courts, were entirely unknown to the people of Bengal; and when writs and processes began to issue from an hitherto unknown and mysterious power, which seemed to be backed by the whole authority of the government, universal terror and consternation were the result. The old local courts were utterly ignored by the judges of the crown; and the violent and actually lawless proceedings of the attorneys and their myrmidons, who, in many instances, resorted to actual force, raised a storm of discontent in the provinces which it became most difficult to appease. It was impossible also that the judges should not be brought into direct collision with the executive government; and the struggle-which is replete with interest, and is very fully detailed in the histories of Mr. Mill and Mr. Thornton-resulted, in 1780, in the separation of the ordinary civil procedure from that of the revenue, and the establishment of a new court of appeal, which was called the Sudder Dewány. To preside over this court the chief Sudder justice, Sir Elijah Impey, who still held that office, was Dewány appointed, and he drew up a strict code of laws for the established. regulation of the proceedings of the new provincial and district civil courts, admirably suited to the comprehension of the judges, as well as of the people. Thus the new system not only worked well, but was a boon, than which nothing more practically useful could have been devised. Mr. Hastings was afterwards violently attacked in England for the creation of the new court, and Sir Elijah Impey was recalled for having accepted the office of its judge; but though the chief justice was subsequently withdrawn from the court, and the crown and company's courts were separated, the arrangement and functions of the Sudder Dewány remained in force until a very late period. court If the expenses of three separate wars with the Mahrattas, the French and Dutch, and Hyder Ally, had not drained Financial the Bengal treasury, it is certain that Mr. Hastings' results. financial administration would have proved most satisfactory to him and to the company. His early success, before he received the appointment of governor-general, has been already mentioned; and his improved systems of rental, and collections of revenue, had been at least as successful as could be expected in a commencement of reform. Still, the drain on his treasury had never ceased: Bombay afforded nothing that could be depended upon. The Carnatic had been wasted by fire, sword, and famine; and the administration of the Northern Circars had been corrupt and neglectful. Moreover, the demands for money in England were loud and incessant: and the debt in Bengal had now again reached upwards of a million sterling, while the credit of the government was not better than Hastings had found it. In his extremity, therefore, he sought for extra sources of supply, and he called upon Rajah Cheyt Singh of Benares for a contribution to the public service of 2,000 horse and five lacs of rupees. The terms on which the rajah held his estate were the payment of twenty-two and a half lacs of rupees per year; but he can hardly be said to have been an independent tributary, so much as the renter of a property which was always subject to enhanced demand, or, according to native usage, to a requisition for contribution on any extraordinary occasion; and the governor-general's demand for a contingent of horse, and a really insignificant sum in excess of his ordinary payment to the public revenue, cannot be considered unjust or extortionate. The rajah, however, refused or evaded compliance; and the governor-general determined now to exact a heavy fine for contumacy, while he knew that the payment of it would by no means distress him. Cheyt Singh afterwards offered twenty lacs, which to the first instance might have sufficed; but the governor-general demanded fifty, and on his arrival at Benares, sent a guard to imprison the rajah in his palace. A disturbance ensued which occasioned loss of life, and Cheyt Singh escaped across the river. Military operations against For some time, during which he was calmly arranging the detail of the treaty with Sindia, the governor-general was in imminent peril of his life: and he was obliged, eventually, to escape to Chunar. Meanwhile, troops had collected, and Cheyt Singh, who still maintained negotiations for forgiveness, Rajah Cheyt was defeated, and fled to Bidgeghur, and thence, with Singh. all the treasure he could find means to transport, into Bundelkhund. Bidgeghur surrendered to Colonel Popham, on November 9, 1781, and fifty lacs of rupees were captured, which, under the interpretation of an incautious letter from the governorgeneral to Colonel Popham, was immediately divided as prize money among the troops. Mr. Hastings thus lost all; when, had he admitted Cheyt Singh to terms, he might have gained a large proportion of what he had demanded, if not the entire sum of fifty lacs; for the capture of forty lacs in Bidgeghur, and the immense sum the rajah was known to have taken to Gwalior, where he afterwards resided, proved that his false plea of poverty was more calculated to irritate the governor-general than to induce him to relax his demand. Cheyt Singh never returned to Benares. His nephew was appointed to succeed him, and the annual payment for Benares was raised from twenty-two lacs to forty lacs. Rajah Cheyt Singh. The Nawab Vizier of Oudh owed at this time upwards of a million sterling to the Bengal Government; but he was entirely unable to pay this debt, or any part of it; and the proceedings which ensued are, perhaps of all, the Transactions with the Vizier of least defensible of the several questionable acts of Warren Hastings's official career. In 1776 the Bégums, or princesses Affairs of the of Oudh, on the accession of the new Nawab Vizier, had Begums. been allotted jahgeers or appanages, for their maintenance; and allowed to retain, it was supposed, nearly two millions of treasure, under the official guarantee of the English representative, Mr. Bristow, supported by the Council of Calcutta. This, at the time, was a very unnecessary act of interference in the domestic concerns of a native State independent of English laws and customs; and had the effect of crippling the Nawab's finances at a critical period. Mr. Hastings too had protested earnestly against the arrangement: but had been overruled by his colleagues, and the guarantee was confirmed. The Nawáb Vizier, who, under other circumstances, and according to the practice of all native States, might at any time have resumed these jahgeers, or laid upon them a tax or demand in proportion to the general necessities of the State, now asked Mr. Hastings to allow him to attach them, and to take possession of the ladies' treasures, which were in fact State property, and as such, both according to Mahomedan laws and local custom, were alienable. Instead of boldly withdrawing the original guarantees, which, on the grounds of his original protest, might have been pronounced an unjustifiable interference with family affairs, in which the British had no pretence of jurisdiction, Hastings's Hastings sought to cover the proceedings against the accusation Bégums, by averring they had aided Cheyt Singh in Begums. his rebellion, with men and money; and it added not a little to the suspicions cast on this transaction, that Sir Elijah Impey was specially summoned from Calcutta to take affidavits in support of the accusations against the Bégums, which were afterwards found to be worthless. The Nawáb's proceedings were not only rigorous, but cruel; yet he contrived that the whole odium of the transaction should fall upon the English, as he paid a part, if not the whole, of his exactions-seventy-six lacs of rupees (760,000l.)— into the Bengal treasury. against the Robilla A third questionable transaction was that in regard to Fyzoolla Khan, the Rohilla chief who, it will be remembered, Fyzoolla had been settled in a jahgeer of fifteen lacs of rupees Khan by the arrangement of 1774, with an agreement to furnish a contingent of 3,000 men to the Nawáb. In November 1780, Mr. Hastings applied to him, through the Nawáb, for 5,000 men, to supply the place of troops in Bahar, required for service in Madras. Fyzoolla Khan offered 2,000 horse and 1,000 foot. These Hastings refused, whereupon the Nawab suggested his being altogether deprived of his jahgeer, and this was effected; but Mr. Hastings subsequently revoked his permission, and caused LL the Nawab to restore the jahgeer, which was not done without an agreement on the part of Fyzoolla Khan to pay fifteen lacs of rupees. these proceedings in England, When the news of these several proceedings reached England, The effect of a storm of indignation was raised against the governor. general, and he was ordered to reverse his acts against Cheyt Singh and the Bégums. He was even threatCensures. ened with dismissal, and his Council rebelled against him. This was more than he could bear, and he wrote to the directors, declaring that while the degradation involved by their orders was known at every native court in India, he, responsible as he was for the well-being of their affairs, could no longer discharge his trust with credit or effect. On March 20, 1783, he formally tendered his resignation; but before he embarked for England, he visited Lukhnow, and caused the Nawab to restore the greater portion of their jahgeers to the Bégums, at the same time withdrawing the Resident, or English agent, from the court. When he returned to Calcutta, he found his successor, Mr. Macpherson, had arrived; and after making over charge of the government to him, and writing farewell letters to all the native courts of India, he England. sailed for England on February 8, 1785. He sails for Warren Hastings resigns office. Character of Warren Hastings's administration of thirteen years is, on the whole, perhaps, the most important and interesting on his adminis record. It has been impossible, within the limits of tration. this manual, and where events were crowded together, to relate any except those of most prominent importance in the history of India at large; but the miserable disputes with the members of his Council, the resolution with which they were met, and the undaunted spirit with which he raised and maintained the new position of England as a first-rate political power in India, cannot fail to be appreciated by the student of history. On the other hand, were many errors, many serious blemishes, and some suspicious transactions. Mr. Mill, after reviewing his career, is of opinion that 'there was not one of the chief rulers whom the company had employed, who would not have succumbed under the difficulties he had to encounter.' With the natives of India, princes and people alike, he was then as popular, and as respected, as his memory still remains; ballads, songs, and nursery rhymes, written in his honour, are still sung all over India, and in this will be recognised no small tribute of affection to a foreigner. Above all, it must be remembered, that amidst the constant distractions and local feuds with his Council; the anxieties attendant upon the separate wars and their progress; the keen encounters with astute native statesmen in diplomatic affairs, and the depression arising out of inadequate finances -he was yet, with a calm thoughtful spirit, directing the new judicial and fiscal details of the whole of Bengal, and delivering it from the evils of a double government, which, if he had left no other memorial of his great mind, and indefatigable application, would have earned for him a high rank in the roll of Indian statesmen and legislators; and that he had succeeded moreover, as he desired to do, in making the English, for the future, controllers of political events in every part of the great continent. His death. Contrary to his expectations, Mr. Hastings was well and honourably received in England, where, shortly afterwards, His reception in Parliament, the proceedings of his memorable in England. impeachment and trial form a grand episode in the history of the country; which, with the events, the struggles, and the vicissitudes of his life, are nowhere more vividly or eloquently described than in the brilliant essay of Lord Macaulay. Warren Hastings died on August 22, 1818, in the eighty-sixth year of his age; and it may be said to his infinite credit when, with the power at his disposal in India, his wealth might have rivalled that of Clive-in comparative poverty. The pension of 4,000l. a year granted him by the Court of Directors was nearly all he had left for his support. CHAPTER III. CURRENT EVENTS, ENGLAND AND INDIA, 1780 To 1787. DURING the latter part of the administration of Warren Hastings, the affairs of India had received much discussion in England. The company's charter was to expire on three years Indian affairs notice from March 25, 1780; and the question was in England. brought forward by Lord North, when it was decided that the extension was to commence from March 1, 1781; the company was to pay 400,000l. to the nation; and after a dividend of eight per cent., all surplus profits were to become national property. At this period, also, Mr. Burke's twelve cele- Mr. Burke's brated reports upon the proceedings of the Supreme report. Court of Calcutta were submitted to Parliament, and should be read by every student of the history of this interesting period. These discussions were followed by Mr. Fox's Bill in 1783, which not only advocated Clive's and Hastings's proposals, that Mr. Fox's the government of India should be administered directly Bill. by the King instead of the company, but prescribed the form in |