Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/80

 CHAPTER IV

Reform of the Civil Service

It is almost impossible, in this attempt to describe Cornwallis as an Indian ruler, to do more than give occasional extracts from his voluminous correspondence and to state a summary of his political views. But now and then a private and confidential letter throws such a light on the perplexities which tried his constancy and statesmanship, and illustrates problems only solved after painful experience, that it is expedient to quote from it at length. Of this kind is a private and confidential letter to Dundas, dated April 4th, 1790. That minister had sent him a list of questions relating to the East India Company as a commercial and a political institution; to the right of patronage to civil appointments in India; to the export trade of the Dependency; to the relation which English forces should bear to the Sepoys; and to other matters. Changes in administration have left to some of the views of the Governor-General only their historical interest. On other points, his opinions might have weight with administrators of our own time; and his reply to Dundas is a fitting prelude to