Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/828

804 INDIA [HISTORY. belong to Sir John Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth, whose knowledge of the country was unsurpassed by that of any civilian of his time. Shore would have proceeded more cautiously than Cornwallis s preconceived idea of a proprietary body and the court of directors haste after fixity permitted. Second The second Mysore war of 1790-92 is noteworthy on Mysore two accounts : Lord Cornwallis, the governor-general, led war the British army in person, with a pomp and lavishness of supplies that recalled the campaigns of Aurangzeb ; and the two great native powers, the nizAm of the Deccan and the Marhatta confederacy, co-operated as allies of the British. In the result, Tipu SultAn submitted when Lord Cornwallis had commenced to beleaguer his capital. He agreed to yield one-half of his dominions to be divided among the allies, and to pay three millions sterling towards the cost of the war. Those conditions he fulfilled, but ever afterwards he burned to be revenged upon his English conquerors. Welles- The period of Sir John Shore s rule as governor-general, lev - from 1793 to 1798, was uneventful. In 1798 Lord Mornington, better known as the marquis of Wellesley, arrived in India, already inspired with imperial projects that were destined to change the map of the country. Mornington was the friend and favourite of Pitt, from whom he is thought to have derived the comprehensiveness of his political vision and his antipathy to the French name. From the first he laid down as his guiding principle that the English must be the one paramount power in the peninsula, and that native princes could only retain the insignia of sovereignty by surrendering the substance of independence. The subsequent political history of India has been but the gradual development of this policy, which received its finishing touch when Queen Victoria was proclaimed empress of India in 1877. To frustrate the possibility of a French invasion of India, led by Napoleon in person, was the governing idea of Wellesley s foreign policy; for France at this time, and for many years later, filled the place afterwards occupied by Russia in the imagination of English statesmen. Nor was the possibility so remote as might now be thought. French regiments guarded and overawed the nizam of Hyderabad. The soldiers of Sindhia, the military head of the Marhatta confederacy, were disciplined and led by French adventurers. Tipu SultAn carried on a secret correspondence with the French directorate, and allowed a tree of liberty to be planted in his dominions. The islands of Mauritius and Bourbon afforded a convenient half-way house both for French intrigue and for the assembling of a hostile expedition. Above all, Napoleon Buonaparte was then in Egypt, dreaming of the conquests of Alexander ; and no man knew in what direction he might turn his hitherto unconquered legions. Wellesley first addressed himself to the nizam, where his policy prevailed without serious opposition. The French battalions at Hyderabad were disbanded, and the nizam bound himself by treaty not to take any European into his service without the consent of the English Government, a clause since inserted in every engagement entered into with native powers. Next, the whole weight of Wellesley s resources was turned against Tipu, whom Cornwallis had scotched but not killed. His intrigues with the French were laid bare, and he was given an opportunity of adhering to the new subsidiary system. Third On his refusal war was declared, and Wellesley came down Mysore j n state to Madras to organize the expedition in person, ^ ait and watch over the course of events. One English army marched into Mysore from Madras, accompanied by a contingent from the nizam. Another advanced from the western coast. Tipu, after offering but a feeble resistance in the field, retired into Seringapatam, and, when his capital was stormed, died fighting bravely in the breach. Since the battle of Flassey no event so greatly impressed the native imagination as the capture of Seringapatam, which won for General Harris a peerage and for Wellesley an Irish marquisate. In dealing with the territories of Tipu, Wellesley acted with unusual moderation. The central portion, forming the old state of Mysore, was restored to an infant representative of the Hindu rajas, whom Hyder AH had dethroned, while the rest was partitioned between the nizam, the Marhattas, and the English. At about the same time the province of the Carnatic, or all that large portion of southern India ruled by the nawAb of Arcot, and also the principality of Tanjore, were placed under direct British administration, thus constituting the Madras presidency almost as it has existed to the present day. The Marhattas had been the nominal allies of the English Ma in both their wars with Tipu, but they had never given con active assistance, nor were they secured to the English fed( side as the nizam now was. The Marhatta powers at this time were five in number. The recognized head of the confederacy was the peshwA of Poona, who ruled the hill country of the Western Ghats, the cradle of the Marhatta- race. The fertile province of Guzerat was annually harried by the horsemen of the gaikwar of Baroda. In Central India two military leaders, Sindhia of Gwalior and Holkar of India, alternately held the pre-eminency. Towards the east the BhonslA raj A of NAgpur, sprung from the same stock as Sivaji, reigned from Berar to the coast of Orissa. Wellesley tried assiduously to bring these several Marhatta powers within the net of his subsidiary system. At last, in 1802, the necessities of the peshwA, who had been defeated by Holkar, and driven as a fugitive into British territory, induced him to sign the treaty of Bassein, by which he pledged himself to hold communications with no other power, European or native, and ceded territory for the maintenance of a subsidiary force. This greatly ex tended the English territorial influence in the Bombay presidency, but led directly to the second MarhattA war, for neither Sindhia nor the raj A of NAgpur would tolerate this abandonment of MarhattA independence. The Wa campaigns that followed are perhaps the most glorious wit in the history of the British arms in India. The general ?j ni plan and the adequate provision of resources were due to am ; the marquis of Wellesley, as also the indomitable spirit of I that could not anticipate defeat. The armies were led by Sir Arthur Wellesley (afterwards duke of Wellington) and General (afterwards Lord) Lake. Wellesley operated in the Deccan, where, in a few short months, he won the decisive victories of Assaye and Argaum, and captured Ahmadnagar. Lake s campaign in HindustAn was no less brilliant, though it has received less notice from historians. He won pitched battles at Aligarh and LAswArf, and captured the cities of Delhi and Agra, thus scattering the French troops of Sindhia, and at the same time coming forward as the champion of the Mughal emperor in his hereditary capitals. Before the year 1803 was out, both Sindhia and the BhonslA raj A were glad to sue for peace. Sindhia ceded all claims to the territory north of the Jumna, and left the blind old emperor ShAh Alam once more under British protection. The BhonslA forfeited Orissa to the English, who had already occupied it with a flying column, and Berar to the nizam, who gained a fresh addition by every act of complaisance to the British Government. The freebooter, Jaswant RAo Holkar, alone remained in the field, supporting his troops by ravages through MAlwA and Raj pu tana. The concluding years of Wellesley s rule were occupied with a series of operations against Holkar, which brought no credit on the British name. The disastrous retreat of Colonel Monson through Central India recalled memories of the convention of Wargaum, and of the destruction of Colonel