TO THE MOST NOBLE
RICHARD, MARQUIS WELLESLEY,
KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER;
ONE OF HIS MAJESTY’S PRINCIPAL SECRETARIES OF STATE;
FORMERLY
GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE BRITISH POSSESSIONS,
AND
CAPTAIN-GENERAL OF THE BRITISH FORCES, IN INDIA,
&c. &c. &c. &c.

MY LORD:

IT is neither for the ostentatious purpose of gracing the front of my book with an illustrious name, nor, by thus giving it the apparent stamp of your approbation, to promote its favourable reception with the public, that the present work is dedicated to your Lordship. It is equally remote from my intention, either to offer it as a tribute of gratitude for former, or to employ it as a passport to future obligations. The first of these objects would be but feebly answered, and the latter could not, in any degree, be advanced, by such inadequate means. It is a principle of justice, and of justice alone, which has prompted me to address it to your Lordship.

I am far from the vanity or presumption of imagining, that the introduction of your name, on this occasion, can be in the least flattering to your Lordship. No, my Lord; I am only anxious to avoid the manifest impropriety of which I should be guilty, if I were to dedicate to any but your Lordship, a work, which, in truth, owes its existence to you.

This is no compliment, my Lord, but a mere historical fact: for who does not know that it was your Lordship’s political sagacity which penetrated, and your prompt and energetic measures which defeated, the hostile designs of Tippoo Sultan against the British Dominions in India? Who is ignorant, that it was those measures which led to the rapid annihilation of the most formidable power with whom we ever had to cope in that quarter of the globe, and which substituted in its place an order of things, redounding no less to the glory, than conducing to the solid interests, of your country?

To the complete success which, under Divine Providence, crowned the wise and vigorous conduct of your Lordship, in this short but arduous contest, is the public indebted, among other inestimable advantages of the most important and durable nature, for the posses­sion of the archives of Seringapatam. To whom, therefore, can a work, compiled from those archives, be so appropriately addressed, as to him who procured us access to whatever information they con­tain?

Having thus, I presume, satisfactorily established your Lordship’s public claim to the present humble tribute, it only remains for me to shew, that you possess still another title to it, which though of a private nature, is equally imperative upon me, as the compiler of the following sheets: for if that tribute would have been due to your Lordship from any person whatsoever, who might have casually ob­tained possession of the documents composing this work, and have anticipated me in the publication of them, how much more is your Lordship entitled to receive such an acknowledgement from one, who is, in fact, indebted for his materials to the official situations in which he had the honor of being employed under your Lordship’s administra­tion in India?

  I have the honor to be,
  With the highest respect,
  MY LORD,
  Your Lordship’s most obedient
  and most faithful servant,
  WILLIAM KIRKPATRICK.

Exeter,
1st February, 1811.