lands brought great unpopularity on the Government. The legal machinery of investigation cost about eighty lacs of rupees, and the increase of revenue amounted to about thirty lacs a year.

The Cole

tion.

The political and military events of Lord William Bentinck's administration were of minor importance compared with those of previous and subsequent Insurrec- periods, when thrones and dynasties were overthrown, and the map of India was reconstructed. The Cole insurrection however, involved operations of some magnitude. The Coles, Dangars, Santals, and other tribes in the south-west of Bengal who are believed to have been the aborigines of the country, generally retained their independence, except where it had been encroached upon by Rajpoot zemindars, who endeavoured to improve their receipts by substituting a more industrious class of cultivators for these lazy barbarians. The introduction of these men created a strong feeling of discontent, which was A.D. augmented by the insolence and rapacity of the Bengal 1832 officials who flocked into the province. In 1832, the Coles

1831

rose in large numbers, laid waste the fields of the zemindars, burnt down their villages, and put more than a thousand of their men to death, before it was possible to assemble troops. Armed as they were only with bows and arrows and axes, they were easily overcome, and there was much unnecessary slaughter. In the neighbouring district it became necessary to send four regiments into the field before the insurrection was trodden out. The rising was not however without benefit to the people. It induced Lord William Bentinck to relieve them from the incubus of the Company's code and judicial institutions, and to turn the district into a non-regulation province, and place it under the especial control of a commissioner.

Insurrection

Another insurrection occurred within fifteen miles of Government House in Calcutta. Syud Ahmed, a Mahomedan reformer and fanatic, whose name will come of Teetoo up again hereafter, collected numerous followers Meer. in lower Bengal, and more particularly in the suburban district of Baraset. Their bigoted intolerance to those of their own creed, whom they deemed heterodox, and their hostility to Hindoo heretics created a feeling of general animosity, and some of the Hindoo zemindars inflicted heavy penalties on them. They appealed to the magistrates, but the dilatoriness of judicial forms exhausted their patience; and, under the guidance of one Tecton

Meer, a Mahomedan mendicant, they proclaimed a jehad, or religious war. They defiled a temple with the blood of a cow, and forced its flesh down the throats of the brahmins, and then proceeded to burn down villages and factories, and to erect stockades. In the peaceful province of Bengal, which had not seen the smoke of an enemy's camp for more than seventy years, it was found necessary to call out two regiments of infantry and a body of horse, and some guns. Their stockade, in which they defended themselves for an hour, was captured, and the insurrection was quenched in their blood.

Annexation

and Coorg.

The administration of the most pacific of GovernorsGeneral could not escape the "inevitable tendency" of the empire to enlarge its boundary, but the addition to the Company's dominions during the adminis- of Cachar tration of Lord William Bentinck was insignificant as to escape observation and censure. The A.D. chief of the little principality of Cachar in the hills to the 1832 north-east of Bengal was murdered in 1832, and amidst the anarchy which ensued the people implored the protectorate of the British Government which Lord William Bentinck did not hesitate to extend to them. This unnoticed nook in the great empire has since acquired a commercial value by the expenditure of a crore of rupees of private capital in tea plantations, for which its position and soil are highly favourable. The principality of Coorg lies on the Malabar coast between Mysore and the sea, and comprises an area of about 1,500 square miles, no portion of which is less than 3,000 feet above the level of the sea. Its chivalrous raja had defended it with so much gallantry against the overwhelming force of Tippoo as to gain the applause of Lord Cornwallis, and also of Lord Wellesley, from whom he received a splendid sword, which was preserved with pride among the heir-looms of the family. But his successor in 1820 exhibited an example of tyranny and cruelty rarely exceeded by the most atrocious of native princes. On coming to the throne he put to death all who had thwarted his views, and to prevent the possibility of being superseded directed all his kinsmen to be taken into the jungles and decapitated. He never scrupled to take the life of any who became obnoxious to him. He likewise manifested a peculiar hatred of the British Government, and as he strictly interdicted the entry of any Englishmen into the province, his atrocities were concealed from observation. In 1832, however, his

sister and her husband escaped for their lives, and revealed his barbarities to the Resident in Mysore, who proceeded to his capital and endeavoured, but in vain, to bring him to reason. He addressed letters of extraordinary insolence to the governor of Madras, and even to the GovernorGeneral, while he organized his little force to resist the British authorities. Lord William Bentinck, finding him deaf to every remonstrance, resolved to treat him as a public enemy, and issued a proclamation recounting his A.D. cruelties, and announcing that he had ceased to reign. 1834 A force of 6,000 men entered the country in four divisions, in different directions, and after penetrating its intricate and perilous defiles, planted the British standard on the ramparts of the capital, Mercara, in April 1832. The country was at once annexed to the Company's territories, and has now been covered with coffee plantations by British enterprise.

The political policy of Lord William Bentinck was at first regulated by that principle of non-intervention in the

Non-inter-
vention

internal affairs of native states which was still in favour in Leadenhall Street. In his minute on policy. the Bhurtpore crisis, in 1826, Sir Charles Metcalfe had placed on record that "having become the paramount 66 power in India we were the supreme guardians of general "law, tranquillity and right." The Court of Directors lost no time in repudiating this doctrine, and laid positive and repeated injunctions on the Government of India to abstain from all interference with the native princes beyond what was necessary to secure the punctual payment of their respective tributes. The Government was thus placed in the invidious position of a strong and inexorable creditor instead of a beneficent guardian of peace. Lord William, however, frequently found it impossible to avoid interposing his imperial authority to frustrate the projects of usurpation, to repress internal anarchy, and to promote harmony between prince and people. His political policy, therefore, presents the appearance of vacillation, and is certainly the least satisfactory portion of his administration.

On the construction of the kingdom of Mysore, the administration was placed in the hands of the renowned brahmin Poornea, the great minister of Hyder Mysore raja's misgovern- Ali and Tippoo, and his authority was supported by the invaluable assistance of some of the most experienced of the Company's officers. The country

ment.

flourished, and, in the course of ten years, a surplus of two crores was accumulated in the treasury; but the raja, under the influence of his minions and his flatterers proclaimed his majority, when he attained his sixteenth year, dismissed Poornea, and took the administration into his own hands. The Resident reported that he was utterly unfitted for the government by the weakness of his character and his entire subservience to the influence of favourites. The administration steadily deteriorated for twenty years; all the accumulations of Poornea were dissipated; the government became venal and corrupt; the highest offices were put up to sale; crown lands were alienated, and the subjects were crushed by new and grievous taxation. The A.D. people at length took up arms, and in 1830 one half the 1830 kingdom was in a state of insurrection. Adventurers from all parts joined the insurgents, and the peace of the Deccan, not excepting the Company's territories, was placed in extreme jeopardy. It became necessary to send a large force into the field; but at the same time a friendly proclamation was issued, inviting the people to come in peaceably and represent their grievances to the British officers, with the assurance that they would be redressed if they were found to be real. The natives had full confidence in them, and the insurrection died out.

Management

taken over.

The Governor-General then informed the raja that, 1832 though tranquillity was for the present restored, he could not allow the name and the influence of the British Government to be identified with these of Mysore acts of misrule; and that, in order to prevent their recurrence, and to save the Mysore state from ruin, he deemed it necessary to place the entire administration of the country in the hands of British officers, paying over to the raja, in accordance with the terms of the treaty, about four lacs a year and a fifth of the net revenue, which, under more honest management, would be equal to about a lac and a half more. Lord William Bentinck was soon after led to believe from the report of the court of enquiry he had appointed, that the grievances had been somewhat overstated, and he proposed to retain in perpetuity only a sufficient portion of the territory to meet the subsidy, and to restore the remainder to the raja, on the simple condition that the Government should be at liberty to resume this portion if it appeared necessary for the public benefit. The Court of Directors, however, who had entirely approved of all his proceedings, refused to sanction this

proposal, and asserted that the assumption of the whole country was justified by the treaty, and essential to the welfare of the people.

The non-intervention policy was peculiarly unfortunate for the two Rajpoot states of Joudpore and Jeypore, where the turbulent habits of the feudal nobility Joudpore. rendered the interposition of a paramount power indispensable to the public tranquillity. Man Sing, the raja of Joudpore, had been deposed by his chiefs before the Pindaree war on the ground of his insanity, real or feigned, but had recovered his power if not his reason in 1821, and began to wreak his vengeance on them. They appealed to the Government in Calcutta, but without success, and then brought an army of 7,000 men against the capital. The raja appealed in his turn to Lord William Bentinck, who felt the necessity of interposing his authority to prevent the kindling of war in Rajpootana, and the Resident was ordered to restore concord between the parties, which he effected with a stroke of his pen. But the insane violence of the raja broke out again; he not only oppressed his subjects, but gave encouragement 834 to the robber tribes of the desert, and refused to apprehend Thugs, or to surrender malefactors. A large army was ordered to Joudpore to bring him to reason. The Rahtores, the designation of the tribe, were accustomed to boast in their ballads of "the hundred thousand swords" with which they had supported the throne of Akbar; but the Joudpore envoy now enquired what occasion there could be for an army when a single messenger would have been sufficient to convey the commands of the Governor-General, Every demand was at once conceded.

A.D.

Jeypore.

During the minority of the raja of Jeypore, his mother acted as regent, and resigned herself to the counsels of one Jotaram, a banker. The haughty barons expelled him from the post of minister, and installed one of their own body, Byree Sal; but the regent ranee obtained the permission of Sir David Ochterlony to recall him. The nobles resented this proceeding, and a civil war appeared inevitable, when Sir C. Metcalfe, who had succeeded Sir David, proceeded to Jeypore, and convened a general meeting of the chiefs, and gathered from their discussions that the majority of them were favourable to the queen mother, when he confirmed her authority, with leave to choose her own minister. Jotaram became again the head of the administration, but the revenues were