MR. MACAULAY

WARREN

ON

HASTINGS.

IT is now more than forty years ago, since two young Americans, who at that period happened to be in London, amongst other objects of curiosity and interest, were induced to visit Lansdowne-House, then the town-residence of the Marquis of Lansdowne, wellknown, in his day, in the circles of politics and letters. it is understood, that the show-palaces of the English nobility are to be seen by strangers, only in the absence of their proprietors; and, in the present instance, the owner had been some time absent, at some one of his residences in the country. Accordingly, the Americans were introduced into the house; and, in the course of their perambulation of the premises and inspection of library and paintings, were conducted to an apartment, containing only two pictures. One of these every American would at once recognize, as the unmistakable portrait of the Father of his Country; the other proved to be the counterfeit presentment of a personage, then scarcely

less known to fame; and was, in fact, the portrait of Warren Hastings, for many years, the Governor-general of India. It so happened, however, that, during their visit, Lord Lansdowne unexpectedly returned to town, and, understanding that there were strangers examining the house, courteously proceeded to the room, where our young friends were engaged; and entering into conversation with them, informed them, that he appropriated this privileged apartment to these two pictures alone, as being the portraits of the two greatest men he had ever known.

The Americans said nothing; and, as that was not the age of "free discussion," felt, perhaps, that it might be uncivil to call in question even the most eccentric fancies of a gentleman, in his own house. But the saying sank deep into their memory; and when one of the parties, some time since, gave me the particulars of the adventure, it struck my mind, I must confess, as a thing of peculiar incongruity. Washington and Warren Hastings! The savior of his country-and the desolator of an oppressed and ruined people! This one, the living spirit of all that is known as truth, wisdom, honor, moderation and integrity in man, that one, the cruel and unjust tool of a grasping and insatiable avarice! This man, at the close of all his patient and heroic toils, in the great struggle, to which his own prudence and brave policy, by the blessing of Heaven, had brought suc

cess, claiming no reward of his country, and accepting only the bare repayment of so much, as he had expended, from his own fortune, in her service; the other, rioting upon extorted bribes, and returning from the land, which his injustice had made wretched, to receive, in charity, at last, the means of sustaining his prolonged existence, from the coffers which had been so often replenished by his own wickedness! The one, retiring from the cares of public life, amidst the grateful tears of a reluctant people, followed by the admiration of the world and secure of the benedictions of posterity; the other, disgracefully recalled from the distant world, where his crimes had made the name of Englishman a scourge and a dread; met, upon his native shore, by the execrations of the populace and the stern rebuke of the highest, the brightest and the purest spirits of his country's glorious days; impeached by the Commons of England, in the name of the people whom he had wronged, and for the sake of the humanity which he had outraged; and after a trial, enduring for a longer series of years than that, within which his compatriot of Lansdowne-House had achieved the liberties of the republic,-finally escaping, amidst the tergiversations of political factions, the wearisomeness of protracted justice, and the influence of a spirit, which submitted to prefer interest to honor-and could not well preserve its consistency by condemning the cul

prit, after it had accepted and appropriated his bribe.

The anecdote, which I have just detailed, was brought forcibly to my recollection, in reading, some time since, the brilliant and seductive article of Mr. Macaulay, upon the character and administration of Hastings. The subject, considered in its connections, is one of vast importance, inasmuch as it relates to the commencement and extension of British power in Asia, and the influence of this domination upon the interests, the morals and the happiness of the world. But the Essay of Mr. Macaulay, with all its elaborate splendor of diction and graphic profusion of illustration, did not satisfy my judgment, for precisely the same reason, that the juxtaposition of the portraits of Washington and Hastings did not coincide with the preconceptions of the young Americans at LansdowneHouse. To estimate the character of an individual, by setting his vices in parallel with his abilities and their unscrupulous exercise for the acquisition of dominion and riches, for himself or others, may indeed tend to dazzle and bewilder the imagination. But when we come to compare such a man with him, who has devoted his powers to the unquestionable benefit of his race, or, which is better, to try him by the unerring standard of truth and justice itself, the fallacy becomes apparent to the most cursory apprehension. It cannot be denied, that the world is not too apt to

make the necessary and reasonable distinction between the uses of great ability, accordingly as it is well or ill employed; or to remember that the sole legitimate purpose, as well as the only merit of knowledge, consists in the enlargement of virtue; and if we could but escape subjection to that inverse rule of morals, by which the world calls "good evil and evil good," we might demand, that the highest intellect should be but the measure and standard of the most consummate goodness. In the Court of Heaven, we know that the perversion of talents is to be regarded criminal, in proportion to their amount and superiority. At the tribunal of worldly judgment, the very possession of distinguished powers is too often looked upon as a sufficient palliation for their abuse.

I shall not allege, that the Essay of Mr. Macaulay is in any sense a panegyric. He professes, indeed, to assume the attitude of an impartial judge. He neither imitates the miserable adulation of Mr. Gleig, whose Biography of Hastings he reviews; nor is he stirred up to the just severity, honestly exhibited by Mill, in his History of British India. He pretends to deprecate, on the one hand, any deference to that caprice of popular favor, which induced the House of Commons in 1813, to rise up in honor of a man, who, twenty-seven years before, had escaped the punishment of his crimes, through the technicalities of the