cepted, that Mr. Wheler was coming out immediately, and that, till Mr. Wheler arrived, the chair was to be filled by Clavering. Had Monson been still alive, Hastings would probably have retired without a struggle; but he was now the real master of British India, and he was not disposed to quit his high place. He asserted that he had never given any instructions which could warrant the steps which had been taken. What his instructions had been, he owned he had forgotten. If he had kept a copy of them he had mislaid it. But he was certain that he had repeatedly declared to the Directors that he would not resign. He could not see how the court, possessed of that declaration from himself, could receive his resignation from the doubt ful bands of an agent. If the resignation were invalid, all the proceedings which were founded on that resignation were null, and Hastings was still governor-general. the He afterwards affirmed that, though his agents had not acted in conformity with his instructions, he would nevertheless have held himself bound by their acts, if Clavering had not attempted to seize the supreme power by violence. Whether this assertion were or were not true, it cannot be doubted that the imprudence of Clavering gave Hastings an advantage. The general sent for the keys of the fort and treasury, took possession of the records, and held a council at which Francis attended. Hastings took the chair in another apartment, and Barwell sat with him. Each of the two parties had a plausible show of right. There was no authority entitled to their obedience within fifteen thousand miles. It seemed that there remained no way of settling the dispute except an appeal to arms; and from such an appeal Hastings, confident of his influence over his countrymen in India, was not inclined to shrink. He directed the officers of the garrison of Fort William, and of all the neighbouring stations to obey no orders but his. At the same time, with admirable judgment, he offered to submit the case to the Supreme Court, and to abide by its decision. By making this proposition he risked nothing; yet it was a proposition which his opponents could hardly reject. Nobody could be treated as a criminal, for obeying what the judges had solemnly pronounced to be the lawful government. The boldest man would shrink from taking arms in defence of what the judges should pronounce to be usurpation. Clavering and Francis, after some delay, unwillingly consented to abide by the award of the court. The court pronounced that the resignation was invalid, and that therefore Hastings was still governor-general under the Regulating Act; and the defeated members of the council, finding that the sense of the whole settlement was against them, acquiesced in the decision. About this time arrived the news that, after a suit which had lasted several years, the Franconian courts had decreed a divorce between Imhoff and his wife. The baron left Calcutta, carrying with him the means of buying an estate in Saxony. The lady became Mrs. Hastings. The event was celebrated by great festivities; and all the most conspicuous persons at Calcutta, without distinction of parties, were invited to the government-house. Clavering, as the Mahommedan chronicler tells the story, was sick in mind and body, and excused himself from joining the splendid assembly. But Hastings, whom, as it should seem, success in ambition and in love had put into high good humour, would take no denial. He went himself to the general's house, and at length brought his vanquished rival in tri umph to the gay circle which surrounded the bride. The exertion was too much for a frame broken by mortification as well as by disease-Clavering died a few days later. Wheler, who came out expecting to be governorgeneral, and was forced to content himself with a seat at the council board, generally voted with Francis. But the governor-general, with Barwell's help and his own casting vote, was still the master. Some change took place at this time in the feeling both of the Court of Directors and of the Ministers of the Crown. All designs against Hastings were dropped; and when his original term of five years expired, he was quietly re-appointed. The truth is, that the fearful dangers to which the public interests in every quarter were now exposed, made both Lord North and the Company unwilling to part with a governor whose talents, experience, and resolution, enmity itself was compelled to acknowledge. The crisis was indeed formidable. The great and victorious empire, on the throne of which George the Third had taken his seat eighteen years before, with brighter hopes than had attended the accession of any of the long line of English sovereigns, had, by the most senseless misgovernment, been brought to the verge of ruin. In America millions of Englishmen were at war with the country from which their blood, their language, their religion, and their institutions were derived; and to which, but a short time before, they had been as strongly attached as the inhabitants of Norfolk and Leicestershire. The great powers of Europe, humbled to the dust by the vigour and genius which had guided the councils of George the Second, now rejoiced in the prospect of a signal revenge. The time was approaching when our island, while struggling to keep down the United States of America, and pressed with a still nearer danger by the too just discontents of Ireland, was to be assailed by France, Spain, and Holland, and to be threatened by the armed neutrality of the Baltic; when even our maritime supremacy was to be in jeopardy; when hostile fleets were to command the Straits of Calpe and the Mexican Sea; when the British flag was to be scarcely able to protect the British Channel. Great as were the faults of Hastings, it was happy for our country that at that conjuncture, the most terrible through which she has ever passed, he was the ruler of her Indian dominions. An attack by sea on Bengal was little to be apprehended. The danger was, that the European enemies of England might form an alliance with some native power-might furnish that power with troops, arms, and ammunition-and might thus assail our possessions on the side of the land. It was chiefly from the Mahrattas that Hastings anticipated danger. The original seat of that singular people was the wild range of hills which runs along the western coast of India. In the reign of Aurungzebe the inhabitants of those regions, led by the great Sevajee, began to descend on the possessions of their wealthier and less warlike neighbours. The energy, ferocity, and cunning of the Mahrattas, soon made them the most conspicuous among the new powers which were generated by the corruption of the decaying monarchy. At first they were only robbers. They soon rose to the dignity of conquerors. Half the provinces of the empire were turned into Mahratta principalities. Freebooters, sprung from low castes, and accustomed to menial employments, became mighty Rajahs. The Bonslas, at the head of a band of plunderers, occupied the vast region of Berar. The Guicowar, which is, being interpreted, the Herdsman, founded that dynasty which still reigns in Guzerat. The houses of Scindia and Holkar waxed great in Malwa. One adventurous captain made his nest on the impregnable rock of Gooti. Another became the lord of the thousand villages which are scattered among the green rice-fields of Tanjore. That was the time, throughout India, of double government. The form and the power were every where separated. The Mussulman nabobs, who had become sovereign princes-the Vizier in Oude, and the Nizam at Hydrabad-still called themselves the viceroys of the house of Tamerlane. In the same manner the Mahratta states, though really independent, pretended to be members of one empire; and acknowledged, by words and ceremonies, the supremacy of the heir of Sevajee-a roi faineant who chewed bang, and toyed with dancing girls, in a state-prison at Sattara-and of his Peshwa or mayor of the palace, a great hereditary magistrate, who kept a court with kingly state at Poonah, and whose authority was obeyed in the spacious provinces of Aurungabad and Bejapoor. Some months before war was declared in Europe, the government of Bengal was alarmed by the news that a French adventurer, who passed for a man of quality, had arrived at Poonah. It was said that he had been received there with great distinction-that he had delivered to the Peshwa letters and presents from Louis the Sixteenth, and that a treaty, hostile to England, had been concluded between France and the Mahrattas. Hastings immediately resolved to strike the first blow The title of the Peshwa was not undisputed. A portion of the Mahratta nation was favourable to a pretender. The governor-general determined to espouse this pretender's interest, to move an army across the peninsula of India, and to form a close alliance with the chief of the house of Bonsla, who ruled Berar, and who, in power and dignity, was inferior to none of the Mahratta princes. plans respecting the Mahratta empire would have been carried into complete effect. The authorities in England had wisely sent out to Bengal, as commander of the forces, and member of the council, one of the most distinguished soldiers of that time. Sir Eyre Coote had, many years before, been conspicuous among the founders of the British empire in the East. At the council of war which preceded the battle of Plassey, he earnestly recommended, in opposition to the majority, that daring course which, after some hesitation, was adopted, and which was crowned with such splendid success. He subsequently commanded in the south of India, against the brave and unfortunate Lally, gained the decisive battle of Wandewash over the French and their native allies, took Pondicherry, and made the English power supreme in the Carnatic. Since those great exploits near twenty years had elapsed. Coote had no longer the bodily activity which he had shown in earlier days; nor was the vigour of his mind altogether unimpaired. He was capricious and fretful, and required much coaxing to keep him in good humour. It must, we fear, be added, that the love of money had grown upon him, and that he thought more about his allowances, and less about his duties, than might have been expected from so eminent a member of so noble a profession. Still he was perhaps the ablest officer that was then to be found in the British army. Among the native soldiers his name was great, and his influence unrivalled. Nor is he yet forgotten by them. Now and then a white-bearded old sepoy may still be found, who loves to talk of Porto Novo and Pollidore. It is but a short time since one of those aged men came to present a memorial to an English officer, who holds one of the highest employments in India; a print of Coote hung in the room; the veteran recog nised at once that face and figure which he had not seen for more than half a century, and, forgetting his salam to the living, halted, drew himself up, lifted his hand, and with solemn reverence paid his military obeisance to the dead. Coote did not, like Barwell, vote constantly with the governor-general; but he was by no means inclined to join in systematic opposition; and on most questions concurring with Hastings, who did his best, by assiduous courtship, and by readily granting the most exorbitant allowances, to gratify the strongest passions of the old soldier. The army had marched, and the negotiations with Berar were in progress, when a letter from the English consul at Cairo, brought the news that war had been proclaimed both in London and Paris. All the measures which the crisis required, were adopted by Hastings without a moment of delay. The French factories in Bengal were seized. Orders were sent to Madras that Pondicherry should instantly be occupied. Near Calcutta, works were thrown up, It seemed likely at this time that a general reconwhich were thought to render the approach of a hos-ciliation would put an end to the quarrels which had, tile force impossible. A maritime establishment was during some years, weakened and disgraced the goformed for the defence of the river. Nine new bat- vernment of Bengal. The dangers of the empire talions of sepoys were raised, and a corps of native might well induce men of patriotic feeling-and of artillery was formed out of the hardy Lascars of the patriotic feeling, neither Hastings nor Francis was Bay of Bengal. Having made these arrangements, destitute-to forget private enmities, and to co-opethe governor-general with calm confidence pronounced rate heartily for the general good. Coote had never his presidency secure from all attack, unless the been concerned in faction. Wheler was thoroughly Mahrattas should march against it in conjunction tired of it. Barwell had made an ample fortune, with the French. and though he had promised that he would not leave The expedition which Hastings had sent west- Calcutta while Hastings wanted his help, was most ward, was not so speedily or completely successful desirous to return to England, and exerted himself to as most of his undertakings. The commanding-of-promote an arrangement which would set him at ficer procrastinated. The authorities at Bombay liberty. A compact was made, by which Francis blundered. But the governor-general persevered. agreed to desist from opposition, and Hastings enA new commander repaired the errors of his prede-gaged that the friends of Francis should be admitted cessor. Several brilliant actions spread the military to a fair share of the honours and emoluments of the renown of the English through regions where no service. During a few months after this treaty there European flag had ever been seen. It is probable was apparent harmony at the council-board. that, if a new and more formidable danger had not Harmony, indeed, was never more necessary; for compelled Hastings to change his whole policy, his at this moment, internal calamities, more formidable than war itself, menaced Bengal. The authors of most shrinking delicacy, to horsewhip a general offithe Regulating Act of 1773, had established two in- cer, to put a bishop in the stocks, to treat ladies in dependent powers, the one judicial, the other politi- the way which called forth the blow of Wat Tyler. cal and, with a carelessness scandalously common Something like this was the effect of the attempt in English legislation, had omitted to define the which the Supreme Court made to extend its jurislimits of either. The judges took advantage of the diction over the whole of the Company's territory. indistinctness, and attempted to draw to themselves A reign of terror began-of terror heightened by supreme authority, not only within Calcutta, but mystery; for even that which was endured was less through the whole of the great territory subject to the horrible than that which was anticipated. No man presidency of Fort William. There are few English- knew what was next to be expected from this strange men who will not admit that the English law, in tribunal. It came from beyond the black water, as spite of modern improvements, is neither so cheap the people of India, with mysterious horror, call the nor so speedy as might be wished. Still, it is a sea. It consisted of judges not one of whom spoke system which has grown up amongst us. In some the language, or was familiar with the usages, of the points it has been fashioned to suit our feelings; in millions over whom they claimed boundless authoothers, it has gradually fashioned our feelings to suit rity. Its records were kept in unknown characters; itself. Even to its worst evils we are accustomed; its sentences were pronounced in unknown sounds. and therefore, though we may complain of them, It had already collected round itself an army of the they do not strike us with the horror and dismay worst part of the native population-informers, and which would be produced by a new grievance of false witnesses, and common barrators, and agents smaller severity. In India the case is widely differ- of chicane; and, above all, a banditti of bailiffs' eat. English law, transplanted to that country, has followers, compared with whom the retainers of the all the vices from which we suffer here; it has them worst English sponging-houses, in the worst times, all in a far higher degree; and it has other vices, might be considered as upright and tender-hearted. compared with which the worst vices from which we Numbers of natives, highly considered among their suffer are trifles. Dilatory here, it is far more dila- countrymen, were seized, hurried up to Calcutta, tory in a land where the help of an interpreter is flung into the common jail-not for any crime even needed by every judge, and by every advocate. Cost-imputed, not for any debt that had been proved, but ly here, it is far more costly in a land into which the merely as a precaution till their cause should come legal practitioners must be imported from an im- to trial. There were instances in which men of the mense distance. All English labour in India, from most venerable dignity, persecuted without a cause the labour of the governor-general and the com- by extortioners died of rage and shame in the gripe mander-in-chief, down to that of a groom or a watch- of the vile alguazils of Impey. The harams of nomaker, must be paid for at a higher rate than at ble Mahommedans-sanctuaries respected in the home. No man will be banished, and banished to East by governments which respected nothing else the torrid zone, for nothing. The rule holds good -were burst open by gangs of bailiffs. The Mus with respect to the legal profession. No English sulmans, braver and less accustomed to submission barrister will work, fifteen thousand miles from all than the Hindoos, sometimes stood on their defence; his friends, with the thermometer at ninety-six in the and there were instances in which they shed their shade, for the same emoluments which will content blood in the doorway, while defending, sword in him in chambers that overlook the Thames. Accord-hand, the sacred apartments of their women. Nay, ingly, the fees in Calcutta are about three times as great as the fees of Westminster Hall; and this, though the people of India are, beyond all comparison, poorer than the people of England. Yet the delay and the expense, grievous as they are, form the smallest part of the evil which English law, imported without modifications into India, could not fail to produce. The strongest feelings of our nature, hohour, religion, female modesty, rose up against the innovation. Arrest on mesne process was the first step in most civil proceedings; and to a native of rank, arrest was not merely a restraint, but a foul personal indignity. Oaths were required in every stage of every suit; and the feeling of a quaker about an oath is hardly stronger than that of a respectable native. That the apartments of a woman of quality should be entered by strange men, or that her face should be seen by them, are, in the East, intolerable outrages-outrages which are more dreaded than death, and which can be expiated only by the shedding of blood. To these outrages the most distinguished families of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, were now exposed. Imagine what the state of our own country would be, if a jurisprudence were, on a sudden, introduced amongst us, which should be to us, what our jurisprudence was to our Asiatic subjects. Imagine what the state of our country would be, if it were enacted that any man, by merely swearing that a debt was due to him, should acquire a right to insult the persons of men of the most honourable and sacred callings, and of women of the JANUARY, 1842.-MUSEUM. 4 it seemed as if even the faint-hearted Bengalee, who had crouched at the feet of Surajah Dowlah, who had been mute during the administration of Vansittart, would at length find, courage in despair. No Mahratta invasion had ever spread through the province such dismay as this inroad of English lawyers. All the injustice of former oppressors, Asiatic and European, appeared as a blessing when compared with the justice of the Supreme Court. Every class of the population, English and native, with the exception of the ravenous pettifoggers who fattened on the misery and terror of an immense community, cried out loudly against this fearful oppression. But the judges were immovable. If a bailiff was resisted, they ordered the soldiers to be called out. If a servant of the Company, in conformity with the orders of the government, withstood the miserable catchpoles who, with Impey's writs in their hands, exceeded the insolence and rapacity of gang-robbers, he was flung into prison for a contempt. The lapse of sixty years-the virtue and wisdom of many eminent magistrates, who have during that time administered justice in the Supreme Courthave not effaced from the minds of the people of Bengal the recollection of those evil days. The members of the government were, on this sub ject, united as one man. Hastings had courted the judges; he had found them useful instruments. But he was not disposed to make them his own masters, or the masters of India. His mind was large; his knowledge of the native character most accurate. He saw that the system pursued by the Supreme Court was degrading to the government, and ruinous to the people; and he resolved to oppose it manfully. The consequence was, that the friendship-if that be the proper word for such a connexion-which had existed between him and Impey, was for a time completely dissolved. The government placed itself firmly between the tyrannical tribunal and the people. The chief justice proceeded to the wildest excesses. The governor-general and all the members of council were served with summonses, calling on them to appear before the King's justices, and to answer for their public acts. This was too much. Hastings, with just scorn, refused to obey the call, set at liberty the persons wrongfully detained by the court, and took measures for resisting the outrageous proceedings of the sheriff's officers, if necessary, by the sword. But he had in view another device, which might prevent the necessity of an appeal to arms. He was seldom at a loss for an expedient; and he knew Impey well. The expedient, in this case, was a very simple one--neither more nor less than a bribe. Impey was, by act of parliament, a judge, independent of the government of Bengal, and entitled to a salary of L.8000 a-year. Hastings proposed to make him also a judge in the Company's service, removable at the pleasure of the government of Bengal; and to give him, in that capacity, about L.8000 a-year more. It was understood that, in consideration of this new salary, Impey would desist from urging the high pretensions of his court. If he did urge these pretensions, the government could, at a moment's notice, eject him from the new place which had been created for him. The bargain was struck, Bengal was saved, an appeal to force was averted; and the chief justice was rich, quiet, and infamous. Of Impey's conduct it is unnecessary to speak. It was of a piece with almost every part of his conduct that comes under the notice of history. No other such judge has dishonoured the English ermine, since Jefferies drank himself to death in the Tower. But we cannot agree with those who have blamed Hastings for this transaction. The case stood thus. The negligent manner in which the Regulating Act had been framed, put it in the power of the chief justice to throw a great country into the most dreadful confusion. He was determined to use his power to the utmost, unless he was paid to be still; and Hastings consented to pay him. The necessity was to be deplored. It is also to be deplored that pirates should be able to exact ransom, by threatening to make their captives walk the plank. But to ransom a captive from pirates, has always been held a humane and Christian act; and it would be absurd to charge the payer of the ransom with corrupting the virtue of the corsair. This, we seriously think, is a not unfair illustration of the relative position of Impey, Hastings, and the people of India. Whether it was right in Impey to demand or to accept a price for powers which, if they really belonged to him, he could not abdicate-which, if they did not belong to him, he ought never to have usurped-and which in neither case he could honestly sell-is one question. It is quite another question, whether Hastings was not right to give any sum, however large, to any man, however worthless, rather than either surrender millions of human beings to pillage, or rescue them by civil war. with resentment, it might seem better to leave Bengal to the oppressors, than to redeem it by enriching them. It is not improbable, on the other hand, that Hastings may have been the more willing to resort to an expedient agreeable to the chief justice, because that high functionary had already been so serviceable, and might, when existing dissensions were composed, be serviceable again. But it was not on this point alone that Francis was now opposed to Hastings. The peace between them proved to be only a short and hollow truce, during which their mutual aversion was constantly becoming stronger. At length an explosion took place. Hastings publicly charged Francis with having deceived him, and induced Barwell to quit the service by insincere promises. Then came a dispute, such as frequently arises even between honourable men, when they make important agreements by mere verbal communication. An impartial historian will probably be of opinion that they had misunderstood each other; but their minds were so much embittered, that they imputed to each other nothing less than deliberate villainy. I do not,' said Hastings, in a minute recorded in the Consultations of the Government- I do not trust to Mr. Francis's promises of candour, convinced that he is incapable of it. I judge of his public conduct by his private, which I have found to be void of truth and honour." After the council had risen, Francis put a challenge into the governor-general's hand: it was instantly accepted. They met, and fired. Francis was shot through the body. He was carried to a neighbouring house, where it appeared that the wound, though severe, was not mortal. Hastings inquired repeatedly after his enemy's health, and proposed to call on him; but Francis coldly declined the visit. had a proper sense, he said, of the governor-general's politeness, but must decline any private interview. They could meet only at the council-board. He In a very short time it was made signally manifest to how great a danger the governor-general had, on this occasion, exposed his country. A erisis arrived with which he, and he alone, was competent to deal. It is not too much to say, that, if he had been taken from the head of affairs, the years 1780 and 1781 would have been as fatal to our power in Asia as to our power in America. The Mahrattas had been the chief object of apprehension to Hastings. The measures of which he had adopted for the purpose of breaking their power, had at first been frustrated by the errors of those whom he was compelled to employ; but his perseverance and ability seemed likely to be crowned with sucess, when a far more formidable danger showed itself in a distant quarter. About thirty years before this time, a Mahommedan soldier had begun to distinguish himself in the wars of Southern India. His education had been neglected; his extraction was mean. His father had been a petty officer of revenue; his grandfather a wandering Dervise. But although thus meanly descendedthough ignorant even of the alphabet-the adventurer had no sooner been placed at the head of a body of troops, than he approved himself a man born for conquest and command. Among the crowd of chiefs who were struggling for a share of India, none could compare with him in the qualities of the captain and the statesman. He became a general-he became a Francis strongly opposed this arrangement. It prince. Out of the fragments of old principalities, may, indeed, be suspected that personal aversion to which had gone to pieces in the general wreck, he Impey was as strong a motive with Francis as regard formed for himself a great, compact, and vigorous emfor the welfare of the province. To a mind burning pire. That empire he ruled with the ability, severity, and vigilance of Louis the Eleventh. Licentious in his pleasures, implacable in his revenge, he had yet enlargement of mind enough to perceive how much the prosperity of subjects adds to the strength of governments. He was an oppressor; but he had at least the merit of protecting his people against all oppression except his own. He was now in extreme old age; but his intellect was as clear, and his spirit as high, as in the prime of manhood. Such was the great Hyder Ali, the founder of the Mahommedan kingdom of Mysore, and the most formidable enemy with whom the English conquerors of India, have ever had to contend. Had Hastings been governor of Madras, Hyder would have been either made a friend, or vigorously encountered as an enemy. Unhappily the English authorities in the south provoked their powerful neighbour's hostility, without being prepared to repel it. On a sudden, an army of ninety thousand men, far superior in discipline and efficiency to any other native force that could be found in India, came pouring through those wild passes, which, worn by mountain torrents, and dark with jungle, lead down from the table-land of Mysore to the plains of the Carnatic. This great army was accompanied by a hundred pieces of cannon; and its movements were guided by many French officers, trained in the best military schools of Europe. brought the evil tidings in few days to Calcutta. In twenty-four hours the governor-general had framed a complete plan of policy adapted to the altered state of affairs. The struggle with Hyder was a struggle for life and death. All minor objects must be sacrificed to the preservation of the Carnatic. The disputes with the Mahrattas must be accommodated. A large military force and a supply of money must be instantly sent to Madras. But even these measures would be insufficient, unless the war, hitherto so grossly mismanaged, were placed under the direction of a vigorous mind. It was no time for trifling. Hastings determined to resort to an extreme exercise of power; to suspend the incapable governor of Fort St. George, to send Sir Eyre Coote to oppose Hyder, and to entrust that distinguished general with the whole administration of the war. In spite of the sullen opposition of Francis, who had now recovered from his wound, and had returned to the council, the governor-general's wise and firm policy was approved by the majority of the board. The reinforcements were sent off with great expedition, and reached Madras before the French armament arrived in the Indian seas. Coote, broken by age and disease, was no longer the Coote of Wandewash; but he was still a resolute and skilful commander. The progress of Hyder was arrested; and in a few months the great victory of Porto Novo retrieved the honour of the English arms. In the mean time Francis had returned to England, and Hastings was now left perfectly unfettered. Wheler had gradually been relaxing in his opposition; and, after the departure of his vehement and implacable colleague, co-operated heartily with the governor-general; whose influence over his countrymen in India, always great, had, by the vigour and success of his recent measures, been considerably increased. Hyder was every where triumphant. The sepoys in many British garrisons flung down their arms. Some forts were surrendered by treachery, and some by despair. In a few days the whole open country north of the Coleroon had submitted. The English inhabitants of Madras could already see by night, from the top of Mount St Thomas, the eastern sky reddened by a vast semi-circle of blazing villages. The white villas, embosomed in little groves of tuliptrees, to which our countrymen retire after the daily labours of government and of trade, when the cool But though the difficulties arising from factions evening breeze springs up from the bay, were now within the council were at an end, another class of left without inhabitants; for bands of the fierce horse- difficulties had become more pressing than ever. The men of Mysore had already been seen prowling near financial embarrassment was extreme. Hastings had those gay verandas. Even the town was not thought to find the means, not only of carrying on the gosecure, and the British merchants and public func-vernment of Bengal, but of maintaining a most costtionaries made haste to crowd themselves behind the cannon of Fort St George. ly war against both Indian and European enemies in the Carnatic, and of making remittances to England. A few years before this time he had obtained relief by plundering the Mogul, and enslaving the Rohillas; nor were the resources of his fruitful mind by any means exhausted. There were the means indeed of forming an army which might have defended the presidency, and even driven the invader back to his mountains. Sir Hector Munroe was at the head of one considerable force; Baillie was advancing with another. United, His first design was on Benares, a city which in they might have presented a formidable front even to wealth, population, dignity, and sanctity, was among such an enemy as Hyder. But the English com- the foremost of Asia. It was commonly believed that manders, neglecting those fundamental rules of the half a million of human beings was crowded into military art, of which the propriety is obvious even that labyrinth of loftly alleys, rich with shrines, and to men who have never received a military education, minarets, and balconies, and carved oriels, to which deferred their junction, and were separately attacked. the sacred apes clung by hundreds. The traveller Baillie's detachment was destroyed. Munroe was could scarcely make his way through the press of forced to abandon his baggage, to fling his guns into holy mendicants, and not less holy bulls. The broad the tanks, and to save himself by a retreat which and stately flights of steps which descended from might be called a flight. In three weeks from the these swarming haunts to the bathing-places along commencement of the war, the British empire in the Ganges, were worn every day by the footsteps southern India had been brought to the verge of ruin. of an innumerable multitude of worshippers. The Only a few fortified places remained to us. The schools and temples drew crowds of pious Hindoos glory of our arms had departed. It was known that from every province where the Brahminical faith a great French expedition might soon be expected on was known. Hundreds of devotees came thither the coast of Coromandel. England, beset by ene-every month to die for it was believed that a pecumies on every side, was in no condition to protect liarly happy fate awaited the man who should pass such remote dependencies. from the sacred city into the sacred river. Nor was Then it was that the fertile genius and serene cou-superstition the only motive which allured strangers rage of Hastings achieved their most signal triumph. to that great metropolis. Commerce had as many A swift ship, flying before the south-west monsoon, pilgrims as religion. All along the shores of the 4 |