Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/169

Rh on action, was at that special period calculated to test all the qualities of firmness, decision, tact, and constructive statesmanship. It was as trying as a campaign against an Oriental usurper, as the purification of the Indian service, or as the establishment of a land tax on a new basis. Lord Camden was about to relinquish his post as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and the Ministry determined to replace him by Lord Cornwallis as Viceroy and Commander-in-Chief. It does not come within the scope of this memoir to give even a summary of the administration which preceded the Union. Cornwallis assumed his onerous and responsible office in June, 1798, and was succeeded by Lord Hardwicke in May, 1801. In these three years the Union was carried out.

Amidst all the anxieties, disappointments, crosses and vexations by which Cornwallis was tried during his Irish administration, it is pleasant to turn to his Indian correspondence. The Viceroy of Ireland had never forgotten the Governor-General of India. He had naturally been much interested and alarmed by the insubordination of the officers of the Bengal army; and just after hearing of the suppression of the delegates and the triumph of the loyal and faithful officers, he had been asked or had volunteered to give to an officer proceeding to India a letter of introduction to Sir John Shore, his successor in the Governor-Generalship. It is brief, and must be reproduced with only a word of explanation.