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[Attributed to] Richard Colley Wellesley, Marquess Wellesley, Notes Relative to the Late Transactions in the Marhatta Empire. Fort William, December 15, 1803, London: Printed for J Debrett, 1804

2 parts in one volume
Part I: 115 pages
Part II: 177 pages and 6 folding engraved hand-coloured battle plans
Contemporary full speckled calf, single gilt fillet border with decorative roll-tooling in blind and gilt along the edges; spine with raised bands in six compartments, double gilt rules, and a dark green morocco label titled in gilt; board edges gilt; marbled paper edges
10.75 x 8.75 in (27.5 x 22.5 cm)

WELLESLEY AND THE MARATHA CAMPAIGN: A STRATEGIC JUSTIFICATION OF BRITISH INTERVENTION IN INDIA, WITH HAND-COLOURED BATTLE PLANS

Notes Relative to the Late Transactions in the Marhatta Empire. Fort William, December 15, 1803 is an extraordinary and highly significant historical document emanating from the apex of British colonial administration in India. Attributed to Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley—then Governor-General of Bengal—this volume serves as both a strategic memorandum and a retrospective political justification for British intervention in the Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–1805). The text was first printed in Calcutta and subsequently published in London in 1804 for wider parliamentary and diplomatic circulation.

Six detailed fold-out plans accompany the text, providing diagrammatic layouts of the key military actions, fortifications, and troop movements. These maps and battle diagrams are engraved with high precision and represent a rare and early example of printed British cartography in India used for strategic military narrative.

Written with the authority of the Governor-General’s office, the Notes were intended to inform and persuade the East India Company’s directors, as well as the British Parliament, of the legitimacy and necessity of the Company’s military campaigns against the Maratha Confederacy. The publication is structured as a formal defence of British policy in the Deccan and Central India and draws heavily upon correspondence, treaties, battle reports, and intelligence dispatches received at Fort William (Calcutta), the administrative seat of the East India Company in Bengal.

The work emerged in the immediate aftermath of two decisive battles—Assaye and Argaum—wherein Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington and younger brother of the author) led British and allied forces to significant victories over the Maratha forces commanded by Daulat Rao Scindia and Raghoji II Bhonsle. These military encounters dramatically altered the balance of power in India and facilitated a more expansive British dominion across the subcontinent.

The Notes details the breakdown of diplomatic relations between the East India Company and the Maratha leadership, the internal fissures within the confederacy, and the perceived threats to British interests posed by French-trained Maratha forces. In doing so, it constructs a narrative of pre-emptive defence and civilisational intervention—core ideological tenets of the early 19th-century colonial state.

Prepared for circulation among senior company officials and parliamentarians, this document played a pivotal role in shaping British policy in India during a transformative period of expansion. A foundational text of colonial statecraft and a major milestone in the British military history of India.

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