A History of the Mahrattas v2.c42.4

v2.c42.4

A.D. 1789.—When the envoy deputed to Calcutta submitted his proposals, the Governor-General found himself under considerable embarrassment. No specific revisal of the political relations between the English and Nizam Ally had taken place since the treaty of 1768; but the treaty of Madras, between the English and Hyder in 1769, and that of Mangalore with Tippoo in 1784, had each recognized both father and son as lawful sovereigns of that territory; of which, by the treaty with Nizam Ally in 1768, Hyder was declared usurper; and of which the English had then arrogated to themselves the certainty of a speedy reduction. The Governor-General was, as already mentioned, prohibited by Act of Parliament from entering on any new treaty, without express authority from the Court of Directors; but he was particularly desirous of securing the alliance both of Nizam Ally and the Mahrattas, in consequence of his belief in Tippoo’s hostile proceedings, already commencing by an attempt to subjugate Travancore, without appearing as a party in the aggression. The proposed alliance of the Mahrattas Lord Cornwallis had been constrained to decline; but the danger which now more distinctly threatened, and the covert nature of Tippoo’s operations, which precluded proofs wholly sufficient for legal justification, induced Lord Cornwallis to adopt a line of conduct more objectionable than an avowed defensive alliance. In reply to Meer Abdool Kassim’s application, Lord Cornwallis explained the reason of his inability to perform that part of the treaty of 1768 which related to the conquest of the Carnatic Balaghaut; but by a letter which he now wrote to Nizam Ally, which letter he declared equally binding as a treaty, he promised that should the English at any future period obtain possession of the territory in question, they would then perform their engagements to him and to the Mahrattas. This promise certainly implied at least an eventual intention of subduing Tippoo, and that inference was strengthened by an explanation of a part of the treaty, relative to the two battalions, which was before equivocal. Instead of being furnished with these battalions, as before expressed, when they could be spared, they were now to be sent, when required, and to be paid for at the same rate as they cost the Company; merely on condition that they were never to be employed against the allies of the British Government. These allies were at the same time expressly named; the Mahrattas were included, but Tippoo was omitted.