NOTES

THIS essay was first published in the Edinburgh Review in October, 1841, three years after Macaulay's return from India. It is nominally a review of a book that had appeared, Memoirs of the Life of Warren Hastings, first Governor General of Bengal. Compiled from Original Papers by the Rev. G. R. Gleig, M.A. 3 vols. London, 1841. Macaulay's opinion of Mr. Gleig's book, written to the editor of the Review, is, "I think the new Life of Hastings the worst book that I ever saw."

66

Throughout the essay, this opinion of Mr. Gleig's history keeps cropping out, in such passages as, everybody believes, idiots and biographers excepted."

Macaulay's estimate of the importance of Warren Hastings as a subject was expressed to the editors of the Review when he was preparing to write the article. He said he thought the subject would bear two articles. He evidently decided when he began to write that the two parts would be better if combined. His original plan was to lay the first scene in India; this he said would include the Rohilla war, disputes between Hastings and his council, the character of Francis, death of Nuncomar, rise of Hyder Ali, seizure of Benares, and so on. The second scene would shift to Westminster; this would take in the Coalition,

the India Bill, and characters of all the noted men of the time from "Burke to Tony Pasquin.'

Page 1, line 8.

uncovered. Members of the House of Commons sit with their hats on; to "uncover," or remove the hat, is a mark of honor.

Page 3, line 8. renowned Chamberlain. William, Lord Hastings, adherent of Edward IV., beheaded by Richard III.

"Come, lead me to the block; bear him my head:

They smile at me, who shortly shall be dead."

Line 21. The Hastings. Does not this sentence tell all the facts? What do we gain by Macaulay's adding the following sentence?

Line 23. mint at Oxford. At the time of the Civil War, Parliament held London. Oxford being in sympathy with the Cavaliers was made their headquarters. To Oxford, therefore, those who could not send money for the cause sent their plate to be converted into money.

Page 4, lines 8-11. Living, tithes. See Dictionary.

Page 6, line 16. Churchill, Colman, Lloyd, Cumberland, Cowper, all literary men of Hastings' time. Cowper is the only one of them whose work is still read.

Page 7, line 6. Ouse. Cowper lived with the Unwins at Olney on the Ouse. No life, in its environments, could form a stronger contrast with that of Hastings than his does.

Line 9. Temptations. Why does Macaulay tell us what Cowper was not called upon to withstand?

Line 13. innocence and greatness. Is there anything unusual in the arrangement of the four nouns, "innocence and greatness," etc.?

Page 8, line 3. foundation. A scholarship.

Line 7. studentship. At Christ Church College in Oxford, three scholars are elected each year from Westminstershire. The scholarships are of the annual value of $400, and are to be held for two years.

Line 20. hexameters and pentameters. In England, the study of Latin is begun at eight years of age, and the boy of twelve must write as well as read in Latin. Proficiency in the language is judged, largely, by the ability to write Latin verse.

Line 21. writership in the service of the East India Company. In carrying on the business of the company, the merchants, senior and junior, conducted the trade; the factors ordered the goods and attended to shipping them off; the writers were the clerks and bookkeepers. By a kind of civil service, depending on worth and years in office, the writers could rise to merchants. The places where the company had their seats of trade were called factories, as the factories of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta.

Line 22. East India Company. See Introduction.

Page 9, line 10. Dupleix. French governor of Pondicherry. In the Introduction there is bare mention of the events alluded to here because it is presupposed that Macaulay's Lord Clive has been read. Half of the interest of Warren Hastings will be lost unless Lord Clive is read first.

Line 12. The war of the succession. Austrian succession.

The home governments being at war caused war between the French and English in India.

Line 25. the prince. The Nabob of Bengal.

Page 10, line 23. Black Hole of Calcutta. When Surajah Dowlah attacked Calcutta in June, 1756, many of the English were able to get away on the river, but there were not boats enough for all. Those who remained defended the city until they were overpowered. When the Nabob, Surajah Dowlah, saw the prisoners, he promised them that they should not be hurt. The guards compelled one hundred and forty-six of them to enter a room twenty feet square. It had only two small windows, and they opened on an arcade. The heat and foul air were intolerable. At first the prisoners fought for places at the windows, and implored the guards for water, but later they taunted and insulted the guards in the hopes of making them shoot into the room and so end their agony. In the morning only twenty-three were alive. Surajah Dowlah may not have been responsible for this, but his later treatment of the survivors was not any more humane.

treason.

Page 11, line 7. Meer Jaffier was a rival claimant for the Nabobship. When Clive arrived in Bengal he espoused Meer Jaffier's cause. Clive defeated Surajah Dowlah, Nabob of Bengal, at Plassey in 1757 and placed Meer Jaffier on the viceregal throne at Moorshedabad as Nabob of Bengal. The Great Mogul at Delhi was the nominal head, but the Nabob was really independent.

Page 12, line 3. He remained at Moorshedabad. What argument has Macaulay used to show Hastings' honesty at this time ?

Line 9. Mr. Vansittart. Governor of Bengal from 1760 to 1764, between Clive's first and second governorships.

Page 13, line 24. to marry a peer's daughter. Would a simple statement, that the agent's sole object was to get rich so that he might return to England to enjoy life, be as effective as this sentence? Why?

Line 24. rotten boroughs. See Life of Macaulay in Introduction, and note on Old Sarum.

Page 14, line 7. It is certain that. What two devices of expression has Macaulay used from this to the end of the paragraph? Are they favorites with this master of style?

Line 16. keen, severe, malevolent. Discriminate between these words. In the following paragraph is there any relation between the words squeamish and rapacious that makes them good antonyms?

Page 15, line 10. In 1764 Hastings returned to England. This and the two following paragraphs begin with short, simple sentences. In what relation do the other sentences in the paragraphs stand to the beginning ones?

Page 16, line 19.

Hafiz and Ferdusi.

Classic Persian poets.

Page 17, line 24. pagoda. The word here means a gold coin which has a pagoda stamped on it. Value, $1.94.

Page 18, line 13. Indiaman. Name given to the ships for India. The voyage at this time was long. The ships went round the Cape of Good Hope. It took Clive a year to make his first voyage from England to India.