Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/298

 arrival of Mr. Frere he joined Sir John Moore, and having commanded a brigade at the battle of Corunnna he was favourably noticed in the despatch of Sir John Hope, who had succeeded to the command on the death of Moore. Bentinck was next appointed, with the rank of lieutenant-general, to command a division in Sir Arthur Wellesley's army but he appears shortly afterwards to have been sent to Germany to make arrangements for raising a German contingent, which was subsequently employed under his command, in Sicily and on the east coast of Spain. In 1811 he went as envoy to the court of Sicily and as commander-in-chief of the British forces in that island. During the greater part of the three following years he remained in Sicily, nominally as envoy, but practically as governor of the island, into which he introduced constitutional government, based in some measure upon the pattern of the British constitution. A German writer (, Queen Caroline) describing Bentinck's government of Sicily, characterises him as a man of a violent and haughty nature, imbued with English prejudices, and regarding the English constitution as the salvation of the human race. Bentinck's great difficulty during this period was the hostility of the queen, who resented his influence and disliked his policy. In 1813 Bentinck proceeded to the east coast of Spain in command of a mixed force of British, German, and Calabrian troops. Bentinck's diversion had the effect of detaining the French marshal Suchet, in Catalonia, but the campaign does not appear to have added to Bentinck's military reputation. On 12 Sept., at the Ordal, he was defeated by the French marshal and forced to retreat. His strategy on this occasion was much called in question; but Napier, while attributing to him some errors, including a delay in reinforcing his brigadier-general, Adam [see ], pronounces the position which Bentinck took up to have been very good, and lays the greater share of the responsibility for the defeat upon Adam's faulty arrangements. On 22 Sept. Bentinck, with the sanction of Lord Wellington, re-embarked with the troops under his command for Sicily, influenced, it would seem, partly by apprehensions of an invasion of that island by Murat, and partly by some expectation of concluding a treaty with the latter, who at that time was coquetting with the allies, but whom Bentinck to the last regarded with distrust. It is tolerably clear that Wellington did not entertain a high opinion of Bentinck's judgment. In Napier's history there is a short correspondence regarding the apprehended invasion of Sicily which ends with the following laconic letter from Wellington to Bentinck: 'Huarte, 1 July 1813: My lord,—In answer to your Londship's despatch, I have to observe that I conceive that the island of Sicily is at present in no danger whatever ' (History of the Peninsular War, v. 435, edition of 1800). In 1814 Bentinck commanded a successful expedition against Genoa, where he issued two proclamations, which, anticipating by nearly half a century the establishment of Italian unity, caused some embarrassment to his government. He afterwards returned to Palermo, and finally quitted Sicily on 14 July of that year. At the close of the war he remained for some time at Rome, and during the following thirteen years was unemployed.

In July 1827 Bentinck was appointed governor-general of Bengal, but did not take his seat till July 1828. Although India at that time was at peace, its finances were embarrassed by the prolonged war in Burma and by the siege of Bhartpur, both of which had taken place during Lord Amherst's government. There had been a series of heavy financial deficits, extending to the year in which Bentinck took charge of the government, when the expenditure still exceeded the income by more than a million. Bentinck first duty was to devise means of reducing the expenses in every branch of the administration which was susceptible of reduction, and although in carrying out this duty he was merely obeying the repeated orders of the court of directors, the result for a time was much personal unpopularity. He appointed commissions to investigate the expenditure, both civil and military. He threw open to natives posts hitherto filled by Englishmen at a larger cost, and he gave effect to orders of the court, which had been twice reiterated, for the reduction of an allowance which, under the name of 'battá,' had for many years been given to the European officers of the army in addition to their pay. The result of Bentinck's financial measures, was that the deficit which he found on his arrival was converted into a surplus, amounting at the time of his retirement from the government to two millions a year. Financial reductions were not, however, the most important reforms which distinguished Bentinck's administration as governor-general. In the north-western provinces the settlement of the land revenue still remained upon a very unsatisfactory footing. Bentinck, after carefully investigating the question in consultation with the principal officers of the provinces concerned, set on foot a settlement which, carried on under the direction of Mr.