Wars with Hyder Aly.

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galore, which the English commander precipitately abandoned, leaving even his sick and wounded and artillery behind him. Freed thus from the presence of the English, Hyder held all the native princes to ransom, and by these means obtained funds for the prosecution of the war against Madras. If the Council had only attended to the advice of the directors, they would have met Hyder half-way, and a treaty for the mutual advantage of both might have been concluded without war.

After various incidents which took place during the second war with Hyder, amongst them being the remarkable march of Hyder at the head of 6,000 chosen cavalry, advancing 130 miles in three days and a half, and bringing him within five miles of Madras, the Council were obliged to treat with the sovereign of Mysore, and in April, 1769, peace was concluded between them. By this treaty mutual conquests were to be restored; an offensive and defensive alliance between Hyder and the English was agreed upon; and worse than all, the English were saddled with the whole expenses of the war. The best excuse which can be made for this hasty treaty was given by the Council of Madras, who, in their defence, declared that they had made peace because they had no more money to make war.

Towards the close of the year 1769, after the treaty with Hyder Aly had been made, Warren Hastings arrived at Madras, and took his seat as member of the Council. At that period, owing to the war and the incompetency of the Government, the trade of the Company was in a very disorganized state. Hastings' natural tastes would have led him

rather to political than to commercial pursuits, as the experience which he had acquired under Clive in Bengal proved his competency as a diplomatic agent. But Hastings likewise knew that the favour of his employers depended chiefly on their dividends, and that their dividends depended chiefly on judicious investments. He therefore wisely determined to apply his vigorous mind for a time to this department of business, which had been much neglected since the Madras Council had ceased to be clerks, and had become negotiators and conductors of war instead.

In the course of his two years' residency at Madras, Hastings effected, as Clive had done at Calcutta five years before, some important reforms. The directors of the East India Company notified their high appreciation of his services, and were so much pleased with his conduct at Madras, that they considered him the most efficient person to place at the head of the new Government in Bengal, for which place he sailed in the early part of the year 1772.

CHAPTER XVI.

WARREN HASTINGS' GOVERNMENT OF BENGAL, TO THE END OF THE ROHILLA WAR.

W

A.D. 1772-1774.

ARREN HASTINGS arrived at Calcutta in February, 1772, but did not take his seat as President of the Council until the April following, devoting the interval to a close study of the machine which he was expected to regulate, and which he found to be cumbersome and ill-adapted to the work which it was expected to perform. Bengal was still governed according to the system which Clive had devised fifteen years before, which, though skilfully contrived for the purpose of facilitating and concealing the great revolution which transferred all real power from the native princes to a company of English traders fifteen thousand miles distant, when that revolution was complete, could produce nothing but inconvenience. Thus there were two governments at the same time, the real and the ostensible. The supreme power belonged to the East India Company, and was in truth a most despotic power, the only restraint being the justice and humanity of the English conquerors. But though thus absolute, in reality the English had not yet assumed the style and title of sovereignty; they held their territories in

Bengal as vassals of the Great Mogul; they raised their revenues as collectors appointed by the Emperor of Delhi; their public seal was inscribed with the imperial titles; and their sole currency was that of the imperial coin.

But the great change which had taken place in the political situation of the presidency of Bengal had been met by no adequate change in the condition or powers of its government. This was still the same both in construction and name that it used to be before the battle of Plassey, when the settlement was purely commercial; while the orders from the directors were all framed so as to check every attempt to become lords of the soil of Hindostan. Forgetting that they had already acquired absolute dominion over an extensive district, with a population exceeding the then population of the United Kingdom, the directors were continually reminding their servants that they were the agents, not of a military, but of a trading body; and that every step taken with a view to change the system would be regarded by the directors with extreme displeasure.

For years after Plassey the internal government of Bengal was delegated by the Calcutta Council to a native minister stationed at Moorshedabad, where the Nabob still kept his court. All military and foreign affairs were alike withdrawn from his control; but the other departments of administration were confided to him alone. His own salary amounted to £100,000 per annum, while the allowance of £320,000 a year, guaranteed by treaty to the Nabob, passed through the minister's hands, and was, to a great extent, at his disposal. The collection of

Warren Hastings' Government of Bengal. 141

revenue, the administration of justice, the maintenance of order, were left to this high functionary; and for the exercise of his immense power he was responsible to the Council at Calcutta alone.

So splendid an appointment was naturally an object of ambition to the most powerful natives. Clive, who, as president, had to make the first appointment, found it difficult to decide between rival candidates. Two, however, stood out prominently from the rest, each of them the representative of a race race and of a religion. One of these was Mohammed Reza Khan, a Mussulman of Persian extraction, who, if tried by the standard of Indian morality, might be pronounced a man of integrity and honour. His competitor was a Hindoo Brahmin of the name of Nund Comar, one of the basest scoundrels that ever existed in a land where smooth excuses, elaborate falsehoods, chicanery, perjury, and forgery are the weapons, which are the notorious characteristics of the Bengalese. In Nund Comar these national signs were strongly developed. The servants of the Company had repeatedly detected him in the most criminal intrigues. On one occasion he brought a false charge against one of his co-religionists, and tried to substantiate it by forged documents. At another time it was discovered that while professing the strongest attachment to the English, he was engaged in several conspiracies against them, and in particular, that he was the medium of a correspondence between the court of Delhi and the French authorities at Pondicherry. For these and many other criminal practices he had been long detained in confinement. But his talents