Page 1

The History of India

Chapter 16 – Lord Cornwallis’s Administration – The Third Mysore War, 1786–1793

Sir John McPherson’s administration, 1785

Hastings left the government in the hands of Mr., afterwards Sir John, Macpherson, who presided over it for twenty months. He came out to Madras at the age of twenty-two, as purser in one of the Company’s ships, but soon after his arrival quitted the sea for more lucrative employment at the court of the Nabob of the Carnatic, where he obtained great consideration. Under his influence the Nabob was induced to make a direct appeal to the Minister in England, as the most effectual means of regaining his political independence, and throwing off the restraints of the Madras government. Mr. Macpherson was charged with this mission, and accredited by a letter to the Duke of Grafton, which gained little for his patron, but a Madras writership for his young agent. Soon after his arrival at the Presidency he obtained one of the most lucrative appointments in the service, that of military paymaster, but was expelled from it by Lord Pigot, in 1776, on the ground that he was still a partizan of the Nabob. With his usual sagacity, he persuaded the Nabob to make his will, and appoint the king of England his executor and the

Page 2

guardian of his children – an office which was most injudiciously accepted. Mr. Macpherson, who returned to England as the representative of the Nabob, with a full purse, was not long in obtaining a seat in Parliament, and made himself so useful to the Minister by his eloquent pen and his servile vote, as to obtain the appointment of second member of Council at Calcutta. The war with the Mahrattas and Hyder had produced the same effect on the finances of India as the war which England had been waging with the North American colonies produced on her finances. Troops to the number of 70,000 had been maintained for several years in provinces the most remote from each other, and a debt had been accumulated to the extent of six crores of rupees. The army and civil establishments were fifty lacs of rupees in arrears, and the whole machinery of government was in a state of disorder. Mr. Macpherson applied himself with great energy to financial reform, and effected reductions exceeding a crore of rupees. He received thanks from the Court of Directors, and a baronetcy from the Crown; but it is not to be concealed that his two successors, Lord Cornwallis and Sir John Shore, considered his pretensions to economy, except with regard to the reduction of salaries, a mere delusion, and his whole administration a failure.

Wars between Tippoo, the Mahrattas, and the Nizam, 1786

The treaty of Mangalore left Tippoo with unimpaired resources, and augmented his arrogance. The ink was scarcely dry, when he wrote to his French allies at Pondicherry that he was only waiting for an opportunity of crushing the Nizam and the Mahrattas, and exterminating the English. His first act after the pacification was to seize 30,000 native Christians on the Malabar coast, and cause them to be circumcised. The Hindoos south of the Kistna were treated with the same violence, and 2,000 brahmins destroyed themselves to avoid the indignity. Of the population of Coorg, 70,000 of all ages and both sexes were ruthlessly driven off to Seringapatam. Tippoo then proceeded to demand the cession

Page 3

of Beejapore from the Nizam, on some frivolous pretext, and attacked the Mahratta garrison of Nurgoond, of which he obtained possession by an act of perfidy. Nana Furnuvese, finding Tippoo a more dangerous neighbour than his father had been, proceeded to form an alliance with the Nizam early in 1786, for the conquest and partition of his whole territory. The allied army opened the campaign on the 1st of May, by the siege of Badamee, which surrendered before the end of the month. After various assaults and repulses, which generally terminated to the advantage of Tippoo, he brought this campaign of nine months to an unexpected termination by a voluntary offer of peace. A treaty was accordingly concluded between the belligerents in April, 1787, by which Tippoo engaged to pay forty-five lacs of rupees of tribute, and to surrender many of the places he had captured. This sudden change of policy was subsequently explained by the great efficiency given to the military establishments of the Company by the new Governor-General, Lord Cornwallis, and which led Tippoo to suppose that the English were about to take part in the war against him.

Lord Macartney offered the Governor-Generalship, 1786

Lord Macartney, who had taken Calcutta on his way to England, was detained there by severe illness, and was agreeably surprised on his recovery to receive the unsolicited offer of the Governor-Generalship, as a token of the estimation in which his services were held by Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas. Instead, however, of accepting the appointment, and taking the oaths and his seat in Council, he postponed the acceptance of it till he had an opportunity of conferring with the Ministry on the additional powers which he deemed necessary to impart dignity and efficiency to the office. He embarked therefore for England, and on his arrival submitted his views, which were in every respect judicious, to the Court of Directors and to the Prime Minister, by whom they were entertained with great complacency. But all his prospects were at once blighted when he proceeded farther to solicit such token of

Page 4

the royal favour as should demonstrate that he entered upon this responsible office with the entire confidence of the Ministers of the Crown, as well as of the Court of Directors. The request was not only in itself reasonable, but essential to the efficiency and vigour of the government. It was the absence of this support which had subjected the administration of Hastings to the greatest embarrassment. But Mr. Dundas, who had sustained the nomination of Lord Macartney against a violent opposition in the Cabinet, took umbrage that “he did not rather repose his future fortunes in our hands than make it the subject of a sine qua non preliminary.” Within three days of the receipt of this request, Lord Cornwallis was gowned Governor-General of India.

Change in the system of government

The government of the Company’s affairs in India had hitherto been entrusted to one of their own servants, on the ground that local experience was the most important qualification for the office. But this principle of selection, though well suited to the requirements of a factory, was ill adapted to the government of an empire The advantage arising from this knowledge of the country and the people, however great, was found to be over-balanced by the trammels of local associations, and the difficulty of exercising due control over those who had previously been in the position of equals. The transcendant ability of Hastings himself had been too often neutralized by these connections, and he had been obliged to meet the cabals and intrigues which beset him in the Council chamber by compromises, which weakened the authority of government, and strengthened abuses. These considerations induced the Ministry to place the government in the hands of a nobleman of elevated rank and high character, and unfettered by any local ties. The choice fell on Lord Cornwallis, who had filled several posts of importance, both military and diplomatic, and who stood so high in the estimation of the country that even the surrender of a British army to Washington at Yorktown, which decided the question of American independence,

Page 5

had not shaken his credit. It was within eight months of that disaster, that his name was mentioned by Mr. Dundas, in reference to the future government of India, and was received with great satisfaction by both parties in the House of Commons, who united in paying homage to his talents. He was appointed Governor-General in February, 1786, and reached Calcutta in the month of September. Thus, by the singular caprice of circumstances, the man who had lost America was sent out to govern India, and the man who had saved India was subjected to a prosecution for high crimes and misdemeanours. Lord Cornwallis’s government commenced under the happiest auspices. He enjoyed the entire confidence of Mr. Pitt, and, more especially, of Mr. Dundas, the Indian Minister, who remarked in one of his letters, that they “never before had a government in India and in England acting in perfect harmony, on principles of perfect purity and independence.” The spirit of insubordination and faction which had deranged Hastings’s administration was at once subdued by the dignity and firmness of Lord Cornwallis’s character, and the current of public business began to run smoothly, as soon as he assumed the charge of it.

Correction of abuses, 1786–88

The first three years of his administration were devoted to the correction of abuses, to which it is necessary to advert more particularly, to indicate the progress of integrity in the public service. The Court of Directors still continued to act on the old and vicious principle of “small salaries and large perquisites.” The salaries came from their own treasury, which they guarded with the parsimony of a miser, the perquisites came from the people, and excited little observation, though they served to vitiate the whole system of government. Every man who returned to England rich was considered a rogue, and every man who came home poor was set down as a fool. Hastings made some effort to correct these abuses, but he had not sufficient official strength to stem the tide, and he was often obliged to allay opposition by the bribe of places and emoluments. The

Page 6

Court of Directors nominated their friends and relatives to the most lucrative appointments in India, and the connection thus established between the patrons in Leadenhall-street, and the nominees in India, was too often fatal to the authority of the Governor-General. Lord Cornwallis was determined to put an end to this practice, but his efforts were not successful until he threatened, if it was persisted in, to resign the government, “that he might preserve his own character, and avoid witnessing the ruin of the national interests.”

Instances of abuse, 1786

Lord Cornwallis found the system of official depredation in full bloom. The sub-treasurer was, as he remarked, playing with the deposits; that is, lending out lacs upon lacs of the public money, at twelve per cent. interest. The Commander-in-Chief had given two of his favourites the profitable privilege of raising two regiments, which Lord Cornwallis ordered to be disbanded soon after his arrival. The two commandants immediately demanded compensation, but after the most diligent inquiry, it could not be discovered that either of the regiments had ever existed, except on the paymaster’s books. The collectors of the revenue were still engaged in trade, in the name of some friend or relative, and as they were also judges and magistrates, and possessed of irresistible influence in their districts, they were enabled to amass enormous fortunes; and one of them did not hesitate to admit, that his emoluments exceeded his salary more than twenty fold. The raja of Benares is described by Lord Cornwallis as a fool, and his servants as knaves, and the Resident, supreme in power, monopolized the commerce of the province, and realized four lacs a year, though his regular allowance did not exceed 1,000 rupees a month. It was the old process, so well understood in the east, of turning power into money, which now gave fortunes to a new race of conquerors, as it had enriched the Afghan, the Tartar, the Mogul, and the Abyssinian conquerors, who preceded them. There was, however, this material difference

Page 7

in the two cases; the Asiatic invader settled in the country, and his acquisitions were expended in it, while the European transported his gains to his own country, and was seen no more. The fortunes thus imported into England will not, it is true, bear any comparison with those which have been subsequently realized in manufactures and railroads. With one exception, there were not a dozen of the Company’s servants, from first to last, who took home so large a sum as forty lacs of rupees, but, for the time, their wealth was considered prodigious; and serious apprehensions were entertained by many in England, that eastern gold would undermine its constitution. But it is the peculiar merit of the British administration in India, that it has succeeded in surmounting these abuses, under which previous dynasties had perished, and that, instead of becoming more corrupt with the progress of time, it has worked itself pure, and now presents a model of official integrity, which has, perhaps, no parallel in the world.

The salaries of the public servants augmented, 1788

To the task of reform Lord Cornwallis applied himself with the greatest assiduity. He hunted out frauds in every department, and abolished jobbing agencies, and contracts and sinecures. His greatest difficulty arose from the importunity of men of power and influence in England who had been in the habit of quartering their friends and kindred, and even their victims at the gambling-table, on the revenues of India. But the Governor-General was inexorable, and he had the courage to decline the recommendations of the Prince of Wales himself, afterwards George the Fourth, who, as he remarked, “was always pressing some infamous and unjustifiable job on him.” These reforms, however, were not consummated till he had convinced the Court of Directors of the truth, which Clive and Hastings had in vain pressed on them, that “it was not good economy to put men into places of the greatest confidence, where they have it in their power to make their fortunes in a few months, without giving them

Page 8

adequate salaries.” The Court parted with the traditionary policy of two centuries with great reluctance; but Lord Cornwallis at length succeeded in “annexing liberal salaries to these offices, and in giving gentlemen a prospect of acquiring, by economy, a moderate fortune from the savings of their allowances.”

Arrangement with Oude, 1786

On the arrival of Lord Cornwallis, the Vizier hastened to send his minister to Calcutta, to renew the request to be relieved from the expense of the British troops stationed in his dominions. But the rapid encroachments of Sindia in Hindostan, and the growing power of the Sikhs, convinced the Governor-General that the brigade could not be withdrawn from Futtygur without great risk. He consented, however, to reduce the demand on the treasury of Lucknow for their support, from seventy-four to fifty lees of rupees a year, provided it was paid with punctuality. The higher sum had never been realised, and the Company lost nothing by the arrangement, while the defence of Oude from foreign invasion, was provided for at a charge of less than a fourth of its entire revenue. The Vizier was, at the same time, relieved from the pressure of the European harpies who had long been preying on him, and of the monopolies they had inflicted on his country, under the influence of British supremacy. He was likewise exonerated from the payment of ten lacs of rupees a year, which had been allotted by Hastings for the office of the private agent of the Governor-General at the durbar, Major Palmer, of which his own share amounted to two lacs. Lord Cornwallis also conferred an inestimable boon on Oude by peremptorily refusing to recognize the claims of any of the private creditors of the Vizier, and thus rescued that kingdom from the fate of the Carnatic. But he could not fail to perceive the glaring abuses of the government, in which the Vizier took no further interest than to give the sanction of his authority to the acts of his servants, when they could prevail on him – which was rarely the case – to look into the affairs of the kingdom.

Page 9

The Vizier’s only care was to obtain money for boundless dissipation; and so the zemindars were allowed to squeeze the ryots, the ministers squeezed the zemindars, and the Vizier extorted every rupee he could obtain from his ministers, and squandered it in cock-fighting and debaucheries, in maintaining a thousand horses in his private stables, which he never used, and a whole brigade of elephants.

Demand of the Guntoor Sirkar, 1788

Lord Cornwallis, on leaving England, was especially enjoined to amalgamate the King’s and the Company’s troops, and to secure the possession of the Guntoor Sirkar. The project of amalgamation was warmly espoused by the king and supported by his Ministers; no efforts, however, were made during the administration of Lord Cornwallis to carry it into effect, but on his return to England, after seven years of experience, he earnestly recommended the adoption of it to Mr. Dundas and the Court of Directors. The reversion of the Guntoor Sirkar, it will be remembered, was assigned by the Nizam to the Company by the treaty of 1768, after the death of his brother, Basalut Jung. He died in 1782, but the Nizam constantly evaded the surrender. Lord Cornwallis found him in 1786 involved in a war with Tippoo, and considered it inopportune to press the cession at the time. But in 1788, the prospect of continued peace with France, which removed all fear of European interference, and the aspect of politics in the Deccan, seemed to present a suitable occasion for making the demand. To obviate every difficulty, troops were drawn to the frontier, and Captain Kennaway, the Governor-General’s aide-de-camp, was despatched to Hyderabad, “to demand the full execution of the treaty of 1768,” with the intimation, that a British force was prepared to enter Guntoor in a fortnight. To the surprise of Lord Cornwallis, the Nizam ordered the immediate surrender of the district without any hesitation, as well as the adjustment of all accounts; but at the same time he expressed his confidence that the Company’s government would be prepared, with equal alacrity, to fulfil the obligations to which they

Page 10

were bound by it; namely, to send two battalions of sepoys and six pieces of artillery, manned by Europeans, whenever the Nizam should require them, and to reduce and transfer to him the province of the Carnatic Balaghaut, “then usurped by Hyder Naik.” With his usual duplicity, the Nizam sent an envoy at the same time to Tippoo, to propose an alliance for the extirpation of the English. Tippoo readily assented to the proposal, on condition of receiving a daughter of the Nizam in marriage; but the Tartar blood of the son of Chin Kilich Khan boiled at the idea of a matrimonial alliance with the son of a naik, or head constable, and the negotiation fell to the ground.

Perplexity of Lord Cornwallis, 1789

Lord Cornwallis was not a little perplexed by this manoeuvre on the part of the Nizam. Since the treaty of 1768, the British Government had in two successive treaties acknowledged Hyder and Tippoo as the lawful sovereigns of the Carnatic Balaghaut. The Act of 1784 had, moreover, strictly prohibited the formation of alliances with native princes without sanction from home. But Lord Cornwallis deemed it important to British interests to secure the co-operation both of the Nizam and the Peshwa against the hostile designs of Tippoo, which were daily becoming more palpable. To meet the difficulties of the case, he addressed a letter to the Nizam, which was avowed to have the full force of a treaty, though it professed to be simply a clearer definition of the old compact. In this letter he stated that if the province in question should at any time come into the possession of the Company, with the assistance of his Highness, the stipulation of the treaty would be faithfully observed. The brigade of British troops, he said, should be furnished whenever the Nizam applied for its services, but with the understanding that it was not to be employed against any power in affiance with the English. A list of these powers was added to the document, but the name of Tippoo was omitted. This memorable letter, dated the 7th of July, 1789, has been considered by some writers of considerable

Page 11

note, as the cause of the war which broke out with Tippoo six months after. That an engagement which contemplated the partition of his dominions, and placed an English force at the disposal of the Nizam, with liberty to employ it against him, while he himself was excluded from the register of British allies, must have given him great annoyance, will not be denied. But, before the treaty of Mangalore was a day old, he had assured the French governor of Pondicherry that he would renew the war with the English on the first occasion. He had fitted out an expedition to attack the king of Travancore, an ally of the English, long before he heard of the letter. It was certain that whenever he was ready for the struggle, he would neither want a pretext, nor wait for one. As to the Act of Parliament intended to isolate us from all the other powers of India, even the author of it, Mr. Dundas, had begun to consider it a mistake, and had recently written to Lord Cornwallis that “an alliance with the Mahrattas of the closest kind was all that was requisite to keep the whole world in awe respecting India.”

Proceedings of the Madras government, 1789

The little principality of Travancore, at the southern extremity of the Malabar coast, had been placed under British protection by the treaty of Mangalore. Tippoo, who had long coveted the possession of it, had been for some time assembling a large force in the vicinity, and the raja, anxious to strengthen the defences of his kingdom, had recently purchased the towns of Cranganore and Ayacottah of the Dutch. Tippoo immediately demanded the surrender of them on the plea that that they belonged to his vassal, the chief of Cochin. The raja refused to resign them, and applied to the British authorities for support. Lord Cornwallis directed the President at Madras to inform both Tippoo and the raja that if the Dutch had held independent and unreserved possession of them, he was instructed to assist the raja in maintaining and defending them. Unfortunate as Madras had been in its Presidents for a long

Page 12

series of years, Mr. Holland, who now occupied the chair, appears to have been the very worst of the lot. He not only withheld this communication from Tippoo, but sent a disheartening letter to the raja, and, at the same time, demanded a lac of pagodas for himself, as the condition of aiding him with a British detachment. To promote this profligate negotiation, he kept the army in such a state of inefficiency as to encourage Tippoo’s aggression. Holland was deeply implicated in all the criminality of the Nabob’s loans, and, although he had been ordered to suspend all payments to the creditors as soon as there was any probability of a war with Tippoo, he chose to continue these disbursements, allowed the pay of the troops to fall into arrears, and neglected to make any preparation for the impending war.

Tippoo attacks Travancore, 28th December 1789

Emboldened by this negligence, Tippoo suddenly attacked the “lines of Travancore,” consisting of the defensive wall which the raja had erected; but after a severe action was repulsed with disgrace, and with the loss of 2,000 men. He immediately ordered down a battering train from Seringapatam, and reinforcements from every quarter. Even the detachments employed in dragooning “the infidels of Malabar,” who refused circumcision, were recalled from their mission, and the next three months and a half were wasted in preparation for the attack of this miserable wall. Holland, after he had received information of this attack, which was equivalent to a declaration of war, actually proposed to appoint commissioners for the pacific adjustment of all differences with Tippoo, and persisted in declining to provide cattle for the army which was to take field. Soon after, he fled from his post and embarked for England.

Treaties formed by Lord Cornwallis, 1790

During the three years of Lord Cornwallis’s administration he had been eminently successful in his financial reforms. The income of Bengal now exceeded its expenditure by two crores of rupees, and he was enabled not only to supply the wants of the other Presidencies,

Page 13

but to send home an investment from territorial revenue, of a crore and thirty lacs, which was calculated to realise two crores in the London market. But however much he regretted that the fruit of three years of economy should be swept away at a stroke, he determined to lose no time in bringing all the resources of the country to the prosecution of the war which Tippoo had wantonly provoked. It was not a time for pottering over Acts of Parliament, and he proceeded at once to form alliances, offensive and defensive, with the two other powers of the Deccan. Although Nana Furnuvese had hitherto treated the friendly advances of Lord Cornwallis with coldness, so great was the animosity of the Mahrattas against Tippoo, that they now agreed to co-operate heartily with the British Government in reducing his power. The hatred and dread of Tippoo also quickened the zeal of the Nizam, and a tripartite treaty was concluded between the parties, which provided that the Nizam and the Mahrattas should attack Tippoo’s dominions both during and after the rains, and prosecute the war with all vigour; that they should join the British army if required, with 10,000 horse, for which they were to be fully reimbursed; that a British contingent should accompany their troops, and that the territories and forts conquered by their united arms should be equally divided among them. Of the three powers in the Deccan, the Nizam was the most feeble, and he knew but too well that as soon as the strength of Tippoo was broken, and the balance of power destroyed, he would be exposed to the encroachments of the Mahrattas, who kept open a long account against him of arrears due for chout and tribute. He, therefore, delayed the ratification of the treaty while he endeavoured to obtain from Lord Cornwallis, not only the guarantee of his own dominions during the war, but the promise of full protection from the claims of the Poona durbar after its termination. Lord Cornwallis could not, however, consent to this proposal without giving umbrage to his Mahratta allies, and the Nizam was obliged to rest satisfied with the general assurance

Page 14

of friendly support, as far as might be compatible with the engagements of the Company.

Campaign of 1790

Lord Cornwallis was desirous of taking the field in person, but, finding that General Medows, an officer of acknowledged ability, in whom he placed great confidence, had been appointed Governor and General-in-Chief at Madras, he determined to leave the campaign to his management. The General reached Madras late in February, and prepared to commence operations with a body of 15,000 troops, “the finest and best English army,” in the opinion of Lord Cornwallis, “which had ever been assembled in India.” The plan of the campaign was similar to that framed by Colonel Fullarton, in 1783, of proceeding southward to Coimbetore, and after reducing the forts and occupying that rich district, of ascending the ghauts to Seringapatam. Another division, when reinforced from Bengal, was to march on the capital through the Baramahal. So great, however, was the deficiency of supplies, owing to the criminal neglect of Holland, that General Medows was unable to move from Trichinopoly before the 26th of May, and was nearly three weeks in reaching Caroor, the frontier station, only fifty miles distant. The army arrived at Coimbetore on the 23rd of July; Dindigul was captured on the 21st of August, and Palghaut, deemed by the natives impregnable, surrendered on the 21st of September, with sixty guns of various calibre. But here the success of the campaign terminated. General Medows injudiciously separated his force into three divisions, and placed them at too great a distance from each other for mutual support. Tippoo took advantage of this error, and, by a masterly movement, descended the Gujelhutty pass, attacked the foremost division under Colonel Floyd, and obliged him to fall back with the loss of some of his guns. “We lost time,” said Lord Cornwallis, “in 1790, and Tippoo gained reputation.” Several forts stored with provisions likewise fell into his hands; but the subsequent junction of the three

Page 15

divisions baffled his plans, and he moved northward to oppose the army advancing from Bengal.

The Bengal division – Hartley’s exploit, 1790

On the breaking out of the war, Lord Cornwallis adopted the bold plan of Hastings, and despatched a large expedition from the Bengal Presidency along the coast down to Madras. It reached Conjeveram on the 1st of August without accident, under the command of Colonel Maxwell, and there it was reinforced by several regiments from Madras, which raised its strength to 9,500 men. The object of General Medows was to form a junction with this force, and that of Tippoo was to prevent it. But, notwithstanding the rapid march and able dispositions of the Mysore army, a union was effected of the two bodies of English troops on the 17th of November. Tippoo then marched south to attack Trichinopoly, and the chain of English posts and depots in that quarter, and General Medows closely followed his track. In these desultory movements the troops were subjected to unprofitable fatigue, and began to lose confidence in their commander, who was evidently unequal to the direction of operations on a large scale. The character of the campaign was, however, redeemed by the brilliant exploit of Colonel Hartley, who will be remembered as having earned the highest distinction twelve years before, in the war with the Mahrattas. In the present year, he was stationed on the Malabar coast, with a body of 1,500 men and a few guns, to watch the movements of Hussein Ali, the Mysore general, who guarded the province with a force of 7,000 or 8,000 men, and a large body of fanatic Moplas. On the 8th of December he ventured to attack Colonel Hartley’s little band under the walls of Calicut, but was signally defeated, with the loss of more than 1,000 men, and obliged soon after to surrender, together with 2,500 of his force. The loss, on the side of the English, did not exceed fifty-two. General Medows, who was totally devoid of any feeling of professional jealousy, in

Page 16

announcing this success to Lord Cornwallis, exclaimed, “Oh, to eclipse the brilliant action of Colonel Hartley.”

Lord Cornwallis takes the field in person

Lord Cornwallis, mortified by the futility of the campaign, resolved to resume his original design of taking the command of the war in person, and arrived at Madras on the 12th of December, 1790. General Medows returned to the Presidency with his army, without expressing a murmur on the trying occasion of being superseded in the command. Tippoo quitted the neighbourhood of Trichinopoly, and proceeded northward into the heart of the Carnatic, marking his progress by the desolation of the province. He then advanced to Pondicherry, where he wasted several weeks in negotiations with the French governor, through whom he sent a mission to Louis the Sixteenth, then in the vortex of the French revolution. Though the French and English were at the time at peace, he requested that a body of 6,000 troops should be sent to his assistance, for whose conveyance and support he offered to make suitable provision, and with whose aid he engaged to capture the English settlements and transfer them to the French. The unhappy king revolted from the proposal, and remarked: “This resembles the affair of America, of which I never think without regret, my youth was taken advantage of at that time, and we suffer for it now; the lesson is too severe to be forgotten.” Meanwhile, Lord Cornwallis was making the greatest efforts to resume operations in the field. It was the first time the British armies in India had been led by a Governor-General in person, who enjoyed the undivided exercise of all the civil and military powers of the state, and commanded the resources of all the Presidencies. His presence was considered by the allies the strongest pledge of sincerity, and gave them every confidence of success.

Capture of Bangalore, 21st March 1791

The British army was concentrated at Vellore on the 11th of February, and Lord Cornwallis made a demonstration of advancing to Seringapatam through the Amboor pass, while his force, with its

Page 17

convoys, passed undiscovered and unopposed through the more easy pass of Mooglee, and on the 17th of February, stood on the table land of Mysore, only ninety miles from Bangalore, without having fired a shot. Tippoo, who had manifested unaccountable indecision while Lord Cornwallis was organizing his plans, hastened, by forced marches to rescue his seraglio and treasures which had been deposited in that fortress, and was only just in time to save them from capture. Bangalore capitulated on the 21st of March, but the pleasure of success was damped by the loss, during the siege, of Colonel Moorhouse, who, though he had risen from the ranks, exhibited all the characteristics of a gallant and most accomplished soldier.

Arrival of the Nizam’s contingent, 1791

The Nizam’s contingent of 10,000 horse assembled in the neighbourhood of Hyderabad, in May, 1790, in accordance with the conditions of the treaty of alliance; but they never moved beyond their own frontier, till they heard, in September, that Tippoo had gone southward to Coimbetore. When there was no longer any risk of encountering his army, the Nizam’s troops entered the Mysore territory, spreading desolation and ruin in their course. But, instead of marching on to join the English army, they sat down before Copaul, a tremendous rock a few miles north of the Toombudra, and twenty miles west of the ancient ruins of Vijuynugur, which detained them nearly six months. As soon, however, as intelligence of the capture of Bangalore reached their camp, they hastened forward, and joined Lord Cornwallis’s army on the 13th of April, 1791. They are described as mounted on horses in excellent condition, and clothed in armour of every conceivable variety, including the Parthian bow and arrow, the iron club of Scythia, sabres of every age and nation, lances of every length and description, and matchlocks of every form. But there was neither order, nor discipline, nor valour among them; and the gay cavaliers were so utterly unsuited for field work that they were unable to protect their own foragers. and soon ceased to move beyond the English pickets.

Page 18

Battle of Arikera, and retreat of Cornwallis, 1791

Lord Cornwallis was now in full march on the capital; and Tippoo, yielding to the representations of his officers, and the remonstrances of his women, resolved not to allow it to be invested without a struggle. His father had always advised him to avoid a regular engagement with the English, but he determined on this occasion to disregard this salutary injunction. He drew up his whole army at a short distance from Seringapatam, with the Cavery on his right and a ridge of hills on his left; and there, on the 13th of May, was fought the battle of Arikera. Although Tippoo executed his movements with great promptitude and military judgment, he was entirely discomfited. On the summit of the hill, where the last shot was fired, the island of Seringapatam and the eastern face of the fortress became visible to the victors; but here terminated the triumph of the campaign. For many weeks the British army had been suffering the extremity of want. The scanty stores which accompanied it had been exhausted, and Tippoo’s light horse cut off all supplies of provision or forage, and created a desert around it. After the engagement of the 13th, Lord Cornwallis felt, as Sir Eyre Coote had felt ten years before, that he would gladly exchange the trophies of victory for a few days’ rice. The Nizam’s horse, which was unable to make any effort for its own subsistence, increased the calamity by consuming forage and grain. General Abercromby, with the Bombay army sent to co-operate with Lord Cornwallis, had proceeded down the Malabar coast, and, passing through the friendly country of Coorg, had arrived at Periapatam, forty miles distant from Seringapatam; and Lord Cornwallis, after the engagement, advanced to Caniambady, with the view of forming a junction with him. But, on the 20th of May, his commissariat officers reported that it was utterly impossible to move his heavy guns a step farther with bullocks reduced to the condition of skeletons. The whole camp was falling a prey to want and disease; and Lord Cornwallis was constrained to accept the conclusion that the object of the campaign was no longer

Page 19

practicable, and that the salvation of the army depended on an immediate retreat. On the 21st of May instructions were sent to General Abercromby to retrace his steps to the coast, which he reached in safety, after having destroyed a portion of his siege guns, and buried the remainder at the head of the pass. The next day Lord Cornwallis issued a general order, explaining to the soldiers, European and native, the true motives of this measure, in order to avoid misapprehensions, and then destroyed his own battering train and heavy equipments. On the 26th the army began its melancholy march back to Madras.

Progress of the Mahratta contingent, 1790

The dispirited force had scarcely accomplished half a short march, when a body of about 2,000 horse made its appearance on the left flank. It was supposed at first to be a portion of the enemy’s troops advancing to make an attempt on the stores and baggage on the line of retreat, and prompt dispositions were made to frustrate it, but a single horseman soon after galloped up and announced that it was the advanced guard of their Mahratta allies. By the coalition treaty the Mahratta cabinet had engaged to furnish a body 10,000 horse for the prosecution of the war with Tippoo, and the Governor-General had engaged to strengthen their main army with a British detachment. Captain Little accordingly embarked at Bombay, with two battalions of sepoys and one company of European and two of native artillery, with which he reached the rendezvous at Coompta on the 18th of June, but found that not more than 2,000 Mahratta horse had been assembled. This was explained by the fact that, although the treaty, offensive and defensive, had been actually signed by Nana Furnuvese on the 1st of June, the envoys of Tippoo were still entertained at Poona, in the hope, which the ministers did not attempt to conceal, that he might be induced even at the eleventh hour to purchase their neutrality by a concession of territory. This hope was at length dispelled; the vakeels were dismissed on the 5th of August, and Pureshram Bhao, the Mahratta commandant,

Page 20

crossed the Kistna six days after and joined the army. But it soon became evident that his intention was not so much to promote the general object of the confederacy in the humiliation of Tippoo, as to take advantage of the cooperation of the British artillery to recover the fortresses and territories which Tippoo had wrested from the Mahrattas. On the 18th of September, he sat down before Dharwar, a mud fort, but well fortified, and garrisoned by 10,000 Mysore troops, under the command of one of Tippoo’s ablest generals. The fort held out till the 30th of March, when the garrison capitulated, on hearing of the fall of Bangalore. On the 1st of January, 1791, a second Mahratta army, consisting of 25,000 horse and 5,000 foot, marched from Poona, under Hurry Punt, the commander-in-chief of the armies of the state, and advanced into Mysore by a more easterly route, capturing a number of forts in its progress.

Junction of the Mahratta and English armies, 1791

These two bodies were united on the 24th of May, 1791, and marched towards Milgota, where two days later they came up with the English army on the first day of its retreat. Great was the astonishment of Lord Cornwallis to find the Mahratta forces, which he supposed to be a hundred and fifty miles distant, in his immediate vicinity. But, his intelligence department, to which only 2,000 rupees a month had been allotted, was wretched beyond example, while the admirable organization of Tippoo’s troop of spies intercepted all communication, and kept the allies mutually ignorant of each other’s movements. Had the approach of the Mahratta armies been announced a week earlier, the campaign would have presented a very different prospect. The provisions which they brought with them, though sold at an exorbitant rate, proved a seasonable relief to Lord Cornwallis’s famished soldiers. The bazaar of the Mahratta camp presented the greatest variety of articles; English broadcloths and Birmingham penknives, the richest Cashmere shawls, and the most rare and costly jewellery, together with oxen, and sheep, and poultry, and all that the best

Page 21

bazaars of the most flourishing towns could furnish, the result of long and unscrupulous plunder; while the carpets of the money-changers in the public street of the encampment, spread with the coins of every kingdom and province in the east, indicated the systematic rapine of these incomparable freebooters. But, though the Mahratta sirdars had been enriching themselves with plunder from the day on which they took the field, they set up a plea of poverty, and demanded a loan of fourteen lacs of rupees. Lord Cornwallis had no time to examine the morality of this request; he had only to consider the consequence of refusing it – the transfer of their alliance to Tippoo, who was ready to purchase it at any price. He, therefore, sent an express to Madras, and took out of the hold of the ships then about to sail for China, the specie intended for the annual investment.

Operations of the Mahratta, the Nizam’s and the English forces, 1791

Hurry Punt, the Mahratta general-in-chief, accompanied the English army on its retirement, but lost no opportunity of indulging in plunder. The main body of the Mahratta army, under Pureshram Bhao, moved to the north west, subjecting the Mysore districts to indiscriminate spoliation. The siege of Simoga, in which he engaged, was rendered memorable by the skill and heroism of Capt. Little’s detachment which accompanied his force, who, after thirty-six hours of hard fighting, without food or rest, placed the fortress in his hands. The Bhao had left Lord Cornwallis in July, under a solemn promise to return to the army whenever required; but nothing was farther from his intentions; his object was to avail himself of the aid of the English force to recover the territory which the Mahrattas had lost; and he was importuning Captain Little to attack Bednore, when another and more peremptory requisition obliged him to return to the south; but he did not join the English camp till a fortnight after the termination of the war. The army of the Nizam, on the retreat of Lord Cornwallis, proceeded to the north-east, and laid siege to Goorumconda, where it was detained many

Page 22

months. The fort was at length captured by the English auxiliary force, and Hafiz-jee, who had been the bearer of Tippoo’s offer of an alliance with the Nizam’s family four years before, which was rejected with indignation, was made prisoner and cut to pieces by the Nizam’s commander, to revenge that deep felt indignity. Soon after, the Hyderabad army was summoned to join Lord Cornwallis, then advancing a second time against Seringapatam. After his retirement from the capital in May, 1791, he employed the remainder of the year in the conquest of the Baramahal, and the reduction of the fortresses with which the country was studded, and the fortifications of which had been improved by Tippoo with so much skill and assiduity as to excite Lord Cornwallis’s warm admiration. Nothing, indeed, filled the princes of the country with such awe of the British power as the ease and rapidity with which fortresses, absolutely impregnable to the assaults of any native force, were mastered, and which they attributed to the power of magic. While the Mahrattas had been six months and a half besieging Dharwar, and the Nizam’s army had been detained five months before Copaul, such fortresses as Kistnagherry, Nundidroog, Severndroog, and others, which seemed to defy all human approach on their inaccessible peaks, were captured in a few days.

The grand convoy, 1792

The arrangements of Lord Cornwallis for the campaign of 1792 were completed early in January, and he took the field with a convoy which surpassed in magnitude anything which had ever accompanied a British force in India, and struck the Deccan with amazement. First and foremost, marched a hundred elephants laden with treasure, followed by a hundred carts supplied with liquor, and 60,000 bullocks laden with provisions belonging to the brinjarees, the professional and hereditary carriers of India, more than one-fourth of which number had been serving in Tippoo’s army the preceding year. Then in three parallel columns came the battering train and heavy carriages, the infantry and the field-pieces, the baggage and

Page 23

the camp followers. The appearance of these vast supplies, partly received from England, and partly drawn from the other Presidencies, within six months after Lord Cornwallis had been obliged to retreat for want of provisions, might well justify the exclamation of Tippoo, “It is not what I see of the resources of the English that I dread, but what I do not see.”

Siege of Seringapatam, 6th February, 1792

On the 25th of January, the Nizam’s army, consisting of about 8,000 men, under the command of his son, but more gaudy than serviceable, together with a small body of Hurry Punt’s Mahrattas, joined the camp of Lord Cornwallis, when he moved forward with a force, consisting exclusive of allies, of 22,000 men, 44 field-pieces, and 42 siege guns. On the 5th of February the whole force reached an elevated ground which commanded a view of Seringapatam, standing on an island formed by two branches of the Cavery. The defences, which had been greatly improved by Tippoo, consisted of three lines protected by 300 pieces of cannon, the earthwork being covered by a bound hedge of thorny plants, absolutely impenetrable to man or beast. Tippoo’s force was encamped on the northern face of the stream, and his position was so admirably fortified that it appeared an act of rashness to attack it. Lord Cornwallis reconnoitred the works on the 6th, and determined to storm them that same night. The generals of the allies were astounded when they heard that the English commander had gone out in person, like an ordinary captain, in a dark night, without guns, to assail these formidable lines. But the attack was planned with the greatest skill, and rewarded with complete success. The contest raged throughout the night, and by the morning Lord Cornwallis had obtained possession of the whole of the enemy’s redoubts, and established himself in the island, with the loss of 530 killed and wounded, of whom 36 were officers. The casualties in Tippoo’s army were estimated at 4,000, but as the conscripts whom he had pressed into his service took advantage of

Page 24

this reverse to desert it, his total loss did not fall short of 20,000.

Treaty of peace, 1792

Tippoo now began to tremble for his capital and his kingdom, and hastened to release Lt. Chambers, whom he had detained, contrary to the capitulation of Coimbetore – which that officer had defended to the last extremity – and sent him with overtures to Lord Cornwallis. On the 16th of February, General Abercromby joined the camp with a reinforcement of 6,000 men from the Malabar coast. The operations of the siege were prosecuted with unabated vigour during the negotiations, and on the 23rd the works were so far completed that fifty pieces of cannon were brought to bear on the fortifications. Tippoo assembled his principal officers, and adjured them on the Koran to advise him in all sincerity and good faith, and to inform him whether, in their opinion, he ought to accede to the demands of the confederates. They replied that no reliance could any longer be placed on his soldiers, and that submission was inevitable. Tippoo felt that he had to choose between the loss of his throne, and submission to the severe terms dictated by Lord Cornwallis; which were, that he should cede half his territories, pay three crores of rupees towards the expenses of the war, and give up two of his sons as hostages. The confederates left Sir John Kennaway, the British plenipotentiary, to settle the conditions of the treaty, but when it was completed, Hurry Punt, the Mahratta general-in-chief added a supplemental demand of sixty lacs of rupees for himself and the Nizam’s general, as a reasonable fee for their labours in the negotiation. This sum was subsequently reduced to one-half that amount. From documents found on the capture of Seringapatam, in 1799, it was discovered that both the Mahrattas and the Nizam were all this time engaged in a clandestine correspondence with Tippoo, the object of which was unconsciously but effectually defeated by the signature of the preliminaries by Lord Cornwallis on the 23rd, and the arrival of the hostages on the 25th of

Page 25

February. The youths were conveyed with much ceremony to the Governor-General’s tent, and received with distinguished courtesy. A crore of rupees had also been sent in, when Tippoo, finding that the little principality of Coorg which he had destined to destruction for the assistance afforded to the English was to be included in the territory he was required to cede, not only remonstrated against the demand of what he termed one of the gates of Seringapatam, but manifested a disposition to renew hostilities. Lord Cornwallis, however, made preparations for pressing the siege with such promptitude, that Tippoo was speedily brought to reason. The tripartite treaty had provided that the territories conquered by the joint exertions of the allies should be equally divided among them. The Mahrattas, as the preceding narrative will show, had given no assistance in the war, and the Nizam’s force had done nothing but consume provisions and forage, but Lord Cornwallis was determined to adhere to the original compact with the most scrupulous fidelity, and made over a third of the indemnity, as well as of the territory, to each of the confederates, annexing another third, of the value of forty lacs of rupees a year, to the dominions of the Company. It comprised the district of Dindigul in the south, and of the Baramahal in the east, including several important passes into Mysore, and a large strip of fertile territory with great commercial resources on the western coast, which was annexed to Bombay, and formed the first real domain of that Presidency.

Proposals to relinquish territory, 1780–1793

This was the first acquisition of territory since it had been resolved to control the growth of the British empire in India by Acts of Parliament. Mr. Pitt, on the introduction of his India Bill, in 1784, stated that his first and principal object would be to prevent the Governor of Bengal from being ambitious, and bent on conquest; and his chief objection to Hastings was, that he had endeavoured to extend the British dominions in India. The dread of territorial expansion was, in fact, the prevailing bugbear of the

Page 26

day. But neither Hastings, nor any other statesman in England or in India, had ever entertained any such design. On the contrary, Hastings was at one time prepared to relinquish all the Northern Sircars. Clive had given back the entire kingdom of Oude, when it had been forfeited by the result of the war which the Nabob vizier had wantonly waged against the Company, and he denounced any attempt to extend the British territories beyond the Curumnussa. Lord Cornwallis, soon after he assumed office, expressed his wish to withdraw from the Malabar coast, and to reduce Bombay to a mere factory, subordinate to Calcutta or Madras; and Lord Shelburne, when Prime Minister of England in 1782, proposed to give up everything except Bombay and Bengal; and, had Lord Cornwallis accepted the office of Governor-General when it was first proposed to him, he would probably have taken out orders to abandon the Madras Presidency. If the extent of the British dominions in India had depended, therefore, on the wishes, or the policy of its rulers, so far from being ambitiously expanded, it would apparently have been reduced within very narrow limits.

Encroachments of native princes, 1793

Those who took the lead in the government of native India at this period, had evidently but a partial knowledge of its early history and polity, of the character of its princes, or of the position in which England was placed. From time immemorial, aggression had been the life-blood of all Indian monarchies. Twenty-five centuries before Mr. Pitt’s time, the father of Hindoo legislation had placed conquest among the foremost of regal virtues. “What the king,” says Munoo, “has not gained, let him strive to gain by military strength;” and this is, perhaps, the only injunction of the Hindoo shastras, which Hindoo princes have never forgotten. The same aggressive principle was adopted by the Mohamedan conquerors, not only in reference to infidel princes, but to those of the “true faith.” Every new dynasty, as it arose with the elastic vigour of youth, continued to attack and appropriate the territories of its neighbours, till

Page 27

it became itself effete, and was in its turn absorbed by new adventurers. For more than ten centuries there had been no settled kingdom, guarded by a respect for prescriptive rights, anxious to maintain peace with its neighbours, and content with its ancient boundaries. In every direction, the continent had presented an unbroken series of intrigue, violence and aggression.

The position of the English, 1756–1793

At the period which this narrative has reached, the political cauldron in India was seething with more than ordinary violence. The four chief powers, the Peshwa, the Nizam, Tippoo, and Sindia, had been established within the brief period of sixty years by usurpation, and were kept alive by the impulse of aggression. Every year had witnessed some invasion of the right of some prince in Hindostan or the Deccan. It was at this juncture that the English appeared on the scene, and took up arms to defend their factories. By the superiority of their valour and discipline, they became a first-rate military power, and, consequently, an object of jealousy to all the belligerent princes of India. It was the restlessness and encroachment of those princes, and not the ambition of English governors which gave rise to nearly all the wars in which they were engaged. Admitting that they had any right to be in India at all, the increase of their power and possessions was the inevitable effect of that law of progression to which all new dynasties were subject. From the very first they were placed in a state of antagonism to all those who dreaded their power, and coveted their possessions. The slightest appearance of weakness, and, too often, even the exhibition of moderation – a virtue unknown in India – became the signal of aggressive assaults. When the aggressor was conquered, it appeared to be the dictate of prudence to prevent the renewal of hostilities by reducing his resources, and appropriating a part of his territories. And thus was the British empire in India gradually extended by a mysterious but inexorable necessity, which overpowered, not only the

Page 28

reluctance of English governors, and the denunciations of patriots, but even the omnipotence of Parliament.

Censure of Lord Cornwallis in the House, 1793

The conduct of Lord Cornwallis was not allowed to pass without censure in the House of Commons, more especially from Mr. Francis, who had been the instrument of annexing the province of Benares to the Company’s territories. The war which Lord Cornwallis considered “an absolute and cruel necessity,” forced on him by the ungovernable ambition and violence of Tippoo, was stigmatised as unjust and ambitious, and the treaties of alliance he had formed with the Nizam and the Poona durbar were affirmed to be infamous. Lord Porchester went so far as to assert that the war was founded on avarice, but the charge was triumphantly refuted by the fact that Lord Cornwallis had not only been subject to a loss of nearly three lacs of rupees by it, but had relinquished his share of the prize-money, which came to four lacs and a half more – a generous act which was nobly emulated by General Medows. The House ratified all the measures of the Governor-General, including the large acquisition of territory which he had made, and the king conferred on him the dignity of Marquis. The precedent has been scrupulously maintained since that time, and every Governor-General who has enlarged the British empire in India, has received the thanks of Parliament, and has been decorated with honours by the Crown.

Reduction of Tippoo’s power, 1793

The progress of the war demonstrated beyond question, that of the three native powers in the Deccan, Tippoo was by far the strongest. Both the Nizam and the Mahrattas were found to entertain the most lively dread of his power and his ambition, and they were brought to feel that they could not have defended themselves effectually from his encroachments, without the aid of an English army. The power of Tippoo was effectually reduced by the alienation of one-half his territorial resources, which, before the peace, were reckoned at about two wares and a

Page 29

half of rupees. The Nizam and the Poona durbar had exhibited such inefficiency during the campaigns, as to reduce themselves to a very subordinate political position, and the prestige of British power had been in a corresponding degree augmented. The deference paid to the Governor-General both by friends and enemies placed the British name and consequence in a light never known before in India. After this period, for half a century, there were no more treaties of Mangalore, or conventions of Wurgaum, but the British authorities dictated their own terms in every negotiation.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
hosted by ibiblio Support Wikipedia