HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



65 



fine themselves, as formerly, to wars 

 amongst themselves, in all good coun- 

 sel it would have been right to keep 

 clear of them : but after the treaty 

 of Bassein, a great number of French 

 officers were introduced amongst 

 them, and the policy of the Mah- 

 ratta connection stood upon new 

 ground. Sa great a military force, 

 directed by French officers, must be 

 formidable to our possessions, and 

 that at the time, that the inrasion of 

 Egypt was known by the marquis of 

 Wcllesley, to have been only a step 

 towards an attack upon us in India. 

 The object of the marquis of Wcl- 

 lesley was to strengthen the peshwa, 

 and thus, by invigorating him, resist 

 the French, and drive them from 

 that territory. Thirty or forty 

 thousand French, under the Nizam, 

 ■were in a state of perfect discipline, 

 and even Scindia himself gave up 

 the contest, and dared not to op- 

 pose them. In the Mahratta em- 

 pire there was a population of 

 thirty.six millions, and if, in the 

 means taken to resist that danger, 

 a war had ensued, it was attended 

 with success beyond the most san- 

 guine expectations. That there 

 were no documents to shew tiie 

 ground and origin of the war, he 

 attributed to the short jjeriod which 

 had since elapsed, l)ut there was 

 ample reason to conclude (hat it was 

 commenced on just and necessary 

 grounds. Upon the whole, he did 

 not think that any case was made 

 out, which should induce parliament 

 to come to any decision on the 

 subject, and, therefore, moved, 

 that the other orders of the day be 

 now read. 



Dr. Lawrence supported the mo- 

 tion, as going to the re-cstablish- 

 ment of a principle already sanc- 

 tioned by the legislature. 



Vol. XLVU. 



Mr. Grant thought the energies 

 of the marquis Wellesley's mind 

 most successfully exerted for the bc- 

 nelit of this country, in the destruc- 

 tion of the infatuated tyrant 

 Tippoo, but he owned that he could 

 not view what had of late years 

 parsed in India, in any other light, 

 than as an infraction of the principle 

 laid down in the resolution of that 

 house, by which we renounced 

 conquest in India, for the purpos* 

 of extending our territorial posses- 

 sions in India. The court of di- 

 rectors had never approved of the 

 conduct of the noble marquis, and 

 such a declaration as was now pro- 

 posed, could not fail of being at- 

 tended with the most beneficial ef- 

 fects, as a notice to the native 

 powers that we wished and intended 

 to abrogate the present system. 



Sir Theophilus Metcalfe said, that 

 it had been the object of the Mah- 

 rattas, for twenty years past, to ex- 

 tirpate the English from India, and 

 with that view they had been at 

 great expence in improving their 

 tactics. Scindia had also similar 

 designs, and he thought it the high, 

 est degree of merit in the marquis 

 Wellesley to have attacked them 

 singly, and thus prevented what 

 might have been the fatal effe6l of 

 their power when consolidated. 



Mr. Chapman 'spoke in support 

 of the motion, and Mr. Friusep 

 against it. 



Mr. Robert Thornton considered 

 the proposed declaration as likely 

 to be productive of the best conse- 

 quences. At the time when, by 

 sending the marquis Cornwallis to 

 replace the marquis Wellesley, wc 

 were substituting the olive branch 

 f^r the sword, it would tend to 

 convince the native powers, that 

 moderation and justice would be our 



F future 



