Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/758

734 avowed in the French memoirs on the events we have related, was the object of Delabourdonnais' expedition, of the whole government and ambition of Dupleix, and of the great armament of naval and land forces, which accompanied Mr. Lally to India, who constantly declared, that he had but one point, which was, not to leave an Englishman in the peninsula. To retard as much as possible the facility of their re-establishment in Coromandel, if restorations should be made at the conclusion of a general peace, Mr. Pigot laid a reperesentation before the council of Madrass, which determined them to destroy all the interior buildings, as well as the fortifications of Pondicherry, of which the demolition was by this time nearly completed: and in a few months more, not a roof was left standing in this once fair and flourishing city. For two years before, the fortune of France had been declining in every other part of the world; they had lost their settlements on the coast of Africa, half their West India islands, the whole region of Canada; their naval force was utterly ruined, and their armies were struggling under defeats in Germany. The loss of India, as a last hope, excited the public indignation more than any of the former disasters, which was so far from producing any reconciliation amongst the amenable, that it only sharpened their vengeance against each other. Mr. Lally, on his arrival, formally accused Mr. De Leyrit, Mr. Bussy, Mr. Moracin and Courtin, of having wilfully conspired the ruin of the French affairs from their aversion to himself, as appointed by the King to investigate and correct the abuses of the government of Pondicherry. Of 200 persons who were either arrived or returning from hence, not more than 20 were in habits or connections with Mr. Lally; all the others, revolted by the excesses of his temper, or the severity of his authority, bore him either secret grudge, or avowed hatred; all these became voluntary partizans with Mr. De Leyrit and the council, whose resolutions were conducted at Paris as they had been at Pondicherry, by the Jesuit Lavaur. Their first step in public was to present a mainfest to the comptroller-general, in exculpation of themselves, and accusing Mr. Lally of misconduct under nine different heads, which, as they said, proved more