"Both Lord Minto and the Commander-in-Chief of India should come to Madras; or, at all events, Lord Minto. Whatever justice may be on the part of Sir George Barlow, it will be ten times more difficult for him to settle the question than any other; for the degree of personal dislike which all ranks and classes have of him, is not to be described. This may be, and I dare say is, very indefensible: but it exists, and cannot be changed; and the safety of the state should not be thrown into hazard, if that hazard can be avoided by the adoption of any measures that do not compromise its dignity, or permanently weaken its authority. I am quite satisfied of the purity and rectitude of Sir George Barlow's character. The public never had a more zealous or more laborious servant; he is devoted to his duty, and has no enjoyment beyond that of performing it; but his system is cold and inflexible, and proceeds in its course without the slightest attention to the feelings of those on whom it is to operate; and the present distracted state of affairs at Madras is, I fear, a _comment_, and _a melancholy one_, upon the result of _such systems_. All the reforms which Sir George Barlow thought it his duty to make, might have been made without giving rise to any serious discontent, if he had proceeded with that caution and that attention to the temper of the men which the situation in which he found the army required. They were in a state of great irritation when he arrived; and he was, from his reputation as a _reformer_ and a _retrencher_, received with prejudices. The authority which should have controlled the army, acted a contrary part, and consequently made their ebullitions more to be dreaded. All these were subjects worthy of consideration; and relaxation from a severe system, till an insubordinate spirit was somewhat subdued, and the ruling authority fortified, would have not merely been warranted, but have been wise. At all events, the means of suppressing a disposition to violence should have been correctly calculated, before it was provoked to action. This, I fear, has not been the case; and it is most difficult to discover any means by which such a general spirit of discontent, as that which now exists, can be repressed. As it is unmixed with any thing like disaffection to the country, it will probably, if met with a firm and dignified spirit of conciliation, correct itself; and then every plan should be adopted that can prevent the recurrence of so dangerous an evil." The following is the concluding paragraph of a long letter, dated the 16th of April 1809, which I wrote to Lord Wellington, on the same subject.