General Orders by Lieutenant-General Harris. THE Commander-in-chief cannot think of parting with a corps that has been so eminently distinguished as the 71st regiment in India, by a series of long, spirited, and arduous services, without requesting Colonel Baird, the officers, non-commissioned officers, and every man belonging to that regiment, to accept of his warmest acknowledgments for conduct which has been equally honourable to themselves and advantageous to their country. The alacrity with which Colonel Baird has arranged, at a short warning, every thing relative to the drafting, confirms LieutenantGeneral Harris in the favourable opinion he had formed of the internal order and discipline of that corps, and he trusts that the regularity and zeal of the men destined for the 73d and 74th regiment will be such as to maintain the high reputation they have so deservedly acquired. Signed, J. ROBERTSON, Head-quarters, Choultry-plain, Oct. 16, 1797. If any thing could alleviate the regrets which a commanding officer must naturally experience at parting from a regiment receiving such praises as these public documents convey, it was the assurance that it deserved them, and a consciousness, which (however modest he might be) Colonel Baird could not fail to feel, that he himself had mainly contributed to bring the corps to that state of discipline and good order, which had elicited the commendations it obtained. Ac cording to the instructions above quoted, the skeleton of the regiment embarked on Tuesday, the 17th of October 1797, on board an East Indiaman, for the Cape of Good Hope. CHAPTER X. REAL CAUSES OF COLONEL BAIRD'S REMOVAL FROM INDIA—HIS CONSCIENTIOUS FEELINGS UPON THE POINT INJUSTICE OF THE TREATMENT HE RECEIVED-ARRIVES AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE-SENT FOR BY LORD MACARTNEY THE GOVERNOR OFFERED A COMMAND THERE, WITH THE RANK OF BRIGADIER GENERAL-EXPLANATIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS-HE BRIGADE-COLONEL ACCEPTS MIDDLE IT, AND TAKES CHARGE OF A GOVERNMENT AT MADRAS-ARRIVAL OF LORD MORNINGTON AT THE CAPE-MEETS LORD HOBART-CONVERSATIONS WITH GENERAL BAIRD ON THE STATE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS IN THE EAST-ORDERS FROM THE COURT OF DIRECTORS CONCERNING TANJORE-BAIRD'S ANXIETY ΤΟ KNOW THEIR CHARACTER-LORD MORNINGTON DECLINES COMMUNICATING THEM-SUBSEQUENT CONDUCT OF THE HONOURABLE EAST INDIA COMPANY. THE regret which Colonel Baird so deeply felt in leaving India, at this period, arose not only from a repugnance to quit his noble regiment, but from seeing it dispersed and scattered, while in point of fact it had not been so long from Europe as several others; and what made the case even still stronger, was the circumstance of drafting the men of the 71st principally into the 73rd, the regiment of the longest standing in India, except the 71st itself; and from which it would have been just as proper to draft men into other regiments which had arrived many years after it. In fact, it was upon military feeling alone, that his disinclination to return to England was founded, because upon every other account he was anxious to be removed. By his conscientious partizanship in the cause of the Rajah, and by the earnestness with which he had espoused the cause of that unhappy prince, he had made an implacable enemy of Lord Hobart and the Madras government; for, in consequence of Colonel Baird's letter on the subject, to Calcutta, having been much spoken of, Sir John Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth, called for the official correspondence which had occurred respecting Tanjore; and it is clear that Sir John's subsequent reprobation of the conduct which had been observed towards the Rajah, was, as has been already suggested, the real cause of the removal of Colonel Baird, by Lord Hobart, who had encouraged if not originated all the measures of the resident.* * Sir John Shore, eldest son of John Shore, Esq., of Melton, in Suffolk, was born in 1751, and early in life proceeded to India, as a writer. He rose progressively in the service, until in 1792, he succeeded Lord Cornwallis, as Governor-General, in which year he was created a baronet, and on the 7th of November 1797, he was created an Irish peer, by the title of Baron Teignmouth. His lordship married, in 1786, Charlotte, It appears also that this was not the only mark of displeasure which had been manifested by the Madras government towards Colonel Baird; for about the time of which we are now speaking, it had been resolved to undertake an expedition against Manilla, the preparations for which had proceeded so far that the first division of the fleet, with part of the troops, had actually sailed for Prince of Wales's Island, where the whole force was to assemble, when an overland despatch, announcing that the Emperor had made peace with France, caused the undertaking to be abandoned. This expedition was to have been commanded by Sir James Craig; and Colonel Baird, always eager for service, concluded, that from the acknowledged and declared efficiency of the 71st, his regiment would have been amongst those to be employed in this enterprize; but the same influence prevailed against him, and the 12th, under Colonel Harvey Aston, and the 33rd, under Colonel the Honourable Arthur Wellesley, (the present Duke of Wellington,) were selected for the purpose, although neither of those regiments were thoroughly formed, but were at that time in every respect inferior in the essen only daughter of James Cornish, Esq., of Teignmouth, by whom he has three sons and four daughters. His lordship has published the Life and Works of Sir William Jones, and a variety of tracts and pamphlets with reference to the propagation of Christianity in India, and to the proceedings of the African Institution. |