Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis

thumb|Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis (31 December, 1738 – 5 October, 1805) was a British Army officer, Whig politician and colonial administrator. In the United States and United Kingdom, he is best known as one of the leading British general officers in the American War of Independence. His surrender in 1781 to a combined Franco-American force at the siege of Yorktown ended significant hostilities in North America. Cornwallis later served as a civil and military governor in Ireland, where he helped bring about the Act of Union; and in India, where he helped enact the Cornwallis Code and the Permanent Settlement. Quotes On 30 March 1790, Cornwallis sent a letter to Medows, the new Governor of Madras: So far am I from giving credit to the late Government for economy in not making the necessary preparations for war according to the positive orders of the Supreme Government, after having received the most gross insults that could be offered to any nation, I think it is very possible that every cash of that ill-judged saving may cost the Company a crore of rupees, besides which I still more sincerely lament the disgraceful sacrifice which you have made by that delay, of the honour of your country by tamely suffering an insolent and cruel enemy to overwhelm the dominions of the Rajah of Travancore which we were bound by the most sacred ties of friendship and good faith to defend.61 quoted in Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024) As Tippoo has on all occasions since the commencement of the war carefully avoided an action with the British armies of very inconsiderable numbers, and in particular could not venture to attack this army when a large part of it was employed in the siege of Bangalore, there is not the least probability that he will now hazard a battle with the strongest army that was ever brought in the field against him. It therefore falls to the share of the infantry to proceed with the artillery according to the plan which has been settled to attack Seringapatam and it is the duty of the cavalry to overrun the country, to cut off Tippoo’s communication with his capital and to prevent the approach of his small detachments of light horse to disturb the troops that will be employed in the siege. To answer these purposes I desire that you will immediately detach a body of His Highness’ [Nizam’s] cavalry . . . to drive the enemy’s small parties from the neighbourhood of the army and to intercept everything going to or coming out of Seringapatam . . . the detached corps should leave its heavy baggage with the army and move into the country as lightly equipped as possible which will enable it either to avoid with facility and detachments of the enemy that may be furnished with infantry and guns or to attack them with success if a favourable opportunity should offer. quoted in Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024) Quotes about Charles Cornwallis A man of family, of fortune, and the most unsullied reputation. A man who to serve his country in the hour of danger, had already been led to quit all the endearments of domestic life, and, deaf to private calls of the tenderest nature that the heart of man could be assailed by, was unshaken in his purpose of devoting his existence and his cares solely to the public. On the virtues of this man the late ministry built, and justly built, all their hopes of the salvation of our dying interests in Asia. Here there was no broken fortune to be mended—here was no avarice to be gratified. Here was no beggarly mushroom kindred to be provided for—no crew of hungry followers gaping to be gorged—no; but a nobleman was singled out for this business, than whom I challenge, said the Lord Advocate, any man in this House, or out of it, to say, a more fit person in his Majesty's dominions could be found on the occasion—a more fit did I say! I challenge the production even of his equal for the employment. Henry Dundas, speech in the House of Commons (14 April 1783), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803. Vol. XXIII (1814), column 759 Cornwallis came out to India as Governor General at the age of forty-eight. He was a man without personal ambition, whose eyes turned back with regret to his children and his honourable retirement in England... But with his good heart and his strong sense of duty he was destined to be the real founder of the Indian Civil Service. He saw that the civil servant—if he was to have even a chance of avoiding temptation—must be reasonably well paid: so he got them proper salaries. In return he required that they must give up all connection with trade: though it was not until 1833 that the Company as a whole became a purely administrative service. He issued a set of regulations which formed, as it were, the outline of British civil government in India. No doubt they were a good deal too much on western lines, but thereafter, in those provinces where the regulations were applied, the civil servant had something rather more than his own unaided discretion to rule by. Lastly—and here comes the decisive break with the eighteenth century—Cornwallis would give no ear to social or political influence in appointments to his service. The Company had begun its career with the austere resolution "not to employ any gentleman in any place of charge". This may have shown too great an attachment to business ethics: but, whatever the intention, by the middle of the eighteenth century the English governing classes had discovered the great possibilities of an Indian appointment in disposing of an embarrassed—or an embarrassing—relative. The prospects were more lucrative than anything that could be wrung out of the English or Irish establishments. Besides, the relative was further away. In one year the list of civil servants in Bengal alone included the names of one peer, nineteen sons of peers, and twelve baronets. Cornwallis saw to it that social jobbery of this kind ended under his rule. Lord Radcliffe, 'British Rule in India', The Listener, Vol. XLVI, No. 1188 (6 December 1951), p. 968 The arrival of Lord Charles Cornwallis, the First Marquis Cornwallis, marked possibly the toughest challenge that Tipu faced in his life. Cornwallis was fiercely patriotic, upright, fair and just in his dealings, except war with his enemies, when he forgot all tenets of mercy. Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024) External links Category:Military leaders from England Category:Whig (British political party) politicians Category:People from London Category:1738 births Category:1805 deaths