[Month]-[Year]

To E. F. of [Place]

Witnefs, G. H.

C. D.

Short Account of the Proceedings at Madrafs, and of the Controverfly respecting Tanjour.

W

HEN the Muffelmen had

over-run Hindoftan, and had established the vast empire of the Mogul, it became neceffary for the carrying on fo extensive government, to fubdivide it; and large diftricts and provinces were alloted to temporary governors appointed during pleasure, to overawe the natural princes of the country, and collect from them the ftipulated tribute for the Mogul. It often happened, that thefe temporary governors revolted, and appropriated to their own use the tributes which were to have paffed through their hands. In vain were others fent to relieve them, unless fuch perfons, were rich enough themselves to raise armies, or were fupplied from court with force fufficient to difplace their predeceffors. Thus it was that Ancover de Cawn (father to the present Mahommed Alli Cawn) was appointed Nabob of Arcot; but Chauda Sail being in poffeffion, and fupported by M. Dupleix, Governor

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of Pondicherry, feveral battles were fought, in which Ancover de Cawn was worsted. He implored the aid of the then Governor of Madrass, and received fome ineffectual affiftance; but was at length killed in battle.

Matters were in this ftate when the war between England and France broke out; the French were triumphant in the beginning, and carried every thing before them they took Fort St. David's, and befieged the English in their laft hold, Madrafs. There Alli Cawn, who then claimed the Nabobfhip, had taken fhelter, but, dreading the worft, had fent his wife and children in an English fhip to the Dutch fettlement of. Negopatnam. Lord Pigot gallantly defended the place, and raifed the fiege. This revived the Nabob's almost extinguished hopes. Reinforcements were fent from England, and Gen. Coote took the field, joined by the Nabob with a body of Maratta cavalry, and another from the Rajah of Tanjour. Gen. Coote was every where victorious; the Nabob's intereft grew ftrong in the country; and, by an

article

article of the treaty of Paris, he was confirmed in his dominions. The alliance between the, English and the Nabob was equally useful to both parties; it fecured to him, his dominions, and gave to them the balance of power, able to turn the fcale either way: they were equally respected by the Gentoos and Moors. To this happy ftate Lord Pigot, by his wife manage ment, had brought the company's affairs on the coaft, when he returned to Europe, where he was rewarded with thofe honours he fo justly merited. The Nabob, having thus overcome his difficulties, and feeling himself firmly established in his dominions, began to change his ftile; and, having formed a large well-regulated army, and train of artillery, under the direction of European officers, raifed an alarm in England, especially, as he began to manifeft the defign of fetting afide his eldest fon, who is particularly attached to the English, appointing his fecond fon captain-general and paymafter of all his forces, and allotting him the government of Tanjour; a fi -tuation of the utmost importance, in cafe of a war with France, or any divifion of intereft in the Carnatic.

To prevent the confequence of thefe proceedings, Lord Pigot, as having raised the Nabob to what he is, was fent out, to check his views, and reftore the Rajah of Tanjour,

His lordship's orders were rumoured in India long before his, arrival; and the Nabob publicly declared, that what he paid for could not with any juftice be taken from him. But, to ward against the worst, he fent over agents and money, to purchafe a revocation

of fuch orders, if any fuch were fent. Hence it is, that the London papers have been filled with complaints against Lord Pigot, and the company's fervants. We are told, that the Nabob has always been our ally, firm in our caufe, and that we have extorted vast sums of money from him. The fact is, that we have proved a constant fupport to him, and have, through his artifices and bribes, given flo entirely into his, measures, that we have provoked the Gentoos, leffened our own confequence, and almost, rendered him independent. He has tempted the company's fervants beyond a poffibility of withstanding, in order to extend bis dominion over the natural princes of the country; but he has fo artfully and frugally bestowed his gifts, that he has acquired a princely and encreafing revenue, exclufive of the fovereignty of the country, at lefs than two years purchase. Thefe notorious attempts upon the integrity of its fervants, the flagrant injuftice done to the Rajah of Tanjour, the artful and ambitious fpirit of the Nabob, called upon the company at home to oppofe to it fome fpeedy and effectual reftraints. They faw, the policy as well as juftice of fupporting the Rajah of Tanjour, and of taking fome pains to conciliate the minds of the Gentoos, at the head of whom are the Marattas, a power erful and warlike people. Should a French war take place, it was not thought improbable bot that the enemy might addrefs themselves to them, and take up the cause of the Gentoos in general.

Therefore, it feems clear, that: upon this view of the cafe, the orders given to Lord Pigot were juft and, wife.

Some

Some weeks after his lordship's arrival at Madrafs, he communicated to the Nabob the orders of the company for the restoration of Tanjour, which he had taken some time before with the affiftance of the company's forces, having depofed the old Rajah. The Nabob infifted upon what he called his right to Tanjour, by the laws of India, and by treaties with the company. His reprefentations had no effect. His lordship confidered himself as commiffioned to restore the Rajah, and accordingly he went to Tanjour the beginning of April, 1776.

Upon his return to Fort St. George, the majority of the council difapproved of his proceedings at Tanjour. They reprefented to his lordship, that fuch a measure would be entirely repugnant, to the intereft of the company; that the directors, being at a great diftance, could not be fo able to judge as the council who were on the fpot; that, fince the laft difpatches to England, there had been many revolutions; and, from the then appearance of things, they did not fuppofe it would be for the benefit of the company to restore the King of Tanjour to the throne: but the plain truth was, feven of the council had lent large fums of money on their own account, for which, it is faid, Tanjour was pledged to them as a fecurity; they knew, therefore, that, if Tanjour was reftored to its former king, they fhould lose that fecurity; and they had reafon to fuppofe, from the known cunning of the Nabob, that the money borrowed would be in the fame predicament.

Lord Pigot, finding how matters flood, and that seven to four

of the members of the council were against him, had recourse to ftratagem to obtain a majority. At a meeting of the council in the abfence of Sir R. Fletcher, commander in chief of the company's forces, his lordship told Meffrs. Stratton and Brooke, two of his most violent opponents, that, having fomething to propose with refpect to them, he thought that in decency they fhould withdraw. Upon quitting the council-chamber, he moved for fufpending them, and carried the motion by his own cafting vote: at the fame time orders were iffued for putting Sir Robert Fletcher under arreft. But the members in oppofition having afterwards met the members under fufpenfion, they privately combined together, and, with the affiftance of the military, determined to remove his lordship from the government.

Lord Pigot, apprehenfive of a mutiny, flept in the fort that night; Col. Steuart invited himfelf to breakfast with his lordship the next morning, then to dinner, and to fup with him at his country houfe in the evening, which his lordfhip agreed to; this was the point Col. Steuart wanted to gain, as he could not, without being liable to be tried for mutiny, arreft him in the garrifon, for which purpose he had' an order all that day in his pocket. Col. Steuart went with his lordship in his carriage, which had fcarcely proceeded half a mile from Madras, before Col. Edington rode up and waved his drawn fword over the horfes heads, calling out, Sepoys!

When Capt. Lyfaught, with a party, advanced to the door of the chaife with a pistol in his hand, and told Lord Pigot he was his pri

foner

foner; upon this, Col. Steuart opened the door, took his lordfhip by the arm, and bid him get out.' He was then conveyed to a carriage, which food by the road fide, in which he was carried to the mount, and delivered into the cuftody of Major Horne, the commanding officer on duty there, with a declaration, that if a refcue was attempted his lordship's life fhould answer it. Col. Steuart rode back to the fort that evening, and proclaimed Mr. Stratton, governor. The next day the new government fent to Meffrs. Ruffell, Dalrymple, and Stone, declaring, that as they were too much attached to Lord Pigot to be trusted, they were fufpended, and a few days after, they fent a fimilar meffage to Mr. Latham, who had only been prefent at one council. Col. Edington was fhortly after fent, at midnight, to remove Lord Pigot further up the country, but whither, it was kept a profound fecret; on his being introduced, his lordship declared he would not be removed alive, except to his fort, or on board one of his majefty's fhips. -A report was circulated, and fupported by affidavit, of an attempt of the Nabob's fecond fon to procure Lord Pigot's affaffination; and from the character of the Nabob's fon, and the declaration made at the time of his lordship's commitment, this report gains universal credit.

It appears, however, upon the whole, that his lordship's conduct has not been altogether unexceptionable. In a letter from Gen. Clavering, at Calcutta, to Col. Stuart, at Madrafs, the general expreffes his joy at the colonel's fuccefs in placing the majority of the

council in the government; confiders the confequences of Lord' Pigot's ufurpation of the government, as leading inevitably to a war in the Carnatic; and afcribes the advantages arifing to the company from the prefervation of fo faithful an ally as the Nabob of Arcot, chiefly to the colonel's fpirit and magnanimity. The general at the fame time affures the council of Madrafs of the firm fupport of the board at Bengal.

To the fame effect, likewife, Mr. Haftings writes to Mr. Stratton, from Fort St. George. He' approves and applauds the measure of wrefting from the hands of Lord Pigot the powers of government; affures him, that the recovery of the conftitution from an ufurpation fo confirmed, and from a fpirit fo determined as his lordfhip's, muft be ratified at home; and profeffes, that his opinion is formed upon the most folid and impartial grounds: he likewise, in the warmest manner, expreffes his feelings on the determination of a conteft of fo delicate a nature, fo much to the credit and advantage of his friends, without bloodshed; and concludes with owning that he fhall be easier in his mind when he hears that their late prefident is returned to England, as his prefence must be productive of fome diftrefs, and check the operations of government.