stupendous fortification, which was set aside in favour of that of Major Beatson; and few men would have possessed like him that moral energy which strengthened him to undertake the sole responsibility of a mode of attack which was opposed to the opinions of those men to whose hands its execution was necessarily intrusted. The complete success, however, which attended it, amply demonstrated its excellence; and gratifying as the result was to all who had a share in that gallant struggle, to the heart of Major Beatson it must have been productive of a triumph which amply recompensed him for his previous anxiety. Subsequently to this period, this able officer was not engaged in active service, although he was still most beneficially employed in new modelling the East India Company's establishment at St. Helena, in which command he conducted himself in a manner worthy of the high character he had always maintained. The Report, from his own pen, of " the operations of the right column in the attack upon Tippoo Sultaun's fortified camp on the night of the 6th of February 1792," which is appended to his memoir, contains much interesting detail, and developes the real cause of the failure of that well conceived enterprise, which appears to have been entirely owing to an error in the wording of the orders, to the letter of which, Col. Nesbitt, in opposition to Major Beatson, obstinately persisted in adhering. The services of Major-General Goddard, of Major D'Aguilar to whose gallant exertions was chiefly owing the progress made by the British arms in Java, and of Lieut.-Col. Nugent, are strongly calculated to excite the attention of all who feel an interest in the affairs of India; but for these we are compelled to refer to the work itself. The defence however of Delhi, by Major-General Burn, requires to be briefly noticed, and will always be regarded by military men as a most successful effort of united skill and fortitude. A mere sketch of the nature of the place will sufficiently illustrate the untenable nature of this city, the walls of which are upwards of ten miles in circumference, the whole much decayed, and were never intended to be used as defences; yet this immense extent was successfully maintained by a comparatively trifling force, until the siege was raised by the approach of the grand army, against nearly 20,000 men with a full train of artillery, which was employed with almost incessant activity. This gallant defence well merited the approbation which it still continues to receive, and which should always accompany such spirited and unabating firmness as was displayed during its course. Here, however, we must pause; and, after exhibiting to the European reader a sketch of some of the difficulties attendant on the march of an Indian army, which will also be strongly exemplified by referring to the original and authentic details of the retreat of the detachment under Brigadier-General Monson, which concludes the volume, proceed to close this notice. A detachment of the army under the command of Col. Leslie, after crossing the Jumna, arrived, at the end of five hours' march, at the only well which had been seen on the road; the spirits of the troops became instantly cheered with hope, but they were doomed to further suffering, as the well was found to be quite dry. Proceeding on its march in this distressed condition, the intense heat of the sun, with scorching hot winds on a dry extensive plain, was dreadful; and nearly fifty sepoys and followers of the camp perished from the want of water. Some of the wells at which they arrived about noon had been stopped up, and others poisoned, by the enemy; fortunately however this was not the case wita all, and the detachment halted from its fatigues. Upwards of twenty officers fell sick in consequence of this day's march; Captain James Crawford, one of the best officers in the army, died raving mad, and three or four others died a few days after, from the same cause. The thermometer was from 114° to 120° in the tents, notwithstanding thick linings and a large fly five or six feet from the tent. We have now, as far as the limited space to which we are necessarily restricted will allow, passed in review some of the most considerable and interesting of the biographical notices contained in the present volume, and have also, by compressing as much as possible several of the curious details with which it abounds, endeavoured to introduce our readers to a more intimate acquaintance with the valuable stores which it comprises. From these brief sketches, some judgment may be formed of the variety and importance of the matter which the editor has collected together from private as well as public sources of information. The novelty which attaches to many of the details given in this work, as well as the authenticity which is stamped upon them by the character of the men on whose authority they rest, must give it a peculiar value in the eyes of the historian; while the brilliant exploits of which it is destined to perpetuate the memory, cannot fail to stimulate the young aspirant after professional fame, to emulate the gallantry and conduct of those whose glorious deeds are here recorded. It will be seen by a reference to the title, that the editor has confined himself to notices of the "General and Field Officers" of the Indian Army; but we are happy to perceive that he purposes speedily to publish a third volume, which shall contain, in addition to the services of the Field officers not yet given, those also of the Captains who have most particularly distinguished themselves, many of whom, we well know, have fully merited the honour of a station in such a work, by the side of officers who have attained to a higher rank in the service. ON MY GRAY HAIRS. My night-complexioned locks are tinged with snow, Yet can't I quench the hope my soul that draws BION. ASIATIC JOURNAL-LIBEL ON LORD HASTINGS AND OTHERS. To the Editor of the Oriental Herald. SIR,-In the Asiatic Journal, for November, I have seen a letter signed "JUSTITIA," the continuation of some former correspondence with you. With those portions of its spiteful contents which concern you personally, it is none of my business to meddle: you are possibly able, and probably willing enough to defend yourself, at this time of day, against the secondhand abuse of second-rate slandermongers. Neither do I consider it worth the while, or becoming the station, of any freeborn and free-hearted Englishman, to waste argument or notice on the unworthy opinions disclosed by this degenerate countryman. In the East Indies, in the baleful service of the Company, and under such Despots as your ADAMS and AMHERSTS, it may be the fashion to think that simple" contumacy" on the part of any subject towards any "Government,” is at all times a crime per se,without reference to who is right and who wrong. It may be there allowable to hold, that Englishmen in civil life should be sent about their business" for treating" orders of their SUPERIORS (!) with contempt :"-that it is criminal in so mean a creature as a British Free Mariner3 to set up his pretended dignity in opposition to the opinions or mandates of the delegated administration of a British Dependency:-that "apparent contempt" for such "LEGITIMATE authority" is irreverence towards God!!!— that a religious, because a legitimate-revering Journal, like the Asiatic, is justified in the pious fraud of falsely reporting a rival's speech. If such doctrines be the fashion under the India Company's system, I can but say that the Company and their system, which breeds such principles and such men, are a nuisance in a free state, and cannot too speedily be abated. But my immediate business, Mr. Editor, is with the conclusion of this letter. The writer, unknown it is true, and only to be guessed at from his warm defence of the Court's notorious despatch of the 28th November 1821-this professed abhorrer of all "anonymous appeals involving slander on individuals, and unfounded calumny,' " has not scrupled to indite and publish the following atrocious and actionable libels on the Marquis of Hastings, Mr. and Captain Russell, Sir Wm. Rumbold, Dr. Lamb, Messrs. Hastings and William Palmer. I heartily congratulate the Proprietors in having a Court of Directors who have manfully and fearlessly exposed and reprobated the shameful intrigues which the Hyderabad Papers disclose. I single out no individual-BE HE HIGH OR LOWwho may have taken a part in the business. It appears to be of a most nefarious character; and whether one party is to blame or another, all I care about is, that the Court of Directors should set their faces against such measures, in a manner so decided, that it shall be a guide to all future Governments to avoid lending 3 p. 553. 4 p. 552. 1 Asiatic Journ. p. 553. 2 p. 552. 5 ibid. P. 70, Hyderabad Papers; not the 1st Nov. as erroneously quoted in Asiatic Journal, p. 553. 7 p. 553. themselves to the insidious representations of interested parties, imbued with a cupidity that would WRING THE HEART'S BLOOD from the POOR Native Prince & whose coffers were doomed to be the prey of such USURIOUS VULTURES. I am not so unreasonable as to expect the assent of a single reader to my anonymous declaration of individual opinion concerning the transactions or the men, thus spoken of by this most foul-mouthed calumniator. But of the Hyderabad Papers, multiplied copies are in circulation among the Proprietors of India stock, and their friends; the questions are of great public interest, likely to become matter of Parliamentary discussion in both houses;-and it is in the power of almost every one to get access to these papers. I do therefore earnestly entreat those who desire to think and judge for themselves, to withhold all manner of belief and confidence from the slanderous and libellous denunciations in this manifesto; from the demi-official press of the ruling party in the Direction. I entreat them, by their love of justice towards so many men; towards the absent, the oppressed, the ruined,—to read and judge for themselves. I have no fear of the result; being persuaded that no honest and unbiassed man can read this volume through, without being fully satisfied of the innocence of the accused on all the material points, and of the guilt, madness, or folly of their oppressors, the late and present Government of Bengal. But those who would read the Papers to advantage, must do so with perseverance; as they go along, they must make their own notes and references-for, with felicitous carelessness, the editors of this fearfulsized volume have omitted to smooth the reader's rugged path by such aids of indexes and references as might tempt perusal, and take off something of forbiddingness. It was Lo part of their object so to do. The essence of the infamous charges countenanced by the majority against the individuals particularized before, is specified with concentrated venom in the quotation from the Asiatic Journal recited before. The shufflings and affectations about "HIGH and low," "naming no individual," "teaching FUTURE governments," &c. are quite needless; the inuendoes of the libeller are plain enough. They wound, inasmuch as it is profoundly humiliating to those against whom they are anonymously levelled, to have been subjected to such assaults of the base and vulgar, even when unsuccessful. But if a perusal of the Papers shall fully prove to general satisfaction the converse of all the assertions against the Marquis of Hastings, and the other gentlemen, what will be the consequence to all parties, accusers and accused? 1. If it shall be demonstrated, in respect to the Marquis of Hastings, that he did not spend one shilling of his ward's fortune; that he did not approve, but discouraged, her husband (Sir W. Rumbold's) joining the Hyderabad Bank; that he sanctioned no transaction of that house with the Nizam, but for public ends-bona fide, to benefit that state, and strengthen the alliance: This poor Native Prince is a personage whom the Resident at Hyderabad himself declares to have a hoard of private treasure not surpassed by any Monarch in Europe, not a rupee of which would he suffer to be touched for any purpose but to minister to his private pleasures. His public coffers were emptied by his own minister, Chundoo Loll, whom the East India Company's Government had fixed on this poor Prince for their benefit rather than his own. 2. If it shall be proved with respect to the Resident, Mr. Russell, that he is innocent of any connexion, combination, or other unworthy or concealed acts, in dereliction of his duty; that he did not promote the advantage of the bank under colour of public good; that he was a most deserving and able servant; and, in the most trying times, through his energy, backed by the sinews of war furnished from this bank, did cause a disaffected ally to render all the service of a zealous friend : 3. If it be made to appear, incontrovertibly, with respect to the bank of Palmer and Co., at Hyderabad, that their transactions were fair, honourable, above-board, beneficial in an eminent degree to the Nizam's country and government, by creating and organizing public credit; by lowering the general and ancient rates of usance; by introducing largely the consumption of British manufactures, and by sinking vast sums in opening new channels for the produce of the country; that their conduct was even signally patriotic and most beneficial to the British Government, in the critical moment of a general native confederacy against England, by their large and hazardous advances of funds, without which the Nizam's regular troops could not have moved, or been kept embodied, far less have co-operated so effectually as they did in all Lord Hastings's military operations; that the loan so gratuitously assumed to be fictitious, was real, its interest and bonus reasonable in rate, and equitable in principle, under due advertence to time, place, and like transactions, in Eng land and elsewhere: IF ALL THIS CAN BE PROVED from the Papers before the public, and there is no doubt but it will be so proved, what will that English public then say to those rulers abroad who have, nevertheless, first calumniated the Marquis of Hastings and Mr. Russell, or encouraged their being calumniated behind their backs; and, following that up in a blind and mad career of persecution, proceeded, step by step, 1st, to cut down, arbitrarily, and ex post facto, the contracts of the bank to an assumed standard of English interest on a doubtful point of law; 2d, to forfeit their own pledged security; 3d, to interdict all intercourse between the bank and its great state debtors; 4th, to inhibit the said debtors from paying acknowledged and guaranteed balances which they were honour. ably ready to discharge; 5th, to outlaw the bank, by proclaiming it out of the pale of British countenance and protection; 6th, to proscribe and banish the European partners, without trial, or without giving decent time for winding up their vast concerns of a million and a half; and, 7th, to expel the native partners, by force or influence, from the territories of a nominally independent ally! The close of this eventful history may easily be anticipated. It ended, a few months ago, as it could not but end-in the bankruptcy of the firm, involving not only the total ruin of the unfortunate and persecuted partners, but an infinite destruction of property, in the persons of numerous creditors and constituents, European and native. It is not the least remarkable feature in this memorable and successful campaign of might against right, to see their creditors and trustees His convincing and most eloquent Vindication, with the forcible Memorial of Mr. William Palmer, are in print also, and form essential portions of the evidence on these Hyderabad questions. 10 See the Courier newspaper for December 1824, in which have been advertised meetings of the creditors and trustees at Hyderabad, their strong resolutions, &e. Oriental Herald, Vol. 4. F |