Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/168

162 evidently perplexed, and Dundas in a letter of entreaty begged Cornwallis to bring himself to forego the comforts of home for one year, and to proceed to India to settle the claims of the officers. Dundas held rightly that the very British Empire might be at stake, and he was even prepared, had Cornwallis refused the appointment, to proceed to India himself.

But Dundas had a firm belief that all difficulties would vanish on the mere mention of the name of Cornwallis. Cornwallis actually consented to go, and in one of his many confidential letters to General Ross he briefly says, 'The die is cast, and I am to go out to India: how sorry I feel that your domestic circumstances put it out of my power to ask you to accompany me.' Events, however, then took another turn. Some of the loyal Bengal officers repudiated the pretensions of the delegates. Concessions were made by the Board of Control and by the Court of Directors which did not at all commend themselves to Cornwallis. Indeed he calls one of his proposed instructions 'a milk-and-water order.' A mutiny broke out at Portsmouth, and Cornwallis gave up his appointment to India in August, 1797.

His services were next required much nearer home, in a position which has tried and been fatal to the reputation of many men whose claims to statesmanship are recognised, and which from the violence of parties, the clash of interests, the exposure to relentless and searching criticism that follows immediately