squeamish in pecuniary transactions; but favourable impression of the talents and he was neither sordid nor rapacious. He attainments of his visiter. Long after, was far too enlightened a man to look on a when Hastings was ruling the immense great empire merely as a buccanier would population of British India, the old phillook on a galleon. Had his heart been osopher wrote to him, and referred in the much worse than it was, his understanding most courtly terms, though with great digwould have preserved him from that ex-nity, to their short but agreeable intertremity of baseness. He was an unscru- course. pulous, perhaps an unprincipled statesman; but still he was a statesman, and not a freebooter.

In 1764, Hastings returned to England. He had realised only a very moderate fortune; and that moderate fortune was soon reduced to nothing, partly by his praiseworthy liberality, and partly by his mismanagement. Towards his relations he appears to have acted very generously. The greater part of his savings he left in Bengal, hoping probably to obtain the high usury of India. But high usury and bad security generally go together; and Hastings lost both interest and principal.

Hastings soon began to look again towards India. He had little to attach him to England; and his pecuniary embarrassments were great. He solicited his old masters the Directors for employment. They acceded to his request, with high compliments both to his abilities and to his integrity, and appointed him a Member of Council at Madras. It would be unjust not to mention, that though forced to borrow money for his outfit, he did not withdraw any portion of the sum which he had appropriated to the relief of his distressed relations. In the spring of 1769 he embarked on board of the Duke of Grafton,' and commenced a voyage distinguished by incidents which might furnish matter for a novel.

He remained four years in England. Of his life at this time very little is known. But it has been asserted, and is highly probable, that liberal studies, and the society Among the passengers in the Duke of of men of letters, occupied a great part of Grafton was a German of the name of his time. It is to be remembered to his Imhoff. He called himself a baron, but he honour, that in days when the languages was in distressed circumstances; and was of the East were regarded by other ser- going out to Madras as a portrait painter, in vants of the Company merely as the means the hope of picking up some of the pagodas of communicating with weavers and mon- which were then lightly got and as lightly ey-changers, his enlarged and accom- spent by the English in India. The baron plished mind sought in Asiatic learning for was accompanied by his wife, a native, we new forms of intellectual enjoyment, and have somewhere read, of Archangel. This for new views of government and society, young woman, who, born under the Arctic Perhaps, like most persons who have paid circle, was destined to play the part of a much attention to departments of knowl- Queen under the tropic of Cancer, had an edge which lie out of the common track, agreeable person, a cultivated mind, and he was inclined to overrate the value of his manners in the highest degree engaging. favourite studies. He conceived that the She despised her husband heartily, and, as cultivation of Persian literature might with the story which we have to tell sufficiently advantage be made a part of the liberal proves, not without reason. She was ineducation of an English gentleman; and terested by the conversation and flattered he drew up a plan with that view. It is by the attentions of Hastings. The situasaid that the University of Oxford, in tion was indeed perilous. No place is so which Oriental learning had never, since propitious to the formation either of close the revival of letters, been wholly neglect- friendship, or of deadly enmities as an ed, was to be the seat of the institution Indiaman. There are very few people which he contemplated. An endowment who do not find a voyage which lasts sevewas expected from the munificence of the ral months insupportably dull. Anything Company; and professors thoroughly com- is welcome which may break that long mopetent to interpret Hafiz and Ferdusi notony a sail, a shark, an albatross, a man were to be engaged in the East. Hastings overboard. Most passengers find some recalled on Johnson, with the hope, as it source in eating twice as many meals as on would seem, of interesting. in his project land. But the great devices for killing the a man who enjoyed the highest literary rep time are, quarrelling and flirting. The fautation, and who was particularly con- cilities for both these exciting pursuits are nected with Oxford. The interview ap-great. The inmates of the ship are thrown pears to have left on Johnson's mind a most together far more than in any country-seat

or boarding-house. None can escape from At Madras, Hastings found the trade of the rest except by imprisoning himself in the Company in a very disorganized state. a cell in which he can hardly turn. All His own tastes would have led him rather food, all exercise, is taken in company. to political than to commercial pursuits; Ceremony is to a great extent banished. but he knew that the favour of his employIt is every day in the power of a mischiev-ers depended chiefly on their dividends, ous person to inflict innumerable annoy- and their dividends depended chiefly on the ances; it is every day in the power of an investment. He therefore, with great judgamiable person to confer little services. It ment, determined to apply his vigorous not seldom happens that serious distress mind for a time to this department of busiand danger call forth in genuine beauty ness; which had been much neglected, and deformity heroic virtues and abject since the servants of the Company had vices, which, in the ordinary intercourse of ceased to be clerks, and had become wargood society, might remain during many riors and negotiators. years unknown even to intimate associates. In a very few months he effected an imUnder such circumstances met Warren portant reform. The Directors notified to Hastings and the Baroness Imhoff; two him their high approbation, and were so persons whose accomplishments would much pleased with his conduct, that they have attracted notice in any court of Eu- determined to place him at the head of the rope. The gentleman had no domestic government of Bengal. Early in 1772 he ties. The lady was tied to a husband for quitted Fort St. George for his new post. whom she had no regard, and who had no The Imhoffs, who were still man and wife, regard for his own honour. An attach- accompanied him, and lived at Calcutta 'on ment sprang up, which was soon strength- the same wise and judicious plan' (we quote ened by events such as could hardly have the words of Mr. Gleig) which they had occurred on land. Hastings fell ill. The already followed during more than two baroness nursed him with womanly tender- years. ness, gave him his medicines with her own hand, and even sate up in his cabin while he slept. Long before the Duke of Grafton' reached Madras, Hastings was in love. But his love was of a most characteristic description. Like his hatred, like his ambition, like all his passions, it was strong, but not impetuous. It was calm, deep, earnest, patient of delay, unconquerable by time. Imhoff was called into council by his wife and his wife's lover. It was arranged that the baroness should institute a suit for a divorce in the courts of Franconia; that the baron should afford every facility to the proceeding; and that, during the years which might elapse before the sentence should be pronounced, they should continue to live together. It was also agreed that Hastings should bestow some very substantial marks of gratitude on the complaisant husband; and should, when the marriage was dissolved, make the lady his wife, and adopt the children whom she had already borne to Imhoff.

We are not inclined to judge either Hastings or the baroness severely. There was undoubtedly much to extenuate their fault. But we can by no means concur with the Rev. Mr. Cleig, who carries his partiality to so injudicious an extreme, as to describe the conduct of Imhoff-conduct the baseness of which is the best excuse for the lovers as wise and judicious.'

When Hastings took his seat at the head of the council board, Bengal was still governed according to the system which Clive had devised - a system which was, perhaps, skilfully contrived for the purpose of facilitating and concealing a great revolution, but which, when that revolution was complete and irrevocable, could produce nothing but inconvenience. There were two governments, the real and the ostensible. The supreme power belonged to the Company, and was in truth the most despotic power that can be conceived. The only restraint on the English masters of the country was that which their own justice and humanity imposed on them. There was no constitutional check on their will, and resistance to them was utterly hopeless.

But though thus absolute in reality, the English had not yet assumed the style of sovereignty. They held their territories as vassals of the throne of Delhi; they raised their revenues as collectors appointed by the imperial commission; their public seal was inscribed with the imperial titles; and their mint struck only the imperial coin.

There was still a nabob of Bengal, who stood to the English rulers of his country in the same relation in which Augustulus stood to Odoacer, or the last Merovingians to Charles Martel and Pepin. He lived at Moorshedabad, surrounded by princely magnificence. He was approached with the

outward marks of reverence, and his name | confided to him. His own stipend amountwas used in public instruments; but in the ed to near a hundred thousand pound stergovernment of the country he had less real ling a-year. The civil list of the nabobs, share than the youngest writer or cadet in amounting to more than three hundred the Company's service. thousand pounds a-year, passed through the minister's hands, and was to a great extent, at his disposal. The collection of the revenue, the superintendence of the household of the prince, the administration of justice, the maintenance of order, were left to this high functionary; and for the exercise of his immense power he was responsible to none but the British masters of the country.

The English council which represented the Company at Calcutta, was constituted on a very different plan from that which has since been adopted. At present the Governor is, as to all executive measures, absolute. He can declare war, conclude peace, appoint public functionaries or remove them, in opposition to the unanimous sense of those who sit with him in council. They are, indeed, entitled to know all that is A situation so important, lucrative, and done, to discuss all that is done, to advise, splendid, was naturally an object of ambito remonstrate, to send home protests. But tion to the ablest and most powerful nåit is with the governor that the supreme tives. Clive had found it difficult to depower resides, and on him that the whole cide between conflicting pretensions. Two responsibility rests. This system, which candidates stood out prominently from the was introduced by Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dun- crowd, each of them the representative of a das in spite of the strenuous opposition of race and of a religion.. Mr. Burke, we conceive to be on the whole The one was Mahommed Reza Khan, a the best that was ever devised for the gov- Mussulman of Persian extraction, able, acernment of a country where no materials tive, religious after the fashion of his people, can be found for a representative constitu- and highly esteemed by them. In England, tion. In the time of Hastings the governor he might perhaps have been regarded as a had only one vote in council, and, in case of an equal division, a casting vote. It therefore happened not unfrequently that he was overruled on the gravest questions; and it was possible that he might be wholly excluded, for years together, from the real direction of public affairs.

corrupt and greedy politician. But. tried by the lower standard of Indian morality, he might be considered as a man of integrity and honour.

His competitor was a Hindoo Brahmin, whose name has, by a terrible and melancholy event, been inseparably associated The English functionaries at Fort Wil- with that of Warren Hastings-the Mahaliam had as yet paid little or no attention to rajah Nuncomar. This man had played an the internal government of Bengal. The important part in all the revolutions which, only branch of politics with which they since the time of Surajah Dowlah, had much busied themselves was negotiation taken place in Bengal. To the considerawith the native princes. The police, the tion which in that country belongs to high administration of justice, the details of the and pure caste, he added the weight which collection of revenue, they almost entirely is derived from wealth, talents and experi neglected. We may remark that the phrasence. Of his moral character it is difficult eology of the Company's servants still bears to give a notion to those who are acquaintthe traces of this state of things. To this day they always use the word 'political as synonymous with 'diplomatic.' We could name a gentleman still living, who was described by the highest authority as an invaluable public servant, eminently fit to be at the head of the departments of finance, revenue, and justice, but unfortunately quite ignorant of all political business..

ed with human nature only as it appears in our island. What the Italian is to the Englishman, what the Hindoo is to the Italian, what the Bengalee is to other Hindoos, that was Nuncomar to other Bengalees. The physical organization of the Bengalee is feeble even to effeminacy. He lives in a constant vapour bath. His pursuits are sedentary, his limbs delicate, his movements The internal government of Bengal the languid. During many ages he has been English rulers delegated to a great native trampled upon by men of bolder and more minister, who was stationed at Moorshed- hardy breeds. Courage, independence, abad. All military affairs, and, with the veracity, are qualities to which his constituexception of what pertains to mere ceremo- tion and his situation are equally unfavournial, all foreign affairs, were withdrawn able. His mind bears a singular analogy to from his control; but the other depart- his body. It is weak even to helplessness, ments of the administration were entirely for purposes of manly resistance; but its

now nabob; and the guardianship of the young prince's person had been confined to the minister.

suppleness and its tact move the children of him a certain degree of consideration even sterner climates to admiration not unmin- among the British rulers of his country. gled with contempt. All those arts which Clive was extremely unwilling to place a are the natural defence of the weak, are Mussulman at the head of the administramore familiar with this subtle race than to tion of Bengal. On the other hand, he the Ionian of the times of Juvenal, or to the could not bring himself to confer immense Jew of the dark ages. What the horns are power on a man to whom every sort of to the buffalo, what the paw is to the tiger, villany had repeatedly been brought home. what the sting is to the bee, what beauty, Therefore, though the nabob, over whom according to the old Greek song, is to wo- Nuncomar had by intrigue acquired great man, deceit is to the Bengalee. Large influence, begged that the artful Hindoo promises, smooth excuses, elaborate tissues might be intrusted with the government, of circumstantial falsehood, chicanery, per- Clive, after some hesitation, decided honestjury, forgery, are the weapons, offensive ly and wisely in favour of Mahommed and defensive, of the people of the Lower Reza Khan, who had held his high office Ganges. All those millions do not furnish seven years when Hastings became Goverone sepoy to the armies of the Company. nor. An infant son of Meer Jaffier was But as usurers, as money-changers, as sharp legal practitioners, no class of human beings can bear a comparison with them. With all his softness, the Bengalee is by no means placable in his enmities, or prone to pity. The pertinacity with which he adheres to his purposes, yields only to the immediate pressure of fear. Nor does he lack a certain kind of courage which is often wanting in his masters. To inevitable evils he is sometimes found to oppose a passive fortitude, such as the Stoics attributed to their ideal sage. An European warrior who rushes on a battery of cannon with a loud hurrah, will shriek under the surgeon's knife, and fall into an agony of despair at the sentence of death. But the Bengalee would see his country overrun, his house laid in ashes, his children murdered or dishonoured, without having the spirit to strike one blow, he has yet been known to endure torture with the firmness of Mucius, and to mount the scaffold with the steady step and even pulse of Algernon Sydney.

In Nuncomar, the national character was strongly and with exaggeration personified. The Company's servants had repeatedly detected him in the most criminal intrigues. On one occasion he brought a false charge against another Hindoo, and tried to substantiate it by producing forged documents. On another occasion it was discovered that, while professing the strongest attachment to the English, he was engaged in several conspiracies against them; and in particular that he was the medium of a correspondence between the court of Delhi and the French authorities in the Carnatic. For these and similar practices, he had been long detained in confinement. But his talents and influence had not only procured his liberation, but had obtained for

Nuncomar, stimulated at once by cupidity and malice, had been constantly attempting to undermine his successful rival. This was not difficult. The revenues of Bengal, under the administration established by Clive, did not yield such a surplus as had been anticipated by the company; for, at that time, the most absurd notions were entertained in England respecting the wealth of India. Palaces of porphyry, hung with the richest brocade, heaps of pearls and diamonds, vaults from which pagodas and gold mohurs were measured out by the bushel, filled the imagination even of men of business. Nobody seemed to be aware of what nevertheless was most undoubtedly the truth, that India was a much poorer country than countries which in Europe are reckoned poor-than Ireland, for example, than Portugal, or than Sweden. It was confidently believed by Lords of the Treasury and Members for the City, that Bengal would not only defray its own charges, but would afford an increased dividend to the proprietors of Indian stock, and large relief to the English finances. These absurd expectations were disappointed; and the directors, naturally enough, chose to attribute the disappointment rather to the mismanagement of Mahommed Reza Khan, than to their own ignorance of the country intrusted to their care. They were confirmed in their error by the agents of Nuncomar; for Nuncomar had agents even in Leadenhall Street. Soon after Hastings reached Calcutta, he received a letter addressed by the Court of Directors, not to the council generally, but to himself in particular. He was directed to remove Mahommed Reza Khan,

Calcutta.

to arrest him, together with all his family | under arrest. The members of the council and all his partizans, and to institute a received no intimation of these measures strict inquiry into the whole administra- till the prisoners were on their road to tion of the province. It was added, that the Governor would do well to avail himself of the assistance of Nuncomar in the investigation. The vices of Nuncomar were acknowledged. But even from his vices, it was said, much advantage might at such a conjecture be derived; and, though he could not safely be trusted, it might still be proper to encourage him by hopes of reward.

a very

The inquiry into the conduct of the minister was postponed on different pretences. He was detained in an easy confinement during many months. In the mean time, the great revolution which Hastings had planned was carried into effect. The office of minister was abolished. The internal administration was transferred to the servants of the Company. A system imperfect system it is true- of civil and criminal justice, under English superintendence, was established. The nabob was no longer to have even an ostensible share in the government; but he was still to receive a considerable annual allowance, and to be surrounded with the state of sovereignty. As he was an infant, it was necessary to provide guardians for his person and property. His person was intrusted to a lady of his father's harem, known by the name of the Munny Begum. The of fice of treasurer of the household was bestowed on a son of Nuncomar, named Goordas. Nuncomar's services were wanted, yet he could not safely be trusted with power; and Hastings thought it a masterstroke of policy to reward the able and unprincipled parent by promoting the inoffensive child.

The Governor bore no good-will to Nuncomar. Many years before, they had known each other at Moorshedabad; and then a quarrel had risen between them, which all the authority of their superiors could hardly compose. Widely as they differed in most points, they resembled each other in this, that both were men of unforgiving natures. To Mahommed Reza Khan, on the other hand, Hastings had no feelings of hostility. Nevertheless he proceeded to execute the instructions of the Company with an alacrity which he never showed, except when instructions were in perfect conformity with his own views. He had, wisely as we think, determined to get gid of the system of double government in Bengal. The orders of the directors furnished him with the means of effecting his purpose, and dispensed him from the necessity of discussing the matter with his The revolution completed, the double council. He took his measures with his govornment dissolved, the Company installusual vigour and dexterity. At midnight, ed in the full sovereignty of Bengal, Hast the palace of Mahommed Reza Khan, at ings had no motive to treat the late minisMoorshedabad, was surrounded by a bat-ters with rigour. Their trial had been put talion of sepoys. The minister was roused from his slumbers, and informed that he was a prisoner. With the Mussulman gravity, he bent his head and submitted himself to the will of God. He fell not alone. A chief named Schitab Roy had been intrusted with the government of Babar. His valour and his attachment to the English had more than once been signally proved. On that memorable day on which the people of Patna saw from their walls the whole army of the Mogul scattered by the little band of Captain Knox, the voice of the British conquerors assigned the palm of gallantry to the brave Asiatic. 'I never,' said Knox, when he introduced Schitab Roy, covered with blood and dust, to the English functionaries assembled in the factory I never saw a native fight so before.' Schitab Roy was involved in the ruin of Mahommed Reza Khan, was deprived of his government, and was placed

off on various pleas till the new organization was complete. They were then brought before a committee, over which the Governor presided. Schitab Roy was speedily acquitted with honour. A formal apology was made to him for the restraint to which he had been subjected. All the Eastern marks of respect were bestowed on him. He was clothed in a robe of honour, presented with jewels and with a richly harnessed elephant, and sent back in state to Patna. But his health had suffered from confinement; his high spirit had been cruelly wounded; and soon after his liberation he died of a broken heart.

The innocence of Mahommed Reza Khan was not so clearly established. But the Governor was not disposed to deal harshly. After a long hearing, in which Nuncomar appeared as the accuser, and displayed both the art and the inveterate rancour which distinguished him, Hastings pronounced