INSURRECTION AT BENARES. 
151 
of that much-injured statesman, to whom Great Britain 
is at this moment indebted for the stability of her go- 
vernment and the prosperity of her possessions in India. 
The cause of Burke’s hostility was at once selfish 
and altogether unworthy of a great mind; it was 
excited solely because Mr. Hastings had refused to ap- 
point a profligate relation of the Irish statesman’s to 
a place of trust in India. However great in intel- 
lects Burke had a puny soul. The veneration in which 
the name of Hastings is held to this day in the most 
flourishing city of Hindostan will give the lie to the 
calumny that he was either a weak legislator or a ty- 
rant ; on the other hands the warmest admirers of 
Burke will not deny that he was a man of narrow 
prejudices and vehement passions — that he was at 
once heartlesSs selfish, and unforgiving. 
" Ifs” says Mr. HastingSs in his letter to the Coun- 
cil of Fort Williams relative to Cheit Singh’s insurrec- 
tion at BenareSs — “ If Rajah Cheit Singh possessed the 
Zemeendary of Benares in his own rights and with an 
inherent and exclusive authority ; if he owed no alle- 
giance to the Companys nor obedience beyond the 
payments of a stipulated tribute ; I am liable to con- 
demnation for exacting other duties from hinT, and for 
all the consequences of that exaction, and he is guilt- 
less. But if the Company, possessing the acknowledged 
rights of his former sovereign, held an absolute autho- 
rity over him ; if, in the known relation of Zemeendar 
to the sovereign authority or the power delegated by 
it, he owed a personal allegiance and an implicit and 
unreserved obedience to that authority, at the for- 
feiture of his zemeendary, and even of his life and 
