did not hesitate to discard the principle of neutrality, A.D. and to order the Nizam to restore Meer Alum to his post, 180€ and submit to a more direct interference of the Resident in the management of his affairs. Equally meritorious were his proceedings at Poona. The Court of The Peshwa. Directors considered the treaty of Bassein the source of multiplied embarrassments, and were desirous of withdrawing from Mahratta politics, and allowing the Peshwa to resume his position as the head of the Mahratta commonwealth. Sir George resisted with energy every effort to modify the treaty, and had the courage to state to his masters that, while he desired to manifest every attention to their wishes, there was a higher obligation imposed on him, that of maintaining the supremacy of British rule, which would be compromised by any deviation from the policy established by Lord Wellesley at Poona. The finances, The state of the finances demanded the early attention of Sir George. The pecuniary difficulties of the Company had always arisen from the wars in which they had been involved. There was no elasticity in a revenue derived almost exclusively from the land, and any extraordinary demand on the treasury could only be met by having recourse to loans. With the return of peace and the alleviation of the military pressure, the finances, with one exception, had recovered their spring. The extensive military operations of Lord Wellesley had augmented the public debt and brought on one of the intermittent fevers of alarm at the India House. It was over. looked that our wars in India had generally terminated in an accession of territory and revenue which speedily overbalanced the encumbrance they had entailed. Thus, in Lord Wellesley's administration the increase of the debt amounted to about eight crores and a half of rupees, and the permanent increase of revenue to about seven crores. By the cessation of war and the reduction of the regiments of irregulars, the deficit which had appalled Leadenhallstreet was converted into a surplus, which, with little fluctuation, remained steady for twenty years. In the month of July the Government was astounded 1806 by the massacre of European officers and soldiers by the native sepoys in the fort of Vellore. It was situ- The Vellore ated eighty-eight miles west of Madras, and only mutiny. forty from the frontier of Mysore, had been selected, contrary to the wise judgment of the Court of Directors, for the residence of Tippoo's family, and it was speedily filled A.D. with 1,800 of their adherents and 3,000 emigrants from 1806 Mysore. The European troops in the garrison consisted of about 370 men, and the sepoys numbered about 1,500, many of whom were Mahomedans who had been in the service of Tippoo. At 3 o'clock in the morning of the 10th July the sepoys suddenly assaulted the European barracks, and poured in volley after volley through the venetian blinds, till eighty of the soldiers had been killed and ninety-one wounded. They then proceeded to the residence of the officers, of whom thirteen fell victims to their treachery. During the massacre an active communication was kept up between the mutineers and the palace of the Mysore princes, many of whose followers were conspicuous in the scene. Provisions were also sent out to the sepoys, and the royal ensign of Mysore was hoisted amidst the shouts of the crowd. The remaining Europeans held their position till they were rescued by the gallantry of Colonel Gillespie, who was in garrison at Arcot, eight miles distant, and who, on hearing of the outbreak, started without a moment's delay with a portion of the 19th Dragoons and his galloper guns, and arrived in time to rescue the survivors. The searching investigation which was made revealed the cause of the mutiny. The new Commander-in-Chief, Cause of the Sir John Cradock, soon after his arrival obmutiny. tained permission of the governor, Lord William Bentinck, to codify the military regulations, but upon the express condition that no rules should be added without the permission of Government. Unknown to the governor, the adjutant-general took on himself to introduce several innovations which interfered with the religious prejudices of the sepoys. But that which gave them peculiar offence was the new form prescribed for the turban, which bore some resemblance to a European hat, an object of general antipathy to the natives. A report was industriously spread through their ranks by the Mahomedans, who led the hostile movement, that the new turban was the precursor of an attempt to force them to become Christians; and the panic-stricken and exasperated sepoys were thus stirred up to mutiny and massacre. The Court of Directors were overwhelmed by the news of this catastrophe, and in that wild and vindictive spirit which terror inspires, instantly recalled the governor and the Commander-inChief before a single line of explanation had been received from either. Lord William Bentinck remonstrated against 287 the gross injustice of punishing him as an accomplice in A.D. measures with which he had no farther connection than to 1800 obviate their evil consequences. The Court, in their reply, bore testimony to his uprightness, disinterestedness, zeal and respect for the system of the Company, but also remarked that, "as the misfortune which happened under "his administration placed his fate under the government "of public events and opinions which the Court could not "control, so it was not in their power to alter the effect of "them." The propa 1806 Of the panic created by the mutiny at the Council board in Calcutta, the unoffending missionaries were made the victims. In 1793, Mr. Carey had proceeded to Bengal to establish a Christian Mission, and gation of laboured with much zeal but little success for Christianity. seven years in the Malda district. In 1799, Mr. Marshman and Mr. Ward proceeded to join him, and, being without a licence, were ordered to quit the country the day after their arrival, but obtained an asylum at the Danish settlement of Serampore and were taken under the protection of the Danish crown. There they were joined by Mr. A.D. Carey, and established a fraternity which, under the 1800 designation of the "Serampore Missionaries," has attained, to historical distinction as that of the pioneers of Christian civilisation in Hindostan. They opened the first schools for the gratuitous instruction of native children; they set up printing-presses and prepared founts of type in the various Indian characters; they compiled grammars of the Bengalee, Sanscrit and other languages, into which they translated the Sacred Scriptures. They gave their chief attention to the cultivation and improvement of the Bengalee language, and published the first prose works which had appeared in it, and laid the foundation of that vernacular literature which has since obtained a large development. They, and the converts who had joined them, were tacitly permitted to itinerate in the districts of Bengal, and met with considerable success in the propagation of Christianity. But missionary efforts had always been viewed with mistrust by the Court of Directors and by their servants in India, on the ground that they might disturb the prejudices of the natives and create disaffection. The mutiny at Vellore was hastily ascribed to an interference with the religious prejudices of the Madras sepoys, and Sir George Barlow, under the influence of alarm, considered it necessary peremptorily to interdict the AD. labours of the Serampore Missionaries. The Vellore panic 1806 gradually died out, and the restrictions imposed on them were allowed to fall into abeyance. Supersession The Court of Directors had always been anxious to have the highest office in India left open to their own servants, and the great zeal which Sir George Barlow of Sir George had manifested in carrying out their non-interBarlow. vention policy recommended him to them as the permanent successor of Lord Cornwallis. The death of Mr. Pitt and the dissolution of his ministry introduced the Whigs to Downing-street, and within twenty-four hours of their accession to power they were called upon to make provision for the Governor-Generalship. The President of the Board of Control, new to office, agreed as a temporary measure to the nomination of the Court, and Sir George Barlow's commission was made out and signed; but ten days after the ministry announced that they had selected Lord Lauderdale for the office. The Court of Directors strenuously resisted the appointment, not only as an abrupt and contemptuous rejection of their nominee, but likewise on personal grounds. His ostentatious admiration of the French revolution, which led him to drop his aristocratic title, might have been forgiven; but he had rendered himself obnoxious to them by his advocacy of Fox's India Bill, and, more recently, by his support of Lord Wellesley's free-trade policy. The Directors refused to sanction the appointment, and the ministry retaliated by cancelling the nomination of Sir George Barlow. The controversy between them was carried on for many weeks with great acrimony, but was at length terminated by the nomination of Lord Minto, the President of the Board of Control. SECTION II. LORD MINTO'S ADMINISTRATION-FOREIGN EMBASSIES. A.D. LORD MINTO had been engaged for many years in the 1807 administration of public affairs. As Sir Gilbert Elliot he was one of the managers nominated by the House of Commons to conduct the impeachment of Warren Hastings, and the prosecution of Sir Elijah Impey was committed to his especial charge. He Lord Minto was subsequently minister plenipotentiary at Vienna, and A.D. had been for twelve months President of the Board of 1807 Control, where he obtained an insight into the machinery and character of the Indian Government. He was an accomplished scholar, a statesman of clear perceptions and sound judgment; mild and moderate in his views, yet without any deficiency of firmness, and distinguished above his predecessors for his singular urbanity. He was accepted by the Directors with the understanding that he should eschew the policy of Lord Wellesley, and tread in the footsteps of Lord Cornwallis and Sir George Barlow. His first act in India was an act of clemency. On his arrival at Madras he found 600 of the Vellore mutineers awaiting their sentence. The Supreme Government had sentenced them to transportation beyond sea, a punishment equivalent to death, but Lord Minto adopted the more lenient course of expelling them from the service, and declaring them incapable of re-enlistment. On reaching Calcutta, his attention was immediately called to the state of anarchy into which the feeble policy of his predecessor had plunged the province of Anarchy in Bundlecund. The country was overrun by Bundlecund. military adventurers who lived only by plunder, and 150 castles were held by as many chieftains who were perpetually at feud with each other. The inhabitants, a bold and independent race, were, moreover, disgusted with the stringency of the judicial and revenue systems we had introduced, and deserted their villages, and too often joined the banditti with which the country swarmed. The two strongest forts in the province, Callinger and Ajygurh, were held by chiefs who bid defiance to the British Government. Lord Lake considered the possession of these fortresses essential to the tranquillity of the country, and urged Sir George Barlow to reduce them, but he considered that a certain extent of dominion, power and "revenue would be cheaply sacrificed for security and "tranquillity in a more contracted circle." The sacrifice was made, but the security was farther off than ever. The two chiefs who had seized the forts, together with some of the most notorious leaders of banditti, received a legal title to the lands they had usurped, with permission to settle their quarrels among themselves by the sword. Within five weeks after Lord Minto had assumed the Government he recorded his opinion that "it was essential "not only to the preservation of political influence over п |