Madras Presidency

“ But the preference which each of the Company's Presidencies was naturally inclined to give to its own safety, as the only ground on which the property and fortunes of the whole community were established, suggested apprehensions that Madras, in the same manner as it had been treated by the Presidency of Calcutta, would, whatever might be the necessity of Bengal, detain on their own service whatsoever troops might be sent to their assistance ”

“ Madras is the third city in population of India, or next to Bombay, with 452,518 souls, by the census published last year. It is on the Coromandel coast, which is nearly the whole of the Madras Presidency. It is nearly the entire western shore of the Sea of Bengal, including the bay, as the northern part of it is called in modern times. There is scarcely a single safe harbor for large vessels. ”

“ You come of a land that has bred brave men. The fables of antiquity tell of no nobler exploits than those performed by the Madras Army. Not alone Amboor, Arcot, Assaye, and such familiar instances; but numberless deeds of heroism, endurance, self-denial, done by knots of men all over the Presidency, deeds so common in their day as to pass almost unnoticed, and which now live only in obscure chronicles forgotten by all but the curious. ”

“ The Rajah himself is a man of literary ability; he has also been an observant traveller; he is a large landowner who knows how to work his property to the best possible advantage, and he is, I can testify, a most valuable member of my Legisative Council, representing there the interests of the large landed proprietary of the Madras Presidency. I can only say that I wish that we had many more men in the Madras Presidency and in India like the Rajah of Bobbili. ”

“ The different territories comprising the Madras presidency were acquired by the British at various dates. In 1763 the tract encircling Madras city, then known as the Jagir now Chingleput district, was ceded by the nawab of Arcot. In 1765 the Northern Circars, out of which the French had recently been driven, were granted to the Company by the Mogul emperor, but at the price of an annual tribute of £90,000 to the nizam of Hyderabad. ”

“ MADURA, a city and district of British India, in the Madras Presidency. The city is situated on the right bank of the river Vaigai, and has a station on the South Indian railway 345 m. S.E. of Madras. Pop. (1901) , 105,984. The city was the capital of the old Pandyan dynasty, which ruled over this part of India from the 5th century B.C. to the end of the 11th century A.D. Its great temple forms a parallelogram about 847 ft. by 729 ft., and is surrounded by nine gopuras, of which the largest is 152 ft. high. These ornamental pyramids begin with doorposts of single stones 60 ft. ”

“ Irrespective of times and circumstances, it may be asserted that an individual should be ready and even anxious to communicate to others the knowledge which he has himself acquired. But if such, as a general rule, be the duty of every educated man, how much more is it your duty Co assist in spreading enlightenment among the population of the Madras Presidency. We all feel how odious a character he possesses, who, having his granaries full of corn, looks with an unpitying eye on his starving countrymen. ”

“ The Madras Presidency is the habitat of that Tamil race whose civilisation was the most ancient, and a branch of whom, called the Sumerians, spread a vast civilisation on the banks of the Euphrates in very ancient times ”

“ Having maintained his knowledge of oriental affairs by close attention to all subjects affecting the interest of that country, he felt justified in accepting the offer, and entered upon his duties as governor of Madras in the spring of 1859. He soon became popular in the presidency, and in a great measure through his conduct in office the natives became reconciled to the government. An assessment was carried out, a police system organised in every part, and, contrary to the traditions of the East India Company, land was sold in fee simple to any one who wished to purchase. ”

“ Nothing can exceed the wisdom and moderation of the lecture upon money, or the charitable and responsible spirit in which it is written. He greatly praises recent legislation in Madras and indeed all who know the Presidency must rejoice that the ancient Zamindaries have received a measure of protection, such as Lord Ampthill's Government has granted. ”

“ Meanwhile, in Madras, affairs had not been much more happy. During the war with France, Pondicherry had been assaulted and had capitulated with the honours of war, but in all other ways success was absent. Friction arose between the presidency and the Nizâm over the question of a French garrison, and though the matter was outwardly smoothed over and friendly alliance continued, it formed the basis of a confederation between the Mahrattas, Hyder-Ali, and the Nizâm, having for object the total expulsion of the English from India. ”

“ I have never seen a larger or better shaped room outside Madras in the Presidency, and I have no doubt whatever that it will be of the greatest profit and mutual advantage to the people of Vizagapatam, when they meet here for every sort and kind of occasion in the future. ”

“ In 1628 the Dutch won over the native governor there, and the English were compelled to retreat to Armagon, where they built the first English fort in India. In 1639 Francis Day, the chief at Armagon, founded Madras, building Fort St George (1640) , and transferring thither the chief factory from Masulipatam. Here the English obtained their first grant of Indian soil, apart from the plots on which their factories were built. In 1653 Madras was raised to an independent presidency, and in 1658 all the settlements in Bengal and on the Coromandel coast were made subordinate to Fort St George. ”

“ Several of such chiefs exist in the extreme south and in the north of the presidency. Their estates have been guaranteed to them on payment of a peshkash or permanent tribute, and are saved by the custom of primogeniture from the usual fate of subdivision. Throughout the rest of Madras there are no zamindars either in name or fact. ”

“ There are in Madras numerous institutes devoted to the diffusion of useful knowledge among the masses, part founded441 and maintained by Government, part by private enterprise, and this liberality is the more praiseworthy that the European community of Madras does not comprise much more than 1600 persons, of whom only a very few settle any length of time. ”

“ They could not (violent as they were against the Governor of Madras and some others) bring their minds to believe they were enemies to a revered King and beloved country; and they consequently wished to reconcile the incompatible principles of opposition to the local Government, with a spirit of fidelity to their employers, and loyalty to their sovereign. There could be no doubt of their sincerity in these feelings: and, from the clashing of such opposite principles of action, Government had a right to expect irresolution, division, and distraction in their councils and measures. ”

“ After the war he did great things for the development of Madras; and when he resigned office at the age of forty-five and went to England, the strenuous upholder of British honour in the East was rewarded with an Irish peerage. Well would it have been for Lord Pigot if he had settled down for good on his Irish estate! But twelve years later he accepted the offer of a second term of office as Governor of Madras. It is not infrequently the case that a man who has been eminently successful in office at one time of his career fails badly if after a long interval he accepts the same office again. ”

“ So arduous an undertaking as the Government of Madras then was, has rarely occurred; and a more successful final accomplishment is not to be instanced. In the incessant conflicts to which he was exposed, he maintained his post with inflexible firmness and unabated energy of mind——and, in the most trying circumstances, discharged his important duty with zeal, integrity and wisdom. The strict discharge of the duty he owed to his Country, raised clamours against him among 149an interested few in India ”

“ No man of common sense will doubt that a popular Governor may reconcile men to retrenchments, which, under a Governor of an opposite character, may produce the most fatal effects. A recent example might be found at no great distance from Madras, (if any examples of what is so obvious were necessary,) of a Governor [32] who had imposed greater retrenchments than Sir George Barlow, and who, without any sacrifice of dignity, left his government, universally beloved. ”

“ He is, I make no doubt, a good and a conscientious man; but his imprudence, combined with the impressions he brought from Madras, and the unguarded private communications he has since received, and made public, from a very high authority, were calculated to goad men into mutiny in common times, and could not fail of producing that effect at a moment like the present, when the whole of the Company's army is in a state of open disaffection to Government. ”

“ Even then the Madras Government failed to read the signs of the times, and would not think of a feat of honourable retreat at its own initiative. On the other hand, it stood by and gazed on petty attempts at strengthening the policy of repression by securing signatures of men who have never counted as a force for progress and who, leading a life of self-sufficient isolation, have found in the handshake of a European official the beatitude of earthly existence. It gazed on petty prosecutions of those who put up "flags"—as though these flags were a standard of revolt against the Crown of India. ”

“ But much remains to be done, and it rests with you, gentlemen, to supplement the liberal action of the Government and the work of benevolent societies, by helping to break down the conservatism of the large sections of society which at present form the great obstacle to the progress of these poor and unreasonably despised people. I say unreasonably because there is ample evidence, witness the Madras Sappers, that when given a fair chance in life they can prove themselves valuable members of society. ”

“ I could not help it; for in such times a man could not put his foot over the threshhold without a misconstruction of the manner in which it was done. The officers who waited on me this day gave me a paper, the purport of which was to learn what assurances I could give them of a disposition of the Government of Madras to redress their grievances ”

“ We pass on into the great spaces of the Fort; and in our imagination we can people them with ghosts of the illustrious—or notorious—dead. It was here that, in the reign of King James the Second, Master Elihu Yale assumed the Governorship of Madras, did hard work in the Company's behalf but also made a large fortune for himself, lost his son aged four, quarrelled long and bitterly with his councillors, and was at last superseded. ”

“ It was the first beginning of Government education—the laying of the first stone in what is now such a vast edifice.
[4] In modern Madras the great majority of the Hindu residents are Tamils; but in the beginning there were very few Tamil immigrants, and the Hindu residents were nearly all of them Telugus (Gentoos) .
In appointing a schoolmaster, the Directors meant to do their best for education in their rising city; for they had [90] engaged no mean dominie on a menial's pay. In choosing Mr. Ralph Orde they chose a good man, and they paid him accordingly. ”

“ His subsequent operations were hampered by the injudicious plan of campaign forced upon him by the Madras council, by their neglect of the commissariat, and by the incompetence of one or two of the English officers ; but it is probable that his skill and courage saved Madras from serious disaster, and even from conquest. ”

“ The nearest Indian towns were a good many miles away, and the Portuguese merchants in the neighbouring settlement of Mylapore were commercial rivals, who might have been supposed to have absorbed all the trade that was to be had. Yet Madras is now a large city, with more than half a million inhabitants; and its commerce and its industries have been so successful that its population is still increasing rapidly. Houses are being built everywhere, yet the demand increases. ”

“ Lord Clive was certainly no miser with the Company's money, for he built also a second Government House—a 'country residence' at Guindy. The 'country residence' was developed and improved some forty years later by Lord Elphinstone, who was Governor of Madras in the middle of last century. It is a truly beautiful house, standing in beautiful grounds; and it has lately been a proposition that the house at Guindy should be the Governor's only residence, and that Government House, Madras, should be used for Government offices. ”

“ The fact is that Madras was so frequently troubled by successive Mohammedan enemies—the King of Golconda; Da-ud Khan, Nawab of the Carnatic; Haidar Ali, Sultan of Mysore; his son Tipu, and others—that the Company was disposed to regard all 'Moors' with mistrust, so much so that they discouraged Mohammedan residents; and a measure was passed with the special intention 'to prevent the Moors purchasing too much land in the Black Town.' There are large crowds of Mohammedans in Madras now, grouped especially in Chepauk and the adjoining Triplicane and Royapettah ”