The trumpet has been sounded, and the whole host of informers will soon crowd to Calcutta with their complaints and ready depositions. Nuncomar holds his durbar in complete state, sends for zemindars and their vakils, coaxing and threatening them for complaints, which no doubt he will get in abundance, besides what he forges himself. The system which they have laid down for conducting their affairs is, as I am told, after this manner. The General1 rummages the Consultations 2 for disputable matter. . . . Colonel Monson receives, and I have been assured descends to solicit, accusations. Francis writes.

Was it for this that the Legislature of Great Britain formed the new system of Government for Bengal, and armed it with powers extending to every part of the British empire in India? ...

I cannot temporize and after two years of anguish, I will either retain my seat in comfort, or I will not keep it. I never can be on terms of ease with these men.

(Gleig i. 513.)

52. THE DESTRUCTIVE WORK OF THE MAJORITY

To Laurence Sulivan, March 21, 1776.

The maxims which I laid down for my conduct, and by which it was invariably guided, were these :-First, to implant the authority of the Company, and the sovereignty of Great Britain, in the constitution of this country. Secondly, to abolish all secret influence, and make the government itself responsible for all measures, by making them all pass by its avowed authority. Thirdly, to remove all impediments which prevented the complaints of the people from reaching the ears of the supreme administration, or established an independent despotism in its agents. Fourthly, to relieve the ryots from oppressive taxes. Fifthly, to introduce a regular system of justice and protection into the country. Sixthly, to relieve the distresses of the Company at home; you know how great they were; and pay off their heavy debts here, by a uniform and regular mode of collecting their rents, by savings in expenses, and by foreign acquisitions of wealth. And lastly, to extend the political influence of the Company without enlarging their territory or dividing their military strength.

1 Clavering.

2 The detailed records of proceedings of the Council.

I need not repeat the means which were used to accomplish these ends. The present government has proceeded on principles diametrically opposite to mine. First, they have broken all the arrangements which I made in the Nawab's family in 1772; replaced Mahomed Reza Khan; restored the office of Naib Suba; dismissed the Begum from her office . . . publicly proclaimed the Nawab's sovereignty, and disclaimed that of the Company. Secondly, they have made their own power uncontrolled, and contrived to preclude its operations from public view, by the pretended independency granted to Mahomed Reza Khan. Thirdly, they have abolished, or rendered of no effect, all the courts of justice, and avow their intentions of restoring the collectorships. Fourthly, they exclaim against me for overcharging the revenue, though I. struck off every oppressive article of it, and let the lands on lower terms than the jamma1 of former years, but such only as the lands, under favourable circumstances, might very well bear, allowing for accidents of drought and inundation, which might entitle the farmers to indulgences. These indulgences, whenever they could prove their title to them, I always granted. The majority allow of none; but while they declare the ryots oppressed, refuse to consent to a single remission which might relieve them. . . . Sixthly, they have branded the suspension of the King's tribute with the appellation of violation of public faith; they have called the cession of Kora the sale of others' property; they have called the subsidy which I had fixed with the Vizier at 210,000 rupees (and which they had augmented to 260,000 rupees), and the stipulation for the Rohilla war, a mercenary prostitution of the Company's arms for hire; they have paid off a part of the bonded debt with the means furnished by these acts of injustice, and now lay claim to the whole merit of it, though it is impossible for them to produce a single instance, in the whole period of their administration, of a rupee saved, or a rupee gained, by any measure of theirs, except the late acquisition of Benares, obtained at the expense of twice the amount of its yearly revenue, which the Nawab of Oudh owes to the Company, and which he can never pay them. . . The Nawab's 2 finances

and resources are totally exhausted. His troops are disaffected to a man. They have been permitted to oppose his authority in instances of the most criminal disobedience, and the only severity which has been ever exercised towards them

was in the massacre of 20,000 of his sepoys (at least Bristow 1 computes the loss at that amount) who mutinied for their pay. This horrid event passed about a month ago. (Gleig ii. 30.)

53. SCHEMES OF REFORM

(In the midst of his conflict with the Council, Hastings still laboured to secure an improvement of the system of government. The hostile majority had practically destroyed his new judicial system. He foresaw that the Supreme Court, established by the Act of 1773, was certain to form a source of confusion, since it administered English law, and the limits of its jurisdiction were very vaguely defined. In the following passage from a letter to Lord North, the author of the Act, he makes a suggestion by which the native courts and law might be strengthened and saved from ruin, while conflict of jurisdiction between them and the Supreme Court might be avoided, by placing the native courts under the supervision of the English judges. To this idea he returned in 1780, when the conflict of jurisdictions was at its height (see No. 56). His device was then entirely successful. It formed one of the grounds of his impeachment !)

To Lord North, January 20, 1776.

I persuade myself that I shall stand in no need of any apology for troubling your Lordship with the enclosed sheets. They contain the copy of a plan which I have transmitted to the Court of Directors by this despatch, for the more perfect distribution of justice in these provinces. The design of it may be comprised in a few words. It is, to extend the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Judicature to all parts of the provinces without any limitation; to confirm the Courts which have been established on the principles of the ancient constitution of the country, by the names of Nizamat and Diwani ; to unite the judges of the Supreme Court with the members of the Council in the control of the latter, and to give the Provincial Councils a legal authority in the internal government of the country, and in the collection of the public revenue.

(Gleig ii. 14.)

54. HASTINGS' DEFENCE OF INDIAN LAW

(One of Hastings' root principles was that Indian law and custom should be as far as possible preserved and respected; and during the first period of his governorship, while his new judicial system was being

1 The agent of the majority at the court of Oudh.

2 The main question was, Who were covered by the term "British subjects" Did this include all the inhabitants of Bengal, or only the inhabitants of Calcutta and the servants of the Company?

created, he set on foot the creation of a Hindu code, which was also translated into English for the guidance of the Company's servants. When he learnt that the wiseacres of 1773 proposed to introduce English law, to be administered by a new Supreme Court, he sprang to the defence of the Indian system, appealing to Lord Mansfield, the greatest of English lawyers, in the first of the following letters. His interest in the subject was maintained during the period of conflict; and is expressed in the second of the following excerpts, also addressed to Lord Mansfield. The whole cost of compiling the code was borne by Hastings out of his own pocket.)

To Lord Mansfield, March 21, 1774.

Among the various plans which have been lately formed for the improvement of the British interests in the provinces of Bengal, the necessity of establishing a new form of judicature, and giving laws to a people who were supposed to be governed by no other principle of justice than the arbitrary wills, or uninstructed judgments, of their temporary rulers, has been frequently suggested; and this opinion I fear has obtained the greater strength from some publications of considerable merit in which it is too positively asserted that written laws are totally unknown to the Hindus or original inhabitants of Hindustan. From whatever cause this notion has proceeded, nothing can be more foreign from truth. I presume, my Lord, if this assertion can be proved, you will not deem it necessary that I should urge any argument in defence of their right to possess those benefits under a British and Christian administration which the Mahomedan government has never denied them. It would be a grievance to deprive the people of the protection of their own laws, but it would be a wanton tyranny to require their obedience to others of which they are wholly ignorant, and of which they have no possible means of acquiring a knowledge. It was judged advisable for the sake of giving confidence to the people, and of enabling the Courts to decide with certainty and despatch, to form a compilation of the Hindu laws with the best authority which could be obtained; and for that purpose ten of the most learned pundits were invited to Calcutta from different parts of the province, who cheerfully undertook this work, have incessantly laboured in the prosecution of it, and have already, as they assure me, completed it, all but the revisal and correction of it.

This code they have written in their own language, the Sanscrit. A translation of it is begun under the inspection of one of their body into the Persian language, and from that

into English. The two first chapters I have now the honour to present to your Lordship with this, as a proof that the inhabitants of this land are not in the savage state in which they have been unfairly represented, and as a specimen of the principles which constitute the rights of property among them. . . . With respect to the Mahomedan law, which is the guide at least of one fourth of the natives of this province, your Lordship need not be told that this is as comprehensive, and as well defined, as that of most states in Europe, having been formed at a time in which the Arabians were in possession of all the real learning which existed in the western parts of this continent. (Gleig i. 399.)

To Lord Mansfield, January 20, 1776.

Few circumstances could have afforded me more pleasure than the manner in which your Lordship has been pleased to express your acceptance of the specimen which I took the liberty to send you of the Hindu laws, and your approbation of my endeavours to render the knowledge of them familiar to the inhabitants of this country, and to my own countrymen settled in it; my merit in this performance was very small. It consisted only in the original design, in making choice of persons able and well qualified for such a work, and in encouraging them in the execution of it. I have now the honour to send you the remainder of the translation, with a preface and introduction of the pundits, or original compilers. There is an uncommon liberality of sentiment in the preface, or preliminary discourse, which I think I may venture to pronounce will make it highly acceptable to your Lordship; and in the little treatise which comprehends the duties of the sovereign magistrate . . . I am certain your Lordship will admit the good sense and benevolence which appear to have inspired the venerable authors whose precepts are extracted in it.

(Gleig ii. 20.)

PERIOD III

THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE, 1776-85

During the last and longest period of Hastings' rule much excellent work was done in revising and strengthening the

L