HASTINGS 



581 



to shoot high into tlie air that their arrows 

 iiii^lit fall from above. The English fell quickly, 

 tlii-ir shields Iwing unable to protect their heads, 

 an. I the king was soon struck down l>y an arrow in 

 the right eye. The battle was now loHt, but the 

 hoii-.M-ai N fought where they st<x>d till the last 

 man was slain. See the third volume of Freeman's 

 .\"i-iiin/i Conquest. 



Hastings, FRANCIS RAWDON-HASTINOS, MAR- 



ijris (IK, (iovernor-general of India, was descended 

 from an old Anglo-Norman family settled in County 

 I )own, Ireland, and was born on 9th Deceml>er 1754. 

 Kutering the army in 1771, he was engaged in 

 many of the chief o'perations of the war of American 

 iin Impendence, lighting at Bunker Hill, in Long 

 Island and New Jersey, at the siege of Charleston, 

 and at the battles of Camden and Hobkirk's Hill, 

 and attained the rank of adjutant- general under 

 Lord Cornwallis. On his return home he was 

 created (1783) Baron Itawdon, and afterwards be- 

 came intimate with the Prince of Wales. A year 

 after he had succeeded his father as Earl of Moira 

 he carried (1794) an army corps of 10,000 men 

 across to Holland, to reinforce the Duke of York ; 

 and in the following year participated in the attack 

 on Quil>eron. Under the Fox-Grenville ministry 

 he was in 1806 appointed master-general of ord- 

 nance ; and he toolc an active part in politics until 

 his appointment to the governor-generalship of 

 India in 1813. This high office he held down to 

 1821. The most momentous events of his adminis- 

 tration were the war against the brave mountaineers 

 of Nepal, the Goorkhas, who by the peace of 1816 

 were converted from aggressive enemies into the 

 staunqhest of allies ; and in the next year the wars 

 against the Pindaris and the Mahrattas, both of 

 which were speedily brought to a successful termin- 

 ation, with the result that a large addition was 

 made to the territories of the East India Company. 

 For his masterly treatment of the Goorkha question 

 Lord Moira was created Marquis of Hastings ( 1816). 

 His policy in India included the encouragement of 

 native education and of the freedom of the press, a 

 reform in the law system, and the elevation of the 

 status of the civil service. His resignation was 

 caused by imputations levelled against his public 

 conduct in connection with the affairs of a banking 

 firm. In 1824, the year after his return home, Lora 

 Hastings was appointed governor of Malta, and he 

 held this office until his death, at Bai.-e, near Naples, 

 on 28th November 1826. See his Private Journal, 

 edited by his daughter (2d ed. 1858); Prinsep's 

 Administration of the Marquis of Hastings ( 1825) ; 

 Axiutic Journal (1823) ; and Ross's monograph in 

 the 'Rulers of India' series (1893). 



Hastings, WARREN, was born at Churchill, in 

 Oxfordshire, 6th December 1732. He was descended 

 from the family of Hastings of Daylesford, but the 

 estate hod passed out of the family, and Hastings, 

 who was early left an orphan, was educated at tne 

 expense of an uncle. He distinguished himself at 

 Westminster School, where he was contemporary 

 with the poets Churchill and Cowper, with the 

 future Lord Shelburne, and with Elijah Impey 

 (n.v.). In 1750 he went out in the Civil Service 

 of the East India Company, and was at first em- 

 ployed in the secretariat in Calcutta. He was up 

 the country at the time of the Black Hole affair, 

 but made his escape and joined the refugees at 

 Falta Ghat, where he married his first wife ; she 

 died after bearing two children, who lived but a 

 few years. Left a widower, Hastings returned to 

 England in 1764, where he spent five years and 

 made the acquaintance of Dr Johnson. In 1769 

 he returned to India as second-in-council at Madras, 

 and in 1772 proceeded to Bengal, where he was 

 promoted to the presidency of the council. A 



later the British parliament produced the 

 Regulating Act, under which Hastings watt to be 

 governor general with a handsome salary, and wan 

 to l>e assisted by a council of four meml>ers, three 

 appointed from home. Thin wan the beginning of 

 tronlile; the majority in council le.l l,\ J-'rancis 

 wan opposed to HaMtings from the first; the finances 

 were in great disorder, the demands of the Company 

 for remittances were frequent and urgent. Oneoi 

 Hastings' first tasks was to bring to trial the chief 

 fiscal ministers of Bengal, Raja Shatah Raj and 

 Nawab Muhamad Raza, on charges of nuilverHa- 

 tion and embezzlement. This, though done under 

 positive orders from home, proved injurious to 

 Hastings' popularity. A corrupt and treacherous 

 official, Nuncornar (Raja Nand Kumar), was em- 

 ployed in conducting the case; and when it broke* 

 down all three became his enemies. In 1775 Nun- 

 comar was tried, sentenced, and executed for forgery, 

 a proceeding which threw obloquy on Hastings and 

 on the chief-justice, Sir Elijah Impey, which has 

 been much dispelled in recent times. Among 

 measures of domestic reform, Hastings made an 

 appraisement of the landed estates which formed 

 the assets of a great portion of the public revenue, 

 and on that appraisement based a revised assess- 

 ment. He also improved the administration of 

 justice in the country courts and organised the 

 opium revenue. In his external policy he was no 

 less energetic and original. He waged vigorous 

 war with the Mahrattas, and made the Company's 

 power paramount in many parts of India. He con- 

 tracted advantageous alliances and restored the 

 financial position of the Company. All this was 

 not done without encountering opposition and 

 censure. In 1777 an attempt was made to depose 

 him, on the strength of a conditional resignation 

 which he had sent home ; and the attempt was only 

 frustrated by the action of the Supreme Court, of 

 which Imoey was still chief -justice. In the same 

 year Hastings married the divorced wife of Baron 

 Imhoff, a German officer. In 1780 he was finally 

 freed from embarrassment by the opposition owing 

 to the retirement of its leader, Philip Francis, whom 

 he wounded in a duel. 



At the end of 1784 he resigned office and sailed 

 for England, where he was well received by King 

 George III., but soon became subject to a parlia- 

 mentary inquiry, with a view to impeachment. 

 Into the details of the charges brought against 

 him we cannot here enter. Among the chief mis- 

 deeds alleged against him were the aid that he 

 gave to his ally the Nawab of Oudh in the war 

 against the Rohilla Afghans, his punishment of 

 the Zemindar of Benares for non-compliance with a 

 demand for aid in the first Mahratta war, and his 

 connivance in the forfeiture of property real and 

 personal which had been conferred on the Begums 

 or dowager-princesses of Oudh. Charges on these 

 subjects were preferred by the Whig opposition, 

 and Hastings, being deserted by Mr Pitt, was im- 

 peached at the bar of the House of Lords. The 

 trial began 13th February 1788 in Westminster 

 Hall, among the managers for the Commons leing 

 Edmund Burke, Fox, Sheridan, Elliott (afterwards 

 Lord Minto), and Mr (afterwards Earl ) Grey. The 

 early sittings were numerously attended, and the 

 audience was rewarded by splendid displays of 

 rhetoric; but the public interest soon flagged. It 

 was felt by those persons who km w or cared about 

 the matter at all that the alleged errors of Hastings 

 were overbalanced by great public sen-ices. He 

 had prevailed in war; he had left Bengal at peace; 

 he had organised the administration in all its 

 branches ; he had fostered learning ; above all, he 

 had founded an empire which no one thought of 

 abandoning. The trial dragged itself through more 

 than seven years and nearly 150 sittings. At last, 



