratifying intelligence 
 India think that very satisfactory con- of the full approval of the Governor- 
 sequences are likely to result from your General. " I cannot help writing to tell 
 embassy. There are not wanting some you," he said, " that my brother fully 
 who are disposed to blame it, as tending approves of all your proceedings, and 
 to give umbrage to the Court of St. that he thinks you have conducted the 
 Petersburg ; but these are of that de- whole of your negotiations in a very 
 scription of person who never look at a masterly manner." 
 
 L2
 
 148 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 18011802. of the family at Burnfoot. " The account of your employ- 
 ments," wrote his father to him, " is like fairy tales to us. ... 
 Your filial effusions brought tears of joy to the eyes of your 
 parents. A good head will gain you the esteem and applause 
 of the world, but a good heart alone gives happiness to the 
 owner of it. It is a continual feast." 
 
 Special mis- In the capacity of private secretary, John Malcolm accom- 
 Blons> panied Lord Wellesley on a tour to the Upper Provinces ; but 
 
 he had not proceeded farther than Allahabad, when certain 
 complications of a personal character at Madras caused the 
 Governor-General to depute Malcolm, on a mission of much 
 delicacy, to that Presidency. He did his work not only well 
 but nobly. For the arrangements, which were considered 
 good for the public service, involved a great sacrifice on his 
 part. He had been promised the Residency of Mysore ; but 
 he yielded his claims with cheerfulness, in order to induce 
 that excellent civil officer, Mr. Webbe, to remain a little longer 
 in India. This done, he returned with all possible despatch to 
 Calcutta, and met the Go venior- General on his way back to 
 the Presidency. But he did not remain long at the great 
 man's elbow. Whenever any difficulty arose, it occurred to 
 Lord Wellesley at once to send Malcolm 011 a special mission 
 to set it right. So when, in July, 1802, the Persian Ambas- 
 sador, who had come to India about the ratification of the 
 treaties, was unhappily shot in an affray at Bombay, Malcolm 
 was despatched to that Presidency to endeavour to make the 
 best of so untoward an occurrence. 
 
 Making all speed, by land, to Bombay, he arrived there in 
 October, and did everything that could be done to appease the 
 expected resentment of the Persian Court. He wrote letters 
 of explanation and condolence to the Shah and his Ministers ; 
 and made such liberal grants of money to all who had suffered 
 by the mischance, that it was said afterwards in Persia that the 
 English might kill a dozen Ambassadors, if the^would always 
 pay for them at the same rate. By the end of November the 
 work was done, and Malcolm returned to Calcutta. He found 
 the Governor-General and his advisers immersed in the troubled 
 politics of the great Mahratta Courts. On New Year's-day, 
 1803. 1803, he wrote to Colonel Kirkpatrick that "the line was 
 taken." He thought it no great matter to settle the business
 
 LIFE IN CAMP. 149 
 
 of these troublesome chiefs, and he wrote to the Commander- 1803. 
 in-Chief, General Lake, that " one short campaign would for The Mahratta 
 ever dissipate the terror with which Indian politicians in Eng- war ' 
 laud are accustomed to contemplate the power of the Mahratta 
 nation." That this was a mistake, he discovered in due course 
 of time. Military operations were commenced, and as Mal- 
 colm was sure to be where any kind of activity was wanted, 
 he was soon on his way to General Stuart's camp. Mr. 
 Webbe having been transferred to the Residency of Nagpore, 
 Malcolm now Major Malcolm had been appointed to My- 
 sore, the Residency at which he had before yielded to the civi- 
 lian. He went to Madras, therefore, formally to take up his ap- 
 pointment, and to communicate, on the part of Lord Wellesley, 
 with the Governor of that Presidency. The work was soon 
 done. On the 27th of February, 1803, he wrote to the Go- 
 vernor-General : " I propose leaving Madras in a few days, 
 and, as I travel fast, I shall soon join the army, and convey to 
 the (Madras) Commander-in- Chief, in the clearest manner I 
 can, a correct idea of the conduct which, in your Excellency's 
 judgment, the present emergency demands." 
 
 The head-quarters of the Madras Army were then at Hur- 
 ryhur. To this place Malcolm proceeded post-haste, and after 
 two days spent in camp, pushed forward to join the advance 
 division, under General Arthur Wellesley, which was to aid, 
 in the lower part of the Mahratta country, the operations 
 which Lord Lake was conducting in the upper. On the 19th 
 of March he joined Wellesley's camp, and there was a cordial 
 meeting between the two friends, and little disposition on 
 either side to part. Malcolm saw clearly that they could act 
 well together for the good of the public service, and, as no 
 evil was likely to arise from his absence from Mysore, he 
 determined to remain inWellesley's camp, and there to turn 
 his diplomatic experience to good account. " A political agent," 
 he wrote toathe Commander-in- Chief, " is never so likely to 
 succeed as at the head of an army." It was a great epoch in 
 the history of our Indian Empire, and there was a magnificent 
 harvest of results. For a narrative of the events, which grew 
 out of the Mahratta policy of Lord Wellesley, the inquiring 
 reader must turn to the military annals of the time. It was 
 enough, that the first great work which fell to the share of
 
 150 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1803. Wellesley and Malcolm was the restoration of the Peishwah, 
 Badjee Rao, to the throne of Poonah. This accomplished, 
 Malcolm fell sick. He struggled against his increasing in- 
 firmity but in vain. The hot weather had come on, and he 
 could not resist its baneful effects. " I am out of all temper 
 with myself," he wrote on the 26th of May, to Mr. Edmon- 
 stone, " at being unwell at a moment like the present. How- 
 ever, everything will soon terminate prosperously and glori- 
 ously." ,A month later he was in Wellesley 's camp, " a little 
 recovered;" but in July he was again struggling against 
 physical weakness, and at last even his spirits began to fail 
 him. " I feel incapable," he wrote, " of holding out much 
 longer in camp against an accumulation of such disorders." 
 And at last, in the middle of August, to his intense disap- 
 pointment, he was compelled to yield to the solicitations of 
 General Wellesley and other friends, and to quit the camp for 
 Bombay just as active business in the field was commencing. 
 What it cost him it is hard to say, for during his absence the 
 great battle of Assye was fought and won ; and it was long 
 afterwards a thorn in his flesh to think that he had been absent 
 from the side of his friend in such a glorious conjuncture. 
 
 But Malcolm was not long absent from his post. On the 16th 
 of December he returned to camp, and was warmly welcomed. 
 Though everything had gone well with the army, the aspect 
 of social affairs about the General's Staff, if not actually 
 gloomy, was a little stately andlsolemn. It was all work and no 
 play ; and there was little laughter in the English tents. But 
 when Malcolm reappeared among them, all this was changed. 
 It was like a gleam of sunlight. He arrived in high spirits ; he 
 was overflowing with lively humorous talk ; he had many rich 
 stories to tell ; he had a joke for every one, white or black ; 
 and no man left him without a smile upon his face. He was 
 " Boy Malcolm " still. It was impossible to resist the fascina- 
 tions of his genial presence. I do not know how 4he story can 
 be told, better than in the words in which it was narrated to 
 me, half a century afterwards, by Mountstuart Elphinstone : 
 Reminiscences " I joined," wrote the veteran statesman, " the camp, as 
 
 of Mountstuart . , . , , A 7 . 
 
 Elphinstone. J ou suppose, immediately after the surrender of Anmed- 
 nuggur. I think Malcolm had gone before I arrived. I 
 left camp on the 28th of December, three or four days before
 
 RETURN TO CAMP. 151 
 
 the conclusion of the treaty. The negotiations had been going 
 on for some time, but had not taken a definite shape till 
 Wittul Rao, Scindiah's Prime Minister, came into camp, on 
 the 23rd of December. Malcolm had arrived about a week 
 before, and was present at all the conferences with him. He 
 (Wittul Punt) was an elderly man, with rather a sour, super- 
 cilious countenance; but such as it was, he had a perfect 
 command of it, receiving the most startling demand, or the 
 most unexpected concession, without moving a muscle. Mal- 
 colm remarked on him that he never saw such a face for play- 
 ing l Brag.' The name stuck to him; for long afterwards, 
 when Malcolm met the Duke in Europe, and was asking him 
 about the great men of France, his answer about Talleyrand 
 was, that he was a good deal like ' old Brag,' but not so 
 clever. I do not remember any anecdotes about the proceed- 
 ings, but I well remember the effect of Malcolm's arrival, in 
 enlivening head-quarters life. There had been a great deal to 
 do ; everybody was busy in the daytime, and more or less tired 
 at night. The General, when not on other duty, was shut up 
 all day writing in his private tent, and was too much absorbed 
 in the many things he had to attend to, to talk much at table, 
 except when there was anything interesting to excite him ; so 
 that, although there was no form or ceremony in his party, 
 there was not much vivacity. When Malcolm came, he pitched 
 his tent (with two or three of his own people of the Mysore 
 Residency) close to the line of the General's Staff, which soon 
 presented a very different scene. His health seemed (for the 
 time) completely restored, and he was in the highest pos- 
 sible spirits ; just come among old friends from compara- 
 tively new places, with much to hear, and more to tell, and 
 doing his business by snatches, so that he seemed to be always 
 idle. He had frequent visitors at and after breakfast, when 
 he remained talking to the company, showing off the Arab 
 horses he had brought with him from Bombay, or regaling 
 them with some of the beer or other rarity he had supplied 
 himself with, and joking them about the starving condition in 
 which he found them. When the strangers were gone, he 
 went on with other subjects, but with the same flow of spirits ; 
 sometimes talking politics, sometimes chit-chat; sometimes 
 reading political papers he had drawn up, and sometimes senti-
 
 152 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1803. mental or ludicrous verses of his own composition ; but ready 
 at all times to receive any one European or native gravely 
 or gaily, as the occasion required. To the natives, in particular, 
 he used either to address elaborate compliments, or good- 
 humoured jokes, as he thought best suited to their humour, 
 and seldom failed to send them away pleased. Even bodily 
 suffering did not take away his sociable feelings. When he 
 was at his worst at Poona, I think and was exhausted and 
 depressed, when a bachelor of thirty-four might have wished 
 himself at the bottom of the sea, and any one else would have 
 been solitary and morose, his exclamation was, ' Heigho ! I 
 wish I had a wife and twelve children ! ' 
 
 1804. His health, however, was not perfectly restored ; and he was 
 The treaty with still haunted by apprehensions of another break-down, iieces- 
 
 ia ' sitating his second departure from the camp. But there was 
 much work to be done, and he struggled against his infirmity. 
 The beginning of the year 1804 found him negotiating a treaty 
 with Scindiah, the conclusion of which was delayed by a 
 number of vexatious and frivolous obstructions, which, how- 
 ever, never disturbed the good humour of the negotiator. 
 There were, indeed, occasional incidents to amuse him, by 
 their absurdity ; and he was one ever thoroughly to appreciate 
 such compensations. His first personal interview with Dowlut 
 Rao Scindiah, then a youth, was enlivened by a curious acci- 
 dent. " We were well received," wrote Malcolm to General 
 Wellesley, " by the Maharajah, who is a good-looking young 
 man. He preserved great gravity when we first went in ; 
 and probably we might have left him without seeing that his 
 gravity was affected, had not a ridiculous incident moved his 
 muscles. A severe shower took place whilst we were in his 
 tent. The water lodged on the flat part of the tent, under 
 which Mr. Pepper was seated, and all at once burst in a 
 torrent upon his head. From the midst of the torrent we 
 heard a voice exclaim ' Jasus /' and soon after. poor Pepper 
 emerged. The Maharajah laughed loud, and we all joined 
 chorus. A shower of hail followed the rain, and hailstones 
 were brought in and presented in all quarters. My hands 
 were soon filled with them by the politeness of Dowlut Eao 
 and his Ministers ; and all began to eat, or rather to drink 
 them. For ten minutes the scene more resembled a school at
 
 TREATY-NEGOTIATIONS WITH SCINDIAH. 153 
 
 the moment when the boys have got to play, than an Eastern 1804. 
 Durbar.* We parted in great good humour; and, as far as 
 I can judge from physiognomy, every one in camp is rejoiced 
 at the termination of hostilities." 
 
 Soon after this Scindiah fell sick, and when he recovered 
 he was more inclined for pleasure than for business. A meet- 
 ing had been arranged between him and Malcolm, which the 
 former, having heard of a tiger some nine miles off, desired to 
 postpone, and asked the Englishman to go out hunting with 
 him. It was a sore denial to John Malcolm, ever a mighty 
 huntsman, to be compelled to say that he was " afraid to 
 venture in the sun." But he wrote to the young Maharajah 
 that he .would pray for his success, and, to ensure it, he sent 
 the Prince his best rifle. He wrote this to General Wellesley 
 on the 20th of February ; and a week afterwards he was in 
 high spirits at the thought of having despatched a draft of 
 the Treaty to Calcutta. Scindiah was equally pleased, and 
 determined to celebrate the occasion by a frolic. " I am to 
 deliver the Treaty to-day," wrote Malcolm to General Wel- 
 lesley, " and after that ceremony is over to play hooley^ for 
 which I have prepared an old coat and an old hat. Scindiah 
 is furnished with an engine of great power, by which he can 
 play upon a felloAV fifty yards' distance. He has, besides, a 
 magazine of syringes, so I expect to be well squirted." The 
 sport was of a kind to delight u Boy Malcolm ;" and we may 
 be sure that he was not worsted in the playful encounter. 
 But it did him no good. He was not strong enough for such 
 rough work ; and he wrote afterwards to Merrick Shawe that 
 the " cursed hooley play" had given him a sharp attack of 
 fever. 
 
 But it was not all play-work for Malcolm at that time. 
 Even whilst he was scattering the red powder, uneasy thoughts 
 
 * This incident greatly amused Ge- some time by an ' Oh, Jasus !' and a 
 neral Wellesley, who wrote an account hideous yell. Scindiah laughed violently, 
 of it to the Governor-General, in which as did all the others present ; and the 
 he says : " It rained violently, and an gravity and dignity of the Durbar de- 
 officer of the escort, Mr. Pepper, an generated into a Malcolm riot after 
 Irishman (a nephew of old Bective's, which they all parted on the best terms." 
 by-the-b}'), sat under the flat of the Wellington Despatches, vol. ii. p. 701. 
 tent, which received a great part of the f This consists mainly of the inter- 
 rain which fell. At length it burst change of civilities, by throwing red 
 through the tent upon the head of Mr. powder and squirting coloured water at 
 Pepper, who was concealed by the tor- everybody within one's reach, 
 rent that fell, and was discovered after
 
 154 SIR JOHN MALCOLM, 
 
 1804. assailed him, for he was uncertain whether the treaties which 
 he had negotiated would be approved by the Governor- 
 General. For Lord Wellesley, though one not slow to ex- 
 press gratification when he felt it, was a man not easily 
 pleased ; and, in those days, a negotiator cut off from the 
 seat of Government by hundreds of slowly-traversed miles 
 was altogether de-centralised and self-contained, and obliged 
 to face responsibilities which in later times have been evaded 
 by the help of the electric telegraph. It was Malcolm's 
 doctrine, that " a man who flies from responsibility in public 
 affairs is like a soldier who quits the rank in action ; he is 
 certain of ignominy, and does not escape danger." He never 
 did shrink from responsibility ; and, it may be added, that he 
 was, for the most part, a man of a sanguine, confident, self- 
 reliant nature, not commonly disposed to depreciate his own 
 work or to predict failure. But he had at this time a 
 treacherous liver ; he was melancholic and hypochondriacal, 
 and unlike himself; and everything that he saw before him 
 had the tint of jaundice upon it. There were moral causes, 
 also, to increase his depression, for he had just received from 
 England the sad tidings of the death of his revered father. 
 Moreover, he knew that at this time Lord Wellesley, stung 
 by the opposition of the Court of Directors, and the pro- 
 bability of being deserted by the King's Ministers, was in a 
 frame of mind more than usually irritable and captious, and 
 hard to be pleased. Malcolm was in no wise, therefore, sur- 
 prised to learn that some part of the Subsidiary Treaty was, 
 on its first perusal, disapproved by Lord Wellesley. " I was 
 fully aware," he wrote to Mr. Edmonstone, " when I was 
 appointed to negotiate this treaty, of the heavy responsibility 
 that I incurred ; and that responsibility was much increased 
 by the uncertainty of communication with General Wellesley 
 during the latter part of the negotiation a circumstance 
 which deprived me of the benefit of his instructions on several 
 points on which I was anxious to receive them. I never- 
 theless ventured to conclude the treaty in the form it now 
 has. The difference between it and engagements of a similar 
 nature (which I knew Lord Wellesley had approved) did not 
 appear to me of sufficient consequence to warrant my risking 
 the success of the negotiation. As far as I could understand,
 
 MALCOLM'S TROUBLES. 155 
 
 none of those principles which it is essential in such alliances 1804. 
 to maintain were sacrificed, and no points were admitted that 
 could operate injuriously to the interests of the British Go- 
 vernment. I may, however, be mistaken, and there may be 
 a thousand objections to the alliance even as it now stands, 
 which my stupidity has made me overlook. If such is the 
 case, it will, I conclude, be disapproved, and the treaty will 
 not be ratified. On such an event occurring, the exclusive 
 blame of this proceeding must attach to the agent employed 
 to negotiate it, of whom it will be charitable to remark, that 
 he was more distinguished for boldness and zeal than for 
 prudence and judgment." 
 
 But fuller explanations, aided by a favouring course of cir- 
 cumstances, soon removed the uneasy apprehensions of Lord 
 Wellesley ; and a fortnight after he had written the above, 
 Malcolm had the satisfaction of receiving letters from both 
 the private and the political secretary of the Governor- 
 General, informing him that his Lordship approved of all the 
 stipulations of the treaties, and considered that he had " mani- 
 fested great judgment, ability, and discretion in conducting 
 the negotiations," and " rendered a public service of the 
 highest description by the conclusion of the treaty of defen- 
 sive and of subsidiary alliance." But this was emphatically 
 Malcolm's gurdee-ka-wukht, or trouble-time, for he had still a 
 depressing malady to cope with, and the burden of his sorrow 
 was very heavy to bear. It seemed to him at the time as 
 though the death of his father had taken away, if not his 
 chief stimulus to exertion, at all events its main reward. 
 And he wrote to his uncle, Mr. John Pasley, to whom he 
 owed so much, saying : " The greatest enjoyment I have, from 
 the acquisition of fame and honour, is in the satisfaction which 
 my success in life affords to those to whom I owe my being, 
 or, what is more, the principles of virtue and honesty, which 
 I am conscious of possessing. The approbation of my con- 
 duct conveys to my mind more gratification than the thanks 
 of millions or the applause of thousands ; and as the number 
 of those to whom I attach such value diminishes, a proportion 
 of the reward I expected is taken away, and part of that 
 stimulus which prompted me to action is removed. The 
 sanguine temper of my dearest parent made him anticipate a
 
 156 
 
 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1804. 
 
 The case of 
 Gwalior and 
 Gohud. 
 
 rank in life for mo which I shall probably never attain ; but a 
 knowledge that he indulged such expectations made me make 
 every exertion of which I was capable. I am still sensible of 
 what I owe to myself, to my friends, and to my country ; 
 but I am no longer that enthusiast in the pursuit of reputa- 
 tion that I formerly was, and I begin to think that object 
 may be attained at too dear a price. My mind has, perhaps, 
 been more inclined to this way of thinking from the state of 
 my health, which continues indifferent. However, as I have 
 fully accomplished all the objects for which I was sent to this 
 Court, I expect soon to be released, and to be enabled to 
 repair to the sea-coast, where, I have no doubt, a short resi- 
 dence will make me as strong as ever."* 
 
 These personal distresses were soon blended with new official 
 anxieties. The conclusion of the peace with Scindiah was 
 attended with some political difficulties arising out of those 
 territorial redistributions which so frequently result from our 
 Indian wars. The most perplexing question of all was that 
 which related to the disposal of the fort of Gwalior and the 
 territory of Gohud. It was Malcolm's opinion that, whatso- 
 ever might be the advantage to British interests in otherwise 
 disposing of them, the surrender of both to Scindiah was 
 clearly an act of justice. But it was Boon manifest that the 
 cession would be distasteful in the extreme to Lord Wellesley. 
 Convinced that he was right, Malcolm took high ground. He 
 said that nothing could shake his convictions " first, be- 
 cause there is some room for doubt upon the subject, and if 
 we determine a case of a disputable nature in our favour 
 
 * What follows must not be alto- 
 gether omitted. It is so redolent of 
 that good home-feeling, that tender re- 
 gard for family ties, which is observable 
 in the lives of most men who have risen 
 to eminence in India : " I see from my 
 last letters from Scotland that you were 
 expected at Burnfoot in July. Your 
 affectionate kindness will console my 
 dearest mother, and make her more re- 
 signed to her great loss, and your pre- 
 sence will restore the whole family to 
 happiness. Your own feelings, my 
 dearest uncle, will reward yon for such 
 goodness ; may you long live to enjoy 
 the gratitude and affection of a family 
 who owe all their success and happiness 
 
 to your kindness and protection ! I 
 know not what arrangement you may 
 think best for my mother and sisters. 
 You are acquainted with my means. I 
 have 10,000^. in my agent's hands in 
 this country; about 3000/. is due to 
 me, which I shall hereafter receive. Of 
 the amount in your hands I cannot 
 speak, as I know not how much of it 
 has been applied ; but I have directed 
 4QQI. to be remitted annually, 300J. of 
 which I meant for my parents, and 
 1001. for my sisters. You will now 
 judge what is sufficient, and dispose of 
 all, or any part of what I possess, as 
 you think proper; above all, let my 
 dearest mother enjoy affluence."
 
 THE GWALIOR QUESTION. 157 
 
 because we have power, we shall give a blow to our faith that 1804. 
 will, in my opinion, be more injurious to our interests than 
 the loss of fifty provinces. What has taken us through this 
 last war with such unexampled success ? First, no doubt, the 
 gallantry of our armies ; but secondly and hardly secondly 
 our reputation for good faith. These people do not understand 
 the laws of nations, and it is impossible to make them com- 
 prehend a thousand refinements which are understood and 
 practised in Europe. They will never be reconciled to the 
 idea that a treaty should be negotiated upon one principle 
 and fulfilled on another."* Truer and better words have 
 seldom been uttered by an Indian statesman ; but I fear that, 
 as warnings, they have been given to the winds. Sixty years 
 have passed since they were written; but England has not 
 yet ceased, in her dealings with India, to determine cases of a 
 disputable nature in her own favour, or to negotiate treaties 
 on one principle and to fulfil them on another. 
 
 I have said that Lord Wellesley, at this time, was in a very 
 irritable state of mind. The abrasions which had been caused 
 by constant collision with the " ignominious tyrants of Leaden- 
 hall-street" were very sore ; and he was sensitive in the ex- 
 treme to any opposition which might have the effect of con- 
 vincing his persecutors that the agents of his policy were 
 more moderate than himself. -j; General Wellesley had said : 
 " I declare that, when I view the treaty of peace and its con- 
 
 * Very similar words words which f This is rendered very plain by a 
 
 have obtained far more extensive cur- letter from Major Merrick Shawe, Lord 
 
 rency were written by Arthur Wei- Wellesley 's secretary, in which he says : 
 
 lesley. " I would sacrifice Gwalior," " Whatever your motives may have 
 
 he wrote to Malcolm, " or every frontier been, your conduct has certainly placed 
 
 of India ten times over, in order to pre- Lord Wellesley in a very embarrassing 
 
 serve our credit for scrupulous good situation, and, when that is the case, 
 
 faith and the advantages and honour God knows that he is always inclined to 
 
 we gained by the late war and peace ; vent his feelings freely against those 
 
 and we must not fritter them away in who have occasioned him difficulty and 
 
 arguments drawn from overstrained trouble. Your having shown a great 
 
 principles of the laws of nations, which disposition to admit the justice of Scin- 
 
 are not understood in this country, diah's right to Gwalior and Gohud, is 
 
 What brought me through many diffi- likely, Lord Wellesley thinks, to give 
 
 cullies in the war and the negotiations his enemies in Leadenhall-street room 
 
 of peace ? The British good faith, and to found an accusation against Lord 
 
 nothing else!" The two passages are Wellesley of injustice and rapacity, in 
 
 so similar that a comparison of dates is marching upon and retaining these pos- 
 
 interesting : Malcolm wrote from Boor- sessions contrary to the opinion of the 
 
 hampore on March 30 ; Wellesley from Resident." 
 Bombay on -March 17, 1804.
 
 158 
 
 SIR JOHN MALCOOL 
 
 1804. sequences, I am afraid it will be imagined that the moderation 
 of the British Government in India has a strong resemblance 
 to the ambition of other Governments." And now Malcolm 
 was turning against his master very painfully and sorrow- 
 fully, but with a resolute manliness, which, whether he were 
 right or wrong, is entitled to be held in respect as an example 
 to the public service. I think that Malcolm was right.* If 
 what he recommended was not more politic, it was at all 
 events more generous, and indeed more just, than the opposite 
 course. But the Governor- General was not a man to brook 
 opposition of any kind, and for a while he withdrew his smiles 
 from his favourite lieutenant. But all this soon passed away. 
 Lord Wellesley wrote him a long and very friendly letter, 
 assuring him of his unbroken confidence telling him that he 
 was at full liberty to return to Mysore, to join the government 
 party in the upper provinces, to prepare for another mission to 
 Persia, or to go home to recruit his health, as he might think 
 best. tl You may be assured," wrote Lord Wellesley, " that, 
 
 * It must be admitted, however, that 
 the case is not without its difficulties, 
 and that something may be said on the 
 other side. Fifty years afterwards, 
 Mr. Elphinstone, writing to me on the 
 subject, said : "I think Malcolm was 
 quite right in the Gwalior controversy ; 
 but right or wrong, his strenuous oppo- 
 sition to the Governor-General in de- 
 fence of what he thought the cause of 
 justice and good faith, would have done 
 honour to him in any circumstances ; in 
 those of the case, when the Governor- 
 General was his patron, and the man 
 for -whom, above all others, he felt the 
 sincerest admiration and devotion, it 
 was an exertion of public virtue such 
 as few men of the sternest character 
 could have attained to. He knew very 
 well that Lord Wellesley was at all 
 times impatient of opposition and jealous 
 of respect, and that at the time he was 
 intoxicated with success, so that he 
 must have foreseen all the consequences 
 of his resistance, which were either an 
 open rupture or a complete estrange- 
 ment, till near the end of Lord "Welles- 
 ley's government, when there was a 
 meeting at Calcutta, and a reconcilia- 
 tion, at which both parties seem to have 
 been much affected ; but of all this you 
 will probably find better accounts than 
 
 I could give among your papers." 
 August 28, 1855. But two days after 
 he had written this, Mr. Elphinstone 
 wrote again to me, saying : " I wrote 
 to you on the day before yesterday that 
 I thought Malcolm quite right in his 
 difference with Lord Wellesley about 
 Gwalior ; but I have since looked at 
 some of the papers regarding it, and 
 find the case by no means so clear. I 
 had no personal knowledge of the affair, 
 and the merits of it depend a good deal 
 on the dates and terms of engagements, 
 and other circumstances not readily as- 
 certained. But what shakes my confi- 
 dence in my first opinion, is contained 
 in the following papers, many of which 
 I do not think I had before read." (List 
 of documents in Wellesley and Wel- 
 lington correspondence given.) " Gene- 
 ral Wellesley's letter to Scindiah of 
 May 20, 1804, in particular, expresses 
 opinions so different from those given 
 in his earlier letters to Malcolm, that it 
 is impossible not to conclude that, on 
 mature consideration, he had given up 
 his first conclusions. But all this does 
 not affect Malcolm's claim to high re- 
 spect for his independent and conscien- 
 tious opposition to proceedings which he 
 thought unjust." August 30, 1856.
 
 RECONCILIATION WITH LORD WELLESLEY. 159 
 
 although these discussions have given me great pain, they 1804. 
 have not in any degree impaired my friendship and regard 
 for you, or my general confidence and esteem. You cannot 
 suppose that such transactions did not irritate me considerably 
 at the unseasonable moment of their pressure. But you have 
 already received from me suggestions of the same nature with 
 those expressed in this letter, and you are aware of my aver- 
 sion to every description of attack upon my judgment, except- 
 ing fair, distinct, direct argument. Reflecting on these observa- 
 tions, I entertain a confident expectation that you will always 
 pursue that course of proceeding, in the discharge of the duties 
 of friendship towards me, which you now know to be most 
 congenial to my character and temper ; and I am satisfied that 
 you will continue to possess the high place in my esteem and 
 attachment to which you are so justly entitled by every con- 
 sideration of gratitude and respect. I am extremely grieved 
 to learn that your health has been so deeply affected. I trust, 
 however, that the sea air and repose will entirely restore you. 
 I leave you at liberty either to return to Mysore, or to join 
 me in the Upper Provinces, or to prepare for another mission 
 to Persia, or to prepare for Europe, as you may judge most 
 advisable. I have apprised the Secret Committee of the pro- 
 bability of your return to Europe, and of my intention to 
 employ you in communicating to them the details of the 
 recent events in the Mahratta Empire. My own intention 
 (although most secret) is to return to Europe in January or 
 February next, provided the state of affairs in India should 
 permit, which event now appears probable. In the mean while, 
 I expect to depart for the Upper Provinces in about ten days, 
 all my preparations being completed. You will act upon this 
 information as you may judge best. I shall be happy to see 
 you at Agra or Delhi, or to have your company to Europe. 
 You may rest assured of my constant good wishes for your 
 health and welfare." And then he added, in a postscript, as 
 though to make still clearer that there was to be no breach 
 in their private friendship, these familiar words : " General 
 Wellesley has not told me whether he ever received the horse 
 which I sent to him, or how that horse turned out ; some- 
 body told me that he had suffered the same fate as ' Old 
 Port,' who was shot under General Lake at Laswarree."
 
 160 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1804. Malcolm's first duty was now to regain his health ; so, when 
 
 Visit to the he left Scindiah's camp, he went down to the coast, deter- 
 mined to cease for a while from business ; and before the 
 autumn was far advanced he wrote from Vizagapatam that he 
 was " growing quite stout," and that he " enjoyed idling in 
 perfection." But news of stirring events came to him in his 
 retreat. Scarcely had Scindiah's account been settled, when 
 Holkar began to cause us fresh trouble ; and Malcolm then 
 earnestly hoped to accompany General Wellesley again into 
 the field. He had lost one grand opportunity of military dis- 
 tinction, and he panted to gain another. " My health is now 
 well restored," he wrote from Ganjam in November, " and 
 two months of the cold weather will make me as strong as 
 ever. Ingledew says, that by returning to camp I shall 
 bring back the whole train of my complaints ; but I am not 
 of his opinion, and, if I were, it should not prevent my accom- 
 panying the General to the field, if he will permit me. I feel 
 (almost as a stain) my unfortunate absence from Assye and 
 Argaum ; and I shall rejoice in the most distant prospect of 
 attending the General on similar occasions." But it was not 
 so to be; Arthur Wellesley's Indian career was at an end. 
 The two friends met at Madras, and proceeded together to 
 Mysore. But the General, who was about shortly to sail for 
 England, soon returned to the Presidency, and Malcolm then 
 settled himself down at Mysore, intending to turn his leisure 
 to good account by writing the history of Persia, of which he 
 had formed the design and collected some materials in that 
 country. 
 
 But his studies were soon broken in upon by a summons to 
 Calcutta. Lord Wellesley wished to see him at the chief Pre- 
 sidency ; so he closed his books, put aside his papers, and 
 soon (April, 1805) found himself again an inmate of Govern- 
 ment House. The Mahratta war had entered a new phase, 
 and Malcolm's counsel was again in requisition. " To make 
 a long story short," he wrote to General Wellesley, " soon 
 after you sailed I was called to Calcutta. I lost no time in 
 obeying, and arrived on the 17th of April. I found it was 
 determined that Close* should remain in the Deccan, where 
 he was invested with the political and military control, and 
 * Colonel, afterwards Sir Barry, Close.
 
 FURTHER OPERATIONS. 161 
 
 that I should proceed to Dowlut Rao Scindiah. During my 1805. 
 short stay at Calcutta I had enough of discussion. All the 
 old ground was gone over. After much heat, if not violence, 
 we were all of the same opinion ; and I left Lord Wellesley 
 on the 30th ultimo I believe as high in his good opinion as 
 I have ever been since our first acquaintance. Lord Lake 
 had at that date disengaged himself from Bhurtpore. Scin- 
 diah was advanced to the Chumbul, near Dholpore, and that 
 arch-scoundrel, Surjee Rao Ghautka, had moved forward on 
 a pretended mission to Lord Lake, but with a real view of re- 
 conciling Holkar to Scindiah. He succeeded, and carried 
 that chief back with him to Dowlut Rao's camp. It was re- 
 solved that Lord Lake should insist on Scindiah's retreating 
 that he should further require the dismissal of Ghautka, as 
 an indispensable condition of our maintaining those more 
 friendly relations of friendship that had been established by 
 the treaty of defensive alliance. If this was agreed to, Scin- 
 diah was to be immediately vigorously supported. If not, and 
 he committed no act of aggression, the more intimate rela- 
 tions of friendship were to be suspended, and the Resident 
 withdrawn, until his counsels were more to be depended 
 upon ; but the treaty of peace was to be maintained. In the 
 event of Scindiah committing any hostile act, or maintaining 
 himself on the frontier after he had been desired to withdraw, 
 he was of course to be attacked." 
 
 The policy being thus determined, his personal services were 
 again required. In the conjuncture which had then arisen, 
 it seemed to Lord Wellesley more desirable than ever to " send 
 Malcolm." So, at the end of a fortnight, Malcolm was sent to 
 join the camp of General Lake in Upper India. Putting himself 
 in a palanquin, he journeyed northward through the sultry 
 summer weather, sorrowing most of all that he should look 
 upon the face of Lord Wellesley no more in that part of the 
 world (for the Governor- General had determined upon a 
 speedy departure from India), and at times distracted by 
 doubt as to whether he would not accompany his old master 
 to England. That Lord Wellesley desired this, is, I think, 
 certain. For some time he oscillated between two opinions. 
 Now, it appeared to him that it would be better for Malcolm 
 to remain in India as the active exponent of his policy, so far 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1805. as it was possible to execute it in the face of the opposition of 
 the Court of Directors ; and again, that it would be greater 
 gain to him to have Malcolm at his elbow in England to 
 explain and to defend that policy to the overthrow of his 
 enemies at home. But for Malcolm at that time to have gone 
 to England would have been to have injuriously interrupted, 
 if not to have abandoned, his career. It was natural that he 
 should hesitate ; wise that he should decide in favour of con- 
 tinuing his Indian work. So he wrote to Lord Wellesley, as 
 he had before written to his Private Secretary, a manly, 
 straightforward, candid letter, stating that neither on public 
 nor on private grounds would it be desirable that, at such a 
 time, he should leave his post and return to England ; and I 
 am convinced that the dispassionate opinion of the Governor- 
 General must have endorsed the decision.* 
 
 Operations The head-quarters of the British Army were then upon the 
 
 Holiar banks of the Chumbul ; but the scorching hot winds of the 
 
 month of May compelled a season of inactivity, and they could 
 do little but talk about the fiiture. Grave and anxious talk it 
 was, for news had come that Lord Cornwallis, with stringent 
 instructions to adopt a pacific course of policy, had been a 
 third time appointed Governor- General of India, and was 
 expected shortly to arrive. The work was only half done, and 
 to bring it to an abrupt, might be to bring it to a disastrous, 
 close. Lord Cornwallis came, and the war was ordered to be 
 wound up with the utmost possible despatch. The conduct of 
 
 * In the letter to Lord Wellesley Nor do I think the want of success will 
 (dated August 6, 1805), Malcolm says : diminish one iota my future comfort, 
 " From the long conversation I had happiness, or respectability. Your Lord- 
 with your Lordship previous to my ship is fully aware of my desire to re- 
 leaving Calcutta, you must have per- turn to Persia ; and the information 
 ceived that I am not insensible to the which you must lately have received of 
 voice of ambition. To your Lordship, affairs in that quarter, will have enabled 
 whose encouraging condescension has you to judge of the necessity of such a 
 ever accustomed me to speak in the Ian- mission. I should, if sent with a letter 
 guage of confidential friendship, I did or credentials from the Throne, under- 
 not hesitate to own that the proudest take it with the sanguine hope of ren- 
 object of my life was to obtain a mark dering important services to my coun- 
 of honour from my Sovereign, as the try." In these days, when honours are 
 declared reward of public services (on bestowed comparatively with a lavish 
 other terms I could not value it), and hand, it may seem strange that no kind 
 my exertions during my public employ- of distinction had up to this time been 
 ment will continue to be prompted by conferred on Malcolm. And many more 
 the same hopes of honourable distinc- years were destined to elapse before his 
 Hon. If I succeed, I shall be gratified ; services were recognised by the Crown, 
 but if I fail, I shall not be disappointed.
 
 P.UBSUIT OF HOLKAR. 163 
 
 the Mahratta chiefs, however, rendered certain further opera- 1805. 
 tions on our part absolutely necessary. The insolence of 
 Holkar demanded chastisement ; but his courage was not 
 equal to his pretensions, and as the army advanced he deemed 
 it expedient to seek safety in flight. He crossed the Sutlej, 
 and our troops pursued him, Malcolm accompanying the force, 
 and ever in the van. It was doubted whether the Hindoo 
 Sepoys would cross the river. There were signs, indeed, of 
 wavering, and it is said that the leading companies sat down 
 on the banks, when Malcolm rode up to them, spoke in his 
 brave hearty manner a few cheering words, reminding them 
 that the holy shrine of Umritsur was in advance, and asking 
 them if they would shrink from such a pilgrimage. And the 
 story runs that such was the magic effect . of these words, that 
 the recusant Sepoys started up to a man, crossed the river, and 
 soon, followed by their comrades, were in full march into the 
 Punjab. 
 
 But, although ever ambitious of military distinction, and 
 eager to be in the thick of it when there was service to be 
 done in the field, Malcolm hoped, at this time, that Holkar 
 would be brought to battle and that the opportunity lost to 
 him at Assye would be recovered, his duties lay in the direc- 
 tion rather of diplomacy than of war, and he was soon busy 
 at the old work of treaty-making. Holkar saw plainly that 
 his game was up, and sent his envoys to the British camp to 
 negotiate the terms of peace.* A new treaty was also con- 
 
 * The Sikh chiefs also sent their two or three others, he went in pursuit 
 envoys to the British camp, and it is of the game, shot the tigers, returned 
 with reference to one of their visits that with the spoil, and then, replacing his 
 the following characteristic story has gun in the corner of his tent and re- 
 been told : Malcolm was giving an suming his seat, took up the thread of 
 audience to two or three of these agents, the conversation as if nothing had hap- 
 when his friends, Gerald Lake and Nor- pened. The envoys, in the mean while, 
 man Shairp, suddenly entered his tent, had been declaring that the English 
 and, regardless both of ceremony and of gentleman was mad. " But there was 
 business, told him that there were two method," it has been said, "in such 
 large tigers in the neighbourhood. The madness. He had done more than shoot 
 interruption came at a moment when the tigers. He had gained time. He 
 Malcolm was in some perplexity with had returned with his mind fully made 
 respect to the answers to be given to up on an important point, which re- 
 the envoys, so the interruption was not quired consideration. And the envoys 
 unwelcome. Starting up and seizing received a different and a wiser answer 
 his ever-ready gun, he cried out to the than would have been given if the tiger- 
 astonished Sikhs, "Bang! bang!" ("A hunt had not formed an episode in the 
 tiger ! a tiger !"), and, ordering his day's council." The Honourable Arthur 
 elephant to be brought round, rushed Cole and the late Sir W. R. Gilbert were 
 out of the tent. Joining his friends and of the hnnting-party. 
 
 M 2
 
 164 SIE JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1805. eluded with Scindiah, by which the much-agitated question 
 of Gwalior was set at rest. Then there was other and more 
 onerous work to be done in the disbandment of the irregular 
 levies, which had been called into life by the necessities of the 
 war, and the expenses of which were now eating into the very 
 vitals of the State.* But that which vexed him most was 
 the abandonment of some of our less powerful allies ; and 
 although he worked as he ever did with all his might, he 
 was sometimes beset by serious doubts and perplexities as 
 to whether he ought not to retire from the scene, and to leave 
 it to others to work out a policy in consonance with their own 
 views. He asked himself whether, with opinions at variance 
 with those of his employers, he could do his duty to the State, 
 and be any longer a profitable servant to them. Presently 
 these obstinate self-questionings found expression in a letter 
 to Mr. Edmonstone, then Political Secretary, who, in reply, 
 cited his own case in support of the argument that servants of 
 the State, acting in a ministerial capacity, are bound to do 
 their best to carry into effect the measures of the responsible 
 head of the Government, without reference to their own in- 
 dividual sentiments. To this Malcolm rejoined, and with 
 much sound discrimination, that the case of a Secretary at 
 the elbow of a Governor- General and that of a Political 
 Agent at a distance from the seat of government, were not 
 analogous. " Your station and mine," he wrote, " are, my 
 dear friend, widely different. As an officer of Government, 
 acting immediately under the Go vernor- General, you have, 
 in fact, only to obey orders, and are never left to the exercise 
 of your own discretion and judgment, as you have a ready 
 reference in all cases that can occur to the superior authority, 
 with whom, of course, every responsibility rests. Under 
 such circumstances, a secretary that chooses to be of a dif- 
 ferent opinion that is to say, to maintain different opinions 
 from a Governor-General, has, in my opinion, no option but 
 to resign ; and his resignation would, on such occasion, appear 
 extraordinary to every person acquainted with the nature of 
 his office, which is obviously one of an executive, not of a 
 deliberate nature. Now look at my situation. Placed at a 
 
 * These proceedings necessarily oc- partly before, and partly after the death 
 cupied a considerable period of time of Lord Cornwallis.
 
 CONCLUSION OF THE WAB. 165 
 
 great distance from the Governor-General, and acting upon 1805. 
 instructions of a general nature obliged constantly to de- 
 termine points upon my own judgment, as there is no time 
 for reference liable to be called upon by extraordinary 
 exigencies to act in a most decided manner to save the public 
 interests from injury, it is indispensable that the sentiments 
 of my mind should be in some unison with the dictates of 
 my duty, and if they unfortunately are contrary to it, I am 
 not fit to be employed, for I have seen enough of these scenes 
 to be satisfied that a mere principle of obedience will never 
 carry a man through a charge where such large discretionary 
 powers must be given, with either honour to himself or ad- 
 vantage to the public." 
 
 This was written on the 6th of October. On the preceding Death of Lord 
 day, Lord Cornwallis had sunk under the accumulation of Corawallls - 
 disorders which for weeks past had rendered his demise only 
 a question of time. Malcolm grieved for the fine old soldier- 
 statesman, thus dying with the harness on his back. u You 
 have been witness," he wrote to Mr. Edmonstone, " to a most 
 extraordinary and impressive scene, the close of the life of a 
 great and good man, who has continued to the last to devote 
 himself to his country. Few have lived with such honour ; 
 no one ever died with more glory. I feel satisfied in thinking 
 that Lord Cornwallis was fully satisfied of my zeal, and that 
 our proceedings here have met with his approbation." The 
 event produced no change of policy. Sir George Barlow, 
 " aided by Mr. Edmonstone, had indeed been for some time 
 at the helm ; and stern necessity compelled our perseverance 
 in a line of political conduct which, as I have before observed, 
 had been sanctioned by Lord Wellesley before his departure 
 from the country."* There was much in it all that was dis- 
 tasteful in the extreme to Malcolm ; but he worked as best 
 he could, and remained at his post in Upper India as long as 
 there was anything to be done, cheered to the last by the 
 friendship and sympathy of that fine old soldier, Lord Lake. 
 
 In the hot weather of 1806, Colonel Malcolm was again in 
 
 * Ante. Memoir of Lord Cornwallis. really believe," he added, "that, in the 
 
 Sir Arthur Wellesley wrote to Malcolm opinion of the majority of people in this 
 
 that no one could be a judge of the country, it would have been better to 
 
 necessity of peace in India who had not cede the whole of Oude to Holkar than 
 
 sat in the House of Commons. "I to continue the war."
 
 166 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1806. Calcutta, and in constant communication with Sir George 
 Barlow and Mr. Edmonstone. The war was at an end ; but 
 it had left a crop of trouble behind it, and there was still 
 much work to be done. To Malcolm this period of his life 
 was not a grateful one ; for his opinions were not those of 
 the Government, and he frequently found himself the anta- 
 gonist of Barlow, and sometimes of his friend Edmonstone. 
 In truth, Malcolm and Barlow, though each admirable after 
 his kind, seemed to be sent into the world expressly to war 
 with each other. They were essentially unlike in almost every 
 feature of their several characters, save in honesty and 
 courage, which both possessed in an equal degree, but evinced 
 after different fashions. Malcolm often longed for one hour 
 of Wellesley in his prime ; and he tried hard to tempt 
 " brother Arthur" back to India. When that event, known 
 in history as the massacre of Vellore, startled the English in 
 India from one end of the country to the other, he wrote to 
 Sir Arthur Wellesley, saying, " My opinion is fixed beyond 
 all power of being altered, that upon your appointment to 
 be Governor and Commander-in- Chief of Madras the actual 
 preservation of that part of our British Empire may, in a 
 great degree, depend." To Lord Wellesley he wrote in the 
 same strain, adding, " Your Lordship knows I am no alarmist. 
 This is the first time I have ever trembled for India. It is 
 one of those dangers of which it is impossible to calculate 
 either the extent, the progress, or the consequences." But 
 Sir Arthur Wellesley had taken the measure of Indian service 
 and of himself far too well to wish to return to Madras. He 
 would have gone, if the sacrifice had been required from him, 
 but happily he was not called upon to make it. "I don't 
 think it probable," he wrote to Malcolm, "that I shall be 
 called upon to go to Lidia ; the fact is, that men in power in 
 England think very little of that country ; and those who do 
 think of it, feel very little inclination that I should go there. 
 Besides that, I have got pretty high on the tree since I came 
 here, and those in power think that I cannot well be spared 
 from objects nearer home. At the same time, the Indians in 
 London are crying out for my return." 
 
 Those were days when Indian service even of the best kind 
 was almost habitually ignored. Malcolm, who had done so
 
 SEASONS OF DESPONDENCY. 167 
 
 much for his country, had risen to the rank of Lieutenant- 1806 isor. 
 Colonel by seniority ; but, for all that he had done, he had 
 received no mark of distinction from the Crown. There were 
 times when Malcolm was keenly sensitive of this neglect not 
 only as it affected himself, but as it affected the whole service 
 to which he belonged. In the lives of most men and of all 
 men, it may be said, who have long dwelt under the depress- 
 ing influences of an Indian climate there have been seasons 
 of painful despondency. When, therefore, in the cold season 
 of 1806-1807, Malcolm returned to Madras, intending to re- 
 join his appointment in Mysore (for he was still Resident at 
 that Court), he told himself that his service was nearly at an 
 end, and that another year of work would be enough for him. 
 He was at this time in a poor state of health, and compelled i 
 to keep his room ; but crowds of visitors, including " all the J 
 great," turned the sick-room into a levee. " These honours 
 do not turn my head," he wrote to his old friend Gerald 
 Lake, " for the sentiment of my mind is more of pity than of 
 admiration of some of our first characters here." He was 
 now eager to proceed to his Residency and to rest. The state 
 of his mind at this period, influenced, doubtless, by physical 
 weakness, may be gathered from his correspondence. " I 
 mean to proceed in eight days more," he wrote to Lord 
 Wellesley on the 4th of March, " to Mysore,* where I anx- 
 iously hope I may be permitted to stay during the short period 
 I mean to remain in India. Those motives that would have 
 carried me dawk over the world exist no longer." " I anti- / 
 cipate with pleasure," he said in another letter, " the prospect 
 of one year's quiet ; and that is, I trust, the extent of the 
 period that I shall remain. God knows that I should be glad to 
 abridge even that, if possible. I do not think it at all likely that 
 any event can arise that would lead the Governor- General to 
 wish me to move again. But if there should, I must trust to i 
 your endeavours to prevent it, for every consideration concurs 
 to make me now as desirous to avoid active employment on 
 the public service as ever I was to court it. I need not state 
 to you the proofs I have given of not being deficient in public 
 zeal. I have been rewarded, I admit, by distinction in the 
 service ; but if a man is wished to go on, further stimulus must 
 * His departure was subsequently delayed. He started on the 21st of March.
 
 168 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1807. be found, and I confess, as far as I can judge my own case, I 
 have every inducement to stop, and not a solitary one to 
 
 proceed My mind is as full of ambition as ever ; but I 
 
 have determined, on the most serious reflection, to retire, and 
 avoid all public employment, unless a period arrives in which I 
 can be certain that my services will be justly appreciated and 
 rewarded. And if it is conceived that any ability, knowledge, 
 or experience I possess can be usefully directed to the pro- 
 motion of the public interests, I must be stimulated to 
 exertion by a fair prospect of just and honourable encourage- 
 ment." 
 
 Marriage. B u t never was the great truth that Man proposes and God 
 disposes, more emphatically inscribed on any man's life than 
 on the life of John Malcolm. He spoke of his career as 
 though it were nearly at its close ; but in truth it was only 
 in its beginning. He had not very long returned to Mysore, 
 when a great change came over his life. To settle down at 
 the Residency for a little quiet was in effect to settle in an- 
 other way. He had been so constantly on the move for many 
 years that he had seen little of female society ; but his warm, 
 affectionate nature was sensible of the want of a helpmate ; 
 there were times when he felt very isolated and companion- 
 less a solitary man in a strange land and his heart often 
 turned restlessly to England, as though there alone the bless- 
 ing of domestic life was to be found. But in this he was 
 mistaken. He found that what he wanted was already 
 within his reach. He gave his affections to one altogether 
 worthy of the gift; and on the 4th of July, 1807, he 
 married Charlotte, daughter of Colonel Alexander Campbell 
 (afterwards Commander-in- Chief of the Madras Army), a 
 
 Ilady in whom, it has been said, " the charms of youth and 
 beauty were united with a good natural understanding and a 
 cultivated mind." This union was productive of much happi- 
 ness to both. But nothing could ever relax John Malcolm's 
 zealous activity in the public service. Single or married, he 
 was ever hungering for employment ; and in the course of the 
 following year he was equipping himself for a second embassy 
 to Persia,
 
 PERSIAN POLITICS. 169 
 
 For some time the King's Ministers had contemplated the 1807. 
 expediency of sending another mission to Persia a mission p^^^ 
 which was to be despatched directly from the Court of St. mission. 
 James's ; and Sir Arthur Wellesley had warmly recommended 
 that Malcolm should be placed at the head of the embassy. 
 " Government have some thoughts of sending an embassy to 
 Persia," wrote the General in February, 1807, " Baghdad 
 Jones as the ambassador. I put a spoke in his wheel the 
 other day, I think, in conversation with Tierney, and urged 
 him to get Lord Howick to appoint you. God knows whether 
 I have succeeded in the last object, although I made it clear 
 that Jones was an improper man, and that you were the only 
 one fit for the station." This advice, however, was thrown 
 away, as was nearly all the advice on Indian affairs which at 
 that time emanated from the Wellesleys ;* and Mr. Harford 
 Jones, having been created a baronet for the occasion, was 
 despatched to the Court of the Persian Shah. He went from 
 London with credentials from the King, and he was to have 
 proceeded through Russia to the Persian frontier, but a 
 sudden and startling change in the politics of Europe dis- 
 concerted his arrangements at the very outset of his ambas- 
 sadorial career. Russia had ceased to be our friend and ally. 
 She had been fighting for dear life against the growing power 
 of Napoleon, and we had hoped that she would aid us in our 
 efforts to checkmate France in the East. But the peace of 
 Tilsit, as if by magic, changed all this. After the bloody fights 
 of Eylau and Friedland the two armies had fraternised, and 
 the two Emperors had embraced each other on a raft floating 
 on the surface of the river Niemen. Among the vast projects 
 of conquest which they then formed was a conjoint campaign 
 " contre les possessions de la compagnie des Indes." The 
 territories of the East India Company were to be divided 
 between these two great continental potentates. It was be- 
 lieved that the attack would be made by land rather than by 
 sea, and that Persia would become a basis of operations 
 against the North- Western Provinces of India. The danger 
 was not an imaginary one. It was the harvest-time of great 
 
 * Sir Arthur Wellesley, a few months in North America, I might be informed 
 
 before, had written to Malcolm, saying : and consulted about the 'measures to be 
 
 " As for India, I know but little re- adopted in India, but as it is, that is out 
 
 specting it. If I had been employed of the question."
 
 170 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 18071808. events, and the invasion of India by a mighty European force 
 did not seem to rise above the ordinary level of the current 
 history of the day. 
 
 So Sir Harford Jones was compelled to betake himself to a 
 new route ; and it seemed to the eye of authority in India 
 that the embassy from St. James's, if not folded up altogether, 
 would be so long delayed as to be very nearly useless. Lord 
 Minto was at that time Govern or- General of India. He had 
 not long taken his seat at Calcutta before he began to con- 
 sider the expediency of sending a mission from India to the 
 Persian Court ; and to send such a mission was synonymous 
 with sending Malcolm at the head of it. Barry Close sent 
 him a hint to prepare for such an invitation ; but Malcolm 
 was inclined to think at that time that the Governor- General 
 was of too cool and cautious a temper to send a mission to 
 Persia without orders from home. In this, however, he was 
 mistaken. Lord Minto soon made up his mind to send 
 Malcolm to the Persian Gulf, with a commission of a vague 
 character, half military and half political to threaten, if not 
 to negotiate, and to wait for the lessons written down in the 
 great chapter of accidents. At the end of January, he wrote 
 to Malcolm, saying : " I did not conceal my own sentiments 
 in England concerning the name to be selected for that most 
 important mission a mission which required qualifications 
 hardly to be found united in more than one name that I have 
 ever heard. That name has been the subject of very clear 
 and strong representations from me to the authorities at home 
 since I assumed this government. In the mean while, my 
 own hands were effectually restrained by the two considera- 
 tions already mentioned the connexion between English and 
 Russian politics, and the actual appointment of another 
 person. I am now released by the separation which there is 
 reason to apprehend between Great Britain and Russia, and 
 by the growing necessity of the case in Asia. We have not 
 heard of Sir Harford Jones's arrival in Persia ; and, indeed, 
 all that I yet know of his mission is, that he was ordered to 
 repair in the first instance to St. Petersburg, in order to carry 
 with him from thence, if it could be obtained (of which there 
 was little prospect), the consent of that Court to the mediation 
 of Great Britain between Russia and Prussia. If there is a
 
 EXPEDITION TO THE PERSIAN GULF. 171 
 
 rupture between Eussia and England, as there is much reason 1808. 
 to suppose, I do not know by what route Sir Harford Jones 
 can penetrate to Persia. At all events, your commission is 
 framed in such a manner as not to clash with a diplomatic 
 mission to the King of Persia, if you should find Sir Harford 
 Jones at that Court. You will perceive that I have not ad- 
 mitted into this measure any doubt of your consent to it. 
 Knowing as I do your public zeal and principles, and without 
 reckoning on the knowledge you have lately afforded me of 
 the manner in which you are affected towards this particular 
 commission, I may safely and fairly say, that neither you nor 
 I have any choice on this occasion. I must propose this 
 service to you, because the public interests (I might perhaps 
 use a stronger word) indispensably require it. You must 
 accept for the same reason. I am convinced that the call of 
 public duty is the most powerful that can be made on your 
 exertions." 
 
 To a man of Malcolm's temperament, a letter from supreme Departure for 
 authority, in such a strain as this, was not likely to be thrown 
 away. He at once responded to the summons; and with 
 characteristic energy and activity began to make the neces- 
 sary preparations for his expedition to the Persian Gulf. As 
 the French had at that time a magnificent mission at Teheran, 
 it was expedient that England also should appear in an im- 
 posing character ; so Malcolm was to be attended by a con- 
 siderable staff of military and political officers, and was to be 
 the bearer of sumptuous presents to the Court of the Shah. 
 By the middle of April everything was ready. Malcolm sailed 
 from Bombay, and just as the island was receding from his 
 view, a King's ship, with Sir Harford Jones on board, was 
 making for the port which the military ambassador had so 
 recently quitted. 
 
 On the 10th of May, Malcolm reached Bushire in high 
 spirits ; and for a time it seemed to him, always cheerful and 
 sanguine as he was, that everything was going well, and that 
 another great success was before him. " I have not only re- 
 ceived the most uncommon attention from every one here," 
 he wrote to Sir George Barlow, who, on the arrival of Lord 
 Minto, had succeeded to the Government of Madras, " but 
 learnt from the best authority that the accounts of my mission
 
 172 SIB JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1808. have been received with the greatest satisfaction at Court. 
 The great progress which the French have made, and are 
 daily making here, satisfied me of the necessity of bringing 
 matters to an early issue. I have a chance of complete vic- 
 tory. I shall, at all events, ascertain exactly how we stand, 
 and know what we ought to do ; and if I do not awaken the 
 Persian Court from their delusion, I shall at least excite the 
 jealousy of their new friends. I send Captain Pasley off to- 
 morrow for Court ostensibly with a letter for the King, but 
 he has secret instructions, and will be able to make important 
 observations I have endeavoured to combine modera- 
 tion with spirit, and to inform the Persian Court, in language 
 which cannot irritate, of all the dangers of their French con- 
 nexion. Captain Pasley will reach Court on the 28th of 
 June, and on the 15th of July I may be able to give you some 
 satisfactory account of his success." 
 
 But Captain Pasley. never reached Court ; and the anti- 
 cipated success was a mortifying failure. The French were 
 established too securely in Persia for their supremacy to be 
 shaken by the announcement of another mission from the 
 Government of India. They were drilling the Persian troops, 
 and casting cannon, and instructing the army in all the scien- 
 tific accomplishments of European warfare. The appearance 
 of the English mission perplexed the Persian Court, but thus 
 fortified by their French allies, and by further support from 
 Russia, the statesmen of Teheran were not alarmed. They 
 determined, if possible, to keep the English out of Teheran, 
 and to this end the provincial governors were directed to pro- 
 crastinate, and by all possible means to amuse and cajole our 
 envoys. So Captain Pasley, having penetrated as far as 
 Shiraz, was detained at that place, and told that he or his 
 chief might open negotiations with the Prince- Governor of 
 the province. 
 
 When tidings of this reached Malcolm he chafed sorely, 
 and was by no means inclined to brook the insult. His vexa- 
 tion was the more intolerable, as he cordially hated the 
 French, and felt that our enemies would exult in our abase- 
 ment. He had a genial temper, and he generally took a 
 cheerful view of the prospect before him, but he was not one 
 of the patient and long-suffering class of envoys, and he
 
 FAILURE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 173 
 
 thought that the great nation which he represented ought 
 not, in the presence of insolent enemies, to wait upon cir- 
 cumstances, and to beg for what it had a right to demand. 
 So, right or wrong, he determined to mark his sense of the 
 indignity to which he had been subjected by withdrawing 
 his ambassadorial presence from so inhospitable a country.* 
 " From the letters I received this day from Captain Pasley, 
 at Shiraz," he wrote on the llth of June, " I was concerned 
 to observe the Ministers there not only continued to throw 
 obstacles in the way of his progress to Teheran, but declared 
 they had orders from the King directing me to carry on my 
 negotiations with the Prince-Regent of the province of Fars, 
 and they had heard, without being moved from their purpose, 
 all those reasons which Captain Pasley had in the most firm 
 and spirited manner urged to satisfy them. I would never 
 consent to an arrangement of so humiliating a nature towards 
 myself and the Government I represented as one which al- 
 lowed a French embassy to remain in the Presence while it 
 directed one from the English nation to treat with an inferior 
 
 1808. 
 
 * Whilst Malcolm was in the Persian 
 Gulf he received much gratifying atten- 
 tion from the Imaum of Muscat, who 
 sent complimentary messages and pre- 
 sents to him on board. An old Muscat 
 acquaintance of Malcolm was the bearer 
 of these ; and the account of their meet- 
 ing, as recorded in Malcolm's journal, 
 contains a passage so characteristically 
 descriptive of the English officer, that I 
 cannot forbear from quoting it : " ' You 
 have been all over the world,' says he 
 to me, ' since I last saw you.' ' I have 
 travelled a little,' I answered. ' Tra- 
 velled a little!' he exclaimed; 'you 
 have done nothing else ; we heard you 
 were with the great Lord Wellesley at 
 Calcutta. When there in a ship of 
 the Imaum's, I went to see you : Mal- 
 colm Sahib was gone to Madras. Two 
 years afterwards I went again to Bengal, 
 and thought I would find my friend : 
 no, Malcolm Sahib was gone to Scin- 
 diah, and we heard afterwards you went 
 with Lord Lake to Lahore. However, 
 four months ago, we heard you had 
 come to Seringapatam and married a 
 fine young girl, the daughter of some 
 Colonel. And now,' says he, ' after 
 travelling all the world over, and then 
 marrying, you are come again to your 
 
 old friends the Arabs and Persians.' I 
 told my friend Mahomed Gholam I was 
 quite nattered with the interest he ap- 
 peared to have taken in my welfare, 
 and rejoiced to see him in such health 
 and spirits, and enjoying the favour of 
 his Prince. I then reminded him of 
 some former scenes, particularly one in 
 which he had been much alarmed at 
 the conduct of one of the gentlemen 
 with me. He laughed, and said he was 
 glad I recollected old times and old 
 friends, and that I would find, as I pro- 
 ceeded, that all those I had before seen 
 perfectly remembered me. He then 
 begged me to take some letters for him 
 to Bushire, and began writing a post- 
 script to one of them. I saw him 
 smiling, and asked him to tell me (like 
 an honest Arab) what he was writing, 
 as I was sure it was about me. ' I will 
 tell you without hesitation,' said he, 
 'for why need I be ashamed of the 
 truth ? I knew my friends would ex- 
 pect some account of you, and I could 
 not give it till I saw you. I have in- 
 formed them that this is exactly the 
 same Malcolm we had before, the only 
 difference is, that he was then a Cap- 
 tain, and is now a General.' "
 
 174 
 
 SIB JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1808. 
 
 Visit to the 
 Governor- 
 General. 
 
 
 Government These circumstances convinced me that 
 
 nothing short of the adoption of some very strong measure 
 would produce a change in the conduct of a Court which was 
 evidently acting under the influence of our enemies, and it 
 appeared particularly necessary that measure should be of a 
 nature that would remove an impression which the French 
 had endeavoured to produce in Persia viz. that England had 
 not an ally in the world, was reduced to the last stage of 
 distress, and consequently was soliciting the friendship of the 
 King of Persia from an inability to preserve without his aid 
 its possessions in India. I determined, in consequence of 
 these reflections, to strike my camp next morning and to go 
 on board the Doris, and write to Captain Pasley to inform 
 the Ministers of the Prince at Shiraz why I have done so, 
 informing them that I never should re-land in Persia unless 
 he was allowed to proceed to Court, and I was assured of 
 being treated with less suspicion and more friendship." 
 
 Having done this, Malcolm determined to proceed to Cal- 
 cutta, and to take counsel with Lord Minto. In pursuance 
 of this resolution he sailed from Bushire on the 12th of July, 
 leaving Pasley, who narrowly escaped being made a prisoner, 
 to represent the British mission, and "hold on" as best he 
 could. It was a sore trial to him to be compelled to pass 
 Bombay, where his young wife was then residing, without 
 touching at that port. " The resolution to pass Bombay," 
 he wrote to Mrs. Malcolm, " believe me, was not taken with- 
 out pain ; but my duty called for the sacrifice, and you will 
 be pleased that I had virtue and firmness enough to make it. 
 I hope to be at Calcutta about the 1st of September. I shall 
 leave it for Bombay about the 1st of October, and arrive 
 with my dearest Charlotte about the 10th of November. How 
 long I stay there is a speculation ; but believe me the present 
 step is the only one I could take to enable me to do justice to 
 the great interests committed to my charge. These, by the 
 blessing of God, will yet prosper ; and I shall have the credit, 
 if the victory is won, of having not been sparing of exertion. 
 A month with Lord Minto will do wonders." 
 
 It was indeed a very trying period of his newly-born 
 domestic life ; for Malcolm, with those mingled sensations of 
 anxiety and delight wliich are common to our civilised
 
 VISIT TO CALCUTTA. 175 
 
 humanity, was anticipating, in this particular epoch, the birth isoe. 
 
 of his first child. " Good God," he said, in one of his letters, 
 
 " what a state of torturing suspense I am in ! But I trust 
 
 I shall soon be relieved from all my fears, and then my joys 
 
 will be excessive." And relief was coming to him, even at 
 
 that time, more nearly than he thought. At the mouth of 
 
 the Gulf they spied a vessel, and bore down upoji her. She 
 
 proved to be bound from Bombay, and, on boarding her, 
 
 Malcolm received a parcel of letters, in one of which there 
 
 was the cheering announcement of his wife's safety and the 
 
 birth of an infant daughter. It was an additional delight to 
 
 him to learn that the child had been called Margaret, after 
 
 his mother. " God bless you for giving her that name !" he 
 
 wrote in a letter full of love and thankfulness to his wife ; 
 
 " it may not be so fine to the ear, but it has, from belonging 
 
 to one of the best and most respected of women, a charm in 
 
 it which will preserve our darling, and make her all her parents 
 
 could wish." 
 
 On the 22nd of August, Malcolm landed at Calcutta. The 
 Governor-General's boat had been sent to meet him in the 
 Hooghly, and he was received, on his arrival at Government 
 House, with the utmost kindness and cordiality by Lord 
 Minto, of whose public and private character he sent to his 
 wife a felicitous sketch, which the most studied biography 
 could not excel in fidelity of portraiture. He had the pleasure, 
 too, of meeting several old friends, with whom he had been 
 familiar in the days of Lord Wellesley Colebrooke and 
 Lumsden (then members of Council), and " my excellent 
 friend John Adam," who was advancing to high honour in 
 the Secretariat. Everybody was anxious to see and to con- 
 verse with Malcolm ; but the visit-paying and the hospitality 
 were not sufficient to interfere with business, and the envoy 
 had " several long discussions with Lord Minto, and all satis- 
 factory." " I am quite overwhelmed with Lord Minto's 
 kindness," he wrote to his wife. " All people here seem to 
 struggle who shall show me greatest kindness. These marks 
 of general esteem are pleasing, but they would be a thousand 
 times more so if you were here to share them." 
 
 Malcolm was one of those men who thoroughly understand 
 and appreciate the great doctrine of Compensations. He
 
 176 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1808. could discern " a soul of goodness in things evil ;" and every 
 year taught him to see more and more clearly, in the crosses 
 and vexations of life, some compensatory benefits, either in- 
 herent in themselves, or sent simultaneously by a benignant 
 Providence to mitigate their severity. The cheerfulness for 
 which he was so remarkable was the growth of an unfailing 
 sense of gratitude to the Almighty. At this particular time 
 he had been crossed in the concerns both of his public and 
 his private life; but with a signal reversal of the famous 
 Lucretian sentiment, he found the dulce aliquid surging up 
 medio de fonte dolorum. There came to him at this time most 
 opportunely a shower of those dear home-letters, which, 
 before steam had vulgarised them by rendering their receipt 
 a mere matter of the calendar, were to the Indian exile the 
 refreshment and revival which preserved his heart from be- 
 coming " dry as summer's dust." They were from relatives 
 and friends of all kinds the nearest and the dearest, in- 
 cluding his mother and Arthur Wellesley and were full of 
 congratulations. u If a fellow had written a novel," he wrote 
 to his wife, " and had puzzled his brain for a twelvemonth to 
 make his hero happy in the last chapter, he could not have 
 been happier than I was yesterday to hear such accounts of 
 you and Margaret, and to receive such letters from my rela- 
 tives so full of joy and affection to find that they all, with- 
 out one exception, met you with that warm welcome of the 
 heart which is beyond all welcomes valuable." And then he 
 sighed to think that the day seemed to be so remote when it 
 would be permitted him to embrace his mother and sisters in 
 England. " I am now," he said, " more deeply than ever 
 involved in public affairs more honourably because more 
 largely." 
 
 The result of Malcolm's conferences with Lord Minto was 
 that Sir Harford Jones was ordered to remain at Bombay, 
 and that Malcolm was instructed to return to the Persian 
 Gulf, and to establish himself, in a menacing attitude, on the 
 island of Karrack. He was to go to Bombay, pick up a 
 small army, and threaten Persia from the sea-board. Lord 
 Minto said to him, after a long farewell interview, " Your 
 duties, General Malcolm,* are not to be defined. All I can 
 * The rank of Brigadier-General had been given to h'*n whilst employed in Persia.
 
 RECALL TO CALCUTTA. 177 
 
 say is, you arc placed in a situation where you are as likely to 1808. 
 go wrong from prudence as from the want of it." There was 
 nothing that Malcolm liked better than such a hint as this. 
 He went forth full of enthusiasm fired, more than ever, by 
 the thought that he was about to engage in a great conflict 
 with the French. To all such stimulants there was the addi- 
 tional one, of which he was ever sensible, derived from his 
 new relations as a husband and a father. He said of his 
 public duties and his private happiness, " They are in such 
 complete union, that I should not be worthy of the blessings 
 I enjoy from the one if I were not devoted to the other. 
 What individual of my rank of life was ever called to act in 
 so great a scene ? . . . If opportunities offer, neither you 
 nor your children, my dearest wife, shall ever blush for my 
 conduct." 
 
 But even as he wrote a great disappointment was about to 
 fall upon him. He had not proceeded farther than Kedgeree, 
 on the Hooghly river, when he was recalled by Lord Minto, 
 who, just after Malcolm's departure, had received intelligence 
 that Sir Harford Jones had started for Persia. This was, 
 doubtless, a very awkward fact. " Karrack," wrote Lord 
 Minto, " must necessarily be suspended. We cannot commit 
 hostilities on Persia while the King of England is negotiating 
 with the King of Persia." The logic of this was indis- 
 putable. Malcolm bowed to it ; and, ordering his baggage to 
 be transferred to another vessel, returned to Calcutta to take 
 counsel with Lord Minto. His sudden reappearance at the 
 Presidency caused great surprise, and excited much curiosity.* 
 It was soon, however, resolved in council that Sir Harford 
 Jones should be repudiated or ignored. 
 
 * Malcolm has recorded an amusing who had now discovered his rank, began 
 
 illustration of this. In a letter to his to make apologies. ' I assure you, my 
 
 wife, he says : " Your acquaintance, Lord, she said, ' I did not know you.' 
 
 Mrs. "W , happened not to hare ' I am delighted at that compliment,' 
 
 been introduced to Lord Minto when he replied. ' Not to be known as Go- 
 she dined here, and, mistaking him for vernor-General in private society is my 
 another, she said, ' Do you know the ambition. I suppose,' he added, laugh- 
 cause of General Malcolm's return to ing, ' you thought I looked too young 
 Calcutta ?' 'I believe I can guess,' and too much of a puppy for that old 
 was the Lord's reply. ' Pray, then, tell grave fellow, Lord Minto, whom you 
 me,' said the lady. Lord Minto hesi- had heard people talking about.' I men- 
 tated till after we were seated at table, tion this anecdote as very characteristic 
 and then said, ' We had better give the of that playful pleasantry which makes 
 General plenty of wine, and we shall Lord Minto so agreeable." 
 get this secret out of him.' The lady, 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1809. Malcolm at first chafed under his detention in the "vile 
 
 place without the consolation of Charlotte's letters ;" but in 
 his nature the sun was never long behind a cloud, and he was 
 very soon as cheerful and playful as ever. " I have been 
 employed," he wrote on the 13th of October, "these last three 
 hours with John Elliot and other boys in trying how long we 
 could keep up two cricket -balls. Lord Minto caught us. He 
 says he must send me on a mission to some very young 
 monarch, for that I shall never have the gravity of an ambas- 
 sador for a prince turned of twelve. He, however, added the 
 well-known and admirable story of Henry IV. of France, 
 who, when caught on all fours carrying one of his children, 
 by the Spanish Envoy, looked up, and said, ' Is your Excel- 
 lency married ?' * I am, and have a family,' was the reply. 
 1 Well, then,' said the monarch, ' I am satisfied, and shall 
 take another turn round the room.' And off he galloped, 
 with his little son flogging and spurring him, on his back. I 
 have sometimes thought of breaking myself of what are 
 termed boyish habits ; but reflection has satisfied me that it 
 would be very foolish, and that I should esteem it a blessing 
 that I can find amusement in everything, from tossing a 
 cricket-ball to negotiating a treaty with the Emperor of 
 China. Men who give themselves entirely to business, and 
 despise (which is their term) trifles, are very able in their 
 general conception of the great outlines of a plan, but they 
 feel a want of that knowledge which is only to be gained by 
 mixing with all classes in the world, when they come to those 
 lesser points upon which its successful execution may depend. 
 Of this I am certain ; besides, all habits which give a man 
 light, elastic spirits, are good." 
 
 Organisation of On the 26th of October, Malcolm embarked for Bombay. 
 
 the expedition, /pj^ vova g e was rendered tedious, and to Malcolm very trying, 
 by baffling winds off Ceylon, and it was not until the last 
 day of November that the vessel entered Bombay harbour. 
 He had then a few days of domestic happiness ; but the work 
 in hand soon demanded all his care. He had to organise the 
 force which he was to carry with him to the Persian Gulf. 
 The officers of the East India Company have seldom been 
 wanting in this power of organisation, and Malcolm was a
 
 FUTILE PREPARATIONS. 179 
 
 man equally fertile of resource and energetic in action. The 1809. 
 new year found him with his work nearly done. " I proceed 
 to the Gulf in ten days," he wrote on the 3rd of January to 
 Mr. Henry Wellesley, " with an admirably well-appointed 
 little force of two thousand men, and am to be followed, if it 
 is found necessary, by three or four thousand more. The 
 object you know. It is to make a settlement on the island of 
 Karrack, and to occupy a position on the shores of Persia 
 and Eastern Turkey, from which we can negotiate with 
 dignity, and act with effect." But he had scarcely written 
 this when the vision of this establishment in the Gulf began 
 to melt away ; and a few days afterwards he wrote to one of 
 the Directors of the East India Company, saying: "lam 
 here at the head of a very select corps of near two thousand 
 men, and should have sailed before this for the Gulf, had not 
 Sir Harford Jones been as successful in getting away from 
 Bushire two days before he received Lord Minto's orders to 
 return, as he was in escaping by twenty-four hours the orders 
 of the Supreme Government for him to remain in India. 
 This proceeding has produced a question connected with 
 public faith on which I have felt it my duty to write to 
 Bengal, and I shall probably be detained till the 10th of 
 February. Perhaps the gleam of success in Europe may 
 alter all Lord Minto's plans, and I may be countermanded. 
 If so, I shall, with a feeling of delight (as far as I am per- 
 sonally concerned), quit a scene into which I was completely 
 pressed ; for after the preference which the gentlemen at home 
 had given to Sir Harford Jones after the complete neglect 
 with which they had treated me for eight years, during which 
 they have not noticed one of the numerous recommendations 
 of my political services, and after their inattention to my just 
 claims for remuneration for losses incurred by my employ- 
 ment on extra missions (recommended to their notice by the 
 most economical of all their Governors, Sir George Barlow) 
 I could feel no desire to embark on a mission by which I 
 was likely to lose all hopes of future favour by coming into 
 harsh contact with Sir Harford Jones the favourite elect. 
 An urgent sense of public duty, however, obliged me to attend 
 to the call of the Supreme Government, and here I am, em- 
 
 N2
 
 180 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1809. barked upon a sea of troubles, with a knowledge that they, 
 whose interests it is my incessant labour to promote, view all 
 my efforts with an eye of prejudice." 
 
 His surmises were not baseless. Already Lord Minto was 
 beginning to think that the project so hastily formed was not 
 one of very wise conception ; and before the end of the month 
 he had come to the determination of suspending the expe- 
 dition to the Gulf. There were many good reasons for this, 
 but the Governor- General could not help feeling that some 
 apology was due to Malcolm, who had been placed in a false 
 position, out of which he could hardly extricate himself with- 
 out incurring some of that ridicule which, reasonably or un- 
 reasonably, commonly attends all such collapses as this ; so, 
 after entering at some length into an explanation of the cir- 
 cumstances which rendered the expedition to the Gulf at 
 such a time one of doubtful expediency, he proceeded with 
 characteristic kindliness to say, " Knowing how your mind 
 and all its powers have for such a length of time been devoted 
 to the great interests involved in the affairs of Persia, and 
 generally in the Persian Gulf, knowing how instrumental I 
 have myself been in disturbing the tranquillity, public and 
 domestic, of your prominent station of Mysore, and of kindling 
 the very ardour which this letter is to extinguish, I cannot 
 but feel extreme regret and disappointment at a termination 
 which, on one hand, withdraws such talents as yours, with all 
 the energy that belongs to your character, from the great 
 field on which they were to be displayed, and, on the other 
 hand, may seem to blight the rich fruits of honour and dis- 
 tinction which you were on the point of gathering. These 
 are sentiments in which I hope and am convinced you firmly 
 believe, while I rely on the rectitude as well as strength of 
 mind which distinguish you, for feeling that they are senti- 
 ments which may be permitted to follow, but which could 
 not be allowed any share in forming, our resolution on this 
 great public question." 
 
 Mutiny of the It would not be true to say that Malcolm was not dis- 
 Madras officers, appointed; but for such a man there were always compen- 
 sations close at hand, and he very soon reconciled himself to 
 a loss out of which might be evolved much gain of another 
 kind. He might now, he thought, return to the Mysore
 
 MUTINY OF THE MADRAS OFFICERS. 181 
 
 Residency, to solace himself there with the delights of do- 1809. 
 mestic life and the amenities of literary leisure. At such 
 times, the many-sidedness of the man was very pleasantly 
 manifested. If he could not make any more history, he could 
 write it. His intercourse with Sir James Mackintosh fired 
 anew his literary ambition; and he was thinking now of 
 making great progress with his History of Persia and with 
 his Political History of India. But to such a man as Malcolm 
 repose was not very readily granted. He had scarcely re- 
 turned to Madras when his services were again required in an 
 imminent conjuncture. The European officers of the Madras 
 army were in a state of revolt. The crisis was a very alarm- 
 ing one ; and, perhaps, we do not even now know how nearly 
 the State was wrecked. At Masulipatam, especially, there 
 was a perilous state of things, for the Madras European 
 regiment was garrisoned there, and it was believed that the 
 men would follow their officers, and hoist the flag of sedition. 
 Sir George Barlow was then Governor of Madras. The pre- 
 sence of Malcolm was most opportune. If any man could 
 restore discipline to the troops at Masulipatam, he could do it. 
 He was asked, and he consented to go. He took ship at the 
 beginning of July, 1809, and was soon landed at Masuli- 
 patam. He found that the exasperation of the officers was 
 even greater than he had expected. But he resolved to con- 
 front it with that frank, cheery, popular manner so peculiar 
 to himself, by which he had so often worked his way to 
 success. He met the officers, talked the matter over freely 
 and candidly with them, admitting as much as he safely could 
 (for in part he sympathised with them), and afterwards joined 
 them at Mess. After dinner, a young officer, flushed with 
 wine, proposed as a toast, " Our Common Cause." With 
 characteristic readiness of address, Malcolm rose and said, 
 " Ay the common cause of our country." The amendment 
 was received and drank with enthusiasm, and soon afterwards 
 his own health was toasted with universal applause. This 
 seemed to be the turning-point. On the following day the 
 leading officers of the garrison discussed the whole subject 
 calmly with him ; and, though it was not easy to allay their 
 irritation, he held them in check, and endeavoured by mild 
 persuasions, not wanting in dignity and resolution, to lure
 
 182 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1809. them back to their allegiance to the State. Sir George Barlow 
 thought that he was too conciliatory that such rebellion as 
 theirs should not have been so treated. He sent a general 
 officer, named Pater, to take command at Masulipatam, and 
 Malcolm returned to Madras. A controversy then arose, which 
 was maintained in vital force for some years. Some thought 
 Malcolm was right, some thought that he was wrong in prin- 
 ciple; but practically, at least, he gained time; and I am 
 inclined to think that, if he had adopted any other course, the 
 Masulipatam officers, followed by their men, would have formed 
 a junction with the mutineers at Hyderabad, Jaulnah, &c., and 
 that the danger would have risen to a point which, under the 
 more conciliatory system, it was never suffered to attain. 
 
 The Government of Sir George Barlow took an adverse 
 view of Malcolm's conduct, and recorded a strong opinion on 
 the subject, the justice of which he never admitted. " Lieut. - 
 Colonel Malcolm" so ran the official despatch " appears to 
 have adopted a course of proceeding entirely different from 
 that which we had in view in deputing him to Masulipatam. 
 He abstained from making any direct communication to the 
 men, and when we authorised him, with the view of detach- 
 ing the troops from the cause of their officers, to proclaim a 
 pardon to the European and Native soldiers for the part which 
 they might have taken in the mutiny, he judged it to be 
 proper to withhold the promulgation of the pardon from an 
 apprehension (as stated in his letter to our President, dated 
 the 18th of July) of irritating the minds of the European 
 officers, and driving them to despair. To this apparently un- 
 reasonable forbearance, and attention to the feelings of officers 
 who had, by their acts of violence and aggression, forfeited 
 all claims to such consideration, may, we conceive, be ascribed 
 Lieut. -Colonel Malcolm's failure in the establishment of any 
 efficient control over the garrison; and he appears to have 
 been principally occupied during the period of his residence at 
 Masulipatam in negotiations with the disorderly committees, 
 calculated, in our opinion, to compromise rather than esta- 
 blish his authority, and in fruitless attempts to induce them 
 by argument to return to their duty and abandon the criminal 
 combination in which they had engaged." 
 
 The question is one, on both sides of which much may be
 
 CONTROVERSIAL QUESTIONS?. 183 
 
 said, and I do not purpose here to examine it in detail. It is 1809 
 more to the purpose of this biography to say, that Malcolm 
 dealt with the immediate business entrusted to him in the 
 manner in which a man of his character and temperament 
 might be expected to deal with it. It was his wont always 
 to appeal to the better part of men's natures when there was 
 a fair chance of doing so with success. He had some not 
 inexcusable pride in his powers of conciliation, and it pleased 
 him in this instance to turn to account the feeling of com- 
 radeship which he inspired. If he yielded too much, it is to 
 be remembered that the alternative was one terrible to con- 
 template. Had it been attempted to subdue the mutinous 
 spirit of the officers by force, the power of the soldiery must 
 have been employed against their old commanders a remedy 
 almost worse than the disease. Looking at the matter coolly 
 and dispassionately from a distance, Sir James Mackintosh, I 
 am disposed to think, took a right view of the question and 
 of its difficulties, when he said : " An appeal to the privates 
 against their, immediate superiors is a wound in the vitals of 
 an army. The relation of the private soldier to the subaltern 
 is the keystone of the arch. An army may survive any other 
 change, but to dissolve that relation is to dissolve the whole. 
 There begins the obedience of the many to the few. In civil 
 society this problem appears of most difficult solution. But 
 there it is the obedience of the dispersed and unarmed many. 
 It is rare, and in well-regulated communities .almost unfelt. 
 In military bodies it is the hourly obedience, even to death, 
 of the armed and embodied many. The higher links which 
 bind subalterns to their superiors, and these to one chief, are 
 only the obediences of the few to a fewer, and of these fewer 
 to one. These things are easily intelligible. Honour and 
 obvious interest are sufficient to account for them. But the 
 obedience of the whole body of soldiers to their immediate 
 officers is that which forms an army, and which cannot be 
 disturbed without the utmost danger of its total destruction." 
 The anxiety and distress which Malcolm suffered at this time 
 were not, however, of long continuance. He had scarcely 
 returned to Madras, when he again received from the Go- 
 vernor-General a summons to proceed to Persia. In the 
 estimation of Lord Minto, Sir Harford Jones had been doing
 
 184 . SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1809. his work in a manner so undignified, and so unworthy of the 
 great nation which he represented, that it required the best 
 exertions of an ambassador of another kind to restore our 
 tarnished reputation. So he wrote to Malcolm, saying : " I 
 need not tell you all that has been done through the zealous 
 ministry of Sir Harford Jones to lower the rank and estima- 
 tion of the British Government of India within the sphere of 
 his influence. I am entirely convinced that the empire at 
 large is deeply interested in maintaining, or rather, I must 
 now say, in restoring the British dominion in India to that 
 eminence amongst the states of Asia on which the mission of 
 Sir Harford Jones found it established. But if I had any 
 doubts of my own upon that point, I should still think it 
 amongst my first duties to transmit to my successor the 
 powers, prerogatives, and dignities of our Indian Empire in 
 its relations I mean with the surrounding nations as entire 
 and unsullied as they were confided to my hands; and I 
 should esteem it a disgraceful violation of my great trust to 
 let the most powerful and the noblest empire of the East suffer 
 in my custody the slightest debasement, unless the commands 
 of my Sovereign and superiors should require in veiy explicit 
 terms a change so much to be deprecated. I entreat you, 
 therefore, to go and lift us to our own height, and to the 
 station that belongs to us, once more." Lord Minto soon fol- 
 lowed his letter to Madras, where he received Malcolm with 
 great cordiality and kindness, and talked over with him the 
 details of the new mission to the Court of the Shah. 
 
 1810. By the end of the year Malcolm's arrangements were com- 
 sion "oT'ersia. P^ e 5 an d on the 10th of January he again sailed for the 
 
 Persian Gulf, attended by a brilliant staff of young officers, 
 full of enterprise and enthusiasm, eager for action, and all 
 fondly attached to their leader. His passage was retarded by 
 contrary winds, but he found compensation even for this in 
 the leisure which it afforded him for the completion of his 
 Political History of India. " Five chapters are finished and 
 corrected," he wrote to his wife a month after he had em- 
 barked, " and the sixth and last is commenced this morning. 
 I begin now to look forward with great delight to that en- 
 chanting word, Finis. The moment I cease to write I will 
 have a jubilee. I mean to dance, hunt, shoot, and play, myself,
 
 THE NEW PEBSIAN MISSION. 185 
 
 and let who will write histories, memoirs, and sketches." Four 1810. 
 days afterwards Malcolm landed at Bushire, where he was 
 received with becoming respect and attention. Sending for- 
 ward the letter of which he was the bearer to the King, he 
 encamped himself with his suite, and waited for an answer. 
 Nearly two months were spent at Bushire, but neither un- 
 profitably nor unpleasantly, for Malcolm finished his History, 
 and then began, as he said, " to hunt, and shoot, and ride, 
 and revel in all the delights of idleness." The companionship 
 of the fine, high-spirited youngsters who formed his Staff, was 
 very pleasant to " Boy Malcolm ;" and many a joyous day of 
 hunting or exploring had they together whilst the firman of 
 the King, which was to order them to advance, was slowly 
 making its way from Teheran. It came at last, on the 8th of 
 April, and was received in camp with a royal salute. A few 
 days afterwards the mission commenced its march for the 
 Persian capital. 
 
 As the mission advanced, Malcolm found everywhere that 
 the greed for British gold and costly presents, which he had 
 himself ten years before done something to stimulate, had 
 been greatly strengthened by the lavish givings of Sir Harford 
 Jones. " These people," he wrote, " are like ferocious animals 
 who have once tasted blood. Nothing else will satisfy them. 
 They cry out for money as shamelessly as if it were their 
 natural food. I have been obliged to come to very high 
 words, and have no doubt that I have much disgusted them." 
 They were scarcely less anxious to bribe than to be bribed. 
 Whilst Malcolm was at Shiraz, it was intimated to him by 
 the Minister that a costly present of jewels had been prepared 
 as a gift to his wife. Checking his first feeling of indignation, 
 Malcolm replied : " Tell your master that when I was at 
 Mysore, the Minister there would gladly have heaped costly 
 presents upon us ; but instead of this, on my persuasion, he 
 made a fine new road that was much wanted, and dedicated it 
 to Mrs. Malcolm. Such are the presents I like." 
 
 Malcolm's great difficulty was Sir Harford Jones ; but even 
 this was overcome in time, and the unseemly antagonism 
 between the two envoys, to which the Persians looked hope- 
 fully in the expectation that they would endeavour to out- 
 bribe each other, brought at last to an end. The King re-
 
 186 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1810. ceived Malcolm with all due honour in his royal camp at 
 Sultaneah, and both his Majesty and the Prince Abbas Merza 
 paid him the most gratifying personal attentions. On the 
 occasion of his first audience, Futteh Ali welcomed him with 
 the greatest cordiality, told him to be seated, and cut short 
 his ambassadorial speech by telling him to talk about himself. 
 Malcolm was not slow to obey ; but they soon branched into 
 a general conversation on the politics of Europe, in which the 
 career and character of Napoleon occupied no small place. 
 
 It is not necessary to follow in detail the history of this 
 second mission to Persia, the chief results of which were 
 that, primarily in Malcolm's honour, the order of the Lion 
 and the Sun was instituted, and that additional materials were 
 collected for the long-contemplated History of Persia. The 
 Company's Government, in the person of their representative, 
 were sufficiently lustrated ; but as the management of our 
 Persian relations was thenceforth entrusted to the King's 
 Ministers, this was not of much importance. The object, how- 
 ever, for which Malcolm had been sent to the Court of the 
 Shah was abundantly attained, and after having received his 
 audience of leave, he was fully entitled to write to Lord 
 Minto, saying : " I cannot but conceive that, the conduct of 
 the King towards me must have the best effects towards the 
 full accomplishment of those objects which your Lordship had 
 in view when you deputed me to this Court, as it marked in 
 a manner not to be mistaken his great respect and considera- 
 tion for the Government which I represented." A few days 
 afterwards he wrote in his journal : " What a happy man I 
 am ! It is impossible to look back without congratulating 
 myself on my good fortune at every stage of my late vexa- 
 tious and unpromising mission. I have now turned my back, 
 and I hope for ever, on deceit, falsehood, and intrigue ; and I 
 am bending my willing steps and still more willing heart 
 towards rectitude, truth, and sincerity. I leave all I hate, 
 and am proceeding towards all I love. May God make my 
 journey prosperous !" But there was still a little more trouble 
 in store for him, both from the cupidity of the Persians and 
 their dissensions on the Turkish border ; and it was not with- 
 out some difficulty that he at last made good his route to 
 Bombay.
 
 RETUKN TO ENGLAND. 187 
 
 There was now at last a brief season of repose for him. He iu. 
 took up his residence at Bombay early in the year 1811, and 
 addressed himself assiduously to the completion of the finan- 
 cial accounts of his mission to Persia, and the composition of 
 his long-contemplated history. There he met, for the second 
 time, Sir James Mackintosh, with whom he entered into the 
 bonds of a lifelong friendship, and was soon joined by his old 
 comrade, Mountstuart Elphinstone, who, after returning from 
 his mission to Afghanistan, had been appointed Resident at 
 Poonah. In the following year, Malcolm, with his wife and 
 children, took ship for England, uncertain about the future. 
 There were times when he thought of retiring from the service, 
 of farming and horse-breeding; but he was then in the full 
 vigour of his manhood, and to abandon such a career at the 
 age of forty-three required such strong inducements and sub- 
 stantial reasons as even the love of country and the charms of 
 a happy home could not supply. But no man could more 
 thoroughly enjoy life in his native country. There was but one 
 drawback to the happiness of his return one that has turned 
 the joy of too many an Indian exile into sorrow death had 
 broken into the family circle. Both his parents were dead. 
 He had started from Bombay full of the delightful hope of 
 soon seeing his wife and children in his mother's arms ; but 
 news of her death met him at St. Helena, and the blow fell 
 heavily upon him. 
 
 In the course of July (1812), he landed in England, and 1312. 
 soon, having taken a house near Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, Ret j irn to En ~ 
 he located his family there, and proceeded to Scotland, to 
 revisit the scenes of his youth. There, in his own native 
 Dumfries-shire, he " went to visit all, high and low, that had 
 known him as a child." " Visited the graves of my parents," 
 he added, in the journal which he kept at the time, " and 
 heard the noblest praise of them from the aged, the infirm, 
 and the poor that they had aided and supported ; and to whom 
 the aid and support of the family are still given." At Burn- 
 foot he was received with rapturous delight by all scarcely 
 less by the old servants and dependents of the family than by 
 his own nearest kindred. On John Malcolm observing to one 
 old servant that there had been many changes, but that he 
 hoped that it was still, as before, a good house to live in, the
 
 188 SIK JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1813. man replied, " Faith, it's mair than that it's the best house 
 to die in of a' Scotland." 
 
 Having accomplished this visit to the north, Malcolm re- 
 turned to London, and before the end of the year he was 
 knighted by the Prince Regent. Soon afterwards, he was 
 examined before a Committee of the House of Commons.* 
 This interested and employed him ; and he was working as- 
 siduously at his History of Persia ; but the stirring events of 
 the great war in the Peninsula, and the success of his old 
 friend Arthur Wellesley, now Duke of Wellington, raised 
 within him a desire for active employment, and he asked the 
 Duke if he could not obtain service for him. Wellington told 
 him to go into Parliament. "Although I had long," he 
 wrote, " been in habits of friendship with the public men 
 of the day, and had some professional claims to public notice 
 when I returned to England, I believe that I should have been 
 but little known, and should not be what I am, if I had not 
 gone into Parliament. I would therefore advise you to go 
 into Parliament, if you can afford it, if you look to high public 
 
 1814. employment." In the following year the great Duke paid a 
 brief visit to England, amidst the enthusiastic plaudits of 
 an admiring nation ; but he had not been many hours in 
 London before he made his way to Manchester-street, to 
 shake Iris dear friend, John Malcolm, by the hand, and excited 
 the suspicions of an incredulous old servant by announcing 
 himself as the Duke of Wellington a name with which at 
 that moment the whole country was ringing. 
 
 * I shall refer presently to Malcolm's there would be no other danger, I con- 
 military evidence ; but I quote the fol- ceive, resulting from them, but what 
 lowing as evidencing his prescience and might arise from their great numbers, 
 sagacity. But it was not till half a and the changes in the condition of the 
 century later that the full truth was society, and eventually and gradually 
 apparent. " I think," he said, " of all of the Government, from that circum- 
 the powers which are vested in the stance ; but if they went to any ports 
 local Government, there is none more where there was no established autho- 
 essential to its existence in full vigour rity to control them, and if they pro- 
 and force than that which enables them ceeded into the interior of the country, 
 to restrain the local residence of every there would no doubt be much mischief 
 individual European to particular parts arising from those quarrels which must 
 of the empire. If British subjects were inevitably ensue with the natives, which 
 allowed to go in the manner described mischief would vary from a hundred 
 to India, the effects would be various, local causes connected with the cha- 
 agreeably to the places to which they racter of the natives of the places to 
 went. If to the Presidencies, where which they resorted." 
 British courts of law are established,
 
 CLAIMS OF THE COMPANY'S AEMY. 189 
 
 In no man, perhaps, was that feeling of esprit de corps, 1814. 
 which has so much that is kind, and generous, and noble in the service, 
 it, and which binds men together by the best ties of comrade- 
 ship in the service of the State, stronger than it was in Mal- 
 colm. He never denied the existence in himself of that 
 " infirmity of noble minds," a love of personal distinction. 
 He always' said that he was by nature ambitious, and that he 
 desired nothing so much as to see that his services were 
 honourably recognised by the Crown, and that the fountain 
 of honour was not sealed against him. But he did not think 
 only of his own honour. He regarded himself, and rightly, 
 as a representative man, and it was his greatest object of all 
 to make a precedent which would benefit the Company's 
 Army, from generation to generation, so long as the service 
 should endure. He had a strong and not unreasonable sense 
 that good work done in India was in no wise regarded, as it 
 ought to be, in the light of an imperial benefit, to be recog- 
 nised and rewarded by the sovereign rulers of the empire. In 
 spite of all the great heroic deeds that had been done in India, 
 there was still a tendency to sneer at the Company's Army as 
 a merchant service, and the King's officers, though compelled 
 to recognise both the fine qualities and the noble actions of 
 their comrades in the Indian regiments, somewhat grudged 
 their participation in the honorary distinctions which had been 
 exclusively reserved for the immediate servants of the Crown. 
 The jealousies which Lord Cornwallis so much deplored, and 
 which he had endeavoured so strenuously to remove, were 
 still in active vitality ten years after his death. The Prince 
 Regent had knighted Malcolm, as he might have knighted 
 any other " merchant fellow" a provincial mayor or an 
 alderman of London, men often very worthy of such honour, 
 but not to be classed with the heroes of the East. What 
 Malcolm coveted was the Order of the Bath ; and the feeling 
 that there was any likelihood of its being denied to him, because 
 he was an Indian officer, was rendered all the more painful to 
 him by the fact that his two brothers James in the Marines, 
 and Pulteny in the Navy were likely now to be made 
 Knights Companions of the great coveted Order. They had, 
 doubtless, done good service; but not such good service as 
 brother John, and he could not help feeling that if it had not
 
 190 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1814. been for the stamp of the " Company" upon him, his claims 
 would have been considered at least as good as those of the 
 other Burnfoot boys. 
 
 But it was not merely for this claim, on the part of the 
 Company's service, to just participation in the honorary dis- 
 tinctions emanating from the Crown that Malcolm had now 
 to contend. The superior military commands were given 
 generally to the officers of the King's Army. Some of the 
 worst abuses that had existed in the old days of Corn- 
 wallis and Wellesley had been reformed ; but these very 
 reforms, whilst they had rendered the Company's service 
 less lucrative, had not, externally at least, rendered it more 
 honourable. In the old times, even the military officers of 
 the Company, by means of contracts of different kinds, carried 
 on business very much upon " the mercantile bottom," but 
 when, little by little, this unwholesome system was abolished 
 the last blow struck at it having roused the Madras officers 
 to mutiny it would have been sound policy to have increased 
 the number of legitimate professional prizes, both in the 
 direction of lucrative commands and honorary distinctions. 
 It was Malcolm's great object to accomplish this for his com- 
 rades in the Indian Army to be, as it were, the pioneer of 
 their honours. With this hope he had drawn up some elabo- 
 rate papers for the President of the Board of Control,* and 
 had contrived that some of the questions put to him in his 
 examination before Parliament should be so put as to elicit 
 information respecting the depressed state of the Company's 
 service. With this hope he pointed put that the exclusion of 
 the Company's officers from the honours, especially those of 
 the Bath, so freely bestowed upon the King's service, had 
 "beyond all other causes tended to damp that ardour and 
 high military feeling which are always essential to the cha- 
 
 * Malcolm sums up one of these granting to them such consideration is 
 
 papers by pointing out " the importance not more necessary to benefit it, by 
 
 of directing the views of the officers of giving it the advantage of all the talent 
 
 the Indian Army yet more than we have that is reared and matured in its service, 
 
 done to England, and of elevating the than it is to infuse ambition and high 
 
 Company's service, by obtaining for principles of military feeling into an 
 
 such of that service as may merit it a army which is now upon a scale that 
 
 fair participation in the favour of the demands the action of such motives to 
 
 Crown, and a full admission of their preserve it in a state of discipline and 
 
 pretensions to the highest offices (par- attachment." 
 ticularly in India), on the ground that
 
 HONOURS. 11)1 , 
 
 racier of an officer, but, above all others, of officers so situated 1814. 
 as those of the Company's service are in India.* With this 
 hope, he exerted all his influence to obtain a recognition by 
 the Crown of his own services, well assured that there was no 
 officer in the Company's service who had striven more to de- 
 serve it. No man knew this better than the President of the 
 Board of Control, the Earl of Buckinghamshire, who, as Lord 
 Hobart, Governor of Madras, had known Malcolm well in 
 India, and what he had done for the State. And his recom- 
 mendations, aided, perhaps, by the irresistible influence of the 
 Duke of Wellington, obtained at last for Malcolm the honour 
 which he sought. In April, 1814, he was made a Knight 
 Companion of the Bath.f Two months before, the same high 
 distinction had been conferred on his brothers James and 
 Pulteny a triple honour, of which not only Burnfoot, or 
 Eskdale, or Dumfries-shire, but all Scotland, might well be 
 proud. 
 
 Nor were these the only honours in store for him at this 
 period of his career. In the same year, Sir John Malcolm also 
 won his spurs as an historian. His History of Persia was 
 published, by Murray, in two magnificent quarto volumes, and 
 was most favourably received by the literary world, both of 
 England and of France. From many of the most distin- 
 guished writers of the day, including Byron and Scott, he 
 received warm tributes of admiration, and had every reason to 
 be satisfied with the success of his work. But in the life of 
 Sir John Malcolm literature was only a digression. It is pro- 
 bable, that if he had been less a man of action, he would have 
 been more highly esteemed as a man of letters. Whilst think- 
 ing of what he did, we are apt sometimes to forget our obliga- 
 tions to him for what he wrote. 
 
 * When asked, " Has any mark of visionally appointed." Colonel Barry 
 honour or public distinction been be- Close had been created a baronet, but 
 stowed by the Crown on any officer of not on account of his military services, 
 the Company's Army for military ser- He died in 1813, and the Annual de- 
 vices?" he answered, " I have no re- gister of that year, after detailing the 
 collection of any such mark of distinc- chief incidents of his career, says that 
 tion within thirty years, except one : " his eminent services in India were not 
 the dignity of baronet was granted to rewarded with any honours." 
 Sir John Braithwaite, when he was f The Order of the Bath was not 
 superseded by a junior officer of his divided into the three existing divisions 
 Majesty's service in India, from the of Grand Cross, Knight Commander, 
 command of the Army of Fort St. and Companion, until the following 
 George, to which he had been pro- year.
 
 192 SIK JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1815. The following year was the great Waterloo year ; and, after 
 
 the battle, Malcolm, like a host of other eager excited English- 
 men, went to Paris to see the fun. No one could have gone 
 there under happier auspices, for no one could have been more 
 warmly welcomed by the great man who was then master of 
 the situation. Nothing, indeed, could have exceeded the 
 friendly attention of Wellington to him during the whole 
 period of his stay in the French capital. He met also a most 
 flattering reception from some of the most eminent French 
 savans especially those interested in Oriental literature and, 
 sensible of his own deficiency in this respect, he put himself 
 to school to learn the French language. The journal which 
 he kept at this period is most interesting. The following pas- 
 sages are equally illustrative in an historical and a biogra- 
 phical sense. They throw some light on the history of the 
 great battle, and they pleasantly illustrate the lifelong friend- 
 ship between Malcolm and the Duke. 
 
 " Paris, July 24. ... I went to the Duke's hotel. He 
 had not returned from the review, so Allan and myself left 
 our names, and the moment he came in (five o'clock), Colonel 
 Campbell brought us a message requesting we would dine 
 with him, and that we would bring Lord John Campbell, who 
 was our fellow-traveller. We found the Duke with a large party 
 seated at dinner. He called out, in his usual manner, the 
 moment I entered, l Ah ! Malcolm, I am delighted to see you.' 
 I went and shook hands, introduced Lord John Campbell, and 
 then sat down. I mention this trifle because it showed me at 
 once that his astonishing elevation had not produced the slightest 
 change. The tone the manner everything was the same. 
 After dinner, he left a party he was with when I entered, and, 
 shaking me by the hand, retired to one end of the room, where 
 he shortly stated what had occurred within the eventful 
 month. ' People ask me for an account of the action,' he 
 said. 1 1 tell them it was hard pounding on both sides, and 
 we pounded the hardest. There was no manoeuvring,' he said ; 
 ' Buonaparte kept his attacks, and I was glad to let it be de- 
 cided by the troops. There are no men in Europe that can 
 fight like my Spanish infantry; none have been so tried. 
 Besides,' he added, with enthusiasm, t my army and I know 
 one another exactly. We have a mutual confidence, and are
 
 AFTER WATERLOO. 193 
 
 never disappointed.' ' You had, however,' I observed, < more 1815. 
 than half of your troops of other nations.' ' That did not 
 signify,' he said, l for I had discovered the secret of mixing 
 them up together. Had I employed them in separate corps, 
 I should have lost the battle. The Hanoverians,' he added, 
 ' are good troops, but the new Dutch levies are bad. They, 
 however, served to fill gaps, and I knew where to place 
 them.' After some more conversation on this subject he went 
 up to Allan, and began the conversation again. Allan and 
 myself expressed our gratification at seeing the state of the 
 hospitals at Brussels, and told him how delighted we were to 
 find, that through the discipline he had established, and the 
 good conduct of the troops, the English character stood so 
 high that the name was a passport to the houses of those they 
 had conquered. He said that he had done everything he 
 could to effect this object. ' The Prussians,' he observed, 
 1 behaved horridly, and had not only lost character, but their 
 object, for more was destroyed than taken ; and in such scenes 
 of indiscriminate pillage and harshness, those who deserved to 
 suffer often escaped, and the benefit, when there was any, 
 generally fell to them who deserved it least. My doctrine has 
 always been the same,' said he ; ' to go to work systematic- 
 ally to play light with individuals, but grind the State.' I 
 remarked that he had taken advantage of an event which 
 staggered credulity that of an English army occupying the 
 capital of France to act in a manner that was calculated to 
 soften the asperity and lessen the hatred of two great rival 
 nations. l That very observation,' he replied, i was made to 
 me some days ago by Talleyrand.' 1 1 trust, however,' I 
 added, ' that France will be deprived of the means of attacking 
 other nations, particularly the newly-created kingdom of the 
 Netherlands, for they may be termed, as a nation, the most 
 elastic in the world.' He said that was true, and care should 
 be taken ; but I thought that he seemed to think dismantling 
 the frontier places was better than giving them up. When I 
 stated that I could not discover any great strength in the 
 position at the battle of Waterloo, but that it seemed the de- 
 scription of ground that might have been impartially chosen 
 to decide a day between two great nations, he replied that 
 there was no advantage ; that the French artillery had rather 
 VOL. i. o
 
 194 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1815. the highest ridge. I asked him if he knew the foundation of 
 the assertion made by Lord Bathurst, with respect to his 
 (Wellington's) having surveyed the ground and declared he 
 would fight a battle there if he could. He said that he had 
 directed the ground to be looked at, and in the impression that 
 it might be a good site for a few troops, as it was clear of the 
 forest, and commanded two great roads; but he never had, 
 he said, thought of fighting a battle there. 'The fact is,' he 
 observed, ' I should have fought them on the 17th at Quatre 
 Bras, if the Prussians had stood their ground. My retiring 
 to Waterloo was a matter of necessity, not choice.' I asked 
 him if Blucher had co-operated well. ' Nothing could be 
 better,' he said. * I sent him word that I knew I should be 
 attacked at Waterloo. He said he would be ready on the 
 19th.' ' That would not answer,' I replied, * as I was as- 
 sured I should be attacked on the 18th, and that I would be 
 satisfied with Bulow's corps. Blucher then wrote or sent 
 word that he would send Bulow's corps and another, and 
 came himself with his whole army to my support.' The Duke 
 said he saw Bulow at three. ' The Prussians had told him,' 
 he said, ' about their Horse.' The Prince Pozzo di Borgo, 
 who dined with us, told me that he was with the Duke 
 through the whole day of the 18th. ' It was one of those 
 actions,' he said, * that depended upon the commander being 
 continually in the hottest place, for nothing could be neglected. 
 We were a great part of the time,' he said, ' between the two 
 armies ; but the coolness of the Duke,' he added, ' is not to 
 be described. Considerable troops of Belgians stationed at 
 Hougoumont gave way. The Duke, turning to me, said, 
 smiling, " Voila des coquins avec qui il faut gagner une 
 bataille." I was so struck with this characteristic anecdote, 
 that I went to the Duke, and I asked him if it was true. He 
 said Pozzo di Borgo had repeated his exact words. I was 
 much pleased with the conversation of Pozzo di Borgo. He 
 said, speaking of Metternich, that he did not merit the abuse 
 that was given him. ' Some men,' said he, ' direct circum- 
 stances, others go along with them. He is not of the first 
 class.' This observation was made in reply to some remarks 
 Sir S. Smith had made upon Metternich's character. Pozzo 
 di Borgo told me, that he had maintained throughout the
 
 AFTER WATERLOO. 195 
 
 whole country that England was lost if her Ministers ever 1815. 
 admitted any negotiation that proceeded on the possibility of 
 either Great Britain or her possessions in India being in- 
 vaded." 
 
 Among other entries in the journal, of a more general cha- 
 racter, is the following : " Walter Scott is here. I took him 
 to the Duke, who has been very attentive to him. He wrote 
 me to bring him to dinner to-day (August 19), and that he 
 would make a party to meet him. The poet is happy." It is 
 a misfortune that there is no record of what passed on that 
 evening ; for as it is probable that there were no two men, in 
 France or England, at that time, with a larger stock of anec- 
 dote between them, than that possessed by Walter Scott and 
 John Malcolm, we may be sure that the table-talk was of a 
 very edifying and amusing kind. 
 
 Highly delighted with his continental visit, Malcolm returned 
 to England in the autumn of 1815, and soon began to debate 
 within himself the great question of a return or no-return to 
 India, as he could not take his wife and young family with 
 him to that country. There were strong appeals on behalf of 
 the latter continually tugging at his heart-strings ; but it 
 would, doubtless, be for their good that he should return 
 to India, for, notwithstanding his great opportunities, he had 
 amassed but a small fortune. So, after a while, he determined 
 to continue his Indian career, and he took his passage in 
 a ship which was to sail in October. Some months before 
 his departure (June, 1816) Oxford conferred upon him the 
 honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. 
 
 On the 17th of March, 1817, Sir John Malcolm landed at 1317. 
 
 Return 
 India. 
 
 Madras. During his absence from India great events had Return to 
 
 been born in that country, and still greater were taking shape 
 in the womb of time. The Nepaul war had been fought out; 
 and vast preparations were being matured for the commence- 
 ment of another war in Central India. This did not surprise 
 Malcolm, who looked upon the general confusion of political 
 affairs in Hindostan as the inevitable growth of the imperfect 
 settlement which had been effected, under orders from Eng- 
 land, by Lord Cornwallis and Sir Greorge Barlow. But it was 
 
 o2
 
 196 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1817. not easy to see at that time the direction which the war would 
 take, and who would be our enemies in the field. The imme- 
 diate evil, at which it was a pressing necessity that the Go- 
 vernment of India should strike, was that great tyranny of the 
 Pindarrees a half military, half predatory domination, born 
 of the last war and nurtured by the weakness of the substan- 
 tive States. These substantive States had been for years 
 festering with suppressed enmity against the English ; and it 
 was probable that as soon as our armies should take the field 
 against the Pindarrees, the Princes of Central India, either in 
 anger or in fear, would throw off the mask, assume a menacing 
 attitude, and compel us to attack them. The crisis was a 
 great one : and it was fortunate that at that time the chief 
 
 o * 
 
 direction of affairs was in the hands of a man, who, as Lord 
 Cornwallis had done in the last century, combined in his own 
 person the two offices of Governor- General and Commander- 
 in-Chief. That young " Lord Rawdon," who had served 
 with distinction under Cornwallis in the American War, and 
 who had ever been among the warmest friends and admirers of 
 that soldier-statesman, had gone out to India as the Earl of 
 Moira, holding the chief civil and military authority ; and he 
 had now determined, like Cornwallis, to take the field in 
 person against present and prospective enemies. In this con- 
 juncture it was great gain to him to know that Malcolm had 
 returned to India. It was not long, therefore, after the arrival 
 of the latter at Madras that he received a letter from the Go- 
 vernor-General, saying : " Let me assure you that I fully 
 appreciate your talents and energy, and I shall rejoice if I 
 find a fit field for their employment. I hear that for five 
 months to come we must be restricted to Cabinet activity; 
 perhaps in that interval you may be tempted to pay a visit to 
 Bengal, when the opportunity of giving you such an insight 
 into matters as cannot be afforded you by letter, may lead 
 to your striking out a mode in which you may exert yourself 
 with satisfaction." Upon this hint Malcolm at once took 
 ship for Calcutta. There he was received with the most flat- 
 tering courtesy and kindliness by the Governor- General, and 
 was at once taken into his confidence. 
 
 It was a political conjuncture of the most serious character ; 
 for a state of things had, by this time, arisen in Central India
 
 THE PENDARREE WAR. 197 
 
 which afforded us too much reasoii to believe that the Pin- 1817. 
 darree operations would involve us in a war with the sub- 
 stantive Mahratta States. There was not a man in India who 
 knew more about those States than Sir John Malcolm, nor 
 one whom the Governor- General was more eager to employ. 
 After a pleasant sojourn of a few weeks he returned to Madras, 
 with a mixed military and political commission from the Go- 
 vernor-General. " My situation is most flattering," he wrote 
 from that Presidency. "As Governor- General's agent, all 
 political work connected with our operations is in my hands ; 
 as Brigadier-General, I am destined for the most advanced 
 force; and, what is really delightful, from the Governor- 
 General down to the lowest black or white, red or brown, 
 clothed or naked, all appear happy at my advancement." 
 
 I have reached an epoch of Malcolm's life which is so Circuit of the 
 crowded with incident that it becomes necessary to resort 
 to the utmost degree of compression that is consistent with 
 the intelligibility of the narrative.* In the summer of this 
 year, Malcolm, in pursuance of the objects of his diplomatic 
 appointment, visited the great political Residencies of Southern 
 India, passing from Mysore to Hyderabad, and from Hyder- 
 abad to Poonah; sometimes riding long distances on horse- 
 back, and at others being carried in a palanquin. At Poonah 
 he took sweet counsel with his friend Mountstuart Elphinstone, 
 and afterwards visited the Peishwah, Badjee Rao, who received 
 him with the most signal courtesy and respect. Malcolm ten- 
 dered the Prince the best possible advice, and he promised to take 
 it ; but he was entirely wanting in steadfastness of character, 
 and when the hour of trial came he utterly disappointed his 
 English friend, who had hoped better things from him. From 
 Poonah, Malcolm returned to Hyderabad to complete the neces- 
 sary arrangements for the advance of the army of the Deccan. 
 From Hyderabad he hastened to Nagpore, where he met 
 another old friend and associate, Richard Jenkins ; and having 
 taken counsel with him, relative to the affairs of that State, he 
 was eager to press on to join the army of the Nerbudda, and 
 to merge his political into his military character. 
 
 On the 29th of October he took command of his division 
 
 * These events, indeed, belong rather at least, of the story is told in the sub- 
 to history than to biography, and a part, sequent Memoir of Mr. Elphinstone.
 
 198 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1817. at Hurda. "I do not contemplate," he wrote, " that the 
 Pindarrees will resist us. Sindiah has long submitted, and 
 ruin must attend any tangible power that opposes us; but 
 still, we shall have much work, and I am to have (for which 
 thank God) more than a common share. I am delighted with 
 the work I have, the object of which is, beyond all wars, to 
 give peace and prosperity to a miserable people and a wasted 
 country." On the 10th of November, Sir Thomas Hislop, who 
 had chief command of the army advancing from that side of 
 the country, joined the force, and on the 15th, Malcolm crossed 
 the Nerbudda in pursuit of the Pindarrees. At the beginning 
 of December he was in chase of the celebrated freebooter, 
 Cheetoo ; but he had soon nobler game in view. 
 
 War with the I have said that it was only too likely, from the first, that 
 States. * the war primarily undertaken for the dispersion of the Pin- 
 darrees would end in a great conflict with the substantive 
 Mahratta States. Already had it so developed itself. The 
 Peishwah and the Nagpore Rajah had thrown off the mask ; 
 and Holkar, or those who guided his councils for the Prince 
 himself was a boy had been for some time waiting for a 
 favourable opportunity to cast in their lot with the confede- 
 rates. Military domination had taken the place of settled 
 government. The Army were in arrears of pay, the Treasury 
 was empty, and as the Peishwah had beguiled them with pro- 
 mises of money, they were eager to take up arms on his side. 
 Before the end of November, Holkar' s troops had set out to 
 form a junction with Badjee Rao's Army. Early in the fol- 
 lowing month intelligence of this movement reached Malcolm, 
 and then desisting from the pursuit of Cheetoo,* he turned his 
 thoughts towards Holkar's camp. Commiserating the con- 
 dition of the boy- Prince, who was little more than a name in 
 the Durbar, he endeavoured to convince the evil advisers who 
 were leading the Rajah astray, that they were rushing head- 
 long to their ruin ; but he felt that negotiation would fail, for 
 they were too far committed to draw back. This was very 
 soon apparent. Malcolm had pushed forward with his division 
 to join the main body of the Army of the Deccan under Sir 
 Thomas Hislop, and on the 12th of December he had formed 
 
 * Cheetoo afterwards fled 1 into the jungle, and was believed to have been eaten 
 up by a tiger.
 
 THE BATTLE OF MEHIDPORE. 199 
 
 a junction with his chief. The Mahrattas, anxious to gain 1817. 
 time, sent envoys to the British camp, and a week was spent 
 in fruitless endeavours to arrest the impending conflict. When, 
 at last nothing accomplished the Mahratta envoys were 
 dismissed, it was felt by both armies that in a day or two a 
 great battle would be fought. And it was so. On the morning 
 of the 21st of December the two armies were face to face 
 with each other near Mehidpore. The enemy were strongly 
 posted on the other side of the Sepree river. Eager to attack 
 them without delay, Malcolm solicited Sir Thomas Hislop to 
 give him the command of the two leading brigades, and to 
 suffer him to cross the river and beat up the Mahratta camp. 
 
 The opportunity, which he had longed for during so many Mehidpore, 
 years, was now palpably before him. He was eager to dis- ec * ' 
 tinguish himself in battle ; and the hour had come for him to 
 clutch the coveted prize. He was not a man to waste any 
 time about it. Perhaps the talk which he had had with the 
 Duke of Wellington, after Waterloo, had convinced him that 
 whatever military historians may write about scientific dis- 
 positions in accordance with the art of war, " hard pound- 
 ing" is, after all, that which most frequently leads to victory. 
 He went straightforward at the enemy with a cheer, which 
 was responded to along the line. In vain did Colonel Scott, 
 riding up beside him, implore the General " not to lose an 
 age of discipline at such a time." He only answered, " Let 
 us all be composed ;" and continued his march right on to the 
 Mahratta batteries. Europeans and Natives alike advanced 
 with unflinching gallantry. So eager were the Sepoys for 
 the affray, that when Malcolm, seeing that a party of them 
 were wasting their fire, cried out, in their own language, " I 
 think, my boys, we had better give them the cold steel," they 
 answered with a cheer, " Yes, your honour, the cold steel is 
 best," and pressed forward to meet the enemy at the point of 
 the bayonet. The military historians of the war have told in 
 detail how the river was crossed in the face of the Mahratta 
 batteries, and how the battle of Mehidpore was fought and 
 won by Malcolm's division of the Army of the Deccan. But 
 it may be told here, that throughout the engagement his 
 bearing was eminently characteristic of the man. He went 
 at the enemy as a cool but eager sportsman would go at his
 
 200 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1817. big game. His irrepressible enthusiasm could not be held in 
 due restraint. He was often, therefore, to be seen in the 
 front of the battle often where strict discipline forbade tho 
 commanding General to be. The officers of his Staff were 
 often alarmed for his safety, but he had never one thought for 
 himself. As he was riding eagerly forward, in the face of the 
 Mahratta batteries, he exclaimed, " A man may get a red 
 riband out of this." " I hope in God," returned Caulfield, 
 who rode beside him, " we may get you out of this safe." 
 At another time, to rectify some error in the advancing line, 
 he rode so far forward that he was in danger of being shot by 
 his own men. His native aide-de-camp, Syud Ibrahim, rode 
 up to Captain Borthwick, and cried, " Look at the General. 
 He is in front of our men, who are firing ! For God's sake 
 bring him back !" And Borthwick rode on to save his chief, 
 who returned when he had done his work. His personal 
 courage, indeed, was of the highest order; and there was 
 always on great occasions an irrepressible enthusiasm in him 
 which was, perhaps, a little more impetuous than sound judg- 
 ment would approve. 
 
 There is nothing dearer to the heart of a soldier, who has 
 done his duty well, than the thought of " what will be said at 
 home ;" and in Malcolm this good home-feeling was especially 
 strong. He thought, after the battle, of his wife and children, 
 and all his dear friends in Eskdale. To Lady Malcolm he 
 wrote from Medidpore, saying : "On the 20th, at night, I 
 thought of you and the little ones. On the 21st, if ever you 
 came across my mind, it was only how to prove myself worthy 
 of you; but this even, I must confess, was only for a 
 moment, for I was wholly absorbed in the scene and in my 
 duty. You will see by the Gazette account, and by my 
 report of the attack of which I had charge (a copy of which 
 accompanies this), what my task was. I ascended the bank 
 of the river with proud feelings. I never before had such a 
 chance of fair fame as a soldier ; and if the countenances of 
 white and black in this gallant army are to be trusted. I did 
 
 o / * 
 
 not lose the opportunity afforded me. Josiah Stewart, who 
 was with me all the day, and who is a first-rate fellow, and as 
 calm in battle as at his dinner, has written an account, he
 
 TREATY-MAKING. 201 
 
 tells me, home. He has also sent one to Macdonald.* I have 181718. 
 no leisure to write, being occupied with a hundred arrange- 
 ments; but you need have few more alarms, Charlotte. We 
 have taken seventy pieces of cannon, killed and wounded 
 between three and four thousand, and dispersed all their in- 
 fantry. Their cavalry may give trouble, but there is com- 
 paratively no danger with these fellows. I hope to proceed 
 in person to-night with the cavalry, as I hear they are within 
 fifty miles, quite broken down and broken-hearted." In an- 
 other letter he wrote : " I send this because there are Eskdale 
 names in it, whose friends will be gratified that they were 
 with me. Josiah Stewart is again in high political employ, 
 and will get on famously. Tell Sandy Borthwick that his 
 brother is proper stuff, and that I will do my best for him. 
 Young Laurie is a fine young man ; he has now a staff situa- 
 tion, and I will endeavour to find him a permanent one. . . . 
 I have no taste for grandeur, and I affect none ; but I am 
 not insensible to the satisfaction of having had an honest 
 share in a war that better deserves the name of holy than any 
 that was ever waged ; for its sole object has been to destroy 
 cruel and lawless freebooters, who annually ravaged all the 
 settled country in this vicinity, and committed the most mer- 
 ciless and horrid acts of barbarity on the inhabitants."! 
 
 Sir John Malcolm was one of those soldier-statesmen of the Treaty with 
 first class, whose vocation it was to pass rapidly from the com- Holkar - 
 inaud of an army to the negotiation of a treaty, and to be 
 equally at home in camp and in council. The power of 
 Holkar in the field was now completely broken ; there was 
 nothing left for him but to sue for terms. The Mahratta 
 envoys again appeared in the British camp; but this time 
 with humbled tone and modest demeanour. The game was 
 now in Malcolm's own hands, and he played it out with a 
 wise moderation, securing all the objects which the British 
 
 * Lady Malcolm's brother - in - law ; hunting all the morning. I had seven 
 
 afterwards Sir John Macdonald, Envoy or eight fine Arabians to ride, fifty 
 
 to Persia. people to beat for game, and all ap- 
 
 f In this letter also there is a cha- pendages of rank. But I would ten 
 racteristic passage in reference to Mai- times sooner have been stumping over 
 colm's sporting pursuits : " I long, my the moors, with Jemmie Little cutting 
 dear Xancy, to be at home again. I jokes on Parson Somerville's shooting- 
 have just returned from shooting and jacket."
 
 202 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1818. Government had in view without unduly weakening the power 
 of Holkar.* The youth and helplessness of the young Maha- 
 rajah himself, in the kindly estimation of such a man as 
 Malcolm, entitled him to our especial forbearance. Lord 
 Minto had told Malcolm that he ought not to be sent to 
 negotiate with a Prince more than twelve years old ; so he 
 had now one of the right age on whom to exercise his rare 
 powers of engaging the confidence and affection of the young. 
 " I have been lately with my young ward, Mulhar Rao 
 Holkar," he wrote at the end of February, " and certainly 
 the change of a few weeks is wonderful. The fellows that I 
 was hunting like wild beasts are all now tame, and combine 
 in declaring that I am their only friend. All the chiefs of 
 Holkar are in good humour. The boy himself is at present 
 delighted with a small elephant (which he lost, and I recovered 
 and sent him), that dances like a dancing-girl, and a little 
 Pegu pony, of which I made him a present, and which ambles 
 at a great rate. I went out to hunt with him a few days ago, 
 and we had great fun. The little fellow, though only eleven 
 years of age, rides beautifully. He mounted a tall bay horse, 
 very fairly broken, and taking a blunt spear nine feet in 
 length, tilted with two or three others in very superior style, 
 wheeling, charging, and using his spear as well as the rest of 
 them. He expressed grief at my going away, as he discovered 
 that I, was very fond of play and hunting. "f 
 
 * Malcolm thus described the ar- ] In another letter we have an equally 
 
 rangement in a letter to John Adam : pleasant glimpse of Malcolm's geniality 
 
 " The terms', proposed were the con- in his relations, at this time, with the 
 
 firmation of the engagements with officers of the British Army : " I wish 
 
 Ameer Khan ; the cession to the Com- we had you here," he wrote to his wife, 
 
 pany of the claims of Holkar's govern- " I would show you that I have realised 
 
 ment upon the Rajpoot States ; the all my plans of making men work, and 
 
 cession to Zalem Singh, Rajah of Kotah, fight, and do everything men ought to 
 
 of four districts formerly rented by do, and yet be happy and make no com- 
 
 him ; the" confirmation under the gua- plaints. The Pindarrees have gone 
 
 rantee of the Company of his jaidad, from this quarter. I do nothing on the 
 
 amounting to nearly four lakhs of rupees march but shoot and hunt. A Bengal 
 
 per annum, to Guffoor Khan and his corps came near me four days ago. 
 
 heirs, on the condition of his maintain- Several officers came to see me ; among 
 
 ing a quota of horse ; the cession of the others, a son of Robert Burns a very 
 
 tribute of Narsinghur; the cession to fine young man. We had a grand 
 
 the Company of all Holkar's possessions evening, and I made him sing his 
 
 within and to the south of the South- father's songs. He has a modest but 
 
 poora range of hills, including Candeish, serious pride of being the son of the 
 
 Ambu Ellora, and all his other posses- bard of his country, which quite de- 
 
 sions in that quarter." lighted me."
 
 CASE OF THE PEISHWAH. 203 
 
 But this young boy-Prince, whom, with a fine and most 1818. 
 benignant tact, he had thus conciliated, was not the only 
 native ruler with whom at that time his duty brought him 
 into personal relations. Badjee Rao, the Peishwah, had by 
 this time thrown off the mask ; he had forfeited his kingdom 
 by his treachery and hostility to the British Government, and 
 nothing remained but to bring him to such terms as might 
 at once be merciful to him, and advantageous to the British 
 Government. * This business one of great difficulty and de- 
 licacy devolved upon Sir John Malcolm. Perhaps no other 
 man could have brought the Peishwah to terms at ah 1 . By 
 skilful negotiation, aided much by his own personal influence, 
 he brought the Mahratta Prince at last to consent to an 
 arrangement by which he was to become for ever a pensioner 
 of the British Government. The terms, by the offer of which 
 Malcolm induced the Peishwah to surrender himself and all 
 his pretensions, were said by many at the time to have been 
 over-liberal. It was stipulated that eight lakhs of rupees (or Badjee Rao's 
 80,000) should be paid to Badjee Eao for the remainder of stipend ' 
 his life.f It may be doubted whether a less sum would have 
 brought him into our camp, and the surrender of the Peishwah 
 was necessary to the termination of the war. On the whole, 
 viewed with reference to ulterior financial considerations, I 
 am inclined to think that the arrangement was an economical 
 one. At all events, Malcolm had much to say in its defence. 
 " I fear Lord Hastings," he wrote to the Duke of Wellington, 
 " thinks I have given Badjee Rao better terms than he was 
 entitled to ; but this is not the opinion of Elphinstone, Munro, 
 Ochterlony, and others who are on the scene ; nor do I think 
 the Governor- General will continue to think so when he re- 
 ceives all the details. You will, I am sure, be convinced that 
 
 * This story is briefly told in the that the adopted son of the ex-Peishwah 
 
 succeeding Memoir of Mountstuart had the least right to succeed to the 
 
 Elphinstone. stipendiary provision secured for him 
 
 t Some ingenious writers, of high by Sir John Malcolm. I do not suppose 
 
 reputation, have recently taken great that anybody knew better than myself 
 
 pains to show that the pension granted the exact terms of the arrangement of 
 
 at that time to the Peishwah was only 1818 ; but I thought it might have 
 
 a life-pension. And this has been put been sound policy to treat Dundhoo 
 
 forth apparently in answer to something Punt Nana Sahib with a little more 
 
 which was supposed to have been written gratuitous consideration than he re- 
 
 by me in another work. But I never ceived from Lord Dalhousie. 
 hinted in any way, directly or indirectly,
 
 204 *IR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1818. it would have been impossible to have obtained his submission 
 on other terms, and the object of terminating the war was 
 enough to justify all I have done, independent of the con- 
 sideration connected with our own dignity, and with that 
 regard we were bound on such an occasion to show to the 
 feelings of his adherents, and to the prejudices of the natives 
 of India." To Thomas Munro he wrote a few days after- 
 wards : " You were right in your guess about my reason for 
 thinking you sackt (harsh). Your sentiments upon my set- 
 tlement with Badjee Rao were quite a cordial. I have not 
 been so happy in this case as to anticipate the wishes of the 
 Governor- General. He expected Badjee Rao would get no 
 such terms ; that his distress would force him to submit on 
 any conditions ; and that his enormities deprived him of all 
 right either to princely treatment or princely pension. I 
 think the Lord will, when he hears all, regret the precipitation 
 with which he formed his judgment. In the first place, he 
 will find that, in spite of the report made by every command- 
 ing officer, who ever touched Badjee Rao, that he had destroyed 
 him, that the latter was not destroyed, but had about six 
 thousand good horse and five thousand infantry, and the gates 
 of Asseer wide open, all his property sent in there, and half 
 his councillors praying him to follow it, while Jeswunt Rao 
 Lar was positively ambitious of being a martyr in the cause 
 of the Mahratta Sovereign ; add to this the impossibility of 
 besieging Asseer till after the rains the difficulty of even 
 half blockading it, and the agitated state of the country and 
 then let the Lord pronounce the article I purchased was worth 
 the price I paid ; and he will find it proved I could not get it 
 cheaper. There are, however, other grounds which I can 
 never abandon, that recommend this course on the ground of 
 policy our own dignity, considerations for the feelings of 
 Badjee Rao's adherents, and for the prejudices of the natives 
 of India, We exist on impression; and on occasions like 
 this, where all are anxious spectators, we must play our part 
 well, or we should be hissed. I have your opinion in my 
 favour ; I have Ochterlony's, Elphinstone's, Jenkins's, and 
 many minor men's ; and I think I shall yet force an assent 
 from head-quarters. But they foolishly enough committed 
 themselves, knowing, as they stated at the time, their in-
 
 SETTLEMENT OF CENTRAL INDIA. 205 
 
 structions would be too late ; they did not think any circum- 1818. 
 stances would enable him to have more than two lakhs, and 
 he was to be watched, restrained, and I know not what. My 
 system is all opposite ; I am either for the main-guard, or a 
 confidence that gives you a chance at least of the mind, the 
 only other security except the body. You shall have a short 
 narration of my proceedings. I grieve for your decay of 
 vision, and none of your arguments will persuade me it is not 
 at this moment a public misfortune ; but you should not 
 remain a moment longer than you can help in India, and give 
 up labour ; the warning is too serious." 
 
 This engagement was made in June, 1818. There were Settlement of 
 afterwards some further operations in the field, including the 
 reduction of the fortress of Asseerghur, in which Malcolm 
 was concerned ; but the war was virtually at an end. And 
 now came something more difficult than the conquest of / 
 Mahratta armies the reduction to order and prosperity of a ' 
 country long given up to anarchy and confusion. To no man 
 could this be entrusted more confidently than to Malcolm, 
 because no one was less likely to overdo the work which lay 
 before him. He had not that passion for change which in 
 those, and still more in later, days afflicted some of our admi- 
 nistrators in newly-acquired countries, and of whom truly it 
 might be said that their settlements were so called because 
 everything was unsettled by them. " The fault I find with 
 the younger politicians," he wrote to Mr. Elphinstone, " is 
 not so much that they despise the natives and native govern- 
 ments, as that they are impatient of abuses and too eager for 
 reform. I do not think that they know so well as we old 
 ones what a valuable gentleman Time is ; how much better 
 work is done, when it does itself, than when done by the best 
 of us." 
 
 Upon this principle Malcolm acted. He trusted to Time, 
 and in the mean while did all that he could by his own per- 
 sonal influence to " keep people in good humour," and to 
 inspire them with confidence. His success was great ; and 
 the secrets of that success were the large-hearted sympathy 
 and the personal accessibility of the man. He had a word 
 for every one, high and low. He did his own work by 
 the force of his OAVH individual character, and every one was
 
 206 
 
 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1818 19. satisfied with his reception, even though his claims were 
 disallowed. " I wish I had you here for a week," he 
 wrote to one of his oldest friends, " to show you my nabobs, 
 rajahs, Bheel chiefs, potails, and ryots. My room is a 
 thoroughfare from morning to night. No moonshees, dewans, 
 dubashes, or even chobdars,* but char derwazah kolah (four 
 doors open), that the inhabitants of these countries may 
 learn what our principles are at the fountain-head. My 
 success has been great, beyond even my own expectations ; 
 but the labour of public duty in the way I take it is more 
 than any man can bear, and I believe that I shall be grateful 
 to the Directors for relieving me from a life that no human 
 being that sees how it is passed can envy. Of the result of 
 my efforts I will not speak. You will hear from others that 
 have lately quitted this scene. Suffice it to say, that from 
 the highest ruler to the lowest robber, from the palace in the 
 city to the shed in the deepest recess of the mountain forest, 
 your friend Malcolm Sahib is a welcome and a familiar guest, 
 and is as much pleased, thank God, with firing arrows and 
 eating roots with the latter, as at the fine durbars and sump- 
 tuous feasts of the former." To another friend (Mr. Butter- 
 worth Bayley) he wrote : " I wish you and some other friends 
 at Calcutta could take a view, for one week, of my occu- 
 pations. They are at least curious. No business, however 
 urgent, and no meal, however hungry I am, is allowed to 
 prevent the instant access of any human being, however 
 humble. He is heard and answered, either at the moment or 
 at an hour appointed by myself. First impressions are of too 
 much importance to be hazarded by leaving applications to 
 the common routine of moonshees, mootasordees, jemadars, 
 chobdars, and hurkarahs. I employ all these ; but they step 
 aside when any one, from a rajah to a ryot, pronounces my 
 name, with the expression of a wish to see me either from a 
 motive of respect, curiosity, or business." About the same 
 time I find an officer on Sir John Malcolm's staff writing 
 confidentially to a friend : " Nobody that I ever saw or heard 
 of can get over the same quantity of business in the same 
 quantity of time that he does, and his reputation stands so 
 very high with the natives, that his being personally con- 
 
 * Native officials of different grades. 
 
 <*
 
 SETTLEMENT OF CENTRAL INDIA. 207 
 
 cerned in any arrangements goes further in satisfying them 1818 19. 
 than I believe would the interference of any other man upon 
 earth. When we crossed the Nerbuddah in 1817, the state 
 of Malwah was scarcely to be described. It was a country 
 without government, a state without revenue, an army with- 
 out pay ; consequently, a peasantry without protection from 
 the villanies of the troops of their own Sovereign, or the >, 
 depredators who chose to plunder them ; and of these last the f 
 country was full. We now see around us the effects of our 
 
 late operations A state, though at present reduced in 
 
 respect of revenue, yet respectable ; that revenue increasing, 
 and perhaps the finest country in India again wearing the 
 face of cheerful industry ; the inhabitants, assured of protec- 
 tion, returning to their villages and looking forward with con- 
 fidence to better times This is Sir John's work, and a 
 
 most glorious work it has been. His is a noble character, 
 and such as his are required to keep us now on the high 
 
 ground on which, thank God, we stand in India I 
 
 believe, though it is possible that he may be equalled in some 
 points, that in public virtue and useful talent he cannot be 
 excelled by any public servant of any Government at this 
 time existing ; and that for whatever time his fame may last 
 in Europe, Malcolm Sahib will be remembered in Malwah 
 as long as regular government exists, of which he has again I/" 
 laid the foundation." And high as was this praise, it was 
 perfectly true ; and the prediction was amply fulfilled. The 
 names of Malcolm and Malwah have never since been dis- 
 united. 
 
 And all through the year 1819, Malcolm worked on bravely, Disappoint- 
 and energetically, and with his whole heart, loving his work, ments - 
 and yet not without certain promptings of ambition, which 
 made him look to the something beyond which is the grand 
 stimulus to all exertion in India whether the thing coveted 
 be a brigade-majorship, a deputy magistracy, or the govern- 
 ment of a Presidency. The government of Bombay was d 
 about to become vacant, and Malcolm had been encouraged to 
 hope that it would be conferred upon him ; but it was given 
 to Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone, his junior in the service by 
 many years, and he regarded such a nomination as an unjust 
 supersession of his rightful claims. " No man," he wrote to
 
 208 
 
 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 \ 
 
 1819. his brother Pulteny, " could have more merit than Elphin- 
 stone ; but I stood on ground that should have defended my 
 fair and encouraged views of honourable ambition from super- 
 session by any man. It is not for me to blazon my services ; 
 but they have been honest. Some persons write me that the 
 government of Madras is intended. This, I am assured, is 
 not the case ; nor do I look for anything that can compensate 
 the disappointment. I should not be surprised at a pension 
 being granted, but I should certainly feel little gratification or 
 gratitude from it, if it came, as it would, from the efforts of 
 those who had failed me in pursuit of a better object." 
 
 He had scarcely recovered from this blow, when another 
 fell upon him. He had said that he did not expect to be 
 appointed to the Madras government, because objections had 
 been raised on the score of his being a soldier and a soldier, 
 too, of that Presidency. But when the post fell vacant, his 
 old friend, Sir Thomas Munro, who was also a Madras officer, 
 was nominated Governor of that Presidency. It was not 
 strange that this disquieted him greatly. " I could not get 
 Bombay," he wrote to Mr. Elphinstone, " because I was not 
 a civil servant.* The Duke of Wellington, when he asked 
 for Madras for me, was told that I could not have that Pre- 
 sidency because I was a Company's servant. In my excellent 
 friend Thomas Munro they have both a soldier and a mer- 
 chant's son (as we Eastern Knights of the Bath were called 
 by the Morning Chronicle). Now, though I will no more 
 quarrel with Munro's nomination than I did with yours 
 though I congratulate India on such appointments, I am not, 
 and never will be, reconciled to being so completely thrown 
 
 * On this subject of his alleged want 
 of acquaintance with civil duties, he 
 wrote, with justifiable pride : " Has not 
 my life though I never acted as a 
 judge or collector been more given to 
 civil than to military duties ? Has not 
 the whole government, in all its parts, 
 been my constant study? And what 
 but the knowledge I have gained and 
 put in practice could have brought the 
 whole of this quarter to the state it is 
 now in ? Has not my life been given 
 to all the details of revenue settlements 
 and judicial proceedings, Native as well 
 
 as European modes of administering 
 justice, and the most minute investiga- 
 tion of everything relating to the rules 
 and institutions, great and small, of 
 this and neighbouring countries ? They 
 shall, ere long, see all this in a Report, 
 which will enable me to ask my friends 
 whether I am, or I am not, fit for a 
 civil government. But let them in the 
 mean while take as no slight evidence 
 the condition of these countries, and 
 then ask how much of this remarkable 
 work has been effected by force."
 
 LOSS OF THE MADRAS GOVERNMENT. 209 
 
 out of the question as I have been, particularly on this last 1819. 
 occasion." 
 
 Malcolm attributed his failures greatly to the opposition 
 of Charles Grant, " an able leading Director," as he said. But 
 I believe that this was a mistake. Mr. Grant wrote, in letters 
 before me, that although he had disapproved of some of Lord 
 Wellesley's measures, he greatly admired the ability and in- 
 tegrity of many of his chief officers, and was well disposed to 
 trust them ; and I believe that he was utterly incapable of 
 any such prejudice and narrow-mindedness, as systematic 
 opposition to the advancement in the public service of such a 
 man as John Malcolm would have indicated. The fact is, 
 that there were three old servants of the Company, very 
 nearly of the same standing, with very nearly equal capacity 
 for government and administration. There were essential 
 points of difference between them, and no one in all respects 
 surpassed the other ; so that it is hard to say to whom the 
 palm of general superiority should be assigned by the bio- 
 grapher or the historian. Any accident, therefore, might 
 have determined the preference to be given by the home 
 authorities to one candidate or the other. And, perhaps, they 
 were influenced, in some degree, by the feeling that Sir John 
 Malcolm could not well be spared from Central India, and 
 that there was a probability of a separate Lieutenant-Gover- 
 norship being established in that part of the country, with 
 Malcolm at its head. It must have been a heavy blow to one 
 of Malcolm's aspiring nature ; but he bore it with character- 
 istic manliness and cheerfulness, feeling all the time that it 
 was but a postponement of his reward, and that if he could 
 not command success he would deserve it.* 
 
 * There is no doubt that Malcolm me (Mr. Elphinstone), supersede my fair 
 inwardly felt his supersession very bit- and recognised claims to a government, 
 terly, though he had a very high opinion I have seen another, whose pretensions, 
 of the deserts of both Elphinstone and though great, were placed by the Indian 
 Munro, and never expressed himself Minister below mine, raised to a govern- 
 with any unbecoming warmth. "I ment for which I was declared not eligible, 
 have," he wrote to Captain Tod, after- All my friends are disappointed ; but I 
 wards the historian of Rajpootana, am neither in a rage nor disappointed. 
 " through a breach of promise in rulers, Two most able men, who were behind 
 the intrigues of opponents, and the de- me, have, by accident (my self-love per- 
 fection of friends, seen a person who suades me), shot ahead, but the race is 
 was not only my junior by twelve years not over. The day's work is not done, 
 in the political line, but had been under Besides, how many have I beaten ?" 
 VOL. I. P
 
 210 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1819. He was not one, as I have before said, to be long downcast, 
 
 or to hug his disappointments with unwise tenacity ; so we 
 soon find him writing again in the old strain of cheerfulness, 
 thankful for the many blessings he enjoyed. " Let us learn," 
 he wrote to his wife, " in the first place, to be grateful for the 
 extraordinary good fortune we enjoy. Let us habituate our- 
 selves to look down as well as to look up ; and then we shall 
 escape many a torturing reflection. When occurrences like 
 these, which have recently happened, cross my path of am- 
 bition, I pause for a moment ; but a recollection of their 
 causes, of the rank I have attained, of the resources I possess 
 to enable me to go higher should I still desire it, of my ad- 
 mirable wife, my delightful children, my fair fortune, and, 
 . what is more, my fair fame, comes upon my mind, and tells 
 me that with all these crosses and jostles I am still among the 
 most fortunate of mankind, and that it is unreasonable, if not 
 impious, to complain. All this I feel consistent with a steady 
 view of my interests in life ; and though anger cannot blind 
 my reason, I am not insensible to passing events, nor to the 
 comparative claim upon my regard of real and pretended 
 friends." Moreover, there were palpably before him, at this 
 time, the good fruits of his great work in Malwah. Most 
 successfully had he laboured, and there was ample reward to 
 his heart in the altered appearance of the country. He looked 
 with pride at the many evidences of returning prosperity that 
 surrounded him, and learnt with the purest sensations of 
 delight that the blessings of the people attended him. " The 
 old ruins of this place," he wrote from Mehidpore, " and the 
 celebrated city of Maidoo, have for more than a century ^been 
 shared by tigers and Bheels, more destructive than the tigers 
 in their ravages. The tigers I shoot ; the Bheels are my 
 friends, and now serve in a corps I have raised to cultivate 
 lands. I have made and am making roads in every direction. 
 A great Fair at a holy place which has not been visited for 
 seventy years, was a week ago visited by thirty thousand 
 people. I gave guards at the place and cleared the road ; and 
 I confess that I was a little sensible to the flattery of the poor 
 creatures making the air ring with ' Jy, Malcolm, jy !' (Suc- 
 cess to Malcolm), &c. &c. This, and the discovery a few days 
 ago, that among the Bheel ladies, tying a string upon the 
 right arm of their children whilst the priest pronounced the
 
 RETURN TO EUROPE. 211 
 
 name of Malcolm three times, was a sovereign cure for a fever, 1821. 
 are proofs at least of my having a good name among these 
 wild mountaineers, which will do me as much and more good 
 than one in Leadenhall-street."* 
 
 The establishment of the new Lieutenant-Governorship, 
 which Malcolm had always warmly advocated, never took 
 practical shape in his time ; and so, as the year 1821 ad- 
 vanced, he determined to rejoin his family in England, with 
 no intention of returning to Indian work, unless he could 
 return as Governor of a Presidency. " My Indian marches," 
 he wrote to his wife, on the 1st of September, from Bombay, 
 " are, I trust, over for ever. I arrived here a few hours ago, 
 after a very quick journey from Poonah. I am uncommonly 
 well better than I have been for many months. Elphinstone 
 has given up Malabar Point to me a most delightful resi- 
 dence, almost in the sea." His reception at Bombay was of 
 a most enthusiastic character. A grand entertainment was 
 given to him by the inhabitants of the Presidency ; and he 
 took his leave of India, not, however, for the last time, amidst 
 universal demonstrations of respect, f 
 
 He went to England by the then unfamiliar route of Egypt, Europe, 1822. 
 where he was received with all possible courtesy and hos- 
 pitality by Mehemet AH. From Alexandria he sailed to the 
 Ionian Isles, where Sir Thomas Maitland and Sir Frederick 
 Adams vied with each other in kindness and attention to him. 
 From Corfu he sailed to Valetta, proceeded thence to Naples, 
 visited Herculaneum and Pompeii, explored Vesuvius, and 
 afterwards pushed on to Rome. Thence he posted to Florence, 
 Bologna, Milan, and, skirting Lago Maggiore, presently 
 Crossed the Simplon, and, proceeding through Switzerland 
 and France, reached London at the end of April, 1822. It 
 was no small delight to him to rejoin his wife and children. 
 
 * There was no exaggeration in this wearer of it against the powers of 
 
 picture. Some years afterwards, when evil. 
 
 Bishop Heber travelled through Central f Some references to this entertain- 
 
 India, he found everywhere indications ment are given in a subsequent Me- 
 
 of the affectionate remembrance in which moir of Sir Alexander Burnes, whose 
 
 Malcolm and his good deeds were held juvenile ambition was fired by the sight 
 
 by the people of the country. The of all the honours heaped upon one who 
 
 name of Malcolm on an amulet was had started from as small a beginning 
 
 regarded as a charm to protect the as himself. 
 
 p2
 
 212 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 182224. They had a house in London and a cottage in Kent ; but the 
 latter was too small for the family, so he looked about for 
 another country residence, and found one upon the borders of 
 Hertfordshire, twenty-five miles from town, on the road to 
 Cambridge, not far from the town of Sawbridgeworth. It 
 was known by the name of Hyde Hall ; and there, after a 
 time, Malcolm pitched his tent and a very hospitable tent it 
 was, almost as much open, on all its four sides, as that other 
 tent in Central India. There he entertained many visitors from 
 Cambridge, who still cherish the recollection of those days as 
 among the happiest of their lives. Among them, I may cite 
 the honoured names of Whewell, Sedgwick, and Hare, who 
 ever looked back to the days which they spent at Hyde Hall 
 as among the most joyous of their lives. * 
 
 But happy as he was at Hyde Hall, he had been too much 
 accustomed to locomotion all his life to remain long in the 
 same place; so he paid a visit to Ireland, where his old 
 friend Lord Wellesley, then Lord-Lieutenant, welcomed him 
 with the cordiality of past times. Those were days of much 
 misery and much trouble in that country, and Malcolm could 
 not help thinking sometimes that his Central Indian system 
 might be advantageously applied to the reclamation of the 
 unhappy people of Ireland. He wrote a long letter to the 
 Duke of Wellington on the subject, in the course of which he 
 said : "In some of the southern counties nothing short of 
 
 * Julius Hare has left behind him, siastic, from the lips of Whewell and 
 scattered over his writings, some tender Sedgwick. It was through Hare that 
 records of his happy associations with Malcolm became acquainted with those 
 Malcolm. In one passage, speaking of two large-brained men, both of whom 
 Hyde Hall, he says : " The house in afterwards came to love him very dearly 
 which above all others where I have for his own sake. I wish I could recall 
 ever been an inmate, the life and the the very words in which they dwelt 
 spirit and the joy of conversation have upon the many noble and gentle qua- 
 been the most intense, is a -house in lities of the Indian soldier, especially on 
 which I hardly ever heard an evil word that wonderful sunny-heartedness that 
 uttered against any one. The genial made everything bright and joyous 
 heart of cordial sympathy with which around him. I remember how the ac- 
 its illustrious master sought out the complished Master of Trinity whose 
 good side in every person and every voice is now still for ever narrated to 
 thing, and which has found an in- me, with enthusiasm, the incidents of 
 adequate expression in his delightful one delightful evening, when Malcolm 
 Sketches of Persia, seemed to commu- having carried down Schlegel to Cam- 
 nicate itself to all the members of his bridge, introduced him to Whewell and 
 family, and operated as a charm even Sedgwick in Hare's rooms ; and there 
 upon his visitors." And I have heard was such talk as is not often heard even 
 all this, in language equally enthu- in Trinity.
 
 AT HOME AND ABROAD. 213 
 
 the exercise of arbitrary power over the proprietors and occu- 182425. 
 pants of the soil, as well as the disturbers of the peace, could 
 effect a speedy settlement of these counties. I wish I had 
 them, as I had some worse counties in Malwah, and that I 
 could act without fear of the Parliament, the Lord Chief 
 Justice, and the hangman, and set about putting the zemin- 
 dars and ryots to rights." Soon afterwards he set out on an 
 excursion to Scotland, where he visited his kinsfolk at Bum- 
 foot, and many other friends and friends' friends, and de- 
 lightedly renewed his intimacy with Walter Scott, who by 
 that time had built up his lordly castle on the banks of the 
 Tweed. " I was two days at Abbotsford," Malcolm wrote to 
 one of his daughters, " and most delighted was my friend Sir 
 Walter to see me. We walked together over all his estate, 
 and looked at all his fine castle. We had a large party and 
 many a tale, and Sir Walter declares that I beat him in 
 legends. But his is the wizard's art of giving them the shape 
 that delights the world." From Abbotsford he went to Minto, 
 on a visit to another of the old Governors- General, under 
 whom he had served ; and in the following year he went, 1825. 
 under the special tutelage of the Duke of Northumberland, 
 our Ambassador-Extraordinary, to see Charles X. crowned 
 King of France in the Cathedral of Rheims. During this 
 visit to the Continent, Malcolm enjoyed much pleasant and 
 instructive conversation with many distinguished personages, 
 including the King, who paid him marked attention. The 
 men in whose society he took most delight were Humboldt 
 and Soult, and he was as much at home with the one as with 
 the other. 
 
 Varying his home pleasures with excursions of this de- 
 scription, and finding abundant occupation among his books 
 and papers, the stream of life flowed on very tranquilly ; but 
 his ambition had not been laid to rest. If he had sought 
 merely the gratification of his personal vanity, he might, 
 perhaps, have found more to appease it in literary success than 
 in further service as an Indian administrator or diplomatist. It 
 was chiefly as the Historian of Persia that he had been courted 
 and honoured in Continental Europe, and even in the colder 
 atmosphere of England he had not been without reward of 
 this kind. He had more than one literary project in his mind
 
 214 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 182-1 25, at that time, and his friends were constantly stimulating him 
 to new exertions in the pleasant fields of scholarly enter- 
 prise. He was writing those delightful Sketches of Persia, 
 which have been, perhaps, more extensively read and more 
 highly appreciated than any of his more elaborate works ; he 
 was preparing for the general public a revised edition of his 
 Report on Malwah,* and he was collecting materials for his 
 Life of Lord Clive. But the desires of a man of his active 
 habits and experiences were not to be thus appeased. More- 
 over, he had for many years been looking steadily forward at 
 an object which he had not attained, though he had seen 
 others starting from the same point attain it, and was resolute 
 not to retire from the contest with the stamp of failure on 
 his career. Some proud and sensitive natures would have 
 shrunk from all further competition ; they would have wrapped 
 themselves in a dignified reserve, and would have waited for 
 the summons of their country. There is, perhaps, no one 
 respect in which men of noble natures differ more from each 
 other than in the manner in which they assert or refuse to 
 assert their just claims to promotion or distinction. All this is 
 as essentially part of themselves as the length of their limbs 
 or the tone of their voices. It would have been impossible for 
 such a man as Sir John Malcolm, who always wore his heart 
 upon his sleeve, who was a great talker, and altogether a 
 robust and rather boisterous person, to have exhibited a scru- 
 pulous and delicate reserve on the subject of his public services 
 and his just pretensions to reward. Besides, as I have before 
 said, he looked upon any distinction that was conferred upon 
 him as an evidence of that just recognition, for which he had 
 so long been contending, of the claims of the great Service to 
 which he was proud of being attached. How strongly he 
 felt this, how great and generous was his esprit de corps, may 
 be gathered from the fact that his services in Central India, 
 including his generalship at Mehidpore, had placed within his 
 reach either a Baronetcy or the Grand Cross of the Bath. 
 Most men would have chosen the former ; but it happened that 
 the first class of the Bath had never been conferred on a 
 Company's officer, and Malcolm was eager, therefore, to make 
 
 * Now known as Malcolm's " Central India."
 
 CORRESPONDENCE WITH WELLINGTON. 215 
 
 a precedent for his comrades. He had elected to receive the !824 25. 
 Grand Cross, although it was necessary that he should wait 
 for it until he had attained the rank of a General Officer.* 
 The love of the Service, which thus manifested itself, spoke 
 out also in his eagerness to obtain the government of one of 
 the Presidencies and eventually, perhaps, the Governor- 
 Generalship of India. 
 
 So Malcolm did not desist from his pursuit of a distinction 
 which he knew to be his due. Disappointed still, he was still 
 deceived by new opportunities and promises, but he never 
 flung up the game in despair. On the death of Sir Thomas 
 Munro, the government had been conferred on Mr. Hugh 
 Elliot, a brother of Lord Minto ; and now, on his retirement, 
 Malcolm thought that his own claims might be fairly asserted. 
 But the Government had favoured the pretensions of Mr. 
 Lushington, a member of the Madras Civil Service; the 
 ostensible objection to Sir John Malcolm being that his wife's 
 father, then Sir Alexander Campbell, was Commander-in- 
 Chief of that Presidency. The Duke of Wellington never 
 ceased to push the claims of his friend so long as he could do 
 so with advantage to the claimant. But he wrote to Sir 
 John Malcolm, saying : "I desired you yesterday not to be March 19, 
 too sanguine. I had conversations with the President of the lf 
 Board of Control and others, after I wrote to you yesterday, 
 from which I judge that there is no chance of your attaining 
 your object. I believe that the Court object to a soldier being 
 a civil governor ; to the son-in-law being the Governor where 
 the father-in-law is Commander-in- Chief; and even to a 
 servant of a particular establishment being the Governor. I 
 think there is a disposition to bring you forward in the 
 arrangement, but I doubt that the manner would be agree- 
 able to you. Upon all this I am but little listened to. I am 
 like the boy in the fable, who cried ' Wolf!' so often, that 
 nobody would credit him. I have come forward so often 
 to assert and support your claims, that I am considered 
 a party and an intruder in the case in the decision to be 
 taken." 
 
 To this Malcolm sent a characteristic answer. He had a 
 
 * He was only Brigadier-General at Mehidpore.
 
 216 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 182425. more novel story to bring forward in illustration of his case 
 than that of the shepherd-boy and the wolf. " I have heard," 
 he said, "that objections have been given, at both ends of 
 the town, against my nomination to Madras, of which the 
 principal is my having a father-in-law at the Presidency. If 
 Bombay becomes the object, it would be found out that I have 
 a brother there ; and should I ever aspire to Bengal, I should 
 be rejected because I have no connexions at that place. But 
 the meaning of the objections started on this occasion will be 
 best explained by a Persian story : * A man wanted to borrow 
 a horse, but the friend to whom he applied answered, " My 
 horse is black." " I prefer that colour," said the borrower. 
 11 But he has large eyes." " I like them better than small 
 ones." " That is an odd taste, but he has hair upon his 
 body." " Oh, I see, you are making excuses." " I think 
 that you might have guessed that by the first reply." Now, 
 I did guess it from the first ; but I will persevere to the last 
 in my efforts to mount myself." 
 
 Strongly impressed with a sense of the emptiness of the 
 prize which his friend was pressing forward so anxiously to 
 obtain, the Duke of Wellington tried to persuade Malcolm to 
 abandon the thought of further employment in India, to enter 
 Parliament, and to devote his remaining years to England 
 and English affairs. But Malcolm was not to be persuaded 
 to settle down contentedly at home ; so he still pressed his 
 claims upon the Government, looking to the Duke to support 
 them. But the stubborn will of the latter, who, without 
 reference to the fitness of the selection made, commended the 
 determination of Lord Liverpool to adhere to his first reso- 
 lution, and who conceived it to be his first duty to support his 
 ministerial chief, refused to yield to Malcolm's solicitations. 
 April 3, 1824. " I received yesterday," he wrote, " your letter of the 1st. 
 When I wrote you the first note to which you refer, in which 
 I begged you not to be too sanguine, I was aware of the 
 desire of Lord Liverpool to promote Mr. Lushington to one 
 of the governments in India. I went to the Cabinet imme- 
 diately afterwards, and I there found not only that my former 
 intelligence upon the subject was confirmed, but that par- 
 ticular objections existed to your appointment to the office 
 which you particularly desired to fill. Of these objections I
 
 CORRESPONDENCE WITH WELLINGTON. 217 
 
 informed you, and I told you what I found to be the fact, 182425. 
 that I was not considered a fair judge upon such a question 
 in a case in which you were concerned, as I had taken the 
 field so often and upon every occasion in your favour. So the 
 matter rested. The question then comes before me in this 
 light : there is a vacancy in the Government of India, and 
 Lord Liverpool thinks proper to propose, not that Mr. Lush- 
 ington should fill this vacancy, but that Mr. Elphinstone, on 
 whose pretensions the Directors were likely to look favourably, 
 should be appointed to Fort St. George, and that Mr. Lush- 
 ington should succeed to the government of Bombay. In 
 this decision Lord Liverpool thinks proper to pass by your 
 pretensions, and the opinions and wishes of myself and others 
 in their favour. But having thus decided, can I with honour 
 or with any advantage to you take part against Lord Liver- 
 pool? Certainly not. In the contest between Lord Liver- 
 pool or the Government on the one hand, and the Court of 
 Directors on the other, whatever may be my opinion or 
 wishes of, or in favour of, the individuals put forward by the 
 parties, I can take the side of the Government alone ; and I 
 certainly must and will (as it is my duty to do) encourage 
 Lord Liverpool by every means in my power to carry his 
 object, and to consent to nothing unless his object is carried. 
 I am much concerned that his choice has not fallen upon you. 
 But, to tell you the truth, I suspect if it had, he would not 
 have been more successful in his negotiations with the Direc- 
 tors than he has been in favour of Mr. Lushington. You are 
 become popular in Leadenhall-street, not because you deserve 
 to be so, but because you happen to be the fittest instrument 
 at the moment to be thrown in the face of the Government, 
 and to oppose them. But if you had been proposed by the 
 Government, then all the reasons against your appointment 
 would have been urged as strongly as those in favour of it are 
 at present. I told you before, and I repeat it, you cannot 
 succeed if Lord Liverpool does his duty firmly as he ought. 
 I shall regret exceedingly if you and Mr. Elphinstone should 
 have the King's negative put upon your appointments ; but 
 I declare positively that if I was in Lord Liverpool's place, 
 knowing both as I do, and appreciating as I have a right to 
 do the talents and fitness of both, I would recommend the
 
 218 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1825. King, under the circumstances above stated, not to confirm 
 the appointment of either." 
 
 This was a characteristic letter, but to Malcolm a very dis- 
 couraging one. Nothing more could be said so another 
 chance was lost to him. Mr. Lushington went to Madras ; 
 and it almost seemed to Sir John Malcolm as though he were 
 under a ban, and that there was no further work for him in 
 the East. But it often happens that our blessings come upon 
 us when we least expect them that in the affairs of life, it is 
 the darkest hour that precedes the dawn. It had not been 
 part of Malcolm's philosophy to wait ; but now he saw clearly 
 the value of that great lesson of faith, abiding the appointed 
 time, which most men learn sooner or later. That which he 
 so much coveted came to him at last. The government of 
 Bombay was about to become vacant by the retirement of 
 Mr. Elphinstone ; and both the King's Government and the 
 Court of Directors were of opinion that it would conduce 
 greatly to the public interests to appoint Sir John Malcolm 
 to the post. The offer was made and accepted. A grand 
 farewell banquet was given to him at the " Albion" by the 
 East India Company ; and both Mr. Canning and the Duke 
 of Wellington made impressive speeches in honour of the 
 guest of the evening. It was then that the former, whose 
 great career was about so soon and so suddenly to end, de- 
 livered himself of those memorable words : " There cannot be 
 found in the history of Europe, the existence of any monarchy, 
 which, within a given time, has produced so many men of 
 the first talents in civil and military life, as India has first 
 trained for herself and then given to their native country." 
 Not less worthy is the speech of the Duke of Wellington to be 
 held in remembrance : " A nomination such as this," he said, 
 " operates throughout the whole Indian service. The youngest 
 cadet sees in it an example he may imitate a success he may 
 attain. The good which the country derives from the excite- 
 ment of such feelings is incalculable." Nothing more true ; 
 nothing more deserving of abiding remembrance. When he 
 had said it, the Duke continued : "It is now thirty years 
 since I formed an intimate friendship with Sir John Malcolm. 
 During that eventful period, there has been no operation of 
 consequence, no diplomatic measure, in which my friend has
 
 THE BOMBAY' GOVERNMENT. 21 & 
 
 not borne a conspicuous part. Alike distinguished by courage , 1826. 
 and by talent, the history of his life during that period would I 
 be the history of the glory of his country in India." No / 
 words that were ever spoken would have rewarded him so 
 amply for all that he had done. He went home that night 
 happier than he had ever been before, with the words sweeter 
 than honey of one who was the greatest man of the age and 
 the dearest friend of his heart still making music in his ears. 
 When he awoke on the following morning, those words came 
 back upon him with renewed sweetness, and he wrote a letter 
 to the Duke pouring out in a few warm sentences the fulness 
 of his gratitude and joy. 
 
 On the 1st of November, 1827, Sir John Malcolm, having The Bombay 
 arrived at Bombay a few days before, took the oaths of office, 
 and entered upon the government of that Presidency.* It 
 was by no means an eventful period of our history ; and there 
 were no great opportunities, therefore, for Malcolm to display 
 his capacity for government. It is generally said that his 
 administration of Bombay was distinguished more by his col- 
 lision with the Supreme Court than by anything else. This, 
 however, is not strictly true. In a noiseless, unpretending 
 manner, Malcolm did much good, and recorded, out of the 
 fulness of his knowledge and experience, many important 
 minutes, distinguished by a strong sense of justice and a warm 
 sympathy with the feelings of the people of the country. 
 Perhaps he was not a popular Governor, any more than was 
 his cotemporary, Lord William Bentinck, who was carrying 
 on the work of retrenchment as Governor- General of India 
 
 * During his voyage out, Malcolm is quite delighted not with my corn- 
 employed his time chiefly in the pre- position, but with the admirable letters 
 paration of his Life of Clive. He found of Clive, whom he thinks I have ma- 
 Mr. Elphinstone still at Bombay, and naged to make tell his own story in a 
 during the time that they were there way that is both instructive and enter- 
 together, they talked as much about taining. I may have to refer upon 
 English literature as about Indian poli- some points that may require looking 
 tics. " I have been busy during the into old public records, or inquiries from 
 voyage," wrote Malcolm to Sir Charles natives. Let me know whom you think 
 Metcalfe, " with the Life of Lord Clive, the best man to correspond with to 
 all his papers, public and private, obtain such information. It must be 
 having recently been discovered and one who has a schocq (taste) for the 
 given to me. I have finished about one thing, otherwise he will think me trouble- 
 thousand pages ; and Elphinstone, who some." 
 is fastidious enough about such works,
 
 220 SIB JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 182729. work, ever unwelcome, which Malcolm was bound to second 
 and support. It was hard upon them, for they were only the 
 agents of the unpopular measures which, in a paroxysm of 
 economy, the Company had decreed. Malcolm understood 
 this, and was content. 
 
 It would be neither interesting nor instructive to recite in 
 detail the history of the conflict with the Judges of the 
 Supreme Court most prominently with Sir John Peter Grant. 
 Controversy is ever prone to become more than commonly 
 acrimonious in India, where men are constitutionally ex- 
 citable, and the smallness of the public gives a provincial 
 greatness to little things. I do not mean by this that the 
 principle contended for was not an important one, but that 
 much of the asperity with which it was discussed resulted 
 from the personalities with which it was encrusted. It is not 
 to be doubted that the Judges of the Supreme Court tried to 
 push its authority beyond its legitimate limits, and so to bring 
 the Government into contempt. It was Sir John Malcolm's 
 duty to resist this, and he did resist it. There was, however, 
 perhaps a little too much of the fiery courage of the Scotch 
 clans in the strife between the Malcolms and the Grants, and 
 this was afterwards frankly and honourably acknowledged. 
 Malcolm's natural unreserve in all matters affecting himself, 
 led afterwards to a supplementary discussion of considerable 
 vitality in its day. He received a letter of hearty, genuine 
 support from Lord Ellenborough, who was then President of 
 the Board of Control. The contents of this letter were men- 
 tioned at the Governor's breakfast -table, and some one forth- 
 with posted them to Calcutta, where they soon appeared in 
 the Hurkaru newspaper; and soon everybody in the three 
 Presidencies was talking about Lord Ellenborough's plan of 
 sending Sir John Grant to Calcutta, in order that he might 
 there be in the position of a wild elephant between two tame 
 ones. The publicity given to the contents of this letter vexed 
 Malcolm as much as the letter itself had pleased him. But, 
 like other episodes of the kind, it was but a brief wonder, and 
 the scandal soon burnt itself out.* 
 
 * The only really instructive incident inspiriting support given to him in 
 of this affair is the impression made upon Lord Ellenborough's letter. Malcolm's 
 Malcolm's mind by the hearty, genuine, own account of the effect wrought upon
 
 THE BOMBAY GOVERNMENT. 221 
 
 Of Sir John Malcolm's personal habits during the time of 1827 30. 
 his tenure of office as Governor of Bombay, he has himself 
 given some account in a letter, from which the following pas- 
 sage is taken : " I have started on the comparatively moderate 
 plan to which Elphinstone had recently come. I have a 
 public breakfast at Parell on six days of the week, and one 
 council-day in the fort. Every one comes that likes. It is a 
 social levee, without formality or distinction. I am down 
 half an hour before breakfast, and stay as long after it. Every 
 human being who desires it, from writer to judge, from cadet 
 to general, has his turn at the Governor. At half-past ten I 
 am in my own room, have no visitors, and am given up to 
 business. I give a grand dinner and a^dance^to from eighty 
 
 to one hundred every month, and a dinner occasionally to a 
 ~^_ J j-~- - ~ i .. ' ^^ * 
 
 big-wig going to England, My other ainners are to my own 
 family. A Governor, particularly here, can have no invited 
 private parties of persons whom he likes, for such would be 
 deemed favourites. My equipments are as good as my station. 
 I have three elegant carriages, and three pairs of Arabian 
 "horses. I have four or five good riding; horses, and leave the 
 
 f^_ O / 
 
 door every morning at a quarter after five, returning a little 
 after seven, having always gone nine or ten miles, sometimes 
 more. I drink no wine, and live_very moderately. The busi- 
 ness is considerable jout it is always, greatest at the com- 
 mencement. Besides, I already see my way towards a dimi- 
 nution of it by making others do much of the minutiae of 
 business." 
 
 It is probable that of all the appointments which Malcolm 
 had ever held, the Governorship of Bombay was that which 
 afforded him the least personal pleasure. With the exception 
 
 his mind by such encouragement, is impressions alone could have made him 
 
 worthy of citation as a lesson to write in so familiar a tone of friendship ; 
 
 statesmen : " Independent of the sub- and those only who have served their 
 
 stances of this communication, there country in remote stations can judge the 
 
 was in those very expressions which difference of feeling between what such 
 
 have been most carped at, what con- a communication is calculated to inspire, 
 
 veyed to my mind the fullest reliance and one of a more cold, guarded, and 
 
 upon the firmness and decision of the official character. The latter may save 
 
 Indian Minister. With Lord Ellen- a Minister from the effects of the indis- 
 
 borough I was personally unacquainted, cretion of others, but it will never 
 
 I received his letter, therefore, as far as animate public officers to that zealous 
 
 the expression went, as a kind proof of and bold execution of their duty which 
 
 the impressions he had formed of my is produced by cordial and unreserved 
 
 private and public character. These communication with their superiors."
 
 222 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 182730. of his son, George Malcolm, who was on his Staff, all the 
 members of his family circle were absent from him ; and for 
 a man of his marked individuality we may be sure that the 
 work of government, encumbered as he was by a Council, 
 was scarcely less distasteful to him than the formalities of 
 high official position. He had attained his object He had 
 afforded another great example to stimulate the ambition of 
 the officers of the Company's Army ; and now he was eager 
 for England and for rest. So, when the Go vernor- General 
 wrote to him, setting forth that under the new charter a 
 Lieutenant- Governorship of the North- Western Provinces 
 would be created, and that Malcolm might have the office if 
 he would, he wrote to Lord William Bentinck, and after ex- 
 pressing very freely his private feelings, said : " Your Lord- 
 ship will not be surprised that, possessed as I am of an inde- 
 pendent fortune, and with such a family and circle of friends 
 as you know me to enjoy, I should be most anxious to return 
 to England. I contemplate, however, no idle life. I have, I 
 trust, a seat in Parliament awaiting my arrival ; and on the 
 approaching question regarding the future administration of 
 India, I shall be better able to serve my country than by con- 
 tending with the prejudices and opposite opinions of office- 
 men in India and England. I now, from many causes, 
 regret that I did not follow the opinion of the Duke of Wel- 
 lington, who was strongly against v my_cpming to India. . . . 
 I have already persuaded myself that whatever disappointment 
 my ambition may suffer from the line which I can perceive 
 your Lordship is likely to adopt, will be more than compen- 
 sated by decreased hazard to health ; and I am not without 
 Lope that the period which remains of my existence may be 
 better employed than in keeping the peace amongst wild rajahs 
 and thakoors, and reconciling them to principles of rule which, 
 however liberal, were not known to their fathers and mothers ; 
 and all this up-hill work liable to be criticised and con- 
 demned by men who had foretold my failure, and whose 
 reputation for foresight and wisdom depended upon the ful- 
 filment of their prophecy." So, on the_5th of December, he 
 turned his back upon India for ever. There was doubtless 
 great happiness in the retrospect. The boy of thirteen, who 
 had gone to Lidia from the Eskdale Farm, had left it as the 
 honoured Governor of a great province. Only one, who had
 
 ENGLAND AND REFORM. 223 
 
 started from the same small beginning, as a cadet, had done 183031. 
 as much. Not one had ever done more. 
 
 When Sir John Malcolm arrived in England he was in his Last day* i 
 sixty-second year. The Duke of Wellington had told him 
 years' Eeforeto " go into Parliament." Whether the Duke 
 would have given the same advice then, is doubtful. But 
 Malcolm did go into Parliament, supported by the interest 
 of the Duke of Northumberland, and sat for Launceston as a 
 red-hot Tory. Had he sat in Parliament a year or two 
 later^ when the continuance of the East India Company's 
 Charter was one of the leading questions of the day, he would 
 doubtless have been listened to with the profoundest respect ; 
 but speaking on the Reform question, and on the unpopular 
 side, an old Indian General was not likely to make for himself 
 a very attentive audience. His opinions, however, were very 
 genuinely his own, and precisely what might be predicated 
 from the story of his life. He had grown up with a strong 
 hatred of revolutionary France ; he had in India ever been a 
 Conservative, often opposing himself even to the aggrandise- 
 ment of his own country ; he had been shocked by recent 
 revolutions in Europe, one of which had driven from the 
 throne the King whom he himself had seen crowned at 
 Rheims ; and he believed that Reform was only another name 
 for Revolution. Bound alike by public admiration and 
 private affection to the Duke of Wellington, he was ready to 
 follow that great leader to any battle-fields of politics, as of 
 war. It is not strange, therefore, that at a period of great 
 popular excitement we should find him writing thus on the 
 great question of Reform : " April 15, 1831. I have just 
 come into Parliament for the borough of Launceston, in Corn- 
 wall. It is a corporation which the present sweeping Bill 
 would, if it passed, disfranchise ;* but I trust in God it will 
 not. For this Goddess Reform, in the shape her votaries 
 have given her, is twin-sister to the Goddess of Reason, who 
 troubled Europe forty years ago, and has reappeared to vex 
 the world with changes. I have taken a delightful house for 
 my family on Wimbledon Common, seven miles from town, 
 
 * The Reform Bill, however, only deprived Launceston of one member.
 
 224 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1831. where my duties in Parliament will not prevent my being 
 continually with them all. It is rather small, but that is its 
 only fault." " April 25, 1831. I am no enemy, as you 
 may suppose, to Reform ; but that, to be safe, should be very 
 moderate and very gradual. Time, we are told, is an inno- 
 vator. This is true; but he is an old and a slow one. If 
 we march with him, we are safe ; but if we outstrip him, we 
 rush upon danger, if not upon ruin. If not satisfied with the 
 proud and glorious position in which our country stands if 
 discontented because there is partial distress, though less, 
 comparatively, than any nation ever knew if, in the vanity 
 of our knowledge, we cast away all the benefits and blessings 
 which have descended from our forefathers if that reverence 
 for established order, that regard to vested rights, that reluct- 
 ance to lay a rude and unhallowed hand upon the venerable 
 fabric of our constitution prevails, all those Conservative 
 principles which have hitherto bound us together will be 
 abandoned, and new ties and a new order of things must be 
 established, I deprecate such sweeping demolition. I expect 
 nothing from such destruction, except that it will be long 
 remembered as an awful instance of the truth of that sacred 
 text which says, ( Grod maketh the wisdom of men folly.' ... 
 The consequences my experience leads me to anticipate may 
 not be immediate, but they are, in my mind, certain ; and 
 the option appears to be between our fighting the battle or 
 leaving a sad inheritance of a deteriorated and broken con- 
 stitution to our children. My practical education makes me 
 an unbeliever in these new political lights. I cannot think 
 that the mantle of Francis Bacon has descended upon Jeremy 
 Bentham. I would not consult men in a fever on their own 
 case." "April 28, 1831. I send you copies of my speech 
 as taken from the Mirror of Parliament. ... It was well re- 
 ceived and cheered by the House. I shall, however, speak 
 seldom, reserving myself for Indian affairs. But these, like 
 everything else, if Reform, in its present shape, continue, will 
 be carried by petitions from men who want something but 
 they know not what by mobs of meetings. By the blessing 
 of God, however, a stout stand will be made for the rich in- 
 heritance of the constitution which our fathers have trans- 
 mitted to us, and which, with all its defects, is the best in the
 
 THE REFORM BILL. 225 
 
 known world. I shall never forget our revered father when 1831. 
 this rage for change was abroad thirty-six years ago. * I was 
 well,' he said, quoting an old Greek proverb, ' I desired to be 
 better ; I took physic, and I died !' I have his warm blood 
 in my veins, and I will do my best to stem the torrent." 
 " August 6, 1831. I am fighting the revolutionary battle. All 
 Europe is about to fight, and he must be a sage indeed who 
 can foresee the result of the next four years. The evil in this 
 country lies deep. The whole of the lower and numbers of 
 the middle classes have been sedulously taught to regard their 
 superiors not only with envy but hostility, as men that sleep 
 and fatten on their labour and hard earnings. Knowledge 
 without religion or principle has been universally disseminated, 
 and the desire to better their condition through chance of 
 spoliation excited. The designing, who seek change, and the 
 ignorant, who are deceived by them, are active and loud, 
 whilst those who desire the tranquillity of the country are 
 hitherto silent and inert. But the period has come when they 
 must be roused, or England will change her character as well 
 as her constitution." 
 
 So, no man rejoiced more than Malcolm when, in the 
 autumn of 1831, the Reform Bill was thrown out by the 
 House of Lords. He was confident of the ultimate triumph of 
 Conservatism ; but it was only a brief gleam of cheerfulness 
 and hope. The following year found the Reformers more 
 resolute in action than before ; and the cry of the People was 
 not to be resisted. It then became apparent to him that his 
 days as Member for Launceston were numbered ; but the 
 India Committees had now been appointed, and both as a 
 committee-man and a witness Malcolm could make himself 
 useful to his country. His labours in this direction, however, 
 were soon cut short. In June, the Reform Bill was passed. 
 Launceston was disfranchised. There was a general election. 
 Sir John Malcolm was requested to stand for Dumfries-shire, 
 but a little inquiry soon assured him the case was hopeless ; 
 so he issued a frank, manly address, and withdrew from the 
 contest. 
 
 But he had an ovation of another kind in his native county. 
 The gentry of Dumfries-shire, though they might not accept his 
 politics, were proud of the man, proud of the family ; Eskdale 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1831. and Ewesdalo especially rejoicing in the honour reflected upon 
 them by the deeds of the Burnfoot family. So they gave a 
 great dinner at Langholm to the " three Knights of Eskdale" 
 Sir James, Sir Pulteny, and Sir John ; and toasted them 
 with the heartiest enthusiasm. Sir John, though the youngest 
 of the three, was the most practised speaker, and his brothers 
 asked him to respond to the toast. The speech is said to 
 have been " full of strong feeling and impressive eloquence," 
 warm from the heart, and it drew tears into many eyes. That 
 dinner is still vividly remembered in Langholm ; and people 
 relate how, when the three Knights took their seats in the 
 carriage that was to convey them to Burnfoot, the people took 
 the horses out of it, and drew the heroes with shouts beyond 
 the boundaries of the town.* 
 
 Then Sir John Malcolm returned to his books and his 
 papers, and betook himself to another occupation in which 
 men of all kinds have found delight. He had purchased an 
 estate in Berkshire, and he was solacing himself with bricks 
 and mortar. He wrote to his friends that his " genius must 
 be employed in reforming an old English fabric ;" (f which I 
 trust to do," he added, " in a manner that would be a lesson 
 to Ministers, if they had leisure to observe and sense to copy 
 my proceedings ! Nothing is subverted, though much is 
 amended, and looking to the good shelter from the storm this 
 home-nest afforded for more than a century to its inmates, I 
 care little for its shape not being accordant with modern 
 rules." Work of this kind w r as laden with delightful anti- 
 cipations of a future, in which those dearest to his heart held 
 a happy place. " At Warfield," he wrote in his journal, 
 " directing a few buildings of brick and mortar, and building at 
 less cost various castles in the air, associated with the future 
 enjoyment of this beautiful residence. God grant it may be 
 early tenanted by those whom my busy imagination portrayed 
 as sitting in its chambers or wandering in its walks, while all, 
 according to my fond anticipations, agree in praising the taste 
 and labour that had prepared for them so delightful a home." 
 And with these thoughts were blended others, scarcely less 
 
 * There is a statue of Sir Pulteny added that there was a fourth knight > 
 
 Malcolm in Langholm, and an obelisk in the Malcolm family Sir Charles, 
 
 to the memory of Sir John on the who was then at Bombay as Superin- 'i 
 
 heights above the town. It should be tendent of Marine.
 
 RENEWAL OF THE COMPANY'S CHARTER. 227 
 
 pleasant, of the literary pursuits from which he had been 1832. 
 compelled to turn aside under the pressure of public life. He 
 was eager to bring to a conclusion his Life of Lord Clive, 
 and he had commenced a new work on the government of 
 India, in which he purposed to set forth the results of an 
 experience of nearly fifty years. 
 
 The Company's Charter question was now coming on for 
 discussion, and Malcolm, though excluded from the House of 
 Commons, felt that he could at least do something by making 
 his views known to the public through the medium of the Court 
 of Proprietors of India Stock. He owed little or nothing to 
 the Directors, except the cadetship, which he had turned 
 to such good account. It was his opinion that, as the pupil 
 and friend of Lord Wellesley, who had denounced them as 
 the " ignominious tyrants of Leadenhall-street," they had set 
 their faces against him. This was a mistake ; but he was not 
 beholden to them for any special favours, and he could not be 
 accused of any unjust leanings towards them. But he knew 
 how necessary to the welfare of our Indian Empire was the 
 existence of such an intermediate body as the Court of Direc- 
 tors of the East India Company, and he moved, in a long and 
 able speech at the India House, the resolutions in favour of 
 the acceptance by the Company of the governing authority, 
 without the commercial privileges they had enjoyed, " pro- 
 vided that powers be reserved to enable the Company effi- 
 ciently to administer the government, and that their pecuniary 
 rights and claims be adjusted upon the principle of fair and 
 liberal compromise." 
 
 It was the last public act of his long and eventful life. 
 There are many who remember that spring of 1833. The 
 cholera_Iiad invaded our island, and, supervening upon it, a 
 dire^nfluenzaajsven more destructive than the foreign enemy, 
 came to fill our houses with mourning. It was one of the 
 saddest seasons within my recollection.* The whale popula- 
 tion of London seemed to be clothed in black. Among other 
 victims, the home-born epidemic seized upon Sir John Mal- 
 colm. It weakened him grievously; but, in spite of the 
 
 * I went out to India, for the first which I learnt, as a cadet, my first 
 time, in the midst of it taking with lessons of Indian government, 
 me Sir John Malcolm's book, from 
 
 Q2
 
 228 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1832. remonstrances of his friends, lie insisted upon going down, 
 day after day, to the India House to watch, if he could not 
 take part, in the debates. But before those debates were 
 brought to an end, Sir John Malcolm was struck down by 
 paralysis in his carriage ; was carried home to his house 
 in Prince' s-street, and never again gave articulate utterance 
 to his thoughts. 
 
 In this state he lay for some time, pitiably feeble and dis- 
 tressed, able neither to speak nor to express his wants and wishes 
 by intelligible gestures. His family were absent from him 
 when the blow fell ;* but they hastened to London with all pos- 
 sible despatch, and he was solaced by the tender ministrations of 
 his beloved wife to the last. Though physically prostrate and 
 helpless, his mind had not lost its activity ; his thoughts were 
 continually travelling back to the court-room in Leadenhall- 
 street, and the progress of the debate on the Resolutions which 
 he had moved. When Lady Malcolm, rightly interpreting 
 these thoughts, told him that the Resolutions had been earned 
 by a decisive majority, it appeared as though a burden of 
 painful uncertainty had passed away from him, and that he 
 was content. After some weeks he rallied a little ; and the 
 principal physician in attendance upon him thought so well of 
 the appearances of recovery that he sent his patient out for a 
 little carriage exercise. But on one of those bitter May days, 
 so common in our English springs, the sick man was chilled 
 by the exposure, without being revived by the change ; and the 
 worst symptoms of his malady returned. From that time his 
 decline was rapid, and the hopes which had animated those 
 who watched by his side were stilled for ever. It was now 
 plain that he was dying. It had at one time seemed possible 
 that he might be removed to the new Berkshire home, which 
 he had been so diligently preparing for himself; but now this 
 cherished thought was abandoned, and on the very day on 
 which tidings came to Prince's-street that the mansion at 
 Warfield was ready for his reception, that active, strong, 
 whole-hearted workman closed his eyes upon the world for 
 ever. 
 Death. He died upon the 30th of May, 1833, and was buried very 
 
 * Lady Malcolm was at Hastings, street, Hanover-square, was about to 
 where Sir John, then residing in Prince's- join her, when he was struck down.
 
 HIS CHARACTER. 229 
 
 privately and unostentatiously in the vaults of St. James's 1833. 
 Church, Piccadilly. But fitting monuments were erected to 
 his memory by friends and admirers in England and in Scot- 
 land. A noble monumental statue by Chantrey adorns our 
 venerable Abbey at Westminster, and a lofty granite obelisk, 
 of which it has been said that, " symbolising Malcolm's career, 
 it rises from the heather and looks across the border far into 
 the grey distance," stands out against the sky from the 
 summit of Langholm Hill. On both, the claims of Sir John 
 Malcolm to the admiration and the esteem of his fellows, are 
 set forth in very similar terms of admiration. 
 
 Having told the story of his life the life of one who had Character. 
 no disguises, and who lived, perhaps, more than any man of 
 his age, in the broad daylight, fully exposed to the observation 
 of his cotemporaries it is scarcely necessary that I should 
 dwell upon his charactei 1 . Men differ about the place that 
 should be assigned to him in the gradation-list of the Com- 
 pany's distinguished servants ; but it would be impossible to 
 fix his relative position, and of small use to do it if it could 
 be done. He very little resembled those friends and fellow- f 
 workmen, Munro, Elphijistone, and Metcalfe, with whom we \ 
 are wont to rank him. He was a man, indeed, sui generis. 
 Of all the men of whom it is my privilege to write in these 
 volumes, he possessed tbginost_per^ct physical organisation. 
 The monumental inscriptions, which dwell upon his " extra- 
 ordinary mental and physical powers," show a right apprecia- 
 tion of the great union the mens sana in corpore sano to 
 which is to be attributed his successful career. He w r as the 
 robustestan^mostathletic of all our Indian statesmen sol- 
 diers or civilians! He was, and he actecl, on a large scale. The 
 most depreciatory commentaries upon him are that he was a 
 boisterous sort of person that he talked and laughed a little 
 too much. But, in the much talking, there were indications 
 of an admirable amount of frankness and sincerity, and 
 in the much laughing, of the cheerfulness and kindliness of 
 a simple nature and a good heart.* He was an enthusiast, 
 and he loved enthusiasts. Men's own words often best de- 
 
 * When he was sitting for his biist pression. The epithet is Chantrey's, 
 
 to Chantrey, he wrote to a very inti- but Malcolm recognised its truth, and 
 
 mate friend, saying that the sculptor was not displeased by it. 
 had tried hard to catch his " saucy" ex-
 
 230 SIB JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1833. scribe their characters ; and I do not know that anything can 
 better describe the innermost springs of Malcolm's nature than 
 the following passages of a letter which he wrote to a young 
 friend a nephew, I believe who was about to enter upon a 
 career of Indian military service : " An officer," he wrote, 
 " who desires distinction (and he must have a mean, wretched 
 soul who does not), must be alike active in body and mind. 
 He must devote every moment he can spare from duty to the 
 improvement of his education, in the conviction that increased 
 knowledge, if it should not even promote his advancement, 
 must promote his happiness. He should join his companions 
 in every manly exercise and every moderate enjoyment, but 
 shun vicious indulgence and intemperance of every kind, as 
 the bane of all his hopes, and the ruin of all those expectations 
 which his friends had formed. To enable him to do this, I 
 know of nothing more essential than that his heart should 
 always have a home. Cherish your love for your surviving 
 parent, for those who brought you up, for those who will 
 exult in your future good reputation, and whose hearts will 
 bleed for your errors or misconduct. Habituate yourself to 
 have such feelings always in your mind ; they will enable you 
 to withstand temptation, they will impart a fortitude that will 
 overcome difficulties, and they will animate you in the hour 
 of danger. Commence your career with a resolution to be a 
 soldier, and give your mind (if the impression is not already 
 made) the conviction that there is no profession more virtuous, 
 more elevated, or more glorious than that into which you 
 have entered. As a defender of your country, you should feel 
 an importance that will raise you above the motives of those 
 who deem the army a livelihood, and continue in it merely 
 because they can discover no better means of supporting 
 themselves. Such men never can be enthusiasts, and without 
 real enthusiasm a person in your situation never can rise.* If 
 I could conceive that you ever would sink into one of those 
 jog-trot _animals, I should regret that I had not tried to place 
 you behind a counter as a man-milliner. Do not mistake me 
 about enthusiasm. I mean no light vapouring quality, such 
 as unsteady characters often possess, whose efforts are born 
 
 The reader may advantageously said on the same subject of enthusiasm 
 compare this with what Sir H. Lawrence or romance. See Memoir in Vol. II.
 
 HIS CHARACTER. 231 
 
 one moment and die the next ; but that noble resolution of 1833 
 the mind which no labour or danger daunts in the pursuit of 
 its object, which fixes the subaltern for years to studies that 
 are to enable him to excel when he is a field-officer, which 
 leads him to inure himself to privations in the time of plenty 
 that he may not heed them where they are unavoidable, and 
 makes him court every kind of service that can increase his 
 chance of notice and distinction." In this Sir John Malcolm 
 sets forth the results of his own experience, and all the more 
 earnestly for the recollection that he himself had nearly broken 
 down at the outset of his career, and was saved almost by a 
 miracle from becoming a mere cast -away.* 
 
 As it is my object in this work to display personal examples 
 of a varied but all of a high character, and not to propound 
 theories of Indian government, I shall not speak, at much 
 length, of Sir John Malcolm's character as a statesman, or of 
 the opinions which he entertained. History has claimed him as 
 a follower of Lord Wellesley, and inasmuch as he was, before 
 all men, perhaps, the most active agent of that great man's 
 policy, the description may be correct. But it may be doubted 
 whether Malcolm derived any inspiration from that source. 
 He formed his own opinions, and he honestly acted upon them, 
 even though, by his self-assertion in opposition to his master's 
 views, he might have lost for ever the friendship which he so 
 much valued. He was more moderate than Lord Wellesley. 
 He had a deeper and more abiding sense of wiiat was due to 
 the princes and people, and a more paramount respect for 
 obligations involving the good faith of the British Govern- 
 ment. He ever 'thought good faith of more importance than 
 political expediency. Whilst he was yet a stripling, he re- 
 corded his opinion that an " invariable rule ought to be 
 observed by all Europeans who have connexions with the 
 natives of India never to practise any art or indirect method 
 of gaining their end, and, from the greatest occasion to the 
 
 * In a little book by Mr. Ruskin, good lawyer, or a good merchant; but 
 
 which I read on the evening before I no such an one ever became a good 
 
 wrote the above sentence, I found the general. I challenge you all in history 
 
 following passage. It is part of a lecture to find a record of a good soldier who " 
 
 delivered by that great writer to the was not grave and earnest in youth." A- 
 
 Woolwich cadets. " No good soldier in I accept the challenge, and offer Sir f 
 
 his old age was ever careless or indolent John Malcolm to Mr. Ruskin ; and I \ 
 
 in his youth. Many a giddy or thought- could give him a few more modern in- ) 
 
 less boy has become a good bishop, or a stances in refutation of his wise saw.
 
 232 SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 
 
 1833. most trifling, to keep sacred their word. This is not only their 
 best but their wisest policy. By this conduct they will 
 observe a constant superiority in all their transactions; but 
 when they act a different part when they condescend to meet 
 the smooth-tongued Mahomedan or the crafty Hindoo with 
 the weapons of flattery, dissimulation, and cunning, they will 
 of a certainty be vanquished."* And these were no mere 
 puerile platitudes, but the strong convictions which were 
 striking root within him, and which never decayed to the last 
 day of his life. At a later period, when he was in antagonism 
 with Lord Wellesley, he wrote, that " if we determine a case 
 of a disputable nature in our own favour because we have 
 power, we shall give a blow to our faith which will, in my 
 opinion, be more injurious to our interests than the loss of 
 fifty provinces." The maintenance of the good faith of the 
 British Government was ever uppermost in his thoughts, and 
 he strove, justly and generously, to develop this principle in 
 his practical dealings with the Native Princes of India. He 
 was one who would have resisted to the utmost the looser 
 morality and the more short-sighted policy of later days. He 
 loved the natives of India, and he was loved by them ; and 
 even in these days his memory is sweet and " blossoms in the 
 dust." 
 
 * Ante, p. 134.
 
 233 
 
 THE 
 
 HONORABLE MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 [BORN 1779. DIED 1859.] 
 
 A HISTORY of the Civil Service of the East India Company 
 would be a most interesting and instructive record. In that 
 service many great men, sprung from the middle classes, J 
 without high family connexions or any other adventitious cir- / 
 cumstances to give them more than their first start in life, 
 have risen to high position and to still higher reputation. 
 From the days of Warren Hastings to the days of John Law- 
 rence, there have never been wanting members of the Civil 
 Service to evince by their actions the possession of heroic 
 qualities of the highest order. To be a civilian in India is 
 not to be merely a member of a great bureaucracy. The I 
 duties which he is called upon to face are not solely the duties / 
 of the desk. As the soldier in Lidia is often called upon to 
 lay down the sword and to take up the portfolio of the admi- 
 nistrator, so the civilian is often, on the great high road of 
 his duty, surrounded by circumstances which compel him to 
 lay down the portfolio and to gird on the sword. Of the . 
 civilian-soldier there was no better type than John Malcolm. / 
 Of the soldier-civilian there is none better than Mountstuart f 
 Elphinstone. I have given some account of the first ; I now 
 proceed to narrate some of the more noticeable incidents in 
 the histoiy of the second. * 
 
 Mountstuart Elphinstone was the fourth son of a Scotch 1779. 
 peer of that name ; frut though by courtesy an " honourable" 
 and of a very ancient lineage, the associations of his family 
 were rather those of the middle classes than of the aristocracy, 
 
 * As Sir Henry Lawrence may be stone. I write merely of the external 
 bracketed with Malcolm, so Sir Charles circumstances of their lives. Their cha- 
 Metcalfe may be bracketed with Elphin- racters were widely different.
 
 234 MOUNTSTUABT ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 177993. and many of his kindred, moved by that spirit of adventure 
 which is so powerful an element in the national character, 
 had gone forth to seek their fortunes in the East. His father 
 was a soldier, who rose to be a General Officer and Governor 
 of Edinburgh Castle ; but one of his uncles was a Director of 
 the East India Company, and Indian writerships were held to 
 be no unsatisfactory provision for the younger sons of Scotch 
 peers. 
 
 The first fourteen years of Mountstuart's life were spent hi 
 Scotland ; a goodly part of them in Edinburgh Castle. What 
 he learnt either at home or at the High School, which he at- 
 tended for two years, was probably not much ; for he was not 
 a studious boy, but one delighting in manly exercises and 
 somewhat addicted to mischief. Seventy years afterwards 
 there were those who still bore in remembrance the lithe 
 figure and the long curly golden locks of the good-looking, 
 lively, sprightly boy, who outraged the loyal sensibilities of 
 his father and other officers of the Castle, by singing snatches 
 of revolutionary songs learnt from the French prisoners who 
 were confined there. His juvenile principles had a strong 
 republican complexion, and the hair which he wore down his 
 back was intended to be the outward sign of his revolution- 
 ary sentiments. And it is related that years afterwards the 
 memory of this juvenile republicanism was a standing joke 
 against him, and that after his arrival in India some of his 
 companions gave it practical demonstration by presenting 
 Mountstuart with a cap of liberty and a tricolor cockade. 
 
 When he was fourteen years of age he was sent to England, 
 and placed under the educational charge of Dr. Thomson, of 
 Kensington ; with whom he remained until he was taken away 
 to be sent to India, as a writer on the Company's establish- 
 ment. He spent his holidays at the house of his uncle, Mr. 
 Adam, whose son John was destined for the same service, and 
 who lived to become one of its brightest ornaments. As a 
 stripling, young Elphinstone does not seem to have been more 
 grave in his studies than as a boy. He was said to have been 
 " clever enough for anything," but very idle, full of spirit, 
 and somewhat boisterous in his mirth. But he was fond of 
 reading too in certain directions ; and it is remembered that 
 he delighted in quoting Shakspeare and reciting snatches of
 
 FIRST DAYS IN INDIA. 235 
 
 doggrel rhyme, perhaps of his own making. Those were 179599. 
 days when no one thought of literary examinations or pro- 
 ficiency tests of any kind, and yet they produced public ser- 
 vants unsurpassed by any that have been given to India by 
 Haileybury or the Civil Service Commission. 
 
 In July, 1795, Mountstuart Elphinstone, being then six- 
 teen years of age, embarked for India. Among his fellow- 
 passengers was his cousin, John Adam, of whom I have already 
 spoken, and a cadet named Houston, who was going out to 
 join the Bengal Cavalry. The former, in due course, became 
 Secretary to Government, member of Council, and, during a 
 brief interregnum, Governor- General of India. The latter, 
 after doing some good service in India, became Lieutenant- 
 Governor of Addiscombe (where he was known to more than 
 one generation of cadets by the sobriquet of " Black Dick"), 
 and died Sir R. Houston, K.C.B. * 
 
 When, early in 1796, young Elphinstone landed at Cal- First days in 
 cutta, Sir John Shore was Governor- General of India. He z 
 was a man of a quiet mind, and the times were eminently 
 quiet. But the historian of his career has one noticeable 
 incident to dwell upon one not unexciting story to tell the 
 story of the Oude succession. Sir John Shore set aside the 
 claims of Vizier Ali to the throne of Oude, and the young 
 man from that time cherished a feeling of bitterest resentment 
 against the English. A dangerous and disaffected person, he 
 was held under some kind of surveillance at Benares, but he 
 had a considerable number of followers, with all his own in- 
 solence and vindictiveness, and one day in 1799 they fell 
 upon the British officers at the Residency and massacred all 
 within their reach. It happened that at this time Mr. 
 Elphinstone was assistant to the magistrate at Benares. His 
 young Cavalry friend, Houston, Vas paying him a visit whilst 
 the slaughter was going on at the Residency ; and the dis- 
 astrous tidings reached them in time only for them to mount 
 their horses, and, pursued by Vizier All's troopers, to ride for 
 their very lives. There are some men who appear to be born 
 ever to be in the thick of the world's action ever on the 
 
 * I am indebted for these memorials phical sketch contributed by Sir Ed- 
 of Elphinstone's early life principally to ward Colebrooke to the Journal of the 
 a very interesting and valuable biogra- Asiatic Society.
 
 236 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 1799. great high road of History, pressing forward, with their loins 
 girt about ; whilst others repose quietly in peaceful nooks, or 
 saunter idly along the byways of life. To the first and the 
 smaller class belonged Mountstuart Elphinstone. This escape 
 from Vizier Ali's horsemen prefigured his whole career. There 
 was now to be a great growth of History ; and ever for 
 more than twenty years he was to be in the thick of it. 
 
 A new Governor- General had begun to reign ; and a new 
 era had commenced. Lord Wellesley was a man with a 
 " grand policy," and, scorning all constitutional restraints, he 
 determined to work it out. This grand policy was incom- 
 patible with peace ; so in a little time our armies were in 
 motion, firstly in Southern India, where Tippoo was to be 
 subdued, and secondly in Central India, where accounts were 
 to be settled with the Mahratta Princes. To the events which 
 were developing themselves in the latter part of the country, 
 I have now to invite the reader's attention a wide expanse 
 stretching from Delhi to Poonah, over which Lord Wellesley 
 was extending the network of his diplomacies in days when 
 diplomacy was ever another name for war. For men of action 
 the times were most propitious. The Company's civil servants 
 might "provide the investment," or administer the regula- 
 tions ; they might be merchants, or magistrates, or revenue 
 collectors, if they desired to live peaceably with good houses 
 over their heads ; but for more adventurous spirits there was 
 a grand outlet through what was officially called the " Poli- 
 tical Department," but which in Europe is known as the 
 Diplomatic Service. To that service all the most high-spirited 
 young civilians eagerly betook themselves ; and Mr. Elphin- 
 stone among the first of them. His early inclinations had 
 been all towards the military profession ; in his teens he had 
 looked upon the life of a subaltern as the ne plus ultra of 
 human enjoyment; and there was that in him which, had 
 circumstances favoured his wishes, would have made him one 
 of the first captains of the age. But although it was pro- 
 vided that he should live much in the camp, and see, face to 
 face, the stern realities of war, there was no recognised posi- 
 tion for him in the battle-field, and therefore only the danger 
 of the fight without its honours and rewards. 
 
 But there were honours and rewards of another kind, and,
 
 THE MAHRATTA WAR. 237 
 
 young Elphinstone was fully satisfied. In 1801, he was 18011803. 
 appointed an assistant to the British Resident at Poonah, or, 
 in other words, an attache to the British Mission at the Court 
 of the Peishwah the greatest of the Mahratta Princes. The 
 Resident was Colonel (afterwards Sir Barry) Close ; an officer 
 of high distinction, to whom both soldiers and diplomatists 
 looked up with reverence, and under whom any young aspi- 
 rant might be proud and happy to serve. In the whole range 
 of service there was no post better fitted to call forth and 
 develop the energy and ability of such a man as Mr. Elphin- 
 stone. Once appointed to it, he was on the high road to fame 
 and fortune. The times, as I have said, were most propitious 
 for those who panted for action. The Mahrattas, having 
 usurped the power of the Mogul and established their supre- 
 macy in Upper India, were now contending among them- 
 selves. This was our opportunity. The great game was now 
 to be played with something like a certainty of winning. The 
 disunion of the Mahrattas was their weakness ; their weakness 
 was our strength. Dum singuli prceliantur universi vincuntur. 
 It was Lord Wellesley's policy to interfere in these internal 
 disputes, and he did so, by espousing the cause of the Peish- 
 wah, and entering into a friendly alliance with him. Whether 
 the British Governor might not have been content to look on 
 a little longer, without taking a hand in the game, is a question 
 for historians to discuss. It is enough here to say, that, having 
 entangled ourselves in diplomacies, we were soon in the midst 
 of war. 
 
 The year 1803 was a memorable one in the annals of India The first 
 memorable in the career of Mountstuart Elphinstone me- Mahratta war - 
 morable in the career of a stiU greater man, who then first 
 made for himself a place in history. Colonel Arthur Wel- 
 lesley, the brother of the Governor- General, had taken part 
 in the operations which resulted in the conquest of Mysore ; 
 but the qualities which he had displayed were not so con- 
 spicuously great as to preserve him from the reproach of being 
 favoured as the brother of the Go vernor- General. The Mah- 
 ratta war, however, proved him to be a true soldier. It was 
 the privilege of Mountstuart Elphinstone to watch the dawn 
 of the great captain's glory. It has happened to many a man 
 at the outset of his career to profit largely by an accident
 
 238 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 1803 which has been a heavy blow and a great loss to another. It 
 has been told in the preceding Memoir how Major John 
 Malcolm, to whom the Governor- General had entrusted the 
 political conduct of the operations in Berar, fell sick at the 
 commencement of the campaign, and, bitterly disappointed, 
 was compelled, for very life's sake, to quit the camp. Then 
 Mr. Elphinstone was sent to fill his place, and eagerly he 
 went to the front. In August, 1803, he joined General Wel- 
 lesley at Ahmednuggur ; and though he had not been long in 
 camp before sickness fell upon him also, he did not succumb 
 to it. The great battle of Assye found the young civilian 
 with his foot in the stirrup beside his military chief. The 
 flanks of their horses touched each other as they rode, con- 
 versing quietly as on parade, through the thick of that hot 
 fight. All his old military ardour was then revived ; and 
 such not only was his coolness under fire, but the quickness 
 of his eye and the soundness of his judgment with respect to 
 military dispositions and combinations, that at the close of the 
 campaign Wellesley said of his young friend that he had mis- 
 taken his calling, for he was certainly born a soldier. 
 
 This was after the siege of Gawilghur, at which Mr. 
 Elphiustone was present, and had again evinced the fine sol- 
 dierly qualities which had excited the admiration of Sir Arthur 
 Wellesley at Assye. There was then a season in which the 
 negotiator took the place of the military commander, and 
 there were some sharp diplomatic conflicts which demanded 
 the exercise of no common skill and sagacity : for one of the 
 astutest of native politicians was then arrayed against us the 
 well-known Wattel Punt. Malcolm, as already told, soon 
 returned to camp; but his absence had made Elphinstone's 
 fortune. Sir Arthur Wellesley wrote officially to his brother, 
 in eulogistic language, well deserved, of the services ren- 
 dered to him by the young civilian. " Upon the occasion," 
 he said, i{ of mentioning Mr. Elphinstone, it is but justice 
 to that gentleman to inform your Excellency, that I have 
 received the greatest assistance from him since he has been 
 with me. He is well versed in the language, has experience 
 and a knowledge of the Mahratta powers and their relations 
 with each other, and with the British Government and its 
 allies. He has been present in all the actions which have
 
 AT NAGPOKE. 239 
 
 boon fought in this quarter during the war, and at all the 18031807. 
 sieges. He is acquainted with every transaction that has 
 taken place, and with my sentiments upon all subjects. . I 
 therefore take the liberty of recommending him to your Ex- 
 cellency." 
 
 On the conclusion of peace, Mr. Elphinstone was appointed The Nagpore 
 to represent British interests at the Court of the Rajah of 
 Berar; and he remained at Nagpore, after the departure of 
 Lord Wellesley from India, during the brief second reign of 
 Lord Cornwallis and the interregnum of Sir George Barlow. 
 The times were uneventful ; but they were not wanting in 
 opportunities to a man of Mr. Elphinstone's character ; for 
 rarely has one so fitted for active life evinced at the same time 
 so eager an inclination towards studious pursuits. In quiet 
 times, he could subside contentedly into a bookworm, and 
 find measureless delight in the great works of ancient and 
 modem literature. One of his favourite authors was Thucy- 
 dides, and many years afterwards he reminded his friend, Mr. 
 (afterwards Sir Richard) Jenkins, of the days when they read 
 the works of that great historian together at Nagpore. Having 
 left England at the early age of sixteen, and having up to that 
 time shown no great partiality for persevering study, he^ had 
 carried with him to India only a slender stock of learning. 
 But he had taken with him, all the same, a genuine love of 
 literature, and he coveted the possession of a greater store of 
 that precious intellectual wealth. So, whenever there was not 
 much active work to be done, in the line either of war or of 
 diplomacy, he addressed himself eagerly to his books. There 
 are many who, in after days, knowing him only as a scholar 
 and a recluse, were slow to believe in the energy of his cha- 
 racter and the activity of his habits ; but at the time of which 
 I am now writing he was all energy and activity, and his 
 library campaigns were but the complement or filling-up of a 
 life of action. He was a bold and accomplished rider; he 
 delighted in field-sports; he had a quick eye and a ready 
 hand with the boar-spear ; and in the face of any kind of 
 danger was as cool and collected as though he had nothing 
 before him more difficult than a Greek verb. 
 
 Those were days when reputations ripened rapidly, and 
 young men went to the front with great responsibilities upon
 
 240 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 18071809. them, such as in later times were seldom entrusted to them in 
 The Caubul the earlier stages of their career. The British Government in 
 India, now represented by Lord Minto, had need of all its 
 ablest sen-ants ; for it seemed that a conjuncture had arisen 
 of a grave and alarming character, and that England might 
 soon be called upon to contend with other great Powers for 
 the mastery of the East. It happened, as already told, that 
 after the peace of Tilsit in 1807, there was great dread of the 
 results of the close alliance which was then formed between 
 the Powers of France and Russia. So the British Govern- 
 ments in India and in England prepared themselves for the 
 defence of their eastern dominions. This, in the first instance, 
 was to be done, not by the equipment of armies or the erection 
 of fortifications, but by diplomatic address. It was possible 
 to undermine French influence at the Court of Persia ; and it 
 was possible to obtain the good offices of the Sovereign Princes 
 occupying the territories between the British and the Persian 
 frontiers. The invading armies must have marched through 
 Afghanistan and Sindh, or through Afghanistan and the 
 Punjab. It was of primary importance, therefore, for the 
 British Government to cement friendly alliances with the 
 rulers of those countries. And Lord Minto wisely determined 
 to send embassies to them. Mr. Elphinstone was then selected 
 to conduct the British mission to be despatched to the Court 
 of Caubul. In these days, there is nothing in such a task as 
 that which then devolved upon the young statesman to lift it 
 out of the regions of common-place. But fifty years ago the 
 great tract of country lying between the Sutlej River and the 
 Hindoo Koosh was almost a terra incognita to British tra- 
 vellers. One enterprising Englishman a civil servant of the 
 East India Company named Forster had explored those 
 countries, and had published two interesting quarto volumes 
 descriptive of them. But he had travelled in disguise, and 
 crept along his route; whereas there was now to be an im- 
 posing embassy, making a great display of the wealth of the 
 British Government and the greatness of its resources. The 
 reigning monarch at that time was Shah Soojah, he with 
 whom at a later period we formed a closer and more disas- 
 trous alliance. Mr. Elphinstone was to endeavour to rouse 
 his fears for his own safety, and by showing him that if
 
 MEETING WITH SHAH SOOJAH. 241 
 
 Persia entered into a compact with the European Powers 1809. 
 hostile to England he would inevitably be destroyed, stimulate 
 him to put forth all his strength to oppose their progress from 
 the westward. It was the policy of our Government to 
 abstain from entering into any offensive engagements with 
 the Court of Caubul; but Mr. Elphinstone was told that 
 " should the contracting these engagements be absolutely re- 
 quired by the King, the eventual aid to be afforded by us 
 ought to be limited to supplies of arms, ordnance, and military 
 stores, rather than troops." 
 
 Proceeding by the route of Bekanier, Bahwulpur, and 
 Mooltan, the Mission entered Peshawur on the 25th of Fe- 
 bruary, 1809 ; and on the 5th of March, Mr. Elphinstone 
 had his first audience of the King.* Whatsoever might be 
 Shah Soojah's character as a ruler or a statesman, the English 
 Ambassador saw plainly that he was a courteous, well-man- 
 nered gentleman, and that his feelings towards the British 
 Government were really, as they were professedly, friendly. 
 But he was distracted by domestic cares. He had a dan- 
 gerous revolution to cope with in his own kingdom. He did 
 not wish the British Mission to proceed any farther into the 
 heart of his dominions, which were in a disturbed state ; and, 
 indeed, the best advice he could give to the English gentlemen 
 was, that they should go home as fast as they could, unless 
 they were inclined to help him against his enemies. When 
 a man's own house is on fire, it is no time to alarm him on 
 the score of remote dangers ; and he soon found that the 
 British Government would not help him to extinguish these 
 domestic flames. 
 
 The Afghan Ministers, it must be admitted, argued the 
 case acutely and not without some amount of fairness. They 
 
 * He was attended by a staff of Eng- department of " Government and Man- 
 
 lish officers, among whom were Mr. ners." At a later period, when our offi- 
 
 Strachey, as secretary, and Lieutenant cers visited Afghanistan, they generally 
 
 Macartney, as geographer ; Captain orientalised themselves as much as pos- 
 
 Raper, Mr. Tickell, and Mr. R. Alexan- sible. But the officers of Elphinstone's 
 
 der were also attached to the Mission. Mission took no pains to disguise the 
 
 Macartney died shortly after his return outward characteristics of English gen- 
 
 to India, and his loss, of which mention tlemen of that period ; and they were 
 
 will be found in Sir James Mackintosh's told that they might have done better 
 
 journals, was great to Eastern science, if they had only let their beards grow. 
 
 The duties of collating and recording Elphinstone himself was always a fair, 
 
 information were divided between these close-shaven man, with nothing in the 
 
 officers, Elphinstone himself taking the least oriental in his appearance. 
 
 YOL. I. R
 
 242 MOUKTSTUART ELPHINSTONB. 
 
 1809. could not see why, if the English wished the King of Caubul 
 to help them against their enemies, they should not in their 
 turn help the King to resist his ; but as it was, they said, all 
 the advantage was on our side, and all the danger on the side 
 March, 1809. of the King. " They stated," wrote Mr. Edmonstone in a 
 letter to Lord Minto, " that an alliance for the purpose of 
 repelling one enemy was imperfect, and the true friendship 
 between two States could only be maintained by identifying 
 their interests in all cases; that Shah Mahmoud had not 
 influence over the Douranees, and would be obliged if he 
 obtained the crown to put himself under the protection of 
 the Persians to maintain his authority; that he had before 
 connected himself with that people, and was naturally in- 
 clined to them ; and that from the moment of his restoration 
 to the government of this country we might consider the 
 French and Persians as already on the Indus. They said the 
 Afghans were a powerful people against foreign invaders, and 
 that when the French and Persians came, they might not 
 require our assistance, but that we might regret our tardy 
 aid if, before the threatened attack commenced, the present 
 Government of this country was overthrown, and all the 
 fruit of our alliance with it destroyed. Supposing a weaker 
 case, and that Shah Soojah was only able to make head against 
 the rebels without destroying them, they said that an attack 
 from the French and Persians might then be difficult to 
 withstand, and it would cost us millions to effect what might 
 now be done for thousands. Throughout their whole dis- 
 course they seemed to consider the invasion of the French 
 and Persians to be by no means formidable, unless aided by 
 intestine divisions ; but they were candid enough to admit 
 that the war with those nations concerned them as much as 
 it did us. In reply to this, I said that my instructions went 
 only to the conclusion of a defensive alliance against the 
 French and Persians, and that I knew your Lordship would 
 never wish to take any part in the domestic quarrels of the 
 Afghans, that your Lordship would of course be anxious 
 that his Majesty's means of repelling invasion should be 
 strengthened by the removal of the disturbances within his 
 dominions, but unless it could be proved to your Lordship's 
 satisfaction that the party in rebellion was connected with the
 
 AFGHAN DIPLOMACY. 243 
 
 common enemy, it would be entirely out of your plan to 1809. 
 interfere in them. I said that we did not profess to act 
 towards this State merely from motives of disinterested 
 friendship. If we did, the King would have cause to suspect 
 us of harbouring designs which we thought it impolitic to 
 avow. I frequently urged them to bring forward any in- 
 formation they possessed respecting Shah Mahmoud's con- 
 nexion with the Persians, but they always acknowledged 
 their belief that he had no transactions with that nation." 
 
 At the subsequent interviews the Afghan diplomatists re- 
 peated these arguments, and besought the English Ambas- 
 sador to grant assistance to the King to enable him to put 
 down the revolution of Shah Mahmoud. But Elphinstone, 
 ever proceeding with extreme caution, answered these de- 
 mands by saying that he would refer the question to the 
 Governor- General. They professed to be surprised at this, 
 and told him that they could not understand the object of 
 his embassy, as they saw nothing with which he was charged 
 that could not have been entrusted to a chuprassy. The 
 treaty, they said, was merely a snare for them, and would 
 force them, if they concluded it, either to break their faith 
 or to bear the whole brunt of the war, whilst the English 
 Ambassador was referring for orders. " I answered them," 
 wrote Elphinstone, " by stating in the least offensive manner 
 the utter fallacy of their statements, and the entire miscon- 
 ception of the Case into which they had fallen. I said they 
 seemed to think we came to beg or purchase their assistance 
 in a war which concerned us alone, and that our situation was 
 such that we should be ruined if they did not immediately 
 accede to our demands, but that the truth was that the war 
 concerned them more than us ; whether the French came as 
 pretended friends or open enemies, the Afghans must fight or 
 lose their country, and the enemy could not approach us till 
 they were subdued either by force or fraud. All I had to add 
 was to show them their danger and offer assistance to repel 
 it. They might tell me what assistance they required, and I 
 would submit to your Lordship. If the British Government 
 had thought their co-operation necessary to its safety, I 
 should have been authorised to purchase it by concessions ; at 
 present, your Lordship empowered me to offer aid and to hear 
 
 E 2
 
 244 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 1809. what they required, but reserved the decision to yourself. In 
 the mean time you depended on your own means of warding 
 off the danger. I then gave a short account of our expeditions 
 to Spain and Portugal, and explained the preparations at 
 Bombay as far as I could with propriety, and concluded by 
 saying that w r e had often been at war with all the world, and 
 had never suffered in the contest, and that if the French by 
 any means got this country into their power we should still 
 be able to oppose them, as we had been in many more difficult 
 junctures."* 
 
 The Mission remained at Peshawur, watching the progress 
 of events, until the middle of the month of June. As time 
 advanced, the troubles of the King thickened around him. 
 He could not make way against the rebellion of his brother ; 
 and in the early summer he was disastrously beaten in a 
 pitched battle. He has himself recorded, in his Autobio- 
 graphy, that he had resolved, on hearing of the rebellion of 
 Mahmoud, " first to place the Company's ambassadors in a 
 state and place of safety, and proceed to punish the rebels ; 
 and then, if God would grant a victory, he intended to re- 
 turn to treat them in a proper manner." But there was no 
 
 * It was not the least difficult part of their intrigues. The Afghans were 
 Elphinstone's work at this time to con- divided among themselves, but such 
 vince the Afghan Ministers that the was their national spirit that a rebel 
 English were not a very weak nation in would rather deliver himself up to the 
 comparison with the Douranees. The King than accept the assistance of a 
 following extract from one of Elphin- foreign Power. He could not allow 
 stone's letters is highly amusing : " I that it was so easy for us to repel our 
 took this opportunity of enlarging on enemies on our own frontier. If the 
 1 the openness of the English character, King gave them a passage he would 
 and of showing how little a system of join in their enterprise, and we should 
 refinement and deceit was suited either find a war with the Douranees very 
 to the principles or to the genius of our different from one with the French. He 
 nation, and complained of the hardship followed up this ridiculous bravado with 
 of being suspected of concealment at the a long encomium on the valour of the 
 time when I was suffering the incon- Douranees, and (he absurdity of sup- 
 veniences of plain dealing. Moollah posing that any foreign Power could 
 Jaffier observed, in reply to what I had make an impression on them. He said 
 been saying, that his Majesty was re- that he did not believe that we intended 
 solved not to give a passage to the to impose upon the King, but he did not 
 French and Persians, but if he did think that we were so plain as we pre- 
 there seemed no reason to apprehend tended to be. He said our reputation 
 the dangers I had described. If ten was very high for good faith and for 
 thousand French were in each of the magnanimous conduct to conquered 
 cities of Herat, Candahar, Caubul, and Princes, but he frankly owned that we 
 Peshawur, the word of one ^loollah had the character of being very design- 
 would be sufficient to destroy them ing, and that most people thought it 
 without the assistance of a single necessary to be very vigflant in all 
 soldier. He said the King did not fear transactions with us." MS. Records,
 
 PROPOSED CESSION OF SINDH. 245 
 
 such good fortune in store for the unfortunate Prince. He 1809. 
 was eminently unprosperous, and in his misfortune he would 
 have made any terms with the English, so long as he could 
 have obtained assistance from them against his internal ene- 
 mies. But the English would not assist him except with 
 money, and, indeed, as time advanced, it was more and more 
 apparent that the Douranee monarch could do nothing to pro- 
 mote our interests ; for things were righting themselves to 
 the westward, and the alliances which we once dreaded were 
 found to be little more than idle menaces. But whilst wait- 
 ing thus at Peshawur, it appeared to the young English 
 Envoy that we might turn the existing relations between 
 England and Caubul to profitable account, for the future 
 defence of our empire, by entering into a compact for the 
 cession of Shah Soojah's somewhat doubtfully acquired Sindh 
 provinces to the British Government in return for certain 
 money-payments. ' It was a spasm of youthful diplomatic 
 energy to which, doubtless, in his maturer years, he did not 
 look back with much satisfaction. The suggestion was scouted 
 at Calcutta. There was small chance of a Government, of 
 which Mr. Edmonstone,* though only an irresponsible ser- 
 vant of the State, was, in reality, the informing spirit, giving 
 heed to such promptings for a moment. Mr. Elphinstone 
 was rebuked for putting forth such a proposal. But though 
 an error, it was not an unjustifiable one, and he wrote to 
 Government a full explanation of the motives which had 
 prompted him to this display of injudicious zeal. " The ex- June 30, 1809. 
 pediency," he wrote, " of accepting of the cession of Sindh 
 has clearly been removed by the change which has taken 
 place in the state of affairs, and the consequent alteration of 
 the views of Government, and I have to beg the Right 
 
 * This is not by any means the first his lot to be, ostensibly, little more than 
 
 time in which I have referred in this the mouthpiece of others. Seen in offi- 
 
 volume to Mr. Edmonstone. But the cial records, therefore, the merit of his 
 
 more I study the history of India, in best work belongs to others ; and it is 
 
 the transactions of the first twenty years only by men who have access to those 
 
 of the present century, the more con- best materials of history the rough- 
 
 vinced I am that, among the many emi- hewings, as it were, of great measures, 
 
 nent public servants who helped to build traceable from their first inception to 
 
 up the great Raj of the Company, he their final formal execution that the 
 
 had not a superior and scarcely an equal, measure of his greatness can be justly 
 
 He was the great political foreman of a estimated, 
 succession of Governors-General. It was
 
 246 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 1809. Honourable the Governor-General's excuse for having at any- 
 time submitted a plan founded on such imperfect information. 
 I was induced to do so by the consideration that the slowness 
 of the communication between Peshawur and Calcutta rendered 
 it necessary to lose no time in pointing out the disposition of 
 the Court of Caubul with respect to Sindh, and the advantages 
 which might be derived from it. I trust that the following 
 explanation will make it appear that the plan which I proposed 
 did not involve any step at all inconsistent with the strictest 
 principles of political morality. When I had the honour to 
 address to the Governor- General my letter No. 12, I had not 
 the same information respecting the state of Europe which I 
 now possess, and I was very far from considering any event 
 that had taken place in that quarter of the globe as fatal to 
 the French invasion of India. I understood that the Chiefs 
 of Sindh had given a cordial welcome to an agent of France 
 and Persia, while they had received the British Envoy with 
 coldness and distrust. I had also received intelligence (which 
 has proved to be erroneous) that Mr. Smith had arrived at 
 Hyderabad, and had been immediately dismissed. I had no 
 doubt that the views of the Chiefs of Sindh were entirely 
 repugnant to an alliance, or anything like the terms proposed 
 to them, and I conceived the period to be fast approaching 
 which had been anticipated in the 67th and 68th paragraphs 
 of your despatch, when the submission of the Chiefs of Sindh 
 to the King of Persia would render it just and necessary for 
 our Government to assist in reducing them into complete 
 subjection to the King of Caubul. Considering an attack on 
 Sindh to be in the event of certain probable contingencies de- 
 termined, I addressed the Governor- General chiefly with a 
 view to show that it was more for the benefit of both States 
 that we should take Sindh for ourselves than for the King of 
 Caubul. Though my principal object was to enumerate the 
 advantages we should derive from the possession of Sindh, I 
 was aware that our obtaining them depended on the conduct 
 of the Chiefs of Sindh, and on the facility with which we 
 could occupy their country, if the state of our relations with 
 them rendered it necessary to attack them ; but with these 
 subjects I was unacquainted, and was obliged to content my- 
 self with alluding to them, and referring them to his Lordship's
 
 DEPARTURE FROM PESHAWUR. 247 
 
 better information." " It did not," he continued, " fall within 1809. 
 the range of tliis discussion to examine the King of Caubul's 
 right to Sindh, and from what I was in the habit of hearing 
 daily, it did not occur to me to question his title. There 
 seemed little or no difference in point of form between the 
 manner in which the King held Sindh, and that in which he 
 holds the countries most subject to his control, nor is there 
 any real difference, except that he cannot remove the go- 
 vernor, and that more of the revenue is withheld on false 
 pretences (of inundation, &c.) than in the other provinces. 
 The King does not appear ever to have renounced his right to 
 the full sovereignty of Sindh. His march in that direction 
 last year was, professedly, at least, for the purpose of settling 
 the province, and the reduction of Sindh is as commonly 
 spoken of as that of Cashmere. On the other hand, I under- 
 stood the Chiefs of Sindh to acknowledge the King's sove- 
 reignty in the fullest manner, and to pretend no right to the 
 countries they govern, except what they derive from the 
 King's Rukkum. These facts would have rendered it neces- 
 sary for us to attend to the King of Caubul's claims in any 
 arrangement we might make for Sindh, but it was on the 
 supposed transfer of their allegiance to Persia that I con- 
 ceived our right of interference to be founded. I have said 
 so much on this subject because I am very anxious to show 
 the Governor- General that I did not intend to recommend a 
 wanton attack sgn^Sindh for mere purposes of aggrandise- 
 ment." 
 
 He wrote this from Hussun- Abdul, in the Punjab, on his 
 way back to the British Provinces. He had taken leave of 
 the Afghans a week or two before, and had distributed among 
 them an amount of English money and money's worth which 
 made them look greedily for the coming of another envoy, 
 and caused them bitter disappointment when he came. But 
 before his departure Elphinstone had negotiated a treaty of 
 friendship with the Shah, and had indeed done all that it was 
 requisite to do ; for the dangers which he had been sent to 
 anticipate had disappeared by themselves. The King of Cau- 
 bul undertook to prevent the passage of the French and Per- 
 sians through his kingdom, and the English undertook to 
 provide money for the purpose. But so little fear was there
 
 248 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 1809. of Persia becoming the vassal of France and Russia, and 
 helping those Powers to invade our British dominions in the 
 East, that the King of Kings had already consented to a 
 treaty, binding him " not to permit any European force what- 
 ever to pass through Persia, either towards India or the ports 
 of that country." 
 
 1810n. But there were other results flowing from this embassy 
 Calcutta and than those of a diplomatic character. Though Mr. Elphin- 
 1 ay * stone had visited only the outskirts of what was then the 
 kingdom of Caubul, and, according to subsequent distribution 
 of territory, did not enter Afghanistan at all, he contrived to 
 acquire almost as much information relating to the whole 
 country and all classes of its inhabitants, as if he had made 
 the grand tour from Peshawur to Caubul, and from Caubul 
 to Candahar. He returned, indeed, laden with literary spoils, 
 and it is not to be doubted that the fruit was well worth the 
 cost of the gathering, large as was the expenditure upon it. 
 The Government of the day grumbled as Governments and 
 individuals are wont to grumble in such circumstances when 
 the bill was to be paid ; but the highest praise was bestowed 
 upon Elphinstone, and the most liberal consideration shown 
 to him, when he sought an extension of time to make out his 
 accounts and to complete his reports. This work he per- 
 formed at Calcutta, where he remained throughout the year 
 1810. But one of the highest diplomatic appointments in 
 the country was waiting for him. He had been selected to 
 fill the office of Resident at Poonah ; and at the beginning of 
 1811 he set out to join it. 
 
 He took ship at Calcutta ; and among his fellow-voyagers 
 was that young apostolic chaplain, Henry Martyn, who was 
 setting out on his journey to the Persian Gulf, and to that 
 bourne whence no traveller returns. Widely different as were 
 their lives, their characters, and their objects, they were both 
 men of a high order of intelligence, and united by the common 
 sympathies of genius. It is easy to understand how, after a 
 little while, they mutually agreed between themselves to avoid 
 certain debatable topics of discourse, and to take for their 
 themes such matters of common interest as are never want-
 
 RESIDENT AT POONAH. 249 
 
 ing when two highly-cultivated minds are brought into 1811. 
 contact with each other. If Martyn learnt much from 
 Elphinstone, we may be sure that Elphinstone also learnt 
 much from Martyn. When they landed at Bombay, both 
 were brought up for critical judgment before the learned 
 Recorder Mackintosh, who was continually sitting in literary 
 assize both on books and on men. Malcolm was then at 
 Bombay making out the accounts of his last Persian Mission. 
 He introduced Elphinstone to Mackintosh, and Elphinstone 
 introduced Martyn.* When not interrupted by an incursion 
 of " Vandals" or common-place, small-talk people there 
 was much animated discourse at the breakfast-table, or in the 
 evening, between those four the soldier, the civilian, the 
 lawyer, and the priest which truly must have been worth 
 hearing. 
 
 These conversations, very pleasant as they were to Elphin- Life at 
 stone, doubtless caused him to congratulate himself on the Poonah - 
 zeal with which he had cultivated literature a little time 
 before at Nagpore,f and stimulated him to fresh activity of 
 the same elevating kind. When he left Bombay, and was 
 settled in the Poonah Residency, he very soon renewed his 
 studies, and very much in the old direction. Rising very 
 
 * Elphinstone made a very favourable sufferings, but not, on the whole, furious 
 
 impression on Mackintosh, who wrote of or partial, as one would expect him to 
 
 him : " He has a very fine understand- be. April 3rd. Rose at four. Read 
 
 ing, with the greatest modesty and sim- ' Antigone.' Rode out. Ran a jackal, 
 
 plicity of character." but did not kill. Breakfasted. Read 
 
 f Ante, p. 239. Some extracts from thirty-six pages of the 'Memorabilia.' 
 Elphinstone's private journals (which Ate sandwiches. Wrote to Sydenham 
 were not in my possession until after and Kennaway. Read Grotius. Went 
 the preceding sheet had passed through out in the buggy. April 4. Read three 
 the press), illustrative of the studies of hundred lines of the ' Antigone.' Break- 
 this Nagpore period, may be given here : fasted. Put my papers in order. Set 
 "April 2nd. Rose at four. Read 'Anti- off in my palanquin for [illegible] Hall, 
 gone' with Jenkins. Walked on the On the way, finished Mackintosh. He 
 verandah. Returned to ' Antigone,' is eloquent and acute, but inexperienced 
 and read till half-past seven. I had not and enthusiastic. Also read some of 
 time to finish my breakfast before Je- Page. At the Hall ordered repairs, 
 surunt Row came. He stayed till twelve. Read an Idyll of Theocritus, and Jen- 
 Then read some of Page's History of the kins read aloud almost the whole fifth 
 French Revolution, on which I have been book of Homer. . At five rode back, 
 employed for these two days. Jenkins Dined. In bed, read Locke on Liberty 
 tiffed at Close's, where I joined him. I and Necessity. April 5th. Finished 
 stayed there some time, and read some ' Antigone.' I perceive this to be a very 
 of Gibbon's Life, my old inspirer and affecting play, though reading it in corn- 
 guide. Read some more of Page. He pany does not give it a very fair chance, 
 is a republican, and consequently hostile We begin to read Sophocles with more 
 to the royalists, and insensible to their ease than we did Euripides."
 
 250 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 181114. early in the morning, lie devoted the first hours of the day to 
 the perusal of some great work of ancient or modern litera- 
 ture. His favourite languages were the Greek and the Ita- 
 lian ; the Greek dramatists being at that time, perhaps, the 
 authors in which he most delighted. Among his journal en- 
 tries for the year (1811) is the following : " August 14. I 
 spent a long time in reading new Edinburgh and Quarterly 
 Reviews, and have since read, with greater admiration than 
 ever, Bacon's essays. I have just been reading the ' Hecuba' 
 of Euripides. It is, as far as I have read, a noble production, 
 rising at every step in dignity and interest. I have scarcely 
 ever seen a finer turn than that when, after Hecuba has ex- 
 hausted her eloquence in begging for Polyxena's life without 
 ' success, and she tells her daughter to make a last effort her- 
 self to seize Ulysses' hand, and supplicate his mercy, Ulysses 
 turns away, and hides his hand in his garment, but Polyxena, 
 in a speech full of the sublimest sentiments, tells him not to 
 be afraid, for she is not going to ask for a life which she dis- 
 dains. Ulysses is too unfeeling, I think, for his character in 
 Homer, and perhaps the play itself would be more pleasing 
 were he more tender; but the effect of the speech I have just 
 mentioned would certainly be weakened, and it is worth while 
 sacrificing everything for it. The Chorus, as usual, is an en- 
 cumbrance. It may sometimes fill the place of our modern 
 confidant to hear the principal character's confessions, or to 
 soothe his agitation. It may sometimes make those observa- 
 tions which are good for unconcerned spectators, though un- 
 becoming men transported by passion, and which moderns are 
 apt to throw into the mouth of the principal actors ; but, in 
 general, it puts one in mind of the Merryman at Astley's, 
 who makes a speech after every feat of the equestrians, to 
 point out something of which you have long before taken 
 notice." A few days afterwards he wrote : "I have finished 
 * Hecuba.' The interest diminishes after the death of Polyxena. 
 The punishment of Polymnester is barbarous and shocking, 
 and his complaints and fury are somewhat coarse and undig- 
 nified. The sentiments and maxims throughout are too trite 
 and obvious." And see the following, which, though relating 
 to a later period, may be given here, before I pass on to 
 other things of a more active character : " June 15, 1814.
 
 LITERARY PURSUITS. 251 
 
 I have read a volume of the ' Concilio Tridentino,' and am 181314. 
 pleased with the impartiality and sagacity of my author, as well 
 as with the plainness of his style. . . . June 28th. I go on 
 idly, or at least like a man at perfect leisure. There is little 
 business at this moment, and my book is gone. I walk about 
 three hours every day, and to-day six hours, planning or super-/ 
 intending improvements. I read Greek two hours or more 4 
 
 with Jeffreys, and the l Concilio Tridentino' at all spare 
 times. I find the doctrinal discussions tedious and useless, 
 and now either skip them or run over them slightly. Be- 
 sides the penetration which enables Father Paul to unveil all 
 the intrigues to which the Council gave rise, the impartiality 
 which allows him to state them without diminution or aggra- 
 vation, I am particularly pleased with the shrewd and sar- , 
 castic turn of many of his general observations on human / 
 nature, and on the modifications of the human character." . . . 
 " August 8th. I have left off Father Paul. I never intended 
 to read all the discussions about points of faith, and these 
 seem to compose the whole of the fifth and sixth volumes. 
 All connexion between the Council and the politics of Europe 
 is over before the end of the fourth volume, and the Fra now 
 declares his intention of giving a diary of the debates of the / 
 Council. I do not know what I shall read next. I am read- f 
 ing the third volume of Madame de Stae'l ad interim, and the 
 Greek with Jeffreys goes on to my great improvement. My 
 former studies begin to tell, and I think four months' such 
 study as the 'present would enable me to read most books in 
 Greek with ease." 
 
 From his correspondence at this time, no less than from his 
 journals, it may be gathered that he took as deep an interest 
 in the literature of the Eastern as of the Western world, and 
 that, whilst working strenuously on his own account, he could 
 devote much time and attention to the encouragement and pro- 
 motion of the labours of others. During his visit to Bombay, 
 he had made the acquaintance of Mr. William Erskine, who 
 had married one of Sir James Mackintosh's daughters, and 
 who held a legal appointment under the Recorder. This 
 gentleman was then preparing his translation of the autobio- 
 graphy of the Emperor Baber, and Elphinstone was exerting 
 himself to obtain different manuscripts of the work at once
 
 252 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 181314. authentic and complete.* To Charles Metcalfe, then Resident 
 at Delhi, he wrote on the subject, saying : " Poonah, June 28, 
 1813. You and I do not make very good correspondents, and 
 though I write oftenest, I cannot say much for the disinterested- 
 ness of my exertions, as I never write but to ask a favour. At 
 present I have one to solicit about which I am very anxious. 
 Mr. Erskine at Bombay is employed in translating the commen- 
 taries of the Emperor Baber from a Persian translation of 
 that work, which is certainly the most curious and interesting 
 I ever met with in an Asiatic language. There are, however, 
 several gaps in the translation he has got, and a complete 
 copy in Turkish which I brought from Peshawur was lost in 
 consequence of poor Leyden's death, f so that Mr. Erskine's 
 translation must remain incomplete unless you can get us a 
 complete copy of the translation at Delhi, in which I appre- 
 hend you will meet with no difficulty. The august repre- 
 sentative of the house of Timour must assuredly possess the 
 commentaries of the most illustrious of his ancestors, and the 
 founder of his empire ; but if his Highness should not be able 
 to put his hand on the work, some of the literati of Delhi will 
 probably be able to produce it. It is called the ' Touzooki Bau- 
 beree,' and was translated into Persian by the Khan Khan- 
 maun, I believe, in Acbar's time (I mean, Acbar the First's). 
 As you m.ay not be able to procure a complete copy, it is as 
 well to let you know the lacunce which we are anxious to fill 
 up. The first is immediately before Baber's expulsion from 
 his native country, where his last battle with Shybani Khan, 
 and its consequences, are wanting ; the second is after Baber's 
 return from Herat to Caubul, where there is a gap of ten 
 years. I dare say Stuart to whom I beg to be kindly re- 
 membered will be able to give you great assistance in this 
 
 * This kindly disposition to aid others the House of Timour," I wrote to Mr. 
 
 in their literary efforts remained with Elphinstone, asking him for some parti- 
 
 him to the very close of his life. I have culars of the life of his former friend, 
 
 before me a very remarkable proof of it, which I wished to introduce into a review 
 
 which may be mentioned here the more I was then writing. After very little 
 
 appropriately as it is illustrative not delay, Mr. Elphinstone sent me a letter 
 
 only of Mr. Elphinstone's character, but of sixteen closely written pages, con- 
 
 of the immediate subject referred to in taining the desired information in full 
 
 the text the literary career of Mr. measure running over. Some passages 
 
 William Erskine. Shortly after the of this letter will be given at a subse- 
 
 appearance, in 1854, of Mr. Erskine's quent stage of the narrative, 
 posthumously published " History of y Leyden had written a life of Baber.
 
 LITERARY PURSUITS. 253 
 
 search, and his literary zeal will certainly dispose him to 181314. 
 afford it. I intended to have written to him, but as all I have 
 to say about Baber must have been a mere repetition of the 
 contents of this letter, your showing him it will do as well. I 
 suppose, by this time, Futteh Khan has got Attock, and 
 made peace with the Sugs ; he shows a great deal of spirit, 
 and of the sort of talent that is wanted in his country. If he 
 were a Suddozye, he would make a capital king, and soon re- 
 store the Douranee power ; as it is, I am afraid the Govern- 
 ment wants stability. I beg you to offer his Majesty re- 
 spectful assurances of the Peishwah's loyalty and fidelity." 
 " Poonah, Sept. 16, 1813. I am very much obliged to you 
 for getting me Baber. Send him to me by dawk, via Dick 
 Strachey, who will take good care of him. Let me know the 
 cost, and also the amount of the allowance I begged you to 
 make to Izzut Oollah's brother for his labours. Close desires 
 his best regards." " Poonah, October 30, 1813. Notwith- 
 standing the unfortunate agreement between your copies of 
 Baber and ours, I must beg you to send them, as they will be 
 useful for collation, and to settle doubts about names, &c. I 
 must impose a fresh task on you, which I hope your literary 
 zeal will make you excuse. It is to obtain through Izzut 
 Oollah a Turkish copy of Baber. It may be had at Peshawur, 
 or certainly at Bokhara. If he could add the Chaghatai 
 dictionary of Meer AH Beg, or any other Chaghatai dic- 
 tionary, it would be a great point. I enclose a letter to him 
 on the subject, but I must beg you to add the weight of your 
 recommendation. Jenkins leaves to-morrow for Nagpore, to 
 my great regret. He has improved both in learning and 
 wisdom, and has suffered very little by his long solitude. He 
 desires his love to you. I am really sorry to hear of your 
 being so fatigued with Adawlut ; why do you not devolve it 
 on your assistants ? You must soon, for I suppose now Lord 
 Moira is come, lamenting that so little is left for him to do, 
 he will not fail to do what there is, and he will probably find 
 more work than he is aware of. In that case, there will be en- 
 terprise of great pith and moment for you in your own line. I 
 hear you are the most magnificent of all the vain-glorious tribe 
 of Residents. I should like to see your grandeurs. I wish you 
 could see mine : a tiled palace on wooden posts twelve feet
 
 254 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 181314. high ; two chobdars and two hurkaras ; six plated dishes ; 
 six dozen silver spoons ; two little union flags carried by the 
 gardeners on high days or holidays; but, after all, this 
 place is delightful, the climate and scenery are pleasant, and 
 the business not much otherwise, in spite of the excessive vil- 
 lany of the people. See my despatches, passim. I beg you 
 to secure me a cordon of the Order of the Fish when it is 
 instituted." 
 
 But other subjects than these engrossed his mind and 
 directed his pen. His interests and sympathies were mani- 
 fold, and ranged over a large space. Not only, at this time, 
 was he immersed in the politics of India, but his thoughts 
 often travelled to England, and the strife of parties at home 
 excited him in the Mahratta capital. He had left England as 
 a mere boy ; he had been seventeen years in India ; commu- 
 nication between the two countries was at that time slow and 
 irregular ; but he seems to have had a remarkably keen insight 
 into the state of parliamentary and public feeling in Great 
 Britain, and to have entered into political questions with as 
 much zeal as if he had been frequenting the clubs of Pall 
 Mall and St. James's. In the following letter to Mr. Metcalfe, 
 in which, after briefly touching on the state of the country 
 around him, he suddenly plunges into home politics, there is 
 an interesting exposition of his views : " Poonah, September 
 16, 1813. Many thanks for your letter of the 14th, which 
 reached me yesterday. The troubles in which we are involved 
 by our petty allies in your neighbourhood are the consequence 
 of our not having completed the system of defensive alliance. 
 If we had gone through with that measure, and had every 
 state on the left bank of the Chumbul connected with us, we 
 could only have been disturbed by some convulsion such as 
 could scarcely have happened under the circumstances in which 
 we should have been placed ; but, as things are, it is a wonder 
 to me that we have any quiet at all, or that any peace is 
 maintained among the friends, enemies, and neutrals whom 
 we have so ingeniously assembled together at our own door. 
 The Ministers will, I fancy, defeat the Company on the ques- 
 tion about the outports, in which, perhaps, it is well the Com- 
 pany should be defeated. The contest is lucky, as it will draw 
 attention to Indian affairs. I do not agree with you in wish-
 
 'I 
 
 X*ME Pf LITllS. 255 
 
 ing John Company at the devil. Things do not go on ill now, 181314. 
 and under the King I cannot but suppose they would go on 
 abominably. Parliament would not be much check on the 
 Ministers, for Parliament despises India, so much as to grudge 
 the trouble of bullying John Company (who shakes in his , 
 shoes whenever he is spoken to), and would never dream of f 
 quarrelling with a Ministry about a few millions of black 
 rascals who have no votes. Only observe the different treat- 
 ment which'the interests of this Empire and those of Falmouth 
 receive from Parliament. When the charter was about to 
 expire, the Ministers agreed very well with the Directors, and 
 no words passed about the seventy or eighty millions of Indians 
 whose fate was to depend on the decision of the British 
 Government ; but half a score of mendicants in half a dozen/ 
 seaport towns found out that this same decision would make 
 some difference in their profits, and in a moment all England 
 is in an uproar. The Ministers change their tone to the 
 Directors, the Directors break off with the Ministers, and j 
 perhaps the destinies'of Asia are about to be altered to accom-/ 
 modate a few traders at the outports. This is a digression 
 from my subject, which was an opinion that there would be 
 less control over the administration of India, if under the 
 Ministers, than there is now. I think the consequence would 
 be enormous abuses. The revenue of this country would be / 
 looked on as a vast mass of droits of the Admiralty, of trea- * 
 sure to be spent without being accounted for ; and the service 
 would be a snug hole into which everything that was too dis- 
 gusting to be seen at home might be thrust. Supposing things 
 not to be so bad as I have made them, you cannot suppose 1 
 that the Prince and the Ministers would attempt less in India, v 
 where they would not be opposed, than in England, where 
 they are sure of a contest. Lord Yarmouth would then make 
 an excellent Governor- General, and Colonel Macmahon would 
 do well for Madras ; Dr. Dingenan would, perhaps, conde- . 
 scend (after the anti-Catholic war was over) to take a seat in f 
 the Council of Fort William, and George Hanger, if he is 
 alive, might be put beyond the reach of the Military Commis- 
 sion, by superseding an obscure wretch, who never was at 
 Carlton House, in the Residency with the Great Mogul, and 
 in the expected honours of the Fish. As to foreign policy,
 
 256 MOUKTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 181314. the Company's servants have conquered India, while the 
 King's have been losing America, and all but losing Ireland. 
 I do not mean all this so much for a defence of the Company 
 as for an attack on the Government at home, which is almost 
 always bad, and which is only prevented ruining us by the 
 democratic part of the constitution in which India would 
 have no share. I intended to tell you a great deal (while 
 waiting for a Mahratta writer) about Jenkins, who left me 
 this morning for Bombay ; but I have got into a long disqui- 
 sition on politics, and here is the writer come. I can only 
 say that Jenkins is greatly matured and improved, without 
 having caught any native habits in his long seclusion from 
 European society. "' 
 
 This was, perhaps, the pleasantest period of Mountstuart 
 Elphinstone's Indian service. He had enough official work 
 to do to keep up an unflagging interest in it, and yet to leave 
 him time for other pursuits invigorating alike to mind and 
 body. " The contiguity of the country under Bombay," he 
 wrote, at the end of a long letter to Metcalfe, detailing the 
 nature of his Residency work, " occasions correspondence 
 with that Presidency, as the same cause sometimes does with 
 Madras, and often with Hyderabad ; and these, and numerous 
 little things too trifling to mention, make up my employment. 
 They leave me a good deal of leisure ; and as this climate is 
 delightful, and there is good hog-hunting in reach, I like it 
 better than any station I have seen." At this time the plea- 
 sant labours of authorship came as a variety and a relief to his 
 other more active work. It has been seen how ready he was 
 to help others in their literary incubations ; it is time now to 
 speak of his own. 
 
 * The references in this letter are to an eloquent speech on our duties to the 
 
 the discussions which preceded the re- natives of the country, by saying: "On 
 
 newal of the Company's Charter in their behalf, in their name, I venture to 
 
 1813. Much* that is said about the address myself to the House. Through 
 
 scandalous disregard of the true inte- me they give utterance to their prayers. 
 
 rests of the people of India is, I fear, It is not my voice which you hear, it is 
 
 only too applicable to the state of things the voice of sixty millions of your fel- 
 
 at the present time. The condemnation, low-creatures abandoned to your disposal 
 
 however, was perhaps a little too sweep- and imploring your commiseration, 
 
 ing, for there were some men in Parlia- They conjure you by every sacred con- 
 
 ment who stood up for the rights and sideration to compassionate their condi- 
 
 interests of the people. Prominent tion, to pay due regard to then- situa- 
 
 among the few was Charles Grant the tion to remember what contingencies 
 
 younger afterwards Lord Glenelg are suspended on the issue of your 
 
 who, in the spring of 1813, concluded vote," &c. &c. &c.
 
 AUTHORSHIP. 257 
 
 During his residence at Calcutta, Elphiustone had brought 181314. 
 together and arranged the valuable information he had col- Literary la- 
 lected relating to the countries which he had visited beyond bour8 ' 
 the Indus, and those still farther to the northward, which he 
 had never reached. But he had intended, in the first in- 
 stance, that this information should take the shape only of 
 a report to Government ; and it was not until Sir James 
 Mackintosh stimulated him to seek a larger audience and to 
 give the public the benefit of his labours, that he began even 
 to meditate on the possibility of publishing a book of travels. 
 He had by no means made up his mind on the subject, when 
 he quitted Bombay and made his way to the Mahratta capital, 
 taking with him a promise from Malcolm to pay him an early 
 visit. In May, the promise was redeemed. In spite of the 
 hot weather, the two friends, in whom at that time the enthu- 
 siasm of the sportsman glowed with equal heat, gave them- 
 selves up rather to hard riding and fierce boar-hunting than 
 to literary pursuits. In truth, they had both of them pored 
 too long over their papers, and were fain to brush away the 
 cobwebs in the jungle. It was not till some time after 
 Malcolm had left him, that he began seriously to consider the 
 question of publication ; and then he said that his appearance 
 as an author would depend much upon the extent of country 
 which Malcolm intended to embrace in the great work upon 
 Persia which he was then preparing for the press. "It is 
 necessary," he wrote, " that I should know with some pre- 
 cision what you intend to do, or I shall spoil your work and 
 waste my trouble (and no small trouble it is writing quires of 
 paper, let alone writing for the public), while I might be 
 hunting, hawking, reading, and doing my business with much 
 more profit both to myself and the public, even if I did not 
 take in hand the account of India, which you so fully con- 
 vinced me was required." Malcolm's answer was satisfactory. 
 He purposed to confine his inquiries to Persia ; so Elphin- 
 stone sat himself down at Poonah to write an account of the 
 " Kingdom of Caubul." 
 
 He wrote very carefully and conscientiously, for he was 
 one not easily pleased, and sometimes he was so little satis- 
 fied with his work that he felt inclined altogether to abandon 
 his project. He was encouraged, however, by one or two of 
 
 VOL. i. s
 
 258 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 181415. hig correspondents ; especially by Mr. Jenkins, who then re- 
 presented British interests at Nagpore, and to whom the his- 
 torian from time to time submitted portions of his manu- 
 script, courting the critical revisions of his friend. Jenkins, 
 it would seem, had even a severer distaste for anything like 
 diffuseness and redundancy than Elphinstone, and used the 
 pruning-knife with an unsparing hand. " I am once more 
 at my eternal book," wrote Elphinstone to Jenkins, in 1814, 
 " correcting the duplicate for despatch to England. I see the 
 benefit of your cutting, and am very thankful for the zeal 
 with which you performed that uninviting duty. It is some- 
 thing like a real amputation, where the surgeon has a tedious 
 and disagreeable task, and for the time gets no thanks from 
 the patient." At last the book was finished and sent home ; 
 and the great publishing house of Longman and Co. under- 
 took to produce it. And they brought it out in becoming 
 style, as books were brought out in those days a magnificent 
 quarto, with an elaborate map and coloured engravings, pub- 
 lished at a price which would now be sufficient to scare away 
 most purchasers.* It was an undoubted success. It made 
 Mr. Elphinstone's literary reputation ; and it is still, after a 
 lapse of fifty years, consulted with undiminished interest and 
 advantage by all who seek information relating to the coun- 
 tries which it so well describes. 
 
 At that time, the patience of Indian authors was severely 
 tried by the tardiness and uncertainty of communication with 
 England. The interval between the despatch of the manu- 
 script and the arrival of the printed book was so great, that a 
 writer had almost forgotten his work before it came back to 
 him in type. Mr. Elphinstone's case was no exception to the 
 rule. He had almost begun to think that he should never 
 hear of his book again, when he received from England tidings 
 to the effect that it had been published, that it had been 
 reviewed, and had become the talk of London and Edinburgh. 
 This revived his spirits, and he wrote with all the enthusiasm 
 of a young author, in the first flush of his fame, to com- 
 municate his good fortune to the friend who had taken so 
 much interest in the progress of his work. " My immediate 
 
 * It is entitled "An Account of the bears date 18 15. It has since been re- 
 Kingdom of Caubul and its Dependen- published in 2 volu. 8vo. 
 cies in Persia, Tartary, and India." It
 
 LITERARY SUCCESS. 259 
 
 object," he wrote to Mr. Jenkins, in May, 1816, " is to tell 181617. 
 you of the success of my Travels, in which I am sure you will 
 take as much interest as myself. My letter must in con- 
 sequence be a mere collection of puffs of my own works, for 
 which this is all the apology you are to expect. First, the/ 
 Edinburgh Review [It is Sir James Mackintosh, a partiah 
 friend, and writing with the professed design of encouraging 
 the Indians, but still it cannot be totally false and delusive] : 
 * The style of Mr. E. is, in our opinion, very good. It is 
 clear, precise, significant, manly, often nervous, always per- 
 fectly unaffected, severely guarded against every tendency to 
 Oriental inflation [totum munere hoc tuum est], quite exempt 
 from that verbosity and expansion which are the sins that 
 most easily beset our ingenious countrymen in the East.' . . . 
 Lady Wood writes from Edinburgh that ' the reputation and 
 success of Caubul astounded her ears on all sides, &c. The 
 Man of Feeling (Henry Mackenzie) had been to see her on 
 the evening before, and talked of the noise he had heard of 
 this book, and his desire to see it (it had then been out above 
 three weeks).' ' Other evidences of the interest which the 
 work had excited and the praises it had elicited are given, and 
 then Elphinstone says : " Malcolm corroborates all these 
 stories, and says that he was at Oxford when the review came 
 there, and that the hakims [wise men] were even more struck 
 with the extracts than with the review. Now," he continued, 
 " as I am sure that you will be glad to hear all this, I tell it 
 to you at the risk of appearing vain and foolish ; but though 
 I tell it to you, I do not tell it to all the world ; and I beg 
 you to consider well to "what persons you whisper the secret 
 that Midas has ass's ears. My conclusion is that the book 
 has answered much above my expectations, which you re- 
 member were sufficiently moderate, and that the great reasons 
 are the novelty of the subject and the plainness of the work." 
 
 But the time was now approaching when he was to " have The crisis at 
 a rougher task in hand," and to face more dangerous enemies Poonah> 
 than the critics of London and Edinburgh. Lord Minto had 
 been succeeded in the government of India by Lord Moira, 
 better known to Indian history by his subsequent title of the 
 Marquis of Hastings. The new Governor- General had taken 
 up the reins in a critical period of our history, and there was 
 
 s2
 
 2fiO MOUNTSTUART ELPH1NSTONE. 
 
 181617. plainly much work to be done of the most active and stirring 
 character. Ten years had passed since, under an alarming 
 financial pressure, an unsatisfactory peace had been patched 
 up with the Mahratta powers. It was a conclusion where 
 nothing was concluded, a settlement where nothing was settled. 
 And much of our work had now to be done over again. But 
 before the great game was to be played in Central India, the 
 Nepaulese, according to Lord Moira's programme, were to be 
 fought and conquered. Some of our leading Indian states- 
 men at that time, including Elphinstone and Metcalfe, 
 thought that it would have been wiser to have settled the 
 Central Indian question first. " We ought," wrote the 
 former to Mr. Jenkins, in February, 1815, "to have settled 
 the centre of India before we began with the Goorkhas." 
 " The grand and irreparable mistake," he added, " was 
 Barlow's peace. Scindiah and Holkar had engaged us with 
 regular armies, they were beaten to the ground, and we had 
 only to impose such terms as should keep them quiet for the 
 future, instead of which we left them entire to profit by their 
 experience. Accordingly, they have employed ten years in 
 adopting a system of war better suited to their circumstances, 
 and we must have another and perhaps a longer tussle, before 
 we get them down again. I should hope Scindiah would stay 
 quiet at present, and let us station a force in Bhopaul, after 
 which we must lie on our oars, and not complete the con- 
 federation of the Nerbuddah until we have more leisure. 
 When we once begin in earnest on the protection of the 
 Peishwah's country in that neighbourhood, I think we must 
 have a war with Scindiah; and even if we avoid that, we 
 must one day have a Pindarree hunt, which is the same 
 thing." And then he added, with one of those rapid transi- 
 tions from politics to literature which are so charmingly 
 frequent in his letters, " I wish your work were done before 
 that time comes. Pottinger's has gone home on a ship that 
 sailed yesterday.* ... I wish I had mine back again, but as 
 
 * The works to which reference is never appealed to the public and the 
 
 here made are Lieutenant (afterwards critics, but, printed in an official shape, 
 
 Sir Henry) Pottinger's " Account of it has had many diligent students, and 
 
 Beloochistan," and Mr. Jenkins's " Re- has ever been highly appreciated as one 
 
 port on Nagpore." The latter, in which of the best Indian monographs in exist- 
 
 Mr. Elphinstone took great interest, and ence. 
 which had the benefit of his revision,
 
 MAHRATTA POLITICS. 20 1 
 
 I cannot, I trust to the divine enemy. Stick to the method 181617. 
 of Tacitus." 
 
 It is beyond the scope of such a personal narrative as this to 
 enter minutely into the complicated history of Mahratta poli- 
 tics at that time. The situation was well described by Metcalfe, 
 in a few sentences, when he said : " There is Runjeet Singh 
 looking eagerly on from the north-west. There is Meer Khan 
 within a few marches of the Agra and Delhi frontiers. There 
 are Scindiah and the Rajah of Berar settling whether they 
 shall attack us or not ; and thus virtually menacing our fron- 
 tier from Agra down to Cuttack. There are the Pindarrees 
 ready to pour themselves into every defenceless country." It 
 has already been told that these lawless depredators were the 
 enemies with whom, in the general interests of peace and 
 order, it was our first business to contend ;* and as soon as 
 the conclusion of the Nepaul war afforded the means of 
 organising a large force for operations in Central India, the 
 orders were given, the grand army was collected, and the 
 Governor- General, who was also Commander-in-Chief, placed 
 himself at its head. Although the primary and ostensible 
 object of the assembling of the force was the extirpation of 
 these hordes of freebooters, it seemed from the first to be more 
 than probable that a war with the substantive Mahratta States 
 would follow these first movements. The Mahrattas, indeed, 
 were convinced that this was our design ; and, as the Princes 
 and Chiefs of India are more frequently driven into hostility 
 by their fears than by their resentments, there could be little 
 doubt as to the ultimate result. 
 
 But the exact shape that the conflict might take was long 
 doubtful. It had been the policy of the British Government 
 to support the Peishwah against the lesser chieftains who 
 threatened his authority; and it would still have been our 
 policy, if the man himself had been worthy of our confidence. 
 But he was essentially a weak Prince, and, in his weakness, 
 suspicious on the one hand and treacherous on the other. He 
 had more than the ordinary amount of Mahratta guile, and 
 less than the wonted Mahratta courage. From the first, the 
 insincerity of his character had been clear. " This Badjee 
 Jlao will never do !" had been the dictum of Sir Arthur Wel- 
 * Ante. Memoir of Sir John Malcolm, pp. 195, 196.
 
 262 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 181617. lesley more than ten years before ; and it was now the dictum 
 of Mr. Elphinstone. Like other Princes, equally vicious and 
 weak, he had thrown himself into the hands of a Minister 
 who was vicious but not weak a man named Trimbuckjee, 
 who gained an ascendancy over the Peishwah by professing 
 extreme subserviency to him, and declaring that he would 
 commit any atrocity at his master's bidding, including, if so 
 called upon, the great sacrilegious iniquity of killing a cow. 
 In course of time, he proved his sincerity by committing a 
 crime only one degree lower in the Hindoo scale he murdered 
 a Brahmin. It was a political no less than a religious offence, 
 for the Brahmin was an ambassador from the Guicowar of 
 Baroda. He had offended the Peishwah, so Trimbuckjee 
 caused him to be assassinated in the public streets. This 
 story has often been told before, and need not be related in 
 detail. It was the bloody prologue to other great tragedies, 
 ending in the downfal of the throne of Poonah. From that 
 time the extinction of the power of the Peishwah became only 
 a question of time. 
 
 When intelligence of this prodigious outrage reached Mr. 
 Elphinstone, he addressed an earnest and dignified remon- 
 strance to Badjee Rao, and called upon him at once to appre- 
 hend the Minister, and cause him to be placed in confinement 
 until his Highness and the Governor- General could have an 
 opportunity of consulting on the subject. " A foreign am- 
 bassador," he said, " has been murdered in the midst of your 
 Highness's Court. A Brahmin has been massacred almost in 
 the temple, during one of the greatest solemnities of your 
 religion, and I must not conceal from your Highness the im- 
 punity of the perpetrators of this enormity has led to impu- 
 tations not to be thought of against your Highness's Govern- 
 ment. Nobody is more convinced of the falsehood of such 
 insinuations than I am ; but I think it my duty to state them, 
 that your Highness may see the necessity of refuting calum- 
 nies so injurious to your reputation. I beg you also to 
 observe, that while Trimbuckjee remains at large, his situation 
 enables him to commit further acts of rashness, which he may 
 undertake on purpose to embroil your Highness with the 
 British Government. He is at the head of the administra- 
 tion at Poonah, and has troops at his command ; he is like-
 
 CONDUCT OF THE PEISHWAH. 263 
 
 wise in charge of your Highness's districts, which are con- 181617. 
 tiguous to the possessions of the British Government, and of 
 the Nizam and the Gaekwar ; and, even though he should 
 raise no public disturbance there, I cannot but consider with 
 uneasiness and apprehension in what manner your Highness's 
 affairs will be conducted. For these reasons, it is absolutely 
 necessary that immediate steps should be taken, as your 
 Highness will be held responsible by the Governor- General 
 for any acts of violence which Trimbuckjee may commit after 
 this intimation. I therefore again call on your Highness to 
 adopt the course which I have pointed out to you, as the only 
 one which can restore confidence to the public ministers de- 
 puted to your Court." 
 
 Reluctant as he was to surrender his favourite, Badjee 
 Rao was, after a while, awed into submission. Trimbuckjee 
 was given up, and confined in the_fortress of Tanna, on the 
 island of Salsette. But his captivity was not of long dura- 
 tion. A Mahratta groom,, in the service of the English com- 
 mandant, contrived to effect his release. One morning, groom 
 and prisoner were absent from their places, and pursuit was 
 in vain. It was suspected that Trimbuckjee had made his 
 way straight to his master's presence, and that for some time 
 he was concealed in the private recesses of the palace. Such 
 privacy, however, was not long endurable by one of his rest- 
 less, intriguing nature, and his implacable hostih'ty to the 
 British. As the year advanced, there were evidences of his 
 activity abroad in the unsettled state of the country around 
 Poonah. First from one point, then from another, there came 
 tidings of the gathering of armed men, which the Peishwah 
 either wholly denied, or declared to be harmless and unmean- 
 ing. Mr. Elphinstone, however, was not a man to be deceived 
 by such assurances as these. He knew that Badjee Rao 
 was hastening to destruction; that the final rupture, which 
 was to cost him his throne, was now only a question of time. 
 Seldom, indeed, had a Minister at a foreign Court, either in 
 the Eastern or the Western world, a more difficult part to 
 play than that which now devolved upon Mr. Elphinstone. 
 Of the treachery of the Peishwah there was no doubt. Not* 
 only was he most unmistakably sanctioning, if not actually 
 ordaining, the hostile gatherings which were keeping the
 
 264 MOUNTSTUAKT ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 181617. country in a state of excitement, but he was endeavouring to 
 corrupt the fidelity of our British Sepoys, and of all the 
 people ^employed at the Eesidency. There was an immense 
 amount of money in the Peishwah's territory, and he used it 
 freely for the bribery of our people. He flew at high game, 
 for he tried even to purchase the services or the information 
 of European officers. But Elphinstone knew well what he 
 was doing ; and, though he betrayed no symptom of sus- 
 picion, he was so thoroughly acquainted with what was going 
 on in the Palace, that Badjee Rao afterwards told Sir John 
 Malcolm that the Resident knew every day precisely what he 
 had for dinner. 
 
 So, all through the year 1816 and the early part of 1817, 
 it was hard to say whether it was Peace or War between the 
 Peishwah and the English Government as represented by 
 Mountstuart Elphinstone. It was an occasion that demanded 
 the utmost vigilance on the part of the Resident, and that 
 great union of caution and courage which is only to be found 
 in minds of the highest order. It would be impossible, I 
 think, to speak in exaggerated language of praise of the 
 great qualities which Elphinstone exhibited at this time in 
 the midst of almost unprecedented difficulties. It was his 
 duty to imbue himself with the policy of the Government, 
 and whether he thought that policy were right or wrong, to 
 work it out to the utmost of his power. Both Elphinstone 
 and Metcalfe thought that it would have been wiser not to 
 
 O 
 
 defer so long the settlement of accounts with the Mahratta 
 chiefs. But as Lord Hastings and his Government had other- 
 wise determined, Elphinstone resolved to do all in his power 
 to stave off as long as possible the inevitable collision Avith 
 the Peishwah whilst there was other work in hand to engage 
 the attention and to absorb the resources of the State. 
 
 But day after day he expected that the hour would arrive 
 when it would be possible to temporise no .longer. How 
 difficult it was to avert the final resort to arms may be gathered 
 from the following story, told by General John Briggs, who at 
 that time was one of the assistants to the Resident :* " One 
 
 * This anecdote is a contribution to Briggs for the valuable and interesting 
 
 Sir Edward Colebrooke's excellent Me- information which he has afforded them ; 
 
 moir. There are few writers of Indian and perhaps no one, in a greater degree, 
 
 history or biography, in the present day, than myself, 
 who are not greatly indebted to General
 
 THE CRISIS AT POONAH. 265 
 
 night, after a day that had been passed in considerable anxiety, 1817. 
 owing to reports of troops brought into the town, I received 
 certain information that the cattle for the guns had been sent 
 for, and had arrived an hour before, that the artillery were 
 drawn up in front of the park, that the streets were full of 
 mounted men, and that the Peishwah was in full durbar dis- 
 cussing with his chiefs the subject of immediate war. I has- 
 tened to inform Mr. Elphinstone, whom I found sitting in a 
 large tent, engaged in playing a round game of cards with a 
 party, among whom were several ladies. He saw me enter, 
 and observed my anxiety to speak to him, but he continued his 
 game as usual for half an hour, when, after handing the last 
 lady of the party into her palanquin, he came up to me rubbing 
 his hands, and said, < Well, what is it ?' I told him the news, 
 which he received with great sang froid, and we walked toge- 
 ther to the Residency office. There we encountered the 
 European Commandant of the Contingent, above alluded to, 
 on which Mr. Elphinstone asked him the latest news from the 
 city. He appeared not to be aware of what was in progress, 
 but observed that the Minister, whom he had just left, had 
 told him that the Peishwah had discharged some of the troops 
 lately enlisted, and that all was quiet. Mr. Elphinstone then 
 called on me to state what I had heard, and distinctly told 
 the Commandant that he did not believe a word that he said. 
 The latter said that his information was from the Minister 
 himself, and that as to the troops in the streets, he did not 
 observe any beyond the usual \atrols, and knew nothing 
 about the arrival of gun -bullocks. The moment was critical ; 
 the Residency was incapable of being properly defended, 
 especially by the ordinary escort, and the idea of attacking 
 the Peishwah at once from the cantonment, though hastily 
 expressed, was subsequently abandoned. Mr. Elphinstone 
 resolved to defer doing anything until the morning, and then 
 to take such precautionary measures as he might deem proper. 
 I believe that neither I nor he had much sleep during that 
 anxious night. The night fortunately passed quietly, owing, 
 as was said, to the opposition to war evinced by some of the 
 Ministers. Badjee Rao was physically an arrant coward ; he 
 had always displayed this weakness, and was not ashamed to 
 avow it. No steps were, therefore, taken by either party 
 during the night, but in the morning a requisition for a re-
 
 266 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 1817. inforcement was made, and two guns accompanied it to the 
 Residency." 
 
 On the 17th of October, Elphinstone wrote to his friend 
 Richard Jenkins, at Nagpore, saying: u I suppose that you 
 are very busy, being so near the scene of action. Are your 
 Mahratta Ministers as intriguing, prevaricating, shuffling, 
 lying, cavilling, grumbling, irritating a set of rascals as mine 
 are here ? If I recollect them right, they are not. I think 
 Jeswunt Rao and the rest had some little candour when they 
 were in the right, and some little sense of shame when they 
 were in the wrong, of which there is no trace here. Certainly 
 your sweeping judgment during the last troubles would have 
 been safer in the end than the more moderate course adopted, 
 and not less just." A fortnight later, it was evident that the 
 anticipated rupture had become a question of hours. Appear- 
 ances were more and more threatening. The enemy were 
 swarming around the English position, waiting for a signal to 
 throw off the mask. The story may best be told in Mr. 
 Elphinstoue's own words. On the 30th of October he wrote 
 privately to Captain Agnew, who was an assistant to Sir John 
 Malcolm, and at that time representing his superior with the 
 force under Sir Thomas Hislop : " To prevent your hearing 
 false reports of what has been going on here, I write to you in 
 this form, without waiting to make out an official despatch. 
 You know how the Peishwah has been going on lately, and 
 you also know that I wished to keep everything back as much 
 as possible, for fear of interfering with our negotiations at 
 Gwalior by any appearance of a rupture here. This led me to 
 allow the Peishwah to assemble his troops, which he has done 
 with a degree of celerity that I did not think he could have 
 displayed. I also allowed them to occupy their usual stations, 
 none of which were close to our camp, and though of no con- 
 sequence while the parties were small, became very threaten- 
 ing in the present state of the Peishwah's army. In spite of 
 all my forbearance, however, the Peishwah's preparations 
 threw the whole country into a ferment. Poonah began to be 
 deserted, and there was an universal opinion that we were 
 speedily to be attacked. During all this time I was watching 
 the Peishwah's intrigues with the Sepoys, and about the 27th 
 I found them going on with increased boldness, and repeated
 
 THB CRISIS AT POONAH. 267 
 
 offers were also made to several of our dependents to join 1817. 
 against us, and a large sum of money, with a quantity of 
 shawls, &c., were sent into camp in the night. The Peishwah's 
 troops began to hold themselves in readiness, and it appeared 
 that they were about to execute the plan attributed to them in 
 their dealings with the Sepoys to attack or overawe our 
 camp so as to enable their partisans to come over and induce 
 those who hesitated to join them. Independently of all tem- 
 porary circumstances, you must know, by the reports that 
 have been made, the wretched position occupied by our bri- 
 gade among trees and enclosures close to the town. This, 
 comtiinecr with the security which we were obliged to affect 
 for the purpose of keeping off a crisis, put it in,the Peishwah's 
 power, if he had the spirit, to surprise our camp any night he 
 pleased, and, even if there were no disaffection, to throw us 
 into irrecoverable confusion. The time, however, was limited ; 
 for the Bombay European Regiment was on its march here, 
 and, if allowed to come on as quickly as at first intended, 
 would be here on the 1st or 2nd. It could not be hurried 
 on without disclosing our suspicions ; so that it seemed more 
 than probable, both from the reason of the thing and from the 
 Peishwah's proceedings, that if ever he did anything he would 
 endeavour to strike a blow before the regiment arrived. On 
 considering all these circumstances, I thought it best to put 
 the brigade in a posture of defence, which, besides the direct 
 advantage of being on our guard, gave us that of bringing the 
 Peishwah's plots to a crisis at a time when he was not perhaps 
 prepared, and freed us from the appearance of timidity pro- 
 duced by our dissembling the knowledge of proceedings which 
 were the talk of the whole country. I therefore wrote to the 
 European regiment to come on as fast as possible, without 
 regard to anything except the health of the men ; and I like- 
 wise begged Colonel Burr (who commands here) to keep his 
 men within the lines, and to remove some great defects in the 
 state of our ammunition and provisions. At the same time, 
 I sent to the Peishwah to say that mere military principles 
 required our officers to be on their guard when closely con- 
 tiguous to another army ; that I had therefore authorised them 
 to take the requisite steps, but that I had no suspicion of the 
 Peishwah ; and as there were no discussions pending between
 
 268 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 1817. the Governments, he had nothing to do but remain quiet, and 
 everything would go on as smoothly as ever. This created no 
 great sensation at the time, except affected indignation at being 
 suspected ; but as soon as it was dark, the whole army got 
 under arms, and I really thought that we should have had a 
 breeze. All, however, is now quiet (at ten A.M.). I expect 
 the European regiment in this afternoon, and shall then 
 encamp the whole brigade at Khirkee a good position, out 
 of the reach of surprise, and not easily accessible to the agents 
 of corruption. I shall then have nothing to think of but 
 soothing the Peishwah. I shall take the greatest care to keep 
 the matter of the seduction of the Sepoys secret. I do not 
 think it can have gone far." 
 
 In another letter, written to Lord Hastings on the 7th of 
 November, the story is continued : " In pursuance of the 
 system of confidence which seemed necessary to make the 
 Peishwah a useful ally, and even to prevent our enemies from 
 calculating on his assistance, I had allowed his troops to 
 occupy their usual stations round our cantonments. . . . His 
 Highness had always strongly opposed the movement of our 
 cantonments. . . . The moment of our removal would, there- 
 fore, in all probability, be the one in which his Highness 
 would proceed to carry his plans into execution. . . . This 
 consideration, and a wish to assist our negotiations in Hin- 
 dostan by keeping off to the last a rupture with the Peishwah, 
 induced me to postpone the removal of the cantonment till the 
 arrival of the Bombay European Regiment, which was ex- 
 pected on the 2nd of November. . . . There was, indeed, 
 every indication of an intention on the Peishwah's part to 
 attack it before it should be joined by the European regiment. 
 . . . His preparations were now too open to be explained 
 away, even if Scindiah should enter into our views ; and the 
 expense of them was too great for him to support for any 
 length of time. He became bolder in his intrigues both with 
 our Sepoys and dependents, and I received information of 
 his sending fifty thousand rupees and some dresses of linen 
 into our camp on the night of the 27th, as if on the conclu- 
 sion of a bargain. ... In consequence of this state of things, 
 I wrote on the 29th to Lieutenant- Colonel Wilson, com- 
 manding the European regiment, to hasten his march, so as
 
 AT KHIRKEE. 269 
 
 to arrive on the 30th, and I requested Colonel Burr to keep 1817. 
 the brigade on the alert. At the same time, I sent a message 
 to the Peishwah, representing what I did as a mere military 
 arrangement, adopted (as was the case) at the instance of 
 the commanding officer, intended solely to maintain that state 
 of security which is essential to disciplined troops in the im- 
 mediate neighbourhood of another army, and unconnected 
 with any design against him. . . . On the 1st the brigade 
 moved to its new ground. The Peishwah sent a message to 
 me on the night of the 31st, to request it might be allowed to 
 remain for a time at least, to which I replied by reminding 
 his Highness that the brigade was moving by orders from Sir 
 Thomas Hislop, but I said that, if his Highness was anxious 
 that it should hereafter return, I would communicate his wish 
 to his Excellency." 
 
 After the removal of the British cantonments, the de- Khirkee. 
 meanour of the Peishwah's troops became more and more 
 insolent and aggressive;* the cantonments were plundered 
 without obstruction from the Peishwah's Government, and 
 " an officer on the road to Bombay was also attacked, wounded, 
 and plundered in open day, about two miles from Bombay." 
 General Smith, anticipating a rupture with the Peishwah, 
 had concentrated his forces at Phool-tamba, recalling; his de- 
 
 / / O 
 
 tachments from the Ghauts. " He likewise," says Mr. 
 Elphinstone, " ordered the light battalion, which was on its 
 route to join him, to return to Seroor. ... I wrote on the 
 day before yesterday (the 4th) to order the light battalion and 
 one thousand of the auxiliary horse that were at Seroor to 
 march to Poonah." The Peishwah said that "he had heard 
 of the approach of General Smith, and the near arrival of 
 the battalion from Seroor ; that this was the third time we 
 had assembled troops at Poonah, and he was determined to 
 
 * The movement was believed, or at Feringhees had fled before the invin- 
 least declared, to be, of the nature of a cible arms of Sreemunt, and would be 
 flight. Mr. Elphinstone, writing a few soon clear out of the country. These 
 days afterwards, said : " On the arrival feelings were shown with great inso- 
 of the Bombay European Regiment, I lence ; our cantonments were plundered, 
 moved the cantonment to this delightful a gentleman was wounded and robbed of 
 position (Khirkee), and felt quite relieved his horse at Gunesh Kind, and it be- 
 when I saw it established here ; but the came unsafe for an officer to ride even 
 impression made in town, and diligently between our old camp and our new." 
 encouraged by Gokla, was, that the
 
 270 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 1817. bring things to an early settlement." The Peishwah deputed 
 Wiltojee Naik, one of his immediate servants, to make cer- 
 tain demands upon the British Resident for the removal of 
 the cantonments, for the dismissal of the European regiment, 
 and for the reduction of the native brigade. And here Mr. 
 Elphinstone may be left to tell the story himself, in his own 
 words, as contained in a private letter which he addressed to 
 Captain Close, and which has more graphic interest than the 
 official report : " The Peishwah," he wrote on the llth of No- 
 vember, " who perhaps had been flattered by Gokla that all 
 his preparations should be made without his getting into a 
 scrape, now saw that he must throw off the mask. Accord- 
 ingly he sent a very bullying message to desire I would move 
 the cantonment to such place as he should direct, reduce the 
 strength of the native brigade, and send away the Europeans ; 
 if I did not comply, peace would not last. I refused ; but 
 said I was most anxious for peace, and should not cross the 
 river towards Poonah, but if his army came towards ours we 
 should attack it. Within an hour after, out they came with 
 such readiness, that we had only time to leave the Sungum 
 with the clothes on our backs, and crossing the riverjit a ford, 
 march off to the bridge, with the river between us and the 
 enemy. The Sungum, with all my books, journals, letters, 
 manuscripts, &c., was soon in a blaze, but we got safe to the 
 Khirkee bridge, and soon after joined the line. While the 
 men and followers were fording, we went ourselves to observe 
 the enemy. The sight was magnificent as the tide rolled out 
 of Poonah. Grant,* who saw it from the height above the 
 
 * Better known as Grant Duff, author tent of it, and towards the city endless 
 
 of the " History of the Mahrattahs," in streams of horsemen were pouring from 
 
 which valuable work the illustration every avenue. Those only who have 
 
 cited by Mr. Elphinstone is to be found, witnessed the Bore in the Gulf of Caru- 
 
 The following passage, in which it is bay, and have seen in perfection the ap- 
 
 contained, is altogether very striking : proach of that roaring tide, can form 
 
 " On ascending one of the eminences on the exact idea presented to the author 
 
 which they were forming, the plain be- at the sight of the Peishwah's army. It 
 
 neath presented at that moment a most was towards the afternoon of a very 
 
 imposing spectacle. This- plain, then sultry day, there was a dead calm, and 
 
 covered with grain, terminates on the no sound was heard except the rushing, 
 
 west by a range of small hills, while on the trampling, and the neighing of 
 
 the east it is bounded by the city of horses, and the rumbling of the gun- 
 
 Poonah, and the small hills already par- wheels. The effect was heightened by 
 
 tially occupied by the infantry. A mass seeing the peaceful peasantry flying 
 
 of cavalry covered nearly the whole ex- from their work in the field, the bullocks
 
 THE BATTLE OF KHIRKEE. 271 
 
 powder-cave, described it as resembling the Bore in the Gulf 1817. 
 of Cambay. Everything was hushed except the trampling 
 and neighing of horses, and the whole valley was filled with 
 them like a river or flood. I had always told Colonel Burr 
 that when war broke out we must recover our character by a 
 forward movement that should encourage and fix our own 
 men, while it checked our enemies, and I now, by a lucky 
 mistake, instead of merely announcing that the Peishwah was 
 at war, sent an order to move down at once and attack him. 
 Without this, Colonel Burr has since told me, he would not 
 have advanced. However, he did advance. We joined, and, 
 after some unavoidable delay, the Dapooree battalion joined 
 too. When opposite to the nullah we halted (injudiciously, I 
 think) to cannonade, and at the same time the enemy began 
 from twelve or fifteen guns. Soon after, the whole mass of 
 cavalry came on at speed in the most splendid style. The 
 rush of horse, the sound of the earth, the waving of flags, the 
 brandishing of spears, were grand beyond description, but 
 perfectly ineffectual. One great body, however, under Gokla 
 and Moro Dixit, and some others, formed on our left and rear, 
 and when the first battalion of the 7th was drawn off to attack 
 Major Pinto, who appeared on our left, and was quite sepa- 
 rated from the European regiment, this body charged it with 
 great vigour, and broke through it and the European regi- 
 ment. At this time the rest of the line was pretty well occu- 
 pied with shot, matchlocks, and, above all, with rockets, and 
 I own I thought there was a good chance of our losing the 
 battle. The first battalion of the 7th, however, though it had 
 expended all its ammunition, survived the charge, and was 
 brought back to the line by Colonel Burr, who showed infinite 
 coolness and courage, and, after some more firing and some 
 advancing, together with detaching a few companies to our 
 
 breaking from their yoke, the wild ante- Close, a just impression of the pic- 
 lopes, startled from sleep, bounding off, turesque grandeur of the scene may be 
 and then turning for a moment to gaze derived. In some parts of the Resi- 
 on this tremendous inundation which dent's description, as in " the rush of 
 swept all before it, levelled the hedges horse, the sound of the earth" (yuadru- 
 and standing corn, and completely over- pedante sonitu, &c.), the reader will dis- 
 whelmed every ordinary barrier as it cern marks of Elphinstone's classical 
 moved." From this, and from Mr. El- reading, 
 phiustone's graphic letter to Captain
 
 272 MOUNTSTUAET ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 1817. right, towards the little hill of Gunesh Kind, we found our- 
 selves alone in the field, and the sun set. I was at first for ad- 
 vancing to the water at the Sait garden, but was persuaded it 
 was better to return, which it was. If we had not made this 
 movement forward, the Peishwah's troops would have been 
 quite bold, ours cowed, and we doubtful of their fidelity ; we 
 should have been cannonaded and rocketed in our own camp, 
 and the horse would have been careering within our picquets. 
 As it is, the Peishwah's army has been glad to get safe behind 
 Poonah, and we have been almost as quiet as if encamped on 
 the Retee at Delhi. We did not lose a hundred men alto- 
 gether, and we have quite set our name up again. That the 
 Peishwah should not give us another field-day before General 
 Smith comes in (which he will by the 14th), is incredible. 
 But the Mahrattas are unaccountable animals." It was cha- 
 racteristic of Elphinstone that he said little about his own 
 achievements. But, in truth, he fought the battle, and was 
 the real hero of the day. He suffered severely too. "All 
 my writing implements," he reported to Government, " with 
 everything I had, except the clothes on my back, have formed 
 part of the blaze at the Residency, which is now smoking 
 in sight." His " writing implements" were his books and 
 manuscripts his journals and notes materials for future 
 literary works, with pleasant schemes of which his brain was 
 then teeming. The loss of these last was the nation's loss, 
 and it was wholly irreparable.* 
 
 Having had this taste of the quality of our troops, the 
 Mahrattas were disinclined to give us further battle, and for 
 some days active hostilities were suspended. But the interval 
 was fatal to the Peishwah. Reinforcements, under General 
 Smith, were hastening to Mr. Elphinstone's assistance. On 
 the 13th they arrived at Poonah, and arrangements were 
 immediately made for an attack on the Peishwah's camp. The 
 blow, however, was not struck until the 17th; and then it 
 fell upon a routed army. The advance of our divisions was 
 sufficient to scare the enemy ; they saw that all hope of re- 
 sistance was utterly futile ; so they broke and fled. The game 
 
 * Some of our readers will recall to " Their pages mangled, burnt, and torn, 
 
 mind what Cowper wrote of the burning The loss was his alone ; 
 
 of Lord Mansfield's books and manu- But ages yet to come shall mourn 
 
 scripts those happy lines ending with : The burning of his own."
 
 POONAH PKESEIIVED. 273 
 
 was all up with the Peishwah and his advisers, and the great 1817. 
 city of Poonah lay prostrate and helpless at our feet.* 
 
 Then all the humanity of Elphinstono's nature was roused 
 within him, and how to save the city from the fury of the 
 troops became his first care in the emergency that had arisen. 
 There were many circumstances to inflame the passions of the 
 British soldiery, and he scarcely hoped to be able to extinguish 
 them. " After the flight of the army," he wrote to Lord 
 Hastings, " General Smith took measures for reducing the 
 city of Poonah, if necessary, and for saving it, if practicable, 
 from the fury of our troops. This had long been an object of 
 great anxiety to General Smith, and the consideration of it 
 had entered into all his plans for the defeat of the army. The 
 plunder and destruction of our Eesidency and Cantonments, 
 the losses of many of the Sepoys, the disgraceful circum- 
 stances of the murder of the officers at Tulligaum, the 
 massacre of the wives of the Sepoys who had fallen into the 
 enemy's hands on the 5th, the mutilation of a Sepoy who had 
 been taken prisoner while straggling from General Smith's 
 line of march, and many other acts of impotent rage on the 
 part of the Peishwah's Court, had raised the indignation of 
 the men to the highest pitch, and they did not conceal their 
 eager desire to revenge themselves by sacking and plundering 
 the enemy's capital. In this state of the feelings of the army, 
 it appeared difficult to save Poonah in any circumstances, and 
 impossible in the event of resistance. To obviate the last 
 danger, General Smith and I sent letters in duplicate flags of 
 truce to the Peishwah and Gokla offering to protect the town, 
 if evacuated ; and warning them of the consequence of holding 
 out. One copy was carried on to the Peishwah and Gokla, 
 who promised an answer, but never sent it; the other was 
 given open to the person in charge of the Peishwah's fortified 
 
 * The following characteristic anec- meal of tea and bread-and-butter suf- 
 
 dote is related by General Briggs : " As ticed him after all the labours of the 
 
 an instance of Mr. Elphinstone's great day, and by daylight he started with 
 
 kindness to others, and attention to the the troops in pursuit of the enemy. In 
 
 most minute points in times of trouble the first moment of leisure, he caused a 
 
 and turmoil, I cannot help relating that list of articles of supplies to be made 
 
 immediately after the battle of Khirkee out, which, together with a tent- for my 
 
 he sought out my family, which had family, he purchased and sent to them, 
 
 found refuge in a cow-shed ; he procured It was thus, in the midst of business, 
 
 a table and writing materials, and then Mr. Elphinstone forgot nothing." Cole- 
 
 and there wrote his despatches. A hasty brooke's Memoir in Asiatic Journal. 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 
 
 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 1817. palace, who promised an answer by noon. Before he arrived, 
 Hurree-Rao, the banker generally employed by the Company, 
 came to solicit protection for the bankers and merchants, and 
 offered to establish our guards in the city. In this he suc- 
 ceeded, though some contemptible preparations had been made 
 for defence. Guards were posted at the four principal public 
 offices and the Peishwah's palace, which may be considered as 
 the citadel of Poonah. Every arrangement was made by 
 General Smith for the security of the place. Some trifling 
 excesses were committed in the suburbs before there was time 
 to take precautions, but the city suffered no injury, and the 
 loss of property was quite insignificant. Considering all cir- 
 cumstances, the forbearance of the troops deserved high 
 admiration. General Smith's success in protecting Poonah 
 is attended with very important advantages, tending to main- 
 tain our general reputation, and to conciliate friends in the 
 present contest, and as preserving a very fertile source of 
 supply both of money and of commodities for the army."* 
 
 Settlement of So Badjee Rao became an outcast and a fugitive ;f and 
 the Ceded Pro- Mountstuart Elphinstone, as was sportively said at the time, 
 became Peishwah in his place. A new career now opened 
 itself out before him. He had, up to this time, been distin- 
 guished mainly as a diplomatist. In that capacity he had 
 evinced, in a remarkable degree, the sagacity to foresee and 
 to overcome all difficulties, and the high courage which en- 
 
 * The fine soldierly qualities of Mr. 
 Elphinstone, as evinced throughout these 
 operations, were thus extolled by Mr. 
 Canning in the House of Commons: 
 " Mr. Elphinstone (a name distinguished 
 in the literature as well as the politics 
 of the East) exhibited, on that trying 
 occasion, military courage and skill 
 which, though valuable accessories to 
 diplomatic talents, we are not entitled 
 to require as necessary qualifications for 
 civil employment. On that, and not on 
 that occasion only, but on many others 
 in the course of this singular campaign, 
 Mr. Elphinstone displayed talents and 
 resources which would have rendered 
 him no mean General in a country where 
 Generals are of no mean excellence and 
 reputation." The Duke of Wellington 
 
 had written in a like strain many years 
 before. That Elphinstone fought and 
 won the battle of Khirkee is not to be 
 doubted; but the reader will observe that 
 he assigned all the merit to Colonel Burr, 
 who was, in truth, old and infirm, and 
 little capable of contending with such a 
 crisis. Even the directions which El- 
 phinstone gave for the advance of the 
 British troops, he modestly describes as 
 a fortunate mistake. 
 
 f In the preceding Memoir of Sir 
 John Malcolm (pages 203-204), some 
 account is given of the circumstances 
 of Badjee Rao's surrender, and of the 
 cession of his territories to the British 
 Government. The story need not, there- 
 fore, be repeated in this place.
 
 SETTLEMENT OF THE CEDED PROVINCES. 275 
 
 counters all dangers with a cool and resolute bearing. But isis. 
 he was now to find another field for the exercise of his great 
 abilities. Henceforth he was to shine as an administrator. 
 The territories ruled by the Peishwah were to become part 
 and parcel of the British dominions. He had forfeited them 
 by acts of treacherous hostility ; and the English Government 
 deemed it essential to their security to curb for ever his power 
 to threaten the paramount State and disturb the peace of the 
 country. 
 
 The year 1818 found Mr. Elphinstone entering upon his 
 new duties as " Commissioner," or Governor, of the Poonah 
 territories. I remember once to have heard a distinguished 
 English writer declare his opinion that our Anglo-Indian 
 statesmen had been much overrated, for that it was " very / 
 easy to govern people of that kind." There could not be a/ 
 more prodigious mistake. To govern a people aright, it is 
 necessary that we should understand them aright. And it is 
 anything but an easy matter to understand aright a people, A JU , 
 or rather a congeries of peoples, differing from us and perhaps 
 from each other, in their languages, their religions, their poli- 
 tical institutions, and their social usages ; least of all is it easy 
 when these communities are to the last degree jealous and 
 exclusive, and both suspicious and resentful of the approaches / 
 and inquiries of strangers. That during the years he had / 
 spent, as representative of British interests at the Court of 
 the Peishwah, he had gamed much serviceable information 
 relating to the character, and the usages, and the institutions 
 of the Mahrattahs, is not to be doubted. But when he began 
 
 t o 
 
 to superintend the internal administration of the country, he 
 acknowledged, with the true humility of wisdom, how much 
 more he had yet to learn. In later days, men forsaking the 
 traditions of the good old school of Munro, Malcolm, and 
 Elphinstone, have ridden their favourite theories rough-shod 
 over both the privileges and the prejudices of people newly i 
 subjected to our sway, never questioning their inclination to 
 be measured by the Benthamite foot-rule of the European 
 stranger. But half a century ago our statesmen, in a ceded 
 or conquered country, held it to be their first duty to learn 
 thoroughly the manner in which the natives of India had 
 governed themselves, before prescribing the manner of go- 
 
 T 2
 
 276 MOUNTSTUART ELPH1KSTONE. 
 
 1818 19 veruing for them. Now, this matter of native administration 
 was, and is, a very heterogeneous and complicated affair 
 much good mixed up with much evil ; and, noticeable above 
 .all things by those who care to investigate the truth, such a 
 /multiplicity of rights and privileges, derived from different 
 V sources and maintained by different tenures, that it demands 
 very cautious treading, on the part even of the wisest and the 
 justest, not to crush some of them under foot. It may be said, 
 indeed, that in proportion as the British Administrator un- 
 derstands and respects these rights and privileges, his admi- 
 nistration is successful. These great essential conditions of 
 knowledge and of sympathy, Mr. Elphinstone now, with his 
 
 /strong head and his large heart, most religiously fulfilled. He 
 was not one to regard the overthrow of a Native Government 
 as an unmixed benefit to the people. Indeed, at this time, he 
 was fearful lest, in the conjuncture which had arisen, other 
 native principalities might be overthrown ; and he wrote to 
 Mr. Jenkins, April 13, 1818, saying : " I hope that you are 
 setting up a Native Government. One example is enough; 
 and two entire conquests on our hands would embarrass us 
 both in the acquisition and retention. I was far from thinking, 
 
 /as you supposed, that you ought to have deposed the Rajah 
 at once. I thought you very right to keep him on his 
 musnud, although his folly baffled all calculation." And that 
 he was in no hurry to re-cast the administration of the Poonah 
 territories, as he found it, is clearly evidenced by the fact that 
 a year after the government had passed into his hands, he 
 wrote to the same correspondent (January 17, 1819), saying : 
 " You ask what we are about, and how it happens that you 
 do not hear from us. Both questions can easily be answered 
 in one. We are learning the late system of Justice, Police, 
 and Revenue, and considering what it suits us to establish in 
 its room. In the mean time, as events will not wait till we 
 have finished our deliberations, we are carrying on the Go- 
 vernment on such principles as the studies alluded to suggest. 
 All this occupies much time and labour. There are five of 
 us belonging to the Commission, and all our hands are full all 
 day. I omitted one branch of our labour, which is important 
 enough fixing the lands to be hereafter held by Jagheerdars. 
 We are also carrying on an expedition against Sawunt Warree
 
 SETTLEMENT OF THE CEDED PROVINCES. 277 
 
 tinder Sir W. Kier, and we have military arrangements of 181819. 
 distribution and reduction to superintend." 
 
 That this settlement of the Peishwah's ceded districts is 
 one of the greatest administrative successes which the British 
 have ever accomplished in the East, is, notwithstanding later 
 triumphs, still acknowledged after a lapse of nearly half a 
 century. Throughout all that time it has been cited as a pre- / 
 cedent, and followed as an example, by later generations of \r 
 Indian statesmen ; but it is still unsurpassed in the annals of 
 the Empire. The change was a prodigious one, and it was no 
 easy task to reconcile to it all classes of the native community. 
 In later days, we have been wont to assume, in such cases, 
 not only the utter absence of all national feeling, but a craving 
 after British rule, which never has existed and never will 
 exist in the popular mind, however wise and beneficent our 
 Government may be. Mr. Elphinstone had no delusions of / 
 this kind. He knew that it would be a wise thing to flatter v 
 the nationality of the Mahrattahs of Western India, and the 
 Government of Lord Hastings, adopting the views of the 
 Resident, willingly consented to soothe the mortification of 
 the conquered by erecting, on the downfal of the Peishwah, a 
 new Mahrattah principality under the descendants of the 
 House of Sivajee, who, at that time, were little more than 
 State-prisoners. Rescued from their degradation, they were 
 restored to limited power and authority by the erection of the 
 Raj of Sattarah ; and the national pride was gratified by 
 the concession. This doubtless paved the way to Elphinstone's 
 successes ; but still it was no easy task that lay before him. 
 If he had been a man of a less lively imagination, and of lessy 
 comprehensive sympathies, he might have failed in such a 
 conjuncture. But, as Resident, he had studied all classes of 
 the people, and he had tried to think and to feel with them ; 
 and though he had interfered as little as possible in the internal 
 affairs of the Poonah State, he had been compelled at times 
 to exercise his influence, especially as arbitrator between the 
 Peishwah and the privileged classes, who were continually in 
 conflict with each other.* Years before he had written to 
 Metcalfe a letter detailing the nature of his occupations at 
 
 * In a letter before me, written whilst wrote with reference to these arbitra- 
 Elphinstone was Resident at Poonah, he tkras : " I have sent in a very long re-
 
 J 
 
 J 
 
 278 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 181819. Poonah, and had said : " Another employment is to prevent 
 the destruction of the few old families that remain in this 
 Empire, and that is almost the only internal affair with which 
 we meddle, the plan here being the excellent one of really 
 sticking to the treaty, and keeping off the evil day of our 
 having to take the government u into our own hands as long 
 as possible. A still more difficult task is to prevent the 
 Peishwah meddling in other people's affairs, of which he is 
 very fond, and for which the vast pretensions of this Govern- 
 ment afford many opportunities." And now that the Peish- 
 wah was removed from the scene, Mr. Elphinstone was equally 
 eager to prevent the destruction of the old families, and he 
 made it one of his first cares on assuming the administration, 
 to inquire into the tenures of the privileged classes, and to deal 
 with them not only justly but generously on the transfer of 
 the sovereign power to the British Government. He felt that 
 this course was demanded as much by sound policy as by 
 right principle, and he never had cause to question its wis- 
 dom. Some years afterwards, when these alienations of re- 
 venue were under the consideration of the Supreme Go- 
 vernment, and it seemed that a covetous eye had been cast 
 yupon them, Mr. Elphinstone protested against resumptionary 
 measures, adding : " The maintenance of many of the chiefs 
 in their possessions was certainly suggested, as supposed, by 
 the Governor-General, for the purpose of avoiding popular 
 discontent, and preventing the too rapid fall of great families, 
 but in other cases it rested on the belief that the holders were 
 entitled of right to their possessions ; where a Jagheer was by 
 the original grant made hereditary in the family of the 
 grantee, there could be no doubt of the right of the de- 
 scendant, but where there was no such grant (as was the 
 case with almost all the Jagheers), the right rested on dif- 
 
 port, stating the history of the Jagheer- speaking, all claims the enforcing of 
 
 dars, the rise and progress of their dis- which does not promise much future 
 
 putes with the Peishwah, the present advantage. To call on the Jagheerdars 
 
 state of his claims, the measures adopted to settle these claims, and offer our arbi- 
 
 by Lord Wellington to adjust them, the tration and guarantee, and in the event 
 
 subsequent policy of the British Govern- of any hesitation, to attack them with 
 
 ment and its effects, the plan of adjust- all the force we could assemble, but not 
 
 ment which I would now recommend, to dispossess them if we could avoid it, 
 
 and^the measures to be pursued for en- as their Jagheers are better managed 
 
 forcing it. The plan was to strike off under them than they would be under 
 
 all claims for arrears, and, generally the Peishwah."
 
 TREATMENT OF THE PRIVILEGED CLASSES. 279 
 
 ferent grounds, arising from the territory of the Jagheers (or 181819. 
 Surinjams, as they are called by the Mahrattahs). A Jagheer 
 was usually granted during life, for the purpose of maintain- 
 ing troops to serve the State. A small portion was set aside 
 as a personal provision for the chief. This mode of maintain- 
 ing troops being always kept up, there was no motive for re- 
 moving the Jagheerdar, and consequently every grant was 
 renewed on the death of each incumbent, his son paying a 
 relief to the Government. When this practice had long sub- 
 sisted, the Jagheer came to be regarded as hereditary, and 
 the resumption of it would have been viewed as a violation of 
 private property ; the nature and history of Jagheers has so 
 great an analogy to those of feudal benefices, that the manner 
 in which this transition took place can be easily understood 
 in Europe. The period for which a Jagheer had been held 
 was, therefore, a very important point to advert to in de- 
 ciding how long to continue it. I recommended that all 
 granted by the Mogul Emperors or the Rajahs of Sattarah 
 should be hereditary in the fullest sense of the word. The 
 former must generally have been very long in the families 
 which held them, and had survived two changes of dynasty. 
 These do not seem now to be interfered with. The latest of 
 the Sattarah grants must now be near a century old, and 
 must have survived a change of dynasty besides our con- 
 quest. Surely there is enough to entitle the possessor to feel 
 secure from future disturbance. On this principle, I believe, 
 we stipulated with the new Rajah of Sattarah that he should 
 not reserve such grants of his ancestors as lay within his ter- 
 ritory, binding ourselves by implication (if the fact be as I 
 have supposed) not to resume those within ours. What I 
 can recollect of the history of the particular families whose 
 lands it is now proposed to resume, confirms me in my former 
 
 opinion The Jagheerdars of the Peishwahs stood on 
 
 a different footing : they had arisen under the dynasty which 
 we subverted ; none could have been in possession for more 
 than seventy years, and they had been kept in mind by the 
 exactions of service, as well as by occasional resumptions, of 
 the real nature and extent of their tenure. Much considera- 
 tion was, however, due to them as the actual possessors of 
 power, and they were allowed to retain their personal lands
 
 280 MODNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 181819. for one or more generations, according to their merits or im- 
 portance. No change has taken place in the condition of this 
 class, and I cannot see how any claim which they possessed 
 at the conquest has been weakened since."* 
 
 It was, indeed, his desire to establish the new system of 
 government, in all things, as much as possible, in conformity 
 with the genius of the people. And in no respect did he con- 
 sider it more important to refrain from a too summary in- 
 . troduction of English machinery and agency, than in the great 
 \ matter of the administration of justice. In a report on the 
 Settlement of the Ceded Districts, which he sent in to Go- 
 vernment, and which since, in its printed form,f has been 
 studied by later generations of Indian statesmen perhaps 
 more than any other State-paper on the records, he dwelt, at 
 considerable length, on this subject. After describing the 
 rough-and-ready native system of judicial procedure, and 
 commenting on its character and consequences, he said : 
 u Such are the advantages and disadvantages of the native 
 administration of justice, which are to be weighed against 
 those of the plan adopted in our provinces. If we were 
 \i obliged to take them as they stood under the native Govern- 
 ment, the scale would probably soon be turned ; but as it is 
 possible to invigorate the system, and to remove its worst 
 abuses, the question is not so easily decided. The most 
 striking advantages in our plan appear to be, that the laws 
 are fixed, and that as means are taken to promulgate them, 
 they may be known to every one. That the decisions of the 
 Adawlut, being always on fixed principles, may always be 
 foreseen ; that there is a regular and certain mode of obtain- 
 ing redress ; that the decision on each separate case is more 
 speedy than in any native court, and that it is more certain 
 of being enforced ; that justice may be obtained by means of 
 the Adawlut, even from officers of Government, or from Go- 
 vernment itself; that the judges are pure, and their purity 
 and correctness are guarded by appeals ; and that the whole 
 system is steady and uniform, and is not liable to be biased 
 in its motions by fear or affection, policy or respect. On the 
 
 * From a'Minute recorded by Mount- } It should be observed, however, 
 stuart Elphinstone, when Governor of that the whole of the report was not 
 Bombay. printed.
 
 NON-INTERFERENCE. 281 
 
 other hand, it appears that, although the regulations are pro- 181819. 
 mulgated, yet, as they are entirely new to the people of India, 
 ;. long time must pass before they can be generally known ; 
 and as both they and the decisions of the court are founded 
 on European notions, a still longer period must elapse before 
 their principles can be at all understood ; that this obscurity 
 of itself throws all questions relating to property into doubt, 
 and produces litigation, which is further promoted by the exist- 
 ence of a class of men rendered necessary by the numerous 
 technical difficulties of our law, whoso subsistence depends on 
 the abundance of lawsuits." 
 
 Moved by these considerations, he determined to interfere, 
 at the outset, as little as possible with native usages, and to 
 leave to the infallible action of time to work out reforms from 
 within. " The plan," he wrote, " I have proposed has many 
 obvious and palpable defects, and many more will no doubt 
 appear when its operations are fully observed. It has this 
 advantage, that it leaves unimpaired the institutions, t 
 opinions, and the feelings that have hitherto kept the com- 
 munity together ; and that, as its fault is meddling too little, 
 it may be gradually remedied by interfering when urgently 
 required. An opposite plan, if it fail, fails entirely; it has 
 destroyed everything that could supply its place, and when it 
 sinks, the whole frame of the society sinks with it. This 
 plan has another advantage likewise, that if it does not pro- 
 vide complete instruments for the decision of suits, it keeps / 
 clear of the causes that produce litigation. It makes no great 
 changes, either real or apparent, in the laws, and it leads to no 
 revolution in the state of property. The established practice, 
 also, though it be worse than another proposed in its room, 
 will be less grievous to the people, who have accommodated 
 themselves to the present defects, and are scarcely aware of 
 their existence; while every fault in a new system, and 
 perhaps many things that are not faults, would be se- 
 verely felt for want of this adaptation. I do not, however, 
 mean to say that our interference with the native plan is 
 odious at present. On the contrary, several of the Collectors 
 are of opinion that a summary decision by an European 
 judge is more agreeable to the natives than any other mode 
 of trial. This mav be the case at first, but if the decisions of
 
 282 MOUNTSTUART ELPHmSTONE. 
 
 181819. Europeans should ever be so popular as to occasion the disuse 
 of the native modes of settlement, there would soon he a run 
 on the courts, and justice, however pure when obtained, would 
 never be got without years of delay." 
 
 The student of recent Indian history cannot fail to observe 
 that the principles here enforced are widely at variance with 
 those which some later administrators of high repute have 
 carried with them to the settlement of our newly-acquired 
 territories. Thirty years afterwards, Sir Henry Lawrence, 
 whose policy it was to support native institutions, declared 
 that our first administrative efforts in the Punjab had been 
 marred by the error we had committed in endeavouring to do 
 too much good. With a deeply-rooted, and, indeed, very 
 natural conviction, that English systems are better than In- 
 dian systems, we are sometimes wont to pour new wine into 
 old bottles until the bottles burst with a disastrous explosion. 
 It was the peculiar wisdom of Mountstuart Elphinstone, that, 
 at a time when there was a general disposition to sow broad- 
 cast the seeds of the " Regulations" all over the land, he re- 
 cognised the fact that the Hindoos are not a people addicted 
 to change, but, on the other hand, naturally prone to resent 
 and resist even beneficent innovations, and so he determined 
 that the changes which were really desirable should appear 
 to develop themselves naturally from within, rather than en- 
 graft themselves on the system by the force of external dicta- 
 tion. And thus, by exciting the fears of none, and offending 
 the prejudices of none, he carried all classes with him, and 
 they were gradually reconciled to our rule. 
 
 But it was not in the nature of things that there should not 
 be some malcontents. It was not probable that such a revo- 
 lution as this should be accomplished without some efforts to 
 subvert the new dynasty. There are always some adherents 
 of a deposed Prince to whom the presence of the white man 
 ruling in his place is an offence and an abomination. Plots 
 and conspiracies, which may or may not outwardly develop 
 themselves, are the certain attendants of such a state of 
 things. Elphinstone was, therefore, neither surprised nor 
 unprepared, when positive proof was afforded him of a plot, in 
 which certain Mahrattah Brahmins were the chief agents, to 
 murder all the Europeans at Poonah and Sattarah, and to re-
 
 THE BOMBAY GOVERNMENT. 283 
 
 establish the sovereignty of the Peishwah. It was then as mo. 
 necessary to display vigour and daring, as, in the general 
 adjustment of affairs, mildness and consideration. So he 
 caused the ringleaders to be seized and blown away from the 
 mouth of a gun. This terrible example had the desired effect. 
 It is related that Sir Evan Nepean, who was then Governor 
 of Bombay, though he approved the act, was somewhat 
 startled by its boldness, and advised Mr. Elphinstone to ask 
 for an act of indemnity. But the counsel was rejected. " If 
 I have done wrong," he said, " I ought to be punished ; if I 
 have done right, I don't want any act of indemnity." 41 
 
 From the performance of these important duties, which in The Bombay 
 effect were those of a Lieutenant-Governor of a great pro- 
 vince, Mr. Elphinstone was called to fill a still higher and 
 more honourable post. In 1819, the chief seat in the Go- 
 vernment of Bombay was vacated by the retirement of Sir 
 Evan Nepean; and it became necessary to appoint a suc- 
 cessor. I have shown in the preceding Memoir that Sir John 
 Malcolm had expected to succeed to the vacant government. 
 There were then three servants of the Company who had 
 founded such high claims to distinction, that the appointment 
 of either one of them to the post would have given general 
 satisfaction throughout India, and with respect to whose 
 several chances of succession public opinion was pretty equally 
 divided. It is a remarkable fact that they were all three of 
 them Scotchmen. One, Sir John Malcolm, had come from a 
 small farm in Dumfries-shire; another, Sir Thomas Munro, 
 from an obscure merchant's office in Glasgow ; Mr. Elphin- 
 stone alone had any aristocratic connexions, but no one doubted 
 for a moment that his prospects of succession would have been 
 equally good if his origin had been as humble as his cotem- 
 poraries'. He owed nothing to his birth; nothing to his 
 family. It has been stated, indeed, that his uncle, Mr. Wil- 
 liam Elphinstone, the director, consistently supported the 
 claims of Sir John Malcolm. But when Mr. Canning, who 
 at that time presided at the India Board, named these three 
 
 * I am indebted for this anecdote to brooke. It is given on the authority of 
 the interesting memoir of Mr. Cole- Mr. Warden.
 
 284 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 1819. distinguished public servants, and intimated that the appoint- 
 ment of any one of them to the vacant government would 
 meet with the approbation and receive the sanction of the 
 Crown, the Court of Directors of the East India Company 
 selected Mr. Elphinstone to fill the office of Governor of 
 Bombay. 
 
 He entered upon the duties of his government at no very 
 stirring period of our history. There were no exciting events, 
 no exceptional circumstances of any kind, to give eclat to his 
 administration. He went on from year's end to year's end, 
 along the straight, quiet road of unostentatious beneficence. 
 Not in one great measure or in another great measure not 
 in any individual actions standing prominently forward to 
 claim the especial notice of the biographer is the history of 
 his success recorded ; but in the completeness and consistency 
 of the whole. If it be asked what he did at Bombay to earn 
 so great a reputation as a statesman and a ruler, it is enough 
 to answer that he made for himself an enduring place in the 
 hearts of the people. To write this is in effect to write that 
 he was wise, and just, and humane. Bishop Heber* related 
 of him that he had heard it said that " all other public men 
 had their enemies and their friends, their admirers and their 
 aspersers, but that of Mr. Elphinstone everybody spoke 
 highly." And there is still, after the lapse of forty years, no 
 name in Western India more reverenced or more beloved 
 than that of Mountstuart Elphinstone. 
 
 There was at this time a many-sidedness about Mr. Elphin- 
 stone's personal character and habits which excited the sur- 
 prise and admiration of all who had an opportunity of closely 
 
 * Heber's picture of Elphinstone is so he has found time not only to cultivate 
 
 good that I cannot resist quoting a por- the languages of Hindustan and Persia, 
 
 tion of it : " Mr. Elphinstone is, in every but to preserve and extend his acquaint- 
 
 respect, an extraordinary man, possess- ance in the Greek and Latin classics, 
 
 ing great activity of body and mind, re- with the French and Italian, with all the 
 
 markable talent for and application to elder and more distinguished English 
 
 public business, a love of literature, and writers, and with the current and popular 
 
 a degree of universal information such literature of the day, both in poetry, 
 
 as I have met with in no other person history, politics, and political economy, 
 
 similarly situated, and manners and con- With these remarkable accomplish- 
 
 versation of the most amiable and in- ments, and notwithstanding a temper- 
 
 teresting character. While he has seen ance amounting to rigid abstinence, he 
 
 more of India and the adjoining countries is fond of society ; and it is a common 
 
 than any man now living, and has been subject of surprise with his friends in 
 
 engaged in active political and sometimes what hours of the day or night he found 
 
 military duties since the age of eighteen, time for the acquisition of knowledge."
 
 GOVERNOK OF BOMBAY. 
 
 285 
 
 watching his career. His activity took first one shape and 
 then another. You might have conceived, at one time, that 
 he was an ardent sportsman, with all his heart in the chase ; 
 at another, that he was a literary recluse, with no thoughts 
 beyond his books ; and, again, that his whole mind was given 
 up to the administrative duties of his office. The sport and 
 the literature were in reality but the complements of his 
 official life, contributing, each in its way, to make up the 
 full perfection of the statesman's character. For it may be 
 said that great statesmen are seldom merely statesmen that 
 a man to be fit to encounter adequately the pressure of public 
 affairs must have interests apart from the bureau, to keep his 
 mind fresh and his nerves braced up for the contest. That 
 Mr. Elphinstone was a patient and laborious man of business, 
 we know from the evidence of one of his chief secretaries. 
 Mr. Warden says that his conscientious consideration of all 
 the details of his official business was such, " that he took as 
 much pains about a matter of five rupees as about the draft 
 of a treaty." Taken in their literal significance, I should say 
 that these words express that which must be regarded as a 
 defect in the character of a public man ; but I conceive that 
 the writer meant only to say that small affairs of government 
 received, equally with great, the attention due to them in 
 proportion to their several requirements. But, for all this 
 laborious addiction to business, we are told that when Mr. 
 Elphinstone was on his visitation-tours (and he visited twice 
 every part of the Presidency), there was " always in the 
 camp a shikaree (or huntsman), whose business it was to 
 inquire for hogs, and whenever he brought in intelligence of 
 game, Mr. Elphinstone would proclaim a holiday, and go 
 hunting perhaps for one or two days, and he was fond of a 
 chase at any time." I have no doubt that the public business 
 was done all the better for these interludes of recreation. 
 
 His self-sacrificing conscientiousness was clearly evinced at 
 this time by the large reductions which he made in the ex- 
 penses of the Government House establishment. He had re- 
 ceived instructions from the Home Government to commence 
 a course of retrenchment, and he thought that economy, like 
 charity, should u begin at home ;" so he commenced the 
 work committed to him by those reductions of expenditure 
 
 181927
 
 286 MOUNTSTUAKT ELPHENSTONE. 
 
 181927. which would most nearly affect himself. But he did not 
 merely give prospective effect to these savings. Arguing, 
 very strictly, with his own conscience, that what was sufficient 
 then must have been sufficient before for the support of the 
 Government House establishment, he paid back to the trea- 
 sury, from his private resources, forty-five thousand rupees 
 (4500Z.) of the money which he had expended before the 
 orders were received from home. 
 
 But although, as I have said, the period of Mr. Elphin- 
 stone's government of Bombay was historically uneventful, 
 its monotony was sometimes relieved by threatenings of war 
 and mutterings of intrigue and sedition. The adherents of 
 the deposed Peishwah were playing that deep game which 
 culminated at last, more than thirty years afterwards, in the 
 massacres of Futtehghur and Cawnpore. Emissaries were 
 going forth to all the Mahrattah Courts, and even to the Sikh 
 country, sowing seeds which it might take the space of a 
 generation to develop but Hindoo intrigue is ever patient, 
 watchful, and full of hope. " Mr. Chaplin," wrote Elphinstone 
 to Metcalfe, in August, 1822, " has contrived to get hold of a 
 most secret and authentic source of information, by which he 
 has discovered, beyond a doubt, that Badjee Rao is carrying 
 on intrigues in his own dominions and at different Courts. 
 Narroo Punt Apty, who quitted Badjee Rao on pretence of a 
 quarrel, is his agent in Scindiah's camp. I should think him 
 ill calculated for political intrigues, though the best soldier 
 the Peishwah had. From his incautious character, Stuart 
 might be able to find out what he is about, but great care 
 should be taken that Stuart does not disclose our own know- 
 ledge of the intrigues going on. The great agent in this 
 communication at Bhitoor is Viraik Nana Shrontee, who, un- 
 less I mistake the name (which I do not think I do), was one 
 of the active agents in corrupting our troops, and who left 
 Poonah for Hindostan shortly before I came here. The letters 
 talk of intrigues in various directions, and speak of Scindiah as 
 the only resource, but without saying that he is engaged in the 
 cause. I think both Stuart (if he does not already) and Low 
 especially the latter should send copies of their reports to 
 Mr. Chaplin. I have requested the latter to send agents to 
 Bhitoor and Benares, because Poonah people are so much 
 more likely than any others to penetrate all intrigue among
 
 GOVERNOR OF BOMBAY. 287 
 
 their own countrymen. For this reason I have even desired 1819 27. 
 him to send a news-writer to Bombay, where a branch of the 
 intrigue appears to be carried on." And then Mr. Elphin- 
 stone proceeded to give a list of Badjee Rao's agents, as com- 
 municated to Mr. Chaplin, his successor at Poonah, in which, 
 though the names of the emissaries were identified, the places 
 to which they were despatched were sometimes disguised by 
 cabalistic terms, intelligible only to the initiated. 
 
 There were troubles, too, in the country more to the west- 
 ward including certain prospects of the enforced castigation 
 of Kolhapoor and of a war with Sindh events the full deve- 
 lopment of which were reserved for a later period. On these 
 subjects Elphinstone wrote to Metcalfe, in April, 1825 : 
 " Though Kittoor is settled, the people of that country, being 
 united by a peculiar religion, and encouraged by former suc- 
 cessful rebellions, are not unlikely to give some trouble if they 
 have an opportunity. The Rajah of Kolhapoor, a headstrong 
 young man, has been seized with a military mania, and after 
 making some conquests in his own neighbourhood, and as- 
 suming a very suspicious attitude during the insurrection at 
 Kittoor, he has now appeared in the Rajah of Sattarah's fron- 
 tier, and the last accounts hold out a strong prospect of his 
 violating territory, either for the purpose of gratifying his re- 
 sentment against a particular person who has taken refuge there, 
 or for some less justifiable purpose. At the same time we have 
 accounts of an eruption of a very considerable body of troops 
 from Sindh into Cutch, which the Acting Resident conceives 
 to have originated in the Government of Sindh, and to be 
 directed to the subversion of our influence in Cutch. This is 
 probably an exaggeration, but it is evidently a serious incur- 
 sion. All these particular disturbances will probably subside, 
 but they draw one's attention to the necessity of being pre- 
 pared, and of knowing what means we have at hand in case 
 of need. With this view I should be much obliged if you 
 could give me some notion of the aid we might expect from 
 you. You have shown that you can come in very effectually 
 to our assistance for a spurt, but you might not be able to do 
 it permanently. Could you, for instance, occupy Sholapore 
 permanently with one regiment of cavalry and two of infantry, 
 if we wished to withdraw all the troops now there ? and if you 
 could do this, how long would it take ? I should like also to
 
 288 MOUNTSTUART ELPH1NSTONE. 
 
 181927. know what force you have disposable in the Nizam's country, 
 and how far the present state of things requires you to keep it 
 ready to quell local disturbances ?" 
 
 But it was with affairs of internal administration that his 
 thoughts were at this time principally engaged. A quiet, 
 unobtrusive career of beneficence lay before him. One who 
 had recently brought from England a " new eye" a vision 
 unobscured either by custom or by prejudice visited Bombay, 
 and wrote of Mr. Elphinstone, saying : " His policy, so far 
 as India is concerned, appeared to me peculiarly wise and 
 liberal, and he is evidently attached to, and thinks well of, 
 the country and its inhabitants. His public measures, in 
 their general tendency, evince a steady wish to improve their 
 present condition. No Government in India pays so much 
 attention to schools and public institutions for education. In 
 none are the taxes lighter, and in the administration of justice 
 j ,. to the natives in their own languages, in the establishment of 
 punchayets, in the degree in which he employs the natives in 
 official situations, and the countenance and familiarity which 
 he extends to all the natives of rank who approach him, he 
 seems to have reduced to practice almost all the reforms 
 which had struck me as most required in the system of 
 government pursued in those provinces of our Eastern Empire 
 which I had previously visited. His popularity (though to 
 V such a feeling there may be individual exceptions) appears 
 \ little less remarkable than his talents and acquirements. 
 
 Of his munificence, for his liberality amounts to 
 
 this, I had heard much, and knew some instances myself." 
 Tlie writer of this was Reginald Heber, already quoted, 
 who was impressed above all things by Mr. Elphinstone's 
 ardour in the cause of native education.* The Bombay Go- 
 vernor was one of those who believed that the progress of 
 education must eventually cause the withdrawal of the Eng- 
 lish from the country, but who was not, therefore, less dis- 
 posed to promote it. Speaking of the wants of the natives, 
 
 * " A society for the promotion of first establishment of a society, which 
 
 education existed at Bombay previous should have the education of the natives 
 
 to Mr. Elphinstone's succession to the only in view, dates from a meeting held 
 
 government; but attention to that of in August, 1820, over which Mr. El- 
 
 the natives formed only a branch, and phinstone presided." Colebrooke, 
 an inferior branch, of its objects. The
 
 GOVERNOR OF BOMBAY. 289 
 
 Bishop Heber wrote : " More has been done, and more sue- 182027. 
 cessftilly, to obviate these evils in the Presidency of Bombay 
 than in any part of India which I have yet visited, through 
 the wise and liberal policy of Mr. Elphinstone ; to whom this 
 side of the peninsula is also indebted for some very important 
 and efficient improvements in the administration of justice, 
 and who, both in amiable temper and manners, extensive and 
 various information, acute good sense, energy, and application 
 to business, is one of the most extraordinary men, as he is 
 quite the most popular Governor, that I have fallen in with." 
 It was Mr. Elphinstone's opinion as it is every one's opinion 
 in these days that education in India could not be placed on 
 a solid foundation simply by the unaided efforts of the people. 
 He felt that the great cause needed support and assistance 
 from without, and unless the Government lent its strong sus- 
 taining hand, education must walk feebly and stumblingly 
 through the land. Forty and fifty years ago " experienced 
 old Indians'* stood aghast at the idea of State education ; and, 
 therefore, Mr. Elphinstone is rightly to be regarded as one of 
 the principal pioneers of the great system, the wisdom of 
 which is now uniformly acknowledged. He met the chief 
 native inhabitants on the common ground of a common good 
 told them that what would be to the advantage of the State 
 would be doubly to the advantage of the people that the 
 Government and the community must, therefore, unite in 
 promoting the intellectual improvement of the nation ; and 
 it is to the honour of both that the advice which he gave has 
 never been forgotten. The wealthy inhabitants of Bombay, 
 who, by public subscription, instituted the great Elphinstone 
 College, have ever been most liberal not only in their support 
 of the existing educational institutions of the country, but 
 in striking out new paths for the intellectual and social ad- 
 vancement of the people. 
 
 Another great question to which Mr. Elphinstone devoted 
 his energies was that of legislative and judicial reform. It 
 has already been shown that he was not one to go, after any 
 blind and headstrong fashion, into crude experiments and rash 
 innovations ; but he clearly saw the advantage of systema- 
 tising and simplifying the laws or "regulations," and he 
 desired to bring together the best intelligence of Bombay for 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 182027. the formation of a code adapted to the transitional state of 
 the society by which he was then surrounded. His old friend, 
 Mr. William Erskine, was then at the Presidency, and the 
 Governor appointed him and two other gentlemen a committee 
 to draw up a code of regulations, which was for many years, 
 and is still, substantially, in force as the law and procedure of 
 that part of the country. From his correspondence on this 
 subject I take the following letter, written to an old friend 
 
 ^ and colleague in the Bengal Civil Service, whose name in 
 such a volume as this ought not to be mentioned without an 
 expression of admiration and respect. Mr. William Butter- 
 worth Bayley was a noble example of that class of Civil ser- 
 vants who, whilst making no very prominent appearance on 
 the page of history, contributed greatly to the consolidation 
 and perfection of our Anglo-Indian Empire. His career was 
 comparatively an uneventful one, for he did not accompany 
 great armies into the field or negotiate treaties with Native 
 Princes. But he rose to the very highest posts even, for a 
 
 ^ little space, to the tenure of the Governor-Generalship by 
 the performance of the unostentatious duties of an adminis- 
 trator in the Judicial and Fiscal departments of the Service. 
 Whilst yet in the prime of life, he returned to England, and 
 became an honoured member of the Court of Directors of the 
 East India Company ; and those who only knew him in his 
 later, I can hardly write his " declining," years, saw old age 
 in its most attractive features ; for there was an almost boyish 
 freshness and cheerfulness about him which afforded the most 
 remarkable contrast ever seen to the traditional moroseness 
 and querulousness of the retired Nabob. He was a member 
 
 ^\ of the Supreme Council of India when Mr. Elphinstone thus 
 wrote to him : " Poonah, September 3, 1822. Adam's letter, 
 enclosing your memorandum, reached me so shortly before I 
 left Bombay, that I have not had time till now to tell you 
 how much I am obliged to you for it. It was a very great 
 satisfaction to me to find that what you consider as the most 
 important part of a new code is already established at Bombay. 
 It seems to me that the establishment of great Zemindaries 
 in Bengal, and (in a less degree) the practice of farming vil- 
 lages to one or more individuals in Hindostan, has prevented 
 our being intimately acquainted with the tenures of the
 
 GOVERNOR OF BOMBAY. 291 
 
 Ryots in those countries. In all the country under Bombay 182027. 
 (except Broach) the settlements have always been more or 
 less Ryotwar, and consequently the collectors were only 
 made acquainted with all the rights and privileges which 
 each individual could claim under his particular tenure. A 
 regulation is now in progress, specifying all those tenures 
 from the simple right of occupancy up to the Meerassee, which 
 approaches to the character of freehold property ; this regu- 
 lation will protect the holder of land under such tenure from 
 any encroachment either on the part of the Government or 
 of the person representing the Government, whether Jagheer- 
 dar, Zemindar, or Inamdar. This regulation will stand good 
 whether we farm our villages to particular individuals or 
 families (as you do in Hindostan), a plan attended with 
 many advantages ; whether we keep up (or introduce) the 
 Ryotwar plan ; or whether (which is least likely of all) we 
 introduce the Bengal plan of large Zemindaries. Besides the 
 tenures of Ryots, there are tenures by which single villages 
 are held (whether by single Potails or Putteedars). The 
 rights of these classes, if they have any peculiar rights, will 
 likewise be defined, and there will then only remain to fix the 
 rights of Talookhdars, which in the language of the west of 
 India means dependent Princes. Where these persons have 
 been brought completely under our government, any rights 
 they may have left may be fixed by regulation, but where 
 they are only arbitrary, as is generally the case, they must be 
 the subject of instructions, not of regulations. In speaking 
 of the rights of heads of villages and of Talookhdars, I mean 
 those towards the Government, for towards the Ryots they ^ 
 are already settled by the part of the regulation to which I ^ 
 first alluded. I shall send you a copy of the regulation as 
 soon as I get one myself. The register you recommend (like 
 that of Scotland, Middlesex, and Yorkshire) is already esta- 
 blished by one of our new regulations. The consolidation and 
 compression of the present regulations which you recommend, 
 as well as the improvements you suggest in the language, are 
 in progress. The grand desideratum, however, of a code 
 after the manner of Bentham, as recommended by Mill, is 
 still at a great distance. The want of a Sanscrit scholar is an 
 obstacle I am afraid an insuperable one to our even com- 
 
 u 2
 
 292 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 182027. mencing on it. Commencing, indeed, is all I shall wish for. 
 I would allow from a quarter to half a century before our 
 code was matured enough, and the people enough prepared 
 for it, to allow of its superseding the present code, if such a 
 name can be applied to it. I have got to such a length that 
 I must break off, and I must not do so without again thank- 
 ing you for the trouble you have taken, and the instruction 
 you have afforded." 
 
 Of Mr. Elphinstone's personal habits at this time a minute 
 account has been given by Mr. Warden, then one of his 
 secretaries, and afterwards a distinguished member of the 
 Government of Bombay : " During the eight years Mr. 
 Elphinstone was Governor of Bombay," it is stated, " he 
 visited each part of the Presidency twice. I was with him 
 as under-secretary during his last tour through the Peishwah's 
 country. His habits, whether in the Presidency or in the 
 Mofussil, were the same. He rose at daybreak, and, mount- 
 ing one of a large stud he always had, rode for an hour and a 
 half, principally at a hand gallop. He had a public breakfast 
 every morning, and never left the room as long as one man 
 desirous of speaking to him remained, but after that he was 
 invisible to all but his suite. After luncheon he took a short 
 siesta, and in the afternoon read Greek or Latin, and I have 
 been called to him sometimes as late as six o'clock in the 
 evening, and remained till there was only time left to stroll 
 for half an hour before an eight o'clock dinner ; at ten he 
 rose from the table, and, reading for half an hour in his own 
 room, went to bed. Although surrounded by young men, he 
 never suffered the slightest indecorum, and if any one after 
 dinner indulged in a double entendre, he would not say any- 
 thing, but pushing back his chair, broke up the party. We 
 always had in the camp a Shikaree, whose business it was to 
 inquire for hog, and whenever he brought in intelligence of 
 game, Mr. Elphinstone would proclaim a holiday, and go 
 hunting for one or perhaps two days, and he was fond of a 
 chase at any time. In the midst of many striking excel- 
 lences, that which placed him far above all the great men I 
 have heard of was his forgetfulness of self and thoughtfulness 
 for others."* It may be added to this, that one of Mr. 
 
 * I am indebted for this to Sir Edward Colebrooke's Memoir in the Asiatic 
 Journal.
 
 'GOVERNOK OF BOMBAY. 293 
 
 Elphinstone's most striking characteristics was his juvenility 182027. 
 
 of appearance, and, to a certain extent, of manner. In a 
 
 private letter before me, written from Bombay in 1822, by 
 
 one who had known him many years before, I read : "I 
 
 was exceedingly happy to find Mr. Elphinstone looking so 
 
 well. Indeed, Time had laid his hand so lightly on him, that 
 
 with the exception of his hair being darker and thinner, I 
 
 noticed scarcely any alteration since our last meeting fourteen 
 
 years ago. He still continues as indefatigable as ever, and 
 
 his spirits as buoyant." 
 
 During his official tours through the country under his 
 charge, he made a point of seeing everything that could add 
 to his stores of knowledge, and he would go out of his way to 
 see a celebrated temple or a venerable ruin, or any record of 
 the historical past. There were times, too, when he indulged 
 the hope that in the course of his wanderings he might come 
 across old friends especially such friends and such public 
 servants as Malcolm, Jenkins, and Metcalfe a meeting with 
 whom would be something more than the mere intercourse of 
 friendship. From his correspondence, in 1821-22, with the 
 last of these eminent political officers, who was at that time 
 Resident at Hyderabad, the following extracts will be read 
 with interest : " Camp, Feb. 8, 1821. I am now on the edge 
 of Hindostan, and when I began this letter I was going to 
 Aboo, in the Joudpoor territory, half way to Oodeypore, to 
 see a temple ; but I have been obliged to give it up. I should 
 like to see real Hindostan again, and so, I dare say, by this 
 time would you." " Bombay, July 28, 1821. I suppose 
 Malcolm has left you. I heard that Jenkins, you, and he 
 were to meet at Aurungabad, and, as old Seton would have 
 said, l My heart yearned* to be among so many diplomatists of 
 the old school, to talk over old politics and old times. These 
 are certainly flat times compared either to the old Mahratta 
 war or to those when you and I set forth with the firm expecta- 
 tion of meeting on the Indus." " Poonah, Oct. 17, 1822. I 
 am at this place taking a look at the Mahratta country. I 
 intend to set out about the middle of next month on a tour, 
 and to be at Sholapore before the end of it. I hear you are 
 also going on a tour, and I mention my plans to you, because, 
 if your route lies at all in the way of mine, it would be an ex- 
 cellent opportunity for us to meet, and for you to come on
 
 294 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONB. 
 
 182027. with me and see Beejapore, which I assure you is worth the 
 pains even after Delhi, Agra, and Lahore. It is a long time 
 since we had a political conversation, and I am now better 
 qualified to talk Over the Jummabundy than the politics of 
 India, but we may still discuss the probable effects of long 
 tranquillity, education, printing, &c., as well as the best 
 mode of resisting a Russian invasion." " Nov. 5, 1822. I 
 have just received your letter, and am much pleased with the 
 chance I have of seeing you, of which, from what I had heard 
 of your movements, I had begun to despair. I shall be at 
 Sholapore on the 30th, and at Beejapore about the 8th. I 
 meant to have stayed only two days there, but would lengthen 
 my stay to the utmost if I were likely, by doing so, to secure 
 meeting you. The utmost, however, could be but little, on 
 account of the people whom I have to meet at fixed times 
 and places on my journey. Pray try and come. The whole 
 distance to Beejapore is little more than a hundred and 
 fifty miles, all through country which you ought to visit." 
 This meeting, so much desired by both, never became an ac- 
 complished fact. Metcalfe was at that time immersed breast- 
 high in a sea of official trouble ; and a painful correspondence 
 with Lord Hastings, not a pleasant meeting with Mountstuart 
 Elphinstone, was then occupying his time and his thoughts. 
 He had, however, taken sweet counsel with Malcolm in the 
 preceding year, and Malcolm had gone on, in the cold weather, 
 to Bombay, where he had been Elphinstone's guest, and had 
 received quite an ovation from the communities of the western 
 Presidency. It is pleasant to note these points of incidence 
 in the careers of men whose lots were cast in strange and 
 distant places pleasant to think that these Three held each 
 other in love and reverence to the last day of their lives. Ex- 
 ternal, circumstantial rivalries there necessarily were ; but no 
 rivalries of the heart. 
 
 Departure Mr. Elphinstone presided over the Government of Bombay 
 
 from India. during a period of eight years, and then embarked for Europe, 
 carrying with him the blessings of all classes of the com- 
 munity, Native and European. Sir John Malcolm, who had 
 been appointed to succeed him, arrived on the 26th of Octo-
 
 FAREWELL ENTERTAINMENTS. 295 
 
 her, and Elphinstone went on board to welcome him before 1827. 
 the ship cast anchor. There were then two or three weeks, 
 during which space the two old friends and fellow-workmen 
 took counsel together ; and then a great farewell entertainment 
 was given to. the departing Governor. The local chroniclers 
 of the day report that, " on the evening of the 14th of No- 
 vember, the European community gave a splendid ball and 
 supper in honour of Mr. Elphinstone, at Mr. Newnham's 
 I in 1 1 ^ulows on the Esplanade. The Governor, Sir John Mal- 
 colm, was present, and the Commander-in-Chief presided. 
 About two o'clock, Mr. Elphinstone, surrounded by his old 
 and approved friends, took leave of the party, and immediately 
 embarked on board the Honourable Company's cruiser Pali- 
 nurus, which conveys him to Kosseir." 
 
 But this farewell entertainment, given to Mr. Elphinstone 
 by the cream of Bombay society, was but one, and perhaps 
 the least, of many valedictory demonstrations which were 
 made in his honour by the people, whom he had governed so 
 wisely and so well, and to whom he had endeared himself by 
 his unfailing justice and benevolence. During the last days 
 of his residence at Bombay, meetings had been held, and 
 addresses poured in upon him from all quarters. Not one of 
 these was received by him with greater satisfaction than that 
 which came from the native committees, headed by the Rajah 
 of Sattarah : " Until," they said, "you became Commissioner 
 in the Deccan and Governor of Bombay, never had we been 
 able to appreciate correctly the invaluable benefits which the 
 British dominion is calculated to produce throughout the 
 whole of India. But having beheld with admiration for so 
 long a period the affable and encouraging manners, the 
 freedom from prejudice, the consideration at all times evinced 
 for the interests and welfare of the people of this country, the 
 regard shown to their ancient customs and laws, the constant 
 endeavours to extend amongst them the inestimable advan- 
 tages of intellectual and moral improvement, the commanding 
 abilities applied to ensure permanent ameliorations in the 
 condition of all classes, and to promote their prosperity on 
 the soundest principles, we have been led to consider the 
 British influence and government as the most competent and 
 desirable blessing which the Supreme Being could have be-
 
 296 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 1827. stowed on our native land." And after much more in the 
 \ same strain, they proceeded to declare that, u whilst pre- 
 | senting this sincere tribute of applause to the highly liberal 
 and enlightened principles by which Mr. Elphinstone's public 
 conduct has been so peculiarly characterised," they felt that 
 his " private virtues particularly excited their admiration, gra- 
 titude, and respectful affection." " For," they added, " the 
 accessibility, the absence of all form, and [the urbanity with 
 
 \which you have always received persons of this country of all 
 classes, the courtesy with which you have admitted them to 
 your own parties, and the affable and unrestrained manner in 
 which you have condescended to mix in their society, can 
 only be ascribed to those amiable, generous, and high-minded 
 sentiments, which shine so conspicuously in your every word 
 and action." To this he returned a reply full of characteristic 
 kindness and geniality, in which he paid high tribute to his 
 successor, his old friend, John Malcolm. " Of its anxiety," 
 he said, " to promote the happiness of this part of its domi- 
 nions the Honourable Company could not have given a more 
 convincing proof than it has just afforded in the nomination 
 of Sir John Malcolm to the Government of this Presidency. 
 Distinguished as that eminent person is for all the qualities of 
 a soldier and statesman, there is none for which he is more 
 remarkable than for his esteem and attachment towards the 
 natives of the country, and there is no character in which he 
 is more ambitious of appearing than that of the Friend of 
 India." 
 
 A meeting of the British inhabitants was also held for the 
 same purpose of voting a valedictory address, and of agreeing 
 upon some fitting memorial whereby to perpetuate the recol- 
 lection of the virtues of the departing statesman. It was held 
 most becomingly on the anniversary of the battle of Kirkhee, 
 and the speakers dwelt admiringly on the distinguished part 
 which Mr. Elphin stone had borne in that great historical 
 scene. But that which elicited the warmest admiration of all 
 was identical with the theme on which the natives of India 
 had discoursed with so much gratitude and affection. " Much 
 higher praise," said the Advocate- General, Mr. Norton, " re- 
 mains to be spoken. He has exemplified in a signal manner 
 that noble art which acquires for the conqueror the truest
 
 FAREWELL ADDRESSES. 297 
 
 glory I mean, in attaching to his sway the people whom he 1827. 
 has subdued. How has the liberal plan of power by which he 
 has governed the Indian provinces, the liberal institutions 
 which he has founded and supported, the mildness of his ad- 
 ministration, called forth the united voice of the native popu- 
 lation in a manner altogether unprecedented a voice far too 
 loud to be mistaken or misrepresented ? By the imperceptible 
 introduction of new and fair and liberal laws, which it has 
 been his fortune recently to embody in one digested code by 
 the access he has afforded to all ranks according to their 
 station he has opened to the sight at least of our Indian 
 fellow-subjects those principles of constitutional power, which 
 are the best security for national advancement. But," added 
 the speaker, " I must not be misunderstood. I am far from 
 attributing to Mr. Elphinstone the sudden and rash introduc- 
 tion of those visionary schemes of political liberty among this 
 recently reduced people, which some advocate, or pretend to 
 advocate measures as ill adapted to their habits, feelings, 
 and comprehension, as ruinous to their peace. I should hold 
 it an accusation which no man would be justified in making. 
 All national improvement to be effectual must be gradual. 
 We are apt to become warped by our attachment to our own 
 constitution, and sometimes conceive its principles to be of 
 universal application. We forget the slow growth of its 
 highest maxims in this country, and the intellectual meridian 
 in which, and in which alone, according to my notions, they 
 are calculated to shine." 
 
 And these words are more deserving of being held in re- 
 membrance than most words that are spoken at public meet- 
 ings, or embodied in complimentary addresses ; for they indi- 
 cate that which was, indeed, the chief element of Mr. Elphin- 
 stone's greatness as an Indian statesman, and the main source 
 of his success. It has been before observed, with reference 
 to his administration of the districts ceded by the Peishwah, 
 that he was not one of those English functionaries who looked 
 at everything before and around him through the spectacles 
 of national self-love; who could see nothing good in native 
 institutions, and nothing but good in European reforms. He 
 carried with him the same principles to Bombay, and he con- 
 sistently observed the same practice ; and to the very end of
 
 298 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONB. 
 
 1827. his life he protested against those rash innovations and crude 
 experiments, by precipitating which a new race of statesmen, 
 bent upon Anglicising everything, in season and out of season, 
 were piling up for themselves and their country a mountain 
 of future difficulty and disaster. 
 
 There was another point of view from which the services 
 rendered by Mr. Elphinstone to the Bombay communities were 
 regarded. It was not forgotten that no man had ever done so 
 much to impart to them a literary tone, and to encourage the 
 dissemination among all classes both of Eastern and Western 
 knowledge. These sentiments found fit exponents in the 
 " Literary Society of Bombay," of which he had been the 
 honoured president. At a meeting held shortly after his de- 
 parture, a speech was made by Colonel Vans Kennedy, in 
 the course of which he said : "It was to that instructive in- 
 tercourse, to that courtesy with which Mr. Elphinstone listened 
 to those with whom he conversed, to that unassuming and 
 engaging manner with which he communicated the copious 
 and diversified stores of his own knowledge, and to the bright 
 example of his literary excellence, that is principally to be 
 ascribed the more general diffusion of a literary taste through- 
 out this Presidency. For it was impossible to be admitted 
 into the society of so highly-gifted an individual without ad- 
 miring his commanding abilities, and being sensible that lite- 
 rature most eminently contributed to adorn his richly culti- 
 vated mind ; but what man admires he wishes to imitate, and 
 though it is not likely that any person could entertain even the 
 slightest expectation of emulating the numerous accomplish- 
 ments of Mr. Elphinstone, he might still be permitted to hope 
 that, by cultivating his own mind, he might render himself 
 more worthy of the notice with which Mr. Elphinstone 
 honoured him." 
 
 The memorials voted at these meetings took different shapes 
 some moral, and some material. The representatives of the 
 native communities resolved: "That the most satisfactory 
 and durable plan of carrying their wishes into effect was by 
 accumulating a fund of money, to be invested in Government 
 securities, from the interest of which, according to its amount, 
 one or more professorships (to be held by gentlemen from 
 Great Britain, until the happy period arrive when natives
 
 TESTIMONIALS. 299 
 
 shall be fully competent to hold them) be established, under 1827. 
 the Bombay Native Education Society, for teaching the 
 English language, the arts, sciences, and literature of Europe, 
 and that these professorships, in compliment to the person in 
 reference to whom the meeting has been convened, be deno- 
 minated the ' Elphinstone Professorships,'* with the reserva- 
 tion, however, from the principal subscribed of a sufficient 
 sum of money to defray the expense of a portrait of Mr. 
 Elphinstone, to be placed in the library of the Native Educa- 
 tion Society." The European inhabitants concluded their 
 address to Mr. Elphinstone by saying : "In order to per- 
 petuate by ostensible memorials the remembrance of these 
 sentiments and of the causes which have produced them, per- 
 mit us to request that you will allow your statue to be 
 sculptured in marble, in order that it may be erected in a 
 suitable place in Bombay, and to solicit your acceptance of a 
 service of plate, which will be prepared and presented to you 
 in England." And the Bombay Literary Society voted a 
 memorial bust to be placed in the Society's rooms. Testi- 
 monials of these kinds busts, statues, services of plate, and 
 even public foundations have, in more recent times, been 
 vulgarised by their frequency. But when Mountstuart El- 
 phinstone bade farewell to Bombay, no such honours had 
 ever been lavished in like degree upon a departing ruler ; and 
 never since have public admiration and affection so strongly 
 marked the popular sense of the many-sidedness of a states- 
 man's character. 
 
 Having no very close family ties in his old home, Mount- 
 stuart Elphinstone was in no great hurry to return to Eng- 
 land ; so he loitered upon the way, and visited the lands 
 famous in the page both of the Sacred and the Classic His- 
 torian. In the land of his adoption he had read much and 
 thought much of those places; his imagination had been 
 kindled by the grand old associations which surrounded them, 
 and he had longed ardently to see them with the fleshly eye. 
 So he travelled slowly through Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, 
 
 * There are, at this present time Mathematics and Natural Philosophy 
 
 (1867), according to the Bombay Di- Oriental Languages and Chemistry, 
 
 rectory, five Professorships in the El- All are still held by European gentle- 
 
 phinstone College : Logic and Moral men. 
 Philosophy Literature and History
 
 300 MOUNTSTUAKT ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 1829. and lingered delightedly in Greece and Italy thoroughly 
 enjoying, after so many years of stirring official life, a season 
 of dreamy inactivity in those pleasant homes of poetry and 
 romance. He was an enthusiast, and he carried to those 
 scenes a heart as fresh, and a fancy as warm, as any stripling's 
 just starting from college on the Grand Tour. 
 
 182959. Not until the spring of 1829 did he reach England. He 
 tome life. wag ^ en gfty years o f a g e j ne was m the full vigour of his 
 intellect, and no one ever brought with him from India a 
 higher reputation. That there was still before him a career of 
 public usefulness, either in India or in England, even more 
 distinguished than that which he had already accomplished, 
 all men hoped, many believed. But he had not spent thirty 
 unbroken years in India without paying the ordinary penalty. 
 He returned to England with shattered health ; and there 
 were certain inward promptings and warnings which told him 
 that he had done enough work, and cautioned him not to 
 overtax his powers. There have been, and ever will be, men 
 regardless of this small voice of Nature ; but Mountstuart 
 Elphinstone was not, in the ordinary sense, an ambitious man. 
 That he had been active, energetic, full of high courage, and 
 that he was eminently fitted for public life, has been abun- 
 dantly shown ; but these qualities were now to some extent 
 neutralised by a want of confidence in his own powers, and a 
 sort of dislike to measure himself against others. He shrank 
 from every kind of self-assertion, and avoided all personal 
 and party conflicts. Differing in these respects altogether 
 from Malcolm, he at once decided not to enter upon a parlia- 
 mentary career. This was, in effect, a self-imposed exclu- 
 sion from ministerial life in England. He said that he would 
 not have objected to undertake the administrative duties of 
 the Board of Control, but that he did not feel himself com- 
 petent to stand up in Parliament and satisfactorily defend 
 himself and his colleagues. 
 
 Twice the Governor- Generalship of India was offered to Mr. 
 Elphinstone, and twice he refused to accept the proffered dis- 
 tinction. His refusals were based solely upon his conviction 
 that the state of his health would not suffer him to reside in
 
 OFFER OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERALSHIP. 301 
 
 India. " I have just received" he wrote to thnt excellent public 182959. 
 servant, Mr. St. George Tucker, on whom it devolved, as 
 Chairman of the East India Company at that time (1834), to 
 communicate the wishes of the Court of Directors " I have 
 just received your letter of yesterday, and I need not say how 
 much I am honoured by the intention it communicates. As 
 your time is precious, and clearness indispensable in a case 
 where you may not have time for further reference, I proceed 
 at once to answer the question you put. I am still suf- 
 fering from a complaint first produced and since renewed by 
 a residence in hot climates. Part of a summer in Italy was 
 sufficient to bring it on, and neither cooler climates nor medi- 
 cine have yet been able to remove it. I am certain, therefore, 
 that I could be of no use in a hot climate, and that the present 
 state of my health is an effectual bar to my going to India. 
 I am, on this account, unable to profit by your offer to name 
 me as one of the candidates (even if I had no other objection) ; 
 and can only repeat my best thanks for the honour done me, 
 and for the kindness of your letter." 
 
 This letter was written from Leamington, where he was 
 seeking renewed health under the care of the famous Dr. 
 Jephson. Pressed to reconsider his determination, he wrote 
 again, three days afterwards (Sept. 1, 1834), to Mr. Tucker: 
 " My answer to your former letter was dictated entirely by 
 my opinion about my health, and consequently I scarcely 
 expected that' it could be attended by a nearer prospect of 
 success ; but the circumstance of your writing a second time, 
 as well as the very kind manner in which your letter is ex- 
 pressed, made me anxious to give the fullest consideration to 
 a subject in which you took so flattering an interest. ... I 
 have accordingly taken time to consider, and have consulted 
 Dr. Jephson confidentially as to the possibility of my bearing 
 a residence in a hot climate ; but, although he is sanguine as 
 to my speedy and permanent recovery, yet I cannot divest 
 myself of the recollection that, on the only two occasions on 
 which I have been exposed to heat since my first illness, I 
 have had relapses, from one of which I am not yet recovered 
 at the end of two years' residence in England ; and from this 
 fact I feel convinced, that if I went to India, I should be 
 obliged to return immediately, and should occasion all the
 
 302 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 182959. bad effects of sudden changes of government, and, what is 
 still worse, should not be able to do my duty satisfac- 
 torily while I stayed. I have not, therefore, any hesitation 
 in adhering to my former opinion, and declining your very 
 gratifying offer. I have, however, many and sincere thanks 
 to return you for the favourable view you take of my qua- 
 lifications, and for your goodness in affording me an oppor- 
 tunity of reconsidering the question." In another commu- 
 nication to the same correspondent, he wrote : "I hope you 
 will succeed in getting Metcalfe, whose great talents and ex- 
 tensive experience derive additional value at this moment 
 from his attention to economy, and his being so favourably 
 disposed to most of the measures which he will have to intro- 
 duce." 
 
 It is not clear that at this time the Whig Government, if 
 Mr. Elphinstone had acceded to the request of the Chairman 
 of the East India Company, would have consented to his ap- 
 pointment ; for it was their declared opinion an opinion 
 based upon a well-known dictum of Mr. Canning that men 
 reared in the service of the Company were disqualified for 
 promotion to the Governor-Generalship. Before the end of 
 the year, however, there was a change of Government. Sir 
 Robert Peel became First Minister, and Lord Ellenborough 
 was President of the Board of Control. Again Mr. Tucker 
 proposed to the King's Government that Mr. Elphinstone 
 should be nominated Governor-General of India, and Lord 
 Ellenborough cheerftdly consented to the proposal. But 
 again Mr. Elphinstone declined the proffered distinction. 
 
 From this time Mr. Elphinstone came to be regarded as 
 the Nestor of Indian statesmanship, and very gracefully the 
 character sat upon him. He had retired with a very moderate 
 fortune, for he had been in an extreme degree liberal and 
 munificent in India; but having neither wife nor children, 
 he had more than sufficient for his very moderate wants. 
 For upwards of thirty years he lived the life of a private 
 English gentleman, devoting his time principally to scholarly 
 pursuits. But, unlike the majority of retired Indian public 
 servants, he never subsided into insignificance ; he was never 
 forgotten. Retiring as were his habits, and unobtrusive as 
 was his character, his opinion was frequently sought by the
 
 IN RETIREMENT. 303 
 
 leading statesmen of the country, when a difficult question of 182969. 
 Indian policy was to be settled ; and it generally happened, 
 that when his advice was not sought, or, if sought, rejected, 
 there was a mistake to be afterwards bitterly deplored. It has 
 often been remarked that, if he had accepted the Governor- 
 Generalship of India when it was offered to him in 1834, the 
 disastrous war in Afghanistan would not have been undertaken. 
 Certain at least it is that he groaned in spirit over the policy 
 of the expedition, and was scarcely surprised at its results. 
 
 The violent, unprovoked spoliation of Sindh also disturbed 
 his equanimity. He considered the treatment to which the 
 unfortunate Ameers had been subjected to be equally cruel 
 and cowardly. Writing to Sir Charles Metcalfe from his 
 chambers in the Albany (March 14, 1844), he made some 
 emphatic comments on the subject. The letter is interesting, 
 so I give it in its integrity : " I have just received your letter, 
 and only write to thank you for your interesting account of 
 your situation. God grant you success in the struggle.* I 
 doubt if you will condescend to use all the arts of packing 
 Parliaments on which Lord Sydenham thought everything 
 depended ; but perhaps men have now taken broader lines, 
 and will be influenced by more enlarged modes of action, in 
 which case judgment and firmness will be of more avail than 
 skill in management, and your victory will be proportionately 
 more secure. I hoped at one time that you would have had 
 an easier task. After Sir C. Bagot's concessions, for which 
 I took it for granted the time was come, I expected a smooth 
 and gradual descent towards separation, which in good time 
 would be very desirable ; but I never expected the French 
 Canadians to take a plunge by the result of which they must 
 themselves be by far the greatest sufferers. If they quarrelled 
 with Great Britain in the present divided state of the Ca- 
 nadas, what could they look to but falling into the hands of 
 the Americans, who (to use Jackson's words) would improve 
 them off the face of the earth in less time than we take to 
 attack one of their institutions or prejudices. You must 
 have an arduous and anxious time, and I do not wonder at 
 your momentary envy of the quiet of the Albany. If you 
 
 * The crisis in Canada, of which mention is made in the subsequent Memoir of 
 Sir Charles Metcalfe.
 
 304 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 182959. thought only of your own comfort and content, or if you 
 were convinced, as I am, that you were past more useful 
 employment, you might enjoy your repose with as good a 
 conscience as I do ; but if I had the energy and ability to fill 
 such a place as yours, I would not give the few months of 
 your approaching crisis for a hundred years of unprofitable 
 enjoyment.* I wish you had said something about your 
 health, of which we had at one time unfavourable accounts. 
 I do not know if you have time to think of India. Sindh was 
 a sad scene of insolence and oppression. Coming after Af- 
 ghanistan, it put one in mind of a bully who had been kicked 
 in the streets, and went home to beat his wife in revenge. It 
 was not so much Lord Ellenborough's act, however, as his 
 General's. Gwalior, as far as we know (for our acquaintance 
 with the origin of the dispute is very imperfect), seems a com- 
 pensation for our misconduct in Sindh. We seem to have in- 
 terfered with propriety, fought a battle that reminds one of old 
 times, and used our victory with moderation. The heavy loss 
 must all have been from the guns, for I see Scindiah's once 
 celebrated infantry now fight with tulwars like the barbarians 
 of Meeanee. No news here. The Tory vessel has righted 
 again, and is going swimmingly before the wind. The re- 
 duction of the Three and a Half per Cents, has done them 
 much good, and I think Peel is in for five years at least, if 
 O'Connell's business goes off smoothly, and for life if it leads 
 to a disturbance." 
 
 He was much grieved, at a later period, by the manifesta- 
 tions of that all-devouring " earth-hunger," which led Indian 
 statesmen of high honour and integrity to disregard the obli- 
 gations of the British Government to the Native Princes of 
 India. The long line of " annexations," beginning with that 
 of the old Mahrattah principality of Sattarah, which distin- 
 guished the administration of Lord Dalhousie, was viewed by 
 him with sentiments of regret, not unmingled with alarm. 
 " I do not remember," writes Sir Edward Colebrooke, " ever 
 to have seen Mr. Elphinstone so shocked as he was at this 
 proceeding. The treatment of the Sattarah sovereignty as a 
 jagheer, over which we had claims of feudal superiority, he 
 
 * This passage is quoted also in the Memoir of Sir Charles Metcalfe.
 
 OPINIONS ON INDIAN POLICY. 305 
 
 regarded as a monstrous one ; but any opinion of the injustice 182969. 
 done to this family was subordinate to the alarm which he felt 
 at the dangerous principles which were advanced, affecting 
 every sovereign state of India, and which were put forward 
 both in India and at home. The loose manner in which the 
 claim to regulate such questions as lords paramount, and the 
 assertion of feudal claims of escheat as applicable to every state 
 in India, were frequently commented upon, and he particu- 
 larly dwelt upon the fallacy which was at the bottom of all the 
 reasoning of the advocates of resumption, that precedents of 
 interference with successions as arbiters supported our claim 
 to decide the question in our own favour."* He wrote a long 
 letter to Sir Edward Colebrooke on this question of the rela- 
 tions between the British and the Native Governments, espe- 
 cially in the matter of successions. The wisdom contained in 
 it was held, by too many in high authority at the time, to be 
 antiquated and exploded ; and even now, I fear, there is small 
 chance of gaining for it a respectful hearing. " In answering 
 your question," he wrote in February, 1850, " as to the 
 general opinion in India, while I was there, with respect to 
 the relation between the British Government and the prin- 
 cipal Native States, especially our right to regulate their suc- 
 cessions, I can only speak with certainty of my own impres- 
 sions ; but I believe they were those entertained by most of 
 the other persons employed in transactions between our Go- 
 vernment and the Native States. Our relations with the 
 principal States (the Nizam, the Peishwah, Scindiah, Holkar, 
 and Rajah of Berar, &c.) were those of independent equal 
 Powers, and we possessed no right to interfere in their suc- 
 cessions, except such as were derived from our treaties with 
 them, or our situation as a neighbouring State. In many of 
 the new alliances contracted in Lord Hastings's time, an ' 
 alteration was made in the footing on which the contracting 
 parties stood, by the Native State engaging to acknowledge 
 the supremacy of the British Government, and these terms 
 were introduced into treaties with some even of the principal 
 States (those of the Rajpoot Princes) ; but they do not appear 
 to make any difference in the control of the British Govern- 
 ment over successions. Their object was to secure the poli- 
 
 * Memoir in the Asiatic Journal. 
 VOL. I. X
 
 306 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 182959. tical supremacy of the British Government, not to assert its 
 feudal sovereignty, and to obtain the subordinate co-operation 
 of the Native Prince as an ally, not his subjection as a vassal. 
 The British Government was to be supreme in all transactions 
 with foreign States ; but all internal affairs were to be regu- 
 lated as before by the law and usage of the territory, free 
 from any interference of the British Government. The suc- 
 cession, I conceive, was an internal affair, in which the British 
 Government could not interfere unless in a case which might 
 affect the foreign relations of the State, or the general tran- 
 quillity of the country. This, I conceive, was the general 
 impression in India when I was in that country. There was 
 no Native State to which the recognition of its succession by 
 the British Government was not of the highest importance ; 
 but none of them, I conceive, ever imagined that that Go- 
 vernment had a right to regulate the succession as feudal 
 lord, or had any pretensions to the territory as an escheat on 
 the failure of heirs to the reigning family. The above is my 
 own conviction on a general view of the case, and I believe 
 it was the opinion entertained in India in my time ; but on 
 this point it can be of no value, if it does not agree with the 
 views of my remaining cotemporaries, or with those recorded 
 by others at the time."* When, afterwards, in the latter part 
 of 1857, he saw the results of the innovating system of pre- 
 ceding years, he wrote : "I think the ardour for the con- 
 solidation of territory, concentration of authority, and uni- 
 formity of administration which was lately so powerful, must 
 have been a good deal damped by recent events. Where 
 should we have been now if Scindiah, the Nizam, the Sikh 
 chiefs, &c., had been annexed, the subordinate Residencies 
 abolished, the whole army thrown into one, and the revenue 
 system brought into one mould, whether that of Lord Corn- 
 wallis, Sir T. Munro, or even Mr. Thomason ?"f 
 
 Literary life. To the latest day of his life, Mr. Elphinstone took the 
 warmest interest in all that related to the current affairs of 
 India ; but the great solace of his life was in his books. No 
 man ever loved literature more dearly for its own sake. It 
 has been shown that, stimulated by Sir John Malcolm, he had 
 at a comparatively early period of his career contemplated the 
 
 * Memoir in the Asiatic Journal. f Ibid.
 
 LITERARY PURSUITS. 307 
 
 preparation of a History of India.* During all the subsequent 182959. 
 period of his residence in that country he had, whenever op- 
 portunity was presented to him, collected materials for this 
 work, and, now that he was master of his own time, he assi- 
 duously devoted himself to its composition. The results of 
 much good labour had been lost to him by the burning of the 
 Kesidency at Poonah, but the years which had since passed 
 had not been unproductive; and when, in the summer of 
 1834, he began seriously and systematically to write, he 
 had not to commence his researches anew. During a space 
 of five years he laboured diligently but not without occa- 
 sional interruptions at this great work, and completed the 
 history of the Hindoo and Mahomedan periods. Another 
 year was then devoted to careful revision and consultation 
 with literary friends. The publication of the book was under- 
 taken by Mr. Murray, and in the spring of 1841 the public 
 were gratified by its appearance. The highest critical autho- 
 rities received it with admiring respect ; and it at once took 
 its place among the best standard works of historical litera- 
 ture. 
 
 It was hoped, and, indeed, for some time expected, that 
 Mr. Elphinstone would continue his labours, and add to his 
 History of the Hindoo and Mahomedan dynasties in India a 
 narrative of the rise and progress of British supremacy in the 
 East. But, if this formed part of his original design, it was 
 soon abandoned. It was stated during the debates on the 
 India Bill of 1853, by a young and ardent member of the 
 House of Commons, who had distinguished himself as a 
 leader of the India Reform party, that the East India Com- 
 pany, alarmed by the prospect of a fearless, truth-speaking 
 narrative of their misdeeds, had set up one of their clerks to 
 forestal him, and so to keep him out of the field. I happened 
 to call on Mr. Elphinstone on the following morning, at 
 an hotel in Jermyn-street, when the conversation turned 
 upon this statement, and another, scarcely less eccentric, con- 
 cerning one of my own books. Mr. Elphinstone then told 
 me, with characteristic modesty, that he had written an 
 
 * The intention may, perhaps, have began to think of an Indian history in 
 
 been abandoned at a later period, and January, 1834, and commenced it in 
 
 revived only after his return to Eng- earnest in July of the same year." 
 land. Sir E. Colebrooke says that " he 
 
 x2
 
 308 MOUNTSTUART ELFHINSTONE. 
 
 182959. account of the Hindoo and Mahomedan periods of Indian his- 
 tory because he had materials not readily accessible to other 
 writers, but that when he approached the period of British 
 rule, it appeared to him that he had no exclusive information, 
 and no peculiar qualifications for such a task, and that he 
 willingly left its execution to younger heads and younger 
 hands than his own. 
 
 But although he had ceased to be, in any large active sense, 
 a literary workman, he was ever ready to assist others, and 
 many works, illustrative of the history or topography of India 
 and the adjacent countries, which obtained public favour 
 during the twenty years preceding Mr. Elphinstone's death, 
 were benefited greatly by his critical advice, or by the informa- 
 tion which he was able to furnish to the author. He took 
 great interest in the labours, not only of his old friends as 
 Mr. William Erskine, who had still the oar in his hand but 
 of younger aspirants, as Alexander Burnes, the manuscript of 
 whose first book of travels was read by the veteran statesman. * 
 To the writer of these sketches he rendered, on more than one 
 occasion, valuable assistance, and with a ready kindliness 
 which doubled the obligation. As a judge of literary compo- 
 sition, his tendencies were at one time towards a severe 
 chastity of language ; but, at a later period, he used some- 
 times to lament that writers on Indian subjects had done so 
 little to popularise them by imparting to them the attractions 
 of an animated and picturesque style, for, " after all," he said, 
 " books are meant to be read." If he did not himself think 
 that he had done injustice to his own powers, it was only 
 because he habitually under-estimated them.f 
 
 It is remarkable that Mr. Elphinstone, though he does not 
 seem to have been conscious of the existence in his own cha- 
 
 * In a Memoir of Sir Alexander his published works is very inferior in 
 
 Burnes, in the second volume of this force to that of his letters, and still 
 
 work, more detailed mention will be more so to that of his conversation, and 
 
 found of Mr. Elphinstone's criticisms. does not do justice to the vigour and 
 
 f I am confirmed in this by the fol- originality of his mind. He used to 
 
 lowing observations of Sir Edward Cole- speak of his historj' modestly as a con- 
 
 brooke : "In commencing a great tribution to the great subject he had 
 
 literary work late in life he laboured taken in hand, that might aid the work 
 
 under great disadvantages, and I think of some future man of genius, and this 
 
 they are to be traced in the composition diffidence of his own powers affects the 
 
 and style of this well-known work. It tone of the work." 
 has always struck me that the style of
 
 LITERARY DIFFIDENCE. 309 
 
 racter of this undue diffidence, was keenly alive to its effects 182959. 
 in others. Writing to me in 1855, in reply to some questions 
 which I had put to him respecting the literary career of the 
 late Mr. William Erskine, he said : "I need not enlarge on 
 his literary merits, of which you can judge for yourself, but I 
 must mention one of his qualities, which would have been an 
 ornament to the others if it had not been carried to an excess, 
 which made it affected. This was his modesty and distrust of 
 himself, which concealed the extent of his abilities from all 
 but those who had peculiar opportunities of knowing them, 
 and which cramped the exertion of his powers even in the 
 writings which he laid before the public. In none of his pub- 
 lications is the ill effect of this defect so conspicuous as in that 
 you are reviewing, where it is aggravated by a scrupulous 
 attention to accuracy even in minute particulars, which took 
 up a great deal of time that might have been much better 
 employed, and tends to damp the zeal of general readers, who 
 would have had pleasure in listening to the author's own con- 
 clusions and the reflections they suggested, but have no relish 
 for a study that requires so much attention in proportion to 
 the result produced. His original plan was to write the his- 
 tory of the Mogul Empire under Aurungzebe only, and it is a 
 great pity he did not adhere to this design. That long reign 
 would have begun with the empire in its highest state of per- 
 fection, and would have included its decline and fall, together 
 with the state of its government and institutions nearly as 
 they were when we found them, and had to construct a new 
 system on their base. The greatness and variety of the events, 
 and the comprehensive views necessary to explain and account 
 for them, would, in a manner, have forced Mr. Erskine into a 
 wider field of discussion than he has entered into in his present 
 history, and for which in reality he was particularly well 
 qualified. This last fact is shown by other writings much 
 shorter, and probably executed in comparatively shorter time. 
 Examples of these occur to me in his contributions to the 
 Literary Society of Bombay. I have not the book to refer to, 
 but I remember two or three on the Hindoo and Buddhist 
 caves, where, in pointing out the means of distinguishing them 
 from each other, that of getting a near approximation to the 
 dates of Hindoo works by the stages of their religion indicated
 
 310 MOUNTSTUART ELPH1NSTONE. 
 
 182959 by the acts of the gods and heroes exhibited in the sculptures, 
 led him into disquisitions which at that time (before the ap- 
 pearance of Wilson's principal works, or of those of Cole- 
 brooke published in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic 
 Society in London, after Mr. E.'s return home, and of several 
 other publications on the same subject) were really new and 
 striking. His account of the present religion of the Parsees, 
 with a comparison of it with that of their ancestors, as shown 
 by Herodotus and other ancients, was also remarkable, as 
 were his arguments against the authenticity of the * Desutir,' 
 and his opinions on a variety of questions which it led to, 
 combated at the time in the same Transactions by Mr. Raske 
 (since very eminent among continental Orientalists), but now, 
 I believe, adopted by all late writers. These, and his account 
 of the portion of the Tartar nations which lay beyond the 
 field of the literati employed by the Russian Government, 
 show his capacity for generalisation and speculation, when he 
 ventured to indulge in them." Mutatis mutandis, the greater 
 part of this letter might have been written with reference to 
 the author of it himself. 
 
 But although he never ceased to take interest in Oriental 
 literature, it may be doubted whether his chief delight was not 
 in the study of the great works of classic literature, and the 
 later fruits of Italian and English genius. He was very 
 catholic in his literary sympathies, but he leant most fondly 
 towards the imaginative. He would converse with a com- 
 panion of kindred tastes for long hours on ancient and modern 
 poetry, exchanging quotations and criticisms, and delighting, 
 above all things, in running down parallel passages in the 
 writings of the great masters of different eras and different 
 countries.* He was a great reader, too, of the best periodical 
 literature of the day ; and he used to say that new books, and 
 good books too, chased each other so rapidly from the press, 
 
 * Sir E. Colebrooke says : " His love cherish dreams of ambition of the wild- 
 f or poetry amounted to a passion. He est kind. The force of his imagination, 
 would discuss his favourites with the cherished by his love of poetry, affected 
 enthusiasm of a boj r , and one of the last his thoughts, gave a grace and charm 
 occasions on which he left home was to to his conversation, but never influenced 
 visit in Cornwall the scenes of King his judgment. The late Allan Gun- 
 Arthur's battles. There was in his cha- ningham truly described him to me as 
 racter a tinge of enthusiasm which, as the most just thinking man he ever 
 he once confessed to me, led him to knew."
 
 AT HOOK WOOD. 311 
 
 that the panting student toiled after them in vain, and that it 182959. 
 was necessary, therefore, to pick up knowledge second-hand 
 from the reviews. 
 
 During many of the last years of his life Mr. Elphinstone Life at Hook- 
 resided at Limpsfield, on the Surrey Hills, between Godstone, w 
 in that county, and Westerham, in Kent. His residence was 
 a modest country-house known as Hookwood ? surrounded by 
 a pleasant little home park; altogether a charming place for 
 a literary recluse. He was very glad to welcome thither men, , 
 whether his old Indian friends, or younger men who had 
 attained some sort of distinction since his retirement from 
 public life, if they evinced any anxiety to meet him. And 
 such was the kindliness of his nature, that he ever made it 
 appear to his visitors even to the youngest and least distin- 
 guished among them that they were conferring honour upon 
 him by seeking him out in his privacy. He was one of the 
 least ostentatious and egotistical of men. He never talked 
 about himself, unless directly asked for information relating 
 to some of the leading circumstances of his career. Indeed, 
 he appeared to some people to be rather in the habit of fencing 
 and evading any direct inquiries of a personal character, but 
 there was nothing studied or intentional in this : it was merely 
 a general inaptitude to perceive that anything relating only to 
 himself could be a matter of much interest to his companion. 
 But when convinced of the wishes of the inquirer, and roused 
 by references to past events, his reserve would pass away, 
 his memories would be kindled, and he would talk delight- 
 
 ' O 
 
 fully about the old times long ago, when he rode beside 
 Wellesley at Assye, or was burnt out of the Residency at 
 Poonah. 
 
 There are many living who now look back to those days at 
 Hookwood as amongst the pleasantest reminiscences of their 
 lives ; who can follow the venerable statesman from his library 
 to his drawing-room, from his drawing-room to his breakfast- 
 room, and remember how from morn to noon, from noon 
 almost to midnight, he would converse with his guest (it was 
 his disposition to adhere rather to the singular number) upon 
 an infinite variety of topics, and send his privileged companion 
 to bed a far wiser man than he was when he had risen in the 
 morning. But he was not what is commonly called a great
 
 312 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 182959. talker, and he never indulged in monologue. He was em- 
 phatically a good listener. For many years before his death 
 his eyesight had failed him greatly, and unless some member 
 of his family were residing with him, he was obliged to obtain 
 the assistance of a hired reader ; and perhaps this drawback 
 made him take an increased pleasure in literary conversa- 
 tion. There was always a large flow of enthusiasm in his 
 nature, and I believe that the most enthusiastic of his visitors 
 pleased him best. He was so thoroughly a gentleman, that 
 he could not have exhibited his impatience of any kind of 
 dulness ; but I rather think that he chafed considerably when 
 he found himself face to face with it. 
 
 Political From this pleasant state of meditative inaction, absorbed 
 
 in the amenities of the Past, he was roused to a painful sense 
 of the stern realities of the Present, by tidings of the great 
 Indian rebellion, which startled the world in the summer of 
 1857. The interest which he took in the progress of those 
 events was intense; and an expression of his opinion was 
 invited by his friends, not only with respect to the rebellion 
 itself but to the action of the British Parliament, in conse- 
 quence of the unjust clamour which had been raised against 
 the East India Company. From a letter which he wrote in 
 the autumn of this year to Sir Edward Colebrooke, I take 
 the following characteristic passages : " Notwithstanding the 
 liability of the House of Commons to be carried away by the 
 madness of the moment during a popular delusion, I don't 
 think either they or their constituents are so thoughtless as 
 to sanction a revolution in the Government of India at a 
 moment like the present. Leaving out all other objections, 
 only imagine the probable effect of announcing to people who 
 have been driven into rebellion by the very thought of being 
 made Feringhees, that thenceforward their rights were to be 
 secured by placing them under the immediate protection of 
 the Queen, thus incorporating them with the British nation, 
 and admitting them to a share in all the blessings by which 
 it is distinguished from the nations of the East. Yet this is 
 the language which many writers of the day recommend as a 
 specific for soothing all minds, and removing all doubts and 
 suspicions. There is a good article in yesterday's Times on 
 the other side of the question, from which I suppose that they
 
 POLITICAL OPINIONS. 313 
 
 (the editors) believe the mind of the Ministry is made up to 182959. 
 keep things as they are for the present. The last accounts 
 from India are, doubtless, very gloomy; the risk of fresh 
 interests and new feelings arising during the interval of in- 
 action is certainly very great, and to one who has just read 
 Munro's admirable Minute,* it appears that the full accom- 
 plishment of his prophecy is at hand. But there is some 
 comfort in the recollection how often foreign Governments 
 have kept their ground in worse circumstances than ours. 
 I will only mention the case of Rome, which was a much 
 more oppressive Government than ours, and had tougher 
 materials to work on in Spain and Gaul, and higher notions 
 of freedom and national independence to contend with in 
 Greece and her offsets, than we are ever likely to see among 
 our Asiatic subjects. I have often wished to get some know- 
 ledge of the sort of administration by which the Romans 
 contrived to fix their power on so firm a basis, but although 
 it is easy to find out the framework of a Government in a 
 province, I do not find any clue to the means by which it was 
 administered. I suppose that what we do know is equivalent 
 to a knowledge of the constitutions of the Presidencies in 
 India, together with the law as administered by the Supreme 
 Court, and a revenue system founded on farming to English 
 capitalists ; while all the details of legislation as well as ad- 
 ministration were left to the natives, and managed by native 
 Princes or by local municipalities. Can you tell me where 
 information on this subject is to be found? I suppose it 
 must be well ascertained after all the researches by German 
 and other scholars in late times. If you never read the ac- 
 count in Polybius of the mutiny of the mercenaries, which 
 nearly overthrew the Government of Carthage, it will interest 
 you in the present time. It differed in its origin and many 
 details from ours, but still you will be struck with the analogy 
 in many particulars. I read it in Hampton's translation, 
 where it is near the beginning of the first volume. It is not 
 long."t 
 
 The last great public question, to which he gave much 
 
 * The Minute on the effect of a Free ( Memoir in Journal of tlte Asiatic 
 Press on the Native Army, which had Society. 
 been lately republished.
 
 314 MOUNTSTHART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 182959. serious attention, was the reconstruction of the Home Go- 
 vernment of India consequent on the abolition of the govern- 
 ing powers of the East India Company. He did not, as may 
 be gathered from the preceding letter, look kindly at the in- 
 novation. He feared that the influence of the Court and the 
 authority of the Ministry of the day might be put to corrupt 
 uses; and he was exceedingly anxious, therefore, that the 
 Secretary of State should be controlled by a strong, and, as 
 far as possible, an independent Council. His views may be 
 gathered from the following passages of his correspondence 
 with Sir Edward Colebrooke : " March 1, 1858. The great 
 grievance at present is the disregard of the Governors- 
 General to the repeated injunctions of the Court of Directors 
 against plans of conquest, and other modes of extending our 
 territory. Such disregard is not likely to be tolerated on the 
 new plan. The Minister for India will be the sole ostensible 
 head of the whole administration of that empire, and it is 
 not probable that he will be content to submit to the obscurity 
 which the President of the Board of Control used to court. 
 His object used to be to avoid all disputes that might bring 
 the separate action of the Ministry in Indian affairs before the 
 House of Commons, and to do this he was obliged to deal 
 with the Court of Directors in a way that weakened the 
 authority of both, and left the Governor- General pretty nearly 
 his own master. I imagine that the practice at that time was 
 for the Court of Directors to check the Governor- General 
 when they thought it right, and for the Board of Control to 
 support him ; that the Board generally carried its point, and 
 that even when it gave way and allowed the official instruc- 
 tions to be drawn according to the wish of the Directors, 
 there was always a private correspondence between the Pre- 
 sident and the Governor- General, that emboldened the latter 
 to pursue his own views without much fear of the conse- 
 quences. All this will now cease, and my fears are not for 
 the present, but for the future, when attention will be with- 
 drawn from India, and when a weak and unscrupulous 
 Ministry may send out devoted adherents of its own to the 
 Supreme Government, through whom it may employ the 
 patronage of India for party purposes, supporting the mea- 
 sures of its creature through thick and thin in return. Against
 
 POLITICAL OPINIONS. 315 
 
 such a design, no restrictions afforded by an exclusive service, 182959. 
 examinations, competition, conditions of previous residence 
 in India, &c., will be of the least avail. The public is always 
 averse to monopolies, and will support all infractions of those 
 protective regulations which, moreover, will be introdued gra- 
 dually and almost unperceived. March 2nd. The above 
 
 was written yeiterday, but my eyes got so tired and my 
 scrawl so illegible, that I thought it would be a relief to you, 
 as well as to myself, to leave off, and have a fair copy made 
 for your use. I am afraid you will find it very unsatisfactory 
 after all. The only effectual check that I can [see either on 
 the Governor- General or the Ministry at home is a Board of 
 Council, formed by election, if possible, but at all events con- 
 ducting its business entirely separate from the Minister for 
 India. Even if we had such a Board, there would remain 
 the difficulty of getting members who would take a lively in- 
 terest in India, viewed separately from Great Britain, and 
 who would attend to the peculiar views and wishes of the 
 natives, as well as to their pecuniary interests and strictly 
 legal rights. The Company did so to a considerable extent, 
 because it had long regarded India as its own, and was 
 strongly opposed to the maxim now in favour of l India for 
 the English.' Sooner or later, we must introduce natives 
 into the Council itself, or at least into the electing body, but 
 to do so now would only produce contention and embarrass 
 
 future operations." "April 30, 1858. What is chiefly 
 
 wanted of the Council is, that it shall supply the place of the 
 Court of Directors, in protecting the interests, opinions, and 
 feelings of the natives against the conflicting interests, 
 opinions, and feelings of the ruling people. However selfish 
 the original motive of this jealousy of European encroach- 
 ment may have been on the part of the Directors, it became 
 their ' traditional policy,' and has been one great cause of 
 their unpopularity. Now, I think the maintenance of this 
 policy is exactly the line which a well-selected Council of 
 Indians would choose for their peculiar province. Their other 
 duty would be to guard against attempts of the Ministry to 
 undermine the constitution, or to take steps directly injurious 
 to the interest of the British nation. This they would .not 
 neglect, but they would feel how little their aid was wanted
 
 316 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 182959. at a time when the popular element of the constitution was 
 so decidedly in the ascendant ; while in undertaking the pro- 
 tection of the Indian nation they would have a vast field for 
 usefulness and distinction which at present is almost entirely 
 unoccupied. It is indeed astonishing, considering how much 
 our own safety depends on the contentment of our Indian 
 dependents, that in all the late discussions there has not been 
 a single speaker of note, except Gladstone, that has laid the 
 least stress on this part of the subject. They probably rely 
 on the Indian Government for looking to public opinion 
 among the natives, but what could the strongest Indian Go- 
 vernment do against a clamour for levying a new tax (say an 
 income-tax) on India, to make up for the deficit occasioned 
 by its own expenses, including the Persian and Chinese wars, 
 and many other charges in which the people of India take 
 quite as little concern ?" In this latter extract Mr. Elphin- 
 stone very clearly defines one of the most important functions 
 of the Council of India namely, the protection of the general 
 interests of the Indian people, and more especially the guar- 
 dianship of the Indian purse. From the former passage, it 
 Avill be seen, that he was anxious to give some power of in- 
 dependent action to the Council, and from other letters it is 
 apparent that he was strongly in favour of vesting the initia- 
 tive not in the Minister but in the Council. This last opinion 
 was shared by nearly all the ablest and most experienced men 
 who gave their thoughts to the consideration of the best mode 
 of reconstructing the Indian Government. And when the 
 new system was established, the conduct of the public business 
 was regulated in accordance with this principle. But it was 
 found, after a brief trial, that too much was sacrificed to a 
 theory. The results of this mode of procedure were develop- 
 ing themselves when Sir Charles Wood, whose great admi- 
 nistrative ability was never questioned even by his political 
 opponents, assumed the office of Indian Minister, and he hit 
 the blot at once. It has since been cheerfully acknowledged, 
 by some of the warmest advocates of the principle advocated 
 by Mr. Elphinstone, that its abandonment has proved to be a 
 palpable good. 
 
 Last days. This was, I believe, the last public question regarding which 
 
 Mr. Elphinstone expressed his opinions in detail. His end,
 
 HIS DEATH. 317 
 
 indeed, was now approaching. It came suddenly, as, perhaps, 1859. 
 he wished it to come; for it is said that he dreaded the 
 thought of a protracted existence, after the decay of his intel- 
 lectual powers. Before any one had learnt that he was not in 
 his accustomed health, news came that Mountstuart Elphin- 
 stone was dead. He died at Hookwood, in his eightieth year, 
 on the 20th day of November, 1859, and was buried in the 
 parish church of Limpsfield. Although he had retired from 
 public life for a period of more than thirty years, he passed 
 away from amongst us as a man who had been to the last in 
 harness. He had friends and admirers in all parts of the 
 country ; and when it was known that he was dead, they held 
 a public meeting in London, and many of our leading English 
 statesmen attended to do honour to his memory. It was truly 
 a remarkable fact that its freshness had never passed away. 
 Men spoke of him at that meeting as of one who had been 
 working for India guiding its councils to the very last day 
 of his life. And perhaps this is the very highest praise that 
 could be bestowed upon him. I do not know another instance 
 of the great and honourable of the land meeting together to 
 vote a public statue to a man who had ceased for more than a 
 quarter of a century to take a part in public affairs. But at 
 the meeting of which I now speak there was as much enthu- 
 siasm as if Elphinstone had just returned from India, and 
 died with the sword of action in his hand. 
 
 There are some men whose characters it is easy to describe, Character, 
 others whose characters it is not necessary to describe at all, 
 so distinctly are their inner natures illustrated by their out- 
 ward utterances and actions. But neither the utterances nor 
 the actions of Mountstuart Elphinstone will lead us along any 
 beaten road to a right knowledge of his character. We must 
 wander into many intricate byways and obscure recesses if 
 we would endeavour to arrive at a right understanding of it ; 
 and even then we may find ourselves in a maze. There are 
 many conflicts arid inconsistencies, which it is difficult to re- 
 concile otherwise than by a reference to physical causes. In 
 the lives of few men is there apparent so great a disproportion 
 between what they have done and what they have been held
 
 318 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 182959. to be capable of doing. I have more than once spoken of 
 Mr. Elphinstone's modesty and diffidence, and I have sug- 
 gested that he was not stirred by any very active ambition. 
 And yet there was assuredly, at one period of his life, an 
 almost morbid vanity a desire to shine in many diverse and 
 antagonistic ways which those who knew him only in the 
 decline of life, when years had brought the philosophic mind, 
 found it difficult to understand. General Briggs has related 
 that Mr. Elphinstone " had an innate pride of not being 
 excelled by any one in manly habits. It happened while he 
 was Governor at Bombay, and on a visit to Poonah on busi- 
 ness, an old friend arrived from a long journey, in which, 
 owing to his palanquin-bearers failing, he was compelled to 
 adopt the unusual habit (to Europeans) of travelling several 
 hundred miles on a camel. Mr. Elphinstone questioned him 
 closely as to the mode of management of this uncouth animal, 
 its paces, and the sensation. He was assured that nothing 
 was easier than its management, that its pace was by no 
 means unpleasant, and that he came at .the rate of forty miles 
 a day and upwards, without as much fatigue as if he had 
 been on horseback. Mr. Elphinstone was not then aware 
 that in Eajpootana the European officers used camels in pre- 
 ference to horses in making long marches, and they were 
 used in cantonments to pay morning visits. Some days after 
 this, it was discovered that Mr. Elphinstone had, during the 
 very night after the above conversation with his friend, 
 ordered a riding-camel to be brought to his tent, and, accom- 
 panied by another camel hurcarah, mounted and rode several 
 miles during moonlight to satisfy himself of the sensation of 
 riding on a camel. During a journey into the southern 
 Mahratta country some time afterwards, he went to visit the 
 celebrated Falls of the Gutparba, at Gokauk. The river was 
 
 )full, and the fall of sixty feet formed an arch of several feet 
 from the almost perpendicular rock over which the cataract 
 rushes. He was standing, with his Staff, about half way 
 down the precipice, opposite a narrow ledge which projected 
 from one side to the other. Whilst admiring the scene, one 
 of the party observed that a certain officer (mentioning his 
 name) had walked across this narrow, slippery, and dangerous 
 ledge. Mr. Elphinstone immediately turned round to the
 
 HIS CHARACTER. 319 
 
 speaker, and said, 'Are you sure?' and on the fact being 182959. 
 confirmed, Mr. Elphinstone said, l Well, then, let you and 
 me try if we cannot do so also ;' and he instantly led the 
 way, all the Staff being necessarily obliged to follow his 
 example." And the same authority adds : " This desire to 
 excel in everything that was manly which we have re- 
 ferred to, was carried at this period of his life to a degree 
 that bordered on eccentricity. In his horror of luxury, he 
 made exertions to dispense with what he thought superfluous 
 articles of clothing, and this practice must have contributed A 
 to injure his otherwise strong constitution. For several 
 months he attempted to dispense with the luxury of a bed. 
 The relation to whom he mentioned this, asked him, with 
 simplicity, the reason for such conduct. * Because I was a 
 fool !' was the immediate reply." 
 
 A man who plays tricks with his constitution in his 
 younger days is sure to suffer in his later ones ; and so it 
 happened that Mountstuart Elphinstone, after his return to 
 England, though still in the prime of his life, had many dis- 
 tressing warnings that the climate of India had done its 
 work upon him. It is curious that a man should be more 
 ambitious to stick a pig, to ride on a camel, or to walk upon 
 a precipice, than to govern a vast empire; but experience 
 teaches us that such phenomena are by no means of rare 
 occurrence. I cannot, however, bring myself to think that 
 Elphinstone was a man only of small ambitions. ; and, there- 
 fore, I adopt the conclusion that his unwillingness to accept i 
 high office, during the last thirty years of his life, proceeded 
 ( ml v from a consciousness that he had not physical capacity / 
 for further official work. There fell upon him in Europe an / 
 excess of languor, amounting almost to indolence, which con- 
 trasted strongly with the active and energetic habits of his 
 earlier days. He had a prevailing sense that if he took 
 upon himself, in India or in England, large responsibili- 
 ties, he would break down ; and year after year he felt a 
 growing desire for retirement and ease. It was not that he 
 thought of himself. It was that he had a painful apprehen- 
 
 * If the reader will turn to page 379, camel when a boy at Eton, though 
 he will find it stated, on the authority of Mountstuart Elphinstone, a mighty 
 Dr. Goodall, that Charles Metcalfe, the hunter, was never, it seems, on camel- 
 worst horseman ever known, rode on a back until he was Governor of Bombay.
 
 320 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 1859. sion that the interests of the public service might be jeo- 
 pardised by his failure, at a critical moment, to discharge the 
 great duties entrusted to him. And so it happened that with 
 the very highest reputation as an Indian statesman he never 
 made for himself a place in History commensurate with the 
 capacity for which the world has given him credit, and, as I 
 believe, which he possessed, to shape the destinies of an empire. 
 One thing, however, is certain, that, as I write, his authority 
 on all questions of Indian government is commonly accepted 
 as the highest that can be quoted, and that no man's memory 
 is regarded with greater veneration by all who have given 
 their minds to the study of the great questions to which 
 Mountstuart Elphinstone devoted his life.
 
 321 
 
 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 [BORN 1781. DIED 1812.] 
 
 ON the seventh day of February, in the year 1811, in one 17811812. 
 of the monasteries of Goa, the capital of Portuguese India, two 
 English gentlemen stood before the tomb of Francis Xavier. 
 Not that the great apostle of the Gentiles had died there, for 
 he had endured his last earthly pangs far away on the Island 
 of Sancian, at the mouth of the Canton river ; but that an ad- 
 miring people had raised there a monument to his memory, 
 richly ornamented and surrounded with pictures and bronzes, 
 the produce of Italian art. Of the visitors who stood 
 at that shrine, and listened to the words of the friar who 
 acted as its custodian, one was the statesman, the story of 
 whose life has just been concluded. The other, a slight, thin- 
 faced man, about thirty years of age, with a hectic flush on 
 his cheek, was a priest of the English Church, "tEen on his 
 way from Calcutta to Bombay. An enthusiast himself, he 
 could not think without emotion of the grand enthusiasm of 
 the Christian knight who, more than two centuries and a half 
 before, had left the world behind him and abandoned all 
 things for the love of God. With all the outward grandeur of 
 the Romish Church before him, still, rejoicing in his purer 
 faith, he thought humbly and reproachfully of the little that 
 he had done, measured against the great deeds of that Romish 
 giant. And yet was Henry Martyn, for all his feebleness of 
 frame, cast in the same heroic mould as Francis Xavier. 
 
 It has become a mere platitude now, that the world has seen 
 many heroes who have never girded on a sword or h'stened to 
 the roar of the battle. A truth so accepted needs no demonstra- 
 tions. Little need is there to show how the courage, the de- 
 votion, the self-sacrifice, the grand sense of duty which make 
 the heroic character, are found beneath the coif of the Priest 
 as beneath the helm of the Warrior. It is given to some to 
 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 322 
 
 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 Parentage. 
 
 1781-95. do; to others only to bear : to some, to strike for the right ; 
 to others, to witness to the truth. u Never," it has been said, 
 tl did the polytheism of ancient or of modern Rome assign a 
 seat among the demigods to a hero of nobler mould or of more 
 exalted magnanimity than Francis Xavier." And again the 
 same writer : " Amidst all the discords which agitate the 
 Church of England, her sons are unanimous in extolling the 
 name of Henry Martyn. And with reason ; for it is, in fact, 
 the one heroic name which adorns her annals, from the days 
 of Elizabeth to our own."* Fitly, then, in itself, is this "one 
 heroic name " in the annals of the Anglican Church placed at 
 the head of this chapter, and more fitly than any other, 
 because it helps at this early stage to illustrate the many- 
 sidedness of the English heroism which has flowered beneath 
 the Indian sun. 
 
 Henry Martyn came of a humble stock. In that rich ore 
 country about Truro and Redruth, his father once toiled as 
 a simple miner ; but raising himself above the level, by his 
 industry and intelligence, he obtained a seat in a merchant's 
 office, and, appreciating at its true worth the value of that 
 which had done so much for him, he determined to give to 
 his children in early youth that which he had acquired so 
 painfully in adult life, and, by good thrift, provided the means 
 of bestowing upon them the blessings of a good education. 
 But it pleased God, who gave him many children, that there 
 should not be many spared for whom to make this provision. 
 There was a constitutional weakness in the family, and Death 
 laid its hands upon the childhood of the brothers and sisters 
 of Henry Martyn, so that four only of the flock ever lived to 
 see man's estate. And Henry himself was but a weakly, de- 
 licate nursling, whose little life needed much care to save it 
 from flickering out in the morning of its existence. But he 
 struggled through infancy and childhood, and went to the 
 Truro Grammar School ; and for nine years, under the tutorial 
 care of Dr. Cardew, he gathered up the by no means con- 
 temptible stock of learning which was accessible to the stu- 
 dents in that provincial institution. 
 
 The school-days of Henry Martyn were not happy. He 
 was not, indeed, born for happiness. He lacked the puerile 
 
 * Sir James Stephen. 
 
 Early educa- 
 tion.
 
 SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. 323" 
 
 robustness and the effervescent animal spirits -which make the 1795. 
 season of school-life a season of carelessness and joy. There 
 is more or less of tyranny in every school ; and Henry Martyn, 
 being of feeble frame and of somewhat petulant temper, was 
 bullied by his stronger schoolfellows. It would have fared 
 still worse with him but for the generous protection of one of 
 the bigger boys, who helped him with his lessons, and fought 
 his battles for him, and often rescued him from the grasp of 
 his juvenile oppressors. 
 
 It is not recorded of him that at this time, though he took 
 but little part in the sports and amusements of boyhood, he 
 was inordinately addicted to study. He was docile and quick 
 to learn, but he acquired no very remarkable scholastic repu- 
 tation. His father, however a shrewd and discerning man 
 had always great hopes of him. It was the cherished wish 
 of the elder Martyn T s heart that his son should have a college 
 education. So, in the autumn of 1795, when scarcely fifteen 
 years old, he sent Henry to Oxford to try for a Corpus 
 scholarship. Bearing a single letter of introduction to one of 
 the tutors of the University, he set out alone on what was 
 then a long and wearisome, and, for one of his weakness and 
 susceptibility, a somewhat formidable journey. But there 
 was in young Henry Martyn even then a remarkable sense of 
 self-reliance a remarkable power of self-support; In his 
 quiet, undemonstrative way, he had an immense capacity for 
 going through with anything that he undertook. Thus thrown 
 upon his own resources whilst yet a boy, he acquired confi- 
 dence in his own strength. Obtaining a set of rooms in 
 Exeter College, without entering as an undergraduate, he pre- 
 pared himself for the competition ; but although he passed an 
 excellent examination, and was much commended, he did not 
 obtain the scholarship. So he went back to Truro, carrying 
 with him his first great disappointment. 
 
 But how many of us in after life have the privilege of 
 feeling that, by God's good providence, our first great dis- 
 appointment has been our first great blessing. Thankfully 
 did Henry Martyn acknowledge this from the very depths of 
 his heart. " Had I remained (at Oxford)," he wrote, " and 
 become a member of the University at that time, as I should 
 have done in case of success, the profligate acquaintances I 
 
 Y2
 
 324 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1797. had there would have introduced me to scenes of debauchery 
 in which I must in all probability, from my extreme youth, 
 have sunk for ever." But even if he had not sunk into this 
 deep mire, he would never have formed those associations 
 which made him what he was : he would never, as far as we 
 can in our weakness discern the ways of God to man, have 
 been an apostle and a hero. 
 
 Cambridge. Cambridge made him what he was. After another year or 
 
 two at the Truro Grammar School, Henry Martyn entered 
 at St. John's College, and took up his residence there in 
 October, 1797. He went to the sister University with a 
 considerably larger store of classical learning than he had 
 carried with him to Oxford, but with small knowledge of 
 mathematics. He had never much addicted himself to the 
 exact sciences ; and even after this Cambridge career had 
 been marked out for him, he spent, according to his own 
 account, more time in shooting birds and reading amusing 
 books than in studying algebra and geometry. It is worthy 
 of notice, for the very grotesqueness of the contrast it sug- 
 gests, that the book which young Henry Martyn on the 
 threshold of his University life studied most intently, was 
 Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Son. Whether accident 
 threw the book in his way, or whether the son of the Cornish 
 miner thought that he might be wanting in some of those 
 exterior graces which should fit him to take his place at the 
 University among men of high birth and high breeding, is 
 not apparent ; but assuredly the great master of worldliness 
 never had a more unworldly pupil. Yet was there something 
 that he might have learnt from this book. He, who wrote 
 of the Saviour of mankind, that he was 
 
 " The first true gentleman that ever lived," 
 
 gave utterance to a practical truth which, I fear, has been 
 sometimes forgotten by his disciples. In that politeness, 
 which is the outward expression of charity and love, Henry 
 Martyn was sometimes wanting. 
 
 The commencement of his Cambridge career was not pro- 
 mising. What conceivable hope is there of an undergraduate 
 who gets up his mathematics by endeavouring to commit 
 the problems of Euclid to memory ? But such was Henry
 
 LIFE AT CAMBRIDGE. 325 
 
 Martyn's commencement. How at last the power of demon- 179798. 
 stration entered into his mind, and took such fast hold of it, 
 that he whose notion of the exact sciences was of something to 
 be learnt by rote, at last developed jnto^ the_Senior_Wrangler 
 of his year, is a chapter of tnesecret history of the human 
 understanding that will never be revealed to man. It is 
 something altogether mysterious and surprising. All that 
 we know distinctly about it is, that this young Cornish under- 
 graduate took to the study of Newton's Principia, liking it 
 much better than the study of the Bible ; and that in time he 
 came to take delight in what had before been utterly dis- 
 tasteful to him. Then it dawned upon him that he might 
 take honours ; and to that end he began to study with all his 
 might. 
 
 It was a happy circumstance, and one not to be omitted 
 from the scantiest record of Henry Martyn's life, that at 
 Cambridge he renewed his acquaintance with his old cham- 
 pion of the Truro Grammar School. The big boy who had 
 fought his battles for him was now a steady young man, with 
 plenty of good advice for his little friend, and what was 
 better, a good example. He kept Martyn out of the way of 
 wickedness, and told him that he ought to read hard, " not 
 for the praise of men, but for the glory of God." " This 
 seemed strange," wrote Martyn, some time afterwards, " but 
 reasonable. I resolved, therefore, to maintain this opinion 
 thenceforth ; but never designed, that I remember, that it 
 should affect my conduct." But such is the inscrutable per- 
 verseness of memoir-writers, who so often give us names that 
 we do not want to know, and conceal from us those of the 
 persons who most interest us, that the identity of this ex- 
 cellent friend, who did so much to save Martyn's body at 
 school, and to save his soul at college, is shrouded from the 
 world in the obscurity of the letter K. 
 
 Of the undergraduate life of Henry Martyn not much has 
 been recorded or can now be ascertained. One noticeable 
 incident, however, did occur, which well-nigh brought his 
 academical career to a disastrous close. He was constitu- 
 tionally petulant and irritable ; and was sometimes wrought 
 even by little things into such a state of excitement as to be 
 scarcely master of himself. One day, from some cause or
 
 326 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1799. other not chronicled, the vehemence of his anger rose to such 
 a height, that he flung a knife with all his force at a friend 
 who had said or done something to cross him. In the blind- 
 ness of his fury he missed his mark, and the knife entered 
 the opposite wall, where it remained trembling with the 
 violence of the concussion. The friend who so narrowly 
 escaped was Mr. Cotterill, afterwards minister of St. Paul's, 
 Sheffield. 
 
 In this painfully excitable state, it does not seem that even 
 the repose of the vacation, the solace of home, and the kind- 
 ness of his family, did anything to soothe his troubled spirit. 
 During the long vacation of 1799, according to his own 
 statement, his temper was more unbearable than ever. " The 
 consummate selfishness and exquisite irritability of my mind," 
 he wrote at a later period, " were displayed in rage, malice, 
 and envy ; in pride and vainglory, and contempt of all ; in 
 the harshest language to my sisters, and even to my father, 
 if he happened to differ from my wish and will. Oh, what 
 an example of patience and mildness was he !" One of his 
 sisters, too, was a young woman of signal piety, but her ad- 
 monitions were lost upon him. The sound of the Gospel, 
 conveyed in the admonition of a sister, was, he said, grating 
 to his ears. He promised her, however, that he would read 
 the Bible ; but when he returned to college " Newton engaged 
 all his thoughts." 
 
 Death of his And, academically, he worked to good purpose. At the 
 father. Christmas examination of 1799, he was first of his year. The 
 
 news delighted his father ; but it was the last earthly solace 
 that he was ever to derive from that source. The new year 
 had scarcely dawned when the good old man was stricken 
 down and laid in his grave. The blow fell heavily on his 
 son more heavily for the thought that he had sometimes 
 failed in filial duty and respect. The terrible sense of the 
 Irremediable sorely troubled him, and in his trouble he sought 
 a present help which Newton could not extend to his pupil 
 the One mighty hand and stretched-out arm which alone 
 could lift him out of the deep waters in which he was 
 struggling. "As at this time," he recorded at a later period, 
 " I had no taste for my usual studies, I took up my Bible,
 
 DAWNING PIETY. 327 
 
 thinking that the consideration of religion was rather suitable 1799 1800 
 to this solemn time." To this he was exhorted by the good 
 human friend who had protected him in the Truro Grammar 
 School and guarded the first footsteps of his University career. 
 So the beginning was made a faltering, stumbling start in 
 the dark for he did not take up the Scriptures without some 
 distaste, and he " began with the Acts, as being the most 
 amusing." Little by little the light of truth streamed into 
 the obscure tenement of his soul, until he stood in the full 
 broad sunshine of a saving knowledge of the great scheme of 
 redemption. At first, he seems to have been disposed to 
 rejoice in the exceeding goodness of God in sending Christ 
 into the world ; but this time of rejoicing soon passed away. 
 There came upon him an overwhelming sense of hisown 
 
 A * " " "* 
 
 unworthiness ; and it may l>e doubted whether from that 
 time he ever had a day of perfect happiness and peace. His 
 good old friend, who rejoiced as a Christian in the exceeding 
 goodness of God, and delighted to see others happy, endea- 
 voured to persuade him that his despondency was not right. 
 It would seem also that his sister did the same. But Henry 
 Martyn was determined not only to enter in at the straight 
 gate, but never to emerge into the broad outer-courts of 
 cheerfulness, and serenity, and fear-expelling love. 
 
 Whilst this great change was taking place in his heart, his College studies 
 brain was actively employed, mastering the exact sciences, 
 the study of which had now become an engrossing pursuit. 
 It appeared to be peculiarly his lot to illustrate by his own 
 personal experiences the extraordinary changes and transi- 
 tions to which by God's providence the human mind, both 
 in its moral and intellectual aspects, may be subjected. That 
 lie who had begun the study of God's word by selecting for 
 perusal the most amusing chapters of the Bible, should in so 
 short a time have developed into a ripe Christian, with con- 
 victions deeply rooted in the true faith, is not more strange 
 than that one who, under a mortifying sense of his incapacity 
 to understand them, had committed the problems of Euclid 
 to memory, should, at his final examination, have been de- 
 clared the first mathematician of his year. But so it was. 
 The great annual contest over, Henry Martyn found himself
 
 328 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1801. Senior Wrangler.* He had gained the highest object of 
 academical ambition. But it afforded him little gratification. 
 It enhanced the bitterness of the regret with which he dwelt 
 upon the great loss that he had sustained ; and it made him 
 more than ever suspicious of himself fearful of stumbling 
 into the pitfalls of human pride. " I obtained my highest 
 wishes," he said, " but was surprised to find that I had 
 grasped a shadow." 
 
 Martyn and It was in the summer of this year, 1801, that Henry 
 ;on " Martyn, having returned to Cambridge during the vacation, 
 
 made the acquaintance, and soon the true heart's-friendship, 
 of one who was ordained to exercise a remarkable influence 
 over all the future current of his life. Among the fellows of 
 King's College was one, whose inestimable privilege it was, 
 during a long course of years, not only to set his mark upon 
 the religious mind of the University, but to make his presence 
 felt in the remotest regions of the earth. It has been said 
 by one, with the highest authority to be heard upon such a 
 subject,! " If the section of the Church of England which 
 usually bears that title (' Evangelical') be properly so dis- 
 tinguished, there can be no impropriety hi designating as her 
 four Evangelists, John Newton, Thomas Scott, Joseph Milner, 
 and Henry Venn." But it may be doubted whether the 
 Evangelical influence of Charles Simeon was not more widely 
 diffused than that of any one of these good men ; whether 
 there was in his generation one who did so much for the re- 
 ligion which he professed and taught and illustrated by his 
 great example. The warmth and earnestness of Mr. Simeon's 
 preaching had made a great impression on Henry Martyn' s 
 mind ; and when the time came, he rejoiced with an exceeding 
 great joy to be admitted to Mr. Simeon's college rooms, and 
 there to enjoy the unspeakable benefits of his conversation and 
 advice. 
 
 Then there grew up between them a warmth of affection 
 never chilled to the last day of their lives. Mr. Simeon de- 
 lighted in the " wonderful genius" of his young friend, and 
 took the tenderest interest in the growth of his religious con- 
 
 * Robert (afterwards Sir Robert) weresonsof that "old Charles Grant," of 
 
 Grant, Governor of Bombay, was third whom frequent mention is made in these 
 
 Wrangler, and Charles Grant, after- volumes, 
 
 wards Lord Glenelg, was fourth. They f Sir James Stephen.
 
 FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S. 329 
 
 victions. To what grand ministerial purposes might not his 18021803. 
 fine mind and the earnestness of his nature be turned under 
 good guidance ! Henry Martyn had determined to devote Preparing 
 himself to the ministry, and Mr. Simeon was eager to have fo f * h , e 
 him as a fellow-labourer with him in his own church. Dili- 
 gently, conscientiously, with a high sense of the responsibility 
 of the holy office, and a profound conviction of his own un- 
 worthiness, he prepared himself throughout the year 1802 
 and the early part of 1803 for holy orders. At this time he 
 was a fellow of St. John's, and he took pupils ; but the em- 
 ployment did not much please him, and it may be doubted 
 whether, notwithstanding his eminent abilities, he was well 
 qualified for the work of tuition. What his state of mind 
 was at this time may be gathered from his letters and 
 journals which have been given to the world : " Feb. 2, 1803. 
 In a poor and lukewarm state this morning. Resolved to 
 send away two of my pupils, as I found so much of my time 
 taken up by them of late, instead of being devoted to reading 
 the Scriptures." "Feb. 4. But talk upon what I will, or 
 with whom I will, ^conversation leaves mo ruffled and dis- 
 composed. From what doesHiis~arise ? From a want of the 
 sense of God's presence when I am with others." A few 
 days later he records that he is, " through mere habit, dis- 
 posed to a cynic flippancy. Not quite pleased with the 
 respect and attention shown me by my friends." Then, some 
 ten days afterwards, he says : " Found myself sarcastic 
 though without any particular sensation of pride and bitter- 
 ness in my heart ;" and a little later : " Much harassed with 
 evil tempers, levity, and distraction of mind." Throughout 
 the greater part of March he was " in general dejected." 
 
 He would probably have been much worse at this time, 
 both in spirits and in temper, but for the good and kindly in- 
 fluence of Mr. Simeon, who, though not free from a certain 
 constitutional irritability, was a man by no means of a morose 
 or gloomy nature. He was wont to look rather on the bright 
 side of things, whilst Martyn looked ever at the darkest. On 
 the 2nd of April, the latter dined with Mr. Simeon. Mr. 
 Atkinson of Leeds was there. After this record, we find in 
 Martyn's journal the significant words : " The tender pity of 
 our Lord towards Jerusalem, even when he mentioned so
 
 330 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1803. many causes of indignation, was pressed to my mind strongly 
 as an example." It is curious to observe how at this time a 
 contempt for man and a fear of man held possession of him at 
 the same time. On the 22nd of April, he records : "Was 
 
 ashamed to confess to that I was to be Mr. Simeon's 
 
 curate a despicable fear of man, from which I vainly thought 
 myself free." And again, on the 9th of May : " On Saturday 
 felt great fear of man, and yet was determined to let slip no 
 proper occasion of speaking out." Then he sets down that he 
 
 was " quite fatigued with being so long with ." A friend 
 
 wisely suggested that this might arise rather from feelings 
 than from principle ; on which Martyn remarks, " And this 
 witness is true, for though I could perceive them to be in the 
 gall of bitterness, I felt little of pity"." In the month of June, 
 we have these characteristic entries : " Read Sir Gr. Staunton's 
 4 Embassy to China.' I have still the spirit of worldly men 
 when I read worldly books. I felt more curiosity about the 
 manners of this people than love and pity towards their souls." 
 " Was seized with excessive hilarity in company with H. in 
 the afternoon, which rendered me unfit for serious conversa- 
 tion. This is frequently the case, especially after severe study 
 either of a temporal or spiritual kind. It was merely animal, 
 for I would gladly exchange it for sympathy." " D. has heard 
 about a religious young man of seventeen, who wants to come 
 to College, but has only 20Z. a year. He is very clever, and 
 from the perusal of some poems which he has published, I am 
 much interested about him. His name is H. K. White." 
 In July and September there are these entries : " Felt the 
 passion of envy rankle in my bosom on a certain occasion." 
 Sept. 22. " Two men from Clare Hall breakfasted with me. 
 A fear of man, which prevented me from saying grace before 
 breakfast, brought me into inexpressible confusion of con- 
 science. Recovered a little by saying it after." " In a 
 gloomy temper, from being vainly concerned about the ap- 
 pearance of my body." " Hezekiah's sin was vanity. How 
 many times have I fallen into this sin !" 
 
 It may be gathered from these passages, which might be 
 multiplied tenfold, that at that time Henry Martyn was in no 
 sense in a happy state of mind. Irritable, vain, censorious, 
 exacting, intolerant, aggressive, he was so eager to do his
 
 MORBID TENDENCIES. 331 
 
 duty to God, that he often forgot his duty to his neighbour. 1803. 
 He forgot that without doing the last he could not thoroughly 
 do the first. " For he who loveth not his brother, whom 
 he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not 
 seen?" If he is to be fairly judged by his journals, he 
 was much wanting in human love in charity, in kindness, 
 and in courtesy. His indignation, rather than his com- 
 passion, was stirred by what he regarded as the depravity 
 around him. In this respect he much differed from his 
 master. He had learnt much from the teachings of Mr. 
 Simeon ; it would have been well if he had learnt as much 
 from his example.' The grand old Fellow of King's was not 
 at all above little things, or scornful of little people. He was 
 one who believed that 
 
 " The dignity of life is not impaired 
 By aught that innocently satisfies 
 The humbler cravings of the heart ; and he 
 Is a still happier man who for the heights 
 Of speculation not unfit, descends, 
 And such benign affections cultivates 
 Among the inferior kinds." 
 
 But Henry Martyn did not cultivate benign affections among 
 the inferior kinds, or if he did, his biographers have been 
 careful to veil this side of his humanity ignorant, perhaps, 
 that its weakness may, rightly regarded, be its strength. 
 
 It must not, however, be forgotten that Henry Martyn at 
 no time possessed the mens sana in corpore sano. Much that 
 appears to be unlovely in his character must be attributed to 
 constitutional infirmity. Want of cheerfulness in him was 
 want <if houlrh. Melancholy is only a Greek rendering of 
 black bile ; and our English word choler has the same bilious 
 origin. I have a letter now before me, to be quoted more 
 fully hereafter, in which Martyn speaks of the dangerous 
 " prevalence of bile in his constitution." It was this that 
 jaundiced all the aspects of human life, and at one time stirred 
 up within him such ungovernable fits of passion. But it was 
 his glory to wrestle manfully against these infirmities. The 
 picture of the conflict is before the world and what a strange 
 picture it is ! I do not know another instance of a man at 
 once so self-asserting and so self-denying. There was a sort 
 of sacrificial egotism in his nature, which had more of the
 
 332 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1803. sublime than the beautiful about it. He was continually 
 watching himself, as though he were eager to catch himself 
 tripping ; he was continually in an attitude of offence against 
 himself even more than against others. Within were conflicts : 
 without were strifes. He trode down with a remorseless heel 
 all the flowers of this world, lest by cherishing them he 
 should unfit himself for the world to come. The reader of 
 his journals, believing that they fairly represent all the vary- 
 ing moods of his mind, may lament that the sunshine so 
 seldom entered that godly shrine. He desired, above all 
 things, to be of the number of the elect. Yet he did not 
 take to his heart those good words : " Put on, therefore, 
 as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, 
 kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering ; for- 
 bearing one another and forgiving one another, if any man 
 have a quarrel against any ; even as Christ forgave you, so 
 also do ye : and above all these things, put on Charity, which 
 is the bond of perfectness ; and let the peace of God rule in 
 your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and 
 be ye thankful." 
 
 Ordination. On the 23rd of October, 1803, Henry Martyn was ordained 
 
 a deacon of the Church of England. It had been arranged 
 that he should assist Mr. Simeon in the duties both of the 
 church of the Holy Trinity and in the neighbouring parish of 
 Lulworth ; and he entered upon these duties with a solemn 
 sense of the responsibilities he had undertaken, and a steadfast 
 determination to do his work in the true spirit of the apostles, 
 without a fear of the reproach or the ridicule of man. We 
 must go back half a century or more in imagination to ap- 
 preciate the force of these last words. At the present time, 
 they have little special significance. But in 1803, the Uni- 
 versity was but just beginning to tolerate the evangelical 
 earnestness of Mr. Simeon. Only a few years before he 
 had been hooted and howled at, and his ministrations had 
 been interrupted by outrages of the most violent and indecent 
 character. It demanded some courage in a young man to 
 stand forth as Mr. Simeon's associate; and Martyn at one 
 time had been assailed by doubts and anxieties very distress- 
 ing to his carnal nature. But he fought them down man- 
 fully, and he soon began to take a lively pleasure in his
 
 THE MINISTRY. 333 
 
 ministerial work. He had not, however, devoted himself 18031804. 
 
 lone; to the parochial duties of the ministry, when thoughts Missionary 
 
 of a far different career began to take shape in his mind. He 
 
 had some time before dimly discerned in the distance a 
 
 hand beckoning to him to enter upon the glorious fields of 
 
 missionary adventure. The perusal of the Life of David 
 
 Brainerd had excited within him a desire to go forth and do 
 
 likewise. This desire was subsequently strengthened by a 
 
 sermon, in which Mr. Simeon had earnestly discoursed upon 
 
 the immensity of good that might be done by a single labourer 
 
 in the vineyard the illustration being derived from the career 
 
 which the Baptist apostle, Dr. Carey, had commenced in 
 
 Bengal. This story fired the enthusiasm of Henry Martyn. 
 
 Ever intent upon the thought of some heroic abnegation of 
 
 self, he sprang up open-armed to embrace this grand idea of 
 
 a missionary sacrifice. But at this time a misfortune befel 
 
 him which caused him to consider whether it were not his 
 
 duty to repress these inclinations and to remain in England. 
 
 The little property amassed by the industry and intelligence , 
 
 of his father was lost to his family, and his sisters, therefore, r 
 
 became dependent on his exertions. To become a missionary 
 
 was to become a pauper, and to lose the means of assisting 
 
 others ; so Henry Martyn began to think that it might not 
 
 be his duty to go forth to preach the Gospel to the heathen. 
 
 But from these doubts and anxieties there came deliverance The Indian 
 from an unexpected quarter. Among the many good men c ap amcj " 
 with whom Mr. Simeon was in affectionate correspondence 
 were William Wilberforce and Charles Grant. Both were 1 
 members of the House of Commons ; and the latter was a 
 member also of the Court of Directors of the East India 
 Company. They were men of influence but of influence 
 derived only in part from their position ; for they were men, 
 also, of large intelligence, unwearying industry, and of an 
 earnest, many-sided humanity that never rested for a moment. 
 There could be no pleasanter history to write than that which 
 should describe all the great schemes by which they sought 
 to benefit the human race, and for the promotion of which, 
 with Messrs. Babington, Stephen, Henry Thornton, and 
 sometimes Lord Teignmouth and Mr. Venn, they held a little I 
 parliament of their own, always carrying out its enactments I
 
 334 
 
 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1804. 
 
 with remarkable promptitude and vigour. To emancipate 
 the enslaved of every kind and degree, whether from the 
 material shackles of the slave-dealer or from the bondage of 
 ignorance and superstition, was the main object of their 
 endeavours. In the conversion of the natives of India to 
 Christianity, Mr. Grant, from the nature of his own personal 
 experiences and associations, had an especial interest. Those 
 were times when there were great impediments in the way 
 of direct missionary action in the Company's territories in 
 India; but the Company required chaplains to minister to 
 their servants ; and it was thought that if the English clergy- 
 men, who were sent out from time to time in this capacity, 
 were wisely chosen, much good directly and indirectly might 
 be done by them for the promotion of Christ's kingdom upon 
 earth. Upon this subject, Mr. Simeon and Mr. Grant were 
 continually in correspondence ; for whilst the latter had the 
 power of providing chaplaincies, the former had the means 
 of supplying, from among the more promising young men of 
 the University, the right persons to fill them. And among 
 these young men who so fit as Henry Martyn ? It was soon 
 settled, therefore, that the first Indian chaplaincy at the dis- 
 posal of Mr. Grant should be bestowed upon Mr. Simeon's 
 curate. So Henry Martyn went up to town ; visited Charles 
 Grant at the India House ; was invited by his benefactor to 
 Clapham ; and taken by him to dine with Mr. Wilberforce. 
 They saw at once that the true spirit of the Apostle was ani- 
 mating the delicate frame of the young minister, and they 
 had great hope of the good to be done by his ministrations.* 
 
 * This was on the 26th of January, 
 1804. Mr. MartATi has thus recorded 
 the meeting : " Walked to the India 
 House to Mr. Grant, who desired I 
 would come down to Clapham. So I 
 went with Mr. Grant, and on the road 
 he gave me much information on the 
 state of India. . -. . We arrived at Mr. 
 Wilberforce's to dinner ; in the evening 
 we conversed about my business. To 
 Mr. Wilberforce I went into a detail of 
 my views and the reasons that had 
 operated on my mind. The conversa- 
 tion of Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. Grant, 
 during the rest of the day, was edify- 
 ing what I should think right for two 
 godly senators planning some means of 
 
 bringing before Parliament propositions 
 for bettering the moral state of the 
 colony of Botany Bay." It was pro- 
 bably this visit that supplied the ori- 
 ginal of Sir James Stephen's picture of 
 Charles Grant " traversing the gorse- 
 covered common attended by a youth, 
 who, but for the fire of his eye and the 
 occasional energy of hi.s bearing, might 
 have passed for some studious and sickly 
 competitor for medals and prize poems." 
 I cannot find, in Martyn's journals, any 
 other trace of his appearance at Clap- 
 ham. His visits to Mr. Grant were 
 generally paid at his residence in Bed- 
 ford-square.
 
 LYDIA GRENFELL. 335 
 
 In the long vacation of 1804, Martyn was again in inter- 1804. 
 course with those " godly senators." On the 9th of July he 
 called on Mr. Grant, who told him that " he had no doubt 
 that there would be a chaplainship vacant before the end of 
 next spring season," and on the following day he made this 
 characteristic entry in his journal : " July 10, 1804. Dined 
 with Mr. Wilberforce at Palace-yard. It was very agreeable, 
 as there was no one else. Speaking of the slave-trade, I 
 mentioned the words, ' Shall I not visit for these things ?' and 
 found my heart so affected that I could with difficulty refrain 
 from tears. Went with Mr. W. to the House of Commons, 
 where I was surprised and charmed with Mr. Pitt's eloquence. 
 1 Ah,' thought I, l if these powers of oratory were now em- 
 ployed in recommending the Gospel ! but as it is, he talks 
 with great seriousness and energy about that which is of no 
 consequence at all.' ' It is not stated that Martyn ever ex- 
 pressed this opinion to Mr. Wilberforce, but I can very well 
 imagine the answer that, in such a case, would have been given 
 by the man, of whom it has been said that " the fusion in 
 him of religious and worldly thoughts enhanced the spirit with 
 which he performed every duty, and the zest with which he 
 welcomed every enjoyment."* 
 
 On the following day, Mr. Martyn started on a long coach- Farewell visit 
 journey to Cornwall, where he purposed to take leave of all 
 his beloved friends in the west of England. These were not 
 all members of his family. There was one whom he loved 
 with a deeper affection even than that which he bestowed upon 
 his sisters. Near St. Michael's Mount, under the roof of her 
 widowed mother, lived Miss Lydia Grenfell, a young lady 
 whose charms were not wholly confined to the personal piety 
 for which she was so conspicuous. At what period Henry 
 Martyn first imbibed the delicious poison I do not know ; but 
 it was tingling in all his veins at the time when he paid this 
 farewell visit to Cornwall. What were the tenderness of his 
 feelings and the strength of his devotion towards one whom 
 he hoped might some day be the partner of his life, may 
 be gathered from these entries in his journal : " July 29 
 (Sunday). At St. Hilary church, in the morning, my 
 thoughts wandered from the service, and I suffered the 
 
 * Sir James Stephen's " Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography."
 
 336 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1804. keenest disappointment. Miss Lydia Grenfell did not come. 
 Yet, in great pain, I blessed God for having kept her away, 
 as she might have been a snare to me. These things would 
 be almost incredible to another, and almost to myself, were I 
 not taught by daily experience that, whatever the world may 
 say, or I may think of myself, I am a poor, wretched, con- 
 temptible worm. Called after tea on Miss Lydia Grenfell, 
 and walked with her, and * * conversing on spiritual subjects. 
 All the rest of the evening and night I could not keep her out 
 of my mind. I felt too plainly that I loved her passionately. 
 The direct opposition of this to my devotedness to God, in the 
 
 missionary way, excited no small tumult in my mind 
 
 At night I continued an hour and a half in prayer, striving 
 against this attachment." On the following day he recorded 
 that he rose in great peace, as God, by secret influence, 
 seemed to have caused the tempest of self-will to subside ; 
 but at night, he said, he found himself to have backslidden a 
 long way from the life of godliness, and to have declined 
 very much since his coming to Cornwall, especially since he 
 went to St. Hilary. It does not appear that he saw Miss 
 Grenfell again until the end of the following month, when he 
 wrote in his journal (August 27) : " Walked to Marazioii, 
 with my heart more delivered from its idolatry, and enabled 
 to look steadily and peacefully to God. Reading in the 
 afternoon to Lydia alone from Dr. Watts, there happened to 
 be among other things a prayer on entire preference of God 
 to the creature. Now, thought I, here am I in the presence 
 of God and my idol. So I used the prayer for myself and 
 addressed to God, who answered it, I think, for my love was 
 kindled to God and divine things, and I felt cheerfully re- 
 signed to the will of God to forego the earthly joy, which I 
 had just been desiring with my whole heart in heaven, but 
 every now and then resting on her. Parted with Lydia, 
 perhaps for ever in this life. Walked to St. Hilary, deter- 
 mining in great tumult and inward pain to be the servant of 
 the Lord." But, wrestle as he might against himself, he 
 could not tear out that fair image from his heart. On the 
 following day he wrote in. his journal : " Took leave of St. 
 Hilary ; walked on, dwelling at large on the excellence of 
 Lydia. A few faint struggles to forget her and delight in 

 
 THE INDIAN CHAPLAINCY. 337 
 
 God, but they were ineffectual." And again, next day : " My 1804. 
 mind taken up with Lydia. But once reasoning in this way, 
 if God made me and wills my happiness, as I do not doubt, 
 then he is providing for my good by separating from her."* 
 
 With the vital question yet unspoken Martyn returned 
 to Cambridge, his " thoughts almost wholly occupied with 
 Lydia, though not in spirit of departure from God." At the 
 University, he reverted to his duties, both as a minister and 
 a tutor, with little zest. He was expecting a summons to 
 London to take up the Indian chaplaincy, and he was eager 
 for any change. The " dreary scene of college" appeared to 
 him " a wilderness after the company of his dear friends in 
 Cornwall." But month after month passed away, and still 
 the summons did not come. He was endeavouring, all this 
 time, to prepare himself for Indian work by reading missionary 
 publications and mastering the rudiments of the Hindostanee 
 and Bengalee languages. His tuition-work was extremely 
 distasteful to him ; and with that strange, morbid obliquity 
 of vision which prevented him ever from taking in the com- 
 pleteness of the Christian life at a glance, he declared that 
 the perusal of the classical authors, " in order to examine a 
 pupil," was a snare to him. His impatience and quickness 
 of temper with his pupils were really errors to be grieved 
 over ; and they are probably not exaggerated in his journal. 
 
 At the beginning of the new year, Henry Martyn went up 1805. 
 to London and saw Mr. Grant, who told him that he was 
 certainly destined for India, though he had not yet been 
 appointed to a chaplaincy. " Thus it pleases God," he wrote, 
 11 to keep me in a certain degree unfixed, and it is but that his 
 own wise purposes should be fulfilled in their time. I find 
 these apparent delays very beneficial to me, as I perceive that 
 God w r orks in providence, as in nature, very slowly, which is 
 a check to human rashness." On the 12th of January he 
 left London in very low spirits, " partly from illness and partly 
 from the depression of his thoughts." On the 15th he wrote 
 in his journal : " I sat an hour w r ith Mr. Simeon, who much 
 reprobated the idea of my being settled at or near Calcutta, as 
 Mr. Brown or Buchanan would want me to take their places 
 
 
 * Wilberforce's Letters and Journals of Henry Martyn. 
 VOL. I. Z
 
 338 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1806, in the College, and I should be more than half a secular man. 
 He said he wished me to be properly a missionary, one who 
 should be quite dead to this world and living for another." 
 This passage seems to require some explanation. Mr. Simeon 
 was not only a very pious man, and very conscientious in all 
 the affairs of life, but also a very sensible one. He must have 
 known that his young friend and assistant was expecting to 
 be sent to India by the East India Company as a chaplain 
 upon their establishment, and I cannot help thinking that if 
 he counselled Henry Martyn to withdraw altogether from 
 secular engagements, and to give himself up wholly to mis- 
 sionary work, he must have counselled him at the same time 
 to give up the Indian chaplaincy. 
 
 In the first week of March, Henry Martyn visited London 
 again, but the chaplaincy was not yet ready for him. Having 
 completed his twenty-fourth year, he was ' ordained priest at 
 St. James's chapel. During this visit to the metropolis he 
 took some lessons in Hindostanee from Mr. Gilchrist, who 
 gave him some very sensible advice, which he has thus re- 
 corded in his journal: "March 21. On my mentioning to 
 Gilchrist my desire of translating some of the Scriptures 
 with him, he advised me by all means to desist till I knew 
 much more of the language by having resided some years in 
 the country. He said it was the rock on which missionaries 
 had split, that they had attempted to write and preach before 
 they knew the language. The Lord's Prayer, he said, was 
 now a common subject of ridicule with the people on account 
 of the manner in which it had been translated. All these are 
 useful hints to me." Early in the following month he re- 
 turned to Cambridge, but he was soon again in London, 
 where, on the 24th of April, he " found from Mr. Grant that 
 he was on that day appointed a chaplain to the East India 
 Company, but his particular destination would depend on the 
 Government of India.'" 
 
 In London he made the acquaintance of those eminent 
 
 * It appears that there had been, at days ago from Major Sandys, he men- 
 one time, some intention of sending him tions something about my going out 
 out to Bengal, in attendance ort Lord with Marquis Cornwallis ; but as he 
 Cornwallis. In an unpublished letter gives no reason at all for expecting 
 before me, he writes to Mr. Grant, such a thing, I suppose it is not worth 
 saying: " In a letter I received a few my thinking aboiit a moment."
 
 . QUESTION OF MARRIAGE. 339 
 
 Christians Mr. Cecil and Mr. Newton, and he had sometimes 1805. 
 the privilege of occupying the pulpit of the former in the 
 well-known chapel in John-street, Bedford-row, the ministry 
 of which at a later period was so long held by Mr. Baptist 
 Noel.* During this residence in the metropolis, the emotional 
 parts of his nature appear to have been in a state of con- 
 tinual activity. He was one day elevated, another depressed. 
 Any trifling circumstance caused him to burst into sudden 
 tears. He was moved by a divine compassion for the souls 
 of men, to go forth to preach the Gospel in a heathen land ; 
 but there was something ever tugging at his heart-strings, 
 and imploring him to remain at home. " Shed tears to- 
 night," he wrote in his journal, " at the thought of my de- 
 parture. I thought of the roaming seas which would soon be 
 rolling between me and all that is dear to me on earth." The 
 conflict in his mind was rendered, all the more severe by the 
 antagonistic opinions of his friends. On the 3rd of June he 
 wrote in his journal : " Mr. Cecil said that I should be acting 
 like a madman if I went out unmarried. A wife would supply 
 by her comfort and counsel the entire want of society, and 
 also be a preservation both to character and passions in such 
 scenes. . . . If this opinion of so many pious clergymen had 
 come across me when I was in Cornwall, and so strongly 
 attached to my beloved Lydia, it would have been a conflict 
 indeed in my heart to oppose so many arguments. I am not 
 seeking an excuse for marriage . t . but I feel my affections 
 kindling to their wonted fondness while I dwell on the cir- 
 cumstances of an union with Lydia." But only a few days 
 afterwards another friend offered to him a totally different 
 opinion. " Something fell from Dr. F.," he recorded in his 
 journal on the 7th of June, " against my marriage, which 
 struck me so forcibly, though there was nothing particular in 
 it, that I began to see I should finally give up all thoughts of it. 
 But how great the conflict ! I could not have believed it had 
 such hold on my affections. . . . Before this I had been 
 writing in tolerable tranquillity, and walked out in the en- 
 joyment of a resigned mind, even rejoicing for the most part 
 
 * Cecil was by no means pleased with said he, "it is cupola-painting, not 
 Martyn's style of preaching, which he miniature, that must be the aim of * 
 considered insipid and inanimate. " Sir," man that harangues a multitude."
 
 340 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1805. in God, and dined at Mr. Cecil's, where the arguments I 
 heard were all in favour of the flesh, and so I was pleased ; 
 but Dr. F.'s words gave a new turn to my thoughts, and the 
 tumult showed me the true state of my heart. How miserable 
 did life appear without the hope of Lydia ! Oh, how has the 
 discussion of the subject opened all my wounds afresh !"" 
 Embarkation Three weeks after this he started for Portsmouth, there to 
 for India. j om ^he ve ssel, the Union, which was to convey him to his 
 new field of labour. It was a two days' journey for him ; 
 and it is recorded that at the inn at which he spent the inter- 
 mediate night, he had a fit of convulsions which greatly 
 alarmed the friends who accompanied him. He continued 
 his journey in a very depressed state, from which he was 
 somewhat roused by finding at Portsmouth Mr. Simeon and 
 other friends, who had come to bid him fare well, f On the 
 17th, the fleet sailed from Portsmouth. " Though it was 
 what I had actually been looking forward to so long," wrote 
 Henry Martyn to Mr. Simeon, "yet the consideration of 
 being parted for ever from my friends almost overcame me ; 
 my feelings were those of a man who should be suddenly told 
 that every friend he had in the world was dead. It was only 
 by prayers for them that I could be comforted ; and this was 
 indeed a refreshment to my soul, because by meeting them 
 at the Throne of Grace I seemed to be again in their society." 
 It happened that the fleet anchored off Falmouth. The 
 " singularity of the providence of God" thus " led him once 
 more into the bosom of his friends." He thought he had 
 seen the last of all whom he most loved ; but now an unfore- 
 seen circumstance enabled him again to renew his intercourse 
 with the one whom he loved most of all. The temptation 
 thus presented to him was not to be resisted. So he landed 
 at Falmouth, made his way to Marazion, and passed some 
 days of mingled pleasure and pain in the dear companionship 
 of his beloved. His suit does not seem to have prospered. 
 She had a lingering affection for another man, who appears 
 to have deserted her ; and the result of her last meeting with 
 Henry Martyn was, that they parted without a betrothal. 
 
 * Journals and Letters, Wilberforce. mouth. He has given an interesting 
 f Mr. Sargent his biographer was account of the parting, 
 one of the party assembled at Ports-
 
 FAREWELL TO ENGLAND. 
 
 341 
 
 But lie fully laid bare his heart, and did not meet with such 
 an absolute rejection as forbade him to hope that some day 
 the much-coveted possession might be his. The answer which 
 the young lady gave rather evaded than met the question. It 
 was settled that Henry Marty n should go out to India un- 
 married how, indeed, could it be otherwise ? and that their 
 union at some indefinite period should be left to the Almighty 
 Providence to frustrate or to decree.* 
 
 In thus going on shore, Henry Martyn did as other young 
 men \vould have done in like circumstances, and often with 
 less excuse. Of course, there were the usual results. He 
 very nearjyjost his passage, and ho was in dreadfully bad 
 spirits whenhe returned to the ship. He soon, however, 
 began to rally, and to recover his serenity. Off the Irish 
 coast, he wrote to Mr. Grant, saying : "I cannot leave 
 Europe without assuring you that I bid adieu to it with 
 cheerfulness and joy. The prevalence of bile in my con- 
 stitution, which I feel particularly oppressive in this month, 
 
 1805. 
 
 * The entries in his journal run 
 thus: "July 22. After much deli- 
 beration I determined to go to Marazion 
 on the morrow. Went to bed with 
 much thought about the step I was 
 going to take, and prayed that if it was 
 not the will of God it might be pre- 
 vented. I arrived in time for break- 
 fast, and met my beloved Lydia. In 
 the course of the morning I walked with 
 her, though not uninterruptedly. With 
 much confusion I declared my affection 
 for her, with the intention of learning 
 whether, if I ever saw it right in India 
 to be married, she would come out ; but 
 she would not declare her sentiments. 
 She said that the shortness of the ar- 
 rangement was an obstacle, even if all 
 others were removed." " 29th. The 
 consequence of my Marazion journey is 
 that I am enveloped in gloom ; but past 
 experience assures me it will be re- 
 moved Another consequence of 
 
 my journey is that I love Lydia more 
 than ever." ."31st. Went on board 
 this morning in extreme anguish. I 
 could not help saying, ' Lord, it is not a 
 sinful attachment in itself, and there- 
 fore I may commune more freely with 
 thee about it.' .... Left England as 
 I supposed for the last time." The fleet, 
 however, was detained, and Martyn 
 went on shore again ; but he had not 
 
 been long at Marazion when tidings 
 suddenly reached him that the ship was 
 about to sail. "August 10. Appre- 
 hensions about the sailing of the fleet 
 made me dreadfully uneasy ; was with 
 Lydia a short time before breakfast; 
 afterwards I read the 10th Psalm, with 
 Home's Commentary, to her and to her 
 mother ; she was then just putting into 
 my hand the 10th of Genesis to read, 
 when a servant came in and said a horse 
 was come for me from St. Hilary, where 
 a carriage was waiting to convey me to 
 
 Falmouth Lydia was evidently 
 
 painfully affected by it. She came out, 
 that we might be alone at taking leave, 
 and I then told her that if it should 
 appear to be God's will that I should be 
 married, she must not be offended at 
 receiving a letter from me. In the 
 great hurry, she discovered more of my 
 mind than she intended ; she made no 
 objection whatever to coming out. 
 Thinking, perhaps, I wished to make an 
 engagement with her, she said that we 
 had better go quite free. With this I 
 left her, not knowing yet for what 
 purpose I have been permitted, by an 
 unexpected providence, to enjoy these 
 interviews." Journals and Letters. 
 Edited by Wilberforce. Mr. Sargent's 
 biography is altogether cloudy upon 
 these points.
 
 342 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1805. is the only thing that damps my expectations. According 
 to some persons in the ship, the climate in the course of 
 a few years will render me incapable of active exertion. 
 My anxiety does not arise from the fear of an early grave, 
 for many good ends might be answered by such an event, 
 but from a dread lest my present excessive languor should 
 become listlessness and indolence in India. With the appre- 
 hension of these things in my mind, I would humbly and 
 earnestly request your prayers for me, and beg that you 
 would occasionally send me such plain admonitions on the 
 subject, that I may be in no danger of being deceived by the 
 bad example of others, or the fancied debility of my own 
 frame. My situation on board is as agreeable as it can be in 
 a ship. I see little reason to prefer my college room to my 
 cabin, except that the former stands still. My sickness, 
 
 however, has upon the whole been of service to me The 
 
 whole fleet is now under weigh. I therefore bid you adieu. 
 May God bless you, my dear sir, and all your family. This 
 is the sincere wish and earnest prayer of one who honours 
 and loves you in the Lord." 
 
 Another extract from this letter, which was finished on the 
 31st of August, is equally illustrative of Martyn's character, 
 and of the difficulties with which he had to contend : " Since 
 writing the above, a few days ago, the commodore has hauled 
 down his blue Peter, and it is now said that we are to be 
 detained until something certain shall be known about the 
 invasion and the combined fleets. The passengers are very 
 dissatisfied, and the captains much more so. It would be 
 proper to make Captain Muter some compensation, on my 
 arrival in India, for the expense occasioned to him by this 
 delay. He continues the same man on board as on shore. He 
 is not, however, a truly religious man. It would be very easy 
 for him to have service more than once on the Sunday, if he 
 had a love for the truth. However, the want of more frequent 
 opportunities of public instruction is supplied by my having 
 free access to the soldiers and sailors. The regimental sub- 
 alterns dislike my talking to the soldiers and giving them 
 books, and would prevent it if they could ; but the command- 
 ing officer begs me to continue my labours among them. So 
 I go on reading and explaining the ' Pilgrim's Progress '
 
 THE VOYAGE OUT. 43 
 
 every day to them on the orlop-deck. Those officers who 1805. 
 oppose the truth never speak to me on the subject, but reserve 
 their whole fire for Mackenzie, who, I rejoice to say, is always 
 the advocate of serious piety, and is more than a match for 
 them all. I was lately on board the Anne, to see Mr. Thomas. 
 He complained much of his situation, and expressed a deter- 
 mination of leaving the ship if possible. The captain will 
 never allow him to say grace at table, nor even to have service 
 on Sunday, if he can find the least excuse. A few Sundays 
 ago there was no service because the ship was painting. From 
 the tyrannical behaviour of the officers and men, Mr. Thomas 
 had no doubt there would be a mutiny, which has accordingly 
 happened. The mutineers, whose plan it was to murder the 
 officers, were on their trial when I was aboard the last time. 
 The boats to and from the shore do not pass near the William 
 Pitt, as she lies near the mouth of the harbour ; and on that 
 account, I am sorry to say, I have not seen Cecil, though I 
 watch for an opportunity every day. There is a Botany Bay 
 ship lying close to us, which I have visited. There are one 
 hundred and twenty women, and one clergyman, a convict 
 whom I could not see. My indignation was roused at what I 
 saw upon deck between the sailors and the women, and I 
 warned them of the consequence of their wickedness. The 
 men defended their conduct very coolly, and from what they 
 said I conclude that every man in the ship has his mistress. 
 The captain is, I find, a man of bad character. He has 
 promised, however, to dispense some Testaments among 
 them."* 
 
 The voyage to India tried the courage of Henry Martyn. The voyage to 
 He was on board a troop-ship ; and the troop-ship was what India- 
 troop-ships commonly were sixty years ago. To preach 
 Christ crucified to such a congregation was to bring down 
 much hatied and contempt upon himself to endure hardness 
 of every kind. He found it up-hill work ; but he toiled 
 upwards manfully, never turning or looking back. There 
 could scarcely have been a better apprenticeship to the busi- 
 ness of that most unpopular evangelical ministry to which he 
 was speeding across the ocean ; and, though probably at no 
 period of his life were his sufferings, bodily and mental, 
 * Unpublished correspondence.
 
 344 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 18051806. greater than at this time,* there was a little solace for him in 
 the thought that he was not labouring wholly in vain. He 
 spoke to all classes of his fellow-passengers, freely and earnestly, 
 about the state of their souls and the great scheme of man's 
 redemption. To the officers of the ship and to the officers of 
 the regiment, to the young cadets, to the soldiers and the 
 sailors, he addressed himself as they sat or walked on the 
 deck. The seed often fell on hard, stony ground, but some- 
 times it was permitted to him to hope that it was striking 
 root and fructifying in good soil. The voyage was not a com- 
 mon-place one. Sickness of a bad type broke out on board. 
 The captain died. As they neared the Cape of Good Hope, it 
 became known that the troops would be landed for active ser- 
 vice. The Cape was to be wrested from the Dutch. The 
 Fifty-ninth had scarcely landed before a battle was fought. 
 Martyn was then on board, endeavouring to comfort the ladies. 
 He has himself related how " a most tremendous fire of artil- 
 lery began behind a mountain abreast of the ships. It seemed 
 as if the mountain itself was torn by intestine, convulsions. 
 The smoke arose from a lesser eminence on the right of the 
 hill, and, on the top of it, troops were seen marching down the 
 further declivity. Then came such a long-drawn fire of mus- 
 ketry, that I could not conceive anything like it. We all 
 shuddered at considering what a multitude of souls must be 
 passing into eternity. The poor ladies were in a dreadful con- 
 dition ; every peal seemed to go through their hearts. I have 
 just been endeavouring to do what I could to keep up their 
 spirits. The sound is now retiring, and the enemy are seen 
 retreating along the low ground on the right towards the 
 town."f A few hours afterwards he went on shore, to see 
 
 * He suffered greatly from sea-sick- whether it would be right, in the pre- 
 
 ness, which was probably rendered more sent weak state of my body, to omit the 
 
 than ordinarily painful and exhausting meal of dinner." 
 
 by frequent fasts. His board-ship f This was on the 8th* of January, 
 
 journals contain such entries as the fol- 1806, when the Cape fell to Baird and 
 
 lowing : " The flesh seemed very un- Popham. A detailed account of this 
 
 willing to submit to such self-denial, important event will be found in Theo- 
 
 especially as the bodily frame, from dore Hook's " Life of Sir David Baird." 
 
 weakness, seems scarcely able to support In Mr. Sargent's Memoirs, the very in- 
 
 it; however, I can but try. In my teresting letter describing Martyn's visit 
 
 walk on deck my flesh seemed again to to the field of battle is dated Table Bay, 
 
 shrink very much from fasting and January 7 ; but this would seem to be 
 
 prayer." " Had some thoughts of de- a clerical or typographical error for 
 
 voting this day to prayer and fasting, January 9. 
 but was undecided as to the latter,
 
 CAPTURE OF THE CAPE. 345 
 
 what could be done among the wounded and the dying. " We 1806. 
 found several," he wrote in a letter to Mr. Simeon, "but 
 slightly hurt ; and these we left for a while, after seeing their 
 wounds dressed by a surgeon. A little onward were three 
 mortally wounded. One of them, on being asked where he 
 was struck, opened his shirt and showed a wound in his left 
 breast. The blood which he was spitting showed that he had 
 been shot through the lungs. As I spread my great-coat over 
 him, by the surgeon's desire I spoke of the blessed Gospel, 
 
 and besought him to look to Jesus Christ for salvation 
 
 Among several others, some wounded and some dead, was 
 Captain S., who had been shot by a rifleman. We all stopped 
 for a while to gaze in pensive silence on his pale body, and then 
 passed on to witness more proofs of the sin and misery of 
 fallen man." Leaving the battle-field, he went with the sur- 
 geon to some Dutch farm-houses in the neighbourhood, which 
 had been converted into temporary hospitals, and where, he 
 said, the wounded presented a more ghastly spectacle than he 
 could have conceived. " They were ranged without and 
 within the houses in rows, covered with gore. Indeed, it was 
 the blood, which they had not had time to wash off, that made 
 their appearance more dreadful than the reality, for few of 
 their wounds were mortal." After this, he again visited, with 
 the surgeon, the field of battle, and saw many of the wounded 
 enemy. Here, the surgeon having left him, he was mistaken 
 by a Highland soldier for a Frenchman, and narrowly escaped 
 being shot. " As I saw that he was rather intoxicated," wrote 
 Martyn, "and did not know but that he might actually fire 
 out of mere wantonness, I sprang up towards him and told 
 him, that if he doubted my word he might take me as a pri- 
 soner to the English camp, but that I certainly was an English 
 clergyman. This pacified him, and he behaved with great re- 
 spect." When evening began to close in, the young minister 
 returned to the shore, intending to regain his ship, but found 
 that she had left her moorings and was under weigh. " The 
 sea ran high," he said, " our men were almost spent, and I 
 was faint with hunger, but, after a long struggle, we reached 
 the Indiaman about midnight." 
 
 Soon after this, the Dutch having capitulated, and peace 
 being restored, Martyn went on shore and took lodgings in
 
 346 THE KEY. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1806. Cape Town. Like most other English visitors, he ascended 
 Table Mountain ; and he " thought of the Christian life, what 
 up-hill work it is." As he was resting on his way down, he 
 began to reflect with death-like despondency on his friendless 
 condition. " Not that I wanted," he said, " any of the com- 
 forts of life, but I wanted those kind friends, who loved me, 
 and in whose company I used to find such delight after my 
 fatigues." He made frequent visits to the hospitals at this 
 time, and generally preached on Sundays. In the second week 
 of February, he rejoined the vessel, which then continued its 
 voyage to India. On the 19th of April, they sighted Ceylon ; 
 and on the following Sunday Martyn preached his farewell 
 sermon on board. Many of his hearers ridiculed and reviled 
 him. " It pained me," he said, " that they should give a ridi- 
 culous turn to anything on so affecting an occasion as that of 
 parting for ever in this life. But such is the unthankful office 
 of a minister. Yet I desire to take the ridicule of men with 
 all meekness and charity, looking forward to another world 
 for approbation and reward." But India was now in sight, 
 and the long and painful voyage was nearly at an end. 
 Early history And here something may be said about the state of the 
 Church iif 18 Company's ecclesiastical establishment in India at the time 
 India, when the Reverend Henry Martyn, military chaplain, entered 
 
 the Bay of Bengal. There were then but few English clergy- 
 men and fewer churches in India. The Protestant faith had 
 done little to assert itself in the East. Not that the Company 
 had been unmindful, even from the first, of their obligations 
 to provide some sort of religious ministrations for their 
 servants, or that the King's Government had failed to make 
 such provision compulsory upon them. The Directors had 
 generally sent out chaplains on board their ships, and an Act 
 of Parliament had been passed decreeing that the Company 
 should "in every garrison and superior factory" constantly 
 maintain one minister, and should "provide or set apart a 
 decent and convenient place for divine service only," and that 
 u all such ministers as shall be sent to reside in India, shall 
 be obliged to learn, within one year after their arrival, the 
 Portuguese language, and shall apply themselves to learn the 
 native language of the country where they shall reside, the 
 better to enable them to instruct the Gentoos that shall be the
 
 THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN INDIA. 347 
 
 servants or slaves of the said Company or of their agents, in 1806. 
 the Protestant religion." But after a while a succession of 
 various obstructive circumstances, such as the rivalry of the 
 two Companies and occasional contentions with the native 
 powers, as well as the conviction that it was not the easiest 
 thing in the world for English clergymen, fresh from home, 
 to instruct the Gentoos in the Protestant religion, caused this 
 Act of Parliament to become little more than a dead letter. 
 The chaplains who went out to India did not remain there 
 very long, or perhaps they found that there was more profit- 
 able employment to be had than that of reading prayers to 
 their countrymen and converting the Gentoos* Much de- 
 pended at that time upon the personal characters of the chief 
 people of the settlements. At one time we read of the Pre- 
 sident, the Council, and the inferior servants of the Company 
 walking to church in orderly procession, and at others of there 
 being an almost total absence of religious observances at all 
 our settlements. It will be presumed that the general thrifty 
 system of the Company with respect to the pay of their 
 servants was not departed from in the case of their chaplains. 
 In the early part of the seventeenth century the pay of a 
 chaplain was WOL a year. 
 
 It was long a standing complaint against the Company, 
 that although they could find money to build forts, they could 
 not find money to build churches. But the charge was 
 scarcely a just one ; for they had not any greater predilection 
 for forts than for -churches, and the former were generally 
 constructed without their consent. When at last India wit- 
 nessed the spectacle of an Anglican church, it was to private 
 Hot to public beneficence that she was indebted for the gift. 
 Towards the end of the seventeenth century, Sir ' George 
 Oxenden had striven hard at Bombay to compass the erection 
 of a church ; but he died before the object was accomplished, 
 and it is stated that one of his successors in the Presidential 
 chair thought the money would be better employed if he 
 applied it to his own uses. So it happened that the first 
 Protestant church was erected, in the year 1681, not at 
 Bombay but at Madras, whither a Company's servant named 
 Streynsham Master, who had served under Oxenden in the 
 former settlement, was sent as chief of the factory. In 1715,
 
 348 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1806. a church was built by subscription in Calcutta. In 1737, the 
 steeple was destroyed in a great hurricane, and in 1756 the 
 entire building was demolished by Surajah Dowlah. The 
 settlers in Bengal were then without a church, until a member 
 of the Danish mission, named Kiernander, whom Lord Olive 
 invited to Calcutta, built what was long afterwards known as 
 the Mission Church. He had married a rich widow, and 
 devoted a portion of the wealth thus acquired to Protestant 
 Christianity. His prosperity, however, was short lived. He 
 fell into trouble. . The church, being private property, was 
 seized for debt, when Charles Grant stepped forward and 
 bought it. In the mean while, however, the first stone of 
 another church had been laid in 1784, when Warren Hastings 
 was Governor- General. It was completed in 1787, and is 
 said to have been " consecrated." This building, which was 
 known as the new church, and afterwards, in early episcopal 
 days, as St. John's Cathedral, was the property of Govern- 
 ment, whilst the old church remained in the hands of trustees. 
 There was not much church-going in the time of Warren 
 Hastings. During the administrations of Lord Cornwallis 
 and Sir John Shore there had been some improvement in this 
 respect, and Lord Wellesley ever recognised the importance 
 of an outward observance of respect for the religion of his 
 country. It was in his eyes a matter of policy, as an antidote 
 to the poison of the French Revolution. Mr. Buchanan, at 
 the beginning of the century, wrote that " it became fashion- 
 able to say that religion was a very proper thing, that no 
 civilised state could subsist without it, and it was reckoned 
 much the same thing to praise the French as to praise in- 
 fidelity." " The awful history of the French Revolution," 
 wrote the Reverend David Brown, from Calcutta, in 1805, 
 " prepared the minds of our countrymen to support the prin- 
 ciples of religion and loyalty which our late Govern or- General 
 (Lord Wellesley) considered it his most sacred duty to uphold ; 
 he resolved, to use his own words, to make it be seen that the 
 Christian religion was the religion of the State, and, there- 
 fore, at different times, he appeared in his place as chief re- 
 presentative of the British nation, attended to church by all 
 the officers of Government, to give the Christian religion the 
 most marked respect of the Governor of the country." But
 
 EARLY ENGLISH CHAPLAINS. 349 
 
 it was not all statecraft in Lord Wellesley. Mr. Brown 1806. 
 believed that he promoted and encouraged religion on its own 
 account. "We lose in Marquis Wellesley," he wrote in a 
 letter to Mr. Grant, now before me, " the friend of religion 
 and the bulwark of the public morals. I have turned over 
 with him the holy Scriptures, and I shall ever believe that 
 
 ' the tear 
 
 Which dropped upon his Bible was sincere.' 
 
 He has countenanced and encouraged faithful preaching, 
 treated with kindness and favour those devoted men, Carey 
 and his brethren, and has done much in every way for the 
 truth, and nothing against it. Having been Lord Wellesley's 
 almoner for seven years past, I can speak of his diffusive bene- 
 volence I have just presented him with Bishop Home 
 
 on the Psalms, to be his companion on the voyage, believing it 
 to be a work in all respects exactly suited to his Lordship's re- 
 ligious views, genius, and taste."* 
 
 No man had done more to uphold the character of the 
 English Church in India than the writer of this letter ; and, 
 in truth, it needed such support, for it had been little honoured 
 in the persons of its representatives in the Eastern world. The 
 chaplains who had been sent out in the latter part of the 
 eighteenth century were, with a few exceptions, men who, if 
 they c-.id not disgrace their religion by their immorality, de- 
 graded it by the worldliness of their lives. The prevailing 
 taint of cupidity was upon them as upon their brother settlers, 
 and they grew rich like the rest. It is not uncharitable to 
 surmise that men who, after a few years of ecclesiastical ser- 
 vice in India, carried home with them considerable fortunes, 
 did not derive their wealth from the legitimate gains of the 
 ministry. It has been stated, on credible authority, that one 
 chaplain, Mr. Blanshard, after a service of little more than 
 twenty years, carried home a fortune of 50,000/. ; that another, 
 Mr. Johnson, after thirteen years' service, took with him from 
 Calcutta 35,000/. ; and that a third, Mr. Owen, at the end of 
 ten years, had amassed 25,000?. At a later period, they were 
 less successful in money-making, but scarcely more profitable 
 as members of the Church and ministers of the Gospel. " Our 
 
 * Manuscript correspondence.
 
 350 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1806. clergy, with some exceptions," wrote Sir John Shore In 1795, 
 " are not very respectable characters. Their situation, indeed, 
 is arduous, considering the general relaxation of morals, and 
 from which a black coat is no security." At a later period 
 not long before the epoch at which I have arrived in the career 
 of Henry Martyn Mr. Brown concluded a letter to a corre- 
 spondent in England with the words, " I might finish with 
 giving you some account of our wicked chaplains. Out of 
 nine (the full complement), four are grossly immoral cha- 
 racters, and two more have neither religion nor learning. "* 
 Between these men and the two devoted ministers, who main- 
 tained alike by their lives and their doctrines the sanctity of 
 the English Church, there was an indecorous feud, patent to 
 the whole settlement. u The doctrine of the Cross," wrote 
 Mr. Brown, in August, 1805, "has of late years -given offence 
 to many who formerly sat under the same ministry. Mr. 
 Limrick tried for a long time to side with evangelical prin- 
 ciples, but by conforming to the world he lost his good im- 
 pressions, and, encouraged by the virulent declamations de- 
 livered from the pulpit by Dr. Stacy and Mr. Shepherd, came 
 forward at last to oppose publicly the doctrines of Grace. This 
 induced Mr. Buchanan to preach a set of discourses on the 
 Doctrinal Articles of the Church of England, which was 
 attended with good effect, "f But all this increased the bitter- 
 ness of the majority, and, so worsted in their argumentative 
 strife, they endeavoured to get rid at least of one of their 
 opponents by denying his clerical authority, and threatening 
 to prosecute him for the performance of ecclesiastical duties to 
 which he had not been, ordained. Mr. Brown was only a 
 deacon of the English Church, and his enemies affected to 
 believe that he had not received episcopal ordination at all. 
 One of their number, therefore, wrote to him demanding a sight 
 of his "letters of orders," and another told him that " a pro- 
 cess of law was about to be commenced against him, which, 
 in the first instance, would subject him to legal penalties, and 
 ultimately to degradation, and concluded by assuring him that 
 if he would but immediately resign, he was authorised to say 
 that the business would be dropped." Mr. Brown laid the 
 matter at once before Lord Wellesley, who sent, through his 
 
 * Manuscript correspondence. "j" Ibid.
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF HIS INDIAN CAREER. 351 
 
 private secretary, a kind and encouraging letter to the faithful 1806. 
 minister, and commended his determination to treat such 
 threats with contemptuous silence. 
 
 Such was the state of the Company's ecclesiastical esta- Martyn in 
 blishment in Bengal when Henry Martyn arrived at Calcutta. 
 Lord Wellesley had left India ; Lord Cornwallis was dead ; 
 Lord Lauderdale 'was expected; and Sir George Barlow, a 
 Company's civilian of high character, was invested with the 
 powers of the Governor-General. The mutations of the tem- 
 poral Government were not a matter of much concern to Mr. 
 Martyn, any further than that one ruler might be better dis- 
 posed than another to give a permissive sanction to missionary 
 efforts, and to afford an example in his own person of piety 
 and godly living and respect for the ordinances of religion. As 
 for himself, he had gone out to India to be a chaplain on the 
 Company's establishment, for the performance of the duties 
 of which office he was to receive a thousand a year. He had 
 nothing of the missionary about him except the true mis- 
 sionary spirit. He was not his own master; he could not 
 choose the place of his ministrations ; he was under the orders 
 of the Commander-in- Chief ; and was answerable for all his 
 acts to the temporal authorities, as much as if he had been a 
 lieutenant or an assistant-surgeon. There was much, doubt- 1 
 less, in this irksome to a man of his eager and enthusiastic ' 
 nature. The chains must have pressed heavily upon one who 
 had set David Brainerd before him as his great exemplar, 
 and who had longed to go forth and do likewise. But the 
 position had its compensations too ; and chief among them 
 was this : that there had been no greater obstacle to the dif- 
 fusion of Christianity among the heathens than the ungodly 
 lives which were commonly led by professing Christians. It 
 was no small thing, then, to be allowed to convert his own 
 countrymen. He had gone out to preach, not to the black 
 man, but to the white ; and he saw plainly that if he could 
 but touch the hearts and reform the lives of the English 
 settlers, he would make a grand first step towards the pro- 
 pagation of the Gospel in the East. On board the Union he 
 had had some practice in this good work ; he knew how pain-
 
 352 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1806. ftd it was, but he was prepared to endure hardness, and he 
 would not shrink from an encounter with scoffers, let them 
 scoff ever so bitterly at him. It is nothing now to preach 
 evangelical truth from a Calcutta pulpit ; but the reader who 
 is acquainted with the state of Anglo-Indian society sixty 
 years ago, knows that at that time it demanded no mean 
 courage to teach as Simeon taught at Cambridge, or Cecil in 
 Bedford-row.* 
 
 But he had some support from his fellow-labourers of the 
 English Church, though not much. As the Union was beat- 
 ing up the Hooghly river to Calcutta, another vessel was 
 beating down the river seawards, and that vessel carried 
 Claudius Buchanan to the southern coast. This was a great 
 loss to him ; but the venerable David Brown remained to 
 welcome the young priest ; to be a father and a friend to 
 him ; to provide him with a home, and to sustain him in all 
 his trials. Mr. Brown resided some fifteen miles from Cal- 
 cutta, at a place on the opposite bank of the river, named 
 Aldeeu, not far from the settlement of Serampore, where the 
 Baptist missionaries Carey, Marshman, and Ward lived and 
 laboured. In the grounds attached to this Aldeen house was 
 a deserted idol-temple, upon the margin of the river, the pic- 
 turesque aspect of which, as it stands out a broad mass of 
 purple shadow against the setting sun, has been noted by 
 thousands of Englishmen passing to and from the great mili- 
 tary station of Barrackpore, ignorant of the historical asso- 
 ciations which surrounded it. This pagoda had been fitted 
 up as a dwelling-place one of those convenient guest-houses 
 which, in the old days of Indian hospitality, English resi- 
 
 * It should be observed, however, what I once called ' fidelity.' " Again : 
 
 that Mr. Simeon lived to feel that he " It is not by coarseness of expression, 
 
 had erred in giving way overmuch to or severity of manner, that we are to 
 
 the vehement, denunciatory style in his win souls, but by speaking the truth in 
 
 earlier pulpit addresses. His correspond- love." -And again, a third tune : "What 
 
 ence abounds with indications of this, is your object is it to win souls ? If 
 
 Take the following : " I am arrived at it be, how are you to set about it ? By 
 
 a time of my life when my views of exciting all manner of prejudices and 
 
 early habits, particularly in relation to driving people from the church ? How 
 
 the ministry, are greatly changed. I see did our Lord act ? He spake the word 
 
 many things in a different light from in parables, ' as many were able to hear 
 
 what I once did, such as the beauty of it.' How did St. Paul act ? He fed the 
 
 order, of regularity, and the wisdom of babes with milk, and not with strong 
 
 seeking to win souls by kindness rather meat." 
 than to convert them by harshness, and
 
 THE CALCUTTA MINISTRY. 353 
 
 dents delighted to have in their gardens for the reception of 1806. 
 their friends. This building was now assigned to Henry 
 Martyn, who took up his abode there, with an imagination 
 inflamed by the traditions of the place. He " felt something 
 like superstitious dread at being in a place once inhabited as 
 it were by devils ; but yet felt disposed to be triumphantly 
 joyful that the temple where they were worshipped was 
 become Christ's oratory." 
 
 What his ministerial duties were at this time, and what 
 the hostility to which they exposed him, may be gathered 
 from the following extract from an unpublished letter to his 
 friend and benefactor Mr. Grant, which gives a lively picture 
 of the state of society, in its religious or irreligious aspects, 
 at the commencement of the present century. " The minis- 
 terial work assigned me here," he wrote in September, 1806, 
 " is to preach every Sabbath evening at the Mission Church, 
 and every third Sunday at the other. With the former I am 
 delighted ; the congregation is numerous and attentive, and, 
 as I have heard, there are encouraging appearances of a work 
 of grace among them. At the New Church I am as a wonder 
 unto many. Whether it is they judge of me relatively with 
 the other clergymen who cannot boast of much physical 
 strength, or whether I have really recovered from that in- 
 sipidity so much complained of at St. John's chapel, by having 
 exercised my lungs so many months on the quarter-deck, I 
 am called a son of thunder in this place. The Sunday after 
 my first sermon at the New Church, Dr. Ward preached 
 vehemently on the opposite side. I was not present at the 
 time, being laid up with a bilious fever, but heard that it was 
 against evangelical persons and things in general. After 
 describing the rise and progress of the sect of evangelical 
 clergymen in the Church, he proceeded to deny one by one 
 all the leading doctrines of the Gospel. The personal abuse 
 of me which his sermon contained gave such offence that he 
 found it necessary to let it be read, since which many have 
 thought better of it. After the second which I preached, 
 Limerick attacked me. He, too, was very personal, and 
 gravely and distinctly denied all the doctrines of the Gospel. 
 As I knew how much carnal people would enjoy a controversy 
 between their teachers, and so elude the force of what was 
 
 VOL. I. 2 A
 
 354 
 
 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1806 
 
 Correspond- 
 Grenfeil h M 
 
 intended for their consciences, I declined making the smallest 
 allusion to what had been said. Notwithstanding this, many 
 stay away from church, because they say parties are running 
 so high among the clergymen. Jefferies unites himself with 
 us, and has preached the pure truth ; Stacey will not enter 
 the Church till it is purified from our errors. We anxiously 
 await the arrival of Corrie and Parson, whom we expect in 
 the next fleet. When I can see Mr. Brown supplied with 
 coadjutors in Mr. Buchanan's absence, I shall proceed to my 
 proper work with double pleasure. I rejoice in the dispensa- 
 tion of God in sending me to this country more than ever. 
 Through His mercy I enjoy excellent health, and I feel little 
 doubt of seeing some of these poor people turning to God 
 from idols, which hope is the health of my soul." 
 
 Such was the outer life of Henry Martyn at this time. His 
 ' inner life is revealed to us with equal distinctness. There 
 was ever going on within him a conflict in which warm human 
 love was contending on one side and a morbid spiritualism on 
 the other. He could never altogether rid himself of the 
 thought that the love of the creature must be antagonistic to 
 the love of the Creator. Mr. Cecil had told him that it was 
 clearly his duty to marry. Mr. Simeon and other friends had 
 been of the same opinion ; and just before he sailed finally 
 for India, he had, it has been seen, encouraged by the sight 
 of the beloved object, given way to the natural inclinations of 
 his heart. But on his voyage he seems to have cast out all 
 hope, and indeed all desire, and to have reconciled himself to 
 the thought of a solitary life. On his arrival in India, he 
 " saw no reasons at first for supposing that marriage was de- 
 sirable for a missionary ;" but after a while his " opinions 
 began to change," and his hopes began to revive, and he sat 
 down to write a letter to Miss Grenfell, inviting her to join 
 him in India. No surprise can be felt by any one who reads 
 this letter, that it utterly failed to accomplish the desired 
 object. " From the account," he wrote, " which Mr. Simeon 
 received of you from Mr. Thomason, he seemed in his letter 
 to me to regret that he had so strongly dissuaded me from 
 thinking about you at the time of my leaving England. 
 Colonel Sandys spoke in such terms of you, and of the ad-
 
 LOVE AFFAIRS. 355 
 
 vantages to result from your presence in this country, that 180C. 
 Mr. B[rown] became very earnest for me to endeavour to 
 prevail upon you. Your letter to me perfectly delighted him, 
 and induced him to say that you would be the greatest aid to 
 the Mission I could possibly meet with. I knew my own 
 heart too well not to be distrustful of it, especially as my 
 affections were again awakened, and accordingly all my labours 
 and prayers have been directed to check their influence, that I 
 might see clearly the path of duty. Though I dare not say 
 that I am under no bias, yet from every view of the subject 
 I have been able to take, after balancing the advantages and 
 disadvantages that may ensue to the cause in which I am 
 engaged, always in prayer for God's direction, my reason is 
 fully convinced of the expediency, I had almost said the 
 necessity, of having you with me. It is possible that my 
 reason may still be obscured by passion ; let it suffice, how- 
 ever, to say that now with a safe conscience and the enjoy- 
 ment of the Divine presence I calmly and deliberately make 
 the proposal to you." Perhaps a little less calmness and de- 
 liberation, a little less reason and a little more love, a little 
 less talk about the advice of his friends and a little more about 
 his own longing desires, might have been more successful in 
 the pleading of his cause. Even the best of women do not 
 like to be reasoned over and weighed in the scales after this 
 fashion. 
 
 The letter to Miss Grenfell, which I have quoted above, was 
 written on the 30th of July, 1806. At what date it reached 
 Cornwall is not quite clear ; but Miss Grenfell replied to it 
 on the 5th of March, and it would seem that in April the 
 subject of it was still under discussion at Marazion, where 
 Mr. Simeon visited the Grenfells, and took an opportunity to 
 talk over " Mr. Martyn's affair" with the young lady. He 
 found her not much, and her mother not at all, disposed to 
 favour the proposal for her departure to India. All the young 
 lady's arguments might have been summed up in the one 
 cardinal objection, that she did not love Martyn well enough. 
 Formally, a sort of promise was given that, if the mother 
 withdrew her objections, the daughter would go out to India ; 
 but Miss Grenfell made this conditional promise to Mr. 
 
 2 A2
 
 356 THE EEV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1806. Simeon, knowing that the conditions would never be fulfilled.* 
 The letter which she wrote to Mr. Martyn was an unqualified 
 refusal. 
 
 It cut him to the heart. He had been endeavouring to 
 persuade himself that it would be better for him to remain 
 single that living in a state of continual self-denial and 
 mortification, he would be better able to fulfil his duty to his 
 God. But the passions of humanity were not to be preached 
 down in this way ; and when the day of trial came, he was as 
 little able to withstand the shock as any worldling of six-and- 
 twenty. On the 24th of October the letter arrived " An 
 unhappy day," he wrote in his journal. " Received at last a 
 letter from Lydia, in which she refuses to come, because her 
 mother will not consent to it. Grief and disappointment 
 threw my soul into confusion at first ; but gradually, as my 
 disorder subsided, my eyes were opened, and reason resumed 
 its office. I could not but agree with her that it would not 
 be for the glory of God, nor could we expect His blessing, if 
 she acted in disobedience to her mother. As she has said, 
 ' They that walk in crooked paths shall not find peace ;' and 
 if she were to come with an uneasy conscience, what happiness 
 
 * Mr. Simeon's own account of the a connexion already formed. Were this 
 affair runs thus : " With her mother's the only difficulty, I engaged, with the 
 leave Miss Grenfell accompanied us to help of Mr. Grant and Mr. Parry, that 
 Colonel Sandys', when I had much con- she should go under such protection as 
 versation with her about Mr. Martyn's should obviate all difficulties on this 
 affair. She stated to me all the ob- head. Third, the step taken by the 
 stacles to his proposals : first, her health ; other person had set her at perfect 
 second, the indelicacy of her going out liberty. Fourth, the consent of her 
 alone to India on such an errand ; third, mother was indispensable ; and that as 
 her former engagement with another that appeared impossible, the matter 
 person, which had, indeed, been broken might be committed to God, in this 
 off, and he had actually gone up to way : if her mother, of her own accord, 
 London two years ago to be married to should express regret that the connexion 
 another woman, but as he was still un- had been prevented from an idea of her 
 married, it seemed an obstacle in her being irreconcilably averse to it, and 
 mind ; fourth, the certainty that her that she would not stand in the way of 
 mother would never consent to it. On her daughter's wishes, this should be 
 these points, I observed that I thought considered a direction from God in 
 that the last was the only one that was answer to her prayers, and I should in- 
 insurmountable ; for that, first, India stantly be apprised of it by her, in order 
 often agreed best with persons of a deli- to communicate it to Mr. Martyn. In 
 cate constitution, e. g. Mr. Martyn him- this she perfectly agreed. I told her, 
 self and Mr. Brown. Second, it is com- however, that I would mention nothing 
 mon for ladies to go out thither without of this to Mr. Martyn, because it would 
 any previous connexion; how much only tend to keep him in painful sus- 
 more, therefore, might one go out with pense."
 
 THE DINAPORE MINISTRY. 357 
 
 could either of us expect ?" On the same day he sat down 1806. 
 and wrote to her a long letter, only a portion of which can be 
 given here : " Alas ! my rebellious heart," he wrote, after 
 saying that he did not still surrender all hope, " what a 
 tempest agitates me ! I knew not that I had made so little 
 progress in a spirit of resignation to the Divine will. I am 
 in my chastisement like the bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, 
 like a wild bull in the net, full of the fury of the Lord, the 
 rebuke of my God. The death of my late most beloved sister 
 almost broke my heart ; but I hoped it had softened me, and 
 made me willing to suffer. But now my heart is as though 
 destitute of the grace of God, full of misanthropic disgust 
 with the world, sometimes feeling resentment against yourself 
 and Emma, and Mr. Simeon and, in short, all whom I love 
 and honour most sometimes hi pride and anger resolving to 
 write neither to you nor to any one else again. These are the 
 motions of sin. My love and my better reason draw me to 
 you again." 
 
 This letter was written from Dinapore, where Martyn was Martyn at 
 then stationed.* He was very busy with the translation of the Dma P re - 
 Scriptures, and in the season of his disappointment he fell 
 back upon his work as a stimulant and a solace. All things, 
 he knew, were working together for good, and this affliction 
 might yet be a blessing to himself and others. In making the 
 word of God acceptable to heathen and Mahomedan races, 
 surely he was doing grand missionary work, though he might 
 sit all day in his bungalow with his books and papers before 
 him. The entries which he made in his journal, and the 
 letters which he wrote to his friends in the following years 
 (1807 to 1809), show how he was employed. He was con- 
 tinually toiling ; continually stumbling ; now hoping that he 
 had really done something ; now finding, to his bitter dis- 
 appointment, that his translations were inaccurate, and that he 
 must spend more time in correcting them than it would take 
 to commence the work de novo again. As he became better 
 acquainted with the languages, he began to make a small 
 
 * Mr. Martyn was appointed military the 15th of October, and reached Dina- 
 chaplain at Dinapore on the 14th of pore on the 26th of November. 
 September, 1806. He left Aldeen on
 
 358 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 18071809. commencement of preaching to the natives ;* and he taught in 
 some schools, so cautiously that he used an account of one of 
 the Avatars of Vishnu as a text-book, solacing himself with 
 the thought that it could do no harm, as his pupils could not 
 understand a word of it. 
 
 But these were his voluntary labours. His appointed duties 
 were of another kind. He was receiving a salary of a thou- 
 sand a year as one of the Company's military chaplains. In 
 this capacity he did his work with conscientious laboriousness ; 
 but he does not seem to have regarded it as anything more 
 than a necessary and inconvenient appendage to the more 
 important functions which he believed had been delegated to 
 him by God. There was no church at Dinapore ; but he per- 
 formed the service in a building devoted to secular purposes^ 
 and he preached to such congregations as the heat would allow 
 to attend his ministrations. He said that there were four 
 hundred soldiers and forty-five officers at the station, f The 
 society was by no means congenial to him. He was a plain 
 speaker, much as it pained him to speak plainly. He looked 
 upon what he regarded as the duty of vehemently reprobating 
 worlclliness of every kind as one of his especial crosses. He 
 never seems to have thought that he might have done more 
 good for the souls of his brethren if he had spoken more 
 mildly to their ears and more persuasively to their under- 
 standings ; and yet he every now and then reproaches himself 
 for conforming too much to the ways of the world, and giving 
 way to what he called " levity" in society. His friend Mr. 
 
 * Henry Martyn records in his journal Islamism over the earth. The singular 
 
 the progress which he made in the Ian- coincidence of the period of the accom- 
 
 guages under his native teachers, and plishment of these things, with the tune 
 
 sometimes the conversations which he at which, according to some, the millen- 
 
 held with them. The following appears nium will begin, struck me very much, 
 
 under date January 8, 1807 : " Pundit and kept that glorious day before my 
 
 was telling me to-day, that there was a mind all the day." This is curious, but 
 
 prophecy in their books that the Eng- there is obviously something wrong in 
 
 lish should remain one hundred years the chronology. The English had, at 
 
 in India, and that forty years were now that time, been masters of Bengal not 
 
 elapsed of that period; that there should forty, but fifty years; and the coinci- 
 
 be a great change, and that they (the dence of which Martyn speaks really did 
 
 English) should be driven out by a not exist, the date of the maturity of 
 
 King's son, who should then be born, one prophecy being 1857, the date of 
 
 Telling this to Moonshee, he said that the other, 1867. 
 
 about the same time the Mussulmans f This number was greatly increased 
 expected some great events, such as the afterwards by the arrival of the Sixty- 
 coming of Dujjel, and the spread of seventh Regiment.
 
 THE CAWNPORE MINISTRY. 
 
 359 
 
 Corrie,* who had followed him, after a little space, to India, 180910. 
 did much more good than Henry Martyn, because he was 
 more tender and genial in his ministrations. Corrie seems to 
 have read the Bible right through ; but a mist seems to have 
 gathered before Martyn's eyes when he approached the most 
 loving passages of the sacred book. 
 
 But in all this there was one consistent stream of the great 
 heroism of self-abnegation flowing purely, though disastrously, 
 through his life. Looking upon happiness as a crime, if he 
 made a spectacle unpleasing to his Maker, he tortured himself 
 most painfully. Even the duties imposed upon him by his 
 profession as a military chaplain, suchjas attending levees or 
 social gatherings of the officers, he regarded as offences 
 against God. If they were so, he should have given up his 
 chaplaincy and his thousand a year, and have gone into the 
 villages to preach the Gospel of salvation. If he could not 
 I will not say serve God and Mammon at the same time, but 
 render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto 
 God the things which are God's, he should have thrown up 
 Caesar's commission, and freed himself from what he conceived 
 to be the bondage of his soul. 
 
 In April, 1809, under orders from the higher authorities, At Cawnpore. 
 Martyn prepared to betake himself from Dinapore to Cawn- 
 pore. The hot winds were blowing like the blasts of a furnace, 
 but with characteristic disregard of his creature comforts, he 
 put himself hi a palanquin, wanting all the appliances that 
 could mitigate the painfulness of such a journey, and even 
 scantily provided with necessary food. The marvel is that it 
 did not kill him outright. He arrived in a state of pitiable 
 weakness, and fainted as soon as he was removed from the 
 palanquin. But in Captain Sherwood and his accomplished 
 wife he had good and hospitable friends, who opened their 
 house to him, and by their affectionate ministrations restored 
 him to such little health as he was ever likely to enjoy in the 
 world; and he was soon again at his work. "Nothing has 
 occurred this last year," he wrote in 1810, " but my removal 
 to Cawnpore, and the commencement of my ministry, as I 
 hope it may be called, among the Gentiles. This, with my 
 
 The Reverend Daniel afterwards Bishop Gorrie.
 
 360 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1810. endeavours to instruct the servants, has been blessed by the 
 Lord to the improvement of my temper and behaviour towards 
 them." His ministry among the Gentiles was little more 
 than an occasional address, from the verandah of his house, to 
 a crowd of beggars, who were attracted by the alms that he 
 gave, not by the Gospel that he preached. But he thought 
 that some of the seed he scattered might fall upon good 
 ground. 
 
 His professional life at Cawnpore very much resembled that 
 which he had passed at the Dinapore station. A church was 
 in course of erection, but, pending its completion, it was the 
 duty of the military chaplain to perform the service in a bar- 
 rack-room, at the General's house, or in the open air, accord- 
 ing to orders. It was wearisome and disheartening work, for 
 he made little progress, and there were few who listened to the 
 Word.* Of the manner in which his week-days were spent 
 at this time, he has himself given an account in a letter to 
 Lydia Grenfell, who had never ceased to hold a cherished 
 place in his heart. a We all live here," he wrote, "in bun- 
 galows or thatched houses, on a piece of enclosed ground. 
 Next to mine is the church, not yet opened for public worship, 
 but which we make use of at night with the men of the Fifty- 
 third. Corrie lives with me, and Miss Corrie with the Slier- 
 woods. We usually rise at daybreak, and breakfast at six. 
 Immediately after breakfast we pray together, after which I 
 translate into Arabic with Sabat, who lives in a small bunga- 
 low on my ground. We dine at twelve, and sit recruiting 
 ourselves with talking a little about dear friends in England. 
 In the afternoon, I translate with Mirza Fitrut into Hindos- 
 tanee, and Corrie employs himself in teaching some native 
 Christian boys, whom he is educating with great care, in 
 hopes of their being fit for the office of catechist. I have also 
 a school on my premises for natives, but it is not well attended. 
 There are not above sixteen Hindoo boys in it at present ; half 
 of them read the Book of Genesis. At sunset, we ride or 
 
 * On the 18th of February, 1810, he ness of seeing an Indian congregation of 
 wrote in his journal: "My birthday; saints won to the Gospel through my 
 to-day I completed my twenty-ninth preaching. Alas ! how far is this from 
 year. How much had David Brainerd being the case ; scarcely even an Euro- 
 done at this time of life ! I once used pean can I fix upon as having been 
 to flatter myself that, when entering my awakened under my ministry since 
 thirtieth year, I might have the happi- coming here."
 
 FAILING HEALTH. 361 
 
 drive, and then meet at the church, where we often raise the 1810. 
 song of praise with as much joy, through the grace and pre- 
 sence of our Lord, as you do in England. Thus we go on." 
 
 But a change was now about to take place in his way of 
 life. His friends had for some time painfully observed that as 
 he grew in grace, he had waxed more and more feeble in his 
 physical health. The ravages of his old family disorder were 
 visible upon a form which had never indicated strength, and 
 there were those who thought that the approach of death was 
 discernible "in the fine fading of his delicate face." If 
 Martyn did not see this, he felt it ; and on the 19th of April, 
 1810, he wrote to Lydia Grenfell this touching account of 
 himself: " I begin my correspondence with my beloved Lydia, 
 not without a fear of its being soon to end. Shall I venture 
 to tell you that our family complaint has again made its 
 appearance in me, with more unpleasant symptoms than it 
 has ever yet done ? However, God, who two years ago re- 
 deemed my life from destruction, may again, for his Church's 
 sake, interpose for my deliverance. Though, alas ! what am 
 I, that my place should not instantly be supplied with far 
 more efficient instruments ? The symptoms I mentioned are 
 chiefly a pain in the chest, occasioned, I suppose, by over- 
 exertion the two last Sundays, and incapacitating me at 
 present from all public duty, and even from conversation. 
 You were mistaken in supposing that my former illness 
 originated from study. Study never makes rne ill scarcely 
 ever fatigues me : but my lungs death is seated there ; it is 
 speaking that kills me. May it give others life ! ( Death 
 worketh in us, but life in you.' Nature intended me, as I 
 should judge from the structure of my frame, for chamber 
 counsel, not for a pleader at the bar. But the call of Jesus 
 Christ bids me call aloud. I spare not. As his minister, I 
 am a debtor both to the Greek and to the Barbarian. How 
 can I be silent when I have both ever before me, and my debt 
 not paid ?" 
 
 From this time a beautiful resignation appears to have 
 descended upon him, and he grew outwardly more cheerful 
 in his manners. Most true is it that " one fire burns out 
 another's burning." A deep-seated affection of the lungs 
 was destroying Henry Martyn, and the biliary disorder which
 
 362 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1810. had rendered him so irritable and so desponding, seems to 
 have been burnt out by the tubercular disease. But although 
 sober biography is bound to take account of this, we may 
 believe that this increase of cheerfulness was in part the 
 growth of a sustaining sense of his good work, and the com- 
 forting reflection that it would soon be said to him " Well 
 done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into thy rest." 
 He had not altogether given up the thought of doing real 
 missionary work in the apostolic or sent -forth sense of the 
 word. But he wrote to a friend, saying : " To the hardships 
 of missionaries we are strangers ; yet not averse, I trust, to 
 encounter them when we are called. My work at present is 
 evidently to translate; hereafter I may itinerate." 
 
 Visit to Cal- And indeed the time had come for him to " itinerate ;" but 
 tta ' not in the sense here recognised. It was plain that to remain 
 
 at Cawnpore would be to die at his post. So, after much 
 reflection and much prayer, he determined that, with the 
 permission of the temporal authorities and with the approval 
 of the recognised " Patriarch " of the English Church, 
 David Brown, he would fulfil his long-cherished project 
 of journeying to Persia, there to improve his knowledge 
 of its language, to obtain assistance in the translation of 
 the Scriptures, and to dispute with the Moollahs. So he 
 went down to Calcutta, and " after consulting with the 
 Patriarch," saw the Govern or- General, Lord Minto, and the 
 Adjutant-General of the army, and obtained their sanction to 
 his departure on sick leave. " So it strikes me," he said in a 
 letter to Mr. Corrie, " a way is opened and an intimation 
 given of the will of God : may my journey be for the pros- 
 perity of Zion. My ship has dropped down (the river)." 
 
 He was very weak when he readied Calcutta; and the 
 dear friends, with whom he now again took sweet counsel, 
 after a separation of years, saw plainly that he was fading 
 away. Among these friends was one companion of former 
 years, with whom it was a delight to talk of old Cambridge 
 days and Mr. Simeon. This was the Reverend Thomas 
 Thomason, now also a chaplain in the Company's service 
 one of the best and most lovable of men. When he saw 
 Martyn's wasted frame and his sunken cheeks, he was moved 
 with a great compassion, and he felt that the days of his
 
 VOYAGE TO BOMBAY. 363 
 
 friend wore numbered. Writing to Mr. Simeon at this time, 1811. 
 he said : " He (Martyn) is on his way to Arabia, where he 
 is going in pursuit of health and knowledge. You know his 
 genius, and what gigantic strides he takes in everything. He 
 has some great plan in his mind, of which I am no competent 
 judge, but as far as I do understand it, the object is far too 
 grand for one short life, and much beyond his feeble and 
 exhausted frame. Feeble it is, indeed ! How fallen and 
 changed. His complaint lies in his lungs, and appears to be 
 an incipient consumption. ... In all other respects he is 
 exactly the same as he was. He shines in all the dignity of 
 love, and seems to carry about him such a heavenly majesty 
 as impresses the mind beyond description. But, if he talks 
 much, though in a low voice, he sinks, and you are reminded 
 of his very ' dust and ashes.' ' Yet, for all this, he could not 
 be persuaded to spare himself. He wanted rest, and a total 
 cessation, at all events, from all physical labour ; but he over- 
 exerted and strained himself by preaching every Sunday, 
 during his stay in Calcutta, in a spacious church, with scarcely 
 voice enough to fill an ordinary room. 
 
 I have already narrated, in a previous Memoir, how Henry Departure for 
 Martyn sailed to Bombay with Mountstuart Elphinstone Bomba y- 
 as his fellow-passenger. As on the voyage from England, he 
 suffered greatly from sea-sickness as the vessel tossed down 
 the Bay of Bengal. * Then, sitting very helpless and miserable 
 on the poop, he derived infinite solace from the instructive 
 conversation of his companion. It was a relief to him, when 
 they reached Ceylon, to be permitted to go on shore. " At 
 length in the neighbourhood of Ceylon," he wrote, " we found 
 smooth w r ater, and came to anchor off Colombo, the principal 
 station in the island. . The captain having proposed to his 
 
 * See the Journals and Correspond- entertained me with information about 
 
 ence, edited by Bishop Wilberforce. India, with the politics of which he has 
 
 " January 10 to 12. Sea-sickness in- such opportunities of making himself 
 
 capacitated me for everything ; was, as acquainted. The Afghans, to whom he 
 
 usual in such cases, very low-spirited ; went as ambassador to negotiate a treaty 
 
 felt perfectly weary of travelling," &c. of alliance, hi case of invasion, against 
 
 " 13th. Was too sick to have divine the French, possess a tract of country 
 
 service, but at night, in cabin, read to considerably larger than Great Britain, 
 
 and prayed with the captain and pas- using the Persian and Pushtoo lan- 
 
 sengers." " 14th to 17th. Generally guages. Mr. E. has been with Holkar 
 
 so sick that I could do nothing but sit and Scindiah a good deal. Holkar he 
 
 on the poop. Mr. E[lphinstone] kindly describes as a little spitfire," &c. &c.
 
 364 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1811. passengers that they should go on shore and refresh them- 
 selves with a walk in the cinnamon gardens, Mr. Epphinstone] 
 and myself availed ourselves of the offer, and went off to 
 inhale the cinnamon breeze. The walk was delightful." On 
 Jan. 23, 1811. the following day they set sail again and doubled Cape Cor- 
 morin. Then as Martyn looked out on the sea-coast and on 
 the churches, which here and there were visible from the deck 
 of the ship, he thought of the coast of Cornwall and of his 
 beloved Lydia, and he sat down in his cabin and wrote to her, 
 saying : " Was it these maritime situations that recalled to my 
 mind Perran church, or that my thoughts wander too often 
 on the beach to the east of Truro? You do not tell me 
 whether you ever walk there and imagine the billows that 
 break at your feet to have made their way from India. But 
 why should I wish to know ? Had I observed silence on that 
 day and thenceforward, I should have spared you much trouble 
 and myself much pain. Yet I am far from regretting that I 
 spoke, since I am persuaded that all things will work together 
 for good." And then, as though he were angry with himself 
 for the expression of so much warmth of feeling, he fell back 
 into the old strain of self-depreciation, and cooled his ardour 
 by every possible kind of discouragement. " As for what we 
 should be together," he added, " I judge of it from our friends. 
 Are they quite beyond the vexations of common life ? I think 
 not; still I do not say that it is a question whether they 
 gained or lost by marrying. Their affections will live when 
 ours (I should rather say mine) are dead. Perhaps it may be 
 the effect of celibacy, but I certainly begin to feel a wonderful 
 indifference to all but myself." 
 
 On the 7th of February they reached Goa, and on the fol- 
 lowing day paid that visit to the tomb of Francis Xavier 
 which has been narrated at the commencement of this Memoir. 
 On the 18th, they anchored at Bombay. On the following 
 day Martyn went on shore, visited Governor Duncan, and was 
 lodged at Government House. In Bombay he became ac- 
 quainted with Sir James Mackintosh and Sir John Malcolm. 
 He appears to have made a different impression on the minds 
 of these two men ; which may partly be accounted for by the 
 characteristic variableness of Martyn's own temperament, and 
 partly by a consideration of the different temperaments of the
 
 FROM BOMBAY TO PERSIA. 365 
 
 lawyer and the soldier. At all events, Martyn appeared to 1811. 
 Malcolm an exceedingly cheerful person. Of the latter, it is 
 most true that " a merrier man, within the limits of becoming 
 mirth," was seldom seen ; and it would have been difficult to 
 be otherwise than cheerful under the genial influence of his 
 sunny nature. Certain at least it is, that he gave the young 
 priest a letter of introduction to the British Minister in Persia 
 (Sir Gore Ouseley), in which he said that Martyn was " altoge- 
 ther a very learned and cheerful man, but a great enthusiast in 
 his holy calling." " I am satisfied," he added, "that if you 
 ever see him, you will be pleased with him. He will give 
 you grace before and after dinner, and admonish such of your 
 party as take the Lord's name in vain ; but his good sense 
 and great learning will delight you, whilst his constant cheer- 
 fulness will add to the hilarity of your party." Although 
 most men were cheerful in Malcolm's presence, I am inclined 
 to think that causes already stated had done much to increase 
 the habitual cheerfulness of Martyn's temperament, although 
 Mackintosh did speak of him as the saint from Calcutta, whose 
 excessive meekness " gave a disagreeable impression of effort 
 to conceal the passions of human nature." 
 
 So, cheerfully, he went about his work, and passed from Martyn 
 India to the Persian Gulf. From Muscat he wrote, on the Persia - 
 23rd of April, 1811 : " I left India on Lady-day, looked at 
 Persia on Easter Sunday, and seven days after found myself 
 in Arabia Felix. In a small cove, surrounded by bare rocks, 
 heated through, out of the reach of air as well as wind, lies 
 the good ship Benares, in the great cabin of which, stretched 
 on a couch, lie I. But though weak, I am well relaxed, 
 but not disordered. Praise to his grace, who fulfils to me a 
 promise, which I have scarcely a right to claim 1 1 am with 
 thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest.' ' 
 
 On the 30th of May, having obtained the means of attiring 
 himself in full Persian costume, and having suffered his beard 
 and moustache to grow, he started for Shiraz.* The heat was 
 
 * The following is the description of Persian dresses were ready, and we set 
 his costume, which he has recorded in his out for Shiraz. The Persian dress 
 journal : " On the 30th of May our consista of, first, stockings and shoes in
 
 366 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1811. intolerable, and the hardships of the journey almost killed 
 him. They started in the coolness of the night, but day had 
 scarcely broken before the summer heats began to threaten 
 them. " At sunrise," he wrote in his journal, " we came to 
 our ground at Ahmedee, six parasangs, and pitched our little 
 tent under a tree ; it was the only shelter we could get. At 
 first the heat was not greater than we had felt in India, but 
 it soon became so intense as to be quite alarming. When the 
 thermometer was above 112 degs., fever heat, I began to lose 
 my strength fast; at last it became quite intolerable. I 
 wrapped myself up in a blanket and all the warm covering I 
 could get, to defend myself from the external air ; by which 
 means the moisture was kept a little longer upon the body, 
 and not so speedily evaporated as when the skin was exposed. 
 One of my companions followed my example, and found the 
 benefit of it. But the thermometer still rising, and the mois- 
 ture of the body being quite exhausted, I grew restless, and 
 thought I should have lost my senses. The thermometer at 
 last stood at 126 deg. ; hi this state I composed myself, and 
 concluded that, though I might hold out a day or two, death 
 
 was inevitable. Captain , who sat it out, continued to 
 
 tell the hour and height of the thermometer ; and with what 
 pleasure did we hear of its sinking to 120 deg., 118 deg., &c. 
 At last the fierce sun retired, and I crept out, more dead than 
 alive. It was then a difficulty how I could proceed on my 
 journey ; for, besides the immediate effects of the heat, I had 
 no opportunity of making up for the last night's want of sleep, 
 and had eaten nothing. However, while they were loading 
 the mules, I got an hour's sleep, and set out, the muleteer 
 leading my horse, and Zachariah, my servant, an Armenian 
 of Ispahan, doing all in his power to encourage me. The cool 
 air of the night restored me wonderfully, so that I arrived at 
 our next munzil with no other derangement than that occa- 
 
 one ; next, a pair of large blue trousers, that my beard and moustaches have 
 
 or else a pair of huge red boots ; then been suffered to vegetate undisturbed 
 
 the shirt ; then the tunic ; and above it ever since I left India that I am sitting 
 
 the coat, both of chintz, and a great- on a Persian carpet in a room without 
 
 coat. I have here described my own tables or chairs and that I bury my 
 
 dress, most of which I have on at this hand in the pillau without waiting for 
 
 moment. On the head is worn an enor- spoon or plate, you will give me credit 
 
 mous cone, made of the skin of the for being already an accomplished 
 
 black Tartar sheep, with the wool on. Oriental" Sargent's Life of Martyn. 
 If to this description of my dress I add
 
 AT SHIRAZ. 367 
 
 sioned by want of sleep. Expecting another such day as the 
 former, we began to make preparation the instant we arrived 
 on the ground. I got a tattie made of the branches of the 
 date-tree, and a Persian peasant to water it ; by this means 
 the thermometer did not rise higher than 114 deg. But what 
 completely secured me from the heat was a large wet towel, 
 which I wrapped round my head and body, muffling up the 
 lower part in clothes. How could I but be grateful to a 
 gracious Providence for giving me so simple a defence against 
 what, I am persuaded, would have destroyed my life that day. 
 We took care not to go without nourishment as we had done ; 
 the neighbouring village supplied us with curds and milk." 
 
 On the 9th of June he reached his destination, and a 
 few days afterwards he was in the midst of theological dis- 
 cussions with the Moollahs and other learned people of the 
 place. He appears at this time to have enjoyed unusually 
 good health and good spirits. He wrote cheerfully to his 
 friends, with less than the wonted amount of self-abasement 
 in his letters. His thoughts often reverted, not painfully, to 
 the Cornish coast and his " dearest Lydia." In one letter, 
 written in June, he says : " How continually I think of you, 
 and, indeed, converse with you, it is impossible to say. But 
 on the Lord's-day in particular I find you much in my 
 thoughts. . . . On that day I indulge myself with a view of 
 the past, and look over again those happy days when, in 
 company with those I loved, I went up to the house of God 
 with a voice of praise. How, then, should I fail to remember 
 her, who, of all that are dear to me, is the dearest? It is 
 true that I cannot look back to many days, nor even many 
 hours, passed with you. Would they had been more ! but 
 we have become more acquainted with each other. ... It 
 was a momentary interview, but the love is lasting ever- 
 lasting. . ., . Let me here say, with praise to our ever- 
 gracious heavenly Father, that I am in perfect health ; of my 
 spirits I cannot say much, I fancy they would be better were 
 the beloved Persis by my side. This name, which I once 
 gave you, occurs to me this moment, I suppose, because I am 
 in Persia, intrenched in one of its valleys, separated from 
 Indian friends by chains of mountains and a roaring sea, 
 among a people depraved beyond all belief, in the power of a
 
 368 THE KEY. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1811. tyrant guilty of every species of atrocity. Imagine a pale 
 person seated on a Persian carpet, in a room without a table 
 or chair, with a pair of formidable moustaches and habited as 
 a Persian, and you see me." 
 
 " Here I expect to remain six months," he wrote, a few 
 days afterwards, to the same sweet friend. " The reason is 
 this : I found, on my arrival here, that our attempts at 
 Persian translation in India were good for nothing ; at the 
 same time, they proposed, with my assistance, to make a new 
 translation. It was an offer I could not refuse, as they speak 
 purest Persian." But he did not make much progress, and 
 he wrote on the 12th of September to his friend Daniel 
 Corrie : " I do not find myself improving in Persian ; indeed, 
 I take no pains to speak it well, not perceiving it to be much 
 consequence. India is the land where we can act at present 
 with most effect. It is true that the Persians are more sus- 
 ceptible, but the terrors of an inquisition are always hanging 
 over them. I can now conceive no greater happiness than to 
 be settled for life in India, superintending national schools, as 
 we did at Patna and Chunar. To preach so as to be readily 
 understood by the poor, is a difficulty that appears to me 
 almost insuperable." To the same old and beloved friend he 
 wrote again in December, saying that he had excited some 
 Mahomedan indignation, and that he had been stoned. 
 " They continued," he said, " throwing stones at me every- 
 day, till happening one day to tell Jaffier AH Khan, my host, 
 how one as big as my fist had hit me in the back, he wrote to 
 the Governor, who sent an order to all the gates, that if any 
 one insulted me he should be bastinadoed ; and the next day 
 came himself in state to pay me a visit. These measures have 
 had the desired effect ; they now call me the Feringhee 
 Nabob, and very civilly offer me the Calean ; but indeed the 
 Persian commonalty are very brutes. The Soofies declare 
 themselves unable to account for the fierceness of their 
 countrymen, except it be from the influence of Islam." 
 
 1812. All through the early months of the year 1812 he went on 
 in the same way, now translating, now studying, now dis- 
 puting with the Moollahs, now taking sweet counsel with his 
 distant friends. His spirits, at this time, seem to have been 
 sensibly affected by protracted isolation from all his Christian
 
 DEPARTURE FROM SHIRAZ. 369 
 
 friends, and he began to long for India and companionship 1812. 
 again. " This is my birthday," he wrote in his journal on 
 the 18th of February, " on which I complete my thirty-first 
 year. The Persian New Testament has been begun and I 
 may say finished in it, as only the last eight chapters of the 
 Revelation remain. Such a painful year I never passed, 
 owing to the privations I have been called to on the one 
 hand, and the spectacle before me of human depravity on the 
 other. But I hope I have not come to this seat of Satan in 
 vain. The word of God has found its way into Persia, and 
 it is not in Satan's power to oppose its progress, if the Lord 
 hath sent it." A fortnight afterwards the work was com- 
 pleted, and he thanked God from the bottom of his heart. 
 
 In the second week of May he left Shiraz in company with Departure from 
 a cafilah.* He was eager to present his translation of the 
 Bible to the King of Persia, and he strove mightily to 
 this end ; but official obstructions in the first instance, and 
 afterwards utter prostration from illness, baffled his endea- 
 vours, and he was obliged to content himself with presenting 
 it to the Ambassador. He had enjoyed more than his accus- 
 tomed amount of health and strength at Shiraz, but the 
 fatigues of the journey and the alternations of heat and cold, 
 seem to have affected him severely, and fever and ague of 
 the worst type seized upon his frail body. For some time he 
 lay prostrate and delirious, hovering between life and death ; 
 in intervals of sanity thinking of his beloved friends in 
 England, and believing that there was little hope of ever 
 seeing them again. On the 9th of July, he wrote from 
 Tabriz : " My fever never ceased to rage till the 21st, during 
 all which time every effort was made to subdue it, till I had 
 lost all my strength, and almost all my reason. They now 
 administer bark, and it may please God to bless the tonics, 
 but I seem too far gone ; I can only say, * having a desire 
 to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.' ' Three 
 days after, he wrote to Lydia Grenfell : " I have applied 
 for leave to come on furlough to England. Perhaps you will 
 be gratified by this intelligence ; but oh, my dear Lydia, 
 
 * Or caravan. Mr. Sargent says he that he was some way on his journey 
 started on the 24th of May, which is by that time, 
 obviously a mistake. His journal shows 
 
 VOL. I. 2 B
 
 370 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1812. I mu8 t faithfully tell you that the probability of my reaching 
 England alive is but small." All through the remainder of 
 that month of July he lay struggling with death, but early 
 in August he rallied a little, and at the end of the first week 
 he wrote to Mr. Simeon : " Ever since I wrote, about a month, 
 I believe, I have been lying upon the bed of sickness. For 
 twenty days or more the fever raged with great violence, and 
 for a long time every species of medicine was used in vain. 
 A fter I had given up every hope of recovery, it pleased God to 
 abate the fever, but incessant headaches succeeded, which 
 allowed me no rest day or night. I was reduced still lower, 
 and am now a mere skeleton ; but as they are now less 
 frequent, I suppose it to be the wih 1 of God that I should be 
 raised up to life again. I am now sitting in my chair, and 
 wrote the will with a strong hand ; but, as you see, I cannot 
 write so now." 
 
 On the 2nd of September, all things being ready, Henry 
 Martyn set out on his long journey of thirteen hundred miles 
 to England, " carrying letters from Sir Gore Ouseley for the 
 Governors of Erivan, Kars, and Erzeroum, and the Ambas- 
 sador at Constantinople ; from Mr. Morier for his father there, 
 and from Cajoo Aratoon, Sir Gore's agent, for the Patriarch, 
 and Bishop Nestus at Echmiazin, and near three hundred 
 tomauns in money." On the morning of the llth of September 
 he arrived at Erivan. From Erivan he went on to Ech- 
 miazin, where he was most kindly received by the Patriarch 
 and the Bishops, and after a few pleasant days passed in the 
 great Armenian monastery the last glimpse of pleasure ever 
 permitted to him in this world he pursued his journey, 
 crossed the Turkish frontier, and on the 21st of September 
 rode into Kars. On the following day, he left this now cele- 
 brated place with a Tartar guide, and made his way to Erze- 
 roum, where he halted for three or four days, and then again 
 pressed forward. But there were now symptoms of a return 
 of his malady ; he grew weaker and weaker as he went on. 
 The fatigues of the journey were more than he could bear. 
 Riding on rough horses over rough roads, with a half-savage 
 guide who had little compassion for him, he was dragged 
 from place to place, often through heavy rain, with little rest 
 allowed to him, until his small remaining strength succumbed
 
 APPROACH OF DEATH. 371 
 
 to the hardships and privations of the journey. He still, 1812< 
 however, continued to make some entries in his journal, and 
 on the 2nd of October he wrote : " Some hours before day, I 
 sent to tell the Tartar I was ready, but Hassan Aga was for 
 once riveted to his bed. However, at eight, having got 
 strong horses, he set off at a great rate, and over the level 
 ground he made us gallop as fast as the horses would go to 
 Chifflick, where we' arrived at sunset. I was lodged, at my 
 request, in the stables of the post-house, not liking the scru- 
 tinising impudence of the fellows who frequent the coffee- 
 room. As soon as it began to grow a little cold, the ague 
 came on and then the fever ; after which I had a sleep, which 
 let me know too plainly the disorder of my frame. In the 
 night Hassan sent to summon me away, but I was quite 
 unable to move. Finding me still in bed at the dawn, he 
 began to storm furiously at my detaining him so long, but I 
 quietly let him spend his ire, ate my breakfast composedly, 
 and set out at eight. He seemed determined to make up for 
 the delay, for we flew over hill and dale to Sherean, where 
 we changed horses. From thence we travelled all the rest 
 of the day and all night. It rained most of the time. Soon 
 after sunset the ague came on again, which in my wet state 
 was very trying. I hardly knew how to keep my life in 
 me." There was, indeed, but a little feeble nickering life 
 left in his frail body. 
 
 He was now dying fast. It had come, indeed, to be only a 
 question of days. On the 5th of October he wrote in his 
 journal : " Preserving mercy made me see the light of another 
 morning. The sleep had refreshed me, but I was feeble and 
 shaken, yet the merciless Hassan hurried me off. The munzil, 
 however, not being distant, I reached it without much dif- 
 ficulty. I was pretty well lodged, and felt tolerably well till 
 a little after sunset, when the ague came on with a violence I 
 had never before experienced ; I felt as if in a palsy ; my teeth 
 chattering, and my whole frame violently shaken. Aga Hosyn 
 and another Persian on their way here from Constantinople, 
 going to Abbas Mirza, whom I had just before been visiting, 
 came hastily to render me assistance, if they could. These 
 Persians appear quite brotherly after the Turks. While they 
 pitied me, Hassan sat in perfect indifference, ruminating in the
 
 372 THE KEY. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1812. further delay this was likely to occasion. The cold fit, after 
 continuing two or three hours, was followed by a fever, which 
 lasted the whole night, and prevented sleep." On the follow- 
 ing day he wrote : " No horses being to be had, I had an un- 
 expected repose. I sat in the orchard, and thought with sweet 
 comfort and peace of my God ; in solitude, my companion, my 
 friend and comforter. Oh I when shall time give place to. 
 eternity ? when shall appear that new heaven and new earth 
 wherein dwelleth righteousness ? There, there shall in no wise 
 enter in anything that defileth : none of that wickedness which 
 has made men worse than wild beasts none of those corrup- 
 tions which add still more to the miseries of mortality, shall 
 be seen or heard of any more." 
 
 These were the last words that he ever wrote. Whether he 
 sunk under the disorder against which he had so long been 
 painfully contending, or whether the Plague, which was then 
 raging, seized him, is not known ; but ten days afterwards, 
 at Tokat, Henry Martyn entered into his rest.* 
 
 Oct. 16, 1812. There is little need to dwell upon a character which has 
 Death. illustrated itself so clearly in the passages which I have given 
 from Henry Martyn's own letters and journals. No one has 
 ever laid bare his heart more unsparingly than this young 
 Protestant priest. Evangelical history claims him as a mis- 
 sionary; but he was not a missionary; he was simply an 
 Indian Officer an officer upon the ecclesiastical establishment 
 of the East India Company a military chaplain under the 
 orders of the military authorities. That his heart was in the 
 missionary work, with which he supplemented his official 
 duties, not in the business proper of the chaplaincy, is cer- 
 tain ; but he was not less a chaplain before the world because 
 his missionary zeal burnt brightly in the sight of Heaven. 
 To what extent his earnestness and self-devotion really con- 
 tributed, directly or indirectly, to the diffusion of a knowledge 
 
 * The date and place of Mr. Martyn's of Cawnpore, died at Tokat, a town in 
 
 death, as given in Mr. Sargent's Life, Asia Minor, on his way hither from 
 
 are, I find, officially confirmed by the Tabriz, about the beginning of last 
 
 following extract of a letter from Mr. month. I take the liberty of enclosing 
 
 Morier, dated Constantinople, 3rd No- a letter for his sister, Miss Harriet 
 
 vember, 1812 : " I am concerned to Martyn, to whom I give the unpleasant 
 
 have to state, for the information of the intelligence. I have mentioned that the 
 
 Honourable the Court of Directors, that death of the Reverend Mr. Martyn hap- 
 
 the Reverend Henry Martyn, chaplain pened on the 16th of last month."
 
 HIS CHARACTER. 373 
 
 of the Gospel through the Eastern world, cannot be rightly 1812. 
 estimated ; but he takes rank among the apostles of Protest- 
 ant Christianity, not in accordance with what he did, so much 
 as with what he attempted to do ; for he ever strove mightily 
 to accomplish the great and glorious ends which he had set 
 before him, and never shrunk from any martyrdom of self. 
 
 That much of this martyrdom was a superfluous waste of 
 that human happiness which, as far as we are enabled to see 
 things in a glass darkly, is acceptable in the sight of the 
 Almighty, will appear to most readers of this story. He 
 seems, as I have already said, to have read one part of the 
 Christian character with wonderful clearness and distinctness, 
 but a dim suffusion veiled his eyes when he approached those 
 other lessons which combine the beautiful with the sublime of 
 the picture. Truly has it been said, but with no reference to 
 the subject of this Memoir, by a modern writer, whose wise 
 and tender utterances have reached me whilst I have been 
 writing these pages, that "it is a great mistake to suppose 
 that Grod can dispense with the cultivation of any of our 
 powers. The man who systematically lets mind and body go 
 to wreck whilst he cares exclusively for what he considers 
 1 the interests of his soul,' is in a fair way to spend a joyless 
 and loveless old age, and to lie at length in a forgotten tomb. 
 Piety is only seen in its true strength and beauty in the har- 
 mony of all the powers. It sits as queen, but it is cheerless 
 and joyless without its court. A cleanly, pure, robust body ; 
 a cultivated, well-stored, and penetrating mind; a large, 
 tender, and sympathetic heart, as well as a pious, believing 
 spirit, go to make old age honoured and blest."* Henry 
 Martyn never lived to see the autumn of life, and assuredly 
 he has not lain in a forgotten tomb. But the cardinal truth 
 contained in this passage is not the less applicable to the 
 story of his life. His errors were heroic, but they were 
 errors. And his career, therefore, must be regarded as much 
 in the light of a warning as of an example. 
 
 In the library of the University of Cambridge is to be seen 
 a portrait of Henry Martyn, the bequest of Mr. Simeon jf 
 
 * " The Home Life ; in the Light of its cutta for Mr. Simeon, when Martyn 
 
 Divine Idea," by James Baldwin Brown, was sojourning there in 1810-11, be- 
 
 f This picture was painted in Cal- fore his embarkation for Persia. It
 
 374 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN. 
 
 1812. and in the chancel of Trinity church is a monumental tablet 
 bearing the following inscription : 
 
 THIS TABLET 
 IS ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF 
 
 THE REV. HENRY MARTYN, B.D., 
 
 FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, 
 
 AND TWO YEARS CURATE OF THIS PARISH. 
 
 HE GAINED BY HIS TALENTS THE HIGHEST ACADEMICAL HONOURS; 
 
 BUT COUNTING ALL LOSS FOR CHRIST, 
 HE LEFT HIS NATIVE COUNTRY, AND WENT INTO THE EAST, 
 
 AS A CHAPLAIN OF THE HON. EAST INDIA COMPANY. 
 THERE, HAVING FAITHFULLY DONE THE WORK OF AN EVANGELIST, 
 
 IN PREACHING THE GOSPEL OF A CRUCIFIED REDEEMER, 
 IN TRANSLATING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES INTO THE ORIENTAL LANGUAGES, 
 
 AND IN DEFENDING THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IN THE HEART OF PERSIA 
 
 AGAINST THE UNITED TALENTS OF THE MOST LEARNED MAHOMETANS, 
 
 HE DIED AT TOKAT, ON THE 16lH OF OCTOBER, 1812, 
 
 IN THE 31ST YEAB, OF HIS AGE.* 
 THE CHIEF MONUMENTS WHICH HE LEFT OF HIS PIETY AND TALENTS ARE 
 
 TRANSLATIONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 INTO THE H1NDOSTANEE AND PERSIAN LANGUAGES; AND 
 
 "BY THESE HE, BEING DEAD, YET SPEAKETH." 
 
 "PRAY YE THE LORD OF THE HARVEST, 
 THAT HE WILL SEND FORTH LABORERS INTO HIS HARVEST." 
 
 reached England only a few days before veneration and the love with which I 
 he closed his eyes on the world for ever, look at it ? No words that I can write 
 How deeply Mr. Simeon was affected by will convey an adequate idea ; nothing 
 the first sight of the portrait, he -has but your own tender mind can exactly 
 himself recorded in a letter dated the conceive what I feel. I remember (in- 
 12th of October, 1812. " On Monday I deed, can never forget) the look of a cer- 
 opened and put up the picture of my tain lady, when the thought of your 
 ever dear and honoured brother, Mr. going to India was last suggested to 
 Martyn. I had, indeed, after it was her. One might endeavour to describe 
 opened at the India House, gone to see it the mixed emotions that were then de- 
 there, and, notwithstanding all that you picted in her countenance ; but it must 
 had said respecting it to prepare my have been seen in order to be under- 
 mind, I was so overpowered by the stood and appreciated : so I should in 
 sight, that I could not bear to look upon vain attempt to describe what I feel, 
 it, but turned away and went to a dis- and trust I shall long continue to feel, 
 tance, covering my face, and, in spite in looking on that image of my beloved 
 of every effort to the contrary, crying friend. In seeing how much he is worn, 
 aloud with anguish ; E. was with me ; I am constrained to call to my relief the 
 and all the bystanders said to her, ' That, thought in whose service he has worn 
 I suppose, is his father.' And I think himself so much ; and this reconciles 
 it probable, that if I had been his father, me to the idea of weakness, or sickness, 
 or his mother either, I should not have or even, if God were so to appoint, of 
 felt more than I did on the occasion, death itself." 
 Shall I attempt to describe to you the * It should have been " 32nd year."
 
 375 
 
 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 [BORN 1785. DIED 1846.] 
 
 IN the summer of the year 1805, in the neighbourhood of Malcolm and 
 the city of Muttra, in the Upper Provinces of India, where a 
 division of Lord Lake's army was posted, two English gentle- 
 men were conversing eagerly together in a tent. In the papers 
 which lay upon the table, and the frequent references which 
 were made to them, there were manifest signs that the inter- 
 course between the two was not merely of -a personal cha- 
 racter. Except in respect of a common earnestness of manner, 
 there was no sort of resemblance between them. The one was 
 a tall, handsome soldierly man in the very meridian of his life. 
 The other was younger by many years; much shorter and 
 much plainer. The elder of the two men was Colonel John 
 Malcolm ; the younger was Mr. Charles Theophilus Metcalfe 
 a civilian upon the Bengal establishment who had accom- 
 panied Lord Lake's army into the field, in the capacity of 
 Political Assistant to the Commauder-in- Chief. 
 
 In the diplomatic service to which the young civilian was 
 attached, there was, at that time, perhaps, no greater name 
 than that of John Malcolm. It was the great harvest-time of 
 fame. Men seemed to rise, almost by a single bound, from a 
 state of obscure subalternship into the full meridian blaze of 
 historical renown. This had been Malcolm's lot within the six 
 or seven years preceding this meeting with Charles Metcalfe 
 in the camp at Muttra. To the latter, therefore, it was a great 
 event. It stimulated his energies and rekindled his ambition. 
 What the train of thought suggested, and what effect it had 
 upon his actions, may best be told in young Metqtlfe's own 
 words. Writing to a cherished friend in Calcutta, he said : 
 " On the day after his- arrival in camp, Colonel Malcolm, to 
 
 V
 
 376 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1805. m y surprise (for I could scarcely call myself acquainted with 
 him), entered in a full, friendly, and flattering manner into 
 the question of my intentions with full confidence, he laid 
 open to me the various plans which were in contemplation, 
 gave me admission to all his papers, and by appearing to inte- 
 rest himself in my welfare, prepared me to listen to him with 
 great attention. He expatiated on the great field of political 
 employment now open in Hindostan, the necessity of many 
 appointments and missions, the superiority, as he seems to 
 think, of my claims, and the great risk, if not certain injury, 
 of my quitting the scene of action. By holding out the offer 
 of distinction, he gained the important outwork of desire, and 
 the citadel of resolv,e was in danger of falling. It did not im- 
 mediately yield, however, and notwithstanding all he said, I 
 clung fondly to my rooted and long-indulged intention of re- 
 turning to Calcutta and of paying my last respects to Lord 
 Wellesley. There was, however, sufficient in what Malcolm 
 said to induce me to reflect seriously on the step I should take. 
 I did not converse with Malcolm again for five days, and in 
 that period, the subject was ever in my mind, and I never ex- 
 perienced such irresolution on any occasion in which I had the 
 power of self-decision. Exclusive of the reasons suggested by 
 Malcolm for my remaining, others occurred to me which he 
 could not mention. I have long, as you know, looked upon 
 the political as my line of service, and although I have seen 
 what people call native courts, and have passed over many 
 countries, I have had the misfortune of being under men 
 whose talents, knowledge, and character, or rather want of these, 
 I could not admire ; who gave no encouragement to my desire 
 to learn ; who, on the contrary, rather made me sick of my 
 pursuit of knowledge. I have felt myself degraded by my situa- 
 tion, and instead of studying acquaintance with the natives, I 
 have shrunk from notice as much as possible. My knowledge, 
 therefore, is only that which I acquired in the Governor- 
 General's office, and which, though highly useful, does not in 
 itself qualify a man to be a political agent. The opportunity 
 of acting under a man of Malcolm's talents and reputation, 
 established knowledge, inquisitive genius and communicative 
 disposition, promises advantages of the most solid and certain 
 nature and of real importance. I could not, however, give up
 
 EARLY ASPIRATIONS. 377 
 
 my desire to visit Calcutta, and my second conversation with isos. 
 Malcolm ended in our agreeing that I should run down to 
 Calcutta and return quickly. On the same evening, however, 
 he strongly advised me not to go ; and the next day we had a 
 long conversation, which ended in my being very uncertain 
 what to do. I think, however, clearly that I shall stay ; but 
 I never did anything with more reluctance. I long to see our 
 glorious Wellesley before he quits us. Malcolm tells me that 
 I cannot better show my gratitude to Lord Wellesley than 
 by assisting in scenes in which he will always have great 
 interest." 
 
 So after some further doubts and self-questionings he re- 
 solved to remain with the army and to take his leave of the 
 " glorious Wellesley" by letter. " Malcolm," he wrote on 
 the llth of June, " who will manage all political concerns at 
 head-quarters, has expressed a wish that I should remain on 
 his account, expecting to derive more assistance from me than 
 I fear he will. This subject fills my mind, and it is with 
 very great difficulty that I can reconcile myself to the over- 
 throw of my plans plans which I have so long ruminated 
 over with anticipated delight. I rest my chief consolation on 
 Malcolm's character, and the useful knowledge that I shall 
 obtain, whilst with him. It is my intention to cultivate his 
 intimacy zealously. His advances to me have been very 
 flattering. I foresee one thing ; he is a likely man to give 
 my mind a turn towards literary pursuits, which have scarcely 
 ever entered my imagination nay, he already has. He him- 
 self is an enthusiast." And, because he was an enthusiast, he 
 had succeeded nobly in life. Because he was an enthusiast, 
 he had discerned the fine qualities of the young civilian, in 
 whom also there was a pure and generous enthusiasm, wait- 
 ing only for opportunity to display itself in great and good 
 deeds. There was something thorough about him that espe- 
 cially pleased Malcolm. Young as he was, he expounded his 
 views, in favour of the prosecution of the " great game," with 
 all the resolution of a veteran politician. Steeped as he was 
 in admiration of Lord Wellesley, he was still more ardent in 
 his attachment to the political faith which he cherished, and he 
 could perceive and discuss the short-comings of the "glorious 
 little man," which were then becoming apparent to the war-
 
 378 
 
 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 17851800. P ar ty in camp. No man knew better than Malcolm the real 
 state of things at Government House, for he was in close and 
 confidential correspondence with Colonel Arthur Wellesley, 
 and the letters which he then received plainly indicated that 
 much toil and trouble and sore vexation had weakened the 
 gallant resolute spirit of the Governor- General, and that he 
 was not now what he had been in the earlier years of his 
 reign. Malcolm and Metcalfe, in close confidential talk, be- 
 wailed the change ; and still more bitterly lamented that Lord 
 Cornwallis was coming out to India, to undo, as they said, 
 the great work of his predecessor. Greatly as they differed in 
 age, in experience, and in many important points of character, 
 they were bound together by ties of strong political sympathy, 
 and it was a mutual pleasure to them to discuss unreservedly 
 the past, the present, and the future, of a conjuncture of 
 events at that time unexampled in the history of our Indian 
 Empire. 
 
 Birth and CHARLES THEOPHILUS METCALFE was then in his twenty- 
 
 parentage. nrs t year. Born in Calcutta on the 30th of January, 1785, 
 he was the second son of Major Metcalfe, an officer of the 
 Company's army, who had amassed a considerable fortune, 
 as fortunes were amassed, rapidly, in the days of Warren 
 Hastings, when a lucrative contract was a sure road to sudden 
 wealth. Having made his fortune, he did as others did, car- 
 ried it away to spend in England, and took his place among 
 the "nabobs" of the eighteenth century. He bought an 
 estate in Yorkshire ; canvassed, and with success, for the 
 East India direction ; and obtained for himself a seat in Par- 
 liament, in the good old days of Toryism and Pitt. As he 
 always voted with the Minister, and had money enough to 
 support a respectable position as a country gentleman, with a 
 house in Portland-place, a baronetcy was not an unattainable 
 object of ambition. So Major Metcalfe had not been many 
 years in England before he rose up " Sir Thomas Metcalfe, 
 Bart. ;"* and what he owed, in the first instance, to the acci- 
 
 * These facts are stated without re- net until his son Charles had been some 
 gard to strict chronological arrangement, years in India. 
 Major Metcalfe was not created a baro-
 
 AT ETON. 379 
 
 dents of fortune, he afterwards dignified by his own native isoo. 
 worth. He was a man of high integrity of conduct, endowed 
 with a solid understanding rather than with any brilliant 
 parts, and if he could not command the admiration of the 
 world, he always enjoyed its respect. 
 
 In their early boyhood, his two sons, Theophilus and Charles, Early educa- 
 were sent to a private school in one of the eastern suburbs of lon " 
 London Bromley, beyond Bow, not far from the frontier- 
 line of Middlesex and Essex ; but after they had received, in 
 worthy Mr. Tait's academy, the rudiments of their education, 
 they were transplanted to Eton, where they boarded at the 
 house of Dr. Goodall, afterwards head-master and provost of 
 the college. There young Charles, or, Academic^, Metcalfe 
 Minor, applied himself assiduously to his books rather than 
 to cricket, to boating, or to fives. Over and above the Latin 
 and Greek, which in those days were the be-all and end-all of 
 public school education, Metcalfe Minor read, in his own 
 room, a number of books, English and French, and improved 
 himself by translating the latter. From the study of French 
 he proceeded to that of Italian, and day after day, as his 
 boyish journal declares, "read Ariosto." Even then he had 
 promptings of young ambition, and day-dreams of a great 
 Future. He was wont to pace the cloisters, and think of 
 the days to come, in which he might make for himself a place 
 in history as a great orator, a great statesman, a great soldier, 
 or as the liberator of an oppressed race. * Of more robust and 
 athletic pursuits we have no record under his own hand. But 
 many years afterwards, worthy Dr. Goodall recorded that he 
 " heard the boys shouting one day, and went out and saw 
 young Metcalfe riding on a camel. So," he added, rather 
 pleasantly than logically, " you see he was always orientally 
 inclined." 
 
 * We have this on Charles Metcalf e's greatness, glory, and virtue there have 
 
 own authority. In a letter, written soon I been the orator, and discussed im- 
 
 after his arrival in India, to a friend, portant topics in the Senate House 
 
 Mr. Sherer (a name still of high repute there have I been the statesman, pre- 
 
 in the Indian Services), the young civi- scribing terms to the wondering nations 
 
 lian wrote of the days when he " heard of Europe there have I concluded 
 
 the echo of his own footsteps in the peaces, commanded armies, or headed a 
 
 cloisters of his much-loved Eton." party struggling for liberty ; or, de- 
 
 " Ah, Sherer," he added, " those were scending from these lofty views, there 
 
 days of real happiness. In those very have I fancied myself, in the enjoyment 
 
 cloisters has my youthful and ardent of domestic happiness, the honoured 
 
 imagination planned to itself a life of patron of a neighbouring hamlet."
 
 380 
 
 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1800. 
 
 1801. 
 Arrival at 
 Calcutta. 
 
 That an East India Director should determine to provide 
 for his sons in the East was only in the common order of 
 things. Major Metcalfe had made a fortune in India with no 
 great trouble, and his boys might easily do the same. The 
 best thing of all in those days was " a China writership." 
 The next was a writership in Bengal. So Theophilus was set 
 down for the former, and Charles for the latter. Theophilus was 
 a high-spirited, rather precocious boy ; and having, at a very 
 early age, been allowed to taste the delights of English society, 
 was reluctant in the extreme to be banished to Canton. Charles 
 was not much more eager to go Eastward ; but his unwilling- 
 ness was of a different kind. He loved Eton ; he was warmly 
 attached to some of his schoolfellows ; he loved his parents and 
 his kindred, and he loved his country. But he could plainly 
 see that there were the best possible reasons for his going to 
 India ; and so he submitted, with a good grace, to the painful 
 decree. At the age of fifteen he was taken from Eton, and 
 sent out to Calcutta. He went, doubtless, because his father 
 had gone there before him ; because Major Metcalfe, being an 
 East India Director, was very properly of opinion that Pa- 
 tronage, like Charity, " should begin at home." But if the 
 whole Court of Directors had ransacked England, Scotland, 
 and Ireland, in search of the likeliest boy in the three king- 
 doms to grow into a serviceable Indian statesman, they could 
 not have found one with more of the right stuff in him than 
 in Charles Metcalfe. 
 
 On the 1st day of the year 1801, Charles Metcalfe set foot 
 on Indian soil, and was soon in the full enjoyment of the 
 strenuous idleness of the cold season in Calcutta. He com- 
 menced his career at an interesting period of the history of 
 the Indian Civil Service. The great reforms of Lord Corn- 
 wallis had purged and purified it. Men had good wages for 
 good work, and they did their duty conscientiously and as- 
 siduously to their employers. The East India Company was 
 still a trading company. It had all its commercial privileges 
 intact. The business of providing the investment was still a 
 part of the duty of its servants. But although they were 
 called " merchants," " factors," and " writers" (as, indeed, 
 they were long afterwards), the commercial duties of the 
 Company's civil servants were dwarfed by the other responsi-
 
 STATE OF THE SERVICE. 381 
 
 bilities which had fallen upon them. The traders of Leaden- 1801. 
 hall-street, sorely against their will, under violent protest, 
 weeping and grimacing at their hard fate, had been beaten 
 by inexorable circumstance into shape as princes and rulers 
 of the land. Greatness had been thrust upon them. They 
 were masters no longer only of certain factories upon the 
 coast, but of three great Presidencies or Governments. They 
 had armies, and councillors, and ambassadors at foreign Courts. 
 The " pure mercantile bottom," on which they had been wont 
 to sit, and to which they clung with all the dogged tenacity 
 of their race, had, during the last few years, expanded under 
 this mighty corporation into an imperial throne ; 
 
 " What seemed its head 
 The likeness of a kingly crown had on ;" 
 
 and sorely bewildered it was sometimes under the pressure of 
 this unlooked-for encumbrance. 
 
 The greatest trouble of Leadenhall-street, at this time, was 
 Lord Wellesley. That ambitious statesman had vast schemes, 
 which were but little appreciated in the City of London. 
 Among them was one for the advancement of learning gene- 
 rally, but more especially among the Company's civil servants. 
 The Directors, as I have already shown,* were very eager to 
 promote the moral welfare of their young people in India; 
 but as long as they wrote good hands, could cast up accounts 
 with precision, and behaved with due steadiness and discretion, 
 their honourable masters do not appear to have troubled them- 
 selves much about the intellectual elevation of the service. 
 They had finished the old century well by sending off a long 
 and well-written despatch, of which Charles Grant, the elder, 
 is commonly supposed to have been the author, protesting 
 against the habitual profanation of the Sabbath, and the 
 general disregard of religion, which were said to mark the 
 proceedings of their servants, and of society generally, in 
 Bengal most especially in the great metropolis of Calcutta. 
 The charge, I am afraid, was too true. To use the words of 
 a modern writer : " All the daily concerns of life went on as 
 usual (on Sundays), with the exception, perhaps, that there was 
 somewhat more than the ordinary abandonment to pleasure. 
 
 * Ante, Memoir of Lord Cornwallis.
 
 382 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1801. At our military stations the flag was hoisted, and they who 
 saw it knew that it was Sunday. But the work-table and the 
 card-table were resorted to as on week-days. Christianity 
 cantered to the races in the morning, and in the evening drove 
 to a nautch." Against all this against the habitual extrava- 
 gance of the Company's servants against the luxury which 
 had grown up amongst them, and the evil habits of horse- 
 racing, card-playing, and other fashionable indulgences 
 there was now a vigorous protest issued under the directing 
 hands of one of the best men who ever sat in Leadenhall- 
 street. "It is," said that famous despatch, " on the qualities 
 of our servants that the safety of the British possessions in 
 India essentially depends on their virtue, their intelligence, 
 their laborious application, their vigilance, and public spirit. 
 We have seen, and do still with pleasure see, honourable ex- 
 amples of all these ; we are anxious to preserve and increase 
 such examples, and therefore cannot contemplate without 
 alarm the excessive growth of fashionable amusements and 
 show, the tendency of which is to enervate the mind and 
 impair its nobler qualities to introduce a hurtful emulation 
 in expense, to set up false standards of merit, to confound 
 the different orders in society, and to beget an aversion to 
 serious occupation." And then, in a subsequent paragraph, 
 we have the following the logic of which, I confess, is 
 much more convincing than any of the Leadenhall-street logic 
 which I have quoted in a preceding Memoir : " Believing," 
 says the despatch, " that the enjoyment of avowed honourable 
 allowances would tend to promote, among other honourable 
 effects, a due regulation of expense, the Company have, from 
 such considerations, strained their own means to put their 
 servants on the most liberal footing; but whilst they feel 
 themselves weighed down by the civil and military charges of 
 their establishments, they are still frequently assailed, in one 
 way or another, by new applications for pecuniary conces- 
 sions ; and yet, at the same time that we hear of straits and 
 hardships resulting from inadequate allowances, we not only 
 discern evident marks of increasing dissipation in the general 
 habits of European society in India, but in some a spirit of 
 gaming publicly showing itself in lotteries and the keen pur- 
 suits of the turf."
 
 LORD WELLESLEY AND THE COLLEGE. 
 
 383 
 
 Nothing could be better than this ; but after-events un- 
 happily proved that there was either a want of sincerity in it, 
 or a want of capacity to view the whole question in a com- 
 prehensive spirit. The Go vernor- General was especially ex- 
 horted to look into this matter, and to do everything that 
 possibly could be done to curb the licentiousness of his sub- 
 ordinates. But when he hit upon the best possible device for 
 raising the character of the Company's civil servants, he met 
 only with opposition and reproof. 
 
 At that time the Civil Service was recruited with boys 
 fresh from school. A stripling from the fifth form at Eton 
 was suddenly converted, in his teens, into an Indian adminis- 
 trator, and launched at once into a sea of temptation, at an 
 Indian presidency, to sink or to swim, according to the degree 
 of his own strength or of the power of the waves. How he 
 managed " to fit himself for the public service," it was hard to 
 say. His education was generally slender, and in its slender- 
 ness not of a kind to qualify him for the work of Indian ad- 
 ministration. That good or bad angel of EXAMINATION had 
 not at that time flapped his wings over the land. And yet, 
 somehow or other, very good public servants had been, as the 
 Court of Directors acknowledged, reared out of these adverse 
 circumstances. Warren Hastings and John Shore, Jonathan 
 Duncan and George Barlow the Halheds, the Colebrookes, 
 Neill Edmonstone, and St. George Tucker, had ripened 
 under that system ; and Mountstuart Elphin stone was grow- 
 ing rapidly, and Butterworth Bayley and Charles Metcalfe 
 were beginning to grow, when it occurred to Lord Wellesley 
 that they would grow stronger and straighter if they were 
 sent to College on their first arrival in India. And thinking 
 of this, and of other palpable wants of the great country whicl 
 he had been sent to govern, he conceived the idea of the 
 College of Fort William. 
 
 It was said of old by one great poet of another, that he 
 " did all like a man." Lord Wellesley did ah 1 like a man ; 
 and with a manliness almost gigantic. It was not in him to 
 do anything on a small scale. When, therefore, he projected 
 a College for the education of the younger servants of Govern- 
 ment, he set the stamp of his individuality on such a magnifi- 
 cent design, that it fairly staggered the Company in London 
 
 1801. 
 
 The College of 
 Fort William.
 
 384 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1801. " the ignominious tyrants of Leadenhall-street," as he called 
 v them soon afterwards the " generous benefactors" of a later 
 period of his career. But it is not improbable that the Court's 
 despatch, quoted above, actually suggested the idea of the pro- 
 posed institution. For it was as early as October, 1799, that 
 he wrote to Mr. Dundas, saying : " I think it necessary to 
 apprise you of my intention to adopt, without delay, a plan 
 for the improvement of the Civil Service at Bengal in a most 
 important point. The state of the administration of justice, 
 and even of the collection of the revenue, throughout the pro- 
 vinces, affords a painful example of the inefficiency of the best 
 code of laws to secure the happiness of the people, unless due 
 provision has been made to ensure a proper supply of men 
 qualified to administer those laws in their different branches 
 and departments. This evil is felt severely in every part of 
 this Government, and it rises principally from a defect at the 
 source and fountain head of the service I mean the education 
 and early habits of the young gentlemen sent hither in the 
 capacity of writers. My opinion, after full deliberation of the 
 subject, is decided that the writers, on their first arrival in 
 India, should be subjected for a period of two or three years to 
 the rules and discipline of some collegiate institution at the 
 seat of Government." Having laid down, in outline, what he 
 proposed to teach the languages and laws of the country, the 
 regulations of Government, &c., he expressed a hope that, by 
 means of such an institution, habits of activity, regularity, and 
 decency might be formed, instead of those of sloth, indolence, 
 low debauchery, and vulgarity, which he said were " too apt 
 to grow on those young men, who have been sent at an early 
 age into the interior parts of the country, and have laid the 
 foundation of their life and manners among the coarse vices 
 and indulgences of these countries." 
 
 It was a word and a blow always with Lord Wellesley. 
 He conceived the idea, he wrote a letter, he established the 
 College. He did not wait to realise his magnificent con- 
 ceptions to the full ; he knew the importance of making a 
 beginning. When Charles Metcalfe arrived in India, the 
 great institution was in a crude inchoate state. The original 
 regulations for the foundation of the College of Fort William 
 had been published on the 10th of July, 1800 ; but Charles
 
 FIRST YEAR OF SERVICE. 385 
 
 Metcalfe, who arrived in India on the first day of 1801, was 1801. 
 the first student to sign the statute-book ; and he did not sign 
 it until the 27th of April of that year. It would appear from 
 his journals, however, that one great collegiate feature was in 
 existence at an earlier date, for in the preceding months he 
 frequently recorded the fact that he had " dined at College."* 
 I conclude that he was the first resident member. 
 
 The novelty of Anglo-Indian life, for a time, was pleasing E 
 to young Charles Metcalfe, so also was its independence ; and sp 
 all the chief people of the Presidency, the Governor- General 
 and Councillors included, opened their houses to him. But 
 with the hot weather came weariness and exhaustion. The 
 young civilian's spirits failed him ; and before the month of 
 June had been gasped out, he had written to his father, telling 
 him that he hated India, and that all his happiness in life 
 depended upon his being permitted to return home and obtain 
 "a small place in Lord Grenville's office." Now, if Charles 
 Metcalfe had been the son of a weak-minded mother, it is 
 possible that her entreaties might have prevailed against the 
 paternal judgment ; but she was, fortunately, a lady in whom 
 there was as much sound sense as good feeling; she saw at 
 once that her son had written under a temporary depression 
 of spirits, or, in the language of the day, " vapours," which 
 would soon pass away; and her expressive answer was a 
 box of pills. " You may laugh at my sending them," she 
 wrote, " but I think you are bilious, and they will be of great 
 service. . . . You study too much. You should dissipate a 
 little. On account of your health you should relax. Ride on 
 horseback. When intense thinking is joined with the want of 
 exercise, the consequences must be bad." The answer of 
 Major Metcalfe was drawn from his own book of experience. 
 " I remember well," he wrote, " my own feelings, when I 
 was an Ensign, and had been in the country about three 
 months. I one morning (in a fit of bile) waited on the com- 
 manding officer with an intention to resign the service and re- 
 
 o o 
 
 turn to England. Fortunately for me, the conversation at 
 breakfast took a pleasant turn, in which I bore an active part, 
 
 * " January 13. Dined at college. declaration, and was admitted into col- 
 Saturday, 17. Dined at college, &c. &c. lege ; being the first ever admitted into 
 Monday, April 27. Read and signed the the College of Fort William." 
 
 VOL. I. 2 C '" 
 
 ly de- 
 ndency.
 
 386 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1801. and a hearty fit of laughter got the better of my blue devils. 
 I returned to my quarters with a determination to persevere." 
 Indeed, it was a very old story. There is no incident with 
 which biography is more familiar, than this early fainting at 
 the outset of the great march to Fame. 
 
 It was, perhaps, fortunate for Charles Metcalfe that in 
 those days there were no overland mails. Many months 
 elapsed before he could receive an answer to his appeal ; and 
 before the parental replies reached Calcutta, the young civilian 
 had begun to take a more cheerful view of life, and to think 
 that he might ,d something to distinguish himself in India, 
 though he still clung to the belief that there were better 
 prospects before him in England. Even then his young 
 ambition had been fired. Whilst yet only in his seventeenth 
 year, he wrote in his journal, " No one possesses more ambi- 
 tion than I do ; and am I destined to be great ? If I quit 
 this country, I may be ; and it is one of the reasons for my 
 desiring it so ardently. I cannot help thinking, should I 
 hereafter be great, of the fervour with which my biographer 
 will seize upon these slight memorandums, and record them 
 to an eager public as a proof of my indulging in youth and in 
 distant climes the idea of becoming a great character on the 
 theatre of the world." This was written in October; but 
 before the end of the year delivery came in the shape of 
 active employment. Lord Wellesley, who perceived that the 
 youngster had good stuff in him, emancipated him from the 
 control of the College of Fort William, and appointed him an 
 Assistant to the Resident at Scindiah's Court. 
 
 At Scindiah's On his way to join his appointment, Charles Metcalfe fell in 
 with the camp of the Governor- General, and obtained Lord 
 Wellesley 's permission to accompany him to Lucknow. There 
 he caught his first glimpse of the traditional splendour of the 
 East, and found that the reality even exceeded the romance. 
 " Everything," he said, " recalled to my memory the 
 ' Arabian Nights,' for every description of any such pro- 
 cession which I ever met with in history, even the celebrated 
 triumph of Aurelian when he led Zenobia and Tiridates 
 (Tetricus) captives, of which Gibbon gives an account, was 
 completely beggared by it." From Lucknow, he proceeded 
 to join the camp of the Resident at Scindiah's Court. This
 
 LORD WELLESLEY'S OFFICE. 387 
 
 high political office was then held by Colonel Collins an 1801 
 early associate of Metcalfe's father, who spoke of him affec- 
 tionately as his " old friend Jack Collins." But he had an- 
 other name with the general community, who called him 
 " King Collins," for he was a man of an imperious nature and 
 an overbearing temper. Charles Metcalfe did not want temper, 
 but he wanted tact ; and he soon quarrelled with his chief. 
 The old soldier resented the clever self-sufficiency of the young 
 civilian, who argued and dogmatised, and was continually 
 rubbing himself against the angularities of King Collins. So 
 there was a rupture. Metcalfe asked permission to resign his 
 appointment, and then returned to Calcutta. 
 
 It was well that he did so ; for soon after his return to the 
 Presidency, a seat was given to him in what was called 
 " Lord Wellesley's office." A little cluster of the most pro- Lord Wel 
 mising young civilians was gathered together in Government 
 House, and did much important confidential work under the 
 superintendence of the Chief Secretaries, or sometimes of the 
 Governor- General himself. It was the best possible nursery 
 for infant statesmen, and there were few who did not profit by 
 the culture. Great events were then taking shape in the 
 womb of Time. We were on the eve of that great conflict of 
 which I have already written a conflict destined to change 
 the entire aspect of our Eastern Empire, and to make the 
 administration of Lord Wellesley the most momentous in the 
 whole range of our Indian history. It was a great thing for 
 young Charles Metcalfe to take even a humble ministerial part 
 in these great transactions, under the eye of the Governor- 
 General. Lord Wellesley was one to encourage well those 
 who served him well. To the men who did not grudge their 
 work, he did not grudge his praise. A minister, in high 
 place, who is slow to recognise the good services of his sub- 
 ordinates, may be a very clever man, but he is not a great 
 statesman. What this novitiate in Lord Wellesley's office did 
 for Charles Metcalfe, at the turning-point of his career, it is 
 almost impossible to estimate too highly. After a year and a 
 half of this good training, he was thoroughly fit for active 
 service of any kind, and eager above all things to prove his 
 capacity for action. He had ceased to think of the oppor- 
 tunities of Lord Grenville's office. 
 
 2 c 2
 
 388 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1804, During this residence in Calcutta, Charles Metcalfe became 
 
 reverentially attached to Lord Wellesley ; and the Governor- 
 General, upon his part, conceived an interest in the young 
 civilian which was never weakened by years. By this time 
 the Governor- General had begun to discern that there was 
 but little sympathy between him and the masters whom he 
 served. His'cherished scheme of the Calcutta College* soon 
 excited opposition, which became more vehement as the pro- 
 ject developed itself ; and soon other acts, little appreciated in 
 Leadenhall-street, increased the bitterness of the feud. But 
 there was at least one man in the Court of Directors who re- 
 cognised the great qualities of Lord Wellesley, and was well 
 inclined to support him. This was Charles Metcalfe's father ; 
 a fact known to the Governor- General, which tended to in- 
 crease the favour with which he regarded his young assistant. 
 He knew that Metcalfe was eager to be up and doing ; and so, 
 in the full assurance that there was the right stuff in the 
 youth, the Governor- General sent him to the great centre of 
 action in the country between the Jumna and the Ganges. 
 
 For the " great game" had now commenced. General Lake's 
 army had taken the field ; and in the spring of 1804, Charles 
 Metcalfe was appointed Political Assistant to the Commander- 
 in-Chief, and despatched to join the army at head-quarters. 
 On his way thither, travelling in a palanquin, he was set upon 
 by a party of armed robbers, who despoiled him of everything 
 that was worth taking, and well-nigh deprived him of his life. 
 Abandoned by his bearers, he made an effort single-handed to 
 resist his assailants ; but, severely wounded and faint from 
 loss of blood, he was compelled to desist from the encounter. 
 Then staggering into the jungle, he laid himself down on the 
 bank of a river, whilst the thieves were collecting their spoil. 
 He has himself recorded how, as he lay there, he thought of 
 
 * The suppression by the East India age. But meanwhile the feeling in 
 
 Company of the College of Fort William, Calcutta against the opposition of the 
 
 in Bengal, as designed by Lord Wei- Court had grown very strong how 
 
 lesley, was followed by the institution strong may be gathered from a letter in 
 
 of Haileybury College, in Hertfordshire, the Appendix, addressed by the Reverend 
 
 The majority of the Directors recognised David Brown to Mr. Charles Grant, 
 
 the virtue of the preliminary training, They were friends and close corre- 
 
 but thought that England was a better spondents ; but Mr. Brown, who had 
 
 place for it than India, and that it been appointed Principal of the College, 
 
 would be better for the young writers was in the matter an earnest Wel- 
 
 to go out to India at a more advanced lesleyite.
 
 METCALFE AT DEEG. 389 
 
 home and of his parents, and how at that very time they 1805. 
 might be at Abingdon races. But he recovered strength 
 enough to return to his palanquin to find the robbers departed, 
 and his bearers returned. So he ordered them to proceed to 
 Cawnpore. 
 
 There, under the careful and affectionate ministrations of 
 his aunt, Mrs. Richardson, he soon recovered from his wounds, 
 and proceeded to join the camp of the Commander-in-Chief. 
 The General was a fine old soldier ; but he had his weaknesses, 
 and among them an habitual contempt for civilians ; and, in- 
 deed, for much penmanship of any kind. He had an emphatic 
 formula by which he expressed to those beneath him his desire 
 that they should mind their fighting and not their writing. 
 The presence in his camp of a boy-civilian, fresh from Govern- 
 ment House, rather irritated him ; and, perhaps, the members 
 of his Staff humoured the old soldier by sneering at the non- 
 combatant clerk, who shared the pleasant excitements but not 
 the dangers of the campaign. Young Metcalfe got some 
 inkling of this, and quietly bided his time. An opportunity 
 soon came. The army was before the strong fortress of Deeg. 
 The storming party was told off, and the non-combatant clerk 
 volunteered to accompany it. He was one of the first to enter 
 the breach. This excited the admiration of the old General, 
 who made most honourable mention of him in his despatch ; 
 and, ever afterwards, throughout the campaign, spoke of him 
 as his " little stormer." 
 
 It was soon after this that Colonel Malcolm joined the camp visit to Hoi- 
 of the Commander-in-Chief, and took young Metcalfe into his r 
 councils. The war was then nearly over, for the treasury was 
 well-nigh empty, and the Company were on the verge of 
 bankruptcy. There was, however, one last blow to be struck. 
 Holkar was still in an attitude of hostility; but when the 
 British troops drove him, as before narrated, across the Sutlej, 
 and he was at last compelled to accept the terms offered to 
 him by our Government, the "little stormer" was sent to 
 convey to the Mahratta chief the assurances of our friendship 
 and good will. He spoke modestly of this mission, and said 
 that his task was an easy one ; but it required both temper
 
 390 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1805. an d tact, especially as the celebrated Pathan leader, Ameer 
 Khan, was present at the meeting, and inclined to be insolent 
 to the boyish English diplomatist, who had not by any means 
 an imposing personal presence, and whose countenance could 
 scarcely by any effort be made to discard its habitual expres- 
 sion of cheerfulness and benignity. " The conduct of Holkar 
 and his chiefs," he wrote to a young friend in Calcutta, " was 
 equally expressive of the highest delight, and made my mission 
 a very pleasing and happy business. My task was easy, being 
 in its nature only to convey assurances of friendship. ... It 
 was my duty to urge his immediate departure from the Pun- 
 jab on his return to Malwa. I got from him a promise to 
 move on the 13th, which he maintained to my surprise. His 
 appearance is very grave, his countenance expressive, his 
 manners and conversation easy. He had not at ah 1 the ap- 
 pearance of the savage we knew him to be. The same counte- 
 nance, however, which was strongly expressive of joy when I 
 saw him, would look very black under the influence of rage, 
 or any dark passions. A little lapdog was on his musnud 
 a strange playfellow for Holkar. The jewels on his neck were 
 invaluably rich. . . . All his chiefs were present. Ameer 
 Khan is a blackguard in his looks, and affected, on the occa- 
 sion of my reception, to be particularly fierce, by rubbing his 
 coat over with gunpowder, and assuming in every way the air 
 of a common soldier. But for his proximity to Holkar he 
 would have passed for one. I consider his behaviour to have 
 been affectation. He had the impudence to ask from me my 
 name, which must have been known to him ; and his conduct 
 was so evidently designed to bring himself into notice, that I 
 felt gratification in disappointing the unknown impudent, 
 and, answering plainly to his question, I turned from him and 
 continued a good-humoured conversation with Holkar and 
 Bhao Buskur. I was better pleased that I did so, when I 
 learnt his name, for he had on a late occasion behaved with 
 egregious impertinence. I have been very much gratified 
 with the accidental mission, because, though of no importance, 
 it is a little distinction. Lord Lake has made use of it to say 
 more hi my favour than I ever deserved, in a despatch to the 
 Governor- General. ' ' 
 
 On the restoration of peace, Mr. Metcalfe was appointed an
 
 ASSISTANT AT DELHI. 391 
 
 Assistant to the Resident at Delhi, where the Mogul Em- 1806 1807. 
 peror, Shah Allum, old, blind and infirm, still maintained the The Delhi As- 
 shadowy pageantry of a Court. The Resident was Mr. Seton, 8istant8hi P- 
 a civilian of the old school, whose chief characteristic was an 
 overflowing courtesy and politeness, which sometimes wholly 
 swept away all the barriers of sound sense and discretion, and 
 exposed him to not unmerited derision. In any other man, 
 the strong expressions of admiration with w r hich he spoke of 
 young Metcalfe's genius, might have been regarded as indica- 
 tions of discernment and prescience. But on the lips of Seton 
 the language of flattery was habitual, and Metcalfe attached 
 but little value to the praise of a superior, who had been re- 
 presented in a caricature of the day as saluting Satan with a 
 compliment, and wishing " long life and prosperity to His 
 Majesty." This weakness had unfortunately free scope for 
 exercise at Delhi, where exaggerated respect was shown by 
 Seton to the Mogul. Metcalfe often remonstrated against 
 this, and by his remonstrances greatly perplexed the Resident, 
 who could not show all the deference he wished both to his old 
 charge and his young friend. Metcalfe was soon sick of the 
 ungenial work, which was even less profitable than it was 
 pleasant. " I am with respect to health," he wrote in June, 
 1807, " as well as usual, and that, I thank God, is very well ; 
 in spirits, too, pretty well ; and though the place is very dull, 
 and I myself am no great enlivener of society, never fail to be 
 merry on a favourable opportunity. I am tired of business, 
 and long to have less to do the nearest to nothing the better. 
 . . . And now comes the dreadful tale. My finances are quite 
 ruined, exhausted beyond any reasonable hope of repair. You 
 know that I am very prudent ; prudence is a prominent fea- 
 ture in my character ; yet, ever since I came to this Imperial 
 station, I have gradually been losing the ground which I had 
 gained in the world, and at length I find myself considerably 
 lower than the neutral situation of having nothing, and with- 
 out some unlooked-for and surprising declaration of the fates 
 in my favour, I see nothing but debt, debt, debt, debt after 
 debt before me." But deliverance soon came. Certain new 
 duties were imposed upon him, and his allowances were con- 
 sequently increased. As these duties were of an administra- 
 tive rather than a diplomatic character, the arrangement did
 
 392 
 
 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1808. not much please him ; but he found consolation in the means 
 it afforded him of extricating himself from debt. He deter- 
 mined to convert this addition to his salary into a sinking- 
 fund for the payment of his debts ; ahd resolutely adhering to 
 1 the design, he paid off his debts to the last sixpence without 
 lany foreign aid, and soon laid the foundation of a fortune. 
 The mission to j He was now on the high road to promotion. Some at least 
 
 Lahore 
 
 ')f the day-dreams of the Eton cloisters were about to be 
 bealised. There was, or there was supposed to be, a conjunc- 
 ture which demanded the best services of all the best men in 
 the country. The apprehensions which sent Malcolm to 
 'ersia, and Elphinstone to Caubul, suggested the expediency 
 )f a mission to Lahore ; and Metcalfe was selected to conduct 
 In these days, it is no greater feat to go from Delhi to 
 jahore than to go from London to Scarborough. But in 1808 
 the Punjab was almost a terra incognita to us. We knew little 
 lor nothing of the " strange sect of people called the Sikhs." 
 Some tidings had reached us of the rising power of a chief 
 named Runjit Singh, who was rapidly consolidating by not the 
 most scrupulous means an empire on the banks of the Hyphasis 
 I and the Hydaspes. In pursuance of the comprehensive scheme 
 of defensive policy, which the rumoured designs of the French 
 and Russian Emperors compelled us to initiate, Lord Minto 
 determined to secure the good offices of the ruler of the Punjab, 
 and to bind him to us by treaty-obligations. For this work 
 he selected Mr. Metcalfe ; and seldom or never before had a 
 mission of so much delicacy and difficulty been entrusted to so 
 young a man. 
 
 Charles Metcalfe was only twenty-three years of age an 
 age at which at the present day many civilians of fhe new 
 school first set their faces towards the East when he went 
 forth on this embassy to the Court of Runjit Singh. On the 
 \A 1st of September, 1808, the mission crossed the Sutlej. On 
 ^yl * the 12th, Runjit Singh, who had been flitting about in a some- 
 ' what erratic fashion, as though he could hardly make up his 
 mind how to act, received the English officers at Kussoor. It 
 is not the custom in these cases to go to business at once. The 
 first visits of Oriental diplomacy are visits of courtesy and 
 " congratulation. It is a kind of diplomatic measuring of swords 
 before the conflict commences. " The Rajah," wrote Metcalfe, 
 
 J
 
 THE PUNJAB MISSION. 393 
 
 "met us on the outside of a large enclosure, and having 1808. 
 embraced all the gentlemen of the mission, conducted us 
 within, where tents had been prepared for our reception. As 
 a compliment to us, the Kajah, from his own choice, used 
 chairs at this meeting, partly collected from our camp and 
 partly from his own, upon which he and the principal Sirdars 
 present, and the gentlemen of the British mission, were 
 seated. This interview was prolonged by the Rajah beyond 
 the usual time of visits of ceremony ; but nothing of conse- 
 quence passed at it. The Rajah did not enter much into con- 
 versation, and made only two observations worthy of remark. 
 One was an expression of regret for the lamented death of 
 Lord Lake, of whom he observed that it would be difficult to 
 find his equal, for that he was as much distinguished by his 
 gentleness, mildness, humanity, and affability as by his great- 
 ness as a military character. The other observation was in 
 reply to one of his courtiers, who was remarking that the 
 British Government was celebrated for good faith ; upon 
 which Runjit Singh said that he knew well that the word of 
 the British Government included everything." Great words 
 and a great fact in those days. 
 
 On the 16th, Runjit Singh returned the visit of the young 
 English diplomatist; and three days afterwards, at another 
 meeting, they proceeded to discuss the preliminaries of busi- 
 ness, and on the 22nd negotiations were formally opened. In 
 their general features, they very much resembled those which 
 Elphinstone, a few months later, conducted at Peshawur. The 
 English officer did all that he could to persuade the Sikh ruler 
 that the British Government were eager to advance his inte- 
 rests, and that the proposed alliance was more to his advan- 
 tage than to their own ; and the Sikh ruler regarded this dis- 
 play of disinterestedness with some suspicion. " I opened the 
 conference," wrote Metcalfe, " by stating that the friendship 
 which had happily existed between the Rajah and the British 
 Government had induced the Governor- General to depute me 
 to communicate some important intelligence, in which the 
 Maharajah's interests were materially concerned. I then 
 mentioned that his Lordship had received authentic advices 
 that the French, who were endeavouring to establish them- 
 selves in Persia, had formed the design of invading these
 
 394 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1808. countries, and of seizing Caubul and the Punjab ; that his 
 Lordship's first care was to give warning to the States which 
 this intelligence concerned ; that, feeling the interests of the 
 British Government and those of the Rajah to be the same, his 
 Lordship had commissioned me to negotiate with the Rajah 
 arrangements for the extirpation of the common enemy, and 
 had appointed another gentleman to be Envoy to Caubul for 
 similar purposes with respect to that country, who would in a 
 short time, with the Rajah's permission, pass through this 
 country, on his way to the place of his destination. I added, 
 that these measures had been adopted by the Government in 
 the purest spirit of friendship, and that it was evident that the 
 interests of all the States in this quarter required that they 
 should unite their powers in defence of their dominions, and 
 for the destruction of the common enemy." 
 
 When the young English Envoy had finished his statement, 
 the Rajah asked him how far the British Army would advance 
 to meet the French ; and to this Metcalfe replied that it was 
 our practice to seek the enemy, and that " no doubt the Go- 
 vernment would send an army beyond Caubul." " But 
 what," asked Runjit Singh, " if the King of Caubul should 
 throw himself into the arms of the French?" " Why then," 
 said Metcalfe, "we shall attack him as well as the French." 
 But he added that it was " improbable that he would be so 
 blind to his own interests ; for that the French invariably 
 subjected and oppressed those who joined them ; plundered and 
 laid waste their country, and overthrew the Government." 
 " In the course of this conversation," continued the youthful 
 diplomatist, " I endeavoured, in conformity to the instruc- 
 tions of the Supreme Government, to alarm the Rajah for the 
 safety of his territories, and at the same time to give him 
 confidence in our protection." To all of this the Rajah made 
 frank and friendly answer ; but he said that it was altogether 
 an important subject, that he wanted time to talk it over with 
 his ministers, and that his sentiments would be expressed on 
 the morrow. 
 
 So the Sikh statesmen took time to consider the proposals 
 of the British Government, and the more they thought over 
 them, the greater the suspicion with which they regarded 
 them. The big words which Metcalfe had spoken about the
 
 THE PUNJAB MISSION. 395 
 
 dangers to which they wore exposed began to shrivel into in- 1808. 
 significance. They could not bring themselves to believe that 
 this remote and conjectural danger from the ambitious designs 
 of the French was the real cause of a British mission being 
 sent to the Court of Run] it Singh. And if it were so, it was 
 not, after all, a matter that much concerned the Sikhs them- 
 selves. Runjit himself saw clearly that the English had their 
 own objects to gain. He had his objects, too ; and he might 
 turn the British mission to good account. So he asked 
 Metcalfe whether the British Government would recognise his 
 sovereignty over all the Sikh States on both sides of the 
 Sutlej. If the English wished to preserve their empire, he 
 wished to consolidate his. But Metcalfe only replied that he 
 had no authority to express the views of his Government on 
 this subject. 
 
 It would be a work of time to narrate all the details of the 
 protracted negotiations which then ensued. The Sikh ruler 
 was full of jealousy and suspicion ; and, therefore, he was very 
 wary in his practice. He fenced and evaded with the greatest 
 skill ; and was continually watching for opportunities, which 
 the young English officer never allowed him, of coming down 
 upon him unawares, or striking him at a disadvantage. The 
 fact is, that he thought Metcalfe had entered his country in the 
 character of a spy, and that the negotiation of a friendly 
 alliance was intended only to mask some ulterior proceedings 
 of a hostile character. His conduct was distinguished by an 
 amount of inquietude and restlessness, which every now and 
 then verged upon discourtesy, if not upon overt insolence to 
 the British mission, and it is not improbable that many a man 
 in Metcalfe's place would have resented the strange bearing of 
 the Sikh chief, and have broken up his camp to return to the 
 British frontier. But, even at that early age, the beautiful 
 patience, w^hich at a later time so perfected in him the true 
 heroic character, displayed itself to his own honour and to his 
 country's good. He had been sent to perform a certain work, 
 and he was resolute to do it in spite of all temptations to turn 
 aside ; and, therefore, he was slow to take offence, feeling that 
 he might attribute to the barbaric ignorance and to the rude 
 impulses of one, who had never known restraint, much which 
 in an European Prince would have been wholly unaccountable
 
 396 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 18C8 1809. and not to be forgiven. When, in all courtesy and respect, 
 Runjit ought to have been pursuing to a close the negotiation 
 with the representative of the British Government, he was 
 giving himself up to strong drink and to the unseemly exhi- 
 bitions of dancing-girls, and giving no sort of heed to the im- 
 portant business before him. There was method, perhaps, in 
 madness of this kind. He was evidently anxious to gain time, 
 that he might see what would be written down in the great 
 chapter of accidents, and might be guided to that which 
 would best serve his individual interests. 
 
 So the year 1808 was fast wearing away, and Metcalfe still 
 remained at the Court of Runjit Singh now in one place, now 
 in another. Runjit was pursuing his schemes of ambition, and 
 meditated the conquest of the lesser Sikh States on the Eng- 
 lish side of the Sutlej. But the Government of Lord Minto 
 had determined not to suffer the less powerful chiefs to be 
 sacrificed to Runjit's ambition, and were now making prepa- 
 rations for the advance of a military force to the banks of the 
 river. On the 22nd of December, Metcalfe personally com- 
 municated these intentions to the Rajah. He received the 
 communication with apparent self-control ; but after putting 
 a few questions relating to the strength of the British force, 
 and the position which it was to take up questions to which 
 Metcalfe was unable to reply Runjit left the room, descended 
 to the court-yard below, mounted a horse, and began caracolling 
 about with what the young English Envoy described as " sur- 
 prising levity." But it was not levity. He was striving to 
 subdue his strong feelings, and was gaining time to consider 
 the answer he was to give to the British Envoy. After a 
 while he returned to another room and took counsel with his 
 ministers, who, when they rejoined Metcalfe, told him that the 
 Rajah would consent to all the demands of the British Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 But these were mere words. With characteristic instability, 
 Runjit wished to withdraw them almost as soon as they were 
 uttered. On the same evening he sent a message to Metcalfe, 
 saying that the proposal of the British Government to send 
 troops to the Sutlej was of so strange a character, that he 
 could not finally announce his determination till he had con- 
 sulted with his chiefs, and that he purposed to proceed for that 
 purpose to Umritsur, and he requested the British Envoy to
 
 THE PUNJAB MISSION. 397 
 
 attend him. But Metcalfe, though habitually of a placid 1809. 
 demeanour, fired up at this, and earnestly protested against it 
 as an insult to his Government. His resolute bearing had the 
 desired effect. The negotiations were continued ; but it was 
 obvious that Runjit Singh was sorely irritated, and half doubt- 
 ful at times whether he would try conclusions with the Eng- 
 lish. He had long been anxious to assure himself with respect 
 to the real military strength of the British Government most 
 of all, what were the qualities of the trained native soldiers 
 who constituted our Sepoy army. An unexpected incident 
 gave him a glimpse of the knowledge which he sought. The 
 negotiations had been protracted, without any positive results, 
 to the month of February, when one day Metcalfe's escort of 
 British Sepoys came into collision, at Umritsur, with a party 
 of Akalis, or Sikh fanatics half soldiers and half saints. 
 There was a sharp conflict between them ; but, after a little 
 while, the steady discipline of the little band of trained soldiers 
 prevailed, and the Sikhs broke and fled. This appears to have 
 made a great impression on Runjit's mind. He saw clearly 
 that the English, who could make such good soldiers of men 
 not naturally warlike, were a people not to be despised. There 
 were ulterior results of even more importance to history, but 
 that which immediately followed was the conclusion of the 
 treaty, which had been so long in course of negotiation. It 
 was a treaty of general friendship and alliance between the 
 British and the Sikh powers a plain, straightforward, sensible 
 treaty, unencumbered with details ; and it lasted out the lives 
 both of the Indian chief and the English statesman. 
 
 The manner in which Charles Metcalfe had conducted these 18091810. 
 difficult negotiations placed him at once, notwithstanding the Madras and 
 fewness of his years, in the foremost rank of the public servants 
 of the Indian Government. * From that time his fortune was 
 
 * The thanks of the Government which he entertains of the distinguished 
 
 were conveyed to Mr. Metcalfe in the merit of your services and exertions in 
 
 following words : " During the course a situation of more than ordinary im- 
 
 of your arduous ministry at the Court portance, difficulty, and responsibility, 
 
 of Lahore, the Governor-General in to convey to you the assurance of his 
 
 Council has repeatedly had occasion to high approbation, and to signify to you 
 
 record his testimony to your zeal, ability, that the general tenor of your conduct 
 
 and address in the execution of the in the arduous negotiations in which 
 
 duties committed to your charge. His you have been engaged has established 
 
 Lordship in Council, however, deems it a peculiar claim to public applause, 
 
 an obligation at the close of your mis- respect, and esteem." 
 sion, generally to declare the high sense
 
 398 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 isio. made. On Metcalfe's return to India, Lord Miiito invited him 
 to Calcutta. The Governor- General was at that time about 
 to proceed to Madras, in consequence of the mutiny of the 
 officers of the Madras Army ; and he was so much pleased with 
 Metcalfe, that he invited him to accompany the Government 
 party, as Deputy- Secretary, to the Coast. After a brief sojourn 
 at Madras, Metcalfe went to Mysore to visit his old friend, 
 the Honourable Arthur Cole. In May, 1810, he returned to 
 Calcutta, and was soon afterwards appointed Resident at 
 Scindiah's Court, in succession to Mr. Graeme Mercer. As he 
 did not like the appointment, it was fortunate that he was not 
 destined long to remain there. After he had resided some ten 
 months at Gwalior, to which the Court had been recently re- 
 moved from Oujein, Lord Minto offered him the Delhi Resi- 
 dency, in succession to Mr. Seton, who had been appointed 
 Governor of Prince of Wales's Island. " I shall," wrote the 
 Governor-General to him, " with (or without) your consent, 
 name you to the Residency of Delhi. I know your martial 
 genius and your love of camps ; but, besides that inclination 
 must yield to duty, this change will appear to fall in, not in- 
 opportunely, with some information and some sentiments con- 
 veyed to me in your letter of the 3rd instant." And then he 
 added, in a strain of kindly jocoseness, " If you ask my 
 reasons for so extraordinary a choice, I can only say that, not- 
 withstanding your entire ignorance of everything connected 
 with the business of Delhi a city which, I believe, you never 
 saw ; and with Cis- and Trans- Sutlej affairs, of which you can 
 only have read ; and notwithstanding your equal deficiency in 
 all other more general qualifications, I cannot find a better 
 name in the list of Company's servants ; and hope, therefore, 
 for your indulgence on the occasion." I have read a great 
 number of letters from Governors- General, offering high ap- 
 pointments to the officers of Government, but never one so 
 pleasant as this never one that so clearly indicated the 
 personal affection of the writer for the man to whom it was 
 addressed. 
 
 The Delhi So, at the age of twenty-six, Charles Metcalfe found him- 
 
 Kesidency. se jf m p OSSess i on o f the high dignity and the large emoluments 
 
 of an office coveted by men of twice his age and four times the 
 
 length of his service. Yet he was by no means elated by his
 
 DELHI RESIDENT. 399 
 
 good fortune. It is hard, perhaps, to form a just estimate of 181112. 
 the habitual feelings of a dweller in India, so much is a man's 
 cheerfulness affected by the climate ; so great are the vicissi- 
 tudes from a state of high animal spirits to one of feebleness 
 and depression. The biographer should always consider the 
 date of a letter written in India ; but it will be no unfailing 
 guide. The truth is that, by men who have much official work 
 to do, private letters to friends in England are commonly 
 written in a state of weariness and exhaustion ; and, moreover, 
 there is always something saddening in this communion with 
 the old home ; it suggests so many tender regrets and painful 
 yearnings after unattainable bliss. It was not strange, there- 
 fore, that Charles Metcalfe should have written to England, 
 from the Delhi Residency, to discourage one of his aunts from 
 sending out her son to India. " Do not suppose," he added, 
 " that I am unhappy or discontented. I have long since 
 reconciled myself to my fate, and am as contented and happy 
 as one far from his friends can be. I do not allow unpleasant 
 thoughts to enter my mind, and if I do not enjoy what is 
 beyond my roach the inexpressible pleasure of family society 
 I at least am always cheerful and never unhappy. My 
 father did what he thought best for me ; and it is satisfactory 
 to me to reflect that my career in India, except as to fortune, 
 must have answered his expectations. It has been successful 
 beyond any merits that I am aware of in myself." As he says, 
 in the next paragraph, that he hopes to save 30001. a year 
 from his salary, I can hardly think that even Sir Thomas 
 Metcalfe could have been much disappointed that his son could 
 not do more financially at the age of six-and-twenty. 
 
 As time advanced, his spirits did not rise. He was still 
 subject to fits of depression, if not to an habitual inward 
 gloom. He felt that he w r as a solitary man. " I shah 1 never 
 marry," he said. " My principal reason for thinking that I 
 positively shah" never marry, is the difficulty of two disposi- 
 tions uniting so exactly as to produce that universal harmony 
 which is requisite to form the perfect happiness that is indis- 
 pensable to make the married state desirable." But his affec- 
 tions were very warm. He had already formed some strong 
 friendships in India, which lasted all his life ; and now at 
 Delhi, though he had many acquaintances and he was over-
 
 400 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 181112. run with guests at the Residency (for his hospitality was un- 
 stinting), he had no familiar and cherished companions with 
 whom to interchange the inmost feelings of the heart. Some 
 temporary alleviation came in the shape of a visit from his 
 younger brother, Thomas Metcalfe,* who had come out to 
 India in the Bengal Civil Service, and whom, after leaving 
 College, Lord Minto had sent up to Delhi to act as an As- 
 sistant to the Resident. But he appears after a while, if his 
 correspondence is to be trusted, to have subsided into his old 
 melancholy ways. The following extracts from letters to his 
 aunt, Mrs. Monson, give his own account of the state of his 
 mind : " I cannot say," he wrote in one letter, " that I 
 approve of the plan of sending children out to India for all 
 their lives. There is no other service in which a man does 
 not see his friends sometimes. Here it is perpetual banish- 
 ment. There was a good reason for sending sons to India 
 when fortunes were made rapidly, and they returned home. 
 But if a man is to slave all his life, he had better do so, in 
 my opinion, in his own country, where he may enjoy the 
 society of his friends, which I call enjoying life. Do not 
 suppose that I am discontented and make myself unhappy. 
 It is my fate, and I am reconciled to it. ... But can any- 
 thing be a recompense to me in this world for not seeing my 
 dear and honoured father, from the days of my boyhood to the 
 day of his death and, perhaps, the same with regard to my 
 mother ? I think not decidedly not !" Again, in another 
 letter, he said : u I cannot describe to you how much I am 
 w T orked, and if I could, there would be no pleasure either to 
 you or me in the detail. I will, therefore, pass over that for 
 a while, and endeavour to forget my plagues. Tom arrived 
 here on the 18th. I am very much pleased with him, and 
 think him a superior young man. Here he and I are together, 
 and here we shall remain for many a long year consoling each 
 other as well as we can for the absence of all other friends. 
 ... I shall see you, I hope, in eighteen 'years !" And 
 again, a few months later : " It is very kind of you to wish 
 me home, and I assure you that I wish myself at home most 
 ardently. Nevertheless, as the sacrifices which a man must 
 make who comes to India have been made for the most part 
 
 * Afterwards Sir Thomas Metcalfe, for some time Resident at Delhi.
 
 PROSPECTS OF WAR. 401 
 
 already, I do not mean to return to England to struggle with 18H 1817. 
 poverty, or to be forced to draw tight my purse-strings. The 
 sacrifice that I have made, I consider great. The recompense 
 that I propose to myself is to have a competency not merely 
 for my own expenses, but to enable me to assist others with- 
 out reluctance or restraint. ... I am become very unsociable 
 and morose, and feel myself getting more so every day. I 
 lead a vexatious and joyless life ; and it is only the hope of 
 home at last that keeps me alive and merry. That thought 
 cheers me, though writing to any of you always makes me 
 sad." It is not very easy to believe that Charles Metcalfe 
 was ever " unsociable and morose." 
 
 When Lord Minto returned to England he left Charles 
 Metcalfe still at the Delhi Residency, and Lord Hastings 
 found him there. There were stirring times then before the 
 Government of India the necessary after-growth of the 
 sudden winding-up of the great game of Lord Wellesley's 
 time. Few men were better acquainted with the politics of 
 Upper Lidia than the Delhi Resident, and the statesmen by 
 whom Lord Hastings was surrounded were eager to obtain an 
 expression of his views. They were strongly in favour of a 
 " settlement." He knew that until vigorous measures had 
 been taken to crush the Pindarrees, and to place upon a more 
 satisfactory footing our relations with the substantive Mah- 
 ratta States, there could be only a cry of " Peace, Peace ! " 
 where there was no peace. He drew up, therefore, some im- 
 portant State papers for the use of Lord Hastings, and, whe- 
 ther the Governor- General were or were not moved by him, 
 it is very certain that the course pursued was in accordance 
 with the views and recommendations of Charles Metcalfe. 
 
 And it is certain that such were the clearness and compre- Diplomacy in 
 hensiveness of Metcalfe's views, and such the precision with Ra JP otana ' 
 which he expressed them, that the Governor- General saw 
 plainly that it would be to his advantage to have such a states- 
 man at his elbow. But there was some active diplomatic 
 business yet to be done by the Delhi Resident. In the great 
 political and military transactions which distinguished the 
 administration of Lord Hastings, Metcalfe played an im- 
 portant part. The task which was set him did not in the 
 sequel involve the rough work wjiich fell to the share of 
 
 VOL. i. 2 D
 
 402 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1817 1819. Elphinstone and Malcolm ; but it demanded the exercise of 
 no little address. It was his to bring the great Patan chief, 
 Ameer Khan, to terms ;* to induce him to disband his levies 
 and restore the tracts of country which he had taken from the 
 Rajpoots. It was his also to bring all the great Rajpoot chiefs 
 into friendly alliance with us ; and though the conduct of one 
 or two of them was of a slippery and evasive character, they 
 were all finally persuaded that it was really to their interest 
 that they should be brought under British protection. This 
 done, and the war concluded, Charles Metcalfe accepted the 
 offer of a place in the Executive Government, which had been 
 made to him by Lord Hastings, and prepared, in the cold 
 weather of 1818-19, to assume the office of Political Secre- 
 tary, in succession to Mr. John Adam, who had been elevated 
 to a seat in Council. 
 
 Departure He turned his back upon Delhi with a sigh. He left behind 
 
 him many dear friends. He loved the work that had been en- 
 trusted to him, because there was great scope for beneficent 
 action, and he felt that he had not exerted himself in vain. In 
 after years, he looked back with pardonable pride at the results 
 of his administration. " Capital punishment," he said, " was 
 almost wholly abstained from, and without any bad effect. 
 Corporal punishment was discouraged, and finally abolished. 
 Swords and other implements of intestine warfare, to which 
 the people were prone, were turned into ploughshares, not 
 figuratively alone, but literally also ; villagers being made to 
 give up their arms, which were returned to them in the shape 
 of implements of agriculture. Suttees were prohibited. The 
 rights of Government were better maintained than in other 
 - provinces, by not being subjected to the irreversible decisions 
 of its judicial servants, with no certain laws for their guidance 
 and control. The rights of the people were better preserved, 
 by the maintenance of the village constitutions, and by avoid- 
 ing those pernicious sales of lands for arrears of revenue, 
 which in other provinces have tended so much to destroy the 
 hereditary rights of the mass of the agricultural community." 
 
 Th Po/ifi" i ^ e P u fcical Secretaryship of the Indian Government is a 
 
 Secretaryship. 
 
 * This was the chief on whose pre- Holkar's camp in 1805, the young civi- 
 
 tentious, insolent manner towards Met- Han commented in a letter quoted at 
 
 calfe. on the occasion of his visit to page 390.
 
 POLITICAL SECRETARY. 403 
 
 high and important office ; one that had been, and lias since 1819. 
 been, held by men second to none in the public service. 
 Barlow, Edmonstone, and John Adam had been Metcalfe's 
 predecessors, and had each in turn passed on from the Secre- 
 taryship to a seat in the Supreme Council. But those who 
 knew Metcalfe best, doubted whether the place would suit 
 him ; and he soon came to doubt it himself. Among others, 
 Sir John Malcolm wrote to him, saying : " Had I been near 
 you, the King of Delhi should have been dissuaded from be- 
 coming an executive officer, and resigning power to jostle for 
 influence. But you acted with high motives, and should not 
 be dissatisfied with yourself." But Metcalfe was dissatisfied 
 with himself. He had no reason to complain of anything 
 in his intercourse with Lord Hastings, who was always 
 thoroughly a gentleman, with unfailing kindliness of heart 
 and courtesy of manner. Their ministerial relations were of 
 the most friendly, and to Metcalfe of the most flattering, 
 kind ; for if the Governor- General did not always adopt the 
 suggestions, or if he sometimes altered the work of his Secre- 
 tary, he explained his reasons, with such urbane consideration 
 for the feelings of his subordinate, that the most sensitive mind 
 could not be hurt. Officially he was not tried, as some men 
 are tried, sorely ; and socially his position was all that could 
 be desired. He had many dear friends in Calcutta. He re- 
 newed his pleasant intimacy with some old companions of his 
 youth, and he formed some new connexions, which were a 
 solace to him to the end of his days. But still he did not like 
 this ministerial employment. He had been King so long that 
 it was irksome to him to be dwarfed into a Wuzeer. 
 
 So he longed to escape from Calcutta, from the Council- 
 Chamber, and from the elbow of the Go vernor- General ; and 
 he looked wistfully into the Future. " I recognise in all your 
 letters," said Sir John Malcolm, " the unaltered Charles Met- 
 calfe with whom I used to pace the tent at Muttra and build 
 castles ; our expenditure on which was subject neither to the 
 laws of estimate nor the rules of audit." And now, though at 
 a distance from each other, they began castle-building again. 
 Malcolm was meditating a return to England, and he was 
 eager to make over the administration of Central India to his 
 friend. Another high civil officer, who had the charge of a 
 
 2D2
 
 404 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1819. contiguous tract of country, was also about to retire from his 
 post ; and it was considered whether those two great adminis- 
 trative fields might not be conjoined and placed together in 
 Metcalfe's hands. " The union of Malcolm's charge and Mar- 
 joribanks'," he wrote in a rough pencil note on the face of a 
 letter from Mr. Adam, " would be grand indeed, and make me 
 . King of the East and the West." 
 
 So, full of this thought, Charles Metcalfe sat down and 
 wrote a long letter to Lord Hastings, in which, after describing 
 the arrangement which might be made, on the resignation 
 by Malcolm and Marjoribanks of their several charges, he 
 April, 1820. said : " When I reflect on the respectability, emoluments, 
 luxury, comforts, and presumed prospects of my present 
 situation, on the honour of holding a place so near your Lord- 
 ship's person, combined with the enjoyment of continual in- 
 tercourse with your Lordship, and on the happiness conferred 
 by your invariable kindness, I cannot satisfy myself that I 
 act wisely in seeking to be deprived of so many advantages in 
 order to undertake arduous duties of fearful responsibility. It 
 is very possible, I think, that if your Lordship should indulge 
 my wishes, I may hereafter repent of them ; but at present I 
 am under the influence of the following considerations. After 
 a sufficient experience, I feel that the duties of the Secretary's 
 Office are not so congenial to me as those which I have here- 
 tofore performed. I see reasons to doubt my qualifications for 
 this line of service. I think that many persons might be 
 found who would fill the office more efficiently ; and I fancy 
 that I could serve your Lordship better in a situation, such as 
 I have described, nearly resembling that which I formerly 
 held." The project was favourably received by the Governor- 
 Greneral, and Metcalfe became so sanguine that ere long it 
 would receive definitive approval, that he wrote to his friend 
 Mr. Jenkins, saying that Lord Hastings designed that it should 
 take effect, and inquiring " the best way of getting speedily 
 to Mhow in November or December." 
 
 But this " Kingship of the East and the West" was not in 
 store for him. A few weeks passed away, and a new field of 
 labour began to expand itself before him. " I have given up," 
 he again wrote to Mr. Jenkins, " the idea of succeeding Mal- 
 colm and erecting my standard on the Nerbudda, in order to
 
 PROJECTS AND PLANS. 405 
 
 go to another field, not so extensive, more compact, and more 1820. 
 comfortable, and offering a prospect of greater leisure. It is 
 a bad sign, I fear, that for these reasons I think it preferable. 
 I look upon it as a sort of retirement for the rest of my service 
 in India. I have seen enough of the Secretaryship to know 
 that the respectability and satisfaction of those stations depend 
 upon circumstances beyond one's control ; and though under 
 some circumstances I should prefer my present situation to 
 any other, I shall quit it without any desire of returning to it, 
 and without much wish of ever having a seat in Council 
 were it not for the name of the thing, I should say without 
 any wish. This state of feeling I have gained by coming to 
 Calcutta ; and it is fortunate that it is so, for I have no chance 
 whatever of a seat in Council at any time." 
 
 There was in all this a great deal of erroneous forecast; 
 not the least error of all that he was going to a comfortable 
 appointment. The situation before him was that of Resident 
 at Hyderabad, in the Deccan. It was a first-class Political 
 Office, equal in rank and emolument to that which he had 
 quitted in Hindostan. The present incumbent, Mr. Henry 
 Russell,* was one of the ablest officers in the service. He was 
 a friend, connected too by marriage with Metcalfe, and had 
 been for some time endeavouring to persuade the Political 
 Secretary to succeed him. " I always thought," wrote Mr. 
 Russell, u that you would regret the change from Delhi to 
 Calcutta. It can hardly be long before you are placed in 
 Council ; but if this should not be the case, and you should 
 continue desirous of returning to your own line, I should be 
 delighted to deliver this Residency into your hands. You will 
 find an excellent house, completely furnished; a beautiful 
 country, one of the finest climates in India; and when the 
 business which now presses has been disposed of, abundance 
 of leisure to follow your personal pursuits." In another letter 
 the same writer said : "In point of magnitude your situation 
 in Malwah will certainly be superior to this Residency ; but 
 you may do as much real good, and acquire as much real 
 importance here, as you could there. The office now proposed 
 will be great, by adding many things together ; at Hyderabad 
 
 * Afterwards Sir Henry Russell. Metcalfe's elder brother had married Mr. 
 Russell's cousin.
 
 406 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1820. it will be compact and considerable in itself, and will afford, 
 for several years to come, an ample field for the exertions of a 
 man of talent and benevolence. As to personal convenience, 
 there can be no comparison. In Malwah you will have no 
 time to yourself, and you will either be wandering about the 
 country, which is always irksome when it is perpetual, or you 
 will have to build and furnish a house, at the expense certainly 
 of not less than a lakh of rupees, out of your private fortune. 
 At Hyderabad, after the first six months, when you have 
 looked thoroughly into everything, you will find, compared 
 with what you have been accustomed to, little to give you 
 trouble ; at least half of your time will be at your disposal, 
 and you will step at once, without care and expense, into a 
 house completely furnished, and provided with every accom- 
 modation." These many-sided arguments prevailed. Look- 
 ing on this picture and on that, Metcalfe began to incline 
 towards the Hyderabad Residency. When Mr. Russell re- 
 signed, the appointment was offered to him; and he ac- 
 cepted it without much hesitation. 
 
 He parted from Lord Hastings on the best possible terms. 
 The Governor- General wrote him a letter, expressive both of 
 public and private friendship. " And now, my dear sir, for 
 yourself," he said, after dwelling on political business, " let 
 me assure you that I have been duly sensible of your kind 
 and cordial attachment, and that it is with earnest prayers for 
 your welfare that I wish you all possible prosperity and com- 
 fort. We shall not meet again in Lidia, and the chances for 
 it in Europe must, considering my age, be small ; but I shall 
 rejoice in hearing from you, and you will believe that I re- 
 main yours, faithfully, HASTINGS." 
 
 The Hyderabad Towards the end of the year 1820, accompanied by a few 
 Residency. . . 
 
 young friends who had been appointed his assistants, Charles 
 
 Metcalfe set out for Hyderabad. His correspondence with 
 his predecessor had supplied him with good substantial in- 
 formation relating to the state of the country. But he found, 
 upon the spot, that the disorders of which he had heard were 
 more deeply seated than he had imagined. The Nizam had 
 borrowed from an extensive banking-house at Hyderabad 
 large sums of money at high interest, for the payment of his 
 troops and other current expenses of his Government. The
 
 RESIDENT AT HYDERABAD. 407 
 
 result was, that his ministers were compelled to resort to many 1821. 
 acts of oppression and injustice to wring money from the 
 people to keep the machinery of the State from altogether 
 suspending its action. It was plain that the interference of 
 the British Government had long been imperatively demanded. 
 Something had already been done ; but something also re- 
 mained to be done. " The more I see of the Nizam's country," June 14. 
 wrote Metcalfe, after some six months' experience, " the more 
 I am convinced that, without our interposition, it must have 
 gone to utter ruin, and that the measures which have been 
 adopted were indispensably necessary for its continued exist- 
 ence as an inhabited territory. As it is, the deterioration has 
 been excessive; and the richest and most easily cultivated 
 soil in the world has been nearly depopulated, chiefly by the 
 oppressions of Government. It will require tender nursing. 
 The settlements are advancing. The moderate revenue, which 
 it has been found necessary to receive in many instances, has 
 greatly disappointed the Government, which, not convinced 
 by the depopulation of villages in consequence of ruinous ex- 
 tortion, would have persisted in the same unprincipled course 
 until the rest were depopulated also. The loss of revenue, if 
 confidence be established by the settlement, will be but tem- 
 porary. In some of the settlements, on which the assessments 
 for the first year are the lowest, they are doubled and trebled, 
 and in some instances quadrupled and quintrupled, in the 
 period generally five years for which the settlements are 
 concluded. Such are the productive powers of the soil, that 
 I have no doubt of the propriety of the increase where it 
 occurs to that extent, the assessments for the first year having 
 been made uncommonly low from local circumstances affecting 
 the particular cases. After the conclusion of the settlement, 
 one measure more, and I think only one, will be necessary, 
 and to that I conceive our interference ought to be limited. 
 We must preserve a check on the native officers of the Go- 
 vernment, to provide that they do not violate the settlement, 
 otherwise they certainly will; in which case it would be 
 better that it had never been concluded, as it would then, by 
 giving false confidence, furnish the means of additional ex- 
 tortion, and would effectually destroy the very foundation of 
 our probable success, which is the reliance put on our faith
 
 408 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1821. and guarantee. I therefore propose, with the assent of the 
 Nizam's Government, to employ the assistants of the Resi- 
 dency and some of the best qualified of the Nizam's officers 
 in different divisions of the Nizam's territory, for the purposes 
 of checking oppression and violation of faith on the part of the 
 officers of Government, securing adherence to settlements, 
 taking cognisance of crimes, and looking after the police, 
 especially on the frontiers, on which point I receive continual 
 complaints from the neighbouring Governments. These offi- 
 cers should take no part in the collection of the revenues, nor 
 in the general administration of the country ; neither should 
 the farms of the Nizam's Government be invaded. The offi- 
 cers should not have any peculiar official designation, founded 
 on their duties, lest it should be considered as a partial intro- 
 duction of our rule ; and if at any time, from good schooling 
 or rare goodness, there should be reasonable ground of hope 
 that a district could be managed safely without such a check, 
 I should think it a duty to withdraw the officer from that 
 district, though I have no expectation, I confess, that such is 
 likely to be the case. In order to save expense to the Nizam's 
 Government, the number of divisions should be small six or 
 seven in all. This would make each of them very extensive, 
 but not, I hope, too much so for the performance of the duty. 
 They ought to be continually in motion (the officers, I mean), 
 and the Resident ought to be frequently in motion also, to 
 observe the state of the several divisions. I hope that this 
 measure will be approved, for on it all my hopes of successful 
 reform in the Nizam's country are built. Without it they will 
 fall to the ground. It appears to me to be the only way of 
 preserving the Nizam's Government in all its parts entire, 
 with the addition of the check of European integrity, which 
 can at any time be removed without damaging any other part 
 of the edifice, if at any time it can be dispensed with. If the 
 Nizam's officers were allowed to go on without some such 
 check, it would soon end, I think, in our being compelled to 
 take the country entirely into our own hands." 
 
 question!* ^ ^^ ^ ^ e nursm g m * ne wor ld could do nothing, so long 
 as there remained the great cancer of the debt to eat into the 
 very life of the State. The English money-lenders had got 
 fast hold of the Nizam and his minister. They were friends
 
 THE HYDERABAD LOANS. 409 
 
 of the Eesident and friends of the Governor-General ; but the 1821. 
 former determined to rescue the country from their grasp. 
 He knew that it could not be done without sore travail ; he 
 knew that he would lose many friends and make many 
 enemies ; and that the cordial support of the Government 
 was little likely to be obtained. Sir John Malcolm had 
 written to him, saying : " Every step that you take to ame- 
 liorate the condition of the country will be misrepresented by 
 fellows who have objects as incompatible with public virtue 
 and good government as darkness is with light. . . . You 
 have to fight the good fight, and to stand with the resolute 
 but calm feelings such a cause must inspire against all species 
 of attacks that artful and sordid men can make, or that weak 
 and prejudiced men can support. ... I am quite confident 
 in your ultimate triumph, though I expect that you will have 
 great vexation and annoyance." 
 
 And truly he had ; but much as it cost him, he was reso- 
 lute to go through it to the end. It was the sorest task that 
 he ever set himself, for he was a man of warm affections, and 
 it cut him to the heart to array himself against the personal 
 interests of his friends. But he felt that, in the emergency 
 that had then arisen, the very life of the Hyderabad State 
 hung upon his independent action. He was determined to 
 inquire, where inquiry must of necessity have been exposure, 
 and to cut off the stream from which so much had been 
 poured into the coffers of his friends. It is a long story. 
 The great banking-house of William Palmer and Company 
 suffered greatly by Metcalfe's sturdy uncompromising con- 
 duct; and for a while he fell under the displeasure of the 
 Governor- General. But Lord Hastings had too many good 
 qualities of head and heart not at last to do justice to a public 
 servant who had striven only for the public good. 
 
 The history of these transactions is recorded in many folio 
 volumes. Never, perhaps, was a greater flood of controversy 
 let loose to bewilder the judgments of men ; never did par- 
 tisanship stream forth in more heady currents than when the 
 subject of the Hyderabad Loans was discussed in public 
 papers, in private pamphlets, and on the proprietary platform 
 of the East India Company. This is not the pleasantest part 
 of the story of Metcalfe's life ; but there is nothing in the
 
 410 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1821. whole of it more illustrative of the sturdy independence and 
 honesty of his character. His private correspondence with 
 Lord Hastings has been published. It cannot be given here 
 in detail ; but in the following passage of a letter to the Go- 
 vernor-General, there is so much that bears undoubted wit- 
 ness to the fact that it was a sore trial and travail to the 
 Hyderabad Resident to undermine and to fire the train that 
 was to explode the prosperity of so many of his friends. He 
 was accused of hostility to the house of William Palmer and 
 Company. To this he replied : " I am at a loss what to say 
 to this, for I know not whence such an idea can have arisen. 
 Excepting Mr. W. Palmer, the European partners of that firm 
 were my friends before I came to Hyderabad. Mr. W. Pal- 
 mer's brother, Mr. John Palmer, has been my much esteemed 
 and warm friend for the last twenty years ; and Mr. William 
 Palmer himself is one of those men so amiably constituted by 
 nature, that it is impossible to know ever so little of him with- 
 out feeling one's regard and esteem attracted. There is no 
 family at Hyderabad with which I have so much intercourse 
 as Sir William Bmnbold's. Mr. Lambe, one of the partners, 
 accompanied me in his medical capacity as acting-surgeon of 
 AurungabacL the Residency during my tour from Hyderabad to this place, 
 and in every respect on the most intimate and confidential 
 footing. Since I came to this place I have accepted, without 
 hesitation, as a personal favour from Mr. Hastings Palmer, 
 the head of the branch established at this place, the loan of a 
 house which I occupied till I could otherwise accommodate 
 myself. I may add, that I have lately given my assent to 
 extraordinary exactions, proposed by the Minister, for the 
 purpose of meeting the demands of that firm on the Govern- 
 ment, which the Minister would not attempt without my 
 concurrence. All these circumstances, I venture to say, 
 would naturally indicate to the public mind feelings the very 
 reverse of hostile ; and I am so unconscious of any appear- 
 ances that could have justified, in Shroffs or any others, an 
 inference of adverse sentiment, that, notwithstanding the ap- 
 parent presumption of disputing the accuracy of Sir William 
 Rumbold's apprehension on a point on which he ought to be 
 so well informed, I am much inclined to doubt the existence 
 of such an impression ; to ascribe whatever losses the house
 
 CORRESPONDENCE WITH LORD HASTINGS. 411 
 
 may have sustained to other causes, and to attribute Sir 1822. 
 William Rumbold's persuasion on the subject to artful mis- 
 representations industriously conveyed to him, for purposes 
 distinct from the concerns or interest of the firm. I could 
 conscientiously deny the existence, on my part, of a shadow 
 of ill will ; but I might deceive your Lordship were I to stop 
 here. I cannot help entertaining sentiments regarding the 
 transactions of that firm, which, as being adverse to their 
 own views of their interests, they might possibly charge to 
 the account of ill will. Those sentiments have been slow in 
 growth, but strengthen as I see more of the state of affairs in 
 this country. I lament that Messrs. W. Palmer and Com- 
 pany have grasped at such large profits in their negotiations 
 with the Nizam's Government as place his interests and theirs 
 in direct opposition. I lament that they have succeeded in 
 conveying to your Lordship's mind an exaggerated impression 
 of services to the Nizam's Government, which obtains for 
 them on public grounds your Lordship's support, in a degree 
 to which they do not seem to others to be entitled support 
 which for any ordinary mercantile transactions would be wholly 
 unnecessary. I lament that they are so sensible or fanciful 
 of their weakness on every other ground as to be drawing on 
 your Lordship's personal favour on every occasion in which 
 they apprehend the most distant approach of danger, extend- 
 ing their sensitiveness to the smallest diminution, from what- 
 ever cause, of their immediate profits thus repeatedly forcing 
 on the public the name of your Lordship as the patron of their 
 transactions, whilst these are likened by the world in general 
 to former pecuniary dealings in Oude and the Carnatic. I 
 lament the connexion between them and Rajah Chundoo- 
 Lall, because it tends to draw them quite out of their sphere 
 of merchants, and make them political partisans. It is scarcely 
 possible that this can ultimately be beneficial to them. I 
 lament their connexion with some of the most profligate and 
 rapacious of the governors of districts, through whom their 
 character, and, what is of more consequence, the British 
 name, has become involved in detestable acts of oppression, 
 extortion, and atrocity. I lament the power which they ex- 
 ercise in the country, through their influence with the mi- 
 nister; enforcing payment of debts, due to them either
 
 412 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1822. originally or by transfer, in an authoritative manner not 
 becoming their mercantile character ; acting with the double 
 force of the Nizam's Government and the British name. I 
 lament the continuance of their loan to the Nizam's Govern- 
 ment, because it would be a great relief to its finances to dis- 
 charge it. I lament the terms of the loan, because I think 
 them exorbitant. I lament the concealment of the actual 
 terms of the loan at the time of the transaction, and the 
 delusive prospect held out, by which your Lordship was led 
 to conceive it to be so much more advantageous to the 
 Nizam's Government than it really was. I lament the mo- 
 nopoly established in their favour by the sanction and virtual 
 guarantee of the British Government, because it deprives the 
 Nizam's Government of the power of going into the European 
 money-market, where, with the same sanction, it might borrow 
 money at less than half the rate of interest which it pays to 
 Messrs. Palmer and Company. I lament the political influ- 
 ence acquired by the house through the supposed countenance 
 of your Lordship to Sir William Rumbold, because it tends to 
 the perversion of political influence for the purposes of private 
 gain. All these things I lament, not only because they are 
 in themselves evils, but because they must in the end injure 
 the firm itself. Individuals of it may snatch a hasty and 
 splendid 'harvest, if they do not care for aught else ; but the 
 firm itself cannot continue to flourish on such a pinnacle, 
 where it becomes an object for all the shafts of envy, hostility, 
 and unjust opposition, as well as just objection." 
 
 Nothing more manly or more dignified, but within the 
 limits of becoming respect to an official superior, was ever 
 written. It was not lost upon the Governor-General, although 
 it was long before he replied, and then only in a meagre letter. 
 That fidelity which was the strength of Lord Hastings's cha- 
 racter'was also its weakness.* He was very faithful to his 
 friends; and if he sometimes erred in suffering the man to 
 prevail over the ruler, and supported not wisely but too well 
 
 * In .the popular literature of my portrait of the individual man or woman 
 
 boyhood, the "Percy Anecdotes," which supposed to be the brightest exemplar 
 
 appeared from time to time in little of the particular quality illustrated. I 
 
 pocket volumes, held a distinguished remember that a likeness of Lord Has- 
 
 place. The collection was subjectively tings was the frontispiece of the volume 
 
 arranged, and each volume contained a devoted to Fidelity.
 
 RECONCILIATION WITH LORD HASTINGS. 413 
 
 those whom he loved and cherished, it was because he lacked 1822. 
 the sterner stuff which should have prompted him to restrain 
 the kindliness of his nature and the warmth of his heart, 
 when they were likely to carry him into erratic courses. He 
 was wounded to the quick by Metcalfe's conduct, which he 
 seemed at first not wholly to understand; but afterwards 
 some new light began to dawn upon him, and he saw that 
 this matter of the connexion of the Hyderabad State with the 
 mercantile house was something far worse than he had sus- 
 pected. One result of Metcalfe's investigations had been 
 that he had satisfied himself that some of the former mem- 
 bers of the British Mission, before his time, had been asso- 
 ciated with Messrs. William Palmer and Company, in a sort 
 of constructive partnership, which gave them a direct interest 
 in the financial profits of the house. Metcalfe was slow to 
 believe this ; but when the conviction came upon him, as it 
 did at last, with irresistible force, he was greatly disturbed 
 in his mind ; and he did not doubt that it was his duty to re- 
 present the circumstance to the Governor- General. In this 
 difficulty he placed himself in confidential communication 
 with two of his friends and brother civilians in Calcutta. 
 The one was Mr. John Adam, then a member of the Supreme 
 Council ; and the other was Mr. George Swinton, who had 
 succeeded Metcalfe in the office of Political Secretary. Both 
 were able and honest men distinguished members of that 
 new class of Civil Servants, who had by this time nearly dis- 
 placed altogether the generation by whom private trade and 
 public service were not regarded as incompatible. It was 
 then determined that Mr. Adam should, in the first instance, 
 avail himself of a convenient opportunity to make a private 
 statement on this painful subject to the Go vernor- General ; 
 and he did so. Lord Hastings received it, as any honour- 
 able man would receive such a revelation ; and though, if he 
 felt strongly on the subject, he veiled his emotions at the 
 time, it appears to be certain that the scales then fell from 
 his eyes, and he began from that time to consider, in another 
 light, the conduct of the Hyderabad Eesident, and to feel 
 more kindly towards him. The result was a reconciliation. 
 Metcalfe was touched by the altered tone of the Governor- 
 General, as reported to him by Adam and Swinton. He
 
 414 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1823. was the least aggressive man in the world. He yearned to 
 be in friendly relations with the whole human family. His 
 own particular weakness was a propensity to serve his friends. 
 He was very sorry for the pain that he had given to others, 
 although he knew that he had only done his duty. So he 
 grasped eagerly at the opportunity of reconciliation unex- 
 pectedly afforded to him by the manner in which Lord 
 Hastings had received his last disclosure of corruption at 
 Hyderabad. So he sat down and wrote a letter to the Go- 
 vernor-General not penitential, not submissive ; but frank, 
 and sorrowful in its frankness, which drew forth fitting 
 response, and the breach between them was closed. 
 
 Throughout all this long and most painful controversy, 
 Metcalfe had been much sustained and solaced by pleasant 
 intercourse with the beloved friends who had accompanied 
 him to Hyderabad, and were assisting him in the duties of 
 the Residency.* And when this trouble was at an end he 
 was quite content. He was of a very trusting and affectionate 
 nature, and he infused into his friendships a tenderness and 
 devotedness, if not " passing the love of woman," scarcely sur- 
 passed by it.f He was so happy, indeed, in these relations, 
 that he was alarmed and disturbed by a rumour that he was 
 likely soon to attain to that great object of general ambition, 
 a seat in the Supreme Council. " Though I do not pretend 
 to be insensible to the honour of a seat in Council," he wrote 
 to a friend, in October, 1824, " and the possible result of such 
 an appointment, I should rejoice at the nomination of some 
 other person, to put out of credit those rumours which I am 
 told are on the increase in Calcutta regarding my elevation to 
 that dignity, and of which the realisation would remove me 
 
 * This unfortunate business not only and bounds at the thought of the hand- 
 sorely distressed his mind, but also writing of a beloved friend ! And how 
 affected his health. He had a very it overflows with delight, how it warms, 
 severe illness in 1823, and was com- expands, and boils over, in reading the 
 pelled to go to Calcutta for surgical affectionate language which one knows 
 and medical advice. Lord Hastings had to have been poured forth from a con- 
 then left India, and had been succeeded genial heart. There are joys of this 
 in the Government by Lord Amherst. kind in the pure love which exists be- 
 After a sojourn of a few months at the tween man and man, which cannot, I 
 Presidency he returned to Hyderabad, think, be surpassed in that more alloyed 
 greatly benefited by the professional attachment between the opposite sexes, 
 skill of Nicolson and Martin. to which the name of love is general!}' 
 
 t " How the heart," he wrote to one exclusively applied." 
 of his friends at this time, "rejoices
 
 PRIVATE LIFE. 415 
 
 from the present home of my affections and the ties formed in 1824. 
 this sphere. I cannot think on this subject without pain, 
 knowing as I do by experience that separation and removal 
 to distant scenes, though they may leave unimpaired good 
 will, regard, esteem, friendship, confidence, and even affection, 
 are still fatal to that warmth of feeling, that intimacy of ideas, 
 that delight of close and continual intercourse which constitute 
 what I call the luxuries of friendship." But, although in no 
 man were individual partialities stronger than in Charles 
 Metcalfe, there was another side to his overflowing kindliness 
 of heart. He was the most hospitable of men, at a time when 
 hospitality was one of the most prominent virtues of the 
 English in the East. He kept open house at the Residency 
 often to his inconvenience and disturbance. He lamented, 
 indeed, that he had not a residence a little way in the country, 
 to which he could sometimes withdraw himself, with a few 
 chosen friends.* But he looked upon hospitality as one of 
 the duties of his high office ; and it gave him infinite plea- 
 sure to think that he was contributing to the happiness of 
 others. 
 
 But that which contributed most of all to his inward peace 
 of mind, and to the outward cheerfulness, which was its 
 visible expression, was an habitual sense of the goodness of 
 God and an incessant feeling of gratitude to the Almighty 
 giver. He was continually rejoicing in the Lord and lifting 
 up his heart in praise and thanksgiving. ll If I am really the 
 happy man you suppose me to be," he wrote to one of his 
 most intimate friends at this time, " I will tell you, as far as 
 I know myself, the secret of my happiness. You will perhaps 
 smile, for I am not sure that your mind has taken the turn 
 that might induce you to sympathise. But be assured that I 
 am in earnest. I live in a state of fervent and incessant gra- 
 titude to God for the favours and mercies which I have expe- 
 rienced throughout my life. The feeling is so strong that it 
 
 * He wrote to a friend in December, any one's kenning thereof, if the said 
 
 1824, saying : " I feel the want of a ants would devour the said table, and 
 
 country-house incessantly As long as cause it to disappear. But I do not 
 
 I live at the Residency it will be a like, either in deed or word, to make 
 
 public-house, and as long as the billiard- any attack on an instrument of amuse- 
 
 table stands the Residency will be a ment which is so much relished by some 
 
 tavern. I wish that I could introduce of us, who do not observe the conse- 
 
 a nest of white ants secretly, without quences to which it leads."
 
 416 SIR CHARLES METCALFB. 
 
 1824. often overflows in tears, and is so rooted that I do not think 
 that any misfortune could shake it. It leads to constant devo- 
 tion and firm content ; and, though I am not free from those 
 vexations and disturbances to which the weak temper of man 
 is subject, I am guarded by that feeling against any lasting 
 depression." There are few who will not contrast such psy- 
 chological manifestations as these with the gloomy and 
 despairing revelations of the inmost soul of Henry Martyn. 
 Except in a common devotion to duty, each according to his 
 own light, no two men were ever more unlike each other than 
 the chaplain and the civilian who meet together in this little 
 gallery of portraits. The one delighted to suffer and to grieve ; 
 the other rejoiced in the Lord always, and was glad. 
 
 From the tranquil pleasures of the last year at the Hyder- 
 abad Residency, the turmoil and excitement over, Metcalfe 
 was aroused by a summons to repair to a different part of the 
 country, and to take upon himself the burden and the respon- 
 sibility of more exciting business. The British Government 
 in India were now again at war with their neighbours. The 
 Burmese campaign was then in full progress ; and in another 
 part of the country preparations were being made for an 
 offensive movement, 011 a grand scale, against the great Jat 
 fortress of Bhurtpore, which, twenty years before, had suc- 
 cessfully defied the British Army under Lord Lake. Lord 
 Amherst was Governor- General ; Lord Combermere was 
 Commander-in-Chief. The political control of the expedition 
 fell naturally under the Delhi Residentship. In that impor- 
 tant diplomatic office, Sir David Ochterlony had succeeded 
 Mr. Charles Metcalfe at Delhi. Notwithstanding the differ- 
 ence of their ages, they had been fast friends for many years. 
 The veteran soldier looked upon the rising civilian as a be- 
 loved son in whose prosperity he rejoiced, and of whose repu- 
 tation he was proud. Metcalfe, upon his part, not unmindful 
 of the old man's weaknesses, regarded him with tender affec- 
 tion, and admired his many noble qualities. In the emer- 
 gency which had arisen, Ochterlony, without instructions 
 from Government, had acted with a promptitude which they 
 called precipitancy ; they had repudiated his authority, and had 
 arrested the forward movement which he had made to overawe 
 the enemy, with insufficient means at his disposal. The brave
 
 DEPARTURE FROM HYDERABAD. 417 
 
 old man had thought to accomplish by a sudden blow what in 1825. 
 
 the opinion of the highest authorities demanded the utmost 
 
 deliberation and all the resources of scientific warfare. This 
 
 indiscretion was his ruin. It was determined that he was not 
 
 the man for the crisis ; and Metcalfe, therefore, was requested 
 
 to proceed to Delhi and to take his place. " Much as your 
 
 services," wrote Lord Amherst to him, " are still demanded 
 
 at Hyderabad, a nobler field opens for them in the scene of 
 
 your former residence and employment, and I flatter myself 
 
 that, unless there should be some impediment of which I am 
 
 not aware to your proceeding to Delhi, you will readily afford 
 
 your services in a quarter where they are now most urgently 
 
 required, and where, I hesitate not to say, you can of all men 
 
 in India most benefit your Government and your country." 
 
 And, on the same day, his friend, Secretary Swinton, wrote to April 16, 1825. 
 
 him, saying : "To prevent any misconception on your part, 
 
 I am directed to state to you distinctly that the question of 
 
 Sir David Ochterlony's retirement does not depend on your 
 
 accepting or declining the proposal now made to you. If 
 
 Government should be disappointed in its wish to avail itself 
 
 of your services as his successor, it must then look to the next 
 
 best man." Metcalfe felt, and was afterwards fully assured, 
 
 that if anything could reconcile Ochterlony to his removal 
 
 from office, it would be the fact that Charles Metcalfe was to 
 
 be his successor.* 
 
 So Metcalfe accepted the offer that was made to him ; but 
 he did so with a heavy heart. " I am out of spirits," he 
 wrote to one of his chosen friends, " at the change in my 
 prospects. I looked forward to the assemblage of all I love 
 and a happy time during the rains our labours in the coun- 
 try to be afterwards resumed. I cannot say that I shall be 
 here for a month, as I must be prepared to start at a moment's 
 notice then to leave all behind. I wish that I could take 
 you all with me, and then, although I should still regret our 
 desertion of the fate of this country, my personal regrets 
 would be converted into joyful anticipations." He said, in 
 another letter, that he " wished he could have been allowed to 
 rest in peace in the quarter that had become the home of his 
 
 * Ochterlony did not live to see his successor installed. He died, broken- 
 hearted, before Metcalfe reached Delhi. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 E
 
 418 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1825. heart." He was enabled, however, to take one of his beloved 
 friends* with him to Delhi ; and two others afterwards fol- 
 lowed him to that place. 
 
 When Metcalfe left Hyderabad, he was Sir Charles Met- 
 calfe, Baronet. His elder brother Theophilus had died, two 
 or three years before, in England, leaving only a daughter ; 
 so the title and the paternal estate of Fern Hill, in Berkshire, 
 had passed to the second son of Sir Thomas Metcalfe. The 
 change was a very distressing one to him, for he was fondly 
 attached to his brother. It is by this designation of " Sir 
 Charles Metcalfe" that he is best known to history and to the 
 world ; and India claims him by no other. 
 
 Bhurtpore. I do not purpose to write in detail of the siege and capture 
 
 of Bhurtpore, or of the events which preceded it. It is suf- 
 ficient to state that on the 16th of September a formal resolu- 
 tion was passed by the Government of India, declaring that, 
 " impressed with a full conviction that the existing disturbance 
 at Bhurtpore, if not speedily quieted, would produce general 
 commotion and interruption of the public tranquillity in Upper 
 India, and feeling convinced that it was their solemn duty, no 
 less than their right, as the paramount power and conservators 
 of the general peace, to interfere for the prevention of these 
 evils, and that these evils would be best prevented by the 
 maintenance of the succession of the rightful heir to the Raj 
 of Bhurtpore, whilst such a course would be in strict con- 
 sistency with the uniform practice and policy of the British 
 Government in all analogous cases, the Governor-General in 
 Council resolved that authority: be conveyed to Sir C. T. 
 Metcalfe to accomplish the above objects, if practicable, by ex- 
 postulation and remonstrance, and, should these fail, by a resort 
 to measures of force." The issues of peace or war were thus 
 placed in his hands. The responsibility cast upon him was 
 great ; but no such burden ever oppressed or disquieted him. 
 He knew that there was small chance of expostulation and re- 
 monstrance availing in that conjuncture; but he knew also 
 that there was a noble army, under an experienced commander, 
 prepared to march upon Bhurtpore, and he saw clearly the 
 advantages of victorious operations against such a place, at a 
 
 * John Sutherland, afterwards Colonel Sutherland, one of our most distin- 
 guished political officers.
 
 THE SIEGE OF BHURTPORE. 419 
 
 time when our dubious successes in Burmah were being ex- 1825. 
 Bggorftted by native rumour into defeats. He did bis best to 
 obtain the desired results by diplomacy ; but, perhaps, he was 
 not sorry to fail. The letters which he addressed to the re- 
 cusant chiefs were said, by the Government party in Calcutta, 
 to be " models of correspondence ;" and there the uses of the 
 letters began and ended. They elicited only unmeaning and 
 evasive answers ; and so a proclamation of war was issued, 
 and the word was given for the advance of the army on 
 Bhurtpore. 
 
 On the 6th of December, Sir Charles Metcalfe joined the 
 camp of the Commander-in-Chief. On the 10th the Army was 
 before the celebrated Jat fortress. With the deepest interest 
 did the civilian watch the progress of the siege. Years had 
 not subdued his military ardour, but they had brought him in- 
 creased military experience. For twenty years he had been 
 studying our military policy in India, and speculating on the 
 causes of our successes and our failures. No man had written 
 more emphatically against that arrogant fatuity which so often 
 displays itself in the conduct of difficult and hazardous opera- 
 tions with insufficient means; no man had urged upon the 
 Government more convincingly the wisdom of securing suc- 
 cess by the employment of that irresistible combination of 
 science and force which a great European power can always 
 bring against an Asiatic enemy. And now, although fortified 
 at the outset by the knowledge that the army which had ad- 
 vanced against Bhurtpore was sufficiently strong in numbers, 
 that it was adequately equipped with Artillery, and that some 
 of the best Engineer officers in India were in camp, he began 
 to doubt, as the siege advanced, whether too much would not, 
 after the old fashion, be left to chance. " We are not getting 
 on here as I like," he wrote on the 6th of January. " At one ig-26. 
 time we were, and I had great hopes that the place would be 
 taken scientifically, without risk or loss. I have now no such 
 expectation. We are to storm soon, and with the usual un- 
 certainty. We may succeed, and I hope that we shall ; but 
 we may fail, and whether we succeed or fail will depend upon 
 chance. The business will not be made so secure as I thought 
 it would be, and as I conceive it ought to be. What we have 
 brought together our large means for I do not understand, if 
 
 2 E 2
 
 420 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1826. risk is to be incurred at the end of our operations. It would 
 have been better tried at the beginning. We might have taken 
 the place in the first hour,* and we may take it now. But 
 much as I shall rue it, I shall not be surprised if we fail. It 
 staggers my opinion to find General Nicolls confident, but I 
 cannot surrender my judgment even to his on this point 
 absolutely, and I remain anxious and nervous. My opinion 
 will not be altered by success, for I shall still consider it as the 
 work of chance. We ought not to leave anything to chance, 
 and we are doing it with regard to everything. Either our 
 boasted science is unavailable or unavailing against Indian 
 fortifications, or we are now about to throw away our advan- 
 tage. I shudder both for Nicolls and for Sutherland. The 
 former, I think, may perish in carrying on his difficult attack, 
 and the ardour of the latter will carry him into unnecessary 
 danger. God preserve them both, and save us from the not 
 improbable consequences of our folly. You will have good 
 news or bad very soon." 
 
 I do not know whether Sir Charles Metcalfe, who was in 
 frequent communication with Lord Combermere, expressed 
 these anxieties to the military chief, but on that same day the 
 idea of an immediate assault was abandoned, f The breaching- 
 batteries had not opened Bhurtpore sufficiently to admit the 
 storming columns with good hope of success, so it was deter- 
 mined to ensure victory by mining. The attack was, therefore, 
 delayed for a further period of twelve days. a We stormed on 
 the 18th," wrote Metcalfe, a few days afterwards. " It was a 
 
 glorious affair, and our success was most complete 
 
 Complete as our success has been, we have had a narrow 
 escape from a most disastrous defeat. We can now see that 
 neither the right breach nor the left, both made by battering, 
 
 was practicable Our first mines were bungling, but 
 
 the latter were very grand. That to the right did a great deal 
 of mischief to ourselves ; for the people assembling in the 
 trenches were too near, and the explosion of the mine took 
 
 * This was said of Sebastopol in General, dated January 11, which says : 
 
 1855, and of Delhi in 1857. " It having been ascertained that the 
 
 f In the " Life of Lord Combermere," batteries were not sufficient effectually 
 
 by Lady Combermere and Captain to break the walls, a mine was com- 
 
 Knollys, there is a letter from the menced on the evening of the 6th," 
 
 Commander-in-Chief to the Governor- &c. &c.
 
 CAPTURE OF BHURTPORE. 421 
 
 effect outwards. It was a grand sight, and was immediately 1826. 
 followed by that of the advance of the storming columns up 
 the two great breaches. That on the left advanced first on the 
 signal of the explosion of the mine, and that on the right im- 
 mediately afterwards. Both mounted the breaches steadily, 
 and as quickly as the loose earth and steepness of the ascent 
 would admit, and attained the summit without opposition. It 
 was a most animating spectacle." All this is mere history ; 
 but it is history written by Metcalfe, who saw the events 
 which are here described. He accompanied the Commander- 
 in-Chief into one of the breaches, but, thinking that he could 
 better see what was going on from another position, he had 
 separated himself from Lord Combermere. Soon after this 
 there was an explosion, from which the chief had a very 
 narrow escape. " I congratulate myself," wrote Metcalfe, 
 "for many about the Commander-in-Chief were killed or 
 bruised by the explosion of our mine, and his own escape was 
 surprising." 
 
 So Bhurtpore was taken ; and Metcalfe, when the work of 
 war was at an end, placed upon the throne the boy- Prince 
 whom his usurping uncle had endeavoured to thrust out from 
 his rightful inheritance. The usurper was sent, a prisoner, 
 to Allahabad. There was then some further work to be done 
 in the principality of Ulwur, but it did not give much trouble, 
 and Metcalfe returned to Delhi. Public affairs had gone 
 prosperously with him ; but in those which were much nearer 
 and dearer to his heart there had been a fatality of the most 
 distressing character. Within a short space he lost two of his 
 most beloved friends. The first was Captain Barnett; the 
 second was Mr. Richard Wells, a young member of the Bengal 
 Civil Service, who had followed him from Hyderabad, and 
 had been appointed an assistant at Delhi. These calamities 
 cut him to the heart. " You will have heard long before this," 
 he wrote to Major Moore, then secretary to the Hyderabad 
 Residency, " of the second blow which, in a short space, it has 
 pleased Almighty God to inflict upon us. One brief month 
 included to us here the death of both Barnett and Wells. . . . 
 We have been thoroughly wretched. The world is fast re- 
 ceding from me ; for what is the world without the friends of 
 our heart? You remember the three friends with whom I
 
 422 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1826. arrived at Hyderabad in 1820 Barnett, Wells, Mackenzie. I 
 loved them all cordially. Where are they now ? I cannot write 
 on the subject. But I can hardly think of any other." In 
 another letter, speaking of the death of Richard Wells, he said 
 that he could hardly believe that the anguish of the desolated 
 widow could be greater than his. " Were I to hear at this 
 moment," he added, " of my nomination to be Governor- 
 General of India or Prime Minister of England, I am sure 
 that the intelligence would create no sensation but disgust." 
 Ambition was ever heavy within him, but it was light in the 
 balance against the great wealth of affection garnered in that 
 warm human heart. 
 
 1827. JJe had now fairly earned a seat in the Supreme Council, 
 
 S 6 anc ^ in 1827 ** was conferred upon him. He then took up 
 his residence in Calcutta, and was the most hospitable and 
 the most popular of men. In those days the Supreme Council 
 consisted of the Governor- General, the Commander-in- Chief, 
 and two members of the covenanted Civil Service. Lord 
 Amherst and Lord Combermere still held office. The civilian 
 colleague, who welcomed Metcalfe to the Presidency, was his old 
 friend, Mr. Butterworth Bayley a man whom to know was to 
 reverence and to love. He had risen to high office after a 
 career of nearly thirty years of good service, chiefly in the 
 unostentatious paths of the judicial department. His life had 
 been a far less stirring one than Metcalfe's ; but he had done 
 his own particular work so well that few men bore a higher 
 official reputation, whilst his unfailing kindness of heart and 
 suavity of manner endeared him to all who had the privilege 
 of coming within the reach of their genial influences. There 
 was not one of his cotemporaries, perhaps, w T hom Metcalfe 
 would sooner have found at the Board, nor one with whom he 
 was likely to act more amicably in Council, notwithstanding 
 occasional divergences of opinion. 
 
 Sir John Malcolm, who was then Governor of Bombay, 
 wrote to Sir Charles Metcalfe, saying, " If you are my beau 
 ideal of a good councillor, you content yourself with reading 
 what comes before you, and writing a full minute now and 
 then, when the subject merits it ; and do not fret yourself and
 
 IN COUNCIL. 423 
 
 perplex others by making much of small matters. Supposing 182728. 
 (his to be the case, you must have leisure, and if I find you 
 have, I must now and then intrude upon it." But Metcalfe 
 complained bitterly of the want of leisure. His life was a great 
 conflict with Time. " My days," he wrote to a friend, " are 
 portioned as much as possible, so as to enable me to do every- 
 thing that I have to do, but in vain. Thursday and Friday 
 are appropriated to Council, and nothing else can be done upon 
 those days. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are wholly 
 devoted to the reading of papers that come in, and reading and 
 revising those that go out; but ah 1 three are not enough. 
 Saturday I take for writing minutes and revising despatches 
 
 that go out, but find it too little You know how little 
 
 I have written to you, to other correspondents still less ; and 
 yet the number of letters I have to answer is overwhelming. 
 I have been at work for some hours now, but I have still 
 twenty-five letters on my table requiring answers six or 
 eight from England. The want of time makes me half mad. 
 .... To add to my distress, people will have the kindness 
 to breakfast with me. I am six miles away from them, but 
 that is not sufficient. I shut my doors at all other times, come 
 who may. I should be happy in my situation if I had more 
 time for the performance of my various duties, but the want, 
 of it plagues me. The only resource left is to withdraw from 
 society, and to work at night, but I shah 1 tear my eyes to 
 pieces if I do." [February 3, 1828.] This systematic distri- 
 bution of time was not found to answer ; and so, a few weeks 
 later, it was changed. " I have made," he said, " a great 
 alteration in my mode of despatching my business. I reserve 
 no day for any particular branch, but get over all, as well as I 
 
 can, as it comes in The bundle of private letters which 
 
 used to accumulate for the day in the week set apart was quite 
 overwhelming and insurmountable. I now go pell-mell at all 
 in the ring, and, as far as the new method has yet gone, it 
 promises better than the last." [March 8, 1828.] But the 
 claims of society were more oppressive than the claims of 
 official work. "It requires," he wrote, " a strong conviction 
 of its being a duty to sustain me in keeping up society. Were 
 I to follow my natural or acquired taste, I should fast sink into 
 habits of seclusion when the company of friends is not obtain-
 
 424 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 182829. able. I have nothing to complain of in society, and am happy 
 enough when in it, but the making up of parties, issuing of 
 invitations, &c., are troublesome operations, which harass me, 
 and frequently drive me from my purpose. My conscience is 
 continually reproaching me with want of hospitality and atten- 
 tion to individuals entitled to them. Many a man has come 
 to Calcutta, and gone from it without once receiving an invita- 
 tion to my house, which an indescribable something anything 
 but good will has prevented until it was too late. My house, 
 although it has more rooms for entertaining than any other 
 house in Calcutta, is deficient in that kind of room which is 
 requisite in large parties the ones which, with respect to 
 general society, would answer best for me, as killing all my 
 birds with one stone. I am thinking of building a grand ball- 
 room. It would not, I suppose, cost less, altogether, than 
 20,000 rupees a large sum to lay out on another man's pro- 
 perty ; but I am not sure that it would not be cheaper than 
 giving parties in the Town-hall my other resource each of 
 which costs above 8000 rupees, and cannot, therefore, be often 
 
 repeated I enjoy the society of our house-party very 
 
 much, retaining, however, my old habits of seclusion from 
 breakfast to dinner, which are seldom broken in upon, except 
 by the Bushby's children, who trot up frequently to my loft 
 in the third story, where I have my sitting-room and library 
 as well as bedroom. It is, in short, the portion of the house 
 which I keep to myself, and there they make me show them 
 the pictures, &c., being privileged by infancy to supersede all 
 affairs of every kind." [May 18, 1828.] 
 
 His distaste for general society seemed to grow stronger as 
 time advanced, but to the outer world it appeared that he de- 
 lighted in crowds. He gave splendid entertainments large 
 dinner-parties and balls but he regarded these merely as 
 "duties proper to his station." What he thought on the 
 subject may be gathered from his correspondence with his 
 familiar friends ; but in this I am inclined to think that there 
 is observable a little of the exaggeration of temporary languor 
 and depression of spirit. " I am withdrawing myself more 
 and more from public intercourse," he wrote in March, 1829, 
 " and am only waiting an opportunity to shake off the remain- 
 ing shackles and become entirely a recluse; since neither is
 
 IN COUNCIL. 425 
 
 the performance of public duty compatible with a waste of 182930. 
 time in society, nor is knowledge of men's characters in 
 general compatible with that respect for them without which 
 society has no pleasure in it. I am becoming every day more 
 and more sour, and morose, and dissatisfied." Metcalfe had 
 said this before. But he deceived himself to his own disad- 
 vantage. It was impossible to look into his kindly expressive 
 face, or to converse with him for a few minutes, without feel- 
 ing that there was in truth no sourness or moroseness in his 
 nature. The fact is, that he lamented the loss of his old 
 friends, and he had not at that time formed new associations 
 of the same gratifying character. " The longer I live," he 
 said, " the less I like strange faces, or any other faces than 
 those of friends whom I love." It may be suggested, also, 
 that the depression of spirit often observable in his corre- 
 spondence at this time is attributable in some measure to his 
 sedentary habits. He took very little exercise. Unlike Mal- 
 colm and Elphinstone, he was an exceedingly bad horseman, 
 and everything of an athletic character was entirely out of his 
 line.* 
 
 But, as time advanced, Sir Charles Metcalfe's position in 
 Calcutta became more and more endurable, until he well-nigh 
 regained his old buoyancy and elasticity of mind. In July, 
 1828, Lord William Bentinck had succeeded Lord Amherst as 
 Governor- General of India. Metcalfe's first impressions of 
 his new colleague were favourable to him, but somehow or 
 other the two did not assimilate, and the councillor, who had 
 some reason to think that Lord William had been prejudiced 
 against him by the Rumbold party at home, said that the new 
 Governor- General did not understand him, and preferred any- 
 body's opinions to his. " This forces me," he said, " to record 
 dissentient opinions in minutes more frequently than would be 
 necessary, if we could co-operate with more sympathy." And 
 then he added, with that union of candour and modesty which 
 
 * He occasionally rode out in the for many years a favourite article of 
 
 early morning -within the spacious attire. I found among his papers a 
 
 grounds of his mansion at Alipore, rough pen-and-ink sketch, contrasting 
 
 which he occupied during the later years the lower extremities of Sir Charles 
 
 of his Calcutta residence. He had a Metcalfe (hi tops) with those of Lord 
 
 stout cobby white horse, which carried Hastings (in hessians), the distinctive 
 
 him with tolerable safety, and he gene- difference being by no means confined 
 
 rally wore top-boots. These had been to the boots.
 
 426 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 183032. made him so often express mistrust of himself, " I fear that 
 there is a want of suavity, or a want of blandness, or some 
 other defect about me, that is not palatable. " This was, perhaps, 
 the last cause in the world to which any one else would have 
 assigned the want of cordial co-operation between the two 
 statesmen which marked the first year of their connexion. 
 But, whatever the cause, it soon passed away, and with it the 
 effect. Lord William Bentinck and Sir Charles Metcalfe be- 
 came fast friends and sympathising workmen. This alone 
 would have made the latter a happier man. But there were 
 favourable circumstances which touched him more nearly. He 
 was gathering around him a cordon of friends. Lord William 
 Bentinck went up the country, and then Mr. Bayley became 
 Vice-President in Council and Deputy-Governor of Bengal. 
 His time of office, however, having expired in November, 
 1830, Sir Charles Metcalfe succeeded him. This enabled him 
 to add to his " family" two members, who contributed much 
 to his happiness. The one was Captain John Sutherland, of 
 whom I have already spoken ; the other was Lieutenant James 
 Higginson,* whose acquaintance he had made at Bhurtpore, 
 and who had afterwards been on the Staff of Lord William 
 Bentinck. The former was now made private-secretary, and 
 the latter aide-de-camp, to the Deputy- Governor ; and Metcalfe 
 no longer complained that he was cut off from his friends. 
 
 As the members of Council were appointed only for five 
 years, Sir Charles Metcalfe's term of office would have expired 
 in August, 1832. But Lord William Bentinck, as the time 
 approached, determined to make an effort to retain his services ; 
 so he wrote urgently to the President of the India Board 
 (Mr. Charles Grant), saying : " Sir Charles Metcalfe will be a 
 great loss to me. He quite ranks with Sir Thomas Munro, Sir 
 John Malcolm, and Mr. Elphinstone. If it be intended and 
 the necessity cannot admit of a doubt to form a second local 
 Government in Bengal, he undoubtedly ought to be at the 
 head. I strongly recommend him. Whilst he has always main- 
 tamed the most perfect independence of character and con- 
 duct, he has been to me a most zealous supporter and friendly 
 
 * Afterwards Sir James Higginson, porary character, contingent on the 
 Governor of the Mauritius. These ar- return of the Governor-General to the 
 rangenients were necessarily of a tern- Presidency.
 
 GOVEItNOlt-GENERAL. 427 
 
 colleague." The " second local Government," however, was 1833-34. 
 not then ripe. So the Court of Directors, by a special vote, 
 continued Sir Charles Metcalfe's period of service in Council 
 to August, 1834 ; and so he remained at the Council Board in 
 Calcutta. 
 
 There was still higher office in store for him. When under 
 the new Charter it was contemplated to establish a fourth 
 Presidency in Upper India, to embrace very much the tract of 
 country which Metcalfe had spoken of as conferring upon him 
 the " Kingship of the East and the West," he was selected to 
 fill the office ; and he was nominated also Provisional Governor- 
 General of India, to succeed on the death or resignation of 
 Lord William Bentinck, in the event of an interregnum in 
 the Government. How afterwards the Government of Agra 
 hrivelled down into a Lieutenant- Governorship need not be 
 narrated here. He had scarcely reached Allahabad and as- 
 sumed the Government, when he received intelligence of the 
 intended departure of Lord William Bentinck. As " Pro- 
 visional Governor-General," therefore, in the absence of any 
 ' substantive appointment to the high office, it was now Met- 
 calfe's privilege to receive from him the reins of Government. 
 He hastened, therefore, back to the Presidency, and arrived 
 in time to shake the departing ruler by the hand, and to bid 
 God-speed to him and to that pearl of gentlewomen, his 
 admirable wife. 
 
 With what sentiments Lord William Bentinck parted from 
 his colleague may be gathered from his own recorded words. 
 " My connexion," said the Governor- General, " with Sir 
 Charles Metcalfe in Council, during more than six years, 
 ought to make me the best of witnesses, unless, indeed, 
 friendship should have blinded me and conquered my detes- 
 tation of flattery, which, I trust, is not the case. I there- 
 fore unhesitatingly declare, that whether in public or private 
 life, I never met with the individual whose integrity, libe- 
 rality of sentiment, and delicacy of mind, excited in a greater 
 degree my respect and admiration. The State never had 
 a more able or upright councillor, nor any Governor-Ge- 
 neral a more valuable and independent assistant and friend ; 
 and during the same period, any merit that can be claimed 
 for the principles by which the Indian Government has been
 
 428 SIK CHAKLES METCALFE. 
 
 1835. guided, to Sir Charles must the full share be assigned. 
 Neither has the access which my situation has given me to 
 the public records and to past transactions led me to form 
 a less favourable opinion of his preceding career. I need 
 not enter into particulars. Suffice it to express my sincere 
 impression, that among all the statesmen, who since my 
 first connexion with India have best served their country 
 and have most exalted its reputation and interests in the 
 East, Webb, Close, Sir Arthur Wellesley, Elphinstone, Munro, 
 and Malcolm, equal rank and equal honour ought to be given 
 to Sir Charles Metcalfe." 
 
 The Governor- He had now reached the topmost step of the ladder. The 
 March 20 ' dreams of the Eton cloisters, the air-built castles of the Muttra 
 1835. tent, had become substantial realities. He had said that he 
 
 would some day be Governor- General of India and now the 
 great official crown was upon his head. It might not remain 
 there long, but it was something to be Governor- General 
 even for a day. Some believed that the substantive appoint- 
 ment would be, and all hoped that it might be, conferred 
 upon him.* Metcalfe, however, had no expectation of such a 1 
 
 * The Court of Directors, who, as Sir Charles T. Metcalfe, provisionally, 
 
 already told, had oscillated between to act as Governor-General of India, 
 
 Elphinstone and Malcolm, were, when upon the death, resignation, or coming 
 
 the former declined to return to India, away of Lord William Bentinck ; and 
 
 unwilling to fill up the substantive ap- adverting also to the public character 
 
 pointment at once. They wished that and services of Sir Charles Metcalfe, 
 
 Sir Charles Metcalfe should continue as whose knowledge, experience, and talents 
 
 long as possible at the head of the ad- eminently qualify him to prosecute suc- 
 
 ministration, and they believed that the cessfully the various important measures 
 
 King's Government, who were then consequent on the new Charter Act, 
 
 adverse to the nomination of a Com- this Court are of opinion that it would 
 
 pany's officer, might in time be recon- be inexpedient at present to make any 
 
 ciled to it. The following are the reso- other arrangement for supplying the 
 
 lutions which were carried by a majority office of Governor-General. And it is 
 
 of fifteen to two of the members of the resolved, accordingly, that the Chairs 
 
 Court : be authorised and instructed to com- 
 
 " That this Court deeply lament that municate this opinion to his Majesty's 
 
 the state of Lord William Bentinck's Ministers through the President of the 
 
 health should be such as to deprive the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs 
 
 Company of his most valuable services ; of India." 
 
 and this Court deem it proper to record, Mr. Grant was at this time President 
 on the occasion of his Lordship's resig- of the Board of Control. His objec- 
 nation of the office of Governor-General, tions, as given in his letter of October 1, 
 their high sense of the distinguished 1834, are worth quoting : " With re- 
 ability, energy, zeal, and integrity with spect to the appointment to that office 
 which his Lordship has discharged the of any servant of the Company, how- 
 arduous duties of his exalted station. ever eminent his knowledge, talents, and 
 " That, referring to the appointment experience may confessedly be, his Ma- 
 which has been conferred by the Court, jesty's Ministers agree in the sentiments 
 with the approbation of his Majesty, on of Mr. Canning, expressed in a letter
 
 GOVERNOR-GENERAL. 
 
 429 
 
 the Press. 
 
 result. In the first place, he knew that the influence of the 183536. 
 Court and the Cabinet would assuredly prevail against the 
 " old Indian" party at home ; and, in the second, he felt as- 
 sured that in the eyes of a large section of that party, he had 
 irremediably damaged himself by his conduct at Hyderabad. 
 He was right. But the interregnum was one of unexpected 
 duration. The appointment of Lord Heytesbury, made by 
 the Tories, having been cancelled by the Whigs, there fol- 
 lowed much discussion, involving much delay, with respect 
 to the choice of a successor ; and so Sir Charles Metcalfe 
 remained at the head of the Indian Government until the 
 spring of 1836. 
 
 The interregnum of the Indian civilian was not a barren Liberation of 
 one. It was rendered famous by an act, which has, perhaps, 
 been more discussed, and with greater variance of opinion, 
 than any single measure of any Governor-General of India. 
 He liberated the Indian Press. Under the Government of his 
 predecessor, freedom of speech had been habitually allowed, 
 but the sword of the law still remained in the hand of the 
 civil Government, and at any time it might have been 
 stretched forth to destroy the liberty which was thus ex- 
 ercised. But Metcalfe was not content with this state o: 
 things. He desired that the free expression of thoughi 
 should be the right of all classes of the community. He 
 took his stand boldly upon the broad principle, that to deny 
 this right is to contend " that the essence of good governmem 
 is to cover the land with darkness." " If their argument,' 
 he added, " be that the spread of knowledge may eventually 
 be fatal to our rule in India, I close with them on that point 
 and maintain that, whatever may be the consequence, it it 
 our duty to communicate the benefits of knowledge. I 
 India could be preserved as a part of the British Empir< 
 
 from him to the Court on the 25th of 
 December, 1820, that the case can 
 hardly be conceived in which it would 
 be expedient that the highest office of 
 the Government in India should be 
 filled otherwise than from England, and 
 that that one main link at least between 
 the systems of the Indian and British 
 Governments ought, for the advantage 
 of both, to be invariably maintained. 
 On this principle it has usually been 
 
 thought proper to act ; and in the 
 various important measures consequent 
 on the new Charter Act, his Majesty's 
 Ministers see much to enjoin the con- 
 tinuance of the general practice, but 
 nothing to recommend a deviation from 
 it" Before Lord Grey's Government 
 had appointed a successor to Lord Wil- 
 liam Bentinck, there was a ministerial 
 crisis, and Lord Heytesbury was nomi- 
 nated by the Tories.
 
 430 
 
 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 183536, 
 
 only by keeping its inhabitants in a state of ignorance, our 
 domination would be a curse to the country, and ought to 
 cease. But I see more ground for just apprehension in 
 ignorance itself. I look to the increase of knowledge with a 
 hope that it may strengthen our empire ; that it may remove 
 prejudices, soften asperities, and substitute a rational con- 
 viction of the benefits of our Government ; that it may unite 
 the people and their rulers in sympathy, and that the differ- 
 ences which separate them may be gradually lessened, and 
 ultimately annihilated. Whatever, however, be the will of 
 Almighty Providence respecting the future government of 
 India, it is clearly our duty, as long as the charge be con- 
 fided to our hands, to execute the trust to the best of our 
 ability for the good of the people." It would be difficult to 
 gainsay this ; but the Court of Directors of the East India 
 Company had not much sympathy with these "high-flown 
 notions." The intelligence of what he had done reached 
 them whilst the question of the Govern or- Generalship was 
 still an open one. It may have in some measure influenced 
 the decision, but I scarcely think that it did. At all events, 
 Metcalfe soon heard from England, with some exaggeration, 
 that he had lost the confidence of the Company. Lord 
 Auckland was appointed Governor-General of India ; but the 
 provisional appointment which made him the "second man 
 in India," was renewed in his favour. The King's Ministers, 
 too, testified their confidence in "him by recommending him 
 for the Grand Cross of the Bath. The new Governor- 
 General carried out the insignia, and formally invested him 
 soon after his arrival. 
 
 It was now a question earnestly debated in Metcalfe's mind 
 "whether he would take ship for England, or whether he would 
 return to the North- Western Provinces to take charge of the 
 administration which he had quitted to assume the Governor- 
 Generalship. It was no longer the Agra Presidency. It had 
 become a Lieutenant-Governorship, and was formally in the 
 gift of the Governor- General. Lord Auckland was very de- 
 sirous that he should accept the office, and some of the lead- 
 ing members of the Court of Directors had urged him not to 
 decline the offer. So he made up his mind to remain a little 
 longer yet in harness. There was really as much substantive
 
 LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. 431 
 
 authority in the new constitution as in the old. " It is inferior 1836. 
 only," he wrote to his aunt, Mrs. Monson, " in designation, 
 trappings, and allowances. These are not matters which I 
 should think a sufficient reason for giving, when I am desired 
 to stay by those whose uniform kindness to me gives them a 
 right to claim my services. I feel that I have no excuse for 
 abandoning a post to which I am called by all parties con- 
 cerned in the election, and in which I have greater opportuni- 
 ties of being useful to my country and to mankind than I could 
 expect to find anywhere else. The decision, however, costs 
 me much. I had been for some time indulging in pleasing 
 visions of home and the enjoyments of retirement and affec- 
 tionate intercourse with relatives and friends." He had now 
 spent thirty-five years in India, without leaving the country 
 for a day ; but his interest in his work was as keen as in the 
 old days of Lord "Wellesley and Lord Minto. 
 
 But he had not long exercised the powers of Lieutenant- 
 Governor, when renewed reports came to him from England 
 that the Court of Directors regarded him with dissatisfaction 
 on account of his liberation of the Indian Press. This dis- 
 quieted him greatly, and in his disquietude he addressed a 
 letter to the official organ of the Company, in which he re- 
 quested, that if he had really lost the confidence of the Court, 
 his provisional appointment of Governor- General might be 
 withdrawn, and that he might resign his office and retire 
 from the service of the Company. " If the reports," he wrote August 22. 
 to Mr. Melvill, " which have reached this country from Eng- 
 land be true ; if I have really lost the confidence of the Court, 
 and have fallen so low in their estimation as deliberately to be 
 deemed now unworthy of the position which they accorded to 
 me three years ago in the Government of a subordinate Presi- 
 dency, it is my earnest entreaty that the Court will withdraw 
 from me the provisional appointment of Governor-General, or 
 otherwise intimate their pleasure to me, in order that I may 
 resign that appointment, and retire from the service of the 
 Company. I have no wish to retain by forbearance an ap- 
 pointment conferred on me when I was honoured with the 
 confidence of the Court, if that confidence is gone, or to hold 
 my office on mere sufferance, or to serve in any capacity under 
 the stigma of displeasure and distrust. But if I retain the
 
 432 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1836. confidence of the Court unimpaired, it will be highly gratify- 
 ing to me to know that I have been misled by erroneous re- 
 ports in supposing the possibility of the contrary. In that case 
 I have no desire to retire from the public service. I am proud 
 of the honour conferred by the provisional appointment of 
 Governor-General. I take a great interest in the duties which 
 I have to perform as Lieutenant-Governor of the North- 
 Western Provinces of India, and I am willing to devote myself 
 with all my heart to the service of the State as long as health 
 and faculties enable me to work to any useful purpose. I am 
 aware that I lay myself open to reproof in imagining a want 
 of confidence which has not been authentically announced to 
 me by any of those means which the Court has at command. 
 If I have erred in this respect, and have not had sufficient 
 cause for this address, I trust that the Court will forgive the 
 error. Having received on former occasions marked proofs 
 of confidence and esteem, I could not rest easy under reports, 
 in some degree strengthened by appearances, which indicated 
 the loss of those favourable sentiments." 
 
 Before this letter was written, intelligence had reached Agra 
 that Lord Elphinstone had been appointed Governor of Madras. 
 Metcalfe had some time before been talked of for that post ; 
 but it had been given to Sir Frederick Adam, mainly, it was 
 believed, through the interest of Lord Brougham. This had 
 not in any way disturbed him ; and, in truth, he had no desire 
 to go to Madras. But when some good-natured friends in 
 London told him that his appointment to that Govern- 
 ment had been again discussed, and that his claims had been 
 set aside as an intentional mark of the Court's displeasure, the 
 case wore a new aspect. Very different considerations deter- 
 mined the appointment of Lord Elphinstone ; but that the libe- 
 ration of the Press had caused Metcalfe to lose caste and credit 
 in Leadenhall-street was repeated in so many " Europe letters" 
 to himself and others, that he could not disbelieve the story. 
 " I do not care a straw for the Government of Madras," he 
 wrote to his aunt, Mrs. Monson, " and I am probably better 
 where I am ; but I do not mean to serve in avowed disgrace." 
 To his friend, Mr. Tucker, he wrote in the same strain : " The 
 loss of the Madras Government did not give me any concern, 
 but the asserted dissatisfaction of the Court distressed me, and
 
 RESIGNATION. 433 
 
 I felt that I could not remain in a state of implied disgrace. I 1837. 
 therefore wrote as I did to you, and I am now expecting the 
 Court's reply, on the receipt of which I shall have to make up 
 my mind as to the course which I ought to pursue." In 
 August the answer came. It was outwardly cold and formal. 
 It expressed the regret of the Court that Sir Charles Metcalfe 
 should have thought it necessary to make such a communi- 
 cation, and added that the continuance in him provisionally of 
 the highest office which the Court had it in its power to 
 confer, ought to have satisfied him that their confidence had 
 not been withdrawn. 
 
 But Metcalfe was not satisfied ; so he forthwith sent in his 
 resignation, and prepared to return to England. The letter 
 which he addressed to the Secretary of the East India Com- 
 pany clearly indicated how painfully he was hurt. "The 
 Court," he said in conclusion, "pronounced that my letter 
 was altogether unnecessary. With deference, I think that 
 there was good and sufficient reason to seek an understanding 
 with the Court, for any one who regards the approbation of his 
 superior as an essential condition of his servitude. Either I 
 had lost or I retained the confidence of the Court. If the 
 latter were the case, a few kind words to that effect would have 
 assured me that I could continue to serve without discredit. 
 Instead of which, I receive a laconic letter, taking no notice 
 whatever of the sentiments expressed in mine, but conveying 
 a reproof for having written it, given in a tone which leaves 
 me no reason to suppose that the Court entertain the least de- 
 sire for the continuance of my services. Under all these cir- 
 cumstances, I must conclude 1st, that I was intentionally 
 disgraced when I was passed over in the nomination of a 
 Governor for Madras ; 2nd, that the Court retain the senti- 
 ments under which that disgrace was purposely inflicted, and 
 hence no wish to remove the feelings which it was calculated 
 to excite ; and 3rd, that your letter of the 15th of April, with 
 reference to mine of the 22nd of August last, could only pro- 
 duce the effect that it has produced, and, consequently, that 
 my resignation was contemplated in the despatch of that letter. 
 I trust that I have sufficiently explained the causes which 
 compel me reluctantly to retire from the public service, to 
 VOL. i. 2 F
 
 434 
 
 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1837. 
 
 Sir James 
 MelvilL 
 
 Mr. Henry 
 Tavlor. 
 
 which, if I could have remained with honour, I would willingly 
 have devoted the whole of my life." 
 
 There is no incident of Sir Charles Metcalfe's official career 
 of which I have thought so much as of this, and regarding 
 which, as the result of this much thought, I feel such great 
 doubt and uncertainty. One of the shrewdest and most 
 sagacious men whom I have ever known, with half a century 
 of experience of public affairs to give weight to his words, said 
 to me, with reference to this very subject, " The longer I live, 
 the more convinced I am that over-sensitiveness is a fault in 
 a public man;" and there is great truth in the saying. 
 Another very sagacious public servant has written : " With re- 
 gard to hostility evinced towards a statesman behind his back, 
 and which comes privately to his knowledge, his best course 
 will be to leave it unnoticed, and not allow his knowledge of it 
 to transpire." This also I believe to be true. I am disposed, 
 therefore, at the present time to think that it would have been 
 a wiser and a more dignified course to have left the rumours 
 of which I have spoken wholly unnoticed. No man could have 
 afforded it better than Metcalfe ; no man could more certainly 
 have lived down any temporary discredit in high places. Every 
 official man nay, every man who has much commerce with 
 the world has, in the course of his career, to contend with 
 ignorance and misconception, if not with envy and malice. 
 Every one, indeed, who has done anything better than his 
 fellows must lay his account for this as one of the inevitable 
 crosses of his life. It is better, in such a case, " to bear up and 
 steer right on," supported by " the conscience," than to 'bout 
 hip and go into harbour, when the winds are a little adverse. 
 
 ife is too short for contests of this kind too short even for 
 ixplanations. Metcalfe was fully persuaded in his own mind 
 hat what he did was right ; and as the superior authorities did 
 
 ot tell him that he was wrong, I think that it would have 
 
 . . O' 
 
 >een better if he had left unnoticed the private reports which 
 reached him from England. No public servant, of any grade 
 or any capacity, can expect all that he does to be approved by 
 higher authority ; and if even a declared difference of opinion 
 on one particular point is to afford a sufficient warrant for 
 resignation of office, the public service of the country would 
 l)e brought to a dead-lock. Nor is it to be forgotten, with
 
 FAREWELL DEMONSTRATIONS. 435 
 
 reference to more special considerations affecting the individual f 1837 
 case, that this question of the liberation of the press was one 
 on which the opinions of thinking men were very much 
 divided, and that some of Metcalfe's staunchest friends and 
 warmest admirers doubted the expediency of what he had 
 done, though they never ceased to repose confidence in his 
 general wisdom as a statesman. 
 
 But if some infirmity were apparent in this passage of 
 Metcalfe's life, it was the infirmity of a noble mind, and it 
 detracts nothing from the general admiration to which he is 
 entitled. It arose out of what one who knew him well, from 
 the very commencement of his career, described as his " very 
 quick and delicate and noble sense of public character." Some 
 years before, he said that he was getting callous to injustice, 
 and less anxious regarding the opinions of others ;* but, in 
 truth, he never ceased to be very sensitive on the score of his 
 official reputation, and very eager to repel all assaults upon it. 
 And that, not from any selfish or egotistical feelings, but from 
 a prevailing sense that by so doing he was maintaining the 
 dignity and the purity of the Public Service. Indeed, the 
 official sensitiveness, of which I am speaking, marks more dis- 
 tinctly than anything else the great frontier-line between the 
 old and the new race of public servants in India. It had be- 
 come a laudable. ambition to pass through all the stages of 
 official life without a stain or even a reproach. 
 
 No man ever left India, carrying with him such lively regrets 
 and such cordial good wishes from all classes of the com- 
 munity. I can well remember the season of his departure 
 from Calcutta. The Presidency was unwontedly enlivened 
 by Metcalfe balls and Metcalfe dinners, and addresses con- 
 tinually pouring in, and deputations both from English and 
 Native Societies. It would take much of time and much of 
 space to speak of all these; and I must refrain from the 
 attempt to record them. But it may be mentioned that, 
 on one of these farewell festal occasions, after Metcalfe's 
 health had been drunk in the ordinary way, as a statesman 
 
 * " I am getting callous to such in- make me individually less liable to 
 
 justice. My experience at Hyderabad annoyance, by making me less anxious 
 
 has taught me some useful lessons ; and regarding the opinions of others." 
 
 though it gives me a worse opinion of Bhurtpore, Feb., 1826. 
 human nature than I had before, it will
 
 436 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1837. who had conferred great benefits upon the country, and a 
 member of society beloved by all who had come within the 
 circle of his genial influence, another toast was given in the 
 words " Charles Metcalfe, the soldier of Deeg." The story of 
 the " little stormer," then but slightly known, was told, and 
 well told ; and the military enthusiasm of the many officers 
 there present was roused to the highest pitch. I shall never 
 forget the applause of the assembly which greeted this unex- 
 pected tribute to the completeness of Sir Charles Metcalfe's 
 character. All that gay assemblage in the Town-hall of 
 Calcutta rose to him, with a common movement, as though 
 there had been but one heart among them all, and many an 
 eye glistened as women waved their handkerchiefs and men 
 clapped their hands and every one present thought how 
 much he was loved. 
 
 His opinions. During his tenure of these several offices in the Supreme 
 Government of India, Sir Charles Metcalfe wrote many very 
 important State papers, officially known as " Minutes," which 
 were always respectfully received by his colleagues, and very 
 often influenced their opinions in the right direction. In 
 other shapes, too, he sometimes recorded his views; and a 
 large selection from his papers has been laid before the world. 
 They are distinguished by a remarkable amount of sagacious 
 common sense, conveyed in most lucid English. I do not 
 know a better example of a thoroughly good official style. 
 There was in all he wrote a directness of purpose, a trans- 
 parent sincerity, which won the admiration of the reader, if 
 it did not convince his judgment. To say that he was with- 
 out his own particular prejudices would be almost to say that 
 he was perfect. In many respects he was before his age ; 
 but there were some points with respect to which he was 
 behind it. He demonstrated, in the most convincing manner, 
 the earnestness of his desire to advance the moral progress of 
 the people of India ; but it does not appear that he had much 
 sympathy with the efforts which were being made to advance 
 the material progress of the country. He could clearly see 
 what were the benefits to be derived from the diffusion of know- 
 ledge among the subjects of the British Government in India ;
 
 COUNCIL MINUTES. 437 
 
 but he was sceptical regarding the profit to be drawn from 1837. 
 the improvement of internal and external communications of 
 the country, by means of good roads, and steam vessels to and 
 from England. It puzzled many people at the time, and, 
 doubtless, it has puzzled many since, to understand how one, 
 who had been among the first to recommend the free admis- 
 sion of European settlers into England, should have under- 
 valued such material aids to the promotion of European 
 enterprise. 
 
 There was another point upon which he held opinions dif- 
 fering from those of the majority of his cotemporaries ; but 
 Time has revealed that if he stood alone, in this respect, he 
 stood alone in his wisdom. He often spoke and wrote of the 
 insecurity of our British Empire in India, and predicted that 
 it would some day be imperilled, if not overthrown, by our 
 own Native Army. He expressed himself very strongly in 
 conversation on this subject, sometimes saying that we were 
 sitting on a barrel of gunpowder and never knew when it 
 would explode, and at others declaring that we should wake 
 up some morning and find that we had lost India. He based 
 his opinion on such arguments as the following : " Our hold L k 
 is so precarious, that a very little mismanagement might ac- Of^r 
 complish our expulsion ; and the course of events may be of 
 itself sufficient, without any mismanagement. We are, to 
 appearance, more powerful in India now than we ever were. 
 Nevertheless, our downfal may be short work ; when it com- 
 mences, it will, probably, be rapid, and the world will wonder 
 more at the suddenness with which our immense empire may 
 vanish, than it has done at the surprising conquest that we 
 have achieved. The cause of this precariousness is that our 
 power does not rest on actual strength, but upon impression. 
 Our whole real strength is in the few European regiments, 
 speaking comparatively, that are scattered singly over the 
 vast space of subjugated India. That is the only portion of 
 our soldiery whose hearts are with us, and whose constancy 
 can be relied on in the hour of trial. All our native esta- 
 blishments, military and civil, are the followers of fortune ; 
 they serve us for their livelihood, and generally serve us 
 well. From a sense of what is due to the hand that feeds 
 them which is one of the virtues that they most extol they
 
 438 
 
 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1837, may often display fidelity under trying circumstances ; but in 
 their inward feelings they partake more or less of the uni- 
 versal disaffection which prevails against us, not from bad 
 government, but from natural and irresistible antipathy ; and 
 were the wind to change to use a native expression and to 
 set in steadily against us, we could not expect that their sense 
 of honour, although there might be splendid instances of de- 
 votion, would keep the mass on our side in opposition to the 
 common feeling which, with one view, might for a time unite 
 all India from one end to the other. Empires grow old, 
 decay, and perish. Ours in India can hardly be called old, 
 but seems destined to be short lived. We appear to have 
 passed the brilliancy and vigour of our youth, and it may be 
 that we have reached a premature old age. We have ceased 
 to be the wonder that we were to the natives; the charm 
 which once encompassed us has been dissolved, and our sub- 
 jects have had time to inquire why they have been subdued. 
 The consequences of the inquiry may appear hereafter. If 
 these speculations are not devoid of foundation, they are 
 useful in diverting our minds to the contemplation of the 
 real nature of our power, and in preventing a delusive belief 
 of its impregnability. Our greatest danger is not from a 
 Russian power, but from the fading of the impression of our 
 invincibility from the minds of the native inhabitants of India. 
 The disaffection which would root us out abundantly exists ; 
 the concurrence of circumstances sufficient to call it into 
 general action may at any time happen."* And again : 
 " Some say that our empire in India rests on opinion, others 
 on main force. It, in fact, depends on both. We could not 
 keep the country by opinion, if we had not a considerable 
 force ; and no force that we could pay would be sufficient, if 
 it were not aided by the opinion of our invincibility. Our 
 force does not operate so much by its actual strength as by 
 the impression which it produces, and that impression is the 
 opinion by which we hold India. Internal insurrection, 
 therefore, is one of the greatest of our dangers, or, rather, 
 
 * This is part of a paper written in rities on questions of Indian govern- 
 
 reply to some questions propounded in ment. Whether this paper was ever 
 
 England at the time of the Parliament- officially sent in I do not know. It does 
 
 ary Inquiries of 1832-33, and submitted not appear in the printed replies to these 
 
 by Government to the principal autho- questions in the parliamentary papers.
 
 HIS OPINIONS. 439 
 
 becomes so when the means of quelling it are at a distance. 1837 
 It is easy to decide it, because insurgents may not have the 
 horse, foot, and artillery of a regidar army ; but it becomes 
 serious if we have not those materials at hand. Nothing 
 can be a stronger proof of our weakness in the absence of a 
 military force, even when it is not far removed, than the 
 history of such insurrections as have occurred. The civil 
 power, and all semblance of the existence of our government, 
 are instantly swept away by the torrent." 
 
 But although Sir Charles Metcalfe believed that the per- 
 manent fidelity of the Sepoy army could not be relied upon, 
 he admitted that the native soldiery were in many respects 
 worthy of admiration, and that it was our policy to maintain 
 large bodies of them, as we could not turn the whole of 
 India into a great European garrison. " The late Governor- 
 General,"* he wrote, " condemns our Indian army, in a 
 sweeping sentence, as being the most expensive and least 
 efficient in the world. If it were so, how should we be here ? 
 Is it no proof of efficiency that it has conquered all India? 
 Is it no proof of efficiency that India is more universally 
 tranquil, owing to our Indian army, than it ever was under 
 any native Government or Governments that we read of? If 
 our Indian army be so expensive, why do we not employ 
 European troops alone to maintain India? Why but be- 
 cause Europeans are so much more expensive that we could 
 not pay a sufficient number ? If our Indian army be so ineffi- 
 cient, why do we incur the expense of making soldiers of the 
 natives ? Why do we not entertain the same number of un- 
 disciplined people, who would cost much less? Why, but 
 because then we should lose the country from the inefficiency 
 of our native force ? If, therefore, the Indian army be pre- 
 ferable to a European force, on account of its cheapness, and 
 to other native troops on account of its efficiency ; if we 
 cannot substitute any other force cheaper and more efficient, 
 how can it justly be said to be the most expensive and least 
 efficient army in the world ? It enables us to conquer and 
 keep India. If it performs well every duty required of it, 
 hard work in quarters, good service in the field, how can it 
 be subject to the imputation of inefficiency ? The proof of its 
 
 * Lord William Bentinck.
 
 440 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1837. cheapness and of its efficiency is, that we cannot substitute any 
 other description offeree at once so cheap and so efficient." 
 
 It was doubtful, in those days, whether India could afford 
 to maintain a permanent European force of thirty thousand 
 men. Sir Charles Metcalfe felt this very strongly; but he 
 could see no other element of safety than the presence of our 
 English regiments, unless our national manhood should take 
 root in the soil by the agency of extensive colonisation. 
 " Considering," he said, " the possible disaffection of our 
 native army as our only internal danger, and the want of 
 physical strength and moral energy as rendering them unable 
 to contend with a European enemy, his Lordship proposes that 
 the European portion of our army should be one-fourth, and 
 eventually one-third, in proportion to the strength of our 
 native army. He considers this as requiring a force of thirty 
 thousand Europeans in India. In the expediency of having 
 at least this force of Europeans, even in ordinary times, I 
 entirely concur ; that is, if we can pay them. But the limit 
 to this, and every other part of our force, must be regulated 
 by our means. If we attempted to fix it according to our 
 wants, we should soon be without the means of maintaining 
 any army. Thirty thousand European troops would be vastly 
 inadequate for the purpose of meeting the imagined Russian 
 invasion, for we should more require European troops in the 
 interior of India at that time than at any other. To have our 
 army on a footing calculated for that event is impossible. Our 
 army cannot well be greater than it is, owing to want of 
 means. It cannot well be less, owing to our other wants. 
 Such as it is in extent, it is our duty to make it as efficient as 
 we can, with or without the prospect of a Russian invasion ; 
 and this is the only way in which we can prepare for that or 
 any other distant and uncertain crisis. On the approach of 
 such an event we must have reinforcements of European 
 troops from England to any amount required, and we must 
 increase our native force according to the exigency of the 
 time. We could not long exist in a state of adequate pre- 
 paration, as we should be utterly ruined by the expense." 
 
 I may give one more extract from his official papers it 
 was written when he was Lieutenant- Governor of the North- 
 Western Provinces showing the just and generous senti-
 
 RETURN TO ENGLAND. 441 
 
 ments with which ho addressed himself to the consideration 1837. 
 of our relations with the Native States of India : " Several 
 questions," he r said, " have lately occurred, in which our 
 interests and those of other powers and individuals are at 
 variance, and in the decision of which we are likely to be 
 biased by regard for our own benefit, unless we enter with a 
 liberal spirit into the claims and feelings of others, and make 
 
 justice alone the guide of our conduct In all these 
 
 cases, the right on our part to come to the decision apparently 
 most beneficial for our own interests, seems to me to be 
 doubtful. Had our right been clear, I should be far from 
 having any desire to suggest its relinquishment. But when 
 the right is doubtful, when we are to be judges in our own 
 cause, when, from our power, there is little or no probability 
 of any resistance to our decision, it behoves us, I conceive, to 
 be very careful lest we should be unjustly biased in our own 
 favour, and to be liberal only in examining the claims and 
 pretensions of other parties. The Christian precept, l Do as 
 you would be done by,' must be right in politics as well as in 
 private life ; and even in a self-interested view we should, I 
 believe, gain more by the credit of being just and liberal to 
 others, than by using our power to appropriate to ourselves 
 everything to which we could advance any doubtful pre- 
 tension. " 
 
 So Metcalfe returned to England, in the early part of 1838, 1838 - 
 after an absence of thirty-eight years. He had no thought of 
 any further employment in the public service, except that 
 which might be entailed upon him by the necessities of a seat 
 in Parliament. He had an abundance of the world's wealth ; 
 he was unmarried ; and he had done so much work that he 
 might well content himself to be idle at the close of his life. 
 Moreover, there was another and an all-sufficient reason 
 why he should seek this autumnal repose. He had in India 
 enjoyed better health than the majority of his countrymen, 
 although he had taken no especial pains to preserve it. He 
 had worked hard ; he had lived well ; and he had not resorted 
 very freely to the great prophylactic agencies of air and ex- 
 ercise. Still, a naturally robust constitution had carried him
 
 442 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1838. through nearly forty years of unbroken work beneath an 
 Indian sun. But the seeds of a painful and a fatal disease 
 had been sown at what precise time cannot be declared ; but 
 the first apparent symptoms manifested themselves at Calcutta, 
 when a friend one day called his attention to a drop of blood 
 on his cheek. It was the first discernible sign of a malignant 
 cancer, which was to eat into his life and make existence a 
 protracted agony. From that day there was perceptible an 
 angry appearance of the skin. But the progress of the malady 
 was so gradual, and it was attended with so little uneasiness, 
 that neither did Metcalfe consult a medical practitioner, nor 
 did the ailment attract the notice of the professional adviser 
 who attended him. But, at the latter end of 1837, the malady 
 had increased so much that he thought it necessary to take 
 advice ; the treatment was not effective, and soon afterwards 
 Metcalfe returned to England. There he consulted Sir Ben- 
 jamin Brodie, who prescribed for him, but without effect. 
 There was, however, little pain, although the disease had 
 assumed the shape of a decided ulcerous affection of the 
 cheek ; and so Metcalfe allowed time to pass, and neglected 
 the complaint until no human agency could arrest it. 
 
 Of this sad story I must presently write more in detail. 
 Meanwhile, Sir Charles Metcalfe is at Fern Hill, the paternal 
 estate in Berkshire, which he had inherited from his elder 
 brother. It had been his for a quarter of a century, and its 
 revenues had been carefully nursed; for Metcalfe' s official 
 salary had been always more than enough for his uses, not- 
 withstanding his overflowing hospitality and the unfailing 
 cheerfulness of his giving. So he found himself a well-to-do 
 country gentleman, and having carried home all his Indian 
 hospitality, he soon filled his house with relatives and friends. 
 But it was a very unsatisfactory state of life. He was alone 
 in a crowd; uncomfortable in the midst of luxury; poor 
 though surrounded by all that wealth could purchase; and 
 always in a hurry without having anything to do. Liberal as 
 he was, and accustomed to a profuse style of living, he was 
 appalled by the extravagance of the servants' hall, and often 
 longed for the self-supporting, rice-eating Khitmudgars and 
 Bearers of the old time. Many years before, in his previsions 
 of English life, he anticipated this state of things, and declared
 
 LIFE AT FERN HILL. 443 
 
 that he would wrestle against it. He found it even worse than 1839. 
 he expected, and he soon set his face against it. He had not 
 been many months in England, when he wrote to Mrs. Monson : 
 " I have made up my mind to part with Fern Hill whenever 
 I can make an arrangement for it to my satisfaction. My 
 reasons for quitting are these : Firstly, the expense of living 
 here is too great ; there being, in my opinion, more satisfac- 
 tory and better uses for what income I have than spending it 
 all on the mere eating and drinking of a large house and esta- 
 blishment. Secondly, the life is not suited to my disposition. 
 I should like greater quiet and retirement, and the occasional 
 enjoyment of affectionate society as a treat. A continual and 
 incessant succession of company is too much for me. Thirdly, 
 the only remedy is flight ; for neither can I reduce my esta- 
 blishment while I live in this house, nor can I shut my doors 
 whilst I have accommodation for friends. Elsewhere, if I 
 continue a private man, I can be more retired ; and retirement 
 is best suited to my nature. Elsewhere I could live, I think, 
 with sufficient hospitality on a fourth of what I should spend 
 here, and as I have no desire to hoard, the difference may, I 
 trust, be made more beneficial to others than it can be whilst 
 wasted on a lazy, discontented establishment. If I go into 
 Parliament, which I shall do, if I have an opportunity, the 
 only alteration in my present plans will be, that I must reside 
 for seven or eight months in London, and so far deprive myself 
 of retirement for the sake of public duty." [February 25, 
 1839.] 
 
 For many years this seat in Parliament had been one of his Thoughts of 
 most cherished day-dreams. But now that all outward circum- Parliament ' 
 stances seemed to place it within his reach, inward obstacles 
 arose to retard his possession of the prize. The sensitiveness 
 and delicacy of his nature caused him to revolt against the 
 ordinary means by which entrance to the great assembly of 
 the nation is obtained. He would neither buy nor beg a seat. 
 Bribery was repugnant, and canvassing was distasteful, to him, 
 His more experienced friends, therefore, assured him that 
 small and large constituencies were equally beyond his reach. 
 He, however, was content to wait. The opportunity of drift- 
 ing into Parliament blamelessly and pleasantly might some 
 day arise. Meanwhile, he could familiarise himself with the
 
 444 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1839. details of European politics, and, by maturing his opinions on 
 all the great questions of the day, strengthen his chance of 
 some day realising the aspirations of the Eton cloisters and 
 charming a listening Senate. His convictions were mostly 
 those of advanced liberalism. He was against the finality of 
 the Reform Bill ; he was eager for the repeal of the Corn-laws, 
 for the overthrow of Protestant ascendancy in Ireland, and for 
 the abolition of Church-rates. He inclined towards Vote by 
 Ballot, Short Parliaments, and the exclusion of the Bishops from 
 the House of Lords. The more he thought of these changes, 
 the more he warmed towards them, and at last his enthusiasm 
 broke out in a pamphlet entitled Friendly Advice to Conserva- 
 tives, in which these views were expounded. But it was not 
 decreed that he should ever stand forth to " head a party 
 struggling for liberty," in any other than this literary conflict.* 
 The Jamaica For soon a new and undreamt-of field of public service lay 
 appointment, stretched before him, and he was invited to occupy it by the 
 responsible rulers of the land. Rumour had, e\ r er since his re- 
 turn to England, been very busy with his name. He had been 
 assigned to all sorts of places and appointments, likely and 
 unlikely; but now there was some solid foundation for the 
 story of his re-employment. a Those who have sent me to 
 Paris or to Ireland," he wrote to Mrs. Monson, " seem to 
 have been wrong, for the Almighty ruler of all things seems 
 to have ordained that I am to go to Jamaica. Who would 
 have thought of such a destination ? This proposal has been 
 made to me, most unexpectedly, of course, on my part, by 
 Lord Normanby, Secretary of State for the Colonies, and the 
 post being one of honour, owing to the difficulties at present 
 besetting it, and the prospect of rendering important service, 
 I have considered it a public duty to undertake the charge, 
 and have accepted it without a moment's hesitation. I have 
 risen in the East, and must set in the West. It is a curious 
 destiny." To what immediate influences the Indian civilian 
 owed his nomination to a post in the other hemisphere is not 
 very apparent ; but I am inclined to think that the nomination 
 is, in part at least, attributable to the strong language of ad- 
 
 * He was very nearly presenting favour, but who died before he could 
 
 himself to the electors of Glasgow in vacate the seat. Before this event oc- 
 
 place of his friend Lord William Ben- curred, Metcalfe's mind had been diverted 
 
 tinck, who wished to resign in his to other objects.
 
 GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA. 445 
 
 miration in which Lord William Bentinck had written of his 1839. 
 some-time colleague to the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. 
 " No man," he wrote, at the close of a glowing appeal in his 
 friend's favour,* " has shown greater rectitude of conduct or 
 
 more independence of mind We served together for 
 
 nearly seven years. His behaviour to me was of the noblest 
 kind. He never cavilled upon a trifle, and never yielded to 
 me on a point of importance." 
 
 With what feelings Metcalfe regarded the appointment 
 may be further gathered from what he wrote of it to Sir 
 Charles Trevelyan, who had laid the foundation of his own 
 fame, as an assistant to Metcalfe at Delhi : " The possibility 
 of serving in the West Indies never entered into my imagina- 
 tion. Neither had I any desire to quit England. The mode 
 in which I was ambitious of devoting my humble services to 
 the country was as an independent Member of Parliament, 
 and it was my intention to embrace any good opportunity of 
 seating myself there. In every other respect I longed for re- 
 tirement, and was bent on arrangements for securing it in a 
 greater degree than I had previously found practicable. While 
 in this mind, and with these views, I was surprised by a pro- 
 posal to undertake the government of Jamaica, and assented 
 without a moment's hesitation, for there was a public duty of 
 importance to be performed, and we are bound, I conceive, to 
 make ourselves useful to our country whenever a prospect of 
 being so presents itself. If I succeed in reconciling that 
 valuable colony to the mother country, and promoting the 
 welfare of both, I shall be gratified. The attempt will be a 
 labour of love. If I fail, I shall have the consolation of 
 having devoted myself heartily to the task, and can again 
 seek the retirement which, with reference exclusively to my 
 own ease and comfort, I prefer to anything else. I presume 
 that you mean to return to India, and I shall be glad to find 
 that your benevolent zeal and distinguished talent are again 
 at work in that important field. The immense strides which 
 we have recently taken in our political arrangements and 
 military exertions will either raise our power greatly beyond 
 its former pitch, or by causing our expenses to exceed our re- 
 
 * It was written with reference to the question of Metcalfe's liberation of the 
 Indian Press.
 
 446 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1839. sources, will make it more precarious than ever. In either 
 case our country will require the best exertions of its ablest 
 servants, and your future career, I doubt not, will be even 
 more distinguished than your past." 
 
 Congratulations most cordial, and expressions of pleasure 
 most sincere, poured in upon Metcalfe from all quarters before 
 he took his departure for the West Indian island. But there 
 was not one, perhaps, which more rejoiced his heart than that 
 which he received from his old master from the statesman 
 at whose feet he had learnt the first lessons of official life. 
 And 210 one rejoiced more than Lord Wellesley in the eleva- 
 tion of his former pupil. " It is a matter," he wrote, " of 
 cordial joy and affectionate pride to me to witness the eleva- 
 tion of a personage whose great talents and virtues have been 
 cultivated under my anxious care, and directed by my hand 
 to the public service in India ; where, having filled the first 
 station in the Government of that vast empire with universal 
 applause, his merits and exalted reputation have recommended 
 him to his Sovereign and his country as the man best qua- 
 lified to consummate the noblest work of humanity, justice, 
 and piety ever attempted by any State since the foundation of 
 civilised society. You have been called to this great charge 
 by the free, unsoli cited choice of your Sovereign ; and that 
 choice is the universal subject of approbation by the voice of 
 her whole people : no appointment ever received an equal 
 share of applause. In a letter which I had the honour of 
 receiving from you, and which is published in my Indian 
 despatches, you are pleased to say that you were educated in 
 my school, and that it was the school of virtue, integrity, and 
 honour. That school has produced much good fruit for the 
 service of India. You are one of the most distinguished of 
 that produce, and in your example it is a high satisfaction to 
 me to observe that the benefits of my institution are now 
 extended beyond the limits of that empire for whose good 
 government it was founded." 41 
 
 * With what affectionate tenacity another of his official pupils which I 
 
 Lord Wellesley clung to these old me- have inserted in the Appendix, in plea- 
 
 mories of the College of Fort William sant illustration of the development of 
 
 is rendered still more apparent by his the Indian services, 
 later correspondence with Mr. Bayley
 
 GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA. 447 
 
 In August, 1839, Sir Charles Metcalfe embarked for King- 1839. 
 ston, and on the 21st of September he assumed charge of the ar 
 Government of Jamaica. There were many difficult pro- 
 blems to solve, for the emancipation of the blacks had pro- 
 duced a great social and industrial revolution ; and the transi- 
 tion-state, which had arisen, required very careful and adroit 
 management. But he used to say that the work of govern- 
 ment would be easy and pleasant to him if it were not for the 
 Baptist missionaries. He had not been long in the island 
 before a leading minister of that persuasion declared openly 
 that, though their new governor hoped to find Jamaica a bed 
 of roses, they would take care that every rose should have its 
 thorns. " On my taking charge of the Government," wrote 
 Metcalfe, " the course which I laid down for myself was to 
 conciliate all parties, and by the aid of all parties to promote 
 the happiness and welfare of Jamaica. I have reason to believe 
 that I have succeeded, with the exception of the Baptist mis- 
 sionary party I have naturally asked myself why, 
 
 having apparently succeeded in conciliating all parties, I have 
 failed with respect to that of the Baptist missionaries ? I have 
 conducted myself towards them as I have towards every other 
 denomination of Christian ministers in the island. I have 
 subscribed with the same readiness to their chapels and schools 
 whenever I have had an opportunity. I have not allowed the 
 opinions which I have been forced to entertain of their political 
 proceedings to influence my behaviour or demeanour towards 
 them." He was driven, therefore, reluctantly to conclude, 
 that the obstacle to his success with this particular section of 
 the community lay in the catholicity of his benevolence. He 
 loved all men, all races, all classes. He had, during nearly the 
 whole of his adult life, been familiar with dusky faces, and had 
 been ever kindly disposed towards people vulgarly described 
 as of " black blood." His heart was as open towards the 
 negro population as towards any other class of her Majesty's 
 subjects in the West Indies ; but he could not bring himself 
 to straiten his sympathies in such a manner as to refuse to the 
 white man the hand of brotherhood that he extended to the 
 black. He knew that the latter had once belonged to a down- 
 trodden race, and that it would take years of generous kind-
 
 448 SIR CHARLES METCALFB. 
 
 1839. ness to compensate them for all the injuries which they had 
 borne ; but he believed that the best means of ensuring for 
 them this generous kindness was to narrow the gulf between 
 the two races not to keep alive all animosities, old memories 
 of past wrong. But this wise and truly Christian policy was 
 distasteful to the Christians of the Baptist Missionary Society. 
 Metcalfe tried to inculcate the forgiveness of injuries and the 
 extension of brotherly love between the black and the white 
 races. But the Baptists taught other lessons ; and a quarter 
 of a century afterwards their "bloody instructions returned 
 to plague the inventor." 41 
 
 Whilst Sir Charles Metcalfe was governing Jamaica, there 
 was a change of government at home. A Conservative 
 ministry was established in Downing-street. Lord Stanley 
 (as I write, Lord Derby) passed into the Colonial Office ; but 
 Metcalfe, though a high-pressure liberal, was not sufficiently 
 a party man to be at all disturbed by the change. If he could 
 observe any difference of policy, it was in a more catholic ap- 
 prehension of the situation, and a more generous support of 
 the opinions he had expressed, and the line of conduct he 
 had desired to follow. Lord Stanley himself had, ministe- 
 rially, emancipated the blacks of the West Indies. He was 
 not likely to close his heart against the emancipated race ; but 
 he was far too good and wise to take a limited, one-sided view 
 of the obligations of humanity in such a crisis, and to think 
 that the duties of the parent State were confined to the pro- 
 tection and encouragement of the coloured population of the 
 colony. When, therefore, Sir Charles Metcalfe thought that 
 the time had come when he might consistently lay down the 
 reins of government, he was very anxious that it should not 
 be thought that the change of Government had caused him to 
 hasten the day of his retirement. " I have given notice to the 
 new ministers," he wrote in November, 1841, " that I may 
 soon send in my resignation, in order that they may be pre- 
 pared for it, and look about for my successor. I have done 
 
 * I gladly break off here from the in India (including the venerable Dr. 
 pursuit of a painful subject. But it Carey), and among the farewell ad- 
 ought to be stated that Metcalfe carried dresses he had received at Agra was one 
 with him to Jamaica very strong pre- from the Baptist missionaries, thanking 
 possessions in favour of the Baptist him for the countenance he had always 
 missionaries. He had known many afforded them, 
 eminent members of that communion
 
 DEPARTURE FROM JAMAICA. 449 
 
 this in a manner which will preclude the idea that the change 184142. 
 of ministry is the cause of my retirement, there being no 
 reason for putting it oil any ground but the true one, which is 
 that, having done what I came to do by which I mean the 
 reconciliation of the colony with the mother country I see no 
 necessity for staying any longer." So Metcalfe prepared him- 
 self to return to England, well satisfied that he had not 
 laboured in vain. What he did in the West Indian colony has 
 been thus comprehensively described by himself : " When," he 
 wrote in the letter to the Colonial Secretary referred to above, 
 " the offer of the Governorship of this island and its depen- 
 dencies -was conveyed to me, my only inducement in accepting 
 it was the hope of rendering some service to my country by 
 becoming, instrumental in the reconciliation of the colony to 
 the mother country. That object was accomplished soon after 
 my arrival by the good sense and good feeling of the colonists, 
 who readily and cordially met the conciliatory disposition 
 which it was my duty to evince towards them. The next 
 subject which attracted my attention was the unsatisfactory 
 feeling of the labouring population towards their employers. 
 This has naturally subsided into a state more consistent with 
 the relations of the parties, and there is no longer any ground 
 of anxiety 011 that account. Other dissensions in the com- 
 munity, which grew out of the preceding circumstances, have 
 either entirely or in a great degree ceased, and order and 
 harmony, with exceptions which will occasionally occur in 
 every state of society, may be said to prevail."* 
 
 In the following May, a successor having been appointed in Return to 
 the person of Lord Elgin, Sir Charles Metcalfe, amidst a England- 
 perfect shower of warm-hearted valedictory addresses, em- 
 barked again for the mother country. When he arrived in 
 England, the malady of which I have spoken had grown upon 
 him ; he suffered much pain ; and it was his first care now to 
 
 * I do not profess, in this account of the English soldier, especially in respect 
 
 certain officers of the (East) Indian of his location on the hill country. In 
 
 Services, to give a just narrative of this good work Sir William Gomm, who 
 
 Metcalfe's West Indian, . or of his sub- commanded the troops, went hand in 
 
 sequent Canadian administration. I hand with him neither leading and 
 
 may, however, mention here, in illus- neither following. Perhaps, in a former 
 
 tration of the military instincts of which record of this, I did not sufficiently ac- 
 
 I have before spoken, that he devoted knowledge the obligations of humanity 
 
 himself very assiduously to the im- to Sir William Gomm. 
 provement of the sanitary condition of 
 
 VOL. I. 2 G
 
 450 SIR CHAKLES METCALFE. 
 
 1842. obtain the best surgical and medical advice. So he sent at 
 once for his old Calcutta friend and professional adviser, Mr. 
 Martin,* who went into consultation on the subject with Sir 
 Benjamin Brodie and Mr. Keate. The ulcerous affection of 
 the cheek had been much increased by the climate of Jamaica, 
 with its attendant plague of flies, and perhaps by unskilful 
 treatment. But his letters to England had made no mention 
 of the complaint, and he had generally said that he was in ex- 
 cellent health. It was now clearly a most formidable disorder, 
 and only to be combated by remedies of a most painful cha- 
 racter. The diseased part, it was thought, might be cut out 
 with the knife, or burnt out with caustic. The latter mode of 
 treatment was finally approved. Metcalfe was told that it 
 might destroy " the cheek through and through ;" but he only 
 answered, " Whatever you determine shall be done at once." 
 So the caustic was applied. The agony was intense, but he 
 bore it without a murmur. His quiet endurance of pain was 
 something, indeed, almost marvellous. 
 
 The success of the operation was greater even than was ex- 
 pected. The sufferer was removed to Norwood for quiet and 
 country air, and he wrote thence that the diseased part looked 
 better than it had done for many years, but that there was no 
 certainty of a permanent cure. From Norwood he went to 
 Devonshire, where a country-house had been taken for him 
 near Honiton, and where he remained for some time in the 
 enjoyment of the affectionate society of his sister, Mrs. Smythe. 
 But in the beginning of the new year he was roused from the 
 tranquil pleasures of his country life by reports that it was the 
 intention of Sir Robert Peel's Government to invite him to 
 proceed as Governor- General to Canada. At first he laughed 
 at the credulity of his friends who wrote to him on the sub- 
 ject. " I have no more idea of going to Canada," he wrote 
 
 to Mr. Ross Mangles, " than of flying in the air The 
 
 only thing that I have the least inclination for is a seat in 
 Parliament, of which, in the present predominance of Toryism 
 among the constituencies, there is no chance for a man who is 
 for the Abolition of the Corn-laws, Vote by Ballot, Extension 
 of the Suffrage, Amelioration of the Poor-laws for the benefit 
 of the poor, equal rights to all sects of Christians in matters 
 
 * Now Sir James Ranald Martin.
 
 GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA. 451 
 
 of religion, and equal rights to all men in civil matters, and 1842. 
 everything else that to his understanding seems just and 
 right and at the same time is totally disqualified to be a 
 demagogue shrinks like a sensitive plant from public meet- 
 ings, and cannot bear to be drawn from close retirement, 
 except by what comes in the shape of real or fancied duty to 
 his country." But little as he thought of it at that time, the 
 claims of duty were even then about to withdraw him from his 
 retirement. Two days after these lines were written, the in- 
 vitation to proceed to Canada reached him at Deer Park. 
 The letter proposing the arrangement was playfully, but 
 only too truly, described as Lord Stanley's " fatal missive." 
 Sir Charles Metcalfe went to Canada as he went to Jamaica, 
 because he believed that it was his duty to go ; but the arms 
 of death were around him as he embarked. 
 
 Into the history of the troubled politics of Canada at that 1843. 
 time it would be beyond the scope of this Memoir to enter in 
 detail. To Metcalfe everything was new and strange. There Canada, 
 were many perplexing problems, the solution of which was 
 beyond the range of his forty years' experience of public life. 
 He had for the first time to cope with all the difficulties and 
 embarrassments of Government by Party or, in other words, 
 by a Parliamentary majority and with the complications 
 arising from a conflict of nationalities in a singularly varied 
 population. He found, not much to his surprise, that as the 
 representative of the monarchical principle of the constitution, 
 he was expected to suffer himself to dwindle down into a mere 
 cypher. But he believed that to consent to this would be to 
 abandon his duty to his sovereign. " To the question at 
 issue," he wrote to an old friend and fellow-collegian, " which 
 is, whether the Governor is to be in some degree what his title 
 imports, or a mere tool in the hands of the party that can ob- 
 tain a majority in the representative body, I am, I conceive, 
 * vir Justus,' and I certainly mean to be l tenax propositi,' and 
 hope l si fractus illabatur orbis, impavidum ferient ruinse.' * 
 To another old Indian friend he wrote : " Fancy such a state of 
 things in India, with a Mahomedan Assembly, and you will 
 have some notion of my position. On a distinct demand from 
 the Council for stipulations which would have reduced me to 
 a nonentity, I refused. They instantly resigned, and were 
 
 2G2
 
 452 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 184344. supported by the House of Assembly. Since then I have not 
 been able to form a Council likely to carry a majority. I have 
 now to strive to obtain a majority in the present Parliament, 
 If I fail in that, I must dissolve and try a new one. I do not 
 know that I shall have a better chance in that ; and if I fail 
 then, still I cannot submit, for that would be to surrender the 
 Queen's Government into the hands of rebels, and to become 
 myself their ignominious tool. I know not what the end will 
 be. The only thing certain is that I cannot yield." A dis- 
 solution was imminent. His enemies raged furiously against 
 him. They assailed him with bitterness, which manifested 
 itself in all shapes, from the light language of ridicule to that 
 of vehement indignation. Some called him " Old Square- 
 toes" and " Charles the Simple." Others denounced him as a 
 designing despot and an unscrupulous tyrant. The crisis was 
 now upon him. An old and dear friend, of whom much 
 has been said in this volume, had written to him from his 
 quiet chambers in the Albany, saying : " If you think only 
 of your own comfort and content, or were convinced that 
 you were past more useful employment, you might enjoy your 
 repose with as good a conscience as I do ; but if I had the 
 energy and ability to fill such a place as yours, I would not 
 give the few months of your approaching crisis for a hundred 
 years of unprofitable engagement." 
 
 No man knew Charles Metcalfe better than Mounstuart 
 Elphinstone no man was more capable of reading and appre- 
 ciating his character in all its finest shades and most subtle 
 combinations. When Mr. Gibbon Wakefield wrote that re- 
 markable pamphlet on the crisis in Canada, in which there 
 appeared an elaborate portrait of the Governor -General, 
 highly commendatory of his wonderful patience and endu- 
 rance, his almost saint-like temper and his constant cheer- 
 fulness under the worst trials and provocations,* but in which 
 some doubt was expressed as to whether the gentleness of his 
 nature did not cause him to be sometimes regardless of the 
 
 * The following passage is worthy of and lightness of heart in the midst of 
 
 quotation : "I never witnessed such pa- trouble enough to provoke a saint or 
 
 tience under provocation. I am speak- make a strong man ill. To those who, 
 
 ing now of what I saw myself, and like me, have seen three Governors of 
 
 could not have believed without seeing. Canada literally worried to death, this 
 
 It was not merely quiet endurance, but was a glorious spectacle." 
 a constant good-humoured cheerfulness
 
 GOVERNOR-GENERAL OP CANADA. 453 
 
 % 
 
 duty of upholding his personal and official dignity, Mr. 1843 44. 
 Elphinstone wrote to a friend, who had sent him the book, 
 saying : " You cannot overrate the pleasure with which I see 
 justice done to Metcalfe, and I am very much obliged to you 
 for a publication in which he is so favourably spoken of. I am 
 not sure, however, that I can admit that full justice is done to 
 him even in it. The character given of him is admirable, 
 even the part that seems mere panegyric shows sagacity and 
 discrimination. I cannot quite agree with the censures, slight 
 as they are. Metcalfe has unquestionably such a temper 
 as is seldom given to man, but he surely is capable of in- 
 dignation when there is anything to call it forth, and is not 
 likely to invite ill-usage by showing himself wanting to his 
 own dignity. I should think he was cautious, almost timid, 
 in deliberating, but that he would be roused at once by oppo- 
 sition such as appeared to him factious or unreasonable. I 
 agree that he is not well qualified to use the proper means for 
 managing a popular government, and that he even despises 
 the use of them ; but I cannot admit that he does not see the 
 end in view, or the relation into which he wishes to bring the 
 Governor and the popular branch of the Legislature. I think 
 his neglect of the means a misfortune. It is great weakness 
 to rely on management of individuals and parties (in which 
 Lord Sydenham so much excelled) for the permanent support 
 of a system, but it is requisite for enabling some solid mea- 
 sures to proceed without interruption. I think it is his over- 
 rating these supposed defects of Metcalfe's that has most led 
 Mr. Wakefield to what I cannot but think a wrong conclu- 
 sion. I cannot think that the disputes between the Governor- 
 General and his Council are to be ascribed to mere l incom- 
 patibility of character,' or to the parties not understanding 
 each other. Those causes, no doubt, had their influence ; but 
 were there not other grounds of disagreement, which no free- 
 dom of communication could have removed ? Lord Syden- 
 ham, it appears, conceded the responsibility of ministers ; Sir 
 C. Bagot carried it into practice, but in this crisis, when the 
 strongest and firmest hand was required to mark the boundary 
 of this new distribution of power, he was incapacitated by 
 sickness from undertaking that work at all. The whole power 
 fell into the hands of the ministry, and Metcalfe had to re-
 
 454 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 184314. conquer the most indispensable of his rights. In such circum- 
 stances, I doubt if any modification of character, or any skill 
 and experience in parliamentary tactics, could have averted a 
 collision, and I need not say that I most fully concur with 
 Mr. Wakefield in thinking that Metcalfe should have the most 
 full, open, and energetic support of Government. As to the 
 particular sort of support which I understood you to hint at 
 (some distinguished mark of favour on the part of the Crown), 
 however much to be desired it is, I am afraid scarcely to be 
 hoped for. A peerage is already due to Metcalfe for his ser- 
 vices in Jamaica, and as he has no issue, it would be a very 
 moderate boon ; but Peel has from fifty to seventy applicants, 
 many of whom rate even their public services high : he stops 
 their mouths by professing a resolution not to complete the 
 work of the Whigs in swamping the House of Lords ; but if 
 he once opens the door, ' like to an entered tide they all rush 
 by,' and leave room for a new inundation of claimants." 
 
 But rightly to understand what were the heroic constancy 
 and courage of the man in the midst of all this great sea of 
 trouble, we must ever keep before us the fact that he was suf- 
 fering almost incessant physical pain, and that a lingering and 
 torturing death was before him. The cancer which was eating 
 
 o o 
 
 into his face had destroyed the sight of one eye, and he was 
 threatened with total blindness. He was compelled, therefore, 
 to sit in a darkened room, and to employ an amanuensis, and 
 when he was compelled to go abroad on public business, the 
 windows of his carriage were so screened as to exclude the 
 dust and the glare. Throughout the years 1843 and 1844 
 the disease had been steadily gaining ground, in spite of all the 
 efforts and appliances of human skill. The Queen's Govern- 
 ment had sent out to Canada a young surgical practitioner of 
 high promise, since abundantly fulfilled, recommended by Sir 
 Benjamin Brodie and Mr. Martin, who were well acquainted 
 with the case. But neither the skill of Mr. Pollock,* nor his 
 
 * Mr. G. D. Pollock second son of and winning in his manners ; and his 
 General Sir George Pollock, now sur- conversation, reputation, and experience 
 geon to the Prince of Wales. Sir Charles afford encouragement. He is about to 
 Metcalfe thus wrote of him : " I am have a consultation with my other doc- 
 most thankful to you and Sir Benjamin tors, and will afterwards, I conclude, 
 Brodie for all your kindness, and I shall proceed to business. I shall put myself 
 be obliged to you if you will tell him entirely in his hands, and abide by his 
 that I am very sensible of it. Mr. Pol- judgment and treatment." 
 lock is arrived. He is very agreeable
 
 GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA. 455 
 
 assiduous and tender ministrations, could avail more than to 1844 45. 
 palliate, in some small measure, the more painful symptoms 
 of his malady, and by the end of 1844 he had returned to 
 England, assured that the cure of such a disease was beyond 
 the reach of surgery or medicine. Metcalfe had by this time 
 ceased to read or write for himself. At the beginning of 
 1845, by the help of an amanuensis, he gave the following 
 account of himself to Mr. Martin : "I have three kind letters 
 of yours unanswered. So long as I had the use of my eyes, 
 I hoped that a day would come when I could take up my pen 
 and thank you for them ; but to do that now I am obliged to 
 borrow the aid of another hand, as my right eye is quite blind, 
 and the other cannot be exerted with impunity. I am com- 
 pelled to abstain almost entirely from reading and writing, 
 both of which operations are performed for me ; thus much is 
 in explanation of my not writing to you with my own hand. 
 Pollock has quitted me on his return to London. I am ex- 
 ceedingly sorry to part with him, not only as a medical 
 adviser, of whose skill and judgment I have a high opinion, 
 and who had acquired considerable experience regarding the 
 state of my complaint, but also as a most agreeable com- 
 panion, in whose society I had great pleasure. Highly as I 
 think of Pollock, I have lost all faith in chloride of zinc ; that 
 powerful but destructive remedy has been applied over and 
 over again, without efficacy, to the same parts of my cheek. 
 The disease remains uneradicated, and has spread to the eye 
 and taken away its sight. This, at least, is my opinion, 
 although I am bound to hesitate in entertaining it, as I am 
 not sure that Pollock is satisfied of the extension of the actual 
 disease to the eye ;. but if it be not the disease which has pro- 
 duced the blindness, it must be the remedy. I am inclined, 
 however, to believe that it is in reality the disease, both from 
 appearances and the continual pain. The complaint appears 
 to me to have taken possession of the whole of that side of 
 the face, although the surface is not so much ulcerated as it 
 has heretofore been. I feel pain and tenderness in the head, 
 above the eye and down the right side of the face as far as the 
 chin, the cheek towards the nose and mouth being permanently 
 swelled. I cannot open my mouth to its usual width, and 
 have difficulty in inserting and masticating pieces of food. 
 After all that has been done in vain, I am disposed to believe
 
 456 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1845. that a perfect cure is hopeless; I am, nevertheless, ' in the 
 hands of a doctor who is inclined to follow Pollock's course, 
 and by whose judgment I shall implicitly abide. Having no 
 hope of a cure, my chief anxiety now regards my remaining 
 eye, which sympathises so much with the other that I am not 
 without fear of total blindness, which is not a comfortable 
 prospect, although, if it should come, I shall consider it my 
 duty to resign myself to it with cheerfulness. Under these 
 circumstances you will readily imagine that I should be very 
 glad if I could return home, both for the chance of benefit 
 from the medical skill that is to be found in the metropolis, 
 and, independently of that, for the sake of retirement and re- 
 pose, which are requisite for an invalid such as I now am ; 
 but I cannot reconcile it to my own sense of duty to quit my 
 post in the present state of affairs in this country. I have no 
 doubt of the generous readiness of her Majesty's Government 
 to meet any application that I might make for permission to 
 return, but I have myself no inclination to abandon the loyal 
 portion of the community in Canada, who in the recent crisis 
 have made a noble and successful stand in support of her 
 Majesty's Government. Until, therefore, I see a satisfactory 
 state of things so far confirmed as to afford assurance that it 
 will be lasting, notwithstanding my departure, I shall not en- 
 tertain any idea of my own retirement so long as I have bodily 
 and mental health sufficient for the performance of the duties 
 of my office." 
 
 As the year advanced his sufferings increased. In June he 
 wrote to the same cherished correspondent : "I have no hope 
 of benefit from anything. The malady is gradually getting 
 worse, although its progress from day to day is imperceptible. 
 I cannot quit my post at present without the certainty of mis- 
 chievous consequences, and must, therefore, perform my duty 
 by remaining where I am, whatever may be the result to my- 
 self personally." But, although he wrote thus to one who, 
 whether present or absent, had watched the disease in all its 
 stages, he was in the habit of describing his state lightly, and 
 even jestingly, to his relatives and old correspondents. "A 
 life of perpetual chloride of zinc," he wrote to one of them, 
 " is far from an easy one. There are, however, greater pains 
 and afflictions in the world, and I ought to be grateful for the
 
 GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA. 457 
 
 many mercies that I have experienced The doctor has 1845. 
 
 just been with me, and says that the face looks very satisfac- 
 tory. N.B. I can't shut my right one, and after the next 
 application I shall not be able to open my mouth ' very 
 satisfactory.' " But, in spite of all this, he went on unflinch- 
 ingly at his work. His intellect was never brighter, his 
 courage and resolution never stronger. The despatches which 
 he dictated at this time are amongst the best to which he ever 
 attached his name. But it was plainly not the decree of Pro- 
 vidence that he should have human strength to struggle on 
 much longer. 
 
 But even then there were great compensations. He felt The Peerage, 
 that he was doing his duty, and he knew that his devotion to 
 the public service was recognised both by the Queen and her 
 ministers. During the space of forty-five years he had toiled 
 unremittingly for the good of the State, in foreign lands and 
 under hostile skies; he had scarcely known either home or 
 rest. And now he was about to receive his reward. It came 
 in a shape very welcome to him, for the fire of ambition had 
 burnt within him ever since the boyish days when he had 
 paced the Eton cloisters and indulged in day-dreams of future 
 fame. In the midst of a life rendered endurable only by a 
 feeling that he was doing some good to his fellows, and that 
 it was God's will thus to afflict him, letters came to him from 
 Lord Stanley and Sir Robert Peel, informing him that it was 
 her Majesty's desire to raise him to the Peerage as soon as he 
 had communicated to Government his choice of a title. He 
 elected to be called by his own ancestral name. He appre- 
 ciated the honour. He accepted it gratefully. But he felt that 
 it was "too late." 
 
 This honourable recognition of his past services would have 
 sustained and strengthened him, for the stimulus of gratitude 
 was thus added to his other incentives to exertion, if it had 
 been possible for the strong spirit to prevail against the 
 failure of the frail flesh. There were political circumstances 
 which in the early summer of 1845 seemed to render it ex- 
 pedient that Metcalfe should remain at his post. " It will be 
 seen," he wrote in May to the Colonial Secretary, " from the 
 description of parties which I have submitted, that the two 
 parties in Lower and Upper Canada, which I regard as dis-
 
 458 SIB CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1845. affected, have a bitter animosity against me ; and if it should 
 ever become necessary to admit these parties again into power, 
 in preference to standing a collision with the Legislative 
 Assembly, a case would arise in 'which my presence here 
 might be rather prejudicial than beneficial, as it would be 
 impossible for me to place the slightest confidence in the 
 leaders of these parties. If any such necessity should occur 
 in my time, it would cause an embarrassment much more 
 serious to me than any difficulty that I have hitherto had to 
 encounter. Whatever my duty might dictate I trust I should 
 be ready to perform ; but I cannot contemplate the possibility 
 of co-operating with any satisfaction to myself with men of 
 whom I entertain the opinions that I hold with regard to the 
 leaders of these parties. Such an embarrassment will not be 
 impossible if any portion of the present majority fall off or 
 become insensible of the necessity of adhering together. It is 
 with a view to avert such a calamity that I consider my con- 
 tinuance at my post to be important at the present period, as 
 a change in the head of the Government might easily lead to 
 the result which I deprecate, and which it will be my study to 
 prevent as long as I see any prospect of success." So he 
 struggled on all through the summer months, doing the best 
 he could, but feeling, at the same time, that his public useful- 
 ness, was impaired by his physical condition, and that it was 
 chiefly the moral influence of his presence in Canada that 
 enabled him to be of service to the Crown. 
 
 The autumn of that year found him more afflicted and more 
 helpless than he had ever been before. Still he was unwilling 
 to resign, but he believed it to be his duty to report to the 
 Queen's ministers that his resignation might soon be in- 
 evitable. On the 13th of October he wrote to Lord Stanley : 
 " My disorder has recently made a serious advance, affecting 
 my articulation and all the functions of the mouth ; there is a 
 hole through the cheek into the interior of the mouth. My 
 doctors warn me that it may soon be physically impossible for 
 me to perform the duties of my office. If the season were not 
 so far advanced towards the winter, I should feel myself under 
 the necessity of requesting your Lordship to relieve me ; but 
 as such an arrangement might require time and deliberation, 
 I propose to struggle on as well as I can, and will address
 
 PROGRESS OF DISEASE. 459 
 
 your Lordship again on this subject according to any further 1845 - 
 changes that may occur in my condition ; in the mean while, 
 I have considered it to be my duty to apprise your Lordship of 
 the probable impossibility of my performing my official func- 
 tions, in order that you may be prepared to make such an 
 arrangement as may seem to be most expedient for the public 
 service." And again on the 29th : " I continue in the same 
 bodily state that I described by the last mail. I am unable to 
 entertain company or to receive visitors, and my official busi- 
 ness with public functionaries is transacted at my residence in 
 the country instead of the apartment assigned for that purpose 
 in the public buildings in town. I am consequently conscious 
 that I am inadequately performing the duties of my office, and 
 if there were time to admit of my being relieved before the 
 setting in of the winter, I should think that the period had 
 arrived when I might, perfectly in consistence with public 
 duty, solicit to be relieved ; but, as the doctors say that I can- 
 not be removed with safety from this place during the winter, 
 and as that season is fast approaching, it becomes a question 
 whether I can best perform my duty to my country by work- 
 ing on at the head of the Government to the best of my 
 ability until the spring, or by delivering over charge to other 
 hands, and remaining here as a private individual until the 
 season may admit of my return to Europe with safety.. In 
 this dilemma I have hitherto abstained from submitting my 
 formal resignation of my office, and shall continue to report 
 by each successive mail as to my condition and capability of 
 carrying on the duties of my post." 
 
 To the first of these letters Lord Stanley, whose kindly Resignation, 
 sympathies and genial praises had cheered Metcalfe alike in 
 seasons of political anxieties and in hours of physical pain, re- 
 turned the following characteristic answer : "I have received 
 the Queen's commands to express to your Lordship the deep 
 concern with which her Majesty learns that the state of your 
 health is such as to render it necessary for you to tender to 
 her Majesty the resignation of the high and arduous office the 
 duties of which you have so ably fulfilled. Her Majesty is 
 aware that your devotion to her service has led you, amidst 
 physical sufferings beneath which ordinary men would have 
 given way, to remain at your post to the last possible moment.
 
 460 SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 1845. The Queen highly estimates this proof of your public spirit; 
 and in accepting your proffered resignation, which in the 
 present circumstances she feels it impossible to decline, her 
 Majesty has commanded me to express her entire approval of 
 the ability and prudence with which you have conducted the 
 affairs of a very difficult Government, her sense of the loss 
 which the public service is about to sustain by your retire- 
 ment, and her deep regret for the cause which renders it un- 
 avoidable. These sentiments, I assure you, are fully par- 
 ticipated in by myself and the other members of her Majesty's 
 Government. I shall take early steps for the selection of your 
 permanent successor, though it is probable that some time 
 must elapse before he may be able to relieve you. . In the 
 mean time, you will consider the acceptance of your resigna- 
 tion as taking effect from the period, whenever that may be, 
 at which you see fit to hand over the government provisionally 
 to Earl Cathcart." 
 
 But even then, in his heroic constancy, he would not decide 
 for himself; he would not desert those who had stood by him 
 in the great constitutional conflict which had recently agitated 
 the colony. It was necessary, however, as the autumn ad- 
 vanced, that the decision should be formed, for the setting in 
 of the winter would have closed the navigation of the river 
 and rendered impossible his departure before the spring. So 
 he called his ministry together at the country-house near 
 Montreal, in which he was then residing, and placed the 
 matter wholly in their hands. " It was a scene," writes the 
 biographer of Lord Metcalfe, " never to be forgotten by any 
 who were present, on this memorable occasion, in the Go- 
 vernor-General's sheltered room. Some were dissolved in 
 tears. All were agitated by a strong emotion of sorrow and 
 sympathy, mingled with a sort of wondering admiration of 
 the heroic constancy of their chief. He told them, that if they 
 desired his continuance at the head of the Government if 
 they believed that the cause for which they had fought to- 
 gether so manfully would suffer by his departure, and that 
 they therefore counselled him to remain at his post, he would 
 willingly abide by their decision ; but that the Queen had 
 graciously signified her willingness that he should be relieved, 
 and that he doubted much whether the adequate performance
 
 LAST DAYS. 461 
 
 of his duties, as the chief ruler of so extensive and important 1845. 
 a province, had not almost ceased to be a physical possibility. 
 It need not be said what was their decision. They besought 
 him to depart, and he consented. A nobler spectacle than 
 that of this agonised man resolutely offering to die at his post, 
 the world has seen only once before." 
 
 So Lord Metcalfe returned to England, and before him lay Last days in 
 
 T? 1 /I 
 
 the great object of his ambition a seat in the Legislative 
 Assembly of the Empire. But he felt that it was not the 
 decree of Providence that he should ever lift up his voice in 
 defence of those cherished principles which lay so near to his 
 heart. He had written from Canada to his sister, saying : 
 " There was a time when I should have rejoiced in a peerage, 
 as affording me the privilege of devoting the remainder of my 
 life to the service of my Queen and country in the House of 
 Lords in my mind a most honourable and independent posi- 
 tion ; but I doubt now whether I shall ever be able to under- 
 take that duty with any degree of efficiency. My gratifica- 
 tion, therefore, is confined to the pleasure which must be 
 derived from so distinguished a mark of approbation of my 
 public services, and to that of knowing that some kind hearts 
 will rejoice at my elevation. The mere rank and title, if 
 divested by infirmities of the power of rendering useful service 
 in the House of Lords, will be encumbrance, and will not add 
 one jot to the happiness which I still hope to enjoy in living 
 in retirement with you." And now in England, with all the 
 appliances of European science at his command, and amidst 
 all the restorative influences of perfect repose and the gentle 
 ministrations of loving friends, it seemed less than ever to be 
 God's will that he should take his place among the " orators 
 discussing important topics in the Senate House." A few 
 more months of pain and it would all be over. 
 
 But with the pain there was no sorrow. There was infinite 
 peace and a beautiful resignation within him, and his habitual 
 cheerfulness never wholly deserted him. He could still rejoice 
 in the society of loving friends and in the kind words which 
 came to him from a distance. Among other compensations 
 of this kind were the public addresses which were voted to 
 him addresses striving to congratulate, but coming only to 
 console which greeted him in his retirement. A great meet-
 
 462 SIR CHARLES METCALFB. 
 
 1846. ing of the " Civil and Military Servants of the East India 
 Company and others personally connected with India" was 
 held at the Oriental Club. Men who had held all kinds of 
 honourable positions in India, from Govern or- General down- 
 wards, vied with each other in doing honour to the veteran 
 statesman. Among them, as he himself afterwards wrote, were 
 " some whose public service he had had the honour of super- 
 intending, some with whom he had co-operated as colleagues, 
 some who as schoolfellows had known him from boyhood, 
 some who as cotemporaries had been engaged in the same 
 field, and many who, without his personal acquaintance, had 
 nevertheless concurred to do him honour." The names ap- 
 pended to the address were so numerous, that when the parch- 
 ment was unrolled before him it covered the floor of his room. 
 He received it with deep emotion. " It is easy," he said, " to 
 bear up against ill-usage, but such kindness quite overcomes 
 me." In the written answer, which he returned to this 
 address, he said : " Had I retired from the colonial service of 
 my country with health to enable me to discharge other public 
 functions, it would have been the highest satisfaction to me to 
 devote the rest of my life to those duties in the Legislature 
 devolving on the rank to which I have been elevated by our 
 most gracious sovereign ; but as it appears to be the will of 
 the Almighty that sickness and infirmity should be the lot of 
 my remaining days, I shall in that state cherish the recollec- 
 tion of your kindness as one of the greatest blessings I can 
 enjoy. Proud of my relation with the services in India, in 
 which so many eminent men have been formed and are con- 
 tinually rising, it is a source of indescribable pleasure to me 
 that the approbation accorded to my efforts in other quarters 
 should meet with sympathy from those personally connected 
 with that splendid portion of the British Empire, and that 
 one of the last acts of my public life should be to convey to 
 you my grateful sense of the generous sentiments which you 
 entertain." To an address received about the same time from 
 the inhabitants of Calcutta, who had built in his honour the 
 Metcalfe Hall, he replied in a few brief but touching sen- 
 tences, in which he spoke of the infirmities which beset him 
 and the hopeless state of his health, and concluded by saying, 
 " My anxious hope that prosperity and every other blessing
 
 HIS DEATH. 463 
 
 may attend you will accompany me to the grave, which lies 1846. 
 open at my feet." 
 
 This was written in July. The end was, indeed, rapidly 
 approaching. He was then at Malshanger Park, near Basing- 
 stoke. His sister, Mrs. Smythe, and other dear friends were 
 with him. To the last his courage and resolution were con- 
 spicuous. He would not be confined to the sick-room, but 
 moved about, and without help, as long as motion was pos- 
 sible,* and desired that everything should go on in his house 
 as if no change were approaching, f He was sensible of in- 
 creasing weakness ; but he was anxious to hide his sufferings 
 from the eyes of others, and never at any time was the un- 
 selfishness of his nature more apparent than when the hand 
 of death was upon him. His loving-kindness towards others 
 was as beautiful as the patience which clothed him as with a 
 garment ; and in the extremity of his own sufferings he had 
 ever a heart to feel for the sufferings of others, and a hand to 
 help and to relieve. And so, gentle and genial and courteous 
 to the last, he passed away from the scene, solaced beyond 
 all by the word of God that was read to him, and by the 
 sweet sounds of his sister's harp. The bodily anguish which 
 had so long afflicted him ceased ; perfect peace was upon him ; 
 and a calm sweet smile settled down on his long-tortured face, 
 as with an assured belief in the redeeming power of Christ's 
 blood, he gave back his soul to his Maker. . 
 
 " On the 4th of September, Lord sweet those sounds are !' he was heard 
 Metcalfe, for the first time, did not leave to whisper almost with his dying 
 his sleeping apartment. The extreme breath." Life of Lord Metcalfe. 
 debility of the sufferer forbade any ex- f " He seemed unwilling to do or to 
 ertion. There was little apparent change suffer anything that would bring the 
 except in a disinclination to take the sad truth painfully to the minds of 
 nourishment offered to him. On the others. He wished, therefore, that 
 following morning, however, the change everything should go on in his house- 
 was very apparent. It was obvious that hold as though his place were not soon 
 he was sinking fast. Unwilling to be to be empty. . . . He would converse 
 removed to his bed, he sat for the cheerfully on all passing topics, public 
 greater part of the day in a chair, and private, and his keen sense of 
 breathing with great difficulty. In the humour was unclouded to the last." 
 afternoon he sent for the members of Life and Correspondence of Lord Met- 
 his family, laid his hands upon their calfe. The biographer adds : " A friend 
 heads as they knelt beside him, and writing to me regarding Lord Metcalfe's 
 breathed the blessing which he could last days, says : ' A month before his 
 not utter. Soon afterwards he was con- death I have seen him laugh as heartily 
 veyed to his bed. . . . The last sounds at a joke in Punch as the stoutest of 
 which reached him were the sweet us.' " 
 strains of his sister's harp. . . ' How
 
 464 SIB CHAKLES METCALFE. 
 
 1846. He was buried in the family vault of the Metcalfes, in the 
 
 little parish church of Winkfield, near his paternal estate ; 
 and there may be seen a tablet to his memory bearing the 
 following inscription, inspired by the genius of Macaulay. 
 Both are summed up, in the monumental record, with so 
 much beauty and truth, it leaves nothing to be said about the 
 career or the character of Charles Metcalfe. 
 
 Near tfu's Sbtoiu is Haft 
 
 CHAKLES THEOPHILUS, FIRST AND LAST LORD METCALFE, 
 
 A STATESMAN TEIED IN MANY HIGH POSTS AND DIFFICULT CONJUNCTURES, 
 
 AND FOUND EQUAL TO ALL. 
 THE THREE GREATEST DEPENDENCIES OF THE BRITISH CROWN 
 
 WERE SUCCESSIVELY ENTRUSTED TO HIS CARE. 
 IN INDIA HIS FORTITUDE, HIS WISDOM, HIS PROBITY, AND HIS 
 
 MODERATION 
 
 ARE HELD IN HONOURABLE REMEMBRANCE 
 
 BY MEN OF MANY RACES, LANGUAGES, AND RELIGIONS. 
 
 IN JAMAICA, STILL CONVULSED BY A SOCIAL REVOLUTION, 
 
 HE CALMED THE EVIL PASSIONS 
 WHICH LONG SUFFERING HAD ENGENDERED IN ONE CLASS, 
 
 AND LONG DOMINATION IN ANOTHER. 
 IN CANADA, NOT YET RECOVERED FROM THE CALAMITIES OF CIVIL WAR, 
 
 HE RECONCILED CONTENDING FACTIONS 
 
 TO EACH OTHER AND TO THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 
 
 PUBLIC ESTEEM WAS THE JUST REWARD OF His" PUBLIC VIRTUE, 
 
 BUT THOSE ONLY WHO ENJOYED THE PRIVILEGE OF HIS FRIENDSHIP 
 
 COULD APPRECIATE THE WHOLE WORTH OF HIS GENTLE AND 
 
 NOBLE NATURE. 
 
 COSTLY MONUMENTS IN ASIATIC AND AMERICAN CITIES 
 ATTEST THE GRATITUDE OF NATIONS WHICH HE RULED; 
 
 THIS TABLET RECORDS THE SORROW AND THE PRIDE 
 WITH WHICH HIS MEMORY IS CHERISHED BY PRIVATE AFFECTION. 
 
 HE WAS BORN THE 30TH DAY OF JANUARY, 1785. 
 HE DIED THE 5lH DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 1846.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 (Note, p. 59.) 
 STATE OF THE COMPANY'S SERVICE IN 1765. 
 
 LORD CLIVE TO THE COURT OF DIRECTORS. 
 
 Calcutta, September 30, 1765. 
 GENTLEMEN, 
 
 * * * * UPON my arrival, I am sorry to say I found your affairs 
 in a condition so nearly desperate as would have alarmed any set of 
 men whose sense of honour and duty to their employers had not 
 been estranged by the too eager pursuit of their own immediate 
 advantage. The sudden, and, among many, the unwarrantable ac- 
 quisition of riches, had introduced luxury in every shape, and in its 
 most pernicious excess. These two enormous evils went hand in 
 hand together through the whole Presidency, infecting almost every 
 member of each department. Every inferior seemed to have grasped 
 at wealth, that he might be enabled to assume the spirit of profu- 
 sion, which was now the only distinction between him and his supe- 
 rior. Thus all distinction ceased, and every rank became, in a 
 manner, upon an equality. Nor was this the end of the mischief, 
 for a contest of such a nature among your servants necessarily 
 destroyed all proportion between their wants and the honest means 
 of satisfying them. In a country where money is plenty, where 
 fear is the principle of government, and where your arms are ever 
 victorious ; in such a country, I say, it is no wonder that corruption 
 should find its way to a spot so well prepared to receive it. It is 
 no wonder that the lust of riches should readily embrace the prof- 
 fered means of its gratification, or that the instruments of your 
 power should avail themselves of their authority, and proceed even 
 to extortion in those cases where simple corruption could not keep 
 pace with their rapacity. Examples of this sort, set by superiors, 
 VOL. i. 2 H
 
 466 APPENDIX. 
 
 could not fail of being followed in a proportionate degree by infe- 
 riors. The evil was contagions, and spread among both civil and 
 military, down to the writer, the ensign, and the free merchant. 
 
 The large sums of money acquired by donation, besides the means 
 I have already mentioned, were so publicly known and vindicated, 
 that every one thought he had a right to enrich himself, at all 
 events, with as much expedition as possible. The monopoly of salt, 
 betel, tobacco, &c., was another fund of immense profits to the 
 Company's servants, and likewise to such others as they permitted 
 to enjoy a share, while not a rupee of advantage accrued to the 
 Government, and very little to the Company, from that trade. 
 Before I had discovered the various sources of wealth, I was under 
 great astonishment to find individuals so suddenly enriched, that 
 there was scarce a gentleman in the settlement who had not fixed 
 upon a very short period for his return to England with affluence. 
 From hence arose that froward spirit of independency which, in a 
 manner, set all your orders at defiance, and dictated a total con- 
 tempt of them as often as obedience was found incompatible with 
 private interest. At the time of my arrival, I saw nothing that 
 bore the form or appearance of government. The authority and 
 pre-eminence of the Governor were levelled with those of the 
 Councillors ; every Councillor was as much a Governor as he who 
 bore the name, and distinction of rank, as I have already observed, 
 was no longer to be found in the whole settlement. 
 
 Notwithstanding a special order from the Court of Directors, 
 founded on very wise and very evident reasons, that all corre- 
 spondence with the country powers should be carried on solely in 
 the Governor's name, I found that our whole correspondence with 
 the Great Mogul, the Soubahs, Nabobs, and Rajahs had been of 
 late carried on by, and in the name of, the whole Board, and that 
 every servant and free merchant corresponded with whom they 
 pleased. 
 
 Your orders for the execution of the covenants were positive, and 
 expressly mentioned to be the resolution of a General Court of Pro- 
 prietors ; your servants at Bengal, however, absolutely determined 
 to reject them, and had not the Select Committee resolved that the 
 example should be first set by the Council, or a suspension from 
 your service take place, it is certain they would have remained un- 
 executed to this hour. You will not, I imagine, be much surprised 
 at this breach of duty if you look over the general letters, where 
 you cannot avoid seeing how many are annually committed, and 
 how fast everything was tending to a contempt of your authority.
 
 APPENDIX. 467 
 
 From a short survey of the late transactions, I was convinced that 
 no other remedy was left than an immediate and vigorous exertion 
 of the powers with which the Committee were invested. Happy, iu 
 my opinion, was it for the Company that such powers were granted, 
 for that the settlement, so conducted, could have subsisted another 
 twelvemonth, appears to me an impossibility. A great part of the 
 revenues of the country, amounting to near four millions sterling 
 per annum, would have been divided among your servants, and the 
 acquisition of fortunes being so sudden, a few months must have 
 brought writers into Council. Seniority must have been admitted 
 as a just claim to a seat at the Board, without the qualification of 
 age or experience, because the rapidity of succession denied the 
 attainment of either. 
 
 Nor were these excesses confined to your civil servants alone ; the 
 military department also had caught the infection, and riches, the 
 bane of discipline, were daily promoting the ruin of your army. 
 The too little inequality of rank rendered the advantages of cap- 
 tains, lieutenants, and ensigns so nearly upon a par, and so large, 
 that an independent fortune was no distant prospect even to a sub- 
 altern. If a too quick succession among those from whom you 
 expect the study of commerce and polity is detrimental to your 
 civil concerns, how effectually destructive must that evil prove to 
 your military operations ! The most experienced European officer, 
 when he has entered into the East India Service, although he may 
 be able in many points to suggest improvement to others, will, 
 nevertheless, find that something new remains for himself to learn 
 peculiar to this service which cannot be attained in a day. Judge, 
 then, how the case must stand with youths, who are either first sent 
 out from the academy, or, which more frequently happens, who 
 have had no education at all ; for to such have we often been re- 
 duced to the necessity of granting commissions. How much must 
 the expectations of your army be raised, when they are suffered, 
 without control, to take possession, for themselves, of the whole 
 booty, donation money, and plunder, on the capture of a city ? This, 
 I can assure you, happened at Benares ; and, what is more sur- 
 prising, the then Governor and Council, so far from laying in a 
 claim to the moiety which ought to have been reserved for the 
 Company, agreeable to those positive orders from the Court of 
 Directors a few years ago, when they were pleased to put their 
 forces upon the same footing with those of his Majesty, gave up the 
 whole to the captors. You have heard of the general mutiny that 
 happened among your Sepoys a little before my arrival. What 
 
 2n 2
 
 468 APPENDIX. 
 
 
 
 would have been your consternation had you also heard of the una- 
 nimous desertion of your European soldiery ? These were very 
 serious events indeed, and had it not been for one well-timed 
 vigorous act of Major Munro, and the unwearied zeal and military 
 abilities of General Carnac, who totally suppressed the spirit of 
 mutiny among the soldiers, your possessions in India might at this 
 time have been destitute of a man to support them, and even the 
 privilege of commerce irrecoverably crushed. Common justice to 
 the principles of General Carnac oblige me further to add, that I 
 found him the only officer of rank who had resisted the temptations 
 to which, by his station, he was constantly subject of acquiring an 
 immense fortune ; and I question much whether he is not the only 
 man who has of late years been honoured with the command of your 
 forces without acquiring a very large independency. The letter 
 from the Great Mogul to the Governor and Council, requesting 
 their permission for him to accept a present of two lakhs, which his 
 Majesty is desirous of bestowing on him as a reward for his disinte- 
 rested services, will corroborate what I have said in his favour ; and 
 as this affair, agreeable to the tenor of the covenants, is referred to 
 the Court of Directors, I make no doubt they will readily embrace 
 the opportunity of showing their regard to such distinguished merit 
 by consenting to his acceptance of his Majesty's bounty. 
 
 If the picture I have drawn be a faithful likeness of this Presi- 
 dency and I call upon the most guilty, for guilty there are, to show 
 that I have aggravated a feature to what a deplorable condition 
 must your affairs have soon been reduced ? Every State (and such 
 now is your Government in India) must be near its period, when the 
 rage of luxury and corruption has seized upon its leaders and inha- 
 bitants. Can trade be encouraged for public benefit where the 
 management, unfortunately, devolves upon those who make private 
 interest their rule of action ? And, further, has sudden affluence 
 ever failed, from the infancy of military discipline to the present 
 perfection of it, to corrupt the principle and destroy the spirit of an 
 army ? Independency of fortune is always averse to those duties of 
 subordination which are inseparable from the life of a soldier, and in 
 this country, if the acquisition be sudden, a relaxation of discipline 
 is more immediately the consequence. I would not be thought, by 
 these observations, to exclude riches from the military ; honour 
 alone is scarcely a sufficient reward for the toilsome service of the 
 field. But the acquisition of wealth ought to be so gradual as to 
 admit not a prospect of completing it till succession, by merit, to 
 the rank of a field-officer should have laid a good foundation for the
 
 APPENDIX. 469 
 
 claim. Such is the idea I entertained of this matter when I de- 
 livered my sentiments to the Court of Directors in my letter of the 
 27th of April, 1764, and I have acted in conformity thereto by re- 
 gimenting the troops in the manner I then proposed. I need not 
 repeat the observations I troubled you with in that letter. It is 
 sufficient to remark here that the good effects of the plan are 
 already visible that subordination is restored, abuses corrected, 
 and your expenses, of course, already greatly diminished. 
 
 The war, which, to my great concern, I found extended above 
 seven hundred miles from the Presidency, is now happily concluded, 
 and a peace established upon terms which promise lasting tran- 
 quillity to these provinces. This event has, I find, disappointed 
 the expectations of many who thought of nothing but a march with 
 the King to Delhi. My resolution, however, was, and my hopes 
 will always be, to confine our assistance, our conquests, and our 
 possessions to Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. To go farther is, in my 
 opinion, a scheme so extravagantly ambitious and absurd, that no 
 Governor and Council in their senses can ever adopt it unless the 
 whole system of the Company be first entirely new modelled. 
 
 I forbear troubling you with a detail of the negotiations of Ge- 
 neral Carnac and me with the country powers, and the particulars 
 of the treaty of peace with the Vizier of the empire, as they will 
 be spoken of at large in the letter from the Select Committee, and 
 appear likewise upon the face of our proceedings. I will, however, 
 just remark, that our restoring to Shuja Doula the whole of his 
 dominions proceeds more from the policy of not extending the 
 Company's territorial possessions than the generous principle of 
 attaching him for ever to our interest by gratitude, though this has 
 been the apparent, and is by many thought to be the real, motive. 
 Had we ambitiously attempted to retain the conquered country, 
 experience would soon have proved the absurdity and impractica- 
 bility of such a plan. The establishment of your army must have 
 been largely increased, a considerable number of civil servants must 
 have been added to your list, and more chiefships appointed ; the 
 acts of oppression and innumerable abuses which would have been 
 committed, and which could neither have been prevented nor 
 remedied at so great a distance from the Presidency, must in- 
 fallibly have laid the foundation of another war destructive and 
 unsuccessful ; our old privileges and possessions would have been 
 endangered by every supply we might have been tempted to afford 
 in support of the new, and the natives must have finally triumphed 
 in our inability to sustain the weight of our own ambition.
 
 470 APPENDIX. 
 
 To return to the point from which this digression has led me, I 
 must carry you back to the description above given of the situation 
 in which I found your affairs on my arrival. Two paths were evi- 
 dently open to me : the one smooth and strewed with abundance of 
 rich advantages that might easily be picked up, the other untrodden 
 and every step opposed with obstacles. I might have taken charge 
 of the government upon the same footing on which I found it that 
 is, I might have enjoyed the name of Governor, and have suffered 
 the honour, importance, and dignity of the post to continue in their 
 state of annihilation ; I might have contented myself, as others had 
 before me, with being a cipher, or, what is little better, the first 
 among sixteen equals, and I might have allowed this passive conduct 
 to be attended with the usual douceur of sharing largely with the 
 rest of the gentlemen in all donations, perquisites, &c., arising from 
 the absolute government, and disposal of all places in the revenues 
 of this opulent kingdom, by which means I might soon have acquired 
 an immense addition to my fortune, notwithstanding the obligations 
 in the new covenants ; for the man who can so easily get over the 
 bar of conscience as to receive presents after the execution of them, 
 will not scruple to make use of any evasions that may protect him 
 from the consequence. The settlement in general would thus have 
 been my friends, and only the natives of the country my enemies. 
 If you can conceive a Governor in such a situation, it is impossible 
 to form a wrong judgment of the inferior servants, or of the Com- 
 pany's affairs at such a Presidency. An honourable alternative, 
 however, lay before me. I had the power within my own breast to 
 fulfil the duty of my station by remaining incorruptible in the midst 
 of numberless temptations artfully thrown in my way, by exposing 
 my character to every attack which malice or resentment are so apt 
 to invent against any man who attempts reformation, and by en- 
 countering, of course, the odium of the settlement. I hesitated 
 not a moment which choice to make ; I took upon my shoulders a 
 burden which required resolution, perseverance, and constitution to 
 support. Having chosen my part, I was determined to exert myself 
 in the attempt, happy in the reflection that the honour of the nation 
 and the very being of the Company would be maintained by the 
 success, and conscious that if I failed my integrity and good inten- 
 tions at least must remain unimpeached. The other members of 
 the Committee joined with me in opinion that, in order to proceed 
 upon business, it was absolutely necessary for us to assume the 
 powers wherewith we were invested. We saw plainly that most of 
 the gentlemen in Council had been too deeply concerned themselves
 
 APPENDIX. 471 
 
 in the measures which required amendment for us to expect any 
 assistance from them ; on the contrary, we were certain of finding 
 opposition to every plan of innovation, and an unanimous attempt 
 to defeat the intentions of the Proprietors, who solicited my accept- 
 ance of the government. The Committee, therefore, immediately 
 met, and I had the happiness to find myself supported by gentle- 
 men whom no temptations could seduce, no inconveniences or 
 threats of malice deter. Our proceedings will convince you that 
 we have dared to act with firmness and integrity, and will, at the 
 same time, demonstrate that temper, unanimity, and despatch must 
 ever mark the proceedings of men unbiased by private interest. 
 
 The gentlemen in Council, of late years, at Bengal, seem to have 
 been actuated in every consultation by a very obstinate and mis- 
 chievous spirit. The office of Governor has been, in a manner, 
 hunted down, stripped of its dignity, and then divided into sixteen 
 shares. Whether ambition, obstinacy, pride, or self-interest, is 
 usually the motive to such a pursuit I will not take upon me to de- 
 termine, but am sure it can never arise from a just idea of govern- 
 ment, or a true sense of the Company's interest. In my opinion, it 
 is the duty of the Council to make the powers of the President 
 appear as extensive as possible in the eyes of the people ; that all 
 correspondence with the country Princes should be carried on 
 through him alone, some particular eases excepted ; that the Council 
 should upon all occasions be unanimous in supporting not in ex- 
 tenuating the dignity of his station, and that he ought to be con- 
 sidered among the natives as the sole manager and conductor of 
 political affairs. This should be the outward appearance of ad- 
 ministration, though in reality the Council must be allowed a free- 
 dom of judgment, and when they perceive in the Governor a ten- 
 dency to absolute or unjustifiable measures, it then becomes their 
 duty to check him. If they at any time have reason to distrust the 
 rectitude of his principles, they should not allow him to execute 
 designs, even of the smallest moment, without previously laying 
 them before the Board and obtaining their approbation. In short, 
 the best Governor should not, except in cases of necessity, be suf- 
 fered to conclude any points of importance without the sanction of 
 the Board. But the expedient of a Select Committee equally 
 prevents any ill conduct in the Governor, and is, besides, attended 
 with advantages which can rarely be expected from the whole body 
 of Councillors, five gentlemen well versed in the Company's true 
 interest, of abilities to plan and resolution to execute ; gentlemen 
 whose fortunes are honourably approaching to affluence, and whose
 
 472 APPENDIX. 
 
 integrity has never suffered them to exceed the bounds of modera- 
 tion. A Select Committee composed of such men will transact 
 more business in a week than the Council can in a month. The 
 opinions and judgment of five men are as securely to be relied on, 
 even in affairs of the utmost consequence, as sixteen. They are 
 less liable to dissension, and it may be said beyond a contradiction, 
 that their administration is more distant from democratic anarchy. 
 Tbe Council, however, would not be a useless body ; for whilst the 
 attention of the Committee was chiefly engaged in watching and 
 repairing the mainsprings of government, the Council would as 
 materially serve the Company in attending to the many other 
 movements of the grand machine, which are as essentially necessary 
 to the public advantage and security. And that the Committee 
 should not be able to carry their powers to any dangerous length, 
 they might be ordered annually, before the despatch of the Europe 
 ships, to submit their proceedings to the review of the gentlemen 
 in Council, who might transmit their opinions thereupon to the 
 Court of Directors. Your present Select Committee . have from 
 time to time laid most of their proceedings before Council, and we 
 intend to continue the same system of candour, except in any 
 political cases of secresy, when prudence may require that our reso- 
 lutions should be confined to the knowledge of a few. 
 
 Thus freely I have given you my opinions upon the sort of 
 government I could wish to see established in this settlement, nor 
 shall I think my duty done till I have pointed out every measure 
 that seems to me best calculated to preserve your affairs from de- 
 struction. At Bengal, the rule of succession among your servants 
 is perniciously exact : there are frequent occasions where it ought 
 to be set aside where experience, understanding, integrity, mode- 
 ration, ought to take place of accidental seniority. The demerits of 
 most of your superior servants have been so great, as you will learn 
 from the Committee's proceedings, that one can hardly imagine their 
 future behaviour will entitle them to further favours than you have 
 hitherto bestowed on them. I do not pretend to surmise what sen- 
 tence you may pronounce upon the gentlemen who came under the 
 censure of the Committee, but whether it be moderate as ours, or 
 severe as it deserves, it will not much concern them, since all of 
 them are now in very affluent circumstances, and will probably 
 return to Europe by this or the next year's shipping. Peruse, then, 
 the list of your covenanted servants upon this establishment. You 
 will find that many of those next in succession are not only very 
 young in the service, and consequently unfit for such exalted
 
 APPENDIX. 473 
 
 stations, but are also strongly tainted with the principles of their 
 superiors. If your opinion should correspond with mine, some 
 remedy will be judged necessary to be applied, and I confess I see 
 but one. The unhappy change which within these few years has 
 arisen in the manners and conduct of your servants at Bengal, is 
 alone sufficient to remove the objections I once had to appointments 
 from another settlement ; and the difficulty which now too plainly 
 appears of filling up vacancies in Council with the requisite atten- 
 tion to the Company's honour and welfare, inclines me to wish such 
 appointments more frequent. In the present state of this Presi- 
 dency, no measure can, I think, prove more salutary than to appoint 
 five or six gentlemen from the Court to the Bengal establishment, 
 and there to post them agreeable to their rank and standing in the 
 service. Messrs. Russell, Floyer, Aldersey, and Kelsall, are among 
 those who would be well worthy your attention, should this plan be 
 adopted. I cannot help further recommending to your considera- 
 tion, whether, if every other method should be found ineffectual, 
 the transplanting a few of the young Bengal servants to Madras 
 would not be of signal service both to themselves and the Company. 
 You will likewise consider whether the settlement of Bombay is 
 capable of furnishing us with a few meritorious servants. With 
 regard to Madras, the conduct of the gentlemen upon that esta- 
 blishment is in general so unexceptionable, that to present Bengal 
 with such examples of regularity, discretion, and moderation, would, 
 I think, be a means of restoring it to good order and government. 
 It is past a doubt, that every attempt of reformation must fail, 
 unless the superior servants be exemplary in their principles and 
 conduct. If we see nothing but rapacity among Councillors, in 
 vain shall we look for moderation among writers. 
 
 The sources of tyranny and oppression which have been opened 
 by the European agents acting under the authority of the Com- 
 pany's servants, and the numberless black agents and sub-agents 
 acting also under them, will, I fear, be a lasting reproach to the 
 English name in this country. It is impossible to enumerate the 
 complaints that have been laid before me by the unfortunate inha- 
 bitants, who had not forgot that I was an enemy to oppression. 
 The necessity of securing the confidence of the natives is an idea I 
 have ever maintained, and was in hopes would be invariably adopted 
 by others ; but ambition, success, and luxury, have, I find, intro- 
 duced a new system of politics at the severe expense of English 
 honour, of the Company's faith, and of common justice and huma- 
 nity. The orders so frequently issued, that no writers shall have
 
 474 APPENDIX. 
 
 the privilege of dustucks, I have strictly obeyed, but I am sorry to 
 inform you that all the wished-for consequences are not to be ex- 
 pected. Officers of the Government are so sensible of our influence 
 and authority, that they dare not presume to search or stop a boat 
 protected by the name of a Company's servant ; and you may be 
 assured that frauds of that kind, so easy to be practised and so 
 difficult to be detected, are but too frequent. I have at last, how- 
 ever, the happiness to see the completion of an event which in this 
 respect, as well as in many others, must be productive of advan- 
 tages hitherto unknown, and at the same time prevent abuses that 
 have hitherto had no remedy. I mean the Dewannee, which is 
 the superintendency of all the lands, and the collection of all the 
 revenues, of the Provinces of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. The assist- 
 ance which the Great Mogul had received from our arms and trea- 
 sury, made him readily bestow this grant upon the Company, and 
 it is done in the most effectual manner you can desire. The allow- 
 ance for the support of the Nabob's dignity and power, and tribute to 
 his Majesty, must be regularly paid, the remainder belongs to the 
 Company. Revolutions are now no longer to be apprehended ; the 
 means of effecting them will, in future, be wanting to ambitious 
 Mussulmans, nor will your servants, civil or military, be tempted to 
 foment disturbances, from whence can arise no benefit to themselves. 
 Restitution, donation money, &c. &c., will be perfectly abolished, as 
 the revenues from whence they used to issue will be possessed by 
 ourselves. The power of supervising the provinces, though lodged 
 in us, should not, however, in my opinion, be exerted. Three times 
 the present number of civil servants would be insufficient for the 
 purpose; whereas, if we leave the management to the old officers of 
 the Government, the Company need not be at the expense of one 
 additional servant, and though we may suffer in the collection, yet 
 we shall always be able to detect and punish any great offenders, 
 and shall have some satisfaction in knowing that the corruption is 
 not among ourselves. By this means, also, the abuses inevitably 
 springing from the exercise of territorial authority will be effectu- 
 ally obviated ; there will still be a Nabob with an allowance suit- 
 able to his dignity, and the territorial jurisdiction will still be in 
 the chiefs of the country acting under him and the Presidency in 
 conjunction, though the revenues will belong to the Company. 
 Besides, were the Company's officers to be the collectors, foreign 
 nations would immediately take umbrage, and complaints, preferred 
 to the British Court, might be attended with very embarrassing 
 consequences. Nor can it be supposed that either the French,
 
 APPENDIX. 475 
 
 Dutch, or Danes will acknowledge the English Company Nabob of 
 Bengal, and pay into the hands of their servants the duties upon 
 trade, or the quit-rents of those districts which they have for many 
 years possessed by virtue of the royal firmaun, or by grants from 
 
 former Nabobs 
 
 Having thus fully submitted to you my sentiments on the civil 
 department, permit me to trouble you with a few observations on 
 the military, which deserves a no less serious attention. In the 
 former part of this letter I have mentioned that luxury and an 
 abhorrence of subordination had overspread your army, but that the 
 good effects of appointing field-officers had already become visible. 
 The Committee's letter will enclose a general return of their number, 
 and enlarge upon the necessity of keeping each regiment complete 
 to the establishment ; I therefore avoid saying anything here upon 
 those subjects. That letter will also specify the proportion of 
 emoluments proposed for the field-officers from the new acquired 
 advantages upon salt. The same objection may, perhaps, be made 
 to this, which I supposed was likely to occur with respect to the 
 plan for the benefit of the civil servants. If so, I beg leave to refer 
 you to my proposal and remarks upon that subject, which are 
 equally proper and applicable to this. These points, then, I conclude, 
 are sufficiently before you, and I proceed to recommend to your 
 considei-ation that the regimenting of the troops has introduced a 
 much larger number of officers of rank than has hitherto been 
 admitted upon your establishment, and that this regulation, bene- 
 ficial and necessary as it is, will, notwithstanding, be productive of 
 one dangerous evil, if not constantly guarded against by the autho- 
 rity of the Governor and Council, supported and enforced by the 
 higher powers at home. The evil I mean to apprise you of is the 
 encroachment of the military upon the civil jurisdiction, and an 
 attempt to be independent of their authority. A spirit of this kind 
 has always been visible ; our utmost vigilance, therefore, is requi- 
 site to suppress it, or at least to take care that it shall not actually 
 prevail. I have been at some pains to inculcate a total subjection 
 of the army to the Government, and I doubt not that you will ever 
 maintain that principle. In the field, in time of actual service, I 
 could wish to see the Commander of your forces implicitly relied on 
 for his plan of operations. Orders from the Presidency may fre- 
 quently embarrass him and prejudice the service. At such a time, 
 he is certainly the best judge of what measures should be pursued, 
 and ought, therefore, to be trusted with discretionary power. But 
 he should by no means be permitted to vary from the fixed, general
 
 476 APPENDIX. 
 
 plan of a campaign, nor from his own idea of the Company's inte- 
 rest, to prosecute operations of importance, when they are not also 
 of real utility and emergency. I dwell not, however, entirely upon 
 the conduct of a Commander of the forces, as such, in the field ; he 
 is to understand that upon all occasions a gentleman in Council is 
 his superior, unless he also has a seat at the Board, and then he 
 will, of course, rank as he stands in that appointment. The whole 
 army should, in like manner, be subordinate to the civil power, and 
 it is the indispensable duty of the Governor and Council to keep 
 them so. If at any time they should struggle for superiority, the 
 Governor and Council must strenuously exert themselves, ever 
 mindful that they are the trustees for the Company in this settle- 
 ment, and the guardians of public property under a civil insti- 
 tution. 
 
 It would give me pain to see a regulation so salutary as that of 
 the appointment of field-officers attended with any inconveniences, 
 and therefore I would earnestly recommend the following very easy 
 and effectual mode of prevention. Let the equality in civil and 
 military rank be immediately settled by the Court of Directors. 
 Were disputes about precedence the only points to be adjusted, they 
 would not be worth a moment's reflection, but we are to consider 
 that opportunities will sometimes happen when military gentlemen 
 may assume power and authority from the rank they hold among 
 the civil servants, and perhaps pay no attention to orders issued 
 from their supposed inferiors. Such contentions may have dis- 
 agreeable consequences, and to prevent them I propose that all the 
 Colonels (the Commander of the troops excepted, who is entitled to 
 the rank of third in Council) shall be equal in rank to the Coun- 
 cillors, but always the youngest of that rank; the Lieutenant- 
 Colonels should rank with Senior Merchants, the Majors with Junior 
 Merchants, Captains with Factors, and Lieutenants and Ensigns 
 with Writers. The rank of all officers below Colonels, and of Civil 
 Servants below Councillors, may be considered according to the 
 dates of their commissions and appointments respectively. When 
 such a regulation has taken place, I think the appointment of field- 
 officers cannot be charged with a single inconvenience 
 
 I must confess that I cannot be responsible for that discipline 
 and reformation we mean shall take place, unless the field-officers 
 are men I can depend upon. Most of the captains now in your 
 service have had so little experience, and are, I fear, so liable to the 
 general objection, that I could wish to have five or six captains 
 sent out who have seen service, who understand discipline, and who
 
 APPENDIX. 477 
 
 are well recommended by their colonels. If you should think proper 
 to extend this plan to majors, it will be so much the better, but 
 there is no occasion to go higher 
 
 The inquiries I have found myself under the necessity of pro- 
 moting, the regulations which I judged proper should take place 
 without delay, together with those I have here had the honour to 
 propose for your mature deliberation, will, I doubt not, meet with 
 that candid discussion which the importance of the subject requires. 
 You will be pleased, upon the whole, to observe that the great 
 object of my labour has been (and it must also be yours) to stem 
 that torrent of luxury, corruption, and licentiousness, which have 
 nearly overwhelmed the interest, and I might add the existence of 
 the Company in these parts ; to reduce your civil servants to a sense 
 of duty to their employers, and moderation in the pursuit of their 
 own advantages ; to introduce discipline, subordination, economy 
 into your army, and to prevent in general that sudden acquisition 
 of riches which is evidently the root of almost every other evil, both 
 in the civil and military departments. 
 
 Is there a man anxious for the speedy return of his son, his 
 brother, or his friend, and solicitous to see that return accompanied 
 by affluence of fortune, indifferent to the means by which it may 
 have been obtained ? Is there one who, void of all but selfish 
 feelings, can withhold his approbation of any plan that promises 
 not sudden riches to those his dearest connexions, who can look 
 with contempt upon measures of moderation, and who can cherish 
 all upstart greatness, though stigmatised with the spoils of the 
 Company ? If there is such a man, to him all arguments would 
 be vain ; to him I speak not. My address is to those who can judge 
 coolly of the advantages to be desired for their relations and friends, 
 nor think the body corporate wholly unentitled to their attention. 
 If these should be of opinion that an independent fortune, honour- 
 ably acquired in a faithful service of twelve or fifteen years, is more 
 compatible with the interests of the Company than the late rapidity 
 of acquisitions, and at the same time satisfactory to the expectations 
 of reason, I will venture to assert that the regulations already made, 
 together with those proposed, will, when enforced by the authority 
 of the Court of Directors, ensure to the Company their commercial 
 and political advantages, and be productive of certain independency 
 to every servant who endeavours to deserve it. 
 
 The general terms in which I have mentioned the depravity of 
 this settlement oblige me to point out to your attention the in- 
 stances the very few instances of distinguished merit among the
 
 478 APPENDIX. 
 
 superior servants. To find a man who, in the midst of luxury and 
 licentiousness, had retained the true idea of commercial economy, 
 who, inferior in fortune to most of your civil servants in the rank of 
 Councillors, was yet superior to all in moderation and integrity, 
 whose regard for the welfare of the public, and for the reputation 
 of individuals, had made him warn others from falling into the 
 temptations of corruption which he saw were approaching, and who 
 could actually resist those temptations himself, when a share was 
 allotted him of money he thought unwarrantably obtained to 
 find such a man in such a settlement, would appear incredible 
 to those who are unacquainted with Mr. Verelst. I have repre- 
 sented this gentleman to you, as I would every one, in his real 
 character, and shall only add, that if you wish to see the measures 
 we are now pursuing supported with integrity, abilities, and reso- 
 lution, you will endeavour to prevail on him to continue in your 
 service, by appointing him to succeed Mr. Sumner in the Govern- 
 ment. To omit mentioning Mr. Cartier would be injustice, as he 
 also stands high in my opinion. His character is clear, and his at- 
 tachment to your service what it ought to be unbiased by any 
 mean attention to his own advantages. I wish sincerely your list 
 of superior servants would enable me to detain you longer on 
 subjects of commendation, but I have finished the picture, and I 
 cannot add another figure that deserves to be distinguished from 
 
 the group 
 
 I shall conclude this tedious letter by observing, that my anxiety 
 to know whether you approve of my conduct or not, can proceed 
 from no other motive than my concern for the public, since I con- 
 tinue invariable in the resolution I formed, and expressed in a 
 General Court, long before the covenants were proposed, of ac- 
 quiring no addition to my fortune by my acceptance of the Govern- 
 ment ; and I beg leave also to assure you, that in order to obviate 
 all suspicion of a collusion in this delicate point, I have not per- 
 mitted either of the gentlemen of my family to hold an employment 
 in your service, nor to receive presents, although they are not 
 bound by covenants to the contrary. The small congratulatory 
 nuzzurs, elephants, horses, &c., which I have been under a neces- 
 sity of receiving, do not, I imagine, amount to any considerable 
 sum, but whatever it may be, not a farthing shall go into my own 
 pocket. I have hitherto been too much engaged in matters of 
 public importance to attend to a particular valuation ; but I have 
 caused an exact account to be kept of every even the most trifling 
 present, which at my return shall be submitted to your inspection,
 
 APPENDIX. 479 
 
 and in the mean time the amount of the whole shall go towards 
 defraying my extraordinary expenses as Governor. The only favour 
 I have to solicit for myself is, that although your treasury here 
 will for the future be so full as to render it difficult for individuals 
 to obtain bills upon the Company, payable at home, you will be 
 pleased to indulge me with the usual channel of remittance of my 
 jagheers, until it reverts to the Company. 
 
 I have, &c., 
 (Signed) CLIVE. 
 
 (Note, p. 388.) 
 
 THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM. 
 THE REV. D. BROWN TO CHARLES GRANT, ESQ. 
 
 Calcutta, January 15, 1805. 
 MY DEAR SlR, 
 
 I RECEIVED your letter from Berkshire in April last. The Col- 
 lege is a painful subject, and I am loath to enter upon it ; upon its 
 defence, I shall certainly not think of entering. Too much, I fear, 
 has been already said, and that no good purpose has been answered 
 by elaborate discussions. The breach has been widened by the 
 means that were intended to heal it, and I am apprehensive that 
 anything I could say would only be attributed to ignorance, to inte- 
 rested motives, or to a participation in the prejudices of those who 
 have undertaken the defence of the College. 
 
 I lament most sincerely the differences of opinion which have ex- 
 isted on various points between this- Government and the Court of 
 Directors, and the party spirit which has been fomented by intem- 
 perate proceedings. There has not, however, as you seem to appre- 
 hend, been evidenced here, so far as my observation has reached, 
 anything like a tendency to dispute the authority of the Court, or 
 to lower its reputation or claims to the grateful homage of the 
 service. But much evil hath been done by letters of hostility from 
 England, and by the publication of the third Report of the Special 
 Committee, which, could not fail to astound all those who know the 
 purity and elevation of Lord Wellesley's character, and the upright 
 principles by which his conduct has been directed. 
 
 But you know I am no politician, that I am a stranger to the
 
 480 APPENDIX. 
 
 passions and disputes which agitate parties, and that I only judge 
 of things from appearances, without being able to penetrate, at all 
 times, the motives which give them birth. 
 
 When the College was founded I thought it was a glorious under- 
 taking, and I calculated on no less than its being the means of 
 giving the light of the Gospel to this land of darkness. My heart 
 was in it, and I felt persuaded that He who said of Cyrus, " he is 
 my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure," had put it into 
 the heart of Lord Wellesley to begin this work. 
 
 Knowing little either of the world or its politics, I never dreamt 
 of opposition or hostility from any quarter. I thought you, and as 
 many as entertained the same religious views, would give it the 
 most cordial support. And it appears the Court of Directors were 
 never averse to a plan of their own, and that the opposition which 
 has been made to Lord Wellesley's College originated in other con- 
 siderations. 
 
 When the order for the abolition of the College came out, a 
 member of the Board of Control wrote to his Lordship in these 
 words : " My Lord, your letter on the private trade has upset your 
 College." This appeared to me a very strange reason for upsetting 
 it. I then saw clearly it would come to nothing, unless upheld by 
 the arm of that Providence which I still believed had called it into 
 existence. 
 
 Whether the College commenced in the most wise and prudent 
 manner that could have been devised, I was no judge. Whether a 
 proper building should be immediately prepared for the reception of 
 the students, I had no doubt. If it had cost many lakhs, the benefit 
 to be derived from it would have been so great as, in my mind, to 
 have justified the measure. But these are not matters for me to 
 discuss. 
 
 What is infinitely more to be regretted than the want of College 
 walls, is the deadly wound the College has received by cutting off 
 from it the Madras and Bombay students. This was like opening a 
 great artery, which let out our blood and life. This fatal measure 
 will never cease to be lamented by those who witnessed the happy 
 effects which flowed from the union of the three Presidencies. The 
 last of the students belonging to Madras and Bombay, who lately 
 left us, parted from us with tears of grateful affection, and I under- 
 stand they are considered in their respective Presidencies as a new 
 order of beings, from whom the most important services are to be 
 expected. They are, I think, the proper judges to be appealed to 
 on this question. From the low state of morals and learning at the
 
 APPENDIX. 481 
 
 inferior Presidencies, it is thought no efficient institution can be 
 established at either of them. 
 
 I would gladly pass unnoticed the slanders which have been pro- 
 pagated concerning the College, if my silence would not seem like 
 allowing there was some truth in them. 
 
 "While politics were crushing the College at home, slander was 
 undermining its foundations here. Its foes have been those of its 
 own household ! The old servants, almost universally, abhorred 
 the College, and, while they pretended to favour it, wrote against it, 
 or the pretended abuse of it, with much rancour. It was considered 
 as a test of morals and learning not to be endured. They saw that 
 the younger branches of the service would be raised to degrees of 
 distinction which they could never attain, and that the mask would 
 be taken off from ignorance and incapacity wherever they existed. 
 Even the ablest officers of the Government apprehended that they 
 would lose something of their consequence by the cheapening of 
 their talents. Sir George Barlow is, perhaps, the only person who 
 has viewed the College, from first to last, with a single eye, and has 
 supported it with the purest zeal. We have seen prejudices wearing 
 away fast, year after year. Many secret enmities have been sub- 
 dued, and several of the heads of the service have become real con- 
 verts and warm advocates for an institution which they would once 
 have gladly seen destroyed. But while much of the old leaven re- 
 mains, we may expect the College will continue to be evil spoken of 
 by some. From the letters which have been published by the 
 French at the Mauritius, or sent round here, we see what sort of 
 letters must have been written home to produce such answers. Some 
 persons much favoured have been guilty of this perfidious conduct. 
 And I greatly fear that Lord Wellesley has always had too near 
 him characters of a malignant caste, who, filled with hatred against 
 his person and government, have basely defamed both in their 
 private correspondence. I was once or twice agonised with a de- 
 testable story circulated by those who should have been silent if it 
 had been true, but it was utterly false, and equal to any villany 
 that, I believe, was ever invented. I cannot bring myself to men- 
 tion the circumstances, or they would not fail to convince you of 
 what desperate wickedness some decent sort of people are capable. 
 Some persons of this description, from pure enmity to Lord Wel- 
 lesley, have defamed the College. The vices and misconduct of some 
 young men who were never in the College have been imputed to the 
 students of it ; mere trifles have been magnified into serious crimes, 
 the detail of which would show what slight foundations prejudice 
 
 VOL. i. 2 I
 
 482 APPENDIX. 
 
 can build upon. That gross immorality which once marked the 
 Writers' Buildings as a sink of iniquity, has wholly disappeared. I 
 do not believe there is a school or university to be found where 
 effective discipline is maintained like that which has preserved the 
 morals of nine-tenths of the students of the College of Fort Wil- 
 liam. Hard study is the magic by which this has been chiefly 
 effected. Much more has been done by means of friendly counsel 
 than could have been done by proctors' fines and privations. If a 
 few have miscarried, I can name scores who have done nobly, and 
 who will attribute their salvation from low vices and dissipated 
 habits to the studies and discipline of the College. 
 
 My testimony on this subject may, perhaps, be deemed partial ; 
 but I am not attempting a formal defence (which you will probably 
 receive from other quarters), nor do I wish to claim for the College 
 unmerited praise. No part of the merit belongs to me. I am, 
 however, in a situation to judge what is justly due to the genius, 
 talents, and industry of others. That Providence who, I still be- 
 lieve, put it into the heart of Lord Wellesley to lay the foundation, 
 provided a wise master-builder to carry on the design in Mr. Bu- 
 chanan. If I should say half I know to be due to his well-earned 
 fame, I fear you would think my encomium somewhat extravagant. 
 If the East India Company if his country should ever know the 
 worth of his character, they will not pass it over without regard. I 
 have been long an eye-witness of his pure and fervent zeal, of his 
 able and prudent exertions, of his indefatigable attention and inces- 
 sant labour in all the duties of his respective stations. It is but 
 right I should say he has done all things well, both as a minister of 
 Christ and a ruler of an institution as important as any the world 
 ever saw. To him it must be ascribed that the College has attained 
 so rapidly to perfection, for in some respects it will never attain to 
 higher degrees of excellence. 
 
 With great concern we see his family torn from him a second 
 time by sickness. He probably will soon think it his duty to follow 
 them, and the danger is, that when the College loses him, it will 
 lose its mainspring, and as suddenly decline as we have seen it rise. 
 I now perceive what an unspeakable advantage it would have been 
 had some men of piety and learning (as Kempthorne, Bourdillon, 
 and others) come out to us some years ago. 
 
 You know what sort of chaplains followed Mr. Buchanan into 
 this service, which is now stocked, for a long time to come. It is 
 now clear what this Presidency has to look to in the way of succes- 
 sion.
 
 APPENDIX. 483 
 
 But my thoughts are on the College at present, the future fate of 
 which will much depend on the character of its immediate Go- 
 vernors. Though I have so little ability to be useful to it, I have 
 some zeal for its prosperity, which I consider as inseparably con- 
 nected with the interests of the East India Company, and, what is 
 more, with the interests of true religion, and my zeal prompts me 
 to suggest what now appears to be the only expedient left to pre- 
 serve it in time to come. At the College examination on Monday 
 last I was lamenting to Mr. Buchanan the want of proper men 
 (such as those named above) to succeed us in office, and to fill the 
 professorships. I hinted how admirably your second son would 
 conduct this institution, if he could be prevailed on to accept the 
 office. He replied that the College would yield him better fruit than 
 the barren profession of the law, and begged me to propose instantly 
 his own situation, which he wishes shortly to resign, and particularly 
 as your son's talents so eminently qualify him for the classical pro- 
 fessorship. I scarcely can imagine that he would be reconciled to 
 such a line, or that you would think it eligible for him. But it 
 struck me that your son Charles, who has been disabled from fol- 
 lowing his profession, might be prevailed on to turn his thoughts 
 this way, for the sake of change of climate, which, no doubt, would 
 be favourable to him ; and I think the place which I hold would be 
 acceptable to him on several accounts. Nor can I hope or wish for 
 a greater blessing to the service than that one 'or both of them 
 should be induced to accept the government of this College. 
 
 If, however, they are seeking higher things, I implore you to 
 tliink of others as well qualified to appoint in their stead, and to do 
 it while you are now in the chair. 
 
 I have little more to add on this subject, except that I beg leave 
 to advertise you of the deplorable disadvantages under which those 
 come out who are now appointed writers, without some previous 
 knowledge of classics or a good stock of modern languages. An 
 illiterate youth has no chance in this race. He must lag behind, 
 and sink into worse than nothing. The few instances which have 
 failed of late have all been of this description. 
 
 I suppose Mr. Udny returned your book, and I shall be glad to 
 hear of its publication, as it would be of great use in preparing the 
 way for a memoir which Mr. Buchanan is about to print. I shall 
 ever regret that you allowed us no latitude in communicating the 
 contents of your work to any one. I think Mr. Buchanan would 
 have done for your work what you desired Mr. Udny and me to do, 
 and not have laid a new foundation. In a few weeks after you re-
 
 484 APPENDIX. 
 
 ceive this, his memoir will appear from the press, confirming all you 
 have written, and proposing what appears expedient forthwith to be 
 done. You will find a series of facts in support of the representa- 
 tions which you have given of the Hindoos, and of their idolatry, 
 formally authenticated. The memoir is dedicated to the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury. Its general title is, " Of the Expediency of an 
 Ecclesiastical Establishment for British India." I can give you 
 the outline in a few words, for I have just revised' the last sheet. 
 It is in three parts. 
 
 First, on the means of preserving the profession of the Christian 
 religion among our countrymen in India. 
 
 Under this head he gives a view of the present state of the Eng- 
 lish Church in India, of the present establishment of the Eomish 
 Church in the East, of the extent of the proposed ecclesiastical 
 establishment for British India, and closed the first part with con- 
 siderations deduced from the propriety or necessity of an eccle- 
 siastical establishment ; and, lastly, considers objections. 
 
 Second part is on the civilisation of the natives. 
 
 Here he shows the practicability of civilising them, the policy of 
 so doing, and the impediments in the way of their civilisation, par- 
 ticularly their sanguinary superstitions and numerous holidays. 
 
 Part third, which is the most gratifying, is on the progress 
 already made in civilising the natives of India. Here he treats of 
 the extension of Christianity in India under the influence of epis- 
 copal jurisdiction, and, finally, of the extension of the "same by the 
 labours of Protestant missionaries. To this memoir is added a 
 copious appendix of facts, supporting every part of it. It is well 
 and faithfully done, and it has with your book (its precursor) my 
 hearty prayers for success. 
 
 As you are in the chair, I have the greatest hopes that this is a 
 favourable time for the accomplishment of good purposes. The 
 Governor- General, who read your book, has also had the outline of 
 this in his hands ; but he does not know the extent of what is now 
 to be published. His most decided support may be depended upon, 
 but I fear political animosities will prevent him from taking an 
 active part in the business. 
 
 I have other matters to write you upon, which I purpose to do by 
 the public packet. 
 
 I remain, &c., 
 
 D. BROWN.
 
 APPENDIX. 485 
 
 THE REV. D. BKOWN TO C. GRANT, ESQ. 
 
 Calcutta, May 25, 1805. 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 ON Saturday last, I received the orders of this Government for 
 the reduction of the College of Fort William to a scale suitable to 
 the present confined number of students. 
 
 It is now what the Court of Directors originally intended it to 
 be, " a Bengal seminary, like unto that formerly under Mr. Gil- 
 christ." If this event could have been foreseen, much trouble, 
 much disappointment, and much expense might have been spared. 
 
 As I have formerly said, I am not a judge of the propriety or ex- 
 pediency of commencing on the grand scale we did, but the fruits 
 proved all that could be expected or wished. The College rose in a 
 few years to a degree of efficiency and splendour that could not have 
 been anticipated. With this before his eyes, Lord Wellesley has 
 deemed it proper to yield to the necessity laid upon him by orders 
 from home, and to confine the studies of the present institution 
 strictly to the three languages here in use. I shall for ever regret 
 the fall of the Arabic, which, as Sir William Jones most truly ob- 
 served, is the foundation of all Oriental literature ; and the loss of 
 the Sanscrit does not grieve me less, its utility being, in my mind, 
 equal to what the Arabic was in Sir William Jones's. 
 
 It is impossible for me to describe the disheartening gloom now 
 diffused over the College. The professors, students, and learned 
 natives look on this revolution with amazement and concern. 
 
 " The glory is departed." But it is the will of Go.d that this 
 should have come to pass, and some wise end will, no doubt, be an- 
 swered by it. 
 
 The following description may be applied, I think, as detailing 
 with wonderful accuracy the former and present state of the College 
 of Fort William : 
 
 " Behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof 
 was great. The tree grew and was strong, and the height thereof 
 reached unto heaven" (vide Translations of the Scriptures), "and 
 the sight thereof to the end of all the earth ; and the leaves thereof 
 were fair, and the fruit thereof much. 
 
 " And one came down, and cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down 
 the tree, and cut off his branches, . . . shake off his leaves, . . . 
 and scatter his fruit. 
 
 " Nevertheless, leave the stump of his roots in the earth."
 
 486 APPENDIX. 
 
 After what has been already said on this subject, I find nothing 
 further to suggest or add. But I thought it a duty to apprise you 
 of the general feeling which has followed on this pruning operation. 
 
 With regard to the future fate of the College, I leave it without 
 prophesying either good or evil concerning it. 
 
 The stump may, I hope, hereafter flourish, contrary to all human 
 appearances or expectations. 
 
 May its glory, honour, and brightness return ! May it be re- 
 established ; and may excellent dignity be added unto it ! 
 
 I am, &c. &c., 
 D. BROWN. 
 
 [As an interesting sequel to the preceding correspondence re- 
 lating to the rise and fall of the College of Fort William, and the 
 conflict between Lord Wellesley and the Court of Directors of the 
 East India Company, two letters are appended, bearing date thirty- 
 six years later than the foregoing, which afford a remarkable illustra- 
 tion of the manner in which the " whirligig of time brings in its 
 revenges," and teaches men " to labour and to wait."] 
 
 LORD WELLESLEY TO W. B. BAYLEY, ESQ., AND GEO. LYALL, ESQ. 
 
 Kingston House, March 18, 1841. 
 
 GENTLEMEN, 
 
 So high is my estimation of the transcendent honour conferred 
 upon me by the unanimous resolution of the whole body of the 
 East India Company, that my first emotion was to offer up my 
 thankful acknowledgments to the Almighty Power which has pre- 
 served my life beyond the ordinary limits of human nature, to 
 receive a distinction of which history affords so few, if any, ex- 
 amples. 
 
 Three years have elapsed since this great and powerful body 
 conferred on me a signal mark not only of honour but of generous 
 and affectionate consideration. The wisdom of that great body does 
 not deem the value of public services to be diminished by the lapse 
 of time ; it is for weak, low, and frivolous minds, themselves in- 
 capable of any great action, to take so narrow a view of public 
 merit. True wisdom will ever view time as the best test of public 
 service, and will apportion its rewards accordingly. I therefore 
 considered the former act of the East India Company as greatly 
 enhanced in value by the deliberation which preceded it. The 
 present consummation of their justice and wisdom is marked by the 
 same spirit of deliberation, reflecting equal honour on those who 
 confer, arid on him who receives this high and glorious reward.
 
 APPENDIX. 487 
 
 At my advanced age, when my public career must be so near its 
 close, it would be vain to offer any other return of gratitude than 
 the cordial acknowledgment of my deep sense of the magnitude and 
 value of this unparalleled reward. May my example of success 
 and of ultimate reward encourage and inspire all the servants of the 
 East India Company to manifest a similar zeal and devotion to the 
 service of the Company and of the British Empire in the East, and 
 may their continued efforts preserve and improve to the end of 
 time the interests of that great charge so long entrusted to my 
 hands 1 Your congratulations on this occasion are peculiarly inte- 
 resting to me. 
 
 The high character of Mr. Lyall, the Deputy- Chairman, and the 
 distinguished place which he holds in the estimation and confidence 
 of his fellow-citizens of London, must ever render his favourable 
 testimony of the highest value to every public servant of the British 
 Empire. But the Chairman, Mr. Bayley, in his own person, fur- 
 nishes the strongest practical instance of the true spirit, objects, 
 and result of my system of administration in the government of 
 India. 
 
 He was educated under my eye in the College of Fort William, 
 founded by my hands, and conducted under my constant and close 
 superintendence. He was employed for a considerable period of 
 time in the Governor-General's office, an establishment intended 
 for the express purpose of qualifying the civil servants of the Com- 
 pany for the highest offices in the State, by rendering them daily 
 conversant with the whole system and detail of the office and 
 duty of the Governor-General. Thus instructed, he obtained, most 
 justly, a seat in Council, and held occasionally at the Presidency 
 the office of Governor- General, with such distinction, that on his 
 return to England he was elected into the Direction, and now most 
 worthily fills the high station of Chairman of the East India 
 Company. 
 
 To receive such a reward from such a hand at once enhances its 
 value and confirms its justice. Mr. Bayley will, I trust, excuse 
 this tribute to his character, which my duty of gratitude to the 
 East India Company requires from me on this great and solemn 
 occasion, on which I cannot use any terms which will convey my 
 sentiments more correctly than those which I employed on a similar 
 occasion in returning my thanks to the inhabitants of Calcutta on 
 the 2nd of March, 1804, at the close of the war with the Mahratta 
 chieftains. 
 
 The just object of public honours is not to adorn a favoured cha-
 
 488 APPENDIX. 
 
 racter, nor to extol individual reputation, nor to transmit an es- 
 teemed name with lustre to posterity, but to commemorate public 
 services and to perpetuate public principles. 
 
 The conscious sense of the motives, objects, and result of my 
 endeavours to serve my country in this arduous station inspires me 
 with an unfeigned solicitude that the principles which I revere 
 should be preserved for the security of the interests now entrusted 
 to my charge, and destined hereafter to engage my lasting and 
 affectionate attachment. 
 
 May, then, the Memorial by which you are pleased to distinguish 
 my services remind you of the source from which they proceeded, 
 and of the ends to which they were directed, and confirm the prin- 
 ciples of public virtue, the maxims of public order, and a due 
 respect for just and honest government. 
 
 I have, &c., 
 
 WELLESLEY. 
 
 LORD WELLESLEY TO W. B. BAYLEY, ESQ. 
 
 Kingston House, March 21, 1841. 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 YOUR most kind and affectionate letter of the 17th of March de- 
 manded an earlier reply, and should certainly have received earlier 
 acknowledgments of gratitude and reciprocal affection, but that I 
 really was so overwhelmed with the noble, most generous, and most 
 affecting conduct of the Court, that I had not strength to write to 
 you on the same day ; besides, the nature (just and honest) of my 
 letter to the Chairs necessarily led to topics which essentially con- 
 veyed my feelings on the subject of your most amiable private 
 letter of the 17th. 
 
 In truth, I have ever considered my foundation of the College 
 of Fort William and of the Governor- General's office, as my primary 
 public service both in principle and result : in principle, because 
 its object was to provide public servants, qualified for their duty ; 
 in result, because it actually has produced you, with several others, 
 Adam, Elphinstone, Metcalfe, Jenkins, Mackenzie, &c., who have 
 fully justified all my intentions, hopes, and expectations from those 
 institutions. I greatly admired the address which you have so 
 aptly quoted, and the sentiments of which you have so faithfully 
 and affectionately preserved in your excellent heart. Every trace 
 of right feeling must depart from me before I can consider every 
 part of this transaction as anything less than a solid ingredient of 
 happiness and glory to my inmost soul, and as the eternal subject
 
 APPENDIX. 489 
 
 of thanksgiving, and gratitude, and humble love towards the Al- 
 mighty Disposer of all human events and ruler of all virtuous 
 hearts. I hear from everybody a very different account of your 
 speech from that which you give: the account given in all the 
 newspapers contains everything to which my most eager hopes 
 could aspire. 
 
 Ever, my dear sir, 
 Your most affectionate friend and obliged servant, 
 
 WELLESLEY. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 K
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY C. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, 8TRAMD.
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed. 
 
 A/ON 
 
 JUN 1 -' 
 
 Urti 
 
 UCLA 
 
 1997 
 
 tntCEiVED 
 PfC'R I. 
 
 

 
 $1005098