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Malcolm interview with that prince at Keyree. He offered him twenty-four hours in which to choose whether to accept the British offer of a pension in return for the abdication of the throne of Poonah, or to be treated as an enemy. The peishwah had little choice, entirely hemmed in as he was by the British forces, and on the 3rd he surrendered. His forces were gradually disbanded, and the war was at an end. None the less it was the opinion of the governor-general that the surrender had been extravagantly bought, and that Malcolm had again been characteristically lavish of public money. The peishwah's pension, before he died, cost the Indian exchequer two millions sterling.

Badjee Rao departed for Hindostan, and Malcolm remained to organise the administration of his kingdom. Before the peishwah had started a mutiny broke out among his Arab followers, which needed prompt suppression. Malcolm established cantonments at Mhow, and began the task of the reclamation of Malwah. His design was to reduce into order those provinces of the late prince of Poonah which had been for two generations a prey to anarchy, and then, unless meantime appointed governor of Bombay, to sail for England at the end of 1819. He suppressed the rebellion of the pretender, Mulhar Rao. But in February 1819 Appa Sahib, the deposed rajah of Berar, again took up arms, and threw himself into Asseerghur, while Cheetoo, the last of the Pindaree chiefs, also resumed his forays. On receiving the news of these disturbances Malcolm moved at once, crossed the Nerbudda, and prepared to besiege Asseerghur. Jeswunt Rao, in the service of Scindiah, was governor of the place, and, secretly prompted by his master, resolved upon a desperate resistance. Malcolm conducted his operations on the western side, General Doveton on the eastern. The attack began on 18 March, the walls were breached, and on 30 March the lower part of the fortress was abandoned. The upper part was so severely battered in the first days of April that on the 9th it surrendered, and the place was treated as forfeited by Scindiah's treachery, and was occupied by the British government.

Meanwhile Elphinstone had been appointed to succeed Sir Evan Nepean [q. v.] as governor of Bombay. Malcolm, who had counted on the appointment, was deeply offended and was bent on quitting India forthwith, but was induced by the Marquis of Hastings to remain. All through 1819 he continued to administer Central India, expecting to be made lieutenant-governor of it, but the court of directors declined to create a new lieutenant-governorship, and the conquered Poonah territories were placed under Elphinstone as governor of Bombay. Malcolm now counted on the governorship of Madras in succession to Hugh Elliot [q. v.], but early in 1820 Sir Thomas Munro [q. v.] was appointed to that post. Malcolm conceived himself betrayed by his friends in England. He was somewhat consoled by being promoted to be major-general and a G.C.B., and did not yet despair of procuring the creation of a lieutenant-governorship of Central India, and his own appointment to the post. His departure from India was delayed by the composition of his vast ‘Report on Malwah,’ first published in quarto in 1820, then in octavo in 1825. Nor was his position without its advantages. His authority over his own provinces and the neighbouring agencies was large; he received the military pay of a brigadier in addition to the stipend of his political office. His allowances were larger than those of the governor of Bombay. He had hopes of military employment, since an expedition against the ameers of Sindh and a war with the rajah of Lahore seemed probable. He was busily and usefully occupied in the pacification and administration of Central India, and he was popular alike with his officers and with the natives. But at the end of the year he quitted these duties. He sailed from Bombay on 2 Dec., and proceeded to England by way of Suez. At the end of April 1822 he reached London.

He resided with his family while in England successively at Frant in Sussex, near Tonbridge, and at Hyde Hall, near Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire. His literary acquaintance was considerable. He was the friend of Madame de Staël, Humboldt, Schlegel, Whewell, Sedgwick, and Julius Hare, and occupied himself with various literary work, including the composition of his ‘Sketches in Persia,’ which was not published until 1827, and his ‘Letter to the Duke of Wellington on the State of India.’ He was invited in 1823 to take charge of another mission to Teheran, the diplomatic relations of England with Persia having been again transferred to the government of India. He accepted the task at first, but the project was abandoned when he found that his demand for credentials from the crown as well as from the company would not be granted. Early in 1824 he endeavoured to obtain the appointment to the governorship of Madras in succession to Sir Thomas Munro, and his claims were supported by the court of directors. The government, however, showed a preference for Stephen Lushington, secretary to the treasury. Against the advice of the