CHAPTER VI.

Sir John Shore resigns the office of Governor-General of India.—Is created Lord Teignmouth.-Mysterious Proceedings relative to the Appointment of his Successor.-Lord Macartney passed over.-The Pretensions of Lord Hobart overlooked.-Appointment of Marquess Cornwallis announced.-The Appointment rescinded.-The Earl of Mornington finally appointed.-Alleged Intrigues examined.-Lord Mornington's Qualifications.-Letter of Marquess Cornwallis.—Mr. Mill's Assertion that Lord Mornington went out to India unacquainted with its Affairs -His Lordship's Experience at the India Board, his constant Communication with Mr. Dundas, Marquess Cornwallis, &c.—Arrives at the Cape. Is received most cordially by Lord Macartney.-The Embassy to China.-Wars of Hyder Ali.-Letter and Latin Verses of Lord Macartney.-Lord Mornington meets at the Cape Lord Hobart and General Baird.-Conversations with them on the State of India.-Meets by accident Major Kirkpatrick, late Resident at the Court of Hyderabad (i e. of the Nizam, Soubadahr of the Deccan).— Institutes an Inquiry into the state of the French Force in the service of the Nizam.-Danger to British Interests from the Presence of French Officers and Engineers in the Armies of the Native Princes. -Lord Mornington, while at the Cape, addresses Mr. Dundas on the French Forces employed by the Nizam, Tippoo Sultaun, &c., &c. -Thorough Knowledge of the Politics of India therein exhibited. Observations on Mr. Mill's Reflections on Lord Mornington.-His Lordship records his Opinion of the great value of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope to Great Britain.-Sails from the Cape.

EARLY in the year 1797, Sir John Shore resigned the office of Governor-General of India, and in the beginning of 1798, sailed for England, having transferred the Government to Sir Alured Clarke, the Commander-in-chief of the Forces, and Vice-President of

the Council.

Sir John Shore was the eldest son of John Shore, Esq. of Melton in the county of Suffolk. In early life he proceeded to India as a writer, and rose by the force of his own efforts, till at length he attained the high dignity of Governor-General-the powers of which office have been well said to partake of the character of those of an independent sovereign.* In 1792 he succeeded. Lord Cornwallis, and was created a Baronet; he was subsequently created an Irish Peer with the title of Baron Teignmouth.

A degree of mystery hung over the appointments of several of the Governors-General prior to 1797. After the return of Mr. Warren Hastings, Lord Macartney was appointed to the office: the commission had passed the Great Seal of the Company; but from some cause, never very satisfactorily explained, his Lordship was superseded before he entered on his official duties, and the Marquess Cornwallis became Governor-General. It was generally supposed that Lord Hobart, who had gained some éclat by the promptitude evinced by him. in the seizure of the Dutch settlements in Ceylon, &c. as soon as he received intelligence of the commencement of hostilities between Holland and England, would have succeeded Lord Cornwallis,-his Lordship having actually been officially nominated as his successor on the 24th of December 1793. As we have seen, however, a civil servant of the Company, recommended by his intimate knowledge of the revenue system, (Sir J. Shore,) was preferred to him: it was said that, enjoy

See the Opinion of R. RYDER, Esq., of Lincoln's-inn-Fields, on a Case submitted to him as to the Legality of Major-General WELLESLEY'S Appointment by his Brother in 1803; vol. ii.

ing honourable and affluent prospects at home, and fulfilling an office of high dignity and trust, Lord Hobart would not have left England for less than an assurance that the highest place in India was reserved for him: this perhaps was true; but the reasons which induced the authorities in Leadenhall-street and Downing-street to disappoint his Lordship's expectations, must be sought for in the motives which dictated his recal from the Government of Madras. On the resignation of Sir John Shore, Lord Cornwallis was nominated a second time to the offices of GovernorGeneral and Commander-in-chief! Under the circumstances, the appointment was considered an extraordinary one, and it of course gave rise to much speculation and conjecture among political circles at the time. What tended to render the matter still more mysterious was, that the Marquess Cornwallis did not act upon the commission which he had received. After an interval of doubt, and (according to those virtuous critics who are accustomed to draw unfavourable inferences from any fluctuations of counsel in cabinets) of "ministerial intrigue," it was announced by the Directors, "that various circumstances had induced the Marquess Cornwallis to resign his appointments;" and that "under circumstances and for reasons of a peculiar nature," the Earl of Mornington had been appointed Governor-General. The truth appears to be this: Lord Teignmouth was desirous of enjoying his newlyacquired honours at home; Lord Hobart, who had been involved in some unpleasant altercations with the Supreme Government and the Court of Directors, was not an acceptable person to the Company; and

Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas clearly saw that the exigencies of the times required greater energies than Lord Cornwallis was then capable of bringing to bear on the Government of India.*

Lord Mornington was appointed Governor-General of India on the 4th of October, 1797; and, having been raised to the dignity of a peer of Great Britain, with the title of Baron Wellesley, Earl of Mornington in the peerage of Ireland, sailed from England on the 7th of November following. It has been asserted by Mr. Mill, that his Lordship "had possessed but little time for acquainting himself with the complicated affairs of India, when all his attention was attracted to a particular point." But little time for acquainting himself!-No assertion could possibly have been more groundless. Lord Mornington had been an active and indefatigable member of the Board of Control from 1794 to the time of his being sworn as Governor-General; he had acquired a thorough knowledge of all the details of the Indian Government, under the able direction of Mr. Dundas (afterwards Lord Melville.) Every document connected with our Indian empire during that eventful period, must have come under his observation he was on terms of inti

In a letter written by Lord Cornwallis to the Earl of Mornington, dated, Dublin Castle, March 18th, 1798, his Lordship says: "My dear Lord I little thought when we parted, that my first letter to you would have been dated from this place; but my evil stars have determined that I never should enjoy quiet or comfort, and after relieving me from what I then thought a painful task (a second embarkation to India), have driven me into a situation ten times more arduous, and in every respect more intolerable." It is painful to reflect that this aged nobleman was induced again to go out to India in 1805,-there to sink under his accumulated cares and infirmities.

macy with Marquess Cornwallis; and as a member of the Government in 1793, had necessarily acquainted himself with the whole case of India, so frequently discussed on the renewal of the Company's charter in that year. It is quite obvious, that Lord Mornington possessed unusual facilities for gaining an intimate knowledge of the empire that it was his destiny to rule over; and it was owing to the rare combination of talents of the first order with thorough information as to the condition of India, that Mr. Pitt and his colleagues reposed such entire confidence in his Lordship.

Lord Mornington arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in the month of February, 1798, and had the good fortune to meet there some persons peculiarly well able to afford him an insight into the affairs of India. Lord Macartney, who had filled the office of Governor of Madras during the second war of Hyder Ali, and who had himself been nominated to the post of Governor-General, was at this time at the head of the Government at the Cape, and received Lord Mornington with the utmost friendship and hospitality.* Lord Hobart, who had just been recalled from the Government of Madras, was then also at the Cape of Good Hope on his return from India; and the gallant MajorGeneral David Baird, who had been a captive in the dungeons of Seringapatam, and a victim of the relentless hatred of Tippoo Sultaun to the English, had arrived but a few weeks previously at that settlement.

Lord

. In a letter written from his seat in Ireland to the Marquess Wellesley, Lord Macartney (whose celebrated embassy to Pekin, in 1793, will not be forgotten by the reader) sends the Governor-General a spe