nel Bell has been obliged to rest satisfied, with the consciousness of his own innocence, and to wait patiently for a decision from Europe, (which possibly may take place on the ex parte statement of Sir G. Barlow) or for a change of the Government, before he can hope for even a public investigation of the subject.

Such being the motive, and the ground upon which the punishments announced in the general order of the 1st of May had proceeded, it cannot be a matter of surprize, that universal indignation was felt on the occasion. However, such was the general feeling towards the Governor of Madras, that the compliment paid to the Hydrabad force, in the last paragraph of the order, was deemed a greater insult than even the punishment, and the defamation of the respectable characters who are vilified in it.

The receipt of the order at the several stations of the army, produced considerable solicitude and commotion; but at Hydrabad the ferment was excessive; one and all felt the keenest sense of injury and insult, from perceiving the paltry attempt to sow dissenthe officers of the army, by supamong posing a difference of feeling, and interest,

sion

between men, whose characters and fortunes were united by the established system of the service, as well as by those ties which are, above all, dear to men of honor and principle. As might naturally be expected, a perfect unanimity prevailed among the officers at Hydrabad; who, as soon as practicable, after the receipt of the order, addressed to the different divisions of the army, a paper to the following effect; a copy of the same being also sent to the Governor of Madras, through the officer commanding the force.

"In the late general order by Government, under date the 1st of May, 1809, the conduct of the officers of this force, with respect to the late occurrences, is particularly mentioned in terms of approbation.

"This unexpected compliment may possibly have impressed our brother officers throughout the army, with an idea that we tacitly have approved of the acts of Government to which the general order refers, and that we are divested of those sentiments and feelings, which have been excited throughout the army.

"Under this impression, we feel it to be a duty incumbent on us to declare, that we have viewed, with the most lively emotions

of concern, the extreme acts of power, and exertions of authority, by which so many valuable and respectable officers have been displaced from their commands, and suspended from the service; and while we assure you of our resolution to contribute to the support of those officers who have incurred the displeasure of Government, for their exertions in a cause which we must pronounce just, we shall be ready to participate in any legal measures of temperance, dignity, and firmness, which may be thought effectual, to remove the cause of the present discontent, and to restore our brother officers to the honourable situations from which they have been removed.

[Signed by 145 field and other officers of the troops com

posing the Hydrabad Subsidiary Force.]

"Hydrabad, 14th May, 1809."

Were not the above facts susceptible of the most unequivocal proof, by the number of persons to whom the particulars regarding them are fully known, no indifferent person would believe, neither would any venture to assert, that the chief organ of a Government, so extensive as that of Madras, could, after

the errors already discovered, be deluded into so stupid, so unnecessary, and so irremediable a measure as this, which exposed the Government to the utmost contempt, by having its praises indignantly rejected, as insulting and injurious to the feelings of a great body of those who were subject to the authority of the Government. This occurrence may be considered to have completely dissolved the relation which should subsist between the rulers and the ruled, and it had its origin, as all the other unfortunate events have had, in the imprudent and injudicious councils which Sir G. H. Barlow unhappily followed. Among those about him, there was not one who possessed the confidence of any part of the officers of the army, or one, who, if acquainted with the actual state of the public mind, would run the risk of displeasing the Governor, and thereby perhaps losing his own situation by telling him the truth, when truth might be unpleasant to him. This, unfortunately, would have been too often the case, during the period that he has been at the head of the government of Madras.

The officers at Hydrabad, as it appears, acted without delay; but they did not act without reflection; and their reflections

informed them, that no situation or circumstances whatsoever, could give to Sir G. H. Barlow, or to any man, a right to proclaim to the world, in a public newspaper, that they had viewed recent public measures in a light different from that in which they had been viewed by their brother officers, particularly as the assertion was totally unfounded. This general order will, through the Madras newspapers, probably find quick circulation among the friends, the connections, and the enemies of the officers of the Madras army, in the various quarters of the world; and as it is calculated not only to represent the Hydrabad officers as differing from the rest of the army, but also implies the possibility, that the measures adopted by Sir G. Barlow, could be contemplated by any part of the officers, without exciting the greatest degree of indignation and resentment, it must be considered as a defamation of the body of the Madras officers, and as a misrepresentation of the circumstances then existing.

The general circulation of the famous order of the 1st of May, gave rise to an incident, which had considerable influence on the subsequent events, and therefore