These assertions are all true, but they only serve to prove the want of that superiority of mind, that spirit of command in Mr. Vansittart, which would have enabled him to sway the minds of his own countrymen, as well as the want of that foresight which should have led him to abstain from the adoption of measures extremely questionable in themselves, and which he did not very clearly see that he could carry through. The only ground of apology for _him, and that not a very sufficient one_, is, that he allowed himself to be surprised in adopting the measure at all; and that even in the instrument which he employed for executing the work, he was deceived in the character of Meer Cossim, whose financial skill and ferocious energy were both equally unforeseen. The truth, however, is, that many of the acts of Mr. Vansittart's administration were less his own than those of a selfish and domineering council. The first year of the new Nabob's reign was marked by success against his foreign enemies. Major Carnac, who now commanded the English troops in Bengal, defeated the Emperor at Gyah; and a rebellion of the chief of Beerboom and Burdwan was repressed by the aid of a detachment under Major Yorke. Major Carnac, who had obtained just reputation from his military operations, had acquired more with the natives of India by his generous treatment of M. Law, who was compelled to surrender to him, and by his humane and politic behaviour to the unfortunate emperor, whom he had defeated, but whom he afterwards waited upon and attended as one of his subjects. The courteous behaviour of Major Carnac to the French commander excited, according to the author of the Seer Mutakhareen, equal astonishment and admiration. We cannot refrain from giving an account of the surrender and treatment of M. Law in the words of the native historian.[214]