were seized, hurried up to Calcutta, flung into the common gaol, not for any crime even imputed, not for any debt that had been proved, but merely as a precaution till their cause should come to trial There were instances in which men of the most venerable dignity, persecuted without a cause by extortioners, died of rage and shame in the gripe of the vile alguazils of Impey.  The harems of noble Mahommedans, sanctuaries respected in the East by governments which respected nothing else, were burst open by gangs of bailiffs.  The Mussulmans, braver and less accustomed to submission than the Hindoos, sometimes stood on their defence; and there were instances in which they shed their blood in the doorway, while defending, sword in hand, the sacred apartments of their women.  Nay, it seemed as if even the faint-hearted Bengalee, who had crouched at the feet of Surajah Dowlah, who had been mute during the administration of Vansittart, would at length find courage in despair.  No Mahratta invasion had ever spread through the province such dismay as this inroad of English lawyers.  All the injustice of former oppressors, Asiatic and European, appeared as a blessing when compared with the justice of the Supreme Court.

Every class of the population, English and native, with the exception of the ravenous pettifoggers who fattened on the misery and terror of an immense community, cried out loudly against this fearful oppression.  But the judges were immovable.  If a bailiff was resisted, they ordered the soldiers to be called out.  If a servant of the Company, in conformity with the orders of the Government, withstood the miserable catchpoles who, with Impey’s writs in their hands, exceeded the insolence and rapacity of gang-robbers, he was flung into prison for a contempt.  The lapse of sixty years, the virtue and wisdom of many eminent magistrates who have during that time administered justice in the Supreme Court, have not effaced from the minds of the people of Bengal the recollection of those evil days.

The members of the Government were, on this subject, united as one man.  Hastings had courted the judges; he had found them useful instruments; but he was not disposed to make them his own masters, or the masters of India.  His mind was large; his knowledge of the native character most accurate.  He saw that the system pursued by the Supreme Court was degrading to the Government and ruinous to the people; and he resolved to oppose it manfully.  The consequence was, that the friendship, if that be the proper word for such a connection, which had existed between him and Impey, was for a time completely dissolved.  The Government placed itself firmly between the tyrannical tribunal and the people.  The Chief Justice proceeded to the wildest excesses.  The Governor-General and all the members of Council were served with writs, calling on them to appear before the King’s justices, and to answer for their public acts.  This was too much.  Hastings, with just scorn,