ANNEXATION OF INDIA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 43, 13 February 1885, Page 13

ANNEXATION OF INDIA.

By "Blackthob n." (Continued.) Wabren Hastings. I hate already told you that we broke our treaty with Surajah Dowlah and placed one of his generals on the throne. This newly made king was, of course, a creature of ours, and it was quite right according to the usages of diplomacy that we should have a spy at his court ; and a class of spy who could well carry out our designs of directing the movements of this pet king. Necessity had once before taken a young man from a clerk's desk, and events assisting ability had made this young man a governor-general in the person of Robprt Clive. Again, necessity drove another cleik from his stool in the secretary's office at Calcutta, and made him resign the pen to shoulder the musket. This was during the governorship of Clive. Clive readily perceived that the head of this young soldier would be of more service than his arm. so he was admitted within the treasonable circle which plotted the overthrow of Surajah Dowlah. So fitting did this young conspirator prove to be for his occupation that be was appointed as diplomatic agent to the court of the new king. Thus appeared on the horizon the star of Warren Hastings, remarkable enough to attract the gaze of earth. When this star reac bed its zenith, it was at an altitude from which Caesar or Napoleon might have looked down with feelings of gratified ambition. He ruled with absolute authority a people more numerous by far than either of the peoples who paid" .tribute to the great Roman or the mighty Corsican, la so far as I am permitted to compare Hastings to those two great personages of the world's history, I mast say that his desire for supreme or absolute sway was not lees than that of Caesar or Napoleon. The three exactly resemble one another in this, that none allowed any consideration to block the winding path which led to the summit of his ambition. But the difference must be noted. Hastings had a business training. It gave to his nature a touch of the pedlar, which enabled him to drive a remorseless bargain with a helpless people. The exclusive military element in which the " great enptaios '\lived did not so well develope a like faculty in them. If Csesar destroyed great kingdoms, if his appearance in a country was the forerunner of universal destruction, bis apologist might at all events say for him that he did it for the highest motive, the honour and greatness of his country ; for though ambition impelled Cassar, Home reaped the benefit. The same may be said of Napoleon and France. But what can be said of Warren Hastings, the commercial agent of a clique of monopolists. Hastings combined the profession of a soldier with the art of the trafficker, not that he might add glory to the name of England in the 6ense that Nelson and Wellington did, but that he might be the better able to wring from the unfortnnate native princes and their subjects the millions which he transmitted to this company in London. The conquered Gauls and Spaniards and Germanp, after they were beaten into submission, were allowed to become part of a great empire ; they rose with its rise, and were improved by contact with the superior laws and manners of the Komans. But the millions of the East which England beat into submission, were not afforded the protection which, it is said, the slave gets under the British flag ; they were not ruled by its laws nor allowed to use their own laws, but they were handed over as articles of traffic to a company, to become victimsjfor the greed of the hungry pentility which periodically went to their shores to pick up untold wealth ; then return to London and squander it in profusion, while the victims were dying of starvation. This was the way to " convert the heathen and the Hindoo— eh ? The " array of talent " which impeached Hastings, might with equal justice, if it were possible, have placed at the same bar a great portion of the nobility and a very large share of the gentility of England. By giving a sketch of the life of this remarkable man, Warren Hastings, I will be giving an outline of the policy which was pursued throughout the annexation of this great country which was civilised when the Britons were savages. (To be Continued