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HISTORY

OF

BRITISH INDIA

BOOK II.

FROM THE RENEWAL OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S CHARTER, 1813, TO THE CLOSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS, 1823.

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CHAPTER I.

Appointment of the Earl of Moira as GovernorGeneral. Entrance upon his office. Financial embarrassments of the Indian Government.-Indications of hostility.-Situation and Extent of Nepal. -Sketch of its history.-Rise of the Gorkhas.-Succession of their Princes.-Their Conquests in the Mountains. Aggressions on the British frontier. -Causes of the War.- Claims on Bhotwal in Gorakhpur. — Commissioners appointed. — Aggressions on the Saran frontier. - Villages in Bettia attached and annexed to Nepal.-Right of the British Government to Bhotwal established. - Lord Minto's Letter to the Raja.-Military preparations. -Right to Lands of Bettia determined.-Return to Nepal of Gorkha Commissioners.-Disputed Lands occupied.-Outrage of the Nepalese.-War proclaimed.-Mode of warfare to be adopted.-Plan

VOL. II.

B

BOOK II.

CHAP. I.

1813.

--

of the Campaign. Disposition of the British Troops.-Advance of the Second Division.-First attack on Kalanga,-its failure.-Second attack, -repulsed. -Death of General Gillespie. -Third attack, —defeated. —Bombardment of the Fort. -Evacuation of Kalanga.-March to the Karda Valley-General Martindell occupies Náhan besieges Jytak. Combined attacks by Major Richards and Major Ludlow, - defeated. Operations suspended.-Proceedings of the First Division.- Nature of the Country.-Gorkha Forts. -Nalagerh evacuated.-General Ochterlony turns the Gorkha Lines at Ramgerh.-Affair with the Gorkhas.-Reinforcements required, and operations suspended,― resumed.— Gorkha communications cut off.-Attack on the British post at Dibu, -repulsed. - General Ochterlony marches to the north of Malaun.-Amar Sing moves from Ramgerh to its defence.-Ramgerh taken.-Malaun invested.

THE circumstances which recommended the Earl of Moira to the appointment of Governor-General of India have already been adverted to. After the death of Mr. Perceval, he had been authorised by the Prince Regent to attempt the formation of a cabinet which should combine the leading members of both parties in the state; and, although the negociation was unsuccessful, its failure was not imputed to any want of ability or zeal in the negociator. His long and close intimacy with the Prince, his distinguished rank and high personal character, were also considerations which duly weighed with the Administration; and he was accordingly entrusted

ARRIVAL OF THE EARL OF MOIRA IN BENGAL.

CHAP. I.

3

with the government of the British Indian empire. BOOK II. The office of Commander-in-chief was combined with that of Governor-General. Lord Moira 1813. arrived in Calcutta in the first days of October, 1813, and on the fourth of that month assumed charge of his important functions.

Although the economical system pursued by the Earl of Minto had permanently lightened the burthen on the public finances, yet the means by which much of the alleviation was effected were not unattended by temporary inconvenience. The establishments in general, and particularly those of the military department, had been reduced below the scale which the public security demanded; and the great exertions which had been made to pay off the remittable loan and supply the home treasury with funds for that purpose, as well as the necessity of furnishing the Governments of the new colonial conquests with pecuniary aid to enable them to defray the excess of their charges over their receipts, had drawn deeply upon the resources of Bengal. The new Governor-General consequently found the treasury exhausted, and presenting a balance scarcely equal to provide for the current expenditure. He was urgently pressed by the Court of Directors to continue the remittance of bullion to England, and was at the same time called upon to discharge bills to a large amount drawn upon Bengal by the Company's supracargoes at Canton for money which they had received from private merchants for application to the purchase of investments to Europe.1

1 Financial Letter from Bengal, 30th October and 18th December, 1813. Papers relative to the Finances of India during the administration

CHAP. I.

1813.

BOOK II. The prospect of preserving tranquillity began also to be overclouded. It was evident that contests, which had been threatening for many years, and which it had been the policy of the preceding administrations to evade or to defer, could not be delayed much longer with a prudent regard for the integrity of the British dominions and the reputation of the Government. Lord Moira was therefore called upon to engage in actual warfare while the immediate resources of his administration were in an extraordinary condition of inefficiency. The embarrassments were, however, merely temporary, and they were speedily surmounted by the activity and energy which the character and example of the Governor-General diffused throughout the Company's establishments.

1814.

Omitting, for the present, any further notice of the financial difficulties, we shall proceed to describe the origin and object of the impending hostilities.

The territories of the kingdom of Nepal extended for a distance of more than seven hundred miles along the northern frontier of the British possessions. Stretching in an oblique direction from north-west to south-east, they skirted the provinces of Delhi, Rohilkhand, Gorakhpur, Saran, Tirhut, and Purnia, and included districts partly of ancient, partly of recent acquisition. Between Rohilkhand and Gorakhpur, a portion of the principality of Oude, conterminous with Nepal, completed the boundary line. The name, Nepal, was properly applicable to a valley of circumscribed extent embosomed in the Himalaya mountains, having on its south the first

of the Marquis of Hastings, printed for the Proprietors of East India Stock, March, 1824.

POPULATION OF NEPAL.

CHAP. I.

1814.

5

and lowest ranges of the chain, but girdled on the BOOK II. north by some of its loftiest and most majestic elevations; amid which, through passes scarcely lower than the limits of eternal congelation, a communication during the summer months lay open with Tibet. The people are mostly of the Bhot or Tibetan family; but they are intermixed with Hindus, colonies of whom immigrated from the plains at periods within the memory of tradition.1 The leaders of the colonists seem to have been Rajputs, and, with their ordinary superiority in energy and courage, they soon established themselves as petty princes, or Rajas, in various parts of the valley. In the course of time, the number of independent chiefs decreased, the stronger devoured the weaker; and in the middle of the eighteenth century (1765) the valley of Nepal was partitioned among the three Hindu Rajas of Khatmandu, Lalita-patan, and Bhatgaon. Taking advantage of the feuds which arrayed these petty potentates against each other, Prithi Narayan, chief of a mountain tribe termed Gorkha, overpowered the triumvirate and made himself sole master of Nepal. He transmitted his sovereignty to his descendants, and they still reign over the country. The designation of the tribe of which the prince was a member came to be regarded as the national denomination, and

According to local traditions, the Hindu Parbatiyas, or mountaineers, came originally from Chitore in the beginning of the 14th century. Probably the reigning family of Rajputs may have arrived about that date, but Nepal (Naipala) was a Hindu state in much more remote times. The Parbatiyas are more likely to be the relics of a primitive population, or immigrants from the adjacent low-lands of Oude: their language belongs to the Sanscrit family of dialects; but their physical conformation differs much from that of the Hindus of the contiguous plains, who are mostly tall, whilst the Nepalese, although robust, are below the average stature.

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