The Nineteenth and Their Times. J. Biddulph
also cease. A project for amalgamating the King’s and Company’s forces in India, in order to put an end to the rivalry between the two services, was seriously considered two years later, but the only change made was to put an end to the supersession of the Company’s by the King’s officers.
In studying the details of this unhappy quarrel, the conviction forces itself upon one that there were persons in the background, who, for their own purposes, fomented the dispute, and aggravated the differences between the principal parties, by filling their minds with suspicions and ideas that were equally groundless and mischievous. This is plainly stated to have been the case by an officer of the 73rd Highlanders who published a Narrative of the war with Hyder. “Had it not been for the cordiality and good fellowship which universally subsisted betwixt the King’s and Company’s officers, who had shared the fatigues of war together, notwithstanding the artful steps that had been taken to sow the seeds of dissension amongst them, these broils might have terminated in a manner very fatal to the settlement.”[18] Long afterwards, Lord Macartney acknowledged his mistake. In December 1797, speaking to Sir David Baird, he said, “Had I known as much of you military gentlemen, when I was in India, as I have learned since, we never should have had any difference.” Sir John Burgoyne’s justification was complete.
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