of the Bill respecting the zemindars, he entered his strongest protest; the zemindars ought, in his opinion, to be rated by a fixed rule of past periods, and not of a vague and indefinite future inquiry. The new tribunal he stigmatised as a screen for delinquents; as a palpable and unconstitutional violation of the sacred right of a trial by jury. Since no man was to be tried but on the accusation of the Company or the Attorney-General, he had only to conciliate Government in order to his remaining in perfect security. It was a part of a general system of deception and delusion, and he would venture to pronounce it a bed of justice, where justice would for ever sleep."

Eventually so many amendments were made to the bill, that Sheridan remarked humorously, "that twenty-one new clauses were added to it, which were distinguished by the letters of the alphabet; and he begged some gentleman to suggest three more, in order to complete the hornbook of the present Ministry." On the motion of commitment the numbers were, Ayes, 276; Noes, 61; and it was carried in triumph to the House of Peers, where, after an opposition, vigorous in point of exertion, but feeble in regard of numbers, the bill passed into law on the 9th of August, 1784; it received the royal assent on the 13th, and now ranks in the statute book as 24 Geo. III., c. 25. Thus the new bill for the government of India had become an accomplished fact ten months before Warren Hastings again trod English soil.

On the latter quitting Bengal, without waiting for a regularly appointed successor, Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Macpherson, the same gentleman who in times past had been intriguing with the Ministry for the "Nabob of Arcot," as he was named, acted as Governor-General until the arrival of Lord Cornwallis; and in the interval the Mahrattas, under Mahadajee Scindia captured Agra, which remained in their possession until 1803.

About the same time the Bombay Government sent 200 European troops and 500 sepoys to take possession of the little isle of Diego Garcia, one of the Chagos Archipelago, in the Indian Ocean, an immense chain known to the Arabs as "the Eleven Thousand Islands." This islet lies about 200 leagues north-east of the Isle of Bourbon, and the Marquis de Bussy had permitted some French and negroes to settle there, merely to ascertain to whom it belonged. The British alleged that they required it as a watering place; but the French Ministry protested against this, supposing we might make it a lodgment for troops to attack the Isles of France and Bourbon. Eventually, it was used as a place of exile for the lepers of the Mauritius.

It was during the short administration of Macpherson that we obtained, in a somewhat singular manner, possession of Penang, or Prince of Wales | Island, on the western coast of the Malay Peninsula, having an area of about 155 square miles, and now deemed one of the loveliest places in the eastern world. Yet a portion of the island is sterile and covered with a forest of tall trees. It consists chiefly of a central mountain range, exquisitely diversified with plains, valleys, and rivers, and having a delightful climate. "The mountainous cone which commands the island," says Doctor Yran, "is divided into climatic zones, with as much regularity as the scale of a thermometer. At the foot of this volcanic elevation you find the warm temperature of the oceanic regions; at its summit, the tonic freshness of Laguna or Salassy; a bracing climate which invigorates without the painful contractions occasioned by our sharp winter cold. This paradise came into possession of the British by having been given by the King of Keddah as a wedding dower to his daughter, who married an Englishman. The happy husband, with the consent of his consort, named it Prince of Wales Island, and presented it to his country; and since then it has become a place of resurrection for the bold conquerors of India. The operation of

the climate is infallible. The organisation, debilitated by the humid heat of Calcutta, Madras, or Bombay, recovers here, as well as at Cape Town or Teneriffe, the energy which has been lost for years."

The Englishman referred to was Captain Francis Light, of the Company's service. The Bengal Government, seeing that the isle—which also bears the name of Betel-nut Island-was peculiarly adapted as a mercantile station for vessels from all the Malay ports, Borneo, Celebes, and the Philippines, did not hesitate to accept the offer made by Captain Light, with permission of the King of Keddah, a small state on the coast of Malacca, and tributary to the Kings of Siam (to whom he yearly sends a little tree of gold) and on the 12th of August, 1786, the captain landed at the head of a body of the Company's troops, and formally took possession of the island in the name of his Majesty, and immediately commenced to clear the country, cut down the wood, and construct a fort for the protection of his soldiers against any attempts of the Malay chiefs, who might be instigated by the Dutch to cut them off. This he named, in honour of the coming Governor-General, Fort Cornwallis. It is at the north-east point of the island; and was originally badly constructed, and though large sums have been spent on it since, it is still almost incapable of defence.

rumour, which originated in Paris, that there was a plan for the partition of India between Britain and France, as the basis of a perpetual alliance between the two countries. "This is intended to

be at the expense of the Dutch; and France supposes that England will accede to the proposal, from a resentment of the conduct of Holland in the late war."✶

CHARLES, VISCOUNT BROME, first Earl, and afterwards Marquis, of Cornwallis, was the second Governor-General of India, and the first who united his office with that of Commander-in-chief. He had been educated at Eton and the military school of Turin ; and after first joining the Guards, became a captain in the old 85th Regiment, which was disbanded in 1763, prior to which he had served under the Marquis of Granby, and became colonel of the 12th Foot, and afterwards of the 33rd. He was twice M.P. for the borough of Eye, in Suffolk; and when he took his seat in the House of Lords, became a supporter of Whig, or what would now be termed Liberal, principles; and he was ever opposed to the then fatal measures by which we lost our American colonies.

Notwithstanding the unfortunate manner in which the war in the United States ended in his hands, he was deemed so able an officer, that the Government thought themselves fully justified in trusting him with the supreme power in India; and he landed at Calcutta on the 12th of September, 1786, and after taking the requisite oaths, assumed the office of Governor-General in the land where he was fated to die. "Lord Cornwallis," says a writer, was highminded, disinterested in money matters, mild and equitable in temper, anxious to do good and prevent evil, steady and persevering in his application to business, and particularly distinguished by his sincere desire to maintain peace, and promote the welfare of our Indian subjects. Both the Parliament and the Company had recommended that no more wars should be undertaken for the extension of territory, and that leagues and alliances with the restless native powers should be avoided. His lordship himself certainly went to the Ganges with the hope of avoiding wars of conquest, and of keeping the whole of British India, and the states dependent upon it, in a happy condition of undisturbed peace. It was a pleasant vision; but it

soon vanished, and he found himself constrained to act in politics and war, and with reference to the native princes, in much the same manner as Mr. Hastings acted." The refusal of Lord Macartney to act as Governor-General of Bengal, except on such terms as the ministry deemed it inexpedient to grant, had kept that responsible office vacant till the earl accepted it, which he did with the full sanction of all interested in the welfare of India.

Pitt's India Bill of 1784 was now in full operation, and had been further aided and improved by other amending Acts passed in 1786. By these, several parts of the first bill were explained and improved, and the powers of the Governor-General were more enlarged and better defined than they were during the thirteen stormy years of Hastings' rule. He had the discretionary right of acting, in extraordinary cases, without reference to the Supreme Council; thus, the jealousies and incessant opposition that had been the bane of Hastings' existence, and of his official career, and which more than once had jeopardised our Indian dominions, were obviated or done away with. Moreover, the noble rank and general character of Earl Cornwallis, "while they placed him above the Ministers of the Crown, or the fear of the Court of Directors, commanded a respect from the civil and military servants of the Company, which, added to the increased powers with which he was vested, freed him from every shadow of opposition. He was enabled, from the same causes, to stimulate to exertion, by the distinction which his personal favour bestowed, the first talents in India.”

Three years of peace followed his first landing at Calcutta; and during that time his government became consistent and consolidated before the coming of that fierce rupture, at the bottom of which was the old intriguing spirit of France. Promises of assistance which his predecessor, Sir * Gentleman's Magazine, 1786,

we find the celebrated Charles Grant, afterwards Chairman of the Board of Directors, repairing, at the personal expense of 10,000 rupees, the Protestant Church of Calcutta, named the BethTepillah, or House of Prayer, which had become ruinous, and also rebuilding St. John's Church there, or, at least, largely contributing thereto.

A visit which was offered from Jewan Bukt Bahadur Shah, the heir apparent of Shah Alum, was declined by Cornwallis, as it was impossible for him to countenance certain schemes which he had in view to better himself. His aged father had never been his own master since he quitted the Company's protection; but had become a passive tool, that passed from hand to hand, as each revolution succeeded the other at Delhi; until he fell into the clutches of Gholam Kadir Khan (son of the Rohilla Nabob of Taharunpore), who had rebelled against him, and who now put out one of his eyes with his own dagger; and with this terrible exception, his person had been constantly in the possession of the Mahrattas. Some time before his death by fever at Benares, his son, Jewan the Shazada, had the interview he had besought with Lord Cornwallis, who was then making a tour in the north. His urgent application for troops and money for the purpose of re-establishing the throne of his forefathers, was met with a firm refusal. As a last favour, the humbled and fallen heir of the Great Mogul then begged that he might have an asylum within the British territories, in the event of his having to fly from his enemies. Cornwallis granted the request, which was reduced to writing, and signed by himself and the Council.

In the summer of 1789, Mr. John Shore, who had been acting chief of the Revenue Board till his return to Europe, in 1785, completed an arduous task which he had undertaken, and to which he had given every hour that he could spare from illness and official duty. This was the preparation of the Decennial, or, as it proved in the end, the Permanent Settlement of the Revenues of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa: "a measure affecting the property, and involving the multifarious and conflicting privileges of a population then amounting to nearly forty millions, including the inhabitants of the comparatively small portion of the territories in the Madras Presidency, to which it was subsequently extended. The extreme difficulty of effecting the proposed arrangement may be inferred from the failure of previous attempts to accomplish it, during the twenty-four years in which the revenues of the three provinces had been possessed by the East India Company; whilst it required practical knowledge, which was wanting to the Company's

servants, in consequence of their having been withdrawn by Mr. Hastings from the immediate collection of the revenues. The execution of it rested chiefly on Mr. Shore's abilities and experience; to which honourable testimony has been borne by Lord Cornwallis, and by the fifth Parliamentary Report on East Indian Affairs, which distinctly states that his 'ability and experience, in supplying the deficiency of the servants of the Company in the knowledge of the rights and usages of the different orders of the people connected with the revenues, enabled the Government to carry its measures into effect.'"*

The state of the Company's troops at this time— so different from its state in latter years-occupied much the attention of Cornwallis. He found their artillery what it has ever been, in splendid condition, but the European infantry had attained, in his estimation, but a low standard. At this time he wrote that "the Company's officers have no regiments or governments to look forward to (ie., neither high military commands nor good civil appointments). Few constitutions can stand this climate many years; if they cannot save some money, they must go home without rank or pay, condemned to disease and beggary." Then he found the material from whence their European recruits were drawn was bad. The battalions were under their proper strength, and that, such as it was, made up chiefly of foreigners, sailors, invalids, and men of unfitting stature. Among them, too, were some broken-down gentlemen, and even half-pay officers of the royal service, who enrolled to get a passage free to India, where, on landing, they always strove to procure a substitute. These substitutes were almost invariably sailors, who deserted on the first opportunity, and shipped for some other land; and to the redress of these abuses, and alteration of this state of things, he steadily applied himself; and it was well he did so, for war with the terrible Tippoo was at hand.

Another object he had in view-but in 1786was an amalgamation of all the European troops in India, and to have them named and styled “the King's troops." By this means he thought to put an end to the jealousies and disputes about precedence then, and for several years after, the fruitful cause of many a quarrel and duel. But after long consideration, he had serious doubts of achieving this object; and he did not venture further than to urge that the East India Company should have the most ample means afforded them for securing good recruits at home, and that their officers should * "Life of Lord Teignmouth," vol. i.