Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-07-29

r be avowedly in love.
n Hastings love, however, while it wa
l. deep, ardent, strong, was not impetuous
: Intent now ON realizing, at whatever sacri
Q flee, the fruition of his desires, he Sc
about maturing plan for the accomplish
t iment of this object with as cool and cal
> culating a mind as he had previously done
j., for the redemption of his paternal estate
2 Nay, as unscrupulous even now and a:
| resolute as when, somewhat later, he ad
milistered on the temporaities of the be-
guns of Dude, and depopulated whole
regions of the British domain, he, in con.
, nection with his adored mistress, devised
and settled upon the following plan OF
operations. He would proceed Immediate
. ly 10 Bengal and re-establish himself there
in business, while she was to institute a
suit for divorce in some of the courts of
, Franconia While this latter matter was
pending, which in all probability would be
four or FIVE years, they should abide apart !;
but as soon as the marriage tie was dis
solved, he would make her his wife, and
adopt all the children she had borne to her
former husband.
Fired now with double ambition he
addroooed hirnS self to tho great purpose of
his life with greater zeal and earnestness
than ever before His talents and knowl-
edge of Indian affairs having brought him
at once and prominently into the service
Of the East India Company, it was not
long before he was made second in the
council of Madras, and three years later
the highest official of the company, the
/ President of the Supreme Council of Ben
gal. Indeed, such was his indomitable
energy and indefatigable devotion to bust
ness; such his matchess administrative
ability and unwearing constancy that,
after having been advanced rapidly from
one position of honor and trust to another,
he was appointed, January t, l774, Gov
ernor-General of British India Like
Lord Byron, he had suddenly awoke and
found himself famous.
Behold now The millions of India
have become the subjects of this once
humble Company clerk \ standing army
is at his command, ready to do his bidding,
even to letting itself for hire and exter-
minating the innocent and defeHceless
Rohillas. The resources of a vast and
ancient empire are subject to his control,
and the treasures of time -honored and in
offensive nabobs gathered to swell his
treasury and carry forward his enterprises.
His word becomes law in the province, and
his name at length a terror to all the tribes
abroad In a word, in an almost incredi-
bly, brief period of time, from the humble
capacity Of posting books for the Company,
he is advanced to the position of states
man, diplomatist, monarch. His move
ments are attracting the attention of the
whole civilized world and for a series of
years afford fruitful topic of comment
and disquisition for the English press, and
of debate in the House of Commons As
piring to the position of dictator, he com
pletelv outwits and discomfts that dis
tinguished statesman, and the alleged
author of the papers of Junius, Sir Phillip
Francis, who, with one or two others, had
been sent out by the Home Government to
rule Jointly with him, and to correct some
not unjustly charged as guilty Yes, as
effectually as he destroys his Indian foes,
he defeats opposition in his council, and
snaps his finger alike at the home tadmin-
istration and the board Of directors And
yet success follows him. With such con-
summate skill and indomitable energy does
he carry forward his enterprises, he wins
golden opinions even from his enemies So
manifestly Is all India, under his admins
tration, undergoing a rapid and radical
revolution. and the English Government
securing 4 stronger hold upon the country
than ever before-tor the vast territory
over which he rules is composed mostly of
new conquests-he Is popular in court in
y h. Oh nd llalo
excuses. so astonishingly withal are the
Golfers of the East India Company re-
plenished by the rich harvest of pagodas
he is reaping. they resolutely shut their
eyes to the enormities he authorizes, and
resolve to sustain him at all hazards
. Will not this august potentate, flushed
by this unexampled tide of success, re-
membering that it is gentle blood that
flows in his veins, and conscious that in
the future he is to be the companion of
mobiles and princes, the titled and the
powertul-will not this young world-re-
nowned hero look with contempt upon, if
not entirely forget his love affair with the
Dutchwoman Oh board the Duke of Graf
ton ," Not So Decidedly and unquali-
fiedly as we must condemn Hastingss de-
liberate plot to despoil another man of his
lawful wife, we cannot but admire the
singular fidelity with which. under such
vastly changed circumstances, he fulfilled,
promptly and to the letter, his former
vows. About FIVE years after his second
arrival in India, during all which time he
had neither seen nor heard anything of his
intended, news came that one Madame
Imhoff had at length succeeded in obtain
ilg divorce from her husband in the
Franconia courts. Hastings hailed the in
telligence with every demonstration of joy |
took Immediate measures to have the lady |
brought to him. caused the day of his |
marriage to be announced as n universal |
holiday, and celebrated it with festivities
of the most magnificent description
Hastings was some fifteen years Cover
nor-General of India, and his wife always
exerted over him marked and controlling
influence. And when at length he re-
turned to England, she who was born I'M
der the Arctic circle, and had played the
queen under the tropic of Cancer, proved |
herself not unworthy to grace the Court of
Queen Charlotte acted conspicuous part
during the famous and protracted trial of
her husband, whose alleged crimes are pre-
served in the amber of the immortal
eloquence of Sheridan and Burke; and
Hastings having been enabled
through the generosity of the East India
Company, to redeem his ancestral home,
for which object he had lived and labored |
so long, and in which his almost inter-
minable and enormously expensive trial
had well nigh defeated him, became ex-
g.