his improvement of the revenues of Bengal, his spirit and activity, claim every degree of praise that I can bestow upon him, and every support that his Majesty's ministers can afford him[1].'
In 1783 Hastings had fairly recovered from a serious ilhtess which befel him in the previous year, delaying for some months the progress of his administrative labours. By this time the puppet Emperor of Delhi was turning eyes of appeal towards the rulers of Bengal. With a view to giving him what help he could, Hastings sent two English envoys to his court. Their reports convinced him of Sháh Alam's preference for an English alliance to the kind of service which Mádhaji Sindhia was prepared to offer him. But the Governor-General, hampered by timid or opposing colleagues, found that he could not interfere to any good purpose; and Sindhia, in the following year, was ruling as Sháh Alam's chosen lieutenant over the provinces that still belonged in name to the House of Bábar[2].
Lord Macartney's insolent defiance of the Supreme Council's orders, especially with regard to the Nawáb of Arcot and the negotiations with Tipú, would have been cut short by his suspension from office, had Hastings' colleagues seconded their chief. It tried his patience sorely to see Fowke mismanaging affairs at Benares; while Bristow's unauthorised meddling at Lucknow gave just offence to the Wazír's ministers, and upset all Hastings' schemes for the better govern-
