APPKNDIX A. 589 it indulged mainly in conjecture, and went so far as to lecture me for unearthing a story which told against the fame of La Bourdonnais. That I may not be accused of exaggeration I append Sir George Bird- wood's note in full detail. In the next section of this appendix I shall submit it to a cruical examination. The note (page 242 of Sir George Birdwood's book) runs as follows : — "The subject of La Bourdonnais's (Bernard Francois Maha de la Bourdonnais, b. at St. Malo, 1699) bribery has always had an interest for minds given to searching out mean and sordid causes for the great results of history. Having carefully read through the * Law Case, No. 31, of 3rd March, 1752,' the only original document in this country, I believe, in the matter, and cited by Colonel Malleson, History of the French in India, page 157, note, I have been led to the opinion that it affords no conclusive evidence of the truth of the charge. The capture of Madras by La Bourdonnais, its abortive ransom by Governor Morse and his Council which, according to the charge against him La Bour- donnais was induced to accept by a bribe of 100,000 pagodas (.£40,000), and the annexation of the town by Dupleix, and its final restoration to the English, formed an unconsidered episode of the war of the Austrian Succession, 1744-1748. That war at once brought England and France into conflict ; and the first hostile act of each country was to fit out a naval expedition for the destruction of the other's mercantile settle- ments in the Indian Ocean. " The English fleet was the first to arrive in the Bay of Bengal in 1745, when Dupleix, the Governor of Pondichery, in great alarm sent a large present to the Nawab of the Carnatic, who replied, as desired, by forbidding the English, who up to that time were his tributaries, from engaging in hostilities within any part of his dominions. The English fleet in consequence left the 'Bay and Coast,' in 1746. They had no sooner disappeared than La Bourdonnais with the squadron he had collected together with extraordinary energy from the Isles of Franco and Bourbon, entered it ; and now Morse, the Governor of Madras, 1744-1749, in his turn applied to theNawab of the Carnatic to restrain the French, as he had previously restrained the English, from hostil- ities, but, as Morse neglected to send a present with his application, it was left without an answer. In consequence, on 18th August, 1746,* (as this interesting Law Case, in correction and amplification of the
- Note by Colonel Malleson. The
fleet on this occasion was commanded, not by La Bourdonnais, but by M. de la Portbarre. The date was August 29th, new style, which I have followed in my history. This corresponds to the date quoted by Sir G. Birdwood, 18 August, old style. The new style was adopted in England in 1751.
