Nathaniel Brassey Halhed - To India and Back

To India and Back

Declining wealth forced Halhed to consider a return to India although this time he sought to do so without appearing to be aided by Hastings. He wrote a letter to the court of directors on 18 November 1783 containing a long resume of his activities in the Company's service and made an extraordinary request of being appointed as a member of the committee of Revenue which was the highest paid body in Calcutta. Although he tried to give the impression of being independent of Hastings' patronage, he could neither shake off his reputation as an ally of Hastings nor deny that he belonged to his party. The growing opposition against Hastings had begun to abate and any opposition to Halhed's appointment was consequently dropped. Halhed got the desired post which inadvertently made him look even more closely associated with Hastings than ever before.

Halhed returned to India as a reputed Englishman with his wife and a black servant. However, upon reaching Calcutta Halhed found Hastings to be in Lucknow. In his absence, he presented his credentials to Wheler who was acting as the governor-general in Hastings' absence. Since there was no vacancy in the committee and no other appointments could be made without Hastings, Halhed was left without much to do. In a very short time he received summons from Hastings to Lucknow. Little did Halhed know that Hastings had decided to leave for England. Hastings made for Calcutta while Halhed was on his way to Lucknow but Hastings did not wish to leave Halhed behind. He was determined to assemble a group of his favorites and take them to England to help his cause which he rightly speculated to be under graver threats than before. To facilitate Halhed's uninterrupted stay and subsistence in England he planned to appoint Halhed as an agent of the Nawab Wazir of Oudh in England. Halhed achieved the post that paid him handsomely with little effort after being recommended so highly and hurried back to Calcutta to his wife to get ready to go back to England. He, subsequently, resigned from the Company's services and threw in his lot with Hastings. It was from this point that Halhed became an intimate aide to Hastings, a friend and adviser. This was a major turning point in his life since he consciously chose current politics over his scholarly ambitions.