REGULATION OF INDIAN AFFAIRS-SAILS FOR INDIA-STRICTURES ON MR. MACPHERSON'S ADMINISTRATION EARL CORNWALLIS AS It was with melancholy feelings that Mr. Shore landed, in June 1785, almost a stranger on his native soil. His only relative was a brother, whom he left in childhood: and few of the friends of his youth survived, to welcome him. He found a cordial reception, and passed several weeks at the house of his old and valued friend, Mr. Stanley, in Hatton Garden, where he resided with his sister, Mrs. Arlond. This gentleman was the well-known performer; whose celebrity was the more remarkable, as he had been blind from his infancy. His private worth corresponded with his professional reputation; and his hospitable house was much resorted to by his more eminent musical brethren, as well as by literary men, attracted by his conversation, and the amateur concerts, in which he took delight. Mr. Stanley and his sister were connected with the subject of this Memoir by marriage; and were additionally endeared to him by their assiduous attention to his mother during her dying hours. In London, Mr. Shore retained his early Indian habits. He never rested more than five, or slept more than four hours; and invariably walked over Westminster and Blackfriars' bridges before breakfast. But an unexpected visit to his brother, in Devonshire, in November, suddenly brightened his domestic prospects. Mr. Thomas Shore resided at this time at Duryard near Exeter, at the house of his father-in-law, W. Mackworth Praed, Esq., of Bitton, Teignmouth, whose daughter he had lately married. Here he was received by a young lady of great personal attractions, whom a snow-storm had detained at the house; his brother and sister being absent; and in a single interview, his affections became so much engaged, that he sought fresh opportunities of cultivating her acquaintance; and in the February following she became his wife.Mrs. Shore was the only daughter of a widow lady, named Cornish, of the old and respectable Devonshire family of Floyer*, whose husband had held *The Floyers are the representatives, by the female line, of John, father of Nicholas Wadham, Founder of Wadham College, the latter leaving no children; and, through John Wadham, are sprung, by regular or irregular descent, from several Kings of England and France, and the last British Earl of Cornwall. The pedigree has been repeatedly published. the situation of Collector of the Customs at Teignmouth; a gentleman much respected in that place and in its neighbourhood. Thus originated an union, cemented by an entire accordance of sentiment and principle, which, during forty-eight years, produced as much domestic happiness as could perhaps be realised in this present chequered state of existence. But a fortnight had scarcely elapsed from the period of Mr. Shore's marriage, when his honey-moon, passed at Peamore near Exeter, the residence of a friend of his bride, was interrupted by a startling summons to the field of toilsome and hazardous exertion, which he had quitted, as he supposed, for ever. Apprehension of such a contingency had induced him, whilst in London, to shun as much as possible the society of East-Indians, and every circumstance likely to renew his connection with India. His merits were, however, too highly appreciated by the Court of Directors, and especially by his principal and influential friends in that body -Mr. (afterwards Sir Francis) Baring, Mr. (afterwards Sir Hugh) Inglis, and Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Bensley-to be overlooked. The critical state of India having attracted the attention of Parliament in 1784, Mr. Pitt's Act for the Regulation of Indian Affairs was passed measure framed to rectify the acknowledged deficiency of power in the governing bodies invested with the direction of them, both at home and in that country, and to prescribe definite rules for the guidance of their policy towards the Native States*. * By this enactment, a Board of Controul was instituted, empowered to superintend, and, if necessary, to overrule, the Ministerial functions of the East-India Company, but precluded from interfering with its patronage. The Sovereign was entitled to recall from India the Governor-General, or any other Officer of the Company. Order and regularity, in the administration of affairs, were enforced by the concentration and enlargement of the powers of the Supreme Government in India; which was now to consist of a Governor-General and three Councillors; the Commander-inChief having a voice next after the Governor-General; whilst the Governor-General received the casting vote in Council, and, by a subsequent amendment of the Act in 1786, the important privilege of assuming, on an emergency, the responsibility of acting in opposition to his Council. The Government at each of the subordinate Presidencies was constructed on a similar plan, and subjected to the Supreme Government in all matters relating to negociations with the Native States, to peace and war, and the application of the Revenues. To prevent the abuse of the large powers thus vested in the Indian Authorities and ambitious interference with the politics of the Native States, it was declared, that as the pursuit of schemes of conquest was repugnant to the wish, to the honour, and the policy of the British Nation, it was not lawful for the GovernorGeneral in Council of Fortwilliam, without the express authority and concord of the Court of Directors, or of the Secret Committee, either to declare or commence hostilities, or to enter into any treaty for making war against any of the Native Princes or States in India, or any treaty guaranteeing the dominions of such Princes or The attention of the newly-constituted Government would be primarily directed to the establishment on a solid basis of the Revenue System, hitherto subjected to a series of ill-conducted and unsuccessful experiments; the extirpation of deeply-rooted corruption among the Company's servants; and the substitution of fixed and liberal salaries for the various objectionable expedients by which they had as yet been remunerated. The individual selected to fill the highest post in the Indian administration, and to carry into effect the important measures proposed, was Earl Cornwallis; a nobleman combining extensive civil and military experience, inflexible integrity, sound judgment, vigorous though not brilliant abilities, and an affable and conciliatory deportment. And his authority was enlarged, by the union in his person of the office of Commander-in-Chief with that of Governor-General. To supply Lord Cornwallis's want of experience of Indian Affairs, and or States; except when hostilities should have been commenced, or preparations actually made for the attack of the British Nation in India, or of some of the States and Princes whose dominions it shall be engaged by subsisting treaties to defend. The subordinate Presidencies were prohibited, by this Act, from making war or peace, without orders from Fortwilliam, the Court of Directors, or the Secret Committee; except in cases of sudden emergency or imminent danger, when it would be ruinous or unsafe to postpone such hostilities or treaty. |