LALLY. Count Lally Tollendal, a French officer, arrived in India in 1758 as commander-in chief in the French possessions. His father was Sir Gerard O'Lally, an Irishman, who, having defended Limerick, took service with the French. lie formed the Irish Brigade, and his son Thomas Arthur, at the age of one (1702) was a private in the French army, and at the age of forty-three (1745), at Fontenoy, his charge and that of his brigade, the command of which he had inherited from a grand-uncle, Count Dillon, decided the day, which had been won by the stolid, immove able English advance. Lally served in Russia with credit, and under Marshal Saxe, who re garded him as a future Marechal de France, and on the 31st December 1756, when 54, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the French pos sessions in the east ; he was in the vigour of his powers, and a perfect disciplinarian ; but he at once reversed the policy of Dupleix, whose whole policy had been a policy of conciliation. But with Lally, Brahmans were compelled to carry the loads their caste forbade them to touch, and were yoked with the Pariah and Swira to draw carts. When de Leyrit and the Council remon strated, they were treated as accomplices who had been bribed. When before Madras his officers shrank from an assault out of hate for him, and at last, deserted by his fleet, with a mutiny in his army, and an object of active hatred to every officer under his command, he was compelled to raise Bussy to the active command.
After the battle of Wandiwash, in which Colonel, afterwards Sir, Eyre Coote, totally defeated him, . he was compelled, with mutinous troops and hostile population, to defend Pondicherry. But all resources having been exhausted, and having but four ounces of rice left for distribution to each soldier, he was compelled to surrender at discretion (16th January 1761). The inhabitants had subsisted for a long time upon their elephants, horses, camels, etc. ; a dog sold for 24 rupees. He returned to France, and, on an investigation, was condemned on two charges —insolence to his majesty's other officers which was true, treason to his majesty, which was false,—was taken in a dungcart to his execution, and died exclaiming, Tell my judges that God has given me grace to pardon them ; if I were to see them again, I might no longer have the forbearance to do it.'—The Career of Count Lally, a Lecture by Major G. B. Malleson, Calcutta.