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DUNDAS, Henry, 1st Viscount Melville (1740-1811) and Robert Saunders Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville (1771-1851). A collection of letters and memoranda on Indian affairs, comprising:
Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville. Memorandum, partly autograph, 'on the recent Dispatches from Bombay - respecting the disasters in Malabar; & the probability of Tippoo's interference', Walmer Castle, 12 September 1797, 4 pages, folio, autograph, and 14 pages, folio, secretarial; [and] Autograph memorandum, Walmer Castle, 11 September 1797, on the Tanjore succession, 13 pages, folio, together with a copy signed by Dundas of the same, 8 pages, folio;
[with] four memoranda and four letters addressed to Dundas (one addressed to Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville), concerning the debts of the Rajah of Tanjore, a 'Memorial respecting the Astronomy of India', and an autograph letter (3rd person) of recommendation by Sir Richard Hill, 1789-1810, together 16½ pages, folio, and 12½ pages, 4to.
[Robert Saunders Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville]. Autograph letter signed to Melville by Sir Thomas Munro, Edinburgh, 17 April 1810, enclosing an autograph memorandum signed, 'a Sketch of a Plan for the Indian Army - I have long thought that selection from the field officers without regard to seniority is the only way of having a good Staff of General Officers in India', together one page, 4to, and 14½ pages, folio; [with] a letter of the 3rd Viscount Melville.
Henry Dundas effectively managed Indian affairs from Pitt's formation of the Board of Control of the East India Company in September 1784; Lord Brougham praised his 'celebrated reports upon all the complicated questions of our Asiatic policy' as 'repositories of information ... unrivalled for clearness and extent' (DNB). Dundas's political career ended with his impeachment and acquittal in 1804 on charges of financial mismanagement; his son, Robert Saunders Dundas, succeeded him as president of the Board of Control in 1807. Sir Thomas Munro (1761-1827), governor of Madras from 1819 until his death, was one of the most distinguished of British soldiers and administrators in India; his proposals for the reform of the army in India anticipate those carried through in the wake of the Indian Mutiny in 1857. (14)
Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville. Memorandum, partly autograph, 'on the recent Dispatches from Bombay - respecting the disasters in Malabar; & the probability of Tippoo's interference', Walmer Castle, 12 September 1797, 4 pages, folio, autograph, and 14 pages, folio, secretarial; [and] Autograph memorandum, Walmer Castle, 11 September 1797, on the Tanjore succession, 13 pages, folio, together with a copy signed by Dundas of the same, 8 pages, folio;
[with] four memoranda and four letters addressed to Dundas (one addressed to Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville), concerning the debts of the Rajah of Tanjore, a 'Memorial respecting the Astronomy of India', and an autograph letter (3rd person) of recommendation by Sir Richard Hill, 1789-1810, together 16½ pages, folio, and 12½ pages, 4to.
[Robert Saunders Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville]. Autograph letter signed to Melville by Sir Thomas Munro, Edinburgh, 17 April 1810, enclosing an autograph memorandum signed, 'a Sketch of a Plan for the Indian Army - I have long thought that selection from the field officers without regard to seniority is the only way of having a good Staff of General Officers in India', together one page, 4to, and 14½ pages, folio; [with] a letter of the 3rd Viscount Melville.
Henry Dundas effectively managed Indian affairs from Pitt's formation of the Board of Control of the East India Company in September 1784; Lord Brougham praised his 'celebrated reports upon all the complicated questions of our Asiatic policy' as 'repositories of information ... unrivalled for clearness and extent' (DNB). Dundas's political career ended with his impeachment and acquittal in 1804 on charges of financial mismanagement; his son, Robert Saunders Dundas, succeeded him as president of the Board of Control in 1807. Sir Thomas Munro (1761-1827), governor of Madras from 1819 until his death, was one of the most distinguished of British soldiers and administrators in India; his proposals for the reform of the army in India anticipate those carried through in the wake of the Indian Mutiny in 1857. (14)
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