rank with those of our service, according to the dates of their commissions. Though fully conceded in the end, these two simple and just points were disapproved at home; and it was urged by Mr. Dundas, that the king would never "be brought to yield up the notion of his commission having a pre-eminence over one flowing from a commercial body of his own subjects."

In 1786, before these plans had been mooted, the Government had been resolving to send out to India four new European regiments belonging to the line, as there was rumour of a war with France, and the directors were quite pleased with the idea; but when the war proved a rumour only, they changed their views, objected to these regiments being sent out, and ungraciously refused to admit them on board of any of their Indiamen, or to furnish pay for them from their exchequer. This caused a direct collision between the directors and the Board of Control, with whom the Ministry were identified, and with whom they took part. At this time, part of the troops were already prepared for embarkation. Thus was brought in and passed the Declaratory Bill of 1786, explaining the powers vested in the Board by the Act of 1784, and which ranks as 28 Geo. III., c. 8, and which met with bitter opposition from Colonel Barré (Barré, the friend of Wolfe) and others.

The Act asserts in the preamble "that doubts had arisen whether the board of Commissioners, under Act 24 Geo. III., c. 25, were empowered to direct that the expense of troops necessary for the security of the British territories in India shall be

defrayed out of the revenues of these territories, 'unless such troops are sent out at the express requisition of the East India Company;' and removes the doubts by enacting and declaring that the board 'was and is, by the said Act, fully authorised and empowered to order and direct, that all the expenses incurred for raising, transporting, and maintaining such forces as shall be sent to India, for the security of the said territories and possessions, shall be paid, defrayed, and borne out of the revenues of the said possessions; and that nothing in the said Act contained, extended, or extends, or shall be construed to extend, to restrain, or to have restrained, the said commissioners from giving such orders or directions as aforesaid, with respect to the expense of raising, transporting, and maintaining any forces which may be sent to India for the security of the said possessions, in addition to the forces now there.' So far the victory remained with the board; but the directors also could boast of a victory, since the above power, instead of remaining absolute, is restricted by subsequent sections, limiting the number of royal troops that might be paid by the commissioners as above to 8,045, and of the Company's troops to 12,200 men, and prohibiting them from increasing salaries or bestowing gratuities beyond amounts proposed and specified in despatches from the directors."

And now, from this matter, which reads with all the dreary circumlocution of a legal document, we turn to the more stirring events of the war with Tippoo Sahib, or Sultan.

By the year 1788-indeed, long before it-the Sultan Tippoo was aware that he was an object of jealousy and suspicion to the British, whose agents he insulted in his peevish and resentful fits. He could neither forget nor forgive the humiliations to which he had been subjected in the late war: thus he hated the British almost to the verge of madness; and to this rancour he had superadded religious fanaticism as insane as the hatred; for he imagined himself "the chosen servant of the prophet Mo* Lloyd, vol. i.

hammed, predestined, in the Eternal Book of Fate, to root out the Nazarenes from India, and cast them into the bottomless pits of Gehenna."

For this great end he sent a numerous embassy to Constantinople, to invite the aid of the Sultan, but his envoys all perished of the plague or on the long journey; and about the same time he invited the French Government to send 6,000 of their best troops into the Carnatic; and with these, and his Mysoreans, he undertook to crush for ever the power of Britain in Hindostan. His envoy to

Cornwallis had an opportunity to devote some time to the adjustment of what was called "the Permanent Settlement," in conjunction with the distinguished Sir John Shore (in after years his successor); but the measures of these two eminent men required a long space of time to mature. The arrangements for civil judicature, magistracy, and police, which ultimately gave a great historical interest to the administration of Cornwallis, were fully discussed by him and the future Lord Teignmouth, and the foundation was laid for their development in the interval of peace which ensued, between the first symptoms of another contest with Tippoo and the war in which he was finally crushed.

Earl Cornwallis, though hopeful that the tyrant might not break the peace, did not close his eyes to the precautions necessary with a despot so faithless; and had he not been restrained by the legislature, this veteran of the days of Minden might have taken the initiative, and compelled him to declare himself. As it was, he could but wait in suspense; and Tippoo did not detain him long. The latter was but too anxious for war; and conceived he had such vast powers that he could arrest the career of a monsoon that once interfered with the march of his army. On his royal seal was inscribed, in Arabic, "I am the messenger of the true faith," and around this motto was inscribed in Persian :

"From conquest, and the protection of the royal Hyder, came my title of Sultan; and the world, as under the sun and moon, is subject to my signet."

Moreover, Tippoo was the first Mohammedan prince in Hindostan who had dared to openly disclaim the hereditary authority of the Great Mogul.*

On the 24th of December, 1789, Tippoo encamped his army about six miles to the northward of the principal gate of the Lines of Travancore, at a time when Cornwallis was but indifferently provided with the means for protracted hostilities. On the other hand, Tippoo had been long preparing for them, and by the assistance of French and Italian engineer officers had been strengthening all the towns and forts in Mysore, but more particularly his capital, Seringapatam. Besides these officers, he had a great number of Europeans to train his native troops and artillery. These wretches, for the most part, were deserters from the Company's service, and thus, as the phrase is, "fought with halters round their necks." They had, in many instances, fled to escape punishment; and as the bigoted Tippoo was fond of conversion, • Rennell's "Memoir of Tippoo."

by force or conviction, they were all circumcised, and had become renegadoes.

A portion of his regulars were clothed in uniforms like those of our sepoys, and were armed with French muskets. They were about 4,000 strong; but their discipline was far from perfect. The rest of his infantry, though brave and fierce, was a partially organised rabble, armed with very old firelocks, matchlocks, spears, and tulwars: but the undoubted flower of his force was his brilliantlyaccoutred and splendidly-mounted cavalry, who more than once had poured, like a living tide, through the mountain ghauts to lay waste the fertile Carnatic. In this force was a corps d'élite, 6,000 strong, who found their own horses and arms, and were all picked men and matchless riders. His artillery was sufficiently formidable; many of his guns were French, and of metal heavier than any we had in India at that time. Hence his boast, that in this arm he had left his masters, "the accursed Nazarenes," far behind him; but this was chiefly by the aid of Christian renegadoes. The heaviest of his guns and mortars were drawn by trained elephants, 400 in number; and in addition to these, he had immense teams of the finest bullocks that India could furnish.

It was after a tedious march through narrow, tortuous, and rugged ways, among jungles and woods, where the elephant, buffalo, tiger, and cheetah are still abounding, that Tippoo's army, consisting of only 14,000 infantry and 500 pioneers, but picked troops, pitched their tents, on the morning of the day stated, at Sharapootamally, a steep and rugged hill near the Lines of Travancore; and at this crisis we take from the pen of an officer (the Deputy-Adjutant-General) then present, the state of our troops at the time.

"There were in India, in 1788, a regiment of British dragoons (old 19th), nine regiments of British and two of Hanoverian infantry-in all, about 8,000 European troops, in addition to the Company's establishments. Several of the first officers in the British service were in command in that country, and a system was established which, by joining the powers of Governor to those of Commander-in-chief, united every advantage which could give efficiency to the operations of war. The discipline which had been ordered by the king for establishing uniformity in his army was now equally practised by his Majesty's and the Company's forces in India. The field equipment was refitted and enlarged at the several presidencies, and every preparation made to act with the promptitude and effect which unforeseen exigencies might require. Public credit, increasing with the security afforded

to the country, and also in consequence of the like able arrangements in the conduct of the civil line of the government, the Company's funds rose daily in their value; and their affairs, as stated to Parliament by the minister at the head of the India Department, were not only retrieved from supposed ruin, but soon appeared to be in a state of decided and increasing prosperity."*

Much information concerning our troops then in India is given by Major Rennell, in a work published in 1792, entitled "The Marches of the British Armies in the Peninsula of Hindostan during the Campaigns of 1791-92."

On the night of the 28th of December, Tippoo issued his orders to force the lines, which were chiefly held by the Nairs, who, believing that the short distance between their post and Tippoo's camp was impenetrable, in consequence of natural obstacles, were lulled into a security most fatal to themselves. By daybreak on the 30th of December, the Mysorean infantry, unencumbered by cannon, had clambered over the brow of the rugged Sharapootamally mountain, and taking the lines which it terminated in flank, advanced from within them with terrible rapidity against the rear and centre of the enemy, among whom they bayoneted all who were opposed to them.

With a view to admit his whole army with ease, Tippoo now ordered his pioneers to hurl a portion of the rampart into the ditch, which was sixteen feet wide and twenty deep, and thus by filling it up to afford ample entrance. At the same time, some more of his troops advanced from the flanking mountain along the rampart to force the great gate, for the admission of certain columns of horse and foot that had been manoeuvring in front of it. The pioneers, who, worn out with exertion, were doing their work very slowly, had made but little progress, when all the troops were seen rushing towards the half-formed gap, into which suddenly 800 Nairs, all resolute and gallant men, suddenly flung themselves to bar the way, and with their musketry and a six-pounder, well armed with grape, completely staggered and enraged the attacking Mysoreans.

In the van of the latter was a Chela battalion, which had become exhausted by fatigue and want of water, and so gave way. Another battalion took its place; but the Nairs, who by this time had been reinforced from Remissaram, stood shoulder * "Narrative of the Campaign, &c.," by Major Alexander Dirom, 52nd Foot.

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| to shoulder, and four deep, poured a storm of shot through the breach. At the head of some chosen troops, the infuriated sultan pressed on, while the fierce Gentoos, on hearing the din of the battle, came rushing to the aid of their friends, and in the narrow space a dreadful combat ensued. Inflamed by patriotism and the memory of past wrongs, with Hindoo fanaticism and a just longing for vengeance, they fought with the most splendid courage. The Mysoreans gave way after 2,000 of them had fallen, and a dreadful slaughter was made in the pursuit, for the Nairs were merciless, and now betook them to their terrible war-hatchets. Mounted on a white horse, Tippoo, after witnessing the rout and disgrace of his troops, and after exerting every energy for the recovery of the field, had so to fly from it, that on his horse being shot, he had a narrow escape from being chopped to pieces.

Two gaps, each about twenty feet wide, that had been cut through the lines on the advance of the main body, to admit their cannon, now served to some purpose in covering their retreat; but they had another fatal enemy to encounter. The cotton bales with which the pioneers had filled the ditch now took fire, and they had to fall back through the flames. This compelled many to fight to the last. Only forty of them were taken prisoners. Three men of noble rank were among the disfigured dead; and Tippoo did not escape scatheless. To avoid the flames, probably, he had been obliged to leap the rampart, and was severely bruised, losing his turban and the gold bangles off his wrists. His state palanquin was found at the edge of the ditch, and in it were several rare diamond rings, and other jewels, in a silver casket, his great seal, his fusil and pistols, with a diamond-hilted sword.

During these encounters, a body of British sepoys, led by Captain Knox, remained under arms; but simply looking on, as that officer had no power to act.

On reaching his camp, Tippoo, in a paroxysm of rage, swore by a terrible oath that he would never quit it till he had forced the Lines of Travancore; and thus he was thereby compelled to remain before them three months, during which he threw away the only chance he had of striking a decisive blow before we could make effectual preparations to oppose him in the field of battle. For eight whole days he shut himself up in his tent, and in one gust of rage, seized 2,000 young women, and gave them as a present to his army.+ + London Gazette, 1791.