Nor must we forget that all, or almost all, to whom, when placed at the head of affairs, he could apply for assistance, were persons who owed as little as himself, or less than himself, to education.  A minister in Europe finds himself, on the first day on which he commences his functions, surrounded by experienced public servants, the depositaries of official traditions.  Hastings had no such help.  His own reflection, his own energy, were to supply the place of all Downing Street and Somerset House.  Having had no facilities for learning, he was forced to teach.  He had first to form himself, and then to form his instruments; and this not in a single department, but in all the departments of the administration.

It must be added that, while engaged in this most arduous task, he was constantly trammelled by orders from home, and frequently borne down by a majority in Council.  The preservation of an Empire from a formidable combination of foreign enemies, the construction of a government in all its parts, were accomplished by him, while every ship brought out bales of censure from his employers, and while the records of every consultation were filled with acrimonious minutes by his colleagues.  We believe that there never was a public man whose temper was so severely tried; not Marlborough, when thwarted by the Dutch Deputies; not Wellington, when he had to deal at once with the Portuguese Regency, the Spanish juntas, and Mr. Percival.  But the temper of Hastings was equal to almost any trial.  It was not sweet; but it was calm.  Quick and vigorous as his intellect was, the patience with which he endured the most cruel vexations, till a remedy could be found, resembled the patience of stupidity.  He seems to have been capable of resentment, bitter and long enduring; yet his resentment so seldom hurried him into any blunder, that it may be doubted whether what appeared to be revenge was anything but policy.

The effect of this singular equanimity was that he always had the full command of all the resources of one of the most fertile minds that ever existed.  Accordingly no complication of perils and embarrassments could perplex him.  For every difficulty he had a contrivance ready; and, whatever may be thought of the justice and humanity of some of his contrivances, it is certain that they seldom failed to serve the purpose for which they were designed.

Together with this extraordinary talent for devising expedients, Hastings possessed, in a very high degree, another talent scarcely less necessary to a man in his situation; we mean the talent for conducting political controversy.  It is as necessary to an English statesman in the East that he should be able to write, as it is to a minister in this country that he should be able to speak.  It is chiefly by the oratory of a public man here that the nation judges of his powers.  It is from the letters and reports of a public man in India that the dispensers of patronage form their estimate of him.  In each case, the talent which receives peculiar encouragement is developed, perhaps at the expense of the other powers.  In this country, we sometimes hear men speak above their abilities.  It is not very unusual to find gentlemen in the Indian service who write above their abilities.  The English politician is a little too much of a debater; the Indian politician a little too much of an essayist.