Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/827

803 HISTORY.] INDIA 803 Marhattas, and with Hyder Ali, he was generally able to compel assent to his own measures. His treatment of Oudh may here be passed over as not being material to the general history of India, while the personal aspects of his rule have been fully discussed in a separate article (vol. xi. p. 512). To explain his Marhatta policy, it will be necessary to give a short retrospective sketch of the history of that people. Sivaji the Great, as already mentioned, died in 1680, while Aurangzeb was still on the throne. The family of Sivaji produced no great names, either among those who continued to be the nominal chiefs of the Marhattd con federacy, with their capital at Satara, or among the rajas of Kolhapur and Tanjore. All real power passed into the hands of the peshwa, or Brahman minister, who founded in his turn an hereditary dynasty at Poona, dating from the beginning of the 18th century. Next rose several Marhatta generals, who, though recognizing the suzerainty of the peshwa, carved out for themselves independent kingdoms in different parts of India, sometimes far from the original home of the Marhatta race. Chief among these generals were the gaikwar in Guzerat, Sindhia, and Holkar in Malwa, and the Bhonsla- raja of Berar and Nagpur. At one time it seemed probable that the Marhatta confederacy would expel the Mahometans even from northern India ; but the decisive battle of Panipat, won by the Afghans in 1761, gave a respite to the Delhi empire. The Marhatta- chiefs never again united heartily for a common purpose, though they still continued to be the most formidable military power in India. In especial, they dominated over the British settlement of Bombay on the western coast, which was the last of the three presidencies to feel the lust of territorial ambition. For more than a hundred years, from its acquisition in 1661 to the outbreak of the first MarhatU war in 1775, the English on the -west coast possessed no territory outside the island of Bombay and their fortified factory at Surat. 5sions The Bombay Government was naturally emulous to
 * the follow the example of Madras and Bengal, and to estab-

&quot; lish its influence at the court of Poona by placing its own nominee upon the throne. The attempt took form in 1775 in the treaty of Surat, by which Raghunath Rao, one of the claimants to the throne of the peshwa, agreed to cede Salsette and Bassein to the English, in st consideration of being himself restored to Poona. The irhat- military operations that followed are known as the first MarhattA war. Warren Hastings, who in hict capacity of governor-general claimed a right of control over the decisions of the Bombay Government, strongly disapproved of the treaty of Surat, but, when war once broke out, he threw the whole force of the Bengal army into the scale. One of his favourite officers, General Goddard, marched across the peninsula from sea to sea, and con quered the rich province of Guzerat almost without a blow. Another, Captain Popham, stormed the rock-fortress of Gwalior, which was regarded as the key of Hindustan. Those brilliant successes atoned for the disgrace of the convention of Wargaum in 1779, when the Marhattas dictated terms to a British force, but the war was protracted until 1782. It was then closed by the treaty of Salbye, which practically restored the status quo. RaghunAth Rao, the English claimant, was set aside; Guzerat was restored, and only Salsette and some other small islands were retained by the English. Meanwhile Warren Hastings had to deal with a more formidable enemy than the Marhatta confederacy. The reckless conduct of the Madras Government had roused the hostility both of Hyder Ali of Mysore and of the nizam of the Deccan, the two strongest Musalman powers in India, who attempted to draw the MarhattAs into an alliance against the English. The diplomacy of Hastings won over the nizam and the Marhatta rAjA of Nagpur, but the army of Hyder Ali fell like a thunderbolt upon the British possessions in the Carnatic. A strong detachment under Colonel Baillie was cut to pieces at Pollilore, and the Mysore cavalry ravaged the country unchecked up to the walls of Madras. For the second time the Bengal army, stimulated by the energy of Hastings, saved the honour of the English name. Sir Eyre Coote, the victor of Wandewash, was sent by sea to relieve Madras with all the men and money available, while Colonel Pearse marched south &amp;lt;y jrland to overawe the raj A of Berar and the nizam. The war was hotly contested, for Sir Eyre Coote was now an old man, and the Mysore army was well-disciplined and equipped, and also skilfully handled by Hyder and his son Tipii (Tippoo). Hyder died in 1782, and peace was finally concluded with Tipu in 1784, on the basis of a mutual restitution of all conquests. It was Warren Hastings ^ merit to organize the empire which Clive founded. He was governor or governor-general for thirteen years, a longer period than any of his successors. During that time the English lost the American colonies, but in India their reputation steadily rose to its highest pitch. Within a year Hastings was succeeded by Lord Corn- Cornwallis, the first English nobleman of rank who under- wallis. took the office of governor-general. His rule lasted from 1786 to 1793, and is celebrated for two events the intro duction of the permanent settlement into Bengal, and the second Mysore war. If the foundations of the system of civil administration were laid by Hastings, the superstruc ture was erected by Cornwallis. It was he who first en trusted criminal jurisdiction to Europeans, and established the NizAmat Sadr AdAlat, or supreme court of criminal judicature, at Calcutta; and it was he who separated the functions of collector and judge. The system thus organized in Bengal was afterwards transferred to Madras and Bombay, when those presidencies also acquired territorial sovereignty. But the achievement most familiarly associated with the name of Cornwallis is the permanent settlement of the land revenue of Bengal. Up to his time the revenue had been collected pretty much according to the old Mughal system. Zammddrs, or Government farmers, whose office always tended to become hereditary, were recognized as having a right of some sort to collect the revenue from the actual cultivators. But no principle of assessment existed, and the amount actually realized varied greatly from year to year. Hastings had the reputation of bearing hard upon the zaminddrs, and was absorbed in other critical affairs of state or of war. On the whole he seems to have looked to experience, as acquired from a succession of quinquennial settlements, to furnish the standard rate of the future. Francis, on the other hand, Hastings s great rival, deserves the credit of being among the first to advocate a limitation of the state demand in perpetuity. The same view recom mended itself to the authorities at home, partly because it would place their finances on a more stable basis, partly because it seemed to identify the zaminddr with the more familiar landlord. Accordingly, Cornwallis took out with him in 1787 instructions to introduce a permanent settle ment The process of assessment began in 1789 and terminated in 1791. No attempt was made to measure the fields or calculate the out-turn as had been done by Akbar, and is now done when occasion requires in the British provinces ; but the amount payable was fixed by reference to what had been paid in the past. At first the settlement was called decennial, but in 1793 it was declared perma nent for ever. The total assessment amounted to sikka Rs.26,800,989, or about 2| millions sterling. Though Lord Cornwallis carried the scheme into execution, all praise or blame, so far as details are concerned, must Perma- liellt