infantry, a troop of the body-guard, and a squadron of native cavalry. In three weeks I could not have assembled three thousand men, all our disposable force being employed against Nepaul. But the case called for decision; and I directed the resident at Scindiah's court to request that his highness would forbear any aggression on Bhopaul, as that state had become an ally to our Government. I desired that this communication should be made in the most conciliatory tone; and that the resident would not report to me the violent language with which it would probably be met by Scindiah, so that there might be no affront to discuss. There was seemingly hardihood in this procedure; but there was essentially none. Supposing Scindiah predetermined to go all lengths, any provocation from my message was of no moment. If he were only trying his ground, and taking steps towards rendering a remoter decision more secure, the unexpected check might make him pause; and the gain of time was every thing to me, when I was disciplining recruits in all quarters for the augmentation of our force. Scindiah, as was unofficially reported to me, received the intimation with all the vehemence of language which I had expected. But notwithstanding his declaration, that he should follow his own course, his troops did not move, and the project against Bhopaul was silently abandoned. The Maharajah must have been influenced by the supposition, that the confidence of my procedure, and the apparent carelessness of my progress along the frontier with so slender an accompaniment, arose from my possession of means which he could not calculate. The resident in a later day made a merit with Scindiah of having suppressed, in his report to me, the offensive tone which he had used; and his highness acknowleged the obligation. The circumstances which I have detailed will give a useful insight into the doubtful terms on which we then stood with the neighboring states. Whether positive engagements had secretly taken place among them was uncertain: it was at all events clear that they looked to a possible junction, when they might pursue a common object necessarily unfavorable to us. When Ummar Sing Kappa and Runjour Sing, generals of the Gorkhas, had surrendered themselves, they could not be brought to believe that the Mahrattas were not actually in the field against us, though neither of them would assign a reason for the supposition. As they had severally professed the persuasion when they could not have had communication, it was evident that each of them must have had knowlege of proposals for co-operation made by the Mahrattas to his court. Early in 1816, an event occurred seemingly unconnected with the suspicious indications which were fixing our attention in other parts, but really deriving great moment from reference to

those symptoms. Scindiah had in 1808 given up to us, by treaty, extensive possessions in the Doab, or tract contained between the Ganges and the Jumna. Those lands were inhabited by Jauts, a hardy and warlike tribe. This ceded territory was divided into several petty districts, each under a Talochdar, corresponding to the Zemindar of the lower provinces. From the exposure of the country to frequent invasion from predatory cavalry, the distant sovereign, who had not management enough in his dominions to shield his detached provinces from such inroads, was forced to consult his own interest as to pecuniary returns, by allowing these Talochdars to have fortified residencies, where the treasure was lodged, as collected for ultimate remittance to the treasury of Gwalior. The permission for maintaining a fortress necessarily included a garrison, which, from vanity or views of depredation, had, in every instance, been carried far beyond what the duties of the place required. It is probable that these Talochdars had been looking forward to a time when they might cast off their allegiance to the Mahratta rule, and render themselves independent chiefs of little principalities. Their assiduity in strengthening their fortresses, may be ascribed to the anticipation of such a favorable hour they were encouraged in this speculation by the circumstance that the Rajah of Bhurtpore, whose power was rated high from his successful resistance to the British, had affinity with the principal families. He and his people are Jauts. In practice, the situation of the Talochdar, under the Mahrattas, united the characters of a middle man and the manager of an absentee's estate in Ireland, with whatsoever degree of authority over the peasantry he thought proper to usurp; knowing that his government would never be at the trouble of calling him to an account. The most populous and productive of the districts were under the superintendence of Dya Ram; an active, ambitious man, whose preponderance in the tribe was supported by amassed riches, as well as personal energy. Calculating on a future opportunity for establishing sway over the rest, he employed himself sedulously in perfecting his fortress of Hattrass, which he had originally found of great strength, and in keeping up the discipline of a well-organized force. When this territory was surrendered to the British Government, though our judicial administration was declaredly introduced into it, considerations, deemed politic, led us to withhold a strict enforcement of our regulations. For obvious reasons, we had never heretofore suffered a strong hold to be possessed by an individual in our provinces. On this occasion we deviated from our caution, and did not insist on the immediate demolition of the fortresses in the territory transferred to us. have understood it was conceived, that when the Talochdars

I

should find themselves efficiently protected from external violence, they would gladly forego the expense of providing for their own security, and would without repugnance dismantle their forts, which they were told would ultimately be required of them. Perhaps there was an error in supposing, that, after having been continued for a time in the enjoyment of what flattered their pride, they would feel less the sacrifice of the distinction. As it was, they evidently made common cause in a plan for evading that humiliation. They encouraged each other in the resolution, by promises of reciprocal aid; and from the confidence thus inspired, they gradually assumed an undisguised air of pretension to be on the footing of mere tributary dependance. This disposition became more marked and overt at the period to which I have before alluded, when the ruin of our Government had become matter of general belief, and manifold trespasses on our authority were impudently committed by these Talochdars. Our occupation with Nepaul constrained us to shut our eyes, as much as might be, on these encroachments: an impunity which naturally invited more determined steps. As soon as our hands were free, it became necessary to notice those irregularities, therefore it was signified to the Talochdars, that any repetition of them would meet with decided chastisement. The intimation was wholly disregarded. At length, the members of council unanimously represented to me (I having then returned to Calcutta from the upper provinces) a daring defiance of our legitimate jurisdiction by Dya Ram, who had seized and kept in irons within his fortress several of our police officers, for arresting a robber within his district; and who had, moreover, caused a party of his troops to confine for twenty-four hours, in a village, the judge and magistrate of the Zillah, containing these Talooks. This was communicated to me with anxiety, because the supposed strength of Hattrass made it appear awkward to undertake the correction of Dya Ram. Punishment of the substantive offence was of itself imperiously demanded; but the urgent expedience of bringing the whole body of those Jauts definitively into regular submission as subjects, was as strikingly visible. As I had not however before learned the particulars to which the members of council referred, I answered, that if they would lay before me such a case, sustained by due evidence, as should prove Dya Ram to have incurred the penalty, Hattrass should be reduced; an operation which, I pledged myself to them, should not require eight-and-forty hours for its completion, after the batteries had opened against the place. When I was in the upper country, it had, of course, been my duty to obtain minute information respecting every fortress with which any chance might bring us into contact; and I had procured the requisite knowlege

of Hattrass among the rest. That fort had the reputation of being impregnable, which silly persuasion had betrayed Dya Ram into his contumacious outrages. According to the mode of attack which the natives had been accustomed to see practised by us, Hattrass might, indeed, appear formidable to meddle with. A ditch of 120 feet wide and 85 deep, surrounded a work, which, in triple tier of defences, exhibited a provision for contesting the place inch by inch, after the silencing of its artillery, and the making a practicable breach, should bring the besieger to the point of storming. Luckily, science has laid down procedures for avoiding the necessity of hazarding a disadvantageous assault; one of my earliest military cares, on arriving in India, had been to satisfy myself why we had made so comparatively unfavorable a display in sieges. The details at once unfolded the cause; it is well known that nothing can be more insignificant than shells thrown with long intervals; and we never brought forward more than four or five mortars where we undertook the capture of a fortified place. Hence, the bombardment was futile; so that at last the issue was to be staked on mounting a breach, and fighting hand to hand with a soldiery, skilful, as well as gallant, in defending the prepared intrenchments. This was not the oversight of the Bengal artillery officers, for no men can be better instructed in the theory, or more capable in the practice of their profession than they are; it was imputable to a false economy on the part of the Government. The outlay, in providing for the transportation of mortars, shells, and platforms, in due quantity, would certainly have been considerable; and it was on that account forborne: the miserable carriages of the country hired for the purpose, where a military exertion was contemplated, were utterly unequal to the service, and constantly failed under the unusual weight, in the deep roads through which they had to pass. Therefore, we never sat down before a place of real strength, furnished with the means which a proper calculation would have allotted for its reduction. Sensible of this injurious deficiency, I had with the utmost diligence instituted a transport train; and it was in reliance on its efficiency that I assured the Council of the short resistance which Hattrass should offer. Expedition no less than secrecy was important, to prevent any interventions which might trouble us in the undertaking; and, notwithstanding that the advance of the troops was so rapid, that Dya Ram had information of their approach only two days before Hattrass was actually invested, forty-two mortars kept pace with the march of the force; and from the incessant shower of bombs, the garrison was unable to persist in defending the place more than fifteen hours. The body of troops employed was of such strength, that no sudden assemblage could

venture to face it, while the speedy effectuation of the object left no time for interference from remoter quarters. Thus, uninterrupted, the officer commanding it, according to his orders, summoned successively the other fortresses of the Jauts. Terrified by the fate of Hattrass, all of them, to the number of eleven, some very strong, surrendered without resistance: the works were every where rased, and the troops attached to them were disbanded, except a few armed attendants allowed for security to the household of each of the Talochdars, in a country not yet brought into habitual regularity. The Talochdars were indemnified for the cannon and arms of which they were dispossessed, being further maintained in as much convenience as was consistent with the laws of the British Government. Those terms, with an oblivion of his past misdeeds, had been offered to Dya Ram on the first appearance of the troops before Hattrass, and had been rejected by him; therefore, his lands were declared forfeited. Thus was effected, at a critical juncture, an object pressingly incumbent in itself; I mean the assimilation of those Jaut communities to the orderly condition of our other native subjects: but of enhanced importance to their otherwise possible insurrection in the centre of our possessions when our force was engaged elsewhere; whether that insurrection should arise from secret preconcert with powers leagued against us, or be stimulated by accidental temptations. The politics of the Rajah of Bhurtpore, would be seriously influenced by deprivation of an eventual support from his tribe; and every prince in India must have felt a diminution of the confidence with which he would have opposed us, when the fall of Hattrass dissipated his trust in fortifications. It is not altogether irrelevant to add, that an annual saving, by no means insignificant, has arisen from the transport trains being employed during the peace in collateral services under the commissariat department, of which I

constituted it a branch.

While the fermentation perceivable in the Mahratta states could be ascribed to the tempting prospect of a particular opportunity, there was the hope that, when all chance of such an opening had passed away, the machinations would subside. Many symptoms concurring to prove that this was not the case, the conclusion was irresistible, that a more defined and methodized understanding of a tenor hostile to us had been established, at least among the powers upholding the predatory system in Central India. Their success in seducing other native states into pledges for acting in concert could not be judged, as I have mentioned that our discoveries had then gone no further than the ascertaining that there were frequent missions, conducted with great stealth, between powers not in prior habits of communication. The symptoms