Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley

A portrait of Richard Wellesley by Thomas Lawrence.

Richard Colley Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, (20 June 1760 – 26 September 1842) was an Anglo-Irish politician and colonial administrator.

Quotes

• The most remarkable step which Tippoo has lately taken, is his communication with Zemaun Shah . . . if an invasion of Hindostan should ever seriously be attempted by Zemaun Shah, the diversion of our force, which would be occasioned by such an event, would offer the most favourable opportunity to an attack from Tippoo on our possessions in the Peninsula. No mode of carrying on war against us could be more vexatious or more distressing to our resources than a combined attack upon Oude [Oudh] and the Carnatic . . . Zemaun Shah has not abandoned his project of invading Hindostan, and that the safest means of rendering that project abortive will be to consider it as practicable, and to take the best precautions against it which the advantages of our situation and the interval of time can furnish . . . I wish to know from you, whether we ought to suffer, without animadversion and spirited representation, such open acts of hostility on the part of Tippoo? My ideas on this subject are, that as on the one hand we ought never to use any high language towards Tippoo, nor ever attempt to deny him the smallest point of his just rights, so on the other, where we have distinct proofs of his machinations against us, we ought to let him know that his treachery does not escape our observation, and to make him feel that he is within the reach of our vigilance. At present it appears to me that he is permitted to excite ill will against us wherever he pleases, without the least attempt on our part to reprehend either him for the suggestion, or the Court, to whom he applies, for listening to it.
  • letter to Henry Dundas, the Chairman of the Board of Control, February 1798. quoted in Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024)