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been without men willing to sacrifice their own interests to those of the public service. But we ought to mention that there were two circumstances which made the sacrifice peculiarly trying to Malcolm. The first was that Lord Wellesley did not intend to remain long in the country, and there might probably be no other vacancy to which he could appoint Malcolm, and certainly none so desirable in every way as this. The other was that he had already informed his friends in Scotland of his nomination to this office; and it was impossible to make them understand the reasons why the appointment had not taken place :

"I know, my dear Colonel," said he, writing to Col. Kirkpatrick, "that you will feel this arrangement most severely in many respects, and in none more than as it affects me. This you must explain, particularly to Mr. John Pasley and my other friends. As they are under an impression, from letters which I cannot now re-call, that I am actually fixed as Resident at Mysore. Assure them that I consider my interests as little affected by the circumstances that have occurred, and that I continue to preserve what Mr. Pasley knows has ever been my primary object-Lord Wellesley's favor and confidence."

As we shall not advert to this matter again, we may mention here that Mr. Webbe, in the course of a few months, hearing that Mr. Henry Wellesley was about to return to the Private Secretaryship, sent the resignation of his office to Lord Wellesley, for the express purpose of enabling His Lordship to make a permanent provision for Malcolm before his depar ture from India. But ere this, Malcolm was occupied in other matters.

Having brought his negotiations at Madras to a satisfactory termination, Malcolm set off at once for Calcutta, and thence to join the Goveror-General, who was then on his return from Lucknow. Early in March, he joined his Lordship, and again took possession of the Private-Secretary's seat. And so, through the hot weather of 1802, he labored at his desk in Calcutta, winning golden opinions from all descriptions of men. But this was not long to continue.

The King of Persia had sent an ambassador to India, to return Malcolm's visit to Teheran. At Bombay, a body of Company's sepoys was appointed to attend on him. A quarrel ensued between them and his own Persian attendants. The quarrel led to a scuffle, and the scuffle to a fight. Musket-balls were flying "quite promiscuously," when the ambassador unwisely went out to attempt to quell the disturbance. No sooner had he appeared on the scene than a bullet struck him, and down he fell

dead. This was an emergency. The effect produced by this disaster is thus described by Mr. Kaye :

"It would be difficult to describe the sensation which this incident excited in the minds of all the European inhabitants of Bombay, from Governor Duncan down to the youngest ensign in the service. The whole settlement went into mourning. A frigate was despatched immediately to Calcutta to bear the melancholy tidings to the seat of the Supreme Government, and to seek for counsel in so unprecedented a conjuncture. The strongest minds in India were shaken by this terrible intelligence from Bombay. Even Lord Wellesley for a time was stunned and stupified by the disaster. A general gloom hung over the Presidency. Some spoke of the danger, some of the disgrace. To Malcolm the accident was peculiarly afflicting. He could not help feeling that the ambassador, though the guest of the nation, was peculiarly his guest. It was Malcolm's visit to Persia, which Hadjee Khalil Khan was returning, when he thus calamitously and ingloriously lost his life in a broil at the hands of one of our own people. He knew and he liked the man; but, beyond all, his heart was in the object of the Persian's mission. He saw now that all his own work was undone at a blow, just as the crown was about to be set upon it, and he knew not how long a time it might take to remedy the evil, even if the outrage did not lead to a total rupture with the Persian Court. "It brings sorrow to all," he wrote to Lord Hobart; "to me it brings the most severe distress. I see in one moment the labor of three years given to the winds (and that by the most unexpected and unprecedented of all accidents) just when it was on the point of completion."

Now Malcolm was the favorite adviser of Lord Wellesley on all occasions; and of course on a matter relating to Persia, his opinion was of the highest importance. So, after long and earnest conferences, it was agreed that the Private Secretary should proceed to Bombay, with a carte blanche, to do all that he might think necessary, in order to avert threatened calamity; and on the 30th of August, he embarked at Calcutta for Masulipatam. Thence he went at once to Hyderabad, where he had some work to do in conference with the Resident, Mr. Webbe. From Hyderabad he proceeded to Poonah, where also he had to hold conference with the Resident, Col. Close. In the course of his journey from Poonah to Bombay, an incident occurred, which would have tried the temper of most men; but Malcolm had the secret of being "jolly," under the most creditable circumstances. As he was quietly proceeding on his journey, dreaming of Burnfoot and Teheran, his palankin was surrounded by a body of cavalry and infantry, and he was made prisoner. appeared that a petty chief, expecting a general action between Holkar and Scindiah, had conceived the idea that the possession of a man of Malcolm's standing would enable him to make adSEPT., 1857.

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vantageous terms with the victor, and so he had sent out a party to apprehend him. He was taken to a remote village among the hills, where only one inhabitant had ever seen a white face. He managed to get a note sent off to Poonah, and remained, without fear as to the issue. As this was the first time since he left Eskdale, that he had had an opportunity of witnessing unsophisticated village-life, he entered with great zest into the spirit of it; and perhaps the time that he spent here, passed as pleasantly as any that he ever passed out of Eskdale. He ingratiated himself with men, women, and children; and we should not wonder, if any traveller should now visit this village, though he found a tradition handed down through the half-century that has passed since then, of the sojourn of such a guest among them. But such pleasure could not last long. Fifteen hundred men were sent from Poonah, and Malcolm was allowed to proceed on his journey. He promised to the chief to inform the resident at Poonah, that, though detained, he had been treated with kindness. For the detention this Rob Roy was condemned to a fine; for the kindness, to a fine only.

Without further adventure, Malcolm reached Bombay on the 10th of October, and found the Persians very clamorous on account of the death of their master, and the Europeans very much alarmed at their clamours. But Malcolm's arrival soon put matters to rights. He understood the Persians, and they partly understood him, or were soon made to do so. By the end of the month, he had sent off the body of the ambassador to Persia, had expressed in a letter to the king, and in letters to many of the nobles and the relatives of the deceased, the extreme regret of the Governor-General, the Governor of Bombay, himself, and the whole community, at the melancholy occurrence, and had liberally expended presents and promised pensions to relatives and attachés. Perhaps the last step was the most effective of all. The Persians, king and people, acknowledged that the death of the Hadji was such an accident as will happen in the best-regulated families, and the entente cordiale suffered no interruption. Having brought this matter to so satisfactory a termination, Malcolm left Bombay about the end of November, and the close of the year 1802 found him in deep conference with Lord Wellesley in Calcutta.

Matters of no ordinary magnitude formed the prevailing subject of these conferences. The great Mahratta war was about to blaze out, and Malcolm was to have his fair share in the dangers and the glory of it. Residency of Mysore at the end been appointed to succeed him. to be a non-resident Resident.

Mr. Webbe had resigned the of the year, and Malcolm had But he was destined for a time We must now endeavour, as

briefly as may be, to give our readers an idea of the position of the pieces on the board in the great game that was about to be played. Lord Wellesley was Governor-General; Lord Clive was Governor of Madras; General Lake was Commander-in-Chief in India; General Stuart was Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army; and under him General Arthur Wellesley and Colonel Stevenson were.in command of divisions of the army; Colonel Close was Resident at the Peishwa's court at Poonah; Colonel Collins (our old friend Jack Collins*) at that of Scindia; Mr. Webbe had been appointed to the Residency at the court of the Boonsla, or Raja of Berar, at Nagpore; and Major Malcolm stood appointed, as we have said, to succeed him as Resident at the court of the Raja of Mysore. Now some time before this, Scindia and the Peishwa had gone to loggerheads with Holkar, who had defeated their united forces in a smart action in the neighbourhood of Poonah. Holkar took possession of Poonah, but respected the flag on the British Residency. on the British Residency. The Peishwa fled, and after various adventures, threw himself on the protection of the English, by whom he was conveyed in a British ship to Bassein. Here, on the last day of 1802, he signed a treaty, which was intended to be the basis of a great league of the chief Indian powers, the English, the Peishwa, Holkar, Scindia, the Boonsla, and the Nizam, on the footing of the English being acknowledged the paramount power. The first step to be taken was therefore to re-instate the Peishwa at Poonah; and it was hoped that this might be effected by a mere demonstration of force, without actually letting slip the dogs of war. General Wellesley therefore marched for Poonah, and was joined on the way by Col. Stevenson from Hyderabad. Holkar had quitted Poonah, leaving it in charge of Amrut Rao, one of his generals, with orders to burn it, if a British force should approach. General Wellesley prevented this by the rapidity of his movements, and Amrut Rao marched out with his garrison of 1,500 men. This was on the 20th of April, 1803. On the 27th, the Peishwa left Bassein, attended by Colonel Close, and escorted by a body of British troops under the command of Col. Murray, and on the 13th of May, he took his seat on the Musnud in Poonah.

Malcolm had left Calcutta in the beginning of February, but did not reach Madras till about the end of the month. After a short stay there, he joined General Stuart's camp, and after spending two days with him, he pushed on to join General Wellesley, who was on his march for Poonah. With him he remained in a non-descript position. He was nominally Resident at Seringapatam, and in that capacity he had no business in

See Calcutta Review, Vol. XXIV. Art. "LORD METCALFE."

General Wellesley's camp. But both from his knowledge of the position that Malcolm held in the Governor-General's confidence, and from his own respect for his judgment and skill in oriental diplomacy, General Wellesley desired to have him with him. It is evident also from the Governor-General's letters addressed to Malcolm at this time, that he expected of him the performance of the duties of Governor-General's Agent, though it does not appear that he was formally appointed to this office. His official position was not very clearly defined, but he had abundance of work to do, and that was enough for him.

The position of the "pieces" was now this: The confederation was complete between the English, the Peishwa, and the Nizam. Holkar was hovering on the frontiers of the Nizam's territory, which Stevenson had been detached by General Wellesley to defend. Scindia and the Boonsla were each in the field, and it did not yet appear what steps they were to take. The months of May, June, and July were spent in negotiation; but without effect. On the 3rd of August, Colonel Collins quitted Scindia's court; on the 6th, this intelligence reached General Wellesley; Scindia and the Boonsla had thus deliberately chosen to stake their fortune on the hazard of the die of war. On the 8th, General Wellesley took up his position before the walls of Ahmednugger, and on the 12th, the British bunting was floating over the citadel. But Malcolm had no share in this capture. He was on a sick-bed. He had been for months suffering from dysentery, and although he had been now up and now down, and had been able to do a vast amount of most important service, the insidious foe had been steadily gaining ground. After struggling long, sustained by his constitution, his spirit, and the excitement of his work, he yielded at last to the solicitation of his friends, and left the camp on the day after the capture of Ahmednuggur. He proceeded to Bombay, and there he speedily recovered, so far that we find him writing to General Wellesley on the 7th of September: "I have been at my desk, writing letters to England, for six hours, and am not fatigued. I am not yet permitted to ride." Whether the favorable symptoms had been deceptive, or whether he had over-taxed his strength and brought on a relapse, we do not know; but it was months after this ere he was able to rejoin Wellesley's camp; and he missed the glorious battles of Assaye and Argaum. It was indeed a sore trial to a soldier to be doomed to inactivity while Lake fought Laswari, and Wellesley fought Assaye and Argaum. But these trials are not without their uses, and we doubt not that this trial was useful to Malcolm in various ways. At length, better but not yet well, he rejoined his old friend on the 16th of December. He was just in time to be too late, and too late to be in time. He heard from a

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