F10195_0018

5.
between Sir John Shore at Calcutta & Lord Hobart
at Madras, changes in Indian administration
became imminent. Lord Cornwallis accepted
the offer made to him by Pitt to resume
the Governor-Generalship, & Mornington - for so
we must for the present call him - was appointed
Governor of Fort St. George & was given
the promise of the reversions of the Governor-
Generalship. This was in March 1797:
less than four months later, before he had sailed,
the reversion fell to him, as the troubles in
Ireland rendered it impossible for the Government
to spare Cornwallis from home. He was
also given at this time an English Peerage -
Baron Wellesley -, but of course remained
known as Lord Mornington. Early in November
he left England. - Such then was the
early career of a man who was appointed
Governor-General of the great Peninsula at
the early age of thirty-seven. His difficulties
& his brilliancy in overcoming them
will be more readily realized after a sketch
of the situation in India & in Indian affairs
at the time of his accession to that
office.

History & position of the East India Company.
The East India Company, the only British
authority in India, had been founded nearly
two hundred years before, for purely commercial
reasons. By charters of Charles II,