more
essential, and where his capabilities had a still wider field.

The resignation of Sir John Shore had left the government of India
vacant; and the conspicuous exertions of Lord Mornington in the late
debates had placed him in a high position before the ministerial eye. He
was now fixed on for the Governor-generalship. His connexion with Indian
affairs as a member of the Board of Control, had given him official
knowledge; his education had given him the accomplishment suited to
diplomatic distinction; and his abilities, his ardour, and his time of
life, rendered him the fittest man for the arduous government of India.
The period demanded all the qualities of government. France was
notoriously intriguing to enlist the native princes in a general attack
on the British power; a large French force was already organized in the
territories of the Nizam, and Tippoo Saib had drawn together an army
with seventy guns in the Mysore. The Indian princes, always jealous of
the British authority, which had checked their old savage depredations
on each other, and had presented in its own dominions a noble contrast
to the ravaged and wretched condition of their kingdoms were all
preparing to join the alliance of the French; and the first shock of a
war, now almost inevitable, would probably involve all India. At this
period Lord Mornington, who had been raised to an English barony, was
appointed governor-general in October 1797; and such was his promptitude
that he sailed on the 7th of the month following. In the April of 1798,
he arrived on the coast of Coromandel, and landed at Madras, accompanied
by his brother, the Hon. Henry Wellesley, as private secretary, (now
Lord Cowley.) On the 17th of May he arrived at Calcutta, where he found
his brother, since so memorable, Colonel Arthur Wellesley, and Sir
Alured Clarke, the commander-in-chief.

Lord Mornington had been sent to India in anticipation of French
attempts on the British dominions, and there could be no doubt of the
intentions of the French Directory. But the blow came sooner, and was
more openly struck than an European public man could have surmised. It
exhibited all that arrogant contempt of an enemy which once
characterised Eastern supremacy; and would have been worthy of Gengis,
proclaiming his sovereign will. It was a proclamation from the French
governor of the Mauritius, on the 30th of June; announcing, without any
attempt at disguise, that two ambassadors from Tip