fort, at Sâmlee, by the troops of Holkar. These fled at the appearance of the English, by whom they were rapidly pursued.

soon

A few days after, Gen. Fraser left Delhi with the infantry and artillery, in pursuit of those of Holkar, which had not crossed the Jumna. He found them (Nov. 12) encamped, with their right covered by a fortified village, and their left by the fortress of Deeg. Early next morning, the British troops, led by Gen. Fraser in person, having made a detour to avoid a morass which lay before it, attacked and carried the village, and then charging down the hill, the first range of the enemy's guns. The firing from the second range, as they advanced, was tremendous, and their gallant leader lost a leg by a cannon-shot. The command now devolved on Col. Monson, and the second range was carried. The troops advanced, carrying battery after battery, for a space of two miles, till they came under the guns of the fort. They then returned and attacked a body of the enemy's troops, which some battalions had been left to keep in check, and drove them into the morass, where many of them perished. It was the opinion of Gen. Lake that this was the hardest-fought action that occurred during the war. It was a contest less with men than with guns. Eighty-seven guns were captured. The loss of the English in killed and wounded was upwards of 600 men, among whom their leader was included, whose wound had proved mortal.

Meanwhile Gen. Lake was pursuing Holkar so closely, as not to allow him a moment's time for plundering the country. Each day lessened the distance between them, and at length, (16th) the British having marched 58 miles in the last twentyfour hours, fell suddenly by night on Holkar's camp, near Furrukabâd. The surprise was complete; the men were mostly sleeping, and the horses at picket, when a discharge of grape from the horse-artillery announced their arrival. Holkar, who would not at first believe that they could possibly be so near, mounted and fled with precipitation. His loss was about 3000 men slain, but the number of desertions which followed, reduced his cavalry-force to one half. He fled across the Jumna, still pursued by Gen. Lake. Holkar joined the remains of his infantry at Deeg, and the British general that of Col. Monson at Muttra (28th), after having, in the course of a month, marched about 500 miles after the flying foe.

He

It was

The rajah of Bhurtpore, to whom Deeg belonged, had been one of the first of the tributaries of the Marattas to join the British in the late war. had sent his troops to their aid, and he had been taken into a defensive alliance. But it had been discovered that he was in secret communication with Holkar; he had supplied his army at Deeg with provisions and protected its baggage, and his troops had openly taken part in the battle. therefore resolved to chastise him, and as soon as a battering-train had arrived from Agra (Dec. 13), Gen. Lake laid siege to Deeg. This town was surrounded by a strong mud-wall, with a deep ditch. The citadel, strongly built and fortified, stood in its centre. When a breach had been effected (23rd), a storming party marched to it in three divisions, at midnight. They speedily made themselves masters of the town, and the next night the garrison evacuated the citadel. A large quantity of

guns, stores, and ammunition, became the prize of the captors. The year 1804 closed with this

event.

During the time of Monson's retreat, Col. Murray had advanced into Holkar's dominions, and taken Indore, his capital (Aug. 24). He thence moved northwards, reducing various forts, till he reached the Mokundra pass (Nov. 30), whence he advanced to Shahabâd, forty miles west of Nauvor | (Dec. 25).

In the Deckan Gen. Wellesley, his presence being required in Bengal, had left the chief command with Col. Wallace, and this officer, during the month of October, by reducing the forts of Chandore and Galna, deprived Holkar of all his territory south of the Taptee.

On the 1st January, 1805, Gen. Lake being joined by the 75th regiment moved from Muttra, to which he had returned from Deeg, and on the third day he came before the rajah's capital, Bhurtpore. Having driven in Holkar's battalions, which were lying under its walls, he erected batteries against the town, and when a breach was reported practicable (9th), he gave orders for the assault to be made in the evening. But various causes of delay occurred, and when the storming party came to the ditch, they found the water breast-high. Most of the men stopped here, and those that went over were driven back with great loss. Among the slain was the commander, Col. Maitland. A breach having been effected to the right of the former one, a second storm was attempted (21st); but the ditch, which had been reported to be narrow, and not very deep, was found to have been made to form a sheet of water in front of the breach. A portable bridge which had been brought, proving too short, it was attempted to lengthen it by a scaling-ladder; but both fell into the water, and could not be disengaged. An officer and some of the men then swam over, and ascended the breach, but were forced to retire with speed. The whole of the storming party was now drawn off, having had no less than eighteen officers and 500 men killed and wounded, by the grapeshot and musketry of the garrison.

Supplies having come from Agra, and the army having been reinforced by Col. Murray's troops, now under Gen. Jones, and a breach effected in another place, it was resolved to try a third assault (Feb. 20). At break of day the garrison made à sortie, and were near carrying the trenches in which the storming party was stationed. The men thus somewhat fatigued and dispirited were then formed into three columns, of which one, led by Col. Don, was to advance to the breach, while another, under Capt. Grant, was to carry the enemy's trenches and guns outside of the town, and a third, under Col. Taylor, was to attack one of the gates. The second was quite successful, and was near getting into the town with the fugitives; the third, having lost its scaling-ladders, was forced to retire. When. Col. Don ordered his column to advance, the men of the king's 75th and 76th, which formed the head of it, refused to move. The 12th and 15th native infantry then took their place, and gallantly followed Col. Don, and the former regiment succeeded in planting its colours on the bastion; but the colonel seeing how little hope there was of success, recalled the whole party. The loss of the British, in killed and

A. D. 1805.

wounded on this fatal day, was 894 men. Next morning Gen. Lake appeared on parade, and severely reprimanded the Europeans, who had refused to obey orders. They all then offered to volunteer for another assault, which was made that day under Col. Monson. All that valour could achieve was performed; but there was in reality no breach, the fire of the garrison was murderous, and they flung down on the assailants as they clambered up the face of the bastion, large logs of wood, flaming cotton steeped in oil, and pots filled with gunpowder and other combustibles. Col. Monson at length ordered a retreat, when nearly 1000 men had been killed or wounded.

In these four assaults the British had had upwards of 3000 men killed and wounded, their guns were almost all become unserviceable, their ammunition was nearly expended, and their provisions exhausted, and the men were quite worn out with fatigue. It therefore became necessary to withdraw from before Bhurtpore, the only fortress in India that has successfully resisted the British arms. Gen. Lake assigned various causes for his want of success, such as the strength of the place, the number of its defenders, and, above all, the incapacity of his engineers. But surely the blame ought to rest with the man, who undertook the siege under such disadvantages, and who so wantonly squandered the lives of his men. The truth is, that like too many other British commanders, he relied on the valour of his men for covering his own want of skill and knowledge.

The rajah was, no doubt, elated with the success of his defence; but, on the other hand, he saw that Holkar could not hold out against the power of the British, and he resolved to endeavour to secure himself in time. His vakeels, therefore, soon appeared in the British camp (March 10), where they were favourably received, and negotiations were commenced. While they were going on, the British cavalry was employed in pursuit of Holkar's; and as the rajah appeared to be trying to gain time, the army was moved (April 8), and took up nearly its former ground, before Bhurtpore. This made him somewhat uneasy, and at length (17th) a treaty was signed, in which he agreed to pay twenty lacs of rupees for the expenses of the war, and give one of his sons as a hostage.

During the whole course of this war the conduct of Sindia had been very suspicious. He had entertained a vakeel of Holkar's in his camp; he required the British to put him in possession of Gohud and Gwalior; he demanded to be supplied with money, to enable him to march from Bûrhampûr, where he then was, to Ûjein; and he even had the audacity to expect, that in the event of his joining a British force, he should have the command of the whole. While these points were in discussion between him and Mr. Webbe, the resident, his camp was entered by his father-in-law, Shirzee Râo, the most unprincipled man even among the Marattas, and a thorough hater of the English; and he soon gained unlimited power over the feeble mind of his son-in-law.

Sindia soon after put his troops in motion, entered the territories of the Nabob of Bhopâl, and marched along the north banks of the Nerbudda for Sâgur, a city belonging to the Peishwa, in Bundelcund, on whom he pretended to have some un

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settled claims. He invested that fort; but on the remonstrance of Mr. Jenkins, who, Mr. Webbe being dead, was acting as resident, he commenced his march for Ujein. He, however, made such delays, and such positive information was obtained of his being secretly engaged in a plan for a confederacy against the English, that the resident quitted his camp, and marched to a distance of fourteen miles from it. At Sindia's earnest entreaty, however, he returned, and during his absence Sindia's whole body of Pindarries fell on his camp, and plundered it of every thing of value, killing and wounding about fifty men of his escort. Sindia expressed great sorrow, but pretended that he had no power over the Pindarries. The resident still continued to accompany his march.

Sindia at length (March 22) nearly cast off the mask, by announcing to the resident that it was his intention to march to Bhurtpore, in order to mediate between the contending parties. Lord Wellesley, when informed of this design, resolved to be prepared for war, and in case of its accruing to reduce the power of Sindia, to what he terms "the lowest scale." With this view he directed Col. Close, to whom he gave the same extensive powers as had been held by Gen. Wellesley in the Deckan, to make preparations for reducing the southern part of Sindia's dominions; and he instructed the commander-in-chief (now Lord Lake) to oppose his march to Bhurtpore, and at the same time to provide for the safety of the resident.

Sindia had advanced (29th) as far as Subdulghur on the Chumbul. Two days after he was joined by Ambajee Inglia, and some days later (Apr. 7), Ameer Khân left Bhurtpore with the avowed purpose of joining him also. On that same day, Shirzee Râo marched toward Bhurtpore with a large body of horse and Pindarries, thinking that the rajah was still at war. From Weir, a place within fifteen miles of it, he wrote to Lord Lake, to say, that he had been sent by Sindia to negotiate; in reply, he was desired not to advance on any account. He did however advance to within a short distance of that town; but on the rajah's refusal of a personal interview, he returned to Weir, where he was joined by Holkar with about 3000 or 4000 horse, and they proceeded together to the camp of Sindia, who received Holkar in a most cordial manner, and excused himself for it to the resident by his extreme desire of promoting peace. Holkar had been but a few days there, when, with Sindia's connivance, he seized and tortured Ambajee, till he made him pay him a large sum of money.

Lord Lake at length (21st) was enabled to leave Bhurtpore, and march in the direction of Sindia's camp. On the tidings of his approach, the confederates, in alarm, broke up, and marched for Sheopore, a town about half-way to Kôtah. Owing to the fatigue, the heat, and the want of water, a great number of their men perished before they reached it. Sindia, still afraid of war, kept the resident with him. From Sheopore they marched (May 10) for Kôtah, and they moved thence in the beginning of June toward Ajmeer. As Sindia still refused to let Mr. Jenkins depart, instructions were forwarded to Lord Lake to be prepared for war as soon as the season would permit.

There can be little doubt, that if military operations had been resumed, the object of Lord Wel

lesley, namely, making the English the conservators of the peace of India, would have been attained in a short time, and with little comparative expense. The restless, turbulent Holkar would have been totally crushed, and the weak, ductile Sindia have been rendered powerless for evil; while the rajah of Berâr, even if so inclined, could not have succeeded in disturbing the tranquillity of the country. But India was not destined yet to enjoy the blessings of internal repose; the extensive and enlightened views of Lord Wellesley were not comprehended at home by the public, the directors, or even by the ministry; complaints were made of his ambition, and of the costliness of his administration; he was represented as a ruthless oppressor of the native princes: his tender of resignation was therefore accepted, and his successor appointed, and in the end of July he quitted India.

The Marquis Wellesley was one of the most brilliant statesmen that have adorned the British cabinet; the man, in our opinion, most resembling the great Chatham. He was the first governor of India who saw clearly that in that country the British power must be all or nothing. His policy, as we have said, was essentially pacific; and the wars in which he engaged, expensive as they were, were wars of necessity, of which the objects were the security of the British power, and consequent on it the promotion of the happiness of the people of India". In Lord Wellesley we have further to admire the noble confidence which he placed in those to whom the execution of his plans was committed, and the kindness and courtesy with which he always treated them; his zeal for the intellectual culture of the servants of the company; the lofty disinterestedness with which he rejected all share in the treasures of Seringapatam, though proffered by the crown, and the high-toned feeling which led him, on his return, to refuse to accept of office, though pressed on him, while menaced with impeachment for his conduct in India 7. Little prolific as Ireland has been in great men, she can boast that in Edmund Burke, she gave the profound and upright statesman, who first exposed the misconduct of the British in India, and gave origin to the plans formed for its improvement; in the Marquis Wellesley, the greatest of its governorsgeneral, and the founder of the system on which our Indian empire rests; and in the Marquis of Hastings the man who completed the system of his illustrious predecessor.

6 Mill, who is very hostile to Lord Wellesley, devotes scores of pages in the case of the wars with Tippoo and the Marattas, to showing their impolicy, and injustice, and iniquity. He is, of course, easily refuted by Wilson. A witness before the House of Commons, in 1832, thus expressed himself; "All our wars cannot, perhaps, be with propriety considered wars of necessity; but most of those, by which the territories we possess have been obtained, and out of which our subsidiary alliances have grown, have been wars, I think, of necessity, and not of choice. For example, the wars with Tippoo and the Marattus." The name of this witness was James Mill.

7 A Mr. James Paull, who had been engaged in trade in Oude, and while there, was under obligations to Lord Wellesley, having purchased a seat in Parliament, exhibited articles of impeachment against him for his treatment of the Nabob of Oude. A dissolution took place, and Mr. Paull did not get into the next Parliament; but Lord Folkestone (the present Earl of Radnor) brought forward these charges in a milder form, with, however, no success.

CHAPTER VI.

Lord Cornwallis Governor-general a second time-His System-His Death-Sir George Barlow Governor-generalHis Policy-Massacre at Vellore-Lord Minto, Governorgeneral-The Sikhs-Rise of Runjeet Sing-The Afghâns -Embassies to Persia-Case of Ruddy Râo, at MadrasInsurrection in Travancore-Mutiny of Officers of Madras Army.

THE successor appointed to Lord Wellesley was a man of the most opposite character, and most opposite views of Indian policy. It was the Marquis Cornwallis, formerly Governor-general of India, and lately Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, where his conduct had gained him a name for temper and moderation. Though now far advanced in years, the public eye fixed on him as the man best qualified to restore tranquillity to India, and make it (that vain dream) a source of direct wealth to England; and his own ambition, or judgment, led him to accept the onerous office. But in truth he was a man of merely respectable talents, and of contracted views, yet obstinate in maintaining his own opinions. His system now was simply to reverse all that had been done by his great prede

cessor.

Lord Cornwallis landed at Calcutta on the 30th July. Two days after he wrote to inform the directors of his intention of proceeding to the upper provinces to prevent the renewal of war, by which, he said, nothing was to be gained. In a few days after (Aug. 9), we find him writing from his boats on the river. In this letter he says, that without a great and speedy reduction of expense, it would be impossible to renew the war with Sindia and his confederates.

It had been a part of the policy of Lord Wellesley to induce the inferior chiefs and their men, in the service of the Maratta princes, to quit it, by offering to take them into British pay. Such numbers of them had come over, that their pay amounted to a large annual sum, and their services were nearly worthless. Lord Cornwallis resolved to dismiss them, and in order to pay them their arrears, he had recourse to his old plan of retaining the bullion destined for China.

The system of subsidiary alliances, though it had in some measure originated with himself, Lord Cornwallis totally condemned. With respect to the Peishwa and the Nizâm, he hoped in time to be able to withdraw the British from the disgraceful participation, as he expresses it, in their intrigues, oppression, and chicanery. As to Sindia, his plan was "to compromise, or even to abandon the demand, which had been so repeatedly and so urgently made for the release of the British residency;" and also "to abandon our possession of Gwalior, and our connexion with Gohud." The Jyenugur tribute was also to be restored to him, and he was to be permitted to station a force in two districts, reserved to him in the Doab, as the private estates of his family. On his side, he was to renounce the jagheers and pensions granted to him in the former treaty, and to settle a pension on the rana of Gohud. As for Holkar, he was to get back unconditionally the whole of his territories. There now only remained the Rajpoot and Jât rajahs beyond the Jumna, most of whom had

A. D. 1805-6.

drawn on themselves the hatred of the Marattas, by their siding with the British. These, however, he resolved to abandon also, giving to them, in lieu of the British protection of which they had been assured, the territory to the west and south of Delhi, which had not been yet disposed of. He hoped that by union among themselves they would be able to resist the power of Sindia, and keep him from making any attempts on the British possessions; for, he adds, "his endeavours to wrest their territories from the hands of the rajahs of Macherry and Bhurtpore may be expected to lay the foundation of interminable contests, which will afford ample and permanent employment to Sindia." So, while the generous policy of the so-styled warlike Wellesley would preserve the British empire in India, by maintaining peace among the native princes, the Machiavellian policy of the pacific Cornwallis would repose it on the "interminable contests," the bloodshed and massacre, the invariable concomitants of Indian, especially Maratta, warfare.

Lord Lake wrote strongly remonstrating against this unwise and disgraceful system of policy. But ere his letter arrived, the Governor-general was no more. He breathed his last (October 5) at Ghazipore, near Benâres.

As the British ministry does not seem to have contemplated the death of a man, who sailed for India, oppressed alike with years and infirm health, and no provision had been made for that event, the supreme power now devolved provisionally on Sir George Barlow, the senior member of council. The new Governor lost no time in replying to Lord Lake's letter, which had arrived the day after Lord Cornwallis' death. Lord Lake had urged strongly the ill-policy of withdrawing protection from the native princes on the frontier, and shown that the consequence of their contests would be, that a considerable military force should be kept up to guard the British provinces against the large armies of irregulars that would be contending on their frontiers. He also dwelt strongly on the loss of honour and reputation that would follow such conduct. Sir G. Barlow, in reply, announced his determination to carry out the views of his predecessor, which were those of the ministry and Court of Directors. "I am of opinion," he added, "that we must derive our security either from the establishment of a controlling power and influence over all the states of India [Lord Wellesley's system], or from the certain operation of contending and irreconcileable interests among the states, whose independence will admit of the prosecution of their individual views of rapine, encroachment, and ambition [Cornwallis's system], combined with a systematic plan of internal defence, such as has been uniformly contemplated by this government." This last he preferred; and surely the celebrated "Prince" does not contain any maxim of what is regarded as its diabolical policy, more coolly avowed.

No time was lost in giving effect to these principles. A treaty with Sindia was concluded by Col. Malcolm (November 23), and another with Holkar (December 24), on the banks of the Beyah, in the Punjab, whither he had retired in the hope of engaging the Sikhs to support him. The rajahs of Boondee and Jypoor, both faithful allies of the British, were sacrificed without a scruple. Even the request of Lord Lake, that the alliance with

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the last should not be renounced till Holkar had passed his territories, on his way home, was rejected; the worthy Holkar was not to be deprived of an opportunity of plunder. These rajahs were weak, but those of Macherry and Bhurtpore had some strength; Lord Lake's representations in their behalf were therefore listened to, and matters were not precipitated.

The British government thus, in the words of the Jypoor vakeel, "made its faith subservient to its convenience ;" and Sir George Barlow, a man of limited mental powers, and apparently incapable of appreciating the Wellesley policy, to the expositions of which he had been listening for years, as far as in him lay overturned the British empire in India, by acting in blind obedience to the narrow, ignorant, and shortsighted policy of those who thought that an empire could be gained and kept without expense, and that the English could remain only one of the powers of India. It is gratifying to see that no policy has ever been more universally condemned; not a single writer, of any character, has, we believe, attempted to defend it. Lord Lake, who, though in vain, had made every effort to sustain the honour of his country at this dark period, quitted India as soon as he was able, leaving behind him a character for daring valour, and other high qualities, the memory of which is still cherished by the native army.

When the account of the death of Lord Cornwallis reached England, the Directors, with the consent of the Board of Control, appointed Sir George Barlow to be Governor-general. He now applied himself sedulously to what nature had best qualified him for, the reduction of expenditure, and the providing of the Company's investment of goods. The former he reduced to one-half, so that the finances were soon in a flourishing condition. He also introduced the British revenue and judicial arrangements into the newly-acquired territories in Cuttack, Bundelcund, and the Doab.

While he was thus engaged, alarming tidings arrived from Madras. The fortress of Vellore, which was the residence of Tippoo's family, was garrisoned by portions of one European regiment, the 69th, and of two native regiments, the 1st and 23rd, the former being 370, the latter 1500 in number, the whole commanded by Col. Fancourt, of the 69th. They had separate barracks, and the officers resided in detached private houses. On a sudden, at about three o'clock on the morning of the 10th July, 1806, a general attack on the English posts was made by the native troops. The main body of them attacked the barracks, into which they poured volleys of musketry and discharges of field-pieces which they had placed opposite the doorway. Others watched the houses of the officers to shoot them as they came out, and others broke into the houses of the other Europeans and murdered all they met. They thus before day had killed thirteen officers, among whom was Col. Fancourt, and Lieut.-col. McKerras of the 23rd, and in the barracks there were eighty-two privates killed, and ninety-one wounded. Fear of the bayonet kept them from entering, and the men defended themselves against their fire as well as they could by the beds and furniture. At length some of the officers made their way to the barracks, and placing themselves at the head of the men forced a passage through the assailants and