H 46 DEATH OF SINDIA. [CHAP. of regular infantry, five hundred pieces of cannon, and a hundred thousand horse. But he dismounted from his elephant at the gates of Poona, and in the great hall of audience placed himself below all the hereditary nobles of the state. The Peshwa entered the room, and desired him to take his seat among the highest dignitaries, when he replied that he was unworthy of that honour, and untying a bundle which he carried under his arm, produced a pair of slippers, which he put before the Peshwa, saying, "This is my occupation; it was that of my father," and it was with great apparent reluctance that he allowed himself to be conducted to the honourable seat prepared for him. Battle with Sindia and Nana Furnuvese, after this transaction, maintained an outward appearance of respect and civility, though plotting each other's destruction; but their respective forces in Hindostan could not be restrained from open hostility. They had been engaged together in levying tribute from the Rajpoots, and had captured two forts, but quarrelled about the division of the spoil. De Boigne, with 20,000 horse and 9,000 regular infantry, fell on Holkar's army of 30,000 horse, and four battalions disciplined by Europeans. The conflict was desperate, and the four battalions were completely annihilated, only one European officer escaping the carnage. Holkar retreated with the wreck of his army, and on his route sacked and burnt Sindia's capital, Oojein. This battle rendered Sindia absolute in Hindostan, and served to aggravate the intrigues at Poona, and to deepen the alarm of Nana Furauvese. But he was unexpectedly re Death of lieved from all anxiety by the death of Sindia, on the 12th of February, 1794. Had he lived a few months longer, a contest for the office of chief minister of the Peshwa, and the supreme command of the Mahratta power would have been inevitable. For thirtyfive years he may be said to have passed his life in the camp, devoting himself to the improvement of his army, and the increase of his resources. His character has been aptly 47 XVII.] DISPUTE BETWEEN THE MINISTRY AND THE COURT. summed up in a few words, by the great historian of the Mahrattas, “he was a man of great political sagacity, and considerable genius, of deep artifice, restless ambition and implacable revenge." He received from his father a small principality; he bequeathed to his successor, a lad of thirteen, a kingdom comprising all the territory from the Sutlege to Allahabad, two-thirds of Malwa, and the fairest provinces in the Deccan, as well as the finest native army in India. Enlargement of the Governor-General, 1786. The proceedings in England in connection with of the powers the government of India, subsequent to Mr. Pitt's Bill in 1784, will now claim attention. The Regulating Act of 1773, which created the office of Governor-General, made him responsible for the safety of India, but gave him only a single vote in Council, and rendered him liable, on every occasion, to be overruled by his colleagues. The distractions of Hastings's administration are to be attributed, in a great measure, to this anomalous clause, which frequently brought the Government to a dead lock. Lord Cornwallis therefore refused to accept the office, subject to this encumbrance, and a Bill was introduced and passed in 1786 to enable the Governor-General and the Governors of the minor Presidencies to act in opposition to the opinion of the Council, when they deemed it necessary for the welfare of the country, the counsellors being at liberty to record the reasons of their dissent. Of the wisdom of this measure no better proof can be offered than the fact that it has worked beneficially for nearly eighty years. The Declara The gravest movement of this period, however, tory Act, 1788. was the consummation of Mr. Pitt's plan of transferring the powers of government from the Company to the Crown. In the year 1787, a conflict of parties arose in the republic of Holland; the French and the English Governments espoused opposite sides, and there was every prospect of a rupture between them. The interference of France in the politics of India, had been for half a century the great object of dread to the Court of Directors, and under the apprehen 48 MR. PITT'S DECLARATORY ACT. XVII.] sion that they might have again to encounter it, they now solicited the Ministry to augment the European force in India, and four regiments were immediately raised for their service. Happily, the peace with France was not interrupted, but, as soon as the storm had blown over, the Court of Directors, anxious to save the cost of the regiments, declared that they were no longer necessary. Lord Cornwallis had earnestly recommended the augmentation of the European force in India, to give greater security to our position, and the Board of Control therefore determined that the regiments should be sent out. The Court of Directors, however, refused to allow them to embark in their ships, and as the contest, which thus arose between the India House and the Ministry, involved the great question of the substantial powers of government, Mr. Pitt referred the question to the decision of Parliament. Discussions in Parliament, 1788. On the 25th of February, 1788, Mr. Pitt introduced a Bill to declare the meaning of the Act of 1784, and affirmed that "there was no step which could have been taken by the Court of Directors before the passing of that Bill, touching the military and political concerns of India, and the collection, management, and application of the revenues, which the Board of Control had not a right to take by the provisions of that Bill." He stated, moreover, that in proposing his Bill of 1784 it was his intention thus to transfer the whole powers of government to the Crown. The organs of the Court of Directors in the House stated that they never would have supported that measure, if they had supposed such to have been its intent; and they discovered, when too late, that in voting for Mr. Pitt's Bill they had committed an act of suicide. An objection was raised to the despatch of the regiments on the constitutional doctrine that no troops could belong to the King for which Parliament had not voted the money. Mr. Pitt thereupon stated his conviction that the army in India ought to be on one establishment, and to belong to the King, and that it was not XVII.] THE CHARTER OF 1793. 49 without an eye to such an arrangement that he had brought forward the present motion. But, notwithstanding the boundless influence which he enjoyed in the House, the members were alarmed at the immense power which he attempted to grasp. Many of his stanch supporters deserted him, and the Opposition were very sanguine in their hopes of being able to overthrow the Ministry on this occasion. There were four tempestuous debates on the question, one of which was prolonged to eight o'clock in the morning. Mr. Pitt had encountered no such opposition in the present Parliament, and to prevent being beaten in the successive stages of the Bill, was under the necessity of making great concessions, and adding several conciliatory clauses to it. The Declaratory Act of 1788 rivetted on the East India Company the fetters which had been forged by the Act of 1784. The Charter of 1793. The period for which the exclusive privileges had been granted to the East India Company expired in 1793, and on the 23rd of April, the Court of Directors presented a petition to Parliament for the renewal of them. But new commercial and manufacturing interests had been springing up in England with great vigour since the last concession, and petitions poured into the House from Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol, and other seats of industry and enterprize, protesting against the continuance of a monopoly in so large a trade, and the exclusion of the country in general from any share in it. The Court of Directors appointed a Committee to draw up a reply to the petitioners, and to demonstrate that it was essential to the national in terests that the East India Company should continue to be the sole agent for managing the commerce and government of India. The Ministry found the existing state of things, more especially since the Declaratory Act, exceedingly convenient to themselves, and resolved to oppose all innovation. Fortunately for the Company, Lord Corwallis, notwithstanding the Mysore war, had placed the finances of India in a more flourishing condition than they had ever been in before; 50 ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF THE RENEWAL. [CHAP. and, it may be said, than they have ever been in since. Mr. Dundas was thus enabled to ask the House, with an air of triumph, whether they were prepared to stop the tide of this prosperity, for a mere theory. Arguments for renewing the Charter, 1793. The arguments which he adduced for continuing the power and privileges of the East India Company were, that to throw the trade open to all England would retard the payment of the Company's debts; that it would check the growing commerce of India, and that it would inevitably lead to colonization and ensure the loss of the country to England. He objected to the dissolution of the Company, because the patronage of India, added to the other sources of influence in the Crown, would destroy the balance of the Constitution. These arguments, solemnly propounded by the Ministers, at a period when free trade was considered the direct road to ruin, were received with blind confidence by the House, and the privileges of the Company were renewed, with little modification, for a period of twenty years. To meet the clamours of the merchants and manufacturers of England, the Company was directed to allot 3,000 tons a year for private trade, but as the privilege was hampered with the heavy charges and delays of their commercial system, it was little prized, and seldom used. An effort was made by Mr. Wilberforce, one of the ablest and most enlightened members of the House, to obtain permission for missionaries and schoolmasters to proceed to India, and give voluntary instruction to the people, but he was vehemently opposed by the old Indians in the Court of Directors, who had imbibed the fantastic notion that the diffusion of knowledge would be fatal to British rule in India, and that the presence of missionaries would be followed by rebellion; and the House was persuaded by Mr. Dundas to reject the proposal. Remarks on the The Charter, as it is called, of 1793, may be Charter, 1793. regarded as a faithful reflection of the narrow views of the age, which, considered that the introduction of |