pany respectively. Malcolm, supported to some extent by General Wellesley, was strongly of opinion that Scindiah was morally, if not technically, entitled to the possession of Gwalior, and he went far towards committing the company to Scindiah in this direction. He thus incurred the severe displeasure of Lord Wellesley, who considered him insufficiently firm in resisting the demands and the pretensions of the Mahratta chiefs, and communicated his censure 22 April 1804. Taking the matter in too high strung a strain, Malcolm declared himself ‘perfectly heart-broken from these communications,’ and gladly handed over the negotiations to the newly appointed resident. He proceeded to the coast to recruit, and remained unoccupied at Vizagapatam till November, when he rejoined General Wellesley, and proceeded with him to Mysore. During the whole time of his negotiations with Scindiah he had still been nominally resident at Mysore, discharging his duties by deputy. It was at the beginning of 1805 that he resumed charge of the residency, but in March Lord Wellesley again summoned him to Calcutta, and despatched him at the beginning of May upon another mission to Scindiah, who had permitted insults and outrages to the acting-resident to pass unpunished. He proceeded to Lord Lake's camp, and remained in summer quarters at Muttra during the hot season. He was with Lord Lake until the end of the year, advocating in his correspondence with the governor-general, and enforcing to the best of his ability, that policy of vigorous and prompt measures against Scindiah and Holkar which he believed to be the best guarantee of ultimate peace. While still remaining with the army in its pursuit of Holkar he negotiated the treaty by which Gohud and Gwalior were ceded to Scindiah, and at the same time he arranged for the reduction of the large and costly bodies of irregular troops which had been taken over by the company from various native chiefs, and were now found to be an intolerable burden upon the exchequer. He treated with the agents of the Sikh chiefs, who were to be detached from the cause of Holkar, and when Holkar, driven for refuge into the Punjab, sent envoys to solicit peace, it was Malcolm who received them and negotiated the treaty of 7 Jan. 1806. He remained at headquarters till June following, occupied with the principal direction of the grants of pensions, gratuities, and lands for services rendered in the war and with other administrative business, minute but onerous and important, resulting from three campaigns; nor was it until April 1807, and after a stay of almost six months in Calcutta, that he returned to Mysore.
Malcolm had never been thrifty, and his numerous costly missions had, in spite of extra allowances, considerably impoverished him. His health was shaken by overwork and exposure, and he was in need of repose. On 4 July 1807 he married Charlotte, younger daughter of Colonel Alexander Campbell of the king's 74th regiment, afterwards created a baronet and K.C.B., and appointed commander-in-chief of the Madras army. But Malcolm soon grew weary of the settled and peaceful administration of Mysore and became ambitious of the command of an expedition to Bussorah. As a lieutenant-colonel of three years' standing he was of sufficient rank to command the force, some fifteen hundred men, the despatch of which he suggested, and thus he could unite the military and diplomatic functions in one hand. No expedition, however, was sent, but at this juncture Lord Minto, anxious after the peace of Tilsit to establish whatever barriers diplomacy could set up against a French and Russian advance from the west towards India, decided to send missions to Lahore, Cabul, and Teheran, and for the last he selected Malcolm. There was, however, difficulty in obtaining the sanction of the court of directors to this appointment. Malcolm had the reputation at the India House of having been extravagant on his former missions, and of being, however able and energetic, too bold and too much committed to the policy of the Wellesley school. Eventually Sir Harford Jones [see Brydges, Sir Harford Jones] was named ambassador, and Malcolm, pending his arrival in the East, was despatched to the Persian Gulf with a somewhat general commission of observation. He sailed for Bombay in the Culloden on 17 Feb. 1808, and proceeded thence for the Gulf on 17 April. His force, nominally an escort but really available for operations, consisted of three frigates and about five hundred marines and sepoys. From 10 May to 11 June he remained at Bushire, and despatched a mission to Teheran, but found himself entirely unable to overcome the French influence which predominated there. His messengers were forbidden to advance beyond Shiraz, and he was himself referred to the provincial viceroy of Fars. He accordingly quitted Persia, worsted and indignant, and reached Calcutta on 22 Aug. On his advice Lord Minto now resolved to occupy the island of Karrack as a warning to Persia and a check to French influence. Malcolm, now a brigadier-general, was appointed to carry out the occupation, and again
