A History of the Mahrattas v2.c36.96

v2.c36.96

The Bengal Government, before they received intelligence of the disgraceful proceedings at Wurgaom, upon hearing that the Bombay Presidency had sent an army into the field, had decided on sending Colonel Goddard to their support, but they would not again relinquish authority over his army. Even before they heard of the convention they vested Colonel Goddard both with the separate charge of their army, and with distinct powers as their envoy plenipotentiary at the court of Poona. The Governor-General, upon receipt of further intelligence, without waiting to learn the result of Goddard’s bold and judicious march, sanctioned the proceedings, however it might turn out, by recording his approbation and applause. The whole conduct of the majority of the Bengal Government was on this occasion admirable. Their first determination on hearing of the disastrous news was to place their military power, offensive and defensive, in the best possible state, without betraying either a weakness or alarm that might have encouraged other native states to rise against them. A brigade was ordered to the banks of the Jumna, and Sir Eyre Coote, the Commander-in-Chief, proceeded to inspect and prepare their military resources on the north-western frontier, the quarter most likely to be invaded. Mr. Hastings, whose after conduct made amends for his earlier errors, and whose difficulties had tended to improve and exalt his mind, showed at this trying period all the great qualities of which he was possessed, and prudence and ingenuity, vigour and moderation, are alike conspicuous in the measures which he suggested. Superior to the inveteracy of Mr. Francis, and entirely exempt from the impatience of Sir Eyre Coote, which were displayed in a particular manner in regard to the measures of the Bombay Government, Mr. Hastings applied his knowledge of mankind to the art of good government; and fortunately, by the support of Mr. Barwell and his own casting vote as President, he commanded the majority in council. Become wiser by the past, though his present words were a severe censure on the hasty exercise of authority he had formerly supported, Mr. Hastings observes, ‘To mark our want of confidence in them (alluding of course to the Bombay Council), by any public act, would weaken theirs in us; to load them with harsh and unoperating reproaches would indispose them to our authority, at the same time that it would absolve them from its effects; and to bind their deliberations by absolute and indiscretional orders might eventually disable them from availing themselves of any fortuitous advantages which the confusion of the Mahratta government is more likely to offer them than any plan which we could prescribe to them, or which they could form on the letter of our instructions. In a word, such a conduct, by inflaming the passions of men, whom we are not to regard as exempt from the ordinary infirmities of humanity, would prove the surest means of converting the powers which were still left in their hands into the instruments of opposition, and even of the defeat of the measures which require their agency, and cannot be accomplished without it. Let us rather excite them to exert themselves for the retrieval of their past misfortunes, and arm them with means adequate to that end; restricting their powers where the object is determinate, and permitting a more liberal extension of them in cases which are too variable and uncertain for positive injunctions.’