This course, he remarked, was "in conformity with the principles laid down by Parliament, with the orders of their honourable masters, and with his own convictions of expediency." As to the security of our territories, which Lord Wellesley intended to rest on the establishment of general tranquillity, under British supremacy, Sir George considered that it would be as effectually promoted by the prevalence of general anarchy beyond our frontier; and the revival of the mutual conflicts of the native princes, which had desolated the country for thirty years, but were now happily brought under control, was thus regarded as an object of complacency. It is difficult to believe that the British Government in India, even under the most timid administration, did ever deliberately contemplate the idea of allowing the native chiefs to tear one another to pieces that they might find no leisure to invade our territories; but the voice of honour and humanity is never heard in the delirium of a panic. This despicable policy was aptly described by Mr. Metcalfe, subsequently Governor-General himself, as "disgrace without compensation, treaties without security, and peace without tranquillity." Negotiations with Sindia, 1805. In the month of July, Lord Lake, with the full concurrence of Lord Wellesley, had addressed a letter to Sindia demanding the release of the Resident by a fixed day, on pain of hostilities. The requisition came at a very favourable season. The atrocities of Sirjee Rao Ghatkay, the inveterate enemy of the English, had constrained Sindia to discard him from the post of minister, and it was bestowed on Ambajee Inglia. He was favourable to a British alliance, and incensed against Holkar and Ameer Khan, who had recently tortured and plundered him, and he endeavoured, and not without success, to sow dissensions between them and Sindia. Sindia himself saw no farther benefit to be derived from any connection with these extortionate and predatory chiefs. He had a painful recollection of the field of Assye, and was anxious to avoid a second war with the Company; and to Lord Lake's requisition he replied 192 EQUIPMENT OF THE ARMY. [CHAP. that the rooksut, or friendly departure of the Resident was only delayed, according to usage, till the arrival of his successor. A fair opening was thus presented for negotiations; but the question of taking the initiative, on which, more especially in India, their success mainly depends, was the point of difficulty. Happily, it was discovered that the moonshee Kavil-nyne, an old and favourite servant of Sindia, who had assisted in concluding the treaty of Sirjee Angengaom, but had been obliged to fly from the oppressions of Sirjee Rao, was at this time residing at Delhi. Colonel Malcolm invited him to the English camp, and it was concerted between them that one of his relatives who happened to be in the service of Sindia, should intimate to him the ease with which a negotiation could be opened with the General through Kavil-nyne. Sindia eagerly embraced the proposal, and was the first to make advances. Lord Lake thus occupied the vantage ground of receiving an overture, and replied that no proposal could be entertained while the Resident continued under restraint. He was accordingly permitted at once to take his departure, with suitable honours. 1805. The negotiations were commenced without delay, Equipment of the army, Oct. but it was felt that any adverse turn of circumstances might interrupt their progress, and possibly throw Sindia back into opposition. Colonel Malcolm judged rightly that nothing would tend so much to facilitate such transactions as a display of military enterprize. Lord Lake had a noble army under his command, but his military chest was empty, and the financiers in Calcutta were very lukewarm about supplying it with funds. Colonel Malcolm was mortified to find "that they could not send Holkar to the devil for want of seven or eight lacs of rupees," and he set himself to raise the sum with all his natural ardour. He plied the native bankers, but we had lost ground in the money-market, and he could only raise a lac of rupees from them. He besieged the collectors' treasuries for bills on Calcutta. He prevailed on Government to sell the fortress of Deeg to the raja of Bhurt xxm.] PURSUIT OF HOLKAR. 193 pore, from whom it was temporarily withheld, for the immediate payment of three lacs of rupees. By the beginning of October, the requisite sum was raised, and Lord Lake was enabled to take the field "in grand style," and to start in pursuit of Holkar. Colonel Malcolm felt that no place could be more advantageous for the discussion of a treaty than the encampment of a pursuing and successful general. The moonshee was, therefore, hurried along with the army, and resumed the thread of the negotiation, day by day, when the tents were pitched. The terms were at length adjusted, and sent to Sindia for his ratification. All the provisions of the treaty of Sirjee Angengaom, which were not modified by the new arrangement, were to remain in force. Gohud and Gwalior were restored to him as a matter of friendship, on his engaging to assign three lacs of rupees from the revenues to the rana. Pensions, which had been granted to different officers of his court, were relinquished, and annuities were settled on himself, his wife, and his daughter. The Chumbul was to form the boundary of the two states, but the British Government engaged to enter into no treaties with the rajas of Oodypore, Joudhpore, and other chiefs, the tributaries of Sindia, in Malwa, Mewar, or Marwar, and Sindia agreed never to admit Sirjee Rao into his counsels. Pursuit of Holkar and Ameer Khan quitted the encampment of Sindia, when they perceived a change in his policy favourable to the English alliance, and proceeded to Ajmere. Holkar, notwithstanding his reverses, still exhibited a vigorous and daring spirit. Northern India swarmed with military adventurers, the fragments of the armies which had been broken up by our victories, and the "irregulars" whom the British Government was discharging. Holkar was thus enabled to collect together a body of about 12,000 horse and 3,000 foot, with thirty not very serviceable guns, and he would speedily have become as formidable as at any former period if time had been allowed him to complete his levies. He solicited the raja of Jeypore to join his standard, but meeting with a stern refusal, pushed on to the north of 194 INTERCOURSE WITH RUNJEET SING. [CHAP. Delhi, giving out that he had been invited into that region by the Sikh chiefs of Sirhind. But the heavy contributions which his necessities obliged him to levy on his route, and the remonstrances of the Resident at Delhi deterred them from joining him. Lord Lake now started in pursuit of him, at the head of his cavalry, and a small body of light infantry; and a British army was for the first time conducted to the banks of the Sutlege by the same general who had been the first to cross the Jumna. But its progress was suddenly arrested by the repugnance which the sepoys, from some superstitious feeling, manifested to cross it. Colonel Malcolm, on hearing of their hesitation, galloped into their ranks, and with that singular tact which gave him the mastery of the native mind, exclaimed "the city and the shrine of Umritsir, with the water of immortality, is before you, and will you shrink from such a pilgrimage?" The words produced a magic effect, and the sepoys hasted across the stream and entered the Punjab, where Runjeet Sing, a young Sikh chieftain, of twenty-five, was laying the foundation of a great kingdom. Holkar fled as Lord Lake advanced, and had reached Umritsir, but Runjeet Sing was evidently averse to the further progress of a British army in his newly-conquered territories, and Lord Lake encamped on the banks of the Beeas, the ancient Hyphasis, in the neighbourhood of the spot where Alexander the Great had erected altars to commemorate the extent of his conquests. In that classical region the ratification of the treaty by Sindia was received on the 25th December, and a double salute was fired in honour of the day and of the peace. Runjeet Sing is said to have visited the English camp in disguise, to examine the military organisation of the foreigners who in the course of fifty years had become masters of India. After a brief negotiation, he concluded an agreement with Lord Lake, engaging to hold no farther communication with Holkar, and to constrain him to evacuate the Punjab. Holkar, now a helpless fugitive, sent an envoy humbly to sue for peace, and Lord Lake presented him with the draft of a treaty drawn up under the XXIII.] TREATY WITH HOLKAR. 195 instructions of Sir George Barlow. All the family domains south of the Chumbul were to be restored to him; that river was to be his fixed boundary, and the British Government agreed not to interfere with any of the rajas or dependents of the Holkar family south of it. He was required to relinquish all right to Rampoora, and all claims on the state of Boondee; to entertain no Europeans in his service without the permission of Government, and to banish Sirjee Rao for ever from his presence. He was likewise to return to Hindostan by a prescribed route, and to abstain from injuring the territories either of the Company or of their allies. Treaty with 1806. To Holkar, whose fortunes were now desperate, Holkar, Jan. and who had no alternative but to submit to any terms Lord Lake might choose to dictate, these proposals appeared a god-send. But the incredible lenity of the conditions, which confounded the minds of the native princes, only served to create a feeling of presumption in his breast, and to inflate him with the notion that the British Government could have been influenced only by a dread of his military prowess. His vakeels returned with a demand for eighteen districts in Hindostan, and additional jaygeers for his family in the Deccan, and liberty to levy contributions on Jeypore. But Colonel Malcolm replied that the British Government had already pledged its faith to the protection of the raja, and would not abandon him. "You have good reason for supporting him," retorted the envoys, "for he violated the sacred laws of hospitality in surrendering Vizier Ali, on your demand." Colonel Malcolm rejected all the demands and rebuked the impertinent taunt, which, however, served to show in what light that transaction was still viewed at the native courts. New difficulties and delays were studiously interposed, till Lord Lake's patience was exhausted, and he threatened to break up his camp and commence the pursuit of Holkar, when his vakeels at once produced the ratified treaty, and confessed that they were only endeavouring to gain credit with their master for their diplomatic tact. |