the men of the Thirty-ninth Regiment, which still bears on its colors, amidst many honorable additions won under Wellington in Spain and Gascony, the name of Plassey, and the proud motto, Primus in Indis.

The battle commenced with a cannonade, in which the artillery of the Nabob did scarcely any execution, while the few field-pieces of the English produced great effect. Several of the most distinguished officers in Surajah Dowlah's service fell. Disorder began to spread through his ranks. His own terror increased every moment. One of the conspirators urged on him the expediency of retreating. The insidious advice, agreeing as it did with what his own terrors suggested, was readily received. He ordered the army to fall back, and this order decided his fate. Clive snatched the moment, and ordered his troops to advance. The confused and dispirited multitude gave way before the onset of disciplined valor. No mob attacked by regular soldiers was ever more completely routed. The little band of Frenchmen, who alone ventured to confront the English, were swept down the stream of fugitives. In an hour the forces of Surajah Dowlah were dispersed, never to reassemble. Only five hundred of the vanquished were slain. But their camp, their guns, their baggage, innumerable wagons, innumerable cattle, remained in the power of the conquerors. With the loss of twenty-two soldiers killed, and fifty wounded, Clive had scattered an army of nearly sixty thousand men, and subdued an empire larger and more populous than Great Britain.

Meer Jaffier had given no assistance to the English during the action. But as soon as he saw that the fate of the day was decided, he drew off his division of the army, and when the battle was over sent his congratulations to his ally. The next day he repaired to the English quarters, not a little uneasy as to the reception which awaited him there. gave evident signs of alarm when a guard was drawn out to receive him with the honors due to his rank. But his apprehensions were speedily removed. Clive came forward to meet him, embraced him, saluted him as Nabob of the three great provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, listened gra

ciously to his apologies, and advised him to march without delay to Moorshedabad.

Surajah Dowlah had fled from the field of battle with all the speed with which a fleet camel could carry him, and arrived at Moorshedabad in a little more than twenty-four hours. There he called his councillors round him. The wisest advised him to put himself into the hands of the English, from whom he had nothing worse to fear than deposition and confinement. He learned that Meer Jaffier had arrived; and his terrors became insupportable. Disguised in a mean dress, with a casket of jewels in his hand, he let himself down at night from a window of his palace, and, accompanied by only two attendants, embarked on the river for Patna.

In a few days Clive arrived at Moorshedabad, escorted by two hundred English soldiers and three hundred sepoys. For his residence he had been assigned a palace, which was surrounded by a garden so spacious, that all the troops who accompanied him could conveniently encamp within it. The ceremony of the installation of Meer Jaffier was instantly performed. Clive led the new Nabob to the seat of honor, placed him on it, presented to him, after the immemorial fashion of the East, an offering of gold, and then, turning to the natives who filled the hall, congratulated them on the good fortune which had freed them from a tyrant. He was compelled on this occasion to use the services of an interpreter; for it is remarkable that, long as he resided in India, intimately acquainted as he was with the Indian politics and the Indian character, and adored as he was by his Indian soldiery, he never learned to express himself with facility in any Indian language.

The new sovereign was now called upon to fulfill the engagements into which he had entered with his allies. A conference was held at the house of Jugget Seit, the great banker, for the purpose of making the necessary arrangements. Omichund came thither, fully believing himself to stand high in the favor of Clive, who, with dissimulation surpassing even the dissimulation of Bengal, had up to that day treated him with undiminished kindness. The white treaty was pro

duced and read. Clive then turned to Mr. Scrafton, one of the servants of the Company, and said in English, "It is now time to undeceive Omichund." "Omichund," said Mr. Scrafton in Hindostanee, "the red treaty is a take-in. You are to have nothing." Omichund fell back insensible into the arms of his attendants. He revived; but his mind was irreparably ruined. Clive, who, though unscrupulous in his dealings with Indian politicians, was not inhuman, seems to have been touched. He saw Omichund a few days later, spoke to him kindly, advised him to make a pilgrimage to one of the great temples of India, in the hope that change of scene might restore his health, and was even disposed, notwithstanding all that had passed, again to employ his talents in the public service. But from the moment of that sudden shock, the unhappy man sank gradually into idiocy. He who had formerly been distinguished by the strength of his understanding, and the simplicity of his habits, now squandered the remains of his fortune on childish trinkets, and loved to exhibit himself dressed in rich garments, and hung with precious stones. In this abject state he languished a few months, and then died.-LORD MACAULAY.

WARREN HASTINGS was the first Governor-general of British India. Though sprung from an ancient and illustrious race, his ancestors had been impoverished in the Parliamentary War, and his father, Pynaston Hastings, was an idle, worthless person, who married before he was sixteen. Warren, who was born. on the 6th of December, 1732, became an orphan in his infancy. While

a child he resolved to recover at some later day the manor which had belonged to his ancestors, and in maturity he adhered to his purpose till it was fulfilled. When he was eight years old, his uncle, Howard Hastings, having determined to give him a liberal education, sent him to a school at Newington, where he was well taught, but ill fed. He afterwards attributed the smallness of his stature to the hard and scanty fare of his seminary; but this cause seems insufficient for the effect. At the age of ten he was removed to Westminster school, where he was a fellow-student of the poets Churchill and Cowper, and formed a lasting friendship with the latter. Warren was distinguished among his comrades as an excellent swimmer, boatman and scholar. But in consequence of the

death of his uncle Howard, he left Westminster school when he was sixteen years old.

Having obtained a clerkship in the service of the East India Company, young Hastings sailed from England in January, 1750, and arrived at Calcutta in October. After two years spent in keeping accounts at Calcutta, he was sent to Cossimbazar, a town on the Hoogley, a mile from Moorshedabad, where, for several years, he was employed in making bargains for silk stuffs with native brokers. In 1756 Surajah Dowlah, having become Nabob of Bengal, declared war against the English and seized Cossimbazar. Hastings was sent a prisoner to Moorshedabad; but was treated with indulgence. Surajah marched against Calcutta, the English governor and the commandant of the fort fled; and one hundred and twenty-three English prisoners were smothered in the Black Hole. The fugitive governor, who wished to learn the proceeding of the Nabob, requested Hastings, who was a prisoner at large in Surajah's capital, to furnish him information. Hastings thus became a diplomatic agent, and soon gained a high reputation by his ability and resolution. He was then one of the few Englishmen who could speak the Persian and Hindostanee languages.

After Clive came with an army to Bengal, Hastings served as a soldier under him; but Clive soon perceived that the young man's head would be more useful than his arm. Hastings was appointed to reside at the court of Meer Jaffier, the new Nabob of Bengal, as agent for the East India Company. He remained at Moorshedabad till 1761, when he became a member of Council, and was consequently forced to reside at Calcutta. Many of the Company's servants enriched themselves by cruelty and rapine; but Hastings continued poor, though by pursuing the methods in vogue around him he might easily have become rich.

Hastings returned to England in 1764, having realized only a moderate fortune, and he soon lost nearly all of it by lending money on bad security. When, after four years' home residence, he solicited employment in India, his old masters appointed him a member of the Council at Madras. He embarked for India in the spring of 1769, and in a few months