"حياة ومراسلات اللواء السير جون مالكوم، قائد فرسان وسام الطُهر، المبعوث السابق إلى بلاد فارس وحاكم بومباي؛ من رسائل ومذكرات غير منشورة. في مجلّدين. المجلد II." [‎٣‎٠‎٦] (٦٥٤/٣٢٣)

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playing a game of his own. Canning had a friend—Lord
Walpole—whom he wished to serve, by obtaining for
him the succession to the Madras Government, likely soon
to become vacant; and Malcolm believed that he had
covertly supported Elphinstone as the candidate favored
by the most influential section of the Court, or at all
events by those members from whom he was most likely
to obtain the reciprocation he sought. He believed, too,
that some members of the Court, who had positively or
impliedly promised to assist him, had failed him in the
hour of need. It was submitted, however, to him, by the
Chairman of the Company, through Lady Malcolm, that
the claims of the candidates all being of the most dis
tinguished order, Elphinstdhe was selected because lie
was the only civilian of the three. With this explanation
it was expected that he would be satisfied; and he would
have been, if there had been no reason to believe that
there was something more than the high character and the
privileged profession of the winning candidate to secure
for him a post which in his humility Mr. Elphinstone did
not expect, and in his moderation he did not covet.
But although Malcolm, as a statesman, was disap
pointed, as a soldier he was not. He had thought, on
the field of Mehidpoor, of the red riband of the Grand
Cross of the Bath. He coveted this distinction more
than hereditary honors. He might have secured for
himself and his successors a baronetcy; but he desired
his influential friends in England to make known his pre
ference in favor of the Grand Cross. With that pro
fessional devotion which was so conspicuous an element
in his character, he desired the purely military distinc
tion, as that which would reflect most credit upon the
service to which he belonged; and it was now sub
mitted that the Prince-Regent would confer the decora
tion upon him so soon as his army rank should entitle him