pression which the advance of the British force will produce upon the minds of the people, to require of Bappojee Scindia his probable views.

The instructions to Colonel Stevenson, which I have ordered to be furnished to you, will explain the measures prescribed to that officer. I have instructed him to communicate regular information of his proceedings and situation to you, and to obey your orders. When you shall have opened a safe communication with this officer's force, you will detach his Majesty's Scotch brigade to join it, and consider that corps from the time of its removal from your detachment, as attached to the establishment of the subsidiary force. Colonel Stevenson, according to the last letter which I received from that officer, was to be at Perauda on the 16th of Marah.

I have written to the Residents at Poona and Hydrabad, informing them of your advance, and requesting them to communi. cate with you; and I am desiṛous that you should afford them every information regarding your progress that it may be requisite for them to know.

You are aware of the importance of making me regularly acquainted with your operations,

with the sentiments of the people, and the general state of affairs connected with the proceedings of your detachment. It will be particularly necessary for you to transmit to me the earliest possi ble information of such circum stances as may be expected to occur, to obstruct the progress of the detachment, either from the disinclination of the people in ge neral to the cause which it supports, or from the opposition of any individual chieftain.

The army will take a position in the ceded districts ready to support your operations, when support shall appear from either of these causes to be necessary.

I shall, on receiving informa tion of the probability of seri ous resistance being opposed to your advance, anticipate this ne cessity by a movement of the army to support you.

I have the honour, &c. &c. &c. (Signed) J. STUART.

Head Quarters, Camp at Nersighur, 9th March, 1803.

(A true Copy.) (Signed) T. GRANT, Military Sec.

(A true Copy.)

N. B. EDMONSTONE,
Sec. to Gov.

To the Right Honourable Edward
Lord Clive, Governor in
Council, Fort St. George.
My Lord,
THE Governor General in
VOL. 6.

Council has the honour to ac knowledge the receipt of your Lordship's official dispatch to the Governor General, No. 11. dated the 15th of March, inclos+ I

ing

ing the copy of a letter from his Excellency the Commander in Chief of the army of Fort St. George to your Lordship's address, in which his Excellency has detailed the arrangements, adopted under your Lordship's authority, for the formation and march of a detachment under the command of the Honourable Major-General Wellesley, towards Poona, in conformity to the instructions of the Governor General, addressed to your Lordship in an official letter under date the 2d of February.

Those arrangements appear to have been regulated by Lieutenant General Stuart, under your Lordship's orders, with the utmost degree of judgment and ability, and to have embraced every object connected with the successful accomplishment of the service on which the detachment is employed. The Governor Gene. ral in Council entirely approves of the selection of the Honourable Major-General Wellesley for the command of the troops detached towards Poona. The extensive local knowledge and influence possessed by that officer, and the confidence reposed in his approved talents, firmness, temper, and integrity, by the Mahratta chieftains on the frontiers of Mysore, render him peculiarly qualified to discharge the complicated duties of a command which will require the united exertion of considerable military skill, and great poli. tical experience and discretion. The Governor General in Coun. cil observes, with peculiar satisfaction, the judicious arrangements which have been adopted for securing to the detachment regular and sufficient supplies of provisions, independently of the

resources of the country through which the detachment will have occasion to march.

Those supplies being principally derived from the resources of Mysore, it becomes an object of the utmost importance to pro. vide, by every practicable precaution, against the decline of that active influence and energy, by which we have hitherto been enabled to apply the resources of Mysore to the exigencies of the army in the field.

The activity and energy which have distinguished the conduct of the Executive Authority in Mysore, are principally to be ascribed to the influence which MajorGeneral Wellesley has been ena bled to establish in that country, by his judicious conduct of the British army stationed at Mysore.

The preservation of that influence is inseparably connected with the continuance of MajorGeneral Wellesley in the com mand of the British forces in Mysore, while that officer shall be employed in the immediate conduct of the operations of the detachment advancing towards Poona.

The Governor General in Council, therefore, considers Major-General Wellesley's continuance in the military command of Mysore to be essentially necessary to the successful accomplishment of the service in which that officer is at present engaged. With these sentiments his Excellency in Council deems it to be proper to direct in this special manner, that Major-General Wellesley retain the military command of Mysore until further instructions shall reach your Lordship from this government. Your Lordship will be pleased accord

ingly to instruct his Excellency the Commander in Chief on the coast, to frame, in concert with MajorGeneral Wellesley, such arrangements as may appear to be neces sary to enable Major-General Wellesley to exercise the military command in Mysore, while employed in conducting the operations of the detachment, and other public duties, within the Mahratta territory.

If any officer should have been appointed to succeed Major-General Wellesley in the military command in Mysore previously to the receipt of this dispatch, his Excellency in Council directs that the command in Mysore be restored to Major-General Wellesley immediately upon the receipt of these instructions.

The instructions which his Excellency the Commander in Chief on the coast has issued to MajorGeneral Wellesley, are framed with the greatest wisdom and prudence, and are entirely conformable to the views and intentions of the Governor General in Council,

The state of the internal government of Mysore in all its branches, being intimately connected with the subject of these instructions, his Excellency in

Council further directs, that no alteration be made in any civil or military appointments in Mysore (including the appointment of all native officers, civil and military) without previous reference to the Governor General in Council, and without his express authority; and that no change be suf fered to take place in any part of the existing system of the civil or military government of Mysore, without the previous sanction of this government.

The Governor General in Council requests that your Lordship, in Council will be pleased to consider the instructions stated in this dispatch to be intended to form the basis of a permanent system for the future administra tion of Mysore, and for regulating the extent and nature of the controul to be exercised over the affairs of that possession, by the Governor General in Council.

We have the honour to be,
My Lord, &c.
(Signed) WELLESLEY,
G. H. BARLOW,

Fort William, G. UDNEY. the 4th April 1803.

(A true Copy.)

N. B. EDMONSTONE, Sec. to Gov.

To Lieut.-Col. Close, Resident at Poona.

Sir, ADVICES which his ExcelJency the most noble the Gover

nor General has received from Europe, of the possible renewal of hostilities between Great Britain and France, render it highly expedient, in his Excellency's # 12

judg

judgment, that you should avail yourself of any state of circumstances which may afford an ex. pectation of obtaining the Peishwa's consent to a modification of the 11th article of the treaty lately concluded between his Highness and the British government.

2. The means afforded to us by the terms of that article, for the exclusion of the influence and interest of the French in the state of Poona, even in time of war between Great Britain and France, are defective and precarious; and, in the season of peace, no restraint whatever is imposed by that article, which can preclude the danger of a future connection between the state of Poona and the French, through the agency of persons of that nation, or subjects of other Eu ropean powers in the interests of France, residing within the Peishwa's dominions, or holding official situations under his Highness's authority.

3. His Excellency is anxious to remedy these defects, by obtaining the Peishwa's consent to the dismission of any Frenchmen

who may now be residing within his Highness's dominions, and to the insertion of an article in the present treaty, in terms similar to those of the sixth article of the treaty concluded between the British government and his Highness the Nizam, on the 1st of September 1793, in the room of the 11th article of the late engagement with the Peishwa.

4. A transcript of that part of the sixth article of the treaty of Hydrabad, of September 1798, which relates to the subject of this letter, is inclosed for your information and guidance.

5. His Excellency desires that you will not neglect any opportunity which may be afforded you, for the accomplishment of this important object, at the earliest practicable period of time.

I have the honour to be, &c. &c. &c.

To his Excellency the Most Noble Richard Marquis Wellesley, K. P. Governor General, &c. &c. My Lord,

YESTERDAY evening Monshee Kavel Nyn waited on me by order of Dowlut Rao Scindia. After paying me several compliments in the name of his master,

the Monshee said, that the Ma haraja, having been apprized that a large body of British troops was approaching the Mahratta frontier, by the route of Hydrabad, he (the Monshee) had been deputed to offer to my consideration certain remarks on this im portant event, and which the

Maharaja

Maharaja trusted I would communicate to your Excellency without delay.

2. Monshee Kavel Nyn, at my entreaty, then proceeded to state as follows:

That the British government was connected with his Sircar, as well in friendship as political views, since the measure of restoring his Highness the Peishwa to the Musnud of Poona was equally the object and wish of the Maharaja, as of your Lordship. That the military preparations of your Excellency, consequent of the outrages lately perpetrated at Poona, were expedient, wise, and proper, under the existing circumstances; but that the situation of Jeswunt Rao Holkar was widely differrent now to what it was when his Highness the Peishwa applied for the protection of the British government, since, owing to the advanced state of your Lordship's military preparations in the Deccan, and to the arrival of the army of the Maharaja at this place, Jeswunt Rao had it no longer in his power, even if it were his in tention, to prevent the immediate restoration of the Peishwa's au. thority. That this being the real state of affairs, the Maharaja conceived it would be altogether unnecessary that any considerable body of British troops should approach Poona, and therefore he (Scindia) could wish that your Excellency would order the army now advancing by the route of Hydrabad to halt on its arrival at the frontier of the Mahratta territory. Moonshee Kavel Nyn concluded by observing, that it was the intention of the Maha. raja to proceed to Poona with all his forces, and that his master

had directed him to suggest to me, how difficult it would be to secare a sufficiency of every description of provisions in the vici nity of Poona, should two large armies advance towards that city at the same time.

3. In reply, I observed to Moonshee Kavel Nyn, that the Maharaja had delayed prefering his request until a compliance therewith became utterly impossible, since the distance from hence to Calcutta was so great, that before the wish of the Maharaja could even be made known to your Excellency, the British army would most probably be arrived at Poona. I further said, that Colonel Close, in a letter under date the 14th of Rumzaun (9th of January) had apprised the Maharaja, that in consequence of the defensive engagements entered into between his Highness the Peishwa and the British government, an English force would be stationed in the dominions of his Highness. That Colonel Close had received an answer to this letter, expressing the cordial and entire acquiescence of the Maharaja in the proposed measure, end that, accordingly, the British troops had been ordered to advance, for the purpose of restor ing the Peishwa to the Musnud of Poona; and I repeated, that it was now too late to make any reference on this subject to your Lordship.

4. With respect to the sugges tion of the Maharaja, regarding the difficplty of providing supplies in the vicinity of Poona for two large armies, I said, that this intimation evinced the wisdom of the Maharaja, and likewise was a proof of his friendly disposition towards the English. However,