"freedom on ship board, than in "virtual imprisonment on shore, "is as little doubtful, as that their "removal, if then effected, must have been an escape. The offi66 cers evinced, under all the mor"tifications of distrust, what their "conduct would have been, if a "confidential appeal had been "made to their patriotism. Their "fate, under the supposed circum"stances, would certainly have "been precarious, and like their "actual situation, apparently desperate; but like that also, probably more serious in its aspect "than in its result. The addition of a few military prisoners "to many thousands would have weighed little with the tyrant, "while the commissioners were "themselves beyond his grasp; "and if our conjectures be in"fluenced by his conduct, in "other cases of diplomacy, where "his tone was uniformly lowered

66

as that of his opponent rose, it "will at least remain questionable, "whether the safety of the com"missioners would have encreased "the danger of the escort. If "such were the opinion of the "two commissioners, and if all "considerations affecting indivi"duals ought to yield to the pub"lic weal, then, however pain"ful their decision must have been, we shall merely arrive at this conclusion, that an injudicious "distrust of the officer command"ing the escort, in its

conse

quences, obliged them to aban"don their plan. With their "other colleague it is well known "that they had no habits of con"fidence, and these circum

stances combined, may also ac"count for the silence of the offi"cial records."

Mr. Hudleston has thought proper to deny the existence of any conversation with the other commissioner, of the nature stated; and this is the only fact in my narrative that I do not myself know to be true. It is not for me

to discuss whether the memory of Mr. Hudleston may or may not have been as imperfect in this instance as in the declaration ascribed to him in the report of the debate at the India-House on the 18th March (see Asiatic Journal, No. 28, p. 398), of "recollecting some intention of effecting a "communication with Gen. Mac"leod on ship board; but he was sure, if that honorable person* were alive, he would have been as much astonished as he (Mr. "H.) was at" what he in common with some invisible agents is pleased to call the accusation," the official letter of Gen. Macleod affirming the existence of the intention to escape, being one of the leading facts of the case as stated in Col. W.'s book.

66

It is still less my province to reconcile this denial of the stated plan and conversation with the pretended indisposition and embarkation of Mr. Falconer, with his unequivocal admission of the purpose, and of the plan; with the official declaration to the same effect of Gen. Macleod, or with a narrative exactly corresponding with mme related many years afterwards to Col. Bruce of this place, by the secretary of the embassy, Mr. Collins Jackson, who stated himself to have been entrusted with the secret.

It is not my province, and I am grieved to say that it is not in my power to reconcile these things; it is only necessary for the maintenance of my own character to declare, that (with the obvious exception above stated) I know every fact contained in this statement to be true, and that I can have no hesitation in attesting the veracity of my own narrative of my own proceedings.

THOS. DALLAS.

The "honorable person" alluded to, in our report of Mr. Hudleston's speech in the debate on the 18th March last, was Sir George Staunton, and not Gen. Macleod, as supposed by Sir Thomas Dallas.-Ed,

SIR,-The following specimen of Tippoo Sultan's poetical capacities will perhaps amuse some persons, but as the writer was once a despotic monarch, swaying, with all the energy of bitterness and bigotry, a fearful influence against the British, it may instruct others to contemplate His Majesty listening to the music of his opinion of himself.

THE following extracts from Kirkpatrick's Letters of Tippoo Sultan, are verses of encomiastic odes called Raikhtehs, or Bhát, supposed to be the composition of the Sultan, which were set to music, and sung or recited at appointed seasons and hours of the day; the language of the original is a mixture of Persian and Hinduvi: here a verse of one, there a verse of the other. Four intelligent children with good voices were, by a special edict of the Sultan, to be procured, and taught to sing them on public occasions at the palace.

"When the Rústum-hearted king rushed forward (or charged) on the Ruksh of his anger, then did the hearts of the lions of Europe (the English) quake with dread.

"The flash of his sabre struck the army of Bailey like lightning: it caused Munro to shed tears, resembling the drops distilled from spring clouds. On Lang's heart was fixed a stain, like that of the tulip: Coote was made by this calamity to lament like a hyacinth.".

There follows here an allusion to Gen. Matthews, who is distinctly named, the nature of which I do not comprehend. Bussy and Lally are also mentioned, but I am too doubtful regarding the sense of the passage, in which they are introduced to offer a translation of it.

"When the Mahrattas behold this army of our king, the dread thereof causes

them to fly like deer; the Fringy (Europeans) and Nizam ul Mulk pass day and night together, trembling with fear of our king.

"The kingdom flourishes and the army increases daily through thy munificence and justice.

"The Hujjam's (nickname for the Nizam) army flees through dread of thee, as the hunter does when he beholds the lion.

"The Nazarenes, on contemplating from forget their own schemes and counsels. the sea shore the sagacity of our king,

"When mankind behold the liberality and munificence of our king, they exclaim, with one accord, Hatim was an absolute miser in comparison to him.

"Socrates, Hippocrates, all the sages of the earth, appear before him like the most ignorant children.

"Mars dwindles before the valor of our king to a mere infant. Sam Nureeman, and Rústum are of no account."

But perhaps none of the flights with which this extraordinary performance abounds are equal in extravagance to the following, with which I will close these

extracts:

66 Owing to the justice of this king, the deer of the forest make their pillow of the the leopard and the panther." lion and the tiger, and their mattrass of

These odes were ninety-six in number, the cccli letter in the abovementioned and the style is extremely unpolished: work is to the Killádar of Putun (Seringapatam), on the subject of getting the four children instructed to sing them, and desiring copies of the collection to be made from the set transmitted with the letter. Another copy to be given to Uzeemuddeen, the Taaluhdár (or superintendant) of the dancers there (i.e. at Seringapatam), in order that the latter may teach the same to the said dancers,

"Our

tors, who will feel inclined, for the sake of humanity and justice, to bring the subject to the notice of the court, I remain,

Yours, &c.

A RETIRED CAPTAIN OF THE MADRAS ARMY.

P.S. The following are the rates of half-pay to captains and subalterns in his Majesty's service, per day, viz. captains 7s., lieutenants 4s. and ensigns 3s.

Lieutenants above seven years standing have an additional sixpence.

COLONEL CONWAY. Since the conquest of the Mysore country, and the destruction of the tyrant Tippoo Sultan by the valour of the British forces under General Harris, our military affairs in the East-Indies have never been found to possess so high a degree of interest and importance as may with propriety be attached to them at the present moment. The powerful army which has been assembled under the personal command of the Governor General the Marquis of Hastings, and the imposing attitude which his Lordship has assumed in his recent military movements, have excited an unusual degree of interest in the mind of every one connected with Asiatic affairs. Under cir. cumstances so likely to produce the most important results, it becomes an interesting speculation, and one of no trifling moment either in a military or a national point of view, tatake a glance at the character and pretensions of those commanders and officers who it is probable will be engaged in these hostile opera tions, and who, it is to be hoped, will by their exertions add fresh laurels to the wreath already so deservedly ac quired by our brave soldiers in that extensive and important portion of the British empire.

A consideration of this subject leads us immediately to a brief notice of the

character of the gentleman whose name appears at the head of this article, a

name which will be found to shine as a bright star in that constellation of talents which has been engaged in rendering the most valuable services to the army and to the nation at large, and to which he has been enabled greatly to contribute by the possession of those rare endowments, which, though attained by few, are almost indispensible in the character of every military officer holding superior rank and authority in an army about to be called into actual service.

In the year 1809 Colonel Conway, who then held an inferior situation* on the staff establishment in the Madras army, was selected to fill the high and important appointment of Adjutant-General; a post of such high consideration and responsibility, in a military point of view, that it is very seldom bestowed on any one below the rank of a field officer. This honor conferred on an officer who could not boast a rank superior to that of a captain of cavalry served to mark in a most strik ing manner the opinion which was enter tained of his character and talents by those who thought proper to place him in that high and honorable situation. Every admit that he was perhaps, of all other person that knows Colonel Conway, will men, the best calculated for the appointment of Adjutant-General in an army in the East-Indies; a situation which requires the possession of talents of a peculiar, yet varied description. The knowledge which he had attained of military tactics, the operations of the field, and particularly the duties pertaining to the staff of an army, were perhaps alone sufficient to point him out as an officer high

* Deputy Adjutant General of the subsidiary force with the Nizam.

ly qualified to fill this post with honor to himself and advantage to the service. Whatever were the favourable presentiments which might have been formed by his friends on this occasion, they have all been fully realized by the active, energetic, and shining qualities which have constantly marked his career.

The happy talent which he possesses of discovering the peculiar forte of officers, and his practice of bringing them forward and giving that direction to their abilities most likely to tend to the good of the service, are circumstances which not a few meritorious individuals are ready to testify, many of whom may be said to owe their advancement to the skilful and discriminating judgment exercised by the Adjutant General. Such is the penetration which Colonel Conway so eminently possesses, that it is a fact too well known to be dilated on, that there was not, at the time the writer was in India, a single officer in the Madras army, of whose character and talents the colonel had not formed a correct and judicious estimate. Nor ought it to be omitted, that he never failed to raise from subordinate situations young men whom he found to possess latent talent, which would have been passed over unnoticed, from that modest demeanour which is so often its concomitant, had not his discriminating mind been ever ready to elicit and call it forth into action. It is a fact well known to the writer, that it was his constant practice to take by the hand young men who were perfectly unknown to him, and to put them forward into situations which he had discovered they were qualified to fill; as it was his rule to select for particular services officers whom he knew to possess appropriate abilities, in opposition to the weight of that rank and interest which is so often found to preponderate, to the exclusion of men of skill and enterprise, to the great injury of the service, and the serious deterioration of the military character.

Highly essential and important as these qualifications must be considered in a military point of view, and which Colonel Conway has the good fortune to possess in an eminent degree, still there is too much reason to believe that the service often suffers materially from a lamentable deficiency in regard to these impor

tant requisites among the officers of the staff. But the talents of the AdjutantGeneral are by no means confined to the points already touched upon. His profound and general knowledge of the military art, both theoretical and practical, is such as to qualify him for the most high and important command. It is therefore a matter of regret with those who are acquainted with the service and the merits of the Adjutant-General, that, especially at the present juncture, it is not compatible with his official situation that he should' be called to move in a sphere more exalted, and still more commensurate with his abilities.

If in any one particular that man may be said to excel who is found excellent in all, the writer might dilate upon the superior knowledge which Colonel Conway possesses in regard to every thing connected with that essential arm of our Indian defence, the "Light Cavalry;" nor could he omit to notice the great inprovements introduced by him, not only in the cavalry regiments, but in the horse artillery, both of which branches of the army at Madras are proud to acknowledge the comforts which both officers and men have derived, and the superior effect which has been given to their operations in the field, by the judicious plans and alterations suggested by the Adj. General. The improvements which have been introduced by him in the arrangement of the army details, and the regulations which he has adopted in regard to the office which he so ably fills, are calculated to prove of the greatest advantage to the service. But there is one circumstance above all others which will cause the colonel to be long remembered in the ranks of our brave oriental defenders; and that is, the affability, kindness, and attention which he ever exercised towards the native troops, and the pains which he constantly took to win their affection and regard. Every one will acknowledge that, whether in a military or a political point of view, this is a quality of all others most important to be possessed by every officer in the EastIndia service, where the native auxiliary regiments necessarily form the greater part of the military establishment. After the observation just made, it will almost be superfluous to add, that, warm and steady