ly
interesting, but that he only made a note of one passage, in which he
explained that, independently of his own conviction that the cause of
Warren Hastings was just and honorable, he had been moved to take part
in his defence by the positive instructions of his father, who had died
about two years previously. Bland-Burges's father, attributing the
preservation of England's power in India to Hastings, had enjoined his
son, if ever an attack were made upon Hastings, to abstract himself
from all personal and party considerations and to support him liberally
and manfully. Whatever we may think of the conduct of Warren Hastings,
it is a pleasure to find that those who thought him to be in the right
stood up for their belief as honorably and as gallantly as
Bland-Burges. It is not surprising that Warren Hastings was moved to
tears. That day's interview was the beginning of a friendship that
endured unbroken until the death of Warren Hastings.

The reason which Pitt gave for his action on the Benares vote was
simple enough. He said that, although the action of Hastings towards
the Rajah was in itself justifiable, yet that the manner of the action
was not justifiable. Chait Singh deserved to be fined, but not to be
fined in an exorbitant and tyrannical manner. The explanation might
very well be considered sufficient. A high-minded minister might feel
bound to condemn the conduct of an official whom he admired, if that
conduct had pushed a legal right to an illegal length. But Pitt's
decision came with such a shock to the friends, and even to the enemies
of Hastings, that public rumor immediately set to work to find some
other less simple and less honest reason for Pitt's action. One rumor
ascribed it to an {280} interview with Dundas, in which Dundas had
succeeded, after hours of argument, in inducing Pitt to throw Warren
Hastings over. Another suggested that Pitt was spurred by anger at a
declaration of Thurlow's that he and the King between them would make
Hastings a peer, whether the minister would or no. A third suggested
that Pitt was jealous of the royal favor to Mr. and Mrs. Hastings;
while a fourth asserted that Pitt deliberately sacrificed Hastings in
order to afford the Opposition other quarry than himself. But there is
no need to seek for any other motive than the motive which Pitt
alleged. It was quite sufficient to compel an honorable man to give
the vote that Pitt gave.

Blow after blow fell upo