The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1873-05-30

traders. There is no evidence to-day to
corroborate these rumors hence we must
believe that the EAST India Company's "
gains were earned by honest and legitimate
trade.
The colonial and political history of
British India is largely identified with the
rise and progress OF this identical east
India Company" Up to 1854 British In
dia was practically under the control and
influence of the company. In 1857 Bonn
bay was erected into ga presidency" al
though its protector was not Great Britain,
but the /" East India Company" Some
half century later the provinces of CAL
cutta, Madras and Bengal, by an act of the
British Parliament, were placed under
the administration Of q Governor Gen
eral. Lord Give, who went to Madras in
1747 as a commercial agent, soon passed to
the military service, and by succession of
conquests added immense territorial acqui-
sitions to British India. These exploits so
pleased Lord Chatham that he termed Give
"a heaven born Generaln; and so gratified
was the East India Company that it put
him in possession Of enormous wealth.
British India also gave him the title of
"Omrah of the Mogul empire "; and Great
Britain conferred on him an Irish peerage
In 1773, after he returned home, a savage
attack was made upon him in the House
OF Commons, respecting his political con-
duct IN India; but the motion was rejected.
and vote OF thanks passed declaratory of
his eminent foreign services He commit
ted suicide the following year, and was
sincerely mourned by the people of Britain
as the great founder of the British Empire
in India. Still, the measures which he
adopted, to carry out his colonial and po-
litical policy, do not accord with the strict
honor and justice of to- day.
For more than two centuries Gf we can
interpret history, was the Empire of In
dia, with upwards of two hundred million
people, ruled and managed solely for the
benefit Of the East India Company"
This great Corporation, which dethroned
the Mogul dynasty and conquered its do
minions, had but one object in vew.--the
purchase and sale of ivory, spices, dia-
monds and ingots of gold-and cared
nothing for the welfare or happiness of the
people of that vast Empire whose territory
it had conquered by commercial greed and
military superiority. The extraordinary
power, influence and arrogance of this
company was first checked by William Pitt,
in 1884, who got through Parliament bill
called "The Board Of Control" which
placed the affairs of the company under the
control Of the British Government, and
which ultimately controlled the executive
andpolitical government of India. Hence,
we must accord to that great statesman the
credit of changing the administration OF
British India from mere policy of COM
mercial avarice to one of justice, civiliza-
ton and progress.
This brief and imperfect sketch of the
famous East India Company" would be
still more imperfect without reference to
Warren Hastings, whose name and fame
are indissolubly associated with the his
tory of British India, and also with the
" East India Company" In 1850 Mr.. Has
tlngs was sent to Bengal as clerk in the
companys service. Through the exhibit
ton of marked ability he was promoted to
second in council at Madras, then raised to
the presidency of Calcutta and Bengal.
At this critical period, 1869, q war broke
out between Hyder Ali and the British In
dia colonies. Hastings, by bold and Wig
orous efforts, crushed the revolt, protected
the East India Company'sn interests,
and saved India to Great Britain. But
the means he took to defend these interests
extreme cruelty to the enemy-awoke n
terrible remorse in England, and general
horror throughout Europe. He was re-
called home in 1886, and his impeachment
was moved by Edmund Burke, the great
Irish orator, then in Parliament. The trial
for impeachment did not begin until Feb
ruary, 1888, when, in the language of Ma
cauley, "The high court of Parliament was
to sit according to forms handed down
from the days of the Plantagenets, on an
Englishman accused Of exercising tyranny
over the lord Of the holy city of Benares, and
the ladies of the princely house of Dude"
The trial of Warren Hastings was pro-
longed eight years; he was charged with
numerous high crimes; was arraigned by
the ablest legal orators of that brilliant era
in English history; was accused of sins far
greater than were attributed to Lord Give
but was acquitted Tin 1795), with his health
gone, his fortune impaired, and his friends
beginning to think that Burke's venomous
eloquence was founded on facts" But the
great EAST India Company" did not forget
their old friend fBengal, and traditional
rumors are correct Warren Hastings bank
credit was far better after his celebrated
trial for impeachment than ever before. He
died in 1918 leaving reputation of superb
ability as a colonial administrator, and the
best friend the famous "East India Com
pany" ever mouned.-Easter0r paper.