IN TWO PARTS.
By JOHN MALCOLM,
LIEUTENANT COLONEL IN THE HONOURABLE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S
MADRAS ARMY, RESIDENT AT MYSORE, AND LATE
ENVOY TO THE COURT OF PERSIA.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR WILLIAM MILLER, ALBEMARLE STREET;
AND JOHN MURRAY, FLEET STREET.
1812.
J. MOYES, PRINTER,
Greville Street
I have hitherto abstained from controversy regarding thelate unhappy proceedings at Madras. The part which Ihad taken in these proceedings had placed me in possessionof much information, and I had given a shape to my sentimentsupon the subject; but the knowledge of these waslimited to a few intimate friends, and to them only underthe strictest injunctions of secrecy. I have been appliedto more than once for papers and information upon thissubject, but have invariably refused; as I deemed it improperto give publicity in any mode to communications,whether verbal or in writing, which had been, at themoment at which they were made, considered as private,or confidential. Nothing could have led me to a departurefrom this principle but a perusal of the dispatch underdate the 10th of September, 1809, from the Governmentof Fort St. George to the Secret Committee of the Court ofDirectors, printed by order of the House of Commons.That dispatch contains an implied censure upon my conduct,which nothing but a conviction of its justice couldinduce me to pass over in silence.
Injustice is aggravated by the power of the individualor body by whom it is committed, and by the want ofability or opportunity in the person who suffers to repelthe attack. Had not this dispatch been printed by order[iv]of the House of Commons, my character would havesecretly received a deep and incurable wound: for as it isnot likely the Honourable the Court of Directors couldhave ever thought it possible that so deliberate and gravean authority as the Government of Fort St. George, could(without adequate grounds) have pronounced censure onthe character of an officer who stood at the moment as highin rank and trust as the local Government of India hadpower to raise him[1], it becomes probable, that most ofthose who read this dispatch would be satisfied, without aminute examination of the documents by which it wasaccompanied: and if any readers went into this detail,and were struck with the