nsittart, would at length find courage in despair.
No Mahratta invasion had ever spread through the province such dismay as
this inroad of English lawyers. All the injustice of former oppressors,
Asiatic and European, appeared as a blessing when compared with the
justice of the Supreme Court.

Every class of the population, English and native, with the exception of
the ravenous pettifoggers who fattened on the misery and terror of an
immense community, cried out loudly against this fearful oppression. But
the judges were immovable. If a bailiff was resisted, they ordered the
soldiers to be called out. If a servant of the Company, in conformity
with the orders of the government, withstood the miserable catchpoles
who, with Impey's writs in their hands, exceeded the insolence and
rapacity of gang-robbers, he was flung into prison for a contempt. The
lapse of sixty years, the virtue and wisdom of many eminent magistrates
who have during that time administered justice in the Supreme Court,
have not effaced from the minds of the people of Bengal the recollection
of those evil days.

The members of the government were, on this subject, united as one man.
Hastings had courted the judges; he had found them useful instruments.
But he was not disposed to make them his own masters, or the masters of
India. His mind was large; his knowledge of the native character most
accurate. He saw that the system pursued by the Supreme Court was
degrading to the government and ruinous to the people; and he resolved
to oppose it manfully. The consequence was, that the friendship, if that
be the proper word for such a connection, which had existed between him
and Impey, was for a time completely dissolved. The government placed
itself firmly between the tyrannical tribunal and the people. The Chief
Justice proceeded to the wildest excesses. The Governor-General and all
the members of Council were served with writs, calling on them to appear
before the King's justices, and to answer for their public acts. This
was too much. Hastings, with just scorn, refused to obey the call, set
at liberty the persons wrongfully detained by the Court, and took
measures for resisting the outrageous proceedings of the sheriffs'
officers, if necessary, by the sword. But he had in view another device
which might prevent the necessity of an appeal to arms. He was seldom at
a loss for an expedient; and he knew Impey well. The expedient, in this
case, was a very simpl