Class ., J"^"/" ^^ 
 
 Book //; /^ 
 
 Copyright 1!^^ 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
LONGMANS' ENGLISH CLASSICS 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 ASHLEY H. THORNDIKE, Ph.D., L.H.D. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
 
 LORD MACAULAY 
 
 ESSAY ON WARREN HASTINGS 
 
Eongmang' (EngUgJi Claggtcg 
 MACAULAY'S 
 
 Essay on Warren Hastings 
 
 EDITED WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTION 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL M. TUCKER, Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of English and Dean of the Florida State College for Women 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 LONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 
 I9IO 
 
Copyright, igio, hy 
 Longmans, Green, and Co^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 (Oni.A365888 
 
C0 
 
 LOUISA TUCKER PHILIPS 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 Introduction 
 
 I. Life of Macaulay ix 
 
 II. Macaulay as Writer xv 
 
 1. His Method xv 
 
 2. His Style xviii 
 
 III. Macaulay on Warren Hastings xx 
 
 IV. India in the Time of Hastings . . . ... xxvii 
 
 Bibliography xxx 
 
 Chronological Table — Macaulay xxxi 
 
 Chronological Table — Warren Hastings . . . xxxvi 
 Abstract of the Essay on Warren Hastings . . . xxxviii 
 
 Essay on Warren Hastings 3 
 
 Notes 151 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 I. Life of Macaulay 
 
 Thomas Babington Macaulay, the most popular Eng- 
 lish essayist and historian of the nineteenth century, was 
 born in Leicestershire, England, October 25, 1800. He 
 came of excellent parentage. His father, Zachary Macau- 
 lay, a Scotch Presbyterian, was himself a distinguished 
 man, one of the leaders of the anti-slavery movement, of 
 stern and unbending integrity of character and of undevi- 
 ating purpose, though lacking the brilliance, versatiUty, 
 and charm of his more famous son. Macaulay's mother, 
 of Quaker stock, was a woman of fine mind and of great 
 sweetness of disposition, whose sensible training must 
 have contributed largely to her son's lifelong freedom 
 from self-consciousness and conceit. 
 
 The boy's literary tendencies developed early, and, 
 with reading, writing, and story- telling, he passed an 
 unusually happy childhood. At the age of twelve he 
 was sent to a small school at Shelford, near Cambridge. 
 Here he studied well, but followed in general the same 
 practices he had begun at home. Mathematics he ab- 
 horred — unfortunately, as afterwards appeared, for to 
 the end of his life his mind showed the need of the very 
 disciphne that such a study might have given it. In 
 1 81 8 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge. His dis- 
 Hke for mathematics debarred him from the highest 
 university honours ; but his facility in writing verse twice 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 gained him the Chancellor's medal for EngHsh poetry, 
 and his excellent attainments in the classics and in gen- 
 eral Kterature won a prize for Latin declamation, and a 
 scholarship. He was a leader in the Union Debating 
 Society, and his wonderful gift for conversation made 
 him famous as one of the best talkers in England — a 
 distinction he maintained to the end of his life. 
 
 His reading was enormous. Except when talking, he 
 was never without a book in his hand. Through ancient 
 and modern literatures, in all their various forms of prose 
 and verse, he ranged with the delight and freedom of a 
 colt in a fresh pasture; but poetry, history, and prose 
 fiction pleased him most. This wide reading was sur- 
 passed only by his prodigious memory, scarcely equalled 
 — certainly not surpassed — by that of any other man of 
 letters. This astonishing range of reading, continued 
 from boyhood to the end of his life, and this still more 
 astonishing power of memory, serve to explain one of 
 Macaulay's most striking traits as a writer: a range of 
 allusion to men and events in fact and fiction, and an ease 
 and propriety in employing these allusions, that are per- 
 haps without parallel. Probably, too, from this wide 
 reading without due reflection, and from this dependence 
 upon a brilliant but not infallible memory, arose certain 
 of Macaula3^'s essential and grave defects: he was thus 
 sometimes led to form hasty conclusions, to assume facts 
 without sufficient foundation, to startle with an imposing 
 array of images and illustrations, instead of searching 
 rigorously for the truth. 
 
 After his graduation from Trinity, in 1822, Macaulay 
 remained at the university for two years as a graduate 
 student, and took his m.a. degree in 1824. As the result 
 of an examination in which he stood first, he was elected 
 
INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 a Fellow of Trinity College (one of the sixty masters of 
 the college), with a stipend of $1500 a year for six years. 
 He determined to study law; and in 1826 he was called 
 to the bar. But he soon permanently abandoned his law 
 practice upon discovering that his real bent was toward 
 politics and literature. He was known as a writer before 
 he left Cambridge, having contributed to KnigMs Quar- 
 terly Magazine several creditable pieces, among them his 
 poems "Ivry" and "Naseby," which are still read and 
 enjoyed. But his actual career began in 1825, when he 
 wrote his essay on Milton for the Edinburgh Review. All 
 of the thirty-six essays that Macaulay wrote after 1825 
 were contributed to the Edinburgh, to which he continued 
 faithful as long as he wrote for magazine publication. 
 
 With the appearance of the ''Milton," its author leapt 
 into fame as had Byron with his Childe Harold. The 
 success was overwhelming, and brought with it social as 
 well as literary recognition. Macaulay's excellent talent 
 for politics now, too, became evident, and he was soon 
 plunged into the active and ardent public career that he 
 followed for the best years of his life. From 1828 to 1830 
 he served as Commissioner of Bankruptcy; in 1830 he 
 entered parliament. It was the time of the great struggle 
 over the Reform Bill, and gave the young orator and 
 statesman the most favourable chance for the use of his 
 talents. His first speech brought him fame, and through- 
 out all his parliamentary life, though he never became an 
 efficient debater, he remained one of the most active and 
 eloquent speakers of his. time. A high sense of honour 
 marked Macaulay's entire political career: he once voted 
 for a bill that deprived him of ofhce ; he resigned a govern- 
 ment position rather than support a slavery measure that 
 did not meet his father's approval. All this time he con- 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 tinued poor. Zachary Macaulay lost his very comfort- 
 able fortune; the support of the family fell upon the son, 
 whose income, since members of parliament receive no 
 pay for their services, was now reduced to what he could 
 earn by his pen. But his financial troubles were near an 
 end. He was soon offered the post of legal adviser to the 
 Supreme Council of India, with an excellent salary, and 
 finally accepted the position, though his new duties were 
 to take him thousands of miles from home. 
 
 In India, which he reached in 1834, Macaulay distin- 
 guished himself by his legal ability and able statesman- 
 ship. He assisted in drawing up a new penal code that 
 still remains a monument to his industry and legal learn- 
 ing ; he vastly furthered the interests of general education. 
 All this was in the face of constant and unmitigated public 
 abuse, through which he pursued his way steadily and 
 amiably, and accomplished his work. With all his other 
 duties, he still read omnivorously, and continued his 
 writing. Idleness seems to have been painful to him. We 
 could scarcely credit his wonderful activity during this 
 period were not the solid results before us to speak for 
 themselves. 
 
 Macaulay returned to England in 1838. From his 
 salary he had saved a comfortable fortune, and was hence- 
 forth never to know financial difficulties. His fame, too, 
 had vastly increased. His fine work in India was known ; 
 his essays had added to his literary reputation. At once 
 he entered parliament as member for Edinburgh. Within 
 the next few years he held many important offices of state, 
 made many brilliant speeches (which are among the most 
 valuable and durable of his productions, though the least 
 read), engaged in many debates over great public ques- 
 tions, and through it all conducted himself as a truly wise 
 
INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 and incorruptible statesman and patriot. But, as his 
 desire to produce some elaborate and lasting literary work 
 grew upon him, his interest in politics gradually declined, 
 and, after 1848, he retired from active public life. For 
 this, English politics was the poorer, but the world was 
 richer by the History of England. 
 
 To his ZT^.^/or^'Macaulay devoted all his brilhant literary 
 talents: his immense knowledge, his skill in narration, his 
 aptitude for research, and his splendour of style. The 
 first two volumes of the History w^re published in 1848, 
 the second two in 1855, and the last volume, unfinished, 
 after the death of the author. Whatever may be the 
 merits and defects of this remarkable production, it is 
 quite safe to say that no history ever written brought to 
 its author such immediate and wide-spread popularity and 
 such pecuniary rewards. It became known all over the 
 world, was read like a novel, and made its author the most 
 popular English writer of his time. 
 
 The essays and the History, however, formed but a 
 part of Macaulay's literary work. In 1842 he had pub- 
 lished a series of stirring narrative poems called The Lays 
 of Ancient Rome. The Lays, though they may fail to 
 present accurate pictures of the manners and customs of 
 ancient Rome, and may lack the quahties of truly great 
 poetry, are still delightful in the freshness and vigour of 
 their style and are admirable as examples of superb nar- 
 rative skill. Even the Lays do not complete the tale of 
 Macaulay's literary labours, for his Speeches were care- 
 fully edited, and issued in book form; and to the eighth 
 edition of the Encyclopcedia Britannica he contributed, 
 toward the close of his life, five brief biographies — those 
 of Atterbury, Bunyan, Goldsmith, Dr. Johnson, and Wil- 
 Uam Pitt. These biographies are among his best works. 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 The style in which they are written, as compared with 
 that of most of the essays, is quieter, less oratorical and 
 highly coloured, and more thoughtful and refined. The 
 life of Johnson is at least delightful reading; the life of 
 Pitt is truly excellent, and perhaps could not well be sur- 
 passed as a picture of one of the greatest of English states- 
 men: it is dignified, thoughtful, and at times profoundly 
 eloquent. 
 
 While Macaulay was living a retired life, writing in his 
 villa at Kensington, the world was still mindful of him. 
 The universities delighted to honour him; foreign societies 
 bestowed decorations upon him; and, in 1857, the English 
 government showed its appreciation of his services as 
 writer and statesman by raising him to the peerage with 
 the title of Baron Macaulay of Rothley. But his health, 
 undermined by his too assiduous labours, had for some 
 years been gradually failing. He died quietly at his 
 home in 1859. England buried the great statesman, 
 historian, and patriot in Westminster Abbey, where lie 
 so many of the greatest of her dead. 
 
 Whatever may be said of Macaulay as a thinker and 
 writer — and competent critics have charged him with 
 serious faults — only one judgment has ever been passed 
 upon Macaulay as a man. In every relation of life he was 
 altogether admirable. As a politician, he was absolutely 
 incorruptible; as a friend, he was loyal and generous; as a 
 son and brother and uncle, his amiability, unselfishness, 
 and devotion were bej^ond praise: ''it is only the barest 
 justice to say that he appears to have touched the furthest 
 verge of human virtue, sweetness, and generosity." 
 
 One of the best biographies ever written is the Life and 
 Letters of Lord Macaulay, by his nephew, G. O. Trevelyan. 
 This delightful book, with the sanest judgment and the 
 
INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 finest taste, reveals the great man in all the relations of his 
 life and in every phase of his multifold activity. Another 
 excellent book on Macaulay, though of course far less 
 elaborate than Trevelyan's Life, is the volume in the 
 ''English Men of Letters" series, by Mr. J. Cotter Morison 
 — a little book full of interest and charm, and, what is 
 perhaps still more rare, full of good sense, fine scholar- 
 ship, and sound criticism. 
 
 II. Macaulay as Writer 
 
 I. — His Method 
 
 Macaulay's literary activity seems phenomenal, when 
 we remember that, up to 1848, when he retired from active 
 politics, his writing was done in the hours snatched from 
 a busy political career. Certainly the essays, the speeches, 
 the poems, and the History form a large body of work and 
 one of considerable variety. We are here, however, not 
 so greatly concerned with the poet, the orator, and the 
 historian, as with the essayist. But the same general 
 qualities of style, both good and bad, that we find in 
 the essays, we find also in all of Macaulay's writings. 
 Although Macaulay's amazing popularity almost, though 
 not entirely, silenced criticism during his lifetime, yet 
 within the fifty years since his death thoughtful students 
 of his works have dealt rather severely with some of 
 his traits as thinker and writer. Such critics as Stephen, 
 Morley, Bagehot, and Morison, though presenting their 
 subject in different phases and surveying it from differ- 
 ent points of view, yet reach practically the same gen- 
 eral conclusions — and in these conclusions every careful 
 reader of Macaulay's works is apt to concur. To such a 
 reader Macaulay's quaHties lie mainly on the surface. It 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 is easy to see his great merits; it is almost equally easy 
 to see his many and serious shortcomings. 
 
 Those forty-four articles contributed to the Edhihurgh 
 Review, Knighfs Quarterly Magazine, and the Encyclo- 
 pcedia Britannica, and known as ''Macaulay's Essays," 
 achieved a popularity hardly accorded to any other body 
 of English literary work. In the mind of the average 
 reader, they stand next to Shakespeare and the Bible. 
 Their influence has been immense. What are the quali- 
 ties that underhe this enormous popularity? 
 
 We note, first, that Macaulay especially excels in nar- 
 ration. Particular favorites among his essays are the 
 biographical and historical studies, such as the "Clive," 
 the "Warren Hastings," the "Addison," the "Johnson," 
 the "Chatham," and the "Sir William Temple." Here, 
 as everywhere else in Macaulay, the reader is impressed 
 with the astonishing variety of information on a multi- 
 tude of themes. This writer's vast reading and retentive 
 memory enable him to colour and adorn any subject with 
 a host of allusions that quicken and entertain the most 
 sluggish reader. One finds the learning gained from whole 
 libraries condensed into a few pages. Macaulay abounds 
 in comparisons and striking illustrations that give to his 
 style an unusual picturesqueness and force. Added to 
 this wealth of allusion is an equally unsurpassed clear- 
 ness in the presentation of his ideas: nothing is left 
 unexplained or obscure; the meaning of every single sen- 
 tence is definite and precise. The reader's interest is 
 sustained by a gift for narration unequalled by that of 
 any historian and unsurpassed by that of any writer of 
 fiction. Here Macaulay is above praise. He handles 
 his material with the ease and grace of the great master 
 of narrative that he is. With all this go an inspiring 
 
INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 vitality and energy and a wholesome manliness of tone 
 and sentiment. 
 
 But Macaulay, as the phrase goes, "has the defects of 
 his qualities." For the sake of that very picturesqueness 
 and force that deUght the reader, he is only too apt to 
 sacrifice absolute accuracy of statement; for the sake of 
 presenting brilliant pictures, he is Hkely to suppress 
 material that is necessary to a knowledge of the whole, 
 truth; for the sake of making striking antitheses, he some- 
 times, though unwittingly, distorts his facts. Then, too, 
 the whole body of his work is marked by a lack of deep 
 thought and deep emotion. He sounds only the famiUar 
 note, he utters only the average, commonplace sentiment. 
 Rarely, if ever, does he probe a subject to the bottom, 
 discover new truths and set forth new ideas. As a rule, 
 he plays only upon the surface; he never sounds the depths 
 of the human soul, Hke Carlyle; he seldom stimulates real 
 thought, as do the truly great prophets and seers of the 
 race. He makes no attempt to solve the eternal problems 
 of life; he is not suggestive of higher things, and never rises 
 from the earth into " an ampler ether, a diviner air." He 
 jumps too hastily at conclusions: truth he finds always on 
 the surface, never at the bottom of the well. Rarely, if 
 ever, in doubt about anything, he settles every question 
 immediately and absolutely, always cock-sure, sublimely 
 confident. The half-tones, the deUcate shadings, the 
 quiet suggestiveness of all really great thinkers, as well as 
 of all perfect masters of style, are quite beyond him. 
 
 All this must be frankly admitted; it was part of the 
 man, and could not have been otherwise. But for young 
 people, especially, if they are duly warned that he is not 
 an infallible guide, Macaulay is still one of the most useful 
 and dehghtful of writers. No other can present to them 
 
xviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 such brilliant and entertaining pictures from history 
 with such an imposing array of great men and great deeds. 
 No other can in so short a time lead them over so vast a 
 field, can so quicken the historic imagination and can so 
 stimulate further reading and inquiry. All this is ap- 
 parent in the ''Warren Hastings," which in both its good 
 and bad qualities is thoroughly typical of the writer. We 
 , shall see later that here he was not careful about all of his 
 facts, and hence hastily reaches some conclusions utterly 
 at variance with the truth. We shall notice his occasional 
 overconfidence and his failure to grasp certain shades of 
 human character. But we are sure, also, to admire the 
 force of his style, the remarkable range of his information, 
 his series of brilliant pictures, his bursts of lofty eloquence, 
 and his ability to gratify our intellectual curiosity and 
 delight our historic imagination. 
 
 2. — His Style 
 
 The subject-matter that Macaulay especially delighted 
 to treat, and was especially successful in treating, was 
 largely of the kind that allows itself to be cast into the 
 form of narrative. His characteristic wa}^ of expressing 
 himself about the matter he treated, that is, his use of 
 words and sentences, — his ''style," — was something new 
 to the readers of his day, and was the object of wonder and 
 admiration. This style is distinctly oratorical — that of 
 spoken rather than of written discourse, but was also 
 admirably fitted for a certain kind of journalistic writing. 
 It is, indeed, upon the style of journalism that Macaulay's 
 style has left the most wide-spread and lasting impression. 
 
 Macaulay's vocabulary is well balanced, and ample for 
 his purpose. In this he is surpassed by scarcely any writer 
 of English. Sometimes he uses too many words; some- 
 
INTRODUCTION xix 
 
 times he fails to choose his words with sufficient precision 
 and dehcacy; but, for the matter he handles, his vocabu- 
 lary is in general splendidly adequate. But his sentence 
 structure, however captivating it may have proved to the 
 readers of his own time, present-day critics find unsatis- 
 factory. It is true that for the purposes of thrilHng nar- 
 rative and graphic description his style is often more than 
 satisfactory: it is sometimes even splendid. Undoubtedly 
 it can arouse the attention and stir the blood of readers 
 who can also appreciate the art of far greater masters. 
 But Macaulay's sentences, though always perfectly clear, 
 and usually coherent and emphatic, are often sadly lack- 
 ing in beauty — a quality certainly indispensable to all 
 great art. In truth, Macaulay is not master of his instru- 
 ment. Though his style does indeed vary to a certain 
 extent according to his subject — as in some passages of 
 the ''Sir William Temple," the "William Pitt," and the 
 History, where he attains either real power and m^ajesty 
 or a beautiful simplicity — it is, in the main, but one long 
 blast of the trumpet. He sacrifices too much to emphasis 
 and force. In his sentence rhythm there is Httle variety. 
 We at length grow weary of the roll, the balance, and the 
 uniform cadence of his longer sentences, and equally weary 
 of the undue emphasis and lack of unity in his shorter. 
 The reader has only to turn to such prose writers as 
 Ruskin, Arnold, Newman, Pater, or to that master of the 
 oratorical style, Burke, to see how deficient are Macaulay's 
 sentences in delicacy and variety of rhythm. That he 
 attained exactly what he aimed at, is highly probable; 
 and he himself would have claimed no more for his style 
 than its due. The hardness, the monotony, and the 
 gUtter, where one comes to long for flexibility, variety, 
 and tints more delicate and subdued, are defects perhaps 
 
XX INTRODUCTION 
 
 inseparable from the very qualities we consider praise- 
 worthy. While one does not single out certain passages 
 or sentences for meditation upon either their thought or 
 music, he yet follows Macaulay with interest and with 
 ease: he understands and he is entertained. 
 
 III. Macaulay on Warren Hastings 
 
 The essay on Warren Hastings, a companion piece to 
 the essay on Clive, and justly among the most popular 
 of Macaulay's productions, was written for the Edinburgh 
 Review. Gleig's Life of Warren Hastings, which purports 
 to be the subject of the essay, really furnishes very little 
 of the material. With slight reference to Gleig, Macaulay 
 presents his own views of the life and conduct of "the 
 great proconsul" in a way so exhilarating as to arouse 
 enthusiastic interest in the events of that astonishing 
 career. The general structure of the essay is beyond 
 praise. The life of the great ruler, replete with stirring 
 and brilliant episodes, moves before us like an enchanting 
 panorama. No one understood better than Macaulay 
 how to select material so as to sustain the interest of the 
 reader. Here, too, Macaulay's characteristic style, not 
 always admirable in itself nor always exactly suited to 
 its subject-matter, finds precisely the right material to 
 work upon. There is much in it of "the gorgeous east"; 
 the full colouring is justified; the scenes of Hastings' career 
 in India and of the memorable impeachment proceedings 
 in England call for exactly the heightened expression in 
 which Macaulay delights. The subject of the essay is 
 one of the most remarkable of Englishmen; the writer of 
 the essay is one of the most picturesque of English stylists. 
 Multitudes of readers know Warren Hastings only as the 
 subject of this essay, and only as Macaulay presents him. 
 
INTRODUCTION xxi 
 
 All this renders doubly unfortunate the fact that Macau- 
 lay fails in several respects truly to picture the character 
 of Hastings, and even fails in several, cases to present 
 actual historical truth. 
 
 As a result of the impeachment proceedings, largely 
 instigated by Hastings' bitter enemy, Francis, something 
 like a body of myth grew up around Hastings and at length 
 gathered into tradition. This mainly incorrect tradition 
 Macaulay received; some of it he utilized. Furthermore, 
 he followed untrustworthy guides, such as James Mill's 
 History of India, which has long since been discredited, 
 and Gleig's Life of Hastings, which, though favourable to 
 its subject, is by no means infallible. Again, Macaulay, it 
 must be confessed, sometimes based his statements upon 
 his own pure assumptions. His characteristic tendency 
 toward over-statement, and his inabijity to recognize 
 possible doubts and to analyze complexities of character, 
 are here most glaringly manifest. His very ability as a 
 story-teller serves him ill as a biographer. In order to 
 heighten the effect of his story, he presents the char- 
 acter of Hastings without shade, altogether good in some 
 transactions, altogether bad in others. Hence, without 
 any excuse, he often assumes facts and imputes motives. 
 Though Macaulay grew more favourable to Hastings as he 
 became more famihar with his subject, yet to the last he 
 asserts vaguely that Hastings was chargeable with loose 
 pecuniary transactions, even with ''great crimes," and, 
 in certain specific instances, with inhumanity and bad 
 faith. 
 
 Since the publication of the essay, in 1841, history has 
 done much to rectify these misconceptions. Such author- 
 itative works as Sir John Strachey's Hastings and the 
 Rohilla War and Sir James Stephens' Story of Nuncomar 
 
xxii INTRODUCTION 
 
 in general show the character of Hastings in a Kght different 
 from that thrown upon it by Macaulay. And, recently, 
 the pubHcation of the State Papers of India, ijj2-ijS^, 
 by Mr. Forrest, and of the book based upon these, A 
 Vindication of Warren Hastings, by Mr. G. W. Hastings, 
 almost entirely reconstruct one's conception of Hastings, 
 and discredit several of Macaulay's statements. 
 
 The reader of the present volume cannot be expected 
 to investigate the matter in detail or to follow out the 
 several arguments. It is possible, however, briefly to 
 summarize Macaulay's charges, as well as those actual 
 facts of history that place Hastings' actions in a new and 
 more favourable light. 
 
 f Macaulay intimates that Warren Hastings was, to say 
 the least, not scrupulous in money miatters.J There is 
 no real warrent for such a statement; indeed, it is entirely 
 contradicted by all recorded facts. 
 
 (^Again, Macaulay vaguely charges Hastings with certain 
 ^'great crimes" (see p. 96).^ These "crimes," as Macaulay 
 viewed them, seem to have been, first, Hastings' conduct 
 in regard to the Rohilla war; second, his alleged connection 
 with the trial and execution of Nuncomar; third, his 
 treatment of the Nabob of Bengal and of the Mogul 
 emperor; fourth, his treatment of Cheyte Sing; and, last, 
 his inhumanity towards the Begums of Gude. 
 
 Macaulay represents the Rohilla War as an unwarrant- 
 able device used by Hastings to get money for the Com- 
 pany. This device took the form of a contract between 
 Hastings and the Vizier of Gude, by which, Hastings, in 
 return for the sum of 400,000 pounds paid to the Com- 
 pany by the Vizier, was to lend English troops for the con- 
 quest of the innocent and inoffensive Rohillas. The 
 actual facts are as follows: The Rohillas themselves 
 
INTRODUCTION xxiii 
 
 brought on the war by their own perfidious conduct. 
 They had agreed to pay the Vizier the sum of forty lacs 
 for aiding them against the Mahrattas. This sum, after 
 the assistance had been rendered, they refused to pay, 
 and actually began to plot with the Mahrattas against 
 their former benefactor. Now, Oude was the ally of 
 the Company, and asked for English troops in order to 
 punish the treachery of the Rohillas. Hastings was at 
 first unwilling to furnish the troops, but at length saw 
 the wisdom of preventing an alliance between the Rohillas 
 and the Mahrattas, and of furthering the annexation of 
 Rohilcund to Oude as a further strengthening of his north- 
 west frontier. With the aid of the English troops, the 
 Vizier was victorious. But no such atrocities occurred 
 as are described by Macaulay; nor were the Rohillas at 
 all the people his fancy painted (see note, p. 32). The 
 net result of the war, as given by Mr. Forrest, was that 
 ''about seventeen or eighteen hundred Rohillas, with their 
 families, were expelled from Rohilcund, and Hindu inhab- 
 itants, amounting to about seven hundred thousand, 
 remained in possession of their patrimonial acres, and were 
 seen cultivating their fields in peace." In regard to Nun- 
 comar (see p. 44 ff.), it has been proved beyond perad- 
 venture that Hastings had nothing whatever to do with 
 the prosecution for forgery, the trial, or the execution. 
 The proceedings against Nuncomar for forgery were begun 
 six weeks before he brought any charges against Hastings, 
 and the latter could not, therefore, have entertained the 
 malicious motive imputed to him. Hastings' own sworn 
 statement was to this effect, and history proves it to be 
 true. Nor did Hastings incite the Supreme Court against 
 Nuncomar; rather the opposite. The Court acted en- 
 tirely on its own initiative, according to law and justice. 
 
xxiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 The penalty was probably unduly severe; but Macaulay's 
 attempt largely to condone Nuncomar's offence, as viewed 
 in the light of contemporary Hindoo morality, seems 
 quite unwarranted. 
 
 Furthermore, Hastings' treatment of the Nabob of 
 Bengal, which, according to Macaulay, was unjust (see 
 p. 30), now appears to have been altogether justifiable. 
 Macaulay states that ^'the allowance of the Nabob was 
 reduced at a stroke from three hundred and twenty 
 thousand a year to half that sum." While this was indeed 
 the case, it was yet the inevitable result of that very aboH- 
 tion by Hastings of the "double government" of Bengal 
 which Macaulay regards as a great stroke of statesmanship. 
 When the Nabob was the sovereign prince of Bengal, his 
 lavish allowance was perhaps justifiable; in his altered 
 condition after the abolition of the double government, 
 even half such a sum was extremely liberal. 
 
 Macaulay again charges that Hastings' action toward 
 the Mogul, in withdrawing from him the Company's 
 tribute of three hundred thousand pounds a year, and 
 in taking from him the provinces of Corah and Allahabad 
 and giving them to the Vizier of Oude, was harsh and 
 unjustifiable, if not actually criminal (see p. 31). But 
 the Mogul had been playing false to the English. He had 
 been intriguing with their worst enemies, the Mahrattas, 
 to whom he had actually ceded those very provinces of 
 Corah and Allahabad that had been given to him by 
 the EngHsh for his protection. These districts, then, 
 were not "torn from the Mogul" by Warren Hastings, 
 but merely taken back by their original owners, and sold 
 to the Vizier of Oude, whose territory they adjoined and 
 who was in a position to defend them in the interests of 
 the English. The vast revenue that was customarily paid 
 
INTRODUCTION xxv 
 
 by the English to the Mogul was for the purpose of pre- 
 serving, against the Mahrattas and other enemies, the 
 integrity of the Mogul's empire, which thus served as a 
 partial safeguard of the English interests. When the 
 Mogul proved faithless, and intrigued with those very 
 tribes who threatened his own and the British dominion, 
 the revenue paid to him by the EngUsh was very 
 properly withdrawn. 
 
 Hastings' treatment of Cheyte Sing, Macaulay seems 
 finally to have thought justified; yet he had already said: 
 "The English government now chose to wring money out 
 of Cheyte Sing. It had formerly been convenient to treat 
 him as a sovereign prince; it was now convenient to 
 treat him as a subject" (p. 8i). 
 
 Cheyte Sing was never a "sovereign prince." He was 
 the grandson of an adventurer, son of a farmer of the 
 revenue, and a vassal of the Vizier of Gude, who fined him 
 at pleasure. He became, in turn, the vassal of the Com- 
 pany, without any title to independence. The fine laid 
 upon him by Hastings was heavy, but it was perfectly 
 legal, and was imposed as a penalty for conspiracy and 
 rebellion. 
 
 In the affair of the Begums, the reader is naturally in- 
 clined to feel more sympathy with Macaulay's imputation 
 of injustice (see p. 89 ff.). But, in fact, the treasure held 
 by these royal ladies in defiance of the Vizier of Gude was 
 not lawfully theirs. They maintained an armed force 
 against the Vizier, and, when the insurrection at Benares 
 broke out, they actually waged war against the Company. 
 Hastings then felt justified in withdrawing the protection 
 accorded them, and in treating them as active enemies. 
 The governor-general aided the Vizier in regaining the 
 treasure from the Begums, since it was only by this means 
 
xxvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 that the Vizier could hope to pay the large amount he 
 owed the Company, The treasure was regained without 
 bloodshed; the Begums were pensioned, and were never 
 personally molested. It is true that the eunuchs were 
 harshly treated, but for this the Resident of Lucknow, 
 and not Hastings, was alone responsible. 
 
 It remains to be said that Macaulay fails correctly 
 to portray the character of the Chief Justice of Bengal, 
 Sir Elijah Impey. Though perhaps not faultless as a 
 man and a jurist, Impey was by no means the wretch 
 of Macaulay's imagination. Most of the allegations made 
 by Macaulay against his character are at best unwarrant- 
 able assumptions; some of them, in the light of actual 
 historic facts, are wholly untrue (see note, p. 8). 
 
 Even in the face of these errors of fact and of opinion, 
 the reader of Macaulay's "Warren Hastings" must not 
 suppose that the great historian was guilty of wilful 
 misrepresentation. Macaulay was a fair-minded and 
 truthful man, of a large and generous spirit. His pre- 
 judices sometimes distorted his vision; even his very 
 admiration of all that was noble in life and conduct 
 occasionally led him into gross exaggeration. In the 
 present case, we have seen that his errors arose from his 
 reliance upon untrustworthy guides, as well as from his 
 instinctive desire, as an artist in narration, to heighten 
 his effects. The reader can forgive much for the sake of 
 such a masterly narrative as "Warren Hastings," and 
 can well understand that, though it may be advisable to 
 correct certain misconceptions and errors in fact, one may 
 still find delight in Macaulay's noble story and may still 
 admire the genius that produced it. 
 
INTRODUCTION xxvii 
 
 IV. India in the Time of Hastings 
 
 Little would be gained by here presenting even the 
 barest synopsis of the history of India down to the time 
 of Warren Hastings. Most of the introductory material 
 the reader of the essay on Warren Hastings actually needs 
 is given in Macaulay's essay on Clive, which forms the 
 best possible introduction to the present work. Also, 
 the rather elaborate notes on Clive, the Mahrattas, the 
 Mogul empire, and the East India Company, in the present 
 volume, are intended to serve in this capacity. But, in 
 order that the reader may follow the story intelligently, 
 a few important points must be kept in mind: 
 
 1. India is not really one country, but many, the 
 people of which differ vastly in laws, religions, languages, 
 and even in blood. "No other country on earth furnishes 
 even a distant parallel to the structure of Indian society 
 — a society in which the lines of division are still the primi- 
 tive ones of race, religion, and caste, deepened by centuries 
 of incessant warfare; in which more than forty different 
 tribes or nationahties, speaking over a hundred and eighty 
 different tongues and dialects, and confessing nine different 
 religions, are jumbled together into a formless and inex- 
 tricable mosaic, and sub-divided again into something like 
 twenty-four hundred castes, each caste a distinctive, 
 exclusive, separate entity; in which three-fourths of the 
 people live by the land, and nineteen-twentieths of them 
 are wholly iUiterate; in which faiths, usages, habits, and 
 customs are preserved with a jealousy and intensity far 
 beyond the range of Occidental experience." ^ 
 
 2. From the standpoint of the reader of the essay on 
 
 ^ From " American Opinion and British Rule in India," Sydney 
 Brooks, North American Review, Dec, 1909. 
 
xxviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 Warren Hastings, the population of India, which to-day 
 numbers 294,000,000, may be roughly divided into two 
 parts : first, the native Hindoos, descendants of the original 
 Aryan conquerors, numbering about 200,000,000, oi* two- 
 thirds of the whole; and, second, the foreign races, inclu- 
 ding the Mahometan invaders, such as the Arabs, the 
 Persians, and the Afghans, numbering perhaps 10,000,000. 
 The remainder of the population is composed of many 
 other races, but these do not figure in the "Warren 
 Hastings." 
 
 3. In India, there are two principal religions — the 
 Brahman and the Mahometan. The Brahmans are all 
 native Hindoos, and number perhaps 160,000,000, or 
 about one-half of the population. The Mahometans 
 include both native Hindoos and foreigners, that is, the 
 descendents of those Afghans, Persians, and Arabs who 
 at various times overran and subdued parts of northern 
 and central India, and imposed their government and 
 rehgion upon the natives whom they conquered; and also 
 the descendants of those Hindoos who adopted the religion 
 of their conquerors. The Mahometans number perhaps 
 62,000,000, or about one-fifth of the entire population.^ 
 
 4. These invading Mahometans from the northwest 
 founded great states of their own, such as the Mogul 
 empire, or subdued some of the native states, such as 
 the kingdom of Gude. There were also in the time of 
 Hastings, and still are, in India, several powerful native 
 states, such as Mysore, which were Hindoo in race and 
 Brahman in religion. 
 
 ^ There is great diversity in statistics regarding the population, 
 races, and rehgions of India. The figures given above are only 
 approximately correct, and are meant to convey only a general 
 impression. 
 
INTRODUCTION xxix 
 
 5. Three great trading companies, the Dutch, the 
 French, and the EngHsh, were struggHng for the commer- 
 cial and, later, for the political, control of the whole of 
 India. Between the two stronger, the English and the 
 French, the struggle was to the death, and, just as in the 
 New World, the English finally conquered. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The following books and essays of course represent 
 but a small part of the literature that deals with Macau- 
 lay's life and writings, yet they are among the best of their 
 kind, and are all easily accessible to the student: Bagehot, 
 Walter, ''Macaulay," in Literary Studies; Minto, WilUam, 
 ^'Macaulay," in Manual of English Prose Literature; 
 Morley, John, ''Macaulay," in Chambers' Cyclopedia of 
 English Literature; Morley, John, "Macaulay," in Critical 
 Miscellanies; Morison, J. Cotter, Macaulay, in ^'EngHsh 
 Men of Letters" series; Pattison, Mark, "Macaulay," in 
 Encyclopcedia Britannica; Paul, Herbert, "Macaulay and 
 his Critics," in Men and Letters; Saintsbury, George, 
 "Macaulay," in Corrected Impressions; Stephen, Leslie, 
 "Macaulay," in Dictionary of National Biography; Stephen 
 Leslie, "Macaulay," in Hours in a Library; Trevelyan, 
 G. O., Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay. 
 
 The following are some of the chief authorities on the 
 life of Warren Hastings: Gleig, G. R., Memoirs of the Life 
 of Warren Hastings; Keene, H. G., "Warren Hastings," 
 in Dictionary of National Biography; Hastings, G. W., 
 A Vindication of Warren Hastings; Lyall, Sir Alfred, 
 Warren Hastings; Stephen, Sir James, The Story of Nun- 
 comar; Strachey, Sir John, Hastings and the Rohilla War. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 XXXI 
 
 < 
 
 Mr 
 
 
 ^ 5 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 z 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 Q 
 
 
 
 3 
 <; 
 
 8 
 
 ^ s- 
 
 
 I. 
 
 s--^ 
 
 u^ 
 
 
 ^ " ^ 5.1 
 
 !U2 
 
 .■2 ."" "^ g d 
 
 U h-l 
 
 
 il ^ 
 
 
 Oj O fcj 
 
 
 ^'o:S2^gmi2 
 
 m 
 
 ^ 
 
 = l-2' 
 
 h4 
 
 ^s - 
 
 P P 
 
 
 
 logo 
 C_0 O.S y^ C 
 
XXXll 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 Jrf 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 STS 
 
 rt 
 
 
 i-[ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 •c-s 
 
 s 
 
 
 ■s 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 Z 
 ^ 
 
 il 
 
 c 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 ■V. 
 
 o, O 
 
 II 
 
 Is 
 
 S 
 
 te; 
 
 
 pq 
 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 
 CJ 
 
 »i3 
 
 ^ 
 
 lA 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 fo 
 
 4 
 
 lo 
 
 < 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 C4 
 
 
 
 
 — a 
 
 •T3 M 
 
 
 c/5 
 
 
 II 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 <u 
 > 
 
 03 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 §^1 
 
 =i4 
 
 5 
 
 03 
 <u 
 
 lypi 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 
 w 
 
 
 
 Q 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 >< 
 
 1 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 11 
 
 "2 C MC 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 < 
 Pi 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 '6 
 
 '•V 
 
 a 
 a 
 
 § 
 
 cJ 
 
 lU 
 
 illl 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ill! 
 
 GO Ph 
 
 a 
 2 
 
 d 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 >A 
 
 vd 
 
 
 00 
 
 o 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 1^ 
 
 cs 
 
 r«i 
 
 4 
 
 vii 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 0) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 (5 
 
 00 
 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 •1 
 
 
 
 
 
 en 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 B 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 ill 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 (2 
 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 
 4 "" 
 
 (^ 
 
 E 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 
 
 2* 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 4 
 
 c« 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■3 
 
 >- 
 
 
 
 
 Q.-~ 
 
 
 
 '^o, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CJ . 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 
 '■ia 
 
 MM 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^3 
 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 la 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 "o 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 < 
 
 
 
 
 W^ 
 
 
 
 
 CJ 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 d 
 
 
 
 
 „• 
 
 N 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 H 
 
 00 
 
 HI 
 
 
 
 
 oo 
 
 00 
 
 
 00 
 M 
 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 xxxiii 
 
 h5 ^ 
 
 .s 
 
 W Pi 
 
 
 fq 
 
 •5^ S^- SH o^ 
 
 ■ s 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 •5 
 
 .H 
 
 P^ 
 
 If 
 
 
 -3 
 
 ^1 
 
 .»5 
 
 1 
 
 
 s 
 1 
 
 
 .y 
 
 
 .y 
 12; 
 
 >> 
 
 
 
 
 
 lil 
 
 (3 
 
 2 
 o 
 
 _S.2 
 
 t- 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 u 
 
 m 
 
 r^ 
 
 O 
 
 
 P 
 
 o 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 • 
 
 rf 
 
 .^ 
 
 i^ 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 fO 
 
 
 <^ 
 
 ro 
 
 ^ 
 
 rO 
 
 
 'O 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 
 
 ! 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 IfS^ 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 3 
 
 cr 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 f 
 
 
 111 
 
 o 
 > 
 
 
 p^ 
 
 
 . o c 
 
 S Ob-- 
 
 '53 lu"" 
 
 f^ ^ J 
 
 ' -pa's ^-2 
 
 
 W M E c^ M M W 
 
 
 
 -Hi 
 
 H 
 
 g -fii O t^ O k- 
 
 .2 g- o o 
 
 u ^ ^ 
 
 O O 
 
 g <U 3 cd ^ 
 (1) S-D^H rt 
 
XXXIV 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 8^ 
 
 O Ml 
 
 =; S o iJ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 PL, 
 
 
 o 
 
 ■u en 
 
 .^' 
 
 ^ S « a 
 
 en'-'"'?' 
 
 26 
 
 6c S 
 g & 2 . 
 
 ^ pq « 0) 
 
 00 
 
 > 5 4J 1^ 
 
 
 S3 
 
 Q^ 
 
 '^ll ^- 
 
 -i 
 
 C3 
 
 
 a . 
 
 JS 
 
 
 
 
 
 1? 
 
 K 
 
 e"? 
 
 § 
 
 in . 
 
 C § ^ 
 
 
 -, ^ 
 
 °l|* 
 
 >> . 
 
 n& 
 
 Essay 
 Cha 
 Edi 
 essa 
 
 X 
 
 H-l 
 
 lei 
 
 P!5 
 
 r5 c y 
 
 ni *J to 
 
 PhP 
 
 
 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 XXXV 
 
 
 03 W 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2| 
 
 
 
 
 c5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o22 
 
 
 
 
 s -§ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^S 
 
 
 
 
 in 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 <« 
 
 
 
 
 '& f^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 .- 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ji 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 
 
 
 lO vo 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lO 
 
 
 
 
 CO 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 •-< 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 > 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■i-i i». 
 
 5 -g 
 
 «'■>. 
 
 -d 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 X) 
 
 .< 
 
 
 d|i^^ 
 
 c 
 i5 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ;bo 
 
 
 ^•Sl-" 
 
 Ml" 
 
 •Si 
 
 8g<o 
 
 C 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 c3 ■" 
 
 
 MH 
 
 H £ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 
 Q 
 
 ro 4 
 
 lo ^o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 OO" 
 
 
 CT 
 
 00 00 
 
 00 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 °c3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 " dTS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 fj 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 »- (U rj 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ph ofi] 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^'h 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 •ga§ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I— ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i t 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■l-j 
 
 >> 
 
 C 
 
 s 
 m 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■^ 
 
 'o 
 
 
 ? J3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 ^ 
 
 '^ 
 
 B'o ^ 
 
 s 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .a > > 
 
 U^H-, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 4 
 
 lo vd 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 d 
 
 in 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 00 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 BJ 
 
 >> <D'T3 O 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 
 o6 
 
 
 
 
 c 
 o 
 
 n 
 
 s 
 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 II 
 
 -d 
 
 
 (U 
 
 
 
 
 Is 
 
 ll 
 
 §1 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 £ 
 ^ 
 
 a 
 
 ID 
 
 o 
 
 d 
 1 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 j>. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 d 
 
 
 
 
 lO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE — WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 
 Warren 
 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Hastings' 
 Age 
 
 Historical Events 
 
 1732 
 
 
 Warren Hastings born, Dec. 6. 
 
 1739 
 
 — 
 
 Great Persian invasion of India by Nadir Shah. 
 
 1740 
 
 8 
 
 Hastings sent to school in Newington, London. 
 
 1742 
 
 10 
 
 Hastings removed to W^estminster school. 
 
 
 — 
 
 Dupleix became governor of French India. 
 
 1750 
 
 18 
 
 Hastings arrived in Bengal as clerk. 
 
 1751 
 
 — 
 
 Clive gained the victory at Arcot. 
 
 1753 
 
 21 
 
 Hastings sent to Cossimbazar to trade for the Com- 
 pany. 
 
 1756 
 
 . — 
 
 Black Hole massacre, by Surajah Dowlah. 
 
 
 — 
 
 Seven Years' War begun in Europe. 
 
 1757 
 
 25 
 
 Hastings a prisoner at large at Moorshedabad, and 
 secret agent for the Company. 
 
 
 — 
 
 Clive won the Battle of Plassey. 
 
 1760 
 
 — 
 
 Sir Eyre Coote defeated Lally at Arcot and at 
 Wandewash. 
 
 
 — 
 
 George III became King of England. 
 
 1761 
 
 29 
 
 Hastings made member of Council of Calcutta. 
 
 
 — 
 
 Pondicherry, the French stronghold, taken by Sir 
 Eyre Coot-e. 
 
 1764 
 
 32 
 
 Hastings returned to England. 
 
 1765 
 
 — 
 
 Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa paid tribute to England. 
 
 1769 
 
 37 
 
 Hastings returned to India as Member of Council 
 at Madras. 
 
 
 — 
 
 Letters of Junius commenced. 
 
 1771 
 
 39 
 
 Hastings made governor of Bengal. 
 
 1772 
 
 40 
 
 The dual government abolished in Bengal. 
 
 
 
 Mohammed Reza Khan, the native governor, re- 
 moved. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE xxxvii 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE — WARREN HASTINGS. — Continued 
 
 
 Warren 
 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Hastings' 
 Age 
 
 Historical Events 
 
 
 — 
 
 Corah and Allahabad sold by Hastings to Sujah 
 Dowlah. 
 
 1773 
 
 — 
 
 The Regulating Act passed. 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 Supreme Court of Judicature established at Calcutta. 
 
 1774 
 
 42 
 
 Hastings made Governor-General of British India. 
 
 
 
 Sir Elijah Impey and Sir Philip Francis arrive at 
 Calcutta. 
 
 
 — 
 
 Death of Lord Clive. 
 
 1775 
 
 43 
 
 Hastings accused of accepting bribes from a rela- 
 tive of Meer Jaffier. 
 
 
 — 
 
 Nuncomar executed. 
 
 1777 
 
 45 
 
 Hastings had trouble with the Council; and with 
 
 
 — 
 
 the Directors of the Company. 
 
 
 — 
 
 Hastings married Baroness Imhoff. 
 
 1778 
 
 — 
 
 Pondicherry captured by Munro. 
 
 1779 
 
 — 
 
 Great siege of Gibraltar begun. 
 
 1780 
 
 48 
 
 Hastings fought a duel with Sir Philip Francis. 
 
 
 — 
 
 Hyder AH began war in the Carnatic. 
 
 1781 
 
 49 
 
 Benares subjected to the Company. 
 
 
 — 
 
 Hastings accused of accepting a bribe of $500,000 
 from the Nabob of Oude. 
 
 
 — 
 
 Hyder AH defeated by Coote at Porto Novo. 
 
 1784 
 
 — 
 
 Pitt passed his India Bill. 
 
 1785 
 
 53 
 
 Hastings resigned and returned to England. 
 
 1787 
 
 — 
 
 Burke proposed to impeach Hastings. 
 
 1788 
 
 56 
 
 Hastings' trial for high crimes and misdemeanours 
 began February 13. 
 
 1789 
 
 — 
 
 Meeting of the States-General in France. 
 
 1793 
 
 — 
 
 Louis XVI beheaded. 
 
 1794 
 
 62 
 
 Hastings settled at Daylesford. 
 
 1795 
 
 63 
 
 Hastings acquitted, April 23. 
 
 1800 
 
 68 
 
 Macaulay born. 
 
 1803 
 
 ~ 
 
 Mahrattas and French defeated at Assaye by Arthur 
 Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington. 
 
xxxviii CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE — WARREN RASTINGS. — Continued 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Warren 
 
 Hastings' 
 
 Age 
 
 Historical Events 
 
 1804 
 1805 
 1807 
 
 — 
 
 Napoleon made emperor of the French. 
 Lord Nelson gained the battle of Trafalgar. 
 Slave trade abolished in England and the United 
 States. 
 
 1813 
 
 81 
 
 House of Commons "uncovered and stood up" to 
 receive Hastings. 
 
 1815 
 
 — 
 
 Battle of Waterloo. 
 
 1818 
 
 86 
 
 Death of Hastings, at Daylesford, August 22. 
 
 ABSTRACT OF THE ESSAY ON WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 Pages 3-5. Introductory. 
 
 5-9. Ancestry, birth, and education of Hastings. 
 10- 14. First period in India. 
 
 14- 18. Four years in England, and return to India. 
 18- 28. Affairs in Bengal; Nuncomar. 
 28- 37. Financial difficulties; the Rohilla war. 
 37- 44. The new Council; Sir Philip Francis; Junius. 
 44- 55. Nuncomar 's charges against Hastings; trial and death 
 
 of Nuncomar. 
 55- 65. Conflicts in the Council; the Mahratta war; Sir Eyre 
 
 Coote. 
 65- 72. Impey's reign of terror. 
 73- 76. Hyder Ali, and war in the Carnatic. 
 76- 87. Affairs in Benares; Cheyte Sing;/ the double govern- 
 ment. 
 87- 96. Oude and the Begums. 
 
 96-106. Reflections on Hastings' character and administration. 
 106-108. Hastings' return to England; his reception there. 
 108-117. Hastings' mistakes; Francis; Burke. 
 1 1 7-1 27. Preliminaries to the impeachment. 
 127-140. The great trial. 
 
 140-149. Hastings' life at Daylesford; his last days; his death; 
 general comments. 
 
ESSAY ON WARREN HASTINGS 
 
WARREN HASTINGS. (October, 1841.) 
 
 Memoirs of the Life of Warren Hastings, first Governor- 
 General of Bengal. Compiled from Original Papers, by 
 the Rev. G. R. Gleig, M.A. 3 vols. 8vo. London: 
 1841.. 
 
 This book seems to have been manufactured in pursu- 
 ance of a contract, by which the representatives of Warren 
 Hastings, on the one part, bound themselves to furnish 
 papers, and Mr. Gleig, on the other part, bound himself 
 to furnish praise. It is but just to say that the covenants 5 
 on both sides have been most faithfully kept; and the 
 result is before us in the form of three big bad volumes, 
 full of undigested correspondence and undiscerning 
 panegyric. 
 
 If it were worth while to examine this performance in 10 
 detail, we could easily make a long article by merely 
 pointing out inaccurate statements, inelegant expressions, 
 and immoral doctrines. But it would be idle to waste 
 criticism on a bookmaker; and, whatever credit Mr. Gleig 
 may have justly earned by former works, it is as a book- 15 
 maker, and nothing more, that he now comes before us. 
 More eminent men than Mr. Gleig have written nearly 
 as ill as he, when they have stooped to similar drudgery. 
 It would be unjust to estimate Goldsmith by the History 
 of Greece, or Scott by the Life of Napoleon. Mr. Gleig 20 
 is neither a Goldsmith nor a Scott; but it would be unjust 
 to deny that he is capable of something better than these 
 Memoirs. It would also, we hope and believe, be unjust 
 
 3 
 
4 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 to charge any Christian minister with the guilt of dehber- 
 ately maintaining some propositions which we find in this 
 book. It is not too much to say that Mr. Gleig has 
 written several passages, which bear the same relation 
 5 to the Prince of Machiavelli that the Prince of Machiavelli 
 bears to the Whole Duty of Man, and which would excite 
 amazement in a den of robbers, or on board of a schooner 
 of pirates. But we are willing to attribute these offences 
 to haste, to thoughtlessness, and to that disease of the 
 
 lo understanding which may be called the Furor Biographi- 
 cus, and which is to writers of lives what the goitre is to 
 an Alpine shepherd, or dirt-eating to a Negro slave. 
 
 We are inclined to think that we shall best meet the 
 wishes of our readers, if, instead of dwelling on the faults 
 
 15 of this book, we attempt to give, in a way necessarily hasty 
 and imperfect, our own view of the life and character of 
 Mr. Hastings. Our feeling towards him is not exactly that 
 of the House of Commons which impeached him in 1787; 
 neither is it that of the House of Commons which 
 
 20 uncovered and stood up to receive him in 18 13. He 
 had great qualities, and he rendered great services to the 
 state. ^ But to represent him as a man of stainless virtue 
 is to make him ridiculous; and from regard for his memory, 
 if from no other feeling, his friends would have done well 
 
 25 to lend no countenance to such puerile adulation^ We 
 believe that, if he were now living, he would have suffi- 
 cient judgment and sufiicient greatness of mind to wish 
 to be shown as he was. ' He must have known that there 
 were dark spots on his fame. „ He might also have felt 
 
 30 with pride that the splendour of his fame would bear 
 many spots. He would have preferred, we are confident, 
 even the severity of Mr. Mill to the puffing of Mr. Gleig. 
 He would have wished posterity to have a likeness of 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 5 
 
 him, though an unfavourable likeness, rather than a 
 daub at once insipid and unnatural, resembling neither 
 him nor any body else. ''Paint me as I am," said Oliver 
 Cromwell, while sitting to young Lely. " If you leave out 
 the scars and wrinkles, I will not pay you a shilling." 5 
 Even in such a trifle, the great Protector showed both 
 his good sense and his magnanimity. He did not wish 
 all that was characteristic in his countenance to be lost, 
 in the vain attempt to give him the regular features and 
 smooth blooming cheeks of the curl-pated minions of 10 
 James the First. He was content that his face should 
 go forth marked with all the blemishes which had been 
 put on it by time, by war, by sleepless nights, by anxiety, 
 perhaps by remorse; but with valour, policy, authority, 
 and public care written in all its princely lines. If men 15 
 truly great knew their own interest, it is thus that they 
 would wish their minds to be portrayed. 
 
 Warren Hastings sprang from an ancient and illustrious 
 race. It has been afiirmed that his pedigree can be traced 
 back to the great Danish sea-king, whose sails were long 20 
 the terror of both coasts of the British Channel, and who, 
 after many fierce and doubtful struggles, yielded at last 
 to the valour and genius of Alfred. But the undoubted 
 splendour of the line of Hastings needs no illustration 
 from fable. One branch of that line wore, in the four- 25 
 teenth century, the coronet of Pembroke. From another 
 branch sprang the renowned Chamberlain, the faithful 
 adherent of the White Rose, whose fate has furnished so 
 striking a theme both to poets and to historians. His 
 family received from the Tudors the earldom of Hunting- 30 
 don, which, after long dispossession, was regained in our 
 time by a series of events scarcely paralleled in romance. 
 
 The lords of the manor of Daylesford, in Worcestershire, 
 
6 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 claimed to be considered as the heads of this distinguished 
 family. The main stock, indeed, prospered less than 
 some of the younger shoots. But the Daylesford family, 
 though not ennobled, was wealthy and highly considered, 
 5 till, about two hundred years ago, it was overwhelmed 
 by the great ruin of the civil war. The Hastings of that 
 time was a zealous cavalier. He raised money on his 
 lands, sent his plate to the mint at Oxford, joined the 
 royal arm}^, and, after spending half his property in the 
 
 lo cause of King Charles, was glad to ransom himself by 
 making over most of the remaining half to Speaker 
 Lenthal. The old seat at Daylesford still remained in the 
 family; but it could no longer be kept up; and in the 
 following generation it was sold to a merchant of London. 
 
 15 Before this transfer took place, the last Hastings of 
 Daylesford had presented his second son to the rectory 
 of the parish in which the ancient residence of the family 
 stood. The living was of little value; and the situation 
 of the poor clergyman, after the sale of the estate, was 
 
 20 deplorable. He was constantly engaged in lawsuits 
 about his tithes with the new lord of the manor, and was 
 at length utterly ruined. His eldest son, Howard, a 
 well-conducted young man, obtained a place in the Cus- 
 toms. The second son, Pynaston, an idle worthless boy, 
 
 25 married before he was sixteen, lost his wife in two years, 
 and died in the West Indies, leaving to the care of his 
 unfortunate father a little orphan, destined to strange 
 and memorable vicissitudes of fortune. 
 
 Warren, the son of Pynaston, was born on the sixth of 
 
 30 December, 1732. His mother died a few days later, and 
 he was left dependent on his distressed grandfather. The 
 child was early sent to the village school, where he learned 
 his letters on the same bench with the sons of the peas- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 7 
 
 antry. Nor did any thing in his garb or fare indicate that 
 his Hfe was to take a widely different course from that of 
 the young rustics with whom he studied and played. But 
 no cloud could overcast the dawn of so much genius and 
 so much ambition. The very ploughmen observed, and 5 
 long remembered, how kindly little Warren took to his 
 book. The daily sight of the lands which his ancestors 
 had possessed, and which had passed into the hands of 
 strangers, filled his young brain with wild fancies and 
 projects. He loved to hear stories of the wealth and 10 
 greatness of his progenitors, of their splendid housekeeping, 
 their loyalty, and their valour. On one bright summer 
 day, the boy, then just seven years old, lay on the bank of 
 the rivulet which flows through the old domain of his house 
 to join the Isis. There, as threescore and ten years later 15 
 he told the tale, rose in his mind a scheme which, through 
 all the turns of his eventful career, was never abandoned. 
 He w^ould recover the estate which had belonged to 
 his fathers. He would be Hastings of Daylesford. This 
 purpose, formed in infancy and poverty, grew stronger 20 
 as his intellect expanded and as his fortune rose. He pur- 
 sued his plan with that calm but indomitable force of will 
 which was the most striking peculiarity of his character. 
 When, under a tropical sun, he ruled fifty millions of 
 Asiatics, his hopes, amidst all the cares of war, finance, 25 
 and legislation, still pointed to Daylesford. And when 
 his long public life, so singularly chequered with good and 
 evil, with glory and obloquy, had at length closed for ever, 
 it was to Daylesford that he retired to die. 
 
 When he was eight years old, his uncle Howard deter- 30 
 mined to take charge of him, and to give him a liberal 
 education. The boy went up to London, and was sent to 
 a school at Newington, where he was well taught but ill fed. 
 
8 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 He always attributed the smallness of his stature to the 
 hard and scanty fare of this seminary. At ten he was 
 removed to Westminster School, then flourishing under 
 the care of Dr. Nichols. Vinny Bourne, as his pupils 
 5 affectionately called him, was one of the masters. 
 Churchill, Colman, Lloyd, Cumberland, Cowper, were 
 among the students. With Cowper, Hastings formed a 
 friendship which neither the lapse of time, nor a wide 
 dissimilarity of opinions and pursuits, could wholly dis- 
 
 lo solve. It does not appear that they ever met after they 
 had grown to manhood. But forty years later, when 
 the voices of many great orators_were. crying for vengeance 
 on the oppressor of India, the shy and secluded poet could 
 image to himself Hastings the Governor- General only 
 
 15 as the Hastings with whom he had rowed on the Thames, 
 and played in the cloister, and refused to believe that so 
 good-tempered a fellow could have done any thing very 
 wrong. His own life had been spent in praying, musing, 
 and rhyming among the water-hlies of the Ouse. He had 
 
 20 preserved in no common measure the innocence of child- 
 hood. His spirit had indeed been severely tried, but not 
 by temptations which impelled him to any gross violation 
 of the rules of social morality. He had never been at- 
 tacked by combinations of powerful and deadly enemies. 
 
 25 He had never been compelled to make a choice between 
 innocence and greatness, between crime and ruin. Firmly 
 as he held in theory the doctrine of human depravity, his 
 habits were such that he was unable to conceive how far 
 from the path of right even kind and noble natures may 
 
 30 be hurried by the rage of conflict and the lust of dominion. 
 
 Hastings had another associate at Westminster of 
 
 whom we shall have occasion to make frequent mention, 
 
 Elijah Impey. We know little about their school days. 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 9 
 
 But, we think, we may safely venture to guess that, 
 whenever Hastings wished to play any trick more than 
 usually naughty, he hired Impey with a tart or a ball to 
 act as fag in the worst part of the prank. 
 
 Warren was distinguished among his comrades as an 5 
 excellent swimmer, boatman, and scholar. x\t fourteen he 
 was first in the examination for the foundation. His 
 name in gilded letters on the walls of the dormitory still 
 attests his victory over many older competitors. He 
 stayed two years longer at the school, and was looking 10 
 forward to a studentship at Christ Church, when an event 
 happened which changed the whole course of his life. 
 Howard Hastings died, bequeathing his nephew to the care 
 of a friend and distant relation, named Chiswick. This 
 gentleman, though he did not absolutely refuse the charge, 1 5 
 was desirous to rid himself of it as soon as possible. Dr. 
 Nichols made strong remonstrances against the cruelty 
 of interrupting the studies of a youth who seemed likely 
 to be one of the first scholars of the age. He even offered 
 to bear the expense of sending his favourite pupil to 20 
 Oxford. But Mr. Chiswick was inflexible. He thought 
 the years which had already been wasted on hexameters 
 and pentameters quite sufficient. He had it in his power 
 to obtain for the lad a writership in the service of the East 
 India Company. Whether the young adventurer, when 25 
 once shipped off, made a fortune, or died of a liver com- 
 plaint, he equally ceased to be a burden to any body. 
 Warren was accordingly removed from Westminster 
 school, and placed for a few months at a commercial 
 academy to study arithmetic and book-keeping. In 30 
 January, 1750, a few days after he had completed his 
 seventeenth year, he sailed for Bengal, and arrived at 
 his destination in the October following. 
 
lo WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 He was immediately placed at a desk in the Secretary's 
 ofl&ce at Calcutta, and laboured there during two years. 
 Fort William was then a purely commercial settlement. 
 In the south of India the encroaching pohcy of Dupleix 
 5 had transformed the servants of the English Company, 
 against their will, into diplomatists and generals. The 
 war of the succession was raging in the Carnatic; and the 
 tide had been suddenly turned against the French by 
 the genius of young Robert Clive. But in Bengal the 
 
 10 European settlers, at peace with the natives and with 
 each other, were wholly occupied with ledgers and bills 
 of lading. 
 
 After two years passed in keeping accounts at Calcutta, 
 Hastings was sent up the country to Cossimbazar, a 
 
 15 town which lies on the Hoogley, about a mile from Moors- 
 hedabad, and which then bore to Moorshedabad a rela- 
 tion, if we may compare small things with great, such as 
 the city of .London bears to Westminster. Moorshedabad 
 was the abode of the prince who, by an authority osten- 
 
 20 sibly derived from the Mogul, but really independent, 
 ruled the three great provinces of Bengal, Orissa, and 
 Bahar. At Moorshedabad were the court, the haram, and 
 the public offices. Cossimbazar was a port and a place 
 of trade, renowned for the quantity and excellence of 
 
 25 the silks which were sold in its marts, and constantly 
 receiving and sending forth fleets of richly laden barges. 
 At this important point, the Company had estabHshed 
 a small factory subordinate to that of Fort William. 
 Here, during several years, Hastings was employed in 
 
 30 making bargains for stuffs with native brokers. While 
 he was thus engaged, Surajah Dowlah succeeded to the 
 government, and declared war against the EngHsh. The 
 defenceless settlement of Cossimbazar, lying close to the 
 
WARREN HASTINGS ii 
 
 tyrant's capital, was instantly seized. Hastings was 
 sent a prisoner to Moorshedabad, but, in consequence of 
 the humane intervention of the servants of the Dutch 
 Company, was treated with indulgence. Meanwhile the 
 Nabob marched on Calcutta; the governor and the com- 5 
 mandant fled; the town and citadel were taken, and most 
 of the EngUsh prisoners perished in the Black Hole. 
 
 In these events originated the greatness of Warren 
 Hastings. The fugitive governor and his companions 
 had taken refuge on the dreary islet of Fulda, near the 10 
 mouth of the Hoogley. They were naturally desirous 
 to obtain full information respecting the proceedings of 
 the Nabob; and no person seemed so likely to furnish it 
 as Hastings, who was a prisoner at large in the immediate 
 neighbourhood of the court. He thus became a diplomatic 15 
 agent, and soon established a high character for ability 
 and resolution. The treason which at a later period was 
 fatal to Surajah Dowlah was already in progress; and 
 Hastings was admitted to the deliberations of the con- 
 spirators. But the time for striking had not arrived. 20 
 It was necessary to postpone the execution of the design; 
 and Hastings, who was now in extreme peril, fled to Fulda. 
 
 Soon after his arrival at Fulda, the expedition from 
 Madras, commanded by Clive, appeared in the Hoogley. 
 Warren, young, intrepid, and excited probably by the 25 
 example of the Commander of the Forces who, having like 
 himself been a mercantile agent of the Company, had been 
 turned by public calamities into a soldier, determined to 
 serve in the ranks. During the early operations of the 
 war he carried a musket. But the quick eye of Clive 30 
 soon perceived that the head of the young volunteer would 
 be more useful than his arm. When, after the battle of 
 Plassey, Meer Jafher was proclaimed Nabob of Bengal, 
 
12 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 Hastings was appointed to reside at the court of the new 
 prince as agent for the Company. 
 
 He remained at Moorshedabad till the year 1761, when 
 he became a member of Council, and was consequently 
 5 forced to reside at Calcutta. This was during the inter- 
 val between Clive's first and second administration, an 
 interval which has left on the fame of the East India 
 Company a stain, not wholly effaced by many years 
 of just and humane government. Mr. Vansittart, the 
 
 10 Governor, was at the head of a new and anomalous 
 empire. On the one side was a band of English func- 
 tionaries, daring, intelligent, eager to be rich. On the 
 other side was a great native population, helpless, timid, 
 accustomed to crouch under oppression. To keep the 
 
 15 stronger race from preying on the weaker was an under- 
 taking which tasked to the utmost the talents and energy 
 of Clive. Vansittart, with fair intentions, was a feeble 
 and inefficient ruler. The master caste, as was natural, 
 broke loose from all restraint; and then was seen what 
 
 20 we believe to be the most frightful of all spectacles, the 
 strength of civilisation without its mercy. To all other 
 despotism there is a check, imperfect indeed, and liable 
 to gross abuse, but still sufficient to preserve society from 
 the last extreme of misery. A time comes when the evils 
 
 25 of submission are obviously greater than those of resist- 
 ance, when fear itself begets a sort of courage, when a 
 convulsive burst of popular rage and despair warns 
 tyrants not to presume too far on the patience of man- 
 kind. But against misgovernment such as then afflicted 
 
 30 Bengal it was impossible to struggle. The superior intel- 
 ligence and energy of the dominant class made their 
 power irresistible. A war of Bengalees against English- 
 men was like a war of sheep against wolves, of men 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 13 
 
 against daemons. The only protection which the con- 
 quered could find was in the moderation, the clemency, 
 the enlarged pohcy of the conquerors. That protection, 
 at a later period, they found. iBut at first Enghsh power 
 came among them unaccompanied by Enghsh morahty, 5 
 There was an interval between the time at which they 
 became our subjects, and the time at which we began 
 to reflect that we were bound to discharge towards them 
 the duties of rulers./ During that interval the business of 
 a servant of the Company was simply to wring out of the 10 
 natives a hundred or two hundred thousand pounds as 
 speedily as possible, that he might return home before his 
 constitution had suffered from the heat, to marry a peer's 
 daughter, to buy rotten boroughs in Cornwall, and to give 
 balls in St. James's Square. Of the conduct of Hastings 15 
 at this time, httle is known; but the little that is known, 
 and the circumstance that Uttle is known, must be con- 
 sidered as honourable to him. He could not protect the 
 natives : all that he could do was to abstain from plunder- 
 ing and oppressing them; and this he appears to have 20 
 done. It is certain that at this time he continued poor; 
 and it is equally certain, that by cruelty and dishonesty 
 he might easily have become rich. It is certain that he 
 was never charged with having borne a share in the worst 
 abuses which then prevailed; and it is almost equally cer- 25 
 tain that, if he had borne a share in those abuses, the able 
 and bitter enemies who afterwards persecuted him would 
 not have failed to discover and to proclaim his guilt. 
 The keen, severe, and even malevolent scrutiny to which 
 his whole public Hfe was subjected, a scrutiny unparalleled, 30 
 as we beheve, in the history of mankind, is in one respect 
 advantageous to his reputation. It brought many lament- 
 able blemishes to light; but it entitles him to be considered 
 
14 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 pure from every blemish which has not been brought to 
 hght. 
 
 The truth is that the temptations to which so many 
 EngHsh functionaries yielded in the time of Mr. Vansittart 
 5 were not temptations addressed to the ruling passions 
 of Warren Hastings. He was not squeamish in pecuni- 
 ary transactions; but he was neither sordid nor rapacious. 
 He was far too enlightened a man to look on a great 
 empire merely as a buccaneer would look on a galleon. 
 
 10 Had his heart been much w^orse than it was, his under- 
 standing would have preserved him from that extremity 
 of baseness. He was an unscrupulous, perhaps an un- 
 principled statesman; but still he was a statesman, and 
 not a freebooter. / 
 
 15 In 1764 Hastings returned to England. He had real- 
 ized only a very moderate fortune; and that moderate 
 fortune was soon reduced to nothing, partly by his praise- 
 worthy liberality, and partly by his mismanagement. 
 Towards his relations he appears to have acted very 
 
 20 generously. The greater part of his savings he left in 
 
 Bengal, hoping probably to obtain the high usury of 
 
 India. But high usury and bad security generally go 
 
 together; and Hastings lost both interest and principal. 
 
 He remained four years in England. Of his life at this 
 
 25 time very little is known. But it has been asserted, and is 
 highly probable, that liberal studies and the society of 
 men of letters occupied a great part of his time. It is 
 to be remembered to his honour, that in days when the 
 languages of the East were regarded by other servants 
 
 30 of the Company merely as the means of communicating 
 
 [with weavers and money-changers, his enlarged and 
 
 accomphshed mind sought in Asiatic learning for new 
 
 forms of intellectual enjoyment, and for new views of 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 15 
 
 government and society. Perhaps, like most persons 
 who have paid much attention to departments of knowl- 
 edge which He out of the common track, he was inclined 
 to overrate the value of his favourite studies. He con- 
 ceived that the cultivation of Persian literature might 5 
 with advantage be made a part of the liberal education of 
 an EngHsh gentleman; and he drew up a plan with that 
 view. It is said that the University of Oxford, in which 
 Oriental learning had never, since the revival of letters, 
 been wholly neglected, was to be the seat of the insti- 10 
 tution which he contemplated. An endowment was 
 expected from the munificence of the Company; and 
 professors thoroughly competent to interpret Hafiz and 
 Ferdusi were to be engaged in the East. Hastings called 
 on Johnson, with the hope, as it should seem, of interesting 15 
 in this project a man who enjoyed the highest literary 
 reputation, and who was particularly connected with 
 Oxford. The interview appears to have left on Johnson's 
 mind a most favourable impression of the talents and 
 attainments of his visitor. Long after, when Hastings 20 
 was ruling the immense population of British India, the 
 old philosopher wrote to him, and referred in the most 
 courtly terms, though with great dignity, to their short 
 but agreeable intercourse. 
 
 Hastings soon began to look again towards India. He 25 
 had httle to attach him to England; and his pecuniary 
 embarrassments were great. He solicited his old masters 
 the Directors for employment. They acceded to his 
 request, with high compliments both to his abihties and 
 to his integrity, and appointed him a Member of Council 30 
 at Madras. It would be unjust not to mention that, 
 though forced to borrow money for his outfit, he did not 
 withdraw any portion of the sum which he had appro- 
 
l6 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 priated to the relief of his distressed relations. In the 
 spring of 1769 he embarked on board of the Duke of 
 Grafton, and commenced a voyage distinguished by 
 incidents which might furnish matter for a novel. 
 5 Among the passengers in the Duke of Grafton was a 
 German of the name of Imhoff. He called himself a 
 baron; but he was in distressed circumstances, and was 
 going out to Madras as a portrait-painter, in the hope of 
 picking up some of the pagodas which were then lightly 
 
 10 got and as lightly spent by the English in India. The 
 baron was accompanied by his wife, a native, we have 
 somewhere read, of Archangel. This young woman who, 
 born under the Arctic circle, was destined to play the 
 part of a Queen under the tropic of Cancer, had an agree- 
 
 15 able person, a cultivated mind, and manners in the 
 highest degree engaging. She despised her husband 
 heartily, and, as the story which we have to tell sufh- 
 ciently proves, not without reason. She was interested 
 by the conversation and flattered by the attentions of 
 
 20 Hastings. The situation was indeed perilous. No place 
 is so propitious to the formation either of close friendships 
 or of deadly enmities as an Indiaman. There are very 
 few people who do not find a voyage which lasts several 
 months insupportably dull. Anything is welcome which 
 
 25 may break that long monotony, a sail, a shark, an alba- 
 tross, a man overboard. Most passengers find some 
 resource in eating twice as many meals as on land. But 
 the great devices for killing the time are quarrelling and 
 flirting. The facilities for both these exciting pursuits 
 
 30 are great. The inmates of the ship are thrown together 
 far more than in any country-seat or boarding-house. 
 None can escape from the rest except by imprisoning 
 himself in a cell in which he can hardly turn. All food, 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 T7 
 
 all exercise, is taken in company. Ceremony is to a great 
 extent banished. It is every day in the power of a mis- 
 chievous person to inflict innumerable annoyances; it is 
 every day in the power of an amiable person to confer 
 little services. It not seldom happens that serious distress 5 
 and danger call forth in genuine beauty and deformity 
 heroic virtues and abject vices which, in the ordinary 
 intercourse of good society, might remain during many 
 3'ears unknown even to intimate associates. Under such 
 circumstances met Warren Hastings and the Baroness 10 
 Imhoff, two persons whose accomplishments would have 
 attracted notice in any court of Europe. The gentleman 
 had no domestic ties. The lady was tied to a husband 
 for whom she had no regard, and who had no regard for 
 his own honour. An attachment sprang up, which was 15 
 soon strengthened by events such as could hardly have 
 occurred on land. Hastings fell ill. The baroness nursed 
 him with womanly tenderness, gave him his medicines 
 with her own hand, and even sat up in his cabin while he 
 slept. Long before the Duke of Grafton reached Madras, 20 
 Hastings was in love. But his love was of a most charac- 
 teristic description. Like his hatred, like his ambition, 
 like all his passions, it was strong, but not impetuous. It 
 was calm, deep, earnest, patient of delay, unconquerable 
 by time. Imhoff was called into council by his wife and 25 
 his wife's lover. It was arranged that the baroness should 
 institute a suit for a divorce in the courts of Franconia, 
 that the baron should afford every facility to the proceed- 
 ing, and that, during the years which might elapse before 
 the sentence should be pronounced, they should continue 30 
 to live together. It w^as also agreed that Hastings should 
 bestow some very substantial marks of gratitude on the 
 complaisant husband, and should, when the marriage was 
 3 
 
1 8 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 dissolved, make the lady his wife, and adopt the children 
 whom she had already borne to Imhoff . 
 
 We are not inclined to judge either Hastings or the 
 baroness severely. There was undoubtedly much to 
 5 extenuate their fault. But we can by no means concur 
 with the Reverend Mr. Gleig, who carries his partiality 
 to so injudicious an extreme as to describe the conduct 
 of Imhoff, conduct the baseness of which is the best excuse 
 for the lovers, as ''wise and judicious." 
 
 10 At Madras, Hastings found the trade of the Company 
 in a very disorganised state. His own tastes would have 
 led him rather to poHtical than to commercial pursuits: 
 but he knew that the favour of his employers depended 
 chiefly on their dividends, and that their dividends de- 
 
 1 5 pended chiefly on the investment. He therefore, with great 
 judgment, determined to apply his vigorous mind for a 
 time to this department of business, which had been much 
 neglected, since the servants of the Company had ceased 
 to be clerks, and had become warriors and negotiators. 
 
 20 In a very few months he effected an important reform. 
 The Directors notified to him their high approbation, 
 and were so much pleased with his conduct that they 
 determined to place him at the head of the government 
 of Bengal. Early in 1772 he quitted Fort St. George for 
 
 25 his new post. The Imhoff s, who were still man and wife, 
 accompanied him, and lived at Calcutta "on the same 
 wise and- judicious plan," — we quote the words of Mr. 
 Gleig, — which they had already followed during more 
 than two years. 
 
 30 When Hastings took his seat at the head of the council- 
 board, Bengal was still governed according to the system 
 which CHve had devised, a system which was, perhaps, 
 skilfully contrived for the purpose of faciUtating and 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 19 
 
 concealing a great revolution, but which, when that revo- 
 lution was complete and irrevocable, could produce 
 nothing but inconvenience. There were two govern- 
 ments, the real and the ostensible. The supreme power 
 belonged to the Company, and was in truth the most 5 
 despotic power that can be conceived. The only restraint 
 on the English masters of the country was that which their 
 own justice and humanity imposed on them. There was 
 no constitutional check on their will, and resistance to 
 them was utterly hopeless. 10 
 
 But, though thus absolute in reality, the English had 
 not yet assumed the style of sovereignty. They held their 
 territories as vassals of the throne of Delhi; they raised 
 their revenues as collectors appointed by the imperial 
 commission; their public seal was inscribed with the im- 15 
 perial titles; and their mint struck only the imperial coin. 
 
 There was still a nabob of Bengal, who stood to the 
 English rulers of his country in the same relation in which 
 Augustulus stood to Odoacer, or the last Merovingians 
 to Charles Martel and Pepin. He lived at Moorshedabad, 20 
 surrounded by princely magnificence. He was approached 
 with outward marks of reverence, and his name was used 
 in public instruments. But in the government of the 
 country he had less real share than the youngest writer 
 or cadet in the Company's service. 25 
 
 The English council which represented the Company 
 at Calcutta was constituted on a very different plan from 
 that which has since been adopted. At present the Gov- 
 ernor is, as to all executive measures, absolute. He can 
 declare war, conclude peace, appoint public functionaries 30 
 or remove them, in opposition to the unanimous sense of 
 those who sit with him in council. They are, indeed, 
 entitled to know all that is done, to discuss all that is done, 
 
20 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 to advise, to remonstrate, to send protests to England. 
 But it is with the Governor that the supreme power 
 resides, and on him that the whole responsibihty rests. 
 This system, which was introduced by Mr. Pitt and Mr. 
 5 Dundas in spite of the strenuous opposition of Mr. Burke, 
 we conceive to be on the whole the best that was ever 
 devised for the government of a country where no ma- 
 terials can be found for a representative constitution. 
 In the time of Hastings the governor had only one vote 
 
 lo in council, and, in case of an equal division, a casting vote. 
 It therefore happened not unfrequently that he was over- 
 ruled on the gravest questions; and it was possible that 
 he might be wholly excluded, for years together, from the 
 real direction of public affairs. 
 
 15 The English functionaries at Fort William had as yet 
 paid little or no attention to the internal government of 
 Bengal. The only branch of politics about which they 
 much busied themselves was negotiation with the native 
 princes. The police, the administration of justice, the 
 
 20 details of the collection of revenue they almost entirely 
 neglected. We may remark that the phraseology of the 
 Company's servants still bears the traces of this state 
 of things. To this day they always use the word "poUti- 
 cal" as synonymous with ''diplomatic." We could 
 
 25 name a gentleman still living who was described by the 
 highest authority as an invaluable public servant, emi- 
 nently fit to be at the head of the internal administration 
 of a whole presidency, but unfortunately quite ignorant 
 of all political business. 
 
 30 The internal government of Bengal the EngHsh rulers 
 delegated to a great native minister, who was stationed at 
 Moorshedabad. All military affairs, and, with the excep- 
 tion of what pertains to mere ceremonial, all foreign 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 21 
 
 affairs, were withdrawn from his control; but the other 
 departments of the administration were entirely confided 
 to him. His own stipend amounted to near a hundred 
 thousand pounds sterHng a year. The personal allowance 
 of the nabobs, amounting to more than three hun- 5 
 dred thousand pounds a year, passed through the minis- 
 ter's hands, and was, to a great extent, at his disposal. 
 The collection of the revenue, the administration of jus- 
 tice, the maintenance of order, were left to this high func- 
 tionary; and for the exercise of his immense power he was 10 
 responsible to none but the British masters of the 
 country. 
 
 A situation so important, lucrative, and splendid, was 
 naturally an object of ambition to the ablest and most 
 powerful natives. Clive had found it difficult to decide 15 
 between conflicting pretensions. Two candidates stood 
 out prominently from the crowd, each of them the repre- 
 sentative of a race and of a religion. 
 
 The one was Mahommed Reza Khan, a Mussulman of 
 Persian extraction, able, active, religious after the fashion 20 
 of his people, and highly esteemed by them. In England 
 he might perhaps have been regarded as a corrupt and 
 greedy poUtician. But, tried by the lower standard of 
 Indian moraUty, he might be considered as a man of 
 integrity and honour. 25 
 
 His competitor was a Hindoo Brahmin whose name 
 has, by a terrible and melancholy event, been inseparably 
 associated with that of Warren Hastings, the Maharajah 
 Nuncomar. This man had played an important part in 
 all the revolutions which, since the time of Surajah 30 
 Dowlah, had taken place in Bengal. To the considera- 
 tion which in that country belongs to high and pure caste, 
 he added the weight which is derived from wealth, talents. 
 
22 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 and experience. Of his moral character it is difficult to 
 give a notion to those who are acquainted with human 
 nature only as it appears in our island. What the Itahan 
 is to the Englishman, what the Hindoo is to the Italian, 
 5 what the Bengalee is to othqr Hindoos, that was Nun- 
 comar to other Bengalees. The physical organization of 
 the Bengalee is feeble even to effeminacy. He lives in a 
 constant vapour bath. His pursuits are sedentary, his 
 hmbs deHcate, his movements languid. During many 
 
 10 ages he has been trampled upon by men of bolder and 
 more hardy breeds. Courage, independence, veracity, 
 are qualities to which his constitution and his situation 
 are equally unfavourable. His mind bears a singular 
 analogy to his body. It is weak even to helplessness, 
 
 15 for purposes of manly resistance; but its suppleness and 
 its tact move the children of sterner climates to admira- 
 tion not unmingled with contempt. All those arts which 
 are the natural defence of the weak are more familiar 
 to this subtle race than to the Ionian of the time of Juve- 
 
 20 nal, or to the Jew of the dark ages. What the horns are 
 to the buffalo, what the paw is to the tiger, what the 
 sting is to the bee, what beauty, according to the old 
 Greek song, is to woman, deceit is to the Bengalee. Large 
 promises, smooth excuses, elaborate tissues of circum- 
 
 25 stantial falsehood, chicanery, perjury, forgery, are the 
 weapons, offensive and defensive, of the people of the 
 Lower Ganges. All those milhons do not furnish one 
 sepoy to the armies of the Company. But as usurers, 
 as money-changers, as sharp legal practitioners, no class 
 
 30 of human beings can bear a comparison with them. 
 With all his softness, the Bengalee is by no means placable 
 in his enmities or prone to pity. The pertinacity with 
 which he adheres to his purposes yields only to the imme- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 2^ 
 
 diate pressure of fear. Nor does he lack a certain kind 
 of courage which is often wanting in his masters. To 
 inevitable evils he is sometimes found to oppose a passive 
 fortitude, such as the Stoics attributed to their ideal sage. 
 An European warrior who rushes on a battery of cannon 5 
 with a loud hurrah will sometimes shriek under the sur- 
 geon's knife, and fall into an agony of despair at the sen- 
 tence of death. But the Bengalee who would see his 
 country overrun, his house laid in ashes, his children mur- 
 dered or dishonoured, without having the spirit to strike 10 
 one blow, has yet been known to endure torture with the 
 firmness of Mucins, and to mount the scaffold with the 
 steady step and even pulse of Algernon Sydney. 
 
 In Nuncomar, the national character was strongly and 
 with exaggeration personified. The Company's servants 15 
 had repeatedly detected him in the most criminal intrigues. 
 On one occasion he brought a false charge against another 
 Hindoo, and tried to substantiate it by producing forged 
 documents. On another occasion it was discovered that 
 while professing the strongest attachment to the Enghsh, 20 
 he was engaged in several conspiracies against them, and 
 in particular that he was the medium of a correspondence 
 between the court of Delhi and the French authorities 
 in the Carnatic. For these and similar practices he had 
 been long detained in confinement. But his talents and 25 
 influence had not only procured his liberation, but had 
 obtained for him a certain degree of consideration even 
 among the British rulers of his country. 
 
 Clive was extremely unwilling to place a Mussulman 
 at the head of the administration of Bengal. On the 30 
 other hand, he could not bring himself to confer immense 
 power on a man to whom every sort of villany. had 
 repeatedly been brought home. Therefore, though the 
 
24 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 nabob, over whom Nuncomar had by intrigue acquired 
 great influence, begged that the artful Hindoo might be 
 intrusted with the government, CUve, after some hesita- 
 tion, decided honestly and wisely in favour of Mahommed 
 5 Reza Khan, who had held his high office seven years 
 when Hastings became Governor. An infant son of 
 Meer Jaffier was now nabob; and the guardianship of the 
 young prince's person had been confided to the minister. 
 Nuncomar, stimulated at once by cupidity and malice, 
 
 10 had been constantly attempting to undermine his suc- 
 cessful rival. This was not difficult. The revenues of 
 Bengal, under the administration established by Clive, 
 did not yield such a surplus as had been anticipated by 
 the Company; for, at that time, the most absurd notions 
 
 15 were entertained in England respecting the wealth of 
 India. Palaces of porphyry, hung with the richest 
 brocade, heaps of pearls and diamonds, vaults from which 
 pagodas and gold mohurs were measured out by the 
 bushel, filled the imagination even of men of business. 
 
 20 Nobody seemed to be aware of what nevertheless was 
 most undoubtedly the truth, that India was a poorer 
 country than countries which in Europe are reckoned 
 poor, than Ireland, for example, or than Portugal. It 
 was confidently believed by lords of the treasury and 
 
 25 members for the city that Bengal would. not only defray 
 its own charges, but would afford an increased dividend 
 to the proprietors of India stock, and large relief to the 
 English finances. These absurd expectations were dis- 
 appointed; and the directors, naturally enough, chose 
 
 30 to attribute the disappointment rather to the mismanage- 
 ment of Mahommed Reza Khan than to their own 
 ignorance of the country intrusted to their care. They 
 were confirmed in their error by the agents of Nuncomar; 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 25 
 
 for Nuncomar had agents even in Leadenhall Street. 
 Soon after Hastings reached Calcutta, he received a letter 
 addressed by the Court of Directors, not to the Council 
 generally, but to himself in particular. He was directed 
 to remove Mahommed Reza Khan, to arrest him, together 5 
 with all his family and all his partisans, and to institute 
 a strict inquiry into the whole administration of the 
 province. It was added that the Governor would do 
 well to avail himself of the assistance of Nuncomar in the 
 investigation. The vices of Nuncomar were acknowl- 10 
 edged. But even from his vices, it was said, much advan- 
 tage might at such a conjuncture be derived; and, though 
 he could not safely be trusted, it might still be proper 
 to^LCOurage him by hopes of reward, 
 j^^he Governor bore no good will to Nuncomar. Many 15 
 years before, they had known each other at Moors- 
 hedabad; and then a quarrel had risen between them 
 which all the authority of their superiors could hardly 
 compose. Widely as they differed in most points, they 
 resembled each other in this, that both were men of unfor- 20 
 giving natures. To Mahommed Reza Khan, on the other 
 hand, Hastings had no feehngs of hostiUty. Neverthe- 
 less he proceeded to execute the instructions of the Com- 
 pany with an alacrity which he never showed, except w^hen 
 instructions were in perfect conformity with his own views. 25 
 He had, wisely as we think, determined to get rid of the 
 system of double government in Bengal. The orders of 
 the directors furnished him with the means of effecting 
 his purpose, and dispensed him from the necessity of dis- 
 cussing the matter with his Council. He took his meas- 30 
 ures with his usual vigour and dexterity. At midnight, 
 the palace of Mahommed Reza Khan at Moorshedabad 
 was surrounded by a battalion of sepoys. The minister 
 
26 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 was roused from his slumbers, and informed that he was 
 a prisoner. With the Mussulman gravity, he bent his 
 head and submitted himself to the will of God. He 
 fell not alone. A chief named Schitab Roy had been 
 5 intrusted with the government of Bahar. His valour and 
 his attachment to the English had more than once been 
 signally proved. On that memorable day on which the 
 people of Patna saw from their walls the whole army of 
 the Mogul scattered by the little band of Captain Knox, 
 
 10 the voice of the British conquerors assigned the palm of 
 gallantry to the brave Asiatic. "I never," said Knox, 
 when he introduced Schitab Roy, covered with blood 
 and dust, to the English functionaries assembled in the 
 factory, "I never saw a native fight so before." Schitab 
 
 15 Roy was involved in the ruin of Mahommed Reza Khan, 
 was removed from office, and was placed under arrest. 
 The members of the Council received no intimation of 
 these measures till the prisoners were on their road to 
 Calcutta. I 
 
 20 The inquiry into the conduct of the minister was 
 postponed on different pretences. He was detained in 
 an easy confinement during many months. In the mean 
 time, the great revolution which Hastings had planned 
 was carried into effect. The office of minister was abol- 
 
 25 ished. The internal administration was transferred to 
 the servants of the Company. A system, a very imper- 
 fect system, it is true, of civil and criminal justice, under 
 English superintendence, was established. The nabob 
 was no longer to have even an ostensible share in the 
 
 30 government; but he was still to receive a considerable 
 annual allowance, and to be surrounded with the state 
 of sovereignty. As he was an infant, it was necessary 
 to provide guardians for his person and property. His 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 27 
 
 person was intrusted to a lady of his father's haram, 
 known by the name of the Munny Begum. The of&ce 
 of treasurer of the household was bestowed on a son of 
 Nuncomar, named Goordas. Nuncomar's services were 
 wanted, yet he could not safely be trusted with power; 5 
 and Hastings thought it a masterstroke of policy to 
 reward the able and unprincipled parent by promoting 
 the inoffensive child. 
 
 The revolution completed, the double government 
 dissolved, the Company installed in the full sovereignty ic 
 of Bengal, Hastings had no motive to treat the late minis- 
 ters with rigour. Their trial had been put off on various 
 pleas till the new organization was complete. They 
 were then brought before a committee, over which the 
 Governor presided. Schitab Roy was speedily acquitted 15 
 with honour. A formal apology was made to him for 
 the restraint to which he had been subjected. All the 
 Eastern marks of respect were bestowed on him. He 
 was clothed in a robe of state, presented with jewels and 
 with a richly harnessed elephant, and sent back to his 20 
 government at Patna. But his health had suffered from 
 confinement; his high spirit had been cruelly wounded; 
 and soon after his liberation he died of a broken heart. 
 
 The innocence of Mahommed Reza Khan was not so 
 clearly estabhshed. But the Governor was not disposed 25 
 to deal harshly. After a long hearing, in which Nuncomar 
 appeared as the accuser, and displayed both the art and 
 the inveterate rancour which distinguished him, Hastings 
 pronounced that the charges had not been made out, and 
 ordered the fallen minister to be set at liberty. 3c 
 
 Nuncomar had purposed to destroy the Mussulman 
 administration, and to rise on its ruin. Both his malevo- 
 lence and his cupidity had been disappointed. Hastings 
 
28 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 had made him a tool, had used him for the purpose of 
 accomplishing the transfer of the government from 
 Moorshedabad to Calcutta, from native to European 
 hands. The rival, the enemy, so long envied, so impla- 
 5 cably persecuted, had been dismissed unhurt. The situa- 
 tion so long and ardently desired had been abolished. It 
 was natural that the Governor should be from that time 
 an object of the most intense hatred to the vindictive 
 Brahmin. As yet, however, it was necessary to suppress 
 
 10 such feelings. The time was coming when that long 
 
 animosity was to end in a desperate and deadly struggle. 
 
 In the meantime, Hastings was compelled to turn his 
 
 attention to foreign affairs. The object of his diplomacy 
 
 was at this time simply to get money. The finances of 
 
 15 his government were in an embarrassed state; and this 
 embarrassment he was determined to relieve by some 
 means, fair or foul. The principle which directed all 
 his deahngs with his neighbours is fully expressed by 
 the old motto of one of the great predatory famihes of 
 
 20 Teviotdale, ''Thou shalt want ere I want." He seems 
 to have laid it down, as a fundamental proposition which 
 could not be disputed, that, when he had not as many 
 lacs of rupees as the public service required, he was to 
 take them from any body who had. One thing, indeed, 
 
 25 is to be said in excuse for him. The pressure apphed 
 to him by his employers at home was such as only the 
 highest virtue could have withstood, such as left him no 
 choice except to commit great wrongs, or to resign his 
 high post, and with that post all his hopes of fortune and 
 
 30 distinction. The directors, it is true, never enjoined or 
 applauded any crime. Far from it. Whoever examines 
 their letters written at that time will find there many 
 just and humane sentiments; many excellent precepts, 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 29 
 
 in short, an admirable code of political ethics. But 
 every exhortation is modified or nullified by a demand 
 for money. "Govern leniently, and send more money; 
 practise strict justice and moderation towards neighbour- 
 ing powers, and send more money"; this is in truth the 5 
 sum of almost all the instructions that Hastings ever 
 received from home. Now these instructions, being inter- 
 preted, mean simply, ^'Be the father and the oppressor of 
 the people; be just and unjust, moderate and rapacious." 
 The directors dealt with India, as the church, in the good 10 
 old times, dealt with a heretic. They delivered the victim 
 over to the executioners, with an earnest request that all 
 possible tenderness might be shown. We by no means 
 accuse or suspect those who framed these despatches of 
 hypocrisy. It is probable that, writing fifteen thousand 15 
 miles from the place where their orders were to be carried 
 into effect, they never perceived the gross inconsistency 
 of which they were guilty. But the inconsistency was at 
 once manifest to their lieutenant at Calcutta, who, with an 
 empty treasury, with an unpaid army, with his own salary 20 
 often in arrear, with deficient crops, with government 
 tenants daily running away, was called upon to remit 
 home another half million without fail. Hastings saw 
 that it was absolutely necessary for him to disregard either 
 the moral discourses or the pecuniary requisitions of his 25 
 employers. Being forced to disobey them in something, 
 he had to consider what kind of disobedience they would 
 most readily pardon; and he correctly judged that the 
 safest course would be to neglect the sermons and to find 
 the rupees. 30 
 
 A mind so fertile as his, and so little restrained by con- 
 scientious scruples, speedily discovered several modes 
 of reUeving the financial embarrassments of the govern- 
 
30 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 merit. The allowance of the Nabob of Bengal was reduced 
 at a stroke from three hundred and twenty thousand 
 pounds a year to half that sum. The Company had 
 bound itself to pay near three hundred thousand pounds 
 5 a year to the great Mogul, as a mark of homage for the 
 provinces which he had intrusted to their care; and they 
 had ^eded to him the districts of Corah and Allahabad. 
 On the plea that the Mogul was not really independent, 
 but merely a tool in the hands of others, Hastings deter- 
 
 10 mined to retract these concessions. He accordingly 
 declared that the English would pay no more tribute, 
 and sent troops to occupy Allahabad and Corah. The 
 situation of these places was such, that there would be 
 little advantage and great expense in retaining them.. 
 
 15 Hastings, who wanted money and not territory, deter- 
 
 ^ mined to sell them. A purchaser was not wanting. 
 
 The rich province of Oude had, in the general dissolution 
 
 of the Mogul Empire, fallen to the share of the great 
 
 Mussulman house by which it is still governed. About 
 
 20 twenty years ago, this house, by the permission of the 
 British government, assumed the royal title; but, in the 
 time of Warren Hastings, such an assumption would 
 have been considered by the Mahommedans of India 
 as a monstrous impiety. The Prince of Oude, though 
 
 25 he held the power, did not venture to use the style of 
 sovereignty. To the appellation of Nabob or Viceroy, 
 he added that of Vizier of the monarchy of Hindostan, 
 just as in the last century the Electors of Saxony and 
 Brandenburg, though independent of the Emperor, and 
 
 30 often in arms against him, were proud to style themselves 
 his Grand Chamberlain and Grand Marshal. Sujah 
 Dowlah, then Nabob Vizier, was on excellent terms with 
 the English. He had a large treasure. Allahabad and 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 31 
 
 Corah were so situated that they might be of use to him 
 and could be of none to the Company. The buyer and 
 seller soon came to an understanding; and the provinces 
 which had been torn from the Mogul were made over to 
 the government of Oude for about half a million sterling. 5 
 
 But there was another matter still more important to 
 be settled by the Vizier and the Governor. The fate of 
 a brave people was to be decided. It was decided in a 
 manner which has left a lasting stain on the fame of 
 Hastings and of England. 10 
 
 The people of Central Asia had always been to the 
 inhabitants of India what the warriors of the German 
 forests were to the subjects of the decaying monarchy 
 of Rome. The dark, slender, and timid Hindoo shrank 
 from a conflict with the strong muscle and resolute spirit 15 
 of the fair race, which dwelt beyond the passes. There 
 is reason to believe that, at a period anterior to the dawn 
 of regular history, the people who spoke the rich and 
 flexible Sanscrit came from regions lying far beyond the 
 Hyphasis and the Hystaspes, and imposed their yoke 20 
 on the children of the soil. It is certain that, during the 
 last ten centuries, a succession of invaders descended from 
 the west on Hindostan; nor was the course of conquest 
 ever turned back towards the setting sun, till that memo- 
 rable campaign in which the cross of Saint George was 25 
 planted on the walls of Ghizni. 
 
 The Emperors of Hindostan themselves came from the 
 other side of the great mountain ridge; and it had always 
 been their practice to recruit their army from the hardy 
 and valiant race from which their own illustrious house 30 
 sprang. Among the military adventurers who were allured 
 to the Mogul standards from the neighbourhood of Cabul 
 and Candahar, were conspicuous several gallant bands, 
 
32 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 known by the name of the Rohillas. Their services had 
 been rewarded with large tracts of land, fiefs of the spear, 
 if we may use an expression drawn from an analogous 
 state of things, in that fertile plain through which the 
 5 Ramgunga flows from the snowy heights of Kumaon to 
 join the Ganges. In the general confusion which fol- 
 lowed the death of Aurungzebe, the warlike colony 
 became virtually independent. The Rohillas were dis- 
 tinguished from the other inhabitants of India by a 
 
 lo peculiarly fair complexion. They were more honour- 
 ably distinguished by courage in war, and by skill in the 
 arts of peace. While anarchy raged from Lahore to 
 Cape Comorin, their little territory enjoyed the blessings 
 of repose under the guardianship of valour. Agriculture 
 
 15 and commerce flourished among them; nor were they 
 negligent of rhetoric and poetry. Many persons now 
 living have heard aged men talk with regret of the golden 
 days when the Afghan princes ruled in the vale of Rohil- 
 cund. 
 
 20 Sujah Dowlah had set his heart on adding this rich 
 district to his own principality. Right, or show of right, 
 he had absolutely none. His claim was in no respect 
 better founded than that of Catherine to Poland, or that 
 of the Bonaparte family to Spain. The Rohillas held 
 
 25 their country by exactly the same title by which he held 
 his, and had governed their country far better than his 
 had ever been governed. Nor were they a people whom 
 it was perfectly safe to attack. Their land was indeed 
 an open plain, destitute of natural defences; but their 
 
 30 veins were full of the high blood of Afghanistan. As 
 soldiers, they had not the steadiness which is seldom 
 found except in company with strict discipline; but their 
 impetuous valour had been proved on many fields of battle. 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 33 
 
 It was said that their chiefs, when united by common 
 peril, could bring eighty thousand men into the field. 
 Sujah Dowlah had himself seen them fight, and wisely 
 shrank from a conflict with them. There was in India 
 one army, and only one, against which even those proud 5 
 Caucasian tribes could not stand. It had been abun- 
 dantly proved that neither tenfold odds, nor the martial 
 ardour of the boldest Asiatic nations, could avail aught 
 against English science and resolution. Was it possible 
 to induce the Governor of Bengal to let out to hire the 10 
 irresistible energies of the imperial people, the skill 
 against which the ablest chiefs of Hindostan were help- 
 less as infants, the discipline which had so often triumphed 
 over the frantic struggles of fanaticism and despair, the 
 unconquerable British courage which is never so sedate 15 
 and stubborn as towards the close of a doubtful and 
 murderous day? 
 
 This was what the Nabob Vizier asked, and what 
 Hastings granted. A bargain was soon struck. Each 
 of the negotiators had what the other wanted. Hastings 20 
 was in need of funds to carry on the government of 
 Bengal, and to send remittances to London; and Sujah 
 Dowlah had an ample revenue. Sujah Dowlah was bent 
 on subjugating the Rohillas; and Hastings had at his 
 disposal the only force by which the Rohillas could be 25 
 subjugated. It was agreed that an English army should 
 be lent to the Nabob Vizier, and that, for the loan, he 
 should pay four hundred thousand pounds sterling, 
 besides defraying all the charge of the troops while 
 employed in his service. 30 
 
 "I really cannot see," says the Reverend Mr. Gleig, 
 ^'upon what grounds, either of political or moral justice, 
 this proposition deserves to be stigmatized as infamous." 
 4 
 
34 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 If we understand the meaning of words, it is infamous 
 to commit a wicked action for hire, and it is wicked to 
 engage in war without provocation. In this particular 
 war, scarcely one aggravating circumstance was wanting. 
 5 The object of the Rohilla war was this, to deprive a larger 
 population, who had never done us the least harm, of a 
 good government, and to place them, against their will, 
 under an execrably bad one. Nay, even this is not all. 
 England now descended far below the level even of those 
 
 lo petty German princes who, about the same time, sold us 
 troops to fight the Americans. The hussar-mongers of 
 Hesse and Anspach had at least the assurance that the 
 expeditions on which their soldiers were to be employed 
 would be conducted in conformity with the humane 
 
 15 rules of civilised warfare. Was the Rohilla war likely 
 to be so conducted? Did the Governor stipulate that it 
 should be so conducted? He well knew what Indian war- 
 fare was. He well knew that the power which he cove- 
 nanted to put into Sujah Dowlah's hands would, in all 
 
 20 probabiHty, be atrociously abused; and he required no 
 guarantee, no promise that it should not be so abused. 
 He did not even reserve to himself the right of with- 
 drawing his aid in case of abuse, however gross. Mr. 
 Gleig repeats Major Scott's absurd plea, that Hastings 
 
 25 was justified in letting out English troops to slaughter 
 the Rohillas, because the Rohillas were not of Indian 
 race, but a colony from a distant country. W^hat were 
 the English themselves? Was it for them to proclaim a 
 crusade for the expulsion of all intruders from the coun- 
 
 30 tries watered by the Ganges? Did it lie in their mouths 
 to contend that a foreign settler who establishes an 
 empire in India is a caput lupinum ? What would they 
 have said if any other power had, on such a ground, 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 35 
 
 attacked Madras or Calcutta, without the slightest provo- 
 cation? Such a defence was wanting to make the infamy 
 of the transaction complete. The atrocity of the crime, 
 and the hypocrisy of the apology, are worthy of each 
 other. . 5 
 
 One of the three brigades of which the Bengal army 
 consisted was sent under Colonel Champion to join Sujah 
 Dowlah's forces. The Rohillas expostulated, entreated, 
 offered a large ransom, but in vain. They then resolved 
 to defend themselves to the last. A bloody battle was 10 
 fought. "The enemy," says Colonel Champion, "gave 
 proof of a good share of military knowledge; and it is 
 impossible to describe a more obstinate firmness of reso- 
 lution than they displayed." The dastardly sovereign 
 of Oude fled from the field. The English were left unsup- 15' 
 ported; but their fire and their charge were irresistible. 
 It was not, however, till the most distinguished chiefs 
 had fallen, fighting bravely at the head of their troops, 
 that the Rohilla ranks gave way. Then the Nabob 
 Vizier and his rabble made their appearance, and hastened 20 
 to plunder the camp of the valiant enemies, whom they 
 had never dared to look in the face. The soldiers of the 
 Company, trained in an exact discipline, kept unbroken 
 order, while the tents were pillaged by these worthless 
 allies. But many voices were heard to exclaim, "We 25 
 have had all the fighting, and those rogues are to have all 
 the profit." 
 
 Then the horrors of Indian war were let loose on the 
 fair valleys and cities of Rohilcund. The whole country 
 was in a blaze. More than a hundred thousand people 30 
 fled from their homes to pestilential jungles, preferring 
 famine, and fever, and the haunts of tigers, to the tyranny 
 of him, to whom an English and a Christian government 
 
36 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 had, for shameful lucre, sold their substance, and their 
 blood, and the honour of their wives and daughters. 
 Colonel Champion remonstrated with the Nabob Vizier, 
 and sent strong representations to Fort William; but the 
 5 Governor had made no conditions as to the mode in 
 which the war was to be carried on. He had troubled 
 himself about nothing but his forty lacs; and, though 
 he might disapprove of Sujah Dowlah's wanton bar- 
 barity, he did not think himself entitled to interfere, 
 
 10 except by offering advice. This delicacy excites the 
 admiration of the reverend biographer. ''Mr. Hastings," 
 he says, "could not himself dictate to the Nabob, nor 
 permit the commander of the Company's troops to dic- 
 tate how the war was to be carried on." No, to 'be 
 
 15 sure. Mr. Hastings had only to put down by main 
 force the brave struggles of innocent men fighting for 
 their liberty. Their military resistance crushed, his 
 duties ended; and he had then only to fold his arms and 
 look on, while their villages were burned, their children 
 
 20 butchered, and their women violated. W^ill Mr. Gleig 
 seriously maintain this opinion? Is any rule more plain 
 than this, that whoever voluntarily gives to another 
 irresistible power over human beings, is bound to take 
 order that such power shall not be barbarously abused? 
 
 25 But we beg pardon of our readers for arguing a point so 
 clear. 
 
 We hasten to the end of this sad and disgraceful story. 
 The war ceased. The finest population in India was 
 subjected to a greedy, cowardly, cruel tyrant. Com- 
 
 30 merce and agriculture languished. The rich province 
 which had tempted the cupidity of Sujah Dowlah became 
 the most miserable part even of his miserable dominions. 
 Yet is the injured nation not extinct. At long intervals 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 37 
 
 gleams of its ancient spirit have flashed forth; and even at 
 this day, valour, and self-respect, and a chivalrous feel- 
 ing rare among Asiatics, and a bitter remembrance of the 
 great crime of England, distinguish that noble Afghan 
 race. To this day they are regarded as the best of all 5 
 sepoys at the cold steel; and it was very recently re- 
 marked, by one who had enjoyed great opportunities of 
 observation, that the only natives of India to whom the 
 word ''gentleman" can with perfect propriety be apphed 
 are to be found among the Rohillas. 10 
 
 Whatever we may think of the morality of Hastings, 
 it cannot be denied that the financial results of his pohcy 
 did honour to his talents. In less than two years after 
 he assumed the government, he had, without imposing 
 any additional burdens on the people subject to his 15 
 authority, added about four hundred and fifty thousand 
 pounds to the annual income of the Company, besides 
 procuring about a miUion in ready money. He had also 
 relieved the finances of Bengal from military expenditure, 
 amounting to near a quarter of a million a year, and had 20 
 thrown that charge on the Nabob of Oude. There can 
 be no doubt that this was a result which, if it had been 
 obtained by honest means, would have entitled him to 
 the warmest gratitude of his country, and which, by what- 
 ever means obtained, proved that he possessed great 25 
 talents for administration. 
 
 In the mean time, Parliament had been engaged in long 
 and grave discussions on Asiatic affairs. The ministry 
 of Lord North, in the session of 1773, introduced a meas- 
 ure which made a considerable change in the constitution 30 
 of the Indian government. This law, known by the name 
 of the Regulating Act, provided that the presidency of 
 Bengal should exercise a control over the other possessions 
 
^S WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 of the Company; that the chief of that presidency should 
 be styled Governor- General; that he should be assisted 
 by four Councillors; and that a supreme court of judica- 
 ture, consisting of a chief justice and three inferior judges, 
 5 should be established at Calcutta. This court was 
 made independent of the Governor-General and Council, 
 and was intrusted with a civil and criminal jurisdiction 
 of immense, and, at the same time, of undefined extent. 
 The Governor- General and Councillors were named 
 
 lo in the act, and were to hold their situations for five years. 
 Hastings was to be the first Governor- General. One of 
 the four new Councillors, Mr. Barwell, an experienced 
 servant of the Company, was then in India. The other 
 three, General Clavering, Mr. Monson, and Mr. Francis, 
 
 15 were sent out from England. 
 
 The ablest of the new Councillors was, beyond all 
 doubt, Philip Francis. His 'acknowledged compositions 
 prove that he possessed considerable eloquence and 
 information. Several years passed in the public offices 
 
 20 had formed him to habits of business. His enemies have 
 never denied that he had a fearless and manly spirit; and 
 his friends, we are afraid, must acknowledge that his 
 estimate of himself was extravagantly high, that his 
 temper was irritable, that his deportment was often rude 
 
 25 and petulant, and that his hatred was of intense bitter- 
 ness and of long duration. 
 
 It is scarcely possible to mention this eminent man 
 without adverting for a moment to the question which 
 his name at once suggests to every mind. Was he the 
 
 30 author of the Letters of Junius? Our own firm behef 
 is that he was. The evidence is, we think, such as would 
 support a verdict in a civil, nay, in a criminal proceeding. 
 The handwriting of Junius is the very peculiar hand- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 39 
 
 writing of Francis, slightly disguised. As to the position, 
 pursuits, and connections of Junius, the following are the 
 most important facts which can be considered as clearly 
 proved: first, that he was acquainted with the technical 
 forms of the secretary of state's office; secondly, that he 5 
 was intimately acquainted with the business of the war- 
 office; thirdly, that he, during the year 1770, attended 
 debates in the House of Lords, and took notes of speeches, 
 particularly of the speeches of Lord Chatham; fourthly, 
 that he bitterly resented the appointment of Mr. Chamier 10 
 to the place of deputy secretary-at-war; fifthly, that he 
 was bound by some strong tie to the first Lord Holland. 
 Now, Francis passed some years in the secretary of state's 
 office. He was subsequently chief clerk of the war-office. 
 He repeatedly mentioned that he had himself, in 1770, 15 
 heard speeches of Lord Chatham; and some of these 
 speeches were actually printed from his notes. He re- 
 signed his clerkship at the war-office from resentment at 
 the appointment of Mr. Chamier. It was by Lord Holland 
 that he was first introduced into the pubhc service. Now, 20 
 here are five marks, all of which ought to be found in 
 Junius. They are all five found in Francis. We do not 
 believe that more than two of them can be found in any 
 other person whatever. If this argument does not settle 
 the question, there is an end of all reasoning on circum- 25 
 stantial evidence. 
 
 The internal evidence seems to us to point the same way. 
 The style of Francis bears a strong resemblance to that of 
 Junius; nor are we disposed to admit, what is generally 
 taken for granted, that the acknowledged compositions 30 
 of Francis are very decidedly inferior to the anonymous 
 letters. The argument from inferiority, at all events, is 
 one which may be urged with at least equal force against 
 
40 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 every claimant that has ever been mentioned, with the 
 single exception of Burke; and it would be a waste of 
 time to prove that Burke was not Junius. And what 
 conclusion, after all, can be drawn from mere inferiority? 
 5 Every writer must produce his best work; and the inter- 
 val between his best work and his second best work may 
 be very wide indeed. Nobody will say that the best 
 letters of Junius are more decidedly superior to the 
 acknowledged works of Francis than three or four of 
 
 10 Corneille's tragedies to the rest, than three or four of 
 Ben Jonson's comedies to the rest, than the Pilgrim's 
 Progress to the other works of Bunyan, than Don Quixote 
 to the other works of Cervantes. Nay, it is certain that 
 the Man in the Mask, whoever he may have been, w^as a 
 
 15 most unequal writer. To go no further than the letters 
 which bear the signature of Junius; the letter to the king, 
 and the letters to Home Tooke, have little in common, 
 except the asperity; and asperity was an ingredient sel- 
 dom wanting either in the writings or in the speeches 
 
 20 of Francis. 
 
 Indeed one of the strongest reasons for believing that 
 Francis was Junius is the moral reseniblance between 
 the two men. It is not difficult, from the letters which, 
 under various signatures, are known to have been written 
 
 25 by Junius, and from his dealings with Woodfall and others, 
 to form a tolerably correct notion of his character. He 
 was clearly a man not destitute of real patriotism and 
 magnanimity, a man whose vices were not of a. sordid 
 kind. But he must also have been a man in the highest 
 
 30 degree arrogant and insolent, a man prone to malevolence, 
 and prone to the error of mistaking his malevolence for 
 pubhc virtue. "Doest thou well to be angry?" was the 
 question asked in old time of the Hebrew prophet. And 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 41 
 
 he answered, "I do well." This was evidently the 
 temper of Junius; and to this cause we attribute the 
 savage cruelty which disgraces several of his letters. No 
 man is so merciless as he who, under a strong self-delu- 
 sion, confounds his antipathies with his duties. It may 5 
 be added that Junius, though allied with the democratic 
 party by common enmities, was the very opposite of a 
 democratic politican. While attacking individuals with 
 a ferocity which perpetually violated all the laws of literary 
 warfare, he regarded the most defective parts of old insti- 10 
 tutions with a respect amounting to pedantry, pleaded 
 the cause of Old Sarum with fervour, and contemptuously 
 told the capitalists of Manchester and Leeds that, if they 
 wanted votes, they might buy land and become freeholders 
 of Lancashire and Yorkshire. All this, we believe, might 15 
 stand, with scarcely any change, for a character of Philip 
 Francis. 
 
 It is not strange that the great anonymous writer should 
 have been willing at that time to leave the country which 
 had been so powerfully stirred by his eloquence. Every 20 
 thing had gone against him. That party which he clearly 
 preferred to every other, the party of George Grenville, 
 had been scattered by the death of its chief; and Lord 
 Suffolk had led the greater part of it over to the minis- 
 terial benches. The ferment produced by the Middlesex 25 
 election had gone down. Every faction must have been 
 alike an object of aversion to Junius. His opinions on 
 domestic affairs separated him from the ministry; his 
 opinions on colonial affairs from the opposition. Under 
 such circumstances, he had thrown down his pen in misan- 30 
 thropical despair. His farewell letter to Woodfall bears 
 date the nineteenth of January, 1773. In that letter, he 
 declared that he must be an idiot to write again; that he 
 
42 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 had meant well by the cause and the public; that both 
 were given up; that there were not ten men who would 
 act steadily together on any question. "But it is all 
 alike," he added, ''vile and contemptible. You have 
 5 never flinched that I know of; and I shall always rejoice 
 to hear of your prosperity." These were the last words 
 of Junius. In a year from that time, Philip Francis was 
 on his voyage to Bengal. 
 
 With the three new Councillors came out the judges 
 
 lo of the Supreme Court. The chief justice was Sir Elijah 
 Impey. He was an old acquaintance of Hastings; and 
 it is probable that the Governor-General, if he had 
 searched through all the inns of court, could not have 
 found an equally serviceable tool. But the members of 
 
 15 Council were by no means in an obsequious mood. 
 Hastings greatly disliked the new form of government, 
 and had no very high opinion of his coadjutors. They 
 had heard of this, and were disposed to be suspicious 
 and punctilious. When men are in such a frame of mind, 
 
 20 any trifle is sufflcient to give occasion for dispute. The 
 members of Council expected a salute of twenty-one 
 guns from the batteries of Fort William. Hastings 
 aflowed them only seventeen. They landed in ill- 
 humour. The first civilities were exchanged with cold 
 
 25 reserve. On the morrow commenced that long quarrel 
 which, after distracting British India, was renewed in 
 England, and in which all the most eminent statesmen 
 and orators of the age took active part on one or the 
 other side. 
 
 30 Hastings was supported by Barwell. They had not 
 always been friends. But the arrival of the new members 
 of Council from England naturally had the eft'ect of 
 uniting the old servants of the Company. Clavering, 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 43 
 
 Monson, and Francis formed the majority. They 
 instantly wrested the government out of the hands of 
 Hastings; condemned, certainly not without justice, his 
 late dealings with the Nabob Vizier; recalled the English 
 agent from Oude, and sent thither a creature of their 5 
 own; ordered the brigade which had conquered the 
 unhappy Rohillas to return to the Company's territories; 
 and instituted a severe inquiry into the conduct of the 
 war. Next, in spite of the Governor- General's remon- 
 strances, they proceeded to exercise, in the most indiscreet 10 
 manner, their new authority over the subordinate presi- 
 dencies; threw all the affairs of Bombay into confusion; 
 and interfered, with an incredible union of rashness and 
 feebleness, in the intestine disputes of the Mahratta 
 government. At the same time, they fell on the internal 15 
 administration of Bengal, and attacked the whole fiscal 
 and judicial system, a system which was undoubtedly 
 defective, but which it was very improbable that gentle- 
 men fresh from England would be competent to amend. 
 The effect of their reforms was that all protection to life 20 
 and property was withdrawn, and that gangs of robbers 
 plundered and slaughtered with impunity in the very 
 suburbs of Calcutta. Hastings continued to live in the 
 Government-house, and to draw the salary of Governor- 
 General. He continued even to take the lead at the coun- 25 
 cil-board in the transaction of ordinary business; for his 
 opponents could not but feel that he knew much of which 
 they were ignorant, and that he decided, both surely and 
 speedily, many questions which to them would have been 
 hopelessly puzzling. But the higher powers of govern- 30 
 ment and the most valuable patronage had been taken 
 from him. 
 The natives soon found this out. They considered him 
 
44 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 as a fallen man; and they acted after their kind. Some 
 of our readers may have seen, in India, a cloud of crows 
 pecking a sick vulture to death, no bad t3^e of what 
 happens in that country, as often as fortune deserts one 
 5 who has been great and dreaded. In an instant, all the 
 sycophants who had lately been ready to He for him^ 
 to forge for him, to pandar for him, to poison for him, 
 hasten to purchase the favour of his victorious enemies 
 by accusing him. An Indian government has only to let 
 
 lo it be understood that it wishes a particular man 'to be 
 ruined; and, in twenty-four hours, it will be furnished 
 with grave charges, supported by depositions so full and 
 circumstantial that any person unaccustomed to Asiatic 
 mendacity would regard them as decisive. It is well if 
 
 15 the signature of the destined victim is not counterfeited 
 at the foot of some illegal compact, and if some treason- 
 able paper is not slipped into a hiding-place in his house. 
 Hastings was now regarded as helpless. The power to 
 make or mar the fortune of every man in Bengal had 
 
 20 passed, as it seemed, into the hands of the new Coun- 
 cillors. Immediately charges against the Governor- 
 General began to pour in. They were eagerly welcomed 
 by the majority, who, to do them justice, were men of 
 too much honour knowingly to countenance false ,accu- 
 
 25 sations, but who were not sufficiently acquainted with 
 the East to be aware that, in that part of the world, a 
 very little encouragement from power will call forth, in 
 a week, more Oateses, and Bedloes, and Dangerfields^ 
 than Westminster Hall sees in a century. 
 
 30 It would have been strange indeed if, at such a junc- 
 ture, Nuncomar had remained quiet. That bad man 
 was stimulated at once by malignity, by avarice, and by 
 ambition. Now was the time to be avenged on his old 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 45 
 
 enemy, to wreak a grudge of seventeen years, to establish 
 himself in the favour of the majority of the Council, to 
 become the greatest native in Bengal. From the time 
 of the arrival of the new Councillors, he had paid the most 
 marked court to them, and had in consequence been 5 
 excluded, with all indignity, from the Government-house. 
 He now put into the hands of Francis, with great cere- 
 mony, a paper containing several charges of the most 
 serious description. By this document Hastings was 
 accused of putting offices up to sale, and of receiving 10 
 bribes for suffering offenders to escape. In particular, 
 it was alleged that Mahommed Reza Khan had been 
 dismissed with impunity, in consideration of a great sum 
 paid to the Governor-General. 
 
 Francis read the paper in Council. A violent alterca- 15; 
 tion followed. Hastings complained in bitter terms of 
 the way in which he was treated, spoke with contempt 
 of Nuncomar and of Nuncomar's accusation, and denied 
 the right of the Council to sit in judgment on the Gover- 
 nor. At the next meeting of the Board, another com- 20' 
 munication from Nuncomar was produced. He requested 
 that he might be permitted to attend the Council, and that 
 he might be heard in support of his assertions. Another 
 tempestuous debate took place. The Governor-General 
 maintained that the Council-room was not a proper place 25: 
 for such an investigation; that from persons who were 
 heated by daily conflict with him he could not expect the 
 fairness of judges; and that he could not, without betray- 
 ing the dignity of his post, submit to be confronted with 
 such a man as Nuncomar. The majority, however, 3a 
 resolved to go into the charges. Hastings rose, declared 
 the sitting at an end, and left the room followed by Bar- 
 well. The other members kept their seats, voted them- 
 
46 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 selves a council, put Clavering in the chair, and ordered 
 Nuncomar to be called in. Nuncomar not only adhered 
 to the original charges, but, after the fashion of the East, 
 produced a large supplement. He stated that Hastings 
 5 had received a great sum for appointing Rajah Goordas 
 treasurer of the Nabob's household, and for committing 
 the care of his Highness's person to the Munn'y Begum. 
 He put in a letter purporting to bear the seal of the 
 Munny Begum, for the purpose of establishing the truth 
 
 lo of his story. The seal, whether forged, as Hastings 
 affirmed, or genuine, as we are rather inclined to believe, 
 proved nothing. Nuncomar, as every body knows who 
 knows India, had only to tell the Munny Begum that 
 such a letter would give pleasure to the majority of the 
 
 15 Council, in order to procure her attestation. The ma- 
 jority, however, voted that the charge was made out; 
 that Hastings had corruptly received between thirty and 
 forty thousand pounds; and that he ought to be compelled 
 to refund. 
 
 20 The general feeling among the English in Bengal was 
 strongly in favour of the Governor-General. In talents 
 for business, in knowledge of the country, in general 
 courtesy of demeanour, he was decidedly superior to his 
 persecutors. The servants of the Company were natu- 
 
 25 rally disposed to side with the most distinguished member 
 of their own body against a clerk from the war-office, 
 who, profoundly ignorant of the native languages and 
 the native character, took on himself to regulate every 
 department of the administration. Hastings, however, 
 
 30 in spite of the general sympathy of his countrymen, was 
 in a most painful situation. There was still an appeal 
 to higher authority in England. If that authority took 
 part with his enemies, nothing was left to him but to 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 47 
 
 throw up his office. He accordingly placed his resigna- 
 tion in the hands of his agent in London, Colonel 
 Macleane. But Macleane was instructed not to produce 
 the resignation, unless it should be fully ascertained that 
 the feeling at the India House was adverse to the 5 
 Governor-General. 
 
 The triumph of Nuncomar seemed to be complete. He 
 held a daily levee, to which his countrymen resorted in 
 crowds, and to which, on one occasion, the majority of the 
 Council condescended to repair. His house was an office 10 
 for the purpose of receiving charges against the Governor- 
 General. It was said that, partly by threats, and partly 
 by wheedling, the villanous Brahmin had induced many 
 of the wealthiest men of the province to send in com- 
 plaints. But he was playing a perilous game. It was 15 
 not safe to drive to despair a man of such resources and 
 of such determination as Hastings. Nuncomar, with all 
 his acuteness, did not understand the nature of the insti- 
 tutions under which he lived. He saw that he had with 
 him the majority of the body which made treaties, gave 20 
 places, raised taxes. The separation between political 
 and judicial functions was a thing of which he had no 
 conception. It had probably never occurred to him that 
 there was in Bengal an authority perfectly independent 
 of the Council, an authority which could protect one whom 25 
 the Council wished to destroy, and send to the gibbet 
 one whom the Council wished to protect. Yet such was 
 the fact. The Supreme Court was, within the sphere of 
 its own duties, altogether independent of the Govern- 
 ment. Hastings, with his usual sagacity, had seen how 30 
 much advantage he might derive from possessing himself 
 of this stronghold; and he had acted accordingly. The 
 Judges, especially the Chief Justice, were hostile to the 
 
48 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 majority of the Council. The time had now come foi* 
 putting this formidable machinery into action. 
 
 On a sudden, Calcutta was astounded by the news 
 that Nuncomar had been taken up on a charge of felony, 
 5 committed, and thrown into the common gaol. The 
 crime imputed to him was that six years before he had 
 forged a bond. The ostensible prosecutor was a native. 
 But it was then, and still is, the opinion of every body, 
 idiots and biographers excepted, that Hastings was the 
 
 lo real mover in the business. 
 
 The rage of the majority rose to the highest point. 
 They protested against the proceedings of the Supreme 
 Court, and sent several urgent messages to the judges, 
 demanding that Nuncomar should be admitted to bail. 
 
 15 The judges returned haughty and resolute answers. All 
 that the Council could do was to heap honours and 
 emoluments on the family of Nuncomar; and this they 
 did. In the mean time the assizes commenced; a true 
 bill was found; and Nuncomar was brought before Sir 
 
 20 Elijah Impey and a jury composed of Englishmen. A 
 great quantity of contradictory swearing, and the neces- 
 sity of having every word of the evidence interpreted, 
 protracted the trial to a most unusual length. At last 
 a verdict of guilty was returned, and the Chief Justice 
 
 25 pronounced sentence of death on the prisoner. 
 
 Mr. Gleig is so strangely ignorant as to imagine that 
 the judges had no further discretion in the case, and that 
 the power of extending mercy to Nuncomar resided with 
 the Council. He therefore throws on Francis and 
 
 30 Francis's party the whole blame of what followed. We 
 should have thought that a gentleman who has pub- 
 lished five or six bulky volumes on Indian affairs might 
 have taken the trouble to inform himself as to the fun- 
 
5 
 
 WARREN HASTINGS 49 
 
 damental principles of the Indian Government. The 
 Supreme Court had, under the Regulating Act, the power 
 to respite criminals till the pleasure of the Crown should 
 be known. The Council had, at that time, no power to 
 interfere. 
 
 That Impey ought to have respited Nuncomar we hold 
 to be perfectly clear. Whether the whole proceeding was 
 not illegal, is a question. But it is certain that, whatever 
 may have been, according to technical rules of construc- 
 tion, the effect of the statute under which the trial took 10 
 place, it was most unjust to hang a Hindoo for forgery. 
 The law which made forgery capital in England was 
 passed without the smallest reference to the state of 
 society in India. It was unknown to the natives of India. 
 It had never been put in execution among them, certainly 15 
 not for want of dehnquents. It was in the highest degree 
 shocking to all their notions. They were not accustomed 
 to the distinction which many circumstances, peculiar to 
 our own state of society, have led us to make between 
 forgery and other kinds of cheating. The counterfeiting 20 
 of a seal was, in their estimation, a common act of swin- 
 dling; nor had it ever crossed their minds that it was to be 
 punished as severely as gang-robbery or assassination. 
 A just judge would, beyond all doubt, have reserved the 
 case for the consideration of the sovereign. But Impey 25 
 would not hear of mercy or delay. 
 
 The excitement among all classes was great. Francis 
 and Francis's few English adherents described the 
 Governor- General and the Chief Justice as the worst of 
 murderers. Clavering, it was said, swore that, even at the 30 
 foot of the gallows, Nuncomar should be rescued. The 
 bulk of the European society, though strongly attached 
 to the Governor- General, could not but feel compassion 
 5 
 
50 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 for a man who, with all his crimes, had so long filled go 
 large a space in their sight, who had been great and 
 powerful before the British empire in India began to 
 exist, and to whom, in the old times, governors and 
 5 members of council, then mere commercial factors, had 
 paid court for protection. The feeling of the Hindoos 
 was infinitely stronger. They were, indeed, not a people 
 to strike one blow for their countryman. But his sen- 
 tence filled them with sorrow and dismay. Tried even 
 
 10 by their low standard of morality, he was a bad man. 
 But, bad as he was, he was the head of their race 
 and religion, a Brahmin of the Brahmins. He had in- 
 herited the purest and highest caste. He had practised 
 with the greatest punctuality all those ceremonies to which 
 
 15 the superstitious Bengales ascribe far more importance 
 than to the correct discharge of the social duties. They 
 felt, therefore, as a devout Catholic in the dark ages 
 would have felt, at seeing a prelate of the highest dignity 
 sent to the gallows by a secular tribunal. According to 
 
 20 their old national laws, a Brahmin could not be put to 
 death for any crime whatever. And the crime for which 
 Nuncomar was about to die was regarded by them in 
 much the same light in which the selling of an unsound 
 horse, for a sound price, is regarded by a Yorkshire 
 
 25 jockey. 
 
 /'The Mussulmans alone appear to have seen with 
 exultation the fate of the powerful Hindoo, who had 
 attempted to rise by means of the ruin of Mahommed 
 Reza Khan. The Mahommedan historian of those times 
 
 30 takes delight in aggravating the charge. He assures us 
 that in Nuncomar's house a casket was found containing 
 counterfeits of the seals of all the richest men of the 
 province. We have never fallen in with any other 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 51 
 
 authority for this story, which in itself is by no means 
 improbable. 
 
 The day drew near; and Nuncomar prepared himself 
 to die with that quiet fortitude with which the Bengalee, 
 so effeminately timid in personal conflict, often encounters 5 
 calamities for which there is no remedy. The sheriff, 
 with the humanity which is seldom wanting in an English 
 gentleman, visited the prisoner on the eve of the execu- 
 tion, and as&ured him that no indulgence, consistent with 
 the law, should be refused to him. Nuncomar expressed 10 
 his gratitude with great politeness and unaltered com- 
 posure. Not a muscle of his face moved. Not a sigh 
 broke from him. He put his finger to his forehead, and 
 calmly said that fate would have its way, and that there 
 was no resisting the pleasure of God. He sent his com- 15 
 pliments to Francis, Clavering, and Monson, and charged 
 them to protect Rajah Goordas, who was about to become 
 the head of the Brahmins of Bengal. The sheriff with- 
 drew, greatly agitated by what had passed, and Nuncomar 
 sat composedly down to write notes and examine accounts. 20 
 
 The next morning, before the sun was in his power, 
 an immense concourse assembled round the place where 
 the gallows had been set up. Grief and horror were on 
 every face; yet to the last the multitude could hardly 
 believe that the English really purposed to take the life 25 
 of the great Brahmin. At length the mournful procession 
 came through the crowd. Nuncomar sat up in his palan- 
 quin, and looked round him with unaltered serenity. 
 He had just parted from those who were most nearly 
 connected with him. Their cries and contortions had 3a 
 appalled the European ministers of justice, but had not 
 produced the smallest effect on the iron stoicism of the 
 prisoner. The only anxiety which he expressed was that 
 
52 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 men of his own priestly caste might be in attendance to 
 take charge of his corpse. He again desired to be remem- 
 bered to his friends in the Council, mounted the scaffold 
 with firmness, and gave the signal to the executioner. 
 5 The moment that the drop fell, a howl of sorrow and 
 despair rose from the innumerable spectators. Hun- 
 dreds turned away their faces from the polluting sight, 
 fled with loud wailings towards the Hoogley, and plunged 
 into its holy waters, as if to purify themselves from the 
 
 lo guilt of having loojvcd on such a crime. These feelings 
 were not confined to Calcutta. The whole province was 
 greatly excited; and the population of Dacca, in par- 
 ticular, gave strong signs of grief and dismay. 
 
 Of Impey's conduct it is impossible to speak too severely. 
 
 15 We have already said that, in our opinion, he acted 
 unjustly in refusing to respite Nuncom-ar. No rational 
 man can doubt that he took this course in order to gratify 
 the Governor-General. If we had ever had any doubts 
 on that point, they would have been dispelled by a letter 
 
 20 which Mr. Gleig has published. Hastings, three or four 
 years later, described Impey as the man "to whose sup- 
 port he was at one time indebted for the safety of his 
 fortune, honour, and reputation." These strong words 
 can refer only to the case of Nuncomar; and they must 
 
 :25 mean that Impey hanged Nuncomar in order to support 
 Hastings. It is, therefore, our deliberate opinion that 
 Impey, sitting as a judge, put a man unjustly to death 
 in order to serve a political purpose. 
 
 But we look on the conduct of Hastings in a somewhat 
 
 30 different light. He was struggling for fortune, honour, 
 liberty, all that makes life valuable. He was beset by 
 rancorous and unprincipled enemies. From his col- 
 leagues he could expect no justice. He cannot be blamed 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 53 
 
 for wishing to crush his accusers. He was indeed bound 
 to use only legitimate means for that end. But it was 
 not strange that he should have thought any means legiti- 
 mate which were pronounced legitimate by the sages of the 
 law, by men whose pecuUar duty it was to deal justly 5 
 between adversaries, and whose education might be sup- 
 posed to have peculiarly qualified them for the discharge 
 of that duty. Nobody demands from a party the un- 
 bending equity of a judge. The reason that judges are 
 appointed is, that even a good man cannot be trusted to 10 
 decide a cause in which he is himself concerned. Not a 
 day passes on which an honest prosecutor does not ask 
 for what none but a dishonest tribunal would grant. It 
 is too much to expect that any man, when his dearest 
 interests are at stake, and his strongest passions excited, 15 
 will, as against himself, be more just than the sworn dis- 
 pensers of justice. To take an analogous case from the 
 history of our own island: suppose that Lord Stafford, 
 when in the Tower on suspicion of being concerned in the 
 Popish plot, had been apprised that Titus Gates had done 20 
 something which might, by a questionable construction, 
 be brought under the head of felony. Should we severely 
 blame Lord Stafford, in the supposed case, for causing 
 a prosecution to be instituted, for furnishing funds, for 
 using all his influence to intercept the mercy of the Crown? 25 
 We think not. If a judge, indeed, from favour to the 
 Catholic lords, were to strain the law in order to hang 
 Gates, such a judge would richly deserve impeachment. 
 But it does not appear to us that the Catholic lord, by 
 bringing the case before the judge for decision, would 30 
 materially overstep the limits of a just self-defence. 
 
 While, therefore, we have not the least doubt that this 
 memorable execution is to be attributed to Hastings, we 
 
54 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 doubt whether it can with justice be reckoned among 
 his crimes. That his conduct was dictated by a profound 
 policy is evident. He was in a minority in Council. It 
 was possible that he might long be in a minority. He 
 5 knew the native character well. He knew in what 
 abundance accusations are certain to flow in against the 
 most innocent inhabitant of India who is under the frown 
 of power. There was not in the whole black population 
 of Bengal a place-holder, a place-hunter, a government 
 
 10 tenant, who did not think that he might better himself 
 by sending up a deposition against the Governor-General. 
 Under these circumstances, the persecuted statesman 
 resolved to teach the whole crew of accusers and wit- 
 nesses that, though in a minority at the council board, 
 
 15 he was still to be feared. The lesson which he gave 
 them was indeed a lesson not to be forgotten. The head 
 of the combination which had been formed against him, 
 the richest, the most powerful, the most artful of the 
 Hindoos, distinguished by the favour of those who then 
 
 20 held the government, fenced round by the superstitious 
 reverence of millions, was hanged in broad day before 
 many thousands of people. Everything that could make 
 the warning impressive, dignity in the sufferer, solemnity 
 in the proceeding, was found in this case. The helpless 
 
 25 rage and vain struggles of the Council made the triumph 
 more signal. From that moment the conviction of every 
 native was that it was safer to take the part of Hastings 
 in a minority than that of Francis in a majority, and 
 that he who was so venturous as to join in running down 
 
 30 the Governor-General might chance, in the phrase of 
 the Eastern poet, to find a tiger, while beating the jungle 
 for a deer. The voices of a thousand informers were 
 silenced in an instant. From that time, whatever diffi- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 55 
 
 culties Hastings might have to encounter, he was never 
 molested by accusations from natives of India. 
 
 It is a remarkable circumstance that one of the letters 
 of Hastings to Dr. Johnson bears date a very few hours 
 after the death of Nuncomar. While the whole settle- 5 
 ment was in commotion, while a mighty and ancient priest- 
 hood were weeping over the remains of their chief, the 
 conqueror in that deadly grapple sat down, with charac- 
 teristic self-possession, to write about the Tour to the 
 Hebrides, Jones's Persian Grammar, and the history, 10 
 traditions, arts, and natural productions of India. 
 
 In the mean time, intelligence of the Rohilla war, and of 
 the first disputes between Hastings and his colleagues, 
 had reached London. The directors took part with the 
 majority, and sent out a letter filled with severe reflec- 15 
 tions on the conduct of Hastings. They condemned, in 
 strong but just terms, the iniquity of undertaking offen- 
 sive wars merely for the sake of pecuniary advantages. 
 But they utterly forgot that, if Hastings had by ilhcit 
 means obtained pecuniary advantages, he had done so, 20 
 not for his own benefit, but in order to meet their demands. 
 To enjoin honesty, and to insist on having what could 
 not be honestly got, was then the constant practice of the 
 Company. As Lady Macbeth says of her husband, they 
 ''would not play false, and yet would wrongly win." 25 
 
 The Regulating Act by which Hastings had been 
 appointed Governor- General for five years, empowered 
 the Crown to remove him on an address from the Com- 
 pany. Lord North was desirious to procure such an 
 address. The three members of Council who had been 30 
 sent out from England were men of his own choice. 
 General Clavering, in particular, was supported by a 
 large parliamentary connection, such as no cabinet could 
 
56 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 be inclined to disoblige. The wish of the Minister was 
 to displace Hastings, and to put Clavering at the head of 
 the government. In the Court of Directors parties were 
 very nearly balanced. Eleven voted against Hastings; 
 5 ten for him. The Court of Proprietors was then con- 
 vened. The great sale-room presented a singular appear- 
 ance. Letters had been sent by the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, exhorting all the supporters of government 
 who held India stock to be in attendance. Lord Sand- 
 
 lo wich marshalled the friends of the administration with 
 his usual dexterity and alertness. Fifty peers and privy 
 councillors, seldom seen so far easfward, were counted in 
 the crowd. The debate lasted till midnight. The oppo- 
 nents of Hastings had a small superiority on the divis- 
 
 15 ion; but a ballot was demanded; and the result was that 
 the Governor- General triumphed by a majority of above a 
 hundred votes over the combined efforts of the Directors 
 and the Cabinet. The ministers were greatly exasperated 
 by this defeat. Even Lord North lost his temper, no 
 
 20 ordinary occurrence with him, and threatened to con- 
 voke parliament before Christmas, and to bring in a bill 
 for depriving the Company of all political power, and for 
 restricting it to its old business of trading in silks and 
 teas. 
 
 25 Colonel Macleane, who through all this conflict had 
 zealously supported the cause of Hastings, now thought 
 that his employer was in imminent danger of being 
 turned out, branded with parliamentary censure, per- 
 haps prosecuted. The opinion of the crown lawyers 
 
 30 had already been taken respecting some parts of the 
 Governor-General's conduct. It seemed to be high 
 time to think of securing an honourable retreat. Under 
 these circumstances, Macleane thought himself justified 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 57 
 
 in producing the resignation with which he had been 
 intrusted. The instrument was not in very accurate 
 form; but the Directors were too eager to be scrupulous. 
 They accepted the resignation, fixed on Mr. Wheler, one 
 of their own body, to succeed Hastings, and sent out 5 
 orders that General Clavering, as senior member of Coun- 
 cil, should exercise the functions of Governor- General 
 till Mr. Wheler should arrive. 
 
 But, while these things were passing in England, a great 
 change had taken place in Bengal. Monson was no more. 10 
 Only four members of the government were left. Claver- 
 ing and Francis were on one side, Barwell and the 
 Governor-General on the other; and the Governor-General 
 had the casting vote. Hastings, who had been during 
 two years destitute of all power and patronage, became 15 
 at once absolute. He instantly proceeded to retaHate 
 on his adversaries. Their measures were reversed: their 
 creatures were displaced. A new valuation of the lands 
 of Bengal, for the purposes of taxation, was ordered; and 
 it was provided that the whole inquiry should be conducted 20 
 by the Governor-General, and that all the letters relating 
 to it should run in his name. He began, at the same 
 time, to revolve vast plans of conquest and dominion, 
 plans which he lived to see realised, though not by him- 
 self. His project was to form subsidiary alliances with 25 
 the native princes, particularly with those of Oude and 
 Berar, and thus to make Britain the paramount power in 
 India. While he was meditating these great designs, 
 arrived the intelligence that he had ceased to be Governor- 
 General, that his resignation had been accepted, that 30 
 Wheler was coming out immediately, and that, till 
 Wheler arrived, the chair was to be filled by Clavering. 
 
 Had Hastings still been in a minority, he would prob- 
 
58 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 ably have retired without a struggle; but he was now the 
 real master of British India, and he was not disposed to 
 quit his high place. He asserted that he had never given 
 any instructions which could warrant the steps taken at 
 5 home. What his instructions had been, he owned he had 
 forgotten. If he had kept a copy of them he had mislaid 
 it. But he was certain that he had repeatedly declared 
 to the Directors that he would not resign. He could not 
 see how the court, possessed of that declaration from him- 
 
 lo self, could receive his resignation from the doubtful hands 
 of an agent. If the resignation were invalid, all the pro- 
 ceedings which were founded on that resignation were 
 null, and Hastings was still Governor- General. 
 
 He afterwards affirmed that, though his agents had 
 
 15 not acted in conformity with his instructions, he would 
 nevertheless have held himself bound by their acts, if 
 Clavering had not attempted to seize the supreme power 
 by violence. Whether this assertion were or were not 
 true, it cannot be doubted that the imprudence of 
 
 20 Clavering gave Hastings an advantage. The General 
 sent for the keys of the fort and of the treasury, took 
 possession of the records, and held a council at which 
 Francis attended. Hastings took the chair in another 
 apartment, and Barwell sat with him. Each of the two 
 
 25 parties had a plausible show of right. There was no 
 authoi;ity entitled to their obedience within fifteen thou- 
 sand miles. It seemed that there remained no way of 
 settling the dispute except an appeal to arms; and from 
 such an appeal Hastings, confident of his influence over 
 
 30 his countrymen in India, was not inclined to shrink. 
 He directed the officers of the garrison of Fort William 
 and of all the neighbouring stations to obey no orders 
 but his. At the same time, with admirable judgment, 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 59 
 
 he offered to submit the case to the Supreme Court, and 
 to abide by its decision. By making this proposition 
 he risked nothing; yet it was a proposition which his 
 opponents could hardly reject. Nobody could be treated 
 as a criminal for obeying what the judges should solemnly 5 
 pronounce to be the lawful government. The boldest 
 man would shrink from taking arms in defence of what 
 the judges should pronounce to be usurpation. Clavering 
 and Francis, after some delay, unwillingly consented to 
 abide by the award of the court. The court pronounced 10 
 that the resignation was invalid, and that therefore 
 Hastings was still Governor- General under the Regu- 
 lating Act; and the defeated members of the Council, 
 finding that the sense of the whole settlement was against 
 them, acquiesced in the decision. "^ 15 
 
 About this time arrived the news that, after a suit 
 which had lasted several years, the Franconian courts 
 had decreed a divorce between Imhoff and his wife. The 
 Baron left Calcutta, carrying with him the means of 
 buying an estate in Saxony. The lady became Mrs. 20 
 Hastings. The event was celebrated by great festivities; 
 and all the most conspicuous persons at Calcutta, without 
 distinction of parties, were invited to the Government- 
 house. Clavering, as the Mahommedan chronicler tells 
 the story, was sick in mind and body, and excused him- 25 
 self from joining the splendid assembly. But Hastings, 
 whom, as it should seem, success in ambition and in love 
 had put into high good-humour, would take no 'denial. 
 He went himself to the General's house, and at length 
 brought his vanquished rival in triumph to the gay circle 30 
 which surrounded the bride. The exertion was too much 
 for a frame broken by mortification as well as by disease. 
 Clavering died a few days later. 
 
6o WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 Wheler, who came out expecting to be Governor- Gen- 
 eral, and was forced to content himself with a seat at the 
 Council Board, generally voted with Francis. But the 
 Governor-General, with Barwell's help and his own cast- 
 5 ing vote, was still the master. Some change took place 
 at this time in the feeling both of the Court of Directors 
 and of the Ministers of the Crown. All designs against 
 Hastings were dropped; and when his original term of 
 five years expired, he was quietly reappointed. The 
 
 10 truth is, that the fearful dangers to which the public 
 interests in every quarter were now exposed, made both 
 Lord North and the Company unwilling to part with a 
 Governor whose talents, experience, and resolution, enmity 
 itself was compelled to acknowledge. 
 
 15 The crisis was indeed formidable. That great and 
 victorious empire, on the throne of which George the 
 Third had taken his seat eighteen years before, with 
 brighter hopes than had attended the accession of any 
 of the long line of English sovereigns, had, by the most 
 
 20 senseless misgovernment, been brought to the verge of 
 ruin. In America millions of Englishmen were at war 
 with the country from which their blood, their language, 
 their religion, and their institutions were derived, and 
 to which, but a short time before, they had been as 
 
 25 strongly attached as the inhabitants of Norfolk and 
 Leicestershire. The great powers of Europe, humbled 
 to the dust by the vigour and genius which had guided 
 the councils of George the Second, now rejoiced in the 
 prospect of a signal revenge. The time was approach- 
 
 30 ing when our island, while struggling to keep down the 
 United States of America, and pressed with a still nearer 
 danger by the too just discontents of Ireland, was to be 
 assailed by France, Spain, and Holland, and to be threat- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 6i 
 
 ened by the armed neutrality of the Baltic; when even 
 our maritime supremacy was to be in jeopardy; when 
 hostile fleets were to command the Straits of Calpe and 
 the Mexican Sea; when the British flag was to be scarcely 
 able to protect the British Channel. Great as were the 5 
 faults of Hastings, it was happy for our country that at 
 that conjuncture, the most terrible through which ^he 
 has ever passed, he was the ruler of her Indian dominions. 
 An attack by sea on Bengal was little to be apprehended. 
 The danger was that the European enemies of England 10 
 might form an alliance with some native power, might 
 furnish that power with troops, arms, and ammunition, 
 and might thus assail our possessions on the side of the 
 land. It was chiefly from the Mahrattas that Hastings 
 anticipated danger. The original seat of that singular 15 
 people was the wild range of hills which runs along the 
 western coast of India. In the reign of Aurungzebe the 
 inhabitants of those regions, led by the great Sevajee, 
 began to descend on the possessions of their wealthier and 
 less warhke neighbours. The energy, ferocity, and cun- 20 
 ning of the Mahrattas, soon made them the most con- 
 spicuous among the new powers which were generated 
 by the corruption of the decaying monarchy. At first 
 they were only robbers. They soon rose to the dignity 
 of conquerors. Half the provinces of the empire were 25 
 turned into Mahratta principaUties. Freebooters, sprung 
 from low castes, and accustomed to menial employ- 
 ments, became mighty Rajahs. The Bonslas, at the head 
 of a band of plunderers, occupied the vast region of 
 Berar. The Guicowar, which is, being interpreted, the 30 
 Herdsman', founded that dynasty which still reigns in 
 Guzerat. The houses of Scindia and Holkar waxed great 
 in Malwa. One adventurous captain made his nest on the 
 
62 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 impregnable rock of Gooti. Another became the lord 
 of the thousand villages which are scattered among the 
 green rice-fields of Tanjore. 
 
 That was the time, throughout India, of double gov- 
 5 ernment. The form and the power were everywhere 
 separated. The Mussulman nabobs who had become 
 sovereign princes, the Vizier in Oude, and the Nizam 
 at Hyderabad, still called themselves the viceroys of the 
 house of Tamerlane. In the same manner the Mahratta 
 
 lo states, though really independent of each other, pre- 
 tended to be members of one empire. They all acknowl- 
 edged, by words and ceremonies, the supremacy of the 
 heir of Sevajee, a roi faineant who chewed bang and toyed 
 with dancing girls in a state prison at Sattara, and of his 
 
 15 Peshwa or mayor of the palace, a great hereditary magis- 
 trate, who kept a court with kingly state at Poonah, 
 and whose authority was obeyed in the spacious provinces 
 of Aurungabad and Bejapoor. 
 
 Some months before war was declared in Europe the 
 
 20 government of Bengal was alarmed by the news that a 
 French adventurer, who passed for a m.an of quality, 
 had arrived at Poonah. It was said that he had been 
 received there with great distinction, that he had de- 
 livered to the Peshwa letters and presents from Louis 
 
 2$ the Sixteenth, and that a treaty, hostile to England, had 
 been concluded between France and the Mahrattas. 
 
 Hastings immediately resolved to strike the first blow. 
 The title of the Peshwa was not undisputed. A portion 
 of the Mahratta nation was favourable to a pretender. 
 
 30 The Governor-General determined to espouse this pre- 
 tender's interest, to move an army across the peninsula 
 of India, and to form a close alliance with the chief of 
 the house of Bonsla, who ruled Berar, and who, in power 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 63 
 
 and dignity, was inferior to none of the Mahratta 
 princes. 
 
 The army had marched, and the negotiations with Berar 
 were in progress, when a letter from the English consul 
 at Cairo brought the news that war had been proclaimed 5 
 both in London and Paris. All the measures which the 
 crisis required were adopted by Hastings without a 
 moment's delay. The French factories in Bengal were 
 seized. Orders were sent to Madras that Pondicherry 
 should instantly be occupied. Near Calcutta, works were 10 
 thrown up which were thought to render the approach of 
 a hostile force impossible. A maritime establishment was 
 formed for the defence of the river. Nine new battalions 
 of sepoys were raised, and a corps of native artillery was 
 formed out of the hardy Lascars of the Bay of Bengal. 15 
 Having made these arrangements, the Governor- General 
 with calm confidence pronounced his presidency secure 
 from all attack, unless the Mahrattas should march 
 against it in conjunction with the French. 
 
 The expedition which Hastings had sent westward was 20 
 not so speedily or completely successful as most of his 
 undertakings. The commanding officer procrastinated. ■ 
 The authorities at Bombay blundered. But the Governor- 
 General persevered. A new commander repaired the errors 
 of his predecessor. Several brilliant actions spread the 25 
 military renown of the English through regions where no 
 European flag had ever been seen. It is probable that, if a 
 new and more formidable danger had not compelled Hast- 
 ings to change his whole policy, his plans respecting the 
 Mahratta empire would have been carried into complete 30 
 effect. 
 
 The authorities in England had wisely sent out to 
 Bengal, as commander of the forces and member of the 
 
64 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 council, one of the most distinguished soldiers of that 
 time. Sir Eyre Coote had, many years before, been 
 conspicuous among the founders of the British empire 
 in the East. At the council of war which preceded the 
 5 battle of Plassey , he earnestly recommended, in opposi- 
 tion to the majority, that daring course which, after 
 some hesitation, was adopted, and which was crowned 
 with such splendid success. He subsequently com- 
 manded in the south of India against the brave and 
 
 lo unfortunate Lally, gained the decisive battle of Wande- 
 wash over the French and their native allies, took Pondi- 
 cherry, and made the English power supreme in the 
 Carnatic. Since those great exploits near twenty years 
 had elapsed. Coote had no longer the bodily activity 
 
 15 which he had shown in earlier days; nor was the vigour 
 of his mind altogether unimpaired. He was capricious 
 and fretful, and required much coaxing to keep him in 
 good-humour. It must, we fear, be added that the love 
 of money had grown upon him, and that he thought more 
 
 20 about his allowances, and less about his duties, than 
 might have been expected from so eminent a member 
 of so noble a profession. Still he was perhaps the ablest 
 officer that was then to be found in the British army. 
 Among the native soldiers his name was great and his 
 
 25 influence unrivalled. Nor is he yet forgotten by them. 
 Now and then a white-bearded old sepoy may still be 
 found, who loves to talk of Porto Novo and PolHlore. 
 It is but a short time since one of those aged men came 
 to present a memorial to an EngUsh officer, who holds 
 
 30 one of the highest employments in India. A print of 
 Coote hung in the room. The veteran recognised at 
 once that face and figure which he had not seen for more 
 than half a century, and, forgetting his salam to the 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 65 
 
 living, halted, drew himself up, lifted his hand, and with 
 solemn reverence paid his military obeisance to the dead. 
 
 Coote, though he did not, like Barwell, vote constantly 
 with the Governor-General, was by no means inclined 
 to join in systematic opposition, and on most questions 5 
 concurred with Hastings, who did his best, by assiduous 
 courtship, and' by readily granting the most exorbitant 
 allowances, to gratify the strongest passions of the old 
 soldier. 
 
 It seemed likely at this time that a general reconciUa- 10 
 tion would put an end to the quarrels which had, during 
 some years, weakened and disgraced the government of 
 Bengal. The dangers of the empire might well induce 
 men of patriotic feeling — and of patriotic feeling neither 
 Hastings nor Francis was destitute — to forget private 15 
 enmities, and to co-operate heartily for the general good. 
 Coote had never been concerned in faction. Wheler was 
 thoroughly tired of it. Barwell had made an ample for- 
 tune, and, though he had promised that he would not 
 leave Calcutta while his help was needed in Council, was 20 
 most desirous to return to England, and exerted himself 
 to promote an arrangement which would set him at 
 liberty. A compact w^as made, by which Francis agreed 
 to desist from opposition, and Hastings engaged that the 
 friends of Francis should be admitted to a fair share of 25 
 the honours and emoluments of the service. During a few 
 months after this treaty there was apparent harmony at 
 the council-board. 
 
 Harmony, indeed, was never more necessary; for at 
 this moment internal calamities, more formidable than 30 
 war itself, menaced Bengal. The authors of the Regulat- 
 ing Act of 1773 had established two independent powers, 
 the one judicial, the other political; and, with a careless- 
 6 
 
66 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 ness scandalously common in English legislation, had 
 omitted to define the limits of either. The judges took 
 advantage of the indistinctness, and attempted to draw 
 to themselves supreme authority, not only within Cal- 
 5 cutta, but through the whole of the great territory subject 
 to the presidency of Fort William. There are few Eng- 
 lishmen who will not admit that the English law, in spite 
 of modern improvements, is neither so cheap nor so 
 speedy as might be wished. Still, it is a system which 
 
 lo has grown up among us. In some points, it has been 
 fashioned to suit our feelings; in others, it has gradually 
 fashioned our feelings to suit itself. Even to its worst 
 evils we are accustomed; and, therefore, though we may 
 complain of them, they do not strike us with the horror 
 
 15 and dismay which would be produced by a new grievance 
 of smaller severity. In India the case is widely different. 
 English law, transplanted to that country, has all the 
 vices from which we suffer here; it has them all in a far 
 higher degree; and it has other vices, compared with 
 
 20 which the worst vices from which we suffer are trifles. 
 Dilatory here, it is far more dilatory in a land where the 
 help of an interpreter is needed by every judge and by 
 every advocate. Costly here, it is far more costly in a 
 land into which the legal practitioners must be imported 
 
 25 from an immense distance. All English labour in India, 
 from the labour of the Governor-General and the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, down to that of a groom or a watch- 
 maker, must be paid for at a higher rate than at home. 
 No man will be banished, and banished to the torrid 
 
 30 zone, for nothing. The rule holds good with respect to 
 the legal profession. No English barrister will work, 
 fifteen thousand miles from all his friends, with the 
 thermometer at ninety-six in the shade, for the emolu- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 67 
 
 ments which will content him in chambers that overlook 
 the Thames. Accordingly, the fees at Calcutta are about 
 three times as great as the fees of Westminster Hall; and 
 this, though the people of India are, beyond all compari- 
 son, poorer than the people of England. Yet the delay 5 
 and the expense, grievous as they are, form the smallest 
 part of the evil which English law, imported without 
 modifications into India, could not fail to produce. The 
 strongest feeUngs of our nature, honour, religion, female 
 modesty, rose up against the innovation. Arrest on 10 
 mesne process was the first step in most civil proceedings; 
 and to a native of rank arrest was not merely a restraint, 
 but a foul personal indignity. Oaths were required in 
 every stage of every suit; and the feeling of a Quaker about 
 an oath is hardly stronger than that of a respectable 15 
 native.*^ That the apartments of a woman of quality 
 should be entered by strange men, or that her face should 
 be seen by them, are, in the East, intolerable outrages, 
 outrages which are more dreaded then death, and which 
 can be expiated only by the shedding of blood. To these 20 
 outrages the most distinguished famihes of Bengal, Bahar, 
 and Orissa, were now exposed. Imagine what the state 
 of our own country would be, if a jurisprudence were on 
 a sudden introduced among us, which should be to us 
 what our jurisprudence was to our Asiatic subjects. 25 
 Imagine what the state of our country would be, if it 
 were enacted that any man, by merely swearing that a 
 debt was due to him, should acquire a right to insult the 
 persons of men of the most honourable and sacred callings 
 and of women of the most shrinking delicacy, to horsewhip 30 
 a general officer, to put a bishop in the stocks, to treat 
 ladies in the way which called forth the blow of Wat 
 Tyler. Something like this was the effect of the attempt 
 
68 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 which the Supreme Court made to extend its jurisdiction 
 over the whole of the Company's territory. 
 
 A reign of terror began, of terror heightened by mys- 
 tery; for even that which was endured was less horrible 
 5 than that which was anticipated. No man knew what 
 was next to be expected from this strange tribunal. It 
 came from beyond the black water, as the people of 
 India, with mysterious horror, call the sea. It consisted 
 of judges not one of whom was familiar with the usages 
 
 lo of the millions over whom they claimed boundless author- 
 ity. Its records were kept in unknown characters; its 
 sentences were pronounced in unknown sounds. It had 
 already collected round itself an army of the worst part 
 of the native population, informers, and false witnesses, 
 
 15 and common barrators, and agents of chicane, and, above 
 all, a banditti of bailiff's followers, compared with whom 
 the retainers of the worst English spunging-houses, in 
 the worst times, might be considered as upright and 
 tender-hearted. Many natives, highly considered among 
 
 20 their countrymen, were seized, hurried up to Calcutta, 
 flung into the common gaol, not for any crime even 
 imputed, not for any debt that had been proved, but 
 merely as a precaution till their cause should come to 
 trial. There were instances in which men of the most 
 
 25 venerable dignity, persecuted without a cause by extor- 
 tioners, died of rage and shame in the gripe of the vile 
 alguazils of Impey. The harams of noble Mahom- 
 medans, sanctuaries respected in the East, by govern- 
 ments which respected nothing else, were burst open 
 
 30 by gangs of bailiffs. The Mussulmans, braver and less 
 accustomed to submission than the Hindoos, sometimes 
 stood on their defence; and there were instances in which 
 they shed their blood in the doorway, while defending. 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 69 
 
 sword in hand, the sacred apartments of their women. 
 Nay, it seemed as if even the faint-hearted Bengalee, who 
 had crouched at the feet of Surajah Dowlah, who had been 
 mute during the administration of Vansittart, would at 
 length find courage in despair. No Mahratta invasion 5 
 had ever spread through the province such dismay as this 
 inroad of English lawyers'. All the injustice of former 
 oppressors, Asiatic and European, appeared as a blessing 
 when compared with the justice of the Supreme Court. 
 
 Every class of the population, English and native, with 10 
 the exception of the ravenous pettifoggers who fattened 
 on the misery and terror of an immense community, 
 cried out loudly against this fearful oppression. But the 
 judges were immovable. If a bailiff was resisted, they 
 ordered the soldiers to be called out. If a servant of the 15 
 Company, in conformity with the orders of the govern- 
 ment, withstood the miserable catchpoles who, with 
 Impey's writs in their hands, exceeded the insolence and 
 rapacity of gang-robbers, he was flung into prison for a 
 contempt. The lapse of sixty years, the virtue and wis- 20 
 dom of many eminent magistrates who have during that 
 time administered justice in the Supreme Court, have not 
 effaced from the minds of the people of Bengal the recol- 
 lection of those evil days. 
 
 The members of the government were, on this subject, 25 
 united as one man. Hastings had courted the judges; 
 he had found them useful instruments. But he was not 
 disposed to make them his own masters, or the masters of 
 India. His mind was large; his knowledge of the native 
 character most accurate. He saw that the system pur- 30 
 sued by the Supreme Court was degrading to the govern- 
 ment and ruinous to the people ; and he resolved to oppose 
 it manfully. The consequence was, that the friendship, 
 
70 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 if that be the proper word for such a connection, which 
 had existed between him and Impey, was for a time 
 completely dissolved. The government placed itself 
 firmly between the tyrannical tribunal and the people. 
 5 The Chief Justice proceeded to the wildest excesses. 
 The Governor- General and all the members of Council 
 were served with writs, calHng" on them to appear before 
 the King's justices, and to answer for their public acts. 
 This was too much. Hastings, with just scorn, refused 
 
 10 to obey the call, set at liberty the persons wrongfully 
 detained by the Court, and took measures for resisting 
 the outrageous proceedings of the sheriff's officers, if 
 necessary, by the sword. But he had in view another 
 device which might prevent the necessity of an appeal 
 
 15 to arms. He was seldom at a loss for an expedient; and 
 he knew Impey well. The expedient, in this case, was 
 a very simple one, neither more nor less than a bribe. 
 Impey was, by act of parhament, a judge, independent 
 of the government of Bengal, and entitled to a salary of 
 
 20 eight thousand a year. Hastings proposed to make him 
 also a judge in the Company's service, removable at the 
 pleasure of the government of Bengal; and to give him, 
 in that capacity, about eight thousand a year more. It 
 was understood that, in consideration of this new salary, 
 
 25 Impey would desist from urging the high pretensions of his 
 court. If he did urge these pretensions, the government 
 could, at a moment's notice, eject him from the new place 
 which had been created for him. The bargain was struck; 
 Bengal was saved; an appeal to force was averted; and 
 
 30 the Chief Justice was rich, quiet, and infamous. 
 
 Of Impey's conduct it is unnecessary to speak. It 
 was of a piece with almost every part of his conduct that 
 comes under the notice of history. No other such judge 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 71 
 
 has dishonoured the English ermine, since Jeffreys drank 
 himself to death in the Tower. But we cannot agree 
 with those who have blamed Hastings for this transac- 
 tion. The case stood thus. The negligent manner in 
 which the Regulating Act had been framed put it in the 5 
 power of the Chief Justice to throw a great country into 
 the most dreadful confusion. He was determined to use 
 his power to the utmost, unless he was paid to be still: 
 and Hastings consented to pay him. The necessity was 
 to be deplored. It is also to be deplored that pirates 10 
 should be able to exact ransom by threatening to make 
 their captives walk the plank. But to ransom a captive 
 from pirates has always been held a humane and Chris- 
 tian act; and it would be absurd to charge the payer of the 
 ransom with corrupting the virtue of the corsair. This, 15 
 we seriously think, is a not unfair illustration of the rela- 
 tive position of Impey, Hastings, and the people of India. 
 /Whether it was right in Impey to demand or to accept a 
 price for powers which, if they really belonged to him, he 
 could not abdicate, which, if they did not belong to him, 20 
 he ought never to have usurped, and which in neither case 
 he could honestly sell, is one question. It is quite another 
 question, whether Hastings was not right to give any sum, 
 however large, to any man, however worthless, rather 
 than either surrender millions of human beings to pillage, 25 
 or rescue them by civil war. 
 
 Francis strongly opposed this arrangement. It may, 
 indeed, be suspected that personal aversion to Impey was 
 as strong a motive with Francis as regard for the welfare 
 of the province. To a mind burning with resentment, 30 
 it might seem better to leave Bengal to the oppressors 
 than to redeem it by enriching them. It is not improb- 
 able, on the other hand, that Hastings may have been 
 
72 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 the more willing to resort to an expedient agreeable to 
 the Chief Justice, because that high functionary had 
 already been so serviceable, and might, when existing 
 dissensions were composed, be serviceable again. 
 5 But it was not on this point alone that Francis was 
 now opposed to Hastings. The peace between them 
 proved to be only a short and hollow truce, during which 
 their mutual aversion was constantly becoming stronger. 
 At length an explosion took place. Hastings publicly 
 
 10 charged Francis with having deceived him, and with 
 having induced Barwell to quit the service by insincere 
 promises. Then came a dispute, such as frequently arises 
 even between honourable men, when they may make 
 important agreements by mere verbal communication. 
 
 15 An impartial historian will probably be of opinion that 
 they had misunderstood each other; but their minds were 
 so much embittered that they imputed to each other noth- 
 ing less than deliberate villany. '' I do not," said Hastings, 
 in a minute recorded on the Consultations of the Govern- 
 
 2oment, "I do not trust to Mr. Francis's promises of can- 
 dour, convinced that he is incapable of it. I judge of 
 his pubhc conduct by his private, which I have found 
 to be void of truth and honour." After the Council had 
 risen, Francis put a challenge into the Governor-General's 
 
 25 hand. It was instantly accepted. They met, and fired. 
 Francis was shot through the body. He was carried to 
 a neighbouring house, where it appeared that the wound, 
 though severe, was not mortal. Hastings inquired 
 repeatedly after his enemy's health, and proposed to call 
 
 30 on him; but Francis coldly declined the visit. He had 
 a proper sense, he said, of the Governor-General's polite- 
 ness, but could not consent to any private interview. 
 They could meet otily at the council-board. 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 73 
 
 In a very short time it was made signally manifest to 
 how great a danger the Governor- General had, on this 
 occasion, exposed his country. A crisis arrived with which 
 he, and he alone, was competent to deal. It is not too 
 much to say that, if he had been taken from the head of 5 
 affairs, the years 1780 and 1781 would have been as fatal 
 to our power in Asia as to our power in America. 
 
 The Mahrattas had been the chief objects of apprehen- 
 sion to Hastings. The measures which he had adopted 
 for the purpose of breaking their power, had at first been 10 
 frustrated by the errors of those whom he was compelled 
 to employ; but his perseverance and ability seemed likely 
 to be crowned with success, when a far more formidable 
 danger showed itself in a distant quarter. 
 
 About thirty years before this time, a Mahommedan 15 
 soldier had begun to distinguish himself in the wars of 
 Southern India. His education had been neglected; his 
 extraction was humble. His father had been a petty 
 officer of revenue; his grandfather a wandering dervise. 
 But though thus meanly descended, though ignorant 20 
 even of the alphabet, the adventurer had no sooner been 
 placed at the head of a body of troops than he approved 
 himself a man born for conquest and command. Among 
 the crowd of chiefs who were struggling for a share of 
 India, none could compare with him in the qualities of 25 
 the captain and the statesman. He became a general; he 
 became a sovereign. Out of the fragments of old prin- 
 cipalities, which had gone to pieces in the general wreck, 
 he formed for himself a great, compact, and vigorous 
 empire. That empire he ruled with the abihty, severity, 30 
 and vigilance of Louis the Eleventh. Licentious in his 
 pleasures, implacable in his revenge, he had yet enlarge- 
 ment of mind enough to perceive how much the prosperity 
 
74 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 of subjects adds to the strength of governments. He 
 was an oppressor; but he had at least the merit of pro- 
 tecting his people against all oppression except his own. 
 He was now in extreme old age; but his intellect was as 
 5 clear, and his spirit as high, as in the prime of manhood. 
 Such was the great Hyder AU, the founder of the Mahom- 
 medan kingdom of Mysore, and the most formidable 
 enemy with whom the English conquerors of India have 
 ever had to contend. 
 
 lo Had Hastings been governor of Madras, Hyder would 
 have been, either made a friend, or vigorously encountered 
 as an enemy. Unhappily the English authorities in the 
 south provoked their powerful neighbour's hostihty, 
 without being prepared to repel it. On a sudden, an 
 
 15 army of ninety thousand men, far superior in discipline 
 and efficiency to any other native force that could be 
 found in India, came pouring through those wild passes 
 which, worn by mountain torrents, and dark with jungle, 
 lead down from the table-land of Mysore to the plains 
 
 20 of the Carnatic. This great army was accompanied by 
 a hundred pieces of cannon; and its movements were 
 guided by many French officers, trained in the best mili- 
 tary schools of Europe. 
 
 Hyder was everywhere triumphant. The sepoys in 
 
 25 many British garrisons flung down their arms. Some forts 
 were surrendered by treachery, and some by despair. In 
 a few days the whole open country north of the Coleroon 
 had submitted. The EngUsh inhabitants of Madras could 
 already see by night, from the top of Mount St. Thomas, 
 
 30 the eastern sky reddened by a vast semicircle of blazing 
 villages. The white villas, to which our countrymen retire 
 after the daily labours of government and of trade, when 
 the cool evening breeze springs up from the bay, were 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 75 
 
 now left without inhabitants; for bands of the fierce horse- 
 men of Mysore had already been seen prowUng among 
 the tulip-trees, and near the gay verandas. Even the 
 town was not thought secure, and the British merchants 
 and public functionaries made haste to crowd themselves 5 
 behind the cannon of Fort St. George. 
 
 There were the means indeed of assembhng an army 
 which might have defended the presidency, and even 
 driven the invader back to his mountains. Sir Hector 
 Munro was at the head of one considerable force; BailHe 10 
 was advancing with another. United, they might have 
 presented a formidable front even to such an enemy as 
 Hyder. But the English commanders, neglecting those 
 fundamental rules of the military art of which the pro- 
 priety is obvious even to men who had never received a 15 
 military education, deferred their junction, and were 
 separately attacked. BaiUie's detachment was destroyed. 
 Munro was forced to abandon his baggage, to fling his 
 guns into the tanks, and to save himself by a retreat 
 which might be called a flight. In three weeks from the 20 
 commencement of the war, the British empire in Southern 
 India had been brought to the verge of ruin. Only a few 
 fortified places remained to us. The glory of our arms 
 had departed. It was known that a great French expedi- 
 tion might soon be expected on the coast of Coromandel. 25 
 England, beset by enemies on every side, was in no con- 
 dition to protect such remote dependencies. 
 
 Then it was that the fertile genius and serene courage 
 of Hastings achieved their most signal triumph. A swift 
 ship, flying before the south-west monsoon, brought the 30 
 evil tidings in few days to Calcutta. In twenty-four 
 hours the Governor-General had framed a complete plan 
 of policy adapted to the altered state of affairs. The 
 
76 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 struggle with Hyder was a struggle for life and death. 
 All minor objects must be sacrificed to the preservation 
 of the Carnatic. The disputes with the Mahrattas must 
 be accommodated. A large mihtary force and a supply 
 5 of money must be instantly sent to Madras. But even 
 these measures would be insufficient, unless the war, 
 hitherto so grossly mismanaged, were placed under the 
 direction of a vigorous mind. It was no time for trifling. 
 Hastings determined to resort to an extreme exercise 
 
 10 of power, to suspend the incapable governor of Fort St. 
 George, to send Sir Eyre Coote to oppose Hyder, and to 
 intrust that distinguished general with the whole admin- 
 istration of the war. 
 
 In spite of the sullen opposition of Francis, who had 
 
 15 now recovered from his wound, and had returned to the 
 Council, the Governor-General's wise and firm policy 
 was approved by the majority of the board. The rein- 
 forcements were sent off with great expedition, and 
 reached Madras before the French armament arrived 
 
 20 in the Indian seas. Coote, broken by age and disease, 
 was no longer the Coote of Wandewash; but he was still 
 a resolute and skilful commander. The progress of 
 Hyder was arrested; and in a few months the great vic- 
 tory of Porto Novo retrieved the honour of the English 
 
 25 arms. 
 
 In the mean time Francis had returned to England, 
 and Hastings was now left perfectly unfettered. Wheler 
 had gradually been relaxing in his opposition, and, after 
 the departure of his vehement and implacable colleague, 
 
 30 co-operated heartily with the Governor-General, whose 
 influence over the British in India, always great, had, by 
 the vigour and success of his recent measures, been con- 
 siderably increased. 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 77 
 
 But, though the difficulties arising from factions within 
 the Council were at an end, another class of difficulties had 
 become more pressing than ever. The financial embar- 
 rassment was extreme. Hastings had to find the means, 
 not only of carrying on the government of Bengal, but of 5 
 maintaining a most costly war against both Indian and 
 European enemies in the Carnatic, and of making remit- 
 tances to England. A few years before this time he had 
 obtained reUef by plundering the Mogul and enslaving 
 the Rohillas; nor were the resources of his fruitful mind 10 
 by any means exhausted. 
 
 His first design was on Benares, a city which in wealth, 
 population, dignity, and sanctity, was among the foremost 
 of Asia. It was commonly believed that half a milHon 
 of human beings #as crowded into that labyrinth of 15 
 lofty alleys, rich with shrines, and minarets, and bal- 
 conies, and carved oriels, to which the sacred apes clung 
 by hundreds. The traveller could scarcely make his way 
 through the press of holy mendicants and not less holy 
 bulls. The broad and stately ffights of steps which 20 
 descended from these swarming haunts to the bathing- 
 places along the Ganges were worn every day by the foot- 
 steps of an innumerable multitude of worshippers. The 
 schools and temples drew crowds of pious Hindoos from 
 every province where the Brahminical faith was known. 25 
 Hundreds of devotees came thither every month to die: 
 for it was believed that a peculiarly happy fate awaited 
 the man who should pass from the sacred city into the 
 sacred river. Nor was superstition the only motive which 
 allured strangers to that great metropolis. Commerce 30 
 had as many pilgrims as religion. All along the shores 
 of the venerable stream lay great fleets of vessels laden 
 with rich merchandise. From the looms of Benares went 
 
78 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 forth the most dehcate silks that adorned the balls of 
 St. James's and of the Petit Trianon : and in the bazaai-s 
 the muslins of Bengal and the sabres of Oude were mingled 
 with the jewels of Golconda and the shawls of Cashmere. 
 5 This rich capital, and the surrounding tract, had long 
 been under the immediate rule of a Hindoo prince who 
 rendered homage to the Mogul emperors. During the 
 great anarchy of India the lords of Benares became 
 independent of the court of Delhi, but were compelled 
 
 10 to submit to the authority of the Nabob of Oude. 
 Oppressed by this formidable neighbour, they invoked the 
 protection of the English. The English protection was 
 given; and at length the Nabob Vizier, by a solemn 
 treaty, ceded all his rights over Benares to the Company. 
 
 15 From that time the Rajah was the vassal of the govern- 
 ment of Bengal, acknowledged its supremacy, and engaged 
 to send an annual tribute to Fort William. /This tribute 
 Cheyte Sing, the reigning prince, had paid with strict 
 punctuality. 
 
 20 Respecting the precise nature of the legal relation 
 between the Company and the Rajah of Benares, there 
 has been much warm and acute controversy. On the 
 one side, it has been maintained that Cheyte Sing was 
 merely a great subject on whom the superior power had a 
 
 25 right to call for aid in the necessities of the empire.^ On 
 the other side it has been contended that he was an 
 independent prince, that the only claim which the Com- 
 pany had upon him was for a fixed tribute, and that, 
 while the fixed tribute w^as regularly paid, as it assuredly 
 
 30 was, the English had no more right to exact any further 
 contribution from him than to demand subsidies from 
 Holland or Denmark. * Nothing is easier than to find 
 precedents and analogies in favour of either view. 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 79 
 
 Our own impression is that neither view is correct. It 
 was too much the habit of EngUsh poUticians to take it 
 for granted that there was in India a known and definite 
 constitution by which questions of this kind were to be 
 decided. The truth is that, during the interval which 5 
 elapsed' between the fall of the House of Tamerlane and 
 the establishment of the British ascendency, there was 
 no such constitution. The old order of things had passed 
 away: the new order of things was not yet formed. All 
 was transition, confusion, obscurity. Everybody kept 10 
 his head as he best might, and scrambled for whatever he 
 could get. There have been similar seasons in Europe. 
 The time for the dissolution of the Carlovingian empire 
 is an instance. Who would think of seriously discussing 
 the question, what extent of pecuniary aid and of obedi- 15 
 ence Hugh Capet had a constitutional right to demand 
 from the Duke of Brittany or the Duke of Normandy? 
 The words "constitutional right" had, in that state of 
 society, no meaning. If Hugh Capet laid hands on all 
 the possessions of the Duke of Normandy, this might 20 
 be unjust and immoral; but it would not be illegal, in the 
 sense in which the ordinances of Charles the Tenth were 
 illegal. If, on the other hand, the Duke of Normandy 
 made war on Hugh Capet, this might be unjust and 
 immoral; but it would not be illegal, in the sense in which 25 
 the expedition of Prince Louis Bonaparte was illegal. 
 
 Very similar to this was the state of India sixty years 
 ago. Of the existing governments not a single one could 
 lay claim to legitimacy, or could plead any other title than 
 recent occupation. There was scarcely a province in 30 
 which the real sovereignty and the nominal sovereignty 
 were not disjoined. Titles and forms were still retained 
 which implied that the heir of Tamerlane was an absolute 
 
8o WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 ruler, and that the Nabobs of the provinces were his Ueu- 
 tenants. In reality, he was a captive. The Nabobs were 
 in some places independent princes. In other places, as 
 in Bengal and the Carnatic, they had, like their master, 
 5 become mere phantoms, and the Company was supreme. 
 Among the Mahrattas again the heir of Sevajee still kept 
 the title of Rajah; but he was a prisoner, and his prime 
 minister, the Peshwa, had become hereditary chief of the 
 state. The Peshwa, in his turn, was fast sinking into 
 
 lo the same degraded situation to which he had reduced the 
 Rajah. 'It was, we believe, impossible to find, from the 
 Himalayas to Mysore, a single government which was at 
 once a government de facto and a government de jure] 
 which possessed the physical means of making itself 
 
 15 feared by its neighbours and subjects, and which had at 
 the same time the authority derived from law and long 
 prescription. 
 
 Hastings clearly discerned, what was hidden from most 
 of his contemporaries, that such a state of things gave 
 
 20 immense advantages to a ruler of great talents and few 
 scruples. In every international question that could 
 arise, he had his option between the de facto ground and 
 the de jure ground; and the probability was that one of 
 those grounds would sustain any claim that it might 
 
 25 be convenient for him to make, and enable him to resist 
 any claim made by others. In^every controversy, accord- 
 ingly, he resorted to the plea which suited his imme- 
 diate purpose, without troubling himself in the least 
 about consistency; and thus he scarcely ever failed to 
 
 30 find what, to persons of short memories and scanty infor- 
 mation, seemed to be a justification for what he wanted 
 to do. Sometimes the Nabob of Bengal is a shadow, 
 sometimes a monarch. Sometimes the Vizier is a mere 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 8i 
 
 deputy, sometimes an independent potentate. If it is 
 expedient for the Company to show some legal title to 
 the revenues of Bengal, the grant under the seal of the 
 Mogul is brought forward as an instrument of the highest 
 authority. When the Mogul asks for the rents which 5 
 were reserved to him by that very grant, he is told that 
 he is a mere pageant, that the English power rests on a 
 very different foundation from a charter given by him, 
 that he is welcome to play at royalty as long as he likes, 
 but that he must expect no tribute from the real masters 10 
 of India. 
 
 It is true that it was in the power of others, as well as 
 of Hastings, to practise this legerdemain; but in the con- 
 troversies of governments, sophistry is of little use unless 
 it be backed by power. There is a principle which 15 
 Hastings was fond of asserting in the strongest terms, 
 and on which he acted with undeviating steadiness. It 
 is a principle which, we must own, though it may be 
 grossly abused, can hardly be disputed in the present 
 state of public law. It is this, that where an ambiguous 20 
 question arises between two governments, there is, if they 
 cannot agree, no appeal except to force, and that the 
 opinion of the stronger must prevail. Almost every ques- 
 tion was ambiguous in India. The English government 
 was the strongest in India. The consequences are obvious. 25 
 The English government might do exactly what it chose. 
 
 The English government now chose to wring money 
 out of Cheyte Sing. It had formerly been convenient 
 to treat him as a sovereign prince; it was now convenient 
 to treat him as a subject. Dexterity inferior to that of 30 
 Hastings could easily find, in the general chaos of laws 
 and customs, arguments for either course. Hastings 
 wanted a great supply. /It was known that Cheyte Sing 
 7 
 
82 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 had a large revenue, and it was suspected that he had 
 accumulated a treasure. Nor was he a favourite at 
 Calcutta. I He had, when the Governor- General was in 
 great difficulties, courted the favour of Francis and 
 5 Clavering. Hastings who, less we believe from evil pas- 
 sions than from policy, seldom left an injury unpun- 
 ished, was not sorry that the fate of Cheyte Sing should 
 teach neighbouring princes the same lesson which the 
 fate of Nuncomar had already impressed on the inhqibi- 
 
 lo tants of Bengal. 
 
 In 1778, on the first breaking out of the war with 
 France, Cheyte Sing was called upon to pay, in addition 
 to his fixed tribute, an extraordinary contribution of 
 fifty thousand pounds. In 1779, an equal sum was 
 
 15 exacted. In 1780, the demand was renewed. Cheyte 
 Sing, in the hope of obtaining some indulgence, secretly 
 offered the Governor-General a bribe of twenty thousand 
 pounds. Hastings took the money, and his enemies 
 have maintained that he took it intending to keep it. 
 
 20 He certainly concealed the transaction, for a time, both 
 from the Council in Bengal and from the Directors at 
 home; nor did he ever give any satisfactory reason for 
 the concealment. Public spirit, or the fear of detection, 
 however, determined him to withstand the temptation. 
 
 25 He paid over the bribe to the Company's treasury, and 
 insisted that the Rajah should instantly comply with 
 the demands of the English government. The Rajah, 
 after the fashion of his countrymen, shuffled, soUcited, 
 and pleaded poverty. The grasp of Hastings was not to 
 
 30 be so eluded. He added to the requisition another ten 
 thousand pounds as a fine for delay, and sent troops to 
 exact the money. 
 The money was paid. But this was not enough. The 
 
WARREN HASTINGS ^t, 
 
 late events in the south of India had increased the finan- 
 cial embarrassments of the Company. Hastings was 
 determined to plunder Cheyte Sing, and, for that end, 
 .to fasten a quarrel on him. Accordingly, the Rajah was 
 now required to keep a body of cavalry for the service 5 
 of the British government. He objected and evaded. 
 This was exactly what the Governor-General wanted. 
 He had now a pretext for treating the wealthiest of his 
 vassals as a criminal. " I resolved " — these are the words 
 of Hastings himself — 'Ho draw from his guilt the means 10 
 of relief to the Company's distresses, to make him pay 
 largely for his pardon, or to exact a severe vengeance 
 for past delinquency." ^The plan was simply this, to de- 
 mand larger and larger contributions till the Rajah should 
 be driven to remonstrate, then to call his remonstrance 15 
 a crime, and to punish him by confiscating all his posses- 
 sions. 1 " 
 
 Cheyte Sing was in the greatest dismay. He offered 
 two hundred thousand pounds to propitiate the British 
 government. But Hastings repMed that nothing less than 20 
 half a million would be accepted. Nay, he began to think 
 of selling Benares to Oude, as he had formerly sold Alla- 
 habad and Rohilcund. The matter was one which could 
 not be well managed at a distance; and Hastings resolved 
 to visit Benares. 25 
 
 Cheyte Sing received his liege lord with every mark of 
 reverence, came near sixty miles, with his guards, to meet 
 and escort the illustrious visitor, and expressed his deep 
 concern at the displeasure of the English. He even took 
 off his turban, and laid it in the lap of Hastings, a gesture 30 
 which in India marks the most profound submission and 
 devotion. Hastings behaved with cold and repulsive 
 severity. Having arrived at Benares, he sent to the Rajah 
 
84 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 a paper containing the demands of the government of 
 Bengal. The Rajah, in reply, attempted to clear hirri- 
 self from the accusations brought against him. Hastings, 
 who wanted money and not excuses, was not to be put 
 5 off by the ordinary artifices of Eastern negotiation. He 
 instantly ordered the Rajah to be arrested and placed 
 under the custody of two companies of sepoys. 
 
 In taking these strong measures, Hastings scarcely 
 showed his usual judgment. It is probable that, having 
 
 lo had little opportunity of personally observing any part 
 of the population of India, except the Bengalees, he was 
 not fully aware of the difference between their character 
 and that of the tribes which inhabit the upper provinces. 
 He was now in a land far more favourable to the vigour 
 
 15 of the human frame than the Delta of the Ganges; in a 
 
 land fruitful of soldiers, who have been found worthy 
 
 to follow English battalions to the charge and into the 
 
 breach. The Rajah was popular among his subjects. 
 
 * His administration had been mild; and the prosperity 
 
 20 of the district which he governed presented a striking 
 contrast to the depressed state of Bahar under our rule, 
 and a still more striking contrast to the misery of the 
 provinces which were cursed by the tyranny of the Nabob 
 Vizier. The national and religious prejudices with which 
 
 25 the English were regarded throughout India were pecul- 
 iarly intense in the metropolis of the Brahminical super- 
 stition. It can therefore scarcely be doubted that the 
 Governor-General, before he outraged the dignity of 
 Cheyte Sing by an arrest, ought to have assembled a 
 
 30 force capable of bearing down all opposition. This had 
 not been done. The handful of sepoys who attended 
 Hastings would probably have been sufficient to over- 
 awe Moorshedabad, or the Black Town of Calcutta. 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 85 
 
 But they were unequal to a conflict with the hardy rabble 
 of Benares. The streets surrounding the palace were 
 filled by an immense multitude, of whom a large propor- 
 tion, as is usual in Upper India, wore arms. The tumult 
 became a fight, and the fight a massacre. The EngUsh 5 
 officers defended themselves with desperate courage 
 against overwhelming numbers, and fell, as became them, 
 sword in hand. The sepoys were butchered. The gates 
 were forced. The captive prince, neglected by his jailers 
 during the confusion, discovered an outlet which opened 10 
 on the precipitous bank of the Ganges, let himself down 
 to the water by a string made of the turbans of his attend- 
 ants, found a boat, and escaped to the opposite shore. 
 
 If Hastings had, by indiscreet violence, brought himself 
 into a difficult and perilous situation, it is only just to 15 
 acknowledge that he extricated himself with even more 
 than his usual ability and presence of mind. He had 
 only fifty men with him. The building in which he had 
 taken up his residence was on every side blockaded by 
 the insurgents. But his fortitude remained unshaken. 20 
 The Rajah from the other side of the river sent apologies 
 and liberal offers. They were not even answered. Some 
 subtle and enterprising men were found who undertook 
 to pass through the throng of enemies, and to convey the 
 intelligence of the late events to the EngUsh cantonments. 25 
 It is the fashion of the natives of India to wear large ear- 
 rings of gold. When they travel, the rings are laid aside, 
 lest the precious metal should tempt some gang of robbers, 
 and, in place of the ring, a quill or a roll of paper is inserted 
 in the orifice to prevent it from closing. Hastings placed 30 
 in the ears of his messengers letters rolled up in the small- 
 est compass. Some of these letters were addressed to the 
 commanders of the EngUsh troops. One was written to 
 
86 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 assure his wife of his safety. One was to the envoy whom 
 he had sent to negotiate with the Mahrattas. Instruc- 
 tions for the negotiation were needed; and the Governor- 
 General framed them in that situation of extreme danger, 
 5 with as much composure as if he had been writing in his 
 palace at Calcutta. 
 
 Things, however, were not yet at the worst. An English 
 ofhcer of more spirit than judgment, eager to distinguish 
 himself, made a premature attack on the insurgents beyond 
 
 10 the river. His troops were entangled in narrow streets, 
 and assailed by a furious population. He fell, with many 
 of his men; and the survivors were forced to retire. 
 
 This event produced the effect which has never failed 
 to follow every check, however slight, sustained in India 
 
 15 by the English arms. For hundreds of miles round, the 
 whole country was in commotion. The entire popula- 
 tion of the district of Benares took arms. The fields 
 were abandoned by the husbandmen, who thronged to 
 defend their prince. The infection spread to Oude. The 
 
 20 oppressed people of that province rose up against the 
 Nabob Vizier, refused to pay their imposts, and put 
 the revenue officers to flight. Even Bahar was ripe for 
 revolt. The hopes of Cheyte Sing began to rise. Instead 
 of imploring mercy in the humble style of a vassal, he 
 
 25 began to talk the language of a conqueror, and threat- 
 ened, it was said, to sweep the white usurpers out of the 
 land. But the English troops were now assembling fast. 
 The officers, and even the private men, regarded the 
 Governor-General with enthusiastic attachment, and 
 
 30 flew to his aid with an alacrity which, as he boasted, had 
 never been shown on any other occasion. Major Popham, 
 a brave and skilful soldier, who had highly distinguished 
 himself in the Mahratta war, and in whom the Governor- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 87 
 
 General reposed the greatest confidence, took the com- 
 mand. The tumultuary army of the Rajah was put to 
 rout. His fastnesses were stormed. In a few hours, 
 above thirty thousand men left his standard, and returned 
 to their ordinary avocations. The unhappy prince fled 5 
 from his country for ever. His fair domain was added 
 to the British dominions. One of his relations indeed 
 was appointed rajah; but the Rajah of Benares was hence- 
 forth to be, like the Nabob of Bengal, a mere pensioner. 
 
 By this revolution, an addition of two hundred thou- 10 
 sand pounds a year was made to the revenues of the 
 Company. But the immediate relief was not as great 
 as had been expected. The treasure laid up by Cheyte 
 Sing had been popularly estimated at a million sterling. 
 It turned out to be about a fourth part of that sum; and, 15 
 such as it was, it was seized by the army, and divided as 
 prize-money. 
 
 Disappointed in his expectations from Benares, Hastings 
 was more violent than he would otherwise have been, in 
 his dealings with Oude. Sujah Dowlah had long been 20 
 dead. His son and successor, Asaph-ul-Dowlah, was one 
 of the weakest and most vicious even of Eastern princes. 
 His life was divided between torpid repose and the most 
 odious forms of sensuality. In his court there was bound- 
 less waste, throughout his dominions wretchedness and 25 
 disorder. He had been, under the skilful management 
 of the English government, gradually sinking from the 
 rank of an independent prince to that of a vassal of the 
 Company. It was only by the help of a British brigade 
 that he could be secure from the aggressions of neigh- 30 
 hours who depised his weakness, and from the vengeance 
 of subjects who detested his tyranny. A brigade was 
 furnished; and he engaged to defray the charge of paying 
 
88 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 and maintaining it. From that time his independence 
 was at an end. Hastings was not a man to lose the advan- 
 tage which he had thus gained. The Nabob soon began 
 to complain of the burden which he had undertaken to 
 5 bear. His revenues, he said, were falling off; his servants 
 were unpaid; he could no longer support the expense 
 of the arrangement which he had sanctioned. Hastings 
 would not listen to these representations. The Vizier, 
 he said, had invited the Government of Bengal to send 
 
 10 him troops, and had promised to pay for them. The 
 troops had been sent. How long the troops were to 
 remain in Gude was a matter not settled by the treaty. 
 It remained, therefore, to be settled between the contract- 
 ing parties. But the contracting parties differed. Who 
 
 15 then must decide? The stronger. 
 
 Hastings also argued that, if the English force was 
 withdrawn, Gude would certainly become a prey to 
 anarchy, and would probably be overrun by a Mahratta 
 army. That the finances of Gude were embarrassed 
 
 20 he admitted. But he contended, not without reason, 
 that the embarrassment was to be attributed to the 
 incapacity and vices of Asaph-ul-Dowlah himself, and 
 that, if less were spent on the troops, the only effect 
 would be that more would be squandered on worthless 
 
 25 favourites. 
 
 Hastings had intended, after settling the affairs of 
 Benares, to visit Lucknow, and there to confer with 
 Asaph-ul-Dowlah. But the obsequious courtesy of the 
 Nabob Vizier prevented this visit. With a small train 
 
 30 he hastened to meet the Governor-General. An inter- 
 view took place in the fortress which, from the crest of 
 the precipitous rock of Chunar, looks down on the waters 
 of the Ganges. 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 89 
 
 At first sight it might appear impossible that the negotia- 
 tion should come to an amicable close. Hastings wanted 
 an extraordinary supply of money. Asaph-ul-Dowlah 
 wanted to obtain a remission of what he already owed. 
 Such a difference seemed to admit of no compromise. 5 
 There was, however, one course satisfactory to both 
 sides, one course by which it was possible to relieve the 
 finances both of Oude and of Bengal; and that course 
 was adopted. It was simply this, that the Governor- 
 General and the Nabob Vizier should join to rob a third 10 
 party; and the third party whom they determined to rob 
 was the parent of one of the robbers. 
 
 The mother of the late Nabob, and his wife, who was 
 the mother of the present Nabob, were known as the 
 Begums or Princesses of Oude. They had possessed great 15 
 influence over Sujah Dowlah, and had, at his death, been 
 left in possession of a splendid dotation. The domains 
 of which they received the rents and administered the 
 government were of wide extent. The treasure hoarded 
 by the late Nabob, a treasure which was popularly esti- 20 
 mated at near three millions sterling, was in their hands. 
 They continued to occupy his favourite palace at Fyzabad, 
 the Beautiful Dwelling; while Asaph-ul-Dowlah held his 
 court in the stately Lucknow, which he had built for him- 
 self on the shores of the Goomti, and had adorned with 25 
 noble mosques and colleges. 
 
 Asaph-ul-Dowlah had already extorted considerable 
 sums from his mother. She had at length appealed to 
 the EngHsh; and the EngHsh had interfered. A solemn 
 compact had been made, by which she consented to give 30 
 her son some pecuniary assistance, and he in his turn 
 promised never to commit any further invasion of her 
 rights. This compact was formally guaranteed by the 
 
90 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 goverj:iment of Bengal. But times had changed; money 
 was wanted; and the power which had given the guarah- 
 tee was not ashamed to instigate the spoiler to excesses 
 such that even he shrank from them. 
 5 It was necessary to find some pretext for a confiscation 
 inconsistent, not merely with plighted faith, not merely 
 with the ordinary rules of humanity and justice, but also 
 with that great law of filial piety which, even in the 
 wildest tribes of savages, even in those more degraded 
 
 10 communities which wither under the influence of a cor- 
 rupt half -civilization, retains a certain authority over 
 the human mind. A pretext was the last thing that 
 Hastings was likely to want. The insurrection at Benares 
 had produced disturbances in Oude. These disturbances 
 
 15 it was convenient to impute to the Princesses. Evidence 
 for the imputation there was scarcely any; unless reports 
 wandering from one mouth to another, and gaining 
 something by every transmission, may be called evidence. 
 The accused were furnished with no charge; they were 
 
 20 permitted to make no defence; for the Governor-General 
 wisely considered that, if he tried them, he might not 
 be able to find a ground for plundering them. It was 
 agreed between him and the Nabob Vizier that the noble 
 ladies should, by a sweeping measure of confiscation, 
 
 25 be stripped of their domains and treasures for the benefit 
 of the Company, and that the sums thus obtained should 
 be accepted by the government of Bengal in satisfaction 
 of its claims on the government of Oude. 
 
 While Asaph-ul-Dowlah was at Chunar, he was com- 
 
 30 pletely subjugated by the clear and commanding intellect 
 of the English statesman. But when they had separated, 
 the Vizier began to reflect with uneasiness on the engage- 
 ment into which he had entered. His mother and grand- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 91 
 
 mother protested and implored. His heart, deeply 
 corrupted by absolute power and licentious pleasures, 
 yet not naturally unfeeling, failed him in this crisis. Even 
 the English resident at Lucknow, though hitherto devoted 
 to Hastings, shrank from extreme measures. But the 5 
 Governor-General was inexorable^ He wrote to the 
 resident in terms of the greatest severity, and declared 
 that, if the spoliation which had been agreed upon were 
 not instantly carried into effect, he would himself go to 
 Lucknow, and do that from which feebler minds recoil 10 
 with dismay. The resident, thus menaced, waited on 
 his Highness, and insisted that the treaty of Chunar 
 should be carried into full and immediate effect. Asaph- 
 ul-Dowlah yielded, making at the same time a solemn 
 protestation that he yielded to compulsion. The lands 15 
 were resumed; but the treasure was not so easily obtained. 
 It was necessary to use violence. A body of the Com- 
 pany's troops marched to Fyzabad, and forced the gates 
 of the palace. The Princesses were confined to their 
 own apartments. But still they refused to submit. 20 
 Some more stringent mode of coercion was to be found. 
 A mode w^as found of which, even at this distance of time, 
 we cannot speak without shame and sorrow. 
 
 There were at Fyzabad two ancient men, belonging to 
 that unhappy class which a practice, of immemorial an- 25 
 tiquity in the East, has excluded from the pleasures of 
 love and from the hope of posterity. It has always been 
 held in Asiatic courts that beings thus estranged from 
 sympathy with their kind are those whom princes may 
 most safely trust. Sujah Dowlah had been of this 30 
 opinion. He had given his entire confidence to the two 
 eunuchs; and after his death they remained at the head 
 of the household of his widow. 
 
92 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 These two men were, by the orders of the British 
 government, seized, imprisoned, ironed, starved almost 
 to death, in order to extort money from the Princesses, 
 After they had been two months in confinement, their 
 5 health gave way. They implored permission to take 
 a Httle exercise in the garden of their prison. The officer 
 who was in charge of them stated that, if they were 
 allowed this indulgence, there was not the smallest 
 chance of their escaping, and that their irons really added 
 
 lo nothing to the security of the custody in which they were 
 kept. He did not understand the plan of his superiors. 
 Their object in these inflictions was not security but 
 torture; and all mitigation was refused. Yet this was 
 not the w^orst. It was resolved by an English govern- 
 
 15 ment that these two infirm old men should be delivered 
 to the tormentors. For that purpose they were removed 
 to Lucknow. What horrors their dungeon there witnessed 
 can only be guessed. But there remains on the records 
 of Parliament, this letter, written by a British resident 
 
 20 to a British soldier. 
 
 "Sir, the Nabob having determined to inflict corporal 
 punishment upon the prisoners under your guard, this 
 is to desire that his officers, when they shall come, may 
 have free access to the prisoners, and be permitted to do' 
 
 25 with them as they shall see proper." 
 
 While these barbarities were perpetrated at Lucknow, 
 the Princesses were still under duresse at Fyzabad. 
 Food was allowed to enter their apartments only in such 
 scanty quantities that their female attendants were in 
 
 30 danger of perishing with hunger. Month after month 
 this cruelty, continued, till at length, after twelve hun- 
 dred thousand pounds had been wrung out of the Prin- 
 cesses, Hastings began to think that he had really got 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 93 
 
 to the bottom of their revenue, and that no rigour could 
 extort more. Then at length the wretched men who 
 were detained at Lucknow regained their liberty. When 
 their irons were knocked off, and the doors of their prison 
 opened, their quivering lips, the tears which ran down 5 
 their cheeks, and the thanksgivings which they poured 
 forth to the common Father of Mussulmans and Chris- 
 tians, melted even the stout hearts of the Enghsh warriors 
 who stood by. 
 
 There is a man to whom the conduct of Hastings, 10 
 through the whole of these proceedings, appears not only 
 excusable but laudable. There is a man who tells us that 
 he "must really be pardoned if he ventures to character- 
 ize as something preeminently ridiculous and wicked, 
 the sensibility which would balance against the preserva- 15, 
 tion of British India a little personal suffering, which was 
 applied only so long as the sufferers refused to deliver up 
 a portion of that wealth, the whole of which their own 
 and their mistresses' treason had forfeited." We cannot, 
 we must own, envy the reverend biographer, either his 20 
 singular notion of what constitutes preeminent wickedness, 
 or his equally singular perception of the preeminently 
 ridiculous. Is this the generosity of an English soldier? 
 Is this the charity of a Christian priest? Could neither 
 of Mr. Gleig's professions teach him the first rudiments 25, 
 of morality? Or is morality a thing which may be well 
 enough in sermons, but which has nothing to do with 
 biography? 
 
 But we must not forget to do justice to Sir Elijah 
 Impey's conduct on this occasion. It was not indeed 30 
 easy for him to intrude himself into a business so entirely 
 alien from all his ofj&cial duties. But there was something 
 inexpressibly alluring, we must suppose, in the pecuHar 
 
94 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 rankness of the infamy which was then to be got at 
 Lucknow. He hurried thither as fast as relays of palan- 
 quin-bearers could carry him. A crowd of people came 
 before him with affidavits against the Begums, ready 
 5 drawn in their hands. Those affidavits he did not read. 
 Some of them, indeed, he could not read; for they were 
 in the dialects of Northern India, and no interpreter was 
 employed.* He administered the oath to the deponents, 
 with all possible expedition, and asked not a single ques- 
 
 10 tion, not even whether they had perused the statements 
 to which they swore. This work performed, he got again 
 into his palanquin, and posted back to Calcutta, to be 
 in time for the opening of term. The cause was one 
 which, by his own confession, lay altogether out of his 
 
 15 jurisdiction. Under the charter of justice, he had no 
 more right to inquire into crimes committed by natives 
 in Oude than the Lord President of the Court of Session 
 of Scotland to hold an assize at Exeter. He had no right 
 to try the Begums, nor did he pretend to try them. With 
 
 20 what object, then, did he undertake so long a journey? 
 Evidently in order that he might give, in an irregular 
 manner, that sanction which in a regular manner he 
 could not give, to the crimes of those who had recently 
 
 * This passage has been slightly altered. As it originally stood, 
 Sir Elijah Impey was described as ignorant of all the native languages 
 in which the depositions were drawn. A writer who apparently has 
 had access to some private source of information has contradicted 
 this statement, and has asserted that Sir Elijah knew Persian and 
 Bengalee. Some of the depositions were certainly in Persian. Those 
 therefore Sir Elijah might have read if he had chosen to do so. But 
 others were in the vernacular dialects of Upper India, with which it 
 is not alleged that he had any acquaintance. Why the Bengalee is 
 mentioned it is not easy to guess. Bengalee at Lucknow would have 
 been as useless as Portuguese in Switzerland. 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 95 
 
 hired him; and in order that a confused mass of testimony 
 which he did not sift, which he did not even read, might 
 acquire an authority not properly belonging to it, from 
 the signature of the highest judicial functionary in India. 
 
 The time was approaching, however, when he was to be 5 
 stripped of that robe which has never, since the Revolu- 
 tion, been disgraced so foully as by him. The state of 
 India had for some time occupied much of the attention 
 of the British Parliament. Towards the close of the 
 American war, two committees of the Commons sat on 10 
 Eastern affairs. In one Edmund Burke took the lead. 
 The other was under the presidency of the able and ver- 
 satile Henry Dundas, then Lord Advocate of Scotland. 
 Great as are the changes which, during the last sixty 
 years, have taken place in our Asiatic dominions, the 15 
 reports which those committees laid on the table of the 
 House will still be found most interesting and instructive. 
 
 There was as yet no connection between the Company 
 and either of the great parties in the state. The minis- 
 ters had no motive to defend Indian abuses. On the 20 
 contrary, it was for their interest to show, if possible, that 
 the government and patronage of our Oriental empire 
 might, with advantage, be transferred to themselves. 
 The votes therefore, which, in consequence of the reports 
 made by the two committees, were passed by the Com- 25 
 mons, breathed the spirit of stern and indignant justice. 
 The severest epithets were applied to several of the meas- 
 ures of Hastings, especially to the Rohilla war; and it was 
 resolved, on the motion of Mr. Dundas, that the Com- 
 pany ought to recall a Governor- General who had brought 30 
 such calamities on the Indian people, and such dishonour 
 on the British name. " An act was passed for limiting the 
 jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The bargain which 
 
96 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 Hastings had made with the Chief Justice was condemned 
 in the strongest terms; and an address was presented to 
 the King, praying that Impey might be ordered home 
 to answer for his misdeeds. 
 5 Impey was recalled by a letter from the Secretary of 
 State. But the proprietors of India Stock resolutely 
 refused to dismiss Hastings from their service, and passed 
 a resolution affirming, what was undeniably true, that 
 they were intrusted by law with the right of naming and 
 
 10 removing their Governor-General, and that they were 
 
 not bound to obey the directions of a single branch of 
 
 the legislature with respect to such nomination or removal. 
 
 Thus supported by his employers, Hastings remained 
 
 at the head of the government of Bengal till the spring 
 
 15 of 1785. His administration, so eventful and stormy, 
 closed in almost perfect quiet. In the Council there was 
 no regular opposition to his measures. Peace was re- 
 stored to India. The Mahratta war had ceased. Hyder 
 was no more. A treaty had been concluded with his 
 
 20 son, Tippoo; and the Carnatic had been evacuated by 
 the armies of Mysore. Since the termination of the 
 American war, England had no European enemy or 
 rival in the Eastern seas. 
 
 On a general review of the long administration of 
 
 25 Hastings, it is impossible to deny that, against the great 
 crimes by which it is blemished, we have to set off great 
 public services. England had passed through a perilous 
 crisis. She ' still, indeed, maintained her place in the 
 foremost rank of European powers; and the manner in 
 
 30 which she had defended herself against fearful odds had 
 inspired surrounding nations with a high opinion both 
 of her spirit and of her strength. Nevertheless, in every 
 part of the world, except one, she had been a loser. Not 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 97 
 
 only had she been compelled to acknowledge the inde- 
 pendence of thirteen colonies peopled by her children, 
 and to conciliate the Irish by giving up the right of legis- 
 lating for them; but, in the Mediterranean, in the Gulf 
 of Mexico, on the coast of Africa, on the continent of 5 
 America, she had been compelled to cede the fruits of her 
 victories in former wars. Spain regained Minorca and 
 Florida; France regained Senegal, Goree, and several 
 West Indian Islands. The only quarter of the world in 
 which Britain had lost nothing was the quarter in which 10 
 her interests had been committed to the care of Hastings. 
 In spite of the utmost exertions both of European and 
 Asiatic enemies, the power of our country in the East had 
 been greatly augmented. Benares was subjected; the 
 Nabob Vizier reduced to vassalage. That our influence 15 
 had been thus extended, nay, that Fort WiUiam and 
 Fort St. George had not been occupied by hostile armies, 
 was owing, if we may trust the general voice of the 
 EngHsh in India, to the skill and resolution of Hastings. 
 
 His internal administration, with all its blemishes, gives 20 
 him a title to be considered as one of the most remarkable 
 men in our history. He dissolved the double government. 
 He transferred the direction of affairs to Enghsh hands. 
 Out of a frightful anarchy, he educed at least a rude and 
 imperfect order. The whole organization by which jus- 25 
 tice was dispensed, revenue collected, peace maintained 
 throughout a territory not inferior in population to the 
 dominions of Louis the Sixteenth or of the. Emperor 
 Joseph, was formed and superintended by him. He 
 boasted that every public ofhce, without exception, which 30 
 existed when he left Bengal, was his creation. It is quite 
 true that this system, after all the improvements suggested 
 by the experience of sixty years, still needs improvement, 
 8 
 
98 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 and that it was at first far more defective than it now is. 
 But whoever seriously considers what it is to construct 
 from the beginning the whole of a machine so vast and 
 complex as a government will allow that what Hastings 
 5 effected deserves high admiration. To compare the 
 most celebrated European ministers to him seems to 
 us as unjust as it would be to compare the best baker 
 in London with Robinson Crusoe, who, before he could 
 bake a single loaf, had to make his plough and his harrow, 
 
 lo his fences and his scarecrows, his sickle and his flail, his 
 mill and his oven. 
 
 The just fame of Hastings rises still higher, when we 
 reflect that he was not bred a statesman; that he was 
 sent from school to a counting-house; and that he was 
 
 15 employed during the prime of his manhood as a com- 
 mercial agent, far from all intellectual society. 
 
 Nor must we forget that all, or almost all, to whom, 
 when placed at the head of affairs, he could apply for 
 assistance, were persons who owed as little as himself, 
 
 20 or less than himself, to education. A minister in Europe 
 finds himself, on the first day on which he commences 
 his functions, surrounded by experienced public servants, 
 the depositaries of oflicial traditions. Hastings had no 
 such help. His own reflection, his own energy, were to 
 
 25 supply the place of all Downing Street and Somerset 
 House. Having had no facilities for learning, he was 
 forced to teach. He had first to form himself, and then 
 to form his instruments; and this not in a single depart- 
 ment, but in all the departments of the administration. 
 
 30 It must be added that, while engaged in this miost 
 arduous task, he was constantly trammelled by orders 
 from home, and frequently borne down by a majority 
 in council. The preservation of an Empire from a for- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 99 
 
 midable combination of foreign enemies, the construction 
 of a government in all its parts, were accomplished by 
 him, while every ship brought out bales of censure from his 
 employers, and while the records of every consultation 
 were filled with acrimonious minutes by his colleagues. 5 
 We beHeve that there never was a public man whose 
 temper was so severely tried; not Marlborough, when 
 thwarted by the Dutch Deputies; not Wellington, when 
 he had to deal at once with the Portuguese Regency, the 
 Spanish Juntas, and Mr. Percival. But the temper of 10 
 Hastings was equal to almost any trial. It was not 
 sweet; but it was calm. Quick and vigorous as his intel- 
 lect was, the patience with which he endured the most 
 cruel vexations, till a remedy could be found, resembled 
 the patience of stupidity. He seems to have been capable 15 
 of resentment, bitter and long-enduring; yet his resent- 
 ment so seldom hurried him into any blunder that it may 
 be doubted whether what appeared to be revenge was any 
 thing but policy. 
 
 The effect of this singular equanimity was that he 20 
 always had the full command of all the resources of one 
 of the most fertile minds that ever existed. Accordingly 
 no complication of perils and embarrassments could 
 perplex him. For every difficulty he had a contrivance 
 ready; and, whatever may be thought of the justice and 25 
 humanity of some of his contrivances, it is certain that 
 they seldom failed to serve the purpose for which they 
 were designed. 
 
 Together with this extraordinary talent for devising 
 expedients, Hastings possessed, in a very high degree, 30 
 another talent scarcely less necessary to a man in his 
 situation; we mean the talent for conducting political 
 controversy. It is as necessary to an English statesman 
 
lOO WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 in the East that he should be able to write, as it is to a 
 minister in this country that he should be able to speak. 
 It is chiefly by the oratory of a public man here that the 
 nation judges of his powers. It is from the letters and 
 5 reports of a public man in India that the dispensers of 
 patronage form their estimate of him. In each case, 
 the talent which receives peculiar encouragement is 
 developed, perhaps at the expense of the other powers. 
 In this country, we sometimes hear men speak above 
 
 10 their abilities. It is not very unusual to find gentlemen 
 
 in the Indian service who write above their abilities. 
 
 The English politician is a little too much of a debater; 
 
 the Indian politician a little too much of an essayist. 
 
 Of the numerous servants of the Company who have 
 
 15 distinguished themselves as framers of minutes and 
 despatches, Hastings stands at the head. He was indeed 
 the person who gave to the official writing of the Indian 
 governments the character which it stills retains. He 
 was matched against no common antagonist. But even 
 
 20 Francis was forced to acknowledge, with sullen and 
 resentful candour, that there was no contending against 
 the pen of Hastings. And, in truth, the Governor- 
 General's power of making out a case, of perplexing 
 what it was inconvenient that people should understand, 
 
 25 and of setting in the clearest point of view whatever 
 would bear the light, was incomparable. His style must 
 be praised with some reservation. It was in general 
 forcible, pure, and polished; but it was sometimes, though 
 not often, turgid, and, on one or two occasions, even 
 
 30 bombastic. Perhaps the fondness of Hastings for Per- 
 sian literature may have tended to corrupt his taste. 
 
 And, since we have referred to his literary tastes, it 
 would be most unjust not to praise the judicious encour- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS loi 
 
 agement which, as a ruler, he gave to Uberal studies and 
 curious researches. His patronage was extended, with 
 prudent generosity, to voyages, travels, experiments, 
 pubUcations. He did Httle, it is true, towards introduc- 
 ing into India the learning of the West. To make the 5 
 young natives of Bengal familiar with Milton and Adam 
 Smith, to substitute the geography, astronomy, and sur- 
 gery of Europe for the dotages of the Brahminical super- 
 stition, or for the imperfect science of ancient Greece 
 transfused through Arabian expositions, this was a scheme 10 
 reserved to crown the beneficent administration of a far 
 more virtuous ruler. Still, it is impossible to refuse high 
 commendation to a man who, taken from a ledger to 
 govern an empire, overwhelmed by public business, sur- 
 rounded by people as busy as himself, and separated by 15 
 thousands of leagues from almost all literary society, gave, 
 both by his example and by his munificence, a great 
 impulse to learning. In Persian and Arabic literature he 
 was deeply skilled. With the Sanscrit he was not him- 
 self acquainted; but those who first brought that language 20 
 to the knowledge of European students owed much to his 
 encouragement. It was under his protection that the 
 Asiatic Society commenced its honourable career. That 
 distinguished body selected him to be its first president; 
 but, with excellent taste and feeling, he declined the 25 
 honour in favour of Sir William Jones. But the chief 
 advantage which the students of Oriental letters derived 
 from his patronage remains to be mentioned. The 
 Pundits of Bengal had always looked with great jealousy 
 on the attempts of foreigners to pry into those mysteries 30 
 which were locked up in the sacred dialect. Their religion 
 had been persecuted by the Mahommedans. What they 
 knew of the spirit of the Portuguese government might 
 
I02 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 warrant them in apprehending persecution from Chris- 
 tians. That apprehension, the wisdom and moderation 
 of Hastings removed. He was the first foreign ruler 
 who succeeded in gaining the confidence of the hereditary 
 5 priests of India, and who induced them to lay open to 
 English scholars the secrets of the old Brahminical the- 
 ology and jurisprudence. 
 
 It is indeed impossible to deny that, in the great art 
 of inspiring large masses of human beings with confidence 
 
 lo and attachment, no ruler ever surpassed Hastings. If 
 he had made himself popular with the English by giving 
 up the Bengalese to extortion and oppression, or if, on 
 the other hand, he had conciliated the Bengalese and 
 alienated the English, there would have been no cause 
 
 1 5 for wonder. What is pecuHar to him is that, being the 
 chief of a small band of strangers who exercised bound- 
 less power over a great indigenous population, he made 
 himself beloved both by the subject many and by the 
 dominant few. The affection felt for him by the civil 
 
 20 service was singularly ardent and constant. Through 
 all his disasters and perils, his brethren stood by him 
 with steadfast loyalty. The army, at the same time, 
 loved him as armies have seldom loved any but the 
 greatest chiefs who have led them to victory. Even in 
 
 25 his disputes with distinguished military men, he could 
 always count on the support of the military profession. 
 While such was his empire over the hearts of his country- 
 men, he enjoyed among the natives a popularity, such as 
 other governors have perhaps better merited, but such 
 
 30 as no other governor has been able to attain. He spoke 
 their vernacular dialects with faciHty and precision. 
 He was intimately acquainted with their feelings and 
 usages. On one or two occasions, for great ends, he 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 103 
 
 deliberately acted in defiance of their opinion; but on such 
 occasions he gained more in their respect than he lost in 
 their love. In general, he carefully avoided all that could 
 shock their national or religious prejudices. His admin- 
 istration was indeed in many respects faulty; but the 5 
 Bengalee standard of good government was not high. 
 Under the Nabobs, the hurricane of Mahratta cavalry 
 had passed annually over the rich alluvial plain. But 
 even the Mahratta shrank from a conflict with the mighty 
 children of the sea; and the immense rice-harvests of the 10 
 Lower Ganges were safely gathered in, under the protec- 
 tion of the English sword. The first English conquerors 
 had been more rapacious and merciless even than the 
 Mahrattas; but that generation had passed away. De- 
 fective as was the police, heavy as were the public burdens, 15 
 it is probable that the oldest man in Bengal could not 
 recollect a season of equal security and prosperity. For 
 the first time within living memory, the province was 
 placed under a government strong enough to prevent 
 others from robbing, and not inclined to play the robber 20 
 itself. These things inspired good-will. At the same 
 time, the constant success of Hastings and the manner 
 in which he extricated him^self from every difiiculty 
 made him an object of superstitious admiration; and the 
 more than regal splendour which he sometimes displayed 25 
 dazzled a people who have much in common with children. 
 Even now, after the lapse of more than fifty years, the 
 natives of India still talk of him as the greatest of the 
 English; and nurses sing children to sleep with a jingling 
 ballad about the fleet horses and richly caparisoned ele- 30 
 phants of Sahib Warren Hostein. 
 
 The gravest offences of which Hastings was guilty did 
 not affect his popularity with the people of Bengal; for 
 
104 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 those offences were committed against neighbouring 
 states. Those offences, as our readers must have per- 
 ceived, we are not disposed to vindicate; yet, in order 
 that the censure may be justly apportioned to the trans- 
 5 gression, it is fit that the motive of the criminal should 
 be taken into consideration. The motive which prompted 
 the worst acts of Hastings was misdirected and ill-regu- 
 lated public spirit, i The rules of justice, the sentiments 
 of humanity, the plighted faith of treaties, were in his 
 
 lo view as nothing, when opposed to the immediate interest 
 of the state, i This is no justification, according to the 
 principles either of morality, or of what we believe to 
 be identical with morality, namely, far-sighted policy^ 
 Nevertheless the common sense of mankind, which ~Tn 
 
 15 questions of this sort seldom goes far wrong, will always 
 recognise a distinction between crimes which originate 
 in an inordinate zeal for the commonwealth, and crimes 
 which originate in selfish cupidity. To the benefit of 
 
 • this distinction Hastings is fairly entitled. There is, we 
 
 20 conceive, no reason to suspect that the Rohilla war, the 
 revolution of Benares, or the spoliation of the Princesses 
 of Oude, added a rupee to his fortune, i We will not 
 afiirm that, in all pecuniary dealings, he showed that 
 punctilious integrity, that dread of the faintest appear- 
 
 25 ance of evil, which is now the glory of the Indian civil 
 service./ But when the school in which he had been 
 trained and the temptations to which he was exposed 
 are considered, we are more inclined to praise him for 
 his general uprightness with respect to money, than 
 
 30 rigidly to blame him for a few transactions which would 
 now be called indelicate and irregular, but which even 
 now would hardly be designated as corrupt. A rapacious 
 man he certainly was not. Had he been so, he would 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 105 
 
 infallibly have returned to his country the richest sub- 
 ject in Europe. We speak within compass, when we say 
 that, without applying any extraordinary pressure, he 
 might easily have obtained from the zemindars of the 
 Company's provinces and from neighbouring princes, 5 
 in the course of thirteen years,, more than three millions 
 sterling, and might have outshone the splendour of Carlton 
 House and of the Palais Royal. He brought home a 
 fortune such as a Governor-General, fond of state, and 
 careless of thrift, might easily, during so long a tenure 10 
 of office, save out of his legal salary. Mrs. Hastings, we 
 are afraid, was less scrupulous. It was generally believed 
 that she accepted presents with great alacrity, and that 
 she thus formed, without the connivance of her husband, 
 a private hoard amounting to several lacs of rupees. 15 
 We are the more inclined to give credit to this story, 
 because Mr. Gleig, who cannot but have heard it, does 
 not, as far as we have observed, notice or contradict it. 
 
 The influence of Mrs. Hastings over her husband was 
 indeed such that she might easily have obtained much 20 
 larger sums than she was ever accused of receiving. At 
 length her health began to give way; and the Governor- 
 General, much against his will, was compelled to send her 
 to England. He seems to have loved her with that love 
 which is peculiar to men of strong minds, to men whose 25 
 affection is not easily won or widely diffused. The talk 
 of Calcutta ran for some time on the luxurious manner 
 in which he fitted up the round-house of an Indiaman 
 for her accommodation, on the profusion of sandal- wood 
 and carved ivory which adorned her cabin, and on the 30 
 thousands of rupees which had been expended in order to 
 procure for her the society of an agreeable female com- 
 panion during the voyage. We may remark here that the 
 
lo6 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 letters of Hastings to his wife are exceedingly charac- 
 teristic. They are tender, and full of indications of 
 esteem and confidence; but, at the same time, a little 
 more ceremonious than is usual in so intimate a relation. 
 5 The solemn courtesy with which he compliments "his 
 elegant Marian" reminds us now and then of the dig- 
 nified air with which Sir Charles Grandison bowed over 
 Miss Byron's hand in the cedar parlour. 
 After some months Hastings prepared to follow his 
 
 10 wife to England. When it was announced that he was 
 about to quit his office, the feeling of the society which 
 he had so long governed manifested itself by many signs. 
 Addresses poured in from Europeans and Asiatics, from 
 civil functionaries, soldiers, and traders. On the day 
 
 15 on which he delivered up the keys of office, a crowd of 
 friends and admirers formed a lane to the quay where he 
 embarked. Several barges escorted him far down the 
 river; and some attached friends refused to quit him till 
 the low coast of Bengal was fading from the view, and 
 
 20 till the pilot was leaving the ship. 
 
 Of his voyage little is known, except that he amused 
 himself with books and with his pen; and that, among 
 the compositions by which he beguiled the tediousness 
 of that long leisure, was a pleasing imitation of Horace's 
 
 25 Otium Divos rogat. This little poem was inscribed to 
 Mr. Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth, a man of whose 
 integrity, humanity, and honour, it is impossible to 
 speak too highly; but who, like some other excellent 
 members of the civil service, extended to the conduct 
 
 30 of his friend Hastings an indulgence of which his own 
 conduct never stood in need. 
 
 The voyage was, for those times, very speedy. Hastings 
 was little more than four months on the sea. In June, 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 107 
 
 1785, he landed at Plymouth, posted to London, appeared 
 at Court, paid his respects in Leadenhall Street, and then 
 retired with his wife to Cheltenham. 
 
 He was greatly pleased with his reception. The King 
 treated him with marked distinction. The Queen, who 5 
 had already incurred much censure on account of the 
 favour which, in spite of the ordinary severity of her 
 virtue, she had shown to the "elegant Marian," was not 
 less gracious to Hastings. The Directors received him 
 in a solemn sitting; and their chairman read to him a vote 10 
 of thanks which they had passed without one dissentient 
 voice. "I find myself," said Hastings, in a letter written 
 about a quarter of a year after his arrival in England, "I 
 find myself every where, and universally, treated with evi- 
 dences, apparent even to my own observation, that I 15 
 possess the good opinion of my country." 
 
 The confident and exulting tone of his correspondence 
 about this time is the more remarkable, because he had 
 already received ample notice of the attack which was in 
 preparation. Within a week after he landed at Plymouth, 20 
 Burke gave notice in the House of Commons of a motion 
 seriously affecting a gentleman lately returned from 
 India. The session, however, was then so far advanced, 
 that it was impossible to enter on so extensive and impor- 
 tant a subject. 25 
 
 Hastings, it is clear, was not sensible of the danger of 
 his position. Indeed that sagacity, that judgment, that 
 readiness in devising expedients, which had distinguished 
 him in the East, seemed now to have forsaken him; not 
 that his abilities were at all impaired; not that he was 30 
 not still the same man who had triumphed over Francis 
 and Nuncomar, who had made the Chief Justice and the 
 Nabob Vizier his tools,Who had deposed Cheyte Sing, 
 
io8 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 and repelled Hyder Ali. But an oak, as Mr. Grattan 
 finely said, should not be transplanted at fifty. A raan 
 who, having left England when a boy, returns to it after 
 thirty or forty years passed in India, will find, be his 
 5 talents what they may, that he has much both to learn 
 and to unlearn before he can take a place among English 
 statesmen. The working of a representative system, 
 the war of parties, the arts of debate, the influence of 
 the press, are startling novelties to him. Surrounded 
 
 lo on every side by new machines and new tactics, he is as 
 much bewildered as Hannibal would have been at Water- 
 loo, or Themistocles at Trafalgar. His very acuteness 
 I deludes him. His very vigour causes him to stumble. 
 
 . The more correct his maxims, when applied to the state 
 
 15 of society to which he is accustomed, the more certain 
 they are to lead him astray. This was strikingly the 
 case with Hastings. In India he had a bad hand; but 
 he was master of the game, and he won every stake. 
 In England he held excellent cards, if he had known how 
 
 20 to play them; and it was chiefly by his own errors he 
 was brought to the verge of ruin. 
 
 Of all his errors the most serious was perhaps the 
 choice of a champion. Clive, in similar circumstances, 
 had made a singularly happy selection. He put himself 
 
 25 into the hands of Wedderburn, afterwards Lord Lough- 
 borough, one of the few great advocates who have also 
 been great in the House of Commons. To the defence 
 of Clive, therefore, nothing was wanting, neither learning 
 nor knowledge of the world, neither forensic acuteness 
 
 30 nor that eloquence which charms political assemblies. 
 Hastings intrusted his interests to a very different person, 
 a major in the Bengal army, named Scott. This gentle- 
 man had been sent over from India some time before 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 109 
 
 as the agent of the Governor-General. It was rumoured 
 that his services were rewarded with Oriental munificence; 
 and we believe that he received much more than Hastings 
 could conveniently spare. The major obtained a seat in 
 Parliament, and was there regarded as the organ of his 5 
 employer. It was evidently impossible that a gentleman 
 so situated could speak with the authority which belongs 
 to an independent position. Nor had the agent of 
 Hastings the talents necessary for obtaining the ear of an 
 assembly which, accustomed to Usten to great orators, 10 
 had naturally become fastidious. He was always on his 
 legs; he was very tedious; and he had only one topic, the 
 merits and wrongs of Hastings. Everybody who knows 
 the House of Commons will easily guess what followed. 
 The Major was soon considered as the greatest bore of his 15 
 time. His exertions were not confined to Parliament. 
 There was hardly a day on which the newspapers did not 
 contain some puff upon Hastings signed Asiaticus or 
 Bengalensis, but known to be written by the indefatigable 
 Scott; and hardly a month in which some bulky pamphlet 20 
 on the same subject, and from the same pen, did not pass 
 to the trunk-makers and the pastry-cooks. As to this 
 gentleman's capacity for conducting a delicate question 
 through Parliament, our readers will want no evidence 
 beyond that which they will find in letters preserved in 25 
 these volumes. We will give a single specimen of his 
 temper and judgment. He designated the greatest man I 
 then living as "that reptile Mr. Burke." 
 
 In spite, however, of this unfortuante choice, the gen- 
 eral aspect of affairs was favourable to Hastings. The 30 
 King was on his side. The Company and its servants were 
 zealous in his cause. Among public men he had many 
 ardent friends. Such were Lord Mansfield, who had 
 
no WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 outlived the vigour of his body, but not that of his mind; 
 and Lord Lansdowne, who, though unconnected with 
 any party, retained the importance which belongs to 
 great talents and knowledge. The ministers were gen- 
 5 erally believed to be favourable to the late Governor- 
 General. They owed their power to the clamour which 
 had been raised against Mr. Fox's East India Bill. The 
 authors of that bill, when accused of invading vested 
 rights, and of setting up powers unknown to the consti- 
 
 lo tution, had defended themselves by pointing to the crimes 
 of Hastings, and by arguing that abuses so extraordi- 
 nary justified extraordinary measures. Those who, by 
 opposing that bill, had raised themselves to the head of 
 affairs, would naturally be inclined to extenuate the 
 
 15 evils which had been made the plea for administering 
 so violent a remedy; and such, in fact, was their general 
 disposition. The Lord Chancellor Thurlow, in particu- 
 lar, whose great place and force of intellect gave him 
 a weight in the government inferior only to that of Mr. 
 
 20 Pitt, espoused the cause of Hastings with indecorous 
 violence. Mr. Pitt, though he had censured many parts 
 of the Indian system, had studiously abstained from 
 saying a word against the late chief of the Indian govern- 
 ment. To Major Scott, indeed, the young minister had 
 
 25 in private extolled Hastings as a great, a wonderful man, 
 who had the highest claims on the government. There 
 was only one objection to granting all that so eminent 
 a servant of the public could ask. The resolution of 
 censure still remained on the Journals of the House of 
 
 30 Commons. That resolution was, indeed, unjust; but, 
 till it was rescinded, could the minister advise the King 
 to bestow any mark of approbation on the person cen- 
 sured? If Major Scott is to be trusted, Mr. Pitt declared 
 
WARREN HASTINGS iii 
 
 that this was the only reason which prevented the govern- 
 ment from conferring a peerage on the late Governor- 
 General. Mr. Dundas was the only important member 
 of the administration who was deeply committed to a 
 different view of the subject. He had moved the resolu- 5 
 tions which created the difficulty; but even from him little 
 was to be apprehended. Since he presided over the 
 committee on Eastern affairs, great changes had taken 
 place. He was surrounded by new allies; he had fixed 
 his hopes on new objects; and whatever may have been 10 
 his good quahties, — and he had many, — flattery itself 
 never reckoned rigid consistency in the number. 
 
 From the ministry, therefore, Hastings had every reason 
 to expect support; and the ministry was very powerful. 
 The Opposition was loud and vehement against him. But 15 
 the Opposition, though formidable from the wealth and 
 influence of some of its members, and from the admirable 
 talents and eloquence of others, was outnumbered in 
 parliament, and odious throughout the country. Nor, 
 as far as we can judge, wa^ the Opposition generally 20 
 desirous to engage in so serious an undertaking as the 
 impeachment of an Indian Governor. Such an impeach- 
 ment must last for years. It must impose on the chiefs 
 of the party an immense load of labour. Yet it could 
 scarcely, in any manner, affect the event of the great 25 
 pohtical game. The followers of the coahtion were there- 
 fore more inclined to revile Hastings than to prosecute 
 him. They lost no opportunity of coupling his name with 
 the names of the most hateful tyrants of whom history 
 makes mention. The wits of Brooks's aimed their keenest 30 
 sarcasms both at his pubUc and at his domestic life. 
 Some fine diamonds which he had presented, as it was 
 rumoured, to the royal family, and a certain richly carved 
 
112 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 ivory bed which the Queen had done him the honour 
 to accept from him, were favourite subjects of ridicule. 
 One Hvely poet proposed that the great acts of the fair 
 Marian's present husband should be immortahzed by 
 5 the pencil of his predecessor; and that Imhoff should be 
 employed to embelUsh the House of Commons with 
 paintings of the bleeding Rohillas, of Nuncomar swing- 
 ing, *of Cheyte Sing letting himself down to the Ganges.^ 
 Another, in an exquisitely humorous parody of Virgil's 
 
 lo third eclogue, propounded the question what that mineral 
 could be of which the rays had power to make the most 
 austere of princesses the friend of a wanton. A third 
 described, with gay malevolence, the gorgeous appear- 
 ance of Mrs. Hastings at St. James's, the galaxy of jewels, 
 
 15 torn from Indian Begums, which adorned her head-dress, 
 her necklace gleaming with future votes, and the depend- 
 ing questions that shone upon her ears. Satirical attacks 
 of this description, and perhaps a motion for a vote of 
 censure, would have satisfied the great body of the Oppo- 
 
 20 sition. But there were two men whose indignation w^as 
 not to be so appeased, Philip Francis and Edmund Burke. 
 Francis had recently entered the House of Commons, 
 and had already established a character there for indus- 
 try and talent. He laboured indeed under one most 
 
 25 unfortunate defect, want of fluency. But he occasion- 
 ally expressed himself with a dignity and energy worthy 
 of the greatest orators. Before he had been many days 
 in parhament, he incurred the bitter dislike of Pitt, who 
 constantly treated him with as much asperity as the 
 
 30 laws of debate would allow. Neither lapse of years nor 
 change of scene had mitigated the enmities which Francis 
 had brought back from the East. After his usual fashion, 
 he mistook his malevolence for virtue, nursed it, as 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 "3 
 
 preachers tell us that we ought to nurse our good dis- 
 positions, and paraded it, on all occasions, with Phari- 
 saical ostentation. 
 
 The zeal of Burke was still fiercer; but it was far purer. 
 Men unable to understand the elevation of his mind have 5 
 tried to find out some discreditable motive for the vehe- 
 mence and pertinacity which he showed on this occasion. 
 But they have altogether failed. The idle story that he 
 had some private slight to revenge has long been given 
 up, even by the advocates of Hastings. Mr. Gleig sup- 10 
 poses that Burke was actuated by party spirit, that he 
 retained a bitter remembrance of the fall of the coalition, 
 that he attributed that fall to the exertions of the East 
 India interest, and that he considered Hastings as the 
 head and the representative of that interest. This ex- 15 
 planation seems to be sufficiently refuted by a reference 
 to dates. The hostility of Burke to Hastings commenced 
 long before the coalition; and lasted long after Burke 
 had become a strenuous supporter of those by whom the 
 coalition had been defeated. It began when Burke and 20 
 Fox, closely alhed together, were attacking the influence 
 of the crown, and calling for peace with the American 
 republic. It. continued till Burke, alienated from Fox, 
 and loaded with the favours of the crown, died, preaching 
 a crusade against the French republic. It seems absurd 25 
 to attribute to the events of 17 84 an enmity which began 
 in 1 781, and which retained undiminished force long after 
 persons far more deeply implicated than Hastings in the 
 events of 1784 had been cordially forgiven. And why 
 should we look for any other explanation of Burke's con- 30 
 duct than that which we find on the surface? fThe plain 
 truth is that Hastings had committed some great crimes, 
 and that the thought of those crimes made the blood of 
 
114 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 Burke boil in his veins. For Burke was a man in whom 
 compassion for suffering, and hatred of injustice and 
 tyranny, were as strong as in Las Casas or Clarkson. 
 And although in him as in Las Casas and in Clarkson, 
 5 these noble feelings were alloyed with the infirmity 
 which belongs to human nature, he is, like them, entitled 
 to this great praise, that he devoted years of intense 
 labour to the service of a people with whom he had 
 neither blood nor language, neither religion nor manners 
 
 10 in common, and from whom no requital, no thanks, no 
 applause could be expected. 
 
 His knowledge of India was such as few even of those 
 Europeans who have passed many years in that country 
 have attained, and such as certainly was never attained 
 
 15 by any public man who had not quitted Europe. He 
 had studied the history, the laws, and the usages of the 
 East with an industry such as is seldom found united 
 to so much genius and so much sensibiHty. Others have 
 perhaps been equally laborious, and have collected an 
 
 20 equal mass of materials. But the manner in which 
 Burke brought his higher powers of intellect to work 
 on statements of facts, and on tables of figures, was 
 peculiar to himself. In every part of those huge bales 
 of Indian information which repelled almost all other 
 
 25 readers, his mind, at once philosophical and poetical, 
 found something to instruct or to delight. His reason 
 analysed and digested those vast and shapeless masses; 
 his imagination animated and coloured them. Out 
 of darkness, and dulness, and confusion, he formed a 
 
 30 multitude of ingenious theories and vivid pictures. He 
 had, in the highest degree, that noble faculty whereby 
 man is able to live in the past and in the future, in the 
 distant and in the unreal. India and its inhabitants 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 115 
 
 were not to him, as to most Englishmen , mere names 
 and abstractions, but a real country and a real people. 
 The burning sun, the strange vegetation of the palm and 
 the cocoa tree, the rice-field, the tank, the huge trees, 
 older than the Mogul empire, under which the village 5 
 crowds assemble, the thatched roof of the peasant's hut, 
 the rich tracery of the mosque where the imaum prays 
 with his face to Mecca, the drums, and banners, and 
 gaudy idols, the devotees swinging in the air, the grace- 
 ful maiden, with the pitcher on her head, descending the 10 
 steps to the river-side, the black faces, the long beards, 
 the yellow streaks of sect, the turbans and the flowing 
 robes, the spears and the silver maces, the elephants with 
 their canopies of state, the gorgeous palanquin of the 
 prince, and the close litter of the noble lady, all those 15 
 things were to him as the objects amidst which his own 
 life had been passed, as the objects which lay on the road 
 between Beaconsfield and St. James's Street. All India 
 was present to the eye of his mind, from the halls where 
 suitors laid gold and perfumes at the feet of sovereigns to 20 
 the wild moor where the gipsy camp was pitched, from 
 the bazars, humming like bee-hives with the crowd of 
 buyers and sellers, to the jungle where the lonely courier 
 shakes his bunch of iron rings to scare away the hyaenas. 
 He had just as lively an idea of the insurrection at Benares 25 
 as of Lord George Gordon's riots, and of the execution 
 of Nuncomar as of the execution of Dr. Dodd. Oppres- 
 sion in Bengal was to him the same thing as oppression 
 in the streets of London. 
 
 tele saw that Hastings had been guilty of some most 30 
 unjustifiable acts. | All that followed was natural and 
 necessary in a mind like Burke's. His imagination and 
 his passions, once excited, hurried him beyond the bounds 
 
ii6 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 of justice and good sense. His reason, powerful as it was, 
 became the slave of feelings which it should have con- 
 trolled. His indignation, virtuous in its origin, acquired 
 too much of the character of personal aversion. He 
 5 could see no mitigating circumstance, no redeeming merit. 
 His temper, which, though generous and affectionate, 
 had always been irritable, had now been made almost 
 savage by bodily infirmities and mental vexations. Con- 
 scious of great powers and great virtues, he found him- 
 
 10 self, in age and "poverty, a mark for the hatred of a 
 perfidious court and a deluded people. In Parliament 
 his eloquence was out of date. A young generation, 
 w^hich knew him. not, had filled the House. Whenever 
 he rose to speak, his voice was drowned by the unseemly 
 
 15 interruptions of lads who were in their cradles when his 
 orations on the Stamp Act called forth the applause of 
 the great Earl of Chatham. These things had produced 
 on his proud and sensitive spirit an effect at w^hich we 
 cannot wonder. He could no longer discuss any ques- 
 
 20 tion with calmness, or make allowance for honest dif- 
 ferences of opinion. Those who think that he was more 
 violent and acrimonious in debates about India than on 
 other occasions are ill informed respecting the last years 
 of his life. In the discussions on the Commercial Treaty 
 
 25 with the Court of Versailles, on the Regency, on the 
 French Revolution, he showed even more virulence than 
 in conducting the impeachment. Indeed it may be 
 remarked that the very persons who called him a mis- 
 chievous maniac, for condemning in burning words the 
 
 30 Rohilla war and the spoliation of the Begums, exalted 
 him into a prophet as soon as he began to declaim, with 
 greater vehemence, and not with greater reason, s against 
 the taking of the B as tile and (the insults offered to Marie 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 117 
 
 Antoinette.! To us he appears to have been neither a 
 maniac in the former case, nor a prophet in the latter, 
 but in both cases a great and good man, led into extrava- 
 gance by a tempestuous sensibility which domineered over 
 all his faculties. 5 
 
 It may be doubted whether the personal antipathy 
 of Francis, or the nobler indignation of Burke, would 
 have led their party to adopt extreme measures against 
 Hastings, if his own conduct had been judicious. He 
 should have felt that, great as his public services had 10 
 been, he was not faultless; and should have been con- 
 tent to make his escape, without aspiring to the honours 
 of a triumph. He and his agent took a different view. 
 They were impatient of the rewards which, as they con- 
 ceived, were deferred only till Burke's attack should be 15 
 over. They accordingly resolved to force on a decisive 
 action, with an enemy for whom, if they had been w^ise, 
 they w^ould have made a bridge of gold. On the first day 
 of the session of 1786, Major Scott reminded Burke of 
 the notice given in the preceding year, and asked whether 20 
 it was seriously intended to bring any charge against 
 the late Governor-General. This challenge left no course 
 open to the Opposition, except to come forward as 
 accusers, or to acknowledge themselves calumniators. 
 The administration of Hastings had not been so blame- 25 
 less, nor was the great party of Fox and North so feeble, 
 that it could be prudent to venture on so bold a defiance. 
 The leaders of the Opposition instantly returned the 
 only answer which they could with honour return; and 
 the whole party was irrevocably pledged to a prosecution. 30 
 
 Burke began his operations by applying for Papers. 
 Some of the documents for which he asked were refused 
 by the ministers, who, in the debate^ held language such 
 
Ii8 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 as strongly confirmed the prevailing opinion, that they 
 intended to support Hastings. In April the charges 
 were laid on the table. They had been drawn by Burke 
 with great abihty, though in a form too much resembling 
 5 that of a pamphlet. Hastings was furnished with a copy 
 of the accusation; and it was intimated to him that he 
 might, if he thought fit, be heard in his own defence at 
 the bar of the Commons. 
 
 Here again Hastings was pursued by the same fatality 
 
 10 which had attended him ever since the day when he set 
 foot on English ground. It seemed to be decreed that 
 this man, so politic and so successful in the East, should 
 commit nothing but blunders in Europe. Any judicious 
 adviser would have told him that the best thing which 
 
 15 he could do would be to make an eloquent, forcible, and 
 aft'ecting oration at the bar of the House; but that, if he 
 could not trust himself to speak, and found it necessarjr 
 to read, he ought to be as concise as possible. Audiences 
 accustomed to extemporaneous debating of the highest 
 
 20 excellence are always impatient of long written com- 
 positions. Hastings, however, sat down as he would 
 have done at the Government-house in Bengal, and 
 prepared a paper of immense length. That paper, if 
 recorded on the consultations of an Indian administra- 
 
 25 tion, would have been justly praised as a very able 
 minute. But it was now out of place. It fell flat, as 
 the best written defence must have fallen flat, on an 
 assembly accustomed to the animated and strenuous 
 conflicts of Pitt and Fox. The members, as soon as 
 
 30 their curiosity about the face and demeanour of so emi- 
 nent a stranger was satisfied, walked away to dinner, 
 and left Hastings to tell his story till midnight to the 
 clerks and the Sergeant-at-arms. 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 119 
 
 All preliminary steps having been duly taken, Burke, 
 in the beginning of June, brought forward the charge 
 relating to the Rohilla war. He acted discreetly in pla- 
 cing this accusation in the van; for Dundas had formerly 
 moved, and the House had adopted, a resolution con- 5 
 demning, in the most severe terms, the policy followed 
 by Hastings with regard to Rohilcund. Dundas had little, 
 or rather nothing, to say in defence of his own consist- 
 ency; but he put a bold face on the matter, and opposed 
 the motion. Among other things, he declared that, 10 
 though he still thought the Rohilla war unjustifiable, he 
 considered the services which Hastings had subsequently 
 rendered to the state as sufficient to atone even for so 
 great an offence. Pitt did not speak, but voted with 
 Dundas; and Hastings was absolved by a hundred and 15 
 nineteen votes against sixty-seven. 
 
 Hastings was now confident of victory. It seemed, 
 indeed, that he had reason to be so. The Rohilla war 
 was, of all his measures, that which his accusers might 
 with greatest advantage assail. It had been condemned 20 
 by the Court of Directors. It had been condemned by 
 the House of Commons. It had been condemned by Mr. 
 Dundas, who had since become the chief minister of the 
 Crown for Indian affairs. Yet Burke, having chosen 
 this strong ground, had been completely defeated on it. 25 
 That, having failed here, he should succeed on any point, 
 was generally thought impossible. It was rumoured at 
 the clubs and coffee-houses that one or perhaps two more 
 charges would be brought forward, that if, on those 
 charges, the sense of the House of Comrdons should be 30 
 against impeachment, the Opposition would let the matter 
 drop, that Hastings would be immediately raised to the 
 peerage, decorated with the star of the Bath, sworn of the 
 
120 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 privy council, and invited to lend the assistance of his 
 talents and experience to the India board. Lord Thurlow, 
 indeed, some months before, had spoken with contempt 
 of the scruples which prevented Pitt from calling Hastings 
 5 to the House of Lords; and had even said, that if the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer was afraid of the Commons, 
 there was nothing to prevent the Keeper of the Great 
 Seal from taking the royal pleasure about a patent of 
 peerage. The very title was chosen. Hastings was to 
 
 lo be Lord Daylesford. For, through all changes of scene 
 and changes of fortune, remained unchanged his attach- 
 ment to the spot which had witnessed the greatness and 
 the fall of his family, and which had borne so great a 
 part in the first dreams of his young ambition. 
 
 15 But in a very few days these fair prospects were over- 
 cast. ^On the thirteenth of June, Mr. Fox brought 
 forward, with great abihty and eloquence, the charge re- 
 specting the treatment of Cheyte Sing/ Francis followed 
 on the same side. The friends of Hastings were in high 
 
 20 spirits when Pitt rose. With his usual abundance and 
 felicity of language, the Minister gave his opinion on 
 the case. He maintained that the Governor-General 
 was justified in calling on the Rajah of Benares for pecu- 
 niary assistance, and in imposing a fine when that assist- 
 
 25 ance was contumaciously withheld. He also thought 
 that the conduct of the Governor-General during the 
 insurrection had been distinguished by ability and pres- 
 ence of mind. He censured, with great bitterness, the 
 conduct of Francis, both in India and in ParHament, 
 
 30 as most dishonest and malignant. The necessary infer- 
 ence from Pitt's arguments seemed to be that Hastings 
 ought to be honourably acquitted; and both the friends 
 and the opponents of the Minister expected from him 
 
WARREN HASTINGS l2i 
 
 a declaration to that effect. To the astonishment of all 
 parties, he concluded by saying that, though he thought 
 it right in Hastings to fine Cheyte Sing for contumacy, 
 yet the amount of the fine was too great for the occasion. 
 On this ground, and on this ground alone, did Mr. Pitt, 5 
 applauding every other part of the conduct of Hastings 
 with regard to Benares, declare that he should vote in 
 favour of Mr. Fox's motion. 
 
 The House was thunderstruck; and it well might be so. 
 For the wrong done to Cheyte Sing, even had it been as 10 
 flagitious as Fox and Francis contended, was a trifle when 
 compared with the horrors which had been inflicted on 
 Rohilcund. But if Mr. Pitt's view of the case of Cheyte 
 Sing were correct, there was no ground for an impeach- 
 ment, or even for a vote of censure. If the offence of 15 
 Hastings was really no more than this, that, having a 
 right to impose a mulct, the amount of which mulct was 
 not defined, but was left to be settled by his discretion, 
 he had, not for his own advantage, but for that of the 
 state, demanded too much, was this an offence which 20 
 required a criminal proceeding of the highest solemnity, 
 a criminal proceeding, to which, during sixty years, no 
 public functionary had been subjected? We can see, we 
 think, in what way a man of sense and integrity might 
 have been induced to take any course respecting Hastings, 25 
 except the course which Mr. Pitt took. Such a man 
 might have thought a great example necessary, for the 
 preventing of injustice, and for the vindicating of the 
 national honour, and might, on that ground, have voted 
 for impeachment both on the Rohilla charge, and on the 30 
 Benares charge. Such a man might have thought that 
 the offences of Hastings had been atoned for by great ser- 
 vices, and might, on that ground, have voted against the 
 
122 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 impeachment, on both charges. With great diffidence, 
 we give it as our opinion that the most correct course 
 would, on the whole, have been to impeach on the Rohilla 
 charge, and to acquit on the Benares charge. Had the 
 5 Benares charge appeared to us in the same Hght in which 
 it appeared to Mr. Pitt, we should, without hesitation, 
 have voted for acquittal on that charge. The one course 
 which it is inconceivable that any man of a tenth part 
 of Mr. Pitt's abilities can have honestly taken was the 
 
 lo course which he took. He acquitted Hastings on the 
 Rohilla charge. He softened down the Benares charge 
 till it became no charge at all; and then he pronounced 
 that it contained matter for impeachment.. 
 
 Nor must it be forgotten that the principal reason 
 
 15 assigned by the ministry for not impeaching Hastings 
 on account of the Rohilla war was this, that the delin- 
 quencies of the early part of his administration had been 
 atoned for by the excellence of the later part. Was it 
 not most extraordinary that men who had held this 
 
 20 language could afterwards vote that the later part of his 
 administration furnished matter for no less than twenty 
 articles of impeachment? They first represented the 
 conduct of Hastings in 1780 and 1781 as so highly meri- 
 torious that, like works of supererogation in the Catholic 
 
 25 theology, it ought to be efficacious for the canceUing of 
 former offences; and they then prosecuted him for his 
 conduct in 1780 and 1781. 
 
 The general astonishment was the greater, because, 
 only twenty-four hours before, the members on whom 
 
 30 the minister could depend had received the usual notes 
 from the Treasury, begging them to be in their places 
 and to vote against Mr. Fox's motion. It was asserted 
 by Mr. Hastings that, early on the morning of the very 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 123 
 
 day on which the debate took place, Dundas called on 
 Pitt, woke him, and was closeted with him many hours. 
 The result of this conference was a determination to give 
 up the late Governor- General to the vengeance of the 
 Opposition. It was impossible even for the most power- 5 
 ful minister to carry all his followers with him in so 
 strange a course. Several persons high in ofiQce, the 
 Attorney-General, Mr Glenville, and Lord Mulgrave, 
 divided against Mr. Pitt. But the devoted adherents 
 who stood by the head of the government without ask- 10 
 ing questions, were sufficiently numerous to turn the 
 scale. A hundred and nineteen members voted for Mr. 
 Fox's motion; seventy-nine against it. Dundas silently 
 followed Pitt. 
 
 That good and great man, the late William Wilberf orce, 1 5 
 often related the events of this remarkable night. He 
 described the amazement of the House, and the bitter 
 reflections which were muttered against the Prime Minis- 
 ter by some of the habitual supporters of government. 
 Pitt himself appeared to feel that his conduct required 20 
 some explanation. He left the treasury bench, sat for 
 some time next to Mr. Wilberforce, and very earnestly 
 declared that he had found it impossible, as a man of con- 
 science, to stand any longer by Hastings. The business, 
 he said, was too bad. ' Mr. Wilberforce, we are bound to 25 
 add, fully believed that his friend was sincere, and that 
 the suspicions to which this mysterious affair gave rise 
 were altogether unfounded. 
 
 Those suspicions, indeed, were such as it is painful to 
 mention. The friends of Hastings, most of whom, it is 30 
 to be observed, generally supported the administration, 
 affirmed that the motive of Pitt and Dundas was jealousy. 
 Hastings was personally a favourite with the king. He 
 
124 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 was the idol of the East India Company and of its ser- 
 vants. If he were absolved by the Commons, seated 
 among the Lords, admitted to the Board of Control, 
 closely allied with the strong-minded and imperious 
 5 Thurlow, was it not almost certain that he would soon 
 draw to himself the entire management of Eastern affairs? 
 Was it not possible that he might become a formidable 
 rival in the cabinet? It had probably got abroad that 
 very singular communications had taken place between 
 
 lo Thurlow and Major Scott, and that, if the First Lord of 
 the Treasury was afraid to recommend Hastings for a 
 peerage, the Chancellor was ready to take the respon- 
 sibility of that step on himself. Of all ministers, Pitt 
 was the least likely to submit with patience to such an 
 
 15 encroachment on his functions. If the Commons im- 
 peached Hastings, all danger was at an end. The pro- 
 ceeding, however it might terminate, would probably 
 last some years. In the mean time, the accused person 
 would be excluded from honours and public employ- 
 
 20 ments, and could scarcely venture even to pay his duty 
 
 at court. Such were the motives attributed by a great 
 
 part of the public to the young minister, whose ruling 
 
 passion was generally believed to be avarice of power. 
 
 The prorogation soon interrupted the discussions 
 
 25 respecting Hastings. In the following year, those dis- 
 cussions were resumed. The charge touching the spolia- 
 tion of the Begums was brought forward by Sheridan, 
 in a speech which was so imperfectly reported that it 
 may be said to be wholly lost, but which was, without 
 
 30 doubt, the most elaborately briUiant of all the produc- 
 tions of his ingenious mind. The impression which it 
 produced was such as has never been equalled. He sat 
 down, not merely amidst cheering, but amidst the loud 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 125 
 
 clapping of hands, in which the Lords below the bar and 
 the strangers in the gallery joined. The excitement of 
 the House was such that no other speaker could obtain a 
 hearing; and the debate was adjourned. The ferment 
 spread fast through the town. Within four and twenty- 5 
 hours, Sheridan was offered a thousand pounds for the 
 copyright of the speech, if he would himself correct it 
 for the press. The impression made by this remarkable 
 display of eloquence on severe and experienced critics, 
 whose discernment may be supposed to have been quick- la 
 ened by emulation, was deep and permanent. Mr. 
 Windham, twenty years ■ later, said that the speech 
 deserved all its fame, and was, in spite of some faults of 
 taste, such as were seldom wanting either in the Hterary 
 or in the parHamentary performances of Sheridan, the 15 
 finest that had been delivered within the memory of man. 
 Mr. Fox, about the same time, being asked by the late 
 Lord Holland what was the best speech ever made in the 
 House of Commons, assigned the first place, without 
 hesitation, to the great oration of Sheridan on the Oude 20 
 charge. 
 
 When the debate was resumed, the tide ran so strongly 
 against the accused that his .friends were coughed and 
 scraped down. Pitt declared himself for Sheridan's, 
 motion; and the question was carried by a hundred and 25 
 seventy-five votes against sixty-eight. 
 
 The Opposition, flushed with victory and strongly sup- 
 ported by the pubUc sympathy, proceeded to bring for- 
 ward a succession of charges relating chiefly to pecuniary 
 transactions. The friends of Hastings were discouraged, 30 
 and, having now no hope of being able to avert an impeach- 
 ment, were not very strenuous in their exertions. At 
 length the House, having agreed to twenty articles of 
 
126 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 charge, directed Burke to go before the Lords, and to 
 impeach the late Governor-General of High Crimes and 
 Misdemeanours. Hastings was at the same time arrested 
 by the Sergeant-at-arms, and carried to the bar of the 
 5 Peers. 
 
 The session was now within ten days of its close. It 
 was, therefore, impossible that any progress could be 
 made in the trial till the next year. Hastings was 
 admitted to bail; and further proceedings were post- 
 
 10 poned till the Houses should re-assemble. 
 
 When Parliament met in the following winter, the 
 Commons proceeded to elect a committee for managing 
 the impeachment. Burke stood at the head; and with 
 him were associated most of the leading members of the 
 
 15 Opposition. But when the name of Francis was read 
 a fierce contention arose. It was said that Francis and 
 Hastings were notoriously on bad terms, that they had 
 been at feud during many years, that on one occasion 
 their mutual aversion had impelled them to seek each 
 
 20 other's lives, and that it would be improper and indeli- 
 cate to select a private enemy to be a public accuser. 
 It was urged on the other side with great force, particu- 
 larly by Mr. Windham, .that impartiality, though the 
 first duty of a judge, had never been reckoned among 
 
 25 the qualities of an advocate; that in the ordinary admin- 
 istration of criminal justice among the English, the 
 aggrieved party, the very last person who ought to be 
 admitted into the jury-box, is the prosecutor; that what 
 was wanted in a manager was, not that he should be 
 
 30 free from bias, but that he should be able, well informed, 
 energetic, and active. The ability and information of 
 Francis were admitted; and the very animosity with 
 which he was reproached, whether a virtue or a vice, 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 127 
 
 was at least a pledge for his energy and activity. It 
 seems difficult to refute these arguments. But the 
 inveterate hatred borne by Francis to Hastings had 
 excited general disgust. The House decided that Francis 
 should not be a manager. Pitt voted with the majority, 5 
 Dundas with the minority. 
 
 In the mean time, the preparations for the trial had 
 proceeded rapidly; and on the thirteenth of February, 
 1788, the sittings of the Court commenced. There have 
 been spectacles more dazzling to the eye, more gorgeous 10 
 with jewellery and cloth of gold, more attractive to grown- 
 up children, than that which was then exhibited at West- 
 minster; but, perhaps, there never was a spectacle so well 
 calculated to strike a highly cultivated, a reflecting, an 
 imaginative mind. All the various kinds of interest which 1 5 
 belong to the near and to the distant, to the present and 
 to the past, were collected on one spot, and in one hour. 
 All the talents and all the accomplishments which are 
 developed by liberty and civilisation were now displayed, 
 with every advantage that could be derived both from 20 
 co-operation and from contrast. Every step in the 
 proceedings carried the mind either backward, through 
 many troubled centuries, to the days when the founda- 
 tions of our constitution were laid; or far away, over 
 boundless seas and deserts, to dusky nations living under 25 
 strange stars, worshipping strange gods, and writing 
 strange characters from right to left. The High Court 
 of Parliament was to sit, according to forms handed down 
 from the days of the Plantagenets, on an Englishman 
 accused of exercising tyranny over the lord of the holy 30 
 city of Benares, and over the ladies of the princely house 
 of Oude. 
 
 The place was worthy of such a trial. It was the great 
 
128 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 hall of William Rufus, the hall which had resounded with 
 acclamations at the inauguration of thirty kings, the hall 
 which had witnessed the just sentence of Bacon and the 
 just absolution of Somers, the hall where the . eloquence 
 5 of Strafford had for a moment awed and melted a vic- 
 torious party inflamed with just resentment, the hall 
 where Charles had confronted the High Court of Justice 
 with the placid courage which has half redeemed his fame. 
 Neither military nor civil pomp was wanting. The 
 
 lo avenues were lined with grenadiers. The streets were 
 kept clear by cavalry. The peers, robed in gold and 
 ermine, were marshalled by the heralds under Garter 
 King-at-arms. The judges in their vestments of state 
 attended to give advice on points of law. Near a hun- 
 
 15 dred and seventy lords, three fourths of the Upper House 
 as the Upper House then was, walked in solemn order 
 from their usual place of assembling to the tribunal. 
 The junior baron present led the way, George Eliott, 
 Lord Heathfield, recently ennobled for his memorable 
 
 20 defence of Gibraltar against the fleets and armies of 
 France and Spain. The long procession was closed by 
 the Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal of the realm, by the 
 great dignitaries, and by the brothers and sons of the 
 King. Last of all came the Prince of Wales, conspicuous 
 
 25 by his fine person and noble bearing. The grey old walls 
 were hung with scarlet. The long galleries were crowded 
 by an audience such as has rarely excited the fears 
 or the emulation of an orator. There were gathered 
 together, from all parts of a great, free, enlightened, 
 
 30 and prosperous empire, grace and female loveliness, wit 
 and learning, the representatives of every science and 
 of every art. There were seated around the Queen the 
 fair-headed young daughters of the house of Brunswick. 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 129 
 
 There the Ambassadors of great Kings and Common- 
 wealths gazed with admiration on a spectacle which no 
 other country in the world could present. There Siddons, 
 in the prime of her majestic beauty, looked with emo- 
 tion on a scene surpassing all the imitations of the stage. 5 
 There the historian of the Roman Empire thought of the 
 days when Cicero pleaded the cause of Sicily against 
 Verres, and when, before a senate which still retained 
 some show of freedom, Tacitus thundered against the 
 oppressor of Africa. There were seen, side by side, the 10 
 greatest painter and the greatest scholar of the age. The 
 spectacle had allured Reynolds from that easel which has 
 preserved to us the thoughtful foreheads of so many 
 writers and statesmen, and the sweet smiles of so many 
 noble matrons. It had induced Parr to suspend his 15 
 labours in that dark and profound mind from which he 
 had extracted a vast treasure of erudition, a treasure too 
 often buried in the earth, too often paraded with inju- 
 dicious and inelegant ostentation, but still precious, 
 massive, and splendid. There appeared the voluptuous 20 
 charms of her to whom the heir of the throne had in secret 
 plighted his faith. There too was she, the beautiful 
 mother of a beautiful race, the Saint Cecilia whose deli- 
 cate features, lighted up by love and music, art has 
 rescued from the common decay. There were the mem- 25 
 bers of that brilliant society which quoted, criticized, and 
 exchanged repartees, under the rich peacock-hangings 
 of Mrs. Montague. And there the ladies whose lips, more 
 persuasive than those of Fox himself, had carried the 
 Westminster election against palace and treasury, shone 30 
 round Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire. 
 
 The Sergeants made proclamation. Hastings advanced 
 to the bar, and bent his knee. The culprit was indeed 
 
I30 WARREISi: HASTINGS 
 
 not unworthy of that great presence. He had ruled an 
 extensive and populous country, and made laws arid 
 treaties, had sent forth armies, had set up and pulled 
 down princes. And in his high place he had so borne 
 5 himself, that all had feared him, that most had loved him, 
 and that hatred itself could deny him no title to glory, 
 except virtue. He looked like a great man, and not like 
 a bad man. A person small and emaciated, yet deriving 
 dignity from a carriage which, while it indicated defer- 
 
 10 ence to the court, indicated also habitual self-possession 
 and self-respect, a high and intellectual forehead, a brow 
 pensive, but not gloomy, a mouth of inflexible decision, 
 a face pale and worn, but serene, on which was written, 
 as legibly as under the picture in the council-chamber at 
 
 15 Calcutta, Mens cequa in arduis; such was the aspect with 
 
 which the great proconsul presented himself to his judges. 
 
 His counsel accompanied him, men all of whom were 
 
 afterwards raised by their talents and learning to the 
 
 highest posts in their profession, the bold and strong- 
 
 20 minded Law, afterwards Chief Justice of the King's 
 Bench; the more humane and eloquent Dallas, afterwards 
 Chief- Justice of the Common Pleas; and Plomer who, 
 near twenty years later, successfully conducted in the 
 same high court the defence of Lord Melville, and sub- 
 
 25 sequently became Vice-chancellor and Master of the 
 Rolls. 
 
 But neither the culprit nor his advocates attracted 
 so much notice as the accusers. In the midst of the 
 blaze of red drapery, a space had been fitted up with 
 
 30 green benches, and tables for the Commons. The mana- 
 gers, with Burke at their head, appeared in full dress. 
 The collectors of gossip did not fail to remark that even 
 Fox, generally so regardless of his appearance, had paid 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 131 
 
 to the illustrious tribunal the compliment of wearing a 
 bag and sword. Pitt had refused to be one of the con- 
 ductors of the impeachment; and his commanding, 
 copious, and sonorous eloquence was wanting to that 
 great muster of various talents. Age and blindness had 5 
 unfitted Lord North for the duties of a pubhc prosecutor; 
 and his friends were left without the help of his excellent 
 sense, his tact, and his urbanity. But, in spite of the 
 absence of these two distinguished members of the Lower 
 House, the box in which the managers stood contained 10 
 an array of speakers such as perhaps had not appeared 
 together since the great age of Athenian eloquence. 
 There were Fox and Sheridan, the EngUsh Demosthenes 
 and the Enghsh Hyperides. There was Burke, ignorant, 
 indeed, or negligent of the art of adapting his reasonings 15 
 and his style to the capacity and taste of his hearers, but 
 in ampUtude of comprehension and richness of imagina- 
 tion superior to every orator, ancient or modern. There, 
 with eyes reverentially fixed on Burke, appeared the finest 
 gentleman of the age, his form developed by every manly 20 
 exercise, his face beaming with intelligence and spirit, 
 the ingenious, the chivalrous, the high-souled Windham. 
 Nor, though surrounded by such men, did the youngest 
 manager pass unnoticed. At an age when most of those 
 who distinguished themselves in life are still contending 25 
 for prizes and fellowships at college, he had won for him- 
 self a conspicuous place in parhament. No advantage of 
 fortune or connection was wanting that could set off to the 
 height his splendid talents and his unblemished honour. 
 At twenty-three he had been thought worthy to be ranked 30 
 with the veteran statesmen who appeared as the delegates 
 of the British Commons, at the bar of the British nobihty. 
 All who stood at that bar, save him alone, are gone, cul- 
 
132 
 
 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 prit, advocates, accusers. To the generation which is 
 now in the vigour of Hfe, he is the sole representative of 
 a great age which had passed away. But those who, 
 within the last ten years, have listened with delight, till 
 5 the morning sun shone on the tapestries of the House 
 of Lords, to the lofty and animated eloquence of 
 Charles Earl Grey, are able to form some estimate of 
 the powers of a race of men among whom he was not 
 the foremost. 
 
 lo The charges and the answers of Hastings were first 
 read. The ceremony occupied two whole days, and was 
 rendered less tedious than it would otherwise have been 
 by the silver voice and just emphasis of Cowper, the 
 clerk of the court, a near relation of the amiable poet. 
 
 15 On the third day Burke rose. Four sittings were occu- 
 pied by his opening speech, which was intended to be a 
 general introduction to all the charges. With an ex- 
 uberance of thought and a splendour of diction which 
 more than satisfied the highly-raised expectation of the 
 
 20 audience, he described the character and institutions 
 of the natives of India, recounted the circumstances in 
 which the Asiatic empire of Britain had originated, and 
 set forth the constitution of the Company and of the 
 English Presidencies. Having thus attempted to com- 
 
 25 municate to his hearers an idea of Eastern society, as 
 
 vivid as that which existed in his own mind, he proceeded 
 
 to arraign the administration of Hastings as system- 
 
 - atically conducted in defiance of morality and public 
 
 law. The energy and pathos of the great orator extorted 
 
 30 expressions of unwonted admiration from the stern and 
 hostile Chancellor, and, for a moment, seemed to pierce 
 even the resolute heart of the defendant. The ladies 
 in the galleries, unaccustomed to such displays of elo- 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 133 
 
 quence, excited by the solemnity of the occasion, and 
 perhaps not unwilUng to display their taste and sensi- 
 biHty, were in a state of uncontrollable emotion. Hand- 
 kerchiefs were pulled out; smelling-bottles were handed 
 round; hysterical sobs and screams were heard; and Mrs. 5 
 Sheridan was carried out in a fit. At length the orator 
 concluded. Raising his voice till the old arches of Irish 
 oak resounded, '' Therefore," said he, ''hath it with all 
 confidence been ordered by the Commons of Great Britain, 
 that I impeach Warren Hastings of high crimes and mis- 10 
 demeanours. I impeach him in the name of the Com- 
 mons' House of Parliament, whose trust he has betrayed. 
 I impeach him in the name of the English nation, whose 
 ancient honour he has sulhed. I impeach him in the 
 name of the people of India, whose rights he has trodden 15 
 under foot, and whose country he has turned into a desert. 
 Lastly, in the name of human nature itself, in the name 
 of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the name of 
 every rank, I impeach the common enemy and oppressor 
 of all!" 20 
 
 When the deep murmur of various emotions had sub- 
 sided, Mr. Fox rose to address the Lords respecting the 
 course of proceeding to be followed. The wish of the 
 accusers was that the Court would bring to a close 
 the investigation of the first charge before the second 25 
 was opened. The wish of Hastings and of his counsel was 
 that the managers should open all the charges, and pro- 
 duce all the evidence for the prosecution, before the 
 defence began. The Lords retired to their own House 
 to consider the question. The Chancellor took the side 30 
 of Hastings. Lord Loughborough, who was now in oppo- 
 sition, supported the demand of the managers. The divi- 
 sion showed which way the inclination of the tribunal 
 
134 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 leaned. A majority of near three to one decided in 
 favour of the course for which Hastings contended. 
 
 When the Court sat again, Mr. Fox, assisted by Mr. 
 Grey, opened the charge respecting Cheyte Sing, and 
 5 several days were spent in reading papers and hearing 
 witnesses. The next article was that relating to the 
 Princesses of Oude. The conduct of this part of the case 
 was intrusted to Sheridan. The curiosity of the public 
 to hear him was unbounded. His sparkhng and highly 
 
 lo finished declamation lasted two days; but the Hall 
 was crowded to suffocation during the whole time. It 
 was said that fifty guineas had been paid for a single 
 ticket. Sheridan, when he concluded, contrived, with a 
 knowledge of stage-effect which his father might have 
 
 15 envied, to sink back, as if exhausted, into the arms of 
 Burke, who hugged him with the energy of generous 
 admiration. 
 
 June was now far advanced. The session could not 
 last much longer; and the progress which had been made. 
 
 20 in the impeachment was not very satisfactory. There 
 
 were twenty charges. On two only of these had even 
 
 the case for the prosecution been heard; and it was now 
 
 a year since Hastings had been admitted to bail. 
 
 The interest taken by the public in the trial was great 
 
 25 when the Court began to sit, and rose to the height when 
 Sheridan spoke on the charge relating to the Begums. 
 From that time the excitement went down fast. The 
 spectacle had lost the attraction of novelty. The great 
 displays of rhetoric were over. What was behind was not 
 
 30 of a nature to entice men of letters from their books in 
 the morning, or to tempt ladies who had left the masquer- 
 ade at two to be out of bed before eight. There remained 
 examinations and cross-examinations. There remained 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 135 
 
 statements of accounts. There remained the reading 
 of papers, filled with words unintelligible to English ears, 
 with lacs and crores, zemindars and aumils, sunnuds 
 and perwannahs, jaghires and nuzzurs. There remained 
 bickerings, not always carried on with the best taste or 5 
 with the best temper, between the managers of the im- 
 peachment and the counsel for the defence, particularly 
 between Mr. Burke and Mr. Law. There remained the 
 endless marches and counter-marches of the Peers between 
 their House and the Hall: for as often as a point of law 10 
 was to be discussed, their Lordships retired to discuss it 
 apart; and the consequence was, as a peer wittily said, 
 that the judges walked and the trial stood still. 
 
 It is to be added that, in the spring of 1788 when the 
 trial commenced, no important question, either of domes- 15 
 tic or foreign policy, excited the public mind. The pro- 
 ceeding in Westminster Hall, therefore, naturally attracted 
 most of the attention of Parliament and of the public. 
 It was the one great event of that season. But in the fol- 
 lowing year the King's illness, the debates on the Regency, 20 
 the expectation of a change of Ministry, completely 
 diverted public attention from Indian affairs; and within 
 a fortnight after George the Third had returned thanks 
 in St. Paul's for his recovery, the States-General of France 
 met at Versailles. In the midst of the agitation pro- 25 
 duced by these events, the impeachment was for a time 
 almost forgotten. 
 
 The trial in the Hall went on languidly. In the session 
 of 1788, when the proceedings had the interest of novelty, 
 and when the Peers had Httle other business before them, 30 
 only thirty-five days were given to the impeachment. 
 In 1789, the Regency Bill occupied the Upper House till 
 the session was far advanced. When the Kins: recovered 
 
136 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 the circuits were beginning. The judges left town; the 
 Lords waited for the return of the oracles of jurispru- 
 dence; and the consequence was that during the whole 
 year only seventeen days were given to the case of 
 5 Hastings. It was clear that the matter would be pro- 
 tracted to a length unprecedented in the annals of criminal 
 law. 
 
 In truth, it is impossible to deny that impeachment, 
 though it is a fine ceremony, and though it may have 
 
 10 been useful in the seventeenth century, is not a proceed- 
 ing from which much good can now be expected. What- 
 ever confidence m.ay be placed in the decisions of the 
 Peers on an appeal arising out of ordinary litigation, 
 it is certain that no man has the least confidence in their 
 
 15 impartiahty, when a great public functionary, charged 
 with a great state crime, is brought to their bar. They 
 are all politicians. There is hardly one among them 
 whose vote on an impeachment may not be confidently 
 predicted before a witness has been examined; and, evea 
 
 20 if it were possible to rely on their justice, they would 
 still be quite unfit to try such a cause as that of Hastings.. 
 They sit only during half the year. They have to trans- 
 act much legislative and much judicial business. The 
 law-lords, whose advice is required to guide the unlearned 
 
 25 majority, are employed daily in administering justice 
 elsewhere. It is impossible, therefore, that during a. 
 busy session, the Upper House should give more than a. 
 few days to an impeachment. To expect that their 
 Lordships would give up partridge-shooting, in order 
 
 30 to bring the greatest delinquent to speedy justice, or 
 to relieve accused innocence by speedy acquittal, would 
 be unreasonable indeed. A well-constituted tribunal, 
 sitting regularly six days in the week, and nine hours 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 137 
 
 in the day, would have brought the trial of Hastings to 
 a close in less than three months. The Lords had not 
 finished their work in seven years. 
 
 The result ceased to be matter of doubt, from the time 
 when the Lords resolved that they would be guided by 5 
 the rules of evidence which are received in the inferior 
 courts of the realm.! Those rules, it is well known, 
 exclude much information which would be quite sufficient 
 to determine the conduct of any reasonable man, in the 
 most important transactions of private life. Those rules, 10 
 at every assizes, save scores of culprits whom judges, 
 jury, and spectators, firmly believe to be guilty. But 
 when those rules were rigidly applied to offences com- 
 mitted many years before, at the distance of many thou- 
 sand miles, conviction was, of course, out of the question. 15 
 We do not blame the accused and his counsel for availing 
 themselves of every legal advantage in order to obtain 
 an acquittal. But it is clear that an acquittal so obtained 
 cannot be pleaded in bar of the judgment of history. 
 
 Several attempts were made by the friends of Hastings 20 
 to put a stop to the trial. In 1789 they proposed a vote 
 of censure upon Burke, for some violent language which 
 he had used respecting the death of Nuncomar and the 
 connection between Hastings and Impey. Burke was 
 then unpopular in the last degree both with the House 25 
 and with the country. The asperity and indecency of 
 some expressions which he had used during the debates 
 on the Regency had annoyed even his warmest friends. 
 The vote of censure was carried; and those who had 
 moved it hoped that the managers would resign in disgust. 30 
 Burke was deeply hurt. But his zeal for what he con- 
 sidered as the cause of justice and mercy triumphed over 
 his personal feelings. He received the censure of the 
 
138 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 House with dignity and meekness, and declared that no 
 personal mortification or humiUation should induce him 
 to flinch from the sacred duty which he had undertaken. 
 In the following year the Parliament was dissolved, 
 5 and the friends of Hastings entertained a hope that the 
 new House of Commons might not be disposed to go on 
 with the impeachment. They began by maintaining 
 that the whole proceeding was terminated by the dis- 
 solution. Defeated on this point, they made a direct 
 
 10 motion that the impeachment should be dropped; but 
 they were defeated by the combined forces of the Govern- 
 ment and the Opposition. It was, however, resolved 
 that, for the sake of expedition, many of the articles 
 should be withdrawn. In truth, had not some such 
 
 15 measure been adopted, the trial would have lasted till 
 the defendant was in his grave. 
 
 At length, in the spring of 1795, the decision was pro- 
 nounced, near eight years after Hastings had been brought 
 by the Sergeant-at-arms of the Commons to the bar 
 
 20 of the Lords. On the last day of this great procedure 
 the pubHc curiosity, long suspended, seemed to be revived. 
 Anxiety about the judgment there could be none; for 
 it had been fully ascertained that there was a great 
 majority for the defendant. Nevertheless many wished 
 
 25 to see the pageant, and the Hall was as much crowded 
 as on the first day. But those who, having been present 
 on the first day, now bore a part in the proceedings of 
 the last, were few; and most of those few were altered 
 men. 
 
 30 As Hastings himself said, the arraignment had taken 
 place before one generation, and the judgment was pro- 
 nounced by another. The spectator could not look at 
 the woolsack, or at the red benches of the Peers, or at 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 139 
 
 the green benches of the Commons, without seeing 
 something that reminded him of the instabihty of all 
 human things, of the instability of power and fame and 
 life, of the more lamentable instability of friendship. 
 The great seal was borne before Lord Loughborough who, 5 
 when the trial commenced, was a fierce opponent of Mr. 
 Pitt's government, and who was now a member of that 
 government, while Thurlow, who presided in the court 
 when it first sat, estranged from all his old allies, sat scowl- 
 ing among the junior barons. Of about a hundred and 10 
 sixty nobles who walked in the procession on the first day, 
 sixty had been laid in their family vaults. Still more 
 affecting must have been the sight of the manager's box. 
 What had become of that fair fellowship, so closely bound 
 together by public and private ties, so resplendent with 15 
 every talent and accomplishment? It had been scattered 
 by calamities more bitter than the bitterness of death. 
 The great chiefs were still living, and still in the full vigour 
 of their genius. But their friendship was at an end. It 
 had been violently and publicly dissolved, with tears and 20 
 stormy reproaches. If those men, once so dear to each 
 other, were now compelled to meet for the purpose of 
 managing the impeachment, they met as strangers whom 
 public business had brought together, and behaved to each 
 other with cold and distant civility. Burke had in his 25 
 vortex whirled away Windham. Fox had been followed 
 by Sheridan and Grey. 
 
 Only twenty-nine Peers voted. Of these only six found 
 Hastings guilty on the charge relating to Cheyte Sing 
 and to the Begums. On other charges, the majority in 30 
 his favour was still greater. On some, he was unani- 
 mously absolved. He was then called to the bar, was in- 
 formed from the woolsack that the Lords had acquitted 
 
140 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 him, and was solemnly discharged. He bowed respect- 
 fully and retired. 
 
 We have said that the decision had been fully expected. 
 It was also generally approved. At the commence- 
 5 ment of the trial there had been a strong and indeed 
 unreasonable feeling against Hastings. At the close of 
 the trial there was a feeling equally strong and equally 
 unreasonable in his favour. One cause of the change 
 was, no doubt, what is commonly called the fickleness 
 
 10 of the multitude, but what seems to us to be merely the 
 general law of human nature. Both in individuals and 
 in masses violent excitement is always followed by re- 
 mission, and often by reaction. We are all inclined to 
 depreciate whatever we have overpraised, and, on the 
 
 15 other hand, to show undue indulgence where we have 
 shown undue rigour. It was thus in the case of Hastings. 
 The length of his trial, moreover, made him an object 
 of compassion. It was thought, and not without reason, 
 that, even if he was guilty, he was still an ill-used man, 
 
 20 and that an impeachment of eight years was more than 
 a sufficient punishment. It was also felt that, though, 
 in the ordinary course of criminal law, a defendant is 
 not allowed to set off his good actions against his crimes, 
 a great political cause should be tried on different prin- 
 
 25 ciples, and that a man who had governed an empire 
 during thirteen years might have done some very repre- 
 hensible things, and yet might be on the whole deserving 
 of rewards and honours rather than of fine and imprison- 
 ment. The press, an instrument neglected by the prose- 
 
 30 cutors, was used by Hastings and his friends with great 
 effect. Every ship, too, that arrived from Madras or 
 Bengal, brought a cuddy full of his admirers. Every 
 gentleman from India spoke of the late Governor-General 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 141 
 
 as having deserved better, and having been treated 
 worse, than any man living. The effect of this testimony, 
 unanimously given by all persons who knew the East, 
 was naturally very great. Retired members of the 
 Indian services, civil and military, were settled in all 5 
 corners of the kingdom. Each of them was, of course, in 
 his own little circle, regarded as an oracle on an Indian 
 question; and they were, with scarcely one exception, 
 the zealous advocates of Hastings. It is to be added, 
 that the numerous addresses to the late Governor- 10 
 General, which his friends in Bengal obtained from the 
 natives and transmitted to England, made a considerable 
 impression. To these addresses we attach httle or no 
 importance. That Hastings was beloved by the people 
 whom he governed is true; but the eulogies of pundits, 15 
 zemindars, Mahommedan doctors, do not prove it to be 
 true. For an English collector or judge would have found 
 it easy to induce any native who could write to sign a 
 panegyric on the most odious ruler that ever was in India. 
 It was said that at Benares, the very place at which the 20 
 acts set forth in the first article of impeachment had been 
 committed, the natives had erected a temple to Hastings; 
 and this story excited a strong sensation in England. 
 Burke's observations on the apotheosis were admirable. 
 He saw no reason for astonishment, he said, in the inci- 25 
 dent which had been represented as so striking. He knew 
 something of the mythology of the Brahmins. He knew 
 that as they worshipped some gods from love, so they 
 worshipped others from fear. He knew that they erected 
 shrines, not only to the benignant deities of light and 30 
 plenty, but also to the fiends who preside over small-pox 
 and murder. Nor did he at all dispute the claim of Mr. 
 Hastings to be admitted into such, a Pantheon. This 
 
142 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 reply has always struck us as one of the finest that ever 
 was made in Parliament. It is a grave and forcible argu- 
 ment, decorated by the most brilUant wit and fancy. 
 Hastings was, however, safe. But in every thing 
 5 except character, he would have been far better off if, 
 when first impeached, he had at once pleaded guilty, 
 and paid a fine of fifty thousand pounds. He was a 
 ruined man. The legal expenses of his defence had been 
 enormous. The expenses which did not appear in his 
 
 lo attorney's bill were perhaps larger still. Great sums 
 had been paid to Major Scott. Great sums had been 
 laid out in bribing newspapers, rewarding pamphleteers, 
 and circulating tracts. Burke, so early as 1790, declared 
 in the House of Commons that twenty thousand pounds 
 
 15 had been employed in corrupting the press. It is cer- 
 tain that no controversial weapon, from the gravest 
 reasoning to the coarsest ribaldry, was left unemployed. 
 Logan defended the accused governor with great ability 
 in prose. For the lovers of verse, the speeches of the 
 
 20 managers were burlesqued in Simpkin's letters. It is, 
 we are afraid, indisputable that Hastings stooped so low 
 as to court the aid of that malignant and filthy baboon 
 John Williams, who called himself Anthony Pasquin. 
 It was necessary to subsidise such allies largely. The 
 
 25 private hoards of Mrs. Hastings had disappeared. It 
 is said that the banker to whom they had been intrusted 
 had failed. Still if Hastings had practised strict econ- 
 omy, he would, after all his losses, have had a moderate 
 competence; but in the management of his private affairs 
 
 30 he was imprudent. The dearest wish of his heart had 
 always been to regain Daylesford. At length, in the 
 very year in which his trial commenced, the wish was 
 accomplished; and the domain, alienated more than 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 143 
 
 seventy years before, returned to the descendant of its 
 old lords. But the manor house was a ruin; and the 
 grounds round it had, during many years, been utterly 
 neglected. Hastings proceeded to build, to plant, to 
 form a sheet of water, to excavate a grotto; and, before 5 
 he was dismissed from the bar of the House of Lords, he 
 had expended more than forty thousand pounds in adorn- 
 ing his seat. 
 
 The general feeling both of the Directors and of the pro- 
 prietors of the East India Company was that he had great 10 
 claims on them, that his services to them had been emi- 
 nent, and that his misfortunes had been the effect of his 
 zeal for their interest. His friends in Leadenhall Street 
 proposed to reimburse him for the costs of his trial, and 
 to settle on him an annuity of five thousand pounds a 15 
 year. But the consent of the Board of Control was neces- 
 sary; and at the head of the Board of Control was Mr. 
 Dundas, who had himself been a party to the impeachment, 
 who had, on that account, been reviled with great bitter- 
 ness by the adherents of Hastings, and who, therefore, 20 
 was not in a very complying mood. He refused to con- 
 sent to what the Directors suggested. The Directors 
 remonstrated. A long controversy followed. Hastings, 
 in the mean time, was reduced to such distress, that he 
 could hardly pay his weekly bills. At length a com- 25 
 promise was made. An annuity of four thousand a year 
 was settled on Hastings; and in order to enable him to 
 meet pressing demands, he was to receive ten years' 
 annuity in advance. The Company was also permitted 
 to lend him fifty thousand pounds, to be repaid by instal- 30 
 ments without interest. This relief, though given in the 
 most absurd manner, was sufficient to enable the retired 
 governor to live in comfort, and even in luxury, if he had 
 
144 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 been a skilful manager. But he was careless and profuse, 
 and was more than once under the necessity of applying 
 to the Company for assistance, which was liberally given. 
 He had security and afifluence, but not the power and 
 5 dignity which, when he landed from India, he had reason 
 to expect. He had then looked forward to a coronet, 
 a red riband, a seat at the Council Board, an office at 
 Whitehall. He was then only fifty-two, and might hope 
 for many years of bodily and mental vigour. The case 
 
 lo was widely different when he left the bar of the Lords. 
 He was now too old a man to turn his mind to a new class 
 of studies and duties. He had no chance of receiving 
 any mark of royal favour while Mr. Pitt remained in 
 power; and, when Mr. Pitt retired, Hastings was approach- 
 
 15 ing his seventieth year. 
 
 Once, and only once, after his acquittal, he interfered 
 in politics; and that interference was not much to his 
 honour. In 1804 he exerted himself strenuously to pre- 
 vent Mr. Addington, against whom Fox and Pitt had 
 
 20 combined, from resigning the Treasury. It is difficult 
 to believe that a man so able and energetic as Hastings 
 can have thought that, when Bonaparte was at Bou- 
 logne with a great army, the defence of our island could 
 safely be intrusted to a ministry which did not contain 
 
 25 a single person whom flattery could describe as a great 
 statesman. It is also certain that, on the important 
 question which had raised Mr. Addington to power, and 
 on which he differed from both Fox and Pitt, Hastings, 
 as might have been expected, agreed with Fox and Pitt, 
 
 30 and was decidedly opposed to Addington. Religious 
 intolerance has never been the vice of the Indian service, 
 and certainly was not the vice of Hastings. But Mr. 
 Addington had treated him with marked favour. Fox 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 145 
 
 had been a principal manager of the impeachment. To 
 Pitt it was owing that there had been an impeachment; 
 and Hastings, we fear, was on this occasion guided by 
 personal considerations, rather than by a regard to the 
 public interest. 5 
 
 The last twenty-four years of his life were chiefly 
 passed at Daylesford. He amused himself with embel- 
 lishing his grounds, riding fine Arab horses, fattening 
 prize-cattle, and trying to rear Indian animals and vege- 
 tables in England. He sent for seeds of a very fine 10 
 custard-apple, from the garden of what had once been 
 his own villa, among the green hedgerows of Allipore. 
 He tried also to naturalise in Worcestershire the delicious 
 leechee, almost the only fruit of Bengal which deserves 
 to be regretted even amidst the plenty of Covent Garden. 15 
 The Mogul emperors, in the time of their greatness, had 
 in vain attempted to introduce into Hindostan the goat 
 of the table-land of Thibet, whose down supplies the 
 looms of Cashmere with the materials of the finest shawls. 
 Hastings tried, with no better fortune, to rear a breed 20 
 at Daylesford; nor does he seem to have succeeded better 
 with the cattle of Bootan, whose tails are in high esteem 
 as the best fans for brushing away the mosquitoes. 
 
 Literature divided his attention with his conservatories 
 and his menagerie. He had always loved books, and they 25 
 were now necessary to him. Though not a poet, in any 
 high sense of the word, he wrote neat and poHshed lines 
 with great facility, and was fond of exercising this talent. 
 Indeed, if we must speak out, he seems to have been more 
 of a Trissotin than was to be expected from the powers 30 
 of his mind, and from the great part which he had played 
 in Hfe. We are assured in these Memoirs that the first 
 thing which he did in the morning was to compose a copy 
 
146 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 of verses. When the family and guests assembled, the 
 poem made its appearance as regularly as the eggs and 
 rolls; and Mr. Gleig requires us to believe that, if from 
 any accident Hastings came to the breakfast-table with- 
 5 out one of his charming performances in his hand, the 
 omission was felt by all as a grievous disappointment. 
 Tastes differ widely. For ourselves we must say that, 
 however good the breakfasts at Daylesford may have 
 been, — and we are assured that the tea was of the most 
 
 10 aromatic flavour, and that neither tongue nor venison- 
 pasty was wanting, — we should have thought the 
 reckoning high if we had been forced to earn our repast 
 by listening every day to a new madrigal or sonnet com- 
 posed by our host. We are glad, however, that Mr. 
 
 1 5 Gleig has preserved this little feature of character, though 
 we think it by no means a beauty. It is good to be often 
 reminded of the inconsistency of human nature, and to 
 learn to look without wonder or disgust on the weaknesses 
 which are found in the strongest minds. Dionysius in 
 
 20 old times, Frederic in the last century, with capacity 
 and vigour equal to the conduct of the greatest affairs, 
 united all the little vanities and affectations of pro- 
 vincial blue-stockings. These great examples may con- 
 sole the admirers of Hastings for the affliction of seeing 
 
 25 him reduced to the level of the Hayleys and Sewards. 
 
 When Hastings had passed many years in retirement, 
 
 and had long outlived the common age of men, he again 
 
 became for a short time an object of general attention. 
 
 In 1 813 the charter of the East India Company was 
 
 30 renewed; and much discussion about Indian affairs took 
 place in Parliament. It was determined to examine 
 witnesses at the bar of the Commons; and Hastings was 
 ordered to attend. He had appeared at that bar once 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 147 
 
 before. It was when he read his answer to the charges 
 which Burke had laid on the table. Since that time 
 twenty-seven years had elapsed; pubHc feeling had under- 
 gone a complete change; the nation had now forgotten 
 his faults, and remembered only his services. The 5 
 reappearance, too, of a man who had been among the 
 most distinguished of a generation that had passed away, 
 who now belonged to history, and who seemed to have 
 risen from the dead, could not but produce a solemn and 
 pathetic effect. The Commons received him with accla- 10 
 mations, ordered a chair to be set for him, and when he 
 retired, rose and uncovered. There were, indeed, a few 
 who did not sympathise with the general feeling. One or 
 two of the managers of the impeachment were present. 
 They sate in the same seats which they had occupied 15 
 when they had been thanked for the services which they 
 had rendered in Westminster Hall: for, by the courtesy 
 of the House, a member who has been thanked in his 
 place is considered as having a right always to occupy 
 that place. These gentlemen were not disposed to admit 20 
 that they had employed several of the best years of their 
 Hves in persecuting an innocent man. They accordingly 
 kept their seats, and pulled their hats over their brows; 
 but the exceptions only made the prevailing enthusiasm 
 more remarkable. The Lords received the old man with 25 
 similar tokens of respect. The University of Oxford 
 conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws; and, in 
 the Sheldonian Theatre, the under-graduates welcomed 
 him with tumultuous cheering. 
 
 These marks of public esteem were soon followed by 30 
 marks of royal favour. Hastings was sworn of the Privy 
 Council, and was admitted to a long private audience 
 of the Prince Regent, who treated him very graciously. 
 
148 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 When the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia 
 visited England, Hastings appeared in their train both 
 at Oxford and in the Guildhall of London, and, though 
 surrounded by a crowd of princes and great warriors, was 
 
 5 every where received by the pubhc with marks of respect 
 and admiration. He was presented by the Prince Regent 
 both to Alexander and to Frederic WilHam; and his 
 Royal Highness went so far as to declare in public that 
 honours far higher than a seat in the Privy Council were 
 
 10 due, and would soon be paid, to the man who had saved 
 the British dominions in Asia. Hastings now con- 
 fidently expected a peerage; but, from some unexplained 
 cause, he was again disappointed. 
 
 He lived about four years longer, in the enjoyment of 
 
 15 good spirits, of faculties not impaired to any painful or 
 degrading extent, and of health such as is rarely enjoyed 
 by those who attain such an age. At length, on the 
 twenty-second of August, 1818, in the eighty-sixth year 
 of his age, he met death with the same tranquil and 
 
 20 decorous fortitude which he had opposed to all the trials 
 of his various and eventful life. 
 
 With all his faults, — and they were neither few nor 
 small, — only one cemetery was worthy to contain his 
 remains. In that temple of silence and reconciliation 
 
 25 where the enmities of twenty generations lie buried, in 
 the great Abbey which has during many ages afforded a 
 quiet resting-place to those whose minds and bodies have 
 been shattered by the contentions of the Great Hall, the 
 dust of the illustrious accused should have mingled with 
 
 30 the dust of the illustrious accusers. This was not to be. 
 Yet the place of interment was not ill chosen. Behind 
 the chancel of the parish church of Daylesford, in earth 
 which already held the bones of many chiefs of the house 
 
WARREN HASTINGS 149 
 
 of Hastings, was laid the coffin of the greatest man who 
 has ever borne that ancient and widely extended name. 
 On that very spot probably, fourscore years before, the 
 little Warren, meanly clad and scantily fed, had played 
 with the children of ploughmen. Even then his young 5 
 mind had revolved plans which might be called romantic. 
 Yet, however romantic, it is not likely that they had been 
 so strange as the truth, ^l^ot only had the poor orphan] 
 retrieved the fallen fortunes of his line. Not only had he 
 repurchased the old lands, and rebuilt the old dwelling. 10 
 He had preserved and extended an empire. He had 
 founded a polity. He had administered government and 
 war with more than the capacity of Richelieu. He had 
 patronised learning with the judicious liberality of Cosmo. 
 He had been attacked by the most formidable combina- 1 5 
 tion of enemies that ever sought the destruction of a single 
 victim; and over that combination, after a struggle of 
 ten years, he had triumphed. He had at length gone 
 down to his grave in the fulness of age, in peace, after so 
 many troubles, in honour, after so much obloquy. , 20 
 
 Those who look on his character without favour or 
 malevolence will pronounce that, in the two great ele- 
 ments of all social virtue, in respect, for the rights of 
 others, and in sympathy for the sufferings of others, he 
 w^as deficient. His principles were somewhat lax. His 25 
 heart was somewhat hard. But while we cannot with 
 truth describe him either as a righteous or as a merciful 
 ruler, we cannot regard without admiration the amplitude 
 and fertility of his intellect, his rare talents for command, 
 for administration, and for controversy, his dauntless 30 
 courage, his honourable poverty, his fervent zeal for the 
 interests of the state, his noble equanimity, tried by both 
 extremes of fortune, and never disturbed by either. 
 
NOTES 
 
 Page 3. line i. This book: the Essay on Warren Hastings, 
 like many other of Macaulay's essays, first appeared in the 
 Edinburgh Review as a review of a particular book, Memoirs of 
 the Life of Warren Hastings, written by the Rev. G. R. Gleig 
 and pubhshed in London, 1841. A discussion of Macaulay's 
 strictures on this book is given in the Introduction. 
 
 4. 5. The Prince: The famous book of Machiavelli (1469- 
 1527). It has been interpreted as excusing duplicity and tyranny 
 in political affairs. 
 
 4. 6. The Whole Duty of Man: the title of a religious book, 
 pubhshed in 1657, and long popular. 
 
 5. 4. Lely, Sir Peter (i6i8-i68o):a native of Holland who 
 settled in London and became a famous painter of portraits. 
 
 5. 10. Curl-pated minions: the fashionable courtiers of the 
 Stuarts wore their hair in long curls. The men of the parliamen- 
 tary party wore their hair close cut — hence their nickname 
 " Roundheads." James I won an unenviable notoriety on 
 account of his favourites or minions. 
 
 5. 20. Sea-King: Hasting, a Scandinavian viking of the 
 ninth century, ravaged the shores of England and of France 
 until he was defeated by King Alfred in 894. His exploits are in 
 part legendary. 
 
 5. 26. Coronet of Pembroke: they became Earls of Pem- 
 broke. 
 
 5. 27. The renowned Chamberlain: Lord William Hastings 
 (1430-1483), an adherent of the House of York whose badge was 
 the White Rose. He was a favourite of Edward IV, who made 
 him Grand Chamberlain of the Royal Household, but he was 
 beheaded in 1483 by the order of Richard III. He is a frequent 
 character in imaginative literature, notably in Shakespeare's 
 King Richard III. 
 
 5. 30. The Earldom of Huntingdon: The title was dormant 
 for thirty years, until 1819, when Captain Hans-Francis Hastings 
 
 151 
 
152 NOTES 
 
 succeeded in proving his descent from the second earl (1560), 
 and was called to the House of Lords as eleventh Earl of Hunt- 
 ingdon. The romance lay partly in the strange series of events 
 that left Captain Hastings, who was but a distant relative, the 
 only Hving claimant to the title, and partly in the fact that the 
 claim was finally pushed to a successful issue not by the claimant 
 himself but by his friend and legal adviser, Mr. Bell, who bore the 
 entire expense and responsibility. 
 
 6. II. Speaker Lenthal (1591-1662): Speaker of the House 
 of Commons in the period of the Commonwealth. 
 
 7. 15. Isis: a name sometimes given to the Thames in its 
 upper course. 
 
 8. 3. Westminster School: one of the famous " public 
 schools " of England, established by Henry VII and re-estab- 
 lished by Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 8. 4. Vinny Bourne: Vincent (" Vinny ") Bourne, scholar 
 and teacher, was a great favourite with his pupils. He was well 
 known as a writer of Latin verse. Cowper says, " I love the 
 memory of Vincy Bourne." 
 
 8. 6. Churchill, Charles (i 731-1764): a famous satirist of 
 his day, whose best poem. The Rosciad, was directed against the 
 actors of that time. 
 
 8. 6. Colman, George (i 733-1 794): a celebrated dramatist 
 whose best comedy. The Jealous Wife, long held the stage. 
 
 8. 6. Lloyd, Robert (i 733-1 764): a minor poet, and friend 
 of Churchill. 
 
 8. 6. Cumberland, Richard (i 732-181 1) : a well-known dram- 
 atist and essayist of the eighteenth century. His best play is 
 The West Indian. 
 
 8. 6. Cowper, William (1731-1800): the great English poet, 
 who was also the writer of some of the most delightful letters 
 in the language. 
 
 8. 33. Elijah Impey: Sir Elijah Impey (i 732-1809), Chief 
 Justice of Bengal. He was educated at Westminster School, 
 where he was a school-mate of Hastings, and at Trinity College, 
 Cambridge. He studied law, appeared as counsel for the East 
 India Company in 1772, and served as Chief Justice of Bengal 
 from 1774 to 1789. In India, he was concerned in important 
 litigation, his most celebrated case being that of Nuncomar, 
 whom, after a fair trial, he and his colleagues sentenced to death. 
 
NOTES 153 
 
 Though bitterly opposed and hampered in his reforms by Sir 
 PhiHp Francis he did good work in settling the legal code and in 
 establishing the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. In 1784 he 
 returned to England to defend himself against charges instigated 
 by Francis; and, though impeached at the bar of the House of 
 Commons in 1788, ably defended himself, and was fully vindi- 
 cated. 
 
 Impey, even apart from his profession, was a man of excel- 
 lent education; and, on the whole, seems to have been an able 
 jurist of perfectly honest intentions; yet it is perhaps true that a 
 certain weakness of character made him sometimes too amenable 
 to the suggestions of Warren Hastings. Macaulay's estimate of 
 his character, based partly on the misrepresentations of Impey's 
 enemies and partly on pure assumption, is misleading and unfair. 
 
 9. 7. Foundation: in general, an endowment the income from 
 which is devoted to some purpose of charity; more strictly, an 
 endowment at some school or college, the income from which 
 supports a student or students. Here, the reference is to a scholar- 
 ship at Westminster School. 
 
 9. II. Christ Church: one of the colleges of Oxford Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 9. 24. Writership: a technical term meaning a clerkship in 
 the East India Company. 
 
 9. 24. The East India Company: There were several East 
 India Companies, in various countries, but the present reference 
 is to that of England. This famous organisation, nientioned so 
 often in this Essay, was composed originally of London mer- 
 chants, incorporated by Queen Elizabeth on December 31, 1600^ 
 as " The Governor and Company of Merchants of London 
 trading with the East Indies." The Company's first important 
 achievement was to obtain from the Mogul Emperor at Delhi 
 in 161 2 the privilege of erecting a " factory " or trading-station 
 at Surat. In 1645, the .native Hindoos permitted the Company 
 to build Fort St. George at Madras. In 1661, King Charles II 
 granted the Company the power to make peace or war with 
 infidels, to erect forts, to acquire land, and to exercise civil and 
 criminal jurisdiction in its settlements. This was the real be- 
 ginning of its political power. In 1668, the Company obtained 
 a grant of the island of Bombay; and, in 1675, established a 
 factory on the river Hugh, thus leading to the founding of Cal- 
 
154 NOTES 
 
 cutta. A series of political conquests, begun in 1749, led finally 
 to the Company's complete control of British India. In 1.784, 
 the Parliament of England established a government Board of 
 Control (Pitt's " India Bill ") over the Company in the interest 
 of the Crown. Finally, in 1858, when the British East India 
 Company had gained what practically amounted to the entire 
 sovereignty of India, it surrendered its possessions to the Crown 
 — that is, to the English nation, — and so passed out of exist- 
 ence. This brief account can give only a faint idea of the 
 remarkable history of the most powerful commercial corporation 
 the world has ever known. In his History of England, Vol. IV, 
 ch. XVIII, Macaulay himself gives a most brilliant and interest- 
 ing resume of its history down to the time of James II. 
 
 9. 32. Bengal: The N. E. part of British India, watered by 
 the Ganges and its tributaries. At the time of Hastings, the term 
 was very loosely applied, but it seems to have included about the 
 same territory as at presont. In the meantime, however, there 
 have been great variations in the meaning of " Bengal " as a 
 geographical designation. 
 
 10. 3. Fort William: built in 1696 to protect the town of 
 Calcutta. 
 
 10. 4. Dupleix, Joseph (1697-1764): a French merchant, 
 ambitious and resourceful, who served from 1742 to 1754 as 
 Governor-general of the French establishments in India. He was 
 finally overcome by Clive, and was recalled to France in dis- 
 grace. Dupleix figures largely in Macaulay's Essay on Clive, of 
 part of which this paragraph is a brief summary. 
 
 ID. 7. The Carnatic: a name formerly given to a section of 
 country on the S. E. coast of India from Cape Cormorin to 16° 
 N. It passed into the control of the English in 1801, and is now 
 included in the presidency of Madras. 
 
 ID. 9. Robert Clive: Baron Clive of Plassey (i 725-1 774), 
 English general and statesman, and, except Hastings, the great- 
 est figure in the history of British India. He was the son of a 
 country squire. In 1743, he became a " writer " in the Company's 
 employ at Madras, but, in 1747, entered the army and so found 
 his true vocation. Here he rose steadily in rank and influence. 
 In the second war with the French (i 751-1754) he captured Arcot. 
 He visited England in 1753, but returned to India in 1755 as 
 governor of Fort St. David. In 1756, he commanded the expedi- 
 
NOTES 155 
 
 tion against Surajah Dowlah, Nabob of Bengal, to avenge the 
 crime of " The Black Hole of Calcutta." He gained a great vic- 
 tory over the Nabob at Plassey, June 23, 1757; whereupon he 
 deposed the Nabob and raised Mir Jaffier to the throne. Clive 
 was appointed governor of Bengal in 1758; defeated the Dutch 
 near Chinsura in 1759; but, on account of ill health, returned 
 to England in 1760. In this same year, as a reward for his ser- 
 vices as statesman and general, he was raised to the peerage as 
 Baron Clive of Plassey. He was again governor of Bengal from 
 1765 to 1767, but finally, through his ill health, resigned and 
 returned to England. Official inquiry into his conduct as gover- 
 nor, by Parliament, resulted practically in his favour in 1773; 
 yet the disgrace affected him so terribly that he committed sui- 
 cide in 1774. Macaulay's Essay on Clive (edited by Preston 
 Farrar in Longman's English Classics), one of his finest produc- 
 tions, presents a brilliant picture of Clive's career, and should be 
 read as an introduction to the Essay on Warren Hastings. 
 
 10. 20. The Mogul (Mughal): sovereign of the Mahometan 
 empire in India, the capital of which was Delhi. This, one of 
 the most famous empires of history, was not of Hindoo but for- 
 eign origin. " Mogul " means Mongol, and the Moguls were 
 Afghans in race and Mahometans in religion. This Mahometan 
 empire in India was founded by Baber in 1526, reached its high- 
 est estate under Aurengzebe (d. 1707), had its power shattered 
 by the invasion of Nadir Shah of Persia in 1739, and finally be- 
 came extinct in 1857. Among the Mogul rulers were Akbar the 
 Great (one of the greatest sovereigns of history) and Shah Jehan, 
 the builder of the Taj Mahal. In the eighteenth century, after 
 the invasion of Nadir Shah, the empire lay open to the com- 
 bined attacks of the Afghans, the Rajpoots, and the Mahrattas, 
 and there ensued the " great anarchy " referred to by Macaulay 
 (see p. 78). Some general idea of the nature of the Mogul em- 
 pire is essential to any understanding of the present Essay, so 
 closely connected were its fortunes with those of the East India 
 Company. 
 
 10. 31. Surajah Dowlah; The "Black Hole": Surajah 
 Dowlah, " Nabob " (Nawab) of Bengal, declared war against 
 the English, and gained control of Calcutta. The " Black Hole " 
 was the strong-room of Fort William. Into this small room were 
 thrust, either by the Nabob's orders or through his negligence, 
 
156 NOTES 
 
 146 English prisoners. Only 23 survived the night. This tragedy 
 occurred on June 20, 1756; and is described in a famous passage 
 in Macaulay's Essay on Clive, beginning, " Then was committed 
 that great crime." The crime was amply avenged by Clive at 
 the battle of Plassey (see note, 10-9) in which Surajah Dowlah 
 was terribly defeated. He died in the same year. 
 
 II. 3. The Dutch Company: This was an organisation in 
 Holland, corresponding to the Companies of England and of 
 France, and a rival of both. 
 
 II. 33. Meer Jaffier: an officer in the army of Surajah 
 Dowlah, Nabob of Bengal, who plotted with Clive to overthrow 
 his master. Clive made him Nabob of Bengal, and supported 
 him against the attacks of the Mogul Emperor. He was de- 
 throned in 1 76 1. 
 
 13. 14. Rotten Boroughs: Parliamentary districts of Eng- 
 land where the population had been greatly reduced or had even 
 entirely disappeared. Such boroughs had no real right to repre- 
 sentation in Parliament, and were the objects of corruption and 
 bribery: they could be bought by the highest bidder. 
 
 13. 15. St. James's Square: An aristocratic part of London. 
 
 15. 13. Hafiz and Ferdusi: Two Persian poets of the four- 
 teenth and tenth centuries respectively. 
 
 15' 15- Johnson, Dr. Samuel (1709-1784): one of the 
 greatest of English men of letters; compiler of the Dictionary; 
 author of Rasselas, The Vanity of Human Wishes, The Lives of 
 the Poets, and other works. 
 
 15. 28. Directors: the business affairs of the East India 
 Company were managed by a " Court of Directors " composed 
 of twenty-four members, chosen annually from among the 
 general body of share-holders known as the " Court of Pro- 
 prietors." 
 
 15. 31. Madras: settled by the English in 1639, and defended 
 by Fort St. George. It now has a population of over half a mil- 
 lion. 
 
 16. 9. Pagoda: a gold or silver coin current in India, in 
 value about $1.70. 
 
 16. 22. Indiaman: a sailing-vessel of large tonnage officered 
 and armed by the East India Company for the India trade. 
 
 17. 27. Franconia: probably Imhoff's native country; one 
 of the duchies of the old German kingdom. The name now 
 
NOTES 
 
 157 
 
 denotes a region in the kingdom of Bavaria, which is a part of 
 the present German empire. 
 
 19. 19. Augustulus: " Little Augustus," so called in derision 
 of his youth, reigned from 475 to 476 a.d., and was the last 
 emperor of the Western Roman Empire. His father drove Julius 
 Nepos from the throne and placed his own young son Augustus 
 upon it. Odoacer, a barbarian soldier, who had assisted in the 
 revolution, took advantage of the weakness of "Augustulus," 
 drove him from his throne, and became the first barbarian King 
 of Italy. 
 
 19. 19. Merovingians; Charles Martel; Pepin: The Mero- 
 vingians, the first dynasty of Prankish kings in Gaul, began their 
 rule in the fifth century. They became in time mere puppets, 
 their power having passed into hands of ofi&cials known as 
 Mayors of the Palace. Of these latter Charles Martel (690-741) 
 was the greatest; and it was his son, Pepin, " the Short," who, 
 in 751, deposed Childeric, last of the Merovingian kings; and 
 founded a new dynasty, the " Carlovingian." Pepin's son was 
 Charlemagne. 
 
 19. 28. At present: in 1841, when this Essay was written. 
 
 20. 4. Mr. Pitt: William Pitt (1759-1806), son of the first 
 William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, was Prime Minister of England 
 in 1783, and, in 1784, passed his famous " India Bill " providing 
 for a Board of Control over the East India Company. 
 
 20. 5, Mr. Dundas: Henry Dundas (1742-1811), a Scotch 
 lawyer, who became Viscount Melville. He was at one time first 
 lord of the Admiralty, was impeached and acquitted in 1806, 
 and restored to ofiice in the following year. 
 
 20. 5. Mr. Burke: Edmund Burke (1729-1797), among the 
 world's greatest orators, statesmen, and writers. One of his most 
 celebrated speeches was directed against Warren Hastings. 
 
 21. 19. Mussulman: a Mahometan. 
 
 21. 26. Hindoo; Brahmin: the Hindoos are the great domi- 
 nant race of India, descended from the original Aryan con- 
 querors. They are divided by their religion into four castes, or 
 social orders, the highest of which is the Brahmin caste, named 
 from the god Brahma. The Brahmins claim to be the sole inter- 
 preters of the sacred writings, and hold themselves scornfully 
 aloof from the other castes and from all foreigners as well. This 
 caste system has been for centuries the curse of India- 
 
158 NOTES 
 
 22. 19, Ionian: an inhabitant of Ionia, in Asia Minof. 
 
 22. 19. Juvenal: a great satirical poet of ancient Rome 
 
 (6o?-I40 A.D.). 
 
 22. 28, Sepoy: a native Indian soldier in the service of the 
 English. 
 
 23. 4. Stoics: members of the sect of philosophy founded by 
 Zeno " their ideal sage " who taught that men should conquer 
 their passions, and so face either joy or sorrow with indiiEference. 
 
 23.. 12. Mucius: according to legend, when Lars Porsena 
 besieged Rome, 509 B.C., Mucius, a Roman soldier, concealed 
 a dagger on his person, and sought the king's camp. By mistake 
 he killed, not the king, but the king's secretary. When threat- 
 ened with death by fiire unless he revealed the details of conspiracy 
 formed in Rome against the King's life, Mucius, to show his cour- 
 age, held his right hand in the altar fire. Porsena released him. 
 
 23. 13. Algernon Sydney (1622-1683): an English politi- 
 cian and patriot, and member of the Parliamentary party. After 
 the Restoration, on the discovery of the Rye House Plot, he was 
 arrested, tried by the infamous Judge Jeffreys (see note, 71-1) 
 found guilty on various trumped-up charges, and beheaded. He 
 died with wonderful fortitude. 
 
 24. 18. Mohurs: gold coins worth about $7.50. 
 
 26. 7. Memorable day; Captain Knox: In 1760 the city of 
 Patna, held by the British troops, was besieged by the army of the 
 Mogul. After a long and brave resistance, the garrison was almost 
 exhausted, when the city was saved by the arrival of Captain 
 Knox. He had marched 200 miles in thirteen days under a burn- 
 ing sun. With his small force he attacked the Mogul's troops out- 
 side the city and utterly defeated them. 
 
 26. 8. Patna: a city on the Ganges, now an important manu- 
 facturing center with a population of about 134,000. 
 
 28. 20. Teviotdale: a name sometimes given to Roxburgh- 
 shire in southern Scotland. 
 
 30. I. For another view of Hastings' treatment of the 
 Nabob of Bengal and the Mogul emperor, see Introduction. 
 
 30. 7. Corah and Allahabad: provinces east of Bengal and 
 south of Oude. 
 
 30. 28. Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg: these rulers 
 of two countries in the German Empire were called Electors 
 because they had a vote each in electing the Emperor. 
 
NOTES 159 
 
 31. 19. Sanscrit: the ancient language of India and the old- 
 est of all Indo-European languages, now no longer spoken, but 
 replaced by many modern Hindoo dialects. 
 
 31. 20. Hyphasis and Hystaspes: these rivers of India, the 
 modern names of which are the Sutlej and the Jelum (or Jhelam), 
 are tributaries of the Chenab, which flows into the Indus, in the 
 extreme western part of India. 
 
 31. 26. Ghizni: the English flag was planted on Ghizni, an 
 Afghan fortress, in 1839. 
 
 32. 18. Rohilcund: a province lying northwest of Oude, in 
 northern India." The Rohillas were not the native population, 
 but a conquering aristocracy, Afghans in race and Mahometans 
 in religion. 
 
 32. 20. Sujah Dowlah: Vizier of Oude from 1754 to 1775. 
 He is not to be confounded with Surajah Dowlah, the infamous 
 Nabob of Bengal, who was overcome by Clive at Plassey (see 
 note, 10-9). 
 
 32. 23. Catherine: the Empress of Russia, who combined 
 with Prussia and Austria in an unjust partition of Poland. 
 
 32. 24. Bonaparte: Napoleon, in 1808, placed his brother 
 Joseph upon the throne of Spain, to which he had no shadow of 
 right. 
 
 33. 31. Mr. Gleig: author of the Life of Warren Hastings 
 which Macaulay is supposed to be reviewing. See Introduction. 
 
 34. 24. Major Scott: an officer in the Bengal army, who 
 afterwards served as Warren Hastings' personal agent in London. 
 
 34. 32. Caput Lupinum: " a wolfish head." As a wolf is 
 destroyed or driven out when it invades an inhabited country, 
 so, Macaulay would intimate, a band of foreign settlers may 
 be subjected to the same treatment. 
 
 36. 7. Lac: 100,000 rupees. The rupee varies in value from 
 fifty to thirty-seven cents, approximately; hence a lac of rupees 
 would vary in value from $50,000 to ,$3 7,600; at most, forty lacs 
 would equal $2,000,000. 
 
 38. 30. Letters of Junius: What is perhaps the greatest 
 mystery of English literary history hangs about these famous 
 letters. To this day, although they were among the most cele- 
 brated and influential writings of their time, their real author- 
 ship is unknown. " Junius " was the signature attached to a 
 series of letters on political subjects that appeared from Nov. 
 
lao NOTES 
 
 1768 to Jan. 1772 in the London Public Advertiser, edited by 
 Woodfall. They bitterly attacked the British ministry .and 
 abounded in scathing criticisms of public men. In the main, 
 they are ably written, but are no longer considered really good 
 literature. Macaulay is probably right in naming Francis as the 
 author, though until recently the trend of critical opinion was 
 against this conclusion. 
 
 39. 9. Lord Chatham: William Pitt, the elder (1708-17 78), 
 one of England's greatest statesman and orators; father of the 
 author of the " India Bill." 
 
 40. 10. Corneille (i 606-1 684): a French dramatist and the 
 creator of French tragedy. His best tragedies are probably Le 
 Cid, Cinna, and Polyeucte. 
 
 40. II. Ben Jonson (1573-1637): next to Shakespeare, the 
 greatest of Elizabethan dramatists. His best comedies are 
 Volpone, The Alchemist, Every Man in His Humour, The Silent 
 Woman, and Bartholomew Fair. 
 
 40. 12. Bunyan (1628-1688): the author of The Pilgrim's 
 Progress wrote also The Holy War and Grace Abounding to the 
 Chief of Sinners, besides other works of less merit. 
 
 40. 13. Cervantes (1547-1616): the greatest imaginative 
 writer of Spain. His Don Quixote is but one of his works, though 
 by far the finest. 
 
 40. 17. Home Tooke: John Home Tooke (i736-i§i2), 
 clergyman, politician, and philologist, and author of a well- 
 known work called The Diversions of Purley. 
 
 40. 25. Woodfall: the publisher of the Letters of Junius. 
 
 40. 32. " Doest thou well to be angry? " see Jonah, IV, 9. 
 
 41. 12. Old Sarum: a place in Wiltshire, two miles. from 
 Salisbury, noted as the most notorious of the " rotten boroughs." 
 Though without a single inhabitant, it returned two members of 
 Parliament, but was disfranchised by the Reform Bill of 1832. 
 
 41. 13. Capitalists of Manchester and Leeds: although 
 boroughs such as Old Sarum were sending members to Parlia- 
 ment, yet several important and wealthy cities were quite 
 without representation until after the passage of the Reform 
 Bill. 
 
 41. 22. George Grenville (171 2-1770): a Prime Minister of 
 England under George III, who started the prosecution of John 
 Wilkes (see note, 41-25). 
 
NOTES i6i 
 
 41. 25, The Middlesex Election: one of the most notorious 
 events in English political history. John Wilkes, editor of a 
 political organ called The North Briton, was a bitter opponent of 
 the government. When elected M. P. for Middlesex in 1768, he 
 was prosecuted, and was debarred from taking his seat in Parlia- 
 ment. Middlesex elected him three times; he became a popular 
 hero, rose to be Lord Mayor of London, and was at last allowed 
 to take his place in Parliament. 
 
 42. 13. Innsof Court: the inner Temple, the Middle Temple, 
 Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn, are four law colleges or corporate 
 societies in London, which hold the exclusive privilege of calling 
 candidates to the bar and which maintain instruction and exam- 
 ination for that purpose. 
 
 43. 14. The Mahrattas: this term is used so frequently in 
 the present Essay, and the history of the Mahrattas was so 
 closely connected with that of the English in India, that the reader 
 should get a reasonably clear and definite, even though limited, 
 idea of who the Mahrattas were and what was their " empire " 
 or confederation. 
 
 The Mahrattas were a native Hindoo race inhabiting western 
 central India, with a capital and strongholds in the mountains 
 known as the Western Ghauts. They were at first subject to the 
 Mahometan kings of Bijapur, but, under their leader Siraji, in 
 1-657 rebelled, and founded an independent state. Later, they 
 even defied the Mogul empire, under the leadership of various 
 chieftains, such as the Bonslas, Holkar, Scindia, and the Gikwar, 
 each of whom vastly extended the Mahratta empire and founded 
 new states and dynasties. At last the various states formed 
 themselves into a confederation that supplanted the Mogul 
 empire as the dominant power in India. The Mahratta conquests 
 reached their maximum in 1750, when the Confederation actually 
 controlled 700,000 square miles of territory and 90,000,000 
 people. This vast power was used by the French against the 
 English, with whom the Mahrattas waged three great wars, in 
 1780, 1803, and 1816-18, the confederacy being shattered in the 
 last conflict. Since it had no central authority, the Mahratta 
 empire was never a firm confederation, and hence was always 
 subject to serious intestine disturbances, which in time led to its 
 dissolution. 
 
 44. 28. Gates, Bedloe, and Dangerfield: it was during the 
 
i62 . NOTES 
 
 reign of Charles II that these men pretended to have unearthed 
 dreadful plots made by the CathoHcs against the government 
 — notably the Rye House Plot. On the evidence of Oates, Lord 
 Stafford, a Catholic, was beheaded. 
 
 48. 18. Assizes: the name given in England to regular 
 sessions of the courts for the trial of serious offences. 
 
 48. 18. True Bill: a bill of indictment endorsed by the 
 Grand Jury on evidence sufficient to warrant a trial. 
 
 52. 12. Dacca: a division in eastern Bengal. 
 
 52. 29. For Hastings' connection with the trial of Nuncomar 
 (see Introduction). 
 
 53. 18. Lord Stafford: see note, 44-28. 
 
 55. 9. Tour to the Hebrides: the true name of the book is 
 A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland, written by Dr. Johnson 
 (see note, 15-15), and published in 1775. 
 
 55. 10. Jones's Persian Grammar: a work written by Sir 
 William Jones (i 746-1 794), the most famous scholar of his day 
 in oriental languages, and published in 1 771. 
 
 55. 25. Cf. Macbeth I, v, 20. 
 
 55. 26. The Regulating Act: passed in 1773. Nuncomar was 
 executed in 1776. 
 
 55. 29. Lord North: Prime Minister of England from 1770 
 to 1782. 
 
 56. 3. Court of Directors: see note, 15-28. 
 
 56. 29. Crown lawyers: in England, the Lord Chancellor, 
 the Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General, and the Judge- 
 Advocate-General, are members of the government, and give 
 advice in legal matters. 
 
 57. 25. Subsidiary alliances: other than the chief alliance of 
 the English, that with the Mogul. 
 
 57. 27. Berar: north of Hyderabad. 
 
 60. 10. Dangers: at this time (1778) England was involved 
 in war with her American colonies, with France, with Holland, 
 and with Spain, and was losing on every side. 
 
 60. 16. George the Third: Shortly before the accession of this 
 king in 1760, the English arms had been victorious on the Con- 
 tinent, and, in America, Canada had been added to the British 
 empire. 
 
 60. 27. Genius: the elder Pitt, Lord Chatham. 
 
 61. I. Armed neutrality: Russia, Sweden, and Denmark 
 
^ NOTES 163 
 
 combined, in 1780, to oppose England in her claim to the right 
 of searching their ships. 
 
 61. 3. Calpe: the ancient name of Gibraltar. 
 
 61. 18. Sevajee (Sivaji); the Bonslas; Guicowar (Gikwar); 
 Scindia; Holkar (see note, 43-14). 
 
 62. I. Gooti: in the hills north of Mysore. 
 
 62. 7. Oude: one of the most important countries of India, 
 lying in the North East, between Nepal on the north and the 
 river Ganges on the south; a Mahometan state, ruled by a 
 sovereign called the Vizier, and nominally subject to the Mogul, 
 as were Mysore and Hyderabad. 
 
 62. 7. Nizam: a Hindoo word meaning " regulator " or 
 " governor," and applied to the sovereigns of Hyderabad, a 
 Mahometan state, nominally subject to the Mogul empire. 
 
 62. 9. House of Tamerlane: Baber, founder of the Mogul 
 empire (see note, 10-20), was fifth in descent from Tamerlane 
 (1333-1405), a Tartar conqueror, who crossed the Himalayas 
 and subdued a part of northern India. Although his invasion 
 left no permanent impression, his exploits yet inspired Baber, 
 who became the first Mogul of the " House of Tamerlane." 
 
 62. 13. Roi faineant: " Les Rois faineants " (the do-nothing, 
 or sluggard, kings) was a name given to Clovis II (d. 656) and to 
 his successors of the Merovingian line. They were controlled by 
 their Mayors of the Palace (see note, 19-19). 
 
 62. 13. Bang: an Indian variety of the common hemp, which 
 yields a highly intoxicating resin, and the leaves of which are 
 chewed, smoked, or made into an infusion as a drink. 
 
 62. 14. Sattara (Satara): a city 100 miles S. E. of Bombay. 
 
 62. 16. Poonah: a city about seventy-five miles S. E. of 
 Bombay. 
 
 62. 18. Auningabad: a district N. W. of Hyderabad. 
 
 62. 18. Bejapoor (Bejapur): a district S. W. of Hyderabad. 
 
 63. 9. Pondicherry: the capital of the French possessions 
 in India, on the eastern coast, eighty-six miles south of Madras; 
 occupied by the French in 1672; several times conquered and held 
 by the English; and finally restored to the French in 1816. 
 
 63. 15. Lascars: native sailors of India. 
 
 64. 5. Plassey: see note, 10-9. 
 
 64. 10. Lally: a French general of Irish descent, commander- 
 in-chief of the French forces in India from 1756 to 1761. He was 
 
i64 NOTES 
 
 defeated by Sir Eyre Coote at WandewasH, surrendered Pondi- 
 cherry, and was beheaded on his return to France in i76i'. 
 
 64. 27. Porto Novo and PoUilore: two of Sir Eyre Coote's 
 victories over Hyder Ali in 1781. 
 
 64. 33. Salam: "Peace" — the ordinary Oriental form of 
 salutation, 
 
 67. II. Arrest on mesne process: mesne means " middle "; 
 and a mesne process is that part of a suit which intervenes 
 between the issue of the original writ and the final proceedings. 
 In India at this time, the first step in legal proceedings seems to 
 have been unfairly dispensed with. 
 
 67. 32. Wat Tyler: leader of The Peasants' Revolt in Eng- 
 land in 1381. He is said to have killed a tax-gatherer who had 
 insulted his daughter. 
 
 68. 17. Spunging -houses : houses where persons arrested for 
 debt were detained for twenty-four hours before being taken to 
 prison, in order that their friends might have a chance to settle 
 the debt. The charges for accommodations were extortionate. 
 
 68. 27. Alguazils: a Spanish word meaning a constable or 
 some inferior officer of justice. 
 
 71. I. Ermine: the costly white fur used for adorning the 
 robes of judges; here the word stands metaphorically for the 
 judicial bench. 
 
 71. I. Jeffreys (1648-1689): a brutal and unscrupulous 
 judge in the reigns of Charles II and James II of England who has 
 become infamous in history. 
 
 73. 19. Dervise: a Mahometan monk, living on charity. 
 
 73. 31. Louis the Eleventh (1423-1483): one of the most 
 able of the kings of France, who founded that absolute mon- 
 archy of the French kings which was broken in the French Revo- 
 lution. He is a prominent figure in Scott's novel Quentin Durward. 
 
 74. 7. Mysore: one of the largest and most important 
 countries of India, lying in the southern part between the Eastern 
 and the Western Ghauts. Like the kingdoms of Hyderabad and 
 Oude, it was ruled by Mahometan sovereigns subject to the 
 Mogul. 
 
 74. 27. Coleroon: a river, called also the Cauvery, rising in 
 Mysore and flowing S. E. into the Bay of Bengal. 
 
 74. 29. Mount St. Thomas: a hill ten miles inland from 
 Madras. Macaulay must have meant " western " and not " east- 
 
NOTES 165 
 
 ern " sky; furthermore, such a view as is here described is hardly- 
 possible from Mount St. Thomas. 
 
 75. 19. Tanks: reservoirs. 
 
 75. 25. Coromandel: that part of the eastern coast of India 
 lying on the Bay of Bengal between Calimere Point and the 
 mouths of the river Krishna. 
 
 75. 30. Monsoon: a wind in the Indian ocean blowipg 
 regularly from the S. W. during the summer (April to October), 
 and from the N. E. during the winter (November to March), 
 
 78. 2. St. James's and Petit Trianon: St. James's is a palace 
 of the English kings, in London; the Petit Trianon was a palace 
 of the French kings, in Versailles. 
 
 78. 4. Golconda: a town seven miles N. W. of the city of 
 Hyderabad, noted for its cutting of diamonds. " The mines of 
 Golconda " are entirely mythical: there are no diamond mines 
 there. 
 
 78. 4. Cashmere (Kashmir): a native state under British 
 control; it lies N. W. of India in the Himalayas, and is especially 
 noted for its shawls, made from the wool of the Cashmere goat. 
 
 78. 8. The great anarchy: see note, 10-20. 
 
 78. 18. Cheyte Sing: for a different view of Hastings' con- 
 duct, see Introduction. 
 
 79. 16. Hugh Capet: chosen king of France on the death of 
 the last of the Carlovingian line in 987. Though this marked 
 the beginning of the modern kingdom of France, yet the king- 
 dom was not united, since many dukes and counts (e.g. Brittany 
 and Normandy) were disposed to assert their independence, and 
 paid to the king only a nominal homage, 
 
 79. 22. Charles the Tenth: king of France, 18 24-1 830. 
 The ordinances made in 1830 by the king and his ministry restrict- 
 ing the freedom of the press and providing for new modes of elec- 
 tion, etc., were a direct breach of the king's oath of adherence to 
 the charter, and led to his abdication. 
 
 79. 26. Prince Louis Bonaparte: nephew of the great Napo- 
 leon. His attempt at Strassburg, in 1836, to overthrow the throne 
 of Louis Philippe resulted in failure. He became Emperor of 
 the French in 185 1 with the title of Napoleon the Third. 
 
 80. 13. De facto; de jure: a government de facto has power 
 in fact irrespective of legal sanction; a government de jure is one 
 based on legal right. 
 
I 66 NOTES 
 
 88. 27. Lucknow: the capital of Oude, on the river Goomti, 
 a tributary of the Ganges. 
 
 89. 15. The Begums: Macaulay does not present a fair 
 view of Hastings' treatment of the Begums (see Introduction). 
 
 89. 17. Dotation: endowment. 
 
 89. 22. Fyzabad: in Oude, sixty-five miles east of Lucknow. 
 
 95. 6. The Revolution: the English revolution in 1688 that 
 drove James II from the throne and placed upon it William and 
 Mary. Macaulay refers to Jeffreys, who at this time lost his 
 power (see note, 71-1). 
 
 95. 19. The great parties: the Whigs and the Tories; their 
 successors are now known as the Liberals and the Conservatives. 
 
 96. II. A single branch of the legislature: here refers to the 
 House of Commons, 
 
 96. 25. The great crimes: see Introduction. 
 
 97. 28. Emperor Joseph (i 741-1 790) : Joseph II of Germany, 
 son of Maria Theresa. 
 
 98. 25. Downing Street: a street in the West End of London, 
 containing many of the important offices of the government and 
 the residence of the Prime Minister; hence " Downing street " 
 has come to mean simply the administration. 
 
 98. 25. Somerset House: the office of the Inland Revenue 
 Department and other government offices. 
 
 99. 7. Marlborough (1650-1722): a great English general 
 and statesman, who, in the War of the Spanish Succession, 
 gained the battles of Blenheim (1704), Ramilies (1706), etc. He 
 commanded, in addition to his English soldiers, Dutch and Ger- 
 man troops, and was often exasperated by the unreasonable 
 opposition of their generals. 
 
 99. 8. Wellington (1769-185 2): he first served, as Sir 
 Arthur Wellesley, in India against the Mahrattas; but, apart 
 from Waterloo, his most brilliant service was in the Peninsular 
 War in Spain and Portugal. In this campaign, though hampered 
 in his activities by the authorities of both Spain and Portugal, and 
 inadequately supported even by his own government, he defeated 
 Napoleon's generals, and drove the French from the Peninsula. 
 
 99. 9. Portuguese Regency: in consequence of the Queen's 
 insanity, the Prince Royal of Portugal was acting as regent. 
 
 99. ID. The Spanish Juntas: in Spain, a legislative assembly, 
 either for the whole country or for one of its separate parts. 
 
NOTES 167 
 
 99. 10. Mr.Percival (i 762-181 2) : Prime Minister of England 
 during the Peninsular War, who was charged with failing to furnish 
 Wellington with necessary supplies. But Wellington himself de- 
 nied the charge, and Perceval himself seems to have been blame- 
 less. (Perceval is the correct spelling.) 
 
 loi. 6. Adam Smith (1723-1700): a great political econo- 
 mist. His famous work. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of 
 the Wealth of Nations, marked an epoch in the history of political 
 economy, and may even be said to have founded the science. 
 
 loi. 8. Dotages — Arabian expositions: Oriental learning 
 was largely the product of superstition. The Greeks, though 
 pre-eminent in philosophy and the fine arts, were possessed of 
 very meagre and inaccurate scientific knowledge; yet this im- 
 perfect science had passed to India through Arabian expositors, 
 and, moreover, had deteriorated in the process. 
 
 loi. II. A far more virtuous ruler: Lord William Bentinck, 
 governor-general of India from 1828 to 1835; the object of 
 Macaulay's enthusiastic admiration, which he seems fully to 
 have merited (see the last paragraph of the Essay on Clive). 
 
 loi. 23. The Asiatic Society: this society was formed in 
 Calcutta in 1784 for the study of oriental literature. 
 
 loi. 26. Sir William Jones: see note, p. 55, line 10. 
 
 loi. 29. Pundits: broadly speaking, Hindoo scholars versed 
 in the science, laws, and languages of India; more narrowly, 
 teachers of the religious law. 
 
 loi. 33. The Portuguese government: the first Europeans 
 to settle in India in modern times were the Portuguese, who 
 tried to force their trade and their religion upon the natives. 
 
 105. 4. Zemindars: collectors of revenue on land. 
 
 105. 7. Carlton House: a palace in London, owned by the 
 Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. 
 
 105. 8. Palais Royal: a palace in Paris built by Cardinal 
 Richelieu and given by him to the King of France. Louis XIV in 
 turn gave it to the Duke of Orleans, whose family held it until 1848. 
 
 105. 28. Round-house: the cabin or apartment on the 
 after-part of the quarter-deck, having the poop for its roof. 
 
 106. 7. Sir Charles Grandison: the hero of a famous novel 
 of this same name written by Richardson, and published in 
 1753. Sir Charles was a model of perfect breeding. 
 
 106. 24. Horace (65 b.c. to 8 b.c): the famous lyric and 
 
I 68 NOTES 
 
 satiric poet of ancient Rome. The first line of one of his Odes is 
 " Otium Divos rogat " (every man prays the gods for quiet and 
 ease). 
 
 io6. 26. Lord Teignmouth: governor-general of India from 
 1793 to 1798. 
 
 107. 2. Leadenhall Street: a street in London on which were 
 located the offices of the East India Company. 
 
 107. 5. The Queen: Charlotte, wife of George III. 
 
 108. I. Mr. Grattan (1746-1820): a famous Irish statesman 
 and orator, who, in 1782, gained legislative independence for 
 Ireland. 
 
 108. II. Hannibal (247-183? b.c): the leader of the 
 Carthaginians against the Romans, and one of the greatest 
 generals of history. 
 
 108. 12. Themistocles (b. latter part of sixth century B.C.; 
 d. about 460 B.C.): one of the greatest of Greek statesmen and 
 generals. He, together with Eurybiades, conducted the naval 
 battle of Salamis, 480 B.C., in which the Greeks won a glorious 
 victory over the vast fleet of Xerxes, king of Persia. 
 
 108. 12. Trafalgar: one of the most famous naval victories 
 in history, in which the English under Lord Nelson defeated the 
 French under Admiral Villeneuve. It was fought in 1805, near 
 the coast of Spain, off Cape Trafalgar. 
 
 108. 25. Wedderbum (i 733-1805): a Scotch politician and 
 jurist. 
 
 lOQ* 33- Lord Mansfield (1705-1793): a great Scotch lawyer 
 who rose to be Lord Chief Justice of England. 
 
 no. 2. Lord Lansdowne (1737-1805): William Petty, Earl 
 of Shelburne, Marquis of Lansdowne, was Prime Minister of 
 England from 1782 to 1783. 
 
 no. 7. Mr. Fox's East India Bill: Charles James Fox (1749- 
 1806) was one of the most famous statesmen and orators of 
 England, and the most formidable rival of the younger Pitt. He 
 was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs under the ministry of 
 the Marquis of Rockingham in 1782, and introduced his " India 
 Bill " in 1783. This bill was unsuccessful and must not be iden- 
 tified with Pitt's India Bill, which passed in 1784. 
 
 no. 17. Lord Chancellor Thurlow (173 2-1806): an eminent 
 lawyer and statesman of this period, leader of the Tories in the 
 House of Lords, and the opponent of Burke. 
 
NOTES 169 
 
 no. 28. The Resolution of Censure: see p. 95. 
 
 III. 26. Coalition: the followers of Fox, who were Whigs, 
 united with those of Lord North, who were Tories, to oppose 
 the Prime Minister, Lord Lansdowne. 
 
 111. 30. The Wits of Brooks's: Brooks's Club in St. James's 
 Street was the resort of Whig politicians, who in the main were 
 opposed to Hastings. 
 
 112. 9. Virgil's Third Eclogue: Virgil (70-19 b.c), one of 
 the greatest of Roman poets, wrote, besides the Aeneid, and other 
 works, various Eclogues — poems depicting ideal pastoral life. 
 
 112. 16. Future votes; Questions: a diamond necklace 
 represented money enough to buy many votes; and Mrs. Hastings' 
 ear-rings, turned into cash, might silence many embarrassing 
 questions. In other words, Warren Hastings had money enough 
 to win his way and silence opposition, through corruption and 
 bribery. 
 
 113. 23. Burke, alienated from Fox: Burke and Fox acted 
 in concert for many years, but at last they quarrelled over the 
 French Revolution, which Fox favoured but which Burke opposed,, 
 with almost fanatical zeal, in speeches of magnificent eloquence. 
 
 114. 3. Las Casas (1474-1566): a Spanish Dominican friar, 
 afterwards a bishop in South America, who crossed the Atlantic 
 several times to plead with the Spanish court in behalf of the 
 South American Indians. 
 
 114. 4. Clarkson (1760-1846): a Quaker who worked with 
 Wilberforce and Zachary Macaulay (Lord Macaulay's father) to 
 abolish slavery. 
 
 114. 9. Neither blood nor language: since Macaulay wrote 
 this, science has proved that the people of India are members 
 of the Indo-European family of races, and hence are really akin 
 to most European nations in both blood and language. 
 
 115. 7. Imaum: a Mahometan priest. 
 
 115. 8. Mecca: the birthplace of Mahomet in Arabia; 
 hence, sacred in the eyes of a Mahometan. 
 
 115. 12. Yellow streaks of sect: the streaks painted on the 
 forehead of a Brahmin. 
 
 115. 18. Beaconsfield: a small town in Buckinghamshire 
 where Burke had his country house; his London house was in 
 St. James's Street. 
 
 115, 26. Lord George Gordon's Riots: Parliament passed 
 
lyo NOTES 
 
 an act abolishing the penal laws against Catholics. This alarmed 
 some of the stricter Protestants; and, in 1780, many thousands 
 of people marched to parliament, under the leadership of Lord 
 George Gordon, a half-crazy fanatic, and demanded the repeal 
 of the act. Rioting ensued which for six days terrorised the city. 
 Dickens, in his Barnaby Rudge, makes fine use of this historical 
 material. 
 
 115. 27. Dr. Dodd: a clergyman executed in London, in 
 1777, for forgery. 
 
 116. 16. The Stamp Act: in 1765 Parliament passed an act 
 requiring the American colonists to affix to certain documents a 
 stamp which they had to buy from the British government.( 
 This act was one of the causes of the American Revolution. 
 
 116. 25. The Regency: when George III became insane in 
 1788 a discussion arose in Parliament as to the appointment of 
 a Regent. Pitt maintained that only Parliament could settle the 
 matter; Fox held that the Prince of Wales was entitled to become 
 Regent without the action of Parliament. The king, however, 
 recovered; but, in 1810, he became hopelessly ill, and the Prince 
 of Wales was made Regent in February, 181 1. 
 
 116. 26. The French Revolution: for Burke's attitude and 
 eloquence, see note, 113-23. 
 
 119. 33. The Bath: an English order of knighthood. The 
 king often confers this honour as a reward for services to the 
 state. The badge is a jewelled cross of eight points. When the 
 order was first instituted, it was the custom for candidates to 
 be put into a bath on the evening preceding the ceremony. 
 This act indicated a purification from their former misdeeds. 
 
 120. I. The Privy Council: this council, which numbers 
 about two hundred members, is chosen by the sovereign from 
 among the princes of the blood, members of the present and past 
 governments, archbishops, and other dignitaries. From among 
 the members of the Privy Council is chosen the Cabinet. 
 
 120. 7. Keeper of the Great Seal: the Lord Chancellor. 
 The Great Seal is affixed to important state papers. 
 
 120. 8. Patent of Peerage: a written paper conferring a 
 title of nobiHty. 
 
 121. 17. Mulct: a fine. 
 
 122. 24. Works of supererogation: according to the doctrine 
 j of the Roman Catholic church, these are good works done in 
 
NOTES 171 
 
 excess of what actual duty requires. They may be accumulated 
 in reserve, and so may serve to atone for one's shortcomings on 
 other occasions. 
 
 123. 15. Wilberforce, William (1759-1833): English philan- 
 thropist, statesman, and orator; Member of Parliament for Hull, 
 and the most eminent opponent of the slave trade. 
 
 124. 27. Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (1751-1816): English 
 dramatist, statesman, and orator. All the world knows his 
 famous comedies, The School for Scandal and The Rivals, but in 
 his time he was more famous as orator than as dramatist. 
 
 125. 12. Windham (i 750-1810): an eminent Whig states- 
 man, who followed Burke on the subject of the French Revolu- 
 tion, and held ofi&ce under Pitt (see p. 131). 
 
 127. 27. Strange characters: Macaulay here refers to the 
 modern languages of India; but his statement is based on a mis- 
 conception, since the characters of " Hindoostanee " are written, 
 as are ours, from left to right. It is true that the Arian-Pali alpha- 
 bet of the Sanscrit was written from right to left; but the modern 
 languages of India are descended from the Indo-Pali alphabet, 
 which was written from left to right. 
 
 127. 29. Plantagenets : the family name of a line of kings of 
 England from Henry II to Richard II (1154 to 1399). 
 
 127. 33. The great hall of William Rufus: Westminster 
 Hall, which adjoins the present Houses of Parliament, was begun 
 by William Rufus (William II), destroyed by fire at the end of 
 the thirteenth century, and restored by Edward II and Richard 
 II. It is 68 feet wide, 92 feet high, and 290 feet long. In this 
 noble and historic building sat some of the first English parlia- 
 ments; here were crowned the kings of England up to George 
 IV; here Charles I was tried and condemned; and here Cromwell 
 was saluted as Lord Protector. 
 
 128. 3. Bacon, Sir Francis (1561-1626): one of the most 
 famous of Englishmen — philosopher, statesman, jurist, and. 
 writer. He became Lord Chancellor of England, but was tried 
 and sentenced for accepting bribes! 
 
 128. 4. Somers (1661-1716): an English statesman and 
 jurist of great ability, who played a large part in the Revolution 
 of 1688. " He was impeached in 1701 on a charge of accepting 
 exorbitant grants of land from the crown, but was acquitted." 
 
 128. 5. Strafford (1593-1641): Thomas Wentworth, Earl of 
 
172 NOTES 
 
 Strafford, the chief adviser of Charles I, was charged with high 
 treason by the Long Parliament, and beheaded. 
 
 128. 7. Charles: Charles I of England. 
 
 128. 12. GarterKing-at Arms: the chief herald of the Order 
 of the Garter, who is himself subservient to the authority of the 
 Earl Marshal, the principal King-at-Arms in England. 
 
 128. 20. Defence of Gibraltar: the siege lasted from 1779 
 to 1783; but the principal attack was made in 1782. 
 
 128. 22. The Duke of Norfolk: representative of the oldest 
 English dukedom, in which the title of Earl Marshal is heredi- 
 tary. 
 
 128. 33. Brunswick: this house, called also the House of 
 Hanover, still rules in England. 
 
 129. 3. Siddons (i 755-1831): the most famous tragic actress 
 of the English stage. 
 
 129. 6. The historian of the Roman empire: Edward Gibbon 
 (1737-1794), whose History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman 
 Empire is probably the greatest of all histories, ancient or mod- 
 ern. 
 
 129. 7. Cicero (106-43 b.c): the most celebrated of Roman 
 orators. Verres was the Roman governor of Sicily whom Cicero 
 prosecuted. 
 
 129. 9. Tacitus (55-117? A.D.): the greatest of Roman 
 historians and also a celebrated orator. He was concerned in 
 the trial of Marius Priscus, a Roman governor of Africa. 
 
 129. II. The greatest painter of his age: Sir Joshua Rey- 
 nolds (17 23-1 792), the most celebrated English painter of his 
 time, and one of the world's greatest portrait painters. 
 
 129. II. The greatest scholar of his age: Samuel Parr 
 (i 747-1825) was, if not the greatest, certainly one of the two 
 greatest classical scholars of his day — Richard Porson being the 
 other. 
 
 129. 21. Her to whom the heir of the throne had in secret 
 plighted his faith: Mrs. Fitzherbert, who, in 1785, was privately 
 married to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. 
 
 129. 23. Saint Cecilia: Mrs. Sheridan, whom Reynolds 
 painted in the character of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of 
 music. 
 
 129. 28. Mrs. Montague (1720-1800): an English authoress 
 and leader of society (see note, 146-23). 
 
NOTES 
 
 173 
 
 129. 28. The ladies, whose lips had carried the Westminster 
 election: Fox, when candidate for parliament in 1784, found 
 canvassers among the women of high social position who were 
 his friends. In the Westminster election, the Duchess of Devon- 
 shire is even said to have gained a butcher's vote for Fox by brib- 
 ing the voter with a kiss. 
 
 130. 15. Mens aequa in arduis: a mind undisturbed by 
 difficulties. 
 
 130. 16. The great Proconsul: the governor of a Roman 
 province. The term is here, with singular appropriateness, ap- 
 plied to Hastings. 
 
 130. 20. Chief Justice of the King's Bench; Chief Justice 
 of the Common Pleas: two judges in the Court of Chancery, of 
 which the Lord Chancellor is the head; next in rank is the Master 
 of the Rolls. 
 
 130. 24. Melville: Henry Dundas (see note, 20-5). 
 
 131. 2. Bag: a part of fashionable dress for men at this 
 time was a " bag " — a kind of silken purse tied to the hair. 
 
 131. 6. Lord North: the statesman was indeed blind at this 
 time, but, as he was only fifty-six years old, age surely had not 
 unfitted him. 
 
 131. 12. Athenian eloquence ; Demosthenes and Hyperides : 
 about the middle of the fourth century B.C., Athens had many 
 great orators, among whom were Demosthenes and Hyperides. 
 
 131, 23, The youngest manager: Charles Grey, afterwards 
 Earl Grey (i 764-1845), was only twenty-four years old at this 
 time, but subsequently rose to great fame in parliament. He was 
 Prime Minister at the time of the passing of the Reform Bill in 
 1832, and to his debates on this bill Macaulay is alluding. Macau- 
 lay himself took a conspicuous part in the debate in the House 
 of Commons. 
 
 132. 30. The stern and hostile Chancellor: Thurlow (see 
 note, 1 10-17). 
 
 134. 14. A knowledge of stage effect which his father might 
 have envied: Sheridan's* father, Thomas, was a celebrated actor. 
 
 135" 3- Crore: ten millions. 
 
 135' 3- Aumil: a revenue collector. 
 
 135. 3. Sunnud: a charter. 
 
 135. 4. Perwannah: an official order. 
 
 135' 4- Jaghire: the assignment of the government share of 
 
174 NOTES 
 
 the produce of a section of land to an individual, either for his 
 personal support or for that of an establishment. 
 135. 4. Nuzzur: a present made to a superior. 
 
 135. 24, States-Genef al : the representative assembly of 
 France. After being in abeyance for nearly two centuries, it was 
 summoned to meet in 1789. This marked the beginning of the 
 French Revolution. 
 
 136. I. Circuits: the circuit courts, or assizes, held by the 
 judges throughout the country. 
 
 140. 32. Cuddy: the word is here incorrectly used for 
 " cabin." 
 
 141. 24. Apotheosis: deification; the act of placing a person 
 among the gods. 
 
 141. 33. Pantheon: a temple dedicated to all the gods. 
 
 142. 18. Logan, John (i 748-1 788): a Scotch clergyman, 
 historian, and poet, whose " Ode to the Cuckoo " was pro- 
 nounced by Burke " the most beautiful lyric in the language." 
 
 142. 20. Simpkin's Letters: a humorous account in verse 
 of the Hastings trial. 
 
 142. 23. Anthony Pasquin: a Roman cobbler of the fifteenth 
 century, who indulged in satirical remarks about his neighbours. 
 After his death, an old statue near his shop was made the reposi- 
 tory of all the epigrams and satirical verses of the city. These 
 were hence called " Pasquinades." John Williams, a satirist 
 and miscellaneous writer of this time, played the part of Pasquin 
 in behalf of Hastings. 
 
 143. 16. Board of Control: this board was appointed by 
 Pitt's East India Bill in 1784 (see notes, 9-24; 20-4). 
 
 144. 6. Coronet: he expected a peerage. 
 
 144. 7. Red riband: the riband of the Order of the Bath, to 
 which is attached the jewelled star. 
 
 144. 19. Mr. Addington (175 7-1844): Prime Minister of 
 England from 1801 to 1804. Addington was a weak premier, 
 and came into power only through Pitt's defeat on the question 
 of Catholic emancipation. On such a measure, so broad minded 
 a statesman as Hastings would naturally have supported Pitt. 
 But the terror caused by Napoleon's threatened invasion of Eng- 
 land brought Pitt back to power. 
 
 144. 22. Boulogne: Napoleon, intending an invasion of 
 England, had collected an army and flotilla at Boulogne. 
 
NOTES 
 
 175 
 
 145. 12. AUipore: this place is on the Hugh, about twenty- 
 five miles S. E. of Calcutta. 
 
 145. 14. Leechee (Ktchi): a delicious Chinese fruit, also 
 found in eastern India. 
 
 145. 15, Covent Garden: chief market in London for fruits 
 and flowers. 
 
 145. 22. Bootan (Bhutan): this country lies largely in the 
 Himalayas, between Thibet and British India. 
 
 145. 30. Trissotin: a character in Moliere's comedy Les 
 Femmes Savantes, who affected to combine with his regular 
 duty the parts of the poet and the gallant. 
 
 146. 19. Dionysius (c. 430-367): the Tyrant of Syracuse in 
 Sicily; a successful general who dabbled in literature. 
 
 146. 20. Frederic (17 12-1786): Frederick the Great of Prus- 
 sia, although a genius as general and statesman, had his little 
 weaknesses: he despised his own language and literature, and 
 wrote books in French. 
 
 146. 23. Blue-stockings: about 1750 in London, Mrs. Mon- 
 tague (see notes 129-28) and other ladies began holding assem- 
 blies in which literary conversation took the place of frivolous 
 amusements, and which were marked also by a studied plainness 
 of dress. Mr. Benjamin StiUingfieet always wore blue stockings, 
 and in reference to him, this fashionable literary coterie was 
 called in derision " the Blue-stocking Club," and the members, 
 especially the ladies, " blue-stockings." Since then the term has 
 been generally applied to literary ladies. 
 
 146. 25. Hayley, William (1745-1820): a writer of verse 
 and prose of little merit and now forgotten. 
 
 146. 25. Seward, Anna (1747-1809): a poetess, called " the 
 swan of Lichfield," of whom Sir Walter Scott wrote a biographical 
 sketch. 
 
 147. 23. Hats: members of the House of Commons wear 
 their hats in the House, 
 
 147. 28. Sheldonian Theatre: a large hall in Oxford where 
 honorary degrees are conferred, commemorations are held, etc. 
 
 148. I. Emperor of Russia: Alexander I visited England in 
 1814. 
 
 148. I. King of Prussia: Frederick William III. 
 148. 3. Guildhall: the Council Hall of the City of Lon- 
 don. 
 
176 NOTES 
 
 148. 26. Great Abbey: Westminster Abbey, where are 
 buried many of the greatest of England's dead. 
 
 148. 28. Great Hall: Westminster Hall (see note, 127-33). 
 
 149. 13. Richelieu (1585-1642): Cardinal Richelieu, one of 
 the most able statesmen of history. 
 
 149. 14. Cosmo I (1519-1574): Cosmo de' Medici, Grand 
 Duke of Tuscany, a munificent patron of art and literature. 
 
Longmans' English Classics 
 
 Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum and Other Poems. 
 
 Edited by Ashley H. Thomdike, Professor of English in 
 Columbia University. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Browning's Select Poems. 
 
 Edited by Percival Chubb, Director of English, Ethical 
 Culture Schools, New York. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. 
 
 Edited by Charles Sears Baldwin, Professor of Rhetoric 
 in Yale University. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America. 
 
 Edited by Albert S. Cook, Professor of the English Language 
 and Literature in Yale University. $0.25. [For Study.] 
 Byron's Childe Harold, Canto IV, and Prisoner of Chillon. 
 
 Edited by H. E. Coblentz, Principal of The South Division 
 High School, Milwaukee, Wis. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Carlyle's Essay on Burns. 
 
 Edited by Wilson Farrand, Principal of the Newark Acad- 
 emy, Newark, N. J., $0.25. [For Study.] 
 Carlyle's Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History. 
 
 Edited by Henry David Gray, Instructor in English in 
 Leland Stanford, Jr. University. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. 
 
 Edited by Herbert Bates, Brooklyn Manual Training High 
 School, New York. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 DeQuincey's Joan of Arc and The English Mail Coach. 
 
 Edited by Charles Sears Baldwin, Professor of Rhetoric 
 in Yale University. $0.25. [For Reading, 1910 to 1912.] 
 Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities. 
 
 Edited by Frederick William Roe, Assistant Professor 
 of English, Univ. of Wisconsin. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Franklin's Autobiography. 
 
 Edited by William B. Cairms, Assistant Professor of Amer- 
 ican Literature in the University of Wisconsin. $0.25. [For 
 Reading.] 
 Gaskell's Cranford. 
 
 Edited by Franklin T. Baker, Professor of the English Lan- 
 guage and Literature in Teachers College, Columbia Uni- 
 versity. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 George Eliot's Silas Marner. 
 
 Edited by Robert Herrick, Professor of Rhetoric in the 
 University of Chicago. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield. 
 
 Edited by Mary A. Jordan, Professor of Rhetoric and Old 
 English in Smith College. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Gray's Elegy In A Country Churchyard and Goldsmith's The 
 Deserted Village. 
 
 Edited by James F. Hosic, Head of the Department of 
 English in the Chicago Normal School, Chicago, 111. $0.25. 
 [For Reading.] 
 
Longmans' English Classics 
 
 Huxley's Autobiography and Selections From Lay Sermons. 
 
 Edited by E. H. Kemper McComb, Head of the Depart- 
 ment of English in the Manual Training High School, India- 
 napoHs, Ind. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 living's Sketch Book. 
 
 With an Introduction by Brander Matthews, Professor of 
 Dramatic Literature, Columbia University, and with notes 
 by Armour Caldwell, A.B. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Lincoln, Selections From. 
 
 Edited by Daniel K. Dodge, Professor of English in the 
 University of Illinois. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Lowell's Vision of Sir Launfal, and Other Poems. 
 
 Edited by Allan Abbott, Head of the Department of Eng- 
 lish, Horace Mann High School, Teachers College, New York 
 City. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Macaulay's Essay on Lord Olive. 
 
 Edited by Preston C. Farrar, Instructor of English in Eras- 
 mus Hall High School, Brooklyn, N. Y. $0.25. [For Read- 
 ing.] 
 Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome, with Ivry and The Armada. 
 Edited by Nott Flint, late Instructor in English in the Uni- 
 versity of Chicago. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Macaulay's Life of Samuel Johnson. 
 
 Edited by Huber Gray Buehler, Head-master Hotchkiss 
 School, Lakeville, Conn. $0.25. [For Study.] 
 Macaulay's Warren Hastings. 
 
 Edited by Samuel M. Tucker, Professor of English and Dean 
 in The Florida State College. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Milton's L' Allegro, II Penseroso, Comus and Lycidas. 
 
 Edited by William P. Trent, Professor of English Litera- 
 ture in Columbia University. $0.25. [For Study; after 19 11, 
 "Lycidas" is omitted.] 
 Parkman's The Oregon Trail. 
 
 Edited by Ottis B. Sperlin, Head of the Department of 
 English in the Tacoma High School, Washington. $0.25. 
 [For Reading.] 
 Palgrave's The Golden Treasury. 
 
 Edited by Herbert Bates, of the Manual Training High 
 School, Brooklyn, New York City. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies. 
 
 Edited by Gertrude Buck, Associate Professor of E*s3glish 
 in Vassar College. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Scott's Ivanhoe. 
 
 Edited by Bliss Perry, Professor of English Literature in 
 Harvard University. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Scott's Lady of the Lake. 
 
 Edited by George Rice Carpenter, late Professor of Rhetoric 
 and English Composition in Columbia University. $0.25. 
 [For Reading.] 
 
Longmans' t^nglish Classics 
 
 Scott's Quentin Durward. 
 
 Edited by Mary E. Adams, Head of the Department of 
 English in the Central High School, Cleveland, O. $0.25. 
 [For Reading,] 
 Shakspere's A Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 
 Edited by George Pierce Baker, Professor of English in 
 Harvard University. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Shakspere's As You Like It. 
 
 With an Introduction by Barrett Wendell,. A. B., Professor 
 of English in Harvard University ; and Notes by WilHam 
 Lyon Phelps, Lampson Professor of English Literaure in 
 Yale University. $0.2 5. [For Reading.] 
 Shakspere's Macbeth. 
 
 Edited by John Matthews Manly, Professor and Head of 
 the Department of English in the University of Chicago. 
 $0.25. [For Study.] 
 Shakspere's Julius Caesar. 
 
 Edited by George C. D. Odell, Professor of EngUsh in Co- 
 lumbia University. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Shakspere's King Henry V. 
 
 Edited by George C. D. Odell, Professor of English in Co- 
 lumbia University. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Shakspere's The Merchant of Venice. 
 
 Edited by Francis B. Gummere, Professor of English in 
 Haverford College. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Shakspere's Twelfth Night. 
 
 Edited by John B. Henneman, Ph.D., late Professor of 
 English in the University of the South. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Spenser's The Faerie Queene. (Selections.) 
 
 Edited by John Erskine, Professor of Enghsh in Amherst 
 College. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Stevenson's Treasure Island. 
 
 Edited by Clayton Hamilton, Extension Lecturer in Eng- 
 lish, Columbia University. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Tennyson's Gareth and Lynette, Lancelot and Elaine, The Pass- 
 ing of Arthur. 
 
 Edited by Sophie C. Hart, Associate Professor of Rhetoric 
 in Wellesley College. $0.25. [For Reading, 1909 to 1915. 
 For Study, 19 12.] 
 Tennyson's The Princess. 
 
 Edited by George Edward Woodberry, formerly Professor 
 of Comparative Literature in Columbia University. $0.25. 
 [For Reading, 19 12.] 
 The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers. 
 
 Edited by D. O. S. Lowell, Head-master of the Roxbury 
 Latin School, Boston, Mass. $0.25. [For Reading.] 
 Thoreau's Walden. 
 
 Edited by Raymond M. Alden, Professor of EngHsh in 
 Leland Stanford Junior University, CaHfomia. $0.25. [For 
 Reading.] 
 
Longmans* English Classics 
 
 Webster's First Bunker Hill Oration and Washington's Farewell 
 Address. 
 
 Edited by Fred Newton Scott, Professor of Rhetoric in 
 the University of Michigan. $0.25. [For Study.] 
 
 Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. 
 
 Edited by Charles F. Richardson, Professor of English 
 in Dartmouth College. $0.50. 
 Defoe's History of the Plague in London. 
 
 Edited by George R. Carpenter, late Professor of Rhetoric 
 and English Composition in Columbia University. $0.60. 
 De Quincey's Flight of a Tartar Tribe. 
 
 Edited by Charles Sears iBaldwin, Professor of Rhetoric 
 in Yale University. $0.40. 
 Dryden's Palamon and Arcite. 
 
 Edited by William Tenney Brewster, Professor of English 
 in Columbia University. $0.40. 
 Irving's Life of Goldsmith. 
 
 Edited by Lewis B. Semple, Instructor in English, Brooklyn 
 Commercial High School, New York. $0.25. 
 Irving's Tales of a Traveller. 
 
 With an Introduction by Brander Matthews, Professor of 
 Dramatic Literature in Columbia University, and Explanatory 
 Notes by Professor George R. Carpenter. $0.80. 
 Macaulay's Essay on Milton. 
 
 Edited by James Greenleaf Croswell, Head-master of the 
 Brearley School, New York. $0.40. 
 Macaulay's Essays on Milton and Addison. 
 
 Edited by James Greenleaf Croswell, Head-master of the 
 Brearley School, New York. $0.40. 
 Macaulay's Johnson and Addison. 
 
 1. Life of Samuel Johnson, edited by Huber Gray 
 Buehler, Hotchkiss School. 
 
 2. Addison, edited by James Greenleaf Croswell, Brearley 
 School. $0.40. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lost. Books I. and H. 
 
 Edited by Edward Everett Hale, Jr., Professor of the Eng- 
 lish Language and Literature in Union College. $0.40. 
 Pope's Homer's Iliad. Books L, VL, XXH. and XXIV. 
 
 Edited by William H. Maxwell, Superintendent of New 
 York City Schools; and Percival Chubb, Director of English 
 in the Ethical Culture Schools, New York. $0.40. 
 Scott's Marmion. 
 
 Edited by Robert Morss Lovett, Professor of English in 
 the University of Chicago. $0.60. 
 Scott's Woodstock. 
 
 Edited by Bliss Perry, Professor of English Literature in 
 Harvard University. $0.60. 
 Southey's Life of Nelson. 
 
 Edited by Edwin L. Miller, Head of the English Depart- 
 ment, Central High School, Detroit, Mich. $0.60. 
 
JUN 33 1910' 
 
One copy del. to Oat. Div. 
 
 m ^ -k;*