When the news of this distractedly hopeless condition of the Council in

Calcutta reached London, Lord North called upon the Court of Directors

to send up to the Crown an address for the recall of Hastings, without

which, according to the new Indian Act, he could not be removed till

the end of his five years. The Directors put the matter to the vote,

and the address was negatived by a single vote. The minority then

appealed to the Court of Proprietors, at the general election in the

spring of 1776, but there it was negatived by ballot by a majority of

one hundred, notwithstanding that all the Court party and Parliamentary

Ministerialists who had votes attended to overthrow him. This defeat

so enraged Lord North that he resolved to pass a special Bill for the

removal of the Governor-General. This alarmed Colonel Maclean, a friend

of Hastings, to whom he had written, on the 27th of March. 1775,

desiring him, in his disgust with the conduct of Francis, Clavering,

and Monson, and the support of them by the Directors, to tender his

resignation. Thinking better of it, however, he had, on the 18th of the

following May, written to him, recalling the proposal of resignation.

But Maclean, to save his friend from a Parliamentary dismissal, which

he apprehended, now handed the letter containing the resignation to the

Directors. Delighted to be thus liberated from their embarrassment,

the Directors accepted the resignation at once, and elected Mr. Edward

Wheler to the vacant place in the Council.

But matters had greatly changed at Calcutta before this. Maclean did

not present the letter of resignation till October, 1776; but, in

September of that year, Colonel Monson had died, and, the members

in the Council being now equal, the Governor-General's casting vote

restored to him his lost majority. Hastings was not the man to defer

for a moment the exercise of his authority. He began instantly to

overturn, in spite of their most violent efforts, the measures of

Francis and friends. He dismissed Goordas from the chief authority

in Oude, and reinstated his "dear friend, Nat Middleton," as he

familiarly termed him. He revived his land revenue system, and was

planning new and powerful alliances with native princes, especially

with the Nabob of Oude, and the Nizam of the Deccan, not omitting to

cast a glance at the power of the Sikhs, whose dangerous ascendency

he already foresaw. In the midst of these and other grand plans for

the augmentation of British power in India--plans afterwards carried

out by others--he was suddenly astounded by the arrival of a packet

in June, 1777, containing the news of his resignation, and of its

acceptance by the Directors. He at once protested that it was invalid,

as he had countermanded the resignation before its presentation; but

General Clavering, as next in succession, at once claimed the office

of Governor-General, and Francis, in Council, administered the oath

to him. Clavering immediately demanded the keys of the fort and the

treasury from Hastings; but that gentleman refused to admit his own

resignation, much less Clavering's election to his post. Here, then,

were two would-be Governor-Generals, as Europe had formerly seen two

conflicting Popes. To end the difficulty, Hastings proposed that the

decision of the question should be referred to the Supreme Court. It

is wonderful that Clavering and Francis should have consented to this,

seeing that Impey, Hastings' friend, and the judge of Nuncomar, was

at the head of that Court; but it was done, and the Court decided in

Hastings' favour. No sooner was Hastings thus secured, than he charged

Clavering with having forfeited both his place in the Council, and

his post as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, by attempting to seize

on the Governor-Generalship. Clavering and Francis were compelled to

appeal once more to the Supreme Court, and this time, to his honour,

Impey decided in favour of Clavering. Clavering, who had been deeply

mortified by his defeat, died a few days after this occurred, in

August, 1777. By this event the authority of Hastings in the government

was sufficiently restored, notwithstanding that Wheler generally sided

with Francis, for him to carry his own aims.

It was at this crisis, when Hastings was just recovering his authority

in the Council, that the news arrived in India, and spread amongst the

native chiefs, that in Yenghi Dunia, or the New World, the Company

Sahib--for the East Indians could never separate the ideas of the East

India Company and England itself--there had been a great revolution,

and the English driven out. This, as might be expected, wonderfully

elated the native chiefs, and especially those in the south. There the

French of Pondicherry and Chandernagore boasted of the destruction

of the British power, and that it was by their own hands. Hastings,

who was as able and far-seeing as he was unprincipled in carrying

out his plans for the maintenance of the British dominion in India,

immediately set himself to counteract the mischievous effects of these

diligently-disseminated rumours, and of the cabals which the French

excited. These were most to be feared amongst the vast and martial

family of the Mahrattas. The Mahrattas had risen on the ruins of the

great Mogul empire. They now extended their tribes over a vast space of

India from Mysore to the Ganges. The Peishwa, as head of these nations,

held his residence at Poonah. Besides his, there were the great houses

of Holkar and Scindia; the Guicowar, who ruled in Guzerat; the Bonslah,

or Rajah of Berar, a descendant of Sivaji. The Mahrattas were, for the

most part, a rude, warlike race, rapacious and ambitious, and living

in the most primitive style. To destroy the confidence of these fierce

warriors in the French, Hastings gave immediate orders, on receiving

the news of the proclamation of war in Europe, for the seizure of the

French settlements. This was on the 7th of July, 1778; on the 10th

he had taken Chandernagore, and ordered Sir Hector Munro to invest

Pondicherry. That was soon accomplished, and the only remaining

possession of France, the small one of Mahé, on the coast of Malabar,

was seized the next spring.

[Illustration: SURRENDER OF BAILLIE TO HYDER ALI. (_See p._ 330.)]

Hastings then mustered fresh regiments of sepoys; demanded and received

three battalions from Cheyte Sing, the Rajah of Benares; armed

cruisers; laid up stores of ammunition and provisions for three months

in Fort William; enrolled a thousand European militia at Calcutta,

and stood ready for any French invasion from sea. He then despatched

Colonel Leslie with a strong force into the very heart of the Mahratta

country. Leslie appeared to have lost his energy, made four months'

delay in the plains of Bundelcund, and the next news was that he was

dead. Colonel Goddard was sent to take his command, and advanced into

Berar; but there hearing that successive revolutions were taking place

at Poonah, he waited the result of them. Meanwhile, the presidency of

Bombay, desirous of anticipating the expeditions from Calcutta, now

undertook to reinstate Ragunath Rao, a deposed peishwa, whom they had

lately left to his fate, and taking him along with him, the British

commander, Colonel Egerton, marched into the Mahratta country with four

thousand men. The army, when it had reached within sixteen miles of

Poonah, was surrounded by hosts of Mahratta cavalry, and was compelled

to surrender. The Mahrattas, as conditions--which the British were

in no position to decline--insisted on the restoration of all the

territory won from them by the British since 1756, and the surrender to

them of Ragunath Rao. But Hastings refused to recognise this treaty.

He ordered Colonel Goddard to advance. The title of general was

conferred on him, and he well justified the promotion. In that and the

succeeding campaign he won victory on victory; stormed Ahmedabad; took

the city of Bassein; gained a splendid victory over forty thousand of

the combined forces of Holkar and Scindia, and, in a great measure,

retrieved all the losses, and restored the fame of the British arms. In

another quarter the success against the Mahrattas was equally decisive.

Captain Popham with a small body of troops stormed and took the city of

Lahore, and the huge fortress of Gwalior, which the Mahrattas deemed

impregnable.

To assist the Governor-General, the British Government had sent out

Sir Eyre Coote in 1780 to the scene of his former fame, not only as

Commander of the Forces in place of Clavering, but also as member

of Council. Coote usually supported Hastings in the Council, but he

greatly embarrassed him by the insatiable spirit of avarice which

had grown upon him with years; and in making arrangements with the

Nabob of Oude and others to supply the means of accommodation to the

old commander, Hastings largely augmented the grounds of his future

persecutions. The war with the Mahrattas and the announcement of the

speedy arrival of a French armament on the coast of Coromandel induced

the Company's old enemy, Hyder Ali, to think it a good opportunity

to recover some of his territory from the Company. He saw that the

present opportunity was most favourable for taking a signal revenge on

the English. For years he had concerted with the French a grand plan

for the destruction of the British power; and even whilst he remained

quiet, he was preparing with all his energies for its accomplishment.

He had squeezed his treasurers and collectors to the utmost for the

accumulation of money, and mustered an army of nearly ninety thousand

men, including twenty-eight thousand cavalry and two thousand artillery

and rocketmen, besides four hundred engineers, chiefly French. Hyder

suddenly poured down from his hills with this host into the plains of

Madras. To the last moment the authorities there appear to have been

wholly unconscious of their danger. Besides this, the army in the

presidency did not exceed six thousand men, and these were principally

sepoys. This force, too, was spread over a vast region, part at

Pondicherry, part at Arcot, part in Madras, but everywhere scattered

into cantonments widely distant from each other, and in forts capable

of very little defence. As for the forces of their ally, the Nabob of

Arcot, they ran at the first issue of Hyder's army through the ghauts.

On came the army of Hyder like a wild hurricane. Porto Novo on the

coast, and Conjeveram near Trichinopoli, were taken; and Hyder advanced

laying all waste with fire and sword, till he could be seen--a dreadful

apparition--with his host from Mount St. Thomas, his progress marked by

the flames and smoke of burning villages.

The inhabitants, men, women, and children, fled in terror from their

splendid villas, around the city, into the fort of St. George.

A fast-sailing vessel was dispatched to Calcutta, to implore the

Governor-General to send them speedy aid of men and money. The forces

were called together from different quarters, and Sir Hector Munro at

the head of one body, and Colonel Baillie at the head of another, were

ordered to combine, and intercept Hyder. First one place of rendezvous

and then another was named, but, before the junction could take place,

Baillie had managed to allow himself to be surrounded by the whole host

of Hyder, and after a brave defence was compelled to surrender, one

half of his troops being cut to pieces. The insults and cruelties of

the troops of Hyder to their captives were something demoniac. Munro

had sent to demand troops from the Nabob of Arcot, for whom the British

were always fighting, and received a message of compliments, but no

soldiers. On the defeat of Baillie he made a hasty retreat to Mount St.

Thomas. Meanwhile, the call for aid had reached Calcutta, and Hastings

instantly responded to it with all his indomitable energy. He called

together the Council, and demanded that peace should be made at once

with the Mahrattas; that every soldier should be shipped off at once to

Madras; that fifteen lacs of rupees should be sent without a moment's

delay to the Council there; that the incompetent governor, Whitehill,

should be removed; and Sir Eyre Coote sent to perform this necessary

office, and take the command of the troops. Francis, who was just

departing for England, raised as usual his voice in opposition. But

Hastings' proposals were all carried. The troops, under Sir Eyre Coote,

were hurried off, and messengers dispatched in flying haste to raise

money at Moorshedabad, Patna, Benares, Lucknow--in short, wherever the

authority of Hastings could extort it. At the same time, other officers

were sent to negotiate with the Mahrattas for peace.

Coote landed at Madras at the beginning of November. A council was

immediately called, Whitehill was removed from the government of the

Presidency, and the member of Council next in seniority appointed.

Coote had brought with him only five hundred British troops and six

hundred Lascars. The whole force with which he could encounter Hyder

amounted only to one thousand seven hundred Europeans and five thousand

native troops. Coote, whose name as the conqueror of the French at

Wandewash and Pondicherry struck terror into Hyder, soon resumed his

triumphs on his old ground, driving the enemy from Wandewash. Hearing

then of the arrival of the French armament off Pondicherry, he marched

thither, and posted himself on the Red Hills. The French fleet,

consisting of seven ships of the line and four frigates, was anchored

off the place. But the French squadron having sailed away for the Isle

of France, from apprehension of the approach of a British fleet, Hyder

retreated, and, entering the territory of Tanjore, laid it waste,

while his son, Tippoo, laid siege again to Wandewash. Hyder was again

encouraged to advance, and on the 6th of July, 1781, Coote managed to

bring him to action near Porto Novo, and completely routed him and his

huge host, though he had himself only about eight thousand men. Hyder

retired quite crestfallen to Arcot, and ordered Tippoo to raise the

siege of Wandewash.

Notwithstanding that Hyder had established his camp soon after in a

strong position near the village of Pollilore, he was attacked on

the 27th of August by Eyre Coote. On this occasion Sir Hector Munro

warned Coote of the disadvantages of ground under which he was going to

engage, and the inevitable sacrifice of life. Coote replied angrily,

"You talk to me, sir, when you should be doing your duty!" His warning,

however, was just. Coote did not succeed in driving Hyder from his

post without severe loss. But again, on the 27th of September, another

battle was fought between them in the pass of Sholinghur, near Bellore,

in which Coote defeated Hyder with terrible loss. This battle relieved

the English garrison in Bellore, and the rainy season put an end to

operations, but the Carnatic was saved.

On the 22nd of June, 1781, Lord Macartney arrived at Madras to take

the place of Whitehill as Governor. He brought the news of the war

having broken out between the British and the Dutch, and he determined

to take advantage of it to seize the Dutch settlements on the coast of

Coromandel and in Ceylon. But Sir Eyre Coote had lately had a stroke

of palsy; his faculties were failing, and his temper had grown morose.

Finding he could obtain no assistance from the Commander-in-chief,

Macartney called out the militia of Madras, and at their head reduced

the Dutch settlements of Sadras and Pulicat. Finding Sir Hector Munro

waiting at Madras for a passage to England, in consequence of the

insulting conduct of Sir Eyre Coote, he induced him to take the command

of an expedition against Negapatam. Admiral Hughes landed the troops

near Negapatam on the 21st of October; they then united with a force

under Colonel Braithwaite, and on the 12th of November Negapatam was

taken, with large quantities of arms and military stores. Leaving

Braithwaite to make an expedition in Tanjore, where, in February of the

coming year, he was surrounded by Tippoo and Lally, the French general,

and taken prisoner, Admiral Hughes sailed across to Ceylon, a most

desirable conquest, because of its secure harbour of Trincomalee, as

well as the richness and beauty of the island, and also on account of

its position, for it lay only two days' sail from Madras. On the 11th

of January, 1782, Trincomalee was won.

But in February the long-expected armament from France arrived on

the Coromandel coast. Suffren, the admiral, was one of the ablest

sea-commanders of France. On his way he had secured the Cape of Good

Hope against the English, and he now landed at Porto Novo two thousand

French soldiers to join the army of Hyder Ali. Tippoo, flushed with the

recent capture of Colonel Braithwaite, invited the French to join him

in an attack on Cuddalore, an important town between Porto Novo and

Pondicherry. This was done, and Cuddalore was wrested from the English

in April. Whilst these events were taking place on land, repeated

engagements occurred with the British fleets on the coasts. That of

Admiral Hughes was reinforced by fresh ships from England, and between

February, 1782, and June, 1783, the British and French fleets fought

five pitched battles with varied success. In none of these was any

man-of-war captured by either side, nor any great number of men lost;

but, eventually, Suffren succeeded in retaking Trincomalee, in Ceylon,

from the British.

From Cuddalore, Tippoo and Bussy, the French general, turned their

forces against Wandewash; but they were met by Coote, though he was

now sinking and failing fast. They retreated, and he attempted to make

himself master of the strong fort of Arnee, where much of the booty

of Hyder was deposited; but Hyder made show of fighting him whilst

Tippoo carried off all the property. Tippoo was obliged to march

thence towards Calicut, where the Hindoo chiefs, his tributaries, were

joining the British under Colonel Mackenzie. Hyder at this moment

was confounded by the news of the peace made by Hastings with the

Mahrattas, and expected that those marauders would speedily fall on

Mysore. His health was fast declining, and yet he dared not introduce

his allies, the French, into his own territory, lest he should not so

readily get them out again. Besides his suspicions of the French, he

had constant fears of assassination. Hyder died in December, 1782.

At the time that Tippoo heard of the death of his father, he was,

assisted by the French, eagerly pressing on the most inferior force

of Colonel Mackenzie, not very far from Seringapatam. Mackenzie being

obliged to retire, was suddenly set upon, before daylight, near

Paniany, about thirty-five miles from Calicut, by the whole force;

but he repulsed them with great slaughter. Tippoo then fell back and

made the best of his way to his capital to secure his throne and the

treasures of Hyder Ali. He found himself at the age of thirty master

of the throne, of an army of nearly one hundred thousand men, and of

immense wealth. With these advantages, and the alliance of the French,

Tippoo did not doubt of being able to drive the British out of all the

south of India. Yet, with his vast army, accompanied by nine hundred

French, two thousand Sepoys, and nearly three hundred Kafirs, Tippoo

retreated, or appeared to be retreating, before General Stuart, with a

force of only fourteen thousand men, of whom three thousand alone were

British. He was, in fact, however, hastening to defend the north-west

districts of Mysore from another British force on the coast of Canara.

This force was that of Colonel Mackenzie, joined by another from

Bombay, under General Matthews, who took the chief command in that

quarter.

News now arrived of peace concluded between Britain and France. The

French, to whom their possessions were restored, at once ceased

hostilities and went to occupy their reacquired settlements. But Tippoo

continued the war, bent on taking Mangalore. Nothing could now have

prevented the English from completely conquering but the stupidity of

the Council of Madras. They sent commissioners to treat with Tippoo,

who, once getting them into his camp, made them really prisoners,

kept all information from them, and induced them to issue orders to

the English officers to cease hostilities. By these orders a junction

between Stuart and Colonel Fullarton, and the immediate investment and

seizure of Seringapatam, Tippoo's capital, were prevented. Fullarton

had overrun a great portion of the southern districts of Mysore, and

had entered into close alliance with the Zamorin of Calicut, the Rajah

of Travancore, and other rajahs, tributary to Tippoo, all the way from

Cochin to Goa. With ample supplies of provisions and other aids from

these chiefs, Fullarton was in full march to join Stuart, and laid

siege to Seringapatam, when he received peremptory orders to give up

the enterprise, as the British were about concluding terms with Tippoo.

Exceedingly disconcerted by these commands, which thus frustrated

the results of this wonderful campaign, Fullarton, however, had no

alternative but to obey, and Tippoo thus held on till he had starved

out Campbell, and gained the fort of Mangalore. Then he concluded peace

on condition of mutual restitution of all conquests since the war. This

peace was signed on the 11th of March, 1784.

Warren Hastings had saved Madras and the Carnatic, but only at the

cost of extortion. To obtain the necessary money, he began a system of

robbery and coercion on the different princes of Bengal and Oude. The

first experiment was made on Cheyte Sing, the Rajah of Benares, who had

been allowed to remain as a tributary prince when that province was

made over to the British by the Nabob of Oude. The tribute had been

paid with a regularity unexampled in the history of India; but when the

war broke out with France, Hastings suddenly demanded an extraordinary

addition of fifty thousand pounds a year, and as it was not immediately

paid, the Rajah was heavily fined into the bargain. This was rendered

still more stringent in 1780, when the difficulties in Madras began.

Cheyte Sing sent a confidential agent to Calcutta, to assure Hastings

that it was not in his power to pay so heavy a sum, and he sent him

two lacs of rupees (twenty thousand pounds), as a private present to

conciliate him. Hastings accepted the money, but no doubt feeling the

absolute need of large sums for the public purse, he, after awhile,

paid this into the treasury, and then said to Cheyte Sing that he must

pay the contribution all the same. He compelled the Rajah to pay the

annual sum of fifty thousand pounds, and ten thousand pounds more as

a fine, and then demanded two thousand cavalry. After some bargaining

and protesting, Cheyte Sing sent five hundred horsemen and five hundred

foot. Hastings made no acknowledgment of these, but began to muster

troops, threatening to take vengeance on the Rajah. In terror, Cheyte

Sing then sent, in one round sum, twenty lacs of rupees (two hundred

thousand pounds) for the service of the State; but the only answer he

obtained for the munificent offering was, that he must send thirty lacs

more, that is, altogether, half a million.

[Illustration: ARREST OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES. (_See p._ 334.)]

Following his words by acts, he set off himself, attended only by a few

score sepoys, for Benares. Cheyte Sing came out as far as Buxar to meet

the offended Governor, and paid him the utmost homage. He continued his

journey with the Rajah in his train, and entered the Rajah's capital,

the great Mecca of India, the famed city of Benares, on the 14th of

August, 1781. He then made more enormous demands than before; and the

compliance of the Rajah not being immediate, he ordered Mr. Markham,

his own-appointed resident at Benares, to arrest the Rajah in his

palace. Cheyte Sing was a timid man, yet the act of arresting him in

the midst of his own subjects, and in a place so sacred, and crowded

with pilgrims from every part of the East, was a most daring deed.

The effect was instantaneous. The people rose in fury, and pouring

headlong to the palace with arms in their hands, they cut to pieces

Markham and his sepoys. Had Cheyte Sing had the spirit of his people

in him, Hastings and his little party would have been butchered in

half an hour. But Cheyte Sing only thought of his own safety. He got

across the Ganges, and whole troops of his subjects flocked after him.

Thence he sent protestations of his innocence of the _émeute_, and of

his readiness to make any conditions. Hastings, though surrounded and

besieged in his quarters by a furious mob, deigned no answer to the

suppliant Rajah, but busied himself in collecting all the sepoys in

the place. But the situation of Hastings was at every turn becoming

more critical. The sepoys, sent to seize Cheyte Sing in the palace

of Ramnuggur, were repulsed, and many of them, with their commander,

killed. The multitude were now more excited than ever, and that night

would probably have seen the last of Warren Hastings, had he not

contrived to escape from Benares, and to reach the strong fortress

of Chunar, situated on a rock several hundred feet above the Ganges,

and about seventeen miles below Benares. Cheyte Sing, for a moment,

encouraged by the flight of Hastings, put himself at the head of the

enraged people, and, appealing to the neighbouring princes as to his

treatment, declared he would drive the English out of the country.

But troops and money were speedily sent to Hastings from Lucknow,

others marched to Chunar from their cantonments, and he found himself

safe amid a sufficient force commanded by the brave Major Popham,

the conqueror of Gwalior, to defy the thirty thousand undisciplined

followers of Cheyte Sing. From the 29th of August to the 20th of

September there were different engagements between the British and the

forces of Cheyte Sing; but on every occasion, though the Indians fought

bravely they were worsted, and on the last-named day, utterly routed

at Pateeta. Cheyte Sing did not wait for the arrival of the British

troops; he fled into Bundelcund, and never returned again to Benares.

Hastings restored order, and set up another puppet Rajah, a nephew of

Cheyte Sing, but raised the annual tribute to forty lacs of rupees, or

four hundred thousand pounds a year, and placed the mint and the entire

jurisdiction of the province in the hands of his own officers.

Hastings next determined to experiment on the Nabob of Oude. This

Nabob, Asaph-ul-Dowlah, was an infamously dissipated prince, spending

his own money in licentious pleasures, and extorting what he could

from the Begums, his mother and grandmother. The old ladies lived at

the palace of Fyzabad, or the "Beautiful Residence," situated in a

charming district, amid hills and streams, about eighty miles from

Lucknow. The Nabob's father had left them large sums of money and

extensive estates, so that they kept a handsome court, and yet had the

reputation of having accumulated about three million pounds sterling.

The Nabob had compelled them, by coercive means, to let him have, at

different times, about six hundred thousand pounds, and he thirsted

exceedingly for more. Hastings determined to anticipate him. He sent

for the Nabob of Oude while he was still in the fortress of Chunar,

and there reminding him of his debts to the British Government, which

were considerable, coolly proposed to him the robbery of his mother

and grandmother. The proposal was so barefaced that, when Hastings

came to make it to the Nabob, he felt that he really required some

pretended reason for thus arbitrarily laying hands on the property of

these innocent women, and therefore unblushingly asserted that they had

been concerned in stirring up the insurrection at Benares--a matter,

besides that it was so notoriously the result of Hastings' own daring

arrest of Cheyte Sing, the Begums had neither motive for meddling in

nor time for doing it. Till now they had regarded the British as their

only protectors. They were living quietly at Fyzabad, one hundred

and fifteen miles from Benares, when the insurrection broke out from

very obvious causes. This infamous bargain being concluded at Chunar,

Hastings relying on his agent at Lucknow, Mr. Middleton, compelling the

Nabob to carry it out, retreated to Benares, and thence to Calcutta.

The Nabob returned to Lucknow to enforce the diabolical scheme; but he

found his mother and grandmother determined to resist the iniquitous

order, and so shameful was it that even the needy and debauched Nabob

felt compunctions in proceeding with it. He left it to Middleton

to execute it, but Middleton, in his turn, recoiled from the odious

business. Not so Hastings; cold and resolute, he wrote to Middleton,

that if he could not rely upon his firmness he would free him from his

charge, and himself proceed to Lucknow and enforce his own orders. To

induce Middleton to abandon his scruples of conscience and honour, the

ever-ready friend of Hastings, the Chief Justice of Bengal, Sir Elijah

Impey, it appears, wrote to Middleton, and inculcated the necessity of

obedience. Middleton and the Nabob, therefore, seized on the estates of

the Begums, and suddenly surrounded Fyzabad and the palace with troops,

and made themselves masters of both. But the old ladies had not been so

inattentive to the approaches of the storm as to neglect the hiding of

their treasures; they could not be found. Thus cruelly disappointed of

the expected hoard, and the Begums remaining firm in their refusal to

produce any part of it, Middleton seized on their two chief ministers,

the eunuchs, Jewar Ali Khan and Behar Ali Khan. They were now thrown

into prison, put in irons, and orders were given to starve and torture

them till they revealed the secret of the concealment of the treasure

of their mistresses. At the same time, the two ladies were placed in

rigorous confinement themselves. This system was continued till they

had extorted upwards of a million sterling from the Begums, and found

that they might kill both them and their aged ministers, but could

get no more. When the Begums and the two old men were liberated, they

were told by the Resident--not now Middleton, but Bristow--that they

owed this favour to the Governor-General, who had determined to have

them "restored to their dignity and honour." There was another name

connected with these events, and with almost equal disadvantage, that

of Sir Elijah Impey, the Chief Justice. Impey, who had no jurisdiction

in Oude, was found up there in the midst of these transactions,

volunteering his assistance in getting up charges against the Begums.

These charges were supported by a host of venal witnesses, and

affidavits of their evidence were made out, and sent down to Calcutta,

to justify the dark doings of Hastings.

But the violent proceedings of Hastings and his Council, partly

against each other, and still more against the natives, did not

escape the authorities at home. Two committees were appointed in the

House of Commons in 1781, to inquire into these matters. One of them

was headed by General Richard Smith, and the other by Dundas, the

Lord Advocate of Scotland. In both of these the conduct of Hastings,

especially in the war against the Rohillas, was severely condemned,

and the appointment of Impey to the new judicial office was greatly

disapproved. In May, 1782, General Smith moved an address praying his

Majesty to recall Sir Elijah Impey, which was carried unanimously, and

he was recalled accordingly. Dundas also moved and carried a resolution

declaring it to be the duty of the Court of Directors to recall Warren

Hastings, on the charge of his "having, in sundry instances, acted in

a manner repugnant to the honour and policy of the nation." The Court

of Directors complied with this suggestion; but Lord Rockingham dying,

his Ministry being dissolved, and Burke, the great opponent of Indian

oppressions, being out of office, in October the Court of Directors,

through the active exertions of the friends of Hastings, rescinded his

recall. The succeeding changes of administration, and their weakness,

first that of the Shelburne, and then that of the Coalition Ministry,

enabled Hastings to keep his post in India, and finish the war in

Madras. It was the India Bill of Pitt in 1784, which, by creating

the Board of Control, and enabling the Government to take immediate

cognisance of the proceedings of the Governors-General, and other chief

officers in India, broke the power of Hastings, and led him to resign,

without, however, enabling him to escape the just scrutiny which his

administration needed.

Hastings embarked on the 8th of February, 1785, and arrived in England

in June, 1786. He had sent home before him his wife, whose health

had begun to suffer from the climate of India, and she had been most

graciously received by King George and Queen Charlotte. He had been

accompanied to his ship, on leaving Calcutta, by all the authorities,

and by all people of distinction; he had received the most enthusiastic

addresses of regret and of admiration as the saviour of India. In

London, not only at Court, but in Leadenhall Street, he met with the

same gratifying honour. He spent the autumn at Cheltenham with his

wife, where he was courted and fêted in a manner to warrant his writing

to a friend, "I find myself everywhere and universally treated with

evidences, apparent even to my own observation, that I possess the good

opinion of my country." He was busy trying to purchase Daylesford, the,

old family estate, and anticipating a peerage.

But this was only the lull before the storm. Burke and Francis were

living, and the thunder-bolts were already forged which were to

shatter his pleasing dream of approval. His agreeable delusion was,

indeed, soon ended. On the 24th of January, 1787, Parliament met,

and Major Scott, an officious friend of Hastings, unfortunately for

the ex-Governor-General, relying on the manifestation of approbation

of Hastings by the Court and fashionable circles, got up and asked

where now was that menace of impeachment which Mr. Burke had so long

and often held out? Burke, thus challenged, on the 17th of February

rose and made a call for papers and correspondence deposited in the

India House, relative to the proceedings of Hastings in India. He

also reminded Pitt and Dundas of the motion of the latter on the 29th

of May, 1782, in censure of the conduct of Hastings on the occasions

in question. This was nailing the ministers to their opinions; but

Dundas, now at the head of the Board of Control, repeated that he still

condemned the conduct of Hastings, but taken with the services which

he had rendered to the country in India, he did not conceive that this

conduct demanded more than censure, certainly not impeachment. Fox

supported Burke, and Pitt defended Hastings, and attacked Fox without

mercy. There was a feeling abroad that the king was determined to

support Hastings, and the proceedings of Pitt confirmed this. Burke's

demand for papers was refused, but this did not deter Burke. On the

4th of April he rose again and presented nine articles of impeachment

against Hastings, and in the course of the week twelve more articles.

To these a twenty-second article was afterwards added.

The affair was now becoming serious, and Hastings demanded to be heard

at the bar, where he appeared on the 1st of May, and read a long and

wearisome defence, which did not go to a denial of the charges, but a

justification of them, from the need of money to save India, and from

the approbation awarded to these actions both in India and at the India

House. On the 1st of June Burke brought forward his first charge--the

Rohilla war. The debate was not finished till seven o'clock on the

morning of the 3rd. The motion was rejected by one hundred and nineteen

against sixty-seven, and it was fondly hoped that the proceedings

against Hastings were altogether crushed. Lord Thurlow advised the king

to carry out his intention to make Hastings Baron Daylesford, and the

talk in the clubs and West End assemblies was the triumph of Hastings.

But the rejoicing was premature. On the 13th of June Fox took up the

second charge--the treatment of Cheyte Sing and Francis, with all the

bitterness of his character, and of his hatred of Hastings, supported

it. So black were the facts now produced that Pitt was compelled to

give way. He defended the Governor-General for calling on Cheyte Sing

to contribute men and money for the war against Mysore; he lauded the

firmness, decision and ability of Hastings, but he was forced to admit

that he had been excessive in his demands, and must support the charge.

This was a thunderstroke to Hastings and his friends. Fifty of Pitt's

followers immediately wheeled round with him; Dundas voted with Pitt,

and the motion was carried by an exact inversion of the numbers which

had negatived the former article on the Rohilla war, one hundred and

nineteen against sixty-seven. The Session closed on the 11th of July

with the rest of the charges hanging over the ex-Governor's head in

ominous gloom.

In the interval, the character and conduct of the Prince of Wales came

prominently before the public. The two great friends of the prince were

Fox and Sheridan. If the intellectual qualities of these two remarkable

men had been equalled by their moral ones, no fitter companions for

a young prince could have been found. But, unfortunately, they were

as distinguished for their drinking and dissipation, and Fox for his

reckless gambling, as for their talents. Pitt and they were in violent

opposition, and as Pitt, with his cold, unimpulsive nature, stood

firmly by the king, Fox and Sheridan were, as matters of party, warmly

the advocates of the prince. Hence the king and his son, sufficiently

at strife on the ground of the prince's extravagance and debauchery,

were rendered doubly so by the faction fire of their respective

adherents. Pitt, who might have softened greatly the hostile feeling

between the royal father and son, by recommending less parsimony on

the part of the king, and kindly endeavouring to induce the prince to

exhibit more respect for his father, never displayed the slightest

disposition to act so generous and truly politic a part. Sheridan and

some others of the Whig party mentioned the prince's debts, and urged

the propriety of something being done to save the honour of the Heir

Apparent; but Pitt turned a deaf ear, and the king informed the prince

that he could not sanction the payment of his debts by Parliament, nor

was he disposed to increase his allowance from the Civil List. On

this the prince determined to break up his household, which had been

appointed by the king, and cost the prince twenty thousand pounds,

to sell his horses and carriages, and to live in a few rooms like a

private gentleman. This he did; his fine horses were paraded through

the streets on their way to Tattersall's to be sold, and he stopped the

building of Carlton House. All this would have been admirable had it

proceeded from a real desire to economise on the part of the prince, in

order to satisfy his clamorous creditors, and to commence a real reform

of his habits; but the whole was only a mode of mortifying the king and

Court party by thus exhibiting the Heir Apparent as compelled, by the

refusal of a proper allowance, to abandon the style befitting his rank,

and sink himself into that of a mere lodger of scanty means. If this

grand manœuvre did not accomplish its object at Court, it, however,

told on his own party, who resolved in the next Session to make a grand

effort for the liquidation of his debts.

[Illustration: RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. (_After the Portrait by Sir

Joshua Reynolds._)]

The great question of the Prince of Wales's debts was brought on by

Alderman Newnham, who had been selected by the prince's set for that

purpose, to give it more an air of independence. Newnham, on the 20th

of April, asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his Majesty's

Ministers proposed to make any arrangement for this purpose. He praised

the prince for his generous conduct in breaking up his establishment

to facilitate the payment of his debts; but declared it disgraceful

to the nation that he should remain in that condition. Not receiving

any satisfactory answer, the alderman gave notice of a motion on the

subject for the 4th of May. Pitt then endeavoured to deter the alderman

from bringing in the motion, by saying that it was not his duty to

do so except by command of the king. Newnham, however, persisted in

his motion, and in the course of the debate Mr. Rolle, the member for

Devonshire, pointedly alluded to the rumours that were afloat as to the

marriage of the prince with Mrs. Fitzherbert, a Roman Catholic lady. As

a matter of fact, these rumours were true: the prince had been secretly

united to her by a Protestant clergyman on December 21st, 1785, in

the presence of several witnesses. The marriage placed the prince in

this dilemma: by the Act of Settlement, marriage with a Roman Catholic

invalidated all claims to the throne; but by the Royal Marriage Act,

any marriage contracted without the royal consent was null. He could

therefore annul the action of the first Act by pleading the second, but

by so doing he would obviously take away the character of his wife.

The prince saw a better way out of the difficulty--namely, a denial

that the marriage had taken place at all. Fox, completely duped by the

mendacious assurances of his royal friend, was induced to get up and

contradict the rumour, "by direct authority." The revulsion of feeling

in the House was immediate. On the 23rd of May Pitt laid before the

members a schedule of the prince's debts, amounting to one hundred

and ninety-four thousand pounds. Of this sum a hundred and sixty-one

thousand were voted, together with twenty thousand for the completion

of Carlton House, and the king was induced to add ten thousand a year

from the Civil List to the prince's income. He was thus placed for the

time being in affluence, and only had to reckon with Mrs. Fitzherbert.

This he did by disavowing Fox, whom he declared to have spoken without

authority. But the lady appears to have urged some public explanation.

The prince naturally avoided Fox, but sent for Grey, who, however,

declined to have anything to do with the dirty business. "Then,"

said the prince, "Sheridan must say something." Accordingly, a few

days later, Sheridan got up and paid a few vapid compliments to Mrs.

Fitzherbert, which assuaged her wrath, without exposing the royal liar.

On the 1st of February the inquiry into the crimes of Warren Hastings

was renewed. The third charge of the impeachment, the treatment of the

Begums, was undertaken by Sheridan, as the first was by Burke, and the

second by Fox. We have stated the facts of that great oppression, and

they were brought out in a most powerful and dramatic light by Sheridan

in a speech of nearly six hours. Sheridan had little knowledge of

India; but he was well supplied with the facts from the records of the

India House and the promptings of Francis, who was familiar with the

country and the events. The effect of Sheridan's charge far exceeded

all that had gone before it. When he sat down almost the whole House

burst forth in a storm of clappings and hurrahs. Fox declared it the

most astounding speech that he had ever heard, and Burke and Pitt gave

similar evidence. The wit and pathos of it were equally amazing; but it

was so badly reported as to be practically lost. The following remark,

however, seems to be reported fairly accurately:--"He remembered to

have heard an honourable and learned gentleman [Dundas] remark that

there was something in the first frame and constitution of the Company

which extended the sordid principles of their origin over all their

successive operations, connecting with their civil policy, and even

with their boldest achievements, the meanness of a pedlar and the

profligacy of pirates. Alike in the political and the military line

could be observed auctioneering ambassadors and trading generals; and

thus we saw a revolution brought about by affidavits; an army employed

in executing an arrest; a town besieged on a note of hand; a prince

dethroned for the balance of an account. Thus it was they exhibited a

government which united the mock majesty of a bloody sceptre and the

little traffic of a merchant's counting-house--wielding a truncheon

with one hand, and picking a pocket with the other." The debate was

adjourned to the next day, for the House could not be brought to listen

to any other person after this most intoxicating speech. The motion was

carried by one hundred and seventy-five votes against sixty-eight.

The other charges having been voted, on the 25th of April Burke brought

up the articles of impeachment. There was a long debate, in which

Wilkes, who had completely changed his politics, and had cultivated a

friendship with Warren Hastings and his wife, made a very effective

speech in his defence. He tried to shift the blame from Hastings to the

Company. Pitt again pointed out the fact that honourable members had

not been showing the innocence of Hastings, but raising all manner of

set-offs for his crimes--a course which he had before said he had hoped

would have been abandoned; that for his part, without going to the

length of all the charges brought forward, he saw sufficient grounds

for an impeachment. He could conceive a State compelled by sudden

invasion and an unprovided army, to lay violent hands on the property

of its subjects, but then such a State must be infamous if it did not,

on the first opportunity, make ample satisfaction. But was this the

principle on which Mr. Hastings had acted? No; he neither avowed the

necessity nor the exaction. He made criminal charges, and, under colour

of them, levied immoderate penalties, which, if he had a right to take

them at all, he would be highly criminal in taking in such a shape; but

which, having no right to take, the mode of taking rendered much more

heinous and culpable.

The report was agreed to, the impeachment was voted, and Burke,

attended by the majority of the House, on the 10th of May, carried it

up to the Lords. On the motion of Burke, Warren Hastings was then taken

into custody, and delivered over to the Lords, who bound him to appear

to take his trial, when called upon, in a bond of twenty thousand

pounds himself, and Messrs. Sullivan and Sumner as his sureties in ten

thousand pounds each.

In this Session the first step was taken in one of the greatest

achievements of humanity which adorn the name of Britain. It was the

grand preliminary towards annihilating the slave trade. The spirit

of revolt against this odious trade had been gaining rapidly in the

British mind. One of the earliest stabs given to it was by the pathetic

story of Inkle and Yarico, in the "History of Barbadoes," by Lygon,

which was taken up and amplified in the _Spectator_, and afterwards

elaborated into an effective drama by Colman. Defoe, Dr. Johnson,

Warburton in his "Divine Legation of Moses," and in his sermons so

early as 1766, Voltaire, and other writers, had diffused a strong and

sound feeling on the subject. It had been early attempted to establish

the legal maxim, that a slave becomes a freed man in England; but in

1729 this had been positively pronounced against by Talbot and Yorke,

then the highest legal authorities. But a more successful essay was

made by Granville Sharp in 1772, in the case of James Somerset, and

the principle was established, that the moment a slave set his foot on

English ground he became free. In 1782 the Friends presented a petition

to Parliament for the abolition of the slave trade. In 1785 Thomas

Clarkson, then a student at the University of Cambridge, competed for

and won the first prize for an essay on "The Slavery and Commerce in

the Human Species," and this, which was undertaken as an academical

exercise, led him to devote himself to the great work of the utter

extinction of this evil. Mr. Ramsay, a clergyman of Kent, who had lived

in St. Kitts, published a pamphlet on the same subject. The friends

of Ramsay, Lady Middleton and Mrs. Bouverie, became zealous advocates

of the cause, and finally Wilberforce resolved to make it the great

object of his life. A society was now established in London, consisting

only originally of twelve individuals, including the benevolent Mr.

Thornton, and having Granville Sharp for its chairman. The members,

however, were opulent merchants and bankers, and they set agents to

work to collect information on the subject. The feeling rapidly spread;

committees were formed in Manchester and other provincial towns for

co-operation.

It was resolved to make the first attack only on the trade in slaves,

not on the whole gigantic subject, with all its widely-ramified

interests. Nay, it was deemed prudent by the committees, seeing well

that the abolition of the monstrous practice of slave-holding must be

a work of many years, in the first place to limit their exertions to

the ameliorating of the sufferings of the negroes, in their passage

from Africa to the scenes of their servitude. Numerous petitions had

now reached the Houses of Parliament on the subject of the trade in

and the sufferings of slaves, and a Committee of the Privy Council was

procured to hear evidence on the subject. This commenced its sittings

on the 11th of February, 1788. Before this committee were first heard

the statements of the slave merchants of Liverpool. According to

these gentlemen, all the horrors attributed to the slave trade were

so many fables; so far from instigating African sovereigns to make

war upon their neighbours and sell them for slaves, the oppressions

of these despots were so horrible that it was a real blessing to

bring away their unfortunate victims. But very different facts were

advanced on the other side. On the part of the Liverpool merchants

was the most palpable self-interest to colour their statements; on

the other, was disinterested humanity. Amongst the gentlemen brought

forward to unfold the real nature of the African traffic was Dr. Andrew

Sparrman, Professor of Natural Philosophy at Stockholm, who had, with

Mr. Wadström, been engaged in botanical researches in Africa. This

information put to flight the pleasant myths of the Liverpool traders,

and produced a profound impression.

It was resolved to bring the matter before Parliament. Wilberforce gave

notice of motion on the subject, but falling ill at Bath, Clarkson

applied to Pitt and Mr. Grenville, and was strongly supported by

Granville Sharp and the London committee. Pitt had not considered the

subject till it was forced on his attention by the evidence before

the Privy Council; but he had come to the conclusion that the trade

was not only inhuman, but really injurious to the interests of the

nation. He consented to introduce the question, and, on the 9th of

May, gave notice that early in the next Session Parliament would take

into consideration the allegations against the slave trade, made in

upwards of a hundred petitions presented to it. He recommended this

short delay in order that the inquiries before the Privy Council might

be fully matured. But both Fox and Burke--the latter of whom had been

thinking for eight years of taking up the question--declared that the

delay would be as cruel as it was useless; that it did not become the

House to wait to receive instructions from the Privy Council, as if it

were dependent upon it, but that it ought to originate such inquiries

itself. Sir William Dolben supported this view of immediate action,

contending that at least a Bill should be brought in to restrain the

cruelties of the sea-passage, which would otherwise sacrifice ten

thousand lives, as hundreds of thousands had been sacrificed before.

This was acceded to. Pitt's resolution was carried by a considerable

majority; and Sir William Dolben, on the 21st of May, moved to bring

in a Bill to regulate the transport of slaves. Sir William stated that

there was no law to restrain the avarice and cruelty of the dealers,

and that the mortality from the crowding of the slaves on board was

frightful.

The slave merchants of Liverpool and London demanded to be heard

against even this degree of interference. On the 2nd of June counsel

was heard on their behalf at the bar of the House of Commons. These

gentlemen endeavoured to prove that the interest of the merchants was

the best guarantee of the good treatment of the slaves; and they called

witnesses to prove that nothing could be more delightful and salubrious

than the condition of slaves on the voyage; and that the negroes passed

their time most charmingly in dancing and singing on the deck. But,

on cross-examination, these very witnesses were compelled to disclose

one of the most revolting pictures of inhuman atrocity ever brought

to the light of day. It was found that no slave, whatever his size,

had more room during the whole voyage than five feet six inches in

length, and sixteen inches in breadth; that the floor of every deck was

thus densely packed with human beings; between the floor and the deck

above were other platforms or broad shelves packed in the same manner!

The height from the floor to the ceiling seldom exceeded five feet

eight inches, and in some cases not four feet. The men were chained

together two and two by their hands and feet, and were fastened by

ringbolts to the deck or floor. In this position they were kept all the

time they remained on the coast--often from six weeks to six months.

Their allowance was a pint of water daily and two meals of yams and

horse-beans. After eating they were ordered to jump in their irons

to preserve their health, and were flogged if they refused. When the

weather was wet they were often kept below for several days together.

The horrors of what was called the "middle passage" were terrible and

fatal beyond description. It was calculated that up to that time the

Europeans had consumed ten millions of slaves, and that the British

alone were then carrying over forty-two thousand Africans annually.

Besides the truths drawn by cross-examination from the witnesses for

the slave-dealing merchants, who contended that even Sir William

Dolben's Bill would nearly ruin Liverpool, Captain Parry, who had been

sent by Pitt to Liverpool to examine some of the slave-ships, brought

the directest proofs that the representations of these witnesses were

false, and the accommodation for the slaves was most inhuman; Sir

William Dolben himself had examined a slave-ship then fitting out in

the Thames, and gave details which horrified the House. This Bill

went to prohibit any ship carrying more than one slave to a ton of

its register; the only matter in which the House gave way was that

none should carry more than five slaves to every three tons, and a

very few years proved that this restriction had been the greatest

boon to the dealers as well as the slaves in the preservation of the

living cargoes. The Bill met with some opposition in the Lords, and

there Admiral Rodney and Lord Heathfield, both naturally humane men,

were amongst its strongest opponents. The measure, however, passed,

and received the Royal Assent on the 11th of July. Some well-meaning

people thought that by legalising the freightage of slaves, England

had acknowledged the lawfulness of the trade; but the advocates of the

abolition made no secret of their determination to persevere, and this

victory only quickened their exertions.

[Illustration: THE TRIAL OF WARREN HASTINGS. (_See p._ 342.)]

On the day appointed for the trial of Warren Hastings there was a

wonderful crowding into the great hall at Westminster. The walls had

been in preparation hung with scarlet, and galleries raised all round

for the accommodation of spectators. The seats for the members of the

House of Commons were covered with green cloth, those for the lords and

all the others with red. Galleries were set apart for distinguished

persons, and for the members of the foreign embassies. When the lords,

nearly one hundred and seventy in number, entered in procession, the

vast hall presented a striking scene, being crowded, with the exception

of the space in the centre for the peers, with all who were noted in

the land, from the throne downwards. The lords were all in their robes

of gold and ermine, marshalled by the king-at-arms and the heralds.

First entered Lord Heathfield, the brave old Elliot of Gibraltar,

as the junior baron, and the splendid procession was closed by the

Earl Marshal of England, the Duke of Norfolk, and by the brothers and

sons of the king, the Prince of Wales last of all. The twelve judges

attended to give their advice on difficult points of law, and the

Managers were attended also by their counsel, Drs. Scott and Lawrence,

and Mr. Mansfield, Mr. Pigot, Mr. Burke, and Mr. Douglas. The galleries

blazed with the rich array of ladies and foreign costumes. There were

seen the queen with her daughters, and the Princesses Elizabeth,

Augusta, and Mary, the Duchess of Gloucester, Mrs. Fitzherbert, the

beautiful Duchess of Devonshire, Sheridan's handsome wife, and the

great actress, Mrs. Siddons. Gibbon the historian, Dr. Parr, Mr.,

afterwards Sir, James Mackintosh, and numbers of distinguished artists,

amongst them Sir Joshua Reynolds and Gainsborough, were also present.

Warren Hastings was summoned to the bar, and there kneeling, the Lord

Chancellor, Thurlow, intimated the charge against him, and assured him

that, as a British subject, he would receive full justice from the

highest British court. Hastings replied, in a clear and firm voice,

that he had the highest confidence in the justice and integrity of

that august court. The clerks of the court then commenced reading the

charges against him, and the answers to them, and this reading occupied

the whole of that day and the following one; and on the third, Burke

rose to deliver his opening speech. This occupied the whole of four

days, beginning on the 15th, and terminating on the 19th of February.

The effect of that speech, notwithstanding its enormous length, was

such as had scarcely ever been witnessed in a court of justice before.

As he detailed the horrors practised by Hastings on the princes and

people of India, both the orator and his audience were convulsed with

terror and agitation. Ladies fainted away in the galleries; Mrs.

Sheridan, amongst others, had to be carried out insensible: the faces

of the strongest men, as well as of the more sensitive women, were

flushed with emotion, or bathed in tears. In his peroration Burke far

exceeded even himself. He appeared raised, enlarged into something

ethereal by his subject, and his voice seemed to shake the very walls

and roof of that ancient court. Finally, he exclaimed:--"I impeach

Warren Hastings, Esquire, of high crimes and misdemeanours. I impeach

him in the name of all the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament

assembled, whose parliamentary trust he has betrayed. I impeach him

in the name of the people of India, whose laws, rights, and liberties

he has subverted, whose properties he has destroyed, whose country he

has laid waste and desolate. I impeach him in the name, and by virtue

of those eternal laws of justice which he has violated. I impeach him

in the name of human nature itself, which he has cruelly outraged,

injured, and oppressed, in both sexes, in every age, rank, situation,

and condition of life. And I conjure this high and sacred court to let

not these proceedings be heard in vain." Such was the effect of this

wonderful torrent of eloquence that Hastings himself said, "For half

an hour I looked up at the orator in a reverie of wonder; and during

that space I actually felt myself the most culpable man on earth; but I

recurred to my own bosom, and there found a consciousness that consoled

me under all I heard and all I suffered."

When the intense agitation had in some degree subsided, Fox rose and

proposed the mode in which the trial should be conducted, which was

that the evidence on both sides should be gone through on each separate

charge, and that charge immediately decided, whilst all the facts

were fresh in the minds of the lords, who were the judges. But this

was opposed by the counsel of Hastings, who knew well the advantage

of leaving the decision till the vivid impression of the events was

worn off. They succeeded in carrying their object, and when the trial

terminated eight years afterwards, the result was quite according to

their hopes. The Managers complained loudly, but there was no remedy.

Fox, therefore, proceeded to open the Benares case, which occupied

five hours. Grey took it up, and completed it the next day. Several

succeeding days were employed in reading papers and hearing witnesses,

and then Anstruther summed up and commented on the charge.

The court then adjourned to the 15th of April. The case of the Begums

was opened by Mr. Adams, and concluded the next day by Mr. Pelham.

Then sixteen days were occupied by the evidence, and at length, on the

3rd of June, Sheridan began to sum up the evidence, and, in a speech

which lasted three days, he kept the court in the highest state of

excitement. The place was crowded to suffocation during the whole time,

and as much as fifty guineas is said to have been paid for a single

seat. Greatly as this speech of Sheridan's was admired, it was felt to

be too ornate and dramatic: there was not the deep and genuine feeling

of Burke in it, and the effect was so evidently studied, that, on

concluding, Sheridan fell back into the arms of Burke, as if overcome

by his own sensations. The prorogation of Parliament was now at hand,

and only two out of the twenty charges had been gone through: neither

of them had yet been replied to, and yet other causes of engrossing

interest arising, the trial was entirely suspended till the 20th of

April of the following year! Then it was taken up languidly and at

uncertain intervals, and rapidly became a mere exhibition of rhetoric.

Further, Burke's unlawyer-like style and intemperance of language drew

upon him the censure of the Lord Chancellor, and even of the House of

Commons. A revulsion of public feeling took place, and was seen in the

acquittal of Stockdale who was tried for libelling the promoters of the

trial. Three years afterwards Burke himself renounced sixteen of his

charges, and all popular interest in the trial gradually disappeared.

But the public attention was now freely withdrawn from Warren Hastings

to much more exalted personages. On the 11th of July the king in person

prorogued Parliament. He then appeared in his usual health, but soon

afterwards it was whispered about that he was far from well, and had

gone to Cheltenham by the advice of his physicians. When he returned

in the autumn, the opinion of his derangement had gained ground, and,

to remove this, a Drawing-room was held at St. James's on the 24th of

October. Every means had been taken to secure the impression of his

Majesty's saneness, but they failed, and the contrary impression was

confirmed. Still, the king returned to Windsor, and the endeavours

were strenuously maintained by the queen to conceal the melancholy

fact from the public; but this was too positive to be long suppressed.

On the 5th of November he met his son, the Duke of York, after he had

been riding about Windsor Forest for five hours in a state of frenzy,

and, bursting into tears, wished that he was dead, for that he felt he

should go mad. No doubt he remembered his old sensations when he had a

short but sharp fit of lunacy in 1764. The time was hurrying on which

must reveal the whole truth; the prorogation of Parliament terminated

on the 20th of November; the House would meet, and the king would

not be able to attend and open the Session. Pitt was in a state of

indescribable anxiety, having no precedents to guide him.

The 20th of November arrived; the two Houses met, and Lord Camden

in the Peers, and Pitt in the Commons, were obliged to announce

the incapacity of the king to open the Session, and to move for an

adjournment till the 4th of December, in order that the necessary

measures for transferring the royal authority, temporarily, might be

taken. Fox, at this important crisis, was abroad, and had to hurry

home with headlong speed, in order to join his party in their anxious

deliberations preparatory to the great question of the regency. In the

meantime, the king's physicians had been examined before the Privy

Council, and had given their opinion that the royal malady would prove

only temporary. This in particular was the opinion of Dr. Willis, a

specialist who had the chief management of the case, and whose mild

treatment, in contrast to the violent means previously employed, had

already produced a marked improvement. From this moment Pitt appears

to have taken his decision--namely, to carry matters with a high hand,

and to admit the Prince of Wales as regent only under such restrictions

as should prevent him from either exercising much power himself, or

conferring much benefit on his adherents. When, therefore, Parliament

met, after the adjournment, and that in great strength--for men of

all parties had hurried up to town,--Lord Camden moved in the Lords,

and Pitt in the Commons, that, in consequence of the king's malady,

the minutes of the Privy Council containing the opinions of the royal

physicians should be read, and that this being done, these opinions

should be taken into consideration on the 8th of December.

This being done, Mr. Vyner suggested that the physicians should

rather be examined by the House itself, a proposal supported by

Fox. Pitt replied that this was a matter requiring much delicacy,

and that the opinions of the physicians before the Council being on

oath, he imagined that they had greater force than any given before

Parliament, where they would not be on oath. But, during the four

days' adjournment, he had ascertained, to his satisfaction, that the

majority of the physicians were of opinion that the king would pretty

soon recover, and that especially Dr. Willis was of this opinion, under

whose more immediate care he was; and no sooner did the Commons meet,

than Pitt most judiciously acquiesced in the suggestions of Vyner and

Fox; and the physicians were examined by a committee of twenty-one

members, of which he himself was chairman. On the 16th of December Pitt

brought up the report of the committee, in which a majority of the

physicians had expressed the opinion that the malady of the king would

not be of long duration; and he then moved for another committee to

search for precedents as to the power to be exercised by a regent. Fox

declared that Pitt knew very well that there were no precedents to be

found while there existed an Heir Apparent, at the time, of full age

and capacity; that he was seeking only the means of delaying what ought

to be done at once; that the failure of the mind of the sovereign was

a case of natural demise, and that the Heir Apparent succeeded to the

exercise of the royal authority from the period of that failure, as a

matter of course; that the Parliament had, indeed, the authority to

decide that such failure had actually taken place, and to sanction the

assumption of the powers of regency, as the other two Estates of the

realm, but nothing more. When Fox made this astounding assertion, Pitt

slapped his thigh and exclaimed to a colleague sitting near him, "I'll

_unwhig_ the gentleman for the rest of his life."

He immediately made use of the opportunity with great skill. In his

reply he urged that Fox was announcing a doctrine destructive of the

Constitution; that he was denying the right by which Parliament had

placed the present family on the throne, and he asserted that the

Prince of Wales had no more natural right to assume the regency than

any other individual. This led to the severest censures of the Premier

by Burke, who declared that Pitt was making himself a dictator, and

changing the succession to the regal power in England from hereditary

to elective. The same doctrine was announced and combated in the Lords;

but there, though Thurlow was silent, waiting to see how matters would

go before he hazarded an opinion, Loughborough boldly supported Fox's

doctrine, and declared that had the derangement of the king taken place

during the non-existence of Parliament, the prince undoubtedly would

have been warranted in issuing writs and summoning one. On the 15th of

December the Duke of York and his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, both

spoke on the question, expressing their sense of the inexpediency of

pressing the delicate question of right, and stating that Parliament

could proceed to invest the Prince of Wales with the powers of the

regency without waiting, as they certainly could not appoint any

one else. Thurlow had by this time found that he had no chance with

the Whigs, and he now, with unblushing assurance, took the part of

Pitt, though every one knew why he had been hanging back till this

moment. He declared that he could not see how Parliament could avoid

coming to some conclusion on the question of right, seeing that it

had been raised. At the same time, he made a most pretendedly pious

defence of the rights of the king against the prince and the Whigs,

exclaiming--"When I forget my king, may God forget me!" John Wilkes,

who was standing in a knot of spectators near the throne, and within

a few feet of Thurlow, expressed his disgust at this duplicity in his

characteristically vigorous fashion.

Pitt, in a series of motions and violent debates on them--which did

not terminate till the 23rd of January, 1789--not only carried his

point, that Parliament should assert the whole right of appointing a

regent, but he contrived to tie down the prince completely. On the 16th

of December Pitt moved three resolutions--the third and most material

of which was, that it was necessary that both Houses should, for the

maintenance of the constitutional authority of the king, determine the

means by which the royal assent might be given to an Act of Parliament

for delegating the royal authority during the king's indisposition.

After most determined opposition by the Whigs, he carried the whole of

these resolutions, and it was then moved that the proper mode of doing

this was to employ the Great Seal just as if the king were in the full

exercise of his faculties. To prepare the way for this doctrine, the

lawyers in Pitt's party had declared that there was a broad distinction

between the political and the natural capacity of the king; that, as

the king could do no wrong, so he could not go politically, though he

might go naturally, mad; that therefore the king, in his political

capacity, was now as fully in power and entity as ever, and therefore

the Great Seal could be used for him as validly as at any other time.

In vain did Burke exclaim that it was "a phantom," "a fiction of

law," "a mere mummery, a piece of masquerade buffoonery, formed to

burlesque every species of government." In the midst of the debate

Mr. Rushworth, the young member for Newport, in Hampshire, standing

on the floor of the House, exclaimed, in a loud and startling tone,

"I desire that gentlemen of more age and experience than myself will

refer to the glorious reign of George II. Let them recall to their

memory the year 1745. Suppose that great and good king had lain under a

similar affliction of madness at that period, where are the men, much

less a Minister, that would have dared to come down to that House, and

boldly, in the face of the world, say that the Prince of Wales had no

more right to the regency than any other subject? The man or Minister

who could have dared to utter such language must henceforward shelter

in some other place than in the House of Commons, and in some other

country than England!" The Prince of Wales, by letter, complained of

the want of respect shown to him, but Pitt carried the resolution

regarding the Great Seal, that it should be appended to a commission

for opening Parliament, it now occupying the position of a convention,

and that the commission should then affix the royal assent to the

Bill for the regency. This done, he consented to the demand for the

appearance of the physicians again before proceeding with the Bill, and

the physicians having expressed hopes of the king's speedy recovery,

on the 16th of January Pitt moved the following resolutions:--That the

Prince of Wales should be invested with the royal authority, subject,

however, to these restrictions, namely, that he should create no peers;

that he should grant no place or pension for life, or in reversion,

except such place as in its nature must be held for life, or during

good behaviour; that the prince should have no power over the personal

property of the king, nor over the king's person or household; that

these two latter powers should be entrusted to the queen, a council

being appointed to assist her in these duties by their advice, but

subject to her dismissal, and without any power of alienation of

any part of the property. The bad character of the prince, combined

with the rumours of his indecent jests at the expense of his unhappy

parents, rendered the restrictions universally popular.

[Illustration: CARLTON HOUSE, LONDON (1780).]

These resolutions being carried, it then became a question whether the

prince would accept this restricted regency. Burke had warned the House

that perhaps, after all, the prince would not accept such a shadow of

his own natural powers, and he warned them likewise that the British

Parliament might find itself electing the prince as regent, whilst the

Irish Parliament was nominating him as by right. But it would appear

that the Whigs were so anxious to seize on office, even under such

cramping restrictions, and to see Pitt dethroned, that they advised the

prince to accept. A joint committee of Lords and Commons waited on him

on the 30th of January, the anniversary of the execution of Charles

I., and another joint-committee the same day waited on the queen,

and the next day their answers, accepting their respective offices,

were communicated to Parliament. The prince, indeed, qualified his

acceptance by declaring that he did it only as a temporary arrangement,

and in the hope, notwithstanding the peculiar and unprecedented

circumstances, of preserving the interests of the king, the crown, and

the people.

A commission was then moved for, under the Great Seal, by Lord

Camden, and in this commission were included the names of the Prince

of Wales, the Dukes of York, Gloucester, and Cumberland. These royal

personages, however, declined to be named in it. With these remarkable

omissions, Camden's motion was passed, and the result was communicated

to the Commons, on which Pitt, on the 2nd of February, moved for the

concurrence of that House. This again brought up the question of the

prince's right. Lord North, who, though now blind, had mixed in these

debates with his usual moderation, and with a great display of good

sense, based on official experience, expressed his pleasure that the

prince had condescended to accept the regency, notwithstanding its

limitations. This prudence, he observed, had given the country an

agreeable surprise, considering the temptations to stand upon his

right, which must have produced inconceivable embarrassments. Pitt

could not resist the impulse to arise and again deny the right, and

observe that he believed those who had advocated that right were now

really ashamed of it. This immediately called up Burke, for Fox was

ill, and away at Bath, and he exclaimed, "I assert that the Prince

of Wales's right is clear as the sun, and that it is the duty of the

House to appoint him regent, with the full powers of sovereignty." He

asserted with equal warmth, that Ministers were about to purloin the

Great Seal, and commit an act of forgery. A stormy debate followed, in

which Burke's violence was met with moderation and dignity.

On the 3rd of February the Commons attended to hear the commission

read at the bar of the Lords, which was done by Earl Bathurst, in the

absence of Thurlow. On returning to their House now as an authorised

Parliament, the Commons read the Bill for the first time without a

division, but on the second reading, on the 6th of February, Burke

attacked it with unabated ferocity. He wanted to know how they were to

determine when the king was sane again. Who was to inform them of it?

Who was to certify it? He asserted the utter impossibility of adducing

proof whether a person who had been insane were perfectly recovered

or not. If this doctrine had been established, the regency must have

become permanent. But this mode of reasoning was too metaphysical for

the House of Commons; the debate passed on, and the Bill was committed.

The clause providing against the non-residence of the prince, and

against his marrying a papist, again brought up Mr. Rolle. He said that

he had given his assent to the appointment of the prince regent on the

assurance of his friends, that he was not married to a certain lady,

either in law or in fact; but that he had since read a famous pamphlet,

which affirmed that the facts were in opposition to those avowals.

This was a _brochure_ of Horne Tooke's, in the shape of a letter to a

friend, in which he declared his positive knowledge of the prince's

marriage with "the late Mrs. Fitzherbert," who, he contended, in spite

of the Marriage Act, was his lawful wife. Rolle was answered by Lord

North, who declared that the object of the pamphleteer was simply

to make mischief by throwing out assertions that he never meant to

prove, and Welbore Ellis called for the reading of the Royal Marriage

Act, and showed that no royal marriage could be valid without the

king's consent, and that, therefore, whatever was the case, all those

objections were a mere waste of words. Rolle did not press the question

to a division. The other clauses of the Bill raised much debate, but

were all passed, and on the 10th of February the council was appointed

to assist the queen in her charge, and Pitt named as members of it the

four principal officers of the household, the Lord Chamberlain, the

Lord Steward, the Master of the Horse, and the Groom of the Stole, with

the addition of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Chancellor Thurlow,

the Archbishop of York, and Lord Kenyon. The names of the Prince of

Wales, the Duke of York, several of the other princes, the Lord Mayor

of London, and the Speaker of the House of Commons, were all strongly

urged upon Parliament as persons who ought to be members of this

council, but they were, to a man, rejected by a majority of about fifty.

Pitt had not forgotten the difficulty started by Burke, as to the

recognition of the return to entire sanity of the king, and he now met

it by proposing that when five out of the eight councillors appointed

to assist the queen should declare the king's health restored, they

should notify this to the political servants of the regent, and

announce it in the _London Gazette_, as well as communicate it to the

Lord Mayor; that the king should then summon nine of his Privy Council,

who, sitting in council with him should be able to observe whether he

were perfectly restored or not; and if six of the nine agreed that he

was so, these six should sign a proclamation to that effect, on which

the regency should cease and determine. Various amendments on this

motion were made, but without effect, and it was carried. On the 12th

of April the Regency Bill finally passed the Commons, and was carried

up to the Lords, with the addition of a clause limiting the restriction

on the making of peers to three years.

Reports that the king was rapidly recovering now began to fly about

Court, daily gaining strength. The Whigs, impatient to seize on

office, were in a state of strange excitement; but to go in with the

prospect of being immediately dismissed by the king, did not accord

with the dignity of the leaders. On the other hand, there were so many

good things to be given away--one or two bishoprics, the office of

Chief Justice in Eyre, sundry commissions of Major-General, besides

expectations of promotions to the rank of Field-Marshal--that the

dependents of the party grew impatient. Neither the Whigs nor Pitt

knew well what to do. The Lords did not commit the Bill till the 17th,

when they made two important additions to it, namely, to place all the

palaces, parks, houses, and gardens of the king under the control of

the queen, and to give her the care of all the royal children under the

age of twenty-one. But, at that very crisis, the king was pronounced

convalescent. On the 19th, Lord Thurlow announced this, on the

certificate of the physicians; and it was declared by him that their

lordships could not, in these circumstances, proceed with the Bill,

but had better adjourn till Tuesday next. The Duke of York observed

that he should most gladly have corroborated the statement of the Lord

Chancellor, but could not, having called the day before at Kew, to

desire that he might see his father, but had not been permitted. The

House, however, adjourned, and on Tuesday, the 24th, Thurlow informed

it that he had seen his Majesty, had found him perfectly recovered, and

therefore he moved another adjournment to the Monday following, which

was agreed to.

On the very next day took place what Burke had foreseen. A deputation

from the two Irish Houses of Parliament arrived in London, with an

address to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, requesting him

to assume the regency as his right. Though the English Bill was now

certain to be abandoned, this address was presented on the 26th of

February, the day after the arrival, and was received by the prince

in a manner likely to mark his sense of his treatment by Pitt and his

party. The deputies were entertained at a splendid banquet; the walls

of the dining-room at Carlton House were adorned with Irish harps,

the shamrock, and other Irish emblems; the arms of Ireland, encircled

by a glory, blazed in the centre of the table, and the richest wines

flowed in torrents. But these banquetings had not been confined to

this more auspicious day. Whilst the great contest had been going on

in Parliament, dinners had been given on the Saturdays and Sundays of

every week at Carlton House, to which about thirty of the members of

both Houses had been invited, and at which the prince and the Duke of

York had presided. Besides these, the attractions and persuasive powers

of the great ladies on both sides had been enthusiastically called

into play. The fascinating Duchess of Devonshire, who, in 1784, had

so successfully canvassed for Charles James Fox in Westminster, had

now thrown open her house, and employed all her amiabilities to win

supporters to the prince's party. On the other hand, the more bold and

vigorous Duchess of Gordon had feasted, entreated, and almost commanded

adherence to Pitt, through whom it was said her husband had obtained

the Great Seal of Scotland, and his brother, Lord William Gordon, the

sinecure Rangerships of St. James's and Hyde Parks. The rivalries

of these parties had been carried on in the most public manner, by

caricatures, lampoons, ballads, and popular jests. Westminster was

pre-eminently Whig; but London, which had formerly been so democratic,

had become essentially loyal. The Coalition had given the first shock

to the popularity of the Whigs in the City, and the sympathy for the

calamity of the king, combined with disgust at the prince's levity and

heartlessness, had produced a wonderful degree of loyalty there.

[Illustration: WILLIAM PITT. (_After the Portrait by John Hoppner,

R.A._)]

Both Houses adjourned, by successive motions, to the 10th of March;

they then met, and were informed by the Lord Chancellor that, by

the blessing of Providence, his Majesty being recovered from his

severe indisposition, and able to attend to the public affairs of

his kingdom, had issued a commission authorising the holding and

continuing of Parliament; and the commission having been read, the

Chancellor declared himself commanded to convey to them his Majesty's

warmest acknowledgments for the additional proofs they had given of

their attachment to his person. Addresses were then moved, as at the

commencement of a Session, by both Houses, and also addresses of

congratulation to her Majesty the queen; and the same evening the

capital was illuminated, and the most sincere joy was evidenced in

the happy event of the royal convalescence. On the 8th of April Pitt

informed the House that the king had appointed Thursday, the 23rd

of that month, as a day of public thanksgiving for his recovery,

and that it was his Majesty's intention to go in procession to St.

Paul's Cathedral on that day, to return thanks to Almighty God. The

House voted thanks for his Majesty's having taken measures for their

accommodation on the occasion, and passed a resolution to attend.

On the appointed day the two Houses of Parliament, the officers of

State, the judges, all in their robes of state, the queen, and princes

and princesses, attended the king on this solemn occasion. The streets

were crowded with the inhabitants; the Lord Bishop of London, and the

Dean and Canons of St. Paul's received him at the door. His entrance

was announced by the sound of martial music from military bands on the

outside, and the roar of the organs and the voices of five thousand

children of the City charity schools inside, singing the Hundredth

psalm. On walking across the area, under the great dome, the king was

deeply affected, and observed to the Bishop of London and the Dean of

St. Paul's, "I now feel that I have been ill." After the singing of

the Te Deum, and the firing of the Tower and Park guns, the procession

returned to St. James's as it had come. The popularity of the king was

unbounded, and so was that of the great Minister who had stood by him

in the hour of his adversity. Pitt was now at the zenith of his career.