HE last war between the East India terminated in 1792, by a pacification, which deprived the sultan of one-half of his dominions, and exhausted his finances by the exaction of an enormous tribute. Conditions so humiliating planted in his breast the seeds of resentment and revenge, and he continued to keep a watchful eye on every circumstance in the politics of Europe and Asia that might be improved into the means of destroying the ascendency of the English in India. Of his determination to recover his hereditary possessions, and to inflict the most signal vengeance on his enemies, his posthumous journal presents a singular example. "The means" (he observes)" which I have taken to keep in remembrance the misfortunes I experienced six years ago, from the malice of my enemies, are, to discontinue sleeping in a cotton bed, and to make use of a cloth one; when I am victorious, I shall resume the bed of cotton." The first indications of his ambitious and revengeful designs, were exhibited in his intrigues with Madajee Scindia, and afterwards with his successor Dowlet Ron Scindia, a powerful Mahratta chief at the court of Poonah, for the purpose of undermining the authority of the Paishwa, Ron Pundit Purdham, under whose administration the treaty of alliance had been formed

TCompany and Tippoo Saib, was

with the English company. The dissen sions of the court of Hyderabad, where the aged Nizam was sinking to the grave, were equally favorable to the intrigues of his emissaries. Agreeably with the general practise of the Indian princes at this period, a corps of 14,000 men had been formed and disciplined according to the European manner, under the direction of Monsieur Raymond, a French officer; and, influenced by the party, by whose advice this measure had been adopted, the Nizam dismissed a British detachment, which had served him as a body-guard since the conclusion of the late war. The purpose of that prince's evil counsellors was evinced by an event which immediately ensued. Before the troops had reached the company's territories, he was obliged to solicit their return, to subdue a rebellion raised by Ali Jah, one of his sons. The intrigues at Poonah and Hyderabad, may be considered as accessaries only to the general system of policy pursued by Tippoo. He determined not only to overthrow the British power, but to accomplish an entire revolution in all the governments of India: a design in which he was encouraged and assisted by Zemaan Shah, a descendant from Ahmed Kaun Abdalla, an Asghan chief, who followed, in 1739, the standard of Nadir Shah, and who possessed dominions so extensive and populous, that

his forces amounted to 150,000, chiefly cavalry. While he was endeavoring to impress lord Mornington, now governor of Madras, with his intention to adhere firmly to the treaty of Seringapatam, Tippoo's ambassadors were negotiating with the utmost privacy at Kabul, the residence of Zemaun Shah, to stimulate the Asghan chief to the invasion of Hindostan, and the prosecution of his various projects of ambition. The Mysorean ambassador was commissioned to propose for his selection several plans, and obtain a written engagement for the execution of that which should receive his approbation. In the mean time he transmitted letters to general Malartic, governor of the French islands, and to general Mengalon, imploring their assistance, professing the utmost reverence for the "sublimity of the French constitution ;" and descanting at considerable length on the affairs of India. With the purpose of diffusing the principles of equality, and of complimenting the republicans, he established a Jacobin club at Seringapatam, and sacrificed his evident interests, as an absolute monarch, to his ruling passion, hatred of the English. General Malartic immediately complied with the wishes of the sultan, and injudiciously disclosed in a proclamation to his troops, and to the inhabitants of the isles, the plans, the views, and the senti ments, of his august correspondent. The affairs of the English were in this critical situation when lord Mornington, afterwards created marquis of Wellesley, arrived at Calcutta, (May 18th, 1798,) to take upon him the chief government: a nobleman, whose experience in all the civil and political departments of public business, qualified him for a station which had been so ably filled by lord Cornwallis.'

The proclamation of Malartic, and the movements of Zemaun Shah, were in themselves sufficient to awaken the alarm, and demand the vigilant attention of the governor; and his embarrassment was redoubled by the intelligence that a formidable fleet was preparing at Toulon, of which the probable destination was to the countries of the East; and his distress

was heightened by intelligence from Madras, that the dispersion of the forces on that establishment was so great, that it would require several months to assemble and equip them.

Debarred from the execution of those prompt and decisive measures which often determine the fate of military enterprises, he endeavored to embarrass the measures of his enemies, and, if possible, to deprive them of a part of the resources on which they relied. He knew that they depended on effecting a revolution in the Nizam's council's, and making that state subservient to their views, with the concurrence of the body of troops commanded by Monsieur Perou. While the Madras government, therefore, was expediting his orders for assembling an army at Vellore, he dispatched 4000 men to Hyderabad, which executed his orders with so much address, that the French corps was completely surrounded and disarmed without bloodshed or tumult, and its place supplied by 6000 British troops. Thus auspiciously were our movements on the scene of action commenced, with an exploit that deprived Tippoo of a body of forces from which he expected to derive essential service in his meditated invasion of the Carnatic. That he might avert, however, the evils of war, if it could be done consistently with the company's safety and the dignity of the crown, lord Mornington proposed by letter to the sultan, to send an ambassador to Seringa. patam, to attempt the restoration of mutual amity; intimating, at the same time, that he had received intelligence of the sultan's hostile correspondence with France. To this communication, Tippoo, after a long delay, returned an evasive answer, indirectly declining a compliance with the governor's proposals, and evidently intended to protract the correspondence till he should strike some decisive blow in conjunction with his confederates.

The sultan's intentions were notorious, but that he might afford him every opportunity of amicable accommodation, consistent with his plan for the ensuing campaign, lord Mornington soon after his

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arrival at Madras on the last day of December, 1798, dispatched another letter, in which he indirectly charged him with the basest perfidy by contrasting his professions of satisfaction at the naval victory of the Nile, with his secret intrigues against the power and interest of England. About five weeks after the transmission of this letter, Tippoo returned an answer, in which after a bombastic exordium he ohserved with an air of indifference, that being frequently accustomed to hunt and make excursions, he was proceed ing on a hunting excursion," and he added you will be pleased to dispatch major Doveton, about whose coming your friend ly pen has repeatedly written, slightly attended," an expression by which he meant to insinuate that he expected him to arrive at the head of an hostile army. The governor-general having thus thrown upon his adversary the blame of aggression with the accumulated guilt of the grossest perfidity, settled his plan of operations with his allies, and prepared for the vigorous prosecution of warlike councils, as the only means to avert the impending storm. The troops on the Ma

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dras establishment assembled at 1799. Vellore, were reinforced with 4000 men from Bengal, with the 6000 subsidiary troops which were with the Nizam, and with 6000 of that prince's best cavalry and as many sepoys. The command of these forces which formed collectively the finest army that had ever been seen in India, attended by an excellent train of artillery and well provided with all kinds of military stores, was vested in general Harris, an officer of distinguished merit. He was the son of a respectable clergyman of the established church, who dying in early life left a family of two sons and three daughters, in that kind of moderate circumstances which would naturally result from a small living, and the necessary expenses of decently educating a large family.

A friend of Mr. Harris took the youth under his patronage, and educated him for the army, into which he entered at the commencement of the American war, and

upon all occasions was distinguished as a brave and intelligent officer. During the greater part of the war he acted under the immediate command of lord Rawdon (now earl Moira,) and performed the various services committed to his care, more especially in the adjutant-general's department, in a manner, which obtained the repeated approbation of that gallant and amiable nobleman. Having returned from the American continent towards the close of the war, with the rank of major, he soon after went on service to the West Indies, where he acquired additional rank and an increase of honour. He afterwards accompanied general sir William Meadous to England, having then arrived at the rank of colonel, and recommended himself so strongly to the marquis of Cornwallis by his active and spirited behaviour, and by the extent and correctness of his military attainments, that his lordship left him in India with the rank of lieutenantgeneral, and of commander-in-chief of the British army. His conduct in the present important enterprise and on many subsequent occasions, proved in every respect a full justification of the hopes and the predictions of his friends.

In order to give the Nizam's force the utmost respectability the commander-inchief not only strengthened it with some of the company's battalions, but appointed the 33rd regiment to join it, giving the general command of the British forces thus serving, to colonel Arthur Wellesley, an officer who even at this early period of his military career displayed a promptitude of expedient, a union of bravery with prudence, and a masculine energy of understanding which commanded the admiration of his superiors, and the enthusiastic devotion of his troops. This emi nent soldier and statesman, is descended from the respectable and antient Irish family of Colley, of whom Richard Colley was the first who adopted the name of Wellesley or Wesley, in 1728, as heir to his first cousin Garret Wesley of Dangan, who left him all his estates, on condition of his taking the name and arms of that family. He held several offices under