DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.34827#0118
102
CH. XIV.
Mackintosh, in his review of the work on Caubul, speaks of
Mr. Elphinstone as owing that appointment to his position as
the head of the Indian Civil Service. He had hardly arrived
at that position even in 1815, when the review was written, but
in 1818 he was the foremost man in India. He had not as yet
had an opportunity of trying his hand on administrative affairs,
but the occasion was soon offered.
It appears from the letter I now give that some compunction
was felt at home for Malcolm's disappointment, and Mr. Elphin-
stone was consulted as to the expediency of an arrangement
under which the newly acquired provinces should be placed
under him.
'Calcutta, July 2, 1819.
' My dear Sir,—Your intimate acquaintance with the
management and interest of the Poona territories made your
nomination to the Government of Bombay decisive as to the
mode of administration most eligible for the conquered coun-
tries. Before I learned the choice made by the Directors I had
recommended to the Court that the provinces wrested from
the Peshwa should be put under the rule of a Lieutenant-
Governor, dependent on this Presidency, but the individual
whom I represented as immeasurably the fittest for the post was
you. With that impression, the disposition of this Govern-
ment could not be other, when you were appointed to Bombay,
than to annex the whole of the Peshwa's late dominions to
the Presidency which you were to sway. My private letters,
however, manifest a great anxiety, on the part of the Directors,
to do something for Sir J. Malcolm ; and they point so dis-
tinctly at the plan which I had sketched for you as to show
a clear inclination to adopt it in favour of Sir J. Malcolm, were
it not that I had made your pre-eminent knowledge of those
countries my strong ground for urging your appointment to
govern them. Now let me ask you, without Sir J. Malcolm's
having a suspicion of the step, could such an apportionment
be made of the territory as would justify the constituting him,
for a time, Lieutenant-Governor of an adequate extent ? The
suggestion is noi to operate against real public convenience,
CH. XIV.
Mackintosh, in his review of the work on Caubul, speaks of
Mr. Elphinstone as owing that appointment to his position as
the head of the Indian Civil Service. He had hardly arrived
at that position even in 1815, when the review was written, but
in 1818 he was the foremost man in India. He had not as yet
had an opportunity of trying his hand on administrative affairs,
but the occasion was soon offered.
It appears from the letter I now give that some compunction
was felt at home for Malcolm's disappointment, and Mr. Elphin-
stone was consulted as to the expediency of an arrangement
under which the newly acquired provinces should be placed
under him.
'Calcutta, July 2, 1819.
' My dear Sir,—Your intimate acquaintance with the
management and interest of the Poona territories made your
nomination to the Government of Bombay decisive as to the
mode of administration most eligible for the conquered coun-
tries. Before I learned the choice made by the Directors I had
recommended to the Court that the provinces wrested from
the Peshwa should be put under the rule of a Lieutenant-
Governor, dependent on this Presidency, but the individual
whom I represented as immeasurably the fittest for the post was
you. With that impression, the disposition of this Govern-
ment could not be other, when you were appointed to Bombay,
than to annex the whole of the Peshwa's late dominions to
the Presidency which you were to sway. My private letters,
however, manifest a great anxiety, on the part of the Directors,
to do something for Sir J. Malcolm ; and they point so dis-
tinctly at the plan which I had sketched for you as to show
a clear inclination to adopt it in favour of Sir J. Malcolm, were
it not that I had made your pre-eminent knowledge of those
countries my strong ground for urging your appointment to
govern them. Now let me ask you, without Sir J. Malcolm's
having a suspicion of the step, could such an apportionment
be made of the territory as would justify the constituting him,
for a time, Lieutenant-Governor of an adequate extent ? The
suggestion is noi to operate against real public convenience,