under Government control, to become the source of a steadily growing revenue. A bank was opened in Calcutta under Hastings' auspices, and he took special credit to himself for abolishing all duties and fees on marriage. In short, within the limits prescribed by his masters, who still shirked a part of their political duty, and with official powers inadequate to the task assigned him, he had succeeded in planning out and laying sure foundations of civilised rule over the provinces won by the sword and diplomacy of Clive.
To have accomplished so much in two years and a half, amid the drawbacks of a depressing climate, of a Council unwieldy in numbers and tenacious of their rights, of subalterns unused to regular control, of private interests, claims, and jealousies which clashed with the public good, and of orders from the India House which sometimes marred or hindered the success of his own measures, while grave questions of foreign policy called for timely deliberation, was a feat of constructive skill and patient pilotage which alone entitles Hastings to rank among statesmen of the highest order. By breaking up his Council into committees and replacing boards with individuals, he got much of his work done better, more quickly, and with less friction, than ever before. Intellectually a head and shoulders taller than any of his colleagues, he never wounded their pride by assuming airs of superiority, but strove to win their support by force of patient reasoning and steady conciliation. Sometimes indeed, by his own confession, he was 'obliged
