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Dhuboy; who seeing me engaged on public business in the dur- 

 bar, inquired to which presidency I belonged. On replying that 

 I was on the Bombay establishment, he wished me to explain 

 the nature of the British governments in India, particularly in 

 what manner the other Presidencies were subordinate to the gover- 

 nor general of Bengal. Having endeavoured so to do, the vene- 

 rable brahmin told me he had lived under different governments, 

 and travelled in many countries; but had never witnessed a gene- 

 ral diffusion of happiness equal to that of the natives under the 

 mild and equitable administration of Mr. Hastings, at that time 

 governor-general of Bengal. I cannot forget the Avords of this 

 respectable pilgrim; we were near a banian-tree in the durbar 

 court when he thus concluded his discourse: " As the burr-tree, one 

 " of the noblest productions in nature, by extending its branches 

 " for the comfort and refreshment of all who .seek its shelter, is em- 

 " blematical of the Deity; so do the virtues of the governor re- 

 " semble the burr-tree; he extends his providence to the remotest 

 " districts, and stretches out his arms, far and wide, to afford pro- 

 " tection and happiness to his people ; such, Saheb, is Mr. Hast- 

 " ings !" Yet, this is the man, who, by the violence of faction, in- 

 tended for patriotic zeal, and conducted by a flow of eloquence 

 seldom equalled, was arraigned for crimes the most foreign to his 

 benevolent heart, and doomed to a trial of seven years duration: 

 a scene unparallelled in the annals of mankind ! 



I never saw Mr. Hastings until his public appearance on that 

 solemn occasion, and could then hardly conceive it possible, by 

 any combination of ideas, or concatenation of circumstances, to 

 believe that a man should be tried in his own country, for crimes 



