and rich carpets. Canvas awnings stretched over the streets from the roofs of the houses, to exclude the scorching rays of the sun. The rooms of the houses fronting on the streets were opened like shops, and adorned with Indian cabinets and piles of porcelain, intermixed with odoriferous dwarf trees and shrubs set in gilded vases, elegantly adorned with figures. Camels, laden with skins of water, stood at the corner of every street. The richest wines of Persia, and the most costly perfumes and delicacies of Asia, were poured forth in lavish profusion. But this prosperity and splendor were only temporary. The Portuguese, in the height of their power, provoked the hostility of Shah Abbas, the most powerful of the Persian monarchs: at the same time they became involved in a quarrel with the English, just as the latter nation began to obtain influence in the East. Shah Abbas and the English formed a league to expel their common enemy: their united forces attacked Ormuz in 1662, and conquered it with little difficulty. The plunder which they obtained was estimated at more than two millions of dollars. Ormuz never recovered from this blow. The trade of the place rapidly declined; its merchants transferred their capital and enterprise to other quarters. The very stones of which its splendid edifices were built disappeared from the spot, being carried away as ballast in the Dutch ships which touched here; and this flourishing commercial emporium soon sunk into its original condition of a barren and desolate rock. The Persians rebuilt the fort, and placed a garrison in it, but they never could restore its trade. In the time of its prosperity it contained forty thousand inhabitants; at present, hardly the smallest vestige of a habitation remains, to vindicate the records of history, or to prove that this was once the flourishing mart of an extensive commerce. The Portuguese empire in India declined almost as rapidly as it had risen. The first blow at its prosperity was the conquest of Portugal by the Spaniards, and the annexation of that kingdom to Spain, in 1580. This not only damped the national spirit and enterprise of the Portuguese, but caused immediate restrictions to be placed on the Indian trade. Philip II., king of Spain, issued an edict prohibiting the Dutch from trading with Lisbon, thus compelling them to seek for the spices and wares of India in other quarters. The Dutch had just emancipated themselves from the tyrannical dominion of Spain; they were hardy and necessitous, having every thing to gain, and nothing to lose but their liberty. The Portuguese, on the other hand, were divided in their counsels, depraved in their manners, and detested by their subjects and neighbors in India. The Dutch first established themselves in some distant islands, where, partly by force of arms and partly by taking advantage of the errors committed by the Portuguese, they finally supplanted them every where. The only remnants of the Portuguese empire in India at the present day are Goa and Macao. Goa, on the western coast, is situated on an island about twenty-four miles in circuit. On the island are two cities; Old Goa, a decayed place, abounding in magnificent churches and splendid architecture, and New Goa, eight miles nearer the sea, the residence of the Portuguese viceroy, and a place of considerable commerce. The population of the whole island is about thirty thousand. Macao is situated on an island in the bay of Canton. It has some commerce and a population of thirty-five thousand. CHAPTER CCLIV. A. D. 1580 to 1840. THE DUTCH IN INDIA. - Heemskerk's VoyageSettlement of the Moluccas, Java, Ceylon Decline of the Dutch Empire in India. THE SPANIARDS IN INDIA. - Dispute respecting the Moluccas - The Pope's Division of the new Discoveries - The Philippines Manilla. THE DANES IN INDIA. — Tranquebar - Serampore. THE FRENCH IN INDIA. THE Dutch East India empire owed its origin to the political and religious persecution of these people by the king of Spain, who, in the fourteenth century, ruled over all the country now constituting Holland and Belgium. The oppressions of the Spanish government caused the Hollanders and Belgians to revolt, and the incurable bigotry of Philip II. of Spain prevented the people of Holland from ever seeking an accommodation with him. Being thrown entirely on their own resources, and compelled to struggle not only for freedom, but for life, the Dutch exhibited uncommon energy, industry, perseverance, and courage. In a short time, they gained an unrivalled ascendency among the maritime nations of Europe. In the mean time, the people of Belgium, or the Netherlands, were reduced to their original dependence on the Spanish crown. But the Spanish government, with a view to check the spirit of freedom in this country, destroyed the trade of Antwerp, its chief seaport, and discouraged every effort made for its restoration. By this course, the most wealthy and enterprising merchants of the Netherlands were compelled to emigrate to Holland, and add to the riches and trade of the great commercial city of Amsterdam. When Portugal was brought under the dominion of Spain, in 1580, as we have already observed, the Spanish court, in order to discourage all enterprise among the Portuguese, imposed the most vexatious restraints upon the commerce of Lisbon, which was then the great European mart for the productions of the East. This compelled the Dutch, whose subsist. ence almost wholly depended on the carrying trade, to seek out means for the direct importation of the commodities of India from the East. It was still hoped that a north-east passage to the Pacific Ocean might be discovered, and three fruitless expeditions were sent on this desperate search. An accidental circumstance opened the way for the Dutch round the Cape of Good Hope. Cornelius Houtman, a Dutch seaman, had been made prisoner by the Spaniards at Lisbon, and detained there for some time. During his imprisonment, he had opportunities to gain from the Portuguese much information respecting the course of their voy. ages to India. On his escape afterward to Amster dam, he conceived the design of making a voyage to that quarter of the world. Some of the principal mer. chants, to whom he opened his scheme, thought so favorably of it as to form a company for sending him out on an expedition. Accordingly, a Dutch fleet, well provided, sailed from Holland, under the command of Admiral Heemskerk, in 1595. It reached India without obstruction, although the Spaniards made every possible attempt against it. Finding the skill and courage of the Dutch more than a match for their own, they sent emissaries to the prin cipal Eastern sovereigns, describing the new adventur. 1 ers as pirates and freebooters. But an accident com- | maintained only by an enormous expenditure of blood pletely defeated their dishonest manœuvre. The and treasure; and as, in the progress of discovery and Dutch captured a richly-laden Portuguese ship, homeward bound from Macao, with many passengers on board. They were treated by the captors with so much generosity, that letters of thanks were addressed to Admiral Heemskerk from the principal Spanish authorities in the East. He exhibited these letters in every port at which he touched, and thus satisfactorily refuted the calumnies which had been circulated respecting the Dutch. Heemskerk's voyage was so profitable that a company was soon after incorporated, in Holland, for prosecuting the trade with India. All Dutchmen, except the members of this company, were prohibited from carrying on any commerce with Asia, either by the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. The first settlement of the Dutch was made at the Moluccas, or Spice Islands. They were shortly afterward driven from this place by the Spaniards, but returned and retrieved their losses. They soon came into collision with the English East India Company, and these two powers, excited by mutual jealousy, began to assail each other's possessions. The Island of Java was the chief object of contention. After a long struggle, the Dutch prevailed, and immediately secured their acquisition by building the city of Batavia, about the beginning of the seventeenth century. Soon afterward, all the English residents on the Island of Amboyna were massacred; and by this act of treachery the Dutch secured, for a long time, the monopoly of the spice trade. They also expelled the Portuguese from the markets of Japan, and monopolized the commerce with that empire. They are at the present day, as we have elsewhere stated, the only Europeans permitted by the Japanese to trade with them. The next great object of the Dutch was to gain possession of the rich and important Island of Ceylon, where the Portuguese had already established themselves. In this undertaking, they were highly successful. They not only expelled their rivals, but reduced the native princes of the island under their dominion, and thus gained the monopoly of the cinnamon trade. They long kept possession of Ceylon; but during the wars which followed the French revolution, it was conquered by the British, who still possess it. In the mean time, the Dutch had also made attempts to open a trade with the Chinese empire. At first, the influence of the Jesuits at the court of Pekin counteracted all these endeavors; but, at length, about the beginning of the seventeenth century, they succeeded in establishing a flourishing settlement on the Island of Formosa, which opened to them a profitable traffic with the neighboring regions. But soon after the conquest of China by the Manchoo Tartars, the Formosans were joined by a large army of Chinese; the combined forces besieged the Dutch settlement, and compelled the garrison to surrender. Since that time, no attempt has been made by Europeans to settle upon this island. The Dutch in India adopted a more exclusive and monopolizing policy than either the Spaniards or the Portuguese; and this may be regarded as one of the main causes of the decay of their Eastern empire. Their arbitrary and overbearing conduct toward the nations frequently produced civil wars and insurrections, which materially retarded the progress of their settlements. In Java, especially, their dominion was commercial enterprise, other European nations began gradually to obtain a share in the spice trade, the Dutch East India Company found the profits of its monopoly rapidly diminishing. During the wars of the French revolution, most of the Dutch colonies were occupied by the English; but some of them were restored, at the general peace, in 1814. England, however, retained two of the most important, the Cape of Good Hope and the Island of Ceylon. Holland still possesses the Island of Java and the monopoly of the trade with Japan. The Spanish government, in sending Columbus to make discoveries in the west, had less expectation of profit from the unknown countries in that quarter, than from the trade with the East Indies, which they hoped to acquire by opening a route to those regions in a westerly direction. When the enterprise of Columbus had made known the existence of a new continent in the west, instead of a passage to India, they did not lose sight of their original object. Magellan, a Portuguese in the Spanish service, first sailed into the Pacific Ocean, by passing through the straits which bear his name. This gave the Spaniards access to the islands of Farther India by a westerly route, and they prepared to take possession of the Moluccas. The Portuguese claimed these islands for themselves, having on their side the right of discovery and prior occupation. The kings of Ternate and Tidore, two of these islands, had long been at war with each other, and on the arrival of the Portuguese, the dispute was referred to them for arbitration. The Portuguese did not fail to profit by this favorable chance of securing a foothold for themselves in this quarter. They erected fortresses upon the island, and treated the natives as vassals. Pope Alexander VI., shortly after the Spaniards and Portuguese had opened this new career of discovery and settlement, endeavored to provide against any collision of the two powers, by dividing all the unknown and newly-discovered territories of the east and west between them. For this purpose, having arrogated to himself the absurd and extravagant prerogative of giving away countries, over which he had not the slightest shadow of authority, he granted to the Spanish crown the property and dominion of all territories then known, or which might afterwards be discovered, a hundred leagues west of the Azores, and all the unknown and newly-discovered regions east of this limit to the Portuguese. This boundary was afterward, by an agreement between the two nations, removed two hundred and fifty leagues farther westward, with the expectation that every difficulty in the partition of the new discoveries would thus be effectually removed. The Spaniards thought themselves now secure of the whole western continent, and the Portuguese imagined that their East India settlements, and particularly the Spice Islands, would be safe from any interference on the part of the Spaniards. On this occasion, however, the infallibility claimed by the pope, did not by any means exhibit itself. He had not foreseen that the Spaniards and Portuguese, by sailing in opposite directions, might meet on the other side of the globe, and be embroiled respecting the limits of their authority. Such a conjuncture, in fact, soon happened. Magellan, in his voyage to the west, discovered the Ladrone Islands, and afterward the Philippines. The Portuguese, by sailing east, dis 512 THE DANES IN INDIA-THE BRITISH IN INDIA. covered the Moluccas in the same quarter. A perplexing dispute arose on this subject; and although the Spaniards did not seize the Moluccas, yet the Philippines, which lie in the same longitude, were thought too valuable to be neglected - as they were not only near the place which produced the spices, but were well situated for the trade with China, and the commerce with other parts of the East. A communication was therefore established between those islands and the Spanish colonies on the coast of Peru, A. D. 1590. The city of Manilla was built by the Spaniards on the Island of Luzon, which soon became the emporium of the Spanish trade in India. Previously to the arrival of the Spaniards, the Chinese had established themselves, to a considerable extent, along the coast of this island. Shortly after Manilla was built, they united with the natives to expel the new settlers. The city was attacked, but owing to its fortifications, the Spaniards were enabled to defend it and suppress the insurrection. This settlement was afterward threatened by the successors of the Dutch, who occupied the most valuable of the Moluccas, and grew so formidable to their neighbors, that the Spaniards, at one time, seriously meditated the abandonment of the Philippines. This design, however, was not carried into effect. In 1762, an English expedition, under Admiral Cornish and General Draper, captured Manilla and its dependencies; but these conquests were given up at the conclusion of the war, and the Spaniards have continued to hold the Philippines to the present day. The Danes followed the example of the other maritime nations of Europe, in turning their commercial enterprise toward the East. An association was formed at Copenhagen, in 1612, for opening a trade with India. An expedition, on a small scale, was sent out to the Coromandel coast, where the Danes were hospitably received by the rajah of Tanjore, from whom they received permission to establish a settlement at Tranquebar. This undertaking, however, was not crowned with very brilliant success. Many circumstances contributed to check the prosperity of the Danish East India Company, but none more than the pertinacious jealousy of the Dutch, who excluded them from the most profitable branches of trade. They had, however, a permanent establishment at Serampore, on the Hoogly, above Calcutta, which they still retain. But though the Danes have never attained to any remarkable eminence in East Indian commerce, they have been honorably distinguished by their zeal for the propagation of the Christian religion; and notwithstanding their limited means, they have succeeded in diffusing the principles of the gospel through a considerable portion of the south of India. Foreign colonization and maritime affairs in general were long neglected by the French. The government were slow in offering assistance to the people in the affairs of navigation, though Francis I. and Henry III. issued edicts formally encouraging maritime enterprise. At length, an East India Company was formed in France in 1616, and attempts were made to open a trade with the countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope; but these were frustrated by shipwreck and other accidents. Toward the close of the seventeenth century, however, the French purchased the town of Pondicherry, on the Coromandel coast, from the Hindoo sovereign of that territory, and began a settlement there. The Dutch captured this place in 1693, but at the treaty of Ryswick, four years afterward, it was restored. From this time, the prosperity of the colony increased, and the subsequent acquisition of the Isles of France and Bourbon led the French to hope that they might acquire an important share in the commerce of the East. When the Mogul empire became dismembered, a new career of ambition was opened to them by the sanguinary struggles which arose among the new Hindoo states, formed out of the fragments of this great dominion. Dupleix, the governor of Pondicherry, a man capable of vast designs, hoped, by embroiling the natives with each other, to obtain territorial acquisitions as the price of his assistance to some of the combatants. The English adopted the same course of policy, and thus the ancient hostility between the two nations extended its influence to India. The English triumphed in the struggle, which ended in the almost total expulsion of the French from Hindostan. In 1778, Pondicherry was taken by the British, and was not restored till 1783. The two nations remained at peace till 1793, when all the French possessions in India were conquered by the British; they were restored in 1802, again conquered in 1803, and again restored in 1814; since which time they have remained undisturbed by foreign enemies. French India is of little consequence. It comprises Pondicherry and Karical with their dependencies on the Coromandel coast, Chandernagore and some other places in Bengal, and a few factories in other parts. BENGAL is a country in the eastern part of Hindos- || tan, which gives its name to the great bay or gulf which separates the two peninsulas of the Indies. It was in this region that the foundation of the British empire in the East was laid; and here, at || the present day, is the centre and metropolis of their Oriental power. Queen Elizabeth was the first English sovereign who encouraged the commercial enterprises of that nation in the Indian seas. Two merchants, named John Newbury and Ralph Fitch, made the first voyage from England toward that quarter, in 1583. A London company for trading to the East Indies was chartered by the queen, in 1600. Fourteen years afterward, Sir Thomas Roe was sent ambassador, by James I., to the Mogul emperor, and obtained per mission for the English to establish a factory in Bengal, on the River Hoogly. They subsequently purchased the village of Calcutta, and some additional territory from the subah of Bengal. In 1717, they obtained a further accession of dominion, by a grant of land from the emperor, together with an exemption from paying duty on their trade within the Mogul dominions. In the mean time, the Dutch and French, as already observed, had formed settlements in Bengal, the former at Chinsura, and the latter at Chandernagore, both on the River Hoogly. Jaffier Khan, subah of Bengal, obtained, in 1717, from the emperor, the government of the neighboring prov CONDUCT OF CLIVE AS GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA. 513 inces of Bahar and Orissa. With this new acquisition | trade, and furnished a constant fund to supply the of power, he removed from Dacca, then the capital of the soobahs, to Moorshedabad. His grandson and successor was dethroned and put to death by the pipebearer of his court, who usurped the throne in 1742, and on his death, in 1756, left it to his brother's grandson, Sujah ul Dowlah, a rival and bitter enemy of the English. This prince soon became involved in disputes with the government of the English factories, and in June, 1756, marched with an army against Calcutta, which he captured without difficulty. The English prisoners, one hundred and forty-six in number, were thrown into a dungeon called the Black Hole, where they remained shut up closely during a night of intense heat, suffering horrors beyond the power of language to describe. The next morning, all of them, except twenty-three, were found dead. A short time afterward, an English squadron, commanded by Admiral Watson, arrived in the Hoogly with a body of troops under Colonel Clive, who had already given proofs of his military talents, in the British settlement of Madras. With this force Calcutta was recovered, and the soobah driven to his capital of Moorshedabad. A treaty ensued, by which the possessions and immunities of the English were secured to them. War having, in the mean time, broken out in Europe between Great Britain and France, Clive attacked the French settlement of Chandernagore, which immediately surrendered, and was totally destroyed by order of the British commander. Clive, who was a bold, ambitious, and unscrupulous man, soon after projected a great scheme of aggrandizement for the East India Company, in whose service he exercised his command. He resolved to dethrone the soobah and place another person in his office, who would be more subservient to British interests. The soobah held his dignity by appointment from the Mogul emperor, who still maintained his title and authority at Delhi, and the British were then at peace with this monarch. Clive, however, regarded no obstacle which stood between him and his object. He marched against the soobah, defeated him in a great battle at Plassey, on the 23d of June, 1757, and expelled him from his throne. Meer Jaffier, a Bengalese general, was appointed by the conqueror to succeed him. The new sovereign, being completely at the mercy of the British commander, made a treaty according to his dictation. He gave large grants of territory and important privileges to the East India Company, besides paying immense sums of money to the Company and to individuals. Clive himself received the most magnificent rewards. The soobah created him an omrah of the empire, and a jaghiredar, or lord of the territories ceded to the British, by which he secured a yearly income of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In addition to this, he received a present of money, amounting to nearly a million and a half of dollars. Sujah ul Dowlah, the expelled soobah, fled into the interior, but was shortly afterward apprehended and sent prisoner to Moorshedabad, where he was privately assassinated by order of his successor. The British had now acquired such a reputation by their military successes, that they had become the terror of all the native princes; and they might easily have marched to Delhi, and dictated terms to the emperor. They did not fail to take advantage of their position. Revolutions, instigated by them, became a regular treasury of the Company and the cupidity of their officers. Clive himself did not scruple to forge a treaty, by which one of these political speculations was accomplished. At length, a bribe of a million of dollars, from Cossim Ali Khan, the son-in-law of Meer Jaffier, induced the British to depose the sovereign whom they had placed on the throne, and bestow his power upon Cossim, A. D. 1760. Clive, in the mean time, had returned to England. The new soobah proved as unmanageable as his predecessor. The servants of the English Company claimed an exemption from all duties on commerce, and thus ruined the native merchants. While negotiations were pending on this subject, the English seized the citadel of Patna. It was immediately retaken by Cossim, whose rage was so highly excited by what he regarded as a deliberate act of treachery, that he put all the English prisoners to death. War immediately broke out, and the affairs of Bengal were soon in the most desperate condition. The proprietors in England, judging that Clive was the only person capable of restoring order in their Indian possessions, sent him out as governorgeneral. Previous to his departure, the British government had created him a peer. On his arrival, he found matters in the most unpromising condition. The troops were in open mutiny, the officers had abandoned themselves to every species of rapacious insolence ; the most fertile tracts of Bengal had been wasted to desolation, and the native chiefs were rendered hostile by the most unfeeling extortions. The presence of Clive restored order, and the government of Bengal was placed on a new footing. The power of the English in that province had been hitherto undefined. It was unknown to the ancient constitution of the Mogul empire, and was fixed by no compact. It resembled the power which, in the declining state of the Roman empire, was exercised over Italy by the barbarian invaders, who set up and pulled down at their pleasure a succession of insignificant princes, dignified with the names of Cæsar and Augustus. But at length the warlike invaders in both cases found it expedient to give their military power the sanction of law and constitutional authority. Clive applied to the court of Delhi for a formal grant of the powers which he already held in reality. The Mogul was absolutely helpless, and he was compelled to issue a warrant empowering the English East India Company to collect the revenues of Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar; thus, in fact, constituting them the sovereigns of that part of Hindostan. But, though thus absolute in reality, they did not immediately assume the title of sovereignty. They held their territories ostensibly as vassals of the Mogul empire; they raised their revenues as collectors appointed by the imperial commission; their public seal was inscribed with the imperial titles, and their mint struck only the imperial coin. CHAPTER CCLVI. A. D. 1773 to 1795. Administration of Warren Hastings — The Rohillas-Confusion of Political Affairs in India-Impeachment and Trial of Hastings. IN 1773, the office of governor-general of India was intrusted to Warren Hastings - a man whose name 514 THE ROHILLAS-CONFUSION OF POLITICAL AFFAIRS. stands the most prominent in the history of British | of a despot, to whom an English governor had sold India. Clive had been the founder of the British their substance and their blood, and the honor of their dominion in this country: Hastings gave it permanency wives and daughters. The result of this barbarous and a wider extension. To the display of great tal-transaction was, that the finest population in Hindosent he added the commission of great crimes. We tan became subjected to a greedy, cowardly, cruel shall give a short account of the affair of the Rohillas, tyrant. Commerce and agriculture languished. The not only as this is one of the most noted events by rich province, which had tempted the cupidity of which his administration was marked — but because it Sujah Dowlah, and which had yielded an annual revserves to illustrate the principles of Oriental policy, enue of five millions of dollars from the land alone, and the nature of that system by which the great em- became the most miserable part even of his miserable pire of British India has been erected. dominions. Yet this unfortunate nation was not yet quite extinct. At long intervals, gleams of its ancient spirit have flashed forth; and, even at this day, valor, self-respect, and a chivalrous feeling- rare among Asiatics-with a bitter remembrance of the great crime of England, distinguish that noble Afghan race. To this day, they are regarded as the best of all sepoys in the use of weapons; and it has been remarked by one who enjoyed great opportunities of observation, that the only natives of India to whom the word "gentlemen" can with perfect propriety be applied, are to be found among the Rohillas. The Mahometan emperors of Hindostan had come originally from the northern side of the great mountain ridge which separates that country from Central Asia, and it had always been their practice to recruit their army from the hardy and valiant race which gave birth to their own illustrious house. Among the crowds of military adventurers who were allured to the Mogul standard from the neighborhood of Cabul and Candahar, several gallant bands were conspicuous, known by the name of Rohillas — a word supposed to be derived from the Afghan roh, a hill. Their services had been rewarded by large tracts of land in the northern part of Hindostan, between Delhi and the Sirhind, east of the original territory of the Sikhs. This country received from them the name of Rohilcund. In the general confusion which followed the death of Aurungzebe, this warlike colony became virtually independent. The Rohillas were distinguished from the other inhabitants of India by a peculiarly fair complexion, by valor in war, and by skill in the arts of peace. They were almost the only Mahomet ans in this country who exercised the profession of husbandry. They made various improvements in divers branches of agriculture, and soon surpassed all their neighbors in the abundance and superior quality of the productions which their industry raised from the soil. While anarchy raged throughout every other part of the peninsula, the little community of Rohillas enjoyed the blessing of repose, under the guardianship of courage and prudence. They were divided into several independent tribes, but, in times of general danger, they acted in concert. In 1773, the Mahrattas invaded Rohilcund: the British interfered in the war, and sent an army to the relief of the Rohillas. The Mahrattas were defeated; but the deliverance of the Rohillas was followed by their ruin. They had a rapacious and ambitious neighbor, Sujah Dowlah, the nabob of Oude, who had set his heart on adding the flourishing district of Rohilcund to his own principality. He had no claim to the territory: the Rohillas held their country by exactly the same title as that by which the nabob held his own, and had governed their country far better than he had governed his. Sujah Dowlah had seen them fight, and wisely shrunk from a contest with them in the field. He therefore bribed Warren Hastings, with a gift of four hundred thousand pounds, to place a British army under his command for the subjugation of the Rohillas. That devoted people expostulated, entreated, supplicated, and offered a large ransom; but all in vain. Sujah Dowlah and his British allies burst into their territory, and the horrors of Indian war were let loose on the fair valleys and cities of Rohilcund. The whole country was in a blaze. More than a hundred thousand people fled from their homes to pestilential jungles, preferring famine and fever, and the haunts of tigers, to the merciless tyranny The state of things in India was exceedingly favorable to the usurpations of the British. During the interval which elapsed between the fall of the house of Timour and the establishment of the power of the English East India Company, there was practically no political constitution in the dominion of the Mogul. The old order of things had passed away, and the new order had not yet shown itself. All was transition, confusion, and obscurity. Every prince, viceroy, and chieftain kept his territories by whatever means were in his power, and scrambled for what he could get in addition. Of the existing governments, not one could lay a claim to legitimacy, or plead any other title than recent occupation. There was scarcely a province in which the real and the nominal sovereignty were not disjoined. Titles and forms were still retained, which implied that the Mogul was an absolute ruler, and that the nabobs were his lieutenants; but, in reality, he was a captive. The nabobs were in some places independent princes. In other places, as in Bengal and the Carnatic, they had, like their master, become mere phantoms, and the East India Company was supreme. Hastings saw at once that such a political system gave immense advantages to a ruler who was, at the same time, bold and unscrupulous. In every dispute, therefore, he resorted to the plea which suited his immediate purpose, without troubling himself about consistency. Sometimes a nabob was treated as a monarch, sometimes as a shadow. Some times the authority of the Mogul was used to enforce the most arbitrary measures, and sometimes he was managed as the servant of the English. In all ambiguous questions of politics, the last appeal is to physical force, and the strongest must prevail. Almost every question was ambiguous in India. The English government was the strongest in that country. The consequence was obvious: the English did exactly what they pleased. The disputes which arose between Hastings and his council, fixed the attention of the British parliament and people on British India. The charters granted at various times to the Company only secured to it the exclusive right of trade. When, therefore, the Company began to make territorial acquisitions, a constitutional question arose, whether the British crown did not possess a right to the government of all the prov |