At home the treaty met with small favour. In their despatch of April, 1839, the Court of Directors disallowed it altogether, and ordered the Indian Government to make their decision known without delay to the King. Lord Auckland merely informed the King; that he stood released from the burden of paying for the new auxiliary force. But no mention was made of the leading fact that the whole treaty had been set aside. The King and his Ministers were thus led to believe that certain clauses of that treaty were still in force, and could be worked to their own advantage. Lord Auckland's strange suppression of the truth seems to have misled his countrymen in India, and to have escaped the notice of the powers at home. Neither Lord Hardinge in 1847, nor Colonel Sleeman in 1854, knew that the whole treaty had been annulled. It was left for Lord Dalhousie to discover the truth, as confirmed by Low himself, then a member of his Council, and to acquaint the India House with the extent to which Lord Auckland had evaded their commands[1].
In the year 1839 Lord Auckland's attention was called to the misdeeds of an unruly Prince in the highlands of Western India. When the last of the Maráthá Peshwás passed from his throne at Poona into the dignified seclusion of Bithur, Lord Hastings held out a hand of politic compassion to the long-neglected heir of the house of Sivají, the founder of
- ↑ Irwin's Garden of India; Thornton's History; Kaye's Sepoy War; Sir C. Jackson's Vindication of Lord Dalhousie's Administration.
