have unexpectedly inherited vast estates in remote
countries far apart from each other, and should have
discovered that their title was bad, their management
worse, that on his western estate he was being involved
in very costly and unpleasant litigation with occupants
who claimed to sit rent free, and on his eastern property
in all the troubles caused to absentee proprietors by
dishonest and incapable agency. After seven years'
contest England had won her cause both in America and
India; but in the administration of distant dependencies
she was as yet totally inexperienced, and she had to
study that difficult art through the long period of mis-
fortune and humiliating failure into which, under Lord
North's guidance, she was just entering. That the term
of Warren Hastings' government coincided for ten years
with Lord North's premiership, is a fact to be always
remembered in appreciating the situation of the Anglo-
Indian Governor; we must take account of the inexperi-
ence of the nation, the circumstances of a troubled time,
the animosity of parties inflamed by resentments and dis-
appointments, and the irritation of the English people.

It is useful to recollect that the tea thrown into
Boston harbour in December, 1773, belonged to the East
India Company, and had been allowed free export by
way of helping them commercially; for the incident
fixes important dates, and marks a curious point of
connection between eastern and western complications.
And while it is remarkable that a petty concession to the
Indian trading company should have been the signal
for rebellion in the American colonies, such an electric
reverberation across the horizon illustrates the tem-
pestuous condition of the whole political atmosphere.

-52-