soldier and a diplomatist; but he was not a financier. He probably did not know the full extent of the financial difficulty with which Barlow had to contend; and if he had known it, he probably would not have been willing to acknowledge that it could not be surmounted.

But while we are prepared to vindicate Sir George Barlow thus far, we cannot but think that he passed over the line that separates moderation from pusillanimity, when he resolved to withdraw the shield of British protection from those petty states with whom we had been in alliance. This was simply ceding their territories to Holkar; and was, in our estimation, at once a crime and blunder. So thought Lord Lake and Colonel Malcolm ; and many a" wigging" was administered to the latter for the freedom with which he expressed his sentiments. That these sentiments were always expressed with perfect temper, and with due official deference, we will not assert. Malcolm was indeed a Tory, and therefore well disposed to submit to legitimate authority; but still he had stood his ground unflinchingly against the man in all the world whom he most venerated, and whom he regarded with feelings which, in these days of independence and "the points of the charter," will probably be regarded by some as verging upon servility; and it was not very likely that he would defer more, or so much, to a man whom he must have regarded as belonging to his own class, and with whom he had been accustomed to associate on terms of familiarity and equality. Moreover Mal.. colm must have regarded Barlow as a renegade from the principles of the Wellesley administration; and this was what he could not tolerate. The "wiggings" that he received, therefore, fond as he was of approbation and applause, and sensitive as he was of blame or censure, he learned to regard as honorable to himself, and thought himself, in some sort, a martyr for those principles to which he was "faithful found, 'mid many faithless." It was with sore hearts that Lord Lake and he heard the remonstrances of the agents of the native chiefs against our breach of faith, and could not deny that the accusations were just. "It is the first time," said the agent of one of these chiefs, "that the British 'Government has ever abandoned an ally from motives of mere convenience." And Malcolm echoed the sentiment with a bitter sense of shame and humiliation. "This is the first measure of the kind," he wrote, "that the English have ever taken in India, and I trust in God it will be the last." With these feelings, obliged to act ministerially in a case against which his heart and his judgment alike revolted, with his health broken by incessant toil, it may be easily supposed that Malcolm longed for the time when he might return to Mysore, and occupy himself with the history of Persia.

"Malcolm himself was eager to return to Mysore, and be quiet. SEPT., 1857.

B B

His health was failing him again; he had overworked himself, and he could look only to rest as a restorative. But there was one special and highly important duty which detained him in Upper India. After the conclusion of the peace with Holkar, the army had marched back to the provinces, and Malcolm, still at the elbow of the Commander-in-Chief, had accompanied it. Not merely were the final arrangements of which he was the unwilling agent, with respect to the Western Alliances, to be carried out, but the great work of reducing the irregular troops was to be accomplished under his directions. Among the many services which he rendered to the State, this though it makes little show in a work of biographywas not the least arduous in performance, or the least important in result. His efforts in this direction were unwearied, and they were crowned with a success which exceeded the most sanguine hopes of the Government. By the 1st of April, little remained of the immense body of irregulars which had so encumbered our finances, beyond a single corps (Skinner's), and the monthly expenditure had been reduced from four lakhs to 35,000 rupees.

war.

"At the same time the provincial battalions, to which the internal defence of Upper India had been entrusted, were being disbanded. A vast amount of other detail-business also devolved upon Malcolm— business connected with the numerous claims of individuals for reward or compensation for services rendered or injuries sustained during the Jagheers were to be granted to some; pensions or gratuities to others. Every man's claim was to be sifted to the bottom. The Governor-General might differ in opinion from Malcolm regarding the political system most advantageous, in its application, to the interests of the State, but he could not withhold his approbation from the zealous and successful exertions which that good and faithful servant was making to wind up all the multitudinous affairs, political and financial, which remained to be adjusted,—the sequelæ of a three years' war. Lord Lake had ever delighted to acknowledge the important assistance he had received from Malcolm; and now the Governor-General-in-Council declared that "they had great pleasure in expressing their high approbation of the activity, diligence, ability, and judgment manifested by Colonel Malcolm in discharge ' of the arduous, laborious, and important duties connected with the arrangements for the reduction of the irregular troops, and for the assignment of rewards and provisions to such individuals as had ' received promises, or had established claims upon the Government by their conduct during the war, and concur in opinion with his Lordship (Lord Lake) that Colonel Malcolm has accomplished these objects in a manner highly advantageous to the interests, and 'honorable to the reputation, of the British Government; and con'sider that officer to have rendered essential public services by his indefatigable and successful exertions in the accomplishment of these important arrangements."

'

6

At the end of June, Malcolm left Lord Lake at Cawnpore, and proceeded by boat to Calcutta. Here his reception by his numerous friends was cordial, and by the Governor-General

6

polite and respectful. Between Barlow and Malcolm, there was decidedly what is very conveniently termed a misunderstanding, which, while it prevented any great amount of personal cordiality between them, made them both doubly careful to fail in no point of public and official recognition. Malcolm's desire and intention were to proceed, without delay, to Mysore, and Barlow would have been glad on some accounts to have him there. But he could not dispense with his presence in Calcutta. Holkar was shewing his teeth again; and although Barlow would not consent to act upon Malcolm's advice, he felt that he would not be justified in declining to avail himself of his knowledge. "I do not think it probable," says he, in a letter to Lord Wellesley," that any opinions of mine will ever be adopted in a manner beneficial to the public interests; every statement is favorably received, and its truth and justice acknowledged; but it is first modelled with a view of reconciling its adoption to prior proceedings, and next with that of suiting it to the palate of the Directors; and after undergoing this alterative course, it cannot be supposed to retain much of its original 'character." Altogether, Malcolm was at this time under a cloud; and his main consolation seems to have been in unburdening his mind in long letters to the Marquis and Sir Arthur Wellesley. In addition to the apprehensions that he felt for the safety of the state as threatened by Holkar, he shared with all men in those days, the alarm excited by the mutiny of Vellore. The threatenings without, and the troubles within our borders, led him to look with eager desire to the Wellesleys, and he earnestly desired that Sir Arthur should be sent to Madras, as Governor and Commander-in-Chief. This measure he agitated with characteristic zeal. "Sir Arthur Wellesley would have returned to India if he had been invited; but his friends thought that he could render more essential service to his country nearer home." The following extract of a letter from Sir Arthur has an affecting interest in these days:

"Alas! my dear Malcolm, what is come over the army of Fort St. George? What are we to believe? Is it possible that the princes at Vellore can have corrupted the detachment at Hyderabad at the distance of 500 miles? Surely these princes, in confinement, and possessing but limited pecuniary means, could never have had the power of creating a general interest in their favor throughout the whole of the native army of Fort St. George, dispersed as it is over thousands of miles! I am all anxiety upon this subject, and yet I have not received a line from a soul. Nobody believes the accounts which have been received from India upon this subject, notwithstanding the character and credit of those who have transmitted them; and the mind of every man is filled with suspicion

and alarm. Surely the brave fellows who went through the difficulties and dangers of the Mahratta campaign, cannot have broken their allegiance! I can never believe it till I see it proved in the clearest manner.

Thus in these latter days, men have been reasoning a priori, believing in part, yet striving to unbelieve, considering things to be impossible whose possibility has been vouched by their actuality. In the same letter from which this extract is taken, Sir Arthur intimates that the Government had some thoughts of sending an embassy to Persia, and that Sir Arthur was exerting himself to secure that the ambassador should be, not Mr. Harford Jones, as was proposed, but Colonel Malcolm.

At length, nothing loth, Malcolm left Calcutta, reached Madras on the 14th of January, 1807, and on the 21st of March, left it for Mysore. His purpose now was to remain quietly at his Residency for a year, recruit his finances, which had been somewhat impaired by the expenses which he had been obliged to incur in northern India, and then retire to old England and otium cum dignitate. We cannot, at this stage of our article, afford to indulge in disquisition, else we might shew that Malcolm was in error; that the true otium for him was negotium; that the dignity that was most suited to his taste, was what is called in these days the dignity of labor. He soon felt this himself. Mysore was too quiet for him. He was not the kind of man who, when there was nothing to do, could do it well. And in Mysore there was nothing to do but to let well alone. We find him therefore suggesting that he should be sent at the head of a small force to Bussorah, in order to divert the attention of Turkey, and compel the Sultan to withdraw from his connexion with Buonaparte. This proposal was made on the 6th of May, and repeated on the 25th. How then are we to account for the change that seems to have come over the mind of the writer, when Lord Minto arrived at Madras in the course of the following month, and when he wrote to his son and private secretary, begging him not to put him in the way of active employment, as his desire was now to spend a short time quietly in Mysore, and then to retire to a cottage on the lovely banks of the Eske? The solution is not difficult. There was to be love in that cottage. To make a long story short-and after the manner of India in those days, it was not a very long storyMalcolm had become acquainted with Miss Charlotte Campbell, daughter of Colonel Campbell, of H. M.'s 74th regiment, (afterwards Sir Alexander Campbell, Bart. and K. C. B., and Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army.) The acquaintance had sprouted up into friendship, the friendship had grown up into love,

and the love was about to effloresce into the orange-blossoms of marriage. And accordingly on the 4th of July, Miss Charlotte Campbell became Mrs. John Malcolm, the soldier's daughter became the soldier's wife,-an help-meet for her husband. "After so many years of stirring and trying work, the enjoyment of a few months of repose was, perhaps, the best service ' he could render to the state. But he soon felt that he was again ready for a life of action. There was a new incentive to exertion. The once cherished idea of a speedy return to England was abandoned. So Malcolm again turned his thoughts towards some extensive scene of action, on which new honors might be gained to ennoble the name he had given to his wife." And such a scene was soon to offer itself. The peace

of Tilsit had brought France and Russia into alliance; and it was not doubtful that they contemplated a combined attack upon India. To resist such an attack, Lord Minto determined to strengthen our alliance with the powers on our western and north-western borders; and in order to this end he resolved to send Charles Metcalfe to the Punjaub, Mountstuart Elphinstone to Affghanistan, and Colonel Malcolm to Persia. A few pages back we stated that it was the design of the Home authorities to send an ambassador to Persia, and that Sir Arthur Wellesley had exerted his influence to secure the nomination for Malcolm in preference to Mr. Harford Jones. Mr. Kaye, after stating that it seemed a mere matter of course that Malcolm should be selected for the Persian embassy, goes on to say:

"But there were other and higher authorities, and it was possible for them to ignore, or to reject, Malcolm's claims, and to think of another ambassador. Lord Minto, before leaving England, had urged those claims upon the King's ministers and the Court of Directors, and Sir Arthur Wellesley had done the same. But they had failed. The fact is that Malcolm, though perhaps the most popular man in India, was not popular in the regions of Leadenhall-Street and Whitehall. He had the reputation of being an able, an energetic, but an unsafe man. By unsafe they meant extravagant. They believed that on his former mission to Persia he had spent a large sum of public money; and they determined now to despatch to Teheran one with less magnificent notions of the greatness of England and the dignity of an ambassador. There was a gentleman then in England ready to their hand and fit for their purpose. Mr. Harford Jones had resided for many years in a mixed political and commercial capacity on the shores of the Persian gulf; he was not without a certain kind of cleverness, but it had never obtained for him any reputation in India, and among the Persians themselves his standing had never been such as to invest him with any prestige of authority, or to secure for him general respect. What it was