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Chapter 19 – Lord Wellesley’s Administration – Fourth and Last Mysore War, 1798, 1799

Lord Wellesley, Governor-General, 1798, 1799

Sir John Shore was succeeded in the government of India by Lord Mornington, subsequently created Marquess of Wellesley, then in his thirty-eighth year. He was born in Ireland in 1760, and placed at an early age at Eton, where he became one of its most distinguished scholars. On coming of age he took his seat in the Irish House of Peers, and engaged in the most important debates of the time. Soon after, he was elected a member of the British House of Commons, and was brought into communion with the great men of genius who then adorned the senate, and who have shed an imperishable lustre on that period of English history. At the age of twenty-six he was nominated one of the Lords of the Treasury. In January, 1794, he delivered a brilliant speech against French jacobinism, which stamped him as one of the rising men of the day, and was supposed to have mainly conduced to his Indian appointment. He had likewise enjoyed the advantage of a seat at the Board of Control for four years, which gave him a comprehensive knowledge of the politics of India. He was, moreover, the intimate friend of Mr. Pitt, the prime minister, and possessed the confidence of Mr. Dundas, the President of the Board of Control, an association of inestimable value to a Governor-General. He embarked for India in November, 1797, and landed at the Cape in February, 1798, where he found Lord Macartney, who had been Governor of Madras during the second Mysore War, as well as Lord Hobart, who had recently been recalled from that post, and was thus put in possession of their views regarding British interests in the Deccan. At the Cape he also met with Major Kirkpatrick, formerly minister at Sindia’s court, and latterly the Resident at Hyderabad, and obtained from him the

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most important information respecting the strength of the various native powers, and the objects of their policy. While Lord Wellesley – we anticipate his superior title – was detained at the Cape, a vessel from Calcutta touched there, with the despatches of the Government to the Court of Directors, which he did not hesitate to open, that he might obtain the latest intelligence of the actual position of affairs in the empire he was going out to govern. With the information derived from these various sources, he composed his first despatch to Mr. Dundas, embodying his own views of the course of policy which it was advisable to pursue. This letter afforded the clearest evidence of his extraordinary genius for government.

Extinction of the balance of power, 1798

After the humiliation of Tippoo, in 1792, the Indian authorities in London had been encouraged by Lord Cornwallis to believe that the security of the Company’s interests depended on that balance of power which he had established among the princes of the Deccan, and which he considered both stable and permanent. But the first survey which Lord Wellesley was enabled to take of the country powers, convinced him that a greater fallacy had never been harboured in Leadenhall-street. There never had, in fact, been, and, considering the policy of the native courts, there never could be, anything like a real balance of power in India. With the princes of India, rapine and conquest had been from time immemorial the only avowed principle of action. War was considered the chief source of glory; it was sanctioned by the ordinances of religion, both Hindoo and Mohamedan; it was prosecuted without any pretext or semblance of justice, and restrained only by the power of resistance. The Court of Directors, trusting to this imaginary safeguard, had prohibited all alliances with the native princes, and all interference in their affairs. Sir John Shore was determined to carry out their system with conscientious fidelity; but, before he had been eighteen months in office, he saw the whole fabric of the balance of power crumble to pieces before his eyes. At the

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battle of Kurdla, the Peshwa and the other Mahratta princes completely demolished the power of the Nizam, while Sir John Shore looked on, and refused him the aid even of the British battalion which was in his pay. Soon after, the Peshwa was, in his turn, reduced to extremity by the encroachments of Sindia, and implored the protection of the Governor-General. It was refused from a servile deference to the orders of the Court of Directors, and the power of the Peshwa was reduced to the same state of prostration as that of the Nizam. The balance of power in the Deccan was thus irretrievably destroyed. The British Government became the object of derision to the princes of India, who were fain to conclude that it contained the same elements of decay as all Asiatic sovereignties, and that the energy which had raised it to the summit of power was now exhausted. “Its moon,” they said, “was already in the wane;” and a brief prolongation of Sir John Shore’s feeble administration would have brought the British empire in India to the brink of destruction.

State of India, 1798

To estimate the difficulties of Lord Wellesley’s position on assuming the government, it is only necessary to glance at the state of the chief native powers. In the south, Tippoo was brooding over his misfortunes and thirsting for an opportunity of gratifying his hostility to the English – the ruling passion of his life. The five years of peace he had enjoyed were assiduously devoted to the improvement of his resources. Though deprived by Lord Cornwallis of half his dominions, he was still able to maintain a formidable army in a state of the highest efficiency. He had entertained a body of French officers, and, as the anxiety of France to regain her former power in India had revived with the ambition of the Revolution, he expected material assistance from a French alliance. The Nizam, finding the assistance of the British regiment he subsidised denied him by Sir John Shore in the hour of his utmost need, had increased the strength of his French battalions, under Raymond, to 14,000 men and 36 field pieces, and assigned districts yielding eighteen lacs of

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rupees for their support. They constituted the only military force of any importance in his dominions, and were gradually assuming the authority and tone natural to such a position. They carried the colours of the French republic, then at war with England, and wore the cap of liberty on their buttons. Sindia, who was supreme at Poona, had likewise obtained possession of the person of the emperor at Delhi, and was strengthened by all the influence still connected with the Mogul throne. His territory in the Deccan extended to the banks of the Toombudra, and skirted the frontiers of the Nizam and the Peshwa, while in the north his possessions abutted on those of the Company and the Nabob of Oude. The French battalions raised by De Boigne, he had augmented to 40,000 men, with 464 guns, and assigned an entire province for their maintenance. The organization of this force included all the requirements of war, fortresses, arsenals, foundries, and depots, and it was in no respects inferior to the British army in Hindostan. To add to Lord Wellesley’s embarrassments, the European officers of the Company were in a state of complete insubordination, the spirit of the community was depressed by the visible weakness of the Government, and public credit was at so low an ebb that it was not possible to obtain money under twelve per cent. Lord Cornwallis had bequeathed a surplus revenue of a hundred and eighty-five lacs of rupees a-year to his successor, but under Sir John Shore’s administration it had dwindled down, year after year, without any war expenditure, and for the first time in the history of British India peace had created a deficit.

The Mauritius proclamation, 1798

Lord Wellesley landed in Calcutta on the 17th May, and within three weeks was startled by the appearance in one of the Calcutta journals of a proclamation issued by General Malartic, the Governor of the Mauritius. It stated that two envoys had arrived in the island from Tippoo Sultan with despatches for the Government in Paris, proposing an alliance offensive and defensive, and requesting a body of troops without delay to assist him in expelling

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the English from India, and it invited volunteers to enrol themselves under the Sultan’s colours. The document was at first deemed spurious, as it was difficult to suppose that Tippoo would thus publicly proclaim his hostile intentions, and prepare the British Government to defeat them; but the receipt of a second copy of it from the Cape dispelled every doubt. Soon after, it was announced that a French frigate at the Mauritius had taken on board about a hundred men, including civil and military officers, and landed them at Mangalore, on the Malabar coast, after capturing two East-Indiamen on the route. On reaching the capital, the French officers organised a Jacobin club under the auspices of the Sultan, whom they dignified with the title of Citizen Tippoo. The tree of liberty was planted with due ceremonials, and surmounted with the cap of equality; the emblems of royalty were burned, and the French republic, one and indivisible, was consecrated on the public parade.

The Coast army ordered to assemble, 1798

Lord Wellesley determined to anticipate the designs of Tippoo, and directed General Harris, the officiating Governor of Madras, to assemble the Coast army to march directly on Seringapatam. At the same time, he called on the Nizam and the Peshwa, the signatories of the treaty of Seringapatam, to furnish their quota of troops in accordance with the 12th article. The Presidency of Madras was thunderstruck at this daring project. General Harris trembled to commit the Government in so hazardous a conflict, and cautioned the Governor-General against the error of putting any trust in these dilatory and timid native allies, the only advantage of enlisting whose services was to prevent their being transferred to the enemy. Even the governing spirit of Madras, Mr. Webbe, a young civilian of thirty-one, of whom the Duke of Wellington, then General Wellesley, affirmed that he was one of the ablest men he ever knew, and, withal, the most honest, was appalled at such an enterprise. He had a lively dread of the Mysore power, which had, within memory, annihilated Baillie’s detachment,

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devastated the Carnatic, and burned the suburbs of Madras. In a very elaborate state paper, he enumerated all the dangers and disasters which had attended our former wars with Hyder and Tippoo. In 1791, Lord Cornwallis, he said, took the field with an army completely equipped, but had failed to reach Seringapatam. At present, the entire disposable force of the Presidency did not exceed 8,000 men, and they were without draft cattle, supplies, or commissariat. This army, far from being in a condition to march upon the enemy’s capital, was unequal even to the defence of the Company’s territories, if Tippoo should think fit to invade them, which he would not fail to do when he heard of our preparations. The treasury, moreover, was bankrupt; the public debt had increased in eight years from seventeen to fifty lacs of pagodas, and the twelve per cent. paper was at a discount of five per cent. On the other hand, Tippoo numbered 60,000 troops, a large portion of whom consisted of the celebrated Mysore horse. His infantry was, in part, disciplined by French officers. He possessed 144 field-pieces, a rocket brigade, a long train of elephants, and a superb muster of carriage and draft cattle. Any movement of troops which might give umbrage to Tippoo could only end in fearful disasters, and in the impeachment of Lord Wellesley. These representations, however, instead of deterring him from his purpose, only served to demonstrate more clearly the imperative necessity of extricating the affairs of the Company from this perilous position. If, he argued, we were not strong enough to repel the assaults of Tippoo, he was virtually master of the Deccan, and there could be no real security as long as it depended simply on the moderation of an inveterate foe. Though constrained, therefore, from the weakness of the Madras Presidency, to fold up the idea of striking an immediate blow at Tippoo’s power, he issued peremptory orders for the equipment of the army, and threatened with his severest displeasure, and in his most imperious style, those who “presumed to thwart him, and arrogated to themselves the power of governing the

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empire committed to his charge.” Meanwhile, he called on Tippoo to disavow his embassy to the Mauritius.

Lord Wellesley’s vigorous policy, 1798

The state of affairs at Hyderabad demanded the immediate attention of the Governor-General. Raymond, who organized the French force of the Nizam, had died in the spring of the year. His successor, Piron, who was considered an abler soldier, was animated by a stronger feeling of jacobinical hatred to England. Lord Wellesley felt that in the approaching conflict with Tippoo, he could not take this body of troops into the field as a part of the Nizam’s contingent, without the hazard of their joining the Sultan, with whose French officers they were in constant communication. To leave them behind without a large force to watch their movements, appeared equally dangerous. The French force at Hyderabad was, moreover, the nucleus of the power which France was endeavouring to establish in the Deccan. The junction of this body with the French troops in Mysore, and those in the service of Sindia, might at any time extinguish the power of the Nizam and the Peshwa, and enable the French to bring the resources of the Deccan and of Hindostan to bear on the dominions of the Company. The extinction of the French army at Hyderabad was, therefore, an object of the first importance. At this critical juncture, Lord Wellesley received a letter from Zemaun Shah, announcing his intention to cross the Indus and invade Hindostan, and demanding the assistance of the English Government to drive the Mahrattas back into the Deccan. Zemaun Shah was the grandson of the renowned Ahmed Shah Abdalee, whose victory at Paniput, forty years before, was still remembered with a feeling of terror throughout India. The intrinsic weakness of his power had not then been discovered, and another Abdalee invasion could not be contemplated without alarm. Lord Wellesley was thus menaced with dangers in every direction, but he never feared the bugbear of responsibility, and he determined to carry out the plans he had formed for the protection of the empire, without waiting

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for the sanction of the Court of Directors or the Board of Control. He found that the Company had not augmented their security, by curtailing their influence, but had drifted into a position where it was less perilous to advance than to stand still or to recede. He resolved at once to terminate that policy of isolation which had been erroneously considered the safeguard of British power, and to abandon the system of non-interference which was held sacred in Leadenhall-street. Within three months after he had taken his seat at the Council board, active negotiations were commenced through the country; every durbar from Cape Comorin to the banks of the Jumna was electrified by the revival of that energy which was supposed to be extinct, and the princes of India soon felt that the spirit of Clive and of Hastings again animated the Government of Calcutta.

Proposed alliance with the Nizam, 1798

Lord Wellesley’s first negotiation was with the court of Hyderabad. The minister, Musheer-ool moolk, more commonly designated Meer Allum, fell into the hands of the Mahrattas at the battle of Kurdla, and was kept in confinement, in order to deprive his master of the benefit of his great abilities. He had recently obtained his liberty, and resumed the management of the Nizam’s affairs. Alarmed at the ascendency which the French officers had acquired during his captivity, and disgusted at their arrogance, he had resumed the lands allotted for their maintenance, and had repeatedly proposed to the Company’s Resident that an English subsidiary force should be substituted for the French battalions. The proposal was refused by Sir John Shore, but Lord Wellesley now eagerly embraced it, and offered to augment the corps of British troops in the Nizam’s pay to 6,000, with a proper complement of artillery, on condition that a provision of twenty-four lacs of rupees a-year should be made for their support, and that the French force should be promptly disbanded. He likewise offered his mediation on all matters in dispute with the Peshwa, and engaged to protect the state from his unjust claims. The Nizam, then in his

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sixty-fifth year, more feeble in body and in mind than his illustrious father at the age of a hundred, manifested considerable repugnance to so close an alliance with a power which, since he ascended the throne, had risen to be the most formidable in India. The minister himself was not insensible of the danger which might be incurred by this connection; but he argued that the Hyderabad state was utterly defenceless, and that it was more advisable to be dependent on a power distinguished by good faith than to remain exposed to the ambitious views of Tippoo on the one hand, and the insatiable rapacity of the Mahrattas on the other. The influence of the minister was paramount, and the reluctant consent of the Nizam was at length obtained to the treaty.

Proposal to the Peshwa, 1798

The proposal of a similar alliance was likewise made to the Peshwa, Bajee Rao. In the preceding year, he had solicited the aid of a British force to protect him from the designs of Sindia, who had fixed his headquarters near Poona, but Sir John Shore, in deference to the policy then in the ascendant at the India House, had refused to comply with his wishes, and the opportunity of establishing an influence at the Mahratta court was lost. Bajee Rao then entered into negotiations with the Nizam, and concluded an alliance with him, ceding territory valued at eight lacs of rupees a-year, as the price of his assistance against Sindia. Sindia avenged himself by despatching envoys to Tippoo, to invite him to attack the Nizam, and by releasing the great minister, Nana Furnuvese, whom the Peshwa feared as much as he detested. On the Nana’s arrival at Poona, a strong feeling of mistrust of the Peshwa led him to decline all connection with public affairs. The Peshwa, therefore, repaired to his residence in the dead of night, with only a single domestic, and employed all those insinuating arts of which he was so perfect a master, laid his head at the feet of the Nana, swore to consider him in future as his father and his counsellor, and, in a flood of tears, conjured him not to abandon the brahmin sovereignty, but to

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assume the office of minister. The appeal was successful; but the Nana had no sooner entered on his duties, than the Peshwa began to plot his destruction, and urged Sindia to place him again in confinement. The minister discovered the intrigue, and repairing to the palace, upbraided Bajee Rao with his unparalleled treachery, and begged him to cease plotting against the liberty and life of an old man, but to allow him to retire into obscurity. The Peshwa protested his innocence, threw the blame on his officers, and persuaded the Nana to resume his post. It was at this period that the Resident brought forward the proposition which he was instructed by Lord Wellesley to make, of a subsidiary alliance to liberate the Peshwa from the thraldom of Sindia. It provided that a large British force should be received into the service of the Peshwa, and due arrangements made for their support; that the French should be forever excluded from his dominions; and that all differences with the Nizam and Sindia should be submitted to the arbitration of the British Government. It has been supposed that the eagerness manifested on this occasion by the Governor-General tended to defeat his object. But Bajee Rao had no desire for the final settlement of such claims, which had been the source of Mahratta greatness, and which it was the national policy never to close. The alliance proposed by Lord Wellesley was designated by him a restoration of the Peshwa to his due authority and power, but he and the other princes to whom the offer was made were too astute not to perceive that it involved the complete extinction of their political independence and of their military power. The Peshwa would, it is true, have been relieved from the domination of Sindia, but it would only have been a change of collars, the substitution of one which he could never shake off, for another which, however gaffing, might yet be temporary. It is not surprising that princes with whom independence had a charm, the value of which was often enhanced by its risks, should have been loth to part with it. The Peshwa, therefore, acting upon the advice of

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Nana Furnuvese, evaded the proposal of an alliance, but assured the Resident that he would faithfully observe the engagements of the triple alliance. A large Mahratta force was ostensibly ordered to assemble and join the expedition which the Governor-General was fitting out against Tippoo, but it was never intended to act, and the Mahrattas took no part in the campaign.

Negotiations with Sindia and Nagpore, 1798

While these negotiations were in progress at Poona, Colonel Collins, the Resident at the court of Sindia, was instructed to lay before him the letter of Zemaun Shah, requesting the co-operation of the British Government in driving the Mahrattas from Hindostan, liberating the emperor from bondage, and restoring him to the throne. The Resident was instructed to assure Sindia that the Governor-General was determined to resist this attempt to disturb the established states of India in their actual possessions, and to invite him to unite in a defensive league against the Abdalee. Sindia was also urged to quit Poona and return to Hindostan, where he would find an English army ready to join him. He declined the alliance, but promised to proceed to his own provinces in the north, a promise he did not intend to fulfil. The raja of Nagpore had maintained a friendly disposition towards the Company, and Mr. Colebrooke, the most eminent Oriental scholar of the day, was sent to his court to improve it, but the raja refused to entangle himself with an alliance.

Extinction of the French force at Hyderabad, 1798

To give effect to the subsidiary treaty with the Nizam, four Madras regiments, with proportionate artillery, were ordered to march to Hyderabad, but the Madras treasury was so empty, that. the Governor was obliged to raise funds for their equipment on his own personal responsibility. They reached Hyderabad on the 10th October, but the difficulties of the transaction were not past. Every artifice and intrigue was employed for nine days to evade the performance of the treaty and the dismissal of the French corps. The vacillation of the Nizam and his minister arose,

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not only from the dread of a collision between the two forces, English and French, but also from a feeling of reluctance at the last moment to descend to a state of helpless and irretrievable dependence on a superior power. The Nizam, under the influence of personal terror, took refuge in the neighbouring fortress of Golconda. The British Resident, Captain Kirkpatrick, was obliged to assume a high tone, and to assure the minister that it was now too late to recede, and that the Nizam would be held responsible for the consequences of this breach of faith. Colonel Roberts, who commanded the British force, was anxious to bring the question to an issue before the arrival of the Nizam’s household cavalry, who were known to be friendly to the French interests, and had been ordered up from the country. The minister was at length convinced that there was more danger in evading than in performing the engagement his master had entered into, and a proclamation was issued dismissing the French officers from the service, and releasing the sepoys from the obligation of obedience to them. Both officers and men were thrown into a state of confusion and dismay by this unexpected announcement. The British force was moved into a position which completely commanded the French encampment, and from which, if necessary, the French storehouses and magazines could be set on fire by red hot shot. The French commandant, Mons. Piron, on receiving his dismissal from the Nizam, sent a messenger to inform Captain Kirkpatrick that he and his officers were ready to place themselves under British protection, and expected to be treated according to the usages of civilised nations. But the men, to whom considerable arrears were due, rose in a body on their officers and placed them in confinement, and it was not without great difficulty they succeeded in escaping during the night to the English camp. Captain Malcolm, a young officer of great spirit and ambition, then rising to notice, was sent to quell the excitement of the native troops, and to offer them the payment of their arrears. By his great tact in the management of natives, he prevailed on them to accept these terms,

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and before the evening this large body of 14,000 disciplined troops, possessed of a powerful train of artillery and well-. stored arsenals, was disarmed without the loss of a single life. This great achievement, the foremost of the new administration, filled the native princes, who were calculating on the downfall of the Company’s power, with amazement, while it gave fresh confidence to their native subjects. The ability with which it was planned, and the promptitude with which it was executed, removed all cause of anxiety from the minds of the European functionaries of government at all the Presidencies, and created a spirit of confidence and devotion, which contributed essentially to the success of the Governor-General’s plans.

Mysore War sanctioned in England, 1798

While Lord Wellesley was engaged in preparations for war, he was so happy as to receive a despatch from the Court of Directors, written on the receipt of the Mauritius proclamation. The dread of the Mysore power, which they had thrice encountered in thirty years, still haunted their imaginations, and they began to tremble anew for the security of their possessions in the Deccan. They stated that if Tippoo had actually entered into a league with France, it would be neither politic nor prudent to wait till he commenced hostilities, but they also enjoined the utmost discretion in resorting to arms. Mr. Dundas considered that this breach of faith fully warranted a declaration of war, and Lord Wellesley was thus enabled to commence the campaign with the full concurrence of the authorities in England. On the 18th October he received intelligence that Bonaparte had landed in Egypt with the object of establishing a French empire in the East, and two days after issued orders to Madras to press forward the organisation of the army in every department, and to send the battering train and heavy stores to the frontier without delay. He likewise announced his intention to strengthen the Coast army with 3,000 volunteer sepoys, and, above all, with His Majesty’s 33rd Regiment commanded by Colonel Wellesley, afterwards the Duke of Wellington, in himself a host.

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First letter to Tippoo, November 8, 1798

On the 8th of November, intelligence of the complete success of the movement for the suppression of the French force at Hyderabad, reached Calcutta, and Lord Wellesley despatched his first communication to Tippoo Sultan. The British Government, he said, could not be ignorant of the intercourse he had formed with the French, the inveterate enemies of the Company, and then actually at war with England; and he was cautioned against a connection which “must subvert the foundations of friendship between him and the Company, and introduce into the heart of his kingdom the principles of anarchy and confusion.” The Governor-General had, consequently, been obliged to adopt measures of precaution and defence, though he was anxious to live in peace and amity with all his neighbours. He was, however, desirous of propounding a plan which would remove all distrust and suspicion, and establish a good understanding between the Company and the Sultan, on the most stable foundations; and he proposed to depute Major Doveton for this purpose to his durbar. Lord Wellesley likewise resolved to proceed to Madras in person to obviate the delay inseparable from a distant correspondence, and to bring the authority of the Supreme Government to bear upon the military preparations. Sir Alured Clarke, the Commander-in-chief, was to be left in Bengal to watch the movements of Zemaun Shah, who had already crossed the Indus and reached Lahore. The Calcutta militia, an old institution which had fallen into disuse, was embodied to the number of 1,500. Lord Wellesley then embarked for Madras, which he reached on the last day of the year, and assumed the control of all the political and military arrangements, leaving the local administration undisturbed in the hands of the Governor.

Correspondence of Lord Wellesley and Tippoo, 1799

Lord Wellesley found Tippoo’s reply to his letter at Madras. With regard to the embassy, the Sultan observed that the agents of a mercantile tribe, who had purchased a two-masted vessel,

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happened to go with a cargo to the Mauritius, and forty persons, French, and of a dark colour, ten or twelve of whom were artificers and the rest servants, had embarked in her for Mysore in search of employment. Some of these had entered his service, and the others had left the country. The French, “who were full of vice and deceit, had perhaps taken advantage of the departure of the ship to put about reports, with the view to ruffle the minds of both Sircars.” The proposed conference with Major Doveton he evaded, under the pretence that “the treaties and engagements entered into among the four Sircars” – the English, the Nizam, the Peshwa, and himself – “were so firmly established and confirmed, as ever to remain fixed and durable, and be an example to the rulers of the age. No means more effectual than these could be adopted to give stability to the foundations of friendship and harmony.” To this letter Lord Wellesley replied on the 9th of January, giving a full detail of all the transactions by which Tippoo had violated the treaties subsisting between him and the Company, and manifested the hostility of his designs. He stated that the new engagements which the Sultan had entered into with the common enemy, necessarily demanded new arrangements on the part of the allies. He solemnly admonished him to assent to the conciliatory mission of Major Doveton, and warned him of the dangerous consequences of delay in arduous affairs, entreating him not to postpone his reply for more than one day after the letter should reach his presence. Before the arrival of this communication, Tippoo had again written to the Governor-General to lull him into security, assuring him that “the sincerity of his friendship and regard, together with proofs of his solicitude for tranquillity and peace (his friendly heart being bent on their increase) had been made apparent.” At the time when this letter was written, he was despatching Dubuc, one of his French officers, through the Danish settlement of Tranquebar, to the Executive Directory at Paris, to solicit the aid of 10,000 or 15,000 troops, who were to be maintained at his expense,

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and employed in expelling the English from India. He was likewise inviting Zemaun Shah to cross the Indus, and join him in prosecuting “a holy war against the infidels, polytheists, and heretics.” Please God,” he said, “the English shall become food for the unrelenting sword of the pious warriors.” Lord Wellesley’s letter of the 9th January appears to have given him the first clear monition of the danger which he had incurred by his negotiations with the French, and his first impulse was to receive the mission of Major Royston, and throw himself on the consideration of the Governor-General. The letter addressed to him by Bonaparte, from Egypt, stating “that he had arrived on the borders of the Red Sea, with an innumerable and invincible army, full of the desire of delivering him from the iron yoke of England,” had not as yet reached him; but his French officers assured him that the army of Bonaparte must already have embarked for India, and might be daily expected. After many days of alternate hope and fear, he forwarded his reply with this significant expression: “Being frequently disposed to make excursions and hunt, I am, accordingly, proceeding on a hunting excursion. You will be pleased to despatch Major Doveton, slightly attended (or unattended).”

Strength and progress of the British Army, 1799

But Tippoo had miscalculated the character of the man he had now to deal with, and the length to which he might venture to procrastinate. Lord Wellesley had determined to bring the war to a close in a single campaign, by one vigorous and decisive blow at the capital. Seringapatam was the great object of Tippoo’s pride, the centre of his power, his principal granary, and his only arsenal, on the preservation of which he considered the fate of his kingdom to depend. Unlike any other fort in India, it was impregnable from June to November, owing to the rise of the Cavery around the island on which it was erected. Unless, therefore, it could be reduced before the rains set in, the campaign must prove abortive, and the intolerable expense of a second season of military operations must

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be incurred. As the year advanced, every moment became increasingly important, and Lord Wellesley, after waiting in vain for the early reply he had solicited from Tippoo, on the 3rd February ordered the army to break ground. In reply to the cold and ungracious letter of the Sultan, when it arrived, he expressed regret that his earnest representations of the dangers of delay had not been heeded. The mission of Major Doveton, he said, was no longer expedient; but General Harris, who was advancing at the head of an army into Mysore, would be prepared to receive any embassy Tippoo might think fit to send. The army which was now about to take the field was considered the best appointed, and the most perfect in point of equipment and discipline which had ever been collected in India under the British standard. Only six months before, the Madras functionaries had declared that it would be impossible to assemble a force of more than 8,000 men, which would be scarcely equal to the defence of the Carnatic, if it were invaded by the Sultan. But the commanding energy of Lord Wellesley, seconded by the indefatigable exertions of his brother, Colonel Wellesley, and of the son of the great Clive, now Governor of Madras, had called into existence an army of 20,802 men, of whom 6,000 were Europeans, with a battering train of 40 guns and 64 field-pieces and howitzers. To this number was added 10,000 of the Nizam’s cavalry and the Hyderabad subsidiary force, which included 3,600 of Raymond’s disciplined sepoys, and made up another body of 10,000 foot, under the direction of European officers, and commanded by Colonel Wellesley and Captain Malcolm. It thus became an efficient auxiliary, instead of the dead weight it had proved during the campaign of Lord Cornwallis. The army was fortunate in its superior officers, all of whom, with one exception, enjoyed the advantage of the experience acquired in the previous Mysore war; while General Harris, the General-in-chief, was personally acquainted with all the localities on the route. Lord Wellesley possessed in an eminent degree two of the greatest qualifications for command, great discernment in the

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selection of his instruments, and the wisdom of reposing unreserved confidence in them; and never were these talents more distinctly exhibited than on the present occasion, by the accordance of unfettered authority to General Harris, and the able officers associated with him. The Bombay division of 6,420 troops was assembled under General Stuart at Cannanore, on the Malabar coast, to advance simultaneously on the capital.

Tippoo marches to the western coast, 1799

Tippoo, who had made several marches to the eastward to meet Major Doveton, at length assembled his chief officers, and expressed his vexation that while the English were closing on him from the east and the west he was losing invaluable time, and pointed out the necessity of “marching, and striking some decisive blow.” He determined, therefore, to leave Poornea and Syud Sahib with a sufficient force to watch the movements of General Harris, and to march in person with the flower of his army across the peninsula and engage the army of General Stuart, whose advanced post was then at Seedasere. It was diligently propagated throughout the country that Tippoo was proceeding against General Harris, and nothing was so little expected by the Bombay army as his appearance in its neighbourhood. On the morning of the 5th March, however, the raja of Coorg, a gallant prince, the grateful ally of the Company, and the mortal enemy of the family of Hyder, who had always oppressed him, ascended the hill of Seedasere, and to his amazement beheld the plain below covered with Tippoo’s encampment. Preparations were immediately made to meet the attack of the enemy by General Hartley, the second in command, a name of ancient and high renown on that coast. On the morning of the 6th the advanced brigade was vigorously assailed by the Sultan’s entire force, and three battalions under the gallant Colonel Montresor sustained the assault for six hours with such cool and determined bravery, that the utmost efforts of Tippoo’s best officers and troops could make no impression on their ranks. General. Stuart, who was ten

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miles in the rear, hastened to their assistance, and found them exhausted with fatigue and reduced to their last cartridge. His timely arrival decided the fortune of the day. Within half an hour Tippoo’s army retreated through the wood with the loss of 2,000 men. He continued for six days to linger in the vicinity in a state of great perplexity, and on the 11th March turned his back on the Bombay force, and marched to oppose the advance of General Harris.

Progress of General Harris, 1799

General Harris reached Bangalore on the 15th March, with the heavy charge of conveying the vast and cumbrous equipage for the siege in safety to its destination. Of the three routes which led from Bangalore to Seringapatam he had chosen the most southern. It presented many points where a bold and skilful enemy might have seriously obstructed his progress, more especially on the banks of the Madoor, which afforded an excellent position for opposing the passage of an army. But, throughout the campaign, the Sultan appeared to be bewildered, if not infatuated; and, in direct opposition to the advice of his own most experienced officers, and of his French commandant, he fixed upon Malavelly as the field for encountering the English force. The battle, in which Colonel Wellesley particularly distinguished himself, terminated in the complete discomfiture of Tippoo, with the loss of 1,000 men. After the defeat he moved his encampment in a northern direction, not doubting that General Harris would adopt the route to Seringapatam which had been taken in the previous war by Lord Cornwallis. It had therefore been laid waste under his own inspection, and not a particle of dry forage or a pile of grass was left unconsumed. But the chief of the guide corps, Major Allen, whose exertions contributed pre-eminently to the success of the campaign, and Captain Macaulay, were sent southward to examine the road which led to the Cavery, twelve miles distant; and they returned at midnight with the report that it presented a fine and open tract of country, and that the ford at Sosilla afforded

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every facility for the passage of an army. The next morning the whole force matched down with all promptitude, and before nightfall one wing was across the river, while Tippoo was twenty miles distant, in an opposite direction, waiting to oppose General Harris’s progress towards the capital. The happy choice of this route gave the famished cattle an abundance of rich pasturage; it facilitated the junction of the Bombay army, and it rendered abortive the dispositions which Tippoo had made for defending the northern face of Seringapatam. Nothing could exceed his dismay and rage when he found all his plans frustrated by this admirable strategy. He summoned his principal officers, and said, “We have now arrived at our last stage; what is your determination?” “To die with you,” was their unanimous reply. Every one present was deeply affected at the distress of his sovereign, who was bathed in tears, and the meeting broke up with the firm resolution to make one last and desperate effort for the defence of the capital and the kingdom, with no alternative but victory or death.

The Army before Seringapatam, April 6th, 1799

No farther opposition was made to the progress of the British army, the advanced post of which was established within 1,600 yards of the fort on the 6th April. This direct march on the capital with a heavy siege train, through a hundred and fifty miles of the enemy’s territory, without establishing a single intermediate post, was in accordance with that daring spirit which had won our dominion in India, and which, when conducted by such men as Harris, and Baird, and Wellesley, and Malcolm, could scarcely be considered rash; but it was not effected without the greatest risks. If Tippoo’s resources had been directed with any degree of ability, this attempt to reach the capital, with an unwieldy convoy, might have ended in disaster. Though extraordinary efforts had been made to perfect the equipment of the force, and the number of cattle provided for its use exceeded 60,000, not including a countless multitude of brinjarees and provision dealers, the army had no sooner begun

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to move than it experienced the same kind of embarrassments which had defeated Lord Cornwallis’s first expedition in 1791. On the third day of the march, every store which could possibly be dispensed with was destroyed to increase the available carriage. As the army advanced, the loss of powder and shot and other military stores, from the failure of the cattle, created very serious alarm. This was attributed to the climate and water of Mysore, which were said to be unfavourable to the cattle of the Carnatic. It was owing to these impediments that the army was only able to advance at the rate of five miles a-day, when every hour was of increasing importance. Two days after the Bombay division had effected a junction with General Harris, it was found, on weighing the rice bags, that the stock was mysteriously diminished – such mysteries are by no means uncommon in the commissariat department – and there remained only eighteen days’ consumption, even for the combatants. It was evident that unless the supplies which Colonel Read was then employed in collecting in the southern districts could reach the camp before the 6th of May, it would be reduced to a state of starvation. General Floyd was therefore despatched with a large force to convoy them.

Progress of the siege, 17th April to 4th May, 1799

For any details of the siege, which may be considered as having commenced on the 17th of April, we cannot find room. It was pushed on with such vigour that the Sultan was induced, within three days, to make proposals for a conference. General Harris, in his reply, dwelt on the repeated efforts made by Lord Wellesley to avert the war by negotiations, and informed him that the only conditions on which he was now authorised to treat, were, the cession of half his dominions, the payment of two gores of rupees in two instalments, and the delivery of four of his sons, and four of his chief officers, as hostages. The Sultan, who still appeared to have no just conception of his danger, raved at what he termed the arrogance and tyranny of the proposition, and did not deign to return any reply to it. “Better,” he exclaimed, “to die like a soldier, than to

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live a miserable dependant on the infidels, and to be placed in the roll of their pensioned rajas and nabobs.” Yet, throughout the siege, he exhibited none of that mental or physical energy which was to have been expected of him, and, instead of making due preparations for the impending assault, busied himself in consultation with his astrologers. On the 3rd of May it was reported that there were provisions only for two days left in the English camp: but it was likewise reported that the breach was practicable, and it was determined at once to bring the contest to an issue. The troops destined for the storm, 4,876 in number, took up their appointed stations in the trenches the next morning. General Baird, a gallant and distinguished officer, who had been for four years confined in irons in a dungeon in Seringapatam, was very appropriately selected to lead the assault. Tippoo, who directed all the operations of the defence himself, had discarded the advice of his most experienced officers, and surrounded himself with boys and parasites, who flattered his vanity. They assured him that the attack would not be made before the evening, and he had just sat down to his mid-day meal, when intelligence was brought him that it had already begun. After a few moments of silent and awful expectation in the trenches, General Baird ascended the parapet at one o’clock, and exhibited his noble military figure to the view of both forces, and then, drawing his sword, desired his men “to follow him, and show themselves worthy of the name of British soldiers.” A small and resolute band of Tippoo’s troops met the forlorn hope on the slope of the breach, and the greater portion on either side fell in the desperate struggle, but within seven minutes after the soldiers emerged from the trenches, the British ensign was floating over the breach. The works, however, were defended with great valour, and the carnage was terrific at the rampart where the Sultan had taken his station, and was animating his troops. The two columns of assailants, which after storming the breach, had wheeled to the right and left, were gradually gaining ground; the Mysore sepoys borne down by

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them, at length lost confidence, and every avenue was choked tip with fugitives.

Death and interment of Tippoo, 4th May, 1799

The column commanded by General Baird at length made its way to the front of the palace, and Major Allen climbed over an unfinished wall with a flag of truce, and was conducted to an apartment where two of Tippoo’s sons were surrounded by officers and attendants in a state of the deepest consternation. The Major gave them and their adherents the assurance of complete safety, and endeavoured to convince them that the only chance of saving the life of their father was his immediate surrender; but they declared most solemnly that he was not in the palace. He then requested that the outer gate should be opened to prevent its being forced by the victorious soldiers, to which they at length consented, but not without great hesitation. In front of it Major Allen found General Baird with a large body of European troops, who had just learned that on the preceding night Tippoo caused twelve of their comrades who had fallen into his hands to be murdered in cold blood, and they were frantic to avenge them. The General, however, succeeded in preventing their entrance into the palace, where no life would have been sacred, and he requested that the young princes should be brought out to him. They were received with great humanity and kindness, and conveyed with suitable honours to the presence of the General-in-chief. General Baird now proceeded to search the palace for the Sultan, when the commandant offered to point out the place where he was said to be lying, though, as he had heard, only wounded. He accompanied the General to the gateway which had been the great scene of conflict and carnage, and which presented a ghastly spectacle. It was already night, and the bodies lay heaped in masses on each other; they were separately drawn out and examined by the light of torches. One man alone, the personal attendant of the Sultan, was found alive, and he pointed out the spot where the body of his master lay. It was immediately recognised

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by the native commandant, and conveyed to the palace. It appeared, on enquiry, that Tippoo had received three wounds in succession, and was then placed by his faithful attendants in his palankeen, but the spot soon became so blocked up with dead and dying combatants that it was found impossible to remove it. Tippoo then appears to have crept out, when a European soldier, entering the gateway, endeavoured to snatch his brilliant sword-belt. Though fainting from loss of blood, the Sultan grasped a sword which lay near him, and aimed a blow at the soldier, who immediately lodged a ball in his temples, and deprived him of life. His remains were conveyed through the city, and the inhabitants crowded the streets and prostrated themselves before the bier of their late sovereign. He was interred in the superb mausoleum of the family, by the side of his father, with all the imposing rites of Mohamedan sepulture, and the honours of an European military funeral.

Character of Tippoo, 1799

Thus, in the space of a few hours, fell the capital of Mysore, though garrisoned by 20,000 troops, defended by 287 pieces of ordnance, and provided with well stored arsenals and every munition of war. It was the opinion of Lord Wellesley and of the best military authorities around him, that with a thousand French troops well commanded, Seringapatam, through the strength of its fortifications and the difficulties of approach, would have been impregnable. With the capital fell the dynasty of Hyder, after a career of thirty-eight years. Tippoo, who was forty-six at the time of his death, possessed none of his father’s abilities, either for war or for peace; he exhibited neither the same moderation in prosperity, nor the same equanimity in adversity. In the opinion of the Mysoreans, the one was born to create an empire, and the other to lose it. Tippoo died bravely in the defence of his throne, but it was the death of a soldier, not of a general or a sovereign. He was distinguished by bigotry and intolerance, and was the only Mohamedan sovereign since Aurungzebe who determined to propagate his creed by persecution.

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Both father and son exhibited for thirty years the same rancorous hatred of the English, and it was a dread of their projects throughout this period which mainly influenced the policy of the Company’s Government. The animosity of Hyder was occasioned by the follies of the Madras council; that of Tippoo sprung from his natural malevolence. The expulsion of the English from India was the ruling passion of his life, and to accomplish this object he intrigued in every durbar in India, and sent his emissaries to Cabul and Paris.

Remarks on the transactions of 1799

For half a century the Deccan had been the source of constant anxiety to the Court of Directors, and the theatre of perpetual warfare. The safety of the British possessions bad always been precarious, even in the intervals of peace. Lord Wellesley terminated this state of insecurity. Within a twelvemonth after landing in Calcutta he extinguished the French party and influence at Hyderabad, and made all the Nizam’s resources subservient to British interests; he annihilated the kingdom of Mysore, and he established the Company’s authority from Cape Comorin to the Kistna on so solid a basis that it has never since been interrupted. The capture of Seringapatam, an event second in importance only to the battle of Plassy, resounded through the whole continent, and the sudden and complete extinction of one of the substantive powers of India, struck terror into the hearts of its princes, and exalted the prestige of the British Government. But these advantages were not obtained without the violation of those solemn injunctions which the wisdom or the fears of Parliament, the Ministry, and the East India Company, had issued to restrain the growth of the British empire in India. “I suppose,” said Lord Wellesley, in writing to Mr. Pitt on the subject of these transactions, “you will either hang me or magnificently honour me for my deeds. In either case I shall be gratified; for an English gallows is better than an Indian throne.” He was magnificently honoured, by the King with a step in the peerage, by the Parliament with its thanks.

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Creation of a new Mysore dynasty, 1799

Lord Wellesley entertained no views of territorial aggrandisement when he entered upon the war with Tippoo, but the issue of it had placed the whole of his dominions at the absolute disposal of the Company, and the right of conquest was exercised with great wisdom and moderation. Lord Wellesley, who acted in this matter exclusively on his own judgment, without consulting his ally the Nizam, felt that the appropriation of the whole territory to the Company would have raised a flame of discontent at Hyderabad and Poona, which it might have cost another war to quench. To have divided it equally between the Nizam and the Company would have inflamed the jealousy of the Mahrattas, and enlarged the territories of a prince who was incompetent for the management of those he already possessed. To have given the Peshwa a proportionate share of the conquered districts when he had not participated either in the expense or the risk of the war, would have been an act of inconsistency, and it would, moreover, have imprudently strengthened a power of very doubtful fidelity. Lord Wellesley, therefore, determined to make over a portion of the territory to the ancient dynasty of Mysore, whom Tippoo had reduced to a state of abject poverty and humiliation. The family had passed out of all recollection in the country, which rendered the act the more generous. A child of five years of age – the present raja – was drawn from obscurity and placed upon the throne, to which districts yielding fourteen lacs of pagodas a-year were attached. It was intended that the new state should be essentially native in its character and administration, and the brahmin Poornea, who, although a Hindoo, had been for a quarter of a century the most efficient of the ministers of Hyder and Tippoo, and was the model of an Indian statesman, was appointed to the chief control of affairs, while Colonel Close acted as the representative of the British Government. The military force, for the maintenance of which the sum of seven lacs of pagodas were appropriated, was to be disciplined and commanded by British officers. The Company

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was, moreover, at liberty to take over the entire management of the state, or of any portion of it, if the mal-administration of the raja should endanger the subsidy. Though Lord Wellesley deemed it expedient to associate the Nizam with the Company in the preliminary convention for the disposal of the conquered territory, the treaty with the Mysore raja was concluded in the name of the British Government alone, from whom he received the kingdom as a free gift, bestowed on him personally, without any mention of heirs. The whole arrangement was merely a screen to cloak the appropriation of the resources of the kingdom to the objects of the British Government; and Lord Wellesley did not hesitate to affirm that the territories thus placed under the nominal sovereignty of the raja of Mysore constituted substantially an integral portion of our own dominions. But he did not fail to do justice to the interests of the country in the selection of the members of the commission appointed to complete the organization and settlement of it. It included Colonel Barry Close, the prince of the Indian diplomatists of the time; Captain Malcolm, afterwards Governor of Bombay; Captain Munro, subsequently Governor of Madras; Henry Wellesley, eventually Lord Cowley, ambassador in Paris; and the Duke of Wellington; – the largest number of men of genius ever assembled at the same board in India, either before or since.

Allotment of the remaining territory, 1799

The remaining districts of Mysore were thus partitioned. Territory of the annual value of 777,000 star-pagodas was allotted to the Company, but charged with the payment of 240,000 pagodas to the families of Hyder and Tippoo, with the proviso that the British Government should be at liberty to make such deductions from time to time from the sums allotted for their maintenance as might appear proper on the decease of any member of the various branches of the family, and to limit, and if advisable, to suspend entirely the payment of the whole or any part of the stipend, in the event of any hostile attempt on the part of the family, or any member of it, against the peace of

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the territories of the Company, or its allies. The provision thus made for the royal family of Mysore gave them a more liberal allowance than they had ever enjoyed before. Districts yielding 600,000 star-pagodas a-year were transferred to the Nizam, charged, however, with the payment of 70,000 pagodas annually to Kumur-ood-deen, one of the most eminent of Tippoo’s generals, who had thrown himself unconditionally on the generosity of the British Government. A tract of country, yielding 263,000 star-pagodas a-year, was reserved for the acceptance of the Peshwa, on conditions which will be presently noticed. The additions thus made to the Company’s dominions consisted of districts which gave them the absolute command of the Malabar coast, and the exclusive possession of the southern division of the Peninsula from coast to coast. It included also the capital, on which both Tippoo and Lord Wellesley set a high value, but which has been subsequently abandoned as a military station, from its unhealthiness. The population has dwindled down from 150,000, when it was the seat of Tippoo’s government, to about 12,000.

Prize money, 1799

The property captured at Seringapatam was at first estimated at ten crores of rupees. The assignment of so prodigious a sum as prize money could not have failed to demoralize the army, but it was fortunately found not to exceed a tenth of this amount. In 1758, when intelligence of the battle of Plassy reached England, the Crown made a grant to the Company of all booty captured by their own soldiers, with a reservation of the royal prerogative when the King’s troops happened to be associated with them. Lord Wellesley, thinking the army might become impatient if the distribution of the Seringapatam prize money had to await the receipt of instructions from England, which in such cases are scandalously delayed, took upon himself the responsibility of “anticipating” the royal assent and the sanction of Leadenhall-street, and directed the immediate division of it. This procedure received the sanction both of the Crown and the Company. The Court of Directors, moreover, anxious to

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manifest their sense of the merits of Lord Wellesley, offered him a donation of ten lacs of rupees from the proceeds of the captured grain, which appertained to the state, but his high sense of honour induced him to decline the gift, on which they settled an annuity of £5,000 a-year on him for twenty years. But the Commander-in-chief, General Harris, far from exhibiting the same magnanimity allotted to his own use double the usual share of his rank, or thirteen lacs of rupees. The general officers followed his example. The injustice of depriving the rest of the army of their legitimate dues by this unfair appropriation was so palpable, that the law officers of the Crown to whom the case was referred – the Attorney-General, subsequently Prime Minister of England, and the Solicitor-General, afterwards Speaker of the House of Commons – advised the parties to refund the excess, of their own accord, but they refused to relinquish a cowrie. A suit was therefore commenced against them in Chancery, which, however, was not successful; but the stigma of this rapacity tarnished the laurels of Seringapatam.

Peshwa refuses the offered territory, 1799

On the eve of the war with Tippoo, Lord Wellesley demanded of the Peshwa the aid of the contingent which he was bound by the treaty of 1792 to furnish, and he ostensibly ordered Pureshram Bhao, one of the great feudatory chiefs of the Mahratta empire, to join the British army with his force. At the same time, however, Bajee Rao, with his usual duplicity, received two vakeels at his court from Tippoo, and accepted a douceur of thirteen lacs of rupees, unknown to his minister, Nana Furnuvese. The Mahratta contingent consequently took no part in the campaign. On the contrary, the Peshwa and Sindia concerted a plan for attacking the dominions of the Nizam, while his army and that of his British ally were occupied with the siege of Seringapatam; and on the 26th April, 1799, Lord Wellesley, who was fully apprised of their machinations, considered a rupture with them imminent. But before their plans could be matured they were astounded by

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the intelligence that Tippoo was slain and his power extinguished. Bajee Rao affected great delight at this intelligence, and Sindia offered his congratulations to the Governor-General, but took care to dispatch his emissaries into Mysore to encourage the partisans of the late government to resist the British authorities. Notwithstanding the hypocrisy of Peshwa, however, Colonel Palmer, the Resident at his court, was instructed to inform him, that although he had forfeited all claim to a share of the conquered territory, the Governor-General was prepared to assign him districts valued at 263,000 pagodas a-year, on his consenting to admit the mediation of the British government on every question in dispute between him and the Nizam, and to exclude the French from his dominions. He replied, that he should be happy to accept the territory, as a commutation of the chout, to which the Mahrattas were entitled from the whole kingdom of Mysore, but the two conditions he positively rejected. After a protracted discussion which led to no result, the reserved territory was divided between the Company and the Nizam, and Lord Wellesley, disgusted with what he considered the “systematic jealousy, suspicion and insincerity” of the Peshwa, took leave of Mahratta politics, till a more favourable opportunity should turn up in the course of events for his intervention.

Dhoondia Waug, 1800

It only remains to be noticed that the settlement of Mysore was accomplished without any of those embarrassments which usually attend the introduction of a new government. The only opposition was offered by one Dhoondia Waug, who had been confined in irons in Seringapatam for various depredations in Mysore, and was inconsiderately released on the capture of the town. He was a daring adventurer, and having collected together some of Tippoo’s disbanded cavalry, and a body of men of desperate fortunes, proceeded northward, plundering the towns and villages in his progress. Success brought crowds to his standard. and he was enabled to obtain possession of the

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rich district of Bednore with its important fortresses. Two British armies were sent against him, who succeeded in recovering the district, and driving him to the frontier of the Peshwa’s dominions, where the pursuit necessarily ended. The distractions which prevailed among the Mahratta chiefs enabled him to collect another and a larger body, and the revolt began to assume formidable dimensions. It was manifest that there could be no tranquillity in the Deccan while this bold chieftain was roaming through it, at the head of an increasing force of marauders. Colonel Wellesley was, therefore, directed to take the field against him, and with his usual energy and promptitude, pursued him without the relaxation of a day for four months, from district to district, and at length brought him to bay on the 10th September, 1800. With four regiments of cavalry, European and Native, he completely defeated and dispersed 5,000 of Dhoondia’s horse. The freebooter fell in the action, and the insurrection, which, without this vigorous effort, might have ended in the establishment of a hostile power, was completely suppressed.

Cession of Territory by the Nizam

By the treaty concluded with the Nizam, on the 1st September, 1798, the new subsidiary force, which took the place of the disbanded French battalions, was placed on the same footing with the regiments previously in his service, and restricted from acting against the Mahrattas. The minister was no stranger to their insatiable rapacity, and the recent refusal of the Peshwa to admit the arbitration of the British Government for the settlement of his demands on the Nizam, plainly indicated the treatment which he had to expect from the Mahratta powers. He therefore proposed to the Resident that the subsidiary force should be augmented, more especially in the cavalry arm, and that territory should be substituted for the subsidy in money which was then paid for its maintenance. The proposal was most welcome to Lord Wellesley. He felt that the cash payments might be precarious, and that the conveyance of so large a sum month by month from the treasury to the

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residency would be a source of constant irritation, which might ripen into political embarrassments. The negotiation occupied little time, and it was speedily arranged that in lieu of the payment of forty lacs of rupees a-year, districts yielding sixty-three lacs of annual revenue should be ceded in perpetual sovereignty to the Company, and that the remaining territories of the Nizam should be unreservedly guaranteed by the British Government against the encroachment of every enemy. The territory thus transferred by him consisted of the districts he had obtained from Mysore by his alliance with the British in the wars of 1792 and 1799. The exchange was beneficial to both parties. The dominions of the Company were extended on the north to the Toombudra and the Kistna, and being surrounded on three sides by the sea, included every harbour in the peninsula. The Nizam was relieved from all further anxiety regarding the interminable demands of the Mahrattas, without the alienation of any portion of his patrimonial possessions; and although, by relinquishing the military defence of his kingdom, and the right of foreign negotiations, he ceased to be one of the substantial powers of India, the transaction proved the salvation of his throne. Every other native power throughout the Deccan, from the Nerbudda to Cape Comorin, has been blotted out of existence, while the descendant of the Tartar Chin Kilich Khan still continues to occupy the musnud of Hyderabad, though with diminished splendour.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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