Immagini della pagina
PDF
ePub

XLIX.

1806.

CHAP. verted the British influence at the court of their ancient ally the Nizam, was disarmed; the empire of Tippoo Sultaun, which had so often brought it to the brink of ruin, was subverted; the Peishwa restored to his hereditary rank in the Mahratta confederacy, and secured to the British interests; the power of Scindiah and the Rajah of Berar crushed, and their thrones preserved only by the magnanimity of the conquerors; the vast force, organised by French officers, of forty thousand disciplined soldiers on the banks of the Jumna, totally destroyed; and Holkar himself, with the last remnant of the Mahratta horse, driven entirely from his dominions, and compelled, a needy suppliant, to sue for peace, and owe the restitution of his provinces to the perhaps misplaced generosity of the conqueror. He added provinces to the British empire in India, during his short administration, larger than the kingdom of France, extended its influence over territories more extensive than the whole of Germany, and successively vanquished four fierce and warlike nations, who could bring three hundred thousand men, of whom two-thirds were horse, into the field. Nor was it only in military and diplomatic transactions that the administration of Marquess Wellesley was distinguished; his powerful mind was equally directed to objects of domestic utility and social amelioration. He founded the college of Calcutta, from which Haileybury College, so well known for its beneficial influence, afterwards sprang, and took the warmest interest in that institution, as well as all others calculated to elevate the intellectual character of the Hindoos, or improve the character of their governors. governors. And he early directed the attention of the Company to the importance of encouraging the cultivation of cotton-an object which has since that time been unaccountably neglected, both by the East India Company and the British i. 392; and government, but which, if duly attended to, might by this 187, 192, time have rendered us independent of all the world for the material of our staple manufacture,' and saved the

1 Pearce's Life of

Wellesley,

ii.

214.

XLIX.

tribute of fifteen millions sterling which is annually paid CHAP. by this country to the industry of the United States.

1806.

98.

sion he gave

tish empire

From maintaining with difficulty a precarious footing at the foot of the Ghauts, on the Malabar and Coromandel Vast extencoasts, the British government was seated on the throne to the Briof Mysore; from resting only on the banks of the Ganges, in the East. it had come to spread its influence to the Indus and the Himalaya it numbered among its provincial towns Delhi and Agra, the once splendid capitals of Hindostan; among its stipendiary princes, the Sultaun of Mysore and the descendant of the imperial house of Timour. These great successes were gained by an empire which never had twenty thousand European soldiers under its banners; which was engaged at home, at the moment, in a mortal conflict with the conqueror of the greatest Continental states; and which found, in its fidelity to its engagements, the justice of its rule, the integrity of its servants, its constancy in difficulty, its magnanimity in disaster, the means of rousing the native population in its behalf, and compensating the want of British soldiers by the justice of British government, the ability of British councils, and the daring of British officers. Impressed with these ideas, future ages will dwell on this epoch as one of the most glorious in British, one of the most marvellous in European annals; and deem the last words of the British inhabitants of Calcutta to Lord Wellesley, on his departure for Europe, as not the

"The civil servants of the East India Company can no longer be considered as the agents of a commercial concern. They are, in fact, the ministers and officers of a powerful sovereign. They must now be viewed in that capacity, with reference not to their nominal, but their real avocations. They are required to discharge the duties of magistrates, judges, ambassadors, and governors of provinces, in all the complicated and extensive relations of those sacred trusts and exalted stations, and under peculiar circumstances which greatly enhance the solemnity of every public obligation, and aggravate the difficulty of every public charge. Their studies, the discipline of their education, their habits of life, their manners and morals, should therefore be so ordered and regulated as to establish a just conformity between their personal consideration and the dignity and importance of their public stations, and to maintain a sufficient correspondence between their qualifications and their duties."—Memorial by LORD WELLESLEY, 10th July 1800-PEARCE's Life of Wellesley, ii. 187.

XLIX.

1806.

CHAP. florid language of panegyric, but the sober expressions of truth :-"The events of the last seven years have marked the period of your government as the most important epoch in the history of European power in India. Your discernment in seeing the exigencies of the country and of the times in which you were called upon to act; the promptitude and determination with which you have seized upon the opportunities of acting; your just coninhabitants ception and masterly use of our intrinsic strength, have to Lord eminently contributed, in conjunction with the zeal, the Wellesley, discipline, and the courage of our armies, to decide upon 1805. Wel. these great events, and to establish from one extremity

1 Address of

of Calcutta

July 29,

Desp. iv.

613.

99.

Wellington

1805.

of this empire to the other the ascendancy of the British name and dominion."1

General Wellesley had, a few months before his brother, Return of set sail for the British Islands. His important duties as to Europe. governor of Mysore had prevented him from taking an March 10, active part in the war with Holkar; although the judicious distribution of troops which he had made in the Deccan had secured the protection of the British provinces in that quarter, and contributed powerfully to overawe the southern Mahratta powers, and keep Scindiah and the Rajah of Berar from breaking out into open hostility. But, though not personally engaged, his active and watchful spirit observed with intense interest the progress of the contest; his council and experience proved of essential service both to the government and the armies ; and his letters on the subject remain to this day an enduring monument of judgment, foresight, and penetra457, 607. tion.1 His able and impartial government of Mysore and the tributary and allied states connected with it, had endeared him to the native inhabitants; while his extensive local knowledge, and indefatigable activity in civil administration, had justly commanded the admiration of all ranks of European functionaries. But he was dissatisfied with the restrictions sometimes imposed upon him by the government at home; and, prompted to return

1 Gurw. ii.

XLIX.

1806.

to Europe by that hidden law which so often makes the CHAP. temporary vexations of men, selected by Providence for special purposes, the means of turning them into their appointed path, he felt the influence of that mysterious yearning which, even in the midst of honours and power, prompts the destined actors in great events to pant for higher glories, and desire the trial of more formidable dangers. Addresses showered upon him from all quarters when his approaching departure was known; the inhabitants of Calcutta voted him a splendid sword, and erected a monument in their capital commemorative of the battle of Assaye; but among all his honours none was more touching than the parting address of the native inhabitants of Seringapatam, which seemed almost inspired with a prophetic spirit. They "implored the God of all castes and of all nations to hear their constant prayer; 1 Gurw. ii. and wherever greater affairs than the government of them 606, 608. might call him, to bestow on him health, happiness, and 66. glory." 1

Scherer, i.

of Europe.

tics in the

the Great.

It is observed by Arrian, that, after the return of 100. Alexander the Great from his Indian expedition, "he laid Proportion down a general system for the blending together of his ans to AsiaEastern and European dominions. For this purpose he armies of took care to incorporate in his Eastern armies the Greeks Alexander and Macedonians. In each company, or rather in each division of sixteen, he joined four Europeans to twelve Asiatics. In the Macedonian squadrons and battalions, on the other hand, he intermixed such of the Asiatics as were most distinguished by their strength, their activity, and their merit. The Asiatic youth delighted in the Grecian exercise and discipline, and rejoiced at being a Arrian, associated with the glory of their victors. Their improve- lib. vii. p. ment in arts and arms fully answered his expectation and also Gillies rewarded his foresight." 2 It is one of the most interest- 373. ing facts recorded in history, to find experience, at an interval of two thousand years, suggesting exactly the same proportion between Europeans and their Asiatic

[ocr errors]

158. See

Greece, iv.

XLIX.

1806.

CHAP. auxiliaries, to conquerors under so surprising a diversity of external circumstances.* The lapse of time makes a vast difference in the arms by which men combat each other, and the nations which in their turn appear as the dominant race on the great theatre of human affairs. Had Alexander's followers been told that a nation of conquerors was to succeed them in the Indian plains, issuing from an obscure and then unknown island in the West, combating with weapons resembling the artillery of heaven, and who had circumnavigated the dreaded African promontories, while their descendants were groaning under an Eastern yoke, they would have deemed the story too incredible for belief. But that lapse of time makes none in the fundamental qualities of the different races of mankind. Amidst all these marvellous changes, the pristine character of the children of Japhet and the descendants of Shem has remained unchanged the superiority of the West over the East in the essential qualities which lead to social and military advancement, has continued the same; and the very proportion of Europeans to Asiatics in the composition of a united army, which experience suggested to Alexander after his victory over Porus in the Punjaub, was impressed upon Lake on achieving the triumphs of Delhi and Agra. Nay, more marvellous still, the ultimate and decisive victory gained by the English over the Sikhs in the Punjaub itself, on the very theatre of Alexander's contest with Porus-the triumphs of Sobraon and Goojerat-were gained entirely by the infusion of that very proportion of native British among the Asiatic troops.†

Experience has since abundantly confirmed the justice of the principles of these great men. The disasters of

*

See ante, Chap. XLIX. §§ 52, 54, notes, where Lord Lake suggests, the day after the battles of Delhi and Agra, this very proportion of one European to three Asiatics, which was the rule in Alexander's united armies.

At the battles of Aliwal, Sobraon, and Goojerat in the Punjaub in 1847 and 1849, the proportion of English to Asiatic troops engaged was about one to three.

« IndietroContinua »