above 2,000 fell on the field, and among them many sirdars (leaders). But what renders the victory most decisive is the death of Hafiz Rahmet, who was killed while rallying his people to battle. One of his sons was killed, one taken prisoner, and a third, returned from flight to-day, is in the hands of Sujah Dowlah. . I wish I could pay the vizier any compliment on this occasion, or that I were not under the indispensable necessity of expressing my highest indignation at his shameful pusillanimity-indispensable, I say, because it is necessary that the administration should clearly know how little to be depended on is this their ally. The night before the battle I applied to him for some particular pieces of cannon, which I thought might prove of great service in the action, but he declined giving the use of them. He promised solemnly to support me with all his force, and particularly engaged to be near at hand, with a large body of cavalry, to be used as I should direct. But, instead of being nigh, he remained beyond the Gurrah, on the ground on which I had left him in the morning, surrounded by his cavalry and a large train of artillery, and did not move thence till news of the enemy's defeat reached him." Thus the nabob, behaving as nabobs usually do, remained, like a coward, in safety till the victory was won, and then his unwarlike rabble rushed on to pillage the Rohilla camp; "while the Company's troops," adds Champion, "in regular order in their ranks, most justly observed: 'We have the honour of the day, and these banditti the profit." Both the nabob and the colonel (who was not indifferent to a little prize-money) complained of each other to Hastings, and in the rancour of their feelings, exaggerated each other's faults. Fyzoola Khan, with the remains of the army, and a considerable amount of treasure, made good his retreat to the mountains; but the defeat and death of the gallant Hafiz Rahmet decided the fate of his country, which was forthwith pillaged without mercy, while its unhappy people were subjected to every barbarity; and the Company's brigade, after winning the victory, had to remain quiet spectators of the awful use made of it, and " were," says Champion, "witnesses of scenes that cannot be described." to the tyranny of him to whom an English and a Christian government had, for shameful lucre, sold their substance and their blood, and the honour of their wives and daughters. Colonel Champion remonstrated with the nabob-vizier, and sent strong representations to Fort William; but the Governor had made no conditions as to the mode in which the war was to be carried on." In the sequel, many reports of the war, perhaps exaggerations, reached Europe through British channels-through Champion and his officers, who were alike incensed at, and disgusted with, the nabob; and Hastings soon felt, to his cost, the consequences of this over-colouring in the many pamphlets put forth by his enemies about this time. One narrative, published at London in 1781, affirms that 500,000 souls had been driven from Rohilcund across the Jumna; another account reduces this to 18,000 men, found with arms in their hands; but the Hindoos of the country, about 700,000 in number, experienced by the conquest nothing more than what they were always accustomed to-change of masters.* Champion described the misery of the people generally as "unparalleled," and the country as overspread with the flames of rapine; and the feeling became strong that the Bengal Presidency had no right to participate in this war, and sell their troops for money to a dastardly tyrant, by whom the finest population in India were subjected to every evil. Agriculture languished, commerce died, and under Sujah Dowlah, Rohilcund became the most miserable part of his wretched dominions. Before the Rohilla war was finished, Nujeef Khan, who commanded the army of the Mogul, Shah Alum, marched in to claim his share of the spoil. As Sujah Dowlah, who piqued himself upon his position as vizier, or prime minister, at the court of Delhi, felt it proper to act, in all matters, as if with the sanction of the emperor, yet he was not quite prepared to give that sham potentate a share of the conquered country; and Colonel Champion, to whom they referred, finding himself unable to decide between the two, referred them to the Governor and Council, who wriggled themselves out of the matter by a decision in the following terms : "It is our intention to persevere in pursuit of This affords a sufficient key-note for one of the object which originally engaged us in the Macaulay's eloquent passages, thus: "Then the horrors of Indian war were let loose on the fair valleys and cities of Rohilcund. The whole country was in a blaze. More than 100,000 people fled from their homes to pestilential jungles, preferring famine, fever, and the haunts of tigers, present enterprise, and to adhere strictly to our engagements with the vizier, without suffering our attention to be diverted by foreign incidents or occurrences." In other words, says a writer, their treaty with Sujah Dowlah was of a nature * Hamilton's "History of the Rohilla Afghans." *774.1 ADMINISTRATIVE SUCCESSES OF HASTINGS. 165 that did not permit them to be over-fastidious; Under these circumstances, Colonel Champion and, without inquiring whether it was consistent again advanced, a demonstration which quelled all with his other obligations to yield a portion of his disturbances, and finally established the authority conquest, they were determined to perform their of the nabob. The latter had been punctual in part to the very letter, and thereby establish an in- his monthly subsidies to the brigade, and had defeasible right to all they had stipulated in return. given an assignment on his treasury for fifteen After the defeat at Babul Nullah, Fyzoola Khan, lacs, due by the treaty of 1773, for the second a valiant Rohilla chief, took up a strong post near payment on account of the cession of Korah and the frontiers, at the head of all the fugitives and Allahabad. dispossessed, expecting that he would be joined After this, he and the Mogul having entered by other tribes of the great Afghan family, and into negotiations by which they satisfied, or, more also that the Mahrattas would betake them to likely, pretended to satisfy each other, Colonel horse and spear, a contingency, the fear of which Champion was directed by the Council to be induced the nabob to open secret negotiations present to watch all proceedings generally, but with him, an unexpected turn of affairs, which to abstain from committing the British to any new disgusted Colonel Champion and his brigade. engagements. This he did with equal faith and The latter were becoming worn out by long suspicion; for having been disposed to attribute and forced marches, short rations, and the total too much importance to the despicable intrigues absence of all prize-money, and now did not feel of Indian courts, he considered the allies of the themselves over - anxious, in such a despicable Company to be just as dangerous, if not more so, cause, to attack a bold and hardy enemy in a than their enemies. formidable position, amid rocky mountains, defended by trenches, stockades, and redoubts. A hurried treaty was concluded with Fyzoola Khan; he surrendered one-half of all he possessed to the Nabob of Oude, who condescendingly presented him with a jaghire, or estate, in Rohilcund. A few chiefs remained with him on the frontiers, but the majority, with their followers, quitted the land for ever, and went forth, with sword and lance, to seek elsewhere another home. Thus the Afghan race were nearly rooted out of Rohilcund. "Yet is the injured nation not extinct. At long intervals gleams of its ancient spirit have flashed forth; and even at this day, valour and self-respect, and a bitter remembrance of the great crime of England, distinguish that noble Afghan race." The war being nearly over, the vizier intimated to Colonel Champion, in the month of May, that he had no further occasion for the services of the troops in the field before the rains, so preparations were made for cantoning them at Bareilly; the nabob having now acquired the whole territory lately possessed by Hafiz Rahmet, with Ouly and Bessauly.* All this had barely been adjusted, according to the writer just quoted, when the brigade was called again into the field by intelligence that matters had been accommodated between the Mahratta chiefs. The nabob was, therefore, anxious to complete the total subjugation of the whole country, by which any designs of the Mahrattas and the Mogul -who had taken into his service the infamous Sumroo, the assassin of Patna-might be frustrated. Auber's "British Power in India." Peace was now established, and whatever may be said of the political morality of the Governor, the financial results did him honour. In less than two years after he took the chair, he had, without adding to the burdens of the people, given £450,000 to the annual income of the Company, besides procuring a million in ready money. He had also relieved Bengal from military expenditure, amounting to a quarter of a million a year, by throwing that charge on the Nabob of Oude; and "there can be no doubt, that this was a result which, if it had been obtained by honest means, would have entitled him to the warmest gratitude of his country; and which, by whatever means obtained, proved that he possessed great talents for administration." On the 11th of May, 1774, a measure, abolishing the right to buy and sell slaves who had not been previously known as such, was carried into effect. The object was to prevent child-stealing for the purposes of slavery—a practice which the Dutch and French, but more particularly the latter, had greatly encouraged. The suppression of those savage robbers, known as Dacoits, offered many difficulties; but the Governor, by his skill and perseverance, achieved it, greatly to the relief of the people and Government. In the year 1774, Mr. Halkhead, of the civil service, made an English translation of the Mohammedan and Hindoo Codes of Law. It was published in March the following year, and dedicated to Governor Hastings, to whom the translator attributed the original plan, result, and the ultimate execution of this most useful work. CHAPTER XXXII. DISSENSIONS AT CALCUTTA.-AFFAIRS OF OUDE.-REVOLT OF THE MATCHLOCKMEN. THE Rohilla war had barely come to conclusion, | parties respectively, if the three presidencies were when the new constitution, as formed by Parlia- governed by, and under the immediate control of, ment, came into full operation. Hitherto, Warren the home ministry. Mr. Philip Francis-supposed Hastings, as simple Governor, had exercised an by some (Macaulay among others) to have been undivided authority; but now that he became "Junius "-was a man by nature haughty and Governor-General of India, his unity of power turbulent, tyrannical and malignant; and the Court was to cease. The members of his Council, of Directors, though they knew neither his temper General Clavering (aide-de-camp to the king, and nor his talent, knew enough of his antecedents to colonel of the 52nd Regiment), Mr. Monson, and be certain that no position would satisfy his ambiMr. Philip Francis, arrived at Calcutta on the 19th tion, no courtesy soften his arrogant temper, and of October, 1774. Mr. Barwell, the fourth member, that his combative spirit would inspire him to had been in India long before. On the following carry out any quarrel to the bitter end. In short, day, the existing government was dissolved by he has been described as a man whose disposition proclamation, and Hastings, with the rank of "alone was enough to produce discord in Paradise;" Governor-General, took possession of all powers and of his four colleagues in the new system of of office. government, not one was acceptable to Hastings. A commission was issued to him, constituting him Governor and Commander-in-chief of the fortress and garrison of Fort William and the town of Calcutta, the object of this conjunction being to obviate all chance dispute with the senior officer in command, who, without his sanction, was not to leave Bengal; and Lieutenant-General Clavering (afterwards Sir John Clavering, K.B., Bart., of Axwell, in the county of Durham) was appointed Commander-in-chief of all the Company's forces in India. The Company reposed great confidence in the integrity, propriety, and co-operative disposition of Mr. Barwell, who had been long in the country; but Clavering they did not know. It has been said that he was a man of strong prejudices, and that, as a king's officer, he disdained the military service of the Company, although, more than once, he was constrained to compliment the talents and bravery displayed by its officers. Unfortunately, he and Colonel Monson arrived in Bengal with a determination to thwart and oppose the civil servants of the Company, and, more especially, the GovernorGeneral, believing that by so doing, they were sustaining the public prejudice that existed in England, particularly in the House of Commons; for at home there was a large circle of short-sighted politicians, who were desirous of seeing the Company destroyed, and the territories they had acquired handed over to the Government. These were the leading party men, who were anxious to secure to themselves the power and patronage which would thereby accrue to their Francis, we are told, hated him, from the beginning, with an intensity of which few English natures are capable; but among the judges who had arrived with the new members of Council, was Sir Elijah Impey, an old and dear friend of Hastings. They had been schoolfellows together at Westminster, and Hastings, in his delight at the appointment, had written thus to Impey : "The news of your appointment to preside over the High Court of Justice affords me every cause of satisfaction, without a circumstance of regret to alloy it. In truth, my friend, nothing else could have reconciled me to that part of the act which, if any latitude is left to you, may, and I am sure will, be a source of the most valuable benefits to this country." The members of the new Council soon began their open war with Hastings, by references to the affairs of Oude and the recent conquest of Rohilcund; and asserted, by implication, that he embarked in that strife from private and sordid motives, and that fraud and selfishness inspired his whole transactions with Sujah Dowlah. Hastings, conscious of his own superior knowledge of Indian affairs, and the character of the natives, and of the system which worked best with the princes, had, in conformity with his own ideas and line of action, appointed his friend, Mr. Middleton, to be president and agent at the Court of Oude, with instructions that on all secret and important matters he was to correspond with himself alone, without communicating with the Calcutta Council, the members of which did not preserve that judicious secrecy which he considered so necessary for the success of diplomatic schemes everywhere, but nowhere so much as in India. 167 daily in the Supreme Council, which, by ignorant intermeddling, soon contrived to throw the affairs of Bombay and Madras into confusion; and the Hastings maintained that the immemorial usage imperious commands of Francis, endorsed by of the civil service left the whole correspondence Clavering and Monson, were let loose as a curse with the native powers and princes in the hands of on British India; and Lord Macaulay records the Governor, and that, in this light, Mr. Middleton | the result of their mal-administration to have been, could alone correspond with, and receive orders" that all protection to life and property was from, himself; but this was precisely the point to which the arrogant Francis, and his two unheeding military coadjutors, now addressed themselves. They demanded that the whole of Middleton's correspondence, from the date of his arrival at the nabob's court, should be laid before them; but Hastings refused to produce more than a portion, and hence their suspicion that he had been actuated by sordid motives and self-aggrandisement; though Hastings was now actually a poorer man than when he had quitted his more subaltern post at Madras in 1771. Constitutionally, he was indifferent to money for himself, and was far above the base motives so readily imputed to him. He had made, as we have stated, great reductions in expenditure, and gathered, for the benefit of the Company, enormous contributions, though perhaps neither the economy nor the gain had been carried on with the strictest principles of political justice. But Philip Francis (afterwards Sir Philip, and K.B.), from the ungovernable nature of his temper, and activity of his disposition, backed by Clavering and Monson, constituted a majority of the Council; they assumed the whole powers of governance, and Hastings, with his solitary adherent, the conscientious Barwell, was reduced to a cipher, and, naturally, a species of anarchy ensued. They voted and passed a motion that Mr. Middleton should be instantly recalled from Oude, although Hastings passionately urged upon them that "such a measure would be attended with the very worst effects, as proclaiming to the natives that the British authorities were no longer agreed among themselves, and that the government of Calcutta was falling into a state of revolution." The nabob, who had no conception of a divided power, or of the nature or use of a Council, and who had always been used to look, in all matters, direct to Hastings in person, was utterly confounded by this sudden state of affairs; and when Middleton showed him the letter of recall, he burst into tears, in his timid nature regarding it but as the precursor of hostilities against himself. Other differences arose withdrawn, and that gangs of robbers (Dacoitee?) slaughtered and plundered with impunity, in the very suburbs of Calcutta. Hastings continued to live in the Government House, and draw the salary of Governor-General. He continued even to take the lead at the Council Board in the transactions of ordinary business; for his opponents could not but feel that he knew much of which they were ignorant, and that he decided, both surely and speedily, that which to them would have been hopelessly puzzling. But the higher powers of government and the most valuable patronage had been taken from him." He began to complain bitterly of the precipitancy, rashness, and ignorance of Francis, Clavering, and Monson, and, in a letter to Sullivan the director, written in the December of 1774, he wrote thus : "I am afraid you will see too close a resemblance in the disputes in which I am engaged to those between our late friend (Mr. Vansittart) and his Council; but I trust that, by the benefit of his example and my own experience, and by a temper which, in spite of nature, I have brought under proper subjection, I shall be able to prevent the same dreadful extremities which attended the former quarrels. . . . Without friends, without any kind of personal interest, I have but a discouraging prospect; yet I am prepared for the worst, and shall return quietly and contentedly to England the moment I hear of my recall, for there is no room for palliatives. I hope that my reputation may be spared; but if it is to be blackened for the sake of giving a fair colour to the severity which is to be exercised towards me, I will most certainly defend myself, and I am sure that I shall be able to do it, to the shame of my calumniators." In a letter written on the same day to Frederick, Lord North, then premier of Great Britain, and afterwards second Earl of Guildford, he said, with reference to the quarrels in the Indian Council "I do not mean in this letter to enter into a detail of its rise and progress, but will beg leave to refer to those despatches for the particulars, and for the defence both of my measures |