n apprehending persecution from Christians. That apprehension, the
wisdom and moderation of Hastings removed. He was the first foreign
ruler who succeeded in gaining the confidence of the hereditary priests
of India, and who induced them to lay open to English scholars the
secrets of the old Brahminical theology and jurisprudence.

It is indeed impossible to deny that, in the great art of inspiring
large masses of human beings with confidence and attachment, no ruler
ever surpassed Hastings. If he had made himself popular with the English
by giving up the Bengalese to extortion and oppression, or if, on the
other hand, he had conciliated the Bengalese and alienated the English,
there would have been no cause for wonder. What is peculiar to him is
that, being the chief of a small band of strangers who exercised
boundless power over a great indigenous population, he made himself
beloved both by the subject many and by the dominant few. The affection
felt for him by the civil service was singularly ardent and constant.
Through all his disasters and perils, his brethren stood by him with
steadfast loyalty. The army, at the same time, loved him as armies have
seldom loved any but the greatest chiefs who have led them to victory.
Even in his disputes with distinguished military men, he could always
count on the support of the military profession. While such was his
empire over the hearts of his countrymen, he enjoyed among the natives a
popularity such as other governors have perhaps better merited, but such
as no other governor has been able to attain. He spoke their vernacular
dialects with facility and precision. He was intimately acquainted with
their feelings and usages. On one or two occasions, for great ends, he
deliberately acted in defiance of their opinion; but on such occasions
he gained more in their respect than he lost in their love. In general,
he carefully avoided all that could shock their national or religious
prejudices. His administration was indeed in many respects faulty; but
the Bengalee standard of good government was not high. Under the Nabobs,
the hurricane of Mahratta cavalry had passed annually over the rich
alluvial plain. But even the Mahratta shrank from a conflict with the
mighty children of the sea; and the immense rice harvests of the Lower
Ganges were safely gathered in, under the protection of the English
sword. The first English conquerors had been more rapacious and
merciless even than the