In concluding the remarkable events of this year, we must turn to India, and witness the termination of the career of Tippoo Sahib. This prince, for ever restless under the losses which he had suffered from the British, though nominally at peace with them, was seeking alliances to help him once more to contend with them. He sought to engage the Afghans in his favour, and to bring over the British ally, the Nizam of the Deccan. Failing in this, he made overtures to the French Republic through the Governor of the Isle of France. Buonaparte, as we have said, had Tippoo in his mind when he proposed to march to India and conquer it, but only a few hundreds of French of the lowest caste reached Seringapatam from the Isle of France. Lord Mornington, afterwards the Marquis of Wellesley, determined to anticipate the plans of Tippoo, and dispatched General Harris with twenty-four thousand men into Mysore, at the same time ordering another force of seven thousand, under General Stuart, from Bombay, to co-operate with him. To these also was added a strong reinforcement of British troops in the pay of the Nizam, and some regiments of sepoys, commanded by English officers. The united forces of Harris and the Nizam came into conflict with Tippoo's army on the 22nd of March, 1799, when within two days' march of Seringapatam. In this action, Colonel Wellesley, afterwards the Duke of Wellington, greatly distinguished himself, and the success of the action was ascribed to his regiment, the 34th. On the 5th of April General Harris invested Seringapatam, and on the 14th General Stuart arrived with the Bombay army. Tippoo soon made very humble overtures for peace, but the British, having no faith in him, continued the siege, and the city was carried by storm on the 4th of May, and Tippoo himself was found amongst the slain. Two of his sons fell into the hands of the victors; his territories were divided between the British and the Nizam. The former retained Seringapatam and the island on which it is situated, and the whole of his territory on the Malabar coast, with Coimbra, and all the rest of his possessions stretching to the Company's territories west and east, thus completing their dominion from sea to sea. The Nizam received equally valuable regions in the interior, and a province was bestowed on the descendant of the Hindoo rajah who had been dispossessed of it by Hyder Ali, Tippoo's father. Thus was the British empire of India freed from its most formidable enemy, and thus was it enabled, soon afterwards, to send an armament up the Red Sea to assist in driving the French from Egypt.
The year 1800 opened in the British Parliament by a debate on an Address to the king, approving of the reply to an overture for peace by Buonaparte, as First Consul of France. The letter addressed directly to the king was a grave breach of diplomatic etiquette, and was answered by Lord Grenville, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, in a caustic but dignified tone. A correspondence ensued between Lord Grenville and M. Talleyrand, as French Minister for Foreign Affairs; but it ended in nothing, as the British Minister distinctly declined to treat. If Buonaparte had been sincerely desirous of peace, he must have withdrawn the French army from Egypt, as it was there with the open declaration of an intention to make that country a stepping-stone to India. But, so far from this, Buonaparte was, at the same moment, preparing to make fresh and still more overwhelming invasions of Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, and the proposal was simply made to gain time.
In July of the present year the Union of Ireland with Great Britain was carried. Pitt and Lord Cornwallis had come to the conclusion that a double Government was no longer possible, and that unless the Irish were to be allowed to exterminate one another, as they had attempted to do during the late rebellion, the intervention of the British Parliament was absolutely necessary. A resolution had passed the British Parliament in 1799, recommending this union, and the news of this created a tempest of indignation in Protestant Ireland. In January, 1799, the speech on the Address to the throne in the Irish Parliament was, on this account, vehemently opposed, and an amendment was carried against the Government by a majority of one; yet in January, 1800, a motion was carried, at the instigation of Lord Castlereagh, the Secretary, in favour of the union, by a majority of forty-two. Whence this magical change in twelve months? On the 5th of February the whole plan of the union was detailed by Lord Castlereagh, the principal Secretary of State for Ireland, in the Irish Commons. He stated that it was intended to give to Ireland in the Parliament of the United Kingdom four lords spiritual sitting in rotation of sessions, and twenty-eight lords temporal elected for life by peers of Ireland, and that the Irish representatives in the united House of Commons should be a hundred. The motion for this plan was carried in the Irish Commons by a majority of forty-two in spite of a magnificent speech from Grattan, and by a great majority in the House of Lords; but this was in the face of the most unmitigated amazement on the part of the opposition, and of the people, who were not in the secret. Their rage was beyond description. On the 13th of March Sir John Parnell declared that this measure had been effected by the most unexampled corruption, and moved for an Address to his Majesty, imploring him to dissolve this Parliament, and present the question to be decided by a new one. But the Solicitor-General declared that this motion was "unfurling the bloody flag of rebellion;" and Mr. Egan replied that the Solicitor-General and other members of the administration had already "unfurled the flag of prostitution and corruption." But the measure was now passed, and that by the same Parliament which, only a year before, had rejected the proposition in toto. But what were the means employed by the British Government to produce this change? The answer is simple; a million and a quarter was devoted to the compensation of borough owners, lawyers who hoped to improve their prospects by entering the House, and the Dublin tradesmen.
The names and prices of all the purchased members of the Irish Parliament were preserved in the Irish Black and Red lists. A selection of a few of them will interest the reader:—
J. Bingham, created Lord Clanmorris; £8,000 for two seats, and £15,000 compensation for Tuam. Had first offered himself for sale to the anti-Unionists.
Joseph H. Blake, created Lord Wallscourt.
Sir J. G. Blackwood, created Lord Dufferin.
Sir John Blaquiere, created Lord de Blaquiere, with offices and pensions.
Lord Boyle, son of Lord Shannon, father and son received each £15,000 for their boroughs.
Charles H. Coote, created Lord Castlecoote, with a regiment, patronage in Queen's County, and £7,500 in cash.
James Cuffe; his father made Lord Tyrawley.
Lord Fitzgerald, a pension and peerage.
Luke Fox, made judge of Common Pleas.
William Fortescue, a pension of £3,000 a year.
J. Galbraith, a baronetage.
Richard Hare, made Lord Ennismore, with patronage.
Colonel B. Heneker, a regiment, and £3,500 a-year for his seat.
Hon. J. Hutchinson, made Lord Hutchinson, and a general.
Hugh Howard, made Postmaster-General.
William Handcock, an extraordinary instance. He made and sang songs against the Union, in 1799, at a public dinner, and made and sang songs for it in 1800; for which he was made Lord Castlemaine.
W. G. Joscelyn, promotion in the army, and his brother made Bishop of Lismore.
William Johnson, according to his own statement, "returned to Parliament by Lord Castlereagh, to put an end to it;" a judgeship.
Rt. Hon. Sir H. Langrishe, £15,000 for his patronage of Knocktopher, and a commissionership of revenue.
T. Lingray, £1,500, and a commissionership of stamps.
T. Lingray, junior, £1,500, and made usher at the Castle.
J. Longfield, made Lord Longville.
Lord Loftus, £30,000 for boroughs, and made an English marquis.
H. D. Massey, £4,000 in cash.
Rt. Hon. Lodge Morris, made a peer.
Sir R. Musgrove, made receiver of customs, with £1,200 a year.
James M'Cleland, made Baron of Exchequer.
Sir W. G. Newcomen, a peerage for his wife, etc.
H. F. Prittle, made Lord Dunally.
Sir Richard Quin, made a peer.
The Hon. H. Skeffington, made clerk of Paper Office at the Castle, with £7,500 for his patronage.
H. M. Sandford, made Lord Mount Sandford.
John Stewart, made Attorney-General and a baronet.
Hon. B. Stratford, £7,500, as half compensation for Baltinglass.
Hon. J. Stratford, £7,500 for the other half of Baltinglass, and paymaster of foreign troops, with £1,300 a year.
Rt. Hon. J. Toler, a peerage and chief justiceship.
Hon. R. Trench, made a peer and ambassador.