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Book V. him not to complete, he, on the 21st of April, successfully assaulted and took possession of the fort.

1780.

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It had, however, been importunately urged, both by Coote and Goddard, and was acknowledged by the Governor-general, that the force employed on the Mahratta frontier under Captain Popham was far from adequate to any such important operations as could materially affect the result of the war. After some fluctuation of plans, and great debate and opposition at the Superior Board, in which Mr. Francis in particular vehemently opposed the extension of military efforts, it was determined that a detachment of three battalions, stationed at Cawnpore, under Major Carnac, with a battalion of light infantry, under Captain Browne, should threaten or invade the territories of Scindia and Holkar. In the mean time Captain Popham, with the true spirit of military ardour, after securing with great activity the conquest of the district of Cutchwagar, turned his attention to the celebrated fortress of Gualior, situated within the territory of the Ranna of Gohud, but wrested from his father, and now garrisoned by the Mahrattas. This fortress was situated on the summit, three coss in extent, of a stupendous rock, scarped almost entirely round, and defended by a thousand men. By the princes of Hindustan it had always been regarded as impregnable. And Sir Eyre Coote himself, in his letter to the Supreme Council, dated the 21st of April, had pronounced it " totally repugnant to his military ideas, and even absolute madness," to attack it with so feeble a detachment, and without a covering army to keep off the Mahrattas in the field, and preserve the line of communication. Captain Popham moved to the village of Ripore, about five coss distant from Gualior, and employed his spies in continually searching if a spot fit for escalading could be found. After many and dangerous experiments, they at last brought him advice that one part only afforded any appearance of practicability. At this place the height of the scarp was about sixteen feet, from the scarp to the wall was a steep ascent of about forty yards, and the wall itself was thirty feet high. "I took the resolution," says Captain Popham, "immediately. The object was glorious: and I made a disposition to prevent, as much as in my power, the chance of tarnishing the honour of the attempt, by the loss we might sustain in case of a repulse." At break of day, on the 3d of August, the van of the storming party arrived at the foot of the rock. Wooden ladders were applied to the scarp; and the troops ascended to the foot of the wall. The spies climbed up, and fixed the rope ladders, when the Sepoys mounted with amazing activity. The guards assembled within, but were.

1780.

quickly repulsed by the fire of the assailants. The detachment entered with CHAP. III. rapidity, and pushed on to the main body of the place. In the mean time the greater part of the garrison escaped by another quarter, and left the English masters of one of the greatest and most celebrated strong holds in that quarter of the globe. This brilliant achievement, for which Captain Popham was rewarded with the rank of Major, struck the Mahrattas with so much consternation, that they abandoned the circumjacent country, and conveyed the alarm to Scindia in his capital.

Mr. Hastings

The opposition which was made by Francis to these proceedings for pushing Duel between the war on the Jumna, brought to a crisis the animosities which the struggle and Mr. Franbetween him and the Governor-General had so long maintained. On the 20th cis. of July, 1780, Mr. Hastings, in answering a minute of Mr. Francis, declared, "I do not trust to his promise of candour, convinced that he is incapable of it. I judge of his public conduct, by my experience of his private, which I have found to be void of truth and honour." The ground of these severe expressions, the Governor-General stated to be a solemn agreement formed between him and Mr. Francis, which Mr. Francis had broken. Of this transaction the following appear to have been the material circumstances. When the parliamentary appointment, during five years, of the Governor-General and Council, expired in 1778, the expectation of a change in the Indian administration was suspended, by the re-appointment, upon the motion of the King's chief minister, of Mr. Hastings, for a single year. Upon the arrival of this intelligence in India, an attempt was made by some mutual friends of Mr. Hastings and Mr. Francis, to deliver the government, at a period of difficulty and danger, from the effects of their discordance. Both parties acknowledged the demand which the present exigency presented for a vigorous and united administration; and both professed a desire to make any sacrifice of personal feelings, and personal interests, for the attainment of so important an object. On the part of Mr. Francis it was stipulated that Mahomed Reza Khan, Mr. Bristow, and Mr. Fowke, should be re-instated in conformity to the Company's orders; and, on the part of Mr. Hastings, that

* For the transactions relative to the Mahratta war, the materials are found in the Sixth Report of the Committee of Secrecy in 1781, and the vast mass of documents printed in its Appendix; the twentieth article of the Parliamentary Charges against Hastings, and his answer; the Papers printed for the use of the House of Commons on the Impeachment; and the Minutes of Evidence on the Trial of Mr. Hastings. The number of publications of the day, which on this, and other parts of the History of Mr. Hastings' Administration, have been consulted, some with more, some with less, advantage, are far too numerous to mention.

1780.

Book V. the Mahratta war, the responsibility of which Mr. Francis had disclaimed, and thrown personally on the Governor-General, should be conducted in conformity with his conceptions and plans. It was this part of the agreement. which Mr. Hastings accused his opponent of violating; and of depriving him, by a treacherous promise of co-operation, which induced Mr. Barwell to depart for Europe, of that authority which the vote of Mr. Barwell ensured. Mr. Francis, on the other hand, solemnly declared, that he "never was party to the engagement stated by Mr. Hastings, or had a thought of being bound by it." His agreement with regard to the Mahratta war he explained as extending only to the operations then commenced on the Malabar coast, but not to fresh operations on another part of the Mahratta dominions. Mr. Hastings produced a paper, containing the following words, "Mr. Francis will not oppose any measures which the Governor-General shall recommend for the prosecution of the war in which we are supposed to be engaged with the Mahrattas, or for the general support of the present political system of his government." To the terms of this agreement, presented to Mr. Francis in writing, he affirmed that Mr. Francis gave his full and deliberate consent. The reply of Mr. Francis was in the following words; " In one of our conversations in February last, Mr. Hastings desired me to read a paper of memorandums, among which I which I presume this article was inserted. I returned it to him the moment I had read it, with a declaration that I did not agree to it, or hold myself bound by the contents of it, or to that effect." Mr. Francis added some reasonings, drawn from the natural presumptions of the case. But these reasonings and presumptiens had little tendency to strengthen the evidence of his personal assertion; the ground, between him and his antagonist, on which this question seems finally to rest. With the utmost earnestness Mr. Hastings repeated the affirmation of the terms on which Mr. Francis declared his assent; and at this point the verbal controversy between them closed. Soon after, a duel ensued between Mr. Hastings and Mr. Francis, in which the latter was wounded; and on the 9th of December that gentleman quitted India, and returned to Europe.*

Mr. Francis departs for Europe.

* Sixth Report of the Committee of Secrecy, 1781, p. 98, and Appendix, No. 288; also Fifth Report of the Select Committee, 1781, p. 14, 18, 30; Memoirs of the late War in Asia, i. 301, &c.

CHAP. IV.

In Carnatic, Relations between the English and Nabob-Plenipotentiary, with independent Powers from the King-English courted by Hyder Ali and the Mahrattas, and in Danger from both-Nabob and Plenipotentiary desire Alliance with the Mahrattas-Presidency adhere to NeutralityRelations with the King of Tanjore-After Hesitation, War is made upon him-War upon the Marawars-A second War upon TanjoreCondemned by the Directors-Pigot sent out to restore the RajahOpposition in the Madras Council-Pigot imprisoned-Sentiments and Measures adopted in England-Committee of Circuit-Suspended by Governor Rumbold, who summons the Zemindars to Madras-Transactions with Nizam Ali respecting Guntoor-Censured by the Snpreme CouncilGovernor Rumbold, and other Members of the Government, condemned and punished by the Court of Directors.

1770.

tween the Eng

WHILE the principal station of the Company's power in India was giving CHAP. IV. birth to so many important transactions, their Presidency on the Coromandel coast was not barren of incidents entitled to a great share of our regard. The relation, in which the Company professed to stand to the country, was Relations bedifferent in Carnatic, and in Bengal. By the avowed possession of the duannee, lish and Nathey entered in Bengal into the direct discharge of the principal functions of bob. internal government. In Carnatic, during the contest with the French, they had held up Mahomed Ali; upon the termination of it, they had acknowledged him, as the undoubted sovereign of the country. He was established, therefore, in the possession of both branches of power, both that of Nazim, or the military power, and that of Duan, or the financial power: and the Company held the station of dependents; possessing their privileges through his sufferance, and owing obedience to his throne. They possessed a grant of land, surrounding Madras, which had been obtained in 1750, and in 1762 confirmed by the Nabob of Carnatic or Arcot, in recompense of the services rendered by the Company to him and his family. This was a sort of estate in land, under what is called jaghire tenure, enabling the owner to draw the revenue, which would otherwise accrue to government; and to exercise all those powers which in India are

BOOK V. usually connected with the power of raising the taxes.

1770.

This Presidency also possessed, and that independent of their Nabob, the maritime district, known under the title of the four Northern Circars; which they had obtained by grant from the Mogul in 1765, and enjoyed under an agreement of peshcush, formed the succeeding year, with the Nizam or Subahdar.

Partly from characteristic imbecility, partly from the state of the country, not only exhausted, but disorganised by the preceding struggle, the Nabob remained altogether unequal to the protection of the dominions of which he was now the declared sovereign. Instead of trusting to the insignificant rabble of an army which he would employ, the Presidency beheld the necessity of providing by a British force for the security of the province. For this reason, and also for the sake of that absolute power* which they desired to maintain, the English were under the necessity of urging, and if need were constraining, the Nabob, to transfer to them the military defence of the country, and to allow out of his revenues a sum proportional to the expense. Having transferred the military power of the country, he placed himself in absolute dependence upon the Company; they being able to do what they pleased; he to do nothing but what they permitted. In a short time it was perceived, that his revenue was by no means equal to the demands which were made upon it. The country was oppressed by the severity of his exactions, and instead of being repaired, after the tedious sufferings of war, it was scourged by all the evils of a government at once insatiable and neglectful. When his revenues failed, he had recourse to loans. Money was advanced to him, at exorbitant interest; frequently by Englishmen, and the servants of the Company. He generally paid them, by a species of

The resolution of maintaining this absolute power is thus clearly expressed in the letter of the Court of Directors, to the Presidency of Madras, dated 24th December, 1765. "The Nabob has hitherto desired, at least acquiesced with seeming approbation, that garrisons of our troops should be placed in his forts: it is not improbable that after a time he may wish to have his protectors removed. Should such an event happen, it may require some address to avoid giving him disgust, and at the same time a degree of firmness to persist in your present plan: But persist you must; for we establish it as a fundamental point, that the Company's influence and real power in the province cannot be any way so effectually maintained as by keeping the principal forts in our hands." See First Report of the Committee of Secrecy, 1781, Appendix, No. 23."By being in possession of most of his strong places, the troops being officered by the Company, and the garrisons perfectly under their orders, the Company have it in their power to give law to the Carnatick. Without the concurrence of the Presidency he can do nothing; they are arbiters of peace and war; and even if one of his own tributaries refuse the peshcush, the payment of which they had guaranteed, without them he cannot call him to an account." Letter from Sir John Lindsay, to the President and Council of Madras, 22d June, 1771; Rous's Appendix, p. 368.

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