he had in view at the close of his long and stormy career. But his want of success was mainly due to the duplicity of his native allies, and to the supineness of the French Government, which reserved all its strength for its operations against us in North America, and seemed quite indifferent to recovering the prestige it had lost in India. Had it despatched a sufficient army to the Coromandel coast when Haidar was operating against the Madras forces, there can be little doubt that Fort St. George would have fallen, and that the British authority would have been supplanted by the French flag. De Bussy arrived too late, and with Haidar's death, and the success of Hastings' diplomacy, commenced the final decline of French influence in India.
Whatever defects may be justly attributed to Haidar as a ruler, or in his private life, he was a bold, an original, and an enterprising commander, skilful in tactics and fertile in resources, full of energy, and never desponding in defeat. For an Oriental he was singularly faithful to his engagements, and straightforward in his policy towards the British. Notwithstanding the severity of his internal rule, and the terror which he inspired, his name is always mentioned in Mysore with respect, if not with admiration. While the cruelties which he sometimes practised are forgotten, his prowess and success have an abiding place in the memory of the people.
