nor-General as having deserved better, and having been treated
worse, than any man living. The effect of this testimony, unanimously
given by all persons who knew the East, was naturally very great.
Retired members of the Indian services, civil and military, were settled
in all corners of the kingdom. Each of them was, of course, in his own
little circle, regarded as an oracle on an Indian question; and they
were, with scarcely one exception, the zealous advocates of Hastings. It
is to be added that the numerous addresses to the late Governor-General,
which his friends in Bengal obtained from the natives and transmitted
to England, made a considerable impression. To these addresses we attach
little or no importance. That Hastings was beloved by the people whom he
governed is true; but the eulogies of pundits, zemindars, Mahommedan
doctors, do not prove it to be true. For an English collector or judge
would have found it easy to induce any native who could write to sign a
panegyric on the most odious ruler that ever was in India. It was said
that at Benares, the very place at which the acts set forth in the first
article of impeachment had been committed, the natives had erected a
temple to Hastings; and this story excited a strong sensation in
England. Burke's observations on the apotheosis were admirable. He saw
no reason for astonishment, he said, in the incident which had been
represented as so striking. He knew something of the mythology of the
Brahmins. He knew that as they worshipped some gods from love, so they
worshipped others from fear. He knew that they erected shrines, not only
to the benignant deities of light and plenty, but also to the fiends who
preside over smallpox and murder. Nor did he at all dispute the claim of
Mr. Hastings to be admitted into such a Pantheon. This reply has always
struck us as one of the finest that ever was made in Parliament. It is a
grave and forcible argument, decorated by the most brilliant wit and
fancy.

Hastings was, however, safe. But in everything except character, he
would have been far better off if, when first impeached, he had at once
pleaded guilty, and paid a fine of fifty thousand pounds. He was a
ruined man. The legal expenses of his defence had been enormous. The
expenses which did not appear in his attorney's bill were perhaps larger
still. Great sums had been paid to Major Scott. Great sums had been laid
out in bribing newspapers, rewarding pamphleteers, and ci