446
HISTORY OF BRITISH RULE.
Bussy :
1751 -
Godeheu :1756.
Lally :1759 -
influence predominated in the Karnatik or Madras coast, andtheir candidate, Muhammad Ah', maintained his position atArcot. But, inland, the French were supreme in the Deccan.
The ablest of Dupleix ’s subordinates, the Marquis de Bussy , had been sent in command of the force which placedthe French candidate on the throne of Haidarabad . Heinitiated the policy of subsidiary alliances, which LordWellesley afterwards made his own. He induced the Nizdmto take into his pay the army which had established hispower; and the government of the maritime tract called ‘ theNorthern Circars,’ which lies between Orissa and Madras, wasgranted to the French to meet the expense of the troops.Bussy did good service to the Nizam’s State; for he not onlymaintained tranquillity in the Deccan, but won a great victoryover the Mardthas at Ahmadnagar in 1751. He also showedhimself a wise administrator, and ‘ the Northern Circars,’ withthe capital Masulipatam , prospered exceedingly under his rule.
Dupleix , in spite of his services, was recalled to France indisgrace in 1756, and his successor Godeheu signed a suspen-sion of arms with the Governor of Madras. Meanwhile theattention of English statesmen and of the English people wasdrawn to the struggle going on in India , and in 1754 a regimentof the English army, then known by its colonel’s name asAdlercron’s, and afterwards as the 39th, was sent to reinforcethe Company’s troops. In the year of Dupleix ’s departure theSeven Years’ War broke out in Europe , and England andFrance were once more open enemies. There was no furtherneed for fighting under the banners of rival Native princes;and Pitt, whose influence in the English Ministry was supreme,determined that the French should be crushed in India . TheGovernor of Pondicherri , the Comte de Lally-Tollendal , was agallant soldier but a weak statesman, and he was consumedwith envy at Bussy’s greatness and power both in ‘ theNorthern Circars’ and at the court of Haidarabad . At thebeginning of 1759, Lally summoned Bussy to assist in anattack on Trichinopoli , and the Marquis de Conflans was leftin command of ‘the Northern Circars.’ At this junctureColonel Forde landed at Vizagapatam with a small forcefrom Bengal of 500 English soldiers and 2000 Sepoys. Hedefeated Conflans at Condore, and on 25 th January 1760 hestormed Masulipatam , and broke at one blow the power of theFrench in ‘ the Northern Circars,’ which were made over tothe English East India Company . Meanwhile, Colonel (after-wards Sir Eyre) Coote, who commanded the troops in the