Alessandria and Coni, and various other affairs. From 1803 to 1807 Bentinck held the office of governor of Madras, from which in the latter year he was recalled by the court of directors of the East India Company.
When Bentinck took charge of the government, only four years had elapsed since, in consequence of tte death of Tippoo and the downfall of his dynasty, the Xiadras presidency had received a large accession ot territory. The question of the system of landed tenures and ot revenue administration which should be applied to the newlv acouired provinces and to other parts of tte Madras presidency was hotly debated. The supreme government was strongly in favour of extending to the whole of Southern India the system of large landed proprietors, or zemindars, which ten years previously had been adopted by Lord Comwallis in Bengal. On the other side Colonel (afterwards Sir Thomas) Munro was engaged in establishing the system of peasant proprietors, commonly known as the ryotwar system, in the ceded districts, and his views found an ardent supporter in the new governor. 'It was apparent to him,' Bentinck wrote in the third year of his government, 'that the creation of zemindars, where no zemindars before existed, was neither calculated to improve the condition of the lower orders of the people, nor politically wise with reference to the future security of this government.' At one time he appears to have contemplated making an extensive tour through the Madras provinces for the purpose of investigating the question in person, but this was prevented by the circumstances which led to his recall, and he was obliged to confine himself to assigning the investigation to Mr. Thackeray, a trusted Assistant of Colonel Munro.
The event which led to his removal from the government was the mutiny at Vellore, when the sepoys of the native regiments quartered at that station rose upon their European officers and upon the British part of the garrison, killing thirteen officers and a considerable number of men. By some this catastrophe was attributed to a wide-spread plot instigated by the family of Tippoo, who were detained under surveillance in the fort at Vellore, the object of the plot being to restore Mussulman rule in Mysore and in other parts of southern India. Others ascribed it to certain regulations recently introduced by the commander-in-chief at Madras and sanctioned by the government, prohibiting the sepoys from wearing, when in uniform, the distinctive marks of their caste, and from wearing beards, and prescribing a headdress which was supposed by the sepoys to have been ordered with the intention of compelling them to become christians. The latter was the view taken by the court of directors, who recalled Bentinck and also the commander-in-chief, Sir John Cradock.
The recall was a severe blow to Bentinck, who complained bitterlv of the want of consideration with which he had been treated, the orders of the court having been issued without awaiting the explanations of the functionaries whose conduct was impugned. Another point urged in his defence was that the innovations which were supposed to have aroused the suspicions of the sepoys had been introduced by the commander-in-chief into a compilation of military regulations, which the latter had obtained permission to codify, and had not been brought specially to the notice of the governor or of the members of council. On the other hand it is to be said that the outbreak at Vellore had been preceded by remonstrances on the part of the native troops, which ought to have received greater attention from the government. The massacre at Vellore took place on 24 July 1806. Early in the previous May the sepoys of one of the regiments at that place had remonstrated against the form of the new turban, and their remonstrance having been rejected by the commanding officer, some of the men had been tried and in two cases had received nine hundred lashes. This incident had been brought to the notice of the governor, who supported the commander-in-chief, and proclaimed his determination to enforce the obnoxious order. It is difficult, therefore, to resist the conclusion that a full share of responsibility for the action of the commander-in-chief devolved upon the governor.
Bentinck, on his return to England early in 1808, addressed to the court of directors a memorial in which he demanded reparation for the harshness with which he considered himself to have been treated : but the court declined to rescind or modify their decision, while recognising 'the uprightness, disinterestedness, zeal, and respect for the system of the company' with which Bentinck had acted in the government.
During his absence in India Bentinck had been promoted to the rank of major-general, and in August 1808 he was appointed to the staff of the army under Sir Harry Burrard in Portugal, ite was subse(|uently sent on a mission to the supreme junta in Spain, in which capacity he was for some time engaged in endeavouring to evoke more vigorous action on the part of the junta, and in corresponding on the subject with his own government and with Sir John Moore. On the
