had the matter entirely in their own hands. By a simple vote they might have suspended the execution. Why did they, who were so zealous in Nund Comar's cause prior to conviction, sit with folded arms and see their protégé put to death? In their despatches which succeeded the event, as well as in Burke's speeches during the trial of Hastings, some clue may be discovered. It might not suit the

purpose of the majority to save the life of Nund Comar; it might suit that purpose that they were able, however groundlessly, to assert that 'the Governor-General murdered him through the hands of Sir Elijah Impey.' For even to this day the impression has not everywhere been removed, that Mr. Hastings was censurable for failing to effect that which he had no power to effect. The will of the majority was law. Had they willed a reprieve for Nund Comar, he must have received the benefit of it. On their heads, then, and not 'on that of Mr. Hastings, must the death of the culprit rest." ("Life of Hastings," ii., p. 5.)

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE NEW GOVERNMENT AT CALCUTTA, TO THE TREATY WITH THE MAHRATTA CHIEFS.

W

A.D. 1775-6.

E have already seen that one of the first acts of Francis and his submissive colleagues, on their reckless determination to oppose the GovernorGeneral in every possible way, was to recall his British brigade from Oude, notwithstanding the treaty which entitled the Vizier to its assistance, and by which the East India Company had profited so much. But though the war with the Rohillas, waged by the Vizier and his English allies, was to be reprobated, the sovereign of Oude was not only to be compelled to pay the whole expenses of the war, but he was to be bullied into earlier payments than he had stipulated for. Thus, if they considered the Rohilla war, as they termed it, "diabolical," they could still determine to profit by the devil's wages in grasping more of the Vizier's treasures than they were entitled to. It was in vain that Hastings and Barwell remonstrated; they were but two to three; and the determination of Francis was carried into instant exccution. The Vizier, Shujah-ood-Dowlah, was so terrified by the injustice with which he had been treated by the majority of the Supreme Council,

that he died a few months after, addressing in his last moments a touching letter to Hastings to implore his friendship and protection for his son.

The son, Asof-ood-Dowlah, succeeded without opposition to Oude and its dependencies. Francis with his majority had dismissed Mr. Middleton, the able Resident at the court of Oude, for no other reason than his having been appointed by Hastings, and sent a creature of his own in Middleton's place. The new Resident forced the young Vizier to accede to a new treaty incomparably more questionable than the previous one made by Hastings. By this treaty the East India Company guaranteed to Asof-ood-Dowlah the possession of Corah and Allahabad, but required in return that he should cede to the Company the territory of Cheyte Singh, the Rajah of Benares, which was not his to cede, and what had been solemnly guaranteed to the Rajah by the Governor-General. Hastings indig

nantly refused to sanction this treaty, which nevertheless met with the warm approbation of the directors at home, because it added between two and three millions sterling to their annual revenue of the territory which they plundered from Cheyte Singh, who, if it be allowable to make a pun on the name, was certainly in this instance cheated out of his own by the infamous Francis and his submissive allies.

Nor was their conduct towards the other presidencies much better. Though the provisions of the Act of Parliament, which gave the Supreme Council at Calcutta authority over the other presidencies at Madras and Bombay, were well intended and event

The Conduct of the Bombay Council. 173

ually beneficent to the British rule in Hindostan, for the two years in which the Supreme Council was ruled by the reckless and incompetent trio, the Act proved most detrimental and injurious to our empire there. The political state of Bombay at that time was as bad as bad could be. They had entered into the stormy sea of Mahratta politics, and the unhappy interference of Francis had only made matters ten times worse. The first temptation had been the rich island of Salsette, adjoining Bombay, which formerly belonged to the Portuguese, but who had been expelled from it in 1739, and which had been long coveted by the English in India, as well as by the directors at home. In the year 1773, after various attempts had failed, advantage was taken of the civil war which ensued on the assassination of Narráin Ráo, and the election of his uncle, Rughonath Ráo, or Rughoba, as he was more commonly called, as Péshwah. The odium of the assassination rested on Rughoba for a time, as a servant of his had done the deed in the confusion arising from a party of Narráin's soldiers, who were in arrears of pay, having mutinied and invaded the palace. But it was proved afterwards that the order to "seize" Narráin Ráo had been altered to "kill" him, and the Mahratta nation acquitted Rughoba of the murder. The Council of Bombay, however, gladly seized the opportunity of dispatching a considerable force to Salsette, which carried the principal fort by assault, and then took possession of the island.

To secure this valuable possession, and to obtain future cessions of territory in the neighbourhood of Surat, which may be considered as the cradle of the

British Empire in India, the Bombay Council concluded a treaty with Rughoba, whom for the nonce they accepted as the legitimate Péshwah of the Mahrattas, who were much divided in opinion whether the legitimate right or might rested with Rughoba or with a posthumous son of Narráin Ráo, called Mahdoo Narráin, who had been installed by Rughoba's opponents as Péshwah when a babe only forty days old. Rughoba, who made sure of the English support, granted without hesitation Salsette, Bassein, and other places, and the Bombay Council sent Colonel Keating with a force of over two thousand troops to assist Rughoba, who himself possessed a large force of Mahratta cavalry. On the 18th of May, 1775, Keating defeated a Mahratta army hostile to Rughoba, on the plains of Arras, and was on the point of taking possession of Poonah, the Mahratta capital, in conjunction with Rughoba, when the unwise interference of the meddlesome Francis prevented so desirable a result.

At this moment the reckless majority in the Supreme Council at Calcutta thought proper to show their power, and they did so in the same unhappy temper which they had displayed on other occasions. After rating the Council at Bombay as if they had been a set of schoolboys, Francis and his colleagues ordered them instantly to withdraw their army, haughtily informing them that they had no business to undertake such important matters without their sanction, and that they should send a servant of their own, Colonel Upton, to Poonah to pursue a different policy. When Colonel Upton arrived at the close of the year 1875, it was found that his