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MACAULAY 
 
 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 WITH 
 
 NOTES AND APPENDICES 
 
 BY 
 
 K. DEIGHTON 
 
 ICrrnirrtt 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. 
 
 NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN CO. 
 1896 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
-PS'473 
 
 First Edition 1893 
 Reprinted 1896. 
 
 HENRY MORSE STEPHENS 
 
 GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. 
 
ts 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface, vii 
 
 Warren Hastings, 1 
 
 Notes, 131 
 
 Appendices — 
 
 I.— The Rohilla War, 186 
 
 II. — Hastings, Impey, and Nand Kumar, . . . 207 
 III. — The Impeachment of Impey, . . . .213 
 
 IV. — The Rise, Growth, and Decline of the Maratha 
 
 Powers, 225 
 
 Index to Notes, 232 
 
 511616 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In his work entitled The Reign of Queen Victoria, 
 ' India, 1 Sir John Strachey remarks, " Sir Henry Maine 
 has pointed out with admirable truth the consequences 
 in India of the fact that English classical literature 
 towards the end of the last century was t saturated with 
 party politics.' ' This,' he says, ' would have been a less 
 serious fact if, at this epoch, one chief topic of the 
 great writers and rhetoricians, of Burke and Sheridan, 
 of Fox and Francis, had not been India itself. I 
 have to doubt that the view of Indian government 
 taken at the end of the century by Englishmen whose 
 works and speeches are held to be models of English 
 style has had deep effect on the mind of the educated 
 Indian of this day. We are only now beginning to 
 see how excessive^ inaccurate were their statements 
 of fact and how one-sided were their judgments.' 
 These remarks of Sir Henry Maine point to what I 
 have long believed to be a serious misfortune — the 
 non-existence of any history of British India, which 
 is trustworthy and complete in its facts, and which 
 at the same time possesses the essential quality of 
 literary excellence. Since the earlier part of the 
 present century the old stories of the crimes by which 
 
viii WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 the establishment of our power in India was attended 
 have been passed on from one author to another. . . . 
 These calumnies have caused and are still causing no 
 little mischief both in England and India. Thousands 
 of excellent people are filled with righteous indignation 
 when they read of the atrocious acts of Clive and 
 Hastings, the judicial murder of Nandkumar, the ex- 
 termination of the Rohillas, the plunder of the Begums. 
 No suspicion of the truth reaches them that these 
 horrors never occurred, and the fear can hardly be 
 repressed that there may be some foundation even 
 now for the charges of Indian misgovernment and 
 oppression. . . . This false history is systematically 
 taught by ourselves, and believed by the educated 
 natives of India to be true. It is impossible that 
 this should not have a serious effect on their feelings 
 towards their English rulers." By all who are con- 
 versant with the progress of education in India, and 
 perhaps by none so readily as those who have had 
 a professional part in it, these words will be endorsed 
 as not one whit exaggerated. And if such be really 
 the outcome of our "enlightened policy," in the fore- 
 front of the band by whom misconception has been 
 propagated, stands Macaulay. His two celebrated 
 Indian essays comprehend nearly the whole of that 
 period regarding which, while error came so easily, 
 the truth — at all events till lately — was difficult of 
 discovery, that period for which the records were the 
 records of a mercantile corporation primarily con- 
 cerned in making money. The fierce light that beats 
 upon a modern administration was unknown to the 
 Honourable East India Company. Its servants thought 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 little of posterity, cared nothing that the history they 
 were making should, on its transfusion into narrative, 
 be ordered and marshalled with the stately precision 
 by which a more self-conscious regime guards itself 
 against detraction and misunderstanding. But the 
 indifference of these pioneers of empire has helped to 
 blur and blot the fair fame of many of their own 
 number; and if historians have grievously caricatured 
 both men and measures, there is for them at least 
 the excuse that their distortion of objects is due in 
 perhaps less degree to dimness of vision than to 
 haziness of the medium in which the work had to be 
 done. That there has also been deliberate injustice 
 cannot, I fear, be denied. Macaulay himself was not 
 seldom biassed by political sympathies ; though his 
 worst shortcomings are the shortcomings of one who 
 has placed unwise confidence in apparently trustworthy 
 guides. Mill is a much greater sinner. But Mill has 
 few charms, and his narrative would never stir so 
 much as a spasm of enthusiastic belief or kindle the 
 faintest glow of fervid partisanship. With Macaulay 
 the case is very different. The transparent lucidity of 
 his style, the rich colouring, the dramatic vividness, 
 the apt illustration, the swift assemblage of images so 
 various and yet so cumulative in their effect, his 
 learning worn so lightly and yet so massive in its 
 strength, the splendour with which he lights up a 
 battle-piece or the pageantry in which he decks some 
 time-honoured ceremonial, his copious vocabulary of 
 invective and scorn, his hatred of meanness and in- 
 justice, his lofty imagination, "that noble faculty," as 
 he himself says in regard to Burke, "whereby man is 
 
x WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 able to live in the past and in the future, in the 
 distant and in the unreal" — combine to throw over 
 whatever he writes a glamour that no one can resist, 
 least of all those in whom the pulse of life still throbs 
 with full-toned animation, with whom belief is still a 
 joy, and hero-worship a necessity. While, therefore, of 
 those who have to study his essays the number is 
 small as compared with the number who have to 
 study dry histories, — and the histories of India are 
 probably unique in their dryness, not only to English 
 but to Indian readers, — the hold which he obtains is 
 immeasurably greater and more enduring than that 
 which is taken by the laborious chroniclers of weari- 
 some detail padded with trite reflection, the compilers 
 of narrative that has neither foreground nor back- 
 ground, neither proportion nor perspective. A writer 
 like Macaulay makes converts, who in their turn find 
 disciples. To hand down his doctrines becomes a 
 religion. His very fallacies are the shibboleth of a 
 school. Add to this that his reputation as a scholar, 
 as a historian, as a jurist, still looms as large as ever, 
 and it is easy to understand that prestige of this 
 nature should keep loyal those who might waver, and 
 hold back those who would venture to criticize. If, 
 then, these two essays are to be put into the 
 hands of students and set as subjects of an examina- 
 tion, it cannot be done with safety unless at the same 
 time an endeavour is made to show wherein their 
 statements are inaccurate, and how the views put 
 forward in them assume an altered colouring from the 
 light of fuller information. The essay on Hastings 
 more especially needs such rectification, and this for- 
 
PREFACE. xi 
 
 tunately is possible with the help of three works of 
 recent publication, Sir John Strachey's account of the 
 Eohilla War, Sir James Stephen's examination of the 
 Nand Kumar myth and the impeachment of Impey, 
 and the selections from Official Eecords so ably edited 
 by Professor Forrest. From the two former works I 
 have made copious extracts, and I wish that every 
 student had the opportunity and the leisure to study 
 them in their entirety. Another work which I have 
 found most useful is Sir Alfred Lyall's Warren 
 Hastings. This, if possible, should be closely com- 
 pared with Macaulay's essay. It is not long, — about 
 two hundred pages, — but it gives with unusual clear- 
 ness a complete view of Hastings' administration. It 
 has another characteristic, even more important than 
 clearness, viz., impartiality. I do not say " studied 
 impartiality," for the impartiality strikes one as some- 
 thing so natural as to be part of the man. Captain 
 Trotter's biography in the "Rulers of India" series 
 will also be read with much interest. If somewhat of 
 the nature of a brief for the defence, and scarcely 
 displaying the same breadth of treatment with Sir 
 Alfred Lyall's work, it is fuller in detail and is based 
 on the firm foundation of the original records which, 
 as I have already mentioned, Professor Forrest has 
 lately edited. Lastly, an admirable article in the 
 Dictionary of National Biography, from the pen of 
 Mr. H. G. Keene, brings into very moderate compass 
 the events of Warren Hastings' life and official 
 career. 
 
 In my Notes there will be found, I hope, sufficient 
 explanation of verbal difficulties and historical refer- 
 
xii WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 ences. But certain matters are too long for mere 
 Notes, and these I have reserved for Appendices. The 
 subjects there discussed are (1) The Rohilla War : (2) 
 Hastings, Impey, and Nand Kumar : (3) The Impeach- 
 ment of Impey ; and to these I have . added a short 
 sketch of the Rise and Growth of the Maratha powers. 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 Tins book seems to have been manufactured in pursuance 
 of a contract, by which the representatives of Warren 
 Hastings, on the one part, bound themselves to furnish 
 papers, and Mr. Gleig, on the other part, bound himself to 
 furnish praise. It is but just to say that the covenants on 
 both sides have been most faithfully kept ; and the result 
 is before us in the form of three big bad volumes,> full of 
 undigested correspondence and undiscerning panegyric. 
 
 If it were worth while to examine this performance in 
 detail, we could easily make a long article by merely pointing 10 
 out inaccurate statements, inelegant expressions, and im- 
 moral doctrines. But it would be idle to waste criticism on 
 a bookmaker ; and, whatever credit Mr. Gleig may have 
 justly earned by former works, it is as a bookmaker, and 
 nothing more, that he now comes before us. More eminent 
 men than Mr. Gleig have written nearly as ill as he, when 
 they have stooped to similar drudgery. It would be unjust 
 to estimate Goldsmith by the History of Greece, or Scott by 
 the Life of Napoleon. Mr. Gleig is neither a Goldsmith nor 
 a Scott ; but it would be unjust to deny that he is capable 20 
 of something better than these Memoirs. It would also, we 
 hope and believe, be unjust to charge any Christian minister 
 with the guilt of deliberately maintaining some propositions 
 which we find in this book. It is not too much to say that 
 Mr. Gleig has written several passages, which bear the same 
 
$ WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 relation to the Prince of Machiavelli that the Prince of 
 Machiavelli bears to the Whole Duty of Man, and which 
 would excite amazement in a den of robbers, or on board of 
 a schooner of pirates. But we are willing to attribute these 
 offences to haste, to thoughtlessness, and to that disease of 
 the understanding which may be called the Furor Bio- 
 graphicus, and which is to writers of lives what the goitre 
 is to an Alpine shepherd, or dirt-eating to a Negro slave. 
 
 We are inclined to think that we shall best meet the ** 
 
 10 wishes of our readers, if, instead of dwelling on the faults 
 of this book, we attempt to give, in a way necessarily hasty 
 and imperfect, our own view of the life and character of Mr. 
 Hastings. Our feeling towards him is not exactly that of 
 the House of Commons which impeached him in 1787 ; 
 neither is it that of the House of Commons which uncovered 
 and stood up to receive him in 1813. He had great qualities, 
 and he rendered great services to the state. But to repre- 
 sent him as a man of stainless virtue is to make him 
 ridiculous ; and from regard for his memory, if from no 
 
 20 other feeling, his friends would have done well to lend no 
 countenance to such puerile adulation. We believe that, if 
 he were now living, he would have sufficient judgment and 
 sufficient greatness of mind to wish to be shown as he was. 
 He must have known that there were dark spots on h}s 
 fame. He might also have felt with pride that the splendour 
 of his fame would bear many spots. He would have pre- 
 /v^T f erred, we are confident, even the severity of Mr. Mill to the 
 puffing of Mr Gleig. He would have wished posterity to 
 have a likeness of him, though an unfavourable likeness, 
 
 30 rather than a daub at once insipid and unnatural, resembling 
 neither him nor any body else. " Paint me as I am," said 
 Oliver Cromwell, while sitting to young Lely. " If you 
 leave out the scars and wrinkles, I will not pay you a 
 shilling." O Even in such a trifle, the great Protector showed'/ 
 both his good sense and his magnanimity. He did not wish 
 all that was characteristic in his countenance to be lost, in 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 3 
 
 the vain attempt to give him the regular features and smooth 
 blooming cheeks of the curl-pated minions of James the 
 First. He was content that his face should go forth marked 
 with all the blemishes which had been put on it by time, by 
 war, by sleepless nights, by anxiety, perhaps by remorse ; ' , , 
 but with valour, policy, authority, and public care written in _ v 
 all its princely lines. If men truly great knew their own 
 interest, it is thus that they would wish their minds to be 
 portrayed. 
 
 "Warren Hastings sprang from an ancient and illustrious 10 
 race. It has been affirmed that his pedigree can be traced 
 back to the great Danish sea-king, whose sails were long the 
 terror of both coasts of the British Channel, and who, after 
 many fierce and doubtful struggles, yielded at last to the 
 valour and genius of Alfred. But the undoubted splendour 
 of the line of Hastings needs no illustration from fable. 
 One branch of that line wore, in the fourteenth century, the 
 coronet of Pembroke. From another branch sprang the 
 renowned Chamberlain, the faithful adherent of the White 
 Eose, whose fate has furnished so striking a theme both to 20 
 poets and to historians. His family received from the 
 Tudors the earldom of Huntingdon, which, after long dis- 
 possession, was regained in our time by a series of events 
 scarcely paralleled in romance. 
 
 The lords of the manor of Daylesford, in Worcestershire, 
 claimed to be considered as the heads of this distinguished 
 family. The main stock, indeed, prospered less than some 
 of the younger shoots. But the Daylesford family, though 
 not ennobled, was wealthy and highly considered, till, about 
 two hundred years ago, it was overwhelmed by the great 30 
 ruin of the civil war. The Hastings of that time was a y 
 zealous cavalier. He raised money on his lands, sent his *"** 
 plate to the mint at Oxford, joined the royal army, and, 
 after spending half his property in the cause of King 
 Charles, was glad to ransom himself by making over most f c a 
 of the remaining half to Speaker Lenthal. The old seat at 
 

 4 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 Daylesford still remained in the family ; but it could no 
 longer be kept up ; and in the following generation it was 
 sold to a merchant of London, ~\^x* 
 
 Before this transfer took place, the last Hastings of 
 Daylesford had presented his second son to the rectory of 
 the parish in which the ancient residence of the family 
 stood. The living was of little value ; and the situation of 
 the poor clergyman, after the sale of the estate, was deplor- 
 able. He was constantly engaged in lawsuits about his 
 
 10 tithes with the new lord of the manor, and was at length 
 utterly ruined. His eldest son, Howard, a well-conducted 
 young man, obtained a place in the Customs. The second 
 son, Pynaston, an idle worthless boy, married before he was 
 sixteen, lost his wife in two years, and died in the West 
 Indies, leaving to the care of his unfortunate father a little 
 orphan, destined to strange and memorable vicissitudes of 
 fortune. 
 
 Warren, the son of Pynaston, was born on the sixth of 
 December, 1732. His mother died a few days later, and he 
 
 20 was left dependent on his distressed grandfather. The child 
 was early sent to the village school, where he learned his 
 letters on the same bench with the sons of the peasantry. 
 Nor did any thing in his garb or fare indicate that his life 
 was to take a widely different course from that of the youug 
 rustics with whom he studied and played. But no cloud 
 could overcast the dawn of so much genius and so much 
 ambition. The very ploughmen observed, and long remem- 
 bered, how kindly little Warren took to his book. The daily 
 sight of the lands which his ancestors had possessed, and 
 
 30 which had passed into the hands of strangers, filled his 
 young brain with wild fancies and projects. C?He loved to 
 hear stories of the wealth and greatness of his progenitors, 
 of their splendid housekeeping, their loyalty, and their 
 valour. On one bright summer day, the boy, then just 
 seven years old, lay on the bank of the rivulet which-Jows 
 through the old domain of his house to join the Isis. [.There, 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 5 
 
 as threescore and ten years later he told the tale, rose in his 
 mind a scheme which, through all the turns of his eventful 
 career, was never abandoned. He would recover the estate 
 which had belonged to his fathers. He would be Hastings 
 of Daylesford. This purpose, formed in infancy and poverty, 
 grew stronger as his intellect expanded and as his fortune 
 rose. He pursued his plan with that calm but indomitable 
 force of will^which was the most striking peculiarity of his 
 character, nj^hen, under a tropical sun, he ruled fifty 
 millions of Asiatics, his hopes, amidst all the cares of war, 10 
 finance, and legislation, still pointed to Daylesford. JAnd 
 when his long public life, so singularly chequered with good ' 
 and evil, with glory and obloquy, had at length closed for 
 ever, it was to Daylesford that he retired to die. 
 
 When he was eight years old, his uncle Howard deter- 
 mined to ta^fi charge of him, and to give him a liberal 
 education. /jThe boy went up to London, and was sent to 
 a school at Newington, where he was well taught but ill fed. 
 He always attributed the smallness of his stature to the 
 hard and scanty fare of this seminary. At ten he was re- 20 
 moved to Westminster School, then flourishing under the 
 care of Dr. Nichols. Vinny Bourne, as his pupils affection- 
 ately called him, was one of the masters. Churchill, Colman, 
 Lloyd, Cumberland, Cowper, were among the studentsj With 
 Cowper, Hastings formed a friendship which neither the 
 lapse of time, nor a wide dissimilarity of opinions and pur- 
 suits, could wholly dissolve. It does not appear that they 
 ever met after they had grown to manhood. But forty years * 
 
 later, when the voices of many great orators were&rying for 3/ 
 vengeance on the oppressor of India, the shy and secluded 30 
 poet could image to himself Hastings the Governor-General 
 only as the Hastings with whom he had rowed on the 
 Thames, and played in the cloister, and refused to believe 
 that so good-tempered a fellow could have done anything 
 very wrong. His own life had been spent in praying, musing, 
 and rhyming among the water-lilies of the Ouse. He had 
 
6 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 preserved in no common measure the innocence of childhood. 
 His spirit had indeed been severely tried, but not by tempta- 
 tions which impelled him to any gross violation of the rules 
 of social morality. He had never been attacked by combina- 
 tions of powerful and deadly enemies. He had never been 
 compelled to make a choice between innocence and greatness, 
 between crime and ruin. Firmly as he held in theory the 
 doctrine of human depravity, his habits were such that he 
 was unable to conceive how far from the path of right even 
 
 10 kind and noble natures may be hurried by the rage of conflict 
 and the lust of dominion. 
 
 Hastings had another associate at Westminster of whom 
 we shall have occasion to make frequent mention, Elijah 
 Impey. We know little about their school days. But, we 
 think, we may safely venture to guess that, whenever 
 Hastings wished to play any trick more than usually 
 naughty, he hired Impey with a tart or a ball to act as 
 fag in the worst part of the prank. 
 
 Warren was distinguished among his comrades as an ex- 
 
 20 cellent swimmer, boatman, and scholar. At fourteen he was 
 first in the examination for the foundation. His name in 
 gilded letters on the walls of the dormitory still attests his 
 victory over many older competitors. He stayed two years 
 longer at the school, and was looking forward to a student- 
 ship at Christ Church, when an event happened which 
 changed the whole course of his life. Howard Hastings . 
 died, bequeathing his nephew to the care of a friend and r 
 distant relation, named Chiswick. ' This gentleman, though "'/ 
 he did not absolutely refuse the charge, was desirous to rid 
 
 30 himself of it as soon as possible. Dr. Nichols made strong 
 remonstrances against the cruelty of interrupting the studies 
 of a youth who seemed likely to be one of the first scholars 
 of the age. He even offered to bear the expense of sending 3fc£ 
 his favourite pupil to Oxford. But Mr. Chiswick was in- t 
 flexible. He thought the years which had already been 
 wasted on hexameters and pentameters quite sufficient. He 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 7 
 
 had it in his power to obtain for the lad a writership in the 
 service of the East India Company. Whether the young 
 adventurer, when once shipped off, made a fortune, or died of 
 a liver complaint, he equally ceased to be a burden to any 
 body. Warren was accordingly removed from Westminster 
 school, and placed for a few months at a commercial academy 
 to study arithmetic and book-keeping, In January, 1750, a 
 few days after he had completed his seventeenth year, he 
 sailed for Bengal, and arrived at his destination in the 
 October following. 10 
 
 He was immediately placed at a desk in the Secretary's 
 office at Calcutta, and laboured there during two years. Fort 
 W T illiam was then a purely commercial settlement. In the 
 south of India the encroaching policy of Dupleix had trans- 
 formed the servants of the English Company, against their 
 will, into diplomatists and generals. The war of the succes- 
 sion was raging in the Carnatic ; and the tide had been 
 suddenly turned against the French by the genius of young 
 Robert Clive. But in Bengal the European settlers, at peace 
 with the natives and with each other, were wholly occupied 20 
 with ledgers and bills of lading. 
 
 After two years passed in keeping accounts at Calcutta, 
 Hastings was sent up the country to Cossimbazar, a town 
 which lies on the Hoogley, about a mile from Moorshedabad, 
 and which then bore to Moorshedabad a relation, if we may 
 compare small things with great, such as the city of London 
 bears to Westminster. Moorshedabad was the abode of the 
 prince who, by an authority ostensibly derived from the 
 Mogul, but really independent, ruled the three great pro- 
 vinces of Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar. At Moorshedabad ^ere 3(f' 
 the court, the haram, and the public offices. Cossimbazar 
 was a port and a place of trade, renowned for the quantity 
 and excellence of the silks which were sold in its marts, and 
 constantly receiving and sending forth fleets of richly laden 
 barges. At this important point, the Company had estab- 
 lished a small factory subordinate to that of Fort William 
 
8 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 Here, during several years, Hastings was employed in making 
 bargains for stuffs with native brokers. While he was thus 
 engaged, Sura j all Dowlah succeeded to the government, and 
 declared war against the English. The defenceless settle- 
 ment of Cossimbazar, lying close to the tyrant's capital, was 
 instantly seized. Hastings was sent a prisoner to Moorshed- 
 abad, but, in consequence of the humane intervention of the 
 servants of the Dutch Company, was treated with indulgence. 
 Meanwhile the Nabob marched on Calcutta ; the governor 
 
 10 and the commandant fled ; the town and citadel were taken, 
 and most of the English prisoners perished in the Black 
 Hole. 
 
 In these events originated the greatness of Warren 
 Hastings. The fugitive governor and his companions had 
 taken refuge on the dreary islet of Fulda, near the mouth of 
 the Hoogley. They were naturally desirous to obtain full 
 information respecting the proceedings of the Nabob ; and no 
 person seemed so likely to furnish it as Hastings, who was a 
 prisoner at large in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
 
 20 court. He thus became a diplomatic agent, and soon estab- 
 lished a high character for ability and resolution. The 
 treason which at a later period was fatal to Surajah Dowlah 
 was already in progress ; and Hastings was admitted to the 
 deliberations of the conspirators. But the time for striking 
 had not arrived. It was necessary to postpone the execution 
 of the design ; and Hastings, who was now in extreme peril, 
 fled to Fulda. ^ 
 
 O Soon after his arrival at Fulda, the expedition from Madras, ** 
 commanded by Clive, appeared in the Hoogley. Warren, 
 
 30 young, intrepid, and excited probably by the example oF the 
 Commander of the forces who, h?ving like himself been a 
 mercantile agent of the Company, had been turned by public 
 calamities into a soldier, determined to serve in the ranks. 
 During the early operations of the war he carried a musket. 
 But the quick eye of Clive soon perceived that the head of 
 the young volunteer would be more useful than his arm. 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 9 
 
 When, after the battle of Plassey, Meer Jaffier was pro- 
 claimed Nabob of Bengal, Hastings was appointed to reside 
 at the court of the new prince as agent for the Company. 
 
 He remained at Moorshedabad till the year 1761, when 
 he became a member of Council, and was consequently 
 forced to reside at Calcutta. This was during the interval 
 between Clive's first and second administration, an interval 
 which has left on the fame of the East India Company a 
 stain, not wholly effaced by many years of just and humane 
 government. Mr. Yansittart, the Governor, was at the 10 
 head of a new and anomalous empire. <10n the one side was 
 a band of English functionaries, daring, intelligent, eager 
 to be rich. On the other side was a great native population, 
 helpless, timid, accustomed to crouch under oppression.} 
 To keep the stronger race from preying on the weaker 
 was an undertaking which tasked to the utmost the talents 
 and energy of Clive. Vansittart, with fair intentions, was 
 a feeble and inefficient ruler. The master caste, as was 
 natural, broke loose from all restraint ; and then was seen 
 what we believe to be the most frightful of all spectacles, 20 
 the strength of civilisation without its mercy. To all 
 other despotism there is a check, imperfect indeed, and 
 liable to gross abuse, but still sufficient to preserve society 
 from the last extreme of misery. ' A time comes when the 
 evils of submission are obviously greater than those of 
 resistance, when fear itself begets a sort of courage, when -"* 
 a convulsive burst of popular rage and despair warns 
 tyrants not to presume too far on the patience of mankind. 
 But against misgovernment such as then afflicted Bengal 
 it was impossible to struggle. The superior intelligence 30 
 and energy of the dominant class made their power irre- 
 sistible A war of Bengalees against Englishmen was like 
 a war of sheep against wolves, of men against daemons. 
 The only protection which the conquered could find was 
 in the moderation, the clemency, the enlarged policy of the 
 conquerors. That protection, at a later period, they found. 
 
10 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 But at first English power came among them unaccompanied 
 by English morality. There was an interval between the 
 time at which they became our subjects, and the time at 
 which we began to reflect that we were bound to discharge 
 towards them the duties of rulers. During that interval 
 the business of a servant of the Company was simply to 
 wring out of the natives a hundred or two hundred thou- 
 sand pounds as speedily as possible, that he might return 
 home before his constitution had suffered from the heat, 
 
 10 to marry a peer's daughter, to buy rotten boroughs in 
 Cornwall, and to give balls in St. James's Square. Of the 
 conduct of Hastings at this time, little is known ; but the 
 little that is known, and the circumstance that little is 
 known, must be considered as honourable to him. He 
 could not protect the natives : all that he could do was to 
 abstain from plundering and oppressing them ; and this 
 he appears to have done. It is certain that at this time 
 he continued poor ; and it is equally certain, that by cruelty 
 and dishonesty he might easily have become rich. It is 
 
 20 certain that he was never charged with having borne a 
 share in the worst abuses which then prevailed ; and it is 
 almost equally certain that, if he had borne a share in those 
 abuses, the able and bitter enemies who afterwards perse- 
 cuted him would not have failed to discover and to proclaim 
 his guilt. [The keen, severe, and even malevolent scrutiny "^ 
 to which his whole public life was subjected, a scrutiny 
 unparalleled, as we believe, in the history of mankind, is 
 in one respect advantageous to his reputation. It brought 
 many lamentable blemishes to light ; but it entitles him 
 
 30 to be considered pure from every blemish which has not 
 been brought to light. 
 
 The truth is that the temptations to w;hich so many 
 English functionaries yielded in the time of Mr. Yansittart 
 were not temptations addressed to the ruling passions of 
 Warren Hastings. He was not squeamish in pecuniary 
 transactions ; but he was neither sordid nor rapacious. 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 11 
 
 He was far too enlightened a man to look on a great empire 
 merely as a buccaneer would look on a galleon. Had his 
 heart been much worse than it was, his understanding 
 would have preserved him from that extremity of baseness. 
 He was an unscrupulous, perhaps an unprincipled states- 
 man ; but still he was a statesman, and not a freebooter. 
 A In 1764 Hastings returned to England. He had realized 
 
 ' ' only a very moderate fortune ; and that moderate fortune 
 was soon reduced to nothing, partly by his praiseworthy 
 liberality, and partly by his mismanagement. Towards his 10 
 relations he appears to have acted very generously. The 
 greater part of his savings he left in Bengal, hoping pro- 
 bably to obtain the high usury of India. But high usury 
 and bad security generally go together ; and Hastings lost 
 both interest and principal. 
 
 He remained four years in England. Of his life at this 
 \_time very little is known. But it has been asserted, and 
 
 i * is highly probable, that liberal studies and the society of 
 men of letters occupied a great part of his time. It is to 
 be remembered to his honour, that in days when the 20 
 languages of the East were regarded by other servants of 
 the Company merely as the means of communicating with 
 weavers and money-changers, his enlarged and accomplished 
 mind sought in Asiatic learning for new forms of intellec- 
 tual enjoyment, and for new views of government and 
 society. Perhaps, like most persons who have paid much 
 attention to departments of knowledge which lie out of 
 the common track, he was inclined to overrate the value 
 of his favourite studies. He conceived that the cultivation 
 of Persian literature might with advantage be made a part 30 
 of the liberal education of an English gentleman ; and he 
 drew up a plan with that view. It is said that the Univer- 
 sity of Oxford, in which Oriental learning had never, since 
 the revival of letters, been wholly neglected, was to be 
 the seat of the institution which he contemplated. An 
 endowment was expected from the munificence of the 
 
12 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 Company ; and professors thoroughly competent to inter- 
 pret Hafiz and Ferdusi were to be engaged in the East. 
 Hastings called on Johnson, with the hope, as it should 
 seem, of interesting in this project a man who enjoyed 
 the highest literary reputation, and who was particularly 
 connected with Oxford. The interview appears to have 
 left on Johnson's mind a most favourable impression of 
 the talents and attainments of his visitor. Long after, 
 when Hastings was ruling the immense population of 
 
 flO British India, the old philosopher wrote to him, and re- 
 ferred in the most courtly terms, though with great dignity, 
 to their short but agreeable intercourse. 
 
 Hastings soon began to look again towards India. He 
 had little to attach him to England ; and his pecuniary 
 embarrassments were great. He solicited his old masters 
 the Directors for employment. They acceded to his request, 
 with high compliments both to his abilities and to his 
 integrity, and appointed him a Member of Council at 
 Madras. It would be unjust not to mention that, though 
 
 20 forced to borrow money for his outfit, he did not withdraw 
 any portion of the sum which he had appropriated to 
 the relief of his distressed relations. In the spring of 1769 
 he embarked on board of the Duke of Grafton and com- 
 menced a voyage distinguished by incidents which might 
 furnish matter for a novel. 
 
 ) Among the passengers in the Duke of Grafton was a 
 German of the name of Imhoff. He called himself a baron ; 
 but he was in distressed circumstances, and was going out 
 to Madras as a portrait-painter, in the hope of picking 
 
 30 up some of the pagodas which were then lightly got and 
 as lightly spent by the English in India. The baron was 
 accompanied by his wife, a native, we have somewhere read, 
 of Archangel. This young woman who, born under the 
 Arctic circle, was destined to play the part of a queen 
 under the tropic of Cancer, had an agreeable person, a 
 cultivated mind, and manners in the highest degree engag- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 13 
 
 ing. She despised her husband heartily, and, as the story 
 which we have to tell sufficiently proves, not without reason. 
 She was interested by the conversation and nattered by 
 the attentions of Hastings. The situation was indeed 
 perilous. No place is so propitious to the formation either 
 of close friendships or of deadly enmities as an Indianian. 
 There are very few people who do not find a voyage which 
 lasts several months insupportably dull. Any thing is 
 welcome which may break that long monotony, a sail, a 
 shark, an albatross, a man overboard. Most passengers 10 
 find some resource in eating twice as many meals as on 
 land. But the great devices for killing the time are 
 quarrelling and flirting. The facilities for both these excit- 
 ing pursuits are great. The inmates of the ship are thrown 
 together far more than in any country-seat or boarding- 
 house. None can escape from the rest except by imprison- 
 ing himself in a cell in which he can hardly turn. All 
 food, all exercise, is taken in company. Ceremony is to a 
 great extent banished. It is every day in the power of 
 a mischievous person to inflict innumerable annoyances ; 20 
 it is every day in the power of an amiable person to confer 
 little services. It not seldom happens that serious distress 
 and danger call forth in genuine beauty and deformity 
 heroic virtues and abject vices which, in the ordinary inter- 
 course of good society, might remain during many years 
 unknown even to intimate associates. Under such circum- 
 stances met Warren Hastings and the Baroness Imhoff, 
 two persons whose accomplishments would have attracted 
 notice in any court of Europe. The gentleman had no 
 domestic ties. The lady was tied to a husband for whom 30 
 she had no regard, and who had no regard for his own 
 honour. An attachment sprang up, which was soon 
 strengthened by events such as could hardly have occurred 
 on land. Hastings fell ill. The baroness nursed him with 
 womanly tenderness, gave him his medicines with her own 
 hand, and even sat up in his cabin while he slept. Long 
 
14 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 before the Duke of Grafton reached Madras, Hastings was 
 in love. But his love was of a most characteristic descrip- 
 tion. Like his hatred, like his ambition, like all his pas- 
 sions, it was strong, but not impetuous. It was calm, deep, 
 earnest, patient of delay, unconquerable by time. Imhoflf 
 was called into council by his wife and his wife's lover. 
 It was arranged that the baroness should institute a suit 
 for a divorce in the courts of Franco nia, that the baron 
 should afford every facility to the proceeding, and that, 
 10 during the years which might elapse before the sentence 
 should be pronounced, they should continue to live together, r 
 It was also agreed that Hastings should bestow some very 
 substantial marks of gratitude on the complaisant husband, 
 and should, when the marriage was dissolved, make the 
 lady his wife, and adopt the children whom she had already 
 borne to Inihoff. "jL 
 
 { We are not inclined to judge either Hastings or the baroness 
 / severely. There was undoubtedly much to extenuate their 
 fault. But we can by no means concur with the Reverend 
 20 Mr. Gleig, who carries his partiality to so injudicious an 
 extreme as to describe the conduct of Imhoff, conduct the 
 baseness of which is the best excuse for the lovers, as " wise 
 and judicious." 
 \ At Madras, Hastings found the trade of the Company in a 
 very disorganised state. His own tastes would have led him 
 rather to political than to commercial pursuits : but he knew 
 r\ 1 that the favour of his employers depended chiefly on their 
 f dividends, and that their dividends depended chiefly on the 
 
 investment. He therefore, with great judgment, determined 
 30 to apply his vigorous mind for a time to this department of 
 business, which had been much neglected, since the servants 
 of the Company had ceased to be clerks, and had become 
 warriors and negotiators. 
 
 In a very few months he effected an important reform. 
 
 \ The Directors notified to him their high approbation, and 
 
 i/ ' were so much pleased with his conduct that they deter- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 15 
 
 mined to place him at the head of the government of 
 Bengal. Early in 1772 he quitted Fort St. George for his 
 new post. The Imhoffs, who/ were still man and wife, 
 accompanied him, and lived at/ Calcutta "on the same wise 
 and judicious plan," — we quote the words of Mr. Gleig, — 
 which they had already followed during more than two 
 years. n. 
 
 When Hastings took his seat at the head of the council- 
 board, Bengal was still governed according to the system 
 ^Vwhich Clive had devised, a system which was, perhaps, 10 
 skilfully contrived for the purpose of facilitating and con- 
 cealing a great revolution, but which, when that revolution 
 was complete and irrevocable, could produce nothing but 
 inconvenience. There were two governments, the real and 
 the ostensible. The supreme power belonged to the Com- 
 pany, and was in truth the most despotic power that can be 
 conceived. The only restraint on the English masters of the 
 country was that which their own justice and humanity 
 imposed on them. There was no constitutional check on 
 their will, and resistance to them was utterly hopeless. 20 
 
 But, though thus absolute in reality, the English had not 
 yet assumed the style of sovereignty. They held their 
 /"territories as vassals of the throne of Belhi; they raised 
 their revenues as collectors appointed by the imperial com- 
 mission ; their public seal was inscribed with the imperial 
 titles ; and their mint struck only the imperial coin. 
 
 There was still a nabob of Bengal, who stood to the 
 English rulers of his country in the same relation in which 
 Augustulus stood to Odoacer, or the last Merovingians to ^ 
 Charles Martel and Pepin. He lived at Moorshedabad, 30 
 surrounded by princely magnificence. He was approached 
 with outward marks of reverence, and his name was used in 
 public instruments. But in the government of the country 
 he had less real share than the youngest writer or cadet in o 
 the Company's service. 
 A/ / «The English council which represented the Company at 
 
^ >**: 
 
 16 \^ WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 Calcutta was constituted on a very different plan from that 
 which has since been adopted. At present the Governor is, 
 as to all executive measures, absolute. He can declare war, 
 conclude peace, appoint public functionaries or remove them, 
 in opposition to the unanimous sense of those who sit with 
 him in council. They are, indeed, entitled to know all that 
 is done, to discuss all that is done, to advise, to remonstrate, 
 to send protests to England. But it is with the Governor 
 that the supreme power resides, and on him that the whole 
 
 10 responsibility rests. This system, which was introduced by 
 Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas in spite of the strenuous opposi- 
 tion of Mr. Burke, we conceive to be on the whole the best 
 that was ever devised for the government of a country where 
 no materials can be found for a representative constitution. 
 In the time of Hastings the governor had only one vote in 
 council, and, in case of an equal division, a casting vote. It 
 therefore happened not unfrequently that he was overruled 
 on the gravest questions ; and it was possible that he might 
 be wholly excluded, for years together, from the real direc- 
 
 20 tion of public affairs. JOjiA^ 
 
 The English functionaries at Fort William had as yet paid 
 little or no attention to the internal government of Bengal. 
 The only branch of politics about which they much busied 
 themselves was negotiation with the native princes. The 
 / ~X police, the administration of justice, the details of the col- 
 lection of revenue they almost entirely neglected. We may 
 remark that the phraseology of the Company's servants still 
 bears the traces of this state of things. To this day they 
 always use the w^rd u political " as synonymous with 
 
 30 " diplomatic." We could iiame a gentleman still living 
 who was described by the highest authority as an invalu- 
 able public servant, eminently fit to be at the head of the 
 internal administration of a whole presidency, but unfor- 
 tunately quite ignorant of all political business. 
 
 The internal government of Bengal the English rulers 
 delegated to a great native minister, who was stationed at 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 17 
 
 Moorshedabad. All military affairs, and, with the exception 
 of what pertains to mere ceremonial, all foreign affairs, were 
 withdrawn from his control ; but the other departments 
 of the administration were entirely confided to him. His 
 own stipend amounted to near a hundred thousand pounds 
 sterling a year. The personal allowance of the nabobs, 
 amounting to more than three hundred thousand pounds a 
 year, passed through the minister's hands, and was, to a 
 great extent, at his disposal. The collection of the revenue, 
 the administration of justice, the maintenance of order, were 10 
 left to this high functionary ; and for the exercise of his 
 immense power he was responsible to none but the British 
 masters of the country. 
 
 A situation so important, lucrative, and splendid, was 
 ». naturally an object of ambition to the ablest and most 
 powerful natives. Clive had found it difficult to decide 
 between conflicting pretensions. Two candidates stood out 
 prominently from the crowd, each of them the representa- 
 tive of a race and of a religion. 
 
 The one was Mahommed Eeza Khan, a Mussulman of 20 
 Persian extraction, able, active, religious after the fashion 
 of his people, and highly esteemed by them. In England 
 he might perhaps have been regarded as a corrupt and 
 greedy politician. But, tried by the lower standard of 
 Indian morality, he might be considered as a man of in- 
 tegrity and honour. 
 
 ^His competitor was a Hindoo Brahmin whose name has, 
 by a terrible and melancholy event, been inseparably asso- 
 ciated with that of Warren Hastings, the Maharajah Nun- 
 comar. This man had played an important part in all the 30 
 revolutions which, since the time of Surajah Dowlah, had 
 taken place in Bengal. To the consideration which in that 
 country belongs to high and pure caste, he added the weight 
 which is derived from wealth, talents, and experience. Of 
 his moral character it is difficult to give a notion to those 
 who are acquainted with human nature only as it appears 
 
 B 
 
18 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 in our island. What the Italian is to the Englishman, what 
 the Hindoo is to the Italian, what the Bengalee is to other 
 Hindoos, that was Nuncomar to other Bengalees. The 
 physical organization of the Bengalee is feeble even to 
 effeminacy. He lives in a constant vapour bath. His pur- 
 suits are sedentary, his limbs delicate, his movements 
 languid. During many ages he has been trampled upon 
 by men of bolder and more hardy breeds. Courage, inde- 
 pendence, veracity, are qualities to which his constitution 
 
 10 and his situation are equally unfavourable. His mind bears 
 a singular analogy to his body. It is weak even to helpless- 
 ness, for purposes of manly resistance ; but its suppleness 
 and its tact move the children of sterner climates to admira- 
 tion not unmingled with contempt. All those arts which 
 are the natural defence of the weak are more familiar to this 
 subtle race than to the Ionian of the time of Juvenal, or to 
 the Jew of the dark ages. What the horns are to the 
 buffalo, what the paw is to the tiger, what the sting is to 
 the bee, what beauty, according to the old Greek song, 
 
 20 is to woman, deceit is to the Bengalee. Large promises, 
 smooth excuses, elaborate tissues of circumstantial false- 
 hood, chicanery, perjury, forgery, are the weapons, offensive 
 and defensive, of the people of the Lower Ganges. All 
 those millions do not furnish one sepoy to the armies of 
 the Company. But as usurers, as money-changers, as sharp 
 legal practitioners, no class of human beings can bear a 
 comparison with them. With all his softness, the Bengalee 
 is by no means placable in his enmities or prone to pity. 
 The pertinacity with which he adheres to his purposes yields 
 
 30 only to the immediate pressure of fear. Nor does he lack 
 a certain kind of courage which is often wanting in his 
 \ masters. To inevitable evils he is sometimes found to 
 X \ oppose a passive fortitude, such as the Stoics attributed to 
 their ideal sage. An European warrior who rushes on a 
 battery of cannon with a loud hurrah will sometimes shriek 
 under the surgeon's knife, and fall into an agony of despair 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 19 
 
 at the sentence of death. But the Bengalee who would see 
 his country overrun, his house laid in ashes, his children 
 murdered or dishonoured, without having the spirit to strike 
 one blow, has yet been known to endure torture with the 
 firmness of Mucius, and to mount the scaffold with the 
 steady step and even pulse of Algernon Sydney. 
 
 In Nuncomar, the national character was strongly and 
 with exaggeration personified. The Company's servants had 
 repeatedly detected him in the most criminal intrigues. On 
 one occasion he brought a false charge against another 10 
 Hindoo, and tried to substantiate it by producing forged 
 . documents. On another occasion it was discovered that 
 while professing the strongest attachment to the English, 
 he was engaged in several conspiracies against them, and in 
 particular that he was the medium of a correspondence 
 between the court of Delhi and the French authorities in 
 the Carnatic. For these and similar practices he had been 
 long detained in confinement. But his talents and influence 
 had not only procured his liberation, but had obtained for 
 him a certain degree of consideration even among the British 20 
 rulers of his country. 
 
 Clive was extremely unwilling to place a Mussulman at 
 the head of the administration of Bengal. On the other 
 hand, he could not bring himself to confer immense power 
 on a man to whom every sort of villany had repeatedly been 
 brought home. Therefore, though the nabob, over whom 
 Nuncomar had by intrigue acquired great influence, begged 
 that the artful Hindoo might be intrusted with the govern- 
 ment, Clive, after some hesitation, decided honestly and 
 wisely in favour of Mahommed Reza Khan, who had held 30 
 his high office seven years when Hastings became Governor. 
 An infant son of Meer Jaffier was now nabob ; and the 
 guardianship of the young prince's person had been confided 
 to the minister. 
 
 Nuncomar, stimulated at once by cupidity and malice, had 
 been constantly attempting to undermine his successful 
 
20 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 rival. This was not difficult. The revenues of Bengal, 
 under the administration established by Clive, did not yield 
 such a surplus as had been anticipated by the Company ; 
 for, at that time, the most absurd notions were entertained 
 in England respecting the wealth of India. JPalaces^ of 
 porphyry, hung with the richest brocade, heaps of pearls 
 and diamonds, vaults from which pagodas and gold mohurs 
 were measured out by the bushel, filled the imagination 
 even of men of business. Nobody seemed to be aware of 
 
 10 what nevertheless was most undoubtedly the truth, that 
 India was a poorer country than countries which in Europe 
 are reckoned poor, than Ireland, for example, or than Por- 
 tugal. It was confidently believed by lords of the treasury 
 and members for the city that Bengal would not only defray 
 its own charges, but would afford an increased dividend to 
 the proprietors of India stock, and large relief to the 
 English finances. These absurd expectations were dis- 
 appointed ; and the directors, naturally enough, chose to 
 attribute the disappointment rather to the mismanagement 
 
 20 of Mahommed Reza Khan than to their own ignorance of 
 the country intrusted to their care. They were confirmed in 
 their error by the agents of Nuncomar ; for Nuncomar had 
 agents even in Leadenhall Street. Soon after Hastings 
 reached Calcutta, he received a letter addressed by the Court 
 of Directors, not to the council generally, but to himself in 
 particular. He was directed to remove Mahommed Reza 
 Khan, to arrest him, together with all his family and all his 
 partisans, and to institute a strict inquiry into the whole 
 administration of the province. It was added that the 
 
 30 Governor would do well to avail himself of the assistance of 
 Nuncomar in the investigation. The vices of Nuncomar 
 were acknowledged. But even from his vices, it was said, 
 much advantage might at such a conjuncture be derived; 
 and, though he could not safely be trusted, it might still be 
 proper to encourage him by hopes of reward. 
 
 The Governor bore no good will to Nuncomar. Many 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 21 
 
 years before, they had known each other at Moorshedabad ; 
 and then a quarrel had risen between them which all the 
 authority of their superiors could hardly compose. "Widely 
 as they differed in most points, they resembled each other 
 in this, that both were men of unforgiving natures. To 
 Mahommed Reza Khan, on the other hand, Hastings had no 
 feelings of hostility. Nevertheless he proceeded to execute 
 the instructions of the Company with an alacrity which he 
 never showed, except when instructions were in perfect con- 
 formity with his own views. He had, wisely as we think, 10 
 determined to get rid of the system of double government in 
 Bengal. The orders of the directors furnished him with the 
 means of effecting his purpose, and dispensed him from the 
 necessity of discussing the matter with his council. He took 
 his measures with his usual vigour and dexterity. At mid- 
 night, the palace of Mahommed Reza Khan at Moorsheda- 
 bad was surrounded by a battalion of sepoys. The minister 
 was roused from his slumbers, and informed that he was a 
 prisoner. With the Mussulman gravity, he bent his head 
 and submitted himself to the will of God. He fell not 20 
 alone. A chief named Schitab Roy had been intrusted with 
 the government of Bahar. His valour and his attachment 
 to the English had more than once been signally proved. 
 On that memorable day on which the people of Patna saw 
 from their walls the whole army of the Mogul scattered by 
 the little band of Captain Knox, the voice of the British 
 conquerors assigned the palm of gallantry to the brave 
 Asiatic. " I never," said Knox, when he introduced Schitab 
 Roy, covered with blood and dust, to the English function- 
 aries assembled in the factory, " I never saw a native fight 30 
 so before." Schitab Roy was involved in the ruin of Ma- 
 hommed Reza Khan, was removed from office, and was 
 placed under arrest. The members of the council received 
 no intimation of these measures till the prisoners were on 
 their road to Calcutta. 
 
 The inquiry into the conduct of the minister was postponed 
 
22 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 on different pretences. He was detained in an easy confine- 
 ment during many months. In the mean time, the great 
 revolution which Hastings had planned was carried into 
 effect. The office of minister was abolished. The internal 
 administration was transferred to the servants of the Com- 
 pany. A system, a very imperfect system, it is true, of civil 
 and criminal justice, under English superintendence, was 
 established. The nabob was no longer to have even an 
 ostensible share in the government ; but he was still to 
 10 receive a considerable annual allowance, and to be surrounded 
 with the state of sovereignty. As he was an infant, it was 
 necessary to provide guardians for his person and property. 
 His person was intrusted to a lady of his father's haram, 
 known by the name of the Munny Begum. The office of 
 treasurer of the household was bestowed on a son of Nun- 
 comar, named Goordas. Nuncomar's services were wanted, 
 yet he could not safely be trusted with power ; and Hastings 
 thought it a masterstroke of policy to reward the able and 
 unprincipled parent by promoting the inoffensive child. 
 20 The revolution completed, the double government dis- 
 solved, the Company installed in the full sovereignty of 
 Bengal, Hastings had no motive to treat the late ministers j 
 with rigour. Their trial had been put off on various pleas \ 
 till the new organization was complete. They were then 
 brought before a committee, over which the Governor pre- V_ 
 
 . 'I sided. Schitab Roy was speedily acquitted with honour. 
 
 S A formal apology was made to him for the restraint to 
 which he had been subjected. All the Eastern marks of 
 respect were bestowed on him. He was clothed in a robe of 
 30 state, presented with jewels and with a richly harnessed 
 elephant, and sent back to his government at Patna. But 
 his health had suffered from confinement ; his high spirit 
 had been cruelly wounded ; and soon after his liberation he 
 died of a broken heart. 
 
 The innocence of Mahommed Reza Khan was not so clearly 
 established. But the Governor was not disposed to deal 
 
SL^r^"* * WARREN HAST 
 
 V V V-*Ji-'"~" w ' w ■ X l^/setTs*'^ \ 
 
 HASTINGS. 23 
 
 harshly, ^fter a long hearing, in which Nuncomar appeared 
 as the accuser, and displayed both the art and the inveterate 
 
 y\ rancour which distinguished him, Hastings pronounced that 
 
 5j the charges had not been made out, and ordered the fallen 
 minister to be set at liberty. 
 
 Nuncomar had purposed to destroy the Mussulman ad- 
 ministration, and to rise on its ruin. Both his malevolence 
 and his cupidity had been disappointed. Hastings had made 
 him a tool, had used him for the purpose of accomplishing 
 the transfer of the government from Moorshedabad to Cal- 10 
 cutta, from native to European hands. The rival, the enemy, 
 so long envied, so implacably persecuted, had been dismissed 
 unhurt. The situation so long and ardently desired had 
 
 1 been abolished. It was natural that the Governor should be 
 from that time an object of the most intense hatred to the 
 vindictive Brahmin. As yet, however, it was necessary to 
 suppress such feelings. The time was coming when that 
 long animosity was to end in a desperate and deadly struggle. 
 In the mean time, Hastings was compelled to turn his atten- 
 tion to foreign affairs. The object of his diplomacy was at this 20 
 time simply to get money. The finances of his government 
 were in an embarrassed state ; and this embarrassment he 
 was determined to relieve by some means, fair or foul. The 
 
 ^ principle which directed all his dealings with his neighbours 
 is fully expressed by the old motto of one of the great 
 predatory families of Teviotdale, "Thou shalt want ere I 
 want." He seems to have laid it down, as a fundamental 
 proposition which could not be disputed, that, when he had 
 not as many lacs of rupees as the public service required, he 
 was to take them from any body who had. One thing, 30 
 indeed, is to be said in excuse for him. The pressure applied 
 to him by his employers at home, was such as only the 
 highest virtue could have withstood, such as left him no 
 choice except to commit great wrongs, or to resign his high 
 post, and with that post all his hopes of fortune and distinc- 
 tion. The directors, it is true, never enjoined or applauded 
 
24 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 any crime. Far from it. Whoever examines their letters 
 written at that time will find there many just and humane 
 sentiments, many excellent precepts, in short, an admirable 
 code of political ethics. But every exhortation is modified 
 or nullified by a demand for money. "Govern leniently, 
 and send more money ; practise strict justice and modera- 
 tion towards neighbouring powers, and send more money ; " 
 this is in truth the sum of almost all the instructions that 
 Hastings ever received from home. Now these instructions, 
 
 10 being interpreted, mean simply, " Be the father and the 
 oppressor of the people ; be just and unjust, moderate and 
 rapacious." The directors dealt with India, as the church, in 
 the good old times, dealt with a heretic. They delivered the 
 victim over to the executioners, with an earnest request that 
 all possible tenderness might be shown. We by no means 
 accuse or suspect those who framed these despatches of 
 hypocrisy. It is probable that, writing fifteen thousand 
 miles from the place where their orders were to be carried 
 into effect, they never perceived the gross inconsistency of 
 
 20 which they were guilty. But the inconsistency was at once 
 manifest to their lieutenant at Calcutta, who, with an empty 
 treasury, with an unpaid army, with his own salary often in 
 arrear, with deficient crops, with government tenants daily 
 running away, was called upon to remit home another half 
 million without fail. Hastings saw that it was absolutely 
 necessary for him to disregard either the moral discourses or 
 the pecuniary requisitions of his employers. Being forced to 
 disobey them in something, he had to consider what kind of 
 disobedience they would most readily pardon ; and he cor- 
 
 30 rectly judged that the safest course would be to neglect the 
 sermons and to find the rupees. 
 
 A mind so fertile as his, and so little restrained by con- 
 scientious scruples, speedily discovered several modes of 
 relieving the financial embarrassments of the government. 
 The allowance of the Nabob of Bengal was reduced at a 
 stroke from three hundred and twenty thousand pounds a 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 25 
 
 year to half that sum. The Company had bound itself to ) 
 pay near three hundred thousand pounds a year to the great ^"W 
 Mogul, as a mark of homage for the provinces which he had ^ 
 intrusted to their care ; and they had ceded to him the H^JJ 
 districts of Corah and Allahabad. On the plea that the 
 Mogul was not really independent, but merely a tool in the 
 hands of others, Hastings determined to retract these con- 
 cessions. He accordingly declared that the English would 
 pay no more tribute, and sent troops to occupy Allahabad 
 and Corah. The situation of these places was such, that 10 
 there would be little advantage and great expense in retain- 
 ing them. Hastings, who wanted money and not territory, 
 determined to sell them. A purchaser was not wanting. 
 The rich province of Oude had, in the general dissolution of 
 the Mogul Empire, fallen to the share of the great Mussul- 
 man house by which it is still governed. About twenty 
 years ago, this house, by the permission of the British 
 government, assumed the royal title ; but, in the time of 
 Warren Hastings, such an assumption would have been 
 considered by the Mahommedans of India as a monstrous 20 
 impiety. The Prince of Oude, though he held the power, 
 did not venture to use the style of sovereignty. To the 
 appellation of Nabob or Viceroy, he added that of Vizier of 
 the monarchy of Hindostan, just as in the last century the 
 Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, though independent of 
 the Emperor, and often in arms against him, were proud to 
 style themselves his Grand Chamberlain and Grand Marshal. 
 Sujah Dowlah, then Nabob Vizier, was on excellent terms "»\vwv/^ 
 with the English. He had a large treasure. Allahabad and 
 Corah were so situated that they might be of use to him and 30 
 could be of none to the Company. The buyer and seller 
 soon came to an understanding ; and the provinces which 
 had been torn from the Mogul were made over to the govern-/ \*- 
 ment of Oude for about half a million sterling. 
 
 But there was another matter still more important to be 
 settled by the Vizier and the Governor. The fate of a brave 
 
26 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 people was to be decided. It was decided in a manner which 
 has left a lasting stain on the fame of Hastings and of 
 England. 
 
 The people of Central Asia had always been to the inhabi- 
 tants of India what the warriors of the German forests were 
 to the subjects of the decaying monarchy of Rome. The 
 dark, slender, and timid Hindoo shrank from a conflict with 
 the strong muscle and resolute spirit of the fair race, which 
 dwelt beyond the passes. There is reason to believe that, at 
 
 10 a period anterior to the dawn of regular history, the people 
 who spoke the rich and flexible Sanscrit came from regions 
 lying far beyond the Hyphasis and the Hystaspes, and im- -, 
 posed their yoke on the children of the soil. oLt is certain >"' 
 that, during the last ten centuries, a succession of invaders 
 descended from the west on Hindostan : nor was the course 
 of conquest ever turned back towards the setting sun, till 
 that memorable campaign in which the cross of Saint George 
 was planted on the walls of Ghizni. 
 
 The Emperors of Hindostan themselves came from the 
 
 20 other side of the great mountain ridge ; and it had always 
 been their practice to recruit their army from the hardy and 
 valiant race from which their own illustrious house sprang. 
 Among the military adventurers who were allured to the 
 Mogul standards from the neighbourhood of Cabul and Can- 
 dahar, were conspicuous several gallant bands, known by the 
 name of the Rohillas. Their services had been rewarded 
 with large tracts of land, fiefs of the spear, if we may use an 
 expression drawn from an analogous state of things, in that 
 fertile plain through which the Ramgunga flows from the 
 
 30 snowy heights of Kumaon to join the Ganges. In the 
 general confusion which followed the death of Aurungzebe, 
 the warlike colony became virtually independent. The Ro- 
 hillas were distinguished from the other inhabitants of India 
 by a peculiarly fair complexion. They were more honour- 
 ably distinguished by courage in war, and by skill in the 
 arts of peace. While anarchy raged from Lahore to Cape 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 27 
 
 Comorin, their little territory enjoyed the blessings of repose 
 under the guardianship of valour. Agriculture and com- 
 merce flourished among them ; nor were they negligent of 
 rhetoric and poetry. Many persons now living have heard 
 aged men talk with regret of the golden days when the 
 Afghan princes ruled in the vale of Rohilcund. 
 
 Sujah Dowlah had set his heart on adding this rich district 
 to his own principality. Right, or show of right, he had 
 absolutely none. His claim was in no respect better founded 
 than that of Catherine to Poland, or that of the Bonaparte 10 
 family to Spain. The Rohillas held their country by exactly 
 the same title by which he held his, and had governed their 
 country far better than his had ever been governed. Nor 
 were they a people whom it was perfectly safe to attack. 
 Their land was indeed an open plain, destitute of natural 
 defences ; but their veins were full of the high blood of 
 Afghanistan. As soldiers, they had not the steadiness which 
 is seldom found except in company with strict discipline ; 
 but their impetuous valour had been proved on many fields 
 of battle. It was said that their chiefs, when united by 20 
 common peril, could bring eighty thousand men into the 
 field. Sujah Dowlah had himself seen them fight, and wisely 
 shrank from a conflict with them. There was in India one 
 army, and only one, against which even those proud Cau- 
 casian tribes could not stand. It had been abundantly 
 proved that neither tenfold odds, nor the martial ardour 
 of the boldest Asiatic nations, could avail aught against 
 English science and resolution. XWas it possible to induce 
 the Governor of Bengal to let out to hire the irresistible 
 energies of the imperial people, the skill against which the 30 
 ablest chiefs of Hindostan were helpless as infants, the dis- 
 cipline which had so often triumphed over the frantic 
 struggles of fanaticism and despair, the unconquerable 
 British courage which is never so sedate and stubborn as 
 towards the close of a doubtful and murderous day ? 
 
 This was what the Nabob Yizier asked, and what Hastings 
 
28 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 granted. A bargain was soon struck. Each of the negoti- 
 ators had what the other wanted. Hastings was in need of 
 funds to carry on the government of Bengal, and to send 
 remittances to London; and Sujah Dowlah had an ample 
 revenue. Sujah Dowlah was bent on subjugating the Ro- 
 hillas ; and Hastings had at his disposal the only force by 
 which the Rohillas could be subjugated. It was agreed that 
 an English army should be lent to the Nabob Vizier, and 
 that, for the loan, he should pay four hundred thousand 
 
 10 pounds sterling, besides defraying all the charge of the troops 
 while employed in his service. 
 
 " I really cannot see," says the Reverend Mr. Gleig, " upon 
 what grounds, either of political or moral justice, this propo- 
 sition deserves to be stigmatized as infamous." If we under- 
 stand the meaning of words, it is infamous to commit a 
 wicked action for hire, and it is wicked to engage in war 
 without provocation. In this particular war, scarcely one 
 aggravating circumstance was wanting. The object of the 
 Rohilla war was this, to deprive a large population, who had 
 
 20 never done us the least harm, of a good government, and to 
 place them, against their will, under an execrably bad one. 
 Nay, even this is not all. England now descended far below 
 the level even of those petty German princes who, about the 
 same time, sold us troops to fight the Americans. The hussar- 
 mongers of Hesse and Anspach had at least the assurance 
 that the expeditions on which their soldiers were to be em- 
 ployed would be conducted in conformity with the humane 
 rules of civilised warfare. Was the Rohilla war likely to be 
 so conducted ? &id the Governor stipulate that it should be 
 
 30 so conducted ? He well knew what Indian warfare was. He 
 well knew that the power which he covenanted to put into 
 Sujah Dowlah's hands would, in all probability, be atrociously 
 abused ; and he required no guarantee, no promise that it 
 should not be so abused. He did not even reserve to himself 
 the right of withdrawing his aid in case of abuse, however 
 gross. Mr. Gleig repeats Major Scott's absurd plea, that 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 29 
 
 Hastings was justified in letting out English troops to 
 slaughter the Rohillas, because the Rohillas were not of 
 Jfii<5an race, but a colony from a distant country, ^What 
 were the English themselves ? $Vas it for them to proclaim 
 a crusade for the expulsion of all intruders from the countries 
 watered by the Ganges 1 f)id it lie in their mouths to con- 
 tend that a foreign settler who establishes an empire in India 
 is a caput lupinum? ^Vhat would they have said if any 
 other power had, on such a ground, attacked Madras or 
 Calcutta, without the slightest provocation ? Such a defence 10 
 was wanting to make the infamy of the transaction com- r\ J 
 plete. The atrocity of the crime, and the hypocrisy of the 
 apology, are worthy of each other. V^ 
 
 One of the three brigades of which the Bengal army con- 
 sisted was sent under Colonel Champion to join Sujah 
 Dowlah's forces. The Rohillas expostulated, entreated, 
 offered a large ransom, but in vain. They then resolved 
 to defend themselves to the last. A bloody battle was 
 fought. " The enemy," says Colonel Champion, " gave proof 
 of a good share of military knowledge ; and it is impossible 20 
 to describe a more obstinate firmness of resolution than they 
 displayed." The dastardly sovereign of Oude fled from the 
 field. The English were left unsupported ; but their fire 
 and their charge were irresistible. It was not, however, till 
 the most distinguished chiefs had fallen, fighting bravely at 
 the head of their troops, that the Rohilla ranks gave way. 
 Then the Nabob Vizier and his rabble made their appear- 
 ance, and hastened to plunder the camp of the valiant 
 enemies, whom they had never dared to look in the face. 
 The soldiers of the Company, trained in an exact discipline, 30 
 kept unbroken order, while the tents were pillaged by these 
 worthless allies. But many voices were heard to exclaim, 
 " We have had all the fighting, and those rogues are to have 
 all the profit." 
 
 Then the horrors of Indian war were let loose on the fair 
 valleys and cities of Rohilcund. The whole country was in 
 
30 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 a blaze. More than a hundred thousand people fled from 
 their homes to pestilential jungles, preferring famine, and 
 fever, and the haunts of tigers, to the tyranny of him, to 
 whom an English and a Christian government had, for 
 shameful lucre, sold their substance, and their blood, and 
 the honour of their wives and daughters. Colonel Champion 
 remonstrated with the Nabob Vizier, and sent strong repre- 
 sentations to Fort "William ; but the Governor had made no 
 conditions as to the mode in which the war was to be carried 
 
 10 on. He had troubled himself about nothing but his forty 
 lacs ; and, though he might disapprove of Sujah Dowlah's 
 wanton barbarity, he did not think himself entitled to inter- 
 fere, except by offering advice. This delicacy excites the 
 admiration of the reverend biographer. "Mr. Hastings," 
 he says, " could not himself dictate to the Nabob, nor permit 
 the commander of the Company's troops to dictate how the 
 war was to be carried on.". No, to be sure. Mr. Hastings 
 had only to put down by main force the brave struggles of 
 innocent men fighting for their liberty. Their military 
 
 20 resistance crushed, his duties ended ; and he had then only 
 to fold his arms and look on, while their villages were 
 burned, their children butchered, and their women violated. 
 /Wil l Mr. Gleig seriously maintain this opinion % "/Is any 
 rule more plain than this, that whoever voluntarily gives to 
 another irresistible power over human beings, is bound to 
 take order that such power shall not be barbarously abused ? 
 But we beg pardon of our readers for arguing a point so 
 clear. 
 
 We hasten to the end of this sad and disgraceful story. 
 
 30 The war ceased. The finest population in India was sub- 
 jected to a greedy, cowardly, cruel tyrant. Commerce and 
 agriculture languished. The rich province which had 
 tempted the cupidity of Sujah Dowlah became the most 
 miserable part even of his miserable dominions. Yet is the 
 injured nation not extinct. At long intervals gleams of its 
 ancient spirit have flashed forth ; and even at this day, 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 31 
 
 valour, and self-respect, and a chivalrous feeling rare among 
 Asiatics, and a bitter remembrance of the great crime of 
 England, distinguish that noble Afghan race. To this day 
 they are regarded as the best of all sepoys at the cold steel ; 
 and it was very recently remarked, by one who had enjoyed 
 great opportunities of observation, that the only natives of 
 India to whom the word " gentleman " can with perfect pro- 
 priety be applied are to be found among the Rohillas. 
 
 Whatever we may think of the morality of Hastings, it 
 cannot be denied that the financial results of his policy did 1G 
 honour to his talents. In less than two years after he 
 assumed the government, he had, without imposing any 
 additional burdens on the people subject to his authority, 
 added about four hundred and fifty thousand pounds to the 
 annual income of the Company, besides procuring about a 
 million in ready money. He had also relieved the finances 
 of Bengal from military expenditure, amounting to near a 
 quarter of a million a year, and had thrown that charge on 
 the Nabob of Oude. There can be no doubt that this was a 
 result which, if it had been obtained by honest means, would 20 
 have entitled him to the warmest gratitude of his country, 
 and which, by whatever means obtained, proved that he 
 possessed great talents for administration. 
 
 In the mean time, Parliament had been engaged in long 
 and grave discussions on Asiatic affojrs. The ministry of 
 Lord North, in the session of 1773, introduced a measure 
 which made a considerable change in the constitution of the 
 Indian government. This law, known by the name of the 
 Regulating Act, provided that the presidency of Bengal 
 should exercise a control over the other possessions of the 30 
 Company ; that the chief of that presidency should be styled 
 Governor-General ; that he should be assisted by four Coun- 
 cillors ; and that a supreme court of judicature, consisting of 
 a chief justice and three inferior judges, should be estab- 
 lished at Calcutta. This court was made independent of the 
 Governor-General and Council, and was intrusted with a 
 
32 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 civil and criminal jurisdiction of immense, and, at the same 
 time, of undefined extent. 
 
 The Governor-General and Councillors were named in 
 the act, and were to hold their situations for five years. 
 Hastings was to be the first Governor-General. One of the 
 four new Councillors, Mr. Barwell, an experienced servant 
 of the Company, was then in India. The other three, 
 General Clavering, Mr. Monson, and Mr. Francis, were sent 
 out from England. 
 
 10 The ablest of the new Councillors was, beyond all doubt, 
 Philip Francis. His acknowledged compositions prove that 
 he possessed considerable eloquence and information. Several 
 years passed in the public offices had formed him to habits 
 of business. His enemies have never denied that he had a 
 fearless and manly spirit ; and his friends, we are afraid, 
 must acknowledge that his estimate of himself was extrava- 
 gantly high, that his temper was irritable, that his deport- 
 ment was often rude and petulant, and that his hatred was 
 of intense bitterness and of long duration. 
 
 20 It is scarcely possible to mention this eminent man with- 
 out adverting for a moment to the question which his name 
 at once suggests to every mind. Was he the author of the 
 Letters of Junius ? Our own firm* belief is that he was. 
 The evidence is, we think, such as would support a verdict 
 in a civil, nay, in a criminal proceeding. The handwriting 
 of Junius is the very peculiar handwriting of Francis, 
 slightly disguised. As to the position, pursuits, and con- 
 nections of Junius, the following are the most important 
 facts which can be considered as clearly proved : first, that 
 
 30 he was acquainted with the technical forms of the secretary 
 of state's office ; secondly, that he was intimately acquainted 
 with the business of the war-office ; thirdly, that he, during 
 the year 1770, attended debates in the House of Lords, and 
 took notes of speeches, particularly of the speeches of Lord 
 Chatham ; fourthly, that he bitterly resented the appoint- 
 ment of Mr. Chamier to the place of deputy secretary-at- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 33 
 
 war ; fifthly, that he was bound by some strong tie to the 
 first Lord Holland. Now, Francis passed some years in the 
 secretary of state's office. He was subsequently chief clerk 
 of the war-office. He repeatedly mentioned that he had 
 himself, in 1770, heard speeches of Lord Chatham ; and 
 some of these speeches were actually printed from his notes. 
 He resigned his clerkship at the war-office from resentment 
 at the appointment of Mr. Chamier. It was by Lord 
 Holland that he was first introduced into the public service. 
 Now, here are five marks, all of which ought to be found in ip 
 Junius. They are all five found in Francis. We do not 
 believe that more than two of them can be found in any 
 other person whatever. If this argument does not settle the 
 question, there is an end of all reasoning on circumstantial, 
 evidence. ' 
 
 The internal evidence seems to us to point the same way. ^^ 
 The style of Francis bears a strong resemblance to that of 
 Junius ; nor are we disposed to admit, what is generally 
 taken for granted, that the acknowledged compositions of 
 Francis are very decidedly inferior to the anonymous letters. 20 
 The argument from inferiority, at all events, is one which 
 may be urged with at least equal force against every claimant 
 that has ever been mentioned, with the single exception of 
 Burke ; and it would be a waste of time to prove that Burke 
 was not Junius, ^nd what conclusion, after all, can be 
 drawn from mere inferiority % Every writer must produce 
 his best work ; and the interval between his best work and 
 his second best work may be very wide indeed. Nobody 
 will say that the best letters of Junius are more decidedly 
 superior to the acknowledged works of Francis than three 30 
 or four of Corneille's tragedies to the rest, than three or 
 four of Ben Jonson's comedies to the rest, than the Pilgrim's 
 Progress to the other works of Bunyan, than Don Quixote 
 to the other works of Cervantes. Nay, it is certain that 
 the Man in the Mask, whoever he may have been, was 
 a most unequal writer. To go no further than the letters • 
 
 o 
 
34 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 which bear the signature of Junius ; the letter to the 
 king, and the letters to Home Tooke, have little in com- 
 mon, except the asperity ; and asperity was an ingredient 
 seldom wanting either in the writings or in the speeches of 
 Francis. 
 
 Indeed one of the strongest reasons for believing that 
 Francis was Junius is the moral resemblance between the 
 two men. It is not difficult, from the letters which, under 
 various signatures, are known to have been written by 
 
 10 Junius, and from his dealings with Woodfall and others, to 
 form a tolerably correct notion of his character. He was 
 clearly a man not destitute of real patriotism and magna- 
 nimity, a man whose vices were not of a sordid kind. But 
 he must also have been a man in the highest degree arrogant 
 and insolent, a man prone to malevolence, and prone to the 
 error of mistaking his malevolence for public virtue. "Doest - 
 thou well to be angry ? " was the question asked in old time 
 of the Hebrew prophet. And he answered, " I do well." 
 This was evidently the temper of Junius ; and to this cause 
 
 20 we attribute the savage cruelty which disgraces several of 
 his letters. No man is so merciless as he who, under a 
 strong self-delusion, confounds his antipathies with his 
 duties. It may be added that Junius, though allied with 
 the democratic party by common enmities, was the very 
 opposite of a democratic politician. While attacking in- 
 dividuals with a ferocity which perpetually violated all the 
 laws of literary warfare, he regarded the most defective 
 parts of old institutions with a respect amounting to 
 pedantry, pleaded the cause of Old Sarum with fervour, 
 
 30 and contemptuously told the capitalists of Manchester and 
 Leeds that, if they wanted votes, they might buy land and 
 become freeholders of Lancashire and Yorkshire. All this, 
 we believe, might stand, with scarcely any change, for a 
 character of Philip Francis. 
 
 It is not strange that the great anonymous writer should 
 have been willing at that time to leave the country which 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 35 
 
 had been so powerfully stirred by his eloquence. Every 
 thing had gone against him. That party which he clearly 
 preferred to every other, the party of George Grenville, had 
 been scattered by the death of its chief ; and Lord Suffolk 
 had led the greater part of it over to the ministerial benches. 
 The ferment produced by the Middlesex election had gone 
 down. Every faction must have been alike an object of l 
 aversion to Junius. His opinions on domestic affairs separ- 
 ated him from the ministry ; his opinions on colonial affairs 
 from the opposition. Under such circumstances, he had 10 
 thrown down his pen in misanthropical despair. His fare- 
 well letter to Woodfall bears date the nineteenth of January, 
 1773. In that letter, he declared that he must be an idiot to 
 write again ; that he had meant well by the cause and the 
 public ; that both were given up ; that there were not ten 
 men who would act steadily together on any question. "But 
 it is all alike," he added, " vile and contemptible. You have 
 never flinched that I know of ; and I shall always rejoice 
 to hear of your prosperity." These were the last words of 
 Junius. In a year from that time, Philip Francis was on his 20 
 voyage to Bengal. \ /Os^cy*/™ 
 
 With the three new Councillors came out the judges of the 
 Supreme Court. The chief justice was Sir Elijah Impey. 
 He was an old acquaintance of Hastings ; and it is probable 
 that the Governor-General, if he had searched through all 
 the inns of court, could not have found an equally service- 
 able tool. But the members of Council were by no means in 
 an obsequious mood. Hastings greatly disliked the new 
 form of government, and had no very high opinion of his 
 coadjutors. They had heard of this, and were disposed to be 30 
 suspicious and punctilious. When men are in such a frame 
 of mind, any trifle is sufficient to give occasion for dispute. 
 The members of Council expected a salute of twenty-one 
 guns from the batteries of Fort William. Hastings allowed 
 them only seventeen. They landed in ill-humour. The first 
 civilities were exchanged with cold reserve. On the morrow 
 
 A 
 
36 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 commenced that long quarrel which, after distracting British 
 India, was renewed in England, and in which all the most 
 eminent statesmen and orators of the age took active part on 
 one or the other side. 
 
 Hastings was supported by Barwell. They had not al- 
 ways been friends. But the arrival of the new members of 
 Council from England naturally had the effect of uniting 
 the old servants of the Company. Clavering, Monson, and 
 Francis formed the majority. They instantly wrested the 
 
 10 government out of the hands of Hastings ; condemned, 
 certainly not without justice, his late dealings with the 
 Nabob Vizier ; recalled the English agent from Oude, and 
 sent thither a creature of their own ; ordered the brigade 
 which had conquered the unhappy Rohillas to return to the 
 Company's territories ; and instituted a severe inquiry into 
 the conduct of the war. Next, in spite of the Govern or- 
 General's remonstrances, they proceeded to exercise, in the 
 most indiscreet manner, their new authority over the sub- 
 ordinate presidencies ; threw all the affairs of Bombay into 
 
 20 confusion ; and interfered, with an incredible union of rash- 
 ness and feebleness, in the intestine disputes of the Mahratta 
 government. At the same time, they fell on the internal 
 administration of Bengal, and attacked the whole fiscal and 
 judicial system, a system which was undoubtedly defective, 
 but which it was very improbable that gentlemen fresh from 
 England would be competent to amend. The effect of their 
 reforms was that all protection to life and property was 
 withdrawn, and that gangs of robbers plundered and 
 slaughtered with impunity in the very suburbs of Calcutta. 
 
 30 Hastings continued to live in the Government-house, and to 
 draw the salary of Governor-General. He continued even 
 to take the lead at the council-board in the transaction of 
 ordinary business ; for his opponents could not but feel that 
 he knew much of which they were ignorant, and that he 
 decided, both surely and speedily, many questions which to 
 them would have been hopelessly puzzling. But the higher 
 

 WARREN HASTINGS. 37 
 
 powers of government and the most valuable patronage had y 
 been taken from him. ^^ 
 
 The natives soon found this out. They considered him as "7 f/ " 
 a fallen man ; and they acted after their kind. Some of our 
 readers may have seen, in India, a cloud of crows pecking a 
 sick vulture to death, no bad type of what happens in that 
 country, as often as fortune deserts one who has been great 
 and dreaded. In an instant, all the sycophants who had 
 lately been ready to lie for him, to forge for him, to pandar 
 for him, to poison for him, hasten to purchase the favour 10 
 of his victorious enemies by accusing him. An Indian 
 government has only to let it be understood that it wishes 
 a particular man to be ruined ; and, in twenty -four hours, 
 it will be furnished with grave charges, supported by de- 
 positions so full and circumstantial that any person unaccus- 
 tomed to Asiatic mendacity would regard them as decisive. 
 It is well if the signature of the destined victim is not 
 counterfeited at the foot of some illegal compact, and if 
 some treasonable paper is not slipped into a hiding-place 
 in his house. Hastings was now regarded as helpless. The 20 
 power to make or mar the fortune of every man in Bengal 
 had passed, as it seemed, into the hands of the new Coun- 
 cillors. Immediately charges against the Governor-General 
 began to pour in. They were eagerly welcomed by the 
 majority, who, to do them justice, were men of too much 
 honour knowingly to countenance false accusations, but who 
 were not sufficiently acquainted with the East to be aware 
 that, in that part of the world, a very little encouragement 
 from power will call forth, in a week, more Oateses, and 
 Bedloes, and Dangerfields, than Westminster Hall sees in a 30 
 century. 
 
 It would have been strange indeed if, at such a juncture, 
 Nuncomar had remained quiet. That bad man was stimu- 
 lated at once by malignity, by avarice, and by ambition. 
 Now was the time to be avenged on his old enemy, to wreak 
 a grudge of seventeen years, to establish himself in the 
 
38 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 favour of the majority of the Council, to become the greatest 
 native in Bengal. From the time of the arrival of the new 
 Councillors, he had paid the most marked court to them, and 
 had in consequence been excluded, with all indignity, from 
 the Government-house. He now put into the hands of 
 Francis, with great ceremony, a paper containing several 
 charges of the most serious description. By this document 
 Hastings was accused of putting offices up to sale, and of 
 receiving bribes for suffering offenders to escape. In par- 
 
 10 ticular, it was alleged that Mahommed Reza Khan had been 
 dismissed with impunity, in consideration of a great sum 
 paid to the Governor- General. 
 
 Francis read the paper in Council. A violent altercation 
 followed. Hastings complained in bitter terms of the way 
 in which he was treated, spoke with contempt of Nuncomar 
 and of Nuncomar's accusation, and denied the right of the 
 Council to sit in judgment on the Governor. At the next 
 meeting of the Board, another communication from Nun- 
 comar was produced. He requested that he might be 
 
 20 permitted to attend the Council, and that he might be heard 
 in support of his assertions. Another tempestuous debate 
 took place. The Governor-General maintained that the 
 council-room was not a proper place for such an investiga- 
 tion ; that from persons who were heated by daily conflict 
 with him he could not expect the fairness of judges ; and 
 that he could not, without betraying the dignity of his post, 
 submit to be confronted with such a man as Nuncomar. 
 The majority, however, resolved to go into the charges. 
 Hastings rose, declared the sitting at an end, and left the 
 
 30 room followed by Barwell. The other members kept their 
 seats, voted themselves a council, put Clavering in the chair, 
 and ordered Nuncomar to be called in. Nuncomar not only 
 adhered to the original charges, but, after the fashion of the 
 East, produced a large supplement. He stated that Hast- 
 ings had received a great sum for appointing Rajah Goordas 
 treasurer of the Nabob's household, and for committing the 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 39 
 
 care of his Highness's person to the Munny Begum. He 
 put in a letter purporting to bear the seal of the Munny 
 Begum, for the purpose of establishing the truth of his 
 story. The seal, whether forged, as Hastings affirmed, or 
 genuine, as we are rather inclined to believe, proved nothing, 
 Nuncomar, as every body knows who knows India, had only 
 to tell the Munny Begum that such a letter would give 
 pleasure to the majority of the Council, in order to procure 
 her attestation. The majority, however, voted that the 
 charge was made out ; that Hastings had corruptly received 10 
 between thirty and forty thousand pounds ; and that he 
 ought to be compelled to refund. 
 
 The general feeling among the English in Bengal was 
 strongly in favour of the Governor-General. In talents 
 for business, in knowledge of the country, in general 
 courtesy of demeanour, he was decidedly superior to his 
 persecutors. The servants of the Company were naturally 
 disposed to side with the most distinguished member of 
 their own body against a clerk from the war-office, who, 
 profoundly ignorant of the native languages and the native 20 
 character, took on himself to regulate every department 
 of the administration. Hastings, however, in spite of the 
 general sympathy of his countrymen, was in a most painful 
 situation. There was still an appeal to higher authority 
 in England. If that authority took part with his enemies, 
 nothing was left to him but to throw up his office. He 
 accordingly placed his resignation in the hands of his agent 
 in London, Colonel Macleane. But Macleane was instructed 
 not to produce the resignation, unless it should be fully 
 ascertained that the feeling at the India House was adverse 30 
 to the Governor-General. 
 
 The triumph of Nuncomar seemed to be complete. He 
 held a daily levee, to which his countrymen resorted in 
 crowds, and to which, on one occasion, the majority of the 
 Council condescended to repair. His house was an office 
 for the purpose of receiving charges against the Governor- 
 
40 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 General. It was said that, partly by threats, and partly 
 by w heed ling, the villanous Brahmin had induced many of \J* 
 the wealthiest men of the province to send in complaints. 
 But he was playing a perilous game. It was not safe to 
 drive to despair a man of such re sour ces and of such deter- 
 mination as Hastings. Nuncomar, with all his acuteness, 
 did not understand the nature of the institutions under 
 which he lived. He saw that he had with him the majority 
 of the body which made treaties, gave places, raised taxes. 
 
 10 The separation between political and judicial functions was a 
 thing of which he had no conception. It had probably 
 never occurred to him that there was in Bengal an authority 
 perfectly independent of the Council, an authority which 
 could protect one whom the Council wished to destroy, 
 and send to the gibbet one whom the Council wished to 
 protect. Yet such was the fact. The Supreme Court was, 
 within the sphere of its own duties, altogether independent 
 of the Government. Hastings, with his usual sagacity, had 
 seen how much advantage he might derive from possessing^ 
 
 20 himself of this stronghold ; and he had acted accordingly. 
 The Judges, especially the Chief Justice, were hostile to the 
 majority of the Council. The time had now come for putting 
 this formidable machinery into action. 
 
 On a sudden, Calcutta was astounded by the news that Nun- 
 comar had been taken up on a charge of felony, committed, 
 and thrown into the common gaol. The crime imputed to 
 him was that six years before he had forged a bond. The 
 ostensible prosecutor was a native. But it was then, and 
 still is, the opinion of every body, idiots and biographers 
 
 30 excepted, that Hastings was the real mover in the business. 
 The rage of the majority rose to the highest point. They 
 protested against the proceedings of the Supreme Court, and 
 sent several urgent messages to the Judges, demanding that 
 Nuncomar should be admitted to bail. The Judges returned 
 haughty and resolute answers. All that the Council could 
 do was to heap honours and emoluments on the family of 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 41 
 
 Nuncomar ; and this they did. In the mean time the assizes 
 commenced ; a true bill was found ; and Nuncomar was 
 brought before Sir Elijah Impey and a jury composed of 
 Englishmen. A great quantity of contradictory swearing, 
 and the necessity of having every word of the evidence 
 interpreted, protracted the trial to a most unusual length. 
 At last a verdict of guilty was returned, and the Chief 
 Justice pronounced sentence of death on the prisoner. 
 
 Mr. Gleig is so strangely ignorant as to imagine that the 
 judges had no further discretion in the case, and that the 10 
 power of extending mercy to Nuncomar resided with the 
 Council. He therefore throws on Francis and Francis's party 
 the whole blame of what followed. We should have thought 
 that a gentleman who has published five or six bulky volumes 
 on Indian affairs might have taken the trouble to inform 
 himself as to the fundamental principles of the Indian 
 Government. The Supreme Court had, under the Regulating 
 Act, the power to respite criminals till the pleasure of the 
 Crown should be known. The Council had, at that time, no 
 power to interfere. 20 
 
 That Impey ought to have respited Nuncomar we hold to 
 be perfectly clear. Whether the whole proceeding was not 
 illegal, is a question. But it is certain that, whatever may 
 have been, according to technical rules of construction, the 
 effect of the statute under which the trial took place, it was 
 most unjust to hang a Hindoo for forgery. The law which 
 made forgery capital in England was passed without the 
 smallest reference to the state of society in India. It was 
 unknown to the natives of India. It had never been put in 
 execution among them, certainly not for want of delinquents. 30 
 It was in the highest degree shocking to all their notions. 
 They were not accustomed to the distinction which many 
 circumstances, peculiar to our own state of society, have led 
 us to make between forgery and other kinds of cheating. 
 The counterfeiting of a seal was, in their estimation, a 
 common act of swindling ; nor had it ever crossed their 
 
42 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 minds that it was to be punished as severely as gang- 
 robbery or assassination. A just judge would, beyond all 
 doubt, have reserved the case for the consideration of the 
 sovereign. But Impey would not hear of mercy or delay. 
 
 The excitement among all classes was great. Francis and 
 Francis's few English adherents described the Governor- 
 General and the Chief Justice as the worst of murderers. 
 Clavering, it was said, swore that, even at the foot of the 
 gallows, Nuncomar should be rescued. The bulk of the 
 
 10 European society, though strongly attached to the Governor- 
 General, could not but feel compassion for a man who, with 
 all his crimes, had so long filled so large a space in their 
 sight, who had been great and powerful before the British 
 empire in India began to exist, and to whom, in the old 
 times, governors and members of council, then mere com- 
 mercial factors, had paid court for protection. The feeling 
 of the Hindoos was infinitely stronger. They were, indeed, 
 not a people to strike one blow for their countryman. But 
 his sentence filled them with sorrow and dismay. Tried even 
 
 20 by their low standard of morality, he was a bad man. But, 
 bad as he was, he was the head of their race and religion, a 
 Brahmin of the Brahmins. He had inherited the purest and 
 highest caste. He had practised with the greatest punctuality 
 all those ceremonies to which the superstitious Bengalees 
 ascribe far more importance than to the correct discharge of 
 the social duties. They felt, therefore, as a devout Catholic 
 in the dark ages would have felt, at seeing a prelate of the 
 highest dignity sent to the gallows by a secular tribunal. 
 According to their old national laws, a Brahmin could not be 
 
 30 put to death for any crime whatever. And the crime for 
 which Nuncomar was about to die was regarded by them in 
 much the same light in which the selling of an. unsound horse, 
 for a sound price, is regarded by a Yorkshire jockey. 
 
 The Mussulmans alone appear to have seen with exultation 
 the fate of the powerful Hindoo, who had attempted to rise 
 by means of the ruin of Mahommed Reza Khan. The 
 

 WARREN HASTINGS. 43 
 
 Maliommedan historian of those times takes delight in 
 aggravating the charge. He assures us that in Nuncomar's 
 house a casket was found containing counterfeits of the seals 
 of all the richest men of the province. We have never fallen 
 in with any other authority for this story, which in itself is 
 by no means improbable. 
 
 The day drew near ; and Nuncomar prepared himself to 
 die with that quiet fortitude with which the Bengalee, so 
 effeminately timid in personal conflict, often encounters 
 calamities for which there is no remedy. The sheriff, with 10 
 the humanity which is seldom wanting in an English gentle- 
 man, visited the prisoner on the eve of the execution, and 
 assured him that no indulgence, consistent with the law, 
 should be refused to him. Nuncomar expressed his grati- 
 tude with great politeness and unaltered composure. Not 
 a muscle of his face moved. Not a sigh broke from him. 
 He put his finger to his forehead, and calmly said that fate 
 would have its way, and that there was no resisting the 
 pleasure of God. He sent his compliments to Francis, 
 Clavering, and Monson, and charged them to protect Rajah 20 
 Goordas, who was about to become the head of the Brahmins 
 of Bengal. The sheriff withdrew, greatly agitated by what 
 had passed, and Nuncomar sat composedly down to write 
 notes and examine accounts. 
 
 4^ The next morning, before the sun was in his power, an 
 immense concourse assembled round the place where the 
 gallows had been set up. Grief and horror were on every 
 face ; yet to the last the multitude could hardly believe that 
 the English really purposed to take the life of the great 
 Brahmin. At length the mournful procession came through 30 
 the crowd. Nuncomar sat up in his palanquin, and looked 
 round him with unaltered serenity. He had just parted 
 from those who were most nearly connected with him. 
 Their cries and contortions had appalled the European 
 ministers of justice, but had not produced the smallest 
 effect on the iron stoicism of the prisoner. The only anxiety 
 
44 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 which he expressed was that men of his own priestly caste 
 might be in attendance to take charge of his corpse. He 
 again desired to be remembered to his friends in the Council, 
 mounted the scaffold with firmness, and gave the signal to 
 the executioner. The moment that the drop fell, a howl of 
 sorrow and despair rose from the innumerable spectators. 
 Hundreds turned away their faces from the polluting sight, 
 fled with loud wailings towards the Hoogley, and plunged 
 into its holy waters, as if to purify themselves from the guilt 
 
 10 of having looked on such a crime. These feelings were not 
 confined to Calcutta. The whole province was greatly ex- 
 cited ; and the population of Dacca, in particular, gave strong 
 signs of grief and dismay. 
 
 Of Impey's conduct it is impos3ible to speak too severely. 
 We have already said that, in our opinion, he acted unjustly 
 in refusing to respite Nuncomar. No rational man can doubt 
 that he took this course in order to gratify the Governor- 
 General. If we had ever had any doubts on that point, they 
 would have been dispelled by a letter which Mr. Gleig has 
 
 20 published. Hastings, three or four years later, described 
 Impey as the man "to whose support he was at one time 
 indebted for the safety of his fortune, honour, and reputa- 
 tion." These strong words can refer only to the case of 
 Nuncomar ; and they must mean that Impey hanged Nun- 
 comar in order to support Hastings. It is, therefore, our 
 deliberate opinion that Impey, sitting as a judge, put a man 
 unjustly to death in order to serve a political purpose. 
 
 But we look on the conduct of Hastings in a somewhat 
 different light. He was struggling for fortune, honour, 
 
 30 liberty, all that makes life valuable. He was beset by 
 rancorous and unprincipled enemies. From his colleagues 
 he could expect no justice. He cannot be blamed for wish- 
 ing to crush his accusers. He was indeed bound to use only 
 legitimate means for that end. But it was not strange that 
 he should have thought any means legitimate which were 
 pronounced legitimate by the sages of the law, by men whose 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 45 
 
 peculiar duty it was to deal justly between adversaries, and 
 whose education might be supposed to have peculiarly quali- 
 fied them for the discharge of that duty. Nobody demands 
 from a party the unbending equity of a judge. The reason 
 that judges are appointed is, that even a good man cannot be 
 trusted to decide a cause in which he is himself concerned. 
 Not a day passes on which an honest prosecutor does not ask 
 for what none but a dishonest tribunal would grant. It is 
 too much to expect that any man, when his dearest interests 
 are at stake, and his strongest passions excited, will, as 10 
 against himself, be more just than the sworn dispensers of 
 justice. To take an analogous case from the history of our 
 own island : suppose that Lord Stafford, when in the Tower 
 on suspicion of being concerned in the Popish plot, had been 
 apprised that Titus Oates had done something which might, 
 by a questionable construction, be brought under the head of 
 felony. « {Should we severely blame Lord Stafford, in the sup- 
 posed case, for causing a prosecution to be instituted, for fur- 
 nishing funds, for using all his influence to intercept the 
 mercy of the Crown 1 We think not. If a judge, indeed, 20 
 from favour to the Catholic lords, were to strain the law in 
 order to hang Oates, such a judge would richly deserve im- 
 peachment. But it does not appear to us that the Catholic 
 lord, by bringing the case before the judge for decision, would 
 materially overstep the limits of a just self-defence. 
 
 While, therefore, we have not the least doubt that this 
 memorable execution is to be attributed to Hastings, we 
 doubt whether it can with justice be reckoned among his 
 crimes. That his conduct was dictated by a profound policy 
 is evident. He was in a minority in Council. It was possible 30 
 that he might long be in a minority. He knew the native 
 character well. He knew in what abundance accusations are 
 certain to flow in against the most innocent inhabitant of 
 India who is under the frown of power. There was not in 
 the whole black population of Bengal a place-holder, a place- 
 hunter, a government tenant, who did not think that he 
 
46 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 might better himself by sending up a deposition against the 
 Governor-General. Under these circumstances, the persecuted 
 statesman resolved to teach the whole crew of accusers and 
 witnesses that, though in a minority at the council board, he 
 was still to be feared. The lesson which he gave them was 
 indeed a lesson not to be forgotten. [The head of the com- 
 bination which had been formed against him, the richest, the 
 most powerful, the most artful of the Hindoos, distinguished 
 by the favour of those who then held the government, fenced 
 
 10 round by the superstitious reverence of millions, was hanged 
 in broad day before many thousands of people. Every thing 
 that could make the warning impressive, dignity in the 
 sufferer, solemnity in the proceeding, was found in this case. 
 The helpless rage and vain struggles of the Council made the 
 triumph more signal. From that moment the conviction of 
 every native was that it was safer to take the part of 
 Hastings in a minority than that of Francis in a majority, 
 and that he who was so venturous as to join in running down 
 the Governor-General might chance, in the phrase of the 
 
 20 Eastern poet, to find a tiger, while beating the jungle for 
 a deer. The voices of a thousand informers were silenced in 
 an instant. From that time, whatever difficulties Hastings 
 might have to encounter, he was never molested by accusa- 
 tions from natives of India. 
 
 It is a remarkable circumstance that one of the letters of 
 Hastings to Dr. Johnson bears date a very few hours after 
 the death of Nuncomar. (While the whole settlement was in 
 commotion, while a mighty and ancient priesthood were 
 weeping over the remains of their chief, the conqueror in 
 
 30 that deadly grapple sat down, with characteristic self-posses- 
 sion, to write about the Tour to the Hebrides, Jones's Persian 
 Grammar, and the history, traditions, arts, and natural pro- 
 ductions of India. 
 
 In the mean time, intelligence of the Rohilla war, and of 
 the first disputes between Hastings and his colleagues, had 
 reached London. The directors took part with the majority, 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 47 
 
 and sent out a letter filled with severe reflections on the con- 
 duct of Hastings. They condemned, in strong but just terms, 
 the iniquity of undertaking offensive wars merely for the 
 sake of pecuniary advantages. But they utterly forgot that, 
 if Hastings had by illicit means obtained pecuniary advan- 
 tages, he had done so, not for his own benefit, but in order to 
 meet their demands. To enjoin honesty, and to insist on 
 having what could not be honestly got, was then the constant 
 practice of the Company. As Lady Macbeth says of her 
 husband, they " would not play false, and yet would wrongly 10 
 win." 
 \/The Regulating Act, by which Hastings had been ap- 
 pointed Governor-General for five years, empowered the 
 Crown to remove him on an address from the Company. 
 Lord North was desirous to procure such an address. The 
 three members of Council who had been sent out from Eng- 
 land were men of his own choice. General Clavering, in 
 particular, was supported by a large parliamentary connec- 
 tion, such as no cabinjet could be inclined to disoblige. The 
 wish of the Minister was to displace Hastings, and to put 20 
 Clavering at the head of the government. In the Court of 
 Directors parties were very nearly balanced. Eleven voted 
 against Hastings ; ten for him. The Court of Proprietors 
 was then convened. The great sale-room presented a singular 
 appearance. Letters had been sent by the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, exhorting all the supporters of government who 
 held India stock to be in attendance. Lord Sandwich mar- 
 shalled the friends of the administration with his usual 
 dexterity and alertness. Fifty peers and privy councillors, 
 seldom seen so far eastward, were counted in the crowd. 30 
 The debate lasted till midnight. The opponents of Hastings 
 had a small superiority on the division ; but a ballot was 
 demanded; and the result was that the Governor-General 
 triumphed by a majority of above a hundred votes over the 
 combined efforts of the Directors and the Cabinet. The minis- 
 ters were greatly exasperated by this defeat. Even Lord 
 
48 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 North lost his temper, no ordinary occurrence with him, and 
 threatened to convoke parliament before Christmas, and to 
 bring in a bill for depriving the Company of all political 
 power, and for restricting it to its old business of trading in 
 silks and teas. 
 
 Colonel Macleane, who through all this conflict had zeal- 
 ously supported the cause of Hastings, now thought that his 
 employer was in imminent danger of being turned out, 
 branded with parliamentary censure, perhaps prosecuted. 
 
 10 The opinion of the crown lawyers had already been taken 
 respecting some parts of the Governor-General's conduct. 
 It seemed to be high time to think of securing an honour- 
 able retreat. Under these circumstances, Macleane thought 
 himself justified in producing the resignation with which he 
 had been intrusted. The instrument was not in very accurate 
 form ; but the Directors were too eager to be scrupulous. 
 They accepted the resignation, fixed on Mr. Wheler, one of 
 their own body, to succeed Hastings, and sent out orders that 
 General Clavering, as senior member of Council, should 
 
 20 exercise the functions of Governor-General till Mr. Wheler 
 should arrive. 
 
 But, while these things were passing in England, a great 
 change had taken place in Bengal. Monson was no more. 
 Only four members of the government were left. Clavering 
 and Francis were on one side, Bar well and the Governor- 
 General on the other ; and the Governor-General had the 
 casting vote. Hastings, who had been during two years 
 destitute of all power and patronage, became at once absolute. 
 He instantly proceeded to retaliate on his adversaries. Their 
 
 30 measures were reversed : their creatures were displaced. A 
 new valuation of the lands of Bengal, for the purposes of 
 taxation, was ordered ; and it was provided that the whole 
 inquiry should be conducted by the Governor-General, and 
 that all the letters relating to it should run in his name. He 
 began, at the same time, to revolve vast plans of conquest 
 and dominion, plans which he lived to see realised, though 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 49 
 
 not by himself. His project was to form subsidiary alliances 
 with the native princes, particularly with those of Oude and 
 Berar, and thus to make Britain the paramount power in 
 India. While he was meditating these great designs, arrived 
 the intelligence that he had ceased to be Governor-General, 
 that his resignation had been accepted, that Wheler was 
 coming out immediately, and that, till Wheler arrived, the 
 chair was to be filled by Clavering. 
 
 Had Hastings still been in a minority, he would probably 
 have retired without a struggle ; but he was now the real 10 
 master of British India, and he was not disposed to quit 
 his high place. He asserted that he had never given any 
 instructions which could warrant the steps taken at home. 
 What his instructions had been, he owned he had forgotten. 
 If he had kept a copy of them he had mislaid it. But he 
 was certain that he had repeatedly declared to the Directors 
 that he would not resign. He could not see how the court, 
 possessed of that declaration from himself, could receive his 
 resignation from the doubtful hands of an agent. If the 
 resignation were invalid, all the proceedings which were 20 
 founded on that resignation were null, and Hastings was 
 still Governor-General. 
 
 He afterwards affirmed that, though his agents had not 
 acted in conformity with his instructions, he would never- 
 theless have held himself bound by their acts, if Clavering 
 had not attempted to seize the supreme power by violence. 
 Whether this assertion were or were not true, it cannot be 
 doubted that the imprudence of Clavering gave Hastings an 
 advantage. The General sent for the keys of the fort and 
 of the treasury, took possession of the records, and held a 30 
 council at which Francis attended. Hastings took the chair 
 in another apartment, and Barwell sat with him. Each of 
 the two parties had a plausible show of right. There was no 
 authority entitled to their obedience within fifteen thousand 
 miles. It seemed that there remained no way of settling 
 the dispute except an appeal to arms ; and from such an 
 
50 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 appeal Hastings, confident of his influence over his country- 
 men in India, was not inclined to shrink. He directed the 
 officers of the garrison of Fort William and of all the neigh- 
 bouring stations to obey no orders but his. At the same 
 time, with admirable judgment, he offered to submit the 
 case to the Supreme Court, and to abide by its decision. By 
 making this proposition he risked nothing ; yet it was a 
 proposition which his opponents could hardly reject. No- 
 body could be treated as a criminal for obeying what the 
 
 10 judges should solemnly pronounce to be the lawful govern- 
 ment. The boldest man would shrink from taking arms in 
 defence of what the judges should pronounce to be usurpa- 
 tion. Clavering and Francis, after some delay, unwillingly 
 consented to abide by the award of the court. The court 
 pronounced that the resignation was invalid, and that 
 therefore Hastings was still Governor-General under the 
 Regulating Act ; and the defeated members of the Council, 
 finding that the sense of the whole settlement was against 
 them, acquiesced in the decision. 
 
 20 About this time arrived the news that, after a suit 
 which had lasted several years, the Franconian courts had 
 decreed a divorce between Imhoff and his wife. The Baron 
 left Calcutta, carrying with him the means of buying an 
 estate in Saxony. The lady became Mrs. Hastings. The 
 event was celebrated by great festivities ; and all the most 
 conspicuous persons at Calcutta, without distinction of 
 parties, were invited to the Government-house. Clavering, 
 as the Mahommedan chronicler tells the story, was sick 
 in mind and body, and excused himself from joining the 
 
 30 splendid assembly. But Hastings, whom, as it should seem, 
 success in ambition and in love had put into high good- 
 humour, would take no denial. He went himself to the 
 General's house, and at length brought his vanquished rival 
 in triumph to the gay circle which surrounded the bride. 
 The exertion was too much for a frame broken by mortifica- 
 tion as well as by disease. Clavering died a few days later. 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 51 
 
 Wheler, who came out expecting to be Governor-General, 
 and was forced to content himself with a seat at the Council 
 Board, generally voted with Francis. But the Governor- 
 General, with BarwelPs help and his own casting vote, was 
 still the master. Some change took place at this time in the 
 feeling both of the Court of Directors and of the Ministers 
 of the Crown. All designs against Hastings were dropped ; 
 and when his original term of five years expired, he was 
 quietly re-appointed. The truth is, that the fearful dangers 
 to which the public interests in every quarter were now 10 
 exposed, made both Lord North and the Company unwilling 
 to part with a Governor whose talents, experience, and 
 resolution, enmity itself was compelled to acknowledge. 
 
 The crisis was indeed formidable. That great and vic- 
 torious empire, on the throne of which George the Third 
 had taken his seat eighteen years before, with brighter 
 hopes than had attended the accession of any of the long 
 line of English sovereigns, had, by the most senseless mis- 
 government, been brought to the verge of ruin. In America 
 millions of Englishmen were at war with the country from 20 
 which their blood, their language, their religion, and their 
 institutions were derived, and to which, but a short time 
 before, they had been as strongly attached as the inhabitants 
 of Norfolk and Leicestershire. The great powers of Europe, 
 humbled to the dust by the vigour and genius which had 
 guided the councils of George the Second, now rejoiced in 
 the prospect of a signal revenge. The time was approaching 
 when our island, while struggling to keep down the United 
 States of America, and pressed with a still nearer danger by * "' 
 the too just discontents of Ireland, was to be assailed by 30 
 France, Spain, and Holland, and to be threatened by the 
 armed neutrality of the Baltic ; when even our maritime 
 supremacy was to be in jeopardy ; when hostile fleets were 
 to command the Straits of Calpe and the Mexican Sea ; 
 when the British flag was to be scarcely able to protect the 
 British Channel. Great as were the faults of Hastings, it 
 
52 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 was happy for our country that at that conjuncture, the 
 most terrible through which she has ever passed, he was 
 the ruler of her Indian dominions. ^ 
 
 An attack by sea on Bengal was little to be apprehended. 
 The danger was that the European enemies of England 
 might form an alliance with some native power, might 
 furnish that power with troops, arms, and ammunition, and 
 might thus assail our possessions on the side of the land. 
 It was chiefly from the Mahrattas that Hastings anticipated 
 
 10 danger. The original seat of that singular people was the 
 wild range of hills which runs along the western coast of 
 India. In the reign of Aurungzebe the inhabitants of those 
 regions, led by the great Sevajee, began to descend on the 
 possessions of their wealthier and less warlike neighbours. 
 The energy, ferocity, and cunning of the Mahrattas, soon 
 made them the most conspicuous among the new powers 
 which were generated by the corruption of the decaying 
 monarchy. At first they were only robbers. They soon rose 
 to the dignity of conquerors. Half the provinces of the 
 
 20 empire were turned into Mahratta principalities. Free- 
 booters, sprung from low castes, and accustomed to menial 
 employments, became mighty Rajahs. The Bonslas, at the 
 head of a band of plunderers, occupied the vast region of 
 Berar. The Guicowar, which is, being interpreted, the 
 Herdsman, founded that dynasty which still reigns in 
 Guzerat. The houses of Scindia and Holkar waxed great 
 in Malwa. One adventurous captain made his nest on the 
 inpregnable rock of Gooti. Another became the lord of the 
 thousand villages which are scattered among the green rice- 
 
 30 fields of Tanjore. 
 
 That was the time, throughout India, of double govern- 
 ment. The form and the power were every where separated. 
 The Mussulman nabobs who had become sovereign princes, 
 the Vizier in Oude, and the Nizam at Hyderabad, still called 
 themselves the viceroys of the house of Tamerlane. In the 
 same manner the Mahratta states, though really independent 
 
W^Y-vV^ v 
 
 WARREN HASTINGS. 53 
 
 of each other, pretended to be members of one empire. They 
 all acknowledged, by words and ceremonies, the supremacy g-J 
 of the heir of Sevajee, a roi^ faineant who chewed bang and 
 toyed with dancing girls in a state prison at Sattara, and of ^^^tci 
 his Peshwa or mayor of the palace, a great hereditary magis- 
 trate, who kept a court with kingly state at Poonah, and 
 whose authority was obeyed in the spacious provinces of 
 Aurungabad and Bejapoor. 
 
 Some months before war was declared in Europe the 
 government of Bengal was alarmed by the news that a 10 
 French adventurer, who passed for a man of quality, had 
 arrived at Poonah. It was said that he had been received 
 there with great distinction, that he had delivered to the 
 Peshwa letters and presents from Louis the Sixteenth, and 
 that a treaty, hostile to England, had been concluded between 
 France and the Mahrattas. 
 
 Hastings immediately resolved to strike the first blow. 
 The title of the Peshwa was not undisputed. A portion of 
 the Mahratta nation was favourable to a pretender. The 
 Governor-General determined to espouse this pretender's 20 
 interest, to move an army across the peninsula of India, and 
 to form a close alliance with the chief of the house of Bonsla, 
 who ruled Berar, and who, in power and dignity, was inferior 
 to none of the Mahratta princes. 
 
 The army had marched, and the negotiations with Berar 
 were in progress, when a letter from the English consul at 
 Cairo brought the news that war had been proclaimed both 
 in London and Paris. All the measures which the crisis 
 required were adopted by Hastings without a moment's 
 delay. The French factories in Bengal were seized. Orders 30 
 were sent to Madras that Pondicherry should instantly be 
 occupied. Near Calcutta, works were thrown up which were 
 thought to render the approach of a hostile force impossible. 
 A maritime establishment was formed for the defence of the 
 river. Nine new battalions of sepoys were raised, and a 
 corps of native artillery was formed out of the hardy Lascars 
 
54 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 of the Bay of Bengal. Having made these arrangements, 
 the Governor-General with calm confidence pronounced his 
 presidency secure from all attack, unless the Mahrattas 
 should march against it in conjunction with the French. 
 
 The expedition which Hastings had sent westward was 
 not so speedily or completely successful as most of his under- 
 takings. The commanding officer procrastinated. The 
 authorities at Bombay blundered. But the Governor- 
 General persevered. A new commander repaired the errors 
 
 10 of his predecessor. Several brilliant actions spread the 
 military renown of the English through regions where no 
 European flag had ever been seen. [It^is probable that, if a 
 new and more formidable danger had not compelled Hastings 
 to change his whole policy, his plans respecting the Mahratta 
 empire would have been carried into complete effect. 
 
 The authorities in England had wisely sent out to Bengal, 
 as commander of the forces and member of the council, one 
 of the most distinguished soldiers of that time. Sir Eyre 
 Coote had, many years before, been conspicuous among the 
 
 20 founders of the British empire in the East. At the council 
 of war which preceded the battle of Plassey, he earnestly 
 recommended, in opposition to the majority, that daring 
 course which, after some hesitation, was adopted, and which 
 was crowned with such splendid success. He subsequently 
 commanded in the south of India against the brave and un- 
 fortunate Lally, gained the decisive battle of Wandewash 
 over the French and their native allies, took Pondicherry, 
 and made the English power supreme in the Carnatic. Since 
 those great exploits near twenty years had elapsed. Coote 
 
 30 had no longer the bodily activity which he had shown in 
 earlier days ; nor was the vigour of his mind altogether un- 
 impaired. He was capricious and fretful, and required much 
 coaxing to keep him in good humour. It must, we fear, be 
 t/ added that the love of money had grown upon him, and that 
 he thought more about his allowances, and less about his 
 duties, than might have been expected from so eminent a 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 55 
 
 member of so noble a profession. Still he was perhaps the 
 ablest officer that was then to be found in the British army. 
 Among the native soldiers his name was great and his 
 influence unrivalled. Nor is he yet forgotten by them. 
 Now and then a white-bearded old sepoy may still be found, 
 who loves to talk of Porto Novo and Pollilore. It is but a 
 short time since one of those aged men came to present a 
 memorial to an English officer, who holds one of the highest 
 employments in India. A print of Coote hung in the room. ..- >- 
 The veteran recognised at once that face and figure which he 10 
 had not seen for more than half a century, and, forgetting 
 his salam to the living, halted, drew himself up, lifted his 
 hand, and with solemn reverence paid his military obeisance 
 to the dead. 
 
 Coote, though he did not, like Barwell, vote constantly 
 with the Governor-General, was by no means inclined to join 
 in systematic opposition, and on most questions concurred 
 with Hastings, who did his best, by assiduous courtship, and 
 by readily granting the most exorbitant allowances, to 
 gratify the strongest passions of the old soldier. 20 
 
 It seemed likely at this time that a general reconciliation 
 would put an end to the quarrels which had, during some 
 years, weakened and disgraced the government of Bengal. 
 The dangers of the empire might well induce men of 
 patriotic feeling — and of patriotic feeling neither Hastings 
 nor Francis was destitute — to forget private enmities, and to 
 co-operate heartily for the general good. Coote had never 
 been concerned in faction. Wheler was thoroughly tired of 
 it. Barwell had made an ample fortune, and, though he had 
 promised that he would not leave Calcutta while his help was 30 
 needed in Council, was most desirous to return to England, 
 and exerted himself to promote an arrangement which would 
 set him at liberty. A compact was made, by which Francis 
 agreed to desist from opposition, and Hastings engaged that 
 the friends of Francis should be admitted to a fair share of 
 the honours and emoluments of the service. During a few 
 
56 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 v ^ months after this treaty there was apparent harmony at the 
 
 f- "* council-board. £ 
 
 % ^ <f Harmony, indeed, was never more necessary ; for at this 
 
 ^ moment internal calamities, more formidable than war itself, 
 
 menaced Bengal. The authors of the Regulating Act of 1773 
 
 had established two independent powers, the one judicial, 
 
 the other political ; and, with a carelessness scandalously 
 
 common in English legislation, had omitted to define the 
 
 limits of either. The judges took advantage of the indistinct- 
 
 10 ness, and attempted to draw to themselves supreme authority, 
 not only within Calcutta, but through the whole of the great 
 territory subject to the presidency of Fort William. There 
 are few Englishmen who will not admit that the English 
 law, in spite of modern improvements, is neither so cheap 
 nor so speedy as might be wished. Still, it is a system which 
 has grown up among us. In some points, it has been 
 fashioned to suit our feelings ; in others, it has gradually 
 fashioned our feelings to suit itself. Even to its worst evils 
 we are accustomed ; and, therefore, though we may complain 
 
 20 of them, they do not strike us with the horror and dismay 
 which would be produced by a new grievance of smaller 
 severity. In India the case is widely different. English 
 law, transplanted to that country, has all the vices from 
 which we suffer here ; it has them all in a far higher degree ; 
 and it has other vices, compared with which the worst vices 
 from which we suffer are trifles. Dilatory here, it is far 
 more dilatory in a land where the help of an interpreter is 
 needed by every judge and by every advocate. Costly here, 
 it is far more costly in a land into which the legal practi- 
 
 30 tioners must be imported from an immense distance. All 
 English labour in India, from the labour of the Governor- 
 General and the Commander-in-Chief, down to that of a 
 groom or a watchmaker, must be paid for at a higher rate 
 than at home. No man will be banished, and banished to 
 the torrid zone, for nothing. The rule holds good with 
 respect to the legal profession. No English barrister will 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 57 
 
 work, fifteen thousand miles from all his friends, with the 
 thermometer at ninety-six in the shade, for the emoluments 
 which will content him in chambers that overlook the 
 Thames. Accordingly, the fees at Calcutta are about three 
 times as great as the fees of Westminster Hall ; and this, 
 though the people of India are, beyond all comparison, poorer 
 than the people of England. Yet the delay and the expense, 
 grievous as they are, form the smallest part of the evil which 
 English law, imported without modifications into India, 
 could not fail to produce. The strongest feelings of our 10 
 nature, honour, religion, female modesty, rose up against the 
 innovation. Arrest on mesne process was the first step in 
 most civil proceedings ; and to a native of rank arrest was 
 not merely a restraint, but a foul personal indignity. Oaths 
 were required in every stage of every suit ; and the feeling 
 of a Quaker about an oath is hardly stronger than that of a 
 respectable native. That the apartments of a woman of 
 quality should be entered by strange men, or that her face 
 should be seen by them, are, in the East, intolerable out- 
 rages, outrages which are more dreaded than death, and 20 
 which can be expiated only by the shedding of blood. To 
 these outrages the most distinguished families of Bengal, 
 Bahar, and Orissa, were now exposed. Imagine what the 
 state of our own country would be, if a jurisprudence were 
 on a sudden introduced among us, which should be to us 
 what our jurisprudence was to our Asiatic subjects. Imagine 
 what the state of our country would be, if it were enacted 
 that any man, by merely swearing that a debt was due to 
 him, should acquire a right to insult the persons of men of 
 the most honourable and sacred callings and of women of the 30 
 most shrinking delicacy, to horsewhip a general officer, to put 
 a bishop in the stocks, to treat ladies in the way which called 
 forth the blow of Wat Tyler. Something like this was the 
 effect of the attempt which the Supreme Court made to 
 extend its jurisdiction over the whole of the Company's 
 territory. 
 
58 WARREN" HASTINGS. 
 
 A reign of terror began, of terror heightened by mystery ; 
 for even that which was endured was less horrible than that 
 which was anticipated. No man knew what was next to be 
 expected from this strange tribunal. It came from beyond 
 the black water, as the people of India, with mysterious 
 horror, call the sea. It consisted of judges not one of whom 
 was familiar with the usages of the millions over whom 
 they claimed boundless authority Its records were kept 
 in unknown characters ; its sentences were pronounced in 
 
 10 unknown sounds. It had already collected round itself an 
 army of the worst part of the native population, informers, 
 and false witnesses, and common barrators, and agents of 
 chicane, and, above all, a banditti of bailiffs' followers, 
 compared with whom the retainers of the worst English 
 spunging-houses, in the worst times, might be considered 
 as upright and tender-hearted. Many natives, highly con- 
 sidered among their countrymen, were seized, hurried up to 
 Calcutta, flung into the common gaol, not for any crime 
 even imputed, not for any debt that had been proved, but 
 
 20 merely as a precaution till their cause should come to trial. 
 There were instances in which men of the most venerable 
 dignity, persecuted without a cause by extortioners, died of 
 rage and shame in the gripe of the vile alguazils of Impey. 
 The harams of noble Mahommedans, sanctuaries respected in 
 the East, by governments which respected nothing else, 
 were burst open by gangs of bailiffs. The Mussulmans, 
 braver and less accustomed to submission than the Hindoos, 
 sometimes stood on their defence ; and there were instances 
 in which they shed their blood in the doorway, while 
 
 30 defending, sword in hand, the sacred apartments of their 
 women. Nay, it seemed as if even the faint-hearted 
 Bengalee, who had crouched at the feet of Surajah Dowlah, 
 who had been mute during the administration of Yansittart, 
 would at length find courage in despair. No Mahratta 
 invasion had ever spread through the province such dismay 
 as this inroad of English lawyers. All the injustice of 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 59 
 
 former oppressors, Asiatic and European, appeared as a 
 blessing when compared with the justice of the Supreme 
 Court. 
 
 Every class of the population, English and native, with 
 the exception of the ravenous pettifoggers who fattened on 
 the misery and terror of an immense community, cried out 
 loudly against this fearful oppression. But the judges were 
 immovable. If a bailiff was resisted, they ordered the 
 soldiers to be called out. ^f a servant of the Company, in 
 conformity with the orders of the government, withstood 10 
 the miserable catchpoles who, with Impey's writs in their 
 hands, exceeded the insolence and rapacity of gang-robbers, 
 he was flung into prison for a contempt. The lapse of sixty 
 years, the virtue and wisdom of many eminent magistrates 
 who have during that time administered justice in the 
 Supreme Court, have not effaced from the minds of the 
 people of Bengal the recollection of those evil days. 
 
 The members of the government were, on this subject, 
 united as one man. Hastings had courted the judges ; he 
 had found them useful instruments. But he was not dis- 20 
 posed to make them his own masters, or the masters of 
 India. His mind was large ; his knowledge of the native 
 character most accurate. He saw that the system pursued 
 by the Supreme Court was degrading to the government and 
 ruinous to the people ; and he resolved to oppose it man- 
 fully. The consequence was, that the friendship, if that be 
 the proper word for such a connection, which had existed 
 between him and Impey, was for a time completely dis- 
 solved. The government placed itself firmly between the 
 tyrannical tribunal and the people. The Chief Justice pro- 30 
 ceeded to the wildest excesses. The Governor-General and 
 all the members of Council were served with writs, calling 
 on them to appear before the King's justices, and to answer 
 for their public acts. This was too much. Hastings, with 
 just scorn, refused to obey the call, set at liberty the persons 
 wrongfully detained by the Court, and took measures for 
 
60 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 resisting the outrageous proceedings of the sheriffs' officers, 
 if necessary, by the sword. But he had in view another 
 device which might prevent the necessity of an appeal to 
 arms. He was seldom at a loss for an expedient ; and he 
 knew Impey well. The expedient, in this case, was a very 
 simple one, neither more nor less than a bribe. Impey was, 
 by act of parliament, a judge, independent of the govern- 
 ment of Bengal, and entitled to a salary of eight thousand a 
 year. Hastings proposed to make him also a judge in the 
 
 10 Company's service, removable at the pleasure of the govern- 
 ment of Bengal ; and to give him, in that capacity, about 
 eight thousand a year more. It was understood that, in 
 consideration of this new salary, Impey would desist from 
 urging the high pretensions of his court. If he did urge 
 these pretensions, the government could, at a moment's 
 notice, eject him from the new place which had been created 
 for him. The bargain was struck ; Bengal was saved ; an 
 appeal to force was averted ; and the Chief Justice was rich, 
 quiet, and infamous. 
 
 20 Of Impey's conduct it is unnecessary to speak. It was of 
 a piece with almost every part of his conduct that comes 
 under the notice of history. No other such judge has dis- 
 honoured the English ermine, since Jefferies drank himself 
 to death in the Tower. But we cannot agree with those 
 who have blamed Hastings for this transaction. The case 
 stood thus. The negligent manner in which the Regulating 
 Act had been framed put it in the power of the Chief 
 Justice to throw a great country into the most dreadful 
 confusion. He was determined to use his power to the 
 
 30 utmost, unless he was paid to be still : and Hastings con- 
 sented to pay him The necessity was to be deplored. It is 
 also to be deplored that pirates should be able to exact 
 ransom by threatening to make their captives walk the 
 plank. But to ransom a captive from pirates has always 
 been held a humane and Christian act ; and it would be 
 absurd to charge the payer of the ransom with corrupting 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 61 
 
 fclie virtue of the corsair. This, we seriously think, is a 
 not unfair illustration of the relative position of Impey, 
 Hastings, and the people of India. Whether it was right 
 in Impey to demand or to accept a price for powers which, 
 if they really belonged to him, he could not abdicate, which, 
 if they did not belong to him, he ought never to have 
 usurped, and which in neither case he could honestly sell, 
 is one question. It is quite another question, whether 
 Hastings was not right to give any sum, however large, to 
 any man, however worthless, rather than either surrender 10 
 millions of human beings to pillage, or rescue them by civil 
 war. 
 
 Francis strongly opposed this arrangement. It may, 
 indeed, be suspected that personal aversion to Impey was 
 as strong a motive with Francis as regard for the welfare 
 of the province. To a mind burning with resentment, it 
 might seem better to leave Bengal to the oppressors than 
 to redeem it by enriching them. It is not improbable, on 
 the other hand, that Hastings may have been the more 
 willing to resort to an expedient agreeable to the Chief 20 
 Justice, because that high functionary had already been so 
 serviceable, and might, when existing dissensions were com- 
 posed, be serviceable again. # 
 v But it was not on this point alone that Francis was now 
 opposed to Hastings. The peace between them proved to be 
 only a short and hollow truce, during which their mutual 
 aversion was constantly becoming stronger. At length an 
 explosion took place. Hastings publicly charged Francis 
 with having deceived him, and with having induced Barwell 
 to quit the service by insincere promises. Then came a dis- 30 
 pute, such as frequently arises even between honourable men, 
 when they may make important agreements by mere verbal 
 communication. An impartial historian will probably be of 
 opinion that they had misunderstood each other ; but their 
 minds were so much embittered that they imputed to each 
 other nothing less than deliberate villany. " I do not," said 
 
62 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 Hastings, in a minute recorded on the Consultations of the 
 Government, "I do not trust to Mr. Francis's promises of 
 candour, convinced that he is incapable of it. I judge of his 
 public conduct by his private, which I have found to be void 
 of truth and honour." After the Council had risen, Francis 
 put a challenge into the Governor-General's hand. It was 
 instantly accepted. They met, and fired. Francis was shot 
 through the body. He was carried to a neighbouring house, 
 where it appeared that the wound, though severe, was not 
 
 10 mortal. Hastings inquired repeatedly after his enemy's 
 health, and proposed to call on him ; but Francis coldly 
 declined the visit. He had a proper sense, he said, of the 
 Governor-General's politeness, but could not consent to any 
 private interview. They could meet only at the council- 
 board. 
 
 In a very short time it was made signally manifest to how 
 great a danger the Governor-General had, on this occasion, 
 exposed his country. A crisis arrived with which he, and he 
 alone, was competent to deal. It is not too much to say that, 
 
 20 if he had been taken from the head of affairs, the years 1780 
 and 1781 would have been as fatal to our power in Asia as to 
 our power in America. ^/* 
 
 The Mahrattas had been the chief objects of apprehension 
 to Hastings. The measures which he had adopted for the 
 purpose of breaking their power, had at first been frustrated 
 by the errors of those whom he was compelled to employ ; 
 but his perseverance and ability seemed likely to be crowned 
 with success, when a far more formidable danger showed 
 itself in a distant quarter. 
 
 30 About thirty years before this time, a Mahommedan 
 soldier had begun to distinguish himself in the wars of 
 Southern India. His education had been neglected ; his 
 extraction was humble. His father had been a petty officer 
 of revenue ; his grandfather a wandering dervise. But 
 though thus meanly descended, though ignorant even of 
 the alphabet, the adventurer had no sooner been placed at 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 63 
 
 the head of a body of troops than he approved himself a 
 man born for conquest and command. Among the crowd 
 of chiefs who were struggling for a share of India, none 
 could compare with him in the qualities of the captain and 
 the statesman. He became a general ; he became a sove- 
 reign. Out of the fragments of old principalities, which 
 had gone to pieces in the general wreck, he formed for 
 himself a great, compact, and vigorous empire. That empire 
 he ruled with the ability, severity, and vigilance of Louis 
 the Eleventh. Licentious in his pleasures, implacable in 10 
 his revenge, he had yet enlargement of mind enough to 
 perceive how much the prosperity of subjects adds to the 
 strength of governments. He was an oppressor ; but he 
 had at least the merit of protecting his people against all 
 oppression except his own. He was now in extreme old 
 age ; but his intellect was as clear, and his spirit as high, 
 as in the prime of manhood. Such was the great Hyder 
 Ali, the founder of the Mahommedan kingdom of Mysore, 
 and the most formidable enemy with whom the English 
 conquerors of India have ever had to contend. 20 
 
 Had Hastings been governor of Madras, Hyder would 
 have been either made a friend, or vigorously encountered 
 as an enemy. Unhappily the English authorities in the 
 south provoked their powerful neighbour's hostility, with- 
 out being prepared to repel it. On a sudden, an army of 
 ninety thousand men, far superior in discipline and effici- 
 ency to any other native force that could be found in 
 India, came pouring through those wild passes which, worn 
 by mountain torrents, and dark with jungle, lead down from 
 the table-land of Mysore to the plains of the Carnatic. This 30 
 great army was accompanied by a hundred pieces of cannon ; 
 and its movements were guided by many French officers, 
 trained in the best military schools of Europe. 
 
 Hyder was every where triumphant. The sepoys in many 
 British garrisons flung down their arms. Some forts were 
 surrendered by treachery, and some by despair. In a few 
 
64 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 days the whole open country north of the Coleroon had sub- 
 mitted. The English inhabitants of Madras could already 
 see by night, from the top of Mount St. Thomas, the eastern 
 sky reddened by a vast semicircle of blazing villages. The 
 white villas, to which our countrymen retire after the daily 
 labours of government and of trade, when the cool evening 
 breeze springs up from the bay, were now left without 
 inhabitants ; for bands of the fierce horsemen of Mysore 
 had already been seen prowling among the tulip-trees, and 
 
 10 near the gay verandas. Even the town was not thought 
 secure, and the British merchants and public functionaries 
 made haste to crowd themselves behind the cannon of Fort 
 St. George. 
 
 There were the means indeed of assembling an army 
 which might have defended the presidency, and even driven 
 the invader back to his mountains. Sir Hector Munro 
 was at the head of one considerable force ; Baillie was 
 advancing with another. United, they might have pre- 
 sented a formidable front even to such an enemy as Hyder. 
 
 20 But the English commanders, neglecting those fundamental 
 rules of the military art of which the propriety is obvious 
 even to men who had never received a military education, 
 deferred their junction, and were separately attacked. 
 Baillie's detachment was destroyed. Munro was forced to 
 abandon his baggage, to fling his guns into the tanks, and 
 to save himself by a retreat which might be called a 
 flight. In three weeks from the commencement of the 
 war, the British empire in Southern India had been 
 brought to the verge of ruin. Only a few fortified places 
 
 30 remained to us. The glory of our arms had departed. It 
 was known that a great French expedition might soon be 
 expected on the coast of Coromandel. England, beset by 
 enemies on every side, was in no condition to protect such 
 remote dependencies. 
 
 Then it was that the fertile genius and serene courage of 
 Hastings achieved their most signal triumph. A swift ship, 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 65 
 
 flying before the south-west monsoon, brought the evil 
 tidings in few days to Calcutta. In twenty -four hours the 
 Governor-General had framed a complete plan of policy 
 adapted to the altered state of affairs. The struggle with 
 Hyder was a struggle for life and death. All minor objects 
 must be sacrificed to the preservation of the Carnatic. 
 The disputes with the Mahrattas must be accommodated. 
 A large military force and a supply of money must be 
 instantly sent to Madras. But even these measures would 
 be insufficient, unless the war, hitherto so grossly mis- 10 
 managed, were placed under the direction of a vigorous 
 mind. It was no time for trifling. Hastings determined to 
 resort to an extreme exercise of power, to suspend the 
 incapable governor of Fort St. George, to send Sir Eyre 
 Coote to oppose Hyder, and to intrust that distinguished 
 general with the whole administration of the war. 
 
 In spite of the sullen opposition of Francis, who had now 
 recovered from his wound, and had returned to the Council, 
 the Governor-General's wise and firm policy was approved 
 by the majority of the board. The reinforcements were 20 
 sent off with great expedition, and reached Madras before 
 the French armament arrived in the Indian seas. Coote, 
 broken by age and disease, was no longer the Coote of 
 Wandewash ; but he was still a resolute and skilful com- 
 mander. The progress of Hyder was arrested ; and in a 
 few months the great victory of Porto Novo retrieved the 
 honour of the English arms. 
 
 In the mean time Francis had returned to England, and 
 Hastings was now left perfectly unfettered. Wheler had 
 gradually been relaxing in his opposition, and, after the 30 
 departure of his vehement and implacable colleague, co- 
 operated heartily with the Governor-General, whose influ- 
 ence over the British in India, always great, had, by the 
 vigour and success of his recent measures, been considerably 
 increased. 
 
 But, though the difficulties arising from factions within 
 
66 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 the Council were at an end, another class of difficulties had 
 become more pressing than ever. The financial embarrass- 
 ment was extreme. Hastings had to find the means, not 
 only of carrying on the government of Bengal, but of main- 
 taining a most costly war against both Indian and European 
 enemies in the Carnatic, and of making remittances to 
 England. A few years before this time he had obtained 
 relief by plundering the Mogul and enslaving the Rohillas ; 
 nor were the resources of his fruitful mind by any means 
 
 W exhausted. 
 
 His first design was on Benares, a city which in wealth, 
 population, dignity, and sanctity, was among the foremost of 
 Asia. ^It was commonly believed that half a million of 
 human beings was crowded into that labyrinth of lofty 
 alleys, rich with shrines, and minarets, and balconies, and 
 carved oriels, to which the sacred apes clung by hundreds. 
 The traveller could scarcely make his way through the press 
 of holy mendicants and not less holy bulls. The broad and 
 stately flights of steps which descended from these swarming 
 
 20 haunts to the bathing-places along the Ganges were worn 
 every day by the footsteps of an innumerable multitude of 
 worshippers. The schools and temples drew crowds of pious 
 Hindoos from every province where the Brahminical faith 
 was known. Hundreds of devotees came thither every 
 month to die : for it was believed that a peculiarly happy 
 fate awaited the man who should pass from the sacred city 
 into the sacred river. Nor was superstition the only motive 
 which allured strangers to that great metropolis. Commerce 
 had as many pilgrims as religion. All along the shores of 
 
 30 the venerable stream lay great fleets of vessels laden with 
 rich merchandise. From the looms of Benares went forth 
 the most delicate silks that adorned the balls of St. James's 
 and of the Petit Trianon : and in the bazaars the muslins of 
 Bengal and the sabres of Oude were mingled with the jewels 
 of Golconda and the shawls of Cashmere. This rich capital, 
 and the surrounding tract, had long been under the immedi- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 67 
 
 ate rule of a Hindoo prince who rendered homage to the 
 Mogul emperors. During the great anarchy of India the 
 lords of Benares became independent of the court of Delhi, 
 but were compelled to submit to the authority of the Nabob 
 of Oude. Oppressed by this formidable neighbour, they 
 invoked the protection of the English. The English pro- 
 tection was given ; and at length the Nabob Yizier, by a 
 solemn treaty, ceded all his rights over Benares to the 
 Company. From that time the Rajah was the vassal of the 
 government of Bengal, acknowledged its supremacy, and 10 
 engaged to send an annual tribute to Fort William. This 
 tribute Cheyte Sing, the reigning prince, had paid with 
 strict punctuality. 
 
 Respecting the precise nature of the legal relation between 
 the Company and the Rajah of Benares, there has been much 
 warm and acute controversy. On the one side, it has been 
 maintained that Cheyte Sing was merely a great subject on 
 whom the superior power had a right to call for aid in the 
 necessities of the empire. On the other side it has been 
 contended that he was an independent prince, that the only 20 
 claim which the Company had upon him was for a fixed 
 tribute, and that, while the fixed tribute was regularly paid, 
 as it assuredly was, the English had no more right to exact 
 any further contribution from him than to demand subsidies 
 from Holland or Denmark. Nothing is easier than to find 
 precedents and analogies in favour of either view. 
 
 Our own impression is that neither view is correct. It 
 was too much the habit of English politicians to take it for 
 granted that there was in India a known and definite con- 
 stitution by which questions of this kind were to be decided. 30 
 The truth is that, during the interval which elapsed between 
 the fall of the House of Tamerlane and the establishment of 
 the British ascendency, there was no such constitution. The 
 old order of things had psssed away : the new order of 
 things was not yet formed. All was transition, confusion, 
 obscurity. Every body kept his head as he best might, and 
 
68 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 scrambled for whatever he could get. There have been 
 similar seasons in Europe. The time of the dissolution of 
 the Carlovingian empire is an instance. K Who would think 
 of seriously discussing the question, what extent of pecuniary 
 aid and of obedience Hugh Capet had a constitutional right 
 to demand from the Duke of Brittany or the Duke of Nor- 
 mandy ? The words " constitutional right n had, in that 
 state of society, no meaning. If Hugh Capet laid hands on 
 all the possessions of the Duke of Normandy, this might be 
 
 10 unjust and immoral ; but it would not be illegal, in the 
 sense in which the ordinances of Charles the Tenth were 
 illegal. If, on the other hand, the Duke of Normandy made 
 war on Hugh Capet, this might be unjust and immoral ; but 
 it would not be illegal, in the sense in which the expedition 
 of Prince Louis Bonaparte was illegal. 
 
 Yery similar to this was the state of India sixty years ago. 
 Of the existing governments not a single one could lay claim 
 to legitimacy, or could plead any other title than recent 
 occupation. There was scarcely a province in which the real 
 
 20 sovereignty and the nominal sovereignty were not disjoined. 
 Titles and forms were still retained which implied that the 
 heir of Tamerlane was an absolute ruler, and that the 
 Nabobs of the provinces were his lieutenants. In reality, he 
 was a captive. The Nabobs were in some places independent 
 princes. In other places, as in Bengal and the Carnatic, 
 they had, like their master, become mere phantoms, and the 
 Company was supreme. Among the Malirattas again the 
 heir of Sevajee still kept the title of Rajah ; but he was a 
 prisoner, and his prime minister, the Peshwa, had become 
 
 30 the hereditary chief of the state. The Peshwa, in his turn, 
 was fast sinking into the same degraded situation to which 
 he had reduced the Rajah. It was, we believe, impossible to 
 find, from the Himalayas to Mysore, a single government 
 which was at once a government de facto and a government 
 dejure, which possessed the physical means of making itself 
 feared by its neighbours and subjects, and which had at 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 69 
 
 the same time the authority derived from law and long 
 prescription. 
 
 Hastings clearly discerned, what was hidden from most 
 of his contemporaries, that such a state of things gave 
 immense advantages to a ruler of great talents and few 
 scruples. In every international question that could arise, 
 he had his option between the de facto ground and the 
 de jure ground ; and the probability was that one of those 
 grounds would sustain any claim that it might be con- 
 venient for him to make, and enable him to resist any claim 10 
 made by others. In every controversy, accordingly, he 
 resorted to the plea which suited his immediate purpose, 
 without troubling himself in the least about consistency ; 
 and thus he scarcely ever failed to find what, to persons 
 of short memories and scanty information, seemed to be a 
 justification for what he wanted to do. Sometimes the 
 Nabob of Bengal is a shadow, sometimes a monarch. 
 Sometimes the Vizier is a mere deputy, sometimes an inde- 
 pendent potentate. If it is expedient for the Company to 
 show some legal title to the revenues of Bengal, the grant 20 
 under the seal of the Mogul is brought forward as an 
 instrument of the highest authority. When the Mogul 
 asks for the rents which were reserved to him by that very 
 grant, he is told that he is a mere pageant, that the English 
 power rests on a very different foundation from a charter 
 given by him, that he is welcome to play at royalty as 
 long as he likes, but that he must expect no tribute from 
 the real masters of India. 
 
 It is true that it was in the power of others, as well as of 
 Hastings, to practise this legerdemain ; but in the contro- 30 
 versies of governments, sophistry is of little use unless it ^ \ 
 be backed by power. There is a principle which Hastings 
 was fond of asserting in the strongest terms, and on which , *j<r 
 he acted with undeviating steadiness. It is a principle which, 
 we must own, though it may be grossly abused, can 
 hardly be disputed in the present state of public law. It 
 
70 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 is this, that where an ambiguous question arises between 
 two governments, there is, if they cannot agree, no appeal 
 except to force, and that the opinion of the stronger must 
 prevail. Almost every question was ambiguous in India. 
 The English government was the strongest in India. The 
 consequences are obvious. The English government might 
 do exactly what it chose. 
 
 The English government now chose to wring money out 
 of Cheyte Sing. It had formerly been convenient to treat 
 
 10 him as a sovereign prince ; it was now convenient to treat 
 him as a subject. Dexterity inferior to that of Hastings 
 could easily find, in the general chaos of laws and customs, 
 arguments for either course. Hastings wanted a great 
 supply. It was known that Cheyte Sing had a large 
 revenue, and it was suspected that he had accumulated 
 a treasure. Nor was he a favourite at Calcutta. He had, 
 when the Governor-General was in great difficulties, courted 
 the favour of Francis and Clavering. Hastings who, less 
 we believe from evil passions than from policy, seldom left 
 
 20 an injury unpunished, was not sorry that the fate of Cheyte 
 Sing should teach neighbouring princes the same lesson 
 which the fate of Nuncomar had already impressed on the 
 inhabitants of Bengal. 
 
 In 1778, on the first breaking out of the war with France, 
 Cheyte Sing was called upon to pay, in addition to his fixed 
 tribute, an extraordinary contribution of fifty thousand 
 pounds. In 1779, an equal sum was exacted. In 1780, 
 the demand was renewed. Cheyte Sing, in the hope of 
 obtaining some indulgence, secretly offered the Governor- 
 
 30 General a bribe of twenty thousand pounds. Hastings 
 took the money, and his enemies have maintained that he 
 took it intending to keep it. He certainly concealed the 
 transaction, for a time, both from the Council in Bengal and 
 from the Directors at home ; nor did he ever give any 
 satisfactory reason for the concealment. Public spirit, or 
 the fear of detection, however, determined him to withstand 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 71 
 
 the temptation. He paid over the bribe to the Company's 
 treasury, and insisted that the Eajah should instantly com- 
 ply with the demands of the English government. The 
 Rajah, after the fashion of his countrymen, shuffled, soli- 
 cited, and pleaded poverty. The grasp of Hastings was 
 not to be so eluded. He added to the requisition another 
 ten thousand pounds as a fine for delay, and sent troops 
 to exact the money. 
 
 The money was paid. But this was not enough. The 
 late events in the south of India had increased the financial 10 
 embarrassments of the Company. Hastings was deter- 
 mined to plunder Cheyte Sing, and, for that end, to fasten 
 a quarrel on him. Accordingly, the Rajah was now re- 
 quired to keep a body of cavalry for the service of the 
 British government. He objected and evaded. This was 
 exactly what the Governor-General wanted. He had now 
 a pretext for treating the wealthiest of his vassals as a 
 criminal. "I resolved" — these are the words of Hastings 
 himself — "to draw from his guilt the means of relief to 
 the Company's distresses, to make him pay largely for 20 
 his pardon, or to exact a severe vengeance for past delin- 
 quency." The plan was simply this, to demand larger and 
 larger contributions till the Rajah should be driven to 
 remonstrate, then to call his remonstrance a crime, and 
 to punish him by confiscating all his possessions. 
 
 Cheyte Sing was in the greatest dismay. He offered two 
 hundred thousand pounds to propitiate the British govern- 
 ment. But Hastings replied that nothing less than half a 
 million would be accepted. Nay, he began to think of 
 selling Benares to Oude, as he had formerly sold Allahabad 30 
 and Rohilcund. The matter was one which could not be 
 well managed at a distance ; and Hastings resolved to visit 
 Benares. 
 
 Cheyte Sing received his liege lord with every mark of 
 reverence, came near sixty miles, with his guards, to meet 
 and escort the illustrious visitor, and expressed his deep 
 
72 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 concern at the displeasure of the English. He even took 
 off his turban, and laid it in the lap of Hastings, a gesture 
 which in India marks the most profound submission and 
 devotion. Hastings behaved with cold and repulsive seve- 
 rity. Having arrived at Benares, he sent to the Rajah a 
 paper containing the demands of the government of Bengal. 
 The Rajah, in reply, attempted to clear himself from the 
 accusations brought against him. Hastings, who wanted 
 money and not excuses, was not to be put off by the ordi- 
 
 10 nary artifices of Eastern negotiation. He instantly ordered 
 the Rajah to be arrested and placed under the custody of 
 two companies of sepoys. 
 
 In taking these strong measures, Hastings scarcely showed 
 his usual judgment. It is probable that, having had little 
 opportunity of personally observing any part of the popu- 
 lation of India, except the Bengalees, he was not fully aware 
 of the difference between their character and that of the 
 tribes which inhabit the upper provinces. He was now 
 in a land far more favourable to the vigour of the human 
 
 20 frame than the Delta of the Ganges ; in a land fruitful of 
 soldiers, who have been found worthy to follow English 
 battalions to the charge and into the breach. The Rajah > 
 was popular among his subjects. His administration had 
 been mild ; and the prosperity of the district which he 
 governed presented a striking contrast to the depressed 
 state of Bahar under our rule, and a still more striking 
 contrast to the misery of the provinces which were cursed 
 by the tyranny of the Nabob Vizier. The national and 
 religious prejudices with which the English were regarded 
 
 30 throughout India were peculiarly intense in the metropolis 
 of the Brahminical superstition. It can therefore scarcely 
 be doubted that the Governor-General, before he outraged 
 the dignity of Cheyte Sing by an arrest, ought to have 
 assembled a force capable of bearing down all opposition. 
 This had not been done. The handful of sepoys who 
 attended Hastings would probably have been sufficient to 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. ,\^ 
 -3^ 
 
 overawe Moorshedabad, or the Blaek Town of Calcutta. 
 But they were unequal to a conflict with the hardy rabble 
 of Benares. The streets surrounding the palace were filled 
 by an immense multitude, of whom a large proportion, 
 as is usual in Upper India, wore arms. The tumult became 
 a fight, and the fight a massacre. The English officers 
 defended themselves with desperate courage against over- 
 whelming numbers, and fell, as became them, sword in 
 hand. The sepoys were butchered. The gates were forced. 
 The captive prince, neglected by his jailers during the 10 
 confusion, discovered an outlet which opened on the preci- 
 pitous bank of the Ganges, let himself down to the water 
 by a string made of the turbans of his attendants, found a 
 boat, and escaped to the opposite shore. 
 
 If Hastings had, by indiscreet violence, brought himself 
 into a difficult and perilous situation, it is only just to 
 acknowledge that he extricated himself with even more than 
 his usual ability and presence of mind. He had only fifty 
 men with him. The building in which he had taken up his 
 residence was on every side blockaded by the insurgents. 20 
 But his fortitude remained unshaken. The Rajah from the 
 other side of the river sent apologies and liberal offers. 
 They were not even answered. Some subtle and enterpris- 
 ing men were found who undertook to pass through the 
 throng of enemies, and to convey the intelligence of the 
 late events to the English cantonments. It is the fashion of 
 the natives of India to wear Targe earrings of gold. When 
 they travel, the rings are laid aside, lest the precious metal^. 
 should tempt some gang of robbers, and, in place of the ring, 
 a quill or a roll of paper is inserted in the orifice to prevent 30 
 it from closing. Hastings placed in the ears of his messengers 
 letters rolled up in the smallest compass. Some of these r 
 letters were addressed to the commanders of the English 
 troops. One was written to assure his wife of his safety. 
 One was to the envoy whom he had sent to negotiate with 
 the Mahrattas. Instructions for the negotiation were needed; 
 
74 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 and the Governor-General framed them in that situation of 
 extreme danger, with as much composure as if he had been 
 writing in his palace at Calcutta. 
 
 Things, however, were not yet at the worst. An English 
 officer of more spirit than judgment, eager to distinguish 
 himself, made a premature attack on the insurgents beyond 
 the river. His troops were entangled in narrow streets, and 
 assailed by a furious population. He fell, with many of his 
 men ; and the survivors were forced to retire. 
 
 10 This event produced the effect which has never failed to 
 follow every check, however slight, sustained in India by the 
 English arms. For hundreds of miles round, the whole 
 country was in commotion. The entire population of the 
 district of Benares took arms. The fields were abandoned 
 by the husbandmen, who thronged to defend their prince. 
 The infection spread to Oude. The oppressed people of that 
 province rose up against the Nabob Yizier, refused to pay 
 their imposts, and put the revenue officers to flight. Even 
 Bahar was ripe for revolt. The hopes of Cheyte Sing began 
 
 20 to rise. Instead of imploring mercy in the humble style of 
 a vassal, he began to talk the language of a conqueror, and 
 threatened, it was said, to sweep the white usurpers out of 
 the land. But the English troops were now assembling fast. 
 The officers, and even the private men, regarded the 
 Governor-General with enthusiastic attachment, and flew to 
 his aid with an alacrity which, as he boasted, had never been 
 shown on any other occasion. Major Popham, a brave and 
 skilful soldier, who had highly distinguished himself in the 
 Mahratta war, and in whom the Governor-General reposed 
 
 30 the greatest confidence, took the command. The tumultuary 
 army of the Rajah was put to rout. His fastnesses were 
 stormed. In a few hours, above thirty thousand men left 
 his standard, and returned to their ordinary avocations. 
 The unhappy prince fled from his country for ever. His 
 fair domain was added to the British dominions. One of 
 his relations indeed was appointed rajah ; but the Rajah 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 75 
 
 of Benares was henceforth to be, like the Nabob of Bengal, 
 a mere pensioner. 
 
 By this revolution, an addition of two hundred thousand 
 pounds a year was made to the revenues of the Company. 
 But the immediate relief was not as great as had been 
 expected. The treasure laid up by Cheyte Sing had been 
 popularly estimated at a million sterling. It turned out 
 to be about a fourth part of that sum ; and, such as it 
 was, it was seized by the army, and divided as prize- 
 money. 10 
 
 Disappointed in his expectations from Benares, Hastings 
 was more violent than he would otherwise have been, in 
 his dealings with Oude. Sujah Dowlah had long been 
 dead. His son and successor, Asaph-ul-Dowlah, was one 
 of the weakest and most vicious even of Eastern princes. 
 His life was divided between torpid repose and the most 
 odious forms of sensuality, In his court there was bound- 
 less waste, throughout his dominions wretchedness and 
 disorder. He had been, under the skilful management of 
 the English government, gradually sinking from the rank 20 
 of an independent prince to that of a vassal of the Com- 
 pany. It was only by the help of a British brigade that he 
 could be secure from the aggressions of neighbours who 
 despised his weakness, and from the vengeance of subjects 
 who detested his tyranny. A brigade was furnished ; and 
 he engaged to defray the charge of paying and maintain- 
 ing it. From that time his independence was at an end. 
 Hastings was not a man to lose the advantage which he 
 had thus gained. The Nabob soon began to complain of 
 the burden which he had undertaken to bear. His revenues, 30 
 he said, were falling off ; his servants were unpaid ; he 
 could no longer support the expense of the arrangement 
 which he had sanctioned. Hastings would not listen to 
 these representations. The Vizier, he said, had invited the 
 Government of Bengal to send him troops, and had pro- 
 mised to pay for them. The troops had been sent. How 
 
76 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 long the troops were to remain in Oude was a matter not 
 settled by the treaty. It remained, therefore, to be 
 settled between the contracting parties. But the contract- 
 ing parties differed. Who then must decide ? The stronger. 
 Hastings also argued that, if the English force was 
 withdrawn, Oude would certainly become a prey to anarchy, 
 and would probably be overrun by a Mahratta army. 
 That the finances of Oude were embarrassed he admitted. 
 But he contended, not without reason, that the embarrass- 
 
 10 ment was to be attributed to the incapacity and vices of 
 Asaph-ul-Dowlah himself, and that, if less were spent on 
 the troops, the only effect would be that more would be^ 
 squandered on worthless favourites. ^ 
 
 Hastings had intended, after settling the affairs of 
 Benares, to visit Lucknow, and there to confer with 
 Asaph-ul-Dowlah. But the obsequious courtesy of the 
 Nabob Vizier prevented this visit. With a small train he 
 hastened to meet the Governor-General. An interview 
 took place in the fortress which, from the crest of the pre- 
 
 20 cipitous rock of Chunar, looks down on the waters of the 
 Ganges. 
 
 At first sight it might appear impossible that the ne- 
 gotiation should come to an amicable close. Hastings 
 wanted an extraordinary supply of money. Asaph-ul- 
 Dowlah wanted to obtain a remission of what he already 
 owed. Such a difference seemed to admit of no com- 
 promise. There was, however, one course satisfactory to 
 both sides, one course by which it was possible to relieve 
 the finances both of Oude and of Bengal ; and that course 
 
 30 was adopted. It was simply this, that the Governor- 
 General and the Nabob Yizier should join to rob a third 
 party ; and the third party whom they determined to rob 
 was the parent of one of the robbers. 
 
 The mother of the late Nabob, and his wife, who was the 
 mother of the present Nabob, were known as the Begums or 
 Princesses of Oude. They had possessed great influence over 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 77 
 
 Sujah Dowlah, and had, at his death, been left in possession 
 of a splendid dotation. The domains of which they received 
 the rents and administered the government were of wide 
 extent. The treasure hoarded by the late Nabob, a treasure 
 which was popularly estimated at near three millions sterling, 
 was in their hands. They continued to occupy his favourite 
 palace at Fyzabad, the Beautiful Dwelling ; while Asaph-ul- 
 Dowlah held his court in the stately Lucknow, which he 
 had built for himself on the shores of the Goomti, and had 
 adorned with noble mosques and colleges. 10 
 
 Asaph-ul-Dowlah had already extorted considerable sums 
 from his mother. She had at length appealed to the English ; 
 and the English had interfered. A solemn compact had been 
 made, by which she consented to give her son some pecuniary 
 assistance, and he in his turn promised never to commit any 
 further invasion of her rights. This compact was formally 
 guaranteed by the government of Bengal. But times had 
 changed ; money was wanted ; and the power which had 
 given the guarantee was not ashamed to instigate the spoiler 
 to excesses such that even he shrank from them. 20 
 
 ^pD was necessary to find some pretext for a confiscation 
 inconsistent, not merely with plighted faith, not merely with 
 the ordinary rules of humanity and justice, but also with 
 that great law of filial piety which, even in the wildest tribes 
 of savages, even in those more degraded communities which 
 wither under the influence of a corrupt half -civilization, re- 
 tains a certain authority over the human mind. A pretext 
 was the last thing that Hastings was likely to want. The 
 insurrection at Benares had produced disturbances in Oude. 
 These disturbances it was convenient to impute to the Prin- 30 
 cesses. Evidence for the imputation there was scarcely any ; 
 unless reports wandering from one mouth to another, and 
 gaining something by every transmission, may be called 
 evidence. The accused were furnished with no charge ; they 
 were permitted to make no defence ; for the Governor-General 
 wisely considered that, if he tried them, he might not be able 
 
 e 
 
 r 
 
78 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 to find a ground for plundering them. It was agreed between 
 him and the Nabob Yizier that the noble ladies should, by a 
 sweeping measure of confiscation, be stripped of their domains 
 and treasures for the benefit of the Company, and that the 
 sums thus obtained should be accepted by the government of 
 Bengal in satisfaction of its claims on the government of 
 Oude. 
 
 While Asaph -ul-Dowlah was at Chunar, he was completely 
 subjugated by the clear and commanding intellect of the 
 
 10 English statesman. But when they had separated, the Yizier 
 began to reflect with uneasiness on the engagement into 
 which he had entered. His mother and grandmother pro- 
 tested and implored. His heart, deeply corrupted by absolute 
 power and licentious pleasures, yet not naturally unfeeling, 
 failed him in this crisis. Even the English resident at 
 Lucknow, though hitherto devoted to Hastings, shrank from 
 extreme measures. But the Governor-General was inex- 
 orable. He wrote to the resident in terms of the greatest 
 severity, and declared that, if the spoliation which had been 
 
 20 agreed upon were not instantly carried into effect, he would 
 himself go to Lucknow, and do that from which feebler 
 minds recoil with dismay. The resident, thus menaced, 
 waited on his Highness, and insisted that the treaty of 
 Chunar should be carried into full and immediate effect. 
 Asaph-ul-Dowlah yielded, making at the same time a solemn 
 protestation that he yielded to compulsion. The lands were 
 resumed ; but the treasure was not so easily obtained. It 
 was necessary to use violence. A body of the Company's 
 troops marched to Fyzabad, and forced the gates of the 
 
 30 palace. The Princesses were confined to their own apart- 
 ments. But still they refused to submit. Some more strin- 
 gent mode of coercion was to be found. A mode was found 
 of which, even at this distance of time, we cannot speak with- 
 out shame and sorrow. 
 
 There were at Fyzabab two ancient men, belonging to that 
 unhappy class which a practice, of immemorial antiquity in 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 m 
 
 the East, has excluded from the pleasures of love and from 
 the hope of posterity. It has always been held in Asiatic 
 courts that beings thus estranged from sympathy with their 
 kind are those whom princes may most safely trust. Sujah 
 Dowlah had been of this opinion. He had given his entire 
 confidence to the two eunuchs ; and after his death they 
 remained at the head of the household of his widow. 
 
 These two men were, by the orders of the British govern- 
 ment, seized, imprisoned, ironed, starved almost to death, in 
 order to extort money from the Princesses. After they had 10 
 been two months in confinement, their health gave way. 
 They implored permission to take a little exercise in the 
 garden of their prison. The officer who was in charge of 
 them stated that, if they were allowed this indulgence, there 
 was not the smallest chance of their escaping, and that their 
 irons really added nothing to the security of the custody in 
 which they were kept. He did not understand the plan of 
 his superiors. Their object in these inflictions was not/ 
 security but torture ; and all mitigation was refused. Yet 
 this was not the worst. It was resolved by an English 20 
 government that these two infirm old men should be de- 
 livered to the tormentors. For that purpose they were re- 
 moved to Lucknow. What horrors their dungeon there 
 witnessed can only be guessed. But there remains on the 
 records of Parliament, this letter, written by a British resi- 
 dent to a British soldier. 
 
 "Sir, the Nabob having determined to inflict corporal 
 punishment upon the prisoners under your guard, this is to 
 desire that his officers, when they shall come, may have free * 
 access to the prisoners, and be permitted to do with them as 30 
 they shall see proper." 
 
 While these barbarities were perpetrated at Lucknow,- 
 the Princesses were still under duresse at Fyzabad. Food 
 was allowed to enter their apartments only in such scanty 
 quantities that their female attendants were in danger of 
 perishing with hunger. Month after month this cruelty 
 
80 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 continued, till at length, after twelve hundred thousand 
 pounds had been wrung out of the Princesses, Hastings 
 began to think that he had really got to the bottom of their 
 revenue, and that no rigour could extort more. Then at 
 length the wretched men who were detained at Lucknow 
 regained their liberty. When their irons were knocked off, 
 and the doors of their prison opened, their quivering lips, the 
 tears which ran down their cheeks, and the thanksgivings 
 which they poured forth to the common Father of Mussul- 
 
 10 mans and Christians, melted even the stout hearts of the 
 English warriors who stood by. 
 
 There is a man to whom the conduct of Hastings, through 
 the whole of these proceedings, appears not only excusable 
 but laudable. There is a man who tells us that he "must 
 really be pardoned if he ventures to characterize as some- 
 thing preeminently ridiculous and wicked, the sensibility 
 which would balance against the preservation of British 
 India a little personal suffering, which was applied only so 
 long as the sufferers refused to deliver up a portion of that 
 
 20 wealth, the whole of which their own and their mistresses' 
 treason had forfeited." We cannot, we must own, envy the 
 reverend biographer, either his singular notion of what con- 
 stitutes preeminent wickedness, or his equally singular per- 
 ception of the preeminently ridiculous, lis this the generosity 
 of an English soldier? "Is this the charity of a Christian 
 priest ? Could neither of Mr. Gleig's professions teach him 
 the first rudiments of morality? *;Or is morality a thing 
 which may be well enough in sermons, but which has nothing 
 to do with biography ? 
 
 30 But we must not forget to do justice to Sir Elijah Impey's 
 conduct on this occasion. It was not indeed easy for him 
 to intrude himself into a business so entirely alien from all 
 his official duties. But there was something inexpressibly 
 alluring, we must suppose, in the peculiar rankness of the 
 infamy which was then to be got at Lucknow. He hurried 
 thither as fast as relays of palanquin-bearers could carry 
 

 WARREN HASTINGS. 81 
 
 him. A crowd of people came before him with affidavits 
 against the Begums, ready drawn in their hands. Those 
 affidavits he did not read. Some of them, indeed, he could 
 not read ; for they were in the dialects of Northern India, 
 and no interpreter was employed.* He administered the 
 oath to the deponents, with all possible expedition, and 
 asked not a single question, not even whether they had 
 perused the statements to which they swore. This work 
 performed, he got again into his palanquin, and posted back 
 to Calcutta, to be in time for the opening of term. The 10 
 cause was one which, by his own confession, lay altogether 
 out of his jurisdiction. Under the charter of justice, he had 
 no more right to inquire into crimes committed by natives in 
 Oude than the Lord President of the Court of Session of 
 Scotland to hold an assize at Exeter. He had no right to 
 try the Begums, nor did he pretend to try them. ~ With 
 what object, then, did he undertake so long a journey? 
 Evidently in order that he might give, in an irregular 
 manner, that sanction which in a regular manner he could 
 not give, to the crimes of those who had recently hired him ; 20 
 and in order that a confused mass of testimony which he did 
 not sift, which he did not even read, might acquire an 
 authority not properly belonging to it, from the signature of 
 the highest judicial functionary in India. 
 
 The time was approaching, however, when he was to be 
 stripped of that robe which has never, since the Revolution, 
 
 * This passage has been slightly altered. As it originally stood, 
 Sir Elijah Impey was described as ignorant of all the native languages 
 in which the depositions were drawn. A writer who apparently has 
 had access to some private source of information has contradicted 
 this statement, and has asserted that Sir Elijah knew Persian and 
 Bengalee. Some of the depositions were certainly in Persian. Those 
 therefore Sir Elijah might have read if he had chosen to do so. But 
 others were in the vernacular dialects of Upper India, with which it is 
 not alleged that he had any acquaintance. Why the Bengalee is 
 mentioned it is not easy to guess. Bengalee at Lucknow would have 
 been as useless as Portuguese in Switzerland. 
 
82 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 been disgraced so foully as by him. The state of India had 
 for some time occupied much of the attention of the British 
 Parliament. Towards the close of the American war, two 
 committees of the Commons sat on Eastern affairs. In one 
 Edmund Burke took the lead. The other was under the 
 presidency of the able and versatile Henry Dundas, then 
 Lord Advocate of Scotland. Great as are the changes 
 which, during the last sixty years, have taken place in our 
 Asiatic dominions, the reports which those committees laid 
 
 10 on the table of the House will still be found most interest- 
 ^J^> ^ ing and instructive. 
 
 There was as yet no connection between the Company and 
 either of the great parties in the state. The ministers had 
 no motive to defend Indian abuses. On the contrary, it was 
 for their interest to show, if possible, that the government 
 and patronage of our Oriental empire might, with advan- 
 tage, be transferred to themselves. The votes therefore, 
 which, in consequence of the reports made by the two 
 committees, were passed by the Commons, breathed the 
 
 20 spirit of stern and indignant justice. The severest epithets 
 were applied to several of the measures of Hastings, espe- 
 cially to the Rohilla war ; and it was resolved, on the 
 motion of Mr. Dundas, that the Company ought to recall 
 a Governor-General who had brought such calamities on the 
 Indian people, and such dishonour on the British name. An 
 act was parsed for limiting the jurisdiction of the Supreme 
 Court. The bargain which Hastings had made with the 
 Chief Justice was condemned in the strongest terms ; and an 
 address was presented to the King, praying that Impey might 
 
 30 be ordered home to answer for his misdeeds. 
 
 Impey was recalled by a letter from the Secretary of State. 
 But the proprietors of India Stock resolutely refused to dis- 
 miss Hastings from their service, and passed a resolution 
 affirming, what was undeniably true, that they were in- 
 trusted by law with the right of naming and removing their 
 Governor-General, and that they were not bound to obey the 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 83 
 
 directions of a single branch of the legislature with respect 
 to such nomination or removal. 
 
 Thus supported by his employers, Hastings remained at 
 the head of the government of Bengal till the spring of 
 1785. His administration, so eventful and stormy, closed in 
 almost perfect quiet. In the Council there was no regular 
 opposition to his measures. Peace was restored to India. 
 The Mahratta war had ceased. Hyder was no more. A 
 treaty had been concluded with his son, Tippoo ; and the 
 Carnatic had been evacuated by the armies of Mysore. 10 
 Since the termination of the American war, England had no 
 European enemy or rival in the Eastern seas. *** 
 
 On a general review of the long administration of 
 Hastings, it is impossible to deny that, against the great 
 crimes by which it is blemished, we have to set off great 
 public services. England had passed through a perilous 
 crisis. She still, indeed, maintained her place in the fore- 
 most rank of European powers ; and the manner in which 
 she had defended herself against fearful odds had inspired 
 surrounding nations with a high opinion both of her spirit 20 
 and of her strength. Nevertheless, in every part of the 
 world, except one, she had been a loser. Not only had she 
 been compelled to acknowledge the independence of thirteen 
 colonies peopled by her children, and to conciliate the Irish 
 by giving up the right of legislating for tliem ; but, in the 
 Mediterranean, in the Gulf of Mexico, on the coast of 
 Africa, on the continent of America, she had been compelled 
 to cede the fruits (jf her victories in former wars. Spain j 
 regained Minorca and Florida ; France regained Senegal, 
 Goree, and several West Indian Islands. The only quarter 30 
 of the world in which Britain had lost nothing was the 
 quarter in which her interests had been committed to the 
 care of Hastings. In spite of the utmost exertions both of 
 European and Asiatic enemies, the power of our country in 
 the East had been greatly augmented. Benares was sub- 
 jected ; the Nabob Yizier reduced to vassalage. That our 
 
84 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 influence had been thus extended, nay, that Fort William 
 and Fort St. George had not been occupied by hostile armies, 
 was owing, if we may trust the general voice of the English 
 in India, to the skill and resolution of Hastings. 
 
 His internal administration, with all its blemishes, gives 
 him a title to be considered as one of the most remarkable 
 men in our history. He dissolved the double government. 
 He transferred the direction of affairs to English hands. 
 Out of a frightf ul jinarchy, he educed at least a rude and 
 
 10 imperfect order. The whole organization by which justice 
 was dispensed, revenue collected, peace maintained through- 
 out a territory not inferior in population to the dominions of 
 Louis the Sixteenth or of the Emperor Joseph, was formed 
 and superintended by him. He boasted that every public 
 office, without exception, which existed when he left Bengal, 
 was his creation. It is quite true that this system, after all 
 the improvements suggested by the experience of sixty 
 years, still needs improvement, and that it was at first far 
 more defective than it now is. But whoever seriously con- 
 
 20 siders what it is to construct from the beginning the whole 
 of a machine so vast and complex as a government will allow 
 that what Hastings effected deserves high admiration. To 
 compare the most celebrated European ministers to him 
 seems to us as unjust as it would be to compare the best 
 baker in London with Robinson Crusoe, who, before he 
 could bake a single loaf, had to make his plough and his 
 harrow, his fences and his scarecrows, his sickle and his flail, 
 his mill and his oven. 
 
 The just fame of Hastings rises still higher, when we 
 
 30 reflect that he was not bred a statesman ; that he was sent 
 from school to a cojintingihouse ; and that he was employed 
 during the prime of his manhood as a commercial agent, far 
 from all intellectual society. f^^j^^ 
 
 Nor must we forget that all, or almost all,'5to whom, when 
 placed at the head of affairs, he could apply for assistance, 
 were persons who owed as little as himself, or less than him- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 85 
 
 self, to education. A minister in Europe finds himself, on 
 the first day on which he commences his functions, sur- 
 rounded by experienced public servants, the depositaries of 
 official traditions. Hastings had no such help. His own 
 reflection, his own energy, were to supply the place of all 
 Downing Street and Somerset House. Having had no 
 facilities for learning, he was forced to teach. He had 
 first to form himself, and then to form his instruments ; 
 and this not in a single department, but in all the depart- , 
 ments of the administration. 1© 
 
 It must be added that, while engaged in this most arduous 
 task, he was constantly trammelled by orders from home, 
 and frequently borne down by a majority in council. The 
 preservation of an Empire from a formidable combination of 
 foreign enemies, the construction of a government in all its 
 parts, were accomplished by him, while every ship brought 
 out bales of censure from his employers, and while the 
 records of every consultation were filled with acrimonious 
 minutes by his colleagues. We believe that there never 
 was a public man whose temper was so severely tried ; not 20 
 Marlborough, when thwarted by the Dutch Deputies ; not 
 Wellington, when he had to deal at once with the Portu- 
 guese Regency, the Spanish Juntas, and Mr. Percival. But 
 the temper of Hastings was equal to almost any trial. It 
 was not sweet ; but it was calm. Quick and vigorous as his 
 intellect was, the patience with which he endured the most 
 cruel vexations, till a remedy could be found, resembled the 
 patience of stupidity. He seems to have been capable of 
 resentment, bitter and long-enduring ; yet his resentment 
 so seldom hurried him into any blunder that it may be 30 
 doubted whether what appeared to be revenge was any 
 thing but policy. / 
 
 The effect of this singular equanimity was that he always \ 
 had the full command of all the resources of one of the most I 
 fertile minds that ever existed. Accordingly no complica- / 
 tion of perils and embarrassments could perplex him. For 
 
 \ 
 
86 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 every difficulty he had a contrivance ready ; and, whatever 
 may be thought of the justice and humanity of some of his 
 contrivances, it is certain that they seldom failed to serve 
 the purpose for which they, were designed. 
 ^Together with this extraordinary talent for devising ex- 
 pedients, Hastings possessed, in a very high degree, another 
 talent scarcely less necessary to a man in his situation ; we 
 mean the talent for conducting political controversy. It is 
 as necessary to an English statesman in the East that he 
 
 10 should be able to write, as it is to a minister in this country 
 that he should be able to speak. It is chiefly by the oratory 
 of a public man here that the nation judges of his powers. 
 It is from the letters and reports of a public man in India 
 that the dispensers of patronage form their estimate of him. 
 In each case, the talent which receives peculiar encourage- 
 ment is developed, perhaps at the expense of the other 
 powers. In this country, we sometimes hear men speak 
 above their abilities. It is not very unusual to find gentle- 
 men in the Indian service who write above their abilities. 
 
 20 The English politician is a little too much of a debater ; the 
 Indian politician a little too much of an essayist. /y 
 
 JOf the numerous servants of the Company who have dis- 
 tinguished themselves as framers of minutes and despatches, j 
 Hastings stands at the head. He was indeed the person 
 who gave to the official writing of the Indian governments 
 the character which it still retains. He was matched against 
 no common antagonist. But even Francis was forced to 
 acknowledge, with sullen and resentful candour, that there 
 was no contending against the pen of Hastings. And, in 
 
 30 truth, the Governor-General's power of making out a case, 
 of perplexing what it was inconvenient that people should 
 understand, and of setting in the clearest point of view 
 whatever would bear the light, was incomparable. His 
 style must be praised with some reservation. It was in 
 general forcible, pure, and polished ; but it was sometimes, 
 though not often, turgid, and, on one or two occasions, even 
 
"7 
 
 WARREN HASTINGS. 87 
 
 \& bombastic. Perhaps the fondness of Hastings for Persian 
 literature may have tended to corrupt his taste. ^ 
 
 And, since we have referred to his literary tastes, it would 
 be most unjust not to praise the judicious encouragement 
 which, as a ruler, he gave to liberal studies and curious 
 researches. His patronage was extended, with prudent 
 generosity, to voyages, travels, experiments, publications. 
 He did little, it is true, towards introducing into India 
 the learning of the West. To make the young natives of 
 Bengal familiar with Milton and Adam Smith, to substitute 10 
 
 V the geography, astronomy, aud surgery of Europe for the $A^ 
 ^ dotages of the Brahminical superstition, or for the imperfect . l 
 science of ancient Greece transfused through Arabian exposi- 
 tions, this was a scheme reserved to crown the beneficent 
 administration of a far more virtuous ruler. Still, it is 
 impossible to refuse high commendation to a man who, 
 taken from a ledger to govern an empire, overwhelmed by 
 public business, surrounded by people as busy as himself, 
 and separated by thousands of leagues from almost all 
 literary society, gave, both by his example and by his 20 
 munificence, a great impulse to learning. In Persian and 
 Arabic literature he was deeply skilled. With the Sanscrit 
 he was not himself acquainted ; but those who first brought 
 that language to the knowledge of European students owed 
 much to his encouragement. It was under his protection 
 that the Asiatic Society commenced its honourable career. 
 That distinguished body selected him to be its first presi- 
 dent ; but, with excellent taste and feeling, he declined the 
 honour in favour of Sir William Jones. But the chief ad- 
 vantage which the students of Oriental letters derived from 30 
 his patronage remains to be mentioned. The Pundits of 
 Bengal had always looked with great jealousy on the 
 attempts of foreigners to pry into those mysteries which 
 were locked up in the sacred dialect. Their religion had 
 been persecuted by the Mahommedans. What they knew 
 of the spirit of the Portuguese government might warrant 
 
88 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 them in apprehending persecution from Christians. That 
 apprehension, the wisdom and moderation of Hastings re- 
 moved. He was the first foreign ruler who succeeded in 
 gaining the confidence of the hereditary priests of India, ^ 
 and who induced them to lay open to English scholars the ^^ 
 secrets of the old Brahminical theology and jurisprudence. 0> 
 It is indeed impossible to deny that, in the great art of 
 inspiring large masses of human beings with confidence and 
 attachment, no ruler ever surpassed Hastings. If he had 
 
 10 made himself popular with the English by giving up the 
 Bengalese to extortion and oppression, or if, on the other 
 hand, he had conciliated the Bengalese and alienated the 
 English, there would have been no cause for wonder. What 
 is peculiar to him is that, being the chief of a small band of 
 strangers who exercised boundless power over a great indi- 
 genous population, he made himself beloved both by the 
 subject many and by the dominant few. The affection felt 
 for him by the civil service was singularly ardent and con- 
 stant. Through all his disasters and perils, his brethren 
 
 20 stood by him with steadfast loyalty. The army, at the same 
 time, loved him as armies have seldom loved any but the 
 greatest chiefs who have led them to victory. Even in his 
 disputes with distinguished military men, he could always .. 
 count on the support of the military profession. While such 
 was his empire over the hearts of his countrymen, he enjoyed 
 among the natives a popularity, such as other governors 
 have perhaps better merited, but such as no other governor 
 has been able to attain. He spoke their vernacular dialects 
 with facility and precision. He was intimately acquainted 
 
 30 with their feelings and usages. On one or two occasions, 
 for great ends, he deliberately acted in defiance of their 
 opinion ; but on such occasions he gained more in their 
 respect than he lost in their love. In general, he carefully 
 avoided all that could shock their national or religious pre- 
 judices. His administration was indeed in many respects 
 faulty ; but the Bengalee standard of good government was 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 89 
 
 not high. Under the Nabobs, the hurricane of Mahratta 
 cavalry had passed annually over the rich alluvial plain. 
 But even the Mahratta shrank from a conflict with the 
 mighty children of the sea ; and the immense rice-harvests 
 of the Lower Ganges were safely gathered in, under the 
 protection of the English sword. The first English con- 
 querors had been more rapacious and merciless even than 
 the Mahrattas ; but that generation had passed away. 
 Defective as was the police, heavy as were the public 
 burdens, it is probable that the oldest man in Bengal could 10 
 not recollect a season of equal security and prosperity. For 
 the first time within living memory, the province was placed 
 under a government strong enough to prevent others from 
 robbing, and not inclined to play the robber itself. These 
 things inspired good-will. At the same time, the constant 
 success of Hastings and the manner in which he extricated 
 himself from every difficulty made him an object of super- 
 stitious admiration ; and the more than regal splendour 
 which he sometimes displayed dazzled a people who have 
 much in common with children. Even now, after the lapse 20 
 of more than fifty years, the natives of India still talk of 
 him as the greatest of the English ; and nurses sing children 
 to sleep with a jingling ballad about the fleet horses and 
 richly caparisoned elephants of Sahib Warren Hostein. 
 
 The gravest offences of which Hastings was guilty did not 
 affect his popularity with the people of Bengal ; for those 
 offences were committed against neighbouring states. Those 
 offences, as our readers must have perceived, we are not dis- 
 posed to vindicate ; yet, in order that the censure may be 
 justly apportioned to the transgresson, it is fit that the 30 
 motive of the criminal should be taken into consideration. 
 The motive which prompted the worst acts of Hastings was 
 misdirected and ill-regulated public spirit. The rules of 
 justice, the sentiments of humanity, the plighted faith of 
 treaties, were in his view as nothing, when opposed to the 
 immediate interest of the state. This is no justification, 
 
90 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 (according to the principles either of morality, or of what 
 Jwe believe to be identical with morality, namely, far-sighted 
 policy. Nevertheless the common sense of mankind, which 
 in questions of this sort seldom goes far wrong, will always 
 recognise a distinction between crimes which originate in an 
 inordinate zeal for the commonwealth, and crimes which 
 originate in selfish cupidity. To the benefit of this distinc- 
 tion Hastings is fairly entitled. There is, we conceive, no 
 reason to suspect that the Rohilla war, the revolution of 
 
 10 Benares, or the spoliation of the Princesses of Oude, added a 
 rupee to his fortune. We will not affirm that, in all pe- 
 cuniary dealings, he showed that punctilious integrity, that 
 dread of the faintest appearance of evil, which is now the 
 glory of the Indian civil service. But when the school in 
 which he had been trained and the temptations to which he 
 was exposed are considered, we are more inclined to praise 
 him for his general uprightness with respect to money, than 
 rigidly to blame him for a few transactions which would 
 now be called indelicate and irregular, but which even now 
 
 20 would hardly be designated as corrupt. A rapacious man he 
 certainly was not. Had he been so, he would infallibly have 
 returned to his country the richest subject in Europe. We 
 speak within compass, when we say that, without applying 
 any extraordinary pressure, he might easily have obtained 
 from the zemindars of the Company's provinces and from 
 neighbouring princes, in the course of thirteen years, more 
 than three millions sterling, and might have outshone the 
 splendour of Carlton House and of the Palais Royal. He 
 brought home a fortune such as a Governor-General, fond of 
 
 30 state, and careless of thrift, might easily, during so long a 
 tenure of office, save out of his legal salary. Mrs. Hastings, 
 we are afraid, was less scrupulous. It was generally be- 
 lieved that she accepted presents with great alacrity, and 
 that she thus formed, without the connivance of her hus- 
 band, a private hoard amounting to several lacs of rupees. 
 We are the more inclined to give credit to this story, because 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 91 
 
 Mr. Gleig, who cannot but have heard it, does not, as far as 
 we have observed, notice or contradict it. 
 
 The influence of Mrs. Hastings over her husband was 
 indeed such that she might easily have obtained much larger 
 sums than she was ever accused of receiving. At length her 
 health began to give way ; and the Governor-General, much 
 against his will, was compelled to send her to England. He 
 seems to have loved her with that love which is peculiar to 
 men of strong minds, to men whose affection is not easily 
 won or widely diffused. The talk of Calcutta ran for some 10 
 time on the luxurious manner in which he fitted up the 
 round-house of an Indiaman for her accommodation, on the 
 profusion of sandal-wood and carved ivory which adorned 
 her cabin, and on the thousands of rupees which had been 
 expended in order to procure for her the society of an agree- 
 able female companion during the voyage. We may remark 
 here that the letters of Hastings to his wife are exceedingly 
 charact eristic. They are tender, and full of indications of 
 esteem and confidence ; but, at the same time, a little more 
 ceremonious than is usual in so intimate a relation. The 20 
 solemn courtesy with which he compliments "his elegant 
 Marian" reminds us now and then of the dignified air with 
 which Sir Charles Grandison bowed over Miss Byron's hand 
 in the cedar parlour. \ * * 
 
 After some months Hastings prepared to follow his wife 
 to England. When it was announced that he was about to 
 quit his office, the feeling of the society which he had so long 
 governed manifested itself by many signs. Addresses poured 
 in from Europeans and Asiatics, from civil functionaries, 
 soldiers, and traders. On the day on which he delivered up 30 
 the keys of office, a crowd of friends and admirers formed a 
 lane to the quay where he embarked. Several barges escorted 
 him far down the river ; and some attached friends refused 
 to quit him till the low coast of Bengal was fading from the 
 view, and till the pilot was leaving the ship. 
 
 Of his voyage little is known, except that he amused him- 
 
92 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 self with books and with his pen ; and that, among the com- 
 positions by which he beguiled the tediousness of that long fc> 
 leisure, was a pleasing imitation of Horace's Otium Divos 
 rogat This little poem was inscribed to Mr. Shore, after- 
 wards Lord Teignmouth, a man of whose integrity, humanity, 
 and honour, it is impossible to speak too highly ; but who, 
 like some other excellent members of the civil service, ex- 
 tended to the conduct of his friend Hastings an indulgence 
 of which his own conduct never stood in need. 
 
 10 The voyage was, for those times, very speedy. Hastings 
 was little more than four months on the sea. In June, 1785, 
 he landed at Plymouth, posted to London, appeared at Court, 
 paid his respects in Leadenhall Street, and then retired with 
 his wife to Cheltenham. 
 
 He was greatly pleased with his reception. The King 
 treated him with marked distinction. The Queen, who had 
 already incurred much censure on account of the favour 
 which, in spite of the ordinary severity of her virtue, she 
 had shown to the "elegant Marian," was not less gracious 
 
 20 to Hastings. The Directors received him in a solemn sitting ; 
 and their chairman read to him a vote of thanks which they 
 had passed without -one dissentient voice. " I find myself," 
 said Hastings, in a letter written about a quarter of a year 
 after his arrival in England, " I find myself every where, and 
 universally, treated with evidences, apparent even to my own 
 observation, that I possess the good opinion of my country." 
 The confident and exulting tone of his correspondence 
 about this time is the more remarkable, because he had 
 already received ample notice of the attack which was in 
 
 30 preparation. Within a week after he landed at Plymouth, 
 Burke gave notice in the House of Commons of a motion 
 seriously affecting a gentleman lately returned from India. 
 The session, however, was then so far advanced, that it was 
 impossible to enter on so extensive and important a subject. 
 
 Hastings, it is clear, was not sensible of the danger of his 
 position. Indeed that sagacity, that judgment, that readi- 
 
(jj Caa^ 
 
 WARREN HASTING& 93 
 
 ness in devising expedients, which had distinguished him 
 in the East, seemed now to have forsaken him ; not that 
 his abilities were at all impaired ; not that he was not 
 still the same man who had triumphed over Francis and 
 Nuncomar, who had made the Chief Justice and the Nabob 
 Vizier his tools, who had deposed Cheyte Sing, and repelled 
 Hyder Ali. But an oak, as Mr. Grattan finely said, should 
 not be transplanted at fifty. A man who, having left Eng- 
 land when a boy, returns to it after thirty or forty years 
 passed in India, will find, be his talents what they may, 10 
 that he has much both to learn and to unlearn before he 
 can take a place among English statesmen. The working 
 of a representative system, the war of parties, the arts of 
 debate, the influence of the press, are startling novelties to 
 him. Surrounded on every side by new, machines and new 
 tactics, he is as, much bewildered as Hannibal would have 
 been at Waterloo, or ThemistBcles at Trafalgar. His very^~ '"h 
 acuteness deludes him. His very vigour causes him to 
 stumble. The more correct his maxims, when applied to 
 the state of society to which he is accustomed, the more 20 
 certain they are to lead him astray. This was strikingly 
 the case with Hastings. In India he had a bad hand ; 
 but he was master of the game, and he won every stake. 
 In England he held excellent cards, if he had known how 
 to play them ; and it was chiefly by his own errors that 
 he was brought to the verge of ruin. ^ 
 
 - Of all his errors the most serious was perhaps the choice '<■ 
 of a champion. Clive, in similar circumstances, had made a 
 singularly happy selection. He put himself into the hands 
 of Wedderburn, afterwards Lord Loughborough, one of the 30 
 few great advocates who have also been great in the House 
 of Commons. To the defence of Clive, therefore, nothing 
 was wanting, neither learning nor knowledge of the world, 
 neither forensic acuteness nor that eloquence which charms 
 political assemblies. Hastings intrusted his interests to a 
 very different person, a major in the Bengal army, named 
 
94 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 Scott. This gentleman had been sent over from India 
 some time before as the agent of the Governor-General. 
 It was rumoured that his services were rewarded with 
 Oriental munificence ; and we believe that he received 
 much more than Hastings could conveniently spare. The 
 major obtained a seat in Parliament, and was there re- 
 garded as the organ of his employer. It was evidently 
 impossible that a gentleman so situated could speak with 
 the authority which belongs to an independent position. 
 
 10 Nor had the agent of Hastings the talents necessary for 
 obtaining the ear of an assembly which, accustomed to 
 listen to great orators, had naturally become fastidious. 
 He was always on his legs ; he was very tedious ; and he 
 had only one topic, the merits and wrongs of Hastings. 
 Every body who knows the House of Commons will easily 
 guess what followed. The Major was soon considered as 
 the greatest bore of his time. His exertions were not 
 confined to Parliament. There was hardly a day on which 
 the newspapers did not contain some puff upon Hastings 
 
 20 signed Asiaticus or Bengalensis, but known to be written 
 by the indefatigable Scott ; and hardly a month in which 
 some bulky pamphlet on the same subject, and from the 
 same pen, did not pass to the trunk-makers and the 
 pastry-cooks. As to this gentleman's capacity for conduct- 
 ing a delicate question through Parliament, our readers 
 will want no evidence beyond that which they will find in 
 letters preserved in these volumes. We will give a single 
 specimen of his temper and judgment. He designated the 
 greatest man theiTTiving as " that reptile Mr. Burke." 
 
 30 In spite, however, of this unfortunate choice, the general 
 aspect of affairs was favourable to Hastings. The King 
 was on his side. The Company and its servants were 
 zealous in his cause. Among public men he had many 
 ardent friends. Such were Lord Mansfield, who had out- 
 lived the vigour of his body, but not that of his mind ; 
 and Lord Lansdowne, who, though unconnected with any 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 95 
 
 party, retained the importance which belongs to great 
 talents and knowledge. The ministers were generally 
 believed to be favourable to the late Governor-General. 
 They owed their power to the clamour which had been , -7 &V3 
 raised against Mr. Fox's East India Bill. The authors of 
 that bill, when accused of invading vested rights, and of'" 
 setting up powers unknown to the constitution, had de-^ ;■ A 
 fended themselves by pointing to the crimes of Hastings, ^ ^ 
 and by arguing that abuses so extraordinary justified 
 extraordinary measures. Those who, by opposing that 10 
 bill, had raised themselves to the head of affairs, would 
 naturally be inclined to extenuate the evils which had 
 been made the plea for administering so violent a remedy ; 
 and such, in fact, was their general disposition. The Lord 
 Chancellor Thurlow, in particular, whose great- place and 
 force of intellect gave him a weight in the government 
 inferior only to that of Mr.. Pitt, espoused the cause of ^^ 
 Hastings with indecorous violence. Mr. Pitt, though he 
 had censured many parts of the Indian system, had 
 studiously abstained from saying a word against the late 20 
 chief of the Indian government. To Major Scott, indeed, 
 the young minister had in private extolled Hastings as a 
 great, a wonderful man, who had the highest claims on 
 the government. There was only one objection to granting 
 all that so eminent a servant of the public could ask. j_j^ 
 The resolution of censure still remained on the Journals 
 of the House of Commons. - That resolution was, indeed, 
 unjust ; but, till it was rescinded, could the minister 
 advise the King to bestow any mark of approbation on 
 the person censured ? If Major Scott is to be trusted, Mr. 30 
 Pitt declared that this was the only reason which pre- 
 vented the government from conferring a peerage on the 
 late Governor- General. Mr. Dun das was the only inportant 
 member of the administration who was deeply committed 
 to a different view of the subject. He had moved the 
 resolutions which created the difficulty ; but even from him 
 
96 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 little was to be apprehended. Since he presided over the 
 committee on Eastern affairs, great changes had taken 
 place. He was surrounded by new allies ; he had fixed his 
 hopes on new objects ; and whatever may have been his 
 good qualities, — and he had many, — flattery itself never 
 reckoned rigid consistency in the number. 
 
 From the ministry, therefore, Hastings had every reason 
 to expect support ; and the ministry was very powerful. 
 The Opposition was loud and vehement against him. But 
 
 10 the Opposition, though formidable from the wealth and 
 influence of some of its members, and from the admirable 
 talents and eloquence of others, was outnumbered in par- 
 liament, and odious throughout the country. Nor, as far 
 as we can judge, was the Opposition generally desirous to 
 engage in so serious an undertaking as the impeachment 
 of an Indian Governor. Such an impeachment must last 
 for years. It must impose on the chiefs of the party an 
 immense load of labour. Yet it could scarcely, in any 
 manner, affect the event of the great political game. The 
 
 20 followers ^oT the coalition were therefore more inclined to^ 
 revile Hastings than to prosecute him. They lost no 
 opportunity of coupling his name with the names of the 
 most hateful tyrants of whom history makes mention. The-^ 
 wits of Brooks's aimed their keenest sarcasms both at his § 
 public and at his domestic life. Some fine diamonds which 9i 
 he had presented, as it was rumoured, to the royal family, 
 and a certain richly carved ivory bed which the Queen 
 had done him the honour to accept from him, were 
 favourite subjects of ridicule. One lively poet proposed 
 
 30 that the great acts of the fair Marian's present husband 
 should be immortalized by the pencil of his predecessor ; 
 and that Imhoff should be employed to embellish the 
 House of Commons with paintings of the bleeding Rohillas, 
 of Nuncomar swinging, of Cheyte Sing letting himself 
 ^ni down to the Ganges. Another, in an exquisitely humorous 
 
 .^t parody of Virgil's third eclogue, propounded the question 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 97 
 
 what that mineral couldibe of which the rays had power 
 
 to make the most austere of princesses the friend of a 
 
 wanton. A third described, with gay malevolence, the 
 
 - } gorgeous appearance of Mrs. Hastings at St. James's, the 
 
 Jr galaxy of jewels, torn from Indian Begums, which adorned ^ 
 
 /^ vher head-dress, her necklace gleaming with future votes, 
 
 and the depending questions that shone upon her ears. s ->J 
 Satirical attacks of this description, and perhaps a motion 
 for a vote of censure, would have satisfied the great body 
 of the Opposition. >^But there were two men whose indig- 10 
 nation was not to be so appeased, Philip Francis and 
 Edmund Burke. 
 
 Francis had recently entered the House of Commons, and 
 had already established a character there for industry and 
 talent. He laboured indeed under one most unfortunate 
 defect, want of fluency. But he occasionally expressed him- 
 self with a dignity and energy worthy of the greatest orators. 
 Before he had been many days in parliament, he incurred the 
 bitter dislike of Pitt, who constantly treated him with as 
 much asperity as the laws of debate would allows Neither 20 
 lapse of years nor change of scene had mitigated the enmities^^/^/ 
 which Francis had brought back from the East. After his 
 usual fashion, he mistook his malevolence for virtue, nursed 
 it, as preachers tell us that we ought to nurse our good dis- 
 positions, and paraded it, on all occasions, with Pharisaical 
 ostentation. 
 
 The zeal of Burke was still fiercer ; but it was far purer. 
 Men unable to understand the elevation of his mind have ^ 
 tried to find out some discreditable motive for the vehemence Jj^ 
 and pertinacity which he showed on this occasion. But they 30 
 have altogether failed. The idle story that he had some 
 private slight to revenge has long been given up, even by 
 the advocates of Hastings. Mr. Gleig supposes that Burke 
 was actuated by party spirit, that he retained a bitter 
 remembrance of the fall of the coalition, that he attributed 
 that fall to the exertions of the East India interest, and that 
 
98 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 he considered Hastings as the head and the representative of 
 that interest. This explanation seems to be sufficiently 
 refuted by a reference to dates. The hostility of Burke to 
 Hastings commenced long before the coalition ; and lasted 
 long after Burke had become a^strenuous supporter of those 
 by whom the coalition had been defeated. It began when 
 Burke and Fox, closely allied together, were attacking the 
 influence of the crown, and calling for peace with the 
 American republic. It continued till Burke, alienated from 
 10 Fox, and loaded with the favours of the crown, died, preach- 
 ing a crusade against the French republic. It seems absurd 
 to attribute to the events of 1784 an enmity which began in 
 1781, and which retained undiminished force long after 
 persons far more deeply implicated than Hastings in the 
 events of .1784 had been cordially forgiven. ^And why should 
 we look for any other explanation of Burke's conduct than A 
 that which we find on the surface ? The plain truth is that 
 Hastings had committed some great crimes, and that the 
 thought of those crimes made the blood of Burke boil in his 
 20 veins. For Burke was a man in whom compassion for suffer- 
 ing, and hatred of injustice and tyranny, were as strong as i 
 " Las Casas or Clarkson. And although in him, as in Las 
 
 ^"^[^Casas and in Clarkson, these noble feelings were alloyed with, 
 the infirmity which belongs to human nature, he is, like 
 them, entitled to this great praise, that he devoted years of 
 intense labour to the service of a people with whom he had 
 neither blood nor language, neither religion nor manners in 
 common, and from whom no requital, no thanks, no applause 
 could be expected. 
 ,. .^.(W His knowledge of India was such as few even of those 
 Europeans who have passed many years in that country have 
 attained, and such as certainly was never attained by any 
 public man who had not quitted Europe. He had studied 
 the history, the laws, and the usages of the East with an 
 industry such as is seldom found united to so much genius 
 and so much sensibility. Others have perhaps been equally 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 99 
 
 laborious, and have collected an equal mass of materials. 
 /But the manner in which Burke brought his higher powers 
 of intellect to work on statements of facts, and on tables of 
 figures, was peculiar to himself. Jin every part of those huge 
 bales of Indian information which repelled almost all other 
 readers, his mind, at once philosophical and poetical, found 
 something to instruct or to delight. His reason analysed 
 
 d <J<and digested those vast and shapeless masses ; his imagina- 
 tion animated and coloured them. Out of darkness, and 
 dulness, and confusion, he formed a multitude of ingenious 10 . • 
 
 .^h theories and vivid pictures. He had, in the highest degree, 
 that noble faculty whereby man is able to live in the past 
 and in the future, in the distant and in the unreal. India 
 and its inhabitants were not to him, as to most Englishmen, 
 mere names and abstractions, but a real country and a real / 
 people. The burning sun, the strange vegetation of thej* 
 palm and the cocoa tree, the rice-field, the tank, the huge -* 
 trees, older than the Mogul empire, under which the village 
 crowds assemble, the thatched roof of the peasant's hut, the aj) 
 rich tracery of the mosque where the imaum prays with his, 20 
 face to Mecca, the drums, and banners, and gaudy idols, trie ^ . t , 
 devotees swinging in the air, the graceful maiden, with the 
 pitcher on her head, descending the steps to the river-side, 
 the black faces, the long beards, the yellow streaks of sect, 
 the turbans and the flowing robes, the spears and the silver 
 maces, the elephants with their canopies of state, the gor- 
 geous palanquin of the prince, and the close litter of the 
 noble lady, all those things were to him as the objects amidst 
 which his own life had been passed, as the objects which lay 
 on the road between Beaconsfield and St. James's Street. 30 
 All India was present to the eye of his mind, from the halls 
 where suitors laid gold and perfumes at the feet of sovereigns 
 to the wild moor where the gipsy camp was pitched, from 
 the bazars, humming like bee -hives with the crowd of 
 buyers and sellers, to the jungle where the lonely courier 
 shakes his bunch of iron rings to scare away the hyaenas. 
 
 Qf> * 
 
 s 
 
ywi 
 
 •es 
 in 
 
 100 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 He had just as lively an idea of the insurrection at Benares 
 as of Lord George Gordon's riots, and of the execution 
 Nunconiar as of the execution of Dr. Dodd. Oppression 
 Bengal was to him the same thing as'oppression in the streets 
 of London. 
 
 He saw that Hastings had been guilty of some most 
 unjustifiable acts. All that followed was natural and neces- 
 sary in a mind like Burke's. His imagination and his ^ 
 passions, once excited, hurried him beyond the bounds of 
 
 10 justice and good sense. His reason, powerful as it was, U 
 became the slave of feelings which it should have controlled. 
 His indignation, virtuous in its origin, acquired too much of 
 the character of personal aversion. He could see no miti- 
 gating circumstance, no redeeming merit. His temper, 
 which, though generous and affectionate, had always been 
 irritable, had now been made almost savage by bodily 
 infirmities and mental vexations. Conscious of great powers 
 and great virtues, he found himself, in age and poverty, a 
 mark for the hatred of a perfidious court and a deluded 
 
 20 people. In Parliament his eloquence was out of date. A 
 young generation, which knew him not, had filled the House. 
 Whenever he rose to speak, his voice was drowned by the 
 unseemly interruptions of lads who were in their cradles 
 when his orations on the Stamp Act called forth the applause s 
 of the great Earl of Chatham. These things had produced 
 on his proud and sensitive spirit an effect at which we cannot 
 wonder. He could no longer discuss any question with 
 calmness, or make allowance for honest differences of opinion. 
 Those who think that he was more violent and acrimonious 
 
 30 in debates about India than on other occasions are ill 
 informed respecting the last years of his life. In the 
 discussions on the Commercial Treaty with the Court of 
 Versailles, on the Regency, on the French Revolution, he 
 showed even more virulence than in conducting the impeach- 
 ment. Indeed it may be remarked that the very persons 
 who called him a mischievous maniac, for condemning in 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 101 
 
 burning words the Rohilla war and the spoliation of the 
 Begums, exalted him into a prophet as soon as he began to 
 declaim, with greater vehemence, and not with greater, f 
 reason, against the taking of the Bastile and the insults^ 
 offered to Marie Antoinette. To us he appears to have been 
 neither a maniac in the former case, nor a prophet in the 
 latter, but in both cases a great and good man, led into 
 extravagance by a tempestuous sensibility which domineered 
 over all his faculties. 
 
 It may be doubted whether the personal antipathy of 10 
 Francis, or the nobler indignation of Burke, would have 
 led their party to adopt extreme measures against Hastings, 
 if his own conduct had been judicious. He should have 
 felt that, great as his public services had been, he was not 
 faultless ; and should have been content to make his escape, 
 without aspiring to the honours of a triumph. He and his 
 agent took a different view. They were impatient for the 
 rewards which, as they conceived, were deferred only till 
 Burke's attack should be over. They accordingly resolved 
 to force on a decisive action, with an enemy for whom, if 20 
 they had been wise, they would have made a bridge of vO^ 
 gold. On the first day of the session of 1786, Major Scott jh 
 reminded Burke of the notice given in the preceding year, 
 and asked whether it was seriously intended to bring any 
 charge against the late Governor-General. This challenge 
 left no course open to the Opposition, except to come 
 forward as accusers, or to acknowledge themselves calum- 
 niators. The administration of Hastings had not been so 
 blameless, nor was the great party of Fox and North so 
 feeble, that it could be prudent to venture on so bold 30 
 a defiance. The leaders of the Opposition instantly returned 
 the only answer which they could with honour return ; and 
 the whole party was irrevocably pledged to a prosecution. 
 
 Burke began his operations by applying for papers. 
 Some of the documents for which he asked were refused 
 by the ministers, who, in the debate, held language such 
 
102 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 as strongly confirmed the prevailing opinion, that they 
 intended to support Hastings. In April the charges were 
 laid on the table. They had been drawn by Burke with 
 great ability, though in a form too much resembling that 
 of a pamphlet. Hastings was furnished with a copy of 
 the accusation ; and it was intimated to him that he might, 
 if he thought fit, be heard in his own defence at the bar 
 of the Commons. 
 
 Here again Hastings was pursued by the same fatality 
 
 10 which had attended him ever since the day when he set 
 foot on English ground. It seemed to be decreed that this 
 man, so politic and so successful in the East, should com- 
 mit nothing but blunders in Europe. Any judicious adviser 
 would have told him that the best thing which he could 
 do would be to make an eloquent, forcible, and affecting 
 oration at the bar of the House ; but that, if he could 
 not trust himself to speak, and found it necessary to read, 
 he ought to be as concise as possible. Audiences accus- 
 tomed to extemporaneous debating of the highest excellence 
 
 20 are always impatient of long written compositions. Hast- 
 ings, however, sat down as he would have done at the 
 Government-house in Bengal, and prepared a paper of 
 immense length. That paper, if recorded on the consulta- 
 tions of an Indian administration, would have been justly 
 praised as a very able minute. But it was now out of 
 place. It fell flat, as the best written defence must have 
 fallen flat, on an assembly accustomed to the animated and 
 strenuous conflicts of Pitt and Fox. The members, as soon 
 as their curiosity about the face and demeanour of so emi- 
 
 30 nent a stranger was satisfied, walked away to dinner, and 
 left Hastings to tell his story till midnight to the clerks 
 and the Sergeant-at-arms. 
 
 All preliminary steps having been duly taken, Burke, 
 in the beginning of June, brought forward the charge 
 relating to the Rohilla war. He acted discreetly in plac- 
 ing this accusation in the van ; for Dundas had formerly 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 103 
 
 moved, and the House had adopted, a resolution condemn- 
 ing, in the most severe terms, the policy followed by 
 Hastings with regard to Rohilcund. Dundas had little, 
 or rather nothing, to say in defence of his own consistency ; 
 but he put a bold face on the matter, and opposed the 
 motion. Among other things, he declared that, though he 
 still thought the Rohilla war unjustifiable, he considered 
 the services which Hastings had subsequently rendered to 
 the state as sufficient to atone even for so great an offence. 
 Pitt did not speak, but voted with Dundas ; and Hastings 10 
 was absolved by a hundred and nineteen votes against sixty- 
 seven. 
 
 Hastings was now confident of victory. It seemed, indeed, 
 that he had reason to be so. The Rohilla war was, of all 
 his measures, that which his accusers might with greatest 
 advantage assail. It had been condemned by the Court of 
 Directors. It had been condemned by the House of Com- 
 mons. It had been condemned by Mr. Dundas, who had 
 since become the chief minister of the Crown for Indian 
 affairs. Yet Burke, having chosen this strong ground, had 20 
 been completely defeated on it. That, having failed here, 
 he should succeed on any point, was generally thought 
 impossible. It was rumoured at the clubs and coffee-houses 
 that one or perhaps two more charges would be brought 
 forward, that if, on those charges, the sense of the House of 
 Commons should be against impeachment, the Opposition 
 would let the matter drop, that Hastings would be immed- 
 iately raised to the peerage, decorated with the star of the 
 Bath, sworn of the privy council, and invited to lend the 
 assistance of his talents and experience to the India board. 30 
 Lord Thurlow, indeed, some months before, had spoken with 
 contempt of the scruples which prevented Pitt from calling 
 Hastings to the House of Lords ; and had even said, that if 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer was afraid of the Commons, 
 there was nothing to prevent the Keeper of the Great Seal 
 from taking the royal pleasure about a patent of peerage. 
 
104 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 The very title was chosen. Hastings was to be Lord Dayles- 
 ford. For, through all changes of scene and changes of 
 fortune, remained unchanged his attachment to the spot 
 which had witnessed the greatness and the fall of his family, 
 and which had borne so great a part in the first dreams of 
 his young ambition. 
 
 But in a very few days these fair prospects were overcast. 
 On the thirteenth of June, Mr. Fox brought forward, with 
 great ability and eloquence, the charge respecting the treat- 
 
 10 ment of Cheyte Sing. Francis followed on the same side. 
 The friends of Hastings were in high spirits when Pitt rose. 
 With his usual abundance and felicity of language, the 
 Minister gave his opinion on the case. He maintained that 
 the Governor-General was justified in calling on the Rajah 
 of Benares for pecuniary assistance, and in imposing a fine 
 when that assistance was contumaciously withheld. He 
 also thought that the conduct of the Governor-General dur- 
 ing the insurrection had been distinguished by ability and 
 presence of mind. He censured, with great bitterness, the 
 
 20 conduct of Francis, both in India and in Parliament, as 
 most dishonest and malignant. The necessary inference 
 from Pitt's arguments seemed to be that Hastings ought 
 to be honourably acquitted ; and both the friends and the 
 opponents of the Minister expected from him a declaration 
 to that effect. To the astonishment of all parties, he con- 
 cluded by saying that, though he thought it right in 
 Hastings to fine Cheyte Sing for contumacy, yet the amount 
 of the fine was too great for the occasion. On this ground, 
 and on this ground alone, did Mr. Pitt, applauding every 
 
 30 other part of the conduct of Hastings with regard to 
 Benares, declare that he should vote in favour of Mr. Fox's 
 motion. 
 
 The House was thunderstruck ; and it well might be so. 
 For the wrong done to Cheyte Sing, even had it been as 
 flagitious as Fox and Francis contended, was a trifle when 
 compared with the horrors which had been inflicted on 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 105 
 
 Eohilcund. But if Mr. Pitt's view of the case of Cheyte 
 Sing were correct, there was no ground for an impeachment, 
 or even for a vote of censure. ?If the offence of Hastings 
 was really no more than this, that, having a right to impose 
 a mulct, the amount of which mulct was not defined, but 
 was left to be settled by his discretion, he had, not for his 
 own advantage, but for that of the state, demanded too 
 much, was this an offence which required a criminal proceed- 
 ing of the highest solemnity, a criminal proceeding, to 
 which, during sixty years, no public functionary had been 10 
 subjected ? We can see, we think, in what way a man 
 of sense and integrity might have been induced to take any 
 course respecting Hastings, except the course which Mr. Pitt 
 took. Such a man might have thought a great example 
 necessary, for the preventing of injustice, and for the 
 vindicating of the national honour, and might, on that 
 ground, have voted for impeachment both on the Eohilla 
 charge, and on the Benares charge. Such a man might have 
 thought that the offences of Hastings had been atoned for 
 by great services, and might, on that ground, have voted 2$ 
 against the impeachment, on both charges. With great 
 diffidence, we give it as our opinion that the most correct 
 course would, on the whole, have been to impeach on the 
 Eohilla charge, and to acquit on the Benares charge, pad 
 the Benares charge appeared to us in the same light m 
 which it appeared to Mr. Pitt, we should, without hesitation, 
 have voted for acquittal on that charge. The one course 
 which it is inconceivable that any man of a tenth part of 
 Mr. Pitt's abilities can have honestly taken was the course 
 which he took. He acquitted Hastings on the Eohilla 30 
 charge. He softened down the Benares charge till it became 
 no charge at all ; and then he pronounced that it contained 
 matter for impeachment. 
 
 Nor must it be forgotten that the principal reason assigned 
 by the ministry for not impeaching Hastings on account of 
 the Eohilla war was this, that the delinquencies of the early 
 
106 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 part of his administration had been atoned for by the ex- 
 cellence of the later part, ffias it not most extraordinary 
 that men who had held this language could afterwards vote 
 that the later part of his administration furnished matter 
 for no less than twenty articles of impeachment ? They first 
 represented the conduct of Hastings in 1780 and 1781 as so 
 highly meritorious that, like works of supererogation in the 
 Catholic theology, it ought to be efficacious for the cancelling 
 of former offences ; and they then prosecuted him for his 
 
 10 conduct in 1780 and 1781. 
 
 The general astonishment was the greater, because, only 
 twenty-four hours before, the members on whom the mini- 
 ster could depend had received the usual notes from the 
 Treasury, begging them to be in their places and to vote 
 against Mr. Fox's motion. It was asserted by Mr. Hastings 
 that, early on the morning of the very day on which the 
 debate took place, Dundas called on Pitt, woke him, and was 
 closeted with him many hours. The result of this conference 
 was a determination to give up the late Governor-General to 
 
 20 the vengeance of the Opposition. It was impossible even for 
 the most powerful minister to carry all his followers with 
 him in so strange a course. Several persons high in office, 
 the Attorney-General, Mr. Glenville, and Lord Mulgrave, 
 divided against Mr. Pitt. But the devoted adherents who 
 stood by the head of the government without asking ques- 
 tions, were sufficiently numerous to turn the scale. A 
 hundred and nineteen members voted for Mr. Pox's motion ; 
 seventy-nine against it. Dundas silently followed Pitt. 
 That good and great man, the late William Wilberforce, 
 
 30 often related the events of this remarkable night. He 
 described the amazement of the House, and the bitter re- 
 flections which were muttered against the Prime Minister 
 by some of the habitual supporters of government. Pitt 
 himself appeared to feel that his conduct required some 
 explanation. He left the treasury bench, sat for some time 
 next to Mr. Wilberforce, and very earnestly declared that he 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 107 
 
 had found it impossible, as a man of conscience, to stand any 
 longer by Hastings. The business, he said, was too bad. 
 Mr. Wilberforce, we are bound to add, fully believed that 
 his friend was sincere, and that the suspicions to which this 
 mysterious affair gave rise were altogether unfounded. 
 
 Those suspicions, indeed, were such as it is painful to 
 mention. The friends of Hastings, most of whom, it is 
 to be observed, generally supported the administration, 
 affirmed that the motive of Pitt and Dundas was jealousy. 
 Hastings was personally a favourite with the king. He was_ 1© 
 the idol of the East India Company and of its servants. ^If 
 he were absolved by the Commons, seated among the LomsJ 
 admitted to the Board of Control, closely allied with the 
 strong-minded and imperious Thurlow, was it not almost 
 certain that he would soon draw to himself the entire 
 management of Eastern affairs ? ijWas it not possible that 
 he might become a formidable rival m the cabinet ? It had 
 probably got abroad that very singular communications had 
 taken place between Thurlow and Major Scott, and that, if 
 the First Lord of the Treasury was afraid to recommend 2£ 
 Hastings for a peerage, the Chancellor was ready to take the 
 responsibility of that step on himself. Of all ministers, Pitt 
 was the least likely to submit with patience to such an 
 encroachment on his functions. If the Commons impeached 
 Hastings, all danger was at an end. The proceeding, how- 
 ever it might terminate, would probably last some years. 
 In the mean time, the accused person would be excluded 
 from honours and public employments, and could scarcely 
 venture even to pay his duty at court. Such were the 
 motives attributed by a great part of the public to the 30 
 young minister, whose ruling passion was generally believed 
 to be avarice of power. _ 
 
 The prorogation soon interrupted the discussions respect- 
 ing Hastings. In the following year, those discussions were 
 resumed. The charge touching the spoliation of the Begums 
 was brought forward by Sheridan, in a speech which was so 
 
108 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 imperfectly reported that it may be said to be wholly lost, 
 but which was, without doubt, the most elaborately brilliant 
 of all the productions of his ingenious mind. The impression 
 which it produced was such as has never been equalled. He 
 sat down, not merely amidst cheering, but amidst the loud 
 clapping of hands, in which the Lords below the bar and the 
 strangers in the gallery joined. The excitement of the 
 House was such that no other speaker could obtain a hear- 
 ing ; and the debate was adjourned. The ferment spread 
 
 10 fast through the town. Within four and twenty hours, 
 Sheridan was offered a thousand pounds for the copyright of 
 the speech, if he would himself correct it for the press. The 
 impression made by this remarkable display of eloquence on 
 severe and experienced critics, whose discernment may be 
 supposed to have been quickened by emulation, was deep ' 
 and permanent. Mr. Windham, twenty years later, said 
 that the speech deserved all its fame, and was, in spite of 
 some faults of taste, such as were seldom wanting either 
 in the literary or in the parliamentary performances of 
 
 20 Sheridan, the finest that had been delivered within the 
 memory of man. Mr. Fox, about the same time, being 
 asked by the late Lord Holland what was the best speech 
 ever made in the House of Commons, assigned the first 
 place, without hesitation, to the great oration of Sheridan on 
 the Oude charge. 
 
 When the debate was resumed, the tide ran so strongly 
 against the accused that his friends were coughed and 
 scraped down. Pitt declared himself for Sheridan's motion ; 
 and the question was carried by a hundred and seventy- 
 
 30 five votes against sixty-eight. 
 
 The Opposition, flushed with victory and strongly sup- 
 ported by the public sympathy, proceeded to bring forward 
 a succession of charges relating chiefly to pecuniary trans- 
 actions. The friends of Hastings were discouraged, and, 
 having now no hope of being able to avert an impeachment, 
 were not very strenuous in their exertions. At length 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 109 
 
 the House, having agreed to twenty articles of charge, 
 directed Burke to go before the Lords, and to impeach the 
 late Governor-General of High Crimes and Misdemeanours. 
 Hastings was at the same time arrested by the Sergeant-- 
 at-arms, and carried to the bar of the Peers. 
 
 The session was now within ten days of its close. It 
 was, therefore, impossible that any progress could be made 
 in the trial till the next year. Hastings was admitted to 
 bail ; and further proceedings were postponed till the 
 Houses should re-assemble. 10 
 
 When Parliament met in the following winter, the 
 Commons proceeded to elect a committee for managing 
 the impeachment. Burke stood at the head ; and with 
 him were associated most of the leading members of the 
 Opposition. But when the name of Francis was read a 
 fierce contention arose. It was said that Francis and 
 Eastings were notoriously on bad terms, that they had 
 been at feud during many years, that on one occasion 
 their mutual aversion had impelled them to seek each 
 other's lives, and that it would be improper and indelicate 20 
 to select a private enemy to be a public accuser. It was 
 urged on the other side with great force, particularly by 
 Mr. Windham, that impartiality, though the first duty of 
 a judge, had never been reckoned among the qualities of 
 an advocate ; that in the ordinary administration of criminal 
 justice among the English, the aggrieved party, the very 
 last person who ought to be admitted into the jury-box, 
 is the prosecutor ; that what was wanted in a manager 
 was, not that he should be free from bias, but that he 
 should be able, well informed, energetic, and active. 30 
 The ability and information of Francis were admitted ; 
 and the very animosity with which he was reproached, 
 whether a virtue or a vice, was at least a pledge for his 
 energy and activity. It seems difficult to refute these 
 arguments. But the inveterate hatred borne by Francis 
 to Hastings had excited general disgust. The House 
 
110 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 decided that Francis should not be a manager. Pitt voted 
 with the majority, Dundas with the minority. 
 
 In the mean time, the preparations for the trial had pro- 
 ceeded rapidly ; and on the thirteenth of February, 1788, 
 the sittings of the Court commenced. There have been 
 spectacles more dazzling to the eye, more gorgeous with 
 jewellery and cloth of gold, more attractive to grown-up 
 children, than that which was then exhibited at West- 
 minster ; but, perhaps, there never was a spectacle so well 
 
 10 calculated to strike a highly cultivated, a reflecting, an 
 imaginative mind. All the various kinds of interest which 
 belong to the near and to the distant, to the present and 
 to the past, were collected on one spot, and in one hour. 
 All the talents and all the accomplishments which are 
 developed by liberty and civilisation were now displayed, 
 with every advantage that could be derived both from co- 
 } operation and from contrast. Every step in the proceed- 
 KZ) m g s carried the mind either backward, through many 
 troubled centuries, to the days when the foundations of our 
 
 20 constitution were laid ; or far away, over boundless seas 
 and deserts, to dusky nations living under strange stars, 
 worshipping strange gods, and writing strange char- 
 acters from right to left. The High Court of Parliament 
 was to sit, according to forms handed down from the 
 days of the Plantagenets, on an Englishman accused of 
 
 \ exercising tyranny over the lord of the holy city of 
 
 \ Benares, and over the ladies of the princely house of - 
 
 £ Oude. 
 
 The place was worthy of such a trial. It was the great 
 
 30 hall of William Rufus, the hall which had resounded with 
 acclamations at the inauguration of thirty kings, the hall 
 which had witnessed the just sentence of Bacon and the 
 just absolution of Somers, the hall where the eloquence 
 of Strafford had for a moment awed and melted a 
 victorious party inflamed with just resentment, the hall 
 where Charles had confronted the High Court of Justice 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. Ill 
 
 with the placid courage which has half redeemed his 
 fame. Neither military nor civil pomp was wanting. The 
 avenues were lined with grenadiers. The streets were 
 kept clear by cavalry. The peers, robed in gold and 
 ermine, were marshalled by the heralds under Garter King- 
 at-arms. The judges in their vestments of state attended 
 to give advice on points of law. Near a hundred and 
 seventy lords, three fourths of the Upper House as the 
 Upper House then was, walked in solemn order from their 
 usual place of assembling to the tribunal. The junior 10 
 baron present led the way, George Eliott, Lord Heath- 
 field, recently ennobled for his memorable defence of 
 Gibraltar against the fleets and armies of France and 
 Spain. The long procession was closed by the Duke of 
 Norfolk, Earl Marshal of the realm, by the great digni- 
 taries, and by the brothers and sons of the King. Last 
 of all came the Prince of Wales, conspicuous by his fine 
 person and noble bearing. The grey old walls were hung 
 with scarlet. The long galleries were crowded by an 
 audience such as has rarely excited the fears or the 20 
 emulation of an orator. There were gathered together, 
 from all parts of a great, free, enlightened, and prosperous 
 empire, grace and female loveliness, wit and learning, the 
 representatives of every science and of every art. There 
 were seated round the Queen the fair-haired young daughters 
 of the house of Brunswick. There the Ambassadors of 
 great Kings and Commonwealths gazed with admiration 
 on a spectacle which no other country in the world could 
 present. There Siddons, in the prime of her majestic 
 beauty, looked with emotion on a scene surpassing all the 30 
 imitations of the stage. There the historian of the Roman 
 Empire thought of the days when Cicero pleaded the 
 cause of Sicily against Yerres, and when, before a senate 
 which still retained some show of freedom, Tacitus thun- 
 dered against the oppressor of Africa. There were seen, 
 side by side, the greatest painter and the greatest scholar of 
 
1 1 2 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 the age. The spectacle had allured Reynolds from that 
 easel which has preserved to us the thoughtful foreheads 
 of so many writers and statesmen, and the sweet smiles 
 of so many noble matrons. It had induced Parr to 
 suspend his labours in that dark and profound mine from 
 which he had extracted a vast treasure of erudition, a 
 treasure too often buried in the earth, too often paraded 
 with injudicious and inelegant ostentation, but still precious, 
 massive, and splendid. There appeared the voluptuous 
 
 10 charms of her to whom the heir of the throne had in 
 secret plighted his faith. There too was she, the beautiful 
 mother of a beautiful race, the Saint Cecilia whose delicate 
 features, lighted up by love and music, art has rescued 
 from the common decay. There were the members of that 
 brilliant society which quoted, criticized, and exchanged 
 repartees, under the rich peacock-hangings of Mrs. Mon- 
 tague. And there the ladies whose lips, more persuasive 
 than those of Fox himself, had carried the Westminster 
 election against palace and treasury, shone round Georgiana 
 
 20 Duchess of Devonshire. 
 
 The Sergeantamade proclamation. Hastings advanced 
 to the bar an^l ■tas^knee. The culprit was indeed not 
 unworthy drj K presence. He had ruled an exten- 
 
 sive and poptH Mhtry, and made laws and treaties, 
 had sent fortlrtHH ^nad set up and pulled down princes. 
 And in his high place he had so borne himself, that all 
 had feared him, that most had loved him, and that hatred 
 itself could deny him no title to glory, except virtue. He 
 looked like a great man, and not like a bad man. A 
 
 30 person small and emaciated, yet deriving dignity from a 
 carriage which, while it indicated deference to the court, 
 indicated also habitual self-possession and self-respect, a 
 high and intellectual forehead, a brow pensive, but not 
 gloomy, a mouth of inflexible decision, a face pale and 
 worn, but serene, on which was written, as legibly as 
 under the picture in the council- chamber at Calcutta, Mens 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 113 
 
 cequa in arduis ; such was the aspect with which the great 
 proconsul presented himself to his judges. 
 
 His counsel accompanied him, men all of whom were 
 afterwards raised by their talents and learning to the 
 highest posts in their profession, the bold and strong- 
 minded Law, afterwards Chief Justice of the King's Bench ; 
 the more humane and eloquent Dallas, afterwards Chief 
 Justice of the Common Pleas ; and Plomer who, near 
 twenty years later, successfully conducted in the same high 
 court the defence of Lord Melville, and subsequently 10 
 became Vice-chancellor and Master of the Rolls. 
 
 But neither the culprit n^Bhis a<^ocates attracted so 
 much notice as the accusers. ^El the midst of the blaze of 
 red drapery, a space had been fitted up with green 
 benches, and tables for the Commons. The managers, with 
 Burke at their head, appeared in full dress. The collectors 
 of gossip did not fail to remark that even Fox, generally 
 so regardless of his appearance, had paid to the illustrious 
 tribunal the compliment of wearing a bag and sword. 
 Pitt had refused to be one of the conductors of the im- 20 
 peachment ; and his commanding, copious, and sonorous 
 eloquence was wanting to that great muster of various 
 talents. Age and blindness had unfitted Lord North for 
 the duties of a public prosecutor ; and his friends were 
 left without the help of his excellent sense, his tact, and 
 his urbanity. But, in spite of the absence of these two 
 distinguished members of the Lower House, the box in 
 which the managers stood contained an array of speakers 
 such as perhaps had not appeared together since the great 
 age of Athenian eloquence. There were Fox and Sheridan, 30 
 the English Demosthenes and the English Hyperides. 
 There was Burke, ignorant, indeed, or negligent of the 
 art of adapting his reasonings and his style to the capacity 
 and taste of his hearers, but in amplitude of comprehen- 
 sion and richness of imagination superior to every orator, 
 ancient or modern. There, with eyes reverentially fixed 
 
 H 
 
114 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 on Burke, appeared the finest gentleman of the age, his 
 form developed by every manly exercise, his face beaming 
 with intelligence and spirit, the ingenious, the chivalrous, 
 the high-souled Windham. Nor, though surrounded by 
 such men, did the youngest manager pass unnoticed. At 
 an age when most of those who distinguished themselves 
 in life are still contending for prizes and fellowships at 
 college, he had won for himself a conspicuous place in 
 parliament. No advantage of fortune or connection was 
 
 10 wanting that could set off to the height his splendid 
 talents and his unblemished honour. At twenty-three he 
 had been thought worthy to be ranked with the veteran 
 statesmen who appeared as the delegates of the British 
 Commons, at the bar of the British nobility. All who 
 stood at that bar, save him alone, are gone, culprit, advo- 
 cates, accusers. To the generation which is now in the 
 vigour of life, he is the sole representative of a great age 
 which has passed away. But those who, within the last 
 ten years, have listened with delight, till the morning sun 
 
 20 shone on the tapestries of the House of Lords, to the 
 lofty and animated eloquence of Charles Earl Grey, are 
 able to form some estimate of the powers of a race of J>s 
 men among whom he was not the foremost. 
 
 f The charges and the answers of Hastings were first 
 
 (^ read. The ceremony occupied two whole days, and was 
 
 rendered less tedious than it would otherwise have been 
 
 by the silver voice and just emphasis of Cowper, the clerk 
 
 of the court, a near relation of the amiable poet. On the 
 
 } third day Burke rose. Four sittings were occupied by his 
 
 30 opening speech, which was intended to be a general intro- 
 duction to all the charges. With an exuberance of thought 
 and a splendour of diction which more than satisfied the 
 highly-raised expectation of the audience, he described the 
 character and institutions of the natives of India, re- 
 counted the circumstances in which the Asiatic empire of 
 Britain had originated, and set forth the constitution of 
 
WARKEN HASTINGS. 115 
 
 the Company and of the English Presidencies. Having 
 thus attempted to communicate to his hearers an idea of 
 Eastern society, as vivid as that which existed in his own 
 mind, he proceeded to arraign the administration of Hast- 
 ings as systematically conducted in defiance of morality 
 and public law. The energy and pathos of the great 
 orator extorted expressions of unwonted admiration from 
 the stern and hostile Chancellor, and, for a moment, 
 seemed to pierce even the resolute heart of the defendant. 
 The ladies in the galleries, unaccustomed to such displays 10 
 of eloquence, excited by the solemnity of the occasion, and 
 perhaps not unwilling to display their taste and sensi- 
 bility, were in a state of uncontrollable emotion. Hand- 
 kerchiefs were pulled out ; smelling-bottles were handed 
 round ; hysterical sobs and screams were heard ; and Mrs. 
 Sheridan was carried out in a fit. At length the orator 
 concluded. Kaising his voice till the old arches of Irish 
 oak resounded, "Therefore," said he, "hath it with all 
 confidence been ordered by the Commons of Great Britain, \ 
 that I impeach Warren Hastings of high crimes and mis- 2§j 
 demeanours. I impeach him in the name of the Commons' 
 House of Parliament, whose trust he has betrayed. I 
 impeach him in the name of the English nation, whose 
 ancient honour he has sullied. I impeach him in the 
 name of the people of India, whose rights he has trodden 
 under foot, and whose country he has turned into a desert. 
 Lastly, in the name of human nature itself, in the name 
 of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the name of 
 every rank, I impeach the common enemy and oppressor 
 of all!" 'a 
 
 When the deep murmur of various emotions had sub- 
 sided, Mr. Fox rose to address the Lords respecting the 
 course of proceeding to be followed. The wish of the 
 accusers was that the Court would bring to a close the 
 investigation of the first charge before the second was 
 opened. The wish of Hastings and of his counsel was 
 
116 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 that the managers should open all the charges, and pro- 
 duce all the evidence for the prosecution, before the 
 defence began. The Lords retired to their own House to 
 consider the question. The Chancellor took the side of 
 Hastings. Lord Loughborough, who was now in opposi- 
 tion, supported the demand of the managers. The division 
 showed which way the inclination of the tribunal leaned. 
 A majority of near three to one decided in favour of th; 
 course for which Hastings contended. 
 
 10 When the Court sat again, Mr. Fox, assisted by Mr. 
 Grey, opened the charge respecting Cheyte Sing, and 
 several days were spent in reading papers and hearing 
 witnesses. The next article was that relating to the Prin- 
 cesses of Oude. The conduct of this part of the caslP^as 
 intrusted to Sheridan. The curiosity of the public to hear 
 him was unbounded. His sparkling and highly finished 
 declamation lasted two days ; but the Hall was crowded 
 to suffocation during the whole time. It was said that 
 fifty guineas had been paid for a single ticket. Sheridan, 
 
 20 when he concluded, contrived, with a knowledge of stage- 
 effect which his father might have envied, to sink back, 
 as if exhausted, into the arms of Burke, who hugged him 
 with the energy of generous admiration. 
 
 June was now far advanced. The session could not last 
 much longer ; and the progress which had been made in the 
 
 \ impeachment was not very satisfactory. There were twent5 
 charges. On two only of these had even the case for the 
 prosecution been heard ; and it was now a year since Hast 
 ings had been admitted to bail. 
 30 The interest taken by the public in the trial was great 
 when the Court began to sit, and rose to the height when 
 Sheridan spoke on the charge relating to the Begums. From 
 that time the excitement went down fast. The spectacle 
 had lost the attraction of novelty. The great displays of 
 rhetoric were over. What was behind was not of a nature 
 to entice men of letters from their books in the morning, or 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 117 
 
 to tempt ladies who had left the masquerade at two to be 
 out of bed before eight. There remained examinations and 
 cross-examinations. There remained statements of accounts. aj 
 There remained the reading of papers, filled with words un- ' 
 intelligible to English ears, with lacs and crores, zemindars \\J 
 and aumils, sunnuds and perwannahs, jaghires and nuzzurs. i - / \, 
 There remained bickerings, not always carried on with the \ 
 best taste or with the best temper, between the managers of 
 the impeachment and the counsel for the defence, particularly 
 between Mr. Burke and Mr. Law. There remained the end- 10 
 less marches and counter-marches of the Peers between their 
 House and the Hall : for as often as a point of law was to be 
 discussed, their Lordships retired to discuss it apart ; and the 
 consequence was, as a peer wittily said, that the Judges 
 walked and the trial stood still. 
 
 It is to be added that, in the spring of 1788 when the trial 
 commenced, no important question, either of domestic or 
 foreign policy, excited the public mind. The proceeding in 
 Westminster Hall, therefore, naturally attracted most of the 
 attention of Parliament and of the public. It was the one 20 
 great event of that season. But in the following year the 
 King's illness, the debates on the Regency, the expectation 
 of a change of Ministry, completely diverted public attention 
 from Indian affairs ; and within a fortnight after George the 
 Third had returned thanks in St. Paul's for his recovery, the 
 States-General of France met at Versailles. In the midst of 
 the agitation produced by these events, the impeachment was 
 for a time almost forgotten. 
 
 The trial in the Hall went on languidly. In the session of 
 1788, when the proceedings had the interest of novelty, and 30 
 when the Peers had little other business before them, only 
 thirty -five days were given to the impeachment. In 1789, 
 the Regency Bill occupied the Upper House till the session 
 was far advanced. When the King recovered the circuits 
 were beginning. The judges left town ; the Lords waited 
 for the return of the oracles of jurisprudence ; and the con- 
 
118 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 sequence was that during the whole year only seventeen days 
 were given to the case of Hastings. It was clear that the 
 matter would be protracted to a length unprecedented in the j 
 annals of criminal law. 
 
 In truth, it is impossible to deny that impeachment, though 
 it is a fine ceremony, and though it may have been useful in 
 the seventeenth century, is not a proceeding from which 
 much good can now be expected. Whatever confidence may 
 be placed in the decisions of the Peers on an appeal arising 
 
 10 out of ordinary litigation, it is certain that no man has the 
 least confidence in their impartiality, when a great public 
 functionary, charged with a great state crime, is brought to 
 their bar. They are all politicians. There is hardly one 
 among them whose vote on an impeachment may not be 
 confidently predicted before a witness has been examined ; 
 and, even if it were possible to rely on their justice, they 
 would still be quite unfit to try such a cause as that of 
 Hastings. They sit only during half the year. They have 
 to transact much legislative and much judicial business. The 
 
 20 law-lords, whose advice is required to guide the unlearned 
 majority, are employed daily in administering justice else- 
 where. It is impossible, therefore, that during a busy session, 
 the Upper House should give more than a few days to an 
 impeachment. To expect that their Lordships would give up 
 partridge-shooting, in order to bring the greatest delinquent 
 to speedy justice, or to relieve accused innocence by speedy 
 acquittal, would be unreasonable indeed. A well-constituted 
 
 1 tribunal, sitting regularly six days in the week, and nine 
 hours in the day, would have brought the trial of Hastings 
 30 to a close in less than three months. The Lords had not 
 finished their work in seven years. 
 
 The result ceased to be matter of doubt, from the time 
 when the Lords resolved that they would be guided by the 
 rules of evidence whicli are received ill the inferior courts of 
 the realm. Those rules, it is well known, exclude much 
 information which would be quite sufficient to determine the 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 119 
 
 conduct of any reasonable man, in the most important trans- 
 actions of private life. Those rules, at every assizes, save 
 scores of culprits whom judges, jury, and spectators, firmly 
 believe to be guilty. But when those rules were rigidly 
 applied to offences committed many years before, at the 
 distance of many thousand miles, conviction was, of course, 
 out of the question. We do not blame the accused and his 
 counsel for availing themselves of every legal advantage in 
 order to obtain an acquittal. But it is clear that an acquittal 
 so obtained cannot be pleaded in bar of the judgment of 10 
 history. 
 
 Several attempts were made by the friends of Hastings to j_ '_ 
 
 puTTaTstop to the trial. In 1789 they proposed a vote of 
 censure upon Burke, for some violent language which he had 
 used respecting the death of Nuncomar and the connection ^ 
 between Hastings and Impey. Burke was then unpopular 
 in the last degree both with the House and with the country. 
 The asperity and indecency of some expressions which he 
 had used during the debates on the Regency had annoyed 
 even his warmest friends. The vote of censure was carried ; 20 
 and those who had moved it hoped that the managers would 
 resign in disgust. Burke was deeply hurt. But his zeal for 
 what he considered as the cause of justice and mercy tri- 
 umphed over his personal feelings. He received the censure 
 of the House with dignity and meekness, and declared that 
 no personal mortification or humiliation should induce him 
 to flinch from the sacred duty which he had undertaken. 
 
 In the following year the Parliament was dissolved, and 
 the friends of Hastings entertained a hope that the new 
 House of Commons might not be disposed to go on with the 30 
 impeachment. They began by maintaining that the whole 
 proceeding was terminated by the dissolution. Defeated on 
 this point, they made a direct motion that the impeachment 
 should be dropped ; but they were defeated by the combined 
 forces of the Government and the Opposition. It was, how- 
 ever, resolved that, for the sake of expedition, many of the 
 
120 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 articles should be withdrawn. In truth, had not some such 
 measure been adopted, the trial would have lasted till the 
 defendant was in his grave. 
 
 At length, in the spring of 1795, the decision was pro- 
 nounced, near eight years after Hastings had been brought 
 by the Sergeant-at-arms of the Commons to the bar of the 
 Lords. On the last day of this great procedure the public 
 curiosity, long suspended, seemed to be revived. Anxiety 
 about the judgment there could be none ; for it had been 
 
 10 fully ascertained that there was a great majority for the 
 defendant. Nevertheless many wished to see the pageant, 
 and the Hall was as much crowded as on the first day. But 
 those who, having been present on the first day, now bore a 
 part in the proceedings of the last, were few ; and most of 
 those few were altered men. 
 
 As Hastings himself said, the arraignment had taken place 
 before one generation, and the judgment was pronounced by 
 another. The spectator could not look at the woolsack, or at 
 the red benches of the Peers, or at the green benches of the 
 
 20 Commons, without seeing something that reminded him of 
 the instability of all human things, of the instability of 
 power and fame and life, of the more lamentable instability 
 of friendship. The great seal was borne before Lord Lough- 
 borough who, when the trial commenced, was a fierce op- 
 ponent of Mr. Pitt's government, and who was now a 
 member of that government, while Thurlow, who presided 
 in the court when it first sat, estranged from all his old 
 allies, sat scowling among the junior barons. Of about a 
 hundred and sixty nobles who walked in the procession on 
 
 30 the first day, sixty had been laid in their family vaults. Still 
 more affecting must have been the sight of the managers' 
 box. What had become of that fair fellowship, so closely 
 bound together by public and private ties, so resplendent 
 with every talent and accomplishment ? It had been scat- 
 tered by calamities more bitter than the bitterness of death. 
 The great chiefs were still living, and still in the full vigour 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 121 
 
 of their genius. But their friendship was at an end. It had 
 been violently and publicly dissolved, with tears and stormy 
 reproaches. If those men, once so dear to each other, were 
 now compelled to meet for the purpose of managing the 
 impeachment, they met as strangers whom public business 
 had brought together, and behaved to each other with cold 
 and distant civility. Burke had in his vortex whirled 
 away Windham. Fox had been followed by Sheridan and 
 Grey. 
 
 Only twenty-nine Peers voted. Of these only six found 10 
 Hastings guilty on the charges relating to Cheyte Sing and 
 to the Begums. On other charges, the majority in his 
 favour was still greater. On some, he was unanimously 
 absolved. He was then called to the bar, was informed 
 from the woolsack that the Lords had acquitted him, 
 and was solemnly discharged. He bowed respectfully and 
 retired. 
 
 We have said that the decision had been fully expected. 
 It was also generally approved. At the commencement of 
 the trial there had been a strong and indeed unreasonable 20 
 feeling against Hastings. At the close of the trial there was 
 a feeling equally strong and equally unreasonable in his 
 favour. One cause of the change was, no doubt, what is 
 commonly called the fickleness of the multitude, but what 
 seems to us to be merely the general law of human nature. 
 Both in individuals and in masses violent excitement is 
 always followed by remission, and often by reaction. We 
 are all inclined to depreciate whatever we have overpraised, 
 and, on the other hand, to show undue indulgence where we 
 have shown undue rigour. It was thus in the case of 30 
 Hastings. The length of his trial, mojreover, made him an 
 object of compassion. It was thought, and not without 
 reason, that, even if he was guilty, he was still an ill-used 
 man, and that an impeachment of eight years was more than 
 a sufficient punishment. It was also felt that, though, in the 
 ordinary course of criminal law, a cTefendant is not allowed to 
 
122 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 set off his good actions against his crimes, a great political 
 cause should be tried on different principles, and that a man 
 who had governed an empire during thirteen years might 
 have done some very reprehensible things, and yet might be 
 on the whole deserving of rewards and honours rather than 
 of fine and imprisonment. The press, an instrument 
 neglected by the prosecutors, was used by Hastings and his 
 friends with great effect. Every ship, too^ that arrived from 
 Madras or Bengal, brought a cuddy full of his admirers. 
 
 10 Every gentleman from India spoke of the late Governor- 
 General as having deserved better, and having been treated 
 worse, than any man living. The effect of this testimony 
 unanimously given by all persons who knew the East, was 
 naturally very great. Retired members of the Indian ser- 
 vices, civil and military, were settled in all corners of the 
 kingdom. Each of them was, of course, in his own little 
 circle, regarded as an oracle on an Indian question ; and they 
 were, with scarcely one exception, the zealous advocates of 
 Hastings. It is to be added, that the numerous addresses to 
 
 20 the late Governor-General, which his friends in Bengal 
 obtained from the natives and transmitted to England, made 
 a considerable impression. To these addresses we attach 
 little or no importance. That Hastings was beloved by the 
 people whom he governed is true ; but the eulogies of 
 pundits, zemindars, Mahommedan doctors, do not prove it to 
 be true. For an English collector or judge would have found 
 it easy to induce any native who could write to sign a 
 panegyric on the most odious ruler that ever was in India. 
 It was said that at Benares, the very place at which the acts 
 
 30 set forth in the first article of impeachment had been com- 
 mitted, the natives had erected a temple to Hastings ; and 
 this story excited a strong sensation in England. Burke's 
 observations on the apotheosis were admirable. He saw no 
 reason for astonishment, he said, in the incident which had 
 been represented as so striking. He knew something of the 
 mythology of the Brahmins. He knew that as they wor- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 123 
 
 shipped some gods from love, so they worshipped others 
 from fear. He knew that they erected shrines, not only to 
 the benignant deities of light and plenty, but also to the 
 fiends who preside over small-pox and murder. Nor did he 
 at all dispute the claim of Mr. Hastings to be admitted into 
 such a Pantheon. This reply has always struck us as one of 
 the finest that ever was made in Parliament. It is a grave ^/ 
 and forcible argument, decorated by the most brilliant wit >t» 
 and fancy. 
 
 Hastings was, however, safe. But in every thing except 10 
 character, he would have been far better off if, when first 
 impeached, he had at once pleaded guilty, and paid a fine of 
 fifty thousand pounds. He was a ruined man. The legal 
 expenses of his defence had been enormous. The expenses 
 which did not appear in his attorney's bill were perhaps 
 larger still. Great sums had been paid to Major Scott. 
 Great sums had been laid out in bribing newspapers, reward- 
 ing pamphleteers, and circulating tracts. Burke, so early as 
 1790, declared in the House of Commons that twenty thou- 
 sand pounds had been employed in corrupting the press. It 20 
 is certain that no controversial weapon, from the gravest 
 reasoning to the coarsest ribaldry, was left unemployed. 
 Logan defended the accused governor with great ability in 
 prose. For the lovers of verse, the speeches of the managers 
 were burlesqued in Simpkin's letters. It is, we are afraid, 
 indisputable that Hastings stooped so low as to court the aid 
 of that malignant and filthy baboon John Williams, who 
 called himself Anthony Pasquin. It was necessary to subsi- 
 dise such allies largely. The private hoards of Mrs. Hastings 
 had disappeared. It is said that the banker to whom they 30 
 had been entrusted had failed. Still if Hastings had prac- 
 tised strict economy, he would, after all his losses, have had 
 a moderate competence ; but in the management of his 
 private affairs he was imprudent. The dearest wish of his 
 heart had always been to regain Daylesford. At length, in 
 the very year in which his trial commenced, the wish was 
 
124 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 accomplished ; and the domain, alienated more than seventy 
 years before, returned to the descendant of its old lords. 
 But the manor house was a ruin ; and the grounds round it 
 had, during many years, been utterly neglected. Hastings 
 proceeded to build, to plant, to form a sheet of water, to 
 excavate a grotto ; and, before he was dismissed from the bar 
 of the House of Lords, he had expended more than forty 
 thousand pounds in adorning his seat. 
 
 The general feeling both of the Directors and of the pro- 
 
 10 prietors of the East India Company was that he had great 
 claims on them, that his services to them had been eminent, 
 and that his misfortunes had been the effect of his zeal for 
 their interest. His friends in Leadenhall Street proposed to 
 reimburse him for the costs of his trial, and to settle on him 
 an annuity of five thousand pounds a year. But the consent 
 of the Board of Control was necessary ; and at the head of 
 the Board of Control was Mr. Dundas, who had himself been 
 a party to the impeachment, who had, on that account, been 
 reviled with great bitterness by the adherents of Hastings, 
 
 20 and who, therefore, was not in a very complying mood. He 
 refused to consent to what the Directors suggested. The 
 Directors remonstrated. A long controversy followed. 
 Hastings, in the mean time, was reduced to such distress, 
 that he could hardly pay his weekly bills. At length a 
 compromise was made. An annuity of four thousand a year 
 was settled on Hastings ; and in order to enable him to meet 
 pressing demands, he was to receive ten years' annuity in 
 advance. The Company was also permitted to lend him 
 fifty thousand pounds, to be repaid by instalments without 
 
 30 interest. This relief, though given in the most absurd 
 manner, was sufficient to enable the retired governor to live 
 in comfort, and even in luxury, if he had been a skilful 
 manager. But he was careless and profuse, and was more 
 than once under the necessity of applying to the Company 
 for assistance, which was liberally given. 
 
 He had security and affluence, but not the power and dig- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 125 
 
 nity which, when he landed from India, he had reason to expect. 
 He had then looked forward to a coronet, a red riband, a seat Vtw> 
 at the Council Board, an office at Whitehall. He was then 
 only fifty-two, and might hope for many years of bodily and 
 mental vigour. The case was widely different when he left 
 the bar of the Lords. He was now too old a man to turn his 
 mind to a new class of studies and duties. He had no chance 
 of receiving any mark of royal favour while Mr. Pitt re- 
 mained in power ; and, when Mr. Pitt retired, Hastings was 
 approaching his seventieth year. 10 
 
 Once, and only once, after his acquittal, he interfered in 
 politics ; and that interference was not much to his honour. 
 In 1804 he exerted himself strenuously to prevent Mr. 
 Addington, against whom Fox and Pitt had combined, from 
 resigning the Treasury. It is difficult to believe that a man 
 so able and energetic as Hastings can have thought that, 
 when Bonaparte was at Boulogne with a great army, the 
 defence of our island could safely be intrusted to a ministry 
 which did not contain a single person whom flattery could 
 describe as a great statesman. It is also certain that, on the 20 
 important question which had raised Mr. Addington to power, 
 and on which he differed from both Fox and Pitt, Hastings, 
 as might have been expected, agreed with Fox and Pitt, and 
 was decidedly opposed to Addington. Religious intolerance 
 has never been the vice of the Indian service, and certainly 
 was not the vice of Hastings. But Mr. Addington had 
 treated him with marked favour. Fox had been a principal 
 manager of the impeachment. To Pitt it was owing that 
 there had been an impeachment ; and Hastings, we fear, was 
 on this occasion guided by personal considerations, rather 30 
 than by a regard to the public interest. 
 
 The last twenty-four years of his life were chiefly passed 
 at Daylesford. He amused himself with embellishing his 
 grounds, riding fine Arab horses, fattening prize -cattle, and 
 trying to rear Indian animals and vegetables in England. 
 He sent for seeds of a very fine custard -apple, from the 
 
126 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 garden of what had once been his own villa, among the 
 green hedgerows of Allipore. He tried also to naturalise 
 in Worcestershire the delicious leechee, almost the only fruit 
 of Bengal which deserves to be regretted even amidst the 
 plenty of Covent Garden. The Mogul emperors, in the time 
 of their greatness, had in vain attempted to introduce into 
 Hindostan the goat of the table-land of Thibet, whose down 
 supplies the looms of Cashmere with the materials of the 
 finest shawls. Hastings tried, with no better fortune, to 
 
 ] rear a breed at Daylesf ord ; nor does he seem to have 
 succeeded better with the cattle of Bootan, whose tails are 
 in high esteem as the best fans for brushing away the 
 mosquitoes. 
 
 Literature divided his attention with his conservatories 
 and his menagerie. He had always loved books, and they 
 were now necessary to him. Though not a poet, in any 
 high sense of the word, he wrote neat and polished lines 
 with great facility, and was fond of exercising this talent. 
 Indeed, if we must speak out, he seems to have been more of 
 
 20 a Trissotin than was to be expected from the powers of his 
 mind, and from the great part which he had played in life. 
 We are assured in these Memoirs that the first thing which 
 he did in the morning was to compose a copy of verses. 
 When the family and guests assembled, the poem made its 
 appearance as regularly as the eggs and rolls ; and Mr. Gleig 
 requires us to believe that, if from any accident Hastings 
 came to the breakfast-table without one of his charming 
 performances in his hand, the omission was felt by all as 
 a grievous disappointment. Tastes differ widely. For our- 
 
 30 selves we must say that, however good the breakfasts at 
 Daylesf ord may have been, — and we are assured that the tea 
 was of the most aromatic flavour, and that neither tongue 
 nor venison-pasty was wanting, — we should have thought 
 the reckoning high if we had been forced to earn our repast 
 by listening every day to a new madrigal or sonnet com- 
 posed by our host. We are glad, however, that Mr. Gleig 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 127 
 
 has preserved this little feature of character, though we 
 think it by no means a beauty. It is good to be often 
 reminded of the inconsistency of human nature, and to learn 
 to look without wonder or disgust on the weaknesses which 
 are found in the strongest minds. Diouysius in old times, 
 Frederic in the last century, with capacity and vigour equal 
 to the conduct of the greatest affairs, united all the little 
 vanities and affectations of provincial blue-stockings. These 
 great examples may console the admirers of Hastings for the 
 affliction of seeing him reduced to the level of the Hayleys 10 n 
 and Se wards. / \ \^^ 
 
 When Hastings had passed many years in retirement, and 
 had long outlived the common age of men, he again became 
 for a short time an object of general attention. In 1813 the 
 charter of the East India Company was renewed ; and much 
 discussion about Indian affairs took place in Parliament. 
 It was determined to examine witnesses at the bar of the 
 Commons ; and Hastings was ordered to attend. He had 
 appeared at that bar once before. It was when he read his 
 answer to the charges which Burke had laid on the table. 20 
 Since that time twenty -seven years had elapsed ; public 
 feeling had undergone a complete change ; the nation had 
 now forgotten his faults, and remembered only his services. 
 The reappearance, too, of a man who had been among the 
 most distinguished of a generation that had passed away, 
 who now belonged to history, and who seemed to have risen 
 from the dead, could not but produce a solemn and pathetic 
 effect. The Commons received him with acclamations, ordered 
 a chair to be set for him, and when he retired, rose and un- 
 covered. There were, indeed, a few who did not sympathise 30 
 with the general feeling. One or two of the managers of the 
 impeachment were present. They sate in the same seats 
 which they had occupied when they had been thanked for 
 the services which they had rendered in Westminster Hall : 
 for, by the courtesy of the House, a member who has been 
 thanked in his place is considered as having a right always 
 
128 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 to occupy that place. These gentlemen were not disposed to 
 admit that they had employed several of the best years of 
 their lives in persecuting an innocent man. They accordingly 
 kept their seats, and pulled their hats over their brows ; but 
 the exceptions only made the prevailing enthusiasm more 
 remarkable. The Lords received the old man with similar 
 tokens of respect. The University of Oxford conferred on 
 him the degree of Doctor of Laws ; and, in the Sheldonian 
 Theatre, the under-graduates welcomed him with tumultuous 
 
 10 cheering. 
 
 These marks of public esteem were soon followed by marks 
 of royal favour. Hastings was sworn of the Privy Council, 
 and was admitted to a long private audience of the Prince 
 Regent, who treated him very graciously. When the Em- 
 peror of Russia and the King of Prussia visited England, 
 Hastings appeared in their train both at Oxford and in the 
 Guildhall of London, and, though surrounded by a crowd of 
 princes and great warriors, was every where received by the 
 public with marks of respect and admiration. He was 
 
 20 presented by the Prince Regent both to Alexander and 
 to Frederic William ; and his Royal Highness went so 
 far as to declare in public that honours far higher than 
 a seat in the Privy Council were due, and would soon 
 be paid, to the man who had saved the British dominions 
 in Asia. Hastings now confidently expected a peerage ; 
 but, from some unexplained cause, he was again dis- 
 appointed. 
 
 He lived about four years longer, in the enjoyment of 
 good spirits, of faculties not impaired to any painful or 
 
 30 degrading extent, and of health such as is rarely enjoyed 
 by those who attain such an age. At length, on the twenty- 
 second of August, 1818, in the eighty-sixth year of his age, 
 he met death with the same tranquil and decorous fortitude 
 which he had opposed to all the trials of his various and 
 eventful life. 
 
 With all his faults, — and they were neither few nor small, 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. 129 
 
 —only one cemetery was worthy to contain his remains. In 
 that temple of silence and reconciliation where the enmities 
 of twenty generations lie buried, in the Great Abbey which 
 has during many ages afforded a quiet resting-place to those 
 whose minds and bodies have been shattered by the conten- 
 tions of the Great Hall, the dust of the illustrious accused 
 should have mingled with the dust of the illustrious ac- 
 cusers. This was not to be. Yet the place of interment 
 was not ill chosen. Behind the chancel of the parish church 
 of Daylesford, in earth which already held the bones of ]0 
 many chiefs of the house of Hastings, was laid the coffin of 
 the greatest man who has ever borne that ancient and 
 widely extended name. On that very spot probably, four- 
 score years before, the little Warren, meanly clad and 
 scantily fed, had played with the children of ploughmen. 
 Even then his young mind had revolved plans which might 
 be called romantic. Yet, however romantic, it is not likely 
 that they had been so strange as the truth. Not only had 
 the poor orphan retrieved the fallen fortunes of his line. 
 Not only had he repurchased the old lands, and rebuilt the 20 
 old dwelling. He had preserved and extended an empire. 
 He had founded a polity. He had administered government 
 and war with more than the capacity of Richelieu. He had 
 patronised learning with the judicious liberality of Cosmo. 
 He had been attacked by the most formidable combination 
 of enemies that ever sought the destruction of a single 
 victim ; and over that combination, after a struggle of ten 
 years, he had triumphed. He had at length gone down to 
 his grave in the fulness of age, in peace, after so many 
 troubles, in honour, after so much obloquy. 30 
 
 Those who look on his character without favour or male- 
 volence will pronounce that, in the two great elements of all 
 social virtue, in respect for the rights of others, and in 
 sympathy for the sufferings of others, he was deficient. His 
 principles were somewhat lax. His heart was somewhat 
 hard. But while we cannot with truth describe him either 
 
 i 
 
130 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 as a righteous or as a merciful ruler, we cannot regard with- 
 out admiration the amplitude and fertility of his intellect, 
 his rare talents for command, for administration, and for 
 controversy, his dauntless courage, his honourable poverty, 
 his fervent zeal for the interests of the state, his noble 
 equanimity, tried by both extremes of fortune, and never 
 disturbed by either. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 P. I. 1. 1. This book, Gleig's Life of Warren Hastings, 3 vols., 
 1841 : Gleig, George Robert, 1796-1888, entered at Oxford in 
 1811, but left before taking his degree to join the 85th Regiment 
 with which he served in the Peninsular and American Wars ; in 
 1816 he went on half -pay, and returned to Oxford. Later on he 
 was ordained a clergyman, and ultimately became Chaplain- 
 General of the Forces. Besides the Life of Warren Hastings, 
 he was author of Campaigns of the British Army at Washington 
 and New Orleans, Life of Sir Thomas Munro, History of India, 
 Lives of Military Commanders, various Novels, Essays, etc. 
 manufactured, a scornful expression, as though the book were 
 merely the work of manual labour and owed nothing to intelli- 
 gence or literary skill. 
 
 I. 8. undigested correspondence, a mass of letters printed 
 without any such arrangement as would guide the reader in 
 following the narrative. 
 
 1/ 13. a bookmaker, one who cannot be said to write books, but 
 only to make books by putting together material supplied to him, 
 a sort of scissors and paste operation : cp. " manufactured," 1. 1. 
 
 II. 19, 20. is neither ... Scott, is very far from having the lite- 
 rary power possessed by either Goldsmith or Scott. Goldsmith's 
 school History of Greece was a very poor piece of work, under- 
 taken not because he had deeply studied the subject or as a 
 scholar was well fitted for the task, but because his poverty 
 obliged him to accept any employment for his pen that was 
 offered him. Scott's Life of Napoleon was likewise a piece of 
 mere drudgery for which his genius was but poorly adapted. 
 
 11. 25-P. 2. 1. 2. which bear . . . Man, which in point of moral doc- 
 trine are as mnch below the standard of Machiavelli's "Prince" as 
 that work is below the "Whole Duty of Man." The Prince, 
 Del Principe, was a treatise on King-craft written by Nicolo 
 Machiavelli, the celebrated Florentine statesman and historian, 
 in 1542, for the instruction of the young Lorenzo de Medici. Of 
 
 131 
 
132 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 its character Macaulay, Essay on Machiavelli, writes, "It ia 
 indeed scarcely possible for any person not well acquainted with 
 the history and literature of Italy to read, without horror and 
 amazement, the celebrated treatise which has brought so much 
 obloquy on the name of Machiavelli. Such a display of wicked- 
 ness, naked, yet not ashamed, such cool, judicious, scientific 
 atrocity seem rather to belong to a fiend than to the most 
 depraved of men. Principles which the most hardened ruffian 
 would scarcely hint to his most trusted accomplice, or avow, 
 without the disguise of palliating sophism, even to his own mind, 
 are professed without the slightest circumlocution, and assumed 
 as the fundamental axioms of all political science." Later on in 
 the same Essay, Macaulay attributes the immorality of the book 
 rather to the spirit of the times, the state of moral feeling among 
 the Italians of the period, than to any peculiar depravity of 
 character and intellect on the part of its author, the Whole 
 Duty of Man, a well-known treatise on the subject, which has 
 been ascribed on strong grounds to Richard Allestre, D.D., 
 Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford, and Provost of Eton. 
 Cowper spoke of it as " that repository of self -righteousness and 
 Pharisaical lumber " ; an opinion with which Southey wholly 
 disagreed. 
 
 1. 6. Furor Biographicus, the mania which causes biographers 
 to see nothing but perfection in the characters of those whose 
 lives they have undertaken to write : what Macaulay elsewhere 
 calls the lues Bosivelliana, because in Boswell's Life of Johnson 
 the disease was exhibited in its most prominent form. 
 
 I. 7. the goitre, a swelling of the throat prevalent more espe- 
 cially in mountainous districts, but supposed to be due rather to 
 some mineral impregnation of the drinking water than to the 
 climate ; F. goitre, a swelled neck, Lat. guttur, throat. 
 
 II. 15, 6. neither is it that ... 1813, see below, pp. 127, 8. 
 
 11. 17-9. to represent ... ridiculous, i.e. because according to 
 Macaulay's belief, great crimes were proved against him. Yet, 
 though high-handed acts and mistakes of policy are to be set down 
 to the account of Hastings, the dark spots on his fame, which Mac- 
 aulay has laboured to make still darker, have on fuller inquiry 
 been shown to be set upon it by calumny and ignorance of facts, 
 and his private character may be said to have been almost stain- 
 less. For a full consideration of the more important charges 
 brought against him, see Appendixes. 
 
 11. 25, 6. the splendour . . . spots, his fame was so bright that 
 even many spots could not obscure it. The image is from spots 
 on the sun. 
 
 1. 27. Mr. Mill, the value of Mill's History of India, though 
 in some respects great, is much marred by his unfairness, which 
 
NOTES. 133 
 
 in respect to Hastings is most pronounced. Sir J. Stephen and 
 Sir J. Strachey convict him of bad faith, inaccuracy, and mis- 
 representation. 
 
 1. 30. a daub . . . unnatural, a mere mass of colour that blurred 
 instead of revealing the characteristics of the iveal man : to daub 
 is to smear over, to plaster : insipid, tasteless, without flavour, 
 here = giving no taste of what the man was. 
 
 1. 32. young Lely, Sir Peter Lely, a celebrated portrait painter, 
 1617-1680, born in Westphalia. The name of his father, a 
 native of Holland, was Van der Waes, and Le Lys or Lely, a 
 nickname given to him, was adopted by his son. In 1641 he 
 came to England where he was patronized successively by 
 Charles I., Cromwell, and Charles II., the last of whom 
 appointed him state -painter, and conferred knighthood upon 
 him. Originally a painter of historical subjects and landscapes, 
 he afterwards became famous as a portrait painter of the school 
 of Vandyck. His most famous work is a collection of portraits 
 of the ladies of Charles the Second's Court. Cromwell was 
 painted by him about 1650. 
 
 P. 3. 1. 1. regular features, here used contemptuously of com- 
 mon-place features that showed no distinctive traits of character, 
 though want of individuality is not necessarily involved in 
 regularity of feature. 
 
 1. 2. curl-pated minions, effeminate courtiers who wore their 
 hair long and paid great attention to the curling of their locks, 
 as contrasted with the " Roundheads," the Puritan followers of 
 Cromwell, who in their austerity cut their hair close. The 
 love-locks, afterwards so fashionable and so often the subject of 
 ridicule and satire, were introduced from France by Charles the 
 First, minion, a favourite flatterer ; F. mignon, adjective, dainty, 
 neat, spruce. 
 
 1. 3. should go forth, sc. to the world. 
 
 I. 6. policy, statesmanship. 
 
 II. 10, 1. Warren Hastings ... race, Hastings derived his Chris- 
 tian name from his mother, Hester Warren, daughter of a 
 gentleman who owned a small estate in Gloucestershire. The 
 taunt which Burke at the impeachment of Hastings flung at him 
 of his being of "low, obscure, and vulgar origin," is supposed to 
 have been due to the scandalous malignity of Francis. But, says 
 Trotter, Warren Hastings, p. 9, " Had the charge been never so 
 well founded, it could have taken nothing from the honour due 
 to one whose public record needed no blazonry from the College 
 of Heralds." 
 
 1. 12. the great Danish sea-king, Hasting, the Danish leader 
 who invaded England in 893. See Green, A Short History of 
 the English People, p. 53. 
 
134 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 11. 17, 8. One branch ... Pembroke, this was Laurence Hastings, 
 son of John, third Baron Hastings. He served with Edward 
 the Third in Flanders, and was, in 1339, created Earl Palatine of 
 Pembroke, as representative of his great-uncle, Aymer de 
 Valence, who died in 1324. 
 
 11. 18-21. From another ... historians, William, Lord Hastings, 
 1430-1483, was for his services in the Civil Wars rewarded by 
 Edward the Fourth, on his accession to the throne, with various 
 valuable posts, among them that of lord chamberlain of the 
 royal household. Sir Thomas More gives an account of the 
 charge of treason brought against him by Gloucester, and of his 
 execution at the Tower, and this account has been dramatized by 
 Shakespeare in his Richard the Third. 
 
 11. 22-4. which, after long ... romance. When, by the death 
 of Francis, tenth Earl of Huntingdon, in 1789, the Earldom of 
 Huntingdon became dormant, an eccentric clergyman, Theophilus 
 Henry Hastings, assumed the title of Earl of Huntingdon, to 
 which he was entitled by his descent from Francis, the second 
 Earl, but took no steps to prove his right. On his death, in 1804, 
 his nephew, Hans Francis Hastings, made some attempt to in- 
 vestigate his claim to the Earldom, but was soon compelled to 
 abandon it for want of money. In 1817 his friend, Henry Nugent 
 Bell, a legal antiquary, took the case up, and it was mainly owing 
 to his exertions that Hans Francis established his claim. Bell 
 " published a detailed account of the proceedings in the ' Hunt- 
 ingdon Peerage/ and the narrative of his various adventures ... 
 displays a suspicious luxuriance of imagination not altogether 
 in keeping with what professed to be a grave genealogical 
 treatise" ... {Diet, of Nat. Biog.). 
 
 1. 25. The lords of the manor. "The lord [of a manor] was 
 usually a baron, or other person of power and consequence, to 
 whom had been granted an estate in fee simple in a tract of land. 
 Of this land he retained as much as was necessary for his own 
 use, as his own demesne, and usually built upon it a mansion or 
 manor house" (Williams, Law of Real Property, p. 107, 6th ed.). 
 
 I. 29. not ennobled, not, like some of its branches, numbering 
 among its members barons or earls : highly considered, held in 
 esteem as of great local importance. 
 
 II. 32, 3. sent his plate ... Oxford, sent the silver utensils of his 
 household to be coined into money for the benefit of the King, 
 who at that time had set up his Court at Oxford : plate, origi- 
 nally meaning a thin piece of metal, flat dish (F. plat, flat, from 
 Greek irXa/rvs, broad), was later used especially of silver plates, 
 dishes, candlesticks, etc., in domestic use. 
 
 11. 35, 6. was glad ... Lenthal, this member of the family was 
 John Hastings, who " was fain at last to make over all his 
 
NOTES. 135 
 
 Yelford lands to Speaker Lenthall [who presided at the trial 
 of Charles the First], and bury himself in the old decayed manor- 
 house at Daylesford " (Trotter, p. 8). 
 
 P. 4, 1. 3. a merchant of London, Mr. Jacob Knight. 
 
 11. 5, 6. had presented ... parish. "An advowson is a per- 
 petual right of presentation to an ecclesiastical benefice. The 
 owner of the advowson is termed the patron of the benefice ... 
 As patron he simply enjoys a right of nomination from time to 
 time, as the living becomes vacant. And this right he exercises 
 by a presentation to the bishop of some duly qualified clerk or 
 clergyman, whom the bishop is accordingly bound to institute to 
 the benefice and to cause him to be inducted into it " (Williams, 
 The Law of Real Property, p. 307, 6th ed.). A rectory differs 
 from a vicarage in that the rector receives the greater and the 
 vicar only the lesser tithes. The origin of this difference is that 
 when the advowsons of rectories were in the hands of spiritual 
 patrons, they considered themselves to be the most fit persons to 
 be rectors of the parish, so far as the receipt of tithes and other 
 profits of the rectory were concerned, and left the duties of the 
 cure to be performed by some poor priest as their vicar or deputy. 
 
 1. 10. tithes, a tithe (A.S. teofta, tenth) was the tenth part of 
 the produce of the land offered to the clergy. Originally the 
 payment was made in kind, but this has since been commuted for 
 a payment in money made according to a periodical valuation of 
 the land. 
 
 1. 12. a place in the Customs, a situation as clerk in the 
 Customs' Office in London. 
 
 I. 13. Pynaston, or "Penyston," as it was more correctly 
 spelt. Macaulay 's words ■ ' an idle worthless boy " are based on 
 Gleig's assertions ; but when Penyston married he was six and 
 twenty years of age. 
 
 II. 14, 5. died ... Indies, that he went abroad after his wife's 
 death is probably true, though even this is not certain ; that he 
 went to the West Indies is mere hearsay. 
 
 11. 18, 9. Warren ... 1732, according to Keene {Diet, of Nat. 
 Biog. ) and Trotter, at Churchill in Oxfordshire, a few miles from 
 Daylesford in Worcestershire ; according to Lyall, at Daylesford 
 itself. Penyston Hastings lived at Churchill, and on the front 
 of his house there, which was by no means the house of one so 
 poor as Gleig represents him, Earl Ducie erected a tablet stating 
 that Warrren was born there, but even this is not certain. 
 
 1. 20. his distressed grandfather, his paternal grandfather, the 
 rector above-mentioned. 
 
 1. 28. how kindly ... book, with what interest and eagerness he 
 learnt his lessons. 
 
136 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 1. 33. their splendid housekeeping, the profuse hospitality for 
 which they were celebrated. 
 
 P. 5, 11. 4, 5. He would ... Daylesford, he was determined by 
 recovering the property of his ancestors to recover also the right 
 to be known as Hastings of Daylesford. 
 
 1. 12. chequered, varied : "the term cheeky in heraldry," says 
 Skeat, "means that the shield is marked out into squares like a 
 chess-board. To checker in like manner is * to mark out like a 
 chess-board ' ; hence to mark with cross-lines ; and generally to 
 variegate ... — O. F. eschequier, a chess-board ; also an exchequer 
 — 0. F. eschec, check (at chess) ! " 
 
 1. 18. Newington, a small town in Kent about forty miles from 
 London. 
 
 1. 20. seminary, place of education : originally a seed garden, 
 hence a place in which learning was sown. In former days 
 Oxford and Cambridge were frequently spoken of as " seminaries 
 of sound learning." 
 
 1. 21. Westminster School, founded by Henry VIII., and richly 
 endowed by Elizabeth in 1560. 
 
 1. 22. Vinny Bourne, Vincent Bourne, chiefly renowned for the 
 elegance of his Latin poems, a fellow of Trinity College, Cam- 
 bridge, who on leaving college became a Master in Westminster 
 School, where he remained till his death. His Latin poems were 
 greatly admired by Lamb. 
 
 1. 23. Churchill, Charles, 1731-64, chiefly famous for his 
 vigorous satires, chief among which were The Bosciad, The 
 Prophecy of Famine, The Duellist, The Conference, The Author, 
 The Candidate; a friend of Garrick's and a great admirer of 
 Wilkes. Colman, George, 1732-1794, author of odes, prologues, 
 epilogues, introductions, essays, and especially dramatic works, 
 among which were Polly Honeycombe, The Jealous Wife, The 
 Deuce is in him, as well as adaptations of Shakespeare and of 
 Beaumont and Fletcher. 
 
 1. 24. Lloyd, Robert, an inferior poet ; Cumberland, Richard, 
 1732-1811, a voluminous dramatist, author of The Brothers, The 
 Fashionable Lover, The Jew, The Wheel of Fortune, The West 
 Indian, etc., etc. Also of novels, memoirs, odes, translations, 
 and controversial works ; Cowper, William, the well-known 
 poet. 
 
 1. 30. the shy and secluded poet. Macaulay in his Essay on 
 Moore' 's Life of Byron speaks of Cowper as "the gentle, shy, 
 melancholy Calvinist, whose spirit had been broken by fagging at 
 school — who had not courage to earn a livelihood by reading the 
 titles of bills in the House of Lords — and whose favourite associ- 
 ates were a blind lady and an evangelical clergyman." 
 
NOTES. 137 
 
 !. 33. played in the cloister, the celebrated Cloisters of West- 
 minster Abbey, adjoining the school, are of different dates, from 
 the time of the Confessor to that of Edward the Third. 
 
 11. 33-5. refused to believe . . . wrong, Cowper's lines on the 
 occasion were as follows : — 
 
 " Hastings ! I knew thee young, and of a mind, 
 While young, humane, conversable, and kind ; 
 Nor can I well believe thee — gentle then — 
 Now grown a villain, and the worst of men ; 
 But rather some suspect, who have oppress'd 
 And worried thee, as not themselves the best." 
 
 I. 36. among ... Ouse, in 1767 Cowper removed from Hunting- 
 don to Olney, a village on the Ouse, in the north of Buckingham- 
 shire, where he remained till his death in 1800. Macaulay is 
 here referring to Cowper's poem entitled " The Dog and the 
 Lily"; in which are the lines, "It was the time when Ouse 
 displayed His lilies newly blown ; Their beauties I intent sur- 
 vey'd, And one I wished my own. " 
 
 P. 6, 1. 2. His spirit . . . tried, by the religious doubts and per- 
 plexities by which he was assailed during the greater portion of 
 his life and which frequently impelled him with the desire to 
 take his own life. The temptations which Macaulay goes on to 
 mention are such as had assailed Hastings. 
 
 II. 7, 8. Firmly ... depravity, though in theory he firmly held 
 the Calvinistic doctrine that all men are desperately wicked. 
 
 11. 8-11. his habits ... dominion, his own peaceful and innocent 
 manner of life made it impossible to conceive that anyone of a 
 nature so noble as Hastings could become capable of such crimes 
 as were imputed to him. 
 
 11. 14-8. But, we think ... prank, this guess of Macaulay's has 
 no justification in anything we know of Impey's later life. He 
 may have joined Hastings in schoolboy pranks, and perhaps then 
 as afterwards have yielded to the stronger will of his school- 
 fellow, but that he had to be bribed to take his share in them is 
 a purely gratuitous assumption. Macaulay, following Burke and 
 Mill, had made up his mind that bribery induced Impey to serve 
 Hastings in India, and he here prepares the way for his account 
 of the transaction by making an ungenerous insinuation : fag is 
 here used as an equivalent to 'tool,' instrument ; the fag, in 
 ordinary school language, is a younger boy employed by his 
 elders in semi-menial duties, such as running on errands, brush- 
 ing clothes, cooking food, etc. ; and as Hastings and Impey were 
 of the same age and in the same form, there could have been no 
 such relation between the two. 
 
 1. 20. boatman, ■ oar,' as we should now say. 
 
138 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 1. 21. the foundation, in an endowed school those boys are said 
 to be 'on the foundation,' or to be 'foundationers,' who during 
 their school and college days are supported wholly or partly from 
 the revenues by which the school was founded, and the expres- 
 sion here is equivalent to a foundation scholarship, i. e. a scholar- 
 ship paid to a student while at school. 
 
 1. 22. the dormitory, famous nowadays as the room in which 
 the Westminster Play, generally one of Terence or Plautus, is 
 performed at the end of each year. 
 
 I. 24. a studentship, a term peculiar to Christ Church College, 
 Oxford, and answering to a scholarship at other colleges. 
 
 II. 33, 4. He even ... Oxford, this statement is made by Hast- 
 ings himself in an autobiography which he began when an old 
 man, but wearied of after writing four pages. 
 
 11. 35, 6. He thought ... sufficient, by hexameters and penta- 
 meters Macaulay means composition in Latin verse generally, the 
 two more ordinary forms of such composition being the heroic 
 verse of six feet and the elegiac couplet of six and five feet alter- 
 nately. In using the word wasted, Mr. Chiswick's opinion, not 
 Macaulay's, is expressed. 
 
 P. 7, 1. 1. a writership, the older term for a civil servant of 
 the company was ■ writer, ' such servants being in its earlier days 
 clerks in the factories, with none of the revenue or magisterial 
 duties which they were so soon to acquire. 
 
 11. 8-10. he sailed ... following, the voyage even for those days 
 was unusually long, but it often lasted many months. Sir C. 
 Lawson, in his monograph on Hastings in the Journal of Indian 
 Art, etc., says he arrived in January, 1750. 
 
 1. 12. Fort William, the new fort which Clive began to build in 
 1757. The phrase is still retained as the official designation of 
 the Government of Calcutta, as is Fort St. George of Madras. 
 
 I. 14. Dupleix, Joseph, the celebrated Frenchman, who so 
 distinguished himself in the service of the French East India 
 Company that he was in 1742 appointed governor of Pondi- 
 cherry. Had his ambitious designs of conquest been supported 
 by his government at home, the struggle between the French 
 and the English for empire in India would have been greatly 
 prolonged, and by some it is thought might have terminated 
 differently. He died in disgrace and poverty. 
 
 II. 14-6. had transformed ... generals, by compelling them to 
 play those parts in resisting the French designs. 
 
 1. 16. The war of the succession, in 1748, on the death of the 
 Nizam ul Mulk, Viceroy of the Dakhan, Chanda Sahib, son-in-law 
 of a former Nawab of the Karnatak, disputed the title of Anwar 
 ud din, then in possession of that province. Joining with Mir- 
 
NOTES. 139 
 
 zafar Jang, a grandson of the Nizam, who had set up a claim to 
 the Viceroyalty, and applying to the French for assistance, he 
 attacked, routed, and killed Anwar ud din, and made himself 
 master of nearly the whole of the Karnatak. Clive, who had 
 come out as a ' writer,' but had turned himself into a soldier, was 
 deputed by the Madras Government to resist the combination by 
 an attack upon Arcot, the capital of the Karnatak, and the result 
 was that after various sieges and engagements Chanda Sahib lost 
 all his possessions, fell into the hands of the Marathas, by whom 
 he was put to death ; while the French power in Southern India 
 was effectually broken. 
 
 11. 27-30. the prince . . . Bahar, this was Ali Varcli Khan, the 
 Nawab of Bengal, whose ' ' firm government had maintained a 
 barrier against invasion, and had kept peace within his borders " 
 (Lyall). _ 
 
 P. 8, 1. 4. declared ... English, on war breaking out in Europe 
 between the French and English, an attempt was made by the 
 Company to fortify Calcutta. The Nawab ordered the work to 
 be stopped, but his orders were disregarded, and he at once 
 marched on Kasimbazar. 
 
 1. 8. the Dutch Company, which first turned their attention to 
 the Eastern trade about 1580, and at one time had settlements 
 in India at Chinsurah, Negapatanam, Sadras, Pulicat, and 
 Bimlipatanam. 
 
 1. 11. the Black Hole, this tragedy took place on the night of 
 the 20th of June, 1756, a hundred and forty-six English men and 
 women being shut up in a small guard-room about twenty feet 
 long by fourteen wide, and having only two small windows 
 strongly barred. In the morning twenty-two men and one 
 woman came out alive. For a graphic account of the terrible 
 sufferings undergone, see Macaulay's Essay on Clive, or Trotter's 
 Warren Hastings, pp. 19, 20. 
 
 1. 15. Fulda, more properly 'Falta,' a village and Dutch 
 station near the confluence of the Hugli with the Damodar. 
 
 I. 19. at large, not in actual confinement, but allowed freedom 
 of exercise within certain limits. 
 
 II. 21-3. The treason ... progress, the reference is to a con- 
 spiracy formed against him by Rae Dalab, his minister of 
 finance ; Mir Jafar, his commander-in-chief ; and Jagat Seth, 
 the richest banker in India. The object of the confederates was 
 to place Mir Jafar on the throne. Clive, on reaching Calcutta, 
 determined to give support to the project, and sent ietters of 
 the most soothing character to Suraja Daula to put him off his 
 guard. When all was ready for the attack, Clive wrote to the 
 Nawab in a very different tone, setting forth all the wrongs 
 which the British had suffered at his hands, declaring his intention 
 
140 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 to submit the points in dispute between them to Mir Jafar and 
 the Hindu grandees at his court, and announcing that he and his 
 troops would do themselves the honour of waiting on his Highness. 
 Suraja Daula instantly assembled his whole force and marched 
 to encounter the English. The result was the battle of Plassey, 
 in which, with a force of three thousand men (one thousand of 
 whom were English), Clive utterly routed the Nawab's army of 
 sixty thousand of all arms. 
 
 P. 9, 1. 5. a member of Council, as a member of Council in 
 these early times was something very different from such an 
 official at the present day, it may be as well to give some account 
 of his status when Hastings received the appointment ; and, as 
 collateral to the matter, a statement of the salaries paid to the 
 different ranks of the Company's servants. "In 1750 the Com- 
 pany's settlements," says Trotter, p. 13, "in Bengal, Bombay, 
 and Madras, were governed each by a President and a Council of 
 senior merchants. The President's salary was then but £300 a 
 year, while those of his Councillors ranged from £40 to £100. 
 The senior merchants received £40, junior merchants £30, factors 
 £15, and writers only £5 a year. ... But the Company's servants 
 were permitted to eke out their pay with the profits of private 
 trade. " 
 
 11. 7-10. an interval ... government, for this period "the only 
 excuse to be made is that it is very short, and so crowded with 
 strange incidents, perilous adventures, and precipitate changes, 
 that one cannot wonder if the actors in such a drama lost their 
 heads. In June, 1756, the Company had been turned out of 
 Fort William and all their up-country factories in Bengal ; part 
 of their establishment was in the Black Hole ; the rest, half- 
 starved, upon an island in the Hooghly river. Within twelve 
 months the Company were virtually lords of Bengal, and all the 
 treasures of the state and resources of the provinces were at 
 their absolute disposal ; the French had lost all their settlements ; 
 their trade, up to that time considerable, was annihilated, and the 
 export business of the country had become an English monopoly. 
 A few years later the Company found themselves de facto rulers 
 of Behar, the great province that extends from Bengal proper 
 westward up to the Ganges at Benares, four hundred miles from 
 Calcutta. They had come for commerce and had found con- 
 quest; they had been compelled to choose between their own 
 expulsion and the overthrow of the native government ; they 
 fought for their own hand, and won so easily that they found 
 the whole power and responsibility of administration thrust 
 upon them without warning, experience, or time for prepara- 
 tion " (Lyall, pp. 19, 20). 
 
 1. 18. The master caste, the English, the dominant class, as 
 Macaulay terms them just below. 
 
NOTES. 141 
 
 1. 35. the enlarged policy, the larger and more statesmanlike 
 idea of government. 
 
 P. io. 1. 10. rotten boroughs, a term used of boroughs where 
 the number of voters was very small, in some of them because 
 they had decayed in size since members were first given them, in 
 others because they had been allowed members in order that they 
 might be under the influence of the Crown. The power of nomi- 
 nating these members was usually in the hands of the Crown or 
 of some neighbouring landlord, or was sold to the highest bidder. 
 At one period it is asserted that two hundred members of Parlia- 
 ment were returned by places with less than a hundred electors, 
 and that three hundred and fifty-seven members were nominated 
 by one hundred and fifty-four patrons. Macaulay is probably 
 alluding to Clive's candidature in 1754 at the borough of St. 
 Michael, "one of those wretched Cornish boroughs," as he says 
 in his Essay on Olive, " which were swept away by the Reform 
 Act in 1832." 
 
 I. 11. St. James's Square, at that time a locality even more 
 fashionable than at present. 
 
 II. 17, 8. It is certain ... poor, so poor, indeed, that " Raymond, 
 the French translator of the Sair Matdkharin, says he was obliged 
 to borrow money from an Armenian merchant for his expenses in 
 going home " (Lyall, p. 19). 
 
 1. 29. many lamentable blemishes, it must be remembered that 
 this is said under the wholly untenable belief that his conduct as 
 regards Nand Kumar, the Rohilla War, Chait Sing, and the 
 Begams, was as bad as the malice of his enemies represented it. 
 
 1. 35. squeamish, over-particular, unnecessarily delicate. 
 
 P. ii, 1. 2. buccaneer, "originally one who dries and smokes 
 flesh on a boucan after the manner of the Indians. The name 
 was first given to the French hunters of St. Domingo, who 
 prepared the flesh of the wild oxen and boars in this way. 
 2. (From the habits which these subsequently assumed:) A 
 name given to piratical rovers who formerly infested the Spanish 
 coasts in America. 3. By extension : A sea-rover who makes 
 hostile attacks upon the coast, a filibuster. F. boucaner, to dry 
 meat on a barbecue " (Murray, Encj. Diet. ). a galleon, originally 
 a Spanish word for an armed ship of large burden, then especi- 
 ally a large vessel containing treasure, such as ingots of silver, 
 or rich merchandise. 
 
 I. 18. liberal studies, the study of such subjects as language, 
 literature, art, etc., which enlarge and elevate a man's mind. 
 
 II. 27, 8. which lie ... track, which are not to be met with in 
 the beaten path along which men ordinarily walk. 
 
 1. 34. the revival of letters, a phrase in common use for the 
 
142 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 revival of learned studies, about 1450, after their eclipse during 
 the * Dark Ages ' ; also sometimes called the ' Renaissance. ' 
 
 P. 12, 1. 2. Hafiz and Ferdusi, two famous Persian poets, who 
 flourished in the eleventh and thirteenth centuries respectively. 
 
 11. 8-12. Long after, ...intercourse, "In a letter to him at 
 Calcutta, dated 30th March, 1774, Dr. Johnson remarked, 
 * Though I have had but little personal knowledge of you, I have 
 had enough to make me wish for more, and though it is now a 
 long time since I was honoured by your visit, I had too much 
 pleasure from it to forget it.' He then alluded to Hastings's 
 efforts ■ to increase the learning of your country by the intro- 
 duction of the Persian language,' and requested his acceptance of 
 an accompanying copy of Sir William Jones's ' Persian Grammar.' 
 Later in the same year Dr. Johnson forwarded to the Governor- 
 General a copy of his own 'Journey to the Western Isles of 
 Scotland ' ; and said, ' I wish you a prosperous government, a 
 safe return, and a long enjoyment of plenty and tranquillity ' " 
 (Sir C. Lawson). 
 
 1. 27. Imhoff, a baron, "who had been an officer in the army 
 of a minor German state, had obtained the recommendation of 
 Queen Charlotte, and was proceeding to Madras, ostensibly to 
 seek employment in the local army, but with some view to 
 portrait-painting" {Diet. Nat. Biog.). Macaulay's sneer, in the 
 words " He called himself a baron," is undeserved. Sir C. 
 Lawson shows that he was the third son of Baron Christopher 
 Imhoff, and "seventeenth in direct descent from a crusader oi 
 the name of Hoff, upon whom a German emperor bestowed a coat 
 of arms, and conferred the prefix of ' Im,' in recognition of an act 
 of great gallantry in the field." 
 
 I. 30. pagodas, a gold coin, worth about nine shillings. 
 
 II. 32, 3. a native ... Archangel, "He read it no doubt in the 
 Siyyar Mutaqherin, vol. ii. p. 476, translator's note, 'Born at 
 Archangel,' etc." (Stephen, The Story of Nuncomar, i. 266). 
 
 P. 13, 1. 9. a sail, the meeting with another vessel. 
 
 P. 14, 1. 8. Franconia, in Saxony. 
 
 1. 11. they should ... together, i.e. the Imhoffs as man and wife. 
 
 1. 1 3. complaisant, ready to condone an intimacy which, if he 
 had been a man of honour, he would have looked upon as the 
 last disgrace to be endured. 
 
 I. 19. The Reverend, notice the sarcasm. A clergyman of the 
 Church of England condoning the baseness of a husband ! 
 
 II. 21, 2. conduct ... lovers, the best excuse that could be made 
 for the behaviour of Hastings and the Baroness was that her 
 husband showed so little love for her and so little regard for her 
 honour that he was willing to be bribed into a divorce. 
 
NOTES. 143 
 
 i. 34. In a very... reform, he repressed the extortions of the 
 native middle-men upon the cotton and silk weavers, so that 
 before he left Madras a steady improvement had taken place in 
 the bales of silk and cotton prepared for the English markets ; 
 and he drew up a well-considered scheme for placing the Com- 
 pany's investments on a better footing. 
 
 P. 15, 11. 28-30. in the same relation ... Pepin, Odoacer, usually 
 called King of the Heruli, was the leader of the barbarians who 
 overthrew the Western Empire in a.d. 476, and drove Romulus 
 Augustulus into exile. Odoacer took the title of King of Italy, 
 but was shortly afterwards overthrown by Theodoric, King of 
 the Goths, when he took refuge in Ravenna. There he was 
 besieged by Theodoric for three years, and at last capitulated on 
 condition that he and Theodoric should share the kingdom of 
 Italy. Theodoric, however, put him to death in 493. Chilperic 
 II., King of Neustria, was overthrown by Charles Martel, a 
 descendant of the Pepins. Pepin the Short, as he was called, 
 was major domus to the Merovingian Emperor of Austrasia, 
 Childeric III. , on whose deposition by the Pope in 752 he founded 
 the Karling dynasty. 
 
 1. 33. public instruments, documents, proclamations, writs, 
 etc. 
 
 I. 34. cadet, here a subaltern in the army; a word more com- 
 monly used of a young military student, but also for a younger 
 member of a family, as the ' cadet of an ancient and noble family ' ; 
 from "F. cadet... & Poitou word... The Prov. form is capdet, 
 formed from a Low Lat. capitettum, a neuter form not found ... 
 [which] would mean literally ' a little head.' The eldest son was 
 called caput, the ' head ' of the family, the second the capitettum, 
 or lesser head" (Skeat, Ety. Diet.). 
 
 P. 16, 1. 3. all executive measures, as contrasted with legis- 
 lative and judicial measures. __ 
 
 II. 10, 1. This system ... Dundas, Pitt's East India Bill was 
 carried in 1784 ; it "preserved in appearance the political and 
 commercial powers of the Directors, while establishing a Board 
 of Control, formed from members of the Privy Council, for the 
 approval or annulling of their acts. Practically, however, the 
 powers of the Board of Directors were absorbed by a secret 
 committee of three elected members of that body, to whom all 
 the more important administrative functions had been reserved 
 by the bill, while those of the Board of Control were virtually 
 exercised by its President. As the President was in effect a new 
 Secretary of State for the Indian Department, and became an 
 important member of each Ministry, responsible, like his fellow- 
 members, for his action to Parliament, the administration of 
 India was thus made a part of the general system of the English 
 
144 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 •Government ; while the secret committee supplied the experience 
 of Indian affairs in which the Minister might be deficient" 
 (Green, Short History, etc., p. 795). 
 
 I. 16. a casting vote, a vote which decided the issue when the 
 numbers were equal in any discussion. 
 
 II. 28-30. To this day... "diplomatic," properly speaking, 
 political is that which has to do with civil government ; diplo- 
 matic that which has to do with negotiations with foreign 
 powers ; the derivation of the latter word is from Lat. diploma, 
 a document conferring a privilege, from Gk. 8CirXw|j.a, literally 
 anything folded double, diplomas apparently having originally 
 been so folded. Even now ' political officers ' in India are those 
 who reside at native courts as agents of the British Government 
 for the purpose of conducting negotiations, conveying the wishes 
 of that Government on any matter, etc. 
 
 P. 17, 1. 2. mere ceremonial, the formal ceremonies to be 
 observed in dealing with foreign courts and their representatives. 
 1. 5. stipend, salary. 
 
 I. 6. sterling, genuine, of true weight ; probably a contraction 
 of * Easter ling,' the Easterlings or North Germans being the 
 first moneyers in England. 
 
 II. 8, 9. and was . . . disposal, the position of the minister as 
 agent of the company being such that the Nawab would be afraid 
 to resist any proposition that minister might make as to the use 
 to which the Nawab's personal allowance should be put. 
 
 1. 17. conflicting pretensions, the claims which the two candi- 
 dates could urge to the appointment, there being much to be said 
 in favour of each of the rivals. 
 
 1. 29. Maharajah, the title was not hereditary from his ances- 
 tors, but was conferred by one of the Nawabs when such titles 
 were cheap. Nand Kumar was not indeed a man of any family, 
 or even a high-caste Brahman. 
 
 1. 32. consideration, respect, deference. 
 
 P. 18, 1. 3. that was ... Bengalees, this may have been true as 
 regards Nand Kumar's moral nature, but physically he was, 
 according to Sir Gilbert Elliot's description, "in person tall and 
 majestic, robust yet graceful," and according to Boswell of "an 
 excessively strong constitution." 
 
 1. 16. the Ionian ... Juvenal, the reference is to Juvenal's Third 
 Satire, in which the Ionian is described as made up of subtle 
 versatility ; see Satire, iii. 60-78. 
 
 1. 17. the Jew... ages, when being the aversion of every 
 European nation they were obliged to resort to cunning to escape 
 that tyranny and spoliation which in their case was considered 
 as perfectly justifiable. 
 
NOTES. 145 
 
 11. 19, 20. what beauty ... woman, a reference to the pseudo- 
 Anacreon, who after saying that nature gives horns to bulls, 
 hoofs to horses, swiftness to hares, etc., adds that to women 
 she gives "beauty in place of shield and sword, and she who 
 possesses that is victorious over arms and fire." 
 
 1. 21. elaborate ... falsehood, webs of falsehood woven with 
 elaborate skill and strengthened by details, giving to the whole 
 an appearance of genuine consistency ; tissue is that which is 
 woven, from tissu, the old past participle of F. tistre, modern F. 
 tisser, to weave. 
 
 1. 22. chicanery, mean deception, sharp practice. 
 
 1. 32. his masters, those who are his superiors in active courage 
 and physical prowess ; not here the English who were his masters 
 in another sense. 
 
 1. 33. the Stoics, the disciples and followers of Zeno who, about 
 B.C. 320, when he had developed his philosophical system, opened 
 his school in the porch adorned with the paintings of Polygnotus, 
 Stoa Poecile ; the main doctrine of his philosophy was a contempt 
 of all outward circumstances, especially of pain, distress, etc. 
 
 1. 34. their ideal sage, the man who realized their loftiest con- 
 ception of a perfectly wise man ; here meaning Zeno. 
 
 P. 19, 1. 5. Mucius, Scsevola, when taken prisoner in his 
 attempt to kill Porsena, the Etruscan King, who was then 
 blockading Rome, with the object of restoring Tarquinius 
 Superbus, was by that king condemned to be burnt alive. 
 Hereupon Mucius thrust his right hand into a fire lighted for a 
 sacrifice, and held it there without flinching. Porsena, in 
 admiration of his firmness, spared his life. From this exploit he 
 acquired the name of Scsevola, i.e. left-handed. 
 
 1. 6. Algernon Sydney, who was to be beheaded for his imputed 
 share in the Rye-house plot, and met his death with unmoved 
 constancy in 1682 ; see Green, Short History, etc., p. 661. 
 
 P. 20, 11. 1-3. The revenues ... Company, "Whoever gained by 
 it [the land revenue], the Company were defrauded of their 
 rightful share. The bulk of it was drained off by a few native 
 officers, a number of Zamindars, or revenue farmers, and a swarm 
 of greedy underlings, at the cost not only of the Company, but 
 of millions of helpless rack-rented husbandmen. After the 
 famine of 1770 the collecting of revenue in many districts 
 seemed like trying to squeeze water out of a dry sponge M 
 (Trotter, pp. 59, 60). 
 
 1. 4. for, at that time, the anticipations of the Company were 
 based on these false notions, and so were disappointed. 
 
 1. 6. porphyry, a hard, variegated rock, of purple and white 
 colour ; Gk. 7rop<f>vp€o$, purple. 
 
146 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 1. 7. gold mohurs, a coin at that time worth sixteen rupees, 
 but now of greater relative value. 
 
 1. 23. Leadenhall Street, where was the head office of the 
 Company. 
 
 P. 21, 11. 1-3. Many years ... compose, their quarrel was re- 
 garding their respective functions and jurisdiction, and was 
 ultimately adjusted by Clive. 
 
 1. 11. the system of double government, by which the admini- 
 stration of the finances of the country, though really in the hands 
 of the Company, was nominally under the jurisdiction of the 
 Nawab. 
 
 1. 24. On that memorable day, in April, 1760, the Emperor 
 Shah Alam was attacking Jafar, whom the English had made 
 Nawab of Bengal, and had reached Murshidabad : about the 
 22nd he marched back and laid siege to Patna, aided by Chevalier 
 Law with some guns. The garrison had repelled two assaults 
 when Knox appeared with 200 Europeans, a battalion of sepoys, 
 and a small detail of artillery. After the failure of the second 
 assault he got into Patna, and the next day sallied forth and fell 
 upon the besiegers who were speedily routed and fled precipitately 
 a distance of fifty miles. 
 
 P. 22, 1. 10. a considerable annual allowance, viz. sixteen lakha 
 of rupees, half his former allowance. 
 
 1. 14. Munny Begum, the widow of Mir Jafar. 
 
 1. 19. the inoffensive child, Gurdas, who had had no share in 
 Nand Kumar's villanies, was an adult. 
 
 1. 30. harnessed, decked with handsome trappings ; so we 
 speak of " harness " for armour, even in the case of men. 
 
 1. 31. sent back ... Patna, as deputy-governor of Bahar. 
 
 L 34. of a broken heart. This is merely a conjecture of Mill's 
 adopted by Macaulay. 
 
 1. 35-P. 23, 1. 5. The innocence ... liberty. " The trial of 
 Muhammad Raza Khan," says Trotter, pp. 66-7, "lingered on for 
 a whole year. The charges against him were investigated day 
 by day with unflagging patience ; Hastings himself filling the 
 twofold part of examiner and interpreter. The result of ex- 
 amining scores of witnesses and hundreds of documents deepened 
 his old distrust of Nanda-Kumar, and convinced him that, even 
 if the accused were in any way guilty, the time for proving him 
 so had gone by. Nanda-Kumar's evidence broke down egre- 
 giously. The evil old Brahman could only produce accornts that 
 proved nothing, and reiterate charges which he always failed to 
 make good. At last the long enquiry ended in an acquittal, 
 which the Court of Directors subsequently confirmed. The 
 victim of their rashness and Nanda-Kumar's hate was restored 
 
NOTES. 147 
 
 ere long to much of his former eminence. More fortunate than 
 his fellow-sufferer, he lived to hold high office under the govern- 
 ment of Bengal, and to see his old traducer doomed to a felon's 
 death." 
 
 11. 20, 1. The object ... money, this is Macaulay's way of pre- 
 paring the ground for his charge that the Rohilla War was 
 undertaken without any regard to the dangers which threatened 
 the British power in India. For an examination of the whole 
 subject, see Appendix I. 
 
 11. 25, 6. the old motto . . . Teviotdale, this is, or was, the motto 
 of the Cranstouns, who appear to have been great lords of Teviot- 
 dale in the old Border days, but now live at Corehouse, close to 
 the Falls of the Clyde. Henry of Cranstoun is mentioned in 
 Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel. 
 
 P. 24, 11. 8, 9. this is in truth ... home. "This," says Strachey, 
 Hastings and the Rohilla War, p. 264, "is a somewhat exaggerated 
 statement, but it is substantially true." 
 
 J^P. 25, 11. 5-8. On the plea ... concessions, Shah Alam had flung 
 himself into the hands of the Marathas, the worst enemies of the 
 British power, who treated him as a mere puppet, and he had 
 given into their keeping the provinces of Kora and Allahabad, 
 which Clive had restored to him in 1765. To pay tribute to him 
 was therefore in reality to pay tribute to the Marathas, and the 
 Court of Directors had some years before suggested the very step 
 that Hastings now took in case " he should fling himself into the 
 hands of the Marathas, or any other power." 
 
 11. 15, 6. the great Mussulman ... governed, this was written in 
 1841 ; in 1856 Dalhousie annexed the province of Oudh. 
 
 11. 19, 21. such an assumption ... impiety, as being an assertion 
 of independence of the Great Mughal, the head of the Musalmans 
 in India. 
 
 1. 23. Vizier, minister ; more correctly transliterated ' Wazir. * 
 
 1. 25. Elector, a title given to those German princes who 
 
 formerly had the right to take part in the election of the 
 
 Emperor. 
 
 1. 29. Allahabad, a province whose capital is on the Jamna, 
 about five hundred miles north-west of Calcutta. 
 
 1. 30. Corah, "the town of Kora, now much decayed, is about 
 a hundred miles to the north-west of Allahabad. It was a place 
 of great importance, and the capital of a province of the Mughal 
 empire. The provinces given to the Emperor by Clive were often 
 called Kora and Karra, the latter being the name of a consider- 
 able town about forty miles to the north-west of Allahabad" 
 (Strachey, p. 37). 
 
U8 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 P. 26, 1. 9. the passes, sc. of the Caucasus ; the passes, from 
 10,000 to 13,000 feet high, are a spur of the Pamir separating 
 the Kabul country from the valley of the Oxus. 
 
 1. 12. Hyphasis, the modern Beds, one of the five rivers from 
 which the Panjab, the country of five rivers, gets its name : 
 Hystaspes, or rather Hydaspes, the modern Jhelam, another of 
 the same network of rivers. 
 
 1. 18. Ghlzni, a fortress captured by Sir J. Keane in 1839. It 
 had been seized by the Ghuri Sultan in 1152, after which it 
 became deserted. In 1758 it was occupied by Nadir Shah on 
 his invasion of India, and at his death was incorporated in the 
 Daurani empire by Ahmad the Abdali. 
 
 1. 24. Cabul, on a river of the same name, the capital of 
 Afghanistan : Candahar, another large town and fortress in 
 Afghanistan, about 300 miles south-west of Kabul. 
 
 L 26. Rohillas, for an account of this Afghan tribe, see 
 Appendix I. 
 
 1. 27. fiefs of the spear, lands held on the tenure of military 
 service. 
 
 1. 28. analogous ... things, the feudal system in Europe. 
 
 1. 29. Ramgunga, the principal river of Rohilkhand. 
 
 1. 30. Kumaon, a mountainous district to the north of Rohil- 
 khand in which are many of the loftier peaks of the Himalayas, 
 and whose chief town is ' bleak Almora. 
 
 1. 31. Aurungzebe, one of the four sons of Shahjahan, who 
 reigned from 1659 to 1707. 
 
 I. 36. Lahore, now the capital of the Panjab, on the river 
 Ravi : Cape Comorin, the southernmost point of India. 
 
 P. 27, 11. 3, 4. nor were they ... poetry, see Appendix I. 
 
 II. 10, 1. that of Catherine ... Spain, in 1773 Catherine, Empress 
 of Russia, in conjunction with the sovereigns of Austria and 
 Prussia, seized on Poland, which they divided among themselves, 
 though having no claim to it but that of might : in 1808 Napoleon, 
 with no better claim, conquered Spain, and placed his brother 
 Joseph on the throne. On this Sir J. Strachey remarks, pp. 25, 
 6, " When Macaulay compares the actions of Shuja-ud-Daula in 
 Rohilkhand to those of Catherine in Poland and those of the 
 Bonapartes in Spain, the reader assumes that the position of the 
 Rohillas was similar to that of the Poles and Spaniards, that of 
 an injured people violently oppressed by foreign invaders ... It 
 would be less inaccurate to compare the position of the Rohillas 
 in Rohilkhand with that of the Russians in Poland, or with that 
 of the French in Spain in the time of Napoleon. The three cases 
 had at least this in common, that in each of them a body of 
 foreign soldiers was more or less successful in imposing, by 
 
NOTES. 149 
 
 violence and bloodshed, its rule over a large and unwilling 
 population. The Rohillas were as much foreigners in Rohil- 
 khand as Frenchmen in Spain or Russians in Poland." 
 
 1. 21. eighty thousand men, this is an exaggeration, if Macaulay 
 means that they could bring this number of their own people into 
 the field. The Rohillas in Rohilkhand probably never numbered 
 more than forty thousand. Macaulay's estimate is taken from 
 Mill, who took it from Verelst, but Verelst was referring to the 
 probable number of Afghans that could be brought together not 
 in Rohilkhand alone but in the whole of Northern India, if the 
 various chiefs were united. 
 
 I. 22. Sujah Dowlah ... fight, as for instance when Major Munro 
 with a force of seven thousand men, mostly sepoys, won the 
 splendid victory of Baksar over fifty thousand of Shuja's own 
 troops in October, 1764. 
 
 II. 24, 5. Caucasian tribes, Macaulay means the Afghans, who 
 were supposed to have come from Mount Caucasus. 
 
 I. 30. the imperial people, people formed for empire, the 
 English. 
 
 P. 28, 1. 1. A bargain ... struck, see Appendix I. 
 
 II. 24, 5. The hussar-mongers ... Anspach, the princes of Hesse 
 and Anspach, two German duchies, who virtually sold their sub- 
 jects to serve as mercenaries with the British. 
 
 ^r. 29, 1. 6. Did it lie in their mouths, could they with any 
 propriety say ? 
 
 1. 8. a caput lupinum, a wolf's head, i.e. what might well be 
 cut off. 
 
 I. 17. offered a large ransom, this is not the case; Hafiz 
 Rahmat would make no promise of payment of the sum due 
 to the Wazir according to the treaty made between them : see 
 Appendix I. 
 
 II. 22, 3. The dastardly . . . field, see Appendix I. 
 
 P. 30, 11. 1-6. More than ... daughters, those who fled to "pes- 
 tilential jungles," — by which Macaulay means the Tarai, a belt of 
 forest land at the foot of the hills, — were not Rohillas, but the 
 Hindu cultivators, who very soon returned to their homes, and 
 neither they nor the Rohillas suffered anything as regards "the 
 honour of their wives and daughters." 
 
 1. 26. to take order, to take measures, act in such a way as to 
 ensure that, etc. 
 
 1. 35. the injured nation, on the term nation as applied to the 
 Rohillas, see Appendix I. 
 
 P. 31, 1. 4. at the cold steel, in a bayonet charge or a hand to 
 hand combat with swords. 
 
150 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 1. 26. Lord North, Prime Minister from 1770 to 1782. 
 
 P. 32, 1. 2. undefined extent, the evils resulting from this 
 want of strict definition are noticed further on, pp. 56-60. 
 
 1. 8. Clavering, says Trotter, p. 96, "was an honest, hot- 
 headed soldier, who had led the attack on Guadeloupe in 1759, 
 and whose Parliamentary influence had raised him into favour 
 with the King and Lord North": Monson "appears to have 
 been a man of small intellect, arrogant, rash, self-willed, but 
 easily led by these who paid him the needful deference. " 
 
 1. 15. manly spirit, if manly is here nothing more than a 
 synonym of 'fearless,' 'bold,' it is applicable enough to Francis, 
 but his behaviour to Hastings was full of misrepresentation and 
 underhand malice. 
 
 1. 23. Letters of Junius, published in 1769-72 in the Public 
 Advertiser, and addressed to a variety of public men. 
 
 I. 35. Lord Chatham, the elder Pitt, several times Prime Minister. 
 P. 33, 11. 1, 2. the first Lord Holland, Henry Fox, father of his 
 
 greater son, Charles James Fox. 
 
 II. 13-5. If this argument ... evidence, strong as Macaulay's 
 arguments are, the controversy still rages, though most people 
 believe that Francis was Junius. 
 
 1. 31. Corneille, 1606-84, the creator of the French drama, pro- 
 duced thirty-three plays besides several volumes of poetry. 
 
 1. 33. Bunyan, John, a Baptist minister, 1628-88, who wrote 
 the famous allegory of the Pilgrim's Progress, the Holy War, 
 Grace Abounding, etc. 
 
 1. 34. Cervantes, the great Spanish novelist; 1547-1616. 
 
 1. 35. the Man in the Mask, here meaning of course Junius, 
 but in allusion to the 'Man in the Iron Mask,' the name given to 
 a French state prisoner whose face was always concealed in an 
 iron mask, and who has not been identified. 
 
 P. 34, 1. 1. letter to the king, one of the most famous and most 
 violent of the series, published 19th December, 1779. 
 
 1. 2. Home Tooke, a clergyman and politician, best known as 
 the author of the Diversions of Purley, a work on philology of 
 which most of the conclusions have been proved unsound by more 
 recent investigations. 
 
 1. 10. Woodfall, the printer who was prosecuted for publishing 
 the letters. 
 
 I. 18. the Hebrew prophet, Jonah ; see ch. iv., ver. 9. 
 
 II. 28, 9. a respect . . . pedantry, a veneration similar to that of 
 bookworms for works that have no better claim to honour than 
 the fact of their being antiquated. 
 
NOTES. 151 
 
 I. 29. Old Sarum, a village in Wiltshire which, till the Reform 
 Bill of 1832, returned a member of Parliament by the vote of a 
 single householder. 
 
 II. 30, 1. Manchester and Leeds, which, though large and popu- 
 lous towns, returned no member of Parliament till the same 
 Reform Bill. 
 
 _^E« 35> 1- 3. George Grenville, Prime Minister from 1763-5. 
 
 1. 6. the Middlesex election, John Wilkes, notorious for his 
 profane and licentious life, was three times elected for Middlesex, 
 but being prosecuted for libellous, seditious, and immoral works, 
 was refused admission to the House of Commons, though in the 
 end he took his seat in 1774. A graphic account of all the cir- 
 cumstances will be found in Macaulay's Essay on The Earl of 
 Chatham. 
 
 I. 7. faction, party ; not here used in its more unfavourable 
 sense. 
 
 II. 13, 4. he must "be ... again, it would be utter folly in him to 
 continue his letters when he saw how useless was the hope of 
 stirring up any party to support the views he advocated. 
 
 11. 22, 3. With the three . . . Court, but in a different vessel. 
 
 1. 27. tool, Impey may sometimes have been too ready to help 
 Hastings, as in the matter of the affidavits, but he was no tool. 
 When he felt he had just cause, he vigorously opposed Hastings. 
 
 1. 31. punctilious, unduly sensitive in regard to the marks of 
 honour to which they thought themselves entitled. Their griev- 
 ance on this matter they at once made the subject of minutes 
 and correspondence, and even thought them of sufficient im- 
 portance to be recorded in their first Despatch to the Court of 
 Directors. 
 
 P. 36, 11. 10-2. condemned... Vizier, and yet they were eager 
 enough to enforce payment of the money due from the Wazir on 
 account of the Rohilla War. 
 
 I. 13. creature, nominee ; apparently not used here in its more 
 offensive sense. 
 
 II. 19-22. threw all ... government, in 1774 Raghunath Rao, 
 commonly called Raghuba, who on the death of his nephew, the 
 Peshwa, in 1773, had got himself installed as his successor in that 
 office, was opposed by Nana Farnavis, posthumous son of the late 
 Peshwa. Defeated in the field, he entered into an alliance with 
 the Bombay Government, agreeing in return for a body of troops 
 to cede to that Government the island of Salsette, and the port 
 of Bassein. The majority in Council condemned these negotia- 
 tions, and ordered K eating's column to return to Bombay. The 
 consequence was that the Bombay Government, by the treaty of 
 Purandhar, engaged to give up Salsette, as well as other con- 
 
152 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 quests, in exchange for a district near Broach, and a promise of 
 twelve lakhs of rupees towards the expenses of the war. " Hast- 
 ings' opponents had the spirit indeed to join with him in refusing 
 on any terms to give up Salsette. But when the Directors an- 
 nounced their approval of the treaty with Raghuba, and con- 
 demned the policy which issued in the treaty of Purandhar, 
 Francis and Clavering threw all the blame of failure on the 
 Governor- General himself " (Trotter, p. 126). 
 
 11. 22, 3. fell on . . . Bengal, they abolished the provincial courts 
 that Hastings had set up, restored the jurisdiction of the Nawab, 
 and re-appointed Muhammad Raza Khan to his old post. 
 
 P. 37, 1. 4. after their kind, according to their nature. 
 
 I. 17. It is well, i.e. fortunate for the person accused. 
 
 II. 29, 30. Oateses ... Dangerfields. Oates, Bedloe, and Danger- 
 field in 1678 pretended to have discovered a Popish plot aiming 
 at the subversion of Protestantism and the death of the king. 
 See Green, Short History, etc., pp. 650, 1. 
 
 11. 35, 6. to wreak . . . years, to satisfy the malice he had 
 cherished since he first quarrelled with Hastings in 1758. 
 
 P. 38, 1. 3. paid . . . them, sought their favour by every kind of 
 servility. 
 
 I. 4. with all indignity, with every mark of disgrace. 
 
 II. 26, 7. that he could not . . . Nuncomar, see Appendix II. 
 
 1. 34. produced a . . . supplement, rather he gave details of his 
 charges. 
 // P. 39, 1. 9. attestation, sc. by means of her seal. 
 
 I. 24. higher authority, the Court of Directors. 
 
 II. 29-31. unless it should ...Governor-General, Hastings' words 
 were, "if the first advices from England contain a disapprobation 
 of the treaty of Benares or of the Rohilla war, and mark an evi- 
 dent disinclination towards me. " 
 
 P. 40, 1. 2. wheedling, coaxing, cajoling ; the word is sup- 
 posed by Skeat to be from G. wedeln, to wag the tail, to fan. 
 
 I. 5. resources, sc. of his mind. 
 
 II. 19, 20. possessing ... stronghold, getting the Supreme Court 
 on his side. 
 
 I. 25. committed, for trial. 
 
 II. 28-30. But it was then ... business, see Appendix II. 
 
 P. 41, 1. 1. assizes, a session of a court of justice ; O.F. assis, 
 an assembly of judges. 
 
 1. 2. a true hill was found, i.e. the Grand Jury gave as their 
 decision that there was sufficient prima facie evidence for the 
 matter to be tried before a common jury. 
 
NOTEa 153 
 
 I. 3. before Sir Elijah Impey, this is disingenuous. Macaulay, 
 in order to strengthen his case against Impey, conceals the fact 
 that the trial was before the four judges who comprised the 
 Supreme Court — all of whom agreed with Impey's summing up — 
 and an English jury, the members of which the prisoner was at 
 liberty to challenge in case he objected to their choice, and 
 several of whom he did challenge. 
 
 II. 19, 20. The Council ... interfere, but a recommendation from 
 them to the effect that a reprieve should be granted until the 
 case was referred home would have been one that could not be 
 disregarded. The Council declined to make such a recommenda- 
 tion, Clavering assigning as a reason that it was a private trans- 
 action of Nand Kumar's own, that it had no relation whatever to 
 the public concerns of the country, and that he would not make 
 any application in favour of a man who had been guilty of 
 forgery. In this view Monson concurred. Impey declared, in 
 his defence, that if such an application had been made to the 
 Court it would have been granted at once. 
 
 11.21,2. That Impey ... clear, see a statement of Sir J. 
 Stephen's views on this point in Appendix II. 
 
 11. 29, 30. It had never . . . delinquents, see Appendix II. 
 
 P. 42, 1. 4. But Impey ... delay, another piece of injustice to 
 Impey. He did not hurry on the execution, nor was it in his 
 single power to show mercy. 
 
 11. 8, 9. Clavering ... rescued, there is no authority whatever 
 for this statement. 
 
 I. 22. a Brahmin of the Brahmins, nothing more than a rhe- 
 torical expansion of the previous words. 
 
 II. 29, 30. According to ... whatever, yet many Brahmans had 
 suffered death since the introduction of English law, and a Brah- 
 man had even been sentenced capitally on a forgery indictment, 
 though the sentence was commuted on petition. Macaulay's insin- 
 uation, therefore, that such a fate was unprecedented has no force. 
 
 11. 31-3. was regarded ...jockey, "that is," says Sir J. Stephen, 
 "in the sight of a mere breach of warranty." 
 
 P. 43, 1. 1. The Mahommedan historian, this was Sayyid Ghu- 
 lam Husen Khan; his history was entitled Siyyar-ul-Mutakharin, 
 or the "Review of ^Modern Times," and was translated by a 
 French refugee named Raymond, who called himself Mustapha. 
 In confirmation of his story as regards Nand Kumar, Barwell, 
 in one of his letters to his sister, says that "fourteen blank 
 covers of letters sealed with many English gentlemen's and 
 Hindostanee names were found in the Maha Rajah Nuncomar's 
 house, and delivered into Council, as may be fully proved by 
 reference to the Records of Council." 
 
154 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 P. 44, 1. 12. Dacca, a large and populous town about 150 miles 
 north-east of Calcutta, and once the capital of Bengal. It was 
 formerly famous for the beauty of its muslins, and its rice is still 
 the finest in India. 
 
 11. 16-8. No rational man ... Governor-General, see Appendix II. 
 
 11. 23-5. These strong . . . Hastings, see Sir J. Stephen's explana- 
 tion in the same Appendix. 
 
 P. 45, 1. 13. Lord Stafford, a Catholic nobleman beheaded in 
 1680 for his share in the Popish plot invented by Oates : see 
 above, p. 37, 1. 29. 
 
 P. 46, 1. 31. Tour to the Hebrides, by Johnson, in 1773; a 
 narrative of a journey he made with Boswell to Scotland and the 
 adjacent islands on the west coast: Jones's Persian Grammar, in 1771 
 Sir William Jones, a famous Oriental scholar, published this work. 
 
 P. 47, 11. 9-11. As Lady Macbeth ... win," Macb. i. 5. 22, 3. 
 
 I. 14. on an address ... Company, in case the Company should 
 address the Crown with a petition for his removal. 
 
 II. 21, 2. Court of Directors, the governing body elected by the 
 votes of the proprietors of India stock. 
 
 1. 24. The great sale-room, in which were held auctions of the 
 goods received from India. 
 
 1. 27. held India stock, had shares in the Company, and there- 
 fore were entitled to votes : Lord Sandwich, John Montagu, 
 fourth Earl of Sandwich, 1718-1792, First Lord of the Admiralty 
 in 1763 and 1771, and Secretary of State in the former year. 
 
 1. 28. the friends of the administration, those of the proprietors 
 of India stock who were supporters of Lord North's government, 
 and therefore wished to get rid of Hastings. 
 
 1. 30. seldom ... eastward, the India Office being in Leadenhall 
 Street, at the extreme east of London, while the residences of 
 these peers were in the west end, the fashionable quarter. 
 
 I. 32. a ballot, in which the voting was secret, and in which, 
 though the number of voters might be against Hastings, the 
 number of votes would not necessarily be so, since the amount of 
 stock held by each proprietor regulated the number of votes he 
 could give. 
 
 P. 48, 1. 10. the crown lawyers, the legal advisers of the govern- 
 ment, more especially the Lord Chancellor, the Attorney-General, 
 and the Solicitor- General. 
 
 II. 12, 3. an honourable retreat, by a voluntary resignation 
 without waiting for dismissal. 
 
 11. 15, 6. The instrument ... form, it being merely part of a 
 private letter from Hastings to Macleane, instead of a formal 
 document addressed to the Court of Directors. 
 
NOTES. 155 
 
 11. 29-32. He instantly ... ordered, by the death of Monson his 
 hands were "strengthened at a timely moment for the work of 
 revising the land settlements of 1772. In order to collect full 
 materials for the new settlement he appointed a special commis- 
 sion of enquiry, headed by Anderson and Bogle, two of the ablest 
 civil officers in Bengal. A few weeks later, Middleton resumed 
 his old post of Resident at Lucknow in the room of Francis' 
 favourite, Bristow. The younger Fowke was speedily recalled 
 from Benares " (Trotter, p. 128). 
 
 P. 49, 1. 1. subsidiary alliances, alliances in which the native 
 powers were to maintain a British force at their own expense, and 
 so virtually come under the control of the Company's Government. 
 
 I. 3. Berar, a province of Central India belonging to the 
 Nizam of Haidarabad : paramount, supreme, chief. 
 
 P. 50, 11. 2-4. He directed . . . his, ' * By virtue of his office the 
 Governor-General would also act as Commander-in-Chief. His 
 counter-orders to the troops were cheerfully obeyed. Colonel 
 Morgan closed the gates of Fort William against General Claver- 
 ing, and a like answer came from Barrackpur and Baj-Baj " 
 (Trotter, pp. 136, 7). 
 
 II. 35, 6. The exertion ... later, there seems no warrant for con- 
 necting his death with his presence at the wedding. He was 
 taken ill on his way home from a visit to Impey, and died within 
 the fortnight. 
 
 P. 51, 11. 9-13. The truth is ... acknowledge, "the East India 
 proprietors stood by Hastings, discerning him to be the best man 
 for their interests in a stormy time. Burgoyne had surrendered 
 at Saratoga : the French had just declared war ; and on the 
 whole the Ministers could not venture to send out a new and 
 untried Governor-General to India " (Lyall, p. 90). 
 
 11. 25, 6. humbled ... Second, the reference is to the elder Pitt 
 and the series of victories obtained by the British forces through- 
 out the world during his administration. 
 
 1. 30. the too just .. Ireland, these had reference to commercial 
 and religious restrictions. In 1779 the Sheriffs of Dublin 
 stated to the Lord-Lieutenant that the poor were on the brink 
 of starvation, and nothing but freedom of trade would save 
 them. The Catholics were furious about their religious dis- 
 abilities, and something was done to ameliorate their position 
 by the first Catholic Relief Bill passed in July of the same 
 year. 
 
 1. 32. the armed ... Baltic, the combination of Russia, Sweden, 
 and Denmark to resist the claim which England had hitherto 
 maintained to search their ships if suspected of carrying arms or 
 men to be used against it. 
 
156 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 1. 33. jeopardy, imminent danger; from "O.F. jeu parti, a 
 divided game ... a game in which the chances are exactly even "... 
 (Skeat, My. Diet.). 
 
 1. 34. Calpe, the classical name for the modern Gibraltar. 
 
 P. 52, 1. 11. wild range of hills, otherwise called the * Sahyadri 
 range.' 
 
 I. 13. Sevajee, Madho Rao Sivaji, founder of the Maratha 
 power in the reign of Aurangzeb. See Appendix IV. 
 
 II. 17,8. generated ... monarchy , who owed their origin to 
 the gradual breaking up of the Mughal empire, which followed 
 upon the reign of Aurangzeb ; the metaphor is that of insect life 
 generated in decomposing bodies. 
 
 1. 20. Freebooters, plunderers, those who unscrupulously made 
 a booty or spoil of the possessions of others. 
 
 1. 22. The Bonslas, one of the Maratha families, who were 
 finally subdued in 1817. 
 
 1. 24. The Guicowar, or more properly Gaekwar, a title given 
 to a prince who still reigns at Baroda, about 300 miles almost 
 direct north of Bombay. 
 
 1. 26. Scindia, whose descendant, the chief representative of 
 the Marathas in India, reigns at Gwaliar, about eighty miles 
 south-east of Agra. Holkar, another Maratha chief, whose 
 descendant reigns at Indor in Malwa, about a hundred miles 
 east of Baroda. 
 
 1. 28. Gooti, in the Bellari district, north of Maisdr. 
 
 1. 30. Tanjore, about 200 miles almost direct south of Pondi- 
 cherry. 
 
 1. 35. Tamerlane, or Timur-lang, i.e. the lame Timur, the 
 great Tatar shepherd who descended upon India in 1398 and 
 laid the foundations of the Mughal empire, which Babar and 
 Akbar afterwards consolidated. 
 
 P. 53, 1. 3. a roi faine*ant, an idle, slothful sovereign ; a king 
 in name, who leaves all his functions to be discharged by sub- 
 ordinates, and gives himself up to dissolute enjoyment : bang, or 
 bhang, an intoxicating drug made from wild hemp, and taken 
 generally in smoking. 
 
 1. 4. Sattara, a fortified town about 100 miles south-east of 
 Bombay. 
 
 1. 5. Peshwa, literally * president,' f chief minister.' 
 
 1. 6. Pqonah, about 80 miles south-east of Bombay ; now the 
 residence -of the Bombay government for part of the hot weather. 
 
 1. 8. Aurungabad, a city about 250 miles north-east of Bombay : 
 Bejapoor, rather more than 250 miles south-east of Sattara. 
 
NOTES. 157 
 
 11. 10, 1. a French adventurer, "the Chevalier St. Lubin who 
 had induced the French minister to entrust him with a commis- 
 sion to visit India, reconnoitre the situation, and to report on 
 the practicability of landing a force upon the coast from the Isle 
 of France" (Lyall, p. 94). 
 
 1. 19. a pretender, this was Raghunath Rao, or Raghuba, 
 already mentioned. 
 
 11.28-30. All the measures ... delay, Francis, as usual, con- 
 demned the proceedings taken by Hastings, and Wheler joined 
 with him. 
 
 1. 30. The French . . . Bengal, the principal of these was Chan- 
 dranagar, a few miles west of Calcutta. 
 
 1. 31. Pondicherry, the chief French settlement in southern 
 India, about 90 miles direct south of Madras ; now one of the 
 few French possessions left. 
 
 I. 36. Lascars, native sailors ; the word is from the Persian 
 lashkar, army. 
 
 P. 54, 1. 3. his presidency, sc. Bengal : so called from being 
 governed by the President of the Council. The three Presi- 
 dencies of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, are now subdivided into 
 ten provinces. 
 
 II. 9, 10. A new commander ... predecessor, this was Goddard, 
 who took the field in January, 1780, quickly captured the im- 
 portant city of Ahmadabad, and twice defeated the combined 
 armies of Holkar and Sindhia. 
 
 1. 13. a new ... danger, that arising from collision with Haidar 
 Ali and the French in southern India. 
 
 1. 18. Sir Eyre Coote, it was in 1761 that this general first 
 distinguished himself when he compelled the French commander, 
 the daring Lally, to surrender himself and the capital, Pondi- 
 cherry. 
 
 11.25,6. the brave ... Lally, "Thomas Arthur, Count Lally 
 and Baron Tollendal, son of Sir Gerard O'Lally, who, after the 
 capture of Limerick in 1691, had migrated to. France and had 
 entered the service of Louis XIV. Nine years after there was 
 born to Sir Gerard the son who, trained from his earliest youth 
 in the French armies, had merited at Fontenoy the commendations 
 of Marshal Saxe ; who had taken part in the '45, and had fought 
 at Laffeldt."... On his return to France, after captivity in 
 England, ■ ■ he was condemned on the most casual evidence, and 
 after three years of lingering agony was condemned to be 
 beheaded. On May 8, 1766, he was transferred from prison to a 
 dung-cart, and with a gag thrust into his mouth, was taken 
 through the streets of Paris to the scaffold " (Malleson, Dupleix, 
 pp. 168, 175). "The wretched government," says Macaulay, 
 
158 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 Essay on Clive, "of Lewis the Fifteenth had murdered, directly 
 or indirectly, almost every Frenchman who had served his 
 country with distinction in the East. Labourdonnais was flung 
 into the Bastile, and, after years of suffering, left only to die. 
 Dupleix, stripped of his immense fortune and broken-hearted by 
 humiliating attendance in ante- chambers, sank into an obscure 
 grave. Lally was dragged to the common place of execution 
 with a gag between his lips." Wandewash, a fortified town 
 between Madras and Pondicherry. 
 
 1. 35. allowances, personal and local additions to pay. 
 
 P. 55, 1. 6. Porto Novo and Pollilore, at the former place Coote 
 finished his long campaign in the Karnatak by a decisive victory 
 in July, 1781, defeating Haidar Ali's army of 80,000 men by a 
 force of only one-tenth of those numbers ; the victory at Polilur 
 in August was less decisive. 
 
 1. 8. a memorial, a petition for the redress of some grievance, 
 or the concession of some favour. 
 
 1. 19. the most ... allowances, allowances for travelling ex- 
 penses, table-money, etc., paid on a scale which he had no right 
 to claim. 
 
 I. 20. the strongest passions, avarice and self-indulgence. 
 
 II. 27, 8. Coote ... faction, Coote had never espoused the cause 
 of either party in the Council with factious warmth. 
 
 11. 32, 3. to promote . . . liberty, to bring about a reconciliation 
 which would enable him to quit the Council without having to 
 leave Hastings to face a hostile majority. 
 
 1. 35. the friends of Francis, those of the Company's service to 
 whom Francis had shown favour. 
 
 P. 56, 1. 1. apparent harmony, for Francis had never abandoned 
 his rancour towards Hastings. 
 
 1. 4. internal calamities, on this quarrel between the Council 
 and the Supreme Court, see Appendix III. 
 
 I. 25. vices, imperfections and drawbacks. 
 
 II. 34, 5. No man ... zone, exile, in any case painful enough, 
 becomes doubly painful when it is to a climate utterly different 
 from that of one's own country. 
 
 P. 57, 11. 3, 4. in chambers ... Thames, an allusion to the 
 Temple Inns of Court on the banks of the Thames. 
 
 1. 5. Westminster Hall, where the chief law courts were held. 
 
 1. 9. modifications, alterations adapting it to the manners and 
 customs of the country. 
 
 1. 12. Arrest on mesne process, the introduction of this law 
 " into India was," says Sir J. Stephen, "indefensible. The effect 
 
NOTES. 159 
 
 of it was that on an affidavit sworn behind his back a man might 
 be arrested at Dacca, for instance, or Patna, and brought to Cal- 
 cutta, there to be imprisoned at a distance of many hundred miles 
 from his home, unless he could give bail for an action perhaps 
 unjustly brought against him. Even if he pleaded to the juris- 
 diction, and his plea was allowed, he was put to much incon- 
 venience, and, at all events, he had to employ at a great expense 
 English attorneys and counsel " (ii. p. 145) : mesne, middle, 
 intermediate between accusation and trial. 
 
 11. 15-7. the feeling ... native, Macaulay has no authority for 
 this statement ; native witnesses perhaps object to oaths when 
 they do not intend to tell the truth. 
 
 1. 18. quality, rank ; the term • a person of quality ' was, not 
 very long ago, commonly used for a ' nobleman. 
 
 1. 21. can be expiated ... blood, nothing less than the death of 
 those who had committed the outrage could suffice to blot out 
 its disgrace. 
 
 I. 30. callings, professions ; here the clerical profession. 
 
 II. 32, 3, to treat ... Tyler, in 1380 Wat Tyler, who afterwards 
 headed an insurrection, slew a tax-collector for a gross insult to 
 one of his daughters. 
 
 P. 58, 11. 1-10. A reign ... sounds, see Sir J. Stephen's criticism 
 of this passage in Appendix III. 
 
 1. 12. barrators, as a law term this word means one who 
 vexatiously raises, or incites, to litigation ; one who from malicious- 
 ness, or for the sake of gain, raises discord among neighbours ; 
 but it is also used in a variety of other senses, especially of those 
 given to fraudulent transactions or quarrelsome behaviour : 
 agents of chicane, men employed in every kind of shifty and 
 subtle intrigue. 
 
 1. 15. spunging-houses, the houses of sheriffs' officers in which 
 debtors were formerly confined before trial, and where the 
 charges were so extortionate that the inmates were squeezed dry 
 like a spunge. 
 
 1. 21-P. 59, 1. 17. There were instances ... days, see Appendix 
 III. for Sir J. Stephen's criticism of this passage. 
 
 1. 23. alguazils, a Spanish adaptation of Arabic al-ivazir, the 
 minister, and used in Spanish both for a justiciary and a bailiff. 
 Here of course Macaulay employs the word in its lowest sense, 
 and with the intention of implying extortionate and cruel 
 treatment. 
 
 1. 33. Vansittart, Governor of Bengal in the interval between 
 Olive's first and second administrations, who vainly endeavoured 
 to check the excesses of the Company's servants. 
 
 P. 59, 1. 5. pettifoggers, instruments of petty extortion. 
 
1G0 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 1. 11. catchpoles, bailiffs; literally the word means one who 
 hunts or chases fowls ; though not in earlier times used in a con- 
 temptuous sense, it has long had that sense. 
 
 1. 12. gang-robbers, the dakaits who, till late years, infested 
 India. 
 
 I. 26-9. The consequence ... dissolved, this sneer is ungenerous, 
 and there is no reason to suppose that the friendship between 
 Hastings and Impey was less disinterested than ordinary friend- 
 ships. For the rest of the paragraph, see Appendix III. 
 
 II. 35, 6. Hastings ... call, Sir J. Stephen remarks, " The 
 passage as to Hastings's * just scorn ' at being sued for his public 
 acts is remarkable. Surely it is one of the fundamental principles 
 of English law that a man who holds a public office is liable to 
 an action for abusing its powers. That Macaulay of all men 
 should deny this is wonderful " (ii. 253). 
 
 P. 6o, 1. 12. eight thousand ... more, this is an exaggeration; 
 the salary was 1^5000 a month or £6000 a year. 
 
 11. 23,4. since Jefferies ... Tower, the infamous judge whose 
 cruelty in the 'bloody assize,' after Monmouth's rebellion, is un- 
 paralleled in history. The name is properly 'Jeffreys,' not 
 1 Jefferies. ' On James's flight he was thrown into the Tower by 
 the supporters of William the Third. 
 
 11. 33, 4. walk the plank, a mode of punishment common among 
 pirates, who obliged their captives to walk up a plank of wood 
 balanced on the vessel's bulwarks which tilted downwards with 
 their weight and launched them into the sea. 
 
 P. 6 1, 1. 1. corsair, pirate; F. corsair e, literally one who makes 
 the course or cruise. 
 
 11. 5-7. if they ... usurped, these powers of course did not be- 
 long to him as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and they 
 were not in any sense usurped, but were legally conferred upon 
 him by Hastings. 
 
 I. 13. Francis ... arrangement, Francis "protested that the 
 government were conceding to their enemy all that they had 
 been fighting for " ; ... and ' ' departed for England with a fresh 
 store of accusations against both Hastings and Impey, which he 
 so used as to procure Impey's recall by Lord Shelburne's Ministry 
 on this very charge, and to increase the growing distrust and 
 uneasiness in Parliament regarding the Governor-General's pro- 
 ceedings" (Lyall, p. 115). 
 
 II. 32, 3. verbal communication, strictly speaking this should 
 be 'oral communication,' for a communication by means of words 
 may be made in writing as well as in speaking. 
 
 P. 62, 1. 7. They met, and fired, " they met at a spot still well 
 remembered in Calcutta tradition [near the present Cathedral], 
 
NOTES. 161 
 
 taking ground at a distance of fourteen paces, measured out by 
 Colonel Watson, one of the seconds, who said that Charles Fox 
 and Adams had fought (1779) at that distance; although Hastings 
 observed that it was a great distance for pistols. The seconds 
 had baked the powder for their respective friends [the duel took 
 place in the rainy season], nevertheless Francis' pistol missed 
 fire. Hastings waited till he had primed again and missed, 
 when he returned the shot so effectively that Francis was carried 
 home with a ball in his right side. The remarkable coolness of 
 Hastings was noticed ; he objected to the spot first proposed as 
 being overshadowed by trees ; and probably those were right 
 who inferred from his behaviour that he intended to hit his 
 man" (Lyall, pp. Ill, 2). 
 
 1. 30. a Mahommedan soldier, Haidar Ali. 
 
 1. 33. extraction, origin, family. 
 
 I. 34. dervise, or ■ darwesh,' a wandering mendicant. 
 
 P. 63, 11. 4, 5. the qualities ... statesman, the qualities that go 
 to the making up of a great general or a great statesman. 
 
 II. 6, 7. the fragments . . . wreck, the various principalities sub- 
 ordinate to the emperor, which, when the empire broke up, fell 
 into a state of anarchy and confusion. 
 
 11. 9, 10. Louis the Eleventh, who reigned from 1461 to 1483, 
 was one of the greatest French kings, whether in matters of war 
 or those of peaceful administration. When he died, he had 
 assured the unity of France and her preponderance in Europe. 
 
 11. 23-5. Unhappily . . . repel it, his hostility was provoked first 
 by the capture in 1779 of Mahe, the only settlement remaining to 
 the French, in whose defence Haidar's troops had taken part, and 
 still more so by the march of a British force through a strip of 
 his own country. 
 
 11. 28-30. those wild passes ... Carnatic, the passes of the 
 Western Ghats. 
 
 P. 64, 1. 1. the Coleroon, or Kolriin, the lower branch of the 
 Kaveri, rising in Maisur and flowing into the Bay of Bengal. 
 
 1. 3. Mount St. Thomas, about six miles from the city of 
 Madras. 
 
 1. 9. tulip-trees, a species of Magnolia introduced from the 
 valley of the Mississippi. 
 
 1. 16. Sir Hector Munro, see note, p. 27, 1. 22. 
 
 1. 25. tanks, open reservoirs of water common in India. 
 
 1. 32. coast of Coromandel, running along the Bay of Bengal. 
 
 P. 65, 1. 1. the south-west monsoon, the periodical wind blow- 
 ing in the Indian Ocean ; on the two monsoons, that from the 
 south-west in the summer and that from the north-east in 
 
162 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 winter, India is dependent for its rain ; the word monsoon is 
 from the Arabic mansim, season. 
 
 1. 7. accommodated, settled by some compromise. The ar- 
 rangements were made through the medium of the Raja of 
 Berar, and two thousand Maratha horse were lent to Pearse's 
 column, despatched from Bengal to join Coote. The Maratha 
 chief, Mudaji, was himself converted, in Hastings' words, 
 "from an ostensible enemy to a declared friend." 
 
 1. 14. the incapable ... St. George, Whitehill. 
 
 P. 66, 11. 14, 5. that labyrinth ... alleys, narrow streets through 
 which it is difficult to find one's way, and in which the buildings 
 are so lofty. 
 
 1. 16. oriels, the word is generally used for a recess [with a 
 window] in a room, but also for a portico or for a small room. It 
 is in the first of these senses apparently that Macaulay uses the 
 word, as he does in his Essay on Bacon, where he speaks of "the 
 fair pupils of Ascham and Aylmer . . . who, while the horns were 
 sounding and the dogs in full cry, sat in the lonely oriel, with 
 eyes rivetted to that immortal page which tells how meekly and 
 bravely the first great martyr of intellectual liberty took the cup 
 from his weeping gaoler. " Skeat says the word is derived from 
 the Lat. aureolum, gilded or ornamented with gold, from the 
 custom of gilding certain apartments : the sacred apes, in India 
 apes are considered sacred on account of their monkey-god, 
 Hanuman. 
 
 1. 18. holy mendicants, the faqirs with whom India abounds: 
 holy bulls, the Brahmanical bulls ; they are turned out as a 
 sacrifice to Siva, and thus become a sort of special consecration. 
 
 1. 33. Petit Trianon, there were two Trianons, the grand 
 Trianon, an elegant little chateau, in the form of a horse-shoe, 
 of one storey, built by Louis XIV. for Madame de Maintenon ; 
 and the Petit Trianon built by Louis XV. for Madame du Barry, 
 and afterwards the favourite resort of Marie Antoinette, Queen 
 of Louis XVI. ; in a later edition Macaulay substitutes " Ver- 
 sailles " for Petit Trianon : muslins of Bengal, especially from 
 Dacca. 
 
 1. 34. sabres of Oude, for the inlaying of which the Lucknow 
 artizans were famous. 
 
 1. 35. Golconda, in Haidarabad, formerly famous for its diamond 
 mines : shawls of Cashmere, these shawls, still so famous, are 
 made from the wool of the Thibet goat. 
 
 P. 67, 1. 1. Hindoo prince, Chait Sing was nothing more than a 
 large zaminddr, or landholder, whose father, the first Raja, be- 
 came a vassal of the Nawab Wazir of Oudh. Like all other large 
 zaminddrs, he was bound by long custom and written agreement 
 
NOTES. 163 
 
 to aid the English, to whom his fief had been made over by the 
 Nawab, with men and money in times of extraordinary need. 
 The turn of Macaulay's sentence would make it appear that there 
 had been a long line of princes of this family, whereas in reality 
 Chait Sing was only third in descent from an adventurer who 
 had ousted his own patron from the lands he held as zaminddr 
 under the Mughal rule. 
 
 1. 36. kept his head ... might, maintained his position by any 
 means that lay in his power. 
 
 P. 68, 11. 2, 3. The time ... empire, at the deposition of Charles 
 the Fat in 887. 
 
 1. 5. Hugh Capet, Duke of Francia, was crowned king at 
 Rheims in 987, and took the title of Bex Francorum, king of the 
 Franks. 
 
 1. 6. Duke ... Normandy, the Duke of Normandy was one of the 
 vassals of Hugh Capet, and he in his turn claimed homage of the 
 Duke of Brittany. 
 
 1. 11. ordinances . . . Tenth, his three ordinances of 1 830 destroyed 
 the liberty of the press, dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, and 
 restricted the franchise. 
 
 1. 15. Prince Louis Bonaparte, afterwards Emperor Napoleon 
 III. , who twice made an attempt to seize the kingdom of France, 
 first at Strasburg, and afterwards at Boulogne. 
 
 I. 24. he was a captive, in the hands of the Marathas. 
 
 II. 34, 5. de facto, in reality : de jure, by right. 
 
 P. 69, 1. 2. prescription, that title which long possession of 
 anything gives to its continued enjoyment. This tenure is the 
 modern equivalent of the Roman * usucapion,' according to which 
 "commodities which had been uninterruptedly possessed for a 
 certain period became the property of the possessor" (Maine, 
 Ancient Law, p. 284). 
 
 1. 24. a mere pageant, a mere show, mere appearance with no 
 reality behind it. Originally the word pageant meant a moveable 
 scaffold such as was used in the representation of the old mystery 
 or miracle plays, plays embodying some of the events and truths 
 of the Christian religion. 
 
 1. 26. play at royalty, play at being a sovereign by keeping up 
 kingly ceremonial and show, but exercising no power. 
 
 1. 30. legerdemain, literally, sleight of hand, hence dexterity 
 in handling a subject. 
 
 1. 31. sophistry, disingenuous reasoning. 
 
 P. 70, 11. 2, 3. no appeal . . . force, no power to which applica- 
 tion can be made to decide the question, no possible solution 
 except a resort to physical force. 
 
164 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 11. 9-11. It had formerly ... subject, this is not a fact. Chait 
 Sing had always been a vassal, and the terms of his vassalage 
 had been enforced. 
 
 11. 16-8. He had ... Clavering, especially he had sent a messenger 
 to congratulate Clavering on his temporary accession to the 
 Governor-Generalship. 
 
 11. 30-5. Hastings took ... concealment, the money was twice 
 offered to Hastings. At first he refused it. When the offer was 
 repeated, he accepted the money, directing it to be received by 
 the sub-Treasurer of the Council and deposited in his name, 
 intending to convert it to a public use. In November he com- 
 municated the fact to the Court of Directors, and as soon as 
 Francis, whose interference in the matter he was desirous of 
 preventing, had left India, he at once carried the money to the 
 public accounts. That he had no intention of keeping it for 
 himself is shown by his openly avowing its receipt to his friend 
 Sullivan in August of the same year. 
 
 P. 71, 1. 5. pleaded poverty, besides the rich treasure stored 
 up in his coffers, he had a revenue of half a million sterling. 
 
 11. 11-5. Hastings ... government, there is no evidence that 
 Hastings wished to fasten a quarrel on the Raja. It was on the 
 advice of Sir Eyre Coote, and with the concurrence of the 
 Council, that Hastings in 1780 called upon him to furnish two 
 thousand horse for the public service. The Raja offered to 
 furnish five hundred and as many match-lock men, but even 
 these were not forthcoming, though his body-guard alone was 
 larger than the force which Hastings required of him. 
 
 11. 22-5. The plan... possessions, there is nothing whatever to 
 show that Hastings would not have been satisfied if his original 
 demands had been complied with. 
 
 11. 29, 30. he began ... Oude, this statement again is made 
 without any evidence to confirm it. 
 
 1. 35. sixty miles, to Baxar on the Ganges. 
 
 P. 72, 1. 11. to be arrested, he was not, as the words would 
 seem to imply, placed in confinement, but was simply told to 
 consider himself under arrest in his own house, a guard of 
 sepoys being sent to prevent his escaping. 
 
 1. 20. the Delta of the Ganges, that portion of eastern Bengal 
 in which Calcutta is situated, the home of the Bengalis whom 
 Macaulay speaks of as living " in a constant vapour bath." 
 
 P. 73, 1. 1. the Black ... Calcutta, the native quarter of Calcutta. 
 
 1. 9. The sepoys were butchered, the sepoy guard had nothing 
 but unloaded muskets and no ammunition. 
 
 1. 26. the English cantonments, at Cawnpore, Chunar, and 
 Lucknow. 
 
NOTES. 165 
 
 I. 35. the envoy, Colonel Muir, who was then negotiating with 
 Sindhia. 
 
 P. 74, 11. 4, 5. An English . . . judgment, Mayaffre, who made a 
 rush upon the Raja's fortified palace at Ramnagar without 
 waiting for Popham, and with Captain Doxatt, thirty-three 
 "rangers," and almost all the sepoys of Blair's battalion, per- 
 ished in the attempt. 
 
 II. 13, 4. The entire ... arms, in a few days Chait Sing had 
 mustered an army of 40,000 men within ten miles of Chunar, to 
 which Hastings had retreated. 
 
 I. 18. imposts, taxes, but here used as = to unjust taxes. 
 
 II. 31, 2. His fastnesses ... stormed, the capture of the fortress 
 of Bijaigarh put an end to the brief campaign. 
 
 I. 35-P. 75, 1. 2. One of his ... pensioner, "his zemindari estates 
 were declared to be forfeited, and were bestowed on a grandson 
 of Bulwunt Singh ; from whom they have descended to the 
 present Maharajah of Benares, a very loyal and distinguished 
 nobleman " (Lyall, p. 126). 
 
 II. 19, 20. under the skilful ... government, so far as this is 
 true, it was due to "the hard conditions imposed by the Francis 
 faction in 1775 " whereby he * ' was sinking deeper and deeper 
 into the Company's debt. In six years that debt had risen to a 
 million and a half, chiefly on account of the British garrisons 
 which alone stood between the Wazir and general anarchy " 
 (Trotter, p. 181). To Francis and his colleagues, moreover, 
 it was due that Asaf-ud-daula was compelled to surrender 
 the two millions sterling, which Shuja had stored up, to the 
 Queen-mother, who claimed them under a will that was never 
 produced. Hastings had at the time steadily refused his sanc- 
 tion to these proceedings, and was therefore not disinclined by a 
 reversal of the policy he had condemned to assist Asaf-ud-daula 
 to recover what had been unjustly taken from him. 
 
 P. 76, 1. 3. the contracting parties, the Nawab and the British 
 government who had made the contract. 
 
 11. 26, 7. Such a difference . . . compromise, it seemed impossible 
 that when the wants of each party were so diametrically opposed, 
 any arrangement could be come to by which each would be 
 satisfied. 
 
 1. 33. robbers. If the term is to be used it applies more justly 
 to the Queen-mother than to Asaf-ud-daula. 
 
 P. 77, 11. 1, 2. been left ... dotation, this was a landed estate 
 which yielded the Queen-mother fifty thousand pounds a year. 
 
 1. 7. Fyzabad, a city in Oudh, about 60 miles east of Lucknow. 
 
 1. 9. the Goomti, a tributary of the Ganges. 
 
160 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 11. 11, 2. Asaph-ul-Dowlah ... mother, the Nawab had not "ex- 
 torted ' ' any sums from the Begam. He obtained one loan from her 
 of twenty-six lakhs of rupees for which he gave her an estate of four 
 times the value, and another loan of thirty lakhs on account of 
 his patrimony, for which he gave her a full acquittal as to the 
 rest, and secured her estates to her without interference for life. 
 
 11. 15, 6. he in his turn ... rights, he had never committed any 
 invasion of her rights. 
 
 11. 18-20. the power ... them, Hastings, as already stated, had 
 always opposed the arrangement made so much to the advantage 
 of the Begams at the expense of the Nawab, and having now 
 proof that they had helped Chait Sing with men and money, and 
 fomented insurrection against their own sovereign, he felt that 
 they deserved small mercy at the Nawab's hands. He therefore 
 gave his assent to the resumption of the estates held by them, 
 but pledged the Nawab to grant his kinswomen liberal pensions 
 in exchange for the military fiefs which they had no right to hold. 
 The Nawab was a weak creature ; his mother a woman of strong 
 mind and violent temper, and on his return to Lucknow, his 
 courage began to fail him. He had gained time, and probably 
 thought that Hastings's demand for payment of his debt to the 
 Company might be evaded for the present. 
 
 11. 25, 6. which wither ... civilization, which, though partially 
 civilized, instead of finding in such civilization the strength which 
 goes with its purer forms, are only enfeebled by it when, accom- 
 panied by corruption. A savage state of life may still be strong 
 and healthy, a corrupt half- civilization has all the elements of 
 weakness and none of the elements of strength. Macaulay refers 
 to the conditions of life in which the Nawab was living. 
 
 11. 28, 9. The insurrection . . . Oude, this is ingeniously put and 
 would make it appear that Hastings, having caused the insur- 
 rection in Benares, was indirectly answerable for the disturbances 
 in Oudh ; but Macaulay is reversing cause and effect, for Hastings 
 had proof from Hannay, Middleton, and other officers, that the 
 Begams' troops had aided Chait Sing, and that numbers of people, 
 horse and foot, were daily sent to him from Faizabad. This, as 
 regards the Company, was his "pretext" for punishing the 
 Begams ; while, as regards the Nawab, he saw in the disturbances 
 fomented by them, a justification for their being made to disgorge 
 that which they had unjustly withheld from him. 
 
 P. 78, 11. 12, 3. His mother ... implored, rather they were 
 stubborn and indignant, and the Nawab was daunted by their 
 resistance. 
 
 11. 15-7. Even ... measures, yet in his letters he wrote in the 
 strongest terms of the Bhao Begam, declaring that she had 
 '* forfeited every claim she had to the protection of the British 
 
NOTES. 167 
 
 government," and Burke afterwards argued that his charges 
 against her were brought by him to justify spoliation. I cannot 
 find in Forrest's Records any mention of the letter from Hastings 
 which Macaulay says was "in terms of greatest severity," and 
 according to Impey's account, he was directed to convey to the 
 Resident Hastings's views on the subject, Hastings saying to 
 Impey that ' ' he was apprehensive the mildness of Mr. Middle- 
 ton's temper would prevent him from urging the Nabob effectually 
 to carry it [the treaty of Chunar] into execution." 
 
 1. 27. resumed, taken back by the Nawab. 
 
 P. 79, 11. 20, 1. an English government, for this at all events 
 Hastings was not answerable, though Macaulay's wording of the 
 sentence seems intended to imply it. The eunuchs were not two 
 "infirm old men"; one of them was seen by Lord Valentia 
 twenty years later, and was then "well, fat, and enormously 
 rich." 
 
 1. 33. under duresse, in strict confinement. On the whole 
 subject of the eunuchs and the Begams, Mr. Forrest remarks, 
 " In order to recover the treasure the Nawab and his Ministers 
 had to adopt severe measures towards the two eunuchs who had 
 the chief influence over the Begums. The cruelty practised by 
 the Nawab and his servants has been greatly exaggerated, but it 
 was sufficient to have justified the interference of the Resident. 
 To have countenanced it by transmitting the orders of the Vizier 
 was a grave offence. But for what took place Hastings at Cal- 
 cutta cannot be held responsible. He ordered the Resident not 
 to permit any negotiation or forbearance, but there is a wide 
 gulf between legitimate severity and cruelty. " Nevertheless it 
 can hardly be maintained that Hastings took sufficient pre- 
 cautions against the excesses which, knowing the Wazir's char- 
 acter, he might have anticipated. 
 
 P. 8o, 11. 12-29. There is a man ... biography? in his revised 
 edition of the Essay, Macaulay omits the whole of this passage. 
 
 1. 30-P. 8 1, 1. 24. But we must not ... India, on the whole of 
 this paragraph see Appendix III. 
 
 I. 1. affidavits, properly the third person singular, perfect 
 tense, of the Low Lat. gffidare, to n^ke oj-th. 
 
 II. 18, 9. in an irregular manner, he not being able to give it 
 in a regular manner as he might have done in a judicial pro- 
 ceeding. 
 
 1. 20. the crimes ... him, Macaulay assumes that Hastings had 
 bribed Impey by the judgeship in the Sadr Diwani Adalat, and 
 also that Impey was conscious that Hastings had been guilty of 
 crimes in deposing Chait Sing, and entering into the Chunar 
 treaty. 
 
168 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 P. 82, 1. 7. Lord Advocate, the highest judicial functionary in 
 Scotland. 
 
 11. 17-20. The votes ... justice, it does not necessarily follow 
 that the votes they helped to swell were dictated by stern 
 justice, if it was to the interest of ministers "to show... 
 themselves." 
 
 1. 31. the Secretary of State, Lord Shelburne. Impey, how- 
 ever, though recalled, was not dismissed from his office. He 
 continued to hold it five years longer, when he resigned. It 
 was not till the impeachment of Hastings was coming on that 
 any charge was brought against Impey. 
 
 P. 83, 11. 23, 4. thirteen colonies, afterwards the United States 
 of America. 
 
 1. 29. Minorca, an island in the Mediterranean : Florida, in 
 the south-east of North America : Senegal, in Western Africa : 
 Goree, a small island on the western coast of Africa. 
 
 P. 84, 11. 3, 4. if we may ... India, Macaulay can hardly mean 
 to express doubt as to these results being due to Hastings. 
 
 I. 13. Louis the Sixteenth, king of France : the Emperor Joseph, 
 of Austria. 
 
 II. 14-6. He boasted . . . creation, his words were in his defence 
 before the House of Lords, "Every division of official business, and 
 every department of government which now exists in Bengal, . . . 
 are of my formation. The establishment formed for the adminis- 
 tration of the revenue, the institution of the courts of civil and 
 criminal justice in the province of Bengal and its immediate 
 dependencies, the form of government established for the pro- 
 vince of Benares ... were created by me. Two great sources of 
 revenue, opium and salt, were of my creation ... To sum up all, 
 I maintained the provinces of my immediate administration in a 
 state of peace, plenty, and security, when every other member 
 of the British empire was involved in external war or civil 
 tumult. " 
 
 P. 85, 11. 3, 4. the depositaries . . . traditions, those who from 
 long familiarity with the modes of procedure in their respective 
 offices are able to guide the Minister in all technical details. 
 
 1. 6. Downing Street ... House, the former containing the chief 
 political offices ; the latter, the Admiralty, Inland Revenue, etc., 
 offices. 
 
 1. 12. trammelled, hampered ; a ' trammel ' is a net, shackle, 
 anything that confines or restrains. 
 
 1. 17. hales of censure, with an allusion to the freight of vessels 
 with bales of cotton, silk, etc., such as were exported from India. 
 
 1. 21. thwarted ... Deputies, the Deputies, as the representatives 
 of our Dutch allies in the war, having a voice in the operations to 
 
NOTES. 169 
 
 be undertaken, and constantly using it to check Marlborough's 
 daring designs against the common foe. 
 
 11. 22, 3. the Portuguese . . . Percival, Wellington in his efforts 
 to expel the French from Spain and Portugal being similarly 
 subject to interference from, and inadequate support by, the 
 Spanish and Portuguese Councils, and having at the same time to 
 put up with the dilatory measures of Mr. Percival, then Prime 
 Minister, in supplying him with reinforcements, etc., and the 
 restrictions put upon that freedom of action which was necessary 
 to success. 
 
 11. 27, 8. resembled . . . stupidity, looked like that dull patience 
 which is the outcome not of determination but of inability to see 
 that there is anything to rebel against. 
 
 I. 34. had the full... resources, the resources of his mind, his 
 quickness in discovering the best way out of a difficulty, were 
 not paralysed by outbursts of passion or impetuosity of desire. 
 
 P. 86, 11. 16, 7. at the expense ... powers, the other powers los- 
 ing strength in proportion as one single power is developed. 
 
 II. 17, 8. speak ... abilities, convey by their excellence in speak- 
 ing an impression of greater ability than is really possessed. 
 
 I. 20. a little ... debater, a little too much given to thinking 
 that statesmanship is best shown in meeting the arguments of 
 opponents. 
 
 II. 31, 2. of perplexing ... understand, of wrapping up in am- 
 biguous and intricate language that which he did not wish to be 
 seen in all its naked plainness. 
 
 I. 34. with some reservation, in qualified terms, in terms not 
 wholly eulogistic. 
 
 P. 87, 11. 1, 2. Perhaps ...taste, Persian literature abounding 
 in flowery and ornate language. 
 
 II. 5, 6. curious researches, inquiries into out-of-the way sub- 
 jects. 
 
 11. 6, 7. His patronage ... publications, he encouraged with a 
 far-seeing, and in the best sense remunerative, outlay of money, 
 voyages, etc. 
 
 I. 12. dotages, drivelling teachings. 
 
 II. 13, 4. transfused ... expositions, not coming directly from 
 its Greek sources, but modified by the interpretations put upon 
 it by Arabian commentators. 
 
 1. 15. a far ... ruler, Lord William Bentinck, so largely aided 
 by Macaulay himself. 
 
 1. 17. taken from a ledger, his early occupation being merely 
 that of a clerk in a commercial concern. 
 
170 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 1. 26. the Asiatic Society, the well-known Society in Calcutta 
 for the encouragement of all branches of Oriental learning. 
 
 1. 28. with excellent . . . feeling, in recognising Sir W. Jones as 
 so much his superior in Oriental learning. 
 
 1. 31. Pundits, men learned in the Sanskrit language and 
 literature ; the literal meaning of the word is merely ' learned.' 
 
 1. 34. the sacred dialect, Sanskrit. 
 
 P. 88, 1. 4. hereditary priests, the Brahman pandits. 
 
 1. 18. the civil service, the Company's civil administrators as 
 contrasted with the Company's army, equally its servants. 
 
 1. 28. their vernacular dialects, the spoken language of the 
 people as contrasted with the classical language of their litera- 
 ture ; vernacular, literally * belonging to home-born slaves,' then 
 1 native, ' ' indigenous. ' 
 
 1. 31. for great ends, with important objects in view. 
 
 P. 89, 11. 1, 2. the hurricane ... cavalry, the Maratha cavalry 
 that swept everything before it as effectually as a hurricane ; a 
 metaphor instead of a simile. 
 
 1. 2. rich alluvial plain, the plain fertilized by the matter 
 washed down by the great river running through it. 
 
 1. 20. much . . . children, much the same love of outward pomp 
 and show as that of children. 
 
 11.22-4. and nurses ... Hostein, this is an amusing mistake. 
 The jingle in question hdthi par hauda, ghore par zin, jaldi jao, 
 jaldi jao, Warren Hastln, i.e. with hauda on elephant, saddle on 
 horse, quickly go, quickly go, Warren Hastings, was in ridicule 
 of his flight from Benares. 
 
 P. 90, 1. 19. indelicate and irregular, such as a man with' a 
 delicate sense of integrity and a lofty code of honour would 
 avoid. / 
 
 I. 28. Carlton House, the residence of the Prince of Wales, 
 afterwards George the Fourth, notorious for the splendour and 
 extravagance of its decorations and festivities : Palais Royal, 
 formerly a palace of great magnificence in Paris. 
 
 II. 28-31. He brought ... salary, his salary for thirteen years 
 was £25,000 a year, and he brought home about £120,000, in- 
 cluding that settled on his wife, amounting to £40,000, which 
 apparently is what Macaulay calls her "private hoard," 
 
 P. 91, 1. 12. the round-house, the stern cabin : Indiaman, the 
 name formerly given to vessels trading to the East Indies. 
 
 1. 13. sandal-wood, a sweet-scented wood found more especially 
 in the south of India; a French corruption of the Persian 
 chandal. 
 
NOTES. 171 
 
 11. 21, 2. his elegant Marian, her Christian name was Anna 
 Maria Apollonia. 
 
 1. 23. Sir Charles Grandison, the dignified hero of Richardson's 
 novel of that title : Miss Byron, the lady of his love. 
 
 1. 24. the cedar parlour, the room wainscotted with cedar in 
 Sir Charles Grandison's home. 
 
 P. 92, 11. 3, 4. Horace's .. rogat, the opening words of the 
 sixteenth ode of the second book of Odes by Q. Horatius Flaccus, 
 the Roman poet. The following is the first stanza : — 
 w For ease the harassed seaman prays, 
 When equinoctial tempests raise 
 The Cape's surrounding wave ; 
 When hanging o'er the reef he hears 
 The cracking mast, and sees, or fears, 
 Beneath, his wat'ry grave." 
 
 1. 4. Mr. Shore, Governor-General of India from 1793 to 1798. 
 
 1. 13. paid ... Street, called upon the Board of Directors. 
 
 1. 14. Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire, a favourite retreat of 
 Anglo -Indians on account of its mild climate. ^\ 
 
 1. 17. incurred much censure, for receiving at Court one who 
 had been divorced from her husband. A fortnight after the land- 
 ing of Mrs. Hastings, "she was presented by Lady Weymouth 
 to King George the Third and Queen Charlotte. Two more 
 weeks passed, and she was again received by their Majesties ; 
 and according to a letter that was written to Hastings by his 
 agent, Major Scott, ... she 'met with still greater marks of 
 attention if possible ' . . . The friendliness of the Queen to a 
 divorcee was regretted by Colonel Fairly and Captain Price, 
 two of the King's equerries, and defended by Mrs. Schwelleng- 
 berg, the Chief Keeper, and Miss Fanny Burney, the Assistant 
 Keeper of the Queen's Robes." The latter "represented to the 
 equerries that in England • a divorce could only take place upon 
 misconduct,' whereas in Germany 'a divorce from misconduct 
 prohibited a second marriage, which could only be permitted 
 where the divorce was the mere effect of disagreement from dis- 
 similar tempers.' The equerries said that they had never heard 
 this before ; and Colonel Fairly added, that ■ it ought to be made 
 known, both for the sake of Mrs. Hastings, and because she had 
 been received at Court, which gave everybody the greatest sur- 
 prise, and me, in my ignorance, the greatest concern on account 
 of the Queen ' " (Sir C. Lawson). 
 
 P. 93, 1. 16. Hannibal, the great Carthaginian general who so 
 nearly succeeded in breaking the power of Rome in the Punic wars. 
 
 1. 17. Themistocles, the Athenian commander, famous for his 
 victory over the Persians at Salamis, B.C. 480. 
 
172 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 11. 17-9. His very ... stumble, he reasons on wrong premisses, 
 and therefore the greater his acuteness the further it carries him 
 from a just conclusion. The fact that he is so vigorous causes 
 him to proceed at a pace that will bring him to the ground, 
 whereas had he been feeble, he would have taken care to avoid 
 the obstacles in his path. 
 
 1. 22. In India .. hand, a metaphor from cards, at which a 
 hand is the number of cards dealt to a player ; in his case those 
 were bad cards, cards not likely to win the game. 
 
 I. 23. master of the game, thoroughly skilled in all the diffi- 
 culties of the game, a player of the first rank. 
 
 II. 30-2. one of the few ... Commons, the eloquence and power 
 of argument which make a great advocate being of a different 
 character from those which make a great debater in the House 
 of Commons. 
 
 I. 34. forensic acuteness, that acuteness which is most useful 
 in a law-court ; the Roman forum was at once a market place, 
 a place for the discussion of public affairs, and the site of the 
 law-courts. 
 
 P. 94, 1. 13. He was ... legs, he was ever getting up to speak. 
 
 II. 18-21. There was hardly ... Scott, Sir A. Lyall quotes the 
 Eolliad, " Reams and reams of tracts that without pain Incessant 
 spring from Scott's prolific brain." 
 
 11. 23, 4. pass ... pastry-cooks, the former using this waste- 
 paper to line the trunks they made, the latter for baking their 
 cakes upon. 
 
 1. 28. temper, frame of mind. ' - 
 
 P. 95, 1. 5. Mr. Fox's ... Bill, introduced in 1783 ; Fox's pro- 
 posal was to transfer the political government from the Directors 
 of the Company to a board of seven Commissioners, whose office 
 was to be held for five years. Its rejection brought about the 
 fate of the Shelburne Ministry. 
 
 L 15. great place, office of Lord Chancellor. 
 
 I. 26. The resolution of censure, that carried by Dundas ; see 
 above, p. 82. 
 
 II. 34, 5. who was deeply ... subject, who by his action in 
 bringing on the vote of censure was bound to oppose any honour 
 being done to Hastings. 
 
 P. 96, 11. 1, 2. the committee ... affairs, the Board of Control. 
 
 I. 3. new allies, new party allies ; at the former date he was in 
 alliance with Burke and his supporters. 
 
 II. 5, 6. flattery . . . number, not even those most inclined to 
 flatter him could pay him the compliment of saying that he was 
 consistent. ' 
 
NOTES. 173 
 
 1. 19. affect ,.. game, help to secure the political results they 
 desired. 
 
 I. 20. The followers of the coalition, the Whig supporters of 
 Fox coalesced with the Tories who still clung to Lord North, 
 with the object of overturning the Shelburne Ministry, — "the 
 most unscrupulous coalition," says Green, " known in our 
 history." 
 
 II. 23, 4. The wits of Brooks's, Brooks's Club in St. James's 
 Street, the great Whig Club which numbered amongst its mem- 
 bers Sheridan, Burke, Fox, Garrick, and many other men of 
 great wit and humour. 
 
 1. 27. a certain . . . "bed, it appears that the present was one of 
 two ivory chairs, quaintly carved and gilded, each with five legs, 
 not an ivory bed, though Hastings in his letters speaks of an 
 " ivory cot " which he had in India. 
 
 1. 34. swinging, from the gallows. 
 
 1. 36. Virgil's third eclogue, the eclogues of P. Vergilius Maro, 
 the author of the Aeneid, are bucolic poems in imitation of the 
 Sicilian poet, Theocritus. The third eclogue is a rustic singing- 
 match between two shepherds. 
 
 P. 97, 1. 5. galaxy of jewels, jewels which in their number and 
 brilliancy resembled the Milky Way in the heavens ; galaxy, from 
 Gk. 7a\a, milk. 
 
 1. 6. her necklace . . . votes, her necklace, the bright gems in 
 which were to be used in bribing voters in the House of Commons 
 to support Pitt, and so her husband's cause. 
 
 1. 7. and the depending . . . ears, the ear-rings she wore, which 
 were to be turned to the same use ; depending is used in a double 
 sense, literally, hanging as the ear-rings hung from her ears, 
 figuratively, of questions yet to be decided. Sir A. Lyall quotes 
 the Probationary Ode to which Macaulay refers — 
 
 M Oh Pitt, with awe behold tha't precious throat 
 Whose necklace teems with many a future vote ! 
 Pregnant with Burgage gems each hand she wears, 
 And lo ! depending questions gleam upon her ears." 
 "Burgage" is a freehold property in a borough; also, a house 
 or other property held by burgage tenure, i.e. tenure held of 
 the king or other lord for a certain yearly rent, and "Burgage 
 gems " means gems which by their value would give a right 
 to a vote for a borough equally with the possession of freehold 
 property. 
 
 * 11. 19, 20. with as much . . . allow, using against him the bitterest 
 terms that parliamentary courtesy would permit. 
 1. 35. fall of the coalition, see note, p. 96, 1. 20. 
 
174 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 P. 98, 1. 9. alienated from Fox, with whom Burke quarrelled 
 on the subject of the French Revolution. 
 
 11. 10, 1. preaching ... republic, endeavouring to stir up in 
 others the same bitter hatred that he himself felt towards the 
 French republic. 
 
 1. 22. Las Casas or Clarkson, the former a Catholic bishop, 
 who spent many years among the South American Indians, and 
 made every effort to save them from the cruelty of the Spanish ; 
 the latter a Quaker, to whom, with Wilberforce, the abolition of 
 the slave trade was due. 
 
 1. 24. the infirmity . . . nature, if Macaulay refers to any partic- 
 ular infirmity, he probably means the intolerance of such men 
 towards those less enthusiastic than themselves. 
 
 1. 36. sensibility, quickness of feeling, which enabled him to 
 throw himself into the position and manner of life of others. 
 
 P. 99, 1. 9. coloured them, gave them a vividness which did 
 not belong to them in the state in which they came to him ; 
 lighted them up with the colour that a painter gives to a pencil 
 sketch. 
 
 I. 15. abstractions, things which exist only in idea, abstracted 
 from all material embodiment. 
 
 II. 17, 8. the huge trees, Macaulay is referring especially to 
 the piped trees to be found in every village of Upper India, and 
 which are to the villagers what the oaks are in England. 
 
 1. 20. tracery, delicate carved outline : mosque, or masjid, the 
 temple of Musalmans : imaum, or imam, the Muslim priest. 
 
 1. 21. face to Mecca, the mas j id always faces east towards 
 Mecca, the sacred city in Arabia in which Muhammad was born : 
 gaudy idols, painted and gaily decked ; the idols are those of the 
 Hindus, the Musalmans abjuring anything of the kind, so much 
 so that they object even to the statues of men. 
 
 1. 22. devotees . . . air. a reference to the charaJc-puja, in honour 
 of the goddess Kali, in which the devotee is suspended in the air 
 by an iron hook through the fleshy part of the back. 
 
 I. 24. the yellow . . . sect, worn in the centre of the forehead. 
 
 II. 25, 6. silver maces, the chobs borne before princes and great 
 men : the elephants ... state, the haudas of elephants belonging 
 to princes are often plated with silver, and have gorgeous canopies 
 over them. 
 
 1. 27. the close litter, this is the same as the palki or palanquin, 
 but its doors are always kept close to prevent the inmates from 
 being seen. 
 
 1. 30. Beaconsfield, Burke's country residence in Buckingham- 
 shire. 
 
NOTES. 175 
 
 1. 32. laid gold, the nazar, or customary offering of gold coins 
 made at a public darbdr or at private interviews. 
 
 I. 33. gipsy camp, though the gipsies originally came from 
 India, Macaulay here means nothing more than wandering tribes 
 generally. 
 
 II. 35, 6. where the lonely . . . hyaenas, in those parts in which 
 the mails are carried by runners, the bag is still slung on a pole 
 with bells or iron rings to frighten away wild animals. 
 
 P. loo, 1. 2. Lord ... riots, the 'No Popery' riots in London, 
 in 1780, headed by Lord George Gordon, a fanatical Protestant. 
 They lasted for many days ; gaols were broken open, and many 
 houses belonging to Catholics burnt to the ground. 
 
 I. 3. Dr. Dodd, hanged in June, 1777, for forging a bond of 
 Lord Chesterfield's. 
 
 II. 20, 1. A young ... House, Burke first entered Parliament in 
 1765. 
 
 1. 24. the Stamp Act, the Act which, in 1765, obliged the 
 American colonists to affix a stamp on all legal documents issued 
 within the Colonies, the value of the stamp being paid to the 
 British revenue. 
 
 11.32,3. the Commercial Treaty ... Versailles, concluded by 
 Pitt in 1787 : the Regency, rendered necessary by the King's 
 becoming insane : the French Revolution, in 1789. 
 
 P. ioi, 1. 4. the Bastile, the prison in Paris used especially for 
 political offenders ; burnt down at the outbreak of the Revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 I. 5. Marie Antoinette, the queen of Louis the Sixteenth, exe- 
 cuted during the Revolution, 1793. Burke's impassioned language 
 regarding the Revolution never rose to a greater height than in 
 his famous passage on the wrongs of this unfortunate woman. 
 
 II. 21, 2. they would ... gold, would have given every facility 
 for retreating from their engagement to impeach. The phrase 
 "to build a bridge of gold" is said to have been first used by 
 Philip of Macedon in his war with the Athenians. 
 
 11. 22, 3. Major Scott ... year, it was believed by many at the 
 time that if Scott had never written or spoken in the House of 
 Commons in behalf of Hastings, there would have been no 
 impeachment. 
 
 1. 34. papers, the necessary documents on which to found and 
 support his charges. 
 
 P. 102, 11. 3-5. They had been ... pamphlet, Sir J. Stephen's 
 opinion on this matter differs widely from Macaulay 's, "It is 
 impossible," he says, "to imagine anything worse of their kind 
 than the articles which he preferred against Hastings. . . . An 
 
176 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 accusation ought to state directly, unequivocally, and without 
 going into either argument or evidence, that at such a time and 
 place the person accused has done such and such things, thereby 
 committing an offence against such and such a law. The articles 
 of impeachment against both Hastings and Impey violated every 
 one of these obvious rules. Instead of being short, full, pointed, 
 and precise, they are bulky pamphlets sprinkled over with 
 imitations of legal phraseology. They are full of invective, 
 oratorical matter, needless recitals, arguments, statements of 
 evidence — everything in fact that can possibly serve to make an 
 accusation difficult to understand and to meet ... they are as 
 shuffling and disingenuous in substance, as they are clumsy, 
 awkward, and intricate in form."... 
 
 11. 22, 3. a paper . . . length, Hastings had only five days in 
 which to write this paper. 
 
 I. 26. It fell flat, it did not produce that effect for which 
 Hastings hoped ; though Hastings himself mistook the deference 
 with which it was heard for approval, and wrote to a friend in 
 India, " It instantly turned all minds to my own way." 
 
 II. 31, 2. the clerks and the Sergeant-at-arms, i.e. the officers 
 of the House who could not leave till the sitting was over. 
 
 1. 36-P. 103, 1. 3. for Dundas ... Rohilcund, and therefore the 
 members of the Ministry to which Dundas belonged could not 
 well oppose the charge. 
 
 1. 23. coffee-houses, the forerunners of the modern clubs. 
 
 1. 28, 9. the star of the Bath, except the order of the Garter, 
 the highest of English orders of knighthood. 
 
 1. 29. sworn... council, sworn in as a member of the council 
 which gives advice to the sovereign, and which is bound to keep 
 its proceedings secret. 
 
 1. 36. from taking ... peerage, from inquiring the king's wishes 
 as to the signing of a patent conferring a peerage. / 
 
 P. 104, 1. 12. felicity of language, skilful choice of words ; so 
 we say * in happy terms' ; ' felicity ' and ■ happy ' suggesting that 
 the result attained was in a measure due to good fortune. 
 
 1. 16. contumaciously, out of mere obstinacy and without any 
 good reason. 
 
 P. 105, 1. 10. during sixty years, the last impeachment being 
 that of Harley in 1716. 
 
 1. 16. vindicating . . . honour, asserting the national honour 
 by the punishment of those who had cast a stain upon it. 
 
 1. 19. atoned for, the literal sense of 'atone' is to make at one, 
 to reconcile ; here the meaning is ' compensated. ' 
 
NOTES. 177 
 
 P. 1 06, 1. 7. works of supererogation, works over and above 
 those that a man is called upon to perform. 
 
 1. 13. the usual notes, circulars sent out by the party ■ whip * 
 in the case of a division in the House on a matter of importance. 
 
 1. 18. closeted with him, shut up with him in private con- 
 sultation. 
 
 P. 107, 1. 1. as a man of conscience, with any regard for con- 
 scientiousness. 
 
 I. 2. The business ..,bad, Hastings's behaviour, he said, was 
 such as could not be passed over without censure. 
 
 II. 23, 4. to submit . . . functions, to endure that any of his 
 subordinates should take upon himself a duty that belonged to 
 the Prime Minister alone. "On the whole," says Sir A. Lyall, 
 " it is a reasonable conclusion that Pitt and Dundas . . . did resolve, 
 after private consultation, not to stand between Hastings and 
 his powerful accusers at the risk of some loss of political character 
 and some strain upon their ascendency in the House and the 
 country." 
 
 1. 33. The prorogation, of Parliament till the next session. 
 
 P. i«S, 1. 6. below the bar, below the barrier within which sit 
 the Members of the House. Nowadays there is a gallery in the 
 House called * The Peers' Gallery,' in which the Peers gather on 
 the occasion of any important debate. 
 
 I. 16. Mr. Windham, see Macaulay's description of this states- 
 man, p. 114, 11. 1-4. 
 
 II. 27, 8. his friends ... down, by coughing and scraping their 
 feet on the floor the House prevented Hastings's friends from 
 being heard. 
 
 P. 109, 1. 5. carried, brought ; not literally carried. 
 
 11.25-8. that in the ordinary ... prosecutor, Macaulay, in 
 assenting to this argument, overlooks the fact that "the aggrieved 
 party " is seeking a remedy for a personal wrong, for which no 
 one but himself will seek redress, while the managers appointed 
 by the House were supposed to be actuated by no personal con- 
 siderations but merely to have the interests of justice at heart 
 and to seek the maintenance of the honour of the country as 
 vested in its hands. 
 
 J P. no, 1. 7. cloth of gold, cloth embroidered and interwoven 
 with gold threads. 
 
 11. 16, 7. with every ... contrast, these talents and accomplish- 
 ments were enhanced on the one hand by the way in which those 
 of each of the managers were supplemented by those of the rest, 
 and on the other hand by the prominence which contrast gave to 
 individuality. 
 
178 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 1. 23. from right to left, this of course applies only to Persian 
 and Hindustani, not to Sanskrit and its derivatives, such as 
 IJindi and Bengali. 
 
 ^ 1. 32. just sentence of Bacon, passed upon him in 1621 for 
 taking bribes when Lord Chancellor. 
 
 1. 33. just absolution of Somers, Somers was impeached in 
 1701, with Russell and Montague, for his share in the Partition 
 Treaties by which it was sought to avoid the difficulties of the 
 Spanish succession on the death of Philip III. of Spain. The 
 House of Commons, however, would not appear to prosecute, and 
 the House of Lords declared him acquitted. 
 
 I. 34. Strafford, Earl, impeached and beheaded in 1641 for 
 counselling Charles I. to adopt illegal measures. 
 
 P. in, 11. 4, 5. robed ... ermine, with their robes of ermine fur 
 and their coronets on their heads. 
 
 II. 5, 6. Garter King-at-arms, the head of the College of 
 Heralds ; see note on page 103, 1. 28. 
 
 11. 8, 9. three f ourths . . . then was, their numbers are much 
 greater now. 
 
 1. 15. Earl ... realm, this dignity has been hereditary in the 
 family since the time of Thomas, Earl of Norfolk, younger son of 
 Edward I. 
 
 1. 17. Prince of Wales, afterwards King George the Fourth. 
 
 I. 29. Siddons, Mrs. Sarah, the celebrated tragic actress of the 
 period. 
 
 II. 31, 2. the historian... Empire, Gibbon, Edward, author of 
 The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 
 
 11. 32, 3. when Cicero . . . Verres, among the more famous of 
 Cicero's orations are those against Verres, who as propraetor of 
 Sicily had been guilty of great extortion and cruelty. 
 
 11. 34-6. Tacitus... Africa, Tacitus, whose fame is greater as a 
 historian than as an orator, was in the reign of Nerva, a.d. 99, 
 appointed together with the younger Pliny, to prosecute Marius, 
 proconsul of Africa. 
 
 P. H2, 1. 1. Reynolds, Sir Joshua, a famous portrait-painter of 
 the time, and intimate friend of Johnson and Burke. 
 
 1. 4. Parr, Samuel, a learned classical scholar. 
 
 I. 5. that dark . . . mine, ancient classical literature 
 
 II. 9-11. the voluptuous ... faith, Mrs. Fitzherbert, who was 
 privately married to the Prince of Wales. 
 
 1. 12. the Saint Cecilia, Mrs. Sheridan for her skill in, and love 
 of, music, was painted by Reynolds in the character of St. Cecilia, 
 according to the legend, a Roman virgin of rank, who embraced 
 
NOTES. 179 
 
 Christianity in the reign of Antoninus. She Is said to have in- 
 vented the organ, and she was canonized as the guardian saint of 
 music. See Dry den's two odes in honour of St. Cecilia's day. 
 
 11. 14-7. There were ... Montague, Mrs. Montague, with Mrs. 
 Vesey and Mrs. Ord, held re-unions at which in place of the 
 usual card-playing they endeavoured to encourage intellectual 
 and literary conversation. One of the habitues of these gather- 
 ings always wore blue worsted, instead of black silk, stockings, 
 and in reference to this Admiral Boscawen is said to have dubbed 
 the coterie the ' Blue Stocking Society.' 
 
 11. 17-20. And there ... Devonshire, the Duchess of Devonshire 
 with a band of lady friends canvassed for Fox when he stood for 
 Westminster, and the Duchess gained the vote of an obstinate 
 opponent, a butcher, by allowing him to kiss her ; the persuasive- 
 ness of Fox's lips was of course in his eloquence: against... 
 treasury, the king and the ministry being opposed to Fox. 
 
 1. 21. made proclamation, citing Hastings before the Commons.' 
 
 1. 22. culprit, the word is more generally used of a convicted 
 person. 
 
 1. 36. Mens ... arduis, a mind serene amidst difficulties. 
 
 P. 113, 1. 2. proconsul, properly one who acted for a consul, 
 but in later times one who at the close of his consulship in Rome 
 became governor of a province, or military commander under a 
 governor. 
 
 1. 11. Vice-chancellor ... Rolls, judges of the Court of Chancery 
 subordinate to the Lord- Chancellor ; Rolls, literally of parchment, 
 hence public records. 
 
 1. 16. in full dress, in the dress worn at court, black velvet 
 coat, knee-breeches, silk stockings and bag- wig. 
 
 1. 19. a bag, a small silken pouch to contain the back hair of a 
 wig. 
 
 1. 22. muster, array. 
 
 1. 31. the English ... Hyperides, two great orators of Athens, the 
 former the greatest orator the world has known, contemporaries 
 and friends. 
 
 P. 114, 1. 1. the finest ... age, the most accomplished and highly-, 
 bred man of his time. 
 
 1. 9. connection, relationship to high-born families. 
 
 1. 13. delegates, persons deputed to represent. 
 
 1. 20. the tapestries . . . Lords, destroyed in the fire by which 
 the old House of Lords was burnt down, October 16, 1834. 
 
 1. 27. silver voice, liquid and sweet-toned, like that of a silver 
 bell. 
 
180 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 P. 115, 1. 8. the stern ... Chancellor, Lord Thurlow, a warm 
 admirer and friend of Hastings. 
 
 11. 12, 3. perhaps ... sensibility, perhaps glad of an opportunity 
 of showing how capable they vrere of justly appreciating real 
 eloquence, and how full they were of delicate feeling for injured 
 persons. 
 
 11. 17, 8. the old arches ... oak, "Westminster Hall, first built 
 by William Rufus, was almost rebuilt by Richard II., who 
 added the noble roof of cobwebless beams of Irish oak ■ in which 
 spiders cannot live,' which we now see " (Hare, Walks in 
 London, ii. 411). 
 
 P. 116, 1. 10. Mr. Grey, Charles Grey, afterwards Lord Grey, 
 a distinguished Whig politician, Prime Minister, 1830-4. 
 
 11. 19-21. Sheridan ... envied, his father having been an actor. 
 Of Sheridan's speech Sir A. Lyall remarks, " It would be most 
 presumptuous to suppose that Sheridan did not know how 
 best to persuade and please the House of Lords ; but if the 
 summary of this oration has been fairly given in Debrett's history 
 of the trial, the modern reader will probably be startled at the 
 quantity of declamation, invocation, metaphor, humorous illus- 
 tration, and caricature, that is employed to throw a glaring light 
 upon a sufficiently ill-favoured business, and to over-drive the 
 true arguments for condemning the Governor-General's part in it. 
 No one in these days uses irony and bitter sarcasm against a 
 prisoner on his trial, nor is it thought fair or judicious to intro- 
 duce grotesque figures of speech or degrading comparisons." ... 
 
 P. 117, 1. 1. masquerade, here meaning a masked ball, or a 
 ball generally. 
 
 1. 5. lacs, a sum of ten thousand pounds : crores, the sum of a 
 million pounds : zemindars, land-holders. 
 
 1. 6. aumils, governors of a district : sunnuds, certificates 
 granting a title to something or other : perwannahs, documents 
 under the hand of a magistrate conveying orders or instructions : 
 jaghires, landed estates : nuzzurs, presents to persons in authority. 
 These words would now be written lalch, Jcaror, zaminddr, dmil, 
 sanad, parwdna, jaegir, nazar. 
 
 1. 7. bickerings, ill-tempered, contentious, arguments. 
 
 L 10. Mr. Law, Edward, afterwards first Lord Ellenborough. 
 
 1. 22. the King's illness, his insanity. 
 
 I. 26. States -General, the representative assembly of the French 
 people summoned during the Revolution, and afterwards called 
 the National Assembly : Versailles, about 11 miles from Paris, 
 where the Court formerly resided. 
 
 II. 34, 5. the circuits were beginning, the judges were setting 
 
NOTES. 181 
 
 out on their tours throughout the country, and therefore could 
 not attend to give their decisions on points of law. 
 
 P. 1 1 8, 1. 20. law-lords, judges raised to the peerage and so 
 having a seat in the House of Lords. 
 
 11. 24-7. To expect ... indeed, partridge-shooting begins on the 
 1st of September, and it is usual for Parliament to rise for 
 its holidays before that date. Macaulay's remark is of course 
 ironical. 
 
 P. 119, 11. 2-4. Those rules ...guilty, Macaulay, however, does, 
 not mean to deny that in ordinary trials the nett result of these j 
 rules is a gain. ~^ 
 
 11. 10-11. cannot be pleaded ... history, cannot be used as an 
 argument to upset that verdict which history records, a verdict 
 which Macaulay means to imply was in the main condemnatory 
 of Hastings : in bar of, in law a bar is a plea or objection of 
 force sufficient to arrest entirely an action or claim, and hence 
 in bar of is used of an objection sufficient to prevent or 
 counteract something. — A 
 
 1. 14. some violent language, Burke had said that Hastings 
 had murdered Nand Kumar by the hands of Impey, and on the 
 petition of Hastings to the House of Commons complaining of 
 such language, that House resolved that Burke's words ought not 
 to have been used. 
 
 P. 120, 1. 18. the woolsack, the Lord Chancellor's seat in the 
 House of Lords, originally consisting of a large bag of wool covered 
 with red cloth, but, though fashioned like a seat, having neither 
 back nor arms. It is said to have had its origin in the circum- 
 stance of wool being anciently a staple article of produce in 
 England. 
 
 I. 23. The great seal, of the Lord Chancellor, which on state 
 occasions is borne before that official. 
 
 II. 27, 8. estranged . . . barons, having quarrelled with his party 
 and no longer having an"bfficial seat as Lord Chancellor, he was 
 obliged to sit with the rest of the law-lords. 
 
 P. i2i,ll. 1-3. It had been ... reproaches, on the 6th May, 
 1791, Burke rose in the House to explain himself on the Revolu- 
 tion in France. " He had no sooner risen, than interruptions 
 broke out from his own side, and a scene of great disorder 
 followed. Burke was incensed beyond endurance by this treat- 
 ment, for even Fox and Windham had taken part in the tumult 
 against him. With much bitterness he commented on Fox's 
 previous eulogies of the Revolution, and finally there came the 
 fatal words of severance. * It is indiscreet,' he said, [ at any 
 period, but especially at my time of life, to provoke enemies, or 
 to give my friends occasion to desert me. Yet if my firm and 
 
182 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 steady adherence to the British Constitution place me in such a 
 dilemma, I am ready to risk it, and with my last words to ex- 
 claim, " Fly from the French Constitution." ' Fox at this point 
 eagerly called to him that there was no loss of friends. ' Yes, 
 yes,' cried Burke, ' there is a loss of friends. I know the price 
 of my conduct. I have done my duty afc the price of my friend. 
 Our friendship is at an end ' . . . Fox, as might have been expected 
 from his warm and generous nature, was deeply moved, and is 
 described as weeping, even to sobbing. He repeated his former 
 acknowledgment of his debt to Burke, and he repeated his 
 former expression of faith in the blessings which the abolition 
 of royal despotism would bring to France. With unabated 
 vehemence Burke again rose to denounce the French Constitu- 
 tion, ... After a short rejoinder from Fox, the scene came to a 
 close, and the once friendly intercourse between the two heroes 
 was at an end" (Morley, Burke, English Men of Letters, pp. 
 181, 2). 
 
 11. 7, 8. Burke ... Windham, Burke's alarm about the Revolution 
 communicated itself to Windham, and by its impetuosity swept 
 him away as helpless against it as anything floating on the 
 waters is helpless against the furious eddy of a whirlpool. 
 Windham's nature was, or had become, irresolute in the ex- 
 treme ; and, like all irresolute men, when once he had made his 
 choice, between the doctrines of Fox and those of Burke, the 
 impulse to which he had yielded carried him headlong to the 
 utmost depths, and his alarm was greater than even that of 
 Burke. Sheridan and Grey followed Fox, but without violence 
 or precipitation. 
 
 1. 27. remission, abatement of violence : reaction, an impulse 
 in a direction opposite to that towards which the excitement had 
 before been directed. 
 
 P. 122, 1. 9. cuddy, an old term for the general cabin in a 
 merchant vessel. 
 
 1. 19. numerous addresses, among these were letters ' of friend- 
 ship and commiseration' from the Begams he was accused of 
 maltreating. 
 
 1. 25. Mahommedan doctors, i.e. maulavis, men learned in law 
 and theology. 
 
 1. 26. collector, the chief revenue officer of a district. 
 
 1. 33. apotheosis, deification. 
 
 P. 123, 1. 4. fiends ... murder, the goddess Kali, or Durga, wife 
 of Siva, who presided over smallpox, and also was worshipped 
 by the murderous Thags. 
 
 I. 6. Pantheon, temple dedicated to all the gods. 
 
 II. 13, 4. The legal expenses, "His defence had cost him, or 
 
NOTES. 183 
 
 rendered him liable for £100,000, and his own means were 
 exhausted, and his wife's accumulations out of her marriage 
 settlement had been greatly reduced by the failure of a Dutch 
 firm " (Sir C. Lawson). 
 
 1. 23. Logan, a Scotch minister who wrote a pamphlet in 
 defence of Hastings, and was prosecuted in consequence by the 
 House of Commons. 
 
 1. 25. Simpkin's letters, entitled "Letters of Simkin on the 
 trial of Hastings," 1791. The author was Captain R. Broome, 
 who called himself, "Simkin the Second." 
 
 1. 28. Anthony Pasciuin, "in the 16th century, at the stall of a 
 cobbler named Pasquin [Pasquino], at Rome, a number of idle 
 persons used to assemble to listen to his pleasant sallies ... and 
 indulge in raillery at the expense of the passers-by. After the 
 cobbler's death the statue of a gladiator was found near his stall, 
 to which the people gave his name, and on which the wits of the 
 time, secretly at night, affixed their lampoons " (Haydn, Diet, of 
 Dates, quoted by Skeat). Hence the word pasquinade, a lam- 
 poon, satire. 
 
 1. 29. The private hoards, see above, p. 90, 1. 28-31. 
 
 P. 124, 1. 1. alienated, which had passed into the hands of 
 others. 
 
 1. 5. to form . . . water, to lay out an ornamental lake. 
 
 1. 16. the Board of Control, the government board which 
 exercised a supervision over the acts of the Court of Directors. 
 
 P. 125, 1. 2. a red riband, a broad sash worn by knights of 
 the order of the Bath.- 
 
 1. 3. an office at Whitehall, an official appointment from 
 Government, the chief offices of which are in Whitehall. 
 
 1. 7. a new class .. duties, such as an appointment of a political 
 character in England would entail. 
 
 1. 17. was at Boulogne, mustering his troops with the intention 
 of invading England. 
 
 I. 21. important ... power, his opposition to the removal of the 
 disabilities which lay upon Catholics. 
 
 II. 24-6. Religious ... Hastings, such want of toleration on 
 religious matters as Addington showed in regard to Catholics 
 was not one of Hastings's failings, and his support of Addington 
 could not consequently have been due to that cause. 
 
 1. 36. custard-apple, a fruit about the size of a ribstone pippin, 
 formed in the inside of seeds embedded in a creamy, or custard- 
 like, pulp. 
 
 P. 126, 1. 2. Allipore, an outskirt of Calcutta. 
 
184 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 1. 3. leechee, a fruit about the size of a walnut, with a rough 
 shell covering an opaque white pulp, somewhat like the white of 
 a boiled egg, and very delicious in taste ; originally brought from 
 China. 
 
 1. 5. Covent Garden, the great fruit and flower market of 
 London. 
 
 1. 11. Bootan, an independent territory on the north-eastern 
 frontier of Bengal : whose tails, these fans, called chdoris, 
 mounted in the horns of deer, are used by table-servants 
 at meals, or by grooms at the back of carriages. 
 
 1. 20. Trissotin, the name of a character in Moliere's comedy 
 of Les Femmes Savantes, half man of fashion, half man of letters. 
 
 1. 34. the reckoning, the price to be paid. 
 
 1. 35. madrigal, properly a pastoral song, Ital. mandra, a flock, 
 with suffix -gale, pertaining to. 
 
 P. 127, 1. 5. Dionysius, the younger, tyrant of Syracuse, B.C. 
 367-343, whose court was the resort of philosophers and men of 
 letters. 
 
 1. 6. Frederic, second of the name, King of Prussia, and com- 
 monly entitled "the Great," who spent much of his time in 
 literary pursuits and aimed at being thought a poet ; 1712-97. 
 
 I. 8. provincial blue-stockings, see note on p. 112, 11. 14-7 ; 
 provincial is used to mark the inferiority in intelligence of these 
 blue -stockings in comparison with those enjoying the more 
 refined and intellectual society of the capital. 
 
 II. 10, 1. the Hayleys and Sewards, people like Hayley and 
 Seward, very third-rate authors who once enjoyed considerable 
 reputation. 
 
 1. 30. uncovered, took off their hats, which many members 
 wear when seated. 
 
 P. 128, 11. 8, 9. the Sheldonian Theatre, the Senate House at 
 Oxford. 
 
 I. 17. the Guildhall, answering to the Town Hall in other 
 towns and cities, the hall where the different guilds or com- 
 panies of the city meet for the election of mayors, sheriffs, and 
 burgesses, and further used as a court for the administration of 
 justice in petty cases, and as a banqueting hall for civic fes- 
 tivities. The present building was begun in 1411, but little of 
 the original structure now remains. 
 
 II. 21-5. his Royal ... Asia, the Prince Regent in presenting 
 Hastings to these monarchs spoke of him as "the most deserving 
 and one of the worst-used men in the Empire." 
 
 P. 129, 11. 3-6. the Great Abbey ... Hall, Westminster Abbey, 
 
NOTES. 185 
 
 the burial place of so many of England's greatest men ; the Great 
 Hall, Westminster Hall, i.e. the Houses of Parliament. 
 
 11.8-13. Yet the place ... name, "He was buried near his 
 mother, and among his ancestors for many generations, in a new- 
 vault, close behind the chancel, which is marked by a pillar 
 bearing an urn with his two names carved upon it, and sur- 
 rounded by iron railings. The following inscription appears on 
 a plain tablet within the church: 'In a vault just beyond 
 the eastern extremity of this church lies the body of the Right 
 Honourable Warren Hastings, of Daylesford House, in this 
 parish, the first Governor-General of the British Territories 
 in India, a member of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy 
 Council, L.L.D., F.R.S., the last public effort of whose eminently 
 virtuous and lengthened life was the re- erection of the second 
 edifice [i.e. the rebuilding of Daylesford Church], which he super- 
 intended with singular energy and interest to its completion, and 
 in which, alas ! the holy rites of sepulture were very shortly after- 
 wards performed over his mortal remains. He died 22nd August, 
 1818, aged 85 years and 8 months. ' Lord, now lettest Thou Thy 
 servant depart in peace'" (Sir C. Lawson). His widow also 
 erected a tablet to his memory in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 1. 22. He had founded a polity, the whole administrative system 
 of India up to that time was due to him. 
 
 1. 23. Richelieu, 1585-1642, Cardinal and Duke, the great 
 French minister of state during the reign of Louis XIII. 
 
 1. 24. Cosmo, de' Medici, 1389-1464, a native of Florence, 
 famous as a munificent patron of literature and art. 
 
 1. 29. in the fulness of age, at a ripe old age, in his eighty- 
 sixth year. 
 
APPENDIX I. 
 
 THE ROHILLA WAR. 
 
 Of the twenty charges presented by the managers of the im- 
 peachment of Hastings, that of the Rohilla War was the strongest. 
 It was intrinsically strong because the proceedings of Hastings 
 had undoubtedly resulted in bloodshed and hardship. It was, 
 for the purpose of the impeachment, adventitiously strong because, 
 as Macaulay says, " It had been condemned by the Court of 
 Directors. It had been condemned by the House of Commons. 
 It had been condemned by Mr. Dundas, who had since become 
 the chief minister of the Crown for Indian affairs." The three 
 points on which it was endeavoured to prove Hastings guilty 
 were (1) that for such a war there was no justification, (2) that 
 had there been justification, the war was attended with un- 
 necessary cruelty, (3) that for such cruelty Hastings was 
 answerable, if not in authorizing it, at all events in not taking 
 sufficient precautions against its committal and in not checking 
 it when brought to his notice. 
 
 In discussing these points my endeavour will merely be to sum- 
 marize as clearly and as briefly as possible the facts, arguments, 
 and conclusions of the exhaustive work recently published by Sir 
 John Strachey under the title of Hastings and the Rohilla War. 
 Sir John Strachey speaks with perhaps unrivalled authority not 
 merely because he has studied with minute care every narrative 
 of the events and every official paper that bears upon them, but 
 because during a long period of service in Rohilkhand he was 
 brought into close contact with the people of the country and with 
 the descendants of those who were supposed to be so cruelly 
 treated. That the two were not identical will be immediately 
 shown. " Rohilkhand," says Sir John Strachey, " has an area of 
 12,000 square miles, and extends from Hardwar, where the Ganges 
 enters the plains from the mountains, along the foot of the Gar- 
 whal and Kumaon Himalaya, to the frontiers of Oudh, a distance 
 of nearly 200 miles. It is now one of the richest and most highly 
 cultivated parts of the North -Western Provinces ; it includes six 
 
 186 
 
APPENDIX I. 187 
 
 British districts and many large towns, and in the middle of the 
 province lies the small native state of Rampur, with about half a 
 million people, ruled by a Mahommedan prince, the descendant 
 and representative of one of the Rohilla chiefs of whose history I 
 am about to write. We shall not find in the plains of Rohilkhand 
 the ' fair valleys ' of Macaulay's description ; his ' snowy heights ' 
 at the sources of the Ramganga, the chief river of central Rohil- 
 khand, are not quite so imaginary, but the beautiful hills from 
 which it comes are hardly more snowy than those at the sources 
 of the Thames."* Whoever the aborigines of this tract, the 
 earliest inhabitants known to history were Hindus. When, with 
 the rest of northern India, it became a province of the Mughal 
 empire, many grants of lands were given to Musalmans, and 
 during their occupation a considerable proportion of the people 
 embraced the Muslim religion. The country, in the main fertile 
 and well-wooded, naturally attracted the notice of the hardy 
 races beyond the north-western frontier, and the Hindu chiefs 
 were too much occupied with their own quarrels to present a 
 united front against interlopers. Thus, about the middle of the 
 eighteenth century, the Rohillas, for the most part Yusufzai 
 Afghans, had made themselves masters of the whole of Katehr, 
 
 .as it was formally called, and given it the name it still bears. 
 
 CJhe word "Rohilla" means merely "mountaineer" or "high- 
 lander, " though it presently came to be synonymous with Pathan 
 or Afghan. It is important to bear in mind the facts of this 
 occupation, because Burke, Mill, and Macaulay have all insisted 
 in giving the title of "nation " to a band of foreigners who had 
 no better claim to the country than that of conquest, very recent _ 
 conquest, their rule having lasted only some thirty-five years. J 
 It is also important to understand the character of these invaders, 
 and their relation to the older inhabitants of the country. Of 
 their character Sir J. Strachey remarks,! that " when they have 
 been settled for several generations among a comparatively 
 civilized people [they] lose in a great measure, but by no means 
 entirely their barbarous characteristics, but the Pathan when he 
 first entered India was, as he still is in his native mountains, a 
 ruthless and treacherous savage. The character which these 
 people bore in the last century was so precisely that which they 
 bear now, that a description of them at the present day is as 
 applicable as it would have been in the time of Ali Mohammad 
 or of Hastings. " He then quotes from Mr. D. Ibbetson's Report 
 on the Census of the Punjab (1881), and from the Hayat-i- Afghan, 
 a work descriptive of the people of this tribe on the Punjab 
 frontier. Though these authorities give the Pathan credit for 
 courage, open-handed hospitality, an air of masculine independ- 
 
 * Hastings and the Rohilla War, p. 9. 
 t Hastings and the Rohilla War, pp. 22-7. 
 
188 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 ence, a high sense of honour, and a jealous regard for the honour 
 of their women, they also speak of him as being bloodthirsty, 
 cruel, vindictive, desperately treacherous, scornful of peaceful 
 occupations, invincibly ignorant, arrogant to a degree, boastful, 
 avaricious, devoid of all notion of gratitude, etc., etc. "I am 
 far," continues Sir John, "from wishing it to be supposed that 
 all the Rohillas were savages of this type. Some of them had 
 been settled in India long enough to give them a tinge of civiliza- 
 tion, and some of their chiefs were undoubtedly deserving of 
 respect, but it is a matter of historical certainty that the descrip- 
 tions which I have quoted would have been generally applicable to 
 them ... * Agriculture and commerce,' Macaulay writes, 'flourished 
 among them, "nor were they negligent of rhetoric and poetry.' 
 The connection of the Rohillas with agriculture was this, that 
 they collected the rents and revenue of the land as zemindars or 
 superior landlords, the land itself being left in the occupation of 
 the Hindu cultivators ... Middleton, who was British resident 
 with the Vizier during the whole of the Rohilla war, speaking of 
 what he had himself seen and learned by personal observation in 
 Rohilkhand, stated in his evidence before the House of Commons, 
 'the Rohillas never applied themselves to any profession but 
 arms, never to husbandry, manufactures, or mechanic arts.' " 
 As to the " rhetoric and poetry" of Macaulay 's idyllic romance, 
 there appears to be no other foundation for their ascription to 
 the Rohillas in general than the fact that their chief, Hafiz 
 Rahmat, was something of a poet, and that the members of his 
 family were men of education. Of the relative numbers of the 
 Rohillas to the Hindus whom they conquered, it is probable that 
 when they were ejected from Rohilkhand the former were to the 
 latter as some forty thousand to a million. The chain of events 
 which ultimately led to British intervention was as follows. In 
 1759 the Marathas invaded Rohilkhand, and the Rohilla chiefs 
 asked for help from Shuja-ud-daula, who, rapidly marching 
 from Lucknow, drove the invaders with heavy loss across the 
 Ganges. Twelve years later the Marathas again invaded Rohil- 
 khand. The Wazir's assistance was asked as before ; and having 
 good reason to believe that as soon as Rohilkhand had been 
 conquered, his own territories would be the object of these 
 insatiable freebooters, he was willing enough to support those who 
 by their geographical position formed a buffer to his territory. 
 He was, indeed, so greatly alarmed for his own safety that he 
 sought to engage the Company in some concerted defence against 
 a danger which, not without reason, he represented as threaten- 
 ing them in the event of his own overthrow. The Calcutta 
 authorities, though anxious that other powers should resist the 
 Marathas, were unwilling to give their co-operation. However, 
 at the Wazir's urgent entreaty they sent the Commander-in-Chief, 
 Sir Robert Barker, to report on the circumstances, and ultimately, 
 
APPENDIX L 189 
 
 by that officer's 'active intervention and persuasion, a treaty of 
 alliance, offensive and defensive, was concluded between the 
 Wazir and the Rohillas. The attestation of the treaty by the 
 English General was looked upon by both parties as a guarantee 
 of its fulfilment, and as such Hastings later on felt bound to 
 regard it. Before long this obligation was to be tested. Internal 
 dissensions among the Rohillas, and particularly the defection of 
 one of their principal nobles, Zabita Khan, who before the end of 
 1772 openly joined the Marathas, so alarmed the Wazir that he 
 urgently sought the protection of an English force. Hastings 
 consented to defend Oudh, but refused to allow the English 
 troops to go beyond the Wazir's frontiers, or to engage in an 
 offensive war against the Marathas. The following year, there- 
 fore, Sir R. Barker, with a brigade consisting of two battalions 
 of European infantry, six battalions of sepoys, and a company of 
 artillery, marched to join the Wazir, who then wrote assuring 
 Hafiz Rahmat, the Rohilla chief, that the joint force would soon 
 arrive to assist him against the now threatening Marathas, and 
 urging him to be ready to co-operate actively in the common 
 cause. The Rohilla shilly-shallied, entered into negotiations 
 with the Marathas, and seemed on the point of joining them 
 against the Wazir. Angered by the apparent treachery of his 
 allies, the Wazir sounded SirR. Barker on the subject of [seizing 
 upon the Rohilla territory, offering large concessions to the 
 Company if it would lend him aid to his project. Before, how- 
 ever, such a proposal could be considered, Hafiz Rahmat, finding 
 that the Marathas would not risk an encounter with the English, 
 declared to the Wazir that he was ready to carry out his former 
 engagements, and promised to lose no time in paying the instal- 
 ments of forty lacs of rupees due under the treaty of the preceding 
 year on account of the Wazir's help. For some time the 
 Marathas lingered in the neighbourhood, and Shuja-ud-daula was 
 dissuaded by Sir R. Barker from pressing for payment lest 
 Hafiz Rahmat should throw himself into the arms of the invaders. 
 On their final disappearance, the Wazir returned to the subject, 
 only to meet with evasions from the Rohilla. Before long it 
 became quite evident that nothing was to be got from him ; and 
 Hastings, who had never doubted that safety to Oudh and to the 
 British possessions was possible only "by giving to the dominions 
 of the Vizier their natural boundaries, and including within one 
 ring-fence the whole of Rohilkhand and Oudh," now felt that the 
 time had come for seriously considering Shuja-ud-daula's pro- 
 posal. He therefore offered an interview, and, the Wazir 
 eagerly agreeing, this took place at Benares on the 19th of 
 August, 1773. The result was a treaty concluded on the 7th of 
 September. Of this treaty the first portion had reference only 
 to the cession of Kora and Allahabad to the Vizier on payment 
 of fifty lakhs of rupees, and with this matter we are not here 
 
190 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 concerned. As regards Rohilkhand, the following are the terms 
 agreed upon subject to confirmation by the Council in Calcutta : 
 
 " "Whereas the Rohilla chiefs, in the month of June 1772, entered 
 into a treaty with the Vizier, in the presence and with the con- 
 currence of General Sir Robert Barker, by which they engaged to pay 
 him forty lakhs of rupees for his assistance against the Marathas, and 
 which treaty they have treacherously broken ; it is therefore agreed 
 that a Brigade of the Company's forces shall join the Vizier, and 
 assist to punish them, and that he shall pay the whole of its expense. 
 By a Brigade is meant : two battalions of Europeans, one company of 
 Artillery, and six battalions of Sepoys, and the expense is settled at 
 Sonaut Rupees 210,000 per month. The Company's troops shall not 
 cross the Ganges, nor march beyond the foot of the hills. The Vizier 
 shall retain as his own that part of the Rohilla country which lies on 
 the north-east side of the Ganges, but in consideration of the Com- 
 pany's relinquishing all claim to share in the said country, although 
 it is to be conquered by their joint forces, the Vizier engages to make 
 them an acknowledgment of forty lakhs of rupees, and in future to 
 defray the whole expense of the Company's troops, agreeable to the 
 data above-mentioned, whenever he has occasion for their assistance, 
 notwithstanding it is stipulated in the second article of the treaty of 
 Allahabad, concluded by the Vizier and the Company on the 16th 
 August, 1765, that he shall pay only their extraordinary charges."... 
 
 The remainder of the draft is not material, its two other 
 clauses dealing only with the time for which the brigade shall be 
 at the Vizier's disposal, and the details of payment. Everything 
 seemed now to be settled. Shuja-ud-daula, however, on a further 
 consideration of the liabilities he had undertaken, felt doubtful 
 as to the prudence of an immediate invasion of Rohilkhand, and 
 Hastings readily assented to a postponement of operations. 
 Further, as no final conclusion had been arrived at, Hastings, on 
 his return to Calcutta, though recording the wish of the Wazir 
 for assistance 'in subjugating Rohilkhand, thought it more 
 prudent not to state to the Council how far the negotiations had 
 gone. A few weeks later the Wazir reopened the subject in 
 two letters to Hastings, the latter letter definitely asking for a 
 fulfilment of the agreement entered into at Benares, and being 
 accompanied by a separate paper summarizing his proposals in 
 the following terms : — " On condition of the entire expulsion of 
 the Rohillas, I will pay to the Company the sum of forty 
 lakhs of rupees in ready money whenever I shall discharge the 
 English troops, and until the expulsion of the Rohillas shall be 
 effected I will pay the expenses of the English troops, — that is to 
 say I will pay the sum of Rs. 210,000 monthly." On the day 
 after this letter was received, Hastings and the Select Committee 
 of the Council recorded a resolution in assent to the Wazir's 
 proposals, and Hastings was empowered to answer his letters, 
 setting forth in full and explicit terms the conditions on jwhicn 
 
APPENDIX I. 191 
 
 the required assistance would be granted. Before, however, 
 sending this answer, it was decided that in a matter so important 
 the whole of the proceedings should be considered by the Council 
 at large. For three successive days the matter was debated by 
 nine out of the ten members. Much diversity of opinion was 
 shown, no two members agreeing on all points. At last Hast- 
 ings was authorized to draw up a resolution expressing, as well 
 as he was able, the general view. The resolution thus prepared, 
 and accepted by the whole Council, approved of Hastings's 
 answer already mentioned, but at the same time recorded a 
 hearty wish " to avoid the expedition proposed," great doubt as 
 to its present expediency, and a hope that the stringency of the 
 conditions imposed would drive the Wazir into a refusal of 
 them. At the same time the Council confirmed the resolution of 
 the Committee drawn up on the 19th of October, "that the 
 2nd Brigade now quartered at Dinapore be ordered to march 
 on the Vizier's requisition, ... and that every preparation be 
 made for putting the 2nd Brigade in readiness to take the field 
 on the shortest notice." On the 10th of January, 1774, an 
 answer was received from the Wazir declining to undertake the 
 expedition under the terms offered. Less than a month later he 
 again changed his mind, agreed to all the conditions upon which 
 the co-operation of a British force was to be obtained, and asked 
 that a brigade might be at once ordered to join him and take 
 part in the proposed expedition. It now became impossible for 
 the Bengal Government to refuse consent. Colonel Champion, 
 who on Sir R. Barker's retirement from the service had been 
 appointed provisional Commander-in-Chief, was directed to as- 
 sume command of the troops, already on their way to join the 
 Wazir, and was informed that the object of the expedition was 
 the reduction of the Rohilla country lying between the Ganges 
 and the mountains. Colonel Champion's powers were strictly 
 confined to the military conduct of the expedition, the manage- 
 ment of all political relations with the Wazir being entrusted to 
 Middleton, then the Company's Agent at the Court of Lucknow. 
 The British force consisted of one company of artillery, the 2nd 
 European regiment, the select picket, consisting of about a 
 hundred cadets waiting for their commissions, and the 2nd 
 Brigade composed of six battalions of native infantry under the 
 command of Colonel Galliez. The Wazir 's army is said to have 
 numbered 100,000 men. On the near approach of these forces to 
 the Rohilla frontier, the chief, Hafiz Rahmat, became anxious to 
 enter into negotiations with Shuja-ud-daula. The latter de- 
 manded a large sum — according to Champion two karors of 
 rupees — for the aid he had given the Rohillas against the 
 Marathas. Hafiz Rahmat wrote more letters, but does not 
 appear to have made any endeavour to meet the Wazir's 
 demands even in part, or to have offered any basis for nego- 
 
f 
 
 192 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 tiation, even if there had been a desire on the Wazir's part for an 
 amicable arrangement. But no such desire existed. The time 
 for negotiation had passed, and Shuja-ud-daula was determined 
 upon having vengeance. The two armies met on the 23rd of 
 April, 1774, at Miranpur Katra in the Shahjahanpur district 
 with the result narrated by Macaulay. One point in that 
 narrative needs a passing notice. "The dastardly sovereign 
 of Oude," we are told, "fled from the field." This statement 
 is based upon Champion's charge of "shameful pusillanimity" 
 against the Wazir. But Champion seems to have borne no good 
 will towards that prince, of whom Sir Henry Lawrence writes 
 that " whatever were his faults," he " was never before accused 
 of cowardice" ; and, says Sir J. Strachey, " The official returns 
 of killed and wounded seem to make it probable that the Vizier's 
 infantry took a larger share in the action than might be supposed 
 from Colonel Champion's despatch, for while the loss of the Com- 
 pany's English and native troops was 132, that of the troops of 
 the Vizier, not including his cavalry for which there is no return, 
 was 254." 
 
 We now come to the results of the victory, to Macaulay's 
 picture of the cruelties to which the Rohillas were subjected, 
 and to the share imputed to Hastings in those cruelties. On the 
 death of Hafiz Rahmat, Faizullah Khan, the eldest surviving 
 son of AH Muhammad became the acknowledged head of the 
 Rohillas. "Faizullah Khan," says Sir John Strachey, "lost 
 no time in endeavouring to open negotiations with the com- 
 mander of the English forces and the Vizier, and towards the 
 end of May he sent an envoy to Colonel Champion with definite 
 proposals." In these proposals large sums of money were 
 offered to the English and to the Wazir on condition that the 
 whole of Rohilkhand should be given up by them to him. The 
 Wazir and Hastings scornfully rejected these offers ; and as 
 Faizullah Khan still remained in arms, it was decided to attack 
 him in order to bring the war to an end. When, however, the 
 advanced hosts of the English were within a mile of those of 
 the Rohillas, Faizullah again opened negotiations. The result 
 was a treaty concluded on the 7th October, 1774, between the 
 Wazir and Faizullah, and attested by Colonel Champion. "It 
 provided," says Sir J. Strachey, "that Faizullah Khan should 
 retain possession of the territory formerly allotted to him in 
 Rohilkhand by his father Ali Mohammad, with the city and 
 district of Rampur. ... It was stipulated that Faizullah Khan 
 should retain in his service a force of not more than 5,000 men, 
 that he should, if called on to do so, render certain military 
 services to the Vizier, and enter into no correspondence with 
 any powers excepting the Vizier and the English. Faizullah 
 Khan, it was further provided, 'shall send the remainder of 
 the Rohillas to the other side of the river ' . . . Immediately 
 
APPENDIX I. 193 
 
 after the signature of the treaty, the Vizier o,nd the English 
 withdrew their forces ; Faizullah Khan went with his 5,000 men 
 to Rampur, and assumed quiet possession of the country 
 assigned to him ; the rest of the Rohilla troops marched, under 
 the command of some of their chiefs, across the Ganges into 
 the district of Zabita Khan, their countryman. The number 
 of Rohillas who thus left Rohilkhand is said by Hamilton to 
 have been 17,000 or 18,000. According to Colonel Champion 
 it was about 20,000, including camp followers. Many of the 
 Rohilla soldiers entered the service of Zabita Khan, and many 
 soon returned to Rohilkhand, and obtained employment with 
 Faizullah Khan or in the army of the Vizier. No Rohillas 
 except those under arms with Faizullah Khan were compelled 
 to cross the Ganges ; the rest were unmolested, and either 
 remained in their former homes or settled in the Rampur State. 
 Whatever may have been the misgovernment or absence of 
 government in Rohilkhand after the fall of the Rohilla 
 dominion, there is no reason to suppose that either at this or 
 any subsequent time the Rohillas suffered any special perse- 
 cution or oppression from the Oudh authorities." Such is a 
 succinct account of the results of the war. It will presently 
 be necessary to examine in some detail the atrocities said to 
 have attended it. But before doing so, it will be well to clear up 
 one point; the nature of the " extermination." of which Burke 
 and Mill make so much capital. "*" 
 
 The First Article of Charge presented by Burke to the House 
 of Commons on the 4th of April, 1786, opens with the words 
 "That the said Warren Hastings ... did, in September 1773, 
 enter into a private engagement with the said Nabob of Oudh . . . 
 to furnish him for a stipulated sum of money, to be paid to the 
 East India Company, with a body of troops, for the declared 
 purpose of thoroughly extirpating the nation of the Rohillas."... 
 Mill, in his History, confirms Burke in the following words : — 
 "Not only was the ferocity of Indian depredation let loose upon 
 the wretched inhabitants, but as the intention of the Vizier, 
 according to what he had previously and repeatedly declared 
 to the British government, was to exterminate the Rohillas, every 
 one who bore the name of Rohilla was either butchered, or found 
 his safety in flight and exile." Mill in a note quotes in con- 
 firmation of his assertion two passages from letters which passed 
 between Hastings and the Wazir in 1773. The former letter, 
 from Hastings to the Wazir, says, "I have received your 
 Excellency's letter, mentioning ... that, should the Rohillas be 
 guilty of a breach of their agreement [viz. : about the forty 
 lakhs], we will thoroughly exterminate them, and settle your 
 Excellency in the country " ; ...The Wazir's letter says, "During 
 an interview at Benares, it was agreed that I should 
 pay, etc., ... and that I should, with the assistance of the 
 
194 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 English forces, endeavour to punish and exterminate the Rohillas 
 out of their country." The correspondence between Hastings 
 and the Wazir was carried on in Persian. The original letters 
 cannot now be discovered, but the words "exterminate" and 
 "extirpate" are those of the official Interpreter who translated 
 the Persian letters into English. In regard to the former term 
 we have that officer's assertion that the Persian word employed 
 was istisdly and that in rendering it by "extermination" he had 
 no idea of conveying the meaning affixed to it in the Charge, that 
 of massacring the whole body of the Rohillas, but merely that of 
 destroying their power and expelling them as a body from the 
 country — a sense justified, as he points out, by the authority of 
 Dr. Johnson, who explains it in one sense " to remove," and also 
 by its literal use. For " extirpate," occurring in the translation 
 of a letter from Hastings to the Wazir in November, 1774, it 
 appears that the Persian term was ikhraj ; for in a letter from 
 Hastings to the Court of Directors, in which he says that the 
 real sense of the term rendered * ' extirpate " was * ' expel or 
 remove," that Persian word is written in the margin, with the 
 obvious intention of showing that it was the expression used by 
 the Wazir. £_ Challenged on the subject, Hastings declared that 
 not only was this the meaning in which he used the word, but 
 that the "extirpation" which actually took place "consisted in 
 nothing more than in removing .from their offices the Rohillas 
 who had the official management of the country, and from the 
 country the soldiers who had opposed us in the conquest. "J 
 That the two Persian or, more strictly speaking, Arabic, words 
 may well bear the meaning which Hastings gives them, is the 
 decisio n of scholars whose authority is beyond all question : that 
 the "extermination" or "extirpation" was such as Hastings 
 asserts it to have been, is shown by the testimony before the 
 House of Commons of Colonel Champion, by no means a friendly 
 witness. His evidence is explicit on the following points and is 
 corroborated by that of Major Balfour, who served under him, 
 and of Mr. Middleton, the Resident at the Court of Lucknow : 
 that "the military portion of the nation " were only required to 
 cross the Ganges, and were not put to death ; that probably 
 some 45,000 men, including camp followers, remained in the 
 country under Faizullah Khan : that perhaps 20,000 men in 
 arms were required to pass the Ganges : that, excepting those 
 who fell in battle, he knew nothing of any being put to death ; 
 that many and many thousands of the inhabitants of the country 
 remained in it ; that none but those in arms, with the camp 
 followers and their families, were driven across the Ganges. As 
 to the expulsion of those in arms, — which is what the " ex- 
 termination " or " extirpation " amounts to, — Sir J. Strachey 
 remarks, "The stipulation of the treaty, that men actually 
 under arms should leave Rohilkhand, was perfectly reasonable. 
 
APPENDIX I. 195 
 
 It was necessary for the peace of the country, and it involved 
 little hardship, for all that happened to the Rohilla soldiers 
 whom it affected was that after a march of a few miles they 
 crossed the Ganges into the territory of Zabita Khan, their own 
 countryman. The facts cannot be summed up more accurately 
 than in the words of Hastings, ... ' We conquered the country 
 from the conquerors of it, and substituted another rule in the 
 place of theirs, upon the same principle of right and usage 
 (the right of the war being pre-supposed), as a British com- 
 mander in Europe would expel the soldiers of a conquered 
 town, and garrison it with his own, which by the same figure 
 of speech, and with equal propriety, might be called an ' 'ex- 
 tirpation. ""' 
 
 We may now return to the "atrocities." Such as they were, 
 they are to be imputed solely to the Wazir and his agents ; the 
 only charge against Hastings being that he, in part at least, 
 admitted and defended them. The evidence on the subject 
 is to be found (1) in the letters of Champion during the occupa- 
 tion of Rohilkhand, (2) in the evidence given by Champion and 
 others before the Council and before the House of Commons, 
 (3) in the records of contemporaneous histories. "The first 
 reference," says Sir J. Strachey,* " to any excesses of the troops 
 of the Vizier is contained in a private letter from Hastings, sent 
 in reply to one written by Colonel Champion when the army 
 entered Rohilkhand, and before the defeat of the Rohillas. 
 Colonel Champion's letter is not forthcoming, but it is clear from 
 the reply of Hastings, from the instructions of the Government, 
 and from other papers, that the Vizier had given orders for the 
 devastation of the country, but that the English Commander 
 protested against them and succeeded, after a short time, in 
 stopping their execution. " In his answer, Hastings emphatically 
 supports Champion's protest. On the news being received of 
 the defeat of the Rohillas, Hastings, writing in the name of the 
 Government, repeats the commendation given to Champion, 
 although nothing further has been reported of any atrocities. 
 When, a little later, Champion refers to the maltreatment of 
 Hafiz Rahmat's family and of the inhabitants of the country, but 
 gives no specific instance, Hastings, as the mouthpiece of the 
 Council, writes, "We desire, therefore, to be immediately 
 advised of the particulars of the treatment which you allude 
 to, that we may judge of the measures proper to be adopted. 
 In the interim, we recommend you to urge, in your own behalf, 
 and in the name of the Boarxl, such remonstrances to the Vizier, 
 against any rigorous treatment of the Rohilla chiefs and their 
 families, as you may + hink the occasion to require. From the 
 readiness which the Vizier testified in a former instance to 
 
 * Hastings and the Rohilla War, pp. 188, ft. 
 
196 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 be influenced by your advice and persuasion, we flatter our- 
 selves we may expect the same good fruits from your inter- 
 position now." A few days later came a private letter from 
 Champion, enclosing an official request that he might be allowed 
 to return to Calcutta. "Not only do I wish," he wrote, "to 
 get down as soon as possible to put my little affairs in the best 
 order for my return to Europe, but I must be candid enough to 
 unbosom myself to you freely, and confess that the nature of the 
 service, and the terms on which I have been employed, [? in] 
 this campaign have been inexpressibly disagreeable. The 
 authority given to the Vizier over your army has totally ab- 
 sorbed that degree of consequence due to my station. My hands 
 have been tied up from giving protection or asylum to the 
 miserable. I have been obliged to give a deaf ear to the 
 lamentable cries of the widow and fatherless, and to shut my 
 eyes against a wanton display of violence and oppression, of 
 inhumanity and cruelty. "...He then goes on to recommend that 
 the family of Hafiz Rahmat should be taken under the Company's 
 protection, and to instance some of the hardships to which they 
 had been subjected. Hastings's reply is too long to be quoted in 
 full. He points out that "it never could have been suspected 
 by the Board that their orders to you should have tied up your 
 hands from protecting the miserable, stopped your ears to the 
 cries of the widows and fatherless, or shut your eyes against the 
 wanton display of oppression and cruelty " : that his advice and 
 remonstrance ought, if used, to have had the same effect that 
 they had when the ravages of the country were stopped at his 
 intercession on the occupation of the country : that if any other 
 more effectual remedy, or any addition which could be given to 
 his authority, not liable to the objection of establishing a divided 
 power or an unjust usurpation of the Wazir's authority, would 
 be gladly agreed to by the Board ; that he had instructed the 
 Resident at the Wazir's Court to make the strongest representa- 
 tions on the subject : but that in the relations the Board stood 
 to the Wazir it was impossible to take the family of Hafiz 
 Rahmat immediately under its protection. The instructions to 
 the Resident were most stringent. " Tell him," [the Wazir] says 
 Hastings among other things, "that the English manners are 
 abhorrent of every species of inhumanity and oppression, and 
 enjoin the gentlest treatment of a vanquished enemy. Require 
 and entreat his observance of this principle towards the family 
 of Hafiz. Tell him my instructions to you ; generally, but 
 urgently, enforce the same maxims ; and that no part of his 
 conduct will operate so powerfully in winning the affections of 
 the English as instances of benevolence and feeling for others. 
 If these arguments do not prevail, you may inform him directly 
 that you have my orders to insist upon a proper treatment of 
 the family of Hafiz Rahmat, since in our alliance with him 
 
APPENDIX I. 197 
 
 our national character is involved in every act which, subjects 
 his own to reproach ; that I shall publicly exculpate this 
 Government from the imputation of assenting to such a pro- 
 cedure, and shall reserve it as an objection to any future engage- 
 ments with him when the present service shall have been 
 accomplished." How Hastings's instructions to the resident were 
 carried out will be seen further on. Omitting two letters of 
 Champion's which have no great bearing on the controversy, 
 we come to his reply to the letter of the 23rd May, in which he 
 had been ordered by Hastings to furnish full particulars of the 
 maltreatment to which Hafiz Rahmat's family had been subjected. 
 This reply, while complaining of the Wazir's disregard of his 
 remonstrances and repeating the charge of cruelty to the family 
 of Hafiz, contains no specific instances of which Champion had 
 proof, and says nothing of cruelty to the Rohillas generally. It, 
 however, again urged that he should "be invested with full 
 authority to effectually prevent the Vizier from perpetrating any 
 enormity, under the shield of our force, that could in any degree 
 redound to the discredit of our reputation." Such extended 
 powers the Board in their answer decline to give, and, after re- 
 capitulating their relations to the Wazir, they thus continue, 
 " The intemperate and tyrannical conduct of the Vizier after his 
 conquest, as you have represented, cannot fail to prove highly 
 dissatisfactory to us, and although we do not regard ourselves 
 either as answerable for his actions, or obliged absolutely to 
 interfere for restraining them, yet we should have been glad to 
 have been furnished with such materials as would enable us, 
 upon good grounds, to expostulate with him on the injustice and 
 impropriety of such a conduct. It was in this view that we 
 requested you to acquaint us with instances of his cruelties, but we 
 confess ourselves exceedingly disappointed in receiving, instead of 
 a precise account of facts, only three letters of loose declamation, 
 which however pathetically written, contain not one single 
 instance of the Vizier's particular cruelty towards the family 
 of Hafiz, and indeed express only such sentiments as we can 
 easily conceive to exist in the breasts of that unfortunate family, 
 ... For this reason we repeat our desire to be furnished with a 
 particular account of the treatment which the family of Hafiz 
 has received, and we shall then take such steps for their relief 
 as the circumstances shall require. In the meantime, we hope 
 that the remonstrances which the President informs us he has 
 directed the Resident to make to the Vizier on this subject, will 
 be sufficient to render any more direct interposition needless."... 
 The "particular account" thus demanded was never furnished, 
 though Colonel Champion remained in Rohilkhand several months 
 after he received these orders. When questioned on the point 
 before the House of Commons, he replied, "In answer to that ques- 
 tion, I must observe that repeatedly, before the date of that letter 
 
198 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 and afterwards, I thought the remonstrances I made were suffic- 
 ient, and therefore did not comply with the orders I received." 
 The Board's letter was sent on July 1st, and the only notice 
 it received was a reply dated September 3rd, in which Colonel 
 Champion speaks of having already "attested the truth of the 
 complaints, which I will venture to say bear more than one or 
 two instances of cruelty ; I might add others, such as these un- 
 happy captives being driven to the necessity of supplicating and 
 receiving alms from myself and gentlemen of my family to purchase 
 sustenance ; their even begging for water to drink, their struggling 
 who should first be served with it, etc. In short, the gross 
 maltreatment of these families amounts to an axiom in the minds 
 of the English army, and even in the Vizier's own troops." 
 Hopeless, apparently, of getting any more distinct statement 
 from Colonel Champion, Hastings wrote to the Resident on the 
 subject. "The enormities he [Colonel Champion] insists upon 
 are of a nature that I think could not have escaped your obser- 
 vation ... I wish the truth to appear, neither glossed by favour 
 nor blackened by prejudice ; let me therefore beg of you to 
 furnish me with the fullest information you can obtain of the 
 Vizier's treatment of the family of Hafiz, etc., and to support 
 your accounts with the strongest proofs that can be produced."... 
 Middleton's reply will be noticed later on. But in the mean- 
 while it will be as well to make an end of Champion's statements 
 subsequent to his leaving Rohilkhand. That, so far, Hastings 
 had in no wise defended the atrocities attributed to Wazir is 
 plain enough ; nor can any such defence be alleged against him 
 in the future. Champion's accusations, however, against the 
 Wazir now become definite enough. For in November, 1774, 
 Shuja-ud-daula sent to Hastings a letter filled with complaints 
 against the Commander-in-Chief and his troops. To this Cham- 
 pion found it necessary to reply, and he was able to do this at a 
 favourable moment, the new Government having come into 
 power, and Hastings being in a minority at the Board. Among 
 the charges now made we are told that, on the march from 
 Pilibhit to Bisauli, the wife and children of Hafiz, the widow 
 of his eldest son, the wife of his eldest surviving son, and some 
 hundreds of miserable captive women were dragged in triumph 
 on carts ; that at Bareli and Aonla the inhabitants were indis- 
 criminately plundered ; that at Bisauli the whole army were 
 witnesses of scenes that cannot be described ; that when on the 
 march the sepoys were withdrawn from the villages they were 
 sent to protect, those villages were set in flames by way of 
 bonfire for his Excellency; that the Wazir's conduct to the 
 families of Mohibullah Khan and Fattehullah Khan were both 
 treacherous and dastardly, they being robbed of their property 
 and dishonoured in the persons of their women ; that the family 
 of Dundi Khan was robbed of their throne, despoiled of their 
 
APPENDIX I. 199 
 
 honour, and subjected to bondage of the greatest severity. Such 
 are the chief statements in his long and rambling letter. When 
 examined a month later before the Council — a Council known 
 to be hostile to Hastings — these statements shrank in a most 
 wonderful manner. As to the worst charges, his answers gene- 
 rally were prefixed by such words as "It appeared so to me" ; "I 
 did hear such report, but as to the grounds I have none sufficient 
 to prove the accusation" ; "It was reported to me that they [the 
 families of the chiefs] were in want of everything that could 
 make their situation tolerably comfortable" ; "It was reported 
 to me that they were in want " ; "I cannot charge my memory, 
 but beg leave to refer to the correspondence." They were, in 
 fact, as Sir J. Strachey remarks, " meagre and evasive, couched 
 in such general terms, and so extremely short, that they add 
 little to our knowledge." Those given on the same subject 
 before the House of Commons in 1786 failed to elicit anything 
 of value as to the authority on which his statements had been 
 made, except that his information was obtained through spies 
 set to furnish it. On the same points the evidence of Colonel 
 Leslie and Major Hannay, both in Rohilkhand during its con- 
 quest and occupation, were taken before the Council, and by 
 neither was any atrocity, except that of burning villages, de- 
 posed to on their own knowledge, though vague reports had 
 reached their ears. A third officer, Major Balfour, who likewise 
 had been through the campaign, was examined before the House 
 of Commons. His evidence, both as to the facts and the conse- 
 quences of the war, were still less to the discredit of the Wazir. 
 The whole of the recorded evidence of the English military 
 officers who took part in the war, in regard to the cruelties said 
 to have been committed by the Wazir, has now been examined, 
 and we may go back to the correspondence between Hastings 
 and Middleton. In the latter's first letter, written on the 17th 
 June, 1774, he says that though he cannot by any means acquit 
 the Wazir of the charge made against him on the score of his 
 treatment of Hafiz Rahmat's family, and his wanton ravages of 
 the country, he believes that those charges had been exaggerated. 
 The story of his having dishonoured Mohibullah Khan's daughter 
 he shows to be unfounded ; the severity with which Dundi 
 Khan's family had been treated was, in his opinion, in some 
 measure justified by their treachery ; Hafiz Rahmat's family, he 
 admits, had "suffered much distress and inconvenience for want 
 of proper accommodation in camp, but my own knowledge does 
 not furnish me with any instances of cruelty or violence wantonly 
 exercised upon them." The Wazir had promised to allot a hand- 
 some provision for the maintenance of that family, while their 
 removal, and that of Dundi Khan's family, to Faizabad had been 
 carried out under due precautions for their proper treatment. On 
 the 5th July, Middleton again wrote to Hastings. Reports as to 
 
200 WARREN HASTING& 
 
 the Wazir's behaviour towards his prisoners were constantly 
 reaching his ears, and their persistence made him lend some 
 credit to them. He therefore earnestly remonstrated with the 
 Wazir, threatening him with the displeasure of Hastings, in case 
 the rumours should be true, and the forfeiture of "every claim 
 to that support and protection which the English have on all 
 occasions manifested such readiness to yield him." All the 
 charges urged were positively denied by the Wazir, and Middle- 
 ton, when examined before the House of Commons, admitted 
 that after sending his letter to Hastings "he had reason to think 
 more favourably of the character of the Vizier," and that he 
 "found that many of the reports that had been propagated to 
 his prejudice, from the best information he could obtain, were 
 without foundation." In the same evidence he said that "he 
 knew of no instance of cruelty, in the course of the war upon the 
 Rohillas, either by Shuja-ud-daula or by his orders " ; that he 
 understood the article in the treaty with Faizullah Khan, requir- 
 ing the Rohillas to leave the country, to apply only to the troops 
 under arms and their chiefs ; that they crossed the Ganges into 
 the territory of their countrymen, Zabita Khan ; that many of 
 them, although not publicly permitted, returned to Rohilkhand, 
 and either went to Faizullah Khan or enlisted in the Wazir's 
 army ; and that for the peace of the country he could suggest no 
 better plan than that of compelling the Rohillas to cross the 
 Ganges. Of contemporaneous histories, Sir J. Strachey quotes 
 from the Gulistan-i-Rahmat, by the son of Hafiz Rahmat, from 
 Hamilton's History, and from the Siyar-ul-Mutakharin, by Syad 
 Ghulam Husen Khan, in none of which is there any mention of 
 excesses or atrocities. He then goes on to prove beyond all 
 possible doubt that Mill in his account of the Rohilla W T ar 
 deliberately falsified history. With the greater part of the 
 correspondence between Hastings, Champion, and Middleton, 
 and the evidence taken before the House of Commons, that 
 historian "deliberately omitted all mention of the fact that 
 Hastings, in language as strong as it was possible to find, had 
 repeatedly expressed his detestation of the cruelties attributed to 
 the Vizier, and had issued the instructions which seemed to him 
 most likely to stop them. Not content with this suppression 
 of the truth, Mill, . . . has stated that Hastings defended the 
 atrocities of the Vizier, and in proof of his assertion he has 
 professed to quote the very words of Hastings himself. 1 do 
 not use language too strong for the occasion when T say 
 that a more baseless calumny was never recorded by one 
 calling himself an historian. The words which Mill has cited are 
 to be found, not in any reply to the representations of Colonel 
 Champion while the war was in progress, but in a Minute written 
 by Hastings on the 10th January, 1775, in answer to a letter, 
 attacking him m unmeasured terms, which had been sent to the 
 
APPENDIX I. 201 
 
 Court of Directors by Clavering, Monson, and Francis, who then 
 formed the Majority in Council. According to a custom very 
 usual with him, Mill has separated from the context the par- 
 ticular words that suited his purpose, and suppressing the rest, 
 he gives his garbled extract as the proof of a false and atrocious 
 charge. " Summing up the whole question of the atrocities, Sir 
 J. Strachey continues,* 
 
 " The statement that atrocities were defended or excused by 
 Hastings had its origin in a baseless falsehood. He did all in his 
 power to cause the war to be conducted with humanity, and, consider- 
 ing all the circumstances of the case, his efforts were successful. 
 From the time when the army of the Vizier entered Rohilkhand to 
 the conclusion of the treaty of peace with Faizullah Khan, nearly six 
 months elapsed. In the first week of this period, while hostilities 
 were in progress, and in the three or four days which followed the 
 defeat of the Rohillas, many villages were ' burned, and whatever 
 property could be carried off was plundered. This occurred in a small 
 tract of country between the Oudh frontier and Pilibhit. There was 
 no serious loss of life or personal suffering, because the villages had 
 been, for the most part, entirely deserted by their inhabitants, who, 
 according to their established custom on the approach of danger, had 
 fled to the Tarai and forest, taking with them their cattle and such 
 valuables as they could easily remove. The rest of Rohilkhand, a 
 country nearly as large as Belgium, was rapidly occupied without 
 opposition, after the defeat of the Rohillas, and there is no reason to 
 suppose that in any part of it, or at any time, any serious excesses 
 were committed by the troops of the Vizier. Long before the submis- 
 sion of Faizullah Khan, the Hindu inhabitants, who constituted nearly 
 the whole population, were, for the most part, following their usual 
 occupations. There is nothing to show that they were anywhere 
 exposed to any extraordinary hardship or ill-treatment beyond that 
 inevitable in a time of war. In regard to the Rohillas, whose numbers 
 were comparatively small, the story of their cruel extermination is 
 absolutely false, nor is there a particle of evidence that any atrocities 
 were committed upon them at any time during the war. Excepting 
 the men who fell in battle, there is no evidence that any Rohilla was 
 put to death, or was treated with any inhumanity. The only Rohillas 
 who were compelled to leave Rohilkhand, other than the principal 
 chiefs, were the soldiers actually under arms with Faizullah Khan. 
 Under one of the conditions of the final treaty of peace, they crossed 
 the Ganges into the friendly territory of Zabita Khan, their country- 
 man. The rest of the Rohillas were unmolested, or went into Ram pur, 
 the Rohilla State assigned by treaty to Faizullah Khan, their recog- 
 nised chief. The Rohilla chiefs were generally treated with con- 
 sideration and lenity. Two of them only, the sons of Dundi Khan, 
 who had broken engagements which they had entered into with the 
 Vizier, were, not unjustly, punished with temporary confinement and 
 confiscation of their property ; but they suffered no serious ill-treat- 
 ment and they were soon released. The ladies of the families of 
 Hafiz Rahmat and Dundi Khan, with their dependents, suffered much 
 
 *Pp. 231-3. 
 
202 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 distress and inconvenience from their removal into camp, and from 
 the absence of proper arrangements for their comfort and for their 
 maintenance, and their jewels and personal ornaments were taken 
 from them. The stories that they were, in any case, subjected to 
 personal outrage or gross insult are absolutely false, without any 
 vestige of foundation. ... I do not doubt that this, like every other 
 war, brought with it an amount of misery far worse than that of 
 which any direct evidence is now before us, but at the same time it 
 seems to me clear that Shuja-ud-daula would have been justified in 
 saying that the campaign in Rohilkhand had been carried on with an 
 absence of violence and bloodshed and generally with a degree of 
 humanity altogether unusual in Indian warfare. Nor can I doubt 
 that this result was mainly due to the remonstrances of Hastings. 
 1 History,' writes Mr. Forrest, * furnishes no more striking example of 
 the growth and vitality of a slander. The Rohilla atrocities owe their 
 birth to the malignity of Champion and Francis ; their growth to the 
 rhetoric of Burke ; and their wide diffusion to the brilliancy and 
 pellucid clearness of Macaulay's style.' The only defect I can find in 
 this perfectly just judgment is that in pronouncing it Mr. Forrest has 
 forgotten the History of James Mill." 
 
 One point remains for consideration, viz., the objects with 
 which the Rohilla war was undertaken. Macaulay, as will be 
 seen in his Essay, held that the acquisition of money was the 
 sole object that Hastings had in view. " That he. [Macaulay]," 
 says Sir J. Strachey,£j never investigated the f acts for himself 
 isilearT^ With the exceptionofa fewerrorieous statements taken 
 from trie speeches or charges of Burke, everything that he has 
 written on the subject is traceable to Mill, nor can I blame him 
 for believing that Mill's authority might be accepted as con- 
 clusive. His version of the story of the Rohilla war is not history 
 but rhetori c, and I do not propose to criticize it. TEe grave and 
 dteliberate allegations of Mill stand on a different footing from the 
 rhetoric of Macaulay and the passionate invective of Burke ... The 
 sole authority quoted is that of Hastings himself ; he is judged 
 and condemned by his own words ; there is nothing to lead the 
 reader to suppose that Hastings ever gave any other explanation 
 of his motives. " * Now, at no time did Hastings conceal that an 
 improvement of the Company's finances was one of the objects he 
 had in view. He stated it in various of his official Minutes, he 
 openly avowed it in his answer to Burke's charges before the 
 House of Commons. But this improvement was "an accessory 
 argument " in favour of the war, not a principal argument. And 
 as his avowals were so pertinaciously urged against him, it might 
 be supposed that in common justice the principal arguments so 
 repeatedly set forth by him would receive some credit. These 
 arguments were, (1) "Justice to the Vizier, for the aggravated 
 breach of treaty by the Rohilla chiefs : (2) The honour of the 
 Company, pledged implicitly by General Barker's attestation for 
 
 *P. 236. 
 
APPENDIX L 203 
 
 the accomplishment of this treaty, and which, added to their 
 alliance with the Vizier, engaged us to see redress obtained for 
 the perfidy of the Rohillas : (3) The completion of the line of 
 defence of the Vizier's dominions by extending his boundary to 
 the natural barrier formed by the northern chain of hills and the 
 Ganges, and their junction." Over and over again in his Minutes 
 and Despatches does Hastings asseverate such to have been his 
 principal reasons for engaging in the war. Over and over again 
 does he justify those reasons and set forward the arguments by 
 which they were supported in his understanding. Yet his tra- 
 ducers have combined either to ignore them altogether or to treat 
 them as mere flimsy pretexts. Space does not allow of my mak- 
 ing extracts of sufficient length to show the importance which 
 Hastings attached to the principles on which he acted or the 
 weight which his defence might be supposed to have with candid 
 judges. I must content myself with one more quotation from Sir 
 J. Strachey and one from Sir A. Lyall's Warren Hastings. 
 
 "Whatever view," says Sir J. Strachey,* "be taken of the propriety 
 of engaging in the Rohilla war, enough has, I think, been said to show 
 that the story of Hastings letting out the English troops for hire to 
 slaughter an unoffending people, without cause or provocation, for 
 the sole and infamous purpose of putting money into the pockets of 
 his masters, is not true. Q!t was invented by the malignity of Francis, 
 it was adopted by Burke with an indignation of which the motives 
 were honourable but which were blind and unreasoning, it was written 
 down as history by Mill when the evidence of its falsehood was in his 
 hands, and it was then throw n by Macaulay into tjie rhetoric al shap e 
 in which it has ever since compelled acceptance from the majority of 
 Englishmen/1 Before the war was undertaken, while it was in pro- 
 gress, after~it had been successfully completed, but when no hostile 
 imputations connected with it had been made, and afterwards when 
 Hastings had to defend himself against the attacks of his enemies, he 
 never varied in the explanation of his policy. That policy was based 
 on the necessity of guarding against the risk of ruin to ourselves and 
 to our ally. The primary object of the war was to obtain security 
 against the danger which at that time overshadowed all other con- 
 siderations, that of invasion by the Marathas, who were not far from 
 achieving that universal dominion over India which they openly 
 declared to be their aim. To guard against this danger, Hastings, 
 like Clive, his great predecessor, believed that no measure of pre- 
 caution could be so efficacious as the maintenance of the territories 
 of the Nawab Vizier of Oudh as a barrier between Bengal and the 
 constantly troubled countries of Northern India. He believed that 
 to secure this object it was necessary that the only road by which 
 Oudh was easily accessible to the inroads of the Maratha armies 
 should be closed. The only means by which this could be done was 
 by the union of Rohilkhand with Oudh, and by the expulsion of the 
 band of turbulent and faithless Afghans who, not many years before, 
 had established themselves in the very quarter from which danger 
 
 * Pp. 257-264. 
 
204 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 threatened. It had been proved by experience that to obtain the 
 desired security by an alliance with the Rohillas was impossible. A 
 treaty had been entered into between the Rohilla chiefs and the 
 Vizier, by which the Vizier bound himself to protect Rohilkhand 
 against the Marathas, and the Rohillas, on their part, engaged to pay 
 to him, in consideration of that protection, the sum of £500,000. 
 Although the treaty was one to which we were not avowedly a party, 
 it had been concluded with the strenuous co-operation and advice of 
 our Commander-in-Chief, it had been attested by his signature, and it 
 had been approved by our Government. We had given to the Vizier the 
 active and effectual assistance of our army in enabling him to carry out 
 his obligations, and had expelled the Marathas from Rohilkhand. The 
 Rohillas, on their side, refused to fulfil their engagements, and paid 
 nothing to the Vizier. All this afforded in the belief of Hastings 
 ample justification to the Vizier for undertaking the war, and ample 
 justification to us for giving him the help without which he might 
 probably have been unsuccessful. ... The question of morality, if it is to 
 be argued, can only be stated thus : — Is a British governor justified in 
 making war upon a confederacy of barbarous chiefs, who, not long 
 before, had imposed their rule on a population foreign to themselves 
 in race and religion ; through whose country the only road lies open 
 for attacks by savage invaders upon a British ally, whose security is 
 essential to the security of British possessions ; who are too weak and 
 too treacherous to be relied on to close this road; and who have 
 injured that ally by breaking a treaty with him negotiated and 
 attested by a British General, and approved by the British Govern- 
 ment? Upon such a question there can hardly be much difference of 
 opinion. The only reasonable answer is that, in such a case, the 
 supreme duty of a governor is to make the dominions under his care 
 secure from foreign attack ; that if Hastings believed that the 
 security of the British provinces depended on that of Oudh, he was 
 bound to take measures of precaution against a common danger ; 
 and that if he found it impossible to reconcile the protection of 
 Oudh and of British territory with the maintenance of the dominion 
 of the Rohilla chiefs, he was right in the conclusion that their do- 
 minion must cease. It may doubtless be contended that Hastings 
 overrated some of the elements of danger, or committed other errors 
 of judgment, but at all events there is no room for moral reprobation. 
 By ignoring the difficulties and complexities of the situation, it is 
 easy to argue broadly that it is wrong to engage in war without pro- 
 vocation, that the Rohillas had not provoked us, and that the attack 
 upon them was therefore unjustifiable. In the opinion of Hastings 
 the conduct of the Rohillas in breaking their treaty with our ally, 
 and in carrying on negotiations with the common enemy, constituted 
 provocation, and that term can hardly be limited to the case of actual 
 aggression. However this may be, maxims of this sort could afford 
 no assistance to a governor dealing with the question whether Oudh 
 and the British provinces should be allowed to remain exposed to 
 invasion, or how invasion might best be averted. Financial advantage 
 was, as Hastings wrote to Colonel Champion, ... 'an accessory argu- 
 ment.' Having satisfied himself that the establishment of the Vizier's 
 government in Rohilkhand was necessary, he had to settle the terms 
 on which our co-operation should be afforded. Without that co- 
 
APPENDIX I. 205 
 
 operation there was obviously no certainty of success. ... Assuming 
 with Hastings that the resolution to establish the Vizier's government 
 in Rohilkhand was politically wise, there was nothing unreasonable 
 in the stipulation that in addition to the actual charges of the English 
 brigade, the Vizier, ' in consideration of the Company relinquishing 
 all claim to share in the Eohilla country, although it is to be conquered 
 by their joint forces,' should pay forty lakhs of rupees on the success- 
 ful completion of the war... If the English Government had itself 
 borne the whole expense of its operations, and had received nothing 
 from the Vizier, the motives with which the war was undertaken 
 would have been less open to misrepresentation, but they would not, 
 as Hastings himself said, have thereby become more or less just or 
 honourable. If the war was made the opportunity of bringing profit 
 to the stronger power, it did not differ in this respect from many more 
 serious contests. It is true that we might sometimes have been better 
 pleased if Hastings in his despatches and minutes had said less regard- 
 ing the financial advantages of his agreement with the Vizier, ... But 
 the circumstances under which he was placed ought not to be forgotten. 
 He had frequently to justify to the Directors at home measures of 
 policy opposed to their orders, or of which their approval was doubt- 
 ful, and it was natural that he should, when it was possible to do so, 
 lay stress on those conditions which would be most likely to reconcile 
 them to his proceedings. The East India Company of those days was 
 essentially mercantile, and the Directors were ready to pardon much 
 that they thought politically inexpedient if it could be shown to be 
 pecuniarily profitable. ... Judged by its results, the policy of Hastings 
 was eminently successful. Many a ■ wild Mahratta battle ' had still 
 to be fought. Nearly thirty years after the Rohilla war, Maratha 
 armies were still contending with the English for empire in India, and 
 Wellesley and Lake were winning their victories of Assaye and Argaum 
 and Laswari. More than forty years elapsed before the power of the 
 Marathas was finally swept away, but during the whole of this time 
 they never attacked or seriously threatened Rohilkhand. The occupa- 
 tion of that province gave to Oudh and to Bengal that permanent pro- 
 tection against the most dangerous of our Indian enemies which it had 
 been the aim of Hastings to secure." 
 
 Sir Alfred Lyall's view of the case is far less favourable to 
 Hastings. 
 
 " It is true," * he says, " that his barrier-policy may be said to have 
 been so far successful that the Vizier retained undisturbed possession 
 of his acquisitions until the end of the century, when Rohilcund was 
 ceded to the English. Nevertheless nothing but the urgent necessity* 
 of self-preservation can warrant an unprovoked invasion of a neigh- 
 bour's country ; and it must be confessed that the war has left a stain 
 upon the reputation of the Company in India, where a shifty line of 
 policy is far more unsafe than a weak frontier ; while it has been the 
 last occasion upon which English troops have joined in a campaign 
 with Indian allies, without retaining control of the operations. ... Mr. 
 Gleig dilates upon the absurdity of holding Hastings responsible for 
 
 * Warren Hastings, pp. 48-50. 
 
206 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 ' details of military operations ' which he never sanctioned or approved ; 
 and totally fails to perceive that all men, especially men in command, 
 are directly answerable for the indirect but probable consequences of 
 their acts and orders. The expedition against the Rohillas was wrong 
 in principle, for they had not provoked us, and the Vizier could only 
 be relied upon to abuse his advantages. ... On the other hand, Macaulay's 
 splendid and glittering phrases have thrown a false air of romance 
 over the real origin and character of the Rohilla chiefships, which 
 merely represented the fortuitous partition of an imperial province 
 among military adventurers. In their origin, political constitution, 
 and their relation to the bulk of people, they might be likened to the 
 Mamelukes of Egypt, who also were a military confederacy under a 
 chief of their own, paying a nominal allegiance to the Sultan for a 
 province which they had seized. And they were in reality suppressed 
 for reasons not unlike those which led to the political destruction of 
 Poland, because their constitution was weak and turbulent, and 
 because, therefore, they could not be trusted to hold an important 
 position on the frontiers of more powerful states."... 
 
 If, after citing such high authorities, it is at all worth while 
 to give my own opinion on the subject, I should say that while 
 it seems to me that the position in which Hastings found himself 
 justified his helping the Wazir to expel the Rohillas from Rohil- 
 khand, it did not justify him in leaving that prince so far un- 
 fettered as regards the manner in which the country was to be 
 occupied and its inhabitants to be treated. Experience must 
 have taught Hastings that the Wazir was not likely to be too 
 scrupulous, and it was incumbent upon him to take precautions 
 which would make impossible any abuse of conquest. Exagger- 
 ated as are the accounts of the " atrocities," there can, I think, 
 be no doubt that there was an amount of licence which would 
 have been avoided had more exact conditions of the alliance been 
 made beforehand. Further, it seems to me that Hastings himself 
 soon became conscious of having given the Wazir too free a hand. 
 That the remonstrances conveyed through Champion and Middle- 
 ton were genuine enough, may be readily admitted. That they 
 were effectual in preventing, or at all events in arresting, any 
 grave excesses, has, I think, been shown. But all through the 
 correspondence there seems to run an uneasy feeling that the 
 opportunity had been let slip for placing a sufficient curb upon 
 the Wazir's actions while yet it was in the power of Hastings to 
 dictate. 
 
APPENDIX II. 207 
 
 APPENDIX IT. 
 
 HASTINGS, IMPEY, AND NAND KUMAR. 
 
 If, in trusting to Mill for his account of the Rohilla War, 
 Macaulay has been singularly unfortunate, he has fared even 
 worse as regards the evidence upon which he built up his de- 
 clamatory periods against Hastings and Impey in the story of 
 Nand Kumar. For it may be said at the outset that absolutely 
 no stain now rests upon the fame of either in the matter of 
 Macaulay 's "judicial murder." That this is so is due almost 
 entirely to Sir James Stephen. His unwearied patience has 
 gone minutely into every document that bears upon the subject, 
 his skill and legal learning have disentangled every knot and 
 sifted from the vast mass of fabrication and prejudice the 
 residue of wholesome truth. It will be necessary to follow 
 the great jurist at considerable length, though I trust that 
 to dispassionate minds whatever may seem tedious will be 
 forgiven for the interest of the result. Of the position in 
 which Hastings stood to the rest of his Council nothing need 
 be added to Macaulay's vivid account. Nor will it be worth 
 while to say anything as to the feelings with which Hastings 
 and Nand Kumar entered upon their memorable duel, except 
 that their mutual animosity was of long standing and that Nand 
 Kumar skilfully chose the moment when he might hope to have 
 Hastings at a disadvantage. My narrative, following Sir J. 
 Stephen's scheme, will deal with (1) the accusation of corruption 
 brought by Nand Kumar against Hastings, (2) the accusation of 
 conspiracy brought by Hastings, and the accusation of forgery 
 brought by Mohan Parshad against Nand Kumar, (3) the trial 
 of Nand Kumar and the subsequent events down to the time of 
 his execution. 
 
 Macaulay's summary of Nand Kumar's accusation, and of 
 the Council's proceedings on receiving it, is short, but accurate 
 as far as it goes. The matter, however, is important only as 
 regards the suspicion that Hastings in order to escape conviction 
 determined upon destroying his accuser. Briefly stated, the 
 accusation was that Hastings had accepted in bribes and gifts 
 something between three and four hundred thousand rupees. 
 Of this sum Nand Kumar alleged that he himself had sent 
 Hastings eight bags of gold mohrs of the value of about a 
 hundred thousand rupees as a thank -offering for the appoint- 
 ment of his son to the treasurership of the titular subahdar's 
 household, the remainder being a present from the Manni 
 
208 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 Begam, widow of Mir Jafir, who had been made guardian of 
 the Subahdar in the place of Muhammad Raza Khan. As to 
 his own present, Nand Kumar produced no corroborative 
 evidence, while his account was discredited by his vin- 
 dictiveness, his inconsistency of statement, his avowed com- 
 plicity in the alleged corrupt acts, as agent for the Begam, 
 and his often -proved rascality. In support of his story regard- 
 ing the Begam, Nand Kumar delivered a translation, and 
 showed what he declared to be the original, of a letter from 
 the Begam. Of the genuineness of the letter no proof was 
 adduced except that it bore upon it a stamp with the Begam's 
 name. This, however, was no proof, for Nand Kumar was 
 shown in the case of other persons to have in his possession 
 seals belonging to them, or counterfeiting the origins. The 
 story told in the letter does not on its face agree with the 
 charge made by Nand Kumar. His story was that the Begam 
 had given Hastings at Murshidabad a lakh of rupees, and had 
 caused one Nur Sing to pay him at Kasimbazar a further lakh 
 and a half. The letter stated that she was to pay Hastings 
 two lakhs, and that she was raising one lakh to be paid at 
 Murshidabad, and it begs Nand Kumar to pay the other lakh 
 to Hastings at Calcutta, and promises to repay him. Had the 
 Board compared Nand Kumar's statement with the Begam's 
 letter they would have seen that there was urgent need of 
 inquiry. The only questions they asked of Nand Kumar were 
 such as would serve to strengthen his case. "They took no 
 steps," says Sir James Stephen,* " to ascertain the authenticity 
 of the letter attributed to the Munny Begum, beyond comparing 
 the inscriptions on two seals. They did not even impound the 
 alleged original, but returned it to Nuncomar. They did not 
 even send for the persons alleged by Nuncomar to have delivered 
 and received the bags of gold, nor did they ask a single question 
 as to the time when, and the place where the gold was delivered, 
 the person from whom he got so large a sum, the books in which 
 he had made entries about it, the place and time of his alleged con- 
 versation with Hastings on the subject, or any of the other obvious 
 matters by which his truthfulness might be tested." The only 
 point in which Nand Kumar's story received any corroboration 
 was as to a lakh and a half of rupees said to have been presented 
 to Hastings by the Begam. From an inquiry into her books 
 it appeared that this sum was paid to Hastings at Murshid- 
 abad in 1772, as a customary allowance on the visit of the 
 Governor to the Nawab and made at the same rate and for the 
 same purpose with which it had been made to Clive and Verelst, 
 former governors. To none of the charges would Hastings give a 
 denial at the time. This may have been unwise, but it is easily 
 
 • The Story of Nuncomar, etc., i. 60-& 
 
APPENDIX II. 209 
 
 intelligible. Francis, Clavering, and Monson, were his bitter 
 enemies, and by them a denial would have been received with 
 scorn. A denial would, moreover, have looked like an admission 
 that he was bound to answer before his enemies. They from the 
 first had by their acts adjudged him guilty, and a man of so 
 haughty a spirit and a nature so cautious would not unnaturally 
 say, * Except before a Committee to whose impartiality I can 
 trust, I will give no answer of any kind to such a charge. ' It 
 may also be, as Sir J. Stephen supposes, that his silence 
 " arose from the fact that he had received from the Begam the 
 lakh and a half for entertainment, . . . and that as he could not 
 absolutely deny every part of Nand Kumar's story he thought it 
 better not to make a qualified partial denial of it, and to leave 
 his enemies to prove what they could." At his impeachment he 
 denied to his counsel that he had received any money whatever 
 from Nand Kumar, or from the Begam, except the lakh and a 
 half already mentioned. " That a consciousness of guilt should 
 have prevented Hastings," says Sir J. Stephen, "from making 
 these statements in 1775, when he was in great danger of losing 
 his office, and that it should not have prevented him from making 
 them to his own counsel when nothing was to be gained by false- 
 hood and nothing to be feared from sincerity, appears to me in- 
 credible." The next point for consideration in Nand Kumar's 
 accusation is this. Had that accusation, as was suggested, 
 brought Hastings into such straits that no escape was left him 
 but by murdering Nand Kumar by the help of Impey ? " Upon 
 this question," says Sir J. Stephen,* " the following matters are 
 to be considered. First, Hastings, upon the supposition of his 
 guilt, would not be saved by Nuncomar's death from the only 
 danger to which Nuncomar's charges exposed him, the danger, 
 namely, of being recalled in disgrace by the Directors, and being 
 saddled with a chancery suit for the payment of about £40,000 
 on his return home. ... The evidence of Nuncomar was already 
 given. The persons he had named might be interrogated. If 
 the Court of Directors attached weight to Nuncomar's evidence 
 it was not likely that his judicial murder, supposing it to be 
 successfully carried out, would lessen its weight. If they did not 
 attach weight to it there was no occasion to perform, or try to 
 perform, that most critical and difficult operation. Some con- 
 firmation is given to this by the circumstance that on the 27th 
 March, a fortnight after Nuncomar's accusation, Hastings wrote 
 to his agents in England, giving them (in a most irregular, 
 unbusiness-like form) authority to resign his office 'if the first 
 advices from England contain a disapprobation of the treaty of 
 Benares or of the Rohilla war, and mark an evident disinclination 
 towards me. ' A man was hardly likely to plan a judicial murder 
 
 * Pp. 74, 5. 
 O 
 
210 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 in order to avoid the possible loss of an office which he had 
 authorised his agent to resign upon a contingency unconnected 
 with the person to be murdered. On the other hand, it is to be 
 noticed that his authority was withdrawn, and that Hastings 
 announced his intention of staying where he was, on the ISth 
 May, Nuncomar having been committed for trial in the interval, 
 and being, as Hastings observes in his letter, ' in a fair way to be 
 hanged.' " Of this letter Sir J. Stephen adds in a footnote, " It 
 certainly shows that Hastings was pleased at Nuncomar's being 
 * in a fair way to be hanged ' ; but if he had been actually engaged 
 at the time in a conspiracy to murder him, he would hardly have 
 chuckled over the matter to his agents. I should have expected 
 him to avoid the topic. The tone of the letter is rather that of 
 a man who has met with a piece of unexpected good luck than 
 that of a murderer who has taken the rirst step towards the 
 execution of his design and sees its consummation — a doubtful 
 and dangerous process, drawing unpleasantly near." Burke and 
 Mill severely censured Hastings for stifling inquiry into Nand 
 Kumar's accusation, by refusing to allow his accuser to appear 
 before himself in Council in support of his charges. Hastings 
 naturally resented such an indignity, and to myself there scarcely 
 seems need for any serious argument. Sir J. Stephen, however, 
 and Mr. Forrest have thought it worth while to take up the point, 
 and I quote from the latter's admirable Introduction to his Ad- 
 ministration of Warren Hastings, published last year. " Even if 
 Nundcoomar had borne an unblemished character, Hastings would 
 have been justified in refusing to submit to the disgrace and 
 mortification of the head of a Government being accused in person 
 during the sitting of the Council over which he presided. Such 
 a procedure must have brought his office into contempt and injured 
 the dignity of station which a man has interest to preserve. It 
 moreover was unnecessary for the purpose either of eliciting 
 truth or of promoting justice. A Committee of inquiry, consisting 
 of the Council without Hastings, would have been equally 
 efficacious for these purposes. Hastings did not dispute the right 
 of his colleagues to make an inquiry into the charges of corruption 
 brought against him, nor did he, as Mill states, * raise any 
 pretences for stifling inquiry.' He only pointed out the mode of 
 conducting it which would be least injurious to the dignity and 
 authority of the Government. As Hastings wrote to the Directors 
 — ' Had the majority been disposed to accept of my proposition 
 of appointing a Committee for prosecuting their inquiries either 
 into these or the Ranny's allegations, they might have obtained 
 the same knowledge and all the satisfaction in this way that they 
 could have expected from an inquisition taken by the Board at 
 large, their proceedings would have had the appearance at least 
 of regularity, and my credit would have been less affected by 
 them. The only point which they could possibly gain by per- 
 
APPENDIX II. 211 
 
 sisting in bringing such a subject before the Board was to gain a 
 public triumph over me, and expose my place and person to 
 insult.' " 
 
 Of the two accusations brought against Nand Kumar the first 
 was a charge of conspiring with other persons to make false accu- 
 sations against Hastings and Barwell. It had its origin in certain 
 representations made to Hastings by one Kamal-ud-din who com- 
 plained that two Europeans, father and son, named Fowke, Nand 
 Kumar, and Radha Charan had compelled him by threats to sign 
 a document stating that he had bribed Hastings and Barwell, and 
 also had forced him to testify to the correctness of a certain 
 account. Hastings referred Kamal-ud-din to the Chief Justice, 
 and he with the other members of the Supreme Court, acting as 
 Justices of the Peace, investigated the complaint, summoning 
 Hastings and Barwell to be present. The younger Fowke was 
 discharged, and Hastings and Barwell were called upon to say 
 whether they would prosecute the others. This they bound 
 themselves over to do, and at the assizes all the defendants were 
 acquitted of the charge of conspiracy against Hastings ; Radha 
 Charan was acquitted, and Nand Kumar and the elder Fowke 
 were convicted, of conspiracy against Barwell. At this prosecu- 
 tion of their favourite and tool the majority in the Council were 
 fiercely indignant. They regarded it as a counterstroke to Nand 
 Kumar's attack on Hastings, as no doubt it was ; and, it may be 
 said, a perfectly fair counterstroke if Hastings believed Kamal- 
 ud-din's complaint to be true, as in all appearance it certainly 
 was. But their indignation would have been far less intense if it 
 had not been that a few days later a much more dangerous prose- 
 cution followed. This second attack was by them at once put 
 down to the instigation of Hastings, while others were persuaded 
 that the ostensible prosecutor would not have dared to resort to 
 it but for the encouragement afforded by the success which Hast- 
 ings had scored. The charge now brought forward was one of 
 forgery, the accuser an attorney named Mohan Prasad. For more 
 than two years Mohan Prasad had been trying to get hold of cer- 
 tain documents necessary to his case, which originally was a civil 
 suit against Nand Kumar for upwards of a lakh of rupees said to be 
 due to the estate of Mohan Prasad's principal, a banker named 
 Bulaqi Das. During the litigation, an imputation of forgery had 
 been cast upon Nand Kumar, and Mohan Prasad now determined 
 upon a criminal prosecution. But the long- desired documents 
 were still wanting, and it was not till many months later that, on 
 the establishment of the Supreme Court, they came into his posses- 
 sion. He at once carried out his intention ; Nand Kumar was 
 brought before the magistrates and committed for trial in the 
 ordinary course. The indictment consisted of twenty counts, all 
 of which had reference to the forging of a bond with intent to 
 defraud or to the publishing of a forged bond with the same 
 
212 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 intent. "The question in the case," says Sir J. Stephen, "was 
 whether the deed was really forged. There could he no question 
 that it was published, or that if it was a forgery Nuncomar knew 
 of it." The trial was held before the full bench of the Supreme 
 Court, consisting of the Chief Justice and three Puisne Judges, 
 not, as Macaulay unfairly states, before " Sir Elijah Impey." It 
 lasted for seven days, and the Judges were unanimous. The 
 prisoner was defended by the best talent then to be had in Cal- 
 cutta, the examination and cross-examination of witnesses were 
 minute and protracted, the attitude of the Court seems to have 
 inclined to leniency, and the verdict was that of an English jury. 
 Sir J. Stephen gives a full analysis of all the evidence, and Sir 
 E. Impey's summing-up in extenso. In regard to any collusion 
 between Hastings and the prosecutor, he points out that the 
 counsel for the defence from first to last "never suggested, either 
 directly or by a single question in cross-examination, that the 
 accusation against Nuncomar was a malicious prosecution got up 
 to silence the accuser of Hastings. Nothing could have been more 
 urgently to the purpose, nothing, if the fact were so, could be 
 more easy to prove. Mohun Persaud was not only the prosecutor, 
 but one of the principal witnesses for the prosecution. He was 
 recalled eight or nine times in the course of the trial. Nuncomar 
 (as I have already said) stated as the principal occasion of his 
 accusation of Hastings, the favour which he had shown to Mohun 
 Persaud. Questions asked with common skill might have brought 
 out Mohun Persaud's intimacy with Hastings, his knowledge of 
 Nuncomar's having accused Hastings of corruption, the fact (if it 
 was a fact), tnat he had held communication with Hastings on the 
 subject — in a word, anything which was known or suspected as to 
 the origin of the prosecution. Not a question of the sort was 
 asked, and surely this proves that Nuncomar and his attorney had 
 no definite knowledge or distinct suspicion on the subject ...Put- 
 ting all these matters* together," he concludes, "my own opinion 
 is that no man ever had, or could have, a fairer trial than Nun- 
 comar, and that Impey in particular behaved with absolute fair- 
 ness and as much indulgence as was compatible with his duty . . . 
 There is not a word in his summing-up of which I should have 
 been ashamed had I said it myself, and all my study of the case 
 has not suggested to me a single observation in Nuncomar's favour 
 which is not noticed by Impey. As to the verdict, I think that 
 there was ample evidence to support it. Whether it was in fact 
 correct is a point on which it is impossible for me to give an 
 unqualified opinion, as it is of course impossible now to judge 
 decidedly of the credit of witnesses, and as I do not understand 
 some part of the exhibits. "... In agreement with Sir J. Stephen's 
 verdict is the opinion of Sir A. Lyall, of whose candid impartiality 
 
 * Much to which Sir J. Stephen here refers has been necessarily omitted. 
 
APPENDIX II. 213 
 
 I have already spoken. "It may be accepted," he says, "upon 
 Sir James Stephen's authority, that no evidence can be produced 
 to justify conclusions adverse to the innocence of Hastings upon 
 a charge that has from its nature affected the popular tradition 
 regarding him far more deeply than the accusations of high- 
 handed oppressive political transactions, which are little under- 
 stood and leniently condemned by the English at large. There is 
 really nothing to prove that he had anything to do with the 
 prosecution, or that he influenced the sentence ; for the circum- 
 stances which have been strung together to support the belief in 
 his guilt are all reconcilable with a theory of his innocence." ... 
 So, too, with reference to Sir J. Stephen's work, Sir J. Strachey 
 remarks, ' ' One at least of the imaginary crimes to which I have 
 referred — the judicial murder of Nandkumar by Impey and Hast- 
 ings — will hardly again appear in sober history." To the same 
 effect write Captain Trotter and Mr. Forrest — all of whom have 
 had occasion to study the subject with care, and all of whom have 
 a wide and intimate knowledge of Indian character and Indian 
 life. 
 
 APPENDIX III. 
 
 THE IMPEACHMENT OF IMPEY. 
 
 Closely connected with the trial of Nand Kumar was the 
 impeachment of Impey. Stripped of all verbiage, the charges 
 on which this impeachment was based are, in Sir J. Stephen's 
 words, "first, that he acted illegally in trying Nand Kumar 
 at all : secondly, that he misconducted himself at the trial : 
 thirdly, that he conspired with Hastings to cause Nand Kumar 
 to be prosecuted on a capital charge : fourthly, that from a 
 corrupt wish to screen Hastings he refused to give Nand Kumar 
 leave to appeal, and refused to respite Nand Kumar." Five 
 other charges were stated against Impey. They will be noticed 
 hereafter ; but as not one of them was ever proceeded with, 
 it will be convenient to keep them separate. In Impey's behalf 
 it is especially important that every fact should be cleared up, 
 because Macaulay, while bitterly inveighing against Hastings, 
 has shown himself capable of fully appreciating his many great 
 qualities, and has, so to speak, allowed his statesmanlike 
 government as a set-off against his crimes ; whereas in regard 
 to Impey the bitterness, even intensified, stands out at every 
 point without being relieved by any admiration of services 
 
214 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 which, though less brilliant than those of Hastings, were 
 certainly meritorious. Macaulay never loses an opportunity 
 for sneers, imputations of unworthy motive, suggestions of 
 innate meanness. He goes out of the way, indeed, to imagine 
 to himself and to paint for his readers a portrait that has no 
 resemblance to what is really known of its original ; and in any 
 other writer but one of such genuine kindliness of heart the 
 animation and minuteness with which he fills in his damnatory 
 details might reasonably be ascribed to a personal animosity. 
 In justice therefore to a man whose memory has long suffered 
 undeserved obloquy, it will probably be forgiven if my review 
 of the case, founded on Sir J. Stephen's book, shall seem 
 somewhat tedious. The first charge against Impey is that he 
 acted illegally in trying Nand Kumar at all. Two preliminary 
 points half alleged, half insinuated, by Impey's prosecutors, 
 may be passed over with slight notice. The former is that 
 Impey ought to have quashed the indictment because "it was 
 considered" by some unknown and unmentioned persons "as 
 a political measure," and because circumstances existed which 
 * • could leave no doubt in the mind and opinion of any person 
 acquainted therewith" (which Impey was not alleged to be), 
 " that the said prosecution was set on foot with the view of 
 defeating the said accusation" (against Hastings). The latter 
 is that even if the law of England justified Impey's course, it 
 was so opposed to natural justice that he was a criminal for 
 putting it in force. In regard to the former objection "it is 
 enough to say that it assumes first — that judges ought to take 
 judicial notice of rumours imputing malicious motives to pro- 
 secutors ; secondly, that the fact (proved by such rumours) that 
 a prosecutor is actuated by a malicious motive establishes the 
 innocence of the person accused ; and thirdly, that if the judge 
 is convinced of the innocence of the accused by a rumour that 
 the prosecutor is malicious, it becomes the judge's duty to 
 'quash the indictment,' by which I suppose the author of the 
 charge meant to prevent the case from being tried, for the 
 quashing of one indictment does not interfere with the pre- 
 sentment of another for the same offence." In regard to the 
 latter, "To punish a judge for enforcing a bad law implies a 
 right and duty on the part of the judge to decide whether the 
 law is good or not ; and this puts the judge above the legis- 
 lature."* The second charge was that the criminal law of 
 England as regards forgery was not in force as part of the 
 law administered by the Supreme Court, or not in force at the 
 time when the forgery in question was supposed to be com- 
 mitted. Impey's contention in his defence was that as regards 
 Calcutta it was in force at the date on which the bond was 
 
 * The Story of Runcomar, ii. 16, 7. 
 
APPENDIX lit. 215 
 
 uttered. The question is too technical, and too much encum- 
 bered with legal rulings, for any discussion here. Sir J. 
 Stephen, who sets forth the arguments on both sides, says, 
 "Upon fully considering all these matters, I think that as a 
 matter of legal theory Impey's view was, to say the least, 
 defensible. It was certainly inconsistent with later decisions, 
 but if it is regarded as being on that account wrong, I think 
 that the mistake into which the Court fell was innocent and 
 in good faith." "It must, however," he adds, "be said that 
 in a doubtful and novel matter of this sort the Court would 
 have acted wisely in saying that an indictment for the forgery 
 as a misdemeanour at common law would be the proper course 
 to take. A conviction upon such an indictment would have 
 been followed by fine and imprisonment to any extent which 
 the Court thought proper, and this would, I think, have been 
 under all the circumstances a punishment sufficient for the 
 ends of justice." ... It should, however, be pointed out that if 
 Impey's opinion was wrong, his brother judges were equally to 
 blame, and that neither they nor the counsel for the defence 
 raised the question as to the date at which English law was 
 introduced into Calcutta, the only point mooted being that of 
 Chambers as to the suitability of the English law of forgery 
 for Calcutta. The next charge against Impey was that he 
 summed up with " scandalous partiality " and manifested great 
 anxiety to secure Nand Kumar's conviction. This question 
 has already been dealt with and Sir J. Stephen's view of the 
 case given. The third charge was that of a conspiracy between 
 Hastings and Impey to cause Nand Kumar to be tried and 
 convicted on a capital charge. As regards Hastings. It was 
 not pretended that there was any distinct proof of this con- 
 spiracy, nor even directly alleged in the articles of charge 
 that such a conspiracy ever existed. The allegation made 
 was that there was ground for a suspicion of conspiracy in 
 the interest of Hastings in getting rid of Nand Kumar, and in 
 the coincidence in point of time between the accusation of 
 Hastings by Nand Kumar and that of Nand Kumar by Mohan 
 Prasad. So vague a suspicion would probably have long since 
 passed from the minds of all dispassionate persons if it had 
 not been for one circumstance of which Macaulay has made 
 so much. "Hastings," he says, "three or four years later 
 described Impey as the man to whose support he was at one 
 time indebted for the safety of his * fortune, honour, and 
 reputation.' These strong words can refer only to the case 
 of Nuncomar, and they must mean that Impey hanged Nun- 
 comar in order to support Hastings." On this Sir J. Stephen 
 remarks,* " The argument founded on this letter appears to 
 
 * ii. pp. 44, 5. 
 
216 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 me to be worthless. The exact date of the letter is not given 
 by Mr. Gleig, but it must have been written in 1780, at the 
 height of the contest between the Governor-General and 
 Council and the Supreme Court to which it relates. ... It is 
 remarkable that a passage to the same effect appears in a 
 letter from Impey to Dunning in March, 1780. Impey says, 
 ' The power which is exerted against me would not have 
 existed in the hands in which it is if I had not helped to keep 
 it there, and it was used against me at the time when I was 
 living, in all appearance, in the utmost confidence of familiarity 
 with the possessor of it.'... Is this the language of two mur- 
 derers about each other? Would one such wretch look back 
 with affectionate regret to the happy time when by the hand 
 of the other he assassinated their common victim ? ... If there 
 was such a bond of infamy between two men, each would shun 
 all reference to it, especially to a third person, as he would 
 shun the avowal even to himself of any other abominable and 
 horrible crime. Macaulay's supposition is not only revolting 
 and improbable, but also quite unnecessary. Each of these 
 passages, to my mind, obviously refers to the support 
 given to Hastings by Impey and the rest of the judges, 
 when Clavering tried to dispossess Hastings from the office of 
 Governor-General, in the summer of 1777, in the manner related 
 by Macaulay himself, and when Hastings was secured in his 
 office entirely by the view taken of the case by the judges to 
 whom the rival claims of the parties were referred." Admitting 
 the probability of this explanation, Sir A. Lyall observes,* " But 
 the words certainly read more like a reference to some confidential 
 transaction than to such a public and formal proceeding as the 
 Court's finding upon a case submitted for opinion." I do not 
 myself see why the reference should be to a ' ' confidential transac- 
 tion." At the same time, there lurks something suspicious in 
 the words "honour and reputation." Hastings would no doubt 
 have been ruined in * ■ fortune " had the judges decided against 
 him. But in what way would his * ■ honour and reputation " 
 have suffered? Possibly — an alternative suggested by Sir A. 
 Lyall — Hastings might have alluded to Impey's support in the 
 matter of Nand Kumar if it had been given without any collusion 
 or private understanding. To return to Impey. If the evidence 
 of conspiracy is, as regards Hastings, without any solid founda- 
 tion, as regards Impey the facts are all against it. For "the 
 argument assumes that Impey had something to do with the 
 early steps in the case, and so with the time when the case was 
 brought before him. This is contrary to the fact. Whatever 
 wickedness is imputed to Impey, he could not interfere with the 
 time when the prosecution began. His opportunity of miscon- 
 
 * Warren Heatings, p, 59. 
 
APPENDIX IIL 217 
 
 ducting himself would not arise till the prisoner was brought 
 before him by others. He was not even the committing magistrate. 
 Nuncomar was committed by Hyde and Lemaistre, who could not, 
 when Mohun Persaud swore an information before them, refuse 
 to proceed, or, if they thought it a case for committal, to commit. 
 When Nuncomar was committed, his trial at the next session 
 was a matter of course, over which none of the judges had any 
 
 influence whatever These considerations are enough to show 
 
 that even if the coincidence in time between the two accusations 
 were unexplained it would prove nothing against either Hastings 
 or Impey, but it was explained by the evidence of Boughton 
 Rose and Farrer already referred to ... In particular Farrer proved 
 that the prosecution of Nuncomar for forgery had been determined 
 on long before Nuncomar accused Hastings of corruption, and 
 explained the circumstances which led to the warrant not being 
 issued till May, 1775. It must have been issued within a very 
 few days after the forged deed was procured by the solicitor 
 of the prosecutor, and it could not have been issued before. 
 For these reasons it appears to me that there was absolutely 
 no evidence that there was any conspiracy between Hastings 
 and Impey in reference to Nuncomar's trial."* The last of this 
 group of charges is that Impey refused to respite Nand Kumar. 
 Macaulay's remarks on this point will be found on p. 41, 2, 
 and "That Impey ought to have respited Nuncomar... mercy or 
 delay," and on p. 44, 11. 14-27, "Of Impey's conduct... to serve a 
 political purpose." With reference to those remarks the first 
 point to be borne in mind is that if the refusal to respite 
 was wrong, all the four judges were equally to blame. Alone 
 Impey had no such power. As to mercy, there is no evidence 
 that Impey "would not hear of it" ; as to delay, there was 
 an interval of six weeks between conviction and execution. 
 Whether the whole Court were wrong, can only be a matter 
 of opinion. They had a discretionary power which they did 
 not think fit to exercise for Nand Kumar's benefit. To impute 
 motives is easy enough, but if they are to be imputed " we 
 must either say that all four had motives for what they did, 
 other than a wish to screen Hastings, or else that all four 
 corruptly determined to withhold a reprieve in order to screen 
 Hastings. To say that three were actuated by other motives 
 and one by a desire to screen Hastings is to make an assump- 
 tion as gratuitous as it is unjust." Moreover, Sir J. Stephen 
 points out, the execution of Nand Kumar was not necessary 
 to save Hastings. Had the Court respited him and recom- 
 mended imprisonment for a term of years, with a heavy fine, 
 Hastings would have been protected as effectually as by his 
 death. Sir J. Stephen goes on to show that nearly all the 
 
 * The Story of Nuncomar, ii. 41, 2. 
 
218 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 statements made by Macaulay in the former of these two 
 paragraphs were incorrect, and finally sums up on the whole 
 story from the accusation brought against Hastings down to 
 the execution of his accuser. This summing up is in the main 
 a recapitulation of conclusions already stated in following out 
 the different points seriatim, and want of space prevents my 
 giving it in full length. One small matter remains as regards 
 the refusal of the Court to respite Nand Kumar. This refusal 
 need not have been final, for the majority of the Council had 
 it in their power to ensure a reprieve by addressing the 
 Supreme Court on the subject. This they declined to do, and 
 they, much rather than Hastings or the Supreme Court, are 
 answerable for Nand Kumar's death. 
 
 It has already been mentioned that besides the charges 
 against Impey which have now been considered, there were 
 five other charges which, though not proceeded with, were 
 originally a part of Impey's impeachment. These charges were, 
 first, that Impey had misconducted himself in a cause known 
 as the Patna Cause ; secondly, that he had unwarrantably and 
 for corrupt purposes of his own extended the jurisdiction of 
 the Supreme Court ; thirdly, that he had misconducted him- 
 self in a cause called the Kasijura Cause ; fourthly, that he 
 had corruptly accepted the office of Judge of the Sadr Diwani 
 Adalat ; fifthly, that he had corruptly abetted Hastings in 
 certain proceedings for which Hastings was then under im- 
 peachment, by improperly taking affidavits intended for his 
 justification. With the first three of these charges we have 
 nothing to do since no reference is made to them in Mac- 
 aulay 's essay. Out of the fourth and fifth, however, Macaulay 
 has framed a powerful indictment against both Hastings and 
 Impey. That this indictment has no basis in truth I shall 
 endeavour to show. For this purpose I shall first quote Sir 
 A. LyalPs succinct statement of the circumstances which led 
 up to the appointment of Impey as Judge of the Sadr Diwani 
 Adalat, and then, with Sir J. Stephen's help expose the 
 fallacies of Macaulay's diatribe. 
 
 " It should here be mentioned," says Sir A. Lyall,* "that in 1779 
 the dissensions between the Court and the Council in Calcutta had 
 risen to the degree of actual collision between the two authorities ; 
 that in this quarrel Hastings had made common cause with Francis 
 against the judges, and that he had consequently broken off his alliance 
 with Impey, who much lamented this rupture of their personal friend- 
 ship and reciprocal understanding upon public affairs. The Governor- 
 General in Council had published a proclamation authorising disregard 
 of the Court's process, and had supported it by an armed force. The 
 Court issued warrants for apprehending the Company's soldiers ; and 
 summonses on a plea of trespass were served on the Governor-General 
 
 * Warren Hastings, pp. 113-110. 
 
APPENDIX lit 219 
 
 and his Council, which they refused to obey ... The Governor- General 
 in Council accused the judges of arrogating to themselves the right to 
 review the orders and proceedings of executive officers, and of the 
 provincial councils which disposed of the revenue and judicial business 
 in all the districts. The judges retorted that the government expected 
 to indulge their subordinates with impunity in mere lawlessness and 
 licentious oppression ... Sir James Stephen has decided that the 
 Court was on the whole less to blame than the Company's officers ; 
 and he discovers the real offenders in the authors of the clumsy and 
 ill-drawn Regulating Act of 1773, which bestowed powers without 
 circumscribing the jurisdictions, and which purposely left uncertain 
 the supreme jurisdiction, that is to say, the sovereignty of the country. 
 However this may be, the judges had so roughly handled the district 
 courts of justice, which were presided over by the revenue officers of 
 the Company, that Hastings saw the necessity of establishing separate 
 civil courts ; and these courts were soon found to require proper 
 judicial superintendence. There had for a long time existed a central 
 court of appeal in civil suits, called the Sudder Diwdni Addlat, whose 
 powers had since 1773 been vested in the Governor-General in Council, 
 but had never been exercised in any regular manner. Hastings con- 
 ceived the luminous idea of transferring these powers, with a salary 
 of £6000 yearly, to the Chief -Justice ; and six weeks after the duel he 
 announced his project in Council, stating, what was perfectly true, 
 that the civil courts urgently needed the supervision and direction of 
 a trained expert, ... The office and salary were to be held during the 
 pleasure of the Governor- General in Council. The measure was at 
 once politic, practical, and effective ; it terminated by a master-stroke 
 the conflict of jurisdictions ; it disarmed and conciliated the Chief- 
 Justice ; and it undoubtedly placed the country courts, which had 
 been dispensing a very haphazard and intuitive kind of justice, for the 
 first time under a person who could guide and control them upon 
 recognized principles ... Impey accepted the salary subject to refund 
 if the arrangement should be disallowed at home ; and he appears to 
 have undertaken the duties in an honourable spirit. Any question as 
 to the morality of this transaction touches Impey rather than 
 Hastings ; for even if Impey be held guilty of having compounded his 
 controversy with the government by accepting a lucrative appointment, 
 3 7 et the plan of uniting the Chief-Justiceship with the superintendency 
 of the district courts, taken on its merits, was a good and practical 
 remedy of existing evils." ... 
 
 Sir James Stephen's history of the subject is probably the basis 
 of Sir A. Lyall's resume, but it is too long and intricate to be 
 followed here. His criticism of Macaulay* I give almost in 
 full. 
 
 " Macaulay's account of the quarrel between the Court and the 
 Council deserves to be carefully noticed. It supplies a strong instance 
 of the danger of breaking down the boundary between history and 
 romance ... It is a gloomy picture of horrible oppression, causeless, 
 purposeless, mysterious, and yet so tremendous that it almost justified 
 
 * The Story of Nuncomar, ii. 247-255. 
 
220 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 the course taken by Hastings of buying off by an enormous bribe the 
 infamous tyrant by whom it was carried on. The objection to it is 
 that it is absolutely false from end to end, and in almost every par- 
 ticular, as the following instances will show. After stating truly that 
 arrest on mesne process was the first step in most civil proceedings, he 
 expatiates on its abuses. He says at great length that to a native 
 woman of rank it is an intolerable outrage that her apartment should 
 be entered by strange men. He then adds : * To these outrages the 
 most distinguished families of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, were now 
 exposed'; and he says that the effect of the attempt which the 
 * Supreme Court made to extend its jurisdiction over the whole of the 
 Company's territories ' was like an attempt in England to empower 
 any one by merely swearing that a debt was due to him, to horsewhip 
 a general officer, to put a bishop in the stocks, to treat ladies in the 
 way which called forth the blow of Wat Tyler.' He then goes on as 
 follows: 'A reign of terror began, of terror heightened by mystery, 
 for even what was endured was less horrible than what was anticipated. 
 No man knew what was next to be anticipated from this strange 
 tribunal. It came from beyond the black water as the people of India 
 with a mysterious horror call the sea. It consisted of judges, not one 
 of whom was familiar with the ways of the millions over whom 
 they claimed boundless authority. Its records were kept in un- 
 known characters. Its sentences were pronounced in unknown 
 words.' The general answer to all this is that the Supreme Court 
 never did claim any such general jurisdiction as is alleged. Practically, 
 the most important of its claims was jurisdiction over the collectors of 
 the revenue and officers of the Provincial Courts, as being servants to 
 the Company ... The nature of the jurisdiction claimed by the Court 
 protected women from being sued before it. They could not be 
 servants to the Company. The only writ against a woman was the 
 writ against Naderah Begum, and that was in the Provincial Court at 
 Patna, and not in the Supreme Court. How far zenanas were 
 incidentally trespassed upon, I will examine immediately. To pass to 
 the details. What sense is there in the language about the black 
 water and the strange characters? Did not Hastings and the East 
 India Company come from beyond the sea as well as the judges? 
 Were not most of the records of the Company kept, and most of their 
 orders given, in English, like those of the Supreme Court ? When and 
 where did the Supreme Court claim boundless authority over the 
 natives? Its claims were quite distinct, but they cannot be stated in 
 a picturesque way. ' No Mahratta invasion had ever spread through 
 the province such dismay as this inroad of English lawyers. All the 
 injustice of former oppressors, Asiatic and European, appeared as a 
 blessing when compared with the justice of the Supreme Court.' In 
 1779 the Mahrattas had been kept out of Bengal for a considerable 
 time, but* from 1742 to 1750 'these merciless hordes of miscreants 
 devastated the country to the southward of the Ganges from October 
 till June to extort their " chout." One incident of these invasions may 
 be mentioned to show how far Macaulay's statement is just. The 
 then Nabob Aliverdy Khan treacherously murdered many of their 
 chiefs. Thereupon the Mahratta army wreaked their vengeance upon 
 
 ♦Talboys' Wheeler, p. 267. 
 
APPENDIX IIL 221 
 
 the unoffending inhabitants. They ravaged the country with fire and 
 sword, cutting off ears, noses, and hands, and committing countless 
 barbarities in the search of spoil. The wretched Bengalis fled in 
 shoals across the Ganges to take refuge or perchance to perish in the 
 hills and jungles to the northward of the river. ' What did the Supreme 
 Court ever do remotely comparable to this ? How many imprisonments 
 on mesne process would it take to create more terror than the 
 mutilation, torture, and robbery of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of 
 innocent peasants ? To come to something more specific. * There were 
 instances in which men of the most venerable dignity, persecuted with- 
 out a cause by extortioners, died of rage and shame in the gripe of the 
 vile alguazils of Impey.' The only matter to which this can refer is 
 the case of Cazi Sadhi. He was one of the defendants in the Patna 
 Cause, and was taken in execution after bail had been given for him 
 by the Company. He died on a boat on the Ganges on his way to 
 Calcutta whilst under a guard of Sepoys. He may have been hardly 
 dealt with, but to say that he was persecuted by extortioners without 
 a cause is to allege that the judgment in the Patna case was wrong, 
 and of this judgment Macaulay takes no notice at all. The Cazi was 
 sued for gross oppression and corruption, which the Court upon an 
 elaborate inquiry thought he had committed. Macaulay does not 
 suggest that there was even a question on the subject. ... At all events 
 the Sepoys who had charge of the boat in which the Cazi died were 
 not the 'vile alguazils of Impey,' or officers of the Supreme Court at 
 all. They were a guard put over him by the Dacca Council, which 
 had given bail for him, and which was specially directed to treat him 
 as might be, which it was anxious to do ... This indefinite way of 
 writing * there were instances' is singularly unfair and inaccurate. 
 Here is another instance of it : — 'The harems of noble Mohammedans, 
 sanctuaries respected in the East by governments which respected 
 nothing else, were burst open by gangs of bailiffs, and there were 
 instances in which they shed their blood in the doorway while defend- 
 ing, sword in hand, the sacred apartments of their women.' I have 
 carefully gone through the whole of the evidence in the report and 
 appendices referred to, in order to test the truth of these eloquent 
 generalities, and I find as follows : — There was one instance in which 
 one Mohammedan of some rank thought that his friend's zenana was 
 likely to be broken open, and stood in the doorway sword in hand to 
 defend it. The house, not the zenana, was broken open, and a fray 
 took place in it, in which the father of the Mohammedan in question 
 was endangered. The son left his position in the passage to the 
 zenana, took part in the fray, and was hurt. It does not appear that 
 the zenana was broken open, or that any attempt to do so was made. 
 There is some though not much foundation for the introductory part 
 of the statement. One zenana was broken into by a bailiff, and a 
 slave girl was wounded, and the Advocate-General suggested that the 
 matter should be laid before the Court, which would, if applied to, 
 punish the bailiff. The Rajah of Cossijurah's zenana is said to have 
 been entered, but no detail is given. Upon these three cases, and no 
 other materials which I can discover, is founded all the eloquence 
 about Wat Tyler, a reign of terror, and the cruel humiliation of all 
 the nobility of Bengal. This way of generalising particular incidents 
 is bad enough, but the following passage is, I think worse. 'The 
 
222 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 Government placed itself firmly between the tyrannical tribunal and 
 the people. The Chief-Justice proceeded to the wildest excesses. 
 The Governor-General and all the members of Council were served 
 with writs calling upon them to appear before the King's justices and 
 to answer for their public acts. This was too much. Hastings, with 
 just scorn, refused to obey the call, set at liberty the persons wrong- 
 fully detained by the Court, and took measures for resisting the out- 
 rageous proceedings of the sheriffs' officers, if necessary, by the sword.' 
 This passage implies that Impey individually caused the Governor 
 and the members of Council to be ' served with writs.' Neither Impey 
 nor the Supreme Court did anything of the kind. They expressly 
 refused to issue an attachment against the Governor or the Councillors, 
 because they were by the Regulating Act exempt from the criminal 
 jurisdiction of the Court. The writs with which Hastings and the 
 Council were served were writs issued by Cossinauth, the plaintiff in 
 the action against the Rajah of Cossijurah, for preventing him by 
 armed force from compelling the Rajah's appearance. Neither Impey 
 nor the Court had any right to refuse to issue a writ on such a claim. 
 ... It is not true that any one arrested by the Court justly or not, in 
 this matter was set at liberty by the Council. One person only — Nay lor, 
 the Rajah of Cossijurah's attorney — was imprisoned, and that was for 
 contempt in not answering interrogatories. The Council never set 
 him at liberty. They authorised him to answer the interrogatories in 
 order to regain his liberty. The climax of injustice is, I think, reached 
 in the passage which follows the one just noticed. After saying that 
 Hastings 'took measures for resisting the outrageous proceedings of 
 the sheriffs' officers, if necessary by the sword,' Macaulay adds : ' But 
 he had in view another device, which might prevent the necessity of 
 an appeal to arms. He was seldom at a loss for an expedient, and he 
 knew Impey well. The expedient in this case was a very simple one 
 — neither more nor less than a bribe. Impey was by Act of Parlia- 
 ment a judge independent of the Government of Bengal, and entitled 
 to a salary of 8,000Z. a year. Hastings proposed to make him also a 
 judge in the Company's service, and to give him in that capacity about 
 8,000?. a year more. It was understood that in consequence of this 
 new salary Impey would desist from urging the high pretensions 
 of his Court. If he did urge those pretensions, the Government 
 could at a moment's notice eject him from the office which had been 
 created for him. The bargain was struck ; Bengal was saved ; an 
 appeal to force was averted. The Chief Justice was rich, quiet, and 
 infamous?' This charge is inconsistent with the dates, and asserts 
 imaginary facts. No appeal to force was averted. On the contrary, 
 such an appeal was made. The sheriff's officers actually were resisted 
 and taken prisoners by two companies of sepoys in January, 1780. 
 Impey never did desist from urging the high pretensions of the Court. 
 The Council, by military force, restrained the jurisdiction of the 
 Court, and by a proclamation to all the natives informed them that 
 they were at liberty to set its process at defiance. No bargain was 
 struck. The Council and the Court respectively had done their very 
 worst by each other nine months at least before any sort of offer was 
 or could be made to Impey. Moreover, the Court was powerless to do 
 anything unless it was set in motion by a suitor, but after the course 
 taken in the Cossijurah Cause, who would venture to sue any one 
 
APPENDIX III. 223 
 
 whom the Council had taken under its protection? The plaintiff 
 could not serve his writ. He could not execute his judgment if he got 
 one. Nor was any redress to be had against the individuals by whom 
 he was prevented from exercising his legal rights. The Governor- 
 General and his Council had committed themselves to a forcible 
 resistance to any attempt to make themselves or their inferior agents 
 liable in damages to any one who suffered by their interference. This 
 conduct was persisted in, and was never modified in the smallest 
 degree. In that state of things it is difficult to see what the Court 
 had to give for which it was worth the Council's while to offer a bribe. 
 Hastings wanted nothing from Impey. There was nothing to be got 
 from him except an admission that the Council had been right in their 
 difference and the Court wrong, and this Hastings did not ask for, did 
 not get, and did not want. If he had got it, it would have been 
 
 The last charge in the impeachment of Impey, and one on 
 which Macaulay hangs some of his bitterest reproaches, relates 
 to the taking of certain affidavits. Macaulay's words are : — 
 
 " But we must not forget to do justice to Sir Elijah Impey 's conduct 
 on this occasion. It was not indeed easy for him to intrude himself 
 into a business so entirely alien from all his official duties. But there 
 was something inexpressibly alluring, we must suppose, in the peculiar 
 rankness of the infamy which was then to be got at Lucknow. He 
 hurried thither as fast as relays of palanquin-bearers could carry him. 
 A crowd of people came before him with affidavits against the Begums, 
 ready drawn in their hands. Those affidavits he did not read. Some 
 of them indeed he could not read ; for they were in the dialects of 
 Northern India, and no interpreter was employed. He administered 
 the oath to the deponents with all possible expedition, and asked not 
 a single question, not even whether they had perused the statements 
 to which they swore. This work performed, he got again into his 
 palanquin and posted back to Calcutta, to be in time for the opening 
 of term. The cause was one which, by his own confession, lay alto- 
 gether out of his jurisdiction. Under the charter of justice, he had 
 no more right to enquire into crimes committed by Asiatics in Oude 
 than the Lord President of the Court of Session in Scotland to hold 
 an assize at Exeter. He had no right to try the Begums, nor did he 
 pretend to try them. With what object then, did he undertake so 
 long a journey ? Evidently in order that he might give, in an irregular 
 manner, that sanction which in a regular manner he could not give, to 
 the crimes of those who had recently hired him ; and in order that a 
 confused mass of testimony which he did not sift, which he did not 
 even read, might acquire an authority not properly belonging to it, 
 from the signature of the highest judicial functionary in India." 
 
 Now from Macaulay's account it would be implied that Impey 
 volunteered his assistance, and came all the way from Calcutta 
 to give it. Neither is the fact. Impey was on a tour of inspec- 
 tion of the provincial Courts and had reached Manghir when he 
 received from Hastings several letters pressing him to come up 
 to Benares, where Hastings then was. Impey understood that 
 
224 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 Hastings wished for his presence on account of the difficulties 
 in which he was then involved. He accordingly hastened to 
 Chunar, whither Hastings had retreated. On his arrival he was 
 consulted by the Governor- General as to the narrative of the 
 Benares affair which he was then writing, and the facts of which 
 he was anxious to have properly authenticated. Impey suggested 
 affidavits, and at the request of Hastings proceeded to Lucknow 
 to take them. It is not true that "a crowd of natives came 
 before him with affidavits against the Begums, ready drawn in 
 their hands." Of the forty-three affidavits presented, ten only 
 mentioned the Begums, and those only slightly and incidentally. 
 It is true that, as Macaulay says, Impey did not read them. But 
 Macaulay's complaint on this point only shows ignorance of law. 
 Sir J. Stephen* points out that "in the common course of 
 business when an affidavit is sworn, even in a judicial proceed- 
 ing, the person before whom it is sworn never knows its contents. 
 He has as little to do with it as the attesting witness of a will or 
 deed has to do with the contents of the document which he attests. 
 To blame a man for swearing an affidavit in a language of which 
 the person before whom it is sworn is ignorant, is as absurd as to 
 blame a man for witnessing a will written in a language which he 
 does not know. All that the judge or commissioner has to do is 
 to satisfy himself that the deponent swears that the contents of 
 his affidavit, whatever they may be, are true. All that he need 
 know of the deponent's language is enough of it to ask him if the 
 matter of his affidavit is true and to give him the oath. " It has 
 been proved that Impey knew much more Persian and Hindustani 
 than was necessary for this purpose, and he declared in his evi- 
 dence on the subject that he did ask the nineteen deponents to 
 the Persian affidavits whether the contents of their affidavits were 
 true. If Macaulay had to characterize in another his own remark 
 that Impey could not read some of the affidavits "because they 
 were in the dialects of northern India and no interpreter was 
 employed," we should, I think have had some very trenchant 
 language. Sir J. Stephen deals very gently with the matter when 
 he says, "All the affidavits were in English except nineteen in 
 Persian, one Persian translation of a Hindustani original, and one 
 in French. Not one was in any 'dialect of upper India.' This 
 assertion is remarkable, because it is an error upon an error. In 
 his original review Macaulay said, * the greater part (of the affi- 
 davits) indeed he could not read, for they were in Persian and 
 Hindustani. ' On learning from Mr. Macf arlane's work that Impey 
 knew Persian, the passage was altered to the incorrect form in 
 which I have quoted it, a false premiss being substituted for one 
 which was half true, in order to suggest a conclusion wholly false 
 — namely, that Impey was unable to read the affidavits. " Impey's 
 
 * The Story of Nuncomar, etc., ii. 265-7. 
 
APPENDIX III. 225 
 
 action in the matter may have shown an undue eagerness to serve 
 an old friend. But it may also have been due, as he himself 
 asserted, to public spirit ; and the circumstances in which Eng- 
 lishmen in India were situated at that period were very different 
 from those as we know them now. Even if Impey be thought 
 somewhat officious in the matter, it must be borne in mind that 
 in those times "the taking of voluntary affidavits, not in any 
 judicial proceedings, but for the purpose of attesting matters of 
 fact which any one wished to authenticate was very common. 
 Impey 's act ... had no greater and no less legal significance than 
 his asking the deponents whether what they said was true would 
 have had. As far as the law went any private person might have 
 administered the oath as well as he. His office and dignity no 
 doubt put on record the fact that the oath was taken with more 
 emphasis than Middleton or Hannay could have given to it, but 
 an affidavit on such a matter sworn by either of them would be 
 legally neither better nor worse than one sworn before Impey. I 
 think indeed that the mere taking of the affidavits would not 
 have been charged against him as an offence if it had not been 
 regarded as an overt act of a conspiracy between him and Hast- 
 ings to plunder the Begums." 
 
 I have now gone through all the controversial matters which 
 were too long to be discussed in my Notes. But fully as I have 
 endeavoured to set them forth in the limits allowed me, I am well 
 aware that I have done very imperfect justice to the narratives of 
 Sir John Strachey and Sir James Stephen. The work of the former 
 is, however, an octavo volume of three hundred and more pages, 
 while that of the latter extends to nearly six hundred pages of a 
 not much smaller size. With such abundance of material before 
 me — all of it thoroughly germane to the matter — it has been by 
 no means easy to pick out what was most essential to my purpose, 
 and it is quite possible that in other hands the work of selection 
 would have been made with greater judgment. 
 
 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 THE RISE GROWTH, AND DECLINE OF THE 
 marAtha POWERS. 
 
 In Macaulay's Essays on Clive and Hastings mention of the 
 Marathas is necessarily frequent, and it will probably be con- 
 venient to students to have some connected narrative of the part 
 they have played in Indian history. The following brief sketch, 
 taken in the main from Mr. H. G. Keene's monograph on Mad- 
 
226 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 hava Rao Sindhia and Sir A. Lyall's history of the Rise of British 
 Dominion in India, will, I hope, enable them to follow the for- 
 tunes of this race, more especially in regard to its points of con- 
 tact with the British power. 
 
 Maharashtra, a tract of country bounded on the west by the 
 ocean, on the north by the Narbada, on the east by the Wain- 
 ganga, and on the south by the Krishna rivers, was a Hindu 
 kingdom in very early times, with its capital at Kalyan, near the 
 modern city of Bombay. The name Marhat for its inhabitants 
 occurs in the history of Muhammad Tughlak in the fourteenth 
 century, and shortly afterwards we find mention of them in con- 
 nection with the Musalman kingdom of Bijapur, where they were 
 known as light cavalry, and seem to have taught the* Bijapur 
 Musalmans that system of guerilla warfare to which the kingdom 
 owed its ability to resist its enemies for nearly two hundred 
 years. But the growth of this extraordinary race dates from the 
 reign of the Emperor Shah Jahan, and the period which will be 
 dealt with in this sketch extends only from about 1650 to 1818. 
 Shah Jahan's efforts to overthrow the Bijapur dynasty brought 
 about the first troubles. At that time the nominal ruler of Bija- 
 pur was a minor, and the regency was held by a Maratha captain, 
 Shahji Bhonsla. Shahji resisted Shah Jahan's attempts, and 
 from this period the Marathas began to assert themselves as 
 a distinct power. Their activity was first shown in raids upon 
 immediate neighbours, but these were mere spasmodic acts of 
 plunder directed by no systematic policy. When, however, 
 the Muslim power in the Dakhan began to crumble to pieces 
 they adopted wider aims, and fully organized the practice of 
 levying contributions on the subjects of other states, till at 
 last their incursions came to spread over almost the whole 
 peninsula. It was not territorial power, at all events until a 
 much later period, that they desired. The elaborate require- 
 ments of ordered rule they gladly left to others, so long as a 
 descent upon fertile provinces and rich hoards gave them booty 
 to be squandered in reckless enjoyment, and means for the sub- 
 sistence of an ever increasing host of free lances. The black-mail 
 they modestly exacted was twenty-five per cent, of the revenue 
 of the invaded territory, and so merciless was their style of war- 
 fare, and so swift and irresistible their swoop, that for the most 
 part no serious effort was made to escape their exactions. The 
 germs of an organization, which in its development made the 
 Marathas the most formidable power the English later on had 
 to reckon with, were planted by Shahji's son Sivaji, who raised 
 a regularly paid army, possessed himself of forts, and finally 
 assumed the functions and insignia of a king. So large a stride 
 towards consolidation was made under his rule that at the death 
 of Aurangzeb, or shortly afterwards, the civil administration of 
 the Hindus in Maharashtra had developed into a w r ell-knit 
 
APPENDIX IV. 227 
 
 power. Under the Raja, its nominal head, was a council of 
 eight, whose president bore the title of Peshwa. The first of 
 these Peshwas was Balaji Viswanath, who had entered the 
 service of Sahu, Sivaji's grandson. By his conspicuous business 
 abilities he shortly became the most important person in the 
 government, and vigorously addressed himself to the task of 
 confirming order and a settled system of rule in Maharashtra. 
 The right to levy chauth in the six imperial provinces of the 
 Dakhan had been formally ceded to Sahu in 1709. This con- 
 cession was confirmed to Balaji, and in return the Raja of 
 Maharashtra was bound to pay a fixed annual cess to the imperial 
 treasury, and to provide the emperor with a specified force of 
 Marathas whenever called upon to do so. The Raja was in fact 
 to be nominally a vassal of the emperor, but the compact gave to 
 Balaji's schemes a firmness of foundation they had hitherto lacked. 
 In the midst of his efforts at consolidation of power, Balaji died 
 in 1720, and was succeeded by his son, Baji Rao, a man even more 
 remarkable than his father, and with wider range of ambition. 
 He aimed, indeed, at supreme power in Hindustan, entered into 
 a long war with the Nizam-ul-mulk in the south, made himself 
 master of the rich provinces of Malwa and Orissa, and attempted 
 the conquest of the Karnatak. He also contrived to acquire for 
 his descendants the office of Peshwa as an hereditary dignity, 
 and the leadership of the Maratha confederation which was 
 shortly to branch out in four principal chief ships, that of the 
 Bhonsla Raja in Berar, the Gaekwar in Baroda, Holkar in the 
 south of Malwa, and Sindhia in the north-east of the same pro- 
 vince. But a severe reverse was in store for the Marathas. Success 
 had tempted them too far ; for the Mughal power being shat- 
 tered, and Ahmad the Abdali having retired to Afghanistan with 
 his plunder of Dehli and the Pan jab, Raghunath Rao, brother of 
 Baji Rao, supported by the contingents of Sindhia and Holkar, 
 marched northward, seized Dehli, pushed on to Lahore, drove 
 out the governor left by Ahmad, and substituted a Maratha 
 administration in the Panjab. This insolence was too much for 
 Ahmad. In the winter of 1759-60 he came sweeping down into 
 the Panjab, retook Lahore, drove the Marathas out of the north- 
 ern country, and defeated Holkar and Sindhia with heavy loss. 
 The Peshwa despatched from Puna a large force to repair these 
 disasters, and in January, 1761, the Afghans with their Musal- 
 man allies met the Marathas on the field of Panipat. The result 
 was a decisive victory for the Afghans, and the Marathas were 
 for the time swept out of Northern India. The defeat was a 
 crushing blow to Baji Rao, and he died in the following June of 
 a broken heart. His mantle fell on the celebrated Madhava Rao, 
 otherwise called Madhoji, an illegitimate son of the slipper-bearer, 
 Ranoji Sindhia, who for his fidelity to Balaji Viswanath had 
 obtained a fief in Northern Malwa and made Ujjain his head 
 
228 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 quarters. During the next dozen years the various Maratha 
 powers rapidly recovered from the blow inflicted on them at 
 Panipat, and were soon threatening every prince and state in 
 India from the Satlaj river southward to Cape Comorin. In 
 Western India they were supreme ; in Rajputana and Central 
 India they plundered at their leisure, and they were incessantly 
 making predatory incursions north-eastward into the fertile 
 plains watered by the Ganges and the Jamna to harry the lands 
 of the Oudh Wazir, of the Pathan settlement in Rohilkhand, and 
 of the Musalman chiefships about Dehli, Agra, and Allahabad. 
 In 1771 they were demanding the surrender of Kora and Alla- 
 habad made over to the emperor by the East India Company 
 in return for his grant of the Diwani, and in 1773 they came 
 into collision with the English by threatening the territory 
 of the Rohillas, and though driven back they still remained a 
 menace to the English frontier. A much more serious struggle 
 with the English power was soon to be entered upon in Western 
 India. There a Maratha chief, Raghunath Rao, who had been 
 deposed from power at Puna, sought aid from the Company, 
 and this the Bombay Government unwisely promised on con- 
 dition of his ceding the district of Bassein and the island of 
 Salsette. The result was a protracted and unsatisfactory contest 
 with the chief Maratha powers in which the English, weakly 
 led, blundered from one expedition to another, found themselves 
 unable to restore their protege, and gained nothing but the 
 enduring resentment of the Marathas, who might much better 
 have been left to settle their quarrels among themselves. So 
 wide, moreover, was their range of operations that the English 
 had to encounter them in the south, where they took the side of 
 England's inveterate enemy, Haidar Ali, at the same time that 
 Sindhia was threatening in the north-west, and the Peshwa was 
 equally active near Bombay. Sindhia was by this time fast 
 becoming the most powerful chief of the confederation, and had 
 extended his conquests from Central India northward towards 
 Agra and Dehli. In the collision which took place with the 
 English his fortress at Gwaliar was captured ; and Sindhia, never 
 very eager to match himself against a power which he hoped 
 might be useful to him as an ally in the wide-reaching aims of his 
 ambition, was not unwilling to come to terms. Pb was arranged, 
 therefore, that he should be allowed to prosecute his designs upon 
 those portions of country round Dehli which were still retained 
 by the Mughal emperor, on condition of his mediating between 
 the English and the Maratha confederates. By the treaty of 
 Salbai, in which the English had to make considerable sacrifices, 
 the war came to an end, Gwaliar and Ujjain, together with all 
 his previous possessions south and west, being restored to Sindhia. 
 From this time forward till his death Sindhia stands out as the 
 prominent figure of Maratha power and influence. One by one 
 
APPENDIX IV. 229 
 
 his chief opponents, the Jats, Rajputs, Pathans, Rathors, and 
 Musalmans yielded to his arms or to his policy. By 1792 he had 
 wrung from the Mughal emperor the title of Vicegerent of the 
 empire, the whole powers of which he thenceforth virtually 
 wielded as his own, and in the autumn of that year he shattered 
 the forces of his great rival in the Maratha confederation, Holkar 
 of Indor. Early, however, in 1794 his life came to a sudden end, 
 and the English were freed from a presence, which, if actively 
 arrayed against them, might have had serious consequences to 
 the consolidation of their mastery in India. Madhaji Sindhia's 
 power passed into the hands of his grand-nephew, Daulat Rao ; 
 but his death by no means marked any collapse of Maratha 
 activity. In 1795 their ubiquitous forces marched down upon 
 the Nizam at Haidarabad, dispersed his army, and forced him to 
 an ignominious surrender. In 1798 Daulat Rao Sindhia was 
 firmly established at Puna, and was the most considerable prince 
 in Central and Northern India. Holkar and the Raja of Nagpur 
 were masters of large forces and extensive territory, and none of 
 them had forgotten their hostility to the English. What might 
 have been the result of a general combination can only be sur- 
 mised. But, fortunately for the British power in India, no such 
 policy prevailed. On the contrary, in 1801 Sindhia, Holkar, and 
 the Raja of Nagpur were at each other's throats in a fierce struggle 
 for supremacy. There was also bitter enmity between the Peshwa 
 and Holkar ; and when in 1803 Sindhia came to the assistance of 
 the former, a great battle ensued in which the allied armies were 
 utterly crushed. The result was one by which Lord Wellesley, 
 then Governor-General, took care to profit. For the Peshwa now 
 sued to the English for their help, and taking refuge at Bassein, 
 close to Bombay, signed a treaty of general defensive alliance 
 with the British government, under which a strong subsidiary 
 force, to be furnished by the English and paid by the Peshwa, 
 was to be permanently stationed within his territory, and all his 
 foreign relations were to be subordinated to the policy of England. 
 The remaining Maratha powers, however, still had to be dealt 
 with. And they now broke out into open hostilities, the chief of 
 Nagpur organizing a league against the English, and with Sindhia 
 marching up to the frontier of Haidarabad. Holkar refused to 
 join the league, and the Gaekwar held aloof. The confederates 
 therefore paused, hoping to win over Holkar. But Lord Welles - 
 ley, who was as anxious to bring matters to a crisis as they were 
 to gain time, gave orders to General Wellesley, who was facing 
 Sindhia in the west, and to General Lake, who was moving upon 
 Sindhia's possessions in the north-west, to press the war with 
 vigour. Accordingly General Wellesley called upon Sindhia and 
 the Nagpur Raja to withdraw their army from the Nizam's 
 borders. This they refused to do, and the consequence was the 
 battle of Assaye in which Wellesley obtained a decisive victory. 
 
230 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 He next inflicted a severe defeat upon the troops of the Nagpur 
 Raja at Argaon, and took by storm the hill forts of Gawilgarh. 
 Lake was equally active in the north-west. He took Aligarh by 
 assault, dispersed Sindhia's force before Dehli, besieged and cap- 
 tured Agra, and finally at Laswari routed the last of Sindhia's 
 regular army. " The result," says Sir A. Lyall,* " of these well- 
 contested and hardly won victories was to shatter the whole 
 military organization upon which Sindia's predominance had 
 been built up, to break down his connection with the Moghul 
 court in the north, and to destroy his influence at Poona as the 
 most formidable member of the Maratha confederacy. Both 
 Sindia and the Nagpore Raja, finding themselves in imminent 
 danger of losing all their possessions, acquiesced reluctantly in 
 the terms that were dictated to them after the destruction of 
 their armies. The treaty of Bassein was formally recognized ; 
 they entered into defensive treaties and made large cessions of 
 territory. Sindia gave up to the British all his northern dis- 
 tricts lying along both sides of the Jumna river ; he ceded his 
 sea-ports and his conquests on the west coast ; he made over to 
 them the city of Delhi and the custody of the Mogul emperor ; 
 he dismissed all his French officers, and accepted the establish- 
 ment, at his cost, of a large British force to be stationed near his 
 frontier. The Raja of Nagpore restored Berar to the Nizam, and 
 surrendered to the British government the province of Cuttack, 
 on the Bay of Bengal, which lay interposed between the upper 
 districts of Madras and the south-western districts of Bengal." 
 Holkar still remained to be reckoned with. He had been hoping 
 to profit by Sindhia's discomfiture, and now thought to take 
 advantage of his defenceless condition. He was, therefore, sum- 
 moned by Lake to retire within his own territories, and on his 
 refusal was attacked by the British troops. Although for a time 
 Holkar had followed Sindhia's example of maintaining a staff of 
 European officers and of drilling his troops after the European 
 fashion, he had before this returned to the traditional Maratha 
 tactics of rapid cavalry movements. His object was to evade a 
 regular engagement, and it was not without a prolonged effort that 
 Lake surprised and finally dispersed his bands. Holkar at last 
 took refuge in the Panjab, whence he returned only to sign a treaty 
 on terms similar to those imposed upon Sindhia and the Nagpur 
 Raja. For some years there was peace between the English and 
 the Marathas. But in 1816 the Bhonsla Raja of Nagpur, with 
 whom Lord Hastings had concluded a subsidiary treaty detaching 
 him from the Maratha confederation, repented an engagement 
 which tied his hands, and began to concert hostile measures with 
 the Peshwa, who also was impatient of the restrictions placed 
 upon him by alliance with the English. The latter, however, 
 
 * Rise of the British Dominion in India, pp. 227, 8. 
 
APPENDIX IV. 231 
 
 before actually plunging into another struggle realized the danger 
 he incurred of being stripped of all his possessions, and again 
 entered into negotiations with the English whereby, in exchange 
 for an increased subsidiary force, he made further cessions of 
 territory, and virtually renounced all pretensions to supremacy 
 in the Maratha confederation. His good faith was of short dura- 
 tion. In the following year he broke into open hostility and 
 attacked the British troops at Puna, the Nagpur Raja imitating 
 him in his outbreak. Their combination quickly proved in- 
 effectual. The Peshwa was routed and his forts seized. In 1818 
 he surrendered, and the greater part of his territories passed 
 under the British sovereignty, he being allowed to reside at 
 Bithiir on a pension of £80,000 a year, the non-continuance of 
 which after his death made an enemy of his adopted son, Dhundu 
 Panth, commonly known as "Nana Sahib." The Nagpur State 
 had also to cede several important districts, and thenceforth the 
 Maratha powers ceased to exist except as feudatories of the 
 British rule. 
 
INDEX TO NOTES. 
 
 A. 
 
 Affidavits, 81, 1. 
 
 Alguazils, 59, 23. 
 
 Ali Vardi Khan, 7, 27. 
 
 Allahabad, 25, 29. 
 
 Articles of charge, Burke's, 
 
 102, 3. 
 Asaph-ud-Dowla, 77, 11. 
 Asiatic Society, the, 87, 26. 
 Assizes, 41, 1. 
 Augustulus, 15, 29. 
 Aurungabad, 53, 8. 
 Aurungzebe, 26, 31. 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacon, Lord, 110, 32. 
 
 Bang, 53, 3. 
 
 Bar, of House of Commons, 108, 
 
 6. 
 Barrators, 58, 12. 
 Bastile, the, 101, 4. 
 Bedloe, 37, 29. 
 Beejapore, 53, 8. 
 Begams of Oude, 77, 29. 
 Berar, 49, 3. 
 Black Hole, the, 8, 11. 
 Bonaparte, Louis, 68, 15 
 Bonslas, the, 52, 22. 
 Bookmaker, 1, 13. 
 Boroughs, rotten, 10, 10. 
 Bourne, V., 5, 22. 
 
 Brooks's Club, 96, 23. 
 Buccaneer, 11, 12. 
 Bunyan, 33, 33. 
 Burgage, 97, 7. 
 
 Cabul, 26, 24. 
 Cadet, 15, 34. 
 Calpe, 51, 34. 
 Candahar, 26, 24. 
 Capet, Hugh, 68, 5. 
 Caput lupinum, 29, 8. 
 Catchpoles, 59, 11. 
 Catherine, Empress, 27, 10. 
 Cecilia, Saint, 112, 12. 
 Cervantes, 33, 34. 
 Chait Sing, 67, 1. 
 Chatham, Lord, 32, 35. 
 Chequered, 5, 12. 
 Churchill, C, 5, 23. 
 Clarkson, 98, 22. 
 Clavering, General, 32, 8. 
 Coalition, the, 96, 20. 
 Cold steel, 31, 4. 
 Colman, G., 5, 23. 
 Commercial Treaty, the, 100, 
 
 32. 
 Comorin, Cape, 26, 36. 
 Control, Board of, 16, 10. 
 Coote, Sir E., 54, 18. 
 Corah, 25, 30. 
 Corneille, 33, 31. 
 
 232 
 
INDEX TO NOTES. 
 
 233 
 
 Cosmo de' Medici, i29, 24. 
 Council, a member of, 9, 5. 
 Cowper, 5, 30, 33, 36. 
 Cumberland, R., 5, 24. 
 
 D. 
 
 Dacca, 44, 12. 
 Dangerfield, 37, 30. 
 Daylesford Church, 129, 8. 
 Delta of the Ganges, 72, 20. 
 Depending questions, 97, 7. 
 Diplomatic, 16, 30. 
 Directors, Court of, 47, 21. 
 Dodd, Dr., 100, 3. 
 Double Government, 21, 11. 
 Downing Street, 85, 6. 
 Dupleix, J., 7, 14. 
 Dutch Company, 8, 8. 
 
 F. 
 
 Ferdusi, 12, 2. 
 Forensic acuteness, 93, 34. 
 Francis, 32, 11 ; 62, 7. 
 Foundation, the, 6, 22. 
 Fort William, 7, 12. 
 Frederick II. of Prussia, 127, 6. 
 Furor Biographicus, 2, 6. 
 Fyzabad, 77, 7. 
 
 G. 
 
 Galaxy, 97, 5. 
 Galleon, 11, 2. 
 Gleig, G. R., 1, 1. 
 Goddard, Colonel, 54, 9. 
 Goitre, 2, 7. 
 Golcbnda, 66, 35. 
 Gordon, Lord G., 100, 2. 
 GrenvilleG., 35, 3. 
 Guicowar, the, 52, 34. 
 Guildhall, the, 128, 17. 
 
 Hafiz, 12, 2. 
 
 Hastings, Pynaston, 4, 13. 
 
 Hastings, Warren, ancestors, 
 
 3, 17, etc. 
 
 Hastings, Warren, birthplace, 
 
 4, 18. 
 
 Hastings, Mrs., at Court, 92, 
 
 17. 
 Hebrides, Tour in, 46, 31. 
 Holkar, 52, 26. 
 Holland, Lord, 33, 2. 
 Hussar-mongers, 28, 24. 
 Hyphasis, 26, 12. 
 Hystaspes, 26, 12. 
 
 Imaum, 99, 20. 
 Imhoff, 12, 27. 
 Impey, Sir E., 6, 14, etc. 
 India Bill, Pitt's, 16, 10. 
 India Bill, Fox's, 95, 5. 
 Ionian, the, 17, 16. 
 Ireland, 51, 30. 
 
 J. 
 
 Jefferies, 60, 23. 
 Jeopardy, 51, 33. 
 Junius, Letters of, 32, 23. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kumaon, 26, 30. 
 
 L. 
 
 Lahore, 26, 36. 
 Lally, 54, 25. 
 Lascars, 53, 36. 
 Las Casas, 98, 22. 
 Leadenhall Street, 20, 23. 
 Legerdemain, 69, 30. 
 Lely, Sir P., 2, 32. 
 Louis the Eleventh, 63, 9. 
 
 M. 
 Mahommedan historian, 43, 1. 
 Mahommed Reza Khan, 23, 5. 
 
234 
 
 INDEX TO NOTES. 
 
 Man in the Mask, 33, 35. 
 Man, Whole Duty of, The, 2, 2. 
 Manor, lord of, 3, 25. 
 Marie Antoinette, 101, 5. 
 Martel, Charles, 15, 30. 
 Mecca, 99, 21. 
 Merovingians, 15, 29. 
 Mesne process, 57, 12. 
 Mill, History, 2, 27. 
 Middlesex election, 35, 6. 
 Monson, Colonel, 32, 8. 
 Monsoon, 65, I. 
 Montague, Mrs., 112, 17. 
 Moorshedabad, 15, 30. 
 Mucius Scsevola, 19, 5. 
 Munny Begum, the, 22, 14. 
 
 N. 
 
 Newington, 5, 18. 
 Nuncomar, 17, 29 ; 41, 3, etc. 
 
 0. 
 
 Oates, Titus, 37, 29. 
 
 Odoacer, 15, 29. 
 
 Ordinances of Charles X., 68, 
 
 11. 
 Oriels, 66, 16. 
 
 Pageant, 69, 24. 
 Pagodas, 12, 30. 
 Pasquin, 123, 28. 
 Pepin, 15, 30. 
 Peshwa, 53, 5. 
 Plate, 3, 32. 
 Political, 16, 29. 
 Pollilore, 55, 6. 
 Pondicherry, 53, 31. 
 Poonah, 53, 6. 
 Porphyry, 20, 6. 
 Porto Novo, 55, 6. 
 Prescription, 69, 2. 
 Presidency, a, 54, 3. 
 Prince, the, 2, 2. 
 Pundits, 87, 31. 
 
 Raghunath Rao, 36, 19. 
 Rectory, a, 4, 6. 
 Reynolds, Sir J., 112, 1. 
 Richelieu, 129, 23. 
 Rohillas, 26, 36. 
 Roi faineant, a, 53, 1. 
 Rolliad, the, 94, 18. 
 
 Sandalwood, 91, 13. 
 Sandwich, Lord, 47, 27. 
 Sarum, Old, 34, 29. 
 Sattara, 53, 4. 
 Scindia, 52, 26. 
 Sevajee, 52, 13. 
 Siddons, Mrs., Ill, 29. 
 Somers, Lord, 110, 33. 
 Spunging-houses, 58, 15. 
 Stamp Act, 100, 24. 
 Stoics, the, 18, 33. 
 Strafford, Lord, 45, 13. 
 Studentship, 6, 24. 
 Succession, War of, 7, 16. 
 Sujah Dowlah, 27, 22. 
 Sydney, Algernon, 19, 6. 
 
 Tacitus, 111, 34. 
 Tamerlane, 52, 35. 
 Tanjore, 52; 30. 
 Teviotdale, 23, 26. 
 Tissue, 18, 21. 
 Tithes, 4, 10. 
 Trianon, 66, 33. 
 Trissotin, 126, 20. 
 Tooke, Home, 34, 2. 
 Tulip-trees, 64, 9. 
 Tyler, Wat, 57, 32. 
 
 Vansittart, 59, 33. 
 Vernacular, 88, 28. 
 
INDEX TO NOTES. 
 
 235 
 
 Verres, 111, 33. 
 Versailles, 117, 26. 
 Vizier, 25, 23. 
 
 W. 
 
 Wandewash, 54, 26. 
 
 Westminster Hall, 57, 5 ; 115, 
 
 17. 
 Westminster School, 5, 21. 
 Wheedling, 40, 2. 
 Wilkes, 35, 6. 
 Woolsack, the, 120, 18. 
 Writership, a, 7, i. 
 
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