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The dispatches of the Madras government, of the 28th of February,* shew what that government thought of the supposed crime of the adjutant and deputy-adjutant-general, so severely punished by it; the grand and efficient cause, it will be seen, of the discontents that began, about that date, to agitate the army at large. It is styled, in this document, "an act of great enormity," but such was the professed moderation of the government at the time, that it was prepared to receive "any acknowledgment," (such are the words of the dispatch), as an atonement for their conduct; yes, if they would have said only," that it had proceeded from an imperfect conception of their duty."

It was now no longer concealed from the government, how unpopular its acts had become, and how necessary it was to devise some means of remov ing the further discontent, occasioned by them. As the greatest apprehension first arose from the side of the army, an explanation was unexpectedly made to it; but then it was rendered in so awkward and ungracious a manner, that it had been better avoided altogether. This explanation was made by a general order to the army, excusing, at some length, the proceedings of the government in releasing the quartermaster-general, from arrest,† but hinting not a word on the more interesting cases of the suspension of the staffofficers.

Notwithstanding the austerity of the principle acted on by Sir George Barlow, assuming an unquestionable power over the army, and his resentment of the conduct of general Macdowall in appealing to its opinion, he condescends himself, in this order, to reason with the same body on the grounds of the release in question. At the time, too, that he states himself studious to soothe the military feeling, he offers, unwittingly perhaps, a glaring insult to its judgment.

Whatever colour the government thought it right subsequently to give to the alleged offence of these officers, it is evident, from the slight atonement which they were ready to admit, and which they seemed to expect, that it was not very heinous, even in their own eyes. Passing over the unreasonableness of the expectation, that these gentlemen should enter on a defence of their couduct after it had been published and condemned, and punished, it may be safely asked, on the explanation of the government itself, The governor gives, in this general what necessity existed for drawing order, his own view of the conduct forth at once, for the punishment of the both of lieutenant-colonel Munro, and principal staff of the army, the extraor- general Macdowall, and of the report dinary powers of the state? If a flim- which had entailed the serious consesy apology could have averted the an- quence stated. In speaking of the ger of the government, would not the expressions conceived to be injurious, season allow of a moment to demand by the commanding officers of corps, it? When if an instant had been giv-" he has no hesitation, (he says,) in en for reflection, the horrors of a civil declaring, that it appears, in his judg strife had been probably avoided. meut, impossible, under any correct was ordered otherwise. construction, to attach an offensive meaning to words, where injury was not meant, and where the intention of offence did not exist;" and, having giv en his own gloss to the matter, he concludes, the honourable the gov

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The government, in their dispatch, express a reluctance, it is true, to proceed to severity, and a readiness to depart from the harsh measures, which they represent to have been forced upon them-yet their outward acts wear any thing rather than a conciliatory appearance.

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ernor in council deems it his further duty to observe that the question which has been under deliberation

• Inserted in the State Papers, page 265.
+ See General Orders, 6th February, in the Madras Occurrences.

must be now considered as concluded." It would appear that he is prescribing in this order, not only the mode of conduct for the army, but even the train of their thinking. What is this but laying down a doctrine, not to be disputed, that the whole military body can act and think only by the measure, of his (the governor's) understanding? To this clumsy attempt at public conciliation, a private essay is made to bring the deputy-adjutant-general to submission; possibly at the suggestion, though not at the avowal, of the go

vernment.

Major general Gowdie, who had succeeded, on the suspension of general Macdowall, to the chief command of the army, had arrived at this time at Fort St. George, and shortly afterwards waited on major Boles, professing for bim a great friendship, and proposing, on an admission of his fault, in the most easy and palatable terms, that he would intercede with the government for his restoration to the service and his office. But this specious offer was not listened to by major Boles, under the declared conviction of his own inte grity.

Whether the act of general Gowdie was authorized or not, it unequivocally shews, that the offence of the deputy-adjutant-general, in the general's opinion, was, of all others, the most venial, when it could be expiated by a solicited apology. But there is reason to believe, in despite of all the apparent backwardness of Sir George Barlow, to acknowledge the excess of his authority, in the severity shewn to this officer, that this unfortunate application was made with his privity. This may be inferred from some of the succeeding acts of the governor, and more especially from a public letter of general Gowdie, who ascribes a contumacy to major Boles's refusal of his mediation, which could hardly have been fancied by him, unless his application had been understood to have been sauctioned by superior commands.

At the end of the month of December preceding, lieutenant-colonel Martin, one of the commanding officers of corps, who had signed the charges

against the quarter-master-general, arrived at the presidency, with the purpose of prosecuting, according to the previous permission of government, a voyage to England. He had engaged, at a considerable price, a passage on one of the company's ships, expected to be dispatched at the close of the month of January. On the 29th of that month it was intimated to him by the government, that he would not be allowed to depart, his presence being deemed necessary to the prosecution of the charges against lieutenantcolonel Munro. It is not easy to fancy that this could have been the sincere motive for the detention of this officer, since lieutenant-colonel Munro had been released from his arrest several weeks before, and the proceedings against him in the military court thereby superseded. Could the government intend, notwithstanding the release of the quarter-master-general, to deliver up that officer, subsequently, to trial? Whatever might be the reason, the public, until this hour, know not how to account for the seemingly wanton detention of this gentleman until the middle of the month of February, at an expence to the company of 4001. the price of his forfeited passage-money. It pleased the government, at length, to permit lieutenant-colonel Martin to leave India, on the Sir Stephen Lushington; a ship on which major Boles, the deputy-adjutant-general, had also contracted for a passage, desirous of making as early a personal appeal as practicable, to the honourable the court of directors. But the government thought fit, in a like manner, to detain the latter, like the former officer, by absolutely refusing him permission to embark on the Indiaman, or on another vessel about to leave the roads at the same time. About four days afterwards, when there was no opportunity of a sea conveyance for eight months to come, it was graciously communicated to the deputy-adjutantgeneral that he was at full liberty to prosecute his voyage, when and how he could.

Captain Marshall, who filled the respectable offices of secretary to the mili

Bary board and fund, and was an active member of several public committees, then sitting, and had discharged the duties of his various offices, as it was supposed, with equal satisfaction to the government and the public, was suddenly removed, about this period, from his multifarious trusts, and sent, without an explanation, to the comparatively trifling employment of pay-master to a provincial garrison.

These are not the only acts of gratuitous authority exhibited by the government, but the whole conduct of the executive appears to have been now swayed by those petty passions that sometimes disfigure and degrade the acts of individuals. These acts might have been occasioned, perhaps, by the odium in which the person, as well as the government of Sir George Barlow, were holden at this juncture; a fac of which he must have been, at this time acquainted, however slow he migh have been to discover it No, reverence or outward respect were voluntarily aid, or could even be exacted, beyond the members of his family, or the partners in his acts. Though the source and fountain of all promotion, not a civilian or soldier could be induced to pay more than a customary compliment or courtesy to his office, while his house and his board were deserted of all, but his very retainers. His particular invitations are rejected, and he finds himself at once the head and out-cast of society.

Finding no refuge in integrity or pride, he attempts to introduce the governing principles of his public policy into the walks of private life; to enforce civilities by law, and courtesy by proclamation. Is it necessary to state the failure of this wretched expedient? which is not, however, resigned without a full and abundant trial. And what the fruit of the experiment? A host of individuals are removed from their stations, and banished to distant and unhealthy situations, rather than submit to the mortification of receiving constrained and compulsory kindness es. The loss of direct interest, and the resignation of the fairest prospects, are willingly endured rather than the

degrading sacrifice of the independence which providence gave to the heart along with the blood that warms it. Not only the veteran with his brave battalion, is to be viewed measuring his weary way, over a wider expanse in a tempestuous season, in preference to the easy enjoyment of a stationary and advantageous position, but a yet more interesting spectacle presents itself, a chosen body of youth, the hopes of armies yet to come, a whole institution is dispersed in every direction of the Indian Peninsula, to scatter far and wide the projects and discomfiture of domestic despotism. A general statement of these notorious facts, without any specification of particulars, will be sufficient to demonstrate the imprudence of the attempt of the governor, and the unavoidable consequence-the disgust of the army.

The discontent of the army seems to have been thoroughly understood, but not so its origin, or the remedy applicable to it. The governor, in a partiality not uncommon to his own acts, attributed every thing to the disaffection of the army, rather than to the mistaken policy on which he proceeded. He saw, or fancied that he saw, a predetermined hostility to the system of his government, founded on the generally ungrateful principle of reform, and to this he was anxious to ascribe every shew of resistance or opposition. But an impartial eye may trace the temper that now shewed itself to a more obvious and natural cause. The only effects produced by the economy and retrenchments of Sir G Barlow, as described by himself, were a temporary clamour, in the first instance, and an ultimate representation, from certain members of the army, to the court of directors of the East India company. These had occurred many months previously to the first exercise of the power of suspension, and had ceased to be mentioned; nor would the memory of them, in all probability, have been ever revived, but from the infliction of new sufferings by the same hand. No one, capable of forming a sound judgment, would have looked to these distant and remote

circumstances, as the causes of the evil, now obvious and visible to all; when there were grievances, present to the eye, immediately operative and infinitely more galling in their pressure. that naturally explained the reason of the public discontent. Sir G. Barlow looked to the first feelings and acts of the army, without once advering to the aggression on the part of the government, that had changed the objects and the very nature of the feelings themselves. What is the loss of a little paltry pelf, in a military or civil consideration, compared to the destruction of the primary right of redress for injuries, of personal immunity, and private property, all of them intended to be secured against arbitrary violation by the express letter of the law? Every one of these naturai rights had been invaded, and the consequential injuries had flowed, when Sir G. Barlow began to look around him for an adequate cause that might account for the reigning disaffection, and found it, as he supposed, in a stale and forgotten suffering. He did not once call to recollection the interference of the government, with the process of military judicature, and the obstruction of the course of martial law. He did not glance at the disturbance and removal of men, from their respective avocations and employments, without the figure of investigation; nor of their suspension from offices, in which they had acquired a property from precedent services, by the mere weight of authority. Nor could he have contemplated the necessary tendency of acts, that seek to exercise a rule over mankind, not in their public duties and obligations, but in their private relations and affections. The inevitable effect of such an oversight in a government, must be an universal opposition; unless the nature of man and the end of government, should be changed, no other consequence could be anticipated.

It is not surprising that Sir G. Barlow, misconceiving the reason of the discontent, did not embrace the proper method for removing it. Under a

supposition that his system is odions, and his general agency, therefore, unpopular, he seems to have imputed every dissatisfaction, not to any fault or defect, in a particular measure, but to personal dislike Fancying the public opinion against him, he apparently becomes regardless of the public sentiment, and proceeding on the imagination, and a policy adapted to it, that every man is his enemy, it cannot be long before he makes him so in point of fact. In his representations, relative to the existing state of affairs, he may be supposed to communicate to others the impressions felt by himself; and, hence, giving credit to his statements, results a confirmation of his proceedings by the controuling power in India.

What were the precise relations made by Sir G. Barlow to the supreme government, there are no immediate means of judging; as no dispatches of his to that authority are yet before the public. It is, however, to be collected from the governor-general's letter of the 12th of October,* that the correspondence of Sir G. Barlow had a view to produce an impression that the discontent was not general, nor likely to be permanent. Up to the 10th of July, lord Minto writes, he continued to receive very favourable reports from Sir G. Barlow, of the hopes which might be entertained of the army's speedy return to subordination and obedience; and he only lost these views, from intelligence received from Masulipatam. This may account for the early countenance shewn by his lordship to the acts of the government of Fort St. George, which, as they portended to effect no evil to the state, he was inclined, in ordinary compliment to the inferior government, to support. The first approbation conveyed to the supreme government, was on the 20th February, and related solely to the release of the quarter-master-general, and the suspension of general. Macdowall. On the first impression of the supreme government, then only intent on praise, it was thought prudent, perhaps, to be silent, where it

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felt that it could not safely commend. The suspension of the deputy adjutantgeneral was not even glanced at.

The approbation of the supreme government, as it might be foreseen, was the means of strengthening the governor in his policy, rather than of inducing a doubt of the propriety in persevering in it. It had scarcely been received in Madras before the effect of the approbation was extensively experienced.

The army, in the interval of the communication of Sir G. Barlow with Bengal, had leisure also to consider of their grievances, and of the manner of redressing them; for they were of such a nature, that it was hardly believed that they should be forgotten in the lapse of time. In the acerbation of their feeling they do not seem, however, to have meditated any other than a regular and constitutional cou se of proceeding. They content themselves with devising a representation of their general wrongs, and means for the alleviation of individual distress from the oppression, as they conceived, of the local government, The first measure is attempted to be effected through the medium of a memorial to the supreme government of India; with which a controuling pover is vested for the prevention of evil in the subordinate Indian governments; but this measure is relinquished, in an inchoate and imperfect state, on the receipt of information that the council of Bengal had sanctioned the preceding acts of the Madras government. But several addresses are framed and forwarded at this period, to the deputy adjutant-general, expressive of the condolence of his brother officers in his fate, and assurances to major Boles of pecuniary support, co-extensive with the deprivations under which he laboured, so long as he should remain suspended from his office. In certain of these papers a paragraph is introduced, which has something the appearance, though it is liable to a less objectionable construction, of an engagement in the subscribers to adhere to one another in the event of their being subject to a similar situation with

the object of the address; a sufferer, it must be observed, through a pure and strict obedience to military orders. Beyond these two acts, either in deed or counsel, the military had not yet proceeded. These acts, coming to the knowledge of Sir G Barlow, were sufficient in his mind to induce an instantaneous application to the single, but forcible instrument of his government; the suspension of the supposed principal offenders.

A moment's pause may be allowed for an enquiry into the real grounds that existed for the repetition of an extreme measure which had already failed in its effect, and had produced, instead of the proposed end, the most unhappy and mischievous consequences.

It was evident to the government, from the acts of the army, that a very general discontent existed, at the unusual exertion of its authority on the release of colonel Munro, and the suspension of colonel Capper and major Boles; and so severely felt, that it was with difficulty restrained from outwardly manifesting itself. It was however restrained, but not kept under by so strong a rein, but that it might, by inattention or by any fresh stimulus, break forth into an impatient and active opposition. At this instant it had only opened its mouth in complaint against the local government to the supreme authority in India, but had stifled its cry when it had reason to believe that the source of its appeal had been pre-occupied. It had given up its public appeal, and in all likelihood would have confined its sufferings within its own breast. Sir G. Barlow in his minute admits this important fact. We had every reason to believe, he says, "that the intention of pres sing the memorial is almost, if not wholly abandoned." In another pas

sage also, in the same document, it may be seen that the emergency of the times did not require the use of any extraordinary authority in the government.

In proceeding to recommend the measures necessary to be adopted, with regard to this intended memorial, Sir G. Barlow states, "I have been anx

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