[1782 A.D.] out of its holders by his personal intervention. When he reached Benares and presented his demands, the rajah rose in insurrection, and the governorgeneral barely escaped with his life. But the faithful Popham rapidly rallied a force for his defence. The native soldiery were defeated again and again; Cheyte Sing took to flight, and an augmented permanent tribute was imposed upon his successor.2 The Oudh business was managed with less risk. The wazir consented to everything demanded of him.b The city and palace of Faizabad, in which the two princesses dwelt, were surrounded and reduced by a body of British troops. Still, however, the begums would not part with any portion of their hidden treasure. The difficulty was how to discover or lay hands upon it without profaning, as the races of the East conceive, the sacred bounds of the zenana. It was BUDDHIST TOPE IN BENARES resolved to arrest and confine two aged eunuchs, the heads of the household, and the principal ministers of the princesses. These men were cast into prison, and loaded with irons; and on finding them obdurate, an order was issued in January, 1782, that until they yielded they should be debarred from all food. This order, to the shame and opprobrium not only of himself and his employer, but even of the English name in India, bore the signature of Nathaniel Middleton. ['He set forth from the city by night, yet not unobserved, the rabble hooting him as he rode along, with a jingling rhyme not yet forgotten in Benares: "Hat' hee pur howdah, ghore pur jeen, Juldee bah'r jata Sahib Warren Husteen !". "Horse, elephant, howdah, set off at full speed, "It is a nursery rhyme which is often sung to children (at Benares)," says Bishop Heber.] [ Pitt, during the trial of Hastings in 1786, said that Hastings had a right to impose a fine on Cheyte Sing. "But, in fining the rajah £500,000, for a mere delay to pay £50,000, which £50,000 he had actually paid, Mr. Hastings proceeded in an arbitrary, tyrannical manner, and was not guided by any principle of reason and justice. The punishment was utterly disproportionate, and shamefully exorbitant."] [1782 A.D.] to To the pangs of hunger the aged ministers gave way, and within two days agreed to disburse the sum which was then required. But that sum was only a part of the whole demand. To extort the rest other most rigorous measures were employed. The two prisoners were removed from Faizabad to Lucknow. The weight of their irons was increased; torture was threatened, and perhaps inflicted; certain it is, at least, that every facility was granted by the British assistant resident to the officers of the vizir, who were sent for that purpose the prison-house. Meanwhile at Faizabad the palace-gates of the princesses continued to be strictly guarded. Food was allowed to enter, but not always in sufficient quantities for the number of the inmates, so that the begums might be wrought upon by the distress of their attendants. "The melancholy cries of famine," says a British officer upon the spot, "are more easily imagined than described." Thus, through the greater part of 1782, severity followed severity, and sum was exacted after sum. The ministers were not set free, nor the princesses relieved from duresse until after there had been obtained from them treasure exceeding in amount one million sterling. Notwithstanding all their pleas of poverty-pleas perfectly justifiable in the face of such oppression there was still remaining in their hands property to the value of at least one million more. Certainly, in one respect at least, Hastings may deserve to be far distinguished above the long line of robbers - magistrates of story - from Verres the praetor down to Monaien Rapinat. He plundered for the benefit of the state, and not his own. His main thought was that he had a great empire to save- and he did save it. Yet with all due appreciation of his object, and with all due allowance for his difficulties, his conduct to the princesses of Oudh appears incapable of any valid vindication, and alike repugnant to the principles of justice and humanity.c Hastings appears to have been not altogether satisfied 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 rajah and the begums to the validity of which Impey obligingly lent his extra-judicial sanction. The remainder of Hastings' term in office in India was passed in comparative tranquillity, both from internal opposition 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' 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.b WAR WITH THE DUTCH AND FRENCH (1781-1783 A.D.) Thus was Hastings upheld at his post; thus might his energies still maintain the varying fortunes of the war in the Carnatic. To that war he con [1782 A.D.] tinued to apply most strenuously all the men and all the money he could raise. His public-spirited endeavours were well seconded by those of the new governor of Fort St. George, Lord Macartney, who had gained some reputation by negotiating a treaty of commerce with Russia, and who mainly on that ground had been appointed to Madras. Lord Macartney brought out from England the news of the declaration of war against the Dutch; and it became one of his first objects to reduce the settlements which they possessed on the coasts of Coromandel and Ceylon. He was successful with regard to the Dutch factories at Sadras and Pulicat. Next he fitted out a more considerable expedition against the more important settlement of Negapatam. In November, 1781, Negapatam was accordingly besieged and taken, several thousand Dutch troops, after a resolute resistance, being made prisoners on this occasion. Inspirited by that exploit, a body of five hundred men was put on board the fleet, and sent to the attack of Fort Ostenburg and Trincomalee, in the island of Ceylon. This service, also, was no less successfully performed, but was much more than counterbalanced by the disaster which, in February, 1782, befell another British detachment in the district of Tanjore. There Colonel Braithwaite, at the head of one hundred Europeans and eighteen hundred sepoys, found himself surrounded and surprised by an army of Mysore, under Hyder's son Tipu and M. Lally. He and his men fought most bravely, but at last were overpowered by superior numbers; and all either cut to pieces or taken captive and consigned to the dungeons of Seringapatam. In the same month of February, 1782, the armament from France, so long expected, appeared off the coast of Coromandel. Its command had devolved on Suffren, one of the best seamen whom his country can boast. Already, on his outward voyage, he had fought a pitched battle with an English squadron at Porto Praya, in one of the Cape Verd islands. By his prompt arrival at the Cape of Good Hope, he had secured that colony against the same squadron for his new allies the Dutch. In India it was one of his first cares to land at Porto Novo two thousand French soldiers whom he had on board, to form, with their countrymen already serving, an auxiliary force to the armies of Mysore. These troops being joined by Tipu, flushed as he was then with his triumph over Colonel Braithwaite, they proceeded in conjunction to invest Cuddalore, a seaport town between Porto Novo and Pondicherry. Having to encounter only a feeble garrison of four hundred men, they easily prevailed in their attack; and Cuddalore, thus wrested from the English, became of great importance to the French, both as a place of arms and as a harbour, during the whole remainder of the war. It so chanced that at the very time when the armament from France appeared in the Indian seas, the British fleet in that quarter was seasonably reinforced by several new ships from England. De Suffren and Sir Edward Hughes, the two admirals here opposed to each other, were antagonists well matched both for skill and intrepidity. In the period between February, 1782, and June, 1783, no less than five pitched battles were fought between them. In these their force was very nearly equal, with only a slight superiority on most occasions on the side of the French. But in none of these was any decisive advantage gained by either party. No ship of war was captured; no overwhelming loss of men was achieved; and, in turning to the best account the results of every action, Suffren showed a far superior skill, especially in retaking Trincomalee and relieving Cuddalore. The arrival of the French auxiliaries to the forces of Mysore was, in a great measure, counterbalanced by the peace which at this time Hastings con [1789-1785 A.D.] cluded with the Mahratta estates. Thus, the English could continue to wage, on no unequal terms, the war in the Carnatic until, in December, 1782, it received a new turn from the illness and death of Hyder Ali. This event was concealed as long as possible, to afford time for Tipu, who was then upon the coast of Malabar, to return and claim in person the allegiance of the people and the troops. But when the intelligence did at last reach Calcutta, it fired anew the energies of Sir Eyre Coote. Weak health had compelled the failing veteran, after one more battle with Hyder at Arnee, to withdraw from the field in the Carnatic, and sail back to his council-chambers of Bengal. Now, however, he felt, or he fancied, his strength in some degree restored; and he was eager to measure swords against the new sultan. For this purpose he embarked in an armed vessel which carried out supplies of money to Madras. This, towards the close of its voyage, was chased for two days and two nights by some French ships of the line. During all this time the general's anxiety kept him constantly on deck. The excessive heat by day, the unwholesome dews at night, wrought sad havoc on his already wasted frame; and thus, although the ship escaped from its pursuers, Sir Eyre Ccote expired in April, 1783, only two days after he had landed at Madras. Tipu during this time had returned to the coast of Malabar. There he had to wage war against General Mathews and a body of troops from Bombay set free by the peace with the Mahrattas. The English general at first had great successes, reducing both Bednur and Mangalore. But the appearance of the sultan at the head of fifty thousand men changed the scene. Mathews was besieged in Bednur and taken prisoner with all his Europeans. Being accused, though unjustly, of a breach of faith, he was put in irons, and sent in the strictest duresse with many of his comrades to Seringa patam, there to perish in the dungeons of the tyrant. At Madras the command of the forces, in the absence of Sir Eyre, had devolved, though far less adequately, on General Stuart. That officer, in the spring of 1783, commenced operations against the French in Cuddalore, who had lately received from Europe some considerable reinforcements under De Bussy. The lines in front of the town, which Bussy had well fortified, were assailed by Stuart with more of intrepidity than skill. The fleets on both sides hastened to the scene of action; but suddenly at the close of June the tidings came that the preliminaries of peace between France and England had been signed at Versailles. By that compact, Pondicherry and the other settlements of France in India, as they stood before the war, were to be restored. The French took possession accordingly, but, on the other hand, they recalled their detachment serving under Tipu in Malabar, and prepared to sail back with their armament to France. Tipu then remained alone. He had set his heart on adding lustre to his arms by reducing in person the stronghold of Mangalore, but, having achieved that object in the autumn of 1783, he was no longer disinclined to treat with the English upon the footing of a mutual restitution of all conquests made since the commencement of the war. Thus was peace restored through all the wide extent of India, and thus did the administration of Hastings, which endured until the spring of 1785, close, after all its storms, with scarce a cloud upon its sky.c THE IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS Francis had returned to Europe, with the wound inflicted by Hastings' pistol fresh on his body, and with the bitterest feelings of animosity rankling (1785-1788 A.D.] in his heart. He had made the acquaintance of Burke before he went to the east; he corresponded with him during his residence at Calcutta; and on his return he had full possession of his ear, and filled Burke's generous and excitable mind with false and horrible tales against Hastings, and against all who had supported that governor-general in his struggle with Francis, Clavering, and Monson. From the moment of Francis' arrival in England, by means of pamphlets, books of travels, harangues at public meetings, private discussions, and parliamentary orations, a merciless war was commenced against the great man who was saving, and who in the end did both save and enlarge the Indian Empire of Great Britain. It was soon resolved to impeach Hastings for the means he had employed to effect the great object. Hastings, however, was not recalled; he resigned. The last two years of his administration in India formed by far the happiest period of his public life. The peace with France, which paralyzed the most powerful of the native princes, enabled him to get the whole country into a state of tranquillity and prosperity which had not been known for many ages. It also enabled him to extend the British influence in several new directions, and to confirm it in others. Having completed his preparations, he embarked on the 8th of February, 1785, attended by demonstrations that certainly did not mark him out as a tyrant and a monster. As soon as it was publicly known that he was really about to quit the government, which he had held for thirteen years, numerous addresses were got up and presented by all classes; by military officers, by the civil servants of the company, by factors and traders, by natives as well as Europeans. He was most favourably received at court; but his enemies did not leave him long tranquil. Francis had obtained a seat in parliament, ranging himself on the side of the most active and the most eloquent opposition party that the country had yet seen, and through Francis and his too credulous ally, Burke, the prosecution of Hastings was made a party question. It took some time and trouble to convert Charles Fox, but at last that statesman entered into the crusade against the governor-general with his constitutional heat and impetuosity. Sheridan, Sir Gilbert Elliot, Sir John Anstruther, Mr. Windham, Mr., afterwards Earl Grey, and all the great whig orators either preceded or followed Fox; and for many years their efforts were united to effect the ruin and disgrace of Warren Hastings, who was no orator, who had no seat in parliament, and who had to contend with nearly every possible disadvantage. The mere outlines of the proceedings would fill a volumethey lasted altogether more than ten years; and without details still more voluminous, an adequate notion could not be conveyed of this unprecedented persecution. We can here do no more than describe the scene and give the results. On the 4th of April, Burke charged Warren Hastings, Esquire, late governor-general of Bengal, etc., with sundry high crimes and misdemeanours, and delivered at the table nine of his articles of charge. In the course of the following week he presented twelve more articles; and on the 6th of May another charge, being the twenty-second, was added to the long and bewildering list. But the several accusations were finally confined to four heads: The oppression and final expulsion of the rajah of Benares; the maltreatment and robbery of the begums of the house of Oudh; and the charges of receiving presents and conniving at unfair contracts and extravagant expenditure. The sessions of 1786-1787 having been consumed in preliminary proceedings, the house of lords assembled in Westminster Hall, February 13th, 1788, to try the impeachment.? |