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CHAP. VI.

Financial Difficulties-Campaign of General Goddard on the Bombay side of
the Mahratta Country-Attack on the Bengal side-Peace with Scindia.
Supreme Court of Judicature-Efforts of the Supreme Court to extend its
Jurisdiction-Their Effects upon Individuals-Upon the Collection of the
Revenue-Upon the Administration of Justice-Interference of Parlia
ment claimed-Granted-The Chief Justice placed at the Head of the
Sudder Duannee Adaulut-Chief Justice recalled-Judicatorial and
Police Regulations—Provincial Councils abolished, and a new Board of
Revenue set up.

WE return to the events which, during these great transactions, had taken place CHAP. VI. in Bengal, and other parts of the British dominions in India.

1780.

culties in all

parts of the

nions in India.

Before the commencement of the war with Hyder, the finances of the Company Financial diffiin every part of India had become a source of distress. The scanty resources of Bombay, which seldom equalled the expenditure of a peace establishment, had not, British domieven with the supplies which had been sent from Bengal, sufficed to save that Presidency from the necessity of draining the channels of loan, and from sinking in arrear so deeply, even with the pay of the army, that the General, in the month of August, 1780, declared it was no longer fit to be depended upon.* Even Bengal itself, though it had enjoyed entire tranquillity, and had only contributed to the maintenance of Goddard's army, and to other feeble operations against the Mahrattas, was so completely exhausted, that, in August, 1780, the Supreme Council were again reduced to the expedient of contracting debt; and before the end of the year, when exertions in favour of Carnatic were required, they were obliged to announce to the Directors the probability of a total suspension of the investment.†

*See Goddard's Letter to the Select Committee of Bombay, dated 24th August, 1780, Sixth Report of the Committee of Secrecy, ut supra, p. 111, and 112. See also p. 89 and 90, with the Appendix, No. 256, for details of the extreme poverty and necessities of the Presidency, "necessities," they say, "now pressing to a degree never before experienced."

+ Sixth Report, ut supra, p. 101, 102, 103. In a letter to General Goddard, under date 20th April, 1780, the Supreme Council wrote, "Our resources are no longer equal to the payment of

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Book V.

1780.

make peace with the Mahrattas.

In the important consultations of the 25th of September, 1780, upon the intelligence of the fatal irruption of Hyder, it was resolved, that terms of peace Efforts of the should be offered to the Mahrattas, through the mediation of the Rajah of Berar; English, upon the irruption and on the 2d of October a draught of a treaty was prepared, according to which of Hyder, to all conquests made by the English were to be surrendered, with the exception of the fort of Gualior, destined for the Rana of Gohud, and that part of Guzerat which had been ceded to Futty Sing Guicowar: Should the fort of Bassein, however, be taken by the English forces, before the final agreement, it was proposed to cede, in its stead, all the territory and revenue which they had acquired by the treaty of Poorunder. Of this draught, a copy, with power of mediation, was sent to the Rajah of Berar; and at the same time letters were written to Nizam Ali, to the Peshwa, to Scindia, and to the Poonah ministers, apprizing them of the terms on which the English government was ready and desirous to conclude a treaty of peace.

General Goddard takes the field, and reduces Bas

sein.

Further oper

On the 16th of October General Goddard, reinforced by a body of Europeans from Madras, and relieved from apprehension of Holkar and Scindia by intelligence that an attack would be made upon their dominions from the upper provinces of Bengal, put the army in motion from Surat. The roads were still so deep, and the rivers so full, that they were unable to reach their ground before Bassein till the 13th of November. From the strength of the place, and the number of the garrison, the General deemed it necessary to carry on his operations with regularity and caution. A battery of six guns and six mortars, within nine hundred yards of the fort, was completed on the morning of the 28th. Under cover of its fire, approaches were carried on to a spot within 500 yards of the wall, where a battery of nine heavy guns was opened on the morning of the 9th of December, while a battery of twenty mortars began to play upon one of the parapets. On the morning of the 10th, when a practicable breach was nearly effected, the fort made an offer of surrender, but in consequence of some demur the fire was renewed, and next morning the enemy yielded at discretion.

After the reduction of Bassein, the General repaired to Bombay for the purpose

your army." In another, dated 15th May, they warned the Bombay Presidency against any reliance on continued supply from Bengal, "as neither their resources, nor the currency of the provinces, would endure a continuance of the vast drains," &c. In a minute of the Gov.-Gen. on the 28th of August, he said, "Our expenses have been increasing; our means declining. And it is now a painful duty imposed upon me, to propose, that we should again have recourse to the means of supplying our growing wants, by taking up money at interest. The sum I do not propose, because I think it should not be limited."

Goddard.

of settling with the Committee the further operations of the army, and there CHAP. VI. received intelligence of the irruption of Hyder into Carnatic, and the destruc- 1780. tion of Colonel Baillie's detachment. An attack, which might operate as a ations of diversion, on the western side of Hyder's dominions was pressed upon the Presidency of Bombay by that of Madras; and at the same time arrived from the Supreme Council intelligence of their designs respecting peace with the Mahrattas, and a copy of the treaty which it was intended to offer. Though directed immediately to obey a requisition in writing from the Peshwa to suspend hostilities, General Goddard and the Committee of Bombay were exhorted to prosecute the war with vigour, till such time as that application should arrive. After several fluctuations of opinion, it was determined not to evacuate Tellicherry; as a place which, though burthensome to defend, might ultimately be of importance for commencing an attack upon the dominions of Hyder: And, notwithstanding the desire of the Committee to secure Concan, or the country below the Ghauts, it was resolved, upon the recommendation of the General, to occupy the passes of the mountains, and to threaten the enemy's capital, advancing into the country as far as might appear consistent with the safe return of the army. The terror which might thus be inspired was expected to operate as the most effectual inducement to peace; and that terror would be the more powerful, as the two leading chiefs, Scindia and Holkar, were understood to be occupied in the defence of their own dominions against the attack carried on from Bengal.

The army marched from Bassein about the middle of January. The Mahratta force in Concan was computed at 20,000 horse and foot, with about fifteen guns. It was commanded by Hurry Punt Furkea, and posted on the road to B'hore Ghaut, by which, as the easiest of the passes, and that leading most directly to the Mahratta capital, it was expected that the English would endeavour to ascend. Notwithstanding the numerical superiority of the enemy, they offered little resistance in the level country, and with only a few slight skirmishes, the English reached the foot of the pass on the 8th of February. The enemy had ascended; and from intelligence it appeared that they had assembled in great force to dispute the passage. Holkar, whom the attack from Bengal had been too feeble to retain on the opposite side of the Mahratta country, and who had left Scindia as sufficient to cope with the force by which he was assailed, had lately joined the Poonah army, of which the whole was encamped near the top of the Ghaut. The General, who saw the advantage of audacity and dispatch, resolved to storm the pass the very night of his arrival. The party, which consisted of the grenadiers, headed by Captain Parker, entered about midnight, and with consummate gal

BOOK V. lantry, forcing the enemy from every battery and post which they occupied, reached the summit at five o'clock in the morning.

1781.

At the top of the Ghaut, the English army were not distant more than fortyfive miles from the Mahratta capital. On the 12th, a person arrived, commissioned, as he said, by Nana Furnavese, the Poonah minister. His object was, to declare the earnest desire of the Minister to obtain the friendship of the English; but he brought with him no credentials to authenticate his mission. For this he apologized, by the doubts which Nana felt of the disposition towards him entertained by the English. Goddard was not willing that a mere adherence to forms should obstruct the acquisition of peace. He instructed him to assure the minister of the readiness with which the English would second his views for a termination of the existing contests and the formation of an alliance against their respective enemies. Among other circumstances, the Mahratta agent affirmed, that the copy of the treaty which had been sent for transmission to the Regent of Berar, the Regent, who had not approved of it, had declined to forward. The General, therefore, transmitted to the minister a copy, together with information of his being vested with full powers to treat; and agreed to wait eight days for an answer. The answer arrived within the time prescribed, containing a simple and explicit rejection of the terms. Fully acquainted with the progress of Hyder in Carnatic, and regarding the eagerness of the English for peace, as a declaration of inability for war, the Mahrattas, at this juncture, expected greater advantages from continuing, than terminating hostilities. To the application of the Supreme Council to Moodajee, that he would employ his mediation between them and the Poonah government, an answer was not received till the 9th of January, 1781; and when it did arrive, it contained so many objections to the treaty, and even advanced so many pretensions, on the part of Moodajee himself, that it not only convinced them of the little prospect of peace, but brought in doubt the sincerity of the former professions of that person himself.

Notwithstanding this disappointment in the hopes of peace, and the approach of the English army to the capital of the enemy, Goddard, convinced that possession of the capital, which the enemy had determined to burn, would by no means ensure the attainment of his object, declined any further progress into the interior of the country; and recommended a system of defensive warfare, permitting the return of the Madras troops to the coast of Coromandel, both for assistance against Hyder, and to lessen the pressure upon the Bombay finances.

After maintaining their post with little disturbance at the head of the Ghauts till the 17th of April, the English descended secretly during the night. The

1781.

difficulty of supplying the troops with provisions, while the enemy, it was found, CHAP. VI. could descend by other passes, and intercept their convoys; together with the expense of fortifying the post at the top of the Ghauts, appeared to surpass the advantage of maintaining it. The enemy descended in pursuit the following day. The route from the bottom of the hills to the coast was about twentyfour miles, through a country full of bushes, thickets, and narrow defiles. This was highly favourable to the irregular and unexpected assaults of the Mahrattas, who greatly harassed the English during the three days of the march; but though several lives were lost, and among the rest that of Colonel Parker, the second in command, no material impression was made, nor any loss sustained of the baggage and stores. The Mahratta army re-ascended the Ghauts; and the English, left in possession of Concan, prepared, with the Madras detachment which the reduced state of the battalions now rendered it desirable to retain, to remain at Callian through the approaching monsoon.*

country.

On the Bengal side of the Mahratta country, it was determined, notwithstand- Attack on the Bengal side of ing the eminent services of Major Popham, to supersede that officer in the the Mahratta command, and relieve his corps by that of Colonel Carnac, who, having already advanced into the territory of the Rana of Gohud, was, about the beginning of the year 1781, commanded to penetrate, at the head of five battalions of sepoys, towards Oogein, the capital of Scindia. The force employed in this service, as it was too small to prevent Holkar from returning to assist in turning the balance against Goddard, so it was too feeble to intimidate even Scindia alone, and seems to have been saved from destruction, or at any rate from flight, by nothing but a fortunate exploit. Having reached Seronge, in the month of February, it was surrounded by a powerful enemy; its supplies were cut off; it was harassed on all sides; the princes expected to join it stood aloof; it was reduced to distress for want of provisions; and the commanding officer was obliged to apply by letter for the troops stationed at Futtyghur, under Colonel Muir, to enable him to retreat into the country of the Rana. Colonel Muir arrived at Gohud on the 29th of March. But before this time Colonel Carnac was reduced to such extremity, that on the 23d of the same month he had summoned a council of war, in which Captain Bruce, the officer who commanded the storming party at the taking of Gualior, recommended, as the only possible means of preserving

* Sixth Report of the Committee of Secrecy, 1782, p. 100-113, with the official documents in its voluminous appendix.

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