This is the third volume of the series of character sketches of Rulers of India which I am publishing under the auspices of the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, who have courteously accorded me their permission to use their series of Rulers of India as originally edited by Sir W. W. Hunter, as the basis of my work. They have been carried out on the same system as the other volumes, and like them are equally adapted for lectures in schools and colleges, or for reading by the general public: the same idea also runs through them, that of showing the principles on which the administration of our great Indian Empire is carried on, principles of truth, justice, and righteousness, and the character of the Rulers upon whom has been imposed the great burden of Empire. The authors of the volumes which I have used as the basis of this work are as follows: Mr. W. S. Seton-Karr, author of The Marquess Cornwallis. The Rev. W. H. Hutton, author of The Marquess Wellesley. Major Ross-of-Bladensburg, author of The Marquess of Hastings. Mrs. Anne Thackeray Ritchie and Richardson Evans, Esq., authors of Earl Amherst. Demetrius Boulger, Esq., author of Lord William Bentinck. Captain L. J. Trotter, author of The Earl of Auckland. The Rt. Hon. Viscount Hardinge, author of Viscount Hardinge. Colonel Malleson, C.S.I., author of Dupleix. I have also been indebted to Sir John Seeley's The Expansion of England, and to Sir Alfred Lyall's British Dominion in India. To Lord Curzon, late Viceroy of India, and Chancellor of the University of Oxford, whose enthusiasm in all that related to the welfare of India shone with undimmed lustre, a beacon to his generation, throughout the seven long years of his Viceroyalty, this volume is, by his gracious permission, dedicated. G. D. OSWELL. June. INTRODUCTION CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH RULE: MARQUESS CORN WALLIS, 1738-1805 CHAPTER II THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMPANY INTO THE SUPREME POWER CHAPTER III THE FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE MAHRATTA POWERS: MARQUESS CHAPTER IV THE BRITISH ADVANCE EASTWARDS TO BURMAH: EARL CHAPTER V THE COMPANY AS A GOVERNING AND NON-TRADING POWER: CHAPTER VI PAGE . 3 35 . 61 82 104 130 THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR: EARL OF AUCKLAND, 1784-1849 155 CHAPTER VII THE ADVANCE OF THE BRITISH DOMINIONS INTO THE PUNJAB: THE STRUGGLE FOR INDIA BY THE EUROPEAN NATIONS: DUPLEIX OSWELL III 210 CHAPTER I THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH RULE MARQUESS CORNWALLIS, 1738-1805 FEW names stand higher in the long roll of the distinguished men who have been Rulers of India than that of Lord Cornwallis. Sir John Kaye has said: 'Lord Cornwallis is the first Indian Ruler who can properly be regarded as an administrator. Up to the time of his arrival in India, the English in India had been engaged in a great struggle for existence. Clive conquered the richest Province of India. Hastings reduced it to something like order. But it was not until Cornwallis carried to that country the large-minded liberality of a benevolent English statesman, that our administrative efforts took shape and consistency and the entire internal management of the country under our rule was regulated by a code of written laws (or regulations) intended to confer upon the Natives of India the benefits of as much European wisdom and benevolence as was compatible with a due regard for the character of Native institutions.' For some time the idea had been gaining ground amongst the Directors of the East India Company that the right to trade which their servants in India possessed was likely to injure their efficiency as administrators, not that there were not very many honourable and upright men amongst them who would have scorned to use their official position for their own enrichment. But it was recognized that the people they were now being called upon to rule would never be brought to believe in the absolute impartiality of administrators whose hands, as they thought, were sullied by the private interests of trade. And as Lord Cornwallis has himself said: The world will not tamely submit to be reformed by those who are in any way justly or unjustly suspected of subordinating public to private interests. |