Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/91

Rh satisfied, but hinted that the Resident should be removed from Khátmándu. The Governor-General, however, informed them that at least one civilised nation ought to be represented at that capital, and ingeniously suggested that a mandarin would suit his purpose equally well, — an inadmissible proposal, as he knew well, seeing that the Chinese government was too exalted an authority then to condescend to foreign missions.

The news of the Gúrkha war was at first received with unmitigated regret in England. The Charter of 1813 had thrown open the Indian trade, and had destroyed the Company's monopoly, and it had been hoped that the use of money might partially serve to nullify this obnoxious enactment. Many members of the Court of Directors resented the diversion of these funds to a military expedition, and appeared even to think that a war which had become supremely necessary must be neglected because it interfered with a commercial speculation. The Court, indeed, did not propose that the Governor-General should submit tamely to unjust encroachment; but, failing to understand the temper of the Gúrkha chiefs, they hoped that as the result of local investigation had established 'the Company's right to the disputed lands, the government of Nepál would yield to the application for the surrender of those lands' without the display of force. But Lord Hastings, knowing well that everything short of war had been tried ad nauseam,