SECTION I

ADMINISTRATION OF LORD CORNWALLIS—MYSORE WAR

On the departure of Hastings, Mr. Macpherson, the senior member of Council succeeded temporarily to the Government. He had originally gone out to India as Purser of one of the Company's vessels, but attached himself to the nabob of the Carnatic and returned to England as his agent, and through the influence of the Duke of Grafton, who highly appreciated his abilities, was appointed to the Madras civil service, from which he was subsequently promoted to the Bengal Council. The great merit of his brief administration, which lasted only twenty-two months, lay in his economical reforms which resulted in the laudable reduction of a crore and a half of annual expenditure.

The Government of the Company's possessions since the battle of Plassy had hitherto been given to one of the officers on their own establishment in India, but it was found that whatever advantage might be derived from his local knowledge and experience was counterbalanced by the trammels of local associations, and the difficulty of exercising a due control over those who had once been his equals. The ministry determined, therefore, to select for the office of Governor-General a nobleman of high character, unfettered by any Indian ties of friendship or relationship.