Oude to subdue the Rohillas, a warlike Afghan tribe, who had settled on the north-west frontier of Oude, and were dangerous neighbours, but they had never given any cause for war. (b) He demanded from Cheyte Sindh, the Rajah of Benares, the sum of £50,000 as his contribution to the war. When the Rajah refused to pay, Hastings imposed upon him a fine equivalent to the enormous sum of £500,000, and afterwards deposed him. (c) Hastings being still in want of money to carry on the war, applied to the Nabob of Oude for assistance. The State treasures of the Nabob, however, had been left by his late father to his mother and grandmother-the Begums of Oude, as they were called. Assisted by British troops, the Nabob unjustly extorted no less than £1,000,000 from these ladies, and applied it to the expenses of the Mysore war. 3. First War with the Mahrattas. The Bombay Government was anxious to exercise the same power over the Mahrattas (one of the most powerful confederations in India) as Bengal did over the Nabob of Oude. The Mahrattas, however, resented this interference, and headed by Scindiah, the most powerful chief of their race, attacked the British territory, and defeated the British troops sent against them. Being hard pressed, the Company appealed to Hastings for assistance. By a daring stroke of military enterprise, he greatly impressed the natives with a sense of his power, and saved the credit of the British arms. He sent a body of 5000 men right across the peninsula from Bengal to Surat, a distance of 1000 miles, through a country beset with almost insurmountable difficulties. This small force overran the whole province of Guzerat, and took the strongly fortified town of Gwalior, Scindiah's capital. By the Treaty of Salbye (1782), peace was secured, and the island of Salsette ceded to the British. 4. War with Hyder Ali, 1781. Hyder Ali was a Mohammedan military adventurer, and the ablest native general in India. He had deposed the rightful princes of the kingdom of Mysore, and seized the throne for himself. With an efficient army of 100,000 men, trained in part by French officers, he swept down on the lands of the Carnatic, over which the British held sway. "A storm of universal fire blasted every field, consumed every house, and destroyed every temple," while the wretched inhabitants were either massacred or driven into captivity. In 1781 Hastings sent Sir Eyre Coote, the victor of Wandewash twenty years before, to relieve the Carnatic. At Porto Novo, Coote inflicted a crushing defeat on Hyder Ali's immense host, and the following year Hyder Ali died, leaving the throne to his son Tippoo. In 1784 Tippoo, having been deserted by the French, was constrained to make peace with the English. 5. Impeachment of Warren Hastings. In 1785 Hastings gave up his office and returned to England. Sir Philip Francis, his old enemy, and the supposed writer of the celebrated Junius Letters, had just before returned to England, and had represented to Fox and Burke, that Hastings had acted most tyrannically in his capacity as Governor-General. Francis was one of the four original members of Hastings' council, and had used his utmost endeavours to oppose every scheme which Hastings brought forward. At this time Pitt was in power, and although he believed much that was said about Hastings, he did not wish to undertake his impeachment. The management of the impeachment was therefore entrusted to Fox, Burke, and Sheridan, three of the most prominent members of the Opposition. The trial began in 1788, and dragged on for seven years. Of the twenty-two charges brought against him, only four were fully gone into. These charges were (1) That he had illegally lent the British troops to the Nabob of Oude, to be used by him for the extirpation of the Rohillas; (2) That he had extorted large sums of money from Cheyte Sindh, the Rajah of Benares; (3) That he had deposed the same ruler and appropriated the whole of his revenue; (4) That he had cruelly extorted immense sums of money from the Begums, or Princesses of Oude. NOTE. Hastings was, next to Clive, the greatest Englishman who had of Burgoyne's disaster at Saratoga reached him he said, "If it be really true that the British arms and influence have suffered so severe a check in the Western World, it is more incumbent on those who are charged with the interests of Great Britain in the East to exert themselves for the retrieval of the national loss." His faultsand they are great-ought to be forgotten when we consider the mighty work he accomplished and the great difficulties with which he had to contend, and although Burke and Sheridan laboured hard to prove him guilty of the charges laid against him, he was in the end acquitted (1795). 6. Fox's India Bill, 1783. In 1783 Fox, assisted by Burke, brought in his India Bill for the better government of India. It enacted that the authority of the East India Company should be transferred to a board of seven Commissioners nominated by Parliament, and capable of holding office for four years, and after that period to be named by the Crown. In virtue of this Bill, the whole patronage of India was placed in the hands of the Commissioners, and the power and influence of the Crown considerably weakened. As Lord Thurlow said, when the Bill was laid before the House of Lords, "The King would in fact take the diadem with his own hands and place it on the head of Mr. Fox." George III. adopted a very unconstitutional method of opposing the Bill. He sent Lord Temple to each peer with a written message stating, "That whoever voted for the India Bill was not only not his friend, but would be considered by him as an enemy." The result was that the Bill was thrown out by the Lords. The King immediately dismissed the "Coalition Ministers," and made William Pitt, the second son of the great Chatham, Prime Minister. 7. Rise of Pitt. The new Prime Minister was in many ways a very remarkable man. He had been trained by his father for a parliamentary career. After his first speech in the House of Commons, a member remarked to Fox that Pitt would become the first man in Parliament. "He is so already," replied Fox. He was only twenty-five years of age when he accepted the Premiership, and the Opposition wits laughed "at a kingdom trusted to a school-boy's care." The partisans of Fox and North prophesied that they would drive him to resign in less than three weeks, and proceeded to throw out every bill which he brought before the House. But Pitt determined to dissolve Parliament and risk a general election. In this bold stroke of policy he was eminently successful. His popularity was so great, and the old "Coalition Ministers" so detested, that the election which followed was a grand triumph for Pitt and the King. No less than 160 of Fox's followers lost their seats, and the wits of the day called them "Fox's Martyrs." Pitt was the first premier since the beginning of the reign who had possessed the confidence of the King and the nation, and no premier since Walpole had occupied such a position of influence and power. 8. Pitt's India Bill passes, 1784. India was Pitt's first consideration. In 1784 he passed his India Bill (1) Establishing a Board of Control, consisting of six members of the Privy Council, including the Secretary of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with supreme authority over the administration of the Company, both civil and military. (2) All patronage and business were to be left in the hands of the Company, but the Crown was to have a veto in the case of appointment to the chief offices. NOTE. In virtue of this Bill the supreme power over the Company was vested in the Crown. The Bill remained in force until 1858. 9. War with Tippoo Sahib, 1799. (1) Tippoo Sahib had always been a restless and quarrelsome neighbour, and in 1799 he invaded the territory of the Rajah of Travancore, who was under the protection of the East India Company. Lord Cornwallis, the Governor-General, formed an alliance with the Nizam and the Peshwa, the chief of the Mahrattas, to crush Tippoo, and having advanced into the very heart of his dominions, stormed his camp and threatened Seringapatam, his capital. Tippoo was compelled to sue for peace, which was granted to him on condition of his giving up half of his dominions, and a large sum of money. (2) French influence was again beginning to make itself felt in the native States. There were French troops in the service of the Nizam, the Peshwa, and Scindiah. Tippoo, too, had made an alliance with the French, who flattered his vanity by calling him "Citizen Tippoo," and sent troops from the Mauritius to assist him. Lord Mornington (Marquess of Wellesley) was Governor-General at that time, and a very able ruler, and he persuaded the Nizam and the Peshwa to dismiss the French troops and put themselves under British protection. He then ordered Tippoo to disband his army, but he refused, and Lord Mornington sent General Harris to invade his dominions. The English defeated Tippoo at Malavelley, and he retreated to his well-fortified capital, Seringapatam. A month later General Baird took this fortress after a most desperate struggle, in which Tippoo was slain, while trying to defend his palace. Half Mysore was annexed to the British territory, and the other half restored to the Rajahs, whom Hyder Ali had deposed. The Carnatic became a province under the Presidency of Madras. 10. Second War with the Mahrattas, 1803. Under Lord Mornington's rule as Governor-General, the native princes were expected to receive a British resident at their capitals to direct their foreign policy. This movement roused the fears of the great Mahratta chiefs Scindiah and Holkar, and they invaded the Peshwa's territory, who had lately made a treaty with the Governor-General. To save the Peshwa, Mornington sent his brother Sir Arthur Wellesley (afterwards the Duke of Wellington) to attack the Mahrattas on the south, and General Lake on the north-east. At Assaye (1803), Wellesley, with a force numbering only 4500 men, came upon Scindiah's immense host of 50,000 and completely routed it. General Lake took Delhi, and placed the Mogul under British authority, and in a hard-fought battle at Laswaree (1803) crushed the Mahrattas. The results of these successes were (a) The Mahratta power was completely broken; (6) The whole of the Peninsula of India became subject to England. NOTE. The capture of the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius by a powerful expedition sent out by Lord Minto in 1810, practically put an end to the French power in the Indian Ocean. SECTION VIII.-THE GREAT INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. 1. Improvements made in Textile Manufactures. A great impetus was given to textile manufactures by a series of inventions in connection with the cotton manufactures. (a) In 1767 in order to provide thread for the weavers, |