I expected to accomplish the objects of the treaty lately concluded with his Highness the Peishwa, without the hazard of involving the British government in a war with the Mahratta power; and your Honourable Committee has been apprized, by a dispatch from the government of Bombay, transmitted in conformity to my directions, of the occurrences in the Mahratta state, to the 19th January last.

2. Colonel Close will receive my directions to transmit to your Honourable Committee a narrative of the events which have occurred since the date of my last advices from the Peninsula; and he will relate to you the actual state of affairs at the time when this dispatch shall reach Poona and Bombay.

3. No event of importance has occurred at Bassein, since the date of the latest communications to your Honourable Committee from that quarter. His Highness the Peishya has uniformly continued to manifest unequivocal proofs of his disposition to adhere to the faith of the engagements which he has contracted with the British government. His Highness has demonstrated the most implicit confidence in the protection of the British power, and has not appeared to entertain any disposition to accept the invitation of Scindia to proceed to that chieftain's camp. On the 18th March, his Highness received the treaty of Bassein, ratified by the Governor General in Council, with demonstrations of the highest satisfaction.

4. Your Honourable Committee has been informed, that Dowlut Rao Scindia had arrived at Indore, with a considerable body of

his forces. Having prosecuted his march from that station, Dowlut Rao Scindia crossed the Nurbuddah on the 4th February, and arrived in the vicinity of Berhampore on the 23d of that month.

5. Colonel Collins arrived at the camp of Dowlut Rao Scindia on the 27th February. The advices which I received from that officer, and from other quarters, induced me to entertain suspicions that Dowlut Rao Scindia (notwithstanding his original application for the aid of the British government in restoring order to the Mahratta empire) meditated an accommodation with Jeswunt Rao Holkar, and a confederacy with that chieftain and with the Rajah of Berar, for the purpose of frustrating the success of the arrangements concluded between the British government and the Peishwa, without, however, intending to proceed to the despe rate extremity of provoking a contest with the British arms. suspicion was corroborated by the artifices practised at the camp of Scindia upon the arrival of Colonel Collins, with the view of eluding the communication of the propositions with which Colonel Collins was charged under my authority; and the appearance of Scindia's intentions became still more unsatisfactory, from the evasive and indirect or vexatious replies which Colonel Collins received to my propositions, after he had at length obtained access to Dowlut Rao Scindia.

This

intentions in the present crisis. This perverse course of policy, habitual to all the states of India, is the favourite practice of the Mahratta powers. The most effectual mode of frustrating the objects of such a system of artifice and deceit, is to pursue a direct and steady course with firmness and temper, avoiding every deviation which can tend to divert the councils or arms of the British government from their destined purposes, either of peace or war. This principle constitutes the spirit and tenor of all my instructions to the British Residents at the courts of the several native powers; experience has proved, that a direct and steady course of policy is not less advantageous to our interests, than it is manifestly consistent with our dignity and honour. With the greatest satisfaction I request the attention of your Honourable Committee to a recent instance of the distinguished success of this system of proceeding at the court of Scindia.

7. Colonel Collins having endeavoured, without success, to obtain from Dowlut Rao Scindia's ministers explicit replies to the propositions which he had of fered to that chieftain's accept ance in my name, at length demanded a private audience of Scindia. A copy of the dispatch from Colonel Collins, containing a relation of the circumstances of that audience, is annexed to this letter, and merits the particular notice of your Honourable Committee.

8. By the judgment, firmness, and ability which Colonel Cpl. lins exerted on this occasion, an explicit declaration was obtained from Scindia himself, diselosing,

in the most distinct and direct terms, the views of that chieftain.

9. Scindia plainly declared to Colonel Collins, that until the communications of the Agents dispatched to his court by his Highness the Peishwa (for the purpose of explaining the nature and extent of the engagements concluded between his Highness and the British government) should be received, Scindia could not return a decided answer to the propositions which had been stated to him on the part of the British government, with regard to his accession to the treaty of Bassein, as a contracting party. Scindia accompanied this declaration with a positive assurance, that he had no intention whatever to obstruct the completion of the arrangements concluded between the Peishwa and the British government, and that it was his wish to improve the friendship at present subsisting between the Peishwa, the British government,

and his own state.

10. The conduct of Colonel Collins, in this important juncture, has obtained my entire approbation; and I am persuaded that your Honourable Committee will deem it to deserve similar notice. from the Honourable Court of Directors.

11. Of the sincerity of Scindia's declarations I entertain no doubt, because the course of policy which he has signified his intention of pursuing is manifestly the most consistent with his interests.

12. The security of Scindia's dominions, and of his state, among the powers of India, cannot be placed on a permanent basis unless it shall be connected with the restoration of order in the Mah

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ratta empire, under the sanction and defence of the British government. The interposition of our influence and protection has already rescued Scindia from destruction, has prevented the accumulation of the whole force of the Mahratta empire in the hands of a desperate and needy adventurer, and has preserved the balance of power between the respective feudal states, by maintaining the paramount authority of the Peishwa. The extreme hazard to which Scindia's power has been recently exposed, by the success of the insurgents at Poona, may have opened a more distinct view of his real interests, which are entirely consistent with those of the British government in the present crisis. Scindia, however, may have been desirous of recovering the exorbitant ascendancy which he had acquired at Poona, and may apprehend a permanent diminution of his influence in the Peishwa's councils under the operation of the treaty of Bassein; but the influence of Scindia at Poon had actually been subvert ed, by the success of the insurgents, previously to the interposition of the British mediation, and the existence of Scindia's government had been greatly endangered by the same event. In this situation, therefore, the regret with which he may view the probable diminution of his influence at Poona, may be sufficiently counterbalanced by his confidence in the security of his dominions, under the protection of the British government. On the other hand, from the moment that the intentions of the British government had been avowed, it became the interest of Scindia to avoid every measure tending to expose him to

the jealousy of a power which commands the frontier of the most valuable portion of his dominions.

13. The sincerity of Scindia's declaration is further confirmed by his continuance at Berham pore in a state of inaction, until the season, together with the progress of our forces, had advanced so far, that no exertion on his part could have enabled him to occupy Poona previously to the arrival of the British troops at that capital. The manner, also, in which the declaration of Scindia was obtained and expressed, affords internal evidence of its truth.

14. This view of the subject is not inconsistent with Scindia's desire to delay his assent to the treaty of Bassein, and to the propositions immediately affecting his separate interests, until he shall have received a direct communication from the Peishwa. Scindia may wisely and justly withhold his assent to any new system of engagement, until he shall have ascertained the real sentiments of the Peishwa on the subject of the late treaty, together with the precise extent of the stipulations which that instrument contains.

15. Nor is the sincerity of Scindia's declaration incompatible with the project for a confederacy between Scindia, Holkar, and the Rajah of Berar, for purposes of a defensive nature, which I consider to be the extreme object of Scindia in negotiating such a confederacy, without any views whatever of hostility towards the British power.

16. Jeswunt Rao Holkar has continued to manifest an anxious desire for the accommodation of his differences with the Peishwa and with Dowlut Rao Scindia, by repeated applications to Lieute

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want-Colonel Close for the arbitration of the British government, and by the dispatch of an agent of rank to Hydrabad, charged with a statement of the demands of Jeswunt Rao Holkar and of Amrut Rao, and vested with nuhority to negotiate, through the combined mediation of his Highness the Nizam and of the British government, the adjustment of his demands on the Peishwa, and on Dowlut Rao Scindia. The demands of Holkar, however, have not been materially abated. Until the receipt of my instructions of the 11th February, for the arbitration of Holkar's demands, Colonel Close referred the repeated applications of that chieftain to my authority, and the same course was adopted by his Highness the Nizam.

17. On the receipt of those instructions, Colonel Close endeavoured to persuade his Highness the Peishwa to offer to Holkar such concessions as might induce Holkar to compromise the subsisting differences, and to admit his Highness's peaceable return to his capital. His Highness, however, manifested an insuperable aversion to offer any concession to Holkar, whom he considered to be a rebel against the legitimate authority of the Sovereign Power of the Mahratta empire.

18. Colonel Close, therefore, deemed it advisable to address a letter to Jeswunt Rao Holkar, communicating to that chieftain my sentiments on the subject of his demands; assuring him, that the influence of the British government would be exerted for the satisfactory adjustment of his claims on Dowlut Rao Scindia, and that the British government would guarantee any adjustment

which Holkar might be able to effect, of his demands on the Peishwa; and expressing an expectation, that Holkar would refrain from any opposition to the establishinent of a British force within the Peishwa's dominions.

19. The result of this application will be communicated to your Honourable Committee by Lieutenant Colonel Close.

20. A negotiation appears to have been opened directly between Holkar and Scindia, for the accommodation of their differences; but no certain accounts have hitherto been received of its conclusion or progress.

21. Holkar has continued to exercise the utmost degree of violence and outrage upon the inhabitants of Poona, for the purpose of extorting money for the relief of his exigencies. This proceeding appears to have excited uniề versal disgust, and to have confirm. ed the resolution of the majority of the Jaghiredars and inhabitants of the Peishwa's dominions, to support his Highness's cause

22. Considerable bodies of Holkar's army have moved in differ. ent directions, without any other objects than those of observing the movements of the troops assembled on the several frontiers of the Peishwa's dominions, and of facilitating the subsistence of the soldiers and followers of Holkar's camps.

23. By the latest advices, it. appears that Holkar has actually evacuated Poona, and has marchcd with the main body of his army, in a northerly direction, towards Berhampore. The pro bable object of that movement is, either to accelerate the issue of his negotiations with Scindia, or to facilitate the means of acting

offensively