than that the French are fully dif pofed to enjoy advantages that can never be fufficiently prized, the bleifings of peace.. Towards the commencement of the year 1783 an idea feems to have been formed in the Spanish court of abolishing or greatly diminishing the powers of the holy inquifition. Up on mature confideration however it laid out his whole ftrength upon the late treaty of peace. Louis, the friend of profperity and happiness, was cafily brought to enter into his views; and the fuccefs he obtained, in oppofition to the marshal de Caftries, the advocate of war, gave him rather a difproportionate weight in the royal councils. Shortly after this event a committee of finance, confifteng of three perfons, and in which Vergennes prefided, was ap pointed for the controul of public accounts. This inftitution, which fubjected his brother ministers to his infpection, was particularly obnoxious to them; and M. de Caftries and his friends are faid in confequence of it to have entertained thoughts of refigning. At this time however the queen threw her weight into the fcale of de Caftries, and restored the balance. The committee of finance still fubfifts, but is The account of the Spanish opeat prefent little more than a name. rations in bombarding Algiers has It is a matter of fome curiolity not even the fplendour and attracto afcertain what reductions the tion in ftory, of which unfortune. ↑ court of France have made in their..ately the tranfactions of war are but i naval or military establishments in confequence of the peace. In anfwer to this we have to obferve that, fo far from reducing their military establishment, they have increased it. During the late war, which was properly a naval one, their army was neglected, confiderable draughts were made from it to ftrengthen their fleets, and we are credibly informed that its numbers were reat ced fo low as 80,000 men; a num ber extremely, inferior to its regular. complement, or to the armies of the two Germanic powers. In the navy a great number of fhips have been laid up; but their fleet is by no means neglected, nor is it likely that it fhould fall into decay under fo active a minister as the marshal de Caftries. Upon the whole, nothing is more unquestionably true too fufceptible. It is all defolation and murder in their native hideoufnels. On the zad of July don An-tonio Barcelo failed on this expedition with four thips of the line and five frigates, beide a number of fmaller veffels, and an immenfe quantity of ammunition. The government had taken little care to conceal. their intentions; and the Algerines prepared for their recep-tion with infinite affiduity. That article in their preparations that pleafes us beft, is their having provided twenty thousand tents without the city for the unarmed inhabitants. The attack continued with little intermiffion from the ft to the Sth day of August inclufive. It was anfwered by the Algerines from the fortifications with great fpirit, but not with equal effect. They made. made feveral desperate attempts to come out of the port to destroy the Spanish veffels, but were constantly repulfed. In a word the greatest part of the town was reduced to ahes, and the Chriftians returned in triumph. The principal pilot and feveral officers fell into the hands of the enemy, and fix of them were blown out of the mouth of a can non. The following event would perhaps fcarcely deferve to be recorded in our work, were it not that its coincidence with events of a fimilar nature that have taken place in a fhort term of years, renders it probable that it is to be regarded as connected with the character of the politics of the prefent age. Early in the year 1783 a difpute arose between the little republic of Ragufa and the king of Naples, refpecting a claim of right advanced by this prince to the appointing a commander of the Ragufan troops. For feme time the, eyes of all Italy were faid to be fixed upon this conteft. It was at length terminated by the republic's putting itfelf under the protection of his Sicilian majesty. CHAP. XXIII. Origin of the Maratta War. Exploits of General Goddard. Success of tas. Madras. Hyder's Treaty with the Marat The can be conceived of more tardy and HE fame thing is accidentally we have two apologies. Nothing deliberate in its collection, than the neceflary materials for a tolerable view of our tranfactions in India. And then the importance of the fubject has grown extremely under our hands. To meet it is the more incumbent upon us, as we have hitherto treated the fubject flightly and fuperficially. For our paft conduct We were not aware when we entered upon this work, that in the year 1784 the affairs of India would probably form threefourths of the history of Britain. But is now high time that the omiffion be remedied. It would be abfurd to defer any longer our ac count of the tranfactions of the Maratta war. The hiftorical part of our register however has already fwelled to fo confiderable a bulk, that we are obliged to make it a first object of our confideration to confult brevity. We hope, though fhort, to commnnicate a degree of clear nefs nefs and accuracy to the affairs we have to treat; and to fhow, that the pains we have taken in inveftigating the bufinefs, have not been regulated by the number of pages it was deftined to fill. The fubject is itself of the higheft magnitude. Nothing can be of greater importance to the character of the British nation, or (which is a confideration which outbids the other a thousand times told) to the future happiness of millions of individuals, than a juft eftimate of our late tranfactions in India. But, feparately from these grand and overwhelming regards, feparately even from the reflection, that Indoftan is not a country of favages, but the moft fertile, the most ancient, the moft courteous and venerable nation in the world, the fubject is upon other accounts in the utmoft degree interefting. The difpute about the character of Mr. Haftings is not the controverty of a narrow, illiberal, mercantile fpirit, who carefully employs all the powers that are committed to him in the purfuits of peculation and perfonal emolument. He is a man of the most confummate abilities, in a high degree difinterefted, and animated with the tendereft fenfibility and moft anxious regard for reputation. Thefe qualities are compatible with a very high degree of blame; they include and infer a thoufand vir tues. However we may decide upon the question, the trial is interefting. Were juftice and philanthropy to demand the condemnation of Mr. Haftings, we could not pafs fentence, without fympathifing at the fame time with the illuftrious culprit. But befide Mr. Haft. ings, a great number of the first characters among us have become interested in the question, He has found a moft able advocate in A piece of information, for which the public is indebted to Mr. Dempfter will probably ferve ftill farther to intereft our readers in the fubject before us. He and Mr. Burke entered upon the examina tion of the India bufinefs together. Mr. Burke, influenced probably by the fympathy that men of genius and intellectual enthufiafm unavoidably feel for each other, fet out with a prepoffeffion in favour of Mr. Haftings. Mr. Dempster, not equally prepared to allow for the eccentricities of first-rate talents, had received an unfavourable impreffion from the fuperficial appearance of the fubject. With the iffue of their enquiry all the world is acquainted, Mr. Burke became the most determined enemy of the governor general of Bengal; Mr. Dempfter his fincereft admirer. But the more important is our fubject, and the more it has divid ed the wifeft men among us, the more arduous is our undertaking, It is neither confiftent with our inclination nor the plan of our work, to take a part in this momentous and complicated question. We in tend tend merely to lay down the dif puted tranfactions in their most general outline, and we fhal wander very unintentionally from our pur pofe, if we deliver any thing as a fact, that is not equally admitted by both parties. By this means, we fhall furnish the best introduction and clue to the parliamentary hiftory of the current year, which will relate almoft folely to this fubject. It is very difficult to meet with fuch a concife picture of the late tranfactions in India, as would naturally be wished for by a perfon hitherto unacquainted with the fubject; and we believe totally impoffible to meet with one, completely unbiaffed and impartial. This is what we have wifhed to lay before our readers. The Marattas, with whom we lately joined iffue in fo important a conteft, are the most fimple and warlike nation in India. Their extenfive dominions ftretch from fea to fea across the widest part of India, and in breadth from the confines of Agra to the banks of the Kifna; forming a tract of about 1000 miles long by 700 wide. They appear never to have been fubdued by any of the powers who have fucceffively poffeffed the neighbouring provinces; and the celebrated Aurengzebe, so far from having been able to vindicate his power over thefe irreconcileable enemies, is faid to have granted them the feventh part of the revenues of the province of Decan. The claim however has never been admitted by the dependent governors and princes, and the Maratta ftate has been involved in the affertion of it in an almost continual war with its neighbours, which has generally concluded by compelling them to purchase a tem porary ceflation of hostilities. They originally refembled the other great provinces of India in forming a kind of collection of petty principalities, fubordinate to one head: but in the beginning of the prefent century the pefhwa, or prime minifter of the Maratta fovereign, ufurped the entire political authority, which has ever fince been hereditary in his family. About the year 1760 the pefhwa died, leaving the fucceffion to his fon Madurao, then a minor, but who afterwards appears to have difplayed very confiderable abilities. Having however been unfuccefsful in a campaign he made against the province of Delhi, he was found affaffinated in his tent upon his return to the capital of the Marattas, in the year 1773, at the age of twenty-five. The guilt of this affaffination was imputed to Ragoba, the uncle of Madurao, who had governed the kingdom during his minority, and now advanced his pretentions to the office of pefhwa. It was Ragoba, who about twelve years before had driven the Great Mogul from his capital, and obliged him to take fhelter in the English factory at Bengal. His reputation however was not now fufficient to dazzle his countrymen; and, either by the indignation of the people, or the cabals of their chiefs, he was expelled from the fovereignty in favour of an infant fon of Madurao, whom the English accounts report to have been born after the death of his fa ther. Ragoba fled to our govern ment of Bombay. ey en Here an alliance was formed between the exiled prince and the Englifh government, by which th gaged to replace him in the I aratta regency in confideration of fome valuable ceffions of territory. This alliance was difowned by the fu• preme preme council of Bengal, then just eftablifhed, and a treaty was made in March 1776, by which the Maratta minifters engaged to provide for the fubfiftence of Ragoba, upon condition of his refiding in the heart of their dominions. Ragoba difliked the fecurity, and fled once more to Bombay. The protection extended to him was a violation of the treaty of peace. In the following year, the government of Boinbay, invited by fome malecontent chiefs of the Maratta ftate, renewed their engagements for the restoration of Ragoba. This new confederacy was approved by the fupreme council of Bengal, in confideration of the approaching rupture they apprehended between Great Britain and France, and a detachment of troops was ordered to march across the continent of India in February 1778. These troops, however, and the government of Bombay were equally flow in their advances towards the exe. cution of the confederacy. The Bombay forces were not tranfported to the continent till the month of November, and on the 9th of January following, the whole army was reduced to capitulate with the Maratta general. Moderate terms appear to have been granted them, and one condition of the furrender was, that the troops that were advancing on the other fide fhould be ordered to return to Bengal. General Goddard, who had fucceeded to the command of the Bengal detachment by the death of his principal, was about three hundred miles from Surat, when he received intelligence of this convention. He immediately difavowed the right of the government of Bengal to remand him, proceeded on his march, and on the 18th of February arrived at Surat. Here he received orders from the fupreme council to conclude a peace, if terms lefs humiliating than thofe of the capitulation could be obtained, by which we were obliged to cede all our recent acquifitions in the Maratta provinces. The conquerors, however, were inflexible; and in the close of the year, a grand confederacy was formed between Nizam Ali Khan, fuba of the Decan; Hyder Ali, fuba of Scirra, king of Canara and regent of Myfore; the Maratta states, and the raja of Berar, formerly fubordinate, but now independent of the pefiwa of the Marattas. So formidable an alliance feemed to threaten nothing less than our total expulfion from our poffeffions in India. Its chief ftrength lay with the Marattas and the celebrated Hyder. The campaign of 1780, which feemed pregnant with a thoufand important events, was opened early in January by general Goddard in the province of Guzerat. He was able to perfuade Futty Sing, one of their princes, to engage with us in a treaty of partition of that district, and immediately after he took Amedabad, its capital, and in three months fubdued the whole province. In vain he offered battle to Madagi Sindia, who marched to its relief with a numerous army. Leaving, The fubas are next in rank to the Great Mogul. The nabobs fubordinate to the fubas. The rajas are the native Hindoo princes, who were not expelled by their Mahometan conquerors, but permitted to hold their dominions upon payment of an annual tribute. Such was the original order; but the power of the Mogul is now nearly annihilated, and that of the fubas, for the most part, but not completely, con fined to their proper dominions. therefore |