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 thority of William Botoner or William of Worcester, asserts that he lived about 1320, but Weever in his ‘Funerall Monuments’ quotes from Haselwood a eulogy of Edward the Black Prince. Haselwood's only work is said to have been a ‘Chronicon Compendiarium Cantuariense;’ Weever states that it was in the Cottonian Library, but gives no more exact reference, and it seems impossible to decide for certain whether it is still preserved there; if so it has been lost sight of. The last words of the extract given by Weever are ‘inter regales regum memorias dignum [sc. Edwardum principem] duximus commendandum,’ which looks as if Haselwood's work was a series of short lives of English kings, perhaps a compilation made for the use of his scholars.

HASLAM, JOHN (1764–1844), medical writer, was born in London in 1764 and received his medical education at the United Borough Hospitals and at Edinburgh, where he attended the medical classes in 1785 and 1786. After acting for many years as apothecary to Bethlehem Hospital, London, thus obtaining a practical knowledge of diseases of the brain, he was created a doctor of medicine by the university of Aberdeen, 17 Sept. 1816, and established himself as a physician in London. To comply with the regulations of the College of Physicians in London, he entered himself at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and kept some terms there, but took no degree. He was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians, 12 April 1824. Haslam was long distinguished in private practice by his prudent treatment of the insane, while his scientific publications and his contributions on general literature to the periodicals gave him a wide reputation. He died at 56 Lamb's Conduit Street, London, 20 July 1844, aged 80.

Haslam wrote: Haslam read three papers—‘On Restraint and Coercion,’ 1833, ‘An Attempt to Institute the Correct Discrimination between Crime and Insanity,’ 1843, and ‘On the Increase of Insanity,’ 1843—before the Society for Improving the Condition of the Insane; these were printed with others by J. C. Sommers in 1850. A portrait of Haslam by G. Dawe was engraved in mezzotint.
 * 1) ‘Observations on Insanity, with Practical Remarks on the Disease and an Account of the Morbid Appearances on Dissection,’ 1798. The second edition was entitled ‘Observations on Madness and Melancholy,’ 1809.
 * 2) ‘Illustrations of Madness, with a Description of the Tortures experienced by Bomb-bursting, Lobster-cracking, and Lengthening the Brain,’ 1810.
 * 3) ‘Observations of the Physician [Dr. Thomas Monro] and Apothecary of Bethlem Hospital upon the Evidence before the House of Commons on Madhouses,’ 1816; Haslam's observations are on pp. 37–55.
 * 4) ‘Considerations on the Moral Management of Insane Persons,’ 1817.
 * 5) ‘Medical Jurisprudence as it relates to Insanity,’ 1817.
 * 6) ‘A Letter to the Governors of Bethlehem Hospital, containing an Account of their Management for the last Twenty Years,’ 1818.
 * 7) ‘Sound Mind, or Contributions to the History and Physiology of the Human Intellect,’ 1819.
 * 8) ‘A Letter to the Lord Chancellor on Unsoundness of Mind and Imbecility of Intellect,’ 1823.
 * 9) ‘On the Nature of Thought and its Connexion with a Perspicuous Sentence,’ 1835.

HASLEM, JOHN (1808–1884), china and enamel painter, born in 1808 at Carrington, near Manchester, left home as a boy to live at Derby with his uncle, James Thomason, afterwards manager of the Derby china works. He studied under George Hancock, and first devoted himself to flower-painting, but subsequently took to figure-painting, in which he was very successful. He painted for the Duke of Sussex a head of Lord Byron, as a present for the king of Greece, and at the duke's instigation came to London and studied under [q. v.] He copied many pictures in miniature on enamel, and was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1836 to 1865. In 1842 he obtained a medal from the Society of Arts for a portrait on china. He painted a small enamel portrait of the queen, and thenceforward obtained many commissions from the royal family and the nobility, especially for copies of ancestral portraits. He was also frequently employed by jewellers and art dealers, and on one occasion was employed to paint a set of enamels in imitation of Petitot, which were so successful that they appeared in the miniature exhibitions at South Kensington, in 1862 and 1865, as the work of Petitot himself. In 1857 Haslem returned to reside with his uncle in Derby, where he continued till his death in 1884. In 1876 he published a history of ‘The Old Derby China Factory.’


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 acquaintance than I had ever been; I was loaded with praise by strangers; and without exaggeration I could believe my name already famous. Moreover I was neither insane nor ill. On the contrary, I possessed a physical and mental strength which I have rarely met in persons of my age. I could mow as well as the peasants, I could work with my brain eight hours uninterruptedly and feel no bad effects.

"And yet I could give no reasonable meaning to any actions of my life. And I was surprised that I had not understood this from the very beginning. My state of mind was as if some wicked and stupid jest was being played upon me by some one. One can live only so long as one is intoxicated, drunk with life; but when one grows sober one cannot fail to see that it is all a stupid cheat. What is truest about it is that there is nothing even funny or silly in it; it is cruel and stupid, purely and simply.

"The oriental fable of the traveler surprised in the desert by a wild beast is very old.

"Seeking to save himself from the fierce animal, the traveler jumps into a well with no water in it; but at the bottom of this well he sees a dragon waiting with open mouth to devour him. And the unhappy man, not daring to go out lest he should be the prey of the beast, not daring to jump to the bottom lest he should be devoured by the dragon, clings to the branches of a wild bush which grows out of one of the cracks of the well. His hands weaken, and he feels that he must soon give way to certain fate; but still he clings, and sees two mice, one white, the other black, evenly moving round the bush to which he hangs, and gnawing off its roots.

"The traveler sees this and knows that he must inevitably perish; but while thus hanging he looks about him and finds on the leaves of the bush some drops of honey. These he reaches with his tongue and licks them off with rapture.

"Thus I hang upon the boughs of life, knowing that the inevitable dragon of death is waiting ready to tear me, and I cannot comprehend why I am thus made a martyr. I try to suck the honey which formerly consoled me; but the honey pleases me no longer, and day and night the white mouse and

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 HASLERIG, ARTHUR (d. 1661), statesman. [See .]

HASLETON, RICHARD (fl. 1595), traveller, has related his travels in the very scarce ‘Strange and wonderful things happened to Rd. Hasleton, borne at Braintree in Essex, in his ten yeares travailes in many forraine countries. Penned as he delivered it from his owne mouth,’ 1595, 4to, printed by Adam Islip for William Barley. Another edition was printed in 1600 by Thomas Pavier. The 1595 edition has cuts, said to be taken from Poliphilo.

 HASLEWOOD, JOSEPH (1769–1833), antiquary, was born in London (at the Lying-in-Hospital in Brownlow Street, Drury Lane) 5 Nov. 1769. At an early age he entered the office of his uncle, Mr. Dewberry, a solicitor in Conduit Street, afterwards became a partner, and ultimately succeeded to the business. He distinguished himself by his zeal for antiquarian studies; his editorial labours were considerable, and he collected a curious library. Among the works that he edited were ‘Tusser's Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry,’ 1810; Juliana Berners or Barnes's ‘Book of St. Albans,’ 1810; Painter's ‘Palace of Pleasure,’ 1813; ‘Antient Critical Essays upon English Poets and Poesy,’ 2 vols. 1811–1815; ‘Mirror for Magistrates,’ 2 vols. 1815; and ‘Drunken Barnaby's Journal,’ 1 vol. 1817–18, 2 vols. 1820. The 1820 edition of ‘Barnaby's Journal’ contains an elaborate notice of the works of Richard Brathwait, whose claim to the authorship of the famous ‘Itinerary’ Haslewood firmly established.

Haslewood supplied Brydges with occasional communications for ‘Censura Literaria,’ 1807–9, and ‘The British Bibliographer,’ 1810–14. He was one of the founders of the Roxburghe Club, and conducted some of the club books through the press. In 1809 he published ‘Green-Room Gossip; or Gravity Gallinipt,’ and in 1824 ‘Some Account of the Life and Publications of the late Joseph Ritson, Esq.,’ 8vo. Occasionally he contributed to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine.’

He died on 21 Sept. 1833 at Addison Road, Kensington. At the sale of his library Thorpe, the bookseller, bought for 40l. a collection of Haslewood's manuscript notes on the proceedings of the Roxburghe Club. This ill-written and insipid record of the club's achievements was entitled ‘Roxburghe Revels; or, An Account of the Annual Display, culinary and festivous, interspersed incidentally with matters of Moment and Merriment. Also, Brief Notices of the Press Proceedings by a few Lions of Literature, combined as the Roxburghe Club, founded 17 June 1812.’ Falling into unfriendly hands, the manuscript afforded material for a virulent attack on Haslewood's memory in the ‘Athenæum,’ January 1834. In 1837 James Maidment reprinted the ‘Athenæum’ articles at Edinburgh, with a memoir of Haslewood, under the title ‘Roxburghe Revels, and other Relative Papers; including Answers to the attack on the Memory of the late Joseph Haslewood, Esq., F.S.A., with Specimens of his Literary Productions,’ 4to (fifty copies, privately printed; uniform with the Roxburghe Club publications). A valuable collection of ‘Proclamations’ formed by Haslewood is now in the library of the Duke of Buccleuch at Dalkeith; nine volumes of newspaper cuttings, prints, &c., illustrative of stage-history, are preserved in the British Museum. Haslewood was a keen collector of fugitive tracts. It was his fancy to bind several together in a volume, and affix some absurd title, as ‘Quaffing Quavers to Quip Queristers,’ ‘Tramper's Twattle, or Treasure and Tinsel, from the Tewkesbury Tank,’ ‘Nutmegs for Nightingale,’ &c.

 HASSALL or HALSALL, EDWARD (fl. 1667), royalist, born about 1627, was probably a member of an old family seated at Halsall, near Ormskirk, Lancashire. He fought in the defence of Lathom House in 1644, and was wounded. A diary which he kept of the siege, extending from 28 Feb. to 27 May 1644, is preserved among Wood's manuscripts in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Another copy in the British Museum (Harleian MS. 2074) has been printed in a modernised form in Draper's ‘House of Stanley.’ The authorship of the diary has, however, been also ascribed to both Colonel [q. v.] and to [q. v.], then one of Lord Derby's chaplains. Hassall, who attained the rank of major, was one of the four cavaliers who, on 5 June 1650, assassinated [q. v.] at Madrid (Cal. Clarendon State Papers, ii. 63, 220, 343). He was imprisoned there for four months, but in October was released, and went to England to act as a spy on the leaders of the commonwealth (ib. ii. 260). From a letter of his brother James to the king, dated 12 Feb. 1655, it would seem that he had planned to surprise and secure Liverpool for Charles (ib. iii. 16). He accompanied his brother to Flanders in June of that year, and in the following November


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 the black mouse gnaw the branch to which I cling. I can see but one thing: the inevitable dragon and the mice—I cannot turn my gaze away from them.

"This is no fable, but the literal incontestable truth which every one may understand. What will be the outcome of what I do to-day? Of what I shall do to-morrow? What will be the outcome of all my life? Why should I live? Why should I do anything? Is there in life any purpose which the inevitable death which awaits me does not undo and destroy?

"These questions are the simplest in the world. From the stupid child to the wisest old man, they are in the soul of every human being. Without an answer to them, it is impossible, as I experienced, for life to go on.

"'But perhaps,' I often said to myself, 'there may be something I have failed to notice or to comprehend. It is not possible that this condition of despair should be natural to mankind.' And I sought for an explanation in all the branches of knowledge acquired by men. I questioned painfully and protractedly and with no idle curiosity. I sought, not with indolence, but laboriously and obstinately for days and nights together. I sought like a man who is lost and seeks to save himself,—and I found nothing. I became convinced, moreover, that all those who before me had sought for an answer in the sciences have also found nothing. And not only this, but that they have recognized that the very thing which was leading me to despair—the meaningless absurdity of life—is the only incontestable knowledge accessible to man."

To prove this point, Tolstoy quotes the Buddha, Solomon, and Schopenhauer. And he finds only four ways in which men of his own class and society are accustomed to meet the situation. Either mere animal blindness, sucking the honey without seeing the dragon or the mice,—"and from such away," he says, "I can learn nothing, after what I now know;" or reflective epicureanism, snatching what it can while the day lasts,—which is only a more deliberate sort of stupefaction like the first;


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 Lambert Blackwell Larking, the public records, and other sources, was published at London in 1886, fol., under the editorship of Henry H. Drake. It comprises the hundred of Blackheath.

Hasted also drew up ‘A Genealogical and Historical Table of the Families of Heron of Newark, &c., verified throughout by Records and other authentic Documents,’ printed for private distribution in 1797. There is a copy in the British Museum, where many of his collections relating to Kent are likewise preserved among the Additional MSS. Two portraits of him, one a pencil drawing and the other an engraving from a private plate, are inserted in Additional MS. 32353, f. 1.

HASTIE, JAMES (1786–1826), civil agent of the British government in Madagascar, was born at Cork in 1786, his parents being members of the Society of Friends. The religious restraint of the sect in which he was trained proved distasteful to him, and he enlisted in the 56th foot. Proceeding to India, he served there during the Mahratta war. In 1815 Hastie, now a sergeant, was quartered with his regiment at Port Louis, Mauritius, and attracted the notice of Governor Farquhar by his conduct during a fire. He was recommended for a commission, and meantime appointed preceptor to two Malagasy princes, with whom he returned to Madagascar. There he became assistant agent to Mr. Pye, the civil agent of the British government at Tamatave. Hastie reached the court of King Radama I, at the capital of Imerina, 6 Aug. 1817, and succeeded in completely winning the friendship of the Hova monarch, with whom he was enabled to negotiate an important treaty for the prevention of the export slave trade. For nine years Hastie acted as civil agent in Madagascar (including two years per interim at Mauritius), and he accompanied King Radama throughout the campaigns in which the subjugation of the eastern, northern, and western tribes of the great island was effected. His journals, now in the Public Record Office, London, afforded the only geographical information available respecting the interior of Imerina, Antaukay, and Iboina, during the first portion of the nineteenth century, and his observations on the manners and character of the inland Malagasy tribes are still most valuable. He died at Antananarivo on 18 Oct. 1826, where he was buried in a vault expressly prepared for his body by the friendly king, who, mainly by Hastie's exertions, had now become recognised as the sole ruler of Madagascar.

HASTINGS, CHARLES (1794–1866), founder of the British Medical Association, sixth son of James Hastings, rector of Martley, Worcestershire, was born at Ludlow on 11 Jan. 1794; studied under two surgeons at Stourport, and at the age of eighteen, without a legal qualification, and after only a few months' study in London, was elected house-surgeon to the Worcester county infirmary. He made numerous experiments on the nervous system under the direction of Dr. Wilson Philip, one of the physicians to the infirmary. In 1815 he entered at Edinburgh University, and continued to work at experimental physiology and microscopy, being the only student at that time who used the microscope in medical research. He graduated M.D. in 1818, and was at once appointed physician to the Worcester infirmary, and for many years was the leading practitioner in Worcestershire. With the view of raising the tone of provincial medical practice, he founded in 1828 the ‘Midland Medical and Surgical Reporter,’ to which he contributed largely during its four years' existence. In 1832 it was abandoned in favour of a project for forming a provincial medical association for the advancement of medical science and the medical profession. A meeting of medical men was held at the Worcester infirmary on 19 July 1832, when the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association was formed, and Hastings delivered an inaugural address. For many years Hastings was the secretary and leading spirit of the association, skilfully guiding it through stormy waters. In 1840 the ‘Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal’ was established, and in 1843 it was adopted as the organ of the association. In 1856 the title ‘British’ was substituted for ‘Provincial,’ owing to the growth of the association, and Hastings was appointed permanent president of the council and treasurer. He was knighted in 1850. He was


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 deeply interested in sanitary questions, and was president of the public health section of the Social Science Association at the York meeting. He wrote on the geology and natural history of Worcestershire, especially of the Malvern Hills, and largely developed the Worcester Museum. He died on 30 July 1866.

Hastings married in 1825 the eldest daughter of George Woodyatt, M.D., of Worcester, by whom he left an only son, G. W. Hastings, M.P. for East Worcestershire since 1880, and two daughters. On 9 Aug. 1882 a marble bust of Hastings, by Brock, was presented to the city of Worcester, and placed in the public library. A Hastings medal and prize are annually awarded in honour of his memory by the British Medical Association.

Hastings wrote:
 * 1) ‘A Treatise on Inflammation of the Mucous Membrane of the Lungs; to which is prefixed an Experimental Inquiry respecting the Contractile Power of the Blood Vessels and the Nature of Inflammation,’ 1820.
 * 2) ‘Illustrations of the Natural History of Worcestershire,’ 1834, besides many memoirs in medical journals and addresses on various occasions.

HASTINGS, EDWARD (1381–1437), claiming to be Baron Hastings, was second son of Sir Hugh Hastings, who was grandson of Sir  (1307?–1347) [q. v.], and great-grandson of, second baron Hastings [q. v.], by his second wife. His father served at Brest in 1378, and in the Scottish expedition of 1385. In 1386 he was with John of Gaunt in Spain. In all these wars he bore the arms ‘or, a maunche gules’ (, vi. 414); his son says that he died at ‘Vyle Hove in Spayne.’ He married Anne, daughter of Edward, lord Spencer; by her he had two sons. Hugh, the elder, who died without issue at Calais in 1395, was, on the death of his cousin John, third earl of Pembroke, in 1389, declared heir of the half blood, but, third lord Grey of Ruthin [q. v.], claimed priority as heir of the whole blood in right of his grandmother Elizabeth, daughter of John, second baron Hastings by his first wife. The dispute was nominally as to the right to bear the Hastings arms, ‘or, a maunch gules,’ but it virtually included the right to the family honours. It became one of the causes célèbres of the middle ages, and was still undecided at the death of Hugh, and Edward being then only fourteen years old, it was further delayed.

In 1401 Grey petitioned the king to appoint a curator for Sir Edward Hastings in order that his suit might be dealt with (Rot. Parl. iii. 480), but though there were some legal proceedings at this time (, pp. 56–7, 62) it was only on 9 May 1407 that a commission was issued by John of Lancaster, afterwards duke of Bedford, as constable of England. The court of chivalry assembled at Westminster 4 Feb. 1408, and judgment was given on 9 May 1410; Hastings was condemned in costs, but at once appealed. At the coronation of Henry V Hastings claimed to carry the spurs before the king, which Grey had done undisputed in 1399. On 22 May and 22 Nov. 1413, and again on 8 Feb. 1415, commissions were issued to hear the appeal, but the trial was apparently prevented by the French war, in which Hastings took part in the retinue of the Earl of Dorset. On 16 Feb. 1417, before the trial came on, Grey obtained an order for the taxation of the costs of the first trial, and on 24 May they were assessed at 987l. 10s. 10d. Hastings, who swore that he had spent a thousand marks besides, refused to pay lest it should be construed as an acknowledgment of Grey's rights. He was, therefore, imprisoned in the Marshalsea, where he remained till January 1433, and perhaps later, being for much of that time, as he himself says, ‘boundyn in fetters of iron liker a thief or traitore than like a gentleman of birth.’ He steadfastly refused to purchase his release by abandoning his claims, despite all his sufferings, which included the death of his wife and several children (Account of Controversy, &c., p. ix). He, however, offered to resign his claims to his eldest son John on condition that Grey would marry him to one of his own daughters. Hastings died in January 1437. In addition to the title of Hastings, he assumed by a deed dated 4 Nov. 1406 that of Stuteville, as heir of his great-grandmother Margery Foliot. He was twice married, first to Muriel (?), daughter of Sir John Dinham, by whom he had, with other issue, a son John; she died before 1420 (ib.) Hastings's second wife was Margery, daughter of Sir Robert Clifton of Bokenham, who after his death married Sir John Wyndham, and dying in 1456 was buried in the church of the Austin Friars at Norwich (, Funerall Monuments, p. 804). Sir John Hastings never prosecuted the family claims, and having married Anne, daughter of John, lord Morley, died in 1471, and was buried in Elsing Church (see inscription given in, ix. 519, and , Sepulch. Monuments, ii. pt. 3, p. 369). His descendants in the male line became extinct in 1542, and


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H the barony of Hastings fell into abeyance till 1841, when it was revived in favour of Sir Jacob Astley, grandfather of the present Lord Hastings. The Earls of Kent, as representatives of Lord Grey of Ruthin, claimed the title of Hastings till 1639.  HASTINGS, EDWARD, (d. 1573), third son of George Hastings, third baron Hastings of Hastings, and first earl of Huntingdon [q. v.], by Anne, daughter of Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, was knighted in 1546, and took part in the invasion of Scotland by the Protector Somerset in September 1547. In the parliaments of 1547 and 1552 he sat as one of the members for the county of Leicester. He was one of the king's gentlemen-pensioners, and, when some disputes arose about the Calais frontier in 1550, was sent to Calais with his brother Francis, second earl of Huntingdon [q. v.], who commanded a force there. He was a strong Roman catholic, and while at Calais had some disputes about religion with Underhill, the ‘hot gospeller,’ a member of the same corps, and for arguments chiefly used ‘great oaths,’ swearing ‘by the Lord's foot’ that the Roman doctrine was true. Underhill considered that Hastings was the cause of his arrest in Mary's reign. In 1551 he was sheriff for Warwickshire and Leicestershire. When Edward VI was dying in 1553, the Duke of Northumberland gave Hastings orders to raise four thousand foot in Buckinghamshire to secure the succession of Lady Jane Grey. On the king's death he declared for Queen Mary, who made him a privy councillor, master of the horse, receiver-general of the honour of Leicester and of the court of augmentations. During the disturbance of Greenwich in September he foiled an attempt made to steal the queen's horses, and on the 30th led her horse from the Tower through the streets of London, as she rode to Westminster for her coronation. He was strongly opposed to her marriage with Philip, and threatened to leave her service if she persisted in the scheme, but afterwards withdrew his objections. In company with Sir Thomas Cornwallis [q. v.] he was sent on 28 Jan. 1554 to meet Wyatt at Dartford, and hot words passed between them and the rebel leader. On 11 Feb. he and Lord William Howard carried the queen's commands to the Princess Elizabeth at Ashridge, and after some delay, due to Elizabeth's sickness, brought her up to London. In November he and Lord Paget were sent to Brussels to escort Cardinal Pole to England, and wrote a letter to the queen describing their interviews with the emperor and the cardinal (State Papers, For. 1553–8, pp. 135, 138). He sat in the parliaments of 1554 and 1555 as member for Middlesex. In the council he belonged to the section specially devoted to the queen, and among other marks of her favour received in 1555 grants of the manors of Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, and Creech St. Michael, Somersetshire, and on 25 May was installed knight of the Garter. The Benedictines at Westminster wrote to him, requesting him to keep the queen in mind of her intention to refound the abbey of Glastonbury. On the discovery of Sir Henry Dudley's plot in 1556, he and others of ‘the queen's clique’ in the council investigated the conspiracy. In July 1557 he accompanied Lord Clinton [see ] on his expedition against the French. At the end of the year he seems to have resigned his office of master of the horse for the higher post of lord chamberlain. He was also warden of the stannaries, and on 19 Jan. 1558 was created Baron Hastings of Loughborough in the county of Leicester, and received a grant of the manor of Loughborough. Mary made him one of her executors. As a member of the council he was concerned to some extent in the religious persecutions of the reign. He was one of the lords appointed on 21 Nov. to escort Queen Elizabeth on her entrance into London, and was summoned to court on 20 Sept. 1559. On 23 April 1561 he was confined in Baynard Castle for hearing mass, was convicted and sent to the Tower, where he wrote to the council to sue for pardon; he ‘willingly took the oath’ of supremacy, and was released. After this he appears to have retired to his estate at Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire, where he had built a hospital and a chapel, and there ended his days in devotion, dying on 5 March 1573. He left no children; his wife Joan, whose family name is unknown, survived him. Nichols, quoting from William Burton (1575–1645) [q. v.], says that he was a ‘gentleman of many worthy parts, something given to melancholy,’ and fond of chess, and gives a portrait of him from a window in Stoke Poges Church. [Nichols's Hist. and Antiq. of Leicester, III. ii. 577–9, contains an account of his life; Queen Jane and Queen Mary, pp. 27, 28, 63, 68 (Cam-


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H that early age he had already begun to dream of repurchasing the estate. In 1740 his education was undertaken by his father's elder brother, Howard Hastings, a clerk in the London customs, who sent him to school, first at Newington Butts, and afterwards to Westminster. Here he won the favour of Dr. Nicoll, the head-master, and became popular among his schoolfellows. In 1747 he was admitted to the foundation as first king's scholar of his year. Elijah Impey [q. v.] was fourth, although Hastings's senior in years. On the death of his uncle Howard, the charge of the boy devolved on a guardian who had some interest at the India office, and resolved on sending him out in the civil service of the company. Nicoll protested in vain against the removal of so promising a scholar, and Hastings was sent to a private tutor's to be qualified for his position. In October 1750 he landed at Calcutta. His duties were at first connected solely with mercantile business. In 1753 he was sent up to Kásim Bazár, then the commercial suburb of Murshídábád, the seat of the native government, which had already difficulties with the Calcutta factory. Within two years Hastings became a member of the Kásim Bazár council, but in 1756 the nawáb marched against Calcutta, which he took [see ], and Hastings was thrown into prison at Murshídábád. He does not appear to have been ill-treated, and was soon set at liberty. Meanwhile his Calcutta colleagues had taken refuge in a fort belonging to the nawáb's people at Falta, a few miles below Calcutta, on the Hughli river, and here provisions failed until Hastings joined them and succeeded by his influence with the natives in furnishing them with supplies. Here, in the beginning of 1757, he married his first wife, the widow of a Captain Campbell. She died a few years later, as did both the children that she bore him. After the reconquest of Calcutta [see ] Hastings was sent to Murshídábád as resident at the court of the new nawáb. He kept up a regular correspondence with Clive, now governor in Calcutta, and his earlier letters show inexperience and credulity, against which Clive was obliged to warn him. He also came into conflict with Rája Nand Kumar (the nawáb's deputy) as to their respective functions and jurisdiction, but Clive with considerate firmness adjusted the difficulty. Early in 1760 Clive left the country, and his successor, Holwell, determined to depose the nawáb, Mír Jaffier, and to replace him by Mír Kásim, his minister and son-in-law. Hastings bore a subordinate part in this revolution, but had no share in the gifts that were distributed on that occasion among the members of council. He continued for some months at his post of resident, but in 1761 was summoned to council in Calcutta, where the government had been assumed by Vansittart. The new nawáb, Mír Kásim, showed great annoyance at the conduct of the British officials, who were passing their own private consignments free of transit duty, and lending their flag to pass consignments that belonged to others. The most active of these officials was Ellis, head of the factory at Patna, and thither Hastings proceeded, on the request of Vansittart, in order to effect a reform in the transit system and an agreement between Ellis and the nawáb. He arrived at Patna in April 1762, but found himself unable to conciliate Ellis. His despatches, however, attracted the attention of Vansittart to the abuses and oppressions under which the people were suffering, and Hastings drew up a paper in which he aimed at such a regulation of the traffic as should protect the nawáb and his subjects without prejudice to the company's rights. The present state of things, as he truly observed, ‘boded no good, either to the nawáb's revenue or to the quiet of the country, or the honour of our nation.’ Articles were accordingly framed by the governor on the basis recommended by Hastings, which the nawáb readily adopted and immediately promulgated. The majority of the Calcutta council indignantly repudiated the arrangement, and the nawáb at once declared the duties entirely abrogated and the whole trade free.

Hastings, who had rejoined his post in Calcutta, was now in a trying position. While the nawáb denounced him as a traitor, his colleagues in council abused him for partiality to the nawáb; and one of them named Batson, in the heat of debate, struck Hastings in open council, an act for which, however, he had to make an ample apology. Both the nawáb and the British now prepared for war, Patna was taken and retaken, Ellis and all his followers were killed by the nawáb's orders; but the British force from Calcutta soon exacted a stern retribution. The nawáb was defeated and driven into exile, and Mír Jaffier restored.

In December 1764 Hastings returned to England in his majesty's ship Medway. While his colleagues had been making their fortunes by corruption and private trade, he had continued honourably poor. He was, however, able to buy an annuity of 200l. for the widow of his uncle Howard, who was left in poverty, and to pass some years in Lon-


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H don, keeping himself before the India House with a view to speedy re-employment. In the meantime his active mind had struck out the project for the improvement of the minds and habits of Indian civilians, afterwards realised by the East India College at Haileybury; and he (also without immediate success) endeavoured to bring about the foundation of a professorship of Persian at the university of Oxford. He occupied his leisure in study and literary society, and made the acquaintance of Dr. Johnson, with whom he afterwards occasionally corresponded. In sending Johnson's letters to Boswell, Hastings speaks of his ‘veneration for your great and good friend’ (, Boswell, ii. 66). The first of these, dated 30 March 1774, is to introduce ‘my dear Mr. Chambers,’ then going to Calcutta as a puisne judge of the newly constituted supreme court [see ]. In 1766 Hastings appeared as a witness before a committee of the House of Commons, and gave evidence on Indian affairs, which appears to have attracted the favourable notice of the court of directors. Early in 1769 he was sent out to Madras as second in council, but so low were his resources that he had to borrow the money required for his passage and outfit.

Among his fellow-passengers on board the Duke of Grafton were the Baron and Baroness von Imhoff. The baron, who had been an officer in the army of a minor German state, had obtained the recommendation of Queen Charlotte, and was proceeding to Madras, ostensibly to seek employment in the local army, but with some view to portrait-painting. An intimacy sprang up between Hastings and the baroness, favoured by the husband's neglect, and also by a severe illness, through which Hastings was nursed by the wife. Next year Imhoff went on to Calcutta, leaving the lady at Madras. At the end of 1771 Hastings was appointed governor of Bengal, in the room of Mr. Cartier, who was retiring, and in February 1772 he arrived in Calcutta. Baroness Imhoff had preceded him in October 1771 (, The Trial of Nanda Kumar).

Great changes had taken place in Bengal. Nand Kumar had been discovered in a treasonable correspondence, had been deprived of his post at Murshídábád, and sent in a kind of open arrest to Calcutta. Clive had returned to the government and command of the army; the unmanageable council had been superseded in practical concerns by a committee of three; there had come an end to the corruption, spoliation, waste of public money, and abuse of private trade. The relations of the presidency with the emperor and the Nawáb Vazir of Oudh had been settled, the emperor having been provided for, and an alliance made with the nawáb; no restraint was imposed on his independence, and a defensive alliance was agreed on between him and the East India Company, on the condition that whenever he should require the aid of the company's troops he should pay their expenses while so employed (House of Commons' 3rd Rep. App. 446). Vested with the beneficiary collection of the revenues of the three provinces, the British rulers had found it necessary to make the collections themselves instead of merely accounting with the nawáb's officials, although they did not clearly perceive how this was to be done. Meanwhile the entire administration was in confusion. In 1770 the country had been scourged by famine. It was about the time of Hastings's first appointment as governor that the company at last determined to ‘stand forth as diwán,’ in other words to sweep away all native agency in the control of revenue and finance administration. The deputy diwáns of Bengal and Bihar were to be dismissed and brought to trial for malversation, Rája Nand Kumar being employed in the prosecution. The revenue appeared incapable of increase, but the debt was growing. The company was threatened with insolvency, while the ministers of the crown were looking to it for loans and testing its right to exist by its financial prosperity. Such were some of the problems which were to occupy Hastings and trouble the remainder of his life.

One of the first matters which the directors commended to the attention of the new governor was the inquiry into the conduct of Shatáb Rai and Muhamad Raza Khán the two deputy-governors, by whose agency the collections and fiscal administration had been formerly carried out. Rája Nand Kumar was engaged in the preparation of the evidence against them, and possibly expected to be put into the place of one or both of them on their conviction. The directors never contemplated this. The court took care to remind Hastings of Nand Kumar's character as a reason for excluding him from power. Indeed from the facts given by Elphinstone, who refers especially to the House of Commons' 3rd Report, it is abundantly clear that during Hastings's absence the rája had been constantly condemned by Clive, by Vansittart, and by Colonel John Carnac [q. v.] In the end the rája was unable to bring forward any good evidence; the deputies were acquitted, and Nand Kumar got nothing. Hastings thus disappointed this unscrupulous native statesman, and increased the feeling of hostility which the rája entertained for him, while he was unable under his orders from


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H home to conciliate the others by restoring them to their posts.

The three provinces of Bengal, Orissa, and Bihár being now an integral part of the company's territories to be administered by the company's agents, it became doubly necessary that the European officials should obtain a knowledge of the estates which formed the main assets of the government. Expenses were at once reduced; but until there was a correct notion of the value of the revenue-paying properties, mere economy could be of little avail. It was an essential part of the new system of ‘standing forth as diwán’ that malversation in collecting the revenue and concealment of liability to contribute should be equally suppressed. Hastings clearly perceived and gave effect to this principle. Undeterred by the season he sent out a commission of survey in June 1772, and accompanied it in person for a few marches so as to start the work. At the same time he attacked monopolists and began to make provision for judicial and administrative reform. All these exertions, he observed in a letter written at the time, not only overburdened him with work and discomposed his temper, but they tended to destroy all his other powers ‘by arming my hand against every man, and every man's, of course, against me.’ He would not, however, give way to his difficulties. ‘My whole time,’ he wrote to another correspondent, ‘and all my thoughts, I may add all my passions, are devoted to the service of the company.’ So passed the year 1773, not without tokens of approval and assurance of support from the India House in London. Early in the year Baron Imhoff went to Germany, where he instituted a suit for divorce from his wife. In the following year a further change was found advisable in the machinery of the land revenue. The English collectors were found inadequate and inexperienced, while the people suffered under their ‘heavy rule.’ They were therefore removed to make room for native revenue officers, whose ability and knowledge could be guaranteed, and whose honesty was to be watched by the best European agency at the command of government. Six divisions were created by grouping the districts, and put under provincial councils, for the formation of which competent European officers were apparently thought more easily obtainable. This idea of native agency under competent European control was, like most of Hastings's ideas, destined to take deep root in Anglo-Indian affairs.

In regard to the administration of justice his measures were no less far-seeing. He put the native courts in the interior entirely under the control of the head revenue officers, with a chief court for criminal appeals at the seat of government under a native chief justice. A court of civil appeal sat also in Calcutta, the whole being controlled in the last resort by the governor in council. Where both parties were European British subjects, English law was administered in the ‘mayor's court,’ and there was also a court of small causes for Calcutta.

In all these reforms lurked elements of provocation to class prejudices and even to vested interests. Muhamad Raza and Shatáb Rai were indignant at having been tried, Nand Kumar was vexed at their acquittal, while the young civilians were sore at the employment of natives and the valuation of the estates; foremost in their ranks being John Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth, and one of Hastings's successors and admirers.

While these cares were occupying Hastings he was suddenly involved in external affairs. The province of Katahr had been conquered some fifty years before by a band of Afghan adventurers called Rohillas, from whom it had received the name of Rohilkand. Lying between the eastern frontier of the Oudh dominions and the special domain of the emperor, and constantly liable to Mahratta invasion from the southward, it was becoming a kind of chronic sore in the bosom of Hindustan. Though impotent against the Mahrattas, the Rohillas fought bitterly among themselves, while the original population was rack-rented and left without protection to life and property. So we are informed by a contemporaneous Rohilla writer (, History of the Rohillas). In 1772 the nawáb of Oudh, who was also hereditary vazir of the empire, made a treaty with the Rohillas, by which he covenanted to expel the Mahrattas from their country on consideration of a payment of money. He executed his part of the engagement, expelling the Mahrattas by the middle of the ensuing year. He then called on the Rohilla sirdars to pay the sum promised; though many of them were willing, the ‘protector’ of the state—a sort of regent for the minor chieftain—refused. Then the nawáb, having obtained sanction from the emperor, prepared to foreclose, by occupying the province, and called upon the British government of Calcutta to supply a brigade, as required by the treaty of alliance of 1764 (, History, with Wilson's notes, bk. v. ch. i.; also, History of the Rohillas). Hastings at once complied. The Rohillas were overthrown after a sharp engagement; some severities were used, and the fighting men were deported across the Ganges.


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H Hastings immediately wrote to the British resident at the nawáb's camp, urging him to use his influence to mitigate all harshness, and to impress on the nawáb that Englishmen disapproved ‘with abhorrence of every species of inhumanity and oppression.’ Mill rightly condemns the home authorities, who found fault with the action of Hastings and yet made no amends to the Rohillas. ‘They were so much the less excusable than the Vazir and Mr. Hastings that these actors in the scene denied its injustice’ (, bk. v. ch. i.).

In 1773 Hastings recorded on the minutes of council a paper on the principles of criminal justice, as applied to the offence of dacoity or gang robbery, then and long after prevalent in Bengal. In 1774 the same subject again attracted Hastings's attention, and the employment of special native magistrates was the plan which commended itself to him. He made the complaint, often repeated since his time, that one cause of the evil was ‘the regularity and precision which has been introduced in our courts of justice.’ He desired to revert to the old summary process of native governments, who were wont to trace the landholders by whom the dacoits were maintained, and to proceed against them. He was thus for introducing the non-regulation system even before the regulations themselves.

Before these matters had been finally disposed of, a great change took place in Bengal politics. Up to that time the council in Calcutta had consisted of a large number of officials holding other posts, and the executive power had been absorbed by a committee of three, of which the governor was president with a casting vote. It was thus that Clive had been able to carry out the unpalatable reforms of his second administration [see CLIVE]. But now, in virtue of the ‘Regulating Act,’ a new council of five was created, three being sent out from home. Hastings was declared governor-general with a magnificent salary, but with only a single vote in the council. At the same time a supreme court of justice was established with vague general powers; and the four judges sent out to hold that court, whose chief was Hastings's old schoolfellow Impey, were, like the new councillors, entire strangers to India. The court, being composed of professed lawyers, did its duty in a technical and jealous spirit. The councillors, biassed against Anglo-Indians, acted as if bound by a mutual pledge to oppose Hastings and Richard Barwell [q. v.], his old colleague and present supporter. Muhamad Raza and Nand Kumar and some of the civil servants were ready to supply information. From secret hints the new councillors evolved an imputed fabric of corruption. Specific charges of corruption were sent in by Nand Kumar to the council on 11 March. Hastings and Barwell withdrew from the council, where their honour was being discussed, and in April 1775 brought a case of conspiracy against the rája and two Englishmen named Fowke; Hastings having already written home threatening to resign if not supported by the directors. But before the conspiracy case could ripen for decision Nand Kumar was suddenly arrested (6 May 1775) on a charge of forgery instituted by a native, with some appearance of assistance from Durham, the advocate-general. Whether Durham was really the instigator, and, if so, was acting under instructions from Hastings, or whether he was prompted to assist the complainant by a desire to extort money out of a rich man whom he knew to be in trouble, is among the unsearchable secrets of history. The quarrel between the rája and the ostensible complainant was, in any case, one of several years' standing, and an action had been twice part heard—in which the alleged forgery had been used—before the establishment of the supreme court. Nand Kumar was committed by two justices on the day of his arrest; the grand jury found a true bill, and the trial commenced on 8 June and lasted more than a week. On the morning of 16 June the rája was found guilty and sentenced to death, all the judges concurring. The sheriff fixed 5 Aug. for the execution, which took place accordingly. The conduct of the chief justice, Sir Elijah Impey [q. v.], was afterwards impugned by the House of Commons, and he was threatened with an impeachment for his share in these proceedings, but he defended himself with success. In the subsequent impeachment of Hastings the matter was revived by Burke, but was held irrelevant, and Burke had to submit to a public reprimand from the house, 4 May 1789 (, Speeches, &c. ii. 112). (Mill's account of these transactions is corrected in many places by the notes in H. H. Wilson's edition of the ‘History of India,’ 1848.)

Macaulay's famous account of these proceedings is that of a reckless advocate, not of a judicial critic. There is no attempt at serious demonstration either that Hastings believed Nand Kumar innocent, or that he inspired the prosecution for forgery. An attentive examination of the facts will show that the chief justice was only one of a number of persons who were satisfied that Nand Kumar deserved his fate. Among those persons was the native historian of the time. There is no evidence that Hastings thought otherwise, or that he had any ground for interfering to prevent the law from taking its


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H course, if indeed he had the requisite power. It is true that Hastings, against his own judgment, and under protest, had lately employed Nand Kumar. He had also provided for the son. But he had never concealed the distrust of Nand Kumar which he shared with most Anglo-Indian statesmen of the period. He had lately declared his enmity openly, and instituted a charge of conspiracy in which Nand Kumar was included. Immediately upon the opening of the new supreme court, and before the institution of the conspiracy charge, a solicitor named Driver had renewed an application, made in the mayor's court, praying for the delivery of papers, among which was an instrument on which his client proposed to prosecute Nand Kumar. (The petition is dated in January 1775, and refers to a former petition of March 1774.) About the same time Hastings finally broke with Nand Kumar, and forbade his appearance at Government House. On 11 March Nand Kumar preferred to the council his charges of corruption against Hastings, who was called upon to answer to the charges, and refused to appear at the bar of his own council. In April Nand Kumar and his associates were committed for conspiracy, avowedly on the motion of the governor-general. Meanwhile the proceedings of Driver's client had been instituted, and Nand Kumar was, in May, committed on a charge of forgery by two magistrates, who have never been shown to have been creatures of Hastings (, Story of Nuncomar, ch. ix.). These facts are compatible with the very simple supposition that the prosecution was undertaken on private grounds, though not without knowledge that the state of public affairs was opportune.

Meanwhile Hastings was busy with Indian law. The peculiar code of the Sunnites or orthodox Muslims had already been made into a digest under the Emperor Aurungzeb. But the Hindu law was only to be found scattered over a number of Sanscrit text-books of various date and authority. Hastings therefore invited the best known experts to Calcutta, and charged them with the compilation of a volume of which he afterwards caused an English translation to be made by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed [q. v.], sending advanced sheets to Lord Mansfield in England.

In 1775 Hastings began a further attempt to make gang-robbery the subject of special legislation. But the opposition in his council objected to the punishment of the harbourers, and the scheme collapsed. Nor did he neglect any fair opportunity of extending the influence of his employers, or of adding to the knowledge of neighbouring nations—meagre enough—which Englishmen then possessed. A small war with hill tribes on his northern frontier opened communications with the Teshu lama of Thibet, and a diplomatic mission was sent into that remote and still mysterious region. It was headed by George Bogle [q. v.], and a detailed account of the proceedings and results will be found in Markham's ‘Narratives,’ London, 1876.

Meanwhile the revenue raised for the company in Calcutta showed but little improvement. Hastings had stopped some of the drains on it; the tribute to the emperor ceased when he threw aside British protection, and the districts which had been assigned to him were transferred, for a consideration, to the nawáb of Oudh. Some military reductions were effected, not without friction, and the allowance to the titular ruler of Bengal was also diminished. An attempt was made to swell the receipts by giving the company a beneficial interest in the sale of opium to the Chinese. The production and distribution of this drug had been held as a perquisite by the members of the Patna council; it was now farmed for a term of years, and the proceeds credited in the public accounts. The conduct of Hastings in this matter became the subject of one of the charges afterwards brought against him; but it at once appeared that he had suppressed an abuse to the advantage of the state. Moreover, the court of directors had covered his act by their express approbation.

In spite of all efforts the finances continued to ebb. The court made urgent demands for remittances; the exchequer in Calcutta was so drained that the governor-general could not cash his own salary bills, and had to borrow money for his personal expenses. The minor presidencies were equally destitute. At Surat the Bombay government endeavoured to raise money by lending troops to Ragoba, a claimant to the office of peshwa. The majority in the Calcutta council cancelled the arrangement, and although Ragoba's cause was espoused by the court of directors, Hastings was unable to enforce the policy of his employers. In September 1776, however, Monson, one of the hostile members of council, died, and Hastings obtained temporary power, of which he resolved to take advantage. He began by removing the jobbing provincial councils, and putting the internal administration under agents who might be trusted to do their best for the land revenue. Early in 1777 he proceeded to record his intention to ‘make the British nation paramount in India, and to accept of the allegiance of such of our neighbours as shall sue to be enlisted among the friends and allies of the king of


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H Great Britain’ (letter to A. Elliott, 12 Jan. 1777, ap. ).

Amidst these acts of state a despatch suddenly reached him whereby he learned that the resignation conditionally tendered in 1775 had been handed in by his agents in London, and accepted there. On hearing of this General Clavering, the commander-in-chief, instantly assumed the office of governor-general, and demanded the keys of Fort William. Hastings refused to yield, and a dead-lock ensued which might have led to civil war but for the public spirit shown on all sides. Both claimants agreed to abide by the arbitration of the supreme court, and the judges decided in favour of Hastings, thereby—as Hastings afterwards acknowledged—saving his honour, safety, and reputation. Clavering soon afterwards died of dysentery, and Hastings was left for the time with but one opponent in council. But that opponent was Philip Francis (1740–1818) [q. v.]

On 8 Aug. 1777 Hastings married his baroness, a divorce having been at last obtained by Imhoff in the German courts. The lady was by this time thirty years of age, and is described by ladies of the time as elegant and graceful, dressing with taste rather than fashion, and wearing a profusion of beautiful auburn curls. She had been living in good repute under the protection of her mother since her arrival in Calcutta, and the marriage does not seem to have caused any scandal. Nothing can be more characteristic than the quiet tenacity with which Hastings carried on this strange and protracted love affair; indeed it only ceased with his long life.

Being now in a position to realise his own plans, Hastings gave up all thoughts of retiring; Francis found, indeed, an ally in Wheler, the new councillor sent out from home; but the commander-in-chief, Sir Eyre Coote, was usually amenable to reason, and Barwell continued to vote with the governor-general. In 1778 Hastings was able to resume the support of Ragoba's cause, and also to operate against the French settlements in India. His measures were not at first successful. The Bombay government was disunited and inefficient, and no aid could be obtained from Madras. Colonel Leslie, who commanded the expeditionary force, died before anything could be done. His successor, Colonel Thomas Goddard [q. v.], however, soon showed himself worthy of the occasion, defeating the armies of Sindhia and Holkar, and occupying the capital of Gujrat. Francis in vain opposed the governor-general's measures, and complaints were raised at home against the war. But it was easily shown that Hastings had not been the aggressor, but was acting on the defensive with his usual far-sighted resolution. From the evidence recorded by Grant Duff (Hist. of the Mahrattas), it is clear that the confederacy between the Mahrattas and Haidar, which Hastings checked, had for its object the expulsion of British power from the whole of Asia.

A French officer was with the enemy at Poona; a French contingent accompanied Haidar in his simultaneous attack on the Carnatic, and took part in the defeat and capture of Colonel Baillie's force. The nizam's army was officered by Frenchmen, and Louis XVI had been persuaded to league himself against England with the king of Spain and the revolted colonies in North America. In India the struggle was almost desperate. Limited as were his resources, Hastings struck in all directions, and struck hard. Sindhia's fortified capital, Gwalior, was taken by escalade in August 1780, and the subsequent successes of Colonel Carnac dissolved the confederacy. Hastings took the daring step of suspending the governor of Madras, by which he strained the constitution, but saved the presidency; at the same time he reinforced it with money and with men under Coote. The nizam was pacified, vacillation on the part of the Bhonsla of Berar was arrested, and that wavering chief converted into a staunch friend. Hastings laid down the maxim, never to be overlooked in Eastern affairs, that ‘acts which proclaim confidence and a determined spirit in the hour of adversity are the surest means of retrieving it.’ By pushing in every direction what his opponents called ‘frantic military exploits’ (but in which really very little blood was spilt), he kept his own provinces free from war, and in the remaining possessions of the company restored a falling cause. In spite of some misfortunes on land, and some trouble at sea arising from the ability of the Bailli de Suffren, the French admiral, Hastings drove Haidar out of the Carnatic. In 1782 Haidar died; and the treaty of Salbai, concluded early next year with his son, Tippu Sultan, laid the foundation of British supremacy in India, and defined the position of other states.

The British governor-general was already taking the place of the effete Delhi empire in regard to all those states which depended upon British protection. Even the princes of the Rajputs, the most ancient ruling houses in the world, had always paid tribute to that empire. The Mahrattas similarly held to ransom their own tributary and protected states. It was in accordance with native practice and opinion that the British government in Calcutta should do likewise. The


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H paramount power protected the minor states, and the minor states compensated for the protection by contributions of money and men. Among the feudatories of Bengal none was more protected, or paid less for his protection, than Rája Chait Singh, zemindár of Benares. A demand was made upon him for a war-contribution of five lakhs of rupees. The rája failed to comply, nor did he send the two thousand horsemen called for at a later moment at the instance of General Coote.

While matters were in this condition about the middle of 1780, a very important change took place. Barwell, whose support in council was necessary to Hastings's supremacy, became anxious to return to England. Francis was accordingly asked to agree to ‘pair’ with him, and agreed not to oppose the governor-general in the conduct of the Mahratta war. Barwell on this went home. After he was gone, Hastings proposed to send a mission to the court of Delhi, and to check Mahratta preponderance by action in Hindustan. To this Francis objected, alleging that his agreement had been misconstrued, and related only to operations pending in the Deccan when the agreement was made. Hastings, tired of being hampered, determined to risk his life in removing the obstruction. He provoked Francis, so as to make a duel necessary. They met at Alipore, a southern suburb of Calcutta, at 6 on 17 Aug. 1780. Deliberately choosing a place full of light, and making the seconds measure the shortest distance they could be induced to adopt, Hastings received his adversary's fire, which he instantly returned with such effect that Francis fell dangerously wounded. Had Francis been killed, Hastings must have been tried for murder. Had Hastings fallen, Francis would, at least till another man could come out from home, or say for eighteen months, have had all the powers and patronage of governor-general. As it was, the baffled man had to go back to England with a wounded body, and a mind full of revenge.

On being left supreme in council, Hastings pressed his demands on the Rája Chait Singh, founding them on the cession of the sovereignty of Benares to the company by the nawáb of Oudh, to whom it had pertained, and on cogent military reasons. In July 1781 he proceeded to Benares to enforce his orders, but the rája resisted, some of Hastings's sepoys were cut up in the street, and he himself had to make his retreat to the neighbouring fort of Chunár. Chait Singh called on the mother of the nawáb of Oudh, with whom he had an understanding, to send men to his aid, and broke into open revolt. But his revolt was soon quelled. At one time indeed his forces were within a few miles of Chunár; but they effected nothing, and before the end of September they had been routed and their leader had fallen back on his last stronghold. Here he was captured on 10 Nov. 1781, his treasure being distributed among the company's troops. Chait Singh was deposed, and his zemindári bestowed upon his nephew (see Narrative, Roorkee, 1853).

The nawáb-vazir was in debt to the company, and Hastings, while yet at Chunár, proposed an interview on the subject. The nawáb came to see him there, and doubtless the conversation included some mention of the support which the nawáb's mother had given to Chait Singh. The nawáb declared that he could not meet his engagements to the company; his mother and his grandmother had appropriated a large estate in land; they had also converted to their own use a large accumulation of treasure left by the late nawáb. These acts of spoliation had been sanctioned by the majority of the Calcutta council. It was now proposed, whether by the nawáb or by Hastings has never been determined, that partly to raise money and partly by way of punishment, the fiefs should be resumed, and the treasure applied to the exigencies of the Oudh state agreeably to the law of Islám. The dowagers replied with shrill refusal, on which the nawáb surrounded their house with a guard, put some of their servants into light irons, and, by a duress which has been much exaggerated, enforced his demand. Hastings had returned to Calcutta, but he intimated his disapproval of all severity as soon as the resident reported what had been done. This was the great case of the ‘robbery of the Oudh begums,’ which, indeed, was no robbery at all. But Hastings is not altogether free of responsibility for anything that may have been done amiss in this matter. The land and money which were taken from the dowagers had been held by them for some time, although perhaps without any legal right; their possession, too, had been guaranteed by the British government, though against the opinion of the out-voted governor. From the conditions of the case Hastings must have been aware that the dowagers and their men would not disgorge without resistance. He was, however, ill-served by the resident, an official who had been forced upon him and in whom he never confided (for an impartial account of these transactions see, note to , bk. v. c. viii).

During that year (1782) Hastings had been severely taken to task by the court of directors


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H for the affair of Chait Singh, and he had replied in a tone of dignified remonstrance to the effect that sooner than consent to the rája's pardon he would give up his station. In modest, but self-reliant words, he added that his administration would perhaps hereafter be looked on as having conduced to the interests of the company and to the honour of the British name. The court of proprietors reversed the adverse vote of the directors, and Henry Dundas (afterwards Viscount Melville) declared the conduct of Hastings deserving of every kind of approval and support.

In 1783 Hastings, having sent his wife to England, proceeded to Lucknow, where (under orders from home) he restored some of the dowagers' landed possessions. Here also he met the Delhi crown prince, a fugitive from court, whom he persuaded to return to his father, with an escort and assurances of sympathy. In November 1784 he returned to Calcutta, and soon after laid down his office. Previously he held a general parade of the Bengal army, just returned from the southern war. Swords of honour were bestowed on the chief officers, and every soldier, British or native, received a medal and an increase of pay. Nor had Hastings been neglectful of the arts of peace. He caused great progress to be made in the topographical survey (see, Memoir, ed. 1793, pp. 216 et passim). In the last year of his administration he founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Sir W. Jones [q. v.] being the first president. For the extension of Muslim culture, Hastings founded, partly at his own charge, the Calcutta Madrisa, still existing and carrying out its founder's design. The last days of his residence in India were devoted to schemes of financial reform, to the receipt of farewell addresses, and the winding up of private concerns; letters of farewell had also to be sent to the native chiefs. On 3 Feb. 1785 he dined at the Powder Works, in company with a large number of his friends, and in the afternoon stepped on board his barge in order to embark on board the Barrington, which awaited him off Garden Reach. Hastings's ‘Review of the State of Bengal,’ London, 1786, written at sea in 1785, deals primarily with finance, showing that the debt of 1772 had been cleared in two years, and explains the opium system and the nature of the resources of Bengal. He gives his views on land revenue, and questions the proprietary rights of zemindárs. He points out that he had been charged with too much responsibility, and protests against the injustice of the accusations imputed. His maxim, as he declares, has been ‘to do what he knew was requisite to the public safety, though he should doom his life to legal forfeiture or his name to infamy.’

Hastings landed in England on 13 June 1785, and attended the next drawing-room with his wife. His friends, privately and publicly, were numerous and influential. In company with Mrs. Hastings he visited some of the English watering-places, and looked about for a country residence. He had saved 80,000l., no exorbitant fortune after a distinguished service of thirty-five years in India, and his first thought was to realise his old dream of investing some of his money in the purchase of the old family manor and house at Daylesford. But the then possessor was not disposed to sell. Hastings therefore settled for the time at Windsor, with a town house in Wimpole Street.

Meanwhile Francis, ever since his return, had been inflaming the vivid imagination of Burke, not at its most temperate stage just then, and always ready to take fire at the thought of wrong done to ancient social fabrics. Burke was in no mood for impartiality. His conduct excited the opposition of Lord Teignmouth, who was not by any means a wholesale supporter of Hastings. As Macaulay remarked, whatever Burke's ‘sagacity described was refracted and discoloured by his passions and his imagination’ (‘Life of Pitt,’ in Encycl. Brit.) Nor was Burke likely to forget the fate of the India Bill of 1783, which caused the fall of the coalition ministry. To crown all came the malignant promptings of Francis. It was hopeless to attempt to convince Burke that in India the social fabric had been ruined by the most complete and sanguinary anarchy. India was coming within the range of party politics. After the failure of the India Bill of Burke and Fox in 1783, Pitt in 1784 passed an act which was in force for nearly three-quarters of a century. But he was obliged to conciliate the country by the profession of an anxious desire to restrain and punish offences committed in the administration of Indian affairs. Englishmen were anxious to apply a remedy after the disorder had ceased. The really abominable time in India had been from about 1757 to 1767, the close of Clive's second administration, and the establishment of the new system had made it most unlikely ever to return. But the court of directors and its servants were unpopular, and Burke's attacks on Hastings met with sympathy among the whigs, while they encountered but faint resistance from the tories. The first attack, on the ground of the Rohilla war, was, indeed, defeated by the government. In regard to Chait Singh also, Pitt and Dundas held that


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H Hastings was justified in his first demands. But the defence was insincere, and was abandoned on the frivolous pretence that Hastings's subsequent treatment of the rája showed too much severity. Lord Thurlow only anticipated the judgment of subsequent critics in expressing his surprise at this inconsistency.

The next two years were passed by Hastings at Windsor, while the debate on his case dragged its way through rare evenings in the House of Commons. He made experiments in farming and gardening, and worked on the materials for his defence with his friend David Anderson and other volunteer assistants. At length, on 3 April 1787, the impeachment was voted by a majority of nearly three to one, in which were included Pitt himself and most of his supporters. Macaulay attributes the surrender of Hastings by Pitt to the young minister's fear of Hastings's rivalry. The trial before the House of Lords opened in Westminster Hall on 13 Feb. 1788, foremost among the managers for the commons being Burke, Sheridan, and Gilbert Elliot (afterwards first Lord Minto) [q. v.] Fox and Windham were also among the number. Francis, though not a manager, continued to assist the prosecution. Such was the fervour of Burke's denunciations that Hastings's staunchest admirers—nay, even himself—were carried away for the moment. But Hastings bore the storm bravely, and it was in this very period that the purchase of Daylesford was at last negotiated. For the old house and 650 acres of land he paid 11,424l.; but its restoration cost him far more.

Hastings always had supporters. Fanny Burney and Hannah More were on his side. John Nicholls [q. v.], author of the ‘Parliamentary Recollections,’ said that he ‘thought of him with the highest veneration.’ Lord Teignmouth, once an opponent, could only account for what was going on by denying Burke's sanity. The trial occupied the court for thirty-five days in 1788; it was resumed in April of the following year. In June 1790 a dissolution took place, and was pleaded in bar of further proceedings, but the plea was overruled. In 1791 the court investigated the charges of personal corruption, and then Hastings made his final defence. The next two years were given to the arguments of counsel; in 1794 the managers replied to the defence. Numberless addresses and testimonials were laid before the court from various communities in India, both native and European, at which Burke sneered, but which were genuine, spontaneous, and highly relevant.

The second Benares address, of 1788, declared that Hastings, by appointing the most distinguished of the Brahmans and Musalmans to preside over their affairs, had ‘rendered the inhabitants much happier than they were during the administration of Chait Singh.’ From Rajmahal came an address which, after testifying to the consideration that he always showed to the heads of native society, added that ‘he was not covetous of other men's money, and was not open to corruption. No war arose in his time’ (they were only thinking of their own province); ‘he was not haughty, or proud of pomp and luxury; he did not seek his own ease.’ Similar addresses came from Lucknow, Farukhabad, and other places nearer Calcutta. These testimonials were given spontaneously, and long after their recipient had ceased to hold either power or the prospect of power. In reference to one passage in the Rajmahal address may be noticed a description of the private habits of Hastings as governor-general, which occurs in a note by the translator of the ‘Siyar-ul-mutakharin,’ who had served under Hastings in his secretary's office. ‘Governor Hastings,’ he said, ‘always wore a plain coat of English broadcloth … his throne a plain chair of mahogany … his table sometimes neglected, his diet sparing and abstemious; his address and deportment very distant from pride, and still more from familiarity.’

The House of Lords proceeded to debate on their judgment in 1795. Of personal corruption Hastings was unanimously acquitted; his manner of life, and what Macaulay justly calls ‘his honourable poverty,’ left his judges no alternative. As to the charges arising out of the Benares affair, it was found by a large majority that he was not only justified by the circumstances in claiming aid from a feudatory, but that the punishment of that feudatory's contumacy was neither excessive nor vindictive. In the case of the Oudh dowagers it was held that there was no evidence either of greed or of malignity, and that the treatment of the ladies was partly due to their own conduct, and was excused by the exigencies of the time. Thurlow and Bishop Horsley were strongly in Hastings's favour. The chief of the hostile judges was Lord Loughborough, the chancellor, who had to pronounce the acquittal of the accused on 23 April 1795.

The trial, which occupied 145 days, extending over seven years and three months, cost Hastings 70,000l., and he was left, as he himself said, without the means of subsistence. But the company came generously to his aid. He received addresses of congratulation on his acquittal from various


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H quarters; and he was surrounded by old friends and their children while he farmed, and gardened, and rode at Daylesford. He was among the first to appreciate Walter Scott's poetry. He hailed Malthus on population as ‘one of the most enlightened of modern publications.’ In 1802 he declined with due acknowledgments an offer from the nawáb of Oudh to settle 2,000l. a year upon him for life. But he had no scruple in taking aid from the general revenues of India. In writing to the court of directors about his affairs in 1804, he honestly confessed that he could not practise strict economy, adding with a proud humility that ‘this was not to be expected from a man who had passed his life in the hourly discharge of public duties.’ The directors made a liberal response, and would have done more had they not been restrained by Dundas, president of the board of control. From the middle of 1804, therefore, Hastings was free from the worry of insolvency. In his deep interest in the defence of England against French menace he would have drilled and armed his labourers, but the government stopped his hand. Invited to dine at the Brighton Pavilion he met Sheridan, with whom the Prince of Wales was desirous that he should be reconciled. Sheridan offered his hand, but Hastings responded only by a cold bow. On 14 March 1806, Pitt being now dead, Hastings waited on the prince at Carlton House by appointment, and expressed a wish to obtain some public redress for the calumnies and sufferings of the trial, also mentioning that as a part of such amends he should gladly accept a title that his wife could share. Afterwards the prince was ready to bestow on Hastings a peerage, but apparently shrank from a conflict with parliament by asking for a reversal of the impeachment. On these terms Hastings felt bound to decline honours; a title so bestowed, he said, would ‘sink him in his own estimation.’ Lord Moira, the prince's friend, and afterwards governor-general and Marquis of Hastings [see ], befriended him through all these troubles. Lord Wellesley too, who had once volunteered to be one of the managers but had received subsequently the light of local experience, wrote him a flattering letter in 1802, enclosing one from the ruler of Oudh.

The parliamentary redress that Hastings longed for was never formally accorded. But in 1813 he received it in an indirect form. Being summoned to give evidence before a committee of the whole house charged with the inquiry previous to the renewal of the East India Company's charter, he reappeared at that bar where he had once pleaded as a culprit. Applause greeted him now from both sides of the house; he was offered a seat and courteously questioned; when he withdrew at the close of the examination, the members rose to their feet, as by a common impulse, and stood silent and bareheaded until he had passed the door. Next day he received a similar mark of respect from the House of Lords, whither he was conveyed by a prince of the blood. During the same year the university of Oxford conferred on him the degree of D.C.L., on which occasion he was enthusiastically cheered by the undergraduates.

In May 1814 he was sworn of the privy council, and in June presented to the allied sovereigns on their visit to London by the regent himself. On 11 July he joined in a dinner to the Duke of Wellington, and made a speech, which was well received according to the newspaper report. At a second dinner to the same hero a few days later the health of Hastings was the first toast. On the 21st he attended a fête at Carlton House. That he went through such a series of festivities at the age of eighty-two without immediate injury speaks well for his strength. He showed deep sympathy with the fall of Napoleon. He kept up a correspondence with Lord Hastings in India, whom he described as ‘a man of superior talents, steady of purpose and determination.’

In July 1816 Hastings began to restore Daylesford Church, which had fallen into decay, and the work was completed before the middle of November. About the same time his letters began to betray a sense of failing mental power, but he still continued to employ his mind with unflagging activity. In March 1817 he paid his last visit to London, returning to Daylesford on 8 May. In April 1818 he could still write to a friend a well-reasoned letter on the writing of history. On 13 July he came home from a carriage drive in a condition which appeared to the country doctor to require a bleeding. He seems never to have recovered. On the 20th his diary closes. Sir H. Halford was now called in, and Hastings's nearest friends came round him. He was no longer able to swallow, and starvation slowly ensued. On 3 Aug. he dictated and signed a letter recommending his wife to the protection of the court of directors, and on the 22nd he passed away, his last act being to lay a handkerchief over his face lest the last change should distress the women who were watching his bedside. He was buried near the church, and the building substituted for it in 1860 was extended so as to include the tomb. Mrs. Hastings was buried in the same place in 1837, and her son, General Sir Charles Imhoff,


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 similar arcades, stilted arches and marble panelling; and there are two others, one on the Grand Canal and the other on the Rio-Cà-Foscari. Throughout Venice the decoration of these Byzantine palaces would seem to have influenced those of later date; for the Venetian dentil, interlaced scroll-work and string courses, with the Byzantine pendant leaf, are found intermingled with Gothic work, even down to the 15th century, and the same to a certain extent is found at Padua, Verona and Vicenza.

Central Romanesque.—The builders in the centre of Italy would seem to have followed more closely the Roman basilican plan, for in two of the earliest churches, Santa Maria Fuorcivitas at Lucca and San Paolo a Ripa d’Arno at Pisa, the T-shaped plan of St Peter’s and St Paul’s, with widely projecting transepts, was adopted; the difference also between the north and central developments is very marked, as in the place of the massive stone walls, compound piers, and internal and external buttresses deemed necessary to resist the thrusts of the great vaults, and the low clerestory of the northern churches, those in the south retain the light arcades with classic columns, the wooden roofs, and the high clerestory of the Roman basilicas. Instead of the vigorous sculpture of the Lombards in the Tuscan churches, marbles of various colours take its place, the carving being more refined in character and much quieter in effect.

The earliest church now existing is that of San Frediano at Lucca, dating from the end of the 7th century. Originally it was a five-aisled basilica, with an eastern apse, but when it was included within the walls in the 11th century the apse and the entrance doorway changed places, and a fine eaves-gallery was carried round the new apse; the outer aisles were also transformed into chapels. So many of the churches in Pisa and Lucca had new fronts given to them in the 11th or 12th century, that it is interesting to find, in the church of San Pietro-in-Grado at Pisa, an example in which the external decoration with pilaster strips and arched corbel tables is retained, showing that in the 9th century, when that church was built, the Lombard style prevailed there. Other early churches are those of San Casciano (9th century), San Nicola and San Frediano (1007), all in Pisa.

Of early foundation, but probably rebuilt in the 11th century, are two interesting churches in Toscanella, Santa Maria and San Pietro; they are both basilican on plan, but the easternmost bay is twice the width of the other arches of the arcade, and is divided from the nave by a triumphal arch. In both churches the floor of the transept is raised some feet above the nave, and a crypt occupies the whole space below it.

One of the earliest and most perfect examples of this subdivision is the church of San Miniato, on a hill overlooking Florence. The church was rebuilt in 1013, and some of the Roman capitals of the earlier building are incorporated in the new one. It is divided into nave and aisles by an arcade of nine arches, and every third support consists of a compound pier with four semi-detached shafts, one of which, on each side of the nave, rises to the level of the summit of the arcade and carries a massive transverse arch to support the roof. The east end of the church, occupying the last three bays of the arcade, is raised 11 ft. above the floor of the nave, over a vaulted crypt extending the whole width of the church and carried under the eastern apse. The interior of the church, which is covered over with an open timber roof, painted in colour and gilded, is decorated with inlaid patterns of black and white marble of conventional design, and the same scheme is adopted in the main façade, enriching the panels of the blind arcade on the lower storey, and above an extremely classic design of Corinthian pilasters, entablature and pediment.

As none of the façades of the Pisan churches was built before the middle of the 11th century, it is possible that Buschetto, the architect of the cathedral of Pisa, may have profited by the scheme suggested in the lower storey of San Miniato; if so he departed from its classic proportions. There are seven blind arcades in the lower storey of the Pisan cathedral, the arcades are loftier, and the position of the side doors which open into the inner aisle on each side is of much better effect. The cathedral was begun in 1063, the year following the brilliant capture of Palermo by the Pisans, when they returned in triumph with immense spoils. In plan it consists of a Latin cross, with double aisles on either side of the nave extending to the east end, a central apse, transepts with single aisles on each side, and north and south transepted apses (fig. 38). The nave arcade, with its Corinthian capitals and monolith stone columns, is of exceptional boldness, and as it is carried across the transept up to the east end (a length of 320 ft.) it forms a continuous line greater than that in any other cathedral. The crossing is covered by a dome, elliptical on plan, being from east to west the length of the transept and aisles. The result is unfortunate, and detracts both externally and internally from its beauty; otherwise the exterior decoration, which must have been schemed out in its entirety from the beginning (with the exception of the dome, which is of later design), has the most satisfactory and pleasing effect. The lofty blind arcade of the lower storey and the open gallery above on the façade (the latter represented by a blind arcade), are carried round the whole building, and the horizontal lines of the galleries of the upper storeys accord with the roofs of the aisles and nave respectively and the blind arcade of the clerestory. The walls are faced within and without with white and grey marble, and the combination of sculpture and inlay which enriches the arcades of the façades gives an additional attraction to the building. The cathedral is sometimes quoted as Byzantine in style, but its plan and design are of widely different character from those of any building found in the East, and the mosaics, which constitute the finest decorative element in that style, were not added till the 14th century, and formed no part of the architect Buschetto’s scheme.

The Baptistery, begun in 1153, was not completed till towards the close of the 13th century, when important alterations were made in the design to bring it into accordance with the new Gothic style. The crocketed gables, and the upper gallery, substituted for the arcades, which followed on the lines of those in the cathedral, have taken away the quiet repose found in the latter; the lower storey, however, with its lofty blind arcades, similar to those of the cathedral, and the principal doorway, are of great beauty. The central area of the baptistery, which is surrounded by aisles and triforium gallery, is covered by a conical dome; internally as well as externally this can never have been a beautiful feature, and the additions of the 13th century have made it one of the ugliest roofs in existence.

The Campanile or leaning tower was begun in 1174. Owing, however, to the treacherous nature of the ground, the piles driven in to support the tower gave way on the south side, so that, when only 35 ft. above the ground, a settlement was noticed, and slight additions in height were made from time to time in order to obtain a horizontal level for the stone courses; but this was without avail, and on the completion of the third gallery above the ground storey the work was suspended for many years. In 1350 it was recommenced, three more gallery storeys were added, and the upper or belfry stage was set back in the inner wall. The tower is now 178 ft. high, and overhangs nearly 14 ft. on the south side; its design is made to harmonize with the cathedral, but shows much less refinement and grace.

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Hastings sixteen years later. Daylesford is now the property of Mr. R. N. Byass.

The charges of personal corruption brought against Hastings are abundantly refuted, not only by the want of proof (after a most searching inquiry), but by the small amount of his savings after a singularly prolonged Indian life. To say that Hastings was a scrupulous politician according to modern ideas would be to say too much. No doubt he did irregular things; possibly he helped the ruin of Nand Kumar, certainly he transgressed the letter of the law in removing the unmanageable governor of Madras. In instigating, or conniving at, the spoliation of the Oudh dowagers he allowed a violation of the faith of treaties and of the delicacies of private life. But he saved and established the empire, which he would not have done had he listened to all possible objections or held his hand before a hostile confederacy. The insincerity of the outcry against Hastings was pointed out by Erskine in eloquent terms (see, Shorthand Report, pp. 47–90). Mill has some pointed remarks showing how he was impressed in spite of a strong prejudice: ‘Hastings,’ he says, ‘was placed in difficulties and acted on by temptations such as few public men have been called on to overcome. … No man, probably, who ever had a great share in the government of the world, had his public conduct so completely explored and laid open to view. … If we had the same advantage with respect to other men, … few of them would be found whose character would present a higher claim to indulgence than his’ (Hist. iv. 367–8).

Hastings's passions were always well controlled. His wife adored him. He was admired by such men as Thurlow and Johnson, by Halhed, and ultimately by Teignmouth. He is not known ever to have lost a friend. ‘His generosity was unbounded in desire, and did not always calculate his means of indulging it. His own private interest was lost in his regard for the public welfare’ (Gent. Mag. lxxxviii. 2). Testimony abounds to his gentleness under suffering, and absence of vindictive language about his enemies.

Like other distinguished men, Hastings owed much to the combination of apparently incompatible qualities. A bold dreamer he possessed almost unequalled executive ability and practical good sense. Though not always fastidious as to the means by which he benefited his employers, he never showed any vulgar greed on his own account, and his lavish expenditure of money was accompanied by a total indifference to personal advantage or display. Gentle in temper and constant in affection, he could be combative, and even truculent on occasion; determined and resolute, he yet knew how to give up his own purpose when it was not to be had without paying too dear. Brought up in a bad school, exposed to most dangerous influences, he was guilty of nothing personally dishonouring, even when he compromised his reputation. But in the contemporary criticism of public men allowance is rarely made for shades of character and peculiarities of circumstance. At the end of the eighteenth century Englishmen were awakening to a sense of the duties of humanity, and felt that the position and the doings of English traders and officials in the East were not always to be defended. The outcry of 1785 and the unanimous condemnation of Hastings by both sides of the House of Commons were the first outcome of this feeling. Although partly due to political motives, and further tainted by insincere rhetoric and extravagant hyperbole, the impeachment was something more than mere hypocrisy or hysterics.

There are two portraits of Hastings in the National Portrait Gallery, one by Tilly Kettle, which was engraved by W. Angus for the ‘European Magazine’ in 1782, and the other by Sir Thomas Lawrence, painted in 1811. There is also a bronze bust by T. Banks, R.A.


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Rh World, the Fall of Man, Cain and Abel and the Deluge, and goes on to the story of the temptation of Abraham, the story of Moses, and of David and Bathsheba, and ends with the building of Solomon’s Temple. It consists of 2846 lines of verse, generally of seven syllables, but sometimes of four syllables to a line.

b. Passio Domini, which represents the Temptation of Christ, and the events from the Entry into Jerusalem to the Entombment. It consists of 3242 lines of verse of the same sort as the first.

c. Resurrectio Domini, which gives the story of the Harrowing of Hell, the imprisonment of Joseph and Nicodemus, the Resurrection and the meeting of Christ and His Mother, and the events between the Resurrection and the Ascension, with which it ends. Interpolated in the middle is the Legend of St. Veronica and Tiberius and the Death of Pilate. It consists of 2646 lines of verse.

Running through these, but especially detailed in the first, is the old legend of the origin of the Wood of the Cross.

The legend in its ordinary form is this. When Adam fell, the Father promised him the Oil of Mercy which should deliver him from death, and when he was dying, he sent his son Seth to the Gates of Paradise to ask for it. The angel let him look into Paradise and there he saw the Tree of Knowledge, withered and dead, with a dead serpent twined round it, and its roots in Hell, and the Tree of Life, bright and green with living fruit upon it, its top reaching to Heaven, and in its branches a Maiden with a Child in Her arms. The angel gave to Seth three pips from the fruit of the Tree of Life, telling him to put them into his father’s mouth and nostrils when he was dead. Seth returned and did as he was directed, and in process of time the three seeds grew into three small trees. Abraham took some of the wood for the sacrifice of Isaac, Moses took some for his rod, and, when, to symbolise the mystery of the Trinity, the three trees had grown into one tree, David sat beneath its branches to bewail his sin and make the Miserere Psalm. When Solomon


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H HASTINGS, WILLIAM, (1430?–1483), was son of Sir Leonard Hastings, who was descended from a younger son of William Hastings, steward to Henry II, and was a retainer of Richard, duke of York; his mother was Alice, daughter of Lord Camoys. He was born about 1430, and on the death of his father succeeded to the family estates in Leicestershire and Warwickshire, and was named sheriff of both counties. He received an annuity from the Duke of York on condition that he should serve him before all others, and at all times, his allegiance to the king alone excepted. He was highly recommended by the duke to his son, afterwards Edward IV. Edward, on his accession to the throne, rewarded Hastings's services in the civil war by appointing him receiver of the revenues of the duchy of Cornwall (1463), master of the mint (1461), grand chamberlain of the royal household (1461–1483), chamberlain of North Wales (1461–1469), and lieutenant of Calais (1471). In the last capacity he is several times alluded to in the ‘Paston Letters,’ about the years 1474 and 1477. He was made a baron in 1461, and received large grants of the forfeited estates of the Lancastrians. In right of his wife Katherine, daughter of Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury, and widow of Lord Bonville, he obtained additional gifts of estates in Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, and Suffolk. He was present at the king's coronation at Westminster in 1461; next year he accompanied Edward in his expedition to the north, and was one of the lords sent to Carlisle in July to receive the Queen of Scots (Paston Letters, ii. 110). He undertook the siege of Dunstanburgh with a force of ten thousand men. On 21 March 1462 he was installed knight of the Garter, and in 1464 was joined in a commission with the Earl of Warwick and the Earl of Northumberland to treat with James III of Scotland for a truce between the two countries. While master of the mint he introduced the coinage of gold nobles worth 100d., and two other gold pieces worth 50d. and 25d. respectively. On 28 March 1465 he was deputed, together with Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, to treat with the representatives of Charles the Bold for an alliance, and in May Warwick, Hastings, and five others were directed to treat with the ambassadors of Philip, duke of Burgundy, for mercantile intercourse, and also to treat with Francis of Brittany, Lewis of France, and Charles the Bold (Fœdera, xi. 541–3). In 1466 he was one of the ambassadors to treat with Burgundy as to commercial relations, and to negotiate marriages between Margaret, sister of Edward IV and Charles the Bold, and between George, duke of Clarence, and Mary, daughter of Charles; and in this year he was again directed to conduct negotiations with the French king (ib. xi. 562–6). In 1467 he was once more negotiating for the marriage between Charles and Margaret (ib. xi. 590). Upon Edward's escape from Middleham Castle to London in 1469, Hastings aided him in raising new forces. He was at this time reappointed chamberlain of North Wales. Upon Warwick's invasion in 1470 Hastings informed the king of the danger, urged him to escape, and accompanied him on horseback to Lynn in Norfolk, whence Edward sailed to Holland. During Edward's absence Hastings was active in stirring up the zeal of the Yorkists. A bond (preserved in Baronage, although dated four years later) was probably first entered into at this juncture. It is signed by two lords, nine knights, and forty-eight esquires, who engage to aid Hastings against all persons within the kingdom, and to raise as many men as they can, to be armed at the expense of Hastings. Upon Edward's return in March 1471 Hastings was instrumental in bringing over Clarence to his side, and was present at their first interview thereupon at Banbury. At the battle of Barnet Hastings commanded the third division, which was opposed to that of Montague, and included three thousand mounted horsemen. He is said to have taken part in the death of the Lancastrian Prince Edward after the battle of Tewkesbury. In 1475 Hastings was sent to France with an invading force. A treaty of peace followed. The French and English kings met at Picquigny, near Amiens, and Hastings received from Louis a yearly annuity of two thousand crowns. He was apparently the only English noble present, who made some difficulty about receiving the money, and he formally refused to grant any receipt for it, alleging as a reason that he did not wish it to be said that the chamberlain of England was a pensioner of the king of France. He was less scrupulous with the Duke of Burgundy, from whom he received a yearly annuity of a thousand crowns. Comines, who says that he first introduced Hastings to Charles and afterwards to Louis, knew Hastings well, and describes him as a person of singular wisdom and virtue, in great authority with his master, whom he had served faithfully. Comines states that Louis XI gave Hastings on one occasion a service of plate of the value of ten thousand marks. Hastings was one of the lords who swore fealty to King Edward's eldest son. Hastings was on bad terms with the queen, who had been offended by his appointment to the governorship of Calais, which post she desired