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40 he gave some useful, straightforward evidence before a Parliamentary committee on Indian affairs.

About the same time Hastings laid before the India House a scheme which, forty years afterwards, gave birth to the Company's training college at Haileybury. He proposed that the Company should found somewhere in England a seminary at which their writers might gain due knowledge of Persian, in those days the official language of India, through competent professors imported from the East. Johnson probably looked with favour on a scheme which met with no encouragement in Leadenhall Street, where strict economy was the one cry.

Between his recent losses in India and his liberal outlay on relatives at home, Hastings presently found himself very short of funds. His second request for re-employment was not made in vain. In 1768 the Court of Directors, looking out for a trustworthy servant who would put things financially straight at Madras, appointed Hastings to a seat in the Madras Council 'next below Mr. Du Pré.' In their letter to the President and Council they spoke of the newcomer as 'a gentleman who has served us many years upon the Bengal establishment, with great ability and unblemished character.' Early in 1769 Hastings sailed from Dover on board the Duke of Grafton for Madras. Rather than stint his relatives of the aid derived from his bounty, he had been reduced to borrow the money for his own outfit.

During the past four years the Company's affairs