Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/547

Rh HASTINGS 515 offered to him. The understanding between Hastings and Francis, originating in this state of affairs, was for a short period extended to general policy. An agreement was come to by which Francis received patronage for his circle of friends, while Hastings was to be unimpeded in the control of foreign affairs. But a difference of interpretation arose. Hastings recorded in an official minute that he had found Francis s private and public conduct to be &quot; void of truth and honour.&quot; They met as duellists. Francis fell wounded, and soon afterwards returned to England. The Mahratta war was not yet terminated, but a far more formidable danger now threatened the English in India. The imprudent conduct of the Madras authorities had irritated beyond endurance the two greatest Mussulman powers in the peninsula, the nizam of the Deccan and Hyder Ali, the usurper of Mysore, who began to negotiate an alliance with the Mahrattas. A second time the genius of Hastings saved the British empire in the east. On the arrival of the news that Hyder had descended from the highlands of Mysore, cut to pieces the only British army iu the field, and swept the Carnatic up to the gates of Madras, he at once adopted a policy of extraordinary bold ness. He signed a blank treaty of peace with the Mah rattas, who were still in arms, reversed the action of the Madras Government towards the nizam, and concentrated all the resources of Bengal against Hyder Ali. Sir Eyre Coote, a general of renown in former Carnatic wars, was sent by sea to Madras with all the troops and treasure that could be got together; and a strong body of reinforcements subsequently marched southwards under General Leslie along the coast line of Orissa. The landing of Coote pre served Madras from destruction, though the war lasted through many campaigns and only terminated with the death of Hyder. Leslie s detachment v/as decimated by an epidemic of cholera (perhaps the first mention of this disease by name in Indian history); but the survivors penetrated to Madras, and not only held in check the bhonsla and the nizam, but also corroborated the lesson taught by Goddard that the Company s sepoys could march anywhere, when boldly led. Hastings s personal task was to provide the ways and means for this exhaust ing war. A considerable economy was effected by a reform in the establishment for collecting the land tax. The Government monopolies of opium and salt were then for the first time placed upon a remunerative basis. But these reforms were of necessity slow in their beneficial operation. The pressing demands of the military chest had to be satisfied by loans, and in at least one case from the private purse of the governor-general. Ready cash could alone fill up the void ; and it was to the hoards of native prince that Hastings s fertile mind at once turned. Clieyte Sing, raja of Benares, the greatest of the vassal chiefs who had grown rich under the protection of the British rule, lay under the suspicion of disloyalty. The wazlr of Oudh had fallen into arrears in the payment due for the maintenance of the Company s garrison posted in his dominions, and his ad ministration was in great disorder. In his case the ances tral hoards were under the control of his mother, the begum of Oudh, into whose hands they had been allowed to pass at the time when Hastings was powerless in council. Hastings resolved to make a progress up country in order to arrange the affairs of both provinces, and bring back al] the treasure that could be squeezed out of its holders by his personal intervention. When he reached Benares and presented his demands, the raja rose in insurrection, ano the governor-general barely escaped with hia life. But the faithful Popham rapidly rallied a force for Ids defence. The native soldiery were defeated again and again ; Cheyt Sing took to flight, and an augmented permanent tribute was imposed upon his successor. The Oudh business was nanaged with less risk. The wazfr consented to every thing demanded of him. The begum was charged with laving abetted Cheyte Sing in his rebellion ; and after the everest pressure applied to herself and her attendant
 * unuchs, a fine of more than a million sterling was exacted

from her. Hastings appears to have been not altogether atisfied with the incidents of this expedition, and to have anticipated the censure which it received in England. As a measure of precaution, he procured documentary evidence of the rebellious intentions of the raja and the begum, to the validity of which Impey obligingly lent his extra- judicial sanction. The remainder of Hastings s term of office in India was passed in comparative tranquillity, both from internal oppo sition and foreign war. The centre of interest now shifts to the India House and to the British Parliament. The long struggle between the Company and the ministers of the crown for the supreme control of Indian affairs and the attendant patronage had reached its climax. The decisive success of Hastings s administration alone postponed the inevitable solution. His original term of five years would have expired in 1778 ; but it was annually prolonged by special Act of Parliament until his voluntary resignation. Though Hastings was thus irremovable, his policy did not escape censure. Ministers were naturally anxious to obtain the reversion to his vacant post, and Indian affairs formed at this time the hinge on which party politics turned. On one occasion Dundas carried a motion in the House of Commons censuring Hastings, and demanding his recall. The directors of the Company were disposed to act upon this resolution ; but in the court of proprietors, with whom the decision ultimately lay, Hastings always possessed a sufficient majority. Fox s India Bill led to the downfall of the Coalition Ministry in 1783. The Act which Pitt successfully carried in the following year introduced a new constitution, in which Hastings felt that he had no place. In February 1785 he finally sailed from Calcutta, after a dignified ceremony of resignation, and amid enthusiastic farewells from all classes. On his arrival in England, after a second absence of six teen years, he was not displeased with the reception he met with at court and in the country. A peerage was openly talked of as his due, while his own ambition pointed to some responsible office at home. Pitt had never taken a side against him, while Lord Chancellor Thurlow was his pro nounced friend. But he was now destined to learn that his enemy Francis, whom he had discomfited in the council chamber at Calcutta, was more than his match in the parlia mentary arena. Edmund Burke had taken the subject races of India under the protection of his eloquence. Francis, who had been the early friend of Burke, supplied him with the personal animus against Hastings, and with the knowledge of details, which he might otherwise have lacked. The Whig party on this occasion unanimously followed Burke s lead. Dundas, Pitt s favourite subordinate, had already committed himself by his earlier resolution of censure ; and Pitt was induced by motives which are still obscure to in cline the ministerial majority to the same side. To meet the oratory of Burke and Sheridan and Fox, Hastings wrote an elaborate minute with which he wearied the ears of the House for two successive nights, and he subsidized a swarm of pamphleteers. The impeachment was decided upon in 178G, but the actual trial did not commence until 1788. For seven long years Hastings was upon his defence on the charge of &quot;high crimes and misdemeanours.&quot; During this anxious period he appears to have borne himself with characteristic dignity, such as is consistent with no other hypothesis than the consciousness of innocence. At last, in 1795, the House of Lords gave a verdict of not guilty on all the charges laid against him ; and he left the bar at