I. The Younger Pitt. 1782-1783.-Chatham's second son, William Pitt, had entered Parliament in 1780, at the age of twentyone. He had supported Burke's Economical Reform and denounced the American War. "Pitt," said some one to Fox, "will be one of the first men in the House of Commons." "He is so already," replied Fox. "He is not a chip of the old block," said Burke, "he is the old block itself." Burke's saying was not strictly accurate. The qualities of the younger Pitt were different from those of his father. He had none of the fire of the impetuous Chatham, but he had what Chatham did not possess, unerring tact in the management of men and high sagacity in discriminating between things possible to be done and things which were not possible. When the second Rockingham Ministry was formed, he was offered a post which did not carry with it a seat in the Cabinet, but which brought a salary of 5,000l. a year. Pitt, who was a young barrister making a bare 300l. a year, refused the offer, and astonished the House by asserting that he never would accept a subordinate situation.' He soon asked for a committee to inquire into the need for Parliamentary reform, adopting the views of his father on this subject, in opposition to those of the Rockingham Whigs. When Shelburne became Prime Minister, he made Pitt Chancellor of the Exchequer, with the leadership of the House of Commons.

2. Resignation of Shelburne. 1783.-Shelburne's Ministry did not last long. Shelburne never continued for any length of time

on good terms with other men. He was unreasonably suspicious, and his profuse employment of complimentary expressions gave rise to doubts of his sincerity. In the beginning of 1783 most of his colleagues had ceased to attend his Cabinet meetings. It was obvious that Shelburne, with all his ability, was not a ruler of men, and it is almost certain that if Fox had had a little patience, Shelburne must have resigned, and the way have been opened for a strong and reforming Ministry, in which Fox and Pitt would have played the leading part. Unfortunately, Fox had neither patience nor tact. He formed a coalition with North, and as the two together had a large majority in the House of Commons at their disposal, Shelburne resigned on February 24

Costumes of persons of quality, about 1783.

only was Fox the most Parliamentary connection,

brilliant supporter of the system of which George III. had set himself to break down, but he was personally intimate with the Prince of Wales, afterwards King George IV. The Prince was now living a dissipated life, and the king attributed the mischief to the evil influence of Fox, though the low character of the Prince himself, and the repulsiveness of the very moral, but exceedingly dull, domestic life of the royal family, had, no doubt, some part in the unfortunate result. The people at large were scandalised at a coalition formed appa

1757-1772

cess.

CLIVE'S Return TO BENGAL

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rently for the mere purpose of securing power for Fox and North, who had been abusing one another for many years, and who did not come into office to support any policy which Shelburne had opposed, or to frustrate any policy which Shelburne had supported. Nevertheless, sufficient indignation had not yet been shown to enable the king to dissolve Parliament with a fair hope of sucHe was, therefore, after various attempts to avoid yielding, obliged on April 2 to admit the Coalition to office. Fox and North became secretaries of state, and the Duke of Portland, a man of no great capacity, became nominally Prime Minister. During the remainder of the session, Pitt again brought forward a motion for Parliamentary reform, attacking the secret influence of the Crown as strongly as the venality of the electors in the petty boroughs. Fox supported and North opposed him; after which his motion was lost by a majority of nearly two to one. When the House of Commons met again, Fox laid before it a bill for the government of India.

4. The English in Bengal. 1757-1772.-Clive returned to England in 1760. Before he left India he had obtained from the Great Mogul the grant of the quit-rent with which the Company had to pay for its zemindary (see p. 764), and thus became himself the landlord of the Company. Whatever might be the nominal position of the Company's servants, in reality they were masters of Bengal. They used their power to fill their own pockets at the expense of the natives. After a career of plunder and extortion many of them returned home with enormous fortunes. In 1765 Clive was sent out again to correct the evil. This he endeavoured to do by increasing the scanty pay of the officials, and by forbidding them to engage in trade or to receive gifts from the natives. On the other hand, he obtained for the Company from the Great Mogul, the weak Shah Alum, who nominally ruled at Delhi, the Dewanni, or financial administration of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, though the criminal jurisdiction was left in the hands of the Nawab a descendant of Meer Jaffier. Constitutionally this grant of the Dewanni first placed the Company in a legal position in Bengal as administrators under the Great Mogul. In 1767 Clive finally left India. For the next five years everything in Bengal was in confusion. The Company's agents collected the revenue and paid the army; but they had no authority to punish crime, and the Nawab, who had, was too weak to enforce order. In 1772, Warren Hastings was appointed governor of Bengal, with orders to put an end to the confusion.

1772-1774.

5. Warren Hastings, Governor of Bengal. Hastings was a man of the highest ability, and it would have been well if the Company had given him supreme power to take the whole of the government of Bengal into his own hands, and to set aside the pretence of leaving any part of it to the Nawab. The Company, however, too scrupulous to upset even an evil system which it found in existence, did not authorise him to do this; and though he did immense service in organising the administration on English principles, he could not prevent considerable confusion arising from the technical uncertainty of his position. Beyond the British frontier there was imminent danger. Central India was in the hands of the Mahratta chiefs. The descendants of Sivaji (see p. 759) were reduced to obscurity by the Peishwah or hereditary prime minister at Poonah, whose authority was in turn resisted by other hereditary officers, by Sindhia and Holkar in Malwa, by the Bhonsla in Berar, and by the Guicowar in Guzerat. Divided amongst themselves, these chiefs were always ready to join for plunder or conquest, and it was their military strength that was the greatest danger to the Company's government, and, it must in fairness be added, to the native populations which the Company was bound to protect. To combat the Mahrattas, Hastings carried out a policy-originally sketched out by Cliveof strengthening the Nawab of Oude, in order that he might act as a breakwater against them in defence of Bengal. The Nawab gladly welcomed the proffered alliance, and sought to turn it to account by asking Hastings to support him in annexing Rohilcund, which was governed by the Rohillas, a military body of Afghan descent. In 1774 Hastings lent the Nawab English troops, by whose valour the Rohillas were defeated, whilst the Nawab's own army followed up the victory by plunder and outrage. Politically, Hastings had done much, as he had bound the Nawab to his cause, but he had done this at the expense of soiling the English name by lending English troops to an Eastern potentate who was certain to abuse a victory won by their arms.

6. The Regulating Act and its Results. 1773-1774.-In 1773 was passed, at the instance of Lord North, the Regulating Act, which was intended to introduce order into the possessions of the Company in India. What was needed was to strengthen the hands of the governor of its principal possession, Bengal, and to give him control over the governments of Bombay and Madras. The English Parliament, however, had no experience in dealing with Eastern peoples, and tried to introduce constitutional checks,

1774-1779

WARREN HASTINGS

803

which were better suited for Westminster than for Calcutta. The governor of Bengal was to be called governor-general of Bengal, but there was to be a council of four members besides himself, and if he was outvoted in the council, he was to be obliged to conform his conduct to the decisions of his opponents. There was also set up a supreme court, which might easily come into conflict with the governor, as no rules were laid down to define their separate powers. The governor-general had authority over the governors of Madras and Bombay, but it was insufficient to enable him to dictate their policy. In 1774, the new Council held its first sittings. Its leading spirit was Philip Francis, the reputed author of Junius's Letters' (see p. 782), a man actuated by a suspiciousness which amounted to a disease, and who landed with the belief, which no evidence could shake, that Hastings was an incapable and corrupt despot. As two of the other councillors constantly voted with Francis he commanded a majority. This majority thwarted Hastings in everything, cancelled his measures, and set on foot an inquiry into his supposed peculations.

7. Hastings and Nuncomar. 1775.--To support Francis, Nuncomar, a Hindoo, came forward with evidence that Hastings had taken enormous bribes. This evidence was forged, but the majority of the council supported Nuncomar, hoping to drive Hastings from his post. Suddenly Nuncomar was charged with forgery, and hanged by a sentence of the Supreme Court, over which Sir Elijah Impey presided as chief justice. Forgery was too common a crime in Bengal to be regarded by the natives as highly punishable, and Impey was probably too ready to think that everything sanctioned by the English law was entirely admirable. The sentence, however, was so opportune for Hastings, that it has often been supposed that he had suggested the charge against Nuncomar. Not only, however, did he subsequently deny this upon oath, but modern inquirers have generally come to the conclusion that his denial was true. He may, however, have let fall some chance word which induced the accuser of Nuncomar to think that his action would please the governor-general; and, in any case, it was not difficult for a native who wished to stand well with Hastings, to imagine that the destruction of Nuncomar would be an agreeable service. At all events, Hastings's adversaries were frightened, and no more forged accusations were brought against him.

8. War with the Mahrattas and Hyder Ali. 1777-1779. Gradually, by the death or removal of the hostile councillors,