and desired to seat himself on the other end of the same cushion. The governor-general's letter was then placed between them. Coffee and pipes were introduced; and after the lapse of nearly an hour, it was announced that the king himself was seated on the throne, and that he was prepared to receive the English envoy in the DewanKhana, or hall of audience.

"Conducted by the Chamberlains, or masters of the ceremonies, Malcolm advanced, wearing the uniform of an English officer.* The audience-chamber was at the further end of a great square, in various parts of which the officers of the court were marshalled according to their respective ranks. It was a lofty chamber, profusely ornamented, in one corner of which the king, gorgeously attired, and one blaze of jewellery, was seated upon his cushioned throne.† As Malcolm advanced, attended by the masters of the ceremonies--one of the officers of the court bearing the governor-general's letter on a golden salver-he uncovered his head whenever they made obeisance. As he neared the throne, a herald proclaimed that Captain John Malcolm was come from the Governor-General of India to see his Majesty of Persia. "He is welcome," replied the king. Then Malcolm walked up to the door of the audience-chamber, made a low bow, advanced to the centre of the room, and then took the seat provided for him. The gentlemen of his suite sat at a distance below him. The prime minister received the Governor-General's letter, and presented it to the king, who ordered it to be opened; and one of the secretaries of state then broke the seal, and read it with a very loud voice, in a clear and distinct manner.

Having repeated his expressions of welcome, the king enquired after his Majesty of England; hoped that King George was in good health: asked how many wives he had; and put some perplexing questions respecting the manners of our Court. Then having inquired after the treatment which the ambassador had received on his journey, and how he liked the climate of the country, his Majesty spoke of the friendship which had always subsisted between Persia and Great Britain, and of the pleasurable feelings with which he contemplated its establishment on a firm basis. But beyond these general expressions of good feeling, nothing passed at the interview, relating to business of state. Malcolm, however, had every reason to congratu late himself on his reception. The affability with which the king had discoursed with him was declared to be " gracious beyond example."

On the 27th of November, the ambassador was again received by the monarch, and on this occasion, presented the magnificent

* "Mehedi Ali Khan had endeavoured to persuade Malcolm to array himself in costly apparel, more in accordance with the ideas of the people than his plain soldier's uniform. But he laughed to scorn all such mummery, and declared that he would appear at the Persian Court as an Englishman and a soldier."

† “‘The King,' wrote Malcolm in his journal, has a fine countenance and an elegant person. He was dressed with a magnificence which it is impossible to describe-being covered with jewels, many of which are those of Nadir Shah. His dress could not be worth less than a million sterling.'"

presents with which he was charged. These were graciously accepted, and the king spent an hour in affable conversation with the ambassador.

We cannot dwell upon the various events that occurred during the sojourn of Malcolm at the Persian Court. Enough to say that a commercial and a political treaty were prepared, discussed, altered and re-altered, and at length concluded, signed and sealed. Malcolm gained golden opinions for himself. The nobles vied with each other in sumptuous hospitality. The king himself was evidently pleased with his manly and joyous spirit; " and when," says his biographer," he assured Malcolm, at parting, that he should ever feel the warmest interest in his welfare, the words were more truly spoken than are commonly the compliments of kings." The treaties being concluded at the end of January, 1801, Malcolm set out at once on his return to India, vid Baghdad, Bussorah and Bushire; and after various adventures, and a stormy voyage in a leaky ship, he reached Bombay on the 13th of May.

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On his arrival at Bombay, Malcolm was summoned to Calcutta to give an account of his mission, and had the satisfaction of receiving from the Governor-General assurances of his unqualified approbation of his proceedings. Lord Mornington, now become Lord Wellesley, also promised him the first appointment worthy of his acceptance, that might be vacant. En attendant, he appointed him to act as his own private secretary, during the absence of his brother, Mr. Henry Wellesley. This office is one whose holder may be every thing or nothing, according to the disposition of his chief. With Wellesley Malcolm was every thing, "dimidium melius sui.” Honored and trusted by his Lordship, sharing with him the cares and the labors of the government of a great empire at a critical time, it is refreshing to see the constancy with which Malcolm's thoughts reverted to the old parlour at Burnfoot. It was now in his power to contribute handsomely to the increase of the material comforts of his parents and sisters; but we may be sure that his liberal remittances had little share in the production of the intense joy that his letters diffused in the old home. It is said that success is, with the public, the sole test of generalship. With the public it may be so, but not with mothers and sisters; and if Malcolm had been, not the most prosperous man in India,-as he was-but suffering under reproach and penury, these kindly judges would have brought in a verdict, finding him, as an Indian Court, at a later period, found a notable character, "the victim of circumstances." But when they learned that "Jock," who twenty years before had been "at the bottom" of half the boyish mischief in the parish of Westerkirk, was now very near the top of the government of a vast empire, they could only wonder and thank God.

Shortly after Malcolm's appointment to the Private Secretaryship, he accompanied the Governor-General on a trip to the N. W. Provinces; the main object of which was the settlement of Oude, that "Ireland" of India, whose management has, for half a century, been the grand test of the powers of each successive administration. In the course of the slow journey up the river, Malcolm was the confidential adviser of his Lordship, in regard to matters of great moment, which were then pressing upon his mind. These related not only to the settlement and administration of the country, but also to the relations between the home and the local authorities. We may state generally, -for we cannot afford to enter at all on the discussion of the matter that the Court of Directors had conceived a strong prejudice against the officials at Madras; especially against Lord Clive, the Governor; Mr. Webbe, the Chief Secretary; and Mr. Cockburn, the president of the Revenue Board. Lord Wellesley was led, both by principle and interest, to stand by these men ;-by principle, because he regarded them as the victims of injustice,by interest, not selfish but patriotic, because he considered their remaining in the country to be essential to the good of the country. It was too evident that a most disastrous collision between the Court and the Indian Governments might ensue. Thus there were long and earnest conferences, every day and all day, between the Governor-General and his private secretary. At last it was deemed necessary that Malcolm should proceed to Madras; and he parted with the Governor-General at Allahabad, and returned by dâk to Calcutta, whence he sailed at once for Madras, and reached it on the 26th of January, 1802. Employed there in a matter of exceeding delicacy and considerable difficulty, Malcolm acquitted himself to the entire satisfaction of the Governor-General who had sent him, and of those to whom he was sent. One point in the negotiations involved no little selfdenial on Malcolm's part. It was Lord Wellesley's earnest desire that Mr. Webbe should remain in India. But as chief secretary at Madras he could not remain, because the Court of Directors had sent out a gentleman expressly to supersede him. Now the Residency of Mysore was about to become vacant, by the removal of Col. Close to Poonah. It had been fixed that Malcolm was to succeed to this office, one of the best in point of remuneration, and one of the most honorable in point of distinction, in the service. Now Malcolm was instructed to urge upon Mr. Webbe the acceptance of this office, to which he had himself been all but appointed; and he did plead with Webbe to accept the office, and pleaded so earnestly that he prevailed. We do not give him extravagant praise for this self-denying conduct; because we have never in India

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, But this winning golden opinions from all descriptions of men. 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. It 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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