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protect, in its integrity and independence.

Under the operation of the first treaty, executed, we believe, at the end of the marquis Wellesley's administration, the king of Travancore was bound to maintain, in time of peace, two battalions of Sepoys, within the interior of his country, with their commandant and complement of officers; and, by the modification of this, or a subsequent treaty, negotiated by the government of Bombay, he was afterwards called upon to increase his subsidy to the extent of three battalions, with a suitable corps of artillery. Whether this contingent was to be further augmented in time of war we have not the means of ascertaining, nor the precise sums disbursed by the Travancore treasury for the maintenance of the troops; but in the latter respect it is understood, that the Bombay government, which negotiated the treaty, in the genuine spirit of trade, conditioned for the payment of a part of the subsidy, in an article of traffic, the growth and staple of the country, and then in universal request. But whether there was a positive provision of this description, it is not material to enquire, since, in point of fact, the actual payment of the subsidy was adjusted after this

course.

The conditions of the treaty were duly and regularly fulfilled on the behalf of the king of Travancore, until the end of the year 1808; and it will not be doubted that the British government continued, within the same period, to furnish its military contingent, to the extent of the stipulation; and both the contracting parties might have been expected to discharge their respective duties until this hour, but for a fluctuation of commerce, affecting the value of the article introduced into the pecuniary clause of the engagement, or, according to another suggestion, probably the natural one, a new construction put, at this particular date, on the oting on which the contracting pa tood by virtue of the treaty, w ce to each other. if admitted by the

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Travancore government, would have converted its sovereign into a mere dependant; or a petty commercial agent, to supply, according to his means, the demands of the company's trade.

It is certain, at this æra, that the price of pepper, the article in which the subsidy was partly paid, had fallen, from the circumstance of war, and the generally crippled state of commercial intercourse throughout the world, considerably below the estimate on which it had been calculated.

A requisition, it is said, was thereupon made to the Travancore government, that the future payment of the subsidy might be in money, instead of the produce of the country. The rajah's answer to this requisition, is said to have been to the effect :-" that the price of the article, as regarded the contracting parties, was stated and covenanted, looking to all times and all seasons, and did not depend on the value placed on it by strangers, and indifferent persons; that if it had been since depreciated, by external circumstances, as an object of trade; and if there were not, at this time, all the facilities for advantageously disposing of it, as existed at the date of the treaty, this was a risk incident, by the very nature of the engagement, to the obligation on the part of the British go vernment, which had a correspondent benefit in a favourable state of things. At any rate, the mode of payment, and the price of the article, was determined by the desire or acquiescence of the company; and it would be highly unreasonable to throw an article, not every where marketable, into the king's stores, who had no adequate means of exporting it, thereby rendering him liable to the whole loss of a speculation solely and purely anothers." If a requisition, in substance as stated, had been made to the king of Travancore, this answer would appear most natural and conclusive; and should have delivered him from. all further importunity on the subject.

Even if no express covenant had existed in the treaty for the payment of the subsidy, in the way described.

yet the acceptance of it for a time, according to such regulation, ought to have induced some degree of delicacy and forbearance as to the introduction of any change in the future manner of payment. It is, however, generally stated and believed, that the request was repeated, and pertinaciously urged, but produced not the desired effect.

This, aided, perhaps, by other cooperative causes, was the means of creating certain coolness, if not absolute personal ill will between the British resident and the king's dewan, or principal minister. But whatever might have caused the subsisting difference, whatever the extent and the object of it; it was obvious to all, at this season, that the dewan and the resident were completely at variance with each other; their representations and their acts, manifesting publicly, and without a wish of concealment, the spirit by which they were directed. In this condition of things, it was not very probable, that any public measure, be it what it might, could be promoted through agents, actuated by such opposite motives and tempers. Still, however, the public relations between the parties remained undisturbed.

It was soon dicovered by the British resident himself, that the views of his government would not be speeded, unless he could procure the removal of the obnoxious minister, and his labours, both at his own court and at that of Travancore, were industriously directed to that end. But as the dewan had considerable influence of his own, and a certain favour with the king, this attempt of the resident did not succeed, but, on the contrary, was attended by consequences extending the existing breach. The dewan, in his turn, employed all his interest with his master, and at the Indian presidencies, to effect the recall of the resident, and equally without success. In the interval, it was perceived, that the personal feelings of the parties towards each other, did not abate; and that, unless some immediate measure should be resorted

to for the obviation of the natural effect of such sentiment, the most lamentable events might be expected to ensue.

It is scarcely to be imagined, that the king will displace his confidential servant, intelligent of all his affairs, and competent to the administration of them, from the accidental circumstance of his not being in good fellowship with the representative of his ally. A solicitation to this effect, without entering into the merits of it, bears so strong a semblance of a disposition to intermeddle in the internal government of the country, that it is likely of itself to provoke opposition. The rajah would have had no difficulty in discovering that if it should be once attended to, it might be converted into a precedent for further applications of a similar tendency, and might be urged at all times, and on the same ground, until a minister should ultimately be appointed, who would exactly tally with the humour and purposes of the British embassador. But what would become, in the event, of the interests and importance of the king of Travancore? There would be but one appointment more needed, to reduce his kingdom into a dependant and subordinate province.

But though these obvious difficulties, which could not be overlooked, lay in the way of concession on the one part-there were no obstacles, of an insurmountable nature or of a very uncommon complection, on the other. It would have been no great sacrifice to peace, to have replaced an envoy at a friendly court, who had chanced to be implicated in a personal dispute with the first minister of the government. The course of policy, in such a contingency, would seem plain enough of itself, without any example to enforce it—but a precedent of this sort was not wanting. A governor-general, of as high character and as much political wisdom as ever presided over the company's affairs, removed the resident from one of the principal Mahratta courts, on no other ground, for it would have been impossible for

policy or spleen to have suggested or fancied any other, than the unfavourable sentiment of the durbar towards his person. Let the diplo matic pretensions of lieutenant-colonel Macauley, therefore, have been more generally admitted, even than they are, they might, it should seem, have been suffered, without any compromise of the interests of the East India company, or the character of the individual, to give way, to prevent a public calamity.

The circumstances of the misunderstanding between the British and the Travancore minister was thoroughly understood at Madras, and had been, for some time, a topic of general discussion, if not of direct deliberation in the council of that presidency. It was, however, utterly impossible, from the notoriety of the fact, that the government of Fort St. George should be ignorant of that which was known to the whole Indian community; it must, therefore, be a matter of surprize as well as regret, that it should hazard the evil of a war with a state in actual friendship, the effusion of British blood, the probable danger of an insurrection in Malabar, and the almost certainty of a revolt in the scarcely-subdued Poligar countries, rather than remove a public officer, who could not, any longer, from intervenient causes, no matter what they were, fulfil the duties given to him in charge. Yet in this obdurate and absurd policy, if so it can be called, did the Madras government persist, at the risk of the complicated calamities enumerated, and the great danger, afterwards exemplified, to the personal safety of the resident.* In a conduct equally as inexplicable, did the same government authorize or countenance its resident to insist, in contradiction of the very purpose of his mission, on the removal of the minister of the court, at which he was appointed to reside. An interference so direct in

the internal administration of the affairs of a separate and independent power, and in so material a point, would seem to assume such an authority, as to supersede the necessity of maintaining the medium of diplomacy for the negotiation of public business. Sustained by the authority of his government, and in obvious contempt of the sentiment of the court to which he is sent, the British resident, it may be presumed, whatever may be his will or disposition, can have little power to promote the views of his appointment, and, it may be feared, if his public deportment rise superior to his private sentiment, that the spirit which he himself is able happily to controul, may not be so easily kept in check by the subordinate, the native officers of his mission. They who have any knowledge of the natives of India in general, must be sensible of the facility with which such officers imbibe the feelings of their superiors, and how apt they are to imitate and improve on the example. What may we not, therefore, have to apprehend from the operation of such causes, on the affairs, fearfully involved, of the separate governments?

It must have been a most painful and odious task even to the resident, whose negotiations must have been personally managed with the dewan, to have proposed to that minister the necessity of his retirement from office, and more especially to have explained the causes, out of which the necessity was supposed to arise. Of the circumstances that made this measure requisite, nothing is known, but whether they were political or private, they could be discussed with little propri ety, and with less temper between parties previously indisposed to each other. But there are duties, often imposed on the public servant, respecting the execution of which he can have no option; and which, in despite of his own feelings or delicacy, he is pe

At one time it was generally reported and believed, that the resident had been recalled, and that another officer, (Major Blackburne,} had proceeded to relieve him, and had advanced several stages towards Travancore, when his appointment, but on what grounds it is not known, was suddenly rescinded.

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remptorily bounden to discharge. such a situation colonel Macau ley appears to have been placea this moment; and he seems to have carried his sense of duty so far as it was capable of extending, though at the date now contemplated, the end of the year 1808, his exertions had not been crowned with any visible success. At this season, to give effect, perhaps, to the representations and views of the British resident, a large body of troops were detached from Trichinopoly, professedly with the intent to proceed in a southerly direction, and according to general report,, against Travancore. No secrecy, indeed, was affected as to the design of the armament, the command of which was committed to hieutenant-colonel Macleod, of his Majesty's 69th regiment. This officer had made several days march on his route to the place of his destination, when he was suddenly ordered to halt; under an impression, perhaps, that the objects of his government migh be etfected without any actual hostile means, and possibly, that the knowledge of the movement of the troops, here, and in other quarters, about the same time, might have been considered as a demonstration, sufficiently powerful to induce the king of Travancore to make the desired change in his councils.

At the same moment of time, a king's regiment and two battalions of Sepoys, were ordered to move in the like direction from Seringapatam, under the command of colonel Forbes.

It is said, however, and the fact appears very probable, that the march of the troops, and other military preparations, were suspended by an artifice of the Dewan; who just at this instant made a shew of voluntarily resigning his authority; since the retention of it, as he represented, was likely to be attended by the ruin of his master and his country. He is said to have so successfully imposed on colonel Macauley by this confession, and by the earnestness of his application to forward the execution of his intention, as to throw the resident completely off his guard. By a further representation, from the Dewan, that his retirement

was likely to be attended with personal danger, on account of the unpopularity of his ministry, be induced colonel Macauley, to promise him the security of his own escort, to conduct him out of the kingdom, to an asylum which he mentioned. This escort was accordingly sent to him at the time agreed upon, when the preparations were supposed to have been arranged for his departure. On the same night, when the resident had retired, without suspicion, to rest, he was suddenly aroused from his slumber by a loud noise, as if of numbers talking together, in the vicinity of his house. He immediately rose, and proceeded to the window, whence he thought he could discern a body of men drawn up in regular array, and seemingly surrounding his habitation. The conver sation continued from without, in the course of which he heard his name frequently and distinctly mentioned. Determined to break silence, he instantly demanded, through the lattice, "Who's there?" Upon this, many voices cried out at once, "It is the colonel!" and several pieces were almost instantaneously discharged at the casement, where the resident stood, but without doing any mischief. Perceiving himself surrounded by a party of armed men, whose design could not now be doubted, the colonel seized his sword, and was hurrying down the staircase, with an intent of opposing the entrance of the party into his house, chusing to yield his life in the defence of his threshold, rather than render himself up, as anticipated by him, to a lingering death in the hands of a merciless enemy. For this purpose he was rushing to the outward door, when he was stopped in his design, by a domes tic, an ordinary clerk in his service, who conjured and intreated him most fervently not to give himself up to despair, while providence might interpose and point out some unseen means of deliverance. At this very instant a thought suggested itself to this faithful servant, that he might ensure his master's safety, and his own, by committing themselves to a recess in a lower apartment, which was protected by a door, scarcely dis

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cernible in its opening, from the ordi-
nary wainscoat.
Into this colonel
Macauley was reluctantly induced to
enter, just as the armed men from
without were forcing their way into the
dwelling; they ran with haste through
the different rooms and chambers, in
the hope of seizing their expected
prey. Every corner discoverable by the
eye, is penetrated and examined; nor is
their search abandoned, until it appears
to be completely mocked by a cause,
for which they know not how to ac-
count, and then they betake themselves
to plunder and to destroy the property
and papers of the residency. During
the activity of the pursuit, which
lasted for some hours, the anxiety of
the resident may be imagined, better
than described: he had, however, the
good fortune at length to be re-
lieved from his yet perilous situation,
by an event almost as miraculous as
that which had led to his original
security. The day began to appear,
as these banditti had concluded their
quest, and discovered a vessel, un-
der British colours, entering a port at
a very short distance from the resident's
house. It was ordained by providence,
that just at this juncture, a number of
soldiers, in the British uniform, were
seen traversing the deck; and other ves-
sels, supposed to be full also of troops,
were seen at the same time in the offing
-a circumstance which induced these
armed ruffians to seek a precipitate

retreat.

with this act, or in anticipation of the consequences expected to flow from it, the Dewan does not appear to have neglected the arrangements necessary for his purpose. It was now known, that at the moment, in which he had lulled the suspicions of the resident, he had not only collected together the armed force, employed in besetting the residency, but had assembled at his own house, in the neighbourhood of Quilon, where the subsidiary force was stationed, a more numerous body of men, adequate, in his opinion, to keep that corps in check; so as to leave him a fit season for the device of other military dispositions.

It would appear, from these arrangements, that the treason of the Dewan was neither hastily conceived, nor attempted to be executed without thoroughly considering the possible or probable contingencies to which it might lead. Still there is no reason to imagine, that this abominable plan originated in any other source than the head of the Dewan. It has never been insinuated, nor believed, that the king of Travancore gave any countenance to, or had any previous knowledge of, the treachery of his faithless minister; as far, indeed, as respected the public interests, and the demeanour of the rajah, it was not known, except from the military preparations in the southward of the Carnatic, and some other movements, immediately about to be noticed, that any serious misunderstanding existed between him and the representatives of the East India company. These, however, manifested a tempo

The resident lost not any time, so soon as the way was open to him, in hurrying to the port, and embarking on the first ship that presented itself-rary design, not very favourable to the thus making sure, by his own prudence, of the full effect of the providential interposition in his favour.

Hence colonel Macauley may be supposed to have communicated to his government the interruptions of his functions, in a manner so unexpected and so unprecedented

king, and which had been delayed only in its progress, by some secret reasons operating on the mind of his ally. A cause, however, is now offered, in the wicked counsels. and acts of his minister, unless disowned and punished. for justifying the intended, and half-prosecuted hostility of the company's government.

The teacherous contrivance, just noticed, and which was well calculated It will be in this place necessary to to surprize its intended victim, was state, that the vessel, which so seasonhatched, and carried into effect, so ably appeared off the port of Cochin, far as practicable, some time towards so as to work the final delivery of the the end of December. Connected resident, was only the forerunner of

VOL. 11.

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