But alas for the fair fame not only of Hastings, but of England! another and a weightier question was then decided at Benares. The Rohillas, a tribe of Afghan blood, had earlier in that century, and as allies of the Mogul, descended into the plains of Hindostan. They had obtained for their reward that fertile country which lies between the Ganges and the mountains on the western boundary of Oude. That country bore from them the name of Rohilcund. It had been earned by their services, and it was flourishing under their dominion. Of late there had sprung up a difference between them and their neighbours of Oude, with respect to some pecuniary stipulations which the Rohillas contracted and were backward to discharge. On that ground, Sujah Dowlah had a plea for war against thema plea certainly plausible, and perhaps just. His real aim, however, was not the settlement of their account, but rather the entire subjugation of their race. He had little hope that his rabble of the plains would stand firm against the hardier offspring of the northern mountaineers. Therefore he applied to the English Governor for the aid of English bayonets; and this request came before Hastings at a time when the Bengal treasury was weighed down with heavy debts, and when nevertheless the letters from the Court of Directors were calling on him in the most earnest terms for large remittances. The Indian prince wanted soldiers, and the English chief wanted money, and on this foundation was the bargain struck between them. It was agreed that a body of the Company's troops should be sent to aid the Nabob Visier in the conquest of the Rohilla country; that the whole expense of these troops while engaged upon that service should be borne by him; and that when the object was accomplished he should pay to the English a farther sum of forty Lacs of Rupees.

Not many months elapsed before these stipulations were fulfilled. In April, 1774, an English brigade under Colonel Champion invaded the Rohilla districts; and in a hard-fought battle gained a decisive victory over the Rohilla troops. Exactly half a century afterwards an English Bishop, on his first Visitation progress, found the whole scene still fresh in the traditions of the country.

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THE ROHILLA WAR.

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It was described to him how Hafiz, the Rohilla chief, an aged warrior, with a long grey beard, remained at last almost alone on a rising ground, in the heat of the fire, conspicuous by his splendid dress and stately horse, waving his hand, and vainly endeavouring to bring back his army to another charge; till, seeing that all was lost, he waved his hand once more, gave a shout, and galloped forwards to die, shot through and through, upon the English bayonets. The Nabob Visier applied for the body of Hafiz, that it might be cut in pieces and his grey head be carried on a pike about the country. But the English Colonel, with a nobler spirit, caused it to be wrapped in shawls and sent with due honour to his kinsmen. The other Afghan chiefs submitted, excepting only one, Fyzoola Khan, who continued his resistance, and was enabled at length to obtain some terms of peace from the Visier. Throughout this conflict, nothing could be more dastardly than the demeanour of the troops of Oude. They had slunk to the rear of the armies; they had kept aloof from the fight; and it was only after the battle was decided, that they came forward to plunder the camp, and despoil the dead and dying. Many an indignant murmur was heard from the British ranks: "We have the honour of the day, and these banditti, "these robbers, are to have the profit!"* Nor was this all. The Visier and his soldiery next applied themselves to wreak their fury on the vanquished, and to lay waste with sword and fire the rich plains of Rohilcund. No terms whatever had been made by Hastings for the more humane and merciful conduct of the war; and Colonel Champion, in his private letters to the Governor, might well avow his fear that, although we stood free from all participation in these cruel deeds, the mere fact of our having been silent spectators of them, would tend, in the minds of the whole Indian people, to the dishonour of the English name.

The case of Hastings as to the Rohillas -a case at the best a bad one -was farther injured by the indiscretion of his friends. Some of them afterwards pleaded for him

* Letter from Colonel Champion to Warren Hastings, April 24.

in the House of Commons, that the Rohillas were not among the native possessors of the soil in India, but only an invading tribe of foreign lineage and of recent conquest. With just indignation, Mr. Wilberforce exclaimed, "Why, what are we but the Rohillas of Bengal?”* But Hastings himself took better ground. Besides the pecuniary advantages, on which no question could exist, he had political arguments to urge in vindication of his treaty. It was of paramount importance to us to form a close alliance with Oude; and, on forming an alliance with that State, we had a full right to espouse its quarrels ; nor could its frontier be made compact and defensible without the expulsion of the Rohillas, who, after all, even in their own districts, formed but a small minority of the entire population, and whose cause was in no degree supported by their Hindoo subjects. Statements of this kind, certainly specious, and even in some part true, but as certainly, I think, inadequate for vindication, had much weight at a later period with many able and upright men as for example with Lord Grenville. But they did not even for a moment mislead the Prime Minister at the time of the transaction. "As soon"—thus, in 1786, spoke Lord North in the House of Commons 66 as soon as I was apprised of the facts of "the Rohilla war, I thought the conduct of Mr. Hastings "highly censurable; and I sent to the Court of Directors, "urging them to combine with me for his recall."†

It was at the close of the Rohilla war, in October, 1774, that there anchored in the Ganges the ship which brought from England the expected Members of the Council and the Judges of the Supreme Court. Of the three new Councillors, Francis was by far the youngest; but his more shining and ardent spirit gave him a great ascendancy over Clavering's and Monson's. He came— there is little risk in affirming-determined to find fault; ready, whatever might befal, to cavil and oppose. The

* Speech in the House of Commons, June 2. 1786.

† Parl. Hist. vol. xxvi. p. 45. In the same debate (p. 54.) Mr. W. W. Grenville "was ready to avow his opinion that he thought "the war was perfectly just as well as politic." For the true state

of Rohilcund in 1774, see a note by Professor Wilson upon Mill. (Hist. vol. iii. p. 575.)

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DIFFERENCES WITH HASTINGS.

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very first despatch which he and his two colleagues addressed to the Directors, is filled with complaints that sufficient respect had not been paid them; that no guard of honour had met them on the beach; that the batteries of Fort William, in their salute, instead of twenty-one guns as they expected, had fired only seventeen. The same punctilious and resentful temper attended them in their deliberations. Of the five who met in Council, the old servants of the Company, Hastings and Barwell, stood together; on the other side were arrayed, as though in military order, the General, the Colonel, and the late War-Office Clerk. Thus they formed a majority upon every question that arose; thus, from the very first they wrested the whole power of the Government and all substantial patronage from the hands of Hastings.

So eager were these gentlemen to taste the sweets of power, that Hastings found some difficulty in prevailing upon them to pause even for a single day. With scarce time to read the Minutes, with none at all to inquire or reflect, they began to act. They ordered the English brigade to march back from Rohilcund, whatever might be then the condition of that province. They recalled, with every token of disgrace, Mr. Middleton, the confidential friend of Hastings, and by him appointed the Resident in Oude. They insisted, that even the most private of Mr. Middleton's letters should be laid before them. On these points Hastings, as he was bound, was not slow in appealing to Lord North. He observes most justly, that the new Councillors, even though they might condemn the whole policy and direction of the Rohilla War, ought rather, if they desired to establish future harmony, and to maintain the credit of the government free from inconsistency, to have afforded to their Governor-General the means of receding, without fixing a mark of reprobation on his past conduct, and without wounding his personal consequence at the Court of Oude. And Hastings adds: "Had they acted on such conciliatory principles, I should, if I know my own heart, have "cheerfully joined in whatever system they might after"wards think fit to adopt; not pretending in such a case "to set my judgment against the will of the majority;

66

"but it was not to be expected that I should subscribe "implicitly to a direct censure of myself."*

In his more familiar letters, the Governor-General thus in strong colours paints the scene: "General "Clavering is, I verily believe, a man of strict honour, but "he brought strong prejudices with him. Colonel "Monson is a sensible man, but received his first im"pressions from Major Grant. As for Francis, "I shall say nothing of him." A few months later, when the animosities had darkened, Hastings writes: "The "General rummages the Consultations for disputable "matter with old Fowke. Colonel Monson receives, and "I have been assured, descends even to solicit, accusa"tions. Francis writes." †

Confident in their absolute majority, the three new Councillors pursued their course of rashness, or, as Hastings terms it, frenzy. On the decease of Sujah Dowlah, and the succession of his son Asaph-ul-Dowlah as Nabob Visier, they passed a preposterous vote that the treaties which had been signed with the former should be considered as personal and as having ended with his life. They unsettled for a time the whole administration, both financial and judicial, of Bengal. Still more mischievous was their meddling in the case of Bombay, then first under the recent Act reduced to a subordinate Presidency. They rebuked its Council, and they reversed its policy; and, in utter ignorance of its affairs, took new measures for entangling it in the differences of the several Mahratta chiefs. Meanwhile their power seemed so unquestionable, and their hostility to Hastings so clear, that many of his personal enemies began to brood over projects of revenge as certain of attainment. Englishmen of the name of Fowke came forward to charge him with corruption. The Ranee, or Princess, of Burdwan, with her adopted son, sent in a similar complaint. But foremost of all in rancour as in rank was Nuncomar. He put into the hands of Francis a paper

*Letter to Lord North, December 4. 1774.

Two

† Letters to Mr. Palk and to Colonel Maclean of December, 1774, and March 25. 1775. Memoirs of Hastings, by Gleig, vol. i. pp. 477. and 516.