And we must early sleep, to find His peace on earth-his hope of heaven." As we shall soon see, the Governor-General forthwith entered upon the duties of his office, and became engaged in matters of the gravest importance--pregnant with the most momentous consequences to the interests of the British empire. CHAPTER VIII. Lord Mornington directs his attention to the Affairs of Tanjore.— Geographical position of Tanjore.—Danish Settlement at Tranquebar. -The celebrated Missionary Schwarz.-Misrepresentations of Mr. Mill. -Ameer Sing, the reigning Rajah.-Serfojee, the Adopted Son of Tuljajee.-Unjust Aspersions on the East India Company and the Governor-General, in Hook's Life of Sir David Baird.-Colonel Baird at Tanjore in 1796.-His Partizanship.-Reprimanded by the Governor of Madras in Council.-Examination of the Claims of the Rival Princes.-Mr. Mill erroneously describes Ameer Sing as the Son of Tuljajee, the previous Rajah of Tanjore.-Serfojee the Adopted Son of Tuljajee.-Law of Adoption in Eastern Countries.-Adoption among the Romans, &c-Rights conferred by Adoption.-Serfojee the Pupil of Schwarz.-His Education, Acquirements, Interview with Bishop Heber. - Erects a Marble Monument to the memory of Schwarz.-Justification of Lord Mornington's Proceedings. The Governor-General receives a copy of Malartic's Proclamation at the Isle of France respecting an Embassy from Tippoo Sultaun.-Copy of the Proclamation, and Translation.-Lord Mornington's first Impressions respecting it.-Letter to General Harris at Madras, relating to the possible assembling of the Army.-Communication from Mr. Duncan, Governor of Bombay.-Dispatches from Lord Macartney and Sir Hugh Christian.-Genuineness of the Proclamation.-Lord Mornington examines upon oath Persons at the Isle of France when the Embassy arrived there.-Conclusions arrived at by his Lordship. —Dangers which menaced British India at this crisis.—Probability of a French Invasion.-French Expedition to Bantry Bay.-Lord Mornington resolves to prepare for Hostilities.-Final orders to General Harris. THE first public act of the Earl of Mornington after his assumption of the powers of the supreme government at Calcutta was directed to the settlement of the affairs of the country of Tanjore, which had occupied much of his attention in England prior to his embarkation for India, as well as during his stay at the Cape of Good Hope and at Madras. Tanjore, the capital of the district of that name, is situated on the eastern coast of India, not far from the south bank of the Cavery, and about forty miles from Trichinopoli. It is a place of great strength, containing 80,000 inhabitants; and is remarkable in the history of Christian missions, as the burial-place of the celebrated Schwarz, who originally commenced his valuable and disinterested labours at the Danish settlement of Tranquebar, on the sea-coast of Tanjore; of which foreign settlement we shall have occasion to say more at a future stage of this work. Mr. Mill exhibits upon the subject of Tanjore much of that strong prejudice which he entertained against the whole of the Marquess Wellesley's administration, and which led him to indulge in the most unjust reflections upon various parts of the noble Lord's career. He represents the arrangements made with reference to Tanjore as an act of unjustifiable tyranny, supported by fraud; and studies to involve the whole transaction in a mysterious shroud. "In the year 1798," he remarks, "a convenient discovery was made, that Ameer Sing was not the legal heir to the musnud* of Tanjore; but Serfojee, the adopted son of Tuljajee. The question of the rights of these two Princes remains in obscurity. The documents have not yet been made accessible to the public; and one knows not on what grounds the decision was formed. This only we know, * Throne. that it was determined to dethrone Ameer Sing and to set up Serfojee in his stead." Following in the same track, the biographer of Sir David Baird accuses the Honourable East India Company and the GovernorGeneral of having invented a pretext to give some colour of justice to their arbitrary exertion of barefaced power in dethroning a lawful Sovereign, "the undoubted heir," and seizing upon his territory. Sir David Baird had been the Colonel of a regiment, quartered at Tanjore in 1796; and in consequence of his avowed partisanship with the ruling Prince Ameer Sing, and his indiscreet interference with the political resident at that Court, was reprimanded by the Governor of the Presidency in Council, and removed from Tanjore to Pondicherry. His warm feelings led him to take a deep interest in the welfare of the man with whom he had lived on terms of intimacy, and even friendship; accordingly, he invariably maintained the pretensions of Ameer Sing against those of his rival, "an unknown foundling." Let us now see what are the facts of this case: Mr. Mill describes Ameer Sing as the son of the Rajah of Tanjore, who died 1786. He was not the son of the Rajah; he was his brother. So much for the foundation-stone of the charge against Lord Wellesley. So far from being a lawful prince, originally he assumed power simply as Regent and guardian to the Prince, who was afterwards placed on the musnud by the British Government. When the Rajah of Tanjore, Tuljajee, was on the point of death, he sent for Schwarz the missionary, who had for years been recognised as the agent of the British Government, both at Seringapatam and Tanjore. He committed to the care of the missionary the boy Serfojee, his adopted son,* whom he named and formally appointed as his successor. "He is not my son, but yours," said the dying Rajah; "into your hands I deliver him." Schwarz nobly fulfilled his task; he took the greatest pains with the education of his pupil, and exerted the whole force of his influence with the East India Company to protect him against the usurpation of his treacherous "guardian." Bishop Heber, speaking in his journal of Serfojee, describes him as an extraordinary man : he states that he quoted Fourcroy, Lavoisier, Linnæus, and Buffon, fluently, that he had formed an accurate judgment of the merits of Shakspeare, that he wrote tolerable English poetry, and was "respected by the English officers in the neighbourhood as a real good judge of a horse, and a cool, bold, and deadly shot at a tiger."+ Schwarz died on the 13th of February, 1798, * Adoption, though unknown to the laws of England, is universally recognised in Eastern countries,-an adopted child becoming in all legal respects the child of his adoptive father. Adoption (adoptio and adrogatio) was a common practice among the Romans; instances of it abound both in the history of the Republic and the Empire. It still forms part of the Civil Law.-See Halifax's Analysis of Civil Law, by Geldart. It is discussed in the first book of the Institutes of Justinian, Tit. xi. "De Adoptionibus." Adoption also obtained among the Athenians; and, since the promulgation of the Roman code in Europe, has, in a modified form, prevailed in Germany and France. The custom is recognised by the Mohammedan and Gentoo laws; and is practised as well by the Turks as the natives of India. The fact, therefore, that SERFOJEE was only the adopted child of the Rajah of Tanjore does not, as seems to have been insinuated, affect his legitimate title to the succession. + Vol. iii. p. 456. |