southern Presidency had had its own difficulties to contend with.
Immediately above the plains of the Carnatic lies the hill country of
Mysore, and there a new power had been established by the ablest
opponent we ever met in India, Hyder Ali. A Mahommedan of low birth, a
freebooter, a rebel, and commander-in-chief of the Mysore army, he
succeeded at last in establishing himself on the throne of the Hindoo
Rajah. Sometimes in confederation with the Nizam of the Deccan,
sometimes with the Mahrattas of the Western Ghauts, Hyder kept up a
continual war with the English. His army of 100,000 men was organized in
the European fashion. Though unable to write, his retentive memory
enabled him to be a most dangerous diplomatist, and though beaten in the
field, his activity kept the English army in constant movement and
exhausted the Company's resources. To such an extent was this the case,
that Clive's reforms were counterbalanced, and in 1769 Indian stock fell
sixty per cent.
[Sidenote: Famine in Bengal. 1770.]
[Sidenote: Regulating Act, 1773.]
[Sidenote: Death of Clive.]
Such threatening appearances in the commercial career of the Company,
the constant scandal of their factious struggle in London, and the
anomaly becoming every day more striking of a body of merchants
exercising, and exercising very badly, sovereign rights over large
conquered districts, excited the attention of Parliament. Chatham, as
has been mentioned, intended to have enforced the rights of the Crown;
and the Company only escaped some interference of the kind by offering
to establish supervisors of its own and to pay the English Government
£400,000 a year. But in 1773 matters had become much worse; a fearful
famine had devastated Bengal, corpses choked and infected the Ganges,
the fish and fowl became uneatable, more than half the population are
said to have been swept away. It was felt that no properly conducted
Government could have permitted such an evil; and when in 1772 the
united effects of the Madras wars and the Bengal famine reduced the
funds of the Company to so low an ebb that they had to demand of
Parliament a loan of a million sterling, legislation became inevitable.
At the beginning of the year a Committee of inquiry had reported, and
again in the autumn another secret committee had been named; upon their
report Lord North formed what is known as the Regulating Act. By this he
granted the Company their loan, relieved them of their annual tribute to
the State, and allowed them to export their bonded tea, with what
disastrous effects in America has been already seen. In exchange he
confined their interest to six per cent. till the loan was paid, and
afterwards to eight per cent.; and, proceeding to the organization of
their government, he established a supreme court upon the English model,
made the Governor of Bengal Governor-General of India, and appointed by
name in Parliament a new Council. Warren Hastings, already Governor of
Bengal, was made the first Governor-General; Barwell, a member of the
existing Council, was continued in his office; General Clavering,
Colonel Monson, and Philip Francis, were named as the new members.
During the discussions relative to this Act much blame had been thrown
on Clive, and though a formal vote of censure was mollified by the
words, that "Robert Lord Clive did at the same time render great and
meritorious services to his country," the trouble he underwent preyed
upon a morbid mind and a body weakened by disease so much that he
committed suicide (Nov. 1774).
[Sidenote: Hastings Governor-General.]
The interest which has hitherto centred upon Clive is now transferred to
the career of Warren Hastings. An Indian statesman by profession, and
thoroughly acquainted with the wants both of native and European
populations, he had entered upon the duties of the Government of Bengal
in 1772. The post was not a light one: in India a people in the last
stages of distress, a Government full of abuses, a small dominant
population who believed their sole duty was to acquire wealth rapidly;
in England a factious and fluctuating body of governors whose chief
object was high dividends. Such were the conditions under which Hastings
had to act. A change in the management of the land tax produced a larger
revenue with less oppression; the country, freed from marauders, was in
a better condition to pay taxes; but this was little. Rumours were
afloat that Reza Khan, the finance minister, was peculating largely. On
the accusation of Nuncomar, his old rival, he was apprehended by
Hastings, who either believed the charges or acted in obedience to the
Company's orders. On examination he was acquitted, but not replaced in
his office, nor was Nuncomar appointed to succeed him; the
administration was kept in English hands. The Viceroy, an infant, was
deprived of half his allowance, and a quarrel having arisen between our
old ally Shah Allum, who had made friends with the Mahrattas, and the
English, Allahabad and Corah were resumed and sold to the Vizier of Oude
for fifty lacs of rupees. More than that, for a further sum of forty
lacs English troops were basely let to that prince to destroy his
enemies, the neighbouring Afghan conquerers of Rohilcund. All these
measures seem to have been dictated primarily by a desire for an
increased revenue. It was at this crisis that the Regulating Act took
effect, and the new councillors arrived in the Hooghly. The man of the
most importance and activity among them was Philip Francis, who is now
generally accepted as being the author of "Junius' Letters." The other
two always voted with him, and all three came out with strong prejudices
and a determination to oppose Hastings. The new Governor-General
therefore found himself at once in a permanent minority, for, as before,
he had but one vote in the Council. Barwell, the Indian member of the
new Council, always voted with him. There arose therefore a fierce
struggle for power, and the new councillors made haste to seek on all
sides grounds for attacking Hastings. It was understood that they were
willing to receive any charges against him. Nuncomar, who had been
heavily disappointed at not receiving the vacant place of Reza Khan,
charged him with having been bribed to pardon that great official; and
Francis and his partisans determined to confront Nuncomar with Hastings
at the council board. The Governor-General rightly refused to preside at
what was virtually his own trial; but upon his dissolving the Council
the three new members declared it not dissolved, and continued the
inquiry. Fortune placed in the hands of Hastings the means of freeing
himself from this awkward dilemma. A private charge of forgery was
brought against Nuncomar, and he was tried before the new supreme court.
It is impossible to say how far this charge was fostered by Hastings, he
himself asserted upon oath that he had nothing whatever to do with it;
at all events it was carried to its conclusion, and Sir Elijah Impey and
his colleagues found the charge proved, and condemned Nuncomar to death.
Impey, an old schoolfellow of Hastings, whose career showed him not to
be above suspicion, is by many held to have acted corruptly; but his
colleagues entirely agreed with him, nor does it seem that he did
anything worse than import into India the habits and feelings of Europe
when he suffered the sentence of death to be carried out. No doubt this
was a shock to the moral feelings of the Hindoos, to whom forgery was
not the grave offence that it is to us. However this may be, the death
of Nuncomar secured the supremacy of Hastings. There was no one brave
enough to bring charges either true or false against one whose vengeance
seemed to have struck down the head of their religion. His supremacy was
soon still further secured; by the death of Monson he found himself, by
means of his own casting vote, master of the Council. One more violent
struggle took place, after which he was able to act according to his own
judgment, although constantly thwarted by Francis. In the height of his
difficulties he had lodged a conditional resignation with his agent in
London, and his agent, alarmed by the news from India, had presented it.
Suddenly, in the midst of his triumph in Calcutta, a ship arrived with a
new member of the Council and the news that the Governor-General had
resigned. Hastings positively refused to ratify the act of his agent,
which he declared was unauthorized by him. The bitter contest which
arose from this subject was brought before the Supreme Court of Justice
for arbitration. Sir Elijah Impey again settled the question in
Hastings' favour.
[Sidenote: His opposition to the Mahrattas.]
Hastings could now turn his thoughts to what was his constant object,
the aggrandizement of our power in India, and his view seems to have
been to enter into close alliances with the great Mahommedan Princes,
the Nabob-Vizier of Oude and the Nizam of the Deccan, to render them
dependent on the English by means of large subsidies, and by their
assistance oppose an effectual barrier to the great and increasing power
of the Mahrattas, whom he regarded as the most dangerous rivals to the
English. Affairs in the dependent Presidency of Madras gave him an
opportunity for carrying out this policy. Mismanagement and peculation
had been as rife there as in Bengal. The Rajah of Tanjore, a Mahratta
prince, had been dispossessed in favour of the Nabob of Arcot, an old
ally of the English. This measure was disallowed by the directors at
home. Lord Pigot was sent out as governor to re-establish the Rajah. The
same struggle between the Governor and his Council as had been seen in
Calcutta took place in Madras, but proceeded to even greater
extremities. The Council arrested Lord Pigot, who died a prisoner in
their hands. Thus the policy of restitution was crushed, and the claims
of the Mahratta Rajah of Tanjore were neglected. In Bombay, too,
constant disputes had arisen with the Mahratta chiefs of Poonah, so that
the whole of that great confederacy was ready for war. To appreciate the
importance of such a war, it must be remembered that the Mahrattas had
spread over much of India. The descendants of Sivajee, like the
descendants of most Indian conquerors, had sunk into _rois fainéants_ at
Satara, delegating their real power to their viceroy, called the Peishwa
of Poonah, whose office was hereditary. Dependent offshoots of this
power had established themselves in the hills of the Malwa under the
great princes Sindia and Holkar; in Berar under a prince called the
Bonslah, in Gujerat under the Guicowar, and in the extreme south in
Tanjore; while bands of Mahratta horsemen had, as we have seen, seized
upon Delhi, and expelled for a time Shah Allum, the Great Mogul, who had
however made terms with them, and was now again seated upon his
ancestral throne. With this vast power, already on bad terms with both
the southern Presidencies, it was discovered that the French were
intriguing. With his usual vigour Hastings was determined to forestall
war, which he saw was inevitable. For this purpose, in spite of the
opposition of his Council, an army was at once despatched southward to
act through Bundelcund. The command was given to Colonel Goddard. But
Hastings, who seldom acted a straightforward part, intrigued at the same
time with the Bonslah and with Rajonaut Rao, a deposed Peishwa, now a
refugee in Bombay. Upon the news that France and England had declared
war, still further energy was infused into military affairs; and
Chandernagore, near Calcutta, and Pondicherry, just south of Madras, two
French settlements, were captured. The Mahratta war was not without its
reverses. The Bombay army was surrounded near Poonah, and escaped only
on ignominious terms; but Goddard upheld the honour of the English arms,
and defeated Sindia and Holkar, while Captain Popham took the almost
impregnable castle of Gwalior. The war was regarded as of sufficient
importance to require the presence of the veteran General Sir Eyre
Coote, who was despatched from England to take the command.
[Sidenote: Hastings' policy thwarted by Hyder Ali's advance.]
[Sidenote: Conclusion of the Mysore war.]
But all prospect of carrying out the ambitious schemes of Hastings for
subjugating the Mahrattas was suddenly clouded. News arrived in 1780
that Hyder Ali, who had long been watching his opportunity, had pounced
upon Madras. He saw the English engaged in a vast Indian war, he knew
that their arms were not successful in America, he expected the speedy
arrival of a large French force, his time had come at last, and he flung
himself in irresistible numbers upon the Carnatic. The English were
virtually taken by surprise; one army under Colonel Baylie was
destroyed, a second under Sir Hector Munro saved itself by rapid flight.
In a moment Hastings comprehended the new situation of affairs; the news
reached Calcutta on the 23rd of September, on the 25th he was ready with
a complete new plan of operations. He offered peace and alliance to the
Mahrattas; he embarked all available troops for Madras; in virtue of the
supremacy of Bengal, he ventured to suspend Whitewell, the incompetent
Governor of Madras; he gave the command to Sir Eyre Coote, and sent also
vast sums of money thither. It was to sustain this great effort, without
if possible diminishing the gains of the Company, that Hastings
committed the rest of those acts of oppression which were afterwards
alleged against him. To supply the greed of his employers he had sold
British troops to destroy the Rohillas; in his great struggle for power
he had strained the law in the case of Nuncomar; to support his Mahratta
and Mysore wars he stooped to actions of injustice and cruelty. The
return of Sir Eyre Coote re-established affairs at Madras, he won a
great victory at Porta Novo and a second at Pollilore. The general peace
in 1783 put a conclusion to the war, which had been continued by Tippoo
upon the death of his father Hyder Ali. Hastings had succeeded in
concluding a treaty with the Mahrattas, and had his hands free for
carrying on with energy operations against Mysore, the Dutch, and the
French fleet under De Suffren. All the Dutch settlements had been
captured; five great indecisive battles had been fought between De
Suffren and Sir Edward Hughes; but no striking advantages had been won
over Tippoo, who had even met with some successes on the Malabar coast.
With the European nations terms had been arranged in France; with Tippoo
a peace was made on the conditions of the mutual restorations of
conquest.
[Sidenote: Robbery of Cheyte Singh.]
[Sidenote: Robbery of the Begums of Oude.]
To return to the conduct of Hastings. On the first alarm of war with
Hyder Ali, he had demanded troops from Cheyte Singh, the Rajah of
Benares, as from a feudatory of the Empire. This demand was annually
renewed, together with the customary tribute of £50,000. Upon this being
delayed it was raised to £500,000. This was still unpaid when Hastings
determined to make a personal visit to Benares. He entered the city with
an absurdly inadequate guard, and put Cheyte Singh under arrest; an
insurrection was the consequence, and Hastings was for a time confined
to his house by the populace and in imminent danger of his life.
Perfectly calm and unmoved in the midst of his dangers, he yielded not
one step; he succeeded in letting the neighbouring troops hear of his
danger; Major Popham came to his rescue, and routed the people of
Benares; Cheyte Singh was driven from his country, a new rajah, with a
much enlarged tribute, was put in his place; his fortress at Bidzegur
and all his property was seized. Hastings at once proceeded to similar
acts in Oude. He entered into a nefarious compact with the Nabob to rob
his mother and grandmother of their money. These two ladies lived at
Fyzabad, the ancient capital of Sujah Dowlah; his son, the reigning
Nabob Asaph Ul Dowlah, had withdrawn to the new city of Lucknow. The
Begums possessed large landed property and Sujah Dowlah's treasure; it
was agreed between Hastings and Asaph Ul Dowlah that this should be
taken from them, the landed property going to the Nabob, the money being
received as payment for heavy arrears due from the Nabob to the English.
A lengthened siege and partial famine did not effect the purpose of the
plunderers; it was found necessary to seize, to imprison, to starve,
and torture two aged eunuchs, the princesses' chief friends and
ministers, before treasure to the amount of about a million could be
wrung from them; the excuse alleged for such unmitigated wickedness was
that the Begums had intrigued for an insurrection in Oude. Again Sir
Elijah Impey was on the spot to give his voice in favour of Hastings
when the rumours on which these charges were based were submitted to
him.
[Sidenote: Displeasure in England.]
[Sidenote: Parliamentary inquiry. 1781.]
[Sidenote: Dundas's Bill. 1783.]
[Sidenote: Fox's India Bill. Nov.]
[Sidenote: Objections to it.]
Whatever excuses might be found for such actions, in the difficulties of
Hastings' position and the peculiarity of Indian habits, it was certain
that the condition and rights of a Company which had become a sovereign
ruler, and was at once under the necessity of demanding a loan to avoid
bankruptcy, and guilty of what could not but sound to English ears as
acts of the cruellest oppression, must form a chief topic of
parliamentary discussion. Accordingly, in 1781, two committees had been
formed to inquire into the affairs of India. Their reports were strongly
condemnatory of the Company's government, and the Secretary of State for
the time being accordingly demanded Hastings' recall. To this the
directors, as by law they had a right to do, refused to listen, but the
matter could not be dropped, and immediately after the formation of the
coalition ministry Mr. Dundas produced a Bill for the regulation of
India. His view was that the Governor-General's power should be
increased, and the office given to some great independent nobleman such
as Lord Cornwallis. Not only was this Bill regarded as a party measure,
and by no means of sufficient breadth for its object, but also it was
felt that the subject was one which should be handled by Government
itself. In pursuance of this view, in the autumn session of the same
year Fox brought forward his great India Bill. The faults to be remedied
were sufficiently obvious; a trading company had by a strange turn of
fortune become a governor of large provinces, and had again and again
engaged in extensive wars. It was plain that the functions of the
merchant and the governor were not only distinct but antagonistic. The
claims of the proprietors for large dividends, and the duty of the
directors to work for the financial benefit of their employers, was
certain to blind them to acts of injustice which had a tendency to fill
their coffers. The main principle of any great India Bill must have been
the resumption by the Crown of its inherent Imperial rights, which it
had suffered accidentally to fall into disuse. Accordingly, Fox proposed
that all the authority which the Company had exercised should be
transferred to a body of seven commissioners, nominated in Parliament
and capable of holding office for four years, after which the vacancies
occurring in that body were to be filled up by the Crown. To them, as
trustees, was to be transferred also the whole property of the Company.
But the management of this property and the commerce of the Company was
placed in the hands of a subordinate council of directors, proprietors
each of them of £2000 stock, acting under and subject to the orders of
the superior council. The vacancies in the subordinate council were to
be filled by the Court of proprietors. There were additional
stipulations for the purpose of checking monopolies, the acceptance of
presents, the hiring out of British forces, and changes in the tenure of
land, regulations in fact attempting to remove the principal known
abuses of the Indian Government. The Bill was a thorough and great Bill,
and the magnitude of the subject, and the freedom which the Government
enjoyed from any party pledges in the matter, should have raised it out
of the sphere of party politics, but it was at once furiously assaulted.
There were raised against it two objections, corresponding to the two
councils which it proposed to erect. First, it was urged that it was
incompatible with the dignity of the Crown that patronage so enormous as
that of India should be vested even for a time in any hands but those of
the King himself.[11] As Lord Thurlow said, when the Bill was before the
House of Lords, "the King will in fact take the diadem with his own
hands and place it on the head of Mr. Fox." What rendered this defect
more glaring was, that the new committee was named in the Act, and that
all seven members of it were strenuous supporters of the present
administration, so that a fresh and overwhelming source of influence was
secured to Mr. Fox's friends. It was urged, secondly, that even granting
the necessity and wisdom of such a transference of political power, the
establishment of the second council for the management of the commerce
of the Company was a violent and unnecessary infraction of chartered
rights. Bad financial management, as apart from their political conduct,
could not be alleged against the Company, nor did it seem probable that
commerce would be better managed under the direction of a parliamentary
Committee, even though working through a subordinate council of
merchants, than if left exclusively in mercantile hands; besides, no
later than 1780, the charter of the Company had been renewed, and to
deprive it of the superintendence of its own trade was a manifest breach
of that charter. Such were the objections raised by the Opposition, and
they were largely echoed in the country, where the coalition, as is
generally the case in England, was highly unpopular. The feeling out of
doors is shown by a well-known caricature which represents the triumphal
procession of Carlo Fox Khan, crowned and riding on a state elephant.
However, the Bill was triumphantly passed through the House of Commons,
where the coalition majority was overwhelming.
[Sidenote: The King procures its rejection.]
[Sidenote: His conduct unconstitutional.]
[Sidenote: Ministers dismissed.]