alluded to, I transcribe, in this place, a short reply which I made to the first intelligence of the events at Masulipatam, communicated to me by lieutenant-colonel Robert Bell, late commandant of the coast artillery at the mount, but then at Calcutta.

"To lieutenant-colonel Bell.

10th July, 1809.

"Sir, I return you my best thanks for the important but afflicting accounts you sent me this morning of the revolt at Masulipatam. I cannot for a moment imagine that so great a crime should receive support or countenance from an army of English gentlemen and soldiers. I am heartily concerned for the misfortunes which await the misguided men who have embarked in these desperate and disgraceful courses: the time is come when honour and duty require that every man should make his firm and distinct election between rebellion and his country.

"I have the honour, &c." 41. I apprized general Hewett, whose headquarters were then at Merut on the northern frontier of your provinces, of the latest events on the coast, and intimated the possibility of an occasion arising for reinforcing the government of Madras from Bengal; I requested his excellency to keep that contingency in view, and to consider of such a plan as he should deem advisable for that purpose, with out adopting however such actual measures as should divulge that intention until the necessity for it should become more apparent.

42. I took the liberty, at the same time, of recommending his early return to the presidency, for the purpose superintending any military arrangements that might eventually become expedient.

43. My motive for postponing the manifestation of such preparations in Bengal, was an anxious desire to find affairs still open to accommodation on my arrival at Fort St. George, and to avoid therefore any step which should precipitate events in a moment so critical and delicate; many assurances had reached me that my arrival would be the signal of submission, and although I might reasonably suspect that such a disposition, if it existed, might be founded on expectation of concession which I should certainly have disappointed, yet it did not seem impossible that men advancing by such rapid and alarming strides to their own destruction, should catch at the pretence of a new authority in order to retract from the fearful course they were pursuing, with some salvo for false pride, and with less repugnance to the unjust but passionate and inveterate malignity they had conceived or professed against the person of the governor of Fort St. George.

44. The occasion however was likely to be lost for submission, if a movement of troops were observed in Bengal, and a desire on the part of the revolted officers to anticipate an expected reinforcement to government, might lead to extreme measures from which there would be no retreat,

In pursuance of the same views, it was setled with my colleagues, that the vice presi dent in council should concert secretly such plans of succour to the government of Fort St. George as should not disclose that intention until I should apprize them of my wishes on the subject from Madras, unless they should receive earlier accounts of the actual commencement of hostilities, in which case measures were to be immediately adopted for transporting troops from Fort Wil liam to Madras, and furnishing other reinforcements to the coast; the vice president in council did accordingly, on receiving advice of the engagement near Seringapa tam, with the greatest promptitude and judgment issue orders for embarking his majesty's 14th regiment from the garrison of Fort William, and 22d from Berhampore: and for advancing two battalions of Native Infantry from Cuttack to the frontiers of the northern Circars, which orders remained in course of execution, until the submission of the officers on the coast enabled the vice president in council to recal them.

45. Previous to my departure I thought it adviseable to acquaint the army of Bengal officially with the criminal excesses to which the sedition on the coast had proceeded at Masulipatam; and I have the honour to enclose a copy of the general orders issued upon that occasion.

46.It happened that this paper reached the Hydrabad subsidiary force and some other stations of the coast army at the critical period already referred to, when the officers began to waver in their designs, as the last paragraph in the general orders appears either to have favoured the new dispositions, to which other and much more cogent motives had given birth, or to have been employed as an additional means of persuasion by those who wished, late indeed, but earlier than the rest, to abandon themselves and recal others from the dangerous and fatal course they were running.

47. The passage alluded to was represented, and seems to have been understood, as written in a spirit of moderation, and as encouraging the hope of conciliation, by which must have been meant, so far as it was employed as an argument of submission, the hope of a lenient judgment on those who should resign themselves impli citly to the authority and discretion of gcvernment.

48. What share this and many other of the minor and concurrent inducements to submission may have practically had in producing the fortunate termination of these disorders, it may not be altogether immaterial to consider; and I have thought it right, in point of justice, not to omit the enumeration of any motive, to which it is the wish of those who place themselves at the mercy of government to ascribe that resolution, because a more or less favourable view of that subject might justly and materially

mer merits and services, a still respectable body of our countrymen. The whole of the question will find, however, a more proper place in the sequel, and I proceed to lay before you an account of the principal occur rences and measures since my arrival at Madras on the 11th of September.

49. I felt a great desire to weaken as little as possible the influence of Sir George Barlow's government by the intervention of a new authority, and in that view, as well as to devote my whole mind more exclusively to the great object which had required my presence, I took the resolution recorded in my minute of the 12th September, a copy of which I have the honour to enclose.

50. On the subject, however, which had brought me to Madras, I felt it to be a point both of duty and policy to form a separate and individual judgment.

51. I should have discharged imperfectly the trust for which the extraordinary powers 1

was then about to exercise had been vested in my person; I should have ill appreciated the momentous matter I had before me, and I should have lowered in a manner prejudicial to the permanent efficiency of your Indian government, the high and paramount authority of my office, which for purposes alike of remedy and of support in their several cases, it is so important to hold high in the estimation and reverence of India, if I had professed only a blind concurrence in councils in which I was come to preside; I should at the same time have brought to the government of Fort St. George a very feeble accession of strength, if my support had consisted only in an additional signature unsanctioned by the deliberation and decision of a separate and superintending judgment.

52. I determined, therefore, to pursue a personal investigation of the facts, followed by a mature deliberation on their results, before I should adopt any resolution, or even commit myself on any of the principal points depending.

53. I professed openly, at the same time, my readiness to receive from every quarter, so far as the urgency of the awful affairs depending admitted, either written or verbal communications; and especially on the part of those whose safety or fortunes might be involved in the judgment I had to pronounce.

54. The documents furnished by govern ment alone were extremely voluminous, and much time was engaged also in perusing the memorials, examining the documents, and listening to the suggestions and representations of individuals.

55. The deliberation was itself the most anxious that could be submitted to the human mind, and the judgment was painfully distracted between the demands of public justice, and the deep interest of society, in the vindication of military discipline and public order, the claims of individual justice, the validity

the compassion excited by the humiliation and misfortunes of a subdued adversary.

56. It will ever be some matter of grateful and consoling reflection, that the final judg ment I have had to pronounce, was founded on ample and careful enquiry, and on repeated and anxious meditation; from which, so far as the capacity of my mind has admitted, no consideration has been excluded that could affect either the public or individuals, or which either justice or humanity could suggest. That judgment is conveyed in the general order issued in my name on the 24th of September, a copy of which I have the honour to enclose.

57.

58. As the grounds of this measure are stated pretty fully in the paper itself, I need not trouble your honourable committee with a detailed discussion of the several interesting points comprised in it.

59. Your honourable committee will see that I have studied to combine, as far as those opposite principles would admit, the correction of great and dangerous offences with a mitigating spirit of clemency and mercy.

60. The two governing principles have been, first, that example was indispensable; secondly, that the greatest measure of lenity, compatible with that object, was consistent with the public interest as well as promoted by natural feeling..

61. In a case of such general participation by a numerous body in the offence which is to be punished, it is obvious that the penalty cannot be extended to all; and that some must be selected for example, whose punishment, while it atones for the general crime, must inflict upon the rest also, if they are men and havehuman hearts whose guilt they expiate, a penalty little short of their own doom.

62. That the examples need not be numerous is my opinion. A solemn, but not vindictive sacrifice to justice will suffice to assert the authority of government and to satisfy the offended laws. It will sufficiently establish also, not by a cold calculation of chances, but by a deep and severe impression, the hazard which attends crimes, and the affliction which follows guilt, even when the personal danger is escaped.

63 I reflected that the mass of the offending officers were to be necessarily replaced in stations of trust, that our naive armies were still to be commanded by them, and that whether the penalty should fall on few or comparatively on many, our army was still to be composed of associates in the common offence; policy therefore it a more generous principle did not run before that colder motive, points to conciliation as the most expedient, as well as in many other points of view, the most commendable foundation of our measures. The change in events has changed the principle; while revolt was on foot, conciliation, which would

have been mistaken or perhaps justly taken for weakness, must have impaired both dignity and power. After submission a Anciliating course became a point not merely of prudence, but of magnanimity, consulting the best and the only true pride of government, and building up authority on the surest basis of human power.

64. It became my duty, and was an interesting point of my enquiry, to ascertain the claim to indulgence or approbation which either the army at large, or individuals, might have derived from the circumstances attending their return to their duty.

65. It would have afforded me the most cordial satisfaction to have discovered clearer traces of disinterested penitence, or of other meritorious motives for this sudden and total revolution in the conduct of the army.

66. The enquiry, indeed, reed hardly extend beyond the Hydrabad subsidiary force at Secundrabad, for by the unconditi onal submission of that force, the keystone of the revolt was removed, and the whole fabrick crumbled at once to dust and ruin. After that event, the necessity of submission was so apparent and the case so urgent, that the merit of a voluntary retreat cannot even be claimed by any other portion of the

army.

67. The detachment at Jaulna had actually made two marches towards Hydrabad in compliance with a requisition from Secundrabad, when their progress in rebellion was arrested, by advices from the troops at the latter place, of their submission to government. The dismay occasioned by this intelligence could only be equalled by the indignation and fury excited in the minds of the Jaulna detachment, by an event which rendered the prosecution of their designs impracticable, and their renunciation of them fatal. They determined however, after some hesitation, to retrace their steps and resume their post at Jaulna. In like manner no symptom of returning loyalty was perceived at Seringapatam, till the intelligence from Secundrabad and Jaulna discovered to them the hopeless and desperate state of their affairs. A pressing letter from the Hydrabad subsidiary force, at the moment of its submission, addressed to the garrison of Masupatam, exhorting them to follow their example without a moment's delay, produced the first steps towards subordination at that place, and so of various other posts and

but throw strong shades upon the sudden conversion of that force. It was brought about, indeed, entirely by the senior officers aided by the very laudable and no doubt, to some extent, efficacious exertions of lieutenantcolonel Montresor.

70. The junior part of the force was reclaimed with great difficulty, and the strong doubts by that time entertained of the adhe rence of the Sepoys, was a principal topic of persuasion employed by the seniors in their endeavours to bring the former round to the new sentiments they had themselves adopted.

71. With all these indications of inducements connected rather with despair of success than with contrition and repentance, I have wished to give their due weight to the motives alleged by the senior officers of the Hydrabad force, to have induced at that particular moment their return to the duties of subordina tion and obedience; and I am willing to think that the considerations of which they claim the merit, may be admitted to have come in aid of the more obvious and prudential reasons already referred to for their conduct.

72. They represent themselves, as I under stand it, to have proposed at no period any thing beyond intimidation, as a means of controuling government, and extorting the con cessions they required. They advanced from faction to sedition, from sedition to revolt; confident that each step they made towards greater violence would suffice for their purpose. In this course they gradually arrived at the last narrow boundary, which they had yet to pass, before the commencement of civil war; and while they yet hesitated on that last decisive step, the measures of govern ment convinced them that intimidation would fail; and if they advanced further, the contest was actually to be maintained. They then describe their sense of the public evils incident to such a conflict, and their compunction at becoming the iminediate instruments of such calamities, sentiments which terminated in a resolution, since Sir George Barlow would not yield to the army, to sacrifice their own objects and feelings to the public safety, and submit themselves implicitly to the discretion of government.

73 Such is the most favourable account which has been suggested by themselves of their conversion. There would remain, after all, an actual revolt to the extreme point of intimidation and menace, and stopping short only of actual war, under circumstances of very doubtful success, or rather of utter impracticability and despair.

74. The truth is, that whatever satisfaction I should derive from a favourable view of this explanation, on the outward aspect alone of these transactions, I am precluded from giving easy faith to this refined account of an instant and sudden retreat from long concerted designs, by less questionable testimony than any ostensible declarations; I mean the distinct avowal by the parties in their correspondence with each other (intercepted by government,)

that despair alone drove them to renounce their criminal projects. It is clear that the danger was pressing, for they must have other wise held out at least to negotiate for their own safety and they might naturally have been expected to wait in the same posture for my arrival, since they stated themselves to have conceived expectations, from the terms of my general order to the army of Bengal, of measures of conciliation and lenity.

75. I must yet acknowledge, that I fairly feel the probability that men advanced to such a fearful pass, upon ground so insecure and slippery, may have earnestly wished to retreat from their desperate enterprises, and it cannot be forgotten, that many in the multitude who have shared this frenzy, have been borne down the current from crime to crime, against their own better judgments and dispositions. These may truly be believed to have rejoiced at the first overture for retreat, and to have abandoned, with sincere and honourable feelings of duty, projects to which they had lent an unwilling and compulsory concur

rence.

76. I am also induced to say, that I am disposed, from what has passed under my observation, to ascribe to Major Neale, the senior officer of the Hydrabad subsidiary force, a lurking sense of better principles in the midst of his guilty participation in the crimes of that distempered period, and a sin cere, and perhaps even an earlier desire than actually manifested itself, to recede from a situation so repugnant to the sober judgment and natural feelings of every honourable

man.

I

77. Under all the considerations stated in this dispatch, and in the general order of September 25th, I am persuaded your honourable committee will approve the spirit of grace, oblivion, and entire reconciliation, which forms the character of this measure. have the satisfaction to understand, that it has made a favourable impression on those who are the objects of it, and that if cordiality towards the government of Fort St. George should yet be retarded by the vehemence of prejudice and passion, long blindly indulged, better sentiments may be expected to arise gradually and all apprehension may be banished from this hour of a relapse into disorder and insubordination.

78. I have the honour to enclose two general orders, issued in my name to the army also on the 25th September, conveying my just acknowledgment of the zeal, efficient support of his majesty's troops, and of the fidelity of the Native troops of this establishment; and to these I beg leave to add my general order of the 4th October, concerning a practice the continuation of which there was, in some instances, reason to apprehend, and which must have effectually precluded the return of general harmony, which is so much to be desired. I allude to combinations and pledges to exclude from society, and otherwise insult those who may have quitted the guilty

cause of revolt before the general submission of the army. I flatter myself the admonition and advice conveyed in that paper may not be ineffectual.

79. Having stated the principal measures which have been adopted since my arrival at Madras, your honourable committee might naturally expect that I should enter, on this occasion, more fully into the origin, motives, and principles of the very general and alarming revolt of so large a proportion of your military establishment. I feel the importance of that investigation; and having had no earlier opportunity of forming a judgment founded on full information, and uncombined with the important and urgent principle which governed my conduct in Bengal, I mean the indispensable necessity of affording to the governor of Fort St. George unqualified support against sedition and revolt, I cannot neglect to avail myself of the facilities I now possess for that purpose, and shall apply my mind carefully and impartially to that general and interesting enquiry. It is, no doubt, upon such an investigation, that your future system ought to be founded, and that I should alone be justified in submitting to your consideration any suggestions that may arise in my mind upon that subject.

80. Opinions of such moment ought, however, to be mature, and the remaining period of my residence here, which will probably not exceed the first week of December, will not be more than sufficient to ren der any sentiments I may ultimately entertain on questions so large and complicated, affecting concerns of such high value, worthy of the quarter to which they will be addressed. I should wish also for a little more knowledge and further experience of the real dispositions left or created in the minds of the officers of this army by the late stormy season, and the calm which has succeeded it.

81. I cannot, however, permit myself to suppress some suggestions for your immediate consideration, because no doubt remains on my mind concerning their justice or expediency, and much of the impression may depend upon their earlier or later adoption.

82. The point to which I now allude, is the reward of those who have conspicuously contributed to the signal and invaluable benefit which the company has received by the suppression of this dangerous revolt. Your honourable committee, and indeed the pub lic of England, will have probably passed through an interval of great alarm, before the happy and providential issue of these troubles could relieve the anxiety inseparable from such occasions. From your sentiments and feelings during this aspect of your affairs, the extent of the late danger, and the value of your present security may be well appre ciated without enlarging on these points.

83. The first and most pressing object appears to me under these considerations, and

I am entirely persuaded will be felt by your honourable committee, to be a public and signal acknowledgment, both from the honourable company and from his majesty's government, of Sa George Barlow's eminent services He has conducted your bark out of this tempest into safety, not by any of fortune or by any ordinary measure of cation, but by the uniform unsublued application of firmness, courage, and fortitude, rising in proportion to the difficulties to which the Were OLE.cd. A moment's riton of thes gies and rare quities W u prve deliv red over your gover ment fer conan bondage to your army, and, by d cipse of the latter, would have exting aisard the efficacy at once of your military power.

8. There are other very powerful motives for folding your marked and distinguished Colaterance to Si Gorge Builow. One of the constituent and most active puncipies of this criminal confederacy has ben. an unigunded but rancorous disaffection to his person. I speak with concern undoubtedly, but without embarassment or scruple, on that subject, because whatever odium has beca mig any cast upon his name, has beer by the steady inflexible discharge of sun ic duty, and by for in your service, not in themselves more grateful personally to him than to other men, but falling more par cularly by the course of events within the pod of his administration

1

85. To consent that he, who in the highest stations of trust and confidence has intrepidly performed important but ungrateful service, should be borne down by party dis contents, and especially by an armed faction, is I am sure contrary alike to your honourable committee's sense of justice, and your enghened views of policy.

86. For purposes of conciliation, I have done much in mitigation of punishments, but it would be a vicious indulgence of that principle to sacrifice the claims of fidelity and service to the passions of adversaries. I have therefore omitted no opportunity of pronouncing, even in the cars of those to whom it sounds most harshly, the claims of Sir George Barlow to public esteem and gratitude.

87. It is on these principles that I presume to press this suggestion on your notice, more earnestly than it would become me to do, if I did not feel its deep and fundamental importance in the present conjuncture of your affairs.

8. I am not prepared to enumerate those individuals, either in the civil or military department, whose services have merited the honour of your notice; but I will venture at present to submit some names highly deserving of your consideration.

89. Major-general Gowdie stands undoubt edly first in that class. The high and responsible stations he has filled during this period of difficulty and crisis, his steady ad

herence to that which the nature of the times had rendered his primary duty, a firm and uniform support of government against sedition, and of discipline against systematic insubordination, softened only by the influence of a temperate and conciliating mind, will I am persuaded recommend him to your countenance, and to some mark of public approbation.

90. Mr. Oakes and Mr. Casamaijor, whose important share in the fortunate result of the late arduous and menacing state of your affairs has already been mentioned, will I doubt not stand bih in your escein and favour, and experience the satisfaction of seeing their faithful and most useful services graced by some mark of public approbation and acknowledgment.

91. Colonel Munro appears to me particularly entitled to that countenance and support which are wisely and justly extended to those, who in the fashful and able discharge of public duties are made the objects of factious and maignant persecutions.

92. Several officers both of his majesty's and the company's establishments have rendered conspicuous and distinguished service by more than usual display of zeal, talents, or energy. These shall be the subj.ct of future communication; but I cannot omit even now the name of the honourable Arthur Cole, acting resident at Mysore, whose firmness, activity, and ardour, directed by the soundest judgment and prudence, have con tributed in a very memorable degree to the maintenance of the company's authority and the ultimate suppression of revolt in the very seat of the worst and most formidable disorder.

93. I hope to address your honourable committee further in a few days by H. M. S. Rattlesnake, which rear admiral Drury is so good as to appoint to convey our dispatches direct to England.

I have the honour to be,
with the greatest respect,
Honourable Sirs,

Your faithful humble servant,
MINTO.

Fort St. George, 12th October, 1809.

Enclosure No. 2. Minute of governor-general.

Governor-general.

Fort St. George, 12th September, 1809.

In taking my seat at this board, I am sure I shall have entire credit in the assurances I am nevertheless anxious to record, that the exercise of the power or rather of the performance of the duties attached to the office of governor-general respecting his presence at the other presidencies, has been suggested on this occasion to my mind by no diffidence in the wisdom or energy of the honourable person who has been appointed to fill this chair, or of his honourable and able colleagues. I have given the surest pledge of my entire