Great Britain’ (letter to A. Elliott, 12 Jan. 1777, ap. Gleig).
Amidst these acts of state a despatch suddenly reached him whereby he learned that the resignation conditionally tendered in 1775 had been handed in by his agents in London, and accepted there. On hearing of this General Clavering, the commander-in-chief, instantly assumed the office of governor-general, and demanded the keys of Fort William. Hastings refused to yield, and a dead-lock ensued which might have led to civil war but for the public spirit shown on all sides. Both claimants agreed to abide by the arbitration of the supreme court, and the judges decided in favour of Hastings, thereby—as Hastings afterwards acknowledged—saving his honour, safety, and reputation. Clavering soon afterwards died of dysentery, and Hastings was left for the time with but one opponent in council. But that opponent was Philip Francis (1740–1818) [q. v.]
On 8 Aug. 1777 Hastings married his baroness, a divorce having been at last obtained by Imhoff in the German courts. The lady was by this time thirty years of age, and is described by ladies of the time as elegant and graceful, dressing with taste rather than fashion, and wearing a profusion of beautiful auburn curls. She had been living in good repute under the protection of her mother since her arrival in Calcutta, and the marriage does not seem to have caused any scandal. Nothing can be more characteristic than the quiet tenacity with which Hastings carried on this strange and protracted love affair; indeed it only ceased with his long life.
Being now in a position to realise his own plans, Hastings gave up all thoughts of retiring; Francis found, indeed, an ally in Wheler, the new councillor sent out from home; but the commander-in-chief, Sir Eyre Coote, was usually amenable to reason, and Barwell continued to vote with the governor-general. In 1778 Hastings was able to resume the support of Ragoba's cause, and also to operate against the French settlements in India. His measures were not at first successful. The Bombay government was disunited and inefficient, and no aid could be obtained from Madras. Colonel Leslie, who commanded the expeditionary force, died before anything could be done. His successor, Colonel Thomas Goddard [q. v.], however, soon showed himself worthy of the occasion, defeating the armies of Sindhia and Holkar, and occupying the capital of Gujrat. Francis in vain opposed the governor-general's measures, and complaints were raised at home against the war. But it was easily shown that Hastings had not been the aggressor, but was acting on the defensive with his usual far-sighted resolution. From the evidence recorded by Grant Duff (Hist. of the Mahrattas), it is clear that the confederacy between the Mahrattas and Haidar, which Hastings checked, had for its object the expulsion of British power from the whole of Asia.
A French officer was with the enemy at Poona; a French contingent accompanied Haidar in his simultaneous attack on the Carnatic, and took part in the defeat and capture of Colonel Baillie's force. The nizam's army was officered by Frenchmen, and Louis XVI had been persuaded to league himself against England with the king of Spain and the revolted colonies in North America. In India the struggle was almost desperate. Limited as were his resources, Hastings struck in all directions, and struck hard. Sindhia's fortified capital, Gwalior, was taken by escalade in August 1780, and the subsequent successes of Colonel Carnac dissolved the confederacy. Hastings took the daring step of suspending the governor of Madras, by which he strained the constitution, but saved the presidency; at the same time he reinforced it with money and with men under Coote. The nizam was pacified, vacillation on the part of the Bhonsla of Berar was arrested, and that wavering chief converted into a staunch friend. Hastings laid down the maxim, never to be overlooked in Eastern affairs, that ‘acts which proclaim confidence and a determined spirit in the hour of adversity are the surest means of retrieving it.’ By pushing in every direction what his opponents called ‘frantic military exploits’ (but in which really very little blood was spilt), he kept his own provinces free from war, and in the remaining possessions of the company restored a falling cause. In spite of some misfortunes on land, and some trouble at sea arising from the ability of the Bailli de Suffren, the French admiral, Hastings drove Haidar out of the Carnatic. In 1782 Haidar died; and the treaty of Salbai, concluded early next year with his son, Tippu Sultan, laid the foundation of British supremacy in India, and defined the position of other states.
The British governor-general was already taking the place of the effete Delhi empire in regard to all those states which depended upon British protection. Even the princes of the Rajputs, the most ancient ruling houses in the world, had always paid tribute to that empire. The Mahrattas similarly held to ransom their own tributary and protected states. It was in accordance with native practice and opinion that the British government in Calcutta should do likewise. The
