My dear Barclay,
I last night received your letter of the 12th instant, and am most happy to learn that Sir George Barlow approves of my first proceedings.
I expect that Berkeley and Evans will be here the 21st or 22d; and it is my decided opinion no investigation should be made till they arrive. This inquiry must be considered by the whole army as a regular military proceeding: and the impression made by the appointment of such a committee would be lost, if I was to execute its duties: besides, the delay is trifling. If Sir George adopts no measure which supersedes the object of this committee, I should wish to be authorized to carry the report to Madras. I will travel Dawk; and can, if required, return in the same way. General Pater will be here; and Berkeley can, if necessary, be appointed to the temporary command of the regiment; if Taylor[73] is not brought down, which I think he ought, from Vizagapatam. Believe me it is of the utmost consequence I should personally communicate with Sir George Barlow upon the whole of this important subject.
I am glad Sir George Barlow has placed it at my discretion to pardon, if I thought it necessary, the non-commissioned and privates of this garrison: but no circumstance short of an open attempt to throw off my authority can ever lead me to think of such a step, as it would immediately drive to despair the European commissioned officers, on whose temper and moderation depends, at this moment, the allegiance of almost all the officers of the Company's army on the coast: for one line from this garrison would, to my positive knowledge, at this moment spread the flames of mutiny over the peninsula.
Under such circumstances, of what consequence would even a triumph over a few officers at Masulipatam be, supposing that certain, unless you were prepared for contest every where? I will never abandon my authority, or fail in the performance of my duty; but I never shall (unless positively ordered) take any step that I conceive likely to involve my country in a civil war. Such an extreme it must be the wish of Government to avoid as long as it possibly can. Nothing, indeed, can justify its commencement, but the total failure of every possible means to prevent its occurrence.
The present combination of the officers of the Company's army against the Government has hardly a feature common with an ordinary military mutiny; and therefore the principles that would apply to the one, are by no means applicable to the other. It is not the reduction of a corps or garrison to order and obedience, but the reclaiming a large body of men to their attachment and allegiance to the state they serve, which is the object; and this never can be done by partial measures, whether these are of a lenient or a coercive nature.
I have no doubt but Government would ultimately triumph in the contest, if it commenced this moment; but it would be a triumph over its own strength: and the occurrence of such a rupture must produce consequences that will shake our Indian Empire to its base.
From the progress of the present agitation I fear Government will not have much time for consideration[74]: and it should always be recollected, that in a crisis like the present every thing depends on the moment at which measures are adopted; and the same act which would be successful to-day, would perhaps totally fail of producing the desired effect if adopted a month hence.
You will satisfy Sir George Barlow, that one of the first things I did, after I came on shore, was to satisfy the minds of the officers, and, through them, of the men, of the intentions of Government in ordering a party of marines from the corps: and you will see by the enclosed extract from my journal[75], that I took the first good opportunity that offered, of stating this fact in the most public and impressive manner to the whole regiment.