e course which Clive had already marked out as
the path of the East India Company's glory. The East India Company was
not very eager to advance along that path. Hastings spurred its
sluggish spirit, and, though he was not able to do all that his daring
nature dreamed of, he left behind him a long record of great
achievements. The annexation of Benares, the practical subjection of
Oude, the extension of British dominion, the triumphs of British arms,
must be remembered to the credit of Warren Hastings when his career as
a great English adventurer is being summed up. That British Empire in
India for which Clive unconsciously labored owes its existence to-day
in no small degree to the genius, to the patience, and to the untiring
energy of Warren Hastings.

[Sidenote: 1773--Hastings and the Rohilla War]

The two heaviest charges levelled against Warren Hastings are in
connection with the Rohilla war and with the trial of Nuncomar, now
better known as Nand Kumar. The genius of Burke and the genius of
Macaulay have served not merely to intensify the feeling against
Hastings, but in some degree to form the judgments and bias the
opinions of later writers. But it is only due to the memory of a great
man to remember that both in the case of the Rohilla war and in the
case of Nand Kumar there were two sides to the question, and that
Hastings's side has not always been investigated with the care it
deserves. The adversary who denounced him in the House of Commons and
impeached him in Westminster Hall, the adversary who assailed him with
a splendid prose, were alike inspired by a longing for justice and a
hatred of oppression. But it should be possible now, when more than a
century has passed since the indictment of the one and well-nigh half a
century since the indictment of the other, to remember {259} that if
Hastings cannot be exculpated there is at least a measure of excuse to
be offered for his action.

There is much to be said from a certain point of view in defence of
Warren Hastings's action with regard to the Rohilla war. The Rohilla
chiefs were no doubt a danger to the Nawab of Oude, whom Hastings
regarded as a useful ally of the Company. By the conquest of
Rohilkhand Hastings hoped to obtain for that ally a compact State shut
in effectually from foreign invasion by the Ganges all the way from the
frontiers of Behar to the mountains of Thibet, while at the same time
this useful ally would remain equally acce