, and by their deaths
justified the deed which stripped them of their jaghires and money.
The services which Sir Elijah Impey rendered Hastings, in this and many
other transactions in India, were rewarded by his appointment to the
office of judge of the Sudder Dewannee Adaulut, or Court of Appeal,
which Hastings separated from the supreme council at Calcutta for
that purpose. This new office added L7800 a year to the L8000 which he
already enjoyed, as king's chief justice. This, in effect, made him a
servant of the company; and subsequently some of his juniors received
company's places or gratifications: as Sir Robert Chambers, who was made
company's judge at Chinchura. But this was contrary to the spirit, if
not to the letter of the regulating act of 1773; and in a committee of
the house of commons on Indian affairs, it was declared that the power
conferred upon Sir Elijah Impey in his new capacity was exorbitant,
dangerous, irregular, and illegal, and a bargain between Hastings
and him not to be permitted: that by selling his independence to the
governor-general, he sold the administration of justice and vitiated his
tribunal. This was during Lord North's administration; and soon after,
on the 20th of March, 1782, the Shelbourne and Rockingham administration
was formed. Reform under this shortlived government became the order of
the day; and on the 3rd of May, an address was carried in the house of
Commons, by a large majority, for the recall of Sir Elijah Impey, to
answer to the charge of having "accepted an office not agreeable to the
true intent and meaning of the act 13 George III." About the same time
Hastings himself had a narrow chance of being recalled as a criminal, to
answer for his conduct at Benares; but as the danger of India was at its
height when the last news arrived, and as it was supposed that he alone
was capable of protecting the British interests in that country, he was
permitted at present to go unscathed.

Hastings retained his station till February, 1785, when, without any
previous notice, he resolved to quit his government and return to
England. The last years of his administration had been marked by
judicious measures; measures by which India was restored to a state of
tranquillity, which had not been known for ages. He had also made some
atonement for the crime committed against the wife and mother of
Sujah Dowla by ordering the jaghires--not the money, for that was all
spent--which had been