and it is well understood that pecuniary assistance was offered to him by natives of India, who had nothing farther to expect or to fear from his influence. He was accused of raising revenue and seizing territories upon improper motives; but he challenged the Commons to resign the revenue, to withdraw from the territories, to undo his oppression, to repay these robberies, which all had gone into the public treasury; to reverse the policy which they blamed and which they endeavoured to punish; yet during his trial no member was bold enough to move a resolution for this measure of 'Justice to India." The policy adopted by Hastings has never been reversed; and even now, when nearly a century has passed, since he went abroad, his name is remembered among the natives as that of a benefactor, not a Tamerlane. 66 Burke was dissatisfied with ordinary criminalities, such as the world knew painfully had been often committed, but he advanced against Hastings crimes which, he said, Devi Sing, an officer of the Government and his subordinates had perpetrated. Devi Sing might have been the monster of guilt described by Mr. Burke without involving Hastings, who absolutely opposed his appointment, in his atrocities; but an inquiry then Elizabeth, Augusta, and Mary, with the Duchess of Gloucester, had places in the gallery. Mrs. Fitzherbert, a person notorious for her position, occupied a seat in the Royal box. At that time the Prince of Wales was a Whig, who dined with Burke, supped with Fox, and finished with Sheridan. He was, therefore, interested against Hastings. And so necessarily was Mrs. Fitzherbert. The Prince and the Dukes of Cumberland, Gloucester, and York, took places among the Peers. As all the Peers act as judges in great State trials, the attendance was numerous; while two hundred members of the Commons were in the quarter assigned to them as spectators. The first day was occupied with preliminaries. The second day was passed in reading the charges and answers. The third day brought Burke's opening speech. The Peers evinced great curiosity to hear this orator, for one hundred and sixty-four members were present, although only eighty attended to hear the charges and answers upon the second day. Burke's speech continued over to the fourth day, which commenced with an attendance of one hundred and seventythree Peers; and he only ended with the close of the fifth day. This oration has been compared with all other nota-pending in India, subsequently, while it ble accusations that had preceded it, in former trials, and has been assigned the first place, as the premier statement of a case "against the prisoner at the bar," in the annals of English criminal courts. But for easy assumption of rumours as facts, for daring invention, for cruel misrepresentation, for malignant bitterness, we know nothing in the English language that can be compared with this perversion of genius. The accusation proceeded upon the principle that Hastings, as Governor-General of India, was responsible for all the acts, of all men, employed by the Company, in that country, during a long period of war, and for the proceedings of all their allies. Cruelties, pillage, and rapine practised against the natives were charged against their Governor; and yet with all the influence of the Commons, of the Government, and of a party in the Directorship willing to help Burke and the other Managers, a single native never offered a syllable of evidence to support these statements; but very numerous addresses of condolence were sent to Hastings from the Hindoos during his trial; proved the culpability of that person and of his men, proved also that the frightful deeds narrated by Burke, in his opening speech, were never committed. We cannot trace the progress of a trial which was the most tedious in English history, or perhaps in the history of the world." Its formal commencement, in February 1788, followed preliminary movements that occupied three years. Its close in 1795 acquitted the prisoner, but did not release him from consequences which embittered the closing years of a long life. Its progress afforded opportunities for displays of genius, pointed with invective, unparalleled in the last century. We have mentioned the names of the principal managers for the Commons; and Drs. Scott, Lawrence, Messrs. Mansfield, Burke, Douglas, and Piggot were their counsel. Messrs. Law, Plomer, and Dallas were counsel for Hastings. This great array of lawyers necessarily caused long delays in the proceedings, for every point was disputed. The Commons exhibited a frequent and peevish defence of their privileges, altogether in consistent with public rights. The gentleman upon trial during all these years had to expend large sums of money in his defence. His fortune and patience wasted away together. He remonstrated against the long delays; and the press at last argued against them as oppressive and unconstitutional. The Marquis of Lansdowne, at the close of the trial, in the Peers, while declining to vote, expressed a clear opinion in favour of the Governor-General, and against his prosecutors; an opinion which, from his position, mortified Burke and Fox exceedingly. advantage to the Company, although against their directions. The Commons impeached, and the Directors thanked him for this policy. The two articles founded on the charge were thrown out by 22 to 4, and 23 to 3. The last article, namely, "Is Warren Hastings, Esq., guilty or not guilty of high crimes and misdemeanours charged upon him by the residue of the impeachment of the Commons?" was answered negatively by 25 to 2. Thereupon the Lord Chancellor Loughborough, who had been a bitter enemy to this the greatest prisoner, whom perhaps the Peers ever had at their bar, was compelled, with due regret, to address him in the following words of acquittal:-" Warren Hastings, Esq., I am to acquaint you that you are acquitted of the articles of impeachment, &c., exhibited against you by the House of Commons for high crimes and misdemeanours, and all things contained therein, and you are discharged, paying your fees.” When the evidence was closed, and the mode of procedure arranged, Lord Thurlow defended Mr. Hastings in the Peers, and the Lord Chancellor opposed him. All the charges of the Commons were negatived in committee; but each article of the charges, occasionally divided into different questions, was put and voted in Westminster Hall on Thursday the 23rd of April, 1795. The first charge impeaching the Governor- "Paying the fees." And the real fees, General for the improper acquisition of including all law charges for his defence, the Benares territory was negatived by amounted to 71,0807. The cost of the 23 to 6 votes. The second charge was prosecution to the nation exceeded lost by the same vote. The third, re- 100,000l. Thus ended a trial unpalating to the corrupt appropriation of ralleled in duration, importance, or ínisums of money, was negatived unani- quity. It dragged on for seven years. mously. The articles relating to the It involved the repayment from Indian illegal acceptance of presents were nega- resources of more than thirty-four, tived by 23 to 4; 23 to 3; 23 to 3; nearly thirty-five millions sterling, if the 23 to 3; 20 to 5. Warren Hastings Commons were justified in the impeachhad entirely extricated the opium re- ment-that being the sum which Has. venue from the Poona Council, yet he tings, according to Burke, had put not was charged with giving the contract into his own but into the Indian to Mr. Sullivan on too low terms. Even treasury, by high crimes and misdethe Managers did not suggest that the meanours. It was iniquitous, for arGovernor-General had a personal in- ticles were charged that were never terest in the business. The charge was tried, and statements were made in negatived by 19 to 5. The next charge speeches which even the Commons cenvirtually was for encouraging the smug-sured, after a regular discussion and gling of opium to China, and was repudiated unanimously. The following article charged him with impropriety in the substitution of the agency for the contract system in procuring bullocks for the army, and was lost by 23 to 3. A similar article in a precisely similar case was defeated by the same vote. When the Indian Empire was surrounded by foes and in great jeopardy, Hastings increased Sir Eyre Coote's allowances as Commander-in-Chief. He was impeached for this as a crime, but the article was rejected by 22 to 4. He had changed the contract to the agency system for garrisoning forts, with great vote. Twenty-five years afterwards a meeting occurred at Calcutta to devise measures for the erection of a statue to Hastings. The Marquis of Hastings, then Governor-General, although with a corresponding name, yet not a connexion of the first Governor-General's, stated that he was a Peer on the trial and opposed the impeachment; while on his visiting India he found new and abundant evidence to the falsehood of the charges. The European speakers at that meeting all confessed that they left England prejudiced against Hastings; but they met on every side after their arrival proofs of his integrity and sagacity that were unimpeachable. He consolidated the provinces which now form India. He foresaw and prepared the union of the three Presidencies. 'He devised laws, while he resisted the most formidable combinations against the young empire. He established schools, insisted on the study of the vernacular by Englishmen in the service, instituted printing in the original languages, provided against the recurrence of famines in Bengal by irrigation, and left the country organised down to the smallest police station. He negotiated the treaties with Berar, which have added that country to the empire in the present year; with Oude, which resulted, a few months since, in the offer of 12,000 soldiers to aid in the war against Russia; with the North-western Powers, which have carried the em pire beyond the Sutlej. He encouraged geographical inquiry, and the study of Oriental literature. He commenced the cultivation of the sugar cane in Bengal, and sugar is now the most important staple of its export trade. He opened the overland route, which the Directors and the Government closed, lest Britain should become too familiar with Hindostan. He governed directly thirty millions of people, and indirectly thirty millions more, without constitution, parliament, or precedents, during thirteen years, chiefly, of war; and the industry of his enemies, during an impeachment which continued virtually for ten years, could not discover a single Hindoo witness against his government. Comparatively few Peers voted on the articles, but many were present in the Hall, and the acquittal coincided with the almost unanimous feeling of the House, and with popular opinion, often correct, even upon subjects depending on voluminous evidence. All the AngloIndian witnesses expressed the highest opinion of Hastings, alike in his private and public capacity. The military officers addressed him in a document of the strongest character, to which many hundred signatures were attached. The findings of the Peers were followed by rejoicings in some places. The spring of 1796 brought very numerous congratulations and letters from India. The Directors and Proprietors of the East India Company agreed to defray the expenses of the defence. The Board of Control and the Government prevented the fulfilment of this just measure. A loan of 50,000l. was, therefore, given to Mr. Hastings without interest, and after the repayment of 16,0007., the balance of 34,000l. was remitted. The expenses of the defence amounted to 71,0807., and the difference 37,0807. was paid by Hastings from a fortune which never at its utmost accumulation exceeded 96,0007. This policy of the Government was more shameful, because at the time immense sums were squandered in pensions to persons of no abilities, and who had no claim on public regard. From the Company an annual pension of 4,000l. was This celebrated trial has found several voted to Mr. Hastings. He found the narrators. The most impartial account British Empire in India on the eve of seems to have been taken in parts, and destruction, and organised it in a dur- published in 1786, for J. Debrett, but it able form. He had to pay for the wars occupies more than seven or eight hunof three Presidencies, and he sayed to dred octavo pages in double columns, and the revenue money which, at the period is inaccessible to general readers. Mill, of his trial, amounted nearly to thirty- in his "History of British India," should four millions sterling. His government have given a fair view of it; but, in rein thirteen years raised the revenue of ference to the evidence of Lord CornBengal from three to five millions ster- wallis, he says it "contributed little to ling. He attached allies and conquered establish anything," and of Mr. Lar enemies, yet gained completely the fa-kins's, he admits that "it had a tenyour of the Hindoos, and the good-will of the Anglo-Indian services more fully than any one of his able and numerous successors. The language of Hastings, on his own defence, is the best description of the conduct pursued by him. Alluding to India, he said, "I gave you all, and you have rewarded me with confiscation, disgrace, and a life of impeach ment." dency, but no more than a tendency, rather to clear than convict Mr. Hastings." Subsequently, of the two examinations he alleges that they "just as little established anything in favour," as they did in crimination of Mr. Hastings." But Lord Cornwallis swore that the natives might have complained to him against the conduct of Hastings, and that they never did; that they esteemed and respected him, as he found on his arrival, and the feeling continued to his departure; that Hastings's utmost exertions had been necessary to counteract the confederacy formed against the British Empire, and that he had undoubtedly rendered essential service to it. Lord Cornwallis was one of his successors, and Mr. Larkins had been accountant to the Company at Calcutta, and the private secretary of the Governor-General. The Managers admitted his high character, and his testimony that in no one instance, and he had full opportunities of making the observation, had Mr. Hastings done any one act, either with an immediate or a remote view to his own personal advantage; on the contrary, his known and fixed character was the very opposite to that which has been imputed to him." These were the testimonies which Mill, as an impartial historian, says "just as little established anything in favour as they did in crimination of Mr. Hastings." was, After the termination of this trial Hastings was sworn into the Privy Council, but he seldom interfered in public life. Called upon for evidence on an India Bill, he was examined by the Peers in 1814, and on the departure of this then aged witness from the House, their Lordships simultaneously rose in compliment to his years, the value of his services, and his personal worth. But he lived and died eminently one of the people, who, like Cromwell, rose from the middle classes of society, to accomplish a great work for England; and he never received, as probably he never desired, those honours conferred often for very trivial services. The cir. cumstance need not be regretted, for baronetcies or peerages were obtained then on terms always easy, often foul; and it is better that the organiser of the Anglo-Indian Empire should go down to posterity as Warren Hastings, of Daylesford. The latter years of his life were passed in that peace which he had long desired, upon the spot which he had sought from infancy, in those literary pursuits, which he greatly enjoyed, and among the friends whom he valued warmly and trusted well. He died on the 22nd August, 1818, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. The Anglo-Indian Empire, the greatest and the most powerful of Asia, is his monument; and as years roll into ages, as its purpose in providential designs becomes developed and its resources are matured, men will regard with increasing respect the talents of the humble Englishman, who found it in danger and on the brink of destruction, but left it in a career of prosperity, which has never since been checked; yet was persecuted in the decline of life, because in busier years he sharply reproved politicians for inundating Calcutta with incapable persons, the objects of their patronage, who could not or would not even learn the languages of the races whom they aspired to govern. He outlived many of his persecutors; but Francis, his oldest enemy, the reputed author of the letters of Junius, died in the same year Mr. Law, his able and faithful counsel, better known as Lord Ellenborough, lived long in terms of friendship with his celebrated client, and they went down to the grave almost together, in the same year, 1818. ALEXANDER POPE. IF Queen Anne's is the Augustan age | were the companions of courtiers, and of English literature, it is not because it surpasses every other in intellectual wealth and splendour, for the genius of our country did not culminate there. The points of resemblance between it and the times of Horace and Virgil are nevertheless remarkable. It was the age of patronage; as in Rome, wits the refinements of society, blending obnoxious restrictions with delicate tastes, were allowed to clothe poetry in the mantle of artificial life. Both eras were deficient in earnestness of purpose, and in depth and boldness of thought; they were imitative rather than creative, originality languished, inspiration was sought in the works of the past, and not in nature "ever fair and young." The file and the pruning-hook were in great demand; it was "the last and greatest art, the art to blot." Each era had, if not its epic, its preceptive poems, its pastorals, and its "Ars Poetica;" and each witnessed conflicts of the satirical Muse that resulted in unprecedented achievements. ALEXANDER POPE, the facile princeps of his age, was born on the 21st of May, 1688, in Lombard-street, London, where his father carried on the business of a linen merchant. The Herald's Office is silent as to his pedigree, and it matters little, for Poesy and Genius are no courtly parasites; they walk the wide earth with smiles and gifts for the lowliest. The poet, it is true, when meanly taunted by an aristocrat with his obscure birth, deigned angrily to repel the insinuation:-"As to my father, I could assure you, my lord, that he was no mechanic (neither a hatter, nor which might please your lordship yet better, a cobbler), but, in truth, of a very tolerable family; and my mother of a very ancient one, as well born and educated as that lady whom your lordship made choice of to be the mother of your own children." And singing of himself, he says:— Of gentle blood (part shed in honour's cause, and appends a note, affirming his descent from the Earl of Downe, on his father's side, and on the maternal, from a Yorkshire family, one member of which died in the service of King Charles. Unfortunately for Pope, there is strong evidence proving this genealogical tree to be, in part, a figment of his own. Soon after the birth of the poet, his father, of Alexander from his infancy was considered a prodigy. In constitution he was tender and delicate, and in disposition correspondingly gentle. He was nursed with great care, and became the favourite of the household; while the sweetness of his voice won for him the appellation of "the little nightingale.” From an old aunt he learned to read, and he taught himself to write, by imitating printed books. When about eight he was put under the tuition of the family priest, who, according to the method of the Jesuits at that time, taught him the rudiments of Latin and Greek together. He was then sent to a Catholic school at Twyford, where, though so young, he dared to lampoon his master, and bring chastisement on himself by his verses. His father is said to have removed him in a fit of resentment consequent on this castigation, and to have placed him in a school at London, first kept in Marylebone, and afterwards at Hyde Park Corner. Returning home at the close of his twelfth year, he was for some time under another priest; and 66 this," he said to Spence, "was all the teaching I ever had, and it extended a very little way. When I had done with my priests, I took to reading by myself, for which I had a very great eagerness and enthusiasm, especially for poetry; and in a few years I had dipped into a great number of the English, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek poets. This I did without any design but that of pleasing myself; and got the languages by hunting after the stories in the several poets I read, rather than read the books to get the languages. I followed everywhere as my fancy led me; and was like a boy gathering flowers in the fields and woods just as they fall in his way. These five or six who was then about forty-six years years I still look upon as the happiest age, and had already amassed a considerable fortune, retired from trade and the City, alarmed at the Revolution, which, as a Roman Catholic, he could not approve. He then established him self in Kensington, where he purchased a small estate; but afterwards selling this, he removed to Binfield, situated in the Royal Chace of Windsor Forest, where he had bought a house and about twenty acres of land. *See "Pope's Poetical Works, edited by Robert Carruthers," advertisement to the second volume, for recent evidence on this controverted point. part of after stating that he had taught himself life." On another occasion, my both Greek and Latin, he added, “I did not follow the grammar, but rather hunted in the authors for a syntax of my own; and then began translating in the best Greek and Latin poets; and any part that pleased me, particularly by that means formed my taste, which, I think, verily about sixteen, was very nearly as good as it is now." The poetical tastes of the boy had early discovered themselves; and these *Spence's Anecdotes. |