was an earl and chancellor of Scotland, and unable to stir with gout, had himself carried to the room where his children and grandchildren were dancing, and in. sisted on beating time with his foot. Nay, when dying at the advanced age of eighty-four, he could not resist his old propensity to joking, but uttered various pleasantries on the disappointment the worms would meet with, when, after boring through his thick coffin, they would find little but bones.

from him in a high degree. Often did they laugh heartily in | that doleful habitation, at different accidents that happened. She at that time had a terror for a churchyard, especially in the dark, as is not uncommon at her age, by idle nursery stories; but when engaged by concern for her father, she stumbled over the graves every night alone, without fear of any kind entering her thoughts, but for soldiers and parties in search of him, which the least noise or motion of a leaf put her in terror for. The minister's house was near the church. The first night she went, his dogs kept such a barking as put her in the utmost fear of a discovery. My grandinother sent for the minister nex day, and, upon pretence of a mad dog, a fierce attack upon Burnet, which is full of inaccuraThere is, in the Appendix, besides these narrations, got him to hang all his dogs. There was also difficulty of get-cies and ill temper; and some interesting particulars ting victuals to carry him, without the servants suspecting: the only way it was done, was by stealing it off her plate at dinner into her lap. Many a diverting story she has told about this, and other things of the like nature. Her father liked sheep's head; and, while the children were eating their broth, she had conveyed most of one into her lap. When her brother Sandy (the late Lord Marchmont) had done, he looked up with astonishment, and said, "Mother, will you look at Grizzel; while we have been eating our broth, she has eat up the whole sheep's head." This occasioned so much mirth DISTURBANCES AT MADRAS. among them, that her father, at night, was greatly entertained by it; and desired Sandy might have a share in the next.'— App. p. [v.]

They then tried to secret him in a low room in his own house; and, for this purpose, to contrive a bed concealed under the floor, which this affectionate and light-hearted girl secretly excavated herself, by scratching up the earth with her nails, till she left not a nail on her fingers,' and carrying it into the gar den at night in bags. At last, however, they all got over to Holland, where they seem to have lived in great poverty, but in the same style of magnanimous gaiety and cordial affection, of which some instances hade been recited. This admirable young woman, who lived afterwards with the same simplicity of character in the first society in England, seems to have exerted herself in a way that nothing but affection could have rendered tolerable, even to one bred up to drudgery.

All the time they were there,' (says his daughter,) there was not a week my mother did not sit up two nights, to do the business that was necessary. She went to the market; went to the mill to have their corn ground-which, it seems, is the way with good managers there; dressed the linen; cleaned the house; made ready dinner; mended the children's stockings, and other clothes; made what she could for them; and, in short, did every thing. Her sister Christian, who was a year or two younger, diverted her father and mother, and the rest, who were fond of music. Out of their small income, they bought a harpsichord for little money (but is a Rucar*), now in my custody, and most valuable. My aunt played and sung well, and had a great deal of life and humour, but no turn to business. Though my mother had the same qualifications, and liked it as well as she did, she was forced to drudge; and many jokes used to pass betwixt the sisters about their different occupations.' p. [ix.]

of Monmouth's imprisonment and execution. We dare say Mr. Rose could publish a volume or two of very interesting tracts; and can venture to predict, that his collections will be much more popular than his observations.

REVIEW, 1810.)

(EDINBURGH

Narrative of the Origin and Progress of the Dissensions at
the Presidency of Madras, founded on Original Papers and
Account of the Origin and Progress of the late Discontents of
Correspondence. Lloyd, London, 1810.
the Army on the Madras Establishment. Cadell and Davies,
London, 1810.
Statement of Facts delivered to the Right Honourable Lord
Minto. By William Petrie, Esq. Stockdale, London, 1810

THE disturbances which have lately taken place in
our East Indian possessions, would, at any period, have
excited a considerable degree of alarm; and those feel
ings are, of course, not a little increased by the ruin.
ous aspect of our European affairs. The revolt of an
to threaten so nearly the ruin of the country in which
army of eighty thousand men is an event which seems
it happens, that no common curiosity is excited as to
the causes which could have led to it, and the means
by which its danger was averted. On these points,
we shall endeavour to exhibit to our readers the infor-
mation afforded to us by the pamphlets whose titles
we have cited. The first of these is understood to be
written by an agent of Sir George Barlow, sent over
for the express purpose of defending his measures;
the second is most probably the production of some one
of the dismissed officers, or, at least, founded upon
their representations; the third statement is by Mr.
Petrie, and we most cordially recommend it to the
perusal of our readers. It is characterized, through-
out, by moderation, good sense, and a feeling of duty.
We have seldom read a narrative, which, on the first
face of it, looked so much like truth.
course, produced the ruin and dismissal of this gentle-
It has, of
man, though we have not the shadow of doubt, that if
his advice had been followed, every unpleasant occur-
rence which has happened in India might have been
effectually prevented.

Her brother soon afterwards entered into the Prince of Orange's guards: and her constant attention was to have him appear right in his linen and dress. They wore little point cravats and cuffs, which many a night she sat up to have in as In the year 1802,a certain monthly allowance, progood order for him as any in the place; and one of their great-portioned to their respective ranks, was given to each est expenses was in dressing him as he ought to be. As their officer of the coast army, to enable him to provide house was always full of the unfortunate banished people like himself with a camp equipage; and a monthly allow themselves, they seldom went to dinner without three, or four, or five of them to share with them; and many a hundred times ance was also made to the commanding officers of the have I heard her say she could never look back upon their native corps, for the provision of the camp equipage of manner of living there, without thinking it a miracle. They these corps. This arrangement was commonly called had no want, but plenty of everything they desired, and much the tent contract. Its intention (as the pamphlet of contentment; and always declared it the most pleasing part of Sir George Barlow's agent very properly states) was her life, though they were not without their little distresses; to combine facility of movement in military operations but to them they were rather jokes than grievances. The pro- with views of economy. In the general revision of its fessors and men of learning in the place came often to see my grandfather. The best entertainment he could give them was establishments, set on foot for the purposes of econoa glass of alabast beer, which was a better kind of ale than my by the Madras government, this contract was concommon. He sent his son Andrew, the late Lord Kimmer-sidered as entailing upon them a very unnecessary exghame, a boy, to draw some for them in the cellar: he brought pense; and the then commander-in-chief, General it up with great diligence; but in the other hand the spiket of Craddock, directed Colonel Munro, the quartermasterthe barrel. My grandfather said, "Andrew, what is that in general, to make a report to him upon the subject. your hand?" When he saw it, he run down with speed; but The report, which was published almost as soon as it the beer was all run out before he got there. This occasioned much mirth; though, perhaps, they did not well know where was made up, recommends the abolition of this conto get more.'-pp. [x. xi.] tract; and, among other passages for the support of this opinion, has the following one :

Sir Patrick, we are glad to hear, retained this kindly cheerfulness of character to the last; and, after he

* An eminent maker of that time.

'Six years' experience of the practical effects of the existing system of the camp equipage equipment of the native army, has afforded means of forming a judgment relative to its ad vantages and efficiency which were not possessed by the per

tive examination.

"Thirdly. By granting the same allowances in peace and war for the equipment of native corps, while the expenses incidental to that charge are unavoidably much greater in war than in peace, it places the interest and duty of officers commanding native corps in direct opposition to one another. It makes it their interest that their corps should not be in a state of efficiency fit for field service, and therefore furnishes strong inducements to neglect their most important duties.'-Accurate and Authentic Narrative, pp. 117, 118.

sons who proposed its introduction; and an attentive examina- | not a single witness was examined; the whole seems tion of its operations during that period of time has suggested to have depended upon the report of Colonel Munro, the following observations regarding it: the youngest staff-officer of the army, published in After stating that the contract is needlessly expen- spite of the earnest remonstrance of Colonel Capper, sive-that it subjects the Company to the same char- the adjutant-general, and before three days had been ges for troops in the garrison as for those in the field-given him to substitute his own plan, which Sir George the report proceeds to state the following observation, Barlow had promised to read before the publication of made on the authority of six years experience and atten- Colonel Munro's report. Nay, this great plan of redue tion was never even submitted to the military board, by whom all subjects of that description were, accord ing to the orders of the court of directors, and the usage of the service, to be discussed and digested, pre vious to their coming before government. Shortly after the promulgation of this very indiscreet paper, the commander-in-chief, General Macdowall, received letters from almost all the officers command. ing native corps, representing, in terms adapted to the feelings of each, the stigma which was considered to attach to them individually, and appealing to the authority of the commander-in-chief for redress against such charges, and to his personal experience for their falsehood. To these letters the general replied, that the orders in question had been prepared without any reference to his opinion, and that, as the matter was so far advanced, he deemed it inexpedient to interfere. The officers commanding corps, finding that no steps were taken to remove the obnoxious insinuations, and considering that, while they remained, an indelible disgrace was cast upon their characters, prepared charges against Colonel Munro. These charges were forwarded to General Macdowall, referred by him to the judge advocate general, and returned with his objections to them, to the officers who had preferred the charges. For two months after this period, General Macdowall appears to have remained in a state of uncertainty, as to whether he would or would not bring Colonel Munro to a court-martial upon the charges preferred against him by the commanders of the corps. At last, urged by the discontents of the army, he determined in the affirmative; and Colonel Munro was put in arrest, preparatory to his trial. Colonel Munro then appealed directly to the governor, Sir George Barlow; and was released by a positive order from him. It is necessary to state, that all appeals of of ficers to the government in India always pass through the hands of the commander-in-chief; and this appeal, therefore, of Colonel Munro, directed to the govern ment, was considered by General Macdowall as a great infringement of military discipline. We have very great doubts whether Sir George Barlow was not guilty of another great mistake in preventing the court-martial from taking place. It is undoubtedly true, that no servant of the public is amenable to justice for doing what the government orders him to do; but he is not entitled to protection under the pretence of that order, if he has done something which it evidently did not require of him. If Colonel Munro had been ordered to report upon the conduct of an individual officer, and it could be proved that, in gratification of private malice, he had taken that opportunity of stating the most infamous and malicious falsehoods-could it be urged that his conduct might not be fairly scrutinized in a court of justice, or a court-martial? If this were other. wise, any duty delegated by government to an individual would become the most intolerable source o oppression: he might gratify every enmity and antipathy-indulge in every act of malice-vilify and tra duce every one whom he hated-and then shelter himself under the plea of public service. Every body has a right to do what the supreme power orders him to do; but he does not thereby acquire a right to do what he has not been ordered to do. Colonel Munro was directed to make a report upon the state of the army: the officers whom he has traduced accuse him of reporting something totally different from the state of the army-something which he and every body else knew to be different and this for the malicious pur pose of calumniating their reputation. If this was true, Colonel Munro could not plead the authority of government; for the authority of government was af forded to him for a very different purpose. In this view of the case, we cannot see how the dignity of government was attacked by the proposal of the court.

Here, then, is not only a proposal for reducing the emoluments of the principal officers of the Madras army, but a charge of the most flagrant nature. The first they might possibly have had some right to consider as a hardship; but, when severe and unjust invective was superadded to strict retrenchment-when their pay and their reputation were diminished at the same time-it cannot be considered as surprising, that such treatment, on the part of the government, should lay the foundation for a spirit of discontent in those troops who had recently made such splendid additions to the Indian empire, and established, in the progress of these acquisitions, so high a character for discipline and courage. It must be remembered, that an officer on European and one on Indian service are in very different situations, and propose to themselves very different objects. The one never thinks of making a fortune by his profession, while the hope of ultimately gaining an independence is the principal motive for which the Indian officer banishes himself from his country. To diminish the emoluments of his profession is to retard the period of his return, and to frustrate the purpose for which he exposes his life and health in a burning climate, on the other side of the world. We make these observations, certainly, without any idea of denying the right of the East India Company to make any retrenchments they may think proper, but to show that it is a right which ought to be exercised with great delicacy and with sound discretion that it should only be exercised when the retrenchment is of real importance, and, above all, that it should always be accompanied by every mark of suavity and conciliation. Sir George Barlow, on the contrary, committed the singular imprudence of stig. matizing the honour, and wounding the feelings of the Indian officers. At the same moment that he diminishes their emoluments, he tells them, that the India Company take away their allowances for tents, because those allowances have been abused in the meanest, most profligate, and most unsoldierlike manner; for this, and more than this is conveyed in the report of Colonel Munro, published by order of Sir George Barlow. If it was right, in the first instance, to diminish the emoluments of so vast an army, it was certainly indiscreet to give such reasons for it. If any individual had abused the advantages of the tent contract, he might have been brought to a court-martial; and if his guilt had been established, his punishment, we will venture to assert, would not have occasioned a a moment of complaint or disaffection in the army; but that a civilian, a gentleman accustomed only to the details of commerce, should begin his government, over a settlement with which he was utterly unacquainted, by telling one of the bravest set of officers in the world, that, for six years past, they had been, in the basest manner, sacrificing their duty to their interest, does appear to us an instance of indiscretion, which, if frequently repeated, would soon supersede the necessity of any further discussion upon Indian affairs.

The whole transaction, indeed, appears to have been gone into with a disregard to the common professional feelings of an army, which is to us utterly inexplicable. The opinion of the commander-in-chief, General Macdowall, was never asked upon the subject;

martial, or to what other remedy those who had suffered from his abuse of power could have had recourse. Colonel Munro had been promised, by General Macdowall, that the court-martial should consist of king's officers: there could not, therefore, have been any rational suspicion that this trial would have been unfair, or his judges unduly influenced.

Soon after Sir George Barlow had shown this reluctance to give the complaining officers an opportunity of re-establishing their injured character, General Macdowall sailed for England, and left behind him, for publication, an order, in which Colonel Munro was reprimanded for a violent breach of military discipline, in appealing to the governor otherwise than through the customary and prescribed channel of the commander-in-chief. As this paper is very short, and at the same time very necessary to the right comprehension of this case, we shall lay it before our readers.

from arrest.

'G. O. by the Commander-in-chief.

general had inflicted merited no such severe retribution as that resorted to by Sir George Barlow. There are no reflections in the paper on the conduct of the governor or the government. The reprimand is grounded entirely upon the breach of that military discipline which it was undoubtedly the business of General Macdowall to maintain in the most perfect purity and vigour. Nor has the paper any one expression in it foreign to this purpose. We were, indeed, not a little astonished at reading it. We had imagined that a paper which drew after it such a long train of dismissals and suspensions, must have contained a declaration of war against the Madras government,—an exhortation to the troops to throw off their allegiance,or an advice to the natives to drive their intrusive masters away, and become as free as their forefathers had left them. Instead of this, we find nothing more than a common reprimand from a commander-in-chief to a subordinate officer, for transgressing the bounds of his duty. If Sir George Barlow had governed kingdoms six months longer, we cannot help thinking he would have been a little more moderate.

"The immediate departure of Lieutenant-General Macdowall from Madras will prevent his pursuing the design of bringing Lieutenant-Colonel Munro, quartermaster-general, to trial, for disrespect to the commander-in-chief, for disobedience of But whatever difference of opinion there may be orders, and for contempt of military authority, in having re- respecting the punishment of General Macdowall, we sorted to the power of the civil government, in defiance of the judgment of the officer at the head of the army, who had placed can scarcely think there can be any with regard to the him under arrest, on charges preferred against him by a num- conduct observed towards the adjutant-general and his ber of officers commanding native corps, in consequence of deputy. They were the subordinates of the comwhich appeal direct to the honourable the president in council, mander-in-chief, and were peremptorily bound to pubLieutenant-General Macdowall has received positive orders lish any general orders which he might command them from the chief secretary to liberate Lieutenant-Colonel Munro to publish. They would have been liable to very 'Such conduct on the part of Lieutenant-Colonel Munro, severe punishment if they had not; and it appears to being destructive of subordination, subversive of military disus the most flagrant outrage against all justice to concipline, a violation of the sacred rights of the commander-in- vert their obedience into a fault. It is true, no suborchief, and holding out a most dangerous example to the ser-dinate officer is bound to obey any order which is vice, Lieutenant-General Macdowall, in support of the dignity plainly, and to any common comprehension, illegal; of the profession, and his own station and character, feels it but then the illegality must be quite manifest; the incumbent on him to express his strong disapprobation of Lieu- order must imply such a contradiction to common tenant-Colonel Munro's unexampled proceedings, and consense, and such a violation of duties superior to the siders it a duty imposed upon him to reprimand LieutenantColonel Munro in general orders; and he is hereby repri- duty of military obedience, that there can be scarcely manded accordingly. (Signed) T. BOLES, D. a. G.'-Acur. two opinions on the subject. Wherever any fair doubt and Auth. Nar. pp. 68. 69. can be raised, the obedience of the inferior officer is to be considered as proper and meritorious. Upon any other principle, his situation is the most cruel imaginable: he is liable to the severest punishment, even to instant death, if he refuses to obey; and if he does obey, he is exposed to the animadversion of the civil power, which teaches him that he ought to have canvassed the order,-to have remonstrated against it,and, in case this opposition proved ineffectual, to have disobeyed it. We have no hesitation in pronouncing the imprisonment of Colonel Capper and Major Boles to have been an act of great severity and great indiscretion, and such as might very fairly give great offence to an army, who saw themselves exposed to the same punishments, for the same adherence to their duties.

Sir George Barlow, in consequence of this paper, immediately deprived General Macdowall of his situation of commander-in-chief, which he had not yet resigned, though he had quitted the settlement; and, as the official signature of the deputy adjutant-general appeared to the paper, that officer also was suspended from his situation. Colonel Capper, the adjutant-general, in the most honourable manner informed Sir George Barlow that he was the culpable and responsible person; and that the name of his deputy only appeared to the paper in consequence of his positive order, and because he himself happened to be absent on shipboard with General Macdowall. This generous conduct on the part of Colonel Capper involved himself in punishment, without extricating the innocent person whom he intended to protect. The Madras government, always swift to condemn, doomed him to the same punishment as Major Boles; and he was suspended from his office.

This paper we have read over with great attention; and we really cannot see wherein its criminality consists, or on what account it could have drawn down on General Macdowall so severe a punishment as the privation of the high and dignified office which he held. The censure upon Colonel Munro was for a violation of the regular etiquette of the army, in appealing to the governor otherwise than through the channel of the commander-in-chief. This was an entirely new offence on the part of Colonel Munro. Sir George Barlow had given no opinion upon it; it had not been discussed between him and the commander-in-chief; and the commander-in-chief was clearly at liberty to act in this point as he pleased. He does not reprimand Colonel Munro for obeying Sir George Barlow's orders-for Sir George had given no orders upon the subject; but he blames him for transgressing a well-known and important rule of the service. We have great doubts if he was not quite right in giving this reprimand. But at all events, if he was wrong-if Colonel Munro was not guilty of the offence imputed still the erroneous punishment which the

"The measure of removing Lieutenant-Colonel Capper and Major Boles,' says Mr. Petrie, was universally condemned by the most respectable officers in the army, and not more so by the officers in the Company's service, than by those of his majesty's regiments. It was felt by all as the introduction of a most dangerous principle, and setting a pernicious example of disobedience and insubordination to all the gradations of military rank and authority; teaching inferior officers to question the legality of the orders of their superiors, and bringing into discussion questions which may endanger the very existlike an electric shock, and gave rise to combinations, associaence of government. Our proceedings at the time operated tions, and discussions, pregnant with danger to every consti tuted authority in India. It was observed that the removal of General Macdowall (admitting the expediency of the measure), sufficiently vindicated the authority of government, and exhibited to the army a memorable proof that the supreme power is vested in the civil authority.

for it; but to suspend from the service the mere instruments 'The offence came from the general, and he was punished of office, for the ordinary transmission of an order to the army, was universally condemned as an act of inapplicable severity, which might do infinite mischief, but could not accomplish any good or beneficial purpose. It was to court unpopularity, and adding fuel to the flame, which was ready to burst forth in every division of the army; that to vindicate the measure on of a most dangerous tendency, capable of being extended in the assumed illegality of the order, is to resort to a principle its application to purposes subversive of the foundations of all authority, civil as well as military. If subordinate officers are

encouraged to judge of the legality of the orders of their superiors, we introduce a precedent of incalculable mischief, neither justified by the spirit nor the practice of the laws. Is it not better to have the responsibility on the head of the authority which issues the order, except in cases so plain, that the most common capacity can judge of their being direct violations of the established and acknowledged laws? Is the intemperance of the expressions, the indiscretion of the opinions, the inflammatory tendency of the order, so eminently dangerous, so evidently calculated to excite to mutiny and disobedience, so strongly marked with the features of criminality, as not to be mistaken? Was the order, I beg leave to ask, of this description, of such a nature as to justify the adjutant-general and his deputy in their refusal to publish it, to disobey the order of the commander-in-chief, to revolt from his authority, and to complain of him to the government? Such were the views I took of that unhappy transaction; and, as I foresaw serious mischief from the measure, not only to the discipline of the army, but even to the security of the civil government, it was my duty to state my opinion to Sir G. Barlow, and to use every argument which my reason suggested, to prevent the publication of the order. In this I completely failed; the suspension took effect; and the match was laid that has communicated the flame to almost every military mind in India. I recorded no dissent; for as a formal opposition could only tend to exonerate myself from a certain degree of responsibility, without effecting any good public purpose, and might probably be misconstrued or misconceived by those to whom our proceedings were made known, it was a more honourable discharge of my duty to relinquish this advantage, than to comply with the mere letter of the order respecting dissents. I explained this motive of my conduct to Sir G. Barlow.'-Statement of Facts, pp, 20, 23.

duced the strongest representations and remonstrances from king's officers of the most unquestionable loyalty.

'Lieutenant Colonel Vesey, commanding at Palamcotah, apprehends the most fatal consequences to the tranquillity of the southern provinces, if Colonel Wilkinson makes any hostile movements from Trichinopoly. In different letters he states, that such a step must inevitably throw the company's troops into open revolt. He has ventured to write in the strongest terms to Colonel Wilkinson, entreating him not to march against the southern troops, and pointing out the ruinous consequences which may he expected from such a measure 'Lieutenant Colonel Stuart in Travancore, and Colonel Forbes in Malabar, have written, that they are under no apprehension for the tranquillity of those provinces, or for the fidelity of the company's troops, if government does not insist on enforcing the orders for the signature of the test; but that, if this is attempted, the security of the country will be imminently endangered. These orders are to be enforced; and I tremble for the consequences.'-Statement of Facts, pp. 53, 54.

The following letter from the Honourable Colonel Stuart, commanding a king's regiment, was soon after received by Sir George Barlow:

The late measures of government, as carried in effect at the Presidency and Trichinopoly, have created a most violent ferment among the corps here. At those places where the European force was so far superior in number to the native the measure probably was executed without difficulty; but here, where there are seven battalions of sepoys, and a com pany and a half of artillery, to our one regiment, I found it totally impossible to carry the business to the same length, particularly as any tumult among our own corps would eertainly bring the people of Travancore upon us.

After these proceedings on the part of the Madras government, the disaffection of the troops rapidly increased; absurd and violent manifestoes were published by the general officers; government was insulted; and the army soon broke out into open mutiny. When the mutiny was fairly begun, the conduct of the Madras government in quelling it, seems nearly as objectionable as that by which it had been excited. The governor, in attempting, to be dignified, perpetually fell into the most puerile irritability; and wishing to be firm, was guilty of injustice and violence. Invitations to dinner were made an affair of state. Long negotiations appear respecting whole corps of officers who refused to dine with Sir George Barlow; and the first persons in the settlement were employed to persuade them to eat the repast which his excellency had prepared for them. A whole school of military lads were sent away, for some trifling display of partiality to the cause of the army; and every unfortunate measure recurred to, which a weak understanding and a captious temper could employ to bring a government into contempt. Officers were dismissed; A letter from Colonel Forbes, commanding in Malabar, but dismissed without trial, and even without accusa-states that, to prevent a revolt in the province, and the probtion. The object seemed to be to punish somebody: whether it was the right or the wrong person was less material. Sometimes the subordinate was select ed, where the principal was guilty; sometimes the superior was sacrificed for the ungovernable conduct of those who were under his charge. The blows were strong enough; but they came from a man who shut his eyes, and struck at random;-conscious that he must do something to repel the danger-but so agitated by its proximity that he could not look at it, or take a proper aim.

It is in vain, therefore, for me, with the small force I can depend upon, to attempt to stem the torrent here by any acts of violence.

'Most sincerely and axiously do I wish that the present tnmult may subside, without fatal consequences; which, if the present violent measures are continued, I much fear will not be the case. If blood is once spilt in the cause, there is no knowing where it may end; and the probable consequence will be, that India will be lost for ever. So many officers of the army have gone to such lengths, that unless a general amnesty is granted, tranquillity can never be restored. impute to me any other motives, for having thus given my "The honourable the governor in council will not, I trust, opinion, I am actuated solely by anxiety for the public good and the benefit of my country; and I think it my duty, holding the responsible station which I now do, to express my sentiments at so awful a period.

Among the other absurd measures resorted to by this new eastern emperor, was the notable expedient of imposing a test upon the officers of the army, expressive of their loyalty and attachment to the go. vernment; and as this was done at a time when some officers were in open rebellion, others fluctuating, and many almost resolved to adhere to their duty, it had the very natural and probable effect of uniting them all in opposition to government. To impose a test, or trial of opinions, is at all times an unpopular species of inquisition; and at a period when men were hesitating whether they should obey or not, was certainly a very dangerous and rash measure. It could be no security; for men who would otherwise rebel against their government, certainly would not be restrained by any verbal barriers of this kind; and, at the same time that it promised no effectual security, it appeared to increase the danger of irritated combination. This very rash measure immediately pro

'Where there are any prospects of success, it might be right to persevere; but where every day's experience proves, that the more coercive the measures adopted, the more violent are the consequences, a different and more conciliatory line of conduct ought to be adopted. I have the honour, &c.-Statement of Facts, pp. 55, 56.

able march of the company's troops towards Seringapatam, he had accepted of a modification in the test, to be signed by the officers on their parole, to make no hostile movements until the pleasure of the government was known.-Disapproved by the government, and ordered to enforce the former

orders.'-Statement of Facts, p. 61.

It can scarcely be credited, that in spite of these repeated remonstrances from officers, whose loyalty and whose knowledge of the subject could not be suspected, this test was ordered to be enforced, and the severest rebukes inflicted upon those who had presumed to doubt of its propriety, or suspend its operation. Nor let any man say that the opinionative person who persevered in this measure saw more clearly and deeply into the consequence of his own measures than those who were about him; for unless Mr. Petric has been guilty, and repeatedly guilty, of a most downright and wilful falsehood, Sir George Barlow had not the most distant conception, during all these measures, that the army would ever venture upon re

volt.

Government, or rather the head of the government, was never correctly informed of the actual state of the army, or I think he would have acted otherwise; he was told, and he was willing to believe, that the discontents were confined to a small portion of the troops; that a great majority disapproved of their proceedings, and were firmly and unalterably attached to the government.'-Statement of Facts, pp. 23,-24.

In a conversation which Mr. Petrie had with Sir George Barlow upon the subject of the army-and in

he course of which he recommends to that gentleman | Against Colonel Capper, General Macdowall, and Mr. nore lenient measures, and warns him of the increas- Roebuck, who are now no longer alive to answer for ng disaffection of the troops-he gives us the follow themselves, he is intrepidly severe; in all these ining account of Sir George Barlow's notions of the then stances he gives a full loose to his sense of duty, and state of the army:inflicts upon them the severest chastisement. In his keep to generals; and so rigidly does he adhere to attack upon the civilians, he is particularly careful to this principle, that he does not support his assertion, that the civil service was disaffected as well as the military, by one single name, one single fact, or by any other means whatever, than his own affirmation of the fact. The truth (as might be supposed to be the case from such sort of evidence) is diametrically opposite. Nothing could be more exemplary, during the whole of the rebellion, than the conduct of the civil servants; and though the courts of justice were interfered with-though the most respectable servants of the company were punished for the verdicts they had given as jurymen-though many were dismissed for the slightest opposition to the pleasure of government, even in the discharge of official duties, where remonstrance was absolutely necessary,though the greatest provocation was given, and the greatest opportunity afforded to the civil servants for revolt, there is not a single instance in which the shadow of disaffection has been proved against any civil servant. This we say, from an accurate examination of all the papers which have been published on the subject; and we do not hesitate to affirm, that there never was a more unjust, unfounded, and profiigate charge made against any body of men; nor have we often witnessed a more complete scene of folly and violence, than the conduct of the Madras government to its civil servants, exhibited during the whole period of the mutiny.

'Sir G. Barlow assured me I was greatly misinformed; that he could rely upon his intelligence; and would produce to council the most satisfactory and unequivocal proofs of the fidelity of nine-tenths of the army; that the discontents were confined almost exclusively to the southern divison of the army; that the troops composing the subsidiary force, those in the ceded districts, in the centre, and a part of the northern division, were all untainted by those principles which had misled the rest of the army.'-Statement of Facts. pp. 27, 28. All those violent measures, then, the spirit and wisdom of which have been so much extolled, were not measures of the consequences of which their author had the most distant suspicion. They were not the acts of a man who knew that he must unavoidably, in the discharge of his duty, irritate, but that he could ultimately evercome that irritation. They appear, on the contrary, to have proceeded from a most gross and scandalous ignorance of the opinions of the army. He expected passive submission, and met with universal revolt. So far, then, his want of intelligence and sagacity are unquestionably proved. He did not proceed with useful measures, and run the risk of a revolt, for which he was fully prepared; but he carried these measures into execution, firmly convinced that they would occasion no revolt at all.

The fatal nature of this mistake is best exemplified by the means recurred to for its correction. The grand expedient relied upon was to instigate the natives, men and officers, to disobey their European commanders; an expedient by which present safety was secured at the expense of every prínciple upon which the permanence of our Indian empire rests. There never was in the world a more singular spectacle than to see a few thousand Europeans governing so despotically fifty or sixty millions of people, of different climate, religion, and habits-forming them into large and well-disciplined armies-and leading them out to the further subjugation of the native powers of India. But can any words be strong enough to paint the rashness of provoking a mutiny, which could only be got under by teaching these armies to act against their European commanders, and to use their actual strength in overpowering their officers ?-or, is any man entitled to the praise of firmness and sagacity, who gets rid of a present danger by encouraging a principle which renders that danger more frequent and more violent. We will venture to assert, that a more unwise or a more unstatesmanlike action was never committed by any man in any country; and we are grievously mistaken, if any length of time elapse before the evil consequences of it are felt and deplored by every man who deems the welfare of our Indian colonies of any importance to the prosperity of the mother country We cannot help contrasting the management of te discontents of the Madras army, with the manner in which the same difficulty was got over with the army at Bengal. A little increase of attention and emolument to the head of that army, under the management of a man of rank and talents, dissipated appearances which the sceptred pomp of a merchant's clerk would have blown up into a rebellion in three weeks; and yet the Bengal army is at this moment in as good a state of discipline, as the English fleet to which Lord Howe made such abject concessions—and in a state to be much more permanently depended upon than the army which has been so effectually ruined by the inconveniently great soul of the present governor of Madras.

Sir George Barlow's agent, though faithful to his employment of calumniating those who were in any degree opposed to his principal, seldom loses sight of sound discretion, and confines his invectives to whole bodies of men, except where the dead are concerned.

We should have been alarmed to have seen Sir George Barlow, junior, churchwarden of St. George's, Hanover Square, -an office so nobly filled by Giblet and Leslie; it was an huge affliction to see so incapable a man at the head of the Indian empire.

Upon the whole, it appears to us, that the Indian army was ultimately driven into revolt by the indiscretion and violence of the Madras government; and that every evil which has happened might, with the greatest possible facility, have been avoided.

We have no sort of doubt that the governor always meant well; but we are equally certain that he almost always acted ill; and where incapacity rises to a certain height, for all practical purposes, the motive is of very little consequence. That the late General Macdowall was a weak man, is unquestionable. He was also irritated (and not without reason), because he was deprived of a seat in council, which the commanders before him had commonly enjoyed. A little attention, however, on the part of the governmentthe compliment of consulting him upon subjects connected with his profession-any of those little arts which are taught, not by a consummate political skill, but dictated by common good nature, and by the habit of mingling with the world, would have produced the effects of conciliation, and employed the force of General Macdowall's authority in bringing the army into a better temper of mind. Instead of this, it appears to have been almost the object, and if not the object, certainly the practice, of the Madras government to neglect and insult this officer. Changes of the greatest importance were made without his advice, and even without any communication with him; and it was too visible to those whom he was to command, that he himself possessed no sort of credit with his superiors. As to the tour which General Macdowall is supposed to have made for the purpose of spreading disaffection among the troops, and the part which he is represented by the agents to have taken in the quarrels of the civilians with the government, we utterly discredit these imputations. They are unsupported by any kind of evidence; and we believe them to be mere inventions, circulated by the friends of the Madras government. General Macdowall appears to us to have been a weak, pompous man; extremely out of humour; offended with the slights he had experienced; and whom any man of common address might have managed with the greatest ease: but we do not see, in any part of his conduct, the shadow of disloyalty and disaffection; and we are persuaded, that the assertion would never have been made, if he himself had been alive to prove its injustice.

Besides the contemptuous treatment of General