UC-NRLF 
 
 ITS 2 El 
 
 THE 
 
 GOVERNORS-GENERAL 
 
 OF 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 FIRST SERIES. 
 
 BY 
 
 ' HENRY MORRIS, 
 
 (MA j;iAs G. S. RETIRED.) 
 Author */ u ^4 Manual of the Godavery District^ &c. 
 
 PlffT EDITION, 3,000 COPIES. 
 
 MADRAS: 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETY. 
 S. P. C. K. PRESS, VBPEEY. 
 
 1894. 
 Price 4 Annas. Post-free 5 As. 
 
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*- 
 
 WAEKEN HASTINGS. 
 
 * 
 
THE 
 
 GOVERNORS-GENERAL 
 
 OF 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 FIRST SERIES. 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY MORRIS, 
 
 (MADRAS C, S. RETIRED) 
 Author of "A Manual of the Godavery District," 
 
 First Edition, 3,000 Copies. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETY. 
 
 S. P. C. K. PRESS, YEPERY. 
 
 1894, 
 
 [All Rights Reserved.] 
 
Page 
 
 1. WARREN HASTINGS ... ... ... 1 
 
 2. LORD CORNWALLIS ... ... 27 
 
 3. SIR JOHN S-HORK ... ... ... 49 
 
 4. MARQUIS WELLESLBY ... ... 67 
 
 5. EARL OF MINTO ... ... ... ... 89 
 
 6. MARQUIS OF HASTINGS ... Ill 
 
 HENRY MORSE STITPH-ENS 
 
THE 
 
 GOVERNORS-GENERAL 
 
 OF 
 
 LWARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 A. D. 17721785. 
 BORN, 1732; DIED, 1818. 
 
 " What constitutes a state P 
 Not high-raised battlements, or laboured mound, 
 
 Thick wall, or moated gate ; 
 Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned. 
 
 No ! men, high-minded men, 
 
 Men, who their duties know, 
 But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain." 
 
 8ir William Jones. 
 
 ONE lovely summer's afternoon, as the sun was lighting 
 up the sparkling rivulet that flows through an estate in the 
 west of England, a little boy, about seven years of age, 
 lay dreaming on its grassy bank. His ancestors had 
 owned this beautiful estate ; but, owing to ill-fortune or to 
 poverty, it had slipped from their possession. The idea 
 that he would recover it flashed through his childish mind. 
 This was, however, no mere passing dream. The resolve, 
 thus early made, clung to him all through his career, and, 
 in the evening of his life, it became an accomplished fact. 
 He purchased the estate, spent his last years in possession 
 of it, and there his eyes closed in death. The estate was 
 Daylesford in the county of Worcester, and the childish 
 dreamer was Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General 
 of Bengal. 
 
 512332 
 
2 , , , , ; , , THB -.GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 Warren Hastings was born at Churchill, a village in the 
 adjoining county of Oxford, on December 6, 1732. His 
 mother died soon after his birth, and his father deserted 
 him during his infancy, leaving him to the care of relations. 
 He was poorly educated in childhood; but, when twelve 
 years of age, he was placed at the great school of West- 
 minster, where he showed an intelligence and acuteness 
 which speedily placed him among the most promising of 
 its scholars. At this time he passed into the charge of a 
 distant relative, who, being a Director of the East India 
 Company, very naturally determined that he should go to 
 India in the Company's Civil Service, much to the disap- 
 pointment of the Head Master of Westminster School, who 
 strenuously pleaded that he might not be deprived of one 
 of his most brilliant students. His guardian, however, 
 turned a deaf ear to this appeal. 
 
 Warren Hastings landed at Calcutta, the scene of his 
 future greatness, in October, 1750, a few months before he 
 was eighteen. The English factories in Bengal were at 
 that time mere trading establishments, and the civilians 
 were busily engaged in buying and selling merchandise 
 with not a thought or idea of anything better or higher. 
 For the first three years of his Indian career, Warren 
 Hastings was employed in the Secretary's office at Cal- 
 cutta as a clerk. He was busy in the day-time with the 
 ordinary mercantile avocations, and he seems to have 
 occupied his leisure hours with learning Hindustani and 
 Persian. He led an orderly and a quiet life, keeping 
 himself aloof from the extravagance and open profligacy 
 which unhappily disgraced too many of his contempora- 
 ries, while, on the other hand, he does not appear to have 
 exhibited any particular brilliancy as a student. At the 
 end of three years, he was sent to the factory at Cossim- 
 bazar, about two miles from the capital, Moorshedabad. 
 He soon rose to a higher position, being appointed to a seat 
 in the Factory Council. His life there was for the first 
 two years and more quiet and peaceful; but, in April 1756, 
 Alivardi Khan, the powerful Nawab of Bengal, died, and the 
 tranquillity which under him the English traders had 
 
I. WAREEN HASTINGS. 3 
 
 enjoyed past away like a morning cloud. His grandson 
 and successor, Suraj-ud-Dowla, early showed his dissatis- 
 faction with them, and then followed the well-known his- 
 torical events which led to the tragedy of the Black Hole 
 and the retreat of the garrison from Calcutta to an 
 island on the Hooghly, named Fulta. Hastings was taken 
 prisoner at Moorshedabad at the outbreak of hostilities ; 
 but was released on bail at the request of the Superinten- 
 dent of the neighbouring Dutch factory. Negotiations be- 
 tween the fugitives from Calcutta and the Nawab were 
 carried on through him ; but, after a time, fearing detec- 
 tion in a plot which was being carried on against the 
 Nawab, he fled to Fulfca, where he joined his fellow-country- 
 men. During his brief sojourn there, he became attached 
 to a lady formerly the wife of Captain Campbell, whom 
 he married. They had two children, both of whom died 
 young, and within three years he was deprived of her 
 society by death. 
 
 Early in 1757, Colonel Clive arrived from Madras, 
 Calcutta was retaken, and in June the battle of Plassey 
 was won, by which the sovereignty of Bengal was virtu- 
 ally placed in English hands. Warren Hastings served at 
 first as a volunteer in Clive's army ; but the keen eye of 
 the great leader detected his value as a diplomatist and 
 negotiator, and he was sent to Moorshedabad, first as 
 assistant and afterwards as Resident, at the court of the 
 Nawab. At that juncture this position was one of peculiar 
 difficulty, but Mr. Hastings filled it with special fidelity 
 and tact. His duty was to keep himself thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with all that was going on at Court, to offer, when 
 needful, his counsel to the Nawab, and to watch over the 
 interests of the English traders. 
 
 On the departure of Clive for Europe, Mr. Henry 
 Vansittart succeeded him as Governor of Bengal, and ere 
 long Warren Hastings was promoted to a seat in the Council 
 at Calcutta. During the dark time that followed, which, 
 owing more to the corruption of most of his colleagues 
 than to the new Governor's weakness or incapacity, has 
 been rendered infamous in the annals of Bengal, Warren 
 
4 THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 Hastings was his right hand ; but their united efforts were 
 insufficient to stem the torrent of peculation and misrule. 
 The sore spot in the administration was private trade. 
 The Nawab, who owed his throne entirely to the English, 
 was liberal to the Company's officials even to a fault ; but 
 his liberality was abused and his revenue defrauded. The 
 principal act to which the Nawab very naturally took excep- 
 tion was the defrauding the revenue by free passes being 
 sold to those who had no right to receive them. The goods 
 conveyed in boats flying the Company's flag were permitted 
 to pass up the river free of custom ; but this privilege 
 was openly and illegally sold to enrich the English traders 
 of Cossimbazar and Calcutta. This privilege was not in- 
 tended to cover the private trade of the Company's servants, 
 much less to benefit the subjects of the Nawab. We need 
 not enter into a narration of the political troubles that en- 
 sued . Hastings did his best to keep his colleagues straight, 
 and to uphold Mr. Vansittart's authority ; on one occa- 
 sion so strenuously that a fellow-councillor struck him, for 
 which indignity the offender had to offer an ample apology. 
 Finding all his efforts fruitless, Mr. Hastings contemplated 
 resigning the service ; but, as war had followed, he thought 
 it his duty to remain. As soon as peace was restored, how- 
 ever, he returned to England, where he arrived late in 1765, 
 after a continuous service of fifteen years. 
 
 Mr. Hastings spent four years in England. He had been 
 exceedingly generous and kind to his relations, though he 
 was at this time a comparatively poor man ; and, as it 
 proves that in the midst of the general corruption in Bengal 
 he had remained honest and upright, it is right to mention 
 the fact that, on his return to India, he was obliged to borrow 
 money for his outfit. At the close of his sojourn in Eng- 
 land, the Court of Directors appointed him to a seat in the 
 Council at Fort St. George next to the Governor. He 
 embarked to take up his new appointment on board the 
 ship Duke of Graf ton early in 1769. Among the passen- 
 gers were a German portrait-painter, Baron Imhoff, and 
 his young and accomplished wife. During the voyage 
 Warren Hastings was dangerously ill, and the lady helped 
 
!. WARREN HASTINGS. 5 
 
 to nurse him in his sickness. An intimacy arose between 
 them, and it was agreed that the husband should procure 
 a divorce in Germany. The suit was preposterously long, 
 but the divorce was at last procured ; and, in the year 
 1777, after both the parties had gone to Calcutta, Warren 
 Hastings married her. Charity demands that little should 
 be said about this sad episode in his life. It was a clear 
 breach of the divine command, and, as such, must openly 
 be condemned by every Christian man; but it must be 
 added, in justice to the memory of both, that they were 
 most devotedly attached to each other, and lived together 
 in the greatest earthly happiness until death parted them 
 in mature old age. 
 
 During the recent years of political turmoil at Madras, 
 the commercial interests of the Company had been greatly 
 neglected, and the chief objects the Directors had in view 
 in sending Mr. Hastings thither was for him to put their 
 financial affairs there on a more satisfactory basis. In 
 announcing his appointment the Court of Directors de- 
 scribed him as " a gentleman who has served us many years 
 upon the Bengal establishment with great ability and 
 unblemished character/' He applied himself to this special 
 work with all his wonted energy and zeal. The invest- 
 ments of the Company were considerably improved ; the 
 purchases of silk and other goods were made directly with 
 the weavers themselves, and not through middlemen ; and 
 the finances generally were placed on a better footing. The 
 Court were so gratified with the judicious arrangements 
 that were made under his supervision and advice that they 
 appointed him President of the Council and Governor of 
 Bengal in the hope that he would be equally energetic 
 and judicious in reforming abuses and in checking malprac- 
 tices there. He assumed charge of the government at 
 Calcutta on April 13, 1772. He threw himself heart 
 and soul into his new duties in Bengal. That Presidency 
 was then in the transition state between the period of the 
 East India Company's purely commercial position, and the 
 coming period of their political governance and rule. 
 
 The President was in those days merely the senior mem- 
 
THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 ber of Council in which he had, however, a casting vote, 
 that is, an extra vote when the votes of the members on 
 each side of a question were equal. For the first two years 
 Mr. Hastings was able to carry with him the majority of 
 his Council on most of the important measures which he 
 desired to pass. Some of these measures may here be 
 mentioned. The principal questions related to the gov- 
 ernment of the province and the collection of the revenue. 
 Since the conquest of Bengal and Behar, the nominal 
 sovereignty had rested with the Nawab, but it was really 
 in the hands of the Nazim or Deputy, who had been 
 appointed by the English. In Bengal this power was ex- 
 ercised by a Muhammadan, named Muhammad Reza Khan : 
 in Behar by a Hindu, named Raja Shitab Rai. Just a 
 fortnight after Warren Hastings had taken his seat as 
 President of the Council, a despatch was received from the 
 Court of Directors announcing that they had determined 
 to take into their own hands the sovereignty of these 
 provinces, or, in the language of that time, " to stand forth 
 as Dewan." The double government was to be abolished. 
 The Company's officers were to have the entire manage- 
 ment of the revenues, and the direct administration of the 
 affairs of state. Mr. Hastings was at the same time order- 
 ed to remove both Muhammad Reza Khan and Raja Shitab 
 Rai from power, and to place them on trial for embezzle- 
 ment and oppression. The chief witness against the for- 
 mer was a Brahmin named Raja Nuncomar, hereafter to 
 become still more notorious ; but his evidence completely 
 broke down, and Muhammad Reza Khan was acquitted. 
 The charge against Raja Shitab Rai also failed. 
 
 The proclamation whereby the Company assumed the 
 direct government of the country was issued May 11, 
 1772. Three days afterwards certain regulations for the 
 settlement and collection of the revenue were passed, 
 and thenceforward the chief duties of the Company's civil 
 servants were the collection of the revenue and the 
 administration of justice, the title of ' collector/ since so well- 
 known, being then first employed. The very first duty 
 which engaged the attention of the Government was to 
 
I. WARREN HASTINGS. / 
 
 place the revenue settlement on a firm basis and to evolve 
 something like a system from the confused procedure of 
 the past. The members of council, with Mr. Hastings at 
 first at their head, went on a tour through the country to 
 ascertain facts for themselves, and the result was that, in 
 a few months, a scheme was prepared by which the land 
 was farmed out to the Zemindars on a five years' lease, and 
 this was the foundation on which, a few years later, the 
 Permanent Settlement of Lord Cornwallis was erected. 
 The good of the ryots themselves was steadily kept in view. 
 It is pleasant to read in a despatch from England, only 
 three years before, that the Director wished that "the ryots 
 should be impressed in the most forcible and convincing 
 manner that the tendency of all measures is to their ease 
 and relief," and that all changes were intended " for the im- 
 provement of the lands, the content of the ryot, and the 
 general happiness of the province in every consideration 
 and point of view." 
 
 The purity of the Company's officials was the all impor- 
 tant matter to be next considered. They were forbidden 
 to accept presents or to hold land. They were to cease 
 all connection with trade. Warren Hastings quietly but 
 firmly carried out the Directors' orders against illegal 
 trading. No free passes or illicit evasion of customs duties 
 were to be permitted ; at the same time the order of the 
 Court for the punishment of offenders was not executed, 
 it being thought advisable not to press the matter, as so 
 many high in authority were implicated. The illegal 
 action was forbidden, but the offender was ignored. 
 
 Equal vigour was shown by Mr. Hastings in his judicial 
 arrangements. Courts were created in the provinces, a 
 civil and a criminal court in each district. The collector 
 was to preside over the former, while the old Muhammad- 
 au judicial authorities were to sit in the latter. Two 
 chief and appellate courts were similarly established at 
 Calcutta. Warren Hastings made arrangements also for 
 the preparation of suitable codes of Hindu and Muham- 
 madan law. The former was translated by learned pun- 
 dits from Sanskrit into Persian, and Mr. Halhed, of the 
 
8 THE GOVEENOES-GENEEAL OF INDIA. 
 
 Civil Service, was commissioned to translate it into 
 English. Warren Hastings, in sending a copy of the 
 earlier part of this treatise to his old school-fellow, the 
 learned Chief Justice of England, Lord Mansfield, justly 
 remarked that it was " a proof that the inhabitants of this 
 land are not in the savage state in which they have been 
 unfairly represented." 
 
 On the affairs of state being thus re-arranged, it became 
 necessary to determine the future position of the household 
 of the Nawab The young Nawab was himself placed 
 under the guardianship of Manni Begum, once the fa- 
 vourite wife of Mir Jaffier. .His state allowance was 
 reduced, but was of sufiicient liberality to enable him, in 
 the altered circumstances in which he was placed, to main- 
 tain his position with dignity, and the son of Nuncomar 
 was appointed his Dewan. To Nuncomar himself Warren 
 Hastings entertained the strongest feelings of suspi- 
 cion and distrust; but, as the Court of Directors had 
 desired that attention should be paid to him, Mr. 
 Hastings thought it wiser to show this attention by 
 promoting his son. All these arrangements received the 
 approval of the Court. The internal government of 
 the province had thus been placed in a tolerably satis- 
 factory condition, far better than at anytime since the 
 conquest of Bengal, and very much like what it afterwards 
 became when deficiencies had been detected and irregu- 
 larities adjusted; and half-a-dozen years of Warren Has- 
 ting's vigorous rule would, if subsequent events had not 
 intervened, have most probably put affairs in such a posi- 
 tion as to give satisfaction to the people of the country, to 
 the Court of Directors, and to the Government of England. 
 
 We do not think it necessary to treat of the policy of the 
 Bengal Government with regard to foreign affairs at this 
 juncture with the exception of the negotiations with the 
 Nawab Vizier of Oudh and the invasion of Rohilkhand, the 
 controversy about which so considerably affected Warren 
 Hastings 5 future career. The provinces of Korah and 
 Allahabad had been assigned to the unfortunate Emperor 
 of Delhi by Lord Clive in 1705, " as a royal demesne for 
 
I. WARREN HASTINGS. 9 
 
 the support of his dignity and expenses." The Emperor 
 had first abandoned these provinces, and then granted 
 them to the Mahrattas, who were at this time spreading 
 all over the country, in the search for plunder and rapine. 
 Warren Hastings, supported by his Council, considered 
 this incompatible with the honour of the Company and the 
 safety of the English dominions. He himself went to 
 Benares, where he had an interview with Sujah-ud-Dowla, 
 the Nawab Vizier of Oudh, and it was agreed to bestow 
 these provinces on him on his consenting to pay forty 
 lakhs of rupees, and to maintain the English battalion 
 stationed there for defence. He was of opinion that 
 he was doing the best for all parties in thus strengthen- 
 ing the English alliance with the Nawab Vizier, and in 
 raising a compact barrier against the incursions of the 
 Mahrattas. The treaty of Benares was executed on Sep- 
 tember 7, 1773. The negotiations leading up to it were 
 conducted by Mr. Hastings and the Nawab alone, and the 
 following extract from the account of the interview written 
 by the former gives us a deeply interesting peep behind 
 the curtain, and his own estimate of his proficiency in 
 Urdu. " Every circumstance of the negotiation, " he says, 
 " required that it should be managed by that familiar and 
 confidential intercourse which can take place only between 
 two persons unembarrassed by interruption, and unchecked 
 by the reserve which always attends a conversation held 
 between strangers and before many witnesses. For- 
 tunately, too, the habit which I had acquired of speaking 
 the Hindustani language, though imperfect, yet aided on 
 the part of the Vizier by a very clear and easy elocution, 
 and an uncommonly quick apprehension, greatly facilitated 
 this mode of communication, and not only forwarded the 
 conclusion of our debates; but,. I am persuaded, left him 
 much better pleased with what had passed than if it 
 had been conveyed to him through the doubtful channel of 
 an interpreter. " 
 
 The subject of the invasion of Rohilkhand was also discus- 
 sed at this important, but familiar, interview. That pro- 
 vince formed an irregular tract to the north-west of Oudh, 
 
10 THE GOVEBNORS-GENEEAL OP INDIA. 
 
 being bounded on the east and north by the Himalayas, 
 and on the west by the Ganges. Being in early times a 
 Hindu kingdom named Kather, it had, for the last century 
 or so, been held by a race of Pathan adventurers from 
 Afghanistan. It had recently been invaded by the ubiqui- 
 tous Mahrattas, and the chief ruler, Hafiz Kahmat Khan, 
 had agreed to pay the Nawab Vizier forty lakhs, if he 
 helped him to eject these troublesome invaders. Assis- 
 tance had been rendered, but payment had been withheld. 
 The Nawab Vizier was, therefore, very anxious to punish 
 Hafiz, and to annex the province, and proposed to Mr. 
 Hastings that the English should help him in this project. 
 At first Warren Hastings was much opposed to this 
 scheme. The Nawab Vizier consequently put it on one 
 side at the time ; but no sooner had Warren Hastings re- 
 turned to Calcutta than it was revived. Hafiz Rahmat Khan 
 was treating with the Mahrattas, so the Nawab Vizier 
 determined to invade Rohilkhand and openly demanded 
 English assistance. The Council at Calcutta agreed to give it, 
 "considering the strict alliance and engagements which sub- 
 sisted between the Company and Sujah Dowla." The 
 English forces advanced with those of the Nawab, and on 
 April 23, 1774, gained a signal victory, when Rahmat Khan 
 fell slain and, in a brief period, the country was conquered 
 for him. The NawaVs troops were accused of perpetrating 
 much cruelty during the course of their occupation, but this 
 was considerably exaggerated for party purposes. Col. Cham- 
 pion, the English Commander did his best to stay such atro- 
 cities, and the Government praised him for this. "We are ex- 
 ceedingly happy to learn," were the words they used, " that 
 you from the beginning opposed and at last obtained a stop 
 to be put to the devastation of the Rohilla country by the 
 army of the Vizier, a mistaken policy altogether incompati- 
 ble with the design of the war and repugnant to humanity, 
 and we have a sensible pleasure in testifying our entire 
 approbation of your conduct in this respect." Warren 
 Hastings wrote to Mr. Middleton, Resident at the Court of 
 Oudh, to the same effect. "I desire," he said, "that you 
 will take an immediate occasion to remonstrate with the 
 
I. WARREN HASTINGS. 11 
 
 Nawab against every act of cruelty or wanton violence. 
 The country is his and the people his subjects. They claim 
 by that relation his tenderest regard and unremitted pro- 
 tection. The family of Hafiz have never injured him, but 
 have a claim to his protection in default of that of which he 
 has deprived them. Tell him that the English manners 
 are abhorrent of every species of inhumanity and oppres- 
 sion, and enjoin the gentlest treatment of a vanquished 
 enemy ." It appears from these contemporary documents 
 that excesses had been committed, and that the Government 
 of Bengal and the President energetically protested against 
 them at once. The country was not generally devastated; 
 but the ruling Afghans were expelled, and the 750,000 
 Hindu cultivators of the soil were left to till their lands 
 in peace under a new ruler. The justification of the 
 policy of granting assistance to the Nawab should also 
 be given in his own words. " Our ally," he wrote, 
 " would obtain by the acquisition of this country a com- 
 pact state shut in effectually by the Ganges all the way 
 from the frontiers of Behar to the mountains of Thibet. 
 It would give him wealth, of which we should partake, and 
 give him security without any dangerous increase of 
 power. I must further declare that I regard as none of the 
 most inconsiderable benefits of the Company, besides the 
 forty lakhs, the easing them immediately of the burthen 
 of one-third of their whole army." There may now be 
 doubts of the policy of this war, but there can be none of 
 the humanity of the Government and Hastings. 
 
 Indian affairs at this time occupied much of the time 
 of the Parliament and Government of England. Their 
 attention resulted in a measure which is known as the 
 Eegulating Act of 1 773, the principal provisions of which 
 created a Governor-General of Bengal with a Council of 
 four, under whom were placed the Governments of Madras 
 and Bombay, and a Supreme Court of Judicature consisting 
 of a Chief Justice and three Judges, who were to have juris- 
 diction over British subjects, and over others in the 
 Presidency town of Calcutta. Warren Hastings was 
 appointed the first Governor-General. The new Councillors 
 
12 THE GOVERNOES-GENEEAL OF INDIA. 
 
 were Mr. Barwell a civilian, who had been in the old 
 Council, General Clavering, the Honorable Colonel Monson, 
 and Mr. Philip Francis. The Chief Justice was Sir Elijah 
 Impey. The Councillors from England landed at Calcutta 
 on October 19, 1774. They were not in the best of tem- 
 pers. The severe heat tried them. They were received 
 with a salute of 17 guns whereas they expected one of 21. 
 They considered that Mr. Hastings had not met them 
 with sufficient courtesy and respect. At the first formal 
 meeting of the Council their irritable temper burst forth ; 
 and, as the life of Warren Hastings for the next few years 
 consisted of one continuous, long-drawn contention with 
 these men, we must pause for a little space to picture their 
 first business interview. It must be borne in mind that, 
 under the new Act, the Governor-General and each Coun- 
 cillor had a vote, so that the majority carried the day on 
 every question. 
 
 Let us imagine ourselves in the Council Chamber in Fort 
 William on October 25, 1774. Seated in the President's 
 chair is the Governor-General, a man of a short, spare 
 figure, just forty-two years of age, dressed in the long 
 flapped waistcoat, embroidered coat, and frilled collar and 
 cuffs of the period. He has a clear-cut and rather aquiline 
 nose, bright, grave eyes, and firm, compressed lips. Of a 
 naturally quick and sensitive temper, which a long residence 
 in India has not tended to improve, he has it under 
 thorough control. Intimate with the character of Hindu 
 and Muhammadan, and fully acquainted with the policy of 
 the Company, with the revenue system of Bengal, and with 
 the foreign affairs of India, he is thoroughly conversant 
 with every question that can be brought before the Council. 
 Near him is Mr. Richard Barwell, a man of good ability, 
 who, after many years spent in India, is also well acquaint- 
 ed with Indian questions, but not of such wide experience 
 as Mr. Hastings, or of such acute penetration into matters. 
 He had formerly been opposed to the Governor-General on 
 certain questions, but is now his good friend and firm 
 -supporter. 
 
 The other Councillors know positively nothing of India* 
 
I. WARREN HASTINGS. 3 
 
 General Clavering has fair abilities, but is a hot-headed, 
 blunt officer, full of strong prejudices, and without a 
 particle of self-control. The next is Colonel Monson, who 
 possesses, perhaps, the slightest intellect of the three, and 
 is easily persuaded and led by the other. All the intellect 
 and most of the spite is centred in Mr. Philip Francis. 
 Generally identified with an anonymous writer on English 
 politics called Junius, whose productions ceased just as- 
 Mr. Francis left England, his character seems exactly to 
 correspond with that of this celebrated author. He has 
 a malignant, harsh, vindictive disposition. He writes 
 in a hard, clear, forcible style, which never fails to put 
 forward the strong side of each subject he deals with, and 
 to keep in the back-ground all that is unfavourable to his 
 purpose. He is a man who hates with an undying hatred, 
 and never forgives a foe. From his writings we can easily 
 imagine the cold, composed, sarcastic nature of his speech. 
 
 At the Council meeting on the previous day, the Gover- 
 nor-General had placed before the members a Minute 
 clearly describing the revenue system of Bengal and the 
 history of the Eohilla war. The latter is the subject which 
 excites the attention of the new Councillors. General Claver- 
 ing rises and demands in their name that the whole of the 
 correspondence both public and private which had passed 
 between Warren Hastings and Mr. Middleton should be 
 produced. Col. Monson and Mr. Francis support this 
 demand. The Governor-General offers to produce the 
 whole of the public correspondence, but politely and firmly 
 declines to let them see his private letters on the ground 
 that such conduct would be an unjustifiable breach of 
 confidence, though he offers to make such extracts from 
 them as would tend to elucidate all the facts. From this 
 moment a breach occurs between the Councillors recently 
 arrived from England and the Governor-General and Mr. 
 Barwell, which never closed. 
 
 Henceforward the Council Chamber became a battle- 
 field of faction, clearly showing that, however, excellent 
 the theory of Government as laid down in the Regulating 
 Act might have been, it led in practice to perpetual strife. 
 
14 THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 The majority became the dominant power. The whole 
 policy of the Rohilla war was reversed. Mr. Middleton 
 was removed from his position as Resident at the Vizier's 
 Court ; a friend of the majority was appointed in his stead ; 
 the Company's troops were withdrawn ; demand was made 
 for the immediate payment of the subsidy of forty lakhs. 
 It would be tedious to go into further details so far as 
 they do not relate to the life of Warren Hastings. Minute 
 after minute was written ; long letters were addressed to the 
 Court of Directors and to the ministry in England; and 
 we must picture Mr. Hastings, supported by Mr. Barwell, 
 standing like a noble stag at bay, in deadly conflict with 
 unscrupulous opponents, who never omitted to take ad- 
 vantage of any opportunity of worrying and thwarting 
 him. 
 
 The next great event was a charge of bribery brought 
 against the Governor-General by Raja Nuncomar. We 
 have already mentioned this man, whom Warren Hastings 
 had for several years regarded with suspicion, but whose 
 son he had promoted in deference to the command of the 
 Court of Directors, who had desired that he should be 
 treated with consideration. Observing that the authority 
 of Government had been usurped by the majority in the 
 Council and every act of the Governor-General had been 
 contemned, Nuncomar thought this a fitting moment to 
 cringe to them, and to show his malignity and spite 
 towards Hastings. At the meeting of the Council on 
 llth March, 1775, Mr. Francis produced a letter from 
 Nuncomar, the contents of which he professed not to 
 know. On its being opened it proved to contain a charge 
 against the Governor-General of having received more 
 than three lakhs of Rupees from the Manni Begum and 
 himself, when the former was appointed guardian of the 
 young Nawab of Bengal. On the 13th Colonel Monson 
 proposed that Nuncomar should be admitted to the 
 Council to make his accusation in person. The Governor- 
 General indignantly and justly refused to permit such an 
 insult, and after an exciting scene, he left the room, 
 dissolving the meeting, Mr. Barwell following him, though 
 
I. WARREN HASTINGS. 15 
 
 he did not refuse to permit an inquiry into the charge by 
 a properly constituted Committee in his absence. The 
 three friends, with exquisite want of taste and judgment, 
 actually admitted Nuncomar into the Council Chamber, 
 after Mr. Hastings had quitted it ; and, after a hurried 
 inquiry characterised by an utter absence of judicial 
 acumen, pronounced him guilty of bribery, and demanded 
 that the money should be paid to the Company. Warren 
 Hastings knew Nuncomar' s character thoroughly. He had, 
 thirteen years before, been appointed to try him for 
 forgery, and his decision against him is still on record. 
 He utterly refused to submit to the illegal judgment of the 
 majority. During the next few weeks the time of these 
 Councillors of state was spent in visiting Nuncomar and 
 others, and in virtually helping and inciting them to prepare 
 fresh charges against their President. Hindu society in 
 Calcutta was convulsed with these unwonted proceedings ; 
 English society was split into factions. 
 
 Suddenly, as it seemed, a charge of obtaining a sum of 
 money by a forged bond was brought against Nuncomar by 
 one Mohan Prasad. This man had been endeavouring for 
 years to get this charge taken up by the old Court at 
 Calcutta. It was now brought before the new Court. 
 Nuncomar was put in jail on May 6. During the time he 
 was in confinement under trial, the three Councillors visited 
 him in jail, and still continued their underhand intrigues. 
 On June 8, he was tried before a bench consisting of Sir 
 Elijah Impey and the other three judges, arrayed in all the 
 
 fDrgeous but heavy robes used by judges in England, 
 he trial lasted eight days. Nuncomar was found guilty 
 of forgery and sentenced to death. He was publicly ex- 
 ecuted on August 5. He was most justly condemned; but 
 it appears to us that the sentence was equally unjust. The 
 English law on this subject as it then stood was cruel, and 
 it seems monstrous to have applied it to Hindus, whose 
 law contained no such unmerciful provision. But the 
 judges thought they were right, and there is not a shadow 
 of proof that Warren Hastings was either the real mover 
 in the affair or influenced the judges in their decision. 
 
16 THE GQVBRNOES-GENEEAL OF, INDIA. 
 
 Nuncomar, in the natural course of events, was now re- 
 moved from crossing his path. The three Councillors had 
 flattered and abetted Nuncomar while free and while under 
 trial ; but after sentence had been past, did not even hold 
 out a little finger to help him. 
 
 For a brief season after this celebrated trial, there was 
 comparative tranquillity in the Council; but it was not long 
 before the old wearying squabbling was resumed. What 
 Hastings proposed was invariably disapproved by the 
 opposite party, and their measures were rarely approved 
 by Hastings. It seemed as if there was a determined 
 effort made to compel him to resign, and both Clavering and 
 Francis were longing to succeed him in his post. At one 
 time he wrote to his friends in England to present his re- 
 signation to the Court of Directors, but directly Nuncomar 
 was removed he retracted these instructions. At length, 
 on June 19,1777, despatches were received from the Court 
 of Directors stating that his resignation had been accepted, 
 and that General Clavering who had received the honour of 
 knighthood, had been appointed to succeed him. Hastings 
 was about to acquiesce, but Sir John Clavering's over-eager- 
 ness to assume his new honours, caused him to hold firm. 
 Sir John had himself sworn in as Govern or- General, and com- 
 manded the troops to obey his orders. Hastings gave counter- 
 orders and was obeyed. An appeal was made to the Supreme 
 Court, and all four judges gave judgment in Hastings' 
 favour. " It was quite evident/' they said, " that the Gov- 
 ernor-General was not removed and had not resigned,'' and 
 that, as yet, there was no vacancy. In two months Sir John 
 Clavering was removed by death. Hastings had now a 
 majority in the Council by using his casting vote. Col. Mon- 
 son had died in the preceding year. Though there was 
 much excitement and many quarrels in the Council Cham- 
 ber, we purpose not to mention them further, with the ex- 
 ception of one incident which led to a final breach with Mr. 
 Francis. Just before Mr. Barwell's departure from India, 
 a compact was entered into between the Governor-General 
 and Mr. Francis, in which the latter agreed no longer to 
 oppose him, but to give his measures a general support. 
 
I. WAEEEN HASTINGS. 17 
 
 This is proved by the records, but Mr. Francis denied 
 and broke this agreement ; and Mr. Hastings, on one 
 occasion, deliberately permitted his temper to overcome 
 his judgment, and wrote the following words in an 
 official minute : " I do not trust to his promise of 
 candour, convinced that he is not capable of it, and 
 that his sole purpose and wish are to embarrass and 
 defeat every measure which I may undertake. I judge 
 of his public conduct by my experience of his private, 
 which I have found to be void of truth and honour." 
 Mr. Hastings had given his opponent a copy of the min- 
 ute in which these words occurred the day before the 
 meeting of Council, and the latter was so exasperated that, 
 after the meeting, he presented the Governor- General with 
 a challenge to fight. On the next day, but one, August 
 17,1780, a duel was fought between them ; that is, they 
 went together into a retired field near the city with only 
 two or three witnesses ; and, standing a certain distance 
 apart, fired at each other with pistols. Mr. Francis was 
 wounded by Mr. Hastings' shot, but not fatally. He recov- 
 ered after a time, but never forgave his antagonist. He 
 left the country in the following December, completely 
 foiled in his malicious endeavour to oust the Governor-Gen- 
 eral, and to succeed to his place ; but he renewed the 
 conflict in England, and was the prime mover in the long 
 persecution, which is hereafter to be related. A few words 
 should be said regarding this duel. Public opinion among 
 Englishmen is now so completely opposed to such a mode 
 of settling disputes that we can scarcely understand the 
 toleration of it in those days. It was a barbarous custom, 
 and one of which men calling themselves Christian ought 
 to have been thoroughly ashamed. Refusing a challenge, 
 even at that time, would have showed greater moral 
 courage than accepting one ; but the whole affair, from 
 beginning to end, was directly contrary to the law of God 
 and to the spirit of the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 Henceforward Warren Hastings was left undisturbed 
 and unopposed to carry out his own measures. Never was 
 there more need of a man of calm and cool judgment at the 
 B 
 
18 GOVERNOES-GENEEAL OP INDIA. 
 
 head of affairs in India. The British possessions were 
 menaced from two separate quarters. The Mahrattas were 
 pressing on them in the West and Central India, and 
 Hyder AH in the South ; but Hastings' masterly policy, 
 seconded strenuously by most courageous and competent 
 officers, was entirely successful. We have not space to go into 
 detail here. Suffice it to mention a little more fully two 
 matters of foreign policy, because they were brought 
 against the Governor-General as serious items in the 
 charges made regarding his conduct in the government. 
 Raja Cheyt Singh, then Zemindar of Benares, had been a 
 dependent of the Nawab Vizier of Oudh, who, in 1775, 
 transferred all his rights over him to the Company. He 
 was not an independent sovereign, but held his Zemindari 
 by a sunnud granted by the English Government, and 
 had executed an agreement binding himself to do every- 
 thing that was needful for the safety and defence of his 
 territory. For some time he had been behind in paying 
 his kists. At this period of imminent peril to the Company's 
 dominions, Sir Eyre Coote, the Commander-in-Chief, pro- 
 posed that, in addition to an increased tribute, he should 
 be required to furnish a body of cavalry for the defence of 
 the Empire. He evaded, and eventually refused this 
 demand. The Governor-General, who certainly bore no 
 good will towards Cheyt Singh for advances he had un- 
 doubtedly made to his adversaries in the Council, but who 
 as certainly cannot be justly accused of allowing private 
 animosity to influence his public conduct, determined to 
 inflict on him a fine for his contumacy. As Mr. Hastings 
 was about to visit Lucknow for the purpose of conference 
 with the Nawab Vizier regarding the affairs of Oudh, he 
 resolved to stay at Benares on his way. Arriving there 
 on August 15, 1781, he sent on the next day a formal 
 demand through the Resident for the payment of fifty 
 lakhs of rupees to the Company. On this being refused, 
 he placed him under arrest in his palace under a guard 
 of two companies of sepoys. The populace rose ; the 
 guard, who were unaccountably without ammunition, were 
 overcome and slain ; the Raja, whose palace was on the 
 
I. WARREN HASTINGS. 19 
 
 steep bank of the river, let himself down by a rope of 
 turbans, and fled in a boat to one of his fortresses. This 
 sudden insurrection set the whole country in a tumult. 
 The Governor-General was in imminent peril; but, in the 
 very centre of the storm, he retained a marvellous calmness 
 and presence of mind. Not only messages for assistance 
 and despatches to his colleagues, but papers of the utmost 
 moment regarding the Mahratta campaign, were sent in 
 secret writings contained in the ear-rings of the messen- 
 gers. On the fourth evening, hearing that the house he 
 was in was to be attacked, he retreated, with the five and 
 thirty English gentlemen and officers and about four 
 hundred sepoys who constituted his escort, to Chunar. 
 Help was coming from every quarter. He was beloved by 
 officers and sepoys alike, and ere long all resistance had 
 ceased. The storm lulled as swiftly as it arose. By 
 November the town and Zemindari of Benares were brought 
 under good and regular government. The territory was 
 placed in the possession of a cousin of Cheyt Singh, and 
 admirable police and municipal arrangements were made 
 for the town by Warren Hastings. 
 
 The second matter to which reference should here be 
 made is the case of the Begums of Oudh. Shuja-ud-Dow- 
 lah, the late Nawab of that country had left a large 
 amount of treasure which, contrary to Muhammadan law, 
 had been taken possession of by his mother and widow, 
 who also possessed certain jaghirs and a large force of armed 
 retainers. Some years before the recent events occurred, 
 they had lent a large sum of money to the present Nawab, 
 and their jaghirs had been guaranteed to them by the 
 English Government. All the proceedings at that time 
 were conducted by the majority against the judgment of 
 Mr. Hastings. At this juncture, the Nawab Vizier was 
 considerably in arrears in his payments to the Company, 
 and the Government of Bengal, sorely prest to carry on the 
 wars in other parts of India, demanded payment from the 
 Nawab, who, on a visit to Hastings when at Chunar, 
 earnestly requested that he might be permitted to resume 
 the Begums' jaghirs. Permission was granted not only 
 
20 GOVEBNOES-GENEEAL OF INDIA. 
 
 for the resumption of these estates, but for the appropria- 
 tion of his father's treasure. The whole country of 
 Oudh had been excited to the core by the revolt at 
 Benares, and it was proved by incontrovertible evidence 
 that the Begums had been actively assisting Cheyt Singh. 
 Hastings, deeply convinced of their guilt, permitted 
 the Resident to help the Nawab in obtaining the treasure 
 by the employment of British troops against the ill-disci- 
 plined levies of the Begums in their palace at Faizabad. 
 They were kept in confinement, and their two chief minis- 
 ters were compelled to surrender the treasure by more 
 rigorous treatment than the Resident ought to have per- 
 mitted. How far Hastings is answerable for this treat- 
 ment is a matter for serious consideration. It was just to 
 visit the contumacy and disaffection of the Begums with 
 retribution; but nothing approaching ill-treatment ought 
 ever to have been even tacitly sanctioned. 
 
 Warren Hastings' career in India was now fast drawing 
 to a close. He intended to retire at the beginning of 1784; 
 but affairs at Lucknow were so unsatisfactory that he 
 determined to proceed thither before he left the country. 
 Mrs. Hastings, therefore, sailed alone from Calcutta in 
 January and in the following month he proceeded to Luck- 
 now, deeply grieved at having to part with his beloved 
 companion. After arranging matters in Oudh, he returned 
 to Calcutta in November, and on the 1st of February, he 
 delivered over charge of the Government to the senior 
 member of Council, and sailed for England on the 8th of 
 that month. By that date peace and tranquillity had been 
 restored. Hyder Ali in the south had been defeated and 
 was now dead ; the Mahrattas had been subdued and were, 
 for a season, quiet ; the French had been vanquished ; and 
 Oudh and the countries bordering on Bengal were tran- 
 quil. The broad foundations for the English supremacy had 
 been laid, mainly by the genius of this one man. 
 
 Warren Hastings landed on the shores of his native land 
 on June 13, 1785, The reception he experienced at first 
 deluded him into the belief that the essential services he 
 had rendered the Empire would be appreciated, and that 
 
I. WARREN HASTINGS. 21 
 
 he would be suffered to remain at peace. In this he was 
 thoroughly mistaken. Hardly a week had elapsed before 
 notice of opposition to him was given by Mr. Burke, 
 in the House of Commons. The bitter conflict against 
 him which had been carried on in the Council Chamber 
 at Calcutta was renewed on a greater and more august 
 stage. The noblest orators of the age took a prominent 
 part in it. English statesmen like Pitt and Fox, eloquent 
 orators like Burke, Sheridan, and Grrey, eminent judges 
 like Thurlow and Ellen borough, took their respective 
 sides, and the whole of London society was divided by 
 the political turmoil. But behind them all, Francis, now 
 in the House of Commons, with his deep-seated malignity 
 and rancour, was prompting and instigating the attack. 
 After several animated debates in the House, in which 
 Pitt, then Prime Minister, changed sides, and, on compara- 
 tively trivial grounds, sanctioned the prosecution, it was 
 decided that Hastings should be impeached before the 
 House of Lords on various charges of mal-administration. 
 There then occurred a scene of unparalleled interest and 
 gorgeous solemnity. The trial took place in a splendid 
 hall of historical celebrity. This beautiful room, still in 
 existence, is situated opposite Westminster Abbey, and 
 adjoins the present House of Commons and is connected 
 by corridors with the House of Lords. Westminster Hall 
 had in by-gone days been the scene of the trial of Charles 
 the First. The impeachment of a commoner was, however, 
 an event of rare occurrence. It consequently attracted 
 all the most celebrated men and women in the metropolis. 
 The trial began on February 13, 1788. Lord Thurlow, 
 the Lord High Chancellor of England, presided. The 
 vast hall was thronged, and before that illustrious assem- 
 bly, Warren Hastings appeared and respectfully bowed as 
 he listened to the charges made against him. His appear- 
 ance is thus described by one of the spectators : " A man 
 very infirm and much indisposed, dressed in a plain, poppy- 
 coloured suit of clothes. His small, spare figure was, how- 
 ever, still upright, and his bearing showed a due mixture of 
 deference and dignity. A high forehead, with arched eye- 
 
22 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 brows overhanging soft, sad eyes, which presently flashed 
 defiance on his accusers, a long, sensitive nose that 
 contrasted with the firmer lines of his mouth and chin, 
 and the calm pallor of an oval face framed in brown 
 waving hair." The charges and Hastings' reply occupied 
 the first two days. The principal charges were concerned 
 with the invasion of Rohilkhand, treatment of the Eaja of 
 Benares, the spoliation of the Begums of Oudh, and the 
 treatment of the people of Bengal. On the third day 
 Burke rose and his speech, which was intended as an 
 introduction to all the charges, lasted four days. It was a 
 master-piece of ingenious eloquence, and its effect on the 
 audience was marvellous. Ladies sobbed and screamed 
 and fainted. The concluding words electrified all who 
 were present: " I impeach Warren Hastings 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 both sexes, in the 
 name of every age, in the name of every rank, I impeach 
 the common enemy and oppressor of all !" The only other 
 speech of thrilling interest was that of Sheridan, who 
 undertook the defence of the Begums of Oudh, and who 
 concluded his peroration by gracefully falling into the arms 
 of his friend Burke with the affectation of being completely 
 overcome. The first part of the trial lasted thirty-five 
 days, and the High Court of Parliament then adjourned. 
 
 The trial afterwards degenerated into a mere farce. It 
 dragged its slow length wearily alongr, and did not come 
 to an end for seven years. Then Warren Hastings, on 
 April 23, 1795, was acquitted on all the charges on which 
 he had been arraigned. The chief actors in the prose- 
 cution had considerably changed ; public opinion on it had 
 entirely altered ; and the popular interest in it had com- 
 pletely died out. With regard to this celebrated trial, it 
 ought to be borne in mind that much unworthy political 
 feeling lay 'behind it, and it is impossible to estimate 
 
I. WABREN HASTINGS. 23 
 
 it properly because we are unacquainted with all that was 
 transpiring behind the outward show. The broad fact, 
 however, remains that, after a solemn trial before the High 
 Court of Parliament, as represented by the most illustrious 
 peers of the realm, Warren Hastings was judicially acquit- 
 ted of cruelty, rapacity and injustice ; and we are called 
 upon by every principle of good feeling to believe the 
 concludiDg words of his defence, which we consider it fair 
 to quote as a set-off against Burke's passionate invective. 
 The opinion of the present day, confirmed by the recent 
 publication of the records of that period which had been 
 preserved in Calcutta, is more inclined to believe his state- 
 ments than the rhetoric of Macaulay, Sheridan, and Burke. 
 " In the presence/' he said, " of that Being from whom no 
 secrets are hid, I do, upon a full review and scrutiny of 
 my past life, unequivocally and conscientiously declare 
 that in the administration of that trust of Government 
 which was so many years confided to me, I did in no in- 
 stance intentionally sacrifice the interests of my country to 
 any private views of personal advantage ; that, according 
 to my best skill and judgment, I invariably promoted the 
 essential interests of my employers, the happiness and pros- 
 perity of the people committed to my charge, and the 
 welfare and honour of my country. " 
 
 The cost of this trial was ruinous. Warren Hastings, 
 who had never been a careful manager of his own private 
 resources, and who has been entirely acquitted by all im- 
 partial writers of having acquired wealth dishonestly, was 
 unable to meet the amount. He naturally applied to the 
 Prime Minister, expecting as he had been acquitted, that 
 the costs of the trial should be paid by the nation, but this 
 was declined. Eventually the Court of Directors voted 
 him a pension of 4,000 a year for twenty-eight years, 
 and lent him 50,000 without interest. He had been prom- 
 ised a peerage by some persons in office, but this 
 was impossible so long as Pitt and Fox were in power. 
 Later on he received the honour of being made one 
 of the King's Privy Councillors. At the renewal of the 
 East Indi^. Company's Charter in 1813, he was examined 
 
24 GOVBRNORS-GENEBAL OP INDIA. 
 
 as a witness by the House of Commons, and, as lie retired 
 after giving his evidence, the members rose and uncovered 
 as he withdrew a compliment which he much appreciat- 
 ed. The House of Lords did the same. There is no doubt 
 that, in his declining years, he was always received with 
 respect, on the rare occasions when he appeared in public. 
 The greater part of his time, however, he spent in the 
 ordinary occupations of a country gentleman. Before the 
 great trial, he had fulfilled one of the darling objects of 
 his life by purchasing Daylesford, the ancestral estate of 
 his family. He occupied himself in rebuilding and deco- 
 rating the old manor house, in riding, and in attempting 
 to raise Indian vegetables and fruits on English soil. He 
 also found pleasure and relaxation in literary pursuits. 
 He was fond of writing verses, and amused himself by 
 reading what he had just written to Mrs. Hastings and 
 their guests as they were seated at breakfast. The fol- 
 lowing is a specimen of these effusions, which, we believe, 
 has never yet appeared in print. It is taken from a poem 
 on a beautiful statue called the Dying G-ladiator. 
 
 It was written May 9, 1810. 
 
 THE DYING GLADIATOR. 
 
 " High in the foremost rank of sculptured stone 
 The Dying Gladiator long has shone. 
 Be mine the hope, with emulative fire, 
 To track the chisel, nor disgrace the lyre. 
 Low, but not prostrate, languid, yet with strength, 
 Too proud to expire in ease and at his length ; 
 Mark yon stern champion, in the act to die, 
 Oppose at once and yield to destiny. 
 
 * * ' * * * 
 
 While the large chest, with an ill-stifled sigh, 
 Scarce heard, bespeak the last convulsion nigh, 
 When from his throat the accumulated gore 
 Shall burst a deluge and he breathes no more, 
 We trace, we feel his sufferings, hear him groan, 
 Nor e'en suspicion whispers ' This is stone.' " 
 
 In innocent recreation such as this, varied by occasional 
 visits to old friends or to London, Warren Hastings spent 
 his long old age. 
 
I. WAEREN HASTINGS. 25 
 
 He enjoyed excellent health, but in 1818 it began to give 
 way. A few months or weeks of very severe suffering and 
 illness ensued, and on August 22, he quietly died. He 
 was buried just behind the little church of Daylesford, 
 which he had recently helped to repair. A bust was raised 
 to his memory in Westminster Abbey, where many great 
 Englishmen have been commemorated or laid. 
 
 Thus ended a life of singular variety and interest. As 
 a statesman Warren Hastings was peculiarly clear-headed, 
 calm, and resolute. There can be no question that the 
 structure of the English Empire in India owed to him the 
 broad and deep foundation on which it is built. What- 
 ever his fellow-countrymen may have said of him, the 
 inhabitants of Bengal were thoroughly attached to him. 
 The army of that day was devoted to him. Both Lord 
 Cornwallis and Sir John Shore, his immediate successors, 
 are witnesses to the love entertained for him by the people 
 of Bengal. As to his private character, we are unable to 
 attribute to him such unqualified praise. He was essen- 
 tially a great, but we can scarcely call him a good, man. 
 The principles on which he acted were evidently those of 
 a thorough man of the world, and appear to have been 
 grounded on mere expediency without a thought beyond. 
 He showed himself hard and unyielding in his private 
 enmities and dislikes; and, while, as men, we cannot 
 but admire the undaunted and courageous manner in 
 which he met the long and persistent attacks made upon 
 him, he does not seem to us to have understood the gentler 
 principles and the higher motives on which the lives of 
 Christian men are fashioned. 
 
LORD CORNWALLIS. 
 
II. LORD CORNWALLIS. 27 
 
 IT. LOKD CORNWALLIS. 
 
 A. D. 17861793 AND 1805. 
 
 BORN 1738; DIED, 1805. 
 
 " The secret consciousness 
 Of duty well performed ; the public voice 
 Of praise that honours virtue and rewards it ; 
 All these are yours." 
 
 Francis. 
 
 LORD Cornwallis had the high honour of twice holding 
 the office of G-over nor- General of Bengal. He was born on 
 the last day of the year 1738. Born of a noble family, he 
 was sent for the early part of his education to Eton, a school 
 of ancient foundation, near the royal borough of Windsor, 
 on the river Thames, where it was customary for many 
 of the nobility of England to send their sons. While there, 
 his father was promoted to an earldom, and he assumed 
 the second title of the family, and was known as Lord 
 Brome, One day during this period of his life, a school 
 fellow accidentally hit him in the eye with a stick, and 
 the blow was so serious that it occasioned a slight, but 
 permanent, obliquity of vision that lasted through life- At 
 the age of eighteen, he chose the army as his profession, 
 and, leaving school, he entered the First Regiment of the 
 King of England's Guards. Obtaining leave for the 
 purpose, he took a tour on the continent of -Europe, and, 
 for a short time, studied at the Royal Military Academy at 
 Turin in Italy. About this period the famous Seven Years' 
 War commenced, and Lord Brome hastened to join the 
 English army which had been despatched to take part in 
 it on the Prussian side. He was engaged, first as the 
 English General's aide-de-camp, and afterwards in command 
 of a regiment, in several of the battles that occurred. 
 
 Family circumstances soon demanded the young noble- 
 man's presence in England. His father died June 23, 1762, 
 and he succeeded him as Earl Cornwallis, taking his seat 
 in the English House of Peers. At first he served with his 
 
28 GOVEENOES-GENEEAL OP INDIA. 
 
 regiment in various parts of England and Ireland; but, 
 after a time, he received an appointment at the Court of 
 the King, and subsequently was given the more important 
 posts of Vice-Treasurer of Ireland and Constable of the 
 Tower of London. He seems to have been diligent in 
 attendance to his duties in the House of Lords, and to 
 have brought upon himself by his conduct there the honour 
 of an unmerited rebuke from that very unscrupulous writer 
 Junius. On July 14,1768, Lord Cornwallis married Miss 
 Jones, daughter of Colonel Jones, who commanded one of 
 the Eegiments of Guards. He and his wife lived together 
 most happily during the short period of their union. She 
 died eleven years after their marriage, her death being 
 accelerated, or, perhaps, wholly occasioned by her grief at 
 his absence during the American War of Independence. 
 She said herself that she died of a broken heart, and she 
 requested that a thorn-tree might be planted over her 
 grave above the part where her heart would lie, as an 
 emblem of the sad lot of her whom the ' pricking briars and 
 grieving thorns ' had so terribly lacerated. This touching 
 whim was tenderly complied with. 
 
 We have thus slightly anticipated the next most event- 
 ful period of Lord Cornwallis 7 life. From 1776 to 1781 
 he was engaged in the disastrous and humiliating war be- 
 tween England and her revolted colonies in America. 
 During this time he went to England twice, on the second 
 occasion being just in time to see his beloved wife once 
 more. His heart had yearned to enjoy the tranquil plea- 
 sure and the solid satisfaction of domestic life, and he felt 
 this so strongly that he resigned the high position he held 
 as second in command of the army in the field; but the sad 
 blow of Lady Cornwallis' death induced him to offer his 
 services again to his sovereign, and he became thence- 
 forward devotedly attached to the profession of arms, and 
 duty alone was the guiding star of his existence. The fol- 
 lowing incident will serve to illustrate the state of his 
 mind at this trying time. A few months after his return to 
 America, it was determined to attempt the capture of 
 Charlestown by assault, and, notwithstanding his responsi- 
 
II. LORD CORNWALLIS. 29 
 
 ble position, lie offered to join the storming party, and 
 to risk his life as one of the subordinate officers in 
 the perilous attempt. The assault, however, did not 
 take place. This anecdote is given rather to show the 
 chivalrous devotion of Lord Cornwallis as a part of 
 his personal character then as a piece of the history 
 of the War of Independence in America. It is not in- 
 tended to enter into the narrative of that war, as it is not 
 connected with India. Suffice it to say that it was carried 
 on in the most irregular fashion. Successes were never 
 followed up ; there were dissensions between the two chiefs, 
 Sir Henry Clinton and Lord Cornwallis ; and, above all, 
 there was the prevalent feeling among all ranks that they 
 were supporting a falling and unpopular cause. Notwith- 
 standing any opinion that may be formed as to the sound- 
 ness of his judgment on all matters, there can be no hesi- 
 tation in asserting that the most brilliant achievements of 
 the war were performed by Lord Cornwallis, and that, if 
 they could have been properly followed up, the final result 
 might have been very different. He was in command of 
 the troops at York Town, when, on the failure of relief by 
 sea, they were compelled to surrender to General Wash- 
 ington, the American Commander-in-Chief, which was 
 practically the final catastrophe in that ill-fated and ill- 
 managed war. He held out as long as he possibly could, 
 and, with soldierly instinct, conceived the plan of aban- 
 doning his position to the south of the river on which 
 York Town was situated, of withdrawing his forces to the 
 north bank, and of then cutting his way through the 
 enemy's troops in that quarter, and joining the remainder 
 of the British Army further north. This desperate plan 
 was frustrated by a violent storm arising and preventing 
 the passage of the greater part of his men. Foiled in this 
 endeavour, he was compelled to surrender on hard, but 
 sufficiently honorable, terms on October 19, 1781. He 
 was himself detained on a prisoner on parole, and eventu- 
 ally returned to England, where he arrived early in Janu- 
 ary, 1782. For some time he was on parole, that is, he 
 was prevented, on his word of honour, from serving 
 
30 GOVEENOBS-GENBEAL OP INDIA. 
 
 against the American colonists, for several months 
 until an exchange was effected between him and an 
 American officer of rank. The French had latterly 
 been acting as the allies of the American army, and had 
 been employed with them in the siege of York Town ; and, 
 as bearing on the chivalrous character of Lord Corn- 
 wallis, the following kindly notice of the French officers in 
 their treatment of their captive enemies is quoted : 
 " The treatment/' he wrote, " that we have received from 
 the enemy since our surrender has been perfectly good and 
 proper; but the kindness and attention that has been 
 shewn us by the French officers in particular their deli- 
 cate sensibility of our situation their generous and press- 
 ing offer of money has really gone beyond what I can 
 possibly describe, and will, I hope, make an impression on 
 the breast of every British officer, whenever the fortune of 
 war should put any of them in our power." This delicacy 
 of conduct and feeling reflected the greatest honour on 
 either side. 
 
 So soon as Lord Cornwallis had become a free agent, he 
 wished to be employed once more on military service. At 
 one period the English ministry then in authority were 
 desirous to appoint him Commander-in-chief in India, and 
 at another to give him the position of Governor- General. 
 He was at first most reluctant to accept either post. 
 Deeply impressed with the manifest disadvantage of the 
 state of affairs which had led to the scandalous dissensions 
 between Warren Hastings and his councillors at Calcutta, 
 he was very clear in expressing his reluctance to place 
 himself in a similar position, and very firm in adhering to 
 his resolution not to go out to India unless both offices 
 were conferred upon him, and he was invested with the 
 power of acting in emergencies on his own individual 
 responsibility. There was also prominently rising 
 in his mind the anxiety not to be separated from 
 his children, who were then attaining an age when 
 they needed most a father's tender care. There was 
 also still lurking in his heart the consuming ambition for 
 military glory. These sentiments are evident in the noble 
 
II. LORD CORNWALLIS. 31 
 
 expression of his views in a letter to a friend, when the 
 Prime Minister, Mr. Pitt, made him an offer of the combin- 
 ed civil and military power in India. This idea was in 
 an unsettled and inchoate condition, when he wrote : 
 " I told Lord Sydney," who spoke to him on the premier's 
 behalf, "that I could not think of it with pleasure, that it 
 did not agree with my favourite passion" (by which he 
 meant military renown), but that as soon as their plan was 
 
 ?ut into an intelligible form, I would consider whether 
 could undertake it with any appearance of utility to the 
 public ; and that if that should be the case, I might be 
 induced to sacrifice every prospect of comfort and happiness 
 in this world to the service of my country and the advan- 
 tage of my family. In short my mind is much agitated. 
 Yet inclination cries out every moment, Do not think of it; 
 why should you volunteer plague and misery ? Duty then 
 whispers, You are not sent here merely to please yourself ; 
 the wisdom of Providence has thought fit to put an insuper- 
 able bar to any great degree of happiness. Try to be of 
 some use ; serve your country and your friends ; your con- 
 fined circumstances do not allow you to contribute to the 
 happiness of others by generosity and extensive charity ; 
 take the means which God is willing to place in your hands." 
 In these high-minded words are to be found the keynote to 
 Lord Cornwallis' noble character. He felt that he had 
 not been sent into the world to please himself, and that he 
 was bound to sacrifice his own ease and his own inclinations 
 in order to be of service to his country and to mankind. 
 The negotiations regarding his appointment were protract- 
 ed ; and meanwhile he visited Berlin having been permit- 
 ted by Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, to be present 
 at the reviews of the Prussian army, and was em- 
 powered to enter into certain confidential negotiations 
 with that celebrated monarch. On his return to England 
 he received the double appointment of Governor- General 
 and Commander-in-Chief in India, with the full individual 
 responsibility that he desired. In announcing this to his 
 friend Colonel Boss, it seems that his acceptance of the 
 offer was still very much against the grain. "The pro- 
 
32 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF. INDIA. 
 
 posal of going to India, " he said, " has been pressed upon 
 me so strongly that, much against my will and with grief 
 of heart, I have been obliged to say yes, and to exchange 
 a life of ease and content, to encounter all the miseries of 
 command and public station." Seldom has such a splendid 
 position been so reluctantly accepted. 
 
 Lord Cornwallis set sail from England May 6, 1756, on 
 board the Swallow, and reached Calcutta on September 11. 
 One of his companions on the voyage was that distinguish- 
 ed Civilian, Mr. Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth, his 
 immediate successor, who had been appointed to a seat in 
 the Council at Calcutta, and who was also going out sorely 
 against his will and entirely from a sense of duty and for 
 the benefit of the State. A close intimacy between these 
 two eminent men sprang up and ripened into permanent 
 friendship; and many an earnest conversation regarding 
 the country to which they were hastening, its peoples, its 
 revenue systems, and its political condition, must have 
 lightened the tedium of the voyage. The day after the 
 arrival of the vessel Lord Cornwallis landed in the early 
 morning, and assumed charge of the offices of Governor- 
 General and Commander-in-Chief . His accession to power 
 marks an epoch in the history of the Company's territories 
 in India. The sound policy of appointing to the highest 
 position in the state a nobleman of unblemished character 
 and exalted rank was inaugurated. With only two excep- 
 tions this policy has since been steadily pursued. It is 
 now clearly seen how manifest is the advantage of having 
 at the head of affairs a statesman of independent views, 
 who, coming straight from office in England, can exercise 
 a calm and impartial judgment in all important matters, 
 entirely free from local prejudice and from party intrigue, 
 and can give the ruling authorities in England wise and 
 sound advice on both political and domestic questions, 
 while having the power, in cases of emergency, to act on 
 his own individual responsibility. There is, of course, the 
 disadvantage, on the one hand, of his being, to a great 
 extent, ignorant of the languages, the habits, and the his- 
 tory of the people of India, and the possibility of his being 
 
II. LORD COENWALLIS. 33 
 
 influenced by the representations of some prejudiced clique 
 by whom he may be surrounded. But, on the other hand, 
 the clear views and the extensive knowledge of human 
 character which a high-minded and independent statesman 
 was likely to possess, and the overwhelming probability 
 that, in all his ministrations, he will prove himself pure in 
 his policy and unbiassed in his judgment, far outweigh the 
 possible disadvantages on the other side. 
 
 The first task to which Lord Cornwallis applied himself 
 was the reformation of the Civil Service. Several attempts 
 in this direction had been made by Lord Olive, when Gov- 
 ernor of Bengal, and by Warren Hastings ; but they had 
 proved only the cleansing of the outside, while corruption 
 was rampant within. The whole system required to be 
 thoroughly remodelled. The Court of Directors were, we 
 believe, really anxious for the purity and the welfare of 
 their servants ; but they were very loathe to sanction any 
 change in the system which gave their officials very low 
 and inadequate salaries, while they were permitted to sup- 
 plement their incomes by commission and by trade. 
 Lord Cornwallis was the means of effecting a complete 
 revolution in this respect. Collectors, Magistrates, and 
 Judges received sufficient official remuneration, and they 
 were forbidden to accept presents or to interfere with 
 trade. It had hitherto been the custom for persons in high 
 authority in England to send out to India needy relatives 
 or dependents, expecting that they should be provided 
 with suitable and lucrative appointments. Lord Corn- 
 wallis set his face resolutely against this evil practice. The 
 Queen's Chamberlain, himself an English nobleman, sent 
 out a certain gentleman recommended by the Queen her- 
 self. " This has greatly distressed me ;" Lord Cornwallis 
 wrote to a friend, " but I have too much at stake. I can- 
 not desert the only system that can save this country even 
 for her sacred Majesty. 7 ' A short time afterwards he 
 wrote regarding this gentleman : " I told you how Lord 
 Ailesbury had distressed me by sending him out. He is 
 now writing in the Secretary's office for Es. 200 or Es. 250 
 a month, and I do not see the probability of my being able 
 C 
 
34 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 to give him anything better without deserving to be im- 
 peached. I am still persecuted every day by people com- 
 ing out with letters to me, who either get into jail or starve 
 in the foreign settlements." Thus setting his face as a 
 flint against every thing unworthy, it can easily be imag- 
 ined that at first Lord Cornwallis became very unpo- 
 pular ; but this soon past away, and, as the tone of English 
 society grew healthier, he became universally respected, 
 and, a much more difficult thing, really liked. It will be 
 well to give here the words of Mr. Shore, with whom he 
 was most intimately associated, and who had every means 
 of judging : " I live upon the happiest terms with Lord 
 Cornwallis," he wrote soon after their arrival ; " I love 
 and esteem his character. The honesty of his principles 
 is inflexible; he is manly, affable, and good-natured; and 
 of an excellent judgment. His health is sound, for he has 
 not had an hour's indisposition since first I saw him. If the 
 state of affairs will allow him to be popular, no Governor 
 would ever enjoy a greater share of popularity. Natives 
 and Europeans universally exclaim that Lord Cornwallis 5 
 arrival has saved the country." A few months later, 
 writing to Warren Hastings, he says, " The respect, esteem, 
 and regard which I have for him might subject my opinion 
 of his government to a suspicion of partiality. Yet I can- 
 not avoid mentioning that it has acquired the character of 
 vigour, consistency, and dignity. The system of patron- 
 age which you so justly reprobated, and which you always 
 found so grievous a tax, has been entirely subverted... His 
 situation was uncomfortable on our arrival ; he now 
 receives the respect due to his zeal, integrity, and indefatiga- 
 ble application/ 1 No one knew better the state and feel- 
 ing of Calcutta society than Mr. Shore, who had resided 
 there for a long period, including the whole of Warren 
 Hastings' administration. 
 
 With the regular and upright life of Lord Cornwallis as 
 an example always before it, the tone of English society in 
 the capital decidedly improved. The sad sins of drun- 
 kenness, irregular living, and gambling sensibly decreased : 
 certainly they did so in their outward manifestation. 
 
II. LOED COENWALLIS. 35 
 
 While most hospitable and regal in his public entertainments, 
 he was most quiet and unostentatious in his private habits, 
 and regular in his official duties. He arrived during the 
 worst season of the year, and evidently felt the heat and 
 sultry oppressiveness of the air very much. He wrote to 
 his dear son, Lord Brome, in one of the letters in which 
 he relieved the affectionate feelings of his heart, that he 
 was contented to broil at Calcutta, if only he heard that he 
 was well and happy. The tradition is that he used, when 
 he drove for pleasure, to go out in a buggy, or, as in some 
 verses by a late Bengal Civilian, 
 
 " In a one-horse-chay, 
 My Lord Cornwallis drove about; alack and well-a-day." 
 
 But he generally rode on horseback, accompanied by his 
 trusted friend and military secretary, Colonel Ross, and 
 usually went out twice a day. Writing to his son he gives 
 the following brief sketch of his daily life, which, he said, 
 was perfect clock-work, meaning that each day was just 
 like its predecessor, and that the same employments 
 occurred with dull regularity : " I get on horseback just 
 as the dawn of day begins to appear, ride on the s#me road 
 and the same distance, pass the whole forenoon after my 
 return from riding in doing business, and almost the same 
 exactly before sunset, then write and read over letters or 
 papers of business for two hours, sit down at nine, with 
 two or three officers of my family, to some fruit and a 
 biscuit, and go to bed soon after the clock strikes ten." 
 He then adds the remark that no hard-working boy at his 
 son's school could lead a duller life than this. 
 
 In August 1787, nearly a year after his arrival, Lord 
 Cornwallis thought it his duty to visit the Company's 
 stations and other places in the interior. Travelling in 
 those days was very different to what, owing to railways, 
 it is in these. Travellers had to go slowly and quietly up 
 the river Ganges in boats to reach the places accessible 
 from that stream, and to march, or to journey by palanquin 
 to localities more remote. The Governor- General was 
 about a month reaching Benares, and then proceeded to 
 
36 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 Fatehgarh, Cawnpore, and Allahabad. Being Com- 
 mander-in-chief as well as Governor- General, he kept his 
 eyes open to the state and efficiency of the army, and the 
 estimate he formed of the qualities of the sepoy army was 
 very high ; but he was by no means satisfied with the tone or 
 the soldierly qualities of the Company's European regi- 
 ments, and he recommended that a better class of men 
 should be recruited in England. Lord Cornwallis extended 
 his tour to Oudh, being very dissatisfied with the affairs of 
 that province,with the embarrassment occasioned to the Na- 
 wab Vizier by European adventurers, and with the relations 
 between that sovereign and the East India Company. 
 When at Lucknow, he wrote how much he was concerned 
 to be a witness to the disordered state of the finances and 
 Government of that country and of its desolate appearance. 
 " The evils were too alarming to admit of palliation, and I 
 thought it my duty to exhort the Nawab in the most 
 friendly manner to endeavour to apply effectual remedies 
 to them. " The affairs of Oudh were, in fact, culminating 
 towards that pitiable point that required the direct inter- 
 ference which his successor was obliged to enforce. He 
 returned to Calcutta in December. He was so fortunate 
 in wind and weather, he said, that he completed his expe- 
 dition, during which, by land and water, he had travelled 
 more than two thousand two hundred miles in less than 
 four months, without omitting any material object of his 
 tour. 
 
 The next two years were spent in hard and unremitting 
 work in the trying climate of Calcutta. The labour which 
 chiefly pressed on his mind was the preparation of the 
 measure known as the Zemindari Settlement, by which his 
 administration has principally been rendered famous. 
 Since the East India Company had " stood forth as Dewan, ;; 
 the necessity for a thorough and business-like system for 
 the collection of the revenue had been apparent. It had 
 incessantly occupied the attention of the ablest civil officials 
 of the Government, and it had forced itself into promi- 
 nence in the counsels of the Court of Directors. Vigorous 
 attempts in this direction had been made by Warren 
 
II. LORD COENWALLIS. 37 
 
 Hastings and his compeers, which were frustrated by the 
 dissensions at the Council Board. The Court of Directors 
 were now determined that the matter should have the care- 
 ful investigation it deserved, and that nothing should be 
 permitted to hinder its completion. It has been stated by 
 Mr. Mill, a peculiarly prejudiced historian, that, " full of 
 the aristocratical ideas of Modern Europe, the aristo- 
 cratical person now at the head of the Govern- 
 ment," namely, Lord Cornwallis, the subject of the pre- 
 sent memoir, "Avowed his attention of establishing an 
 aristocracy upon the European model. " It has been clear- 
 ly proved that nothing could have been further removed 
 from the fact than this rash and uncharitable assertion. 
 When he left the shores of England, Lord Cornwallis 
 knew as much about the Zemindari tenure of land 
 as about the cultivation of paddy. He left with the 
 fixed determination to do what was right on this and on 
 every other subject : but with no other fixed determination, 
 for he was a man of singularly calm and deliberate judg- 
 ment. The scheme was, in fact, not his alone ; but was the 
 conclusion come to by the most experienced revenue 
 officers of Bengal, it received the mature consideration of 
 the Court of Directors, and was not sanctioned by them 
 and by the Board of Control until some time after it had 
 obtained Lord Cornwallis's approval. In April, 1786, the 
 month he quitted England, the Court issued instructions 
 to the G-overnor-General-in-Council to consider this great 
 subject. They were dissatisfied with former attempts at 
 settlement, and at the former annual arrangements. 
 " A moderate assessment," they wrote, " regularly and 
 punctually collected, unites the considerations of our in- 
 terests with the happiness of the people, and security of 
 the landholders, more rationally than any imperfect collec- 
 tion of an exaggerated assessment to be enforced with 
 severity and vexation." They particularly stated their de- 
 sire that each contract should be made with the Zemindar 
 himself, so that " the humane intention of the legislature 
 towards the native landholder should be strictly fulfilled." 
 These were Lord Cornwallis's instructions before he left 
 
38 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 England. One of the best revenue officers, Mr. Shore, 
 was appointed to co-operate with him, and was his compan- 
 ion on board ship. On reaching Calcutta every available 
 information was solicited, and, meanwhile, the old annual 
 leases were continued. Report after report, letter on 
 letter, were sent by the most experienced Collectors, notably 
 one by Mr. Law, Collector of Behar, to the Council of 
 Revenue, of which Mr. Shore, as senior member of Council, 
 was President. The evidence in favour of making a set- 
 tlement with the Zemindars direct was so overwhelming 
 that his final report, dated June 18, 1789, strongly recom- 
 mended that it should be adopted. The only point on 
 which the Governor-General and he differed was as to 
 whether the settlement thus made should be for a limited 
 period of ten years in the first instance, or whether it 
 should be permanent. Mr. Shore preferred the former 
 plan in order that the new system might be carefully 
 tested ; but Lord Cornwallis overruled him on this point, 
 and recommended that the settlement should be permanent 
 from the very commencement of the scheme. The final 
 sanction of the Court of Directors was not given for three 
 years ; but, on March 22, 1793, the final proclamation was 
 issued establishing the Zemindari settlement, which has. 
 ever since, been the settlement of Lower Bengal, and has 
 been irrevocably associated with the great name of Lord 
 Cornwallis. Such is a brief history of the passing of this 
 important and famous measure. It does not fall within 
 the scope of this brief sketch to compare the Zemindari 
 system of Bengal with the other revenue systems of India ; 
 but it will be well to give the testimony of an independent, 
 and, at one time, a rather prejudiced witness, as to its 
 beneficent and satisfactory results, "We have," wrote 
 Captain, afterwards Sir John Malcolm, the distinguished 
 administrator and writer on Indian affairs, " we have just 
 passed through one of the finest and most highly cultivated 
 tracts of country in the world. What adds to my pleasure 
 in contemplating these scenes, is to hear every man 1 ask 
 tell me how jungles have been cleared, and waste lands 
 brought under cultivation. I confess, before I travelled 
 
II. LOED COKNWALLIS. 39 
 
 through these provinces, I was not perfectly reconciled to 
 this system. I have now observed its effects, and must 
 ever think it one of the most wise and benevolent plans 
 that ever was conceived by a Government to render its 
 subjects rich and comfortable." 
 
 The introduction of the Zemindari system was the 
 principal domestic measure that distinguished Lord Corn- 
 wallis's administration ; the invasion of Mysore was the 
 chief military one. He had left England with the strictest 
 injunctions to use his utmost endeavours to maintain 
 peace. His constant aim was to carry this policy of peace 
 into effect; but Tippu Sultan, the hereditary enemy of 
 England, was bent on renewing hostilities. He want only 
 attacked the Maharajah of Travancore, who was an ally of 
 the English Government, and that Government was in 
 honour bound to defend and assist him. The Government 
 of Madras was then in weak and incompetent hands. No 
 adequate preparations for war had been made, and Lord 
 Cornwallis was about to proceed thither, and take the 
 chief command himself, when General Medows was appoint- 
 ed Governor and Commander-in-chief of that Presidency, 
 and for a time, he abandoned this design. General Medows, 
 however, though a brave and chivalrous officer, proved 
 himself to be an incompetent commander, and the early 
 part of the campaign was desultory and inconclusive. The 
 Governor-General was then compelled to carry into effect 
 his original plan. He reached Madras on December 
 12,1790, and at once took the command with his own 
 vigorous hands, and carried the war straight into the 
 heart of the enemy's country. The first point aimed at 
 was Bangalore. On March 5, he invested that town. In 
 two days the pettah surrounding it was carried. On the 
 20th the fort was carried by assault, and Tippu withdrew 
 to Seringapatam, his capital. The advance thither was 
 delayed by a junction with the forces of the Nizam, 
 and it was not till May 20 that the army came in sight of 
 the minarets and forts of that famous citadel. But just 
 as victory seemed within grasp, the English army, owing 
 to insufficient supplies and siege appliances, was obliged to 
 
40 GOVERNORS- GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 retire, after having beaten the enemy in the open field. 
 By the middle of June, the army was again at Bangalore. 
 While there, it was considerably reinforced. Siege trains 
 and every preparation for attack was made, and several of 
 the fine hill-forts in the neighbourhood, such as Nandidroog 
 and Savandroog were taken, and Lord Cornwallis, whose 
 spirits had drooped during the retreat, gained heart again. 
 By the 5th of February, 1792, the English army was once 
 more in sight of Seringapatam, and burning to avenge the 
 cruelties and indignities to which Tippu had subjected his 
 prisoners. A night assault was made on Tippu's camp, 
 which lay between the advancing army and the fort, Lord 
 Cornwallis himself commanding the centre division, and he 
 was slightly wounded on the occasion. Defeated under the 
 very walls of his capital, Tippu retired into the fort ; but 
 he lost heart, and was induced by his officers to enter into 
 negotiations for peace. After considerable delay owing 
 to the extreme reluctance of Sultan to accede to the 
 Governor-General's terms, a treaty was signed. The terms 
 were the cession of half his territories, and the payment of 
 a large indemnity, two of his sons being surrendered as 
 hostages. The ceded territory was shared with the half- 
 hearted allies, the Mahrattas and the Nizam, and Coorg was 
 restored to its rightful Hindu raja. The two young 
 princes, aged eight and ten, were received by the kind- 
 hearted Governor-General not only with regal magnificence, 
 but with truly paternal affection. The scene of their 
 reception was made the subject of an admirable painting, 
 which was afterwards engraved. Lord Cornwallis scrupu- 
 lously fulfilled his promise to treat them with care and atten- 
 tion, and, as Colonel Wilks remarked, the transfer of these 
 youths to the fatherly protection of the Governor-General, 
 as implored by the Sultan's Yakeel in Eastern hyperbole, 
 " ceased to be merely an oriental image, if determined by 
 the test of paternal attentions." Some have expressed 
 the doubt whether Lord Cornwallis was wise in according to 
 Tippu such comparatively light terms, and, on looking 
 back to that time with the knowledge of all the subsequent 
 marvellous events of Indian history, it is easy to make such 
 
II. LORD COENWALLIS. 41 
 
 an assertion ; but the Governor-General's policy must be 
 studied in the light of the situation then occupied, and, thus 
 regarded, it can scarcely be condemned. The feeling of the 
 Court of Directors and of the English ministry of that day 
 was strongly in favour of peace. There was no well-founded 
 and carefully considered plan for English dominion in India, 
 and the external safety and internal administration were the 
 first objects of Lord Cornwallis's Indian policy. It was 
 thoroughly approved by the English Government. The 
 king created him a Marquis, being a step higher in the 
 peerage than he possessed, and Mr. Pitt, then Prime 
 Minister, offered him a seat in the Cabinet on his return to 
 England, which he declined on the plea of his deficiency in 
 oratorical power, which he considered essential to the occu- 
 pancy of such an influential post. 
 
 On the conclusion of peace Lord Cornwallis returned to 
 Calcutta, and resumed the quieter duties of home admini- 
 stration. He was not only deeply interested in the intro- 
 duction of the new Permanent Settlement of the revenue ; 
 but, with the assistance of such able advisers as Mr. after- 
 wards Sir George, Barlow, he was busily engaged in preparing 
 a set of Judicial and Civil Regulations, which were promul- 
 gated in the year 1793. These Regulations were the laws 
 by which British India was governed until the production 
 of the more elaborate codes of modern times. These Regu- 
 lations bear the marks of careful thought, and were most 
 admirably adopted to the condition of Hindu society and 
 of English rule. " The change thus effected, ;; Sir George 
 Barlow considered, " did not consist in alterations in the 
 ancient customs and usages of the country affecting the 
 rights of person and property. It related chiefly to 
 the giving security to those rights by affording to 
 our native subjects the means of obtaining redress 
 against any infringement of them, either by the Gov- 
 ernment itself , its officers, or individuals of any de- 
 scription." Sir William Jones awarded to these Regula- 
 tions the highest praise, and another eminent lawyer said 
 that they would do credit to any legislation of ancient or 
 modern times. They were in full force for more than 
 
42 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 seventy years, and they should be compared with the 
 attempts at legislation that preceded them rather than 
 with the present Codes, which are the product of some 
 of the acutest minds of the nineteenth century. 
 
 Lord Cornwallis gave over charge of the Government to 
 his successor, Sir John Shore, who, a few months previous- 
 ly, had come again from England for this purpose, on 
 August 17, 1793, but he did not leave India till October 10, 
 when he embarked at Madras on board the same vessel 
 which had brought him out seven years before. He reach- 
 ed England on the 3rd of February following. The suc- 
 cess of his administration in India had so impressed the 
 English ministry that they were most anxious to employ in 
 the public service one who had shown himself so upright, 
 moderate, and judicious. He had looked forward to a 
 season of retirement and repose ; but was ready, at the call 
 of duty, to place his services at the disposal of his king and 
 country whenever and wherever they were needed. He 
 had scarcely been three months in his native land, when he 
 was sent to Flanders to carry on a delicate negotiation 
 with the Emperor of Austria at Brussels, where the armies 
 of England, Austria, and Prussia were acting in alliance 
 against France. At the beginning of 1795 he was appoint- 
 ed Master General of the Ordnance and a Cabinet Minister. 
 It was a busy office in a time of war and excitement ; but 
 he found sufficient leisure to think and write about Indian 
 affairs. In a short time, a threatened mutiny among 
 the officers of the Bengal army occasioned great anxiety 
 in England ; and it was thought advisable to send out 
 at once an officer of experience to allay the excitement 
 in Bengal, and to use his authority and influence to put 
 matters on a more satisfactory footing. The authorities 
 in England very naturally turned to one in whom they 
 had so much confidence and who had gained such recent 
 experience as Lord Cornwallis, and he was appointed to 
 proceed to India once more as Governor-General on this 
 important mission. The necessity for this course happily 
 passed away. Lord Cornwallis thankfully withdrew, and 
 Lord Mornington, after wards LordWeliesley, was appointed 
 
II. LOED CORNWALLIS. 4$ 
 
 Governor-General, a young and powerful statesman in 
 whose capacity lie had every reason to believe. 
 
 The three years from 1798 to 1801 were spent in a more 
 trying and arduous position than even that of Governor- 
 General of India. Ireland was in a state of rebellion, and 
 it was necessary to place at the head of affairs there some 
 well-tried, firm, but conciliatory administrator. The 
 English ministry decided to request Lord Cornwallis to go 
 to Dublin. With extreme reluctance he responded to the 
 call, because he considered the call of duty, and he was 
 appointed Viceroy of Ireland. This was an office in which 
 it was impossible to anticipate any increase to his well 
 established reputation, though it might reasonably be 
 expected that his honour would suffer no eclipse. He was 
 immediately exposed to a cross-fire of criticism from two 
 opposite quarters. There was the wild Irish party on the 
 one side, and the strong and highly irritated section of the 
 British party on the other; but it is not too much to 
 affirm that the Marquis Cornwallis bore himself in his 
 exalted but irksome position with even-handed impartiality. 
 A desultory French invasion of Ireland was defeated ; the 
 Irish rebellion was suppressed ; and the Act of Union was 
 effected during the eventful months that he held the 
 viceregal reins. His influence prevented the rebellion 
 being treated as a religious war between the Roman 
 Catholics and Protestants, and his urbanity and firmness 
 smoothed the way for the legislative union. The Parlia- 
 ment in Dublin was abolished, and the full legislative 
 authority was placed in the hands of the Imperial 
 Parliament at Westminster, where it has since been 
 retained. All this was done, not without difficulty and 
 friction, but with a little as the circumstances permitted 
 under the wise and conciliatory guidance of the Viceroy. 
 To himself personally it was a time of great anxiety and 
 tension. "The life of a Lord Lieutenant of Ireland," 
 he wrote to a friend, " comes up to my idea of perfect 
 misery. Of all the situations which I ever held, the 
 present is by far the most intolerable to me, and I have 
 often wished myself back in Bengal." This was no figure 
 
44 GOVERNOBS-GENEEAL OP INDIA. 
 
 of speech. He kept up his interest in India, and his 
 correspondence with friends in Calcutta. The sense of 
 doing good service for his country sustained him during 
 this trying period, and he thus expressed his joy at lay- 
 ing down this irksome employment : " The joy that I 
 feel at being released will be greatly alloyed by my 
 apprehension that I am leaving a people who love me and 
 whose happiness I had so nearly secured." 
 
 On May 25, 1801, he laid aside this appointment of 
 anxiety, worry and toil. It was a time of intense peril 
 and apprehension when he returned to England. A French 
 invasion was expected. The whole country was in a 
 fever of preparation and defence. It was no time for re- 
 tirement and relaxation such as he had been looking for- 
 ward to. Every man was required to do his duty. Lord 
 Cornwallis did not shrink from his. He was appointed to 
 command the Eastern Division of the army. But there 
 was no invasion. Napoleon Buonaparte, the First Consul 
 of France, was then inclined for peace with England, and 
 the Marquis Cornwallis was chosen by the English Govern- 
 ment as the fittest man to conduct the negotiations on 
 behalf of England. A more acute and subtle diplomatist 
 might have been selected ; but not a more honest and 
 determined one. The negotiations required the exer- 
 cise of all his firmness. He had two interviews with 
 Napoleon himself, but was ultimately referred to the great 
 man's brother Joseph, who was then at Amiens. Here, 
 after the negotiations had been protracted for four months, 
 the treaty of Amiens was signed on March 27, 1802. Lord 
 Cornwallis described it as ensuring " a peace that will not 
 dishonour the country and that will afford as reasonable a 
 prospect of future safety as the present very extraordinary 
 circumstances of Europe will permit." It may be added 
 that the peace consequent on this treaty lasted scarcely 
 fourteen months. This was not attributable to the weakness 
 of the English plenipotentiary or to the inefficiency of his 
 diplomacy, but to the restless ambition of Napoleon. 
 
 The next year or so was spent by Lord Cornwallis in 
 comparative retirement and in the enjoyment of the usual 
 
II. LORD COENWALLIS. 45 
 
 pursuits of an English gentleman living in the country, and 
 occasionally visiting the great metropolis ; but he was soon 
 to turn his steps once more to the scene of his former toils 
 and triumphs. The Court of Directors were most uneasy 
 by reason of the aggressive and vigorous policy of Lord 
 Wellesley, the Governor- General, and of the financial 
 difficulties into which that policy had brought the Govern- 
 ment of India. The King's ministers agreed with them 
 that a statesman of known ability and of moderation should 
 be sent out for the purpose of negotiating peace and of 
 placing the finances of the country on a more satisfactory 
 basis. They again turned to Lord Cornwallis. Like an 
 old war-horse, he immediately responded to the clarion 
 call of duty. He was gratified at being summoned to per- 
 form one more piece of service for his country. So far as 
 health was concerned, it was a very hazardous venture for a 
 man to return to India at his age. He was then sixty-six, 
 and his health was not particularly good even in his native 
 land ; but it seemed to him right to go, and so he went. He 
 assumed charge of the Government at Calcutta on July 30, 
 1805. He found that there was still war against Holkar, 
 and, as he said, it could hardly be asserted that there was 
 peace between the Government and Sindhia. So he resolved, 
 soon after his arrival, to proceed up-country with the 
 object of securing peace by negotiation and of effecting 
 this without loss of national honour. He was, however, 
 himself unable to carry out this policy. This was left to 
 his immediate successor. His enfeebled frame was too 
 weak to bear this fresh experience of the enervating cli- 
 mate of India. He proceeded with his suite up the Ganges, 
 but, when he reached Ghazipore, he was carried from his 
 boat to a house at that station, and there, on October 5, he 
 died. The brave spirit and clear mind held sway over him 
 almost to the very end, for he dictated despatches up to a 
 few hours of his death with his old power of definiteness 
 and decision. Even though Lord Wellesley 's officers and 
 lieutenants were chafing under the reversal of his policy, 
 they could not refrain from admiring the veteran statesman, 
 who was dying in the discharge of the duty laid upon him. 
 
46 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 " You have been witness, " wrote Captain Malcolm, one of 
 the most eminent of them, to Mr. George Edmonstone, 
 who was the Secretary in attendance, " to a most extra- 
 ordinary and impressive scene, the close of the life of a 
 great and good man, who has continued to the last to 
 devote himself to his country. Few have lived with such 
 honour; no one ever died with more glory. " 
 
 Thus died at his post, in the faithful discharge of his 
 duty, one who had for many years been an active servant 
 of his king and country. His private character was most 
 estimable. He was one of the most affectionate of men, 
 and, if it had not pleased God to take from him in early 
 life the companion whom he tenderly loved, he would have 
 delighted in all the pleasures and endearments of domes- 
 tic happiness ; and, as it was, his letters to his children, 
 which appear in the published collection of his despatches, 
 enliven the dulness of his official correspondence. He was 
 a faithful and consistent friend. Some may think that he 
 was too cautious in his official policy in India ; but it must 
 always be borne in mind that the authorities in England 
 did not desire the extension of their Indian territory, and 
 continually urged on him and others in power in India the 
 stringent necessity of a policy of economy and peace, 
 which required the genius of a Warren Hastings or a 
 Wellesley to infringe. Lord Cornwallis was a trans- 
 parently honest character. His abilities were of a very 
 high order. He had not, however, the brilliant capacity of 
 some other Indian statesmen whom it would be easy to 
 name, but with whom it is scarcely fair to compare him. 
 He acquired, besides his Indian, a European, reputation; 
 but, in our opinion, his chief merit consisted in his having 
 been the means of raising the tone of English society in 
 Calcutta, in having sincerely laboured for the welfare of 
 the agricultural community of Bengal, and in having made 
 the first forward step in consolidating the civil and 
 criminal law. 
 
SIR JOHN SHORE : 
 
 AFTERWARDS, 
 
 LORD TEIGNMOUTH. 
 
III. SIR JOHN SHORE. 49 
 
 III. SIR JOHN SHORE, 
 
 AFTERWARDS 
 
 LORD TEIGNMOUTH. 
 A.D. 17511834 A.D. 
 
 " There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats ; 
 For I am arm'd so strong in honesty, 
 That they pass by me as the idle Wind, 
 Which I respect not." 
 
 Shakespeare, 
 
 JOHN SHORE, afterwards Lord Teign mouth, who suc- 
 ceeded Lord Cornwallis as Governor-General, was born 
 on October 8, 1751. His father died while he was jet a 
 child, and he was left solely to the charge of his mother, 
 to whom he owed his early influences for good, and to 
 whom he was most tenderly attached. During his first 
 years in India he corresponded with her regularly, writing- 
 to her long journal-letters ; and it was very much to her 
 loving exhortations that he kept himself unsullied and 
 pure amidst the evil example that surrounded him. Hav- 
 ing received a writership in the East India Company's 
 service, he landed at Calcutta in May, 1769. This was 
 only twelve years after the battle of Plassey, by which the 
 sovereignty of Bengal had past into the hands of Eng- 
 land. Just four years previously the Great Mogul had 
 made to the English a grant of the revenues of the three 
 great provinces of Bengal, Orissa, and Behar; but the 
 collection of the revenue and the administration of justice 
 had been left in the hands of the Nawab's former officials 
 There were certainly English officers answering somewhat 
 to the present Collectors, who were called Supervisors 
 but the Company, perfectly unconscious of future domin- 
 ion and power, regarded their servants more as commer- 
 cial than as political agents, permitted them to engage in 
 trade, and gave those who were employed in revenue 
 duties the most inadequate salaries. 
 D 
 
50 GOVERNOBS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 The Calcutta in which Mr. Shore found himself on his 
 arrival was as different from the Calcutta of the latter 
 half of the present century as a mud hovel is from a 
 stately marble palace. The houses in which the European 
 officials resided were small and ill prepared against the 
 fiery heat of Lower Bengal. Few had Venetian blinds, 
 and rattan tatties were used to exclude the wind or rain. 
 The town was likewise most unhealthy and offensive from 
 its insanitary condition. The state of society was as bad 
 as the condition of the town. The restraints of religion 
 and even of common morality were openly abandoned, and 
 peculation and corruption in pecuniary matters reigned 
 supreme. Mr. Shore was appointed to the Secret Political 
 Department on his arrival. His pay, it may be remarked, 
 was only 82 sicca rupees a month, while he had to pay 
 nearly double that amount for house-rent. He at once 
 began to exercise rigid economy and self-denial ; and, 
 rather than subject his mother to expense on his account, 
 he denied himself every luxury, and even necessities, such 
 as keeping a horse. He remained in the physically and 
 morally polluting atmosphere of the Calcutta of those days 
 for some sixteen months. 
 
 The Supervisors of revenue whom we mentioned above 
 were placed under the control of two Councils one at 
 Moorshedabad for Bengal and the other at Patna for Behar. 
 Mr, Shore was appointed Assistant Supervisor at the 
 former place in September, 1770. He plunged at once into 
 abundance of work. Practically most of the judicial and 
 revenue business fell to his share, owing to the indolence of 
 the chief of his department and to the absence of the second. 
 He threw himself heartily into this work. As the court was 
 some distance from his place of residence, he, now and then, 
 in times of emergency, remained as much as two whole days 
 trying cases. The greater part of the time he was at Moor- 
 shedabad he lived in a country house belonging to the 
 Nawab, about four miles from the city. It was beautifully 
 situated in the midst of a garden, where he enjoyed, as he 
 wrote to his mother, " cooing doves, whistling black birds, 
 and a purling stream " ; but he felt much the comparative 
 
III. SIR JOHN SHORE. 51 
 
 solitude when there, and employed his leisure time in dili- 
 gently studying Hindustani, Arabic, and Persian, not for- 
 getting Bengali, the language of his district, studies which 
 were afterwards turned to good account in the promotion 
 of Oriental learning. It may be mentioned here that he 
 contracted a sincere friendship for the Munshi who 
 taught him these languages, who subsequently offered to 
 assist him by a loan when he was in difficulties, and whose 
 children he helped, after their father's death, by using his 
 services as an arbitrator in a family dispute. 
 
 Mr. Shore reached Moorshedabad before the end of the 
 great famine of 1770, the memory of which never forsook 
 him. This was caused by the failure of the monsoon, and 
 Dot, as was ignorantly imagined at that time, by the mono- 
 polies of the English authorities, and Mr. Shore thought it 
 worth his while to vindicate the latter from these calumnies. 
 He was at this period brought into close intercourse with the 
 people, and acquired an intimate acquaintance with their 
 habits and feelings, as well as with the revenue system of 
 the country, which did him good service hereafter and 
 tended to his rapid promotion. He had also the advantage 
 of a practical knowledge of Bengali farming, a farm being 
 placed under his personal superintendence, a practice 
 which was then permitted to the Company's servants, but 
 very properly was afterwards prohibited. He was a very 
 young man at this time, and it was most creditable to him 
 to be enabled to record, as he did soon afterwards, that 
 he was so well acquainted with the religious and judicial 
 customs of the people that he never willingly infringed 
 them in his decisions. 
 
 In 1772 a change was made by Mr. Warren Hastings in 
 the revenue arrangements. A five years' lease was entered 
 into with the Zemindars ; and, ab the same time, a change 
 was made in the administration. The Supervisors were 
 called Collectors, the Council of Moorshedabad was abolish- 
 ed, and its duties were transferred to a Council of Revenue at 
 Calcutta. Mr. Shore was appointed First Assistant to the 
 Resident of Rajshahi ; but was speedily transferred to 
 Calcutta to a seat on the Revenue Council there. He was 
 
52 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 thus transplanted from the quiet, but busy, life upcountry to 
 the stormy and turbulent soil of English society in the capital. 
 The storms and commotions were incessant. There were 
 dissensions in the Council Board in Government House, War- 
 ren Hastings, the Governor- General of Bengal, being 
 opposed by the majority of his Council. Though Mr. 
 Shore owed his appointment at Calcutta to the opponents 
 of the Governor- Genera], he endeavoured to keep himself 
 aloof from these unworthy party squabbles, and was toler- 
 ably successful. Ill health drove him for a season to 
 Madras and Pgndicherry ; but he soon returned in 
 invigorated health to the depressing climate and the 
 unseemly contentions of Calcutta. His absence on the 
 coast prevented him from losing his appointment, all 
 the other members of the Board having been dismissed 
 owing to the peculations and mismanagement of their 
 Dewan. During the next few years Mr. Shore still 
 kept himself free from party strife ; and very few could 
 say, as he was able to say, that, while political feeling 
 ran high, he had kept himself upon good terms with one 
 party without making himself offensive to the other. He 
 expressed himself at that time as generally unfavourable 
 to Mr. Hastings' views and actions ; but he subsequently 
 became his firm and consistent friend. When, in 1786, Mr. 
 Hastings, with the object of setting the collection of revenue 
 on a more satisfactory basis, abolished the Provincial Coun- 
 cils and the Revenue Council at Calcutta, and created a 
 new Board of Revenue, he appointed Mr. Shore the second 
 member of it. Mr. Anderson, the gentleman whom he 
 had selected for the first place, had recommended Mr. 
 Shore, and when Warren Hastings expressed his astonish- 
 ment, as he had hitherto regarded Mr. Shore as his per- 
 sonal enemy, Mr. Anderson quietly said : " Appoint Mr. 
 Shore ; and in six weeks you and he will have formed 
 a friendship." This prediction was entirely fulfilled. 
 
 For the next five years Mr. Shore was busily occupied 
 in his new post. Owing to the frequent absence of the 
 first member, he generally presided, and he worked in 
 complete harmony with the Governor-General. In fact. 
 
III. SIB JOHN SHORE. 53 
 
 Mr. Francis, the great antagonist of Warren Hastings, 
 having left Calcutta, comparative tranquillity, prevailed in 
 English society there. On one occasion Mr. Shore was 
 commissioned to settle the revenue in the extensive pro- 
 vinces of Dacca and Patna, and, when he waited on 
 Warren Hastings to receive his final instructions, they were 
 given in the following most characteristic sentence : 
 " You know your business, Shore ; and good luck to you." 
 
 Those were days when corruption, even among English 
 officials, was rife, and Mr. Shore himself afterwards allud- 
 ed to the opportunities he might then have employed to 
 acquire ill-gotten wealth, in these words : " I have long 
 held a situation where, if I had been half the knave every- 
 one is supposed by the patriots of England to be, I might 
 have secured 40,000 or 50,000 per annum for the last 
 four years. Believe me, I have never repented I have not 
 done it ; and am more happy in the savings of my salary, 
 which is avowed, than I should be in ten times the amount 
 acquired by means I dare not avow." At first, as already 
 mentioned, his salary had been very small ; but he had 
 now the pleasure to be in such a position as to offer assist- 
 ance to the mother whom he so dearly loved. Soon after- 
 wards he experienced the poignant sorrow of hearing of 
 her death. His health had been at this time seriously shat- 
 tered by the loss of his friend and cousin, Mr. Augustus 
 Cleveland, whose memory as the benefactor of the Sonthal 
 people is still green; and this additional calamity completely 
 broke it down. He embarked for England early in 1785, 
 being a fellow-passenger of Warren Hastings, whose com- 
 panionship he much valued. 
 
 Mr. Shore reached his native land in June 1785, feeling 
 very naturally in low spirits, for he had looked forward with 
 pleasurable anticipation to see his mother once more, and 
 she was no longer alive to greet him, and he had parted 
 from his only brother, when merely a child, so he scarcely 
 knew him. On a visit to this brother, however, who was 
 now a clergyman in the country of Devon, he met a young 
 lady, named Cornish, to whom he became much attached. 
 They were united in the following February, and, for nearly 
 
54 GOVERNOBS-GENEBAL OF INDIA. 
 
 half a century, lived together in the happy married state. 
 He had hoped to give up the Indian service and to remain 
 in England ; but, within a fortnight after his marriage, he 
 was summoned by the call of duty to return to the country 
 where he had been of so much use, and where he had set 
 so clear an example of good. Eighteen months previously 
 Mr. Pitt, the Prime Minister of England, had brought 
 in a Bill for the better management of the East India Com- 
 pany's territories, which had passed through Parliament 
 and become law. The principal provisions were the creation 
 of a Board, called the Board of Control, by which Indian 
 affairs came under the cognizance of the Crown, and the 
 Presidencies of Bombay and Madras were placed under 
 the Government of Bengal, especially in matters con- 
 nected with treaties with the Native States. Earl Corn- 
 wallis, a judicious and experienced statesman, was ap- 
 pointed Governor-General, and the Court of Directors, 
 anxious that he should be associated with an able man 
 well acquainted with the country and with the system, 
 or rather the want of system, in revenue affairs, selected 
 Mr. Shore for a seat in Council. Mr. Shore, much against 
 his will, consented from a strong sense of duty ; but, 
 dreading the climate of Bengal for his wife, he left her 
 behind. Lord Cornwallis and he went in the same ship, 
 and contracted a strong friendship for each other. The 
 subject of our sketch thus quitted England a few months 
 only after his arrival, and, if possible, in a worse state of 
 depression. Early separated from his wife, he kept up, 
 during the whole of his absence from her, a kind of 
 journal-correspondence, in which he recorded for her 
 some of his deepest and tenderest thoughts. 
 
 The ship Swallow, on board which Lord Cornwallis and 
 Mr. Shore were passengers, reached Calcutta in October, 
 1786. All classes of the community were pleased to 
 welcome back Mr. Shore. His former servants returned 
 to him, and he was soon once more in the full swing of 
 official work. This did him good. He keenly felt the 
 separation from his wife, and employment diverted his 
 attention from his loneliness. For the first few weeks he was 
 
III. SIR JOHN SHOEE. 
 
 55 
 
 sent to Moor shed abad with the object of putting in order 
 the affairs of the Nawab of Bengal. In the following 
 January he took his seat inCouncil. Lord Cornwallis and he 
 worked together most harmoniously. Each had a great 
 respect for the other. Lord Cornwallis's calm views and 
 sound judgment had very much impressed Mr. Shore, who 
 wrote, " I esteem, respect, and love him," while Mr. Shore's 
 long experience and intimate knowledge of Indian men and 
 matters were of great service to the Governor-General, 
 especially with regard to revenue affairs. They found 
 matters in Bengal in anythingbut a satisfactory state. There 
 was much corruption even among officials, and it was the 
 mission of Lord Cornwallis to set this straight. Patronage 
 was abolished ; the large official establishments were 
 reduced ; the salaries of high officials were fixed on a scale 
 sufficient to remove them from temptation ; and the duties 
 of the various departments of the State were more clearly 
 defined. 
 
 But the principal subject which occupied the attention of 
 the Government was the revenue. Ever since the East India 
 Company had taken over the administration of the country, 
 or, in the language of the day had stood forth as Dewan, this 
 had been in a most unsatisfactory state. The chief burden 
 of reform fell on Mr. Shore. As the Senior Member of 
 Council and President of the Revenue Board, all the reports 
 from the district officers came to him, and the duty of pre- 
 paring a scheme for a settlement of revenue for ten years 
 devolved upon him. He laboured at it, as he himself 
 expressed it, " like a galley slave," and, as he remark- 
 ed to a correspondent in England with a little touch 
 of pardonable pride, "if pains, zeal, and assiduity could 
 accomplish the object proposed in it, no part could be in- 
 complete." The majority of the most experienced revenue 
 officers in Bengal advocated the plan of the Government 
 dealing directly with the Zemindars themselves instead of 
 with the cultivators of the soil, and they were desirous of 
 seeing such a settlement made permanent. It was no hasty 
 or slightly considered scheme of Lord Cornwallis himself. 
 It had been brought to his notice and commended to his at- 
 
56 GOVERNOES-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 tention by the Court of Directors before he sailed for 
 India; it was most carefully discussed in the Council Cham- 
 ber at Calcutta; the opinion of all the revenue officials was 
 obtained ; it received the approval of such a distinguished 
 administrator as Mr. Shore ; and was not carried into effect 
 until it had fully received the sanction of the Court of Direc- 
 tors. In fact, whatever opinion may be entertained regard- 
 ing the Zemindari system of the collection of revenue, no one 
 can truthfully assert that it was adopted with undue haste. 
 Mr. Shore's views on the subject were contained in a long and 
 careful minute, which Lord Cornwallis valued highly ; but, 
 of course, even a brief abstract of it cannot here be given. 
 As we have given, however, the estimate of Lord Corn wallis's 
 character, which Mr. Shore had formed, it is only right 
 that we should here quote a single sentence from the 
 Governor-General's own recorded minute, showing how 
 highly he valued Mr. Shore : " The great ability displayed 
 in Mr. Shore's minute which introduced the propositions 
 for the Settlement the uncommon knowledge which he 
 has manifested of every part of the Revenue system of this 
 country the liberality and fairness of his arguments, and 
 clearness of his style give me an opportunity, (which my 
 personal esteem and regard for him, and the obligation 
 I owe him as a public man for his powerful assistance in 
 every branch of the business of this Government, must 
 ever render peculiarly gratifying to me) of recording my 
 highest respect for his talents, my warmest sense of his 
 public-spirited principles, which, in an impaired state 
 of health, could alone have supported him in executing a 
 work of such extraordinary labour." Mr. Shore's scheme 
 was for a settlement to last for ten years only, and he con- 
 sidered that the proposition to make it permanent was 
 premature ; but the Governor-General, though ready to 
 listen courteously to his arguments, recommended that the 
 settlement should be a perpetual one, and the Court 
 of Directors, with the concurrence of the ministers of the 
 king, after mature consideration, decided that such should 
 be the case. In 1793 a proclamation was issued making 
 the Permanent Zemindari Settlement law. All that we feel 
 
III. SIR JOHN SHORE. 57 
 
 called upon to say here on this important question is that 
 the object aimed at in this settlement by Lord Cornwallis, by 
 Mr. Shore, and by the Court of Directors was the good of 
 the people and the ensuring to them a light and easy 
 assessment. 
 
 Mr. Shore during this period led a very quiet and regu- 
 lar life. He was never able to sleep more than two or 
 three hours at a time, and therefore he rose early and took 
 a long ride. He breakfasted at eight, and occupied him- 
 self with official business till his dinner hour at three. In 
 the evening he walked out, and spent the remainder of the 
 time till ten in the company of his friends. He was in a 
 very bad state of health, and had frequently to spur him- 
 self to exertion so as to get through his ordinary business. 
 He had, however, no prejudice against the climate of Bengal, 
 although it disagreed with his constitution. He described 
 the town of Calcutta as far better cared for and the 
 houses better built, than when he first arrived there, and 
 the European society as considerably improved. His 
 leisure time was employed in writing poetry and in 
 Oriental studies. His poem on the death of his relative 
 and friend Cleveland has formed almost the only memorial 
 to that devoted man, and his friendship for Sir William 
 Jones, the great Oriental scholar, testifies to his appre- 
 ciation of Oriental literature, in which he was himself no 
 mean proficient. 
 
 Mr. Shore quitted Calcutta for England directly his 
 labours on the Revenue Settlement were completed. He 
 left in December 1789, and had the pleasure of joining 
 Mrs. Shore and his little daughter, who was born soon 
 after he went out, on April 25, 1790. His health im- 
 proved on his return to his native land, and, as he ex- 
 pressed it, he gained a new stock of spirits by reunion 
 with those he loved. He took a house for a year at the 
 village of Egham in Surrey above 12 miles from London, 
 and lived in perfect retirement, finding more happiness in 
 his own home than out of doors. He gave evidence at 
 the historical trial of Warren Hastings ; but this at first 
 seems to be his only public act. He positively revelled in 
 
58 GOVERN OES-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 the rest he was enjoying. a I am indeed a most perfectly 
 idle man/' he wrote to a friend ; " and as happy as any 
 one in England, with nothing to do. The day is never too 
 long; on the contrary, I often find it too short," When 
 the year was over, he went to Bath, in the West of Eng- 
 land, and enjoyed a picturesque tour through Devonshire 
 and Cornwall. 
 
 The call of duty roused him once more from his retire- 
 ment. In September, 1 792, while still happy in literary 
 and domestic employments, he received the offer of the 
 succession to the Governor-Generalship on the retirement 
 of Lord Cornwallis. He at first declined the flattering 
 offer, principally because he did not wish to part again 
 from Mrs. Shore, who, he thought, ought not to accom- 
 pany him ; but he was persuaded to reconsider his deci- 
 sion, and, soon after he had accepted this exalted position, 
 he was created a baronet. An objection was made to 
 his appointment by Mr. Burke, the celebrated orator and 
 opponent of Warren Hastings, on account of the evidence 
 he had given in favour of that much maligned statesman. 
 This objection, however, gave the Chairman of the Court 
 of Directors the opportunity of recording his conviction that 
 Sir John Shore had proved himself one of the ablest and 
 most upright servants of the East India Company. Deeply 
 and keenly feeling the separation from his family, the new 
 Governor-General embarked at Falmouth in October 1792, 
 and reached Calcutta on March 10, 1793, after rather a 
 tedious voyage owing to continued calms. 
 
 Sir John Shore was heartily welcomed on his return to 
 Calcutta by all his old friends, and by none more than 
 Sir William Jones, with whom he was most intimate. His 
 position at first was rather trying, because Lord Cornwallis 
 continued Governor-General seven months after his arrival, 
 and not having been appointed to a seat in Council, he was 
 obliged to live in retirement without any official standing 
 or work. With his usual sweetness and humility he ex- 
 pressed himself quite contented to occupy this subordi- 
 nate position as giving him the opportunity of acquiring 
 the most accurate information on the affairs of every 
 
III. SIR JOHN SHORE. 59 
 
 department in the state, without giving such incessant 
 application to this work as would have been indispensable 
 if he had succeeded to power at once ; and he has recorded 
 the fact that he continued to work with Lord Cornwallis 
 with all his former harmony and cordiality. Just before 
 he entered on the arduous duties of his new office, he 
 received the sad tidings of the death of two little daughters, 
 which affected him intensely, but which he bore with the 
 calm resignation of an assured Christian. 
 
 Sir John Shore assumed the Government of Bengal on 
 October 28, 1 793. He entered on this responsible office 
 in a spirit of thoughtfulness and devoutness. There is 
 recorded, though evidently not written for the public eye, 
 a petition on that date, in which he especially asks for grace 
 and strength that he might perform these important duties in 
 a right spirit, te promoting the happiness of Thy creatures/' 
 he adds, "not only by my public actions, but by my ex- 
 ample. And grant that, under my government, religion 
 and morality may be advanced." Before giving a brief 
 account of his Government it will be convenient to mention 
 here that Lady Shore and their surviving daughter joined 
 him in December, J 794, and it was a source of great 
 pleasure for them thus to be re-united. 
 
 The administration of Sir John Shore was that of a 
 candid, sincere, and thoroughly conscientious man ; but we 
 cannot help feeling, while reading his own correspondence, 
 that he felt himself unequal to the task which had been 
 entrusted to him. Scrupulously desirous of adhering to 
 treaties, his hand failed in firmness, and he lacked the 
 strong grasp of his predecessor and of his successor. 
 Calm and courageous as he proved himself in the moment 
 of imminent peril, his policy so evidently bore the marks of 
 timidity and vacillation that it emboldened the enemies of 
 England, like Tippoo Sultan, and discouraged those who 
 would have been her allies, like the Nizam. It is right, 
 however, to bear in mind that the policy of peace was 
 always enforced and insisted on by the authorities in 
 Leadenhall Street. Soon after Sir John Shore had taken 
 up the reins of authority, complications occurred between 
 
60 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 the three great powers in Southern India. After the 
 conquest of Mysore in 1790, Lord Cornwallis had entered 
 into a tripartite treaty with the Mahrattas and the Nizam, 
 stipulating that, in the event of Tippoo attacking any one 
 of the contracting parties, the others should combine in 
 defence, if satisfied of the justice of the case. At this 
 time the Mahrattas attacked the Nizam, and the latter 
 appealed to the British Government for assistance. It was 
 denied. The Governor-General was of opinion that his 
 Government was not bound to assist one of the contracting 
 powers against another, and not against Tippoo. The 
 result was that the Mahrattas conquered the Nizam, and 
 imposed upon him humiliating terms. The Nizam naturally 
 resented this treatment, and turned to the French for 
 assistance, preparing much complication and danger in the 
 future. Sir John's policy in this matter was generally 
 condemned, as tending to instil into the minds of the 
 reigning sovereigns a doubt as to the good faith of the 
 British Government. It is, however, only just to his 
 memory to give his own ideas as to this subject. " In the 
 moderation, justice, and good faith of our conduct/ 5 he 
 wrote, " and in transactions with our allies and those who 
 are dependent upon the Company for protection, the true 
 principles of general precaution and counteraction must be 
 found ; and we adopt them no less from conviction than 
 authority, as the wisest and safest, and indeed only true 
 policy. '' He was fully persuaded that the course he adopt- 
 ed was just and right, and conducive to the preservation of 
 peace. 
 
 Another question which caused the Governor- General 
 intense anxiety was the condition of the army in Bengal. 
 The European officers were in a condition bordering on 
 mutiny. They were discontented with their position, their 
 pay, and their relation to the officers of the King's army, 
 Certain regulations on the matter were sent from England ; 
 but they were so inconsistent and so distasteful to the 
 officers that the Government of Bengal did not issue them 
 until some judicious modifications had been made in them. 
 The proof of the wisdom of this course is in the fact that 
 
III. SIR JOHN SHORE. 61 
 
 no serious discontent has since been manifested among 
 the officers of the Bengal army. Sir John Shore's own 
 reflections on this trying event were thus expressed in a 
 letter to his predecessor : " I am not ashamed to confess 
 to you that I am little qualified, by habit or experience, to 
 contend with a discontented army." 
 
 The most memorable event of this time was connected 
 with the kingdom of Oudh. The state of that unhappy 
 country was lamentable in the extreme, and Sir John Shore 
 proceeded thither in the hope of inducing the Nawab to 
 introduce reforms for the benefit of the people. Some 
 little good was effected by the Governor-General's visit by 
 an upright minister, named Tufuzzil Hussein Khan, being 
 appointed to conduct the affairs of the kingdom. In 1797 
 the Nawab, completely worn out by self-indulgence, died; 
 and, with the sanction of the British Government, was 
 succeeded by his reputed son, Yizier Ali, a man of violent 
 temper and uncontrolled passions. Sir John Shore subse- 
 quently received such convincing proofs that Vizier Ali 
 was not even the illegitimate son of the late Nawab, that 
 he considered it his duty to go again to Lucknow, and 
 make inquiries on the spot. He was attended by a 
 sufficient military force. Convinced that the rightful suc- 
 cessor to the throne was Sadut Ali, brother of the deceased 
 sovereign, he made preparations for his instalment. It 
 was a season of peculiar peril. Vizier Ali was surrounded 
 by violent partisans, and the intricate city of Lucknow wa& 
 filled with an excited populace and soldiery. The fire of 
 a single shot would have commenced a disastrous conflict. 
 The Governor-General was urged to have Vizier Ali 
 arrested, but he firmly resisted this course. He was 
 warned against threatened assassination. Still unmoved, 
 he went on his way with quiet determination. He even 
 attended a banquet given in his honour by Vizier Ali, who 
 was surrounded by his armed followers. In the end Vizier 
 Ali was peacefully deposed and banished to Benares. 
 Sadut Ali was enthroned, and the transaction passed "oS 
 without bloodshed or tumult. During the whole of this 
 exciting time the Governor-General exhibited the highest 
 
62 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 qualities of man, calmness, courage, and determination. 
 The secret of this behaviour is to be found in the fol- 
 lowing passage from his journal: " Under these circum- 
 stances I have frequently retired to a private room, pray- 
 ing to God to direct my judgment in forming a decision 
 on the alternative which was before me without bias or 
 partiality. The recollection of this afforded a consolation 
 to me, which made me indifferent to censure or accusation." 
 Thus withdrawing for a moment the curtain from his 
 private life, we have revealed to us one of the most touch- 
 ing and beautiful pictures in the whole history of British 
 India. The Governor-General alone on his knees in the 
 quiet of his own room : the same man calm, resolute, un- 
 moved in the midst of plots, treachery, and intrigue, doing 
 just the right thing, when surrounded by danger. The 
 verdict o India was-^ ff The right had come to the right- 
 ful." The judgment of the Court of Directors was 
 " We are of opinion that the Governor-General, in a most 
 arduous situation, conducted himself with great temper, 
 ability, and firmness, so that he finished a long career 
 of faithful service by planning and carrying into execution 
 an arrangement which not only redounds highly to his 
 honour, but which will also operate to the reciprocal ad- 
 vantage of the Company and the Nawab Vizier." 
 
 While at Lucknow, Sir John Shore received the news 
 that the King of England had been pleased to create him a 
 peer as Lord Teignrnouth, and that the Earl of Mornington 
 had been appointed his successor. Soon after his return to 
 Calcutta he embarked for England on March 7, 1798. His 
 Indian career over, an entirely new and different service 
 was before him in his native land. At first he did not 
 take a house and settle down, wishing for time to look 
 about him a little and consider what locality would afford 
 him a desirable place of abode. Eventually he selected 
 Clapham, a suburb of London, then a quiet village, where 
 he enjoyed the congenial society "of his friends Mr. Charles 
 Grant, William Wilberforce, and the Thorntons. He had 
 abundance of occupation. He was a Justice of the Peace, a 
 member of the Board of Control, an office which he held 
 
III. SIR JOHN SHORB. 63 
 
 for about thirty years, and for five years Vice-Lieutenant of 
 the County of Surrey. He was closely connected with 
 several religious and philanthropic Societies, and was be- 
 loved by the poor of the neighbourhood, to whom he and 
 Lady Teignmouth showed the tenderest kindness. From 
 1808 until the time of his death he resided at Portman 
 Square in London, occasionally visiting various places in 
 the country. 
 
 The work, however, which was nearest his heart, and 
 which occupied his chief thoughts and energies was the 
 distribution and translation of the Holy Christian Scriptures. 
 In 1804 a Society, called the British and Foreign Bible 
 Society, was established, the object of which was the circu- 
 lation of the Bible without note or comment, and Lord 
 Teignmouth was its first President. He loved the Society 
 and he delighted in its work. He called it " a new constel- 
 lation sent by God to illuminate the darkness of the moral 
 world." For thirty years he was the mainspring of its 
 management and Committee ; and, at his own request, the 
 simple, but eloquent, memorial was placed on his tomb that 
 he was First President of the Bible Society. 
 
 The evening of his life was beautifully clear and peaceful. 
 It was broken only by various family events, such as some 
 of his sons going to India, and the marriage or death of his 
 children. The light of his Christian faith and love grew 
 ever brighter as the end approached, and he fell asleep on 
 the anniversary of his wedding day, February 14, 1834, at 
 a ripe old age, his beloved wife following him six months 
 afterwards. Some of his last words were : " I loathe 
 and detest every species and degree of sin as an offence 
 committed against the majesty and holiness of God. 
 I trusb that I do indeed repent of all my transgressions. 
 But I do not trust in my repentance. No ! I look only to 
 the blood of Jesus for pardon and for peace." On the 
 Sunday before his death he said to his wife and children : 
 " I feel that I am resting on the right foundation ; and 
 I can now leave you all rejoicing." 
 
 The three chief points in the character of this good man 
 are his straightforward honesty, his humility, and his 
 
64 GOVERNORS-GENERAL Or INDIA. 
 
 moral courage. " It has ever been a fixed maxim with 
 me/' he once wrote, " that honesty, in all transactions, is 
 the best policy ; or, in other words, that nothing morally 
 wrong can be politically right." From the time when, as 
 a youth he lived on his pay, until when Governor-General, 
 he could have acquired an enormous fortune by a slight 
 deviation from the path of right and duty, he always 
 kept this maxim in mind, and has left a reputation 
 as unsullied and pure as an Englishman that ever 
 went to India. His humility and modesty were conspi- 
 cuous. He candidly confessed how much he felt the 
 strain of the government while in power, and was quite 
 ready to serve under his former revered chief, Lord 
 Cornwallis, should the latter return. Yet, when a crisis 
 came, he was perfectly ready to meet it with the cool 
 courage it demanded. He wasalways calm and self-possessed 
 whether in the centre of conspiracy at Lucknow, during 
 a debate in the Committee of the Bible Society, or when 
 giving evidence before the assembled House of Commons 
 in England. In fact, few servants of the East India Com- 
 pany have left a sweeter memory and purer fame than 
 John, first Lord Teignmouth, Governor- General of India, 
 and first President of the Bible Society. 
 
MARQUIS WELLESLEY. 
 
IV . THE MARQUIS WELLESLEY. 67 
 
 IV. THE MARQUIS WELLESLEY. 
 A.D. 1760 TO 1842. 
 
 " He that would govern others, first should be 
 The master of himself, richly endued 
 With depth of understanding, height of knowledge.' 1 
 
 Hassinger. 
 
 RICHARD COWLEY WELLESLEY, to whose clear, statesman- 
 like genius, British India practically owes its being, was the 
 eldest son of the Earl of Morrdngtou, an Irish nobleman. 
 One ot: his younger brothers was the illustrious Duke of 
 Wellington. He was born on June 20, 1760, and was edu- 
 cated at Ebon, the same famous school on the banks of 
 the Thames, where Lord Cornwallis, his predecessor and 
 successor in the high office of Governor-General, was also 
 educated. Leaving that school when eighteen years of 
 age, he went, with a reputation for brilliant scholarship, 
 to Christ Church, a College in the celebrated University 
 of Oxford. He did not remain there long enough to take 
 his degree, because he was summoned, by the death of 
 his father, in May, 1781, to take charge of his paternal 
 estates in Ireland. Directly he became of age, he volun- 
 tarily undertook to pay all his father's debts, and 
 showed his love to his mother by the graceful act of sur- 
 rendering to her the actual management of his estates. He 
 also took the greatest pains in the intellectual training 
 of his brothers. 
 
 At that time Ireland had a separate Parliament, con- 
 sisting of a House of Peers and a House of Commons. 
 The young Earl of Mornington took his seat in the form- 
 er; but it was not long before he sought a wider sphere 
 for the ability which he was conscious of possessing, and 
 he obtained a seat in the Imperial House of Commons at 
 Westminster in May, 1784, as member for a small 
 borough in the County of Devonshire. It is curious that 
 his first speech there was on an Indian subject, and in 
 favour of the recall of Warren Hastings. His utterances 
 
68 GOVERNORS- GENERAL OP INDIA.. 
 
 in Parliament brought him into notice, and, in 1786, he 
 received the appointment of junior Lord of the Treasury. 
 The speech which brought him most prominently into 
 fame was on the prosecution of the war with Revolutionary 
 France, which was, at the time, much admired, more for its 
 finished oratory than for its power of reasoning. His pro- 
 motion was rapid. On June 21, 1793, he received the 
 honour of being made a Privy Councillor and a mem- 
 ber of the Board of Control. In this office he had abun- 
 dant opportunities of making himself acquainted with 
 Indian affairs. He seems fully to have availed himself 
 of these opportunities, and to have gained a thorough 
 grasp of the whole subject of the English position in India 
 as well as of Indian history and politics in general. This 
 admirable training fitted him for the position which, at the 
 end of four years, he was called upon to occupy. Sir John 
 Shore's period of service as Governor-General was drawing 
 to a close, and Mr. Pitt offered the appointment, which it 
 was just at that juncture most necessary to place in firm 
 and capable hands, to Lord Mornington. 
 
 It is here necessary to go back a little in Lord Morning- 
 ton's life. On November 29, 1794, he married a beautiful 
 and accomplished French lady, with whom, contrary to the 
 command of God, he had previously lived for nine years ; 
 but their union was not happy. He thought it advisable 
 not to take her to India, and they did not remain together 
 long after his return. The English community in Calcutta 
 was consequently deprived of the inestimable advantage of 
 a lady to take the position of the head of society, and the 
 Governor- General himself lost the sweet encouragement 
 and solace which such a companionship generally affords. 
 
 Lord Mornington was appointed Governor- General on 
 October 4, 1797, and sailed from England on November 7. 
 He landed at Madras on April 26, 1798, and reached 
 Calcutta on May 17. On his outward voyage he had dili- 
 gently studied the present phase of Indian politics, and, at 
 the Cape of Good Hope, where his ship touched, he had the 
 advantage of conversing with Major Kirkpatrick, who had 
 recently been Resident at Hyderabad, and who could give 
 
 
IV. THE MARQUIS WELLESLBY. 69 
 
 him late information as well as counsel. From the Cape 
 he addressed a despatch to the ministry in England, which 
 indicated very plainly what was likely to be his future 
 course of action. Events were rapidly advancing to a 
 crisis, and were developing into such a state as to require 
 prompt and decisive treatment just as the new ruler set foot 
 on the beach at Madras. He seemed the very person to 
 meet the crisis. In the prime of manhood thirty-eight 
 years old, strong in purpose, clear of intellect, imperious, 
 prompt, vigorous, decided, he applied himself at once to 
 the solution of the problems of Indian statesmanship 
 awaiting him. 
 
 A brief account of the historical events leading up to 
 the present position of affairs will suffice. At the conclu- 
 sion of the peace with Tippoo Sahib six years before, a triple 
 alliance had been entered into with the Mahrattas and the 
 Nizam,the principal object being to protect the three powers 
 from any attack from Mysore. Under the strong pressure for 
 the maintenance of peace almost at any price, Sir John 
 Shore had kept to the very letter of the agreement, and 
 had not given any assistance to the Nizam, when his terri- 
 tories were invaded by the Mahrattas. The triple alliance 
 had, in fact, been annihilated by this neutral policy. The 
 Nizam regarded the friendship of the English Govern- 
 ment with coldness and aversion, and had been converted 
 from being a firm friend into a very doubtful ally. The 
 feeling of the five princes who were the leading minds 
 among the Mahrattas, and especially Dowlat Eow Scindia, 
 was more decidedly hostile. They merely feared Tippoo 
 more than they feared the English Government. Tippoo 
 was actually hostile. Ever since the recent war, he had 
 been preparing for renewed resistance, and he had lately 
 entered into friendly relations with the French, who were 
 then engaged in their long struggle with England. The 
 Governor of the Isle of France, now called Mauritius, had 
 promised him assistance, and had issued a proclamation in 
 that island inviting the services of volunteers for Tippoo' s 
 army. About a hundred of these volunteers landed at 
 Mangalore on the very day Lord Mornington landed at 
 
70 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 Madras. The policy of the French was, moreover, to gain 
 ascendency in India; and they not only were openly 
 assisting Tippoo, but their officers were busy at the Court 
 of the Peshwa at Poona, and the Nizam possessed a corps 
 of sepoys, some fourteen thousand strong, entirely under 
 French command. Their able leader, M. Raymond, how- 
 ever, had died a few weeks previously. Even before his 
 arrival, Lord Morning ton, from his accurate study of the 
 political situation, had come to the determination that this 
 state of affairs must be brought to an end ; that the vague 
 talk then common regarding the " balance of power" was 
 delusive ; and that England must at once take her rightful 
 place as the paramount power in India. 
 
 The Governor-General had not been many days at Cal- 
 cutta when he read in a newspaper a copy of the pro- 
 clamation of the Governor of the Isle of France. He at 
 first could scarcely believe it to be true ; but irrefragable 
 proof of its genuineness was soon afforded, and he at once 
 wrote to General Harris, Commander-in-Chief and acting 
 Governor of Madras, to make quiet preparations for war r 
 and to let him know how many men could, on an emer- 
 gency, be placed in the field. He then set himself 
 vigorously to work to secure the neutrality or the active 
 assistance of the Nizam and the Mahrattas in the case 
 of hostilities with Tippoo. The Resident of Hyderabad 
 was directed to enter into negotiation with the Nizam, to 
 persuade him to enter into more intimate relations with the 
 Government, and to dismiss his French contingent. More 
 troops were sent to Hyderabad, and the negotiations were 
 conducted with such persuasiveness and tact that the 
 French sepoys were disarmed and disbanded without the 
 loss of a single man. The Nizam was fully conciliated, and 
 became an active ally, rather than, as it was at first appre- 
 hended, a covert enemy on the flank of an army invading 
 Mysore. The neutrality of the Peshwa and of the other 
 Mahratta princes was also secured. 
 
 As it was notorious that Tippoo had been intriguing with 
 the French, and that they had sent an army under their 
 most celebrated military commander, Napoleon Buonaparte, 
 
IV THE MARQUIS WELLESLEY. 71 
 
 to occupy Egypt, it was considered essential to enter into 
 negotiation with the Sultan of Mysore, and to prevent his 
 being able to co-operate with them in the event of their 
 passing through Egypt on their way to India. Tippoo 
 deliberately refused to receive an ambassador from the 
 Governor- General, and, preparations being now ready, war 
 was declared against him. Lord Mornington came to 
 Madras so as to be near the scene of hostilities. An ad- 
 vance WMS made in the beginning of March both from the 
 east and west from Madras and Bombay, and so carefully 
 had all the plans been made that by the middle of April 
 the army was in the neighbourhood of Seringapatam. On 
 May 4, that formidable fortress was taken by assault, and 
 Tippoo Sultan lost his life as well as his crown, a straight- 
 forward action and policy being thus easily successful. 
 
 A contingent from Hyderabad belonging to the Nizam 
 took part in the campaign, being under the command of 
 the Governor-General's brother, Colonel Arthur Wellesley. 
 At the conclusion of the war, the territories of the late 
 sovereign were divided into three portions. The central 
 portion was reserved for a youthful descendant of the 
 ancient Hindu house from whom Mysore had been taken 
 by Hyder Ali, the Governor-General rightly deciding that 
 the family of the usurping dynasty, which had always shown 
 itself bitterly inimical to English interests, ought not to 
 be placed again in power. The country was to be govern- 
 ed by an able minister under British superintendence until 
 the Maharajah should attain his majority. The remainder 
 of the territory was apportioned to the East India Com- 
 pany and the Nizam. It was the intention of the Governor- 
 General that a share should be given to the Peshwa under 
 certain conditions, though the Mahrattas had taken no 
 part in the campaign ; but his offer was declined* The 
 whole of the seaboard of Mysore was retained by the 
 English, together with those districts contiguous to the 
 Company's possessions in Malabar and the Carnatic. The 
 Governor-General received the hearty thanks of the Court 
 of Directors und the British Parliament for the rapidity 
 and vigour with which the campaign had been conducted, 
 
72 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 and his sovereign bestowed upon him the honour of creat- 
 ing him a Marquis. From henceforward he will be known 
 as the Marquis Wellesley. This peerage was an Irish one, 
 and on that account he did not regard it with satisfaction. 
 It was, in fact, most distasteful to him, and, what was a 
 sign of the infirmity that often accompanies great genius, 
 he foolishly allowed it to vex and annoy him. 
 
 The war against Tippoo having thus been triumphantly 
 concluded, the attention of the Governor-General was 
 directed to other matters of policy connected with the de- 
 fence and the consolidation of the British empire in India. 
 The state of the Carnatic had, for some years past, been 
 eminently unsatisfactory. The reigning Nawab had sadly 
 mismanaged affairs, and he had moreover, set aside the 
 legal heir, who was an adopted son of his brother, the late 
 Nawab. After the siege of Seringapatam, papers showing 
 that there had been for many years a secret correspondence 
 carried on between Tippoo and himself which was most 
 inimical to British interests. The Nawab was on his death- 
 bed at the time this correspondence was discovered. After 
 his decease the whole of his territories were placed under 
 the direct government of English officers, and a handsome 
 allowance was given to the young Nawab to enable him to 
 keep up the dignity and state to which he was entitled. 
 The smaller principalities of Tanjore and Surat, one in the 
 south of India and the other in the Presidency of Bombay, 
 had for some years been in an unsettled condition. They 
 were both annexed to the British dominions, and ample 
 provision made for the dignity of the young princes, who 
 had, in each instance but recently acceded to the throne. 
 
 The affairs of two much more important kingdoms also 
 pressed for settlement. The arrangements made with 
 the Nizam after the Mysore war had proved satisfactory ; 
 but the payment of the expenses of the English contingent 
 at Hyderabad had been continually in arrears, and, to pre- 
 vent the constant friction thus occasioned, it was decided 
 that the territory allotted to him at the conclusion of 
 the two last wars should be ceded to the English in 
 satisfaction of this demand. A fresh treaty was entered. 
 
IV. TBE MARQUIS WELLKSLEY. 73 
 
 into with the Nizam on October 12, 1800, by which 
 the Provinces, that still bear the name of the Ceded 
 Districts, were made over to the Company, certain mod- 
 ifications of boundary were agreed to, and the bonds 
 that bound him and the East India Company were 
 drawn more closely together. There was also the trouble- 
 some kingdom of Oudh to be dealt with. The political com- 
 plications and the constant misgovernment of this kingdom 
 had always been a source of disquiet and discomfort to the 
 English Government of Bengal. Lord Clive, Warren 
 Hastings, Lord Cornwallis, and Sir John Shore had, each 
 in his turn, been harassed by the affairs of this frontier 
 kingdom. An invasion of India by Zemaun Shah, the 
 Amir of Afghanistan, seemed imminent, and it would be 
 most disastrous if it should occur, while the kingdom of 
 Oudh was unsettled and unfriendly. Lord Wellesley' s 
 policy was that a subsidiary force should be stationed at 
 Lucknow, which would not only be a guarantee for the 
 defence of the frontier, but also be more likely to secure 
 the good government of the kingdom, and the tranquillity of 
 the NawaVs own subjects. The Nawab Vizier, after much 
 hesitation, consented to this arrangement, and signed a 
 treaty to this effect on November 10, 1801. The negotia- 
 tions were conducted by the Governor-G-enerars brother, 
 Mr. Henry Wellesley. Certain districts in the vicinity 
 were ceded for the maintenance of the subsidiary force. 
 
 Lord Wellesley's mind was also occupied with regard to 
 the best arrangements for counteracting the designs of the 
 French on India. Captain Malcolm, an officer in whose 
 judgment he placed implicit confidence, was despatched to 
 Persia for the purpose both of securing the Shah from 
 French and Russian influence, and of diverting the attention 
 of Zemaun Shah from India. In accordance with instruc- 
 tions from England, whence a force had been sent to Egypt 
 for the expulsion of the French from that country, Lord 
 Wellesley despatched a small army under Sir David Baird 
 from India to the Red Sea for the purpose of co-operating 
 with that sent from England, thus affording an example of 
 Indian troops influencing European politics, which was, in 
 
74 GOVEENORS-GENEEAL OF INDIA. 
 
 later years, followed by Lord Beacon sfield. A short and 
 illusory peace with France continued for a few months after 
 the treaty of Amiens, by which, the French possessions in 
 India were to have been restored to them ; but the Marquis 
 Wellesley, perceiving that peace was not likely to last 
 long, declined to carry these provisions of the treaty 
 into effect, and, when the directions to recapture those 
 possessions were received from England, his prescience 
 was rewarded by there being none to retake. The Governor- 
 General had thus during the four years of his rule, secured 
 the internal tranquillity of India, and its complete defence 
 from external foes. 
 
 While the Marquis Wellesley had been assiduously 
 devoting his attention to urgent political affairs, he had by 
 no means neglected the internal matters of Government. 
 Care with regard to finance was essentially necessary, and 
 these were eventually put on a satisfactory basis by Mr. 
 Henry St. George Tucker, subsequently Chairman of the 
 Court of Directors, whom he appointed Accountant-General^ 
 after he had served him for a time as Private Secretary 
 during his stay at Madras. The training of young civil- 
 ians was a subject which lay very near the heart of the 
 Governor-General. He was profoundly impressed by the 
 fact that these young men, to whom some of the most re- 
 sponsible duties that could be required of man were entrust- 
 ed, had received no preliminary training in England ; and 
 he was most anxious that steps should be taken to ensure 
 their being prepared for the performance of those duties 
 by adequate training on their arrival in this country. He 
 wrote a most admirable State paper on the subject, and 
 following up his ideas and carrying them into practice, he 
 established in July 1800 the College of Fort William at 
 Calcutta, in which the civil servants of the Company were 
 to be trained in those branches of learning that would 
 ensure their usefulness and ability in the public service. 
 The first student was Mr. Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, 
 who afterwards rose to great distinction. The Court of 
 Directors, while they approved of the system indicated by 
 Lord Wellesley, were not favourable to the College being 
 
IV> THE MARQUIS WELLKSLEY. 75 
 
 founded at Calcutta, and it did not last very long. The con- 
 sideration of the subject, however, led to the establishment 
 of a similar College at Haileybury, in the county of Hert- 
 ford, not many miles from London, where, for some half 
 century, the Company's civilians were educated before 
 leaving for India. This disapproval and reversal of his 
 plans deeply mortified the sensitive mind of the Governor- 
 General. There were also other causes of dissatisfaction. 
 The Court of Directors expressed their disapproval of 
 certain appointments which he had made, thereby touching 
 a sore point that keenly offended him. Twice in the year 
 1802, he tendered his resignation, which was renewed in 
 the following year. By that time a new source of danger 
 to the Empire had arisen, and he determined to remain 
 at his post from a strong sense of duty. This was the 
 hostility of the Mahratta confederacy, which, ere long, 
 caused the sword again to be unsheathed. 
 
 The Mahratta chiefs had long been at enmity among 
 themselves. The years 1801 and 1802 had seen frequent 
 conflicts between them. The Rajah of the Mahratta people 
 was a mere puppet in the hands of others at Satara. His 
 nominal minister, but the real sovereign, Baji Row, the 
 Peshwa, had been up to this time at Poona ; but was in 
 this year driven by Jeswant Row Holkar into British 
 territory. Dowlat Row Scindia, of Gwalior, was at war 
 with Holkar. Discomfited by his great and powerful 
 feudatory, the Peshwa was induced to enter into negotia- 
 tions with the English Government, which issued in the 
 treaty of Bassein on December 31, 1802, whereby he agreed 
 to receive a subsidiary force at Poona, and to enter into 
 full alliance with the English, who, on their part, engaged 
 to restore him to his throne at Poona. It will be im- 
 possible to give here more than the briefest sketch of the 
 second Mahratta War. Our object is to regard it from 
 the view of Government House, Calcutta, and as it affected 
 the subject of this biographical sketch. Lord Wellesley 
 possessed one of the greatest qualities of a ruler of men, 
 He knew how to select intelligent and capable lieutenants, 
 and, after he had chosen them, to trust them fully and 
 
76 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 unreservedly. He had at his side Mr. Edmonstone,Secretary 
 to Government in the Political Department, whose know- 
 ledge of Indian political affairs was then unrivalled. He 
 had at his beck the services of Colonel, afterwards Sir 
 John, Malcolm; and there were at the various courts some 
 of the ablest diplomatists, such as Colonel Collins at the 
 court of Scindia, and Colonel Barry Close at the Peshwa's 
 court. Behind this front row of notable men, the Governor- 
 General kept near himself a reserve of younger men, who 
 afterwards, in every instance, attained eminence. He 
 instituted what he called " the Governor-General's office/' 
 which consisted of promising young civilians and others, 
 who were, for a time, trained under his own eye, and wrote 
 despatches from his own dictation. Among these were 
 Adam, Butterworth, Bayley, Jenkins, and Metcalfe, who 
 all were enthusiastically attached to " the glorious little 
 man/' as they called him, and responded readily to his 
 political tuition. 
 
 The year 1803 was a most eventful one in the history 
 of the making of British India. As already stated, the 
 treaty of Bassein, by which the Peshwa entered into 
 alliance with the British Government as a protected prince, 
 had just been signed. Lord Wellesley had been looking 
 forward to this as the best mode of carrying out the only 
 policy which he considered efficacious for rendering the 
 power of England paramount in Northern, as it was in 
 Southern India, and for eventually securing the peace of 
 the country by the subjugation of the Mahratta confedera- 
 tion. It had now been forced upon the Peshwa by the 
 attacks of his own coadjutor sovereigns. Lord Wellesley 
 determined that the advantage gained by this treaty should 
 not be merely nominal. Two efficient armies, one in the 
 south commanded by General Arthur Wellesley, and the 
 other in the north under the Commander-in-Chief General 
 Lake, were ready, to take the field at a moment's notice. 
 Directions were given to the former General to advance at 
 once to Poona, and to restore the Peshwa to his capital city. 
 With admirable rapidity General Wellesley responded, and 
 Poona was taken on April 20, 1803, without a shot being 
 
IV. THE MARQUIS WELLE8LEY. 77 
 
 fired, Holkar, who held it, retreating forthwith, and, on 
 May 13, the Peshwa himself returned under British protec- 
 tioD. This thoroughly disconcerted and irritated Scindia, 
 who had by his own supineness lost his hold on the Peshwa. 
 He at once entered into communication with the Rajah of 
 Berar and Holkar ; but, while the former, cordially received 
 his advances, the latter treated them coldly. These 
 intrigues were watched by the British Resident, Colonel 
 Collins, with keen interest, or rather impatience, and, at 
 length, observing that Scindia and the Rajah of Berar had 
 come to an understanding, and were now merely delaying 
 to gain time for preparation, he quitted Scindia's camp on 
 August 3. 
 
 This was the signal for war. For months past the Gov- 
 ernor-General had been making preparation for what he 
 considered an inevitable campaign. As events ripened 
 and the time drew near, the excitement in the Governor- 
 Gen eraFs office grew to fever heat. We return to Gov- 
 ernment House, Calcutta, where the central spring of the 
 whole machinery was being worked. Pay alter day the 
 Governor-General paced up and down the room of his 
 office, dictating despatches to his youthful assistants. The 
 end was approaching. For hours the pens of the young, 
 enthusiastic men wrote these eventful letters. Like a 
 practised chess-player, who, with clear brain, can engage 
 in several games at once without confusing them one 
 with another, so the great statesman paced to and fro, 
 dictating now a despatch to his brother or to General Lake 
 or a letter to Colonel Malcolm, Colonel Collins, or Major 
 Kirkpatrick, or an ultimatum to Scindia, or the Rajah of 
 Berar, interspersing these statesmanlike missives with 
 words of cheer and encouragement to his loving 
 scribes. Ere long, he told them, the work would be 
 over, and he had prepared a banquet for them in Govern- 
 ment House to refresh them after their severe toil. It was 
 a sultry day in August, but their zeal and energy flogged 
 not. Daylight faded into eve, and still, by the dim light of 
 lamps, they pursued their task until, at last, well after mid- 
 night, they ceased, and they adjourned to the banquet to 
 
78 GOVERNORS-GENEBAL OF INDIA. 
 
 talk over events and to cheer themselves with praises of 
 their leader. Thus war was declared, and young states- 
 men were made. 
 
 Directly these despatches were received, action was 
 taken. Rarely have campaigns been more rapidly executed. 
 General Wellesley was at once in the field. Ahmednagar 
 was taken on August 12. On September 23, the battle of 
 Assaye was fought in which the enemy were totally defeat- 
 ed. Several fortresses were taken, and on November 29, 
 the campaign was concluded by the decisive victory of 
 Arganm. General Lake was equally successful. Advan- 
 cing from Ca \vnpore, he took Aligarh, defeated the Mahratta 
 forces near Delhi, and released from Mahratta bondage the 
 blind old Emperor, Shall Alam. He then captured Agra, 
 and totally defeated Scindia at Laswari on the 1st of 
 November. In four mouths both Scindia and the Rajah 
 of Berar were reduced to subjection. The immediate re- 
 sults of the war were the surrender of the province of 
 Cuttack, and of all Scindia' s territory between the Jumna 
 and the Ganges, and Scindia renounced all his claims 
 on the Peshwa, the titular Emperor of Delhi, and the 
 
 Bab Holkar had yet to be dealfc with. For some un- 
 known reason he had not joined Sciudia and the Rajah of 
 Berar; but, as soon as they had been defeated, his manner 
 and his actions became very menacing. He threatened 
 Scindia and attempted to capture some of his strongholds ; 
 but Scindia was now under British protection. General Lake 
 was, therefore, prepared to oppose him. Holkar's troops 
 were much more of the typical Mahratta nature than 
 Scindia's. They consisted chiefly of cavalry, and lie boasted 
 that his kingdom was on his saddle. The campaign against 
 him began disastrously for the British arms. Colonel 
 Monson had been sent against him with a sepoy force to 
 Jeypore. Thence he retired towards Kota, when Colonel 
 Mouson injudiciously retreated, and his retreat was 
 most disastrous. But it was speedily retrieved by General 
 Lake, and the decisive battles of Deeg and Furruckabad 
 compelled Holkar ultimately to flee into the Panjab, where 
 
IV. THE MARQUIS WELLKSLEY. 79 
 
 he surrendered on December 24, 1805. Thus ended the 
 second MaViratta war. 
 
 Meanwhile Lord Wellesley's tenure of office had ended. 
 There had for some time been serious differences of 
 opinion between him and the Court of Directors, who had 
 regarded the Mahratta war with feelings of disapproval and 
 distaste, and who were decidedly opposed to the whole 
 of his foreign policy. The success of the earlier part of 
 the campaign had, however, reconciled them to the war ; 
 but they had never ceased to feel the heavy financial 
 difficulties to which it had subjected the country, and when 
 the news of Colonel Monson's retreat reached England, 
 they determined on measures calculated to reverse the 
 Governor-General's warlike policy. His Majesty's minis- 
 ters being of the same opinion, the Marquis Cornwallis was 
 again made Governor-General, and Lord Well^sley handed 
 over to him the seals of office on July 30, 1805. Holkar 
 was then still in the field, and Scindia had been of late 
 showing signs of a restless desire to recommence hostili- 
 ties. It was necessary to carry out Lord Cornwallis's in- 
 structions, and very easy terms were concluded with both 
 those sovereigns by Sir George Barlow, who succeeded to 
 power on the decease of Lord Coruwallis soon after his 
 return to India. 
 
 It is impossible to avoid some contrast between the 
 policy of Lord Wellesley and that of the Court of Directors 
 which it was the mission of his successor to carry out. It 
 is very plain that the sincere desire both of the Court and 
 of the King's Government throughout all the earlier 
 stages of English dominion in India, was for peace, and 
 sometimes even almost dishonourable measures were taken 
 to secure it. It is also evident that had the reigning 
 princes of India in those days refrained from intriguing 
 against or attacking the British Government, there would 
 have been no necessity for repelling them or attacking 
 them. In the great majority of instances war was com- 
 pulsory. Had Tippoo, Scindia, or Holkar kept free from 
 intrigue either with the French or with British enemies in 
 India, there would have been no Mysore or Maliratta 
 
80 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 wars; but undoubtedly, as the case was, the choice lay 
 between the expulsion of the English power or its consoli- 
 dation, and the policy of the Marquis Wellesley was right. 
 The peace and prosperity of the country depended 011 the 
 English power becoming supreme. We who are living at 
 the close of this century, on looking back to its commence- 
 ment, can see how vastly better is the present condition of 
 the people of India than it was under the devastating 
 warfare and tyranny of the Mogul Emperors or during 
 the marauding raids of the Mahrattas. The Pax Britannica, 
 the peace which English rule ensures, is not one of the 
 least blessings bestowed by England on India. 
 
 Lord Wellesley was most anxious to promote the highest 
 welfare of the people. The training of young civilians was 
 not the only object he had in view in establishing the 
 College of Fort William. He intended to patronise orien- 
 tal learning and the impartation of Western knowledge to 
 wise men of the East. During the few months of its 
 existence about a hundred learned pundits, not only from 
 different parts of India, but also from Persia and Arabia, 
 were attached to it. Dr. William Carey, who may appro- 
 priately be called the first English Protestant missionary to 
 India, was appointed professor of Bengali and Sanskrit, and 
 translations of the Holy Scriptures into seven Oriental 
 languages were begun under Lord Wellesley's patronage ; 
 so that, as Dr. Claudius Buchanan wrote, directed by the 
 flood of light raised by this College, " learned men from 
 every quarter come to the source of knowledge ; they mark 
 our principles, ponder the volume of inspiration, ' and hear 
 every man in his own tongue the wonderful works of God.' J 
 Though the College did not last, it remained long enough 
 to show the magnificent ideas on the diffusion of both 
 Oriental and Western knowledge which animated the 
 Governor-General's mind. 
 
 He was not permitted to carry into effect all his ideas as 
 a judicial and social reformer. His heart shrank from the 
 two cruel practices of human sacrifice and suttee, which, by 
 long and almost immemorial custom, had been permitted to 
 disfigure and defile the Hindu religion. As is the case 
 
IV. THE MARQUIS WELLESLEY. 81 
 
 with regard to other practices which, in the course of ages, 
 have been engrafted on Hinduism, they received no sanc- 
 tion from Manu or the Vedas. Having ascertained from 
 learned pundits that the custom of sacrificing children and 
 sometimes adults by exposure on the banks of the Ganges 
 at Saugor and other places, "was not sanctioned by the 
 Hindu Law, nor countenanced by the religious orders or 
 by the people at large," the Governor-General in Council 
 past a regulation declaring the practice to be criminal 
 and punishable as murder; Lord Wellesley also in- 
 stituted an inquiry into the custom of suttee, in which it 
 was necessary to proceed with the greatest caution and 
 circumspection. His return to England, however, prevent- 
 ed him from doing more than this, and it was left to 
 Lord William Bentinck, a future Governor-General to 
 carry out the beneficent reform of practically abolishing 
 suttee. 
 
 The Marquis Wellesley was truly oriental in his concep- 
 tions as to the magnificence that one in the high position 
 of Governor-General and Cap tain- General of India ought 
 to assume. He expected the most rigorous etiquette and 
 ceremony to be observed towards himself personally. 
 Finding that the Government House at Calcutta was too 
 small, he caused a spacious and semi-regal palace to be 
 built on the esplanade between Fort William and the town. 
 It was opened on January 26, 1803, with a splendid en- 
 tertainment given in honour of the general peace. Lord 
 Wellesley had previously taken possession of the house at 
 Barrackpore, which had hitherto been occupied by the 
 Commander-in- Chief, and which he improved with great 
 taste. This country residence, situated on the left bank of 
 the Ganges, in the midst of a beautiful park, has since 
 been a favourite spot with succeeding Governors-General. 
 
 The Marquis Wellesley reached England in January 
 1806, a very different man to what he was when he left it 
 seven years before. He had rendered his country incom- 
 parable service by his singularly able administration in 
 India ; but every one did not rush forward to acknowledge 
 this, and his seven years almost autocratic rule had made 
 
82 GOVEfiNORS-GENERAL OF INDJA. 
 
 him vain-glorious and imperious. The consciousness of 
 this infirmity made him overbearing and irritable. This 
 showed itself even at the dinner-table on the evening after 
 he had lauded. Lady Wellesley, with their children, had 
 come to greet him on his return ; but, at dinner, forgetting 
 that he was not exactly the same man to whom she had 
 plighted her troth several years ago, unhappily, but inno- 
 cently, remarked, "Ah! you must not think you are in 
 India still, where everybody ran to obey you. They mind 
 nobody here." This led to an estrangement between them. 
 As it was in private life, so also it was in political and 
 official life, and it embittered both. Apparently he must 
 be first and supreme in everything. He arrived just in 
 time to see his old friend and master in political science, 
 Mr. Pitt, once more. The great statesman was dying. 
 Hearing of Lord Wellesley's arrival, he sent for him, and 
 they had a final interview just twelve days before Mr. Pitt's 
 death. 
 
 The Marquis Wellesley was not in a position to resume 
 political employ for some little time after his return to 
 England. One of those annoyances to which eminent men 
 are peculiarly liable was in store for him. Some of the 
 greatest Anglo-Indian statesmen had been subjected to 
 persecution and impeachment on account of their policy in 
 India. An attempt at the same course was made against 
 the Marquis Wellesley ; but it signally failed. A Mr. Paull 
 who had made a fortune in India, and had subsequently 
 obtained a seat in the House of Commons, moved for the 
 production of papers on which to found his indictment 
 against the ex-Grovernor-General on account of his policy in 
 Oudh ; but, before he could proceed further, a dissolution 
 of Parliament took place, and he lost his seat, so that the 
 charge was made by another member of Parliament, Lord 
 Folkestone, who was defeated by a large majority of votes. 
 A resolution of the House of Commons approving Lord 
 Wellesley's conduct was then triumphantly carried. There 
 was no doubt that the people of England thoroughly ap- 
 proved of his brilliant statesmanship in India, though not 
 in the enthusiastic manner which he anticipated. 
 
IV, THE MARQUIS WELLE8LEY. 83 
 
 Lord Wellesley diligently attended to his duties in the 
 House of Lords. He was, however, very careful about his 
 utterances. He did not feel inclined to speak at all, unless 
 he felt that he could make the best speech in a debate, and 
 this sometimes led him not to speak when he ought to 
 have spoken. He made his first speech in the Upper House 
 on February 8,1808, rather more than two years after his 
 return. It was on a most important political subject the 
 seizure of the Danish fleet ; and was regarded as an admir- 
 able specimen of parliamentary oratory. He was, how- 
 ever, very nervous iu the effort, though appearing out- 
 wardly calm and collected. In the following year he 
 fairly entered into European diplomatic life, and eventually 
 into English ministerial responsibility. He was at first 
 closely associated with his brother, Sir Arthur Wellesley. 
 England had undertaken to assist Spain and Portugal in 
 their defence against the attacks of the great Napoleon. 
 Sir Arthur was sent to command the English army in 
 the latter country, and the Marquis was commissioned to 
 proceed to Spain as Ambassador Extraordinary to conduct 
 the negotiations with the Spanish Government. He was 
 employed in this manner from June to November, 1809. 
 In the latter month he left Spain, having accepted office 
 under Mr. Percival, then Prime Minister, as the Minister 
 for Foreign Affairs. 
 
 The period during which the Marquis Wellesley was 
 Foreign Minister was one of the most critical possible 
 not only for England, but for the whole of Europe. It is 
 scarcely too much to say that all Europe was then in 
 subjugation to Napoleon, England only excepted. Her 
 army kept the conqueror at bay in Portugal and Spain. 
 No more resolute and far-seeing minister could have been 
 entrusted with the seals of office than Lord Wellesley. No 
 adverse criticism daunted him from straining every nerve 
 to continue the war against France with vigour and success, 
 while, nobly seconded and supported by him in England, 
 his brother completely vanquished Napoleon's ablest lieu- 
 tenants iu Spain. He remained Foreign Minister of Eng- 
 land during this very critical period, that is, from Novem- 
 
84 GO VERNOES- GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 ber 1809 to February 19, 1812, when he resigned on 
 account of an entirely different subject, namely, the 
 Roman Catholic Emancipation question, which was then 
 being brought forward. He was in favour of the policy of 
 removing all disabilities on the score of religion : his col- 
 leagues were not. They were, however, not unwilling to 
 allow him to quit the Cabinet, because his imperious dispo- 
 sition prevented him from working harmoniously with 
 them. Another point of difference was his opinion that 
 they were not vigorous enough in their prosecution of the 
 war in Spain, or, as he himself expressed it, " their efforts 
 were just too short." His brother, now Lord Wellington, 
 had nevertheless won some of his most brilliant victories, 
 and he was daily gaining sufficient strength to make a 
 decisive forward movement into Spain. Lord Wellesley's 
 strenuous efforts had afforded him the means of success. 
 
 In the month of May, 1812, Lord Wellesley was entrust- 
 ed by the Prince Regent with the arduous duty of en- 
 deavoring to form a new Cabinet, after the assassination 
 of Mr. Percival. He was not successful however, and, for 
 the next nine years, he remained out of office ; but his ser- 
 vices were too valuable to be altogether dispensed with, 
 and in December 1821, he occupied the very important 
 and onerous position of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, a posi- 
 tion which had also been held by Lord Cornwallis. His 
 term of office lasted for just six years. It was a period of 
 much excitement and turmoil. On the whole he was toler- 
 ably popular; and, as he was known by the Roman Catho- 
 lics to be favourable to Emancipation and was himself an 
 illustrious Protestant Irishman, he was in a position to hold 
 an even balance between the two contending parties. 
 When he assumed office, Ireland was in a condition border- 
 ing on rebellion. This was energetically suppressed ; the 
 destitution among the peasants occasioned by the unsettled 
 state of the country was relieved by public subscriptions 
 supplemented by a Government grant, most of which was 
 raised in England; and much was done towards discoun- 
 tenancing and suppressing secret societies, which were the 
 bane of the land. During the time of his Viceroy alty, the 
 
IV. THE MARQUIS WELLESLBY. 85 
 
 Marquis Wellesley married a second time, his first wife 
 having died in 1816. On October 29, 1825, he was united 
 to Mrs. Patterson, the daughter of an American gentleman, 
 and a lady of considerable personal attractions and mental 
 accomplishments. 
 
 In December, 1827, Lord Wellesley, as the end of his 
 term of office was drawing near, returned to England. He 
 came back to do all that lay in his power to advocate the 
 cause of Catholic Emancipation. His younger brother, the 
 great Duke, became Prime Minister of England in the 
 following year, and was at first opposed, and then, under 
 stress of circumstances which he considered rendered it in- 
 evitable, he became favourable to passing this act of relief. 
 The Act was passed in the year 1829. The measure became 
 law, which he had consistently advocated for many years, and 
 on which as he himself said, e 'he had formed his opinion from 
 long and intimate acquaintance with the constitution of his 
 country." A little later, from the middle of 1833 to April 
 1835, Lord Wellesley was again Lord Lieutenant of Ire- 
 land. For a brief period he held office as Lord Chamber- 
 lain, and he then retired from all participation in public 
 affairs. The evening of his life was tranquil. Like his 
 great predecessor, Warren Hastings, he employed the lei- 
 sure of his old age in social enjoyment and in literary 
 recreation. He amused himself principally with writing 
 verse. At this time the Court of Directors, then living in 
 a generation that appreciated his services more highly than 
 their ancestors did, showed their estimation of what he had 
 done for India by two graceful acts. Hearing that his 
 means were straitened, they voted him the sum of 20,000, 
 and, a few years later, they placed a marble statue of him 
 in the India House. The kindest expressions were used 
 with regard to his illustrious services by many of the 
 Directors when these honours were awarded to him. The 
 last few years of his life were spent in a house at Bromp- 
 ton, a suburb of London, where he died on September 26, 
 1842, in the eighty-third year of his age. 
 
 The Marquis Wellesley's was essentially a public life. 
 With the exception of his later years it was past in the 
 
86 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 excitement of high position or in the turmoil of political 
 strife. There are few passages in his correspondence of 
 a quiet and domestic nature, which, as in the case of most 
 eminent men, reveal the inner workings of the heart. It 
 has been seen from the preceding narrative how clear was 
 the foresight and how statesmanlike was the policy of his 
 rule in India ; but he was sensitive in a pre-eminent degree, 
 and fancied non-appreciation of his services affected him 
 even to the detriment of his health. On the other hand, 
 no one in his exalted position possessed in a more perfect 
 form the faculty of recognizing merit and of making choice 
 of fit agents, and of then trusting them to the full. The 
 secret of his successful government lay in this consummate 
 art. We would not be far wrong if we called his a most 
 useful, but not a happy, life. Lord Wellesley had an ad- 
 mirable style in writing, but, as his despatches prove, it 
 was a thoroughly official style. He was always fond of 
 literature, and some of his verses, both in Latin and in 
 English, show considerable culture and taste. 
 
 It cannot be said that the Marquis Wellesley was a 
 decidedly Christian man. He saw, however, how incumbent 
 it was on the ruling and paramount power to show plainly 
 that they had a faith, and were not ashamed to make an 
 open profession of it. Englishman in India had, with 
 some brilliant exceptions, been untrue to their country and 
 unfaithful to their God in this respect. Lord Wellesley, 
 while exercising a severe censorship over the English press, 
 rightly directed that the newspapers should not be publish- 
 ed on Sunday, and readily carried out the wishes of the 
 Court of Directors that official work should not be perform- 
 ed on the Christian Sabbath day of rest. On his return 
 to Calcutta after the successful termination of the war in 
 Mysore, he set apart a day for public thanksgiving 
 to Almighty God. He and the principal officers of State 
 walked to church at the early morning service, and openly 
 joined in this tribute of praise the Rev. David Brown 
 reading the prayers, and the Rev. Claudius Buchanan 
 preaching the sermon on this memorable occasion. We 
 have thus endeavoured briefly to record the chief events in 
 
IV< THE MARQUIS WELLESLBY. 87 
 
 the life of one of the greatest Governors India has ever 
 known. British India of the present day really owes its 
 first moulding and form to his capable hands, and the 
 people would have more directly benefited under his grand 
 designs of amelioration and reform, if his attention had 
 not been so fully occupied with the wars which were forced 
 upon him by no desire of his own. 
 
THE EARL OF MINTO, 
 
V. THE EARL OP MINTO. 89 
 
 . THE EARL OF MINTO. 
 A.D. 1751 TO 1814. 
 
 " Let Reason's torch on zeal attend, 
 Her calm undazzling light to lend : 
 With patriot ardour wisdom blend. 
 
 Be these your guides. 
 Your country's good the noble end, 
 And nought besides." 
 
 Lord Minto. 
 
 THESE lines are from a little poem written by Lord Minto 
 himself when in India and dedicated to his family. We 
 prefix them to this brief memoir, not because his name is 
 enrolled on the goodly scroll of English poets ; but because 
 they accurately describe the course of life which he him- 
 self followed, and which he desired the members of his 
 family to pursue. Like so many other English statesmen, 
 his sincere desire was, first of all, the welfare of his country ; 
 and he endeavoured to promote it by a calm, wise, and con- 
 sistent performance of duty, even when it went counter to 
 his own inclinations. 
 
 Mr. Gilbert Elliot, as he was at first, came of a good old 
 Scottish family, in which there had been several dis- 
 tinguished members. His father was a member of Par- 
 liament, and as his duties took him often to Edinburgh 
 or London, and the mode of travelling in those days was 
 slow and tedious, he did not stay often at his family 
 estate, but usually resided in one of those cities. Sir 
 Gilbert and Lady Elliot had four sons and two daughters. 
 One of the latter married Mr. Eden, afterwards Lord 
 Auckland, and was the mother of one of the Governors- 
 General. The two elder sons, Gilbert and Hugh, both 
 attained considerable eminence as politicians and di- 
 plomatists. These two brothers were brought up to- 
 gether until they were nearly twenty years of age and 
 
90 GOVERNOKS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 then parted to meet but seldom afterwards. They were 
 sincerely attached to each other. Hugh for many years 
 represented his sovereign as ambassador at Berlin and 
 other European Courts, and eventually became Governor 
 of Madras in the year after his brother had resigned his 
 position as Governor-General. The third brother, Alex- 
 ander, entered the Bengal Civil Service, was a man of 
 much promise, and was thought of very highly by Warren 
 Hastings ; but he died in India at a comparatively early 
 
 The future Governor- General was born April 23, 1751. 
 He was placed, when eleven years old, with his brother 
 Hugh, in the charge of a young tutor, who, after two years, 
 accompanied them to Paris. There they entered a military 
 school, and Mr. David Hume, the well-known historian, 
 took the general superintendence of their education. They 
 became intimate with the sons of some of the most noble 
 families in France, among whom was the celebrated Mira- 
 beau, and Gilbert Elliot kept up his acquaintance with 
 him for many years. They thoroughly acquired the French 
 language and French modes of thought, which became of 
 
 freat service to them in their future diplomatic career, 
 n 1768 they both went to Christ Church, Oxford; but, 
 two years later they returned, for a time to Paris, and then 
 Gilbert went once more to Oxford, where he remained to 
 take his degree, and Hugh began his military training in 
 other parts of the continent of Europe. 
 
 At the conclusion of his University course, Mr. Gilbert 
 Elliot went to London to study law. He withdrew for 
 some time from society for the purpose of giving him- 
 self up to this pursuit, and he seems to have made a 
 very fair start at the bar, to have spoken well in the causes 
 he was engaged in, and to have been specially employed in 
 one celebrated election case. He did not prosecute the pro- 
 fession of law, however, but turned into the more inviting, 
 but less profitable, occupation of politics. He was request- 
 ed to stand as member of parliament for Morpeth, a town 
 in the county of Northumberland bordering on Scotland, 
 and was returned for it in the summer of 1776. On Janu- 
 
V. THE EARL OP MINTO. 91 
 
 ary 3, 1777, he was married to Miss Anna Maria Amyand, 
 daughter of Sir George Amyand, M. P., a lady to whom he 
 had been attached for many years, and with whom he lived 
 most happily. She was evidently a lady of great sense and 
 much thoughtfulness. His father did not live to hear of 
 his marriage, but thoroughly approved of the step he was 
 taking. He said, " By Miss Amyand's letters she is a sen- 
 sible good woman, and I believe will be good wife and com- 
 fortable relation/' adding with great energy, " what a wise 
 man Gilbert has been to leave the skirts of the fine people, 
 and associate with men of sense and character who have 
 led him into a conduct of virtue and wisdom." In the 
 early part of their married life they were often separated, 
 he being obliged to remain in London the greater part of 
 the year in order to attend to his parliamentary duties, 
 while she generally went to their beautiful estate at Minto, 
 as she enjoyed better health in the clearer air of the 
 country ; but they carried on a continuous correspondence 
 during the periods of their separation, and it is evident 
 from these letters how fully they loved one another and 
 delighted in each other's society. One passage from them 
 will be sufficient to prove this. " Very full letters," he 
 once wrote, " are the best substitute for your absence ; a 
 poor resource when compared with your presence, but in- 
 estimable if your absence is necessary." 
 
 Minto, from which Sir Gilbert Elliot afterwards took his 
 title on his elevation to the peerage, is a pleasant estate in 
 Roxburghshire. It is now more tastefully planted and the 
 garden more artificially beautiful than it was a hundred 
 years ago ; but it must then have been wilder and more 
 naturally lovely. The sheet of water near the house, which 
 now reflects laburnums and rhododendrons, was then a nar- 
 row and rapid stream running between banks covered with 
 jungle thorn-bushes. The house too was then less conveni- 
 ent; but Gilbert Elliot's wife loved the place, as she said, 
 passionately, and delighted in its rugged beauties. 
 
 January 1777 was an eventful month in Gilbert Elliot's 
 life. Soon after his marriage, his father, who had been 
 compelled to go to the south of France for the sake of his 
 
92 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 health, died on the eleventh day of the month, and he 
 succeeded him as baronet, so that he was henceforward 
 Sir Gilbert Elliot, and became the head of the family. 
 Soon after his father's death, he was returned to Parlia- 
 ment as the member for his native country, Roxburghshire, 
 a position which had been held by his father, his grand- 
 father, and his great-grandfather before him. His parlia- 
 mentary life was rather uneventful so far as he was con- 
 cerned, for, although he came in contact with many of the 
 great men of the day, and was the eye-witness of many 
 stirring scenes in the House of Commons, he was never 
 a very keen politician. At first he gave his support to the 
 ministry of the time, especially in their prosecution of the 
 American war ; but in 1 780, he was very much impressed 
 by a speech of Edmund Burke's on Reform, and he made 
 the acquaintance of that eminent, but prejudiced, man, 
 which ere long ripened into warm friendship. He became 
 under Burke's inspiration an ardent supporter of the popu- 
 lar side of politics, and joined the Whigs, which was the 
 name given to that particular political party. In 1782 Sir 
 Gilbert/ s health gave way for a time. He caught a severe 
 cold, and there were threatenings of consumption, so he 
 was obliged to go to the milder climate of the south coast 
 of France for the benefit of his health. Lady Elliot accom- 
 panied him, and, while stopping at Lyons on the way, their 
 eldest child, who succeeded him in the title of Earl of 
 Minto, was born. Happily his health was completely re- 
 instated by this little change. 
 
 In the year 1786, Burke induced Sir Gilbert to give his 
 support to the charges brought against Warren Hastings 
 and Sir Elijah Impey. At the general election two 
 years before, Sir Gilbert had lost his seat in Parliament, 
 at which he seems to have been rather pleased, as 
 affording him leisure for reading and self -improvement. 
 Among other occupations he entered heartily into getting 
 up the subject of the celebrated prosecution of Warren 
 Hastings, or whose guilt he appears thoroughly to have 
 persuaded himself. Being in London at the time, he re- 
 joiced at the success of the faction in procuring that great 
 
V. THE EARL OF MINTO. 93 
 
 statesman's prosecution. "Our victory on the Benares 
 charge," he wrote, " has given me the greatest satisfaction 
 and comfort. It is a most comfortable testimony to the 
 general justice of the prosecution, and a shield to the 
 characters and reputation of the prosecutors." 
 
 Sir Gilbert Elliot was returned to Parliament again in 
 September 1786 ; this time for the border town of Berwick. 
 On learning this news Burke wrote him an affectionate con- 
 gratulation, urging him to push himself more forward in 
 political matters, and to shake off some of his retiring 
 nature. " You -must be less modest ;" he wrote, " you must 
 be all you can be, and you can be everything ; we cannot 
 spare an atom of you." Sir Gilbert was not a frequent 
 speaker in the House of Commons. He seems never to have 
 thoroughly overcome his nervousness. On the evening of 
 December 12, 1787, he delivered the most eloquent speech 
 he made in that distinguished assembly, on the prosecution 
 of Sir Elijah Impey, and the restoration of Francis to the 
 Committee of Managers of the approaching trial. Burke 
 wrote to Lady Elliot regarding this speech in terms of 
 the highest praise. " There was not a topic," he said, " upon 
 which he touched that had not its peculiar beauty and the 
 finishing hand of a master." Such praise from a past 
 master in the art of rhetoric was praise indeed. Sip 
 Gilbert had, however, failed to understand Francis's real 
 character. 
 
 Sir Gilbert was one of the managers for the prosecution 
 in the celebrated trial. We have already given a brief ac- 
 count of it in Warren Hastings' Life ; and, therefore, it is 
 sufficient just to refer to it so far as the future Governor- 
 General is concerned, as his words cast a slight side-light 
 upon it. All the managers appeared in full dress. " My 
 dress coat is just come home," he writes to his wife the 
 day before the trial. " My coat is drab with steel buttons : 
 waistcoat of the same." Returning from the opening of 
 the trial next day, he writes : "It is difficult to conceive 
 anything more grand or imposing than this scene. Every- 
 thing that England possesses of greatness or ability is there 
 assembled, in the utmost splendour and solemnity, for one 
 
94 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 of the most solemn purposes imaginable. There is a large 
 place for the managers fronting the throne, with a table 
 and accommodation for our counsel, agent, and attend- 
 ants." Amidst all the grandeur and magnificence of the 
 scene, however, his heart misgives him, for the sup- 
 posed criminal who was then standing near him, had been 
 very kind to his brother Alexander, and a touch of com- 
 punction for his harsh feeling comes over him. " I never 
 saw Hastings till to-day, " he added, s ' and had not formed 
 anything like a just idea of him. I never saw a more 
 miserable looking creature, but indeed he has so much the 
 appearance of bad health that I do not suppose he resem- 
 bles even himself" no wonder considering the position he 
 was in. " He looks as if he could not live a week." 
 He survived Sir Gilbert four years. " I always feel un- 
 comfortable in the reflection of his connections with Alick, 
 and I cannot say I was insensible to that idea on seeing 
 him to-day. But the clearness of his guilt and the atro- 
 ciousness of his crimes can leave no hesitation in any body's 
 mind, who thinks as I do about, it what one's duty is." 
 The only other point in connection with this topic that 
 need be alluded to here is his speech, or rather speeches, 
 for it was spread over two days, on the prosecution of Sir 
 Elijah Impey. It lasted for several hours on April 28 and 
 May 9, 1788. The motion was lost. His speech was, how- 
 ever, printed with corrections by Burke. 
 
 The estimation in which Sir Gilbert was held by his 
 friends was so high that they nominated him for the 
 honourable office of Speaker, that is, the chairman, of the 
 Honse of Commons. He was proposed on January 5, 1789, 
 but Mr. Grenville was elected by a large majority, and on 
 Mr. Grenville vacating the post in the following June on 
 being made a Cabinet Minister, he was proposed in opposi- 
 tion to Mr. Addington, but again defeated. The very fact 
 of being proposed by his party was complimentary to him 
 and creditable to his character for impartiality and justice. 
 Dining the remainder of his parliamentary career, little 
 iihat was remarkable occurred. Finding the great diffi- 
 culty and inconvenience of being absent more than half the 
 
V. THE EAEL OP MINTO. 95 
 
 year from his family lie formed the design of resigning his 
 seat at the general election of 1790, in order that he might 
 be more with his wife and growing children ; but he was 
 persuaded by his friends to relinquish this intention, and 
 he was returned for a small borough in Cornwall on the 
 understanding that he was to attend Parliament only when 
 it was absolutely necessary for him to do so. 
 
 Three years later his Parlimenfcary life was exchang- 
 ed for a diplomatic one, and he had almost entirely to 
 quit his favourite place in Scotland. In 1793 the war 
 occasioned by the terrible French Revolution was rag- 
 ing in Europe. Toulon, the chief port of the French 
 navy in the Mediterranean, was, in August of that year, 
 handed over by the loyalists of the town to the British, for 
 the sake of their protection, and Lord Hood, the British 
 naval commander in the Mediterranean, took possession of 
 the town. Sir Gilbert Elliot was selected by the ministry 
 to go there as the civil officer in charge of the town. Leav- 
 ing England on October 18, he proceeded thither as rapid- 
 ly as the means of transit in those days permitted; and did 
 his best to supply the beleaguered garrison with food. The 
 siege was at first carried on in a most unskilful way by the 
 Republican army ; but there was in it a young captain of 
 artillery, named Napoleon Buonaparte, who made his first 
 mark in military history by his suggestion as to the con- 
 duct of the siege. His clear eye noticed how certain forts 
 on a neck of land dominated the town and harbour, and 
 persuaded the general commanding to concentrate all his 
 attention on them. The principal fort was taken, and, on 
 December 19, the English and their allies withdrew after 
 burning those war vessels in the harbour which could not 
 be removed. Daring this weird conflagration hundreds of 
 the frightened inhabitants, dreading the terrible retribution 
 that awaited those who remained, fled on board the English 
 ships of war, and Sir Gilbert used his utmost exertions to 
 comfort and relieve them. " It is some sort of gratification 
 to me," he wrote to Lady Elliot in the fulness of Ids heart, 
 " to be considered the saviour and friend of all these forlorn 
 families. I had the pleasure of saving several lives, and 
 
96 GO VEENORS -GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 of being the sole instrument of any succour or comfort 
 which any of them have obtained. One little boy whose 
 father is missing has taken as kindly to me as if he were 
 my own." The treatment of the French royalists after the 
 recapture of Toulon is one of the most ghastly episodes in 
 the appalling French Revolution, and it is pleasing to 
 contrast the humane exertions of the kindly English states- 
 man with the frantic cruelty of the French victors. 
 
 Early in January 1794, Sir Gilbert Elliot went to the 
 island of Corsica to negotiate regarding its cession to 
 England. It had recently been in the possession of France 
 but General Paoli, who was generally trusted by his 
 countrymen, revolted and, made an offer of the island to the 
 King of England, and this offer being ratified by the Cor- 
 sican Parliament, it was accepted by the English ministry. 
 Sir Gilbert Elliot was appointed Viceroy, and on June 19, 
 1794, he formally took charge of the Government in the name 
 of King George the Third. From that date till October 1796, 
 or rather more than two years, he ruled the volatile and 
 excitable Corsican people with an amount of good humour 
 and tact which won him their respect and even their love. 
 His sole desire was to show them the beauty and the bene- 
 fits of constitutional government, and his policy was to 
 make the island the centre of English naval dominion in 
 the Mediterranean Sea. Captain Horatio Nelson, after- 
 wards Lord Nelson, the great English naval hero, was in 
 the Mediterranean fleet, and contracted a firm friendship 
 with Sir Gilbert, and, when the latter left the island, wrote 
 in strong praise of his conduct as Viceroy. " It is impossi- 
 ble/' he said, "I can do justice to the good arrangement of 
 the Government or the good management of the Viceroy with 
 the Corsicans ; even those who had opposed his administra- 
 tion could not but love and respect so amiable a character/' 
 In the autumn of 1794, Lady Elliot and their children join- 
 ed him, and they all delighted in the beauty of the scenery 
 and in the pleasantness of the climate, crossing over, how- 
 ever, in the hot weather to the mainland and the hills of 
 Italy. At the close of his administration they returned to 
 England in a ship of war ; and he followed them after hav- 
 
V. THE EARL OP MINTO. 97 
 
 ing gone for a time to Naples on diplomatic duty. On his 
 way home in a frigate, he happened to be present at the 
 great naval action off Cape St. Vincent, reaching England 
 on March 5, 1797, with the news of that victory. Thus 
 ended an eventful and busy period of his life, and in the 
 following year, the King, in consideration of the essential 
 services he had rendered to his country, created him a peer 
 of the realm by the title of Baron Minto. 
 
 In 1799 Lord Minto was again actively employed in the 
 service of his country. In June of that year he was ap- 
 pointed Minister Plenipotentiary, that is, an ambassador 
 with full power of acting, to the Court of Vienna, and the 
 immediate object of his mission was to induce the Emperor 
 of Austria to throw himself heartily into alliance with Eng- 
 land in the war she was then prosecuting against France. 
 After much negotiation he was successful, and a treaty of 
 alliance between Great Britain and Austria was signed on 
 June 20, 1800. It was, however, of little use. The war, 
 which had hitherto been carried on with little spirit, just 
 at that time underwent a complete change. The guiding 
 hand of a master in the art of war was just beginning to be 
 felt on the side of France. Napoleon Buonaparte, who had 
 lately been in Egypt, had returned suddenly to Europe, 
 and had put fresh life into the affairs of France. Only 
 five days before the signing of the above mentioned treaty, 
 the battle of Marengo was fought ; and, ere long, Austria 
 was at the mercy of the conqueror, and a fresh treaty was 
 entered into between France and Austria. Though the 
 main object of his embassy had thus been frustrated, Lord 
 Minto had the pleasure of receiving his Sovereign's ap- 
 proval of the firmness and vigour he had shown during a pecu- 
 liarly trying and critical time. Lady Minto was with him 
 the greater part of his stay in the beautiful capital of Austria'. 
 
 Lord Minto returned to London in October, 1801, after 
 an absence of rather more than two years. The next five 
 years were spent in a very similar way to that when he 
 was in the House of Commons, in parliamentary duties and 
 in the society of his friends and fellow statesmen. He 
 resided in London during the time the House of Lords was 
 a 
 
98 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 sitting, and on other occasions lived in Edinburgh or at 
 Minto. In January, 1806, after the death of the distin- 
 guished statesman, Mr. Pitt, to whom England owed so 
 much, a new ministry came into power, which, being com- 
 posed of many brilliant and intellectual men, was jocularly 
 called " The Ministry of all the Talents." Lord Minto 
 took office as President of the Board of Control, but without 
 a seat in the Cabinet, that is, he was not actually one of 
 the responsible Ministers of the Crown. This appointment 
 brought him into close contact with Indian affairs, and 
 caused him a great deal of hard work. He held this 
 important position for only a few weeks. The news of 
 Lord Cornwallis's death soon after his having gone out a 
 second time as Governor-General was received just as 
 Lord Minto took office ; and a conflict arose between the 
 King's ministers and the Court of Directors regarding the 
 choice of his successor. When this dissension was at its 
 height, the Prime Minister proposed Lord Minto as the 
 right person to fill that responsible post, a suggestion 
 which proved agreeable to all parties, as he was known to 
 be a wise, judicious, and conciliatory statesman, who seemed 
 likely to take a sound and sober view of affairs in 
 India, and to exercise a salutary influence there. He 
 at first declined the offer, but afterwards reluctantly 
 accepted it on the ground of public duty. His reluctance 
 was chiefly on account of domestic reasons, because he 
 felt that Lady Minto, whom he so tenderly loved, ought 
 not to accompany him to India for the sake of her health. 
 She was in Scotland at the time, and he wrote to her on 
 the subject in these words : " Now comes the domestic 
 deliberation, and that is exactly the greatest conflict to 
 which my mind could ever be put. My own personal 
 comforts, enjoyments, and happiness can be preserved only 
 at home with yourself and the children." It ought here 
 to be added that he regarded the appointment as one in 
 'which he had the opportunity of doing good to the people 
 of India. When, many years before, he had, under a 
 mistaken sense of duty, become one of the managers in 
 the trial of Warren Hastings, he said that " his earnest 
 
V. THE EABL OF MINTO. 99 
 
 desire to befriend the people of India had decided him to 
 undertake a business in many respects uncongenial to his 
 nature." So on this occasion, he wrote to Lady Minto, 
 " There is the hope of becoming the instrument of great 
 and extensive good." " Most of all," he added, " I hope 
 you are firmly convinced that that no personal passion, 
 such as ambition, could weigh a single grain in the balance 
 against the love I bear you, my affection for the children, 
 and the delight with which I have been looking forward to 
 a greater share of your and their company than I have had 
 for many years." During the time of preparation for his 
 departure, Lord Minto was gratified to hear of the engage- 
 ment of his eldest son to be married, and he was present 
 at his wedding. He felt most keenly the parting from his 
 family and friends ; but was pleased to observe the happi- 
 ness of one who was henceforward to take his position as 
 head of the family in Britain. He sailed from England in 
 the ' Modesto 9 frigate, commanded by his second son, 
 George Elliot, on February 5, 1807. 
 
 After a voyage which lasted four months, Lord Minto 
 reached Madras on June 20, 1807. He there met his third 
 son, John Edmund Elliot, who was in the Civil Service, 
 and who became his private secretary, accompanying him 
 to Calcutta. He assumed charge of the Government on 
 July 31. During the interval between Lord Cornwallis's 
 death, nearly two years previously, and Lord Minto's 
 arrival, Sir George Barlow, the senior member of Coun- 
 cil, had acted as Governor-General, and had been 
 the instrument of carrying out the policy of the Court 
 of Directors supported by the King's ministers in 
 England, which may appropriately be described as the 
 policy of peace in India at any price. Sir George Barlow 
 was at this time transferred to the Governorship of 
 Madras. On his proceeding to Madras, Mr. Lumsden, 
 Mr. Colebrooke, the distinguished Oriental scholar, and 
 General Hewitt, the Commander-in-Chief, were the mem- 
 bers of Council, with whom Lord Minto had the pleasure 
 of working harmoniously during the whole period of his 
 Government. 
 
100 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 Lord Miiito felt most keenly the separation from his wife. 
 Contrary to the case of Lord Wellesley, we have abundant 
 material for estimating his private character and the feel- 
 ings of his mind, for he employed himself in writing long 
 letters, more like journals than the ordinary correspon- 
 dence of every day life, so that we know thoroughly his 
 ideas and thoughts about matters not connected with the 
 official government of the Indian Empire. He was, when 
 he reached Calcutta, fifty-six years of age, so that the 
 change from life in London to the very different scenes in 
 Calcutta struck him very forcibly, and he felt a good deal 
 the closeness and heat of the climate. Writing to his 
 eldest son a few weeks after his arrival, he gives an 
 amusing account of the manner of conducting business in 
 Council, part of which it will be interesting to quote as the 
 experiences of a new comer. " The routine/' he wrote, 
 "is this. The Secretaries in the different departments send 
 in circulation to me and the members of Council the 
 despatches they have received since the last Council, 
 and the documents relating to all business which arises 
 in the interval. The number and variety of affairs is 
 immense; for everything, small as well as great, must 
 have the sanction of Government. The Secretaries attend 
 at Council, each department in its turn with its mountain 
 of bundles. The Secretary reads the substance of each 
 paper, and the order is given on the spot. Now our Secre- 
 taries are all modest men, who scarcely read above their 
 breath. It is a constant strain of the ear to hear them ; 
 the business is often the heaviest and dullest kind, the 
 voices monotonous, and as one small concern follows 
 another, the punkah vibrates gently over my eyes ; and in 
 this warm atmosphere the whole operation has been found 
 somewhat composing. It is often a vehement struggle to 
 avoid a delectable oblivious wink." 
 
 The new Governor-General was delighted to leave the 
 formality and stateliness of Calcutta for the pleasant re- 
 tirement of Barrackpore. There he had leisure to read 
 and write and think. The beauty of the scenery and 
 the quietness of the place attracted him. "The real 
 
V. THE EARL 
 
 OP MINTC. -1XJ1 
 
 beauty," he wrote, "consists in the rich verdure, the 
 magnificent timber, and the fine river which forms one 
 side ot: the place. The breadth of the Ganges here is 
 sufficient for grandeur, and not too much for beauty. It 
 is all alive with a brisk navigation of boats and vessels 
 of different build and dimensions, and all of the most pic- 
 turesque forms and fashions." He had a great affection 
 for this country residence, calling it ' ( a kind of little Minto," 
 for in reminded him of his Scottish home. 
 
 When Lord Minto assumed charge oE the Government, 
 India was settling down after the swift, victorious compaigns 
 of the Marquis Wellesley. The frontier of British India, 
 then infinitely smaller and more compressed than at present, 
 was well defined. There were formidable enemies beyond 
 it. The Mahrattas especially were preparing for further 
 conflict, evidently at no distant date. The enemy most 
 dreaded, however, was France. During the whole of Lord 
 Minto's administration, England and France were at war, 
 and it was necessary not only to keep a jealous eye on the 
 colonial possessions of France, but to keep vigilant watch 
 lest her sons should endeavour to invade India, or to 
 intrigue at the independent Hindu or Muhammadan Courts, 
 During this waiting time the financial position of the 
 country was considerably improved. Lord Minto's policy 
 was not, however, one entirely of peace, and certainly not 
 of timidity and submission. He was quite ready, on suit- 
 able occasions, to use the language of firmness and decision, 
 and, to employ his own words " to discharge the duty 
 which a sovereign owes to his subjects, I mean that of pre- 
 serving the public peace, and protecting the weaker and 
 more pacific part of the community against the oppression 
 and violence of the stronger." He had not been many 
 weeks in power when there arose the necessity for inter- 
 fering by force in Bundelkhand, which had, four years pre- 
 viously, been ceded by the Mahrattas. It was studded 
 with numerous fortified droogs, which were held by petty 
 chiefs who kept the country people in the plains in abject 
 terror. A force was sent against the chiefs who refused to 
 submit; two strongholds, Kalinjir and Azighar, were taken 
 
GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 by assault ; and the province restored to quietness and 
 peace. 
 
 In the year following Lord Minto's arrival, a sudden 
 disturbance arose in the kingdom of Travancore. The 
 Rajah had permitted all the real power-of the realm to pass 
 into the hands of his dewan, who thoroughly abused it, and 
 suffered the kingdom to fall into disorder. An attack was 
 made on the British Resident, who narrowly escaped with 
 his life, and some soldiers and a doctor of an English 
 Regiment were treacherously captured and murdered. 
 A small invading force, under Colonel St. Leger, invaded 
 Travancore, chiefly through the pass leading from Tinne- 
 velly, and order was eventually restored. The province 
 was kept for a few years under English management, but 
 it was, in 1813, handed over again to the Rajah, and it has 
 since been one of the most tranquil and enlightened of all 
 the protected states. 
 
 The most serious disturbance of the time, however, 
 arose from the English officers themselves. Sir George 
 Barlow, the Governor of Madras, was most unpopular, and, 
 during the time of his government, a sad collision occurred 
 between the civil and the military authorities. It began 
 with a question regarding the Tent Contract, being an 
 allowance which the commanding officers of regiments 
 received for providing tents for their men. The Com- 
 mander-in-Chief had quite recently been deprived by the 
 Court of Directors of his seat in Council. In many instances 
 the sepoys were induced to follow their officers in acts of 
 insubordination. At Masulipatam there was open mutiny, 
 and at Secunderabad and in other places there was a very 
 near approach to civil war. Lord Minto, who was deter- 
 mined to uphold the hands of the civil power, though he 
 was particularly anxious to maintain a most conciliatory 
 attitude, thought it right to go straight to Madras, and 
 sift the whole matter thoroughly. He embarked for 
 Madras on August 5, 1809, and remained there fourteen 
 months. After some time the irritation and excitement 
 of this painful mutiny passed away ; and, perhaps, the 
 best thing left behind it by it is the admirable 
 
V. THE EAEL OP MINTO. 103 
 
 state-paper written by the Governor-General on the 
 subject. 
 
 While he was at Madras Lord Minto's son and secre- 
 tary, the Honorable John Elliot, married the daughter 
 of Mr. Casamaijor, M. C. S., and, soon after his return to 
 Calcutta, his second son, the Honorable Captain George 
 Elliot, of the Royal Navy, also married. Both his daugh- 
 ters-in-law had rooms assigned to them in Government 
 House. He was pleased to have them with him, and 
 declared that his residence was much improved in cheer- 
 fulness and comfort. "I have occasion for all the comforts 
 I can snatch, for my work is hard and fatiguing to both 
 body and spirit, not by bodily exercise, but by the effect 
 of mental labour on a body entirely at rest. I am as 
 entirely done up by ten o'clock as if I had been all day on the 
 Moors, " referring to the mountain sides in the highlands 
 of Scotland, where gentlemen delight, at certain seasons, 
 to walk and shoot. " However/ 7 he adds, " I have a quiet 
 sort of contentedness, and spectator-like enjoyment of all 
 the happiness about me, which serves my turn. " He was, 
 however, though cheerfully doing his duty, what is usually 
 called, very home sick. He was actually counting the days 
 to the anticipated time of his return. 
 
 The foreign policy of Lord Minto was entirely influenced 
 by the prevailing dread of French pretensions and fear of 
 invasion. In the early part of his administration, he 'decid- 
 ed on sending two embassies to kingdoms on the frontier 
 of India, each with the object of counteracting the in- 
 trigues of the French. These embassies were sent to 
 Ranjit Singh, the Maharajah of the Panjab, to Shah Shuja, 
 the Ameer of Kabul, and to the Shah of Persia. Lord 
 Minto took the greatest pains in selecting the best and 
 ablest officers for these important and delicate duties. 
 For the embassy to the Panjab he selected Mr. Metcalfe, 
 who had been trained by the Marquis Wellesley, and who 
 afterwards filled many high offices in the State. Mr. 
 Metcalfe was only twenty-three years of age, but he dis- 
 played singular patience, skill, and tact in the conduct of 
 the difficult task entrusted to him. On April 25, 1809, a 
 
104 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 treaty was entered into, in which Ranjit Singh agreed not 
 to interfere with the chiefs on the south of the river Sutlej, 
 and perpetual amity was established between the British 
 Government and himself, no invading army being permit- 
 ted to pass through his territory. The great ruler, the 
 Lion of the Pan jab, most scrupulously kept this treaty. 
 
 Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone, another distinguished 
 civilian who rose to eminence, was entrusted with the em- 
 bassy to Kabul. He was not so successful as Mr. Metcalfe 
 had been in the Panjab. He did not go further than 
 Peshawar, where he had interviews with the Amir, and 
 obtained his object; but, before the treaty could be rati- 
 fied, the Amir had been defeated by his brother, who had 
 usurped the throne, and he had fled for refuge across the 
 Indus. The chief result of this mission was the admirable 
 history of Afghanistan, which Mr. Elphinstone wrote from 
 the materials he was able to obtain at Peshawar. 
 
 The third embassy, that to the Court of Persia, was much 
 more difficult and complicated. Lord Minto chose Colonel 
 Malcolm to conduct it; but another ambassador was sent 
 from England without his knowledge, and the Governor- 
 General was most anxious to prevent any collision, or, as 
 he called it, jostling between the two ambassadors, yet there 
 was much friction between these two officers as well as 
 between the two Governments which they represented. 
 This is not the place to enter into this bygone controversy, 
 so it will suffice to state that, so far as Lord Minto was 
 concerned, his only object was to maintain the dignity of 
 the high office he occupied, A treaty was eventually conclud- 
 ed, in which the name of Russia was substituted for that 
 of France, all fear of the latter country having disappeared 
 by the time it was ratified. 
 
 The chief feature of Lord Minto's rule, however, was his 
 vigorous and decided action with regard to the French 
 colonial possessions in the India and China seas. The two 
 islands, Mauritius and Bourbon, but particularly the former, 
 were of great service to France in harbouring ships of war 
 which were employed in attacking the English fleets on their 
 way to and from India. Both these islands were taken by a 
 
V. THE EAEL OF MINTO. 105 
 
 force sent from this country, Lord Minto acting entirely on 
 his own responsibility, which, as he himself expressed it, 
 "a strong sense of duty to the public had induced him to 
 undertake." A month after the expedition had sailed, in- 
 structions were received from England recommending him 
 to follow the course that he had already adopted. 
 
 The conquest of Holland by Napoleon had placed the 
 Dutch colonies in his possession, and, therefore, it was 
 necessary to make an endeavour at once to capture them. 
 The principal of these was Java. The Governor-General 
 determined himself to accompany the very efficient ai-my 
 which was embarked for the purpose of attacking that island. 
 He went on board the frigate "Modeste," commanded 
 by his second son, being the same vessel in which 
 he had sailed from England, and he much enjoyed the 
 change which the voyage afforded from his usual official 
 routine. The ship touched at Penang and Malacca. 
 An amusing account of the arrival of the fleet at the 
 latter place was written by a Malay, and translated 
 into English by Mr. J. T. Thomson under the title of 
 HaJcayit Abdulla, from which we extract the following 
 simple description of the great man from an outside point 
 of view. "Thousands," he wrote, "had collected at the 
 sea-shore to have a sight of him and his dress, his name 
 being great. At the time of his leaving his ship the 
 cannon roared like thunder the sea became dark with 
 smoke. When I had seen the appearance and circum- 
 stance of Lord Minto, I was much moved ; for I guessed in 
 my mind as to his position and height that these must be 
 great and his dress gorgeous. But his appearance was of 
 one that was middle-aged, thin in body, of soft manners 
 and sweet countenance, and I felt that he could not carry 
 thirty pounds, so slow was his motion. His coat was black 
 cloth, his trousers the same, nor was there anything 
 peculiar. Now he had not the remotest appearance of 
 pomposity or lofty headedness ; but there was real modesty 
 and kindly expression." 
 
 The island of Java was commanded by General Janssens, 
 who had been appointed by Napoleon, and who had 
 
106 QOVEENOBS-GENEEAL OP INDIA. 
 
 endeavoured to put it into the best possible state of defence. 
 Strong fortifications had been erected at Port Cornells, 
 eight miles inland from the capital, Batavia. The in- 
 vading force landed near the capital, which at once 
 surrendered, and on August 26, 1811, the above fort was, 
 after a gallant defence, captured by the troops under Sir 
 Samuel Auchmuty, Colonel Gillespie, who had rescued the 
 survivors from the mutiny of Veil ore, having particularly 
 distinguished himself by his bravery. The French general 
 was sent to England as prisoner, and Lord Minto was 
 careful generously to describe him as a virtuous, just, 
 and brave man and a wise and even enlightened statesman. 
 The island was annexed to the East India Company's 
 territories, Mr. Raffles, afterwards Sir Stamford Raffles, 
 being appointed Lieutenant-G-overnor, subordinate to the 
 Government of Bengal, and Colonel Gillespie, commandant 
 of the troops. The English Government were at first 
 disinclined for annexation ; but it remained under English 
 management till the end of the war in 1814, when it was 
 restored to the Dutch. Before leaving Batavia the Governor- 
 General remarked to a resident that he did not think it was 
 likely that the island would remain long in possession of 
 the English, but, he added, "while we are here, let us do 
 as much good as we can." Most admirable arrangements 
 were made for its good government, and, as Sir Stamford 
 Raffles said, he showed " a tender and parental care for 
 the island ; the European community was saved by his 
 humanity; for the native administration principles were 
 laid down on which the whole of the present structure has 
 been raised; and, in every instance, a wish was evinced 
 of improving the successes of war, as much in favour 
 of the conquered as of the conqueror." 
 
 Lord Minto returned to Calcutta, after an absence of 
 several months, at the end of 1811. While absent he had 
 heard the tidings of the death of his youngest son, which 
 deeply affected him. His yearnings for home seemed to 
 grow stronger, and a shade of melancholy tinged his pri- 
 vate correspondence. During the last two years of his 
 government, no very important public events occurred. 
 
V. THE EARL OP MINTO. 107 
 
 The Mahratta princes were gradually growing more rest- 
 less, and the Pindaris, chiefly under Karim Khan and 
 Cheetoo, were beginning to be troublesome. The Governor- 
 General clearly saw the evils which were likely to ensure 
 from too rigorously adhering to the principle of never 
 interfering in the affairs of the neighbouring states, and 
 plainly wrote to the Court of Directors on the subject 
 in terms of grave warning. The depredations of dacoits in 
 British territory, however, he put down with firm and 
 unsparing hand. 
 
 In June, 1812, Lord Minto was gratified by receiving 
 from the Prime Minister of England " a full and handsome 
 acknowledgment" of all his services, and he was rewarded 
 by the thanks of parliament and a step in the peerage, 
 being created as a mark of his sovereign's approbation, Vis- 
 connb Melgund and Earl of Minto. He had, as we have 
 seen, been eagerly looking forward to the time of his 
 return, and the date he had always fixed was mentioned in 
 his letters frequently, namely, January 1, 1814. He had, 
 in fact, sent in his resignation for about that period. He 
 was, however, rather mortified to find that, before it had 
 been received, his successor, in the person of the Earl 
 of Moira, had already been appointed at the earnest 
 request of the Prince Regent, who considered himself in- 
 debted to that nobleman. Yet the longing for home did 
 not lose its force. " I am at my old work," he writes to 
 his wife, u of counting days and weeks with painful 
 earnestness. I have opened a new account for November 
 instead of January, "meaning that he hoped to leave in the 
 former, instead of the latter month." " I dare hardly let 
 my thoughts loose upon the end of our wanderings and 
 separation, because it makes me downright giddy ; and yet 
 I seldom miss a night dreaming of home." At length the 
 expected time drew near. Lord Moira reached India, 
 and assumed charge of the Government on October 4, 
 1813. The subject of our memoir returned to England 
 in the te Hussar," another frigate commanded by his 
 son, and arrived in London on May 18, 1814. Next 
 day he writes, "Yesterday ws indeed one of the very 
 
108 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 happiest days of my life ; but there is one happier still in 
 store," meaning reunion with his dearly loved wife, who 
 remained in Scotland to greet him there. She, on her 
 part, wrote in reply, " I can hardly breathe or speak or 
 think, or believe that all my cares, all my wishes, and all 
 my anxieties are whisked away in a moment by the most 
 delightful certainty that here you are in our own little 
 island safe and sound. " All these anticipations of pleasure 
 on both sides were quietly ended by One who knew better 
 than either what was right. Lord Minto remained in Lon- 
 don visiting and greeting his old friends, and waiting on 
 those in authority. June 3 was the date fixed for his de- 
 parture from London ; but, on May, 28, his brother-in-law, 
 Lord Auckland, died suddenly, and, in order to comfort his 
 sister in her grief, and to attend the funeral, he at once 
 postponed his departure. He caught a severe cold at the 
 funeral, which took place at Beckenham, several miles from 
 London, and in a few days he himself was very ill. Not- 
 withstanding his severe illness, he was so anxious to leave 
 London and to fulfil his one desire " to see the person on 
 whom his thoughts were ever fixed/' that he was permitted 
 to leave ; but, on reaching Stevenage, a village in Hert- 
 fordshire, on the great northern road, he was utterly pros- 
 trated. There, on June 21, he lay down to die. There is 
 something touchingly pathetic in this death. The reunion 
 to which he had looked forward ardently through so many 
 years of exile was never to be enjoyed in this life. 
 
 Thus closed in touching sorrow the life of one who had 
 served his country well. Lord Minto was a good, but not 
 a great, man. He stood high in the second rank of English 
 statesmen. .No very startling event arose during his ad- 
 ministration to elicit the highest qualities of a ruler. The 
 way in which he dealt with discontent in Corsica and with 
 the mutiny in Madras shows that he possessed great powers 
 of conciliation, composure of mind, and command of temper. 
 As a young man, he was very retiring, silent, and even 
 reserved, and, at one time, he accused himself of indolence, 
 but many men do that without sufficient reason, and cer- 
 tainly he did not show any want of diligence and applica- 
 
V. THE EARL OF MINTO. 109 
 
 tion in the duties of the State. He possessed a temper 
 of unfailing sweetness, and was most affectionate and 
 tender in all the domestic relations of life. He was also a 
 man of considerable culture. During the monotonous 
 hours past on board ship during the expedition against 
 Java, he employed himself in very extensive reading. He 
 mentions having at that time read through the whole of 
 the works of the famous Latin author Cicero in twenty 
 volumes, and having thoroughly enjoyed them. Perhaps, 
 his fame as Governor-General of India might have stood 
 higher if it had not come almost immediately between the 
 strong rule of two such men as the Marquis Wellesley and 
 the Marquis of Hastings. 
 
MARQUIS OF HASTINGS. 
 
VI. THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS. Ill 
 
 VI. THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS. 
 A. D. 1754 TO 1826. 
 
 " It is a proud phrase to use, but it is a true one, that we have 
 bestowed blessings upon millions. Multitudes have, even in this 
 short interval, come from the hills and fastnesses in which they had 
 sought refuge for years, and have re-occupied their ancient deserted 
 villages. The ploughshare is again in every quarter turning up a 
 soil which had for many seasons never been stirred, except by the 
 hoofs of predatory cavalry." 
 
 Lord, Bastings. 
 
 THESE words occur in a reply by the Marquis of Hastings 
 to an address presented to him by the inhabitants of Cal- 
 cutta at the end of the great Mahratta war. We place 
 them at the head of this sketch of the life of Lord Hastings, 
 because they admirably sum tip in three sentences the very 
 great benefits conferred on India by the careful and far- 
 seeing statesmanship of one of her most distinguished 
 Governors-General, and by the war which he was reluc- 
 tantly compelled to wage. They clearly express also the 
 inestimable blessings which have been conferred on India 
 generally by British rule. We admit that there may be a 
 reverse to this estimate of India's gain from the point of 
 view of some of India's best and greatest sons ; but it should 
 never be forgotten that the blessing of peace is one of the 
 greatest benefits that can be bestowed on a nation, be- 
 cause it makes other blessings possible. 
 
 The family name of the Marquis of Hastings was Raw- 
 don. He was the son of Sir John Rawdon, who was raised 
 to the peerage as Baron Rawdon, and afterwards as Earl 
 of Moira in the county of Down in Ireland. His mother 
 was Lady Elizabeth Hastings, daughter of the Earl of 
 Huntingdon. Through her he inherited some of the titles 
 and estates of this celebrated English family. The future 
 Governor-General was born December 7, 1754, and after 
 having been at the University of Oxford at a much earlier 
 
112 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 age than young men now go there, he entered the English 
 army as an ensign in the 15th regiment in the seventeenth 
 year of his age. Two years afterwards, he obtained a 
 lieutenancy in another regiment, and embarked for Amer- 
 ica, where the War of Independence was then raging. 
 He was engaged in many of the battles that took place in 
 that war, during the next nine years of his life, and much 
 distinguished himself in his military profession. The first 
 battle in which he was engaged was the well-known one 
 at Bunker's Hill, and General Burgoyne, the British com- 
 mander, was so gratified at his courage and conduct that 
 he particularly mentioned him in his despatches to England, 
 using this memorable expression, " Lord Eawdon has this 
 day stamped his name for life." It may be noticed here 
 that another Governor-General, Lord Cornwallis, distin- 
 guished himself in the same action. It will be observed 
 that the subject of this memoir was then called Lord 
 Rawdon, because his father had been created Earl of 
 Moira when he was eight years old, and he then, as eldest 
 son, assumed his father's second title. 
 
 For a time Lord Rawdon served as Aid-de-camp to Sir 
 Henry Clinton, the Commander-in-Chief of the British 
 army in America; and, later on, he acted as Adjutant- 
 General to the forces in that country. He was engaged in 
 most of the battles fought during that sad civil war ; but 
 the measure by which he was best known at the time, was 
 his having raised a special corps of soldiers at Philadel- 
 phia, called the Volunteers of Ireland, which was emi- 
 nently distinguished by its services in the field. At first 
 there were a good many desertions ; but, on one occasion, 
 a man was caught in the act of going over to the enemy, 
 and Lord Rawdon left the decision of his case entirely to 
 the men of the regiment themselves. All the officers were 
 withdrawn, and the private soldiers, thus left to them- 
 selves, decided that a deserter should not be permitted 
 to live, and he was accordingly executed then and there. 
 
 Later on, Lord Rawdon commanded one of the wings of 
 the army in the memorable battle of Cowden on August 
 16, 1780; and, as Lord Cornwallis was then the Commander- 
 
VI. THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS. 113 
 
 in-Chief, there again occurred the curious coincidence of 
 two future Governors- General in high command in the 
 same battle. On April 25, 1781, Lord Rawdon, being left 
 in command of a much inferior force to that of the enemy, 
 handled his troops so skilfully that he gained the victory ; 
 but this was of little avail in its influence on the whole war, 
 as the capitulation of Lord Cornwallis rendered all the 
 successes of his lieutenants nugatory. 
 
 In 1782 Lord Rawdon was obliged to return to England 
 by a dangerous attack of illness. On his voyage across 
 the Atlantic, the vessel was taken by a French ship, and 
 carried into the harbour of Brest. He was there detained 
 as a prisoner, but he was soon released. On reaching 
 England he received many marks of distinction from the 
 King, who appointed him one of his Aid-de-camps, and, on 
 March 5, 1783, made him an English peer, thus enabling 
 him to sit in the English House of Lords. He attended 
 the business and the debates there with great regularity, 
 and often joined in the discussions with ability, showing 
 himself to be a clear and forcible debater. During this 
 time he laid the foundation of "an excellent reputation for 
 sound and reliable statesmanship. The principal monu- 
 ment of his labours at this period of his life was a Bill for 
 the relief of persons who were imprisoned for small debts. 
 This was a philanthropic and benevolent act, for the- 
 condition of poor debtors was in those days most deplor- 
 able. 
 
 Lord Rawdon became very intimate with the Prince of 
 Wales and the Duke of York, the two elder sons of the 
 King. He was very active in favour of the former during 
 the debates on the question of the Regency, when the mind 
 of George the Third for a time gave way. His intimacy 
 and friendship with the Prince continued without interrup- 
 tion. He appears to have been equally intimate with the 
 Prince's younger brother, the Duke of York. It was a 
 very sad custom in those days, and one which we consider 
 most unbecoming in any one who is even called a Christian, 
 to fight duels. When any one thought himself insulted by 
 anything said by another, who refused to offer an apology, 
 H 
 
114 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 the two persons fought, either with swords or pistols, and 
 two other gentlemen stood near them during the encounter 
 in order to see that every thing was conducted fairly. The 
 two latter were called ' seconds.' In May, 1789, a quarrel 
 took place between the Duke of York and a Col. Lennox, 
 the former having made a statement which the latter 
 thought insulting. Lord Rawdon attended the Duke as 
 his 'second/ when a duel was fought. Colonel Lennox 
 fired his pistol and missed his Royal Highness ; but the 
 latter refused to fire in return, because he had merely con- 
 sented to fight so as to give his opponent satisfaction, 
 though he felt no enmity or ill-will against him. After 
 this foolish, but dangerous, proceeding had taken place, 
 the parties did not meet again, but declared themselves 
 satisfied ! Lord Rawdon and the other ' second ' issued a 
 paper for the benefit of the public to state that both com- 
 batants had behaved with the most perfect coolness and 
 intrepidity; but the officers of Colonel Lennox's regiment 
 were nearer the truth when they said he had acted with 
 courage, but not with judgment. 
 
 On June 20, 1793, Lord Rawdon succeeded his father as 
 Earl of Moira. In the autumn of that year he was appoint- 
 ed Commander-in- Chief of an army which was intended to 
 assist the loyalists in Brittany, where they were waging an 
 unequal contest with the Republican party in France. 
 Many of the ancient nobility of that country were to serve 
 under him. The expedition was, however, entirely aban- 
 doned, as the Royalists had been subdued before effectual 
 measures had been taken to succour them. On February 
 14, 1794, ha gave in the House of Lords an account of this 
 project, and, with his usual chivalry of character, took on 
 himself the whole responsibility of the measures adopted, 
 and earnestly requested that the names of the French 
 noblemen who were to have helped him might not, for 
 obvious reasons, be made public. That summer he was sent 
 in command of a force of 10,000 men to reinforce the army 
 of the Duke of York and of his allies in Flanders. He was 
 much commended at the time for the rapidity with which 
 this force was takeu from Southampton to Ostend, and 
 
Vi. THE MAEQUIS OF HASTINGS. 
 
 with which a junction with the Duke was effected. He 
 soon afterwards returned to England. 
 
 Daring the next few years Lord Moira was most regular 
 in the discharge of his parliamentary duties, and became 
 very popular in presiding at social meetings. In 1797 a 
 speech delivered by him on the state of Ireland was 
 printed ; but in the following year a pamphlet from his peri 
 was published, in which matters of still greater public 
 interest were discussed. It appears that certain states- 
 men 'had met for the purpose of forming a new administra- 
 tion under the king, so many being dissatisfied with the 
 conduct of Mr. Pitt on one side and of Mr. Fox on the 
 other, and that they were anxious for Lord Moira to be 
 prime minister. He consented ; but desired, if this scheme 
 were successful, not to belong to any party in the state, 
 and to be ready at any moment to retire in favour of any- 
 fitter person who might be found by the Parliament or the 
 king. The chief object aimed at was the endeavour to 
 procure immediate peace in the war then being carried on 
 between England and France. These negotiations show 
 the generous and disinterested side of Lord Moira' s charac- 
 ter, though we agree with Lord Cornwallis in thinking that 
 there was a great measure of temerity even in entertaining 
 the idea that he was equal to such a position. A similar 
 proposal was made to him after the assassination of Mr. 
 Percival in 1812 ; but it was again found to be impracti- 
 cable. 
 
 In 1803 the Earl of Moira was appointed Commander- 
 in-Chief of the forces in Scotland. On July 12, 1804, he 
 was married to the Countess of Loudon, the Prince of Wales, 
 afterwards King Greorge the Fourth, performing that part 
 of the ceremony which is known among the English as 
 giving the bride away. This lady was a peeress in her own 
 right ; and, therefore, so long as her husband remained 
 the Earl of Moira, she retained her own title, instead of 
 taking his. His married life was most happy, and we shall 
 have occasion later on to show from his Private Journal 
 how deeply attached he was to his wife, and how much her 
 presence added to the enjoyment of his sojourn in India, 
 
116 GOVERNORS- GENERAL OF INDIA.. 
 
 and how much lie felt her loss when she was compelled to 
 leave him. In 1806 the party with which he usually acted 
 having come into power, he received the office of Master- 
 General of the Ordnance, which he retained until the 
 ministry with which he was thus connected went out of 
 office. There is but little to record regarding Lord Moira's 
 life during the few years that intervened between this ap- 
 pointment and the still higher one of Governor-General of 
 Bengal, which he received in the year 1813, on the resig- 
 nation of Lord Minto. No diary, if any was kept by him 
 during these years, has been published ; but during the 
 greater part of his stay in India he kept a very full and 
 interesting journal, which gives us a clear insight into his 
 character, and a good account of his travels in the country. 
 In fact, we get from it just the view of the history of 
 India at that period which we require, namely, that from 
 the Government House at Calcutta and from the Gover- 
 nor-General's tent during his progresses. At his own 
 request he held the appointment of Commander-in-Chief as 
 well as that of Governor-General. 
 
 He left England, accompanied by his wife and their 
 three eldest children, on board a ship of war, called <( The 
 Stirling Castle," on April 14, 1813. They reached Madras 
 on September 11, remaining there a week, and took over 
 charge of the Government from Lord Minto on October 4. 
 He was soon in the thick of work, and found how 
 laborious and arduous it was. In case any one should 
 imagine that this high office is one merely of dignity 
 and show, it will be well to quote the new Governor- 
 General's impressions on this point. " The situation of 
 a Governor-General/' he writes, "if he really fulfil his 
 duties, is one of the most laborious that can be con- 
 ceived. The short periods for the exercise indispensable 
 to health and for meals, can barely be afforded." His 
 first impressions in other respects need not be quoted, 
 He came out at the mature age of fifty-nine and continu- 
 ously remained at his post, which grew, as the time went on, 
 more and more laborious ; but at that age, though the 
 judgment in business and in political matters may be 
 
VI. THE MARQUIS OP HASTINGS. 117 
 
 mature, yet the ideas regarding men and their manners 
 have become fixed, and Lord Moira conceived very errone- 
 ous notions about the inhabitants of India, which probably 
 were much toned down before he left his high office. He 
 showed himself, however, most kind and considerate in 
 his treatment of all classes, especially of the princes and 
 chieftains with whom he came in contact. There will be an 
 opportunity hereafter of giving some instances of this. He 
 was, however, most courtly and stately in his manner, and 
 fully maintained the dignity of his position as the repre- 
 sentative of his country and his king. 
 
 It is necessary to* give a brief sketch of the political 
 condition of India on Lord Moira's arrival. It will be 
 remembered that the chief events of his predecessor's 
 administration were the protection of India from the real 
 or the imaginary designs of France against it, and the 
 capture of the possessions of France and those countries 
 that were under her influence. The policy urged upon 
 him by the Court of Directors was strict neutrality with 
 regard to the great Hindu and Muhammadan states. Lord 
 Minto had generally carried out this policy, though he was 
 not very satisfied with its soundness ; but his hands were 
 too fully occupied elsewhere, and the pecuniary resources 
 of the Government of India were too low, to admit of his 
 doing more than remonstrating with the authorities in 
 England. On the Earl of Moira's arrival, he found the 
 finances of British India in a very poor condition, and at 
 the same time there was an uneasy feeling of insecurity 
 throughout all the neighbouring states. Just at the 
 moment of his taking charge of the government, there 
 were seven distinct disputes which might at any moment 
 have led to the necessity for war. But there was more than 
 this. One very formidable power had arisen during- the 
 last few years. It was not a settled state with an orderly 
 form of Government, nor one of the great nations which 
 might at any moment stand forth as claiming the sovereignty 
 ot: India. It consisted of bands of marauding robbers, called 
 the Pindaris, who, under a few desperate and determined 
 leaders, rapidly roved through Central India, oppressing 
 
118 . GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 and plundering the people, and sometimes penetrating even 
 into British territories and into countries protected by the 
 British Government. Some of the Mahratta rulers encour- 
 aged and even assisted them. 
 
 The Hindu and Muhammadan states at that time were 
 of four kinds. Those that were connected with the British 
 Government by what were called subsidiary treaties ; those 
 that were protected by the Government without such 
 treaties ; those that were in alliance with the Government, 
 but without any direct intercourse with it, except sometimes 
 by a Resident living at the Rajah's court; and independent 
 states. The principal of the first kind of state were those 
 of the Nizam and the Peshwa, and the best known of the 
 third kind were those of Scindia, Holkar, and the Rajah 
 of Nagpore. Three of these states were, it will be seen, 
 Mahratta. Active intrigues were going on among them 
 against the English power. This feeling was increas- 
 ing day by day. The policy of neutrality fomented it ; 
 and, at the same time, there was a strong desire apparent 
 to retrieve the reverses which they had sustained during 
 the last Mahratta war, and to set up once more a Mahratta 
 empire. Lord Moira's experienced and soldierly eye at 
 once perceived that there were around him the elements 
 of a war more general than any which the English had yet 
 encountered in India ; and, from the very first, he calmly 
 and quietly set himself the task of preparing for it. The 
 preparations took a long time ; but they were made surely 
 and effectually. He soon saw that the only right policy 
 was to make the British Government paramount, and to 
 sweep away the old fiction of the suzerainty of the Emperor 
 of Delhi. As early as the February after his arrival, he 
 wrote in his private journal the scheme he had in view 
 from the beginning, because, as he added, " it is always 
 well to ascertain to oneself what one would precisely 
 desire, had one the means of commanding the issue." 
 That scheme was that " we should hold all other states as 
 vassals, in substance though not in name ; but possessed of 
 perfect internal sovereignty, and only bound to repay the 
 guarantee and protection of their possessions by the 
 
VI. THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS. 119 
 
 British Government with the pledge of two great feudal 
 duties. First, they should support it with all their forces 
 on any call. Second, they should submit their mutual 
 differences to the head of the confederacy (our Govern- 
 ment), without attacking each other's territories." Such 
 was the object at which from the very first the new 
 Governor-General steadily aimed. 
 
 On June 24, 1814, Lord Moira started on a prolonged 
 tour to the North-West in order that he mi<?ht observe the 
 state of affairs for himself, and visit the principal military 
 stations. Just before he left Calcutta,, a very strong 
 representation was made to the Court of Directors as to 
 the actual condition of India. The Governor-General 
 thoroughly enjoyed this tour. Lady Loudon and their 
 children accompanied him. They went in two large 
 budgerows, attended by a flotilla of more than two 
 hundred boats. The voyage was in those days very 
 long, because they had to depend on the wind ; but 
 it was most delightful, as the tediousness of the voyage 
 was diversified by rides and walks on the banks of the 
 Ganges, and by shooting parties and excursions to some 
 little distance from the river. At the large stations and 
 cantonments there were great ceremonies and reviews, and 
 wherever there was a Rajah or a Nawab to visit, there were 
 nautches and other entertainments. The party took nearly 
 four months going from Calcutta to Cawnpore, arriving at the 
 latter place on October 8. On the way Lord Moira visited the 
 battle-field of Plassey, and the monument to Mr. Cleveland 
 at Bhagalpore, where the memory of that very promising 
 young statesman was still green. The new Governor- 
 General's kindly demeanour and courtly manners charmed 
 all the Hindu and Muhammadan princes. He laid him- 
 self out to be most conciliatory, as he frequently states in 
 his journal how anxious he was, not only to have stately 
 ceremonies when needful, but to go out of his way even to 
 express his satisfaction at the usual attentions and courte- 
 sies of his visitors. This is just what should always be. 
 The whole of Lord Moira's private journal is studded with 
 instances of this kindness and consideration for the feelings 
 
120 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 of others. He was also very careful not to accept expen- 
 sive nazars from the various Princes, Rajahs, and Nawabs 
 who came to visit him. 
 
 On October 25, the Earl of Moira, entered Luckuow in 
 state on a visit to the Nawab Vizier, and remained there 
 until November 12. His visit was a great political event. 
 The Nawab had died while the Governor-General was on his 
 upward journey, and the latter had advised his son, on his 
 succession, not to seek the confirmation of his title by the 
 Emperor of Delhi, which was, in itself, an act significant 
 of the new order of things in India. During his sojourn 
 at Lucknow Lord Moira stayed in the beautiful palace of 
 Constantia, which had been built by General Martin, a 
 French officer who had been high in the service and the 
 favour of former Nawabs of Oudh. The account Lord 
 Moira gave in his journal of the magnificence of his recep- 
 tion at Lucknow is most interesting, especially, when com- 
 pared with the history of the memorable siege of the 
 Residency just forty- three years afterwards. 
 
 While at Lucknow, the Governor-General received the 
 news of the death of General Gillespie during the assault 
 of Kalunga in Nepaul. Before leaving Calcutta he had 
 been compelled, in order to maintain the honour of Eng- 
 land, to declare war against the Regent and Government 
 of that country. The Goorkhas had been successful in the 
 campaigns against their near neighbours, and, flushed with 
 these victories, had ventured to take possession of two 
 districts near Goruckpore, which had been ceded to the 
 British Government by the Nawab of Oudh. This was the 
 occasion of the war. Four compact British armies entered 
 the mountainous country of Nepal in four different direc- 
 tions. Three of them were unsuccessful, being under the 
 direction of incompetent commanders, who were unaccus- 
 tomed to the difficulties and novelty of mountain warfare. 
 The Governor-General had clearly impressed upon them, 
 and particularly on General Gillespie, the importance of not 
 assaulting by storm strong hill fortresses which required to 
 be reduced by the use of artillery. General Gillespie had 
 disobeyed this order, and the Governor-General keenly felt 
 
VI. THE MARQUIS OP HASTINGS. 121 
 
 not only the loss of such a very courageous and distinguish- 
 ed officer, but also the discredit which such disasters 
 brought on the British arras. The fourth division under 
 the careful leading of General Ochterlony was successful in 
 the west of Nepal. The disasters in other places were 
 retrieved, and by the middle of 1815, the Nepalese were 
 prepared to enter into negotiations. It required a second 
 campaign, however, effectually to reduce them. Their 
 envoys declined, at the eleventh hour, to sign a treaty. 
 The second campaign was most skilfully conducted by 
 General, now Sir David Ochterlony ; the Government of 
 Nepal was brought to listen to reason ; and the Goorkhas 
 have since enlisted largely in the British army, and have 
 proved themselves hardy and courageous soldiers in many 
 campaigns. 
 
 The reverses in this war were a heavy weight on Lord 
 Moira's mind. They caused much disaffection and intrigue, 
 particularly among the Mahratta princes. The Governor- 
 GeneraPs attention was at the time fully occupied in other 
 quarters, so that no wonder he wrote in his journal words 
 of depression such as these : " The cloud which overhangs 
 us is imposing. The exigencies of the war with the Goor- 
 khas, whose successes have intimidated our troops and our 
 Generals, have forced me to send into the hills everything 
 that was dispensable, because ifc would be the first step to 
 a speedy subversion of our power, were we to be foiled in 
 that struggle. With a deeply anxious heart I am keeping 
 up an air of indifference and confidence, and I am con- 
 vinced that I thence am supposed to possess ample resourc- 
 es." The lack of money in the treasury had been 
 remedied by a loan of a crore of rupees from the Nawab 
 of Oudh, which his father had offered to give, in order, as 
 Lord Moira wrote, " to mark his gratitude for my having 
 treated him as a gentleman. " The loan was afterwards 
 doubled. During these wars and continual rumours of 
 wars, the Governor-General continued his peaceful pro- 
 gress. From Lucknow he marched by easy stages to some 
 of the principal towns in the North- West of India. The 
 furthest limit of his journey was the city of pilgrims, 
 
122 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 Hurdwar, where the viceregal party spent Christmas, 1814, 
 and then he returned to Futtehghar, where he embarked 
 for Calcutta, which he reached on October 9, 1815, and 
 landed in state. At Karnal he received at this durbar 
 several of the Sikh chieftains, notably the then Maha- 
 rajah of Patiala. Each presented him with a bow, 
 observing that there was added no arrow, to signify 
 that they themselves were the arrows to be directed 
 against any foe. Lord Moira seemed particularly struck 
 with their manly bearing. Lady Loudon visited Delhi 
 as the party past that celebrated city ; but the Governor- 
 General determined that it was advisable for him not 
 to visit the titular Emperor, who declined to receive him 
 as an equal, and he was quite convinced of the foolishness 
 of keeping up the impolitic farce of acknowledging 
 the Emperor as the lord paramount of the British 
 Government. The stately progress of the very large vice- 
 regal camp and the heavy strain of political business were 
 lightened by shooting excursions. On one occasion the 
 Governor- General shot two lionesses. The return journey 
 was not marked by any very important events. 
 
 The year 1816 opened in a very sad manner for Lord 
 Moira. His wife and children were obliged to return to 
 England, his only son having been very ill on the passage 
 down the river, and his affectionate heart deeply felt the 
 parting. On January 1, he wrote in the following sad 
 strain : " Never before did a year open to me with such 
 chilling prospects. In a few days my wife and children, 
 the only comforts by which I am attached to this world, 
 are to embark for England." He adds, however, with an 
 effort, when remembering his duty, " Nothing will remain 
 to cheer me under unremitting and thankless labour ; yet 
 I feel a bond that will never allow me to relax in effort as 
 long as my health will suffice. I at times endeavour to 
 arouse myself with the hope that I may succeed in 
 establishing such institutions, and still more such disposi- 
 tions, as will promote the happiness of the vast population 
 of this country ; but, when the thought has glowed for a 
 moment, it is dissipated by the austere verdict of reason 
 
VI. THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS. 123 
 
 against the efficacy of exertion from an atom like myself." 
 On the 15th he accompanied his family down the river 
 towards the ship which was to take them to sea, and two 
 days afterwards returned to Calcutta. "Prepared as I 
 was," he again writes in his diary, " I have been quite 
 stupified at this fulfilment of our own determination, and I 
 only feel the confused soreness of a blow, the real mischief 
 of which I have not recollection to appreciate. How little 
 an exercise of thought shows one the certainty that all 
 apparently rigid destinations of the Almighty are kind- 
 ness/' And so, he returns to the City of Palaces,, to brace 
 himself, as so many Englishmen in humbler positions in 
 India have so frequently to do, by renewed application to 
 his duty and his work. 
 
 This the Governor-General did with hearty good will. 
 With the exception of a shooting excursion for a few weeks, 
 the following eighteen months were spent, in Calcutta and 
 its neighbourhood, and he was fully occupied in the press- 
 ing duties of his high position. Events were occurring 
 which were rapidly leading up to the severest struggle 
 that had yet taken place in the history of British India, 
 and the Governor-General knew that the time, which he 
 had clearly foreseen since his arrival, was drawing near ; 
 when the English power must be paramount throughout 
 the whole country. We have already mentioned the dep- 
 redations of the Pindaris, the intrigues of the Mahrattas, 
 and the distrust which the neutral policy of the Court of 
 Directors had universally caused. A perfect network of 
 intrigue was woven all over Central India. A wide-spread 
 conspiracy against the English Government was becoming 
 stronger every day, and it would have been all the more 
 formidable if there had not been mutual jealousies between 
 the Mahratta States themselves. Every phase of this con- 
 spiracy was known to the Governor-General, who was 
 fortunate in having most eminent statesmen at the various 
 Mahratta Courts. Clear statements of the position of 
 affairs were made to the Court of Directors, and their sanc- 
 tion to hostilities was reluctantly obtained. Meanwhile, 
 the Governor- General, who had been raised a step in the 
 
124 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 peerage under the title of the Marquis of Hastings, had 
 taken the matter into his own hands. For several months, 
 or, rather, years he had, as we have seen, been quietly 
 making preparations for war. The ostensible reason for 
 action was the open and impudent attacks of the Pindaris 
 even on the Company's territories. They made a bold and 
 rapid dash into the Northern Circars, plundering Guntoor, 
 and leaving behind them more than three hundred deso- 
 lated villages. Within a few months, Lord Hastings had 
 made his arrangements, and troops amounting to several 
 thousands were ordered to converge towards Central India 
 from Bengal, Madras, and Bombay. Their avowed object 
 was to break np the numerous hordes of Pindaris, but they 
 were also intended to watch and overawe the armies of the 
 disaffected Mahratta princes. We have not space to de- 
 scribe in detail the great Mahratta war which ensued, so 
 we propose to view it from the tent oi: the Governor-Gener- 
 al, who, being also Oommander-iu-Chief, himself directed 
 the operations in the field, and, for this purpose, accompan- 
 ied in person the great army which was assembled in the 
 North-West. 
 
 Lord Hastings left Calcutta on July 8th, 1817. The 
 simple entry in his journal is given, because it shows the 
 spirit in which he started : " Embarked from Calcutta 
 for the Upper Provinces, with the fervent hope that I may 
 be the humble instrument for extinguishing an evil which 
 has been a bitter scourge to humanity." He proceeded 
 slowly up the Granges to Cawnpore by boat, and 
 marched thence with the troops on October 16. Crossing 
 the Jumna by a bridge of boats, he went straight towards 
 Gwalior. The object of this rapid march was to overawe 
 Scindia, who had been detected in intriguing with the 
 Rajah of Nepaul, and had given direct aid and encourage- 
 ment to the Pindaris. Completely disconcerted by the 
 rapidity of this .advance, Doulat Rao Scindia thought 
 it advisable to come to terms at once, and, when the 
 Governor- General's force had arrived within two marches 
 of his capital, Gwalior, he signed a treaty which had 
 the effect of putting him completely within the power 
 
VI. THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS. 125 
 
 of the English Government. He gave free permission for 
 the English troops to pass through his dominions in 
 pursuit of the Pindaris, he agreed to remain neutral during 
 the war, and to give up temporary possession of two strong 
 fortresses, Hindia and Aseerghur, which commanded 
 the fair valley between the Nerbudda and the Tapti. On 
 receiving this treaty Lord Hastings remarked, " I should 
 have thought myself oppressive had Scindia not been so 
 thoroughly false. " A little further on in his journal he 
 adds these words, which are quoted to show the spirit he 
 felt, when he considered the vast campaign in which the 
 English forces were then engaged : " We are in a fair 
 way of achieving arrangements," he wrote, " which will 
 afford quiet and safety to millions who have long been 
 writhing under the scourge of the predatory powers (the 
 Mahrattas and Ameer Khan), as well as under the feroci- 
 ous cruelty of the Pindaris. I trust that my soul is ade- 
 quately grateful to the Almighty for allowing me to be the 
 humble instrument of a change beneficial to so many of 
 my fellow-creatures/' 
 
 The end thus desired was not far off, but a few months 
 of sharp struggle intervened before it was fully accom- 
 plished. We now turn our attention further south to 
 Poona, the capital of the Peshwa, Baji Rao. This sover- 
 eign was the very centre of Mahratta intrigue. He was 
 in close correspondence with Scindia and the Rajah of 
 Nagpore. For the past four years, in fact, even since 
 Lord Hastings' arrival in India, he had been scheming 
 for a revival of Mahratta power. His chief favourite and 
 ad vicer was a worthless courtier, named Trimbakji Dainglia r 
 who had been banished at the command of the able Resident, 
 the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone. This favourite 
 had effected his escape, and the intrigues at the Court of 
 the Peshwa had burst out with redoubled virulence. In 
 June, 1817, the Peshwa had signed a treaty, binding him- 
 self to have no dealings with Trimbakji, formally to relin- 
 quish all claim to the headship of the Mahratta confederacy, 
 and to cede certain territory to the Company. This treaty 
 was signed under compulsion, for Baji Rao had no inten- 
 
126 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 tion of fulfilling it, if he could by any means wriggle out 
 of it. He was watching his opportunity. This soon came. 
 The force at Poona was weakened by a portion of it starting 
 under General Smith to take part in the general Pindari 
 campaign. Foreseeing the outbreak, Mr. Elphinstone 
 removed the British Cantonment to Kirki, two miles west 
 of Poona, and situated on a bend of the river, and sum- 
 moned a European regiment from Bombay. The Resi- 
 dency was attacked on November 5, 1817, and Mr. Elphin- 
 stone had only just time to quit it, and to retire to the small 
 English force. After a short, sharp action, the vast 
 Mahratta army was defeated. In a few days General 
 Smith returned with his division, the city of Poona was 
 taken, and the Peshwa left it precipitately as a fugitive. 
 He was dethroned, and the greater part of his dominions 
 annexed, while a descendant of the great Mahratta con- 
 queror Sivaji was created Rajah of Satara. A few months 
 afterwards Baji Rao surrendered, and was granted a hand- 
 some pension. There is no doubt that the'whole of his 
 misfortunes were due to his duplicity and deceit. Lord 
 Hastings was still in camp not far from Gwalior, when he 
 received the tidings of the battle of Kirki and the fall of 
 Poona. 
 
 A few days afterwards he heard of equally stirring 
 events at Nagpore. The late Raja of Nagpore had died 
 in March 1816, and had been succeeded by an imbecile son. 
 A cousin of the latter, named Appa Sahib, had been appoint- 
 ed Regent, and it was with him that a subsidiary alliance 
 was made, through which he hoped to secure the help of 
 the British Government in his design on the throne. This 
 treaty was regarded by Lord Hastings with much satis- 
 faction. " Thus I have been enabled," he wrote, " to effect 
 what has been fruitlessly laboured at for twelve years. 
 Scindia's designs on Nagpore, as well as the Peshwa' s, are 
 defeated, and the interception of the Piudaris is rendered 
 certain." These words proved to be quite true, but 
 not in the way the Governor- General anticipated. In 
 February, 1817, the poor imbecile Raja was found dead, 
 and his death had been occasioned by his treacherous 
 
VI. THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS. 127 
 
 cousin's command. Appa Sahib's manner towards the 
 British Government changed from that moment. He 
 cordially entered into the plans of the Peshwa, and joined 
 the conspiracy against the English power. Though the 
 Peshwa was in arms against it, he pompously accepted 
 honours from him, and treacherously attacked the Residency. 
 Mr. Jenkins was the Resident, and he was as able and 
 courageous as his brother-civilian at Poona. The Resi- 
 dency, which was a little distance from the town and 
 separated from it by a ridge called the Seetabuldee 
 Hills, was attacked on November 16. The overwhelming 
 number of the enemy nearly carried every thing before 
 it ; but a bold charge of the Bengal cavalry under Cap- 
 tain Fitzgerald completely retrieved the day. Reinforce- 
 ments rapidly came up, and in a few days Mr. Jenkins 
 was in a position to dictate terms to the Raja. He 
 was restored for a time, but continued his intrigues. 
 He was then dethroned and sent in captivity to Allahabad ; 
 but he effected his escape on the way, and finally fled to 
 the Panjab. The repulse of the Nagpore army at Seeta- 
 buldee was, as Lord Hastings called it in his journal, a 
 glorious effort of bravery on the part of our troops. 
 
 The tidings of further victories cheered the heart of the 
 'Governor-General, while still in camp, watching Scindia, 
 and keeping him effectually in check. Holkar was another 
 of the great Mahratta chiefs. Jeswunt Rao Holkar, the 
 former antagonist of Wellesley and Lake, died in 1811. 
 One of his wives, named Tulsai Bhai, assumed the govern- 
 ment of his dominions in the name of her step- son, the young 
 Raja. She entered heartily into the conspiracy fostered 
 by the Peshwa. The commanders of the several detach- 
 ments of Holkar's army united their forces on December 
 16, 1817, and marched towards the Nerbudda in great 
 spirits and in hopes of plunder. On the way they met the 
 army of the Deccan under Sir Thomas Hislop and Sir John 
 Malcolm. They were totally defeated at Mahidpore, a 
 little to the north of Oojein. The feeling of all the 
 Mahratta commanders had been in favour of war, and 
 imiginmg that Tulsai Bhai had been intriguing with the 
 
128 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 English authorities, they had put her to death a few days 
 before the battle. A treaty was afterwards concluded 
 with the young Maharaja Mulhar Rao Holkar. Another 
 of the great Mahratta powers was thus completely broken. 
 The remarks with which Lord Hastings received the news 
 of this victory were : " The patience and moderation with 
 which we strove to wean that Government from its project 
 of succouring the Peshwa was misconstrued into a doubt of 
 our ability to coerce it, and a tone of the utmost insolence 
 was assumed by Holkar's sirdars. " 
 
 While the mam divisions of the Grand Army were thus 
 successful against the more formidable Mahratta powers, 
 separate detachments paralysed and destroyed the mischiev- 
 ous hordes of the Pindaris. They were completely dis- 
 persed, and their chiefs caught like rats in a trap. The most 
 prominent were Cheetoo, KareemKhan, and Wasil Mahom- 
 ed. Kareem Khan was caught, and received a small 
 jaghir on the Ganges. Wasil Mahomed was put under 
 restraint at Ghazipore ; but being detected in an attempt 
 at escape, he poisoned himself. Cheetoo fled into the 
 jungles, where he was killed by a tiger. Thus every 
 vestige of these enemies of the human race and of their 
 innumerable followers was removed, and a similar gather- 
 ing of plunderers has never since afflicted India. 
 
 While Lord Hastings was in camp near Gwalior, his 
 army was attacked by that sad and mysterious disease, 
 cholera, which has since been so painfully common through- 
 out the land. It was then virtually a new disease. It 
 had before that rarely been heard of. It is now only too 
 well-known. It was not understood at all when it made its 
 appearance in the Governor-General's camp ; but frequent 
 changes in the site of the camp and constant care caused 
 its departure. The Governor-General himself was most 
 kind and sympathetic, and indefatigable in his attention to 
 the sick. There were innumerable instances of personal 
 generosity and kindness during this terrible infliction. 
 We cannot forbear mentioning one which was recorded in 
 Lord Hastings' private journal. A .soldier in a King's 
 Kegiment was being carried sick in a dooly to hospital, when 
 
VI. THB MARQUIS OF HASTINGS. 129 
 
 he observed a sepoy of the escort fall with a sudden 
 seizure. He immediately left his dooly, placed the sepoy in 
 it, and walked by his side. 
 
 On the 13th of February, 1818, the Marquis of Hastings 
 began his return march to Calcutta. The war had lasted 
 barely four months ; but, owing to the consummate mili- 
 tary skill displayed by the Governor- General, admirably 
 seconded by the various commanders and by the courage 
 of the troops, it was completely successful in that short 
 space of time. When he reached the Jumna on his up- 
 ward march, the Mahrattas, the Pindaris, and other hostile 
 chiefs had armies of more than 150,000 men with 500 
 pieces of cannon ready for resistance, and now all had 
 vanished like a morning cloud. The object he had in view 
 had been accomplished, and the power of the British 
 Government was everywhere paramount. We record this 
 achievement in the Governor- General's own words written at 
 the time : " Four months only will have elapsed to-morrow/* 
 he wrote on February 19, " since the assembling of this 
 division at Secundra. The actual campaign lasted but 
 three months, and in that short space of time the alteration 
 wrought in Central India is so extraordinary that one feels 
 oneself still too near it to comprehend it thoroughly. In 
 security, in tranquillity, and in revenue, our gain is very 
 great ; in honour, the return is not, I trust, less ample ; for 
 justice and liberality have been as conspicuous as valour 
 in the conduct of all our officers/' He reached Calcutta on 
 July 23, and felt deeply touched by the way in which he 
 was received there on his return. " I cannot omit saying/' 
 he wrote, " how deeply I felt the behaviour of the immense 
 crowd assembled along the road by which I walked from 
 the ghaut to Government House. All was silence ; but 
 there was something in the kind and respectfully welcom- 
 ing looks of the poor people infinitely more touching than 
 the loudest shouts of joy could have been/' A vote of 
 thanks to the Governor-General and his officers was 
 cordially past in the British Houses of Parliament; but 
 neither the Court of Directors nor Mr. Canning, the 
 President of the Board of Control could conceal their 
 
130 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. 
 
 disapprobation of his policy or of the extension of territory 
 which had necessarily followed this successful campaign. 
 Nothing was further from Lord Hastings's desire than this 
 increase of the British dominions ; but it was forced upon 
 him by the force of circumstances, and by the fact that 
 no other course could have prevented the well-known 
 treachery of the Mahratta sovereigns. 
 
 The Marquis of Hastings, who, in J819, was rejoined by 
 the Marchioness, remained in India more than four years 
 after the restoration of peace. The colonial possessions of 
 France, Denmark, and Holland were restored to those 
 countries after the treaty of Paris in 1815. Java, which had 
 been taken from the Dutch by Lord Minto, was the most 
 valuable of all these possessions ; but the island of Singa- 
 pore was, in 1819, ceded to the English by the Raja of 
 Johore, and has ever since been of the greatest importance, 
 owing to its central position in the Eastern seas. The 
 most noteworthy, but, at the same time, the most trouble- 
 some event that happened during the latter part of Lord 
 Hastiness administration was connected with the domin- 
 ions of the Nizam of Hyderabad. For many years they 
 had been virtually under the control of Chundoo Lall, a 
 Hindu in high authority under the nominal Prime Minister. 
 The state groaned under debt and mismanagement, and 
 latterly a large loan on extravagantly exorbitant interest 
 was made to it by Messrs. Palmer and Co., a banking firm 
 at Hyderabad, in which Sir William Palmer was one of the 
 partners. This gentleman had married a ward of Lord 
 Hastings, and this fact let people to believe that the Gov- 
 ernment were concerned in these usurious loans. Sir 
 Charles Metcalfe, the Resident of Hyderabad, had even 
 incurred the Governor-General's displeasure by the way in 
 which he exposed these loans and put them down. A 
 complete reconciliation between Lord Hastings and his 
 able and trustworthy subordinate was effected before the 
 former quitted India; and he wrote him a warm and even 
 affectionate letter on the subject ; but the question itself 
 helped to embitter the last days of his long administration. 
 The Court of Directors took the matter up, and the Gov- 
 
 
VI. THE MABQUIS OP HASTINGS. 131 
 
 ernor-General feeling that be did not possess their full 
 confidence, sent in his resignation. In accepting it, the 
 Court expressed their thanks to him " for the unremitting 
 zeal and eminent ability with which he had administered 
 the GoverDment of British India with such high credit to 
 himself and advantage to the interests of the East India 
 Company." The Proprietors of the Company also placed 
 on record " the expression of their admiration, grati- 
 tude, and applause. " The Marquis of Hastings laid down 
 the high office which he had held for the very long peiiod 
 of nine years, on the first day of 1828. 
 
 He did not remain long unemployed. He was appoint- 
 ed, soon after his return, on March 22, 1824, Gov- 
 ernor of the island of Malta, one of the chief British 
 possessions in the Mediterranean Sea. While holding this 
 important appointment, he returned to England for a few 
 months, and, in 1825, he took his seat in the House of Lords 
 for the first time as Marquis of Hastings. He was, at this 
 period, much worried by the charges made against him at 
 the India House. There was considerable ill-will entertain- 
 ed against him on account of the transactions connected with 
 the firm of Messrs. Palmer & Co., at Hyderabad, and the 
 decision of the Court of Proprietors, notwithstanding the 
 brilliant results of his excellent administration, was merely of 
 a negative character, namely that there was no ground for 
 imputing corrupt motives to the late Governor-General a 
 poor return for his magnificent services. On resuming 
 charge of his Government at Malta, his usual good health 
 failed, and he suffered from an injury caused by a fall from 
 his horse. He died on board His Majesty's ship of war 
 " Revenge" in Baia Bay, off Naples, on his way to England 
 for his health, on November 28, 1826. In a letter found 
 among his papers, he directed that his right hand should 
 be cut off, and buried with Lady Hastings when she also 
 should die. 
 
 We hope that the character of Lord Hastings has been 
 clearly brought out in the foregoing sketch. He was a sig- 
 nal instance of what is exceedingly rare, the success of a 
 statesman coming out to India at a rather late period of life. 
 
132 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 The conduct of the Mahratta war testified to his great ability 
 as a commander, and his wisdom as an administrator proved 
 him to be no mean successor of Warren Hastings and Wel- 
 lesley. The empire of which they laid the foundation was 
 enlarged and strengthened by his foresight and untiring 
 energy. There can be doubt that he hit upon the true secret 
 of successful rule in India. England could not be a second- 
 ary power there : it must be paramount and supreme. 'This 
 idea was the key-move of all his policy. He was success- 
 ful in carrying it out, and the British Government was in 
 a far firmer position when he laid down the reins of power 
 than when he assumed them. He never forgot that he was 
 the representative of his king, and always insisted on the 
 respect ftnd deference which were due to his high office. 
 He was, however, of a most kind and lovable disposition. 
 There are numerous examples in his journal, to which 
 we have so frequently referred, of kind and considerate 
 acts done with the sole object of preventing annoyance 
 and inconvenience to the people. For instance, soon after 
 his arrival, he was much distressed, during a little tour up- 
 country, at observing that two miles of the road to a town 
 bad been decorated with plantain trees to make it look like 
 an avenue. No great damage was really done; but he felt 
 that, as each plantain tree cut down meant so much loss 
 for the year, it was a sacrifice made by the people which 
 put them to much inconvenience. He was most anxious 
 that his tours should cause no loss to any one, and he gave 
 strict orders that his camps should be so managed as to 
 hinder any damage to the crops. If any loss were unavoid- 
 ably sustained, he directed that full compensation should 
 be given. He was particularly scrupulous in observing all 
 matters of etiquette with regard to the reception of Rajas 
 and Nawabs, and in trying to find out exactly what would 
 gratify each on presentation to him. He instituted the 
 custom of holding durbars specially for the native officers 
 of regiments as well a,s for the European officers. He was 
 just as careful in his attention to the junior officers as to 
 those holding higher military rank ; and an admirable facil- 
 ity for remembering faces enabled him to say a kindly 
 
VI. THE MARQUIS OP HASTINGS. 133 
 
 word or to do a thoughtful action, and thus made him very 
 popular among all classes of society. 
 
 Lord Hastings was wonderfully diligent in business. 
 Coming, as we have said, to India at a comparatively late 
 period of life, and holding the combined offices of Gov- 
 ernor-General and Commander-in-chief for over nine years, 
 there was a peculiar strain on his time and health. His 
 constitution must have been very strong to bear it. He 
 rose early, and was generally at work at his despatches by 
 four or five o'clock in the morning. Whenever he went 
 out or was at official business, he dressed in the full dress 
 uniform of a General officer, which, in those days, was 
 very heavy and uncomfortable. It must have been 
 particularly irksome for any one to sit, especially in 
 the hot weather, in a thick red cloth coat with epaulettes 
 on the shoulders and a high stock round the throat ; 
 but, although the contrary has been stated, he some- 
 times relaxed this extreme vigour, and, as described 
 by an officer who wrote at the time, he wore in private, a 
 plain silk undress coat for the purpose of writing more at 
 ease, as ordinary mortals do. We quote two or three sen- 
 tences from the book we are referring to, as they show the 
 great Governor-General at his work : " On the table before 
 him were several boxes containing papers or despatches 
 with some large thick quarto letter paper for his personal 
 use. Some of the boxes were open ; and at his right hand 
 was one closed, but with a narrow opening in its lid, like a 
 post-office pannel, for the admission of closed and sealed 
 letters. Various consultation boxes containing recent re- 
 ports, minutes, or despatches iu circulation for the perusal 
 of the members of Government, were on a side table, 
 awaiting their early turn for consideration. The punkah 
 was moving by some simple mechanism, so as to obviate 
 the intrusion of a servant, and the whole scene betrayed 
 the study and retirement of an indefatigable, ardent states- 
 man, but one necessarily systematic and methodical in the 
 otherwise overwhelming magnitude of his public business." 
 
 The Marquis of Hastings showed the greatest interest in 
 the education of the people, and it was only the distracted 
 
134 GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 state of Central India, which caused him reluctantly to 
 draw the sword, that prevented him from doing more to 
 promote it. Lady Hastings, during her early stay at Bar- 
 rackpore, founded a school there for some eighty boys. 
 The instruction was in Bengali, and only those who showed 
 particular diligence were rewarded by being taught Eng- 
 lish. She herself compiled a little book containing moral 
 precepts and stories, which was translated into Bengali 
 and Hindustani. Vernacular schools started in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Calcutta by Dr. William Carey and others 
 were liberally supported by Lord Hastings^ Govern- 
 ment, and the first vernacular newspaper, the Samachar 
 Durpan, was published in his time and encouraged 
 by him. It was his sincere desire to extend education 
 to Central India, thus turning the tranquillity which 
 there ensued, as he termed it, "to noble purposes. 3 ' 
 We think it only right and fair to his memory to quote 
 his own words on this subject so as to show his thoughts 
 regarding it, and to prove that only adverse circumstances 
 prevented him from carrying them into effect. They also 
 reach forward to the far future, when, England's work 
 in India being done, she may, perhaps, be able to leave 
 this country to be governed by its own sons. "God be 
 praised/' he wrote, "that we have been successful in 
 extinguishing a system of rapine which was not only the 
 unremitting scourge of an immense population, but deprav- 
 ed its habits, while it stood an obstacle to every kind of 
 improvement. It is befitting the British name and character 
 that advantage should be taken of the opening which we 
 have effected, and that establishments should be introduced 
 which may rear a rising generation in some knowledge of 
 social duties. A time will arrive when England will, on 
 sound principles of policy, wish to relinquish the domination 
 which she has assumed over this country, and from which 
 she cannot at present recede. In that hour it would be 
 the proudest boast and most delightful recollection that 
 she had used her sovereignty towards enlightening her 
 temporary subjects, so as to enable the native communities 
 to walk alone in the paths of justice." 
 
VI. THE MARQUIS OP HASTINGS. 135 
 
 With the quotation of these sentiments we conclude our 
 retrospect of Lord Hastings's life. He was one of those 
 noble rulers to whose memory India should look back with 
 unfeigned gratitude. He was a first-rate military genius, 
 and she owed to him the inestimable blessing of deliver- 
 ance from a harassing and pestilential scourge, and 
 consequently of peace and good government ; but he was 
 more than this. He was a good and amiable man, an 
 admirable representative of his king, and a sincere friend 
 of the Indian people, to whom he was most desirous to 
 exhibit the best and highest example of a high-minded 
 English gentleman. 
 
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