second circular letter, dated 10th April, 1809, again calling upon the officers of the company's army to adhere to their duty, correcting the erroneous opinions which they had received, regarding the powers of government, and describing the unjustifiable nature and dangerous consequences of their proceedings. The governor in council learned, with deep regret, that these measures of moderation, these repeated and urgent appeals to the discipline, duty, national attachment, and professional honour of the company's officers were entirely nugatory; that the memorials continued to be circulated, and that sentiments of sedition were openly declared in many parts of the army; the further forbearance of the government would have encouraged the progress of those evils; a course of explanation and exhortation. had been pursued in vain, and it became imperiously necessary to check, by a salutary example of punishment, a spirit of insubordination that threatened the most dangerous consequences to the prosperity of the empire. The general orders of the 1st of May last were accordingly passed. The governor in council is concerned to state, that this example, which was confined to the persons who were principally instrumental in promoting sedition, and of whose delinquency the most ample proofs existed, and which was intended to obviate the necessity of more extensive punishments, failed to produce the beneficial effects anticipated from its adoption, and that principles of insubordination and sedition continued to prevail among the company's officers, if possible with aggravated violence; the company's officers of. the Hydrabad subsidiary force, whose good conduct in refusing to affix their signatures to the seditious addresses, had received the approbation of the government, intimated to the rest of the army, in an address dated in May last, scarcely less reprehensible than the papers that had incurred the animadversion of the government, their participation in the disaffection which prevailed so extensively in the company's army. "The officers at Hydrabad followed up this act, by threatening, in an address, dated 15th June, transmitted direct to the governor in council, to separate themselves from the authority. of the government, established over them by their country, unless a submission should be yielded to their menaces, by abrogating the general orders of the 1st of May, and the company's officers at Masulipatam imprisoned their commanding officer, and made preparations to desert the post entrusted to their charge, and to join the Hydrabad subsidiary force, thereby involving, on account of views personal to themselves, the men under their command in the guilt of rebellion, and furnishing to the Native troops a dangerous example of resistance to authority. The governor in council, still anxious to impress on the for the welfare and comforts of the native troops that has invariably been manifested by the British government. 66 4. He has no intention whatever of making any changes in their situation; and he expects that the native troops will display on every emergency the unshaken fidelity to government which constitutes the first duty of a soldier; that they will obey with zeal the orders of the officers whom the government shall place in authority over them; that they will refuse a belief to all reports calculated to agitate their minds and diminish their confidence in the government ; and that they will not allow themselves to be involved in measures in any respect adverse to their duty and allegiance. 5. The governor in council is pleased to express his approbation of the good conduct which has been recently manifested by the native troops at the presidency in the camp at the Mount, at Trichinopoly, and at Vellore, and he is confident that their behaviour will be equally correct and loyal at all other stations of the army. 66 By order of the honourable the governor in council. "The hon. the governor in council has been pleased to resolve, that all the European officers of the company's service, who may be removed from the exercise of their military functions, in consequence of their refusing or omitting to sign the declaration, required in the orders of the 26th of July last, shall be permitted to choose a place for their residence until further orders, between Sadras and Negapatam, both places included, from which they are not afterwards to proceed beyond the distance of five miles, without the permission of the governor in council. 66 The governor in council is further pleased to direct, that the commanding officers of divisions, stations, or corps, shall take the most effectual measures for obliging the officers who may be suspended from the exercise of their military functions, for the reasons above stated, to quit the stations of their corps without any delay whatever, and to proceed, with all practicable dispatch, to the places which they may choose for their residence. 66 Commanding officers of divisions, &c. are directed to report to the office of the adjutant-general of the army, the names of the places which may be selected by the officers for their residence under this order. 66 By order of the honourable the governor in council. (Signed) A. FALCONAR, 66 [ P. ] LIEUTENANT COLONEL DAVIS, COMMANDING IN MYSORE. SIR, I have this morning received your official letter, giving cover to a copy of a letter from government, under date 26th ult. and have, in reply, to state, that I tendered the paper, in due form, to all the officers present here, who (unaminously) refused to sign it. I have delivered over the command to Subidar Bohoodling, a most respectable and good soldier, whom I had some trouble to persuade to supersede his European officers in the command of the corps and stations. The enclosures will fully explain every thing further. 66 I have the honour to be, Sir, 66 466 IN BANGALORE. SIR, I have the honour to forward a paper, which I have to request you will forward to Madras, without delay; I beg leave, at the same time, to offer apologies for making you the channel of such communication, which proceeds from the absence of colonel Davis, and an anxiety to anticipate the orders of government, that we may share, in common with our brother officers at Bangalore, that temporary disgrace which Sir George Barlow has determined to inflict on them. 66 We, the undersigned officers of the garrison of Nundydroog, understanding that our brother officers at Bangalore have been called upon to sign a paper, promising implicit obedience to the orders of the honourable Sir George Barlow, governor of Fort St. George, and threatened with suspension in case of refusal, conceive it our duty, unasked, to step forward and declare, that, under existing circumstances, we shall decline signing any such paper, if tendered to us; at the same time, we think it incumbent on us to assign our reasons for this act of disobedience to the mandate of our immediate superiors. 66 It is not, at this late period, necessary to state all those grievances under which the company's officers alone labour, (for the officers of his Majesty's service have been entirely exempted from a participation of them) it is sufficient for us to declare, that we are, from principles, embarked in one common cause, and that we have voluntarily pledged ourselves to co-operate with our brother officers, in all legal means to obtain redress. It will, therefore, clearly appear that signing such papers as the one in circulation, would be an abandonment of those sacred principles of honour by which we are actuated, and a breach of faith towards our suffering brother officers, and a tacit acquiescence in those measures which we conceive to be of the most pernicious nature to the interests of the honourable company, (our masters) and of the most degrading tendency to our whole body, and the service in general. We further have reason to suspect, that were we base enough to sign such a promise, though through fear of losing our commissions, (now no longer valuable) if we cannot hold them with honour, that our swords, hitherto only used against the enemies of our country, would be directed against the bosoms of our brother officers, and our energies employed in overturning that empire which our honourable masters have acquired by our unremitting exertions, and purchased at the expense of our blood. The right honourable Lord Minto has admitted the right of soldiers, on some occasions, to consider the nature and tendency of orders; under this sanction, we solemnly protest against measures which, if persisted in, cannot fail to ruin our honourable masters. We see the evil far advanced; we behold the probable consequences of the present system; and we shudder for the fall of British India. We declare ourselves true to the service of our honourable masters, and ready to expose our lives in defence of their rights and territories, but, at the same time, resolved never to compromise our own honour, (Signed) J. WELSH, P. STEVENSON, J. WALKER, J. TEGG, J. M. WATSON. 66 [ Q. ] TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD MINTO, GOVERNOR GENERAL OF INDIA. 66 MY LORD, We, the undersigned officers of the Madras establishment, congratulate ourselves and our brother officers, on your Lordship's arrival at this Presidency, and, impressed with sentiments of high respect for your lordship's character and station, as well as urged by every motive of ardent loyalty and allegiance to our king, undiminished attachment to our country, and unshaken fidelity to our employers, hasten to address your lordship. We do, therefore, most respectfully, but most earnestly, implore your lordship, to grant a patient and indulgent consideration to the circumstances we have to submit. We entreat you to suspend your judgmeut, to banish from your mind any unfavourable impressions you may have received of our national attachment, or obedience and respect for the local administration of India; and not to admit those suggestions, which would impute to the officers of the Madras army any thing like disaffection to the state, or any premeditated disposition to insult the authority, or injure the interests of the British government in India; for we do most solemnly and explicitly disavow any such sentiments or intentions. 2. Your lordship is too well aware of the unhappy and general agitation prevailing throughout the army of this presidency. We, my lord, most sincerely deplore its existence, and lament, with unfeigned regret, the extremes to which it has led, and the awful crisis it has produced; we, therefore, hail your lordship's arrival as an auspicious event, which will dispel the impending gloom, avert the threatened calamities, restore to the army of this presidency its former happiness and tranquility; we repose unbounded confidence in your lordship's wisdom, justice, and liberality, and cherish a sanguine hope, that you will not deem it unworthy of your high station to investigate those causes, that have combined to place a large portion of the company's officers in the painful and distressing situation in which we now stand. May we not further hope, that your lordship's magnanimity will extend to shew some attention to the feelings of a large respectable body of officers, whose minds have been agitated beyond the power of our nature to controul. "3. It would be unbecoming in us, at this moment, and inconsistent with the high respect we feel for your lordship, to obtrude a statement of those particular grievances, which the coast army so keenly feel, and so bitterly complain of; it is for us to represent the recent measures which has placed us, and a large body of our brother officers, in our present unexampled |