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 SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 OF 
 
 THE PUBLIC LIFE, 
 
 AND 
 
 A SELECTION 
 
 FROM THE UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS, 
 
 OF 
 
 THE EARL OF MACARTNEY. 
 
 THE LATTER CONSISTING OF 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM AN ACCOUNT OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE : A SKETCH OF THE 
 POLITICAL HISTORY OF IRELAND: AND A JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY FROM 
 
 THE KING OF GREAT BRITAIN TO THE EMPEROR OF CHINA : , 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX TO EACH VOLUME. 
 
 By JOHN BARROW, F. R. S. 
 
 AUTHOR OF " TRAVELS IN CHINA" AN1> " SOUTHERN AFRICA," 
 AND OF " A VOYAGE TO COCH IN CHIN A." 
 
 Erin nos genuit, vidit nos Africa, Gangem 
 
 Hausimus, Eiiropceque plagas fere visimus omnes; 
 
 Nee latiiit regie primnm patcfacta Columbo ; 
 
 Sinarum licuit dextram tctigisse tyranni, 
 
 Tartaricos montes, magnum et transcendere murum, 
 
 Tiirbidaque impavidi tentavimus alta Pe-che-la, 
 
 Hactenus Europa: nullis sulcata carinis : 
 
 Casibus et variis acti, terraque marique, 
 
 Sistimus hie tandem, atque Lares veneramur Avorum. — Macartney, 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LO N DO'N: 
 
 PRINTED roR T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES IN THE STRAND. 
 
 1807. 
 
 i 
 
 *
 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 J[F, in conformity with common usage, I am led to say a few words, 
 by way of preface, concerning the work which is now submitted to 
 the public, it will be merely for the purpose of explaining the motives 
 which urged me to the undertaking, and the limits within which I thought 
 proper to confine myself in the execution of it. 
 
 In the first place then, the design originated in a hint that was con- 
 veyed to me of the great probability, amounting indeed nearly to a cer- 
 tainty, that the history of a life employed on such various and extra- 
 ordinary occasions, as that had been of Lord Macartney, might be ex- 
 pected, in these times of general reading, to find its way into print in some 
 shape or other, however imperfect ; for that even in his life time application 
 had been made to him for materials for this purpose, and that the pursuit 
 of such materials after his death was not likely to be abandoned. On 
 this suggestion I became naturally desirous not to be anticipated in a work 
 of this nature ; and thus deprived of the opportunity of fulfilling what I 
 considered to be a duty to the memory of a great and distinguished public 
 character, particularly due from one who for so many years had enjoyed 
 his friendship and been honored with his patronage. It appeared to me, 
 indeed, on every consideration which I could give to the subject, that a 
 
 86101.6
 
 VI 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 faithful sketch of the public conduct of a man who had filled various 
 and eminent situations in the four quarters of the globe, of one who, 
 with the eye of a statesman and a philosopher, had surveyed man. 
 kind in every region and climate of the earth, and who, after a long 
 and laborious life spent in the service of his country with an unblemished 
 reputation, resigned it at last full of years and crovi-ned with honor, in 
 the midst of his friends and in the bosom of his family — it appeared, I 
 say, that a sketch of such a life vi'ould afford an illustrious example for 
 imitation not unworthy of being handed down to posterity ; and in this 
 opinion I had the satisfaction to be confirmed by the concurrence of 
 many of those friends, who were most dear to him when living, 
 and in whose memory he v/ill long survive. Such were the motives 
 and the origin of the undertaking. 
 
 The execution, if confined to a plain narrative of facts, could not 
 be difficult. On the perusal of the documents however, from which 
 the account was to be drawn up, an impression was left on my mind 
 strongly in favor of extending the narrative, so as to comprize a con- 
 cise history of the principal events, transactions, and politics of the 
 times and places which were comprehended within the sphere of Lord 
 Macartney's public functions ; and of which his respective employments 
 might be supposed to hav6 enabled him to obtain the most correct infor- 
 mation ; but I soon perceived that such a plan, however h may be sanc- 
 tioned by the practice of modern biography, would have led me into de- 
 tails not perhaps strictly consistent with the nature of the work, and 
 must, at all events, have swelled it to an immoderate size. I determined 
 therefore to confine myself rigidly to those events and transactions in 
 which the subject of the narrative bore a conspicuous part ; following 
 him through all the various situations of his public life, without once 
 losing sight of him, or quitting his company in any of those intricate paths 
 which he frequently had to tread. Being thus furnished with the means
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 vu 
 
 of giving a tolerable account of the many difficulties he had to encounter, 
 the firmness with which he always met them, and the wisdom by which 
 he overcame them, I flattered myself with the hope of being able to ex- 
 hibit an illustrious example of extraordinary self-denial and disinterested- 
 ness, of inflexible integrity, unabating zeal, and unrelaxing energy in 
 the public service. It has likewise been my endeavor, in this attempt, 
 to introduce his own sentiments in his own language on all occasions, 
 whenever the one or the other, or both, could be adopted without in- 
 terruption to the narrative ; and I have throughout most scrupulously 
 adhered to such documents as were either of a public and official nature, 
 or such as I had unquestionable proof to be of good authority, without 
 hazarding any conjectures of my own, or indeed scarcely venturing to 
 offer a single reflection. Had I indulged an inclination to launch into a 
 strain of general and indiscriminate panegyric, I might well have been 
 pardoned where so much was owing, and might probably have obtained 
 credit ; but I felt that it would be more satisfactory to the public, and not 
 less just to the memory of my patron, rather to relate his actions than to 
 recite his praise. 
 
 In every situation in which he was engaged in the public service, the 
 great and leading features of Lord Macartney's character appear to have 
 been of the same cast ; but in narrating the history of his life I have 
 deemed it expedient to dwell at greater length on his Government in 
 India, where the powers of his mind had greater scope for action than 
 elsewhere. Here, indeed, his virtues shone forth with transcendent lustre • 
 here, surrounded with intrigue and corruption, his integrity exposed him 
 to every kind of "Calumny, his zeal to a hostile opposition, and every 
 measure he took ffir the detection and reformation of abuse, was preo-nanc 
 with difficulty, and attended with danger. If, in taking a survey of his 
 public conduct in this quarter of the globe, I have been compelled, from 
 a regard to truth and justice, to state some facts which may seem lo bear
 
 VIU 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 somewhat hard upon certain individuals, (and to have suppressed them 
 wx>uld be little less than treason to the subject of this memoir), I hope, 
 at least, to be believed when I assert that I entered upon my task free 
 from all prejudice and partiality ; that I was in a great degree ignorant of 
 Indian politics, and wholly unacquainted with any of the parties con- 
 nected with them, except Lord Macartney ; that I had no malice to sway 
 me, no angry passion to gratify. I felt indeed that it did not belong to 
 me, in my present undertaking, to expose individual corruption, or to 
 drag delinquents to the face of day ; that it was not my business to wander 
 from the direct path for the sake of picking up a public offender, though, 
 at the same time, I do not hesitate to say, that I should not have felt the 
 least reluctance in exhibiting any character of this description that might 
 have fallen directly in my way. Public characters are public property ; 
 and to connive at their abuses is little short of treason to the State. My 
 object however was to shew rather that Lord Macartney actad right than 
 that others acted wrong ; and if, in establishing the rectitude of his con- 
 duct, I have unavoidably attached blame to that of others, I hope to be 
 acquitted, at least, of any malevolent intention. I have been careful to 
 state nothing but what is already on record in India and in Leadenhall- 
 Street, and what I conceive there can be no impropriety in making the 
 public acquainted with. Had I on this subject entertained the smallest 
 deforce of doubt or hesitation, it would effectually have been removed by 
 a conviction that Lord Macartney was never averse from publicity being 
 given to every act of his life. In his reply to an application for materials 
 to compose a history of his Government in India, by a writer who would 
 have executed the task in a much more able manner than I can pretend to 
 do, he observes, after referring him to the records of the India House, 
 " There is no transaction of my Government, even of the minutest nature 
 " whatsoever, which 1 can have an interest or a wish to conceal from the 
 " public eye, but it might not be becoming in me to be the channel of 
 " communication."
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IX 
 
 The second Volume of the Work, which Is now laid before the public, 
 consists entirely of a selection from the writings of Lord Macartney, of 
 which it will be unnecessary to say much in this place, especially as 
 I shall have occasion to give some account of them in the course of iho 
 narrative ; it may therefore be sufficient, at present, to observe, that the 
 selection now printed was made as partaking more of a public and official 
 than of a private nature ; the first two articles being extracted from two 
 complete treatises, one on the Russian Empire, and the other on Ireland, 
 drawn up from materials collected at the time when he held public situa- 
 tions in those countries, and printed at a private press, to enable him to 
 distribute a few copies among some of the Cabinet Ministers and others of 
 his particular friends. The third article is his Lordship's own Journal of 
 his Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China ; a 
 copy of which he transuiilted to Mr. Uundas, then Secretary of State, 
 as the public account of his proceedings on this new and extraordinary 
 mission. 
 
 I am perfectly aware that among the numerous papers of Lord Ma- 
 cartney, a selection of a more entertaining nature might have been made 
 than that which is now published ; but professing, as I do, to give only 
 some account of his public life, I thought it right, carefully to avoid all 
 private anecdote and private correspondence, and forbore therefore to ask 
 for any papers which might properly be considered to fall under this 
 description. What those may be I do not pretend to know; but 1 fully 
 concur in the opinion of such as may think that matters of this kind, 
 generally speaking, ought more properly to be left to the discretion of the 
 families on whom they devolve, than brought, perhaps prematurely, before 
 the pubhc by others less interested in what they contain. I have no doubt 
 that, at some future oay,'the two complete treatises, from which I have only 
 given short extracts, together with a very varied and voluminous corres- 
 pondence, and many curious and interesting papers on different subjects, 
 
 VOL. I. a '
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 will be found worthy of being communicated to the world. Their 
 Interest, whatever it may be, has neither been anticipated nor im- 
 paired by that part of them, which is now submitted to the eye of the 
 public.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 JS AJRRATlvz of the Public Life of Lord Macartney, containing some 
 
 Account p.igc. 
 
 Of his Misiioti to the Court of St. Pctcrslmrgh as Envoy Extraordinary i 
 
 . Secretaryship of Ireland - - - - - -• 37 
 
 1^ Government of Grenada - - - - - - 51 
 
 . Government of Madras - - • - - - 6j 
 
 . Jppointmeiit to the Government-General of Bengal - - 316 
 
 . • Embassy to the Court of Pekin - - - - - 339 
 
 ' Government of the Cape of Good Hope .... ^56 
 
 ■ Character and general Characteristics - - - - 370 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. Letter from Sir George Macartney toWilliam Burke, Esq. - 413 
 
 II. Letter from 3ir George Macartney to the Right Hon. Hans 
 Stanley, dated St. Petersbourg - - - 416 
 
 III. Letter from Sir George Macartney to the Right Hon, Henry 
 Seymour Conivay - - - - - 418 
 
 IV. Letter from Sir George Macartney to the Right Hon. Henry 
 Seymour Conway - - - - -421 
 
 V. Letter from Lord Macartney to Lord George Gerniaiji • 427 
 VI. Intercepted Letter from the Nabob Nizam ud Dsiclah to Fazel 
 Beg Caivn ..... 405 
 
 8
 
 xii CONTENTS. 
 
 VII. Lord Macartnefs private Note of Application to his Highness 
 
 the Nabob of the Carnatic .... . 440 
 
 VIII. Nabob's Chop (0), being the Assignment of the Revenues of the 
 
 Carnatic to Lord Macartney - - - 441 
 
 IX. Letter from the Governor-general and Council of Bengal to the 
 
 Honorable Charles Sfnith and Select Committee of Fort St. George 443 
 X. Reply of the President atid Select Committee of Fort St. George to 
 
 the foregoing Letter of the Governor-general and Council - 456 
 XI. Letter from Warren Hastings, Esq. to Lord Macartney on the 
 
 Subject of a Treaty with the Nabob - - - 475 
 
 XII. Lord Macartney's Reply to the foregoing Letter from IVarrcn 
 
 Hastings, Esq. - ... . . ^52 
 
 XIII. Copy of a Letter from Lord Macartney to Mr. Hastings - 488 
 
 XIV. Extract f-om the Minutes of the Select Committee - - 497 
 XV. Translation of a Persian Letter from his Highness the Nabob 
 
 JVallaw jfaiv, to Lord Macartney ... ^06 
 
 XVI. Minute of the President of Fort St, George, relative to a Letter 
 
 in English, from the Nabob of Arcot to Lord Macartney - 519 
 
 XVII. Letter from Lord Macartney to the Earl of Hillsborough - 571 
 
 XVIII. Plan of Arrangement for the Nabob's Affairs - - ^y6 
 
 XIX. Account of a Duel between Lord Macartney and Mr. Sadlier 582 
 
 XX. Account of Transactions wiih Major-general fames Stuart in 
 
 London. ... . . ^84
 
 SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PUBLIC LIFE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY, 
 
 George Earl of macartney was the only remain- 
 ing son of George Macartney, and the only male descendant 
 of his great-grandfather George Macartney Avho, removing 
 into Ireland in the year 1649} settled near Belfast in the 
 county of Antrim, where he acquired a large estate. This 
 ancestor of the Earl was a captain of horse, surveyor ge- 
 neral of the province of Ulster and, in the year I678, served 
 the office of high sheriff of the county of Antrim. At the 
 Revolution in I688 he, at the head of his troop, proclaimed 
 king William and queen Mary at Belfast, for which he was 
 soon after obliged to fly into England, and was attainted in 
 
 VOL. I. B .
 
 a PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 king James's parliament, held at Dublin in 1689; but being 
 restored, on the settlement of Ireland, he returned to Bel- 
 fast, where he soon after died. By his will, bearing date 
 April 22, 1091, after making ample provision for his voungLi- 
 children, he constituted his wife executrix and guardian of his 
 sons Chichester and George, from the latter of which was 
 descended the late earl of Macartney. 
 
 George IMacartney, the subject of the' present memoir, was 
 born the 14tli May, 1737, at the family mansion of Lissanoure. 
 As the juvenile years, of most individaals in the same class of 
 society are passed pretty nearly in the same manner, and aflord 
 but little that can be considered as worthy of record, unless 
 where some peculiarity in the plan of their education shall 
 appear to have given a peculiar bias to future opinions and 
 conduct, it may be sufficient to obsei've, with regard to 
 young Macartney, that at an early period of life he was 
 placed under the tuition of a clergyman*, whose library ^ con- 
 sisting chiefly of Avorks in theology, was but scantily sup- 
 plied with books of such a description as are usually most 
 captivating to youthful minds. It seems however that he had 
 a curious collection of tracts on heraldry, genealogy, and 
 chronology, subjects that are but little calculated to engage 
 the attention of a boy ; but Macartney's fondness for books 
 
 • Doctor Johnson having pronounced it a kind of literary fraud in biography 
 not to mention the name of the tutor of iiny person of distinguished talents, it 
 may be observed that the name of lord Macartney's tutor was Dennis ; that he was a 
 clever and ingenious clergyman, for whom his lordship always preserved a sincere 
 attachment, and obtained for him- two good livings in the church, namely Clanc and 
 Dunmore.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 3 
 
 led him imperceptibly, from want of others, to the study of 
 such as Aveie to be had; and to tlie early exercise of his 
 memory on those subjects, he used to attribute, in a great 
 degree, the peculiar retentive faculty for which throuo^h 
 , every part of his future life he Avas distinguished. At the a^e 
 of thirteen he was admitted a fellow commoner of Trinity 
 College, in the university of Dublin, and proceeded master 
 of arts there in 1759. From Dul)lin he came to London, and 
 was entered of the society of the Middle Teujple, where he 
 formed an intimacy with Mr. Burke, INIr. Dodwell, Mr. 
 Bacon, and many other characters then rising into eminence; 
 but, having no intention to study the law with a view to 
 practice in that profession, he remained there but a short 
 period before he liad completed liis arrangenients for making 
 the tour of Europe, on which he was resolved to pass a few 
 years of his early life, in order to collect, by his own observa- 
 tions and the reports of others on the spot, whatever infor- 
 mation was to be procured as to the physical strength and 
 the resources of the several states of that continent, and the 
 character and politics of their respective courts. This know- 
 ledge, added to that of the principles of the British consti- 
 tution, he considered as the essential preparatives for the 
 career of a public life which he already had in view, and 
 which it was his intention to commence by endeavouring to pro- 
 cure a seat in the British House of Commons. In the course of 
 his travels he made the acquaintance of several young noble- 
 men of distinguished families and, among others, of Mr. 
 Stephen Fox (the eldest son of the first, and father of the 
 present Lord Holland) whom he liad an opportunity of serv- 
 
 B 2
 
 4 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 ing in a manner so essential to himself and his connections, 
 that he was ever afterwards honored with the esteem and con- 
 fidence of the old Lord and Lady Holland, and with the 
 friendship of all the younger part of the family. 
 
 The romantic country of Switzerland, and the happy and 
 contented lot of its inhabitants at that time, were so conge- 
 nial with the feelings of Mr. Macartney, who to his other 
 accomplishments added a taste for poetry and music, that he 
 determined to remain there for some time. At Geneva he was 
 introduced to the acquaintance of the philosopher of Feme}-, 
 who invited him to his house, in which he passed several days 
 greatly delighted with the society of this extraordinary man, 
 Avith Avhom on his return to Europe he is supposed to have kept 
 up a correspondence; this indeed appears from a letter of Cap- 
 tain Robert Jephson to Sir George Macartney in the year 1775, 
 requesting him to send a copy of his tragedy of Braganza to 
 M. Voltaire, " whom," he observes, " you have cultivated 
 " more than any of our countrymen since his retirement ;" 
 and he further adds, " I cannot so entirely suppress the par- 
 " tiality of an author as not to wish you may add a word or 
 " two of imdue influence to your old acquaintance of Ferney, 
 " to recommend the play to liis perusal." 
 
 On his return to England he became an inmate of the Hol- 
 land family, by whom he was introduced to the acquaintance 
 of Lord Sandwich, then secretary of state for the northern 
 department ; and an arrangement was speedily concluded by 
 these two friends to bring him into parliament ibr the borough 
 
 1
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 5 
 
 of Midhurst, afterwards represented by Mr. Charles Fox. 
 About this time the affairs of Russia had assumed a very in- 
 teresting aspect for all Europe, The success of an unex- 
 pected revolution which had placed a woman not less extra- 
 oidinary lor talent than ambition on the- throne, more per- 
 haps through accident than design "*, gave fresh energy to a 
 nation, which had hitherto been scarcely considered to hold a' 
 place among civilized states, and caused her, as Mr. Ma- 
 cartney observes, " no longer to be gazed at as a distant 
 " glimmering star, but as a great planet that had obtruded 
 " itself into our system, whose place was yet undetermined, 
 " but whose motions must powerfully affect those of every 
 " other orb." To England, in particular, an alliance Aritii 
 Russia was desirable on many considerations, and especially in 
 a commercial point of view. In fact, a treaty of commerce 
 had for some years before engaged the attention of the British 
 government ; but neither the ministerial talents of Sir Charles 
 Hanbury Williams, under the reign of the empress Elizabeth, 
 nor the diplomatic skill and good humor of Mr. Keith, 
 though a convivial favorite of the unfortunate Peter, nor the 
 weight and splendor of the earl of Buckinghamshire at the 
 court of Catharine, had been able to succeed in making the 
 least progress towards a treaty either of commerce or alliance 
 
 * The intention of count Panin and the other conspirators was to declare the grand 
 duke Paul emperor, and to constitute Catharine empress regent ; but Gregory OrlofF, 
 •who had secretly dispatched his brother Alexey to fetch Catharine from Peterhoff, 
 while himself and the young princess DashkofF, who though only eighteen years of 
 age was the most active instrument in bringing about this extraordinary revolution, 
 used their endeavors with, and at length prevailed on, a si lull number of the 
 
 guards, not more than thirty in the first instance, to shout •' long live the empress" ; - 
 
 and empress she was crowned a few hours afterwards.
 
 6 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 with the Russian cabinet. The old treaty of commerce of 
 1734 had long expired by its own limitation, yet the empress 
 Elizabeth, though unwilling to renew it, had acquiesced in a 
 continuation of the regulations thereby established ; but 
 Catharine at a very early period of her reign manifested a 
 disposition less favorable to British commerce. Scarcely 
 indeed was she seated on the throne till a flat refusal was 
 given to Lord Buckingham, on the ground that it was not 
 intended to enter into any exclusive engagement with any 
 particular power. 
 
 Under these circumstances it occurred to Lord Holland, who 
 immediately suggested the idea to Lord Sandwich, that the' 
 various acquirements of ^Ir. INIacartney might be employed to 
 more advantage to the public and, perhaps, with all the suc- 
 cess that was wished, at the court of St. Petersbourg, than by 
 a seat in parliament *. His knowledge of European politics 
 alone fitted him for the undertaking ; but a graceful person, 
 with great suavity of manners, a conciliating disposition and 
 winning address were considered as no slight recommenda- 
 tions at a female court, where such accomplishments, it was 
 fair to conclude, might work their way, when great but' un- 
 
 * Extract of a letter from Lord Holland to Mr. Macartney, dated a2d 
 
 May, 1764. 
 Dear Macartney, 
 Lord Buckingham leaves Russia ; there is business there which will not be trans- 
 acted with success by his lordship, but which it is hoped may be by his successor. 
 Your character will be that of envoy extraordinary, and I can answer for every 
 thing in lord Sandwich's power to make your station agreeable and useful to you. 
 \ Lady Caroline bids me put you in mind that the empress is about the age you 
 like, not a slim woman, and, I add, growing older every day, and when she passes 
 the turn of perfection you will be coming away.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. ^ 
 
 acconimodaling talents ^alone would prove iiietTectual, Ac- 
 cordingly, on the 22d August, ]76"4, Mr. Macartney was 
 appointed, envoy extraordinary to the empress of Russia; and 
 having furnished his mind from the public records with all 
 that had been done, attempted and failed, since the first inter- 
 course between Great ]>ritain and that country, lie took leave 
 in the month of October, and on this occasion received from 
 his Majesty the honor of knighthood. Early in November 
 he set out upou his mission, arrived at Petersbour"- in 
 December, and on the 11th January, I760, had his first 
 audience of the empress. 
 
 From tlie Earl of Buckinghamshire he received the most 
 
 polite attentions, and was lodged in his house during the 
 
 short time his Lordship remained in St. Petersbourg. This 
 
 gave him an opportunity of making himself acquainted with 
 
 the leading plans and politics of the court, and the weight 
 
 and character of the principal persons with whom he would 
 
 have to negociate. The chancellor and vice-chancellor were 
 
 represented by Lord Bucks as men wholly incapable of 
 
 directing the afltairs of so great a nation ; that the former had 
 
 no real fi'iendship for England, and that if any point could be 
 
 obtained from him favorable to its interests, it would not be 
 
 determined by his inclination, but in consequence of his 
 
 sovereign's orders; that Mr. Panin, governor of the grand 
 
 duke and minister for foreign affairs, seemed better qualified 
 
 than most of the Russian ministers to hold the first place, 
 
 and that he shared the confidence of the empress ; but that 
 
 Catharine herself, from all the observations he could make, 
 
 8
 
 S PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 and from all the lights he could obtain, was, in point of 
 talent, information, and application to business, greatly superior 
 to every body in that country ; that however her life was a 
 luixture of trifling amusements and intense application to the 
 concerns of her government, which, from difficulties indus- 
 triously thrown in her way as well as Irom the variety of 
 schemes all set in motion at once, had, as 3'et, produced 
 little or no effect ; that her plans were numerous and exten- 
 sive, but greatly inadequate to her means. By one scheme 
 she proposed to raise a sufficient quantity of tobacco to sup- 
 ply the French market; another was to open a connnerce 
 with Spain, Portugal, and Italv, by Russian merchant ships; 
 her navy was to be increased ; manufactures of silk, cloth, 
 lace, linen, and porcelaine to be brought all at once to the 
 highest possible perfection : the government, the laws, the 
 manners, and the very disposition of the nation were to be 
 changed : these and many others were all to be undertaken at 
 once, in a country where ever}^ innovation was vinpopular, 
 by means of ignorant, indigent, and corrupt counsellors, an 
 indolent people, averse from all manufacture, and more 
 averse liom the sea, a mutinous army, and an exhausted 
 treasury ; the sovereign hampered likewise by the obliga- 
 tions she had recently received, to which, in fact, she owed 
 her throne, unable to get rid of many of those about her, 
 Avhose characters and mean abilities she could not but de- 
 spise, subject to plots and continual nmrmurs from the dis- 
 tinguished favors she lavished on count Gregory Orloff, who 
 was so nuich considered as an upstart that all but his own 
 family hated him, and none more inveterately than those en-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. -9 
 
 gaged ■\vitli liim in the late revolution, whose plans ^\erc 
 ruined by his mismanagement or treachery ; thus situated, 
 Catharine had hitherto scarcely ventured to act for herself. 
 
 In this posture of affairs no sanguine hope could be 
 entertained of drawing the attention of Russia from so many 
 grand iirojects to a commercial treaty with England, which 
 was the jjrincipal object of Sir George Macartney's mission. 
 It required however but little consideration from one of his 
 sagacity in what quarter he should begin his plan of opera- 
 tions. He waited on INIr. Panin who received him with 
 great civility, and appointed the third day after for his first 
 public audience. On this occasion he addressed her Impe- 
 rial Majesty in a speech of some length, in which, after 
 declaring, in the name of the king his master, the sincerest 
 assurances of his inviolable attachment to her person, and 
 constant zeal for her interests, he adds, " and ibrgive me, 
 " madam, if here I express my own particular satisfaction 
 " in having been chosen for so pleasing, so important an cm- 
 " ployment. By this means I shall have the hcii)pincss of 
 " more nearly contemplating those extraordinary .accom- 
 " plishments, those heroic virtues, which make you the 
 " delight of that half of the globe over which you reign, and 
 " whicli render you the admiration of the other *." To this 
 speech her Imperial Majesty condescended to deliver person- 
 ally, and not as usual through her chancellor, an extempo- 
 rary reply, in a manner so gracious that it was not sutl'ered to 
 
 * The late Mr. Charles Fox, in a letter to Sir George Macartney, observes, ♦' I 
 « think your speech to the czarina is one of the neatest things of the kind I ever 
 *' saw ; and I can assure you Edmund Burke admires it prodigiously." 
 
 VOL. I. C 
 
 s'^-
 
 lo PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 pass unnoticed by her courtiers and the rest of his diplomatic 
 brethren. On the same day the Earl of Buckinghamshire had 
 his audience of leave. 
 
 Sir George lost no occasion of cultivating the friendship o^ 
 Mr. Panin, Avhom he soon discovered to be not only minister 
 for foreign affairs, but, in fact, sole minister of the Russian 
 empire, and high in the favor and confidence of Catharine ; 
 that his political notions coincided exactly with her own; 
 that he firmly supported all her opinions and her projects 
 against every opposition ; that his character for honesty and 
 integrity was unimpeachable ; that he was proof against cor- 
 ruption, but immeasurably obstinate, and inflexibly attached 
 to his own and his mistress's opinions ; that his genius, 
 though not of the most brilliant castj Avas admirably adapted 
 for the mechanical man of business, in which, if he proceeded 
 slowly, he, at least, moved steadily ; but that, when once 
 put out of the track he had worn for himself, or worn for him 
 by others, he was infinitely embarrassed and unable to pro- 
 ceed; that he had therefore adopted certain fixed notions, 
 and formed a svstcm for his conduct which, on most occa- 
 sions, he adhered to with almost invincible obstinacy. " Of 
 " a suspicious nature dreading a surprise, he takes up arms," 
 says Sir George " oh the slightest noise, and makes a parade 
 " of exercise to show he is prepared*". 
 
 * By making allowances for inferiority of talent, Mr. Panin may be considered 
 at the Mr. Pitt of Russia. They both were distinguished by an unsullied integrity 
 and a disinterestedness of conduct which are rarely found in a first minister, and 
 each had to support in a great measure, the weight of an empire on his shoulders. 
 The one however had able assistance during the greater part of his administration 
 
 5
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. n 
 
 To conciliate the fjieiidship and to rivet the good opinion 
 of this Avary statesman, Sir George Macartney took care to 
 employ all his address ; and he had the satisfaction to per- 
 ceive that his endeavors had not been exerted in vain. Aw 
 intimacy sprang up between them, such as is not often the 
 fruit of a ministerial intercourse ; for, during the whole of his 
 long, arduous, and painful negociations with the court 
 of Russia, he was at all times distinguished by Mr. Panin 
 with unecpiivocal marks of his high esteem and particular 
 regard. This gentleman used frequently to speak in terms of 
 admiration of the various acquiiements and extensive know- 
 ledge in so young a man as Sir George then was; to acknow- 
 ledge freely the advantage he had derived from his information 
 respecting the several courts of Europe, and even on points 
 regarding Russia, })articular]y on that of its commerce with 
 Great Britain, a general view of which it seems Sir George 
 had drawn up and put into his hands for his own private use. 
 
 Thus havino; laid the solid foundation of a good under- 
 standing with the Russian minister, he ventured to open the 
 grand objects of his mission, namely, the concluding a treaty 
 
 which the other had not. Panin was a real patriot. Unworthily treated as he had been 
 through the intrigues of favorites, he is said to have sent for the grand duke Paul when 
 on his death bed, when he conjured him, by every thing he held dear and sacred, 
 never to harbor an idea of dethroning his mother. " Russia, says he, has already suf- 
 •' fered enough by revolutions -, if they are not now checked there is no saying 
 <• where they may end." The advice of the dying tutor was not neglected by the 
 grand duke ; for when it was hinted to him, some time afterwards, that he ought 
 to make an immediate demand of the crown which properly belonged to him, " I 
 " will neverj" says he, " give my son an excuse to dethrone me." 
 
 c 2
 
 M PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 of alliance and commerce between the king of Great Britain 
 and the empress of Russia. Mr. Panin heard what he had to 
 say with great attention, and in return disclosed to him the 
 projects he had conceived for the aggrandizement of his 
 countr}', to the accomplishment of Avhich he added his whole 
 life should be devoted. His fust and great object, he ob- 
 served, was to effectuate a confederacy of the northern powers, 
 of which Russia was to be the heart and centre ; that one 
 great step towards this end was the plan of making a com- 
 jrion causae with Eno;land and Denmark for the total annihi- 
 jation of the French interest in Sweden ; that for this purpose 
 it would be necessary to gain a majority in the diet of Stock- 
 ]iolm, and preserve it by a subsidiary treaty ; that money 
 would be necessary, and that if England came into his plans 
 she must either pay liberally or not pay at all. That Russia 
 had just concluded a new treaty of alliance with Denmark, 
 by one article of which a w«.r with Turkey was made a casus 
 fcederis. That when that event should happen Denmark 
 bound herself to pay to Russia a subsidy of five hundred 
 thousand roubles a year by quarterly ]5a3anente-,' and, by a 
 most secret article she promised to disengage herself, as soon 
 as possible, from all French connections ; and to enter into all 
 the views of Russia in the kingdom of Sweden, in the con- 
 stitution of which however it was not intended to make any 
 alteration ; that, on the contrary, the royal authority was to 
 remain the same, and the privileges of the people preserved 
 Avithout violation. He dwelt on the ardent desire the em- 
 press had expressed for a treaty of alliance with Great Bri- 
 tain, as the surest means of disappointing the views of the 
 courts of Vienna and Versailles, against Avhich she was irri-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 53 
 
 fated with uucomnioii resentment ; but that this alhance 
 cotild only be brought to a happy conchision by Engkuid's 
 first assenting to his Swedish project, >vhich lie took care to 
 hint woukl require considerable expense ; and that she would 
 also agree, by a secret article, to pay a subsidy in case of a 
 Turkish war, as Denmark had done. If on these ground;^ 
 England consented to enter into a treaty of alliance, he 
 obscived that the treaty of commerce would grow with it 
 passibiis ieqiiis. 
 
 From this conversation Sir George was sufficiently aware 
 
 of the difficulties he should rnve to encounter in the progress 
 
 ©f his negociation, os it would embrace other points which 
 
 did m>t depend on lam. in fact, every subsequent conference 
 
 opened with Sweden, was closed with Sweden. Mr. Panin 
 
 declared that iie had already spent two hundred thousand 
 
 roubles in his Swedish projects, for whi-ch, in other respects, 
 
 he had spared, as much as possible, the imperial treasure, 
 
 knowing that economy was most agreeable to his mistress, 
 
 avarice, as Sir George obseiTes, being perhaps the second 
 
 passion of her souk The next point was the Turkish clause. 
 
 He complained bitterly of the conduct of England, v.ho had 
 
 taken no notice of a projct for a treaty of alliance which had 
 
 been sent to London in the time of Lord Buckint>hamshire, 
 
 and could not forbear observing, that if England was sincere 
 
 in her professions, she would hardly have deviated from the 
 
 common rules of politeness established between courts ; that 
 
 Russia having oifered a scheme could not, when reflecting on 
 
 the behaviour of England, be any longer ajimsed ^yith new 
 
 assurances without woundine; her own dignity. To this Sir 
 
 3
 
 14 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 George observed, that his predecessor had proposed certain 
 alterations "which had been rejected by Russia, and that the 
 inflexibiUty of the court of St. Petersbovu'g in insisting on 
 what she knew to be inadmissible, left them little cause to 
 complain of a want of good breeding ; that he would furnish 
 him in a day or two with a counter-projfet, provided he would 
 abandon the Turkish clause, which he knew England Avould 
 never agree to insert in any treaty. But he saw that every 
 effort was in vain ; in vain did he urge the unreasonableness 
 of expecting any subsidy in time of peace; and that an alli- 
 ance on an equal footing Avould be more safe as well as more 
 honorable for both nations. But Panin swore by every 
 thing sacred, that while he was minister, Russia should never 
 make a treaty of defensive alliance with any power upon earth 
 by which a Avar Avith Turkey Avas excluded from being a 
 casus fcederis. In short, it Avas sufficiently obvious, that the 
 Turkish clause, inserted either in the body of the treaty, or 
 in a secret article, Avould be a sine qud non in every negoci- 
 tion he might have to open Avith the court of Russia. This 
 point indeed Avas established by the discovery he made of a 
 treaty which had actually been concluded Avith Prussia, in 
 Avhich Frederic had agreed to the Turkish clause on condition 
 that Russia should make no alliance with any other poAver but 
 on the same terms, and count do Solms, tbe Prussian envo3% 
 had orders to remonstrate, in the stronoest maaner, aoainst 
 any treaty that should be concluded contrary to this 
 condition. 
 
 The project of buying a majority in the diet of Sweden 
 for tlic purpose of annihilating the French interest, appeared
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 15 
 
 to Sir George Macartney to be less objectionable than the 
 -Turkish clause, though lie felt the impolicy of England 
 squandering money in that country ; " that by augmenting 
 " their treasury wc should make money cheap and goods 
 " dear ; that as we sold little and bought much from the 
 " Swedes, the price of their commodities would be raised ; 
 " and thus the political measure of granting a subsidy would 
 " become highly and perpetually detrimental to our com- 
 " merce." 'J'he consideration however of destroying the in- 
 fluence of the French with the Northern Powers was an 
 object in which Sir George had less difficulty to promise the 
 co-operation of his government ; and, in this respect, his 
 private feelings kept pace with his public duty. He had seen 
 enough of Frenchmen, in his travels through Europe, to im- 
 press on his mind no very favorable opinion either of their 
 moral or political character, and it does not appear that he 
 ever found reason to alter that opinion. 
 
 Well assured therefore that, by urging his court to accedo 
 to the latter of the two obstacles to the success of his neffo- 
 ciations for a treaty of commerce, he should greatly facilitate 
 the conclusion of this desirable object, several sums of 
 money were, at his recommendation, supplied for the pur- 
 pose, though not to the extent of Mr. Panin's wishes, who 
 frequently and severely took occasion to reflect on the parsi- 
 mony of England. Still however the progress made in the 
 treaty of commerce was very slow, and he saAv, from the mode 
 of conducting business at the court of Russia, that impor- 
 tunity and perseverance were the pohtician's only weapons.
 
 3-6 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 111 fact, tlie delay and procrastination of the college of com- 
 merce, arising not merely from the want of method and 
 gross ignorance, but from the ill dispositions and intentions 
 of some of the commissioners, determined him, if possible, 
 to 2;et it out of their hands, that the arrangement might finally 
 be settled between Mr. Panin and himself. This gentleman, 
 out of pure friendship, assented ivith great good nature 
 to the proposal, provided there should be no objection on 
 the part of the empress, although he could not forbear com- 
 plaining that he had the whole v eight of foreign affairs on 
 his shouldci's, and no person of capacity to assist him, in 
 whom he could tmst. Catharine, who was well aware of the 
 incapability of tlie membeis yf the commercial college, to 
 transact a business of this nature, wishing to oblige the 
 English minister, yet willing to save appearances, suggested 
 a middle path ; she proposed that count Panin should settle 
 the points with the British minister, and that the commis- 
 sioners should be invested with full powers to sign the treaty. 
 The commissioners however were exasperated at the affront 
 which they conceived was thus put upon them; angry at their 
 own insignificance, and angry at Sir George for having dis- 
 covered it, they soon be&:an to manifest all that kind of 
 malice which little minds delioht in. Their resentment broke 
 out on a j)articular occasion in the conduct of the vice-chan- 
 cellor, to whom the emj)ress h;ul given orders to invite all the 
 foreign ministers to dine with her on tiie anniversary of her 
 accession to the throne. The court was at this time at the 
 camp, and tlu^ entertainment was given there. The vice- 
 chancellor taking advantage of the distance and the confusion
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. ly 
 
 that might possibly be supposed to result from that circum- 
 stance, contrived to leave Sir George ISlacartney out of the 
 invitation, who, being thus pointedly neglected, conceived it 
 would be most consistent with his official character not to go 
 to court that day. His absence Avas taken very particular 
 notice of by the empress, but to prevent its making a wrong 
 impression he contrived to let her know the reason of it. 
 Having taken this step, on the Sunday following he went to 
 court, where he enjoyed a complete triumph in v/itnessing tho 
 mortification of those who had })ut in practice their little arts 
 of revenge. The empress singled him out and distinguished 
 him in a very extraordinary manner both in the morning and 
 the evening ; all the foreign ministers were present, but he 
 was the only one she did the honor of addressing on 
 that day. 
 
 After a close negociation of four montlis the treaty of com- 
 merce was brought to a conclusion, on such equal and im- 
 partial terms as neither party, it was hoped, would after- 
 wards find reason to repent of; and in this confidence the 
 duration of the treaty was extended to twenty jears. The 
 terms obtained on the part of England were, in fact, more 
 advantageous than his majesty's ministers had ventured to 
 hope he would be able to procure *, and such as the mer- 
 
 * Extract of a letter from Lord Sandwich, dated 15th March, 1765. 
 
 " By an article of the old treaty the British merchant is put upon the same 
 
 *' footing with a subject of Russia in all duties of export, a renewal of which you 
 
 *' are to endeavor to obtain ; though it is much to be apprehended that, after thirty 
 
 «< years advancement in commerce, since the conclusion of that treaty, this bene- 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 i8 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 chants concerned in the trade expressed themselves per- 
 fectly satisfied with. Reflecting therefore on the difficulties 
 he had experienced, and on the uncertainty of a convul- 
 sionary government, he was anxious to seize the advantage 
 which the moment offered, and which, if once lost, might 
 not easily be recovered, and signed the treaty ; not doubting 
 the approbation of his majesty's ministers for having done 
 more than they expected, and accomplished that which 
 three former ministers at this court had not been al)le to 
 eti'ect. He did, in fact, receive a letter, dated the 17th 
 September, written by direction of the Duke of Grafton, 
 then secretary of state for the northern department, acknow- 
 ledging the receipt of the treaty which, it was stated, was 
 Tery agreeable to his grace, as well as to the rest of his 
 majesty's ministers ; no objection was then taken at his 
 having signed it : but in a subsequent letter, dated the 27th 
 of the same month, he is informed by the duke's same secre- 
 tary, that he is extremely concerned not to be able to send 
 him a confirmation of those hopes, w Inch his former letter had 
 given, that his treaty and his conduct would meet with gene- 
 ral approbatio7i ; for that, upon a thorough examination of it, 
 a very material objection had appeared. Two days after- 
 wards the duke himself informs him that his majesty's mini- 
 sters were highly dissatisfied, that he should have taken upon 
 himself, contrary to his instructions, to sign a treaty of 
 
 " ficial concession is aaore to be wished for than expected from the court of 
 •' Russia." 
 
 This concession, however, was obtained by Sir George Macartney in its fullest 
 extent. 
 
 6
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 19 
 
 commerce before lie had sent it over for his majesty's 
 approbation. 
 
 The objection which his majesty's ministers were pleased to 
 make to the treaty appears principally to have lain against 
 the following expression, which makes part of a clause in 
 the fourth article, " En reciprocite tie I'acte de ixavigntion de 
 la Grande Bretagtie*'. These words it seems, the}'' consi- 
 dered not only as a reservation in favor of Russia, but as an 
 infringement on the act of navigation, to the very name of 
 which the Duke tells him this country is enthusiast, and the 
 mention of it therefore is carefully avoided in all treaties -f-. 
 Sir George acknowledges that he was perfectly aware of the 
 objection that might probably be made; but, Avhen he con- 
 sidered that, by admitting the reservation in favor of Russia 
 (of which he knew she could make no use) he had obtained 
 an equality of duties upon exports (which neither his ma- 
 jesty's ministers nor the merchants had hoped for) ; knowing, 
 as he' did, that our trade with Russia being a trade of neces- 
 sity on our part, she would grant no other terms ; having 
 already been threatened that if the treaty was not signed an 
 ukase would be issued, by which the English factory would 
 be deprived of their privileges, and put upon the same foot- 
 
 * The whole of the clause stood thus : " Alais alors on se reserve de la part de la 
 Russie, en reciprocke de Facte de navigation de la Grande Bretagne, la liberie de faire 
 dans rinterieiir, tel arrangement particuUer qu'il sera ireuve ton, pour encourager et etendre 
 la navigatiori Russienne." 
 
 f The Duke of Grafton sent him a copy of the Navigation A£l, on which Sir 
 George, after thanking him for his kind intentions, assures his grace he needed 
 not to have given himself so much trouble, for that he had the Navigation Act by 
 heart many years ago. 
 
 D 2
 
 20 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 insr as other traders ; knowiiity also that the favorite and 
 the minister were on the worst terms, and that if Orloff got 
 the better of Panin there was an end to the treaty for ever ; 
 having moreover ascertained, that the merchants who are 
 always the first to complain, were highly satisfied with the 
 terms he had procured ; feeling likewise, as well as the Duke 
 of Grafton, that those merchants were enthusiasts to the very 
 name of the navigation act, yet made no objection to the 
 wording of the fourth article; and seeing the absolute 
 necessity of bringing the treaty to an immediate conclusion, 
 armed as he was with full powers, he ventured to judge of 
 that necessity. On these grounds, and in the temper of the 
 court, at that time highly dissatisfied Avith the parsimony of 
 England in regard to Sweden, and trembling for the fatal 
 consequences of a delay, he thought it most expedient on 
 every consideration to sign the treaty, " preferring, as he 
 observes, " the public service to his own private securitj^ 
 " and daring a fault which he thought success might convert 
 " into a A'irtue." 
 
 Among other motives which weighed with Sir George 
 Macartney to bring his treaty to as speedy a conclusion as 
 possible, were the intrigues of the French. From the moment 
 of the arrival of Beausset as minister from the Court of Ver- 
 sailles, this gentleman had taken uncommon pains to make 
 the court of St. Petersbourg relish a treaty of commerce with 
 France : and although Sir George had received the strongest 
 assurances from Mr. Panin ihat, so long as he was minister, 
 Russia should contract no other commercial engagements than 
 those with England, yet he was too well acquainted with the
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. zr 
 
 intriguing cliaractcr of the French to trust to such an assur- 
 ance. He knew that the court of A'ersailles was anxious for 
 a treaty of commerce with Russia; tliat the Spanish envoy 
 liad proposed one, and that a Dutch projct had kiin on the 
 ministerial table for the hist twenty years. The French, it is 
 true, by that levity and absurdity which one Avould almost be 
 led to conclude were ingrafted in their nature, had taken un- 
 common pains to defeat their own projects at the court of 
 St. Petersbourg. The king of France having, in his minis- 
 ter's credentials, thought proper to give to Catharine the title 
 of MajcstS only without the addition of Imperiale, the court 
 of Russia was so highly oftcnded at the incivility as to refuse 
 an audience to Monsieur Beausset ; stating, as a ground for 
 such refusal, that, as this title had already been granted, the 
 objection to it could now be construed in no other way than 
 as a personal affront to the empress. The French minister al- 
 leged that if his court had granted it before it must have been 
 owing rather to an oversight in the othce than to an avowal 
 on their part ; for that it was contrary to the idiom of their 
 language, and therefore impossible ; that in writing they 
 never say, vofre majesty imperiale even to the emperor of 
 Germany. This explanation, however satisfactory it might 
 appear to the vanity of a Frenchman, Avas by no means so to 
 the Russian court. Its embassador at Paris, Prince Gahtzin, 
 Avas instructed to complain of the indignity that was thus 
 offered to the person of his sovereign ; but all the satis- 
 faction he could obtain was an avowal from the Due de 
 Choiseid, that although the court of Versailles had no objec- 
 tion to allow the imperial title to the crown of Russia, they
 
 22 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 could not possibly in writing use the expressiori majcste impe- 
 riale Avithout wilfully consenting to corrupt the purity of their 
 language ; on ^vhich important consideration he hoped the 
 court of St. Petersbourg would no longer insist upon it. Tlie 
 Due de Choiseul is said to have pushed his pleasantry on 
 this occasion still farther by declaring, when speaking on this 
 subject a few days after, " Qu'il nc pottvoit pas introduire 
 " dans la langiic Francoise iin harharlsme en faveur de la 
 " Riissie." The effect may readily be imagined which such a 
 sarcasm produced on a court of the complexion of Hussia, 
 whose sensibility was generally less hurt by a real injury than 
 by the slightest insult on its pride. Sir George was too good 
 a patriot not to take every due advantage of this hostile dis- 
 position against France. He succeeded so far as to prevail 
 on the Russian minister to discourage as much as possible the 
 predilection of his countrymen for French customs, and the 
 fashion of wearing French silks and velvets ; and, in the 
 present temper of the court, the empress was easily prevailed 
 upon to set the example. Still, however, there was a gene- 
 ral sort of attachment in St. Petersbourg for every thing that 
 was French, and from the representations of the embassa- 
 dors of this nation, it was strongly suspected that the court 
 of Versailles would abate of its obstinacy, and condescend 
 even to sacrifice the purity of the French language, in order 
 to carry an important point Avith Russia. 
 
 But independent of all these circumstances, Sir Ceorge 
 IMacartnc}^ had seen enough of Russia to be convinced that 
 all its eflbrts to encourage the commerce of its own subjects
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 23 
 
 would prove abortive ; lie knew, from the temper of the in- 
 habitants, from the state of her navy, her dock-yards, her 
 officers and seamen, that there was not the least apprehen- 
 sion, for many years to come, of her assuming either a naval 
 or a commercial aspect that could possibly give to England 
 the shghtcst umbrage or jealousy. The genius of Catharine 
 bad scarcely yet begun to operate on the national character, 
 ■which she found, as it were, in a stat€ of inaction. At that 
 time it might fairly have been doubted, whether a single sub- 
 ject in the Russian empire had ever even seen our Navigation 
 Act, or had any more acquaintance Avith it than the mere 
 name. " An act," says Sir George, " which, like the bow of 
 " Ulysses, bends only to the hands of its master, may well 
 " defy the exertion of every IVIuscovite effort." 
 
 The Duke of Grafton, who was in reality very much his 
 friend, and not a little mortified at the disapprobation which 
 some of his majesty's ministers had thought fit to express at 
 the treaty, thought it would be right to refer the clause in 
 the fourth article for the opinion of the Russia companj^, 
 Avho, having already been informed of the objections against 
 it, very laconically and without assigning any grounds for 
 their opinion, declare " that it may essentially aflect and 
 " prejudice the trade and navigation of Great Britain, and 
 " render the whole treaty ineffectual*." On the receipt of 
 
 * That it may not be considered unfair to give an extract only of the very con- 
 cise condemnation pronounced by the Russia company on the point vi^hich was so par- 
 ticularly referred to them, and to obviate any appearance of this kind the whole of 
 their letter is subjoined, which, according to the advice of a great law officer, 
 never to give a reason for a decision, must certainly be esteemed as a very- 
 sagacious epistle.
 
 24 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 which Sir George observes, " I must beg leave lo make one 
 " observation relative to the Russia company. Not a third 
 " of those who compose their court of assistants have ever 
 " been in Russia, or carry on any trade with it; and the 
 " o-reater part of the rest, who were formerly in this country, 
 " have either totally forgot it, or at the least (considering the 
 " revolutions it has undergone since their time) are now very 
 " incompetent judges of it. Your grace knows that any per- 
 « son whatever, on paying five pounds, may becxjme free of 
 " the Russia company." His grace, however, having thought 
 fit to take the opinion of a body of men, who, it seems, were 
 very ill qualified to give a solid one on the subject, Sir George 
 conceived it would be right in him to obtain the sentiments of 
 the British factoi'y in Russia, in order to transmit them to the 
 Puke in return, a body of men ^vho were not only capable of 
 giving a substantial opinion, but were also most deeply in- 
 terested in every sentence of the treaty of commerce between 
 Great Britain and that country. For this purpose he desii-ed 
 the consul to assemble the merchants, to read the treaty, and 
 to inquire whether there appeared to them any material ob- 
 jections to the whole or any part of it, hinting to him at the 
 
 " My Lord, London, 24th September, 1765. 
 
 «« We the governor, consuls, and court of assistants of the Russia company .have 
 taken the letter which your grace did us tiic honor to write to us, together with the 
 fourth article of the treaty of commerce with Russia, into our consideration, and 
 arc of opinion that the p;iragraph referred to, as it now stands, may essentially 
 affect and prejudice the trade and navigation of Great Britain, and render the 
 whole treaty ineffectual. We are, &c. 
 
 (Signed) by order of the governor, consuls, and court 
 of assistants of the Russia company, 
 
 " M. SIERRA, Secretary." 
 3
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 25 
 
 same tune, to mention to them in particular that clause of 
 the fourth article, Avhich had been disapproved. In repl}'" to 
 the requisition made by the consul, the merchants resident 
 in Russia drevr up and unanimously agreed to sign the fol- 
 lowing letter : 
 
 (( 
 
 We the underwritten members of the British factory 
 " humbly beg leave to return your Excellency our thanks for 
 " having so obligingly condescended to comumnicate to us 
 " the new treaty of conuuerce with the Russian court previous 
 " to its final ratification. 
 
 " Sensible as we are how great must be the satisfaction 
 " resulting to a mind like yours from the consciousness of 
 " having accomplished in so full and perfect a manner his 
 " majesty's gracious views and intentions for the good of his 
 " trading subjects in this important negociation ; we humbly 
 " presume it may afford some > additional pleasure to your 
 " excellency to receive a public acknowledgment of the 
 " entire and unreserved approbation of everij article in this 
 " treat!/ from us who are so immediately and so nearly con- 
 " cerned in its consequences. 
 
 " Though the whole is in every point as advantageous to 
 " the trade and navigjation of Great Britain as could reason- 
 " ably be expected, yet we think ourselves more particularly 
 " obliged to your excellenc}' for that part of the fourth article, 
 " by which an equality of duty on exports between the 
 " British and Russian merchants is established, and for the 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 aS PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " very favorable explanation obtainetl by your excellency ol 
 " the succeedini? clause. 
 
 " It is in this lii'ht we desire vour excehencv will take 
 " this letter, and do us the favor to believe us every one in 
 " particular, and all in a body, with the greatc>t truth and 
 " respect," *S:c. &c. 
 
 (Signed by all the British merchants residing 
 in St. Petersbourg.) 
 
 The favorable explanation, alluded to in the above letter, 
 was a declaration signed by Mr. Panin respecting the clause 
 which had given so much alarm to the British cabinet. This 
 document, favorable as it was and highly satisfirctory to 
 those who professed themselves " so nearly concerned in its 
 *' consequences," did not however satisfy his majesty's new 
 ministers. They not only required that this declaration 
 should be signed by the four plenipotentiaries who had 
 signed the treat}', but that new powers should be granted 
 by the Russian court authorizing them to do so. Upon the 
 mention of this to Mr. Panin he flew into a violent rage, 
 saying " he Avould have Sir George Macartney to know, and 
 " he wished to inform the duke of Grafton, that he himself 
 ♦> was the minister, and he alone ; that a distrust in a letter 
 *> written by him, at the empress's command as therein cx- 
 •'. pressed, was a kind of affront he could not be insensible of, 
 *' and that if his nKijesty's ministers thought hinv or his court 
 *' capable of breaking their word, or departing from en— 
 *-* gagemcnts in that form, it was very unlikely Uiat any de-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 27 
 
 ** c'laralion would bind them avcic it ever so solemnly made 
 " or une(inivocally worded ;" and lie concluded by sayings 
 that he would advise the empress, avIio was long since tired 
 with importunities on this subject, to do no more ; that all 
 Russia exclaimed against liim for having done so much ; and 
 that her interests hail been shamefully sacrificed : that if 
 Great Britain therefore did not like the treaty with his ex- 
 planatory letter she n)ight take her own measures ; but that 
 if the signatui'es were once annulled, he declared most so- 
 lenndy that the English factory should immediately be put 
 upon the same footing as the merchants of other nations. 
 
 From this time Sir George seems to have labored with un- 
 ceasing diligence and unexampled assiduity to carry the 
 point, Avhich his superiors at home appeared to have so much 
 at heart. ]jut every a]:)plication was fruitless, every en- 
 deavor vain, to induce Mr. Panin to alter his sentiments. 
 He ventured even to speak to the empress herself at the mas- 
 querade upon the subject, and almost went on his knees to 
 persuade her into compliance, but he found her, to use his 
 own expression " inliexiblc even l)eyond a woman's obsti- 
 nacy ;" and he had the mortification to perceive that it 
 would be no loss diflicult to draw from them such a declaration 
 as was required than " to count the billows of the Baltic or 
 " number the trees in the forest of Onega." Still however 
 he persevered till he discovered that ]\Ir. j^uiin had actuallv 
 received orders to cancel tlic signatures, and to put an end 
 for ever to the treaty; a step that was immediately to be 
 followed l)y a revocation of the declaration oivcn bv the em- 
 press Elizabeth in i'avor of the i')ritish factorv ; and it re-
 
 a8 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 quired all his powers of persuasion to prevail on ]Mr. 
 Panin to delay the execution of this violent and precii)itate 
 measure. 
 
 He now proposed that the objectionable reservation in 
 favor of Russia should be left out, and the treaty newly 
 written and signed afresh. As the omission of the words 
 " En reciprocite de I'acte de navigation de la Grande Bretagnc" 
 made no alteration in the terms, and left Russia free to make 
 •what laws she might think fit respecting her own commerce 
 and navigation, Mr. Panin thought there could be no (jbjec- 
 tion on the part of the empress, and as his majesty's ministers 
 had taken the alarm only on the introduction of the Naviga- 
 tion Act by name, it was not probable they could start any 
 objection to the total omission of it. Sir George therefore 
 caused the treaty to be written out afresh with the omission 
 and sent to England. But the cabinet of St. James's acted 
 on this occasion with more than Russian obstinacy ; it re- 
 (juired that not only the objectionable words but the whole 
 clause should be left out. Thus three times did they refuse 
 to ratify the treaty, and three times send back fresh 
 proposals *. 
 
 • Sir George Macartney was completely at a loss to account for this strange 
 conduct of the British cabinet towards him from the time that lord Sandwich had 
 been removed from the northern department, till the following passage in a letter 
 from one of his friends then in office threw some light on the subject. " It is- 
 " not quite fair" says this friend " to charge any man where one is not quite 
 " positive of the fact ; but though I may be mistaken I am much inclined to think 
 
 " that lord ' has from the beginning been your enemy ; not that I 
 
 •' know or suppose he had any personal enmity to you, but in die game of his 
 " politics you were the card to throw out. From the outset of the marquis of 
 ♦• Rockingham's administration, saw they could not stand, and con-^
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 39 
 
 TiiC court of St. Petersbourg began now to consider the 
 conduct of England so trifling on the subject of the treaty of 
 commerce, and so repugnant to her more cherished schemes, 
 that Catharine determined to break off all negociation for the 
 future, and with this view gave directions for an ukase to be 
 prepared, revoking the declaration of the empress Elizabeth 
 in favor of British merchants, to be published as soon as the 
 first British ship should arrive at Cronstadt. In vain did Sir 
 George endeavor to impress on the minds of the empress and 
 her n)inister, the advantages which Russia would derive from 
 a close alliance with England. But vain of her past successes, 
 giddy with her present prosperity, blind and incredulous to 
 the possibility of a reverse, both the empress and her minister 
 seemed every day to be more intoxicated with pride, more con- 
 temptuous toward other powers, more elated with their own. 
 " No art," says Sir George, " has been left untried, no argu- 
 " ment unenforced, and no effort unexerted. All that my own in- 
 " genuity could inspire, the nature of the subject furnish, or the 
 " circumstances of the times suggest to me, I have employed. 
 
 " sequently determined to keep aloof, and entertain no intimate connection with 
 " them ; the Russian negociation was among the first objects of consultation ; he 
 " knew that a new administration might be scrutinous in the conduct of the then 
 " people, and he hated and despised them for omitting to seize the palpable sup- 
 <* port that proffered itself; so that he was cautious, perverse, and troublesome 
 " in all the meetings concerning the declaration ; his situation as chancellor made 
 "^ his opinion decisive, while but the iota of a punctilio was wanting in the forms. 
 " And his interests, his malice, his resentments, and his habitual ill-nature found 
 •« one common qualification in condemning your conduct ; but their treatment 
 " will not disgrace you with your country and the public, whose esteem alone is ati 
 " all worth esteem."
 
 39 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " with most unshaken attention, the most unceasinjr dihsjence 
 " and unremitted assiduity'. But this court has hstencd to me 
 " with the most provoking plilegm, and the most stoical in- 
 " difference." So painfid was the task now become that in 
 ^ne of his pubhc letters he observes, " Nothing on this side 
 " of heaven could bribe me to pass tlic last six months over 
 " again : mortified and dejected as I am, I have long since 
 " disclaimed the least hopes of applause for any ministerial 
 " endeavors, however judicionsl}'- conducted, or fortunately 
 " concluded ; persuaded that nothing is more dangerous than 
 •" to do more than is commanded, and that he alone is secure 
 ^' and happy who entrenches himself within the bomids of his 
 " duty, vmambitious of the renown which arises from enter- 
 " prising boldness or successful temerity." Such however 
 was the strength of his zeal, and such his eagerness to execute 
 his majesty's commands, that his ardor neither appears to 
 have cooled by repeated denials, nor slackened by ill suc- 
 cess ; though often repulsed he still returned to the charge. 
 At a conference with Mr. Panin it occurred to him that the 
 same inveterate objection might not lay against the new 
 modellino; of the clause as against its total omission ; and wilh 
 this idea he took up a sheet of paper and folding it in two 
 columns he drew on the first the clause as it originally stood, 
 iind in the opposite one as he now proposed it to stand. To 
 his great astonishment iMr. Panin thought the altcialion 
 admissible, but could not undertake lo say any thing posi- 
 tively until he had ^-ccn the em})]-ess. After kecj)!ng it six 
 weeks he at length letunicd it with a [proposal to ]ia\e it 
 
 altered in the following manner : 
 3
 
 EARL OF MACARTNET. 31 
 
 Clause as proposed by Great Britain. Clause as proposed by Russia. 
 
 Mais alors on se reserve de la part Mais alors chaque haute partie 
 
 ties deux hautes parties contractantes contractante se reserve pour elle ia 
 
 la liberie de faire dans I'interieur tel liberte de faire dans I'interieur de ses 
 
 arrangement particulier qu'il sera etats, tel arrangement particulier 
 
 trouve bon pour encourager et eten- qu'elletrouverabon pourencourager 
 
 dre leur navigation respective. et etendre sa propre navigation. 
 
 In this as in other instances the ]>ridc of Russia sustained- 
 itself" to the end. Mr. Panin remained obstinate and inflex- 
 ible, and Sir George found it expedient to submit to the 
 vanity and obstinacy Avhich suggested the alteration in the 
 words, especially as there was none in the sense. He tlicn 
 demanded new full ])owers to be given to the plenipotentia- 
 ries, but was answered that they (.'ontinued to act under their 
 former powers. It was useless to contend, knowing that it 
 "wovdd be as easy for him, to use his own expression, " to 
 *' heave Pelion upon Ossa as to pei'sua<le them to grant a new^ 
 " porwer to the connnissioners." Considering therefore the 
 ill conse([uenccs of delay he once more, as he observes, " put 
 *' his own safety on the cast tor the public service, and; 
 
 signed the treaty a second time." 
 
 
 The management of the northern department had now 
 devolved upon Mr. Conway, from whom he at length re.- 
 ceived his majesty's ratification, of the treaty, and at, the 
 same time a notification of Mr, Stanley's appointment as 
 embassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the court of 
 St. Petersbourg, without however the least intimation whetlier 
 he was to continue as minister until Mr. Stanley's arrival, 
 semain in that capacity after hig arxiyaj,, ox. what waa intended
 
 32 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 with regard to his future destination. He thought it right 
 however particularly to request that Mr. Stanley might be 
 furnished with very pointed instructions, to inform himself of 
 hib conduct. " Conscious," says he, " of having acted in all 
 '• things entrusted to my care, with the utmost integrity, 
 " vigilance, and activit}^ having exerted every talent which 
 " nature and education have given me for the service of m^' 
 " sovereign and the interest of the public, ambitious only of 
 " honest fame, I present myself to every scrutiny, convinced 
 '- of being able to prove, that no man in my situation could 
 " have obtained what I have done, convinced that you, Sir, 
 " and every branch of administration will in the end see the 
 " strongest reasons for ap[)roving every particular of my 
 " conduct." — Letter from Sir George Macartney to Mr. Se- 
 cretary Conixay, dated August 26, 1766. 
 
 Trom this period till the month of March 1767, he remained 
 in complete ignorance as to the time of Mr. Stanley's setting 
 out and of his own destination. The disappointments and 
 vexations he had long suffered had a severe effect on his 
 health, and he had the additional mortification of observing, 
 that although the personal attentions both of the empress 
 and ]\rr. Panin continued the same, he had now lost all the 
 ministerial confidence of the latter. He entreated his court to 
 relieve him from so embarrassing a situation, by sending his 
 letters of recall, that he might take advantage of the shipping 
 season to return to England. He represented the state of 
 his heahh as every day getting worse, that the court Avas 
 preparing to depart for Mosco, where all the foreign mini- 
 sters were to attend it ; that after its departure he could be
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 33 
 
 of no use in St. Pclersbouig, where he would be left in tlie 
 most (lisaorccable and, for a public minister, in a most ridi- 
 culous situation, as th(; whole court, the senate, and all the 
 principal chanceries and offices were to be removed to Mosco. 
 Notwithstanding these statements he I'eceived directions 
 fioin his court to remain at St. Petersbourg. What his feel- 
 ings and sentiments were on this occasion will best ajipeai' 
 from his own letters which are inserted in the Appendix *. 
 
 As there was not the slightest hope of negociating a treaty 
 of alli\ince Avithout admitting the Turkish clause, and for 
 manjf other reasons given by Sir George in his letter to Mr. 
 Secretary Conway -j- ; and as his majesty's ministers were at 
 length convinced that his remainins; at St. Petersbourir, while 
 an embassador was expected, could answer no good purpose, 
 they gave him permission to return to England for the benefit 
 of his health ; but without any letter of recall, or any inti- 
 mation that Mr. Stanley was about to proceed. Having sent 
 his secretary Mr. Shirley, as clutrge d'offaires to Mosco, he 
 left Petersbourg about the end of May, and proceeding by 
 the way of Stockholm and Gottenburgh took liis passage at 
 the latter ibr Enoland. 
 
 o 
 
 There Avas an idle story propagated in St. Peterebourg by 
 persons who could not eN[)lain the circumstance of his re- 
 maining behind, when the court and foreign ministers pro- 
 
 * Letter from Sir George Macartney to William Burlte, Esq. No. i — To the 
 Right Hon. Ilans Stanley, No. 2. — To the Right Hon. Henry Seymour Conway, 
 No. 3. 
 
 \ Letter to Mr. Secretary Conway, dated St. Petersbourg, Jan. 26 ; Feb. 6, 
 1767. Appendix, No. 4. 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 54 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 ceeded to Mosco, that Catharine had instructed her embas- 
 sador in London to request he might be recalled, and had 
 forbad his appearance at court. Such an absurdity scarcely 
 requires a serious refutation ; but if any proof Avere want- 
 insr of the continuance of that distinsnished attention with 
 which he was honored to the last moment of his stay iil 
 Russia, the following letter from Mr. Panin, written by com- 
 mand of the empress at Mosco, is alone suiHcient for that 
 purpose : " Dans le moment on je lui (I'imperatrice) ai pre- 
 " sente vos homages en v-^ous congediant de sa cour, j'ai recu, 
 " pour vous, Monsieur, les assurances les plus positives de sa 
 " bienveillance, et je vous les transmets avec un contente- 
 " ment qu'il vous sera facile de vous representer. Sa majeste 
 " imperiale ne vent point que vous partiez sans en emporter 
 " une marque distinguee. La maniere dont vous vous con- 
 " gediez sans produire de lettres de rappel, nous engageant 
 " a vous considerer toujours comme ministre actuel aupres 
 " de notre cour, vous n'etes pas encore dans le cas de recevoir 
 " le present d'etiquette que nous faisons aux ministres, et 
 " nous le renvoyons au tems ou il doit avoit lieu. Mais in- 
 " dcpendamment de ce present, sa majeste m'a ordonne de 
 " vous envoyer la boete que j'ai I'honneur de joindrc ici, 
 " comme un temoignage de son approbation et do I'estime 
 •' qu'elle a jugc que vous meritez. Trouvcz bon, Monsieur, 
 " que mes sentiments particuliers s'expriment tons dans la 
 "satisfaction avec laquelle je vois ceux de ma souveraine. 
 " Je vous demande avec emprcssement la continuation de 
 " votrcamitie, et vous pric de croire que I'attachemcnt queje 
 " vo\is ai vouc est aussi sincere qu'inviolable.'' The mark of 
 dislinonished regard, mentioned in Air. Panin's letter, was a
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 35 
 
 j^rcscnt from the empress of a very magnificent gold snuff-box 
 enriched with diamonds, in value about six hundred pounds. 
 As to their wishing his recall it is contradicted in the declara- 
 tion of Mr. Panin in the above extract, that they must still 
 consider him as the actual minister at the court of Kussia, 
 and more strongly by his subsequent appointment in England 
 as embassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to that 
 court. 
 
 During his residence at St. Pctersbourg he had many op- 
 portunities of rendering very signal services to Stanisla-us the 
 unfortunate king of Poland, by forwarding his views and as- 
 sisting his minister count Rzewuski to discover and coun- 
 teract the mean and unjust artifices of the king of Prussia to- 
 wards that nation. As an acknowledgment of those services 
 Stanislaus sent him, in 176(3, the ensigns of the order of the 
 White Eagle which his majesty was graciously pleased to per- 
 mit him to accept. At the same time they were accompanied 
 by a very handsome letter from the king of Poland. * 
 
 * The King of Poland to Sir George Macartney. 
 
 " MONSIEUR DE MACARTNEY, 
 
 " II m'est bien agreable et bien flatteur cie retrouver d'une fa^on si efficace dans 
 un homme de votre merite et de votre dist'nction les memes sentimens de bonne 
 volonte, dont j'ai le plaisir do rccevoir les preuves de tant de vos compatriotes. 
 Ma recqnnoissance et mon aftection particulieve pour votre nation est connue ; je 
 souhaite que la mienne pour vous personellement le soit tout autant. C'est ce que 
 me determine a vous conferer, Monsieur, I'ordre de I'Aigle Blanc, dont le compte 
 Rzewuski, mon envoye extraordinaire et plenipotentiare a la cour imperiale de 
 Russie, est charge de vous remettre les marques. Je vous prie d'y reconnoitre 
 I'estime parfaite et I'amitie sincere dans laquelle je suis veritablemcnt, 
 
 " Monsieur de Macartney, votre tres afFectionne, 
 
 (Signed) ^« Stanislas Auguste Roy. 
 
 " Varsovie, ce 31 May 1766." 
 
 F 2
 
 36 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Whether before his return to England the cabinet of St. 
 James's had begun to reflect on the impolicy of removing u 
 minister who had concluded a " just and satisfactory treaty 
 of commerce *," and who stood so high in the estimation of 
 the court with Avhich he had to treat, or whether Mr. Stanli\v, 
 on contemplating the difficulties which, in all probability, he 
 would have to encounter as every English minister before him 
 liad encountered, does not appear ; but shortly after his arrival 
 in London Mr. Stanley gave in his resignation, and Sir George 
 Macartney was immediately appointed to succeed him as 
 embassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the court 
 of Russia. Some particular circumstances however occurred, 
 and were followed by other engagements, which were likely to 
 prevent him from proceeding on his embassy, at least in any 
 reasonable length of time. He conceived therefore, that it 
 would be most expedient for himself and the public service 
 to give up the situation at once than continue to hold it while 
 any uncertainty remained of his ever being able to fulfil the 
 duties of it. On this occasion he acted with a liberality 
 which is not usually met with among public men. Notwith- 
 standing the large sums of money he had expended out of 
 his own pocket in the public service, b}' which he contracted 
 a debt of near 6000/. in order to support his ministerial cha- 
 racter, he voluntarily and without any requisition returned 
 the warrants for a service of plate, usually granted to embas- 
 sadors, the ecjuipage money and every other emolument, re- 
 ceiving no advantage of any kind from his appointment ex- 
 cept their majesty's pictures, which he particularly desired he 
 
 • His majesty's speech from the throne at the opening of the session of 176^, 
 1-7(57.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 3; 
 
 might be allowed to keep, setting thus an example of disin- 
 terestedness, pcrliaps the only one oi" the kind ia the diplo- 
 niatic hbtory of this country. 
 
 ON the ist of February IjOS^ Sir George JNfacartney wus- 
 married to the Right Honorable Lady Jane Stuart, second 
 daughter of John Earl of Bute ; and in the month of April 
 following he was chosen one of the representatives of tha 
 borough of Cockermouth, in the parliament of Great Britain. 
 Conceiving however that he might be alile to serve his coun- 
 try more effectually in the Irish than the British parliament, 
 he was elected in the month of July of the same year to re- 
 present, in the former, the borough of Armagh. It was at this 
 time in contemplation to make a considerable chanoe in the 
 system of government, which had hitherto been practised 
 with regard to Ireland. It had long been the custom for the 
 lord-lieutenant to go over once only in two years,, and to 
 give hhnself little concern about public matters while he was 
 there : he convened a parliament which lasted a few montlis, 
 lived hi a state of splendid magnificence, provided for his 
 de^)endents, received, as Sir George observ.cs, " freedoms, 
 " gold boxes, and complimentary addresses, and then, hur- 
 " ried back to England witii the utmost precipitation,'' 
 leaving the government, at his departure, vested in a com- 
 mission usually composed of the two principal members of 
 the church and the law, together with the speaker of the 
 House of Commons. These gentlemen were generally ap-
 
 38 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 pointed lords justices, but in Ireland were better known by 
 the name of undertakers. The power, the patronage, and 
 consequently the influence derived from their situation, gave 
 them in fact an unlimited control over the interior govern- 
 ment in Ireland, and they considered themselves so iniport- 
 ant and so necessary to the crown, in transacting what was 
 called the king's business, that they generally were able to 
 dictate their own terms to the administration of England. 
 But on the great change of the English ministry in I766', one 
 of the first measures settled in the cabinet was, that Ireland 
 should no longer be left to the discretion of the undertakers ; 
 but that the lord-lieutenant should for the future constantly 
 reside in that countr}', and hold the reins of government in 
 liis OA\n iiands. The Earl of Bristol was fixed upon as the 
 first resident chief governor, but resigning the situation with- 
 out having once taken possession of his government, Lord 
 Townshend was nominated to succeed him, who immediatelj- 
 went over; and on the 1st January 17t).9j Sir George 
 Macartney was appointed chief secretary of Ireland, and 
 sworn of his majesty's privy council there on the 30th JNIarch 
 followinc;. 
 
 This change of s^^stem, as might naturally be expected, 
 made very strong and opposite impressions on the different 
 political parties in Ireland. " The Irish people," observes Sir 
 George *", " ever fond of novelt}^, were rejoiced bej'ond mea- 
 " sure at the ha))py tidings ; individuals were no less delighted : 
 " thos6 who had long been in leading-strings, but had never 
 " been led to what they looked ibr, felt new hopes rise in 
 
 • In his Accoiwt of Irclaii.l which will be more particularly noticed hereafter. 
 
 1
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 39 
 
 " their bosoms, and flattered themselves that the day of en- 
 " franchisement was come ; golden visions of profit and of 
 " honor opened on the eyes of every patriot * ; he who had 
 "disdained the thraldom of an undertaker, was ready to 
 " wear the livery of a resident viceroy ; and the most inve- 
 " terate republican became a convert to the new theory of 
 " government : all was rapture and reformation ; the return of 
 " Astrea was hourly expected, and the kingdom of Saturn 
 " was supposed to be at hand. 
 
 " The undertakers, against whose usurpation this scheme 
 " of residence was levelled, immediately took the alarm and 
 " strenuously used all their endeavors to defeat it. They 
 " knew indeed that opposition, if steadily resisted, must soon 
 " moulder into insignificance, but they flattered themselves 
 " that no lord-lieutenant would long persevere in the new 
 " plan. If he should they were resolved to omit nothing on 
 " their part to make his situation as uneasy and as unpleasant 
 " to him as possible." 
 
 In this state of the public mind Lord ToAvnshend arrived 
 at his new government, and was immediately beset, as all 
 former lord-lieutenants had been, by the undertakers on one 
 
 * A name particularly affected by those in Ireland who set up a systematic op- 
 position to the measures of government. All the undertakers and their adherents 
 when they lost their power became patriots. " A friend of mine," says Sir George, 
 in one of his speeches " seriously told me that he could not support government 
 " for, that if ever he quitted his present connexion, which was a private one, he 
 « would become a patriot — like General Kirke, who told king James, when asked to 
 " turn Papist, tha: he was engaged in honor to the emperor of Morocco that if 
 " ever he changed his religion he would become a Mahometan."
 
 4® PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 liand atul the patriots on the other, Ijoth j>roposing such 
 measures aiul plans as, however opposite in their nature, 
 both assured him were calculated to make liis government 
 easy and himself popular : but most of which, in fact, if 
 adopted, must either have turned Jiim into ridicule, or Ijeen 
 some innovation on the established constitution, or some en- 
 croachment on the revenue. Schemes of the wildest and 
 most absurd nature were daily offered at the castle. In some 
 places roads were proposed to be made to facilitate commer- 
 cial intercourse where no commerce could exist ; in others 
 means of conveyance where there was nothing to convey ; 
 here a navigation was to be encouraged where the sea w'as 
 unnavigable, and 'there haibors to be constructed which pre- 
 sented shipwreck instead of safety. Collieries were proposed 
 to be wrought where turf was the common fuel of the 
 colHers, even in the very coal-pits themselves.; and a proposal, 
 among others, was seriously made that a land-carriage bounty 
 should be allowed for all corn and flour brought to Dublin 
 /i!j the new canal. However ludicrous s.uch projects may 
 appear. Sir George assures us this representation of them is 
 not exascerated ; and that so artfnllv Avere some of their 
 schemes conceived, that they niet, or at least seemed to 
 meet, with encouragement at the castle. It happens indeed 
 not infrequently and, from the noblest and best of motives, 
 in the eagerness and ardor of im[)rovement, Avithout in- 
 quiring whether improvement be practicable, or if practicable 
 whether expedient or necessary, that a minister is prevailed 
 \\\)on to lend his assent to the schemes of an artful imj)ostor 
 or an unprincipled jobber; or, as Sir George Macavtuey ob- 
 serves, " A lord-lieutenant new in his governmei>t. perhaps 
 
 3
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY, 41 
 
 ■*' new in business ol" any kind, vinacquainted with tlie people 
 " and constitution of Ireland, and desirous of carrying on his 
 " administration with popularity and good humor, probably 
 " at first did not aj)prehcnd any danger or inconveniency 
 " from adopting these schemes': he perhaps seemed to ap- 
 " prove them, and iiis seeming approbation was immediately 
 " sworn into a positive promise, the performance of which 
 "• he was afterwards either soothed or frightened into, ac- 
 " cordinii to the features of his character and the circum- 
 " stances of the times*." 
 
 * One great object of the undertakers was to keep up the charges of government 
 beyond its revenue ; as it tlien became necessary for the crown to ask them for a 
 supply ; they granted it and rhus recovered their own importance j but to preserve 
 that importance they granted the supply for two years only. The revenues how- 
 ever, in spite of extravagance, became at length more than equal to pav all tho 
 charges of government. " This circumstance," observes Sir George Macartney, 
 " alarmed the Irish undertakers : a flourisliing revenue would strip them of their 
 " consequence, and render them less necessary to government. Their first care 
 " was to impoverish government as fast as possible, by squandering away the 
 « redundancy arising in the treasury. Unfortunately, they were permitted to 
 " do so. 
 
 " By these means, in a space of four or five years, the kingdom, from a most 
 <* prosperous and affluent condition, from having a revenue far greater than its ex- 
 <' pense, and from possessing a treasure of near half a million sterlins;, lainj)- 
 " p'icd, and ready to ans'wcr any public emergency, was reduced to a state of the 
 " utmost distress, was obliged in 1759 to borrow 350,000/. at so high an interest 
 " as 5 /. per cent., and to revive the loan duties for the payment of it. 
 
 " Thus the undertakers accomplished what tliey wished. By this manage- 
 " ment they plunged the nation in debt, had the art to throw the odium of their 
 •» own prodigality on government, and then claimed rewards from that govern- 
 " ment for supplying the wants which they themselves had created. It was no 
 " longer the petition of modest merit for reward and encouragement ; it was 
 " the confident demand of powerful connection, a compact among individuals to 
 " support each other's pretensions, and to vote for each other's jobs, or an indc- 
 " cent scramble for the public spoil." Acccuiit cf Ireland. 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 43 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 "With regard to Lord Townshend he soon discovered tliat 
 by conceding a few points, he -was every day harassed witli 
 o-reater and more extravagant demands, and lie therefore 
 determined to act in future upon his own snggestions and 
 observation, and to get rid at once both of patriots and 
 nndertakers. The demands of the latter were partictdarly 
 and obviously confined to selfish views. Qne wanted peer- 
 a<>es for his friends, another some great reversion for him- 
 self; some expected pensions, and others an addition to those 
 they already had. Thus, as Lord Townshend observes, " by 
 " distressing one lord-lieutenant and compromising with 
 " another, they are always gaining something for themselves, 
 *' and paring away the authority and reputation of the 
 " English government, until it hath scarcely any gpound left 
 " to stand upon." And Sir George remarks, that uistead 
 of being grateful " for past favors, they were enraged at tlie 
 " refusal of new ones; turned the power of the crown en- 
 *' trusted to their liands, against the crown itself, and cn- 
 " deavored to extort, by faction and opposition, what was- 
 •* meant to be the reward of loyalty and service." 
 
 It was therefore the first and great object of TiOrd Towns- 
 hend's administration to crush this growing aristocracy of 
 lrel;iiul, and rid the country of an evil eciunlly injurious to 
 ihe people and to the crown*. Their ingratitude to the lat- 
 
 * Rome idea may be collccteil of tlie influence of the untlcrtakers in Ireland; 
 from the following extract of a letter from a friend then in government to Sir 
 •CJcorpc Macartney, dated i2th May 1769. 
 
 " Your friends have long had reason to be vain of you, and in endeavoring to 
 " emancipate govcrnnient and rid this country from tlie name of undertakers, you
 
 EARL OV MACARTNEY. 43 
 
 tcr proved the means of hastening the destrucLiou of their 
 power. Among the bills framed in the council of Ireland 
 and transmitted to Engimul in the accustomed manner, was 
 in conformity with constant usage a money hill. This money 
 bill, returned under the great seal of England, was read in the 
 House of Commons on the 21st of November I769, and 
 rejected by a majority of 94 to 71- On this occasion all the 
 strength of the undertakers, the Duke of I^einster, Lord 
 Shannon, then master of the ordnance, and Mr. Ponsonb}' 
 the speaker, was mustered against government. The lord- 
 lieutenant entered his protest against the vote of the House 
 of Commons, and put an end to the session by a sudden 
 prorogation. Lord Shannon and Mr. Ponsonby who had 
 shown in the course of this strange proceeding, that they 
 acted, not from piinciple, but with the sole view of distress- 
 ing government, were immediately dismissed from their em- 
 ployments. After this it became a matter of course for these 
 gentlemen, together with the Duke of Lienster and his party, 
 to unite with the patriots, and to determine to oppose and 
 harass government to the utmost possible extent of their 
 powei". Every kind of spiteful resolution was proposed in 
 the House of Commons that disappointed resentment could 
 suggest. The press of Dublin teemed with indecent and 
 
 *' will do die first and most essential service to Ireland — a service in my opinion 
 <« s6 essential that it ought to be considered in the political system of Ireland 
 " like charity in the religious. And as, in the religious, nothing, it is said, can 
 " avail without charity, so in the political, nothing ought to avail without a faith- 
 « ful discharge of this principal and most essential duty, the emancipation of 
 « government." 
 
 r o
 
 ■4^ PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Ejcunilous libels *. The lord-lieutenant was represented as 3 
 man who must necessarily be the greates-t enemy to the true 
 interests of Ireland, because he was an Englishman, and by 
 parity of reasoning it followed of coarse that his secretary 
 could not be a friend, because he was an Irishman ; and 
 thouoh the latter had a considerable estate in the country, 
 and therefore most likely to be interested in its prosperit}', 
 yet as he had passed so much of his life in foreign parts it 
 was hinted that he nsight perhaps have become a papist. No 
 suggestion, however wild, is too absurd to be advanced when 
 sotne party purpose is meant to be answered. In the House 
 of Commons they endeavored to give every opposition and 
 embarrassment to the measures of government. " For 
 " four months," says Sir George, " the turbulence of the 
 " faction kept the House of Commons sitting every night 
 " till ten o'clock, and very frequently several hours after 
 " midnight." To their sallies of violent invective and their 
 intemperate speeches the secretai-y opposed calm and argu- 
 mentative replies, spirited remonstrance against their ab- 
 surd propositions, and preserved a firm and stead}' conduct 
 throughout the whole session, and an uncommon share of 
 temper and good humor upon every occasion '\\ 
 
 * Some of the best productions of this kind, tliough in general very coarse, and 
 very severe against Lord Townshend, have been collected into a volume and pub- 
 lished under the name of Baratariana. Those which are signed Sintiercome are 
 ascribed to Mr. Flood. The defenders of Lord Townshend replied to them in a 
 periodical work called the Batchelor. 
 
 f Lord Townslicnd was much pleased with Sir George Macartney's conduct in 
 the House of Commons. In a letter to Lord North he observes, '• The session 
 " of Parliament being now ended, I think it incumbent on me, in justice to Sir
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 45 
 
 Tiie undertakers however had sooa the mortiticalion to I'uid 
 that Avith their places they liad h)st a considerable part of 
 tlieir intiuencc ; and that in the same proporti(;n the British 
 government regained its authority. 'J'he consequence of this 
 change was, that several wise and salutary measures were now 
 carried thiough the house, in whicli not individual interest 
 but the real welfare and prosperity of Ireland only were 
 consulted ; and the finances of this kiniidoni, by resolution 
 and perseverance, were retrieved and jjlaced upon a propei' 
 footintr. 1'he lord-lieutenant and his secretary now became 
 more popular, though constantly residing on the spot, 
 than most of their predecessors, Avho had made only their 
 occasional visits and confeiTcd favors. Sir George indeed re- 
 mained upwards of three years constantly employed in the 
 laborious office of chief secretary with unremitted exertion, 
 without once returning to London according to the usual 
 practice of other secretaries; generally residing in Dublin 
 at a great expense, and distributing among his countrymen 
 the whole of his salary annexed to his official situation, and 
 
 •' George Macartney, to represent to your lordship that the happy conclusion td 
 ♦• which it is brought is, in a great measure, to be ascribed to his attention and 
 " abilities, I have had the satisfaction of hearing from all the king's servants, 
 " who were his fellow laborers, that during the whole sessions he acquitted him- 
 ♦« self with great credit in the different speeches which he made, and that in 
 «< every other respect his conduct and behavior were such as proved him to be 
 " a very judicious knowing man, and perfectly the man of business. He has now 
 " been seven years in his majesty's service without having received any favor, ex- 
 " cept the temporary one which he at present holds under me ; and I think he has 
 " the fairest and justest claim to be distinguished with some particular mark o£ 
 " his majesty's approbation,"
 
 46 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 the income derived from his paternal estate. lie conducted, 
 in the course of this period, three difficult sessions of parlia- 
 ament, seconding, with complete success, the spirited mea- 
 sures of his principal, by Avhich, for the first time, was broken 
 to pieces the formidable aristocracy in that kingdom, which 
 we have already observed had so long dictated its own tei'ms 
 to the government of this. In this turbulent and arduous 
 employment he acquitted himself not only with distinguished 
 political abilities very much as we have seen to the satisfac- 
 tion of the lord-lieutenant, but with u temper that contributed 
 not a httle to allay the violence of party, and break the 
 obstinacy of opposition. Lord Townshend was firmly per- 
 suaded of his zeal and fidelity, and often lamented that there 
 was no reward within his reach, that he could consider to be 
 adequate to his distinguished merit. With regard to himself 
 and his friends he acted Avith his usual disinterestedness, 
 having waved the acceptance of a place of 2000/. a year, to 
 accommodate the government, and secured no advantages of 
 any kind, except a small provision for a faithful servant in 
 the revenue, and a commission in the army for a near relation, 
 whom he felt himself bound to serve. 
 
 In the early part of the government of Lortl Townshend, 
 Sir George had occasion to fight many hard battles for his 
 principal in the Irish House of Commons ; and he was among 
 the few members in that house who, by his manly and spirited 
 retorts, coukl temper the impetuous eloquence of Mr. Flood, 
 or silence the wild and democratic clfusions of Dr. Lucas, a 
 jiotorious lepublican dcclaimcr of the day, whose patriotism,
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 47 
 
 Iiowever, his jKirty, it secius, found it necessary to keep 
 alive l)y the hclj) (jf a subscription *. Sir George Imd re- 
 cently checked the latter for some flippant remark he had 
 thouglit fit to apj)ly to him as the ministerial instrument in 
 the Irish House, of Conmnons ; and Mr. Flood takins; occa- 
 sion shortly afterwards to repeat the observation, at the same 
 time made some allusion to the bad<)C of the Order of the 
 White Eagle, under the name of the Northern Star, and the 
 hlueish ribband, Avhich drew from the secretary this spirited 
 repl}'. " I gave notice some days ago to the most learned and 
 *' ancient professor of patriotism in this political university 
 " that I would not permit him nor any other to address me as 
 *' a minister. I find notwithstanding that although he has not 
 *' thought fit to repeat it himself, yet he has prompted others; 
 " but I am not deceived ; I see the quiver from which the 
 " shaft is drawn ; I recognize the j)oison which envenoms its 
 ** pc'nt. For my own part i wish to avoid all personal alter- 
 " cation. I have always endeavored to observe a language 
 " void of offence, and a conduct of openness and candor in 
 " every transaction of my life, both as a public and a private 
 " man. Wliether I have demerited of my country or not, 
 " my country must juelge; but wherever I have been I have 
 *' at least endeavored to deserve Avell of it. Its honor never 
 " suffered in my hands, and the Irish name Iuks not, I trust, 
 " been sullied in mine. Unassisted by blood or alliance I 
 
 • Not many years before, tiiis virtuous character had been driven out of the 
 city of Dublin by his fellow citizens, and took refuge in London. So great vfas 
 the annoyance he gave to the House of Commons, that a writer, in the " Bat- 
 chelor," compares him with a fly which is most troublesome at the latter end of 
 the season when it grows weak and blind.
 
 48 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 "made myself considered in a neighbouring kingdom; I 
 
 " obtained the notice of my sovereign, and, by his favor^ 
 
 " my youth has been employed in business of the highest con- 
 
 " cern, in negociations of the most impoitant nature. Suc- 
 
 " cess was attendant on my labors, and the distinguished ap- 
 
 ". probation of the British parliament has sanctified those 
 
 " labors. Thus, Sir, was I employed at a very early age 
 
 " whilst some of my ojiponents were engaged in the weighing 
 
 " of syllables, the measurement of words, the composition of 
 
 " new epithets, and the construction of new phrases. If in 
 
 " my embassies I have received testimonies never before 
 
 " Granted but to my superiors ; if my person is adorned with 
 
 " extraordinary proofs of distinction, let me tell these gentle- 
 
 " men that they are badges of honor, not of shame and dis- 
 
 " <^race. Let me tell them that, if from my public situation, 
 
 " my name should ever pass to posterity, it will be trans- 
 
 " mitte<l as a testimony of my service and integrity, not as a 
 
 •' record of infamy and crimes." 
 
 He contended, in fact, that no secretary ought to be con- 
 sidered as a minister, on account of the public situation he 
 held in that capacity. " Mine," says he, " is an office of 
 " private trust not public responsibility; to conciliate not to 
 " conduct ; to explain not to dictate ; to concur not to control. 
 " Are there," he asks, " any marks of my being a minister ? 
 " Are there any tokens of my possessing cither the power or 
 " of adopting the practice of a minister ? Is there a single 
 " instance of any of my friends, relations, or dependents be- 
 " ing advanced or promoted by me? Have I received either 
 
 " place, pension, or reversion P — None. My situation then 
 
 8
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 49 
 
 *' is simply this. 1 iiavc tlic honor of iDeing chief secretary to 
 " the loid-lieutcnant, Avhich to me is an employment merely 
 " olHcial, and by no means ministerial; and if any stronger 
 " proof be wanting of my not being a minister, it is this — 
 " there is not a man in this house, or out of this house, to 
 *" whom 1 am under any promise whatsoever." 
 
 And upon the whole, while fulfilling the duties of this ardu- 
 ous situation. Sir Geoi'ge Macartney was greatly esteemed by 
 the Irish in general, both in his public and private character ; 
 he attended indeed to all their concerns and representations 
 Avitli willingness, candor, and punctuality ; and though he was 
 ficquently obliged to disappoint their expectations, yet lie ge- 
 nerally contrived to dismiss them in good humor. On his part, 
 he took every occasion to express and to demonstrate the sin- 
 cere regard he felt for the country which gave him birth, and in 
 which he received his education ; and towards the close of his 
 labors, as chief secretary of tliat kingdom, he observes, in 
 one of his speeches, " If 1 have merited the approbation of 
 '" my countrymen I shall rejoice not only as a servant of 
 *' government, not as a secretary to a lord-lieutenant, but as 
 *' an Irishman, as a man who tliinks it an honor to have been 
 " born among you, who esteems it a jx^'culiar happiness to 
 *' possess his property in this kingdom, and who has a heart 
 " that feels Avarmly for the interests and liberties of his 
 " country. IMay she be ha[)py ! AYhcn the tumult of coii- 
 ^' tending parties shall cease, when the heads of those parties 
 "■• shall rest tVom their labors, A\hatever may become of lord- 
 ^' lieutenants and secretaries, raa}-^ she be happy ! But to be 
 ".liappy she must listen to the voice of modeiation, and 
 
 VOL. I. II
 
 50 ^ PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 "■ take wisdom for her guide ; and the paths of wisdom are 
 " the paths of peace." 
 
 It had always been usual to make liljeral provision for a 
 chief secretary of Ireland on or before his resigning the office, 
 sometimes even when he never entered on his office ; but it 
 so happened that no appointment fell Avithin the gift of Lord 
 Townshend that was worthy the acceptance of his secretary, 
 except that of muster-master general which, as before ob- 
 served, Sir George generously gave up to accommodate the 
 lord-lieutenant. His services however were not unnoticed 
 nor unacknowledged at home *. His Majesty, in June 177-, 
 was graciously pleased to nominate him a Knight Companion 
 of the most Honorable IMilitary Order of the Bath, and ho 
 was installed at \\'estminster by proxy, on the 15th of the 
 same month; and some time afterwards, in the year 1774, as 
 a further reward for his services in Ireland, he was appointed 
 oovcrnor and constable of the castle and fortress of Toome, 
 with a nominal salary of 1,300/. a year, but which, beside 
 being ill paid, produced only in London 1,036 /. 5 a. a 3'ear. 
 Yet an ungracious attempt was made in the Irish House of 
 Commons to render the appointment objectionable, as not 
 being vested in the crown, but the property of a private in- 
 dividual. The attempt however answered no other jnn'jjose 
 than that of proving to Sir George INIacartncy tire great 
 iiumlicr of linn friends which he had among the most exalted 
 
 • Extract of a letter from Ijord North to Lord Townshend, dated April 1772. 
 
 " The conduct of Sir George Macartney is very meritorious ; I am sure it must 
 " appear so to the king. He will never want an advocate tlierc, whilst your hum- 
 " ble servant is able to bear to his merit the testimony which is due to it."
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 51 
 
 characters for worth and integrity in that kingdom, all ready 
 to stand forth in his behalf. The motion which had been 
 made by Mr. Buiry, for an inquiry into the state of the 
 garrison of the castle of Toome was therefore withdrawn, 
 or, more properly speaking, wholly abandoned *. It was 
 but indeed, at best, a scanty reward, when compared with 
 what other secretaries had received before him, after a four 
 years service in an office whose duties were uninterrupted, 
 and, from the new order of things introduced into Ireland, 
 unusually severe. 
 
 HOWEVER desirous Sir George IMacartney might have 
 been, after quitting Ireland, to obtain a little relaxation and 
 retirement from the bustle of pid^lic life, it is not probable 
 that a person of his talent for business and active turn of 
 mind would long remain satisfied without participating in 
 public concerns. In the course of th? year 1773, he appears 
 to have been enij^loyed in drawing up his treatise on the 
 subject of Ireland, of which we shall have occasion to speak 
 
 * Extract of a letter from Sir Robert Waller to Sir George Macartney, dated 
 nth November 1775. 
 
 ** There is not a respectable character in the House of Commons who could 
 " at this moment be prevailed upon to take up the paltry, ungenerous^ and im- 
 " politic question of Toome Castle ; it is now this day disclaimed and abandoned 
 " by all. For you there is the greatest cause of exultation in the proof you have 
 " thus received of the high estimation in which you are held by the respectable and 
 " influencing characters in this country. In every situation, and in every climate, 
 " I hope you will meet with equal instances of justice and gratitude." 
 
 II 2
 
 52 PUBLIC LIFE OF THD 
 
 hereafter. In tlie month of October 1774, he was chosen 
 member of the ]3ritish parhament for the boroughs of Air, 
 Irwin, Rothsay, Cambletown, and Inverary ; and in Decem- 
 ])cr 1775, Avas appointed captain-general and governor in 
 chief of the southern Caribbee islands of Grenada, the Gre- 
 nadines, and Tobago. On the 10th June 1776", his majesty 
 (by privy seal at St. James's, and by patent at Dublin, the 
 19th July following) was pleased to advance him to the 
 peerage of Ireland, by the title of Lord INIacartney, Baron of 
 Lissanoure, in the county of Antrim. On his arrival at 
 Grenada, the principal scat of his government, he found that 
 island distracted by party feuds, which, in a great degree, had 
 destroyed its credit, diminished its resources, and impeded 
 its general welfare; there was the Scotch party and the 
 Trench party. The former was inveterate against the latter, 
 because they were Papists, and these bore no less hatred to 
 the others, because they were considered as intruders. Of 
 the two the odium thcologicum of the Scotch was the most 
 violent and the most difficult to conciliate. Their zeal iiad 
 driven them so far as to threaten the demolition of all the 
 French churches on the island ; and so violent was the spirit 
 of enthusiasm, Avhich operated in the cause of the church of 
 Scotland, and so rancorous the haired against the Catholic re- 
 ligion, that this jiious intention would, in all probability, have 
 been carried into execution long before the arrival of his 
 lordship, had not ]\Ir., afterwards Sir George Staunton, 
 an advocate and mcm])er of the council, whose benevolent 
 mind was always ready to afford an active assistance to the 
 oppressed, stepped forward to interpose his good offices be- 
 tween the contending parties, and to prevent at least their 
 
 2
 
 E/VRL OF MACARTNEY. ^n 
 
 proceeding to this ]ast shameful oxtreuiity. When Lord 
 Macartney liad obtained an accurate statement of these party 
 feuds, which, from the time of the annexation of those islands 
 to the crown of Great Britain, had been equally productive 
 of injury to the colonists, and ol" inconvenience and per- 
 plexity to his majesty's ministers at home, he lost not a 
 moment in setting about the means of composing and ad- 
 iusting those pernicious dissensions. His first object was to 
 restore harmony in the colonial legislature, where, in fact, 
 the root of the evil was grounded, and to make provision 
 for their public debt. His measures gave general satisfaction, 
 the colony flourished, and the prosperity of individuals kept 
 pace with the public welfare. 
 
 The government of those colonies united to that situation 
 the office of chancellor ; and in this latter capacity Lord 
 Macartney had a new field for the display of his judgment, 
 his ability, and his impartiality. The rectitude of his con- 
 duct in the execution of the duties of this important office, 
 the attention he bestowed on all matters that were brought 
 before him, and his just and impartial decisions were ap- 
 plauded with wannth and gratitude by all parties. By ad- 
 dress and management, but perhaps more by the confidence 
 })is conduct had inspired, he contrived, for the first time, to 
 establish a respectable militia in the island of Grenada, com- 
 posed of those ver}' parties who, previous to his arrival, had 
 been endeavoring to tear each other in pieces. The invidious 
 distinction of English, Scotch, and French was no longer 
 kept up, but was happily buried in the general desire for
 
 54 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 the protection and preservation of the island under so just 
 and happy a government ; and part of this militia, though 
 composed of such heterogeneous materials, contributed not a 
 little to the gallant resolution with which the garrison shortly 
 afterwards stood upon its defence, when attacked by a very 
 superior force under the commai>d of count d'Estaing in 
 July 1779. 
 
 Of this intended attack Lord Macartney had received very 
 uccui'ate information not only from Martinique but also by a 
 vtu'ict}' of small vessels which he employed as avisos to gain 
 intelligence and to watch the enemy's motions. He knew 
 the great value which the French attached to the Grenadines, 
 and the easy conquest by which they calculated that the islands 
 must fall to the great superiority of their land and sea forces. 
 For nearly twelve months before the event happened he had 
 done every thing that depended upon himself to put the 
 island of Grenada into the best possible state of defence. 
 He was on all occasions, and on evei'y alarm, the most active 
 man on the island, and for many nights together at different 
 times he refused to lie down on his bed, and very frecpiently 
 used to get up at all hours of the night and visit in person 
 the works and the different jiosts. He caused batteries to be 
 erected at the several landing places and On the heights, 
 and by his example of zeal and attention for the preserva- 
 tion of the colonists and iheir property he contrived to ani- 
 mate all ranks of n)cn with a spirit of emulation and with a 
 determined resolution to defend themselves nobly whenever 
 ■nil occasion should call for their exertion.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. ^^ 
 
 Aware however of" the weak state of the garrison with tlic ad- 
 dition of all the miHtia and volunteers that could be collected, 
 he had frequently endeavored to impress on the minds of the 
 admirals Young, Barrington, and ]3yroii the value and im- 
 portance of those islands to Great Britain, and the necessity 
 of their being reinforced, as both the ships and troops sta- 
 tioned for their protection were wholly inadequate to that 
 object. In one of his letters to vice-admiral Young lie ob- 
 serves " 1 beg leave to repeat my request that you will order 
 " some of your cruizers to pay a little more attention to these 
 " islands than they have hitherto done. Grenada is in point 
 " of consequence the second of our West India islands, being 
 " in produce next to Jamaica. The value of the exported 
 " produce of Grenada and the Grenadines alone is 700,000/. 
 " a year, and the value of the exported produce of Tobago 
 " is equal to 200,000 /. a year, and every day increasing, so' 
 " that the whole is little short of a million sterling. Beingv 
 " in a great measure, new islands their importance is as yet 
 " not so well known ; and on that account only do I ima- 
 " gine that they have been so much neglected by the fleet." 
 
 Having at length received intelligence, on which he could 
 rely, that the French licet was preparing to sail for Grenada, 
 he sent off an express to General Grant, then commanding 
 in chief, at the neighboring island of St. Lucie, and another 
 to Admiral Byron who commanded the fleet. By the former. 
 he was told that he could not possibly think of dividing his 
 force, nor spare him a single man : and the admiral thought 
 fit to depend rather on the strength of his own intelligence' 
 and his own conjecture, with rea-ard to the intentions of the. 
 
 7
 
 56 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 cneiiu', and returned for answer, that he was proceeding to 
 the island of St, Vincent's ; but that if Grenada should actually 
 be attacked, and Lord Macartney would let him know it, he 
 would, in that case, come down to liis assistance without loss 
 of time. 'J'he admiral by this message meant no disrespect 
 to Lord IMacartne}', nor want of inclination to meet the ene- 
 my ; but his obstinacy and want of judgment -were not the less 
 prejudicial to the public service. When therefore his lord- 
 ship perceived that he had to rely -wholly on his own little 
 garrison and those auxiliaries which he himself had trained 
 to arms, he lost no time in making such a dis}X)sition of his 
 force, as he conceived to be most eft'cctual for the defence of 
 the island. 
 
 On mustering his foi'ces the whole strength of the garrison 
 of St. George, the capital of the island, when they expected 
 the attack to be made, Avas as follows : 
 
 One hundred and one regulars, of the 48th regiment. 
 
 Twenty-four artillery. 
 
 Sixty-six volunteers. 
 
 Three hundred and seventy militia. 
 
 Of the regulars cight\'-four only were fit for duty ; and the 
 militia, which his lordship had raised, were only of lour 
 months standing, and certainly but little to be depended on, 
 as most of them were utter strangers to discipline and obe- 
 dience, and one third of them at least Frenchmen, equally 
 averse from English manners, religion, and government, and 
 but very recently exempted from a shameful persecution
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. c^-^ 
 
 whicli, as we have seen, had rehgion for its plea. Tiiosc 
 however Avho remained faithiiil performed their duty hke. 
 veteran soldiers. 
 
 Early on the 2d July 1799, Count d'Estaing appeared be- 
 fore the island with twenty-five sail of ships of the line and 
 twelve frigates, having on board near seven thousand land 
 troops ; and in the evening of the same day the enemy ef- 
 fected a landing of thirteen hundred men, under the orders 
 of Count Dillon. 
 
 As the fort was utterly incapable of holding out resistance 
 for any length of time. Lord Macartney, at the head of his 
 small force, thought it most prudent to retire to the Hospi- 
 tal-hili, as being the strongest ground, commanding at once 
 the town, the fort, and the haroor. On this spot he deter- 
 mined to make his stand, and to maintain his post to the 
 last extremity. About two in the morning a party of the 
 enemy attempted to penetrate his left along the river, but 
 they were soon repulsed, thrown into disorder, and lost se- 
 veral men. An hour after this INIons. d'Estaing sent a flag by 
 one of his aides-de-camp, with a peremptory summons to 
 surrender, accompanied by menaces of mischief in case of 
 further resistance ; but without any terms of capitulation in 
 the event of compliance. The message was contained in the 
 following words, " Humanity requires it, and the personal 
 " consideration which the Count d'Estaing has for Lord Ma- 
 *' cartney induces him, in the most solemn and pressing man- 
 " ner, to summon his lordship to surreudei'. Lord Macaitney 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 58 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " should know the superiority of force with which he is at- 
 " tacked, and against which he presumes to resist. If 
 " therefore he does not surrender he must be personally 
 " responsible for all the ill consequences which his obsti- 
 " nacy may occasion. He is also informed that such 
 " of the inhabitants and merchants as are taken in arms 
 " shall irrecoverably lose their estates and properties, and 
 " the free colored people be reduced to slavery. 
 
 (Signed) " D'ESTAING." 
 
 To this gasconade Lord jNIacartnev returned a short but 
 emphatic repl}'. " Lord IMacartney is ignorant of the 
 " Count d'Estaing's force ; he knoAvs his own and will defend 
 " the island to the utmost of his power." 
 
 (Signed) " MACARTNEY." 
 
 Lord Macartney had, in fact, determined in his own mind 
 never to surrender himself a prisoner to the French, even if 
 reduced to the last extremity ; it Avas not likely therefore 
 that, independent of his personal feelings, he would adopt a 
 conduct so dishonorable as to give up a valuable colony un- 
 conditionally, when there was at least a possibility that relief 
 might speedily arrive ; and to the honor of the inhabitants 
 who served under him, neither did their interest nor their 
 «ense of danger induce a single man to propose such advice. 
 
 ]kforc the evening of the 3d, the enemy had landed in 
 suflicient force to extend themselves so Avidcly in the rear 
 as to cut off from the British all communication Avith the 
 
 2
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 59 
 
 itilcrior of the island, and all their motions indicated a speedy 
 assault, for which Lord Macartney jjrcpared himself as well 
 as his little force would admit, hy a judicious distribution of 
 it. Between two and three o'clock in the morning of the 4th, 
 the enemy began tlieir operations by a seventy-four gun ship 
 cannonading the town and fort ; at the same time a body of 
 five hundred men attacked the north-west end of the Hos- 
 pital-hill, whilst three other columns of five hundred men 
 each, with an advance guard of two hundred men, pushed 
 forward to the lines near the east batterv. Their onset Avas 
 sustained with great steadiness and resolution for more than 
 an hour and a half, notwithstanding tlic smallness of the 
 English force which, in the course of the night, had suffered 
 a considerable diminution by the desertion of almost all the 
 colored people, and the greater part of the new subjects; 
 insomuch that at the time of the attack Lord Macartney 
 could not muster in the Avhole, of every description, three 
 hundred men to oppose to very nearly as many thousands 
 brouo'ht against him. After a brave and obstinate defence, 
 and the loss of two lieutenants, two non-commissioned 
 officers, and several privates, who were killed in the trenches, 
 jmd a considerable number of wounded, tlie hill was taken 
 b_y storm, not however before the loss on the part of the 
 enemy, in killed and wounded, was equal, if not superior, 
 to tlie whole force which had so gallantly defended it *. Lut 
 although thus overborne by numbcis, and comjiellcd to quit 
 
 * The loss of the enemy in tliis nfl'.iir was one major, one cnptain, one lieute- 
 nant, one hundred and eleven privates killed ; one captain, three lieutenants, one 
 ■aid-de-camp, one hundred and ninety-live privates woimded. — Total three hundred 
 and fourteen.
 
 I 
 
 60 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 their ground, the British, still resolving not to surrender, re- 
 treated iiito the fort. The enemy however poured in w itU 
 such impetuosity and in such multitudes, having now landed 
 the whole of their troops, that there was not even time for 
 spiking up tlie cannon. Having now also got possession of 
 all the heights, with the mortars and heavy artillery, and 
 thus enabled to bury the few English under the ruins of the 
 fort in a few hours, they lost no time in opening their can- 
 nonade upon it. A council of war was called by Lord 
 jMacartney ; all the officers declared that the place was ab- 
 solutely untenable, and that nothing could justify a further 
 waste of lives, as it must fall at all events in less than an 
 hour; he felt it therefore his duty to endeavour to obtain 
 from the enemy such a capitulation as might be honorable to 
 his majesty's troops, and advantageous to the inhabitants of 
 the island. To such a capitulation he was warranted by all 
 the rules of war, after so gallant a defence, to consider him- 
 self entitled. But the man he had to treat with possessed 
 none of those generous feelings which usually distinguish the 
 military character, nor indeed did he seem to be over- 
 burdened with those which are generally met with in common 
 life. He peremptorily refused to enter into any treaty, 
 rejected every proposal, but sent back a string of proposi- 
 tions that had evidently been ready manufactured before his 
 appearance off the island, so unprecedented and humiliating, 
 so ensnaring and uncertain in their nature, extent, and aim, 
 that it required no deliberation in the mind of such a man as 
 Lord Macartney to declare, that he ne\er would degrade 
 himself so far as to put his hand to such base conditions ; 
 and all the principal proprietors on the island there assembled,
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 62 
 
 and to whom tliey were communicated, unanimously pre- 
 ferred to surrender at discretion ratlier tliau^ to subscribe to 
 terms which might at any time supply pretexts for taking 
 away the lives and fortunes of the capitulants. If Lord 
 Macartney was worthy of the highest praise and admiration 
 for the gallant manner in which, at the head of his little 
 force, he sustained the assault of an army, his conduct, if 
 less brilliant, was not the less meritorious nor less advanta- 
 geous to the pul)lic, in rejecting the offers of an artful and 
 insidious capitulation presented under the cover of a species 
 of neutrality which, had it been accepted, would have en- 
 abled D'Estaing to proceed with undiminished strength to 
 attack his majesty's other possessions in the v/estern hemi- 
 sphere. Determined therefore never to consent to the terms 
 offered, yet unable to obtain better, without the means of 
 resistance or the possibility of relief, he was compelled to the 
 hard necessity of delivering up the island to the enemy un- 
 conditionally *■ ; and when he found that his being made a 
 prisoner of war was inevitable, he tore the star of the Order 
 of the Bath from his breast, observing, that although his 
 person could not escape falling into the hands of the enemy, 
 he would take care that the ensigns of his sovereign's favor 
 should not grace the trophies of a Frenchman's victory. He 
 knew the enemy he had to deal with, and the use he was 
 likely to make of his inglorious conquest. 
 
 Nothing indeed could exceed in l)aseness the whole con- 
 duct of Count d'Estaing in this affair. With a force ten 
 
 * For a more detailed account of this gallant resistance made by a handful of 
 men against a very superior force, see Lord Macartney's letter to Lord George 
 Germaine, dated 5th July 1779, Appendix, No. 5.
 
 62 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 times superior to that he had to contend ^vith, be was in- 
 duced, either t)u-ouoli a paltry resentment, or because he 
 thought it necessary, to animate his troops to the attack by 
 ^iromising them the |)illag(^ of the British quarters : a promise 
 which he suifered them to carry into execution to tlie utmost 
 extent of their licentious desires. A Avhole service of j)late 
 "belonoincr to Lord jMacartney, all his furniture, clothes, and 
 other cflects, even his papers, both public and private, '^^•el•e 
 taken from him, without his ever being able to recover a 
 sino-le article. So void of decency was the French commander 
 in chief, and so totally lost to all sense of honor or shame, 
 that he allowed the plate, with Lord Macartney's arms upon 
 it, his other effects, and even his wearing apparel, to be 
 publicly sold in the market-place of Grenada for the benefit 
 of the French soldiery. And after having thus shan}efully 
 encouraged this act of systematic plunder, he refused to give 
 permission to Lord Macartney to proceed on his paiole to 
 any of the ]5ritish settlements in the A^'est Lidies; but sent 
 him a close prisoner to France. 
 
 But the ill conduct of the Ficnch commander in chief 
 towards Lord Macartney, and the misfortunes he suffered in 
 consequence of it, had no effect in disturbing the serenity of 
 his mind, or casting the least cloud upon his ten)per. Con- 
 scious of having done his duty to the utmost extent of his 
 means, he met his own and the jniblic loss with dignified 
 cojiiposurc and trancjuillity ; and when d'Estaing, the day 
 after the storm of the hill, sent him an invitation to dinner, 
 instead ol" betraying any resentment or ill humor at his un- 
 worthy treatment, he returned f"or answer that he willingly 
 iicccpted his invitation, but hoj)ed he would overlook the
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 6^ 
 
 stlle of his dress, as tlic I'rench soldiers bad made a little free 
 vith liis wardrobe. They had not iu fact left hiin a second 
 coat. 
 
 The injury whicli Lord Macartney thus suffered in his 
 private fortune by the capture of Grenada, and for Avhich he 
 never received any compensation or allowance whatsoever, 
 ^vas still further increased by the irreparable loss of all his 
 papers. From his first setting out in life he had made it a 
 rule to commit to paper whatever observations occurred in 
 the course of his reading, Avhich he deemed worthy of recol- 
 lection, and all such jiew matter of information as he consi- 
 dered to proceed from good authority. A person who was 
 thus in the constant habit of noting down Avhatevcr appeared 
 to be interesting from its novelty, or its value, could not 
 fail to have collected a mass of materials in travcllino- through 
 the different states of Europe, which, in point of fact, was 
 the case with regard to Lord Macartney. All these materials, 
 with many other papers and accounts, fell into the hands of 
 the French, and could never be recovered. And as misfor- 
 tunes are observed seldom to come single, it happened in 
 this instance that the duplicates of many of these papers, 
 which he had taken the precaution to make, were also irre- 
 coverably lost. For having seen the probability of an attack 
 many months before that event actually took place, he had 
 procured a passage to England, in the Supply storeship, for 
 Lady Macartney, and had sent those duplicates and other 
 papers in her ladyship's charge. The ship stopped at St. 
 Kitt's to collect the convoy there, and, in the mean time.
 
 64 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 the passengers went on shore. Lady Macartney debated for 
 some time in her own mind, Avhether it might be more safe 
 to leave the box of papers, Avhicli was to her a subject of 
 anxious solicitude, on board the ship, or carry them with her 
 on shore, and she at length concluded to leave them on board 
 as less liable to accident. On the third mornino- after their 
 arrival, just as they were going to reimbark, they were 
 alarmed at the appearance of fire in the fleet. Lady Macart- 
 ney however got into the boat, and was proceeding towards 
 her ship when they were hailed by the captain of a vessel in 
 the fleet, and informed that it was the Supply storesliip which 
 was in flames. It was in vain to proceed ; every thing 
 within the ship was speedily consumed ; and Lady Macartney 
 lost not only the papers, but all her clothes and every article 
 of value which was on board, having saved nothing but a few 
 changes of linen which she had taken Avith her on shore. Had 
 not Lord Macartney caused a i'ew copies to be printed of his 
 Account of Russia and of Ireland, they too, in all probability, 
 would have followed the fate of the rest of his papers. 
 
 By the destruction of this ship, and by the capture of Gre- 
 nada, Lord Macartney suffered in his private fortune a very 
 considerable loss, which at this time was the more inconvenient 
 as, previous to his leaving England, he had sold his pension or 
 annual salary annexed to the constableship of the castle of 
 Toome, to pay the debt he had been under the necessity of 
 contracting for the public service while in Russia, no ])art of 
 which on account of the expense attending a constant residence 
 in Iieland, during three sessions of parliament, had he yet been
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 65 
 
 able to liquklalc. lie may thcrcCorc justly l)e said to have re- 
 turned from every public appointment he had hitlicrto held, in 
 worse circumstances than when lie entered upon it. 
 
 In the midst of the calamities of Grenada, l)()lh public 
 and private. Lord JMacartney however had tlie satisfaction 
 of experiencing a testimony of gratitude which could not be 
 insincere. It Avas from the inhabitants of Grenada, given to 
 liim at a time when he was no longer their governor, but a 
 prisoner in the hands of him who was now their governor. 
 Notwithstanding this change of circumstance, such of the 
 principal inhabitants as were then in the town of St. George 
 waited upon his lordship in a body, and presented him with 
 the followino; address : 
 
 " J"'y 5> 1779- 
 
 "The testimonies which all orders of men, within your 
 " excellency's late government, have given of their sense of 
 *' the wisdom and justice of your conduct, wliile you ])resided 
 " over them, as well as of your constant, zealous, and well- 
 " directed attention to their security and welfare, are too Avell 
 ^' founded to require a proof of their sincerity by a repetition 
 " of them, after your administration has ceased by the fate of 
 " war. We shall therefore, in this pressing moment of your 
 " excellency's departure, confine ourselves to express that 
 ^' gratitude which We justly feel towards your excellency, to 
 "join our voices to the acknowledgment of the conquerors of 
 «* this island, of the well-planned and spirited defence which 
 " you have made with such inferior force; and to add, what 
 " we had an opportunity of observing, that the example 
 *' which you gave of intrepidity and coolness, duiiiig the 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 66 PUi3LIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " several attacks, must have influenced all persons under 
 " youi" command to the full exertion of their duty to their 
 "sovereign and country; and that your excellenc\' hath, to 
 " the last moment of your command and negociations with 
 " the conquerors, allied your dut}'' to your sovereign to a true 
 " regard to the people Avho had been committed to your 
 " care. 
 
 " AVe wish your excellency a safe passage to Europe, and 
 " all happiness in future." 
 
 (Signed) 
 By the principal Inhabitants of St. George Grenada. 
 
 The high sense entertained by his countrymen at home of 
 the gallant defence of the island against so superior a force, 
 could not have been less gratifying to the feelings of Lord 
 Macartney than the tribute of those who had an opportunity 
 of witnessing his conduct upon the spot. By an act of the 
 British legislature the extraordinary indulgence was granted to 
 the island of Grenada, of allowing an importation of its sugars 
 and other produce into Great Britain, notwithstanding its 
 being in the possession of a foreign and hostile power ; and 
 the ground of this act, as declared in both houses of parlia- 
 ment, was the gallant resistance made by Lord Macartney at 
 the head of his little force, most of which was composed of 
 the inhabitants of the island. 
 
 His Lordship remained but a short time as a prisoner of 
 war at Limoges before he obtained, through Mons. Sartincs, 
 the permission of the king of France to return to England, 
 
 4
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY, 67 
 
 where he was immediately exchanged. Just at this time the 
 affairs of Ireland, under the administration of Lord l^uckinc- 
 hamshire, were likely to give much trouble and embarrass- 
 ment to his majesty's ministers. Lord North therefore pre- 
 vailed on Lord Macartney to undertake a secret and confi- 
 dential mission to that kingdom, which he accomplished 
 equally to the satisfaction of his majesty's ministers and the 
 lord-lieutenant; the advice and assistance he had it in his 
 power to afford to the latter, on several very delicate and 
 important questions then in agitation, were of infinite service, 
 and were received and acknowledged by I;ord Buckingham 
 with expressions of gratitude. On his return from Iir^Iand he 
 offered himself a candidate for the borough of J^eeralstone in 
 Devonshire, and was chosen to represent that place in the 
 British parliament in September 1/80. 
 
 ABOUT this time the court of directors of the East India 
 Company had under their consideration the apjjointment 
 of a suitable person to fill the vacant chair of the prtsidency 
 of Madras. The enormous abuses in the administration of 
 that government which, for a great number of years, had 
 been committed under a repeated succession, with few ex- 
 ceptions, of weak or wicked governors, who had risen in the 
 routine of service to that station, loudly demanded a change 
 of men as well as of measures. The disgraceful scenes which 
 were exhibited in opposition to the administration of Lord 
 
 K 2
 
 68 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Pigot, who terminated his Hfe in confmement, a victim of party 
 violence, the corrupt practices that were known to prevail in 
 ahnost every department under that of Sir Thomas Rumbold, 
 and the same system of corruption accompanied v,'ith an ex- 
 traordinary imbecihty and inactivitj', which distinguished the 
 short career of Mr. "Whitehill, had involved the government 
 of Fort St. George in such confusion and disgrace, that to 
 restore to reputation and to order the distracted affairs of the 
 Carnatic, retjuired the choice of a man of no ordinary ca- 
 pacity, experience, and integrity. The dithculties against 
 which a new governor woidd most assuredly have to struggle, 
 did not however deter a multitude of candidates fi'om aspir- 
 ing to the vacant chair with pretensions no less various than 
 their numbers. Generals, directors, civilians, commissaries, 
 and engineers, all of them at one time or other in the employ 
 of the East India Company, and most of them degraded by 
 dismission or suspension from that service, burned with the 
 bright ambition of succeeding Sir Thomas Rumbold. There 
 happened very fortunately at this time to be several members 
 in the direction, who felt it no less their inclination than it 
 was their duty, to search for qualities in their new governor 
 diflcrent from those which any of the candidates that had yet 
 offered themselves, appeared to possess ; who conceived that 
 it would be for the honor of the nation, as well as the pro- 
 sperity of the company, to send out a })crson of rank and 
 reputation to fill the vacant chair; and that his never having 
 been in the service of the Company, instead of being an ob- 
 jection, ought to be considered in the present state of their 
 affairs, as one of the first recommendations, as lie Avould tjuis 
 be disengaged from all party squabbles ; that, on this ac-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY, 69 
 
 count, it would now !jc policy, as it always had boon among 
 the ancients, to send out new men to their distant settle- 
 ments ; and that it was not the knowledge in detail of local 
 customs which was so much required on the present occasion 
 as a man of general experience, liberal education, compre- 
 hensive mind, free from prejudice, and accustomed to 
 business. 
 
 Sentiments of such a cast, when known to proceed from 
 lilgh authority, could not fail to create an alarm in the minds 
 of those vrho were more liable to be actuated by motives of 
 private interest than pubHc benefit. This alarm discovered 
 itself openly on the 9th November, 1780, when, at a meet- 
 ing of the proprietary, Mr. Lushington made a motion, 
 " That it be recommended to the court' of directors to ap- 
 " point forthwith a governor of Madras, and that it be 
 " earnestly recommended to them to appoint one of their 
 *' ov/n servants to fill that vacancy." The court however ad- 
 journed without proceeding to a ballot, but not before it ap- 
 peared to be the sense of a very respectable body of proprie- 
 tors, that no particular set of men, but the very fittest man 
 wherever found, ought to be the object of their choice ; that 
 *' integrity unshaken by the example of plunder and coi'rup- 
 " tion., a character to lose and consequently one to save by 
 " shunnins; the faults of former o-overnors, were to be consi- 
 " dered as the fittest qualifications in their new governor or 
 *' Madras." 
 
 From this novel complexion of affairs in Leadcnliali 
 Street, it occurred to some of the friends of Lord Macartney
 
 70 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 tliat, from the proofs he had already given of talent, address 
 and integrity, he was eminently qnalified to fill the ehair of 
 that presidency ; and as his lordship had laid it down as a 
 rule never to refuse employment where he was likely to be of 
 use to the public, he was easily prevailed upon to offer him- 
 self as a candidate for the vacant situation. His principal 
 opponents were now reduced to Mr. Russel, formerly a store- 
 keeper and commissar}^ and Colonel Call, a surveyor and en- 
 gineer, men who had both accpiired considerable wealth in the 
 Company's service. To the first it might have been objected 
 that, as the son-in-law of the late Lord Pigot, and, in a great 
 measure, the cause, though perhaps innocently, of the dis- 
 sensions at Madras, it would be utterly improper to place 
 him in this situation, where he would have so man3'' per- 
 sonal enemies to contend with; the objections to the second 
 were equally strong ; he was one of the principal creditors of 
 the nabob of Arcot. It was contended, on the part of those 
 Avho favored Lord IMacartney's pretensions, that if (other 
 qualities being equal, and experience accounted of any use) 
 a man Mill execute the same office a second time better than 
 he did the first, and that ofhce better than any other, it 
 would fairly follow that if stores should be reserved for a 
 conmiissary, and forts for an engineer, a government could 
 not be better conducted than by him who had ?ilready proved 
 himself a good governor ; that experience of profession was a 
 better plea than experience of locality ; they admitted that 
 if a man who ncgocialcd a good treaty of commerce in Russia 
 Avas therefore, from his long residence, to fancy to himself 
 that he was capable of taking an accurate survey and ad- 
 measurement of that extensive empire ; or that he could be
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 7, 
 
 export in supplying its armies with provisions, his absuidilv 
 must be readily acknowledged ; and the}' contended that 
 the notion was equally ridiculous, which sets up the experi- 
 ence of a surveyor or a storekeeper, as the path which leads 
 to the knowledge of a statesnum. Against the local informa- 
 tion, and the lesser and confined acquirements of his Lord- 
 ship's opponents were set up the great and essential qualifica- 
 tions of a liberal education, political experience, enlightened 
 understanding, and eminence of character ; that on all these 
 principles there could not be the least ground for contesting 
 the manifest superiority of Lord Macartney in all these 
 several respects ; that it was absurd to suppose a man must 
 be ignorant of Lidia, because he had never been there; and 
 that it was not necessary for a governor of that country to be 
 a chuser of muslins or a river pilot. 
 
 At a court of proprietors, held on the 23d of November, a 
 letter from Sir 'J'homas Rumbold was read, wherein he de- 
 clared his intention to resign his government, and notice was 
 then given that on the 14th of December, it was intended to 
 proceed to the nomination of a successor. On this occasion 
 General Smith addressed the court, and having expatiated at 
 great length on the merits of the old servants of the Company, 
 and the necessity of local knowledge to any governor in. 
 India, he concluded with a motion to this effect, " That it be 
 " recommended by the proprietors to the Court of Directors 
 " to appoint forthwith a governor of Madras; and as experi- 
 " ence and local knowledge are necessary in such a station, 
 " that it be recommended to the directors to appoint to that 
 *' trust some person who is, or has been, in the Company's
 
 72 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " service." It may be observed, that the court of proprietors 
 was not, at this time, exactly composed of the same descrip- 
 tion of men wliich constitute its majorit/ on great questions 
 at the present day, when every tradesman and ship-chandler 
 on the borders of the Thames, from "\Yapping to ]jlackwall, 
 must hold in his name as much India stock as will oive him 
 a vote in Leadcnhall-strcet before he can" hope to sell to those 
 concerned in the shipping interest, a pound of nails or a ball 
 of pack-thread. At that time the court of proprietors re- 
 commended their governors to the court of directors, and 
 some of the leading men in the kingdom did not disdain to 
 take part in their debates. On the present occasion Mr. 
 Edmund Burke rose to propose an amendnient to General 
 Smith's motion, previously to which, in his usual strain of 
 eloquence, he laid open the rapacious, disobedient, and 
 usurious conduct of the servants of the Conij^an}^ in India ; 
 he obser\ed that at ]\Iadras those servants had formed a con- 
 solidated fund of nearly two millions and a half lent, or said 
 to be lent, to the nabolD of Arcot, for which they received an 
 exorbitant interest, infinitely greater than the dividend re- 
 ceived by the body of the propi'ietors from their commercial 
 concerns ; that subsequent to the reception of the orders of 
 the Company at INIadras for the restoration of 'J'anjore to the 
 Raja, the same set of servants had the audacity to take a 
 mortgage from the nabob of iVrcot of that very kingdom of 
 Tanjore ; that the nabob was only a phantom raised by those 
 servants, that he acted by their direction, tiiough on him 
 they throw the odium of the unjust, rapacious, and inhuman 
 act of which they have been guilty ; that they lend him mo- 
 jicy to carry war into the dominion of his neighbours, for the
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 73 
 
 avowed purpose of plundering enough to enable him to pay 
 tiie iiiterest of that consolidated fund said to be due to them ; 
 that such wars lead to new debts, and new debts to new- 
 wars ; that they have even threatened to divert a river from 
 its naturrd course, and from the fertility which it gives to 
 lands that nourish five millions of innocent natives, unless 
 their rapacious demands be satisfied by a people -whom they 
 had already exhausted ; that, in short, the sun would tra- 
 verse from the meridian of London to that of Madras liefore 
 he could complete the history of the extortions and the in- 
 justice of the Company's servants, or of their tyranny to the 
 natives, and their contempt of the orders and autliority of 
 .their employers at home ; that if all the servants of the Com- 
 pany were of the nature he described, as niost of them were, 
 he would not only prefer the noble I^ord, who was a candidate 
 for the government of Madras, and whose abilities and vir- 
 tues he respected highly, but would })refer any common 
 person to such men ; but if there were exceptions, if there 
 were obedient and honest servants, he thought it would be 
 right to reward that obedience and that inteoritv ; and there- 
 tore he would move almost in the words of a lettei', the dying 
 legacy of Lord Pigot, in addition to Ceneral Smith, that 
 " such servant should have proved himself Avorthy of their 
 *' rccompence by liis obedience and integrity." 
 
 Governor Johnstone perfectly agreed with the picture which 
 had been so ably and so truly given of the enormous mis- 
 conduct of the Company's servants, and inferred, from that 
 very picture, the strongest necessit}' of not confining the 
 choice of governors to a class of men so justly reprobated, 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 74 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 lie contended that, from the verv arduous and difficult 
 office which that of the governor of Madras is allowed to be 
 on all hands, as from him nmst flow the remedy of those 
 gross and fatal abuses, the utmost latitude of choice should 
 be allowed ; that if it had formerly been narrowed, it should 
 now be enlarged ; that in excluding all persons from eminent 
 employments in their service, except persons bred in India, 
 the proprietors would exclude themselves from the care of 
 their own concerns, and that he, for one, should never 
 consent to be the suicide of his own natuial rights. 
 
 O" 
 
 Tlie name of Lord INIacartney being often mentioned or 
 alluded to in the debate, at length called up his lordship. 
 He observed, that several persons of character and worth, 
 conversant in the Company's afl'airs and interested in its wel- 
 fare, had often expressed to him their concern at the distracted 
 situation of Madras, and declared it as their opinion, that 
 in order to heal the wounds given to that settlement, and to 
 restore to it trancpiillity and order, it would be necessary to 
 appoint to the government of it some person new ill the ser- 
 vice, new to its abuses, but warranted and proved by the 
 •tricter trials of other services ; a person who, not having yet 
 been in India, was above the suspicion of local passions or 
 prepossessions, and totally unconnected with the contending 
 factions or interests of any part of Ilindostan. This opinion, 
 he assured the court, was formed long before they had thought 
 of him, or sounded his disposition to accept that emplo}"- 
 ment ; but as they had often observed, that India was a 
 favorite subject of his attention, and that beside the general 
 information which a British statesman should possess, con-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 75 
 
 cerning nil the dependencies of the cmjiire, he had endea- 
 vored to acquire a particular knowledge oi" the concerns of 
 the India Company, concerns rising daily in magnitude and 
 im])ortance, they imagined that, having been employed in 
 remote situations, he was not likcl}'^ to be startled l)y distance 
 or difticulty, and that he might be rendered a iiappy instru- 
 ment of that good which the real friends of the Company 
 were anxious to eftect; they were pleased, he .said, to judge 
 from liis conduct in the various stations he had filled in Kussia, 
 in Ireland, and in the West Indies, that he Avas not likely to 
 acquit himself in Asia Avith less satisfaction oi- Ijenefit to his 
 employers ; the character and reputation which they sup- 
 posed him to have gained in public life, they considered as a 
 pledge that he Mould not sully by an}' impropriety of future 
 conduct; they were therefore so good as to reconnnend, nay 
 almost to solicit him to otl'er his services on the preseiit 
 occasion ; that he had been thus induced by them to 
 think thatta fair field now opened for a nmn of honest ambi- 
 tion, though bred in Avhat is called the service of tlie Crown 
 and not of the Company, to exert his abilities for the honor 
 and the advantage both of the Company and the CroAvn. He 
 •was aware, he said, of the popular and interested objection 
 of his Avant of local knoAvledge ; a knoAvledge upon Avhich he 
 never kncAV any man value himself, Avho could value himself 
 upon any other. He did not perceive in Russia that his Avant 
 of local knowledge then retarded his success, in procuring the 
 treaty of commerce Avith that poAvcr, from Avhich are derived 
 Avhatever advantages of trade Ave continue to enjoy in that 
 country ; he did not find that the Avant of local knoAvlcdge, 
 or his being ucav in the West Indies, prevented him fnjm 
 
 L 2
 
 76 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 iccouciling the different parties aiul jarring interests wliidi 
 liiid distracted the colony of Grenada, from its conquest to 
 liis arrival there. He found that prudence and integrity, 
 lemper and perseverance seldom failed to surmount the dif- 
 ficulties of public stations, and those difficulties for •which 
 they are estabhshed ; that local knowledge, which is neces- 
 sary to men in eminent otlices, is indeed cither quickly ac- 
 (juired or easily supplied 1)}' inferior persons on the spot ; not 
 the report of an individual, but compared and collected from 
 many. Any one man's local knowledge must be so corrected, 
 or it will be found both lame and blind. The public man 
 becomes the impartial judge, who gathers fiom the witnesses 
 of the fact, the truth of the evidence. liis Lordship pro- 
 ceeded to remind the proprietors that he olfercd himself to 
 their consideration, Avithout any display of his pretensions, 
 or the disqualification of the other candidates, conceiving it 
 far more honorable to leave a peifect and unbiassed freedom 
 in the minds and judgment of all the proprietary between the 
 tender of his new and humble services, and the more confi- 
 dent claims of his competitors ; that he was ready to abide 
 by the usual mode of a previous nomination I)}' the Court of 
 Directors, or submit his claim at once to the judgment of the 
 ])roprietors by a general ballot; that if he should have the 
 good fortune to be the object of their choice, he should, by 
 the utmost exertion of his abilities, by the same disinterested- 
 ness which had prevented any increase from his several em- 
 ployments, of his paternal fortune, by a punctual and faith- 
 ful execution of their commands, and a strict adherence to 
 their instructions, endeavor to deserve, and he hoped he 
 should obtain, their approbation of his services and conduct.
 
 EARL 01^ MACARTNEY. 77 
 
 Ills lordship was heard with great attention and nuicli sa- 
 tisfaction ; his modest pretensions, and the unaftbctcd man- 
 ner in which he dehvered them, seemed to liave made a vcrj 
 general impiession in his favor. Even I\Ir, J3urke, who was 
 exerting all his influence for a verv different person, could 
 not forbear acknowledging that liord Macartney had, on a 
 former occasion, comj)osed the distractions of a settlement 
 where he was also a new man ; a settlem.ent which he con- 
 ducted wisely, defended gallantly, and even since his re- 
 turn served amicably ; that his general and political kno\r- 
 Icdge, his experience and ability, and his being wholly free 
 from the danger of party connections or corrupt and vicious 
 habits in the country ; that having a character to stake more 
 eminent, and a reputation more extensive than all the other 
 candidates ; that his dignity and i-ank would not only give 
 credit to the appointment, but serve as pledges for his con- 
 duct, and procure respect for his commission ; that his con- 
 ciliator}^ disposition was well suited to compose the dissensions* 
 that of late had disgraced the government of Madras, as it 
 had the good effect of doing those of Grenada. 
 
 An amendment was then moved for the purpose of leav- 
 ing out such part of the original motion as excluded new 
 men fiom the service which, after being ably supported by 
 Governor Johnstone, Mr. Dallas, Mr. Hussey, Mr. Moore, 
 and others, and as warmly opposed by Mr. Burke and Gene- 
 ral Smith, was canied on a division by a majority of 79 to 
 60, thus leaving it in the breast of the court of directors to 
 name the person most proper in their opinion for promoting 
 the tranquillity of the settlement of Madras, and the pro-
 
 78 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 sperity of their affairs on the coast of Coromandel *. The 
 court did not long hesitate as to the object of their choice ; 
 and on the 14th December Lord Macartney was nominated 
 governor and president of Fort St. George ; the nomination 
 of the directors had the concurrence of the proprietors, and 
 he was sworn in the next day without even the ceremony of 
 a ballot. 
 
 It was supposed that Lord Macartney obtained this ap- 
 pointment to India through ministerial influence, which does 
 not however appear to have been the case. The general 
 sense of the court of proprietors of his fitness for the situation, 
 and the same opinion prevailing in a majority of the court 
 of directors, seem to have wholly decided the question in his 
 favor. No court candidate, it is true, was set up against 
 him, and he might, in some measure, have been counte- 
 nanced by his majesty's ministers ; but if he had their sanc- 
 tion for offering himself, it does not appear that he had much 
 of their support. Lord North indeed had been heard to say 
 it would be idle to give themselves any trouble about Ma- 
 cartney, as it was utterly impossible he should ever succeed 
 to an Indian appointment. I^ord North perhaps would not 
 have been sorry to keep Lord Macartney in England, as at that 
 time he had it in his power to be of great service to administra- 
 tion in the management of the affairs of Ireland. Jt is true, in 
 addressing the comt of proprietors a second time upon his ap- 
 pointment, liOrd Macartney observes, that he is honored with 
 the countenuncc of his majesty's ministers ; but that he had the 
 
 * India Debates, Nov. 23, 1780.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 79 
 
 consolation at the same time of rcckonina; aniono- his Mannest 
 
 \ 
 
 friends some of the most eminent characters in ojijiosition. 
 " Describing myself to be," he said, " what 1 have the hap- 
 " piness of being, possessed of the friendship and good opi- 
 " nion of all parties, but resolutely fixed on .continuing un- 
 *' connected with any party, it will be but justice to reject 
 " any insinuation that 1 have adopted the system, or am to 
 " forward the views of particular men. The system of the 
 " Company's welfare shall be mine ; it may be the business 
 " of this court to consider, it will be the business of the 
 " court of directors to determine on instructions calculated 
 *' to produce that salutary end ; my province will be to pursue, 
 " and I pledge myself to pursue, such instructions." In the 
 same address he observes, " It may be proper to take notice 
 " of what is no doubt to myself a disadvantage. My for- 
 " tune, it is true, is now impaired ; it has been impaired by 
 " public services ; it has suffered in public calamities. The 
 " consolation however of losing in such a manner approaches 
 " to the advantage of gaining in any other. Nor do I wish 
 " to alter that disinterested disposition which has preserved 
 " me from accumulation. You do not, I hope, suppose 
 " that enormous wealth alone can warrant independence. 
 " That happy spirit proceeds fr^m a disposition of the mind, 
 " which is not governed by the accidents of life ; and, I 
 " hope, I have what is the surest pledge of honorable inde- 
 " pendence, the independence of honest and moderate de- 
 " sires. My aim will ever be so to conduct m3'self, on all 
 " occasions, as to be able to appear before you in this court, 
 " on my return from India, with as little necessity of apo- 
 " logy for anv part of my proceedings there in your employ, 
 ■4
 
 8o PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " as I have ever had in those other stations with which I 
 " have had clse\vhere the honor to be entrusted." 
 
 About tlic same time that his a]")pointment took place, a 
 declaration of war against the Dutch made it advisable that 
 not a moment should bo lost in sendinfj; out intdliocnce to 
 India, and that Lord Macartney siiould carry it out with 
 him. lleing asked by the chairman to name a time when 
 he thouo'ht he should be readv to set out, he replied that 
 the instant he sh.ould receive his instructions he would be 
 ready to proceed ; and accordingly he left I^ondon the very 
 day they were delivered to him, and embarked in the Swal- 
 low packet for India. 
 
 On the Cist June 1781, after a passage of four months, he 
 arrived before Pondicherry, Avheie he found Vice Admiral 
 JSir Edward Hughes at anchor with his squadron, and having 
 delivered to him his dispatches, he summitted for the ad- 
 miral's consideration the principal objects which the king and 
 the company had in view. From Sir Edward he first learned 
 intelligence of the war with Hyder Ali, (of which no appre- 
 hensions had been entertained in England,) the invasion of 
 the Carnatic by this intrepid adventurer, the ill success of our 
 arms, and the general gloomy appearance of our prospects 
 in every part of India. 
 
 The following day he landed at Madras, opened his com- 
 mission, and took possession of his government. He found 
 the situation of affairs on the coast in a more deplorai)Ie state 
 than he could well have imagined, but his arrival was hailed
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. S( 
 
 with joy by all descriptions of men. In the state of despond- 
 ency to which men's minds had been for some time inclining, 
 a change of governpient became, at least, a momentary re- 
 lief. From the instant of the invasion reciprocal blame and 
 general confusion in the settlement had followed the disap- 
 pointments in the iield ; and the progress of the enemy was 
 not a little facilitated by the want of union and exertion in 
 the councils of Madras. The successes of liyder Ali had 
 enabled him to spread his numerous horse over all the Car- 
 natic. Parties approached daily to the very gates of Madras. 
 The neighboring country was abandoned both by Europeans 
 and natives. The nabob of Arcot and his faaiily were oblitred 
 to take refuge in the town. The failure of every supply of 
 provisions, except by sea, was accompanied with an in- 
 creased demand to feed the multitudes that flockdd within the 
 walls ; and even that supply was rendered precarious by in- 
 terruptions from the enemy's privateers. 
 
 Hyder Ali, having penetrated into the midst of the Car- 
 natic before anybody of troops had been assembled to oppose 
 him, not only possessed himself of several stron^ hokls, be- 
 sieged and took several garrisons, but desolated the whole 
 country in such a manner as to prevent any army from follow- 
 ing his movements, unless it could be accompanied by sulB- 
 cient subsistence for the whole route. Hyder was on this occa- 
 sion as vindictive and merciless as he was active and powerful. 
 Thousands of unresisting and innocent natives were murdered 
 in cold blood. All the indignation he felt against the Eno^ljsh 
 all the hatred with which he was inspired against the nabob 
 of Arcot was vented upon the inoffensive peasantry of the 
 
 VOL,. 1. M
 
 Ss PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Carnatic ; cvcrv town and village Avere laid waste with fire and 
 sword. An army of one hundred thousand cavalry was scat- 
 tered over the province for the purpose of sweepiiig before then* 
 men, women, and children, sei^^ing their cattle, burning their 
 habitations, and of spreading devastation, far and wide, even to 
 the bound hedge of Madras. All traces of population and agri- 
 culture speedily disa])pearetl. The tanks, or those leservoirs of 
 water by which the ferlility of the scil is sustained, were all 
 destroyed. Yet although the unhappy natives who escaped 
 the sword were daily rushing in thousands to Madras, such 
 was the indifierencc, the su[)inencss, and the affected con- 
 tempt of Ilyder shown on the part of that government, that no 
 preparations were commenced, no exertions were made to meet 
 the approaching storm, till an alarm was given, in the month of 
 July 1780, that the cavalry of Ilyder Ali were actually at the 
 moment only a few miles distant from Madras. And though 
 the meditated invasion of the Carnatic was well known to all 
 the powers of India more than twelve months before it actually 
 took place, no collection had been made on our part of pro- 
 visions equal to a long march or a regular siege ; nor were any 
 means yet i'urnished for carrying the provisions they had, or 
 for drawing artilkMT. From the want of these essential pre- 
 parations the liritisb army was confined to the neighbor- 
 hood of the sea, by which alone the scanty sup|)lies it re- 
 ceived were sent ; Avhile the enemy was ranging through all 
 the territories of the Company on the coast of Coromandel, 
 as well as through those of its dependent allies, the nabob of 
 Arcot and the raja of Tanjore, whose disaffected subjects were 
 ready to transfer their loyalty to atiy new sovereign. In fact, 
 four regiments of cavalry belonging to the nabob had been so>
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 83 
 
 ill paid and neglected, that tlicy took the tii'st occasion of 
 deserting in a body to the enemy, even betbre he entered the 
 Carnatic ; and most of the forts were given up without re- 
 sistance. This disaffection in the people, the army and the 
 native killadars, or commanders of garrisons, rci^dered it ai\ 
 easy task for Ilyder Ali to possess himself of Arcot, the 
 caj)ital of the nabf)b's dominions, as well as of almost all the 
 strong posts in the country. 
 
 But the British army was not only una1)1e to advance 
 towards the enemy for want of cattle to draw the artillcrj', 
 the stores and provisions, and compelled to remain on the 
 defensive near Cuddalorc, where it was supplied entirely 
 ironi JNIadras with almost every article of subsistence; it had 
 also shown a very serious disposition to mutiny, on account 
 of the arrears of pay that were due to it. In such a temper 
 it would not have been considered safe to employ the troops, 
 if practicable, in any important enterprise. The different 
 demands, which required to be satisfied without delay, 
 amounted to several lacks of pagodas, and there was not a 
 single lack in the treasury. Everj^ pecuniary resource like- 
 whe had failed. The nabob of Arcot had not furnished a 
 single pagoda since the commencement of the war, and the 
 raja of Tanjore had barely satisfied the demands of his feeble 
 garrisons ; all pa3'ments were necessarily discontinued ; and 
 even the bills which had been drawn on the government of 
 Madras for money advanced to the army, remained undis- 
 charged. The public othces were in large advance to the 
 Company, and there remained little hope, from the gloomy 
 
 M 2
 
 $4 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 aspect of affairs, of any further assistance by loans either from 
 Europeans or natives ; and had it not been for the extraordi- 
 nary aids, both in provisions and specie, which were supphed 
 from Bengal, the army must have been disbanded, and the 
 ruin of the Carnatic inevitable. 
 
 In addition to the««'ant of means for moving the army, Sir 
 Eyre Coote, to whom the whole conduct of the ^var had 
 been entiusted by the late government of. Madras, declared 
 as his opinion that, in the defensive war, in opposition to 
 multitudes of cavalry, the best provided infantry, without the 
 assistance of an adequate body of horse, could act with little 
 permanent or extensive effect. On an army thus considered 
 to be constituted as to be inefficacious, so unprovided as to be 
 obliged to remain almost inactive, so ill supplied and paid 
 as to be ready to mutiny, little dependence could be placed 
 for retrieving the calamitous posture of affairs, notwithstimding 
 the acknowledged braver}' of the troops, and the abilities and 
 experience of the general. No hope of resources could be 
 entertained from any of the princes of India. Their dispo- 
 sition towards the English was avowedly hostile. A general 
 alarm seemed to prevail on account of our supposed ambi- 
 tion, and a suspicion entertained of our ill faith ; as Avell as 
 disrespect arising from the fluctuation of our councils, and 
 the inconsistency of our proceedings. So far from any ap- 
 pearance of inclination to assist us, there were but too strong- 
 grounds for supposing that a general confederacy Avas pro- 
 jecting for our expulsion. That such were their views is suf- 
 
 ficcntly obvious from a letter of the Nizam to Fazel Beg 
 
 4
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 85 
 
 Khan wlncli fell into lord Macartney's hands ■•'^. The invasion, 
 in fact, of Ilyder Ali M'as in consequence of this projected 
 confederacy which, as Mr. Bnrkc observed, " by a sort of 
 " miracle united tlie most discordant powers for our de- 
 " struction, as a nation, in which no other could put any 
 " trust, and which was tli-e declared enemy of the whole 
 " human species." 
 
 The government of Bengal, aware of the danger to which 
 the Carnatic was exposed, had sent a considerable detach- 
 ment under Colonel Pearse to reinforce the urmy under Sir 
 Eyre Coote ; but this detachment, being as essentially defi- 
 cient in cavalry as the main army, was not likely to be of 
 much use, while, bv its excessive expense, equal or nearly 
 equal to that of the remainder of the army, it encreased enor- 
 mously the calls for money and provisions, without the cer- 
 tainty of any return of important service. To add to their 
 embarrassment the presidency of Madras was informed by 
 the supreme council of Bengal, that however disposed to 
 continue their assistance, a period might arrive M'hen such 
 supplies would cease, or when the resources from which they 
 were drawn would fail. They were themselves in fact at this 
 time engaged in the midst of an inauspicious war with the 
 Mahrattas, in which they derived very little assistance from 
 the army of Bombay ; the war on that side of the peninsula 
 having, as on the opposite coast, become merely defensive on 
 the part of the Bombay presidency. 
 
 * Letter from the Nabob Nizam-ad-Dowlah to Fazel-Bcg-Cawn, Appendix, 
 No. 6.
 
 ^6 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 A French fleet superior to the force under Sir Edward 
 riuglies was momentarily expected on the coast, and all the 
 Dutch settlements were apprized, by a French tVigate sent 
 out for the purpose, of hostilities having commenced between 
 Great Britain and the United Provinces, and were accordingly 
 prepared for the event. All these untoward circumstances 
 wera ao-c^ravated by the consideration that the people were 
 become devoid of all confidence in the government, and 
 averse from assisting it; and the public cause had assumed 
 at last so hopeless an aspect that individuals almost ceased 
 to take any interest in its fate. 
 
 At this crisis of complicated distress, at this almost hope- 
 less juncture, ihe atlairs of the government of the Carnatic 
 were committed to the direction of Lord Macartney. 
 
 A mind less firm than he possessed, and less fertile in ex- 
 pedients, would have been apt to j)artake of the general de- 
 spondency ; but whatever impression the calamitous situa- 
 tion of affairs might have made on his mind, he felt it be- 
 came his duty to meet the danger boldly, to aim immediately 
 at inspiring the company's servants, its subjects, and its allies 
 with confidence in their manifold resources, to impress their 
 enemies with a just sense of the substantial power of Great 
 Britain ; but at the same time of her desire to employ that 
 power to the sole purposes of procuring and preserving peace 
 on terms of equity, and without extension of territory; and 
 io direct, with fidelity and activity, to the public relief, what- 
 
 8
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. By 
 
 ever means or resources were sLill reinaiuino; within lUc reach 
 of the administration of tlie presidency. 
 
 Conformaijly Avith these princijjles the troops wci'e encou- 
 raged to their duty by an immediate distribution anu)ng 
 them, towards satisfying their arrears, of the greater part of 
 the small (juantity of specie he found in the treasury. V'es- 
 sels were taken uj) on cretht, without a moiu(.:nt's loss of 
 time, and dispatched, some to the nortliward for grain, and 
 others to proceed with provisions for the army. 'J'o defi-ay 
 these extraordinary and urgent expenses, and lo satisfv the 
 further demands of the army, as well as other calls of a press- 
 ing nature, his Lordship perceived the necessity of having 
 recourse to individuals for present assistance on the credit of 
 the future revenues ; and although the apprehension of mis- 
 iortuncs, together with the facility of getting and the impu- 
 }uty for taking enormous interest from the natives, precluded 
 the expectation of raising any considerable sum by that means, 
 yet this api)earcd to be the only expedient which remained to 
 be tried ; and his Lordship had the satisfaction to find that 
 It more than answered the exjxictations under which it was 
 adopted. But j^cside the immediate benefit resulting from 
 the advances thus made by individuals, they implied that 
 confidence of revi\ing j^rosperity from the conduct of his ad- 
 ministration, which not only the ill success of the war, but the 
 weakness of the former government, tiie unsteadiness of their 
 councils and deficiency of system, independently of every 
 criminal imputation, had rendered almost hopeless.
 
 88 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Lord Macartnc}' was too good a statesman not to know that 
 a confidence so recovered was to be cherished and supported 
 by judicious measures and vigorous exertions. The Dutch 
 settlements, as above observed, had received intelHgence 
 of hostiUties between Great Britain and Holland, which gave 
 them sufficient notice to put themselves in a posture of defence; 
 and it could not be doubted that they would avail themselves 
 of the opportunity of purchasing the amit}^ of li^'der Ali by 
 assisting effectually to annoy the English, The two Dutch forts 
 of Sadras and Pulicat to the northward and southward of Fort 
 St. George, formerly of little strength comparatively with our 
 power, were now able to interrupt the communication not 
 only with our territories and factories situated beyond them, 
 but also Avith our main army on the one side, and with Colonel 
 Pearse's detachment on its march from Bengal on the other. 
 And as Hyder had no ports on the coast of Coromandel, 
 those of the Dutch might become of essential consequence to 
 him as inlets of supplies by sea. These considerations were 
 with Lord Macartney additional motives for yielding to the 
 desire he felt of carrying into execution, as far as it was pos- 
 sible, the instructions he had received to seize ever}^ Dutch 
 ship and settlement within his reach. AVithin the first week 
 of his arrival Sadras was accordingly summoned, and imme- 
 diately surrendered without opposition ; and as a sufhcient 
 garrison could not bo spared to remain there, the fortifications 
 were ordered to be demolished. The seizure of Pulicat was 
 of still greater importance, but was an undertaking of more 
 difficulty, as no force was stationed near it capable of attack-
 
 , EARL OF MACARTNEY. 89 
 
 ing it with the probabihty of success. Beside' the Dutch sol- 
 diery stationed in this garrison, Hyder Ah had a consider- 
 able corps of horse and foot in the neighborhood, which it 
 was necessary in the first place to overawe or to overcome. 
 A detachment for this service could be taken only out of the 
 garrison of Fort St. George which, weakened as it ahead}' 
 was, could not even for a short interval be further reduced 
 without urgent motives. But the capture of Pulicat, beside 
 the advantages attending it already mentioned, promised to 
 open a source of provisions that were already so nuich 
 wanted by the garrison and the settlement. This want alone 
 might have warranted the hazard, but to render it less con- 
 siderable, Lord Macartney determined to put himself at the 
 head of the militia; and, encouraged by his example, the 
 numbers and the ardor of this corps were so much augmented 
 as to promise a respectable addition to the defence of the 
 garrison. The possession of Pulicat was quickly accom- 
 plished ; it surrendered to the Madras detachment on con- 
 dition of securing private property. 
 
 These successes acquired an additional value from the ap- 
 pearance of enterprise which they gave to the proceedings of 
 the new government, and the impression of British power 
 still remaining which they could not fail to make upon the 
 natives. The zeal and activity of government animated the 
 efforts of the people. The troops in camp and garrison ac- 
 quired fresh spirits from the immediate marks of attention 
 given to their demands, as well as from the small but season- 
 able supply of money furnished for their relief. They imme- 
 diately afterwards gave the strongest proofs of bravery, dis- 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 90 
 
 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 ripline, and attachment in a battle won by them on the 1st of 
 , I Illy near Porto Novo, luider the command of Sir Eyre 
 Coote. After an unsuccessful attack, on tlie i8th of June, 
 of the fort of Chillumbrmn bv storm, and sustaining a severe 
 cf)n(iiet, in vhicli he ^vys repulsed with considerable loss, 
 the general encamped at Porto Novo on his return to Cud- 
 dalore, and remained there till the 30th, preparing for a 
 general action, an event Avhich, from the motions of the 
 enemy, he had reason to expect. Accordingly, on the fol- 
 lowing Jay, the Isi. July, the enemy advanced to the attack, 
 Avith a force consisting of twenty-five battalions of infantrj^ 
 four hundred Europeans, forty-five thousand horse, and one 
 hundred thousand matchlock men, peons, and polygars, 
 and with forty-seven pieces of cannon, which were all brought 
 into action. The engagement lasted fron) eight in the morn- 
 ins till three in the afternoon, when the front line of the 
 English advanced, upon which the enemy drew off his guns 
 and left the British troops masters of the field. The loss on 
 the part of Hyder was computed at three thousand men, 
 "beside a number of horses. Meer Saheb, one of his principal 
 generals, with several officers of distinction, fell in the battle. 
 The number of killed and wounded on our side did not exceed 
 three hundred and twenty men. As Sir Eyre Coote had no ca- 
 valry it was impossible to prevent the enemy from carrying off 
 his guns. Never perhaps were the British interests in the Car- 
 natie brought to a more serious crisis than at this day, and 
 never Avfre they more ably and intrepidly supported. I'hat 
 they could not pursue the advantages they had gained, that 
 they could not convert the defeat of IJyder into a total rout» 
 or prevent his army from assembling again and opposing
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 91 
 
 them immediately, could only he ascribed to the ^ant of 
 cavalry, and oi" the means of conveying stores and provisions. 
 But the victory that was gained so far disconcerted the 
 enemy as to deter him from leading his troops into action a 
 second time, and preventing a junction with the Bengal de- 
 tachment under Colonel Pearse, which was happily accom- 
 plished on the 2d August near Pulicat, without the smallest 
 opposition. 
 
 In the letters written to the several princes of the peninsula, 
 according to custom, on the arrival of a new governor, Lord 
 jMacartney, to the impression endeavored to be conve^'ed of 
 the victory of Porto Novo, added the expectations justly 
 formed of the future achievements of the British arms as soon 
 as the reinforcement of the ships and men expected from 
 England should arrive. And conceiving that, in this mo- 
 ment of apparent superiority, an assurance of the pacific in- 
 tentions of the British government would come with greater 
 dignity' and effect, as well as with a stronger impression of 
 its beins indicative of the oenuine sentiments of the nation, 
 he did not fail, on this occasion, to endeavor to convince 
 them that the East India Company had no aim of extending 
 its possessions, and that pacific maxims had the preference in 
 all its councils. He perceived indeed the necessity of trying 
 every means, consistent with the honor and the security of 
 the government, to carry those principles into etibct. His 
 opinion on this point Avas seconded by the admiral and the 
 oeneral, who declared thev saw no probabilitv that any suc- 
 cesses, which our forces could obtain, would be udecpiate t(j 
 the end of procuring a favorable issue to the contest in the 
 
 N 2
 
 92 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Carnatic ; that it was perfectly at the disposition of Ilyder 
 i\li to avoid or terminate an action whenever he pleased ; 
 that although we might frequently gain the field of battle. 
 Ave should not be able to make any lasting impression on his 
 army ; that our resources which had hitherto been precarious 
 and inadequate were likely to diminish, whilst the demands 
 ■would necessarily increase. On these considerations it was 
 strongly I'ecommended on the part of Sir Eyre Cootc, with 
 the assent of the admiral, to aim at the accommodation of 
 differences with Hyder Ali. To this reconmiendation Lord 
 Macartney the more readily inclined, as the East India Com- 
 pany had, in their letters of the preceding year to the presi- 
 dency of Madras, given express and positive directions to 
 maintain a strict connection with this enterprising chief, and 
 even in certain points to bestow, if necessarv, pecuniary 
 gratifications on his ministers. An address to that prince was 
 therefore inclosed in a letter to Sir Eyre Coote, to whom his 
 Lordship submitted to forward or suppress it; but expressing, 
 at the same time, his determination that no consequence 
 which might result personally to himself, from any displea- 
 sure of the Bengal government "*, should prevent him from 
 undertaking or persevering in an}' measure conducive to the 
 honor and interest of the Company, or from hazarding his 
 responsibility hi any step of such a tendency for which the 
 admiral and oeneral were likewise willing to become respon- 
 sible. Sir Eyre Coote did not hesitate to dispatch the propo- 
 sal to Ilyder's camp, accompanied by a letter from himself, 
 
 • The Bengal government was alone empowered to conclude treaties, and make 
 peace and war with tlie country powers.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. ^ 
 
 and another from the admiral to the same effect. The an- 
 swer of Ilyder on this occasion furnished a most unfortunate 
 instance of the dissatisfaction and distrust to Avhich former 
 transactions in the Company's governments had given rise. 
 ' The governors and sirdars," he observes, " who enter into 
 ' treaties, after one or two years return to Europe, and their 
 ' acts and deeds become of no effect ; and fresh governors 
 ' and sirdars introduce new conversations. Prior to your 
 " coming, when the governor and council of Madras had 
 " departed from their treaty of alhance and friendship, I sent 
 " my vakeel (agent) to confer with them, and to ask the rea- 
 " son for such breach of faith ; the answer given was, that 
 " they who made these conditions were gone to Europe, 
 " You write that you have come with the sanction of the 
 " King and Company to settle all matters ; which gives me 
 " great happiness. You, Sir, are a man of wisdom and com- 
 " prehend all things. Whatever you may judge most proper 
 " and best, that you will do. You mention that troops have 
 " arrived and are dai/y arriving from Europe ; of this I have 
 '• not a doubt : I depend upon the fa\'or of God for my 
 " succors." 
 
 This apparently evasive answer was not however consi- 
 dered, by persons conversant in the intricacies of Indian po- 
 licy, as preclusive of an inclination on his part to come into 
 terms with the Company. x\t all events, the endeavor to 
 bring about a reconciliation with all the country powers in 
 India was so strongly expressed in the desire and directions 
 of the Company, in order to leave our arms free to act against 
 our European enemies, that Lord Macartney felt it his
 
 <94 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 duty to make every effort for tenninatiiig differences not only 
 Avith Ilyder Ali, but with any other country power with wlioni 
 ■vve happened to be at war. The critical state of the atfairs of 
 India fully justified such efforts without ihe previous and re- 
 gular approbation of the Bengal government in any prepa- 
 ratory step for enabling it to attain a cessation of hostilities. 
 Not a moment was therefore to be lost in taking advantage 
 of the favorable disposition of the Mahrattas towards an ac- 
 <'ommodation, of which strong assurances were received by 
 Lord Macartney from the nabob of the Carnatic ; assurances 
 however which were accompanied with the mistrust conceived 
 at all the Indian courts of the fidelity of the English to their 
 public engagements. The infraction of former treaties had 
 Aveakened their dependence on any renewed proposals from 
 the same party. Suspicion now governed the conduct of 
 ■every Indian Prince towards the English, of Avhich melan- 
 choly truth an unfortunate and alarming instance, Just at this 
 moment, reached Madras. ]\lr. Hastings had determined 
 upon an excursion to the upper provinces of Benares and 
 Oudc. Cheyt Sing the tributary Kaja of Benares, a man of 
 much reputed wealth, inunediately suj)posed that his treasure 
 was an object of the governor-general's views, and under this 
 idea lost no time in preparing privately for resisting any at- 
 tem])t that might be made against him. Mv. Hastings anived 
 at Benares the 14th August. The Baja is said to have waited 
 on him with the appearance of profound fcspect and unre- 
 served confidence. ^\ hatever were the subjects of their ver- 
 bal conferences, the governor-generars letter to him contains 
 no new application for money, but upbraids him for having 
 failed in giving the assistance which IukI already l)ecn de-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 55 
 
 niandecl I'roui liim, Chcyt Sing particularizes in his aiiswcr- 
 the sums by which he had fulfilled that eiiG-ascment. The fo- 
 vcmor-general did not indeed controvert the fact, but he ob- 
 serves in the stile and manner of the llaja a tone of disre- 
 spect towards him, offering less a vindication of himself than 
 a recrimination upon the governor-general ; he observed too, 
 he thought, a spirit of independence, fin* all which he found 
 it necessary to order the Raja to !)e put under arrest in his 
 own pajace. The English resident, with his usual guard, fol- 
 lowed by two companies of sepoys, proceeded towards the 
 palace with the act of power by which he was armed. The 
 captive Chief seemed to comply in terms of the utmost humi- 
 lity ; and he appeared so totally overwhelmed by his misfor- 
 tune, in having incurred the displeasure of the governor-ge- 
 neral, that the humanity of the latter was excited to send 
 him a favorable message, which Avas received with strong ex- 
 pressions of gratitude and of perfect reliance on the protec- 
 tion of Mr. Hastings. This gratitude and this reliance were, 
 in a fevv moments, manifested by a dreadful slaughter of all 
 the officers and most of the two companies of sepoys. The 
 result of this unfortunate affair is too well known to require 
 a repetition of it in this place^ 
 
 With the fate of Cheyt Sing, fresh in their recollection, it 
 was not assuredly the most auspicious moment for endea- 
 voring, by pacific declarations, to strengthen the confidence 
 of the Mahratta powers. Proceeding however from a new 
 and separate government such assurances might serve, at 
 least, as declaratory of the views of that government. A 
 letter Avas therefore drawn up and signed by Lord Macart-
 
 g6 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 ney, by Sir Edward Hughes as commander of his majesty's 
 ships in the Indian Seas, by Sir Eyre Coote as commander in 
 chief of the King's as well as the Company's land forces and 
 a member of the supreme council, and by Mv. Macpherson 
 another member of the same council, in which they not only 
 declare an earnest desire, on the part of the Company, to 
 conclude a peace with the Mahratta state, but become, in 
 the name of their sovereign and their employers, as well as 
 personally, guarantees for the strict and constant performance 
 of any treaty which may be made for that purpose by the 
 governor-general and council of Bengal. And as the points, 
 on which the peace was known to rest with the ministry of 
 Poonah, were, the restoration of the province of Guzzarat on 
 account of its value, and of the islands of Basseen or Salsette 
 from religious attachment ; as a compliance with those con- 
 ditions was not dishonorable ; and as it Avould redound to the 
 national advantage to comply with them, they did not hesi- 
 tate to declare their readiness to accede to their wishes on 
 these points. This proposition, thus made under most un- 
 favorable circumstances, but wananted by the emergency of 
 the occasion, produced such an effect at the court of Poonah, 
 that no hostihties were afterwards committed by the Mah- 
 rattas against the English ; and it paved the way for the Ben- 
 gal government to conclude a peace with them shortly after 
 throufih the mediation of Scindea. 
 
 This event was the more desirable on account of the im- 
 probability, which soon a]ipcared, of procuring peace M-ith 
 Ilyder Ali, who preferred to enter into close connection with 
 
 the rrcnch and Dutch, in the hope that their \uiitcd arms 
 
 4
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 97 
 
 would be able to cxteniunate the British power in India. 
 The readiness, however, expressed on the part of the gt;vern- 
 nient of Madras, to put an end to the war with Ilyder, oj)e- 
 rated, no doubt, in inclining the Poonah ministry to accede 
 to the proposals made to them. For there was so much 
 rooted enmity, from former wars and mutual ill treatment, 
 between the Alahrattas and ilyder Ali, that nothing but in- 
 discretion on oin- part could have caused a tcm])orary con- 
 nection between them, which was almost certain of yieldinfy 
 to the dread of a Junction between us and one of thoin, to the 
 disadvantage of the other. From this disposition of the two 
 ])owers. Lord IMacartney perceived that " policy thus fairly 
 " exerted might attain what our strength alone was not likely 
 " to effectuate. For the frequent struggles which have hap- 
 " pened between European forces and the forces of the natives 
 " have, at length, removed much of the inequality in their 
 " respective disci})line and intrepidity. 'J'he Indians have less 
 " terror of our arms ; we less contempt for their opposition. 
 " Our future advantages therefore are not to be calculated 
 " b}' past exploits. Troops in the hardiness and ardor of 
 " first adventures, and during the first impression of their 
 " prowess, are capable of achievements which their num- 
 " bers afterwards cncreased may not be able to continue. 
 " 1'heir discipline and valor may be the same ; but the in- 
 " fluence of the climate, the contagion of example, tlie very 
 " re.wards of success introduce a luxury which may retard, 
 " and in some instances fatally obstruct the operations of 
 " an army. Th(3 followers of our camp^ as 1 am told, bear 
 " no less a propoition to the fighting men than that of four to 
 " one. The servants of a general officer are reckoned by the 
 VOL. I. o
 
 98 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " Imndred. The expenditure of money and provisions for 
 " multitudes, of ^vhich so many must be useless, drains our 
 " treasury and our magazines. If supplies proportionably 
 " augnjcnted were plentiful and even costless, the trouble 
 " and difficulty of carrying them on must render an army un- 
 " ^Yicldy, and its progress slow and ineffective *." 
 
 These considerations applied but too closely to the main 
 army remaining in a state of inactivity near Cuddalore, which, 
 as before observed, had no other supply of provisions than 
 what were sent from Madras by sea, where all the horrors of 
 an approaching famine were staring them in the face. The 
 enemy's privateers knowing the distressed situation of the 
 presidency were indefatigable in their exeitions, to cut off 
 and destroy the grain ships proceeding to and from Madras. 
 Lord Macartney ordered two Indiamen to be fitted out and 
 dispatched to Coringa to beat off one of these privateers 
 whose object Avas to destroy a large stock ©f rice that had 
 been collected there, the loss of which would have been irre- 
 parable to the settlement. The privateer disappeared, and 
 the fort of Jaggernaikpore surrendered without resistance, the 
 public property was taken on board the Indiamen, and being 
 landed at ]\Iasulipatam the ships returned with grain which 
 proved a most seasonable supply. 
 
 It was now resolved to make every effort for recovering 
 Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, from the hands of the 
 enemy; but with the utmost exertions means could only be 
 
 • Letter from Lord Macartney to the Committee of Secrecy of tlie Court of Di- 
 rectors! dated
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 99 
 
 procured for carrying three days provisions for the army. 
 Dependence however was placed in finding a large supply 
 of grain which it was reported the enemy had laid up at 
 Tripassore. The batteries were opened against it, and in 
 three days the breach was reported practicable. On the 
 morning of the fourth da}'' a flag of truce came out to pro- 
 pose terms. The general sent back word that he would only 
 agree to spare their lives on their surrendering themselves 
 prisoners of war, and that an answer must be returned in a 
 quarter of an houi-. At that instant a very large body of the 
 enemy appeared in sight. The general perceiving their num- 
 bers were formidable sent orders to storm immediately ; the 
 ])arty were just advancing when the flag of truce was returned 
 accepting his terms. As the army was now reduced to the 
 last day's rice, the gaining of the fort at that moment was a 
 most fortunate event. The force which made its appearance 
 proved to be the advance of Ilyder's army, which had 
 marched the same morning with a view to relieve the 
 oarrison. 
 
 The grain found in Tripassore was only sufficient for a few 
 days, which cut ofl:' all hope of proceeding against Arcot. 
 The general however was determined, -if possible, to brin«- 
 Hyder to a second engagement, which seemed not impracti- 
 cable, as at that time he lay encamped within a few miles. 
 On the 26th of August the army moved in this hope towards 
 the enemy, upon which Ilydcr struck his encampment, anfl 
 took the road to Conjeveram. At nine o'clo('k in the morn- 
 ing of the 27th, the general came up Mith Ilyder's whole 
 army, which was advantageously posted on the very spot
 
 »oo PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Avhere Colonel Baillie's detachment had been cut lo pieces 
 the preceding year. The engagement lasted from nine o'clock 
 till near sun-set when the enemy gave way on all sides. Our 
 army encamped on their ground that niglit, but for want of 
 provisions was obliged to return to Tripassore the next day. 
 The loss on our side w^as six officers and one hundred and 
 thirty-three privates killed, and one officer and two hundred 
 and sixty-two privates Avounded. Among the former were 
 Lieutenant-colonel Brown and Captain Hislop, and among 
 the latter Brigadier-general Stuait. 
 
 The two victories of Porto Novo and Conjeveram, although 
 reflecting the highest honor on the bravery and discipline of 
 the troops, were attended with little advantage to the general 
 state of affairs ; and so far were they from enabling the 
 general to regain tlie })];ices that had been lost, he was still 
 without the means of supjiorting those which remained in our 
 possession. . The fort of Vellore, which had been maintained 
 for a lono" time by Colonel Lans with unwearied zeal and 
 great good management, was now reduced to imminent dis- 
 tress ; a part of the garrison had been set at liberty to seek its 
 own subsistence, and there were only sufficient provisions for 
 the remainder until the 25th October. The relief of Vellore 
 became therefore an object of J.ord Macartney's most anxious 
 attention, well knowing that tlie fall of that fortress to the 
 enemy would cstablisii him in conijilcte possession of the 
 greater part of the Carnatic. But the army Avas unable to 
 move for want of provisions and about to return to the neigh- 
 borhood of INiadras, Avhose situation Avas truly alarming, 
 the Avretched inhabitants being at tl)at moment agitated by
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. loi 
 
 every afflicting symptoni of an inevitable i'aniinc. It was 
 considered however l)y Sir Eyre Coote as absolntcly ncecssary 
 for the safety of the army, should i) keep the field, to be 
 supplied with twelve days' rice; to clfect this was a task of 
 infinite difficulty ; but great diffic-iiltic^s are only to be over- 
 come by great exertions ; and Lord Macartney was resolved 
 that no exertion should be wanting, no effort remain untried 
 to avert the fatal consequences which must inevitably follow 
 the loss of Vellore. Coolies to the amount of six thousand 
 were pressed into the service by military force, to cany from 
 Madras to Poonamalee the quantity of rice recjuired. The 
 extreme necessity of the case could alone justify the risk in- 
 curred to the settlement b}- these exertions, for at the time 
 the army was again put in motion for the relief Vellore on the 
 19th September, there was not actually at INIadras a grain of 
 rice left in store ; they trusted solely to three thousand bags 
 on board dift'cient vessels in the road, and to future supplies 
 for their support. These supplies were also of a doubtful 
 nature, being mostly external ; for were the enemy even to 
 withdraw from the neighborhood of Madras, so efiectually 
 had all traces of cultivation disappeared, so destroyed were 
 the villages, so ruined and dispersed the individuals who were 
 employed in tillage, that the inhabitants, during pait of the 
 following year as well as the remaining part of that year, 
 could only be preserved from famine by external resources. 
 
 In his march towards \'ellorc, the general received intelli- 
 gence that Ilyder's Avhole army lay encamped about ten miles 
 off between Cavery Pauk and Shulaugar ; he determined 
 therefore to march directly towards him in the hope of bring-
 
 iot2 I'UBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 iufr him to a oeneral en2;aocmcnt, conceivino- that a sue- 
 cessful issue aftbrdcd the best prospect of opening resources 
 •for subsisting the army, without which he would be uudei- 
 the dreadful alternative of returning to Madras, the inevitable 
 consequences of which he was well aware would be the loss 
 of Vellore and famine to the settlement. The loss of Vellore 
 ^vas, in fact, the loss of the Carnatic. Fortunately on the 
 27th September the general fell in with Ilyder's whole army, 
 which he engaged and put to flight with great slaughter and 
 with very inconsiderable loss on his side. The good efl'ects 
 experienced from this third victory Avere, the desertion of 
 two rajas from Ilyder a {"cw hours after the action, the means 
 of subsisting the army, and, above all, the relief of \'ellore 
 in wliich the garrison under Colonel Lang had been shut up 
 sixteen months. In the course of this expedition for the re- 
 lief of Vellore an instance of the bravery and discipline of 
 the British troops occurred, which has rarely been equalled 
 and perhaps never exceeded. Colonel Owen with a detach- 
 ment, consisting of about two thousand men, had been sent 
 to intercept a convoy of grain proceeding to the enemy. On 
 the 23d October Sir Eyre Coote receiving intelligence of the 
 probability of Colonel Owen's being attacked marched to his 
 support. After proceeding a fe-^v miles he was met by some 
 Mogul horse who had tied from the field of battle, and who 
 informed him that Colonel Owen's detachment was cut to 
 pieces. The general however continued his route, and was 
 soon met by an officer with a note from Colonel Owen say- 
 ing that, after a severe day with the whole force of Hyder 
 Ali, they had lost their baggage, and had several otHcers and 
 Luen killed and wounded, but that their guns, the detach-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 103 
 
 inent, and their honor were sate. The general observed tliat 
 the undaunted bravery and the deliberate courage dispUiyed 
 by this little detachment exceeded every conunendation that 
 could be passed upon it. A jemidar ot" Jlydor reported that, 
 in this action, his master lost three hundred ot" his chosen 
 horse, being part of tour thousand which he always kept 
 about his own person, and on whom he could depend for per- 
 forming any desperate service. It ap|jeared indeed that the 
 repulse they had met with, and the disappointment which 
 Hyder himself sutfered in the sanguine expectation he had 
 formed of cutting otf this detachment, which he looked upon 
 as a thing certain, was felt by him as one of the severest 
 checks he had received in the whole course of the war, as 
 the failure with his whole army against so small a number of 
 British troops but too clearly convinced him of his inability 
 to cope with the main body. Towards the end of November 
 the army returned to the neighborhood of Madras, and were 
 quartered for the monsoon at the mount St. Thome and 011 
 Choultry plain. 
 
 The whole of the Dutch settlements had now fallen into* 
 our hands, except Negapatam and Tutucorin. So far back 
 as July Lord Macartney had formed a plan for the reduc- 
 tion of the former, but Sir Eyre Coote was of opinion that 
 the army would be better employed in the capture of Arcot, 
 and afterwards to march to the southward to the attack of 
 Negapatam. As he was not able however to accomplish the 
 former, no attempt had yet been made against the latter. 
 Independent of the express directions of the Company for 
 
 endeavoring to get possession of all the Dutch settlements oa 
 
 2
 
 104 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 the coast, the fortress of Negapatam was of the utmost im- 
 portance to liyder Ah. All his forces that were scattered in 
 the Tanjore countr}' drew their chief resources fiom Negapa- 
 tam, and depended on its fate. It furnished monQ,y, cloth- 
 ing, and ammunition ; and was the vent for all their plunder. 
 The Dutch had been on this occasion no less active than vi- 
 gilant. They had formed an offensive alliance with Hyder, 
 and had received from him a reinforcement of between three 
 and four thousand men ; and they were as successful as po- 
 litic in securing an interest with the principal polygars in 
 the Tinevelly country for the protection of their settlement 
 of Tutucorin. Lord Macaitney, to whom these circum- 
 stances were well known, considered that he would not be 
 justifiable in desisting any longer from an enterprize when he 
 had the Admiral's promise of the heart}'- co-operation of the 
 fleet and marines, which, after their departure from the coast, 
 would be not only hazardous but impracticable. He con- 
 sidered it as less necessary to wait for the season Avhen Sir 
 Eyre Cootc might perhaps find it convenient to go against 
 Negapatam in person ; that the general had no need of either 
 the addition of fame or fortune, which the surrender of that 
 place might prcK'urc to him who took it. The general indeed 
 seemed to wish that all ■ the troops should be employed in 
 the grand army, Avhich he connnanded, in the most desolate 
 provinces of the Carnatic, where there was notliing valuable 
 to gain or defend ; and so extremely anxious was he to dis- 
 claim all responsibility of an attempt against Negapatam, 
 that he took the earliest occasion of expressing his senti- 
 ments to Lord Macartney on the subject. " I am not sorry," 
 says lie, " in being lelicved from so great a part of my bur- 
 
 7
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 105 
 
 *• den, and, as I conceive myself exonerated iVoni all re- 
 " sponstbiiity in that quarter, and indeed in some decree 
 " irom wliat Avould other\visc have l^een my share licre, I 
 '' sliali not attempt to send away further orders to the south- 
 " ward. I wisli most sincerely those you have sent may be 
 " attended with success equal to your most sanguine wishes ; 
 " but I will venture to foretell that if the attack of Negapa- 
 " tam is commenced, leaving an enemy in the rear equal to 
 " cope with our besieging army, and they move towards its 
 " relief, we shall be disgraced; and if we are not more fortu- 
 " nate than we have a right to expect, it will terminate in the 
 " loss of Tanjore, Trichinopoly, and all the southern coun- 
 " tries J as well as bring on tiic ruin of this army *." 
 
 Notwithstanding this opinion of Sir Eyre Cootc and the 
 tardy movements and innumerable difficulties started by 
 Colonel Brathwaite, who had been directed to proceed from 
 Tanjore to the attack of Ncgapatam, leaving a sufficient gar- 
 rison behind him to guard against surprise, Lord ^Macartney 
 Mas so much convinced of the importance of the object, 
 and the certainty of success with the assistance of the fleet, 
 that he deternnned at once and at all hazards to take the 
 sole responsibility upon himself, which, in a case less uro-ent 
 and less clear, he Avould have been cautious of doing. He 
 was likewise determined not to employ a single officer or a 
 single man from the main army since he had ascertained the 
 sejitiments of the general on this vmdertaking. In answer to 
 
 '" Letter from Sir Eyre Coote to Lord Macartney, dated camp near Palapet., 
 October 31, 1781. 
 
 \'0L. I. P
 
 io6 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 the anxiety expressed b}^ Sir Eyre Coote, in iiis letter above 
 recited, his Lordship observed, " Though Avith an exact 
 " knowledoe of facts, I combined the observations of several 
 " capable persons, I was very cautious in forming my own 
 "judgment; but after taking these precautions, it appears to 
 " jne a laudable exertion of duty to become responsible in 
 " following the dictates of such a judgment. Personal pru- 
 " dence may be sometimes prejudicial to the public cause, 
 "' and caution beyond the danger is a weakness which may be 
 " as fatal as the rashness of enterprise beyond the means of 
 " success. In return for the confidence placed in me hy the 
 " Company and by the conunittee, in justice to you and to 
 " Colonel Brathwaite, I ought not to shrink from the respon- 
 " sibilit}^ of the present measure; most chearfully I take it 
 " upon myself alone, trusting to be justified by the motive of 
 " doing essential service, and by my cflx)rts to pursue the 
 " fittest methods of accomplishing it. In the midst of the 
 " efforts I made for giving success to this expedition, I was 
 " mindful of that attention towards you which was due to 
 " your station, and which my sincere esteem for you will 
 " naturally suggest. No officer who could be supposed to 
 " belong to the army under your command was called upon 
 " to serve on this occasion. Those who offered, I referred, 
 " as you know, to you ; though I wished much for the ser- 
 " vices of Lord Macleod and others of them ; the recovered 
 " men of his regiment I sent to you in lieu of sending them to 
 " Negapatam *." 
 
 * Extract of a letter from Lord Macartney to Sir Eyre Cootc, dated Fort St. 
 George, Nov. 6, 1781. 
 
 4
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 107 
 
 A very serious difiiculty liowevcr occurred in the choice of 
 ill! ofllcer to command the expedition. Major-general Sir 
 Hector IMunro, who ^vas, in a great degree, recovered from 
 an indisposition which h;id prevented his accompanying the 
 army to take the command in the Tanjorc country, was 
 judged to be the fittest person for the occasion, but an un- 
 fortunate dishke he had taken against Mr. SadUer, one of the 
 members of the select committee, had induced him to declare 
 that he never would serve under any orders or instructions, 
 in which this gentleman had a concern. Tlie connnittee 
 therefore, in order to obviate this ditiicult}', very liberally 
 empowered the president to issue such orders and adopt such 
 measures, in conjunction with Sir Edward Hughes, as w{;re 
 most likely, iu his opinion, to promise success against the 
 Dutch settlements. Sir Hectoi' i\Iuni-o now chearfully con- 
 sented to undertake the siege, and set olf without delay with 
 a reinforcement from Madras for that puri)ose. On the 21st 
 October he arrived on the coast, when the admiral immedi- 
 ately landed about one thousand seamen and marines. On 
 the 30th the lines and redoubts were attacked and carried ; 
 and on the 12th November the town and fort of Negapatam 
 surrendered. The resistance it made, and the force found 
 Avithin it were greater than had been supposed, but the advan- 
 tage of the conquest was the more conspicuous. The be- 
 sieged made two vigorous sallies. They had a French enoi- 
 neer and several German officers of infantry. The number 
 of troops under arms, Avho surrendered prisoners of war, was 
 six thousand five hundred aud tifty-one, being considerably 
 more than the whole of the besieging army. Beside a great 
 (piantity of warlike stores and ammunition there was found a 
 
 p 2
 
 io8 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 double investment of goods, no ships having come from Hol- 
 land for that of the preceding year. Among the archives -was 
 discovered the original treaty with Hyder Ali, the tenor of 
 Avhich sufiiciently showed how much the English interests 
 might have suftered from the longer continuance of that port 
 in the hands of an enemy, and consequently how much was 
 gained b}' its passing into our own. Its capture not only 
 eflectually destroyed the Dutch power on the coast of Coro- 
 mandel but, as had already been foreseen, the Mysorcan 
 'enemy, immediately after the surrender of the place, began 
 to abandon all the forts he had possessed himself of in the 
 Tanjore country. In fact, the fall of Negapatam restored 
 that country to a degree of security which it had not 
 known since the commencement of the war, at the same 
 time that it cut off the French from the least chance of 
 landing their forces on that part of the coast with any de- 
 gree of success. 
 
 After making his arrangements for the security ofTanjorCr 
 and sparing Sir Edward Hughes five hundred men to assist 
 in the meditated attack of the harbor of 'IVincomalee, which 
 Lord Macartney had for some time before strongly urged, 
 and sent an embassador to the king of Candy as preparatory 
 thereto. Sir Hector IMunro, still in a very Indifferent state of 
 licalth, returned to the presidency, where he took his passage 
 for Europe,- after closing his services in India with the imj)ort- 
 untconcpiest of Negapatam. The i;eal and alacrity with which- 
 lie undertook that enterprise, and the ability with which he 
 accomplished it, were highly honorable to his character as a 
 good and active otiiccr.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 109 
 
 Tlic (lifliculty of keeping the army supplied with provisions 
 vas by no means tlie only one, which the government of 
 Madras had to encounter. Every pecuniary resoTUTc de- 
 pendent on the Carnatic had long since wholly failed^ and 
 any further assistance of this nature from Bengal was now 
 become absolutely hopeless. The governor-general was him- 
 self distressed for Avant of money, and shut up in the Ibrt of 
 Chunar-Ghur, Avhcre he Avas invested by the troops of Cheyt 
 Sing, amounting to ten thousand men, beside the peasants of 
 the country, who had also taken up arms. Every effort had 
 been used by Lord Macartney to prevail on the nabob of 
 Arcot to contribute towards the expenses of the war but with- 
 out success. He had indeed assigned over to th(^ late govern- 
 ment for the use of the Company, during the war, the coun- 
 tries of Trichinopoly and Tinevclly ; but this wily IMahome- 
 dan contrived to defeat entirely the use they might have beer* 
 of, by insisting that his own creatures should have the sole 
 management of the revenues. By these rapacious agents the 
 peaceable and patient Hindoos suffered nearly as much as 
 from the ravages of the enemy. The rj'ots or husbandmen 
 were harassed and oppressed by the arbitrary and indefinite 
 claims of the head renters on the produce of their labor,, 
 extorted by military force and corporal punishment in case 
 of resistance. So venal and corrupt a system as that which 
 prevailed under the nabob's administration througliout the 
 whole Carnatic, is not to be paralleled in any government. 
 Beside the rent of the districts to be paid to the nabob, he 
 sold the appointments of every description held in these dis- 
 tricts, and the whole host of inferior agents Avere obliged ta 
 purchase their public situations from their superiors ; com-
 
 no PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 plaint at the Durbar or palace of the nabob was unavailing as 
 to redress; but the punishment of such presumption was not 
 infrequently that of death ; and the sum total of this chain 
 of extortion and avarice was taken out of the crop of the 
 ryot or laborer. 
 
 Under this state of wretched mismanagement and extortion 
 had he granted the unavailing assignment ot two districts, while 
 mider cover of which he strenuously withheld those supplies for 
 carrying on the war which, in fact, he was squandering with a 
 lavish profusion on a set of worthless and unprincipled Euro- 
 peans, who were kept al)out his person for no other purpose 
 than that of pampering his vices and feeding his vanity, or per- 
 haps, according to his own calculation, that of securing their 
 attachment. In vain did Lord Macartney set before his view 
 the great and pressing necessities of the public service, the 
 impropriety of the conduct he was pursuing, and the fatal 
 consequences it must inevitably produce, both to himself and 
 to the Company ; but no expostulations were sufficient to 
 rouze him to a just sense of the coumion danger; they pro- 
 duced only a reply full of asperity and recrimination, and a 
 refusal to afford the least assistance beyond what lie had 
 already given, which was literally nothing, to defray the ex- 
 penses of the war. The governor-general and council, in 
 answer to the representations made from ISIadras on this 
 head, expressed themselves in terms of great surprise and 
 indi<''nation at the conduct of the nabob, in withholding assist- 
 ance for the prosecution of a war, in Avhicli his interests 
 were more innncdiately concerned than those even of the 
 Company ; they declared that, in their opinion, the nabob
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. m 
 
 could no longer be looked upon as the proprietor of the Car- 
 natic, while every part of it, not innncdiatcly ])rotected or 
 wrested from the enemy by our troops, was in the hands of 
 a foreign power, and all his hopes of recovering it depended 
 entirely on our arms ; that a case like this would Justily their 
 demanding the immediate transfer of his whole country in 
 exclusive assignment for the expenses of the war; that such 
 a measure was, in their opinion, by the necessity of imposing 
 it, an indispensable obligation ; that they earnestly advised 
 it, and that, had they the authority to connnand, they should 
 peremptorily command it. 
 
 Such was the opinion of the Bchgal government. Lord 
 Tvlacartney however had resolved not to proceed to extremi- 
 ties, but to try every persuasive effort with the Nabob, to in- 
 duce him to assist in the present emergency, making use of 
 every argument that so naturally and obviously arose, to 
 show him how much it was for his real interest to contribute 
 even to the last pagoda, rather than suffer his possessions to 
 fall a prey to the enemy *. The nabob never precisel}'^ de- 
 nied his ability to give assistance ; many of his friends ac- 
 knowledged that he could have given it. At length however 
 when very strongly pressed on the subject, he coolly observed 
 that he had concluded a treaty with Mr. Hastings Avhich pro- 
 vided for all the supplies he was required to furnish. This 
 declaration was very soon discovered to be founded in truth ; 
 for in a little time afterwards, Mr. Richard Joseph Sullivan 
 
 * Lord Macartney's private note of application to his highness the Nabob of the 
 Carnatic, July 4, 1781. Appendix, No. 7.
 
 112 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 and Assam Cawn, tlic nabolj's dewan or treasurer, arrived 
 from Bengal with a sort of treaty coiieludcd by them on 
 the part of the nabob witli that govcnunent. As one article 
 ot" this strange convention opened a door of arrangement i'or 
 the cession of the nabob's revenues to the Company, retain- 
 ing a projx^r allowance to himself and famil}', Lord ]\[acart- 
 ney, without either accepting or disavowing the treat}', made 
 use of this disposition expressed by the nabob and acceded to 
 bv the Bengal government of giving his assistance to the Com- 
 panv. After a long and frequent correspondence and conver- 
 sation on the subject, the nabob signified his consent to as- 
 sign over all the revenues of his countries to the Company 
 during the war, reserving one-sixth part for the private ex- 
 penses of himself and his lamily. These revenues were to 
 be managed by a conunittee ; and as success depends as well 
 on the choice of instruments as on the propriety of measures, 
 his Lordship took care to appoint only such persons to the 
 conuuission of assigned revenue, as Mere conversant in the 
 fmanccs of the Carnatic, and such as, at the same time, 
 •were perfectly agreeable to the nabob. He thought it but fair 
 to consult his own choice in the pei'sons who were to con- 
 duct a business so closely connected Avith his govcrnmciit. 
 The plan which was proposed, as well as the persons to carry 
 it into execution, met with the nabob's entire concurrence. 
 But it soon appeared that the authority, which the comnjittee 
 found it necessary to denuuul, in order to give efticacy to 
 their proceedings, excited an alarm in the breast of the nabob, 
 who began to gonsider the exertion of powers by Euroi)eans 
 over liis affairs as subversive of his dignit}' and govermnent. 
 To the great surprise of Lord Macartney, he expressed the
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. ,,3 
 
 highest diftS'tUisfactioii and dislnisl of liis old friend Mr. Ben- 
 ficld, who, on the solo account of the relation in which he 
 stood at the Dvn-har, had been apiwintcd president of the 
 committee of assigned revenue; and he concluded by pre- 
 ferring to give to his Lordship, on behalf of the Company, an 
 exclusive power to nominate natives to those oflices on wliich 
 the collections chiefly depended. He considered it as less de- 
 rogatory to his station, to invest the representati\'e of the so- 
 vereign of England and thq East India Company with a con- 
 siderable portion of his anthoritv, than to divide a lesser por- 
 tion with several persons of inferior rank. 'F'hc nabob was, 
 in fact, averse from any delegation, notwithstanding the per- 
 fect confidence he seemed to place in a person whose uniform 
 disinterestedness was as great a novelty to him as it Avas a 
 security against any concealed designs. 
 
 Some arrangement liowcver M-as liecome absolutely neces- 
 sary, not only for the purpose of pecuniary aid, but likewise 
 lor securing such an influence throughout the country as 
 would facilitate the endeavors of the commander in chief to 
 send those other sujiplies and secure that friendly assistance, 
 the want of which he loudly complained of through the whole 
 course of the campaign. In one of his letters to Lord Ma- 
 cartney Sir Eyre Coote observes, " I had better give up the 
 '• burdensome task, and spare our arms the shame and dis- 
 " grace, and our interests from the total ruin in which they 
 ** may be involved by these hidden and double transactions in 
 " the viabob's government." It became tlierefore indispen- 
 sable, in every respect, to have such a share in the appoint- 
 ment of his highness' officers throughout the country as would 
 
 VOL. 1. Q
 
 114 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 oblio-e them to consult tke Avelfare and interest of the Com- 
 pany. The entire management of the finances appeared to 
 be as necessary as it was dehcate to demand and ditficult to 
 obtain. But by the perseverance and temper, the known in- 
 tegrity and disinterestedness of Lord Macartney, all these 
 points were gradually accomplished. Of his integrity the na- 
 bob had already received the most convincing proof in his re- 
 jection of the highest bribe that was probably ever before of- 
 fered to a governor of Madras in one sum *. 
 
 G 
 
 The deed which established this new and important altera- 
 tion in the government of the Carnatic, so desireable for the 
 Company and so necessary for the preservation of the nabob 
 and the people, bore date 2d December 1781, and was to 
 continue in force at least for five years -j- . By this deed the 
 authority of the Company hitherto, through the collusion of its 
 servants, totall^^ distinct from, and generally clashing with, 
 that of the nabob, occasioning a double and divided govern- 
 ment, now became simplified and efficient. But as avery 
 change of system calculated to operate effectually, though 
 gradually, must be productive of some inconveniences, the 
 present transfer was not expected to be without them, and the 
 protraction of the ditficulties the government was then la- 
 boring under was not the least of then). Coercion indeed 
 might have operated an earlier change, and the exercise of 
 force, as reconmlendcd by the Bengal government, niight 
 have been justified by the necessities of the times ; but while 
 there rcn)ained a hope of success though the means of pcr- 
 
 * Two hcks of pngodas, or 80,000/. 
 
 f The Nabob's assignment. Appendix, No. 8. 
 
 7'
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 115 
 
 suasion, Lord Macartney felt that no momentary advantage 
 could compensate for the discredit of resorting to violence 
 against a prince standing in the relation he did with the 
 Company, however unworthy he had in many respects proved 
 himself of their patronage and protection. 
 
 Thus, at the^ termination of the year 1781, the prospects 
 of the East India Company on the coast of Coromandel 
 were considerably brightened, and a ray of hope once more 
 beamed upon the desponding subjects of the Carnatic. In 
 the first six months of Lord INIacartney's administration the 
 main army, assisted effectually by the exertions of the presi- 
 dency, without which it could not possibly have kept the 
 field from the total want of provisions in every cjuarter and 
 want of pay, was enabled to bring the enemy to two deci- 
 sive actions, and to gain two brilliant victories. By well- 
 planned enterprises and by detachments from the garrison of 
 Madras were effected the destruction and capture of the 
 Dutch settlements of Sadras, Pulicat, Madepollam, Policat, 
 Jaggernautporam, Bimlipatam, and Negapatam, thereby dis- 
 solving the connection that had been formed between this 
 power and Hyder, and annihilating its influence on the coast 
 of Coromandel, and compelling the enemy to abandon all 
 his positions in the Tanjore country ; and finally these suc- 
 cesses were crowned by the assignment of the revenues of the 
 Carnatic, for the use of the Company, by the nabob of 
 Arcot to Lord Macartney ; a measlire that contributed to the 
 exultation, the secunty, tranquillity, and happiness of all 
 the inhabitants of the Carnatic, except those few rapacious 
 Mahomedan agents of the nabob, who had hitherto subsisted 
 
 Q 2
 
 ii6 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 by the plunder and oppression of the harmless Hindoo 
 natives. 
 
 Not less auspicious was the commencement of the year 
 1782, when information Avas received at the presidency of 
 the important harbor of Trincomalee and Fort Ostcnberg 
 having surrendered to our arms ; the latter of which was now 
 garrisoned hy the detachment of five hundred men, Avhich 
 had been embarked on the fleet after the reduction of Nega- 
 patam. These bright and cheering prospects Avere but 
 however of short duration. The army had scarcely gone into 
 cantonments for the monsoon when the disagreeable intelli- 
 gence reached Aladras of the loss of Chittoor, a\ ith its garri- 
 son, consisting of a complete battalion of sepoys ; and that 
 the important fortress of Vcllore would not be able to hold 
 out longer than the 11th January. To enable Sir Eyre Cootc 
 to march to the relief of this important garrison, Lord 
 INIacartney gave orders that the treasury should be drained to 
 the last pagoda to pay the arrears of the army. Still however 
 the means of conveying provisions were inadequate to tlie 
 demands of this service. The estimate of the quarter-master 
 general for carrying provisions for thirty-five days was no less 
 a number than thirty-five thousand bullocks for twelve or 
 fourteen thousand fighting men. The difficulty of providing 
 so great a numljer Avas an insurmountable obstacle, and the 
 expense, if they could have been found, was too enormous 
 for the exhausted finances of the presidency to bear. Nor 
 Avas it easy to conceive Avhat means could be adopted for pro- 
 tecting a line of march of so many miles of road as must be 
 covered by l\\c and thirty thousand bullocks, against the
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. m; 
 
 numerous liorse of the enemy. The numbci' uh-cad y in store 
 was eight thousand, and with tlicse and tlircc thousand 
 coohes pressed into the serviec, it appeared to Lord Alacart- 
 ney that, by marehing light, leaving behind the heavy artillery 
 and baggage, and taking only what was indispensably neces- 
 sary, they might perhaps be able to accomplish this important 
 object ; and he ventured to suggest it to Sir Eyre Coote, ^v]\o 
 seemed to be sensible of the necessity of using the most 
 strenuous exertions for that purpose. On this trying occa- 
 sion extreme indisposition could not prevent the general 
 from again taking the field and hazarding, as the event 
 proved, the sacrifice of his life to his zeal for the service. He 
 joined the army on the 2d of January, and on the oth was 
 seized with a violent apoplectic fit. This attack did not 
 however prevent his proceeding with the army, and on the 
 •11th, by means of the eight thousand bull(;cks and three 
 thousand coolies, he threw into Vellore provisions and stores 
 for three months, besides taking with them twenty-one 
 days' provisions for the fighting men. It is impossible to do 
 ample justice to the army Avhich, on this pressing occasion, 
 marched again to the field with the utmost cheerfulness un- 
 der every difficulty and disadvantage, without any rest after 
 a long and arduous campaign. In their return to Madras 
 they were opposed by the whole army of Ilyder, which they 
 drove from its ground with very inconsiderable loss. 
 
 Sir Eyre Coote now declared his intention of o;oincr to 
 Bengal for the benefit of his health. Such a resolution was 
 considered as particularly unfortunate at this period when.
 
 ii8 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 on every consideration it was adviseable to follow up the late 
 successes with the inost active and vigorous measures. For 
 though the British army had hitherto, in every engagement, 
 possessed the field of battle, and had a fair title to the laurels 
 due to victory, yet Hyder had suffered few of the disad- 
 vantages of a defeat. There was no consternation on his part, 
 no trophies on ours. The decided superiority of the British 
 arms in Ilindostan had been most honorably maintained, 
 but the solid purpose of the war, that of expelling the enemy 
 from the Carnatic, remained to be effected. All the bravery 
 and discipline of the troops, and all the general's experience 
 and abilities were still required to counteract the manifold 
 difficulties with which this side of India was still threatened. 
 Every argument was therefore urged on the part of govern- 
 ment, to keep him at the head of the army to Avhich, as his 
 health recovered, he seemed not to object, at least he silently 
 acquiesced. 
 
 In the month of January information was received of an 
 enemy's fleet of twelve sail of the line and five frigates, un- 
 der the command of IMonsieur Suffren, having appeared 
 on the coast; and that they had taken and destroyed seve- 
 ral vessels bound for jNIadras with grain. The Enolish 
 s([uadron under Sir Edward Hughes, consisting of seven sail 
 of the line, was at anchor in the road of Madras, where, on 
 the 12th February, it was fortunatel}^ reinforced by three sail 
 of the line under Connnodore Alms. The following day 
 Suffren made his appearance before the roads with his whole 
 fleet, and anchored to windward.- On the 14th the French
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. ,19 
 
 fleet weighed anchor and passed to the soutlnvard in line 
 of battle. Sir Edward also weighed and stood after them. 
 On the loth the two fleets parsed each other and exchanged 
 a few shot before the nioht set in. The next mornins; the 
 English admiral perceiving himself between the enemy's line 
 of battle ships to the eastward, and a convoy of frigates and 
 transports to the westward, standing towards Pondicherry, 
 made a signal for chasing the latter, the rear of which they 
 ' soon came up with, and captured five or six English mer- 
 chant ships that had been taken hy the Fi-ench, and a large 
 transport laden with stores and ammunition, having also oa 
 board a number of officers and about three hundred men. 
 Suffren perceiving what was going on gave chace to the 
 English admiral. Early on the morning of the 17th, the 
 French fleet bore down upon the English. After a great 
 deal of manoeuvring, in which Suftreu still preserved the 
 Aveather-gage, the action commenced partially about four' 
 o'clock. Eight of the enemy's ships were engaged against 
 five of ours ; towards six the remaining four with the advan- 
 tage of a squall Avere brought into action ; but night coming 
 on the two fleets separated ; the French stood away to wind- 
 ward, and Sir Edward Hughes bore up for Trincomalee. In 
 this action Captain Reynolds of the Exeter was killed, and: 
 Captain Stevens of the Superb died of his wounds. 
 
 Immediately after this enoao-ement the French landed two 
 thousand troops at Porto Novo, where they were joined by a 
 considerable part of Ilydcr's army, under the command of his. 
 son Tippoo Saheb, with a view of attacking Cuddalore, whicL 
 surrendered to their united force on the 3d April..
 
 I20 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Shortly after this event information was also received from 
 the Tanjorc country, that Colonel Brathwaite, -with one hun- 
 dred Europeans, one thousand five hundred sepoys, and three 
 hundred cavalry, had been attacked and totally defeated by 
 Tippoo Saheb; and that Colonel Bratliwaite was wounded 
 and taken prisoner with nineteen other officers. 
 
 Another serious misfortune occurred about the same time 
 in the loss of three thousand bullocks, Mhicli were cut oti* by 
 the enemy in returning from Chingleput, Mhere they had been 
 sent with rice. As this loss appeared to have been occasioned 
 entirely through the neglect of INIajor Byrn, he was tiicd by 
 a general couit martial and cashiered. 
 
 These misfortunes howe\cr were amply cornjiensatcd l)y 
 the success of the British arms both by land and sea. The 
 battle of Arnce fought with the whole army of liyder, like all 
 fonuer actions, terminated to the honor of the British arms, 
 and to the disgrace of those of the enemy, who retreated 
 with precipitation almost immediately as our line advanced. 
 The English general pursued several miles, and took a gun 
 and some carts of ammunition ; but was not able to rcaj) 
 further advantages, for as he advanced Ilydcr retreated. On 
 returning to Madras the grand guard, as Sir Eyre Cootc 
 called it, was unfortujiately surrounded by the enemy, and 
 the whole cither cut to pieces or taken prisoners. 
 
 On the rith April Sir Ixlward ITnghes had a second and 
 most obstinate cngageinent with the fleet of Suffren ; on 
 which occasion the honor of the British Ihig was nobly main-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. - 121 
 
 tallied against a superior force. The French admiral was 
 obho;ed to shift his fl;j»; durinsj the action. Sir Edward 
 Plughcs had fifty-nine killed and ninety-six w^oundeTd on board 
 his own ship, and in the whole one huiidred and thirty-seven 
 killed and four hundred and thirty wounded. After the 
 action the French repaired to Batecola, a port belonging to 
 the Dutch on the island of Ceylon, twenty leagues to the 
 southward of Trinconialce, where they landed one thousand 
 four hmidred sick and wounded, and are said to have 
 buried seven hundred men. On the 2d of June they again 
 put to sea. 
 
 On the 6tli July Sir Edward Huglres once more fell in with 
 and engaged the French fleet oft' 'iVanquebar, over which lie 
 gained a decided superiority ; and had not the wind shifted 
 and thrown his majesty's squadron out of action at the very 
 moment when some of the enemy's ships had broken their 
 line and were running away, and others of them greatly dis- 
 abled, the admiral was of opinion the action would have 
 ended in the capture of several of the French ships of the 
 line. The ol>)ect of the enemy was, in conjunction with 
 their land forces, and a considerable ijod v of Ilyder's troo]>s 
 assembled near the river Coleroon, to proceed to the south- 
 ward to the attack of Negapatam ; but their meeting with 
 the British fleet, and the engagement which ensued, entirely 
 frustrated this enterprise, by obliging them to return to 
 Cuddalore to repair their damages. In the mean time the 
 admiral, at the urgent leciuest of Lord Macartney, threw 
 into Trincomalec a reinforcement of two hundred of his 
 majesty's troops. 
 
 VOL. I. I!
 
 122 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Notwithstanding the superiority which was unquestionably 
 gained over the French fleet on the 6th July, and the great 
 damages which most of their ships received on that day, par- 
 ticularly the Brilliant and Severe, both of which struck dur- 
 ing the action, but hoisted their colors again on Sulfren's fir- 
 ing into them, and the former lost her mainmast, intelligence 
 ivas received by Lord Macartney, on which he could depend, 
 that about the end of July the French were nearly refitted ; 
 and he had information on the 5th August, that the -whole or 
 a considerable part of their fleet had actually put to sea on 
 the 1st of that montii, when they steered to the southward ; 
 t^at their first division of reinforcements, expected from Eu- 
 rope, was arrived at Point de Galle, and that Monsieur Bussy 
 -with the second division might be looked for daily. His 
 Lordship communicated this intelligence to the admiral, who 
 said he would be ready to put to sea in ])ursuit of the enemy 
 on the 11th. Reflecting on the infinite importance of the mo- 
 ment, and that the delay of a single day might involve the safety 
 of the Company's possessions on the coast of Coromandel, the 
 committee considered it their indispensable duty to address 
 the admiral on this occasion. Tliey stated the strong grounds 
 they had for giving credit to the intelligence received by the 
 president, however extraordinary it might appear, that a fleet, 
 over which a decided superiority had certainly been gained, 
 and some of its ships greatly damaged, should, under every 
 disadvantage, be already able to refit in such a miserable 
 and improvided port as Cuddalo're, and proceed to sea; 
 that the public safety never more required, than at the present 
 moment, that every eflbrt should be made to pursue the 
 enemy's squadron before it should have time to make any
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 123 
 
 successful attack on Trinconmlce or Negapatam, a-nd before 
 their junction with any of those reinforcements from France, 
 which already were arrived or hourly expected in these seas. 
 This representation, it seems, gave great oHence to the ad- 
 n)iral. In his answer lie termed it an extraordinarj' letter, 
 and said that he was t!ic judge when to sail, being himsell" 
 only accountable for his conduct, and that too not to the go- 
 vernor and council of Madras; and he concluded an intem- 
 perate letter by observing that he should proceed to sea with 
 his majesty's s({uadron under his command so soon as it was 
 in a condition fit for service. 
 
 When it is considered how many advantages the British 
 ships possessed over those of the enemy, independently of 
 the one being a victorious and the other a vanquished fleet, 
 it is scarcely credible that the latter should have been able 
 completely to refit and put to sea twenty days before the for- 
 mer was ready to proceed, or in little more than , half the 
 time required by Sir Edward Hughes, which, however, is 
 strictly the fact. The French fleet sailed on the 1st August 
 from Cuddalore, and the English on the 20th of the same 
 month from Madras. Sir Edward arrived on the 3d Sep- 
 tember ofFTrincomalee, and found this important harbor and 
 the forts in the possession of the eneni}-; whose fleet had been 
 reinforced with two additional ships of the line and one of 
 fifty guns. Had Sir Edward Hughes to his skill and bravery 
 added the activity and energy which distinguished his anta- 
 gonist, it was the opinion of many able men, and amono- 
 others of some of his own officers, that opportunities were not 
 
 T, o
 
 ,24 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 wanting to have completed the destruction of tlic PVench 
 fleet. Suffren was an active and indefatigable oflicer, who 
 neither slept nor suffered those under him to sleep when any 
 thin<T "was to be done that rc(iuired dispatch ; who would on 
 great emergencies Avork whole days in his shirt like a carpen- 
 ter's mate. On the present occasion he went himself about 
 the houses and buildings of Cuddalore, examined all the 
 beams, had such of them taken out as suited his purpose, 
 and converted them into masts and yards. To some of the 
 captains Avho complained to him of the bad state of their 
 ships, and urged the necessity of returning to the Isle of 
 France to refit, he replied that the value of their ships was tri- 
 fling in comparison of the oljject for which they had been 
 ordered to India ; that he was resolved to keep the sea with 
 them as long as they would swim, and that until he could 
 get possession of a place to refit them, the ocean should 
 be his harbor. Sufi'ren as an officer possessed many good 
 qualities, but they were tarnished by still greater faults as a 
 man. His want of humanity in sending to Hyder a number 
 of English whom he had taken prisoners was univei-sally re- 
 probated even by his own people. Lord Macartney on the 
 26\h April received a letter from Mr. De Chemin, stating that 
 he, in conjunction with Monsieur Suftren, had before ad- 
 dressed a letter to his Lordship, proposing an exchange of 
 prisoners, and requesting, at the same time, that some me- 
 dical gentlemen might be released, which was consistent with 
 the .rules of war adopted by civilized nations. This letter 
 had never been received ; but long before the receipt of the se- 
 rend, Lord Macartney, of his own accoixl, had given directions
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 125 
 
 to tlic commandiiio; ofliccr at Ncgapatam to release tlic 
 French suro;eons. As Sir Evrc Coote at this time was in- 
 vested by the governor-general and council with a full and 
 unparticipated power in ail military concerns and operations, 
 his Lordship referred to him the i)roposal for a cartel. The 
 general, in his reply to the letter, recjuired that the cartel 
 should include the prisoners taken by Hyder Ali in the ac- 
 tion with colonel Baillie, and that no sejiarate cartel could 
 be entered into between the English and the French while they 
 acted in concert against us. Suftren probably availing him- 
 self of this pretext, that the general had refused to agree to 
 an exchange of prisoners, delivered the greater part to Hyder 
 Ali at Chillumbrum chained two and two, from whence they 
 were marched in the same way to Bangalore and other forts 
 in the Mysore country. Several of the French officers at 
 Cuddalore used their utmost endeavors to dissuade the French 
 Admiral from an act so repugnant to humanity and to the 
 principles upon which war is conducted between civilized na- 
 tions, but without effect. 
 
 On the English fleet appearing before Trincomalce on the 
 3d September, Suffren immediately stood out of the bay to 
 meet it. Another action ensued in which Sir Edward Hughes 
 gained another victory. The French Admiral's ship Avas left 
 a wreck without a mast standing, and two others were in 
 little better condition ; several of them were greatly damaged 
 in their masts and rigging. In seamen and marines the 
 English suffered less than in any of the former engagements ; 
 but in officers their loss was very considerable : Captaio
 
 126 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Lumley of the Isis was killed in the action, and Captains 
 AVatt and Wood of the Sultaun and Worcester died shortly 
 after of their wounds at Madras. Suffren broke no less than 
 six of his captains, and sent them away to the Isle of France. 
 He told some of the English prisoners at Trincomalee, that he 
 liad given up many of his sliips as lost, and that, deserted by 
 his captains in the action, he dreaded the sight of the English 
 lleet the following day. Sir Edward however left him un- 
 molested, and, finding his ammunition to run short, pro- 
 ceeded to Madras. Thus the victories of the admiral, like 
 those of the general, evincing, as they stronglv did, the gal- 
 lantry and superiority of the British arms, were of little real 
 advantage to the state of affairs in the Carnatic. 
 
 The intelhgence of the loss of Trincomalee was accompa- 
 nied with that of the admiral's intention to proceed to Jjom- 
 bay. Such a determination, at so critical a moment, gave 
 the most serious alarm to the government. To leave an 
 enemy's fleet in the possession of a secure harbor, without a 
 single ship to oppose them on the whole coast of Coromandel, 
 amounted to an almost certain sacrifice of the Compan3''s 
 remaining possessions on that coast. Equally certain was it, 
 in such a situation, tiiat the supplies expected from Bengal 
 would be intercepted by the enemy ; and grain was already 
 become so scarce at the presidency that famine had com- 
 menced among the lower orders of people. The Bengal 
 government had for a long time been most earnestly pressed 
 to forward supplies, without which they were told the presi- 
 dency foresaw it must be reduced to the hard necessity of
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. js; 
 
 compelling a great part of the inhabitants of the Black Town 
 to seek for subsistence elsewhere ; and these supplies were 
 daily expected. 
 
 These considerations, joined to certain intelligence of the 
 near approach of Sir Richard Bickcrton with five sail of the 
 line, induced the president to prevail on the admiral to assist 
 the deliberations of the committee with his opinion and ad- 
 vice as to their fulure proceedings. They represented to him, 
 in the most forcible terms, the great importance of his pass- 
 ing the monsoon on the eastern side of the peninsula, and 
 the danger to which Madras and the rest of the Company's 
 possessions on the coast of Coromandel would be exposed 
 by his proceeding with the s(|uadron to Bombay. They re- 
 minded him of his having remained on their side of the penin- 
 sula the preceding year, without accident or the appearance 
 of danger ; they suggested the practicability of trying some 
 of the ports, said to be in the bay of Bengal, or that in 
 one of the Nicobars, or at Acheen head ; they stated, as 
 their opinion, that how great soever the risk to which the 
 ships of his majesty, whose interest is inseparable from that 
 of the Company, might be exposed, it must be still inferior 
 in its consequence to that of the disasters -which might follow 
 the departure of the fleet to the other side of the peninsula. 
 The admiral said, in reply, that his ships had been so much 
 shaken in the four actions with the enemy, that his going to 
 Bombay was absolutely necessary and unavoidable. But as 
 five or six weeks had yet to elapse before the setting in of 
 the raonsoon, he added, that if Sir Richard Bickerton should 
 arrive within a few days, he was resolved, with the co-opera-
 
 428 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 tion of the IMadras government, to attempt the recaptui'e of 
 Trincomalee. And on being asked if he could detach ships 
 to Cuddalore, to protect the operations of the army for its 
 reduction, he repUed, that he certainly could detach a suffi- 
 cient number to protect them against any force that Suffren 
 could send to oppose them. It was therefore resolved to 
 -invest Cuddalore; but information was soon afterwards re- 
 ceived that iSir Eyre Coote had been taken ill, and that in 
 consequence thereof the army was on its return to IMadras^ 
 under the command of General Stuart. The intended at- 
 tack on Cuddalore was therefore necessarily postponed for 
 the moment. 
 
 In this very critical posture of affairs, Lord Macartney 
 wished most anxiously that Sir Eyre Coote should attend the 
 committee, or if his indisposition made that inconvenient, tjiat 
 they should hold their meeting at his quarters on Choultry 
 plain ; but the general thought fit to decline both the one 
 and the other, and desired that General Stuart might attend 
 in his place. To their surprise and concern the admiral, 
 Avho two days before had I'eadil}' and chearfully assented to 
 co-operate, now gave a sudden and decisive refusal to any re- 
 quisition of the kind, notwithstanding that, himself excepted, 
 it was the unanimous opinion of the committee still to pursue 
 the enterprise. ^Vithout his assistance however it was im- 
 possible to proceed with any hope of success, and the project 
 ttf investing Cuddalore was consequently abandoned. 
 
 Eord Macartney being well aware that the French would 
 immediately attempt the reduction of Negapatan), as soon a»
 
 Ex4.RL OF MACARTNEY. 129 
 
 they should hear that the English admiral liad proceeded to 
 the. other side of India, and probably without waiting- for 
 ihat event, had prevailed on Sir Kyre Coote to send a 
 detaehnicnt to that garrison of three hundred inci> under the 
 eonmiand of Colonel i\dlarton. 'J'iiis reinffweenient, joined to 
 theforee already there, might, he conceived, give a lavorablr, 
 turn to affairs in the 'IViehcnopoly country, wlicre, for some 
 time past, they had worn l^nt a deploral)l(> aspect, the gar- 
 risons and the inhabitants being ('(lually (nsti(>ssed for pi-ovi- 
 sions, and our force too weak to sliow itself in the field against 
 Ti[)] 00 Saheb ; the troops were likewise greatly in aiicar of 
 })ay ; and at Tanjore there was an imnie(hal(> prospect of 
 famine. On the 3d October intelligence was recei\(xl Ijom 
 Colonel rallarton, of the intention of the enemy to attack 
 Ncgapatam. A council was immediately sununoned, at 
 •jvhich the admiral assisted. It Was now ])roposed and una- 
 ifmiously agreed that, if the information should jirove to be 
 correct, the squadron should [)roceed to its relief Sir Ed- 
 ward however thought lit to doubt the truth of the intelligence, 
 and observed, that he could hardly be ready for sea. before 
 the Ijth of the month, and tljat then it would be his diitv 
 to proceed round Ceylon without attempting the i-elicf of 
 Ncga[)atam, even if it should be attacked. The following 
 morning Lord Macartney received a letter from Mr. Sullivan, 
 dated the 3d October at Negapatam, advising that seventeen 
 sail of the enemy's ships were then in sight. A gentleman 
 likewise landed atoNIadras from Tranquebar, which he left on 
 the '3i\, who infomed Lord ^Macartney that Nega})atam was 
 actiudly attacked ; that after he was embaiked he had re- 
 ceived a letter from the shore, in which it was stated, that 
 VOL. I. s
 
 130 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 seventeen sail of ships were in the road, and had been fning 
 at the fort for tliree hours. The comnuttee upon this lost no 
 time in making a requisition to the admiral to proceed imme- 
 diately to thereHef of Negapatam ; but Sir Edward Hughes 
 dcclinetl to comply with it, and let them know that he ad- 
 hered to his former determination to proceed direct to 
 Bombay. 
 
 The oovernment of INIadras had now before it an awful 
 and humiliating prospect. The British admiral retiring to 
 the other side of the peninsula, and abandoning to their fate 
 the whole of the Company's possessions on the coast of Coro- 
 mandel, at a moment too when threatened with famine ; 
 leaving behind him an active enemy in possession of a secure 
 liarbor, and a fleet which, though four times conquered, was 
 actually engaged in attacking the most important of the 
 Company's garrisons; a licet which had assuredly suffered 
 greater damage than the English in every engagement, Avhich, 
 since the last action, had lost one of its best ships (the 
 L'Oiient) on a rock going into the harbor of Trincomalce, 
 and which came out of that port so ill refitted, that another 
 of its line of battle ships was run ashore at Cuddalore to pre- 
 vent her from sinking. Convinced, as every reasonable man 
 in the settlement was, of the fatal consequences of the admi- 
 ral's determination, but iiot convinced of its necessity, Lord 
 Macartney felt it his duty to urge every argument which, in 
 his opinion, ought to have Aveight with him against carrying 
 into execution a measure which threatened such dreadful 
 consetjuenccs to the Company's interests ; but Sir Edward 
 
 Hughes still persisted in his detcrnunatiou. 
 
 3
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. iji 
 
 Inronnation was now received l)y the president from INlr. 
 Sullivan the resident at Tanjore, that Sir Ixichard Bickertou 
 had arrived at Bombay and sailed again I'or ^Madras. 'Jhc 
 admiral observed, that he also had received similar informa- 
 tion from the same quarter, but it Mas so vague that he did 
 not believe it to be true, and that lie could not detain the 
 fleet on such authority. On the I'ith a letter was received 
 express from Bengal, stating that Mr. Ritchie the marine sur- 
 veyor would undertake to conduct his majesty's ships in 
 safety to a })roper anchoring place in the entrance ^)t' the 
 Bengal river. This letter conveyed pretty clearly the senti- 
 ments of the Bengal government, as to the necessit}^ of the 
 British scpiadron remaining on the east side of the penin- 
 sula. It was immediately communicated to the admiral, who, 
 at the same time, was told, " That as the safet}^ of the sct- 
 " tlement, and with it immediately that of the Avhole coast of 
 " Coromandel, was a niatter of the highest concern, nothino- 
 " should prevent the conunittee from fulfilling their public 
 " duty in acquainting him with the state of their sup- 
 " plies on which that safety nnist depend ; that the rice then 
 " at the presidency did not exceed thirty thousand bags ; the 
 " quantity atioat in the roads amounted only to thirty thou- 
 " sand bags ; the monthly consumption was, at the least, 
 " equal to fiity thousand J)ags : that their sole dependence 
 ^' for the preservation of the settlement was on the supplies 
 " expected by sea, and t\Kin supposed to be on their v.av ; 
 " that the number of boats for the daily service of his scjua- 
 " dron had, hi a great measure, deprived tlicin of the means 
 '" of landing the grain from the vessels already in the road ; 
 " tl)OSC vessels, and the others which might arrive in future.
 
 J32 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " V ould be exposed to the utmost hazard from the enemy if 
 " they should be left to the inadequate protection of frigates 
 " only ; that the fate impending, in such case, over the most 
 " imj)ortant possessions to the Company and to the state 
 " could neither be doubtful nor distant : that it nii^ht there- 
 " fore be worthy of his consideration, whether the sc[uadrotj 
 " should not remain in a proper station, at least, during a 
 " time sufficient for the landing under its protection the pro- 
 " visions already in the road, and those on their way from the 
 " northward ; and it was added that, at all events, if the 
 " whole (piantity were already landed it woidd still be very 
 "' inadequate to their wants." 
 
 The morning of the 15th October threatened an approach- 
 ing storm, upon which the squadron ])ut to sea and disaj)- 
 peared. 'J'he settlement was now doomed to experience a 
 new and most severe misfortune. The gale speedily com- 
 menced and continued to blow with increasing violence till 
 midnight. Several large vessels, and among them the Hert- 
 ford Indiaman, were driven ashore, others foundered at their 
 anchors, and all the small craft, amounting to nearly one 
 hundred in number, were either sunk or stranded in the 
 course of the uight. The following morning presented a 
 most melancholy spectacle ; the shore was covered with wreck 
 and dead bodies ; and the whole of the rice, amounting to 
 thirty thousand bags, was irretrievably lost. 'J'his dieadful l)lo\v 
 seemed to be decisive of the fate of the ])residenc3^ I'^ven 
 the fu'm mind of Lord I\lacartney was shaken, and despond- 
 encv s('i/e(l on ev{;ry soul. This however was not a time for 
 uiadioii. Not a moment was suft'ered to be lost without de-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. i2^t, 
 
 liberating what measures sliould be taken ibr aveilingthc des- 
 ])eratc nceessity of surrendering or abandoning Tort St. 
 George to the enemy. But whatever measures miglit be re- 
 solved upon, the government had the melaneholy truth before 
 it, that no human cfibrt could prevcjit the fate, A\'hich the 
 certain and immediate [jrosjiect of famine presented to the 
 miserable inhabitants of the settlement. \n consequence of 
 the dreadful ravages committed hy llydei's army, tlie black 
 town had, for some time before, been ciowded with people, 
 who had fled thither for rcl'uge from all parts of the count iv. 
 'J'heir lands overiim, their habitations burnt, their cattle car- 
 ried ofl', deprived of all nicans of cultivation, dreading the 
 return of that enemy from whom they lied, they had directed 
 their steps to the capital of the province, in the hope of pro- 
 tection, and the chance of subsistence. Some of these un- 
 ]ia})p3' creatures had again left the town and reached those 
 parts of the country which had escaped the devastation of 
 the enemy, when positive orders were sent by govermnent to 
 feed and protect them ; but these bore only a small propor- 
 tion to the vast multitudes Avhich remained in the town, and 
 of which hundreds now began daily to perish. To the horrors 
 of a famine was superadded the dread of a pestilence, •which 
 Avas only prevented by the activity and vigilance of govern- 
 ment, in causing to be collected and piled in carts such of 
 the dead bodies of the wretched sufferers as had fallen and 
 expired in the streets, or carried thither out of the houses, to 
 be conveyed to the place of interment. The mmiber thus 
 collected and borne out of the town to be buried in laroe 
 trenches made for the puri)ose, is said to have been not less 
 for several weeks than fiom twelve to fifteen hundred a week.
 
 S34 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 The calm resignation approaching to apathy with which the 
 iiaticnt Hindoos submitted to this most dreadful of human 
 calamities, and the firmness with which they pertinaciously re- 
 fused, under every circumstance of distress, to taste of ani- 
 mal food while languishing and dying for want of sustenance, 
 rather than violate one of the leading principles of their faith, 
 exhibited an instance of self-denial which, how much soever we 
 may be dis[)oscd to condemn, we cannot well refuse to admire ; 
 it formed a striking contrast with the conduct of the INIaho- 
 jnedan natives who, clinging tenaciously^ to life, were lie- 
 quentlv seen, as an intelligent officer * has observed, " dig- 
 " o;ino' in the enti'ails of a dead carrion" to prolong for a few 
 days, perhaps only a few hours, their miserable existence j-. 
 
 The disaster that had happened to the ships in the road 
 rendered it necessar}^ in the iirst instance, to cause a notice 
 to be oivcn in tlu^ most public manner, and in all the lan- 
 ouao-es si)okcn by the various classes and nations in ^ladras, 
 that no giain could for the future be issued for the consump- 
 tion of the inhabitants from the public stock, as had hitherto 
 lx?en done; and to warn all peisons not provided with a suf- 
 ficiencv of grain for themselves and families, until supplies 
 inioht be expected to arrive the following 3'ear from the north- 
 ward, to leave Madras inunediately. At the same time it 
 
 *■ Colonel Fullarton. 
 
 ■\- It would be difficult to form nny estlmnte tluit could be relie<l on as accurate 
 ijf the depopulation of the Carnatic, in consequence of Ilyder's invasion, by sick- 
 ness, by famine, and by the sword. Mr. Greville, on the authority of an eye- 
 witness of t'le miseries of that unfortunate country, states it, (in his Biitlsh JtiJiti 
 analhcd) at 540,000 souls, a number that, in all probability, is not tfxaggeralcd.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 135 
 
 was signified that all surli, as availed themselves of this suni- 
 nioiis, would be liirnished with a certain ([uautity of lice, 
 and eonduetcd under an escort towards the northern pro- 
 vinces which had suflcrcd least from the devastation of the 
 enemy, and wlicrc directions would be sent to |)ro\ide for 
 their subsistence. The army was immediately reduced to a 
 verj^ small allowance, calculated to such a (;[uantity every 
 day as would enable the whole to last till the probable arrival 
 of new supplies. U])wards of twenty thousand rations of 
 grain were provided for the daily consumption of the troops 
 and followers, and a sufficiency for all other persons actually 
 employed, or necessary to be retained, in the service of the 
 garrison of Fort St. George in the event of a siege. Lord Ma- 
 cartney set the example of sending away all the superfluous 
 servants about the government house, his horses, palankeen 
 bearers, and every person who was not absolutely necessaiy 
 to be kept ; and the humanity of government and of indivi- 
 duals was constantly exercised in devising means for mitigat- 
 ing, as much as possible, the dreadful calamity that had be- 
 fallen the city ; in consequence of which nourishment was 
 distributed daily to several tliousands under the Avails of 
 Madras. 
 
 It afforded but little consolation to Lord IVfacartney, after 
 having in vain opposed tlie admiral's resolution of going to 
 Tiombay, to find by a letter from him, dated the l/th of 
 November, that he now began to feel so far the incautious- 
 iiess of the step he had taken as to regret that winds and 
 currents had rendered it impossible f(jr him to return. This., 
 after-thought of the admiral could avail but little now ; had
 
 135 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 he been of the snme opinion on the Kith Oetober, the day 
 after the gale, uhcii in his letter of that date, written otV 
 Sadnis, lie still deelares his intention of proceeding to Bom- 
 bay to refit, without the least mention of any inclination to 
 return to Madras, the presence of a sn[)erior and victorious 
 fleet might have prevented many of the melancholy conse- 
 (juences which were the result of tlie ct)ast of Coromandel 
 being left wholly unprotected. Had he then returned, he 
 Avould have been joined by Sir Richard ]3ickerton who, four 
 days after liis de[)arture, arrived at ^Madras ; but who, after 
 speaking the Juno from the admiral's tieet, immediately again 
 put to sea. 
 
 To add to the accumulation of distress and difhcuhy, the 
 whole arm}- was now encamj^ed in the neighborhood of 
 ?^[adras, their pay six months in aireai'. Sir Eyre Coote in- 
 capable of continuing in the command, and actually em- 
 barked for I'ensi'al, and Oeneral Stuart at the head of the 
 forces. Independent of every other misfortune, liord 
 Macartney had long seen with pain the danger to which the 
 Company's possessions were exposed, while those entrusted 
 with the care of them had no control over the forces sent for 
 their protection. It was of little avail to gain victories while 
 an Indian (Miemy ravaged the Carnatic, and an European foe 
 t.iiumphed on the seas, lie conceived that something more 
 than a \ucvr def(Misive war was necessary to be waged, in 
 order to secure a sate and lu)norable peace ; but to all his 
 proposals and j)lans inn\mieral)le difticulties were raised and 
 obstacles thrown in the way. l'r<nn the moment of his arri- 
 val in India he began to experience those tnils whicli might 
 
 8
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 137 
 
 naUually be expected to arise out of the unparticijjated au- 
 thority vested in the comniander in chief of the forces ; and 
 he took the earhest occasion of stating his opinion both to 
 the Bengal government who had conferred it, and to the 
 Court of Dircctois, of the fatal consequences which miglit be 
 "apprehended from sucii ;t delegation of power. He had even 
 suggested a remedy ibr the inconveniences that Averc felt 
 from this divided authority. " Let the commanders in 
 " chief," says he, " of his majesty's land and naval forces 
 " have each a seat and voice in the select conmiittees of the 
 " ditlerent presidencies, and let them be equally bound with 
 " any other member to execute the resolutions of the majo- 
 " rity." The navy indeed has always been considered to act 
 distinctly and inde])endently of the civil government in the 
 colonies, but the army has invariably been placed under the 
 civil power wherever such power existed. A different system, 
 however, or, more correctly speaking, a total want of system 
 •with regard to the military, prevailed in India. 
 
 As a great part of the difficulties, against which Lord 
 Macartney had to struggle. Mere occasioned by the -unwar- 
 rantable powers partly assumed by and partly granted to the 
 king's officers serving in India, it Avill be necessary to take a 
 more particular, tluuigh a summaiy, view of the situation and 
 the conduct, of the commander in chief of the forces, and the 
 influence they had upon his immediate successor, Avithout 
 Avhich it will be impossible to form a just estimation of those 
 difliculties. 
 
 VOL. 1. T
 
 138 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 The Jate governor and committee of Madras, who had made 
 no provision for the war until Hyder AH had penetrated to 
 the very centre of the Carnatic, terrified at the storm that 
 wns ready to burst upon them, were gUid to transfer to Sir 
 Eyre Cootc, Avho had licen sent from Bengal, the whole con- 
 duct of the war, and thus get rid, as they imagined, of a 
 considerable share of the responsibilitv. Lord Macartney 
 finding on his arrival matters thus circumstanced, concluded, 
 that it did not remain for him to consider whether, on gene- 
 ral grounds, it was justifiable or safe to enlarge the powers 
 vested by the court of directors in the commander of their 
 forces ; but whether from the use that was made, in the pre- 
 sent instance, of such a delegation, the interest of the Com- 
 pany was most likely to be affected by the continuance or 
 the revocation of it. He clearly perceived the grand evil of 
 such a system ; he saw there could be no immediate nor 
 effectual check on the consumption and expenses of the army 
 Avhich, by speedily exhausting its resources, was soon arrested 
 in its progress. The licensed followers of an army of about 
 ten thousand men are stated to have been more than thiity 
 thousand ; these necessarily took from the fund of food, of 
 pay, of carriage, from the fighting men. The bullocks with 
 the army for train and draught, were seldom fewer than one 
 for every soldier, yet were declared by the commander in 
 chief not to be half sufficient for conveying its provisions and 
 ammunition ; yet they consisted sometimes of as many thou- 
 sands as there were hundreds accompanying those British 
 troops which, little encumbered Avith baggage or attendants, 
 fixed our dominion in Ilindostan. His Lordship gave Sir
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY 
 
 135 
 
 Eyre Cootc the credit to suppose, that his /eal for the service 
 vas abundantly strong lo inchne iiini to the correctioH ot* 
 those abuses ; but he could not at the same time avoid 
 perceiving that, tioni the indulgence of his nature towards 
 the companions of his kibours, from a fondness of military 
 popuhuity, and j)crhaps also from that decline in the vigor of 
 his mind, which sometimes follows ill health, those evils Avere 
 still likely to continue. lie was aware that the utmost ten- 
 derness was to be used on the i)art of the civil government in 
 attempting to restore that system of simplicity and economy, 
 ■which the state of their rcsonrces so impeiiously demanded; 
 and though the imwarrantable delegation of jjower was revo- 
 cable at pleasure ; yet out of respect for the experience and 
 abilities of Sir Eyre Ccote and his long services in India, he 
 Avas unwilling to propose rescinding any resolution of the 
 former government, by which a confidence was implied or a 
 compliment conveyed. lie conceived liioreover that it would 
 be for the good of the service to continue to the commander 
 inehiefthc same uncontrolled latitude, in which his temper 
 had been indulged, both as to the plan and conduct, as well 
 as the execution of all the military operations of the main 
 army, rather than incur the hazard of any temporary incon- 
 venience that n.ight be occasioned through ill humor or dis- 
 gust b}' pursuing a contrary line of conduct. And so scru- 
 pulously did he adhere to this principle that when it became 
 expedient, conformably with his instructions, to take pos- 
 session of Negapatam, and Sir Eyre Coote thouolit fit to 
 oppose the measure, his Lordship, in order to avoid tlie j')os- 
 sibility of giving otTcnce, did not allow a single man to be 
 
 'r '1
 
 140 ' PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 taken from the main army for this purpose. It could not be 
 su})posed however that a person of Sir Eyre Coote's hasty 
 temper would readily forgive the success of an expedition, of 
 Avhich he had reprobated the plan, pronounced the failure, 
 and disclaimed the responsibility. In fact, from that moment 
 he appears to have let no opportunity slip of teazing the 
 committee with complaints, or casting animadversions on 
 their proceedings. Still however Lord Macartney was re- 
 solved to make no alteration in the powers that had been 
 entrusted to him, nor in any respect to -withdraw the confi- 
 dence his predecessors had placed in him ; and he exerted 
 every nerve to anticipate his wishes by supplying the army 
 Avith money, provisions, and draught cattle. Indeed, it 
 evidently appears through their whole correspondence, that 
 Tx)rd IMacartnc}' was strongly disposed to show this veteran 
 officer every possible mark of regard and respect. His mo- 
 mentary sallies of ill humor he was willing to attribute to a 
 natural hastiness of temper, disappointments, and ill health, 
 convinced that in his cooler and fixed sentiments he would 
 be ready to do him that justice to which he was entitled. 
 " I never retort," says his Lordship, " any siiarp expression 
 " wliich mav occur in his letters. In fact, I court him like a 
 " mistress, and liunior him like a cliild ; but wit!) all this I 
 " have a most sincere regard (ov hiui, and honor him iiighly. 
 " But 1 am truly grit-ved at lie;irt to sen- a man of his military 
 " reputation, at his time of life, made miserable by those v/ho 
 " ought to make liim happy, and from a great public cha- 
 " racter worked into the little instrument of private malignity 
 " and disiippotnted avarice. All however," he observes, 
 
 1
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 141 
 
 " has been and shall be good humor and good breeding on 
 " my part *." But it appears that every attempt to concihate 
 him was fruitless so long as his ill advisers remained by his side. 
 He -vvas determined to be dissatisfied, refused to attend the 
 coi^sultations, and found fault with every measure that was 
 proposed. On some occasion Avhere it does not appear that 
 he had any thing specific to allege, he complained in gene- 
 ral terms to the o;overnor and council of Benoal of interfer- 
 ence in his authority, and threatened to lay down the com- 
 mand unless he should be invested with full and absolute 
 power to act in all cases without consulting the committee. 
 
 In consequence of this complaint, the governor-general 
 and council, who had already manifested a kind of jcalous\- 
 towards the new Madras government, for reasons Avhich will 
 be noticed hereafter, thought fit to direct, or as they artfully 
 express it, earnestly to recommend, that an unparticipated 
 command over all the forces in the Carnatic should be al- 
 lowed to Sir Eyre Coote to the utmost possible extent of his 
 wishes. In this letter to the government of Madras they re- 
 mark, that they perceive the great difficulties they (the select 
 committee) had to struggle vv-ith in supporting the ahny in 
 its operations in the Carnatic ; and observe, with concern, 
 that notwithstanding their great exertions, aided bj^ the un- 
 wearied zeal and unexampled perseverance of General Sir 
 Eyre Coote, and the established superiority of the forces 
 imder his command, scarcely any substantial advantage had 
 been gained over the enemy; that in ofl'ciing their advice 
 
 * Extract of a letter to Mr. Macpherson, dated Fort St. George.
 
 U2 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 thoj should use all the tenderness and delicacy which be- 
 came them upon a subject ot" which they profess to have no 
 adequate materials to found a certain judgment; yet, they add, 
 that for the sake of expressing their sentiments more fully 
 they would suppose exery case alluded to, to exist in its ex- 
 treme as the grounds of their conclusion upon them. They 
 then proceed to observe, that the general had complained to 
 them of an intert'erence in his command which, if not re- 
 moved, and all the military operations in the Carnatic left to 
 his sole and exclusive conduct and control, he had threat- 
 ened to relinquish his situation. " ^\ e do not," say they, 
 " pretend to inquire into the grounds of this complaint, in- 
 " deed Ave are better pleased that we are destitute of the evi- 
 " dence requisite to form a judgment, whether it is well oi- 
 " ill founded, than solicitous to obtain it. A\ e see but one 
 " single instance, in which the great importance of its object 
 " and its complete success M'ili justify tlie greatest irregularity, 
 " admittino- that anv was committed in the mode in which it 
 " was executed : we allude to the siege and capture of Nega- 
 " patam. A\'hether there are any other causes for Sir Eyre 
 " Cootc's dissatisfaction, besides tlie above, we know not, but 
 " we shall oHer our opinion upon the general question, and 
 " '^''g J<^^i ^^'ill receive it in good part. A\ e think that so 
 "much is due to the unexampled zeal and exertions of the 
 " present commander in chief, and to the confidence which 
 " we arc assured tlie army reposes in his command ; and so 
 " much depends, in all operations of war, on unilbruiity of 
 " system and authority, that we do most earnestly recom- 
 *' mend to you that Sir Eyre Coote's wishes in this point may 
 *' be gratified to their fullest possible extent ; and that you
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 143 
 
 " will allow liim an unparticipatcd oomiDand over all the 
 " forces acting under your authority in the Carnatic *." 
 Tlicy further observe, that the}- are sensible every jrovern- 
 ment must possess an uiliniate and overruling authorit}', 
 and tlsat the right of exercising such authority must also be 
 invariable and perpetual ; that cases may hapjjen in which 
 the instant interposition of that authority may be necessary 
 for the safety of the state without a participation or even a 
 communication with the person entrusted with the military 
 command ; that it Avill depend on the judgment of the 
 Madras government to determine, when cases of weight and 
 urgency demand their sole and separate interposition ; that 
 however, in some cases, the power of conducting military 
 operations might be even extended to the connnander in 
 chief; such, for instance, as in the conciliation of the de- 
 jiendent chiefs of the Carnatic ; tlie acceptance of terms 
 offered by those of the enemy, and, in general, such other 
 acts as do not fall Avithin the express line of military com- 
 jnand, but which may contribute to the success of its opera- 
 rations, either by adding strength to our arms, or weakenino- 
 those which may be opposed to them ; that in all such cases 
 the officer who is charged with the conduct of the war, 
 especially if he has shown himself deserving of that confi- 
 dence in an eminent degree, ought to be entrusted with an 
 implicit discretion. And after expressing their hope, that 
 the advice is sufficiently guarded which they have taken on 
 themselves to ofler, professing their total ignorance of any 
 cause Avhich could have excited the general's displeasure, 
 
 * Extract of a letter from the governor-general and council of Bengal to the presi- 
 dent and select committee of Fort St. George, dated lith March, 178::.
 
 144 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 excepting one which reflected great credit on the Madras 
 government, they proceed to observe, " Were we to adopt 
 " the ostensible and artificial language of that prudence 
 " Avhich dictates to the minds of men the sole preservation 
 "■ of their own personal characters, by acting under the 
 " co\er of presciibed forms, without regard to public con- 
 " sequences, we might avail ourselves of the powers with 
 "' which the court of directors have lately invested us over the 
 " other presidencies, to take the lead in all their military and 
 " political operations, and of the peremptory orders given by 
 " them to the other presidencies, to pay an implicit o-bedi- 
 " ence to our injunctions ; but the exercise of such a privi- 
 " lege might prove as ungrateful to you as it would be pain- 
 " ful to ourselves, and we know it to be unnecessary. We 
 " do not command : Ave only recommend ; and this degree of 
 " interference is assumed by us more with a view to lessen 
 " the weight of your responsibility, by taking on ourselves a 
 '• considerable portion of it in so hazardous a service, and in 
 '• circumstances requiring peihaps some deviation from the 
 '• rules of ordinary practice or general opinion, than for the 
 '■' purpose of iutiucncing your measures, or of opposing the 
 " judgment on which you had formed them*." 
 
 On ordinary occasions, a letter of this description, art fulK' 
 as it seems designed to embarrass the ]\Iadras government, 
 u)ight have been c(jnsidered to recjuire only an ordinary an- 
 s\v(M" from tlic hitter signifying its obedience to their com- 
 inands ; b\it as a <ireat deal more was meant by it. than meets 
 
 * Extract of a letter from the governor-general and council of Bengal to the 
 president and select committee of Fort St. George, dated i itli Marcli, 1782.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 145 
 
 the eye, and as it was )vritten at the very moment when Lord 
 Macartney's private secretary, Mr. Staunton, was hvino- in 
 Mr. Hastings's house, and receiving the fullest assurances oC 
 Jiis determination to co-operate with and supj)ort all his 
 Lordship's measures, and to act with cordiality, friendship, 
 and affection towards him, it was deemed proper to take such 
 notice of it as the embarrassing situation into which it threw 
 the Company's Government at Madras seemed to demand. 
 Previously however to any public answer being returned, it 
 may be observed, that on some oiders being received at 
 Madras, which followed close on the heels of this letter, re- 
 specting the necessity of sending a detaclmient of troops to 
 Bombay, the Madras government expressed, in repl}', its en- 
 tire approbation of the wisdom of the plan, and its earnest 
 wishes to "promote it; but they observed that as all the mili- 
 tary powers and some others that were not military had been 
 vested by the letter from Bengal of the 11th ]\Iarch in the 
 commander in chief, the ancient and constitutional system, hij 
 whose undivided enei^gy government was formerly enabled to act, 
 subsisted no longer; and that the Madras government was 
 thereby deprived of the means of enforcing their wishes. The 
 gentlemen of the supreme council, alarmed at this early proof 
 of the ill consequences of their undue interference thus ope- 
 rating to their own disadvantage, and ashamed probably at 
 their rash and unguarded decision, made by their own avowal 
 without examination, now thought fit to retract * the powers 
 they had given to Sir Eyre Cootc, or, at least, to absolve the 
 
 * By a letter from the governor-general and council to tlie president and select 
 committee of Fort St. George, dated July 4, 1782. 
 
 VOL. I. IT
 
 146 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Madras government from obe3'ing the orders contained in 
 their former letter ; endeavoring however, at the same time, 
 •with their usual ambiguity of argument and expression, to 
 qualify their former opinions, and make them convey a dit- 
 ferent sense from -what they cdnkl.bear. In reply to these two 
 contradictory letters of the llth March and 4th July, the 
 select committee felt it their duty to enter into a long and mi- 
 jiutc investioation of their own and Sir Eyre Coote's conduct 
 from the time of Lord Macartney's arrival at IMadras, They 
 point out, from the general's own letters, how ready he was, 
 on ever}' occasion, to do justice to the committee and espe- 
 cially to the president, " whose zeal and exertions," he ob- 
 serves, " for the support of a distressed cause had far ex- 
 " ceeded their merited success/' On their part, they add, 
 they Avere not only willing to satisfy him by their exertions 
 Avhen he wished for assistance, but by their forbearance as 
 much as possible in others where he wished to act without 
 controul or interference. " We had much reliance," they said, 
 " on the good effects of his experience, abilities, and repu- 
 " tation. We were sensible of the value of that confidence 
 " which the sepoys placed in his bravery and good fortune. 
 " His presence was thought necessary to inspire them with 
 " confidence also in themselves, which was supposed to have 
 " been shaken by the disaster that had happened to Colonel 
 " Bailie's detachment. The general's influence might be es- 
 " sential to keep troops together and in good order, to whom 
 " arrears had been due several months. His age and infir- 
 " initios might, we knew, afford him too many opportuni- 
 
 ♦' ties of desiring to (piit the command on the first dissatis- 
 
 o 
 
 1
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. ,47 
 
 *' faction he might feel from government. Those infirmities 
 
 " " and that age ; the irrilaljility occasioned by former contests 
 
 " with t!ic civil power ; the warmth and extreme sensibility 
 
 " of his tem[)er, which he indeed acknowledges aiul laments, 
 
 " warned us of the danger, and cautioned us against the oc- 
 
 " casion of giving him any dissatisfaction. We therefore not 
 
 " only furnished to his demands, with the zeal and exertion 
 
 " which he mentions, but we allowed the general order in 
 
 " his favor to remain in fidl force ; satisfied with apoloaizintr 
 
 " to our employers in general terms, as well as we were able, 
 
 *' for this forbearance from the exercise of part of the duty 
 
 " we had undertaken to discharge ; with a promise however 
 
 " of ceasing such forbearance whenever we should perceive 
 
 " that it would be for their essential interest we should do 
 
 " so. This determination to court and humor a veteran and 
 
 " valuable commander, Ave soon experienced, was not to be 
 
 "maintained without many sacrifices. We were neither con- 
 
 " suited nor made acquainted with the general's designs. The 
 
 " management and expenditure of the army Avere points that 
 
 > " approa(^ed too closely to his new prerogative to be exa- 
 
 *' mined or controlled by us without risking to provoke him. 
 
 *' It was even with the utmost tenderness that we expressed 
 
 " our anxious' wish for his presence and assistance at our 
 
 " board, of which he was a member ; and even when Ave saw 
 
 " the possibility of a famine amongst us, it Avas in vain that 
 
 *' AA'e requested he would communicate so much of his pro- 
 
 " spects and intentions, in relation to the army under his 
 
 " conmiand, as might be proper for our guidance in the mea- 
 
 " sures to be ^mrsued for the safety and subsistence of the 
 
 *' settlement." 
 
 u 2
 
 148 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 They then proceed to state that even when they under- 
 took the expedition against Negapatam, Sir Eyre Coote ex- 
 pressed his happiness that Sir Hector Muiu'o's health Avould 
 allow of his undertaking the command, as he was sure he 
 could not fail of success ; that however when the siege was 
 begun the general, on receiving a letter from Colonel Braith- 
 waite, then for the first time declared to Lord Macartney, 
 that it was riot consonant with his ideas to attack Negapa- 
 tam, and that he was not sorry in being relieved from so 
 great a part of his burden by the orders sent from the com- 
 mittee to the southward; and that he conceived himself ex- 
 onerated from all responsibility in that quarter ; that he took 
 care however, on finding that the enterprize was likely to suc- 
 ceed, to appoint agents, on the part of the ami}-, for the cap- 
 tures, though he had not furnished a single man from the 
 main army for the purpose. And that when the success was 
 made known of an expedition, undertaken by the civil go- 
 vernment, without the assistance but with the knowledge 
 and, at first, the apparent concurrence, of the military com- 
 mander in chief (though he latterly announced Tts danger 
 and impolicy, and disclaimed its responsibility) and of which 
 the private benefit was likely to be distributed contrary to 
 his wishes, he gave them notice that his bad state of health 
 required a change of air and a relaxation from business, and 
 that he meant to proceed immediately to Bengal. After 
 taking a complete view of every transaction connected with 
 military affairs, and proving most satisfactorily that, except in 
 the instance of the Dutch settlements, no interference what- 
 ever had been used on the part of the conmiittee witli the 
 command of Sir Eyre Coote, they proceed to state, " As by
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. ,45 
 
 " a letter from the court of directors you are to take the 
 *' lead in all military operations, ue thought ourselves bound 
 " to account with you for our silence or our defects on such 
 " subjects : but nc were conscious of our own authority, had 
 " we thought it expedient to exert it, over Sir Eyre Coote ; 
 " and therefore had no occasion to make, in relation to him, 
 " any reference to your board. You acknowledge, in your let- 
 " ter of the 11th March, the receipt of our proceedings. You 
 " are pleased to tell us you have read them with attention ; 
 " that attention must have discovered to you in them the na- 
 " ture and tendency of our conduct ; you must there have 
 " observed our forbearance from military control, and our 
 " confidence in Sir Eyre Coote, He assures us that his re- 
 *' monstrances to you spoke only to points publickly written 
 " on to this committee, enclosing his letters and our answers 
 " on the different heads, all which are among those proceed- 
 " ings which you have attentively read. You tell us posi- 
 " tively you see but one instance of interference, on the part 
 " of our government, in his general command, which inter- 
 " ference you think the importance of its object and its com- 
 *' plete success would, even if it had been irregular, have 
 " rendered justifiable ; and which reflects a credit on our ad- 
 " ministration. In all other instances he appears to have 
 " acted without control ; yet you tell us that he has com- 
 " plained in strong terms of our interference. His com- 
 " plaint must therefore, and is indeed acknowledged to re- 
 ' " late to that act alone which you consider as justifiable. As 
 " we were guilty of it by the exertion of that overruling au- 
 " thority inherent in every government when, in our judg- 
 " ment as in yours, it was proper to have exerted it, the
 
 ijo PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " source of such complaint could not be renioyed, and Sir 
 " Ej-re Coote's wishes in this point gratified to their fullest 
 " possible extent, according to your desire, unless we forbore 
 " from exercising that authority even Avhen, iu our judgment, 
 " we were called upon to exercise it. 
 
 " The reserve which you aie pleased to jiiake of our inter- 
 " position in cases of weight and urgency must be therefore 
 " merely speculative, not only as likely to militate with the 
 " possible Avishes of Sir Eyre Coote, most earnestly recom- 
 " mended by your board to be gratified to their tallest extent, 
 " but actually militating with his actual Avishes, communi- 
 " cated by you to us, for a sole and exclusive conduct and 
 " control, without any exception or reserve Avhatsoever ; nor 
 " is it perfectl}'^ clear to us that while you suffered 3^onr letter 
 " of the 11th March to remain in its full force, a com- 
 " mander in chief, at the head of his army, with the influ- 
 " ence and imder the sanction which that letter gave him, 
 " and who had insisted upon the sole and exclusive control as 
 " the condition of his command, would have been very ready 
 " to agree with us on the propriety of our interposition in that 
 " control, or to carry into execution any of our directions. 
 " We acknowledge that mc saw these consequences from- a 
 " compliance with your desires. We felt, at the same time, 
 " as we ought to have done, all the delicacy and attention 
 " towards us Avith Avhich they Avere conveyed to us under the 
 " name of most earnest recommendations ; but they Avere 
 *' unattended Avith the communication of an}- tact _or obser- 
 " vation that could be new to us, or to Avhich Ave had been 
 *' insensible, and Ave therefore concluded they must have
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. ^ 151 
 
 " been intended to operate, not upon our understanding but 
 " our obedience. We knew that, in the common intercourse 
 " of business, a compliance is expected, without having used 
 " the harsh expression of command. It was not difficult to 
 " foresee that any delay in that obedience niio-ht be con- 
 " strued into a jealousy of the power which required it, and 
 " into a consequent reluctance of 3'ielding to it. We fmd too, 
 " that any objection, which we might have urged against it, 
 " was liable to be attributed to passions, under the impulse of 
 " which you, who are a collective body as numerous as we 
 " are, candidly observe, that collective bodies sometimes act 
 *' without being sensible of doing so. 
 
 " It Avould at any rate have been an unhandsome return 
 " for your tenderness in the exercise of your authority, and a 
 " flagrant abuse of your literal expressions, if we had pre- 
 " tended to reject what you consider yourselves, and in the 
 " same letter acquaint us that you were empowered to com- 
 " mand, merely because you had been pleased to deliver 
 " it in the form of recommendation or advice : but to sfuard 
 " us against the ])ossibilily of such a misconduct, you take 
 " the trouble of reminding us, in giving us this advice, of the 
 " peremptory orders transmitted to us by the court of direc- 
 " tors to pay an implicit obedience to your requisitions; the 
 " reason you give, beside the painfulness of it to yourselves, 
 " for not exercising, in this instance, the powers so granted 
 " to you, that you knew it to be unnecessary, sufficiently 
 *' forewarned us of its exercise when it should cease to be 
 " imnecessary. We could not therefore, on the attentive 
 " consideration which it became us to give to yoin letter.
 
 152 ' PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " mistake its real meaning of strict obedience, notwithstand- 
 " ing the apparent latitude left to us in some parts of it ; and, 
 " at any rate, we were thus reduced by it to the alternative 
 " of yielding up at once, and, in all instances, the exercise 
 " and operation of our own judgment in the direction of the 
 " forces intended fur our protection, and placed by our em- 
 " plovers under our authority, as well as of political measures 
 " necessary for our safety and welfare ; or of preparing for the 
 " reception of orders peremptorily expressed from you to do 
 
 "so In complying therefore Avith the transfer of such a 
 
 ',' general and comprehensive authority to the commander of 
 " our forces, who was before but an individual member of 
 " our board, we plainly saw that, though we should conti- 
 " nue to be in office, we should no longer be in government." 
 
 After commenting at length, in a very able manner, on the 
 ill consequences that had already resulted, and must neces- 
 sarily continue to result from the impolitic transfer of all au- 
 thority to the commander of the forces, they proceed to ob- 
 serve, " It was, no doubt, the idea of benefit to the service 
 *' which induced you to pronounce immediately upon the 
 " partial application of Sir Eyre Coote, though you profess 
 " not to have inquired into the grounds of his complaints, 
 *' to have no adequate materials for pronouncing a judgment 
 " on the occasion, and are destitute of the evidence requisite 
 " to form it. AVe who have been too much influenced by 
 " the dread of that officer's quitting the command of the 
 " army on this coast, must make indeed a large allowance 
 " for your endeavor to retain liim in it. His loud and re- 
 ••' corded complaints of some acts of your board, during his
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 153 
 
 *' absence from Bengal, might have indeed been some argii- 
 " nient of his disposition to complaint, but from thence we 
 " cannot be surprised if yon should not Ije anxious for his 
 " return to his seat in that presidency. We still arc wilHng to 
 " flatter ourselves that a sense of the public danger, and a 
 " regard to private honor will be suflicient to prevent a sol- 
 " dier from deserting the service of his country ; and that he 
 " will be satisfied with the conditions on which he had en- 
 " gaged, and the further indulgencies he has experienced in 
 " it, without insisting upon the gratification of a sole and 
 " exclusive, and, as it calls for an unusual term in our lan- 
 " guage, an imperatorial control, extended, in fact, as you 
 " have found to be the necessary consequence, to all or 
 " the most essential branches of the government. 
 
 &^ 
 
 " In yielding to this new control we thonght it an inotfen- 
 " sive and, at any rate, an indispensable act of duty in us to 
 " warn, on his accession, the possessor of it with whatever 
 " wisdom, discretion, and moderation he might be supposed 
 " to be endued, of that responsibilit}' which must ever ac- 
 " company the exercise of delegated authority; and from 
 " which, as from that exercise, we were in the same moment 
 " and in the same proportion, absolutely discharged. But 
 " we fear you have given us more credit for caution than we 
 " deserve in the selection you suppose we had made of the 
 " terms used by us to Sir Eyre Coote, with a view to conceal 
 " our consideration of your recommendation as commands ; 
 " for we must have plainly enough betrayed our construction 
 " of them, by acknowledging that our compliance with them 
 " arose from our sense of duty to our employers ; and our 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 J 54 PUBLIC LIFE OV THE 
 
 " express mention of the responsibilities necessarily implied 
 " in the powers that were the object ot" your letter, and 
 " which must be both equally exclusive, Avas no indication of 
 " our having voluntarily acceded to it. For, in telling us, 
 " whether as an advice, recommendation, or command, that, 
 " for the good of the state, the general is to act without our 
 "concurrence; but that we are to concur in answering for 
 " those acts ; that he is to have an unparticipated command, 
 " but a participated responsibihty — you advance a doctrine 
 " so extraordinar}", so unjust and inadmissible, that we can 
 " scarcely give credit to those senses which inform us, that it 
 " proceeds from your board. 
 
 '• A circumstance more alarming in its immediate tendency, 
 " even than the alteration in the system of this government, 
 •' soon diverted our attention from that object. Your most 
 '* secret letter of the 25th March announced a mutiny among 
 " the sepoys in Bengal ; and every other letter from thence 
 " was full of the most direful apprehensions. You acquainted 
 " us with the very small number in your presidency of Euro- 
 " pean soldiers, on the superiority of whom over the native 
 " corps you depended for j^our essential security against the 
 *' fatal consecjuences, to which the interests and propeity of 
 " the Comj)any were exposed. Here also, without recurring 
 *' to the unusual, imgracious, and unnecessary expression of 
 " command, you, on this most critical occasion, only rccjuest 
 " us innnediately to return to you all the Europeans liere be- 
 " longing to your establishment with an addition from our own. 
 " No peremptory order could be more operative upon our sub- 
 " mission, We were bound to it by our duty; we were impelled
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 155 
 
 *' to it bj our sense ol' your repeated and liberal attention to 
 " our situation. Me placed our pride perhaps in proving that 
 *' we were not the less cordial and i^ealous in our co-operations 
 *' with you, wherever we were able, though we could not give 
 *' our approbation to all of your opinions. We instantly deter- 
 " mined on sending to you by the earliest opportunity all the 
 " Company's recruits destined for your presidency, who were 
 " then in the garrison of Fort St. George, having no authority 
 *' over the remainder. We deplored in our own minds, but we 
 '^' avoided, as you were then liable to be circumstanced, to ob- 
 " serve to you that the very first efi'ect of the restriction of our 
 authority might be to your own disadvantage ; but we ad- 
 dressed a copy of your letter to the general, in hopes he might 
 ' be induced to assist in your relief. We accounted to yoii 
 *' for not then being able to transmit his answer to you, by 
 *' telling you that, not having heard from him since the army 
 *' marched, we knew not at that time where he was. This 
 " simple assertion of a fact not needlessly and separate!}', or 
 *' singly introduced, but connected with the whole subject of 
 " the letter, and necessary for your information and satisfac- 
 *' tion, and without the smallest insinuation of any kind ■t() 
 " the general's or your prejudice ; you have thought proper 
 *' to ascribe to some s'lirits which you do not precisely de- 
 " fine, but too plainly not to that spirit of serving and satis- 
 *' fyiiig you which did alone, in fact, animate us on the oc- 
 *' casion. Ikit to proA-e that it was an improper spirit, you 
 " assert that the general could not, at that time, have been 
 *' more than ten miles from the Mount, which short distance, 
 ■" if it were true, would not warrant the inference ; because 
 ^' as he had marched four days before, ajid had not been
 
 ice PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " heard of, lie might, at a moderate computation, have lieen 
 " at sixty miles distance from Fort St. George, where we were 
 " to accoimt for him ; nor did Ave know whether he Avas gone 
 " north or south, or AA'est, or in some intermediate direction 
 " between those points : Ave find indeed now, by recurring to 
 " his letters, that he AA'as, at the time Ave Avrote, at Vadeca- 
 " pettah, south-Avest of I'ort St. George, thirty-tAvo miles dis- 
 '• tant from that Fort ; and three and tAventy from St. 1'ho- 
 " mass Mount. We wish to draAv no inference or derive ad- 
 " vantage from this inaccuracy in your assertion of the dis- 
 " tance, Avhich is not material, for though you should have 
 " calculated right, Ave should not have been culpable ; but 
 ^*,Avhat is most material, and Avhat Ave have the most solid 
 ■ *;', reasons in a public as well as private sense truly to lament 
 " js, that this unguarded and unmerited imputation discovers, 
 " among other circumstances, too manifestly and to our great 
 *' disappointment, a disposition in you to view our conduct 
 *' in an vmfavorablc light ; a disposition very different from 
 " the sentiments Avhich, in other parts of your letter, you 
 " profess to entertain, and which we yet hope your convic- 
 *' tioti of ourgocnl intentions will induce you to reali;^e. 
 
 " Of Sir Eyre Coote's disposition, even from the time of 
 " novelty and good humor, to impart his instructions or his 
 " views, or to communicate Avith us, or to commit his mili- 
 "~tary judgment and sagacity, you ma3' form some opinion 
 " from the event of our application to him in September last, 
 *• upon the apprehension of a famine, Avhen Ave anxiously re- 
 •* quested to knoAv how long, and to what extent Ave Avere 
 '•' likely to be sti^l called upon to furnish the army ; taking
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 157 
 
 " care to add to this re(|iicst, that we were very certain it 
 " was his most earnest wisli to take immediately the forces 
 " where they might find subsistence, as well as have new 
 " opj)ortunities of vanquishing the enemy ; but that what 
 " was desirable was not always practicable. Tcj this appli- 
 " cation, however urgent the occasion, he contented himself 
 " with returning to us our own words, that what was desir- 
 " able was not always practicable ; that were there magazines 
 " in the country to which he could have recourse when in 
 " want of provisions, he could then speak with some degree 
 " of certainty and precision, both as to his intentions ^and 
 " prospects, and sufficiently testified his dissatisfaction at our 
 " inquiry by throwing out, for the first time, a hint about 
 " quitting the command. 
 
 " A late plan of Mr. Sullivan's depended much as to its 
 " eligibility on a knoAvledge of Hyder's disposition to refuse 
 " or accede to the Mahratta treaty, concluded on the 17th 
 " May. At that knowledge we endeavored to arrive b}^ re- 
 " questing Sir Eyre Coote to be so obliging as to let us know 
 " whether from any late events, he had been able to judge 
 " of the present disposition of that chief towards peace, or 
 *' whether he had received any kind of information from or 
 " concerning him, by Avhich we might form an opinion of his 
 " intentions to reject or abide by the treaty in which he was 
 " included by his allies. But the general. Justly enough 
 " deeming that the only matters now remaining necessary for 
 " our consideration, were such as immediately related to the 
 " supply of aids for enabling the army to act, and professing.
 
 158 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " with some degree of luimor, liis wish to furnish us with 
 " every information, keeps back the information we desire on 
 " the ground of haying communicated whatever occurrences 
 " had happened of that nature to your l^oard, as the only 
 " persons wlio could decide on points of that kind, and in 
 " all of which he had acted in a manner strictly conform- 
 " able to the directions he had received from you/' 
 
 Ilavins o;one throuoh a variety of instances, in wdiich their 
 forbearance with the humor and caprice of the commander 
 in chief Avas carried perhaps Ijeyonxl the bounds of prudence, 
 they proceed to state : " Had these sacrifices to quiet been 
 " known to your board, you would probably have thought it 
 " superfluous to observe, how^ little flattering it can be to 
 " persons seriously occupied in public concerns, to gain an 
 " advantage in expression, which is a true position, or in ar- 
 " gument which, in relation to conduct is not so, unless it be 
 " plausible only, and not founded on truth and reason which 
 " it ouoht to be. In this ao;e of general education the talent 
 " of writing, as far as can be of use in business, is so univcr- 
 " sally diffused through all the 'middling ranks of life, that it 
 " ceases even to have the merit of distinction ; and were we 
 " of an age and disposition to be infected with this juvenile 
 " and exploded vanity, we should have been sutKciently 
 " brought back to the recollection of our folly by a Acry i-e- 
 '• spectable correspondent, who plainly observes to us of one 
 "of our letters, that it is a vcrji poor performance. Close 
 " reasoning, as far as it is just, is preferable, no doubt, to 
 " diffuse reasoning, which is apt to lead astray the reader,
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 
 
 159 
 
 " and to throw upon the writer the imputation of obscurity 
 " or dupHcity. But well turned periods, except for the pur- 
 '* pose of persuasion, which 30U so eminently possess, and 
 " except in works of composition, whose end is answered b}- 
 " tlie pleasure they confer, arc not always to be coveted, as 
 " being capable of sharing that attention, the whole of which 
 *' might be requisite to the discussion of intricate and iuiport- 
 *• ant subjects. At any rate there is little occasion for the 
 *' apology you oftbr for the general in this respect ; whether 
 " he finds that leisure which 3'ou thought his active pursuits 
 " might have denied him, or that he has most ready an in- 
 " genious assistance, certain it is that, with all our opportu- 
 *' nities, we have scarcely been able to keep pace with hi5 
 " correspondence. We have been obliged to answer several 
 " of his letters in one, and have often returned a lew pages 
 " for many with which he has honored \is." 
 
 This very able letter, part only of which is here quoted, 
 concludes by declaring their firmest conviction of the sincei'e 
 desire of the Bengal government for the relief and prosperity 
 of the Carnatic, as well as its full intention to continue its 
 best exertions for these purposes ; " if," they observe, " we 
 " are apprehensive that there is any sentiment existing in 
 " your mind, which we should wish to have removed from it, 
 " it is that of personal indisposition towards us, which indivi- 
 " dually we deplore as a severe and unexpected misfortune; 
 " but it is not a public consideration as not affecting your 
 *' public measures *." 
 
 * Letter from the president and select committee of Madras to the supreme 
 council, dated August 30, 1782.
 
 i6o PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 If the Bengal government really considered the presence of 
 Sir Eyre Coote, at the head of the Carnatic army, to be 
 necessar}', or if the}' Avished for his absence from their presi- 
 dency, they could not possibly have taken a more effectual 
 step to defeat both these objects than by first delegating to 
 him extraordinary powers, and immediately afterwards revok- 
 ing those powers, and restoring them, where they ought to 
 rest, to the civil government. They might easily have anti- 
 cipated the effect that would be produced on him who had 
 to surrender these powers, whatever degree of circumspec- 
 tion and delicacy was employed by the Madras government 
 in the resumption of them ; they ought also to have reflected 
 that a shifted authority could not easily estabhsh its confi- 
 dence ; or suddenly recover its influence. The greatest deli- 
 cacy was observed on the occasion by Lord JMacartney ; he 
 determined to conceal most carefully from Sir Eyre Coote, 
 who was then absent ^vith the army, the contents of the 
 second letter till his arrival at the presidency a fortnight 
 afterwards. And when, on his return to it, he refused to 
 attend the committee then held for the purpose of communi- 
 cating the sulyect, he directed the original dispatch from 
 Bengal to be transmitted to him, with a letter from himself 
 and the select committee, conveying those favorable senti- 
 ments, which they really held of his merits, in the most hand- 
 some and une(iuivocal manner. But notwithstanding this 
 delicate attention, on the part of Lord Macartney, it was not 
 difficult to perceive what line of conduct the general would 
 adopt; he seized, in fact, the first occasion to inlbrm the 
 conmiittce, that the state of his health required a sea voyage 
 and change of air, and that he had therefore taken the resolu- 
 
 7
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. i6r 
 
 lion of proceeding to JJcngal on the Medea frigate, which 
 Sir Edward Hughes had I-ent him for that purpose. lie ac- 
 cordingly embarked, and on the 'J8th Septcml)cr the Medea 
 sailed for Bengal. 
 
 "\A'hatever reasons Lord Macartney might have had to in- 
 duce him to observe, towards Sir Eyre Cootc, an extraordi- 
 nary degree of delicacy in the resumption of that imperato- 
 lial authoiity with which he had been invested, the same 
 reasons could not ap})ly to his immediate successor General 
 Stuart. He considered, in fact, that an impediment waS 
 now removed, which had hitherto delayed the carrying into 
 execution one material point of his instructions, the correc- 
 tion of abuses in the army department. The first object that 
 engaged his attention was the placing of proper checks on the 
 enormous and extravagant expenditure in every branch con- 
 nected with the military service, and especially that of the 
 ]jengal detachment, the accounts of which had not before 
 this period even gone through the ceremony of beino- exa- 
 mined ; and his next consideration was that of makino- such 
 a disposition of the forces as would prepare them to meet the 
 enemy in those quarters which were most exposed to his 
 attacks. A reinforcement of four hundred of his majesty's 
 troops Avas sent to the JMalabar coast to assist the operations 
 of the Bombay army which was intended to cairy the war 
 into Hyder's country ; three hundred to ]\Iasulipatam for the 
 protection of the northern Circars, against which the French 
 were supposed to have formed a design ; and five hundred 
 to reinforce the garrison of Ncgapatam, all of which had the 
 good fortune to arrive at their several destinations in safety. 
 
 VOL. I. V
 
 i63 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 It was equal!}' ibrtiumte for the presidency of Madras, and 
 nuleed for all the Company's possessions on the coast of 
 Coromandel, that the French were, in, a great measure, igno- 
 rant of the calamitous situation to which they were reduced, 
 and of the settlement of Fort St. Georoe bein"- abandoned by 
 the fleet. Had Sulfren known their real state, and stationed 
 two ships of the line, north and south of Madras roads, t1iey 
 would have been able most eftcctually to cut off those sup- 
 plies, on the safe arrival of which the preservation of the set- 
 tlement entirely depended ; but he had heard of the arrival 
 of the squadron under Sir Richard Bickerton, and knew not 
 that the admiral had left orders for this reinforcement also to 
 proceed to Bombay. To this circumstance alone they were 
 indebted for that undisturbed repose from the enemy's fleet, 
 whose visit must have been a conquest ; whereas by its ab- 
 sence they were enabled to receive, from time to time, very 
 considerable supplies of grain from Bengal and the northern 
 Circars, Avhich, though sufticient to preserve the army and the 
 settlement from absolute famine, could scarcely however be 
 said to have relieved that most afflicting calamity from the 
 ])oorer and the most numerous class of the inhabitauts of the 
 black town of Madras. 
 
 An event of the utmost moment to the British interests 
 in India closed the year 1782. 'lliis was the death of Ilyder 
 Ali, who expired at Chittoor between the 4th and the 8th 
 of December. It was natural to expect that such an event 
 would be attended with all those important consequences 
 which usually follow the death of an usurper, whose power 
 had been acfjuired by violence and preserved by terror. It
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 163 
 
 took place likewise at an inauspicious moment, when his 
 eldest son Tippoo Saheb was absent on tiie iNlalabai' coast 
 with the best troops of his arm}', ojjposing Colonel Iluni- 
 berstonc, who had advanced to attack Paliacacherry ; but 
 was necessarily compelled to retreat to Panian6, where the 
 command devolved on Colonel Macleod, who had been sent 
 from Madras with a detachment of the 42d regiment. Here 
 the latter was attacked by Tippoo Saheb's whole force, led 
 on in four colunms, in one of which was a body of Euro- 
 peans. They were received by the British at the point of 
 the bayonet, and repulsed with great slaughter; two hun- 
 dred of the enemy were killed on the spot, and about one 
 thousand wounded. On our side seven officers were wounded, 
 and only eighty-eight Europeans and sepoys killed and 
 wounded. Tippoo Saheb was supposed to be meditating a 
 second attack, when he received the intelligence of his father's 
 death, upon which he immediately returned with a few horse 
 to the Carnatic, leaving orders for his army to follow him. 
 Having first repaired to Colar and performed the usual cere- 
 monies over his father's grave, he continued his march and 
 joined the main army between Arnee and Vellore about the 
 end of December. 
 
 The ministers and sirdnrs of Hydcr Ali had mannsed af- 
 fairs with so much prudence and address that no tumult nor 
 disorder happened in the camp ; and through their good con- 
 duct Tippoo Saheb succeeded to the command of the My- 
 sorean army and to all the authority of his father without 
 the least opposition. He had the good sense and precau- 
 tion to adopt, without any ^lelay, such measures as could not 
 
 y 2
 
 r64 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 fair to ingratiate himself with the al•m3^ With his father's 
 accumulated treasures he paid off their arrears ; he abolished 
 the duties ou provisions sold in the camp, and, in short, laid 
 down a system of indulgencies for the troops, opposite, in 
 ever}' respect, to the severe and unjust polic}^ of his father. 
 Thus the youthful and spirited heir of Hyder, without the 
 odium of his father's vices or his tyranny, by some popular 
 and well-timed acts, and the hopes which a new reign usually 
 inspires, as well as by the adoption of European discipline 
 in his arm3% seemed likely to become a more formidable op- 
 ponent to the British power than ever Hyder Ali was. 
 
 Hyder AJi Khan, a few days before his death, is said to 
 have sent for his two principal dewans, and dictated to them 
 a letter which they were to deliver to Tippoo Saheb on his 
 arrival, and of Avhich the following is a translation. " I 
 " marched out of my country to attack and drive the 
 " English out of their possessions in the Carnatic, in which 
 " attempt I have expended a vast treasure. I invited the 
 " French, but since their arrival have never received any as- 
 " sistance from them ; however, should I recover, I think I 
 " should be able to finish what I have begun. I have raised 
 " myself to the nabobship of Seringapatam, established a 
 " great name, and conquered many countries ; I therefore 
 " desire you Avill not bring disgrace upon my name. You 
 *' will make peace with the English and return with your 
 " army to Seringapatam, and establish yourself in the govern- 
 " ment. ' I think there is no reliance to be put upon any as- 
 " sistance from the French ; but should their ships arrive in 
 " a mouth or forty-ilve days, you may join them, but weigh
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. - 165 
 
 " all niadcrs well ; do nothing rashly, and consider whether 
 " or not you can effect my plans, When you make peace 
 " give large bribes to the English officers, and procure the 
 "fort and district of Poodicolah belonging to the Tricheno- 
 " poly country and the hill and district of Ilalij^ady belong- 
 " ing to the Vellore country. You must have it stipulated 
 " in the treaty with the English, that they arc to grant you 
 " assistance whenever you require it. You will also take 
 " possession of the forts of Mahce and deliver them over to 
 " the French." Scarcely however had Tippoo sufficient time 
 to consider what line of conduct to adopt, when, towards 
 the end of December, he was joined by a French force from 
 Cuddalore, consisting of nine hundred Europeans, two hun- 
 dred and fifty coftVies and topasses, and two thousand sepoys 
 with twentj^-two pieces of cannon. At this time the whole 
 effective strength of the British force in the Carnatic, ready 
 to take the field, amounted only to two thousand nine hun- 
 dred and forty-five Europeans and eleven thousand five lum- 
 ,dred and forty-five natives. 
 
 Whatever line of policy Tippoo Salieb, from the circum- 
 stance of his father's death and the conclusion of a peace 
 with the Mahrattas, might be inclined to pursue, it became 
 the duty of the Madras government to be equally prepared 
 for peace or war. Indeed long before the former event, the 
 president had submitted several arrangements to the com- 
 mittee, which were approved by all the members except Ge- 
 neral Stuart, who appears to have considered it as a part of 
 his duty as commander in chief to object to every militar^-^ 
 measure proposed by Lord Macartney. From the moment
 
 i66 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 ^ this officer had succeeded to the command and to a scat 
 in council, he seems to hiive been engaged perpetually in 
 discussions about his rank and privileges, liis pay and 
 emoluments ; the records of the presidency \Vere loaded with 
 long memorials and minutes relating more to himself indivi- 
 dually than to the public service. One day he disputed the 
 meaning of the Company's orders, anotlier he contended for his 
 right to be consulted, and to have a voice not only in military 
 matters but also in the management of commerce, revenue, 
 and all the Company's concerns. It was as difficult to be 
 comprehended as it was seriously to be lamented, why Ge- 
 neral Stuart should feel such extreme solicitude for a voice in 
 council on matters so foreign to the duties of his profession, 
 which must unavoidably have broken in upon that time and 
 attention so necessary to be devoted solely to the care and dis- 
 cipline of the army. On finding that the select committee 
 consulted with him only on military matters, he thought fit 
 to complain to Sir Eyre Coote, who, in consequence thereof, 
 KUDmitted the question to the supreme council, " Whether 
 " any act of the select committee of Fort St. George, from 
 " which one of its efficient members is excluded from a voice, 
 " can be deemed valid ?" After much ingenious casuistry 
 delivered in a long minute of the governor-general and his 
 council, they, at length, arrive at this very logical conclusion: 
 " Therefore to wind up the argument ; since the select com- 
 " mittee is only competent by its constitution to take consi- 
 " deration of military atTairs or ne^ociations with anv country 
 " power of India, and the court of directors Imving given to 
 " every eventual commander in chief a sent and voice in the 
 " council, and select committee only when militarn affairs or
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 167 
 
 " negociations u^'th amj of the country poxvers in India shall be 
 " under consideration, they have given to such ofilccr a com- 
 " pctent and etFoctive seat in the select coniniittee without 
 " any distinction, exception, or reservation, the word onli/ bc- 
 " ing apphcable to the council, but not to the committee : 
 " and it is further our opinion that, such being the constitu- 
 " tion of the select committee, and by such constitution the 
 " commander in chief being an efficient member thereof, 
 " his exclusion from it on any occasion, or under any pre- 
 *' tence whatsoever, is both in itself illegal, and renders 
 " every act illegal which shall be passed by the select com- 
 *' mittee in exevy instance in which he is excluded *."' After 
 an opinion thus logically deduced by such high authority, 
 the line of conduct subsequently adopted by General Stucirt 
 will appear the less surprizing. 
 
 The turn, which these discussions gave to the opinions 
 and conduct of the officers in the king's service, was pro- 
 ductive of serious detriment to the Company's affairs, and 
 occasioned no little concern and embarrassment to Lord Ala- 
 cartney. Among those Avho showed themselves most dissa- 
 tisfied under the civil control was Sir John Burgoyne, who 
 commanded the 23d regiment of cavalry : his regiment about 
 this time had been ordered to be mounted, and Sir John was 
 extremely urgent that a preference should be given to his men 
 in point of accommodation and every other respect above all 
 other corps of his majesty's or Company's troops ; and appear- 
 ing to make no allowance for the calamities of the times and the 
 
 * Minute of the governor-general and council, Jan. iq, 178^.
 
 168 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 exigencies of their situation, was loud and frequent in his 
 complaints ; and every endeavor of Lord Macartney to show 
 attention to himself and to his regiment fell far short of the 
 sense he seemed to entertain of the claims of both. 
 
 In fact, the king's officers appear to have conceived an 
 erroneous and most dangerous idea, which they were at no 
 pains to conceal, and therefore became general in the army, 
 that the civil government had no authority over the king's 
 troops ; and the commander in chief ventured so far, without 
 the knowledge of the council, as to act upon such an opi- 
 nion. A detachment had been sent for the protection of the 
 northern Cii'cars, in -Nvhich were included near three hundred 
 of the king's troops. The chief and council of Masulipatam 
 were directed to employ them as circumstances might re- 
 quire. Man}' reasons pointed out Ellore to be the station 
 most conducive for the public service ; but Colonel Jones, 
 who commanded the detachment, informed the civil servants 
 there, that it was impossible he could move from Masuli- 
 patam until he had received General Stuart's orders for so do- 
 ing. Aware of the evils to be apprehended from a doctrine 
 of such dangerous tendency being suffered to gain ground. 
 Lord Macartney lost not a moment in delivering his senti- 
 ments on the occasion for the better information of General 
 Stuart and the army. " His majesty," he observed, " has 
 " been graciously pleased to send out troops to the assistance 
 " of the Company ; he has expressly declared them to be for 
 " their service, and they are actually in their |)ay. The king 
 
 " has formed regulations for their interior discipline, and lias 
 
 8
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 169 
 
 " reserved to himself to fill up the vacancies which may hap- 
 " pen in them, but how they arc to be employed, and when 
 " and where their services arc to be performed, niust depend 
 " on those whom they are sent to serve. The authority to 
 •' conduct all military operations lodged in the Company's rc- 
 " presentatives cannot be separated from the authority over 
 " the troops which are tO'Cxecute them. 
 
 " The king gives therefore to officers coming to India, and 
 " the secretary of state afteru'ards transmits to them, no in- 
 " structions as to military operations. The}' are not officially 
 " told from home what war they are to wage, what country 
 " to attack, or what expedition to undertake. They are 
 " simply informed, that they are sent to the assistance of the 
 " India Company, to whom the obedience of the officers 
 " as Aveli as troops is, by this very act, transferred while they 
 " remain in India. The mutiny laws, which do not say that 
 " the king's troops in India are to obey the Company and its 
 " representatives, do not say, that the king's tro6ps ia 
 " England are to obey the king and his commands, signified 
 " by his secretaries of state or of war ; but both are equally 
 " understood. The senior officer of the king's troops in India 
 " is vested with no unlimited power; he must receive orders 
 " before he is empowered to act ; he has no orders from the 
 " crown ; he must therefore necessarily take them from the 
 " authority commanding where he is sent. 
 
 " Before the India Company had any extensive posses- 
 " sions ; when the war that AVas to be waged in India was 
 " chiefly intended against an European and a national 
 
 VOL. I. z
 
 170 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " enemy, 3'et the instructions of tlic commanding officer of 
 " the reinforcements, sent by the crown, expressly directed 
 " him to follow the determinations of the Company's repre- 
 " sentatives ; nor was a failure considered justifiable on his 
 « part, unless a council of officers, particularly named in the 
 " instructions, should deem the plan proposed to be im- 
 " practicable *." 
 
 Agreeably with these principles General Stuart was di- 
 rected by the committee to send immediate orders to Colonel 
 Jones to march to Ellore with the king's troops under his 
 command, if the chief and council of Musulipatam should 
 continue to think that measure necessary for the public ser- 
 vice ; a requisition which the general, after reading the pre- 
 sident's minute, thought fit to comply with. But a few da3S 
 afterwards he delivered to the committee what he called an 
 answer to the minute of the president above quoted, in 
 which, after declaring that he acts under Sir Eyre Cootc, he 
 observes, " I am likewise of opinion that there are cases 
 " where the requisition of government, concerning the em- 
 " ployment of his majesty's troops, may be refused by the 
 " officer commanding, who thereby makes himself answer- 
 " able for such refusal, but not to this government -f." 
 
 These dangerous doctrines still asserted and maintained by 
 the commander in chief; an independent authority assumed, 
 in a separate capacity, over the king's troops, which then 
 
 • Extract from president's minute in select committee, December 10, 1782. 
 t Extract from Genera) Stuart's minute in select committee, December 16, 178;:. 
 
 3
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 171 
 
 constituted the principal strongtli of the Carnatic army ; an 
 avowal of obedience to another authority superior to that 
 which he owed to his employers ; all these considerations de- 
 termined Lord Macartney to put an end at once to tiic discus- 
 sion, by moving in the committee that General Stuart should 
 be positively required in future to send no orders nor instruct 
 tions whatever to any of the king's or company's officers em- 
 ployed at a distance from the presidency, excej)ting on matter 
 of detail or the discijiiine of the troops, without previously 
 conmiunicatinsi; such orders or instructions to the select com- 
 mittee for their approbation. It was indeed not difficult to 
 perceive that there was but a slight transition from a refusal to 
 employ the king's troops upon a requisition from the civil 
 government to the employing of them without a requisition ; 
 it was impossible to foresee to what uses such an authority 
 might be applied, and where the consequences might end ; 
 and it was of little avail towards the retrieval of those con- 
 sequences that the character, property, and life of a com- 
 mander in chief became answerable ; the forfeiture of any or 
 all of which would be a poor compensation for the mischiefs 
 occasioned by his wickedness or folly. 
 
 It is' not necessary to multiply instances of the counter- 
 acting spirit manifested by the new commander in chief. In 
 fact, from the moment of his succeeding to the command in 
 September till the event of Ilyder's death, the greater part 
 of his time appears to have been occupied in writing volu- 
 7ninous minutes to be laid before the committee, and entered 
 on the records, many of them not less extraordinary in their 
 composition than dangerous in their principles. He had
 
 172 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 repeatedly been urged by Lord Macartney to have the army 
 in readiness to take the field upon any emergenc}'. ^Vhen 
 therefore no doubt could be entertained of the demise of Hj'der 
 Ali, his Lordship, in sending the intelligence in circulation 
 anions the members of the committee, took occasion to ob- 
 serve that this important event was a fresh motive for action. 
 But the general, in his usual spirit of opposition, replied, 
 that he did not believe the fact ; but that if it were true, the 
 army would be ready for action in the proper time. 
 
 It was a cruel mortification for one so anxious as Lord 
 Macartney was to seize every circumstance and moment that 
 could be converted to the public welfare, to be thus baffled 
 in all his plans for that end, by a spirit of contention and 
 contradiction. Every man of common sense in the settlement 
 was of opinion, that the death of Hyder Ali was an event 
 -which held out such great advantages as to have justified any 
 risk, and so attainable that they required only a hand to 
 seize Ihem ; yet they were not seized nor even attempted. 
 His Lordship appears to have left no argument untried, no 
 assistance unoflercd to accomplish the immediate movement 
 of the army, or even a part of it towards the eneni}'. The 
 advantages of instant exertion, and the disadvantages of in- 
 action and delay were urged with ccpuil force. The com- 
 mittee resolvtd that the army should immediately hold itself 
 in readiness to take the firld, and the general was desired to 
 issue orders for that purpose, and to cause every exertion to 
 be made, as far as depended on him, that the army might 
 be encamped with as little delay as possible. Four days alter 
 this the general delivered a minute in 'answer to the prcsi-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 175 
 
 dent's observations, and the resolution of the committee, in 
 which he affected still to disbelieve the death of Ilyder, and 
 considered any imnjediate movement of the army as imprac- 
 ticable. With regard to the latter point he observed, " AVhat- 
 " ever the president urged, near a month ago, has been taken 
 " notice of on my part nearly about the same time ; but it 
 " really astonishes me there should be 30 little reflection as to 
 *' think that when the whole face of the country was covered 
 " with water, and no tents for cover in the most inclement 
 " monsoon known in this country, and with half allowance of 
 " rice from the necessities of the times, any person can talk 
 " of undertakings against the enemy, or of any immediate 
 " movements of the army at this time *" 
 
 The general had indeed, as appears by his minutes, taken 
 notice of what the president had urged near a month before, 
 and that notice was, " that as soon as it was practicable and 
 " proper, and that the object did deserve it, the army should 
 " be put in motion :" and further, " that upon any real 
 " emergency the army may and must move even were it 
 " without their guns ;" and it was resolved in committee 
 where the general attended, that the army, on its present 
 establishment, ought to be at all times ready to move ; he had 
 also said very recently, that if the news of Ilydcr's death 
 were true " the army would he ready for action in proper time." 
 The object which now presented itself deserved of all others 
 the most attention, yet the army zeas not put in motion ; a 
 real emergency now actually existed, and the army neither 
 
 * Extract from General Stuart's minute in select committee, Dec. 16, 1782.
 
 174 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 moved without its guns, nor did General Stuart prepare liini- 
 sclf or listen to the president's proposal, that a part of it 
 should move zuith them ; and, lastly, the news of Hyder's 
 death was true, and the proper time for action, yet it Avas 
 allowed to pass away without improvement. 
 
 Intelligence now came in from all quarters confirming the 
 event of Hyder's death, and representing the advantages that 
 might be derived from a movement of the main army. Gene- 
 ral Stuart had himself a variety of letters, both from Englisii 
 otlicers and native amuldars, strongly recommending that 
 the army should show itself on the frontiers, in which case 
 all the forts at the foot of the passes would Avithout opposi- 
 tion fall into our hands. The commanding officer at Tri- 
 passore observed, that nothing but the hourly expectation of 
 Tippoo Saheb kept the army together, that the whole camp 
 was in the greatest consternation, fearing they "would be 
 attacked before this chief would join with his forces ; that 
 numbers had deserted, and that it was the opinion of all those 
 <leserters, that if the English were to march suddenly to- 
 Avards them before Tippoo Saheb's arrival, the whole arn)y 
 would disband and fly into their own country without firing a 
 shot. Such were the opinions expressed in several letters 
 addressed to General Stuart. 
 
 At length, on the 4th January, the president received a 
 paper from the general, informing him that the ami}' had 
 taken the field ; reporting its situation and its wants, and the 
 measures necessary for supj)lying them ; all of which .were 
 adopted agreeably to his recommendation. Lord IVtacartney
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 175 
 
 then delivered in a plan of operations, as the general had 
 presented none; and, at the same time, he observed; that 
 other ideas might be proposed, that those he had suggested 
 were only for the present moment, that he offered them with 
 reluctance and with the diffidence which became him, as well 
 as with the regret of observing, that there did not appear to 
 be really then any adequate, grand, or solid object attain- 
 able for the army in the Carnatic, though there might be 
 elsewhere, as it would be here, in the present prospect of 
 things, little more than an army of observation and 
 defence. 
 
 On the 5th February the army marched. ; on the 8th ar- 
 rived at Vandiwash, and on the 9th in the morning, the 
 enemy's camp was seen from a hill. Qn the 13th the general 
 marched and offered battle to the enemy, Avho moved off to- 
 wards the river in great confusion. The next morning the 
 army returned to Vandiwash and demolished the works.. 
 From hence it proceeded to Corongoly and, having with- 
 drawn the garrison and stores, blew up the fortifications. 
 The former could not have held out longer than two or three 
 days against the united force of Tippoo Saheb and the 
 French, who had now joined him, and there was no possi- 
 bility of defending Corongoly which would easily have been 
 breached. When the army arrived at Vellore, the general 
 learnt that Tippoo was retreating from the Carnatic and that 
 he had ordered two sides of the fort of Arcot to be destroyed,, 
 and the place evacuated. On the 20th February the army 
 encamped within three miles of the Mount-
 
 176 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 During the absence of the commander in chief on this 
 short' expedition, letters were received from General Mat- 
 thews advising of the surrender of the important fortress of 
 Bidenour or Hydernagur to the army under his command ; 
 adding that Mangalore would be his next object; but that 
 his attention was called oft" by a report, that a large party 
 were coming against him from Tippoo Saheb's army of ten 
 thousand horse and twenty thousand foot ; that he hoped the 
 exertions of the presidency of Madras would prevent so great 
 a force from advancing so far, and that the ' southern army 
 would be ordered to advance towards Seringapatam. This 
 intelligence sufficiently explained Tippoo's abandonment of 
 the Carnatic. Orders were immediately sent to Colonel Lang, 
 who commanded the southern army, to march to the west- 
 ward ; and it was submitted to General Stuart, whether it 
 was not possible, and indeed very practicable, to march with 
 a considerable part of the army towards the territories of 
 Tippoo in the neighborhood of Vellore, as the enemy had 
 evacuated Arcot without marking his retreat by the deso- 
 lation of the country or destruction of its resources; autho- 
 rizino- him however at the same time to use his own discre- 
 tion in any mo^'ement or operations of the army, which might 
 appear expedient to him, at that time, to be pursued for at- 
 taining the object the committee had in view of supporting 
 the superiority lately acquired, and preventing any misfor- 
 tune to the army conmianded by General Matthews. The 
 general, however, stated, in his answer, that it was abso- 
 lutely impossible to move the army under his command in 
 that or any other direction ; that in his opinion the best di- 
 
 7
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 177 
 
 version, after supi)lying themselves as fully as possible, \vliere 
 tlicy were, would he to proceed to Cuddalore, and if the 
 Preach should be Ibund to have abandoned it, he would, in 
 that case, if he could not come uj) with them, proceed to 
 destroy every possible means of their countrymen by sea or 
 land tinding future shelter on this coast, beginning first with 
 Cuddal re and next ])roceed to Pondicherry. And asTippoo 
 Salieb had now evacuated the Carnatic, the general vei'y justly 
 observed, that it might be proper to embrace the first op- 
 portunity of intimating to that chief that, whatever might be 
 the reciprocal interest and inclination of himself and the Com- 
 pany to terminate the war, so desirable an event could not 
 take place, if he should yield to anv solicitations on the part 
 of the French, for ceding to them any of the forts, territories, 
 or places now in his possession, or binding himself, contrary 
 to the prudent precaution of his father, to make a common 
 cause or engage in a permanent connection with a nation 
 which had no solid footing now remaining in the country. 
 
 Nothing could be more congenial with the sentiments of 
 Lord Macartney than such a }n-oposal. There happened then 
 to be at Madras a vakeel or agent for the rajah of Tanjore 
 Avho, being a bramin, was about to proceed to the pagoda of 
 Conjeverarn for the purpose of performing devotional exer- 
 cises. As this person would have an oj)])ortunit3^ of confer- 
 ring with his friends from Tippoo's camp in that neighbor- 
 hood, the president was of opinion that the occasion should 
 not he lost of attempting' to open a communication with the 
 chief of Mysore, if it was only for the purpose of request- 
 ing the exertion of his humanity towards our prisoners, 
 
 VOL. I. A A
 
 178 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 though, at the siime tune, his indinations might be sounded 
 with respect to a pacification without the embarrassuient of 
 sending a dejiulation directly from government. The com- 
 mittee unanimously concurred in the sentiments of the presi- 
 dent expressed in his minute, and authorized liim to give 
 such instruction to the vakeel as he might deem to he ne- 
 cessary. 
 
 On the 25th February the vakeel returned to Madras. He 
 had met at Conjeveram a bramin and another person, both 
 confidential servants of Tippoo Saheb, who gave him assur- 
 ances tliat attention should be paid to the English prison- 
 ers, and that if the ]:'nglish woidd agree to reasonable terms 
 of peace with the INIysorcan, the latter would break off 
 all connection with the French, though lie would not con- 
 sent to deliver them into the hands of their enemies, or bc- 
 liave otherwise dishonorably towards them. The vakeel of 
 the rajah had been prevailed upon l^y those persons to visit 
 '.I'ippoo Saheb, 'who not only confirmed their assurances, but, 
 as a mark of his desire to make peace, sent one of his prin- 
 cipal men with the vakeel to Madras to confer on the terms 
 of it with Lord Macartney, But although, by 'J'ippoo's de- 
 claration in the presence of the vakeel, this ]i(^rson had the 
 directions of his master to treat accordingly, 3'et as he brought 
 no written credentials from that chief his Lordsliip thought 
 it most becoming in him not to sec him until he should be 
 furnished with such ; but he had no objection to his remain- 
 ing in the vakeel's garden to gi\c an opportunity to his master 
 to send him the necessary powers for his being rcgularl}' ac- 
 knowledged. Tijipoo however thought proper fo start a dif-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 1^5 
 
 ficulty oi\ a point of etiquette. In his letter to his agent he 
 0I18OIVCS, " '1 here is no enmity or dissension subsisting be- 
 " tween tlie JjiigHsli and me, therefore the governor, con- 
 " tbrmable with the eustoin of the world, ought to have s(mt a 
 " letter of eondolence on the death of my lather; but since 
 " he did not favor me with it, I think it is not customary in 
 " the world that I slipuld write him fn'st ; as he is a vase man 
 " 1 have no occasion to wv'ite more on this subject." 
 
 In the mean time, Monsieur de Bussy arrived with a rein- 
 f()rcement at Cuddalore, wliile the British army remained 
 inactive in the neighborhood of ]\Iadras. On the receipt of 
 this intelligence, Lord IVIacartney was extremely anxious that 
 tlie army should march Avithout delay to invest Cuddalore 
 before the works could be strengthened, and before Tippoo's 
 forces, or the French who had Joined him in Mysoic, should 
 return to the Carnatic ; Init the attention of General Stuart 
 still seems mostly to have been occupied in composing Iou/t 
 juinutcs, sonie filled with statements of difficulties, many of 
 them apparently created to sanction delay, and others 
 abounding in personal invective against the president, v/hom 
 he accuses of plai/ing the general, occupying thejicld of Mars, 
 and of having probably some personal views in the destruc- 
 tion of the enemy. About fourteen days however after the 
 time fixed upon by himself, that is to say, on the 21st April, 
 he was peremj)torily commanded to march the -army towards 
 Cuddalore. He did indeed put the troops in motion, but a 
 number of fresh difficulties were started on the march, among 
 which the want of money to pay the troops was considered 
 as the most urgent and alarming. The treasury was ex- 
 
 A A 2
 
 iSo PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 bausted for tho purpose of satisfying tlieir demands, and 
 every pagoda that it was possible to procure was sent to 
 the general ; and so anxious was Lord Macartney to con- 
 tribute all that was in his power to keep the troops in good 
 humor, that he actually raised, upon his own private notes, 
 a very considerable amount in small sums of fifteen hun- 
 dred, two, three and four thousand pagodas *. Ten lacks 
 of rupees had been sent from Bengal, but the persons into 
 whose charoe thev were o-jven, refused to deliver them to 
 the council, as their orders were to put them into the hands 
 of Sir Eyre Coote, and not to the civil government. Sir ]:^yre 
 Coote however luid before their arrival resigned his conmuuid 
 with his life on the 2()th April at Madras, three days after 
 his landing there from the sliip, which had brought him from 
 Bengal. This ship was chased several days by some of the 
 French cruizers, and was sometimes in hourly danger of 
 being taken. The state of prolonged anxiety, occasioned by 
 this circumstance, is supposed to have operated so strongly 
 on the mind of this veteran officer as to have brought on a 
 third fit of apoplexy which terminated his life. 
 
 Before General Stuart's d(,'i)arture liom the presidency, at 
 a consultation, held on the l/th April, he had earnestly re- 
 
 * His endeavors were warmly seconded by a gentleman whose public spirit de- 
 serves to be publicly noticed. In a letter to a gentleman of the supreme council, 
 his Lordship observes, " I must beg leave to recommend to your attention Captain 
 " Mercer, who carries this dispatch. lie is a character but one very muclj to my 
 " miiid. lie is public spirited, whidi is some merit in a man of twenty-five years' 
 " standing in India. He brouglit dowij your treasure to us without charging 
 " freight ; and a ft. w days since, on hearing vrc were distressed for money to make 
 " the army march, he raised a large sum on his own credit, and lent it us without 
 " any conditions. But he shall be no loser by tiiat."
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. i8i 
 
 rommcnJcd the committee to empower liim, should he had 
 it necessary, to order Colonel Lang to join him with the main 
 army from the southward. liord ]\[acartney reminded him 
 of tlie important service, on ^vhich Colonel liang's army was 
 then employed in attacking the enemy's possessions in the 
 Coimbatore country, encouraging tlie disaffected there, and 
 creating a diversion in favor of General Matthews, who, 
 without such diversion, might not be able to make head 
 against the force opposed to him. However as the speedy 
 possession of Cuddalore, and with it the newly arrived French 
 force, was a most important object, and as the general assured 
 the committee he would, at all hazards, leave a sufficient 
 force to the southward, to maintain their footing there, to 
 give protection and encouragement to those who might de- 
 clare in our favor, and even to act oftensively and assist 
 General Matthews ; and as at a committee held on the 19th, 
 the general expressed his hope, that they would placc> that 
 confidence in him to believe, that he would not call Colonel 
 Lang with a part of the southern army to join him, l)ut on 
 the fullest conviction of the absolute necessity of the measure, 
 in order to effect the great object of getting possession of 
 Cuddalore and the French force there ; and that he Avould do 
 hi§ utmost to let the committee be judges of that necessit}' 
 before he determined on the measure — the committee, con- 
 ceivino; it rioht to oive to the conmiander in chief a certain 
 latitude for the exercise of discretionary powci', n-solved ac- 
 cordingly to authorize him to order Colonel T>ang to j(,)in the 
 main army with a part of the southern troops, in case that 
 measure should be found to be indispensably necessary. Yet 
 this commander in chief, as it afterwards appeared, on the
 
 iS2 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 preceding day, the 1 8th of April, and before he left the pre- 
 sidency, had written to Colonel hang, without saying one word 
 to tlie committee on the subject, ordering him to Join the 
 main army himself with the greater part of the force under 
 his command. As soon as the intelligence of this hidden 
 transaction (irst reached tlrj conunittee, wdiich was not till 
 the middle of J\lay, when a copy of the order was obtained 
 from tlie general, but not till repeated applications had been 
 made to him, and a declaration that unless it was connnu- 
 nicated his clisci-etionary authoiity w^ould be withdrawn, they 
 found It right to make a strong remonstrance on such impro- 
 per conduct; and shortly after, on the receipt of unilivorable 
 intelligence from the IMalabar coast, it was considered expe- 
 dient to give him positive orders to stop any troojis that 
 mioht be on their march to join him from the southward ; 
 obser\ing to him, at the same time, that " since his mareh- 
 " ino- from Madras they had made an addition to his army of 
 " u I) wards of one thousand Europeans, and a battalion of 
 " sepovs ; a force alone greater than that with which General 
 " Lawrence drove the rrench from India. You desired," 
 they add, " and obtained, before this considerable increase, 
 " a power from us of calling for assistance from the south- 
 •' ward, in the case only of its becon)ing indispensably ne- 
 " cessary to your success ; and of which necessity you were 
 " to do your utmost to make us l)e judges. 'I'he use you 
 " have made of the confidence we jj'aced in lou, forces 
 " us to caution in the continuance of it. We dc-sire there- 
 " fore that you will connnunicate to us without delay copies 
 " of all the orders you have sent to Colonel Fullarton and 
 " ?»[ajor Bruce, with your reasons for them, and that yon will
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 183 
 
 " enclose to us, and to us only, all such orders as you shall 
 " in future think cxpechent to be issued to the southward, 
 " with voiu' reasons for them, which, if we approve, we shall 
 " forward and direct the execution of them ; and, in the 
 " mean time, that you will countermand the execution of 
 " those already sent by you until they shall be confirmed by 
 " us. These arc precautions, ^\ Inch your deviation from vour 
 " own dcckn-ations has suggested to us, and wiiich the pre- 
 " sent state of aM'airs to the westward has rendered indis- 
 " pensable *." In the same Icttei' he was also warned of the 
 fatal consequences which might be expected from the unac- 
 countable delay that had already taken place on an expedi- 
 tion which, on evcr\' consideration, demanded dispatch ; he 
 was told, that he had not marched at the rate of three miles 
 a day, and that the admiral, who had proceeded to co- 
 operate with the army, declared he could not remain before 
 Cuddalore till the end of June for want of water and provi- 
 sions. It scenss indeed from what appears on the records 
 utterly impossible to account for the general's procrastination. 
 He marched from the Mount on the 521st April, lie did not 
 meet, he was not apprehensive of meeting, any resistance 
 on the road. He did not arrive at Cuddaloie till June. 
 The distance is little more than one hundred miles. The 
 march at the common rate, and allowing for accidents, 
 is not more than twelve da^s ; the carriage of provisions 
 actually Avith the army was avowedly for double the 
 number of those days. On his route* there was provided 
 
 * Extract of a letter fioni the president and select committee of Fort St. George 
 to Major-general Gtuart, dated May , 1783.
 
 i84 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 a large magazine of provisions. A swift sailing ship was 
 taken up to land him provisions at Pondicherr^'^ within 
 about a day's march of the bound hedge of Cuddalore. 
 Every effort appears to have been made to pievent his Avants, 
 to ensure his success, to satisfy his Avishes. But this march 
 of twelve days he made a march of forty days, Avhich Avas not 
 equal to the average of three miles a da}'. The ship intended 
 to land provisions for him at Pondicherry, nearer to Cudda- 
 lore, he chose should land them at Conjemeer, farther from 
 Cuddalore ; he halted near such station, under the idea of 
 Availing for the Avhole cargo to be landed there, until he ex- 
 pended nearly as much provisions as she brought to him. He 
 .reported his carriage cattle to be diminished beyond any 
 former reduction, although they suffered no fatigue, and none 
 Avere taken, destroyed, or dispersed by the enemy. 
 
 But admittino' that some obstruction might have occurred 
 on the march, no obstruction could have occurred after the 
 march Avas over, and the army opposite the enemy, Avhich 
 delay Avould not strengthen. Yet after his arrival the enemy 
 Avas suffci'ed to have time to recover from its surprize, to gain 
 confidence from the tardiness of its opponents, and to en- 
 crease its means of resistance. The consecpience of tardy 
 measures uiust no doubt be tardy success. General Stuart 
 declares to the Admiral that it Avill require seven Avceks to 
 ensure the capture of Cuddalore, and that too with the pre- 
 sence of his majesty's fleet before it. " To verify such a de- 
 " claration" TiOrd Macartney observes " Avould seem to re- 
 " quire a settled determination to remain inactive six out of 
 " those seven Aveeks. It is possible indeed that the general 
 
 7
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. ,85 
 
 " miglit have been sincere in the declaration he thus had 
 " made, iC it be true, what is nieniioncd in the most intelli- 
 " gent advices from camp, that tiie procrastination of his 
 " operations had enabled the enemy to erect very formithible 
 " works, that the further pi-otraction of sucli dchiy might 
 " even eiulanger the success of the whole expedition, and that 
 *' the murmurs of the army were what at length produced 
 *' that attack of the enemy's works on the 13tk June, whicli 
 " was difficult to effect, unceitain in the event, and occasioned 
 " much slaughter of the king's and company's troops, fr,oni 
 " no other cause than that of time being given even after the 
 " arrival of the army by land, and of the reinforcements from 
 " Madras by sea, to erect such works ; and which, if allowed 
 " to be strengthened by the labor of a few days more, would 
 " be still more costly of men's lives and more difficult to 
 " carry. Such however is the inferiority and comparative 
 " weakness of the French troo{)s, evinced in the loss of their 
 " strong entrenchments and redoubts, and acknowledged in 
 " tlieir seeking for retreat and shelter behind the feeble walls 
 " of Cuddalore, that it is scarcely possible to desire to take 
 " it without succeeding in that desire *'." 
 
 By this attack of the 13th June above alluded to, in spite 
 of the mismanagement with which it is said to have been 
 conducted, the enemy's strong post on the VandypoUam hills 
 and their second Avorks, together with several pieces of can- 
 non, fell into our hands ; but aljout sixty British officers and 
 near one thousand men were lost to the service. The plan, it 
 
 * Extract from president's minute in committee, June 25, 1783. 
 VOL. I. 13 B
 
 1 86 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 seems, had been settled for storming the works in three sepa- 
 rate points at the same instant of time, and with this view 
 it is said the general gave orders that on a signal being made 
 of three field pieces fired from a hill, the grand attack shoidd 
 commence. It is scarcely credible that, in the midst of in- 
 cessant tiring, a signal should be adopted which, from its na- 
 ture, could not possibly be distinguished ; but whatever the 
 arrangement was for the intended simultaneous attack, the 
 result was three separate attacks made at three different pe- 
 riods of time. The British troops were repulsed and thrown 
 into confusion ; the enemy quitted their works in pursuit, 
 and the battle was decided on the field. The English, it is 
 true, got possession of the works that had been quitted, and 
 the Trench retired behind the walls of Cuddalore ; but had 
 they made a sally and attacked our troops in the night, it 
 Avas thought by many that our whole army must have been 
 captured or cut ia pieces. 
 
 The day after the battle Sir J'jdward Hughes brought his 
 fleet to anchor near Cuddalore. On the l6"th about noon 
 -Suffren was observed bearing down under easv sail in line of 
 battle, upon which the English ships got under weigh and 
 formed the line, manoeuvred a considerable time in order 
 to get to windward, and the next morning Suffren was at 
 anchor with his fleet on the very spot which Sir Edwartl 
 riughcs had occupied the day before, took on hoard a rein- 
 forcement of men from the shore, stood again out to sea, 
 and the very same day got to windward of Sir Edward 
 iJughes, who made a signal to the fleet that it was not his in- 
 tention to engage the ^enemy that day, but to endeavor to
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 187 
 
 gain the wind of liim. On the following day tlie French 
 however were still to windward. On the 19th the two fleets 
 were within three miles of each other but did not engage. 
 On the '20th in the morning the French wcic still in sioht on 
 the lee bow. Sir Edward Hughes made the signal for form- 
 ino; the line a-head. The wind shifted in favor of Suflrcn, 
 Avho, about half past four in the afternoon bore down upon 
 the J'^nglish, when an action commenced and continued till 
 about half past seven. Sutircn on this occasion manoeuvred 
 his ships so well that, although he had but sixteen and Sir 
 Edward eighteen, he contrived in several instances to place 
 two of his ships upon one of the English, five of which indeed 
 were very little engaged. The French ships were so leaky 
 that most of them ^vere obliged to be pumped during the 
 action. SuflVen having hauled his wind stood away from Sir 
 Edward, and the next day was out of sight ; but on the 
 morning of the 22d they were discovered at anchor in the road 
 of Porto Novo. In this situation Sir Edward HuQ;hes did not 
 find it expedient to attack them, but contenting himself with 
 offering them battle, bore up and made sail for Madras for 
 a supply of water. Some officers in the British fleet, perhaps 
 from motives of faction or disappointment, were ill natured 
 enough to assert that SuftVen weighed and stood after him, 
 but this does not officially appear to have been the case ; that 
 he immediately weighed there can be little doubt, for he 
 reached Cuddalore on the 23d where he relanded the men he 
 had taken on board when on the 17th he occupied the an- 
 chorage of Sir Edward Hughes. 
 
 B B 2
 
 i88 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 On the 25th, the enemy made a sally on our troops before 
 Cuddalore, but were driven back with considerable loss, on 
 which occasion Colonel Cathcart, at the head of his grena- 
 diers, particularly distinguished himself. Suffren jierceiving 
 that he was now master of the sea, landed Jill the men he 
 could spare from the fleet ; and it was determined between 
 him and Monsieur de Buss}^ that a vigorous sally should be 
 made on the besiegers on the 4th July, which could scarcely 
 fail of ensuring the capture of the British arm}', reduced as it 
 was, by the first attack, by sickness and fatigue. 
 
 The failure in the grand object of the expedition against 
 Cuddalore, and the return of Sir Edward Hughes to Madras, 
 leaving SufTren at full liberty to assist the operations of the 
 French in that fortress, conveyed to the government of 
 Madras as gloomy a prospect as had presented itself since 
 the commencement of the war, when an unexpected event 
 occurred by which and the promptitude of Lord Macartney, 
 in availing himself of the means it offered, the British army 
 was preserved from the destruction that threatened it. This 
 was the intelligence just then received from a variety of 
 quarters, of preliminaries of peace having been signed in 
 Europe. By the terms of the treaty it appeared that hosti- 
 lities were to cease between his Britannic Majesty and his 
 Most Christian Majesty, their kingdoms, states, and subjects^ 
 by sea and land, in all parts of the world. His Lordship im- 
 mediately observed to the committee, " that after a thorough 
 " conviction of the truth of the fact, it would be a wanton^ 
 
 " useless, and criminal disregard of the feelings of humanity 
 
 3
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 1S9 
 
 " to continue, or cve« to risk the effusion of" human blood 
 " under the pretence that official notice of such fact had not 
 "arrived. ]t is prol^abic it will soon arrive; but accidents 
 " might retard its arrival for a considerable time, in tijat 
 " interval, whether long or short, tlie continuance of the con- 
 " test here could not alter the terms of the treaty ; and the 
 " loss of one man's life Avoidd !>e more than this government. 
 " could justify, if the French government or governor be 
 " willing to accede to an immediate cessation of arms *." 
 lie therefore proposed that a flag of truce should immediatelj 
 be sent to Monsiem' de Bussy, commander in chief of the 
 French forces and rcpjesentative of that nation in India, 
 communicating to him that event with a copy of the treaty, 
 and proposing an immediate cessation of hostilities on shore 
 as well as by sea, with the consent of the Admiral Sir Ed- 
 ward Hughes. He further proposed several necessary mea- 
 sures and precautions, and concluded by observing, " that 
 " for reasons which he had already assigned, with regard to 
 " the conduct of General Stuart, he could not rely on the 
 " obedience of that officer, and therefore reminded the 
 " committee of that conduct as grounding the necessity of 
 " calling him to the presidency, in order that the committee 
 " might hear from him at length whatever he should have to 
 " advance in justification of his conduct. The death of the 
 " commander in chief of the king's forces, putting an end to 
 " the delegation from him to General Stuart, puts an end to 
 *' every apology for continuing the latter at the head of the 
 *' troops in the field . . . ]\Iajor-general Bruce, who, at Cud- 
 
 ; * Extract of president's minute in committee, June 25, 1783.
 
 I90 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " dalore, has verified his reputation as a good and gallant 
 " officer, is recommended to assume the command of the 
 " Carnatic army while in the field, and to be aided on ac- 
 " count of his late arrival in the country, with a council of 
 " war of such of the principal officers as are best acquainted 
 '* with it. And the order for the return of Major-general 
 ^' Stuart to the presidency and tlie assumption of the com- 
 " mand by General Bruce to be delivered to them by an 
 " officer dispatched from home for the purpose of securing 
 " the conveyance and delivery of such orders, and the due 
 " obedience to them *"." 
 
 Mr. Sadlier the second member of the select committee, 
 and Mr. Staunton his Lordship's secretary, embarked on 
 board the Medea frigate, being jointly entrusted with the 
 execution of the orders for the two Generals Stuart and 
 Bruce, and with instructions for submitting the propositions 
 of the president to Monsieur de Bussy. They arrived at Cud- 
 dalore on the 3d of July, the very day before the grand 
 sortie was intended to be made on the part of the French. 
 The Marquis de Buss}^, at this critical moment, was consi- 
 derably staggered what line of conduct he should adopt ; but 
 after consulting Suffien^ and hearing the persuasive argu- 
 ments of Mr. Staunton, and the clear and impressive reason- 
 ing in which he enforced them, these two officers at length 
 consented, though not without a good deal of apparent re- 
 luctance, to a suspension of hostilities. The concurrence of 
 Sufiien was not easily obtained. He had no objection once 
 
 * Extract of president's minute in committee, June 25, 1 783.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 191 
 
 more to measure the strength of his crazy fleet with the supe- 
 rior force under tlic conmiand of Sir Edward Hughes. He 
 had several objections to start against the impolicy of the 
 ineasin:e, and when these were removed many proposals to 
 oft'er in favor of their Maliommedan ally, l)ut Mr. Staunton, 
 by his firmness and the strength of his arguments, succeeded 
 in carrying his point without yielding to one of them. He 
 even prevailed on Mons. de Bussy to invite Tippoo Saheb to 
 accede to the pacification made in Europe, and to send posi- 
 tive orders to the commander of the French troops then acting 
 as auxiharies with this chief, to withdraw immediately from 
 his service. This handsome conduct of the Marquis deter- 
 mined Lord Macartney to propose to the committee, to give 
 to this officer in return the satisfaction of declarino; that the 
 main armj^ which had been employed before Cuddalore, 
 should not be sent out of the Carnatic, or commence any 
 offensive operations against the possessions of the ancient ally 
 of France, dining the month of July, in order that Tippoo 
 Saheb might have time to announce his determination to 
 cease hostilities^, or to persist in the continuance of them. 
 At the same time it was resolved to send a very considerable 
 force to the southward, to be ready to act as occasion might 
 require. 
 
 General Stuart, it seems, thought fit,, in the first instance, 
 to dis(;bey the orders of the presidency. At length, however, 
 he left the army and returned to Fort St. George, where, in- 
 stead of offering any justification of his conduct,, he renev/ed 
 his former practice of opposing the measures of the select 
 committee, and seizing every occasion to fill his long minutes 
 
 7.^
 
 192 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 with offensive Jangiiage directed against the president, under 
 a pretext that tlie president was personally hostile to him, 
 notwithstanding the frequent declarations of Lord Macartne}', 
 that he was entirely under u mistake ; that he disdained 
 personalities; that it was a painful }xirt of his public duty to 
 express censure ; that when it became his task to do so, he 
 trusted that it was done in a liberal and gentlemanlike man- 
 ner, and that such censure never proceeded from wanton- 
 ness or passion, Init Vvas the necessary deduction from indis- 
 putable facts and unprejudiced observation. Such however 
 was the unfortunate turn of the general's mind for contention 
 and discussion, as appears from his own minutes, that Lord 
 IViacartney was, at length, compelled to consider him as 
 ■wholly disqualified from assisting the public service, either in 
 the field or the cabinet, and consequently to take the last and 
 decisive step of dismissing Inin from the Company's employ. 
 His reasons for adopting ■ this strong, but, as he conceived, 
 necessary measure, are set forth in the following minute 
 which his Lordship, on this occasion, presented to the select 
 committee on the 17th September 1783. 
 
 " The president has the honor to observe to the committee 
 '' that, in a former minute, after mentioning some of the in- 
 " stances of the misconduct and disobedience of ]\Iajor-gene- 
 " ral Stuart, which made it necessary to recal him immedi- 
 ' ately from the command of the army, the president added, 
 " that upon the general's return ho would have an opportu- 
 " nity of adducing his reasons, if any, that could tend to his 
 " justification. Since his return he has referred to his former 
 " correspondence, and he asserts that he is fit for the com-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 193 
 
 ** mand ; but he has adduced no reasons either to justify his 
 *' misconduct or to mitigate the punishment due to it. His 
 *' conduct indeed appears to have been that of a premedi- 
 " tated, wilful, jcpeatcd, and systematic disobedience ; and 
 *' that disobedience has been not only prejudicial, by its ex- 
 *' ample, to the Company's regular government, and lias a 
 *' direct tendency to bring about the same subversion of sucli 
 *' government as that, of which the general has been, in a 
 *' former instance*, a principal and active instrument; but 
 *' such disobedience has been actually productive of matenal 
 *' and lasting injury to the Company ; in the instance of his 
 *' not following the directions and intentions of the select 
 *' committee, and his consequent promise to have the army 
 *' ready to march on all emergencies which immediately 
 *' upon the death of Ilyder Ali, and the absence of Tippoo 
 *' his successor from his army in the Carnatic, and the con- 
 *' fusion in that arm}-, might have long since terminated the 
 *' war and desolation of the -Carnatic by that prince ; in 
 " the instance of his abusing the discretion lodged in him 
 " for calling a detachment of the southern army, then essen- 
 *' tially employed, in case of indispensable necessity, instead 
 " of which he immediately, without any such or even any 
 " pretence of such necessity, and, exerting instantljj the 
 " power to be exerted at any rate only in future, ordered the 
 " main body of that southern army to join him in the Carna- 
 " tic, declaring that such was the order of the committee ; 
 " by which means the operations of the southern army were 
 
 * In the instance of tlie disgraceful proceedings carried on against Lord Pigot, 
 ■who, by the active assistance of General, then Colonel, Stuart, was tarried to a 
 prison from whence he never escaped. 
 
 VOL. I. C C
 
 194 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " impeded, and Tippoo left at liberty to pursue with success 
 
 " his attacks against the Company's inferior army, and th.eir 
 
 " exposed possessions on the other side of the peninsula, and 
 
 "for the obvious purpose of waiting for the junction of the 
 
 " southern army, as he could have no pretence for it if he 
 
 " marched quickly and succeeded without it, which he ac- 
 
 " knowledgcd the force already with him was fully ecjual 
 
 " to ; and by such jimction, of having the command of the 
 
 " whole, he procrastinated a march to Cuddaiore that might 
 
 " be effected in twelve days to upwards of forty days ; so that 
 
 " the opportunity was lost of attacking and most probably 
 
 " defeating and taking the French troops in that neighbor- 
 
 " hood, when, according to the intercepted letters of their 
 
 " commander the Marquis de Bussy, they were in want of 
 
 " provisions and even of am'munition ; and consequently if 
 
 " even invested, would have ijeen under the necessity of sur- 
 
 " rendering themselves prisoners of war ; instead of which, by 
 
 " such a wilful procrastination the enemy had an opporfu- 
 
 " nity of receiving provisions from the country, and anmiu- 
 
 " nition by sea, and the enemy's squadron had time to ar- 
 
 •' rive to the assistance of the land forces Avhich, after the 
 
 " retreat to Madras of his Majesty's fleet, and the com- 
 
 " munication by sea entirely cut off with the Company's 
 
 " army before Cuddaiore, might have been productive of 
 
 " fatal couse(iuences, if this government had not availed itself 
 
 " of the private accounts of the preliminaries of peace to 
 
 " announce the same in form to the enemy, and to establish 
 
 " a cessation of hostilities. By tliis fatal misconduct of 
 
 " Major-general Stuart, the French are now in such force in 
 
 " India as may prove of much present embarrassment and 
 
 8
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 195 
 
 '• future evil to the Company. General Stuart in this niis- 
 
 " conduct disobeyed tho directions, and counteracted the 
 
 " intentions of the government; he declared he would send 
 
 " no positive orders for the junction of the southern army 
 
 " williout the concurrent sentiments of the select committee ; 
 
 " but he did not only send such orders without such concur- 
 
 " rence, but he sent them in direct contradiction to such 
 
 " sentiments ; he expressly disobeyed the government in not 
 
 " countermanding such orders ; he disobeyed government in 
 
 " not instantly giving up the command of tiie troops before 
 
 " Cuddalore ;,Jie acted as commander in chief after the 
 
 " orders for his not doing so were actually published through- 
 
 " out the army. Me did not immediately repair to the j)rcsi- 
 
 " dency in obedience to the ordeis he received, but stayed 
 
 " with the army, sat at a council of war, misinformed and 
 
 " misled that council of war, and gave a new example of 
 
 " disobedience in retaining the detachment ordered to be sent 
 
 " to the southward. His assumption of independent com- 
 
 " maud in the fatal instances already quoted has pervadcil 
 
 " the whole system of his conduct, as in the case of orders to 
 
 " the northward, which might have lost the Circars which 
 
 " were indeed afterwards menaced by INIonsieur Sutfren — 
 
 ^ " in the case of the expenditure of the public money contrary 
 
 " to the express directions of the select committee — in the 
 
 " case of the appointment of a judge advocate general which 
 
 " was made by the select committee, under the express au- 
 
 " thority of instructions from the Court of Directors — in the 
 
 " case of employing to act as adjutant-general, a person 
 
 " different from him who has been appointed by government, 
 
 " in order to. have undue influence over the army, or a con- 
 
 c c 2
 
 196 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " siderable part of them, and be able to communicate orders 
 " to them without the knowledge of the committee — in the in- 
 " stance of publishing orders to the army, without a previous 
 " communication to the governor as directed by the instructions 
 " of 1774 — and in various other cases of which the committee 
 " has too strong a remembrance to render the detail neces- 
 ♦' sary to them. This assumption of independent command, 
 " and this deliberate and repeated guilt leave no alternative 
 " to the committee, but by preventing the continuance of 
 " them, or by becoming responsible for all the evils to the 
 " Company, and all the distractions in this gdVernment -with 
 " which it is at present threatened, and of which a continu- 
 " ance of his command might be productive. The president 
 " therefore moves, in virtue of the powers given to the go- 
 " vemment, in case of the disobedience of anj-^ of its military 
 " officers, that Major-general Stuart be immediately dis- 
 " missed from the service : and as his rank in the king's 
 " service can operate only, when on service by the king's 
 *' command, not being so employed, and being only on half 
 •' pay from the bounty of the crown, and not employed by 
 *' the Company, Major-general Burgoyne the senior officer 
 « in the king's service upon the coast is consequently to 
 «' command the king's forces *." 
 
 This minute of Lord Macartney was read and voted in Gen. 
 Stuart's presence by all the other members of the committee, 
 and there formally announced to him, and immediately pub- 
 lished in general orders ; notwithstanding which he still per- 
 
 * President's minute in select committee, Septemljer 17, 1783.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 157 
 
 sisted in assuming a military authoiit^y, and announced his 
 intention of retaining the command of the king's troops. So 
 illegal an attempt, if successful, seemed to indicate the illegal 
 use he must have meant to make of such a power. The 
 committee, however, not apprehending the practicability of 
 putting his intentions, whatever they might be, in execution, 
 suffered him to depart at liberty. Sir John Burgoyne was 
 now in command of the whole forces in the Carnatic ; he was 
 considered and saluted as commander in chief. But after 
 having been Avith Major-general Stuart he went to the com- 
 mittee and declared that Major-general Stuart insisted upon 
 retaining the command of the king's troops ; that he would 
 issue orders that very evening, and that he, Genei'al Bur- 
 goyne, would obey such orders. Such an assumption of 
 illegal authority, thus intended to be facilitated in its execu- 
 tion, by the willing obedience of him, who possessed real au- 
 thority, seemed to point out too clearly to be mistaken the 
 ends to Avhich such means were likely to be applied ; and it 
 also pointed out to the committee the immediate steps which 
 the public safety recjuired from them. The known disposi- 
 tion and the past actions of General Stuart were quite suffi- 
 cient, as they thought, to warrant them to take the strongest 
 measures for the security of the government. An order was 
 therefore instantly issued to seize his person, before his orders 
 to the king's troops, whatever they were, should have time to 
 reach them; and Mr. Gomond the town adjutant, accompa- 
 nied by i\Ir. Staunton and a party of sepoys, proceeded to 
 the General's garden-house, and brought him under close 
 arrest to Fort St. George. Here he remained a few days
 
 198 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 v'ithin the fort till a ship about to sail for Europe was ready 
 to receive him on board, when he embarked and was sent 
 to England as a prisoner. It has been thought proper to 
 enter thus particular!}' into the conduct of General Stuart, as 
 the consequences of it did not end here, but had nearly 
 been fatal to Lord Macartney on his return to England, as 
 there will hereafter be occasion to notice. 
 
 x\s Major-general Burgoyne had not onl}- declined accept- 
 ino: the command ; but had declared to the select conmiittee 
 that he would obey such orders as General Stuart might issue 
 to the troops, the governor had no alternative but to promote 
 Colonel Lang, the senior infantry officer in tire service of the 
 Company, to the rank of lieutenant-general, in order to 
 preserve the conunand of the troops (agreeably to the in- 
 structions of the court of directors) in their own officers. 
 Yet, notwithstanding the authority of the mutiny act for the 
 East''Lidies, which includes the king's forces serving there, 
 and notwithstanding the express orders to make such promo- 
 tion as gave the command of the whole to the Company's 
 officer. Major-general Burgoyne and the other king's officers 
 suffered themselves to be led away by the resentment of what 
 they considered an indignity, in being superseded by an 
 officer junior to them in the king's service *. Sir John Bur- 
 
 * The following extract from the general letter of the Court of Directors, dated 
 March 13, 1761, will shew how tenacious the East India Company were, at that 
 time, of their rights, and jealous of the interference of the king's officers. " We 
 " are greatly astonished that his majesty's oihcers should ever interfere in the pro- 
 " motion of our ofliccrs, or meddle in any shape with your management of our
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 199 
 
 goyne did not however chvisc to risk the actual disobedience 
 of" the king's troops, in refusing to move, according to the 
 orders of General Lang, but thought proper to Mithdraw in 
 the rvight from the army, and to apply to the Admiral for 
 protection on board the fleet; but, on failure of success in 
 this quarter, he wrote the next day to Lord Macartney, sig- 
 nifying that he was ready to surrender his i)erson to avoid 
 the insult of an armed force. His Lordship reniinded him 
 that the conduct of government towards him, on the dismis- 
 sion of Major-general Stuart, im|)lied a marked attention 
 personally to him, as well as to the other officers in his ma- 
 jesty's service ; but tliat his own declaration left the com- 
 mittee no alternative, but lo make the appointment authorized 
 by law, and directed by the Company's instructions ; that it 
 never was the intention of government to force obedience 
 from the king's officers by any exertion of coercive authority, 
 Avhen the public necessity did not absolutely require it; and 
 that there was not the least design of calling upon him to give 
 any account of his conduct there, or to lay any restraint 
 ii])on his person, unless some future act committed by him 
 should force them to adopt so painful a measure. 
 
 The month of July having now elapsed, without receiving 
 any notification from Tippoo Saheb of his intention to abide 
 
 " affairs -, it is entirely out of tlieir province, and we will never suffer you to al- 
 " low, for the rights we derive from our charter shall ever sacredly be preserved, 
 " and which the legislature alone can control ; if an attempt of this kind should 
 " be again made, instead of submitting to show your authority, call upon them to 
 " produce theirs, which you will find to be, that they must aid and assist the ser- 
 " vice in such manner as the governor and council may desire."
 
 300 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 by the general pacification to whicli, in compliance with the 
 treaty between the court of London and Versailles, he had 
 been invited, Lord Macartney determined that such a rein- 
 forcement should immediately be sent to the southern army, 
 to the command of which Colonel Fullarton had now suc- 
 ceeded, as would enable him to carry his arms into the heart 
 of the Mysore countr}^ and such as this officer, on whose 
 judgment and prudence as well as exertions the committee 
 had every reason to rely, had declared as his opinion would 
 enable him to effect the conquest of Seringapatam. He also 
 gave directions for strengthening the northern army under 
 Colonel Jones. The reinforcements recently arrived from 
 Europe enabled his Lordship to accomplish these measures, 
 and leave, at the same time, a sufficient army in the Car- 
 natic which had there, in fact, no enemy to contend with. 
 In short, it <\'as resolved to carry the war vigorously into 
 the enemy's country, and to assail him on every side. 
 
 The answer from Tippoo however soon after arrived at 
 Madras, offering certain conditions, and among others ex- 
 pressing a desire to send two embassadors to treat of peace, 
 a point that v/as readily acceded to by the committee, who, 
 at the same time, observe, " that no measure can be consi- 
 " dered as a proof of a cordial disposition to peace until, at 
 " least, the English officers shall be released on parole ; wjiich 
 " is the more necessary as there is reason lo believe the hard- 
 " ships suffered by the prisoners taken by his father or him have 
 " already been fatal to many of them; and that man}' of those, 
 *' who have survived, arc detained contrary to the express 
 " words of the capitulations upon which they had surrendered."
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 201 
 
 Two vakeels or agents accordingly arrived at Madras, 
 from whom it appeared there -would be little difficulty in 
 coming to an arrangement of terms on the part of their 
 master, on the footing of a mutual surrender of places taken 
 by both parties during the war, agreeably to the instruc- 
 tions from Europe ; tli(High some objectionable points were 
 started, with jegard to the restoration of the prisoners re- 
 spectively taken on both sides. The principal and the most 
 pressing object which Lord Macartney had in view, in acce- 
 lerating a peace with Tippoo Saheb, Avas the saving of the 
 lives and the speedy recovery of the liberty of the numerous 
 English prisoners in the hands of the enemy. For the better 
 accomplishing this humane purpose, and at the request of the 
 vakeels in behalf of their master, but chiefly with a view to 
 hasten the termination of the treaty by a direct intercourse 
 with the sultaun of Mysore, his Lordship appointed two 
 con}missioners to proceed in company with the two vakeels 
 to Seringapatam to settle, in the presence of Tippoo, the 
 terms of the treaty. To give the more weight and respect to 
 such a mission, at the head of it was placed the second member 
 of the council, INIr. Sadlier; and Mr. Staunton, whose abili- 
 ties and address had so recently and so happily been em- 
 ployed in the arrangement made with IMonsieur de Buss}^ at 
 Cuddalore, was appointed his colleague. Scarcely had these 
 gentlemen entered the INIysore country, when the ministers ' 
 of Tippoo Saheb demanded from them the unconditional de- 
 livery of Mangalore to their master, which Mr. Staunton re- 
 sisted with that firmness inspired by a just sense of public 
 duty, for which he was no less distinguished than his principal. 
 But his colleague Mr. Sadlier, more intent upon his own 
 
 VOL. I. D D
 
 202 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 safety than on the release of some hundreds of his suffering 
 countrymen, was ready, on the fust proposal, to yield the 
 point, and thus give up the only security they had for the 
 speedy delivery of the prisoners. From the petulance of this 
 gentleman, and to prevent delay in future in case of any dif- 
 ference in opinion, Lord Macartney, at the request of Mr. 
 Staunton to be recalled or to have a third person added to 
 the commission, sent after them the military secretary Mr. 
 Huddlestone, in order that any contested point might be 
 settled by a majority of voices. 
 
 The commissioners on approaching Seringapatam were told 
 by the vakeels, that their directions were to conduct them to 
 Mangalore. They accordingly quitted the great road leading 
 towards the capital, and were conducted over a tedious and 
 nearly in)passable country, so difficult and dangerous that 
 some of their people and cattle actually perished. They 
 passed at a short distance from Bangalore without being able 
 to obtain permission to see any of the prisoners, or to send 
 them the necessaries which had been provided for them by 
 government. In the same manner they were designedly pre- 
 cluded from seeing or relieving the English prisoners in c\ ery 
 fortress where they were confined, and near to which they 
 passed on their route. They dispatched letters to Tippoo 
 complaining in strong terms of such wanton treatment ; but 
 all the satisfaction they could get was a declaration from 
 liim, that all the prisoners had been ordered from Seringa- 
 patam and Bangalore to other places, for the express purpose 
 of being delivered up to the commissioners. They disco- 
 vered also that their letters to and from the presidency of
 
 ^^ 
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 233 
 
 Aludnis luul lor some time been stopped and detained. The 
 commissioners at this time were ignorant tliatTippoo Sultaun, 
 in the true spirit of oriental treacfiery, had violated tiie agree- 
 ment he made with Major Campbell, Avhen the cessation of 
 arms took place on the 2d of August before Mangalore, by 
 which agreement it was stipulated, " that he (Major Camp- 
 " bell) should Ix- at liberty to take into the fort of Manoa- 
 " lore tea or twelve days provisions of e\ery kind ; but not to 
 " lay in a greater quantity at a time ;" they were unacquainted 
 witli the circumstance of this garrison having not only been re- 
 duced to the last extremity of distress ; but that every informa- 
 tion which Major Campbell could pick up tended to convince 
 him, that it was the nabob's determination the commissioners 
 sliould never reach his camp, nor an English prisoner be re- 
 leased, so long as Mangalore remained in our hands ; that as 
 no alternative was therefore left for Major Campbell, but to 
 make the best terms he could or surrender at discretion, he had 
 preferred the former, and taken away the garrison. 'I'o keej) 
 back this information, Ti])poo had adopted the mean expedient 
 of intercepting all letters addressed to the commissioners. 
 When however his duplicity and want of faith were known, 
 and a strong remonstrance delivered by the commissioners, 
 he defended his conduct by recriminating on that of Colonel 
 Tullarton, who, he said, had proceeded, after their departure 
 from INIadras, against the fort of i-'aliacacherry, fired upon 
 it, got possession of it, and plundered it of sixty thousand 
 pagodas, stores, and provisions ; that he had proceeded from 
 hence to the fort of Coin^batore, which he also plundered 
 and sent the spoil to Trichinopoly. Colonel Fullarton, as it 
 
 D D 2
 
 204 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 afterwards appeared, had received official inform atix)n of the 
 breach of faith, on tlie part of Tippoo Sultaun, Avith regard 
 to IMangalore, and very properly lost no time in securing the 
 possession of the important fortresses of Paliacacherry and 
 Coimbatore. The commissioners were not a little peiplexed 
 by these untoward occurrences. The affair of Colonel Tul- 
 larton had been communicated to them by the vakeels on the 
 road, and orders were sent in consequence to that officer to 
 deliver up those two places long before the treacherous 
 acquisition of Mangalore b}^ their master had been made 
 known to them. At this stage of the business the commis- 
 sioners received a variety of complaints against the conduct 
 of Tippoo Sahcb, most of them exaggerated and some wholly 
 unfounded ; and many brilliant prospects were held out by 
 the army, if permitted only to recommence hostilities ; but 
 there is often a wide interval which divides prospect from 
 possession. However crafty and treacherous Tippoo might 
 be, and however justly irritated we might be against him, 
 the commissioners were fully aware of the folly of suffering 
 resentment to stifle prudence, and of sacrificing the real 
 interests of the. Company on a doiibtful issue. They saw 
 that nothing short of actual hostilities on his part could war- 
 rant offensive operations at this stage of the negociation, 
 cither consistently with the obligation of fidelity to the most 
 sacred engagements, or oi' obedience to the orders from Eu- 
 rope, or of attention to the relief of the Company's posses- 
 sions from the burdens and calamities of war, or the libera- 
 tion of many hundreds of unhappy prisoners from a long and 
 miserable confinement.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 205 
 
 At lensth the coinmissioners arrived before Manwalore, 
 and after much discussion and subterfuge on the jiart of 
 Tippoo and his ministers, and no httle risk of j^rsonal incon- 
 venience from their firmness, they conchided and signed a 
 treaty on the 11th March, by which a mutual restoration of 
 places and prisoners taken by both parties during the Avar 
 was agreed upon, according to the treaty of peace concluded 
 in Europe. 
 
 Thus was happily terminated one of the most ruinous, 
 destructive, and expensive wars, in which the English were 
 ever engaged in Ilindostan; since the commencement of 
 which no exertions of the government nor valor of the troops 
 had succeeded in expelhng the enemy fiom the Carnatic, 
 much less in carrying the war into his own country, and 
 compelling him to sue for peace. Yet under every disad- 
 vantage, by thus entering into a separate negociation with 
 Tippoo Saheb, and excluding all interference on the part of 
 the French, Lord Macartney preserved to the Company and 
 to the Princes under its protection, all their territories entire 
 and unmutilated as they stood betbre the war. He consi- 
 dered it as more prudent, under all the difhculties and dan- 
 gers that surrounded the settlement, to accept of such a 
 peace, than to persevere in a war, the success of which must 
 have been doubtful and distant, but the expense certain and 
 immediate. A desolated country, a menacing famine, an 
 empty treasury, an exhausted credit, a loaded establishment, 
 dubious resoui'ces, and universal distress, all conspired at 
 that moment to render any peace desirable, by which the 
 honor of the nation was preserved inviolate, and its former 
 
 7
 
 2o6 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 possessions and independencies, already too extended, en- 
 tire, lie considered that the aft'airs of the Company could 
 only be retrieved by a speedy peace, and by a strong 
 government incorruptibly administered. He had reason 
 therefore to rejoice that, un<ier the pressure of so many un- 
 toward circumstances and distressing embarrassments, when 
 almost every other peace, that with the French, the Spaniards, 
 the United States, and the Mahrattas, had admitted of the 
 loss of entire provinces, this peace of his own government, 
 which restored trancpullity to India and the Carnatic to our 
 possession, was concluded without the abscission of a single 
 inch of territory, without the humiliation of purchasing the 
 mediation of any Indian chief, or the more indelible disgrace 
 of delivering up an ally into the hands of his enemies, though 
 the recent instance of the Beng-al fjovernment havino; aban- 
 doned Ragonaut Row to the IMahrattas was strenuously 
 urged b}' Tippoo Saheb as an example for delivering up to 
 him his vassal Hyat Saheb the former chieftain of IMddanore. 
 Yet honorable and beneficial as the terms of the Carnatic 
 peace were, it was a general opinion that had ]\Ir. Staunton, 
 with whom private considerations always yielded to the pub- 
 lic interest, proceeded alone, his great abilities, temper, and 
 firmness would have prociu'ed still more advantageous terms. 
 In his colleague, Mr. Sadlier, he had to encounter much 
 petulance, unsteadiness, and a timidity which sometimes 
 rendered him ridiculous, and which did not escape the obser- 
 vation of the ministers of Tippoo Saheb. 
 
 None had greater reason to rejoice at the peace thus hap- 
 pily concluded than the unfortunate prisoners, wdiose situ- 
 
 6
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 207 
 
 ation and sufferings had been deplorable to the last degree. 
 Many of them, it appeared, had lallen sacrifiees to poison, 
 to famine, and to disease brought on by long- confinement in 
 filthy dungeons ; and several of those that survived were re- 
 duced to a condition of extreme wretchedness. No efforts 
 had been spared by Lord IMacartney, no means left untried by 
 him- to alleviate their distress ; but the comforts he endeavored 
 to administer did not always reach them. The sense which 
 these unfortunate persons entertained of his Lordship's bene- 
 volent intentions appears in the following address presented 
 to him by the officers on their return from confinement in the 
 fort of Bangalore: 
 
 " As the obligations you have conferred on us have in- 
 " spired sentiments too warm to be extinguished or sup- 
 " pressed, we must request your Lordship's permission and 
 " acceptance of this general acknowledgment of them. 
 " While we endeavor to do justice to our feelings, we hope 
 ♦* not to trespass on delicacy, or the forms usually attended to 
 " of your Lordship's high character and station, though on 
 " such a subject we are free to say, that the formality of 
 " common rules would ill apply to the grateful effusions of 
 *' the heart. 
 
 " Our's, my Lord, is not a common acknowledgment for 
 " the favors or kindnesses of ordinary life. The miseries of 
 " long captivity, aggravated by barbarian cruelty and inso- 
 " lence, and the horrors of fan)ine ; these were the sufferings 
 " which your beneficent hand alleviated, which your unre- 
 "^ mitting attention enabled, and alone enabled, us to support,
 
 2o8 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " and which your successful wisdom has finally removed. If 
 " any motive can add force to our duty, or impel us with 
 " additional zeal to the public service, it will be the most 
 " lively and most grateful recollection of the attention with 
 " which we have been honored, by which we have been 
 •' saved ; of the generous care of govern nient, which, though 
 " inmiersed in the complicated and actual difficulties of the 
 " state, forgot not the suffering soldier. 
 
 " As men restored to life, as members of society restored 
 " to our friends and our country, as soldiers restored to our 
 " profession and to honor, permit us, my Lord, with the sin- 
 " cerest and most lively gratitude, and the most respectful 
 " consideration to assure you, that we shall ever retam the 
 " deepest sense of the essential protection you aflbrded us, 
 " and that we are, &c. &c. 
 
 (Signed) " Thomas Leaf," and 28 others. 
 
 An event so favorable as that of a general peace through- 
 out India, it might be supposed, would remove the greater 
 part of those distresses and difficulties under which Lord 
 Macartney had to struggle from the first moment of his land- 
 ing at Madras. Many of them indeed by perseverance and 
 an unsullied integrity he was able to subdue ; but there were 
 others, and tliose of the most serious kind, over which he 
 could exercise no control. Instead of that assistance and 
 cordial co-operation which the public interest demanded liom 
 the suj)erior government of Bengal, a most decided and 
 systematic counteraction j)revailed in its councils to the 
 plans' and measures of the presidency of Madras. An ini-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 209 
 
 partial person, on reading over tlic correspondence between 
 the tu'o governments, Mould be apt to conclude that the 
 gentlemen, who composed the supreme council, were some- 
 what like those judges who consider themselves seated on the 
 bench to exert their penetration in discovering the faults of 
 those who are brought before them ; and that it never once 
 occurred to them, that the Madras government was as nuich 
 interested in doing what was right as their own. It would 
 be difficult to trace, and indeed it will not here be attempted 
 to trace, beyond what the facts themselves declare, the feel- 
 ings and the motives which operated on the minds of those 
 who composed the supreme council; but as it is exceedino-ly 
 important to the character of Lord Macartney that the mea- 
 sures of his government in India should be publickly known, 
 for the moie they are known the more will that character 
 be revered, so will it be necessary to bring before the pubHc 
 eye that part of the conduct of his opponents in Bengal 
 Avhich bears relation to those measures. 
 
 It Avas prett}' generally understood that the character Avhich 
 Lord Macartney iiad established in Russia, in Ireland, and 
 in Grenada operated very powerfully in procuring for him the 
 appointment to the chair of Madras ; and that two of the 
 leading points in his instructions Avere, the reformation of 
 abuses in the civil and military departments ; and the improve- 
 ment of the Company's finances, by economical arrano-ements 
 and by maintaining and consolidating peace with all the 
 country powers. The time that intervened between his ap- 
 pointment and departure from England was too short for any 
 intelligence of the event to reach Bengal before he himself ar- 
 
 VOL. I. E E
 
 210 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 lived at Madras. He thus caiiie u]K)n tlicin, as it were, by 
 surprize ; and it is not improbable that tiie sudden arrival ofu 
 new nmn of bis rank and character, together willi the know- 
 ledge of the clrcnr.ibtanccs under which the appointment took 
 plac(\ might have awakened a s])ii"it of jeaknisy in the su- 
 pieme council. The rivalslii]) of his known abilities might 
 perhaps have been as much dreaded as the weight of liis sup- 
 })osed interest, which some of the council aj)preliended could 
 not tail to relieve Mr. Hastings from his station sooner than 
 either he or the}' wished. The caution of his conduct, the 
 success of his measures, the being armed with tiic power of 
 correcting abuses, the economy he instantly adopted in the 
 ex]5enditure of the public money, and, above all, the frui 
 and manly tone of independence which appeared in his pub- 
 lic and private correspondence, seem to have determinctl the 
 supreme council at a very early period of his government, 
 lo exert against him, as often as occasion olfered, the whole 
 ■weight of their Indian experience, the fertility of their ima- 
 ginations, and the dexterity of the person who held the pen, 
 Avhich he seems to have possessed in so eminent a degree, 
 that if wrong measures could by casuistry be converted into 
 right, or suj)j)ly the place of good sense and ])ropriety, llie 
 Avriter might justly set up his claim for admiration. ]5ut 
 liowevcr ingenious and acute the supreme council of Bengal 
 showed themselves to be in argumentation, yet in them this 
 (juality apjiears to have been subordinate to their fancy and 
 to their feelings, by which all their oj)inions and resolutions 
 were evidently tinctured, that had any relation to the go- 
 vernment of Madras. ,
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 
 
 211 
 
 l.ord jSIacnrtncy had very early information of the apprc- 
 lieiision entertained of him by the members of the Bengal fro- 
 vernmcnt ; and he omitted no occasion to efface f'rom their 
 minds an impression so injurious to a ^-ordial co-operation of 
 the two presidencies. In vain however did he give to Mi-. 
 Hastings the most positive assurances that he liad never har- 
 bored a thou.ght of succeeding to Bengal ; that his views were 
 very remote from any thing in India; that he had b'rouoht 
 out with him no prejudices, no resentments, no connections 
 nor plans to serve or promote ; but that the general prospe- 
 rity of the country was his sole object ; that although nothino- 
 could make him lose sight of his reputation, or draw him for 
 a moment from what he conceived to be his public duty, yet 
 so highly had he estimated the wisdom and experience of Mr. 
 Hastings that he arrived in India with a determination to lend 
 his most cordial support to all his measures. And with the view 
 of accomplishing this intention to its fullest effect, he lost not 
 a moment in giving him information of his arrival at Madras, 
 expressing, at the same time, a hope that an unreserved con- 
 fidence and friendship might be established between them. 
 Mr. Hastings, in his reply, regrets exceedingly that ho was 
 not apprized of the probabilit}^ of his Lordship's nomination, 
 that he might have been prepared with materials to obviate 
 the impressions, which he probably would receive, concern- 
 ing the relation in which the two governments stood to each 
 other. " These," says he, " will be represented to you as 
 *' proceeding from a spirit of encroachment, nor will it be 
 *' easy for you, until you have had time to look into the 
 *' depth of affairs, to avoid yielding something to the sugges- 
 
 E E 2
 
 212 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " tion *." And in a subsequent letter, he again takes occa- 
 sion to observe, '* I have already expressed my regret that I 
 " had not known of your appointment in time to have t'ur- 
 " nishcd you with explanations on some particular points, of 
 " which I expect that an advantage will have been taken to 
 " prejudice your mind with injurious and dangerous opinions 
 " of the designs of this government with relation to yours f." 
 After thanking him for the return of confidence, held forth 
 in his letters, Lord Macartney observes, " that it is scarcely 
 " possible for two persons distant from each other to coin- 
 " cide always exactly in the same opinion on every particular 
 " point ; but minute ditferences can, never effect our general 
 " views, or in any degree weaken that union which I most 
 " sincerely wish to cultivate and maintain with you. If any 
 " measure proposed by you should happen to militate with 
 " the ideas which I know are entertained at home, it must 
 " have arisen from a supposition of necessity calling for the 
 " exercise of discretionary latitude to be allowed and taken 
 " on extraordinary occasions." And in the same letter he 
 further observes, " New as I am in this country, and totally 
 " devoid of local prepossessions, 1 cannot have been biassed 
 " by any of those rooted and popular prejudices, which you 
 " foresaw you would havc^ to encounter in other breasts. 
 " With me the general security and promotion of the British 
 " interest in India are the only objects ; placing, as I do, my 
 " personal advantage solely in the success of the whole plan, 
 
 • Extract of a letter from INIr. Hastings to Lord Macartney, dated July 7, 178U 
 I Ibid, dated July 23, 1781.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 213 
 
 "and aiming at no kind of importance from tlic extent or 
 " value of any part which may continue under my inmiediatc 
 ' « care *." 
 
 The uneasiness which Air. Hastings thus evidently felt at 
 the moment of Lord IMacartney's arrival, appears to have 
 arisen principally from an undue interference on the part of 
 the supreme council, in matters which concerned only the 
 government of Madras, and especially on the three follow- 
 ing points. 
 
 Shortly after the invasion of the Carnatic, the governor- 
 general of Bengal had made a proposition for concluding a 
 treaty with the Dutch, in which he consented to cede for 
 ever to the latter the whole district of Tinevelly, a country as 
 large as England, for the temporary loan of one thousand 
 European troops, for which the Company was besides to fur- 
 nish pay and clothing. This treaty, which Mr. Hastings 
 says, " was extorted by the cries of despair and judged in 
 " the elation of a sudden return of success," had been treated 
 with derision by the late government of Madras, and the 
 nabob of Arcot, to v.hom the country belonged, refused to 
 confirm it. Whether it was meant to be carried in the teeth 
 of those opponents does not appear ; but the arrival of Lord 
 Macartney with the intelligence of a Dutch war put an end 
 to this most extraordinary scheme. 
 
 The second point on which Mr. Hastings was apprehen- 
 sive Lord Macartney might not agree with him in opinion, 
 
 * Extract of a letter from Lord Macartney to Mr, Hastings, dated August 10, 1781.
 
 2u PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 was as mucli more extraordinary in its nature, as it was more 
 important than the first. This was the restitution of the 
 northern Circars to the nizam or soubahdar of the Decan, for 
 the loan of a certain number of cavalry to act against Ilydcr 
 Ali in the Carnatic. The nizam's assistance, for which the 
 o-overnor-general proposed so high a price, could, in fact, be 
 of little consequence, even had it been voluntarily offered 
 and without cost, because, from the spirit and discipline of 
 our own troops, it was clearly not numljers, but the means 
 of maintaining numbers, that were wanted. Besides, Sir 
 Eyre Coote had more than once declared that such cavalry, 
 from its irregularity and want of discipline, could be of no 
 sort of use to him, and might be dangerous. The measure 
 lio;\ ever bad been resolved upon by the Bengal government ; 
 but as the fmal orders had not been dispatched for carrying 
 it into execution, Mr. Hastings paid Lord IMacartney the 
 compliment of submitting the treaty for his opinion, which 
 lie j)ressed him to give without any reserve, acquainting him 
 however at tlie same time, that it had already passed into a 
 resolution. The grounds, it appears, upon which Mr. Plast- 
 ings proceeded were, the inconsiderable value of the territo- 
 ries proposed to be ceded, which, in a season of peace, he 
 estimated at no more than a clear annual profit of forty-three 
 thousand rupees ; adding, that he could not even conjecture 
 what it might be in time of Avar ; but presumed boldly 
 to state it at a loss. Lord Macartney, in his reply, assured 
 him that since his arrival he had taken uncommon pains to 
 be accurately informed of the several possessions entrusted to 
 his care; that the value of the Circars was no longer to be 
 estimated by the calculations of the committee of the House
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 215 
 
 of Comiv.ons in H'lo, upon wliith he had proceeded ; that 
 in the present year 17ol, they would actually produce, as 
 he would observe bv the authentic statement acconipanvin^ 
 liis letter, the sum of six hundied and twelve thousand pao'odas. 
 Another reason employed by Mr. Hastings for the cession of 
 the Cirears was their great longite.dinal extent. " The proper 
 " method/' he observes, " of estimating the power of any 
 " territory is by comparing its means with the line of its 
 " defence, or, in other words, the extent of its frontier where 
 " it is accessible to an enemy, ami the strength and value of 
 " the military establisJmient, \\ Inch it will require for its or- 
 " din<H-y defence compared with its income. The extent of 
 " the Cirears is like the definition fii' a niathematical line, 
 " length without breadth -■■." 'i'o this part of his argument 
 Lord Macartney observes, that " in proi)ortioning our de- 
 " fences to the dimensions of oui' terri.tories we actually finil 
 " the diificulty increase, not with tlieir length but breadth. 
 ♦^ Our armies move with case, and almost Avithout control, 
 "along the coast; but to penetrate far into the country 
 " requires means which a\'c not always within our reach. 1'hc 
 " narrowness of the Cirears in that view facilitates our pro- 
 " tection 01" them. \Vhere we can ap{)roach by sea we are 
 " certain of success -j-." I\lr. Hastings then proceeds to state 
 that, " of tlie conseciuences of the Cirears, in other respects, 
 " we know no instances. Perhaps one motive for seekino ■ 
 " the possession of them was to coinraand the means of eol- 
 ■ *' leeting a larger investment. The conmiunication which it 
 
 * Extract of a letter from Mr. Hr.stings and his council to Cliarles Sjnitli, Esq. 
 and select committee at Madras, dated July 2, 1781. 
 
 f Extract of a letter from Lord MacarUioy to Mv. li.istings, dated Aug. 10, 17S1.
 
 2i6 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " is supposed to aftbrcl between the two presidencies, is ano- 
 " ther advanttioe which we know to have been ascribed to 
 " it : but this we beheve to be purely ideal *." To which 
 Lord INIacartney replies, " that, from the result of inquiries 
 " he has made and the public records, it appears the in- 
 " vestment, since our possession of the Circars, has evidently 
 " increased. From thence really proceeds, for some time 
 " past, the most valuable part of our cargoes for Europe. 
 " That country is comparatively found of so much more con- 
 *' seciuence than the Carnatic, that if one or other was to be 
 " yielded by us, the jirospect of profit to the Companj- would 
 " lead to a. preference in preserving the Circars. They 
 " besides are our own immediate property. In the Carnatic 
 " it is with reluctance that the present nabob submits to our 
 " influence. No double government, such as subsists in the 
 '• Carnatic, can be durable, uniform, or prosperous. The 
 " Circars besides approach nearer to our great and important 
 " possessions in India, which are under your immediate com- 
 " mand. The narrow slip which divides them, negociation, 
 '• or address, or accident, may make our own in times less 
 " suspicious of encroachments ; and thus join our territories in 
 
 " Orissa to those of Bpngal We should lose in the 
 
 " opinion entertained of our wisdom, as well as in our real 
 " wealth and power, if we were to cede a valuable, solid, 
 " permanent possession for the hollow friendship and pre- 
 " carious assistance of an oriental prince, who has already 
 " betrayed us, and Avho is thought to have raised the storm 
 " which now blows upon us from every quarter -j-." Mr. 
 
 * Extract of a letter from Mr. Hastings and his council to Cliarlcs Smith, Esq. 
 and select committee at Madras, dated July 3, 1781. 
 
 f Extract of a letter from Lord Macartney to Mr. Hastings, dated Aug. 10, 1781. 
 
 7
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. a 17 
 
 MasUngs is aware that one objection may be alleged against 
 the sinTender of the Circars at this partimlar time, which he 
 mentions for tlif sake of obviating its impression; "that it 
 " will be impntcd to us as proceeding irom weakness, and 
 " the desperate condition of our atl'airs ; and that of course it 
 " will raise the consecpience and confidence of (jur enemies, 
 " and prove a discouragement to others who may be disposed 
 " to befriend us :" On which Lord Macartney observes ; 
 " the retrocession of the Circars, once so precious in our 
 " estimation, by a voluntary offer to the nizam, when we 
 " arc involved in a tedious and expensive v.ar, might argue 
 " not only unsteadiness of councils but inability of defence, 
 " Avithout gaining us any credit for justice or moderation; a 
 " character less to be obtained by the disposal of that which 
 *' we possess without actual dispute, than by avoiding to 
 " contend for advantages to which we cannot claim a right. 
 " It must be remembered too that this proposed ally, on a 
 " former occasion against the same enemy, abandoned us 
 " with perfidy. It ought not to be thought wise to place so 
 " much confidence in so treacherous a friend ; nor is a 
 " Soubahdar of the Decan to be slightly invited into the 
 " Carnatic, over which, from the old constitution of tha 
 " Mogul empire, he has a claim to exercise authority and 
 " exact a tribute. It may rather be our interest, therefore, 
 " that the nizam should remain in a state of quiet at Hydra- 
 " bad *." After stating these among other arguments to show 
 the impolicy of ceding such a valuable country for so preca- 
 rious, and, at all events, a mere temporary advantage, his 
 
 * Extract of a letter from Lord Macartney to Mr, Hastings, dated Aug. 10, 1781. 
 VOL. I. FT
 
 21? PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Lordship concludes by observing ; " To 3^)11 ^vho have, in so 
 " handsome and Uberal a manner, called upon me for my 
 " opinion on a measure upon which that reference implies 
 " you had not formed a decisive judgment, I have little occa- 
 ** sion to offer an apolog}', though my sentiments should lead 
 " to a conclusion different from the result of your own 
 " thoughts ; for it w ould not be obeying your commands if I 
 " was not to communicate to you the genuine and candiii 
 " reflections that have occurred to n)e on the subject : They 
 " are declared with difhdence ; but they press upon my mind 
 " with a conviction that must prevent the possibility of my 
 " reconciling it to my duty to accede, without s])ecial autho- 
 " rity from home, to a projjosal which every consideration I 
 " can give it entirely rejects *. 
 
 ^-. " 
 
 This letter of Lord Macartney saved the Circars, which 
 constitute the most valuable part of the Company's posses- 
 sions on the coast of Coromandel ; but it went a great way 
 towards losing the friendship of Mr. Hastings. It called in 
 question the validity of his opinions, and, what appears to 
 have been still more dear to him, the right of interference in 
 a matter which exclusively belonged to the presidency of 
 Madras. 
 
 It may here be remarked that, in the preservation of the 
 four northern Circars, which were then in the peaceable 
 possession of the Company, and which immediately after the 
 conclusion of the war yielded a net annual revenue of half 
 
 • Extractof a letter from Lord Macartney to Mr, Hastings, dated Aug. 10, 1781.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 319 
 
 a million steiling, was involved the fate of the fifth Circar or 
 province of Guntoor, valued at 150,000/. a year, which, 
 under the same title and treaty as the other four, was to de- 
 volve to the company after the death of Bazalet Jung, the 
 -Nizam id j\Joolk's brother. Had the first four Circars been 
 yielded to the nizam, the cession would have virtually in- 
 cluded the lilth. Uj)on the death therefore of Bazalet Juno- 
 in October 1782, Lord Macartney conceived it his duty to 
 assert the Company's right to the province of Guntoor, in an 
 address to the nizam to that effect, which, in pursuance of 
 his oeneral orders he sent to the o-overnor-oeneral to be trans- 
 
 O 00,, 
 
 niitted to liydrabad. Mr. Hastings, however, having before 
 this time showed something \cry like a systematic opposition 
 to the measures of Lord Macartney, did not transmit the 
 claim, but suffered it to lie dormant at that time, and, in 
 fact, it was never enforced during his or his successor's 
 government. Thus the Guntoor Circar remained quietly in 
 the nizam's hands for several years after the death of Bazalet 
 Jung, until Lord Cornwallis very properly revived the Com- 
 pany's pretensions to it, and, in 1788, obtained that pos- 
 session Avliich Imd been claimed by Lord jNlacartney in 
 1182. 
 
 The third j^oint on wiiicli Mr. Hastings Avas anxious to 
 furnish J^ord Macartney with some explanation, in order to 
 prevent his mind from being " prejudiced with injurious and 
 " dangerous oi)ini()ns of the (lesions of the Bengal o-overn- 
 " ment," was the agreement he had recent!}' concluded with 
 Mr. Richard Joseph Sullivan and Assam Cawn on the part 
 of AVallau Jah the nabob of Arcot. We have already seen 
 
 r r 2
 
 220 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 that long before Lord Macartney's arrival, the government 
 of Madras had in vain endeavored, by persuasion or by 
 threats, to extort from the nabob a single pagoda towards the 
 expenses of the war ; disgusted with that dependence which 
 he had transferred to the Company from the soid3a]ular or 
 viceroy of the Decan and the throne of Delhi, he sought by 
 an embassy to England to free himself from their interfer- 
 ence. He conceived also that a deputation to the govern- 
 ment of Bengal might add to the advantages, or supply the 
 deficiencies of an European embassy. Accordingly in March 
 178], he sent the two persons above mentioned as his mini- 
 sters with certain lequests to the governor-general, which in- 
 dicated his aim at an increase of possessions and of power 
 that the Company was not more unwilling than they were 
 then unable to confer. To those demands or requests he 
 joined, as has already been observed, an offer to assign, 
 during the continuance of the existing trouljles, the revenues 
 of tiie countries yet remaining to him, towards defraying the 
 charges of the war; on certain conditions however in favor of 
 his creditors, who seem to have been concerned in this em- 
 bassy, of obtaining Company's bonds ec^ual to the revenues of 
 the districts which had been assigned to them ; but to which 
 conditions the o-overnment of Fort St. Gcorc-e had as little 
 authority from the Company to agree, as that of Bengal had 
 to enter into any such treaty. Tliis assignment however was 
 pressed forward by the nabob's ministers as the first ol^ject of 
 their deputation ; and as it ap)icared to Mr. Hastings that it 
 ])romised a seasonable relief to the Carnatic, it was readily 
 accepted in April 1781, and the replies of the governor-general 
 and council to the nabob's vc({uests were transmitted to Madras, 
 
 7
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 221 
 
 with an intimation that they should be considered as havin^ 
 all the sanction, force, and validity of a treaty; and Mr. 
 Richard Joseph Sullivan returned with credentials as minister 
 from the governor-general and council of Bengal at the court 
 of the nabob of Arcot, for the purpose of maintaining the 
 faith of that government in the execution of the treat}', and 
 also as its representative at the presidency of Madras *. Had 
 this treaty and this embassy happened to arrive at Madras 
 during the preceding administration, tiiey would, no doubt, 
 have been treated with that derision and resentment of which 
 Mr. Hastings, in his letter to Lord Macartney, expressed, 
 not without reason, his apprehensions j-. The select com- 
 
 * See letter from the governor-general and council of Bengal to the Honorable 
 Charles Smith and select committee of Fort St. George, inclosing certain papers 
 purporting to be an agreement of equal force and validity with a formal treaty 
 between the governor-general of Bengal and the nabob of Arcot, dated Fort William, 
 April 2, 1781 ; and, letter from the governor-general and council of Bengal to 
 Richard Joseph Sullivan, esq. appointing him their representative and minister at 
 the court of the nabob of Arcot, of the same date. Appendix, No. 9. A, B, C, 
 andD. 
 
 f The impression which tliis extraordinary proceeding of the governor-general 
 and his council made at Madras may, in some degree, be collected from the fol- 
 lowing extracts : 
 
 Extract of a letter from Sir Eyre Coote to Lord Macartney, dated camp at Ter- 
 roor, September 3, 1781. 
 
 " The part of your letter which has most engaged my thoughts and attention is 
 that which mentions the nabob's new agent from Bengal. It is an arrangement 
 which I by no means approve, being a direct infringement of that regular line of 
 executive authority, which has been constitutionally established by act of parliament. 
 It is, in my opinion, an act of supererogation in the governor-general, and an at- 
 tempt to annihilate a power which can only be diminished or abolished by an au- 
 thority above any existing in this country ; and I am thoroughly convinced tliat the 
 government of Madras cannot, without being liable to a charge of breach of trust, 
 tacitly acquiesce in so glaring an encroachment upon those privileges which have
 
 222 PUBLIC LIFE OF TOE 
 
 mittec, in their reply to the goveriuir-fiencral and council, 
 express their dtnibts how far they might be justiticd in sub- 
 
 been assigned to them by a constitutional act of parliament. I liope therefore your 
 'Lordship will not allowit to pass uniiotictil. T can only say, thatliad I been sit- 
 ting as a member of the board of Bengal, wlien such a measure ^was proposed, I 
 should have protested against it." 
 
 Extract of a letter from Samuel Johnson, esq. member of the select committee 
 ito General Sir EyreXi^oote, dated Madras, May 13, 1781. 
 
 " A few days ago letters arrived from Mr. Ricliard SuilivaTi at Calcetta, an- 
 ivDuncing his being appointed minister or resident from the governor-general amd 
 council at the nabob's Durbar -, and intimating in consequence his resignation of the 
 employ of military secretary. We have as yet received no public advices from the 
 governor-general and council on the subject of this appointment, it> object, or in- 
 tended duration-, but from private letters it would seem that Mr. Sullivan is in- 
 vested with powers, totally independent of this government, to negociate a treaty 
 ■with the nabob, for the cession ef the Carnatic, or certain parts of it, to the 
 Company ; and that he is afterwa.rds to remain here as the minister and representa- 
 tive of the governor-general and council, or, in fact, of the Company, 
 
 " When I wrote to you of Assam Cawn and Mr. Richard Sullivan ^being sent ty 
 the Nabob to Calcutta, extraordinary as it appeared that he should adopt such a 
 measure, without consulting with or even informing us, I had no idea of what was 
 in agitation, nor could I indeed conceive tliat Mr. Hastings would h.ave thought 
 either his own dignity and consequence increased, or the Company's interest ad- 
 vanced, by bringing dishonor and contempt upon this government ; whatever cliarms 
 he might expect to find in the display of .-iuperior power, and the exhibiting to tlie 
 world our subordinate situation, 1 imagiincd his good sense would have shown him, 
 and his integrity have made him guard again.-t the danger of weakening our hands 
 at a time when all the influence of goverjiment, aided by the public confidence, is 
 .absolutely necessary to ailbrd us the smallest hope of being able much longer to 
 strive against the difficulties which surround us. For my own part were I to con- 
 sult merely my own ease, or indeed my state of health, I should instantly resign 
 my station and withdraw from a scene which, in addition to the difficulties insepa- 
 rable from our situation, now presents a prospect of new troubles, vexatious alter- 
 caticms with the government-general, acciimulating insults and encroachments on 
 their part, and tiie entire destruction of tliat harmony and mutual confidence which, 
 as long as they exist for .the steady exertion of our united power and resources 
 would inspire hope (as they have done heretofore) superior to any misfortune.
 
 EARX OF MACARTNEY. 223 
 
 scri{)ing to the exercise of an authority coiitiary to the system 
 of the Company's estaiihshment ; they point out the ill eonse- 
 
 " Since the passing of the act in I773> as well as before, all letters, orders, and 
 instructions from home, relative to the affairs of the nabob of the Carnatic, and the 
 Company's connection. with him, have been addressed to us, as the agents and re- 
 presentatives of the Company, and die guardians of their interests on this coast. 
 Can then the governor-general and council legally take from us a trust which wc 
 hold from their constituents, as well as ours, anil' appoint another servant of the 
 Company to represent them liere, to act separately from and independently of us, 
 in the very seat of our government, to negociate a treaty with the nabob of tlie Car- 
 natic, and enter into stipulations which are to be binding upon us, anil must involve 
 many important points of which we are or ought to be the most competent judges, 
 and cannot but materially influence the afl'.iirs of the Company committed to our 
 care, and for the management of which we are held responsible ? Neither do I see 
 any thing in tlie aft that empowers Mr. Hastings, or the governor-general and 
 council, to take a Company's servant from his station at another presidency, free 
 him from his obedience to those whom the Company have constituted his superiors, 
 and whom he has covenanted to obey, and invest him with powers to act inde- 
 pendently of them on the spot where they reside ; nor can, in my opinion, a 
 Company's servantteo situated witlidraw liimself from their authority and accept of 
 such powers, without their leave and approbation. 
 
 " We are ever ready to acknowledge the superior authority of the supreme coun- 
 cil to the utmost extent of the words and meaning of the act vidiich renders us sub- 
 ordinate to them, as far as regards the making peace or war, and makes it unlawful 
 for us to enter into any treaty without their consent and approbation ; but we can- 
 not allow that it. confers on them a right to empower any person to act for the 
 Company in this settlement, or negociate with the nabob of the Carnatic, inde- 
 pendently of our authority; that conformably to tliis opinion we, as the Company's 
 representatives on tins coast, are ready to coincide with them in anv plan for a 
 treaty with the nabob that they may be pleased to suggest, and to exert ourselves 
 to accomplish the same in the most speedy and effectual manner ; but that neither 
 our sense of duty to the Company nor to ourselves will allow us to acquiesce in a 
 measure calculated (as far as we know of it at present) to make this government 
 contemptible in the eyes of every prince and power of Hindostan ; to render abor- 
 tive our best exertions, to lessen the public confidence, and increase the difficulties 
 we already have to strive against, in the most pressing exigency that ever threatened 
 the Company's affairs on this coast."
 
 824 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 quences that niiglit arise from the assumption of a power on 
 the part of the Bengal government, which it was not autho- 
 rized to exercise, and repiobate, in the strongest terms, the 
 impropriet}'- of suffering an individual appointed by the su- 
 preme council, to exercise any executive authority at the pre- 
 sidency of jMadras. They observe that as neither their pre- 
 sident, nor any other member of the select committee as 
 then composed, were in the temporary administration which 
 subsisted on the 2d April, when the Bengal government 
 thought it necessary to withdraw its confidence from that 
 board, they cannot feel themselves hurt at the preference 
 given on that particular occasion to an individual for main- 
 taining the faith of tlieir govermnent ; but that they did not 
 hesitate to expect a candid concurrence with their opinion 
 that the governing members of Madras, appointed after ma- 
 ture and solemn deliberation by the Company, charged with 
 their interests and vested with their authority on the coasts of 
 Coromandel and Orissa, had a claim for their exclusive confi- 
 dence, in the endeavors to be pursued at that presidency for 
 the Company's welfare *. The committee in their letter observe 
 how very much it was the wish of Lord Macartney to avoid 
 even the appearance of any interruption to the cordial co- 
 operation in the measures of the two governments, and that 
 he had expressed to them a strong desire, that the whole of 
 this extraordinary proceeding should be suspended until he 
 had learned through the governor-general, in their private con- 
 fidential communications, whether he still meant to pursue the 
 
 * See letter from the president and select committee of Fort St. George to the 
 governor-general and counciI> dated Fort St. George, Sept. 8, 1781. Appendix, 
 No. 10.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 225 
 
 \vhoIe of the plan ; but, they remark, tlie return and the suc- 
 cess of the embassy was announced at Madras with sucli ce- 
 remonies of solemn and public notoriety, that the alternative 
 of silence was no longer in their power. 
 
 In the observations of Lord Macartney on Mr. Mastimrs's 
 letter, both of Avhich are inserted at full length in the Ap- 
 pendix *, it will be seen how studiously he wished to preserve 
 that harmony which he considered essential to the public 
 safety, at the same time feeling it his duty to communicate 
 fully and frankly the objections that weighed on his mind to 
 a measure, M'hich he was told " could neither be revoked 
 " nor qualified." This letter it seems, coupled with that 
 from the select committee on the same subject, gave mortal 
 ofiencc, probably not so much for the difference of opinion 
 it contained, as that the mature consideration given to the 
 subject by Lord Macartney pointed out the precipitancy 
 and want of judgment with which the propositions had been 
 made by Mr. Hastings. These letters vindic^ated moreover 
 the legitimate authority vested in the government of JMadras, 
 and disputed the legality of that now attempted to be exer- 
 cised by the governor-general and his council. Men who are 
 Avedded to power with more than an uxorious fondness can 
 rarely bear to have their authority called in question however 
 unduly exerted ; and the power of the Bengal government had 
 hitherto been exercised almost without limitation. There 
 were a number of other circumstances, in addition to those 
 above mentioned, which tended to widen the breach be- 
 
 * Appendix, N08. 11 and 12. 
 VOL. 1. G G
 
 226 PtTBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 tween the two governors. The reports of Lord IMacartney'a 
 economy, integrity, and disinterestedness Avere ill received 
 and ill relished in Bengal, where (]ualities of such a nature 
 \vere not of the most thriving kind. At Madras a contract had 
 been given to Mr. Paul ]jenfield for supplying the army with 
 carriaoe bullocks. The terms of this contract Lord IMarart- 
 ney reduced by nearly one-fourth part, and annexed condi- 
 tions which made this gentleman think fit to give it up ; but 
 to please the commander in chief and engage the services of a 
 person, who was represented as very capable of rendering 
 them,, he was appointed agent for supplying the troops. 
 AVhether the emoluments in this office were below his consi- 
 deration, or whether he expected that a disappointment in 
 the agency would lead to a renewal of the contract, he is 
 said to have sufiered many of the cattle, committed to his 
 care, to perish for want of food. He demanded for the im- 
 mediate expenditure of his employ double the amount of 
 the money which he knew to be in the treasury, and other- 
 wise conducted himself in such a manner as to compel Lord 
 Macartney to dismiss him, which gave great offence to his 
 friends in the supreme council. Li fact, the detection and 
 reformation of abuses, which was strongly recommended by 
 the tx)urt of directors to the early attention of Lord Macart- 
 ney, could not fail of exciting a jealousy in that place where 
 a jjri-ofuse expenditure of the Company's funds had involved 
 the government in an enormous and accumulatin2; debt; 
 where agencies, einbassies, and contracts had drained the 
 public coders to fill the pockets of individuals *, and where 
 
 * Several instances .ire ou record., where agencies on provisions and grain for tlic 
 use of government were granted to servants of government ; where embassadors 
 
 3
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 227 
 
 there was a total want of economy ))oth in tlie civil and mili- 
 tary department. At Bengal therefore no character could be 
 more obnoxious than one of an estabhshed reputation for in- 
 tlexible integrit}^, armed with the power of correcting abuses. 
 
 Lord ]\Iacartney on his part, while determined to do liis 
 duty, omitted no occasion of showing a disposition to conci- 
 liate' the good will of Mr. Hastings. He was aware that 
 their private cordiality was the most likely to lead to public 
 prosperity. He reprobated the idea of an unworthy jealousy, 
 and was for a long time unwilling to believe it could have 
 any existence in an enlightened mind like that of Mr. Hast- 
 ings, in favor of whom he seems to have gone out to India 
 Avitli the strongest prepossessions. He arrived there with a 
 determination to pi-omotc to the best of his power, that sys- 
 tem which the situation, the experience, and the sound 
 judgment of the governor-general had, as he supposed, laid 
 down for the Presidency of ]\Iadras ; but instead of system he 
 complains that he found only a mass of capricious and con- 
 tradictory orders, with the assumption and exercise of powers 
 unauthorized by act of parliament or the Company's instruc- 
 tions. If Lord INIacartney had any dithculties, they appear 
 to have arisen solely irom a sense of duty, and a resolution 
 to sacrifice every thing to the public service. His whole go- 
 vernment clearly evinces that he had no personal views to 
 
 were nppointed with large salaries, who never proceeded on their embassies ; but as 
 there is no intention to pafticularize abuses, the fact only is mentioned to show the 
 different systems pursued by the two governments. 
 
 G G ^
 
 saS PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 forward, no angry passions to gratify. To Mr. Hastings be 
 was always read}' to do most ample justice. Though it was im- 
 possible he could acknowledge Mr. Sullivan in the capacity 
 he was placed by the supreme council, he did not set aside 
 the appointment. The commission, recommended by the 
 governor-general for the arrangement of the nabob's finances, 
 he suffered to take place, and put ]\Ir. Benfield, who was a 
 favorite at Bengal, at the head of it. He was always ready to 
 acknowledge to the court of directors, in terms of unqualified 
 praise, the assistance he had met with in money and provi- 
 sions from Bengal : and although Mr. Hastings had inti- 
 mated, at a xery early period of Lord Macartney's govern- 
 ment, that no cordiality or even familiar intercourse could 
 subsist between them, his Lordship seized the very first occa- 
 sion of showing him there was no resentment on his part 
 by congratulating him on his narro'v escape from and the 
 happ3^ suppression of the rebellion of Cheyt Sing. Mr. Hast- 
 ings however did not think fit to renew the correspondence, 
 even on public subjects, or to observe the decency of com- 
 mon civility by acknowledging the receipt of his letters. To 
 prevent the very serious inconveniences that would necessa- 
 rily result to the Company's atfairs from a complete disunion 
 in the sentiments and measures of those to whom they were 
 entrusted. Lord Macartney resolved to make an effort of a 
 different kind towards a reconciliation. With this view, in 
 February 1782, he sent his confidential friend and secretary 
 Mr. Staunton to Bengal for the purpose of explaining his 
 motives to Mr. Hastings on a variety of points, where their 
 opinions had not coincided. On this occasion, he wrote to
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 349 
 
 the governor-general as follows : " The interrii])tion in our 
 " correspondence, occasioned by your tour, joined to an ap- 
 " prehension that my letters may not have sufficiently con- 
 " veyed to you the sentiments of my mind, has given me a 
 " good deal of concern. And I will confess to you, that it 
 " was not a little encreascd by some intimations I had re- 
 " ceived of your not having taken in so good part as I wished 
 " the freedom with which I gave you my opinion upon some 
 " points, where it was impossible for me to avoid it. To re- 
 " new this subject, at present, would lead to discussion w^hich 
 " I trust our mutual dispositions will render totally unneces- 
 " sary, as I can very sincerely assure you, that the same 
 " desire, which I formerly expressed, of most cordially co- 
 " operating with jou and deferring to your opinions, as far 
 " as may be in my power, continues not less strong at this 
 " moment than ever. I trust that Mr. Macpherson will have 
 " done justice to what I said upon this subject when he 
 " passed here ; and to give it every possible weight, I now 
 " dispatch to you a gentleman of my inmost confidence, to 
 " whom you may, Avith the greatest safety, communicate 
 " every idea of your's which you wish me to possess, and 
 " who will with perfect freedom communicate to you mine. 
 " As soon as Mr, Staunton has received your conmiands, he 
 *"• proposes to return here ; indeed nothing could be more in- 
 " convenient to me than to lose him at this moment ; but I 
 " had long intended to send a confidential person to you, and 
 " Mr. Staunton, from the long friendship between us, from 
 " his abilities, integrity, and every other circumstance is so 
 " much better qualified for the office than any one I know^.
 
 230 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " I could not be so far wanting, either to you or myself, as 
 " to detain him when he could be thus employed *." 
 
 With this mark of his Lordship's attention Mr. Hastings 
 seemed to be greatly flattered, and received Mr. Staunton in 
 the kindest nianner. By this gentleman's address and ex- 
 planations he appeared also to be satisfied so eftcctuall}^ 
 with regard to Lord IMacartney's amicable and cordial senti- 
 ments, and his desire to gain his friendship and good opi- 
 nion, that Mr. Staunton could not doubt of the object of his 
 mission Ix^ing fully accomplished. Mr. Hastings, in fact, 
 assured him that he was so jierfectly satisfied, in all points, 
 that he could use, in his letters to Lord IMacartney, no ex- 
 pressions so strong of the fulhiess of his determination to 
 cG-opcrate with and to support his measures, and to act 
 ■with cordiality, fiiendship, and atlection towards him, that 
 iiis (Mr. Hastings's) sentiments and conduct should not ratify. 
 To corroborate tlrese assurances he writes, on the 21st ISIarch, 
 to Lord Macartney as follows : " I am truly sensible of the 
 " force of your Lordship's sentiments in my favor, when I 
 " consider that, in the most arduous and critical situation of 
 " ilifairs-undcr your government, ycm have deprived ycnusclf 
 " of the able assistance of your confidential secretary ibr my 
 *' ease and information. Tlie impressions which so flattering 
 " a mark of your Loixlship's attention has made upon my 
 " mind I will not attempt to describe, persuaded that ]\fr. 
 " Staunton has t)bserved and will do justice to them. I will 
 
 • Letter from Lord Macartney to INIr, Hastings, dated jd Febru.ny 178:;.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 231 
 
 *' content myself with simply making ray warmest acknow- 
 " ledgments. I have endeavored to give effect to your Lord- 
 " ship's design in this ingenuous proceeding, by the most tree 
 *' and unreserved communication of my sentiments to Mr. 
 " Staunton upon every subject which you have charged him 
 " with ; and, I trust, they arc such as will convince youv 
 " Lordship of the anxious desire which I have to co-operate 
 " with you firmly and liberally for the security of the Carna- 
 *' tic, for the support of jour authority, dnd for the honor of 
 " your administration, by every aid which this government 
 " and my personal influence can afford "*." Yet notwithstand- 
 ing all these assurances made to Lord ]\lacartncy, under his 
 own hand and repeated to Mr. Staunton, at the very mo- 
 ment he was thus pledging himself to both " for the support 
 " of his Lordship's authority, and for the honor of his admi- 
 " nistration," did this same Mr. Hastings, even while Mr, 
 Staunton was living in his own house, sign the letter of the 
 11th March already quoted -j-, by which was transferred to 
 Sir Eyre Coote " an unparticipated command to the fullest 
 " possible extent of his wishes," thereby reducing to a mere 
 cypher that government and that administration of it, whose 
 authority and honor he had almost in the same breath, 
 pledged himself to support t:. Yet even to this letter, injuri- 
 
 * Letter from Mr. Hastings to Lord Macartney, dated 21st March 1782. 
 
 -|- In page 142, and following. 
 
 :j: Sir Eyre Coote, it seems, had dispatched his secretary to Bengal just about the 
 time when Mr. Staunton was there, to aimounce to the governor-general and coun- 
 cil, the intention of the general to return to Calcutta, and take his seat at their board, 
 unless he was indulged with very extraordinary and exclusive powers, both civil and 
 military. Whether the representations of this gentleman, or tlie anxiety of the 
 supreme council to keep Sir Eyre Coote away from Bengal, most prevailed does not 
 appear; but the letter of the nth March was the result of the mission, and was 
 carefully concealed from Mr. Staunton.
 
 232 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE ' 
 
 ous in its consequences and offensive as it could not fail to be 
 considered at any time, but more especially so under tlie 
 circumstances it was written, Lord Macartney condescended 
 to return a private repW, explaining, in the most candid 
 and friendly manner, the ill effects that might be apprehended 
 from the full exercise of the powers they had thought fit to 
 transfer to the commander in chief, assuring him, at the same 
 time, of his perfect acquiescence in their orders without a 
 single murmur, and laying fully before him the state of his 
 own mind and views with respect to India. To this letter the 
 governor-general did not find it convenient to make any 
 reply ; but th.e sentiments it contains are so honorable to the 
 writer, and display so well that exalted and disinterested 
 character, which eminently distinguished him through the 
 whole course of his life, that it would be unjust to withhold 
 it from the public ^\ 
 
 Prom this time, it may well be supposed, all private and 
 confidential correspondence ceased between the two govern- 
 ors, and that of a public nature on the part of the supreme 
 council was henceforward tinctured with so much asperity 
 in the language, and with such harsh and unbecoming ex- 
 pressions, as their superior and relative situation could not 
 justify under any circumstances whatsoever. But the intem- 
 perance of their language, however reprehensible, was not half 
 so injurious to the public service as that system of hostile 
 conduct, which, from this time, appears to have been directed 
 personally against Lord Macartney, and of which it will be , 
 
 • Letter from Lord Macartney to Mr. Hastings, dated Madras, May 22, 1782. 
 Appendix, No. 13. 
 
 1
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 233 
 
 reccssary to take some notice on particular points only, as a 
 history of the systematic opposition of the Bengal govern- 
 ment to the nieasures of the presidency of Madras would 
 alone occupy a volume. 
 
 Long before the intelligence had arrived in India of the 
 peace which had been concluded in Europe, Lord Macartney 
 had made every exertion to dissolve the connection between 
 the French and the family of Hyder Ali, and by effectuating 
 a peace with the latter to defeat the views of the former on 
 the peninsula of India. But the superintending power of 
 Bengal did not find it expedient to" give him the authority 
 which was necessary for such a purpose, or to send any in- 
 structions or communicate any information respecting their 
 views as to peace or war, or negociation with any of the 
 country powers. Neither did they continue to furnish those 
 remittances which the increased expenses of the Carnatic 
 more than ever demanded ; on the contrary, they forbad the 
 presidency of Madras to draw on the government of Bengal 
 for a single pagoda. In such a state of things a peace with 
 the successor of Hyder Ali became almost indispensable, 
 and letter after letter was dispatched to the snpcrintendino- 
 government for their instructions on this point. No instruc- 
 tions however were sent till the commissioners for settling the 
 treaty of peace had left Madras, and when they did come 
 they seemed to refer so m3^steriously to something which they 
 did not communicate, that whatever line the presidency of 
 Madras should take, it would equally have been hable to the 
 misconstruction of the uncandid, and the censure of the igno- 
 rant. They therefore adopted the line which appeared most 
 
 VOL. I. n II
 
 234 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 consonant with the intentions, the reputation, and the true 
 interests of their employers, and effected, as. we iiave seen, 
 an advantageous and an honorable peace. Agreeably wuth 
 the terms of the treaty this peace Avas to be latified within 
 three months by the government of Bengal. When it was 
 transmitted thither for this purjiose, the govern<:)r-general 
 liappened to be at Lucknow, but it was acknowledged in due 
 form by the persons for the time vested with, and in the 
 exercise of, all the powers of the governor-general and coun- 
 cil. It was returned thus ratified, sent to Tippoo Saheb, the 
 receipt of it acknowledged by him, and there was not the 
 smallest doubt of his being perfectly satisfied with the ratifi- 
 cation. Yet, many months after this event, about the mid- 
 dle of July 1784, a ncAv acknowledgment was received at 
 Madras of the treaty with Tippoo Sultaun, signed as before 
 by the members of the supreme council at Fort William, and 
 bearinET the additional signature of Mr. IIastino;s at Lucknow. 
 It might not have appeared merely superfluous and awkward 
 in the committee of Fort St. George to forward to Tippoo a 
 fresh acknowledgment; it might, to his mistrustful mind, 
 have seemed to aro-ue a consciousness of a defect in the for- 
 mer transaction, dishonorably concealed from him by the 
 government of Madras. But to this new acknowledgment 
 there was appended a declaration of the governor-general and 
 council relative to the nabob Wallau Jah, who, though sub-- 
 stantially and effectually included in the treaty, precisely as 
 he had been in the former one of I769, and also in the 
 Mahratta treaty, had, in pursuance of his schemes for inde- 
 pendent sovereignt}^, wished to be considered as a contract- 
 ing party. Such a jaroposal to Tippoo Saheb, relative to the 
 
 3.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. ^^S 
 
 nabob Wallau Jah, whose very name was hateful to him, 
 ■would, at any favorable change in his affairs, have furnished 
 a colorable pretext for breaking the treaty. It might reason- 
 ably have been supposed, that the fatal consequences of 
 plunging anew into a war with the Mahrattas, after treaties 
 had already been concluded with them, would have furnished 
 the government of Bengal with an useful lesson against en- 
 dangering a war with any other power with whom peace had 
 been concluded. The members of this government ought to 
 have known and considered that the embarrassed situation of 
 the Company's affairs, at home as well as in India, was but 
 ill suited for the commencement of a new war. Had they 
 permitted themselves to take a dispassionate view of the 
 situation of those affairs in every quarter, they would proba- 
 bly have spared themselves the trouble of so silly an inter- 
 ference. Just emerged from a scene of general warfare, in 
 which their exertions had been far beyond the natural re- 
 sources of the Company ; plunged into distresses and burdens 
 from which there was little hope of safety or even of tempo- 
 rary relief, but, in the continuance of tranquillity, the govern- 
 ment of Madras had full conviction that nothing but inevi- 
 table disgrace and ruin could be the result of a renewal of the 
 war. They felt that the interest, indeed the very existence, 
 of the Company and of the British power in India, depended 
 on their observing a temporizing conduct with Tippoo, and 
 obtaining time to breathe and recover from the arduous 
 struggle in which they had been so recently engaged. 
 
 In every point of view therefore this new interference was as 
 unnecessary as it was impolitic. The nabob himself did not
 
 23^ PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 pretend that his name Avas omitted in the treaty, or that the 
 omission of it operated any degradation or disadvantage ; he 
 had fears only that such omission was with a design of effect- 
 ing those purposes. But if the governor-general and his 
 council had supposed those fears to be really felt by him, it 
 ■would have been more consistent to dispel them by address- 
 ing the declaration to him and not to Tippoo Sultaun. By 
 sending their declaration and their orders through the chan- 
 nel of the Madras government, they rendered it liable to the 
 imputation of inconsistency and guilt if it partook in the 
 measure, or of disobedience if it resisted. It is true they 
 Avere not authorized to give any such orders to the govern- 
 ment of Madras, which could not indeed negociate or con- 
 clude a treaty or commence hostilities without the previous 
 consent or approbation of the Bengal government ; but here 
 there was no intention to negociate or to treat ; there was 
 assuredly none to commence hostilities. Lord Macartney 
 saw at once the drift of this new acknowledgment and decla- 
 ration, and convinced in his own mind that the chief view 'of 
 his enemies was to embarrass his government, he prepared 
 himself to meet their design with a calm and manly contempt 
 for those consequences, at which their hostility seemed to 
 aim. He was conscious that the ground on which he stood 
 would support him with firmness. After an able and dis- 
 passionate survey of the danger, the folly, and the wicked- 
 ness of their present proceeding, he thus concludes his minute 
 in committee on which a letter was grounded from the 
 Madras presidency to the governor-general and council of 
 Bengal. " But if the governing members of Bengal are deter- 
 
 " mined to prosecute their point until they can succeed in the 
 
 8
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 237 
 
 " suspension, which it is assured some of them ah'cady have 
 " seriously had in contemplation, the president, who would 
 " seem to be the main object of their adverse pursuits, is will- 
 " ing to take upon himself the whole responsibility of declin- 
 " ing for the present to participate in the proposed measures 
 " from Bengal. His mind is resigned to any personal con- 
 " sequences that can happen to him from an adherence to 
 " his duty. He is ready to expose himself to suspension, 
 " rather than execute measures which, at this time, in his 
 " judgment, threaten the welfare and safety of the public ; 
 " or, if the government of Bengal chuse to persist in their 
 " present orders, under the present circumstances, and re- 
 " peat them under the penalties of disobedience, he will 
 " spare them the formality of suspension, and retire from 
 " his present station on their first notice. The Carnatic eva- 
 " cuated ; the war at an end ; the assignment productive ; and 
 " the constitution of the government ascertained ; his suc- 
 " cesser may meet with less difiiculties than he has had to en- 
 " counter. In the critical and laborious scene in which he 
 " has been engaged, his health, his time, his satisfaction, and 
 " most of the comforts of life have, with honest and unremit- 
 " ting zeal, been sacrificed to the public service *. 
 
 To the same effect his Lordship addressed also a separate 
 letter to the governor-general and his council, signifying his 
 readiness to take upon himself the Avhole responsibility for 
 not complying with their orders, and exculpating his col- 
 leagues from any charge of disobedience on their part. The 
 
 • Lord Macartney's minute in the select committee, July 15, 1784.
 
 238 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 proceedings of the latter^ on this separate letter of the presi- 
 dent being laid before them, convey so honorable a testimony, 
 and speak so strongly their sense of the zeal, the ability, and 
 the inflexible integrity of Lord Macartney, that it would not 
 l)e doing justice to his memory to withhold them from the 
 public *. 
 
 By this peremptory refusal to comply Avith the proposal to 
 Tippoo Saiieb of new, disgusting, and useless conditions, 
 even after the final ratification of the treat}', the general tran- 
 quillity of India, which had so recently been restored, was 
 not at this time put to the hazard of a rupture ; and Mr. 
 Hastings found it expedient to spare himself the odium which 
 the measure of suspending Lord Macartney would not have 
 failed to excite against him from every quarter, except indeed 
 amons the friends of that narrow circled where such a mea- 
 sure would have been carried. His Lordship however was so 
 diso-usted with measures and orders that could neither be 
 justified by precedent, reason, or necessity, and which pro- 
 ceeded so glaringly from no other motive than that hostile 
 disposition, which had but too frequentl}'' manifested itself 
 aoainst him, that he would at once have letired from the chair 
 of the presidency, if any person appointed at home to succeed 
 liim had been upon the spot to fill it. He earnestly entreated 
 the Court of Directors to make such appointment. Previously 
 indeed to this period, in his letter of the 24th January 1784, 
 
 * Extract from the minutes of the select committee of the presidency of Fort St. 
 George, July 31, 1784. Appendix, No. 14. 
 
 \ The suprem-e council was composed of Mr, Hastings, Mr. IMacplierson, and 
 Mr. Wheckr.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 239 
 
 to the secret committee of the Court of Directors, he had' 
 observed, " I will freely own to you that, during the whole 
 " course of my public life, nothing has given me such real 
 " concern as that it should have fallen to my lot to conduct 
 " your administration here at a period when every measure I 
 " take is so full of hazard, and when I find it utterly inipos- 
 " sible to execute what I conceive to be the duties of my 
 " trust, and even the first and most essential rights of your 
 " government, without various opposition and much private 
 " animosity. But as I happened to embark in your service 
 " at a very critical and alarming period of your affairs on this- 
 " coast, it would have ill become me to suffer any circum- 
 " stance of ill health, danger, or disgust, to incline me to 
 " abandon, during such a period, the station in which you 
 ** had placed me, whilst I Avas able to undergo, at any risk, 
 " the fatigue and anxiety with which it has been accompa- 
 " nied. You will also easily conceive that as I have relioi- 
 " ously observed my covenants to the honorable Company, 
 *' the state of my private fortune would but ill bear a sudden 
 " resignation of my present appointment. Yet as my health 
 " has suffered much, and as it may be doubted whether a 
 ♦' further sacrifice of it would be repaid by such a success in 
 " my future efforts, for the more solid and permanent esta- 
 ** blishment of your affiiirs here, as to determine me on re- 
 " maining in the charge of them, I think it my duty to sug- 
 " gest to you the propriety of appointing an eventual successor 
 " to the government of Fort St. George, in the case of my 
 " death or departure from this place. The administration of 
 " your affiiirs in this part of the world immediately succeeding 
 "the restoration of peace, must decide the future stability.
 
 240 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " or declension of your commerce and dominion ; and unless 
 *' you appoint the ablest and lionestest men that can be found 
 " to fill the first situations, 3'our possessions most assuredly 
 " will soon slip from you, and your Indian empire will pass 
 " away like a shadow, and be only remembered as a 
 " dream." 
 
 The Directors however found it expedient to detain Lord 
 jVIacartney in India for further mortifications, before they 
 thought fit to relieve him from his government. Those morti- 
 fications seem principally to have arisen out of the assign- 
 ment of the revenues of the Carnatic, whicli he had with 
 great skill and management procured from the nabob of 
 Arcot to enable the Company to carry on a war which had for 
 its object both their and his own annihilation. The historj^ of 
 this transaction, and its consequences to the personal feelings, 
 the future fortunes and the character of Lord ]\Iacartne\-, 
 is too important to be passed over without particular notice. 
 It may serve also to throw some light upon the character and 
 conduct of those dependent princes which the Company's 
 servants have, unwisely as it would appear, set up between 
 their masters, who ought to hold the real sovereignty of the 
 conquered countries in their own hands, and the numerous 
 and oppressed subjects of those countries. 
 
 When Lord Macartney with infinite address, perseverance, 
 and difficulty had, at length, succeeded in obtaining from 
 the nabob of Arcot a voluntary assignment of the revenues of 
 the Carnatic for the supj^ort of the war, of which he had been 
 the principal cause, and in the event of which he was most
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. c.^i 
 
 materially concerned, although hitherto he had not in reality 
 advanced a/ single pagoda towards the vast expense of carry- 
 ing it on, his Lordship immediately placed the collection 
 and the application of the assigned revenues under the direc- 
 tion of a committee, of which Mr. Oakley was president, 
 \vhosc integrity and abilit}- gained them universal applause. 
 The gentlenien however, who composed this committee, soon 
 discovered that, notwithstanding all their j)recautions, the 
 terms of the agreement were most grossly violated h}' the 
 agents of the nabob. By their vigilance they detected the 
 secret orders, which Avcre sent into the provinces, to counter- 
 act their regulations, and the plans that uere adopted for in- 
 stilling into the minds of the renters a distrust of the validit}- 
 of the engagements they had entered into with the English 
 government. In fact, the committee had ample proof that 
 delays and evasions Avere created, and scenes of oppression 
 and gross mismanaoement committed in everv district, where 
 the influence of the Durbar had secretly worked its way ; that 
 large sums of money had been embezzled and sent privately 
 to the nabob's second son the Ameer ul Omrah. 'J'liis prince 
 had, in {"act, been greatly instrumental in obtaining the 
 assignment, and became security to his father for the due 
 performance of the conditions of the agreement on the part 
 of Lord Macartney *. Having long obtained a complete 
 
 * Translation of an obligation given by the nabob Ameer ul Omrali Bahauder to 
 his Highness the Nabob Wallau Jah, dated 14 Zehgi 1195, or ist December 
 1781. 
 
 " I do hereby represent and declare to his Highness the Nabob in the most solemn 
 manner, and with the utmost sincerity, that what I have hitherto perceived in the 
 conduct and verbal assurances of Lord Macartney is for his Flighness's good, and 
 VOL. I. II
 
 242 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 possession of his father's mind, he had for many years before 
 been intriguing to secure to himself the succession of the Car- 
 natic to the disherison of his elder brother Omdut ul Omrah, 
 on whom it was Settled both by grant and treaty ; and he now 
 conceived that by rendering this signal service to the Madras 
 o-overnment he would establish a claim on its support and 
 assistance for the accomplishment of his unjust views. He 
 calculated likewise on the vast sums of money he would be 
 enabled, by his secret influence and management, to embezzle 
 to himself from the aumildars or principal renters appointed 
 by the committee of the assigned revenue. But the stubborn 
 integrity of Lord Macartney, and the vigilance nnd activity 
 of the committee, soon put an end to the expectations he bad 
 formed on this head, and baffled all his schemes of ambition 
 and of wealth. Thus disappointed in the strong hope he had 
 entertained of making the assignment subservient to his 
 views, he set at work every engine that cunning and false- 
 hood could supply, to recover the assignment of the reveiuies. 
 For purposes of this nature fit instruments are seldom want- 
 ino- in India. There was a man in the Company's service, 
 whose enmity Lord Macartney had secured by being obliged 
 
 that his Lordship considers the injuries nnd advantages of the Company and the 
 Nabob to be one and the same. And I hereby bind myself to the nabob, in case 
 his highness shall invest Lord Macartney with power over the revenue of his coun- 
 try» and to appoint renters for the Circar's share, that his Lordship will apply him- 
 self solely to the collection of those revenues, without the least interference in his 
 higliness's government ; and further, that his Lordship will strictly adiiere, without 
 the least deviation, to every promise or engagement that he may make with the 
 nabob, relating to this business. Thus do I become bound to the nabob for the 
 above ; and in case it shall hereafter be departed from, I will take the blamp and 
 rcspo isibility upon myself." 
 1
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 
 
 243 
 
 to dismiss him from some of his employments. Men of un- 
 bridled passions are oftener connected by their enmities than 
 their regards. The Ameer ul Omrah and tiiis man were well 
 knoun to each other. Mutual esteem did not appear to 
 attach them by any tic of friendship ; but as soon as the ob- 
 ject of their antipathies was the same they united at once, 
 ■rhis man, though a ser\'ant of the Company, without the 
 pi rmission of the governor, and contrary to the Company's 
 orders, had constant communication with the nabob and the 
 Ameer ul Omrah. Though a servant of the Company he pub- 
 licly devoted himself to the service of tiie nabob, misinform- 
 ing his mind, misleading his judgment, exciting his passions, 
 and fomenting his designs, contrary to the real and ultimate 
 interest, satisfaction, and tranquillity of the nabob himself, 
 and contrary to the interest and reputation of the British 
 nation, the Company, and the Company's government at 
 Madras. By the machinations of these two men the good 
 cft'ects that were calculated to arise from the assignment 
 Avere for a time successfully opposed ; and, in consequence 
 of them, considerable perplexity and confusion prevailed in 
 the country districts. Ihit the scrupulous exactness and 
 the indefatigable labors of the committee of assigned revenue 
 led to a speedy detection of the secret intiuence, which had 
 so powerfully and successfully been employed to counteract 
 their proceedings. The determination of Lord Macartney to 
 apply an effectual remedy for those abuses, and to expose 
 that secret influence heightened the disappointment of the 
 Ameer and the displeasure of the nabob into resentment. 
 The latter, finding it impossible to avoid the reproach of 
 violating a solenm and voluntary engagement, had recourse
 
 244 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 to the Innguage of recrimination ; he taxed the coumuttcc 
 with ignorance and mismanagement of liis country, and 
 ascribed to those causes that want of success which was, in 
 fact, owing entirel}' to tlie exertion of his own and his second 
 son's secret influence against them. 
 
 ^D 
 
 Disappointed in the phm he had formed of converting the 
 assignment to his personal advantage, the Ameer ul Omrah, 
 always on the look-out for occasions that might be turned to 
 his own benefit, lost no time in endeavoring with the assist- 
 ance of his new friend to bring about a rcconcihation with 
 Sir Eyre Coote (betAveen whom a most cordial hatred had 
 long subsisted) from the moment it was known tl)at the Ben- 
 gal government had conferred on that general an unpartici- 
 pated command over the forces in the Carnatic. AVith this 
 view the old nabob was prevailed upon to write to him to 
 the following effect : " that as the governor-general had 
 " found it expedient to invest him with full power to act as 
 " fie should think proper for the public good, and as his 
 " highness had experience of his abilities, exertions and 
 '-' bravery for many years, he had thought fit to confer on 
 " him (Sir Eyre Coote) alone full powers over all the officers 
 " of his government and revenues." But although the ge- 
 neral had the prudence not to accept of this fourth assign- 
 ment of the nabob, so many new and opposite authorities 
 and pretensions could not fail to impede the management of 
 the revenues and distract the minds of the inhabitants. 
 
 Lord Macartney was now convinced that every obstacle 
 ■would be thrown in the way to render the assignment un- 
 
 I
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 245 
 
 productive, and to .vilify his conduct; that every practice 
 wliicli could allure or deter would be employed by the Dur- 
 bar. Ijut he was determined to persevere steadily, unshaken 
 by menace and unseduced by temptation. His rigid adhe- 
 rence to covenants, and his positive refusal of all presents 
 from the first moment of his arrival in India, were matters 
 so new to them that they were totally at a loss to what mo- 
 tive tlicy ought to be ascribed. At one time such conduct 
 was imputed to his ignorance of the mode of governing the 
 black people of India ; at anothei' it was suggested that his 
 avarice might aim at sometliing more than had yet been of- 
 fered ; and under the idea that by encreasing the bribe, the 
 temptation to acce])t it would be strengthened in proportion, 
 the usual lack of pagodas presented to a new governor was. 
 cncreased to two, with an apology from the nabob for having, 
 in the first instance, offered to a man of hii> rank in life the 
 sum only which was due to a commoner. The en^barrass- 
 nient into wliich the refusal of 80,000/. threw the whole Dur- 
 l)ar was extremely amusing to Lord Macartney. Another 
 lure had been held out to him at a very early period of his. 
 government. Accortling to a custom, which it seems is very 
 common among those powers of India, who are said to be 
 under the Company's protection, every governor, admiral, 
 or commander in chief who may happen to wear the insignia 
 of any order of distinction or merit, is almost certain of beino- 
 presented with a diamond star — he is given to understand 
 that a plain silver badge in India would be considered as in- 
 compatible Avith his rank and station, and that he must 
 therefore allow them to supply him with one more becom- 
 ing his dignity — it is said to be " only a little betel among
 
 246 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " friends" — of tliis ceremon}^ some idea may be collected from 
 Lord IMacartney's account of it in a letter to a gentleman, 
 whom he had considered for some time as his friend *. " Be- 
 fore I conclude," says he, " I nnist tell you that yesterday 
 his highness Wallau Jah, attended uith all the royal fa- 
 mil\', gave a grand breakfast to Sir Edward Hughes, Sir 
 Eyre Coote, Sir Hector Munro, &c. and all the principal 
 officers of the scjuadron. The latter were invited to be 
 witnesses of his highness' n)unificencc to their admiral on ac- 
 count of his eminent services. The admiral arrived in his 
 uniform but soon retired into another apartment, where he 
 was untrussed, and then returned in a fine brocade coat with 
 a diamond star upon it that far outshone 
 
 '* The wealth of Orrnus or of Ind." 
 
 Charles Binney read aloud the nabob's compliment upon 
 the occasion, which was re-echoed by Arthur Cuthbert, 
 who, in his turn, read the admiral's rf^pl}-. The Cap- 
 tains were sprinkled with rose water, bedewed with 
 ottar, and had rings of flowers put round their necks, but 
 no other sort of rings or even shawls made their appear- 
 ance, which I hear the sea fish expected to have had a l)ite 
 at, and were not a little ruffied at the disappointment. 
 Entre nons, had I known it in time, I should have contrived 
 to put the admiral on his guard against such a ceremony, 
 because some persons may possibly make an ill use of it, 
 and I really have a very great regard for him. I must 
 add a particular which Sir Hector Munro told me. The 
 admiral, it seems, had desired that tiie governor might be 
 
 • Extract of a letter from Lord Macartney to Mr. Macpherson, dated Fort St. 
 Gqorgc, July 26, 1782.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 247 
 
 " invited to this breakfast, and both he and Sir Hector were 
 " assured it should be so. To their great surprize he was not 
 " there, and upon inquiry it was found that Paul's * preach- 
 " jng had prevailed against their's, and the governor was not 
 " invited ; 
 
 Sic me servavit uipolh. 
 
 " for it would have embarrassed me confoundedly to have 
 " been asked, as the act of Parliament speaks very strono- 
 " language against this same star, and there is not a ragga- 
 *' mutiin here but may recover in the mayor's court double 
 *' the value of it. It was once thought that no Knisht of the 
 " Bath could resist the dazzle of one of these sewo-aws : 
 " yet out of half a dozen brethren there is one at least, who 
 " has not been blinded by them. That lure, among others, 
 " Avas thrown out, when still stronger was rejected, and was 
 " called only betel among friends ; but it was a kind of betel 
 " I was determined neither to chew nor swallow, and 1 Mish 
 " some of our friends had been of the same way of thinking." 
 
 Finding the inefficacy of every attempt to allure by pre- 
 sents, or deter by menace, the nabob's son and his associate 
 had recourse to the writing of letters, in the nabob's name, to 
 Bengal, filled with misrepresentation and falsehood, and to 
 Lord Macartney couched in gross and abusive languaoe. 
 Many of the former^ as will hereafter be seen, were entered. 
 OB the public records, sent home with the public proceed- 
 ings, but carefully concealed from the government of Madras. 
 To the latter for some time his Lordship condescended to 
 
 * Paul Beiificici, it is presumed, is the person here alluded to.
 
 24S PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 reply in terms of respectful civilit}'', and declarations of his 
 20od intentions towards himself and his family. " In all 
 " events and at all times," he observes, in one of his letters 
 to the nabob, " your highness may perfectly rely on the rec- 
 " titude of my intentions. I have no other view than to ren- 
 " dcr your highness's situation honorable and happy, to re- 
 " store peace and prosperity to your dominions, and provide 
 " for the heavy debts due to the Company and your pri- 
 " vate creditors. These are the objects nearest my heart, and 
 " I have no doubt of their being fully accomplished if your 
 " highness will follow the natural dictates of your own mind, 
 " and afford me that hearty support and co-operation which, 
 " as a sincere friend to your highness and a faithful servant 
 " to the Company, I have a right to expect." 
 
 But to render the situation of the nabob honorable and 
 happy would not have answered the expectations and views 
 of the Ameer ul Omrah and his new friend. The steadiness 
 of Lord Macartney tended to exasperate these unprincipled 
 associates. Every species of calumn}^ was cast upon his 
 character, and the most illiberal reflections upon his con- 
 duct. They fabricated letters in the name of the nabob 
 which were sent direct to England, imputing corruption to 
 him who, from the hour of his arrival in India, they were 
 w-cll convinced had never accepted for his own benefit " a 
 " sin"le Daiioda, a diamond or even a shawl ;" to him, who, 
 to their own knowledge, had refused what, in the opinion of 
 most men, would constitute a princely fortune. They pre- 
 vailed on the nabob to address himself to the whole council 
 of ^ladras collectivelv, where they knew they had some 
 
 4
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 249 
 
 friends, abusing tlic president in the grossest terms, and in- 
 venting the most malevolent and improbable falsehoods with 
 the view of sowing a division between him and the members 
 of his government; but this expedient failed them. The select 
 committee, in their general letter to the Court of Directors 
 observe, on this occasion, " We cannot deny ourselves the 
 " satisfaction of giving this public testimony of our indig- 
 " nant sense of the injuries which our president has drawn 
 '* upon himself by his disinterested zeal for the welfare of 
 " your affeirs, and the just and necessary measures which 
 " that zeal has dictated ; nor should we acquit ourselves of 
 " our duty to you, or do that justice to our president, which 
 " he merits at our hands and yours, if, wiien every species 
 " of calumny and abuse is employed to traduce and vihfy his 
 " character, and every expedient tried that low cunning and 
 " disappointed ambition can suggest to embarrass his admi- 
 " nistration, we omitted to declare our most sincere and con- 
 " scientious belief, that ta those very measures you princi- 
 " pally owe the salvation of your interests, and the nabob 
 " any reasonable hope of being restored to the possession of 
 " his country. We have also pride and satisfaction in assur- 
 " ing you, that although the nabob has not thought proper 
 " to include your select committee in his reproaches, we have 
 •' uniformly supported and ac(iuiesccd m the conduct by 
 " which they have been incurred ; and we claim our share of 
 " responsibility for that conduct, and of the censure or ap- 
 " plause Avhich it shall be fcjund to deserve of you and of 
 •■ the public*." 
 
 * Extract of a letter from the select committee of Fort St. George to the court 
 of directors, dated Oct. 31, 1782. 
 
 VOL. I. K K
 
 250 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Thus disappointed and defeated in all their projccls, they 
 had the audacity of addressing a letter to the king of Great 
 Britain, stating, in the nabob's name, that he had been in- 
 duced to submit powers over the revenues of his country to a 
 man unequal to the great trust reposed in him, " to one who 
 " has exercised all manner of oppressions and cruelties, and 
 " even impeded and prevented religious worship throughout 
 " my countries, who has ruined all ray affairs, and has even 
 " proceeded to the usurpation of my government, and the 
 " violation of all my rights as the sovereign of tlie Carnatic. . . 
 " And whilst the advantages that should have attended 
 " the cession of the revenues to the public have been totally 
 " neglected and defeated by his Lordship's measures, his 
 " conduct and pursuits have been directed to serve his own 
 " private interest only *." This letter wys accompanied by 
 many others addressed to the ministers and the Court of 
 Directors, all filled with complaints and accusations against 
 Lord Macartney, unsupported by any proof and without the 
 shadow of foundation ; but so artfully constructed as easily 
 to mislead the ignorant and interest the passions in favor of 
 the nabob. The man who held the pen calculated, it seems, 
 on the probability that among the number and variety of 
 aspersions with which they were filled, some of them, at 
 least, might gain credit. By throwing out a multitude of 
 calumnies against Lord Macartney, a hope was entertained 
 by them, that some of the charges could not fail to make an 
 impression at home, that there must exist some ground of 
 
 * Extract of a letter (said to be a translation, but knoVn originally to have been 
 written in English) from the Nabob Wallau Jah to his majesty the King of Great 
 Britain, dated Ottober 13, 1782. 
 
 4
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 251 
 
 accusation against him. The artful writer was not nnac- 
 <|uainted with the weak side of his countrymen's character ; 
 he knew well enough that to excite their ]>assions by a tale 
 of feigned distress was the surest means of obtaining his object. 
 Sympathy indeed would seem to be an affection of the mind, 
 whose strength increases in proportion to the distance of the 
 exciting cause. Distant distress has the advantage arisino- 
 from the powers of the imagination to operate in its favor; 
 hence the supposed sutlerings of a I\Iahomedaii Khan or a 
 Hindoo Rajah are able to dissolve the hearts of the whole 
 nation, while objects of real distress at home, from their want 
 of novelty, are contemplated with comparative imconcern. 
 A tale of distress -well represented is capable sometimes of 
 exciting a kind of sensation that renders almost unwelcome 
 the conviction of its falsehood ; it is one of those pleasing 
 errors, which, as Doctor Johnson observes, is not always 
 willingly detected. The nabob's tale was meant to be told, 
 but there was no intention to prove any part of it. It was 
 equally calculated to deceive the real friends of justice and 
 humanity, to at^brd to the pretenders to them an occasion of 
 displaying their oratorical talents, or to bring forward some 
 imknown candidate for fame to public notice. The sub- 
 stance of this tale of groundless complaint and accusation is 
 contained in a letter written in the name of the Nabob to 
 Lord Macartney, and said to be translated from the Persian, 
 but proved to be originally written in English by the Ameer's 
 associate. To this extraordinary and audacious compilation 
 of falsehoods, which was not meant to operate at Madras, 
 where the malignity of the writer was as well known as his 
 
 want of veracity, but in a more distant quarter. Lord 
 
 K K 2
 
 25* PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Macartney did not condescend to make any reply. On 
 learning howev-er, some time after, that it had been sent 
 liomc, lie conceived it might be adviseable to enter on the 
 records of the presidency, a justification of his whole con- 
 duct towards the nabob of the Carnatic. This justification, 
 together with the abovementioned letter, to which it is an an- 
 swer, are deserving of particular attention, and will be found 
 in the Appendix *. His Lordship thought it right also to ad- 
 dress a private letter to Lord Hillsborough then secretary of 
 state, giving him some account of the infamous practices 
 of the Durbar which ain^ed at nothing less than his 
 destruction -j-. 
 
 That a considerable portion of thinking men in the British 
 nation should suffer themselves to be so long and so repeat- 
 edly abused, with regard to the complaints of the dependent 
 Mahomedan princes of India, can only be explained by the 
 little trouble that is taken to inform themselves accurately on 
 the subject : but the enormous sums of money which these 
 intriguing men are always ready to lavish on those who may 
 either be sufficiently ignorant, oi* sufficiently cori'upt, to un- 
 dertake their cause, will readily account for the zealous 
 advocates which now and then stand forth as their avowed 
 
 * Translation of a Persian letter from his Highness the Nabob VVallau Jah to 
 Lord Macartney, dated 7th Ramdan 1196, or lyth August 1782. Appendix, 
 No. 15. 
 
 Minute of the president of Fort St. George, relative to a letter in English from 
 the Nabob of Arcot to Lord Macartney of the 17th August, dated i6th September 
 178a. Appendix, No. 16. 
 
 -j- Letter from Lord Macartney to the Earl of Hillsborough, dated Fort St. 
 George, 3d September 178a. Appendix, No, 17.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 253 
 
 champions ; but the rei\] fact is, that there is not perhaps a 
 single individual among these mock princes which tiic Com- 
 pany's servants have created, who has not violated his en- 
 gagements with those who raised him to power ; and so base 
 are their characters and conduct in general, that every honest 
 man, who may have had occasion to witness them upon the 
 spot, and whose integrity has been proof against their insidi- 
 ous practices of corruption, must acknowledge, that there is 
 not perhaps, upon the face of the earth, a set of creatures 
 so depraved, so licentious, so unprincipled, and, in every 
 respect, so worthless, as those dependent upstarts, in whose 
 cause the powers of riietoric have so frequently been exhausted 
 m the British House of Commons, to rouse and to abuse the 
 generous feelings of the nation. How few on such occasions 
 have ever believed, that an English governor could be inno- 
 cent wlien an Indian nabob was his accuser ; yet how^ very 
 easy is it for a man, with whom truth is not considered as a 
 moral obligation, and intrigues and treachery the whole study 
 of his life, to produce a series of unfounded calumnies; how 
 difficult, at such a distance, to disprove them before the 
 poison has worked its effect. ]jut the time is probably not 
 very distant, when the public, in this respect, wiU be unde- 
 ceived ; for as a oreat moralist has observed, it seldom thinks 
 long on any subject without at last attaining to think right. 
 It is however really surprising that, after a lapse of more 
 than half a century, the people of England should still con- 
 tinue to be deluded by every new declaimer, who, bent upon 
 thrusting himself into notice, and fed by the bounty of a nabob, 
 impudently ventures to step forward to mislead the public 
 mind, and to arraisrn the conduct of those mIio have reallv
 
 254 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 deserved well of their country by a conscientious discbarge 
 of their duty. Whoever will give himself the trouble of ex- 
 amining the records of Bengal and Madras must unavoidably 
 be convinced, that so long as the system is continued of set- 
 ting up nizams and viziers, nabobs and rajahs, without any 
 real claims or pretensions, as the ostensible governors of coun- 
 tries, provinces, and districts, but, in fact, mere tools of 
 the Company ; no governor-general of Bengal, nor presi- 
 dent of Madras, provided he be an honest man, can possi- 
 bly escape their intrigues, their hatred, and their calun)ny; 
 but if he will allow them to break their engagements with the 
 Company, to corrupt its servants, to purchase indulgencies 
 by bribes, to oppress the inhabitants by extortion and 
 cruelty antl murder, and to plunder and encroach upon 
 every petty power that borders on their respective countries, 
 he will be extolled by them as the wisest and best governor 
 that ever ruled in India. Nothing has most assuredly had 
 so strong a tendency to injure the British name among the 
 real and substantial powers of Hindostan, as the inipohtic 
 measure of setting up these puppets of authority, and no- 
 thing i)robablv would have more influence in consolidatino- 
 the peace and the prosperity of India, than the abolishing of 
 those double governments, and taking the management of 
 such countries as avowedly belong to the liritish empire, en- 
 tirely into our own hands. As a matter of expediency the 
 Company seem now pretty well convinced, that the measure 
 nuist be adopted ; and tlial those nurseries of oppression, 
 intrigue, and corruption must be destroyed : milhons of un- 
 happy yet unoffending natives Moukl then know to wliom 
 they were to look up for protection, which, under the present
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 255 
 
 system of things, is, at least, with them a matter of doubt 
 and distress ; by discontinuing the creation of dcj)endent 
 nizanis, nabol^s, rajahs, and khans, the Company woukl get, 
 rid of so many stumbhng-blocks to their prosperity, and 
 stepping-stones to their enemies. And better far would it 
 l)e for them even to double the already large emoluments of 
 their servants from the highest to the lowest rather than, out 
 of consideration to their interests, to keep up those |)hantoms 
 of power with influence and wealth, however, sufhcient to 
 corrupt their conduct, and feed their avarice, 'j'hose who 
 conceive, that a government in India, while embarrassed by 
 the intrigues of dependent nabobs and rajahs, is an enviable 
 situation, are little acquainted with the difficulties and dan- 
 gers with v.hich it is surrounded. To a strictly honest man, 
 bent on doing his duty, a more heart-rending situation can 
 scarcely be imagined ; he must either lend the aid of his 
 authority to the most horrid oppressions, cruelties, and mur- 
 ders, or if he resists, incur the charge of oppression himself; 
 thus he treads on thorns at every step, and after years of toil 
 and anxiety for the public welfare, he will retire from the 
 scene with the mortification of finding that all his endeavors 
 have been exhausted in vain to eradicate that system of 
 corruption, which is nurtured in every petty court of Hin- 
 dostan ; that he has only drawn upon himself the malignity 
 of those who float within its vortex ; and, what is worst of all, 
 he may almost lay his account of meeting at home with the 
 frigid indifference of his employers. 
 
 But to return to his Highness Wallau Jah, the nabob 
 of Arcot, a sketch of whose history will apply pretty 
 nearly to all the others-.. The treacherous conduct of tliis
 
 256 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 faithful ally to the Company (as he affects to stile him- 
 self), ill exciting and encouraging its enemies, and cor- 
 rupting its servants, was alone sutHcient to deprive him 
 of any favorable consideration; for he was and had long 
 been, in every sense of the word, a traitor to the interests 
 of those to whom he owed every step of his present 
 elevation, and every pretension to rank and power. What- 
 ever these pretensions might be at any other time for inde- 
 pendent sovereignty, he had now made a temporary resig- 
 nation of them by a voluntary act of his own, and a 
 voluntai-y declaration to the Court of Directors that he 
 had done so. His subsequent repentance argued no vio- 
 lence nor unkindness in those to whom he had assio;ned 
 the management of his countr}', but fickleness of judgment 
 and inequality of temper in him. His pretensions indeed 
 were not at any time grounded on the best foundation. 
 He first rose into notice by a train of sudden and unfor- 
 tunate accidents to others. Plis father held a very subor- 
 dinate oiSce under the soubahdar or viceroy of the Decan in 
 one of the northern Circars, from whence he was removed to 
 the command of the garrison of Arcot in the room of Abdalla 
 who, on the eve of his intended departure from that fortress, 
 was found dead in his bed. No one doubted that this sudden 
 accident was brought about, as Wallau .Tali expresses it, 
 " according to the rule and jiractice of Hindostan *. The 
 government of this place had been destined for Seid Maho- 
 met, a youth not yet of an age fit to govern, 'i'his youth 
 was assassinated by the same rule and practice in the pre- 
 sence of him who had succeeded Abdalla, and to whose care 
 
 # 
 
 Requests of tlie Nabob Wallau Jali to the Governor-general. Append! 
 No. <;.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 257 
 
 lie was entrusted. By these two acts he seated himself in 
 the government, which he continued to hold till, in the course 
 of the contests with opposite claimants and the avengers of 
 young Mahomet's death, he fell bravely in battle at Amboor. 
 His eldest son, whilst pursuing his father's courageous ex- 
 ample, was taken prisoner in the tield, but the second, Ma- 
 homet All, afterwards the nabob Wallau Jah, secured him- 
 self by tiight. With a singular and fortunate foresight of 
 those accidents, he had procured from the Soubahdar of the 
 Dccan, in preference to his elder brother, a reversion to the 
 subordinate government of the Carnatic ; or, with a boldness 
 and quickness of address, suited to the occasion, and coun- 
 tenanced by frequent examples in the confusion of the Mogul 
 empire, he asserted at once that he had such a reversion. 
 To this title real or pretended, which however was generally 
 believed to be a forgery, he had A^ery little in addition to 
 recommend his pretensions. The authority was not sup- 
 ported by reputation, troops or treasure. The people were 
 attached to his opponents, the family of their former gover- 
 nors. He applied for support in vain to the French East 
 India Company ; they were engaged in different views — 
 those views extended to the exclusive possession of the 
 country. Their representative claimed the honors and privi- 
 leges of a nabob in his own person, and the nabobship of 
 the Carnatic for Chunda Saheb. The English East India 
 Company saw they must either abandon the coast or dis- 
 pute the possession of the country with their European ri- 
 vals. Their interference was a matter of necessity not of 
 choice. The constitutional authority of the Mogul was hid 
 in the anarchy of the times. It was, for that period, a va- 
 
 VOL. I. L L
 
 238 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 catc'd dominion which converted occupancy into a fight. 
 Under such circumstances, Mahomed Ah, afterwards the na- 
 l)oh Walhui Jah, accompanied the English troops. He gave 
 them the assistance of his advice, and he contributed the in- 
 fluence, such as it was, of his new office. Jjut so little at 
 that time did he or the Eniilish think of conciuerino; merelv 
 for him, that the Company's colors were regularly hoisted on 
 the forts that surrendered to its arms, lie afterwards de- 
 sired, not as a matter of riglit but to encrease his authority, 
 and to convince the people of the Company's esteem for him, 
 that the flag of the Circar or nabobship might l)e hoisted in 
 the country forts. Before he joined the English he did not, 
 in fact, possess a single village in any part of the province : 
 the French had conquered the whole, possessed the whole, 
 garrisoned the forts with their troops, and collected the re- 
 venues ; those forts were afterwards retaken, the French 
 driven out, and the whole country reconcjuered, not b}^ the 
 uaboli nor his people, but by the English alone, at a vast ex- 
 pense of blood and treasure. After they had done this no- 
 thing prevented them from keeping the whole, as a depen- 
 dent country, but their moderation, which was then no less 
 signal than their victories. They delivered all these con- 
 quered provinces into the nabob's administration ; and, on 
 liis part, he was well content to bear the name only of ma- 
 naging their affairs in the Carnatic, leavinir, in elfcct, the 
 power still in the hands of the conquerors. By this short 
 sketch, which is true in every part, may be seen how much 
 idle declamation has been employed, on various occasions, to 
 impress upon the minds of the public an idea that our In- 
 dian empire was originally obtained by violcucc and injustice
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 259 
 
 towards tlie natives ; whereas it was, in fact, obtained by 
 conquering tliose wlio had seized it by violence, and held 
 it by injustice, 
 
 The office of nabol) -was uninterruptedly continued to INfa- 
 liomcd Ali. The sanction of the Mogul's name and a ge- 
 nuine commission tor the nabobsliip were obtained for him 
 by the influence of the Com|)any ; but as well in the signi- 
 fication of the name, as in the nature of the ofiice, it im- 
 plies deputation and dei)endencc. It is an oliice entirely 
 confined to military command. It is utterly distinct from 
 the administration of the revenues which belongs indepen- 
 dently to the office of Dewan *. In prevailing upon some of 
 the Company's servants to unite these offices for a time, the 
 nabob met with considerable difficulty and opposition, and 
 succeeded only \ipon a revcrtible condition in case of 
 ii failure in his ensaoemcnts. The friends he uained to 
 his support on this trying occasion, supported him only 
 in the allegation of their inexperience, at that early pe- 
 riod, of the country government. It Avas stipulated, that 
 the Company should receive a certain portion of the revenues 
 towards reimbursing the vast sums they had expended, leav- 
 ing:; him an ample share to support the dignity of his station, 
 and, in their mutual connection, he acknowledged the Com- 
 ])any to be the ghvr aiitl himself the receiver. He oflerc^d 
 to make these payinc-nts in monthly proportions, and he 
 agreed, that the Company should resume possession of the 
 country if he should be found guilty of any secret practices, 
 
 .• - • Ornic's History of HinJostan. 
 
 L X 2
 
 ago PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 or endeavor to alienate the revenue ; and that if he, at any 
 time, gave just occasion, the Company should break all con- 
 nection with him ; and again taking possession of the whole, 
 should only settle upon him and his family such an allow- 
 ance as might be considered necessary for ^lis subsistence^ 
 without leaving him in any authority *. 
 
 All these motives, promises, and reservations were not suf- 
 ficient to prevent strong dissent from granting such indulg- 
 ence, grounded upon the character and the conduct of the 
 nabob from the commencement of the Company's connection 
 with him. Whether it arose from that deadly hatred, Avhicli 
 the creed of a Mahomedan teaches him to bear " to those 
 " Christian dogs," or whether his views extended to inde- 
 pendent sovereignty, it was soon discovered that tlie Com- 
 pany was nourishing a serpent in its bosom, who was anx- 
 iously watching for the first favorable moment to give it a 
 mortal sting ; the Company knew it, but wanted the resolution 
 to crush this treacherous ally, while in the mean time he 
 discovered the secret of closing the eyes of theii* representa- 
 tives at Madras. The conditions of the lease Avere often bro- 
 ken, but the resumption was as often forgotten. His want of 
 faith and total dereliction of principle were overlooked in 
 consideration of the amiable manners, the engaging deport- 
 ment, and dazzling magnificence for which he was long dis- 
 tinguished. He soon found out that private munificence to 
 tiiose who were in power was the surest and the readiest way 
 to procure public indulgences. His former obligations were 
 
 * Consultations of Fort St, George, June 13, 1761.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. a6i 
 
 lost in the demand of fresh favors. It is the misfortune of 
 men who have no original claims to know, when successful, 
 no bounds to their views. The former hmits of his govern- 
 ment soon became too narrow to contain him, and claims 
 were laid to new districts. Every inferior rajah or Hindoo 
 chief was to be reduced by the Company's forces to the na- 
 bob's subjection, " according to the rule and practice of Hin- 
 " dostan," for which he compensated his liicnds tlie Company 
 with thanks *. He considered his family to be the favorite 
 objects of the Company's encreased power. When the pro- 
 vinces of Bengal became subject to the Company, ]\Iahomed 
 All had the modesty to propose that his eldest son Omdut ul 
 Omrah should be transferred to the nabobship of that coun- 
 try, whilst his favorite son Ameer ul Omrah was to succeed 
 to that of the Carnatic. His views to the Decan, his earnest 
 wishes even for all Hindostan weve well known to the native 
 powers, and were highly injurious to the British interests. 
 But among the princes of Hindostan he was no more reckoned 
 than the nabob of Oudc, botli being Europeans in connec- 
 tions, in dependence, and in the jealousy and hatred enter- 
 tained against them ; it could not indeed be expected that 
 the real powers of the country would ever place a perfect re- 
 liance on the equity, moderation, or good faith of the Eng- 
 lish East India Company, while any of its chief servants 
 lent their authority and countenance to those dependenlJ 
 nabobs in the commission of acts derogatory from those 
 principles. 
 
 * Requests of the Nabob Wallau Jah to the Governor-general. Appendix., 
 No. 9. 
 
 8
 
 262 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 'i'hc wlujlc rcvoiuics of llic Cai'iiatic were at length sutTorcd 
 lo be ubsoibed and iiuleed woic fouiul insufficient to keep iij) 
 the nabob's dignity, and to make sucli frequent purehases of 
 iii(hil2,encc from the Company's representatives at Fort St. 
 (iecjrge, as wcie necessary to secure their attachment to his 
 ])ersoii. ]\v extreme mismanagement of tlie country, by 
 that strange misapplication of the revenues for purposes of 
 coiruption, and as strange u ])assion lor accumulation, his 
 tioojis Averc neglected, their pay withheld and, at the break- 
 ing out of the Carnatic war, were actually compelled to seek 
 subsistence from the enemy. Yet this bankrupt nabob of 
 Arcot, as was observed in the House of Commons in one of 
 the debates oii the India bill, had contrived to thrust five or 
 six members into the l^rilish parliament; and his acts of ge- 
 nerosity at the ]^urbar had hitherto secured him the coun- 
 tenance of the Company's servants at IVIadras. Each 
 succeeding governor seemed anxious to rival his predecessor 
 in extolling the virtuc^s and the tidelity of the Coujpany's 
 ancient ally, the nabob "Wallau Jah. Indeed on one occa- 
 sion, so c<mdescending and compliant was the conduct of 
 this ISIahomedan prince, that he even sutTered himself to be 
 ])revailed upon to violate his religious faith in favor of Chris- 
 tian infidels, by i)ledging himself as a sjionsor at the solenm 
 sacrament of ba])tism, to a child of one of the Company s 
 servants at Fort St. George. 
 
 The different line of conduct, pursued hy Lord ^lacartney 
 towards this substitute of the Comj)any's authority in the 
 Carnatic, will readily account for the resentment of the latter;
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 2C 
 
 J 
 
 it was of all otlicrs the most mortifying and alarming circum- 
 stance to him and his numerous dependents, tliat the uni- 
 versal specific which had hitherto been found capable of 
 lulling to repose the consciences of so many governors of 
 Fort St. George should fail of producing its usual clfect on 
 the stubborn constitution of Lord Macartney', liis obstinate; 
 refusal to take the Durbar's prestrription, under any dis"uiso 
 or mode of preparation, convinced them that his disorder was 
 incurable, and that the only hope left for them was to get rid oi' 
 liim as soon as they could. Had this infatuated man listened 
 to his i,ordship's advice, the misfortunes that subsecpicntlv 
 visited his family would, in all probability, never have hap- 
 pened ; and the millions of money, which are said»to be due 
 to the creditors of that i'amily, and now under consideration 
 of payment by the Company, would not have remained at 
 this time a burden on the revenues of the Carnatic. " Had 
 " J," says his Lordship, " endeavored to delude him by tlat- 
 " tering his passions, by giving him hojies of repossessing 
 " Tanjorc, of extirpating or expelling every Zemindar or Po- 
 " lygar of the Carnatic, whose riches or territory excited his 
 ** avarice or ambition, and of aiding him to elevate his sc- 
 " cond son to the disherison of his eldest; or had I endea- 
 *' voured to delude the Company by representing that he 
 " tridy was what he aftects to style himself, the hereditary in- 
 *' dependent sovereign of the Carnatic, and a man of strict 
 " honor and integrity ; that he had the purest intentions and 
 " wishes for your interests and prosperity, and that you 
 " might rely on his generosity and liberality of sentiments for 
 ''• the performance of all liis engagements with you, I should 
 " have been extolled by him as the best governor you ever
 
 a(J4 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " sent to Fort St. George, and I might possibly have been 
 " one of the richest. But ever attentive to the various orders 
 " and instructions with which you have thought necessary to 
 " guard your presidency of Madras, your apprehension of the 
 " nabob's aspiring views, the jealousies you had expressed of 
 " his designs at different periods and on different occasions, 
 " your wise policy in endeavoring to hold in your own hands 
 " the whole military power of the country, and that the na- 
 " bob should depend entirely on the Company for protection 
 " and support, I regulated my conduct accordingly, and 
 " never for a moment lost sight of those great lines of direc- 
 *' tion for my government. 
 
 " To conciliate the nabob's mind to his real situation, which 
 •' he seemed willing to forget ; to revive in his memory, 
 '' without wounding his delicacy or his pride, the steps by 
 " which he had risen to elevation ; to lead him to feel his 
 •" oblio"ations to the Company, that whatever rank or terri- 
 " tory he had ever possessed, either by his paper titles or by 
 " actual occupancy, he deiived from their, arms, their influ- 
 " ence, their generosit}^ ; and that his interests and security 
 " were so involved in theirs, that to attempt or pretend to a 
 *' distinct, separate, independent sovereignt}', as he talked of, 
 -" or to tnuiiiine that he could exist without the Companv, or 
 " to expect that the Company would go on defending the 
 " country at their own expense, Avithout an adequate share of 
 " the revenues of it, were absurdities that, though in some 
 " measure warranted by former friendship or connivance, he 
 " ought no longer to indulge in, as they would j)rove a fatal 
 -" deceit upon himselti and must soon end in his total destruc-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 265 
 
 *' tion, and in that of his best friends on the coast. 'J'o 
 " engage the nabob's mind to a calm consideration of tiies(; 
 " points was not an easy task; but it was a necessary one, 
 " and was performed with success : the result was his assign- 
 '• ment of the revenue. 
 
 " Having obtained this assignment, 1 iicld it fast with a 
 " steadiness and perseverance wiiich the Durbar, I beHeve, 
 "did not expect; that v/hether from pride, jirudence, or 
 " principle, I iicld myself above temptation, tluit from my 
 " growing experience in your affairs I became proof against 
 " imposition, and against tiiose arts whicli, having been 
 " practised, periuips successfully, upon others, it was pro- 
 " Yoking to see lost upon me, and that through every trans- 
 " action with them I endeavored to discharge the dutv of an 
 " lionest man and a faithful servant to the Company and the 
 " State — these are offences that I know the Durbar will never 
 *' forgive me ; and I have therefore little doubt that wherever 
 " I am, I shall meet in my way with frequent traces of their 
 *' malignity as long as I live *." 
 
 * Letter from Lord Macartney to the committee of secrecy of the Court of 
 Directors, dated Calcutta, 27th July 1785. 
 
 Some idea may be formed of the difEcuIty and vexation which Lord Macartney 
 suffered in this business from the following extract of a letter from him to Mr. Sul- 
 livan, chairman of the Court of Directors, dated January 28, 1783. 
 
 " The proceedings will inform you at large of the nabob's assignment of his 
 " revenue. In the course of my life, I have had the conduct of several very dif- 
 <' ficult negociations with very difficult men, in different parts of the world ; but 
 «• never had I more occasion for all the littie prudence, caution, and address that 
 " 1 may possess, than on this point -, and after all, I will confess to you that I be- 
 " lieve I n:ver could have made any impression upo/i /.-iiri, if I had not given him 
 «< the most convincing proofs that he could make no impression upon ru-. And if 
 VOL. I. ^ M ^r
 
 266 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 The last expedient they tried was those fabrications which 
 were sent to England ; but as on a former occasion their 
 embassy' to England had been followed up with tolerable 
 success bj an embassy to Bengal, so in the present instance 
 the same two ministers Assam Cawn and Mr. Hichard Jo- 
 seph Sullivan were once more dispatched thither, with memo- 
 rials of complaints and accusations against the president of 
 Fort St. George, all equally unfounded as those transmitted 
 to England. There appeared indeed, at this time, but a 
 slender probability, that the embassadors of Mahomet Ali 
 would make any impression favorable to their cause on the 
 governor-general and his council. These gentlemen had, in 
 their official as well ^as private capacity, applauded the 
 ability and the address of Lord Macartney, in procuring 
 from the nabob a voluntary assignment of liis revenues. 
 They had officially condemned the nabob's conduct in with- 
 holding his assistance towards defraying the expenses of the 
 war, and declared unequivocally that the case would justify 
 a demand from him of the immediate transfer of his whole, 
 country in exclusive assignment. They had proceeded so far 
 as to advise the preceding government of Madras to adopt 
 this measure, adding that " had they the authority to com- 
 " mand, tiiey should peremptorily command it *." And 
 Avhen the voluntary assignment was obtained Avhich ex- 
 
 " any of my predecessors had acted upon the same system, good God ! what a 
 " glorious situation would your affairs in the Carnatic have been in ! I cannot, 
 «• without tears of grief and indignation, think upon the subject for a moment." 
 
 • Letter from governor-general and council to the governor and select committee 
 of Fort St, George, dated 26th February 1781,
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 267 
 
 torted their applause of the zeal and ability which dictated 
 and brought to eflect so in)portant a measure, " they regret 
 " that the government of Madras should have suffered any 
 " consideration even of delicacy towards the nabob or atten- 
 " tion for those feelings, which it might be natural for him to 
 " retain for the interests of the Carnatic, to restrain them 
 " from availing themselves as effectually of the assignment 
 " as the desperate necessity which exacted such a concession 
 " inevitably demanded." " Happy," continue they, " would 
 " it be for the national interests and reputation, if the same 
 " disinterested and forbearing spirit should invariably dictate 
 " the conduct of their affairs *."' After many professions of the 
 high estimation in which they held the character of Lord 
 Macartney, they recommend that he assume and exercise the 
 entire and undivided administration of the revenues of the 
 Carnatie, and every power connected with it. " la a word," 
 say they, " the whole sovereignty, if it shall be necessary to 
 " the effectual exercise of such a charge, not admitting the 
 " interposition of any authority whatever which may possibly 
 *' impede it. If you continue the nabob's agents, or suffer 
 " them to remaip, under whatever denomination, in the actual 
 *' or virtual control of the revenue, they are your servants, 
 *' and you alone will be deemed responsible for all their acts ; 
 " and your intercourse with the nabob may and ought to be 
 " restricted to simple acts and expressions of kindness -j-." 
 
 * Letter from the governor-general and councn to the president asd select com- 
 mittee of FortSt. George, dated 5th April 1782. 
 f Ibijem. 
 
 >I M 2
 
 268 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 So mucli indeed did Mr. Hastings affect to be captivated 
 \vith the assignment of the Carnatic to Lord Macartney, ex- 
 clusive of the other members of the government, that when 
 Mr. Staunton was at Bengal he made no scruple in expressing 
 his admiration at the address, which must have been used to 
 procure it, and in recommending his Lordship to proceed with 
 a high hand ; he applauded it because it was a bold measure, 
 before he seemed to know ihat it was a necessary one, in 
 which case only it is laudable to be bold. 
 
 These sentiments of the governor-general and his council, 
 thouah as well known and understood at the Durbar as at 
 Fort St. George, did not however prevent a second A'isit of 
 Assam Cawn to Bengal. This wily Mahomedan was well 
 aware that the sentiments of men were liable to change Avith 
 a change of circumstances, and to vary with the tide of the 
 passions ; and that it did not therefore by any means follow 
 that the opinions of the Bengal government should point the 
 same way in January 1783, that they appeared to do in 
 April 3 782. His calculations, it seems, were not ill founded. 
 The difference which nine months had produced in the feel- 
 ings of the supreme council towards the presidency of IMadras, 
 or the solid arguments which Assam Cawn had to offer, or their 
 united influence, were found of sufficient weight to obtain a 
 hearing. A memorial which, but a few months before they had 
 recommended him to withdraw, was now, with a second me- 
 morial, received and read, and, together with his deposition, 
 entered on the records of the presidency, and sent home with 
 other papers of complaint and accusation against Lord Ma-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 269 
 
 cartney, without referring such papers to him for his iustifica- 
 tion against the groundless charges they contained, and even 
 Avithout acquainting him that such charges had been preferred, 
 until they had been sent away to England without an answer 
 and Avithout a comment from the person accused. These me- 
 inorials were carefully entered on the records before the depar- 
 ture of the Lively packet for England. " In mentioning them," 
 says the select committee of Eort St. George *, " in your letter 
 " to the Court of Directors, you simply refer to the papers 
 " themselves; you state no remark upon them ; you had not 
 " indeed then taken them into consideration ; you had not as 
 " yet had the accuser's testimony ; but you send the accu- 
 " sation. You did not chuse to have to send tlie answer of 
 " the accused. This partial transaction is however to be 
 " considered as impartial justice, because you added no re- 
 " marks. You did not therefore remark that you kept those 
 " accusations carefully from us, by which means you left 
 " them to their full operation against us, and secured for 
 " them the benefit of a first and long impression before any 
 "defence could follow on our part, depriving us, until it 
 " may prove too late, of the oj)portunity tu deny, or refute, 
 " or explain the charges, or to offer Avhat we had to offer 
 " in om- justification ; it was a cause, it seems, to be heard 
 " only on one side." In the same letter they accuse the su- 
 preme council of not suffering the Lively ])acket to call at 
 Fort St. George, though it was usual, and agreeable to the 
 orders of the Court of Directors, for packets from Bengal to 
 call at Madras for public dispatches ; though no season was 
 
 * Extract of a letter from the president and select committee of Fort St. George fo 
 Uie governor-general and coujieil, dated 25lh^ay 1783,
 
 270 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 more favorable for calling there than when the Lively sailed ; 
 though she carried from Bengal no particular dispatches, but 
 that no time had occurred at which recent accounts from Ma- 
 dras, the seat of war, could more anxiously be sought or were 
 more requisite to be known by\the Court of Directors; they 
 state that Lord Macartney had requested, in a note to Mr. 
 Hastings, that the Lively paket might be directed to touch at 
 Fort St. George, as he had few opportunities of sending dis- 
 patches immediately from thence by any quick conveyance ; 
 but that neither this request nor those reasons, neither mo- 
 tives of public duty nor private civility iiad been sufficient to 
 allow the Lively packet to touch at Madras. " Oi' whatever 
 " information," they continue, " you might have been pos- 
 " sessed in relation to charges brought before you against 
 " any individual in a public or private capacity, it would 
 " have been suitable to the wisdom and dignity of the most 
 " enlightened tribunal to announce such charge specifically 
 " to such individual, to call upon him for his defence, to 
 " give him an opportunity to offer it before you would pro- 
 " cccd to pronounce upon l.is conduct. However evident 
 " might have appeared our guilt, and whether it went to the 
 " loss of fortune, fame, or oihce, or was, in the first instance, 
 " to consist in the heavy misfortune (;f your censure, the es- 
 " tablished maxims of justice, the regularity and solemnity 
 " of judgment, the tenderness and precaution of humanity 
 " required that, before sentence was passed, we sliould ! e 
 " put upon trial and heard iii our defence. If with (ur 
 " cause was comj)hcatcd the public cause; if in consequcrce 
 " of the conviction of our miscoffduct, the Company whom 
 " ^\c represent were to be deprived of the benciit of an as-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 271 
 
 " sigmnent, which was deemed proper, just, ami necessary, 
 
 " which you advised, autliorized, and api)laudcd, such a 
 
 " consequence did not entitle you to proceed more hghtly to 
 
 " such conviction*." On the indecency of taking the dcjjo- 
 
 sitions of two persons, interested as they must necessarily 
 
 be from their situations at the Durbar, they thus observe : 
 
 " His highness's two memorials, which are in the English lan- 
 
 " guage, an(! said to be translations, were probably framed 
 
 " by Mr. Sullivan, though presented by Assam Cawn, a Ma- 
 
 " homedan not conversant in our language. These two per- 
 
 *' sons, as if not without bias in the cause or interest in the 
 
 " event, as if not committed by the assertions advanced al- 
 
 " ready by them in the memorials, were the persons you se- 
 
 " lected to stamp veracity on those memorials. Before you 
 
 " called on them you had abundance of time to obtain from 
 
 " hence, where the transaction passed, the whole of the testi- 
 
 " monies relating to it. Perhaps it might have been no su- 
 
 " perfluous caution not to rely implicitly on those willing and 
 
 " interested Avitnesses, furnished by one side only, and who, 
 
 " from temper and situation, might have observed with pre- 
 
 " judice, and might report with partiality. Of these wit- 
 
 " nesses one, indeed, Mr. Richard Sullivan, acknowledges he 
 
 " was not present at the principal transaction on the 18th 
 
 " April 1782, concerning which you called for evidence ; he 
 
 " reports what the nabob represented to him, and this spe- 
 
 " cies of testimony he gives you very circumstantially. As to 
 
 " Assam Cawn, the single Avitness, speaking from his own 
 
 " knowledge of the transaction, when examined, not merely 
 
 • Extract of a letter from the president and select committee of Fort St. George 
 to the governor-general and council, dated 25th May 1783.
 
 27 z PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " the possibility or perhaps the propensity of such a man, 
 " so circumstanced and engaged as he was to mistate or mis- 
 " take the cause of his master or his own, might have oc- 
 " curred to the wisdom of your board ; but the recollectioh 
 " of his actual imposition on you, upon a former occasion, 
 " should, as destructive of the credibility of his testimony, 
 " have precluded the admission of it. This man, to forward 
 *■' the viev/s of his patron, the nabv)b's second son, the Ameer 
 " u! Omrah, not only asserted, in his first embassy to you, 
 " that his master the nabob was possessed of letters from the 
 " Company, and the king's ministers, and the king himself, 
 " all expressing; a clear acknowlediiment of the nabob's risht 
 " to appoint a successor to the government of the Car- 
 " natic * ; but he had the audacity to impose upon your con- 
 " fidencef, in producing pretended copies of those from the 
 " king and the Company, thus adding the crime of forgery 
 " to that of falsehood : a falsehood so glaring from the pc- 
 " rusal of the king's and Company's express instructions, 
 " that the succession so settled should be maintained. Froni 
 " such a man, in such a cause, no precaution could assure 
 " that yovi would receive a genuine or perfect relation of the 
 " case ; you gave him previous warning of the subject of your 
 " intended inquiries. His answers were prepared. The scope of 
 " the notice reached no farther. In this cause he had been hi- 
 " tlicrto a solicitor if not a part3\ He had been accustomed to 
 "speak the smooth but loose language of solicitation. His ob- 
 " ject was to persuade. Truth might not always have led him to 
 
 * Replies from the governor-general and council to tlic requests of the Nabob 
 Wallau Jail, article vi. Appendix, No. 9. 
 ■j- Ibidem. 
 
 1
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 'i-^y^ 
 
 " that object ; but justice being the fit object of your inquiries, 
 " and truth the most direct road to such an object, if you 
 " expected to have extracted from Assam Cawn, and that lie 
 " really might be brought to bear testimony to truth, on this 
 " occasion ; it must have been by impressing him with a sense 
 " of the new cliaracter in which he was to appear, and before 
 " his examination solemnly swearing him to declare the very 
 " truth, in the manner of his law. But there was no such 
 " preface to his examination. He was, as in any former 
 " conference, requested to inform the board of the circuni- 
 " stances of the transaction to the best of his recollection. 
 " He had notice to prepare his answers ; and there was there- 
 " fore no more danger of his failing in recollection, than in 
 " preserving a consistence with the representations he had 
 " already made, either in his, memorials or 'his conferences. 
 " His examination ovei', he Avas then, and not before, by a 
 " singular reverse of all regular and just proceedings, asked 
 *' if he would swear to the truth of all he had declared ? He 
 " neither wished to swear to the truth, nor yet to lose the 
 " benefit of his assertions. He added a new assertion, that 
 " by the custom of India it Avas reckoned dishonorable for 
 " a gentleman, or a man of certain rank, to take an oath, 
 " though he acknowledged that by the Mahomedan law he 
 " might attest the whole upon oath : but all he had related 
 " his eyes had seen, his ears had heard, his tongue had ut- 
 " tered, and he had heard from the mouths of others *. 
 " This declamation must not have been intended to iniph-, 
 " what nature has rendered incompatible, that each of the 
 
 * Bengal consultations, Jan. 8, 1783. Examination of Assam Cawn. 
 VOL. I. N N
 
 C74 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " facts had struck upon each of the senses ; but rciuienrig to 
 " every sense its proi)er object, he had heard what was 
 " spoken, and seen what was shown ; and if no more was 
 " necessary to constitute the truth of what he had rehited, we 
 " behevc he might have sworn without any danger from our 
 " laws, liut many of the circumstances mentioned by Seyed 
 " Assam Cawn, as within his own observation, actually 
 " passed when he was not present, and in a language he did 
 " not understand. It cost him nothing to confound what he 
 " heard with what he knevv', and what he wished with either. 
 " In fact, the whole examination of Syed Assam Cawn, 
 " though before so respectable a tribunal, and leading to so 
 " important a decision, has the appearance of being almost as 
 " loose and as merely plausible, as if it had been meant for 
 *' nothing more than an ostensible preamble to a purpose 
 •' predetermined." Mr. Richard Sullivan, it seems, had little 
 to state, but what he had heard from the nabob, and that 
 little he is said to have stated incorrectly. " The language of 
 " the nabob's agents," they observe, " slid into this witness's 
 " testimony. This testimony was indeed not given under the 
 " awful impression of the absolute necessity of its veracity, 
 " which the previous administration of a solemn and rehgious 
 " oath cannot fail to make on a man of principle and honor. 
 " This friend, this confident, this former agent of the nabob, 
 " after representing his friend's case and partly his own ; after 
 " the interrogatories were over, and he was committed by his 
 " answers to them, was then asked, as in the case of Seyed 
 " Assam CaAvn, whether he was ready to attest all he had 
 " said on oath ? This gentleman could not allege the exemp- 
 " tion of gentlemen from oaths. He was in an awkward
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 275 
 
 " predicament. He must unsay wliat he had just said, or he 
 " must acquiesce in a sacred assertion of it. A retrospective 
 " oath was tendered to iiim ; and lie took it. 'I'he words were 
 " guarded l)y legal and technical terms. He had given, to the 
 " best of his belief and remembrance, the truth and nothing 
 " but the truth, but, accidentally, perhaps, omitting that he 
 " had told the whole truth *." 
 
 Such was the nature of the examination of these two per^ 
 sons, upon whose evidence the governor-general and his coun- 
 cil pronounced their final judgment. On the same day, the 
 8th January, their resolution was taken for the immediate 
 surrender of the assignment to the nabob. It did not seem 
 however that they acted under the conviction of the absolute 
 necessity of its being immediate ; for before the order was 
 even dispatched from Calcutta, it might have arrived at 
 Madras by the usual channel of the post ; and after all, it was 
 sent by a conveyance which could not be very quick, and 
 happened to be tedious. Before its arrival orders of an oppo- 
 site tendency Avere received at Madras from the Court of 
 Directors, who observe, " that upon the inaturest consider- 
 " ation of the paper entitled, Requesls of the Isahoh, and 
 " also of the Replies of flic Supreinc Council thereto, they 
 " cannot be of opinion that the agreement made liy the 
 "governor-general and council with the nabob in 178], Avas 
 "either necessary or expedient; and they thei'efore direct 
 '' that the same be forthwith annulled." The Court of Direc- 
 tors likewise express their surprise at the appointment of 
 
 * Extract of a letter from the president and select committee of Fort St. George 
 to the governor-general and council, dated 25th May '7S3. 
 
 N N 2
 
 270 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 jNIf. Richard Joseph Sulhvan, in consequence of the above- 
 mentioned agreement to reside with the nabob as the repre- 
 sentative and minister of the governor-general and council ; 
 and they add ; " that the residence of the nabob in the 
 " vicinity of iNIadras clearly points out their governor and 
 " council as the fittest persons to negociate any matters with 
 " his highness from the government of Bengal, and therefore 
 " they revoke the appointment of Mr. Sullivan." These or- 
 ders were given by the Court of Directors before they knew 
 of the voluntary assignment made to Lord Macartney ; but on 
 the receipt of this information the}' add, in a subsequent pa- 
 ragraph of the same general letter, their entire approval of the 
 arrangement, and direct the Bengal government to give their 
 assistance to render it effectual. When therefore the orders 
 Jrom ]3engal to restore the assignment arrived at Madras, the 
 superior orders from the Court of Directors had already been 
 received to render it as effectual as possible. And accord- 
 ingly tlicy applied to the governor-general and council, as 
 directed, for their assistance; but their application was not 
 attended with success. I'hc soliditv of Assam Cawn's armi- 
 ments had nuule so strong an impression on the mind of the 
 oovernor-gcneral and his council, that they even ventured to 
 risk the displeasure that might arise from their disobedience 
 of the orders of the Court of Directors ; and alter a few 
 months' hi'siljilioii wh;it Vine to lake, they, at length, made a 
 discovery tlmt, in one of lh(> letters from the ISIadras govern- 
 ment, it was ackiiow kxlged that the assignment had sprung- 
 out of the Rej)liiS of Ihe f>;nvcynor-s:r}icral and council to the 
 Rtqiu'sts of the }\(iIh)1/, which was to have the sanction, force, 
 and validitv of a treatv; and a^ \\u^ ti'^atv of theirs which
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 277 
 
 they themselves had abandoned, and the Court of Directors 
 annulled, was to continue only during the war, they took 
 their ground on this point ; and, the war JDcing now at an 
 end, they at last acquaint the government of Madras, that 
 they should assume the right of judging for themselves, and 
 that in pursuance of that judgment they found it expedient to 
 repeat their order of the l,'3th January, ami to re([uire " that 
 " they render Ijack to the Nabob Wallau J ah the assignment 
 " granted by him to Lord ^NTacartncy on the 2d December 
 " 1781, together with the full charge and administration of the 
 " sovereignty of the Carnatic, in as full and complete a manner 
 " as he did or could exercise the same before the conclusion 
 " of his agreement with this government of the 2d April 1781, 
 " or as he can exercise the same now," Sec. 
 
 The most charitable construction that can be put on this 
 transaction of the Bengal government is to suppose that its 
 members suffered their passions and their prejudices to get 
 the better of their judgment, and to close their eyes against 
 the inevitable consequences of so rash and imprudent an act. 
 'J'he pay of the Madras ai'my was at this very moment seven 
 months in arrear. Every resource, but those within them- 
 selves, had failed ; not a single pagoda, since the death of Sir 
 Eyre Coote, had been sent from l^engal, and had it not been 
 for those supi)lies drawn from the northern Circars, which 
 !Mr. Hastings would have oiven up, and from the assio-ned 
 countries which he now ordered to be given up, the presi- 
 dency of Madras must have found itself in a situation which 
 cannot be contemplated Avithout horror. Nothing less than 
 a mutiny or dispersion of the troops could be expected, 
 
 .7
 
 iy9 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 and they might have been driven to the dreadful extremity 
 oF levying military aad indiscriminate contributions to pre- 
 serve their existence. The private sepoys, if not supplied 
 Avith provisions or money, must have disbanded ; the Euro- 
 peans in the Company's service were to be paid wholly in 
 money, and so dissatisiied were both officers and men in the 
 king's service, that if not punctually paid the worst consc- 
 (lucnccs were to be apprehended. Yet under all these em- 
 barrassing circumstances, without the offer of the least assist- 
 ance, and in defiance of the positive orders of the Court of 
 Directors, the government of Bengal, after long deliberation, 
 or, at least, after a sufficient time for that purpose, still 
 thought fit to repeat their orders for the immediate restitu- 
 tion of the assignment, that rock, as Lord Macartney justly 
 terms it, of the Comj)any's strength upon which it rests in the 
 Carnatic. But his Lordship had made up his mind to resist, 
 at all hazards, the ruinous and fatal requisitions of the gover- 
 nor-seneral and his council. " From the moment," he ob- 
 serves to the Court of Directors, " you surrender the assigu- 
 " ment, you cease to be a nation on the coast : and as a faith- 
 " ful servant and trustee for the Company, 1 hope not to be 
 " made a witness or an accessary to the period of your 
 " power." Notwithstanding therefore the furious menaces, 
 in case of disobedience, which accompanied the second 
 mandate from Bengal, he was determined to hold fast that 
 assignment to which, under the able management of the com- 
 mittee of assigned revenue, was owing the salvation of the 
 Carnatic ; and by Avhich those very countries that, for eigh- 
 teen months after the invasion of Ifyder AVi, had not con- 
 tributed a single pagoda towards the expenses of the war,
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 279. 
 
 liacl actually yielded at the close of the second year between 
 eighty and ninety lacks of rupees, or about one million ster- 
 ling. One-sixth part of all the collections was punctually 
 delivered to the nabob according to the agreement, which 
 gave him the command of more money than he could 
 ever boast of havins; durinc; the confusion and mismanao-e- 
 ment of his affairs which followed the invasion of Hyder 
 Ali. The nabob himself had indeed every reason to be 
 happy and satisfied, and, in all probability, would have felt 
 himself so, had not his mind been poisoned by the wicked in- 
 sinuations of his second son and his associates, encouraged, 
 as we have seen, by the strange and inconsistent conduct of 
 the o;overnor-2;eneral and his council. 
 
 Still however the mandate of Bengal, which was soon 
 known at the Durbar, was highly injurious to the public ser- 
 vice, by creating in the renters doubts and apprehensions, 
 and undermining the authority of the officers appointed for 
 the collection of the revenues. Lord Macartney however 
 persevered steadily and unshaken : — and when we reflect upon 
 the numerous and apparently insurmountable difficulties he 
 had to contend against, from the first day that he entered 
 upon his government to the moment he resigned it ; when 
 every measure he took for the public welfare was opposed 
 and thwarted by a hostile and superior authority ; when we 
 consider that he found the whole Carnatic overrun and laid 
 waste by an enemy whom repeated victories could neither 
 intimidate nor repel ; that the army was frequently in a state 
 little short of mutiny for want of their pay ; that few re- 
 sources could be found to supply that want ; and when
 
 28o PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 found, that every attempt was made which intrigue and 
 treachery could invent to render them inefficient ; that there 
 were no means of moving that army towards the enemy's 
 country, no draught cattle, no magazines, no provisions ; 
 that in the midst of a dreadful famine he had neither autho- 
 rity nor control over the army or the navy, which might have 
 aided the fertility of his mind in pointing out and obtaining 
 resources ; that there was no unity of counsel in those who 
 possessed the sole and unparticipated command over the 
 forces, who appeared to have no settled plan of operations ; 
 that he was continually harrassed by the intrigues and coun- 
 teraction of a faithless ally, fomented and encouraged by a 
 superior power ; and to crown all was, at last, ordered to sur- 
 render to that ally the only source that remained of revenue 
 to meet the various and heavy demands on the public treasury 
 
 ^vhen all these points are duly weighed, it cannot fail to 
 
 excite astonishment, not only how he contrived to keep the 
 wheels of government moving, but that every inch of the 
 Carnatic was not lost for ever, and the Company's affairs, 
 on the coast of Coromandel, involved in inextricable ruin and 
 diso-race : instead of which, notwithstanding all these diffi- 
 culties, he preserved their credit and their possessions entire, 
 and raised them to a state of comparative prosperity. 
 
 The sudden, though not quite unexpected, removal of Mr. 
 Hastings iVom his government, and the anxiety which the 
 next in succession probably felt to step into the chair, seem 
 to have diverted for a time the thoughts of the supreme 
 council from the aflairs of Madras ; and the concerns of their 
 old friend the nabob appear to have been forgotten in attend-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 281 
 
 ing to tlicir own. Lord IMacartney was thus, for the first 
 tiiiic, suffered to breathe and to make his arrangements in 
 quiet for the future welfare of the presidency. He drew up 
 a pkm which not only provided for the current expenses of 
 the civil and military establishments, but also for the gradual 
 liquidation of the heavy load of debt due to the Company, 
 and the still more heavy one contracted by the extravagance 
 of the nabob to individuals, as well as for an accunmlating 
 fund against sudden emergencies. , By this plan the debt due 
 to the Company would have been liquidated in four years, 
 that of the creditors in twelve years, at which time would 
 have remained in the treasur}^ 3,750,000 pagodas, and in the 
 thirteenth year there would have been a net annual revenue 
 wholly unencumbered of 3,000,000 pagodas*. Had these 
 plans of Lord Macartney been carried into execution ; had 
 the measures he proposed been adopted, and had the Com- 
 pany held fast that assignment which gave them voluntarily 
 what they liave since been compelled to take violently, Madras, 
 as he observes, from being a shop of pitiful usury, would have 
 })€come a city of honorable commerce, of opulence instead 
 of misery, and of real resource, not of temporary expedient. 
 
 He had not proceeded far however in his plans for the bene- 
 fit of the Company's afiairs, before an oider was received 
 
 * Plan of arrangement for the nabob's affairs, and observations thereon. i\p- 
 pendix, No. iS. 
 
 It is but tantalizing to show what once might have been done, when the time is 
 pa«t5 but as the Carnatic revenues are once more within the Company's own juris- 
 diction, and the debts of the Nabob under consideration of piyment, a good share 
 of public attention is naturally turned to the subject. 
 VOL. I. O ■
 
 282 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 from England for the immediate restitution of the assignment 
 to the nabob,- upon the ground, as was stated therein, of 
 giving to all the powers of India a strong proof of the national 
 faith ; for although, according to the agreement made by 
 Lord Macartney, the term of its duration was indefinite, and 
 could not be less than five years ; yet, the war being concluded, 
 it was deemed expedient by his majesty's ministers for the 
 affairs of India, to show to the nabob another instance of 
 the honor and generosity of the British nation, however un- 
 deserving he had proved himself of it. Being perfectly aware 
 of the value of the assignment, and the great benefit resulting 
 from it; approving likewise of the principles upon which the 
 management of it had been conducted, and knowing the 
 trouble and anxiety it had occasioned to Lord Macartney, 
 the measure was not adopted by the Board of Control with- 
 out considerable regret ; but it was thought to be necessary. 
 By the same packet the Court of Directors signified their 
 nomination of Mr. Holland to succeed Lord Macartney as 
 governor of Madras. His Lordship was not in the least 
 taken by surprise at the receipt of these dispatches. He had, 
 in fact, repeatedly requested the Court of Directors to ap- 
 point an eventual successor; and he thought it extremely 
 probable that the assignment would be upset at home. He 
 had taken his measures therefore so as not to l)e unprepared 
 for either event. By a careful administration of the revenues, 
 and a rigid economy in the expenditure of them, he had 
 amassed in the treasury no less than three hundred and twenty- 
 one thousand star pagodas, being a greater amount than was 
 
 ever delivered over by any former governor of Fort St. George 
 
 1
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 283 
 
 to his successor*. "I liad, indeed/' suys his Lordsliip. 
 " some time before been providing against this emcro-eney, 
 " for, well ajiprised of the nabob's extensive influence, and 
 " of the ability, industry, and vigilance of his agents, and 
 " observing a concurrence of many other circumstances, ] 
 " was not without apprelvensions that, before the govern- 
 " ment of Madras could have timely notice of the train, tlic 
 " assignment might be blown up at home ; the sudden shock 
 " of which I knew must almost instantly overthrow the Com- 
 " pany in the Carnatic. I therefore employed myself most 
 " assiduously in making preparations to mitigate the mischief, 
 *' and by degrees collected and stored up all the money that 
 " it was possible to reserve with safety from other services 
 " and demands, so that when the explosion burst upon u!!< 
 " I had provided an unexpected mass of little less than thir- 
 " teen lacks of rupees to resist its first violence f." 
 
 As Lord Macartney had made up his mind, and expressed 
 his determination, not to be made a witness or an accessary to 
 a premature surrender of that assignment, which he had 
 guarded with unremitting care and equal vigilance against the 
 assaults of the Durbar and the menaces of the governor- 
 general and his council, he neither chose to wait the arrival 
 of his successor, nor to enter into any negociation Avith per- 
 sons of whose duplicity, disaffection, and unworthiness he 
 
 * A great part of this sum consisted of sucli presents and fees on presentation to 
 appointments, as liad been usual for governors to take for their private eniolumf r,t, 
 but which had rarely, if ever, before been applied lo public use. 
 
 •j- Extract of a letter from Lord Macartney to the committee of secrecy of the 
 court of directors, dated Calcutta, 27th July 1785. 
 
 o o 2
 
 2S4 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 had but too long an experience. He tliouglit it better at 
 once to resign his government and to retire from the scene. 
 But, ever ready and soHcitous to employ all the means in his 
 ])o\vcr for the welfare of the public service to the last moment 
 of his stay in any part of India, he offered, notwilhstandino 
 the unhealthy season of the year, to take Bengal in his way 
 to England ; and to endeavor, by a personal repi"esentatioii, 
 to impress on the n}inds of the governor-general for the time 
 being* and his council, such a. sense of the embarrassments 
 and dangers likely to arise from the last instructions from 
 liome, as would probably induce them to delay the execution 
 of those instructions, or, at least, obtain their immediate and 
 cordial assistance. This offer was eagerly embraced by the 
 select committee on finding his determination was fixed to 
 resign the government. Accordingly in less than a week after 
 receivinsi the instructions from England, he embarked on the 
 Greyhound packet for Calcutta. " I was hastened," says he, 
 " and animated by an idea that I should have the rare feii- 
 " city of saving the Company tv^ice from destruction ; hav- 
 " ing rescued it once before by obtaining the assignment, I 
 " hoped it was now reserved for me to avert the fatal consc- 
 " quences to be apprehended from its sudden abolition -f." 
 
 Previous to his departure from Madras, he laid before the 
 council of that presidency a minute to be entered on the 
 records, in which he expresses his warmest thanks to the 
 members of the board for their cordial and unremitting sup- 
 
 * IMr. INIacphcrson. 
 
 ■f- Extract of a letter from Lord Macartney to the committee of secrecy of the 
 court of directors, dated Calcutta, 27th July 1785.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY, 285 
 
 port in the execution of the laborious duties of his ofiice, 
 without which, he observes, he must have sunk under tlic 
 pccuhar embarrassments of liis situation, " The painful mo- 
 " mcnt," says he, " is now arrived when I nuist bid you 
 " farewcl : my feelings on the occasion are too strong fof 
 " my expression ; may your administration, gentlemen, be 
 " happy; I am fully persuaded it will be just, prudent, and 
 " honorable. Before I conclude, I beg leave to enter upon 
 " your records two papers. One is an aflidavit, and the other 
 " a declaration, both of wdiich it is proper to have trans- 
 " raitted to England for the information of my honorable 
 " employers *."- 
 
 Affidavit. 
 
 / George, Lord Macartney, governor and president of 
 Fort St. George in the East Indies, do solemnhi suear and de- 
 clare that, to the best of mn knowledge and belief, from the 
 day of my arrival here on the 2'2d June I78I to this hour, I 
 have never by myself, or by any other person for me, directh/ 
 /or indirectly, accepted or received for my oxsn bcneft, from any 
 person or persons zohomsoever, a present or presents of a?ui 
 hind, except two pipes of Madeira nunc from tuo particular 
 friends (one of zohom never uas in India, the other is at Ben- 
 gal) a few bottles of champaign and burgundy, and some fruit 
 and provisions of very trijiing value : and I further swear and 
 declare, that I have confined myself solely to the honorable 
 Company's allowances, zohich are 40,000 pagodas per annum, 
 
 * The president's minute in council, June i, 1785,
 
 286 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 and the commission and consulage on coral which, during my 
 government, have produced on an average 1000 pagodas per 
 annum. That I have jievet'icmbezzled or misappropriated to 
 my own nse am/ part of the Company's monies or effects, and 
 that I have not been engaged in any trade, traffic, or dealing 
 of am/ kind ; but strictly and bona fide observed all my cove- 
 nants icith the honorable East India Company, and acted in 
 all things for their honor and interest, to the best of my judg- 
 ment and ability. So help me God. 
 
 (Signed) Ma oa r. T x r, y . 
 
 Fort St. George. 
 ■Swor:i before me this 1st day of June 1785. 
 
 (Signed) Philip Stowey, Mayor. 
 
 Declaration. 
 
 Fort St. George, June i, 178J 
 
 Having in Jamumj 1784 made up my account of the clear be- 
 nefit (after paying my expenses) of the government of Fort St. 
 George to mefro^n my arrival to that time, I transmitted it to 
 the honorable Court of Directors by the BusbridgCi which sailed 
 from hence for England early in the Februai^y following ; the 
 balance in my favour was then 52,224 pagodas. Since that 
 period to this day, the 1st of June 1785, the net benefit, accord- 
 ing to the most accurate settlement that I can draw out, amounts 
 to 29,572 pagodas ; so that upon the whole, during juy four years 
 residence in India, 7ny fortune has been en creased by the sum 
 of 81,796 pagodas, from which ought to be deducted my ex- 
 penses and the vi ice cf my passage to Europe, whidi I con- 
 ceive can scurcciu oc estimated at less than 5000 pagodas.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 287 
 
 Although the provision of the 58th section of the act of the 
 23d of his mojesti) declares, that no person returning from In- 
 dia before the \st January 1787 shall be compelled to deliver 
 an inventori) or account of his property, I have thought it ne- 
 cessary so far to anticipate the wishes of the legislature in this 
 respect, as to record the foregoing account in the books of this 
 presidency where I have been serving, and desire it may stand 
 there as a public record, open to the inspection of evei-y person 
 who may be inclined to peruse it. 
 
 (Signed) Macartney. 
 
 The amount of the above mentioned sum, at the exchanoe 
 of eight shilhngs the pagoda, is equal to 32,798 I. 8 s. sterlin<'', 
 which by subsequent expenses at Bengal and the passage 
 home was reduced to little more than 28,000 /. " When the 
 " whole of this sum", says his Lordship, " is applied to the 
 " arrangement of my private affairs, I can venture to assure 
 *' you, as a gentleman and a man of honor, that then, after 
 " having passed upwards of one and twenty years in several 
 " public employments of rank, trust and emolument, T 
 " shall possess a very small if any addition to my family 
 " inheritance *." 
 
 On arriving in Calcutta, ab6ut the middle of June, he 
 took the earliest opportunity of laying before the supreme 
 council the true state of the presidency of Madras, to ap- 
 prize them of its embarrassments, and to sohcit their assist- 
 
 * Extract of a letter from Lord Macartney to the committee of secrecy of the court 
 of directors, dated Calcutta, 27th July 1785.
 
 c8S PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 ance towards its relief. Tlic gentlemen, however, wlio com- 
 posed tlie supreme council, did not venture to delay the 
 execution of the orders from home relative to tiic assignment ; 
 and as to relief, he soon had the mortification to discover 
 ihat little if any assistance was to be expected from this 
 quajter. The enlivening ami hapi)y prospects which had 
 been held out in the late "oxei'uor-generars letter to the 
 Court of Directors, of the l6tli Deceiiiber 1783, and which 
 ■was published in several newspapers, both foreign and do- 
 DK'Stic, had buoyed up the hopes of his loidship that such re- 
 sources were to be found in Bengal alone as mioht relieve 
 any exigency or distress on the coast that must inevitably re- 
 sult from the loss of the assignment, or from other misfor- 
 tunes ; but in the -whole lange of his inquiries, not one dis- 
 tinct trace was to be discovered of those prognosticated 
 funds ; he found he had formed a visionary estimate on firl- 
 lacious grounds ; the reality disappeared like a phantom on 
 the approach of experiment, and he searched for it in vain in 
 jjengal. The government declared themselves perfect stran- 
 gers to Mr. Hastings's letter, and indicated not a few symp- 
 tohis of their own necessities. They made no scruple of ac- 
 knowledging that the consecpiences likely to result from the 
 surrender of the assignment, and the difliculties that might 
 ])c expected to occur in realizing a sufficient revenue for the 
 security of the Carnatic, were subjects of deep concern and 
 critical embarrassment. 'Ihey were convinced that the ex- 
 hausted state of the hnances of th(> Bengal government would 
 not admit of any extraordinary and continued aid to Fort St. 
 Ceorirc : but thev assured his Lordshiii that every assistance 
 of resource and co-operation within their power should lie
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 289 
 
 cheerfully granted to relieve any distress or remove any in- 
 convenience that might arise in the Carnatic, from the exe- 
 cution of the Company's commands, which they could not 
 take upon themselves to postpone oi' disobey *. 
 
 The same general letter, which contained the order for the 
 restitution of the assignment, communicated to his Lordship 
 the unanimous thanks of the Court of Directors for his xeal 
 and activity in their service, and for his assistance in procurino- 
 the late peace in India. His reply to that part of the letter 
 deserves to be recorded. " I beg leave to express the high 
 " sense I nuist ever entertain of this mark of 3'our favor. 
 " That I have served you Avith zeal and activity, and, let me 
 " add, with a disinterestedness unexampled in my station, I 
 " have the unequivocal testimony of my own heart, without 
 " which no other ap})lause could minister any sincere 
 " satisfaction. 
 
 " That I gave my best assistance in procuring the late 
 *' peace with Tippoo Saheb is no less true than that I was 
 *' tardily, scantily, and ungraciously assisted by the govern- 
 *' ment of Bengal. The records before you will show how 
 
 * A gentleman well versed in India politics thus delivered his opinion on the sur- 
 render of the assignment : " The new arrangements from England, however 
 specious and plausible on paper, will be found fallacious and impracticable in ex- 
 ecution, and terminate, at last, in unspeakable confusion and distress. Mr. 
 
 and a few artful or overbearing, unprincipled men about the Durbar may help 
 themselves in the scramble; but the fair creditor, to whom the nabob is justly in- 
 debted, will, in all likelihood, be baffled, and have little chance of receiving a 
 single fanam till the Company itself resume the receipt and management of the 
 revenues, and distribute as wrell as ascertain the proportions." 
 VOL. I. r P "
 
 290 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " early I applied for powers and instructions, how late any 
 " were obtained ; and the contents of those which were 
 " afforded at last, so long had they been w'ithheld, that our 
 " commissioners to Tippoo had set forward without them. 
 
 *' Whatever praises therefore may be due to them who 
 •' made the peace, the late governor-general and his council 
 " had no pretensions to participate. 
 
 " However honored and confirmed as it has been by your 
 " sanction and applause, they condemned it without reserve^ 
 " and would have risqued its disruption. 
 
 " Happily indeed before they ventured on the second step, 
 " tliey began to see the danger of the first, and retired from 
 " the precipice, although with reluctance ; and yet what could 
 " have been the object that drew them to approacli it ? It 
 " was not surely to mortify the government of Madras ; it was 
 " not surely to gratify the vanity of Mahomet Ali ? INIise- 
 " rable indeed must be the condition of the Company in the 
 *' Carnatic, if a new conflagration may be lighted up there by 
 " a little spark from Chepauk * — if interests of such rnagni- 
 " tude as yours are to be hazarded so slightly, and your 
 " tranquillity and safety made to oscillate and traverse with. 
 " the passions and intrigues of the nabob's Durbar ! 
 
 *' If then this peace of ours, so criminated by the late 
 " governor-general and his council, has been concluded witk 
 
 * The name of the nabob's residence.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 291 
 
 " siifli precautions for your dignity and safct}' : II" at the 
 " time, -when almost every other peace with our enemies, 
 " Avitlithc Trench, the Spaniards, the United Slates, and the 
 *' Mahrattas, had admitted of the loss of entire provinces, 
 " this peace of ours was conchided without the abscission of 
 " a single inch of territory, and, let me add, without tlie 
 *' disgrace of purchasing with money the neutrality or forbear- 
 *' ance of any Indian power— if these distinguishing circum- 
 " stances be considered, 1 flatter myself I shall be pardoned 
 " for any little animation I may feel in defending the attacks 
 " or reproaches of the Bengal government. You Avill indulge 
 " me too, 1 hope, if I value your approbation so highly, if 
 " I am so proud of it, that I wish to enjoy it pure and un- 
 " alloyed, and that the transactions of my administration, 
 " wdiich are the object of it, may stand separate and distinct 
 " from those of the Bengal government which, by the mode 
 " of expressing your thanks to the late governor-general for 
 " his endeavors, and to his council for their assistance, in 
 " procuring peace with the several po^vers in India, would 
 " not seem to be the case. 
 
 " If the phrase, several powers in India, means more than 
 " the powers of India, and includes our European antago- 
 " nisls in India, those thanks, so worded, might, when they 
 " passed, have appeared to some observers as of rather too 
 " great a latitude, if not prematurely applied. The peace 
 *' with France and the peace with Holland w ere procured at 
 *' home. Before the news of the former could reach Calcutta, 
 " before anv official communication arrived in the Carnatic, the 
 *' moment I received intelligence which ascertained the fact,
 
 292 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " the government of INIadras took the prompt and decisive 
 " step of notifying it to Monsieur De Bussy without delay, and 
 " of concluding with him an immediate cessation of arms, by 
 " means of which your affairs were rescued from the desperate 
 " state which they had been thrown into by the various mis- 
 " fortunes of the month of June in the neighbourhood of 
 " Cuddalore. 
 
 " Such being the exact state of the case, and the peace 
 " with Tippoo being, as you have seen, reprobated and al- 
 " most disclaimed by the late governor-general and his coun- 
 " cil, the only peace then either Avith a native or a foreign 
 " power in India, which they have a just claim upon, is the 
 " peace with the Mahrattas. That certainly, but that alone, 
 " properly belongs to them, and no others preteiKl to have a 
 " share in it. If therefore, too delicate as well as too just to 
 " encroach upon their ground, I am desirous of standing only 
 " on my own (being resigned to fall if it will not support mc), 
 " I trust you will excuse this digression which arose so natu- 
 " rally from the feelings of a grateful mind, anxious to discri- 
 " minate thanks from compliments, and to evince that the 
 " thanks Avhich you had been pleased to honor me with were 
 " not entirely unmerited *." 
 
 Although Lord Macartney had received too many proofs 
 of the hostility of the Bengal government towards him per- 
 sonally, yet till the clandestine manner in which the papers 
 of his bitterest enemies were sent home in the Lively packet, 
 
 * Extract of a letter from Lord Macartney to the committee of secrecy of tke 
 court of directors, dated Calcutta, 37th July 1785.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 293 
 
 he was unwilling to believe that a man of Mr. Hastings's en- 
 larged mind and exalted station would condescend to be 
 concerned in any hidden transaction of a mean or unworthy 
 nature. But his visit to Denial was the means of brinsrin"' to 
 light a circumstance which could not fajl to decide and fix 
 his opinion for ever of Mr. Hastings. On looking over some 
 old London newspapers, and among them the Public Adver- 
 tiser of the 3d of June 1784, he happened to cast his eye 
 upon a letter inserted in it, dated from Calcutta, December 
 the 3d, 1783, and signed W. M. Observing his name in one 
 of the paragraphs he read as follows r " At the moment I am 
 " wi'iting, we are informed that Lord Macartney is ap- 
 " pointed governor-general of Bengal, and that General 
 " Smith and Mr. Edward Moncton are arrived at Bussorah 
 " in their way here, as members of the supreme council. 
 " This is further corroborated by a letter from the nabob of 
 " Arcot to Mr. Hastings, entered on the consultations the 
 " 25th November, in which the nabob says, that Lord Ma- 
 " cart,ney had told his highness he had received lettci-s from 
 " Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke, assuring him that Mr. Hastino-s 
 " was to be dismissed, and he, Lord Macartney, appointed 
 " 2;overnor-o;eneral of Benoal." 
 
 " Well acquainted," says Lord Macartney, " as I was 
 " Avith the forgeries and inventions of the Durbar, I could 
 " scarcely bring myself to beheve, that the nabob had sent a 
 " letter of such a nature to Mr. Hastings; but the respect 
 " due to your honorable court, and to the distinouished 
 " names which have been mentioned with such freedom, and 
 *' the justice I owed to myself, rendering it necessary to knov/
 
 294 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " the trull), I applied to the government of Ijcngal for in- 
 " formation, and found that he certainly had, and that his 
 ^' letter 2ras upon record. 
 
 " The whole story is not only absolutely false and impro- 
 " bable in every particular, but ii is impossible. From the 
 " month of March 1782 to this hour, I have never had any 
 " conversation whatsoever with the nabob or any of his family, 
 " nor have seen either him or them, except when accidentally 
 " passing in a carriage, the nabob having broken oft' all pcr- 
 " sonal intercourse with me, even so far as to refuse receiving 
 *' from me, in the usual ceremony, your honorable court's 
 " letters to him. 
 
 *' For a considerable time past, indeed almost ever since 
 *' the resolution of the House of Commons for the dismission 
 " of Mr. Hastings, there have been various reports fabricated 
 " and industriously spread through several parts of India 
 *' relative to the succession to that gentleman's government, 
 *' and the names of Lord Cornwallis, Lord Chatham, Mr. 
 " Leycester, Mr. Vansittart, Lord Macartney, and others 
 " have been mentioned for it, at dift'erent times and in dif- 
 " ferent modes, in whispers, private letters, and public news- 
 " papers : but, with regard to myself, I never held but one 
 " uniform language upon the subject, and I appeal for the 
 " truth of it to the gentlemen of my council at INLidras, and 
 " to every other person there, with whom 1 have had occasion 
 " to converse. I always declared that were I to consider a 
 " removal from Fort St. George to Bengal merely in a pecu- 
 " niary light, it was not an object to me, as the difference of
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 395 
 
 " emolument between 17,000/. and 26,000/. per annum would 
 *' be absorbed by the difference of expense ; but that my 
 " views did not at all point towards it ; and that they were 
 " bounded entirely by the faithful discharge of my duty 
 " where I was, and by the hope of being able to complete 
 " the plan I had begun ; and thus to leave the Company's 
 " affairs, at my departure for Europe, on such a footing in 
 " the Carnatic as would ensure their stability and permanence 
 *' against every accident that might have been apprehended 
 " from without or within. 
 
 " Such were my declared sentiments, and I can appeal to, 
 " Mr. Hastings himself whether he was not more than once 
 " informed by my direction, that I entertained no thoughts 
 " or desire of his office; and I could appeal, if necessary, to 
 " much higher authority at home." 
 
 " Your honorable court in whom rests the nomination to 
 *' it, and to whom I should therefore naturally look up, well 
 *' knows that I never have solicited or applied for it in any 
 " address to you, either collectively or individually, and I do 
 " solemnly assure you that I never solicited or applied for it 
 " through any other channel, whether private friends or public 
 ** ministers. Having said thus much, I must express my re- 
 *' gret that this government (Bengal) did not, by informing 
 *• me of the nabob's letter, afford me an opportunity of doing 
 " myself justice to them, instead of suffering such a false- 
 " hood to contaminate their records, uncontradicted and 
 " unremarked on ; and thus furnishing, in the transmission
 
 ^^S PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " home, a sure vehicle for the poison to work its purpose 
 " against me in the niiuds of my honorable employers *." 
 
 It was not the mere falsehood of the nabob's assertion 
 that could, in any degree, affect Lord Macartney ; but the 
 circumstance of his keeping up a correspondence with the 
 governor-general, and this latter suffering what eveiy one, in 
 Madras at least, aud most persons in Bengal, knew to be the 
 most infamous calumnies, to be entered on record and sent to 
 Europe. The circumstance of the nabob's letters being written 
 in the English language, for the records of Bengal were searched 
 vain for the original Persian, might have guarded Mr. Hast- 
 ings from considering them to contain the genuine sentiments 
 of the nabob's mind. One among many of these fabrications, 
 with a short history- of the whole of them, may serve to give 
 some idea of the disgraceful system of persecution that was 
 carried on against Lord Macartney at the nabob's Durbar -j-. 
 
 * Extract of a letter from Lord Macartney to the committee of secrecy of the 
 court of directors, dated Calcutta, 27th July 1785. 
 
 f Copy of a letter from the Nabob Wallau Jah Bahader to the Honorable War- 
 ren Hastings, Esq. dated 17th October 1783, and recorded in council 25th No- 
 vember 1783. 
 
 " MY FRIEND, 
 
 «« Among the various artifices by which Lord Macartney has endeavored to terrify 
 me into an accommodation upon his own terms, he has lately labored to impress me 
 with the assurance that, from letters he pretends to have received from Mr. Fox and 
 Mr. Burke, he shall be Invested with the high dignity of governor-general in the 
 place of my much respected and valuable friend. I am well aware of his imposi- 
 tions and, from dear bought conviction, place not the smallest dependence upon his 
 most solemn assertions ; and I fully conceive that the Company and the English 
 nation at large must too sensibly feel their own interest to remove so able, so ex- 
 pcycnced, and so disinterested a vicegerent, to make way for an arbitrary and ca-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 297 
 
 His Lordship's continuance at Calcutta was protracted by 
 an illness that threatened his life. It was occasioned by a 
 
 pricious tyrant ; but even the idea is dreadful, for the removal of my friend must 
 be my utter destruction, and what raises greater apprehensions is his Lordship's 
 desire to the council, not to answer the letter containing your positive orders to re- 
 store me to my country, until a ship, which is daily expecteil, shall arrive from 
 Europe ; should not therefore the English nation distinguish their welfare from 
 their ruin think, my friend, to what inexplicable misery myself and my family 
 must be plunged for ever ? Let not this man triumph over your measures, and in 
 my misfortunes 5 be speedy, I conjure you, in your last and definitive orders, and 
 rescue me even from the terror of Lord Macartney's vengeance. I hear that such is 
 the universal detestation of his very name, tliat the execution of your orders will 
 receive the assisting hand of every individual in this settlement ; at the same time 
 be assured that, though destruction hangs over my head, I shall never place mv 
 confidence in any power but that of my friend, to restore me to my country and 
 hereditary rights. May my friend enjoy many happy days and every earthly 
 blessing. What can I say more ? 
 
 A true copy, 
 
 "Chepauk, 17th October 1783. (Signed) E. HAY, Secretary." 
 
 Now for the history of these compositions. It is contained in a letter from the 
 
 president and select committee of Fort St George to the governor-general and his 
 
 council, dated 25th May 1783, and consequently Mr. Hastings could not plead 
 
 ignorance when he caused the foregoing letter to be entered on the records. 
 
 " Mr. Benfield, to secure the permanency of his power, and the perfection of his 
 " schemes, thought it necessary to render the nabob an absolute stranger to the 
 " state of his affairs. He assured his highness that full justice was not done to the 
 " strength of his sentiments and the keenness of his attacks, in the translations that 
 " were made by the Company's servants from the original Persian of his letters. 
 " He therefore proposed to him that they should for the future be transmitted in 
 " English. Of the English language or writing, his highness or tlie Ameer cannot 
 " read one word ; though the latter can converse in it with sufficient fluency. The 
 " Persian language, as the language of the Mahomedan conquerors and of the court 
 " of Delhi, as an appendage or signal of authority, was, at all times, particularly 
 " affected by the nabob. It is the language of all acts of state, and all public trans- 
 " actions among the Musselmen chiefs of Indostan. The nabob v/as tlioutrlit to 
 " have gained no inconsiderable point in procuring tlie correspondence from our 
 VOL. 1. g Q
 
 298 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 wish of setting an example in his own person, which he con- 
 ceived miffht be attended with some de2;ree of benefit to the 
 inhabitants of the presidency. It is scarcely necessary to 
 observe, that the establishment of palankeens in Calcutta is 
 not only attended with serious expense to many famihes who 
 can but ill afford to bear it, but that every young stripling, 
 from the moment he sets his foot on shore, must have his pa- 
 lankeen and his eight bearers to dance attendance upon his 
 person ; and it often happens that the greater part of these 
 poor creatures, if age and infirmity could plead for consider- 
 ation, ought with more propriety to be carried by himself. 
 
 *' predecessors to the raja of Tanjore, to be changed from the Mahratta language, 
 •' which that Hindoo prince understands, to the Persian, which he disclaims under- 
 " standing. To force the raja to the nabob's language was gratifying the latter with 
 " a new species of subserviency. He had formerly contended, with considerable 
 " anxiety, and, it was thought, no inconsiderable cost, for particular forms of 
 " address to be used towards him in that language. But all of a sudden, in favor of 
 " Mr. Benfield, he quits his former affections, his habits, his knowledge, his 
 «' curiosity, the increasing mistrust of age, to throw himself upon the generous 
 " candor, on the faithful interpretation, the grateful return and eloquent organ, of 
 " ]Mr. Benfield. Mr. Benfield relates and reads what he pleases to his excellency 
 " the Ameer ul Omrah. His excellency communicates with the nabob his father 
 «« in the language the latter understands. Through two channels so pure, the truth 
 " must arrive at the nabob is perfect refinement. Through this double trust his 
 " highness receives whatever impression it may be expedient to make on him. He 
 " abandons his signature to whatever paper they tell him contains, in the English 
 " language, the sentiments with which they had inspired him. He thus is sur- 
 " rounded on every side. He is totally at their mercy to believe what is not true, 
 " and to subscribe to what he docs not mean. There is no system so new, so 
 " foreign to his intentions, that they may not pursue, in his name, without possi- 
 «' bility of detection ; for tlicy are cautious of who approach him, and have thought 
 " prudent to decline, for him, the visits of the governor, even upon the usual 
 " solemn and acceptable occasion of delivering tp his Highness the Company's 
 " letters. Such is the complete ascendancy gained by Mr. Benfield."
 
 » 
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 299 
 
 Lord Macartney -was suUiciently aware that the climate of 
 Madras, from the regular sea breezes, admitted of the exer- 
 cise of walking with less danger than that of the inland city 
 of Calcutta. Still however he determined to make the ex- 
 periment in the latter; but the consequences of much expo- 
 sure to the sun and the ftitiguc of walking had nearly proved 
 fatal. This was not the only narrow escape he had in India. 
 He was wounded in a duel. There are certain situations in 
 which the greatest command of temper cannot prevent the 
 escape of a hasty expression that, in cooler moments, the 
 person who uttered it will rarely attempt to justify, unless 
 the provocation happens to be of a nature not to be excused. 
 Mr. Sadlicr, a member of the select committee, a fickle, in- 
 tem[)erate, and unaccommodating man, one da^' took it into 
 his head to oppose a resolution, to which he, with the other 
 members, had on a former occasion given his assent. The 
 whole board agreed, that such assent had actually been given 
 by him ; but he persisted in contradicting the assertion of his 
 colleagues in the most positive and provoking manner. The 
 question was the granting of an additional allowance to Mr. 
 JIuddlestone as military secretary, to which every one, except 
 Mr. Sadlier, considered him to be fairly entitled. Lord Ma- 
 cartney, provoked at so unjust and illiberal a refusal to what, 
 on a former day, he had acceded, lost, for the moment, the 
 usual command of his temper, which indeed rarely forsook 
 him, and he declared that Mr. Sadlier told a lie. The trans- 
 action was entered on the records ; but Lord Macartney took 
 occasion to observe, in his letter to the Court of Directors, 
 that such part as was merely of a private personal nature 
 might have been omitted, " but the insertion of which," says 
 
 Q Q 2
 
 300 
 
 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 he, " I acquiesced in, because I never will attempt to con- 
 " ceal from you any thing, however unimportant, which the 
 " meanest member of this community might wish to be laid 
 " before you. Every gentleman of feeling knows that there 
 " is a species of audacious contradiction which can only be 
 " stopped by a particular mode of expression. In the case 
 " now alluded to, that expression, although arising from ab- 
 " solute necessity, was no sooner used but apologized for to 
 " the board." 
 
 Mr. Sadlier however was told, by some of his military ac- 
 quaintances, that it was absolutely necessary for his honor 
 and character that he should call out Lord Macartney, and 
 Major Grattan, a gentleman that Lord Macartney had not 
 thought proper to confirm in a staff' appointment, which he 
 considered to have been made without authority, offered him- 
 self to be the bearer of the message. The particulars of this 
 transaction will be found in a paper draAvn up by the two se- 
 conds in the Appendix *. It may be observed, that this was 
 the only dispute and almost the only difference of opinion 
 that he had to encounter in the select committee in the whole 
 course of his difficult government. 
 
 One night as he was sitting with a friend in Calcutta, an 
 officer from one of the Company's ships brought him a dis- 
 patch, addressed to him as governor-general of Bengal. He 
 tore off" the cover and cast it to his friend, who warmly con- 
 gratulated him on an event so wholly unexpected ; but Lord 
 
 * Appendix, No. 18,
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 
 
 301 
 
 Macartney very calmly observed, before he had read the dis- 
 patch," that lie did not mean to accept the intended lionor. 
 lie did not however immediately communicate this inten- 
 tion to the provisional governor-general Avho is said to have 
 felt himself in a very awkward situation ; and all the legal 
 authorities in Calcutta are supposed to have been consulted, 
 ■whether Lord Macartney, appointed by the Court of Di- 
 rectors to succeed Mr. Hastings, could legally step into the 
 chair occupied by Mr. Macpherson. The anxiety of the su- 
 preme council to keep their appointments could not fail 
 greatly to amuse Lord Macartney, Avho had no desire to de- 
 prive any of them of their situations. 
 
 It was no easy matter to reconcile the a])parent incon- 
 sistency of the Court of Directors towards Loi'd Macartney 
 in ordering the surrender of the nabob's assignment, advising 
 him of the nomination of a person to succeed him at Madras, 
 and appointing him, almost immediately afterwards, gover- 
 nor-general of Bengal, without any solicitation on his part, or 
 any avowed desire to succeed to that situation. The fact 
 was, that the supporters of Mr. Fox's India bill, in the debate 
 that took place in the House of Commons, had been loud in 
 their encomiums on the character and conduct of Lord Ma- 
 cartney, whose wisdom and moderation were contrasted with 
 the opposite qualities of Mr. Hastings, against whom they 
 directed a most violent attack, Mr. Fox declared, that his 
 Lordship had proved himself the most obedient to direction 
 from home, the purest in principle and the most zealous in 
 conduct for the national honor of any governor ever sent to 
 
 India, The opposite side of the House, from that moment 
 8
 
 502 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 considered Lord Macartney as closely connected with their 
 adversaries ; and althout>:h he was then on the other side of 
 the globe, unconnected with any party, and indeed had left 
 England before the parties as then formed and debating were 
 in existence, though lie Avas known to be intimately ac- 
 quainted with Mr. I'ox, but sent to India under an adminis- 
 tration in which Mr. Fox had no concern ; yet the praise be- 
 stowed on him by Mr. Fox, and those who supported his 
 opinions, Avas supposed to be not a little injurious to liis in- 
 terest, though it was pretty well understood, and Lord Ma- 
 cartney himself firmly believed, that he was not the person 
 ■whom Mr. Fox, had he carried his point, had intended as go- 
 vernor-general of Bengal. The nabob's letters and Assam 
 Cawn's memorials had also contiibuted to create a strong pre- 
 judice against him in the minds of many persons high in the 
 administration and among the directors of the East India 
 Company. The calumnies they contained did not, it 
 seems, make much impression, nor influence the opinions 
 -of the board of control just then established by Islr. Pitt's 
 bill, of which Mr. Dundas was the efficient head ; but 
 such was the effect produced b}^ other representations sent 
 home from Bengal, that when this new board went into 
 the examination of the ditferences between Lord Ma- 
 cartney and Mr. Hastings, Mr. Dundas frankly owned to a 
 friend of his Lordship, that they began it with a vcvy unfa- 
 vorable impression upon their minds against Lord Macartney. 
 It is almost unnecessary here to observe, what has always 
 been admitted by all parties, that Mr. Dundas, by his great 
 ability and an unremitting ap})lication, speedily obtained so 
 profound a knowledge of the realstate of India, as certainly
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 303 
 
 no other man in the knigdom possessed. When therefore 
 Mr. Dundas, at the head of the board of control, had atten- 
 tively jTerused and carefully considered all the papers on the 
 various subjects of Lord Macartney's government, as con- 
 nected with that of Mr. Hastings, he, with great candor and 
 honor to himself, declared, at the next board that met, that 
 after having fully investigated the whole matter, he had to- 
 tally changed the opinion he had formed of Lord ]\Iacart- 
 ney's conduct, and was now firmly convinced that, his Lord- 
 ship had acted in every respect as he ought to act, and that 
 he had conducted himself with a degree of firmness and abi- 
 lity which did him the highest credit. Mr. Dundas did not 
 stop here. Feeling that every mark of respect and consider- 
 ation was due to his unwearied zeal and unshaken integrity, 
 and as a proof of the favorable sentiments he entertained of 
 his administration at Madras, and that he considered him 
 as the fittest person to fill the chair of Bengal, although 
 wholly unacquainted with his Lordship, and unsolicited by 
 any of his friends, he informed Mr. Pitt of his sentiments on 
 the subject and the grounds on which he had formed them. J\Ir. 
 Ktt, whom the multiplicity of other business dicl not allow 
 to enter so deeply into Indian affairs as Mr. Dundas had 
 done, but who could place implicit reliance on the report of 
 his able coadjutor, so fully acquainted with the subject, made 
 no hesitation in approving of Mr. Dundas's choice, though the 
 object of it was equally unknown to him. His Lordship's 
 nomination immediately followed. Considering therefore all 
 the circumstances of this transaction, it cannot be denied that 
 there never was an appointment of such great trust, power, 
 patronage, and emolument conferred, which did more honoi'
 
 304 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 to those who had the nomination to it, or to hini who was 
 thus appointed, than that of Lord Macartney to Bengal. 
 There were not wanting however persons high in the achnini- 
 stration, Avhose names it is not material to mention, Avho were 
 not only averse from the choice of the minister, but were 
 ready to foretel many bad consequences that would attend 
 it; that in resentment to ]\Ir. Hastings his Lordship would 
 show his hostility to all those who had been patronized byi 
 him ; that he would reject measures, however salutary, which 
 the former governor-general and his connections miwht have 
 planned, and a thousand wild and extravagant surmises which 
 party feelings suggested ; but the very reverse of which a 
 man of no part}', actuated solely by the desire of serving his 
 countiy, would be likely to adopt. Such forebodings there- 
 fore had no effect in shaking the conviction of Mr. Pitt. The 
 opinion, which this truly great and disinterested man enter- 
 tained of Lord Macartne}^ may be collected from his reply 
 to a note which had been addressed to him by an intimate 
 friend of his Lordship, to know if he had any particular 
 wishes or recommendations to forward for India. " Allow 
 " me," says he, " to add, that although I have not the honor 
 " of any personal acquaintance with Lord Macartnej^, I felt 
 " from pulilic grounds the most sincere pleasure in his ap- 
 *' pointment to a situation which, I was persuaded, no one 
 " could fill more to the advantao;e of the country. I must 
 " also beg you to accept my best thanks for your obliging ex- 
 " pressions of your inclination to promote any wishes of 
 *' mine relative to objects in India. I have in truth none that 
 " interests me, but that which will be safe in Lord Macart- 
 " ney's hands without any rccommcndatiou — I mean the
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 305 
 
 ** credit and prosperity of the governments of wliich he is at 
 ^' the head." 
 
 But however Battering it must have been to Lord Macart- 
 ney to receive so distinguished a mark of the minister's ap- 
 probation, together with tiiat of the court of diiectors, spon- 
 taneously conferred without any solicitation from himself or 
 his friends, he had many strong reasons for declinino- at this 
 time to take upon himself the government of Bengal. The 
 ill state of his health, broken down by the fatigues and vexa- 
 tions which he had undergone in his late government, required 
 a speedy removal to his native climate. The general situation 
 of affairs in India likewise pointed out to him the propriety 
 and, indeed, the necessity of submitting to his majesty's 
 ministers certain regulations which he considered indispen- 
 sable for the salvation of this part of the empire ; and of laying 
 before them those conditions on which only he felt himself 
 able to fulfil the purposes of his appointment with advantage 
 to the public and reputation to himself. Other circumstcances, 
 which applied peculiarly to him, rendered every precaution 
 on his part, if not necessary, at least expedient. Some of 
 the members who continued to form the government of Ben- 
 gal, where he \vould have presided, had been in the habit of 
 submitting to every opinion of the late governor-general, and 
 consequently of condemning and counteracting many of his 
 measures when at Madras ; they had also joined in resolutions 
 equally harsh and unjust upon his conduct. Mucli cordial 
 co-operation or public benefit could scarcely be expected 
 from such associates ; and a hollow and insidious support 
 would not have answered the purpose he had in view, which 
 
 VOL. I. R R
 
 jod PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 was that of a complete and radical reform. The public mea- 
 sures of the governor-general, especially if they happened to 
 interfere with the avarice or ambition of individuals, might 
 be thwarted, and perhaps successfully counteracted, unless it 
 was unequivocally understood that he had the entire support 
 and countenance of his majesty's ministers as well as of the 
 Court of Directors. Feeling therefore, as he did, that how- 
 ever profitable, powerful and brilliant the situation might ap- 
 pear to common observers, the mere office and its emo- 
 luments would afford him but little gratification ; and too 
 strongly impressed with its importance to conceive it fair 
 or honorable for any man to undertake it,^ unless he 
 were persuaded that he could make it an instrument of 
 essential permanent benefit to the public, he was bound 
 from principle to decline it for the present. His experience 
 had fully convinced him that the affairs of the East India 
 Company were fast sinking into irretrievable ruin, and that 
 nothing could save them, but an administration of exact dis- 
 cipline and rigid economy in every department both civil 
 and military ; but a system of this kind was so novel in India^ 
 he had met with so much opposition and counteraction in 
 his endeavors to establish it at Fort St. George, as were suffi- 
 cient to convince him that nothing could enable even the first 
 talents and integrity to carry it into execution at Bengal, except 
 only with the assistance of colleagues actuated by similar prin- 
 ciples, and with such a confidence and support from home as. 
 it would have been almost romantic in him to expect. " Many 
 " a man indeed," observes his Lordship to the Court of 
 Directors, " may be found, who, consulting the gratification 
 
 *' of his own vanity and avarice before 3'our honor and advan- 
 
 6
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 307 
 
 •*' tage, will undertake your affairs without scruple on any 
 *' terms, and, at all events, run the chance of things lasting; 
 " Ills time in their usual train, amuse you with tritiing plans, 
 "fallacious deductions, and undeterminable references; 
 " flatter you from season to season with prospects and pro- 
 *' mises, and then face your displeasure with a fortune per- 
 " haps huge enongli to defy an inquiry or outreach an act of 
 " parliament : But your interests involving, as they still do, 
 " a vast extent of empire, an immense population, and many 
 " millions of revenue, demand that you should send out the 
 " ablest and honestest men that can be found to administer 
 " them ; and that these men should be encouraged and up- 
 " held by all the trust and authority you can venture to give 
 *' them ■*." 
 
 But the subject which of all others claimed, in Lord 
 Macartney's estimation, the earliest attention of his majesty's 
 ministers, was that of methodizing the claims and allowances 
 of the military establishment, and of reducing the heteroge- 
 neous parts of which an Indian army is composed to some- 
 thing like system, and bringing them under one command. 
 He considered it as indispensably necessary that the civil and 
 military authority should be united in one person, without 
 pretending to decide from what line of life that person ought 
 to be taken. If a military commander could be found supe- 
 rior to the bias of education, and to the views and attach- 
 ments of his profession, such commander, he conceived, 
 
 • Extract of a letter from Lord Macartney to the committee of secrecy of the 
 
 court of directors, dated . 
 
 R R 2
 
 3o8 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 ought to be employed, not because of his profession, but in 
 despite of it. As a maxim of choice, however, he was incHned 
 to think that it would be safer to take a man, otherwise well 
 qualified, out of the general mass of society, for the purpose 
 of presiding over and promoting the welfare of the Biitish 
 dominions in India, than another, who would have to combat 
 with the exclusive preferences and partial considerations to 
 which his mind had been accustomed in favor of that portion 
 of the community which is united in its nature, and whose 
 combinations and encroachments, as being the most likely 
 and the most dangerous, it is the first duty of government to 
 watch over and resist. The experience of his government in 
 India corroborated the experience of other countries and ages, 
 that the elevation of military leads to the interruption and to 
 the destruction of all other authority ; and was strongly ex- 
 emplified in the unwise and inconsiderate measure of the 
 Bengal government, which transferred to the commander in 
 chief of the forces an wiparticipated authority to the utmost 
 possible extent of his zrishes ; the consecluence of which was, 
 as might naturally have been expected, that there was not a 
 subaltern in the army who did not consider himself as great a 
 man as the president of I'ort St. George, and entirely inde- 
 pendent of his authority. It has indeed been since discovered 
 that the mihtary poAver in the east particularly re([uires the 
 cuih and \ igihmce of a superior authority in the state to press 
 and diiect it to the proper object of the public welfare, as 
 well as to restrain within due bounds the pretensions and ex- 
 ertions of that strength, which feels its own iniportance, and 
 looks to the aggrandiiiement it is able to procure. The most 
 eminent military achievements, under Chve ami Lawrence, 
 
 7
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 309 
 
 acconij^anicd the most perfect obedience to the civil power, 
 because in their time no other pursuits interfered with puisuits 
 against the enemy. 
 
 The eonflicts that arose between the civil government and 
 some of his majesty's otTicers serving under it in the Carnatic^ 
 seem to have been unavoidable, unless I.ord ISIacartne}' had 
 assented to demands in direct violation of the Comi)any's 
 rights, and the fust powers inherent in the civil authority 
 established in the country. AVhile their claims extended only 
 to opinions little notice was taken of them; but when it be- 
 came a question, whether the civil government should exer- 
 cise, according to its own judgment, the powers placed in its 
 hands, and for which it was solely responsil)le to the nation, or 
 suffer them to be openly disputed and disobeyed by those who 
 were sent out, at the Company's expense, to assist and serve 
 the civil government, the least hesitation misht have been 
 fatal. If his majesty's troops were not as absolutely under 
 the direction of the civil power as the Company's own force, 
 there was at once an end to all system. Anarchy and con- 
 fusion must pervade every department, and his majesty's 
 gracious intention, in sending his forces to India, might be 
 perverted into the worst evil that could befal the Company. 
 It was doubted by no one that, if the firm and decisive step 
 which was taken, with regard to General Stuart, had been 
 delayed but a few hours, the civil authority would have been 
 at an end. Some idea may be formed of the lengths to 
 which the king's officers were proceeding after this event, 
 from the following circumstance. On the trial of Sir John 
 Burgoyne (whom Lord Macartney had been reluctantly
 
 310 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 obliged to put under arrest), it appeared, from the evidence of 
 the lieutenant colonel of his majesty's 23d regiment of dragoons 
 that, at a meeting of the king's general officers at the mount, 
 the day after the arrest of General Stuart, a proposition was 
 niade by one of them to remove Lord M&cartney from his 
 government, to appoint another in his place, and to seize 
 General Lang the new conmiander in chief. This prop si. ion 
 was not however approved by Sir John Burgoyne, the senior 
 of those Generals, whose i)rudence probably suggested to 
 him the absurdity of attempting a government which had so 
 recently shown how well guarded it was against outrage or 
 ^ surprise. 
 
 On the other hand, the king's troops had great reason to 
 be dissatisfied ; they received only one-half, and in some in- 
 stances scarcely one-third, of the pay and allowances granted 
 to others with whom they were serving ; these, on their part, 
 not satisfied with their superiority in point of pay, con- 
 tended for an equality of rank. The governor had it not in 
 his power to meet the wishes of one or the other. As little 
 was he able to apply a remedy to the abuses and grievances of 
 which the army had just cause to complain. When money 
 was not to be procured to pay the troops, it was not unusual 
 for the paymaster to issue tickets to enable the men to pur- 
 chase necessaries in the market ; these tickets sut!ered a dis- 
 count in the bazzar of twenty, thirty, and sometimes fifty per 
 cent. ; and at such depreciation were frequently bought up 
 by the Company's servants. When money was issued to the 
 paymaster these servants had generally interest enough to 
 secure to themselves the full amount of the soldiers' tickets.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY, 311 
 
 By this abuse, which the want of funds and public credit 
 seemed to render unavoidable, both oQicers and men suffered 
 serious inconveniences, whilst some of the purchasers qf the 
 tickets are said to have accumulated fortunes. The conclu- 
 sion of the war with Tippoo Saheb appeared to hold out a fair 
 opportunity for commencing that system of reform which, 
 by his instructions. Lord INIacartney was authorized to carry 
 into execution. But he soon discovered that this Herculean 
 labor Avas not likely to be brought to perfection under the 
 state of things then in India. On the first attempt to discontinue 
 the allowance of half batta, in order to equalize the pay of 
 the troops, a mutiny broke out in the regiment that was sta- 
 tioned at Arcot, which however, by the decided and peremp- 
 tory orders of government, was (}uelled without the effusion 
 of blood, and Avitli obtaining from the mutineers an uncondi- 
 tional submission and resisjuation to the will of the civil o-o- 
 vernment. This spirit of resisting every plan that might lead 
 to economy and reform was not less diffused through the 
 Company's own troo^ps, to whose pretensions, though Lord 
 Macartney showed not the least countenance, he was erro- 
 aeously supposed to be favorably inclined. In fact, he 
 never ceased to reprobate the distinction that was unavoid- 
 ably kept up between the King's and the Company's forces. 
 " 1 have always," says he, " held the same opinions upon this 
 *•' subject, and as they were not taken up upon slight grounds, 
 " 1 think nothing is likely to change them, but my being bet- 
 " ter taught from home. I can have no improper motives to 
 " sway my judgment in matters of this kind which, if it could 
 " admit of bias, would, from the line of life in which I have 
 " been bred, more easily have taken the other turn ; but I
 
 312 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " look merely to the public service, divested of every preju- 
 " dice or partiality *." 
 
 That his majesty's Hanoverian regiments had no grievance 
 to complain of against the civil government, and that his 
 majesty himself was satisfied with the attention they re- 
 ceived from Lord Macartney, will be sufficiently obvious from 
 the fol lo win q; letter : 
 
 '& 
 
 " My Lord, 
 " The particular attention which your Lordship has been 
 " pleased to bestow on the two Hanoverian regiments at Ma- 
 " dras, has been mentioned by Colonel Reinbold in terms ex- 
 " pres^ve of the grateful sense of that corps ; and I am happy 
 " in adding that his majesty has been pleased to notice and 
 " honor your Lordship's kind attention with his most gra- 
 " cious approbation. It is by his majesty's command, my 
 " Lord, that I communicate his royal pleasure on the occa- 
 " sion ; and I am, at the same time, directed to solicit the 
 " continuance of your Lordship's protection for that corps, 
 " which, I trust, will always be anxious to merit the honor 
 " of your Lordship's approbation. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, &c. 
 (Signed) " Alvensleben. 
 
 " London, 20th September 1785." 
 
 Until therefore the proper authority should be obtained at 
 home to new model the military system, Lord Macartney did 
 
 , * Extract of a letter from Lord Macartney to General Stuart, dated loth May 
 1783.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 3,3 
 
 not think himself justified in accepting the government of 
 Bengal. lie repeatedly warned the Court of Directors of the 
 danger to be apprehended from the want of a proper arrano'e- 
 nient. " You will find," says he, " that the military throug-h- 
 " out India is likely to be much less manageable than you 
 " seem to loc aware of. The time probably draws near when 
 " many things that have been long concealed, misrepresented, 
 " and misunderstood, will be laid open, verified, and ex- 
 *' plained. Sure I am that my struggles to maintain a sys- 
 " tem of discipline duly subordinate to the civil power pro- 
 " ceeded from no kind of prejudice or eacroachment, but 
 *' from an adequate knowledge of your service, of the prin- 
 " cipal characters belonging to it, of the temptations and 
 " abuses to which it is liable, and the dangers resulting from 
 " the slightest relaxation or remissness. Whilst expressing my- 
 " self in this manner, I trust I shall not suffer the imputation 
 " of a meaning which I do not entertain. No man can be 
 " more sensible than I am of the importance and necessity 
 " of exciting and diffusing a martial professional spirit amono- 
 " the troops here : this ought to be the care of every wise cro- 
 " vernment ; but it ought to be no less your care to direct 
 " the spirit of those troops to its proper object, which is the 
 " defence of your possessions under 3'our own orders, and to 
 " restrain them from any licentiousness or eccentric fiiohts, 
 " lest being dazzled by elevation they lose sight of their true 
 " purpose and original appointment *." 
 
 * Extract of a letter from Lord Macartney to the committee of secrecy of the 
 court of directors, dated 27th July 1 785. 
 
 VOL. II. S S
 
 314 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 It is not every man who has sufficient virtue, courage, or 
 disinterestedness to tell unwelcome truths to his employers. 
 The flattering statements of the Company's affairs that are 
 transmitted from the different presidencies, as remote gene- 
 rally from truth as light is from darkness, either prove that 
 the governors themselves are imposed upon, or that they wish 
 to impose upon the Company. Lord ISIacartney however 
 never attempted, by assertion or implication, to flatter them 
 with ideal prosperity. " My statements," says he, " are real 
 " and not imaginary, Avhich half of the public estimates are, 
 " and particularly those of India, which usually include 
 " thino's of no value as valuable." He told them without 
 disguise that the first step towards relief in their exigencies 
 was to ascertain the full extent of their embarrassments ; 
 that upon this knowledge they might be enabled to frame 
 such a general system of economy and policy as was suitable 
 to their actual situation ; that any other system founded on 
 partial or fallacious statements must ultimately lead to irre- 
 trievable ruin ; but that a well digested plan, Avhich embraces 
 the whole evil and adapts its provisions accordingly, was the 
 most likely to carry back their affairs to safety and prosperity. 
 All his letters to the Court of Directors urge in the strongest 
 terms the necessity of maintaining peace and friendship with 
 the country powers, which but too fre((uently have been in- 
 terrupted on our part by motives oi" ambition or avarice. He 
 let slip no occasion of assuring them that nothing but peace 
 and a long series of good administration could possibly restore 
 their affairs to their former prosperity, and advised that no pro- 
 spects of conquest, however tempting, should prevail on them 
 
 to engage in fresh wars with the natives ; but, on the con- 
 
 6
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 315 
 
 traiy, that their whole influence should be cmploj'cd for the 
 establishment of the tranquillity and increase of the prospe- 
 rity of Hindostan. He recommended that the country they 
 already possessed should be kept entirely in their own hands 
 and under their own management ; that no subsidiary troops 
 belonging to the nabob or any other Indian power should be 
 suffered to remain in their employ ; but that both cavalry 
 and infantry should be their own, and that a sufficient por- 
 tion of the revenues should be secured for paying them. He 
 had no doubt that, by the exercise of wisdom and modera- 
 tion, the government might succeed in regaining that opinion 
 which was, for a long time, favorable to the English nation in 
 Hindostan, from its supposed attachment to real and sub- 
 stantial justice distinct from power, and fidelity to engage- 
 ments in opposition to its interest ; principles that were the 
 more admired as being, among the natives, almost romantic 
 sentiments. 
 
 Among the numerous abuses he had occasion to bring for- 
 ward before the Court of Directors was a sort of bargain 
 which even some of the members of government were con- 
 cerned in, and considered merely as a fair perquisite of office ; 
 this was the puichase of a forbearance of payment made by 
 the debtors of the public. To prevent so scandalous an 
 abuse he recommended that ample salaries should be ap- 
 pointed to seats in the council, and that those who held them 
 should be totally excluded from every kind of traffic and from 
 every other employment ; he considered that on the choice 
 of proper persons to illl this important situation every thing 
 tliat was valuable depended ; that the wisest provisions and 
 
 s s 2
 
 3i6 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 regulations that could be framed would have no effect, if the 
 execution of them Avere left to weak, negligent, or corrupt 
 hands ; that the rule of promoting to the council invariably 
 by seniority, however just in the principle, is often pernicious 
 in the practice ; that he had therefore formed a decided opi- 
 nion that whenever any of the servants of the Company 
 should particularly distinguish themselves in offices of trust 
 and consequence, it would be greatly for the interest of the 
 Compan3% and a just reward to those servants, to prefer them 
 to situations wherein their knowledge and principles might be 
 still more usefull}' employed for the public. But above all 
 he urged the absolute necessit}' of selecting the ablest and 
 most unexceptionable men to fill the first situations in their 
 governments, without regard to those considerations of rank 
 and seniority which had hitherto guided them in the rule of 
 promotion among their own servants. 
 
 ON the 9th January 1786, Lord INIacartney arrived in Lon- 
 (lon, and on the 13th of that month had a conference with 
 the chairman and deputy chairman of the East India Com- 
 pany on the subject of his appointment as governor-general of 
 Bengal. He then informed them that, having had several fits 
 of the gout and rheumatism at Madras, and having suffered 
 greatly in his constitution from the climate of India, as well 
 as from the oppressive cares and vexations which occurred 
 during his presidency, it became absolutely necessary for 
 him on lliose accounts to decline entering upon a new and
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 31^ 
 
 j^rduous scene of affairs, until by a voyage to sea and a re- 
 laxation for some time from business, he should acquire suf- 
 ficient health and strength for the undertaking. ]iut in addi- 
 tion to these motives lie was aware, he told them, that in 
 order to ac(]uit himself of the office of governor-general of 
 ]5engal with essential permanent advantage to the comj)any 
 and the state, and with credit to those persons who had con- 
 cerned themselves in his appointment, as avcII as to him- 
 self, it would be necessary for him to receive a decided 
 support fi'om home, of which, till he came home, he could 
 not be certain, as the mere circumstance of his election, 
 which he attributed more to chance than a decided measure 
 of government, did not ensure it. That however, he added, 
 the most decisive support from home did not appear to him 
 sufficient, in the present view of things in India, and the new 
 spirit of combination and opposition that had gone forth both 
 in the civil and military departments in that country, without 
 many new regulations to meet and compose it. He observed 
 to them that due subordination on the part of the troops in 
 India to the civil governments there could be secured only 
 by restoring the system subsisting in the Company's instruc- 
 tions for India till 1774, and always subsisting in the other 
 dependencies of Great Britain and in Ireland, by Avhich the 
 commander in chief of the troops is, in all respects whatso- 
 ever, under the immediate control of the representative of the 
 civil power ; whereas the instructions of 1774-, framed on the 
 spur of an occasion, and not on general principles, created in 
 effect two independent powers in the same government ; that 
 a line bad been attempted to be drawn between the respec-
 
 3i8 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 tive prerogatives of the civil and the mihtary chief, a line 
 about which there has been and ever will be a contest ; the 
 troops looking up to the military chief alone are totally with- 
 drawn from all obedience or attention to the regular govern- 
 ment of the country. 
 
 AVith regard to the persons who formed the civil depart- 
 ment in India, they were not likelj^ he observed, to be 
 brought back to the original object of their institution of being 
 useful and obedient servants of the company, agreeably to 
 their covenants, in any other way than by leaving a discre- 
 tion in the Company's representative to substitute others in 
 their room, whether before in the service or not, as he shall 
 see occasion, and by removing the claim to office, as matter 
 of right, from seniority of rank, trusting to the government 
 there, as is entrusted to every government, that it will pay 
 due regard to merit and length of service when accompanied 
 ■with the qualifications which the offices to be disposed of re- 
 spectively require. At present it would seem that some of 
 the civil servants acted in India, as if they conceived they 
 had an irremovable tenure of their respective stations : per- 
 sons holding some of the most considerable offices there are, 
 from an idea of independence, among the most forward to 
 oppose the acts of the legislature of this 'countr}^ which has 
 placed a check on the abuses of otfices there. It did not ap- 
 pear, he added, that any were deterred, in joining this oppo- 
 sition, from the dread of not succeeding to future vacancies, 
 as it was conceived that such succession was to depend upon 
 ri^ink in the service, and not upon the discretion of the Com-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. ^t^ 
 
 pane's representatives, who could not object to that act in 
 any individual in which almost all of the Company's servants 
 had joined, and to whom alone their choice was confined. 
 
 With these two leading regulations, and, perhaps, a few 
 others of a subordinate nature. Lord Macartney said he con- 
 ceived it ]>ossible that the government of India might yet, in 
 the hands of a prudent and honest man, looking to the wel- 
 fare of the state and to his own character, be rendei-ed an 
 instrument of happiness to that country and of substantial 
 permanent advantage to this ; but that unless the person dig- 
 nified with the name of governor-general, was entrusted also 
 with authority to act, he might become a shadow without 
 substance, and might undertake responsibility for an object 
 witliout the means of attaining it. If therefore, he added, a 
 certain number of gentlemen be ap[)ointed as a council to 
 assist him, as is proper, he should be allowed, in cases where 
 he thought it expedient, to become alone responsible for the 
 Company and the state, and be authorized, as in all other 
 dependencies of Great I)ritain, to act independent of his 
 council, or, at least, he should be sure of a general confor- 
 mity of sentiments between him and his council. In the first 
 ease, he observed, the gentleman then acting as governor- 
 general of Bengal might be considered to be inclined to retire 
 from a diminished share of power; and, in the second case, 
 the records of the company showed a marked and personal 
 opposition, on his part, to his (Lord Macartney's) sentiments 
 and public conduct ; that the propriety, in either case, of 
 that gentleman's recal, on the grounds already mentioned, 
 spared him the painful necessity of giving more pointed-
 
 320 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 and particular reasons for depriving liim of any degree of 
 power in tliat government before he (Lord Macartney) could 
 be placed at the head of it. It was likely too, he further ob- 
 served, that the present commander in chief of the troops in 
 India, having once tasted and exercised independent military 
 power, could not relish the subordination which Lord Ma- 
 cartney thought so essential to the civil power, for the same 
 reasons, among others, which have contributed to establish 
 that subordination every where else. 
 
 On these terms only Lord IMacartney felt he could accept 
 the appointment, observing, that if he could have been daz- 
 zled by the splendor, the eniolumcnt, the power, or the pa- 
 tronage of a governor-general of Bengal, without a serious 
 consideration of all the duties of that station, which was not 
 more eminent than arduous to him who reall}' meant to ren- 
 der it the instrument of establishino; the solid and durable 
 welfare of the Company, he might have availed himself of the 
 appointment conferred upon him ; he thought himself there- 
 fore to have some claim to the belief of the chairman and 
 deputy chairman when he assuied them that the hope alone 
 of rendering public service could possibly induce him to take 
 upon him that office, and that the considerations he now sub- 
 mitted to them Avere not occasioned by any private views, 
 partialities, or prejudices, and had only been brought for- 
 ward from a conviction of the necessity of them. 
 
 A minute of this conversation was transmitted by the 
 
 chairs to the board of control, and nothing further on the 
 
 suljject was mentioned to Lord Macartney till the 20th Fe- 
 
 4
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 321 
 
 bruary, when he received a note from Mr. Diindas desiring 
 him to meet Mr. Pitt and himself the next morning at the 
 office of the commissioners for the affairs of India. In the 
 interval, however, he had every reason to suppose that he 
 stood on high ground with at least the leading characters 
 of administration. At the opening of the session of parlia- 
 ment of 1786, on the 24th January, when debating on the 
 king's speech, Mr. Fox took occasion to observe, in touching 
 on the affairs of India, that Lord Macartney had acted 
 throughout the whole of his stay in India upon the most 
 upright principles, and had come home with hands perfectly 
 clean and unsullied. His Lordship, he said, from a convic- 
 tion of the necessity of the measure, had taken the collection 
 and the management of the revenues of the Carnatic out of 
 the hands, not of the nabob of Arcot, but of his ao-ents 
 and usurers, who plundered the natives and robbed him, 
 and that he had vested both, where they ought to be, in the 
 hands of the Company. This measure the board of Control 
 had overthrown by their orders, and had directed the collec- 
 tion and management of the nabob's revenues to be re- 
 stored to him, or rather to those agents, and plunderers ; that 
 the fatal effects of this order had spread alai'm and terror 
 through the Carnatic, and impressed the council at Fort St. 
 George with so strong an idea of its impropriety, that Lord 
 Macartney went himself to Calcutta to remonstrate with the 
 government there and to deprecate the consequences. Let 
 the house, said Mr. Fox, imagine the surprize of his Lordship 
 on finding Mr. Hastings departed for Europe, and a coni- 
 mission there appointing him governor-general, a situation it 
 was impossible for him to accept, while the order to restore 
 
 VOL. I. T T
 
 322 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 the collection and management of the Carnatic revenues to 
 the nabob continued in force. Mr. Fox bestowed the highest 
 encomiums on the zeal and talent, the integrity and disinte- 
 restedness of Lord Macartney, declaring he did not speak 
 from any authority derived from his Lordship, nor did he wish 
 it to be understood that what he had said was any thing 
 more than what he, in common with the rest of the pubhc, 
 was well acquainted with. 
 
 To this part of Mr. Fox's speech, Mr. Pitt, in his replv, 
 took occasion to observf^, that with respect to the supposed 
 inconsistency of Lord Macartney being appointed to the pre- 
 sidency over the general affairs of the Company in India, at 
 the same time that his conduct in the assignment of the reve- 
 nues of the Carnatic was not approved of, he desired it to be 
 recollected that, although he and Mr. Hastings had differed 
 upon more points than one, yet, in that affair alone excepted, 
 his Lordship had acted in such a manner as entitled him to 
 the highest applause that words could possibly bestOw. 
 Here Mr. Pitt launched into a most copious and warm strain 
 uf panegyric on the character of Lord Macartney, which he 
 concluded by observing that, from the whole X)f his admini- 
 stration of the government of Madras, he was perfectly 
 eligible to that of Bengal ; that the only point in which his 
 conduct at Madras had been thought objectionable was one 
 in which, though justified by the policy of the measure, the 
 <Tood faith and credit of the nation rendered it necessary to 
 make a sacrifice. Mr. Pitt said, he was happy to find the 
 rioht honorable gentleman entertained so high an opinion of 
 
 the noble Lord, because it would tend perhaps to reconcile 
 
 6
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 
 
 323 
 
 liim to a part of the East India bill he so much complained 
 of, to find that a nobleman of such great reputation and such 
 distinguished virtue had borne, in the most pointed manner, 
 the testimony of his approbation to the system of calling all 
 persons returning from the Company's service in India to 
 account, upon oath, for their acquisitions. For though that 
 restriction did not extend itself to him, yet so much did he 
 approve the spirit and principle of it, nay so necessary did it 
 appear to him for his own honor, that he voluntarily came 
 forward and complied with the clause, even before its opera- 
 tion commenced ; and he hoped that after so illustrious an 
 example, no man would take upon him to depreciate the 
 good policy and justice of the restriction. He observed, that 
 this action of Lord Macartney was in itself so noble, so disin- 
 terested, and showed so pointedly the dignified sentiments by 
 which he was actuated, that even if his opinion of that 
 nobleman's virtue and character were inferior to that of the 
 right honorable gentleman ; nay had he even disapproved of 
 his general conduct in his government, yet this action alone 
 ■would have been sufficient to atone for all former miscar- 
 riages, and to have entitled him to the highest glory and the 
 loudest applause *. 
 
 Such were the honorable testimonies, which the friends of 
 Lord Macartney had the gratification to hear, for the second 
 time, from the two distinguished leaders of the contending 
 parties in the House of Commons. Under such favorable 
 circumstances did he meet Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas on the 
 21st of February. 
 
 • Parliamentary Debates, Jan. 24, 1786, 
 T T 2
 
 324 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Mr. Pitt began by saying, that a variety of business and 
 some particular circumstances had retarded him from coming 
 to so speedy a conclusion as he could have wished on the 
 subject of the appointment of a governor-general of Bengal ; 
 that as to the points mentioned in the minute of his Lord- 
 ship's conference with the two chairs on the 13th January last, 
 he was clearly of opinion it would be proper to give to the 
 governor-general a power of deciding singly, even against his. 
 council, on great points where he saw it necessary to untler- 
 take such responsibility ; that it might also be proper to ex- 
 tend the authority of the governor-general in military sub- 
 jects, perhaps to the length that bis Lordship had proposed ; 
 but that this measure should not be immediately adopted, 
 though it might be adopted in a little time ; that as to Mr. Mac- 
 pherson, he would probably not wish to remain long in a subor- 
 dinate situation at Bengal, after having filled the first ; and 
 that with regard to General Sloper, the immediate removal of 
 him from his present situation, considering the particular cir- 
 cumstances of his nomination, and the light in which it was 
 conceived he stood, would not be so easily accomplished, 
 and it possibly might not be found necessary ; but he assured 
 Lord Macartney that if he should determine on going to 
 India as governor-general, he might depend upon his decided 
 countenance and support. 
 
 Lord Macartney said he was sensibly impressed with 
 the liberality of his conduct in his former appointment, 
 unsolicited as it was, either by himself or any of his 
 friends, and with the very honorable mention he had since 
 made of him both in parliament and elsewhere ; that he was
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 325 
 
 persuaded of his good intentions towards him ; but that since 
 his return to England many things had come to his know- 
 ledge, and some circumstances had occurred, to make him 
 particularly cautious in undertaking the affairs of India ; and 
 that it would neither be safe nor honorable for him to do so, 
 unless he (Mr. Pitt) would take the necessary precautions to 
 prevent any counteraction either here or at Bengal, which 
 Jie had sulhcient reason to apprehend from the unprovoked 
 enmity of Mr. Hastings and the weight he might still have 
 •in India, founded on the idea entertained of his standing so 
 well in the opinion of many persons high in the administra- 
 tion. He thought therefore that if he were sent to India, it 
 would be necessary for his own reputation and for the pub- 
 lie service, that he should receive such a distinguished mark 
 of favor as would unequivocally show to the world, that he 
 went out with the united support of the crown, the ministry, 
 and the Company ; that in mentioning this he begged' Mr. 
 Pitt would be assured that he Avas not a man desirous of 
 starting idle difficulties, or making what was called terms or 
 bargains ; but that he had not been without some ground 
 of hope, that what he now said would have been anticipated 
 by him (Mr. Pitt) ; that the distinguished mark, to which he 
 alluded, he had long looked to as an object of honest ambi- 
 tion, and had therefore preferred distant, laborious, and 
 troublesome employments abroad, as more likely, from the 
 opportunities they might afford for distinguished exertions, to 
 lead him to it, than the usual routine of the boards and par- 
 liamentary offices at home ; he observed that he had passed 
 twenty-two years of his life in public business of that kind, 
 and hoped it was not unreasonable to aspire to the king's favoi",
 
 J 
 
 26 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 as a reward for past service, and an encouragement to 
 future. 
 
 At the same time, he observed, it was right for him can- 
 didly to avow that he did not feel any very great eagerness 
 for the appointment ; that, knowing as he did, the real state 
 of India, indifferent as he Avas to the acquisition of wealth, 
 and possessing his mind in tranquillity and content, he did not* 
 think it would be wise in him, or fair to his friends at iiis 
 time of hfe, to banish himself from his country, his family, ' 
 and dearest connections, and undertake a task of infinite dif- 
 ficulty, responsibility, and risk, unless he had a very fair 
 prospect of being able to do some essential permanent ser- 
 vice to the public and honor to himself; .that if ^ he uti- 
 dertook the government, it would be with an unalterable de- 
 termination to retrieve it, and to effect, at all hazards, 
 what was wished to be effected ; otherwise, he observed, he 
 might have remained at Bengal instead of coining home with 
 the sentiments he had expressed. 
 
 After some further discourse, in which he perceived that 
 Mr. Pitt, with every disposition to enter into his views, 
 laboured under some difficulty in assenting to them, he rose to 
 take his leave, concluding by repeating the opinion he had 
 often given to the Court of Directors, that he hoped their 
 choice would fall, as it ought to do, upon the honestest man 
 they could find, on a man much superior to himself in other 
 qualifications ; requesting them to believe that his having 
 mentioned, what he conceived necessary to be done, in case 
 they had pitched upon him, proceeded solely from the con-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY, 327 
 
 viction of his own mind ; not from the slightest disinchnation 
 to the service, or to his majesty's administration as it then 
 stood ; for that, whatever his situation was, his conduct would 
 always be the same, consistent and agreeable with those 
 principles which, through the course of his life, had uniformly 
 guided him. Three days after this he Mas informed that 
 Lord Cornwallis was appointed governor-general of Bengal. 
 
 Nothing could possibly be more gratifying to Lord Ma- 
 cartney than this choice of his majesty's ministers. His own 
 wishes, in fact, had never tended to the acquisition of that 
 high office, and the acceptance of it on any terms would 
 have been a sacrifice of his private feelings to pubhc duty. 
 That he had a strong disinclination to accept the appoint- 
 ment, 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 unequi- 
 vocal 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 
 wrote with his pencil upon the back of it as follows : " I am 
 " the happiest man in England at this hour. Lord Corn- 
 " wallis, 1 hear, is governor-general of India." The card is 
 still in her ladyship's possession with the pencil writing 
 upon it. 
 
 The mark of favor to which Loi-d Macartney conceived 
 himself entitled, even independent of public considerations, 
 Avas a British peerage ; but he would not have asked it on any 
 other ground than the fullest conviction in his own mind,
 
 3*8 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 how impossible it would be for him, considering the past and 
 present situation of things, to carry on the government to his 
 own satisfaction and the public benefit, unless he should be 
 armed with this or some other distinguished ensign of his 
 sovereign's favor, and some unequivocal mark of the mini- 
 ster's determination to support him. Something more, in 
 fact, than the mere nomination to the government of Bengal 
 was absolutely requisite for his own sake and that of others, 
 to resist or soften the impression already made in India by the 
 recent destruction of the fabric he had raised for the support 
 of the Company there. For although he could not entertain 
 a doubt that both Mr. Pitt and Mr. Duadas wished him to 
 accept the government of Bengal, and would have supported 
 him in it, yet he had many reasons to convince him that 
 there were others, very high in power and influence, who 
 were hostile to his being appointed. A great law ofiicer of the 
 crown, to whose opinions it was usual to pay much defer- 
 ence, is said to have declared in the House of Lords, " that 
 " twenty Lord Macartneys could not compensate to the Com- 
 " pany the loss of IMr. Hastings." 
 
 To do away the effect that such a comparative disparage- 
 ment was likely to produce, as well as to prevent a repeti- 
 tion of such language from being of prejudice to the public, 
 Lord Macartney had unquestionably every reason to expect 
 iliat, beside the strength of his claim for Avhat he had done, 
 he might have been distinguished on such an occasion in a 
 manner that would materially aid him in what he would have 
 still to do. A mark of his sovereign's favor, at this time, 
 could not fail to give an impression both at home and n broad 
 4
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 329 
 
 of the steady purpose of the crown and its executive minis- 
 ters, to support a person they had judged worthy of being 
 placed in the first great office of trust they had to bestow. 
 He conceived also that, in this country and under his pre- 
 sent majesty's government, a gentleman of good family, fair 
 inheritance, liberal education, and emblemishcd character, 
 was not ill founded in hoping that a faithful exertion of his 
 abilities in many trying situations might lead him, after two 
 and twenty years employment, to such a reward as he then 
 aspired to. Several peers had been made without the merit 
 of public service to plead, although they might have to plead 
 that of large fortunes ; that his Lordship had not that merit 
 could scarcely be imputed a demerit to him who, of all men, 
 might easily have possessed a fortune sufficient to support the 
 highest rank ; but even public merit alone without great 
 opulence had, on many occasions, been justly rewarded in 
 the manner Lord Macartney desired : and as to himself, he 
 might have been justified in observing, that if the custom 
 now subsisted, as it did formerly, of giving reasons for the 
 creation of peers, the testimony which the minister himself 
 (Mr. Pitt) bore of his conduct, both while in India and 
 since his return, would make a more complete and dis- 
 tinguished preamble to Jus patent than could be fur- 
 nished to a great many by all the ingenuity of the heralds' 
 office. 
 
 But although Mr. Pitt and I\Ir. Dundas felt they could 
 jK)t, consistently with the principles they had then laid down 
 vvith regard to Indian appointments, accede to the only 
 
 VOL. I. V V
 
 330 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 terms on which Lord Macartney could accept the government 
 of Bengal, the considerations he had suggested to them and 
 to the court of directors were generall}' adopted, and led to 
 the choice so judiciously made of Lord Cornwallis for that 
 important office. The grounds on which his majesty's mi- 
 nisters thought it expedient to refuse the peerage to Lord 
 ]\[acartney are fully explained in a letter of Lord Melville; 
 and though they may not be found to apply strictly to his 
 peculiar case, yet the general principle, on which they were 
 adopted, is deserving of the highest praise. " We tliought 
 •' it a bad precedent," says his Lordship, " to establish by our 
 " authority, that so high and important a situation should 
 " not of itself be thought sufhcienLly exalted to invite the 
 " first persons in the kingdom to look up to it as the object 
 " of their ambition. It appeared to us a most proper road 
 " to the acquisition of an hereditary honor, as a reward for 
 " services actually performed, and Lord Macartney would 
 " certainly have obtained it soon after his return to India ; 
 " but we could not listen to the idea of a grant of a peerage 
 " being a preliminary to the appointment of a governor-ge- 
 " neral of India. The stand on our part became the more 
 " necessary, because the resolution was then taken of not 
 " confining the high situations in India to the servants of 
 " the Company, as it was anxiously wished that men of rank 
 '' and consideration in their own country should become can- 
 " didntes for the first and most important situation under Iws 
 *' nuijesty ; and it would take from the grace and character 
 " of future appointments, if such men were to be induced to 
 
 *' accept the situation by the allurement of a British peerage 
 
 7
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 331 
 
 " as a necessary requisite, previous to acceptance. If that 
 " was recosnized, candidates might offer merely to arconi- 
 " pHsh that object, and tlicy would return again almost as 
 " soon as they had landed in India, having secured the fa- 
 " vorite object tliey had in view. I will not, at the same 
 " time, disguise from you that perhaps another Iccling 0})e- 
 " rated to a considerable degree. You are rightly informed, 
 " when you suppose that the appointment of l^ord Macart- 
 " ney wna not a favorite measure with several mcmljci's of 
 " aduiinistration. Neither was it popular with a great body 
 " of the directors and proprietors of the East India Com- 
 " pany. ] need not mention that it was not agreeable either 
 " to the partisans of Mr. Hastings or of Sir John Macpherson. 
 " When, therefore, against such an accumulation of discon- 
 " tent and opposition, Mr. Pitt was induced by me to concur 
 " in the return of Lord Macartney to India as governor- 
 " general, it was not unnatural that both of us should have 
 " felt hurt, that he did not rather repose his future fortunes 
 " in our hands, than make it the subject of a sine qua non prc- 
 " liminary. And I think, if Lord Macartney had known us 
 " as well then as he did afterwards, he would have felt as 
 " ^ve did." 
 
 The new governor-general. Lord Cornwallis, possessed al- 
 ready all the qualities, qualifications, and distinctions for that 
 high station, yet it was very soon afterwards thought proper, 
 on the general principle of marking the particular favor of 
 government towards the persons invested with important si- 
 tuations in India, to superadd some new honor to those they 
 
 V V 2
 
 332 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 already possessed ; thus the order of the garter was conferred 
 on Lord Cornwalhs, a^d of the bath on General Campbell, 
 previous to their departure from England. 
 
 For some years after this, notwithstanding the most honor- 
 able public testimony of the minister t6 his conduct and 
 character, notwithstanding the many great and eminent ser- 
 vices in arduous and trying situations, and a steady and uni- 
 form attachment to his majesty's person and government, Lord 
 Macartney had the mortification of experiencing the in- 
 attention and neglect of government; being suffered to 
 remain almost a singular instance of all those enn)Ioyed in 
 high stations in Lidia, in not having received any kind of 
 favor from his employers, whilst many others, whose services 
 were scarcely ever heard of, were particularly distinguished. 
 Yet surely it will not be considered as presuming too much to 
 sa}', that the preservation of the northern Circars of the an- 
 nual value of half a million sterling, the obtaining an assign- 
 ment which saved the Carnatic, a rigid economy which saved 
 millions to the public, an inflexible integrity which ga\e an 
 eminent example, where an example was so much wanted, 
 an honorable and advantageous peace which restored the 
 tranquillity, the commerce, and the prosperity of Lidia, ex- 
 hausted and incapable of further resistance, a steady perse- 
 verance of duty, regardless of all personal consequences, 
 and an invariable preference of public to private interest — 
 it cannot surely be thought too much to say, that such im- 
 portant benefits, joined to many other en)inent services in 
 f(jrmer employments, did not render I-ord jMacarlncy less
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. ;^^^ 
 
 worthy of distinction than many others on whom it had Ixoen 
 bestowed : but 
 
 Diis al'tter visum est. ^ 
 
 There were however many gentlemen in the direction of the 
 affairs of the East India Compan.y, who thought so highly of 
 Lord Macartney's services as to declare, that not to notice 
 them by some distinguished mark of ajSprobation, would be u 
 severe reflection on the justice as well as the gratitude of 
 the Company ; and therefore proposed that an early day 
 should be named for taking those services into consideration. 
 On ap|)lication being made to Mr. Dundas, he readily ad- 
 mitted Lord Macartney's claims to be entitled to the most 
 favorable consideration ; but felt an apprehension that tbe 
 case of Mr. Hastings would interfere in such a measure, as 
 the friends of the latter, asserting he was worth only 60,000/. 
 had already been stirring to procure a pension for him, an 
 attempt on which he (Mr. Dundas) had always thrown cold 
 water; and that the application would certainly be renewed 
 in the event of a precedent made in the instance of Lord 
 Macartney, whose services, he said, should otherwise have met 
 his most cordial support. But whate-ver might have been in 
 reality the conduct of Mr, Hastings, the opinions concerning 
 it differed greatly, it being, at least, as much reprobated by 
 a part of tlie public, as it was approved by another ; but 
 Lord Macartney's conduct was approved on all sides; witli 
 regard to him, there was no doubt and but one voice ; nor 
 was there any inquiry about it, or motions for impeachment^ 
 for it before parliament..
 
 334 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 His friends however in the direction were determined, as 
 an act af justice, to bring the matter forward, and accordingly 
 on the ]2th April the question came before the court, when 
 -the following resolutions were passed : 
 
 " Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Court, that the 
 Right Hon. George Ijord Macartney, whilst he was governor 
 of Madras, upon all occasions manifested the greatest zeal in 
 support of the interests of this Company, and that he faith- 
 fully discharged his duty as such ; more especially by ad- 
 hering strictly to his covenants and engagements with the 
 Company, in declining to accept any presents from the 
 country powers, or from an}^ person whatever in India ; that 
 the example set by his Lordship, in giving in upon oath a 
 state of his property gained in the Company's service, was 
 highly meritorious, in as much as such conduct was after- 
 wards sanctioned by an act of the legislature, and by which 
 statement it appears that his Lordship's fortune had been 
 very moderately increased during his residence in India, and 
 that the same arose solely from the savings he made from his 
 salary and allowances authorized by this court. 
 
 " Resolved, That it is incumbent upon this Court to show 
 their fullest approbation of such upright and disinterested 
 conduct, in the hope that so laudable an example will be 
 followed by their servants in India ; and moreover that it is 
 fitting, that some compensation should be made to his Lord- 
 ship, and that it will be a proper reward for such distin- 
 guished services and strict integrity, to grant his Lordshiji an
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 335 
 
 annuity of fifteen Jiundrcd pounds during the term of his 
 natural hfc. 
 
 " By order of the Court, 
 (Signed) " Thomas Moktox, Secretary. 
 
 " East India House, April 13, 1786." 
 
 Long before this time an annuity had been granted of five 
 hundred pounds to his secretary Sir George Staunton, for his 
 distinguished assistance and meritorious services in India, for 
 which also he had received an Irish baronetacje. This con- 
 sideration for his secretaiy was highly gratifying to Lord Ma- 
 cartney ; nor did he com})lain at the very scanty recompence 
 for services so signal as those which he had performed in 
 India ; but it could not escape observation, that this parsi- 
 mony to one whose slender acquisitions had arisen solely from 
 self-denial and the surplus of his salary above his expenses, 
 was the more remarkable on account of superior favors 
 heaped on others, whose claims could never be brought in 
 competition with his. Lord Macartney's appointments, for 
 instance, ceased the day he left Madras, whereas Sir John 
 Macpherson's, as governor-general of Bengal, were conti- 
 nued to him for two years after his return to England. 
 
 IT could scarcely be supposed that a man of Lord Ma- 
 cartney's character, who, fearless of any consequences to 
 himself, followed steadily the strict line of his duty, and 
 never suffered any dereliction in others, whatever their rank
 
 336 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE * 
 
 or situation might be, to pass unnoticed, would escape the 
 making of a number of enemies. Major-general Stuart, 
 "whom he had found it necessary to dismiss from the Com- 
 pany's service in India, having failed to obtain that redress at 
 home to which he thought himself entitled, took the earliest 
 opportunity of renewing his attack on his Lordship by en- 
 closing to him, the very day after his arrival in London, an 
 offensive extract of a petition which, he said, had been laid 
 before his majesty. The correspondence led to a duel in 
 which Lord Macartney was severely wounded. The parti- 
 culars of this transaction will be found in the Appendix *. It 
 was the general opinion that his Lordship ought not to have 
 gone out with General Stuart, as the misconduct of the 
 latter, in his public situation, had caused the necessity of the 
 step that had been taken in India, and approved at home ; 
 but so conscious was Lord Macartney of the rectitude of all 
 his views and intentions, that he frequently took occasion to 
 declare his fixed purjiose of never shrinking from responsibility, 
 either public or j^rivate, for any one act of his government 
 or his life. As it was conceived from some circumstances 
 which occurred that the affair would not end with the first 
 meeting. Lord Townshend made it a point to go to the 
 king, who laid his injunction on the parties to proceed no 
 further. 
 
 Notwithstanding the treatment Mliich Tyoid ISTacartney had 
 experienced from administration was not cxactiy such as he 
 
 * Notes of Lord Macartney's transactions with Major-general Stuart, after his 
 arrival in England, in January 1786. Appendix, No. 20.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 337 
 
 conceived he had a riglit to expect, notwithstanding the 
 number of respectalilc fiieiids which he had among the 
 leaders of opposition, he never suffered any circumstance of 
 disappointment to betray the smallest degree of dissatisfac- 
 tion, much less to incline him towards any sort of hostility to, 
 or public disapprobation of, the measures of his majesty's 
 government, lie was indeed of the most conciliating dispo- 
 tion ; and however he might at times feel himself hurt by ill 
 treatment, this made no difference in his conduct towards 
 those who he had reason to believe were the cause of it. 
 Through the whole course of his life he felt the most loyal 
 and dutiful attachment to the king, and omitted no oppor- 
 tunity of expressing his grateful sense of obligation to his 
 majesty, both in public and in private ; and this attachment 
 to the person of his sovereign, added to the impression of the 
 propriety of supporting the existing government, induced him 
 to give to administration his constant and invariable suffrage, 
 except indeed in one instance where the public opinion was 
 decidedly against the government ; to a systematic opposi- 
 tion, he never gave a single vote in the whole course of his 
 political life. 
 
 But although he had some grounds for supposing himself ne- 
 glected, the favorable opinion entertained of him by Mr. Pitt 
 had not, in fact, suffered the least change; and, some time after 
 the appointment of Lord Cornwallis, he received a message 
 from that minister, through a confidential friend and colleaoue, 
 expressive of his good wishes, ?ind desiring to know if he found 
 himself inclined to accept of office. Lord Macartney made no 
 hesitation in giving an explicit answer in the affirmative, wishing 
 
 VOL. 1. XX
 
 338 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 it however to be understood, that he mtfst dedine any ap- 
 pointment at the board of Control, having resolved, in his 
 own mind, to have nothing more to do, directly or indirectly, 
 with Indian affairs. Whether this was the precise situatioii 
 which Mr. Pitt had marked out for him, or what other cir- 
 cumstance might have induced the minister to alter his mind. 
 Lord Macartney never presumed to inquire, nor was he ever 
 made acquainted ; but from that time he was suffered, ac- 
 cording to the usual expression, to lay on the shelf for several 
 years. 
 
 In tiiis interval of rest from public office, he was by no 
 means inactive either in public concerns or in his private 
 affairs. In 1788, he took his seat, for the first time, in the 
 Irish House of Peers. A regard for the welfare and prospe- 
 rity of his native countrj', which he had always very much at 
 heart, induced him to undertake the duties of trustee of the 
 linen manufacture for the province of Ulster. He accepted 
 also the honorable appointment of cusfos roiulorum of the 
 county of Antrim ; and the command was given to him of a 
 regiment of militia dragoons. Thus for six years a great por- 
 tion of his time was passed in Ireland, and this gave him the 
 opportunity of making very considerable improvements in his 
 paternal estate at Lissanoure ; reclaiming, by a judicious 
 drainage, a large tract of boggy ground, and adding exten- 
 sive plantations of the larch fir, a tree which, at that time, 
 had been little tried in tliis part of Ireland, and which, he had 
 the satisfaction to find, grew with uncommon rapidity. He 
 caused a whole town to be built on his estate at Dervock, 
 Consisting of small neat dwellings, so that every one of his
 
 EARL OF MACARTNB^. 339 
 
 tenantry might be clcanlily and comfortably lodged, wLich is 
 not usually the case among the peasantry of Ireland. He 
 had no middle men upon his estate ; but let it out in small 
 allotments innnediately from himself to the respective occu- 
 piers, and gave them every possible encouragement which 
 could tend to the promotion of their happiness and pro- 
 sperity. A strong attachment to his native country commu- 
 nicated an additional pleasure to the happy success of his 
 labors, and he [)robably would have passed the greater part 
 of his life at Lissanoure, had not an event taten place which 
 called him once more from his retreat to bear a part in the 
 busy scene of politics. 
 
 THE beneficial effects which were immediately experi- 
 enced from the comnuitation act, whose operation threw almost 
 the whole of the tea trade into the hands of the British East 
 India Company, were attended however with the temporary 
 disadvantage of draining the country of its bullion to make 
 good the large yearly balances in favor of China. The ex- 
 portation of broad cloths and camblets, of lead, tin, and 
 some trifling articles of manufacture, to that country, kept no 
 sort of pace with the vast increase in the importation of tea : 
 but it was conceived that if a new market could be opened on 
 the northern part of the coast of that extensive empire, a 
 new and increased demand for these articles, and others not 
 wanted in the southern provinces, might there be created, 
 
 X X 2
 
 34© PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 and thus diminish the inconvenience iirising from tlie difficulty 
 of procuring buihon. Another circumstance iiad lor some 
 time occupied the attention of the Court of Directors. Tlieir 
 commercial concerns, at the only port in which they were 
 permitted to carry them on, had long been subject to many 
 inconvenient and humiliating restrictions ; and the persons, 
 who were occasionally resident there to manage their con- 
 cerns, Avere liable to many gross impositions and indignant 
 usao-e. This "kind of treatment, it is true, was exercised in 
 common against all foreigners, but the ]:],nglish in particular 
 were cut off iVom any hope of redress to their grievances, on 
 the. part of the government, being wholly unknown to it as 
 the avowed subjects of any sovereign. The French, the 
 Dutch, the Spanish, and the Portugvieze, were either re- 
 presented by the missionaries of their respective nations, re- 
 sidins; at the court of Pekin, or Mere known from occasional 
 embassies which had been sent to that court by their re- 
 spective sovereigns. But the English were a set of adven- 
 turers who had originally forced their way into the trading 
 ports of China, and were known only by the opprobrious 
 name of Hiing-mao or red pates, Avhich, though bestowed in 
 common on all Europeans, was more particularly applied to 
 them. 
 
 To establish therefore a more equal and, at the same time, 
 a more creditable intercourse Avith China, the president of 
 tlie Board of Control was strongly impressed with the expe- 
 diency of opening a communication with the court of Pekin 
 by means of an embassy ; to be conducted on a more liberal ' 
 
 and extensive scale than a former mission entrusted to Co- 
 
 3
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 341 
 
 lonel Cnllicart a few years before, wliich was rendered abortive 
 by the death of that deserving otliccr, before he reached the 
 point of his destination. iMr. Dundas justly concluded that 
 if such an embassy should answer no other good purpose than 
 that of procuring a due respect for the national character, 
 and protection for the trading part of its suhjects who might 
 visit China, the expense would not be ill bestowed. Tlie 
 time was most proper for sucli an undertaking; for England 
 ■was then at |)eacc with the whole world. It was a suitable 
 and distinguished attention on the part of his majesty's mini- 
 sters to the manufacturing and commercial interests of the 
 nation, who, overlooking the consideration of expense in the 
 magnitude of the object, omitted no probable opportunity of 
 extending the fame, intercourse, and commerce of Great 
 Britain to the remotest reoiions. 
 
 "O 
 
 The Court of Directors of the East India Company entered 
 with becoming spirit into the views of Mr. Dundas. The 
 choice of a proper person to fill a situation so new and deli- 
 •eate as that of embassador to the emperor of China, a si- 
 tuation which, from its nature, required great address, 
 strong talent, steady perseverance, and inflexible integrity, 
 was not however thought difficult to fix ; he who, in fact, 
 originated the embassy had coupled, with the first suggestion. 
 Lord Macartney as the only person capable of undertaking 
 the mission with a probability of success. But as his Lordship 
 had not yet been consvilted, it was doubtful whether he mio-ht 
 be inclined to accept the appointment. Having however 
 laid it down as a rule to refuse no public employment, 
 wherein lie conceived there was a probability of being usefuL
 
 342 PXJBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 to tlic state, he felt not the least hesitation in acceding to 
 the proposal, but ^\ ith this single condition that, as the na- 
 tuie of the cnip!oyn)cnt was altogether neu', he should be 
 allowed to make choice of the several persons to be attached 
 to the embassy, as a knowledge of their characters ap[x;ared 
 to him an essential point towards ensuring its success. " I 
 " flatter myself," says he, in a letter to ]\Ir. Secretary Dun-^ 
 das, of the 7th January 179'i, " you will forgive me if I 
 " take the liberty to observe that, in preparing for all distant 
 " expeditions, one ought to use every precaution for ensur-~ 
 *' ino- success in proportion to the difhculties of finding re- 
 " soinccs against accidents. None of any kind happen more 
 " frequently or arc moie jx'rnicious than those which arise 
 " from disunion among the persons engaged in such under- 
 " takings. And as none, in fact, are to be sent in the prc- 
 *' sent instance, but such as are deen)ed necessary in the pro- 
 " secntion of it, so there are none who might not, in their se- 
 '• veral situations, have it occasionally in their power by a per- 
 " verse spirit, to cause delay or throw obstmctions in the 
 '• progress of the business, or, at least, to render it more 
 " irksome and embarrassing. Such a spirit often breaks 
 *' forth where Uie sour<;e of authority is too far removed to 
 " check it in time, or to punish those who are actuated by 
 " it, and substitute others in their room ; but it is not so 
 " likely to take place in men M'hom a sense of gratitude for 
 " their appointments attaches to him with whom it is their 
 " duty to concur." The truth was, that a secretary of enir 
 bassy had been recommended from a very high quarter, 
 which made his Lordship deem it expedient to start the above 
 objection to a stranger, having already determined in his
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 343 
 
 own luiiyd, that his confidential friend and former secretary, 
 Sir George Staunton, should accompany him on this new and 
 interesting mission. *' But," says he, " were Sir George 
 " Staunton out of the question, I doubt whether it would be 
 " in my power to gratify any of those who have applied, as 
 " there are some gentlemen with whom I have been nearly 
 " connected in the course of my public employments, dur- 
 " ing a period of twenty-eight years, a neglect of whom, on 
 " such an occasion, would be equally unjust in me and un- 
 "• merited by them ; especially as I have never had credit 
 " with government to obtain the smallest favor for any of 
 *' them." To which jNIr. Dundas, with great candor and 
 pleasantry, observed, " A seci'etary in my opinion is no more 
 " a subject of recommendation than a wife is, and in this, as 
 *' well as in every other part of your arrangement, I mean. 
 " to give one uniform answer — that I will recommend. 
 " nobody." 
 
 Nothing indeed could be more flattering to Lord Macart- 
 ney than the conduct of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas on this 
 occasion. Tiiey seemed to feel an anxiety to remove from 
 his mind any idea that he might have entertained of the ap- 
 parent want of attention on the part of government for the 
 last six years. The salary recommended was so liberal, that 
 a governor-general of Bengal might not have been offended 
 with the offer. It was- fixed at 16,000/. a year, on tlie 
 ground that his- Lordship, ought- not to be permitted to 
 double the Cape of Good Hope at an inferior salary to 
 what he had formerly enjoyed in those regions, especi- 
 ally as his new office of embassador, extraordinary to Pekir*.
 
 344 ■ PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 was neither inferior in dignity nor exposed to less difilculty 
 or danger, or less likely to call for the exertion, in this first 
 essay, of talents and address, than his former employment 
 of president of Fort St. George. Nor did such salary, con- 
 siderable as it was, bear the proportion to the emoluments of 
 some of the Company's servants in India, which the difference 
 between their rank and situation and the rank and situation of 
 an embassador, would seem naturally to point out. Not only 
 every person in the civil department of the embassy was the 
 choice of Lord Macartney, but the officers of the guard were 
 likewise of his nomination. The first lord of the admiralty, then 
 Lord Chatham, allowed him to select whatever ship of sixty-four 
 guns then in commission he might think proper, and also to 
 mention the Captain he wished to command her, and, bv a 
 singular indulgence, that captain was permitted to ajipoint 
 his own oflicei-s. The directors of the East Lidia Company, 
 by whom the expense of the embassy was to be supported, 
 made no difficulty in leaving to his judgment the selection 
 of the valuable presents intended for the emperor of China, 
 and they permitted, at his request, one of the finest ships in- 
 their service, the Hindostan, to accompany the embassy, to- 
 gether with a small vessel which they purchased as a tender. 
 In short, it was impossible for any appointment to be con-, 
 ferred under .circumstances more agrceat)le a)id fiatterino- 
 than that was of embassador cxtiaordinaiy and plenipoten- 
 tiary from the King of Great Lriliiiu to. the Emperor of 
 Cliina. 
 
 Lord Macartney, on his part, from the moment the expe- 
 dition was opened to him, gave to it his ^holo mind and
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 345 
 
 attention. " I liave revolved," says he, in a letter to Mr. 
 Dundas, " all the advantages that may result to the public, 
 *' and the disappointments which I may meet with myself. 
 " Prom the first I feel the highest anticipated satisfaction, 
 " and the latter, when they happen, I am prepared to 
 *' suffer. 
 
 ' *' Non ulla laborum 
 
 ** In tcrris nova mi facies, inopinave surget 
 
 " Omnia prxcepi, atque animo mecum ante per regis." 
 
 As it would have been a fruitless endeavor to search for a 
 person in England who possessed the least knowledge that 
 could be useful in the Chinese language, Sir George Staunton 
 set off for Paris without delay, in the hope of finding there 
 some one qualified for the othce of interpreter, or, in case of 
 failure, to obtain information from the society of the Missions 
 Etra7igeres respecting the most probable means of procuring 
 one elsewhere. Here he was reconmiended to proceed to 
 Naples, M'here the society De Fropaganda Fide were known to 
 receive occasionally young Chinese, sent over by the mis- 
 sionaries with a view to tlieir being instructed in the Chris- 
 tian religion, and, at the same time, in the Latin and Italian 
 lansuao-es. After some hesitation on the part of the heads of 
 the college in A-cuturing to trust their neophytes to the can^ 
 of heretics, Sir George at length succeeded in obtaining two 
 native Chinese who, having finished their instruction, and 
 taken the order of priesthood, were preparing to return to 
 their own countr}'. These two men readily engaged their ser- 
 vices as interpreters to the embass}', and tMo others, desi- 
 rous of availing themselves of so favorable an o])portunity of 
 
 VOL. I. y Y
 
 346 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 getting to China, tbllowed their companions to London, aiul 
 Avcre accommodated with a passage in the Hiridostan. 
 
 As it was thought proper to give notice to the court of 
 China of the appicjach of the embassy. Lord Macartnej' sug- 
 gested tliat a king's consul should proceed to Canton for that 
 purpose ; a proposal which created some little alarm in the 
 Court of Directors, lest an appointment of this nature might 
 interfere with their patronage ; it Avas settled therefore that 
 the three commissioners in their own service, who were about 
 to be sent out to make some new arrangements on the part 
 of the Conipany, should, at the same time, announce the 
 intended embassy. The two chairs seemed anxious likewise 
 that his Lordship should apply to their supracargoes at 
 Canton for information, adding, that the only chance of suc- 
 cess in the embassy would arise from a perfect previous know- 
 ledge of the laws, customs, and manners of the Chinese; 
 to which Lord Macartney could not avoid observing, 
 " that there Avas something discouraging in the observa- 
 " tion of the chairman and deputy chairman, that the only 
 " chance of success must arise from a perfect previous 
 " knowledge of the laws, customs, and manners of the 
 " Chinese; because I fear," says he, " that it^ cannot be ac- 
 " quired from the supracargoes and others who have resided 
 " at Canton, and with whom a personal communication is rc- 
 " commended, for I have not been able to discover any of them 
 " now living who had ever penetrated into the country above 
 " a mile from the suburbs ; few of them have ever been in the 
 " city itself, and not one of them has had the industry or
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 347 
 
 " curiosity to acquire the language." Upon the whole how- 
 ever the directors of the East India Company, while natu- 
 rally jealous lest the cnihassy might in some shape or other 
 atlect their rights and privileges, behaved with great libera- 
 lity ; and they declared, " that the very aljie and honorable 
 '' manner in which his Lordship had ever conducted himself 
 " towards the Comi)any would justify every degree of conti- 
 " deuce which they coidd place in an individual." 
 
 The diiilculty of fuuling interpreters being removed, the 
 presents in a train of [)i-eparation, and the I^ion man of war 
 and Ilindoslan Intliaman in a state of I'eadiness, Lord Ma- 
 cartney, on the 3d J\Liy 179-, received his appointment of 
 embassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary from the kin^ 
 of Great Britain to the emperor of China, and the same day 
 was sworn of his majesty's privy council at St. James's : 
 and on the 28tli June following, his majest}^ by privy seal 
 at St. James's, and by patent at Dublin the 1st day of 
 August following^ was pleased fuither to advance him to 
 the title of Viscount Macartney of Dervock in the county of 
 Antrim. 
 
 But, notwithstanding every exertion that could be made, 
 the ships were not in readiness to proceed till the month of 
 September, on tlie 20th ol' which they sailed from Spithead. 
 The detailed account of their progress, and the honorable re- 
 ception of the embassador at the various places which they 
 had occasion to touch at on the voyage, have already been 
 made public in Sir George Staunton's Authentic Account of 
 the Embassij. It is therefore unnecessary here to repeat those 
 
 Y Y 2
 
 348 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 particulars ; and the embassador's own journal, ^hich will be 
 found in the second volume of the present work, contains so 
 accurate and circumstantial an account of his Lordship's trans- 
 actions, negociations, and remarks, from the moment he came 
 in sight of China till the day of his departure from it, that any 
 abridgment of it in this place would be wholly superfluous. 
 A few observations on the nature of a China embassy rtiay 
 not however be Avholly uninteresting to those who shall be 
 concerned in any future mission to the court of Pekin. 
 
 In making preparations for this new and extraordinary em-' 
 bassy to a court and people, whose manners and customs 
 were entirely unknown to Englishmen, the best, and, indeed, 
 the only information to guide their proceedings, was sought 
 for among the voluminous writings of the French mission- 
 aries. The accounts furnished by some of the most intelligent 
 of these men convey the impression of a very extraordinary 
 taste prevailing at the court of China for the sciences in gene^ 
 ral, and more particularly for astronomy and experimental 
 philosophy. It was natural therefore that Lord Macartney 
 should provide, among other presents, some valuable instru- 
 ments of different kinds, and of the latest improvements. On 
 delivering these articles however to those who were appointed 
 to the care and management of them, it was presently disco- 
 vered that the taste, if it ever existed, was now completel3^ 
 worn out. A large planetarium of curious and intricate 
 workmanship, which to a poor German mtxhanic had cost 
 the labor and thought of twenty years, and to the East India 
 Company the expense of about fifteen hundred pounds — the 
 largest and most perfect glass lens that perhaps was ever
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 349 
 
 fabricated — orreries, transit instruments, reflecting and re- 
 fracting telescopes, theodolites, air-pumps, electrical ma- 
 chines, and an extensive apparatus for assisting to explain 
 and illustrate the principles of science — were all lost and 
 thrown away upon the ignorant Chinese, who immediately 
 after the departure of the embassador are said to have piled 
 tl*m up in one of the lumber rooms ot Yatn-min-yiien. Not 
 more successful were the various specimens of elegance and 
 art displayed in the choicest examples of British manufactures. 
 The impression which the contemplation of such articles 
 seemed to make on the minds of the courtiers was that alone 
 of jealousy ; and if the novelty or beauty of some of those 
 samples seemed to force their admiration, they were mindful 
 to suppress any appearance of it, and to view them, in the 
 presence of the English, with all the indifference and compo- 
 sure of men, who are in the daily and familiar habit of see- 
 ing things of the same kind; Such conduct may probably be 
 ascribed to a kind of state policy, which discourages the in- 
 troduction of all novelties, that the subjects of the emperor of 
 China may not be tempted to entertain a higher opinion of 
 the talent and ingenuity of foreigners than of themselves ; 
 and so deeply are thej- rooted in self-conceit, that the»empe- 
 ror of China has little to apprehend in this respect; his 
 courtiers are well acquainted with that tacit species of inso- 
 lence which is sometimes assumed, not exclusively by them, 
 as a cover for ignorance. It will be prudent therefore, on any 
 future occasion, to send out such articles only in the shape 
 of presents (for presents are indispensable) as will be consi- 
 dered of real solid value by the Chinese ; such as will neither
 
 350 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 offend their pride, nor be thrown away upon their ignorance : 
 their effect will be greater while the expense will be less. 
 Gold and silver, for instance, are metals whose value is not 
 better known to the Jews than to the Chinese, and will be 
 acceptable to them under any shape, Derbyshire spars and 
 red coral are articles that rank high in their estimation ; and 
 broad cloths, kerseymeres, and eamblets, to the manufac- 
 ture of which they setup no pretensions, are in great demand 
 in every part of the emj)ire. Watches and musical clocks 
 may serve as presents ; but the market has for some time been 
 overstocked with them. 
 
 The humiliating ceremonial re([uired by the Chinese court 
 from all embassadors has generally led to discussions in which, 
 except in the instance of Lord Macartney, the Chinese have 
 never failed to carry th.eir point. And though such discus- 
 sions may not materially affect the issue of the negociations, 
 it would be as well perhaps to avoid them, if possible, were 
 it only to keep the agents of the court in good humor. If it 
 be thought too degrading to sul^mit to a ceremonial which 
 the emperor himself is obliged to go through several times in 
 the year before the person of his m(>thcr, if she be living, and 
 before the manes of his ancestors, and from which no crea- 
 ture in the whole em])iie is exempt, some means should be 
 devised Ibr evading a ceremony, with which a reluctance to 
 comply will always be construed into disrespect for the sove- 
 reign. The instructions of Lord Macartney left it to his own 
 discretion to devise such means as might be satisfactory to the 
 court of China, without compromising the honor of his sove-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 351 
 
 reign or llie dignity of liis embassador: the plan sncceedcd ; 
 hut a person of less address and management might have 
 found himself placed in an embarrassing situation. This 
 offensive ceremonial might perhaps be avoided if, in the em- 
 bassador's credentials it were observed, that his majesty had 
 particularly instructed him to approach the throne of China 
 with the same ceremonial of respect as he was accustomed to 
 appear before himself. Such an instrucliou from the sove- 
 reign to his embassador might probably be admitted by those 
 Avho are taught to consider the will of the prince as the law of 
 the land. 
 
 The missionaries have pretended that all the presents car- 
 ried by embassadors to the court of China are considered 
 there as voluntary oiferings of tribute to the emperor. Such 
 an idea is not likel}' to accord with the feelings of a high spi- 
 rited Englishman justly proud of the honor of his country ; 
 but it is an idea that has been adopted without examination 
 into the truth or falsity of the fact. The inscription on the 
 flaf.s of the vessels were translated by the interpreter to Lord 
 Macartney's embassy, who had learned his European lan- 
 guao'e from the dictionaries of the missionaries, by " The 
 Ens^Ush Etubassador bearing Tribute to the Emperor of China." 
 By examining the literal signification of the two characters 
 Avhich these gentlemen have been pleased to translate into 
 hearing tribute *, it will be found they have no such mean- 
 
 * The two characters arc Zj^, ^7 pronounced ^//jj iung : the first kin 
 
 signifies to import, to iriug : The second kung is a compound consisting of two 
 parts ; that above "^g^ (singly pronounced kung) signifying a piece of •worlmath'
 
 J 
 
 52 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 ing ; and that there is not in reality the least necessity for ob- 
 jecting to this display of such flags by which the vanity of 
 the Chinese nation is tlattered at a very trifling expense to 
 another. 
 
 One great object of Lord IVIacartney^s instructions was to 
 gain an establishment for commercial purposes on some part 
 of the Eastern coast of China, or on some of the numerous 
 islands that are scattered over the Yellow Sea. However 
 desirable such an object might have been, a request of this 
 nature was not likely to be comphed with at that time. 
 Many persons were still living in China, and one of some 
 rank had intercourse with the embassy, in whose recollection 
 were still fresh those unfavorable circumstances to the English 
 character, \\hich caused their expulsion from one of those 
 very islands where, in their early intercourse with China, they 
 had been permitted to hold a factory. Other nations of 
 Europe were known to the Chinese by their services, and 
 had received rewards for those services; the English were 
 known only by their broad cloths and their bravery ; for the 
 very first of their connection with China ^vas brought about 
 by forcing their way, in spite of forts and sliips of war, to the 
 city of Canton. The Dutch, in return for their assistance in 
 destroying a powerful pirate, were allowed to erect commer- 
 cial establishments at Aimoi, and on the island of Formosa ; 
 
 shipf a specimen of art, &c. and that below ^--/' '/ pet, meaning any thing raie, va- 
 
 luabU, or high in estimation. Tlie real meaning therefore of tlie inscription on tlie 
 flags was, " The English embassador bringing precious things to tlie emperor of 
 «« China."
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 353 
 
 the Portuguese in acknowledgment of very slender service* 
 were rewarded witli a grant of the strong and almost im- 
 pregnable peninsula of Macao; but the English bad no ser- 
 vices to plead that could reasonably entitle them to any such 
 favors *. But whenever an opportunity should present itself 
 the endeavor to open a northern market ought not to be 
 ncfrlcctcd, as such a measure would be attended with infinite 
 advantage to the conuncrcial and manufacturing interests of 
 Great Britain. Few of the articles that are imported into 
 Canton find their way to the northern parts of the empire, 
 and such as do arrive there bear prices so extravagant as to 
 operate almost to their exclusion. The true spirit of trade is 
 but little understood in China ; it is carried on by barter for 
 other goods or for bullion ; no system of credit has ever been 
 established for facilitating distant intercourse. In fact, the 
 merchant of Canton has no direct correspondence with the 
 merchant of Pekin : every article imported into the former 
 must pass through several intermediate hands, and be subject 
 to as many profits before it can reach the latter. If there- 
 fore permission could be obtained to land our cargoes at the 
 mouth of the Pei-ho in the gulf of Pe-tche-lee, th^re can be 
 
 * An opportunity has recently occurred, where our exertions might, with proper 
 management, have proved eminently serviceable to the Chinese government, and 
 tlius establish some claim to what we prematurely asked for. The alarm and con- 
 fusion that have been spread over the coasts of the southern provinces of the em- 
 pire from bands of pirates infinitely more powerful and more formidable than those 
 •which were vanquished by the Dutch, would, no doubt, make the offer of assist- 
 ance on our part highly acceptable, provided it was made in such a manner as not 
 to excite the jealousy of the government, which however would require great deli- 
 cacy and great address. 
 
 VOL. I. ■ Z Z
 
 554 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 little doubt that the demand for British manufactures in 
 Pekin alone would, at least, be equal to the present con- 
 sumption in the southern provinces of the empire. 
 
 If however these solid advantages were not obtained hy 
 Lord Macartney's embassy, it was at least productive of 
 other important results that amply compensated the very 
 moderate expense occasioned by the undertaking, which, in- 
 stead of half a million sterling, as was ridiculously supposed, 
 did not exceed in the whole 80,000/. By this embassy the 
 British character became better known to the Chinese, and 
 protection and respect were obtained for the British subjects 
 resident at Canton. At the request of Lord Macartney they 
 have since been permitted to address their complaints per- 
 sonally or by letter to the viceroy, whom before they could 
 never approach but through the channel of the Hong mer- 
 chants, who are generally interested in the continuance of the 
 grievances of which they had to complain. By the interpo 
 sition of Lord Macartney's good offices many trifling but 
 teasing inconveniencies and impediments were done away, 
 and some more serious extortions removed. x\ considerable 
 increase in the demand for broad cloths, from specimens cir- 
 culated through the country, immediately followed the em- 
 bassy. It opened an amicable correspondence between his 
 Majesty and the Emperor of China, which has continued ever 
 since, and which, it may be hoped, will ultimately produce 
 those advantages that were, perhaps unreasonably, expected 
 to spring up at once on the first intercourse. It furnished 
 xneans to one of the gentlemen of acquiring a competent know-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 355 
 
 ledge of the extraordinary language of this nation, which in 
 England had been considered as an almost ho])eless undertak- 
 ing. This alone will prove, and indeed has proved, an in- 
 valuable acquisition *, by enabling us to communicate directly 
 with the Chinese government, and not through the channel of 
 the missionaries, who, from the difference of our national re- 
 ligion, are inspired with a national hatred against us, and 
 are ready to avail themselves of every occasi-on to do us an 
 injury. Thus, in the instance of the late embass}', they im- 
 pressed the court with an idea that our religion was the 
 same as their own, and that the embassador was no doubt 
 instructed to make proselytes in China as well as themselves, 
 a circumstance which the Emperor thought not unworthy to 
 notice in his letter to the King of 'Enl^lfuid. By the mission 
 to China we obtained a knowledge of ''the navjo-ation of the 
 Yellow Sea, hitherto unvisited by European ships, and of the 
 wide gulph of Pe-tche-lee to the very mouth of the river lead- 
 ing to the capital ; it furnished an opportunity to those who 
 composed it of trarelling more than a thousand miles through 
 the heart of the Empire ; and it has been the means of mak- 
 ing us somewhat better informed of the real character of the 
 Chinese nation, which has been most extravagantly misrepre- 
 
 * See Barrow's Travels in China, page 618. 
 
 I hope to be pardoned on this occasion for referring for a fact to a work of my 
 own, but the acquisition of the Chinese language by Sir George Staunton, and 
 the great advantages it is capable of procuring, have already been proved in so 
 eminent a manner, in saving the life of a British subject, which otherwise would 
 most assuredly have been sacrificed as on former occasions of the like nature, that 
 the truth of it can never be too strongly impressed on the minds of the British mi- 
 nisters and the Court of Directors. 
 
 Z Z 2
 
 25^ PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 sen ted. These are advantages which, few Avill be disposed to 
 deny, were obtained by the embassy of Lord Macartney to 
 the court of China. 
 
 It was his Lordship's intention, had not the war broken 
 out, to proceed to the court of Japan, a nation concerning 
 which our information is still more confined than that of 
 China; but, having justly considered that the protection of a 
 convoy of the value of several millions was paramount to the 
 doubtful success of an experiment, he sacrificed his inclina- 
 tion to his duty, and determined to bring home the China 
 fleet under the protection of the Lion. On the 17th March 
 she left the coast of Chipa, and on the 5th Septen)ber 1794, 
 Lord Macartney landed at Portsmouth, wheie he had the 
 gratification to find that, in his absence from England, he had 
 not been forgotten by his Sovereign, who, by patent at Dub- 
 lin dated the 1st of March 1794, had been pleased to advance 
 him to the title of Earl of Macartney in the county of 
 Antrim. 
 
 THE winter which immediately followed his return from. 
 China, he was permitted to pass at his ease with his friends ; 
 but, in June 1795, he was again called upon to undertake 
 an important mission to Italy of a delicate and confidential 
 nature, the particulars of which there are many reasons for 
 not disclosing at present; it may be sufficient to observe that 
 the objects of his mission were conducted to the entire satis- 
 faction of his Majesty's ministers. Prom Italy he returned
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. ^^^ 
 
 through Germany, :ind reached England in May 1790. In 
 the same year, on the 8th June, his Majesty was further 
 })leased to create him a British peer under the title of Baron 
 Macartney of Parkhurst in Surry. 
 
 The appointments to which Lord IVfacartney had been pre- 
 ferred in the public service were so much the more uratifvino" 
 to himself, as well as honorable to those who conferred them, 
 by their being made on the ground of fitness only without 
 solicitation on his part, or private influence on the part of 
 his friends. Thus, while absent in Italy, and without consult- 
 ing his inclination, the minister for the colonial department 
 nominated him governor and captain-general of the exten- 
 sive and valuable settlement of the Cape of Good Hope, 
 which had surrendered to the British arms in September 
 1795. So justly did Mr. Dundas appreciate the acquisition 
 of this important outwork to the British possessions in India, 
 that he hesitated not a moment in declaring the high consi- 
 deration to which it was entitled ; he knew that the advan- 
 tages it already possessed were capable of being greatly im- 
 proved, but that their extent would depend much on the inte- 
 rior administration of the settlement, and the regulations that 
 should be adopted for its future government ; and he was not 
 a little solicitous that these regulations should be of a na- 
 ture most likely to ensure the prosperity of the colony, and 
 secure those permanent benefits to the state, which, he had no 
 doubt, it was capable of affording. With these objects ia 
 view no person appeared to him so well qualified, in every 
 respect, for carrying them into execution as Lord Macartney. 
 His information respecting Russia, Grenada and British Ii^dia,
 
 358 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 had superseded all former accounts of these countries ; and 
 as those of the Cape were partial, contradictory and proble- 
 matical, it was not doubted that his Lordship would bring 
 back with him a full, distinct and accurate account of the 
 real resources and importance of this new settlement in its va- 
 rious reUitions to Great Britain as a colony, and to British 
 India as a grand military post for its defence and support. 
 
 I.ojd jNfacartney however had suffered so much from ill 
 health and fatigue on his continental expedition (having on 
 his journey to Ital}"^ rested only ever}^ second night) that he 
 ■would willingly have excused himself from accepting the 
 present appointment ; and with this in view he went to court 
 the day after his arrival in England ; but his Majesty was 
 pleased to speak in such flattering terms of the appointment, 
 and seemed so desirous, as he ever is, to promote the happi- 
 ness and prosperity of his subjects in every part of the 
 globe, that he found it impossible to withhold his compliance. 
 The state of his health however required that he should stipu- 
 late for one condition, namely, that he should be allowed to 
 resign the government to the next in command, Avithout 
 ■waiting to be superseded from home, whenever he should find 
 it expedient to return. In this and every other respect the 
 conduct of Mr. Dundas was highly gratifying to his feelings. 
 He willingly resigned much of his patronage as secretary of 
 state for the colonies, to Lord Macartney. He allowed him 
 to take out his former secretary Mr. Maxwell and the Writer 
 of this Memoir with liberal appointments on the establish- 
 ment, and as readily acquiesced in their promotion to other 
 
 situations which became vacant before his Lordship's depar- 
 
 1
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 359 
 
 tiire from the colony. I lis salary as governor was fixed at 
 10,000/. a year, and an additional sum of 2000/. a year as 
 an allowance for his table, the latter of which his Majesty 
 Avas pleased, in consideration of his long, faithful, and ex- 
 emplary services, to settle upon him as a pension during the 
 term of his natural life. 
 
 He sailed from Portsmouth in January 1797, in the Trusty 
 man of war, and landed on the 4th May at the Cape of Good 
 Hope. The events of a colonial government, especially when 
 unmolested by an enerriy, are seldom of that prominent cast, 
 as to excite much interest in the relation of them. It may be 
 sufficient to observe that Lord Macartney's administration at 
 the Cape was distinguished by the same system of public 
 economy, by the same integrity and disinterestedness which 
 marked his steps in every former situation of life, and the 
 same good effects were experienced here as in other places. 
 " There is no praise," says Lord Melville, " to which he is not 
 " entitled on the score of his government of the Cape." By 
 his high example indeed, and by the adoption of salutary re- 
 gulations, the colony advanced with rapid steps to a degree of 
 prosperity which it had never known under its ancient mas- 
 ters. The public revenue was nearly doubled without the 
 addition of a single tax, and the value of every kind of pro- 
 perty was encreased in proportion. The attention which he 
 gave to the interests of the colonists secured their confidence 
 and attachment ; and the doubts they at first entertained of 
 the intention of Great Britain to retain the settlement at the 
 conclusion of the war were so far removed that not a man in 
 ten either believed or wished that it M'ould ever revert to its
 
 3^0 • PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 former owners. His decisions in cases of appeal from the 
 sentences of the court of justice gave general satisfaction, 
 l^efore his time all appeals were made to the supreme court 
 of judicature in Batavia and from thence to Europe, the 
 expense and delay of which generally defeated the ends 
 of justice. 
 
 The number of king's troops which usually composed the 
 garrison of the Cape was about five thousand men, a num- 
 ber not much inferior to that which was employed in the 
 Carnatic when he was governor of Madras. Yet in the 
 whole of his government at the Cape not a single dispute oc- 
 curred nc'/ a difference of opinion arose l)etween him and 
 the commander of the forces. He w^as himself in ioct the 
 commander in chief and the line of authority was distinctly 
 defined ; and having the command in his own hand, while 
 pursuing a system of rigid econoniy, so tenacious was he of 
 the just claims of the soldier that, on no consideration, would 
 he ever allow his pay to be made in paper currenc3\ " 1 am 
 "' the more solicitous" says he " on this point because I am ap- 
 " prehensive that an idea may be entertained of the probabi- 
 " lity of persuading the troops to take their subsistence in 
 " paper with the addition of the difference between it and 
 " specie. I do not absolutely deny the possibility of it, but I 
 " know the nature of these gentry so well that I could have 
 " little hopes of their long remaining satisfied, as from their 
 " not comprehending the fluctuation of exchange, and from 
 *' their suspicious nature, they woukl be apt to coniplain of 
 *' being cheated, and would bring forward the circiimstance 
 
 " in addition to other imaginary grievances. I recollect," he 
 
 3
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. -,6i 
 
 j^ 
 
 continues, " when I was secretary of Ireland, two artful sol- 
 " diers of the 58th regiment applied to my Lord Townshend 
 *' for redress of an injur}-^, which they pretended to have suf- 
 " fered in being paid at Gibraltar in Spanish money at an ex- 
 " orbitant rate of exchange ; and although their memorial was 
 " found, on inquiry, to have very little foundation, yet it oc- 
 " casioned a great deal of noise. Doctor Lucas and the other 
 " patriots were alarmed, and the affair might have made a 
 " serious sensation upon the garrison of Dublin, had it not 
 " been diverted by the prudence and address of the Lord 
 " Lieutenant." 
 
 An event however occurred which called for all that deci- 
 sion of character which Lord Macartney possessed in an emi- 
 nent degree. The intelligence of the mutiny in the fleet at 
 home produced a mutiny in the squadron stationed for the 
 protection of the Cape, and then (October 1797) lying at an- 
 chor in Simon's Bay. The flag ship took the lead, and was 
 followed by all the rest, in complaining of grievances, in de- 
 priving the officers of their commands, appointing committees 
 and delegates, and imitating all the rebellious formalities of the 
 naval mutineers in England. However after a few days of 
 riot and anarchy, and by the firm conduct of Admiral Pringle, 
 the royal standard was hoisted on board the Tremendous as 
 a signal of good order and discipline being re-established in 
 the fleet. On their return however to Table Bay, where they 
 ■were joined by some king's ships from St. Helena, where thev 
 had carried a convoy, fresh disturbances broke out v-hich, 
 for several days, bore a more serious appearance than before. 
 
 VOL. I. 3 A
 
 362 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 The mutineers in the flag ship again took the lead. She was 
 lying at anchor off the Amsterdam batter}' within point blank 
 shot. As there appeared no immediate prospect of its sub- 
 siding, Lord Macartney determined at once to bring it to an 
 issue. For this purpose, he repaired with his aides de camp 
 to the battery, ordered the guns to be loaded, and the shot 
 to be heated in the ovens. And takino- out his watch he dis- 
 patched a message to the Tremendous, that if the mutineers 
 did not make an unconditional submission in half an hour 
 from that time, and hoist the royal standard as a signal of 
 their doing so, he would blow the ship out of the water. The 
 signal of obedience was made, otherwise it was not doubted 
 that if a minute had elapsed beyond the time he would have 
 played the whole battery upon her till she was either burnt, 
 sunk, or destroyed. In a private letter to Mr. Dundas he 
 observes, " From the most minute investigation of the second 
 " mutiny I cannot discover that there was the shadow of a 
 " grievance to be pleaded in its alleviation. It appears 
 " solely to have proceeded from mere wantonness in the 
 " sailors and a vanity of aping their fraternity in England. 
 " Almost at the moment it was hatching at this place a si- 
 " milar contagion had caught the ships at St. Helena ; and I 
 " should not at all be surprized to hear of some disturbance 
 " of the same kind in Admiral Rainier's squadron as soon as 
 " it is informed of what has passed here and elsewhere. 
 " This spirit of sea mutiny seems like the sweating sickness 
 " in the reign of Edward IV., a national malady which, as 
 " we are assured by historians of the day, not content with 
 
 " its devastations in England, visited at the same time every 
 
 4
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 363 
 
 " Englisliman in foreign countries at the most distant parts 
 " of the globe. 
 
 " The general air, 
 " From pole to pole, from Atlas to the east, 
 " Was tlicn at enmity with English blood." 
 
 " That which must noriy be shed will, I trust, be the last tliat 
 " shall be necessary to sacrifice on such an account in this 
 " squadron." 
 
 Lord Macartney's health suffered so extremely at the Cape 
 of Good Hope that he fonnd himself under the indispensable 
 necessity of availing himself of his Majesty's permission to re- 
 sign the government, and return to Europe as soon as he 
 should have completed the arrangements he had in view. 
 The private letter which he wrote to Mr. Dundas, on this occa- 
 sion, marks so strongly his feelings, and some features of his 
 puljlic character, that it is inserted at full length at the foot 
 of the page *. Having therefore placed the business of the 
 
 (Private.) 
 
 " Dear Sir, " Castle of Good Hope, Nov. 29, 1797. 
 
 " I should ill requite the kindness and friendship which you honor me with, if I 
 suffered any regard for my own private interest to weigh a feather against public 
 considerations, or to desire a continuance in my present situation for a moment 
 longer than I thought I could be useful in it. 
 
 " I came into it under very great doubts, as you know, of being able, at my 
 time of life and in my slate of health, to ansvi'er the expectations your partiality 
 formed of me ; and I am now sure that, with every possible exertion I am capable 
 of, I must fall very short of my own wishes. I speak to you in the sincerity of my 
 heart. This place demands a younger and a more active man,- with greater vigor of 
 body and elasticity of mind, than I can boast of. Even the common detail of cur- 
 rent business would be sufficiently fatiguing, exclusive of those objects of higher 
 moment, which furnish constant food for reflection, and task the invention for es- 
 
 3 A 2
 
 364 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 colony on such a footing as to make it sufficiently easy for the 
 next in command to conduct the government, he embarked 
 
 pedients and resource ; but feeling besides, as I do, the weight of years and infir- 
 mities coming heavily upon me, I must throw myself upon your goodness to re- 
 lieve me from a burden to which I every day grow less equal, and to approve of my 
 returning to England in the beginning of next summer. My situation here is in 
 every other respect $0 agreeable to me, that I should not be desirous of removing; 
 from it, if I could flatter myself that a man at my time of life were likely to im- 
 prove, either in his constitution or his faculties. I am now sixty years old, of 
 which near four and thirty have been chiefly employed on public service, in different 
 stations of distance, difficulty, and hazard, circumstances that formerly served to me 
 rather as incentives than discouragements ; but of late, and particularly within 
 these few weeks, I feel myself decliHing fast, and am, at this moment, afflicted 
 with the gout in my head and stomach so much, as to render any exertion painful 
 and ineffectual. I have the piles if not a fistula, and am not without apprehension 
 of a stone in my kidneys. To this I am to add an increasing weakness in my eyes^ 
 which makes me more melancholy than all the rest. You will pardon me, my dear 
 Sir, for troubling you with these matters, which I should not venture upon, did I 
 not value your good opinion so highly that I cannot for a moment bear an idea of 
 your imagining me capable of declining any public service at all in my power to 
 perform. Certainly I am not able to perform my present duty in the manner that 
 I am anxious to do. I have received so many favors from government, that it is 
 justly entitled to every possible return on my part; but it would be an ungrateful 
 and ungenerous one, if I suffered either vanity or ambition, or any other passion, 
 to engage me to persevere in a task above my strength, and thus deprive you of the 
 services of an abler man. V/hllst I do remain here you may rest assured that every 
 interval of health shall be entirely filled up in pursuing your instructions, and in the 
 discharge of every other duty of my station. Thus the business of the colony will 
 be considerably advanced before 1 avail myself of the king's permission to leave it, 
 as signified to me in your letter of the 7th of last January, and what I am unatlc 
 to finish may, under your direction, be as well if not better accomplished by 
 another. 
 
 " If itbc his M.ijesty's pleasure that the Lieutenant-governor Major-general Dundas 
 should be continued as my successor, his experience and knowledge of the country, 
 with such information as may be with'n my reach to add, and such other assistance 
 as he may have here besides, will, 1 make no doubt, enable iiim to conduct the go- 
 vernment witli credit to himself and advantage to the public. 1 am happy on this 
 
 1
 
 EARL ,OF MACARTNEY. ^65 
 
 on the 20th November 1798, on boavd the Stately man of 
 war, leaving the Lieutenant-governor Major-general Dundas, 
 vested with all the powers of governor and commander in 
 chief, and in the enjoyment of the full salary of 10,000 /. a 
 year. The disinterestedness of Lord Macartney's character 
 has shown itself on so many occasions, that it is scarcely 
 necessary to mention the common custom of a governor, 
 Avhen not superseded, continuing to draw half the salary 
 and to allow the lieutenant-governor the other half, until a 
 new appointment shall take place from home. But Lord 
 Macartney always made it a rule that all his appointments 
 should cease from the day he resigned his office. 
 
 Here as in India he deemed it right to leave on record a 
 declaration, the motives for which are best explained in his- 
 own words. 
 
 *' Although the temptations and means of corruption and 
 " undue advantages here are comparatively much less than- 
 " those which may occur in other provinces under the British 
 "sovereignty, and thougli the merit of resisting them (if any 
 " merit can be presumed from the mere performance of a 
 " common duty) is consequently but inconsiderable ; yet the 
 " precedent which 1 set at my resignation of the government 
 " of Fort St. George in India, thirteen years since, appears 
 
 occasion to express the perfect satisfaction I have received from his co- 
 operation with me, in every instance during my residence here, and it would be 
 great injustice to him, were I' not thus to acknowledge it. I am, &c. 
 
 (Signed) «« Macartk^T^ 
 
 « To tlie Right HonoRible Henry Dundas, &c. &c. &c."
 
 366 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " to me no less proper to be now followed on the resigna- 
 " tion of my present station in South Africa. I trust that it 
 " will not be imputed to me as proceeding from any motive 
 " of vanity, ostentation, or parade, but from a sense of that 
 " propriety and consistency Avhich I wish to preserve through 
 " the whole course of my political life, now drawing near to 
 " its conclusion. If it be a gratification to my private feelings, 
 " it is equally the discharge of a debt which the public has a 
 " right to demand from every public man." 
 
 Declaration. 
 
 I George, Earl of Macartnei), governor and commander in 
 chief of his Majesty's colony of the Cape of Good Hope in 
 South Africa, now on the eve of my departure for Europe, do, 
 to the best of my hiozcledge and belief, solemnly swear and 
 declare, in the presence of Almighty God, that from the time 
 of my appointment to this moment, I have never received nor 
 accepted, nor expect to receive, any gift, present, benefit, 
 or emolument, except some small articles of fruit, venison, or 
 such trifles which it was out- of niy ponder to refuse or elude, 
 and zsohich I am sure could, not possibly exceed the value of 
 from one to tzs^o hundred rix dollars, but have most strictly 
 confined myself to the salary appointed by his Majesty, and to 
 the use of the government-house and garden, with the slaves 
 belonging thereto : and I further swear and declare, that I 
 have never been engaged or coiicerned, J'or my own use or ad- 
 vantage, in any trade, traffic, or commerce whatsoever ; but 
 have directed my whole attention to the business of my etn- 
 ploymcnt, arid endeavored to conduct the administration of this
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 367 
 
 colony and its revenues with zeal, integritij, and cconomij, for 
 the honor offnij Sovereign, and the true interests and welfare 
 of the people committed to mj/ care, to the best of my judgment 
 and ability, according to my instructions, and the circum- 
 stances and necessity of public affairs. 
 
 So help nic God. 
 
 " Sworn before us at the Castle of Good Hope, 
 this 19th day of November. 
 (Signed) 
 " W. S. Van Rynevelut-Fiscal. 
 " A. Barnard, Col. Secretary." 
 
 LORD MACARTNEY arrived in England in January 1799, 
 in tolerably good health after a winter's passage, but with a de- 
 termination to retire wholly from public life, to the perpe- 
 tual hurry and bustle of which he now felt himself unequal. 
 He had in China, as well as at the Cape of Ciood Hope, 
 sutfered grievously from repeated and severe fits of the gout, 
 the returns of which he perceived became quicker and of 
 longer continuance as he advanced in 3'ears. He felt more- 
 over that, at his time of life, after passing his best days in 
 active and laborious service in a variety of climates, it was 
 but fair to himself and his family to be allowed to enjoy the 
 remainder of them in the company and conversation of his 
 numerous connections, from whom he had so long and so fre- 
 quently been separated. On these considerations, when it was 
 found expedient to place Mr. Addington at the head of a 
 new administration, though strongly urged by Mr. Pitt to
 
 368 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 take the presidency of the Board of Control, with a seat in 
 •the cabinet, or, in case of his disHking this appointment, any 
 other ijiot absolutely filled up which he should prefer, he en- 
 treated that he might be permitted to decline accepting any 
 public emploj'ment on the score of the uncertain state of his 
 health. His objection might also have been strengthened by 
 political considerations, for though he never attached him- 
 self to any party, but from principle supported the existing 
 government, 3'et he could not be insensible to the merits and 
 (defects of party men. 
 
 The last six years of his life were greatly imbittered by the 
 very fi'equent attacks of gout attended several times with alarm- 
 ing and dangerous symptoms, but in those intervals, which left 
 him free from pain, he seemed to enjoy with peculiar feli- 
 city the company of his friends. His house was now the re- 
 sort of every distinguished character ; persons of all parties 
 ^'ere glad to enjoy the society and conversation of Lord 
 Macartney, in Avhose mind it was well known no political 
 animosity ever found a place. During the whole summer of 
 3 805, and the winter immediately following, the gout con- 
 tinued to hang about him without advancing to a decided 
 fit ; his stomach rejected its usual food, and at length he en- 
 tirely lost his appetite^ Still however, in the intervals of 
 ease, he Vept up his wonted flow of spirits, read, wrote and 
 conversed as usual ; hnt he continued to grow weaker from 
 day to day, and still to refuse all kind of nourishment. 
 In this declining state, the unfortunate turn of affairs on 
 the continent seemed to impress him with deep concern ; 
 and the sudden death of Mr. Pitt, whose zeal for the pub-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 369 
 
 lie welfare, unsullied integrity and disinterestedness, none 
 more justly admired than he did, he felt and lamented as a 
 great national misfortune. These two events were observed 
 to cast a considerable damp upon his spirits ; and his friends 
 had now but too just grounds to apprehend that his recovery 
 was more than doubtful. Yet in this lansuishino- and re- 
 duced state he was declared, by some of the faculty, to be 
 convalescent till three days before his death. Two days indeed 
 before this event he was able to read the whole of the budget 
 brought forward by the new chancellor of the exchequer, whom 
 he pronounced, upon that performance, a promising young 
 man. The same day he was given over by the physicians, and 
 on the evening of the 31st March I8O6", Avhile reclining his head 
 on his hand, as if dropping into a slumber, he sunk into the 
 arms of death without a sigh and Avithout a struggle. On 
 examination it was found that the lower part of the oeso- 
 phagus and the upper region of the stomach were consi- 
 derably inflamed. His remains were deposited in the 
 church 3'ard of Chiswick according to his own desire, 
 being near to a residence which he had hired a few 
 years before for the joint lives of himself and Lady Ma- 
 cartney, and in the improvement of which he took great 
 pleasure, as indeed he had always done in every place he 
 lived at, 
 
 The greater part of his property which, independent of his 
 paternal estate, is not considerable, being chiefly the savings 
 from his salary as governor of the Cape and embassador to 
 China, he has left to Lady Macartney ; after whose death 
 
 VOL. I. 3 b
 
 370 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 tiic whole f)f it descends to his niece Elizabeth Hinne for 
 her life, with remainder to her children beginning with the 
 eldest son, M'ho are to assume the sirname and bear the 
 arms of Macartney only : the title is extinct. 
 
 LORD MACARTNEY, on his return from his travels on 
 the continent, was considered among the handsomest and 
 most accomplished young men of the day. His features 
 were regular and well proportioned, his complexion wore the 
 glow of health, and his countenance was open, placid, and 
 agreeable. This description appears to be correct from the 
 concurring resemblance of two or three portraits that were 
 painted before his leaving England on his embassy to the 
 court of Russia, one of which by Sir Joshua Reynolds is 
 now in the possession of Major-general Benson, a near rela- 
 tion of his lordship. The portrait at the head of this volume, 
 from a full length drawing by Mr. Edridge, ki his 6"3th year, 
 is perhaps as strong a character as the pencil is capable of 
 producing. From these two portraits it would appear that so 
 great an alteration had been made in his features in the lapse 
 of near forty years, in the course of , which he was exposed 
 to the extremes of heat and cold, to dangers, dithcultics, 
 anxieties, and mortifications, to severe and repeated attacks 
 of sickness, and an unremitting application to business, as to 
 render it difficult to trace any resemblance between them. 
 His person was somewhat above the middle size and rather
 
 EARL OF MACyVRTNEY. 371 
 
 corpulent. ; in the early part of his hte it must have been 
 powerful and athletic ; his manners were engaging, and his 
 carriage easy but dignified ; in conversation he was extremely 
 afl'ahle, cheerful, and entertaining ; at the same time he was 
 no admirer of that confident assurance, that easy familiarity and 
 careless neglect of personal appearance, which are assumed 
 by many young men of fashion in the ])resent day. He pos- 
 sessed all the dignity of the old school without its stiffness ; 
 and he retained it in his dress, the fashion of which for the 
 last forty years of his life could scarcely be said to have un- 
 dergone any change ; in his person he was always remark- 
 ably neat. Although the public character of the I'^arl of 
 ^Macartney has, it is prc-sumed, sufficiently developed itself 
 in the course of the preceding pages, yet it may not be amiss 
 to subjoin a few of the more striking characteristics by which 
 he was distinguished, and of the general opinions which 
 swayed his conduct. We have seen that his perseverance and 
 address were amply put to the test in Russia ; his indefati- 
 gable application to business and management of a turbulent 
 assembly in Ireland ; and the good effects of his conciliatino- 
 disposition, his zeal and courage were sufficiently manifested 
 in his government of Grenada; but India was the touch- 
 stone to try his sterling merit ; and he was proof to the test. 
 It has been observed, maliciously enough, that every man 
 has his pnce ; but if this satire on human nature were strictly 
 true, taken in its greatest latitude, it must however be al- 
 lowed that a few public men do now and then appear on the 
 stage, whose price, at least, has never been ascertained. 
 One of those few was Lord Macartney. The whole revenues 
 of the Carnatic, which were, in fact, at his command, with 
 
 3 B 2
 
 -:,^^ PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 the fee simple of Bengal added to them, could not have 
 bribed him to swerve one inch from his public duty. That 
 ■wealth which is able to })urchase power, and influence, and 
 honors, and without -which they are rarely attainable, had no 
 temptation for him. " I think," sa3^s he, in a letter to Lord 
 Hillsborough, " I am now worth about 10,000/. more than 
 " when I arrived in India, and I do assure you that I might 
 " have been easily worth ten times the sum, if I pleased, 
 *' without any reproaches but those of my own conscience." 
 In fact, the system of corruption is so well established in 
 India, that those who are disposed to avail themselves of that 
 source of wealth run very little risk of detection *. No 
 blanie was ever thrown by the nabob of Arcot on any of 
 Lord ISIacartney's predecessors for taking his money ; but 
 torrents of abuse were poured out against his Lordship, be- 
 cause he would not take it. It was a maxim Avith him that 
 plain dealing and clean hands will always in the end be an 
 overmatch for artifice and dishonesty ; the truth of which he 
 had very freque4it occasions to put to the test. Nothing in- 
 deed could have supported him in the line of conduct he 
 
 * The nabobs, and rajahs, and khans, w-ith others of inferior rank, deem it so dis- 
 honorable to discover their private transactions, even with those whom they are 
 dissatisfied with, that no motive of resentment ever leads to their devclopement, 
 and those in subordinate stations, who must necessarily be entrusted with such 
 secrets, have the additional inducement of considering their inviolable fidelity to 
 their employers as the basis of their future fortunes. When the East India Company 
 sent out, in 1781, a gentleman in the law (Mr. Newman) for the express purpose 
 of obtaining proof of the sums of money that were said to have been taken by some 
 of their servants from the nabob of Arcot and other Indian powers, that gentleman, 
 with all tlie assistance of the Madras presidency in the upriglit administration of 
 Lord Macartney, embarked for England without having gained one single object for 
 which he was sent out, or a single proof against the most notorious delinquents. 
 
 7
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 
 
 Z7?, 
 
 pursued in India, against the intrigues, the duphcity, and 
 the universal corruption which surrounded him, but an un- 
 sulHed integrity, and an inflexible firmness. Never perhaps 
 was the mens conscia recti * more eminently displayed than in 
 the arduous struggles he was called upon to make in his 
 government of Madras. But conscious of standing upon high 
 and solid ground, perhaps on such as few, if any, ever stood 
 before in that part of the world, he maintained his elevated 
 position with the most perfect calmness in himself though 
 surrounded by turbulence and agitation. Like the proud 
 rock dashed by the waves of the ocean, he remained unsul- 
 lied and unshaken in the midst of a sea of corruption. For 
 the purity of his conduct he pretended to little merit. " Let 
 " it not be supposed," says he, " that the spirit of disintcr- 
 " estedness and integrity which governs my actions arises 
 " from any heroic virtue or better motives than those which 
 " actuate the generality of mankind. I am free to confess I 
 " have a stronger passion than the love of wealth — to rein- 
 " state India in its fornier glory would give me more pride 
 " and satisfaction than I should be able to derive from ten 
 " times the fortune of Mr. Hastings. It is, in fact, a bad 
 " calculation in the accounts of the world to sacrifice reputa- 
 " tion for any increase of fortune. Such," continues he, " is 
 " the opinion of one upon this subject, who has had it 
 " twenty times in his power to make a large fortune, and yet 
 " never has had it in his thoughts." For the usual modes that 
 are practised in India to obtain wealth, he entertained the most 
 sovereign contempt. " Notwithstanding the indignation I 
 
 * The motto on his Lordship's arms. '
 
 374 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " feel, I am really," says he, " sometimes diverted with 
 " some of these woodcocks, who thrust their Inlls into the 
 ", ground, shut their eyes, and then think nobody sees them." 
 He used to say that a man who has not been in India knows 
 mankind but by halves, and that he who has been there, 
 knows mankind, alas! but too much. 
 
 Few men perhaps ever possessed more real disinterested- 
 ness than Lord Macartney. The moment that the public 
 service required his attention, every personal consideration 
 seemed to vanish. He was at all times ready to furnish 
 his own money, and the extent of his credit, to relieve the 
 public necessities, which in India he saw occasion to 
 employ in more than one instance. " Every private con- 
 " cern," says he, " appears to me at this moment of the 
 " least consideration. I cheerfully leave to the chance of 
 " a very distant day the retrieval of my own affairs. I 
 " feel no uneasiness but for my friends who, upon deceitful 
 " representations, have accompanied me to this country, 
 *' and given up better prospects elsewhere." In another 
 place, he observes, " that I was disinterested so as no 
 " other man excepting perhaps Sir John Clavering, is well 
 " known. I have been twenty-two 3rears in his Majesty's ser- 
 *' vice, and my appointments never, before that to India, 
 '" equalled ni}' necessary expenses. In Russia I sustained 
 "my character by involving myselt in a debt of 6000 /. When 
 " I resigned the embassy I gave up the plate warrant, equi- 
 " page-money, Sec. which 1 might have retained, as my 
 " predecessor who never lelt England kept to the value of 
 " 10,000/. I gave up the muster-master's place in Ireland,
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 
 
 375 
 
 *' which was settled at near 2000 /. per annum, to accommodate 
 " the lord-lieutenant, and received a pension, which pro- 
 " duced in England 1000 /. pci' annum, and which 1 sold to 
 " pay my debts. At Grenada I lost my service of plate and 
 " all my property there to a very great amount at the storm 
 *' of the Hill, for which I never received the least compen- 
 " sation, yet I do not complain, nor am I discontented." So 
 scrupulous was he when in India in the rigid adherence to 
 his instructions, that he paid into the treasury all the nazzars 
 or presents that are made to the several governors on various 
 and unavoidable occasions, together with the dresses and 
 jewels that were sent to him from the Nizam and from Tippoo 
 Saheb on the ratification of the treaty of peace ; and all the 
 little compliments of fine cloths, muslins, silks, shawls, and 
 other triflins; articles which cannot be refused without oivins: 
 offence, he punctually delivered into the export warehouse, 
 without reserving a single article, however insignificant, for 
 the gratification of his dearest connections at home, beincf 
 determined to observe the same attention to correctness and 
 accuracy in the minutest lines of the Company's service, as 
 to order and economy in the greatest *. 
 
 * I have somewhere met with the following passage from an epistle of Cicero to- 
 his brother Quintus, applied to Lord Macartney's conduct and character while in 
 India, and certainly with great justice and propriety : 
 
 " Prjcclarum est enim, summo cum imperio fuisse in Asia triennium, sic ut nullum 
 te signam, nulla pictura, nullum vas, nulla vestis, nullum mancipium, nulla 
 forma cujusquam, nulla conditio pecunisc (quibus rebus abundat ista provincia) ab 
 summa integritate continentiaque deduxerit. Quid autem reperiri tarn eximium, 
 aut tarn expetendum potest, quam istam virtutem, moderationem animi, temperan- 
 tiam, non latere in tenebris, neque esse abdltam, sed in luce Asiae, in oculis clarissimae
 
 376 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 His economy indeed, in all public expenditure, was not 
 more rigid than his conduct was pure and disinterested. He 
 made it a rule not to suffer a fanam to be expended that 
 could be avoided. In the hope that example might have 
 some effect, he would not allow any of the usual expenses to 
 be incurred at the several government houses he inhabited 
 on the public account for his private accommodation ; and so 
 desirous was he to discountenance that spirit of extravagance, 
 which pervades every department in India, that he would 
 neither suffer tatties to the windows to cool his apartment nor 
 a palankeen to be kept for his own use. " I confess, " says 
 he, " I think I should not shine in the meridian of Bengal. 
 " I should have ten times as many difficuhies to encounter 
 " there as I have had at Madras. Here I rumble on in the 
 " same old equipage which I carried out with me, live in my 
 " usual stile of moderation, and feel no increase of avarice 
 " or ambition. My object for the public has been rather a 
 " safe than a brilliant government. The same principle di- 
 " rects my private views merely to independence, and that 
 " the remains of my paternal estate when unencumbered will 
 " give me." It was considered indeed at Madras that as a 
 governor he entered too minutely into the detail of business, 
 or in other words that he inspected too closely into contracts 
 
 provinciae, atque in auribus omnium gentium ac nationum esse positam ? non 
 itineribus tuis perterreri homines ? non sumtu exhauriri ? non adventu commoveri ? 
 esse quocunque veneris et publice et privatim maximam Ixtitiam : cum urbs cus- 
 todem non tyrannum, domus hospitem non expllatorem, recepissc vidcatur. 
 Epist. I. Lib. I.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 377 
 
 and other transactions connected with his government *. " I 
 " confess my fault," says he, '• but I am too deeply engaged 
 " to think of any thing but proceeding forward, and proceed 
 " I will, though my life, I am persuaded, will be the sacrifice ; 
 " for though I have long been accustomed to intense appli- 
 " cation, I already feel the ill effects of it here in every re- 
 *' pect, except on my temper which, thank God ! yet re- 
 " mains to me unshaken." It has indeed been sufficiently 
 shown, that the government of Madras was productive to him 
 of nothing but excessive labor, continual exercise of mind, 
 ill health and mortification ; but his spirit always rose to diffi- 
 culties and distresses, and though frequently disappointed he 
 never appeared to be discontented. It was observed that no one 
 ever saw him out of temper, and that no one ever witnessed 
 a harsh or unguarded expression in the midst of the most 
 trying difficulties, except in the single instance when it was 
 forced from him by a most audacious contradiction. " It is 
 
 * As for instance : It is but too common a practice abroad to condemn what are 
 called king's .-stores upon very slight grounds, the disposal of them, and particularly 
 the purchase of others to supply their place, putting money into the pockets of the 
 persons concerned in such transactions. A quantity of beef of this description was 
 condemned to be sold at Madras, at a time too when they were threatened with a 
 famine. Lord Macartney attended the sale in person, bought a considerable quan- 
 tity of it, had it served on his own table, invited the parties who were principally 
 concerned in the business, and made them acknowledge the beef to be excellent. 
 This was considered as inspecting matters too narroiulyy and unsuitable to the dignity of a 
 governor of Madras. The public however would not be the suderers if we had a 
 few more such governors as Lord Macartney ; and although their conduct, like his, 
 would be sure of exciting the enmity of all those whose private views were disap- 
 pointed or counteracted by such minute attention to the public interests, yet tliey 
 would be sure to merit and obtain the applause of all those whose applause is worth 
 having. 
 
 VOL. I. 3 c
 
 378 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 ' a rule with me," says he, " when any thing unpleasant 
 ' happens that I cannot help, to divert rnyself with it, instead 
 ' of letting it vex me; and by these means I make shift to 
 ' nib throuoh the thorns of the world, and convert them into 
 ' roses and daftbdowndillies." 
 
 He possessed a firmness of character which those who did 
 not know him well considered as bordering upon obstinacy. 
 He was slow to act when the case was not pressing ; but 
 having once taken his ground he never deserted it. '• Be- 
 " fore I decide," says he, " on an}^ matter of moment, 
 " I revolve the subject well on my pillow, after Avhich 
 " I have generally found my decision to be just." If, by 
 his integrity and impartiality, be inspired confidence, his 
 steady and decided conduct never left a doubt remaining on 
 the minds of others, that his raeasiu-es w ould not be carried 
 into execution. This steadiness extended to his opinions of 
 men as Avell as to the prosecution of measures : " I am of all 
 " men," says he, " perhaps the most cautious ; but, at the 
 " same time, the most decisive. I have no malignity in my 
 " nature ; I have only that steadiness which will prevent me 
 " from being twice deceived by the same person." But if 
 he was cautious in bestowing his confidence, he was equally 
 steady in his friendships. There was nothing capricious in 
 his nature ; his actions were guided by cool and deliberate 
 iudgment, free from passion, prejudice, or precipitation. 
 Yet in compliance with custom he twice fonnd it expedient 
 to expose himself to the fire of his antagonist, but he could 
 very safely say on both occasions he took his ground without
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEt. 379 
 
 being moved with the least resentment to the parties who had 
 thought fit to call him out. " I have never," says he, " had 
 " a private qnarrcl in my life, but have unfortunately been en- 
 " gaged in two public ones, and suffered severely from wounds 
 " received in both. These I might easily have avoided, 
 " had I not preferred the public service to all private consi- 
 " derations, s I have invariably adhered to my first principles, 
 " an unshaken attachment to the King's person and govern- 
 " ment : and have acted up to them fearless of the conse- 
 " quences. I have no malice in my heart against any one, 
 " and I am more inclined to forward than to thwart the 
 " views of others where 1 can do it consistently with my 
 " public duty. Every strong measure 1 was compelled 10 
 " take in India was contrary to my own natural disposition. 
 *' The disobedience of the King's officers was, in fact, to the 
 " King; for the Company, to whom I was a sworn servant, 
 " stood in the King's place just as the Lord-lieutenant does in 
 " Ireland. It is therefore an idle thing to pretend to make a 
 " difference between the two services ; the King has delegated 
 " his authority in India to the Company, whether constitu- 
 " tionally or not, it was not for me to judge ; !jut this being 
 " the law I was to obey it. It is now a matter of no further 
 " moment to mc, as I have done with India for ever; but I 
 " wish to stand well with the King ; to do awa\^ any preju- 
 " dice that may be entertained of me, and also to have niv 
 " merits, whatever they may be, properly understood." 
 
 He appears indeed to have observed in every situation of, 
 life the most steady and loyal attachment to his Sovereign. 
 
 3 c 2
 
 -So PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Whether in place or out of place, whether fiivored with the 
 smiles of the court or apparently neglected, his sentiments in 
 this respect were invariably the same. On all occasions he 
 boldly stood forward in support of the King's prerogative. 
 To those who labored to abridge it, and among them were 
 some of his particular friends, he would say — " surely you 
 " would not treat the sovereign of this country as the weird 
 *' sisters did Macbeth, 
 
 « Upon his head to place a fruitless crown, 
 " And put a barr^ sceptre in his gripe ;" 
 
 " which must be the case if you refuse the King his just pre- 
 " roo-ative of conferring favor and rewarding merit. I know," 
 says he, in the Irish House of Commons, " that the word 
 *• pension gives great otfence to some gentlemen of delicate 
 " ears and delicate feelings ; but, for my part, I have lived 
 ** too much in the world to suffer myself to be imposed upon 
 " by a word or a name. In every other country in Europe 
 " a pension is considered as the most honorable recompense 
 " which a subject can enjoy. I speak of free countries such 
 *' as our own. I know that in Sweden a pension to a person 
 " who deserves well of the state is the most honorable ac- 
 '* knowledgment of his merit, a recompense which implies 
 " haste and eagerness in the sovereign authority to confer a 
 " reward where a reward is due ; to seize the earliest oppor- 
 " tunity of recompensing it, not coldly Avaiting for a death or 
 " removal, not marking the winding-sheet of a decrepit old 
 " man in office as the only passport to retribution and grati- 
 " tudc. A pension," says he, " is infinitely more honorable
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 381 
 
 " than a sinecure office ; the one loudly speaks its meaning ; 
 *' but the other hypocritally lurks under a supposition of duty 
 *' where there is nothing to do." 
 
 As a minister at a foreign court his qualifications were of 
 the first rank. ]>y his extensive knowledge of men and 
 things, by address and management, he could make himself 
 master of intrigues and projects while yet hatching, and ex- 
 hibit them to his court in all their various bearings. It was 
 the opinion of many of his friends, that the minister could 
 Hot have employed the talents of Lord Macartney to a better 
 purpose in the service of his country, than as a ncgociator at 
 the different courts of Europe, few men being perhaps so 
 well qualified in every respect for such situations as he was. 
 
 Throughout a long and active life, and with a very exten- 
 sive and intimate accjuaintance among the leading characters 
 of various adn)inistrations and oppositions, he had the resolu- 
 tion to keep himself totally unconnected with party in 
 politics, the spirit of which, however gentle and good tempered 
 the individuals who compose it might be, is always productive 
 of violence and ill humour, which were so contrary to his 
 disposition. This party spirit he considered as tending only 
 to impede the public service, by embarrassing government, 
 to create dissensions among intimate friends, and to unite the 
 bitterest enemies and the most jarring dispositions. But a 
 respectable opposition in parliament he conceived to be 
 among the most efiJicient and salutary checks on any abuse 
 of power in those who are entrusted with the administration 
 of the government. The speech he made on this subject in
 
 382 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 tl)C Irish House oF Commons is not unworthy of being re- 
 corded. " I most firmly Jiope," says he, " never to see 
 " opposition crushed. In a free governn)ent Uke ours, I hope 
 " always to see an opposition to a certain degree ; but it is 
 " an ojiposition to check, not to enchain ; to balance, not to 
 "overturn; vigilant but not jealous; spirited, not violent: 
 " neither vindictive nor rancorous ; but candid, vigorous, 
 " and active. Such an opposition might do honor to an in- 
 " different cause. Such an opposition might invite even a 
 " batl administration to a conduct, which craft or peevishness 
 "might never be able to obtain. But a systematic opposi- 
 " tion to all the measures of oovernment is what no man of 
 " sense or common honest}^ can approve. An opposition of 
 " this sort reminds me of a fable I have somewhere met with : 
 ' An angel carried a simple European to the regions of Asia, 
 ' where a hundred thousand Turks stood in battle array 
 ' agr\,inst a hundred thousand Russians. The man asked what 
 ' was the cause of the war ? To which the angel replied, bc- 
 ' cause these men wear hats and those wear turbans.' " I 
 " fear, Sii', we should not be able t(j assign a better reason 
 " for our present wordy warfare than that some gentlemen 
 " chuse to sit on that side of the house and others on this 
 " side. As to those indeed who have lost places and want 
 " to recover them, it is no \\ondcr they should be angry 
 " when out of ofhcc since they were so when in. Puit those 
 " sound patriots whose only inquiry is, from whom does the 
 " question proceed ? Who have no opinion of their own as to 
 " the right or the wrono; of any measure, those oentlemen re- 
 " mind nie of l\Ir. Bacon's pupils at whist, who were told that, 
 
 "' whenever they were at a loss what to ])hiy, they should al- 
 
 6
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. ^^t^ 
 
 " Avays play clubs, and I make no doubt the good gentlemen 
 " I allude to will play their clubs against government to the 
 " end of the game. Let no gentleman however imagine that 
 " I have any wish to cut olF opposition. I know it is most 
 " salutaiy when the greatness of the occasion demands it, 
 " when the time promises its efficacy, and the sincerity of 
 " the opponents secures them both success and honor. It 
 *' has been hinted that I esteemed opposition a rope of sand. 
 " I have seen such oppositions, "made up of the mos^t motley 
 " materials, of men with diti'ercnt passions, diticrent pur- 
 " suits, without concert in council, or unity in action ; where 
 " the firmness of individuals caused the weakness of the partj', 
 " which agrtied in no one point but the obstinacy of wanton 
 " opposition. Such is indeed a rope of sand ; but when 
 " men unite on public not on private views; when individual 
 " advantage is sacrificed lor the general good ; when there is 
 " a harmony of council and a steadiness of action ; when 
 " neither accident nor disappointment can make them lose 
 " sight of the great object before them, and the firmness of 
 " each individual is exercised to add strenoth to the whole — 
 " then, I say, that opposition is not a rope of sand, but a 
 " chain of adamant." 
 
 In the Irish House of Commons he was considered as an 
 able and energetic speaker, studiously avoiding any of those 
 sallies of passion, impetuosity, and personal invective which 
 Avere but too common in this assembly ; he fought the bat- 
 tles of his principal with great good humor, and with equal 
 success; he seldom failed, by the introduction of some plea- 
 sant stor}', to keep the house in temper, and divert anj'' pe-
 
 384 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 tulance or peevishness from mixing in the debate. In the 
 latter part of his Hfe, he attended the Enghsh House of Peers 
 on questions of moment whenever his bad state of health 
 would allow him, but he never spoke on any question ; he 
 used to say, that if ministers would give more of their at- 
 tention to what was to be done rather than to what was to 
 be said, on any occasion, the country would be no sufferer 
 by the loss of a few fine speeches. 
 
 As a staunch admirer of the British constitution, he was 
 an enemy to despotism under whatever shape it might be ex- 
 ercised. Nothing could more strongly convey his sentiments 
 on this subject than the following Note, concerning the situa- 
 tion of the Wirtemberg troops in the service of the Dutch at 
 Batavia, which, as he observes, Avas Avritten there one night, 
 " in a moment of indignation," after retiring from supper, 
 duiing which he had held a long conversation with the young 
 count Charles of Wirtemberg, a natural son of the late duke. 
 This young officer had been sent out by his father as a cap- 
 tain in the regiment, and has long since fallen a sacrifice to 
 the destructive climate like his brother victims in the same 
 service. 
 
 ]>Iote relative to the Wirtemberg troops at Batavia. 
 
 " As the German Europeans (Wirtembei-ghers) weak and 
 sickly as they are, form the principal military strength of 
 Batavia, it may not be amiss to say a few words upon their 
 subject. '
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 385 
 
 *' If it he the duty of sovereigns to guard the lives of their 
 people, to watch over their interests, and to promote their 
 safety and welfare, what must we think of those princes who 
 in this civilized and enlightened age, and in the face of all 
 Europe, carry on a public mercenary traffic in soldiers, and 
 having calculated the probable date and value of their ex- 
 istence, set a price upon their blood, carry them to market, 
 bargain and sell them like common cattle, and knock them 
 down to the l^est bidder. It appears by the journals of the 
 House of Commons of November 21st, 178(5, that no less a 
 sum than 471,000 ?. three per cent, stock was transferred to 
 the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel for 15,700 of his soldiers sold, 
 killed, or otherwise expended in the late American war, 
 whom he estimated at the price of 30 /. per man, not so 
 mucli as the price of an ordinary coach horse. 
 
 *' The Germans are a brave and generous nation, and of a 
 gallant military genius, which some of their respective sove- 
 reigns observing, have endeavoured to turn it to their own pri- 
 vate account, and dispose of it for money, like any other 
 commodity produced in their dominions. Thus war is be- 
 come a mere paltry hireling trade, neither kindled \)y the 
 heroic spirit of revenge, nor exercised for the patriotic pur- 
 pose of defence, not to guard the altars at home nor to repel 
 and punish invaders from abroad. 
 
 " liis most Serene IIi<>lincss of Wirtcmbero" is at Uns mo- 
 inent a perfect crimp for the Dutch East India Company, to 
 whom he hires out, iit a stipulated rate, the youth, health and 
 strength of his chilch'cn and his sulyccts, who arc torn from 
 
 VOT.. 1. 3 D
 
 386 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 their clearest and tendcrcst connections, and banished \vith- 
 out redemption from their native soiL Instead of being em- 
 ployed at home like men, and as soldiers only shonld be, to 
 defend their country, to redress its wrongs and vindicate its- 
 honor, they are vended without compunction by their natu- 
 ral protector to a set of Ibreign merchants, who ex])ort tlient 
 to be broiled alive on the sands of Coluudjo or to rot by 
 inches in the hospitals of Java. 
 
 " Of those whom avc saw at Batavia and tliat were able to* 
 crawl abroad, there was scarcely one, who did not totler 
 vmder the weight oi' his arms and accoutrements, being 
 citlier baked into a nuimmy, or dried and shrivelled like a 
 stock fish. The lieutenant-colonel of the Wirteraberg regi- 
 ment, a natural son of his most Serene Highness, and a' 
 \outh of great hopes, fell a victim to the climate within six 
 weeks after his arrival. His three younger brothers, Mr. 
 Guillaume, Mr. Trederic, and Mr. Charles are yet alive, but; 
 will probably soon folloxo him. The last, who attended the 
 embassy, as officer of the guard, has been well educated, is 
 well informed and a good officer. Of the whole corps, the 
 oreater part of v/hich came out here but a icw months since 
 in full health and vigor, I do not imagine there are a dozen 
 likely ever to return. The regret of leaving Europe, the 7ie- 
 cessartj duty of their profession, and the enmity of the ele- 
 ments, ail conspire here to wear out the soldier, and to 
 hasten his dissolution. Ambition is dead, relief is iiopeless. 
 He is undermined by decay, he drojis gradually into the grave, 
 and " dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos," whilst the survi- 
 vors are told, with a mockery superadded to their misery, that
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 3G7 
 
 lie died nobly at Lis post in the exercise of an heroic vocation, 
 not in the still shade of civil life, but in the career of glory 
 on the field of honor. It is truly wonderful to v/hat a pitch 
 of senseless vanity the military bubble has blown up the 
 human mind and, at the same time, debased it to the most 
 brutish subjection. Thji^t one man should presume in the 
 pride of his iicart to arrogate the right of saying to his fel- 
 low creature 
 
 " 'Tis mine to order and 'tis thine to die," 
 
 is equally repugnant to common sense and to common hu- 
 manity; and yet it is a right, that, however disguised, is usurped 
 and assumed by all the sovereignties of Europe, whether mo- 
 narchical, aristocratical, or democratical, for it makes no differ- 
 ence under what title or denomination despotic power is exer- 
 cised. If the youth, to whom the mandate de part le roij, 
 or dc part le pe.uple is addressed, be not rich enough to bribe 
 the sovereign for an exemj^tion, he has no remedj'^, but must 
 enlist with the recruiting ofiicer. And this practice has been 
 long looked on not only with indifTcrence ; but has been 
 quietly acquiesced in as an indisputable prerogative. Even 
 in England it is justified by the authority of some of our 
 most * celebrated writers ; for their premises, when fairly ex- 
 amined, warrant this conclusion, that children, relations, 
 and subjects, every connection natural, moral, and political, 
 may be sacrificed by j)ower on the altar of avarice, to enable 
 a, little Suabia-ii despot to give a masquerade at Stutgard, or 
 i,o pass the Carnival at Venice, If protection and obedience 
 
 * Foster, Biackstone, &c. Ezc. 
 3d 2
 
 388 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 be reciprocal, as those A^cry writers tell us, surely reluctance 
 to slavery aud opposition to oppression are equally rational 
 and just; and were an insurrection to happen at the next 
 registry of his Serene Highness's able-bodied subjects, or hi:^ 
 next levy for equinoxial service, it is probable he would find 
 Init few advocates to plead his cause, or protect his person. 
 On such an occasion resistance would be a virtue, and rebel- 
 hon to such tyranny prove loyalty to mankind. It is iin- 
 jiossiblc to think of this scandalous conduct of the little 
 German princes, without a mixture of horror and contempt. 
 Such avarice and apathy must find an enemy in every breast 
 of feeling and generosity. To renounce, as these men do, all 
 parental care of the people, committed by Providence to 
 their charge, wantonly to tear in pieces the ties by Avhich 
 they were bound to them, and to deliver them over without 
 mercy to the tormentors, is such a strain of ingratitude and 
 depravity as cannot long continue unresisted or remain un- 
 punished. The miserable negro on the coast of Guinea, who 
 exchanges his child for a striped handkerchief or a bottle of 
 brandy, is not a greater barbarian.'' 
 
 But though he held the slave-trade and slavery in utter 
 abhorrence, he did not entertain those entliusiastic notions 
 respecting the abolition of the latter, which have prevailed in 
 this country for some few years past. He contended that all 
 great changes, of what nature soever, ought to be gradual^ 
 not violent; that the objects of our humanity >hould be fust 
 prepared and fitted for that state of happiness in which we 
 design to place them, or that otherwise the change might 
 prove, instead of a blessing, the greatest curse that could hap-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 3*9 
 
 pen to tbeni or to their deliverers. But though not an advo- 
 cate for a hasty abolition, he was most decidedly against the 
 continuance ot" the trade ; and he had determined, on takinir 
 possession of his government of the Cape of Good Hope, not 
 to suffer the importation of a single negro into that colon}-. 
 Me was however prevailed upon by the very earnest suppli- 
 cations of the magistracy, in the name of the colonists, to 
 grant a licence to a single ship to proceed to Mosambique for 
 a cargo of slaves. It Ava? represented to him, that the num- 
 ber of mouths to feed at the Cape had, by the armv, the 
 navy, and foreign vessels, been increased in a three-fold pro- 
 portion since it became a British colony, whereas the cpian- 
 tity of tillage must remain the same without additional 
 laborers. " Wc must therefore," says he, in a letter to IMr. 
 Dundas, " either metamorphose every white husbandman 
 " into a Geryon or Briareus, or allow him, in some measure, 
 " to make up for liis weakness by the strength of two- 
 " handed negroes. The question vras, whether in a state of 
 " actual necessity we were to listen most to the dictates of 
 " good sense and public duty, or to the whims and ravings 
 " of ignorance and fanaticism ? It appeared to me an indis- 
 " pensable obligation rather to provide for the sustenance of 
 " the people committed to my care, and of his Majesty's fleet 
 " and army in esse, tlian to argue with myself what might be 
 " the possible felicity of freedom to unknown blackamoors. 
 " I paid however such respect to the prejudices of the day, 
 " as to confine ray licence to a single ship, and shall be cau- 
 " tious in extending it till the proper authority shall have 
 " decided this pohit, which seems to hare been at issue for 
 " some years past between rashness and experience, thoiifjht-
 
 3§o PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " lessneso and reflection, ancient wisdom and modern plii-^ 
 " losopliy." 
 
 Few men were more conversant in polite literature than 
 Lord IHlacartijey and liis acqnaintiincc was sought by the 
 iirst literary characters of his time. M illi Dr. Johnson, Ed- 
 mund Burke, David Hume, and all those m'Iio used ta meet 
 at Sir Joshua Re^^nolds's, he was particularly intimate. He 
 was one of the original members of Doctor Johnson's Literary 
 Club, which he continued to frequent wiih great pleasure in 
 the latter years of his life whenever his health would permit 
 him, and he was a member of the Royal and Antiquarian So- 
 cieties of London. lie was fond of social conversation, but read- 
 ing was to him a never failing source of delight ; a book was not 
 merely a luxury ; it was an article of the first necessity. It was 
 rave to find him, when alone, without a book or a pen in his 
 band. He was considered, when a young man, as a sound 
 classical scholar, and to possess a critical knowledge of the 
 ancient poets and historians. It appears, from the corre- 
 spondence of several eminent characters, that he was himself 
 no mean poet, and that he took great delight in courting the 
 acquaintance of the Muses *. In his letters to the late Mr. 
 
 * So late as'theyear 1800, he wrote tlie -following lines as an Inscription to be 
 placed over the gate-way of the castle of Lissanoure, on his paternal estate : 
 
 Sub libevtate 
 
 Qaicti 
 
 Hos avitos agvos, has redes auctas ornatas 
 
 D. D. 1). 
 
 Georgius comes de Macartney, Vice-Comes Macartney de Dervock-; Dominus 
 
 ]\Tacartnev, Baro de Lissanoure in regno Hibernire ; I3aro Macartney de Parkliurst 
 
 ct de Auchcnleik in regno Magnre Britaiinix, ordinis rcgii et perantiqui Aquilx V^lbx 
 
 necnon ordinis prcehonorabilis de Balneo Equcs, et rcgi a sanctioribus Consiliis 
 
 utriusqiic regni, in patrinm redux anno 1 796.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 391 
 
 Charles Fox, when a student at Oxford, he stron<'ly recom- 
 mends history as tlie best polisher of the manners, and the 
 best introduction to the knowledge of the human heart. 
 " Livy," says he, " is written in a style that must charm 
 " every one. He is master of our passions, and catches the 
 " soul by surprize. Look at that admirable passage where 
 " Coriolanus going to embrace his mother, she stops him with, 
 " sine priusquatn amplexum accipio, sciam ad Iiosfcm an ad 
 ^'Jilium vencriin." Tacitus he thought less graceful in stile 
 than Sallust, but more pungent, and he calls him the true 
 anatomist of the human heart. The unadorned easy stile 
 of Xenophon he preferred to that of Ca}sar : but of Homer 
 and Virgil he always speaks in raptures ; the latter indeed he 
 could almost repeat by heart. From a letter of the late 
 Charles Fox to him, dated Oxford, ]3th February 1765, it 
 would appear that in the early part of his life he had no taste 
 for mathematics, and that he valued them lightly. His opi- 
 nion however must have greatly changed in this respect, on 
 entering upon business, for no man could be more convinced 
 than he was of the transcendent utility of what are usually 
 called mixed mathematics as applicable to so many of the 
 
 " Erin nos genuit, vidit nos Africa, Gangem 
 
 " Hausimus, Europseque plagas fere visimus omnes ; 
 
 " Nee latuit regio primum patefacta Columbo : 
 
 " Sinarum licuit dextram tetigisse tyranni, 
 
 " Tartaricos montes, magnum et transcendere murum, 
 
 " Turbidaque impavide tentavimus alta Pechellcc 
 
 " Hactenus Europx iiullis sulcata Carlnis ; 
 
 « Caslbus et variis acti terraque marique 
 
 " Sistimus hie tandem atque Lares veneramur Avorum."
 
 39:s PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 common and important concerns of life ; and he was suffici- 
 ently acquainted with most of the modern sciences to make a 
 conversation on their subject interesting both to himself and 
 to others. His memory was of the most retentive kind, and 
 had stored up an abundant supply of anecdotes relating to 
 persons and events, to times present and past ; and the pleas- 
 ing manner and genuine good humor, in Vvhich he could re- 
 late a story, seldom failed of communicating to it an additional 
 interest. By some peculiar arrangement, or classification of 
 objects in his mind, he contrived to recollect the date of an 
 event as correctly as the more important circumstances con- 
 nected with it. It was observed of him at Turin, that he was 
 much better acquainted with the history and connections of 
 the Italian and French famihes he met with there than they 
 were themselves ; indeed so wonderful was his recollection on 
 points of genealogy, that there was scarcely a person of any 
 ■note mentioned by sacred or profane writers, whose history 
 and connections were not perfectly fi'esh in his memory. 
 When he passed the Hague, on his way to Petersbourgh, 
 Sir Joseph Yorke, then minister at that place from the court 
 of London, invited all his brother ministers to meet Sir George 
 IMacartney at dinner. 'J'he conversation, as might be ex- 
 pected, turned on the atlairs of Europe, and although some 
 of the comj)any were pretty well hackneyed in the diplomatic 
 service, and Sir George but just entering uj^on his career 
 of public life, 3'et it was observed that he was much bet- 
 ter informed with regard to the res})ective courts of Europe, 
 than any of the ministers were tliemsclves who represented 
 them.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 393 
 
 He liad a peculiar facility in extracting information from 
 tliose he conversed with, even where there might be an un- 
 willingness to communicate it ; but whatever knowledge he 
 obtained in this way, he used to consider as problematical ua- 
 til corroborated or contradicted by other sources ; thus the 
 information he procured on subjects connected with his 
 official situations was generally considered, in the depart- 
 ment of state to which it was transmitted, as superseding all 
 former information on the same points. 
 
 It is thought by some of his friends, and, indeed, has been 
 confidently asserted by others, that he had employed some 
 part of the latter years of his life in drawing up a connected 
 narrative of the events and transactions, in which he had 
 borne a principal share, with memoirs and anecdotes of dis- 
 tinguished characters. But it appears, from the best autho- 
 rity, that nothing of this kind was found among his papers ; 
 nor any notes or memorandums that could warrant such a 
 conclusion. The only writings of Lord Macartney that were 
 digested by him into any thing like the shape of regular 
 treatises, may be said to consist of three articles, namely. 
 An Account of Russia in 176? •* An Account of Ireland in 
 1773 ; and A Journal of an Embassy frojn the King of 
 Great Britain to the Emperor of China. Of these three ar- 
 ticles it remains only to give a concise account, and Avith it 
 conclude the present narrative. 
 
 His Account of Russia was drawn up into a regular form 
 from the documents he procured from others, and from his 
 VOL. 1. 3 E
 
 394 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 own observations when minister at the court of St. Peters- 
 burah *. A very few copies of it were printed at a private 
 press for the use of ministers and for some of his most inti- 
 mate friends. It is adchessed to the secretary of state for the 
 northern department. He observes, in the Introduction, 
 that Russia at that time was but httle or indistinctly known ; 
 that she had no writers of her own growth ; and that foreigners 
 had been either incurious or unsolicitous about the subject. 
 " It appeared," says he, " like the view of an immense waste, 
 " the prospect seemed lost in its vastness, and Avearied the 
 " eye with its gloomy distance. If I am able to throw a new 
 *' or stronger light on some things already known, or to de- 
 " velope others unnoticed or obscure ; if I can convey to you 
 " a clearer idea of this country and its inhabitants, I shall 
 *' esteem myself happy. I shall trust to your candor if I fall 
 
 * The following very handsome testimony of the value of these papers is given by 
 Sir Joseph Yorke, embassador at the Hague, in a letter to Sir George Macartncv, 
 dated Leicester-square, June 12, 1768. 
 « Dear Sir, 
 
 ** I ought to ask pardon for presuming so much on your politeness as to keep 
 your curious and instructive papers so long ; but as you were so good as to indulge 
 Lord Hardvvicke as well as myself with the perusal of them, I ventured to detain 
 them a little longer than I fear was prpper or discreet. After having begged your 
 forgiveness for that indiscretion, allow me to return my brother's thanks with mine 
 for the communication, which is the most interesting that has ever appeared con- 
 cerning that great empire j my brother, whose judgment and knowledge I do not 
 pretend to name mine with, was more delighted than I can express, and hopes the 
 minister who had attention, judgment, and ability to investigate and lay open so 
 complicated a scene, may continue to be employed in the service of his country, in 
 every way which may be agreeable to himself, and which must always be useful to 
 
 the public. I have the honor, &c. 
 
 (Signed) «' JosKPH Yorke,"
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 395 
 
 " intx) errors ; I flatter myself tlicy neither proceed from pre- 
 "judicc nor partiality, but are such only as every man is 
 " liable to that ventures to describe a oation wbojse manners, 
 " religion, and government are dissimilar to those of his own. 
 V Whether," continues he, " this great body is likely to preserve 
 " long the same state of health and strength of frame ; whe- 
 " ther it promises short life or longevity, shall be my business 
 " to inquire in the following pages : and to do this with the 
 " greater truth and precision, it will be necessary to consider 
 " at jarge the geographical situation, the form of govermnent, 
 " the riches and resources of this; empire, the genius and 
 " manners of its inhabitants, and the particular periods and 
 " events of its history, which either smoothed the paths for 
 " gentle changes, (jr, at length, flung open the gates to an 
 *' extensive reformation." From the concluding paragraph of 
 the introduction may be collected the light in which he 
 modestly considered this performance, at that time, par- 
 ticularly valuable. " I must observe," ,says he, "that 
 " this account will appear, in a variety of instances, very 
 " different from any that has hitherto been published ; indeed 
 *' so many changes have already been made by the present 
 *' Empress, and so many still greater are expected, that a dis- 
 " course of this kind oug*lit scarcely to be considered in any 
 " other light than as an annual calendar: I therefore do not 
 " presume to give it you under a higher title than that of 
 *' a Russicm Almanack for the Year 17t)7. 
 
 By a short analvsis of the work, together with those parts 
 of it, which will be found in the second volume, it ivill be 
 
 3 E 2
 
 396 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 seen that it merits a much higher title than that of an ahna- 
 nack. The subject is divided into twelve chapters, and fol- 
 lowed by an Appendix. 
 
 Chapter I. Situation. Under this head are described the 
 extent and boundaries of the Russian empire, and the three 
 very eminent advantages derived from its geographical posi- 
 tion. The first of these is the great variety of climate and 
 diversity of soils, from ■which it is capable of being supplied 
 with almost every article of luxury and necessity of its own 
 growth and production, and consequently of becoming one 
 of the most rich and independent empires in the world. 
 Secondly, its exclusive frontier inaccessible to armies is un- 
 exposed to conquest or invasion : and the third great advan- 
 tage is the infinite number of navigable rivers, and her happy 
 position with regard to seas. " But," he adds, " many of 
 ** these happy circumstances, whether arising from climate, 
 *' soil, position, or power, are, in a great measure, either 
 *' lost or vrseless to the inhabitants of this country in its present 
 *' state ; and seem to have made little, if any, forcible 
 " impression upon their understandings. To avoid being 
 " accused of speaking too largely here, I must observe that 
 " all the great discoveries and improvements made in this 
 " empire have been imagined and conducted by foreigners. 
 " The conquest and colonization of Siberia was performed by 
 " a Cossack. The opening of a trade between Archangel 
 " and England, and by that means introducing Russia to the 
 " acquaintance of the civilized parts of Europe, was entirely 
 **'thc work of an Englishman. It was an Englishmaii whc.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 397 
 
 " even so early as lo6"0, projected the carrying on a coni- 
 " merce with Persia across tiie Caspian ; he not only pro- 
 " jected it, but did actually put it in execution ; and from the 
 " accounts we have of his vo3'age to Ghilan Ave plainly per- 
 " ceive what a flourishing trade mio-ht have been struck out 
 " with that country, if the Russians had been animated with 
 " the smallest spark of adventurous boldness or commercial 
 " enterprize." It was an English merchant, we are told, 
 that created the port of Onega, in the White Sea, till then 
 entirely unknown, but frequented annually, in his time, by 
 thirty thousand tons of shipping. All their manufactures 
 were established by foreigners, and many of them still con- 
 tinued under their direction. Even the mines, a point of 
 natural Avealth which seldom escapes the attention of the 
 most barbarous nations, were never managed with any de* 
 gree of advantage until Saxon workmen discovered their real 
 riches. 
 
 Chapter II. This chapter on the Population, together 
 with Chapter III. on the Genius and Character of the 
 Mussians, and Chapter IV. entitled, A View of the Russian 
 History, being fii^iished sketches of a nature very different 
 from the transitory information of an almanack, are printed 
 at full length in the second volume of this work ; as is also 
 the Appendix, which bears the title of The present State of 
 the Church of Puissia 176'7. 
 
 Chapter V. Title of the Sovereien. The title assumed 
 by Catharine 11. Avas Empress and Autocratrix, of all the
 
 .39S PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 Riissias, &c. This title, we are told, is aflfected on every 
 occasion to a most ridiculous excess ; insomuch that tho 
 Russians, whether in writing or speaking, join the word 
 Imperial to every thing indiscriniinately that has the smallest 
 relation to the court ; and that the court is so enamoured of 
 this epithet, that the omission of it would be seriously consi- 
 dered as an intentional disrespect. The ancient stile of the 
 monarch, it appears, was Veliki Knez, Great Duke^or Great 
 Prince^ 
 
 Chapter VI. Government ami Lau's. Lord IMacartney 
 considers the government of Russia, notwithstanding its se- 
 nate, its colleges, and its chanceries, as completely despotic ; 
 that all the attempts which have been made to abridge the 
 sovereign authority have entirely failed ; that liberty is a 
 .plant which never grew kindly in the soil of Russia, but 
 either withered of itself, or was easily eradicated ; that the 
 sovereign power, legislative and executive, was then in the 
 person of the Empress, who, without form or process of law, 
 'could deprive any swbject of life, liberty, or estate ; that 
 she could seize , the public treasure however appropriated; 
 raise or debase the value of the coin ; make peace or w;ar ; 
 •augment or diminish her troops ; frame new laws or repeal 
 ' old ones ; and finally, nominate her successor to the throne, 
 ivithout re^''arding any of those circumstances which establish 
 the right of inheritance in other. kingdoms. " Such," says 
 he, " are the undoubted and indisputable prerogatives of the 
 " crown." This -chapter contains likewise a detailed account 
 of the dignities, the authorities and duties of the senate, the
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 393 
 
 S3'nod, and the different colleges for carrying into execution 
 the orders of the Sovereign, and for facilitating the admi- 
 nistration of public business. 
 
 Chapter VII. The lunetten Govermnents into which the 
 JEmpire is divided. The interior administration of each go- 
 vernment is conducted by a chancery, under whose authority 
 are other particular chanceries in the several provinces and 
 districts of the said government; froni these subordinate 
 chanceries an appeal lies to the general chancery of the go- 
 vernment, and from that to the superior colleges in the ca- 
 pital according to the nature of the case ; from those to the 
 senate ; and from the senate to the sovereign ; " for in this 
 " country," he observes, " the course of justice is a chain of 
 " appeal, delay, chicanery, and corruption." The civil ma- 
 gistrates of the provinces he states to be poor and ignorant, 
 being commonly inferior officers discharged from the service, 
 or persons who despair of a more honorable advancement ; 
 their salary seldom exceeds six hundred roubles, and often 
 does not amount to so much ; so that rapacity and extortion 
 frequently become necessary for their very support and sub- 
 sistence. If a sentence of the senate or any of the inferior 
 colleges be reversed upon an appeal to a superior tribunal, 
 the members of the former are fined or reprimanded for their 
 injustice or their ignorance. " In mentioning these fines and 
 " reprimands," says Lord Macartney, " I cannot avoid taking 
 " notice of a ridiculous affair which happened not long since at 
 " St. Petersbourg : the college of justice having made a decision 
 " which, upon appeal, was determined to be unjust, the se-
 
 400 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " nate ordered the judges to be publicly censured ; a revo- • 
 " lution soon after happening, the members of the college 
 " of justice were wholly changed ; the mandate of tlie senate 
 " however still continued in force, and the new members, 
 " who were entire strangers to the former proceedings of their 
 " college, were obliged to attend, and were very solemnly 
 " and severely reprimanded for a sentence of which they 
 " were totally guiltless and ignorant." 
 
 Chapter VIII. Of the Revenues. " The revenues of 
 *' this emjMre," says Lord Macartney, " are by no means pro- 
 ^' portionable to its extent, population, and commerce ; they 
 " are however, in general, very dexterously managed, very 
 *' wisely appropriated, and so happily employed that no so- 
 " vereignty in Europe ever arrogated such power, main- 
 " tained such armies, extended such influence, or accom- 
 '' plished such great designs, with treasures so slender, means 
 " so seemingly inadequate, or on terms so moderate and 
 " easy." The whole revenues of Russia, he tells us, at the 
 period when he is writing, did not exceed twenty-four 
 millions and an half of roubles, or 4,y00,000/. " To us," says 
 he, " who have been accustomed to see upwards of twenty 
 " millions sterling swallowed up by the expenses of a single 
 *' year, this revenue will appear poor and inconsiderable ; yet 
 *' it is sufficient to pay an army of 400,000 men, well clothed, 
 *' well armed, and, in every respect, mcII appointed ; to 
 " maintain a fleet of twenty-two ships of the line, nine fri- 
 «' gates, and fifty gallies, with 14,000 seamen ; and to 
 " defray the expenses of a most numerous and splendid
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 431 
 
 '■ court, whicli, in grandeur and magnificence, excels every 
 "other in Europe; whether we consider the suinptuousness 
 " of the table, the richness and brilliancy of the dress, the 
 " blaze and profusion of jewels, the taste and elegance of 
 " equipages, or the good order and propriety which conduct 
 " and regulate the whole." And all these, he assures us, are 
 not only defrayed with the standing revenues without con- 
 tracting any debt, but an annual saving remains of one mil- 
 lion sterling over and above all the expenses of the state. 
 The chapter concludes with a schedule of the annual reve- 
 nues of the Russian empire. 
 
 Chapters IX and X, Of the /Innj/ and Of the Navt/. 
 I'hese two chapters are accompanied with several tables con- 
 taining the names and numbers of the different regiments, 
 their divisions and fixed quarters, expense of field regiments 
 and staff officers ; and the mode of raising recruits for the 
 army. He gives also a comparative state of the Russian 
 navy under Catharine II. and as it stood at the death of 
 Peter the First. His observations on the Russian navy, at 
 the latter period, conclude with this remark. " The Russian 
 " marine is far inferior in every respect to that of Sweden or 
 " of Denmark ; and indeed whether considered compara- 
 " tively or b}- itself is extremely insignificant. For my part 
 " I am persuaded, from what I have observed myself, joined 
 '• to very good information, that a dozen English line of 
 " battle ships would be an over-match for all the naval force 
 " of the Russian empire. However they have such re- 
 " sources that, by proper attention and management, their 
 
 VOL. I. 3 F
 
 402 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 " marine may grow considerable, may be rendered even 
 " respectable, but never can become formidable in Bri- 
 " tish eyes." 
 
 Chapter XI. Resources of Russia. This short chapter 
 merely enumerates the advantages and resources which 
 might be brought in aid of the standing permanent revenues 
 of the state. 
 
 Chapter XII. Of the Manufactures and Commerce of 
 Russia. In this chapter we have a minute and detailed ac- 
 count of the commerce between Russia and the different na- 
 tions of Europe and Asia digested into nine tables from au- 
 thentic and voluminous documents, with explanations to each 
 table. No part of the subject at the time it was written 
 could be more highly important to this kingdom than that 
 •which is contained in this chapter, and Lord Macartney 
 seems to have given to it an uncommon degree of attention, 
 and to have spared no pains nor expense in procuring mate- 
 rials which indeed his official situation and intimacy with Mr. 
 Panin alone could have enabled him to collect. The Appen- 
 dix, as before observed, will be found at full length in the 
 second volume of the present work. 
 
 Nearly on the same plan as his Account of Russia, Lord 
 Macartney, on his return from Ireland, drew up A71 Account 
 of Ireland in 1773. Of this treatise he likewise printed a 
 few copies for his particular friends. The scope of the work 
 is distinctly pointed out in a short introduction which runs 
 as follows.
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 403 
 
 " Whence Ireland derived its name, and by what nation 
 " it was first peopled is a matter which may interest the an- 
 " tiquary, but is of little moment to a minister or politician. 
 " The early periods of its history are involved in obscurity 
 " and fable, and no dependence can be placed on any ac- 
 " counts of it previous to the invasion of the English under 
 <' Henry the Second. 
 
 " That it was great, powerful, and learned, at a time when 
 " the neighbouring kingdoms were weak, divided, and igno- 
 " rant, has been boldly asserted by some writers, and not 
 " less positively denied by others. These are points of curi- 
 " osity, of national pride, and national affection, but are fo- 
 " reign to my present purpose, which is principally to speak 
 " of Ireland as now connected with Great Britain and subject 
 " to its dominion. 
 
 " A concise and impartial account of that country, its his- 
 " tory, constitution, commerce, and revenue, may pos- 
 " sibly be not unacceptable to those whose situation and 
 " more important cares must preclude them from minute in- 
 " quiry and laborious research." 
 
 In the General Description of Ireland we are informed that 
 it contains upwards of seventeen millions of acres ; that the 
 number of houses on the hearth-money books in I766 was 
 424,026, and the population at that time supposed to ex- 
 ceed two millions and a half. It is observed that the exemp- 
 tion from toads, vipers, snakes, slow-worms and all venomous 
 creatures, is a circumstance so fortunate and so singular as 
 
 .3 F 2
 
 4o4. PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 to merit particular mention. In speaking of the inhabitants 
 of Ireland as a mixed race, descended from various adven- 
 turers who, engaged by difierent views at different periods, 
 established themselves in that country, he observes, " The 
 " present motley generation is composed of parts not less 
 " heterogeneous than the inhabitants of Great Britain, beino; 
 " a mass of aboriginal Irish, Spaniards or Milesians, Danes, 
 " Saxons, Normans, English, Scots, Hugonots and Palatines. 
 " In such a miscellaneous variety," says he, " one might be 
 " led to imagine that all national characteristic must be lost, 
 " yet no people in Europe seems more distinctl}' marked or 
 " to bear a stronger original impression : whether nature 
 " frames and models the disposition of the inhabitants to the 
 " soil and climate of the countr}^ or whether the form of 
 " government gives a complexion to their manners, it is cu- 
 " rious to observe how quickly the various dissimilar parts 
 " coalesce and amalgamate into one body. 
 
 " The Irish," he observes, " urc a strong and hardy 
 *' people, active in body,- and of a bold and daring spirit; 
 " patient of cold, hunger, and labor ; dauntless in danger, 
 " and regardless of lilt where glory is in view ; warm and 
 " constant in love and friendship, but quick in resentment, 
 " and implacable in hatred ; generous and hospitable beyond 
 " all bounds of prudence; credulous, superstitious, and vain; 
 " talkative, disputatious, and strongly disposed to turbulence 
 " and contest: they are almost all fond of learning, and are 
 " endowed with excellent parts, but arc usually more re- 
 " markable for liveliness of thought than for accurate cxprcs- 
 '♦ sion. They possess neither the industry of the English, nor
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. i^s 
 
 " the perseverance of the Scots; but, when properly directed, 
 " have displayed spirit and abilities equal to every un- 
 " dertaking." 
 
 This treatise on Ireland is not, like that on Russia, strictly 
 speaking, divided into chapters, but broken into sections. 
 The third of these sections gives so clear and concise a sketch 
 of the political History of Ireland, from the Conquest to the 
 Conclusion of Lord Townshend's Administration, that the 
 reader will not be displeased to see it entire ; and under this 
 idea it is printed in the second volume, under the title of 
 A Short Sketch of the Political Histori/ of Ireland. 
 
 Under the head of The Constitution and Go-oeriiment of 
 Ireland, he contends that it is of very little consequence to 
 the ancient Irish or the later settler, whether their country 
 was conquered or not. " They are all," says he, " equally 
 " subject to Great Britain, and enjoy her protection ; every 
 " individual feels the genial influence of her liberty and, as an 
 " individual, claims every privilege which she can bestow. 
 " If, for political or commercial reasons, restrictive regulations 
 " are adopted with regard to Ireland, it is not Ireland that is 
 " meant to be injured ; the safety, the interest of the parent 
 " and protecting slate, which all its subjects are equally 
 " bound to cherish and promote, is the only object. If that 
 " object seems injudiciously pursued, the great national 
 " assembly is open to the Irishman as well as to the English- 
 " man and the Scotsman, and the arguments and eloquence 
 " of the one may be as forcible as those of the other."
 
 4q6 PTJBLIC life . OF THE 
 
 He is decidedly of opinion that Ireland, under whatever 
 predicament it may be considered, to be prosperous and 
 Iiappy, must be subordinate to and dependent upon Great 
 Britain ; that one great superintending and controling domi- 
 nion must exist somewhere ; " and where," says he, " can 
 " that dominion reside with so much dignity, pro[)riety, and 
 " safet}", as in the British legislature ?" He Avas firmly per- 
 suaded that nothing could tend so much to the mutual ad- 
 vantage of the two kingdoms as an union, and urged it 
 strongly at the time of the disturbances in America. But as 
 the minister did not seem to think that measure expedient or 
 practicable at that time, he recommended at all events that 
 every advantage and indulgence should be given to Ireland, 
 as an inseparable limb of Great Britain, which ought to be 
 nourished and supported by the same vital principle. " It 
 " would be true policy," he observes, " to widen, as much as 
 " possible, our European bottom ; to consolidate and bind to- 
 " gether all the parts that can naturally unite, so as to form 
 " one great compacted dominion, moved by one interest, ce- 
 " mented by one affection, subsisting by its own strength, act- 
 " ing by its own force, supplied by its own resources, nei- 
 " ther to be shaken nor injured even by the loss of extreme 
 " branches, but, firmly rooted in its genial soil, flourishing, inde- 
 " pendent, and secure." On the subject of an union, he never for 
 a moment altered his opinion, and when this measure of true 
 policy was effected, he thus warmly and feelingly expressed 
 his sentiments on the subject, " I bow with admiration and 
 " respect to those by whose wisdom this great and important 
 " object -has been brought so near to its completion ; consi-
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY-. 407 
 
 " clering many things that have happened in my time, pain- 
 " ful to recollect and invidious to mention, I little imagined 
 " to see this happy day. Thank God ! I have seen it. 1 
 " thank the Father of all mercies that he has been graciously 
 " pleased to prolong my days to this auspicious period. The 
 " measure before us has my dying voice. It will annihilate 
 " the vain hopes of -a vain invidious foe from -without, and, 
 " I trust, will contribute to defeat the projects of a dark and 
 " treacherous enemy within." 
 
 In the Sketch of the Political History printed in the second 
 volume, it will be seen how strongly he reprobates those 
 severe laws relating to popery whicliAvere enacted in the reio-n 
 of Queen Anne, and Avhich are still in force. He condemns 
 them as cruel, unjust, and impolitic. 
 
 The following section contains a short account of tl>e 
 Office and Powers of the Lord Lieutenant ; his Commission 
 and Instructions, on which he makes a few observations, and 
 points out the impropriety and inconsistenc}' of some parts of 
 them. These are necessarily, since the union, entirely 
 changed, and cease at this time to be interesting. Another 
 section contains an account of the duties and the expense of 
 all the public offices under government ; and the work con- 
 cludes with a very particular account of the public revenues 
 of Ireland, and observations on each head, with several 
 tables of public receipt and expenditure, all of which were 
 highly important at the time they Avere written, but from the 
 nature of the subject must cease to be so after a lapse of more 
 than thirty years.
 
 433 PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 All the materials which Lord Macartney had collected, re- 
 specting Grenada and the Grenadines, with many other im- 
 portant papers relative to the different states of Europe, \\'ere, 
 as already has been observed, plundered and destroyed by 
 the savage soldiery of D'Estaing, whom this officer not 
 only permitted but actually excited to this disgraceful pro- 
 ceeding, bad enough under any circumstances, but doubly 
 so after so gallant a defence by a handful of nieti, which 
 alone, to an enemy possessed of the least Jpark of generosity, 
 Avould have been an inducement carefully to protect the van- 
 quished from insult and injury. Eat D'Estaing, as Lord 
 Macartney has emphatically remarked in one of his- memo- 
 randum books, was iine Bctc. It was likjewise observed, that 
 the duplicates of these papers perished in the flames of the 
 storeship, in which Lady Macartney had taken her passage 
 for England. 'J'hese losses were never attempted to be re- 
 iiaired by Lord IMacartney. A task indeed of this kind is 
 not only ungrateful to the feelings, but is in its nature next to 
 impossible. No memory, however retentive, can embrace 
 the details of statistical accounts, in which numbers are so 
 frequently recurring, and so material to the subject. 
 
 The Journal, which was kept by his Lordship, of his 
 proceedings in Ciiina, is a document that cannot fail of being 
 read with pleasure and satisfaction. A detailed account of 
 the progress of the embassy, and of the conferences and ne- 
 gociations with a court and people who had hitherto been 
 supposed to hold so high a rank among the civilized nations 
 of the world ; but of whose true character, we iiad but, at
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 409 
 
 the most, a doubttul portrait, must bo considered as curious 
 and interesting. This docunient is iniportant in another 
 point oC view- — it will convey more instruction to any future 
 embassador with respect to the conduct of his mission, than 
 heAvill be able to glean from all the volumes which have been 
 written on the subject of China. In the authentic Account 
 of the Embassy to China, Sir George Staunton has very ably 
 shown the necessity which gave rise to the mission, the views 
 and olijects proposed by the measure ; the progress of the 
 embassy from England to China, and its return to the former 
 place. He has sketched with a masterl}'' pencil, a picture of 
 the manners, customs, genius, and character of the Chinese, 
 and supplied much important and interesting information re- 
 specting their public revenues, the state of their agriculture, 
 their trade and manufactures. Nor has he omitted to trace 
 the pi'ogress of the negociation and its result ; to state what 
 was done and what Avas attempted to be done; all of which 
 he collected and digested from the papers of Lord Macartney, 
 from his own observations and those of some of the gentlemen 
 in the train of the embassador. But though the Journal, 
 now published, was a material document in the hands of Sir 
 George Staunton, in furnishing him with facts and occur- 
 rences, yet, in every other respect, it may be considered as 
 a new and valuable addition to our stock of knowledge with 
 regard to the genius and character of the Chinese nation. It 
 not only tells us what was done on different occasions, but 
 also what was said. The principal characters in the piece 
 are brought before us, and introduced to our ac(pjaintance. 
 It not only conveys to us a general description of the manners 
 and character of the court ; but presents us, at the same 
 VOL. r. 3 G
 
 4IO PUBLIC LIFE OF THE 
 
 time, M'ith accurate sketches of individual portraits. It 
 possesses besides a very material advantage in one respect 
 over a regular composition intended to meet the public eye ; 
 all the observations it contains were made upon the spot, 
 and immediately committed to paper in the shape they now 
 stand; nothing comprehended in the whole compass of this 
 Journal was afterwards inserted on the ground of recollection ; 
 observations made on this ground, Lord Macartney justly 
 remarks, are apt to vary their hue considerably. From the 
 concluding paragraph of the Jouinal may be collected pre- 
 cisely its nature and aim. " I now," says he, " close my 
 " China Journal, in which I have written down the trans- 
 " actions and occurrences of my embassy, and my travels 
 " through this empire, exactly as they passed and as they 
 •' struck me at the time. My sole view has been to rcpre- 
 " sent things precisely as they impressed me. I had long 
 " accustomed mj'self to take minutes of whatever appeared 
 " of a curious or interesting nature, and such scenes, as 1 
 " have lately visited, were not likely to obliterate my habits 
 *' or to relax my diligence. I regularly took notes and me- 
 " morandums of the business 1 was engaged in, and the ob- 
 " jects I saw, partly to serve for my own use and recollec- 
 *' tion, and partly to amuse the hours of a tedious and pain- 
 " ful employment, but I will not flatter myself that they caa 
 " be of nmch advantage or entertainment to others. 
 
 The Cape of Good Hope was a situation in which a governor 
 
 had it in his power to do a great deal of good or a great deal of 
 
 mischief; but it afforded only a very limited field for the display 
 
 of brilliant talents. Whatever degree of prosperity followed 
 
 6
 
 EARL OF MACARTNEY. 4.J 
 
 the capture of this sctUcnuiit, whatever iicwor accurotc infor- 
 mation of its ■salue nnd importance to the Ihitish emj)ire 
 was obtained, they were the result of Jiord Macartney's ad- 
 ministration. What the amount may be of our additional 
 knowledge of this an<2,ie of Southern Africa, ])rocured by his 
 direction, it woukl ill be(U)uie the writer of tiie present article 
 to form the estimate. It is before the pui^hc, and he can 
 vouch for nothing more than its authenticity and accuracy ; 
 for the means of coUecting the materials he is wholly in- 
 debted to the distinguished fa\or of I^ord Macartne\'. 
 
 But the place, in which the great powers of Lord Macart- 
 ney's mind were called forth in all their energy, ^vas India ; 
 and in the proceedings of his government there the statesman 
 may find the finest lessons of Avisdom and virtue. The mi- 
 nutes on various subjects, which he found it necessary to lay 
 before the select committee, are masterly performances ; and 
 the whole correspondence with the hostile and counteracting 
 government of Bengal is characterised by a clearness, 
 closeness, and cogency of argument, and by a firmness and 
 moderation which distinguish it, in a very striking manner, 
 from the loose, the puerile and fanciful reasoning, and the 
 hauohtv, harsh, and acrimonious language of the letters from 
 Bengal. Both are now consigned to the archives of the 
 East India Company, and both are doomed, in all probabi- 
 lit}', to vmdergo, with many other documents of great import- 
 ance, the common fate of neglect and oblivion. 
 
 If that part of them, employed in the foregoing pages, to 
 exhibit an illustrious example of great talents, directed solely 
 
 3 G 2
 
 4ia PUBLIC LIFE, &c. 
 
 for the public welfare, of integrity superior to the temptation 
 of wealth and power, of unwearied zeal in every cause for his 
 country's honor and disinterestedness in every public trans- 
 action, may have the good effect of carrying conviction to 
 the mind of any future governor of the presidencies in India, 
 that a steady perseverance in honorable and upright con- 
 duct will secure him the esteem and regard of all whose 
 esteem and regard is valuable, and afford him that peace of 
 mind and heartfelt satisfaction which no wealth nor power, 
 however great, can bestow, the present Sketch of the 
 Public Life of Lord Macartney will not have been written 
 in vain. 
 
 END OF THE NARRATIVE.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Letter from Sir George Macartney to William Burke, Esq. dated 
 St. Petersbourg, Aug. 24, (Sept. 4,) 1766. 
 
 JjELIEVE me, my dear Burke, I am highly sensible to all your in- 
 stances of friendship, and believe me too that, on all occasions, you will 
 find me eminently grateful. 
 
 " I am very particularly obliged by your letter of the 27th July, which 
 I found no sort of difficulty to decypher. The nomination of Mr. Stanley 
 did not at all surprise me ; the only thing that surprises me is that, since they 
 chose to put a slight upon me, they did not turn me out without further 
 ceremony. It is true, I have happily accomplished a very laborious and a 
 very difficult negociation, and brought to a conclusion a treaty of com- 
 merce, which, but for my zeal, industry, and activity, I will venture to 
 say would have been lost to us for ever. I will make no scruple neither 
 to own to you that, in my opinion, my first treaty was preferable to my 
 second ; probably I may be called on one day or another to defend it, and 
 I think I have irrefragable proofs to support my opinion. I must add 
 besides that to me alone is 'the treaty owing. It was extinguibhed and 
 dead, to all intents and purposes, till I revived it ; and by indefatigable 
 labor, and at a considerable expense, worked it through in the teeth of 
 
 7
 
 41 ( APPENDIX. No,. I. 
 
 evei-y opposition. Mr. P.inin here n^/akes no scruple publicly to say tliat 
 no other man coulJ have obtained so much as I have done ; and setting 
 the conduct of my court in this and in other objects, it was merely from 
 personal consideration to me that he concluded it at all. Mr. Stanley I 
 know not ; but I respect his character and abilities : if he were my enemy 
 I could not wish him a greater punishment than his present commission ; 
 were he my friend 1 could not wish him a greater happiness than to be re- 
 lieved from negociating with this court. Had he been informed of the real 
 situation cf things here, I am persuaded he would have declined so dis- 
 agreeable an employment ; and had the gentlemen at home known the 
 footing I am upon with the Empress and her ministers, they never would 
 have dreamed of appointing another in my place. I am by no means 
 however mortified at it ; when I accepted this commission, which you 
 know I gave value for (having resigned a seat in parliament for it) I re- 
 solved to execute it with chearfulness, however disagreeable I might find 
 it : and had not Mr. Stanley been named to succeed me, I should have 
 persevered till I had fulfilled every object of my instructions : but the 
 affair being now settled otherwise, I cannot avoid expressing to you how 
 very well pleased at it I am. To be sure the proceeding is extraordinary 
 to turn a man out, if I am turned out, immediately after he had finished 
 a treaty which had been the object of nine years' negociation, and which 
 the other contracting party declares aloud could be finished by nobody 
 else, and which the gentlemen concerned in the trade have thanked me 
 for in such terms as I blush to repeat. But some people tell me I am not 
 turned out ; no matter : I cannot in honor continue here whilst Stanley is 
 in Russia, because in the language of a great minister, I should not wish 
 to be responsible for measures which I am not permitted to guide ; or, 
 supposing I met with success in conjunction with him, I should certainly 
 get no thanks for it ; for, to borrow the expression of a minister of the 
 gospel, as 1 have just now done that of a minister of state, " When we 
 " have done all that we can, we are unprofitable servants ;" and what is 
 worse, unprofited too I assure you. I know at least I have found it so ;
 
 APPENDIX. No. I. 4XS 
 
 for not to speak of the expense of living here, which is very great, I have 
 spent above a thousand pounds of my own money for secret service. This 
 1 never mentioned before, nor do I intend to speak of it to the ofHce, 
 though, upon my honor, it is true ; but I am above it, and though I have 
 got no thanks for my service, yet since it has been of use to the public, I 
 do not regrtt it. For these reasons I have demanded leave to return to 
 England, at least whilst Stanley is here. I have another, which perhaps 
 you may think better than all — I have an ambition of sitting in the next 
 parliament, where, I hope, I shall be able to serve both my sovereign and 
 my country with more approbation and with better success. Be assured 
 that in all situations 1 shall act as a man of spirit, of honor, and inde- 
 pendence — no fiiend shall ever blush for me ; no enemy ever triumph . 
 over me, 
 
 " I must entreat that you will use your interest with Mr. Conway for 
 my leave to return home this winter, and also beg that proper instructions 
 may be given to Mr. Stanley, to inform himself in the most particular 
 manner of my conduct here as a minister, and especially, whether what 
 I say of Mr. Panin's yielding to the treaty merely from personal friendship 
 to me be true or not. In short, let the fiat question be put to Mr. Panin 
 himself. Seeing by the general's last dispatches, that I have not the con- 
 fidence of the present administration, I am reduced to the mortifying re- 
 flection, that it is possible my veracity may be questioned, and to the 
 necessity of having that veracity justified. Stanley is a man of honor, 
 and will nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice ; and his re- 
 port, I will venture to say, will be, that no man ever served his king and 
 his country with greater zeal, nor with a more unblemished reputation than 
 I have done. It is in vain to say, as possibly some may do, that no dis- 
 satisfaction is meant to me by naming an embassador. Certainly there 
 is, otherwise would they have named one without being sure whether it 
 was agreeable or not to this court ? and as it happens it is not. This 
 letter, my dear Burke, will appear a very vain one ; but called upon by
 
 4i6 APPENDIX. No. II. 
 
 this occasion, I am obliged to speak a great deal of myself: I have this 
 satisfaction however, that whatever I have said is literally true. 
 
 " I am much mortified at missing Ned's letter j but hope he will find 
 gome method of forwarding it to me. I have made very ample collcctiou 
 of every thing relative to this country, and shall with infinite pleasure 
 impart to you and Ned all my stores. If I have leisure between this and my 
 return, I will finish a treatise which I have been long working upon, and 
 which I flatter myself will give the completest and most impartial account 
 of this country that has yet visited the press *. 
 
 *' Adieu, my dear friend, be assured of the highest sentiments of 
 esteem and regard, Sec. &c, 
 
 > (Signed) " GEORGE MACARTNEY. 
 
 ■^ >» 
 
 No. II. 
 
 Letter from Sir George Macartney to i be Right Honorable Hans Stan- 
 ley, dated St. Fetersbourg, September ist (12) 1766. 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 i.T seems to me very happy for the public that administration did not 
 entertain such favorable sentiments of me as you are pleased to do ; for 
 had their opinion, either of ni) abilities or address, been in any degree an- 
 swerable to the flattering expressions of your letter, in all probability the 
 care of his Majesty's affairs here would never have been transferred to 
 your abler hands. 
 
 ■ For an account of this work, see page J93 of this volume.
 
 APPENDIX. No. II. 417 
 
 " Though it must give me some pain to leave a court, which has dis- 
 tinguished me by such uncommon marks of attention and regard, yet I 
 shall certainly do it with less regret, when I consider that your Excel- 
 lency is to be my successor ; persuaded too that your superior talents will 
 easily accomplish what my humble ones have attempted in vain. If you 
 think it is in my power to be of the smallest use to you here, during 
 the interval that remains till your arrival, I beg you will freely lay your 
 commands on me ; I shall esteem myself extremely happy in being ho- 
 nored with them, and I shall execute them with infinite pleasure. And 
 as you are so obliging as to offer me your services in England, I take the 
 liberty of entreating you to employ your good offices in obtaining for me 
 the King's immediate permission to return home for a few months, during 
 the winter, for the recovery of my health, which is in a very declining 
 state. In doing this you will confer upon me the highest obligation, and 
 on all occasions you may depend on finding me eminently grateful. 
 
 " I beg leave to conclude this letter by assuring you, without any 
 compliment, how much I respect your character, how much I honor your 
 abilities, and (whatever may happen in the revolution of public affairs) 
 how ambitious I shall always be of your private friendship. '» 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 (Signed.^ « GEORGE MACARTNEY." 
 
 VOL. :. 3 H
 
 ( 4i8 ) 
 
 No. III. 
 
 Letter from Sir George Macartney to the Right Honorable Henry 
 Seymour Conway, dated St. Petersbourg, November \6 (27), 1766. 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " T 
 
 X AM honoured with your very obliging letter of the 24th October, 
 
 and beg leave to assure you, that if of late I have felt any of that un- 
 easiness which is attributed to me, it was by no means on my own ac- 
 count ; so very indifferent am I to every sentiment of ambition or vanity, 
 that I could scarcely feel the smallest mortification, even from the sup- 
 posed loss of my credit as a minister ; and when I spoke of that circum- 
 stance in my dispatch to you, a zeal for the service, and a desire of in- 
 forming you of every thing which I imagined necessary for you to know, 
 were my only inducements. I myself could suffer nothing from the 
 adoption of such an idea here, but I was apprehensive the public affairs 
 might. Considering the accounts which the ministry here received from 
 all hands, particularly the communications of Mr. Gross * ; considering 
 that they saw an embassador named over me, supposed to be charged 
 with a commission not judged proper to be entrusted to me, and that 
 they knew also how I had been reprehended for consenting to the only 
 method, by which it was ever possible to conclude the treaty of com- 
 merce, it was natural enough for them to suppose that I could not enjoy 
 any great share of favor or confidence at home. Nor indeed did 1 pre- 
 sume to have much ; for till 1 was honored with your letter of the 30th 
 September (which letter I did not receive till three months after Mr. 
 Stanley's appointment) I was left entirely ignorant of my own destination, 
 and therefore, whenever questioned upon the subject, always d(.;clined 
 
 * Tlie Russian minister at the court of London.
 
 APPENDIX. No. III. 419 
 
 giving any explicit reply. I continued however to walk on as before in 
 the ministerial track without deviation ; I endeavored to do my duty to 
 the best of my abilities, and equally resigned myself to the obedience of 
 whatever orders I might receive, whether depressive of my hopes or flat- 
 tering to my wishes. I take the liberty of mentioning to you. Sir, these 
 particulars solely in the intention of destroying every suspicion which 
 might be entertained of me as if I was in any degree discontented. Dis- 
 appointed -I possibly might have been ; but I am not discontented. I feel 
 too much gratitude for his Majesty's gracious peruiission of returning 
 home for the recovery of my health, to suffer the slightest ill humor or 
 peevishness to intrude upon my sentiments or behaviour ; and I have such 
 confidence in your generosity and good nature, that I am persuaded if 
 any such ideas have been imbibed to my prejudice, you will not refuse to 
 contradict or remove them. 
 
 " And here, Sir, I must entreat you to accept my sincerest thanks for 
 the very obliging expressions of your last letter. Your good opinion 
 must be particularly flattering to me, and I might justly be vain on this 
 occasion, were I not humble enough to know that the best minister, 
 even when, like the best christian, he has done all that he can, is after 
 all but an unprofitable servant. 
 
 " Nothing can be more just than what you are pleased to observe 
 ought at present to be the objects of attention to a British minister re- 
 siding at this court ; and, I flatter myself, that no marks have been per- 
 ceived of my want of vigilance. Ever since I have had the honor of 
 being employed here, I have been watchful of every circumstance of 
 every kind, whether productive of foreign negociation or domestic in- 
 trigue ; but I laid it down as a rule never to communicate any thing to 
 you, the truth of which I had not the strongest reason to rely upon, and 
 particularly endeavored to avoid swelling my dispatches with dissertations 
 or conjectures. For these reasons the private broils of the court, and 
 
 3 H 2
 
 420 APPENDIX. No. III. 
 
 the silly squabbles of the bed-chamber, unless attended, or likely to hs 
 attended, with serious consequences, have seldom found a place in my 
 letters. It is true, that we are frequently alarmed with accounts, at some 
 times of smart repartees, and at others of sullen quarrels, between the 
 Empress and her favorite, either arising from her excess of sensibility or 
 his excess of presumption, but I have never found them of any great vio- 
 lence or duration ; and they seem only to resemble those clouds of sum- 
 mer which never descend in storms — they obscure the sun but for a 
 moment, soon disperse, and leave the sky in its former brightness and 
 serenity. It has often happened besides, that reports of such misunder- 
 standings have been purposely spread and artfully propagated, merely to 
 sound the opinion and temper of thepubhc; and this is so much suspected, 
 that if a serious quarrel was to happen, perhaps it would be regarded 
 with less attention than it really deserved. I have therefore avoided send- 
 ing you relations of this nature, generally persuaded that the history of to- 
 day's dispute would vanish before the account of to-morrow's reconcile- 
 ment. The report of the late misunderstanding, which you allude to, 
 had no real foundation ; but took its rise merely from a hunting party 
 which count Orlofi went upon some time since, and which occasioned 
 his absence from court for eight or ten days. His favor with the Empress 
 seems rather increased than diminished, and he is in appearance on the 
 best terms with Mr. Panin, who, perhaps, would be sorry to see a mi- 
 nion of genius or ability in his place."
 
 ( 421 ) 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 Letter from Sir George Macartney to the Right Honorable Heki^y 
 Seymour Conway, dated St. Petersbourg, jan, 26 (Feb. C), 1767. 
 
 " Sir 
 
 I 
 
 Resume my pen to answer your letters of the 19th December I'ast, 
 and to assure you that though 1 am persuaded my residence at this court, 
 in my present situation, can be of very little use to public affairs ; yet 
 since your commands are such, 1 shall most certainly remain here, and 
 drag on a miserable existence till 1 am relieved either by the arrival of my 
 successor, or by a natural dissolution. 
 
 ^ " Since you are pleased to mention the late season of the year as a 
 reason for Mr. Stanley's delaying to set out from England, I cannot but 
 regret how unfortunate it was that I did not sooner inform him that the 
 months of December, January, and February, are by far the most agree- 
 able, and undoubtedly the most proper, for travelling in this part of the 
 world, as the greater half of the journey, that is to say, from Dantzig to 
 this city, is then performed by sledgeway, and in a much more expedi- 
 tious manner than can possibly be done at any other season upon wheels. 
 I remember that I was ordered to set out on the ist November exactly two 
 months after my nomination, and the Earl of Buckinghamshire left this 
 in the middle of January ; and I don't recollect that either of us suffered 
 any great inconvenience from the coldness of the weather or the conge- 
 lation of the roads. 
 
 " Having very carefully perused your dispatches, I will endeavor to an- 
 swer them as methodically as I can ; and I must begin by observing, what I 
 flattered myself must be supposed without my repeating it, that had I been
 
 422 APPENDIX. No. IV. 
 
 even dismissed with disgrace, such a circumstance could never alter the 
 rectitude of my conduct as a minister, abate my diligence, or diminish my 
 attention. No, Sir, let what will happen, my actions shall always be 
 the result of a most steady obedience to my Sovereign's commands, and 
 of the sincerest devotion to the public service. I flatter myself that my 
 behaviour and correspondence, since the embassador's nomination, have 
 carried no marks of dissatisfaction or ill-humor on my part ; on the con- 
 trary, I believe that, v.'ithout uncommon discernment, it may be observed 
 that, since that event, I rather redoubled my activity, as long as I was 
 able to be active, than lessened my zeal ; and I do assure j'ou, Sir, that, 
 (however unfortunately I may augur of my endeavors) yet, as long as I 
 continue here, they shall be exerted with as much earnestness and vigor, 
 as if I flattered myself that they would be crowned with success. As to 
 my sentiments upon the appointment of Mr. Stanley, you really do me 
 too much honor in supposing them to arise from very elevated motives ; 
 for 1 will honestly confess I had no such feelings on the occasion as are 
 imputed to me. 1 think I know the world too well to suffer myself to be 
 tormented by evils which I cannot reverse, or to give way to discontent, 
 when it can only recoil on myself; and I hope I have not Hved to so little 
 purpose as not to bring my mind to that pitch of philosophy, which is 
 neither to be darkened by the worst fortune, nor dazzled with the best. A 
 man who has not calmness of temper and equanimity of soul to smile at 
 almost every disappointment, must be very ill-qualified for the character of 
 a public minister. 
 
 " Why then, Sir, should you imagine that I am dissatisfied ? I really 
 am not, and have humbler thoughts perhaps than are laid to my charge. 
 I have too little merit to expect consideration, and know myself of too 
 little consequence to be spared in a sacrifice if a victim was wanting ; 
 therefore I do assure you, Sir, that I think tiie not being dismissed from my 
 employment rather claims my gratitude than that any supposed slight could 
 ■call forth my discontent. I should be the weakest of mankind if I could
 
 APPENDIX. No. IV. 423 
 
 testify either anger or surprise at any events whatsoever, that the enmity 
 of fortune, directed by any pchtical convulsion, could inflict. Far irom 
 yielding to any of these emotions, I look upon the appointment of Mr. 
 Stanley as a very wise measure, and, had he arrived here some months 
 ago, might have been a very happy one. I should be as ill a patriot as a 
 courtier to think otherwise; and to convince you that my opinion was 
 directed by my judgment, I have in every dispatch told yo'u, how useful 
 his speedy arrival here might be, and on that account how ardently I 
 wished it. I find notwithstanding that he is still retarded ; I unfortunately 
 find too, that when I speak of his coming here, I am looked upon by all 
 my diplomatic brethren as the most consummate hypocrite that ever at- 
 tempted to impose a falsehood for a fact; for the general opinion is (such 
 is the vain and absurd notion entertained of my ministerial credit with Mr. 
 Panin) that I shall not be permitted to leave this at all. God forbid their 
 ideas should be realized ! God forbid any new accident should still delay 
 Mr. Stanley, whose coming here I cannot but look on as of the greatest 
 importance ; because I have not only declared it as a mark of particular 
 attention to the Empress ; but have represented it in such a light that I 
 will venture to promise, that as soon as it is certain that Mr. Stanley is set 
 out, an embassador will be immediately appointed from this court to that 
 of London. From this circumstance you will easily perceive. Sir, that so 
 far from being dissatisfied with Mr. Stanley's appointment, I have endea- 
 vored to give it all the merit and relievo that either private insinuations or 
 public declarations could do ; and I hope to have been in some degree 
 successful. Before I finish this part of my letter, 1 beg leave to repeat,, 
 once for all, that if any uneasiness has appeared in my correspondence, it 
 arose only from the pains of indisposition, the uncertainty of my situation,, 
 and my anxiety for the public service ; and by no means from discontent or 
 misapprehension. And now, Sir, after many apologies for troubling you' 
 with so long a dissertation upon myself, which nothing but your having 
 enlarged on the same subject c(3uld excuse, I proceed to the other parts of 
 your letter, 3
 
 4 = 4 APPENDIX.. No. IV, 
 
 " I do most Sincerely agree with you in your opinion of the absurdity 
 of Russia's inflexibility, and have done all in my power to engage her 
 to agree with us both ; but I might as well dream of governing human 
 society by the laws of Plato's republic, as of working upon this 
 ministry either by the common rules of negociation, or the principles of 
 cur ancient engagements. And, at this moment, I should think a treaty 
 of alliance with the Empress of Russia (during Mr. Panin's ministry) as 
 distant and unlikely to be brought about, as a league v.ithPrester John, or 
 the King of Bantam. I mean as long as no method can be hit upon for 
 removing the fatal, the only, difficulty that remains between us. 
 
 ■" And here, Sir, lest yoii should look upon this court's sending an 
 embassador to London as a favorable omen, I must put you on your 
 guard, and assure you that it arises merely from a sense of propriety in the 
 Empress, who w^ill not in this instance sufier herself to be outdone in po- 
 liteness or civility. If I might presume to know this court from a very 
 attentive perusal of two years, I would give my opinion by declaring that 
 we flatter ourselves with the vainest hopes, if we imagine that either the 
 late advances on our side, or the return on her's, will, in the present sen- 
 timents of this court, have the smallest eflect in bringing about a closer 
 union between us. 
 
 " We have no credit here, at present, the whole of it now lying be- 
 tween Mr. Asseburg and Count Solms *. What these gentlemen may 
 have to negociate together beyond the terms of private friendship 1 am at 
 a loss to conjecture ; but certain it is, they see one another of late much 
 more frequently than formeily, and that too in a sort of mysterious man- 
 ner, avoiding, as much as possible, the appearance of any great ccn- 
 iiection in public. In so much that though Mr. Asseburg goes genei-ally 
 i'our or five times a week to Mr. Solms' house, and that usually like 
 
 * The Danish and Prussian ^lilli^•ter3.
 
 APPENDIX. No. IV. 425 
 
 Nicodemus by night, yet either being afraid of his brother ministers, or 
 for some other reason, he conceals this intimacy very carefully even from 
 his own family. These gentlemen being both Prussians have talked to 
 Mr. Panin, I believe, pretty much in the same style upon the subject of 
 our alliance. And as the King of Prussia intends, if possible, to mono- 
 pohze the friendship of Russia to himself, without suffering any other 
 power to share it that he can hinder, I dare say that, even supposing the 
 present impediments to our union with this court removed, he would find 
 means to throw other remoras in the way ; so far from his forwarding or 
 assisting us, he has been all along, ever since my residence here, the 
 grand enemy of our interest. And I do really believe that the Mufti of 
 Constantinople might, with as much probability, expect a blessing from 
 the Pope, as the court of London flatter itself with hopes of assistance 
 from the court of Berlin in any Russian negociation. 
 
 " Your sentiments upon our affairs here, as expressed in your last 
 letter, are entirely mine ; and I have at every favorable opportunity en- 
 deavored to impress them upon Mr. Panin. I have been answered per- 
 haps of late in gentler terms than formerly ; but always with the same 
 meaning and determination of never yielding the point relative to Turkey. 
 My own opinion is, that this court has long since resigned all thoughts of 
 bringing us into the system, and therefore endeavors to compose it as 
 well as she can without us. My fear of this happening induced me, in 
 my dispatch of June 23d, old style, to beg of you to send me a counter- 
 project of a treaty of alliance, which appearance of negociation would 
 probably have prevented this court from taking any sudden resolution, 
 which might be dictated by despair of ever agreeing with us. But even 
 supposing she still may have views of allying herself to us, I cannot avoid 
 conceiving them to be very distant, and that It would be impossible to 
 put them speedily in execution, even if both parties were sincerely agreed. 
 The Impress seems of late to give much less attention to foreign politics 
 than formerly, and, at present, chiefly to turn her thoughts to the inte- 
 
 VOIv. I. 3 I 
 
 (
 
 426 APPENDIX. No. IV. 
 
 rior government of her dominions. She sets out in a few days for Mosco, 
 from Mosco she goes to JeroslafF, from Jeroslaff to Kasan, from Kasan to 
 SaratofF, from SaratofF to Astracan, and from Astracan heaven knows 
 where the genius of travelling may conduct her. Now, Sir, if you will 
 please to look over the map of this country, and consider the distance of 
 !j these places from one another, and the time necessary for making such 
 
 journeys, as well as the dissipation and confusion naturally attendant on 
 them, you must allow, I think, it will by no means be a season favorable 
 for negociating. 
 
 " When these peregrinations are over, another grand object will claim 
 her attention, 1 mean the convention of the states of the empire, in order 
 to compose and establish a new code of laws. Now as these states are to 
 consist of a number of deputies, perhaps eleven or twelve hundred, chosen 
 out of all ranks of people, and out of all nations under the Russian do- 
 minion, whether Christian, Pagan, or Mahometan, it is not to be expected 
 that the proceedings of so tumultuous an assembly should be very regular, 
 or their decisions very speedy. These circumstances, together with many 
 others too tedious to be here enumerated, will probably blunt the edge of 
 every appetite for foreign politics, and, during a considerable time, totally 
 engross the attention of the Empress, of her ministers, and of her people. 
 
 " The only chance we have of this court's abating her inflexibility upon 
 the Turkish clause is, that from the dissatisfaction of Sweden, or from 
 the convulsions in Poland (if France exerts herself in the one, and Austria 
 intermeddles in the other) some incidents may arise which will render our 
 alliance necessary to Russia on her own terms. For this reason, joined to 
 many others, I dare say you will readily agree how useful, nay, how ne- 
 cessary, the presence of a minister of Mr. Stanley's abilities is now become 
 here, and he must be sensible what advantage will result to his country, 
 and what glory to himself, if he can conquer that obstinacy, and remove 
 those mountainous difFicuhies, which have hitherto held at defiance all 
 the talents and address of his predecessors.
 
 APPENDIX. No. V. 427 
 
 *' I conceive too that it would be of infinite service to his Majesty's affairs, 
 if I was permitted to return home immediately, that I might give to admi- 
 nistration and to Mr. Stanley, a clearer, more accurate, and more particu- 
 lar account of things here, viva voce, than I can possibly do by letter, and 
 which being delivered to both at London would certainly be of more 
 utility than if communicated separately to each at different times and at 
 different places. But this I submit with every sentiment of deference to 
 the wisdom of my superiors, assuring you, however, at the same time, 
 that until the embassador arrives, your office-keeper could perform the 
 functions of a minister here, not only to as good purpose as myself, but 
 as well as a man of much higher abilities in my situation. Let me there- 
 fore once more entreat you. Sir, to interpose in my favor for permission 
 to return ; and be convinced that as soon as my health is re-established 
 I shall with uncommon readiness and pleasure obey his Majesty's orders, 
 whenever and wherever he is pleased to command me. 
 
 « I am, &c. &c. 
 
 (Signed) " GEORGE MACARTNEY." 
 
 No. V. 
 
 Lei ter from Lord Macartney to Lord George Germain, dciied St. 
 
 George's, Gretiada, Jidy 5, 1779, giving an Account of the Capture of 
 
 that bland by the Enemy. 
 
 i 
 " My Lord, 
 
 1. Have the honor to acquaint your Lordship that on Friday the i8th 
 past, a vessel which had escaped the day before from St. Vincent's, ar- 
 rived here, and brought me an account of the taking of that island by the 
 
 3 I 2
 
 428 APPENDIX No. V. 
 
 French, and of an expedition being intended from Martinique against 
 Grenada. I immediately dispatched several expresses' to communicate 
 this intelligence to Admiral Byron, and instructed them to proceed to dif- 
 ferent places in search of him. At the same time I ordered martial law 
 to be proclaimed, and gave directions for as many of the militia as 
 could be useful to come to town without delay. I then convened 
 the legislature, which most chearfully passed a vote of credit for sup- 
 > plying them, during a certain time, with provisions and other necessary 
 articles. 
 
 " Early on Friday morning the 2d instant, two of the dispatch boats, 
 which 1 had sent to look for the Admiral, returned without having met 
 with him either at St. Kitt's or Antigua, Barbadoes or St. Lucia. About half 
 an hour after nine in the forenoon of the same day, thirty-seven sail ap- 
 peared in the offing, at a considerable distance, steering for this island. 
 We, at first, flattered ourselves that it was a British fleet ; but soon dis- 
 covered it to be a French one, and learned that it consisted of tvi-enty-five 
 line of battle ships and twelve frigates, having fix thousand five hundred 
 land troops on board, the whole under the command of the Count 
 D'Estaing. 
 
 " I made, without loss of time, the best disposition I was able of the 
 little force 1 had for our defence. At one o'clock the French fleet came 
 to an anchor near Boismaurice Point, about three miles north of St. 
 George's, and immediately pushed on shore, under protection of their 
 guns, a large body of troops, which quickly begun to invest us. It was 
 not possible for us to prevent them from landing where they did, as we 
 had no coast batteries, nor indeed could we aflord to divide our strength, 
 the whole of which consisted of one hundred and one rank and file of the 
 48ih regiment, twenty-four recruits of the royal artillery, a few sailors 
 from the vessels in the port, and between three and four hundred 
 militia.
 
 APPENDIX. No. V. 429 
 
 " As our casemate was incapable of containing any numbers, and in no 
 part of it bomb-proof, as tvery discharge of the windward guns set the 
 barracks and other buildings on fire, and, as from the heights around us, 
 the very buckles "of our shoes could be plainly seen on the parade, the fort 
 was considered to be totally incapable of resisting any serious attack. It 
 therefore became necessary to turn our chief attention to the Hospital-hill, 
 which, for some time, we had been endeavoring to fortify, and to make 
 our principal stand there, as being the strongest ground in our power to 
 occupy, and commanding at once the town, the fort, and the harbor. 
 
 " Our people were distributed as follows : — The light infantry of the 
 40th regiment of twenty-five men, and a picket of fifteen, commanded by 
 Captain Montresor, took post below the battery at the east end of the 
 Hospital-hill, together with eighty grenadiers, and light infantry of the 
 St. George's militia, under Lieutenant-colonel Black. The remainder of 
 the St. George's militia, the St. David's, and the St. Andrew's, under 
 Colonels Lucas, Winniet, and Williams, amounting to near two hun- 
 dred men, occupied the north and south sides of the ridge. The St. 
 Patrick's and St. John's militia, of about seventy men, under Colonel 
 Grant and Lieutenant-colonel Eames, were appointed to defend the lower 
 battery at the Hospital barracks, supported by Lieutenant Brown's de- 
 tachment of ten men from the 48th regiment. Captain Darcy, with 
 fifteen men of the 48th, and a militia picket of the same number, was 
 ordered to the barrier, at the north entrance of the town, for the purpose 
 of guarding that pass. The troop of horse, consisting of twenty-four 
 cavaliers under Colonel Maxwell, was stationed at the foot of the hill, 
 near the east road, and sent out regular patroles every hour to reconnoitre 
 and bring intelligence. Two companies of the 48th regiment, of eighteen 
 men each, and a body of sailors under the command of Major Hedges, 
 remained in the fort where our magazrne was, with which we maintained 
 a free communication. I'he battery, commonly called Monckton's 
 Redoubt, on the south of the Carinage, was manned by a party of seamen.
 
 430 APPENDIX. No. V. 
 
 under Lieutenant Neale of the Adventure storeship. I established my 
 head-quarters at the west-end of the Hospital-hill, and there waited Mr. 
 D'Estaing's motions. 
 
 " In the evening one of the enemy's line of battle ships advanced into the 
 bay, and fired several shots on shore. Finding that the fort-guns did not 
 reach her, she paraded for some time before the town ; but one of our 
 four and twenty pounders from the Hospital-hill having passed between her 
 masts, she bore away and returned to her former station. After this 
 every thing remained pretty quiet till two o'clock the next morning, at 
 which hour an attempt was made by a party of the enemy to penetrate on 
 our left along the river ; but we gave them such a reception, that they 
 •were soon thrown into confusion, lost their way, and were obliged to re- 
 treat, which occasioned them a detour, when the day broke, over a great 
 deal of steep and difficult ground. They had several killed and wounded 
 in this affair ; but I have not been able to ascertain the number. We did 
 not lose a man — a prisoner whom we took informed us, that a great many 
 pieces of cannon and mortars were landing from the ships, and I perceived, 
 during all the forenoon, large bodies of troops taking post on the principal 
 eminences opposite to us. About three o'clock Mr. D'Estaing sent a flag 
 by one of his aid-de-camps, towards our lines, I dispatched an officer to 
 stop him at a proper distance, and receive his message, which was a 
 peremptory summons to surrender. My answer was as peremptory a 
 refusal, I have the honor to send you a copy of each. In the subsequent 
 evening the enemy extended themselves so as entirely to cut off our com- 
 munication with the country, and all their motions gave us reason to ex- 
 pect a speedy assault, against which we continued to hold ourselves as 
 well prepared as the smallness of our numbers would permit. Between 
 two and three o'clock in the morning of the 4th instant, a large 74 gun 
 ship begun to cannonade the town and fort, and a body of five hundred 
 men, commanded by the Count de Pontdevaux, attacked the north-west 
 end of the Hospital-hill, near the place, where they were repulsed befoije, 
 
 3
 
 APPENDIX. No. V, 
 
 431 
 
 whilst three columns of five hundred men each, led by the Visconnt de 
 Noailles, and the Counts Arthur and Edward Dillon, with an advanced 
 guard of two hundred, under the Count de Durat, pushed forward 
 to our lines near the east battery. Their onset was sustained by our 
 people with great steadiness and resolution for above an hour and an 
 half, notwithstanding that our little strength had been very considerably 
 diminished in the night, by the desertion of almost all the colored people, 
 and the greatest part of the new subjects, so that at the time of the at- 
 tack we had not three hundred men to oppose to the great force which 
 was brought against us. At length being overborne by dint of superior 
 numbers, we were obliged to quit our ground and retreat to the fort. The 
 enemy poured in with such impetuosity and in such multitudes, that the 
 orders for nailing up all our cannon could not be entirely executed, the 
 gunners on the great battery being killed with the matches in their hands- 
 We lost Lieutenant Carr of the 48th regiment, Lieutenant Willis of the 
 militia, two non-commissioned officers, and several privates who were 
 killed in the trenches. Our wounded are pretty considerable. Amono- 
 .them are Captain Montresor, (who was taken prisoner, and whose beha- 
 viour deserves every commendation,) one Serjeant, one drummer, one 
 fifer, and nine privates of the 48th regiment, together with about twenty- 
 five of the militia, some of whom I am afraid cannot recover. There 
 were also several sailors killed and wounded ; but I have not yet received 
 the account of them. I must beg leave to express my satisfaction at the 
 behaviour of all the officers and men employed under me, and particularly 
 to acknowledge my obligations to Lieutenant-colonel Edmeston, who 
 commanded the 48th regiment, and by whose opinion and advice our 
 military operations were chiefly conducted. His merits as a soldier, 
 his long service and many wounds are too well known for me to 
 say more upon this subject. Lieutenant Home, my major of the 
 brigade, dibtinguishcd himself much by his alacrity and clearness in de- 
 livering orders, and the indefatigable pains he took in every part ox. 
 his duty»
 
 432 APPENDIX. No. V. 
 
 " I must not omit the assistance I received from the spirit and activity 
 of Lieutenant Ross of the royal artillery, and of Lieutenant D'Obree of 
 the York sloop of war, from the officers of the Adventure store-ship, and 
 the masters of the merchantmen in the harbor. Though I have mentioned 
 a few only by name, it would be great injustice to the rest, if I did not 
 testify my entire approbation of them, 'ihe loyalty and spirited conduct 
 of the gentlemen of the colony, on this occasion, do them the highest ho- 
 nor and will, I doubt not, recommend them to the King's favor, when 
 the island shall revert to his dominion. 
 
 " From the best information I can obtain, the French lost about four 
 hundred men killed and wounded, amongst whom are some persons of 
 note. The Count D'Estaing was present in the affair, and in order to 
 animate his troops to the attack, promised them the pillage of our quarters. 
 Among the sufferers I am the principal, having lost my plate, papers, 
 cloaths, and most of my other effects to a very considerable value. 
 
 *' The enemy were now become possessed of all the commanding 
 heights, with mortars and heavy artillery, and being thus effectually en- 
 abled to bury us under the ruins of the fort in a few hours, without their 
 risking a man, or our having it in our power to molest them in the 
 smallest degree, opened their cannonade upon us. As the place was ab- 
 solutely untenable, and we had no other resource, being hemmed in on 
 all sides ; as the enemy were entire masters of the coast, and in our 
 situation, even the admiral if he had arrived could not assist us ; there 
 was nothing left for me, but to endeavor to obtain such a capitulation as 
 might be honorable to his Majesty's troops, and advantageous to the in- 
 habitants of the island. And this I conceived we were entitled to from 
 the defence we had made, and the example given by British commanders 
 on similar occasions : I therefore dispatched a flag to the Count D'Estaing 
 to propose a parley, who at first would only consent to an hour and an 
 half. It being however extended to three hours, I sent my aid-de-camp, 
 
 7
 
 APPENDIX. No. V. 
 
 433 
 
 Mr. Staunton, who is not unknown to your Lordship, with articles founded 
 on the capitulation of Dominique and St. Lucia, as a basis of negociation ; 
 but our weakness being too well known, and a system, it seems, having 
 been long fixed by the French with regard to this colony, as formerly 
 belonging to themselves, the Count peremptorily refused to enter into 
 any treaty, rejected my articles in toio, and instantly transmitted to me a 
 letter with certain propositions as his ultimatum, which, I believe, will 
 appear to your Lordship the most extraordinary project that ever entered 
 into the mind of a general or politician. Monsieur D'Estaing, who 
 imagined that the mere appearance of his force would have enabled him to 
 take the island without a blow, ' had brought this capitulation with him 
 ready manufactured from Martinique, possibly it may have originated at 
 a greater distance ; for though obscure and inconsistent in some parts, it 
 bore internal evidence of having been composed at leisure in the closet 
 not suddenly drawn up in a camp. It filled thirty-four folio pages, and' 
 was produced and delivered in a shorter time than would have been ne- 
 cesary to transcribe the title. Several copies of it were handed about at 
 the same time. 
 
 " The Vicomte de Noailles, who was charged with it, had instructions 
 to inform me in the most solemn manner, that the Count D'Estaing con- 
 sidering us at his discretion, and being fully sensible of his advantages, 
 would not admit of the slightest alteration in any article whatsoever 
 and had taken his resolution in case of our refusal. 
 
 " It required no deliberation in me to declare, that I never would put 
 my hand to such conditions, and all the principal proprietors of the island 
 then assembled, to whom I communicated them, unanimously preferred 
 to surrender at discretion rather than subfcribe to, or undertake to com- 
 ply with, terms, which were not merely unprecedented and humiliating, 
 but so ensnaring and so uncertain in their nature, extent, and aim, that 
 
 VOL. I. 3 K
 
 434 APPENDIX. No. V. 
 
 they might at any time supply pretexts for taking away the lives, togeiher 
 with the fortunes of the capitulants. 
 
 " Thus then having neither means of resistance nor possibility of re- 
 lief, determined never to consent to the capitulation offered to us, and 
 yet unable to obtain a better, we found ourselves reduced to the hard 
 necessity of yielding up the island without one. My only consolation un- 
 der so great a misfortune is that nothing was omitted, which could pos- 
 sibly have been done to avert it. 
 
 " In the inclosed paper. No. 6, your Lordship will find an exact list of 
 the French sea and land forces employed against us on this occasion. No. 7 
 is the monthly return of the five companies of the 48th regiment in gar- 
 rison here the ist instant, which, with the twenty-four artilleiy recruits 
 above mentiofied, were all the regulars we had for our defence. 
 
 " An assurance has been given that the inhabitants shall retain quiet 
 possession of their estates, and that during the present war they shall not 
 be obliged to bear arms against his Majesty. The remains of the five 
 companies of the 48th regintent, and the recruits of the artillery, together 
 with the officers and myself, are, I understand, to embark for France in 
 a few days. Mr. D'Estaing would on no account consent to any exchange 
 in the West Indies, or to our going on parole to a British or even a 
 neutral island. How far his conduct in this instance, so contrary to the 
 usual practice, how far his orders for plundering, or his refusal of an 
 equitable capitulation, and his pressing an inadmissible one, may be au- 
 thorised or approved of by those of his own nation, I know not ; but he 
 has now established a precedent by which, in the course of the war, they 
 must undoubtedly be the greatest sufTo'ers. 
 
 " The address. No. 8, which I take the liberty of transmitting, was 
 presented to me a few hours ago by the principal gentlemen of this colony.
 
 APPENDIX. No. V. 435 
 
 No. 9 contains a rough sketch of the principal attack of the Hospital-hill, 
 together with the fort and town of St. George's ; I hope soon to be able to 
 procure a more correct one. There are some other papers which 1 wished 
 to send, but I have not time at present to get them transcribed. 
 
 " I must be indebted to your Lordship's indulgence to excuse this long 
 and desultory letter, which is written by snatches in the midst of hurry 
 and confusion. I am afraid the style of it in some parts may appear to 
 have an air of military parade, which in me, who have not been bred in 
 a military line, would be particularly unbecoming ; but being desirous of 
 giving your Lordship the most distinct and accurate account of the late 
 scene here, I rather chose to run the risk of such a censure, than to 
 omit the slightest circumstance which might contribute to your infor- 
 mation. 
 
 " I have the honor to be with great respect, my Lord, your Lordship's 
 most obedient and most faithful humble servant, 
 
 (Signed) « MACARTNEY." 
 
 P. S. The French are usually very industrious in concealing their 
 losses, and their officers, who had a share in the late action, difier some- 
 what in their accounts ; but I have just received a list of their killed and 
 wounded, which I should imagine may be depended on. 
 
 Privates killed 
 
 - 
 
 III 
 
 Ditto - wounded 
 
 - 
 
 1 95 
 
 
 Total 
 
 306 
 
 Officers killed^ — ^Le Chevalier de la Bretonniere, Major. 
 Le Comte Dubourg, Captain. 
 Mr. Shee, Lieutenant. 
 3 K 2
 
 436 APPENDIX. No. VI. 
 
 Officers wounded. — Le Chevalier De la Pelin, Captain, 
 Mr. Maurgan, Lieutenant. 
 Mr. Dugan, ditto. 
 Le Baron de Kergus, ditto. 
 Mr. De Gautier, Aide Marccbal-general. 
 
 No. VI. 
 
 Intercepted Letter from the Nabob 'Nizau ud Dowlah to Fazel Beg 
 Cawn, endorsed, received 25 Raimzan, or 25/A September 1780. 
 
 J. Have at this time received a letter from Zulphecar ud Dowlah 
 Nagef Cawn Bahauder, which contains some particular matters, and I 
 herewith forward you a copy of the answer I have written to it. It was 
 not necessary to send you a copy of his letter, as my answer will suffici- 
 ently inform you of what he wrote me. 
 
 Letter to Nagef Cazvn. 
 
 " I have received your affectionate letter, in which you say, that we 
 are united by the fidelity and loyalty we both equally have for the sacred 
 person of his illustrious Majesty, and by the sincet e friendship which sub- 
 sists between us. You say, that I have heard how much you exert your- 
 self in supporting the dignity of the Imperial House ; that if I will follow 
 the example of my illustrious ancestors, it will be the means of raising my 
 good name, and manifest the loyalty I profess for his most sacred Majesty ; 
 and in order to do this, you request me to give you the assistance which 
 you expect from the sincerity of my friendship for you. You desire, at the 
 
 3
 
 APPENDIX. No. VI. 437 
 
 same time, to be informed of the particulars of the alliances I have en- 
 tered into with the warfaring powers in this part. Your above letter has 
 {^iveii me inexpressible satidaction, and I fully understand the contents 
 of it. In conformity with the loyalty and fidelity which I have since my 
 birth entertained for his Majesty's illustrious house, it is my sole occupa- 
 tion at all times, as God is my witness, to search after occasion to raise 
 the glory and power of his sacred Majesty, whose reign may the Almighty 
 ever render flourishing ! It was with this view that, some time before I 
 received your friendly letter, I wrote you to assure you of my fidelity 
 towards his Majesty, and the sincerity of my friendship for you. 
 
 " The world is now involved in calamities through the turbulence of 
 the English. The deceits of this wicked nation are spread over the whole 
 empire ; wherever the seed of their malignity has been sown, it has shortly 
 grown up into a tree, bearing the fruits of their wickedness. These peo- 
 ple, with the greatest inward deceit and treachery under the cloak of sin- 
 cerity, and professing a strict adherence to their engagements, have 
 stretched forth their hands over what they, in a most humble manner, at 
 first affected to borrow — a people worse than women, who, by their 
 fraud and the fire of their cannon, which without distinction is an enemy 
 to all, have trod under and consumed the honor of the most illustrious 
 families in this country — a handful of people, without a head or founda- 
 tion, have possessed themselves of the three richest provinces in the empire, 
 every one of which is equal to a kingdom — a set of merchants, without a 
 name and scarcely known, have ingrossed and disposed of, as they please, 
 the revenues of the Imperial Crown — a handful of tradesmen, who, in 
 their nature, are like foxes, have pretended to put themselves on a footing 
 with tygers. Since the necessity of punishing this wicked people is obvi- 
 ous, there is no time to be lost in considering of it ; for these shameless 
 people are not able to face the heroes of war, or bear their deadly blows. 
 They are indebted to fortune alone, which has favored them hitherto, for 
 the acquisitions they have made with hostile intentions, which they conceal
 
 438 - APPENDIX. No. VL 
 
 under appearances of a friendly epistolary correspondence ; they are, 
 since the last wars against them, enjoying ease and tranquillity in their 
 corners. We owe this to our misfortunes and sins. The Almighty 
 changes not the situation of men until they change it by their own actions ; 
 yet the Almighty has been pleased to infuse his divine light into me, and 
 point out by inspiration a way to punish these people ; for I was the first, 
 through the favor of his gracious Majesty, to contrive the means of root- 
 ing them out. As these shameless people have established settlements in 
 different parts of the empire, under the pretence of giving assistance, to 
 such as are powerful in wealth and territories, against their enemies, and 
 raised the flame of war, it will be difficult to root them out entirely, un- 
 less a resolution takes place to attack and chastise them at once from all 
 quarters. For if the fire of war is not lighted at the very foundation of 
 this people, wherever they are, their settlements cannot be finally de- 
 stroyed. It was with this vie^v that I stirred up the Poonah ministers and 
 Hyder Ally Cawn against them ; the Poonah army was to attack the 
 troops which, under Colonel Goddard, are raising troubles in Guzerat and 
 at Surat. 
 
 " Hyder Ally Cawn, agreeably to this plan, is destroying the country 
 about Arcot and Madras, and engages their attention on that side. 
 Modojie Bunsila will attack the Bengal provinces, which are in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Berar. I contrived so that these people should be so closely 
 attacked, and invested on all sides, that they should want for all sorts of 
 provisions, so as to be reduced in a short time to the extremity of their 
 former situation. All those, whom I engaged in this, have performed 
 their parts, and agreed to make war and peace with the concurrence of 
 each other ; that neither of the parties should get any advantage or suffer 
 any loss without the other sharing in it. 
 
 " His gracious Majesty has without doubt been informed of this my 
 plan from the intelligence papers from the Decan j the crown Muttsiddees
 
 APPENDIX. No. Vr. 
 
 439 
 
 in the different Jaghyres, whose constant employment it is to write the 
 occurrences of the day, have no doubt transmitted accounts of it. As this 
 plan has been shown to all the Tonjdars and Jemadars of the Decan, they, 
 seeing the advantages likely to accrue from it to themselves, have acquiesced 
 and paid obedience to it. Hyder Ally Cawn accordingly has marched 
 towards Arcot and Madras, and lighted the flame of war in that country ; 
 Modojie Bunsila has sent his son Candajee Bunsila with twenty thousand 
 horse towards Bengal ; the fair season being almost over, they remained 
 in the Cattack country ; but, by the blessing of God, they will enter into 
 Bengal at the beginning of next year. The forces of the Pundit Perdhaun 
 sought opportunities to attack Colonel Goddard to the westward ; but the 
 rains setting in they were obliged to go into quarters j but first destroyed, 
 according to their custom, all the grain and provisions in the country. 
 They will, with the blessing of God, effectually destroy the enemy at the 
 beginning of the year. 
 
 " I have thought proper to give information of all this to his Majesty, 
 before it happened, lest he might imagine this confederacy was intended 
 for something else. Without a blow is struck at the enemy, they cannot 
 be destroyed effectually. The discovery of this plan cannot be any detri- 
 ment to it now, and 1 have therefore given you a particular account of 
 what has been done, and of the advantages which will accrue from this 
 great undertaking. Modajie Bunsila's forces are employed to invadeBengal ; 
 but 9S they are not very considerable, it would be proper to send his Ma- 
 jesty's army to the number of two hundred thousand horse by Lucknow 
 into Bengal, and join with Holker and Modojie Scindia, the twoMahratta 
 chiefs, for that purpose. The more quarters in which these Christians are 
 engaged, they will be more divided, and at a loss how to act against such 
 attacks. Keep this in your view, and let no one have the leading of this 
 expedition but yourself, and embrace this opportunity of establishing the 
 imperial authority and power of his sacred Majesty.
 
 ( 44° ; 
 
 No. vn. 
 
 Lord Macartney's private Note of Application to his Highness the Naboh 
 of the Carnatic^ dated ^th fuly 1781. 
 
 " Fort St. George. 
 
 1\L'L the interests of his Highness the Nabob, and those of the Com- 
 pany on the coast of Coromandel, are now in the greatest danger. The 
 Company has a considerable army in the field, but money, provisions, 
 and cattle, all which must be amply supplied in order to carry on war 
 with success, are almost entirely wanting. Lord Macartney has a perfect 
 knowledge of the friendly sentiments of the King of Great Britain towards 
 his Highness, and is instructed by the Court of Directors to cultivate and 
 preserve, by every instance of service and attention, the close connection 
 which has long subsisted between his Highness and the British nation. His 
 Lordship thinks it therefore the first and most pressing object of his duty, 
 on finding his Highness's dominions invaded, to make the most speedy 
 and spirited efforts to repel the enemy. The first and immediate point to 
 be acccomplished is to find a fund for defraying the charges of the army. 
 His Lordship is driven to the necessity of applying to his Highness to fur- 
 nish such a fund ; and his Lordship flatters himself, that his Highness 
 will please to signify to him, without delay, what his intentions are in this 
 respect. It has been recommended to this presidency in the strongest 
 terms by the governor- general and supreme council of Bengal to require 
 from his Highness the immediate transfer of his country, in exclusive 
 assignment, during the war only ; and for the sole purpose of defraying 
 the expenses it occasions : his Lordship however would be still better 
 pleased that his Highness could procure, on this important occasion, a 
 sum of money of at least five lacks of pagodas to be solely applied to the 
 recovery of his own dominions, than to take such an assignment, especi-
 
 APPENDIX. No. Vm. 441 
 
 ally if it was not perfectly agreeable to his Highness to grant it. But the 
 alternative seems essential as, without cash to pay the troops, or such an 
 effective assignment as will ensure a loan, the most fatal consequences 
 may await his Highness and the Company. His Lordship is deeply con- 
 cerned at being obliged to begin his government v.'ith proposals of this 
 kind, and has only the consolation of hoping that, on the restoration of 
 peace, he will be able, as he is desirous, to promote the honor and pro- 
 sperity of his Highness, and of his illustrious house. 
 
 (Signed) « MACARTNEY," 
 
 No. VIII. 
 
 Nabob's Chop (0,) being the Assignment of the Revenues of the Carnatic to 
 Lord Macartney, for the Use of the East India Company. 
 
 J. HIS paper is to have all the force and validity of a Saned, and no 
 other instrument is necessary between his Highness the Nabob and the 
 Governor on the behalf of the Company. His Highness empowers the 
 Governor to appoint all renters or amuldars to be confirmed by his High- 
 ness. The Governor to settle with them for rent. The time of renting 
 to be for three or five years as the Governor shall settle with the renters. 
 Rent not to be inferior to net revenue of his Highness's exchequer in 
 similar circumstances. The orders which his Highness will give shall not 
 aflect the revenue. Orders relative to the revenue shall proceed from 
 Lord Macartnev alone. Orders from his Highness and ironi his Lordship 
 to be communicated to each other. His Highness will give usual cowles 
 
 VOL. I. 3 L
 
 442 APPENDIX. No. VIII. 
 
 to the amuldars who shall be appointed by the Governor, with the addition 
 of a clause, declaring that all monies are to be paid to the orders of the 
 Governor only. The Governor obliges himself to pay to his Highness the 
 sixth part of the revenue from time to time, as the same shall be received 
 by the Governor, and to pay it agreeably to his Highness's orders here, or 
 in the respective countries where the same shall be collected, as his High- 
 ness shall please to direct. The remaining five parts of the net receipt of 
 the revenue shall be placed to his Highness's credit with the Company. 
 The Governor to furnish receipts to his Highness from time to time for the 
 sums that shall be received on his Highness's account. His Highness de- 
 clares, that during the period now agreed upon, of five years, he will 
 not remove or dismiss any renter without the knowledge and consent of the 
 Governor. His Highness also empowers the Governor to regulate and re- 
 ceive all peishcash, and all other revenues of the Carnatic : allowance to 
 be made only by the Governor for the amount of his Highness's Saneds for 
 giving peishcash for one or two years, granted before the 2d day of April 
 last. All new SaAeds to Polygars to be given by his Highness and not by 
 the Governor ; such revenues to be so regulated as not to be inferior to the 
 net receipts in similar circumstances. The Governor to pay one-sixth part 
 also of such peishcash and other revenue to his Highness. The remainder 
 to be placed to his credit, as in the case of the amount of rents. Lord 
 Macartney will please to act conformably to this paper, which is signed 
 and sealed in duplicate, both by his Highness and the Governor, and re- 
 ciprocally delivered to each other. 
 
 Cy Nabob's signature. 
 ^^^ (Signed) « MACARTNEY. 
 
 " Madras, December 2, 1781."
 
 ( 443 ) 
 
 No. IX. 
 
 Letter from //'^Governor-general and Council o/" Bengal /u the 
 Honorable Charles Smith and Select Committee of Fort St. 
 George, eticloshig certain Papers purporting to be an Agreement of equal 
 Force and Validity with a formal Treaty, between this Go\''ernor- 
 general and Council of Bengal, and the NABoa of Arcot, 
 dated Fort William, Aprils, 1781. 
 
 " Hon. Sir and Sirs, 
 
 JL. HE Nabob having deemed it expedient, in the present critical state 
 of his affairs, to send his minister Assam Cawn 011 a deputation to us, 
 and to invest him with full powers to treat with this government for the 
 attainment of several points, as particularly set forth in his instructions, 
 we have maturely considered the nature and extent of the requests pre- 
 ferred by the Nabob, and have in consequence come to such resolutions 
 upon them, as we doubt not will contribute equally to the support of the 
 Nabob's honor and character, the satisfaction of his numerous creditors, 
 the benefit of the Company, and the preservation of his country. For 
 your complete information upon this subject, we enclose you a copy of the 
 requests of the Nabob, together with a copy of the replies we have made 
 to every article separately, and earnestly recommend it to you to conform 
 strictly to the agreement entered into on our parts, and on the part of the 
 Nabob ; which, though not executed in the terms of a formal instru- 
 ment, we look upon to have all the sanction, force, and validity of a 
 treaty. 
 
 " And for the better security that the plan of public arrangement, 
 settled as we hope now, upon a permanent basis, and in such a manner 
 as to secure to us the thanks of the creditors and the approbation of the 
 
 3 L 2
 
 444 APPENDIX. No. IX. 
 
 Company, shall not be interrupted by secondary private considerationf?, 
 or the interference of individuals, to the detriment of the general interests, 
 it was our original intention to appoint a servant of this establishment to 
 be our resident at the Nabob's durbar, and the instrument of communi- 
 cation from us to you upon all matters that mutually relate to the Nabob 
 and the Company, in the points abovementioned. Though we still ad- 
 mit the propriety of such a measure, and are unwilling to deviate from our 
 original intention, in preference to any of the Company's servants upon 
 another establishment, yet the very particular manner in which the 
 Nabob has recommended Mr. Richard Joseph Sulivan to this appointment, 
 and the intimate confidence with which it appears he has distinguished 
 this gentleman, by joining his name in the commission with Assam Cawn, 
 and thereby making him a party to the agreement which has been con- 
 cluded, would argue a want of respect in us towards the Nabob were we 
 to withhold our assent ; especially as we have an opinion of the abilities 
 and integrity of Mr. Sulivan, and believe him quaUfied for such a 
 trust. 
 
 " We have therefore thought proper to appoint Mr. Richard Joseph 
 Sulivan the representative and minister of this government at the court of 
 the Nabob Wala Jah, for the purpose of maintaining the faith of this 
 government in the agreement concluded with the said Nabob, and for the 
 representation of such matters as may at any time require his interposition 
 in that character, and in our name, either with the Nabob, or with the 
 President and Council or Select Committee of Fort St. George, and we 
 have accordingly granted him credentials to this efi'ect, a copy of which is 
 enclosed. 
 
 " We are, honovable Sir and Sirs, 
 
 " Your most obedient humble servants, 
 
 (Signed) ' " WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 " EDW. WHEELER. 
 
 •' Fort William, April 2, 1781," 
 
 i
 
 APPENDIX. No. IX. 445 
 
 Letter from the Governor-general and Council of Bengal ta 
 Richard Joseph Sulivan, Esq. appointing him their Representative 
 and Minister at the Court of the Nabob of Arcot, dated Fort William^ 
 April 2, 1781. Enclosed in the above. 
 
 " WE the Governor-general and Council, m virtue of the Powers 
 vested in us by the King and Parliament of Great Britain, and by the 
 English East India Company, to direct and control the politi:al affairs 
 of all the Company's settlements in India, relying on your fidelity, pru- 
 dence, integrity, and circumspection, have deputed and appointed you to 
 be the representative and minister of this government at the court of the 
 Nabob Waula Jah ; for the purpose of maintaining the faith of this go- 
 vernment in the agreement which has been this day concluded with the 
 said Nabob, and for the representation of such matters as may, at any 
 time, require your interposition in that character, and in our name, 
 either with the Nabob, or with the President and Council, or Select 
 Committee of Fort St. George j and we do hereby delegate to you full' 
 powers and authority to act in that country. 
 
 " Given in Fort William under our hands, and the seal of the Company, 
 this ad day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred 
 and eighty-one. 
 
 (L. 5.) 
 
 (Signed) " Governor-General and Council. 
 
 " A true copy. 
 
 " E.Hay, Act. Sec."
 
 446 APPENDIX. No. IS. 
 
 The Requests of the Nabob Walla Jah to ihe Govhrnorgenerai.. 
 
 " I. LET a treaty be firmly esfablished between us which may last 
 for ever, and be subject to no deviation. 
 
 " 11. I am the hereditary prince of the Cavnatic, and of Balla Ghaut 
 under Pianghaut, and am independent of every one ; and I have entire 
 right and authority over my country, my children, my family, my ser- 
 vants, and subjects ; and have power in the political and domestic admi- 
 nistration of my country. This ought to be altogether dependent on mc, 
 and let not my friends interfere in it^ 
 
 " III. As the Company and English nation are the protectors of my 
 honor and government, they will act in those points only where the ad- 
 vancement of my interests is concerned. 
 
 *' IV. Ten battalions of well-disciplined troops are stationed by me 
 with the Company, and are paid by me, let them take nothing from me 
 except the pay of them ; and let all the contingent expenses, the batta for 
 their marches, and the repairs of the forts be by my consent, and let the 
 accounts of every three months be punctually delivered to me within the 
 sixth month. When peace shall be restored, I will discharge the amount ■ 
 regularly j and let the Governor and Council of Madras give me a full 
 receipt, and in time of peace let them assist me with these ten battalions, 
 that I may settle the country subject to me, and derive some advantage 
 from the expense. 
 
 *' V. Many Poligars notwithstanding that they have met with the 
 greatest favor from me in time of peace have, from their ambitious and 
 rebellious views, joined my enemy Hyder Ally, and begun open war. I
 
 APPENDIX. No. IX. 
 
 447 
 
 can therefore never place any reliance upon them, or look upon them as 
 deserving of favor. In this case my subjects are to be kept in awe by 
 the punishment of these people, for which assistance is necessary. 
 
 " VI. After peace and alliance is made between me and the English 
 Company, the enemies, the security, and the dangers of both will be the 
 same ; that is to say, whoever of us suffers any injury, it will be felt by 
 both of us. I therefore wish that the English in India, or the King of 
 Great Britain, would make a treaty of peace with the King of France : 
 and let the peace and security of the Carnatic, and the rights of my 
 government without the connection of any one, and my power to ap- 
 point a successor in the Carnatic be settled in a solid manner, and con- 
 cluded in the treaty. 
 
 " "VII. In the garrisons of my forts,, commandants and paymasters 
 are sent, who, at the advice of their Dobhashes with a view to profit, 
 lend money to the Ryots at an exorbitant interest, and afterwards are 
 pressing for the money, and interfere in the government, and assist one 
 another, by which great injury is done to my subjects and to myself. 
 Let it be positively ordered that without my permission no one lend money 
 to my subjects, and that for what is past as well as future, the interest on 
 all loans be 1 2 per cent, -per annum ; and that if any person should act 
 contrary to this, and should distress the Ryots, I shall complain against 
 him and request his removal, and the Governor and Council of Madras 
 will remove him from his office, and appoint another person in his 
 room. 
 
 *' VIII. My constant wish has been to discharge the money due to 
 the troops stationed by the Company, and I have always exerted myself 
 for this purpose. From the commencement of my connection I have paid 
 very considerable sums on this account, and on the day that Hyder in- 
 vaded the Carnatic, I owed the Governor and Council of Madras less 
 
 6
 
 448 
 
 APPENDIX. No. IX. 
 
 than one lack of pagados, which 1 was in hopes of discharging by re- 
 ceiving bills from the bankers in the country ; when in the mean while the 
 attack of our enemy began, and instead of paying the balance in money 
 to the Company, provided in my country a greater amount than that in 
 rice and bullocks, and sheep for the army, besides the stores in my forts, 
 of which there is a large supply in Trichinopoly, and a less quantity in 
 Velore, &c. and what was in those forts which our enemy has taken is 
 in his possession. Had not my bad destiny produced many obstacles, 
 there is no doubt but at this tiine I should not have been indebted one 
 single pagoda to the Company. Of several Talooks of the Carnatic, 
 which are still secure from our enemy, the collections are included in the 
 accounts of the Company ; but some Talooks are assigned to my credi- 
 tors, and some I have received the Peishgall in advance for. Whatever is 
 collected from those Mahals, let it be expended for the Company ; but 
 for the satisfaction of my creditors, my friends must be just as soon as the 
 enemy shall have left my country, let the collections of those Talooks 
 be given to my creditors, in order to pay off their principals, agreeable to 
 my engagements with them. 
 
 *' IX. For several reasons, and from the invasion of my enemy, which 
 are not unknown to my friends, I am greatly distressed, and my subjects 
 are not in a state to suffer me to have any hopes from them ; with my ex- 
 ertions and endeavors alone it is difficult to adjust my concerns : it is ne- 
 cessary that my friends should be just and favorable to me, and should 
 assist me in this manner by giving into my hands, after the defeat of our 
 enemy, the talook of Keerpah and Zeerghaut, and several Mahals in 
 Ballaghaut belonging to Carnatic Pianghaut, which are in my country, 
 and are my right : and I will maintain in my service five thousand well- 
 disciplined horse for the collection of it. 
 
 . " X. The Talooks of Tanjore which is my right, I at a considerable ex- 
 pense, conformably to the. rules and practice of Ilindostan, took pos.
 
 APPENDIX. No. IX. 449 
 
 session of; in this my friends assisted me, for which I returned tliein 
 thanks : since that they have, at the sole instigation of self-interested people, 
 taken it from me by force, which has brought great damage to mc, my 
 subjects, and creditors. To this time such is the situation. 
 
 " Numbers of my creditors are Englishmen, which is not unknown to 
 you, as I have repeatedly written to you. From that time my right has 
 been given up to a Ryot of mine ; but no advantage has accrued from it 
 to the Company's concerns ; but, on the contrary, he has connected 
 himself secretly with Hyder Ally and the Marattas, and has refused to 
 supply money and stores, but keeps all his money in Nagpatam, a Dutch 
 settlement. If my friends would act justly, and give the Talook to me, 
 great advantage would be derived from the Company's and my affairs ; 
 and the views of our enemies would be counteracted ; otherwise let the 
 whole collections of Tanjore be appropriated to the payuient of the Car- 
 natic army, my public and private debts, and the expulsion of our 
 enemy. Tanjore is a Talook of the Carnatic, and let a share of it be as- 
 signed to my creditors, that they may be quieted and pacified in some de- 
 gree, till my friends in England shall have done me justice, and let the 
 Governor-general and Council, conformably to their justice and greatness, 
 write about this matter, which is my right. The Governor-general and 
 council have the administration of the affairs of India ; if the inquiry into 
 this matter depends on the gentlemen in Europe, it is for the general ad- 
 vantage that they should write about it. I am the friend of the Com- 
 pany ; the great weight of debts, the mortgaging my jewels, and the sale 
 of them, have brought on me a disgrace and distress, which the Com- 
 pany never meant to have come upon their old friend. 
 
 " XI. Besides the expenses of the Company, the pay of my troops, 
 the native bankers my creditors, the Hindoo and Mussulmen securities, 
 I am indebted about seventy lacks of pagodas to European creditors, both 
 old and new, and people living under the protection of the Company. 
 When I reflect on the payment of such large suras, I am plunged into a ■ 
 
 VOL. J. '\ M
 
 450 
 
 APPENDIX. No. IX. 
 
 sea of distress. Except from the assistance of my friends, I can see do 
 release from this heavy load, that having escaped from such anxiety might 
 apply myself to the cultivation of the country, and the protection of the 
 Ryots. I therefore beg your advice and sentiments on this point, which I 
 request you to give in such a manner as no injury may arise to my concerns 
 and reputation, no detriment to my creditors, and no loss to the 
 Company. 
 
 " A true Copy, 
 
 " E. HAY, Act. Sec." 
 
 Replies from the Hoiiorahle the Governor-general and Council to the 
 Requests of his Higbriess the Nabob Wallah Jah. 
 
 " A temporary treaty shall be made subject to the revision and approba- 
 tion of the Company, and it is hoped that this may serve as the basis of 
 another treaty, to be concluded under the orders and instructions of the 
 Company, and even with the sanction of the English parliament, which 
 may endure for ever, and rendered so binding, that it shall not be in the 
 power of any individual to break it, or to depart from it. 
 
 " II. The right and authority which the Nabob possesses over his 
 country, his children, his family, his servants, and subjects, in all the poli- 
 tical and domestic administration of his country, we will maintain and 
 support. 
 
 " III. Certainly. 
 
 " IV. Both the pay of the troops, and their batta and contingent ex- 
 penses, and even the repairs of the forts, if any repairs are necessary, 
 ought undoubtedly to be charged to the Nabob's account, because these 
 are expenses incurred for his own immediate service, and in the time of
 
 APPENDIX. No. IX. 45, 
 
 war must depend upon the commander in chief of the forces under the 
 customary regulations and restrictions. The remainder of this article is 
 very proper ; but it seems strange to us that a chum should be made of 
 this kind, or any doubts implied concerning it. 
 
 " V. The Nabob is the master of his own country, and the distri- 
 butor of justice to his own subjects. This is so clear that it appears as if 
 somet)iing more was meant than is expressed in the proposition. 
 
 " VI. In whatever treaty shall be concluded between the Nabob and 
 the Company, it will of course be stipulated that the friends or enemies of 
 either party shall be held as equally the friends or enemies of the other, 
 and their interests, their safety, and their danger the same. Such has 
 been the implied condition of the alliance hitherto subsisting between the 
 Nabob and the Company, although unsupported by any written en- 
 gagements. Respecting the latter claim of this article, we are Informed 
 by Assam Cawn the Nabob's Dewan, that the Nabob possesses letters 
 from the Company, and the King's minister, and the King himself on the 
 subject of his will, and he has produced copies of those from the King 
 and from the Company, which all express a clear acknowledgment of 
 the Nabob's right to appoint a successor to the government of the Carna- 
 tic. It is therefore unnecessary, and would be unbecoming in this go- 
 vernment to make any provision, even in a temporary treaty, for such an 
 event, which we hope is far distant. Such acknowledgments are equiva- 
 lent to treaties, and of the highest possible authority, and must be 
 binding on all the servants of the Company, and on all the King's 
 subjects. 
 
 *' VII. We are greatly afflicted that any occasion should have been 
 afforded for such complaints as are stated in this article. They are no less 
 repugnant to justice, than Injurious to the English reputation. We are 
 willing to engage on the part of the'-EngHsh Company, and of all their 
 
 3 M 2
 
 452 
 
 APPENDIX. No. IX. 
 
 dependants, that no one under their authority shall be permitted to lend 
 money to any of the Nabob's subjects for the time to come. That it shall 
 be prohibited in public orders ; and it is equitable that if any person shall 
 act contrary to this prohibition, or shall oppress the Ryots, the Nabob 
 shall have a right to require his removal, and the Governor and Council 
 of Madras shall be bound on such requisition to remove him, and to bring 
 him to a public trial, that he may suiFer such sentence as shall be due to the 
 degree of the offence, if it be established against him. But as we con- 
 ceive that it will be often difficult in cases of this nature to obtain such 
 evidence of the facts, as the strict forms of our military laws shall require ; 
 and must in every case render the Nabob popularly obnoxious by standing 
 forth, as he necessarily must, in the character of a prosecutor, against 
 the servants of the Company, to whom he ought never to be known but 
 by acts of benevolence ; and as the appointment to military commands in 
 his country is intended for his sole benefit, and the support of his govern- 
 ment and interests, we proceed yet further to declare, that the Nabob has 
 just claim to object to the appointment of any person of whom he shall 
 disapprove to any command in his country, or to the continuance of any 
 person in any such command, against whom he shall have cause of suffi- 
 cient validity for his own conviction to object, and that in every such 
 case the Governor and Council ought to conform to his objections. But 
 the invariable application of this rule can only be admitted in a time o£ 
 peace. In a state of actual war It mi^t be productive of dangerous con- 
 sequences, and the principle on which it is constructed must be therefore 
 in such a season left to the equity of the Governor and Council, and the; 
 discretion of the Commander in Chief of the forces. 
 
 <( 
 
 VIII. This Is just. Let the Nabob consent and engage to assign 
 all the revenues of his country during the war, without any exception, to 
 the Company, for the actual support of the war. Let the collections and 
 these assignments be made by his own Aumils in conjunction with persons 
 appointed \)y the President and Council of Fort St. George, and invested
 
 APPENDIX. No. IX. 453 
 
 with an authority from him to receive from the Aumils all the money 
 which shall be collected, and to intercept and seize all sums of money 
 which the Aumils or others shall attempt to secrete from the districts under 
 their jurisdiction ; tliat the whole may be applied and exclusively appro- 
 priated to the service of the war, excepting such sums as the Nabob shall 
 require to be paid immediately to himself for his own and the necessary 
 disbursements of his country ; that he will remove and punish such of his 
 Aumils as shall attempt to elude this regulation ; and that the persons 
 ftbovementioned appointed to rec£ive the revenues, as the pledge of their 
 integrity, shall be required to swear that they will be true to the trust re- 
 posed in them, and that they will neither receive, nor permit to be taken 
 either directly or indirectly, any portion of the revenues, but such as they 
 shall bring to a public account. That of such Talooks as have been 
 assigned to the Nabob's creditors, the nettsums of the collections shall be 
 received into the Company's treasury for the services of the war, as above 
 provided, but carried to the credit of the collection head of the Nabob's 
 creditors, to whom they have been assigned, to be hereafter distributed- 
 amongst them according to their respective claims. By this arrangement 
 the resources of the Carnatic will be apphed, as they ought to be, to its 
 immediate defence and preservation ; and the Nabob's faith and the rio-hts 
 of the creditors will be secured. And this is agreeable to the request 
 which the creditors themselves have formally made. 
 
 " IX. The recovery of the Carnatic from- the hands of the enemy- 
 must be our first object ; that of its dependencies will be the second ; but 
 it will rest upon our ability. It cannot be made a fixed article oY a treaty, . 
 The purpose for which the proposed annexations of Curkapah and Zeer 
 Ghaut Gutti, and the several Mahals in Balaghaut, v/hich belong to Car- 
 natic Payen-Ghaut, is professed to be intended, is equally necessary for 
 the service of the Nabob and of the Company, and the future security, 
 of their common interests, and therefore must be equally the desire of. 
 both.
 
 454 
 
 APPENDIX. No. IX. 
 
 " X. This government hath no authority to inquire into the recipro- 
 cal claims of the Nabob and the Rajah of Tanjore. They are before a 
 higher and a competent tribunal. We can only require that as the Ze- 
 mindary of Tanjore is a member of the Soubah or province of Carnatic, 
 its resources shall in like manner be primarily, and at this time of com- 
 mon danger, be exclusively applied to the maintenance of the forces em- 
 ployed in the defence and preservation of the whole. Ihat the revenues 
 be taken in assignment, and put under a commission similar to that pro- 
 posed for the rest of the Carnatic, and received and applied in the same 
 manner, and for the same purposes. This requisition has been partly 
 made, and shall be repeated in the above terms to the President and 
 Council of Fort St. George. But it will rest with them to conform to it, 
 or by rejecting it to take the responsibility of it upon themselves. 
 
 " XI. Our advice is this, that a new adjustm.ent be made of all the 
 Nabob's debts, contracted with British subjects, without any distinction 
 of old debts, of those of a more recent kind, called his consolidated 
 debts, or of others newly contracted, but not yet brought to any public 
 account or adjustment. That the interest upon the whole and upon each 
 debt shall be allowed and added to the original debts to the 25th No- 
 vember 178 1, and thenceforward shall cease. That from such debts as 
 have been transferred from the original proprietors by purchase or other- 
 wise, a deduction shall be made of o.^ per cent, from the whole amount ; 
 and that the remainder be the sum for which the Nabob shall be finally 
 debited. That the adjustment being made in this manner, the sum adjudged 
 to be respectively due to each creditor shall be brought to his separate credit. 
 That Company's bonds with the usual interest shall be granted to each who 
 shall be entitled to a share in the sums received on account of the assigned 
 revenues, in the proportion of his respective debt. And in like manner to 
 the creditors, for advances made on the security of the public revenue for 
 the sums brought to their account. And that it shall be left to the Na- 
 bob with the concurrence of the Pr-esident and Council of Fort St. George, 
 
 3
 
 APPENDIX. No. IX. 455 
 
 and the sanction of the Governor-general and Council, to appropriate such 
 a portion of the revenues after the conclusion of the war, or any period 
 of it, which shall admit of such an application of them, as an assignment 
 for the annual payment of the debt, until the whole shall be discharged. 
 That this plan is reconmiended both to the Nabob, the President and 
 Council of Fort St. George, and the creditors, and will be submitted to 
 the Company, in the first advices to them from this presidency. 
 
 " If an agreement shall take place according to the abovemcntioned plan, 
 it will be necessary, both for the purpose of rendering it effectual and for 
 preventing the like distresses from falling on the Nabob and individuals 
 in future, that the Nabob shall solemnly engage that he will never here- 
 after borrow money from the Company's servants, or any other British 
 subjects. That the most public notice shall be given, that no loans to the 
 Nabob, or bonds accepted upon such loans, shall be valid, or the loans 
 recoverable by any influence or interference of the Company or its re- 
 presentatives. And the Governor-general and Council will engage on their 
 part for themselves, the Company, and their representatives, that no 
 authority of the Company, or of the Presidency of Fort St. George, shall 
 be employed for the recovery of any debts so contracted. 
 
 " A true copy. 
 (Signed) " E. HAY, Act. Sec."
 
 C 45C ) 
 
 No. X. 
 
 Reply of the President and Select Committee of Fort St. George to 
 the foregoing Letter of the Governor-general and Council, dated 
 Fort St. George, September 3, 1781. 
 
 " Hon. Sir and Sirs, 
 
 fN the 22d of last month we had the honor of receivincr vour letter 
 of the 2d April last, inclosing a copy of requests made by the Nabob 
 Wallaw Jaw to the Governor-general, with your replies to them ; and also 
 credentials to Richard Joseph Sulivan Esq. as your minister at his 
 Highness's court, and the representative of your government. Your 
 letter earnestly recommends to us to conform strictly to the agreement 
 entered into on your part, and on the part of the Nabob, which, though 
 not executed in the terms of a formal instrument, you look upon to have 
 all the sanction, force, and validity of a treaty. No paper entitled or 
 purporting to be an agreement, or appearing to have been executed by 
 contracting parties, was included in or accompanied your letter, though 
 your expression is that the agreement was not executed in the terms of a 
 formal instrument. However as there is an additional clause of mutual 
 acceptance in the copy of your replies, which has been transmitted by the 
 Nabob to our President on the 29th past, we consider ourselves possessed 
 of the outlines of your plan respecting his Highness. 
 
 " The task of simple obedience to the commands of our superiors is 
 not only a safe and easy but is a chearful one to us, who, far from fmd- 
 ino- our honor concerned in the possession of extensive or independent au- 
 thority, place our pride in faithfully and zealously fulfilling, though not 
 in exceeding, whatever trust may happen to have been reposed in us. In 
 this disposition, we should feel ourselves lightened of no common burden, 
 
 5
 
 APPENDIX. No. X. 4S7 
 
 if we had a certainty that our strict conformity to the agreement entered 
 into by you with the Nabob of the Carnatic, (which you consider in the 
 hght of a treaty,) or to the plan of public arrangement, which it is also 
 called, made by you with that Prince in the first instance, without any 
 previous application from or concurrence of the Presidency of Madras, 
 would free us from all responsibility in acknowledging their validity, or . 
 abiding by their contents. We find ourselves obliged by the dictates of 
 duty, and of prudence, to restrain the inclination, which the habit of 
 recurring to your superintending power In some instances agreeably to 
 act of parliament, and our personal respect and esteem for the Governor- 
 general and other members of your board, on all occasions have naturally 
 excited in our minds to yield implicitly to every direction we receive from 
 you. But having accepted the employments in which we are now en- 
 gaged, we are not to call In doubt the wisdom of our masters in the limit- 
 ation of the authorities they have delegated to their respective servants. 
 The extension of power beyond the bounds prescribed by them, in what- 
 ever part of their possessions, must be equally contrary to the system of their 
 establishment. And they who subseribe to the exercise of authority in 
 contradiction to this system would be condemned for being ignorant and 
 incapable, as well as negligent of their duty. We have, in search of 
 our own justification for acknowledging your right to make an agreement 
 with the Nabob of the Carnatic, gone through a careful perusal of such 
 of the public records, as contain the sentiments of our employei>s on the 
 subject of .alliances or connections with the Princes of India. We find 
 that the Company, desirous, at all times, to restrain its principal views to 
 commercial objects, for which it was originally instituted, has repeatedly 
 recommended to its servants, to avoid entering into the political pursuits, 
 or intrigues of the Princes of India ; and considered " a rage for negoci- 
 " ations, treaties, and alliances to have private advantage more for its 
 " object than the public good." The Court of Directors therefore, pre- 
 viously to the act of parliament establishing your government, never de- 
 legated the general power of making treaties in India, to its servants in 
 VOL. I. 3 N
 
 458 APPENDIX. No. X. 
 
 any one settlement ; but confined the intercourse of us several presidencies 
 with the country powers, to those in their respective neighbourhood, 
 the instructions from the Company to each separate presidency, particu- 
 larly pointing out the line of conduct which was to be pursued towards 
 those Princes with whom it was from situation inevitably connected. 
 This precaution appeared to them to become the more essential after the 
 period took place, when, notwithstanding the use of the Mogul's name in 
 all transactions throughout India, as weW as the coin of our own mints, 
 and the existence of Nabobs in every province, the English Presidencies 
 of Fort William and Fort St. George were directed, and really had an in- 
 spection over the general administration of the countries respectively ad- 
 joining to them. Before the controling power given by parliament to your 
 Board, as well as since, it would have been thought a most unwarranted 
 and preposterous interference in the government of Bombay or of Madras, 
 to propose any treaty or arrangement with the northern Nabobs of Bengal 
 or Oude ; and we must admit it as a fact, that the President and Council 
 of Fort William before that period had not attempted to negociate, either 
 with the distant Nabob of Arcot or Rajah of Tanjore. The political 
 views and conduct of those southern Princes and the general government 
 of their territories, without meddling in the detail of their administration, 
 form indeed a great part of the instructions, from the Court of Directors, 
 to the Presidency and Council of Fort St. George. Those countries are 
 either by express words, or by implication, constantly included within the 
 limits prescribed to the authority of the Madras Presidency ; and their 
 forts are garrisoned by troops under its sole and immediate command. 
 The Nabob of Arcot and the Rajah of Tanjore, who owe their posses- 
 sions to the arms of the Company, are almost in every letter directed to 
 be kept dependent on its protection. Alarm is taken at any intelligence 
 of cither of them aiming at independence. The President and Council 
 of Madras are particularly and alone commanded to frustrate every such 
 attempt. Before the establishment of your Board by the Legislature of 
 Great Britain, the power of making treaties and arrangements, and even 
 
 3
 
 APPENDIX. No. X. 459 
 
 of controling the Nabob Waulaw Jaw in certain cases, tlius seems to have 
 been originally vested in this Presidency. Not able to trace, in the gradual 
 institutions of the diflerent Presidencies, or in the subsequent orders of the 
 Company, or in the history of their transactions, any ground for autho- 
 rizing us to acknowledge the power of the government of Bengal to treat 
 with the Princes of the Carnatic, we have anxiously sought for it in the 
 act of the British parliament establishing regulations for' the better ma- 
 nagement of the affairs of the East bidia Company. In this act, however, 
 we cannot find any new and positive authority to the Governor-general and 
 Council to make treaties directly and immediately with Indian Princes. It 
 does not take away ; but it does not extend the power which, under the 
 instructions of the Company, the Presidency of Fort William had hitherto 
 enjoyed of forming alliances. The additional authority de>legated by law 
 in this respect, we must confess, appears, as far as the expression extends, 
 to be merely negative. " Without its consent and approbation first had 
 " and obtained, the other Presidencies cannot legally make any orders for 
 " commencing hostilities, or declaring, or making war against any Indian 
 " princes or powers, or for negociating or concluding any treaty of peace, 
 " or other treaty vifith any such Indian princes or powers, except in such 
 " oases of imminent necessity as would render it dangerous to postpone 
 " such hostilities or treaties, until the orders from the Governor-general 
 " and Council might arrive ; and except in such cases, when the said 
 " Presidents and Councils respectively shall have received special orders 
 " from the Company." This negative power established somewhere was 
 indeed absolutely requisite for the preservation of a consistent system in 
 the treaties to be formed by the different Presidencies with the different 
 Princes of India. It is possible that a desire of adhering to this principle 
 of consistency may have prcented the extension of your power to form 
 alliances with those Princes • /hose situation and affairs connect them with 
 the other Presidencies, lest m the cases, provided by the act of imminent 
 necessity, or of special ord ^rs from the Company, the treaties thus entered 
 into by those other Presidencies with their respective neighbours without 
 
 3 N 2
 
 4^0 
 
 APPENDIX. No. X. 
 
 your knowledge or concurrence might be defeated by those you might 
 have contracted with them, had you the authority of immediately and di- 
 rectly treating with all the powers of India indiscriminately. 
 
 *' To this important and remedial law we think ought to be given the 
 most liberal and extensive, but a just and candid construction. We hold 
 that it virtually gives the lead and supereminence to your Board in all 
 general transactions ; and ought to be considered as having, though it has 
 not literally, committed to you the exclusive charge of arranging the great 
 line of policy with those sovereigns who are really and fotally independent 
 of any of our governments. If however this controling power, which is 
 wisely entrusted to your Board residing at Fort William, had been trans- 
 ferred to another Board, consisting of the same persons established at 
 Bombay, and even expressly empowered to treat directly with all Indian 
 Princes, yet an attempt on its part to form arrangements with the heredi- 
 tary Princes, still governing considerable territories in the provinces of 
 Bengal or Bahar, without the knowledge or concurrence of the Presidency 
 at Calcutta on whom those Princes depend, would be considered as a 
 misapprehension of the meaning, and an abuse of the authority of the 
 legislature. It would be equally improper to meddle In the concerns of 
 the hereditary Rajahs of the Circars, dependent on the Presidency of 
 Madras. We do not apply this reasoning to the Nabob Walaw Jaw, 
 who, notwithstanding the express commands to prevent his independence, 
 notwithstanding the double or divided government which has in conse- 
 quence subsisted in the Carnatic, still claims, and enjoys superior privi- 
 lege. But we must be guided in our determinations upon this subject by 
 the instructions of our honorable employers. In their letter of the i8th 
 of last October, after delivering their opinion on the plans proposed for 
 remedying the defects in the present system on the coast, " They direct 
 " this Presidency," to negoclate the business with the Nabob, " and ex- 
 " press the continuance of their hope that his Highness may," in concert 
 with us, forthwith establish certain resources, " and heartily join us in
 
 APPENDIX. No. X. 461 
 
 *• the most powerful exertions, and make such speedy and judicious 
 " arrangements as shall appear proper and satisfiictory to us. But if that 
 •' Prince should finally refuse his consent to arrangements which equally 
 " involve his welfare and the safety of their property in one common 
 *' cause," they then desire us to apply to you who, in such case, are 
 empowered to furnish us with instructions how to proceed. 
 
 " These positive directions appear to mark the precise boundaries of the 
 authority confided respectively in this Presidency and in your superintend- 
 ing Board. We are bound not only by the general instructions founded 
 on the nature of our situation and the connection of our affairs ; but also 
 by the special orders of the Company to be the actors in the negociation 
 and arrangement with the Nabob. If we fail in accomplishing our pur- 
 poses we are to apply to you for- instructions how to proceed for securing 
 their accomplishment. Then commences your power, which consists, 
 not in acting yourselves, but in instructing us how we shall act. We 
 apprehend that the duty of acting, when we are ordered to act, is as obli- 
 gatory upon us as a forbearance from what we are prohibited to attempt. 
 Were we to pretend that we were sheltered under the authority of your 
 immediate interference, your own words might be brought to convict us 
 of a wilful perversion of the Company's instructions, in your letter of 
 the 26th February 178 1, on the subject of the Nabob of the Carnatic, 
 you tell us, that in your opin-ion we had a claim of right to assistance 
 from him ; you tell us, that the present case would certainly justify us in 
 demanding from him the immediate transfer of his whole country in ex- 
 clusive assignment for the expenses of the war ; you earnestly advise our 
 adoption of this measure, and you add, that had you the authority to cam-- 
 mand, you should peremptorily command it. After this strong and solemn de- 
 claration we fear that we should find no excuse, in considering the commu- 
 nication of the sentiments you held, in regard to the Nabob on the 2d 
 April, in any other light than that of those others which you held con- 
 cerning him on the 26th February preceding, which is simply as your,-
 
 462 
 
 APPENDIX. No. X, 
 
 earnest advice ; and that we should not be justified in supposing tliat the 
 term recommendation which you use in the letter we now answer, ought 
 to be understood as a method of conveying your commands for that 
 purpose. A strict conformity to your wishes has the less chance of free- 
 ing us from a responsibility of the measures we adopt, that we cannot 
 deny the latitude you have not only allowed, but commended in the use 
 of our own discretion, on subjects even where your expressions had been 
 peremptory ; as in the case of the regular treaty executed by you in 
 January last, for ceding to the Dutch the southern provinces of the Car- 
 natic, in return for a loan of troops against Hyder Ally : You have, with 
 a candor that must reflect the truest honor on your proceedings, declared, 
 in a second letter, of the 2d of April, from your Board, that you were 
 pleased at our rejection of th'at treaty. And we doubt not but you will be 
 equally satisfied with any solid objections offered to you against similar 
 proposals. 
 
 " The result of our investigation is doubly painful to us, as it has 
 strengthened our doubts concerning the power exercised by you on the 
 present occasion j and as it consequently forces us, not merely to obey, 
 but previously to examine, and only if we approve, to conform to the 
 plan of arrangements you have made with the agents of the Nabob. This 
 plan we must suppose contained in your replies to the Nabob's requests, 
 being the only paper which you have communicated to us expressive of 
 your sentiments. Its name and nature »how that it must bear relation to 
 the paper to which, very properly, it is a polite and respectful answer, 
 and must in some degree partake of its qualities. Both are somewhat 
 general and diffuse as all primary discussions must be, though they are 
 meant to lead afterwards to terms more precise and definitive. The first 
 request is for the firm establishment of such a treaty between the Nabob 
 and you as shall last for ever, and be subject to no deviation. Though 
 you look upon these replies to have all the sanction, force, and validity 
 of a treaty, yet you promise that a temporary treaty shad be made,
 
 APPENDIX. No. X. 463 
 
 which you hope may serve as a basis of another treaty such as he desires ; 
 but as neither of these is directed to be made by us, v.e avoid the pain of 
 observing on this sort of triple alliance, in contradiction to those maxims, 
 ty the pursuit of which we have kept in the strictest friendship with his 
 Highness for near thirty years, without the intervention or assistance of a 
 single article of agreement ever executed between us, exclusively of other 
 powers. To the assertion of the Nabob, that he is hereditary Prince of 
 the Carnatic and independent of every one, and that he has entire right 
 over the same, and to his desire that his friends should not interfere in the 
 political and domestic administration of his country, as you reply simply 
 that you will maintain his rights without agreeing to his assertions of what 
 they are, or complying with his desire of not interfering with his govern- 
 ment ; we have only to observe, you have avoided a discussion that might 
 prove disagreeable to his Highness, and left us on those points to our own 
 discretion. To the assurances he gives himself that the Company and 
 English nation being the protectors of his honor and government, will 
 act on those points only where the advancement of his interests is con- 
 cerned, you in one word certainly accede. As this article alludes to an 
 interference in the administration which, in some points, it seems to 
 allow, we wish to have those points ascertained, or to be informed who 
 shall be judges of them, and what restriction those words are really meant 
 to convey. 
 
 " That part of the fourth article, in which he requests that the marches 
 of the troops should be by his consent, and that in time of peace the 
 Governor and Council should assist him with ten battalions, to enable 
 him to settle the country subject to him, you shortly declare to be very 
 proper. We miJ^t however observe, that the command and disposition of 
 the troops depending on their marches have ever been held with a most 
 jealous eye by our honorable employers, who have ever constantly per- 
 sisted in denying to the Nabob even the satisfaction of calling those ten 
 battalions by the name of /jts troops, lest even so trifling a circumstance
 
 4^4 APPENDIX. No. X. 
 
 should have the chance of giving him any kind of influence over them, 
 ^Vhat is meant by a demand of the assistance of those ten battalions for 
 settling his country, we wish to know, before we form any judgment of 
 its propriety. We know not how troops can be properly said to contri- 
 bute to the settlement of a country. If it be meant that he should have 
 the Company's forces to enable him to punish or extirpate any of his 
 tributaries, and if it be proper to lend our forces for such a purpose, 
 should \\t not plainly say so, without reserve or ambiguity ? If the Nabob 
 is to be assisted only in certain cases, and on certain conditions, those 
 cases and conditions should have been precisely ascertained and fixed, in 
 that article which is to be as valid as a treaty, without which it is impos- 
 sible to know whether its intent be followed or neglected ; and without 
 which it is a form, without substance or effect. If it were meant that he 
 should always be assi'sted on his simple requisition, it is not impossible but 
 he might soon require what he has hitherto in vain solicited from the Court 
 of Directors, the means of attacking contrary to their express commands, 
 those principal tributary Rajahs who claim and depend upon the protection 
 both of the Crown and of the Company. If it be intended to leave to 
 the discretion of the President and Council of Madras, in what instances 
 the Nabob is to have the assistance of our troops, there appears not much 
 occasion for a clause compelling men to do what they shall think proper to 
 be done ; but the misfortune of such a clause is, that it is apt to establish 
 in the minds of such of the contracting parties whom it seems to favor, a 
 sort of claim which, being undefined, is measured only by the wishes of the 
 claimant. These observations may apply in some degree to the subsequent 
 article concerning the refractory Polygars. 
 
 " The sixth reply, as far as it foresees the stipulations of a future 
 treaty, to take place under the immediate sanction of the Company, 
 commands our respect, but can be no object of discussion at this Board. 
 We hope also that the succession to the Carnatic is an event so distant that 
 we may safely postpone the consideration of it. We must however ob-
 
 APPENDIX. No. X. 465 
 
 serve that nothing has been fovniJ upon our records to confirm the inform- 
 ation you mention to have received from Assam- Cawn, implying an ac- 
 knowledgment of the Nabob's right to appoint a successor to his govern- 
 ment. We possess the copy of a letter from his Majesty simply expressive, 
 as to this subject, of his receipt of the Nabob's will, and of his royal 
 promise, that the same shall be preserved as a sacred deposit till his 
 Ilighness's decease. Another copy of the will has been entrusted to this 
 Presidency, to be kept unopened during the testator's life. But Xve have 
 not been able to trace :iny recognition of his right to dispose of the Car- 
 natic, nor any other order on the subject, except an instruction from the 
 Company, " to secure to his Highness's children the government of the 
 " Carnatic in a just and lineal succession, according to the phermaund 
 " from the Emperor, Shau Allum, and the treaty of 1768, between the 
 " Company, the Soubah of the Decan, and the Nabob ;" any choice 
 made by the Nabob, though indifferent in itself, in a political lio-hr 
 might be productive of confusion, if it should happen to clash with the 
 line of succession abovementioned. After those plain and positive com- 
 mands we must suppose some mistake in the copies, or some misapore- 
 hension of the m.eaning of papers presented to you, inferring that the 
 appointment of a successor to the Carnatic is entirely open to his 
 Highness. 
 
 " The complaints stated in the seventh article, which we understand are 
 in many instances well founded, are a disgrace to the Government which 
 has suffered them to continue. It will require a strict and steady hand to 
 prevent a conduct of which the habit and frequency seem to have deadened 
 the sense of its impropriety among many of the military, as well as civil, 
 servants of the Company. The crime of disobedience superadded in 
 this instance to the baseness of usury, ought to be pabUcly and positively 
 reprobated ; wherever by legal evidence it could be brought home to the 
 officer or paymaster, the punishment, no doubt, should be exemplary : 
 he should not have the subterfuge of ascribing his disgrace to the caprice. 
 
 VOL. I. 30
 
 466 APPENDIX. No X. 
 
 displeasure, or political views of the Nabob. His Highness might render 
 himself perhaps as much obnoxious by procuring the removal of men 
 from profitable situations on reasons for objecting to them confined to his 
 own conviction, as by the allowance of proofs, to satisfy the world that 
 they were really not worthy of being continued in such trusts. He would 
 never have occasion to step forward as actual prosecutor : that office would 
 fall to the charge of some of his principal ministers or servants, as it falls 
 in England to the Attorney-general j nor does it appear essential to be 
 more tender in committing the character of the Nabob than that of our 
 own sovereign. We find that the acts of benevolence, by which only 
 you think his Highness should be known to the servants of the Company, 
 if exerted in gratuities, whether pecuniary or otherwise, are utterly disap- 
 proved by the Directors of the Company. The consequence of such be- 
 nevolence having been thought pernicious to the service, and the strictest 
 covenants exacted from the servants of every denomination to prevent its 
 continuance. Declarations such as these, which bear a meaning subver- 
 sive of the orders and opinions of the Company, corroborated by our other 
 observations on your replies, contribute to persuade us, that proper and 
 becoming as they may have been thought, and necessary even as they 
 may have been found, in the light of preparatory discourses, to soften, 
 and gradually lead the Nabob's mind to a further acquiescence with the 
 real and just intentions of your government, it would not be fair to con- 
 sider them as forming part of the strict and serious covenants of a treaty, 
 or as doctrines to become operative upon our conduct. We can in this 
 view easily account for your assurarice to the Nabob, that the appointment 
 to military command in the Carnatic is intended for his sole benefit; such 
 assertions may be supposed to have their use, and can be inconvenient only 
 when construed literally, and made a ground for consequences or claims 
 which the public interest will not allow. 
 
 *■' Thus it appears to us, that it might be of dangerous tendency, and 
 ■what guides us much more than, our own opinion, it is absolutely contrary
 
 APPENDIX. No. X. 4^7 
 
 to tlie views and instructions of the Court of Directors, to suffer the 
 Nabob to possess any degree of influence over our armj'. The obligation, 
 however, which you conclude from the above declaration, ought to be 
 Imposed upon the Presidency of Madras to conform to the desire of the 
 Nabob in the removal of officers from their commands, would necessarily 
 give such influence to his Highness. It is the intention of the Company 
 that the disposal of their oflicers and troops should remain in time of peace 
 as well as war, with the President and Council, to whom, among other 
 matters, they have delegated that high trust. It is their duty to remove 
 all officers on reasonable grounds, and to be attentive to the objections, 
 and even to the wishes of the Nabob in this and in every other respect. 
 But the ultimate decision and determination must be in the Company it- 
 self, through the medium of its servants residing on the spot. 
 
 " Your eighth reply contains a plan concerning the finances of the Carna- 
 tic, different from the earnest advice you had been pleased to give us on this 
 subject in your letter of the 26th, of February last. This first advice com- 
 ing with all the weight of your wisdom and experience, and confirmed by 
 our own immediate observations, had taken such possession of our minds, 
 that we with repugnance resolve on giving a preference to your latter, 
 over your foimer opinion. 
 
 *' The plan of collecting the revenues by the Nabob's own Aumils in con- 
 junction with persons appointed by the Presidency of Madras, has been 
 already tried in the province of Trichinopoly : and has answered no other 
 purpose than that of giving rise to mutual complaints, altercations and 
 suspicions between the Nabob's and the Company's servants. The latter 
 do not hesitate to declare that the public orders given by his Highness 
 are either not sufficiently decisive, or are so counteracted or evaded as to 
 be rendered ineffectual for the collection of the revenue : while the Au- 
 mils impute the deficiences to the interference of the Company's receiv- 
 ers. It is obvious that if a successful collection of the revenue depended 
 
 T o 2
 
 468 APPENDIX. No. X. 
 
 upon the exertion and authority of the Nabob, and that his Highness had 
 been sincerely disposed to let the Company have them to defray the ex- 
 penses of the war, those revenues might have been thrown into the 
 Company's treasury immediately from his Highness's officers without the 
 intervention of our receivers. Whether the total failure which has hap- 
 pened in this respect be owing to the want of incUnation, power, or 
 skilful management on the part of his Highness, the fact equally proves 
 tJie necessity of using other means than those which have hitherto proved 
 to be ineffectual. It appears in a statement delivered to us by the ac- 
 countant of this presidency that the Nabob is now in arrears to the Com- 
 pany upwards of twenty lacks of pagodas, and since the commencement 
 of hostilities has scarcely furnished any thing towards the maintenance 
 of the war. The revenues to be recovered during the troubles can indeed 
 at any rate bear only a small proportion to the expenses they occasion : 
 Yet the assignment you now propose under the authority of his Highness 
 for the reimbursement of those expenses is to terminate with the war, 
 during which they cannot be reimbursed. The immediate transfer of hi3 
 country, which in your former letter you had considered as justified in 
 demanding from the Nabob, in exclusive assignment for the expenses of 
 the war, would no doubt afford a more simple, certain and expeditious 
 method of retrieving the finances of the Carnatic from the disorder into 
 which, by public and private debts, to the amount of about one hundred 
 lack of pagados, they are plunged to such a degree at last, that no weaker 
 remedy has a certainty of being effectual. However, though it does not 
 depend upon our will to adop/t your present sentiments on this occasion, 
 we can adapt our conduct to them, and shall endeavor, by the means, 
 and in the manner you now propose to effectuate objects, in the accom- 
 plishment of which the Company, the Nabob, and most of the indivi- 
 duals of this settlement, are essentially interested. We join with you in 
 thinking that the territory of Tanjore is not in circumstances so dissimilar 
 tVom those of the rest of the Carnatic, as to prevent us from attempting to
 
 APPENDIX. No. X. 469 
 
 try the same methods throughout the whole as far as the arms of the 
 enemy will admit. 
 
 " The reply to the Nabob's request concerning his creditors, whicli 
 you give in the name and language of an advice to his Highness, can 
 scarcely be thought included in any treaty to which those creditors are 
 not made parties. We do not foresee how far they all will relish the loss 
 of interest after the 25th November next, or how far the assignees of the 
 original creditors will be reconciled to the loss of 25 per cent, of the prin- 
 cipal due to them ; or how far the old creditors of the Nabob, whose case 
 is thought by many to stand on stronger ground than the others, may 
 consider themselves, or be considered by the Company, as injured by losing 
 the preference in the discharge of their demands to which they esteem 
 themselves enthled. But we hold it a matter of very seriou^ deliberation 
 to subject the Company to the payment of any large sums by the execu- 
 tion of bonds in its name, on account of the assignment of lands to the 
 creditors, as it may not perhaps be thought entirely consistent with our 
 duty to suffer the discharge of any private debts out of the revenues of the 
 Carnatic, till those of the Company shall have first been liquidated ; we 
 feel ourselves indeed inclined to go every length which our duty will per- 
 mit in the settlement of those demands, not only on account of the hard- 
 ships suffered by individuals, but from our desire of removing the anxiety 
 we are sensible the continuance of them has given to the just mind of his 
 Highness. So ancient and so valuable a friend of the Company and the 
 English nation, merits every effort that we can make for enabling him to 
 pass the remainder of his life with happiness and honor. These are mat- 
 ters on which we should wish, if possible, to have special instructions 
 from our honorable employers : perfectly satisfied and happy to receive 
 them from your Board, as far as we are authorized to abide by them in 
 these instances. 
 
 " The attentive consideration which we have given to your replies has 
 arisen not only from the respect with which we shall ever regard all your
 
 470 APPENDIX. No. X. 
 
 proceedings ; but also from our desire to find our duty and our inclina- 
 tion equally concur in the adopiion of them : for we think it will redound 
 to our particular credit, as well as to the benefit of the Company, that a 
 perfect union of sentiments, as well as of conduct, should subsist be- 
 tween us. It shall never be broken by any instructions you will please t6 
 ■ send us ; if, in some instances we cannot consider them as commands, 
 we shall be thankful for them as most respectable advice ; and where we 
 deviate from you in opinion, we shall hope to account for our own, 
 in such a manner, as will either reconcile you to our determination, 
 or induce you to point out to us our mistakes. We shall, in every 
 part of our conduct, endeavor to remove whatever impression your 
 immediate interposition in the business of this coast may have left 
 upon the public, of your dissatisfaction or disunion with us. But we 
 cannot ansv\er for the consequences which may arise from the interven- 
 tion of any other person exerting your authority, or interfering with 
 our dutv. We have already dwelt with pain on facts and observations 
 which concur in throwing upon us exclusively the charge of immediately 
 makiufT with the Nabob of the Carnatic all treaties and arrangements, in 
 the formation of which, in certain cases, we are entitled to apply for the 
 benefit of your instructions how we shall proceed. The power of deput- 
 ing ministers to foreign Princes is not expressly granted either by law or 
 charter to any of the Presidencies : it is incident to the right of forming 
 alliances with such Princes, and can subsist only where the other can be ex- 
 ercised. The Company has indeed always been particularly careful to ad- 
 mit of no intercourse between the Nabob and any of its ser\-ants but 
 through the Governor of Madras, and has even requested his Highness 
 to communicate his intention to the Court of Directors through no other 
 channel. I'he presidency of I\1adras is the only minister from the Com- 
 pany to the Nabob who resides in the seat of our government ; and what 
 we have already quoted of the Director's letter of the i8th October 1780, 
 seems to indicate that you, gentlemen, cannot have any other, for you 
 are not empowered to be otherwise connected with the Nabob than by 
 instructing us how to proceed toward him, when in our difficulties we
 
 APPENDIX. No. X. 471 
 
 shall apply to you for that purpose. As they who cannot themselves ne- 
 gotiate cannot appoint a minister to negociate ; so the representatives of 
 power, as you are of that of the East India Company, in several in- 
 stances, cannot delegate their representation, without a special clause of sub- 
 stitution, which is not to be discovered either in the act of parliament, or 
 the commission or intructions of the Company. We must continue 
 therefore to give you the trouble of addressing ourselves to you imme- 
 diately for your consent and approbation, or for your instructions in the 
 respective cases where we are authorized to apply to you for either of 
 them. Though the credentials you have granted include the terms of 
 representative and minister as distinct offices, we should have thought our- 
 selves liable to the suspicion of searching for objections in considering 
 them otherwise than as synonymous expressions, but that in the purposes 
 you declare to have in view, you add, to that of maintaining your treaty 
 with the Nabob, an interposition in your name and in the character of 
 Representative of your Government, with the President and Council, or 
 Select Committee of Fort St. George. A minister in a foreign state, 
 though he represents his own sovereign, carries with him no power of in- 
 terference, because his constituents would nor, on the spot, be possessed 
 of any. But a new representation of government within its own limits, 
 destroys at once every previous deputation. The more completely you 
 are vested by the British legislature with the authority of the East India 
 Company over us, the more necessarily a transfer of that authority to, 
 o-r representation of it by, a persofi residing on the spot (if the same could 
 legally be done) would become a substitution of that person in the place 
 all those who now are charged with the immediate administration of the 
 Presidency. In fact, as your minister and representative is to secure you 
 against any interruption of your plan of public arrangement that might be 
 attempted from secondary private consideration, or the interference of 
 individuals, and is empowered (distinctly from the business of represents- 
 tion to the Nabob and Presidency) to maintain the faith of your govern- 
 ment in the agreement concluded with his Highness ; it carries the ap-
 
 472 APPENDIX. Nu. X. 
 
 pearance of its being really meant, that he should, when occasion ofL'red, 
 exercise executive authoncy. Pretences at least could scarcely fail of 
 presentin'T themselves to do so. At any rate t^e division and distraction 
 of government by the existence of representatives of the Court of Direc- 
 tors, and the representatives of the Governor-general and Council, re- 
 biding at once in the same Presidencv, and independent of each other, 
 are likely to be productive of evils which cannot with certainty be 
 avoided otherwise than by a removal of one or other of those deputed 
 powers. 
 
 " As neither our President nor any other member of tlie present Select 
 Committee of Madras, were in the temporary administration, which sub- 
 sisted here on the 2d j^pril last, when you thought it necessary to with- 
 draw your confidence from that Board, we cannot feel ourselves hurt at 
 the preference you gave, on that particular occasion, to an individual for 
 maintaining the faith of your government ; but we do not hesitate to expect 
 your c.indid concurrence with our opinion, that the governing members 
 of this Presidency appointed, after mature and solemn deliberation, by the 
 Company, charged with their interests, and vested with their authority^ 
 on the coasts of Coromandel and Orixa, have a claim for your exclusive 
 confidence, in the endeavors to be pursued here for the Company's 
 welfare. 
 
 " Your late appointment being the first of the kind to Fort St. George, 
 since the establishment of your superintending power, is to be consi- 
 dered only as an extraordinary deviation from your general conduct, and 
 which, when made, you no doubt thought warranted by the necessity of 
 the occasion. It would have been however particularly desirable that the 
 effect had ceased with the cause that had produced it, because the object 
 of your choice on this occasion, though in other respects a gentleman of 
 much merit, might be thought to have incurred a breach of trust to the 
 Company. 6
 
 APPENDIX. No. X. - 473 
 
 " Mr. Richard Joseph Sulivan at the very time that he was confidential 
 secretary to the Select Committee of this Presidency, and consequently'' 
 possessed of all the views and secrets of the Company as far as relate to 
 this government, privately entered into the service of the Nabob, /wiih 
 whom, by the orders of the Court of Directors, none of the Company's 
 servants are allowed to have any communication without a permission 
 from the President. He undertook his Highness's plan of independence 
 so reprobated by the Company, as well as of those other projects contained 
 in his requests, with which you have either positively refused, or have 
 simply declined complying. If he acknowledged himself to your Board 
 to have been secretary to this Committee, you must have either supposed 
 that he had resigned that office before his acceptance of a charge from 
 another master, or that he had the permission of his superiors for holding 
 both. The fact is however otherwise ; and your letter was the first inti- 
 mation to the Committee of Mr. Sulivan's commission from the Nabob. 
 The resignation of his office at the Board was subsequent to your nomi- 
 nation of .him as your representative. The acceptance of an office on an- 
 other establishment, without the approbation of the Board, in whose 
 service he continued, was thought a sufficient ground by the members of 
 it at that time, for coming to a resolution of calling upon him on his 
 arrival here to justify his conduct. We however do. not wish to treat him 
 with harshness, and though our lenity may possibly be considered as in- 
 jurious to the discipline of the service, yet, from respect to your partiality 
 for him, from respect to the name he bears, and from a willingness to 
 believe that he has erred rather through levity than ill intention, we yet 
 forbear to punish him for his misconduct, and we trust that so signal an 
 instance of our moderation will be a most convincing proof of our sincere 
 desire to cultivate and maintain the most perfect harmony and good cor- 
 respondence with you. 
 
 " Our President indeed thought that even the appearance of any inter- 
 ruption of this disposition was an evil, if possible, to be avoided. He 
 VOL, I. 3 p
 
 474 i\PPENDIX. No. X. 
 
 therefore wished that the whole of this proceeding, new and intricate in 
 its nature, and applying by the change, which has lately happened in this 
 government, to circumstances different perhaps in your estimation from 
 those which impelled you to the measure, should remain suspended, un- 
 til he should learn through the Governor-general, in their private confi- 
 dential communications, whether your Board would still think it necessary 
 to pursue the whole of their plan ; but it has been announced with such 
 ceremonies of solemn and public notoriety, that the alternative of silence 
 was no longer in our power : we have therefore, in our observations on 
 the contents of your dispatches, ventured to discharge our minds freely 
 to you, trusting to your candor and justice that the most liberal inter- 
 pretation will be given to what we mean as a liberal communication of our 
 sentiments. It arises from what we conceive to be the absolute duty of 
 our station, and from our attachment to the service in which we are en- 
 gaged. We have sedulously avoided all general reasoning upon the pro- 
 bable expediency or consequences of public measures ; confining ourselves 
 to those objects which called for our immediate determination. We 
 mistrust our own opinions, aware that probabilities are but uncertainties, 
 that all possible does not become actual evil, and so averse to all spirit 
 of altercation or contention, that should your resolutions remain un- 
 changed by our representations, we are perfectly inclined to subscribe to 
 them. For we are sensible that public business can be carried on with 
 success by the concurrence of such persons only, as are disposed to com- 
 municate fully and frankly their judgment of circumstances as they arise, 
 but are equally ready to acquiesce in, and act according to the more en- 
 lightened decision of their superiors or colleagues. 
 
 " We have the honor to be with high esteem and respect, 
 *? Honorable Sir and Sirs, 
 
 " Your most obedient and most humble servants, 
 (Signed) " MACARTNEY. 
 
 « ANTH. SADLIER. 
 
 « MR. WILLIAMS.'*
 
 { 475 ) 
 
 No. XI. 
 
 Letter from Warren Hastings Esq. to Lord Macartney on the Sub- 
 ject of a Treaty with the Nabob, dated on the River Ganges near Bangui- 
 poor^ 2 id July 1781. 
 
 " My Lord, 
 
 " T 
 
 AN the letter, which I have already had the honor to address to your 
 Lordship, I expressed my regret that I had not known of your appoint- 
 ment in time, to have furnished you with explanations on some particular 
 points, of which I expect that an advantage will have been taken to pre- 
 judice your mind with injurious and dangerous opinions of the designs of 
 this government with relation to yours. From the candor which your 
 Lordship appears to possess, I have no doubt that I should have found it 
 an easy point to satisfy you of the propriety and fairncs of our acts, and 
 even of their necessity. But as it has happened, you will have taken 
 your line, and any thing which I can write upon past subjects may arrive 
 too late to produce their effect. I feel the discouragement of this reflec- 
 tion, but shall not yield to it, trusting that you will have had the caution, 
 under whatever impression, to avoid so decided a conduct as may dis- 
 able you from yielding to the influence of better information, or (which 
 \ rather expect) that you will have at once resolved to adopt our prin- 
 ciples, and heartily to support and carry the measures formed upon them 
 into effect. 
 
 " Let me premise tliat our government has a weight of business of its 
 own already as great as it can sustain, and a responsibility suflSciently ha- 
 zardous and delicate in itself to make it dread any addition to it ; and 
 my Lord, 1 fancy that you have found the affairs of the Carnatic in a 
 state which could afford little temptation to us, were we ever so vacant 
 of employment, to assume a participation in the conduct and. events of 
 
 3 p 2
 
 470 - APPENDIX. No. XI. 
 
 its administration. Tliis may serve for a general proof, that it was not 
 from choice that we have in any instance interfered in the concerns of 
 that province, or of your presidency. I desire your Lordship to look back 
 on the transactions of the last twelve months, and weigh by your own 
 judgment the many things that we have done for the relief and preserva- 
 tion of Fort St. George. That which was undeniably good has been ac- 
 cepted as a rightful claim. The rest, as I am told, either treated with 
 derision, or resented as injurious. I allude particularly to the treaty proposed 
 with the Dutch, a measure extorted by the cries of despair, and judged 
 in the elation of a sudden return of success ; and to the agreement lately 
 concluded with the Nabob Waulau Jah. To this I shall confine nhe se- 
 quel of this letter. ' 
 
 " The letters from the President and Select Committee of Fort St. 
 George from the beginning of the war with Hyder, had invariably repre- 
 sented the resources of the Carnatic as lost beyond all hope to them, 
 either from the Nabob's inability to collect them, or his determination to 
 with-hold them. We expressed it as our firm opinion that every rupee of 
 the Carnatic ought to be prlmarily'and exclusively applied to its defence ; 
 that as our force alone maintained it, we had a right to demand assign- 
 ments of the whole revenue, and even to take it, if refused. In the 
 mean time they had made the demand, and the Nabob had refused it ; 
 but the demand and refusal were in one instance so mysterious that we 
 could not comprehend the latent causes of either. The Circars of On- 
 gale, &c. had been assigned to the Nabob's private creditors, but as they 
 had gained nothing by the assignment, they proposed to transfer it to the 
 Company on the condition that credit should be given them in the Com- 
 pany's name for the receipts, that these might be employed in the mean 
 time for the expences of the war. The Committee demanded the assign- 
 ment, but took no notice of the condition ; and the .Nabob naturally 
 refused it, because he had already granted it to his creditors ; and with. 
 this state of the case, both parties referred it to us, the creditors remon- 
 strating against the mode in which, the demand was made as subjecting
 
 APPENDIX. No. XL . 477 
 
 the Nabob to a rejection of it, by which all parties must be losers ; and 
 the Committee stating it as a confirmed Proof of the Nabob's dis- 
 afi'ection. 
 
 " At the same time the Nabob's Dewan Assam Cawn and Mr. Richard 
 Sullvan arrived in Calcutta, charged with a special commission from the 
 Nabob to conclude a treaty with this government, of which the first con- 
 dition, and the first apparent object of their deputation, was, that we 
 would accept an assignment of his revenues, and employ them on the 
 public service: and this condition was not offered for our benefit, but 
 solicited, as if his interest alone was likely to be promoted by our assent 
 to it. 
 
 *' This was the foundation of the agreement ; and as it promised 3 
 most seasonable relief to the Carnatic, which we could not easily afford, 
 having already exhausted both our resources and credit in that and other 
 emergent occasions of the Company's affairs ; we readily and gladly 
 accepted the offer, guarding it with such provisions as appeared to us 
 necessary to prevent its being defeated, or perverted to other purposes. 
 Your Lordship will not ask why we thought our Intervention on this occa- 
 sion necessary, and why w^ did not rather refer the accommodation to the 
 Presidency of Fort St, George, which was the regular Instrument of the 
 Company's participation In the government of the Carnatic : but I will 
 suppose the question. I might properly answer it by another. Why did 
 the Company withdraw their confidence from the same ministry to bestow 
 it on your Lordship ? and after all what have we done ? For others every 
 thing ; for ourselves nothing — unless It be supposed that we rescued th-e 
 Nabob from the thraldom In which he was held by others, to exercise the 
 same lucrative species of oppression on him ourselves j an imputation; 
 which I know will be suggested, and the world will be ready to give it 
 credit ; but which, I should abhor myself, if I thought that any man who 
 knew me would admit, but with a moment's hesitation. Had I knowa 
 that a man of your Lordship's character had been chosen' to adnainlster
 
 478 APPENDIX. No. IX. 
 
 the affairs of that government, I believe that I should hare persuaded the 
 Nabob to trust his interests in your hands, rather than make such a 
 separation of them from their ancient and more natural connection ; and 
 from the moderation of Mr. Wheler's disposition I think he would have 
 agreed with me in that preferable accommodation. But as it has been 
 made an act of this government, and its faith pledged in the most sacred 
 manner to the performance of it, it can neither be revoked nor qualified ; 
 and I most earnestly conjure your Lordship to give it your firm and hearty 
 support. 
 
 " The principal articles of this agreement are the 8th, loth, i ith, and 
 J2th : On these I shall offer a few remarks. 
 
 *' To render the mode of collection prescribed in the 8 th and loth 
 articles effectual, 1 would recommend that the commissioners be allowed 
 a commission or percentage, and a liberal one, upon the sums which they 
 shall realize, and no fixed appointments. It is the principle which we 
 have lately adopted, and have applied to every great department of our 
 own government, and I will venture to answer for its complete success, if 
 you will make the trial of it. If you trust to the integrity of those whom 
 you charge with the unchecked receipts of lacks, and allow them such 
 ostensible salaries as will afford them the bare means of subsistence, they 
 will make up the deficiency by secret perquisites ; to which no man ever 
 yet set due bounds. T^he consequence is iijevitable, especially in this 
 remote quarter of the world, where men must look to a competency for 
 their latter days. The commission will be an incitement to exertion, and 
 will be a tie on the honor and fidelity of those who receive it ; for I am 
 persuaded that the generality of the Company's servants would be better 
 contented with a moderate but sure provision by such allowed means, 
 than to be let loose on an unbounded scene of plunder, which must be a 
 source of perpetual reproach and apprehension for the consequences of 
 detection. I beg your Lordship to receive this not as a light recommend- 
 ation. It is a favorite doctrine, confirmed by many years reflection and 
 
 3
 
 APPENDIX. No. XL 479 
 
 experience, although it is but lately that I have had It in my power to 
 apply it. I believe that the same sentiments will appear recorded by myself 
 on your consultations even at so distant a period as the year 1771. 
 
 " I can say little upcjn the subject of Tanjore ; for I can hardly allow 
 it the credit of a serious argument. The meanness of our first settlers 
 dignified the Rajah with title of King, and by that misnomer, if I may 
 call it so, he has acquired all the prerogatives of royalty, though the 
 Nabob, his undoubted sovereign, has been, without scruple, treated as a 
 dependant. If these ridiculous prejudices are allowed to operate against 
 every principle of justice and policy, and, I must add, of common sense, 
 it is a pity that they could not be confined to the season of peace and 
 security. Surely this is not a time to encourage or yield to the delusion. 
 The late President and Select Committee informed us, that the Rajah 
 had refused to contribute a store of grain to the subsistence of the army ; 
 for which the President had written to him a letter expressive of his dis- 
 pleasure. This is a language so remote from my conceptions of the 
 actuaf and absolute rights of your government, while it is charged with 
 the entire defence of the state, of which the Rajah of Tanjore is a mem- 
 ber ; and of his dependance ; that I can scarce bifer aii opinion which 
 shall not apgi^ar extravagant in the comparison. — In a word, I think it 
 improper at such a time to leave the Rajah an option to withhold a grain 
 of his store, or a rupee of his treasury, from the service of the general 
 state ; and most heartily advise that, while that service, in the present de- 
 sperate condition of it, lasts, the whole with the single reservation of his 
 own personal subsistence be taken out of his hands, in better trust for 
 the public use. These are my public not private sentiments, and your 
 Lordship is welcome to avail yourself of them in any manner you 
 please. Most heartily do I wish that they may be conformable to 
 your own. 
 
 " The Nabob^s debt to individuals is becorne an object of too great 
 WiJignitude and extent- to be -ated on the principles on which it might
 
 43o APPENDIX. No. XL 
 
 have been proper to judge it, in its commencement, as it is grown into 
 a kind of national property, and the fortunes of so many are concerned 
 in it, that it will force itself upon the protection of the public, if some le- 
 nient expedient be not found to put the claims of the creditors on 
 some footing on which they can rely for their recovery. 
 
 " At the same time if they are allowed to grow with the yearly accu- 
 mulation of the present interest, or even the principal to remain at its 
 actual amount, the manifest impossibility of it"s being ever discharged, or 
 even diminished, will be a discouragement to every attempt to effect 
 either. 
 
 " It was with an equal" I'egard to these united considerations that we 
 recommended the plan of adjustment and liquidation, which is described 
 in the nth article of the agreement. Mr. Richard Sulivan, who professed 
 to know the sentiments of the creditors, assured me, that instead of re- 
 pining at the retrenchments which we have proposed, they would be 
 thankful for the provision which was left them, having had little ground 
 to hope for any payment. I express my hopes upon this subject with the 
 greater confidence of their meeting your judgment, from a communica- ■ 
 tion which has been lately made me by Mr. Stephen Sulivan, of a letter 
 written by his father to your Lordship, in which he recommends a plan 
 for the liquidation of the Nabob's debts on exactly the same principles as 
 that of ours ; but differing in the application only by the difference which 
 was rendered necessary by the alteration made in the state of affairs since 
 his letter was written. , 
 
 *' The reason of the 1 2th article is self-evident : it may also appear 
 unnecessary, for surely the past experience of the insecurity of the Na- 
 bob's credit would be sufficient of itself to prevent any one hereafter 
 from trusting to it. But this will be forgotten when the danger is past, 
 and even the remedy will be a lure to new adventurers.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XL 481 
 
 " I shall not make excuses for the length of this letter. It will cost 
 your Lordship less time to read it than I have spent in writing it, and 
 you will receive it as a proof of the value which I set on your Lordship's 
 concurrence in my line of thinking, by the pains which I have taken to 
 gain it. You will have heard that I have subjected myself to reproach 
 for the deficiences of my private correspondence ; and as much as I wish 
 to avoid that imputation with your Lordship, I am affraid that occasions 
 will happen to draw it upon mc, and I thus early bespeak your indul- 
 gence if ever this shall prove the case. I am at this time happily fur- 
 nished with unusual leisure, and have gratified my own inclinations, 
 and performed, I hope, not an unacceptable service to your Lordship 
 in this employment of it. 
 
 " I beg leave to conclude this letter, and the general subject of it with 
 a recommendation of Mr. Richard-Sullivan to your protection and coun- 
 tenance. You will find him deeply and minutely informed in the Na- 
 bob's affairs of pleasing manners, and if you shall think it proper to make 
 use of his services, possessed of honorable and faithful principles. 
 
 " I left Calcutta on the loth instant, and hope to reach Benares by 
 the middle of next month. I shall proceed to Lucknow, and shall expect 
 to return to Calcutta before the end of October, if no very urgent cause 
 detains me, which I do not apprehend, beyond that period. 
 
 " I shall continue to write to your Lordship upon other important sub- 
 jects. In the mean time I beg that you will beheve me to be with a real 
 esteem, 
 
 " My Lord, 
 
 " Your most obedient and most faithful servant, 
 
 (Signed) « WARREN HASTINGS." 
 
 VOL.1. 3 <L
 
 ( 482 ) 
 
 No. XII. 
 
 Lord Macartney's Reply to -the foregoing Letter from Warren Hast- 
 INGS Esci. dated Fori' St. George, September 2%tb, 178 1. 
 
 " My DEAR Sir, 
 
 J, HE letter with which you have honored me of the 23d July, was 
 two months in its passage to me ; you are pleased to express in it a kind 
 regret for not having been able to furnish me with earher explanations 
 on particular points, of which you apprehend that advantages might be 
 taken to prejudice my mind with dangerous opinions of the designs of 
 your government respecting mine. The desire I feel to acquire your con- 
 fidence and esteem might lead me to claim some merit, for having pre- 
 served my mind as free from the adoption of such opinions as if it had 
 been guarded against them by a previous communication of the particular 
 motives which influenced your conduct towards this Presidency. But it 
 is more candid to confess, that I canle to this country under such strong 
 impressions of your experienced wisdom and uprightness, that it required 
 no eflort to reject imputations against either. India indeed was never 
 considered by me otherwise than in a collected view ; nor have I had 
 any other ambition than of contributing in it, as far as fell to my share, 
 whatever that might be, towards the general welfare of my new employers, 
 without any subdivision of local interests or attachments. Every objec- 
 tion therefore urged against public measures, on the ground of being en- 
 croachments by one English settlement, or by one set of the Company's 
 servants over another, presented itself to my judgment, when contra- 
 distinguished from the general good, with such a degree of weakness as 
 to reason, and of danger as to consequences, that I have taken uncom- 
 
 33ion pains to inculcate • my opposite sentiments in this Presidency. To- 
 
 2.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XII. 483 
 
 the assertion of its rights invaded, I have opposed the impropriety of giv- 
 ing such a name to simple institutions established for the facility of the 
 service, and which must be subservient to its benefit. And to persons 
 hurt at the apprehension of contempt from the participation or subtraction 
 of their authority, it was obvious to observe, that bodies of men, as well 
 as individuals, become, in fact, contemptible, not by the acts of others, 
 but by the weakness or inconsistency of their own proceedings : few sta- 
 tions being so low as not to be capable of attracting esteem, and even 
 respect by a strict acquittal of the duties they prescribe. It was true 
 beside, and not useless to add, that every Englishman will really derive a 
 share of additional importance from the establishment of system in the 
 conduct of the Company, which must depend on fixing some where the 
 supreme representation of its power. As very soon after my arrival here, 
 our friend Mr. Sulivan announced to me, that with my government of 
 Madras I was to be honored with a share in that representation as a 
 member of the Supreme Council, there was little likelihood I should 
 yield to prejudices against it, and I should rather be upon my guard 
 against the predilection which, from opinion and from inclination, 1 might 
 contract in fevor of it : for I cannot avoid acknowledging that I have taken 
 a personal interest in the result, as well as propriety of its undertakings ; 
 and I have particularly rejoiced, that the treaty and the embassy, lately 
 emanating from that source, did not arrive here in time to meet the derision 
 with which, I believe, you were rightly told, they would have been treated, 
 and the resentment that would have been felt by the predecessors cf the 
 present government. No doubt, the truest method of preserving the dig- 
 nity and securing the efficacy of authority is to be cautious in extending 
 the exercise of it to lengths that may throw the existence of it (so ex- 
 tended) into doubt j but necessity gives propriety and fairness to every 
 interposition, provided it can be effectual : and it is not to the avowed 
 irregularity of passing by the usual instruments of the Company's partici- 
 pation in the government of the Carnatic, that in times of critical exigency, 
 those instruments being unfit, any solid objection will in the judgment of 
 
 3 ^2
 
 48-1 APPENDIX. No. XII. 
 
 wisdom and policy be allowed; but it is to the attempt of interposing 
 where the interposition may be rejected, or when, if admitted, it may be 
 prejudicial or ineffectual. The uneasiness of the Presidencies of both 
 coasts at any extension of the authority of the Bengal government over 
 them beyond the express provision of the act of parliament, has been de- 
 clared in forcible terms in their respective consultations, in their protests, 
 in their correspoildence. Their complaints to the Court of Directors have 
 not hitherto been discountenanced by any confirmation of your claims or 
 condemnation of their resistance. The dread of suspension by your 
 decree could have little effect on men inclined to dispute, in certain in- 
 stances, the sentence as well as the crime ; and on whom, being deter- 
 mined to quit the service, if executed, it would not be a punishment : 
 neither could you be certain, by the dangerous experiment of a succession 
 of suspensions, to arrive, at length, at fit subjects for obedience ; nor 
 could the purpose of immediate relief be answered by remote success. 
 Yet the utter rejection of your act, and the consequent breach with your 
 government, reflective as it would prove on the regulations of our policy, 
 would still perhaps be less fatal to our affairs than the perversion of a 
 treaty reluctantly admitted by persons, on whom ultimately the execution 
 of it must be dependent. From these dangers at least the settlement was 
 relieved by the change which the Company made in the administration of 
 the Presidency. The whole transaction had now a fair and candid exa- 
 minatioh ; and from the application given to it, and the opportunities of 
 judging of it upon the spot, it is probable the view taken of it has been 
 a just one. In considering the intentions of the Nabob in soliciting this 
 arrangement, it may be necessary to recur to the observation of the difler- 
 ence which frequently is found between the ostensible motives avov^ed by 
 politicians and the real objects of their pursuits. His Highness was aware 
 that whatever assignment he might offer to make of his revenues to you, 
 which he set forth as the first condition and intention of the deputation 
 from him to Calcutta, such assignment must be transferred and entrusted 
 to the Company's servant^ at Fort St. George, connected immediately 
 
 3
 
 APPENDIX. No. Xir. 4S5 
 
 with his territories. The consideration of his finances was, in fact, sub- 
 ordinate to other purposes, for which he had already given particular 
 powers to Sir Thomas Rumbold and others to treat for him with the 
 King of Great Britain. That dependence, wliich his Highness transferred 
 to the Company in the persons of their representatives here from the Sou- 
 bah of the Decan and the throne of Delhi, to whom originally it be- 
 longed, .was become as disgusting to him, if not as prejudicial, as the for- 
 mer. He had indulged the hope, that ambassadors to the crown of 
 England would contjibute not a little towards freeing him from it ; a de- 
 putation to a government established as your's is by parliament, promised 
 to add to the advantages, or to supply the deficience?, of the European 
 embassy. These views, which without blaming them, the Company's 
 interest obliges its servants to counteract, are consistent with the 
 tenor of his Highness's conduct and the spirit of his character. They 
 are confirmed to me by information which I cannot doubt ; and they are 
 absolutely avowed, not in what you mention to have been the foremost 
 proposition in the verbal conferences of his deputies, but in one of the 
 first articles of his written proposals, where he requires, though he did 
 net obtain from you, a precise acknowledgment of his perfect independ- 
 ence, as well as of his hereditary right. Several of the subsequent re- 
 quests indicate his aim at an increase of possessions and of power, 
 which the Company has not thought just or wise to suffer. The assign- 
 ment of his revenues, to be collected by the conjunct management of 
 his and the Company's servants, with the same control in favor of the 
 latter, was actually made by his Highness to my predecessor as to part of 
 his country ; and to me, before he knew the contents of the treaty, he 
 made the offer of the remainder. The effect then only of your govern- 
 ment's intervention was, in this instance, which passed for counterbalan- 
 cing all the Nabob's political demands, to obtain, by your means, what 
 he had given or was ready to give before ; but at the same time, as far 
 as the treaty bound, to bind our hands from attempting to improve this 
 plan of finances if deficient, or if it should fail, from substituting another.
 
 486 APPENDIX. No. XII. 
 
 in its room. The participation which you mention of the Company in 
 the government of the Carnatic, through its representatives at Fort St. 
 George, is meant to be rather the effect of influence than the exertion 
 of force. The Governor-general's immediate interference has destroyed 
 or diminished that necessary influence. If it had been perverted to the 
 purposes of corruption, it was full time to change the hands by which it 
 ■was directed ; but there is no alternative between taking away the ma- 
 nagement from this Presidency entirely, or leaving to it the means of 
 managing with advantage and effect. 
 
 " Very soon after my accession to this government, I had a strong 
 instance of the disadvantage of the interposition of your authority, and 
 the imbecility into which it cast this Presidency. In the midst of our 
 distresses, without money or provisions, the army in arrears, and our 
 garrison ready to mutiny, I applied to the Nabob in the most urgent 
 manner for assistance. He never precisely denied his ability to give it. 
 Many of his friends acknowledged he could have given it. The final 
 answer which vi^as sent me expressed, that his Highness had concluded 
 a treaty with you, which provided for all the supplies which he should 
 furnish. 
 
 *' Notwithstanding my experience of the Ill-consequences of your go- 
 vernment's immediate intervention, I was resolved, if you were em. 
 powered so to intervene, to abide strictly and scrupulously by every clause 
 and article in your replies. Your excercise of the power was with me 
 indeed a presumption of your right ; but though the discussion has not 
 led to that conclusion, I have, with a view to the great good which 
 united efforts operate, and from the respect and, I may say, the par- 
 tiality I feel towards your opinions, adopted my conduct to them, and 
 shall place my satisfaction in such a faithful, zealous, and, I hope, ju- 
 dicious execution of your plans as to give them the best chance of 
 success.
 
 APPENDIX. No. Xir. 4<iy 
 
 " Your observations on the preference of ?i commission or percentage, 
 rather than salaries to the persons concerned in the collection of the 
 revenue, appear to me perfectly just; and shall, as far as will depend on 
 me, be adopted here. 
 
 " If I commit any mistakes in relation to Tanjore, they will not at 
 least arise from the error originally committed in translating the Indian 
 appellation of that Prince. You will perceive, by a plan of finance which 
 I lately enclosed to you, that the settlement of that country comes within 
 my contemplation as well as the remainder of the Carnatic. 
 
 " The best Inquiries I can make do not lead to confirm the assurance 
 you received from Mr. Richard Sulivan, that any of the Nabob's creditors 
 would be thankful for the provision left them after the abolition of interest 
 and diminution of the capital, or that they would be even likely to yield 
 to such an arrangement. But the diminution of interest and delay in the 
 discharge of the principal, as proposed m the plan I sent you, will, I be- 
 lieve, if adopted, be considered as sufficiently balanced by the security and 
 regularity of the payments. 
 
 " The satisfaction I have received in the perusal of your letter makes 
 me wish that you will have frequent leisure to communicate your senti- 
 ments fully to me. 
 
 " You lay little constraint on my inclinations in recommending Mr, 
 Richard Sulivan to my good offices. Beside the claim which his engag- 
 ing manners give him upon his acquaintance, his Interest is warmly 
 espoused by his kinsman in London, to whom I feel myself very much 
 obliged. Mr. Richard Sulivan Is, I believe, convinced that had he ar- 
 rived here before my accession to the government, he would have been 
 suspended from the service. Though in a public consideration I cannot 
 approve of the commission which he holds at present, I have not the least
 
 488 APPENDIX. No. XII. 
 
 private or personal objection to it. If the welfare of the Company's 
 aflairs would admit of a representative from the Court of Directors here, 
 other than the Presidency, I should rejoice at such a witness of good, 
 and such a guard against bad, conduct. 
 
 *' I have the honor to be with great esteem and regard, Dear Sir, 
 
 " Your most obedient and most humble servant, 
 
 (Signed) « MACARTNEY." 
 
 No. XIII. 
 
 Copy of a Letter from Lord Macartney to Mr. Hastings, dated Fort 
 St. George, May 22, 1782. 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 xLVER since we received your public letter of the nth March, I 
 have had a strong inclination to trouble you with a private one upon 
 the subject. I thought it a kind of duty to that friendship which I wished 
 to cultivate with you, to communicate to you my sentiments, even al- 
 though they should differ from yours, but I was restrained by the recol- 
 lection that a former liberty of mine, on a similar occasion, seemed for 
 some time at least to have made an impression on your mind very dif- 
 ferent from what I could possibly have intended or foreseen. I was also 
 desirous to wait for the arrival of Mr. Staunton before I trespassed on 
 you again ; but I have this moment heard of his being at Ganjam, and 
 that we are not to expect him here for some weeks. This delay of his, 
 joined to an extraordinary occurrence which has come to my knowledge,
 
 APPENDIX. No. XIII. 489 
 
 and whicli I think you should be acquainted with immediately, must plead 
 my apology for troubling you with a letter at this moment. 
 
 " You were advised in the Select Committee's letter of the i ith of last 
 month, that wc meant implicit obedience to your recommendations, in 
 favor of the extraordinary powers proposed to be given to Sir Eyre Coote, 
 and we could not indeed consider the style of your recommendations in any 
 other light than as a command founded on the late authority given to you 
 by our constituents at home. And upon this principle, although we felt 
 most sensibly the efFect of a compliance, we chose to acquiesce without 
 expressing to you a single murmur. Having stated this strong proof of 
 our deference to the orders of the Company, and our firm resolution to 
 co-operate with you in every plan which you may suggest for the public 
 interest, you will allow me the freedom of a private and confidential com- 
 munication of my ideas to you upon the subject of those powers, and 
 more especially as the full exercise of them in the latitude in which they 
 seem to be taken, may probably induce very important consequences. 
 
 " I am totally at a loss to conceive upon what ground Sir Eyre Coote 
 could reasonably have desired to be furnished with more ample powers 
 than he possessed. I found him upon my arrival gratified in this respect 
 to the fullest extent of his claims ; and though my opinion was, in general 
 against such extraordinary and uncontroled command, I took no step to 
 reverse the resolution of the former Council by which his powers were 
 conveyed to him. The only occasion, upon which the Select Committee 
 assumed any direction, was that which put all the Dutch settlements on 
 the coast, and the important harbor of Trincomalee into our hands. 
 The expeditions, particularly to Negapatam and Trincomalee, were un- 
 dertaken by us, not only without the assistance of a man from his army, 
 but even against his opinion and remonstrances : yet the objects were so 
 important and appeared so practicable at that period, that we did not hesi- 
 tate to take the responsibility upon ourselves. The success which attended 
 
 VOL. I. 3 R
 
 450 APPLNDIX. No. XIII. 
 
 cur measures, and the events which have since happened, are sufficient 
 proofs in justification of our conduct. Except in this' single instance we 
 never interfered either in the plan or execution of any military operations, 
 and probably should of our own choice have continued to leave as much 
 power in Sir Eyre Coote's hands, as any reasonable man, however highly 
 he might rale himself or his services, could possibly have desired : but I 
 now fear that, by the manner in which this matter has been understood 
 and taken up, the barrier between the civil and military is almost entirely 
 annihilated. I cannot bring myself to imagine that it could be your in- 
 tention to depress the civil and raise the military above it ; but it may be 
 worth while to reflect a httle on what a latitude the dispositions of some 
 men might give to your letter of the nth March, on the subject of Sir 
 Eyre Coote's powers, and particularly that passage v^here you say, " In 
 " some points however, we think the principle we have recommended 
 '■'• should be carried beyond our example ; such, for instance, as the 
 " conciliation of the dependent chiefs of the Carnatic, the acceptance of 
 " terms offered by those of the enemy, and, in general, such other acts 
 " as do not fall within the express line of military command, but which 
 " may ' contribute to the success of its operations, either by adding 
 " strength to our arms, or weakening those which may be opposed to 
 " them — in all such cases, the officer who is charged with the conduct of 
 " the war, especially if he has shewn himself deserving of that confidence 
 " in an eminent degree, ought, we conceive, to be trusted with an implicit 
 " discretion." 
 
 " You allow that all governments possess of course an ultimate and 
 overruling authority, and that the right of exercising such authority, which 
 Is inherent in us, must also be invariable and perpetual, notwithstanding 
 any restrictions we may impose upon ourselves for particular purposes. 
 This is certainly very just, but it appears to me that, having once parted 
 with powers of such consequence as those which you have thought fit 
 should be exercised by Sir Eyre Coote, an attempt to resume or overrule 
 
 5
 
 APPENDIX. No. XIII. 491 
 
 them in any material point, under the present circumstances of tlic army, 
 and of our situation in general, might be attended not only with serious 
 difficulties, but perhaps with a total convulsion. One particular inconve- 
 nience which we feel, is in the want of sufficient control over the army 
 disbursements. Not only every shilling that comes from Bengal, but all 
 the rest of our revenues, except a very small part, are solely applied to 
 the mihtary. We are sensible they are not frugally administered, and yet 
 we are without remedy. The paymaster, commissary, agent in camp, 
 and grain-keeper attending the army, are considered as scarcely accountable 
 to us, and, as far as we can observe, there is very little method or ar- 
 rangement in any one of those departments. All the accounts are many 
 months in arrear. Another inconvenience which we feel is that the pub- 
 lic, seeing the powers of the State transferred to the military, have with- 
 drawn from us all that confidence and respect, which this government 
 used to enjoy, insomuch that, on a late occasion, when we were called 
 upon by Sir Eyre Coote for a supply of money, we could not raise a 
 pagoda on the public laith, and the whole that was procured I raised on 
 my private credit alone ; should a similar occasion occur again, I tremble 
 to think on the consequences. The public resources are vanished, and 
 as to private assistance, it can scarcely be expected that many will be 
 found to advance money to an individual whose fortune is moderate, and 
 whose disposition is not likely to increase it. The country powers or 
 dependent^ chiefs wil^l certainly not look up to a government, whose 
 means of conciliating them, and authority to awe them, are lodged in the 
 hands of others. But all my tlioughts and apprehensions are now en- 
 gaged by an event which has happened within a short time, and which 
 has so far been conducted with such secrecy that it has only come to my 
 knowledge through the channel of private information. 
 
 " The Nabob being fully apprised of your determination to support u> 
 in the collection of the revenues, which he had assigned by a formal 
 ggreement to the Company, has tried his last manoeuvre to defeat our 
 
 3 R 2
 
 492 APPENDIX. No. XIII. 
 
 joint efibrts, by addressing a letter, as a sort of Sunned to Sir Eyre Coota, 
 ■ which I am informed runs nearly ia the following stile : 
 
 " As the Supreme Council of Bengal has given to you the sole power 
 ' and authority to conduct the war, repel the enemy, and defend the 
 ' Carnatic, and as I consider the interests of the Company and mine 
 ' inseparable, and the same, I think it incumbent upon me, in the pre- 
 ' sent circumstanced of things, in order to obtain th€ desired effect, to 
 ' invest you, Sir Eyre Coote, with the government of my country and, 
 ' revenues for the public good; and I propose to send Nagiff Khan to 
 ' carry my great seal to you, with powers to you to affix it to all orders 
 ' which you may think fit to give to Zemindars, Polygars, Phousdars, 
 ' Renters, Amuldars, Sheristadars, &c. S;c. and I also send for your 
 ' publication a circular letter to all Zemindars, &c. as above, and all 
 ' other officers of th-e Circar, to obey your orders, under the pains and 
 ' penalties of high treason." 
 
 " If these be nearly the contents of the letter, as my information gives 
 me reason to suspect, I leave you to judge of the consequences which 
 may be produced if Sir Eyre Coote should not immediately, in the most 
 explicit and decisive manner, reject them, and give us information thereof 
 v.ithout delay. The concealment alone would in my opinion be highly 
 improper, to use no harsher term ; but any act performed under such an 
 authority must be considered as a total separation from the government, 
 and a measure of the most dangerous kind. 1 shall make no comment 
 on the conduct of the Nabob. Your own understanding will supply all 
 that is necessary on the occasion. 
 
 " Elavingthus unburthened my mind to you upon this point, T beg leave 
 to add, and I declare, that my principles are invariably directed to promote 
 union and co-operation throughout the whole of this trying scene in which 
 ue are engaged ; your judgment will discriminate which is most proper
 
 APPENDIX. No. XIII. • 493 
 
 to correct the inconveniences which I have represented, without inter- 
 rupting the harmony so necessary to be maintained amongst us. I have 
 -personally no pasblons to gratify, and if the public interest can be served, 
 my primary views are fully answered. 
 
 " Having said thus much, I will now take the liberty of fully opening 
 myself to you once for all, on some other points ; the manner in which 
 my most respectable friends Tvlr. Pechell, Mr. Sullivan, and some others 
 expressed themselves to me upon your subject, is a strong motive ; but 
 the necessity of my being perfectly understood by you, iu the present 
 state of our afiairs, is still a stronger. 
 
 " I have lived too long in the world not to have <een all the games 
 ■which the sharpers of it usually practise ; I have warned my friends 
 against them, but in'a particular instance, where it was highly essential, I 
 have been unsuccessful. I very early told Sir Eyre Coote that there were 
 men whose interest made them wish that the General and the Governor 
 should not be well together. I told him with regard to myself I should 
 not be the dupe of such persons, and I repeatedly warned him against 
 being so. You will perceive, from the enclosed papers, how solicitous 
 I was to prevent any misunderstanding with him. If I was so averse to 
 a rupture with Sir Eyre Coote, I leave you to judge how much more so 
 I should be to the slightest difference with you. And yet from a kind of 
 sharpness in the stile of one of your late letters to this government, 
 some persons might imagine that ill ofTices may have been employed, 
 and ill impressions conveyed, v;ith regard to my conduct and intentions. 
 If I have a right idea of your character, yoa are of all mea the least 
 likely to adopt hasty opinions. I have therefore as yet nothing to appre- 
 hend in that respect. And, I trust, that the fair and unreserved manner 
 in which I express myself will be sufficient to obviate any future prejudice. 
 It is not what may be written from Bengal to Madras, or from Madras to 
 Bengal — it is not the messages or dispatches from, the Durbar, or theit
 
 494 APPENDIX. No XIll. 
 
 starting new projects, and making new promises, that can do real busi- 
 ness at this critical time, or decide upon the great interests of our empire 
 here. A man of your extensive views and superior knowledge in the po- 
 licy of India will not receive any systematic ideas from the convulsive strug- 
 gles of Oriental vanity and rage ; you will not listen to the deliberate 
 falsehood, which rancor and disappointment may endeavor to convey — but, 
 you will separate from the question all the rubbish and dross that involve 
 it, and then determine the true value of the mine. Among many mo- 
 tives impelling this government to press the Nabob's assignment of his re- 
 venues to the Company, Sir Eyre Coote's letters upon the subject were 
 not the least forcible. Extracts from those, in which the Nabob is 
 mentioned, are now enclosed to be contrasted with such others as you 
 may think fit to examine. The report from the Committee of assigned 
 revenue, which is now preparing from their proceedings, will be trans- 
 mitted to you in a few days. It will show you at one view, either how 
 incapable or how dishonest the Nabob's ministers have been- in manag- 
 ing his revenues, the absolute necessity of the Company's undertaking it, 
 and the very able and upright manner in which the business has been 
 •conuucted by Mr. Oakeley, and the other gentlemen of the Committee. 
 1 am happy in every opportunity of doing them justice, and so romantic 
 is my disposition in that respect that if my country be benefitted, I resign 
 whhout scruple any, little reputation that might fall to my share. These 
 are most serious times ; it imports but little what can befal an individual, 
 but the fate of millions depends on your resolves. Perhaps at this mo- 
 ment the foundation of our Empire in India may be loosened to the bot- 
 tom, or rivctted for ever by the motion of a finger of your government. ^ 
 You have long known Sir Eyre Coote, from personal intercourse : 
 me you can only know from literary correspcnidence and general report, 
 and I am far from presuming that any inference can be drawn from 
 thence in my favor. Tlie power is in your hands, our constituents have 
 lodged it there, and I am sensible that it is a painful pre-eminence they 
 have given you» But, I trust, that the wisdom which supports it will
 
 APPr.NDlX. Ko. XIII. 
 
 49: 
 
 render it equally useful to the state and honorable to yourselves. As a 
 private individual nobody is less interested in the concerns of India than 
 1 am ; as a public man, nobody more so. JMr. Macpherson can inform 
 you from what quarter an Indian appointment v.-as (irst suggested to rhe. I 
 accepted it upon the most honorable ground. I Iiave invariably maintained 
 it, and I can say to the whole world, which I now do to you upon the 
 honor of a gentleman, that from my arrival in India to this hour I have 
 never accepted for my own benefit a single pagoda, a diamond or even 
 a shawl, but restricted myself most scrupulouely to the receipt of my 
 salary alone, and to the rigid observance of all my covenants. — So help 
 me God ! — I claim no more meritorious distinction from a conduct of 
 this kind than from the discharge of any other common obligations of 
 life, and I only mention it because I am informed that attempts have been 
 made to insinuate the contrary. As my viev/s point to a scene very dis- 
 tant from India I can interfere vAth no man in this part of tlie 
 world, and my objects here, being very moderate, are easily attain- 
 able without encroachment upon others. Besides, I will confess that 
 the contemplation of our affairs has taught me to look upon 
 every private consideration, and every private feeling, as triflinr 
 sacrifices at this moment to the general good. I flatter myself I 
 have given pretty strong proofs of this, and that you are fully convinced of 
 it by the line of conduct which I have adopted. It is perhaps a different 
 one from that which more hasty spirits may approve ; but I vi^ell weighed 
 every circumstance in my own mind, and chose that part which seemed to 
 be attended with the fewest probable inconveniences to the solid interests 
 of our constituents. After the stations I have filled, it is not probable 
 that I can feel within my breast any jealousy arising from Indian politics, 
 nor could any employment here flatter my ambition, otherwise than as 
 affording opportunities to me of serving my country. Such opportunities 
 must now be rare ; and that being the case, I would fain hope that it is 
 better they should occur to others. In all events you may rely on the 
 most faithful discharge of whatever duty may fall to my share j and.
 
 496 APPENDIX. No. XIII. 
 
 whether It be the pleasure of our superiors that this government should be 
 a cypher, a subordinate, or a principal, to their pleasure an equal obedi- 
 ence shall be paid. At the same time I would not be understood as if 
 this government, however lately abridged of power and responsibility, 
 should wish, in any crisis or any arduous situation, to decline power or 
 shrink from responsibility. But power on which responsibility is built, 
 must be intire, perfect, and distinctly and unambiguously defined, other- 
 wise it can only lead to anarchy and distraction. In the transaction of bu- 
 siness I have ever been slow to decide ; but when once decided, I own 
 myself very difficult to change ; for my little experience has taught me that 
 nothing can contribute more to give the natives a contempt for us, than 
 variable measures and instability of conduct. I doubt not that the firm- 
 ness of my temper has been represented to my disadvantage ; and that 
 two strong instances cf inflexibility have been urged to my reproach — I 
 mean my declining overtures of friendship with the Nabob's second son 
 Ameer-ul-Omrah, and Mr. Benfield. To this I answer ; I never will put 
 u in the power of any man who has deceived me once to deceive me a 
 second tim*e. But here it is not myself that I consider, but my consti- 
 tuents ; for after all my knowledge of these two personages I should think 
 it little less than treason to the Company to have any correspondence with 
 either of them. This sentiment of mine will probably be remembered 
 hereafter ; and however strong it may appear, it arises from the most 
 dispassionate reflection, and not from any prejudice or resentment. I 
 hope I am above them ; and that whatever other faults may be imputed to 
 me, I believe you will scarcely find a man who ever saw me betrayed into 
 a loss of temper upon any occasion. 
 
 " I have now opened myself to you with all that frankness which I have 
 ever practised since my first entrance into public life, and which both 
 reason and experience convince me to be the wisest as well as the most 
 honorable system. My wish was to convey to you a representation of 
 our affairs, of my own mind, and of the impressions upon it ; and yet I 
 
 7
 
 APPENDIX. No. XIII. 497 
 
 do not dismiss this letter from my hand, without much hesitation, lest 
 ■ what I sincerely mean as a mark of unreserved confidence may not be 
 taken in the sense it is intended ; and lest the egotism, unavoidable on an 
 occasion of this kind, should weary and disgust you. If this letter hap- 
 pens to meet the reception which I wish it to do, I shall sincerely rejoice ; 
 if not let me request that you will consign it to the flames and forget 
 that itAvas ever received. It is I believe one of the longest I have ever 
 written, and if I had not conceived ideas of you very different from 
 the generality of men, I certainly should have adopted a very different 
 stile, and have addressed you in a manner more suitable to the for- 
 malities of common intercourse, than to the attention of a great mind 
 occupied only by essential objects, and superior to the intrusion of 
 little ones. 
 
 " I have the honor, &:c. 
 
 (Signed) "MACARTNEY." 
 
 No. XIV. 
 
 Extract from the Minnies of the Select Committee, dated 3Uf 
 
 July, 1784. 
 
 JL HE President lays before the Committee the following copy of a 
 letter which he intends to address to the Governor-general and Council 
 at this time, and desires it may be entered on' the records. 
 
 VOL. I. 3 s
 
 49^: APPENDIX, No. XIV. 
 
 Letter from Lord Macartney to the Governor-general and- 
 Council o/" Bengal, dated Fort St. George^ Jidy 2,^, 1784. 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 " ALTHOUGH the Committee's letter of this date, together with my 
 minute upon which it is founded, has fully explained the reasons for de- 
 ferring the execution of your Government's orders of the 8th June, I 
 must take the liberty of addressing to you a few lines on the occasion 
 from myself, lest any misconception might arise in your breast with re- 
 spect to others. My colleagues, I have every ground to believe, are dis- 
 posed to pay all due obedience to your commands, although their opinions 
 should not entirely coincide with yours : nor should I be less inclined to 
 do so in the present instance, if I could by any means reconcile my mind 
 in reason or in conscience, either to the propriety or necessity of the mea- 
 sure which you now direct to be adopted. After your Government had 
 ratified the treaty with Tippoo Sultaun, and that ratification had been trans- 
 mitted to him as the last solemn act by which the treaty was acknowledged 
 and confirmed in all its stipulations, I cannot sufficiently express the sur- 
 prise I felt at the contents of the letter of the 8th June, so inconsistent 
 with that act, and so alarming in the tendency of the measures prescribed 
 to us. 
 
 *' When the ratification was transmitted to us by the members of the 
 Supreme Council then at Calcutta, they transmitted their observations 
 upon the treaty, but still thought it expedient to ratify it without any ex- 
 ception or declaration whatever, as to the rights of the Nabob ; so that 
 however their sentiments might differ from ours, respecting the omission 
 of the Nabob's name in the treaty, nothing on the subject was communi- 
 cated to Tippoo Sultaun, either in the ratification or in any declaration 
 annexed to it. Tippoo was taught to consider the treaty as solemnly and
 
 APPENDIX. No. XIV. 499 
 
 'ifinaliy approved by the Government of Bengal in the form in which it 
 then stood. 
 
 " This ratification of the treaty, by the Council of Fort William, must 
 have been considered by themselves, as it was, a valid act, or they would 
 not have transmitted it to us and to Tippoo Sultaun as the act of their 
 Government. Those gentlemen referred to a future correspondence with. 
 Tippoo, for any further stipulations, without weakening the validity of 
 those already made by annexing a declaration as the implied condition of 
 such ratification. If those gentlemen perceived any thing so defective in 
 the treaty as to require a formal declaration to be annexed to it, why did 
 they not annex it themselves at the time they ratified it ? 
 
 " If the honor of the nation suffered discredit by the omission of the 
 Nabob's name, so as to make it an obligation of public duty to retrieve it 
 by a public declaration affixed to the treaty, the gentlemen at Fort Wil- 
 liam must have felt that obligation as strong at the time of ratifying the 
 treaty as they do at the present time. Their ratification therefore, under 
 these circumstances, implies that the discredit might be retrieved without 
 annexing such declaration to such ratification. 
 
 " The complaints of the Nabob were made very early, but could com- 
 municate no new information respecting his rights. They are apparently 
 the production of the same English pens which, for a considerable time 
 past, have written most of his Highness's correspondence, and it yet re- 
 mains extremely doubtful whether the sentiments contained in them be the 
 real sentiments of the Nabob, or those of liis writers. 
 
 " That the Nabob's name is not expressly mentioned as a party to the 
 treaty is true. We could not make him personally a party without his 
 consent, which he never gave us, and the declared hostility, with which he 
 treated every measure of this Government, both during the war and the 
 
 -i s 2
 
 500 APPENDIX. No. XIV. 
 
 negociatioRs for peace, afforded us no reason whatever to think that he 
 either wished to be included by name or as a party ; that if included, he 
 would have acted cordially in the observance of a treaty, of which he 
 speaks with such unreserved disapprobation. 
 
 " The treaty, as far as the rights of the Carnatic are concerned, is pre- 
 cisely in the same form as the treaty made with Hyder Ali in 1769. The 
 Carnatic Payen Ghaut is expressly mentioned, and the Nabob thereby 
 included as far as it was necessary or proper to include him. The peace 
 of the Carnatic is as amply provided for, as if he had been mentioned by 
 name as a party, and this is all I conceive that could have been intended in 
 the instructions to us from Bengal. Your Government did not think it 
 necessary to consult with the Nabob in the terms of peace previous to its 
 negociation. You gave your ideas on the subject only to us, and you 
 empowered us to carry them into execution both for the Nabob's interests 
 and those of the Company. This was not surely treating the Nabob as a 
 principal in the negociation. But if we look to the true nature of the 
 Company's connection with the Nabob, we shall find it utterly impossible 
 to preserve their mutual interests, but by considering him as a Prince al- 
 together under the protection of the Company, not at liberty to pursue 
 separate or independent views, but subject, in every instance, to the gene-« 
 ral views of the power on whom he leans for his support. The Company 
 cannot, at least I am sure they ought not, undertake the protection 
 of any country Prince upon other terms. If they do they subject them- 
 selves to be perpetually misled from that character, and from those interests 
 which are infinitely more sacred and valuable than the connection of any 
 Prince whatever, who is at liberty to involve then\ by his crooked politics 
 in the wiles of his own ambitious or unjust pursuits. 
 
 " If the Nabob be made a contracting party to the treaty with Tippoo 
 Sultaun, as your Government have lately desired, will not the Company 
 be precisely in the situation above described ? Can they answer for the
 
 APPENDIX. No, XIV. 501 
 
 Nabob's faithful observance of a treaty which he has so strongly repro- 
 bated ? and will it be in any respect prudent or adviseable for the Com- 
 pany to risk the peace of their own possessions, which are included in the 
 treaty, upon so slight a security ? It is a fact, I believe indisputable, 
 that his Highness has no scruple where an interested or ambitious pur- 
 pose is to be promoted. The former wars with the Nizam, with Hyder 
 Ally Cawn, and the Rajah of Tanjore, sufficiently testify this disposition ; 
 and his open and avowed hatred to the late Hyder Ally Cawn and his 
 family is by no means favorable to the viev/s of any peace with that fa- 
 mily, in which the Nabob is - made a contracting party. 
 
 " But the strongest objection that immediately presents itself to the 
 orders of your Government is the certain effect, which any attempt to exe- 
 cute them must have on the mind of Tippoo Sultaun. After the treaty 
 with him has been solemnly ratified and exchanged, what other con- 
 struction can be put upon the proposed additional article, than that the 
 Company's government is variable and inconsistent in its conduct and re- 
 solutions, and that no dependence can be placed upon a treaty which is 
 thought so imperfect, as to require amendment after it has been approved, 
 and ratified in the most formal manner. It is not the importance of the 
 declaration proposed by the Governor-general and Council to be annexed 
 to the treaty, but the principle of unsteadiness, which is so alarming in 
 this proposition, and which cannot fail to impress Tippoo with the 
 strongest doubts of our intention to maintain the peace we have con- 
 cluded with him. Such an impression, added to the misunderslandino- 
 which has already arisen respecting the execution of some of the arti- 
 cles of the treaty, would in all probability bring on a renewal of the war, 
 and throw the Company at once into a scene of such distress as no ex- 
 ertion of ability or resource within .fheir power could possibly extricate 
 them from ; and when the object, for which all ihis proposed to be ha- 
 zarded, is viewed in the light in which I have now placed it in this letter, 
 .and more fully in my minute of the 15th instant, I humbly think there is
 
 502 APPENDIX. No. XIV. 
 
 no proportion between the advantage of the object and the risk in at- 
 tempting to accomplish it. I must request your indulgence to excuse me 
 lor repeating in this paper some of the arguments which I have used in 
 another, but my mind is too forcibly impressed not to give way to its 
 feelings at such a moment. If, however, what I have now submitted to 
 your consideration, should hav6 no weight. If you still persevere in your 
 opinion and reiterate your orders, while the present objections remain to 
 their execution, you will permit me to decline having any share in exe- 
 cuting them, but to leave that task to be performed by my successor. The 
 measure seems to me big with mischief, and totally inconsistent with 
 every principle of what I humbly conceive to be the only system capable 
 of giving a chance for saving our Indian empire in the Carnatic from 
 speedy ruin. This conviction is so strong in my mind, that I ought not 
 to shrink from the risk of disobedience, although the state of my private 
 fortune could ill afford the loss of my public situation. If it should seem 
 that at any time my sentiments have been rather acquiesced in than ap- 
 proved by my colleagues, the principal responsibility ought to rest upon 
 me, and I am neither unwilling to bear it on this present occasion, nor 
 any other in which this present government has had the misfortune of 
 
 differing from yours. 
 
 " I have, &c. 
 
 M. 
 
 " In Committee — Fort St. George, July 31, 1784. 
 
 " Mr. Davidson desires to record the following minute and motion : 
 " That the suspension of Lord Macartney, or his being obliged to quit 
 the chair, at this important juncture, would most probably throw the 
 Presidency of Fort St. George into anarchy and confusion. 
 
 " His great abilities, integrity, and application in liis station, during a 
 
 most critical period of the Company's affairs ; and ihe great exertions he 
 
 6 ,
 
 APPENDIX. No. XIV. 
 
 5^3 
 
 has made to support and promote the prosperity of the Company, are well 
 known to every member of this Board. Mr. Davidson therefore is of 
 opinion, that the displacing of Lord Macartney from the chair of Madras 
 at this important period, when the army and our garrison are six and 
 twelve months in arrear, consequently dissatisfied ; our bills on Bengal in 
 payment of our civil and military servants, and others, at 40 per cent, dis- 
 count ; our resources nearly exhausted ; such a change in government, 
 at this time, would endanger the Carnatic, and tend to the ruin of the 
 Company's affairs on this coast. If the Select Committee are of this 
 opinion, Mr. Davidson moves, that the Secretary draw up a minute at 
 large in the nature of a protest against the Supreme Council, should they 
 proceed to extremities against the Right Hon. President now in charge of 
 this government. 
 
 (Signed) « ALEX. DAVIDSON." 
 
 " Mr. Sadlier and Mr. Maunsell concurring in the sentiments of Mr, 
 Davidson, expressed in the foregoing minute, the motion intended by Mr. 
 Davidson in the event of such circumstance, is now put : 
 
 Mr. Maunsell for the motion. 
 Mr. Davidson for the motion. 
 Mr. Sadlier for the motion. 
 
 The Right Hon. the President desires to decline giving any vote upon 
 the motion. 
 
 " The motion being agreed to nemine coniradicenie, the Committee ad- 
 vert to that part of the orders from Bengal of the 8 th June, which seems 
 to imply, that whatever circumstances might arise to render it the duty 
 of this Government to resist, or even defer the execution of those orders, 
 and whatever conviction the representatives of the Company charged 
 with their interests here, might feel of their destructive tendency, thev 
 would " do it at their peril," and combining these orders and this menace
 
 504 APPENDIX. No. XIV. 
 
 wiih the hostile disposition which, to the great detriment of the Company's 
 affairs, the 'Governor-general and Council have manifested towards this 
 Government almost from the commencement of Lord Macartney's ad- 
 ministration, in a variety of important instances too notorious to require 
 being stated here ; but particularly in the extrinsic and, it may be added, 
 unnatural support given to the complaints fabricated by the advisers of 
 the Nabob, notwithstanding the proofs adduced of their fallacy and in- 
 justice ; the Comfnittee, duly weighing all these circumstances, are of 
 opinion, that they afford grounds to apprehend, that the Governor-general 
 and Council have determined to compass the removal of the Right Hon. 
 President from his station, an event of which the probable consequences 
 are pointed out in Mr. Davidson's minute. 
 
 " The abilities and indefatigable attention to the public service, by 
 which this Government has been upheld for these three years past, 
 through a series of difficulties unexampled, both in their nature and 
 magnitude, are still necessary to the retrieval of the Company's affairs ; 
 notwithstanding the return of peace many and very serious difficulties 
 still continue, and the heavy burdens, produced by a long and destructive 
 war, must for some time press upon us. The temper and patience of 
 the Rlglu Honorable President, his known Integrity, and the weight de- 
 rived from his rank and character, have enabled his Lordship to conci- 
 liate and satisfy, where justice could not be immediately rendered, and 
 to reconcile men to the delay which the public exigences require ; but 
 they still look towards the right honorable President, confiding in his 
 kno'wledge of their claims, in his ability, and zealous efforts to retrieve 
 the public affairs, and in the opinion they entertain of the stabihty of his 
 administration. 
 
 " From these considerations the Committee are of opinion, that in the 
 present state of the Company's affairs here, there is the greatest reason 
 to apprehend that the removal of the Right Honorable President from
 
 APPENDIX. No. XIV. 505 
 
 his station would be followed by the most serious consequences within 
 this settlement ; nor are such the only consequences to be expected from 
 it : the cause of the removal would not remain a secret ; such a proposal 
 knpwn to be sent from Bengal might excite strong suspicions in the mind 
 of Tippoo Sultaun of the sincerity of that Government with regard to the 
 treaty, and make him imagine that an adherence to it had been the Pre- 
 sident's crime, and that the Governor-general and Council, desirous of find- 
 ing a pretext for renewing the war against him, had removed Lord Ma- 
 cartney as the chief obstacle to their wishes. 
 
 " The Committee therefore, as the only expedient left them to evmce 
 their regard to the interests of their employers, and to the public wel- 
 fare, do, upon the presumption that it may be the intention ot the Go- 
 vernor-general and Council to remove the Right Honorable President 
 from his station, hereby, on behalf of the Honorable East India Company, 
 solemnly protest against such act, and declare the Governor-general and 
 Council to be solely responsible for all the consequences that may arise 
 therefrom to the British interests in India. 
 
 " Resolved, That a copy of foregoing minutes be transmitted to the 
 Governor-general and Council. 
 
 *' A true extract, 
 
 « T. HUDLESTONF, Sec '* 
 
 VOL. :. 3 T
 
 ( 5o6 ) 
 
 No. XV. 
 
 Translation of a Persian Letter from his Highness the Nabob Wallaw 
 Jaw, to Lord Macartney dated ']th Ramasan 1196, or ijth Au- 
 gust 1782. 
 
 " Your Lordships letter of the 29th Shabawn iipS, or 10th August 
 1782, in answer to a few lines from me, in order to obtain fine rice for 
 my people, I have received. 
 
 *^ Your Lordship is pleased to say, that the distresses of the Carnatic, 
 in which I am so nearly concerned, cannot be unknown to me. That 
 your efforts have been invariably directed, since your arrival here, to- 
 wards the alleviation of them ; both in procuring means for repelling the 
 invasion of our enemies, and in applying those means to the best pur- 
 poses in your power to effectuate. That if I feel any other uneasiness 
 than what the calamities of the war necessarily occasion, it must be entirely 
 owing to the insinuations of factious and designing persons, whose si- 
 nister views are forwarded, and passions gratifyed, by instilling jealousies 
 ' into my mind against the represetitatives of the Company, and in creating 
 a variance between me and my best friends ; that you hope my good sense 
 will not much longer be imposed upon by such insidious advisers ; and 
 that I shall then be soon convinced how sincerely and steadily you have 
 endeavored, notwithstanding the unjust charges 1 have suffered to be made 
 against you in my name, to promote my real interest and welfare ; the 
 force and meaning of all this I understand. 
 
 " I have long been an unshaken friend to the English, and, by the 
 blessing of God, have governed the affairs of the Carnatic to the pre- 
 sent lime from an earlier period perhaps than that of your birth. I am
 
 APPENDIX. Np.XV. . 507 
 
 now, for the first time, told I am not able to distin^'ulsh good from evil, 
 even in my own iiflairs. You wound me in every put of my body, and 
 when I complain from my heart of what 1 feel, you tell me I can have 
 no pain ; that the feelings I complain of proceed from the insinuations 
 of evil minded persons, that the wounds are for my good j and to prove 
 the respect and regard that you bear towards me, you give me a mortal 
 stab that lays me prostrate on the ground ; and, in the last moments of 
 my breath, you say, it is done to produce to me solid advantages, and 
 to promote my real interest and welfare ; and that 1 am to depend upon 
 a nostrum you have in reserve, to restore me to life at your pleasure 
 hereafter. Indeed, my Lord, it wants not the powers of human faculties 
 to distinguish between good and injury. Even a bird of the air will fly 
 from offers of violence, and as speedily approach the hand of kindness. 
 
 " It would be happy for me could I and those that experience your 
 coonduct, agree with your Lordship in what you are pleased to express 
 so handsomely of yourself, concerning your efforts, both in procuring 
 means for repelling our enemies, and in applying those means to the best 
 purposes ; but the whole of our correspondence will evince how widely 
 our sentiments differ in this respect. Your Lordship however more boldly 
 advances the circumstance : it is| therefore incumbent upon me to adduce 
 a few facts ; that, I trust, must establish evidently to all the world, 
 how much it was in your Lordship's power to have employed those efforts 
 more productively, and more effectually, towards expelling the enemy, 
 and alleviating the distresses of the Carnatic ; and though the conduct of 
 your Lordship has caused the utmost uneasiness to my mind, as well from 
 my feelings for the interest of the English nation in India, as for what 
 concerns myself, my family, my subjects, and my country ; yet neither 
 my feelings nor my communications with your Lordship have proceeded 
 from the insinuation of others, but are the dictates of my own mind, 
 founded on facts, and delivered to you in the result of my serious and 
 deliberate considerations. I might strongly recriminate upon the advisers. 
 
 IT 2
 
 5o8, APPENDIX. No. XV. 
 
 your Lordship has brought and thought proper to introduce into these 
 parts, but it would be unbecoming in me ; nor will I suffer myself to in- 
 trude upon your Lordship's right to consult and advise with whomsoever 
 you please. I have always held it an indispensible duty I owe to my 
 friends, the Company, to make these communications to their representa- 
 tives here, as you will find I have pointedly done before the invasion of 
 Hyder, when I warned them of the impending danger ; and had my re- 
 presentations at that time been properly regarded, it is well known that 
 the calamities we are now suffering under might have been averted. In 
 the present case, my representations are made with the same good mo- 
 tives to preserve and secure the connected and inseparable interests of the 
 English and myself ; and had they been properly attended to by your 
 Lordship, very essential assistance would have been obtained towards 
 alleviating the distresses of the Carnatic, and in procuring means for re- 
 pelling the invasion of our enemies : and though your Lordship would 
 insinuate that my representations to you tend to create a variance with 
 my good friends, the Company, yet you well know, my Lord, that my 
 complaints to you are not against them, but against your Lordship per- 
 sonally. The servants of the Company, who of late have come in autho- 
 rity to this country, though their names and faces are different, yet their 
 views and designs are the same ; but every one pursues his own plan of 
 carrying them into execution. Thus, injuries of every kind are brought 
 upon me, and my affairs ; but how can I attribute these acts either to the 
 • Government of the Company, or to the Company themselves ? I can only 
 lament the inability to restrain them, and until the Company shall ex- 
 press their approbation of your conduct towards me, and in my ailairs, 
 I cannot complain of them for what you have done. 
 
 " It Is without a doubt that my son. Ameer ul Omrah Bahawder, 
 contrary to the opinions of my whole family, of my eldest son, Omdut 
 ul Omrah Bahawder, of my other sons, and all my servants, did advise 
 me to place implicit confidence in your Lordship, and according to your
 
 APPENDIX. No. XV. 509 
 
 Lordship's earnest desire, to invest you with powers far exceeding what 
 were stipulated in the Bengal treaty, over the revcjiue of my country 
 during the war, in the hope that they would be duly exercised, and pro- 
 ductive of good to the public service ; of all which I verbally acquainted 
 you at the time : and so certain was he of your Lordsliip's good intentions, 
 that he even became a surety to me in my Durbar, under his own hand, 
 for your good conduct in that trust, a copy of which I enclose to you j 
 though, after obtaining those powers through my sou's endeavors, 
 your Lordship published by tongue and pen, both far and near, that they 
 were obtained from me by your own great address and exertions : I in 
 return for all those marks of good faith and confidence that my son had in 
 your Lordship, and his strong desire to accede to your wishes, even to the 
 extent of committing the future peace and welfare of myself and my 
 family into your Lordship's hands, what is there in the world that your 
 Lordship does not now say and write against him, as well as against my- 
 self? Is it worthy of your Lordship to do every injury to a person, froni 
 whom you have experienced every kindness, and who, on account of the 
 advice that he gave me to accede to your wishes, has so much incurred 
 the displeasure of myself and my family, that he is not able to hold up 
 his head before us ? But the goodness of his intentions plead for him with 
 me in extenuation of his fault. 
 
 " I will now, my Lord, presume on your candor, to ask your Lordship, 
 if you did not, previous to your obtaining from me the powers over the 
 revenues, make the most solemn promises that you would nominate re- 
 sponsible people as Renters of the districts, who would be able to give 
 Soucar security for the revenues ; but in violation of your promises, have 
 you not appointed creatures without credit or reputation, or without any 
 security for the revenues, such as have been actually guilty of em- 
 bezzling the public revenues to an extensive degree ; and have not 
 complaints to this effect been made to your Lordship, in particular from 
 the province of Nellour.
 
 510 APPENDIX. No. XV. 
 
 *' Did not your Lordship solemnly engage and promise, under your 
 hand, that the provinces should not be let at an inferior rent to what 
 they had produced in former years, under similar circumstances ? And 
 did I not furnish you with all the particulars of ten years collection for 
 your guidance ? But in violation of those promises, have not the countries, 
 even those most distant from the seat of war, been let at rents far inferior 
 to what they have yielded in former years ; and that at a time of scarcity 
 in the adjacent districts, whereby the produce of those countries you have ' 
 so let, must be greatly increased in value ? And has not your Lordship 
 withheld from my distressed creditors their just right, and every sort of 
 satisfaction for what has been received and supplied on this account ?" 
 
 *' Did not your Lordship solemnly engage and promise under your hand, 
 that the Renters and Amuldars to be appointed by you in my name, and 
 under my seal, should be suGject to my confirmation ? And did not you 
 propose to me in writing that over such Renters and Amuldars I should 
 appoint Aumeens to prevent embezzlements, and superintend the collec- 
 tions, according to ancient custom, and as under me, in the fullest ex- 
 tent, to exercise the office of Aumeen, in clear distinction from, the reve- 
 nue department, for all the purposes and in all the powers of my Govern- 
 ment ; a Government that of early time has been solemnly secured to me, 
 under the faith of his sacred Majesty of Great Britain, by every solemn 
 pledge from the Company, and lately by the faith of a solemn treaty en- 
 tered into between the superior Government of Bengal and myself ? But in 
 ■violation of all their pledges and assurance, has not your Lordship, of 
 your own authority, in your own name, without my confirmation or seal, 
 granted Sunneds to Amuldars, and Renters for my provinces ? And has 
 not your Lordship, of your own authority, dismissed all my people of 
 every description in the towns and villages, without even giving thera 
 the pay due, as well those who, under tlie office of Aumeen, were su- 
 perintending the collections, and were possessed of all the accounts of 
 the countries from ancient times, as those under the same ofllcc, exer- 
 
 3
 
 APPENDIX. No. XV. ^n 
 
 cising the functions of Government in the different branches of judica- 
 cature and police, and were possessed of all the records of the provinces, 
 •whose charge had descended chiefly from their ancestors, and who had 
 no power whatever over the revenues, leaving the cities, towns, and 
 villages in a state of anarchy ? By these violences, my Lord, has not my 
 Government been totally subverted, my powers assumed by yourself, the 
 collections of my revenues concealed from me without any account, but 
 such as you chuse to give, exposed to all manner of dissipation and em- 
 bezzlement, and your own conduct in the countries thereby abused? 
 Was it necessary, my Lord,- to have proceeded to those assumptions of 
 power ? Was it within our mutual engagements that I should confirm at 
 an instant the first persons you sent to me as Renters^ and Aumildars, re- 
 gardless of their civil and military fame, or insufficiency? Were not my books 
 and registers open to your inspection for a knowledge of all those who 
 had preserved characters, and were eligible for offices of revenue ? Could 
 their circumstances be otherwise known to your Lordship, and were not 
 these the reasons for the article in the agreement between us, stipulating 
 for my confirmation of the persons nominated to those superior offices of 
 revenue ? And as a proof that it was clearly so understood by both of us, 
 I call to your mind your first act after being invested with power over 
 the revenues, when you presented three people to me for the Aumildar- 
 ship of Permacoil, and I immediately gave my confirmation of the one 
 that was most proper, who was thereupon invested in that office by your 
 Lordship in my name, and by my Sunned under the seal of my Go- 
 vernment ? 
 
 " Did not your Lordship, after I had pointed out a great reduction in 
 the current expences, promise and assure me of a continuance of the 
 Tanjee or the orders for the pay of my body guard, a few hundred peo- 
 ple, attendant on my person and family, and did you not promise and 
 assure me of the continuance of the small collection from the jaghires, 
 given under the faith of government to the woman of my family, to my
 
 512 
 
 APPENDIX. No. XV. 
 
 children, my relations, and faithful servants, which had never been con- 
 sidered or included in Government revenue ; but when I complained of 
 your measures, did I not thereby incur your Lordship's displeasure, and 
 in consequence therof, and in violation of all your promises, did you not 
 stop the payment of the Tanjee, and seize the collections from those 
 small Jaghires, leaving many reputable and honorable families in the 
 utmost distress, want, and ruin? And did you not, in like manner, put 
 a stop to the expences for the feeding of my elephants and horses, in dif- 
 ferent forts, whereby most of them have died, and the rest are rendered 
 unserviceable ? And further, did you not cause the small daily allowance 
 to the poor, and the inconsiderable grants for the service and support of 
 the mosques, churches, and places for religious worship, to be seized as 
 revenue, to the disgrace and dishonor of my name and of all government ? 
 Did you not continually say to me, my Lord, that the treaty I had made 
 with the superior Government of Bengal would ruin my affairs ? And 
 have you not repeatedly threatened me, my Lord, before many of the 
 gentleman of the place that from my incurring your displeasure, you 
 would take such measures as should deprive me and my family in suc- 
 cession of my Government ? But is it with me alone that your Lordship 
 has quarrelled ; is it not the case with every gentleman of authority, 
 command, or distinction amongst your own people, and the servants of 
 the Company ? 
 
 *' Did not your Lordship totally disregard my applications to you, 
 that receipts might be given for the large quantities of stores and provi- 
 rions, issued to your people in the different garrisons, so that my grana- 
 ries are drained, and my storehouses exhausted to supply your wants, 
 without receipts, or accounts, and when I asked, according to custom, 
 for a small quantity of ammunition to be supplied to my body guard, the 
 horsemen, and Sepoys, to the number of about three hundred, who the 
 other day, almost at your gates, so gallantly defeated Careem Sahib, the 
 second son to Myder, with a body of above 6000 horse and Sepoys, with
 
 APPENDIX. No. XV. 5,3 
 
 guns, who came down to burn and destroy the vicinity of Madras, and 
 distress the garrison ? Did not your Lordship refuse to comply with my 
 application, except in very small part, though it has been always cus- 
 tomary to supply me, and though the general, whom you referred it to 
 for the purpose of delay, gave his approbation for its being complied 
 with ? Though this circumstance is unworthy of my notice, it will mark 
 the disposition of your Lordship towards me. 
 
 " Did not your Lordship communicate at home and abroad that you 
 had made a reduction of five lacks of pagodas in the expences incurred 
 in the countries for one year ? But what, and where is that reduction, 
 when the whole revenue from all the provinces for the year, under vour 
 Lordship's management, is less than half the sum that your Lordship 
 talks of having reduced in the expences only ? Have you sent me for my 
 expences more than 33,000 pagodas, as the proportion of a sixth part 
 of the whole revenues for the year, which proves the whole revenues col- 
 lected for the present year, now nearly expired, to amount to 1,98,000 
 pagodas ? If more has been received from the countries, your Lordship 
 should tell me where it is deposited, and not deceive me in this point too, 
 by withholding from me the proportion of one-sixth part of the revenues 
 collected and promised under your hand to secure to me ; the great 
 distresses of myself and family for the want of money to supply the 
 necessaries of life have been continually known to you ; and as my trea- 
 sury and the Company's are now one and the same under your charge, 
 and at your disposal, may I not here, my Lord, well call your attention 
 to the supplies of money you have thought fit to furnish for the Prince of 
 the Carnatic, and all his family and attendants, compared with the large 
 drafts you have made on the treasury, with an unabating hand, for your 
 own salary of 40,000 pagodas a year ; and an arbitrary sum, nearly ap- 
 proaching the amount of your salary, under the denomination of secret 
 services, notwithstanding the public distresses and wants j and that all the 
 
 VOL. I. 3 u
 
 SH .APPENDIX. No. Xr. 
 
 other servants of the Company, and even the army, are without their pay. 
 If your Lordship means by reduction of expences the entire dismission of 
 all my officers and servants of Government, and the necessary Aulmagaunce 
 attendants, an inherent establishment never to be altered so long as any 
 Government is preserved ; or if you mean on those groundless pretences 
 to acquire reputation to yourself, such reductions, my Lord, are like 
 those that would be .made by the gentlemen of the Company, were they 
 to strike off your salary, allowances, and contingencies, and all other 
 salaries and charges of Government, delivering over the administration of 
 their affairs to one or two of their youngest writers. These would be 
 similar reductions, but after all these flattering representations, have not 
 the Aumildars, under your authority, re-established the same charges ia 
 the countries ? 
 
 *' Is it not known to your Lordship that by your conduct, myself, my 
 family, and servants have been reduced to the most deplorable distresses ? 
 In this situation, and while I was suffering every dishonor, disgrace, and 
 i:idignity, did you not treat me with personal derision before a principal 
 and honorable officer of his Majesty's service? And have you not, my 
 Lord, labored with avidity to dishonor me and my family by abetting the 
 meanest and most unworthy calumniators in fabricating false and wicked 
 insinuations and charges, calculated to defame me and my son I Have you 
 not prevented enquiry and the examination of the person, who had been 
 instigated to perjury on that occasion, and is he not still held for your 
 purposes upon dishonorable and groundless pretences, under your guards 
 of Sepoys. 
 
 *' In order to dishonor me and my Government, did not your Lordship 
 cause the provinces to be put up to public auction, a measure the most 
 disgraceful ? And during the whole course of your Lordship's manage- 
 pent, have not I had continual petitions and representations from the ia-
 
 APPENDIX. No. XV. 515 
 
 habitants and vassals throughout all the provinces, setting forth the in- 
 tolerable grievances and oppressions they have sufiered under your autho- 
 rity ; the unreasonable demands made upon their share of the crop ; and 
 the oppressions and cruelties exercised upon them, even to the cutting oft' 
 their ears and noses upon the slightest pretences ? After your Lordship 
 had dismissed all my people, of whatever denomination, without their 
 pay, was it not proclaimed throughout many of the districts by beat of 
 torn torn, that all such as had belonged to me, and were not retained in 
 the service under your authority, should depart from the countries, or be 
 punished ? Have not the distresses of the disbanded servants been beyond 
 description, imprisoned and tortured by those under your authority ; and 
 have not their importunities for subsistence been returned with bloodshed r 
 But at Tritchinoply, my Lord, were not the' courts of justice removed 
 from my Government-house, and affected to be held at the house of a 
 private European gentleman ? 
 
 " Did not your Lordship violently seize and open all letters addressed 
 to me and my officers, on the affairs of my Government? In the face of 
 all the other Vakeels that attend upon your Lordship, was not my Vakeel 
 ignominiously dismissed from your presence, and not afterwards suffered 
 to approach the Government-house? When your Lordship found your- 
 self unequal to the charge and management of the countries, and that the 
 calculations, plans, and projects you had sent away to the Company and 
 to Bengal, in order to raise your own fame, were evidently vain, iil- 
 founded, and delusive : still to veil the deception and your insufficiency and 
 designs did you not, my Lord, unjustly insinuate that I continued an 
 interference in the revenue department, that interrupted the collections ; 
 though you well knew I did not interfere, and though the assertion is so 
 contrary to all common sense, to every act of my life, and to the very 
 act that came so voluntarily from myself, of making over to the Company 
 by the Bengal treaty, and on the faith thereof, the whole revenues of my 
 
 3 u 2
 
 5i6 APPENDIX. No. XV. 
 
 country, for the exigencies and purposes of the war during its continuance ; 
 and this I did in order to remove all doubts, jealousies, or difficulties, 
 between me and the representatives of my friends, the Company, in those 
 perilous times ? 
 
 " Did I not repeatedly offer to your Lordship, upon seeing your insuf- 
 ficiency in the management of the countries, and the consequent evils, 
 distresses, and public calamities, to ensure to your Lordship, under the 
 security of good and responsible people, the whole amount of the revenues 
 that could be collected or expected from the countries, grounded upon the 
 medium of the collections for the preceding ten years ; whereby a large 
 revenue of several lacks of pagodas would have been secured for the 
 public exigencies of the war ? But did not your Lordship reject that 
 offer, and disdain all communication with me upon the subject, suffer- 
 ing the revenues in a chief degree to be dissipated, embezzled, and 
 lost ? 
 
 " Did not your Lordship improperly assume the command of the 
 southern army under Colonel Braithvvaite, which thereby fell a sacrifice to 
 the enemy, a dreadful calamity to the Carnatic ? Hath not your Lord- 
 ship taken upon yourself to furnish all the supplies, contingencies, and 
 pi'ovisions for Sir Eyre Coote's army ; and notwithstanding the gallant 
 conduct and repeated victories of Sir Eyre Coote, have not the public 
 been deprived of all the advantages that would naturally have occurred 
 froni those victories, by the inability of Sir Eyre to pursue the enemy 
 from the want of those supplies that depended on your Lordship to fur- 
 nish, notwithstanding the resources of the Company's countries and 
 mine, from whence the supplies of bullocks should have been furnished, 
 have been entirely under your Lordship's authority and management ? 
 Have not the operations of Sir Eyre been thereby defeated, and a victo- 
 rious army rendered inactive and almost confined to the precincts of
 
 APPENDIX. No. XV. 517 
 
 Tiladras, from the time of your Lordship's arrival here ; an army that 
 •would certainly have cleared the country of Hyder's forces long before the 
 junction of the French, had rice and a proper number of bullocks to carry 
 it been furnished by your Lordship, sufficient to have enabled Sir Eyre to 
 have moved from Madras for any length of time ? And does not your 
 Lordship boast of having obtained, since the time of your arrival here, 
 now fourteen months, a supply of 16,000 bullocks for the public ser- 
 vice? Is such a supply, my Lord, equal to a fourth part even of the con- 
 tingencies, or casualties, that must naturally accrue in such a service as 
 the present war ? But what sums, my Lord, have been expended in vain, 
 through want of bullocks to convey provisions, and enable the army to 
 act vifith effect ; and what are the misfortunes that now threaten us from 
 the vi^ant of those supplies that ought to have been furnished at an earlier 
 period, thereby to have secured the Carnatic against all our enemies ? 
 "Was it known to your Lordship the supplies and expenditures in the 
 article of bullocks by the Company's people and mine in former wars ? 
 Certainly your Lordship would think very little indeed of what you have 
 done in the present. You would blush, my Lord, to mention the small 
 number obtained for the army through your means, though all there- 
 sources have been under your authority. 
 
 " It is indeed endless, my Lord, for me to adduce the circumstances 
 of my sufferings, and those of the Company and the public under your 
 Lordship's conduct. I will therefore, for the present, only ask of your 
 Lordship one truth farther, if you have not been tampering and intriguing 
 ■with my family for the worst of purposes, and thereby seducing those 
 nearest to me of blood from their duty, affections, and allegiance ? Could, 
 your Lordship beilevg I was unacquainted with this conduct ? But what 
 am I not to suiFer under your Lordship's administration ? 
 
 " Indeed, my Lord, all these are direful facts, dreadful to my feelings, 
 and big with calamity ; and. those facts are the true cause of all my suf-
 
 5iS APPENDIX. No. XV, 
 
 ferlngs. When in the course of your progress, I have represented and 
 remonstrated to your Lordship, you have cloaked yourself under appeals 
 to your writings, neither known nor communicated to me, but formed to 
 veil your conduct, and to convey to my old friends, the Company, only 
 such information as suits your own purposes ; and under that cover 
 framing pleas and excuses for your own conduct, and criminating me in 
 many parts. Such writings you call records ; partial representations, 
 made by the offending party, I presume can neither justify your measures, 
 or prejudice me ; nor can such representations deserve the name of records 
 until they have been communicated to, and replies made by, those whom 
 they concern. 
 
 " Such, my Lord, are the sufferings of the old, the faithful, and 
 unshaken friend and ally of the English nation, the lawful Prince of the 
 Carnatic ; nor will I doubt but that the justice of the English will afford 
 me ample retribution for the injuries done me, and restore my honor and 
 dignity. What can I say more ? 
 
 P. S. I send you a translation, made with care, by my secretary, of 
 this letter, to prevent mistakes ; because the translations in Persian of 
 your letters to me differ from the originals.
 
 ( 5^9 ) 
 
 No. xvr. 
 
 Minute of the President of Fort St. George, relative to a Letter in Englisby 
 from the Nabob of Arc or to Lord Mac akti^ey, of the lyth Augusty 
 dated i6th September, 1782. 
 
 cc rip 
 
 J. HE President had the honor to lay before the committee, a let- 
 ter which he lately received from his Highness the Nabob. 
 
 " It is meant to convey the severest censure upon the whole of the 
 President's conduct in this Government, and he acknowledges it is no 
 pleasing performance of his duty to communicate, even to the witnesses 
 of that conduct, charges which derive, at least apparently, their source, 
 from a person of so respectable a rank as the Nabob. 
 
 " It is a subject of much mortification to the President to be dis- 
 appointed in the desire he had formed of pleasing and satisfying his 
 Highness, for whom he has the greatest respect. It is a severe misfortune 
 to him, either to have really had the wickedness of being guilty of those . 
 several charges by a flagrant abuse of the trust reposed in him, or, by 
 a faithful discharge of it, at this critical juncture, to have excited the 
 efforts of the Nabob's ministers and advisers to remove him from it, by 
 an accusation on the part of his Highness of heavy crimes. 
 
 " He is aware of the impression that is expected to be made upon the 
 public at a distance by the weight of such a name ; he has observed on 
 this occasion the successful union of European address and Oriental elo- 
 quence, in exciting the passions to a commiseration of his Highness'^ 
 suflerings, and in imputing those sufferings to the President,
 
 520 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 *' But his inclination would neither prompt, or his situation permit, 
 even if his talents had enabled or his case required, him to have re- 
 course to such arts in aid of his defence. He conceives that it ultimately 
 must rest upon those plain and important matters of fact that have hap- 
 pened in his Government, and which cannot be altered or suppressed : to 
 the deliberate and impartial consideration of them he commits his con- 
 duct and himself j perhaps it will be found, that his task has not been 
 easy, or his situation pleasant. . 
 
 " The letter indeed, under the Nabob's seal, does not deal much in 
 the proof or even the assertion of fact ; but in directing the drift of in- 
 terrogatory addressed to the President, in such a manner, and with such 
 a tendency, as to insinuate, that the answers, to be true, should be given 
 in the affirmative ; which affirmative must stamp a guilt upon the 
 answer. 
 
 " If the truth be really on that side, and the President be guilty of all 
 those crimes concerning which he thus is questioned, no denial of them 
 will prevent the indignation, so justly, in that case, excited by the display 
 of injuries committed and wounds inflicted by him ; and if it should 
 prove otherwise, more of that indignation than the President requires 
 will recoil upon the aggressors. 
 
 " If this attack had been restricted to any particular instances of de- 
 viation from the general line which has marked the present administra- 
 tion of the Presidency, or had been founded on a supposition of facts^ 
 compatible with those which have a known existence, the President 
 might have been justly apprehensive of the consequences of a charge on 
 the part of his Highness, or in his name ; and should have to rely on 
 the candor of his employers, in being forgiven for any error, into which 
 he might inadvertently have fallen. 
 
 7
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 521 
 
 " But when in the eagerness of accusation, and the vehemence or 
 blindness of passion, every appearance of probability is overturned, and 
 even the testimony of records is rejected, in order to heap upon the Pre- 
 sident the guilt of tyranny, usurpation, injustice, and other daring crimes, 
 for which he could have no more an incentive than an apology, he trusts 
 it will be sufficient for him to give a plain recital of the facts to which the 
 charge alludes ; and those facts shall not be assertions loosely advanced, 
 to serve the present purpose, but founded on authentic and indisputable 
 documents. 
 
 " Though the letter addressed to the President contains a list of grievances 
 said to be suffered, and of questions supposed to be put by his Highness 
 the Nabob, it is not expected by his ministers or advisers that the former 
 should be acknowledged ; or is it wished that the latter should be answered 
 by the President ; the real object of sending to him such a letter, beuig 
 the hope of giving weight to those accusations elsewhere, by the boldness 
 of asserting them upon the spot. 
 
 " The President, therefore, runs no risk of giving any real dissatis- 
 faction by not replying to the Nabob's letter, which he shall not do, 
 otherwise than by the subsequent account of his transactions with his 
 Hidiness. 
 
 o 
 
 " If, as is asserted in this letter, the President had quarrelled with, 
 every gentleman of distinction among his own people and the servants of 
 the Company, the repeated expression of their sentiments of his modera- 
 tion, integrity, and assiduity would come in the President's favor with all 
 the strength of the acknowledgment of enemies. 
 
 " He does not indeed bias the judgment or win the testimony of men, 
 by exciting sentiments in their minds of personal interest or gratitude : 
 strictness to engagements with the Company, and economy in the expen- 
 
 VOL. I. 3 X
 
 522 APPENDIX. No XVI. 
 
 ditiire of its funds, having, in the present administration, superseded every 
 consideration of private advantage. . 
 
 " Whether he has had prudence or judgment in the conduct of pubhc 
 affairs, he has had at least the approbation of them by his successive col- 
 leagues in the administration implied in their concurrence in his, or bis 
 concurrence in their, proposals : no disagreements having happened 
 amongst them ; nor has experience thrown any doubt upon the propriety 
 of those proceedings, 
 
 " Of all the proceedings of this Government, none have been carried on 
 with more caution, with so much personal delicacy, or with such repre- 
 hensible and indeed reprehended delay, on account of that delicacy, as 
 those which respected his Highness the Nabob ;' 
 
 " Though, from the first moment of the invasion of the Carnatic, ' he 
 ' ceased to pay a single pagoda into the Company's treasury towards 
 ' assisting to repel that invasion as if his own treasury had at once been 
 ' annihilated by the event * :' 
 
 " Though he made, but did not perform, even in the smallest degree, 
 * a solemn promise, on the representation of the late Government, and of 
 ' Sir Eyre Coote, to pay one lack of pagodas on or before the ist day of 
 ' February 17S1 ; nor did he pay any part of it afterwards t "•' 
 
 " Though that General, whose testimony his Highness will not at this 
 time controvert, ' would not allow that his Highness's delay in supplying 
 '■ money proceeded entirely from inability, as he thought he could not 
 ' have exhausted the large sums which he had borrowed from individuals, 
 
 * Letter from Governor Smith to the Nabob, April 30, 1781. 
 \ Sir Eyre Coote to the Committee, April 16, ijSi.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 523 
 
 ' and the very considerable revenue which he not only collected but 
 * acted from the country, insomuch as to reduce it to a deplorable stat 
 ' even before the enemy entered it * :' 
 
 ex- 
 
 e 
 
 " Though failing to give money, and having, in lieu of it, assigned 
 to the Company the revenues of the southern provinces of Tritchinopoiy 
 and I'inevelley towards the support ofthe war, after having stated, ' that 
 
 * the net revenue of the former amounted, at least, to 50,000 pagodas, 
 ' beside the amount of the assignment to individuals on that revenue ; and 
 ' that the net revenue of Tinevelley was, at least, 200,000 pagodas, beside 
 ' the assignment to individuals amounting to several lacks f.' He soon, 
 after the assignment, transmitted a statement of those ' provinces by which 
 
 * the charges of Tritchinopoiy to be defrayed out of the revenues, and to 
 
 * be retained by his officers for that purpose, were made to exceed consi- 
 ' derable the revenues of that province, and the revenue of Tinevelley to 
 
 * exceed its charges by little more than one lack of pagodas | ;' ' and his 
 ' second son, and minister the Ameer ul Omrah, sent pressing orders to 
 
 * the Phousdar of the province, after such assignment to the Company, to 
 ' remit to him bills of exchange for that lack of pagodas §: ' 
 
 " Though ' it was not doubted from the engagements, into which he en- 
 
 * tered since the invasion of his country, but that he was possessed of the 
 
 * means of furnishing supplies for its defence, and was told, that it was a 
 
 * fatal policy to withhold them in the idea that the Company had too 
 
 * much at stake not to find resources for carrying on the war || :' 
 
 " Though the treasury of Fort St. George was actually exhausted, and 
 that of Bengal much drained, and the civil servants of the Company de- 
 
 * Sir Eyre Coote to Committee, April i6, 1781. 
 
 f Letter from the Nabob to Governor Whitehill, October 25, 1780. 
 
 % Letter from the Nabob to Governor Smith, March 5, i;8i. 
 
 « Letter from Governor Smith to the Nabob, April 30, 1781. || Ibid.
 
 524 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 prived even of their salaries for a long period, in order to apply the 
 amount towards paying troops for the defence of the Carnatic : 
 
 " Though the properly of the Company had been sold to raise funds 
 for the same purpose, and money had been taken upon Company's bonds, 
 while any could be procured upon them, and bills of exchange were 
 drawn upon the Court of Directors, contrary to the instructions and in- 
 terests of the Company, and though these funds were still so inadequate 
 that the troops were still much in arrear and ready to mutiny : 
 
 *' Though his Highness was in possession of the Company's Jaghire, 
 and received some revenue from it daily, without paying the smallest part 
 of the stipulated rent : 
 
 " Though, ' when that assignment of Tritchinopoly and Tinevelley was 
 ' found to be of no avail by the last system of charges, into which his 
 
 * Highness would not consent to any enquiry or alteration ; but desired 
 ' that the overplus of the revenue of one province should be applied to- 
 
 * wards defraying the overplus charges of the other, instancing at the 
 
 * same time such unproductive asslgmnent as a proof of his regard for the 
 
 * interest of the Company * :' ' and when pressed by the late Government 
 ' to give effectual aid, and warned that, unless resources were furnished 
 ' for carrying on the war, the most favorable issue of it would be to pur- 
 
 * chase a peace by ceding a part of the Carnatic to save the remainder f.' 
 His Highness, to avoid immediate importunity upon the spot, sent agents 
 to the Governor-general and Council of Bengal, informing them, ' that 
 ' of several talooks or provinces of the Carnatic still secure from the enemy,' 
 ' some were included in the accounts of the Company, some were 
 ' assigned to his creditors, and of some he had received the peshcush or 
 ' tribute in advance ; and signifying his consent that whatever should be 
 ' collected from those mahals or districts, might be expended for the 
 
 * Letter from Governor Smith, April 30^ 1781. t Ibid.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVr. 525 
 
 « Company;* ' thinking, at the same time, that the state of war in which 
 the Company was engaged, and the distresses in which it was plunged, 
 afforded no unfavorable occasion for his asserting and obtaining an ac- 
 knowledgment, ' that he was the hereditary Prince of the Carnatic and 
 ' Balaghaut, and Peanghaut, and was independent of every one ; that the 
 ' political administration of those countries should be altogether de- 
 ' pendent upon him ; and that his good friends, the Company, should not 
 ' interfere in it \.' 
 
 ' And that a treaty of peace should be made by the King of Great 
 ' Britain with the King of France, including the rights of his Govern- 
 ' ment without the connection of any one ; together with' a power in- 
 ' him to appoint a successor in the Carnatic, to be settled in a solid 
 ' manner |. 
 
 ' And that his friends, the Company, should be just and favorable to 
 ' him by assisting to conquer, and by giving into his hands, after the 
 ' defeat of the enemy, the talooks or provinces of Cuddapah and Zeer- 
 ' ghaut, and several mahals or districts in Balaghaut belonging to Car- 
 ' natic Peanghaut §.' 
 
 ' And that the talook or province of Tanjore was his right, that, con- 
 ' formably to the rules or practice of Indostan, he had taken possession 
 ' of it with the assistance of his friends, the Representatives of the Com- 
 
 * pany, to whom he had returned his thanks ; but that it was afterwards 
 
 * taken from him by force at the instigation of self-interested people, and 
 ' his right given up to a ryot or peasant of his ; that if his friends would 
 ' act justly and give him back Tanjore, great advantage would be derived 
 
 * Requests of Nabob to Mr, Hastings communicated to the Presidency of Fort St. 
 George, Aug. 22, 1781. 
 
 t Request 2d. f Ibid. 6th. § Ibid. 9th. 
 
 4
 
 5=6 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 ' to the Company's and his affairs, and the views of the enemy counter- 
 
 ' acted ; but if otherwise, that the collections of Tanjore ought to be ap- 
 
 ' propriated to the payment of the Carnatic army, of his, the Nabob's 
 
 ' public and private debts, and to the expulsion of the enemy * ;' 
 
 " Thouoh the disposition which was manifested to favor those manifold 
 and momentous requests, might be supposed to induce his Highness to 
 be attentive to the advice he asked, and w hich followed it ; and though 
 his Highness's agents solemnly executed, in his name, a treaty of assign- 
 ment, so advised, of the revenues of the Carnatic for the support of the 
 war, with clauses to render the same really productive : ' And though, 
 ' when entretited to assist in alleviating the distresses of the Presidency, 
 ' even before the arrival of the treaty, he referred to it as having fixed 
 * the assistance he should give t ;' ' and that he solemnly ratified it on its 
 ' arrival, and promised t,o execute whatever depended upon him J ;' 
 
 ' Though a Committee of assigned revenue was appointed for the more 
 ' regular, impartial, and effectual execution of this treaty, which was chieflv 
 ' composed of persons agreeable to the Nabob, and presided by Mr. Paul 
 ' Benfield §,' who had been, and is now again, supposed to be honored 
 with much of his Highness's confidence : 
 
 ' Though the powers, which that Committee unanimously thought 
 ' essential to be vested in the collectors of such revenues, and implied in 
 ' the treaty ||,' were absolutely refused to be granted by his Highness, and 
 Mr. Benfield was said to have incurred for the time, as the proposer of 
 
 * Request loth. 
 
 f Message from Ameer to Governor, July 6, 1781. 
 J Nabob's letter, August 29, 1781. 
 § Consultations of Fort St. George, October 6, 1781. 
 
 II Minutes of tl^ Committee of assigned revenue, October 30, 1781, and their letters to 
 Select Committee, November 5, and November 15, 1781.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 527 
 
 such powers, his Highncss's severest displeasure ; and the treaty was by 
 such refusal rendered of as little avail as the former assignment of the 
 southern provinces, which it was to succeed and remedy ; and that there 
 was thus some ground for the suspicion of a plan being settled, that the 
 complaints of engagements broken or defeated were to be stifled by new 
 engagements doomed to the same fate ; and that the Commander in Chief 
 of the forces declared that, in case of secret and improper correspondence 
 carried on by the Nabob, ' it was better to give up the burdensome task, 
 
 * and spare the British arms from shame and disgrace, and the British in- 
 
 * terests from the total ruin, in which they might be involved by the hidden 
 
 * and double transactions in the Nabob's Government * :' 
 
 " Though the Governor-general and Council of Bengal had expressed 
 their sentiments, ' that the present juncture justified this Presidency, in 
 
 * demanding from the Nabob the immediate transfer of his whole country 
 ' in exclusive assignment for the expences of the war ; and that his High- 
 ' ness's refusal ought to be construed, as it would virtually prove a declared 
 
 * separation of his interests from those of the Company, and would re- 
 ' quire the adoption of a new system, both for the present security of the 
 ' latter, and a future indemnification for the expences and hazards 
 ' entailed on the Company by their former connection with the 
 ' Nabob t:' 
 
 *' Though the General of the forces employed in resisting the invasion 
 of the Carnatic, had early observed that ' there was some fundamental 
 ' error in his Highness's Government of the country, as otherwise the in- 
 
 * habitants would not so speedily have forsaken his intei'ests |:' * and urged 
 
 * that the experience of his Highness's total inactivity and neglect of his 
 
 * Letter from Sir Eyre Coote, September 19, 17S1. 
 
 ■f Letter from Governor-general and Council of Bengal, February 26, IjS-l. 
 I Letter from Sir Eyre Coote, March 12, 1781. 
 
 1
 
 528 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 ' own affairs, and of his having rendered no one aid, and of his continuing 
 ' inability or disinclination to give the least assistance towards the reco- 
 ' very of the country then in the hands of the enemy, would justify the 
 ' Select Committee to their King and country in taking for a time the 
 ' entile management of the Carnatic * ;' and the General afterwards im- 
 formed the Committee that ' it was necessary to encourage the Polygars, 
 ' or principal inhabitants, in the hope that they would experience, from 
 ' the justice and equity of our Government, some relief from, and a de- 
 
 * gree of sincerity against, a repetition of those oppressions which they 
 ' did not scruple to confess had a principal share in alienating their af- 
 ' fections from the Nabob's Government ; +' and the General also ' re- 
 ' minded the Committee of his having pointed out to them repeatedly 
 ' the necessity of taking a lead in the executive management of the 
 
 * affairs of the Carnatic until the war should be brought to a conclusion ; 
 
 * and even warned them, in the most expressive terms, of the ruin 
 ' which, in the midst of all their exertions, might be brought upon the 
 
 * national interests by the duplicity and iniquity of the Nabob's Go- 
 
 * vernment J.' 
 
 " And though the Committee acknowledged ' the necessity of a ma'te- 
 
 * rial change in the executive management of the affairs of the country 
 ' until the war should be brought to a conclusion, and gave the general 
 
 * assurances that they were employed, by methods consonant to their 
 
 * powers and the Nabob's engagements, -to effectuate those salutary and 
 ' indeed essential purposes §.' 
 
 ' Yet, they observed, that the connection of the Company with his 
 
 * Highness required, and their instructions directed, that in the transac- 
 
 * Ibid. September ii, 1781. 
 
 f Letter from Sir Eyre Coote, November 4, l/Si. 
 
 ■^ Ibid. t Ibid. November 8. 
 
 § Letter from the Select Committee, November 12, 17S1.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 529 
 
 ' tion of all business with him, they should proceed with temper and even 
 ' with delicacy, that they wished to interpose with effect but without 
 giving offence *. They were indeed determined to give the Nabob 
 no cause of offence ; and to avoid disagreement with him even after the 
 infringement of his own treaty, they once more consented to take into con- 
 sideration new proposals for a new assignment from him. 
 
 " These proposals were another modification of the former assignment ; 
 better calculated in his opinion, as he said, to preserve the dignity of his 
 station in the eyes of the people ; and, on that account, absolutely refusing, 
 as is related by the witnesses to the transaction, to communicate to any of 
 the Company's servants, under the rank of the President, any portion of ' 
 his authority ; and expressly stipulating, that Mr. Benfield, to whom he was 
 not yet reconciled, should be removed from every concern in the assigned 
 revenue. He conferred on the Governor, on behalf of the Company, the 
 power of I'enting and managing, in his Highness's name, the revenues of 
 the country, which implied a power of regulating the public charges, for a 
 limited time. 
 
 ' Those who knew the 'extreme reluctance with which his Highness 
 * had consented, even to the unavailing assignment of two of the southern 
 ' provinces upon the irruption of Hyder f,* and who reflected upon his 
 evasion of the assignment expressly stipulated by treaty, publicly declared 
 that he must have been impelled to the present assignment, which pro- 
 mised fairer to be efficient than any of the former, either by his know- 
 ledge of the sentiments of the Governor-general and Council of Bengal, 
 and his apprehensions of decisive instructions from them to this Presi- 
 dency, as well as by the effect of the strong and repeated remonstrances 
 of the Commander in Chief on various instances of his Highness's mis- 
 
 * Letter from the Select Committee, November 12, 1781. 
 -j-Letter from Governor Smith, April 30, 1781. 
 
 VOL. I. 3 Y
 
 530 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 conduct, or that he had unusual confidence in the present President, and 
 found that no dissuasive arguments would operate upon his integrity, or 
 that his Highness and his ministers still flattered themselves that they should 
 ^ be able to defeat the present as they had defeated the past assignments. 
 
 " But the marked respect of the President towards the Nabob, and his 
 prepossessions in his Highness's favor, would not allow him to see in this 
 transaction, at that time, the effects of any other causes than those of 
 his Highness's regard for the Company and the English nation, and his 
 sense of the necessity of sacrificing every inferior consideration to the sup- 
 port of the common cause. 
 
 " He was particularly solicitous too that his Highness should experi- 
 ence from this arrangement, the gratification which he had so much at 
 heart, to recommend as the chief instrument of it his second son and 
 minister the Ameer ul Omrah, who, beside the unfavorable character he 
 bore in the private opinions of men, was frequently recorded in the gene- 
 ral letters of the Presidency, to be artful, intriguing, and adverse to the 
 interest of the Company ; and in the very Government which had favored 
 his father's views upon the kingdom of Tanjore, ' this second son's rest- 
 ' less spirit of ambition was a ground of apprehension and representation *;* 
 and concerning whom, lest he should gain a dangerous confidence in the 
 unsuspecting breast of a person lately arrived in the country, a very re- 
 spectable person in high rank and trust, whom his Highness the Nabob 
 calls his good friend, thought it necessary to write to the President, and, 
 though it might be displeasing, to caution him, from his regard for him as "well 
 as for the -ojefare of his country, against the intrigues of the Ameer. 
 
 *' 'But whatever may have been the number or magnitude of his de- 
 merits on former occasions, the President was careful to proclaim his 
 
 * General Letter from Governer Wynch and Council, July 4, 1775. 
 
 s
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 531 
 
 merit In forwarding the present arrangement which promised to be essen- 
 tially beneficial. 
 
 " The President's tongue and pen, which the Nabob's letter supposes 
 were employed in dilTusing his own praises on this occasion, were em- 
 ployed on the more necessary occasion of praising the Ameer. ' He iii- 
 ' formed the Select Committee in the handsomest terms of the consider- 
 ' able pains which had been taken by his Excellency, in forwarding this 
 ' important business * ;' ' and on the President's assurance of them, an 
 
 * account, to that purport, was transmitted by the Select Committee to 
 
 * the Court of Directors f-' 
 
 " The part, which the President had borne in this transaction, did not 
 require the assistance of his own tongue or pen to impress a favorable 
 sense of it upon the public ; they were sufficiently inclined to give him 
 credit for qualities which they thought must be exerted in order to derive 
 from the very urgency of public affairs, what, on no former and similar 
 urgency, had been produced : an arrangement capable, if supported and 
 continued, of establishing that certainty of revenue and security of de- 
 fence on the coast, which the Company had found to be precarious ; and 
 ^which objects it had in vain attempted to attain ever since its arms had 
 given the Nabobship to his Highness. 
 
 ' The members of the Committee therefore thought it would be the 
 ' greatest injustice to themselves as well as to the President, to be content 
 
 * with the mere expression of their approbation of such a measure : to 
 ' attain an object of that magnitude, and which had so much opposition 
 ' to encounter in the jealousy and prejudices of the Nabob, the greatest 
 ' ability would alone have been jneffectual without that judicious and 
 
 * Consultations of Fort St. George, December 4, 1781. 
 
 ■\ General letter to the Court of Directors, January 2(5, 17S1, 
 
 3 ^' 2
 
 532 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 ' temperate line of conduct which the President preserved throughout the 
 ' negociation, and the most perfect conviction in the mind of the Nabob 
 
 * of his just and upright intentions *.' 
 
 " Not the tongues and pens alone of the immediate witnesses of the Pre- 
 sident's conduct rendered it unnecessary for him to proclaim his own exer- 
 tions or address; but the members of the superintending Council of Bengal, 
 ' who, in investing this Government with every authority and confidence 
 ' which could aid its operations, declared that they did so from their 
 
 * perfect reliance upon the impartial, clear, and discriminating judgment 
 
 * of the President, who was disconnected with any local or party views in 
 
 * the Carnatic, and, from his great experience in public affairs, would 
 
 * distinctly and justy decide, where the claims of the subject interfered 
 ' with those of the Government, and where the rights of Princes in al- 
 
 * liance were involved with both under all the evils of a general 
 ' war f.' 
 
 " This declaration was accompanied by an express desire, ' that in 
 ' a crisis of such actual danger to the existence of the territorial rights of 
 ' the Nabob of Arcot, and Rajah of Tanjore, no obstructions of their 
 ' little contests, or any unseasonable interposition of their local authority, 
 ' should be permitted to prevent this Government from taking care that 
 
 * the produce of the country be collected and applied to its immediate 
 
 * defence | ;' and the Governor-general and Council, on hearing of the vo- 
 luntary cession of the revenues of the Carnatic for the support of the 
 war, ' express their entire satisfaction, and applaud the ability and address 
 
 * with which so considerable a point must have been gained from the 
 ' Nabob §.' 
 
 • Minute in the Select Committee, December, 4, i;Ri. 
 
 •|- Letter from Supreme Council of Bengal, December, 26, 1781. \ Ibid. 
 
 % Letter from Governor-general and Council of Bengal, M.irch 11, 17S2.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVr. ro, 
 
 " Whatever were the flattering hopes entertained by the President, or 
 confidence placed by him in the cordiality and sincerity of his Highness 
 and his ministers, the Committee had very soon occasion to observe to 
 the Governor-general and Council of Bengal, ' that the power lately 
 ' vested in the President was found liable to be counteracted by artifice 
 
 * prevailing on the habits of implicit obedience to the intimation of 
 ' any wishes from the ministers of his Highness ; and that though the 
 ' authority immediately entrusted to the Governor was exercised by a 
 ' Committee of gentlemen, selected for that purpose, from their know- 
 ' ledge in and their application to public business, there was reason to 
 
 * apprehend that it was the perseverance only of that Committee in its 
 
 * efforts and the continuance of a decided suppc>-t from their superin- 
 ' tending Board that could enable them to succeed in that desirable but 
 ' arduous undertaking *.' 
 
 " To the Board of Assigned Revenue, as a fit object of their sole oc- 
 cupation, the whole detail of this important business has been, in fact, 
 uninterruptedly entrusted. 
 
 " Transactions carried on by a public Board, open to the inspection 
 of his Highness, subject to the control of Government, and rendered ef- 
 fectual only by the signature of the Governor, were not likely to wear 
 the impression of that rashness, violence, and oppression, into which sole 
 and unlimited authority sometimes degenerates ; or of that partiality and 
 corruption, to which the darkness and secrecy of private ofEces might 
 afford a temptation, as' well as an opportunity to individuals. 
 
 " Had his Highness the Nabob, and his Excellency the Ameer, 
 been as sincere in their wishes and cordial in their co-operation, 
 as they were strenuous in the expressions of their hope of benefit from 
 
 * Letter to Governor-general and Council of Bengal, February i, 1782.
 
 534 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 this arrangement, which was in fact, on all sides, allowed to be highly ne- 
 cessary, and capable of being as highly beneficial ; this arrangement, of 
 which the execution was placed with so much caution into such proper 
 hands, who were vested with the apparent absolute authority of 
 the Nabob, could not fail of producing immediately its natural 
 effect. 
 
 " It requires therefore neither the assistance of real or fabricated tes- 
 timony to prove, because the nature of thing demonstrates, that this as- 
 signment, which, as proving ineffectual, his Highness the Nabob soon 
 required to be surrendered back to him, could not have even for a time 
 become so ; or the fact take place which furnished the opportunity of 
 making this demand, otherwise than by the operation of that assignment 
 having been secretly counteracted and interrupted, by the only means 
 that could affect it ; and which had been sufficient to overturn all the for- 
 mer public engagements of the Nabob ; and which seem to proceed from 
 the adoption of that short-sighted policy so long observed to have in- 
 fluenced his Highness's conduct, and so frequently expressed in the ac- 
 counts given to the Company, of his publicly consenting to what he 
 privately prohibited ; and which constitute part of those fundamental 
 errors, those hidden and double transactions, and that duplicity and 
 iniquity in the Nabob's Government already mentioned to have been re- 
 peatedly represented to this Government. 
 
 " It is really true, that for a considerable time after the execution of 
 this assignment it was utterly unproductive. 
 
 " The attention of the President towards the Nabob, and which 
 operated upon the whole Committee, the determination of proceeding 
 with delicacy and tenderness towards even the officers, who had been of 
 his Highness's appointment, induced the President, who had an express
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. ^^^ 
 
 power to remove, to make a point of continuing the Nabob's own Au- 
 mildars and Renters in their respective offices. 
 
 * But it was found that those people, inslead of obeying his orders re- 
 specting the revenues, were still influenced by the Nabob's ministers ; 
 and that remittances were secretly made to the Ameer ul Omrah, not- 
 
 * whhstanding all the vigilance exerted to oppose it, and which only was 
 
 * sufficient to detect it. Every information even, or account of the col- 
 
 * lections made in the different districts, was withheld by various evasions 
 
 * and delays *. 
 
 " Of the Ameer's early intention to defeat, and his industry in defeat- 
 ing, this assignment, the testimony is not derived from native and devoted 
 servants, or subjects terrified, or obscure, or partial individuals, from 
 whom false attestations might be extorted ; but from facts which are 
 stubborn, unequivocal, and involve the intention. 
 
 " That the same was indeed universally observed, may be collected 
 from the report summed up and transmitted among others by the Com- 
 pany's resident in the southern countries. Mr. John Sulivan, who is. 
 added here because he is known to be of a character too respectable to be 
 doubted, as well as too solid to take notice of slight surmises to the pre- 
 judice of his Highness or his family. 
 
 " Mr. Sulivan acknowledges ' that the suspicions relative to the Dur- 
 ' bar were too well founded ; that every letter he received from the south- 
 
 * ward, mentioned some instances of counteraction j that the people of the 
 ' country were taught to look upon the interference of the Company as a 
 ' temporary measure that must soon terminate ; and that vengeance was 
 
 * Letter from Select Committee to Governor-general and Council of Bengal, March ij> 
 1782.
 
 536 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 ' denounced agaii^st every man who should dare to oppose the mandates 
 ' of the Durbar *.' 
 
 " Had the President frort partiality favored or from weakness suffered, 
 the speedy termination so announced of the assignment, he might have 
 escaped the invectives thrown upon him in the name of his Highness ; 
 
 * and Iiis Highness might perhaps still declare, that it was through his 
 ' good fortune that the President had arrived here ; and his hopes from 
 ' the well known honor and abilities of the President would have been 
 •> realized f. 
 
 " It is possible too that the hopes of his Excellency the Ameer may 
 have been checked in a point which was personal to himself, and which 
 he is fond of tacking, being an object of some difficulty, to the assign- 
 ments granted by his father. 
 
 ' The exalted and illustrious Emperor Shau Allum had been pleased 
 ' out of his great favor and high esteem for the Nabob Wallaw Jaw, 
 ' to give and grant by his Royal Phirmaund, bearing date the 26th Au- 
 ' gust 1765, to him and to his eldest son Omdat ul Omrah, the Govern- 
 ' ment of the Carnatic Paenghaut ; and the Great Nabob Nizam Ali 
 
 * Soubah of the Decan was likewise pleased to consent that the Govern- 
 ' ment of the Carnatic Paenghaut should be enjoyed as a free gift by the 
 « said Nabob Wallaw Jaw, and after him by his eldest son Omdat ul 
 ' Omrah +.' 
 
 *' This Phirmaund or grant of the Mogul, which was obtained by Lord 
 Clive, and accompanied by titles which the Nabob still uses, * was, in 
 
 * Letter from Mr. Sulivanto the Select Committee of Fort St. George, Feb. 14, 1782. 
 f Nabob's letter, August 29, 1781. 
 
 % Treaty between the East India Company, the Nabob Waulaw Jau, and the Great 
 Nabob Nizam Ali Soubah of the Decan. Article ;• 
 
 I
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 537 
 
 * 1765, proclaimed at his desire in the presence of the Governor and 
 ' Council of this place, of the principal inhabitants, and of all his sirdars 
 
 * or leaders of troops. By such acceptance of the grant he acluiow- 
 
 * ledged the authority of the Mogul to dispose of that Government, and 
 ' which grant fixed the succession in his eldest son. By a treaty between 
 ' the Nabob and the French, the same succession was agreed to. In the 
 
 * treaty just quoted by the Soubah of the Decan in 1768, to which the 
 
 * Nabob was a party, the same line of succession was confirmed. The 
 ' Company were guarantees 'of the treaty ; and the Nabob actually after- 
 
 * wards joined this his eldest son in and for the payment of all the bonds 
 
 * given to his Highness's creditors as the heir and successor to the 
 ' Carnatic *.' 
 
 " However, so early as in November 1775, a general letter from the 
 Court of Directors mentions the apprehensions, communicated to them, of 
 the Nabob's design to appoint his second son his successor in the Carnatic, 
 which design ' they disapprove, and desire their representatives to prc- 
 
 * vent; and to-secure the Government of the Carnatic in a just and lineal 
 
 * succession, according to the above phirmaund and treaty of 1768!.' 
 
 " His Highness the Nabob means however that the succession should not 
 be thus secured ; but in the treatv with the Government of Bengal for the 
 assignment of the revenues in A^jHl, 1781, he desires, ' that his right to 
 ' appoint a successor in the Carnatic may be settled in a solid manner by 
 
 * a treaty between European sovereigns |.' 
 
 " The good will ar S word of his Highness the Nabob, and of his Ex- 
 cellency the Ameer, ' must indeed be secured to the Governor-general of 
 
 * General letter to Court of Directors, July 4, 1 775. 
 f Letter from Court of Directors, November 25, J 775. 
 X Request 6th to Governor-general. 
 
 VOL, I. 3 Z
 
 538 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 ' Bengal, by the implieit faith he appears to have placed in the information 
 
 * given to him by the Nabob's dewan or agent, that the Nabob possessed 
 
 * letters from the Company and the King's minister, and the King him- 
 
 * self, on the subject of his Highness's will ; and by his reliance on co- 
 
 * pies, presented to him by such agent, of letters from the King, and 
 
 * from the Company, all expressing a clear acknowledgment of the 
 ' Nabob's right to appoint a successor to the Government of the 
 ' Caraatic *.' 
 
 *' Had pi'udent and personal policy superseded sentiments of rectitude 
 and adherence to instructions in the mind of the President, he would have 
 avoided observing, after the examination to which his duty led him, that 
 nothincT w'as found, on the records of this Presidency, to confirm the 
 information of the Nabob's dewan ; and which only contain a letter from 
 his Majesty, simply expressive, as to this subject, of his receipt of the 
 Nabob's will, and of his royal promise, that the same should be preserved 
 as a sacred deposit until his Highness's decease ; but no recognition, on 
 the part of the King or of the Company, of his Highness's right to dispose 
 of the Carnatic, nor any other order or instruction, except that already 
 quoted, which had the direct contrary tendency. 
 
 " This want of confidence in the assertions of the Nabob's agent, or 
 in the copies of letters produced by him ; this reference to, and examination 
 of, the records of the Presidency, and of the Company's instructions,, 
 may have perhaps been considered by his Excellency the Ameer, as a vir- 
 tual infringement of the last assignment in December 1781, in which he !?• 
 acknowledged to have borne a considerable share, and for which he may 
 have expected the return of a more valuable consideration than the re- 
 commendations that were given of him, 
 
 * Governor general's reply.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 539 
 
 *' If at least the Presicient had, on the occasion of this last assignment, 
 fed the fancifiil hopes of his Highness, and had promised to promote his 
 views of being independent of every one and of gaining possession of 
 Cuddapah and Zcergbaut, and other districts of Balcighaut, and of soon 
 recovering the talook cr province of Tarijorc^ then possessed by a ryot 
 or peasant of his, and in the mean time of throwing all his public and 
 private debts upon the revenues of that province, which conditions had ac- 
 companied his precedent assignment ; and, as tlie present grant was still 
 more beneficial, if, in return, the President had encouraged him ' to revive 
 ' his scheme of acquiring the Soubahship of the Decan, which he once 
 ' seriously proposed *,' and of which Mr. Due Pre and Mr. Hastings 
 ' thought his ambition had never lost sight t :' persuaded that his ' earnest 
 ' wishes were to possess all Indostan if he could \ ;' It is not unlikely that 
 the President might have been favorably represented • by the Nabob, in 
 his letters to Europe, and even entrusted, on the President's return there, 
 to assist in the promotion of his projects §. 
 
 " But the President, adopting the principles often inculcated by the 
 Company, and sometimes forgotten by its sei-vants, took occasion, in order 
 to calm the jealousies of the neighbouring powers, to declare with the 
 Select Committee, and has since kept up to the declaration, ' that the 
 
 * power and arms of the Company were solely to be directed to the 
 
 * maintainance of peace and harmony among its allies, to the establish- 
 ' ment of justice, and the promotion of happiness ; and that it was 
 
 * clearly best not to disturb the possessions of the several powers of Indos- 
 ' tan, but that they and the Company should continue satisfied with 
 ' what they then respectively possessed ||.' 
 
 * Letter from the Nabob to the Court of Directors, January 29, 1765. 
 
 t Letter from Court of Directors, December 24, 1765. 
 J Consultations of Fort St. George, May 6, 1771. 
 § Letter to Court of Directors, Feb. 28, 1772. 
 
 11 Instructions to the Resident at the Court of the Soubah of the Decan, July 10, 1781. 
 
 3 Z 2
 
 540 i^PPENDIX, No. XVI. 
 
 " A deference to instructions, and a consideration of a right, which 
 Avere so opposite to the second son's unjust designs, and principles of 
 equity and moderation equally opposite to the father's weak and inordi- 
 nate ambition, rendered the present President more unpalatable to both, 
 and rendered his removal from the Governn^fnt much more an object of 
 their eager desire, than the ostensible reasons alledged for* their dis- 
 content. 
 
 " It is true, that the former administration of this Presidency had ob- 
 served, and observed it personally to his Highness, ' that not all the ca- 
 ' lamities which had already befallen him, nor the danger with which he 
 ' was still threatened, seemed to carry to him any profitable instruction ; 
 ' but that he contended for privilege and punctilio to the sacrifice of 
 ' his dearest interests, with as much earnestness as if in the plenitude of 
 * his power *.' 
 
 " But his Highness must be sensible, in the present instance, that 
 any infringements of his privileges or deficiency in punctilio could origi- 
 nate only in the Committee of assigned revenue, who first examine, de- 
 liberare, prepare, and recpmmend, all matters, without exception, that 
 relate to the Nabob's assignment. The detail, and in the detail ,his 
 Highness seeks for occasions of complaint, is entirely left to the direc- 
 tion of that Committee. The President fully trusting to that discretion, 
 approves and signs, the Select Committee likewise approve, conscious 
 however that they all are answerable for this their approbation. 
 
 " But if a measure unjust, erroneous, or even merely unbecoming, 
 happened, at any time, to be imposed upon their confidence, a represen- 
 tation to them, on the part of his Highness, would not have to combat 
 any of the private motives that might have led to the suggestion of that 
 
 * Lttter from Governor Smith to Nabob, April jo, 1781. 
 5 ■
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 541 
 
 measure, nor even with the predilection of self-opinion ; but that redress 
 which, when the grievance is suflered and not demanded, is not the re- 
 dress that is really wanted. 
 
 " It was therefore no particular hardship felt in the execution, or any 
 abuse of the assignment, which might have been remedied upon the 
 spot, but the entire and absolute surrender of that assignment, which 
 was the real object with the Nabob and his ministers ; ' nor did they 
 
 * scruple actually to found an argument, for the propriety of that sur- 
 
 * render, on the failure of the revenue from the Renters of the Nabob's 
 
 ' appointment, whon> the President's delicacy towards his Highness had, 
 ' continued in their offices. His Highness- repeated his wish to take 
 ' again the management of his country into his hands, and said he 
 
 * would give good and proper security for all the revenue *.' This would 
 have been a fourth new arrangement since the commencement of the 
 war ; the proposals, the discussions, the agreements, the subsequent 
 breaches of the former arrangements, had consumed near two years, dur- 
 ing which nothing as to revenue was executed. The war was waged by 
 the enemy, but not supported by the country. The period was fully ar- 
 rived for carrying into effect some of the plans, which, as eligible, al- 
 ready were agreed to, rather than incur the further delays of other new 
 proposals, however they also might be eligible. But this last proposal, 
 with the certain loss of time, and an appearance that at least was sus- 
 picious, could not really be effected by the one party, and ought not to have 
 been accepted by the other. As to security for revenue in this country, it 
 is only obtained on giving to the sureties, for their indemnification, pos- 
 session of the lands which are to yield such revenue,' with an allowance 
 of a considerable percentage to be deducted from the crops, and an op- 
 portunity of deducting a great deal more : all which must fall ultimately 
 upon the public. It is no mark of disrespect to his Highness to assert, 
 
 * Nabob's letter, March 7, 1782*
 
 542 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 that it was not safe or warrantable to depend for the supply of the army's 
 wants on the punctuality of the best and most proper security he could 
 have to offer. Where deficiency in receipts was the very evil to be reme- 
 died and punctuality was become essential ; actual possession was not to 
 be exchanged for any security of the fund. Much of the benefit to be 
 expected was to arise from economy in the charges, and diminution of the 
 exactions, as well as accuracy and fidelity in the accounts. The sureties 
 would produce new charges and new exactions, and might not be accu- 
 rate or faithful. And as to the Nabob's own management to render them 
 so, the words of the Select Committee at a former period may justly be 
 repeated. It is obvious that if a successful collection of the revenues de- 
 pended upon the exertion and authority of his Highness, and that he had 
 been sincerely disposed to let the Company have them to defray the ex- 
 pences of the war, those revenues might have been thrown into the Com- 
 pany's treasury immediately from his Ilighness's officers, without the in- 
 tervention of the Company's officers. Whether the total failure which 
 has happened in this respect, be owing to the want of inclination, power, 
 or skilfulness on the part of his Highness, the fact equally proves the 
 necessity of using other means than those which have hitherto proved in- 
 effectual. 
 
 *' But of the delicacy which retarded the good effect of the plan al- 
 ready executed, the Governor-general and Council of Bengal did not 
 give their approbation. They express , ' their regret that any consideration, 
 ' even of dehcacy towards the Nabob, or attention for those feelings which 
 ' it might be natural for him to retain, should have in this situation of 
 
 * necessity restrained the complete effect of the assignment 5 and they re- 
 
 * commend the placing of persons in the management of the assigned 
 ' countries who were likely to be more under the control and authority of 
 
 * the Select Committee *.* 
 
 • Letter from Governor-gei»eral aad Council of Bengal, April 5, 1782.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 543 
 
 *' This Presidency was obliged to apologize to that superintending 
 Board, and to observe, ' that if, in their transactions with the Nabob, 
 
 * they seem to have been too much guided by llie spirit of caution and 
 
 * forbearance, such caution really proceeded from an anxious desire of 
 ' making the Nabob a principal and willing party to the measures to be 
 ' taken for his own immediate security *.' 
 
 " Those measures, described minutely in the proceedings of the Com- 
 mittee of Assigned Revenue, shewed all the means that were pursued to 
 effectuate the purposes of the assignment, and the precise manner of car- 
 rying it into execution. They were transmitted to Bengal, where his 
 Highness already had appealed ; and sent that minister to support his nev.' 
 complaint, who had managed his former treaty. 
 
 " It requires no long experience of Oriental practises to be convinced, 
 and information was indeed actually received, ' that every species of 
 ' intrigue, artifice, and falshood were employed to give an odious color- 
 ' ing to those proceedings ; a plan was said to be regularly formed, and 
 ' it appears by his Highness's present letter, to be completely executed, 
 ' of throwing out such a multitude of aspersions that it might be taken 
 ' for granted there must be some ground for accusation, f Out of a 
 vast number of false tales, fabricated letters, and distorted facts, a few it 
 was hoped, would meet with credit ; and a few of such would answer the 
 purpose of imposition. Each would produce the double effect of injuring 
 the President and that Committee. They were the authors and advisers of 
 all the measures respecting the Nabob, his revenues and countries. They 
 possessed no power separately from the P\'esident — he exerted no power 
 but in signing the orders they advised ; ' he claimed only the merit of 
 • adopting the measures suggested by that Committee |' — their cause was 
 
 * Letter to Governor-general and Council of Bengal, May I, 1782. 
 •]■ Letter from Select Commiitee to Bengal, June 29, 17S2. 
 X Minute on Report of Assigned Revenue, May 30, 17S2. 
 
 8
 
 544 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 therefore common ; and the judgment pronounced has been that, ' of 
 ' satisfaction with their proceedings, and entire approbation of their 
 " conduct *.' 
 
 " Before this decision was thus pronounced, Assam Cawn, the Nabob's 
 dewan, or revenue-minister, had already been a considerable time em- 
 ployed at the Presidency of Bengal, in endeavoring to prevent the appro- 
 bation, and in endeavoring to procure a condemnation, of this conduct. 
 Iiis restoration to the management of the public revenues would have 
 followed his success. The representative and .minister of the Governor- 
 general and Council to the Nabob, ' and who was appointed for the pur- 
 ' pose of niaintaining the faith of that Government with his Highness |,' 
 snd had previously been one of his Highness's agents at Calcutta, was 
 also returned there ; and those two ministers were abundantly able to de- 
 tect any error in that conduct, or to solve any doubt, and supply any 
 deficiency, which might have prevented that Government from forming a 
 full and just opinion of the contest. The majority of its members had 
 resided on this coast, and were not suspected by his Highness. The 
 choice they made of one of the Nabob's agents sent publicly to them in 
 that capacity, to be their representatives back to his Highness here at his 
 desire, and totally independent of the Company's representatives in this 
 Presidency, seems to establish a separate interest for the Nabob with the 
 Presidency of Bengal. His Highness is said to have written to Mr. 
 Hastings, that he was his old friend, and that he depended on God Almighty, 
 and then on him for justice and protection, 
 
 " Yet this assignment, considered upon such evidence, and before 
 such judges, and in the vicinage of its object, is neither overturned or 
 transferred ; but in hands accused of not knowing how to make a good, 
 
 '■ I..etter from Govcrnor-geaeral and Council of Bengal, July 4, 1782. 
 t Ibid. April 2, 1782.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVL 545 
 
 but of having made a bad use of it, ' is still found to be the first and 
 ' natural means of maintaining the defence of the Carnatic ; and conti- 
 ' nues to be approved 
 
 ♦ » 
 
 " In the proceedings thus attacked by the Nabob, but thus approved 
 by the judge, to whom he had appealed for justice and protection, will 
 be found the answers to all the most important of his Highness's pre- 
 sent interrogatories, calculated to obtain from Europe that success 
 which the same complaints in another dress had failed to obtain in 
 Bengal. 
 
 " He has chosen a mode of conveying his censure, which undoubtedly 
 possesses the advantages he wanted. Queries leading to the answers, 
 and addressed to the person on whom a guilt is intended to be fixed, 
 convey an air of confidence in such a notoriety and consciousness of the 
 facts, that he must make those answers against himself; and preclude, 
 of course, the necessity of other evidence. If that evidence should, how- 
 ever, on his denial, be required, no reproach can attend the want of it, 
 for a question strictly is not an assertion. 
 
 " Those questions find however their negative, with a full explanation 
 of the subject to which they bear relation, in the abovesaid minutes of 
 the Committee of Assigned Revenue. The motives for advising to chuse 
 new Renters,, the precautions in the recommendations of them, their 
 names, qualitieSj and connexions ; and the conditions, and comparative 
 statements of the rents are inserted therein at length. 
 
 " If these motives had not, after the objections made to them at Cal- 
 cutta by the Nabob's agents, been yet found good, and the precautions 
 proper and sufficient, and the conditions reasonable, the Governor- 
 
 * Letter from Governor-general and Council, August 5, 1^82. 
 VOL. I. 4 A
 
 54.6 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 general and Council of Bengal would not have felt the satisfaction, or 
 given the approbation they expressed of the proceedings in these important 
 as well as in all other respects. 
 
 " It is not even pretended that the President, and it is known he has 
 not, prescribed, in relation to the revenue, any condition, or made any 
 appointment of his own ; but if he were to deny, the nature and occasion 
 of the assignment would testify, and the trust in him would imply, that he 
 was obliged to nominate the most responsible Renters, and upon the 
 highest terms, and with the best securhy that could be found ; and a 
 committee of five persons was accordingly appointed by him, and en- 
 quiries made, and advertisements published by them, in order to procure 
 such. 
 
 " This method of advertisement, which his Highness suffers himself to 
 call a disgrace upon his Government, is the method which the Court of 
 Directors positively order to be pursued in letting out their lands, and 
 which reflects upon them no disgrace. It opens the markets to all bidders j 
 it prevents private preference ; and what may have given real pain, it 
 precludes the opportunity of suspicion or of plausible censure. 
 
 " It is however not impossible but that the choice may, in some in- 
 stances, have fallen on men who will not always correspond to the confi- 
 dence placed, in them, and the hopes that w-ere formed of them : essential 
 favors are sometimes not requisite by fidelity and attachment. 
 
 " The speedy ierminaiion, io %ohich the people were taught to hoi, of the 
 Companfs hiterfrence in the revenues and the vengeance denounced against 
 those whOf contrary to the mandate of the Durbar, shoidd be connectedl 
 ivith them, as reported by Mr. Sulivan, may, as much as the former ex- 
 actions and oppressions of the Nabob in the revenue as reported by the Com-
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 547 
 
 mander in Chief, have deterred some of the fittest men from oflering to 
 be concerned in it. 
 
 *' The timid disposition of the Hindoo natives of this country was not 
 likely to be insensible to the specimen of that ' vengeance given by his 
 * Excellency the Ameer, who, upon the mere rumor that a Bramin of 
 ' the name of Appagee Rov/ had given proposals to the Company for the 
 ' Rentership of Nellore, had the temerity to send for him, and to put him 
 ' in confinement *. 
 
 " A man, thus seized by the Nabob's Sepoys, within the walls of 
 Madras, gave a general alarm ; and Government found it necessary to 
 promise the protection of the Company, in order to calm the apprehen- 
 sions of the people. 
 
 " As yet, however, it is not known that the Renters or managers, 
 employed by the Committee of assigned revenue, have been guilty of 
 embezzling any revenue ; but those with whom the situation of the 
 enemy's forces allows a communication with our troops, and a convey- 
 ance of safety with this Presidency, have, more than embezzlement would 
 have, discontented his Excellency the Ameer, in surmounting some of 
 those obstructions to the progress of the army, against which the Com- 
 mander in Chief had strongly and repeatedly remonstrated in the Nabob's 
 Government, and in remitting suins for the support of the troops, of an 
 amount considerable in proportion to the times, and unexampled since the 
 war, in any the smallest degree, under his Highness's Government, or the 
 management of his Renters. 
 
 *' What promises were made, in addition to the amount of the rent, is 
 not merely implied, but is expressly declared in the instrument of writ- 
 
 * Letter to Governor-general aad Council of Bengal, March 12, 17S2. 
 
 4 A 2
 
 548 APPENDIX. No XVL 
 
 ing, executed by his Highness and by the President. The engagement of 
 the latter appears to have been " that the rent should not be inferior 
 ' to the net revenue of his Highness's Exchequer in similar cir- 
 ' cumstances *.' • 
 
 " This engagement was made in the name, and on the behalf of the 
 Company. If the committee of Assigned Revenue were so inattentive to 
 this' engagement, and to their duty, and to their interest in gaining by 
 .their exertions the approbation qf their employers, and to the public wel- 
 fare depending on such resources, as to propose the acceptance of lesser 
 rents than 'those they could obtain, ' and which appear to be very nearly 
 
 * equal to the average of the aggregate rents of the four last years preced- 
 
 * ing the war, even according to the Nabob's account f.' If the Select 
 Committee to whom, from the other Committee, these proposals were 
 submitted, could have been so weak, ignorant, or wicked, as to approve 
 of the weakness, ignorance, or wickedness of others ; and, lastly, if the 
 President, who is alone made culpable for this transaction, could wantonly 
 render himself so culpable by conforming to the folly or the guilt of those 
 two Boards ^ the Company is undoubtedly liable to the Nabob for such a 
 misconduct of their servants ; and would be bound to make good to his 
 Highness what he had suffered by this breach of their engagement. 
 
 " For the discussion on the existence of such a breach, and the de- 
 gree of it, if it had existed, his Highness might, and indeed the ' Go- 
 ' vernor-general and Council have declared all controversial explanations 
 '^ with him ought to be referred to that period, at which he may require 
 ' a restitution of the trust, and a faithful report of the manner in which. 
 ' it bhall have been discharged j.' 
 
 ♦ Agreement betA'een his Highness the Nabob and Lord Macartney on behalf of the 
 Company, December 2, 17S1. 
 
 f Minutes of the Committee of Assigned Revenue, May 2, 1781. 
 :{ Letter from Governor-general and Council of Bengal, April 6, J782;
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 519 
 
 " But, in fact, the security of Renters under the Company's protec- 
 tion, and immediately communicating with tlic Presidency, against in- 
 terference and injustice of civil or military officers residing in their res- 
 pective districts, as well as against the caprice and exactions of the Na- 
 bob's ministers, was an inducement powerful enough even to counter- 
 vail this disadvantage of the past, and the danger of the future, evils of 
 the war. 
 
 ' Those Rents, with the great redaction of unnecessary charges, have 
 ' left an estimated balance, in case of an end being put to the present 
 
 • invasion, much greater than the members of the Government of Bengal 
 ' confess they had any idea of*.' 
 
 " In regard to the nomination of Renters, truth would have forced 
 the President to answer affirmatively to his HIghness's interrogatory, if 
 instead of asking whether his Lordship did not solemnly engage and pro- 
 mise that the Renters to be appointed by him should be subject to the 
 Nabob's confirmation, ' his Highness had asked whether he had not em- 
 
 * powered the Governor to appoint all Aumildars or Renters, to be con- 
 ' firmed by his Highness f,' which are, in fact, the precise words, as far 
 as they go, of the first sentence relative to this point in the assignment ; and 
 his Highness, who is possessed of a counterpart of it, would have stuck to 
 the words exactly if he had been quite sure that they would have an- 
 swered all his purposes ; but he suspected that the exact words might 
 not convey the idea of that express stipulation for the absolute subjec- 
 tion of such Renters, and the indispensable condition of his confirma- 
 tion : which the substituted words more strongly indicate. 
 
 *' The sentence as it is here quoted and really stands in the original, 
 the Nabob's advisers foresaw, would be considered as simply and strictly 
 
 ♦Letter to Select Committee, July 4, 1^82, 
 f Assignment, December 2, 17S1. 
 
 7
 
 550 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 declarative of two acts on the part of his Highness : a present act in em- 
 powering the Governor to appoint Renters, and a future act in confirm- 
 ing, such Renters ; it is a plain and simple confirmation promised by him 
 absolutely, not conditionally ; if it had been meant to be conditionally, 
 the appointment would have really been expressed, as his Highness felt it 
 to be necessary to represent it as subject to his confirmation. The failure 
 in this instance cannot be the breach of the President, who did not en- 
 gage for the performance ; but of his Highness who did. Perhaps he 
 considers it merely as a ceremony intended to gratify his own wishes of 
 maintaining his dignity, his favorite precaution, in the eyes of the people ; 
 and vi'hich therefore he might refuse without giving occasion for com- 
 plaint ; but if, of consequence, as perhaps it was, to strengthen agreeably 
 to the meanmg of the word, the authority of the new Renters ; the ab- 
 solute refusal of it might, in the degree of that consequence, be, instead 
 of a ground of accusation on the part of his Highness, a juster ground 
 against him, if it were not the determined purpose of this Committee to 
 be silent except when the just defence of others calls them forth. 
 
 *' The intent of this assignment w^ould not indeed have merited the 
 praise it has acquired, if, according to that intent, its operations were 
 left to the uncertain determinations of either of the parties ; but an 
 ac^reement solemnly executed, expressing what each is to do, is on 
 each obligatory to do. The idea of confirmation in implying choice in 
 particular circumstances has arisen from the necessity of public affairs, 
 which requires sometimes the temporary nomination to offices at a dis- 
 tance from the seat of Government ; when the purpose is answered, 
 though the nomination should not afterwards be approved. There is no 
 necessity, no obligation to continue it, the continuance of it is a volun- 
 tary confirmation, that might have been withheld because it was not pro- 
 mised though it might have been expected ; but a confirmation pre- 
 viously covenanted, implies, at the period of performance, no internal 
 approbation or act of the mind, which is not always at a man's disposal.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVr. 551 
 
 tern a mere external act, that is so ; and in the present instance consists 
 in nothing more than the signature to a paper called a suned or cowle ; 
 and lest by any misconstruction of words, or confusion of ideas, it should 
 have been possible to mistake this absolute for a conditional engagement, 
 it is repeated in the second sentence of the assignment, on the subject 
 of the nomination of Renters ; in which his Highness expressly covenants 
 in so many precise words, that he will give the usual coxvle to the Aumildars 
 who will be appointed by the Coventor. This engagement stands therefore 
 no longer on construction, it leaves no room for doubt or cavil. The 
 Governor is answerable for the appointment ; the Nabob is bound to 
 the confirmation. 
 
 " If, unfortunately, the Aumildars could not have proceeded without 
 this action on the part of his Highness, and that the assignment were there- 
 fore become a nullity, he alone by his express refusal of such confirmation 
 ■would have been accountable for the failure of what is allowed to be,, 
 and. declaredly approved as being the first and natural means of maintain- 
 ing the defence of the Carnatic. 
 
 ■ " The appointment was found, however, to constitute the Renter, 
 the deed of appointment, or Torana Chit,viz'i the only deed and saned exe- 
 cuted by the President ; but, if more had been necessary to give effect to 
 the assignment, he would or certainly ought to have done it readily ; 
 for it has been already shown that the produce of the country was not, 
 previously to the assignment, collected, or applied to its defence. That 
 collection, and that application were the objects of the assignment. If 
 the local authority of the Nabob interposed to impede it, this Presidency 
 was required, by the superintending Presidency of Bengal, ■' whom 
 ' it is bound to obey, not to permit such an unseasonable interposition. 
 ' to take effect *.' 
 
 * Letter from Siipivme Council, December z6,ii^w
 
 552 appendix:. No. XVI. 
 
 " The management of revenue includes a power to reduce expenses ; 
 and the assent to that reduction is in the Nabob's letter formally acknow- 
 ledged. In that indispensable reduction of expenses, in that forbearance 
 from payment of useless officers and retainers, has consisted what his 
 Highness in the same letter describes, as an unwarrantable dismission of 
 all his people ; ' though, as was observed to the Presidency of Bengal, 
 ' his Excellency the Ameer ul Omrah mentioned the convenience of 
 ' getting rid of a vast load of useless pensioners and retainers through the 
 ' authority of the President, which their connexions, interests, or importu- 
 ' nities at the Durbar would have rendered impracticable for his Highness 
 ' alone to effectuate *.' 
 
 " It is true that the forbearance from pay might have operated as an 
 effectual dismission from office, if before, for a considerable time, those 
 officers had depended on, and had been in the receipt of any pay ; but 
 the distinction, the power which office gave, and especially the exactions 
 which it effected as well as screened, were sufficient incitements to con- 
 tinue in it without salary. The exactions indeed have been also checked 
 by the Company's Aumildars ; and his Highness's officers may have 
 really diminished in their number, as well as in their power of doing evil ; 
 but the President issued no order for their romoval ; the Select Com- 
 mittee, or Committee of Assigned Revenue, gave no order. The Com- 
 pany's Government is exercised, and its authority conveyed, by formal 
 and fixed channels. Its commands are not signified by nods, or obedience 
 paid to the obscure or irregular intimation of its will. If the President, 
 from the Presidency, assumed and exerted any authority in the Nabob's 
 country, except what is relative to revenue on the suggestion of the re- 
 venue Committee, as he was authorized to do, the evidence of that as- 
 .sumption and exertion, must exist in letters or orders from him, as hi^ 
 
 * Letter from Select Committee, July 12, 1782.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 553 
 
 revenue letters and orders do, but none other than the last described ever 
 did exist. 
 
 " Little indeed is the authority really necessary to exert over the peace- 
 ful and timid Hindoo natives of this country. Few dillurbances arise 
 among them. The common police is regulated by the natwars, or chiei^ 
 and heads of calls, residing on the spot. Disputes are settled by arbitra- 
 tion under the direction of the Aumildar, who is an officer of justice, as 
 well as of revenue ; and Christian and Mahometan interference are equally 
 dreaded by them. 
 
 " The Renters have not, which they would willingly have, given as 
 a pretext for some allowance in their rents, any accounts of disorder or 
 confusion in the towns or villages, except where the enemy's troops 
 have introduced it. As the rest therefore are not in a state . of anarchy, 
 either the Nabob's officers continue in their employments, or it is not 
 necessary they should do so. ' His Highness's latest communications on 
 
 * current business, not intended for working an effect in Europe, show 
 ' indeed the continuance of his officers in their respective stations through 
 
 * the country *.' 
 
 *' The specific charge of the removal of the Courts of Justice 
 from the Nabob's Government House to another House at Tritchi- 
 nopoly implies, however, the continued existence of those courts ; 
 and the omission of any specific charge, in relation to the courts in 
 any other of the Nabob's districts, seems to imply that in those others 
 no alteration had been made. It is true that the courts at Tritchlnopoly 
 were removed ; but without any authority from hence : and it is not. 
 less true that orders were ' immediately transmitted by the President, 
 
 * that they should return to the Nabob's Government House f.' 
 
 * Nabob's note to the Governor, September 4, 1782. 
 
 f President's letter to Mr. Norriss, March 9, 1782. — Tritchinopoly book in ttie As- 
 si^^ned Revenue office. 
 
 VOL. I. 4 B
 
 * 
 
 554 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 " His Highness made, and has frequently repeated, a specific charge 
 of bloodshed in consequence of the execution of a jemidar or lieutenanE 
 of cavalry for mutiny at Nellore. 
 
 " The depositions at length were laid before his Highness. If he 
 had made a requisition, as he has on former less serious occasions 
 done, for a court martial on Captain Campbell commandant at Nellore, 
 at the time, it would have been granted ; but an acquittal might impede 
 the aim, with which the charge is now renewed. If the times admitted 
 of Captain (Campbell's being relieved from his command, a requisition 
 from the Nabob fov a trial would have been unnecessary : but the act 
 whether just and necessary, or unnecessary and unjust, is not the Presi- 
 sident's act ; nor did he give any powers or any directions that migiit 
 have led to it. 
 
 " The loss of noses and of ears is for the first time m.entioned in 
 this letter from the Nabob : no names are mentioned of sufferers, 
 or of the places where they suffered, or of the pasons who, under 
 the President's authority, committed those cruelties and oppressions. 
 It is not pretended that the President directed the commission of those 
 cruel acts ; if the authority he had given has happened to be 
 abused, he is no more accountable for it than is the Nabob for the fla- 
 grant abuse he complains the President has made of the power delegated 
 to him by his Highness. The Aumildars, Vvho are officers of justice, 
 may have, in the proper discharge, or under the color of the discharge, 
 of their duty, ordered such punishments as the laws or customs of the 
 country may have in some particular cases authorised ; but no accounts of 
 such punishm.ents have been laid before either of the Committees or the 
 President ; if the Nabob conceals the representation of such facts, in order 
 to display them at a distance, it will not be a presumption that they were 
 incontrovertible upon the spot.. Perhaps it is meant to be no more than 
 the ordinary surplusage and unsubstantial ornament of an Oriental crimi-
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 555 
 
 natory charge, somewhat like the legal and technical but unmeaning 
 slander of European processes, or hke the empty sounds of those torn toms, 
 or eastern village drums, by the beat of which his Highness is pleased 
 seriously to ask if his officers, at the time, possessed of real power, weight, 
 and influence, were not dismissed and driven from the country. 
 
 " It does not appear that his Highness ever once proposed to appoint 
 Aumeens or inspectors of accounts j but the accounts are public, and 
 open for such Aumeens or any other persons his Highness may be pleased 
 to appoint for the inspection and examination of them. His Highness 
 is in no doubt possessed of those accounts, or abstracts of them ; and he 
 reasons on them. 
 
 " But though his Highness may have been mistaken in relation to his 
 country where he does not reside, but in the precincts of Fort St. George, 
 or to his officers who may deceive him, he cannot be mistaken as to his 
 personal situation. It might perhaps be thought that the violence of his 
 animosity, the bitterness of his expressions, his accusation of the sub- 
 verson of his Government, of the usurpation of his powers, and conceal- 
 ment of his revenues by the President, may have been the ebullitions of 
 resentment arising from the poignancy of his own distress. On the in- 
 vasion indeed of the Carnatic, he quitted his usual mansion which was 
 suitable to his dignity, but ill suited to his safety. That removal pre- 
 ceded the accession of the President to this Government. His Higliness 
 has since dwelt in the same habitation, is protected by the same guards, 
 is attended by the same officers, except some revenue clerks, receives the 
 same honors, and appears to lead, in every respect, the same life 
 which he is said to have done in the former Government, or previous 
 to the assignment. 
 
 o 
 
 *' But the mode of his Highness's attack seems entirely founded on the 
 observation, that accusations of injuries of this strong kind, painted in 
 
 4 B 2
 
 ^S6 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 moving and lively colors, are apt to catch the sympathising affections of 
 the mind, and to leave an impression that the slow and cold liand of 
 truth does not afterwards easily efface. Bold assertion, warm repre- 
 sentation, private influence, supercede investigation among Oriental po- 
 liticians, whose wit and eloquence are equal to their depth of intrigue, 
 and freedom from scruple. 
 
 " Indeed the members of the Select Committee, in a letter written in 
 June last, mention ' having had occasion to observe such rapid changes 
 * in the sentiments, expressed by his Highness the Nabob, of the sam.e 
 persons, that they could scarcely consider his praises or his censures as 
 prompted by affection or resentment ; but that tb.ey were the weapons 
 of which he successively tried the use for the attainment of his pur- 
 poses. The mem.bers of the Committee had their turn of the strongest 
 ' declarations of his esteem ; and they would force him, if possible, to 
 ' a repetition of them by a continuation of good offices *.' 
 
 " Of the Nabob's reproach upon the President for not allowing the pay 
 of his body guard out of the current expenses of the country, and of not 
 withholding from the public the collections of several Jaghires, or parcels of 
 land, in favor of the women of his HIghness's family, his children, his 
 relations, and faithful servants, it is necessary only to observe, that the 
 txpence of the Nabob's body guard residing in Madras forms no part of 
 the current charges of the country, to be deducted out of their gross reve- 
 nues ; and that his Highness, in his letter, reserving a sixth part of the re- 
 venues for himself, expressly says, ' it is for defraying, among other tilings, 
 ' the charges of the protection of himself and family f ;' and to the latter 
 object there is no exception in the assignment in favor of any lands or 
 possessors of lands. All the revenue, except one-sixth, was to be applied 
 
 * Letter to G.vernor-gcneral and Council of Bengal, June 29, 17S2. 
 I Nabob's h-tter to Goveinor, October 2, lySt.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVr. S57 
 
 to the support of the common cause. The President would be account- 
 able in his private capacity for any such indulgence or deviation. He 
 must have done it independently of the subordinate and principal com- 
 mittee; and he has done nothing in this business independently ot thi-ra ; 
 but has acted solely on their suggestion. 
 
 " On the subject of tlie Nabob's queries, relative to his elephants, it is 
 silfficient to observe, that the charges of their maintenance was retrenched 
 with the consent of his Excellency the Ameer, and would have been 
 done without it, because they were an expensive object of mere parade, 
 and at a distance from his Highness's residence, and in the present junc- 
 ture a ridiculous one ; and that the Sepoys at the same place were, at the 
 
 * time in want of maintenance ; but proper allowances have been made 
 ' for daily charity, and for the service and support of mosques, churches 
 ' and pagodas, with precautions for the real application of such allowances 
 ' to those purposes *.* 
 
 * Receipts have been ordered to be regularly given for supplies fur- 
 
 * nished in the several districts ; and no instance has been represented to 
 
 * the Committee of the refusal of a receipt for stores or provisions deli- 
 ' vered by ord^r of his Highness, or by any of his peoplej. " 
 
 " Some ammunition was delivered to some troops of his Excellency 
 the Ameer, through perhaps an imprudent complaisance ; because ammu- 
 nition is so scarce as not ahvays to be given even to his Majesty's fleet, 
 to the full amount of its demands ; ' and because the i^meer's troops are 
 
 * Minutes of Assigned Revenue, May zj, 1782. 
 
 t Letter to Lieut. Place, Permacoil, Feb. 14, 1782. — Letter to Mr. Fallofield, Cudda^ore, 
 Feb. 20, ijSj. — Letter to Mr. Rnm, receiver at Tritchinopoly, Feb. :i, 17S3 — L'tter 
 to Mr. Proctor, receiver at Palamcottah, Feb. 21, 17S2.— Letter to Mr. Turjug at Kcl- 
 lore, March 13, 1782.
 
 558 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 ' are reported to have done no service ; but to have kept a mile in the 
 ' rear *.' 
 
 " The President did not communicate at home or abroad, that he made 
 any reduction in the public expenses ; ' but the Committee of assigned 
 ' revenue have laid a comparative statement of the gross amount of the 
 ' rents, according to the Nabob's accounts, at an average, for the four 
 
 * years immediately preceding the war, and of the annual expenses by the 
 ' same accounts, with a gross amount of the present rents and present 
 ' expenses, by which it appears that in six districts rented there will be, 
 ' if not ravaged by the enemy, an actual increase in the annual net revq- 
 
 * nue of upwards of six lacks of pagodasf .' If that reduction were 
 really such as the Company might make in delivering over the admini- 
 stration of their affairs to two or three of their youngest writers, such re- 
 duction would not have continued until now j or the Company would do 
 right to follow the example. 
 
 " The assignment did not begin to be productive till the new 
 Aumildars entered on the exercise of their respective employments 
 about May last. Of six districts rented, there is no safe or certain 
 communication with three of them situated to the southward, from 
 the interruption of enemies by sea and land ; and no remittance 
 whatsoever has been received from thence. The three remainder have 
 supplied in money, grain, and bullocks for our army, in four months 
 about two lacks of pagodas ; though no remittance was made by the 
 Nabob in the eighteen months preceding. His Highness has received 
 indeed 40,000 pagodas, which is more than a sixth of that sum, because 
 he wished to receive some money in advance ; and the President wished 
 
 * Letter from Colonel Kennedy, cominanthint of Madras, to the Town-major, May 7. 
 1783. 
 f Comparative statement in minutes of Committee of Assigned Revenue, May 27, 178^.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 559 
 
 to gratify him ; but if ihc northern had been as unproductive as the 
 southern provinces, the Nabob must have suliered the lo,-,s of his sixth ai 
 the public must have done that of the other fivc-iisths ; ' that proportion 
 ' not a definite sum was his Ilighness's own choice *,' either that amount 
 was equal to the like proportion of what he had received for a similar 
 period, during his own management since the troubles, and of which he 
 must have foreseen the sufficiency for the Nabob of the Carnatic, and his 
 family and attendants confined by the calamities of war, and without the 
 necessity of expensive splendor, to the town of Madras ; or if he re- 
 ceived more than the sextuple of what he now receives, he will have been 
 equally an enemy to his own interest, and to that of the Company, in not 
 supplying a single pagoda from it to the treasury of this Presidency, for 
 the support of that war which was waged, in order to repel the invasion of 
 his country. 
 
 " But to disculpate the Nabob from so heavy a charge, it is just to de- 
 clare it probable, that such were the mismanagement and useless charges 
 in the country, and such were the imposition and rapacity of the people 
 "about him, that he did not receive from those three provinces, as their 
 entire net revenue much more than what he now draws after applying five- 
 sixths of it to the discharge of his debts and the recovery of his territories* 
 But comparison may lessen the estimated value of what was in itself abund- 
 dantly valued. Forty thousand pagodas in four months, out of only three 
 provinces, make for xh.e year no more than just triple the whole income of 
 the Company's principal representative on the coast of Coromandel. To 
 this triple sum, until the other provinces become productive, has the Nabob 
 stinted himself. He allows indeed a dependence on other resources 
 within his reach, having declared that although his expenses are very 
 great, yet, out of the growing revenues, ' he wishes only, in this time of 
 ' trouble, to have what is necessary to defray his table, and supply the 
 * wants of a few people employed for his protection!.* 
 
 * Nabob's letter, October 2, 17S1. f Ibid.
 
 s6o APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 " One-third of what the Nabob reserves, in this time of trouble, out 
 of a small part of his territories, merely to defray his table in Madras, 
 and supply the wants of a few of his people, might not have been thought 
 an extravagant allowance and compensation for all the trouble, as well as 
 the expenses of a Governor of Madras, however free he may be from 
 ostentation, and for all his family, and for all his attendants, even if that 
 allowance had depended upon his own discretion to have established ; but 
 it is the act of his employers settled before his time j and they complain 
 that his predecessors were not satisfied with it. 
 
 " If the present Governor had chosen to have added to it other gains, 
 which would be criminal ; his satisfaction with his salary alone, and his 
 receipt of it, would not have been alledged against him as a crime. A 
 man who is accused for the exercise of his right, must have left no ground 
 for being so, in doing wrong. He who rejects all other resources but the 
 stipend allowed him, has the more occasion for the amount of that 
 stipend ; whether he makes his drafts with an unabating hand, or with 
 various intervals, if they exceed not what is strictly due to him, he is 
 equally justifiable. "* 
 
 " If he were to receive a compensation for the unjust reproaches that 
 are cast upon him, if his employers were to allow for the advantages he 
 might have reaped, and the praises he might have gained, from his High- 
 ness the Nabob, by holding a conduct directly the reverse of what he has 
 held, the salary which he now has, not cheaply earned, would form but a 
 small proportion of his profits. 
 
 " All the drafts for public and for secret services pass through his 
 hands as Governor. The former, which are immense, and the latter, 
 which, including the salaries and expenses of agents to Indian courts, 
 &c. on the Continent, and the Island of Ceylon, have not exceeded in 
 the fourteen months of the present administration, when the nature of the 
 war calls for secret services, which to be perfomcd, must be paid, the sum 
 
 7 
 
 I
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. s^^^ 
 
 of 14,000 pagodas, are all accompanied with such vouchers as the cases 
 would admit, and submitted to the inspection of his employers, who will 
 have no reason to doubt of his caution or economy. 
 
 " That caution and that economy were wanted and exerted in supply- 
 ing the disproportion between the resources, and the expenses and exigen- 
 cies of the war. In the eleven months, during which the war was car- 
 ried on previously to the arrival of the President on this coast, ' the army 
 ' then consisting only of Carnatic troops, was subsisted entirely by re- 
 * mittances from Btngal. This administration has since furnished specie 
 ' equal to the subsistence of those troops ; the treasure remitted from 
 ' Bengal, though considerable, being not more than sufficient to defray 
 ' the charges of the reinforcement sent from thence *.* 
 
 " During the first eighteen months of the War, when the country, then 
 less exhausted, was under the management of the Nabob, the army was 
 supplied with fewer bullocks ; being than in the eight succeeding 
 
 months, when the same country, necessarily more exhausted by the con- 
 •^tinuance of the war, was entrusted to the management of the President, 
 ' who supplied above 13,000 bullocks and ioo,oco bags of rice f,' ' being 
 ' more of each than was supplied, or there was occasion to supply, 
 ' in any equal time in the former Carnatic war |.' ,,■ 
 
 * If three thousand bullocks were suffered to be captured in one night ; 
 ' for which the officer in charge was broken by court-martial §.' If the 
 country ' be so desolate as to supply no provisions for the troops, or 
 ' grain or fodder for the cattle employed to carry provisions ||,* and w hich 
 
 * See Statement by Accountant-general. 
 f See state of supplies by the Army-agent. 
 
 J State of supplies in the army under General Joseph Smith, from January i'j6q, to March, 
 in the Agent's office. 
 
 § Letter from Sir Eyre Coote, February 1782. [ Ibid. 
 
 VOL. I. 4 c
 
 562 APPENDIX. No. XVI, 
 
 on that account perish faster than they can be replaced. If there be aii 
 absolute want of cavalry, the greatest part of those of the Nabob 
 having, before the war, deserted for want of pay and gone over to the 
 .enemy, causes like these could not fail to have cramped the operations 
 of the army, though it has effected more in the present administration 
 than before, and has induced the superintending Board at Bengal, who 
 are directed to take the lead in all military operations, to be of opinion, in 
 which this Presidency entirely concurred, that the most certain method of 
 putting an end to the invasion of the Carnatic, is by a powerful diversion 
 into the territories of the invader on the other side of the peninsula. 
 
 " Though the Carnatic army has not been decisively successful, not- 
 withstanding its bravery, discipline, and perseverance, and the ardor and 
 experience of the General, because the situation of -the country, the 
 resources, and precaution of the enemy, and the want of cavalry, were 
 sufficient to render such decisive success impracticable ; the troops in 
 Tanjore, though a small body, have had the fortunate occasion of ren- 
 dering essential services. They have, with the co-operation of his 
 Majesty's squadron, taken the principal forts and settlements of the 
 Dutch, a national enemy, on the coast of Coromandel, whose numbers 
 under arms were greater than that of the besiegers. And a detachment 
 from them, with the like co-operation from the squadron, took Trinco- 
 malay in the island of Ceylon. 
 
 " For these concerted operations with the Admiral, the President was 
 vested by the Committee with its authority to act, and they seemed satis- 
 fied with the spirit and perseverance, with which the objects of such trust 
 were undertaken and accomplished. 
 
 " It is this trust which his Highness is pleased to include in one of his 
 interrogatories, uuder the name of the assumption of the command of the 
 southern army under Colonel Brathwahe. It is not merely an error in 
 
 5 
 
 J
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. s(^^ 
 
 chronology; for Sir Hector Munro, not Colonel Brathwaite, commanded 
 at the siege of Negapatam. Soon after the surrender of that place, the 
 President wrote to Hector Munro, ' to communicate to Sir Eyre Coote, 
 ' the commander in chief, an account of all his operations, and to desire 
 ' all the commanding officers to the southward to write to him at the 
 
 * same time with regard to all military points ; and as his plan of sei-vlce 
 ' might extend to very distant branches, they would probably receive 
 
 * military orders from him from time to time ; to which he, the Presi- 
 ' dent, desires they will pay all due respect and obedience *.' 
 
 " Such orders were, in fact, given, and such obedience was paid. 
 Sir Eyre Coote, in a letter of a date immediately subsequent, addressed to 
 Sir Hector Munro, after entering circumstantially into the detail of seve- 
 ral movements, which might be useful, he added, ' that those suggestions 
 ' were not made with an intention that they should be considered as mea- 
 ' sures absolutely to be adopted ; but as points which struck' him as de- 
 ' serving of attention, provided the circumstances of Sir Hector Munro's 
 ' situation might, at any time, render them eligible to be carried into 
 
 * execution ; for at so great a distance the propriety of undertaking any 
 
 * particular services must be left to the judgment of the officer in 
 
 * command!.' 
 
 The orders of Sir Eyre Coote were transmitted, on Sir Hector Munro's 
 departure from Tanjore, to Colonel Brathwaite, on whom the command 
 again devolved, and whose letters shew that he obeyed them ; nor was 
 there ever a contrary or indeed any order issued by the President or 
 Committee to Colonel Brathwaite after the siege of Negapatam. 
 
 " Colonel Brathwaite mentions that, in consequence of orders froni 
 the Commander in Chief communicated to him through Sir Hector 
 
 * Letter to Sir Hector Munro, December 2.5, 1 781. 
 
 t Letter from Sir Eyre Coote to Sir Hector Munro, December 24, i 781. 
 
 4 C 2
 
 564 APPENDIX, No. XVI. 
 
 Munro, he had, out of the few battalions with him, ' detached a batta- 
 * lion to Tritchinopoly * ;' and soon afterwards happened ' that defeat, 
 ' or that sacrifice to the enemy f, of which neither the Presidency nor the 
 President were the cause, but of which they have, not without some 
 success, endeavored to prevent the ill consequences. 
 
 " The truth of the answers, in the negative, to some other less impor- 
 tant of the Nabob's questions, may not be easily within positive proof. 
 Perhaps the President may not be slightly supposed to have so far de- 
 parted from his former life and usual demeanor, as to deride his High- 
 ness before one of his Majesty's principal officers ; to calumniate him in 
 his absence ; to dismiss his vaqueel or agent from the Government House j 
 and to open all his letters ; such a procedure would be extraordinary, 
 inexcusable, and unaccountable : it does not appear to be very compatible 
 with European manners, or with any knowledge and practice of the 
 world, to gratify even the keenest resentment, by modes so mean, so 
 silly, and so short of their intended purpose. The President has, on all 
 occasions, testified the highest respect for the Nabob ; still seeks oppor- 
 tunities to oblige him, and still expects he will see his present errors ; the 
 Nabob's jealousy, perhaps, led him only to suspect that the President had 
 treated him unhandsomely. His Highness only asks, if he did not ? The 
 question may be said to imply a doubt of the fact j it seems at least to 
 put the truth of the accusation upon the issue of the answer ; and that 
 answer is a most solemn declaration in the negative. The President re- 
 collects being in the presence of his Highness, in company only with two 
 principal officers of his Majesty ; Sir Eyre Coote, between whom and his 
 Highness, the President had the good fortune to effect a reconciliation ; 
 and General Medows, whom he accompanied in a visit of ceremony to 
 liis Highness. It would have been a singular perversion of such meetings 
 to" render them occasions of offence ; and the offence would be equally 
 
 * Letter from Colonel Brathwaitc, Jan. 26, 1782. ■[ Ibid. Feb. 17, 1782^ 
 
 2.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. ^C^ 
 
 to those respectable officers. To them both, one upon the spot, and one in 
 England, the President appeals for his behaviour. 
 
 " To the question of his calumniating his Highncss's person ; opening 
 his letters (except are meant two petitions in the Persian language, which 
 the President does not understand, and of which a clerk mistook the 
 meaning of the address) ; or of dismissing his vakeel — the answer can be 
 only a simple negative. 
 
 " But some negatives admit at least of presumptive proof. If the Pre- 
 sident had told the Nabob, that the treaty, which his Highness had 
 made with the superior Government of Bengal, would ruin his affairs, 
 such an answer would have been the very best reply which his Highness 
 could have made, but did not make, and must have been an unanswer- 
 able argument to that President, when, in letters in October and Novem- 
 ber last, he urged the Nabob in the strongest terms to the execution 
 of that treaty, informing him, that his duty would not. suffer him to 
 consent to any other alternative than his Highness's compliance with the 
 immediate provisions of the treaty, or with the present assignment, which 
 grew put of it. 
 
 " The particular circumstances of the case, which his Highness calls 
 an instigation to perjury, and restraint under guards of Sepoys, and in 
 which he askes, if the President did not partake, are so perfectly known 
 to the members of the Council at large, that the consideration of it is left 
 to a meeting of that Board. His Highness may have been mistaken in 
 th*t respect, as he has in the sentiments of his creditors, from whom he 
 says, the President has withheld their just rights and every sort of sa- 
 tisfaction. 
 
 " This accusation may serve as a test to form a probable judgnxent 
 of those others, in which no testimony intervenes between the charges o£ 
 the enquirer, and the denials of the answer.
 
 ^f^6 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 *' If the President had withheld from his Highness's distressed creditors 
 their just rights and every sort of satisfaction, the indignation of ' so consi- 
 derable a body, so large a proportion of the settlement, would not be 
 felt in silence ; and their complaints would have been a presumption in 
 favor of the Nabob's assertion. Those creditors have not been back- 
 ward in the assertion of their rights on other occasions ; they were 
 loud in their complaints, and warm in their expostulation to this Presi- 
 dency during the adhiinistrations of Governor Bourchier and of Go- 
 vernor Dupre ; because they apprehended that justice was by those ad- 
 ministrations denied or delayed to them. 
 
 " The creditors have sometimes extended their suspicions even to his 
 Highness, and have proceeded to expressions of disrespect, that the pres- 
 sure of distress only could excuse : one of the most considerable among 
 them, who is supposed to be in the intimacy of his Highness, and of his 
 minister the Ameer, in a letter to the Court of Directors, declared, ' that 
 < the Nabob was destitute of the smallest inclination to discharge his 
 ■* debts, and employed his whole time and attention to avail himself 
 
 * of every possible subterfuge, by which he could elude payment ; 
 ' though it is by no means believed that he is destitute of resources, and 
 
 * even of considerable treasures ; yet, certain it is, that he tenaciously 
 
 * conceals and withholds them *.' The entire body of creditors residing 
 at Madras, in a public letter since printed by their directions, complain, 
 
 * that his Highness the Nabob withheld his payments from them f ;' If 
 the President had appeared to them to stand in the way of the satisfac- 
 tion, as they conceived that Governor Bourchier and Governor Duprc 
 had done ; if they imagined that he withheld their just rights and re- 
 fused to give them any sort of satisfaction, he would, like his Highness, 
 •and those Governors, be an object of their complaints. If they were 
 
 * liCltcr from Mr. Beiifield to tlie Court of Directors, Dec. 14. 17S0. — Printed in 410. 
 ~ ■\ Letter from Nabob's Creditor's to Governor and Couiici', Fort St. George, March II, 
 
 3/ 79-
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVr. ^Cy 
 
 merely silent concerning him, notwitlistanding their impatience increasing 
 with their disappointments, it might be some presumption that the Pre- 
 sident was not guilty of the charge alledged on this occasion by the Na- 
 bob. It is, at least, a certainty of his failure in the possiiive evidence of 
 such a charge so easy, if it were true, to be adduced. ' It may be pos- 
 
 * sible that these allegations are connected with such a design, as he was 
 
 * formerly accused of entertaining, to involve the Government in fresh. 
 ' disputes with his creditors, in which' it was then thought probable he 
 ' would succeed *.' In the present instance such a design has not suc- 
 ceeded J nor have the creditors left the insinuation against the President, 
 to be combated by negative presumption in his favor. They, in a memo- 
 rial addressed by them to the Court of Directors, a very few days be- 
 fore this accusation of the President's injustice and inattention to them, 
 have declared, ' after mention of the Nabob's failure in his agreement 
 ' made five years ago, and of their sulferings in consequence, .that they 
 ' drew an auspicious hope from the equitable attention of the Right Ho- 
 
 * norable the President of this settlement, who in a plan which he lately 
 
 * framed for the arrangement of the Nabob's affairs was pleased to in- 
 ' elude the demands of all his creditors t j' and in their letter to that 
 President they repeat to him, ' that from the equitable manner in which? 
 ' he had taken up their concerns, they had the greatest reliance upon his, 
 ' representations in their behalf |.' 
 
 " If the Nabob's advisers were not perfectly indifferent as to the truth 
 of what they suggested to his Highness's mind, if they preserved the 
 least degree of regard to his reputation for veracity, if they did not 
 prefer the success they expect from the first impressions of the Nabob's 
 heavy charges against the President ; to the permanent credit which 
 
 '■ Letter to the Court of Directors from the Presidency of Fcrt St. George, dated Apvii 
 6, 1770. — Consultations of Presidency of Fort St. George, October 6, 1770, 
 f Memorial to tlie Court of Directors, August lo, 1782. 
 X Letter to Lord Macartney, August 10, 178;^
 
 563 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 facts on his Highness's assertion should be made to deserve, they 
 would not have hazarded his signature to assertions, so capable of dis- 
 proof, so efiectually disproved. 
 
 " The accumulation of those barefaced attacks defeats the purpose 
 
 intended by them. It betrays the foundation on which they are laid, 
 
 and precludes the necessity of guarding against their effect. It must 
 
 therefore be acknowledged that much of the pains here taken has 
 
 been unnecessary. The consultations shall not again be swelled, or 
 
 the attention of the Court of Directors detained, on such an 
 occasion. 
 
 " But to judge of the future by the past conduct of the Nabob's 
 ministers they will not be detered, by the refutation of those charges, 
 from a renewal of them, or from substituting others in their room. It 
 is not however an unfair condition, that those they have already made, 
 as the most obvious and pressing, shall be a scale to measure the truth, 
 the probability, and the justice of those others they may have reserved 
 for subsequent occasions. 
 
 " The caution of those advisers of the Nabob is alarmed at their 
 being brought forward by the President ; they wish his Highness alone to 
 run the risk and receive the blame, and suffer the consequences of yield- 
 ing to their pernicious suggestions; they render him dissatisfied at being 
 told he is advised ; they, whose rank and views and stations are, or r.re 
 thought, eminent, want him to recriminate on a few harmless and un- 
 aspiring individuals, who happened to accompany the President here, with 
 licence from the Court of Directors, or actually in their service. The 
 Nabob asserts that he is now told, for the first time, that he cannot dis- 
 tinguish good from evil in his own affairs ; and that even the animals of 
 the air can easily distinguish injury from kindness ; but animals of the air 
 and inhabitants of the earth may be sometimes caught in the snares of
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVr. 569 
 
 apparent kindness, and may feel anguish in the most sincere and salutary- 
 assistance. 
 
 " It has many times been told of the Nabob, and even by that Go- 
 vernor who was dismissed from the Company's service for services ren- 
 dered to his Highness ; ' that not being of a resolute or active mind, he has 
 ' frequently been misled by those who have had the art to raise his jealousy 
 ' of the Company, or who have flattered his vanity, or raised in his mind 
 ' ideas of conquest or future greatness *.' 
 
 " Not long even before this period when he disclaims advice, the Com- 
 mander in Chief of the forces, who has had the best opportunity of know- 
 ing his Highness, would not, when he was considering a letter from him 
 conveying censure, ' allow himself to believe that the diction, although 
 
 * patronized by his seal, could have been entirely his own, but the secret 
 
 * infusion of some vindictive, invidious, and disappointed adviser f.' 
 
 " That such infusions were not confined to persons of the Nabob's own 
 family and country may be collected from the reason given by the trans- 
 lator of the Persian copy of his Highness's present letter, for the delay iu 
 making the translation, ' that he could get little assistance from the na- 
 
 * live moonshies or writers, who said the idiom was in several places dif- 
 ' ferent from Persian letters in general, which difference he could not 
 
 * otherwise account for than by supposing it, as to those places, originally 
 
 * written in English [.' 
 
 " In fact, the mildest and most friendly interpretation that could be 
 given to a conduct, by him who disapproves of it, is to free it from the 
 
 * General Letter from Governor Wynch and Council to the Court of Directors, July 4, 
 
 j- Letter from Sir Eyre Coote in Consultations of Fort St. George, October 29, i;8i. 
 J Letter from Mr. C. N. White, deputy translator. 
 VOL. I. 4 D
 
 570 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 
 
 imputation of deliberate mischief, by attributing it to the influence and 
 misinformation of others ; it, no doubt, was more decent, and, it is 
 hoped, it was juster, to lament the effect of insinuations of factious and 
 designing persons, whose sinister views were forwarded and passions 
 gratified by instilling jealousies into the Nabob's mind against the repre- 
 sentatives of the Company, than ' by personally accusing his Highness of 
 ' inflexible obstinacy, jealousy, and perverseness ; and of his having 
 ' given many proofs of his want of faith and honor, which was the lan- 
 ' guage of Governor Bourchier, Mr. Dupre, the present Governor- 
 ' general of Bengal, and General Joseph Smith *.' 
 
 " It is possible indeed, that, through error, his Highness may have 
 been accused unjustly. The example of groundless attacks against the 
 President is sufficient to warn him against yielding to the impression of 
 violent accusation against others. The present is not indeed the only in- 
 stance where the President has had to oppose his actions, with firmness and 
 patience, to obloquy and opposition. 
 
 *' His situation indeed particularly exposed him. Appointed to the 
 Government at a particular crisis, and out of the usual course, by an exam- 
 ple alarming to the prospects of the former servants of the Company ; 
 sent out with instructions of reformation, affecting private interest, and 
 arriving to r place where calamity led to discontent, the unpopularity he 
 had to encounter could yield only to a favorable opinion of his intentions. 
 His subsequent efforts for the public good have secured to him, indeed, 
 the impartial voice of general approbation ; but the views that have been 
 thwarted, the claims rejected, and attempts opposed, even in high de- 
 partments, when interfering with the orders and welfare of the Company;, 
 have excited the operations of adverse passions, which were to be resisted^ 
 
 * Letter to Court of Directors, November 21, 1759.- Remarks on Nabob's Letter of 
 ?:o. ember 26, 1770, in country corrcspondt-noe.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVI. 571 
 
 but could not be calmed, by any goodness of conduct or of example. 
 The Piesident, opposed by such passions, and struggling at the same time 
 with the difficulties of the war, and partaking in the distresses of the 
 people, has a claim on the generosity as well as justice of his colleagues to 
 aid, and of his superiors to approve, his efforts ; which he desires as long 
 only as he shall be found to adhere to public and private faith and honor ; 
 and, consistently with these, to have no other end in view than the good 
 of the Company and the State." 
 
 No. XVII. 
 
 Letter from Lord Macartney to the Earl of Hillsborough, 
 dated Fort St. George, September 3, 1782. 
 
 '* My dear Lord, 
 
 J. Return you a thousand thanks for your obliging letter by Mr. Dun- 
 kin, who arrived here some weeks since, and gave me great pleasure by 
 the accounts he brought of your Lordship's welfaj-e. As I know how 
 little leisure you have for private correspondence, I shall not venture to 
 trespafs upon you in that respect further than is absolutely necessary ; 
 but I should be wanting to myself if I did not say a few words upon the 
 present occasion. By the packet, which carries this dispatch, I have rea- 
 son to believe that the Nabob has sent letters to his Majesty and to the 
 ministry full of complaints against me and my Government here. The 
 misrepresentations and falsehoods, contained in those letters, will be 
 fully detected by the perusal of our proceedings, which are now sent 
 home, and which are, I believe, regularly laid before you. But such 
 serious accusations as the Nabob, or rather his second son and minister 
 
 4 D 2
 
 573 i^PPENDlX. No. XVII. 
 
 Ameer ul Omrah, assisted by some profligate Englishmen here, has 
 set his name to, would naturally stagger any one unacquainted with 
 this country or the character of the Durbar. There is however no gen- 
 tleman conversant with either, but will be able at a glance to see the 
 causes from whence the Nabob's resentment has arisen. The real truth 
 is, that I have acted like an honest man and a good Englishman, and a 
 Governor of Madras of that stam.p is by no means such a one as they 
 have been accustomed to, or ever wish to see again. If I had acted like 
 many of my predecessors, and come into the I^abob's views, it would 
 be no exaggeration to say, that 1 might have fully answered any views I 
 could possibly have formed of my own. It has been objected to me 
 by the Nabob, that I am a stranger, ignorant of Oriental customs, un- 
 willing to understand, or come into the ways of black people ; that I 
 wo'nt accept of presents, that 1 am unconciliating, &c. &c. After the 
 space of time that I have passed here, and the intercourse I have had 
 with the Durbar and the gentry belonging to it, I must certainly be next 
 to an idiot if I were ignorant of what is called the method of managing 
 them. Nothing is more easy ; sacrifice the interests of the Company and 
 of the creditors, or promise to do so ; engage for impossibilities, Tanjore,. 
 and the succession of the second son ; and write lying paragraphs and en- 
 comiums upon the Nabob's disposition towards us, in the public letters 
 to England ; do this, and I'll venture to say, that a Governor of Madras, 
 even in the present distress, would extract half a dozen lacks of pagodas 
 for himself, when he could not obtain a rupee for the Company. This 
 was the mode by which the Durbar was managed by some politicians ; 
 but my system has been different, and if my predecessors had practised 
 it, our affairs here would not now be in their present deplorable state. 
 By observing a different conduct from theirs, I have drawn upon myself 
 not only the most rancorous enmity of the Durbar ; but the ill-will and 
 opposition of every man in this part of the world of a different cha- 
 racter from my own.. Against these my only arms are steadiness and 
 
 diligence^ upright intentions, and disinterested conduct, and I have no 
 
 6
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVIL 573 
 
 doubt that they will at last carry me through with success. The only 
 circumstance which affects me is the apprehension that the Nabob's let- 
 ters might in the slightest degree make an impression upon my sovereign 
 to my disadvantage. I must therefore request your Lordship will be so 
 good as to lay me at the king's feet with every expression of my duty 
 and attachment to his Majesty, and with the strongest assurances of the 
 most scrupulous attention and respect on my pait to all the country 
 powers here, whose interest is the least connected with the British power 
 in India. But I never will sacrifice, as has often been done here, the 
 smallest particle of our real rights and our true policy for any private 
 emolument or advantage whatsoever. I have ventured to say thus much, 
 because well I know the artifices and engines which will be employed by 
 disappointed avarice and blasted ambition to misrepresent and vilify my 
 Government. But I trust to a good cause, and to that conduct which 
 will never give my friends reason to be ashamed of supporting me. 
 
 " The real state of the Nabob's case is this : When I arrived here, though 
 we had been engaged for near a twelvemonth in a most expensive and 
 bloody war with Hyder Ali, I found that the Nabob, though generally 
 believed to be possessed of great treasures, had, under pretence of the 
 failure of his revenues from the invasion of the enemy, scarcely con- 
 tributed any thing to the common service. He had been often pressed 
 upon the subject, but without effect ; at last he consented to assign to the 
 Company the revenues of a few districts that were, or should be, reco- 
 vered from the enemy, but he was far from being sincere in this measure ; 
 and, in a short time it appeared that his secret influence and counteraction 
 prevented our receiving any benefit from the assignment. We were 
 therefore under the necessity of taking such steps, as we were authorized 
 and directed to do by the Governor-general and Council of Bengal, to 
 render it effectual, and of these steps the Nabob loudly complains. When 
 I mention the Nabob, it is proper I should inforui you that he is not the 
 object to whom we should really impute this ungrateful conduct to the 
 Company j he, as is usual to Oriental sensualists at his time of life, is now
 
 574 APPENDIX, No. XVII. 
 
 much impaired both in mind and body, and is totally under the direction 
 of his second son the Ameer, who aims at the succession to the disherison 
 of his elder brother Omdat, who would be a much better Nabob for our 
 interests. It is therefore the Ameer who is, in fact, the great wheel of 
 the Durbar machine, and who, by the assistance of some discontented 
 Europeans, Mr, Paul Benheld in particular, has thrown his father's 
 affairs into confusion, has quarrelled with the ancient friends of his 
 family, and is the real author of all those extravagant letters and papers, 
 to which the Nabob's name is affixed. At a time when the Durbar 
 should be all patience and resignation, they are all turbulence and out- 
 rage : and yet, after all, what have they to complain of ? At a time when 
 the Company is spending its blood and treasure in defence of the province, 
 why is there to be so much noise about the miserable remains of it ? At 
 the moment that it is in danger of being swallowed up, is it decent that 
 the Nabob should be disputing about the channel in which the Company 
 shall receive the revenues of a few districts, as if he were wrangling with 
 a private creditor ? Whilst I had opportunities of conversing with him, 
 I candidly gave him my opinion upon his affairs. I explained to him the 
 necessity of changing his measures, and of adopting the only line which 
 could save him and his family from ruin. Had he followed my advice, 
 he would have said to the Company, ' Gentlemen, the common danger 
 ' makes it absolutely necessary, that you should take all my rights and 
 * authority into your own hands. Make what use you please of them 
 ' to repel the enemy and extricate me and yourselves from the most cri- 
 ' tical embarrassment we were ever involved in. I throw myself on the 
 . ' protection and faith of the English, and am satisfied that at the proper 
 ' season, you will replace me in the enjoyment of those rights which for 
 ' so good a cause 1 have surrendered to you.' This I often told him was 
 the part he should take in his circumstances. It would have been the 
 wisest and the most honorable, and would have secured to him what it 
 is possible from his own impediments may now be very distant, if not irre- 
 coverable. But, poor man, he was not allowed to follow the line he 
 would have chosen for himself, and they have much indeed to answer for
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVII. ^y^ 
 
 to him and to the Company, uho Iiave turned his mind from the liberal 
 and generous plan of policy which formerly distinguished him in time of 
 misfortune. But the misconduct of others fhall make no alteration in my 
 sentiments of respect and attention to him, and, I hope, that when the 
 present troubles are over, we may be able to restore his mind to that state 
 of tranquillity, which he has been deprived of by those who ought most 
 to contribute to his ease and happiness. I think I am now worth about 
 10,000/. more than when I arrived here, and I do assure you that I might 
 have been easily worth ten times the sum, if I pleased, without any re- 
 proaches, but those of my own conscience. What I have is the mere 
 savings of the Company's allowance ; for I never have accepted for my 
 own benefit, a pagoda, a diamond, or even a shawl — So help me God! 
 This solemn declaration which I make to you, from one gentleman to 
 another, will, I trust, be some antidote against the poisons intended from 
 hence for my destruction at home. I will now add one word to you as a 
 statesman. Should we surmount the difficulties wTiich press us in this 
 part of the world, your possessions in India, if not ably and honestly ad- 
 ministered, will assuredly slip from you in a short time. For God's sake 
 therefore, if you wish to preserve them, send the ablest and the honestest 
 men you can find to fill the first stations here. A Company constituted 
 like the present is but ill-suited to the Government of your Indian empire, 
 I have extended this letter to so great a length that I stand in need of all 
 your indulgence to excuse me. I will not therefore trespass upon it 
 longer than to express those sentiments of respect and esteem with which 
 I am, 
 
 " My dear Lord, 
 
 " Your most obedient and most humble servant, 
 
 (Signed) " MACARTNEY."' 
 
 «c 
 
 p. S. Give me leave to observe that both in Council and Cora^ 
 mittee, there has constantly reigned the most perfect harmony, and that 
 almost all our proceedings have been unanimous, as will appear upon the. 
 records."
 
 C si^ ) 
 
 No. XVIII. 
 
 Plan of Arrangement for the Nabob's Affairs^ 
 
 The nett annual revenue of the Nabob, if pro-'^ 
 perly collected, may be fairly computed to produce ^ 3,000,000 
 
 in time of peace, star pagodas - - - 3 
 
 The following Annual Disburseme7its. 
 
 For the current expenses, troops, stores, Sec, includ-" 
 
 ing all military charges whatsoever in the Nabob's ^ 1,200,000 
 dominions, to be paid annually to the Company 
 
 For the Nabob's expenses and Taguirs to all his ? 
 
 do 
 
 )'S > I,200,C 
 
 V 3 
 
 sons, &c. &c. 
 
 1,600,000 
 
 Nabob's Debts. 
 
 The balance due to the Company, and the-\ 
 
 expenses of the present war, computed at > 3,000,000 
 
 about - - . - - - ) 
 
 Debt owinjr by the Nabob to all other ere- 1 
 
 ,■ )- 7,000,000 
 
 ditors \ ' 
 
 Star Pagodas - 10,000,000 
 
 Interest at 6 per cent, on the 7,000,000 ? 
 
 J J 1. 1- " ' {. 420,000 
 
 pagodas due to the creditors - - j 
 
 To pay the creditors < per cent, on account 7 
 
 or the prmcipal, annually - - -j '^-^ 
 
 770,000
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVlir. 577 
 
 Toward the liquidation of the Nabob's ba- 1 
 
 lance to the Company, and the expenses I . 
 
 r L J 1. L r' ^30,000 
 or the war, computed as above, at about 1 __;;_ j . 
 
 3,000,000 - . . . -J 3,000,000 
 
 N. B, Theamountof the expenses of the 
 
 present war as aforesaid about - Pagodas 3,000,000 
 
 From the Carnatic every year to be re- 
 ceived in part .... 630,000 
 
 The Peshcash payable to the Nabob, by the 
 Rajahof raiijorcjP. N. pagodas 130,000 
 or star pagodas . . - 
 
 Star Pagodas 750,000 
 
 Thus the above debt of 3,000,000 will be discharged in four years, and 
 then the same amount of 750,000 to be appropriated to the formation of 
 a public treasure for the use of the Carnatic, which in five years will ac- 
 cumulate to 3,750,000 pagodas, and on the tenth year, the said sum of 
 750,000 pagodas to be applied towards the discharging the Nabob's debt 
 to individuals. The yearly overplus of the 6 per cent, allowed for the 
 interest of the debt due to individuals, to be added to the 5 per cent, al- 
 lowed to discharge the principal of the said debt ; by this mode on the 
 ninth year two-thirds of the debt will be paid ; and with the addition of 
 the 750,000 as aforesaid on the tenth year, the whole of the debt and 
 interest of 6 per cent, will be paid in the twelfth year. From the arrange- 
 ment of the revenue of the Tanjore countries, the distribution of the an- 
 nual peshcash has been accounted for as aforesaid j but the deposit money 
 and the peshcash due, which both amount to - Pagodas 900,000 
 
 In the first year will be received - - 164,000 
 In the second year - - - - 464,000 
 
 628,000 
 In the third year the balance - - 272,000 
 
 VOL. I. 4 E 
 
 900,000
 
 57S 
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVIII. 
 
 This sum may be appropriated to pay the cavalry debt of 4oo,coo pa- 
 godas, due by the Nabob, and the arrears now due to his Sepoys, &c. 
 in the country ; which alone as above will amount to very near 500,000 
 pagodas. From- the above statement, the Nabob at the end of the twelfth 
 year, from the day the arrangement takes place, will owe nothing ; there 
 will be about 3,750,000 pagodas in the treasury, and on the thirteenth year, 
 the whole revenue of 3,000,000 pagodas per annum will remain clear of 
 any incumbrance. 
 
 Dr. 
 
 The Nabob to the Company, 
 
 Cr. 
 
 To the amount supposed for ba- 
 lance to the Company, and ex- 
 penses of the war 
 
 Pagodas 
 
 3 ,000,000 
 
 By the payment from the reve- 
 nue the first year 
 By the peshcash of Tanjore 
 first ytar 
 
 second year ... 
 third year 
 fourth year 
 
 Pagodas 
 
 630,000 
 120,000 
 750,000 
 750,000 
 750,000 
 750,000 
 3,000,000 
 
 / 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 
 
 Dr. 
 
 The Public Treasury for the use of the Cartiatic. 
 
 Cr. 
 
 — ^ — T ' " 
 
 Remains in the treasury at the 
 end of the ninth year of this 
 arrangement 
 
 3,750,000 
 
 By the revenue of the Carnatic 
 and the peshcash of Tanjore 
 as aforesaid, appropriated for 
 thispurposeeveryyear 750,000, 
 
 
 Pagodas 
 
 / 
 
 The fifth year 
 
 sixth year ^- - - 
 seventh year 
 
 eighth year ... 
 ninth year 
 
 Pagodas 
 
 750,000 
 750,000 
 750,000 
 750,000 
 750,000 
 ,5,750,000 
 
 3,750,000 

 
 APPENDIX. No. XVIIL 
 
 579 
 
 Dr. 
 
 The Debt due to Individuals. 
 
 Cr. 
 
 To the total debt 
 
 7,000,000 
 
 By receipts of every 
 
 year - - 550,000 
 On account of the princi- 
 
 
 
 
 pal for nine years 
 
 3,150,000 
 
 
 
 By overplus of the inte- 
 
 
 
 
 rest, reckoning from 
 
 
 
 
 the second year to the 
 
 
 
 
 ninth year, viz. 
 
 
 
 
 The second year - 21,000 
 
 
 
 
 third year - 22,260 
 
 
 
 
 fourth year - ^3>595 
 
 
 
 
 fifth year - 25,071 
 
 
 
 
 sixth year - '^'^^SIS 
 
 
 
 
 seventh year - 38,170 
 eighth year - 29,860 
 ninth year - 3J/>S^ 
 
 208,182 
 
 
 
 
 By the receipts on the 
 
 
 
 
 tenth year the sum at 
 
 
 
 
 5 per cent. - 350,000 
 
 
 
 
 The overplus of interest 
 
 
 
 
 in the tenth year - • 33,550 
 
 
 
 
 The 750,000 to be ap- 
 
 
 
 
 propriated onthe tenth 
 
 
 
 
 year to the discharge 
 
 
 
 
 of the debt - 750,000 
 
 i.'J3'5SP 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The eleventh year the 
 
 
 
 
 sum as aforesaid i,i33,5;o 
 
 
 
 
 The overplus of interest 68,025 
 
 1,207,575 
 
 
 
 7, 000,!; 00 
 
 The twelfth year - . - . 
 
 1,273,881 
 
 6,967,188 
 
 Observations. 
 
 *' A public treasure has by the experience of all ages been found to 
 contribute to the permanency of a state, by enabling it to withstand the 
 shock of sudden attacks. But it is not meant by the establishment of a 
 
 4 E 2
 
 •580 APPENDIX. No, XVIIL 
 
 treasury, that large quantities of specie should, in the interval of public 
 exigencies, be uselessly locked up ; on the contrary, it is intended that 
 the money should be circulated in such a manner as to encrease the stock 
 of the Company with perfect security, and, at the same time, to promote 
 the commerce and consequently the riches of the country. 
 
 " For this purpose the treasury should be a kind of bank or lombard, 
 one third of the stock to be always in specie untouched, and two thirds 
 to be employed in discounting good bills, and to be lent on valuable 
 pledges, at an interest never to exceed six per cent, per annum. 
 
 " Thus Madras, instead of being a shop of pitiful usury, would be- 
 come a city of honorable commerce, of opulence instead of misery, and 
 of real resource, not of temporary expedient, 
 
 " These ends are much promoted by the facility of throwing personal 
 effects into circulation. Thus the bonds to be given by the Nabob 
 and the Rajah should be subdivided into such sums as are daily trans- 
 ferable in the ordinary course of traffic, bearing interest, and per- 
 fectly secured by the present arrangements. They will be preferred, like 
 India bonds in England, to the possession of unproductive specie. If the 
 bonds were divided into several classes, according to the priority of the 
 demands for which they were given, or in a fixed proportion to the 
 amount of each creditor, and that periods were settled at which the bonds 
 of each class should be received as money in the Company's treasury, it 
 would, by approaching them to the nature of convertible specie, still 
 add to the activity of their circulation. This Is a point to be considered 
 hereafter. 
 
 " As the sum allotted for the Nabob's expenses may be considered as 
 too small, I propose to encrease it by two lacks of pagodas. It seems 
 bin reasonable that the tributary Rajahs and Polvgars of the Carnatic.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XVIII. 58X 
 
 should pay a proper proportion of their revenues to the state whose pro- 
 tection they enjoy. 
 
 *' I should therefore think that in addition to what they now pay, a- 
 new assessment of two lacks should take place, under the sanction and 
 guarantee of the Company, which should remain the rate for ever here- 
 after beyond the Nabob's power to augment it. In order to obtain such 
 a security, the Rajahs and Polygars would it is thought readily consent 
 to the proposed assessment. 
 
 " Thus then the Nabob would stand with i-egard to the Rajah as 
 six to two in respect to the allowances, and as thirty to eleven with re- 
 spect to revenue. 
 
 " It may perhaps be asked, why the Rajah's creditors are to be paid 
 in six years, and the Nabob's in twelve. The only reason 7iow to be 
 given is, the Nabob's debts are so much larger than the Rajah's that 
 they must necessarily take a much longer time in paying. 
 
 '• N. B. In the general plan as above, if the revenues,, which are 
 estimated from the best information that could be obtained, should fall 
 short, a proportional reduction of all the sums allotted to particular pur- 
 poses must take place, except the sum appropriated to the payment of 
 6 per cent, interest, which ought to remain inviolate. 
 
 " Thus, if the revenues produce one third less than they are com- 
 puted at, the allotments to the Nabob and Rajah, the allotments for re- 
 ducing the principal due to the creditors, and for discharging the sums 
 due to the Company, must also be one third less respectively, than they 
 are stated at in. the above arrangement."
 
 ( S8^ ) 
 
 No. XIX. 
 
 Account of a Duel hetivecn Lort/ Macartney and Mr. Sadlier. 
 
 " Friday, 24 September, 1 784. 
 
 cc r I ^ 
 
 JL HE time of meeting, as settled the evening before by Mr. Sadlier 
 and Mr. Davidson, was seven o'clock in the morning. However about 
 thirty-five minutes past six all the parties were on the ground ; Lord Mac- 
 artney and Mr. Davidson were the first. It being agreed upon by Mr. 
 Davidson and Major Grattan, who had retired to the particular spot in- 
 tended, that the distance should be ten paces ; Major Grattan loaded Mr. 
 Sadlier's pistols, Mr. Davidson's being loaded before they arrived. It 
 ■was then proposed by Mr. Davidson, for the consideration of Major 
 Grattan, whether, after one pistol had been fired by each gentleman, the 
 trial should not be made by the seconds, if there was any disposition on 
 the part of Lord Macartney to make an apology to Mr. Sadlier, and thus 
 to terminate the affair. To this Major Grattan acquiesced, adding that 
 the effect of such an. interposition would however depend entirely on the 
 temper of the parties. It was further referred to Major Grattan by Mr. 
 Davidson, whether the gentlemen themselves should be previously ac- 
 quainted with this intention of the seconds, which latter proposition Ma- 
 jor Grattan did not think expedient. Lord Macartney and Mr. Sadlier 
 were then conducted to the spot, and took their proper distance as al- 
 ready marked out. The right of the first fire was determined by chance 
 between the seconds, and fell to Mr. Sadlier, who accordingly fired ; the 
 ball struck Lord Macartney on the ribs of the left side, which however 
 was not known to any of the other gentlemen till after his Lordship had 
 given his own fire, which mis,f»d Mr. Sadlier. Mr. Davidson then ad- 
 vancing a little call?£j out tcj -^lajor Grattan on the opposite side, to 
 know whether the f/ial befoc^^ proposed should not then be made j Ma- 
 jor Grattan advancing. Lord Macartney, who did not quit his ground, 
 
 6
 
 APPENDIX. No. XIX. 583 
 
 called out, go on Mr. Sadlier, remaining also on his ground prepared to 
 take his second fire. Mr. Davidson having come up to Lord Macartney, 
 first perceived that his Lordship was wounded, and declared it to Major 
 Grattan, who was at the time beginning to ask his Lordship's intentions 
 as to the proposition before mentioned ; to which liis Lordship replied, I 
 came here to give satisfaction to Mr. Sadlier, and am ready to do so. 
 His Lordship'tj waistcoat being now unbuttoned, and the effects of his 
 wound, as well as its dangerous position, becoming visible, Major Grattan, 
 with the concurrence of Mr. Davidson, declared, that in his Lordship's 
 present condition Mr. Sadlier should rest satisfied, and that under such cir- 
 cumstances the matter could not well be pursued further. This declara- 
 tion being heard by Mr. Sadlier while remaining on his ground, was 
 adopted by him, and he declaring that he was satisfied, then quitted his 
 ground. 
 
 *' At a meeting, held expressly for the purpose by Mr. Davidson 
 and Major Grattan ou the next morning, at which were present Colonels 
 Fullarton and Dalrymple, the above state of facts was mutually ad- 
 mitted to be just and true, and was accordingly subscribed to by the 
 
 undersigned. 
 
 (Signed) " ALEXANDER DAVIDSON. 
 
 " JOHN GRATTAN." 
 
 " 34 September, 1784, 
 *' Concerning the proposition, mentioned by Mr. Davidson to Major 
 Grattan in the above narrative of an interference and reference to the 
 principals after an exchange of pistols, Mr. Davidson declares, the 
 proposal came from himself. Lord Macartney not having given Mr. Da- 
 vidson any instructions whatever, relative to the meeting, Mr. Davidson 
 made the proposal with a view of terminating the aftair as soon as 
 possible. 
 
 (Signed) « ALEXANDER DAVIDSON." 
 
 '£>'
 
 ( 584 ) 
 No. XX. 
 
 NOTES OF MY TRANSACTIONS WITH MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES 
 STUART, SINCE MY ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND IN 1786. 
 
 (Signed) M. 
 
 Note received fnm Major-general James Stuart, 'January 10, 1786. 
 
 " Lower Giosvcnor-Strect, January 10, 1786. 
 " Tuesday Afternoon. 
 
 IVIaJOR General Stuart takes this earliest opportunity to communi- 
 cate to Lord Macartney, an extract from the petition on his part, laid be- 
 fore his Majesty, and to acquaint L. M. that the whole of that petition 
 may be seen at Lord Sydney's office, and at the India House. 
 
 Extraet of M. G. S.'s Petition to the King, dated July 26, 1785. 
 The colli radict ton given l>y ' He (the Petitioner) begs leave, however, in 
 
 Gc'fi. Stuart, ivhile at c • .• ^t,- ic 1^ 1 • • ^ c c ^ 
 
 Tif , ',, , justice to himselr, only to observe, m point of fact, 
 
 Madras, to the charges J ' ■' ' r ' 
 
 of the Select Committee. * that while in India, and when made acquainted 
 
 ' with the contents of the minutes of the President 
 
 ' of the Select Committee, which contained the charges against him, 
 
 ' he never failed to take the very first opportunity of declaring to 
 
 * Lord Pvlacartney, the President of that Committee, in the strongest 
 ' and most unequivocal terms, both verbally and in writing, the in- 
 ' justice and falsehood of the imputations thus aimed at the Petitioner's 
 
 * character and conduct ; and the miimtes on the Petitioner's part, in 
 ' answer to those of the President, and addressed to him personally, 
 
 * not only express the indignation at such ill-founded and unexpected 
 
 * attacks, but likewise shew the grounds on which he considered him- 
 
 * self authorized to apply the terms of injustice and falsehood, to the 
 ' charges which the President had made against him.' 
 
 " A true extract in my own writing. 
 
 (Signed) « JAMES STUART."
 
 APPENDIX. No. XX. 5R5 
 
 Note sent by Lord Macartney to Major-general Stuart, Jan. 1 1, 17R6. 
 
 " Charles-Street, Berktley-Square, Jan. li, 1786. 
 
 " LORD MACARTNEY has received the note which Major-general 
 Stuart has thought proper to send to him, intimating his having laid a 
 petition before his Majesty, and quoting a passage from it, adding, that 
 tlie whole may be seen at Lord Sydney's office, or at the India House. 
 As far as any such petition may convey the wishes of Major-general 
 Stuart respecting himself, Lord Macartney has no concern, and takes no 
 part in the event of it, and can have therefore no occasion to inspect it ; 
 and as to any censure it may insinuate or express of Lord Macartney's 
 conduct in the administration of the Government that had been entrusted 
 to his charge, those persons to whom he Is accountable for his public 
 conduct, if any such there be, who entertain a doubt of it, will ever find 
 him ready to explain it to their satisfaction. But he is and long has been 
 resigned to the consequences of having filled the duties of his station, and 
 being exposed to the contradiction and opposition of those individuals, of 
 whose misconduct he was, in his official capacity, obliged to take notice. 
 He has however no apprehension that his character will be afierted, or the 
 justice and truth of minutes adopted by the Select Committee of Fort St. 
 George, concerning Major-general Stuart, be less manifest, by the Gene- 
 ral's denial of the charges against him, which fact and the records justify, 
 and require not to be supported by any other means. But if Major- 
 general Stuart has any drift, not expressed in the mere conveyance of his 
 contradiction to those minutes, he is desired to make it known, in direct 
 terms, through any gentleman by whom he may chuse to convey it to 
 Lord Macartney, who will take no notice of communications in any other 
 manner from Major-general Stuart. 
 
 vol,. I. 4F
 
 586 APPENDIX. No. XX. 
 
 Note rccehcd from Major-general ].\%iiis Stuart, dated Jan. 12, 17S6. 
 
 " Loiver Grosvenor-Street, Jnn. i», 17S6. 
 
 " MAjoR-General Stuart has reeeived Lord Macartney's note of 
 the nth, the latter part of which needs only to be noticed at present. 
 He must for once acknowledge himself under obligations to his Lordship, 
 for having brought matters between them so precisely to a point, and for 
 havinpr understood so properly the tendency of the intimation he received 
 from General Stuart's note. 
 
 " That there may be no ambiguity however about the drift of that in- 
 timation, Major-general Stuart thinks it proper to declare, that one objcet 
 of it was, to take the first opportunity of communicating to Lord 
 Macartney, the petition which he (G. S.) had presented to his Majesty, 
 and the terms in which he had expressed himself with regard to his 
 Lordship in that petition, thinking it would have been unsuit5,ble on his 
 part to make use of any terms, with regard to Lord Macartney in his 
 absence, which he was not equally ready to direct to him when present. 
 
 " The other objcet was, that Lord Macartney, upon his arrival in 
 England, might be ascertained, that General Stuart's sense of the atro- 
 cious injuries and injustice he had received from his Lordship, was by no 
 means abated, by the distance of time or place, and that Lord Macartney 
 might from thence perceive the inevitable consequences of what had 
 happened. 
 
 " General Stuart is happy to find that those consequences have 
 occurred to his Lordship, and that he will be ready to nject them. This 
 point therefoi-e is com.pletely settled, and General Stuart has only one 
 additional favor to request of Lord Macartney, which is, that in the inter- 
 val this settled conclusion may remain inviolabh secret ! 
 
 8
 
 APPENDIX. No. XX. 587 
 
 " The course of proceedings which General Stuart had, for a consi- 
 derable time past, settled in his own mind, as the most honorable and pros- 
 per for him to pursue in this matter, was this : that as his cliaracter and 
 miiiiary conduct had been traduced and attacked in the severest terms 
 by Lord Macartney, it became a primary duty on General Stuart's part, 
 to address a petitioa to his Majesty, as the supreme judge of military 
 merits, requesting the appointment of a Court of Enquiry, or a Court- 
 martial for investigating, in the strictest manner, the whole of his (G. S.'s) 
 conduct, while in the command of the forces of his Majesty and of the 
 East India Company in India, in order that such judgment might be 
 passed upon tiial conduct as the circumstances of it should appear to merit. 
 
 " This, General Stuart has uniformly considered as a duty, which he 
 owed to himself and to his friends, as well as what every man in a public 
 situation, entrusted with the command of an army at a very critical and 
 interesting period, owed to his King and country ! 
 
 " The first object of his wishes has therefore been to obtain that 
 public opportunity of vindicating his honor and character, and establishing 
 , upon the ruins of detraction and misinformation, his claim to positive 
 merit, in the conduct of the army entrusted to his command in India. 
 This opportunity, he flatters himself, will now be very speedily ob- 
 tained, especially as those causes of delay, which might have been 
 founded on the absence of Lord Macartney, the principal accuser, are now 
 removed. 
 
 " So soon as General Stuart shall have performed this duty to the pub- 
 lic and to himself, or in the event of his being refused the opportunity of 
 that public method of vindicating his honor and character (an event which 
 he cannot permit himself to think possible), in either case, the mode 
 suggested by Lord Macartney, in the latter part of his note, namely, 
 that of General Stuart's conveying his sentiments by a gentleman em- 
 
 4 F 2
 
 583 APPENDIX. No XX. 
 
 ployed for that purpose, shall be adopted most certainly, and without 
 loss of time ! 
 
 " P. S. The friend, whom General Stuart intends to be the bearer of 
 the future message to Lord Macartney, above alluded to, happens to be 
 now at Bath, otherwise, even this present communication would have 
 been conveyed to his Lordship in that channel." 
 
 Note. — The secrecy requested by Major-general Sttiart, in the above note, 
 was strictly observed by Lord Macartney, who heard no more from the General, 
 till late on Saturday 7iight, the 2yth of May last, when, on his return from 
 the Opera, be found at his own house the following note from Colonel Gordon. 
 
 D 
 
 " Received May 27, 1786, at night, 
 on return from the Opera. 
 
 " Colonel Gordon presents his compliments to Lord Macartney, and 
 wishes to see him when convenient. 
 
 « Saturday, quarter past nine o'clock, P. M. 
 No. 20, Chaiing Cross, Corner of Craig's Court." 
 
 Note of Transaction -with Colonel A-N DREW Gordon, May 2S, 1786.- 
 
 " Sunday, May 28, 17S6. 
 THE next day, Sunday, May 28, Lord Macartney waited on Colo-- 
 nel Andrew Gordon at twelve o'clock, and received from him a packet 
 from General Stuart, inclosing his letter, dated yesterday, and a paper, 
 called State of Facts. 
 
 The Colonel also shewed me a note, in General Stuart's hand- 
 writing, relative to the mode of meeting, which the Colonel said he would 
 send me a copy of. .
 
 APPENDIX. No. XX. 589 
 
 I told him I should certainly meet the General with great alacrity ; 
 but wished to settle my affairs first, as I was just come to town, and ex- 
 pected a friend from Oxford, who was lately returned from Ireland with 
 some papers of mine for the arrangement of a mortgage on my estate, 
 which he was charged to settle the payment of. I therefore thought it 
 would be ten or twelve days before I could be ready, and that he should 
 hear from me in the latter end of next week. 
 
 At a quarter before four, received from Colonel Gordon, inclosed in a 
 cover. No. 1. and 2." 
 
 F— No. I. 
 
 Note from Alajor-gcncral James Stvakt, dated May zj, 1786, received 
 from Colonel Andrew Gordon, May 28, 1786, inclosing State of 
 Facts. 
 
 " To Lord Macartney, 
 *' I have used every possible effort since your arrival in England, to 
 obtain an examination of my military conduct while in India, by the most 
 competent judges, and in the most public manner, in order that the 
 false representation of it, which had originated with your Lordship, 
 might be detected and exposed to public view, but I have met with very 
 unexpected delays. 
 
 *' My original intention was, that such public enquiry should precede 
 every personal or private consideration of my own ; but having remained 
 so long in a state of uncertainty, and without any notification of an inten- 
 tion to grant the trial or enquiry, so earnestly and repeatedly solicited on 
 my part, I cannot, under these circumstances, think of delaying any 
 longer the duty I owe to myself. ' 
 
 " I therefore now demand that satisfaction, which, as a gentleman, 
 I have a right to insist upon, in consequence of complicated injuries sus--
 
 590 APPENDIX. No. XX. 
 
 tained, proceeding either directly from you, or occasioned by the various 
 misrepresentations and falsehoods on your part respecting me and my con- 
 duct ; falsehoods the more unjustifiable, because, in many instances, 
 they were contrary to evidence consistent with your own knowledge at 
 the time. 
 
 " It is needless for me to bring to your recollection all the instances 
 which authorize me to express myself in these terms ; it may be suffi- 
 cient, at present, to select one very remarkable instance, the particulars 
 of which I have thought proper to insert in a State of Facts, annexed to 
 this letter. 
 
 " From thence it will appear, that the representation you gave of me, 
 and of my conduct, in your letter to the India directors of 30th Sep- 
 t-ember 1783, wherein you took occasion also to add insult to injury, 
 has been in the most convincing manner, and by evidence upon oath, 
 taken at the trial of Sir John Burgoyne, proved to be totally false, 
 and that you knew it to be so, at the time you wrote that letter. 
 
 " From the annexed state, it appears likewise that the story you had 
 thus invented, and in which, without the knowledge of Sir John Bur- 
 goyne, you had made use of his name, as deriving your authority from 
 him, has been positively contradicted by that respectable officer himself, 
 notwithstanding the compliments which in your letter to the directors, 
 you affected to pay to him at my expense, and which he has honorably 
 disdained to accept, knowing the injustice of the representation given of 
 me in that letter. 
 
 " I have now only to repeat my demand for immediate satisfaction, 
 
 " And am, S:c. 
 
 (Signed) " JAMES STUART." 
 
 " Lower Grosvcnor- Street, 
 - Saturday Evening, May 27, 178C,
 
 APPENDIX. No. XX. 59, 
 
 " P. S. The gentleman who has done me the honor to be the bearer 
 of this letter knows my mind ; he has full power to settle what remains to 
 be done, either with you or with your friend. 
 
 (Signed) « JAMES STUART." 
 
 G-No. 2. 
 
 STATE OF FACTS. 
 
 Extract cf a Letter from Lord Macartney, cffr. to the Court of 
 Directors, dated September 30, 1783. 
 
 "Paragraph 117. From General Stuart, he (Sir John Burgoyne) 
 came to the President. He acknowledged he ivas desired to feign compli- 
 ance tvitb the wishes of Government, and to promise accepting the command ; 
 but he disdained to follow so reprobate a precedent. He honestly gave no- 
 tice to the Committee, that Major-general Stuart Mas about issuing or- 
 ders to be distributed that very night to the King's troops, and he avowed 
 himself ready to obey them. 
 
 " Paragraph 118. The illegal assumption of authority in itself justi- 
 fies the supposition of illegal designs, and in the present instance they 
 could be no other. 
 
 " Paragraph 119. General Stuart had not, since his return from 
 Cuddalore, been in the inmiediate command of the army. Sir John Bur- 
 goyne had, under him, that command. Major-general Stuart could 
 have at that time no orders to issue in the common course of carrying 
 on the service ; it must have been orders with a view to extraordinary 
 purposes, fitted to the wild and desperate nature of his pretensions, 
 and to the situation of his mind.
 
 592 ATP END IX. No. XX. 
 
 " Paragraph 120. He had left the Forr, and had with him the con- 
 fidential person, whom on particular occasions he preferred to the Adju- 
 tant-general, for distributing his orders. The King's troops were little 
 distant, and through General Burgoyne were ready to obey him. 
 
 (Signed) « MACARTNEY. 
 
 " ANTHONY SADLTER. 
 
 " ALEXANDER DAVIDSON. 
 (Signed) " James Stuart." 
 
 " In the Court-martial, which was assembled at Madras in the months 
 of June and July 1785, for the trial of Sir John Burgoyne, one of the 
 witnesses produced by the prisoner was Richard Johnson Esq. * who was 
 called upon by Sir John Burgoyne, expressly for the purpose of ascer- 
 taining the conversations which had passed between Lord Macartney and 
 Sir John at the meeting of the Select Committee alluded to in the said 
 paragraph 1 1 7, and for disproving the remarkable assertion contained in 
 the first part of that paragraph. 
 
 " The account given by Mr. Johnston, upon oath, in answer to Sir 
 John Burgoyne's questions, was as follows : 
 
 " ^estioii by Sir John Burgoyne. — Was you with me when I attended 
 the Select Committee in the afternoon of the 17th of September 1783 ? 
 *' Answer, I was. 
 
 *' J^/. Did I tell you I took you with me on purpose to be 
 present at any conversation that might pass between me and the 
 Governor ? 
 
 " Ans. You did, and on some difficulty being made to my going 
 into the room, you said the same thing, or words to that effect, to the 
 Governor. 
 
 * The gentleman here mentioned is son to Lieutenant-general Johnston, Colonel of the 
 second dragoons. 
 
 6
 
 APPENDIX. No. XX. 593 
 
 *' ^i. Did you minutely attend to what passed between his Lordship 
 the Governor and myself ? 
 
 " Ans. I did, and took down notes. 
 
 " ^. Did you hear me during the time I was in the Committee room, 
 or with Lord Macartney, tell his Lordship, or any of the members, that 
 GeJieral Stiiari had desired me to feign compliance with accepting the 
 command? 
 
 " Ans. I never heard you make use of words of that import to any per- 
 son whatever. 
 
 Same day, 4ih July 1785, Alexander Davidson, Esq. present Presi- 
 dent and Governor at Madras, sworn. 
 
 " S^estion by Sir John Burgoyne. — Did you ever hear me tell Lord 
 Macartney, that General Stuart had desired me to feign compliance with 
 accepting the command, but that I scorned such an act ? 
 
 *' Anszver, I do not recollect. 
 
 " .%. Did Lord Macartney ever tell you so ? 
 ** Ans. I do not recollect. 
 
 " ^. Have you not signed a letter to the Court of Directors, in 
 which you say the Right Honorable President had informed you I 
 did so ? 
 
 " Ans. I do not recollect. 
 
 «' ^(. Did you sign the letter to the Court of Directors of the 30th 
 September 1783 ? 
 
 " Ans. I beg to refer you to the records now before the court. 
 
 " In addition to the evidence which arises from the result of these ex- 
 aminations of Mr. Johnston and Mr. Davidson, it must be sufficiently 
 VOL. t. 40
 
 594 APPENDIX. No. XX, 
 
 clear, from the questions put by Sir John Burgoyne, and from his being 
 the person who called upon these witnesses, that he. Sir John Burgoyne, 
 was convinced of the falsehood of the intelligence which, in the letter 
 of the 30th September 1783, had been sent to the East India Directors, 
 in that essential part of it which had represented General Stuart as de- 
 siring him, Sir John Burgoyne, to feign compliance with the wishes of 
 Government, &c. And it must he evident, that Sir John Burgoyne, by 
 these examinations of Mr. Johnston and Mr. Davidson, meant to detect 
 the falsehood of that intelligence, notwithstanding the mixture of comi- 
 pliment which it contained to him personally, at the expense of General 
 Stuart. 
 
 " But if any doubt could possibly remain as to Sir John Burgoyne's 
 positive contradiction of the intelligence which Lord Macartney pretended 
 to have received from him, there is a letter of Sir John Burgoyne's hand 
 writing, signed by him on the 18th June 1785, and addressed by him to 
 a person at Madras, which letter is now in General Stuart's possession, 
 and contains the following paragraph : 
 
 " / have to assure you that I never told Lord Macartney General Stuart 
 " had desired me to feign compliance with the wishes of Government, and to 
 " promise accepting the command'' 
 
 " Mr. Johnston, who was with, m.e purposely, can inform you of all 
 " that past ; no other conversation ever took place on the subject with 
 " General Stuart and me, but what 1 have communicated to you." 
 
 " In consequence of the reference thus made to Mr. Johnston, in Sir 
 John Burgoyne's letter, the person to whom it was addressed wrote that 
 same day, 18th June 1785, to Mr. Johnston, requesting that he would let 
 him hnow, ' if he heard Sir John Burgoyne inform Lord Macartney, or 
 * any other member of Government, or any one else then or since that
 
 APPENDIX. No. XX. 595 
 
 * period, that he, Sir John, was desired by General Stuart to feign com- 
 ' pliance with the wishes of Government, and to promise accepting the 
 
 * command, &c.' 
 
 " To which inquiries Mz-. Johnston gave the following answer by his 
 letter of i8th of June 1785, now in General Stuart's possession. 
 
 * Sir, 
 ' I have recceived your letter of this date, and have only to say, that 
 
 * Sir John Burgoyne did carry me with him on the 30th * of September, 
 ' purposely to be present at such conversation as might pass between him 
 
 * and Government ; that he desired me to be particularly attentive, which 
 
 * I was, and well recollect every circumstance. He did not inform Lord 
 
 * Macartney^ or any other 7nember of Government,, that General Stuart had 
 
 * desired him to feign a compliance ivith the wishes of Government, and to 
 
 * promise accepting the command ; nor did he, during the time 1 lived in his 
 
 * family, ever make use of words to that effect ; and I do declare, the 
 
 * communication of this idea, given me by you, is the first I ever heard 
 
 * of it. 
 
 ' I have the honor to be. Sir, 
 
 * Your obedient humble servant, 
 (Signed) * RICHARD JOHNSTON.' 
 
 " In addition to all the preceding proofs, there are two affidavits by 
 
 Captain Close and Captain Smart, both Aids-du-Camp to General Stuart, 
 
 .who, upon the 13th of October 1785, appeared before the Mayor of 
 
 Madras, and there declared upon oath, ' that they were present at the 
 
 * whole of the conversation that passed between Major-general Stuart and 
 ' Major-general Sir John Burgoyne on the 17th of September 1783, and 
 
 • The date is an evident mistake in the original, (Signed) J. S. 
 
 4 G 2
 
 596 APPENDIX. No. XX. 
 
 ' that they never heard the said Major-general Stuart, directly or indirectly, 
 
 ' desire or suggest to the said Major-general Sir yobn Burgoyne, to feign 
 
 ' compliance with the 'wishes of Government, and to promise accepting the 
 
 ' command ; nor did they hear any words mentioned between them, the said 
 
 ' Major-general James Stuart and Major-general Sir John Burgoyne, on 
 
 ' any subject tending to that purport or effect.' — These affidavits are in 
 General Stuart's possession. 
 
 " IN the said Paragraph 117, of the letter from Lord Macartney, &c. 
 to the India Directors, it is said, ' but he (Sir John Burgoyne) disdained 
 ' to folloiv so reprobate a precedent.'' This part of the paragraph is from 
 intention or accident expressed in such a manner, that it may be under- 
 stood either to be a repetition of words, used by Sir John Burgoyne in his 
 conversation with Lord Macartney ; or to convey his Lordship's ovvn 
 commentary upon General Stuart's conduct. If the first of these was in- 
 tended, the falsehood of it is proved in the most convincing manner. If 
 the second, it was a most unjustifiable expedient made use of by Lord 
 Macartney, first to assume for truth what he knew to be false, and then 
 to take occasion from that invented tale, to make a commentary upon 
 General Stuart by a paragraph, which, in a few words, conveyed as 
 much insulting and injurious abuse, as the force of language was capable 
 of affording." 
 
 " With regard to the orders which General Stuart was to issue to the 
 King's troops, on the day on which he was arrested, it is said, ' that 
 * they must have been orders with a view to extraordinary purposes, fitted 
 ', to the wild and desperate nature of his (General Stuart's) pretensions,
 
 APPENDIX. No. XX. 597 
 
 * and to the situation of his mind.' It is to be observed, that on the 30th 
 of September, when Lord Macartney, &c. were thus endeavoring to fill 
 the mind* of the Directors with apprehensions about the nature of despe- 
 rate orders, intended to have been issued by General Stuart ; Lord Macart- 
 ney himself must have known precisely the nature of these orders ; for 
 it appears from Sir John Burgoyne's defence upon his trial, that the very 
 orders, thus alluded to, were sent to Sir John Burgoyne by General Stuart, 
 on the evening of 17th September, when he was arrested, and that he 
 (Sir John Burgoyne) next day issued these precise orders, as the orders of 
 General Stuart to the King's troops. 
 
 " Orders thus publicly issued to his Majesty's troops at the Presidency, 
 copies whereof are in the orderly books of every Company in the King's 
 service there, could not fail to be universally known at Madras ; and 
 Lord Macartney must have hr.d a copy of them : therefore, instead oF 
 mysteriously reasoning upon the nature of orders pretended to be un- 
 known, it v^ould have been more fair and candid to have stated the pre- 
 cise fact ; and to have transmitted to the Directors a copy of thssc orders, 
 that they might have been judged of from tlieir contents, and not from 
 Lord Macartney's commentary. 
 
 " The tendency of these orders was to acquaint the troops in his 
 Majesty's service, that the Select Committee had that day thought fit to 
 dismiss him (General Stuart) from the service of .the East India Com- 
 pany ; but to declare, that he reckoned himself bound by the duty he 
 owed to his Majesty, and to the troops, never to relinquish the command 
 of his Majesty's troops to any authority inferior to that of his Majesty, 
 from whose authority he derived that command. i\nd the orders con- 
 cluded with declaring, that ' he hoped and trusted, that his example 
 ' would be followed in every thing for forwarding the public service, at 
 ' a crisis when unanimity in public exertion had become so essential tp 
 ' the national interest, and to the real good of the Lion. East India 
 ' Company.'
 
 598 APPENDIX. No. XX. 
 
 " When Sir John Burgoyne, in the course of his trial, was put upon 
 his defence, he insisted that these orders of General Stuart's, of the i yth 
 September, should be publicly read to the judges upon the Court- 
 martial, who would then judge whether he acted with propriety in telling 
 the Right Hon. President (Lord Macartney), that he would obey them ; 
 and Sir John Burgoyne, in his defence, added, that he wished General 
 Stuart's orders to have their proper effect in the minds of the officers and 
 soldiers. 
 
 " The acquittal of Sir John Burgoyne by the Court-martial, shews 
 what was their sense of his conduct' upon this and other occasions. 
 
 TliE Paragraph 120, of the letter to the Directors (30th September 
 1783) says, ' that General Stuart had left the Fort ; and had with him the 
 
 * confidential person whom, on particular occasions, he preferred to the 
 
 * Adjutant-general, for distributing his orders, Sec' This is stated as a 
 ■circumstance for persuading the Directors, that General Stuart was at that 
 time meditating some very extraordinary purpose. The Adjutant-general 
 alluded to by Lord Macartney is Lieutenant-colonel Malcolm, who was 
 Adjutant-general to the Company's troops only ; but the person employed by 
 General Stuart upon this and other occasions, in his separate orders to the 
 King's troops, was Major (now Lieutenant-colonel) Grattan, the Adju- 
 tant-general to his Majesty's troops in the East Indies, who had been em- 
 ployed in that capacity by Sir Eyre Coote, and of course by General 
 Stuart. The very orders, issued by General Stuart, on the 17th of 
 September 1783, were signed by Major Grattan, describing himself thus 
 
 * Adjutant-general to his Majesty's forces in India.' These particulars 
 must have been known to Lord Macartney at the time when he signed the 
 letter to the Directors of 30th September 1783. 
 
 *' I have signed every page of this State of Facts. 
 
 (Signed) « JAMES STUART." 
 
 ** Lower Grosvenor-Strcet, May 27, 1786.
 
 APPENDIX. No. XX. 599^ 
 
 Received from Colonel Andrew Gordon, inclosing No. i. and 2. at four 
 o'clock P. M. on the 2Sih May 1786. — No. 1. 
 
 " The conversation which passed this day having been communicated 
 to G. S. he replied, and put in writing, now in my possession as follows : I 
 have read what is stated as a conversation between L. M. and C. G. and 
 have no objections to L. M's precautions, and shall in other respects 
 leave my concerns to C. G. the delay if necessary to L. M. is agreeable 
 to me. 
 
 (Signed) " J. S." 
 
 " May28tb, t»vo o'clock P. M. 
 
 Message. — ^No. 2. 
 
 " The place of rendezvous proposed by G. 5., if equally agreeable to 
 L. M., is at twenty minutes drive from the outside of Tyburn turnpike;, 
 at which place, he and his friend, who is the bearer of this message, will, 
 be to-morrow morning at half past five in a carriage which will lead. to> 
 the rendezvous. 
 
 " The arms, for the occasion, carried by G. S. will be two brace of 
 pistols, common size, ready loaded with single ball, and they will be 
 wrapped up in a cloak or great coat. 
 
 " It Is much wished, that L. M. may provide himself equally well, and 
 with the same precautions ; but In case he has not the means ready, then^ 
 G. S. will give him a due proportion of his arms. 
 
 " G. S. and his friend, will not move from the station outside of the 
 
 Tyburn turnpike until the carriage with L. M. and his friend does come 
 
 there, which he hopes will suit with L. M's convenience to be at the 
 
 hour above-named. 
 
 (Signed) '*J.-S." 
 
 « May 28, 1786.
 
 6oo APPENDIX. No. XX. 
 
 II 
 
 Note for Colonel ^^ndrew Gordon, in consequence of the Letter inclosing 
 
 State of Facts, from Major-general Stuart, dated May 27, 1786, 
 
 and delivered by Colonel G0R.D0N to Lord Macartney on the 2%tb 
 
 May 1786. 
 
 " Charles-Street, June 6, 1786. 
 
 " IF any gentleman, feeling himself hurt by such a representation as, in 
 a public capacity, I thought it my duty to make of him, requested in 
 decent terms an explanation of the same from me, I should be very much 
 disposed to give it to him ; but when Major-general Stuart thought fit in 
 January last (the very day after my arrival in London from Lidia) to send 
 a letter with inclosures to me, censuring, in unqualified expressions, my 
 public conduct in relation to him, and contradicting my assertions, I held 
 it sufficient to observe, that those persons to whom I was accountable for 
 my public conduct, if any such there were, who entertained a doubt of 
 it, would ever find me ready to explain it to their satisfaction ; but that 
 I was long resigned to the consequences of having fulfilled the duties of 
 my station, and to be exposed to the contradiction and opposition of those 
 individuals, of whose misconduct in my official capacity I had been 
 obliged to take notice, concluding by saying, that if Major-general 
 Stuart had any drift not 'directly expressed, (which it was sufficiently ob- 
 vious he had), I desired he might make it known through any gentleman 
 he might chuse to appoint, as I should take no notice of communications 
 in any other manner from him. The General, by a second paper sent to 
 mc in the same month of January, seemed perfectly satisfied at my con- 
 ceiving at once the object to which he aimed, and which being once de- 
 cided upon, all further discussion of the subject which led to it is out of 
 time, and a renewal of accusation and abuse loses its edge, as not being 
 able to provoke to more than was already determined to be done. On 
 every account therefore. Major-general Stuart has no light to expect that I 
 should take notice of his fate letter or inclosure, otherwise than by settling
 
 APPENDIX. No. XX. 6oi 
 
 with his friend as I have done the point of ultimate satisfaction, which the 
 General has had in view. I wish, however, that his friend should know 
 that I have no difficulty in repelling the accusations contained in the 
 papers, communicated to him by Major-general Stuart ; for I was autho- 
 rized to declare, that Major-general Sir John Burgoyne did acknowledge 
 that he was desired to feign cojiipliance with the zuishes of Government, and 
 to promise accepting the command^ hut he disdained to follow so reprobate a 
 precedent ; because the fact certainly is, that General Sir John Burgoyne 
 did relate such desire or advice to me on the 17th of September 1783, 
 and as I know no motive that could induce him to make such assertion 
 without ground, I beheved him, and therefore used the expression of his 
 having aclcnowledged such advice. What was the cause or motive of his 
 subsequent denial of this assertion, whether he forgot that he had made it, 
 among others in the course of a long and desultory conversation, when 
 his mind was considerably agitated, or whether, from the shame of having 
 betrayed what was, no doubt, meant to be a very private and confidential 
 request, or advice, he chose to screen himself under a denial of the same 
 precise words, notwithstanding a consciousness of having conveyed the 
 same precise idea, I am not interested to enquire ; or whether his brother- 
 in-law, Mr. Johnston, did really hear every word spoken by Sir John 
 Burgoyne, in the different parts of the Fort-house, sometimes in my 
 apartments, sometimes in the Council-chamber, and sometimes in the 
 viranda or gallery before the Fort-house, during the conferences which 
 lasted altogether in those different places during several hours, on the 17th 
 of September 1783, without all which, such negative testimony is de- 
 serving of no attention ; but it is a positive truth and fact, that I did hear 
 Major-general Burgoyne make that declaration, and 1 find that it is also 
 in the clear perfect recollection of the only person now in England, who 
 was present at those conferences. Sir George Staunton, and who drew up 
 an account of them at that time. By the extract froni the Court-martial, 
 contained in Major-general Stuart's paper, it does not appear that Mr. 
 Davidson had his recollection present when examined on that occasion. 
 He could not indeed hear the whole of what passed at these conferences, 
 VOL. I. 4 H
 
 6o2 APPENDIX. No. XX. 
 
 with Major-general Sir John Burgoyne, on the 17th September 17S3, 
 as he was there only during a part of them, for I did not summon in the 
 afternoon of that day the Select Committee of the Council, of which 
 he v/as a member, until after I had some considerable conversation with 
 General Burgoyne. Il is not probable that any one person heard the 
 whole of what was said during that day j but it is probable that Mr. 
 rludleston, then Secretary to the Select Committee, and who was pre- 
 sent from the beginning, heard Major-general Sir John Burgoyne men- 
 tion the advice he had thus received, but as I was refused a sjight of 
 the proceedings of the Court-martial when in India, notwithstanding 
 my solicitations for that purpose, it is not surprising that I should be 
 ignorant, whether that gentleman's evidence was taken, or whether he 
 was examined to this point. This fact is related in the Select Committee's 
 letter historically, and not as any ground on which our determinations 
 rested, or were to be justified, and therefore would have been an in- 
 vention, neither likely to occur, nor useful to be made, nor necessary to 
 our purpose. 
 
 " The fact of Major-general Stuart's issuing orders to the troops after 
 he was dismissed from the Company's service, as asserted by me, to have 
 been asserted by Major-general Sir John Burgoyne, is indeed a f^ict much 
 more essential in this business, and does not appear to have been denied. 
 As to my reasoning upon that fact, it must bear itself out, and it has done 
 so. My fundamental and decisive position was, that after Major-general 
 Stuart had been dismissed from the Company's service, it was an illegal 
 act in him to issue any orders to any troops in India. And that position 
 Is founded on the most deliberate and scrupulous examination there to be 
 unquestionably right. My letter, on the 30th September 1783, accounted 
 for the measure among others of ordering Major-general Stuart to be 
 arrested on the afternoon of the 17th September 1783. The propriety of 
 that measure was to depend on the facts, I knew, or had a right to assume 
 at that precise time. I knew. that Major-general Stuart had then no right 
 to issue any orders. I knew he was actually issuing orders, and if my 
 
 5
 
 APPENDIX. No. XX. 6(i-} 
 
 reasoning be just, as it is found to be, I had a right to assume that the 
 purport of the orders was as illegal as the authority to issue them. No fact 
 that could come only to my knowledge afterwards, could have been brought 
 by me in justification of that measure, and I am sufficiently justified, if 
 the facts then within my knowledge authorized the measure, even if other.? 
 had come afterwards to light, which, if then known, ought to have prevented 
 it. My letter thereon of the 3olh September 1783, properly and clearly 
 alluded to and reported my reasoning on the afternoon of the 17th day 
 of the same month, previous and leading to the determination of arresting 
 Mnjor-general Stuart ; nor did any fact come in that interval or since 
 to light, capable of overturning or weakening the inferences I then drew ; 
 for I know no fact that has appeared to prove that the orders which 
 Major-general Stuart was preparing to issue to the troops when he was at 
 liberty, and without expecting to be arrested before he could issue them, 
 were the identical orders, which, after he had been arrested, he thought, 
 in his new position, proper to send to Major-general Sir John Burgoyne 
 to issue to the troops ; and if, as is likely, for it could not be avoided 
 without inconsistency, those orders took notice of the new event that 
 took place with regard to him, these orders must of course differ from 
 those which were preparing before such event took place. Another event 
 did happen after the arrest, which has added great probability to the in- 
 ferences which had been drawn by me before it. Major-general • Stuart 
 was allowed, upon being arrested, to gather up the papers on which he 
 was busy at his table with Major John Grattan, his Secretary, and Aid- 
 du-Camp, and which papers probably were, or were in part, those orders 
 so intended to be issued. Major-general Stuart took those papers with 
 him into his palankeen, which conveyed him from the place of his 
 arrest towards the Fort, and in his way thither he was observed to tear 
 several papers. It is not unwarrantable to conjecture, that -Major-general 
 Stuart would not, on so critical an occasion, gather papers, about which 
 he appeared to be anxious, for the purpose of tearing them as useless, and 
 therefore that he was anxious about them, and in a hurry to destroy them, 
 as being papers of an illegal purport, which would it seems confirm the 
 
 4 H 2
 
 6o4 APPENDIX. No. XX. 
 
 suspicions of his illegal designs. I was as justifiable in denying the legality 
 of Major John Grattan's appointment in India by Sir Eyre Cooie to be Adju- 
 tant-general of the King's forces, as I have been in denying the legality of 
 Major-general Stuart's issuing orders to the troops, after his dismission 
 from the Company's service. His Majesty, by the Secretary at War's 
 letter, has declared that the appointment could only be made by the King 
 himself, and consequently Sir Eyre Coote had no authority to appoint 
 Major Grattan. Major Grattan was not therefore, in September 1783, 
 Adjutant-general of the King's troops, nor, as I did not then allow any 
 such pretension on his part, could I officially describe him otherwise than 
 as I justly described him, the confidential person whom, on particular 
 occasions, he (Major-general Stuart) preferred to the Adjutant-general 
 (Lieutenant-colonel Malcolm) for distributing his orders. 
 
 An Account of the Duel. 
 
 " London, June S, 17S6. 
 
 " This morning a duel was fought near Kensington between Lord Macart- 
 ney and Major General Stuart, of which the following is an authentic 
 account, as transmitted to us by the seconds. Colonel Fullarton and Colonel 
 Gordon, the former accompanying Lord Macartney and the latter General 
 Stuart ; the place and time of meeting having been previously fixed, the 
 parties arrived about half past four o'clock in the morning, and took their 
 ground at the distance of twelve short paces, measured oft" by the seconds, 
 who delivered to each one pistol, keeping possession of the remaining arms. 
 General Stuart told Lord Macartney he doubted, as his Lordship was 
 short sighted, he would not be able to see him ; his Lordship replied, " he 
 did perfectly well." When the seconds had retired a little on one side, and 
 as the parties were about to level, General Stuart observed to Lord Ma- 
 cartney, that his pistol was not cocked ; his Lordship thanked him and 
 cocked ; when they had levelled General Stuart said he was ready ; his 
 Lordship answered he was likewise ready, and they both fired within a 
 few instants of each other ; the seconds observing Lord Macartney 
 4
 
 APPENDIX. No. XX. 605 
 
 wounded, stepped up to him and declared the matter must rest here : Ge- 
 neral Stuart said " this is no satisfaction," and asked if his Lordship was not 
 able to fire another pistol ; his Lordship replied, " he would try with plea- 
 sure," and urged Colonel Fullarton to permit him to proceed ; the seconds 
 however declared it was impossible, and they would on no account allow 
 it : General Stuart said " then I must defer it till another occasion :" on 
 which his Lordship answered " if that is the case we had better proceed 
 now, I am here in consequence of a message from General Stuart, who 
 called upon mc to give him satisfaction in my private capacity, for of- 
 fence taken at my public conduct, and to evince that personal safety is 
 no consideration with me, I have nothing personal, the General will 
 proceed as he thinks fit." General Stuart said it was his Lordship's per- 
 sonal conduct to him, that he resented ; the seconds then put a stop to 
 all further conversation between the parties, neither of whom had quitted 
 their ground : General Stuart in consequence of his situation, hav- 
 ing been under the necessity, from the first, of putting his back to a 
 tree. 
 
 *' The surgeons, Mr. Hunter and Mr. Home, who were attendmg at 
 a little distance, were brought up by Colonel Fullarton. Colonel Gordon,, 
 in the mean time, assisted his Lordship in taking off his coat, and re- 
 quested him to sit down, apprehending he might be faint, through loss 
 of blood. Colonel Gordon then left the ground in company with Ge- 
 neral Stuart, and an easy carriage was provided to convey his Lordship 
 home. 
 
 " The seconds cannot help expressing, that no two persons ever met 
 
 on a similar occasion, who showed more firmness and composure ; and 
 
 they are happy to add, that the ball is extracted, which was lodged in 
 
 Lord Macartney's right shoulder, and that there is every reason to hope 
 
 for his recovery. 
 
 (Signed) " W. FULLARTON. 
 
 « A. GORDON."
 
 l5o6 APPENDIX No. XX. 
 
 Letter from Captain Cole, Slane Castle, to Lord Macartney, Aug. i']^S. 
 
 [Received in London, Oct. 17S6.] 
 
 " My Lord, 
 " I think it is most probable your Lordship has no recollection of 
 me. Among the number of officers that did business with you in the East 
 Indies I was one, as pay master and Captain in the loist Regiment, 
 and was a silent spectator of much uneasiness you must have suffered 
 from a great deal of vexatious opposition. I confess I was much sur- 
 prised, on reading last week the correspondence between you and Ge- 
 neral Stuart, to find that Sir John Burgoyne should have denied saying 
 that General Stuart wished him to feign taking the command. The cause 
 of my troubling you at present is my having a perfect recollection of Sir 
 John's saying so at Mr, Balfours, where I dined the day he refused the 
 command, and adding, it was what he could not think of doing. Your 
 Lordship may make what use you chuse of my assertion, and if neces- 
 sary, shall have my oath of it ; for it will make me happy, at all times, to 
 do justice to a character that I am sure every honest man must approve 
 of; and to assist in support of your Lordship's veracity in this case, 
 where it may be so difficult to procure people who ic-ish to recollect the 
 circumstance. 
 
 *' I am your Lordship's most obedient servant, 
 
 " H. S. G. COLE." 
 
 ♦' Castle of Slane, near Drogheda, Ireland." 
 
 Lord Macartney'j Letter to Captain Cole, London, 26th Oetober 1786. 
 
 *' Dear Sir, " London, October 26, 1786. 
 
 •' THE letter you were so good as to write to me from Slane Castle, 
 ■and which appears from the post mark to be of so old a date as the 31st 
 of August, did not come to my hands till after my return to London a few
 
 APPENDIX. No. XX. 607 
 
 days ago, or you would have much sooner received my acknowledgment 
 of it, as well as my best thanks for the satisfaction it has given me. 
 Though I perfectly remember the pleasure of seeing you at Madras, and 
 could expect every thing honorable from your character, yet as I did not 
 know that Sir John Burgoyne had repeated in your presence, what he had 
 asserted in mine, though he afterwards thought it necessary to deny it, 
 it could not occur to me to apply to you for a corroboration of the fact 
 from so respectable a testimony. A declaration therefore made on your 
 part, from a love of justice, cannot but be particularly gratifying and use- 
 ful to me ; it is so much so, that I readily avail myself of your handsome 
 offer, to make your declaration upon oath, which I request you will 
 render as circumstantial as your memory will enable you. It is indeed 
 the more unaccountable that any motive should have induced Sir John 
 Burgoyne to retract this assertion, repeated by him verbally, as I have un- 
 doubted information of his having related the same fact by letter, to one 
 or more persons in England ; but in a matter where such artful pains 
 have been taken to throw a doubt on my veracity, you will easily con- 
 ceive how anxious I am to be possessed of indubitable proofs in its 
 favor, and shall therefore be impatient to have your deposition, as sooa 
 as you can forward it to him who is with great esteem, 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " Your most obedient, 
 
 " and most faithful servant. 
 (Signed) « MACARTNEY." 
 
 '• Henry St. George Cole, Esq. 
 at Slane Castle, near Drogheda, Ireland."
 
 6o8 APPENDIX. No. XX. 
 
 County of Meath, ' 
 to Wit. 
 
 The Affidavit cf Henry St. Gborge Cole, Esq. 
 taken before me this Qtb day of March 1787, one 
 of his Majestfs "Justices of the Peace for said 
 County of Meath. 
 
 " Henrv St. George Cole, Esq. late Captain in his Majesty's 10 1st 
 Regiment of foot, came this day before me, and made voluntary oath on 
 the holy evangelists, that he was at Madras in September 1783, when 
 General Stuart was made prisoner, and the command of the army offered 
 (as this deponent understood) to General Sir John Burgoyne, that among 
 other matters, this deponent recollects Sir John Burgoyne's relating that 
 General Stuart had proposed it to him to feign accepting the command 
 of the army, which he, said Sir John Burgoyne, said he declined, not 
 thinking it consistent with the character he was to support ; that this de- 
 ponent having accidently met a pamphlet published by directions of Ge- 
 neral Stuart, as he supposes, in which the above circumstance is denied, 
 and Lord Macartney charged vvith making such assertion without found- 
 ation, that thereupon this deponent thought himself bound in honor, 
 truth, and justice, to communicate to Lord Macartney what he had heard 
 General Sir John Burgoyne relate upon the occasion, as is above men- 
 tioned, and to offer to corroborate the same upon oath, which he hath 
 
 hereby done accordingly. 
 
 " H. S. G. COLE, 
 " late Captain, 10 1st Regiment. 
 
 " Sworn before me this 9th March 1787. 
 " Braby Morris." 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 Sirahin and Prefton, 
 Kcw-Slicut S>)ua c, London.
 
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