HASTINGS’ WORK IN THE SOUTH 461
On his return to England, Warren Hastings was impeached, Chargesin 1786, by the House of Commons for these and otheralleged acts of oppression. He was solemnly tried by theHouse of Lords , and the proceedings dragged themselves outfor seven years (1788-95). They form one of the most cele-brated State trials in English history, and ended in a verdictof not guilty on all the charges. Meanwhile, the cost of thedefence had ruined Warren Hastings , and left him dependentupon the charity of the Court of Directors—a charity whichnever failed.
In his dealings with Southern India, Warren Hastings had Hastings’not to regard solely the financial results. He there appears asthe great man that he really was : calm in Council, cautious of India ,enterprise, but swift in execution, and of indomitable couragein all that he undertook.
The Bombay Government was naturally emulous to followthe example of Madras and Bengal, and to establish its supre-macy at the court of Poona by placing its own nominee on First Mar-the Peshwa’s seat. This ambition found scope in 1775 by thetreaty of Surat , by which Raghunath Rao, one of the claimantsto the throne of the Peshwa, agreed to cede Salsette andBassein to the English , in consideration of being himselfrestored to Poona . The military operations that followed areknown as the first Maratha war. Warren Hastings , who in hiscapacity of Governor-General claimed some degree of controlover the decisions of the Bombay Government, strongly dis-approved of the treaty of Surat . But when war actually brokeout, he threw the whole force of the Bengal army into the scale.
One of his favourite officers, General Goddard, marched across Goddard’sthe peninsula from sea to sea, and conquered the rich Province ™“g h ^of Gujarat almost without a blow. Another, Captain Popham,snatched by storm the rock-fortress of Gwalior , which wasregarded as the key of Hindustan.
These brilliant successes of the Bengal troops atoned for thecontemporaneous disgrace of the convention of Wargaon in1779, when the Marathds overpowered and dictated termsto our Bombay force. The war in Bombay lasted till 1781.
It was closed by the treaty of Salbai (1782), which practically Treaty ofrestored the status quo. Raghunath Rao, the English claimantto the Peshwaship, was set aside on a pension; Gujarat was restored to the Marathas; and only Salsette, withElephanta and two other small islands, was retained by theEnglish .