New Light on Warren Hastings
Tnis correspondence should be read, as it might have been presented, in two sections. The first covers Warren Hastings' administration of Bengal as its effective Governor (Miril, 1772—October, 1774). In the last fifteen months he was Governor-General in name but without power.
The collection is interesting and valuable, yet not entirely satisfactory. Important correspondence regarding the Em-; peror's tribute and the Rohilla War, fully translated in Sir John Strachey's standard work on the War, appears in abbre- viated and misleading form. - The Benares correspondence, supports Hastings' unswerving contention that the Raja was not more than a dependent estate-holder, owing allegiance. to the Company as the sovereign power. Explanatory foot- notes, as given in the admirable Calendar of the contemporary Palk Manuscripts (Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1922),, are greatly needed, and there are other blemishes.
The introduction is defective and inaccurate. The Benares 'reaty of 1773 did not cover the Rohilla expedition. The previous engagement between the Rohillas and the Vizier,. attested by General Barker, is not given, yet the breach of it gave to the Vizier just occasion for war. The exaggeration of the alleged Rohilla atrocities, fully exposed by Strachey and the late Sir G. Forrest, is not noticed. Gurdas, Nandkumar's ion, was not given the office vacated by Mahomed Riza The Munni Begum's letter produced by Nandkumar was dis-. owned as a fabrication. The opposition of Hastings to the cession of Benares is ignored. We have a right to expect much More thorough and comprehensive work in the ensuing volumes of this important series.
Previous page
