1830.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



473 



polish, but no thought no subtile, no 

 fresh thought : and without this what is 

 poetry? and without new phrases and 

 fancies, what is the use of mere verses ? 

 They are the tasteless fruits of mere 

 imitation, and only help to shew how 

 insignificant the talent, or rather the 

 art of verse-making has become. 



Military Reminiscences, extracted from 

 a Journal of Active Service in the East 

 Indies, by Colonel James Welsh, of the 

 Madras Establishment. 2 vols. 8vo. Af- 

 ter an active life, spent in the Com- 

 pany's service, into which he entered at 

 fifteen, and quitted it at the end of 

 forty years, without reaching the higher 

 honours of his profession, Colonel James 

 Welsh finally returns to enjoy the otium 

 of his native land, and communicate the 

 pith of his journals, kept, apparently, 

 through the whole of his lengthened 

 career. All cannot be first ; in the con- 

 llicts of claim and pretension some must 

 come short of their real deserts, and 

 such seems long to have been Colonel 

 Welsh's case, till Sir Thomas Munro 

 was made governor of Madras, when his 

 merits, or his interest, secured him ho- 

 nourable and profitable appointments. 

 The Reminiscences, so far as they are 

 merely military, cannot be very attrac- 

 tive, except to professional men, con- 

 sisting as they do, for the most part, of 

 his personal, and, subaltern as he was, 

 of course limited experience incidents 

 detached from every thing relative to 

 the policy of the governments, in the 

 conduct of the commanders. When re- 

 lating his campaigns against Scindiah, 

 he says of himself " Haying never 

 troubled my head with the intricacy of 

 state affairs, I have never learned the 

 real cause of the war" very different 

 from his friend and patron Munro, who 

 commenced political speculating with 

 his first campaign, and was as ready to 

 decide upon the merits of his comman- 

 ders, as a cadet, as when he was presi- 

 dent of Madras. But though no states- 

 man, Colonel Welsh was, apparently, 

 what is better, a man of good sense, in- 

 tegrity and humanity. He execrates 

 tyranny, and approves of gentleness, 

 and so far as his personal influence went, 

 and doubtless as far as his power ex- 

 tended, carried his conciliatory views 

 into execution. The volumes abound 

 with topographical details anecdotes of 

 his comrades sketches of the country, 

 manners, customs, characters, and espe- 

 cjally sporting feats the whole de- 

 scribed with simplicity, without any ef- 

 fort at embellishing in matter or man- 

 ner. The views of the towns, and par- 

 ticularly of the hill-forts, are very nu- 

 merous, and acceptable. There is no 

 getting adequate conceptions of these 

 matters from verbal description. 

 M.M. New Scries VoL.X. No. 58. 



Masulipatam must be a charming re- 

 sidence. 



Having remained at Point de Galle for three 

 years, early in 1/99 it was my unhappy lot to be 

 appointed Fort-Adjutant and Postmaster at Ma- 

 sulipatam, a place far exceeding Calcutta in heat, 

 without any of its counterbalancing advantages. 

 Of all the semi-infernal stations in the East In- 

 dies, the interior of this fort is the most trying to 

 an European constitution. Erected on a low 

 sandy swamp, and having one face washed by a 

 branch of the Kistnah river, it is exactly ten de- 

 grees and a half more to the northward than 

 Point de Galle, and three more than Madras. The 

 vicinity to the sea might also have been expected 

 to do something towards cooling the air, but the 

 nature of the soil completely counteracts its 

 balmy effects, and the inhabitants, both inside 

 and out, are in a continual stew from one end of 

 the year to the other. The soldier's usual descrip- 

 tion is, indeed, extremely apposite that "there is 

 only a sheet of brown paper between it and Pan- 

 demonium!" 



His details relative to the Southern 

 Poligars are of considerable interest : 

 but little is known of that war. While 

 declining to decide upon the justice 01 

 policy of the severity with which they 

 were treated, and to which Colonel 

 Welsh attributes the subsequent explo 

 sion, he ventures to express an opinion 

 that liberality and kindness would have 

 been the best way of securing their alle* 

 giance. He was then (1001) both a 

 staff and regimental officer, and having 

 thus, he says, the means of obtaining 

 accurate information, he enters more 

 into detail, because, he adds, " I do not 

 believe that any account of this service, 

 has ever been given to the public ; and 

 it was customary, while gallant fellows 

 were falling, covered with glorious 

 wounds, to put down the casualty in 

 our newspapers, as if they had died in 

 their beds, thus Deaths : lately, to the 



southward, Captain , or Lieutenant 



," &c. &c. 



Co-operating with the Company's army 

 were still some of the Poligars. One of 

 them, mortally wounded, desired that he 

 might be immediately carried to Major 

 Macauley, who was at the time sur* 

 rounded by his English officers, The 

 old man, who was placed upright in a 

 chair, then said, with a firm voice " I 

 have come to shew the English how a 

 Poligar can die." He twisted his whis 

 kers with both hands as he spoke, and in 

 that attitude expired. 



In the Mahrattah war, the Pettah of 

 Ahmednugger, a well fortified place, 

 was carried at once by assault. The 

 fort the strongest Colonel Welsh ever 

 saw on a plain quickly surrendered. 

 It was, however, a matter of little won- 

 der, he observes, when our ally, Gok- 

 liah, a Mahrattah chief residing in our 

 camp, with a bodv of horse, wrote thus 



3 O 



