ABSTRACT
In the patronage-oiled engine of eighteenth-century EIC employment, being the son of a once powerful but fallen chairman created a tangle. Former allies and protégés of Sir George’s might lend a hand, but loss of influence carried a burden. As Cornwallis undertook to curb unbridled cronyism and private adventurism in Bengal, competence and trustworthiness offered civil servants an avenue to promotion, but prospects were distant and the path crowded with competitors. What was appreciated in Bengal was not assured of approval in London. Years of frustrated ambition and assignments to far-flung outposts led Henry Colebrooke to apply his analytical skills to the conditions of the countryside and made him a supporter of free trade and colonial settlement, positions that were contrary to EIC rules and privilege. Sir George’s fervent but sometimes ill-guided attempts to showcase his son’s achievements compounded the problem when they ran against the grain of official policy. Far from advancing his career, the disclosure of Cole-brooke’s authorship of a treatise that advocated free trade and colonization put it in jeopardy.
