A History of England, Period III. Constitutional Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

It was only outside the limits of Europe that the English showed a decided superiority, and that great successes kept up the hope of both ministry and people during this fearful period, when the arrival of Bonaparte in England was daily expected, and when as yet all Europe seemed to hold aloof from our alliance. Surinam had been Success of the war in India against the Mahrattas. conquered from the Dutch, and in the year 1805 a great war was brought to a triumphant conclusion in India. After the capture in 1799 of Seringapatam, the capital of Tippoo Sahib, the ruler of Mysore, the territories of Mysore had been divided by what is known as the Tripartite Treaty between the English, the Nizam of the Deccan, and a descendant of the ancient Rajahs of Mysore, whom Hyder Ali had dispossessed. By these new acquisitions the English had come in contact with the great Mahratta power.

Extent of the Mahratta empire.

The great empire conquered by this warlike race, which had been founded by Sivajee in the seventeenth century, extended from Delhi in the north to the Tumbudra, a southern tributary of the Kistna on the south, and from the Bay of Bengal on the east to Gujerat in the west. The authority of the Rajah of Satara, nominal head of the race, had passed into the hands of his minister the Peishwa, who resided at Poonah, in the Western Ghauts. His authority had in turn become nominal, and the empire was broken up among five great chiefs, of whom the Peishwa may be ranked as one. The others were the Bonslah or Rajah of Berar, occupying the north and east of the Deccan, and including Cuttack and the mouths of the Mahanadi in his territories; Sindia, who occupied the north-west of the Deccan and Kandesh, and whose property extended northwards through a portion of Malwa as far as Delhi, of which he held possession, and westward into Gujerat, where he had considerable property; Holkar, who lay almost entirely in the Malwa, north of the Vindyha range of mountains, to the east of Sindia, between him and Berar; and, lastly, the Guicowar, who possessed in Gujerat all except those territories that were in the hands of Sindia. He alone of the Mahratta chiefs preserved neutrality during this great war. To the south of the Mahratta states lay that part of the Deccan which was governed by the Nizam, now tributary to the English; and south of his dominions, touching on its north-west the southern extreme of the Mahratta country, was Mysore. All three Presidencies were therefore in contact with one or other of the Mahratta states.

At the beginning of the century the Mahrattas were at war among themselves, and Holkar, in his rivalry with Sindia, had thought it advisable to expel the Peishwa from Poonah, and to set up a creature of his own there. The deposed Peishwa sought an asylum among the English in Bombay. The presence of the predatory chief Holkar in the south induced the English to occupy their northern frontier in Mysore with an army of observation. While things were in this position the Peishwa offered to enter into a perpetual treaty with the English if they would reinstate him in Poonah. Lord Wellesley Lord Wellesley's subsidiary system. was at this time Governor-General of India. He had set on foot a policy which had been much opposed by the authorities in the India House, and the support of which by Pitt had been constantly assaulted by the Opposition. This policy is known as the subsidiary system. It was found impossible, in the presence of the native powers, naturally anxious to rid themselves of the English conquerors, and certain to find ready assistance from the French, to remain in a state of inaction. On the other hand, Wellesley did not think it desirable or just to conquer and annex all the neighbouring territories, which would in fact only have enlarged the sphere of danger. He preferred to establish English influence, to oblige the native rulers to enter into permanent treaties with him, to place the political management of their provinces in the hands of a British resident, to pay for the support of an army largely officered by Europeans, while the native princes, at the same time, retained the domestic government in their own hands. It is now generally allowed that this was a wise system, but at the time the outcry against it was so great, that even after the success of the Mahratta war Wellesley had in fact to yield to it, and returned to England in 1805. While this policy, however, was uppermost, such an offer as that of the Peishwa was certain to be accepted, and at the end of 1802, by the Treaty of Bassein, the English accepted the friendship of the Peishwa, and undertook to restore him.

Outbreak of the Mahratta war. 1803.

The threatening attitude of the English compelled the Mahratta chiefs for a time to lay aside their private enmities, and Holkar, Sindia, and the Rajah of Berar made common cause against the invaders. What rendered this coalition more formidable was, that Sindia had established in the Douab, or district lying between the Jumna and the Ganges, a French state in the hands of a certain M. Perron, in which there was a considerable number of troops drilled in the European fashion, and officered by Frenchmen, while in the south, the neighbourhood of Pondicherry, which had been restored to France by the Peace of Amiens, gave an opening to that power to interfere should war again break out in Europe. The first act of the war was rapidly and successfully carried out. General Wellesley marched, in the spring of 1803, from the frontier of Mysore, was joined by Colonel Stevenson with the Nizam's army from Hyderabad, recaptured Poonah on the 20th of April, and by the middle of May had reinstated the Peishwa. The General at that time believed that all disputes with the Mahratta powers would be settled by negotiation. It before long became evident that on the part of the Mahrattas these negotiations were a feint, and that the three chiefs, with their French allies on the north, were still determined to fight, and had designs upon the territories of the subsidiary Prince, the Nizam, who was at the point of death. To withstand this great confederacy a large and well-combined plan of operations was made. To secure unity of action, General Wellesley was invested with supreme authority in the Deccan, General Lake was given similar powers in the valley of the Ganges, while secondary attacks were directed against Sindia's territories in Gujerat under the command of Colonel Murray, and against the Bonslah's province of Cuttack under Colonel Harcourt. The confederation was thus assaulted simultaneously at four points. In the meantime the rupture of the Peace of Amiens had become known. Pondicherry was carefully watched, and French troops recently landed there taken prisoners.

In August General Wellesley left Poonah, Colonel Stevenson acting in correspondence with him further to the east. He marched direct to Ahmednuggur, which he captured, crossed the Godavery river, and arrived at Aurungabad. Meanwhile Sindia had fallen back northward, and in September the two English commanders joined their forces a little to the east of Aurungabad, and advanced to meet him. Sindia's forces, reinforced by sixteen battalions Battle of Assye. Sept. 23, 1803. officered by Frenchmen, lay not far from Assye on the river Kaitna; between them and the English extended a range of hills; to prevent their escape the English commanders separated—Stevenson marching by the eastern, Wellesley by the western end of the range. When Wellesley heard that the enemy were moving off, he determined upon an attack without waiting for Stevenson's arrival. To get at the enemy it was necessary to cross the river which was on his right; although assured by his guide that it was impassable, he conjectured the existence of a passage from the appearance of two villages immediately opposite each other on the two banks of the river. He found his conjecture was correct, and his troops, when they had crossed the river, exactly occupied the space between that and another stream on which Assye stands. His two flanks were thus covered. He there with 4500 men entirely defeated Sindia's army, numbering more than 30,000. At the close of the day he found himself in possession of nearly 100 cannon and the whole of the camp equipage. The General mentioned it afterwards as the bloodiest battle for the numbers that he ever saw; the killed and wounded among the English amounting to more than 1500, a third of their entire force. The Mahratta army separated into two divisions, one division under the Rajah of Berar retiring westward as though to attack Poonah. Leaving Stevenson, therefore, to follow the northern division under Sindia, Wellesley hastened in pursuit of the Rajah. Sindia, being close pressed by Stevenson, begged for a truce; but as it was found that his troops were still serving in the army of the Rajah of Berar, and Battle of Argaum. that the truce was merely deceptive, the pursuit was recommenced, and the enemy brought to a final engagement on the plain of Argaum, where they were again entirely defeated. The war in the Deccan was closed by the capture, by the combined armies, of Gawulgur, near the sources of the Taptee river. Two days afterwards, on the 17th of December, the Subsidiary treaties with Sindia and Berar. Rajah of Berar submitted, and before the end of the month Sindia also consented to treat. By these treaties the province of Cuttack was annexed to the English possessions, Sindia was driven entirely from the Deccan, and lost some strong places in the Douab. Both princes entered into subsidiary arrangements, and promised to admit no foreigners but English to their confidence.

Lake's successes in the Douab.

These treaties were the consequence of the combined campaigns of Wellesley and Lake; for during the brilliant campaign of Assye in the Deccan, Lake had been carrying on war with equal success in the valley of the Ganges. The French province in the Douab had given but little trouble. Perron had retired from one of his fortresses, Coel, without fighting; his second stronghold, Alleghur, had been captured; his troops had indeed remained to fight, but he had himself surrendered to the English. The capture of Alleghur had been followed by a great victory over the Mahrattas within sight of Delhi. Lake had entered that capital, restored the aged Shah Allum to the Mogul throne, and attached to the English by so doing the whole Mahommedan population of India. He had won further victories at Muttra and Agra on the Jumna, and finally, on the 1st of November, at the same time that Wellesley was carrying out the pursuit which preceded the battle of Argaum, won the great battle of Laswari. The secondary attacks had been no less successful. While Murray had captured Baroach and subjugated the rest of Sindia's possessions in Gujerat, Harcourt had secured Cuttack at the mouths of the Mahanadi and the great temple of Juggernaut. The subsidiary treaties signed Conclusion of the war. 1805. at the close of the year were the consequences of this series of victories. In reward for their services Lake was raised to the Peerage and Wellesley made a Knight of the Bath. Holkar alone remained unsubdued. The following year, 1804, he was again in arms, and though thoroughly defeated by General Lake, succeeded in obtaining the support of the Rajah of Berhampoor, and prolonged the war till the close of the year 1805.