318 TRIAL OF WARREN HASTINGS. Ch. 26 which he expected to find at Benares, so he resolved to rob the Princesses of Oude, who had been left with immense 1788. treasures on the death of Surajah Dowlah, the Nabob Vizier A. D. Robbery of the Prin cesses of Oude. Trial of Hastings. of the Grand Mogul. The only pretext which Hastings could find was, that the insurrection at Benares had produced disturbances at Oude, which disturbances were imputed to the Princesses. Great barbarities were inflicted in order to secure these treasures; but the robbers were successful, and immense sums flowed into the treasury of the Company. By these iniquities, the Governor found means to conduct the war in the Carnatic successfully, and a treaty was concluded with Tippoo, the son of Hyder Ali, by which the Company reigned without a rival on the great Indian peninsula. In 1785, when peace was restored to India, and the Company's servants had accumulated immense fortunes, Hastings returned to England. But the iniquities he had practised excited great indignation among those statesmen who regarded justice and humanity as better supports to a government than violence and rapine. Foremost among these patriots was Edmund Burke. He had long been a member of the select committee to investigate Indian affairs; he had bestowed great attention upon them, and he fully understood the course which Hastings had pursued. Through his influence, an inquiry into the conduct of the late Governor-General was instituted, and he was accordingly impeached at the bar of the House of Lords. Mr. Pitt permitted matters to take their natural course; but the King, the Lord Chancellor Thurlow, the Ministers generally, and the Directors of the East India Company espoused his cause. They regarded him as a very great man, whose rule had been glorious to the nation, in spite of the mistakes and cruelties which had marked his government. He had added an empire to the British crown, educed order out of anarchy, and organized a system of administration which, in its essential features, has remained to this time. He enriched the Company, while EDMUND BURKE. 319 A. D. he did not enrich himself; for he easily might have accumu- Ch.26 lated a fortune of three millions of pounds. And he moreover contrived, in spite of his extortions and conquests, to secure 1788. the respect of the native population, whose national and religious prejudices he endeavored not to shock. ance. The trial was at Westminster Hall, the hall which had Its importwitnessed the inauguration of thirty kings. And he was a culprit not unworthy of that great tribunal before which he was summoned—“a tribunal which had pronounced sentence on Strafford, and pardon on Somers"-the tribunal before which royalty itself had been called to account. Hastings had ruled, with absolute sway, a country which was more populous and more extensive than any of the kingdoms of Europe, and had gained a fame which was bounded only by the unknown countries of the globe. He was defended by three men who subsequently became the three first judges of the land, and he was encouraged by the appearance and sympathetic smiles of the highest of the realm. mund But greater than all were the mighty statesmen who conducted the prosecution. First among them in character and genius was Edmund Burke, who, from the time that he first Edspoke in the House of Commons, in 1766, had been a promi- Burke. nent member, and had, at length, secured greater fame than any of his contemporaries, Pitt alone excepted, not merely as an orator, but as an enlightened statesman, a philosopher, and a philanthropist. He excelled all the great men with whom he was associated in the variety of his powers; he was a poet even while a boy; a penetrating philosopher, critic, and historian before the age of thirty; a statesman of unrivalled moral wisdom; an orator whose speeches have been read with increasing admiration in every succeeding age; a judge of the fine arts to whose opinions Reynolds submitted; and a writer on various subjects, in which he displayed not only vast knowledge, but a style of matchless beauty and force. All the great men of his age-Johnson, Reynolds, Goldsmith, Garrick, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, Windham, North, Thurlow, Y 320 FOX AND SHERIDAN. Ch. 26 Parr-scholars, critics, divines, and statesmen-bore testiA. D. mony to his commanding genius and his singular moral worth, 1788. to his hatred of vice, and his passionate love of virtue. James Next to Burke, among the prosecutors of Hastings, for Charles greatness and popularity, was Charles James Fox; inferior to Fox. Burke in knowledge, imagination, and moral power, but superior in all the arts of debate, the most logical and accomplished forensic speaker which that age of orators produced. His father, Lord Holland, had been the rival of the great Chatham, and he himself was opposed, nearly the whole of his public life, to the younger Pitt. His political principles were like those of Burke until the French Revolution, which he at first admired. He was emphatically the man of the people, easy of access, social in his habits, free in his intercourse, without reserve or haughtiness, generous, magnanimous, and conciliatory. He was unsurpassed for logical acuteness, and for bursts of overpowering passion. He reached high political station, although his habits deprived him, in some particulars, of the respect of those great men with whom he was associated. Richard Richard Brinsley Sheridan, another of the public accusers Brinsley of Hastings, was a different man from either Burke or Fox. dan. He was born in Ireland, but was educated at Harrow, and Sheri first distinguished himself by writing plays. In 1776, on the BILL FOR THE REGULATION OF INDIA. 321 ness in incurring debts, and his dissipated habits, which Ch.26 disorganized his moral character and undermined the friend- A. D. ships which his brilliant talents at first secured to him. 1784. tal of But in spite of the indignation which these illustrious orators excited, Hastings, after a trial which lasted eight Acquityears, was acquitted in consequence of the change of public Hastopinion; and, above all, in view of the great services which ings. he had really rendered to his country. The expenses of his trial nearly ruined him; but the East India Company granted him an annual income of four thousand pounds, which he spent in ornamenting and enriching Daylesford, the seat which had once belonged to his family, and which he purchased after his return. tion India. Increasing intercourse with India brought to light many Legisla evils connected with its Government; and, in 1784, acts respectwere passed which gave the nation a more direct control over ing the East India Company-the most gigantic monopoly the world has ever seen. That a company of merchants in Leadenhall Street should exercise an unlimited power over an empire larger than the whole of Europe, with the exception of Russia, was an anomaly that at length aroused the English nation. Mr. Pitt accordingly brought in a bill, which provided that the affairs of the Company should be partly managed by a Board of Control, partly by the Court of Directors, and partly by a general meeting of the stockholders of the Company. The Board of Control was intrusted to five privy counsellors, one of whom was Secretary of State. It was afterwards composed of a president, such members of the privy council as the King should select, and a secretary. This board superintends and regulates all civil, military, and revenue offices, political negotiations, and general despatches. The Board of Directors, composed of twenty-four men, six of East whom are annually elected, has the nomination of the Governor CoinGeneral, and the appointment of all civil and military officers. pany. These two boards operate as a check upon each other. The first Governor General, by the new constitution, was India 322 A. D. WAR WITH TIPPOO SAIB. Ch. 26 Lord Cornwallis, a nobleman of great military experience and elevated moral worth. Still, he was not fortunate. He did 1786 not fully understand the institutions of India, or the genius of to the people. He was soon called to embark in the various 1798. contests which divided the different native princes, and with Lord wallis. the usual result. The simple principle of territorial acquisition, was to defend the cause of the feebler party. The stronger party soon conquered, became a province of the East India Company, while the weaker remained under protection, until, after having been driven to rebellion, it too was subdued. When Lord Cornwallis was sent to India, in 1786, the East Corn India Company had obtained possession of Bengal, a part of Bahar, the Benares district of Allahabad, part of Orissa, the Circars, Bombay, and the Jaghire of the Carnatic-a district of one hundred miles along the coast. The other great Indian powers, unconquered by the English, were the Mahrattas, who occupied the centre of India, from Delhi to the Krishna, and from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea; Golconda; the western parts of the Carnatic; Mysore, Oude, and the country of the Sikhs. Of the potentates who ruled over these extensive provinces, the Sultan of Mysore, Tippoo Saib, was the most powerful, although the Mahrattas country was the largest. Sering invest ed. The conduct of Tippoo, who inherited his father's prejudices against the English, excited the suspicions of Lord Cornwallis, and a desperate war was the result, in which the Sultan showed the most daring courage. In 1792, the English general invested the formidable fortress of Seringapatam, with sixteen thousand Europeans and thirty thousand sepoys. Tippoo, after the loss of twenty-three thousand of his troops, to save this fortress, made peace with Lord Cornwallis, by the payment of four millions of pounds, and the surrender of half his dominions. Lord Cornwallis, after the close of this war, returned home, and was succeeded by Sir John Shore; and he, in 1798, by the Marquis Wellesley, under |