worms and Mrs. Coles. The power could not be despised which made floods of tears roll down the sooty cheeks of the colliers of Kingswood; and which, penetrating to Scotland, had called the lowest of the population of Glasgow to go forth to Cambuslang, and there," at the foot of the brae near the kirk," hear the Word preached in the open fields, and surrender themselves to an irresistible influence, such as was wielded by the Puritans of old. To assist in "the extraordinary work of Cambuslang" Whitefield came, and saw thirty thousand persons assembled to receive the Sacrament. There was beheld, upon the largest scale, scenes that were familiar in England amongst the earliest converts to Methodism-shrieks, violent agitations of body, shaking and trembling, fainting and convulsions. These manifestations were, by one party in the Church of Scotland, ascribed to the delusions of Satan; by another party to the influence of the Holy Spirit; and by a third party, to natural causes, produced by sermons addressed "not to the understanding of the hearers, but to their imaginations and passions." * These early effects of the fervid preaching of the new sect passed away. But the gradual influence of a more earnest sense of religion was diffused through the whole com‐ munity of Britain. The members of the Churches of England and Scotland ceased to ridicule even such extravagances as were seen at "the Cambuslang conversions." The separation between Establishment and Dissent became less marked by bitter hostility. The principle of individuality was not less strong; but it gradually put off the form of intolerance, for that honest rivalry in the attempt to do good which has, more than any other cause, enabled us to look back upon the morals and manners of the last century as a condition of society not likely to return.

* Sinclair-"Statistical Account of Scotland," vol. v.

RETROSPECT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.

427

CHAPTER XXIII.

Retrospect of Indian affairs.-Hastings Governor-General.-Rohilla war.-New Council at Calcutta. Hastings and the Council opposed to each other.-Nuncomar.-His execution. Dissentions at Madras.—Mahratta war.—Capture of Gwalior.-Hyder Ali.— The Carnatic ravaged.-Hyder defeated by Coote.-Death of Hyder.-Succeeded by his son Tippoo Saib.-Benares.--Oude.-The Begums.-Committee of the Houses of Parliament on Indian Affairs.

IN June 1783, when the news arrived at Calcutta that the preliminaries of peace had been signed between Great Britain and France, the misfortunes that had at one time foreboded the downfall of the British power in India had been mainly overcome. The war with Tippoo Saib and his French auxiliaries was still maintained; although it was evident that the energy of Warren Hastings had succeeded in averting the danger in the East, which, not long before, appeared to threaten as calamitous results as those which had attended our arms in the West. Before we resume our narrative of civil affairs at home, it will be proper that we should take up the history of events in India, from the period of the appointment of Hasting as the first Governor-General.*

Previous to the nomination of Hastings to this high office by the Act of 1773, he had, in his capacity of Governor of Bengal, struck out a line of policy, in which we alternately admire his sagacity and blush, as his countrymen, for his unscrupulousness. In 1772, he was labouring, as an honest statesman, to repair as far as possible the miseries produced by the famine of 1770, and by judicious fiscal arrangements to overcome the consequent embarrassments in the collection of the revenue of the depopulated districts. He freed the country from bands of robbers, by appointing local officers to maintain authority. He secured the administration of justice, by instituting local courts of law. If he could have met, by just means, the unceasing demands of the Directors of the East India Company for lacs of rupees, he would not have resorted to those modes of gratifying the cupidity of his masters for which many apologies have been offered, but for which no adequate defence has ever been established. He was a faithful sevant to the Company, not waiting for direct orders to commit injustice, but securing Ante, vol. vi. p. 154.

his own tenure of power by violating the pecuniary engagements which Clive had made, and by driving excellent bargains, of which the only defect was that they compromised the English honour. When Clive put an end to the war amongst the native princes, giving the greater part of Oude to the Vizier Sujah Dowlah, he reserved the districts of Corah and Allahabad for the Mogul, Shah Alum, and agreed to pay the fallen potentate twenty-six lacs of rupees annually. The successor of the great Mussulman conquerors of India was happy to have a certain revenue for his own luxurious gratifications, and he willingly executed a solemn deed, giving the English Company the sole administration of the prov inces of Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar. Hastings, in 1773, had a plausible excuse for setting aside those arrangements with Shah Alum which were costly to the Company, or the violation of which would produce immediate advantages. The Mogul had become dependent upon the Mahrattas, and had been compelled to sign an edict to transfer to them Corah and Allahabad. Hastings promptly occupied those districts with English troops; and resolved to pay no more tribute to the shadow of the sovereignty of Hindustan. Shah Alum lost his annual lacs of rupees, which amounted to nearly three hundred thousand pounds; and the districts which were taken from him were sold to Sujah Dowlah, the Vizier of Oude, for half a million sterling. To manage these transactions Hastings paid a visit to the Vizier in his city of Benares; and there the two allies concluded another bargain, which brought more gold into the treasury of Leadenhall-street. It was agreed that an English army should be hired by Sujah Dowlah to effect the subjugation of the Rohillas —a race of Afghans, who were amongst the bravest and the most civilised of the various populations of Hindustan. With troops under the command of colonel Champion, the Rohilla country was invaded by the English in April, 1774, in concert with Sujah Dowlah and his soldiery. The English gained a victory. The forces of Oude looked on; and then applied themselves to devastate the fertile plains of Rohilcund, and to extirpate, as far as possible, the peaceful and industrious inhabitants. It was one of the charges of "high crimes and misdemeanours " against Warren Hastings, that he entered into a private engagement with the Nabob of Oude, "to furnish him, for a stipulated sum of money to be paid to the East India Company, with a body of troops for the declared purpose of thoroughly extirpating the nation of the Rohillas -a nation from whom the Company had never received, or pretended to receive or apprehend, any injury whatever."

The Rohilla war was ended. The work of spoliation and mas

NEW COUNCIL AT CALCUTTA.

429

sacre was going on under the declaration of the Governor-general that "he had no authority to control the conduct of the Vizier in the treatment of his subjects." The country, once a garden, without a spot of uncultivated ground, was reduced, by the brutal mode of carrying on the war, and by the subsequent misgovernment, to a state of utter decay and depopulation. At this period, October, 1774, three new members of the Council, and the judges of the Supreme Court, appointed under the Regulating Act of 1773, arrived at Calcutta. The principal objects of that Act were the reformation of the Court of Proprietors of the East India Company, and such a re-modelling of the Court of Directors as should secure an enforcement of their authority upon their servants abroad; the establishment of a Court of Justice capable of protecting the natives from the oppressions of British subjects; the formation of a General Council having authority over all the British settlements and who would furnish the ministers of the Crown with constant information concerning the whole of the Company's correspondence with India. The provisions of this Act were directed to the accomplishment of large and benevolent reforms; but they were found wholly inadequate for the protection of the natives, for the improvement of the country, or for the construction of a firm and united government. The three new members of the council, general Clavering, colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis, appear to have entered upon their duties with a concerted determination to oppose the measures of Hastings and of the other old servant of the Company, Mr. Barwell. The new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, sir Elijah Impey, was a personal friend of the GovernorGeneral. Hastings naturally looking with great disfavour upon those who were come apparently with the determination to wrest all power from his hands, by constituting a majority of the Council where he had only a casting vote. Without a day's delay they testified their abhorrence of the Rohilla war, by recalling the English troops. Sujah Dowlah having died, and his son having succeeded him as Vizier, they maintained that the treaties with Oude were at an end upon the father's death. They did some rash things which might be intended to remedy past evils, but which had the inevitable tendency of lowering the respect of the natives for that able administrator who had impressed them with a reverential fear. The natives saw, or believed they saw, that the power of Hastings was gone. Charges of corruption were made against him by his enemies, whether natives or Englishmen. An old enemy of Hastings was a Hindoo Brahmin, the Maharajah Nuncomar. He had been disappointed in his aspirations for the great and

lucrative office of chief minister of the province of Bengal; for Hastings had abolished the office, and had transferred its powers to the servants of the Company. The crafty Hindoo bided his time for revenge. He soon discovered who would be his natural ally against the Governor-General. He put into the hands of Francis a series of charges against Hastings, in which he was accused of setting offices to sale, and of receiving bribes to permit the escape of offenders. Francis brought the papers before the Council. Hastings contended that they had no right to inquire into charges against the Governor, especially into charges made by one so notoriously perjured and fraudulent as Nuncomar. Hasings and Barwell quitted the council-chamber; and the three remaining members called in Nuncomar, and allowed him to tell his story with new embellishments. Hastings instituted proceedings against the old Hindoo, and against others, upon a charge of conspiracy. But the fate of Nuncomar was decided upon a very different accusation. He was imprisoned at the suit of a native merchant, charged with having forged a bond five years before this period; for which alleged offence he had been brought to trial in the mayor's court at Calcutta, and had been dismissed on the interposition of Hastings. The Supreme Court, that had now entered upon its functions, with sir Elijah Impey as its head, had to take cognizance of such cases of lapsed justice. The apologists of the Governor-General and the Chief Justice maintain that it was in the ordinary course of events that Nuncomar should have been tried, and only a strict measure of justice that Nuncomar should have been hanged, at the precise period when he was truly dangerous to the power and influence of Hastings. Forgery, under the Common Law of England, was punished as a misdemeanour; and under the statute of Elizabeth was not treated as a captial offence. The law was made more severe as the commerce of the cuntry became more extensive. But in Hindustan the crime, regarded as very venial, had never been dealt with capitally. Nuncomar was tried upon the severer English statute, although one of the judges associated with Impey pressed for his indictment under the earlier and milder enactment. He was tried by a jury of Englishmen, and was found guilty. He was sentenced to be hanged; and the power of reprieve which the Supreme Court possessed was not exercised. The Council had no power to interfere, although the majority remonstrated in the strongest terms against the entire proceedings. The execution of the old man, to whom the agents of the Company had once sued for favour and protection, to whom his countrymen looked up with awe as a Brahmin who was the very head