may be, without want of charity, presumed that, besides the public exigencies, Hastings was likewise in some measure swayed by a feeling of revenge. New demands upon Cheyte Sing were now poured in so thick and fast as to show a predetermination of driving him to refusal and resistance, and thence to ruin. The Rajah, at last, seriously alarmed, tendered as a peace-offering the sum of 200,000l. But Hastings declared that he would be content with nothing short of half a million. Such was the critical state to which this question had grown in the summer of 1781. Then, the designs of Hastings upon Benares, as also some others which he had in view for Oude, seemed to need his personal presence and direction. Besides himself, there was remaining only one member of the Council, Mr. Wheler. That gentleman was prevailed upon to delegate his authority to his chief; and thus armed with the full powers of the Council, the Governor-General set out for the northwestern provinces. He travelled with little of pomp or state, and even beyond the frontier with only a few score of Sepoys. Indeed, it well deserves attention, that the greatest of the English in India - the rulers whose sway over the minds of the natives has been strongest— did not resort to, or rely upon, those pageantries in which the natives are supposed to take delight. There is a remarkable testimony to that effect, as to both Clive and Hastings, from a Frenchman by birth, and a Mussulman by adoption, who had resided in India during a long course of years. He states, that he well remembers, in 1755, the magnificence of M. de Bussy and the other French chiefs in the Deccan. He states, that Bussy always wore a dress of rich brocade, with embroidered hat and shoes; his table, always in plate, was served with three, often with four courses; he sat upon a kind of throne, with the arms of his King in relief; and, whenever he stirred from home, he was mounted on an elephant, preceded by a band of musicians, singing his feats of chivalry, and followed by two head-Chobdars, reciting his eulogium! On the contrary, continues the Frenchman, "Colonel Clive always wore his regimentals in the field, was always on horseback, and never in a palan"quin; he had a plentiful table, but no ways delicate, 66 INDIA.] 66 INSURRECTION AT BENARES. 293 "and never more than two courses. He used to march mostly at the head of the column, with his aides-decamp, or was hunting at the right and left. Governor Hastings always wore a plain coat of English broad"cloth; and never anything like lace or embroidery. His "whole retinue a dozen of horse-guards; his throne a plain chair of mahogany, with plenty of such thrones "in the hall; his table sometimes neglected; his diet sparing and always abstemious; his address and deport"ment very distant from pride and still more so from "familiarity."* 66 66 The Governor-General arrived at Benares on the 14th of August, 1781. Cheyte Sing had gone forth many miles to meet him, with every mark of honour, and with the humblest professions of respect. Nay, on entering the Governor's pinnace, he even took off his turban and laid it on the lap of Hastings-a symbol to denote his unlimited submission. Hastings, with whom mere forms had little weight, received all these compliments with coldness. He sternly refused a visit from the Rajah in Benares, and next morning sent to him the Resident, with a paper of complaints and demands. These Cheyte Sing attempted to explain or evade. Without further parley, Hastings put him under arrest; sending two companies of Sepoys to guard him as a prisoner in his palace. 66 “The Rajah ” —such was the report of the English Resident to Hastings-" submitted quietly to the arrest; "and assured me that, whatever were your orders, he was 'ready to obey." But not such were the feelings of his people. It was no light thing for an European chief to seize the person of a Hindoo Prince in the very sanctuary and stronghold of the Hindoo superstitions. The multitude gathered in the streets, confident in their growing numbers. They might also expect some aid from the holy bulls, or the not less holy apes, that they saw around them. From outcries and threats, they quickly passed to blows. By a strange neglect the two companies of Sepoys round the palace had come without ammunition; *Note by the first translator of the Seir Mutakhareen, vol. iii. . p. 150. ed. Calcutta, 1789. consequently they were soon overpowered. Two other companies sent for their support were surrounded and cut to pieces in the narrow alleys. Hastings had then left, for his own protection, no more than fifty men. With these he barricaded the house in which he had taken up his residence, but could not, long together, have maintained it against a mob which he describes as "about "two thousand, furious and daring from the easy success “of their last attempt." "Cheyte Sing," he adds, in a more private letter, "had me at his mercy at Benares "if the wretch had known his advantage.” ""* Happily for Hastings, the thought which at this time was uppermost in Cheyte Sing's mind was not for victory or vengeance, but only for escape. In the midst of the confusion, he made his way from his palace by a secret postern, which opened to the Ganges. The bank was precipitous, but he was let down, as from a wall, by a line of his attendants' turbans tied together; and, finding a boat, was rowed over to the opposite shore. There he was quickly joined by his principal adherents from the city of Benares, and he began to muster troops. Still, however, it was mainly to a reconciliation that his wishes turned. He addressed to the Governor-General a petition, abounding with apologies for the past, and offers of allegiance for the future. Through all the storm that raged around him the equable mind of Hastings was never for a moment stirred. So far from making any concession to Cheyte Sing, he did not even vouchsafe him a reply. He carefully refrained from spreading any superfluous alarm by his communications either with Bengal or Oude. Yet his pen was not idle. He wrote to the nearest officers within the British territory to require aid. He wrote to Mrs. Hastings, whom he had left at Monghir, to inform her of his safety. And lastly-with the same perfect calmness and self-command as when seated quietly in his chamber at Calcutta, or beneath his garden-trees at Alliporehe wrote to the agent charged to treat with the Mahratta chiefs, giving him such detailed instructions as by the last advices that negotiation needed. The sure convey * To Major Scott, January 1. 1782. Memoirs by Gleig, vol. ii. p. 420. INDIA.] IMMINENT DANGER OF HASTINGS. 295 ance of these letters was now no easy task; but here again the fertile mind of Hastings was ready with a scheme. Having reduced them to the smallest compass, and rolled them into pieces of quill, he intrusted them to some well-tried HIRCARRAHS, or Hindoo messengers, who, by his orders, taking out their ear-rings, concealed them in their ears. Thus did these men pass safely and without detection through the hostile throng. Meanwhile, although the chief part of the insurgents had left Benares, and joined the prince beyond the river, the position of Hastings in the city continued full of peril. Not only was the insurrection general through the district of Benares; it was spreading through great part of the misgoverned state of Oude; it was threatening even the British province of Bahar. New passions began to ferment, and new hopes to rise. Cheyte Sing himself, instead of further pleas for mercy, was beginning to dream of conquest and revenge. Hastings and his small band, even though reinforced by some recruits, and by the boatmen who had brought them to Benares, could no longer hope to maintain themselves as a mere vanguard in the midst of foes. He set forth from the city by night, yet not unobserved, the rabble hooting him as he rode along with a jingling rhyme, not yet forgotten in Benares.* Unassailed, however, on this occasion, except in words, he made his way successfully to the rockfortress of Chunar. There he was quickly joined by a protecting force; at its head the brave and enterprising Major Popham, the conqueror of Gualior. Against such troops, and such a chief, the rabble of Cheyte Sing, now swelled to forty thousand, could not stand. The Hindoo "Hat' hee pur howdah, ghore pur jeen "Horse, elephant, howdah, set off at full speed, "It is a nursery rhyme which is often sung to children (at Benares)," says Bishop Heber. (Journals, vol. i. p. 438. ed. 1828.) Both the Bishop and another eminent writer of our own day appear to be in error when they consider this a song in praise of Hastings instead of in triumph over him. See a note to Impey's Memoirs of Sir Elijah, p. 234. prince was utterly routed and driven from his states. One of his kinsmen was in his stead named Rajah of Benares, but his yearly tribute was raised to forty Lacs of Rupees, and he became on all points a mere stipendiary and subject of the English, soon to be removed, as he had been appointed, by their sovereign will. Nothing was left to Cheyte Sing beyond the fortress of Bidgegur, which held his treasure, and which the princess his mother defended. After a siege of several weeks the place was reduced by Major Popham. The treasure after all Cheyte Sing's pleas of utter poverty, at the commencement of the contest- - was found to exceed in value 250,000l. But it did not, as Hastings hoped, go to replenish the coffers of Bengal; it was seized by the army as prize. The fault here lay mainly in the GovernorGeneral himself; in his own hasty letters and own inconsiderate expressions, during the heat of the siege. On reviewing the whole of this transaction, which in the impeachment of Hastings formed the great Benares charge, we find its real facts utterly distorted by the ardour of both sides. While Fox and Burke, in urging it, allege the vilest motives and most heinous crimes, not even the shadow of an indiscretion is allowed by Mr. Nicholls, or by Major Scott. Between the two extreme parties, thus fiercely warring upon Indian affairs, there arose a great Minister, free from any party-trammels with either. The judgment of Mr. Pitt, expressed, for the first time, in his speech of June, 1786, was formed, as he states, after a long and laborious study of the question. On nearly all points he approved the course of Hastings. He maintained that the Governor-General was entitled to consider Cheyte Sing as a feudatory prince, and to call upon him for extraordinary aid. He maintained that Cheyte Sing had shown contumacy in refusing such aid; and that, in punishment of his contumacy, Hastings had good right to impose on him a fine. "But," continued Mr. Pitt, "in fining the Rajah 500,000l. for a mere delay to pay 50,000l., which 50,000l. he had "actually paid, Mr. Hastings proceeded in an arbitrary, tyrannical manner, and was not guided by any principle "of reason and justice. This proceeding destroyed all "relation and connection between the degrees of guilt 66 66 |