tribute, which he stated at sixty lacs of rupees, from the Rajpoots at the gates of Jeypore. The greater portion of the amount was paid, but, on his demanding the balance, the Rajpoots made common cause to resist him. In the battle which ensued, he was deserted by Mahomed Beg, and by the whole of the imperial troops, who took over A.D. eighty pieces of cannon to the enemy. He was discomfited 1787 and fled from the field, and in his extremity entreated Nana Furnavese, the head of the regency at Poona, to aid him in supporting the Mahratta authority in Hindostan. The Nana was jealous of his growing power, but despatched troops under Holkar, although rather with the object of watching his movements than of supporting them.

Mahomed Beg fell in the battle, but his place Ishmael Beg. was supplied by his nephew, Ishmael Beg, who laid siege to Agra, on the part of the Rajpoots, and was joined by Gholam Khadir, a Rohilcund jageerdar, and his free lances. Sindia advanced to raise the siege, but was again completely defeated in a battle fought on the 24th April. Gholam Khadir was recalled to defend his own jageer from the encroachments of the Sikhs, now rising into power, and Sindia took advantage of his absence to attack Ishmael Beg, 1788 who was defeated, and escaped from the field by the swiftness of his horse. He joined Gholam, and the united. chiefs advanced to Delhi, of which Gholam obtained possession, and his licentious soldiery were let loose on the imperial city, which was subjected for two months to such scenes of violence, rapine and barbarity, as were said to be “almost without example in the annals of the world." The ladies of the seraglio were exposed and dishonoured, 1788 and some of them starved to death, and the unhappy monarch, plundered and dethroned, was deprived of sight by this monster of cruelty. Ishmael Beg turned with horror from these atrocities, and accepted service with Sindia, who proceeded to Delhi, reseated the emperor with great pomp on his throne, and made every effort to alleviate his sorrows. Gholam Khadir fled on his approach, but was captured, and deliberately hacked to pieces. The turbulent Ishmael Beg did not long remain faithful to Sindia, but again joined the Rajpoots, whom Sindia de1790 feated at Patun in 1790, and the next year at Mairta.

The success of both these engagements was due chiefly to 1791 the disciplined battalions of the Count de Boigne, a native of Savoy, an officer of distinguished ability and great military experience, who had come out to India in search of

SECT. II.] SINDIA'S PROCEEDINGS AT POONA

231

employment, and entered the service of Sindia, and induced him to create a sepoy corps on the model of the Company's army. De Boigne raised and organised a large force, disciplined by European officers, the majority of whom were natives of France. It was eventually augmented to 18,000 regular infantry, 6,000 irregulars, 2,000 irregular horse and 600 Persian cavalry, with 200 pieces of artillery. This formidable force rendered Sindia the paramount native power in Hindostan, and the most important member of the Mahratta body.

Sindia offered to join the alliance against Tippoo, promoted by Lord Cornwallis, on condition that the Company's Government should guarantee all the pos- Sindia at sessions he had acquired in Hindostan, and Poona. furnish him with two battalions of troops, similar to those granted to the Nizam. These proposals were considered inadmissible, and he declined to become a party to the treaty of Poona. That he might, however, be in a position to take advantage of circumstances in the war in which the princes of the Deccan were about to be engaged with Tippoo, he proceeded with an army to the Mahratta capital, greatly to the annoyance of Nana Furnavese, who dreaded his A.D. ambitious designs. He had obtained from the impotent 1792 emperor the title of Vakeel-i-Mootluk, or regent of the Mogul empire, for the Peshwa, and for himself the office of hereditary deputy, and he gave out as the pretext for the journey that he was proceeding to the Mahratta capital to invest the Peshwa with this dignity. The Nana and the ministers could not view without disgust the acceptance of honours by the head of the Mahratta power from the puppet of an emperor, but their opposition was unavailing. Sindia had gained a complete ascendency over the young Peshwa by his cheerful and genial demeanour, which formed a strong contrast to the stern and morose bearing of the prime minister, Nana Furnavese. Sindia had, moreover, brought a variety of rarities for him from Hindostan, and studied to make arrangements for his amusement. The ceremony was imposing beyond anything which had been seen at Poona. A grand suite of tents was pitched Investiture in the vicinity of the city, a throne was placed of the to represent that of the Great Mogul, on which the patent and the insignia were deposited. The Peshwa, surrounded by his whole court and the representatives of foreign powers, approached the throne and made his obeisance, and then retiring to another tent was invested

Peshwa.

1792

with the gorgeous robes of the office, and returned to Poona with such pomp and grandeur as the inhabitants had never before witnessed. Sindia and Nana Furnavese, though plotting each others' destruction, maintained an outward appearance of civility, but their armies could not be restrained from hostility in Hindostan. The forces of Holkar and Sindia were jointly engaged in levying tribute from the Rajpoots, but they quarrelled about the division of the spoil. Sindia's commander, De Boigne, with 20,000 horse and 9,000 infantry, attacked Holkar's army, consisting of 30,000 men, including four battalions disciplined by his French general. Holkar was completely 4.D. defeated, and the four regiments were all but annihilated, 1792 only one European officer escaping the carnage. This victory rendered Sindia the first power among the Mahrattas, and deepened the apprehensions of his rival Nana Furnavese, but he was relieved from all anxiety by the Mahdajee unexpected death of Sindia, on the 12th February. Sindia. For thirty-five years he may be said to have passed his life in his camp, devoting his time and energies to the improvement of his army and the increase of his possessions. From his father he received a small principality, and he bequeathed to his son a kingdom, extending from the Sutlege to Allahabad, and including two-thirds of Malwa, and some of the fairest provinces in the Deccan, and the most efficient military force in India.

1794 Death of

1793 The new

The period for which their exclusive privileges had been granted to the Company expired in 1793, and the Court of Directors applied to Parliament for the renewal Charter. of them. But new commercial and manufacturing interests had been springing up in England with great vigour, and petitions poured into the House from Liverpool, Glasgow, Bristol, Manchester, and other seats of industry and enterprise, protesting against the exclusion of the country from any share in the trade of India. The India House met these representations by the bold assertion that it was essential to the national interests that the Company should be the sole agents for conducting the commerce and the government of India. The ministry found the existing state of things exceedingly comfortable, inasmuch as Indian affairs were, on all essential questions, under their control. Lord Cornwallis had placed the finances of India in a flourishing condition, and Mr. Dundas, the India minister, asked the House with an air of triumph, whether they were prepared to interrupt this tide of

SECT. II.] SIR JOHN SHORE'S ADMINISTRATION

233

prosperity and the growing commerce of India for a mere theory. His arguments were received with blind confidence in a House in which free trade was considered the inevitable road to ruin; and the monopoly of the Company was renewed for twenty years, although, to meet the clamours of the merchants, the Company were directed to allot 3,000 tons a year for their private trade. An effort was made by Mr. Wilberforce to obtain permission for missionaries and schoolmasters to proceed. to India and give instruction, religious and secular, to the natives who might desire it, but it was resisted by the ministry, the Court of Directors, and the old Indians. The charter of 1793 was a faithful mirror of the views of an age in which it was considered that the introduction of free trade and European settlers, of schoolmasters and missionaries, would be fatal to the British power in India.

SECTION III.

SIR JOHN SHORE'S ADMINISTRATION.

Sir John

A D.

LORD CORNWALLIS was succeeded by Sir John Shore, one of the ablest of the Company's servants, and the author of the permanent settlement. In a letter to Mr. Dundas on the subject of appointing his successor, Shore's Lord Cornwallis had said that " antecedents. 1793 nobody but a person who had never been in the service, and who was essentially unconnected with its members, who was of a "rank far surpassing his associates in the government, "and who had the full support of the ministry at home,

-66

66

66

was competent for the office of Governor-General." This letter, however, did not reach England till after the selection of Sir John Shore had been made, at the instance of Mr. Pitt, who was favourably impressed with the industry, the candour, and the ability exhibited by him in reference to the revenue settlement. He entered on his duties on the 28th October, 1793.

The first question which arose to try the mettle of the new Governor-General was connected with the politics of the Deccan. After the termination of the war The guaran- 1793 with Tippoo, Lord Cornwallis, anxious to secure tee treaty. permanent peace to the Deccan, submitted to the two native princes who were parties to the tripartite treaty of

A.D.

the Mah

1793 rattas.

66

1790 the draft of a treaty of mutual guarantee," which would have established a balance of power in the Deccan, and guarded the rights of the princes from mutual aggression. The Nizam, as being the weakest, agreed to it with alacrity; but the Mahrattas had a long account against him which it was not their policy to close, and which they intended to settle by the sword, and they therefore, declined Rejected by any engagement which would interfere with the designs they formed against him. After twelve months of fruitless discussion, Lord Cornwallis was obliged to abandon all hope of securing the concurrence of the Poona regency. Sindia had been the most strenuous opponent of the guarantee treaty, and his death seemed to present a favourable opportunity for renewing the negotiation, and making a vigorous effort to preserve the tranquillity of the Deccan, then menaced by the Mahrattas. They fully anticipated some decisive interference on the part of the Company's Government, such as they knew Lord Cornwallis would have undertaken. But they soon perceived that the sceptre was now in feeble hands, and 1791 they hastened their preparations when they found that Sir John Shore had resolved to limit his intervention to "good "offices." The Nizam, who advanced counter claims of even greater amount than those of the Mahrattas, immediately claimed the fulfilment of the treaty of 1790; but Sir John lacked the spirit of his predecessor. He had a morbid dread of offending the Mahratta powers, and he paid a servile homage to the Act of Parliament which discountenanced native alliances, though Lord Cornwallis had driven his coach through it, and he resolved to remain neuter in the impending struggle. It is, however, due to his memory to state that this decision was evidently influenced, to a considerable extent, by the incompetency of the Commanders-in-Chief at all the Presidencies, with none of whom could he venture to undertake hostilities.

Nizam.

To assemble a Mahratta army when there was any hope of plunder had never presented any difficulty. On this occasion the young Peshwa, having determined 1795 Expedition against the to take the field in person, summoned his feudatories of every degree, and it proved to be the last time they were ever assembled together under the national standard. Sindia, Holkar, the raja of Nagpore, the Gaikwar, and the southern jageerdars, each furnished a quota, and the whole force numbered 130,000 horse and foot, with 150 guns, while the army of the Nizam amounted to about