[Lettered on spine:] Mahratta Booty: Papers & Proceedings on behalf of Army of Deccan. Intercepted Letters, 1823-1825. Hislop's Mem[oria]l 1826.

THIRD ANGLO-MARATHA WAR.

Edité par London: Printed by Thomas Davison, [c.1826]

A propos de cet article

A remarkable sammelband of 12 exceptionally rare papers documenting the financial aftermath of the Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817-19), focused on Pune, Nagpur, and Mahidpur and on the campaigns against Baji Rao II and Bhima Bai Holkar. Only eight of the twelve items are institutionally recorded, each by a single copy at the British Library or National Library of Scotland. Together they constitute an unusually full record of the disputes that followed Sir Thomas Hislop's Deccan campaign, including the controversies surrounding his conduct at Talnar and the long, bitter wrangle over the "Deccan Prize". The papers offer a detailed narrative of operations, official correspondence on the suppression or disclosure of reports, formal statements of service by the divisions engaged, and extensive memorials and claims submitted by Hislop and his officers. Running through them is a sustained argument over entitlement: whether booty seized at Pune, Nagpur, and Mahidpur belonged to the forces directly engaged under Hislop or must be shared with the more distant but formally "co-operating" Bengal Army under Lord Hastings. Viewed collectively, the papers illuminate both the scale of the spoils and the legalism of their distribution. Several documents analyse the enormous sums involved, from the c. £200,000 formally recognised as prize to the far larger amounts in treasure and arrears appropriated by the Company's government, including the celebrated hauls at Nagpur, Nashik, Belgaum, and from arrears due to the Peshwa - figures running into millions of pounds. Others reconstruct the fighting strength, movements, and actions of the Deccan Army, providing granular detail on its pursuit of the Peshwa, the capture of his forts, and the Reserve Division's decisive role in the operations against Holkar. Hislop's own long memorial to the Treasury closes the group, setting out his defence and the claims of his officers in the face of adverse public scrutiny and protracted litigation. These documents are unusually revealing of East India Company warfare at the moment when the Maratha confederacy collapsed. They expose the transactional reality of campaigning - the expectation of plunder, the complex distinction between "prize" and "pillage", and the intense competition between presidencies for the proceeds. They also underscore why Indian service remained attractive: opportunities for promotion were rapid, conditions often lethal, and the prospect of prize money a powerful incentive. Provenance: ownership inscriptions of William Rothery (1775-1864), one dated June 1833, probably the Treasury's legal adviser on slave-trade matters and later a witness before the 1864 Royal Commission on Army Prize. The volume is numbered "Vol. 3", evidently once part of a larger set now dispersed. A full list of the contents is available on request. Richard H. Davis, Lives of Indian Images, 1999; Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, The Great Uprising in India 1857-58: Untold Stories, Indian and British, 2007; Carolyn Steedman, The Radical Soldier's Tale: John Pearman, 1819-1908, 2016. Quarto (254 x 203 mm). Contemporary dark blue diced calf, spine with four low raised bands, gilt decorated and lettered direct, covers with blind anthemion frame, gilt edge roll, Spanish on Italian pattern marbled endpapers. Binding professionally refurbished and presenting handsomely, a number of papers with light vertical fold, internally very good.

N° de réf. du vendeur 154580

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: [Lettered on spine:] Mahratta Booty: Papers & Proceedings on behalf of Army of Deccan. Intercepted Letters, 1823-1825. Hislop's Mem[oria]l 1826.
• Éditeur: London: Printed by Thomas Davison, [c.1826]
• Édition: Edition originale