with jewels that he could scarcely move, and the bride, in her tenth year, were conveyed, at seven p.m., on elephants to a wonderful garden, a mile distant. The procession included 1,200 richlycaparisoned elephants; of these, 100 bore silver castles, or howdahs. In the centre was the nabob, in a jewelled howdah of gold, on one of uncommon size, caparisoned in cloth of gold. On his right, sat our resident, Mr. George Johnstone; and on his left, the bridegroom.

"The ground from the tents to the garden, forming the road on which we moved," continues

appearance of a bright day. The whole of this grand scene was also lighted by 3,000 flambeaux carried by men. In this manner we moved in stately pomp to the garden, which we entered, after alighting from the elephants. It was illuminated by innumerable transparent paper lanterns of various colours, suspended from the branches of the trees. In the centre was a large edifice, to which we ascended, and were introtroduced into a grand saloon, adorned with girandoles and pendent lustres of English manufacture, lighted with wax candles. Here we had an elegant

collation of European and Indian dishes; at the same time, about a hundred dancing girls sang their lively airs and performed their native dances. Thus passed the time until dawn, when we returned to our respective homes. . . . The whole expense of this marriage feast, which was repeated for three successive nights, cost upwards of £300,000.' The effects of the great war now raging in Europe, began to be felt in India. The conquest of Holland by the French, and their treaty of alliance formed with that country on the 18th May, 1795, produced an entire change in the relations of the Dutch with Britain, the cabinet of which deemed itself justified in declaring war against Holland, and a portion of the operations consequent to this measure included the reduction of all the Dutch settlements in the East Indies.

For this purpose, an expedition was fitted out against Ceylon. The royal squadron in Indian waters at this time, was commanded by Commodore Peter Rainier. It consisted of nine sail (four being of the line), carrying 430 guns, and these were at once disposed in such a manner as to cut up the Dutch trade. The commodore, in conjunction with the presidency of Madras, resolved to secure the port of Trincomalee; and for this purpose, a body of troops, including portions of the 52nd Foot and Macleod Highlanders, under Major-General James Stewart, embarked on board the ships at Madras with ammunition and stores. They sailed on the 21st July, and, at the same time, the commodore detached Captain Edward Pakenham, in the Resistance (forty-four guns), and the Suffolk (tender), with some troops for the reduction of Malacca.

On the 1st of August the squadron came to anchor in Back Bay. On the preceding day, Rainier had been joined by the Heroine (thirty-two guns), from Colombo, having on board Major Agnew, D.-A.-General, who had been sent to that place by Lor Hobart, Governor of Madras, to explain to the Governor of Ceylon the purpose of the expedition. In return, the major brought with him an order for the commandant of Trincomalee to admit peaceably 300 of his Britannic Majesty's troops into Fort Ostenburg; which, on the plea that the order was informal, he refused to do.

After two days' delay, it was resolved to land the troops, and for this purpose, the vessels drew nearer the shore; but, in doing so, the Diomede (forty-four guns), with a transport in tow, struck upon a sunken rock with such violence, that there was barely time to save her crew ere she went down with all her stores on board.

Oriental Memoirs,"

Ten days elapsed before the whole of the troops, with their stores and equipage, disembarked, four miles north of the port of Trincomalee, in consequence of the dangerous surf, occasioned by a strong land wind. The ships of war were then disposed so as to cover the march of the troops, who had their batteries completed by the 18th of August, and these, by the 26th, had effected a practicable breach. The garrison was then summoned; but the commandant required terms which were inadmissible, so hostilities were recommenced, and 300 seamen and marines, under Captain Smith, late of the Diomede, with four lieutenants, joined the storming party, whose approach the Dutch commander anticipated by displaying a white flag, in token of surrender. Fort Ostenburg also capitulated on the 31st. Our total losses were, of all ranks, 16 killed and 58 wounded; among the latter, Captain Gorrie, of the Macleod Highlanders, most severely. The fort of Batticola surrendered on the 18th of the following month, and the fort and island of Manaar, so famous for its breed of black cattle, off the north-west coast of Ceylon, likewise surrendered on the 5th of October.t

By February, next year, the reduction of the whole of the Dutch settlements in Ceylon was effected; and as the people in the interior of the island had not been deprived of their independence by the Dutch, so long as they preserved a peaceful demeanour, they were not interfered with by the British.

The other Dutch settlements at Amboyna, in the Molucca group, and the mountainous isles of Banda, in the Eastern Archipelago, were also reduced; and another armament, for a second conquest of Manila, was prepared under Colonel the Hon. Arthur Wellesley, the future Wellington, when the extraordinary victories of the French in Italy caused it to be countermanded, under the belief that the troops composing it would be required for the defence of the British Isles.

The year 1795 saw serious discontents in the army of the East India Company, and in one of his letters, Sir John Shore says: If you were to judge of its temper, from the conversation of individuals, you would conclude that the officers were in an actual state of mutiny." Some new regulations, forming part of a plan originally conceived by Lord Cornwallis, to transfer the Company's army to the king's service, were partly the cause of this. The whole organisation of the Indian army was changed. Instead of single battalions of 1,000 men, commanded by a captain, who was selected from the European regiments in + "Naval Chron.," "Rec. 52nd Foot," &c.

1797

the Company's service, with a subaltern to each company, they were formed into corps of two battalions, to which officers were appointed of the same rank and number as in the king's regiments; and "the good effects of this change, so far as related to the temper and attachment of the native army of Fort St. George, have been questioned," says Sir John Malcolm.*

Matters relating to promotion, pay, and allowances, added to the ferment. "Towards the close of 1795, the military discontents reached their crisis, and Government received accurate information of the proceedings of the disaffected. At one station in the upper provinces, the officers had determined upon treasonable measures if not satisfied with the regulations expected from England; contemplating the compulsory enlistment of the reluctant in their service, throwing off their allegiance to the Government, and seizing both the Governor-General and the Commander-in-chief. So great had been, at one time, the alarm excited by their desperate projects, that Sir John Murray, the commandant at Fort William, without communicating his precautionary proceeding to the Governor-General, placed that fortress in a state of defence, relying on the unshaken steadiness of the artillery." +

Sir John Shore ably succeeded in allaying these discontents, or at least avoiding the terrible consequences of a collision, till the promulgation of the long-delayed regulations from England restored discipline and good humour. Among the amendments were increased allowance to the senior officers of the army; an addition to the staff of the native cavalry and infantry, as regarded their military and medical branches; an increase of furloughpay to medical officers; and of passage-money to subalterns compelled to return home by ill-health, with addition to the pensions of European noncommissioned officers after certain periods of service.

The revision of the military system in British India was carried out by the directors in 1796, at an increased cost of £308,000 per annum; and two years afterwards, all their modifications and amendments were incorporated into the original plan, which has since been usually named, "The Company's Military Charter."

In 1797, the affairs of Oude occupied the attention of Sir John Shore. He had long been of opinion that while the administration of the extravagant and luxurious nabob remained on its present footing, we should never derive effective assistance from his troops, but might Rise, &c., of the Indian Army." +"Life of Lord Teignmouth."

"

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expect to find enemies rather than allies in his dominions. Thus, in March, he paid a visit to Lucknow, where he found that one of the chief amusements of the nabob was to witness old women racing in sacks, a diversion suggested to him by an Englishman. It delighted beyond measure the nabob, "who declared that, although he spent a crore of rupees, or a million sterling, in procuring entertainment, he had never found one so pleasing to him."‡

In addition to other improvements, Sir John succeeded in obtaining the office of minister for Tuffuzel Hussein Khan, who was believed to be a man of talent and probity. Soon after this, Asoffud-Dowlah departed this life, and was succeeded by his heir presumptive, that Vizier Ali whose marriage we have related. Though generally known to be of spurious birth-the son of a ferraush (or household servant)—and that there were other claimants, who pleaded their legitimacy, Vizier Ali had a strong faction in Lucknow; and though his claim was formally acknowledged by our government in Calcutta, Sir John Shore's sense of justice had never been satisfied with the decision given in his favour; and therefore, after a second journey to Lucknow, on finding how miserably the government was conducted, he ordered Vizier Ali to be deposed, and the line of succession to be changed to that of Sujah-ud-Dowlah, whose surviving brother, Sadut Ali, resided at Benares.

On this second visit, Sir John had been met near Lucknow by the prime minister, who had assured him that Vizier Ali and all the other reputed sons of Asoff were spurious, and that the city was a scene of intrigue, perplexity, and profligacy. Sir John also found the cunning old begum, from whom Warren Hastings had obtained some of her treasure, recommending another claimant to the musnud. Hence it was that on the 21st of January, 1798, Sadut Ali was proclaimed sovereign of Oude, and Sir John sent Vizier Ali down to Benares, where he was to be kept under strict surveillance, and where he had a pension of about £25,000 yearly assigned him.

At Benares our resident, Mr. Cherry, was to make all the final arrangements for him, and invited him to breakfast. To this meal he came attended by a large armed retinue, intent on mischief. After complaining bitterly of his treatment by the Company, on a given signal his attendants drew their swords and hacked Mr. Cherry and Mr. Graham to pieces. They then proceeded to the house of a Mr. Davis, who, having heard of their approach and purpose, got his whole family on the roof, and

Ibid.

posting himself at the summit of a narrow, circular stone staircase with a hog-spear, he slew several, and bravely defended himself till he was rescued by a party of troops. Vizier Ali then fled to the Rajah of Berar, who, aware of his own power, refused to give him up, unless under a promise that his life should be spared. This the GovernorGeneral acceded to. He was brought to Calcutta, and placed in a room made to resempie an iron cage, in Fort William, where he died after an imprisonment of seventeen years.

When his successor, Sadut Ali, was raised to the throne, he was not in a position to resist any terms that were made with him. By treaty, the Company were vested with the entire defence of Oude, and the annual subsidy he had to pay was increased to seventy-six lacs of rupees. The number of the Company's troops was rated at 10,000 men; but, in the event of their exceeding 13,000, or falling under 8,000, the amount was to be proportionally increased or reduced; but the native force maintained in Oude was not to exceed 35,000 men. The nabob was to hold no communication with any foreign state, or admit any Europeans to serve in his army, but with the express consent of the Company. He was also to pay the pension of Vizier Ali, and to maintain all the reputed children of his brother. Every way, the pecuniary gain to the Company was considerable; and by the way in which he managed the whole change in the government of Oude, Sir John Shore received the full thanks of the Court of Directors and of the Board of Control.

By the general terms of this treaty, Sir John virtually extinguished the independence of Oude, reducing it to vassalage. One of the reasons assigned for the severe nature of his demands is alleged to have been the apprehension of an invasion of Hindostan from Cabul, by Zemaun Shah, grandson of the famous Ahmed Shah Abdalla. In 1796 he had marched with little opposition to Lahore, and seemed about to push his army on to Delhi, when the rebellion of a brother compelled him to return to his own dominions. His approach excited the wildest hopes among the Mohammedans of the restoration of the house of Timour, and no small consternation among the Mahratta chiefs, who were so weakened by their own feuds as to be unprepared for war, and were compelled to solicit our alliance against Zemaun, as a common enemy. In the upper provinces Sir John Shore mustered 15,000 troops to oppose him, when he fell back; but, as a repetition of his visit was expected, he deemed it thus necessary to bring Oude into such a state as would make all its resources fully avail

able. So, happily for British India, at this time Zemaun Shah and the other Afghan chiefs continued to find occupation at home, or in other quarters far removed from the frontiers of Hin

dostan.

It was early in the next year that, at the express request of Sir John Shore, Lieutenant-Colonel Baillie, a learned Scottish officer, afterwards Professor of Arabic and Persian at Fort William, translated from the former language a copious digest of Mohammedan law, so as to comprise the whole of the Imanea code as applicable to secular matters.*

Sir John Shore, whose eminent services were rewarded on the 24th of October, 1797, by an Irish peerage, as Lord Teignmouth of Teignmouth, resigned the office of Governor-General, to which Lord Cornwallis had been reappointed, at a time when the services of the latter were required for the suppression of rebellion in Ireland; and thus, on the 18th of May, 1798, the Earl of Mornington accepted the vacant post.

On the 7th of March, 1798, Lord Teignmouth with his family sailed from Calcutta for Europe. Prior to his departure, the inhabitants of Calcutta, on the termination of his long and arduous services, delivered him an address conceived in affectionate and eulogistic terms; and on the morning of his embarkation he wrote a lengthy letter to his successor, stating the rules he had prescribed to himself during his official career, the principles which had guided his administration, and detailing the qualifications of the functionaries in the various departments of government, with the political relations of the British power in India.†

His Indian administration may be considered as having fully tested the system of strict neutrality laid down by the Legislature; but the manner in which the Government had thus crippled the powers of the Governor-General proved this: that while during six years of peace our power remained nearly stationary, the powers of our enemies had been steadily and perilously on the increase. This was the result of the neutral system, for which Lord Teignmouth was in no sense blamable.

"It was proved, from the events of this administration," says Sir John Malcolm, "that no ground of political advantage could be abandoned without being instantly occupied by an enemy; and that to resign influence was not merely to resign power, but to allow that power to pass into hands hostile to the British Government." ‡

*Asiatic Journal.

+ "Life of Lord Teignmouth," vol. i. +"Polit. Hist. India."

Some there were at home who alleged that Lord Teignmouth's bold and able arrangement of the affairs of Oude, by deposing Vizier Ali, was as bad as anything that had been done by Warren Hastings; but he was supported by the Government, by Mr. Wilberforce, who had arrayed himself against Hastings, and by the whole strength of the religious world; and thus the general wisdom of his Indian administration was endorsed to the fullest extent.

The directors had previously borne testimony to the merits of Lord Teignmouth's administration in the following resolution :

"That the thanks of the Court be given to the Right. Hon. Lord Teignmouth, for his long, able, and faithful services in India; and particularly for his distinguished merit and attention in the administration of every branch of the Company's affairs during the period in which he held the office of Governor-General."

Of this his son says with justice, "The Directors of the East India Company might well be satisfied

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with their late Governor-General, who, having devoted twenty-six years of his life, involving the sacrifice of his health, to their employment, never applied to them for that compensation to which he was justly entitled, and to which the moderate amount of his income afforded an additional claim; and they were only too ready to avail themselves of his well-known moderation to originate any other recognition of his eminent services than a recorded formal acknowledgment."

Lord Teignmouth died at the age of eighty-two, in the year 1834; and on his tomb in Marylebone Church, in that spirit of humility and piety which seems to have characterised his whole life, according to his request, he was to be designated alone as "First President of the Bible Society;" but afterwards he gave permission that it might be added, he had held the office of "GovernorGeneral of India ;" and to the interest taken by himself and his family, in years after he had quitted it, we shall have occasion to refer in future portions of this work.

EARL OF MORNINGTON IN OFFICE

LORD TEIGNMOUTH's successor in the high and arduous post of Governor-General, was Richard Wellesley, Earl of Mornington, elder brother of the illustrious Wellington, who at that time had attained the rank of Colonel of the 33rd Regiment, which in the September of the same year, was placed upon the Madras establishment. The new governor, who was to achieve the capture of Seringapatam, the downfall of Tippoo, and the restoration of that Hindoo dynasty which Hyder Ali had displaced, had been educated at Eton, where he had been kindly superintended by Archbishop Cornwallis, with whom he usually passed his holidays, between 1771 and 1779, and thus became intimate with the Marquis of Cornwallis.

Lord Mornington, then in his thirty-eighth year, had early evinced a decided taste for the study of Asiatic history, and thus he applied himself with ardour to acquire all the knowledge necessary of the past government of India, and of those matters which, through the long trial of Warren Hastings, had so greatly occupied the attention of both

Houses of Parliament and the entire nation. In 1796, he was appointed Lord of the Treasury, and a member of the Board of Control, and in these official capacities, had excellent opportunities for adding to the practical knowledge he had already acquired. His manners were captivating and conciliating; his mind was energetic and active, and he possessed a facility for imparting much of his own activity and energy to his colleagues; and generally, all the Europeans in India hailed his appointment with extreme satisfaction. It is more probable that the idea of his succeeding Lord Teignmouth, may have been originally suggested by his intimacy with the Cornwallis family.

He arrived in Madras Roads, in the month of April, 1798; he landed on the 26th under a salute of nineteen guns, and remained for some time in that city, in order that he might acquaint himself with the internal condition of that presidency, and the affairs of the Carnatic generally, for the epoch was indeed a critical one. Consulting together, the Sikhs and Mahrattas were supposed to be