averred, that Mr. Haftings declared to him that he had given directions to the fame purpose by Mr. Macleane.

This cautious and pun&tilious proceeding in the Court of Directors, probably originated in their dreading the charge of becoming accomplices to an evafion of the act, by which Mr. Haftings, reSigning the fervice, would efcape the confequence attached by law to a difmiffion. Hitherto he had only been fupported by a majority in the General Court; but if on application from the Directors to his Majefty and Council, then in contemplation, a removal fhould have taken effect, no intereft could have poffibly restored him. A clause in the Regulating Act of 1773 precluded for ever his return to the Company's fervice. Aware of a circumftance thus critical, the part they acted was fingularly guarded. But nothing being now wanting to their fatisfaction, the refignation was formally accepted. Mr. Wheeler was named to fill the vacancy, and prefented for his Majefty's approbation, which was received. The measure was complete, and the fituation thus vacated by Mr. Haftings legally filled. The whole proceeding of course being notified in Bengal, General Clavering, as fenior in council, was entitled to fucceed to the office of Governor-General.

In no part of his official conduct has Mr. Haftings fubmitted to thofe ties which have always been binding on others. On this occafion he embraced the hardy refolution of difavowing his agent, denying his letter, and renouncing his friends.

When

When General Clavering required him to furren-
der the keys of Fort William, and of the Company's
treasures, he ftoutly refused compliance, denied that
his office was vacated, and declared his refolution to
affert and maintain his authority by what he called
every legal means.
The immediate confequence
of this unexpected pertinacity was an open fchifm
in council. General Clavering afferted his right
to the office, with which he conceived himself le-
gally and formally invefted by his fuperiors. He
was strenuously supported in these pretenfions by
his friend Mr. Francis. Colonel Manfon having
died fome months before, Mr. Barwelf adhered to
Mr. Haftings. These two parties affembled fepe-
rately. A double government of confequence
took place, and every thing was running fast into
confufion. All authority was for the time fufpend-
ed. And so high were these diffenfions carried by
the various adherents of the refpective claimants,
that the contest might have ended in a civil war,
had not the judges of the fupreme court, on a re-
ference to them, fettled the controverfy, by decid-
ing "that the refignation was an invalid act, and
that Mr. Hastings was ftill in the legal poffeffion of
his place, notwithstanding his fuperiors had actually
difpoffeffed him on his own terms, and supplied it
by a new appointment." It was extraordinary e-
nough that the nullity of this refignation fhould
not have been discovered in England, where the
documents and act authorizing the refignation the
were, where the agent by whom the measure h
been formally executed was, where the eviden

CHAP

་

The first Marratto War-Anecdotes of that People-
Interference by the Bombay Prefidency in their Difen-
fions-Treaty with Ragoba-Colonel Upton's Depu-
tation to Poonah The Treaty of Poorunder-Dif
Jatisfactions produced by that Event-The Political
State of India at this Period.

THE three principal interests, which at present

divide and control the empire of Indoftan, are the Hindoo, the Mahommedan, and the British. The two laft originate and derive all their weight and establishment from a feries of ufurpations on the firft, which is native and hereditary: And it is owing to the multifarious and difcordant parts these interests separately involve, to a total want of union in their energies, and to an infinite diverfity in the objects of their refpective politics, that they have hitherto repelled fuccefsfully the encidcroachments of each other, and preferved their cifion utual independence; that a balance of power, could fome degree adequate to the regulation and ad⚫ paffionatenent of their feveral claims, ftill operates; and council-gethe whole continent of India is not at this moderation it the feat of one gloomy, permanent, and ment of claims 1 defpotism.

the judges an opp

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The

The Mogul empire no longer exifts, but in fragments. The throne of Delhi is annihilated. The later stages of the Mahommedan policy refemble those diseases in the human frame, by which the extremities receive unnatural ftrength, while the heart is left in a state of debility. The officers of the crown every where accumulated inordinate wealth, while the general treasury of the empire was impoverished. Indolence fucceeded to venality; and those who had not courage to rebel, were at the same time too lazy to obey. A cruel intriguing ministry diftributed the imperial preferments with a wanton extravagance. Affaffination foon became a part of the court system. Revolutions in the diftant provinces were daily ef fected, by the murder of the refpective governors. Those who fucceeded, warned by the fate of their predeceffors, retained the revenues they were deputed to collect, with the notorious intention of thwarting that authority, on which they continued to lavish the moft fpecious profeffions of attachment.

The Marrattos, though not what they once were, are still formidable, from the fituation and extent of their territories, the mildness of their laws, their inexhauftible refources, their numerous armies, and their manner of making war. They inhabit the mountainous and weftern divifions of the Indian peninfula. By the wisdom of their treaties, the force of their arms, and the afylum which refractory Rajahs and zemindars have found

found in their protection, they have stretched their dominions from fea to fea, from Surat to the Bay of Bengal, and from the remoteft confines of Agra, northwards, to the mouth of the river Kistna, on the coaft of Coromandel, including a tract of country above a thousand British miles long, by not lefs than feven hundred in breadth.

This immenfely extended empire is divided by feveral Rajahs, whose connexion with the Peishwa or chancellor is like that of the German princes with the emperor, merely nominal. In fome cafes, an oppofition of interefts produces hoftilities, not only among the fubordinate members, but even the Peifhwa himself is not unfrequently under the neceffity of standing on his own defence against a combination of his tributaries. A ge-neral confederacy of the whole indeed feldom takes -place, but when mutual prefervation is the object, or on fuch emergencies only as would unite the moft difcordant ftates. Few enterprizes of foreign conqueft or plunder are of magnitude enough to collect and marfhal their scattered and numerous forces in one connected army, under the general standard of the empire.

Their form of government, rather from acci-dent than defign, has of late years become purely aristocratic : It is at prefent in the hands of eight chiefs, who, in the Company's records and other Indian documents, are called minifters, to diftinguish them from the Ram Rajah, the nominal fovereign,

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