The entire population of Calcutta was in consternation. The members of the council, being furious, swore that they would save their protegé, were it at the foot of the gallows. Sir E. Impey refused the reprieve that Nuncomar's friends demanded in order that they might have time to appeal to justice or the royal clemency. The Brahmin suffered his fate with the cool courage peculiar to that Oriental race, so often weak and cowardly in battle, but impassive in the face of torture and death. The affrighted crowd which was present at his punishment fled, covering their faces; a multitude of Hindoos threw themselves into the sacred waters of the Hooghly, as if to purify themselves from the crime of which they had been the powerless spectators.
Hastings was triumphant at Calcutta. At London, in spite of the enmity of Lord North, who was closely leagued with that majority of the council in conflict with the governor-general, the shareholders summoned to vote at a general meeting inclined to the support of Warren Hastings. The finances had never been more prosperous. If he had committed faults it was in the service of the company and to its profit. The governor-general's partisans upheld him with a hundred voices.
The discontent of the ministry was so great that Colonel Maclean dreaded a premature convocation of Parliament and the accusation of his employer. He remitted to the director of the company the resignation which had been intrusted to him. Delighted to get out of the embarrassment thus, the London council addressed to General Clavering, the senior of the Calcutta council, orders to exercise power until the arrival of Mr. Wheeler, who was charged with replacing Warren Hastings.
When the company's decisions reached their distant empire, the aspect of affairs was changed. The death of one of the members of the council had overthrown the majority, and the governor-general's voice prevailed. He had resumed all his legal authority, annulled the measures of his adversaries, and deposed their creatures. He boldly denied the instructions transmitted to Colonel Maclean, and declared his resignation invalid. After a conflict of some days between General Clavering and the governor-general, both put it to the decision of the court. It was favorable to Hastings. Public opinion sustained him in the colony; he became again the undisputed master of power, and his title was confirmed by the company. The English government, struggling with the American rebellion, and threatened by a European coalition, felt the need of maintaining in India a clever, experienced, and resolute governor.
Without scruples of conscience to hamper him in a policy which was as far-seeing as it was adroit, Hastings had disarmed the supreme court. The latter had shamefully abused its power; judicial extortions and violence had spread terror in Bengal. The governor-general did not hesitate to audaciously purchase the assistance of Sir E. Impey. Thanks to new charges added to his enormous appointments, the chief judge allowed those dangerous weapons which he had used towards a defenceless population to fall into the shade. Francis, who detested Impey, rose up, not without cause, against the means which Hastings had employed to deliver the country from legal abuses. Recriminations and quarrels began again between the two adversaries. "I cannot rely on Mr. Francis's promises of good faith," wrote Hastings to London. "I am convinced that he will not hold to them. I judge of his public conduct by his private conduct, which I have always found destitute of honor and veracity." A duel took place. Hastings seriously wounded Francis. Scarcely recovered of his wound, the latter set out for England without his rancor and hatred of his fortunate rival having lost any of their bitterness. He bided his day of vengeance.
Meanwhile, Warren Hastings had attempted a futile enterprise against the Mahrattas. He was threatened in the Carnatic by the growing power of Hyder-Ali, the founder of the Mohammedan kingdom of Mysore, imprudently provoked by the English authorities of Madras, who found themselves defenceless against the most formidable enemy.
The regiments of Munro and Baillie had already been destroyed; the approach of De Suffren was announced; some fortified places alone were left to the English in the Carnatic. Madras, in terror, contemplating the flames which were devouring the villages of the plain, asked aid of the governor-general. Some weeks later Hastings dispatched Sir Eyre Coote, formerly conqueror of M. de Lally-Tollendal at Wandewash, against Hyder-Ali. Using without reserve the full extent of his authority, he raised troops, collected money, and energetically sustained the movements of his little army. The progress of Hyder-Ali was arrested. On the 1st of July, 1781, the victory of Porto Novo gave splendor and prestige to the English power, soon triumphant by reason of the death of its clever and intrepid rival.
The internal embarrassments of a disputed government had disappeared as far as Hastings was concerned. He had triumphed in military attacks, but financial difficulties, aggravated by the war which was just ended, remained heavy. It is a great proof of moral worth to resist the pressing need of money when the means of acquiring it for one's self, or for those whom one wishes to serve, present themselves at our door on every hand. Formerly, Warren Hastings had satisfied the needs of the company by despoiling the Great Mogul and reducing the Rohillas to slavery. Now he pillaged the rajah of Benares, Chey-ta-Sing, not without difficulty and at the risk of his life, which he was accustomed to expose with calm temerity. Ruined and conquered, the Hindoo prince fled from his country, of which the governor-general forthwith took possession; his nephew, become rajah, was nothing more than a dependent of the India Company, which assured him an ample pension. More odious proceedings extorted from the princesses of Oude the immense fortune which their nabob husbands had left them. Banished to their palace and deprived of the necessaries of life, the begums knew that their most trusted servants were abandoned at Lucknow to the vengeance and cool animosity of the English. In order to deliver these servants from the hands of their persecutors, they at last gave up their treasures. Sir E. Impey covered all these indignities with the cloak of legal justice. An inquiry which had just taken place in the House of Commons, under the direction of Dundas and Burke, disclosed some of these culpable actions. Sir E. Impey was immediately recalled. The shareholders of the India Company absolutely refused to depose Warren Hastings. It was only two years later that the governor-general himself resigned his functions. His wife, whom he had married under circumstances more romantic than honorable, and to whom he was passionately attached, had been obliged to return to England on account of her health. Warren Hastings joined her there in the month of June, 1785.