be maintained as a native state under a member of the old Hindu dynasty which had been displaced by Hyder Ali. It was, however, to be shorn of a considerable part of its territory, a portion to be taken by the company and a portion by the nizam. Mornington's original intention was that the Mahratta state of Poona should share in the spoil; for although the Mahrattas had rendered no aid in the advance on Seringapatam, he deemed it expedient on political grounds that the Mahrattas should be admitted on certain conditions to a share of the conquered territory. Those conditions were that the peshwa should enter into a definite alliance against the French, should engage never to employ Europeans without the consent of the company, and should guarantee the inviolability of the new state to be erected in Mysore. These conditions, however, were declined by the peshwa, and accordingly the conquered territory was divided between the company and the nizam. The company's share included Canara, Coimbatur, and in fact all the districts intervening between their possessions on the western coast and the Carnatic. The forts and posts at the heads of the passes leading into Mysore were also assigned to the company, as was the fortress of Seringapatam. The nizam obtained the districts of Gooty and Gurramconda, and land down to Chitaldrug and other fortresses on the northern border of Mysore; but a year later these tracts were all ceded to the company to defray the expenses of the subsidiary force which the nizam was, and still is, required to maintain in his dominions. By this last arrangement the nizam was placed in the position of a protected prince absolutely bound to the British government.
On one part of these arrangements, viz. the revival of the Hindu state of Mysore, there has been considerable difference of opinion, not only at the time when the arrangements were made, but during the years which have since elapsed. The late Sir Thomas (then Captain) Munro [q. v.], who was one of the ablest, if not the ablest, of the rising Indian statesmen of that day, regarded with grave misgivings the re-establishment of the Mysore state. He was strongly in favour, under all the circumstances, of the extension of British rule wherever an opportunity offered. If he had had any voice in the decision of the question, he would have had ‘no rájá of Mysore, in the person of a child dragged forth from oblivion, to be placed on a throne on which his ancestors for three generations had not sat for more than half a century.’ Nor was his opinion without justification from the subsequent course of events. The maladministration of the young rájá, after he attained his majority and was invested with power, was so gross that the government of the country had to be assumed by the company, and was never again placed in his hands. He died without any natural male heir, and it had been quite settled that after his death Mysore should be annexed to the British ráj; but after the Indian mutiny the change of opinion as to the policy of annexation was so great that in 1867 it was decided by the secretary of state to recognise an adoption which the rájá had made shortly before his death, and to maintain Mysore as a native state.
There can be no question that if the native state was to be maintained, the policy adopted by Mornington of setting up a member of the old Hindu family which had formerly ruled in Mysore, in preference to continuing the government in the family of Hyder and Tippu, who had shown themselves so thoroughly hostile to the British power, was a wise policy, and at that time there was much to be said in favour of moderation in extending British territory. As a safeguard for the future, the new ruler was not entrusted with the power of making peace or war, and was forbidden to maintain an army, the company undertaking for an annual subsidy of 280,000l. the protection of the country. The right was also reserved of interfering in the internal government when such interference was required, and this right, as we have said, was exercised when the rájá proved that he was unfit to govern. Sir Barry Close [q. v.], an able military and political officer, was appointed resident at the rájá's court, and Colonel Arthur Wellesley was left in command of the military force quartered in Mysore.
The services rendered by Mornington in thus surmounting the main difficulties by which he was confronted on his arrival in India were acknowledged by votes of thanks from both houses of parliament, and on 2 Dec. 1799 he was created Marquis Wellesley of Norragh in the peerage of Ireland. The latter was not regarded by Wellesley as by any means an adequate reward, and in writing to Pitt he spoke his mind very plainly on the subject. He declined a donation of 100,000l. which was offered to him by the court of directors from the plunder taken at Seringapatam, but was persuaded by that body to accept a star and badge, composed of Tippu's jewels, which the army wished to present to him, but which he had at first refused.
