dating back from June, 1785. A few days later they voted Hastings a loan of £50,000, free of interest, for a term of eighteen years.* This sum, with the arrears of pension, would at least enable him to tide over his present difficulties, if it could not altogether bar their return. It saved him, in fact, from utter ruin at a time when popular rumour, mindful of former Nabobs, and fed with the slanders circulated by his enemies, spoke of him as revelling in untold riches.

Not the least of his consolations at this time of pecuniary pressure, was the receipt of congratulatory letters and addresses from admirers of every class and race in those parts of India where he had been best known. The names of Morgan, Popham, Forbes, and other officers of renown, headed the signatures to the brief but fervent utterances of esteem and sympathy forwarded by the officers quartered at Chunar, Fathigarh, Cawnpore, Dinapore, Fort William, or presented at home by the chosen mouthpieces of every division of the Bengal army. Similar addresses, signed by hundreds of English and native residents in Calcutta, expressed in terms of equal warmth the general rejoicing at the acquittal of a statesman so justly honoured and so hardly

*"Debates of the House of Lords," &c.

VALUE OF NATIVE SYMPATHY.

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used. Conspicuous among the native addresses were three signed by all the leading citizens, Hindu and Mohammadan, of Banáras.

It may, of course, be pleaded that some of these effusions, as well as the testimonials for warded during the impeachment, are worth little as marks of genuine sympathy spontaneously offered. Everyone who knows aught of Indian ways, knows how easily such things can be made to order. An English Collector, as Macaulay reminds us, "would have found it easy to induce any native who could write to sign a panegyric on the most odious ruler that ever was in India."

But Mr. Lumsden, in forwarding the Banáras addresses to Sir John Shore, then GovernorGeneral, shows that with these, at any rate, English influence had nothing whatever to do. When some of the leading citizens came and told him of their desire to sign the address drawn up by Bissambar Pandit, if only they were sure Government would not object, he simply told them in return that "their signing or not signing depended entirely on their own option," and that this was "a matter perfectly indifferent to Government."*

"Debates of the House of Lords," &c.

As for the natives of Calcutta, they had already caught from their white neighbours something of that freer spirit which breathes in their descendants of to-day. Their congratulations, at any rate, as well as those of his own countrymen, fell like balm upon Hastings' spirit, consoling him, as he said, "for the want of money to throw away on the luxuries of a farm and a greenhouse, and on the tax of a town residence."

From this time forth Hastings lived the life of a country gentleman, owning an estate of 650 acres, to whose improvement he set himself with an energy unchilled by years and misfortunes. He amused himself with breeding horses, fattening bullocks, growing barley-wheat by new methods, trying new kinds of food upon his cattle, cultivating his gardens, and attempting to raise fruits and vegetables from Indian seeds. At certain seasons he took his wife to town for a few weeks, or paid a visit to Impey's place in Sussex, or to some other of his old friends. "Of the ingredients of happiness," he writes to Thompson, in 1803, "I possess all but one, and that occasionally comes and goes. My beloved wife is what she was in her moral and spiritual substance, and I should and ought to be perfectly contented, if her health (which is not worse, but rather

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better) was more stable. The worst is, we live too much secluded from society, excepting that of our neighbours, and too remote from our friends; but our hearts turn to them with as much warmth as ever, and with as hearty an interest in their concerns."

In return for Hastings' visits to Newick, some of the Impey family often stayed as welcome. guests at Daylesford. Sir Elijah himself had taken like his old friend to farming;† and we may imagine how their talk would sometimes. turn aside from politics, literature, art, or family affairs, to a comparison of the progress made by each in his new pursuit.

True to his Indian training, Hastings always rose early and took his cold bath every morning. After spending an hour among his books and papers, he breakfasted, always by himself, in his own room on bread and butter and tea, which he would never allow to be watered twice. When Mrs. Hastings and her guests assembled for breakfast, he would come and entertain them, says Mr. Gleig, with a copy of his own verses on some topic of passing interest, with a passage

* Gleig's "Warren Hasting's," Vol. 3, Chap. xii.
" "Memoirs of Sir E. Impey," Chap. xvi.

from some favourite author, or with the latest news contained in the journals of the day. Great, we are told, was the disappointment of his friends, if no verses were forthcoming; but some of them, perhaps, if the truth were known, found greater pleasure in hearing him talk about things in general, with a gravity lightened by his playful humour and the winning courtesy of his address. Like other great men, Hastings had his little vanities; but these were clearly of a kind that only the more endeared him to those who knew him the most intimately.

He played to perfection the part of a courteous and kindly host. Whether he sat for a while among his guests in the large library at Daylesford, or shared, as he generally did, in their outdoor amusements, or took his place at the head of his well-furnished dinner-table, his presence always added to the enjoyment of those around him. He adapted himself to his company and the mood of the moment, with an easy grace that never overstepped the bounds of self-respect. He could be grave without dulness, and gay without buffoonery. His own cheerfulness helped to make others cheerful. He had some turn for epigram and repartee, and a keen relish for displays of