that of Raymond's, but the disposition of its officers to be much more favourable to the British than to the French interests. This was De Boigne's corps, whose history you probably know. De Boigne was lately in London; if he should not have left it, he can give you the fullest information of the state of Scindiah's army.

"There was a small corps of about 2000 men, commanded by European officers, in the service of the Peishwah,* and another of about the same number, in that of Tuckagee Holkar; they are both inconsiderable, if they still exist, and the dissensions which have broken out between Holkar's two sons since the death of their father, have left that branch of the Mahratta power in a situation from which little danger is to be apprehended. There is a fourth corps, commanded by a Frenchman, of the name of D'Agincourt, in the service of Azim ul Dowlah, at Hyderabad. This corps is paid by the state. It consists of 1500 men. The commander is a determined Jacobin.

"The Rajah of Berart is said to have a corps in his service commanded by British officers; it is said to consist of above 2000 men."

Mr. Mill remarks that "Lord Mornington arrived at Calcutta on the 17th of May, 1798, carrying out with

• Peishwah. Literally the first. The chief magistrate of the Mahratta Empire, nominally under the Rajah of Sattarah, but usurping his authority. His capital and seat of government at Poonah. The names and titles of the Peishwah in 1803 were Sreemunt Bajce Rao, Ragonaut Rao, Pundit Purdhaun.—(Gurwood.)

+ Berar is a country of the Eastern Mahrattas. The chief town is Ellichpoor.

him a mind more than usually inflamed with the ministerial passions then burning in England; and in a state peculiarly apt to be seized both with dread and with hatred of any power that was French." But after a perusal of the facts so lucidly stated by Lord Mornington's own pen, who will venture to assert that his Lordship did else than fulfil his duty to his country in the measures which he adopted after his arrival in Bengal, or deny that those measures were demanded by wisdom and prudence, for the preservation of our very existence as a nation in India?

Before quitting the Cape of Good Hope, Lord Mornington placed on record* his opinions relative to the value of that important settlement,-which it is to be hoped will long continue to influence the sentiments of British statesmen. Before his arrival at the Cape, he had formed a very high estimate of the intrinsic value of the place as a colony; but he confessed that he had not sufficiently appreciated its vast utility with reference to the defence of our trade to the East, and of our territories in the East Indies. As a depôt for the maintenance of a military force in such a state of health as to be able to encounter at once all the inconveniences of an Indian climate, he considered the Cape to be invaluable; as a naval station he looked upon it as still more important. With the Cape in the hands of an enemy, his Lordship considered it would be impossible to maintain our Indian trade or empire; its occupation by any other power than England would render it difficult, if not impossible, for us to retain the island of Ceylon for any long period of time. Notwith* See Wellesley Dispatches, vol. i. p. 31.

standing the statesman-like views and arguments of the Earl of Mornington, backed by the opinions of Lord Macartney, and every person informed on the subject, Englishmen, and responsible advisers of the Crown, consented at the peace of Amiens, to surrender up this noble bulwark of our Eastern trade and empire! The establishment of steam on the Red Sea, and the opening of an overland route for the mail and for passengers via Egypt, have of late, in some degree, tended to cast our colony at the Cape of Good Hope into the shade; but it should never be forgotten that its intrinsic value to England is the same now that it ever was, and that it is the duty of our rulers to sustain and protect it by every legitimate means,-for every consideration urged by Lord Mornington respecting the Cape still remains in full force.

CHAPTER VII.

Lord Mornington, accompanied by Mr. Henry Wellesley (Lord Cowley), arrives at Madras-Received by General Harris. — Letter of King George III., introducing Lord Mornington to the Nabob of Arcot.— Letter of the Prince Regent.-Interviews and Negotiation with the Nabob.-Lord Mornington's Habit of Observation.-Estimate which he formed of the various Servants of the Company at the Presidency. -Sails from Madras.-Arrival at Calcutta.-Reflections on that Event. Magnitude of the Empire committed to his Charge.-The Career of the East India Company.-Beautiful Scenery of Calcutta.-Poetical Description of an Evening in Bengal.-Sir Alured Clarke received Lord Mornington at Fort William.-His Lordship at once enters upon the Duties of his Office.

ON the 26th of April,* 1798, Lord Mornington first beheld the "coral strand" of the coast of Coromandel. On that day he anchored in the roads of Madras; and after the excitement of a passage through the surf which perpetually rages on these romantic shores, placed his foot upon the soil of India, and was saluted by the guns of Fort St. George. His Lordship was accompanied by his younger brother, the Hon. Henry Wellesley,+ in the capacity of confidential secretary, a gentleman

* Mr. Lushington, in his interesting Memoir of Lord Harris, gives the 22nd of May as the date; but though he was an eye-witness of Lord Mornington's arrival at Madras, the dates of Lord Mornington's letters evidently prove that the above was the time of his Lordship's arrival—a day, as Mr. Lushington observes, "ever to be remembered in the annals of British India."

The present Lord Cowley, now ambassador at the court of France.

who had already exhibited his talents as secretary to the British Embassy at Stockholm, and afterwards as secretary to Lord Malmesbury during the delicate but fruitless negotiations of that nobleman with the French Directory for peace, in the year 1796. The Governor-General was welcomed by General Harris, the Commander-in-chief of the Presidency, then provisionally charged with the Government of Madras. On the very day after his arrival, Lord Mornington proceeded to open communications with the wily Nabob of Arcot, the sovereign of the Carnatic, a strip of fertile country about seventy-five miles in width, east of the kingdom of Mysore,* between the Ghauts and the sea ;-whose capital was situated seventy-three miles from Madras, and in one of whose houses in the city of Madras, General Harris had placed the Governor-General. On the 28th of April, Lord Mornington had a personal interview with the Nabob; and then presented to him the annexed letters from the King and the Prince of Wales, which afford at once honourable testimony of the high estimation in which Lord Mornington was then held by his Sovereign, as well as of the anxious desire of the English Government to avoid the extreme step which the Nabob's own folly and treachery subsequently rendered necessary :

66

GEORGE III. TO THE NABOB OF ARCOT.

George the Third, by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the

This country lies to the south of the Deccan ; it was conquered from the Hindoos by Hyder Ali.