for any disobedience thereto, we knew we were amenable to military law and liable to the penalties of the articles of war, and we could not consent to subscribe a pledge, the • object of which might be to oppose us to our brother officers, and the interests of our service.'

"5. Such a test, and tendered to us under such circumstances, could not but degrade us in the estimation of our brother officers of his Majesty's army, to whom no similar proposal was made; whose conduct was described in terms of warm and unqualified approbation, while the company's officers were stigmatized by epithets of reproach, censure, and disgrace; yet, my lord, we may appeal to our conduct, on all occasions, for the proofs that we have never been inferior either in loyalty, fidelity, or professional zeal.

"6. These are the circumstances under which we have been removed from our employments, and from those troops we have so long commanded, whose discipline we established, whose confidence and attachment we have acquired, whose zeal we have animated, and whose exertions we have directed, in the service of the East India Company.

"7. Though we will not presume to suggest the consequences likely to result from this separation of the officers from their men, it is a justice due to ourselves, to declare most solemnly to your lordship, that, however agitated our feelings have been, we have most studiously concealed from the troops, under our orders, any knowledge or communication whatever, of any disagreement between the government and the army. Your lordship's justice will, we trust, therefore, absolve us from any reproach for any evils that may arise; and here, my lord, it is not without the greatest pain that we are compelled to remark, that, before our removal from our corps, we had detected emissaries among our men, endeavouring to seduce them from their obedience to their officers, to weaken their attachment, to infuse suspicion into their minds, and to prejudice them against us while we were in the actual exercise of command.

"8. We will no longer trespass on your lordship's time, but we cannot conclude without repeating our earnest and impressive appeal to your lordship, and adjuring you, by your regard for the prosperity of this great empire, committed to your charge, and by the most sacred of all obligations, your love for our parent country, that you will condescend to hear the complaints of a respectable body of British subjects. Do not, my

U

lord, reject our petition, nor condemn us upon the represen tations of those, who have already, we fear, endeavoured to impress on your lordship's mind an unfavourable opinion of our principles. Let the claims the company's officers have established on their country, be alone present to your lordship's mind, and let us owe to your lordship's justice the relief we implore; this will secure to your lordship our lasting gratitude and affection, and inspire sentiments which no time will erase. "We venture to assure your lordship, that no obstacles will oppose your endeavours to restore tranquillity, and that your lordship may confide in the honour and patriotism of the officers of this army. We come not to you a clamorous multitude, nor are we a licentious body, impatient of controul, and spurning at the restraints of authority; we are not actuated by any false notions of liberty; we do not seek, or desire, any emancipation from the rigid, but just, rules of our order; we are not prosecuting views of professional aggrandizement, and far less any measure of hostility against the government under which we serve; we explicitly disclaim every such idea, and any wish, incompatible with the strictest subordination to legitimate authority, and to the laws of our country. Our respect for the authority of government, as by law established, continues undiminished, and, under that authority, as heretofore administered, we have lived happily, and performed our duty cheerfully; we feel bound to convey to your lordship this explicit and solemn assurance, that our loyalty and allegiance to our King is unimpaired, our zeal and fidelity for our employers undiminished, and that our attachment to our country is unabated, and we are ready to shed the last drop of our blood in defence of the British power in India.

"We have the honour to be, my lord,

"Your lordship's most faithful, devoted servants,
[Signed by the officers of all the corps

"Pondicherry, 8th August, 1809."

[ R. ]

"BY GOVERNMENT.

"Fort St. George, August 9, 1809. "The governor in council having taken into consideration the whole of the transactions that have occurred to the garrison of Masulipatam, and being satisfied that the part borne by the men in those transactions is to be entirely imputed to the misepresentations and seduction of their European officers, is

pleased to proclaim a full pardon to the European non-commissioned officers and privates, and to the Native commissioned officers and non-commissioned officers of the garrison of Masulipatam, who were concerned in these improper proceedings. The governor in council entertains a confident persuasion, that this act of lenity will produce a proper effect in the minds of these men, and induce them to manifest in future that fidelity to the government, which constitutes the first duty and highest praise of every soldier.

"The governor in council prohibits the march of any body of troops from the garrison of Masulipatam, without the orders of Major General Pater, commanding the northern division; and directs, that any troops who may have marched from Masu-lipatam without due authority, shall return forthwith to that statio, on pain of being considered to be in a state of rebellion to the government.

"A. FALCONAR,
"Chief Secretary.”

« GENERAL ORDERS BY THE HONOURABLE THE GOVERNOR IN COUNCIL.

"Fort St. George, Aug. 12, 1809.

"The course of proceeding followed for some time past by the officers of the honourable company's army at this presidency, has obliged the government to adopt the most decided measures for the preservation of the important interests committed to its charge. These proceedings may be stated to have commenced with the transmission to the government by the late commander in chief of a memorial addressed to the honourable the court of directors, dated January, 1809, and signed by a large proportion of the company's officers. Although that paper exhibits claims of an ungrounded nature, and contains observations equally improper and unjust on the orders of the honourable the court of directors and the government, the governor in council was induced to permit it to pass without the serious notice which it appeared to demand, by a confidence in the discipline of the army, and a persuasion that the objectionable passages in the memorial were inadvertently and unintentionally introduced.

"The subsequent conduct of the commander in chief forced the government to vindicate its authority, by a signal example of punishment. It was well known to the company's officers, that the whole of this proceeding was referred to the supreme govern, ment, and the authorities in Europe; that it would receive

from their wisdom a decision conformable to the soundest principles of reason and justice; and that its discussion could not belong to the cognizance of the army, who are precluded from becoming a deliberative body. Notwithstanding these considerations, the governor in council, anxious to remove every cause of misunderstanding relative to a measure of so important a nature, published an order, dated the 31st January, explaining to the army the grounds on which it was adopted. The governor in council had a right to expect, on the most obvious grounds of discipline and respect for the laws, that the question would have been permitted to rest here, and receive its final reward from the only powers competent to decide on it; and it was with feelings of equal surprize and concern he learned, that a memorial to the supreme government, of the most intemperate description, was circulated in the company's army.

"The governor in council, desirous to avoid a recurrence to measures of severity, and persuaded that it was sufficient to apprize the company's officers of the improper nature of the proceedings, to induce them to desist from their prosecution, authorized the commander in chief to issue a circular letter, dated the 5th March, 1809, explaining to those officers the impropriety of their conduct, and calling upon them, by the most powerful motives of duty, allegiance, and honour, to abstain from such unjustifiable measures. A letter from the right honourable the governor in council, dated the 20th Feb. 1809, approving of the steps adopted by the governor of Fort St. George, with respect to the late commander in chief, was also circulated to the army, in the expectation that the sentiments of the supreme government would have suppressed the spirit of faction and insubordination which prevailed. These letters appear to have produced no effect; the memorial to the supreme government made further progress; and an address to Major Boles, an officer under sentence of suspension, written in language of determined sedition, was circulated in the army, and forced upon the notice of the governor in council, by a company's officer, holding a confidential situation on his staff-the governor in council was still induced to pursue a system of forbearance, by the sentiments of affection and respect which he was disposed to entertain towards the company's officers; and by a conviction that the principles of zeal, discipline, and national attachment, by which he supposed they were actuated, would lead them to relinquish the reprehensible measures in which they were engaged, on being made fully acquainted with their impropriety and danger. The commander in chief, accordingly, under the sanction of the government, issued a

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 mea-. sures 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