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 84 WARREN HASTINGS

mtisters of Bengal. He owned himself doubtful of the judgment that might be passed upon hia acts at home, where he saw 'too much stress laid upon general maxims, and too little attention paid to the circumstances which require an exception to be made from them.' But he took comfort in thinking of 'the accidental concourse of circumstances,' that en- abled him to ' relieve the Company in the distress of their affairs ' by means which appeared to him entirely harmless. ' Such ' — he wrifcas to Sulivan — ' was my idea of the Company's distress at home, added to my knowledge of their wants abroad, that I should have been glad of any occasion to employ their forces, which saves so much of their pay and expenses ^.'

Fear of the Mar&th&s was another and yet more powerful motive for a course of action which has since been often denounced, by none more eloquently than Macaulay himself, as a wanton aggression upon the innocent rulers of a well-governed and prosperous