he Rockingham whigs were
adverse to him, and Burke, whose generous emotions were roused by any
tale of oppression, applied himself to collecting evidence against him,
which his fervid imagination magnified and distorted.

Hastings guided the affairs of India through a period of extreme danger;
preserved the empire, brought order out of anarchy in every branch of
the administration, and won the esteem and confidence of the subject
people, the army, and the civil service. His task was not merely to
govern well, but to provide dividends out of revenue, and his work was
criticised by the company with reference to its pecuniary results as
well as its political wisdom. In Bengal he abolished Clive's mischievous
dual system, and administered the province through English officials; he
reformed the collection of the revenue, and he effected large economies
by reducing the enormous pension of the nawab, who under his new system
was spared the expenses of government, and by withholding the tribute to
the emperor, who was a mere puppet in the hands of the Marathas. While
governor of Bengal he allied himself with the Muhammadan states on the
frontier, and specially with Oudh, which he wished to make a barrier
against Maratha invasion. He took Allahabad and Kora from the emperor,
or rather from the Marathas, and made them over to Shuja-ud-Daula, the
wazir of Oudh, and partly to raise money for the company, and partly as
a matter of policy he accepted the wazir's offer of forty lakhs of
rupees for the loan of British troops to help him conquer the Rohillas,
an Afghan tribe which had lately settled in those districts and was
intriguing with the Marathas. The conquest was carried out in Eastern
fashion in 1774, and the wazir's cruelties, which were grossly
exaggerated, were laid to Hastings's charge. The overthrow of the
Rohillas was advantageous to the British rule; but though the council at
Calcutta thought the bargain highly profitable to the company, the
hiring out of British troops to serve as subsidiaries to an Asiatic
potentate was a deplorable mistake. Another charge brought against
Hastings concerned the execution of Nanda-Kumar (Nuncomar), a rascally
Brahman, who, after Hastings was appointed governor-general, helped his
opponents in the council by bringing charges against him. Nanda-Kumar
was hanged for a private forgery, after a patient trial in the supreme
court. His death was highly convenient to Hastings, but there is no