Battle of Porto Novo.
That struggle, which had begun under such unfavourable circumstances, was finally carried to a glorious end. The veteran Sir Eyre Coote, who had won the Carnatic at Wandewash twenty years before, now saved it by the victory of Porto Novo (July, 1781). Haider's multitudes were routed, and he was driven back into the hills. Next year he died, and the throne of Mysore fell to his son, Tippoo Sultan, a cruel and fanatical prince of talents very inferior to those of his father. After two years of war, Tippoo was constrained to make peace, and to cease from molesting the Carnatic (1784).
Hastings' work was now done; he had saved our Indian empire by his hard fighting with the Mahrattas and the rulers of Mysore, at a time when England, oppressed by war in Europe and America, could give him no aid. He had organized the administration, increased the revenue, and set justice on a firm basis. If some of his acts had been harsh, yet all should have been pardoned him when his difficulties were taken into consideration.
Trial of Hastings.
INDIA IN THE TIME OF WARREN HASTINGS
But when Hastings came home in 1785, hoping to receive the thanks of the nation and to be rewarded with a peerage, he was woefully undeceived. His enemy Francis had returned from India before him, and had laid before Fox and Burke, the leaders of the Whig opposition, all the doings of the last ten years painted in the darkest colours. He persuaded them that Hastings was a tyrant and a monster, and moreover that a damaging blow could be dealt to Pitt by impeaching the great governor. For if the prime minister defended him, as was likely, he might be accused of protecting guilt and malfeasance. The Whigs therefore demanded with loud cries the impeachment of Hastings; but Pitt—rather to their surprise—granted it. Then began the famous trial of the Governor-General before the House of Lords, which lasted fully six years. Accused of having judicially murdered Nandukumar, of having illegally sold British troops to the Nawab Asaf-ud-Dowlah, and of having cruelly oppressed Cheyte Singh and the Begums of Oude, Hastings was acquitted on every point. But the law expenses had ruined him, and the nation's indifference had soured him, so that he died an unhappy and disappointed man.
Pitt's India Bill.