Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/223

 Mahratta states compelled the directors to request him to remain at his post.

The five principal states in which the Mahrattas bore rule were Poona, Indore, Gwalior, Berár, and Baroda. The peshwa who ruled at Poona, although his position was only that of hereditary minister to the descendants of Sivaji, the nominal rulers of the Sattára state, was regarded as the chief of the Mahrattas. It was from the peshwa that Wellesley sought for co-operation when he was about to attack Mysore, although at this time (1802) Holkar and Sindia, the chiefs of Indore and Gwalior, were really the most powerful of the Mahratta rulers; and although the peshwa had been for some years a prisoner in the hands of Sindia, and more recently had been driven by Holkar a fugitive into British territory, still, looking to his legitimate position as peshwa, Wellesley again deemed it advisable to secure his co-operation. The result was the treaty of Bassein (31 Dec. 1802), by which the peshwa pledged himself to hold communications with no other power, European or native, and ceded districts to the company for the maintenance of a subsidiary force. This treaty, as might have been expected, gave great offence to the other Mahratta chiefs, who saw that the system of subsidiary alliances with the British power was fatal to the independence of native states. Thereupon followed the second Mahratta war, which lasted from 1802 to 1804. The immediate casus belli was the position taken up by the troops of Sindia and the Berár rájá on the confines of the nizam's territories. Wellesley resolved to attack the Mahrattas in Hindustan, in the Dekhan, in Guzerat, and in Cuttack. The command in Hindustan was entrusted to General Gerard Lake (afterwards Viscount Lake) [q. v.], then commander-in-chief of the Bengal army; that in the Dekhan to General Arthur Wellesley, and the commands in Guzerat and Cuttack to Colonels Woodington and Harcourt respectively. The operations were attended with brilliant success, especially in Hindustan and in the Dekhan, where at Laswári and at Assye and Argáum, the generals in command won the famous battles named after those places. Sindia and the rájá of Berár, commonly called the Bonsla, were speedily vanquished. The French-drilled troops under M. Perron were destroyed, Perron himself obtaining a safe-conduct from Lake. Considerable additions were made to British territory both in Central India and on the east coast, where the district of Cuttack was ceded by the Bonsla. Wellesley, however, was somewhat hasty in assuming that hostilities were at an end. In reply to an address presented to him by the inhabitants of Calcutta in 1803, he remarked that ‘the peace which has been concluded comprehends every object of the war with every practicable security for the continuance of tranquillity.’ Events speedily showed that this language was premature. Before the year 1803 had come to an end, Holkar, who had stood aloof during the previous hostilities, was preparing for war. In April 1804 orders were issued by Wellesley to begin it. Lake, who was in command, would seem to have under-estimated Holkar's strength. He sent Colonel William Monson (1760–1807) [q. v.] with a force of sepoys to keep Holkar in check, and to protect the city of Jaipur, which was threatened by him, and then marched back with his main force to Cawnpur. The commissariat arrangements were very inadequate. Jaipur was saved, and Monson followed Holkar, and eventually found himself in front of the whole of Holkar's force with only two days' supplies for the troops under his command. He then commenced to retreat. The rains set in, the retreat became a rout, and ended in a most grave disaster. The Duke of Wellington, then General Wellesley, pronounced it the greatest disaster and most disgraceful to our military character that had ever occurred. It was a serious blow to Wellesley, although he was in no way to blame for the unfortunate strategy which had led to it. For this Lake was mainly responsible in sending too small a force, and not seeing that it was properly supplied. Indeed Wellesley had urged Lake to send with Monson's detachment a small force of Europeans, but his advice had not been acted on. Wellesley, however, had to suffer the consequences. Both the court of directors and the board of control under Castlereagh had all along questioned the policy of the Mahratta war, and accordingly, when the intelligence of the disaster reached England, it was at once determined to recall Wellesley and to reverse his policy. Lord Cornwallis was sent out to relieve him, and reached Calcutta on 29 July 1805. Wellesley was not taken by surprise. Indeed from the time of Monson's disaster he had felt that the opponents of his policy in England would bring about his removal from his post. The result to India was disastrous. Cornwallis survived his return too short a time to do much; but his temporary successor, Sir George Hilaro Barlow [q. v.], with all the enthusiasm of a convert, did all he could to reverse the policy, to which as Wellesley's secretary, and afterwards as a