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PRINCIPLES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW.

[1827. instructions should be sent to the representatives at Constantinople of the three contracting Powers that they should present a joint declaration to the Divan, stating that as the war of extermination had been prolonged for six years, producing results shocking to humanity, and inflicting intolerable injury on the commerce of all nations, it was no longer possible to admit that the fate of Greece concerned exclusively the Ottoman Porte. They were to offer their mediation between the Sublime Porte and the Greeks to put an end to the war, to settle by amicable negotiation the relations which ought for the future to exist between them, and to propose that all acts of hostility should be suspended by an armistice. A similar proposition should be made to the Greeks. A month was to be given to the Ottoman Porte to make known its determination. If no answer were returned, or an evasive answer were given, the Divan was to be informed that the three Powers would themselves interfere to establish an armistice. Although the admirals of the allied squadrons of the three Powers were to be instructed to take coercive measures to enforce an armistice, they were to be warned against any hostile step which would be contrary to the pacific character which the three Powers were desirous to impart to their interference.

Such were the views of a statesman who, ardently desiring the preservation of peace, would not hesitate to enforce the true principles of international law that should govern the recognition of a belligerent Power, and of a State claiming to be independent. These were principles which would remain for our guidance in all future questions involving a similar exercise of discretion and forbearance, but calling for resolute action when it might become necessary to assert the right of civilized communities to decide upon such questions without reference to the passions and prejudices of the contending parties. Mr. Canning was most anxious, in the terrible conflict between Turks and Greeks, to avoid any course of action which would lead to direct hostilities, and especially to avert the possible danger of a policy of absolute neutrality on the part of Great Britain which might have placed the Turkish empire at the feet of Russia. By completing the treaty with Russia and France, he secured that co-operation which would prevent that separate action of Russia which would have necessarily resulted in her own aggrandizement. All the complicated previous negotiations for the pacification of Greece had reference to this difficulty.

NOTE ON THE NEGOTIATIONS WHICH PRECEDED MR. CANNING'S PREMIERSHIP.

The editor of the "Private Diary" of the duke of Buckingham announces that portion which relates to an audience of George IV. as of singular interest: "such an exposition of ministerial intrigue does not exist in any published work." We are constrained to believe that the whole of the exposition, whether relating to the duke of Wellington, Mr. Peel, or Mr. Canning, is, for the most part, a figment of the king's. We have noticed in the text what his Majesty said as to a pledge given by Mr. Canning (p. 207). We have a few words to write upon what the duke of Buckingham accepted as a story clearly made out "against Peel and the duke of Wellington, the truth of which I cannot doubt." Twice, said the king, he saw the duke of Wellington, and twice the duke said that "he could not be his minister"—"the duke persevered in excluding himself." The king went on to say that "at last Peel, who had kept a very high and mighty bearing" agreed to meet Canning, and after this meeting wrote to him to say that one had been suggested as Premier whose name he did not like to put in writing; that delays intervened, and that at last "Peel came to the king and thundered out the duke of Wellington's name," upon which his majesty said that "having been refused twice by the duke himself," he would not, "in the eleventh hour, have a man crammed down his throat." Peel then refused to act with Canning; the king refused to accept Wellington; named Canning as his minister; and then the resignations took place.

The circumstances thus recorded and credited are totally at variance with the statements and documents published by Mr. Stapleton in 1859. Mr. Canning had a long audience of the king on the 27th of March, the particulars of which are minutely detailed in a paper dictated by him to his secretary. Between the 31st of March and the 6th of April, he had no communication with the king on the subject of the cabinet arrangements; but he had frequent conferences with the duke of Wellington and Mr. Peel. On the 9th of April, Mr. Canning, by the king's command, saw Mr. Peel, "who came for the purpose of stating the name of an individual whose appointment as premier Mr. Peel conceived likely to solve all difficulties." That individual was the duke of Wellington. Under him Mr. Canning declined to serve, as the duke "for years had been combating in the cabinet Mr. Canning's system of foreign policy." On the next day the king gave his commands to Mr. Canning to prepare a plan for the reconstruction of the administration. The "story clearly made out against Mr. Peel and the duke of Wellington," like many other stories, is destroyed by a little cross-examination. So far from the king refusing the duke of Wellington, he sent Mr. Peel to Mr. Canning to endeavour to induce him to accept the duke as the Anti-Catholic head of the Ministry.

India-Retrospect from 1807 to 1826-Lord Minto Governor-General-Mutiny of Officers at Madras-Trade of India thrown open-Government of the Marquess of Hastings--War with Nepaul-War with the Pindarees-The War terminated, and the Mahratta Confederacy broken up-Conquest of Ceylon-Singapore--Malacca-Lord Amherst GovernorGeneral-War with the Birman Empire-Campaign of Sir Archibald Campbell-Peace with the Birmese-Bombardment and Capture of Bhurtpore-Regulation of the Press in India-The case of Mr. Buckingham-Material progress of British India.

Ar the opening of the Session of Parliament at the end of 1826, the Houses were informed of the termination of war in the Birmese territories, and of the conclusion of a peace highly honourable to the British arms and to the councils of the British government in India. From 1824 there had been war with the Birman empire, lord Amherst being Governor-General. From 1813 to 1822, during the government of the marquess of Hastings, there had been war with the Nepaulese, and war with the Pindarees, the latter war involving changes in the relations of the British power with native princes, which eventually led to their complete submission. From 1807 to 1812 there had been war with the Rajah of Travancore; there had been mutinies in the native army; and, by a series of hostile operations, the British had become the sole European power in India. Lord Minto was Governor-General during this first period, succeeding lord Cornwallis after the very brief term

1807.]

LORD MINTO GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

213

of his government.* We propose to take a brief survey of the events of this period of twenty years, during which time there had been important changes in the relations of the State to the East India Company, and a general impatience amongst the commercial community at the continuance of their monopoly, and at the somewhat arbitrary regulations by which it was deemed necessary to uphold their exclusive privileges. But there had never been a year in which the British empire in India was not extending and consolidating, and the same courage, fortitude, and perseverance evinced in military enterprises which first laid the foundations of that empire, and would still have to sustain it through years of danger and difficulty. Nor let us forget that, during these twenty years in which the native powers adverse to our rule and influence were either crushed or propitiated, some efforts were made to accomplish a more complete subjection of the native populations by a civil rule of justice and beneficence, by repressing, as far as was safe, the barbarous rites. of their idolatries and superstitions, and by winning them over to some possible recognition of Christian principles by encouraging rather than repressing efforts for their conversion, and by the establishment of an Anglican Church, whose first bishops were tolerant as well as zealous, active in well-doing, of high talent, and of blameless life.

At the beginning of 1807 India was at peace. On the death of the marquess Cornwallis, the powers of the Governor-General were temporarily exercised by sir George Barlow, who was subsequently entrusted with the full authority of his post by the Court of Directors. The Grenville administration had just come into office, and they wished to bestow the appointment upon one of their own supporters, and especially upon some nobleman. The harmony that had hitherto subsisted between the two independent bodies in whom was vested the government of India, was now interrupted. The ministry, who had at first consented to the continuance in office of sir George Barlow, recalled him, by an exercise of the royal prerogative, in direct opposition to the Board of Directors. The debates in Parliament on this subject were continued and violent. The conflict was finally settled by the appointment of lord Minto. The tranquillity of his government was after a while seriously disturbed by an outbreak against the power of the Company at Travancore. There was war against the Rajah of this state, which originated in a dispute between his Dewan, or chief minister, and the British resident. His troops were beaten in the field during 1808, and the lines of Travancore being stormed at the beginning of 1809, and other forts captured, relations of amity between the Company and the Rajah were restored. A more serious danger arose out of a circumstance which appears now amongst the almost incredible things of the past. The officers of the Madras army, who had long been stirred up to discontent, had mutinied, and lord Minto, in August, 1809, sailed for Madras to quell this extraordinary insubordination of British officers. There were various and contradictory regulations existing in the several Presidencies. There were inequalities in the rate of allowances. At Madras, what the Council termed "a very dangerous spirit of cabal" had been pointed out as early as March, 1807, by the Council to the Court of Directors. There was there an officer high in command, lieutenant-colonel St. Leger, who was

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SUCCESSES IN THE EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO.

[1810.

described in the despatch of the Council as "the champion of the rights of the Company's army." Colonel St. Leger, as well as other officers, was suspended by an order of the 1st of May, and then open mutiny burst out at Hyderabad, Masulipatam, Seringapatam, and other places. On one occasion only was blood shed in this extraordinary revolt. Many of these officers were very young men, who were incited to acts of insubordination by the example of their seniors. Brave as were the British officers in the field, their exclusiveness and assumption of superiority were offensive to civilians and dangerous in their intercourse with the natives. These misguided men gradually returned to habits of obedience. In September lord Minto published an amnesty, with the exception of eighteen officers, nearly all of whom chose to resign rather than to abide the judgment of a court-martial. It now became the wish of all to obliterate the painful remembrance of the past. During this alarming period, in which the mutiny of the officers might have led to the entire disorganization of the Sepoy army, the King's troops manifested the most entire obedience to the orders of the Governor-General. Lord Wellington, engrossing as was his duty in Spain in December 1809, wrote from Badajoz to colonel Malcolm, to express how much he felt on what had passed in the Madras establishment:-"I scarcely recognize in those transactions the men for whom I entertained so much respect and had so much regard a few years back." Those transactions, he said, were "consequences of the first error—that is, of persons in authority making partizans of those placed under them, instead of making all obey the constituted authorities of the State."*

During the administration of lord Minto a number of successful operations were undertaken in the Eastern Archipelago, which, in 1810, gave us possession of Amboyna and the Banda isles, of the island of Bourbon, and of the Mauritius. The most important of these conquests was the rich island of Java, which, after a severe battle with the Dutch troops near the capital, capitulated in 1810. Sir Stamford Raffles, who was appointed LieutenantGovernor of Java, described it as "the other India." It passed out of our hands at the Peace-a circumstance attributed by many to the complete ignorance of the British government of the great value of this possession. The policy of the Court of Directors was to maintain peace as long as possible upon the continent of India, and thus the depredations of the Pindarees and the Nepaulese were not met by the Governor-General with any vigorous measures of repression. He demanded redress of the Rajah of Nepaul for the outrages of his people, but he did not make any more effectual demonstration to compel a less injurious conduct. His diplomacy had for its main object to prevent the establishment of the French in the peninsula. He concluded treaties with the Ameers of Scinde, and with the King of Caubul, of which the terms of friendship were, that they should restrain the French from settling in their territories. With Persia, where France was endeavouring to establish her influence, a treaty was concluded, binding the sovereign. to resist the passage of any European force through his country towards India.

The usual term of a Governor-General's residence being completed, lord

* Despatches, vol. v. p. 330.