Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/127

 Hastings suppressed important information, and with, attempting to elude all check and control. Hastings returned to England for a few months in 1825, and took his seat in the House of Lords for the first time since his elevation to the marquisate on 3 June (Journals of the House of Lords, lvii. 975). In the same month he introduced a bill for regulating the interest of money in India, but though it procured the favourable opinion of the judges and was read a second time in the House of Lords, it did not pass into law (Parliamentary Debates, new ser. xiii. 1207–9, 1380–1). He returned to Malta in February 1826. Here his health, already affected by the Indian climate, began to give way, and he sustained a considerable injury from a fall from his horse. He died on board H.M.S. Revenge in Baia Bay, off Naples, on 28 Nov. 1826, in the seventy-second year of his age. In a letter found among his papers he left directions that upon his death his right hand should be cut off and preserved until the death of the marchioness, when it was to be placed in her coffin.

Hastings was a tall, athletic man, with a stately figure and impressive manner. As a politician he is chiefly remembered as the friend and confidant of the Prince of Wales. His capacity for rule was remarkable, and as a skilful soldier and an able administrator he is not likely to be forgotten. In his earlier days Hastings had denounced the British government of India in the most unmeasured terms, declaring 'it was founded in injustice, and had originally been established by force' (Parliamentary Hist. xxix. 143); but consistency was not one of his political virtues. Hastings laboured earnestly to ameliorate the state of insolvent debtors, and was an enthusiastic freemason, acting as deputy for the Prince of Wales during his grand mastership. Moore dedicated his volume of 'Epistles, Odes, and other Poems,' to Hastings in 1806.

Hastings married, on 12 July 1804, Lady Flora Mure Campbell, countess of Loudoun in her own right, the only child of James, fifth earl of Loudoun, by whom he had six children, viz. (1) Flora Elizabeth [q. v.]; (2) Francis George Augustus, lord Machline, who died an infant; (3) Francis George Augustus, who, born on 4 Feb. 1808, succeeded his father as second marquis of Hastings, and his mother an seventh earl of Loudoun, and died on 13 Jan. 1844; (4) Sophia Frederica Christina, who, born on 1 Feb. 1809, married, on 10 April 1845, John, second marquis of Bute, and died on 28 Dec. 1859; (5) Selina Constantia, who, born on 15 Aug. 1810, married, on 25 June 1838, Charles Henry, captain of

the 56th regiment, and died on 8 Nov. 1867; (6) Adelaide Augusta Lavinia, who married, on 8 July 1854, Sir William Keith Murray of Ochtertyre, bart., and died on 6 Dec. 1860. Lady Hastings, who survived her husband many years, died on 9 Jan. 1840, in her sixtieth year, and was buried in the mausoleum at Loudoun Castle. On the death of the fourth Marquis of Hastings (a grandson of the first marquis) in November 1868 the marquisate and other English and Irish honours created by patent became extinct, while the baronies by writ fell into abeyance among his sisters; the earldom of Loudoun and the other Scottish honours devolved upon his eldest sister (Edith Maud, wife of Charles Frederick Abney-Hastings, afterwards created Baron Donington), in whose favour the abeyance of the baronies of Botreaux, Hungerford, De Moleyns, and Hastings was terminated on 21 April 1871.

In consequence of his habitual extravagance Hastings left his family badly off, and in 1827 the East India Company voted a further sum of 20,000l. for the benefit of his son, the second marquis, who was then under age. A series of letters from Hastings, 1796-7, are in the possession of the Earl of Rosslyn at Dysart House (Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. p. 192). The Earl of Granard possesses several letters of Hastings containing interesting matter illustrating the early years of his career and his services in the American war (ib. 3rd Rep. xxvi. 430–1). A number of his letters and despatches during the American war will be found among the collection of Cornwallis MSS. presented by Lord Braybrooke to the Record Office (ib. 8th Rep. pp. 277, 287–9). Among the muniments of Lord Elphinstone at Carbery Tower are a series of letters written by Hastings when governor-general to the Hon. William Fullerton Elphinstone, a director of the East India Company, in which he communicated his policy and the opinion of his colleagues. Many of these letters, however, are described as being 'too confidential for publicity' (ib. 9th Rep. pt. ii. 182, 183, 203–6). A number of papers relating to the Mahratta war, &c., which belonged to the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, are also in the possession of Lord Elphinstone (ib, pp. 207–14). The American papers forming part of the manuscripts belonging to Mrs. Stopford Sackville of Drayton House, Northamptonshire, contain frequent references to Hastings (ib. 9th Rep. pt. iii. 81–118). His collection of sketches of the scenes and events of the American war, painted in water colour by various artists, circa 1775–6, was dispersed by sale. Some of them were in the possession