1805. 1

them.

Colonel Close was invested with powers similar to those bestowed upon General Wellesley, now on the eve of quitting India to begin that glorious career of triumph which ended at the gates of Paris; and Lord Lake was instructed not to permit Scindia to violate a fraction of the treaty, and if he attempted to narch on Bhurtpore, to repel him by force.

In consequence of the altered relations produced by the treaty of peace, Scindia became less arrogant in tone, and pacifically offered to atone for the outrage committed on the escort of Mr. Jenkins. The offer was accepted by the Marquis of Wellesley; but meanwhile the intercourse with Holkar was

403 half must be given to me.' Such was the compact; and it was immediately executed by seizing Ambajee, and torturing him till he purchased his deliverance by giving up thirty-eight, or, according to some, fifty lacs. This was, in some respects, a fortunate robbery for the Company, as it made Ambajee the irreconcilable enemy of Holkar, and thus disposed him to use all his influence in preventing the new Mahratta confederacy, which was on the point of being formed, from acquiring any degree of stability."

When, as related, Lord Lake began his homeward march from Bhurtpore, on the 21st of April, he proceeded south, towards the Chumbul, on the

still maintained, and when at last the latter and Ameer Khan, with all the men they could keep together arrived, the three forces formed virtually one united camp, and the closeness of their union was soon evinced in the following characteristic

manner :

"Ambajee Inglia, now in the service of Scindia, was in possession of a large amount of treasure, while both his master and Holkar were very much in want of it. The two chiefs combined to enrich themselves by robbing the servant of one of them. Ameer Khan, who was employed by Holkar to do the robbery, states that the suggestion proceeded from Scindia, who observed, 'Ambajee Inglia, who professes to be my servant, and has lacs of rupees in ready money, will give no aid. If you can contrive any way of extorting the money from him, you have my permission; but the

en

banks of which Scindia and Holkar were camped. Scared by the rumour of his approach, and not caring to risk the consequences of his arrival, the confederates broke up their confused camp, and hastened up the right bank of the river, in the direction of Sheopore, but the roughness of the road, the intensity of the heat, and the precipitation of the movement made it a disastrous one, and great numbers of their men perished by the wayside. After a brief halt, they pushed on to Kotah, thus placing fifty miles between them and Lord Lake, and compelled the unfortunate Mr. Jenkins to accompany them; though Lord Lake had distinctly ordered him to quit the Mahratta camp, and intimated to Scindia that he would hold him responsible, in his own person, for the safe conveyance of the Resident and all his attendants to the nearest British camp.

Week after week passed on, and there was no appearance of Mr. Jenkins being released. On the 17th of June Lord Lake sent a species of ultimatum to Scindia, declaring that "if in ten days the Resident was not allowed to quit the camp, it would be held equivalent to a dissolution of all friendly relations between the two governments."

Fresh evasions on the one hand, with hollow professions on the other, followed fast; but the Resident was still a prisoner in the Mahratta camp, when, on the 30th of July, 1805, the Marquis of Wellesley's powers, as Governor-General of India, ceased, and he was succeeded by the Marquis of Cornwallis.

The alleged demerits of Wellesley's administration were that, from the day he landed in India he had been constantly engaged in the schemes of conquest and the extension of dominion. On the eastern and western coasts the latter had been achieved indirectly, by depriving independent princes of their royal rights, or by force wresting from them territories for annexation to the already vast possessions of the Company. On the other hand, it has been urged that Wellesley's policy was wiser than the line to which the legislature restricted him, for the system of neutrality had ever proved fallacious in India.

The marquis knew that to stand still was to recede, and he saw too, clearly, that British India had advanced too far for that. "The idea of becoming stationary was an absurdity. If they did not advance, they must lay their account with being driven back. If they repudiated the empire placed within their reach, some other power would certainly seize it. Marquis Wellesley saw this from the first, and having made his choice in favour of dominion, pursued it on system with consummate ability and brilliant success."

On the 28th of July, 1805, the Marquis of Cornwallis landed once more at Calcutta, and for the second time undertook the arduous and responsible task of governing British India. Though he had recently spent his years of peace at home, disease, the effect rather of hard service than of age, had begun to undermine his constitution. At the time the veteran was summoned once more to take the lead in Indian affairs, notwithstanding Wellesley's brilliant administration, the latter had given umbrage to a majority of the Court of Directors, who reprobated as unnecessary the wars waged for existence and the amount of territory acquired thereby; and a cry had been raised that the pacific policy, on the maintenance of which the prosperity of British India must ever depend, had been wantonly abandoned, and that the revenues of the

country had been reduced to a state of depression, out of which it would be extremely difficult to raise them. But the veteran was now in his sixtyseventh year, and neither the condition of his body, or the state of his mind-lighted up though it was at times by flashes of his former vigour-were adequate to a charge so laborious; nor, indeed, did he long survive the harassing and incessant toil to which his new post subjected him in wielding the destinies of India.

On the 29th July, though his predecessor was still present, he was sworn into office at Calcutta, and holding as he did the united offices of GovernorGeneral and Commander-in-chief, he resolved to lose no time in carrying out his plans, or rather the instructions of the Court of Directors. To Lord Lake, who now became his second in command, he wrote instantly, expressing his desire that an end should be put to the present "most unprofit able and ruinous war," and this document was so unlike in tone the Cornwallis of other days, that Lake was surprised on receiving it; but it was speedily followed by another, acquainting him with the terms on which it was proposed to make peace with Scindia.

"I am aware of the disadvantage of immediately relinquishing, or even of compromising [the demand] which has been so repeatedly and so urgently made for the release of the British Resident; but I deem it proper to apprise your lordship that, as a mere point of honour, I am disposed to compromise, or even to abandon that demand, if it should ultimately prove to be the only obstacle to a satisfactory adjustment of affairs with Dowlut Rao Scindia; and I have hitherto been induced to support it by the apprehension that the motives of such a concession might be misinterpreted, and that it might lead to demands on the part of Scindia with which we could not comply without a sacrifice of dignity and interest, incompatible with our security, and thereby render more difficult of attainment the desirable object of a general pacification."

To make concessions to the arrogant Scindia, who had violated a solemn treaty, and permitted an ambassador to be robbed, maltreated, and finally detained as a prisoner-the occupant of one shabby and meagre tent in his camp-was certainly pandering too much to the "peace-at-any-price" ideas of the home directors; they failed to see that security could not have been won by truckling to Scindia, who would assuredly mistake all the misplaced concessions, and, encouraged by them, would become more arrogant, and eventually hostile, the moment he felt himself strong enough to become aggressive.

Through the politic conduct of Lord Lake, we were spared the disgrace of making any concessions. He skilfully contrived to draw the first overtures from Scindia, and induced him to release Mr. Jenkins, by assuring him that, until this was done, his overtures could not be received.

Cornwallis was in very indifferent health when he landed at Calcutta, but plunged at once into his arduous duties; and a week afterwards he was on his way to the upper provinces, to put himself at the head of the army, and effect a final peace between the Company and the restless Mahrattas, for his old friend, Lake, was so averse to his pacific measures, that he threatened to resign.

Perplexities increased his indisposition, and when, on the 25th of September, he reached Buxar, he was deemed by his attendants beyond the hope of recovery. He still continued his voyage up the Ganges, till he reached Ghazipore, near Benares, when, after lying nine days in a state of insensibility, relieved by short and occasional intervals of consciousness, he expired on the 5th of October, 1805.

"However questionable the policy of some of the last acts of this nobleman may be to many," says Sir John Malcolm, "or whatever be their

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speculations upon the causes which produced such an apparent deviation from the high and unyielding spirit of his former administration, no man can doubt the exalted purity of the motives which led him to revisit that country. Loaded with years, as he was with honour, he desired that his life should terminate as it had commenced; and he died as he had lived-in the active service of his country."

At home, the House of Commons voted him a statue in St. Paul's; Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta, which had each a statue in his honour, now gave him each a cenotaph, and the Court of Directors voted £40,000 to his family. Over his remains at Ghazipore, a mausoleum was erected by public subscription. It stands about 600 paces from the bank of the Ganges, a little to the rear of the right flank of the infantry barracks, and in the centre of a circular enclosure, about 130 paces in diameter, guarded by a handsome railing. Its chief features are twelve Doric pillars, supporting an elegant entablature, and it bears a long and elaborate inscription. On the reverse side is a shield, emblazoned with the Company's arms, and having, as supporters, a British Grenadier and a Sepoy, resting on their arms reversed. Below is another inscription, but in the Persian character.

SIR GEORGE HILARO BARLOW, Bart., K.C.B., an old and distinguished civil servant of the Company, was now appointed Governor-General, and as such, seemed disposed to adopt the policy of his predecessor by abandoning all intriguing with the petty states, and generally with the territory westward of the Jumna; while Lord Lake, as senior officer, again became commander-in-chief. Sir George had been chief secretary to government during the whole of Lord Teignmouth's administration, and the earlier portion of that of the Marquis of Wellesley. His plans were to terminate the war as speedily as possible by concluding amicable treaties with Scindia and Holkar, and to bound the British territory by a line nowhere exceeding ten miles from the Jumna.

On the other hand, Lord Lake was decidedly of

opinion that until both Holkar and Scindia were driven to some point far beyond the Indus, our possessions and those of our allies would never be secure from the Mahrattas; and that such was also the opinion of General Wellesley, we find in one of his letters, dated 29th January, 1805:-"I consider Holkar to be the chief of all the freebooters and vagrants scattered about all parts of India, every man of whom is the declared enemy of the British Government. So long as Holkar exists and is in any strength, we cannot consider the territories of our allies in security; and we must protect them with our troops, as they have no troops of their own to protect themselves." *

Despite the expression of opinions such as these, Sir George Barlow, taking up the negotiation with "Wellington Despatches."