376 REMARKS ON HIS ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. centre with a street sixty feet wide. Squares were laid out with tanks, or reservoirs of water, in the centre, surrounded by planted walks; and the foreshore of the river which was lined with wretched huts and rendered impassable by mire and filth, was adorned with a noble strand road worthy of the city of palaces, as Calcutta was justly designated. No Governor-General has ever laboured with greater assiduity in the performance of his duties. Between the age of sixty and seventy he was at his desk at four in the morning-and always in full military uniform-examining the boxes of papers from different departments which had been piled up in his room over night. He made an effort to acquire some knowledge of the language of the country, but he was obliged to relinquish it when he found that his moonshee was making a fortune by the opportunity afforded him of private intercourse with the Governor-General, when he attended him in his study. In the fevered climate of India,-which, since the facilities for visiting England have been multiplied, is considered insupportable,-he laboured for nine years at the rate of seven and eight hours a-day, without a hill sanitarium to resort to, or the convenience of a sea-going steamer. The only speck on his administration was the interest he manifested in the Rumbolds. As the head of the state it became him at once to withdraw his confidence from them when he discovered the mischievous use to which they were turning it, but the kindliness of his nature betrayed him into political weakness, and led him to take too lenient a view of the conduct of those who were bringing odium on his government, for which he suffered severely during the remaining years of his life. Debate at the India House, 1825. Within two years after his return from India, his friend, Mr. Douglas Kinnaird, brought forward a proposal in the Court of Proprietors for a pecuniary grant befitting the greatness of his services and the gratitude of the Company. If there had been any sincerity in the tribute of "admiration, gratitude, and applause" XXVIII.] DEBATE AT THE INDIA HOUSE. 377 which had been recently paid him by that body, it would have been cordially welcomed, but it only served to disclose the strong current of rancour which underlay the crust of official compliment. The motion was met by an amendment, calling, in the first instance, for all the papers connected with the Hyderabad transactions, and, eventually, with the whole of Lord Hastings's administration. A twelvemonth was employed in compiling and printing this mass of documents, of which a folio volume of a thousand pages was devoted to the Hyderabad loans. It was to this single point and not to the general merits of Lord Hastings's administration that the attention of the Court of Proprietors was especially directed. If the question under discussion had referred to some grand measure of imperial policy, involving the welfare of millions, it would probably have been disposed of in a few hours; but it turned upon Lord Hastings's alleged delinquency in the matter of Palmer and Co.; it had all the zest of personality, and the debate was prolonged for six days. Towards the close of it Mr. Kinnaird submitted a resolution that "nothing contained in the papers tended to affect in the slightest degree the personal character or integrity of the late Governor-General." But the Chairman, Mr. Astell, opposed the motion by an amendment, stating that, "while admitting that there was no ground for imputing corrupt motives to the late Governor-General, the Court records its approbation of all the despatches sent out by the Court of Directors." These despatches, four in number, charged Lord Hastings among other misdemeanors with "having lent the Company's credit to the transactions at Hyderabad, not for the benefit of the Nizam, but for the sole benefit of Palmer and Co., with having studiously suppressed important information, with proceedings which were without parallel in the records of the East India Company, and with assuming to elude all check and control." The approbation of these despatches was the severest condemnation which could be inflicted on Lord Hastings; but Mr. Astell's motion was adopted by a 378 CONDEMNATION OF LORD HASTINGS. [CHAP. majority of two hundred and twelve. Thus did the East India Company, with all the documents connected with his brilliant administration before them, dismiss him from their Court with the verdict that he was simply not guilty of having acted from corrupt motives. It was an ungrateful return to the man who had raised them to the pinnacle of political power and invested their rule with a moral grandeur. The happy remark made in the case of Warren Hastings, that if there was a bald place on his head, it ought to be covered with laurel, was peculiarly applicable to him. But the East India Company, princely beyond all other rulers in their munificence, have not been able to rise above the influence of vulgar and invidious prejudices in dealing with the merits of their most illustrious men-Cliye, Warren Hastings, Lord Wellesley, and Lord Hastings. Lord Hastings did not long survive the indignity thus cast on him. He died at Malta on the 24th August, 1827, and, in the succeeding year, the India House endeavoured to make some atonement for their vote of censure by placing the sum of two lacs of rupees in the hands of trustees for the benefit of his son. CHAPTER XXIX. ADMINISTRATION OF MR. ADAM AND LORD AMHERST, 1823-1828. Lord Amherst appointed Governor-General, 1822. On the receipt of Lord Hastings's resignation, the Court of Directors, with the ready concurrence of the Ministry, nominated Mr. Canning, the late President of the Board of Control, GovernorGeneral. A better appointment it would have been difficult to conceive, but India was not destined to enjoy the benefit of his transcendent talents. When on the point of embarking, the sudden death of the Marquis of Londonderry-with whose XXIX.] MR. ADAM, GOVERNOR-GENERAL. 379 name as Lord Castlereagh during Lord Wellesley's administration the reader is already familiar-led to his joining the Cabinet at home. Two candidates then appeared for this splendid office, Lord William Bentinck and Lord Amherst. Lord William had the strongest claims on the Court of Directors; they had hastily removed him from the Government of Madras in the height of the panic created by the Vellore mutiny, but on a calm review of the case, had acknowledged "the uprightness, zeal, and success of his services." He was eminently qualified for the Governor-Generalship by his great administrative ability, his intimate knowledge of the native character and habits, and of the system of the Indian Governments, and not less by his intense fondness for the work. Lord Amherst's claim rested on his embassy to China, and the exemplary patience and fortitude with which he had maintained the dignity of the British crown against the arrogance of the Pekin court. He had also suffered shipwreck on his return. The preference was given to him, and he landed in Calcutta on the 1st August, 1823. Mr. Adam, During the interregnum, the Government devolved on Mr. Adam, the senior member of Council, an officer of ability and resolution, and great political experience, but totally disqualified for the highest post in the empire by the strength of his local partialities and prejudices. Lord Hastings had left ten crores of rupees in the treasuries, in addition to a surplus revenue of two crores a-year, and the Government was bewildered with this unexampled exuberance of wealth. Lord Hastings thought that one-half the excess might be very appropriately allotted to the Proprietors of India stock, and the other half to the nation. But the Act of 1813 had ordained that, with the exception of the lac of rupees to be applied to public instruction, all surplus revenue should be assigned to the reduction of the debt. A portion of it was therefore employed in converting the Company's six per cent. paper into five per cents., which produced a saving of thirty lacs of rupees a-year. With 380 PAYMENT OF THE CIVILIANS' DEBTS. [CHA a portion of the accumulation in the treasuries, it was at one time proposed to pay off the debts of the civilians. The proposal was by no means so preposterous as it may at first sight appear. They formed the official aristocracy of the British dynasty, and supported the honour of their position by a liberal expenditure, which was often, however, beyond their means. There was no lack of wealthy natives ready to furnish the means of extravagance to youths to whom the administration of large districts would be eventually committed. They were seldom importunate for a settlement; the bond was readily renewed from time to time, with the addition of interest, but when the victim had risen to power, his native creditor demanded either the discharge of his debt, now swelled to a prodigious amount, or some influential appointment in his court, where he would of course exemplify the oriental rule of turning power into money. The office was often indignantly refused, but the knowledge of the civilian's indebtedness to the native, which could not be concealed, deprived him of the reputation of independence, which in popular estimation was essential to the impartial distribution of justice. To liberate the judge or collector from the thraldom of the native money-lender, and to make him the creditor of the state, was therefore as much a benefit to the district as to the individual himself. But the debts of the civilians were found to be so formidable, that the project was never carried out, and within a twelvemonth the Burmese war came and cleared out the treasury, and converted the surplus into a deficit. Persecution of Mr. Adams's brief administration of seven months the Press, 1823. was marked by great energy, and not a few good measures; but it is now remembered only by his illiberal proceedings against the press, and his vindictive persecution of Mr. Buckingham, who had come out to Calcutta in 1818, and established the "Calcutta Journal." It was the ablest newspaper which had ever appeared in India, and gave a higher tone and a deeper interest to journalism. A knot of young men in the public service, of brilliant talents, headed by |