196

Declaratory articles, 1806.

DECLARATORY ARTICLES.

[CHAP.

Sir George Barlow, however, was not satisfied with the terms of either treaty. He considered that to fix the Chumbul as the boundary of the Mahratta dominions might be construed as a pledge to protect the native principalities lying to the north of it, and he was resolved, in obedience to the authorities in England, to dissolve all connection with them. While ratifying the treaties, therefore, he added declaratory articles, the effect of which was to withdraw our protection entirely from those states west of the Jumna, with whom alliances had been formed two years before. Rampoora, which Colonel Malcolm had positively refused to relinquish, was restored to Holkar, and he fired a royal salute on the occasion, declaring at the same time that the English were, nevertheless, "great rascals, and never to be trusted." The raja of Boondee was likewise left to his fate. Lord Lake made the most strenuous efforts to save that unfortunate prince. He had the strongest claims on the consideration, if not also on the gratitude of the Government. He had never failed in his attachment to the Company; regardless of the denunciations of Holkar, he had afforded shelter and aid to Colonel Monson during his retreat. His country, moreover, contained one of the most important passes into our northern provinces. Sir George turned a deaf ear to every remonstrance, and the raja was abandoned to the revenge and rapacity of Holkar.

Jeypore, 1806.

The course pursued with regard to Jeypore was yet more disgraceful. The raja was among the foremost to enter the system of defensive alliances concluded by Lord Wellesley. But his fidelity was shaken by the apparent decay of our power, when Holkar was chasing Colonel Monson before him, and Lord Wellesley informed Lord CornIwallis that his defection on that occasion had cancelled his claims to our alliance. In the following year, Holkar entered his territories and demanded his aid against the Company, but Lord Lake informed him that he had now an opportunity of making atonement for his former disloyalty, and that the

XXIII.]

ABANDONMENT OF JEYPORE.

197

boon of our protection would be restored to him if he resisted the advances of the Mahratta chief. Upon the strength of this promise, the raja not only obliged Holkar to quit his dominions, but afforded cordial and important aid to our detachments while passing through his districts in pursuit of him. Lord Cornwallis, who was the soul of honour, assured Lord Lake that any pledge which he had given to the raja should be considered sacred. But Sir George Barlow refused to recognise the obligation, and, at the time when Holkar was returning from the Punjab and entering the Jeypore territory, bent on plunder and revenge, caused it to be notified to the raja, that the British protection was withdrawn from him, in consequence of the breach of his engagements during Monson's retreat. We thus incurred the odium of having availed ourselves of the raja's services when they were of the highest value to us, and of abandoning him to destruction when we no longer needed them. It was in vain to attempt to reason with Sir George, and Lord Lake was subjected to the reproaches -the keener for their truth-of the raja's vakeels, who upbraided the British Government with having made its good faith subservient to its interests, and asserted that this was the first time it had abandoned an ally to suit its convenience. Indignant at the contempt with which his expostulations were treated, and the degradation of the national honour, and convinced, moreover, that he could not be a fit instrument for the execution of measures which he entirely disapproved of, Lord Lake, in the beginning of 1806, resigned the political powers which had been entrusted to him, and resolved to confine his attention to his military duties.

Aggressions

of Holkar,

1806.

The treaty with Holkar had stipulated that he should return to Hindostan by the route prescribed for him, and abstain from all aggression on the territories of the Company or its allies. But Lord Lake was in haste to return, and save Government the field expenses of his army, and, instead of directing Holkar to precede or accompany him, permitted him to remain behind. No

198

REMARKS ON THESE TRANSACTIONS.

[CHAP. sooner did he find that the British army was fairly across the Sutlege, than he let loose his predatory bands on the Punjab and plundered the country without mercy. He proved himself, as Runjeet Sing said indignantly to the British envoy who visited his court four years later, a pucka huramzada— a determined rascal. Holkar was fully aware that he had no longer Lord Wellesley to deal with, and there was no article of the treaty which he did not violate with the greatest effrontery. Passing through the province of Hurriana, which had been granted to Abdul Suinud as a reward for the eminent services he rendered to the Company, Holkar laid waste the lands and levied heavy contributions on the people. Abdul implored the interposition of the British Government, which Sir George Barlow refused, but promised to make him a pecuniary compensation for his losses. Holkar then halted for a month at Jeypore, and finding that the Governor-General had withdrawn his protection from the raja, extorted eighteen lacs of rupees from him. He then proceeded to wreak his vengeance on the raja of Boondee for the assistance which he had given Colonel Monson during his retreat.

Remarks on

tions, 1806.

This disastrous termination of the Mahratta these transac- war planted the seeds of another and more momentous contest. The difference between the policy of Lord Wellesley and of his two immediate successors, was not the restoration of peace or the prosecution of war and conquest. When the career of Lord Wellesley was terminated by the arrival of Lord Cornwallis, nothing remained to secure the pacification of India but to complete the accommodation with Sindia, which was in rapid progress, and to extinguish the power of Holkar and Ameer Khan, who were then reduced to extremity. If Lord Wellesley had continued five months longer in power, India would have been blessed with peace and tranquillity. The policy of the Court of Directors brought peace to the Company, but distraction to India, and the wisdom of Lord Wellesley's measures was lamentably vindicated by the twelve years of anarchy which followed

XXIII.]

CAREER OF HOLKAR.

199

the rejection of it. By abandoning all the defensive alliances which had been made, and enjoining a neutral and isolated policy, the Directors endeavoured to check the advance of the British Government to supreme authority in India. But this attempt to control the inevitable progress of events proved not only abortive, but disastrous. It afforded an opportunity for the growth and maturity of a new predatory power, that of the Pindarees, who, after having exhausted the provinces of Central India, poured down on the British territories, and rendered it necessary, in self-defence, to assemble an army of more than 100,000 men to extirpate them. That which it fell to the lot of Lord Hastings to accomplish for the settlement of India in 1817, might have been effected with greater ease, and at a less cost, by Lord Wellesley's plans in 1805.

Career of Hol- To continue the brief career of Holkar to its kar, 1806-11. close. After his return to his own dominions he addressed letters to the other Mahratta princes exhorting them to form a national league against the common enemy, but Lord Wellesley had so effectually paralyzed their power as to leave them little inclination to respond to the call. Holkar determined to reorganise his army, to reduce its numbers, and improve its discipline. But the cavalry he had enlisted in the south, whom he proposed in the first instance to discharge, broke into open mutiny, and he was obliged to deliver his nephew, Khundeh Rao, into their hands as a hostage for their arrears. They immediately hoisted the standard of revolt, threw off their allegiance to Jeswunt Rao Holkar, and proclaimed the lad their sovereign. To appease them, he delivered up the sums he had extorted from Jeypore, on the receipt of which they marched back to their homes. Within a week, the unfortunate child, in whose name the government had hitherto been carried on, was removed by poison, under the instigation of Holkar's gooroo, or spiritual guide, the infamous Chimna Bhao, who soon after became the instrument of murdering Kashee Rao, the brother of his prince, and the only re

200

DEATH OF HOLKAR.

[CHAP. maining member of the royal house. The remorse of this double murder preyed on the spirits of Holkar, and he began to exhibit a degree of excitement in his conduct bordering on insanity. He had determined to increase and improve his artillery, and he laboured in person at the furnaces casting cannon with a wild impetuosity. He gave himself up to unbounded indulgence. The shops at Bombay were ransacked for cherry brandy, and intemperance began to undermine his reason. His phrenzy rose eventually to such a pitch as to endanger the lives of his attendants, and his own officers seized him and confined him with ropes in a separate tent, under a guard, where he uttered the loudest objurgations, and tore his flesh with his nails. The most skilful doctors and the most renowned magicians were called n, but their prescriptions and incantations were equally without avail. After a year of raging insanity he sunk into a state of wunt Rao Hol- fatuity, and expired on the 20th October, 1811. During the period of his incapacity the government of the state was carried on by his favourite concubine, Toolsee bye, and his minister, Buluram Sett, whom we now leave in charge of the administration.

Death of Jes

kar, 1811..

Rajpootana

princess, 1806.

The withdrawal of British protection from the contest for a territory west of the Jumna, left the fertile provinces of Rajpootana at the mercy of the Mahrattas and the Patans. The princes, instead of uniting their strength against the enemies of their peace, wasted it for several years against each other in a conflict, which, though tinged with a ray of romance, entailed incalculable misery on their people. The contest was for the hand of Krishnu Koomaree, the beautiful daughter of the rana of Oodypore. An alliance with that ancient and illustrious house" the sun of Hindoo glory”— was considered the highest honour to which a Rajpoot prince could aspire, and the princess was considered the "flower" of Rajpootana. She had been betrothed to Bheem Sing, the raja of Joudhpore, but his death broke off the match, upon which Juggut Sing, the raja of Jeypore, solicited her hand,