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 CHAPTER XII

Lord Mornington assumes the Office of Governor-General – His Correspondence with Tipú

A new actor now appeared upon the scene. This was the justly-renowned Lord Mornington, who, with that keen instinct which is given to few, seized at a glance the real state of affairs, and by his judicious diplomacy and energetic action did more than any of his predecessors to place British power in India on a solid and sure foundation. He arrived at Madras just when Tipú's emissaries had come back from their fruitless expedition to Mauritius, and reached Calcutta in May, 1798. The next month he received intelligence of the Mysore embassy and Malartic's proclamation, and foreseeing that the aggressive tendency of the French Republic, then at war with all Europe, might impel it to send an army through Egypt to India, he adopted such precautionary measures as would prevent the native powers from coalescing with so formidable a rival. The first step in this direction was to negotiate with the Nizám for the dismissal of a French contingent amounting to