own prejudices, and some men of real piety and genius so far forgot the maxims both of religion and philosophy as confidently to ascribe the mournful event to the just vengeance of God, and to the horrors of an evil conscience. It is with very different feelings," adds Macaulay, "that we contemplate the spectacle of a great mind ruined by the weariness of satiety, by the pangs of wounded honour, by fatal diseases and more fatal remedies." In May, 1767, the amount of the Company's dividend was restricted by Parliament, in a Bill which restrained them from increasing it beyond ten per cent. till the next session of Parliament, and prohibited the voting of dividends save by ballot, in general courts specially summoned for that purpose. As this was the first instance in which Government had directly interfered with the Company in the management of their own revenue, it met with much opposition, especially in the Upper House, where the celebrated Earl of Mansfield stigmatised the measure as being, what it really was, an unjustifiable interference with the vested rights of private property. It was fully carried, however, and when about to expire was continued in force for one year more.

Defeated thus, the proprietors of Indian stock were compelled to listen to a compromise, and while the claims of the Crown to their territorial acquisitions remained undecided, became bound, in the terms of two successive Acts, to hand over to the Lords of the Treasury the sum of £400,000 per annum for two successive years, and afterwards for five years more, commencing in February, 1769. "They agreed, moreover, annually to export British merchandise to the amount of £380,837; not to augment their dividends beyond twelve and a half, per cent., by augmentations not exceeding one per cent. in one year; and after paying their simple contract debts, bearing interest, and reducing their bonded debt to the sum lent to Government, to furnish an additional loan to the latter of their surplus receipts at two per cent. interest. These arrangements were obviously made under the influence of the golden dreams which were at this time universally indulged in. The only thing in the Act which indicates some degree of distrust is a proviso that, if the dividend should fall below ten per cent., the payment into the exchequer should be proportionately reduced, and that, if the dividend should fall to six per cent., the payment should entirely cease. A still more unequivocal expression of distrust was given by the directors when, mainly on the ground of the unsatisfactory state of their finances, they adopted the extraordinary measure of sending out to India a commission of supervisors, with complete

powers to suspend, if necessary, even the presidents and councils, to investigate every department of affairs on the spot, and frame regulations adapted to the exigency of the circumstances."

These officials were Colonel Forde, Mr. Henry Vansittart, and Mr. Scrafton. They sailed from Spithead, 2nd of October, 1769, in H.M.S. Aurora; but, after touching at the Cape of Good Hope, 27th of December, she is supposed to have foundered at sea, in the Gulf of Sofala—at least she was heard of no more. William Falconer, her purser, author of "The Shipwreck," perished with her, as did also the Rev. William Hirst, M.A., chaplain to the commission, an excellent astronomer, who observed the transit of Venus at Madras in 1761, and in the Greenwich Observatory in 1769.

Now that they had begun the work of interference, Government knew not where to stop, and next sought to claim a share in Indian politics, and, as a prelude thereto, received with favour a request from the Company to have the use of twoships of the line and some frigates; but while the directors were congratulating themselves upon this welcome addition to their resources by sea, they were nonplussed by a message from ministers to the effect, that the naval commanding officer of these vessels should be invested with full powers as a plenipotentiary, to treat with native princes, and to decide all questions of peace or war, as the necessary result of a clause in the Treaty of Paris, by which His Britannic Majesty had agreed to acknowledge the legal titles of the Soubahdar of the Deccan, and of Mohammed Ali to the Nabobship of the Carnatic. The opposition of the Company was so strong and decided that, in the same year, 1767, the Cabinet agreed to modify their object; and Thomas, Viscount Weymouth (afterwards Marquis of Bath), volunteered, in the name of the latter, to explain "that the difficulty of a sole plenipotentiary, if it ever existed, is removed; the Crown does not wish to interfere with the powers of the commission (the supervisors); wants no authority over your servants, nor any direction or inspection of your commercial affairs; disclaims even a recommendation of any person to be employed in it; in short, only wishes to be enabled to assist you effectually; and, in order to that, finds it necessary to have a share in the resolutions and deliberations of the Company, merely with regard to the two objects of peace and war, when His Majesty's forces are to be employed."

Eventually, after much more debating, in 1770 the ministry sent out Admiral Sir John Lindsay, K.B., with some frigates, "to give countenance

and protection to the Company's settlements and affairs." The Company themselves had put all their own vessels of war in the Indian seas under the command of Sir John, who had been knighted for his gallant behaviour at the capture of the Havannah, and who was now appointed, by commission under the Great Seal, His Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary, with powers to negotiate and conclude arrangements with the sovereigns of India generally. Armed with such powers, Sir John Lindsay assumed an authority to which the presidency very imperfectly and most unwillingly submitted. Hence" quarrels arose, and each party determined to see as black what the other saw as white."

In truth, the appointment of Sir John Lindsay proceeded from a conviction existing in the mind of George III. and his cabinet, that a mere company of merchants ought not to be vested with the important right of having diplomatic relations with the reigning monarchs of India, and in part from the intrigues of the Nabob Mohammed Ali, who, for a considerable time, had actually a party and species of agency in London-where his enormous debts to the Company and also to private individuals, were a matter for much discussion before Parliament began to interfere in our Indian affairs-and where he was generally known, by the name of his capital, as the Nabob of Arcot.

While all these vexed discussions were in progress, and before the year preceding Lindsay's appointment closed, the Treaty of Madras had barely been signed, when the Mahrattas invaded Mysore.

The Peishwa Madhoo Rao led his army in person, and with cavalry as swift and active as those of Hyder, and much more numerous, swept all before him, capturing strong fortresses, and large towns, burning villages, and slashing off ears, noses, and lips, till this savage prince seemed to threaten Mysore with greater ruin than Hyder had brought upon the Carnatic.

In virtue of the Treaty of Madras, Hyder Ali now called upon the Council there to aid him with their troops; but the Council affirmed, and

135

apparently with truth, that Hyder had brought the war upon himself, by intending to begin an offensive war against the Peishwa, who had merely anticipated him, and by leaguing with certain discontented Mahratta chiefs. He was not engaged in a purely defensive war, therefore, they said, they were not bound to yield him succour.

Hyder's difficulties grew daily greater. He and Tippoo were defeated in many encounters, till the enemy were at last in possession of all Mysore, save Seringapatam, and some other strong fortresses. He offered treasure, and endeavoured to excite the alarm of the Council at Madras, by showing what turbulent and dangerous neighbours the Mahrattas would prove, if they succeeded in conquering and occupying Mysore; but every application remained unheeded, and to his rage they declined to aid him by a single fieldpiece, or sepoy, though when the Mahrattas began to menace the Carnatic, our troops were sent to the front and compelled them to fall back.

Madhoo Rao was forced to quit the field in consequence of ill health, and return to Poonah; but he left at the head of his army Trimbuck Rao, a great warrior, who was so successful that Hyder was eventually obliged to purchase peace, by the cession of a great part of his northern dominions, and the payment of fifteen lacs of rupees, or £150,000, with the promise of an equal sum at a future period.

By this he well understood that if he would preserve his territories from the most dreadful ravages, he must again pay the Mahrattas a great sum for their forbearance; but soon after the treaty of peace, the Peishwa Madhoo Rao died in his twenty-eighth year, and his widow burned herself on his funeral pile. He had been highly respected, and much beloved as a sovereign, having been-notwithstanding his savage warfare in Mysore-mild and equitable in his government, which was especially formed for the protection of the poor from oppression, and the equal maintenance of the rights of all classes.

And now, all immediate danger being removed for a time, Hyder Ali remained humble and quiet.

By the acknowledgment of Mohammed Ali as Nabob of the Carnatic, in the Treaty of Paris, an ample field for his ambition, in aspiring to be monarch of all Southern India, seemed to open up before that now little more than nominal potentate, who, while cherishing the most extravagant hopes in secret, felt galled and maddened by the control which the Company exercised over all his plans and movements; and he was ready to embrace any scheme which he conceived might give him those sovereign rights which not unnaturally he deemed his own. We have already said that he had a party and agency in London. Among his advisers was a Scotchman named Macpherson, son of the minister of Sleat, in Skye, who, in the year 1767, had come to Madras, as purser of the Company's ship Mansfield, commanded by his uncle, Captain Macleod. Having by some means been introduced to the nabob, Macpherson soon won so much of his confidence, that he sent him back to London, as his chief agent, with orders to prosecute his interests, and with letters direct to the premier, the Duke of Grafton, his object being, as he stated, to obtain relief from the oppressions under which he (the nabob) laboured. After having an interview with the duke, who proved remarkably suave and subservient to his visitor, the agent expatiated at great length on the high merits of the nabob, and was bold enough, in his name, to offer valuable presents to the minister and his secretary.

Instead of being offended, the duke accepted them, and spoke with great feeling of the stern oppression "which the princes of India laboured under, from the usurped authority of the commercial subjects of the state;" adding, finally, that it was his determination to use all his influence, as premier, in support of the interests of Mohammed Ali. While thus pledging himself to the nabob, says Beveridge, the Duke of Grafton was generous enough not to overlook the merits of his agent, and rewarded him for his attempt to undermine the Company by sending him back to India, early in 1770, with the appointment of a writer in their service; and to this contemptible intrigue, the conduct of the ministry in stealthily carrying out the scheme which they professedly abandoned interference with the Company, and the appointment of Lindsay as their plenipotentiary-must be

ascribed; and it is extremely probable that it is to the pen of Macpherson, or certainly one of his "party," we owe the following flowery description of the nabob, which appears in several London and Scottish prints of the time, as “by one who has a personal knowledge of the original," and is amusing from its bombast.

He

"Mohammed Ali Kawn, the reigning Nabob of the Carnatic, is the son of Anwar-ud-Deen Kawn, who, at eighty years of age, crowned a life of honour by a death of glory: he died in arms while he was defending a frontier of his country against his own and the natural enemy of Great Britain. His son, who succeeded to his station and virtues, is about five feet five inches in height; his mould and figure presenting an admirable union of manliness, ease, and elegance. His interior portrait is eminently legible to every intelligent beholder, as the benign emanations of a soul where justice, humanity, fortitude, and discernment are virtually enthroned and exerted. Dignity and condescension are seldom so happily combined as in this prince's whole manner and aspect. Noble, polite, and affable in his general address, whenever he unbends in the hours of innocent and sprightly relaxation, his deportment becomes inexpressibly engaging. has been equalled by some, but has been surpassed by none, in the filial, conjugal, and parental virtues. Repeated vicissitudes have left the visible traces of solicitude and retrospection on his countenance ; but his spirit is too sublime and active to languish under the influence of melancholy. . . . To these numerous virtues he has added the embellishments of his local, indeed, his Oriental literature, being well versed in the Persian and Arabian historians and poets, and possessed of a natural fund for the mental entertainments of others, in his good understanding, genuine wit, and a general taste and ingenuity. His genius, though uncommonly active, is by no means desultory, though he will indulge in bon mots with a visitor while dispatching letters of real business. In a word, if the interior perfection of a politician consists in a clear head and penetrating spirit, if his external advantages are comprehended in an engaging person, and an almost bewitching address, few princes have merited the character in a higher degree than Mohammed Ali Kawn."

This panegyric will be found at fuller length in the Scots Magazine for 1770, yet it is passed on

1771.]

137

This much belauded personage was yet to play a considerable part in our affairs in the East.

On anchoring at Madras, Sir John Lindsay lost little time in acquainting the Company, or the Council rather, with the great powers vested in him, as the plenipotentiary of the Crown, and as such, having full right to treat with the native princes, and also to inquire into the entire conduct of the late war; and that hence, they who had hitherto deemed themselves supreme within their own presidency, were to hold, for the future, but a very subaltern position.

Sir John added, that the Crown had entrusted him with royal letters and presents to Mohammed Ali, Nabob of the Carnatic; and, as in delivering them he was to act as the representative of His Majesty George III., it was plainly the duty of the Council to follow in his train. The latter were struck with indescribable surprise on hearing all this, and, after a time, plainly told Admiral Lindsay that they were resolved not to submit to this degradation.

Equally great were the astonishment and anger of the Court of Directors at Leadenhall Street, when, on the 22nd of March, 1771, they received from the Council the first intimation of the commission so surreptitiously given to the admiral, or, as he was generally called, Commodore Lindsay. "We must either have delivered to him our papers or not," ran the report; "we must either have rendered him an account of our transactions or not; we must have admitted him to have shared in our deliberations or not. There appeared to be no room for hesitation. We were charged with the Company's affairs-we had no instructions from our constituents. Their rights were attacked. We must either have supported them, or basely surrendered them. Our fortunes may be at stake in the issue; but were our lives at equal hazard, we should, without a moment's hesitation, have taken the part we have done. The die is cast; we must stand the issue."

Though this letter was somewhat rebellious in tone, on the 8th of April the directors addressed a letter to the Earl of Rochford, one of the principal secretaries of state, urging that Sir John Lindsay's singular appointment was a direct violation of the ministerial promise given to the Company, painting a disastrous view of its probable results, and * A. Dow's "History of Hindostan."

But the earl's reply was far from satisfactory, as the ministry insisted upon their right to appoint a plenipotentiary. In a quibbling way, the Court were told that Sir John Lindsay had been recalled, but that his commission would remain in force, as Sir Robert Harland, Bart. (another naval officer), had been appointed to succeed to it, and "beside the particular orders given him to promote, as far as possible, a strict union between the nabob and the servants of the Company, and to remove every suspicion of the Company lying under the king's displeasure, he had received instructions to make the support of their importance and honour in the eyes of all the powers in India, a principal point of his attention."

After these vague assurances had been given at Leadenhall Street, Sir Robert Harland, RearAdmiral of the Red (the only son of a distinguished naval officer of the same name), arrived at Madras on the 2nd of September, 1771, with a squadron of His Majesty's fleet, and, having doubtless secret orders, at once showed his resolution to endorse every measure sanctioned by Sir John Lindsay, who, in defiance of all existing obligations, had declared himself on the side of Mohammed Ali.

The details of all the correspondence that ensued between the Court of Directors, the Council, and Sir Robert Harland, would but weary the reader. Sir Robert is described as having been a very violent and headstrong man, who performed his duties often with more zeal and energy than wisdom. As in the month subsequent to his arrival, in the war we have already recorded, the Mahrattas were in possession of all Mysore, save Seringapatam and a few of the stronger forts, and were already menacing the Carnatic, he represented the state of neutrality as highly perilous, and in defiance of the Treaty of Madras, hotly urged the presidency to conclude an alliance with the conquering Peishwa, and leave Hyder to his fate.

Supported in their views by the other presidencies, the Council of Madras rigidly declined to have any part in the war against Hyder, or to form a new treaty with the Peishwa. The land forces of the Company, they urged, were not at the disposal even of the king's plenipotentiary; and they were only sent, as we have said, towards the frontiers to protect the Carnatic.

While the war was being waged between Hyder and the Mahrattas, the Rajah of Tanjore had attempted to seize some territory belonging to, or