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 CiiAP. VIT.] A BRITISH SQUADRON EQUIPPED. 505

Carnatic to Mahomed Ali. Though the patents thus founded upon were contra- ad. 1754. dictory and neutralized each other, it is not impossible that they may all have been genuine ; for at this period of political confusion in India, thei'e was little difficulty in obtaining any kind of document that might be wished, provided a sufficient sum of money was paid for it. Several suspicious circumstances, how- Negotiations ever, made the genuineness of the patent from the Great Mogul, which the fruitless. French had produced, more than questionable. The seal was proved to be that. of a former reign ; and when attention was called to the circumstance, Dupleix, instead of courting examination, suddenly withdrew it and all liis other docu- ments, on the ground that those which Mahomed AH wjis alleged to have in his possession at Trichinopoly had been only promised, not ]iroduced. As the production certainly ought to have been mutual, the objectit n was so far well founded; the absurdity, shared alike by both parties, was in liypocritically endea- vom-ing to give a semblance of legality and equity to acquisitions which had originally been made in defiance of both, and were still only maintained by the sword. After a large amount of quibbling and tergiversation, the whole nego- tiation ended in smoke. Much recrimination followed, and the only result was, to leave both sides more exasperated than ever.

In carrying on the war in India the English Company were placed at a great British gov- disadvantage in being left to depend entirely on their own resources, while the interferes. French Company were directly countenanced and supported by their govern- ment. They had therefore good reason for the remonstrance which they pre- sented to the British ministry, calling vipon them to take the necessary steps either to terminate the war, or to fm-nish the resources by which it was to be carried on. The former alternative was adopted, and the position of matters in the East became the subject of an earnest correspondence between the two governments. After various conferences in London, between the Earl of Hol- derness, principal secretary of state, and two deputies sent over from Paris, the British ministry, dissatisfied with the little progress made towards a settlement, began to prepare for the worst, by equipping a squadron of men-of-war for the East Indies. The French ministry, made aware by this decisive step that pro- crastination would no longer avail, began to act in earnest, and entered into an arrangement by which the disputes of the companies were to be settled on a footing of equality. In oi'der to carry out this arrangement, it was necessary that commissaries should be appointed to adjust the terms. Had talent and experience only been required, the choice of the French Company would natur- ally have fallen on Dupleix ; but the poUcy about to be adopted was so opposed to that which he had all along pursued, that some degree of suspicion justly attached to him, and he was considered ineligible. But if ineligible to be appointed a commissary, to adjust the terms of a settlement, he was obviously unfit to be employed in giving effect to it, and could no longer be permitted

to hold the government of Pondicherry. He was therefore superseded by Vol. I. 64