the Capitan Pacha-of the particulars of which your lordship is in possession—it was promised by Mr A. that even when the squadron had arrived before Constantinople, the door to pacification should remain open, and that he would be willing to negociate on terms of equality and justice. In consideration of this promise, and as it would convince the Porte of her majesty's earnest desire to preserve peace, as well as possess her ministers with a confidence of the sincerity of our professions, it was the opinion of Mr A., in which I concurred, that it was fortunate we bad anchored at a little distance from the capital, as a nearer approach might have given cause for suspicion and alarm, and have cut off the prospect of an amicable adjustment of the differences which had arisen. At noon of the 21st, Ysak Bey, a minister of the Porte, came off, from whose expressions Mr Arbuthnot thought it impossible not to believe, that in the head of the government-for in the present instance every circumstance proved, that between him and the armed populace a great distinction is to be made-there really existed a sincere desire for peace; and the negotiation was carried on, as will appear by the documents transmitted to your lordship, till the 27th; but from the moment of our anchorage till we weighed on the morning of the 1st of March, such was the unfortunate state of the weather, that it was not at any time in our power to have occupied a situation which would have enabled the squadron to commence offensive operations against Constantinople. On Sunday the 22d alone for a few hours, the breeze was sufficient to have stemnied the current where we were placed; but such was the rapidity on shore where the Endymion was at anchor, that Captain Capel thought it very doubtful whether the squadron could have obtained an anchorage, though it had been held in preparative readiness by signal, from day-break; but the peculiarly unsettled state of the weather, and the minister's desire that I should give a few hours for an answer to his letter through Ysak Bey, prevented me from trying. Before 5 o'clock, P. M., it was nearly calm, and in the evening the wind was entirely from the eastward, and continued light airs or calm till the evening of the 28th, when it blew fresh from the N. E., and rendered it impossible to change our position. Two days after our arrival near Constantinople, the ambassador found himself indisposed, and has been ever since confined with a fit of illness, so severe as to prevent him from attending to business. Under these circumstances he had delivered in on the 22d to the Turkish ministers, a projet, as the basis on which peace might be preserved, and at his desire the subsequent part of the negotiation was carried on in my name, with his advice and assistance; and while I lament most deeply that it has not ended in the re-establishment of peace, I derive consolation from the reflection, that no effort has been wanting on the part of Mr Arbuthnot and myself to obtain such a resuit, which was soon seen, from the state of the preparations at Constantinople, could be effected by negotiation only, as the strength of the current from the Bosphorus, with the circuitous eddies of the port, rendered it in practicable to place ships for an attack without a commanding breeze, which, during the ten days I was off the town, it was not my good fortune to meet with.

́~ I now come to the point of explaining to your lordship the motives which fixed me to decide in repassing the channel of the Dardanelles, and relinqushing every idea of attacking the capital; and I feel confi

dent it will require no argument to convince your lordship of the utter impracticability of our force having made any impression, as at this time the whole line of the coast presented a chain of batteries, that twelve Turkish line of battle ships, two of them three-deckers, with nine frigates, were with their sails bent, and apparently in readiness. filled with troops: add to this, near two hundred thousand were said to be in Constantinople to march against the Russians; besides, there were an innumerable quantity of small craft with boats; and fire-vessels had been prepared to act against us. With the batteries alone we might have coped, or with the ships could we have got them out of their stronghold; but your lordship will be aware, that after combating the oppo sition which the resources of an empire had been many weeks employed in preparing, we should have been in no state to have defended ourselves against them as described, and then repass the Dardanelles. I know it was my duty, in obedience to your lordship's orders, to attempt every thing-governed by the opinion of the ambassador-that appeared within the compass of possibility; but when the unavoidable sacrifice of the squadron committed to my charge-which must have arisen, had I waited for a wind to have enabled me to cannonade the town, unattended by the remotest chance of obtaining any advantage for his majesty's service-must have been the consequence of pursuing that object, it at once became my positive duty, however wounded in pride and ambition, to relinquish it, and if I had not been already satisfied on the subject, the increased opposition in the Dardanelles would have convinced me I had done right, when I resolved on the measure as indispensably necessary. I therefore weighed with the squadron on the morning of the 1st, and as it had been reported that the Turkish fleet designed to make an effort against us, to give them an opportunity, if such was really their intention, I continued to stand on and off during the day, but they showed no disposition to move. I, therefore, as every hour was of importance, bore up at dusk with the squadron; we arrived off Point Pesquies towards the evening of the 2d instant; but the day-light would not admit of our attempting to pass the castles, and the squadron came to anchor for the night; we weighed in the morning, and when I add that every ship was in safety outside of the passage about noon, it was not without the most lively sense of the good fortune that has attended

us.

The Turks had been occupied unceasingly, in adding to the number of their forts; some had been already completed, and others were in a forward state. The fire of the two inner castles had on our going up been severe; but I am sorry to say the effects they have had on our ships returning has proved them to be doubly formidable: in short, had they been allowed another week to complete their defences throughout the channel, it would have been a very doubtful point whether a return lay open to us at all. The manner in which they employed the interval of our absence has proved their assiduity."

These despatches sufficiently evince at once the skill and gallantry of Admiral Duckworth. He continued in service up to the period of his death in 1817, but without enjoying any fresh opportunity of distinguishing himself. In person, according to a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine,' he was "rather short, but stout-made and muscular. He seemed never to be happy but when actively employed; was for ever on the quarter-deck,-fond of his profession,-and when on duty, can

tion and courage were so well-combined in him as to inspire confidence in his men, and insure success to his exertions."

Warren Hastings.

BORN A. D. 1733.-DIED A. D. 1818.

MR HASTINGS was born in the year 1733, and descended from a family of great respectability which for many centuries had possessed considerable estates in the counties of Worcester and Gloucester.' His father was a clergyman, and held the living of Church-hill in Glouces tershire, a village near Daylesford. On his decease, young Hastings was removed by his uncle, Mr Howard Hastings, to Westminster school. where he was educated, and went into college, the head of his election, in the year 1746. His acquaintance with the first Lord Mansfield commenced while he was at Westminster school, and at a time when the former was solicitor-general. Lord Mansfield through life professed the strongest friendship for him, and the highest opinion of his talents and public services.

On the decease of his uncle Howard, whose fortune was inconsiderable compared to the general idea of its amount, young Warren Hastings was to determine on his future situation. Dr Nichols, the headmaster of Westminster school, had ever treated him with the greatest kindness, and on so unexpected a turn in his fortune, offered to be himself at the whole expense of completing his education at Oxford. Mr Creswick, an India director, and executor of his uncle, offered him a writer's appointment to Bengal. Mr Hastings chose the latter, embarked for Bengal in the winter of 1749, and arrived in Calcutta in the summer of 1750. The English at that time were mere merchants, and Calcutta an inconsiderable commercial town. They had factories also in different parts of Bengal for the purpose of providing an annual investment for the East India company, which was principally purchased by bullion sent from England. To one of these factories Mr Hastings was appointed, and from thence detached into the interior parts of Bengal, where, in seclusion from the society of his countrymen, he acquired a knowledge of the Hindostanee and Persian languages which few then possessed.

At the capture of Calcutta by the Nabob Surajah Doulah in 1756, orders were issued for the seizure of every Englishman in Bengal, and Hastings was brought a prisoner to Moorshedabad; but being wellknown to many men of rank at the Nabob's court, he was treated with indulgence, and allowed to reside at the Dutch factory of Calcapore. When the fleet and army under Watson and Clive arrived in the river, Mr Hastings joined Colonel Clive, and served as a volunteer at the recapture of Calcutta, and in the night-attack on the Nabob's camp. He then resumed his civil appointments and, after the deposition of Surajah Doulah, became the British minister at the court of his successor. In 1761 he was made a member of the government, and in 1765 quitted Bengal, and came to England. His pecuniary remit

tances failing him, he soon after made an unsuccessful attempt to return to Bengal; but when the affairs of the East India company were brought before parliament, he made such a creditable appearance before the committee that he was appointed second member of the Indian administration at Madras, and sailed in 1768 for India.

He continued at Madras until January, 1772, when he proceeded to Bengal, being appointed by the Company to the government of that presidency with unlimited powers. The affairs of the Company were at this juncture in a state of great confusion. Under Lord Clive's management from 1765 to 1771 the revenues of Bengal had fallen below the public expenditure, and yet the Company were increasing their dividends. It may appear inconceivable how the Company could be precipitated, in the short period which elapsed since the year 1765, from the height of prosperity to a state of embarrassment bordering upon ruin, but a transient review of the principal causes will explain the paradox. "Soon after the treaty concluded by Clive at Eliabad, pernicious monopolies were established by the Company's servants in all the newly acquired provinces; and as if the exclusive purchase and sale of every article of general consumption in India was not sufficient to satisfy their avarice, the presidency of Calcutta devised another scheme of legal plunder, which was to declare void at once all the leases held under the government on very low terms by the zemindars and polygars, who constitute the great landed interest of the country. The pretext for this was, that many of these leases had been collusively obtained; and it was said, that impartiality required they should be now relet, without distinction, to the highest bidder. By these means the natives were impoverished; immense fortunes were made by their oppressors; but the aggregate receipts of the Company's treasury alarmingly decreased. As the opulence of Bengal, however great, depended solely upon the labour and industry of the people,-upon commerce, manufactures, and agriculture,—it is evident that these could not long flourish under the baneful influence of rapacity. The governing rule of trade pursued by the Company's servants was to reduce to the lowest extreme of depression the price in the purchase, and to enhance it in the same extravagant degree in the sale. This discouraged the artisan and manufacturer from going to work, and others from buying any thing but what was of absolute necessity. The situation of the farmers and husbandmen was still more hopeless: they planted in doubt, and reaped in uncertainty. A large proportion of the land was of course left untilled; and this cooperating with a drought in the year 1769, occasioned a general scarcity of provisions,-particularly of rice, the great staple of Indian suste nance. It was also said that some of the monopolists had exerted their power and their foresight in collecting the scanty supplies into stores; so that the poor Gentoos had no alternative left them but to part with the small remains of their property, or to perish with hunger. It is certain that a dreadful famine, and the plague—its usual concomitant— carried off in the year 1770, very nearly a fourth part of the entire population of Bengal, or about three millions of unfortunate victims. To these calamities were added the distressing effects of the war with Hyder Ali, wantonly entered into and shamefully conducted to gratify the interested views of individuals. In such circumstances it cannot be deemed wonderful--especially when the great increase of the civil and

military establishments in India, and the annual contribution to the public expenditure at home are taken into the account-that the disbursements of the Company should far exceed the amount of their revenues, and bring them in a few years to the verge of bankruptcy."2 In the reports of the select committee of the house of commons, many other scenes of shocking cruelty were unfolded to public view. The detail would be endless; but a general idea of their nature may be formed from the words of the chairman, who declared, "that through the whole investigation, he could not find a single sound spot whereon to lay his finger, it being all equally one mass of the most unheard-of villanies, and the most notorious corruption."

The result of the parliamentary investigations was, that Lord North brought in a bill for remodelling the government of India, and placing it under the control of parties to be nominated by parliament. Many of the Company's servants were highly censured in the discussions connected with this measure, but Hastings himself was panegyrised by the minister, and was nominated governor-general of Bengal for five years, with the unanimous consent of both houses. The chief provisions of the new bill were: "that the court of directors should in future be chosen for the term of four years, instead of being elected annually, six members vacating their seats each year;-that the qualifications for voting should be raised from five hundred to one thousand pounds capital stock, and the time of previous possession be extended from six months to twelve;—that the jurisdiction of the mayor's court at Calcutta be confined to mercantile causes, and a new supreme court of judicature be established in India, consisting of a chief justice and three puisne judges appointed by the king;-and lastly, that a superiority over the other presidencies be given to the presidency of Bengal, the blanks for the names of the members, including the governor and council, being filled up at the time by parliament, and the removal of those officers, as well as a negative on the future nomination of the Company, being vested in the crown."

Warren Hastings was the first governor-general under the new arrangement, and General Clavering, Colonel Monson, Mr Barwell, and Mr Francis, were appointed members of council. The first efforts of the new government were directed to the improvement of the Company's revenues, in the collection of which many injudicious alterations were introduced. In the meantime the restless emperor, Shah Allum, manifested a childish anxiety to regain possession of Delhi, and made a most impolitic arrangement for that purpose with the Mahrattas, who reduced Delhi for him, but immediately turned their arms against the Rohillas, a brave and free people, who sought alliance with the English, but were basely betrayed, or rather sold to the Vizir by Hastings. These transactions occurred before the arrival of the new council. They reached Calcutta in October, 1774, and Clavering, Monson, and Francis, in stantly united in condemning the Rohilla war; they called for production of the correspondence with the Vizir, but the governor-general declined to produce it, alleging that it contained private and confidential matter unfit for the public eye. In March, 1776, the Rajah Nuncomar delivered to the council a paper, accusing the governor of having

Miller's History.