nistration of the province of Bengal. His chief attention was
directed to the establishment of a police; to the posting detachments
so as to prevent the incursions of the Senassie fakeers, and other
marauders; to the formation of local courts throughout the province; to
the regulation of taxes and collection of the revenue; to the removal
of impolitic taxes, duties, and fees upon native marriages; to the
suppression of the peculation and rapacity of the company's servants;
and to other important objects, too numerous for detail. Although some
of the means employed by Hastings were not of the purest kind, and
others were inconsistent with more modern notions of political economy
and justice, yet it is certain that his measures were productive of much
benefit to the country, and that all classes of the community of Bengal,
Bahar, and Orissa were satisfied with their results, and were led to
look upon him in the light of a benefactor. It seems to have been to
this period that he alluded, when, in after years, nearly all England
was accusing him of cruelty and oppression, he remarked:--"I could have
gone from Calcutta to Moorshedabad, and from Moorshedabad to Patna and
Benares, without a guard, without a sepoy, without any protection but
what was to be found in the goodwill and affection of the natives."

The Nabob of Oude was earnest in his desire to annex the Rohilcund
country to his own, and early in the year 1774 he applied to Hastings
for the troops with which he had engaged to furnish him for the
enterprise. Hastings was somewhat disconcerted at his request, but as
the nabob had on his part engaged to pay 210,000 rupees per month for
their services, and he wanted money, a brigade, under the command of
Colonel Champion, received orders to march into the country of Oude,
with the declared purpose of invading Rohilcund. Operations commenced
in April, and Colonel Champion gained a great victory over the Rohilla
chiefs, on the side of Babul Nulla, which placed the whole country at
the mercy of the conquerors. The Nabob of Oude made a cruel use of the
victory, by plundering and burning towns and villages which belonged to
the quiet Hindu inhabitants; and who, so far from making common cause
with the Rohillas, were ready to render all the services they were
capable of rendering against them. In this destruction, neither Colonel
Champion nor Hastings participated, but as it was by their means that
the conquest of the country w