[1804-1805 A.D.]

and men. It was at this critical moment that the 19th charged, and saved the remains of the 74th regiment. General Wellesley at the same time threw the 78th regiment forward on their right, to move down on the enemy, who still kept their position at Assaye. This movement, and the charge of the 19th light dragoons, made the enemy retire from all their guns precipitately and they fled across the nullah to our right at the village of Assaye, where numbers of them were cut up by the cavalry. The general was in the thick of the action the whole time, and had a horse killed under him. No man could have shown a better example to the troops than he did. I never saw a man so cool and collected as he was the whole time, though I can assure you, till our troops got orders to advance, the fate of the day seemed doubtful; and if the numerous cavalry of the enemy had done their duty, I hardly think it possible that we could have succeeded. From the European officers who have since surrendered, it appears they had about twelve thousand infantry, and their cavalry is supposed to have been at least twenty thousand, though many make it more. We have now in our possession one hundred and two guns, and all their tumbrils."

In the middle of October Colonel Stevenson obtained possession of the strong fortresses of Asseerghur and Burhanpur. General Wellesley had followed the Mahratta army in their various movements, their stratagems never defeating his vigilance. Sindhia at last desired a truce. This was granted. But it was soon discovered that his cavalry were serving in the army of the rajah of Berar, and that the truce was altogether delusive. On the 29th of November, General Wellesley obtained a victory over the united armies of Sindhia and Bhonsla. The Mahrattas retired in disorder, leaving their cannon, and pursued by moonlight by the British, the Mughal, and the Mysore cavalry. This wonderful campaign, of little more than four months, was finished by the successful termination of the siege of Gawilgarh (December 15th).

The Mahratta war with Sindhia and Bhonsla was at an end. The rajah of Berar, who had sued for a peace, signed a treaty on the 17th. He ceded Cuttack, which was annexed to the British dominions, and he agreed to admit no Europeans but the British within his territories. Sindhia also was completely humbled. A treaty with him was signed on the 30th of December, he agreeing to give up Broach, Ahmednagar, and his forts in the Doab; and to exclude all Europeans except the British. He was to receive the protection which was extended under the subsidiary system to other dependent states.

But there was another great Mahratta chieftain yet unsubdued. His intriguing spirit was exercised in urging the other chiefs to break the treaties which they had entered into. The governor-general tried to convert this enemy into a friend by negotiation. Holkar openly defied him; he would come with his army, and sweep and destroy like the waves of the sea. In April, 1804, war was declared against Holkar. The war went on through 1804 and 1805. Marquis Wellesley had resigned the government of India at the end of July; and Marquis Cornwallis had succeeded him, before Holkar was subdued. Cornwallis died on the 5th of October, and Sir George Barlow assumed the government. On the 24th of December a treaty was signed with Holkar; and he also agreed to exclude from his territories all Europeans except the British.

FAMINE IN INDIA

Sir Arthur Wellesley (he had received the order of the Bath for his great services) returned to England in 1805. During his voyage home he employed

[1806 A.D.]

his active mind in writing an interesting paper on the subject of Dearth in India. There had been a famine in the Deccan in 1803 and 1804, which he had witnessed. The dearth, and its fatal effects, were to be attributed principally to the dry season of 1803. He describes the physical geography of the peninsula; the peculiar cultivation of wet lands or of dry; the dependence of the rice-produce of the wet lands upon the fall of the rain, assisted by the artificial canals, tanks, and wells, many of which were ancient works; and the entire dependence of the dry lands, where what are called dry grains are cultivated, upon the critical arrival and the quantity of the periodical rains. The portions of the Indian Empire to which Sir A. Wellesley directed his attention were far less extensive than at present.

Since 1804 there have been many famines. Awful as the distress has been, it is satisfactory to know that the question which Sir A. Wellesley asked, "in what manner the deficiency produced by the seasons in any particular part could be remedied by the government in that part," has been to some extent answered, by the construction of great canals for irrigation. The eastern and the western Jumna canals, and the Ganges canal, are the grandest of these works, and are capable of irrigating several millions of acres.

In recent years the extension of railways and the improvement of internal communication whereby particular districts suffering from famine can be supplied from more fortunate ones have been the means employed for coping with this scourge and an annual charge has been made on the revenue for funds to be used in time of dearth. Nevertheless the twentieth century opened amidst widespread suffering from this cause which was most marked in the native states. It is said however that the deaths of grown persons were not numerous and when they did occur were attributable to the people's own apathy. On the other hand above five million persons were at one time in receipt of relief, a

After his return from India, the marquis Wellesley had to endure the bitter mortification of finding that his great public services had rendered him a mark for the attacks of James Paull, who, having failed in India of advancement at his hands, returned to England and became a member of parliament. It is unnecessary for us to follow the parliamentary discussions on this subject. The accusations were, in a great degree, the result of private malice and party rancour; and, like all such abuses of the privileges of representative government, their interest very quickly passed away.

MUTINY AT VELLORE (1806 A.D.)

In the affairs of India, an event of far more lasting importance than the assaults upon the marquis Wellesley took place on the 10th of July, 1806. At two o'clock in the morning of that day, the European barracks at Vellore, in which were four companies of the 69th regiment, were surrounded by two battalions of sepoys in the service of the East India Company. Through every door and window these mutineers poured in a destructive fire upon the sleeping soldiers. The sentinels were killed; the sick in the hospital were massacred; the officers' houses were ransacked, and they, with their wives and children, were put to death. Colonel Fancourt, the commander of the 69th fell in the attempt to save his men.

There was a terrible retribution the next day. The 19th regiment of dragoons arrived; took the fort of Vellore from the insurgents; six hundred of the sepoys were cut down; and two hundred were dragged out of their hiding places and shot. The sons of Tipu Sahib, who were residing at Vellore, were

[1806 A.D.]

suspected of being concerned in this mutiny. But there were demonstrations of a spirit of disaffection amongst the native troops in other places. Some extremely foolish regulations had been attempted by the military authorities at Madras with respect to the dress of the sepoys. It was wished to transform the turban into something like a helmet. An opinion had been spread that it was the desire of the British government to convert the native troops to Christianity by forcible means. This notion was disavowed in a subsequent proclamation of the government at Madras. But at that time the zeal of some persons for the conversion of the Hindu population was far from discreet; and in England there was no hesitation in declaring, that "the restless spirit of fanaticism has insinuated itself into our Indian councils;" and that unless checked in time, it will lead to the subversion of our Indian Empire, and the massacre of our countrymen dispersed over that distant land."

LORD MINTO AND THE MUTINY OF BRITISH OFFICERS (1807-1813 A.D.)

At the beginning of 1807 India was at peace. On the death of the marquis Cornwallis, the powers of the governor-general were temporarily exercised by Sir George Barlow, who was subsequently entrusted with the full authority of his post by the court of directors. The Grenville administration had just come into office, and they wished to bestow the appointment upon one of their own supporters, and especially upon some nobleman. The debates in parliament on this subject were continued and violent. The conflict was finally settled by the appointment of Lord Minto. The tranquillity of his government was after a while seriously disturbed by an outbreak against the power of the company at Travancore. There was war against the rajah of this state, which originated in a dispute between his diwan or chief minister, and the British resident. His troops were beaten in the field during 1808, and the lines of Travancore being stormed at the beginning of 1809, and other forts captured, relations of amity between the company and the rajah were restored.

A more serious danger arose out of a circumstance which appears now amongst the almost incredible things of the past. The officers of the Madras army, who had long been stirred up to discontent, had mutinied, and Lord Minto, in August, 1809, sailed for Madras to quell this extraordinary insubordination of British officers. There were various and contradictory regulations existing in the several presidencies. There were inequalities in the rate of allowances. At Madras, what the council termed "a very dangerous spirit of cabal" had been pointed out as early as March, 1807, by the council to the court of directors. There was there an officer high in command, LieutenantColonel St. Leger, who was described in the despatch of the council as "the champion of the rights of the company's army.' Colonel St. Leger, as well as other officers, was suspended by an order of the 1st of May, and then open mutiny burst out at Hyderabad, Masulipatam, Seringapatam, and other

[1807-1813 A.D.] places. On one occasion only was blood shed in this extraordinary revolt. Many of these officers were very young men, who were incited to acts of insubordination by the example of their seniors. Brave as were the British officers in the field, their exclusiveness and assumption of superiority were offensive to civilians and dangerous in their intercourse with the natives. These misguided men gradually returned to habits of obedience. In September Lord Minto published an amnesty, with the exception of eighteen officers, nearly all of whom chose to resign rather than to abide the judgment of a courtmartial. It now became the wish of all to obliterate the painful remembrance of the past. During this alarming period, in which the mutiny of the officers might have led to the entire disorganisation of the sepoy army, the king's troops manifested the most entire obedience to the orders of the governorgeneral.

During the administration of Lord Minto a number of successful operations were undertaken in the Eastern Archipelago, which, in 1810, gave the British possession of Amboyna and the Banda Isles, of the Île de la Reunion, and of the Mauritius. The most important of these conquests was the rich island of Java, which, after a severe battle with the Dutch troops near the capital, capitulated in 1810. Sir Stamford Raffles, who was appointed lieutenant-governor of Java, described it as "the other India." It passed out of British hands at the peace a circumstance attributed by many to the complete ignorance of the British government of the great value of this possession. The policy of the court of directors was to maintain peace at long as possible upon the continent of India, and thus the depredations of the Pindharis and the Nepalese were not met by the governor-general with any vigorous measures of repression. He demanded redress of the rajah of Nepal for the outrages of his people, but he did not make any more effectual demonstration to compel a less injurious conduct. His diplomacy had for its main object to prevent the establishment of the French in the peninsula. He concluded treaties with the amirs of Sind, and with the king of Kabul, of which the terms of friendship were, that they should restrain the French from settling in their territories. With Persia, where France was endeavouring to establish her influence, a treaty was concluded, binding the sovereign to resist the passage of any European force through his country towards India.

The usual term of a governor-general's residence being completed, Lord Minto resigned in 1813, and proceeded to England. He came at a time when a material alteration was at hand in the position of the East India Company. By the Statute of Queen Anne, and by successive acts of parliament, the company had the exclusive privilege, as regarded English subjects, of trading to all places east of the Cape of Good Hope, as far as the Straits of Magellan. In March, 1813, the house of commons resolved itself into a committee to consider the affairs of the East India Company. The government proposed that the charter of the company should be renewed for twenty years, during which term they should retain the exclusive trade to China, but that the trade to India should be thrown open on certain conditions. The government also proposed to appoint a bishop for India, and three archdeacons. The committee examined various witnesses. The first witness was Warren Hastings, then eighty years of age. He expressed his decided opinion that the settlement of Europeans would be fraught with danger to the peace of the country and the security of the company, and that the trade between India and England, as then regulated, was far more beneficial than if perfectly free. On the subject of the propagation of Christianity in India, and the proposed Episcopal establishment, his evidence is described as having evinced "a most philo