The revolution completed, the double government dissolved, the Company installed in the full sovereignty of Bengal, Hastings had no motive to treat the late ministers with rigour.  Their trial had been put off on various pleas till the new organization was complete.  They were then brought before a committee, over which the Governor presided.  Schitab Roy was speedily acquitted with honour.  A formal apology was made to him for the restraint to which he had been subjected.  All the Eastern marks of respect were bestowed on him.  He was clothed in a robe of state, presented with jewels and with a richly harnessed elephant, and sent back to his government at Patna.  But his health had suffered from confinement; his high spirit had been cruelly wounded; and soon after his liberation he died of a broken heart.

The innocence of Mahommed Reza Khan was not so clearly established.  But the Governor was not disposed to deal harshly.  After a long hearing, in which Nuncomar appeared as the accuser, and displayed both the art and the inveterate rancour which distinguished him, Hastings pronounced that the charge had not been made out, and ordered the fallen minister to be set at liberty.

Nuncomar had purposed to destroy the Mussulman administration, and to rise on its ruin.  Both his malevolence and his cupidity had been disappointed.  Hastings had made him a tool, had used him for the purpose of accomplishing the transfer of the government from Moorshedabad to Calcutta, from native to European hands.  The rival, the enemy, so long envied, so implacably persecuted, had been dismissed unhurt.  The situation so long and ardently desired had been abolished.  It was natural that the Governor should be from that time an object of the most intense hatred to the vindictive Brahmin.  As yet, however, it was necessary to suppress such feelings.  The time was coming when that long animosity was to end in a desperate and deadly struggle.

In the meantime, Hastings was compelled to turn his attention to foreign affairs.  The object of his diplomacy was at this time simply to get money.  The finances of his government were in an embarrassed state, and this embarrassment he was determined to relieve by some means, fair or foul.  The principle which directed all his dealings with his neighbours is fully expressed by the old motto of one of the great predatory families of Teviotdale, “Thou shalt want ere I want.”  He seems to have laid it down, as a fundamental proposition which could not be disputed, that, when he had not as many lacs of rupees as the public service required, he was to take them from anybody who had.  One thing, indeed, is to be said in excuse for him.  The pressure applied to him by his employers at home, was such as only the highest virtue could have withstood, such as left him no choice except to commit great wrongs, or to resign his high post, and with that post all his hopes of fortune and distinction.  The Directors,