I have received your kind letter of the 8th instant; but fear your
hopes of my success will be disappointed. The voice of passion is alone
heard; and every man that speaks with temper and reason is condemned
and calumniated.
The crisis, in fact, if not arrived, appears now near at hand, when
every officer in the Company's service must determine whether he will
maintain his allegiance to the Government he serves, to his King
and Country, or decidedly throw it off; and assuredly there is no
individual who claims a title to any spirit of independence, who will
not exercise his judgment upon a question which must so deeply involve
all his future prospects and happiness.
If ever there was a moment in which it was important for men to look
at those consequences which are likely to ensue from one step more in
their course, it is the present; and it is assuredly worth while to
pause for a moment, and examine coolly the nature of our grievances,
and the length we are justified in going to obtain redress of them, and
the probable consequences to ourselves and to our country of throwing
off our allegiance to the state.
There were accounts by the last dispatches that the existence of
grievances in this army was already a topic of public discussion.
General McDowall and Colonel Capper have no doubt arrived before this
in England, and they would be soon followed by Colonel St. Leger,
and the other suspended officers. Is it not evident, that, with all
the aggrieved parties in England, the public records which must be
transmitted there, and the voluminous private correspondence which
every ship, since those transactions took place, has carried home,
that every one of the topics of complaint will be a subject of warm
discussion; and will not the agitation they have created in the army
be brought fully forward? And have we not reason to conclude, from
all these circumstances, that an early settlement of these questions
will be made by those authorities, by whom they must at all events
be ultimately judged, unless this country should permanently throw
off its allegiance and obedience to England? As far as we can judge
from the past, there appears reason to anticipate a fair and liberal
decision from the controlling authorities at home, who have certainly
hitherto judged questions of this nature with great attention to both
the feelings and the interests of the Indian army. With this prospect,
can we be justified in resorting to such desperate extremes, because we
are discontented with the acts of a temporary local Government, and not
only involving ourselves in ruin, but injuring, in the deepest manner,
our country, at a moment when it is the duty of every man, who has a
spark of patriotism in his breast, to support her against the numerous
and powerful enemies by whom she is assailed.
But we proceed, it is said, in the certainty that Government must see
those evils, and that it will give way, in order to avert them; and
that, indeed, it has no power, if it wished, to oppose our spirited
and united demand of a full redress of grievances. Let us examine
those points. Government may see great evils in our resistance of
its authority, but it may perceive still greater in yielding to the
peremptory demands of an armed body confederated for the purpose of
intimidating it into concession. It is the extreme of the pressure,
in cases of this nature, which too often causes the resistance; and
as to its power of opposing any attack upon its authority, it is
perhaps much greater than we at this moment calculate. There can be no
doubt of the fidelity of all the King's troops to Government. It has
a large body, not less than ten thousand disciplined infantry, four
thousand horse, and sixteen thousand peons, belonging to the Mysore
Government, all perfectly at its devotion: and it will, whenever a
rupture takes place, gain, through the influence of some of the older
officers, many of the native battalions. It will raise more troops.
It will be compelled to promote officers from King's regiments; to
give commissions to serjeants; to raise young men at once to rank, and
reward with promotion all who leave their brother officers before a
certain date: after which, those in arms against its authority will be
proclaimed rebels; and their men, both Europeans and natives, tempted
to desert and betray them by every inducement and encouragement that
can be offered. All the means of Government, whatever they are, will
be organized and regular; and with such it will probably triumph: but,
alas! its triumph will be over its own strength. It will be in the
destruction of those who are its support and glory; and, as such, must
be ten times more mournful than the most signal defeat from a foreign
enemy.
Let us view the other side. When men had once passed the Rubicon, and
commenced opposition to Government, what would be their plans? They
must be settled by distant and probably divided committees: and every
young officer would feel, in such a situation of affairs, a right to
examine the actions of his superiors: and could any man, under such
circumstances, when the chain of discipline was broken, rely on the
order and fidelity of his troops? What could be offered to induce them
to resist the temptations held out by Government? And if they did not
desist, would they be equal to encounter the army of the state? But
say they are superior; that they were led on to victory, and all our
mad passions were gratified: at what point would we arrive? Could we
expect our King and Country to receive us again into favour, when our
hands were red with the blood of British subjects, that we had led
and assisted the natives of India to shed? And could we expect those
natives would allow a few officers to continue their rule over them,
after they had been taught to contemn the authority and slaughter the
soldiers of the British Government? But it is stated, that we have
gone so far, that to retreat would be to expose ourselves to shame
and degradation. Gracious God! What an argument is this? Would men,
recollecting themselves on the verge of guilt, and stopping, under
the action of loyal and patriotic motives, in a career to which they
had been led by strong feelings of injury, be subject of reproach or
disgrace? Would it not raise their reputation higher than ever, and
entitle them to look for a redress of their grievances, with a proud
confidence, to that Country to which they had so strongly proved their
attachment? Could it fail of exciting feelings even in the local
Government, which must lead to those very conciliatory acts, which will
be in vain expected, if sought with the bayonet?
This is the picture which presents itself to my mind of the scene now
before us. I contemplate it with horror. And you may judge my present
feelings, when I declare to God, that though I must part with those of
my brother officers who are so deluded as to rush into an open warfare
with the Government they serve, and their Country, I shall, I am
satisfied, be happier if I fall by the first ball that is fired in this
horrid and unnatural contest, than if I lived to see it terminated.
I see no possible mode in which the impending evils can be averted,
but by the action of the good and loyal feelings of the majority of
the officers of the army; and of this action I do not yet despair. I
must, indeed, to the last continue to hope that this noble spirit will
show itself, and snatch us from the gulf of destruction. I am now busy
with an inquiry into past proceedings at this place, with the report
of which I shall proceed in a few days to Madras; and may God grant
my efforts may be useful in averting the shocking calamities that are
impending!
At all events, I shall have fulfilled my duty to my brother officers,
to Government, and to my Country; and that reflection will, under every
event, be a consolation during my existence.
I am yours sincerely,
(Signed) JOHN MALCOLM.
N. B. An extract from a letter from Hyderabad, dated the 12th of
August, 1809, from Lieutenant Watson of the artillery, to Major
Morrison, at Madras, will show the effect this letter produced among
the most violent at that station.
"In these troubled times it requires the full exercise of a man's
judgment upon a question which must so deeply involve all his future
prospects and happiness. Colonel Malcolm has written at this crisis a
very able and elegant letter, to which a liberal consideration, I am
happy to say, has been given."
And the following passage from a letter lately received from
Lieutenant Little, at Madras, conveys a testimony, which, though
probably exaggerated, is a strong corroboration of this fact.
"You may recollect, during the late unhappy disturbances at this
place, having wrote a long letter to Colonel McLeod, pointing out the
melancholy consequences that would finally ensue if the army continued
to persist in their opposition to Government. A copy of this letter was
sent to Captain Carfrae, at Hyderabad, and by him shown to the force;
the greatest part of whom, a short time afterwards, declared to Major
Agnew, that they were chiefly influenced by this letter to sign the
test of obedience to Government."