formal notice to Hollond to prepare for his departure. In the mean time the Nizam talked publicly of taking the field as foon as the rainy season was over.

It was no fmall degree of good fortune that the Governor-General and fupreme council totally difapproved of and condemned thofe offenfive measures with refpect to the Nizam, which were purfued on the fide of Madras; or it is probably to their interference on this occafion that we are principally, if not entirely, to attribute the fubfequent inactivity of this prince in the fupport of that grand league of confederacy against the English, of which he boafled himfelf to be the founder.

It was, however, late before they received an account of thefe tranf actions, and confequently more fo before their interference could take effect. Advices being at length received from Mr. Hollond at Calcutta, it was immediately and unanimoufly determined in the fupreme council, that they should take an active part in the bufinefs, in order to prevent or remedy thofe mifchiefs and dangers which were likely to proceed from the

Nov. lft. unjuftifiable measures

it to the government of Bengal, as fuch a defign could not be carried into execution, nor could the Company's name be ever pledged without the fanction of the fupreme council. They likewife acquainted him, that they had directed Mr. Hollond to fufpend his negociation until he fhould have received further inftructions from his immediate conftituents, to whom they had themselves written on the subject. They enclosed a copy of the letter to the Nizam in that which they directed to Madras; and without any fevere cenfure or heavy condemnation of what had been done, only enjoined a strict compliance with the injunctions now laid down for reftoring amity.

The Nizam expreffed great fatisfaction to Mr. Hollond on reading his letter, which he only received a few days before Christmas; and after dwelling on the reputation which the English had obtained through former good faith, afked how the late conduct of his employers could be reconciled with that character? After charging them with a violation of treaty, particularly in feizing his brother's circar, he declared that he was on the eve of revenging thefe infults when the letter arrived; but that he would now put a stop to his measures. He then added, "If "what you write is from your "heart, and the government of "Madras will adhere ftrictly to

" whole

"whole country of Indoftan." He concluded by defiring that their friendship might continue fteady. This interference of the fupreme council was exceedingly ill taken at Madras. They teftified the greatest surprise that their endeavours to get rid of a heavy and difgraceful burthen, fhould be reprefented as a violation of faith; they charged themselves only with erring on the fide of forbearance in their conduct with the Nizam, and attributed his violent behaviour to that fort of paffionate folly which fometimes arises from a fenfe of inability and weaknefs; but if he really entertained ideas or defigns inimical to the Company, they arofe entirely from the Maratta war, and not from any tranfactions that paffed between him and their prefidency; and they juftified their ftopping of the pefhcufh, by recriminating with great warmth upon Bengal for the example which they had fet in ftripping the Shah Allum of his tribute. But they went ftill farther, and stiffly difputed the point of jurifdiction with the fupreme council; totally denying their right of interference, and putting fuch a conftruction upon a claufe of the act of parliament from which they derived their authority, as tended to fhew that their reftraining powers did not at all extend to the prefent inftance: -the prefidency at the fame time recalled and fufpended Mr. Hollond; for whofe difgrace no other caufe appears, than his communicating to the fupreme council the tranfactions with the Nizam; which by his original instructions it appears to have been his duty to do. He was, however, continued by the fupreme council at the court of

Hyderabad, and appointed their re.. fident to the Nizam.

This difpute between the fu preme council and the presidency of Madras, run deep into the fol. lowing year; and was at length. only ended, and fatisfaction obtained for the Nizam (in the midst of the confufion occafioned by Hyder Ally's invafion of the Carnatic) by the former proceeding to the laft extremity of fufpending Mr. Whitehill, who fucceeded Sir Thomas Rumbold as prefident of that council.

We have seen Colonel Harper's ineffectual attempt to pats through Hyder Ally's new acquired ter ritories in his way to the Guntoor circar, which equally extended to the relief or protection of Bazalet Jung in his capital of Adoni; and of Harper's confequent return to Innaconda. The failure of this ex.. pedition, which arofe entirely from an ill-judged and unprofitable attempt not at all connected with it, totally difconcerted the views of the prefidency with respect to that prince. Harper was then not only detained for fresh orders, but when they arrived, he had neither money nor provifions to enable him to purfue his march by that way which should have been originally adopted, and which then would have produced the intended effect. The prefidency fretted at a delay which fo materially interfered with their defigns, and which, though it proceeded from that caufe, they were by no means willing to attri bute to themselves, charged Harper with dilatorinefs, and gave the command of the detachment to Colonel Baillie.

In the mean time Bazalet Jung, preffed on both fides by his bro [D] 2

ther

ther and Hyder Ally to renounce the engagements into which he had entered with the English, and particularly terrified by the threats of the latter, was inceffant in his applications at Madras for that immediate fuccour and protection, without which he could no longer maintain them. Hyder no longer held any reserve with refpect to his enmity to the Englifh, or, perhaps more properly, to the government of Madras. In his letters to Bazalet Jung, he affected to hold their councils in the utmost contempt, at the fame time that he reprefented their views and defigns as the most atrocious and dangerous that could poffibly be imagined. He faid that he knew them well; and while he reprefented them as the common enemy of the country, if not of mankind, he endeavoured to fhew from his own experience and fuccefs in the laft war, that they were not near fo formidable, even in arms, as was vainly imagined by thofe who had not courage to try their force. He concluded with what was equivalent to a threat, that he could not admit of his putting the circar into the hands of his old and bitter enemy.

The Nizam asked him if he did not know the difpofition of the Europeans? And that nothing which they by any means once got poffeffion of, could ever be got out of their hands? He quoted the inftance of their treatment of Sujah Dowla and his fon, to fhew the danger and ruin which even at

tended their friendship; and concluded with menaces, that if he perfifted in his connection with them, his troops fhould join Hyder Ally's in totally difpoffetling him of all his territories; and that he would then grant the Guntoor circar to Hyder.

But letters and menaces not producing the expected effect, Hyder's troops taking advantage of the delays which Harper and his fucceffor's detachment met with, fuddenly entered Bazalet Jung's territories, and feizing all the open country, confined that terrified prince within the walls of Adoni, his capital. In this state he reprefented at Madras the impoffibility now of fulfilling his engagements, accompanied with a request that they would withdraw their troops and civil officers from the Guntoor circar, as their continuance there would prove his inevitable ruin.

Such was the ftate of public affairs at the close of the year 1779, and the beginning of the following year; and fuch were the measures purfued on both fides of India, whether for the maintenance of the public tranquillity, or for giving occafion to that dangerous confederacy of the native powers, cal culated for the annihilation of the English power and interests in that part of the world. The prefidency of Madras, the fupreme council, and the government of Bombay, have all accufed each other of having given rife to the fatal events that enfued.

CHAP.

service, was fo fenfible of it, that he did not fcruple in a letter to the prefidency, indirectly to arraign their conduct, by complaining of the many things which had been done to irritate Hyder's government, without their providing in any manner against the inevitable confequences.

It was even the general opinion, both with natives and foreigners, that nothing lefs than Hyder's being fo deeply engaged as he was in the Maratta war, could have prevented his marching to the affiftance of the French, when Pondicherry was reduced in 1778. His behaviour, with refpect to the expedition againfl the French fort and fettlement of Mahie, in the beginning of the following year, not only afforded a demonftration of his attachment to that nation and indifpofition to the government of Madras, but might have been confidered as an index to his future conduct.

Mahie was fituated in the territories of one of the fmall princes on the Malabar coaft, who, with his neighbours, being overruled by the fortune of Hyder Ally, had been forced to fubmit to a dependence on him. Hyder made this circumftance a pretext for affecting to confider Mahie as a part of his dominion, and in a high and authoritative tone, remonftrated against the expedition. He declared, that many Europeans, French, English, Dutch, Danes, and Portuguese, had eftablished factories, or were individually fettled in his dominions for the purpofes of commerce, and to the mutual benefit-of his own fubjects and theirs: that they were all under his protection, and fhould

fully receive it: that he had no thing to do with their particular quarrels: that he fhould confider the intended attempt on Mahie as a direct attack upon himfelf; and that he would accordingly repel and revenge it to the utmost of his power. At the fame time,

his vakeel, or refident, at Madras, denounced, in plain terms, an irruption into the Carnatic if the expedition took place. Thefe threats occafioned fome paufe in the profecut on of the measure ; but Hyder being ftill engaged in war, and the expulfion of the French from Mahie confidered as a matter of the utmost importance, it was at length determined to encounter the confequences. Col. Brathwaite's rapid fuccefs in the reduction of that place, defeated Hyder's views for its prefervation; but he treated it upon all occafions as an injury of a nature not to be borne, and in a manner which indicated his determination of obtaining in due time full fatisfaction.

Little doubt feemed now to remain as to the part which Hyder would take whenever he was dif engaged from the Maratta war; and this difpofition became foon more dangerous, from the number of troops which the French were continually fending to their African iflands of Mauritius and Bourbon; as well as the ftrong fqua dron which they not long after difpatched from Europe, for the fupport of their intereft in the Eati.

Yet, with all this diffatisfaction and ill temper on the fide of Hyder Ally, the commander in chief of the British forces in India has fince recorded his opinion, by a

written