Essay on Warren Hastings

by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Joseph Villiers-Denney (Editor)

Warren Hastings was the first Governor-General of India. Macaulay has in this essay produced and preserved for the ages a graphic picture of the times, circumstance, and character of Hastings.

Thomas Babington Macaulay - historian, critic, poet, and philosopher - was born in 1800. Macaulay was a Member of Parliament, moved to India where his official duties were as Member of Council, and where he wrote numerous magazine articles and essays. His greatest work was the multi-volume set of History of England.

Genres: History

212 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1973

About the author

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay PC was an English poet, historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer, and on British history. He also held political office as Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841 and Paymaster-General between 1846 and 1848.

As a young man he composed the ballads Ivry and The Armada, which he later included as part of Lays of Ancient Rome, a series of very popular ballads about heroic episodes in Roman history which he composed in India and published in 1842.

During the 1840s he began work on his most famous work, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, publishing the first two volumes in 1848. At first, he had planned to bring his history down to the reign of George III. After publication of his first two volumes, his hope was to complete his work with the death of Queen Anne in 1714. The third and fourth volumes, bringing the history to the Peace of Ryswick, were published in 1855. However, at his death in 1859, he was working on the fifth volume. This, bringing the History down to the death of William III, was prepared for publication by his sister, Lady Trevelyan, after his death.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised at how "historical" this was insofar as it wasn't a pure elegy of Hastings. It did actually offer up some criticisms and paints him as a corrupt and flawed person in some respects. Taken as a whole though, it clearly is meant to justify Hasting's crimes. It admits them, but only so that it may excuse them as the inevitable pock marks which must accompany anyone who aspires to greatness and in the process, does reckless and innovative things including moral compromises. I was fascinated by the episode of Nukumar's attempted "coup" of Hastings, and how it was resolved. I'm surprised that we don't hear more about this episode in standard narratives of the history of the British empire. Essentially a Brahmin used some knowledge of the colonial rule set, and some politicking, to turn the council (which was already predisposed against Hastings as they joined the administration at a later time) against Hastings, attempting to remove him. Hastings prevented it because he knew the rule set better, had "captured" the Judiciary which had power independent from the council, and eventually used that power to have Nukumar executed for forgery, which even Macaulay thinks was a really low and distasteful way of resolving the issue. Anyway, this is a text of the "liberal imperialism" way of thinking combined with an ethnographic taxonomical view of Indian races and castes. The British should spread their civilization and be kind to the natives, but you know, things are different in India and being brutal and swindling just like the natives, is necessary. The Bengalis are described as effeminate cheats. Brahmins get a little better treatment. Muslim Hindu division is seen as already fully formed and inherent. We also get the justification of the British ruling india that Indians are servile and cannot govern themselves. They are a race suited to slavery. Even the existing regimes in India at the time were themselves invaders, so what moral right did they have to rule which was greate than the British? The British were invaders as well, but they at least brought good Western government.... well, sort of... because good western government needed to be made more authoritarian to govern these unruly racially inferior folks. There is also an interesting speculation on the identity of "Junius" in the letters of Junius, concluding that it is Sir Philip Francis.

[Stephen Masri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the attitudes expressed are dated, but the elegance of the prose makes this a worthwhile read. One might infer that Winston Churchill's historical writing style was influenced by Macaulay. Asquith's memoirs make reference to reading Macaulay as a distraction from politics.